Another Chance
Sequel to Too Late
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and Sailor Moon do not belong to me, never will, and never have. Please don't sue me!!
Usagi sat at her desk and watched as the breeze softly rustled the leaves of a tree outside the window. In front of the classroom, her teacher droned on about square and cubed roots, but to the blond odango atama, her words blended perfectly in with the cicadas outside.
"Oi, Usa-chan. Pay attention." Usagi turned her head back to the front of the classroom. Five boys stood in front and their teacher had changed subjects. "Wow, I think I've died and gone to heaven," Minako said as she stared at the front of the class.
"Mina-chan, you're drooling," Usagi whispered to her best friend.
"Oh be quiet, Usagi," Mina pouted after she wiped her chin only to find it was a joke. Usagi tried to keep her laughter quiet as she turned to the front of the class and took a closer look at the boys.
"And my name is Quatre Winner," the blond boy said with a small bow to the class.
"Hey, I missed their names," Usagi whispered to Mina.
"From right to left is Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Wufei Chang, Heero Yui, and Quatre Winner. They are part of a transfer program."
"Heero's name sounds Japanese though. Why would he be transferring here?"
"Why don't you ask him yourself, Usa-chan?" Mina said with a wink and a grin.
"Why don't you shut up," Usagi retorted. She ignored Minako's pout and looked up front again.
"Is it just me, or do they look familiar to you?"
"I was just thinking that actually," Mina replied. She opened her mouth to speak again when their teacher's voice interrupted them.
"Aino. Tsukino. You have spent most of this class either daydreaming or talking amongst yourselves. Perhaps you'd like to stay after class," the teacher's stern voice threatened.
"Gomen sensei," Usagi whispered as she tried to push herself through her chair.
"Gomen," Minako echoed as her cheeks ignited in flame.
"Instead of staying after, I will ask the two of you to give our new students a tour of the campus during your lunch break."
((AN: Now who among us didn't see that coming? *grins*))
Several of the other girls in class could be heard groaning in disappointment. Usagi only knew she'd have no time to eat now. She sighed and nodded, but she could see Minako's face brighten at the pathetic punishment.
Heero's eyes narrowed at the two girls that would be their guides. For some reason, he found himself watching the one near the window closely. She didn't seem particularly happy to show them around.
There was something about her that unnerved him. He had the worst impression that she was hiding something from him. But what it was, especially since they had never met before, he couldn't tell.
"Mina, what would Kevin do if he knew you were drooling over some exchange students?" Usagi joked as they walked away from the school that afternoon.
"Who's drooling over exchange students?" a man's voice interrupted the blonde's answer. A silver haired man in the high school uniform walked over to the two girls and wrapped his arms around Mina's waist. He smiled a hello to Usagi and then kissed the top of Mina's head.
"Nothing, Usa's just teasing," Minako quickly replied as she looked up at her boyfriend's face and smiled.
"Yah, likely story," he said grinning. "But as long as it's just looking, and as long as you know you have something far better right here."
"You're worse then Jed," Mina sighed as she leaned into his arms.
"Ah, would you rather have the power hungry Negaverse general back? Who knows, maybe I'll even hook up with Zoisite again."
"Don't you dare, Ami and Zoi are finally fixing things up after their last fight," Usagi replied, pointing her finger at their former enemy.
"Ah, princess, you take things to seriously sometimes," Kevin replied, smiling. "I want the best for Zoi, just like you want the best for Ami. Now what's this about exchange students anyway? Do I have some competition?"
"If we survived you turning to Beryl and joining the other generals, death, rebirth, and high school, I think we can survive a couple of exchange students," Mina said as she turned around in Kevin's arms to face him.
"Mina and I both think we know them from somewhere though," Usagi added. She looked over her shoulder at the courtyard of Juuban High and watched as the five boys walked towards the parking lot. "But I get the feeling it isn't from this lifetime."
"You think you knew them from before?" Kevin asked.
