Chapter 2

As the word got around, there were varied reactions. Ami was stunned, but she understood the need, and she was grateful that it was in the break period between years of medical school that this would happen. She then told her mother that she would be going to America for further study, and her mother could not understand why. Ami said, "Believe me, mother, this will benefit my future far more than you realize."

After some thought, her mother told her, "Honey, you've always made wise choices up to this point, and I will trust you in this one…I have to. Just be sure to keep in contact. So, where are you going?"

"I will be going to Virginia," said Ami, "Tom-kun has…given me a chance to work with the Navy personnel there. He says that military hospitals are top-notch, and I would gain some skills that civilian hospital has to wait a few years to go mainstream."

"Oh, that is a good thing!" said her mother, who was now convinced that all was well, and said, "Well, I wouldn't stand in the way of that! Best of luck to you, darling. When do you go?"

"Well, it was kind of sudden," said Ami, "I will be leaving in a few days, but you have to take the chances when they come."

"Let's at least have dinner before you go," said her mother, and Ami said, "And we'll have one in celebration with my friends when I get back."

After a hug, her mother left, and Ami heaved a huge sigh of relief, knowing that she was off the hook, and glad her mother bought it.

Rei got the news, and her father, who had since retired from the senate and moved in with his daughter, (as they had patched things up,) overheard the conversation and became suspicious. After Rei hung up, he came up to her and said, "So, you and the scouts are going to America?"

Her eyes went wide and she stared in shock at what had just happened. Before she could speak, he said, "I found out in my last year in the senate. Knowing the work that the scouts did here and Japan and in assistance to the American government, certain members of the government here were let in on the deal. Because there is still an American presence here in Japan, and knowing that the actions of the Sailor Scouts would affect both them and us, they felt certain ones in our government should know. I was floored when I found out my own daughter had been a scout since she was 14. I wanted to get angry, and I had a mind to come straight here and haul you out of the thing. However, because you had been with this for so long, and nothing bad happened, and considering that I fairly well left you to fend for yourself, I really could not say anything. If I had been with you, I might have been able to get involved then, but that's a moot point now."

Rei, still not sure how to take it, and scared a bit now that her father knew, answered, "Papa, there is so much you don't know, and there could have been no way you could have stopped this."

He cocked his head and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, and Rei then said, "Papa, please sit, and I will tell you everything."

She then took about an hour and a half to tell him the whole story, about the past, what she had been centuries before, the threats the Earth had faced, how it was fated because of all of that that she be what she had become, and whom she had to protect. She also told him of the dangers she and her friends had faced down, and how she had actually been clinically dead a few times, but willingly so to save the friends she loved, and to save the lives of the people of Earth. She told of how it was supposed to have been that none of them was supposed to have regained memories of this, in that, the old Queen Serenity only wanted them to be reborn to live normal and happy lives, but fate intervened. Even when it was thought that the threat was gone, and it was made so that no one remembered the fight each one had just endured, a new one emerged, and each one had to be reawakened. It was then they knew none of them could ever walk away from this thing now. There was too much of a need for them now and even more so since Tom came into the picture. Her father went through a gambit of emotions and thoughts, first wanting to be happy, then shocked, then angry, and then protective, but finally, he looked at his daughter with a new pride he had never felt before. She then explained the future, and why she now had to do this. He then said, "My darling child: I always wanted you to grow up a strong and happy child, and I know that things outside this temple were your ambition. I could not understand why you threw yourself so deeply into it when you had the chance to go, but now I understand why you did. Knowing what this means to Japan, America, well, the whole world really, I could not stop you. Go there and make Japan and me proud. Show the Americans how Japanese do it!"

She was beginning to tear up and just lurched forward to put her father into a great embrace. "I love you, daddy," she said, and her father said, "I know your mother has been watching, just as I know she has been watching over you the day you were born. Do her proud."

What had once been a strained relationship was now strengthened, and a bond that should have always been there now shined as bright as the sun.

When Minako heard the news, she talked calm on the phone. "Oh, I understand," said Minako to Makoto, "That's just what we have to do."

Makoto was shocked, "You mean, that's not an issue?"

"Of course not," she answered back gleefully, "It's only for a few weeks, right? It's not like our careers have gone off the rails or anything."

"Wow!" responded a stunned Makoto, "You're stronger than some had thought!"

"Well, you know what they say: now is the time for all good men to shake their booties."

Silence was the response. Makoto heaved a heavy sigh and said, "That's 'do their duty'. Honestly, do you really do any reading to be sure your sayings are correct?"

