THE GUARDIANS' RETURN
Summary: During the Silver Millennium, not only did Princess Serenity have guardians, but her Sailor Senshi also had Guardians. These ten girls are back, after 10,000 years of sleep, to protect their charges and to help fight a new enemy. But no one has any memories of these girls.
Standard Disclaimer: I own no SM characters, just OCs. You may not use my OCs unless you gain permission from me.
Chapter One
A New Cousin
There was a slamming of a door. Kaioh Michiru smiled from this sink where she was washing dishes.
"Please don't slam the door Hotaru," she called as the teenager walked into the kitchen. Hotaru was a 13-year-old with chin-length black hair and at that moment was wearing a Crossroads Junior High School uniform.
"Sorry, Michiru-mama," she apologized distractedly. "Do you know where Setsuna-mama is?"
Michiru frowned slightly and dried off her hands before answering. She was concerned about her foster-daughter's absent-minded behavior. "I think she went back to the Time Gate," the aqua-haired woman responded. "She'll try to come back soon if she's allowed."
"Oh. I wanted to ask her something. I keep getting a feeling like…" Hotaru's voice trailed off as she found no words to describe accurately what she felt.
"Like something big is going to happen?" Haruka asked, coming in from the garage.
"Close enough," admitted Hotaru with a shrug. "I guess it's close enough."
"Something big is about to happen," a familiar voice announced from the front door. The three companions whirled around to meet the voice's owner, Michiru's long aqua hair getting in her eyes for just a moment. "It concerns ours and our princess' safety; unfortunately I was not able to see anything else," the voice added, "for I am rarely allowed a glimpse of my own future." The speaker walked down the foyer and into the kitchen, a small smile gracing her tanned features as she regarded the frozen young women.
Hotaru was the first to shake it off and threw herself at the Time Guardian. Setsuna affectionately returned the young girl's embrace and looked over the dark head of hair at the other two.
"Haruka, Michiru, stop acting as though you'd just seen a ghost," she scolded. "You should have known this would happen sooner or later. It should come as no surprise." The Water and Wind Guardians nodded. They could feel their year of peace rapidly coming to an close, and another enemy coming closer with each passing second.
It was silent for a few moments before Setsuna spoke again and Hotaru broke away from her.
"On my way in I picked up the mail. Hotaru-chan, you've got a letter." Hotaru took it gleefully and fled to her room to read it in private as Setsuna distributed the rest of the mail: a racing magazine, the newspaper, and a pleading letter from a relative for Haruka; two magazines for Michiru. There was nothing for Setsuna, so she silently dried off and put away the dishes Michiru had washed.
Finally, Hotaru came out of her room and back into the kitchen, her face with a strange look on it, holding the letter. "I think you three should read this," was the only thing she said before handing it to Michiru and getting a snack out of the fridge.
The letter was written in English, the three eldest Senshi noted as they gathered around the handwritten letter and Michiru read it aloud, reading slowly as she translated it into Japanese.
It read:
"Dear Hotaru,
I live in America and know almost squat about you or Japan. Okay, I know some little things—like that the country makes the best manga in the world—but nothing important. I can understand Japanese, but can't really speak it. Please don't ask.
You've probably never heard of me, but I'm your cousin. I'm Hikari. I know my name is Japanese and that makes this all the more strange. I was reared as American so I'm afraid the only things Japanese about me are my looks, my obsession with all manga, and my name.
My parents died recently in a construction fire and their will states that I have to go live with one of my living relatives. So I get to live with you since everyone else has died. I'm 13 years old and I spook the kids at school. You have been forewarned.
People say I'm strange because I have this weird ability to heal, only I can't always use it on myself.
My life so far has been a bit strange by the world's standards. I've been in a car crash and I've gone into a coma twice. Both times were caused by some unknown factor. The doctors think I may have some sort of illness because sometimes I have these weird 'attacks' where I suddenly zone out for a long period of time and when I come back to the real world, my body decides to believe it's been set on fire and I collapse. Yes, I know I'm strange. If you want, you can just ignore the paragraph this is in.
Soon after you receive this, I should show up in Crossroads. I'm afraid I can't give you a definite date just yet. I'll give you any more info I get.
Your cousin,
Hikari Yami"
There was utter and complete silence as Michiru finished reading and the words of the letter echoed and etched themselves into each Senshi's brain. The four stayed frozen this way until to them it seemed as though they had always been this still with these words echoing inside their heads. Then the shrill ringing of the phone shattered the silence and they all jumped at least a foot into the air.
