The Space Cauldron
“I will put in a request for a meeting with Queen Serenity.”

It chimed, like little bells were going off inside of it. “Queen Serenity has an open schedule. Please visit the Main Hall at noon.”

Only, the Main Hall was in shambles, and Queen Serenity was nowhere to be found.


Sailor Scylla was going to be meeting a Queen. No "mere" Prince or Princess, this one. But it was off. Queen Serenity somehow had an open schedule, and so an appointment had been set for the main hall at noon. Jada thought it was ridiculous. The White Moon’s Queen Serenity had been dead for a thousand years, presumably. And they hadn’t been able to get anywhere except that little… Moon Theatre… except on full moon days for the whole time since they had first been welcomed to the moon palace. The idea that now, conveniently, this Queen would choose to show herself was… amusing? Depressing? Alarming? A little of this- a little of that. And yet hope did spring eternal. So when she woke up, she went back to the barrier, as she had the day before, bearing more gifts for their aliens. Fresh coffee, some more bagels, a few dozen donuts. Gotta give the aliens diabetes, after all, though if they could all eat like Almadel it would be FINE.

It was hard to believe that in the last (perhaps) 36 hours, so much may have changed. Caedus returning, meeting Lyndin, her wisp taking the form of a weird otter dog thing, finding a new place on the moon- Cosmos’ Celestial Answering Service, presumably, but also keeper of Queen Serenity’s Schedule. And it was extra hard to look Caedus in the eye and give him a guileless smile after what she had heard from the computer the night before—so she didn’t. She did, however, cheerfully tell the pair that it was believed their Sailor Velenia was not in the cauldron- that should give them a little joy, shouldn’t it? She didn’t ask about other things they had learned- the neutral to unfriendly terms, the way they had been asked to relocate to a living world. After all- in staying on Velencya they had survived, hadn’t they?

The Velencyan Core cannot be confirmed stable, she thought as she looked at the duo. Erratic energy outbursts. Life on all nearby worlds. And then she remembered- Earth has not submitted a request for assistance with Chaos pollution. We will send a formal request for information. Metallia is unknown. We will file a formal inquiry. Where would the machine have sent those inquiries. In asking about these things, who could have been alerted? Did Earth still have someone maintaining their Moon Mail Inbox? (Hah!) Yet-- what if, somehow, this sudden questioning clued the Negaverse in that there was something... afoot?

But she had to prepare herself for a meeting. With Queen Serenity. At noon. On the moon. Unstable sample the computer whispered in her memory, Unknown technology. Utilize with caution. Velencian technology is designed to harness energy even in the most volatile situations.

Appointment confirmed.

She gripped the basket she had brought for herself, full of snack foods. If she was going to be hanging out on the moon waiting for noon, then she may as well have snacks. If she had to go yell at the computer again, then she would have made every effort to have met those requirements for this ‘appointment’. She would have shown up, she would have been present, prepared to be respectful. She had already given documentation, and- and her nerves felt like jelly, and Scylla huffed anxiously as she waited until 11:45 am before pulling out her senshi phone and pushing the moon button, thinking very hard about her noon appointment.

Settling down in the area where she arrived, Scylla began to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

… And wait.