Chapter 2

Raye, Mina, and Lita all turn to me, " When the hell were you going to mention that you happened to know our boyfriends? "

" You were all hung up on Crystal Tokyo. " I state with a shrug.

All four of my Inner Court wince at the matter of fact way I say this, " Plus, none of you ever allowed me to vent my misgivings, my frustrations, I just stopped coming to you guys and went to Ryo and the others. Ryo understands me and accepts me for who I am, hell, they all do, unlike you guys. "

Raye winces in particular, " Okay, so riding your ass about your grades and tardiness probably wasn't a nice thing to do. "

" Ev'ah think dat she may 'ave a few learnin' disord'ahs? " Rowen asks all four of them.

Amy's eyes widen at this, " Dyslexia at the very least, probably A.D.H.D as well from everything I've observed about you, Serena. I am so sorry for just assuming you were lazy and unwilling to do the work. "

" Dyscalculia as well, the math version of Dyslexia. Ro's my go to tutor now a days. He actually knows how to help me study. " I state.

Lita sighs, " I guess we should have looked deeper though who taught you how to fight anyhow? "

I smirk at this question, " Will my sensei reveal himself or not? " I idly muse out loud as we start walking.

" To answer your question, Miss Kino, I did. " Ryo says, " The guys may have expanded upon her skills after I was done teaching her. "

Sage snorts at this statement, " Ryo, you still train her if only so you can physically correct her forms. "

" You could do the same with Mina. " I remark.

" One of these days, Tsukino, I will be able to get you back. "

" Dream on, pretty-boy, you're not devious enough, and Ro isn't stupid enough to help you. " I retort.

" True dat. No way in hell am I getting' on 'er bad side, Seiji. " Rowen says.

Sage immediately tries to sweep Rowen's feet out from under him only to have Rowen grab on to his shoulder and leap up into the air, turning a double somersault and landing on the side of me that wasn't occupied. Sage hated his Japanese name and Rowen just loved getting a rise out of his best friend. " You just had to do that, didn't you, Ro? " I ask him.

" Ya know me, Rena. "

" Sadly, I do. " I quip.

" Tha lady doth wound me wit' 'er callus words. " Rowen quips back.

I grin, Rowen was the only one whom would actually quip back and forth with me, mostly because our relationship was strictly platonic. This meant Ryo wasn't about to go postal on Rowen for our verbal playing. The girls were just watching me interact with the guys in shock, I was much more at ease and open with them than my own senshi. Then again it was to be expected since I couldn't trust them with how I really felt because of how they treated me. I could trust them with inconsequential stuff but, that was about it.

" Then, milord, you are quite easily injured by mere word play. " I quip right back.

" Serena, why do you seem closer to them than us? " Mina asks me.

I sigh at this question, " With them I can actually vent. I'm not told to grow up, to stop being a cry baby, to stop whining… "

That gets all four of them to wince harshly, they had all said that to me at one point or another. At least Luna wasn't with them as I did not want to deal with that nagging pest at the moment. " Wait, you girls seriously never let her have any doubts and were constantly coming down on her for it, no wonder she prefers us. We let her vent however she needs to be it scream, cry, or rant. " Cye says frowning at Mina.

Mina looks at her boyfriend, " I never meant to be cruel about it, we had all sucked it up and accepted what we had been thrown into. We just felt Serena should too but, now we know she was right to doubt what he had been told and remembered seeing as how Ryo is the true Earth Prince. Our memories were screwed with and that caused us to alienate the one person I, at least, never would have otherwise. "

I look at her curiously and Mina takes that as her cue to elaborate, " All of my memories have always shown you happy with Endymion. "

I blink at this, " Didn't they know or was it the Outsiders that knew the truth? "

Ryo looks startled at the question directed his way, " I know the Outsiders knew, Saturn did as well, not sure about the Inner Court. "

" You're supposed to know these things if I don't, Ryo. " I tell him in my best royal voice.

Ryo winces, " Did you have to bust out the royal voice, Serena? "

I grin impishly, " Why, yes, I do believe I did, Ryo. "

" How are you and Rowen not related? " Ryo demands.

Rowen and I both shrug at this, " We're still trying to figure that out ourselves. " Rowen admits.

" Trust me, he's the brother I prefer, you don't have to deal with Sammy. "

Rowen snarls at the mention of my little brother, " May I just say dat I really don' like yer little broth'ah, Rena. "

" I'm of the same opinion so I really don't care. " I state firmly.

" Sammy's not that bad. " Amy says.

" Hate to break it to you, Aims, but Sammy has a crush on you so, of course he's going to be on his best behavior around you. " I tell her gently, Amy had never meant to be overtly vicious and she had been severely bullied so she generally just followed the crowd.

