Disclaimer: The characters of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z are not mine, they belong to their respective owners.

A/N: I am so sorry about the delay in getting the last chapter out. Real life interfered big time, I ended up getting dragged into a management position at work which required me to be there 40+ hours a week. Finally, things had settled down enough that I can devote some time to this story again. Trust me, I never once forgot about this story or any of you guys that have been supportive so far. This shouldn't happen again, and once the new semester starts up, I should have a little bit more time for Ripple Effect. (So odd that I'm looking forward to the semester so I have more free time o.O).

By the way, a new Sailor Moon anime is going to air in 2013! On top of that, there's going to be a new animated Dragon Ball movie as well, so for fans of either series, a few things to look forward to next year.

To answer a reviewer's question: As of this moment, I don't have any plans for the Inner Soldiers to be in this story, but I will not rule it out. (Things can always change!)

Ripple Effect
Chapter IV: Tear Down the Walls

You're scared.

For the most part, Hotaru had gotten very little sleep over the course of the night. She laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling and watched as the shadows slowly crawled from one end of her room to the other. There were times where Hotaru's violet eyes finally fluttered shut and her heart ceased to thunder so anxiously against her chest and her mind was finally able to drift off to sleep. However, it wasn't long before Hotaru was chased back into the conscious world by yet another vivid nightmare of world destruction.

The hours spent awake that night were dedicated to the countless thoughts and memories that plagued her mind, most of which originated from the events from the previous day. While there were a great many things Hotaru found herself dwelling over, the two primary things that she found her thoughts drifting back toward were her family's reaction to the choices that she made and Trunks Briefs' words to her when she was in the hospital.

A positive response was not expected from her family when Hotaru informed them of what had happened earlier in the day, and she did not receive one. As expected, Haruka was the most outspoken in her displeasure of almost everything Hotaru had done; after all, the Soldier of the Sky always saw things in black and white when it came to a mission. It was always the same for Haruka, with the mission coming first and everything else was secondary. If a hundred lives had to be sacrificed to save a thousand more, it was something that Haruka would do without a second thought. If she had to sully her hands with blood and dirt in order for the Princess's future to be as it should be, Haruka would do it with pride.

That was the pride of a Sailor Soldier. Moreover, that was the pride of an Outer Sailor Soldier, who made the choices that no one else could make. Hotaru understood and even accepted this side of who she was, but she also understood how truly precious life was. Regardless of how much of an "incredibly foolish decision" she had made in regards to exposing her powers to save Mara, it wasn't something that Hotaru found herself regretting even now that she had been chastised for it.

Haruka was even less happy about the fact that Trunks Briefs knew about her healing abilities. The fact that Trunks wasn't so normal himself didn't seem to appease Haruka at all and, on the contrary, seemed to infuriate her more. Not only had Hotaru placed leverage within the hands of someone who was a virtual stranger, but she had placed that leverage in the hands of someone who was just as powerful than her if not even more so. Trunks was a person with the power to truly interfere with the mission should he choose to do so, and was immediately branded a threat in Haruka's eyes.

Mentally, Hotaru disagreed with Haruka's thoughts on Trunks. He truly had nothing to gain with interfering with the mission or exposing her abilities to others, and he seemed to be more concerned with getting to know her than anything else. However, Hotaru kept her point of view on the subject within the confines of her own mind, reluctant to further anger the Soldier of the Sky.

Michiru and Setsuna remained largely quiet, letting Haruka do most of the talking. Still, Hotaru did not miss the looks of sympathy shot towards her direction from the Soldier of the Sea. Setsuna, meanwhile, sat with her arms folded over her chest and a look of displeasure swimming in her eyes, not once looking in the direction of the youngest Outer Sailor Soldier. It was possible that Setsuna felt that Hotaru had stepped on her toes the hardest out of the three women, as she had stressed anonymity the most out of all of them.

The mess was small, but it was still a mess. Hotaru did not doubt that her family would eventually forgive her, but she couldn't help but feel like a failure as a Soldier for having displeased them all so much.

You're scared.

