Act I, Chapter 2

The Hourglasses

"Training everyone," Luna announced as everyone sat down for breakfast in a nearby McDonalds.

"Aww, Luna," Usagi whined quite pitiably.

"You need it. You haven't been in a real fight for awhile. You've been letting Mami, Hannah, Corey, and Lan do all your fighting for you. I'm sure you've been eating too much as well. So we will start training today. Since it seems Emma will be joining our ranks," Luna looked so prim sitting there eating a piece of scrambled egg with chopsticks. I have no idea where she got those chopsticks either, because we were eating at Cracker Barrel.

"Really? But how? I thought she couldn't transform," Chibi-Usa said in that stupid eager voice of hers. God I hate that girl.

"It's a simple matter of concentration. I haven't formatted my Power in that way. But I just need a simple rod, and I can make it so that it will fit me and my abilities. I'm going to be Pluto's successor," I told her in my coldest voice and picked up a piece of bacon with my fingers. The glare I got from Megan who was sawing at her own bacon was such that I really had to force the laughter that wanted to escape down.

"What? Puu? But she's going to live forever!" Chibi-Usa said heatedly. That's another thing I dislike about her. She calls Sailor Pluto by something so immature as 'Puu'. I show her much more courtesy, I always have and I always will. Pluto is the oldest of all the scouts, both physically, and mentally. Although I think that Mars has her beat spiritually.

"Of course she won't! No more than you will! You're 900 years old for god's sake! Can't you behave a little more maturely?" I asked dropping the bacon back on my plate. I picked up my purse and left the room. I haunted the shop instead. I didn't have a way to get back to the hotel without the rest of them.

"What's wrong?" That was Lan. He's always been the more mature of my parents, although they're really the same age. He's very handsome, and if I didn't know he was my father I might have developed a crush on such a kind and handsome man.

"That girl. I don't understand how she can be so cheerful. She's lived through wars and fights, so why is it that I'm bitter and angry all the time while she's cheerful and happy to the point it's disgusting? Is it just genetic?" I asked sounding annoyed with how whiny it sounded. I didn't mean it to come out in such angry and petulant bursts.

"I think it's just the atmosphere of when she grew up. You come from the age between now and Crystal Tokyo correct? Well that was a time of war and chaos as far as I know. She grew up in a place where you can be optimistic and happy all the time. While you grew up where such things can kill," Lan said calmly, but avoiding eye contact.

"Yeah, I know. I understand all that. But I still can't stand her. She could have at least colored her hair. It bothers me that it's such a bright pink. And that hairstyle, it's bad enough when it's rounded into balls on Usagi, but on Chibi-Usa it's pointed! It really bugs me," I said gripping a small fistful of my hair in my hand. I started pulling the tangles out of it with my fingernails, it's a habit I picked up from my mom.

"You're just like your mom you know," Lan said in a soft voice and a smile.

"What? She never loses her temper over stupid people, just over her own stupidity," I said with a little shock.

"Yes, but she always vents off her anger with me and she habitually untangles her hair with her fingers, just like that. Besides that you look just like her, well except you're taller than her and you keep your hair short and out of your face. While she loves having it in her face," There was a slight chuckle from him. How strange that seemed coming from a time in his life when a smile was a very rare thing indeed. His wife smiled more than most of the world's populations put together, but he was nice in a serious way.

"I don't know whether that was a compliment or an insult," I said as I heard Megan run into the edge of a doorframe, again.

"I don't know either," he said with another smile and a bit of laughter hidden behind the words.

"So where are we going to train?" I asked Megan as she paid for some candy for both herself and me. She felt that since she was going to be my mom in the future she should take care of me. She doesn't need to, but I get candy out of the deal, so I can't really complain.

"I don't know. Luna will find one. Although it would be easier if everyone was more powerful," Megan said this last in a rather disgruntled mutter.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked rather curious. I thought they were all pretty strong at this point.

"I mean…You know what happens between now and then right?" Megan looked uncomfortable, as if she hadn't meant to say anything. But Megan was Megan after all.