" The gaki seems ta think dat he doesn't hafta treat his sist'ah he'ah wit' any respect. He behaves himself 'round me though. " Rowen adds on.

" Yeah, because you can prank the ever loving hell out of him and not have to worry about any repercussions since you always make sure to nail him in the places I can't go. " I retort.

" Dat's why ya got me fer yer prankin' partn'ah, Rena. " Rowen states.

" This is why I'm dead certain you two have to be related. " Ryo interjects.

" We're not that bad, Ry. Unless of course Sekmet and Kale challenge us to a prank war. No way in hell am I losing a prank war. " I say, my voice lined with steel.

Kento shudders, " I don't think they've gotten over the last one yet, you two are terrifying when your pranking prowess is being challenged. "

Rowen snorts at this, " Ha, dat's nothin' compared ta what we used ta get up ta back durin' the Silv'ah Millennium, Kento. "

Sage twitches violently as Rowen says this, " You two were absolute pranking hellions back then. I still can't even look at meat without fear. "

I chuckle evilly at this, " Daughter of Hades, the bastards had it coming. Had I known you would be there I would have given you a heads up, pretty-boy. "

" I know, still, did you have to bring it all back to zombified life? " Sage asks me.

" That's all on Ro. " I state primly.

" Sure, throw me und'ah da bus why don't ya. " Rowen quips.

" You know I love you, Ro. "

" Some love. "

Ryo rolls his eyes at this, " Would the sibs please settle down. "

Rowen and I blink, " What? "

Lita starts laughing, " You two are a riot, do you deliberately start up or does it just happen. "

" Mostly just 'appens. " Rowen tells her.

" May I just say that the guys here must have the patience of saints in order to not snap at you two. " Raye states.

I stick my tongue out at her, " At least I can act my age with them. "

Raye winces again at the reminder that they had all tried to force me into a mold, her and Luna more so than the others, " We know it's all in good fun and Serena generally needs her Rowen time. Rowen can distress her quicker than anyone. Sure, Ryo and Kento are good for venting to in one way or another, Sage she generally goes to for advice while I'm her on call munchie maker when she's with us. Between her and Kento I can barely keep up. " Cye states.

Lita's eyes light up and she starts talking recipes with Cye, comparing notes. I smile, " I knew those two would be good friends. "

" Hey, maybe now we can get all our favorite snacks, huh, Serena. " Kento says.

" True, though I'm content as long as I'm kept in sugary goodness. " I admit.

Raye oddly enough starts up a conversation with Sage on meditation that he participates in, leaving Mina, Amy, and the others to chat amongst themselves. Rowen was the only one of the guys that visited me and that was because he did happen to be my go to tutor. Not even my parents could find any fault with Rowen. Rowen flat out laid into them for not testing me for learning disabilities and instead assuming I was lazy.

" Well, I don't have to worry about losing Lita to Cye, still, I'm glad I didn't bet you on whether they would be friends or not, Serena. " Kento admits.

I look at my fellow eater, " You should never bet against me, Ryo learned the hard way that I never lose. "

Ryo snorts, " Never lose, when it comes to betting on those you know well, no, you damn well don't lose. However, you can and do lose at other times. "

I arch an eyebrow in my boyfriend's direction, " Do I need to remind you of the fact that you got your ass kicked by a certain pathetic trainer when we went dimension hopping. "

Ryo blanches, losing to May in the pokémon dimension had been humiliating for him. I battled to a draw with Ash however. " I'll be good, Rena. " Ryo says.

" I thought you might rethink that. " I tell him tartly, I had come in second as a coordinator while he had placed just below Ash in Hoenn. That had been a fun time, we'd spent the entire year travelling with Ash and crew. I had chosen Treecko as my starter while Ryo naturally chose Torchic, then he had proceeded to catch a Numel, Magby, Slugma, Ponyta, and how the hell he'd caught a Fennekin in Hoenn none of us could ever figure out.

No one had missed us for that year and I had brought back a Skitty for Molly along with a Sneasel to help guard the store. Those had been fun times and I really missed them, battling with Pokémon was fun, fighting youma, not so much. Last I heard from Ash he should just be reaching Kanto, yeah, I had given him the means to stay in touch. Ash did catch me pokémon still along with catching some for Ryo as well. We had given him permission to use our trainer ID's to buy balls and what not.

" We should go back and visit, Rena. " Ryo murmurs.

" It would be fun, he's getting ready to travel through Kalos right now. " I admit.

" Do we take anyone with us or not? "

" Leave dupes and take Ro and Molly with us. I need a long break from the girls. " I tell him.

" Sounds good to me but, can I take Blaze with me? " Ryo wonders out loud.

