Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I seem to confuse and keep people in suspense as to what I am talking about. Well it's that time, the time where you all finally find out what those three RPGs and Sailor Moon have to do with one another. And here it is, my very first massive writing project; Ultimate Sailor Senshi.
Okay, for starters I know the name wasn't too original, but it worked for a project name. This first all started when I was in the 7th grade, just starting to get into Sailor Moon and had recently played all the way through FF7, and of course continued to play Chrono Trigger over and over again. In my English class we were learning about random myths, folk tails and legends; and my teacher gives us the assignment to write our own creation myth. Anything would go, so long it was school appropriate of course. So for me my mind was swimming with ideas on how I could possibly, maybe combine all of my favorite games and what was becoming my favorite show together. I decided when I started writing I would base the female lead on myself, but using a different name at the time and that I was the sister of Princess Serenity and that this was taking place on the moon within the Moon Kingdom. The other senshi played their normal roles as Serenity's protectors, but also had more of a royal representation of their respective planets as well, thus me making their sisters too. Yes, by bloodline we too were royalty, but we were trained as warriors. Crono and Cloud came into play as they were my advisers and more or less bodyguards; in addition to that Crono and Cloud were also brothers. That idea actually came from my brother as he was working on a story he entitled “Knights of Power”; an original concept, but the main cast were named after his favorite characters from RPGs as a homage to them. For whatever reason, I liked that idea so I ran with it as well, but of course using the actual characters from the games. It was an interesting little story as the attack on the Moon Kingdom happened by the Sinistrals from Lufia 2, but it was the beginning of me starting to think what I could do.
From that moment and moving into the summer, I had made up my mind on what part of that creation story I was going to keep and what I was going to change. In the myth I had only mentioned my character by her senshi name, which was Ultima. And where as I mentioned the other Ultimate Senshi, I never gave them their names. Seeing as I had used a spell for my character I decided that that would be the theme for them, at least for the Inner Senshi. I ran through the RPGs I had played through at that time and picked four other spells I felt would make good names that could either be used solo or sounded good with the word “Sailor” in front of it; Valor, Meteor, Dragon and Missile were what I had chosen. In my opinion, looking at it now, Missile doesn't sound quite right, but the other method to my madness in choosing those was that at the end of their transformation sequence you'd see the spell go off. I wanted to use a spell from Breath of Fire II and Missile fit the bill in what I was looking for.
As for other characters that would be involved; Crono and Cloud were still around and remained brothers; using mainly Cloud's backstory from FF7 and having them grow up in Nibelheim, but before I get too far into the supporting cast, why don't we take a look at our heroines.
***Note: In the original works that we had written, our characters' names were actually our own, but myself and my best friend later came up with names for our two characters so for this entry I will be referring to them as those character names when civilian names are given.***
Lyera/Lina aka Sailor Ultima:
In the past life Ultima was also known as Princess Lina, the sister of Serenity. The name Lina came from the last part of my first name as when we first started it we used my whole first name instead of my nickname. Their mother raised Serenity to be more of the proper princess of the Moon Kingdom where as their father trained Lina as a warrior. Everything that happened in the Moon Kingdom's destruction happened just as it had within Sailor Moon, but with a little more of a heavy heart for my character as she came too late for the battle because she had sneaked off to see her beloved, which in her father's eyes was pretty taboo for a warrior, and she and her love soon died as well and were reborn with the power of the Silver Crystal on earth many years later.
Lina was reborn as Lyera and from an early age everyone who had come in any sort of contact with her knew she wasn't quite the normal little girl. When she was only five years old, her mother had taken her with her to see a friend of hers in Nibelheim, who happened to be Crono and Cloud's mother, and on that day a monster had escaped from the reactor on Mount Nibel and began to attack the town. For whatever reason, showing no fear; Lyrea grabbed two large kitchen knives and engaged the monster in battle. With little effort the battle was won and the Shinra surely took notice. President Shinra had approached Lyera's mother and informed her that he could provide special services for her daughter and give her the help she needed to live a normal life. With that being her main goal; her mother agreed and handed her over into the Shinra's custody.
