Out of Time

Chapter One: Walking Through Time

AN: Oops…I just remembered that I didn't put a disclaimer up last chapter…yikes. So, yeah…I don't own Sailor Moon or 'The Time Traveler's Wife'. They each belong to their respective creators, etc…

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Early Evening, about Two Weeks Later

Serena looked down sadly at her mother's inert form. Once again, she wished she could understand exactly what had happened two weeks ago, in those moments before and after the accident. She knew she ought to ask Trista, but she was too afraid that it would turn out that she was utterly insane. Either way, whatever had happened had probably saved her life, but it hadn't saved her mother. The blonde pushed back the tears that welled up in her eyes. 'At least she's still alive,' the blonde reminded herself.

That was true; Ilene Tsukino had not died that night. However, she was in a coma. What had the doctor said about that? The blonde thought back, and closed her eyes as she recalled his words. He'd said that the longer someone stayed in a coma, the less likely it was that they would ever wake up. She took a few shaky breaths, trying not to cry. Amara had been kind enough to drive her here, and she stood quietly in a corner giving her some space. The over-protective sandy blonde would only become more convinced that this visit wasn't a good idea if she started bawling.

'Breathe,' Serena told herself silently. 'Breathe.' Mercifully, she managed to get her emotions and tear ducts under a tenuous sort of control. When she opened her eyes again, they were more or less dry. Gently, she kissed her mother's forehead, and nodded to Amara, letting her know that they could leave now. Amara left her corner, placed one strong, yet gentle hand on the girl's shoulder, and together, they exited the room.

"Thank you for bringing me, Amara," Serena murmured as they walked down the hall. The blonde held her breath briefly as a medicinal smell wafted into her nose. The smell of hospitals was something that was fast becoming quite mephitic to her.

"You're welcome." There was a brief silence. Then; "I'm sorry."

Serena looked up at her in confusion. "What for?"

"That all of this had to happen."

Serena managed a sweet smile. "Things like this happen to everyone at some point. We just have to have a little faith that things will get better."

"Wish someone could have foreseen it, though. Maybe we could have done something about it."

"If we went back in time and fixed every little problem, the whole timeline would get screwed up, and Fate or Destiny or whatever would get pissed. Or that's what Trista told me once, anyway." Serena felt a sudden urge to tell Amara what had happened that night. Maybe she or another one of the Outers could explain it. "Amara?"

"What?"

"Well…I…um…"

"What is it?" Amara watched the petite blonde closely. It was evident that Serena couldn't figure out what to say. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's nothing."

"Kitten, don't beat around the bush." They were almost to the car. "Just tell me what's wrong."

"Is it possible to accidentally travel back in time? As in one minute you're sitting back and relaxing, then suddenly you've jumped back in time about two weeks?"

Amara stared at the blonde in confusion. That definitely hadn't been one of the million things she'd expected her Princess to ask. She'd been prepared to explain the nature of a coma or something related to that…but time travel…that had come out of left field. "I don't know…" 'Maybe she's trying to get her mind off of her mom's condition,' she thought as they got into the car. "I think it's only possible in fiction, though. We all know it's possible to travel through time, as indicated by our various experiences. But that's voluntary. I've never heard of it happening by accident. I suppose it could happen, though. Why do you ask?"

"Oh…" Serena let out an involuntary giggle. She decided not to tell Amara what had happened…what she thought had happened. She wasn't sure what had happened; for all she knew, she'd passed out for a moment. "I was just curious." How had she gotten out of the car, though?

"You probably ought to ask Trista. She'd probably know for sure."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Serena directed her gaze to the scenery outside. 'Serena, you're fooling yourself,' her practical mind scolded. 'You met your future self, and you're trying to deny it. Like Amara always tells you; '"Denial" isn't just a river in Egypt.'

The blonde mentally smacked her logical mind upside the head. 'Maybe if I don't think about it, it'll just go away,' she thought randomly. 'I mean, out of sight, out of mind, right?'

Her logical mind awoke with a vengeance. 'Don't be stupid! Your future self told you it would happen again! Why are you still trying to deny it?!'

Her emotional side whimpered; 'This is too crazy…why can't I be normal for once?' The blonde shifted her legs slightly and massaged her left foot, which had fallen asleep.