" Could say he's a rare shiny Arcanine, he has Roar, Scratch, Slash, and Quick Attack already. " I point out.

" There's the issue of a poké ball. " Ryo remarks softly.

" Put a collar on him, or, you could leave him to help the guys out. "

Ryo hums thoughtfully as he thinks over his options carefully. If need be I could make it so White Blaze could live in a Friend Ball. Though that would make it easier for White Blaze to be where he happened to be needed. " I'm bringing him. "

I nod and grab one of Ryo's Friend Balls before altering it just enough to catch White Blaze and I managed to alter Blaze enough to pick up some fire attacks. Shouldn't be too hard with all the time he spent with Ryo. I send a quick text to Molly while Ryo has a quick chat with Rowen, Molly agrees to meet us on the roof of Juuban Junior High at midnight so we could head out on a new adventure. Molly was going to bring her Skitty along though finding a starter for Rowen wasn't going to be easy by any means. They were going back to see Ash and travel again.

Lumiose City, Kalos Region:

Ash Ketchum blinks as his Pokégear starts ringing, very few people even bothered to call him, " Hey, Ash, Ryo and I are on our way with a couple of friends, don't leave Lumiose City until we get there, okay. "

" Rena, you guys are really coming back? "

" Yep, Ryo and I are free from our obligations in our world now and can travel with you again and we're looking forward to it. See you soon, okay. "

" Got it, I've missed you two. " Ash admits, they had made traveling through Hoenn much more tolerable and had chosen Pallet Town as their hometown even though they had arrived right when he was dealing with Team Rocket at Professor Birch's lab while trying to save Pikachu from being dangerously overcharged. They had just appeared in a flash of light in the middle of the battle with Jessie, James, and Meowth.

" We've missed you as well, try not to get into too much trouble before we get there, Ash. "

" Rena, I don't go looking for trouble, it finds me. " Ash retorts.

" See ya soon, Ash. "

" Looking forward to it. "

The call ends and Ash smiles, " Rena and Ryo are coming back, Pikachu. I guess we should probably head for the lab here in Lumiose City or maybe the Pokémon Center. " Ash admits. He still went to the gym and his returning friends arrive just in time to see him get kicked out and then saved by a blonde haired boy wearing a blue and yellow jumpsuit and round wire frame glasses while whom looked like his little sister saved Pikachu.

" Ash, I thought I told you to stay out of trouble until we got here. " I tell him tartly.

Ash chuckles sheepishly, " Sorry, Rena, just wanted to challenge the gym, that's all. "

I roll my eyes at him and brace myself for the tackle hug to come my way. Ash didn't disappoint me, " It's been way too long since I last saw you, Rena. "

" Hey, what about me? " Ryo asks.

Ash smirks, " She's better looking, Ryo. "

Rowen grins and outright laughs at this, " I think we're gonna get along jus' fine. I'm Rowen Hashiba. "

" Ash Ketchum and my partner over there with Bonnie is Pikachu. The guy whom saved me is Clemont. "

" I'm Molly Osaka and Rena gave me my Skitty. "

" Ryo Sanada. "

" Rena Tsukino. " I add, " Nice to meet you two. "

" What pokémon do you all have? " Bonnie asks.

" Well, right now I have my Sceptile, Raphael, with me. I do have a Beautifly, Seedot, Swellow, Swablu, Mightyena, Camerupt, Macargo, Skarmory, Lunatone, Starly, Pidove, and I believe Ash also caught me a Pidgey, and a Hoothoot. " I respond.

" As for me, I have a Blaziken, Numel, Macargo, Vulpix, Fennekin, Magby, Ponyta, and a rare shiny Arcanine, come on out boy. "

White Blaze emerges from his Friend Ball and he did look remarkably like an Arcanine. Ryo also had his Blaziken with him as well. I call out Raphael and he lets Bonnie clean him up before she moves on to White Blaze. Molly's Skitty was on her shoulders and Rowen sighs, " I hate ta admit it, but, I'm feelin' pretty lef' out he'ah. "

" Don't worry, Ro, I put in a call to a friend and your perfect partner will be waiting for you at Professor Sycamore's place. "

Finding a pokémon worthy of Rowen had been hard but I had finally decided upon Sneasel. Thankfully Brock had been able to catch one in a storage ball and send it to Professor Sycamore's Lab. Of course, Ash just have to have a battle with his new friend Clemont which resulted in Team Rocket showing up and trying to steal Pikachu and a Froakie intervening on Pikachu's behalf. Clemont's Bunnelby, Pikachu, and Froakie all work together to send Team Rocket blasting off.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, Pokémon, or Ronin Warriors.