Her eyes widened and she screamed as her body became encased in a bubble-like enclosure. She barely glimpsed a thing outside the obscuring fog wherever she was. Suddenly it popped and she fell, landing with a thud on a beautifully white, paved walkway. Looking up, she saw the most gorgeous looking building she'd ever seen.

It resembled a palace from a young girl's dreams, ones that she herself had always wished to be a princess of. She stood up slowly, rubbing her bottom. Her eyes went as wide as saucers as she saw the lush gardens and fountains decorating the front of the white and silver palace. It had a dome top for the entrance and it went sprawling after that, so far back that she couldn't see past the walls.

Usagi looked back down at the sidewalk. It was a pearly white, with no cracks or stones unplaced. Someone really took care of this place, she thought. She walked forward a bit, the heels of her school shoes clicking a little on the stone and marble underneath her feet. She had had a vague notion to go inside the palace when she stopped dead in her tracks.

The most beautiful woman she had ever seen had just left it.

Her hairstyle was an exact replica of Usagi's, only longer and not blonde. It was gray/silver color, tinted with the palest of purple. She wore a long, white, strapless dress with a crescent moon placed on the center of the bodice. On her forehead was an upturned crescent moon, an exact replica of the one on her chest, only smaller. Beads on either side of it that flowed up into her hair made her think of perhaps it was an ornament, but she knew different.

On her head sat a beautiful crown. It was made of what looked like to be gold. In the middle, it looked to be a heart, with a skinny ruby in the center. On either side of the heart, golden wings sprouted, as if it was prepared to take flight. In the very center of the dip of the heart, was a small king type crown, one that was used back in the olden days, in the old movies that Usagi had seen with her friends.

(AN: The crown on her head is the one that Usagi wears when she's Neo Queen Serenity.)

The woman smiled at her and walked forward. Usagi felt the love radiating off the woman and wondered how fear could exist in the world with people like her.

"Who are you?" Usagi whispered.

"I'm Queen Serenity."

"Oh wow! You're a queen? Sugoi! Is this your palace? How do you keep it so beautiful?"

She laughed, her laughter tinkling down to Usagi's ears, for she was much taller than the young girl. "Yes this is my palace, but not mine alone."

Usagi blushed, thinking she had made a serious error. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave out the king, your husband obviously, but—"

"There is no king here."

The school girl looked up at the woman, barely seeing the flash of inconceivable sorrow, a sorrow that had no bounds, cross her face. "I'm sorry. Did he die?"

"Yes, but that was not what I meant by the palace was not mine alone."

"What did you mean?"

"It also belongs to you, Princess Serenity, my daughter."

Usagi gasped.

Makoto stumbled and fell onto one knee. The other students gave her a wide berth as she struggled to get her body working. She had this overwhelming vision of a bubble enclosed palace that wanted to strike a cord within but she had no idea why.

That night, she dreamt.

Makoto found herself in a strange form of her school uniform, green and pink the predominate colors with a very short skirt. The entire space around her was black except for white bubbles that made an entire square field of unbreakable barriers. For some reason, she felt the unreasonable urge to break through it.

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

The strange words flowed from her mouth and shocked her when lightning came from an antenna on her forehead. Unfortunately, she felt a strong disappointment when nothing appeared to change. She found herself yanked back forcefully and she sat up abruptly in her bed.

Minako choked on the water she was drinking as she was assaulted with the strangest vision. She blinked rapidly and found herself in the same place that Makoto had, though she knew it not.

Anger filled her and she found no source for it. "Venus Love and Beauty Shock!" she screamed before she was pulled back when water was splashed on her face.

Ami dropped her books on the sidewalk as she walked down the street. Her hands clenched the side of her head as a migraine threatened to break her mind completely. When she opened her eyes, she found a computer in her hand and in front of her an impenetrable wall of bubbles. A beeping from the computer came at her that was oddly familiar, though she couldn't make out anything it was showing her.

"Hey, are you all right?"

She looked at the stranger and immediately grabbed her books from the ground. "I'm fine, thank you," she said, hurrying off.

Rei was meditating when she felt it. She scrambled to the sacred fire, its call nearly overpowering her with its near mindless need.

She didn't even have to time to do her incantations when her mind was assaulted with the vision. She barely glanced at the strange thing she wore. The evil that radiated off the white bubbles bothered her immensely and she immediately struck out at it, though not in her usual way.

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

An arrow made of flame flew from her hands. She expected it to pierce the obvious looking thin texture, but it simply splashed off it like it hit water, creating steam and not much else.

Just as quickly as the vision had been struck at her, it was gone and Rei slumped, tired beyond belief.

"World Shak—"

Neptune had to catch her partner as she stumbled, her attack interrupted by the same thing that battered at her mind. She just managed to finish off the daemon before she was transported to a strange place she had never been before.

Uranus studied the bubbles, feeling the texture. It left a bit of a sticky residue on her glove, like a soap bubble, though each of them was at least the size of her torso.

"If it was made of water, my attack should break them," the tall blonde said. "World Shaking!"

"Help me," a voice whispered as the yellow orb connected and did nothing else.

"Princess!" yelled Neptune as they were yanked back to the real world.

"Why did you yell 'Princess', Neptune?" her partner asked as she picked herself up from the ground.

"I don't know."

Mamoru collapsed in the hospital hallway and the man he was shadowing had to catch him. Though the hospital staff tried to waken him, he never did. For ten years, he laid asleep, kept from being put to sleep permanently by an unknown source of money flow.

For those ten years, the young man haunted the blackness around the bubble barrier, always trying to break through it and always being repelled. And through it all, the occasional call for help would sound.

End of Prologue