Purple-green lightning flashed as Nephrite meandered his way down the long and winding corridor towards Queen Beryl’s chambers.

She would not be pleased with him.

Though that really wasn’t anything new. There was no time in his recent memory when the Queen was pleased with the General.

Nephrite knew it was in his best interests for this to change. The visions he was having, he hoped, were the key, but it would take quite a bit of energy for him to contact them.

For several days now Nephrite had been having the same dreams at night. The same images flashing into his mind when he meditated. The same visions of the same... people... when he was awake. They appeared human, for the most part, but there was something different about them. Something... strange.

And what most drew him towards the visions was what he sensed from them.

Both a sense of unspeakable evil and a sense of unparalleled naivety. They seemed, at least what he could sense from him, people that the Negaverse could use to their own ends, then dispose of.

First things first, however.

Nephrite walked into the Queen’s throne room as a massive thunderclap shook the deep underground facility. The ‘evil’ generated storm adding an extra layer of intimidation to the already very intimidating room.

Nephrite nodded a greeting towards his fellow general, Kunzite, before dropping to one knee and bowing before the Queen.

“What news of failure do you have to report tonight?” Beryl asked, sighing heavily.

Nephrite’s eyes twitched slightly. “The youma sent out against Sailor Moon was not powerful enough to-”

“ENOUGH!” Beryl yelled. “Why should I continue to keep you around, considering it’s just one failure after another?”

“My Queen, the failures aren’t because of incompetence,” Nephrite argued. “The youma lack strength.”

“That’s why we’re trying to obtain the Silver Crystal,” Kunzite pointed out.

Nephrite nodded. “Yes, but we may be at an impasse.” Nephrite looked up, first to Kunzite, then to Beryl. “I have been having - visions - of another world. One just like ours, only several hundred years in the future.”

Kunzite looked to Nephrite with concern on his face as Nephrite continued.

“In my vision, there was a group with amazing technology and unspeakable evil that we could manipulate to help us eliminate the Senshi once and for all.”

“Hrm,” Beryl mumbled. “What’s the catch?”

“We would need to tap into Queen Metalia’s energy to both contact them and to open a portal in space for them to travel through,” Nephrite explained.

“Are you insane?” Beryl laughed. “Risk injury to our Queen based on a dream?”

“My Queen,” Nephrite began to protest.

“Get out of my sight!” Beryl ordered.

Nephrite sighed, stood, bowed, turned, and quickly walked out of the throne room. He managed to get about two-thirds of the way back to his quarters when he heard someone running up behind him.

He quickly pulled out a knife, readying himself for whom he assumed was Beryl’s assassin, but instead found a slightly out-of-breath Kunzite.

“A grey and blue cube-shaped spaceship?” Kunzite asked.

The knife hit the ground with a clang as it fell from Nephrite’s hand. “How did--”

“I’ve had the visions too,” Kunzite explained, looking around a bit. “I have been thinking of ways to contact them as well.”

Kunzite motioned for Nephrite to follow him. The pair began walking together as Kunzite continued to speak.

“I don’t think we need Metalia for the initial contact, but we will need her to open a door for them.”

Nephrite looked to Kunzite sullenly. “Beryl said no.”

“We serve Queen Metalia and the Dark Kingdom first and foremost,” Kunzite stated bluntly. “If Beryl is going to stand in the way of a plan that can bring us victory, then she is no better than the Senshi.”

Nephrite paused for a bit then nodded as he and Kunzite continued to walk and talk.

Tatewaki Kuno laughed uproariously. “Oh, sister, you must come and see this,” he called out.

Kodachi Kuno slowly walked into the room and looked at the scene playing out on the screen.

“The yellow one, Fluttershy, is normally very cute,” Tatewaki explained, “but right now she has a disease that has given her a very deep voice!”

Kodachi sighed and looked to her brother with the same annoyed, tired look she’d been looking at him with for at least the past twelve months now.

“Brother dear, how long, exactly, are we just going to sit here in this nebula and do nothing?”

Tatewaki laughed at the ponies some more until his sister shut off the television monitor. Tatewaki growled at his sibling for a moment before standing.

“I’ve told you,” he explained, walking to a communications panel and patting it lovingly. “As soon as Father gives us instructions, we will proceed.”

“It’s been two years,” Kodachi pointed out, flailing her arms to dramatize the point she was trying to make; a couple of Kodachi drones joining in behind her. “I don’t think he’s going to be giving us any further guidance.”

The communications panel suddenly began to chirp.

