*Shard 2*

The Gathering

...

Usagi was awake. Her mind knew this before her body did. And with but one shockingly swift myoclonic jerk, was she up and alert. Her immediate surroundings were familiar, but somehow...different. Usagi cast aside her thick bunny-printed sheets and got to her feet. Despite having been inert for goodness only knows how long, her breathing was ragged and uneven. She looked about her bedroom, everything seemed as it should have been, but something was different. Was it her imagination, or could she just...see better? Her eyesight, while not exactly stellar, was never truly bad either. But now it seemed that the details of her surroundings jumped out at her in an almost painful clarity.

And it wasn't just her vision, her hearing seemed to be incredibly amplified as well. Tiny sounds that she otherwise would have never noticed seemed to be all but deafening to her now. And then a new sound jumped out at her, it was the beat of her own heart. TH-THUMP TH-THUMP TH-THUMP.

She turned to her dresser, as though compelled. And there resting on the top, was the artifact she had uncovered...yesterday? Last night? A week ago? She had no idea. She picked it up and stared at it. She had no hope of explaining what it was. If she didn't know any better, she would have just called it a moon on a stick. But she had the feeling it was much more significant than that. But what she did know, was that the thing seemed to radiate some kind of...power. Holding it as she was, she could begin to feel a great heat accelerating through her being. The heat intensified to a point where Usagi was sure she was going to boil in her own skin. The heat threatening to overcome her, she hobbled into her bathroom. And after a nauseously indecisive few seconds, was she promptly sick in the toilet.

After flushing the squelchy contents of her stomach down the drain did she reach blindly out at the sink, intent on using its purchase as leverage to pull herself up. Upon grasping the edge, she gave a pull, and fell back to the floor again. Still clutched in her hand was a chunk of the ceramic that was the bowl of the sink. "Oh my god..." she breathed. Usagi stared in a mystified disbelief at the chunk of porcelain in her hand. With an anxious curiosity, did she close her grip around it. The solid material absolutely imploded in her grasp; crumbling to powder. And like a lightning bolt was she up and moving. She paced around her room, wider than awake. A glance at her alarm clock told her that it was twenty minutes before it was set to go off.

Usagi dressed herself in the uniform of Juban Public middle school, and then simply sat there on her bed, feeling as though she were in a dream. Despite the events of...whenever (Usagi still wasn't sure if it was yesterday or not) being clearly significant to this new and sudden physical advancement of hers, Usagi had absolutely no memory of anything that had happened after...

She shuddered. The memory of the great rush of yellow flame that supposedly cremated her alive washed over her in heated detail. Usagi looked down to her hands and was somewhat startled to see that she was indeed holding the artifact that had caused all this. She wasn't even aware of the thing being in her hands previously. Usagi rose from the bed and stuffed the thing into her school bag, right next to her undone homework.

She trotted down the stairs and into the kitchen, where she found her mother cooking breakfast. "Usagi good mor..." she squinted her eyes. "You're up early..." She did a double-take between Usagi and the wall-mounted clock. "Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?"

"She's definitely an imposter," said her younger brother Shingo, who was seated at the table. "The stupid Usagi I know would be sleeping like a rock still."

Under normal circumstances, there would be a Sailor V Kick flying towards Shingo's head about now, but Usagi was certain that her circumstances had just become anything but normal. "You know...early bird gets the worm...or something," Usagi said.

Her mother smiled. "This must be part of the Mizuno study regime. Early to bed, early to rise!"

Usagi smiled a bit halfheartedly. "Well, I'm off."

And before her mother could chase her down with the offer of breakfast, was Usagi out the door.

Her progress down the street was slow, although not physically hampered in any way, Usagi's mental state was heavy enough to somewhat slow her feet. Just what had happened up there at The Angel's Grove? Something was clearly wrong with her, she had changed drastically. Usagi then simultaneously gave a great start and came to a complete standstill. She hadn't been alone up there, she remembered. Ami was there with her, as well as three other girls. Was Ami...could something similar be happening to her? Usagi started walking again, her pace quick and determined. She would meet Ami at school and they would talk this out together. Ami was a genius; she probably knew exactly what was going on here. After all, it was her that had made the discovery up there on the mountain, she had been digging for that...whatever it was...for ages. Yes. If anyone would know, it would be Ami

Not too long from there was when Usagi arrived at Juban public. And just inside the gate, in her usual place, was Ami. However, the girl was not brimming with her usual early-morning cheeriness. She was sat on one of the many benches, her bag clutched tightly to her chest as she stared solemnly at the ground. Usagi almost hesitated in breaking the girl's introspection, but she needed the answers; she needed assurance.

"Ami..."

She looked up, her eyes somewhat wild. "Usagi..." She stood and met Usagi's gaze. "Are you alright?"