Lyera would spend 3 years with the Shinra and even attaining the rank of First Class in SOLDIER, making her the youngest in the history of the company. At first the young girl was rather shy and bewildered as to why her mother would send her to such a place, but she soon made fast friends with another young girl, Sara, and a rookie Turk, Reno. For reasons unexplained, Reno felt very protective of her and it was questionable if it was on a romantic level or that of a big brother, but never the less he was there for her no matter what.
Her years with the company were filled with happy times as well as sad. She was not allowed to contact her family at all, even on the most special of days. Reno and Sara made sure that when her birthday rolled around that she would have the time of her life; along with another SOLDIER First Class; Zack Fair. But with the happy and say also comes the bad; Hojo taking a high interest in Lyera's fighting ability decided to conduct more experiments on her and to carry them through he, along with President Shinra, took her to the city whom they had the major alliance with; Solaris.
Her training became more painful and intense while she was in the city that looked above the world; but Hojo was more than pleased at the results he was getting, as Lyera had been the only one to not get ill to high exposure to Mako, but also maintained her sanity through the Ether experiments that Krelian implemented. Lyera had slowly become withdrawn as she hadn't seen her friends in sometime, but there was one person she had met within Solaris that could melt the cold exterior she had started to form; the son of one of the elements. Unfortunately, that happiness soon faded away as the boy and his family mysteriously vanished.
On her 8th birthday Reno had given her a necklace; a magentia materia with a crescent moon on it, along with it a promise. He had promised her that he was going to return her to her home. The decision was not just made by him alone as Rufus and Zack too saw what the company was doing to the poor girl. She was happy to return to her family, but as always things wouldn't stay normal for long.
She had problems fitting in at school, to the point where none of the other kids would talk to her unless it was making fun of her. Then one day, at age 12, out of no where, monsters appeared on the playgroud. Teachers and students ran for their lives, screaming, but not Lyera. She stood her ground and fought, like she always had. But these creatures had somehow managed to overpower her and when she thought she was done for a voice from her past shouted to her; instructing her invoke the power from her necklace by saying "Lunar Materia Power, Make Up!". Evading what would have been a death blow she looked to see Crono giving her the instructions and she followed them head on; thus giving birth once again to Sailor Ultima.
After that Crono, as the King of Guardia, gave Lyera the Hero's Medal and the title of The Hero of Guardia. It was then that Crono revealed the truth about her Senshi powers and her past life. He informed her that he doesn't know what has become of the other Ultimate Senshi, but they would have to seek them out. He also highered her full time to act as a knight for the kingdom and she would maintain her title as Hero.
Samantha aka Sailor Valor:
Valor was my best friend's character. Sadly though, because the backgrounds were written solo, I can only go off of what I am remember so these won't be as long Ultima's.
Valor was actually reborn in another dimension that was parallel to ours. She was travel back and forth between worlds with her Subtle Knife, that was attached to the bottom of her transformation pen/key. Unlike Ultima, where her advisor character is played by Crono, Valor took the que from Sailor Moon and had a feline companion; a white tiger named Hyzenthlay (pronounced Henzivay). Also where Ultima's version of Tuxedo Mask wouldn't appear for a little while, Valor had a male companion as well who later became her love interest named Inle.
One night, when she had crossed the dimensions; she sees a monster attacking Ultima and in the shadows of the night saves her from it, unfortunetly it makes a hastey retreat as does Valor, so Ultima is unable to identify her. When reporting the battle to Crono, the King can only conclude that she was indeed one of the missing Ultimate Senshi and he could only hope they could find her again. As luck would have it the monster attacked again, but this time targeting Valor to start. Repaying the favor Ultima saves her, but once again both the monster and Valor take off. One final round would be had with the creature as Ultima and Valor final team up to defeat it. Knowing her past already as it was told by Hyzenthlay, she agrees to stay in our world and assist Ultima in protecting the kingdom.