Minako just laughed it off and said, "Oh, you know what I meant. Well, see you at the airport in a couple of days."

"Oh…okay," said Makoto, who said, "Good-bye," and hung up, relieved that her friend took it so much better than she figured.

Meanwhile, Minako hung up the phone, and one could imagine her in a Hollywood picture as the camera panned back from her, to the outside of the house, to the outside of the city, and so on to the point they were looking at the Milky Way galaxy, and then a scream would have shook the image to the point were even Seiya looked over to the other two Starlights and said, "Did you hear something?"

The outer scouts got the news, but for some reason, they took it in stride. In fact, Haruka said to the others, "For some reason, I could see this coming. There was no way that they would let us run around without some kind of official training and paperwork for us on the books."

Michru then said, "We still have a month and a half left in the school year. How are we going to get out of that?"

Setsuna came in, just hanging up the phone, and she said, "Actually, I just got off the phone with Admiral Ravalli. He said that he could pull some strings and have substitutes slated for us with no questions asked. Hey, after working in counterintelligence the way we have, something like that is not surprising. Let's just get ready to close up the shop and go through this training."

Hotaru just groaned and said, "You know how much I hate to run!"

Haruka just put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Well, get ready, because, one way or another, whether you like it or not, they are going to make an athlete out of you!"

The day before they left, they were all called to Ravalli's office for a briefing. He looked them over and said, "I am so sorry I have disrupted your lives like this, but I have no other choice. The training is not going to be easy, and normally, if you could not have hacked it, you would have had the option to drop out. However, considering the circumstances, dropping out is not an option."

The faces of Usagi, Minako, and Hotaru went ashen as he said that, each one still not liking the idea of the whole thing. He then said, "I sent Lieutenant Reichmann already to throw off any suspicions or complications. No one can mention anything about the Sailor Scouts, or that any of you are married, or anything. Remember that. Now, to help you, remember, the ones that will be training you are not out to be mean, nor do they hate you, but they have 13 weeks to make you officer material, so just think of their loudness as just being intense. Just don't take it personally. Keep these things in mind: they yell so that no one can say they did not hear. If you forget, then the discipline you will get is deserved. They expect nothing but 110% effort in everything that you do, no matter what it may be. Thus, if you do the best that you can, and stay hard on yourselves, it won't be as bad for you. Just do everything as good as you can, and a little bit more. That's all you have to do. After that, you can take the schools you need on your time and at your choosing. Lieutenant Hino…I understand that you will be some kind of a commando in the future, correct?"

"That is true," she said.

Ravalli then sighed and said, "Well, then I guess that means the school after that is going to be SEAL school, and I don't envy you in that regard."

She just said blankly, "I have heard stories, but I know I can handle it."

He smirked and said, "I kind of figured you would say that, and I do believe it. Anyways, get some rest, and be prepared for the long plane trip. I suggest you try to sleep in such a fashion that you won't be thrown off by jet lag, because, once you get off the plane in Virginia, it's going to start. I wish all of you good luck, and do the Navy proud."

They all saluted and went out. Usagi looked like she was heading to her execution, and Minako tried to act as if nothing was wrong, though everyone knew otherwise. Rei just came up to Usagi and said, "Hey, don't worry: if you die, I'll just marry Mamoru for you so Chibiusa can rule in your place!"

"Die?" yelped Usagi, but then she turned angry and snapped, "There's no way Mamoru would take you, ever! You can't give him what I can."

Rei then got a sly look on her face and began to talk all sexy as she said, "Oh, and what's that?"

Usagi turned beat red, realizing how casual she had been with such things, and then she became even more angry as she shouted, "That's private business! How dare you speak of it?"

"I didn't bring that up, you did," said Rei, even more antagonizing.

This went into a bickering session that caused everyone to groan, hoping that would not be the order of the day through training, or else neither of them may never see the outside of the brig again.

After a long and dreary flight, they finally landed in Virginia, and they did try to rest as best they could, but the nerves of a few were going in every direction, fear gripping their every membrane. However, when they got off the plane, there was a young woman in a Navy dress uniform asking for all those heading to OCS. Since they would be the only ones on the flight, save for a few from the naval base itself that would be going, it did not take long to get them together. The skill in English varied for some, as they had all gained some fluency thanks to Tom and being around the base enough, yet, Usagi still struggled a touch with the language, and that made the others wonder how that would go. They were then ushered to a seating area, and there they found about 30 or so others waiting and they did not sit for long when a large, well-built sailor came in and shouted, "Alright, candidates, on your feet and outside!"