"Maybe. Especially the one with the short brown hair. He gives me this strange feeling." Usagi unconsciously rubbed her neck before she turned back to her friends.
"I can honestly say I don't get the feeling I knew them. Why don't you ask Luna?" Kevin suggested.
"I will. Tonight."
The rebirth of the princess and those close to her had gone differently then the way originally planned by the guardian of time. Indeed, even events in the Silver Millennium had gone differently then originally planned, and as a result, Pluto no longer felt she knew what the future would reveal.
In her father's lifetime, virtually all of the future had been planned out. When Pluto took over, she found a list of crucial points to interfere, and notes on how to act during them.
Yet Chronos did not see the young princess sneaking to earth in the disguise of a soldier.
With that one act of defiance, Setsuna, Sailor Pluto found herself on her own. It was never suspected she would really have to do anything aside from follow a list of preset directions, and she was not adequately trained to plan events for the best possible outcome. But the future had changed drastically.
Somehow Kunzite escaped Beryl during the Silver Millennium, yet when he was reborn with the other earth generals, he fell into Negaverse hands. Pluto suspected it was because Usagi remembered Kunzite from their past lives as Venus's fiancée that she healed rather then killed the generals like Chronos predicted.
Another more drastic change though was the failure to begin what was to be a cycle throughout time. The love of the earth prince and moon princess. Usagi fell in love with someone on earth, but it was defiantly not the prince.
And though Pluto knew the young earth soldier loved the princess back, he was the end of her. He killed Princess Serenity, unaware but at the end that she was the girl he loved.
The memory made a tear come to Pluto's eye.
And all of this because Chronos decided to retire a little earlier then planned.
((AN: Hey, I had to explain the differences somehow, didn't I? Also, I'm sorry to Setsuna lovers for making her sound like nothing more then a puppet.))
"Well as long as we keep an eye on them, I don't think there is anything we can really do," Zoisite said to the room. He was the only former general who kept his original name, more because it didn't convert to anything normal like the others then any other reason.
"He's right," Ami said, tapping on her computer as the others watched. "None of them carry any dark energy. Their high level of power is likely because they have been trained to be secret agents since birth."
"NANI?!?!" Ami did not seem to expect the response to her discovery as everyone pushed their way to see over her shoulder.
"Hai. Actually, they are here to investigate us."
"Can you really just look that up, Ami-chan?" Makoto asked as she backed away to let another look at the computer screen.
"Of course not! These are top-secret files. Only us and about three other people, not including the transfer students, know what we know."
"So you just happened to think 'Hmm, maybe they are involved in some top secret operation. I'll just check other countries secret agent files to see if they show up somewhere?'"
"Iie, iie. I have a program that searches worldwide, no matter the security level, for names and descriptions. Zoisite and I developed it. And as you can see, it came in very handy indeed." Ami patted the top of her computer like one would pet a dog. The others rolled their eyes, but she was right. It had defiantly come in handy.
"So we're just going to let these five guys watch us? What if they find out who we are?" Makoto asked.
"Not much choice, is there? Unless we decide to confront them about it," Jadeite suggested. Neither he nor anyone else seemed particularly keen on that idea.
"So we just have to keep our eyes and ears open for these crazies with super powers. Until then, might as well relax!" Duo propped his feet up on the table in front of him and switched on the tv. Wufei glared at his braided companion. The way he never wanted to concentrate on their target unless their target came to them was one of the main reasons they broke up. It infuriated the black haired agent to no ends.
The fact that being in a relationship with one of your partners made assignments very difficult very often was not to be dismissed either.
"At least keep it on the news. We'll never hear anything if you watch cartoons all day."
"Hai Wu-chan. I'm not that stupid." Duo picked up the remote and switched from Cartoon Network to a local station. A woman with about three cans too much hairspray and the ugliest pink suit in the history of the world appeared on the screen. She sat at the news desk and read from a teleprompter about a five-car pileup on main street.