When I had originally outlined the Senshi, I wanted someone with medical knowledge and high healing ability. So it was only fitting that it would be Mercury's counter part to have this as Mercury was studying to be a doctor; thus giving her the name Valor suited her as well as it was the highest level healing spell within Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals.
Sara aka Sailor Meteor:
The character my other friend had chosen. She had decided to playoff of Ultima a little bit as she too had joined up with the Shinra, however on her upper right shoulder she was branded by the number VII tattoo. She was very much like Ultima in that she had been recruited by the Shinra company at a very young age, though she never disclosed what she had done to catch their interest.
She had become fast friends with Lyera and was determined to always make her happy. For reasons unknown when Lyera made her escape Sara didn't follow and seemingly just stayed behind. Lyera had always wondered what became of her old friend and it wasn't long after she had met Valor that Sara would come waltzing into Guardia Castle.
There was no question in Crono's mind that this was Sailor Meteor and that it had been fate that had broght the two girls together many years before. Sara was more than happy to oblige to the request to assist in protecting Guardia.
Sara's character overall was that more of comic relief as she had the tendency to play jokes or call Inle names such as "Fish Boy", though I actually can't recall why she called him that. As well as scare the poor man with fire as he had a giant phobia of it. Perhaps that was her trying to capture her childhood, but I honestly can't say for sure.
Fiona aka Sailor Dragon and Chole aka Sailor Missile:
To fill out the rest of the team, to make the 5 inner Senshi, we had made our Sailor Jupiter and Venus in Fiona and Chole. Their characters unfortunately were very under developed to the point where I remember pretty much nothing about them except for what the look like. I do remember Fiona was a tomboy and Chole was pretty much a girly-girl, but that's pretty much the extent.
Crono and Cloud Strife:
As I had said the two remained brothers; with Cloud being the older of the two, and the adventures that took place in their games still happened. Just as Cloud had entered the Shinra, Lyera had already escaped and Crono had married Marle after their adventures. Working with these two characters was interesting as Crono never talked in game, save for one ending, and Cloud was an emo mess for most of FF7.
Crono I think we did really well with as he proved to be a good adviser and leader to the girls. The one quirk I do remember giving him though was that he had a sever knee injury, which was why he very rarely entered combat himself. As for Cloud, for some reason we decided to make him into an idiot. No, I'm not kidding and I can't for the life of me remember why we did that. The Mako poisoning taking it's toll perhaps?
So that was the beginning of everything. When discussed, mainly between myself and Valor, the topic of my "Tuxedo Mask"; it was noted quite a few times by her that once it was decided I couldn't change it. And even now, I wouldn't want to as I chose my favorite video game character; Billy Lee Black from Xenogears.
The Fateful Encouter:
As the story went, the 3 girls were sent to the Aquavy region to investigate an unnatural occurrence. Taking the Epoch they flew over, only to get shot down by the Captain of the Thames; crash landing onto the island where Billy's orphanage was. The 16 year old Etone rushed to the crash site and discorvered that only two of the three of the girls were conscious. Billy took Lyera into his arms and escorted them to his home where he and Samantha tended to Lyera's wounds.
When the two of them saw each other for the first time, they felt some sort of connection, though they could not place it. But like any soldier on a mission, Lyera side stepped those thoughts and informed the priest of their assignment from the King of Guardia. The only conclusion that Billy could think of was that the Wels/Repears were involved. With permission from Bishop Stone, Lyera was allowed to assist Billy in his work.
Meteor and Valor made sure to keep in contact with Crono over the radio until someone could come and repair the Epoch. But for the three of them it wasn't all work, as these two had started to see something different within their leader. Of course, when asked or confronted about it she denied it at first. The kids in the orphanage noticed the change in Billy as well and one night they all decided to spy on the two. Billy and Lyera sat out on the sandy shore watching the moonlight on the ocean; they were quite open with each other on their upbringings and they had grown closer together to the point where they had just gave in to the moment and kissed; resulting in a “Wooooo” a la Saved by the Bell.
