Disclaimer: It ain't in the manga, it's mine. In the manga, not mine and never will be. Don't sue.
Chapter Six
Revelations
"What did you do this time?" were the first words Kaze Miranda heard upon entering her apartment. "I felt you transform. But you weren't really scared, just really mad at someone and worried about Titan. What did you do?"
"Some Yami showed up and tried to hurt Titan," Miranda sighed. She had reverted back to her civilian uniform soon after fleeing the scene. "He came pretty close to changing her back. So I… dissuaded him."
"Again, what did you do?" Taylor asked, glaring at her lover.
"I beat a Yami into the ground, almost killed him, revealed myself to Haruka-chan, attempted to keep Titan from changing, and then ran off."
Taylor slapped her.
"You know we're not supposed to do that! There's a reason they forgot! You know we aren't supposed to show ourselves! We're supposed to let them remember us before doing anything!! I thought you knew that!" There were tears slipping out of her eyes, noticed only by Miranda, who was busy hoping that the walls were thick enough not to let everything through.
"I do," Miranda said softly. "But I really didn't have much of a choice. We were up in the bleachers, stands, whatever you want to call them. Ruka-chan and I had been racing and we found Kari-chan up near the top. She was all spaced out. At first she looked like she was going to start crying on me again, but then she… changed. She started to lecture me on how we need to work together with the Senshi." The Wind Guardian sighed. "She knows that's against the very core of the way we work. They're our charges, and we're supposed to protect them, like invisible bodyguards. We aren't supposed to work with our charges, because then something stupid might occur. People can't think straight with their emotions running rampart like that."
"Our emotions are key to our powers," Taylor reminded her in a whisper, tears drying and laying a hand on the other woman's arm. "They give us strength."
"But not if we get too close to the situation," Miranda argued. "Then we have a harder time simply controlling our attacks, let alone powering them up."
"Titan doesn't seem to have that problem," Taylor pointed out. "Or Lily. And you know how close they are to their charges. Back to the original topic, what else happened?"
"Kari-chan didn't respond when Ruka-chan suggested going to the Crown, and then the air… did something weird."
"Which was…?"
"Twist and turn, and then a Yami showed up there. He wrapped Kari-chan up pretty good and I got pissed." She shrugged as though excusing her next actions. "I morphed the old way, pulling Ruka-chan along with me. She was a bit surprised, but took it rather well. Getting her to get Kari-chan out of there was… almost easy. That scares me. But she listened and got Kari-chan away and agreed to stay with her." With a pout she added, "I was having fun, but then Mars decided to show up and end my fun. It's not fair. I liked playing." She was pouting and whining like a little kid, and looked like one, even crossing her arms.
Laughing, Taylor hugged her and added in a baby voice, "Well, is there anything else the big girl wants to play?" Instantly Miranda's eyes lit up and she kissed Taylor, fiddling with the hem of the aqua-haired woman's shirt.
"What are you doing?" Taylor asked when Miranda's lips released hers.
"You asked me what I wanted to play," Miranda pouted, beginning undo the buttons.
Taylor laughed and led the blonde into their bedroom.
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"Haruka-san?"
The blonde spun around to see Hikari standing in the doorway, looking worried and confused.
"What is it?"
"Why haven't you told them?" the dark-haired girl asked, coming into the kitchen and sitting down across from the Wind Senshi.
"I don't know," she admitted. "It just… doesn't feel right. I think she should be able to reveal herself when she feels she should."
"I think she'll appreciate it," Kari commented, getting some chocolate pudding from the fridge and digging in.
"You'll ruin your dinner," Haruka said automatically.
"Well, I'm really hungry anyway, so I don't see what it matters," Hikari replied. "Oh, by the way, you and Michiru-san are lovers, right? Not just friends?"
"Yeah…" admitted Haruka, slightly embarrassed for some reason.
"Okay," shrugged the younger woman. "Wasn't sure from the way the two of you explained your histories on my first night. You were being pretty vague and I wasn't paying strict attention. Any other reasons why you aren't gonna tell 'bout Manda?"
"Her name's Miranda," the Wind Senshi corrected automatically. Hikari just shrugged again. "Well, she's my friend and apparently she's been keeping my secret since I had one, so I'm just returning the favor."
"What if your princess asks?"
"How did you find out about her?" Haruka demanded.
"I can feel the presence of the Silver Imperium Crystal," the ebony-haired young woman sighed. "Only the females of the Royal Family of the Moon can so much as touch that thing unless its current possessor gives it up willingly. The rest of us can't even really do so much as consider touching or taking the thing without some sort of problems. I think there's some really old spell on it to make it that way. No idea what it could be, though."
"Oookay."
"Answer my first question, if you please?"
"Which was…?"