Usagi nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard that and tried to hide behind Makoto. When everyone began to move at a leisurely pace, the shout became louder as he snapped, "This ain't some social, you pukes! Move as if you had a purpose, NOW!"

Suddenly, everyone was stumbling over each other, trying to get their bearings as they heard this man's tones. They were not sure what he intended, but they also knew that, by the way he acted, getting him more riled would be very bad. As soon as they stepped outside, there was two more individuals waiting for them, but they were not sailors. They were in khaki shirts, brown pants with a thick, black leather belt around their waists, black and shiny shoes, and Smokey Bear hats with a black United States Marine Corps emblem in the middle of it. They were both screaming, and it was hard for those for whom English was not their native tongue to follow, but it had something to do with getting into a group, standing on a set of yellow footprints painted on the sidewalk outside the terminal. They were already looking like they were about to have aneurisms as loud as they were yelling, and actually got worse when people did not snap to it when they should have. Ravalli had tried to prepare them for this, and they tried to keep in mind what he said. Yet, if what he said was true, then these men were trying to make them forget what they had been told. In the screaming, they were made to understand that they were to stand there until the rest arrived and that they were not to move, talk, or do anything until they were told. In the process, one of the men shouted, "You want to be Navy and Marine officers! That means you are going to be leaders! Learning what that means STARTS THIS SECOND! ONE WAY OR ANTOTHER, WE ARE GOING TO MAKE YOU LEADERS, AND GET YOU THERE WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!"

The scouts now really wanted to go, and all Minako could think was finding out what clown in Washington DC thought they had to go through this.

After about ten minutes of standing, (what seemed like an hour to some,) the rest arrived, and the lunatics in the Marine uniforms started in again, screaming something about staying in an orderly fashion, boarding the busses by file and not moving until they were told to move. By this point, many of the girls were too scared to do anything else but obey, and they stayed together as much as they could, wanting to be sure they stuck together through this. Finally, they had their turn to move, and they were fortunate enough to get on the same bus. However, as they were settling in, Usagi tried to say something to one of the others, but before she could get more than a phoneme out of her mouth, one of the lunatics barked, "I don't want to hear another word come out of your mouths on this bus! YOU WILL NOT TALK, YOU WILL NOT SLEEP, AND YOU WILL STAY FOCUSED!"

The others were beginning to become annoyed at the treatment they were receiving, but they tried to keep in mind what they had been told by Ravalli, and that was not to take it personal. Yet, these men made it hard. However, Minako was beginning to seethe. All she could think was, "How dare they speak to us like that? What did any of us do wrong to deserve that?"

She really wanted to give one of them a piece of her mind, seeing that she had a good handle on the language, and she intended to do so the first chance she got.

Once on Quantico, the maniac on their bus started in again, and screamed at them to get of the bus as if it was on fire and form up again. Once they did, there were the same yellow footprints again, and this time, there were about five more of those maniacs waiting for them, all of them screaming and yelling one thing or another, but it was hard to figure out who wanted what. Finally, Minako had had it, and she got into the face of the one on the bus and shouted; "Now I've had just about enough of this! We have done all you said, and we haven't done anything wrong! Now, you need to just calm down and…"

That was as far as it went. He went ballistic and got within a millimeter of her forehead with his hat as two other maniacs came up and started screaming at her in either ear as he screamed, " JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, FILTH! YOU THINK YOU'RE SPECIAL! YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE! ARE YOU EYEBALLING ME! WHAT? YOU THINK I'M SEXY! YOU WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH ME! DON'T BE LOOKING AT ME UNLESS YOU MEAN IT! GET DOWN! PUSH!"

By this point, the others were already being led into the processing center, and the rest of the scouts glanced back, scared for their friend now, and wondering what had come over her to act like that. Yet, they also knew that getting that way was going to be the stupidest thing any of them could ever do from that point forward. They could only catch a glimpse of Minako as she was getting a workout she had not asked for, and somehow found motivation to do that she had never had before. The only thing she could think now was that she was grateful she had never stopped being athletic after school let out. She had an image as a pop star to maintain, and keeping her figure was important. She had no idea that her exercise would be something that would benefit her in this way. Before long, she was back on her feet, being yelled at again, being told that she would not laugh, cry, and she would, from that point forward, do everything by the numbers. They then sent her in, then ordered her to come back before she did, then sent her again, then ordered her back again, getting angry that she wasn't moving fast enough, and then she was finally allowed back with the others.