"Never better...I think..." She answered.

They were both silent for short time; a stare of mutual acknowledgment shared between them. But then, Ami seemed to be distracted by something over Usagi's shoulder. Usagi herself turned around and saw on approach someone she was sure she recognized. The curtain of glossy onyx hair was what jump-started her memory. "It's the girl from the mountain," she said.

"One of them anyway," Ami agreed.

Usagi noted the girl's uniform. "Oh, she goes to that snooty private school..."

"Which begs the question, what is she doing here?"

Before they could share any more questions among themselves, the girl was on them. She gave each of them a look in the eye, and then, as though checking for any unwanted onlookers or eavesdroppers, did she swivel her head to the left and right, before settling on the two girls in front of her again. "Do either of you feel weird?" She said.

"Define weird, please," Ami said back.

Black changed her tact. "Do either of you feel...different? Have strange things been happening around you lately?" She asked breathlessly.

Usagi, who had her knuckles stuffed in her mouth up till that point, burst out with, "I'm strong."

Black turned to her. "How strong?" She said.

"Like...weird strong," Usagi breathed. "This morning I broke the sink. A piece of it was in my hand and I just crushed it. Solid porcelain...just like that.."

"I'm fast," Ami chimed in. Both heads turned to her. "This morning, I ran here; positively sprinted flat out, non-stop. From here to my building is a trip totaling 3.6 miles...I made it in here in two minutes; I wasn't even winded! I could have gone on forever..." Ami let her statement hang before turning to Black. "You?"

Black set her bag on the ground. Then, grasping the hem of her blazer, did she roll it back to expose her midriff, revealing...

"Oh my god..." Usagi breathed.

"I've never seen abdominal muscles like that on a female." Ami reached out a hand to stroke the girl's belly. "Hard as stone too..."

Black readjusted her blazer and retrieved her bag. "Something changed up there, I'm not the same; none of us are." She then withdrew the mysterious object they had found from her bag. "I'm sure it has everything to do with this. You have them too, right?"

Both Usagi and Ami produced their own artifacts. Black nodded. "So it's true then," she said. She gave a shake of her head. "It's strange, I have absolutely no recollection of making it home that night after..." She need not say what. They all knew what she was alluding to. "We have to go back up there."

Nods from Ami and Usagi. "We should head up after school, then we-"

"-No," Black cut in. "We leave now."

"And just skip out on school?" Ami said.

"Do you honestly believe school to be more important than what's happening to us now?" Black said pointedly.

"You're right," Ami conceded. "Let's go."

Usagi, driven by both her need for answers and her fervent desire to find any excuse to skip school, agreed as well. A thought then occurred to her. "Well, if we're going together, shouldn't we at least have your name?" She asked Black.

Black nodded. "I am Rei Hino," she said.

"I'm Usagi Tsukino."

"Mizuno, Ami."

Rei nodded. "We should get going. We can easily take the tram; it will stop right at The Angel's Grove park."

"I didn't anticipate a trip such as this. I have no money," Ami said.

Rei produced a debit card. "I have it covered," she said simply.

The group shared a nod and left the gates of the building, their next stop, The Angel's Grove.

...

And but forty minutes from there, was the trio walking up the mountain path, on route to their destination.

Along the way, Ami said, "I just had a thought."

"Hm?"

"There were two other girls with us on that night. Do you think they will come too?"

"Of course they will," Rei answered.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because human curiosity is an undeniable force of nature. They will come."

And just a short time after that exchange, did they reach the dig site, and it was there that they made a discovery, well, two discoveries. The first, was the the mouth of he great cave that Ami discovered had been completely boarded over, and over even that, there was bright yellow police tape that read 'Police Line Do Not Cross'. Their second discovery was the brown-haired girl from that fateful night. She was currently stripping away the boards that covered the mouth of the cave. So intent was she on her work, that she did not notice the other three girls on approach. "Find anything interesting?" Was Rei's inquisitive greeting.

Brown turned, her eyes full of mirth. "If I do, I'm keeping it!" She seemed to be enjoying herself greatly as she ripped away another board and flung it over her shoulder, right over the edge of the cliff. Usagi noted the rather startling velocity at which said object flew. "By the way," Brown went on. "Any of you bitches wake up surprised to be alive and jump over a house?"

"Not quite, but..." Ami half answered the question.

Just then, there was a new entrant to the scene; the blonde girl with the blue eyes. She stood rather meekly before the rest of the group, her bottom lip clenched between her teeth.

Brown smiled, "Well, the gang's all here, how swell."

They formed a somewhat awkward circle, all looking into one another's eyes. "So you all came back," Said Rei into the silence.