"What will you do if Serenity asks you?"
"I'll… just leave out the stuff about Miranda-chan. I'll say she was there before I transformed and not there afterwards."
"Well, it's almost completely true," the Warrior of Death murmured to herself before adding in a normal tone, "Seriously? You're not lying?"
"Hai. She's my friend. I'm not going to break her trust."
"And that's all?" The Yami girl was skeptical.
"And I feel like she'll kill me if I don't," Haruka admitted. "I'm not sure if that feeling's coming solely from me or if it's also coming from—" She cut herself off abruptly.
"I know about Uranus, dumbass," Hikari said, rolling her eyes. "Or were you not paying attention during that Senshi meeting of yours?"
"How'd you know about that?"
"That the meeting happened or that it was a Senshi one?"
"Senshi," Haruka clarified.
"Auras." Hikari's answer was both simple and complex, and it didn't look like she was going to elaborate.
"I didn't think someone whose name means light would curse," Haruka finally said after a long silence.
"What?" Hikari asked, jerked suddenly from her daydreams. "Oh. Well, my last name means dark, and when you add in everything I've ever had to deal with, I think I've got all the license I need to curse. Don't judge a book by its cover, you know." Then she stood and left, leaving Haruka alone with her thoughts.
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The alternate guardian of the Time Gate was uneasy. She could feel the danger rising, her own power screaming in her ears, begging her to get out of the fourth dimension now and fight with her friends and allies.
"I can't do that," she whispered as she stared out into the endless mists. "I am forbidden to leave until Pluto returns to her post." Then her garnet eyes filled with tears. "But she doesn't even know I do this. Nor does she—or the others—remember any of us. And we have never fought with them. Our techniques and vows all but require that we leave when they appear. This is not a battle the Senshi can win on their own, not even with our Princess fighting with the Crystal."
After a moment of indecision and consideration, she raised her simple black staff and slammed it into the all-but-nonexistent ground. Amazingly, a loud clack echoed when she did this.
"CHRONOS!!" she shouted. Within moments a middle-aged man appeared before her, an angry look in his red eyes. (Yes, those eyes are a family trait as far as I am concerned.) The rest of him was hidden by the mists and their shadows.
"Yes, my child?" he asked icily.
"I must fight," the alternate told him firmly. "You know, Chronos, that no matter what I promised to you in regard to this gate when my charge is not here, my vows to my Queen will always come first. It's time for you to do the job intended for you."
"You mean Pluto always comes first, no matter what your Queen or anyone else says," Chronos corrected gently, stepping forward to reveal a man of average height and weight with graying hair.
"Yes. I'll be back eventually," she told him, impulsively hugging him tightly. "I'll miss you, old codger," she whispered into his hair as he hugged her back.
"And I you, my darling," she heard him say, with something that felt suspiciously like tears wetting her long hair and neck. Then she broke away from him, slightly embarrassed by her rash actions. Chronos was not an overly affectionate man, and was blushing a deeper red than his eyes.
With a slight laugh, Charon turned and walked through the Gates of Time to return to her charge.
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All around the city, young, slightly odd girls suddenly stopped in their tracks, freezing, a distant look in their eyes. Then, these girls took off running for the park.
Less than five minutes later, the nine girls, all gasping for breath and some bent over, met in the middle, near a pavilion.
Time seemed to stop for the young women as they stared at each other in shock. They had not seen each other in years and were busy taking in the changes.
Chiba Lily noticed the aqua-haired woman and her blonde partner first, mainly because they were grumbling about missing their 'quality time.' Fighting back a strong urge to roll her eyes or gag, she observed the other six girls.
Phobos and Deimos had been in their typical human forms, talking with their princess, when they felt the call. Of course, they had immediately rushed over. Unfortunately, they hadn't transformed into their crow forms. Nor were they the world's best runners. They were two of those leaning on her knees, trying not to fall to the ground as they looked over the others.
One blue-haired girl stood there, looking worried. There's no fight, so why did we feel the call to come here? she wondered.
"Maybe because it was our call," the younger blonde suggested. "Look around, Marina. Who's missing? That's who called us."
"My name's Kori Mary now," the bluenette informed the other eight as she looked around. "Not Marina."
Meanwhile, the younger blonde was fiddling with her hair which had come out of its ribbon binding. Her eyes kept going back to the smallest of the group. She just couldn't get over how small and frail the girl looked.
"Don't suppose the words, 'appearances can be deceiving' mean anything to you, Magellan?" Hikari asked the blonde, deceptively sweet. They could hear each other's thoughts and she did not appreciate being called frail and small. She had enough crap to deal with from the rest of the world; she didn't need it from her friends.