Once inside, she was handed a small green sack and a white mesh bag. She then stood before a small cubicle with the rest as a new maniac stood behind a podium telling them what they should do. Normally, Usagi would have probably fainted by this point, but, because so much was happening so fast, she had actually become numb to things, and doing things in an almost automatic fashion. The man screamed for them to hold up the mesh bag, told them what to put in there, then the green sack, then what to put in there, and then they were told to leave the rest on the desk. Then the command came to fill the white bag, then the green sack, and then the maniacs came by each one. Some could not remember what to put where, and the man got in the ear of that one, grabbed some things, threw them down on the desk, repeated the process, and shouted, "Green bag!" and "white bag" respectively, and then the candidate rushed to bag the items as the maniac went through the stuff on the desk and threw into a corner with a growing pile of other things they would not need, and were not allowed to have anyway. Oddly enough, Usagi got it right on the bags the first time, but as the maniac went through her stuff, he found all kinds of sweets she had brought along with her, and these were things they were not going to be allowed to have at the first while in school. The man went ballistic and started to shout, "WHAT, IN GOD'S NAME IS ALL THIS CRAP! YOU FAT LITTLE PIG: YOU HAVE NO CARE FOR GOVERNMENT PROPERTY! You want to be a fat balloon, don't you?

She didn't respond out of fear, and he then screamed, "DON'T YOU?"

The others, especially Rei, wanted to jump to her aid, but Setsuna managed to make eye contact with them briefly, and gave enough indications to say not to react. When they looked at her oddly, she mouthed, "Later," which, unfortunately got the attention of a maniac, who got into her face and screamed about how she wasn't a child in school, that she needed more discipline and focus, and how she was too old for foolish games anyway. A tinge of pride came up in her throat, in that, she wanted to snap that she was hundreds of years old, had far more discipline in her little finger than he had in his whole body, and that she was disciplined enough to be a teacher, but she wisely kept her mouth shut. She remembered how things were in the 30th century, she had seen similar to this, and worse, for the Marines of that time, so she had an idea what was coming. What surprised her was that her pride actually had bubbled up like that when he snapped at her. She choked it down, but things weren't so good for Usagi. When her maniac had asked the question, she had no idea what to say, and just started turning on the water works in only the way she knew how to do it. However, that just gave more fodder for the man, and he said, "OH GREAT: AND THAT'S HOW A FUTURE LEADER HANDLES PROBLEMS. SHE BAWLS LIKE A LITTLE BABY! AW, WHAT'S THE MATTER? LITTLE BABY WANT HER BA-BA?"

She suddenly called out, "MAMO-CHAN!" but the man said, "YOUR BOYFRIEND ISN'T HERE TO CODDLE YOU NOW, CREAM PUFF HEAD! YOU AIN'T NO LEADER! YOU JUST NEED TO QUIT RIGHT NOW! YOU'RE WEAK, AND HAVE NO STRENGTH!"

Now, the rest of the scouts wanted to say something, but they just dug in their heels. There was no way these people could have known who she was, and known she had more strength than anyone would have given her credit. However, they now wondered if she was going to go insane at that moment.

However, when she heard that, the words of Luna and Mamoru started to come back to her, all of them constantly telling her that she was stronger than she thought, and she started to remember when situations like this made her act strong. Somehow, somewhere inside her, something started to make her stop, and swallow hard. She took some deep breaths and started to pull it together, knowing that, if Luna had been there to see her, she would never have tolerated this. Now that she was calming, the maniac then said, "OH, SO I SEE YOU DO HAVE SOME CONTROL! Well, you'd better learn how to keep it together better, or I am going to see you get the DOR—Dropped On Request! This Navy has no room for spineless officers, GOT IT!"

"*gulp* Yes sir," she squeaked out, to which he shouted, "THAT'S 'AYE-AYE, SIR' CANDIDATE CREAM PUFFS!"

"Aye-aye, sir."

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"But you're standing…Aye-aye, sir!"

"I STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"AYE-AYE, SIR!"

With that, he moved on. Usagi went even number than before, not sure what was to happen to any of them now. Setsuna wanted to talk to her, but there was no way she could now. Besides, as hard as this was for her, Setsuna knew that it would actually do her some good. Apparently, it was surfacing some strength in her they all knew she had, and she hoped it would happen more often. They were then told that they were going to get some chow, and as they moved out, Setsuna thought, "Don't worry, princess: we'll get you through this, and you are going to be such a better person for the wear, I promise."

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