“See!” Tatewaki smiled. “All we had to do was to have faith and start talking about-”

Tatewaki is cut off mid-sentence by the panel exploding, sending the two siblings airborne and across the room. After shaking off the sudden, unexpected flight and even more sudden landing, the pair staggered to their feet, finding Nephrite where the communications panel used to be, looking around curiously.

“An intruder!” Tatewaki bellowed, drawing his bokken and charging.

“No, wait,” Nephrite pleaded.

“WAITING IS FOR A WAITER!” Tatewaki bellowed at Nephrite charging at him, driving his sword right through Nephrite. Unfortunately for the elder Kuno sibling, the Negaverse intruder was little more than a projection. Tatewaki, sword and all, passed right through him and plowed into the bulkhead at full speed.

Kodachi walked up to Nephrite and poked her finger into his projection a couple of times.

“What manner of apparition are you?” she demanded to know.

“I am speaking to you from Earth,” Nephrite explained. “But not your Earth.”

Kodachi cocked her head slightly as a bandaged and bruised Tatewaki came back over and began swinging his sword through Nephrite, doing his best to try and slice up the photonic intruder.

“I don’t understand,” Kodachi said.

“I don’t either, honestly,” Nephrite admitted. “But from what we have been able to gather is that I am from an Earth that is in a mirror universe of yours, except that it’s about 500 years behind yours.”

“Sounds boring,” Kodachi groaned, finally grabbing her brother’s sword, and breaking it in half.

“That is why I have contacted you. Your ship has come to me and my associate in a vision. That cannot be a coincidence.”

“What did you contact us for?” Kodachi asked.

“To help us take over the Earth.”

Tatewaki, who had been crying profusely over the remains of his sword, stopped and became interested in the conversation now that there was talk of world domination and potential mayhem.

“You managed to contact a spaceship from another dimension and time,” Kodachi yawned. “That seems pretty powerful. Why can’t you do it on your own?”

Nephrite sighed as well and held up some pictures. Tatewaki took a close look at the pictures and grinned widely.

“Hot,” he admitted.

Kodachi smacked him as Nephrite resumed speaking.

“These are the Sailor Senshi,” Nephrite explained. “Guardians of the Earth, more or less. Their magic is very powerful, thanks to the Silver Crystal. Once we are in possession of it, well, then it will be pretty smooth sailing.”

Nephrite rolled his eyes a bit while groaning. “Until then, I have to admit, they may have a slight upper hand...”

Kodachi studied the pictures intently for a couple of moments before gasping.

“The tall one...”

Nephrite pointed to one of the Sailor Senshi. “Sailor Jupiter?”

Kodachi nodded. “That is a girl we’ve battled here. Though she was in Starfleet, and she never wore a skirt that short!”

“Shame,” Tatewaki groaned.

Kodachi gave him the ‘look’ before turning back to Nephrite. “If you’re 500 years in our past, why are they still alive?”

Nephrite shrugged. “Perhaps they were reborn again to save Earth?”

Kodachi shrugged, then pondered some more. Finally, she looked to Nephrite and smiled slightly. “We’ll help you on one condition.”

Nephrite nodded.

“Find out if Ranma Saotome exists on your Earth.”

Nephrite, who was expecting an exorbitant, evil request, nodded and smiled. “Okay. I’ll get back to you soon.”

“AKANE TENDO TOO!” Tatewaki called out before the image of Nephrite phased away. The older Kuno sibling smirked slightly, then turned to his sister who was pacing, rubbing her chin thoughtfully; several of her drones mimicking her as well.

“What?” he asked her.

“If this world,” Kodachi chuckled, “is identical to our own, but without Starfleet to stop us...”

“What about those guys with their magic?” Tatewaki asked.

Kodachi scoffed. “Which do you think will win? Magic, or several thousand torpedoes from orbit?”

Tatewaki began to think about this for a moment before Kodachi smacked her brother upside his head.

“First things first, though,” she stated, looking out the window. “We need George.”

“Hi George!” a guard called to George Kuno who was planting a flower in the arboretum of Starfleet Prison Facility 27-B.

“Hey, Chuck!” George called back, waving. The adopted Kuno sibling then returned to his flower planting. It had become one of his favorite and most enjoyable hobbies. Peaceful, relaxing, everything that his life had not been, it was.

And that’s why he liked it.

The only issue with it was the fact that when he was out of his cell, he had to wear a neural-dampening helmet.

While the facility was shielded, Starfleet decided to take no chances. George had investigated having his implants removed, but unfortunately, it was determined that it couldn’t be done without killing him.

“Excuse me, George,” a man in a Starfleet uniform with the rank of Rear Admiral called to him.

