Double uploads! Yup, I put of another chapter of TMTGT and now this :D This is the second half of the previously-one-chapter grandma story. In the original it was much quicker and kinda left it like I was going to write the story for North Star. And I want to but at the same time I never got any inspiration for it. So...I guess in the future when I'm done with this and anything else I'm working on (ie the original story I'm planning, or just my schoolwork in general XD) then maybe I'll do it. Yeah...Anyway, please enjoy this chapter and review to let me know how I'm doing! Love ya!
~SXS
Disclaimer: See prologue
Chapter 5: Her Grandmother's Granddaughter
The rest of Kate's night was restless and she woke up groggy at around 9:00. She distantly remembered that she was at her grandmother's and that brought her fully back into reality where she smelled eggs and bacon being cooked.
Drifting down the stairs and into the kitchen where her Jane Astrum was happily finishing off breakfast, Kate worked to rub the sand from her eyes. The nightmare of the night before seemed to have faded but was still slightly present in her memory. She tried to block it out by making conversation with her grandmother.
"Morning, Grandma," she said, sitting at the table.
"Good morning, dear. Are you alright after last night?" she asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired still. But I promise I'll be wide awake for the play." She smiled and her grandmother placed a plate in front of her piled high with juicy strips of bacon, scrambled eggs, and hot toast.
"Wonderful. I know you're going to love it. It's like Broadway almost but more homey. Your Grandpa Chester used to love that place..." Kate's grandmother went into a silent reverie of her husband. For reasons unknown, Kate's grandfather disappeared almost a year prior. No trace of him could be found, though police were still looking. Jane had wanted to search herself because she felt that it wasn't something they were used to dealing with, but they wouldn't let an 'elderly woman' such as herself to go on her own to take out a kidnapper. Jane of course believed this to be rubbish but let them do their thing even though she knew it would be unsuccessful.
Kate let her grandmother have a few moments before she said, "Well, I hope it isn't as fancy as Broadway because I didn't bring anything super special to wear."
"Oh, no worries, sweetheart, you'll do fine with a nice shirt and clean pants." She smiled as she put her own plate onto the table and began to eat. The two chatted, Kate making sure to avoid topics that might lead to her grandmother thinking of her grandfather. She didn't want her to be depressed when they were going to have such a good day together.
After breakfast and showers, the two were on their way to the little theater. It took about twenty minutes to get there and after another ten of waiting in line for snacks, they finally got their seats.
"Wow, Grandma, these seats are amazing!" Kate commented when they were sat ten rows from the front.
Her grandmother chuckled and said, "I know a guy," with a wink.
The play, Drapes, was a musical mystery and a play within a play. Kate was rather enjoying herself when suddenly, a blinking light came from her wrist. The communicator watch was going off and that meant trouble at home. People around her started giving her looks of annoyance at the interruption. Kate tried to turn it off until she could get out to the hallway, but then a loud beeping began. Embarrassed, she tried to make her way out of the aisle without squishing anyone. She told her grandma that she'd be in the bathroom and bolted out of the theater.
The lady's room was empty so Kate felt it safe to answer the watch's call in the open. "Astra, you just interrupted the play!" was the first thing she said, a bit upset about the embarrassment.
"The audience will get over it, I'm sure. Veneficus is back and attacking. You have to come back to New York!" Astra was frantic.
"How in the world am I supposed to do that?" Kate exclaimed.
"Just transform and I'll explain."
Kate saw no other option. "X Crystal Power, Make up!" The shining purple ribbons of light engulfed her once again and she became the hero, Sailor X.
She looked back to the watch and Astra began to speak again. "All you have to do is concentrate very hard. Just keep thinking of where you want to be and then when it seems like the right time shout out 'Sailor Teleport'."
"This is that teleporting thing you were talking about? That sounds ridiculous!"
"Just trust me!"
Sighing, Kate closed her eyes and thought of Astra. She repeating to herself in her head, I want to be where Astra is... With her eyes still tightly shut she shouted, "SAILOR TELEPORT!" Her long brown hair went up in the air and she started to float in a purple glow. Suddenly, in a flash of brilliant white light, she vanished into thin air.
(.:SX:.)
Jane Astrum closed the door to the women's bathroom. She decided it wasn't worth it to go back and watch the rest of the play. Instead, she left the theater alone and drove back to her home.
She had known her granddaughter was Sailor X since that cat had brought her to them four years prior. That was partially the reason why she wanted Kate to stay for the weekend; she wanted to talk to her about it and tell her that she too had once been a Sailor soldier. She just hadn't expected that there would be danger so soon and that Kate would have to leave.
