The moment that Shisou transformed into Sailor Earth, a girl named Mizu Inochino who lived in Japan woke up in the middle of the night.  She had just had a terrible nightmare.  She sat straight up in her bed, screaming at the top of her lungs.
 Kiko Shizuka, who lived with Mizu, came running into Mizu’s room.  "Mizu-chan?" Kiko asked.  "Are you all right?"  Mizu couldn’t respond; she had stopped screaming but she was shaking like a leaf and staring straight ahead, mumbling something.
"Oh, you had another of your dreams."  Kiko was used to Mizu waking up screaming, because Mizu had had the same nightmares for a week.  Mizu said that in her dreams, a girl in a sailor suit was destroying the world.  Neither of them knew what it meant.  But it scared them, for Mizu was usually not wrong about these things.  "Go back to sleep, okay, Mizu-chan?"  Mizu nodded, and went back to sleep again, hoping that she wouldn’t have any more dreams.
 
 

 "Sailor Earth?" Lilia asked.  All the Astros were meeting at Marie’s apartment.  Dani had told them about Shisou, and they were all anxious to meet her.  "I didn’t even know there was a Sailor Earth."
 "Well, there is, and it’s Shisou!" Dani announced.
 "Oh, yes, I remember Sailor Earth…" Cypress thought aloud.  Everyone turned toward him.  "Well, in the Age of Sapphire, there was a princess of this planet.  Her name was Princess Tierra, but she also went as Sailor Earth.  Her brother was Prince Endymion, and Earth was part of the Silver Millenium.  The Silver—"
 "What’s the Silver Millenium?" Daphne interrupted.
 "I was just getting to that," Cypress said.  "The Silver Millenium was a kingdom that was around the same time as the Age of Sapphire.  It was ruled by Queen Serenity, and its kingdom included all nine planets, plus Earth’s moon.  Serenity was also best friends with Queen Sapphire.  So Serenity introduced Princess Tierra to Princess Nebula—that would be you, Marie—and they became friends.  Which is why Tierra, also known as Sailor Earth, would help the Sailor Astros out whenever they needed help.  Earth was part of the Silver Millenium, but it was also part of the Age of Sapphire."
 "Oh, okay, I get it now," Lilia said.
 Chrysta raised her hand as if she were in school.  "Chrysta?" Pandora said.
 "I was wondering if, then, Sailor Moon is from the Silver Millenium?" Chrysta asked.
 "Probably," Pandora said.  "Although we don’t know very much about her, or the Sailors from other planets."
 "But there’s another problem," Cypress spoke up.
 "Who, the Pneumonia lady?" Marie said.
 "Antimonia" Pandora corrected.  "And yes, that’s the other problem."
 "More enemies?" Daphne asked.  "But I thought we’d already gotten rid of all of them."
 "Not all," Cypress said.  "We got rid of Darkdeath.  But there are other evils lurking around in the universe, you know."
 "These new ones, I think, call themselves the Periodics," Pandora said.  Ryan rolled his eyes.
 "Stupid name," he muttered.
 "But they’re very powerful," Marie said.  "And yes, that is what Antimatter called herself.  She said she was one of the Periodics."
 "AntiMONIA," Cypress corrected.
 "Whatever," Marie said.  Pandora sighed in response.
 
 

 "So what did Cypress say we do about the Periodicals?" Sara asked.  She had had to miss the meeting because of a detention, so she was walking to school with Dani, Lilia, and Michelle, who were telling her what happened.
 "They’re called the Periodics," Michelle corrected.  "A periodical is a publishing that comes out monthly, or weekly, like a newspaper or magazine."
 "Michelle, the walking dictionary," Lilia laughed.
 "Well, we thought that we should just wait to see where they attack next," Dani said.  "Then we try to figure out a pattern to their attacks, so that next time they attack, we’ll be ready for them."
 "How we gonna do that?" Sara asked, still not understanding what was going on.
 Dani sighed.  "I don’t know.  We’ll figure out what to do, I guess."
 As they were walking along, someone materialized on the sidewalk in front of them.  It was a man dressed in a uniform that looked like what Oscurio and Cuchillo had worn, except his was blue and short-sleeved.  His hair was also blue, as were his eyes.
 "I am so sick of people materializing all over the place," Lilia muttered, her transformation wand at the ready.
 "Me too," Dani agreed.
 "Hello, girls," the man said.
 Dani stepped forward.  "What do you want?"
 "Your heart crystals, that’s all," he replied, taking out what looked like a laser gun.  They tried to run away, but he pointed it at them and fired.  A beam of black light shot out from the gun at them, and all four of them suddenly felt as though the man was trying to pull their hearts out.
 "You…won’t…get away…with this!" Dani threatened, in between screams of pain.
 "Bet me," the man answered sarcastically.  As he attacked, clear star-shaped crystals came out of the girls’ chests.  Sara looked at her crystal wide-eyed.
 "Is he…pulling…out…our hearts?" she gasped.
 "That’s exactly what I’m doing," the man said.  He pressed a button on the gun, and the light intensified along with the girls’ pain.  Their screams could be heard for a mile around.
 
 

 Meanwhile, Marie was at the public library when she suddenly collapsed to the ground.  Shisou was with her; Marie had been showing her around.  When Marie collapsed, Shisou showed immediate concern.
 "Marie?  What’s wrong?" Shisou asked, kneeling by Marie’s side.
 "Dani’s in trouble," Marie said.  "I can tell.  Whenever she’s in trouble, I feel it too.  Same goes for her, probably."
 "What should I do?" Shisou replied.
 "Well, do you have your transformation wand?" Marie asked.  Shisou nodded.  "You’ll need it.  I know that Dani’s on her way to school now, so I know where she’ll probably be."  With effort, Marie stood up, reaching for her own transformation wand.  "So let’s go."
 