"It's Maggie," the young teen objected. "Maggie. M-A-G-G-I-E. And my last name's Aijo." Hikari ignored her and continued drinking in the sight of her friends, even though one was missing.
There was a brunette, taller than everyone else, whose green eyes had taken everyone in on the first glance and now her mind was having problems dealing with the input.
"How—?" she asked weakly. Her shock was more than understandable. Never in the past millennium had they all been together. In fact, some of them were beginning to wonder if it would ever happen.
"Don't ask, no one knows," Miranda suggested, looking disgruntled. "It just happened, and I'm going to throttle Charon if she's just playing tricks on us."
"Titan, you're a midget now," the brunette said, finally able to get her mouth to work.
"I KNOW that!" Hikari shouted, throwing her hands up in the air. "But there's nothing I can do about it, okay? Besides, it hasn't really hurt my abilities at all."
The appearance of an ornate door surrounded by pale white light silenced their conversations quicker than the dropping of the Silence Glaive would have. Especially when a young woman, seemingly in her twenties, stepped out, dressed in the typical Guardian outfit, only this time in a blend of black and maroon, with garnet gemstones inlaid, matching her eyes. She held a simple black staff.
"Would a transformation be good?" Hikari suggested. "Sane people with freak, Charon."
"Are you implying that we aren't sane?" the brunette asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"No," Hikari countered. "But we aren't exactly normal either." The brunette conceded the point.
"You… are… really… short, Titan," Charon finally said.
"I don't have to put up with this," snapped Hikari, spinning on her heel and beginning to stomp off. Charon blinked, wondering at this strange behavior when the brunette quickly followed and wrapped her arms around Hikari's shoulders, both as a hug and to keep her from leaving. Sometimes empathy came in handy.
"You know we don't mean it like that," she pleaded. "So don't leave now, Titan. It's just that… well, we're used to you being taller and older." She was a little shocked when the smallest on their team didn't resist, but instead leaned into the hug.
"I know," Hikari whispered, tears falling down her cheeks onto the brunette's wrists. "I know you two didn't mean it like that. But I've been having a really hard time dealing with anything recently." Her shoulders began to tremble as the tears slipped down faster and faster. She really needed to cry, just sit down and bawl her eyes out like a baby, but didn't want to frighten her friends any more than they already were from her behavior. Nor did she want them to think any less of her.
She didn't realize what was going on until she was surrounded on all sides by her friends and they were hugging her, asking what was wrong, and generally trying to get her to stop crying. Her response was to cry harder and hug them all and not let go, for fear that something would happen and suddenly they would all decide to leave her, or that she would discover this to be a dream.
Her friends noticed this, and though unnerved by her tears and sobs, did their best to assure her they wouldn't leave her alone. After all, if she wanted to, she could just call them in her mind.
"No," Hikari mumbled as she clung to Lily, laying her head on the other teen's shoulder. "I can't. It's not the same and besides, I live with the Outers. Even without all their memories, they can sense my power when I use it. So I can't really start many conversations."
"What's your new name, Io?" Miranda asked the brunette, trying to get the attention off of their Warrior of Destruction.
"I'm now Kaminari Irene," the super-tall girl offered. "What's yours?"
"Christy," Charon said simply, having changed into a civilian form when Hikari had started to stalk off.
"Any last name with that?"
"None that you'd use," Christy responded, watching the young woman she had known as Titan carefully. "Marina, what's your new name?"
"Kori Mary," the blue-haired girl said softly. "Triton, your new name is…?"
"Mizu Taylor," the aqua-haired woman replied, laying her head on the shoulder of her lover.
"I'm Kaze Miranda," the older blonde volunteered.
"Chiba Lily," Lily responded as Hikari dried her eyes, finally feeling secure enough to let go of her best non-blood-sibling friend.
"We're the same," Phobos and Deimos said in unison.
"Never expected any less, fire birds," Miranda smiled.
"Yami Hikari," the smallest girl whispered, instantly covering her ears, foreseeing the result of her words.
"YAMI!?!" they all shouted as one. One or two added some questions containing one too many expletives, so Hikari ignored those and turned to the hyper, blue-eyed blonde.
"Maggie, your nickname now your name?"
"Yep," the blonde stated proudly. "Now you can't call me Magellan!"
"Wanna bet?" the other nine asked in unison, wicked grins on all their faces.
"Oh, dear," she sighed. "That was dumb of me."
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"Hotaru-chan!" Haruka called as she wandered through the fairly large house. "Do you know where that cousin of yours went?" she asked, finally discovering the girl in her room, CD player on fairly loud. She flicked it off amid her daughter's protests.
"No," Hotaru sighed. "She was here one minute, then she raced out of here, looking like the dogs of Hell were after her. I'm pretty sure I heard the front door slam."