George turned around and smiled. “Good morning, Warden.”

The Warden smiled back. It was a short-lived smile, however. “There are a couple of men from Starfleet Intelligence here to see you.”

George Kuno looked to the Warden worriedly. It had been 471 days since anyone from Starfleet, apart from the jailers, had spoken to him.

This wasn’t good.

George set down his gardening tools and followed the Warden into his office. There waiting for them were two Starfleet Intelligence officers. Both of them looked quite upset.

“Why isn’t he restrained?” one asked.

“He doesn’t need to be,” the Warden grumbled, motioning for George to sit down in an empty chair, then going back behind his desk.

“Warden,” the second cleared his throat, “We’d like to speak to the prisoner alone.”

“The ‘prisoner’ is entitled to representation in all questioning,” the Warden stated. “Since he has no legal counsel here, I will advocate on his behalf.”

“He’s not in trouble,” the first officer said.

“Then I will not intervene,” the Warden smiled.

The second officer sighed and relented. “Fine. What we’re talking about doesn’t leave this room.”

Both George and the Warden nodded.

“Yesterday, two separate sensor platforms on two separate sides of Federation space detected a quantum slipstream event and then a Kuno scout ship,” the first officer explained.

George blinked.

“Do you know anything about this?” the second asked George.

George shook his head, then conked the helmet he was wearing. “No sir. Thankfully this thing is very effective in keeping me from being reconnected to the collective.”

“Thankfully?” the first officer asked, not sure whether he believed George.

George leaned forward. “Have you ever been in a room where it was very, very noisy? Well imagine that, but you can hear everything everyone is saying, very clearly.”

George’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Now imagine that all of those people are moronic perverts.”

George leaned backed. “Would YOU want to go back?”

Both SI officers shook their heads negatively.

“There’s really nothing I can do to help you,” George sighed. “Since my capture, I have to assume they changed their shield modulation frequencies, as well as their slipstream intervals.”

“You could go back in and see what they are up to,” the second SI officer suggested.

George shook his head defiantly. “No way. Besides, if I did that, there is a risk they could locate me.”

“Really,” the first SI officer sighed, “after all the chaos you’ve caused, you’re just going to sit there and think of yourself?”

George looked angrily at Starfleet Intelligence officers as the Warden piped up.

“He said no-”

“Fine,” George growled, drawing a look of disapproval from the Warden. “But just for a few seconds so they can’t get a fix on me.”

The second SI officer nodded and turned to the Warden. “Lower the dampening field.”

The Warden gave both SI officers dirty looks before complying and lowering the prison’s dampening field.

George removed his helmet.

The imprisoned Kuno gasped as two years of new information began to flow into his brain. He quickly put the helmet back on.

“Well?” the first SI officer asked.

“They’re looking for me,” George groaned.

The Warden quickly raised the dampening field as George let out a long and exasperated sigh.

“After all this time, why would they be actively looking for you again?” the second SI officer asked.

George shrugged. “I dunno. That information wasn’t available.” George looked to the Warden, shaking his head with a sad look on his face.

“I recommend you reinforce the prison.”

Kodachi had changed quite a bit in two years. Her insanity, which had seemingly run her life, had become focused thanks to the boredom of being exiled into what Tatewaki had called ‘The Noble Kuno Nebula’.

Kodachi was still quite insane, but anymore her insanity was more like that of a mad scientist, rather than that of... well Kodachi.

Despite all of that, her dreams had not changed at all in two years.

Filthy. Pornographic. Obscene. War-Crime-Worthy. Some of the words Tatewaki had used to describe the dreams she had been having of her and Ranma.

It was why he had stopped regenerating at the same time as her.

Regardless, it was one of these dreams she was having when suddenly she saw him.

“George?!” Kodachi asked.

“OH MY FUCKING GOD!” George screamed, quickly looking away from the scene playing out in front of him - a scene involving Kodachi, Ranma, and multiple llamas.

“Don’t be such a prude,” Kodachi groaned, climbing off both Ranma and a llama. “You’ve finally reconnected!”

“Yes,” George, still turned away, said. “I want to know why you have scout ships roaming around.”

Kodachi cocked her head slightly as one of the llamas began to make loud llama noises in the background. “You’re working for Starfleet now?”

“No,” George stated, knowing full well Kodachi could look into his head. “I’m just trying to keep the good thing I have going for me.”

“That seems selfish,” Kodachi grumbled.

George shrugged. “I am a Kuno.”

Kodachi laughed. She slowly moved to George and spun him around.

“We’re looking for you,” she smiled as she moved her lips close to his.