It was his voice, his words, once again echoing within Hotaru's mind. No matter how much she tried to put Trunks Briefs out of her mind, he returned to tell her the exact same thing over and over again. She wasn't just scared—she was terrified. Those brutes that had attacked her and Mara earlier that day didn't scare her much at all, her family being angry with her didn't scare her as much as it disappointed her, and whatever demons or beasts that they had to face to restore the future back to the way it was didn't make her tremble at all.

Hotaru was scared that for the first time in five years, she wanted to trust someone else.

X

With the arrival of the next morning, Hotaru found herself standing in the bathroom and observing her reflection in the mirror. With her long-sleeved white shirt only buttoned up halfway, Hotaru was able to see the extent of her injuries from the altercation from the two men the day before. Across the top of her pale chest were darkening bruises that were just beginning to form, as well as bruises which marred the skin of her arms as well. Regardless of how much magical power Hotaru had within her, the bruises reminded her that her body could still be as easily broken as any ordinary human being.

The bruises also reminded Hotaru that Phem and the other cloaked man were out there somewhere, and she wondered if the two of them had anything to do with the reason why she and the Outer Soldiers were at this Earth. It seemed unlikely that the pieces to the puzzle that the four of them desired to solve would appear so quickly, but if they were to get that lucky, then perhaps the stay there wouldn't be long.

If Phem and the other man were truly involved with the situation of the future on their own planet, there would be so many more questions that needed to be answered. Why was the reason that they were destroying the future of their Earth? What was their role in the larger scheme of things, if there was a larger scheme, and what were they hoping to accomplish by her Earth's destruction?

"That looks like it hurts."

Hotaru glanced up to the reflection of the mirror, seeing Michiru standing in the doorway behind her. Quickly, Hotaru buttoned up the rest of her shirt and tucked it into her skirt before turning around to face her adoptive mother. "It'll go away in a few days," Hotaru informed her quickly as she reached over to the counter to retrieve her black tie. She slid the tie beneath the collar of her shirt and began to tie it. "What's up?"

"Well, officially, I was sent up here to tell you that Haruka wants you to stay away from that boy as much as possible," Michiru informed her, a small smile working its way to her pink lips. "However, I really just wanted to come up here to see how you were holding up. Haruka was pretty harsh last night."

Once Hotaru was finished tying her tie, she reached over to where her black school blazer was hanging and slid it on over her arms, pulling it over her shoulders. "She was as harsh as she needed to be. I messed up."

"Well, while I would agree with Haruka that you probably should have practiced a little bit more discretion, I don't believe that the girl had to die, either," Michiru explained with a sigh, leaning against the doorframe and folding her arms over her chest. "We're in a delicate situation; we're trying to save our world while not seriously altering things in this world. I think we've all forgotten how it is at your age, trying to balance who you really are versus the person that you want the world to see. It's not easy."

Hotaru felt a wave of bitterness surge through her, biting her lip as she fought the urge to voice the thoughts that were going through her head. Truly, none of them had any idea how difficult it was to be in her shoes. When she lived with her father, she was constantly at war with trying to keep her powers subdued and keep up the façade that she was simply a normal girl. After her rebirth it was slightly easier to pass herself off as nothing more than a normal human being with her family training her to control her abilities, but every day she struggled with keeping her powers reigned in so as to not reveal herself.

"It's not easy," Hotaru managed to mumble out, "but I'll do the best I can. I need to get going or else I'm going to be late for school, though."

"Have a good day, sweetie," Michiru bade her, stepping toward her adoptive daughter and placing a kiss against her forehead. "We're a family—we'll get past all of this and be home before you know it. I'll see you when you get home."

Hotaru offered Michiru a small smile before she walked past her, retrieving her backpack and departing for school. The change from the tense atmosphere of the house they were staying in to the outdoors was pleasant, with Hotaru giving a small sigh of relief as she felt the weight lift off of her chest just slightly. Perhaps Haruka's mood would have settled a bit during the course of the day, and maybe Setsuna would feel a little forgiving once she arrived home. Of course, it was likely that Michiru was already trying to work her magic on both of the women so that the road to forgiveness would be more quickly traveled. In any case, Hotaru was filled with a little bit of optimism that everything was going to be okay, and that they would get past everything quickly.

