“How is he doing?” King Tanzan asked the chief healer, observing Alexandri’s unconscious body floating in the regeneration tank.

“Better, My Lord,” the healer replied, “but I’m afraid he’s not out of the woods yet.”

“It’s been three days!” Tanzan growled, crossing his arms to keep himself from taking out his impatience on the laboratory or its occupants.

“Yes, My Lord,” the healer continued cautiously, “but I’m—we’re—optimistic that he will survive the process. It really is a testament to his strength that he endured so much damage.”

“What about energy collection? How is Morgan getting on?”

“Slowly but surely. It seems that gathering human energy without arousing suspicion is tricky business, My Lord. Some of her minions are better at it than others. The one called Jadeite brings in most of it.”

“Keep me apprised,” the king said in reply, and left the room without another word.

Morgan’s lieutenant was doing well. Meanwhile, Tanzan’s most valuable servant, Alexandri, had put him in a bad position with the other leaders. On top of that, he might possess vital information about the Silver Crystal and its protector. His survival could give Tanzan a chance to secure the crystal. His death, however, would further damage the kings standing in the alliance, and they would all be back to square one.

Making his way back to his throne room, deep in thought, the king recalled the events that had triggered his return to Earth’s solar system after living in exile for so long. He and his people, the Argentians, resided on a small and barren but habitable planet, which they shared with another species, the Umbris Clan.

The Argentians had detected the presence of a meteor on a collision course for their great city, Argent. Surprisingly, the meteor had slowed on its approach and landed softly on the planet’s surface. Realizing that the celestial body was in fact an alien mode of transport, King Tanzan and his warriors had headed out to meet the invaders in battle.

However, only three lifeforms emerged from their space faring rock. They were strange, humanoid-shaped, yellow creatures with eyeless, mouthless, gelatinous bodies. Two of them quickly expired from a combination of wound infections and malnourishment. The last survived long enough to share their experience using a form of telepathic communication that conveyed thoughts and images.

The aliens had been forced to flee their own planet in search of a new home. They had finally found a suitable candidate in Earth of all places. However, upon landing they were met by a group of female warriors who ordered them to depart. Tired after searching so long for a planet that could sustain her people, their queen chose to fight.

King Tanzan had recognized the warriors as Sailor Soldiers and the former guardians of the Moon Kingdom, but the aliens, it seemed, had no idea. Despite heavy losses, they overcame the Sailor Soldiers by sheer number and restrained them. That was until the alien queen targeted the leader of the warriors, a young woman who Tanzan immediately identified as a reincarnation of the Moon Kingdom’s Princess Serenity.

He also noted the item in her possession—and what was surely the explanation for the reincarnation of the princess and the guardians—the Legendary Silver Crystal. The alien’s memories became fuzzy at this point, but it was clear that the queen had succeeded. The soldier known as Sailor Moon had been killed. Unfortunately, her death triggered a chain reaction of jumbled images.

One of the warriors unleashed an incredible display of power and a devastating series of attacks. The alien forces were obliterated in moments, and the fall of their queen caused them to flee in terror. Less than ten made it back to their meteor-like ship and escaped the soldier’s wrath. Just three survived the journey onward, where the lack of their queen and her ability to nourish them, had forced them to land in search of resources.

With the Argentians unable to determine how or with what to feed the alien, it died within a day. For King Tanzan, the alien’s arrival had been a gift. He had gleaned so much from the strange creature’s memories, more than he ever could have hoped for. He had learned of the existence of the Silver Crystal, which he had long thought lost.

The passing of its owner was regrettable, but from what Tanzan had observed, it had passed to one of her comrades, who had used it to wipe out the invaders in a fit of rage and grief. To what extent she could use the crystal normally, though, was unclear. This provided him an opportunity.

The crystal was the answer to all Tanzan’s problems. With its power, he could restore his people’s legacy and claim his rightful seat as ruler of the galaxy. The only problem was, how to get to Earth. Fortunately, the aliens had given him another gift in the form of their crude ship.