As she drove she dove into a reverie of the night that Astra had brought Kate to her own daughter's apartment in New York City.
Astrum residence, four years earlier
Rain poured endlessly outside the windows. Jane sat alone in the living room of the New York City apartment she shared with her daughter. Said woman was in the bedroom sleeping soundly while Jane watched one of her favorite late-night television shows.
A sudden creaking sound made her jump. The front door had opened in the crack between door and frame stood a small maroon cat, with shining indigo eyes, and a golden star on its forehead.
"What? A cat?" Jane asked no one. She was unsure whether or not to approach it but decided that she had dealt with worse than a stray before. Standing up and walking over to the feline, she put out a hand cautiously and whispered, "Where did you come from, little one?"
The cat approached her and purred, rubbing its head against her hand. Jane scratched behind its ears. "Strange for a stray to make it all the way up here. You're a special one you are."
"Mrrr, thank you! Oops…" The cat looked up to Jane waiting for the shock of seeing a cat talk appear upon the woman's face. However, she didn't even flinch.
"I'm used to it," Jane answered the unspoken question.
"Well…That's unexpected. But Luna must have known which is why she sent me here. Ah, I forget my manners. My name is Astra and I have a favor to ask of you and your daughter." The cat sat down and curled her tail around her paws.
"What would that be?" Jane asked. She then noticed that there was a small bubble on the tip of Astra's tail. When the cat flicked it, the bubble floated in front of them and grew large enough so that a girl could be seen inside. She had long brunette hair and looked about preteen-aged.
"This girl is a princess of a recently attacked planet and a Sailor soldier. She needs a home and your daughter is without a child of her own. Would it be acceptable if she became a part of your family?"
"What happened to her own planet?"
Astra was silent for a moment and Jane noticed an expression of grave mourning. She continued and ignored the question. "If you accept her you will be doing her a great service."
"I have no issue with this. But why would you tell me such information?" Jane asked.
"Because I plan to erase your memories and replace them with new ones. It will be as if she has always lived with you and was your blood relative. No one will think anything of it. I only asked your permission and told you to be polite."
"You won't need to erase my mind. I know how to keep a secret." Jane smirked.
Astra raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? With a secret of such magnitude, how can I be sure?"
Jane pulled a small golden object from her pocket and Astra gasped. The woman's smirk only became larger. "I had no idea!" Astra whispered in shock. "No wonder Luna sent me here…Sailor North Star, I trust you with the life of our princess."
With that, Kate became a part of their family. She was renamed from her old name as a princess and all but Jane's memories were modified. However, she wasn't sure if she might not accidentally slip something vital to Kate or her new mother that would give away her true past. It was for this reason that she decided that she would move somewhere close and yet far so that the secret would be as safe as possible.
Jane instantly fell in love with her new granddaughter. She had never realized before Kate how much she had wanted one. She made sure that she showed Kate all the love that she could because she knew the hardships she experienced in her old life must have been devastating if her planet was no longer inhabitable. She tried to be the best grandmother that she could be and made a vow that when and if the time came that Kate would once again be Sailor X, she would be there for her.
(.:SX:.)
A purple glowing ball of light appeared in the middle of a busy New York street. As cars zoomed back and forth, a girl in a strange uniform suddenly burst out of the light and scrambled trying to get to a sidewalk. Sailor X screamed as she attempted to find safety. Finally she jumped onto the walkway and Astra made her way over to her.
"Not bad for a first try! But next time, concentrate on landing somewhere remotely safer," the cat commented.
"No kidding!"
"Come, let's go!" Astra ran away and Sailor X followed closely behind. She discovered that her guardian was leading her to the one and only famous Macy's when she saw the street right outside crowded with police cars.
"You'll have to teleport inside being that the place is surrounded. Just remember what I said before. We don't need you to land on top of a chandelier or something and be stuck there."
"Right…" Sailor X concentrated on where being where Veneficus was attacking. "SAILOR TELEPORT!" she cried again and repeated the process, this time managing to land in a large open space of floor. Distant sounds of panic could be heard and the former princess followed her ears to Veneficus.
"Hey, blondie!"
With a bored expression, Veneficus turned around from where she was terrorizing customers. She had just frozen them to their places so that she could drain their good energies. "Oh great. The Purple Hall Monitor is back."