"Where did the others go anyway?" Duo asked as he quickly lost interest in television.
"Down to the market to get some groceries. Quatre went to the arcade though. Since these sailor senshi are so popular among teenagers, he thought he'd find someone talking about them." Wufei answered as he typed at the computer. News clippings from the past few years came up on his search and he started reading.
"He went to the arcade and didn't bring me?!"
"I can't imagine why," Wufei said as he rolled his eyes.
"Really!!" Duo jumped from the couch and reached for his jacket. He pulled the black sleeves over his t-shirt and headed for the door. "I'm going to go help Quatre. I'll see ya later Wu-chan!"
Wufei sighed as the door slammed shut behind the genki agent.
"I'm afraid I don't recognize the name." Luna sat on Usagi's bed and looked up at the moon princess. Her little furry shoulders somehow managed to shrug helplessly. "My memories of the Silver Millennium are as patchy as yours."
"Might Artimus know?"
"You could try. He says he has all his memories, but I doubt him sometimes. Why, just the other day…" Luna was interrupted as a muffled beeping came from under the small pile of clothing on Usagi's dresser. Usa jumped from her bed and ran over to the dresser. As she threw shirts and underwear onto the floor, the beeping suddenly moved.
"Usagi, over here," Luna said, pawing a beeping bra.
"Arigatoo Luna." Usagi sat down and pulled the communicator from the undergarment. She flipped open the top to see Jadeite staring back at her.
"About time you answered. The others are already on their way."
"Well so would I if you'd just tell me," Usagi retorted.
"Touché. Its down on third avenue and fifth street, near Vogel's Foodway. It's a nasty one. I'm waiting for someone else to get here before I start to attack. So far it's only been tossing cars around. No casualties as far as I can see."
"Try to keep it that way. I'll be there in a moment." Usagi closed the watch cover and went back to her messy dresser.
"Why aren't you coming, Usagi?!" Luna asked, already at the window.
"I just need to find my broach."
Two quiet figures stood on the inside of Vogel's Foodway as the fight continued just outside. The five outrageously dressed women and five uniformed men quickly put an end to the yoma. What was originally a serious threat was eliminated within minutes.
"According to older reports, four of the men only came once the others had been a team for quite some time."
"Hn."
"Lets go."
"Hai."
"I wish these guys would just tell us who they work for and let us get the whole thing over with. I hate not knowing." Usagi stared into her half eaten sundae with disgust as if it were holding the secret from her.
"Sounds like you're finally filling your position as leader, Usa-chan," Makoto said with a smile. "But if you're not going to finish that, at least let one of us have it."
"Too late Makoto," Rei smirked. Mako looked back at the sundae dish, which, within moments, had been scraped clean.
"Jez. I keep forgetting we have our own Tasmanian devil among us."
"Quiet Makoto. I just used a lot of energy dusting that yoma. You'd eat that fast too if you were in my place."
"What, you think we just sit back and watch you do all the work? I'm tired too you know!"
"Minna, quiet. We're starting to draw attention," Ami whispered across the table.
"Ah well, I need to go find where Kevin went off to after the fight anyway. I'll see you guys later, alright?"
"Hai. See you later Mina."
The conversation around the table grew quiet after Minako left. Soon after, Zoisite and Ami decided they'd go check up on Mamoru who was still a little depressed after his last break-up. As the three remaining booth residents finished their after school, after battle snacks, something caught Rei's eye.
"Isn't that one of the guys you and Mina were talking about, Usagi?" Usa turned to look over her shoulder at the blond boy playing a racing game. He narrowed his eyes in determination as he rounded a particularly sharp corner. The girls smiled in sympathy as a spot of oil on the track caused his car to spin out of control. A prompt for more tokens popped up and the crash victim stood from the seat in resignation.
"Yah, his name is Quatre Winner. He's really nice."