"Moshi moshi?" Hotaru asked uncertainly as she picked up the phone.
"Am I correct in assuming I am speaking to Miss Hotaru Tomoe?" a brisk female voice inquired in English. Hotaru was immediately struck with a image of a pompous secretary.
"Yes ma'am," she acknowledged politely in the same language, thanking her lucky stars she'd learned the language so well.
"Your cousin, Ms. Yami, would like to speak with you. I will give her the phone and then you will have ten minutes in which to talk before she leaves to the airport."
"Huh? Uh, okay," she replied, feeling she was supposed to reply.
"Hello?" It was a new voice that Hotaru did not recognize, but at the same time was one as familiar to Hotaru as her own, yet she couldn't summon a name or face to go with it.
"Hi." The Senshi of Destruction felt her mind go suddenly blank. "Are you Hikari?"
"Yeah. You're Hotaru." The same thing appeared to have happened to Hikari halfway across the globe.
"Uh-huh. Something you wanted to tell me?"
"Well, I just wanted to apologize for this being so sudden and appearing out of nowhere and being thrust on you and your family without you guys having a clue about me asides from being cousins." Hotaru smiled. She could just see the girl on the other end running her hand through her hair as she spoke. "I'd like to change that, at least a little. I don't really know anything about you, so could you fill me in on some things? Like maybe some things about your family? I know something happened to your parents, but nothing about what happened or anything beyond the words 'she doesn't live with her parents, so don't expect them.' "
"Did that lady really say that?" Hotaru asked with a giggle. Hikari had perfectly imitated the voice of the lady who had called.
"Yep. So now I'm breaking the rules," Hikari responded without missing a beat.
"Well, my mama died when I was eight during a construction fire."
"Oh. That must've hurt. Was your dad in the fire too?" Hotaru was grateful Hikari didn't offer any of the meaningless apologies that everyone else had offered when they had come to see her in the hospital or found out her mother had died. Somehow, those had hurt more than the guilt and pain of losing her mother. Hikari must feel the same way.
"Yeah, it hurt a lot. My papa was in the fire, but got out of there fairly unharmed. He was in the hospital room with me when I woke up." The others were listening with interest. Hotaru had never told them any of this, although they had found out some of it through hacking into the Infinity College computers. Hotaru ignored them and continued, "I felt guilty about it for a while, because she died trying to get me out of there. Papa died two years ago in an experiment. Now I live with three mothers who adopted me." She didn't tell her cousin that her true father had died in the fire with her mother and his body had become a super being, a union of human and alien and had later been destroyed by Super Sailor Moon.
"My mothers are Haruka Tenou, who is a racer and acts more like a guy than a girl and is the ultimate tomboy so I suppose you could say she's my foster-'father.' Then there's Michiru Kaioh, who's a famous violinist; and Setsuna Meioh, who is the nurse at my school and who I think has ESP." Hikari was quiet for a moment, then giggled.
"Yeah, I have three friends who act a little like that. 'Cept Miranda doesn't race unless she has to and then she leaves everyone in the dust. She's really girly whenever she can get away with it. Does Haruka race cars or motorcycles or run track?" Hotaru thought for a moment.
"I think when she was in high school or middle school she took track, but then someone introduced her to race cars and motorcycles and now she's addicted."
"I can see why. Some people just seem like they should've been born with wings on their feet; they're always going so fast."
"I agree. What was your family like?" She was just as curious about Hikari as Hikari was about her and in the split-second after the words left her mouth and before Hikari answered, Hotaru realized that that was the worst question in the world to ask. It would hurt more than most would because of the past tense ramming it home that her family was never coming back. Before she could apologize, Hikari was answering, but her tone was different. Hikari sounded like a lost little girl now.
"Well, Mommy was… really nice, but unless she was worried, she was pretty distant when it wasn't just me and her and Daddy. Daddy was…"
"Less nice?" Hotaru supplied.
"You could say that," Hikari said dryly. "He wasn't the most faithful husband, but Mommy refused to leave him. She was always saying he'd been seduced. But then every day when I'd come home from school she'd be drinking while he was away. I learned to stay away from her when Daddy wasn't home once I'd told her I was home."
"Did she do something to you?" Hotaru wondered suddenly aloud. Then she blushed and opened her mouth to stammer an apology.