Before she could make lip-to-lip contact with George, he phased out.

Kodachi sighed, then forced herself to wake up.

Once awake, Kodachi wandered into the control room of the Kuno cube where she saw Tatewaki looking out a window.

“You know where George is, don’t you?” he asked, never turning around.

“I have a good idea,” Kodachi nodded.

Kuno continued to look out the window and sighed deeply. “We must continue to wait for Father’s instructions.”

“It’s been TWO years,” Kodachi glowered, grabbing her brother, and spinning him around so that he faced her. “He no longer cares for us. We need to move on.”

“How dare you speak ill of him like this!” Tatewaki growled, pulling out his bokken.

Kodachi backed up slightly and laughed. “This is quite ironic. I remember a time when you were the one warning me about how unreliable he was and how I shouldn’t become attached to him.”

Kodachi looked her brother over, her eyes moving up and down him.

“That Nephrite fellow contacted me back,” Kodachi smiled. “There is, in fact, an Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome in their world.”

Tatewaki allowed a look of intrigue to cross his face.

“I assume that if they are there,” Kodachi sighed, “then that wretched pig-tailed girl is there as well.”

Tatewaki holstered his bokken and smiled. “Glory!” He clapped his hands together and turned back towards the window.

“As soon as father contacts us and gives us the a-okay, we can do this!”

Kodachi looked to Tatewaki with a glare of ire on her face. Something just wasn’t right. She knew that this creature just could not be her brother.

Even if it was, in the shape he was in now, he was better off dead.

Kodachi quickly and quietly unsheathed her katana, tip-toed up behind Tatewaki, and slowly pushed the sword through his midsection while embracing him.

“It’s you, isn’t it father?”

Tatewaki gasped for air before replying.

“How?”

Kodachi smirked. “Only you would be so arrogant to think you would be more important to Tatewaki than the pig-tailed girl.”

Tate-whatever smiled slightly as it coughed, spitting up some blood-slash-nano-robotic goo.

“I have been waiting for the day when my kei kei would become independent of me.”

Kodachi blinked. “You kept us in this nebula for two years waiting for you to make us independent of you?”

The Tate-Principal nodded.

“That’s idiotic,” Kodachi groaned. “Where are you?”

“Oahu,” he replied. “Daddy’s too old to do this stuff myself.”

“Where’s Tate?”

“In the closet.”

“FOR TWO YEARS?” Kodachi bellowed.

“Yeah,” Tate-Principal nodded. “Might be a little messy.”

Kodachi groaned as she pulled her sword out of the Tatewaki doppelganger.

“Kei-kei,” it called out as it began to take its last breaths.

“Yes?”

“Rule your new world without mercy and never forget who you are.”

The fake Tatewaki died as Kodachi nodded.

“I am a Kuno.”

“You wanted to see me, Captain?” Jitsia called out, walking into Ranma’s ready room.

Ranma, who was standing at his replicator, ordering some tea nodded and motioned for her to have a seat at his desk.

“Would you like something?”

“Tea is fine,” Jitsia smiled.

Ranma ordered a second tea, walked over, and set it in front of the young officer before sitting down and leaning back in his chair contently. He took a sip of his tea, making it known to Jitsia that he enjoyed the new flavor he just had installed.

“Mmm. Xindi Rust Root,” Ranma said, setting his cup down. “It sounds like it would be terrible, but it’s actually quite good.”

Jitsia took a sip and nodded in agreement.

“Well, I have some good news and some bad news for you,” Ranma grinned, finally getting down to business. “Ironically it’s all good news for me, however.”

Jitsia looked up to Ranma with a curious grin on her face. “Oh?”

“The Trinity design team LOVES Lt. Commander Devall and his ideas. So much so that they have basically disassembled fifty percent of the Miyazaki and started over.

“So, you’re looking at being stuck with us for at least another two months.”

Jitsia smiled. “I’ve come to enjoy being here. So, I’m not sure if that would qualify as good news or bad news.”

Ranma returned the smile. “Well, technically that was the ‘bad’ news. The official good news is that Pop has approved your ‘Alpha Team’ list and they will be transferring aboard for training this week.”

Jitsia smiled broadly.

“Unfortunately,” Ranma continued, “The NSO command center was only designed for about 22 people, so we’ll have to assign them quarters on the lower decks.”

Jitsia thought about this for a moment.

“I should probably also move to the lower decks to be with them.”

Ranma nodded a bit. “Yeah, I considered that, but Commander Hino said she still wants to take you out...” Jitsia’s eyes went wide as Ranma took another sip of his tea, “...on actions as a part of our teams, so I’d prefer if you stay up there with them. I’m sure your teams will understand.”