"I think we should cut the pretense," Yellow said. "Something weird is happening, and it's happening to all of us." She reached into the back pocket of her jeans and produced the artifact she had found on that night seemingly oh-so long ago. "You all have these, right?"

All five of the girls produced their own artifacts. "Clearly whatever is going on, we are all in together," Rei said. Reluctant nods from the rest of the group. "I think we should take this time to get acquainted. I am Rei Hino."

"I'm Usagi Tsukino."

"I'm Minako Aino."

"Mizuno, Ami."

Brown hesitated just slightly before saying, "Makoto."

After this awkwardly formal introduction, did Ami notice a detail about her artifact. She brought it very close to her face, her hand cupped around it, possibly to block the sunlight. "What?" Minako asked her.

"It's glowing..." Ami said in wonder.

In fact, all of the artifacts were glowing. Ami held hers out before her as though it were a compass. She swiveled on the spot and came to a conclusion, "It seems to be glowing brighter in this direction..." and with no preamble, did she walk off down the path along the mountainside.

The rest of the group followed Ami as she was lead along by the glow of her artifact. She trailed one hand over the craggy face of the cliff side as she angled her head downward, simultaneously watched her artifact and her feet. And then at once, did she stop.

"Find something?" Usagi asked.

Ami did not answer, instead, she back tracked just a few paces passed the line of her comrades, before trekking back to her starting point. "The glow..." Ami pondered. "It's at it's brightest right...here." She stopped and turned to face the rocky wall of the mountainside.

"And what does that tell us?" Makoto asked, her shoulders shrugged.

Again, Ami did not answer. Instead she stared steadily at the wall, as though she were trying to see through it. She held out her hand, her index finger extended, and slowly, very, very, slowly, did she reach out to prod the cliff wall...

And it rippled.

Much like the surface of a body of water, did circular waves flow outward from the point of contact. The girls jumped back, startled by the phenomenon. "That is incredible," Rei whispered.

"What does it mean?" Minako asked. "Is something back there?"

Ami, now full of adventurous curiosity, poked her head through the "wall" all the way up to her shoulders. "Whoa girl!" Makoto grabbed Ami around her waist as to prevent the girl from possibly falling in.

Ami withdrew her head and said to the group, "There is a path that leads into the mountain."

"Into the mountain?" Usagi said. "That's like, dangerous isn't it."

"Proly," Makoto said. "Which is exactly why we should go in."

Ami, possibly taking Makoto's statement as a challenge, walked right through the holographic wall, leaving the others somewhat flabbergasted. Makoto shrugged. "What the hell, " she said. And she followed Ami in. Soon the whole group had made the plunge through the hologram and found themselves in a natural passage of rock that was only just wide enough to allow them to proceed single file.

Being as the mountain's interior wasn't penetrated by the ray's of the sun, it was quite dim along the path. But the girl's and their new-found laser-like eyesight were able to traverse said path without any missteps. A few meters along, did Minako make a discovery. "Girls...where's that light coming from?"

They all stopped as they observed the event; the faint, but significant glow of hues that softly illuminated the walls around them. "It's...us" Rei said, looking over her hands stretched out before her. "It's coming from us..."

"Whoa, check out how we glow..." Makoto was fascinated by the green bio-luminescence emanating from her being.

"I'm blue," Ami stated with a smile.

"I'm white!" Usagi chirped.

Makoto gave the girl a quizzical look. "No, you're not."

"I am!" Usagi giggled back.

Ami, at the head of the line looked further down the interior path. "It looks like this path leads to a cavern." And she continued along, the other girls in tow.

And just a few moments from there, did they break out into the promised cavern, all simultaneously taking in the same sight. "No way..." Minako breathed. What they were seeing was...well, they didn't really know what they were seeing. At the opposite end of the cavern stood...something. Although they couldn't identify exactly what it was, they knew it to be something out of this world entirely.

Ami, in her usual studious manner, began a visual assessment of the object and it's surroundings. "This must have been here for millions of years," she concluded. "Look how the rock is growing around it."

"Yeah, but what is it, exactly?" Makoto said.

No one had the answer obviously. They approached the massive structure cautiously, as though it were a slumbering animal that may spring awake at any given moment. Rei then made an observation that brought the group to a halt. "Girls...look." Rie's artifact was glowing fiercely now, sending rays of fiery red light across her face. Indeed all of their artifacts were glowing with identical intensity now. "I think it's pointing us to... that," Rei finished.

And suddenly, as though in confirmation, did the apparent door leading into the structure roll open, like vertical revolving door. The girls shared a look of mutual apprehension. "We've come this far..." Ami said. And so in single file, did they climb the stairs leading into the machine.

