Demoted

Chapter 4
Explantions

Chapter Description: The senshi learn why they're now babies.

Usagi’s eyes slowly opened as she saw a strange looking man staring down at her. "Hello there."

"Who are you? Where are Luna and Artemis?"

"They’re taking nap in one of the other cribs, we had to accelerate their regression to match yours, but trust me they are safe and we don’t mean you humans any harm."

Minako woke up in the next crib, rubbing her eyes and looking over. "Well, that still doesn’t explain who you two are. Who are you?" she asked, sleepily

"We are, shall we say, guardians of transition. The era of ice that will precede Crystal Tokyo is about to arrive. However there are those from beyond this world that would take advantage of this time to attack you. We determined that the best way to protect your world was to first regress the population and hide them in a shelter where you will all remain in infancy for the thousand years between now and when Crystal Tokyo would awaken.

"What?!?" Usagi yelled, getting up on her tiny legs, "You can’t do that! We can’t live like babies for a thousand years!" she shrieked, not believing a word of what this person just said

A strange Woman came in. "I’m afraid that you will like the alternative even less. But for what it’s worth it will seem completely natural when your minds match your bodies."

Setsuna then spoke. "So this has nothing to do with my planet getting demoted?"

"No, but still we’re sorry for what the coincidence of the two events must have put you through."

Ami stood up, having heard the entire thing. "I hope I am not bothering you, but what, exactly, was the alternative?" she asked, looking up at the taller woman.

"Yeah, what was it?" Usagi asked, turning back to the adults.

"During the coming time there will be a very powerful evil force. It will exhaust it self like a powerful storm but if it sensed developed intelligence on this planet, even in stasis, it would be compelled to wipe it out. This was the only way we could save everyone on the planet."

"But couldn’t it simply track us down and destroy us?" Ami retorted. Everyone immediately turned their heads, wondering what the response would be.

"The key word is ’developed intelligence’. This way your minds would be too immature for it to pick up. The regression of your bodies is mostly a measure to reinforce your minds into thinking you are infants."

"So... what do we do? I don’t want to sit here and be completely useless!" Rei yelled, tearing up slightly and stomping her foot.

The woman turned to her. "You still have access to your powers, by the time you get out of it your control from around a thousand years of ’Play’ with them will bring you to new levels that will help you deal with threats that you otherwise would not be able to handle. The man turned to one of the other cribs. "Looks like the ’kittens’ are starting to wake up."

Artemis and Luna slowly sat up, rubbing their eyes. "What’s going on?" Artemis asked, standing up and grabbing the bars, almost falling over.

Luna had something of a grimace on her face after hearing the explanation. "I don’t suppose changing back to our feline forms would make us adult cats instead of kittens."

"I’m afraid not." said the man.

"Well I don’t suppose you would be so kind as to give us your names."

The male looked towards his female partner. "Do you suppose it’s too much to do that?" he asked

"I guess not. He is Castor and I am Pollux, we come from a star in the constellation you call Gemini.

Setsuna looked up at them. "Gemini? I was not familiar that creatures as powerful as yourselves came from, that area" she said.

"Well, we try to keep a low profile." said Castor. "I guess we should get you all ready for when your parents arrive." Makoto then squeaked. "But my parents are dead." Pollux turned to Castor and whispered. "Why don’t we keep that a surprise for now?”

He nodded. "Well then, all of you go ahead and get ready" he said, starting to let them onto the floor. When they were loose, Usagi crawled over to Setsuna. "What do you know about these people?"

"I have heard of a species that are always born as male and female pairs of twins form that area. Each pair always acts as one but they were never hostile. I don’t know where they got their powers but I have feeling we can trust them.

"Yes, but a thousand years as babies?!? And what is this threat that they talked about?" Minako asked, getting next to Usagi.

"I heard stories, rumors really, about a negative energy that acts like a storm. It seems to form naturally every few thousand years and is attracted to worlds with developed intelligent life. After about a thousand years it dissipates and dies out. Most worlds with senshi could deflect it, but it would require a level of power we haven’t reached yet. As for why babies, I suppose it would have also worked if they regressed our world to the stone age but it carried the risk of us going past it on our own. This way we would not develop until it was safe to do so.”

"Well, how exactly do they have us plan to live?" Ami asked.

"And what about the parents? What will happen to them?" Makoto asked.

Setsuna pulled her diaper up. "Well regressing the whole population of the planet would still take some time. My guess is that they will be regressed once everyone in the younger generation becomes babies. As for how we’ll live they probably have some city sized nursery areas constructed when everyone’s regression is complete, that is to say everyone is a baby in body and mind."

They all were silent, looking at each other. "But... They can’t do this" Usagi said, thinking.

Michiru shrugged. "It seems like they are acting on someone else’s orders, most likely the Guardian of the Galaxy Cauldron. As embarrassing as it seems all of this seems to be in our best interest. We may have no choice as Hotaru put it ’Take a vacation from adulthood’ even though it’s going to be a very long one."

"But couldn’t we fight it? I mean, they seem powerful enough to regress the entire planet... Why not lend us powers to fight this force?" Rei said

"It doesn’t work like that." said Setsuna. "It has to work by expanding our powers by use. We could all train but there doesn’t seem to be enough time. The other advantage to this is that we’ll have about a thousand years worth of experience from using our powers like toys."

"But... but..." Usagi looked down, trying to think of an argument.

Makoto sighed. "How long before we become full babies?" she asked, looking at her.

"From the way they’re picking things up, two days." said Setsuna.

Haruka pouted. "It stinks but it seems like there’s nothing we can do for now. Might as well hang out with the other rugrats."

Usagi grumbled, but followed the rest as they gathered into the playroom