"I've heard stories about what leads into the chaos of my time. But I don't really know well, what few schools still function focus more on the fighting arts, or business, or medicine, and there's little known or taught about recent history," I told her truthfully. I mean she wanted to know. I shouldn't have told her that though.

"Well, during that time all the scouts are sleeping, except for us few who are only scouts in that we modeled our Power after theirs. They trusted us to keep things safe for them, but we really couldn't. It was just too much for us. So the chaos locked into the fabric of the world was released. But when they woke up again Sailor Moon no longer existed. Neo-Queen Serenity simply couldn't transform. But the other scouts had slept so that their powers could go through an evolution. They looked like Eternal Sailor Scouts, but their powers had grown exponentially. In that form Saturn could rip a whole in the weave of reality for a short time. Using that she could then create a small mini universe inside that rip, and that was where they trained. But Saturn hasn't reached that point in her development yet," Megan explained in a tired sounding way. As if she expected me to know all this. Most people in my time don't even know that the Sailor Scouts exist in the first place.

"Well then we'll just have to trust in Luna then won't we?" I said calmly.

"Yes, I suppose we will," Megan was lost in thought, and it took me ten tries to get her to give me the canister of Jelly Bellys I got her to buy for me. She bought one fore herself too, I got my love of jelly beans from her, and she got them from her dad. So our family loves the jelly beans.

"Here, we'll train here," Luna said leading us all in her human form.

"Here?" Haruka asked incredulously. I must agree with her. Luna had chosen an empty field just outside the city limits. How were we supposed to train when everyone and their brother can just walk up and watch us?

"Saturn, I hope you remember what we've been working on," Luna said evenly.

"Yep!" And like that Hotaru was Saturn, and leveling her glaive. She set a sparkling purple barrier around the whole area.

"What's this? I didn't think she could do this yet!" Megan cried with surprise.

"Since when do you know the future?" Chibi-Usa asked acting at her brattiest.

"Since she looked from the Place of Mirrors. I know my time, and you know yours, and Pluto knows them all. But my mom knows lots of bits and pieces. She's a horrible sneak. I know for a fact that she used to search the house for Christmas and birthday presents until her parents died. She never did figure out where they hid them though," Everyone looked a bit shocked at Megan at these last few words, but they were completely true. I mean she told me herself that she started looking for the 'secret hiding place' when she was five, and she never found it, even though she kept looking all the way up through my grandparents deaths I'm glad of the sheepish look on her face because it meant I wasn't in for a scolding.

"You looked at the flow of Time!? You could have been killed! You should know that the Mother doesn't take kindly to people looking at her Grand Scheme! How could you be so stupid?" Michelle asked her friend with disgust.

"But how was She to know? No one's seen Her since She was last disgusted with me for killing everyone on an entire World. I suppose She's still hiding Herself. Although I wonder sometimes if perhaps She hasn't simply reincarnated Herself," Megan said happily.

"How can you speak such blasphemy? You know better than anyone that She's even more Powerful than you! And you're still the only Incarnation to ever be this Powerful. But you still couldn't stop time if you wanted to!" Michelle countered angrily. Everyone was watching the two of them like a tennis match.

"Of course I could! But I dislike meddling in such things. I suppose if Time had to be stopped then it would be left to those specialized in that craft. You should know that my specialty has nothing to do with Time, and its mysteries," Megan said seriously. I'm surprised at her, she was so composed. Normally she would be blowing up by now.

"What are you specialized in?" Usagi asked curiously. Michelle and Megan both gave a jerk as if they had forgotten that other people were there.

"I suppose I'm much like Saturn," Megan said obliquely. But that made me wonder, had I ever seen my mother use her Power. I knew she was immensely Powerful. But I don't think I've ever seen her Power in action. Not even on my last trip through Time. But I know her colors were pink, gold, red, light blue, silver, and black. But those colors come from a mixture of lives. Her favorites were light blue and silver. And she decorated the whole house in those colors, much to my father annoyance, because the only other colors in the house were black and white for accents.