After years of study and work, the Argentians were able to build a craft that could transport them to Earth. What they didn’t have was the energy necessary to power it. That was where the Umbris Clan came in. The strange race fed off energy itself. Their side of the planet had access to a deep crevice that was said to stretch down to the planet’s core. It provided the Umbris with natural energy that they converted into crystals and distributed to their kind.

Tanzan met with their leader and proposed an alliance. He never intended to keep his word, of course, but sick of their reliance on mediocre forms of energy and excited by the prospect that the Silver Crystal presented, Desperre agreed to share their resources. Their crystalized energy powered the ship, taking a contingent of Umbris and Argentian forces into space.

Unfortunately, they soon encountered the Raptillians. The lizard-like space pirates attacked the ship and demanded Tanzan’s surrender. Outgunned, Tanzan and Desperre were forced to share their mission with the lizards and offer them a place in their alliance, in exchange for safe passage. Unfamiliar with Earth, and few in number, Vardas and his crew joined them.

Upon finally arriving at their destination, Tanzan found an Earth that he did not recognize. Naturally, it had been a lifetime, but owing to their planet’s rich resources, the humans had flourished and evolved in ways he hadn’t imagined. They had advanced weapons and technology he couldn’t hope to understand. Because of that, they decided to observe the planet for some time. However, each of the allied leaders grew testy; Tanzan and Vardas because of their inherent impatience, but Deperre because of their dwindling energy resources.

The planet offered no simple options for collecting and converting energy the way the Umbris were used to. Any ideas they did have were usually shot down because they would be detected by the humans. That was when they met Morgan, or rather, her astral form.

After detecting a great power circling the Earth, the witch had used her magic to project her spirit aboard the orbiting ships. She watched them in secret and quickly learned of their situation. When Morgan finally revealed herself to them, she presented Desperre with a mass of natural energy.

The Umbris were very pleased with the feast, Tanzan appreciated her value as a source of knowledge about Earth and its inhabitants, and Vardas admired her unusual abilities. After she revealed that the energy had been harvested from humans and that she could gather more, Morgan was welcomed into the fold.

That was how the Blood Moon Alliance had come to be. Shaky though it was, the four leaders were united in their pursuit of power.

***

After politely turning down yet another offer of dinner with Mr. Mori from the class next door, Makoto spent her lunch break affixing gold stars to her students’ artwork, even the more unusual pieces. A particularly messy series of scribbles gave her pause, but Makoto gave it a sticker all the same, telling herself that art was subjective, after all.

Surprised to find herself short on gold stars, Makoto checked her desk drawers. She gave up immediately on trying to sort through the one full of apples and pulled open the other. Below an assortment of story books was a treasure trove of stationery and other items. The bottom of the drawer was filled with loose pens, pencils and rulers, Makoto’s cellphone, her backup makeup bag, and most strangely, her green and pink Crystal Change Rod.

Paying the transformation device and source of her old powers no mind, Makoto reached her hand in and extracted a small sheet of smiley face stickers hiding at the back. They weren’t the coveted gold stars, but they would have to do. She shrugged, making a mental note to buy some more over the weekend.

As she resumed her work while humming to herself, it occurred to Makoto that the not-so distant din of children enjoying their playtime outside didn’t bother her like it used to. In fact, she almost found the collective sound of running, yelling and laughing akin to the effect of a white noise machine.

However, in that moment, something about the cacophony caught her attention. Focusing her hearing, she realized that the usual sounds of rowdy play had been replaced by crying and screaming. Makoto jumped to her feet and charged outside to see what could possibly have happened to cause such a change.

Several students forced their way inside as soon as she threw open the door. “What’s the matter?” she asked, but none of them were in a fit state to reply, so Makoto continued to the playground. The sight that met her eyes chilled her to the bone and caused her to clap her hands to her mouth.

Wailing, terrified children clinged to the fence that enclosed the open space, while the teacher on lunch duty and several children lied unmoving at its center. Standing over them was a hideous monster.