It actually wasn't until Lyera had seen Billy's father for the very first time did she really realize who he was. Even with his face scared, Lyera could tell that he was the man from the Elements who had taken away her only friend inside Solaris. Jessie had confronted his son and demanded that he stay away from her, but of course Billy would never listen to Jessiah Black. After that fight, Billy had recalled the girl he used to play with and could now place the Mako filled eyes that he dreamed of.
Billy's plot arch from Xenogears remains in tact, except of course the three Senshi are there along side him. During this piece of story there was a confrontation between Jessie and Lyera on how she couldn't be trusted and that if she really was falling for his son she would tell him the truth about the Ethos. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right, but in her heart she just couldn't bare shattering someone's faith like that. After the fight the Stein, Billy did question her on her knowledge of the Ethos and to Jessie's surprise, his son was thankful and grateful that she hadn't said anything; only for the fact that it proved to him how much his father did care about his family.
Cloud had been brought to the Aquavy area along with Lucca to fix the Epoch and upon doing so he had a slight grin on his face as he watched Lyera and Billy together. He informed his brother of the pairing and Crono too, knew that this was the priest she had fallen in love with in the past.
Also at that time, Lyera had informed Cloud of the plan to invade Solaris and she insisted that they stay and help out. For the most part things were quite smooth on the Yggdrasil until Billy had suddenly fallen ill. Samantha, Citan and the rest of the medical went through a thorough examination, but could only determine that he had been poisoned. Where as it should have been an easy thing to deal with, no amount of medicine on the ship or magic could lift his ailments.
The crew on the ship had later discovered that a Solarian soldier had sneaked on board and poisoned the young priest's food and the only antidote was in Krelian's possession in Solaris. Krelian's price was Lyrea in exchange for the antidote. There was no hesitation as Ultima agreed to go to save Billy's life; even after the warnings from her friends that it was a trap. Lyera knew there was more than to just the simple exchange, but even the slightest chance that Billy's life could be saved she was going to take it.
Cloud had once again contacted his brother, this time with devastating news. He could almost feel his brother's heart stop at the end of his news and it wasn't the shock that she had “surrendered”, it was who she had surrendered to as Crono then recalled the name; Krelian was Princess Lina's father.
Up in Solaris, Krelian wasn't making it easy for Lyera as he threw another ultimatum at her; in order for him to hand over the antidote he wanted to see her in the blaze of battle against her friends. Reluctantly, she agreed and went back to the Yggdrasil's deck. Cloud, Meteor and Inle stood before her and if they had looked close enough they would have seen a syringe in her shaking hands; taking a breath she injected herself with the drug known as DRIVE and began her assault. With ease, she had taken down her friends and returned to Solaris; but once again she had been played as Krelian withheld the cure from her.
A few days had gone by and seeing that she had nothing else to lose, Lyera had inquired to an old friend from the Shinra who had been stationed in Solaris about the antidote. To her dismay, she had discovered that the vial that Krelian held was nothing more than a simple vial of a run of the mil vaccine. Knowing that Billy's time was running out, she had gone back down to the lower region; in the dead of night in hopes to see him one more time. She sneaked onto the Yggdrasil and as she went from room to room in the med bay she had apologized to the injured. But when she had reached Inle she stopped and held back her tears. He was bandaged up from head to toe and the sound of the monitors beeping were like stabs to her heart. She was then caught by Valor, who of course was more than upset at seeing her after what she had done. Lyera pleaded with her to let her see Billy one last time. Inle then awoke and said to Samantha to grant her her wish and that he forgave Lyera for what she had done. Following Inle's words she brought Lyera to Billy, who lay in a bed slowly dying. She left the two of them alone and right there next to the bed, she took his hand in hers and broke down in tears.
Knowing she couldn't stay with him, she had gone back to Solaris to have her final one on one with Krelian.
This arch; simple labeled as 'Billy Poisoned' was actually the most thought out and detailed piece of the entire project, even though it was unfinished. During the fight with Krelian he had revealed himself to be her father from the past and taking another cue from Sailor Moon, this would have been her emotions would have empowered her further and made her Super Sailor Ultima. Also fitting with the Sailor Moon moments, it was Lyera's tears that were the cure for the poison.