As Michiru said, they were a family, even if they weren't bound by blood.

"So you live with three other women, with all of you having different last names? Are you really adopted or is that part of the masquerade?"

She hadn't even heard him approach her, not even knowing he was so close until his words breathed hot air against her ear and she could feel the warmth of his body through her uniform. Surprised at his sudden arrival and invasion of her personal space, Hotaru's feet stopped moving and she stumbled, her body falling towards the ground. However, his reflexes were quick, his arm snaking around her waist to hold her steady until she regained her footing once again.

"What… How…" Hotaru couldn't form a sentence of what she wanted to say. Hell, she didn't even know what to say. She had anticipated running into Trunks at school and trying to avoid him there, but not a few blocks from her house first thing in the morning! Finally, Hotaru took a deep breath and pushed herself away from Trunks, freeing her body from the arm that rested around her waist. "How did you find out where I live?"

The corner of Trunks's lips curled upward in a smirk, and the arrogant look in his eyes was unmistakable. "It's easy to convince people to do just about anything when you wave a few bills in their faces."

"You bribed someone for my address?"

"Essentially."

Hotaru shook her head in disbelief. Why did she have to pique the interest of someone who had far too much at his disposal to make it impossible to get away from him? Still, she wasn't going to risk getting into any more trouble by getting further involved with him. "Trunks, listen, I understand I'm this new and mysterious person, but I really can't have anything to do with you."

Hotaru resumed walking towards school, but Trunks walked in step right along with her with inquisitive blue eyes staring down at her. "Why is that?" he inquired, one of his lavender eyebrows arched upward. "If you try to say it has to do with that ripple effect crap again, I'm not buying it."

"Will you accept the fact that my family has forbidden me from talking to you?" Hotaru questioned him in an annoyed voice as she kept her eyes locked in front of her. She just wanted him to leave her alone, so that she could avoid making any more mistakes throughout the duration of the mission. If Haruka saw the two of them now, it was likely that the Soldier of the Sky would send her right back through the Time-Space Door.

"If I listened to every time my Mom told me not to do something, I would have probably gone completely insane by now," Trunks informed her with a laugh. "Come on, now. I'm not that bad of a guy once you get to know me. We just can't share these secrets together and just go our separate ways."

"We can and we will," Hotaru said in a firm voice, looking over to him out of the corner of her eye. "I'm not going to risk getting into any more trouble."

Trunks moved so that he was standing in front of Hotaru, placing his hands against her shoulders to make her stop walking. His blue eyes were narrowed almost angrily, and the words that came out of his mouth came in a harsh whisper.

"You're so used to keeping yourself locked away from the rest of the world that you're all-too willing to use a thousand of excuses to keep it from getting close to you, aren't you? I take offense to the fact you consider getting involved with me as a risk that will get you in trouble."

Hotaru shook her shoulders free from Trunks, taking a few steps back so that there was space between the two of them and glaring hard into his eyes. "So what if I'm using excuses? So what if I want to keep everyone else as far from me as I can? It's my life and my choice, and I'm going to do what I think is right."

"Even if what you think is right will make you bitter and lonely?"

"You have no idea," Hotaru growled at him, swiftly walking past where Trunks stood. Her anger was reaching a boiling point, and she had to get out of there before she did something she would later regret. For the most part she had a decent amount of control over her powers, but in moments that were heated like these, it was hard to keep them reigned in. "You have no idea at all."

"I have no idea? Have you ever been called a monster and believed it?"

Trunks's sudden question immediately made Hotaru stop, resisting the urge to turn to him. While he tried to keep it masked, it was obvious to her that the question held a great deal of pain behind it by the tone of his voice. His question also made her recall the times in her childhood which she had been called a large assortment of names, a "monster" being amongst them. It was one of the primary reasons why it was just so much easier to pretend to be normal than anything but.

"Yes," Hotaru admitted. "Yes I have. My classmates enjoyed calling me what they will."

"Yeah, that sucks," Trunks admitted, kicking the tip of his shoe against the pavement of the sidewalk. "My ex-girlfriend had been the one to throw that one into my face. I was fifteen at the time, and was a lot more stupid back then. I was quick to trust people that I really shouldn't have trusted, and when I thought I found the right person, it totally blew up in my face."