'It just ain't in the cards,' was the very unsympathetic reply.

"Kitten, it's your stop." Amara's voice broke into her thoughts, and Serena jumped. Fortunately, she managed to recover herself quickly, and smiled brightly at her sky soldier.

"Thanks, Amara!" The blonde pulled the taller girl into a brief but loving and bone-cracking hug, and then bounced into her house.

Amara grinned and shook her head as she watched her little kitten go. 'I swear…I'll never be able to completely figure out exactly what goes on in her head. But she's cute, and I wouldn't want her any other way,' she thought with amusement.

Tsukino Residence, Mid-Evening

Serena sank down onto her bed, rubbing her temples. "I'm going to lose my mind one of these days," she muttered.

"Serena?" Luna padded in, looking at the blonde in concern. "Are you all right?"

"Mm-hmm."

"You've been distracted, and I know you're not sleeping well."

Serena smiled. "I'm all right, Luna. Really. I'm just worried about my mom. When she wakes up, I'll be myself again. Don't worry about me."

Luna curled up next to her. "It's my job to worry about you. Besides, you know that if anything's wrong, you can tell me or any of the Scouts."

"I know," the blonde replied, scratching the cat lightly behind the ears. She ceased as she felt a sickeningly familiar pulling sensation, and, excusing herself to Luna, ducked into the bathroom. 'What's happening to me?' she wondered.

Two Hours Later, Rae's Temple

Silence. No one spoke. After all, what was there to say? No one could think of anything to say. So silence held court all around the table. No one had spoken after the initial panic, when Luna had called all of them via their communicators in a state of dreadful hysteria, saying that Serena had vanished without a trace. At first, there had been shocked disbelief, then worry, then absolute terror. They'd investigated, and found nothing. No signs of a struggle were present, nor had there been even the slightest hint of forced entry. For all intents and purposes, Serena had simply vanished into thin air.

Trista sat white faced and silent, uncertainty distorting her elegant features. She'd never seen anything like this. The Time Gate was no help; it was as though Serena had disappeared from the timeline while the future remained intact. It was utter bewilderment and confusion that made the time soldier unable to speak. 'The gods help us,' she thought. 'What is the universe coming to when our Princess disappears without a trace, and we have absolutely no evidence that anything is amiss other than the fact that she is missing?' The time soldier looked around at the others, feeling utterly useless.

"D-do you think th-that Chaos…?" Mina began. She couldn't finish, and burst into tears.

"If it were Chaos, we'd all be dead by now," Amara replied grimly. "Besides, Serena-," she stopped, taking a few ragged breaths. "She beat it," she whispered.

"Diamond?" Rae suggested. "He went screwing around in the timeline once…"

"He died," Lita stated flatly.

"What does that have to do with the price of eggs? We've all temporarily kicked the bucket at least twice…and Beryl came back…we had to kill Wiseman at least five times…"

"And Serena always finished the bad guys off and brought us back to life," Mina added.

"If Diamond laid a finger on her…" Lita muttered. Her hands clenched into fists at the thought.

"What are we going to do?" Amy moaned. "Serena's missing, and we have no information to go on. Even a shoe size would help at this point, because we would have one small, though most likely useless, scrap of information."

"Luna, did you hear anything suspicious?" Michelle inquired.

"Not a thing…I thought she seemed a little off, but then again, considering all that's happened, I thought nothing of it."

"What kind of creepo would kidnap a girl right out of her bathroom?" Mina wondered.

"That seems like something Diamond would do…I mean, he did kidnap Serena last time, and tried to force himself on her," Rae observed. But then, she frowned, and recalled; "But he also died to save her once he realized that Wiseman had his own agenda."

"Maybe it was Wiseman," Lita suggested. "He was plenty creepy, and I wouldn't put it past him to do something like this."

"Maybe it was that pest Seiya Kou!" Amara burst out.

"That's pushing it, Amara, and you know it!" Rae sighed, and pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Seiya would never do something like that."

"How do we know? He was always following her around, and it was obvious to everyone but Serena that he had a huge crush on her!" Amara huffed.

"And he never tried anything," Amy reminded her. "Maybe a peck on the cheek here and there, but that was all. And he knows that Serena loves Darien. He stepped down without a fight."

"Ugh…" Lita swore, and stood, starting to pace. "I hate this! Why can't we find her?"