Jitsia blinked a couple of times and nodded quickly. “Yeah-yes.” She quickly drank some more of her tea, ignoring how hot it was before smiling.

“So, just out of curiosity, what kind of changes is Commander Devall having them make?”

Ranma laughed as he looked over a PADD. “Seems like he’s brought up every small issue with this ship, so the Trinity team is trying to find a workaround to it.”

Ranma allowed a devilish smirk to cross his face. “Honestly I’m a little jealous.”

Jitsia chuckled. “Well, she may end up being a little sturdier,” she admitted, “but she will never be the Sisko.”

Ranma nodded.

“We’re on our way to Betazed right now to pick up Lt. Pan,” he explained. “Lt. Commander Ishran is waiting for us at Earth and the other three will arrive at Earth, as I said, within the week.”

Jitsia’s smile faded slightly, though Ranma didn’t notice. Jitsia nodded and stood.

“Thank you, sir,” she stated before walking off.

Ranma did, however, notice the change in the tone of her voice.

“Three Kuno spheres have entered the system!” The tactical officer on the U.S.S. Milford reported.

Per George’s suggestion, the jail was in fact reinforced. Starfleet had sent three escorts and a heavy cruiser to defend the facility.

It seemed like it would be a simple task. Three spheres wouldn’t be any threat. Starfleet had upgraded its weapons over the last two years. The constant threat of war and the near break out of civil war had caused the Federation to realize that perhaps the best defense is - in some cases - a strong offense.

The Kunos, however, as nutty as they were, were not totally tactically inept, especially when they had a goal in mind.

Kodachi had spent two years planning on how she would break George out of jail, and she had no intention of allowing four Starfleet ships to stop her.

Her brother on the other hand.

“CHARGE!” Tatewaki yelled.

Kodachi whacked the elder Kuno over the head.

“That hurt, you know,” he said to her.

“I’ll bet,” she grumbled. “We can’t just charge in there,” she explained, pointing some things out on a tactical monitor. “This is going to take some finesse and poise, much like a gymnastics event.”

“I am the oldest,” Kuno objected. “Surely I, the great and noble Blue Thunder of the Alpha Quadrant, should be able to-”

“First off,” Kodachi interrupted, “We’re in the Gamma Quadrant, so pipe down. And secondly, do you want to go back in the closet?”

Tatewaki whimpered. “No...”

“Okay then,” Kodachi smugly grinned. “We do it my way.”

Her brother sighed and relented.

In her head, Kodachi signaled the first part of the assault.

The three spheres quickly motored towards the Starfleet ships. The Starfleet ships opened fire, obliterating them. However, they were unprepared for the Kuno’s trap. Each ship was a trap. When each ship’s warp core detonated, protons and anti-protons combined, creating three gravity wells that ended up trapping all four Starfleet ships.

Within seconds, the Kuno cube emerged from a quantum slipstream, barreled past the ensnared Starfleet ships, none of which dared fire in fear of what the gravity well might do, and removed the facilities orbital defenses.

The Kuno siblings cackled maniacally as they sent wave after wave of Kuno drone to the prison to battle it out with the prison guards. After a few minutes - more though than they thought it should have taken, George was back on the cube, and the cube was headed back towards the Alpha quadrant.

“We’ve rescued you, brother!” Tatewaki exclaimed as he hugged George.

George shoved Tatewaki away before sighing. “I didn’t want to be rescued.”

“How is it possible that you’d rather sit in jail than be a part of the great and wondrous House of Kuno?!” Tatewaki asked, shocked.

“What kind of great and wondrous house sits in a damned nebula for two years?!” George asked. “How does ‘The Blue Thunder’ get defeated not once, but TWICE by someone like Saotome and his crew of misfits?”

Tatewaki started to growl however Kodachi stepped between him.

“Can’t you see it’s different now?” she asked.

George looked at her.

“You haven’t bothered to see what we’re up to,” Kodachi smirked. “Is that because if you get rearrested you don’t want to tell on us?”

George turned away slightly and mumbled.

“What was that?” Tatewaki asked.

George sighed. “I said I still love you idiots. Of course, I don’t want to snitch on you.”

Tears poured down Tatewaki’s face. “I knew it.”

Kodachi smirked. “You don’t have to worry about being arrested,” she explained, sitting down next to George. “By the time they realize where we’re going, we’ll be gone.”

George slowly turned to his sister, eyed her cautiously for a moment before finally relenting, and allowed the current situation and plans to flow into his head.

For the first time in years, being with his adopted family made George smile.