"Don't bother." Hikari cut Hotaru off as though knowing what the other girl was about to say. For a second her tone was back to normal. "Once, I thought she was really scary because she was holding a bottle, sitting at the kitchen table, and raving at the air about what a horrible man Dad was. So I ran to my room and hid there. But Mommy noticed the clock about an hour later and roused herself out of a drunken stupor to call the school and find out where I was. They told her I had left and she searched the house for me. When she found me cowering in my room she started to scream and hit me, telling me she'd kill me herself if I ever forgot to tell her I'd come home or that I was leaving. Aside from that one time, she's never laid a hand on me." Suddenly she gave a short laugh. "I can't believe I'm telling all this to someone halfway across the globe who probably couldn't care less. It's just… there's something about you that makes me want to tell you everything…" Her voice trailed off and Hotaru blinked. She'd never known she had that kind of power. But then again, she felt the same way with Hikari. There was just something about the other girl's voice, the way she talked, that made Hotaru want to spill out everything.
"Ms. Yami, your ten minutes are up," Hotaru heard a voice say in the background.
"Give me a minute," Hikari snapped back in a normal tone. It sounded like she was covering the phone with her hand. "Hotaru? Can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"You're gonna think I'm crazy, but I want you to tell me if you understand what I'm gonna say next."
"So say it already."
"I miss you, Saturn." That was it. But somewhere in the back of Hotaru's brain, a voice said something was different, that something about those four words was wrong, besides the obvious 'Saturn' part.
"What did you just say? That you miss—" Hotaru began to ask, her suspicions quickly rising from nil to very high.
"So you understood me?" Hikari interrupted. It was impossible to say which voice held more shock. There was another comment from the lady in the background. "Sorry, I gotta go. See you soon? I'm not sure when my flight is scheduled to get there."
"Okay. I'll try to get Michiru or Setsuna to pick you up at the airport."
"Arigatou. Bye." There was a click and the call was ended.
She turned back to her foster-parents.
"So do we pay for that call, or do they?" she asked, returning to her native language of Japanese.
The three eldest Senshi just blinked and silence reigned.
±——±——±——±——±——±——±——±——±
Halfway across the globe and a few hours later, there was a figure illuminated by the light of the crescent moon dressed in deep purple sitting on a low stone ledge at the edge of a pond. The young woman's hair was cut in a bob and was blacker than the night, and she wore gloves that reached her elbows. There were thick white bracelets resting on her wrists. The left one had a pale yellow crescent moon on the underside of one and the pale purple sign of the Senshi of Saturn on the underside of the other. The top of each bracelet displayed a dark purple gem. She wore a sleeveless top and shorts. Her boots reached just past her knees and were the same color as the rest of her clothes.
Tears slowly falling from her violet eyes, she reached down and dipped her hand into the water and made an arc with her hand in the water, disrupting her image. As she did this and pulled her hand out of the water whispering, "Guardian of Neptune, I wish to speak with you."
The language she used was not English, Japanese, nor any other language still spoken on the planet.
The water close to the edge of the pond lifted into the air, twirling and twisting to form a large oval connected to the pond. After a moment, the water began to cascade down from the oval and back into the pond, leaving behind a young woman about eighteen dressed in a uniform similarly to the one who had spoken. The only change in the outfit was the color, aqua and her symbol on the underside of the right bracelet, the Senshi of Neptune.
Quickly, she vaulted up onto the stone ledge and sat down next to her young summoner, sea-green hair swirling around her, making her look like a mermaid.
"What did you summon me for? Remember, it's daytime where I was. I can't have you summoning me for your every little whim." Then she appeared to notice that her friend's shoulders shaking ever so slightly. Laying a hand on one of the smaller teen's shoulders, she asked gently, "Titan? What's wrong?"
Titan turned to look up at her friend, and the repressed tears that Titan's pride refused to let fall glistened in the moonlight. Reacting on a combination of instinct and reflex, the older teen hugged Titan. That was what undid the younger girl. Titan's arms wrapped around her friend and she put her head on the young woman's shoulder as she began to sob in earnest.
The scene held like this for a few minutes; Titan just crying and her friend holding and rocking her as though Titan were a baby still. This scene scared the older teen, for Titan was not someone who showed her emotions in such a form, if she even showed them at all.
Then Titan lifted her head and pulled away. The older teen noticed with relief that the tears were stopping. Wiping her tears away, she made a comment in forced tone using the same language the other girl used, the one she had used herself for the summoning. "Are you doing okay, Triton? I haven't seen you in a while." Triton nodded, her sea-green hair swirling around her again.
"I'm doing fine," she answered seriously. "But you're not. What's happened to you?" Titan sniffed and wiped away more tears that had begun to quickly roll down her cheeks again.
"They're dead," she told her knees simply. Then her tears fell in a torrent and Triton was too shocked to react this time.