Unknown Location, Unknown Time

Serena moved quickly through the streets, keeping her head down. She had no idea where she was, nor when she was. She half expected the cops to show up and arrest her at any minute. She'd had to lift some less conspicuous clothing. Her school uniform stood out like a sore thumb in the midst of a society whose trends seemed to revolve around jewel tones and clothing items that looked like they belonged in a production of Grease. Mercifully, she'd only had to remove the tags. There hadn't been any real security devices on the items she'd made off with.

Even so, she had set off the alarm, and she knew that the security cameras would have incriminating footage of her lifting clothes. It was best to keep moving. Her friends were probably frantic by now…the blonde felt a pang, and walked faster, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Wherever she was, the streets were still full, and it was dark out. She felt lost and vulnerable, and wrapped her arms around herself.

Sirens sounded, and Serena kept her head down, forced herself not to run. She breathed a sigh of relief as they passed her. It was so cold here…the blonde shivered, and kept walking. What if she got stuck here? What if she never managed to get back? 'Think positive,' she admonished herself. 'If you wait, Trista will come get you. Then, she'll figure out what's wrong, and help fix it.'

November 6, 2011, Chicago, Illinois

"Two weeks," Trista spoke quietly.

"What?" Hotaru asked, looking up at the oldest of her adoptive mothers.

"It has been two weeks, and not a trace of our Princess." The time soldier was clearly frustrated. "Chaos is still sealed away, Diamond is dead, Wiseman is buried in oblivion; and yet, our Princess is nowhere to be found. I know that she did not vanish into thin air; so why, by all the powers of the universe, are we not able to find her?"

"I don't know. You mean you haven't found anything?"

"No; not even the smallest hint." Trista closed her eyes wearily. She hoped that wherever her Princess was, she was unharmed. The blonde could be ditzy, and sometimes her stunts nearly gave the time soldier a heart attack, but the thought of anything happening to her made Trista sick. And what would Queen Selenity say if she found out that not one of her soldiers could find her daughter?

"Unbelievable," Hotaru sighed. "We've tried everything, and it's like Serena just fell off of the face of the planet! We don't even know what happened!"

"The only thing that could make this situation any worse is if the Starlights were to show up. I, for one, would rather not have to explain that, despite our best efforts, we've managed to misplace our Princess."

Hotaru shuddered. "Be careful…that might actually happen," the small girl warned.

Unknown Time, Somewhere Hot

Serena had no clue where she was, nor did she know the date. Frankly, she did not really care anymore. What was the point? She would just keep getting hurled through time until A): she died or B): she finally ended up back in her own time. Even then, her friends would probably strangle her. Honestly, she wanted to strangle herself right now. She'd been running from cops, scrounging clothes and food, and trying to stay alive for she didn't know how long. What killed her was that her locket, the one thing that might have been able to help her, was back home…wherever or whenever that was.

The blonde wiped her brow, and kept moving through the sweltering heat. At least here they spoke English. A few travels back, she'd ended up in Germany. Man, had that been an adventure! The blonde moved her long, thick, incredibly heavy hair off of her neck again. She wished wildly for some more hairpins. How long could one live like this? Some days, she felt like she would go hopelessly insane.

Sweat poured down her face, and she felt like she was going to die. She had to get to a place that had water, or steal a water bottle…something! Serena ducked into a convenience store, and slipped a bottle of water under her jacket. She was successful, and once she was at a safe distance, she let the cool, blessed liquid run through her veins. 'I'm on the verge of becoming a klepto,' she thought with dark humor. She'd stolen just about every ounce of water and food she'd consumed since all of this had started. Once, she'd ended up in jail. Luckily, she'd traveled out of there fairly quickly.

Her mind wandered, strangely, to Seiya. She missed him. Ever since the battle with Chaos, Darien had been acting like a total jerk. He'd gotten annoyingly possessive and controlling. He acted like everything was lovely while her friends were around, but when they were alone, it was always accusations. She'd begun to make it a point not to be alone with him very often. 'Seiya would never be such an ass,' the blonde mused. She frowned as she thought about that time on the rooftop, and again as she recalled her words to him before he left.

"Serena, you're an idiot," she informed herself. "Seiya loved you, and you didn't realize it until it was too late."