"I wouldn't be surprised if they were," Haruka sighed, "considering the way she's been acting since she showed up. That Titan part of her may have made quite a few enemies. Your mother wants us for dinner. You sure you have no clue where she is?" she asked hopefully. "I've searched the whole house."
"None."
"Lovely. Your mother is going to skin her alive once we find her."
So the two went downstairs to find the other women and organize a search party.
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Less than an hour later, one of them had the great idea to check the park and found Hikari sitting on a bench, staring at nothing, eyes red from crying.
"What were you thinking?" Michiru shouted. "Do you have any idea how worried we were? No, of course you don't! You just ran out of the house without even bothering to tell us where you were going! And you know you are supposed to tell us when you leave!" Hikari didn't even blink, not looking up from whatever she was staring at.
"Calm down," Setsuna said quietly, laying a gentle hand on the Water Senshi's arm. She had seen her second 'daughter's' face, unlike Michiru, and knew shouting would do no good.
"How can I calm down?" Michiru demanded, turning on Setsuna. "You know how worried I was! The crime rate in Tokyo's gone up a lot this past year! Something could have happened to her!"
While Setsuna endured the tirade, Hotaru examined Hikari from her spot next to her 'father,' trying to see if there were any visible injuries. Then she went over and sat next to her cousin on the stone bench, placing a hand on Hikari's arm to get her attention. Kari's head jerked up. Apparently she had not noticed a thing, even with Michiru yelling and screaming.
"When did you show up?" she asked.
"Couple of minutes ago," Hotaru said with a grin. "Didn't you hear Michiru-mama shouting?"
"Only just now," responded Hikari. "Why's she doing that?"
"Well, you led us on a pretty long wild goose chase," Hotaru explained. "We've been looking for you for about an hour, all over the city. And Michiru-mama's mad because you didn't tell us where you were going when you left or when you'd be back."
"So she dragged you three all around Tokyo… looking for me?"
"Hai," Hotaru responded, her eyes narrowing with concern. Why didn't Hikari expect them to come look for her when she didn't come back?
"Why?" asked Hikari plainly, obviously confused, her emotions playing around on her face and in her eyes.
"You're my cousin and they're your legal guardians now," Hotaru said condescendingly. That tone clammed Hikari up. Her eyes lost all feeling and her face went blank as whatever hopes she had had immediately crashed and burned. Saturn was definitely sleeping very soundly within this girl or the tone would have been gentle, coaxing her to cheer up and stop being so gloomy, though the only word changed would have been 'cousin.' Or, thought Hikari, maybe Hotaru doesn't house my best friend after all. Maybe… Then common sense caught up with her heart. No, this is Saturn's vessel. Otherwise my power would not respond this way to her.
Forcing herself not to start crying again, Hikari stood up, catching Michiru's attention again. The woman spun, preparing to to spit words of venom to make the teenager regret her actions, but then she saw the look of complete loss with the grief and sorrow that accompany it plain as day on the dark-haired girl's face, along with the reddened eyes and tear stains.
"Why don't we get you home?" she said instead, putting one arm around the girl's shoulders. Hikari leaned into the embrace, needing comfort. Michiru gave it, hugging the girl tightly, saying everything would be okay. Still, Hikari fought back her tears. She didn't want to cry in front of her new family.
Once Michiru deduced that Hikari would be fine, they went home and sat down to dinner. No one mentioned the incident, though they all noticed that their newest family member was constantly close to tears.
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Charon—in her civilian identity as Christy—had decided to stay with Lily for the time being, until she could get a place of her own. She found everything in Lily's apartment fascinating and it was driving Lily crazy to explain things like what a pencil sharpener was, or a coffee pot, or a TV. Eventually Christy realized that she was getting on her friend's nerves and quieted down. But due to her behavior and the fact that Lily couldn't find her sleeping bag, Christy got to sleep on the couch. It really wasn't as uncomfortable as people claim, if you're a deep sleeper, which Christy was.
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Once splitting up and getting back home, Miranda and Taylor resumed their 'quality time,' and so their friends all made sure to not attempt to contact either of the couple through their mind bonds. Once, Lily had done that when she was young, and she had long since claimed to be scarred for life. The couple was offended—both that their fun had been interrupted, and by the 'scarred for life' comment—but since then no one had attempted to contact them when they were having 'quality time.'
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Everyone else had made their way home and made the various excuses to the authority figures in charge of their lives, and had immediately gone to bed, completely exhausted. Running halfway across town can do that to you.
AN: Sorry people, but that's the end of the chapter. Least it's not a cliffhanger. Comments, anyone? Do I have any plot holes, anything that doesn't make sense? Somebody knowing something they shouldn't? Can anybody guess the relationship between Charon and Pluto? Or the possible relationship between Haruka and Miranda?