The inside of the thing was just as far beyond description as the outside was. The walls around them looked to be multifunctional; shaped in such a way that they could possibly change their form at a moment's notice. And all of it was hewn from a smooth and metallic-looking material that they had no hope of identifying. Adding to this very alien atmosphere was the dead and oppressive silence that permeated the place, broken only by the sounds of their footsteps and excited breaths.

"Are we...like...inside a space ship right now...?" Minako asked this between shaky breaths, as she spun around on the spot.

"Possibly," Ami said with a cautious optimism. "I didn't want to say so earlier, but all evidence points to it being just that."

"Impossible..." Rei gasped silently.

Ami withdrew her smart phone from her pocket and tapped the power button. She pressed it again and again, but got no response from the thing. "Oh no..."

"What?" Minako asked her.

"My phone is dead. And I was going to take such great footage too..."

"Use mine," Minako offered as she withdrew the device from her pocket, only to find it dead as well. "No way, I charged overnight!"

The girls soon found that all of their phones were non-functional, and Ami formed a hypothesis. "Hmm...there must be some kind of static emissions emanating from this place that is causing undesired operation of our devices..."

Makoto squinted at the girl. "Alright, one more time, but in English."

` "She said this place is causing interference that is knocking out our electronics," was Rei's translation.

"Is that what she said?" Makoto said with a somewhat malicious cackle.

"Girls, quiet!" Was Usagi's sudden exclamation. Her outburst had it's desired effect as alarmed silence washed over the group. "I think I hear something..."

They all focused their collective gazes ahead at the threshold of a seemingly empty corridor. "What is it?" Rei asked.

"I don't know, something's in the room with us," Minako said, her pitch just slightly elevated.

And there, from out of the shadows of the semi-darkened doorway, did a figure make itself present. And into the room walked...

A cat.

The girls let out a uniform sigh of relief as they learned their little intruder here posed no threat whatsoever. Usagi gave the little animal a look over and swore she recognized it from somewhere...

"Now how on Earth did a cat manage to wander in here?" Minako said, her smile widening. She squatted down to scratch the black feline behind the ears. "Hi there, pretty," She cooed to it. "You're just as lost as we are, huh?"

"I know perfectly well where I am, thank you very much," the cat responded.

Minako, much like some human crab, scuttled backwards on her hands and feet as fast as such an unnatural stance would allow.

"Holy shit..." Makoto breathed.

"It...talks..." Rei sputtered.

"I can do much more than just talk, that I can assure you," the cat said. The little animal looked at the collection of dropped jaws and wide eyes pointed at her. "Oh, I'm the strangest thing you've seen all day?" She asked. "Things are going to get a lot stranger because all of your lives are going to change forever."

"How exactly?" Ami asked. She seemed to be taking the reality of talking cats the best out of the group.

The cat smiled. "You've all a great destiny to undertake, as the defenders of the world, no, the universe. It is your duty to protect life as we know it from those that seek to destroy it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Makoto interjected. "Protectors of the universe? Destroyers of life? What, are we in an anime or something?"

"This is no...'annie-may'...as you call it," the cat responded. "The events I speak of are truer than true."

"Alright, if this is real, than why don't we start from the beginning," Makoto said. "You got a name, or what, kitty cat?"

The cat nodded solemnly. "My name is Luna," she said. "I stand in service to Queen Serenity. And as I said, you all have a great destiny to undertake."

"Does this have anything to do with these?" Rei asked quickly, as she showed Luna her artifact.

Luna's ears flicked excitedly as the group all produced their individual artifacts. "Yes, the transformation pens!" She said. "With those, you will be able to take your rightful places as the next team of Sailor Soldiers!"

"As...I'm sorry, what?" Usagi was hopelessly lost.

Luna smiled. "Serenity can explain everything far better that I can. Come, I will take you to meet her." And she turned and trotted off into the belly of the ship.

The girls were at a loss. Did they turn and leave, or did they follow the mystery laid out before them? Makoto seemed to make the group's decision. "I don't know what any of this is about...but I'm fixin' to find out."

"Indeed," Rei concurred.

And so with a nod, did they follow Luna into the depths of the ship.

...

*End of Shard 2*

...

A/N:

Oh what, y'all forgot about me? It's cool, cuz I got a new update for ya face! Nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon, so thought I'd get crackin' on my fanfic; there are much worse things I could be doing right now...

Anyway, a big thank you to anyone who gives my content a read, I'll see if I can build some momentum and update more regularly...when I'm not playing King's Raid that is. Have you ever played King's Raid? I like King's Raid. King's Raid is awesome. Have you ever played King's Raid? Wait, I already asked you if you played King's Raid. If you haven't played King's Raid, you should play King's Raid, you know, because of the aforementioned awesomeness and all.

Anyhow...I'll see you all again...sometime...

-B. D. Skunkworks