But what could that mixture of colors say about her Power? I really don't know because she said that her Power was like Saturn's. So was it death, or was it the opposite and life. In which case you would assume that Sailor Rose can't exist and without Sailor Saturn, or Saturn without Rose. Because that would create an imbalance in the very fabric of reality. To have the champion of life exist without the champion of death or vice versa would create mass chaos perhaps that's what happened…No that's not what Megan said was it? She said, "the chaos locked into the fabric of the world was released."But wait could the slumber of death's champion have created the unbalance that would make Chaos stir in the first place?

"Mom?" I asked into the sudden silence.

"Yes?" Megan replied without hesitation.

"Are you Life's Champion?"

"I should have known that you would figure it out with that hint. Yes, I am Life's champion, much as Saturn in death's. Many people view 'Life' as good and 'Death' as evil but in their choice of champions I often wonder if it's not the opposite," Megan murmured so quietly that if everything hadn't been still I doubt any of us would have heard those words. Was that how she saw herself? As evil? As the champion of evil? You have to wonder why she would think such a thing. Something so far out of the ordinary, that it isn't even normal for someone like Megan who seems to have no brain at times to say.

"But Life and Death are both basic elements, like water, fire, or wind. That's why two scouts can possess those elements as their own. Like how Mars has fire, Uranus has wind, and how Neptune and Mercury both possess water in different forms. None of those are inherently good but they aren't inherently evil either. The element any of us possess that is inherently good is love, possessed by the two Moons, but even they could be evil if their hearts were warped, into loving what should not be loved. Feeling pity and sympathy for the evil of the world and trying to change it is what they do, not love it outright," I have to wonder where Luna practices her speeches because it always sounds practiced. I mean how does she do it? I know the future (to a point) but I never have the perfect speech planned out. But somehow Luna who only knows the past says the perfect speech. That really bugs me.

Everyone stared at her for a moment before Artemis broke in, "Time to get to work!" He then paired everyone up. I was to work with Pluto (duh!), the other three outers would work together as well. It would be Luna and Rose, Osseus and Elle, Venus and Mars, Jupiter and Mercury, and Chibi-Moon would be working with Moon. Artemis and Diana practiced together as well. But the most interesting part was watching Tuxedo Mask and Prince Lan sparing.

"So, first we'll need you to transform into a senshi. Do you know how?" Pluto asked as everyone paired up.

"I'll need a henshin rod," I answered calmly.

"Right, here you go," She tossed me a short stick with something that looked remarkably like the Garnet Orb at the end. I could feel that it only had a small amount of Power in and of itself. That little bit of Power was simply a way to control and direct the use of my Power.

I held the rod to my chest and felt through its Power thoroughly. Then I released all my restraints on my Power. With that action words and images rushed into my head. Among those words were the ones I knew I needed to call out.

"Time Rose Transformation!" I called them strongly and confidently. They caused a rose colored light to bloom around me, mixed with the deep garnet which represented time. But the best part was the sparkles of pure white energy which shone through the streaks of light. It shone around me twirling first one way, then the opposite, as if going forward and backward in time. Each time it changed direction part of me was covered in a piece of a fuku.

"Very nice. I wasn't sure you could do it so quickly," Luna said from behind me, I turned to see that no one had started practicing yet.

"What?"

"I wasn't sure if you could reconfigure you Power so quickly. From what you said before I assumed it would be a complex process. I suppose I was wrong," Luna said with a smile. Artemis then got everyone started on what they needed to work on.

"Now that your Power is configured, can you come up with an attack?" Pluto asked with a gentle look in her eyes.

"I don't know," I said and looked down. I'm sure it was swimming around in my head just a moment ago. But I couldn't remember it. So I examined my fuku instead. It was different from anyone else's and I had to wonder why. Megan's was unusual in the way it was made as well (who but Megan would think to have her skirt halfway hanging off of her?), but mine was different even from hers. It was made in layers. The bottom one covered only the bare essentials with curving lines of rose colored fabric. The layer above it was shear to the point it didn't really have a purpose, and it covered in a slightly looser version of the traditional fuku (this fabric was shimmery and a color between white and silver). The last layer was the bow, collar, and eternal type sleeves all done in garnet colored fabric. To my surprise there was a little chain belt with a pink and garnet glass marble in a silver cage, and an hourglass shaped like a rose bud made out of a garnet on it.