"Well, then let's go meet him! Maybe we'll learn something about our tails." Makoto stood from the booth and started to cross the arcade.
"Does she know what she's doing?" Usagi asked as she slowly began to follow.
"I doubt it. But then neither do we." Rei smiled at her princess as they went off to meet the blond bishonen.
'Well, that's the last game for me. I should really be paying more attention to the people anyway,' Quatre thought as he sat at a table. He looked up, startled, as three chairs were pulled up and one of the girls who had been their guide, as well as two strangers, sat down around him.
"Quatre-san, we saw you all alone here and thought we'd join you. These are my friends, Kino Makoto and Hino Rei."
"Hello Makoto-san, Hino-san. And please, call me Quatre."
"Alright Quatre-kun, but only if you call me Makoto. Or Mako-chan." Makoto smiled as she reached over to shake his hand.
"And call me Rei-chan. So Usagi and Mina showed you and your friends around the school today?"
"Hai. And they were very good guides." He smiled at Usagi who seemed to be watching him.
"Ah, you don't have to cover for Usa. She probably tripped and made everyone fall over each other."
"Rei!"
"Well, you're getting better, Usa-chan, but you still have the balance of a dizzy colt when you're in a rush."
"Mou. You're impossible." Quatre watched the friends argue for a few minutes longer before Usagi stood up.
"I'm going to get a soda. Do you guys want anything?" They all shook their heads and she headed out across the arcade floor.
"So how do you like it so far in Japan?" Rei asked politely.
"Jez, where is he?" Duo strained to see through the crowded arcade. For being in Japan, it was awfully difficult to spot his Arabian friend, and the after-school crowds still hadn't died down yet.
"Duo-kun!" He looked over to the counter and saw Usagi. She was waving at him.
"Oi! Usa-chan! Didn't think I'd see you again so soon." Usagi grinned as he made his way over to the counter. He slipped an arm over her shoulder and stole a sip from the drink that had just appeared in front of her.
"Are you looking for Quatre?" she asked as she mock glared at him.
"Hai. Wu-chan said he'd be here, and I was outraged when I heard he came without me!"
"Ah, don't get all tense. He's right over there. Probably didn't see you around when he left. Common, you can meet some of my other friends."
"If they're as cute as you, lead the way!" Duo joked. He winced as if her playful slap on the arm really hurt but followed after her as she made her way across the arcade floor.
Eros waved his hands to banish the bubble that had shown him the happenings of earth. With a smirk, he leaned back in his chair and turned to Euphrosyne.
"See? They thought they won when they killed the princess last time. But they only won the battle. I will win the war."
"And if they somehow have the young man kill her again?"
"Won't happen," Eros replied. "I've already checked with the Fates. They owe me a favor. Now if the Furies try and end her life early once again, whoever they chose to do the job will change their mind."
"Its so sad how they try to punish the poor boy by killing his soul mate again and again."
"I thought so to," the handsome god replied. "That's why I agreed to help Selene. She didn't like to watch her daughter suffer so."
"How do you plan to bring them back together?"
"That's where you come in, my lovely Euphrosyne."
Two postings in two days. *grins* I'm so good! Now if people will just review the latest chapter of Rivalry!! *sobs* PLEASE, I need reviews! One person has reviewed so far, and it's been up for almost two days now. The next chapter will be better, I promise, but I need reviews to encourage me to get the next chapter out in the first place!
Yah, I didn't like the original ending of Too Late. So I decided to continue it.
God guide:
Eros (aka Cupid)-the handsome god of love and desire. He isn't Aphrodite's son in this. I personally don't like the idea that he is her son, even if they are similar, and they weren't related originally.
Euphrosyne-one of the three graces. She is the grace of joy.
Fates-the three women who spin and weave every human's fate. (Kinda obvious by the name)
Furies-spirits who exacted vengeance against those who committed crimes where mortals could not give justice.
~Jade Nova
moon_archer82@lunap.com