Hotaru found herself turning to Trunks then, and the appearance of the boy honestly made her feel badly for the way she had been acting. His head was tilted downward, his lavender bangs covering his face and his hands were rolled up into fists at his sides. Sighing, Hotaru walked over to him until she was standing right in front of him.

"You…showed her?" Hotaru inquired hesitantly. She wanted to reach forward and place her hand on his shoulder in order to offer him some comfort, but she held back.

"Golden hair and all," Trunks admitted with a dry laugh. "It didn't go over well at all. It was a terrible mess that other people had to clean up, and I tried to pick up the pieces of my dignity after. After her reaction she couldn't be trusted, so we had to wipe her memory of the whole thing. I really wish they could have wiped mine too, but Dad insisted that was a lesson I had to learn from."

Being called names by people Hotaru didn't know was bad enough, but she couldn't imagine what it would be like to be called names by someone who you loved. She was certain that would have been far more traumatizing than some of the things she had endured throughout her childhood, and something that would have likely scarred her more deeply than the students in her middle school that enjoyed tormenting her. Hotaru didn't know how she would react if someone she loved had called her those things, but was certain it would probably break her.

"Listen, I know you have your reasons for wanting nothing to do with me," Trunks explained, lifting his head so that he was now staring into Hotaru's eyes. "I mean, hell, you've probably been through some pretty bad things in your life as well. But, can you really fault me for wanting to be friends with someone who I don't have to put up this charade of being a person that I'm not?"

Really, Hotaru couldn't fault him, but she still wanted to grasp on to every reason possible for them not to be friends. "You have Mr. Son and his family, don't you? I certainly can't be the only person on the planet that you have to turn to."

"They're like family to me," Trunks told her, "but after a while, turning to the same people to talk to and get the same opinions from gets old. Talking to you, even like this, is a breath of fresh air. I don't know anything about you, you don't know anything about me; I don't feel like I'm going to repeat a story that you've heard through the grapevine a thousand times before. So why can't we at least give this friends-thing a try and see if it works out? If it's more trouble than it's worth, I'll just walk away and leave you alone."

Hotaru folded her arms over her chest, staring up into Trunks's eyes hard. She found herself agreeing with most of the things that he was saying, even finding herself seeing the reasoning behind his desire to become friends. Above and beyond everything else that she had done before, this was probably at the list of the most frightening. Was she willing to place her trust in a boy she had just met, who her family had recently forbade her from seeing, and be his confidant and likewise? While her mind was giving her every reason under the sun to turn away from this boy and never look back, her heart was giving her more reasons to go along with this and see where things take them. After all, eventually she would be returning to her world and never seeing him again, so nothing about this friendship would be permanent.

"I have rules," Hotaru said quietly. "If you really want us to be friends, I have rules."

Trunks's mood seemed to lighten up immediately as it was obvious Hotaru was giving in. "Just tell me what they are and I'll do my best to follow them."

"My family can't know about us," Hotaru began with a sigh, "I don't disobey my family ever, and if they were to find out that I was deliberately doing so they would send me away. So, in order to keep my family in the dark, you can't just show up a few blocks from my house like this."

"I can do that."

"Next," Hotaru met his eyes with a serious look on his face. "You can't ask me about where I come from or what I am. I can't really discuss it because—"

"The ripple effect," Trunks finished for her, waving his hand in the air to dismiss it. "I understand. I won't ask you anything about any of those things. Anything else?"

"One last rule," Hotaru looked away from him as she spoke, "there will be a day where I'll have to go back where I come from, and when I do, you can't look for me. You will not find me, so please don't waste your time looking for me."

The last rule rendered Trunks quiet for several moments before he gave a swift nod of his head. "Deal, I won't go hunting you down if you suddenly disappear. Does that mean we're friends?"

Hotaru offered Trunks a small hint of a smile before replying, "Yeah, I suppose that means we're friends."

A/N: Okay, hopefully there won't be any super long delays in getting the next chapter out. T_T Again I'm sorry, and I hope you all enjoyed! Please review, and I will see you next time.

~kusari~