"Oh I've got it now!" I said happily.

"What is it?" Pluto asked without much expression.

"Time Hourglass Call!" I yelled out and the hourglass on my chain belt glowed as a beam of rose, garnet, and pure white shot at Pluto. She blocked it without thought on the end of her staff.

"That was pretty good. But do you know what it does?" Pluto asked lowering her staff back.

"It calls the time remaining to a person or creature's life and calls it to me. And if I had succeeded all that time would be stored in an hourglass, which I can clip onto my belt, or get rid of, depending on the enemy," I said quickly with enthusiasm.

"What can you do with the stored time?" I think Pluto was giving me a quiz.

"I can give it to someone dying to restore their life, or I can keep it with me to extend my own, which is marked with my hourglass here," I tapped the garnet hourglass on my belt, "I used to have one made of ruby, but I don't know what happened to it. It not only marked my life, but also the life of my era."

"Your era?" Pluto asked with surprise. Wow! I've never heard her speak with surprise.

"I made it do that when I was young and wanted everything to change to a more peaceful time. I did it without much thought. That was when my mom discovered what type of Power I have," I told her quickly.

"An hourglass made out of a ruby. I've seen that before. I think it reappears in another time. Perhaps even this one. Because I know it plays a part in the ending of your era, and in Usagi ascension to the throne as Neo-Queen Serenity,"

"Then I need to find it don't I?" I asked without thinking much of it.

"No, I think I know where it is I believe Michelle has it," At that I turned to look at Michelle, Lauren, Rand, Matt, Kora, and Katja where they sat watching everything.

"Should I ask now?"

"Yes, I think it's too important to delay," Pluto said with her serious face on again. So I ran over to the older girl Michelle. I met her briefly before returning to my time. And I'm pretty sure she saw the rose during that time so I was pretty sure that Pluto was right

"Michelle? Do you have a ruby carved in the shape of a rose bud, like the one on my belt?" I asked her. Michelle was highly trained in the use of her Power in one of her past lives. And so I expect she knew from the moment she saw that little rose that it had Power to it. But I can't guarantee that because my mom was highly trained in many of her last lives, and yet she's still an idiot.

"Like that garnet? Yes I do," As she said that she lifted a silver chain from around her neck and showed me the precious stone, "You left it when you disappeared last time. I have yet to figure out why you left it. But I'm pretty sure it's important. Did you need it back?"

"Yes, Pluto thinks it has something to do with the end of the era I come from, and the beginning of Crystal Tokyo," I told her adding the hourglass to my belt.

"Why doesn't the sand move?"

"Because the hourglass marks the movement of time in my era, it hasn't begun yet," I told her and prepared to go. But she grabbed my arm again.

"Then what does the garnet mark?"

"The passing on time in my life," I told her with surprise. She looked sad after I said it.

"I had a dream last night of those two hourglasses. The ruby one wasn't moving, but the garnet was moving all too fast. So be careful, I think it might be prophetic," Michelle then let me go, but I was too stunned to move.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So I'm back! I hope you remembered that little dropped hourglass, because I intended it to be important from the beginning. The hourglass was the one important thing that she did before she disappeared in the last Book. I'm very proud of her outfit, but I'm not sure if you can imagine it. I'm thinking that the shear layer would be tight fitting in between the top and bottom parts of the lower layer, but looser on top of the top, and forming a skirt over the bottom. Then I think you can figure out the rest of it yourself. I'll draw it and see if I can scan it into the computer, if I can I'll make it the picture I use as a picture of me.

In case you're wondering who the person in the picture of me is it's supposed to be my first design for Sailor Rose. This design was featured in The Chibi Sailors, which I haven't finished because I'm going to go back and rewrite it. I'm also going to link it to this one. So go ahead and read it if you want. But I know you'll be left wondering how these two stories are compatible.

So that's it for now!! Bye!!