Other stories too were in the works, but like everything else they were only half done. Random 'episodes' would take place while they had gone to school for simple fluff pieces. Since we were basing this loosely on what Sailor Moon we had seen; i.e; the dub, we only had up to Sailor Moon R to really go by. It was then that we decided to bring in our version of Chibi-Usa.
Melissa Raquel Black aka Sailor Vera:
Vera is Lyera and Billy's daughter and like Chibi-Usa, we first meet her as she came from the future; though I cannot recall what crisis would have made her flee to the past. However unlike in Sailor Moon, Melissa knew who her parents were at the start.
The timeline in of itself for the stories did advance enough where Lyera did give birth to her and they had watched her grow up into a teenager. Though much like Chole and Fiona, the character development was pretty non-existent and if I had to guess the reason why was because we jumped around a lot in the timeline when writing, which is also more than likely why nothing got 100% completed.
There were other characters too who made an appearance; our friend Jole made a character named Tray, taking inspiration from Tray of Triphoria from Power Rangers Zeo and another friend who had a character named Rico. Rico... didn't last long as a character for us as when we were to face off with him he was overpowered and there was no way for the Ultimate Senshi to win. And for a story that is about the Ultimate Senshi, we couldn't have an all out defeat with no resolution.
We also made our Outer Senshi as well and keeping with the theme of spells, I had used summons from the Final Fantasy series;
Sailor Pluto = Sailor Starlet
Sailor Uranus = Sailor Maduin
Sailor Neptune = Sailor Siren
Sailor Saturn = Sailor Phoenix
Phoenix was actually the only one to have some kind of personality when we did use her since she was based on my cousin, Ronni. Valor also decided that she wanted her character and Inle to have a child as well. I thought that was a good idea since Sailor Moon didn't go that route and we made Valor's daughter the last of the Ultimate Senshi; taking Sailor Chibi-Chibi's place as Sailor Angel.
Meteor actually wasn't fond of this character and I never really understood why. While we were watching/recoding Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Meteor got really inspired by it as it was the episode where Kendrix sacrificed herself to save Cassie. She took that same idea and applied it to Vera and Angel. Needless to say, Valor was unhappy.
There was a lot of needless drama for something that should have been fun. The example above was one instance and another was mainly because Meteor had quit the project once before. My best friend and I got sucked into CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth and decided we wanted to be the Magic Knights, so we crossed-over our Ultimate Senshi into it and started going through that story in our own way; however instead of the 3 original senshi going it was Ultima, Valor and Dragon who were chosen. When Meteor decided to do the project again she was very unhappy that she wasn't chosen.
Upon the final quitting of Meteor; my best friend and I had to decide on how to rework the entire story, but outright removing a senshi didn't work. We were talking about this one day in front of another friend and she had mentioned that the story sounded like fun and that she wouldn't mind taking her place.
Amara aka Sailor Meteor:
The storyline we came up with for this was kind of complex as it some happened that our memories had been altered by Krelian to replace Meteor's image with that of a clone that was made by Hojo at Krelian's request.
Ultimately though we had stopped working on this mainly due to that too many things began to crossover. We already had; Sailor Moon, FF7, Chrono Trigger and Xenogears. But then we threw in; Magic Knight Rayearth, Digimon and Gundam Wing. When it snowballed out of control it was a good time to stop.
Other things made somewhat of a cameo more or less as the weapons the Ultimate Senshi used were from other RPGs; such as Ultima wielding Dual Blade from Lufia 2. Ultima, Valor and Meteor also possessed the Ra-Saru from Legend of Legaia. The creature that had escaped from the reactor was actually the Nue from Breath of Fire III. And taking the idea of Wicked Lady from Sailor Moon R, we had made Almang; an evil form of Ultima that was a cross between Althena from LUNAR and Miang from Xenogears.
Looking back it may seem like a silly, massive, crossover fan fic, but I have really fond memories of it. This was what started me writing a lot and drawing. And even if nothing got 100% complete, what had been thought up or written was quite impressive, in my opinion, of something that meshed these things together.
See you all next time! ^^/