"But—last time we talked to you they were fine. You said so yourself."
"Well, they're not anymore." Titan's words were broken by her sobs.
"So that's why—"
"Why I haven't been talking to you guys," Titan finished for Triton.
"But we should've sensed something! We should've known that something had happened to hurt you like this!"
Titan shook her head and didn't bother to wipe away the tears blurring her vision.
"No. You couldn't have," she informed her friend as her voice quavered with barely restrained emotion. "I cut the connection really soon afterwards and none of you would have known unless you'd been searching for me with your mind."
"Why did you do that?! If something happens to you and you're in trouble, that mind connection can be the only way for us to know!"
"You sound like the Queen now," Titan commented, knowing it would shut the aqua teenager up.
Triton blushed. In the past, she had often made fun of the Queen's over-protectiveness of her daughter's guardians.
Suddenly, something slammed into Titan's back, throwing her off the ledge, into the water with a cry of pain and shock. Even as her friend fell into the water, Triton was jumping off the ledge and turning to face the adversary. Before her was a man dressed in a thick robe, holding two daggers in his hands, with quite a few more stuck in his belt, and a maniacal grin stretching his face.
"Triton," Titan called, clumsily hoisting herself out of the water, "would you mind pulling this out of my back? It kinda hurts. But don't take your eyes off him." Triton nodded and took a step or two back so she could reach her friend's back. She felt for the dagger handle, and, upon finding it, yanked it out of Titan's upper back. Titan bit her lip to keep herself from crying out from the pain as warm blood gushed down her back.
"Now give me the blade." She held out her hand without looking at Triton. Surprised by this request, Triton took her eyes off the man just long enough to shoot a confused glance at Titan.
But it was enough.
Immediately, Titan tackled her to the ground and Triton felt and saw a blade whiz past them. There was a dull thud and clattering as it hit the stone ledge and fell to the ground.
"See now why you don't take your eyes off him?" Triton nodded as her injured and sopping wet friend helped her up. The man was no longer grinning. He was glaring at Titan, who gave him a malicious smile in return as her eyes turned to dark blocks of ice.
Triton could see no trace of the sorrow that had been there scarcely a moment before, nor could she see any other emotion a kind, decent human being like she knew Titan was would have. "Now give me the stupid blade already. And this time don't take your eyes off him," Titan added. Triton had learned a long time ago not to deny the girl something when Titan used that tone, so Triton gave her younger friend the dagger. Moving so fast Triton could barely see the movement, Titan threw the bloody dagger at the man.
Perfect bull's-eye. He didn't even have time to stagger backwards, falling straight backwards and onto the ground. Before the blood could cover the scene or even spill out the wound too much, his corpse was engulfed by dark fire.
Triton looked at her younger friend. Titan's symbol, a soft yellow crescent moon behind the sign of the planet Saturn, was glowing upon the girl's forehead, and she held a naked sword in her hands. Titan held it in a vertical two-handed grip with the blade inches from her cold face. The black fire left the man's body in threads to flow around and inside the blade. As the fire touched it, the blade began to glow silver. When the blade had sucked up all the fire, there was nothing left of the body or clothes. It had all become the black fire.
Titan let go of the still-glowing blade and let it fall. Just before it hit the ground, it vanished and Titan staggered. Reacting quickly, Triton caught her friend and helped her back to the stone ledge to sit.
"Are you okay?" Triton asked in concern, still supporting Titan. She could hear Titan's labored breathing and felt the younger girl tremble in her hold.
"Stupid question, isn't it?" Titan rasped. Then she groaned and Triton felt Titan go limp and collapse against her. So Triton reverted back to her normal form with an elaborate dress that she personally considered a waste of yards of cloth. Still supporting her friend the older girl ripped large, makeshift bandages from the dress, binding up her friend in an attempt to stop the bleeding of Titan's wound.
She had just finished and transformed again by washing her power over herself when Titan moaned slightly and returned to consciousness. Triton helped Titan sit up, although Titan still needed to lean heavily against Triton. Titan's face was pale and her eyes had begun to glaze over with pain.
"Any better now?" Triton asked. Titan nodded, an incline of her head so slight that it was only noticeable by the movement of her hair.
"I need to get back. I said I was going for a walk," she laughed softly, "so the idiots will start to wonder where I am soon."
"That's not nice," Triton chastised as she helped Titan stand. Together they slowly began to make their way down the street away from the faint evidence of the fight, Titan reverting back to her civilian form in the darkness from lack of energy. The two warriors vanished under the cover of night.