 

 "Well, what have we here?" the man who had been attacking Dani, Sara, Lilia, and Michelle said.  He examined the crystal he had gotten from Michelle.  "Interesting."  He held up the crystal and stared at it, then looked back down at Michelle who, along with the others, was unconscious.
 "Hey, what exactly are you doing, freak?" a voice asked.  Turning around, the man saw two girls in sailor suits.
 "This must be the Sailor Earth that Antimonia warned me about," the man said to himself.  "One of them is, anyway."  Stepping forward to challenge the two sailors, he said, "I _was_ trying to look at these heart crystals…but you interrupted me.  And nobody interrupts me while examining heart crystals."
 "And do we care?" Sailor Nebula asked.  "No!"
 "Oh, but you will," the man said.  "For I am Xenos, of the Periodics, and I’m sure that by the time I get done with you you’ll regret ever hearing my name."
 "The Periodics again…" Dani, who was beginning to wake up, whispered.
 "Earthquake!" Sailor Earth yelled.  The ground began to shake beneath Xenos, and he was caught off guard and lost his balance.  He fell over and dropped the heart crystals he was holding.  Earth jumped over him and grabbed the heart crystals, somehow managing to keep her balance even though the ground was shaking beneath them.
 "How’d you do that?" Nebula asked Earth.
 "Do what?" Earth answered.
 "Get those crystals, even though the ground was shaking," Nebula replied.
 Earth shrugged.  "I’m not sure."
 "Hey, give back those crystals!" Xenos yelled at Earth.  "Even if they are probably worthless, I don’t care, I still want them back!"
 "Well, you won’t get them back!" Earth answered.  "They belong to those girls, not you."
 Dani stood up weakly and managed to walk over to where the sailors were standing.  She got a few steps before collapsing at Sailor Earth’s feet.  "That’s right," she spoke up weakly.  "One of those is mine, and I won’t let you steal it!"  She took out her transformation pen.
 Nebula, taking her sister’s clue, took this opportunity to attack Xenos.  "Double Dazzle!"
Xenos was distracted, but only momentarily.  Even so, he didn’t hear Dani yell, "Zephyr Astral Star Power!"  Dani tried to transform, but nothing happened.  "What’s wrong?" she asked, to no one in particular.  "Why am I not transforming?"
"That was pathetic!" Xenos remarked, in response to Nebula’s attack.  "Try this!  Xenon Strobe Confusion!"  Suddenly, from everywhere flashing strobe lights appeared.  The strobe lights caused the sailors and Dani to suffer hallucinations.
"What’s going on?!" Dani demanded.  She tried to cover her eyes so she wouldn’t see the strobe lights, but it didn’t work.  Even if she covered her eyes she still saw the lights, and the lights still caused her to see visions.  "Turn those stupid things off!"
Although she was still experiencing the hallucination spell, Sailor Earth stood bravely and attacked Xenos.  "Earthquake!" she yelled.  The earthquake attack caused Xenos to lose his balance again, and thus lose his control over the attack.  The strobe lights turned off, and the hallucinations went away.
"Okay, enough of the earthquaking!" Xenos said, standing up.  "I’m leaving already…that is, if you give me those heart crystals."
"There’s no way we’re giving them to a lunatic like you!" Nebula said.
"Fine then," Xenos said.  "I’ll just have to turn on the strobe lights again!  Xenon Strobe—"  He began to attack, but before he could finish his phrase, Sailor Earth jumped up and kicked him on the side of his head.  "All right, I’ll leave already!"  Xenos left, but Earth, Nebula, and Daniella still had a problem.
 "Now we return the hearts, but which heart goes to which person?" Earth asked.
 "Uh-oh," Nebula looked nervous.
 Daniella stood up and took one of the heart crystals.  She held it up to the light before deciding, "This one’s gotta be mine."
 "How do you know?" Earth asked.
 "It’s green," Dani said.  "My color as a sailor.  So I figure that the heart crystals will be my sailor color."  She held it in front of her chest, and it went back in.  "See?"
 "Okay," Nebula said, taking another heart crystal.  "This one’s blue.  Whose?"
 "Lilia’s?" Dani said uncertainly.  Nebula shrugged.
 "It’s worth a try."  Nebula held the blue heart crystal over Lilia, but the crystal refused to re-enter her body.  It just hovered there above her.  "Or maybe not."
 "Maybe…" Earth spoke up, "maybe if it’s not really Lilia’s crystal, then it won’t work."
 "Oh," Dani said.  "So I messed up.  Sorry.  I guess it’s Michelle’s, then."  Nebula tried the blue crystal with Michelle, and it worked.
 "What about this one?" Earth asked, showing the sisters a purple crystal.  "And this," she added, producing a yellow one.
 "This one is Lilia’s," Dani pointed to the purple crystal, "and this is Sara’s."  The Sailors returned the two remaining heart crystals to their owners, who woke up shortly thereafter.
 "What happened?" Michelle asked.
 "Yeah, all I remember is some blue guy with a gun that shot black light," Sara said, standing up carefully after waking up.
 Nebula rolled her eyes.  "Guess we’ve got some explaining to do…"