"Ooh, what a striking insult. I don't think I'll ever get over it," Sailor X replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I can't let you do this again, Veneficus! You didn't win last time and you won't win this time! Representing the distant planet of Xena, I am Sailor X! I fight for honor, truth, and love! You leave those poor people alone or you're going down!"
"Oh, here we go again. Come forth, Frustro Card Trick." Veneficus thrust her hand forward and a giant card rose from the floor. It flipped to show its face to Sailor X and she saw that it was a King of Hearts. Arms sprouted from the sides and legs sprouted from the bottom. "Take care of these people and dispose of the sailor girl for me."
"Yes, yes, ma'am." The card saluted Veneficus as she disappeared Sailor X could attack her. "Hey there! Pick a card." Four more cards fanned out from behind the first one. "Any card!"
The four extra cards spun like ninja stars and flew around Sailor X. She began running wildly around the room trying to dodge them. While she was distracted, the original card began to suck the energies out of the frozen store patrons.
Sailor X jumped behind a display and tried to catch her breath. "Why didn't Astra come with me! What do I do?" A moment later a one of the cards buzzed above her head, slicing the display in two and causing her to scream and run again. "HELP!"
As if on cue, something struck the cards and they stopped attacking. When Sailor X realized she was no longer being chased, she stopped and looked back at the cards, which had been speared by a sword and were slowly fizzling away. Looking up to a high window, she saw a shadowy figure. It remained for a minute and disappeared.
"What the?" Sailor X whispered to herself.
The original card noticed that it's duplicates had been defeated and turned back to Sailor X. "Oh ho! So some of my spawns are gone? Do you think I can't produce more?" Another four cards spanned behind it, then more and more, until Sailor X was surrounded by identical clones.
The cards spun around her, making her dizzy. "It'd be nice if sword guy stuck around!" She closed her eyes and held her head. "Oh God, I think I'm gonna barf…" Barely holding back her retching stomach, the hero tried to think of a way to defeat the monster. Maybe if I get rid of the original…
Suddenly standing, she cried out, "X Hidden Beam!" and blasted away half circle's worth of cards. She then repeated the attack on the other half until one stood alone. One more blast of her purple energy ray and there was a gaping hole in the card.
"Well…" it coughed when the dust and smoke had cleared. "that's gonna hurt in the morning."
"There won't be another morning for you!" Sailor X put forward her hand and her wand appeared again. "Secret Star Magic!"
The golden light of her attack shot out from the tip of the star and turned the card to dust after it screamed, "Encore!"
Sailor X stayed only long enough to make sure that the victims of the attack were alright. She then teleported once more to the backyard of her grandmother's home in New Jersey.
(.:SX:.)
When Sailor X transformed back to Kate, she immediately turned on her communicator to call Astra and tell her what had happened. The feline admitted that she probably should have come in with her to help seeing as this was only her second battle and apologized.
"Well, at least Sword Guy was there."
"Who?" Astra asked, puzzled. Kate explained about the mysterious man who had thrown the sword that saved her. Her guardian's eyebrows knit together. "I feel as though that is something familiar…However, I have no more memories so I cannot remember. Do you remember perchance?"
Kate thought hard but she couldn't come up with anything having to do with a swordsman in her life on Xena. She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
When she had finished her talk with Astra, Kate wondered what she would tell her grandmother about where she disappeared to or how she had managed to return to the house. There was nothing that she could think of to cover up the escapade. Hoping that something would come to her, she knocked on the front door and waited. Seconds later the door opened. "Kate!" Her grandmother embraced her and brought her inside. "I was so worried about you!"
"I can explain...I think..." Kate began but Jane put a finger to her mouth.
"Kate, it's time we had a little talk. I know your secret." Kate's mouth fell open and she was about to deny it but her grandmother shook her head. "I've known all along, darling."
"But how?"
"I used to live with your mother until when you were brought to the apartment. I promised that if Astra didn't erase my memories that I would keep the secret. Kate, I have to tell you, I was once in your shoes exactly."
"What do you mean?" The older woman pulled out a star shaped locket from her pocket. The shining gold had faded from time but it still radiated strong energy. "I'm Sailor North Star. I had to protect the world too when I was just about your age. I was all alone, just like you are now. And I want you to know that I understand…And I'm always here for you."
"Grandma…Thank you!" Kate hugged her tightly and Jane placed the locket into her hands. She opened it and inside found a beautiful rainbow colored crystal.
"That's the Aurora Lights crystal, the source of my powers." She looked at the gem with a reminiscent glow in her eyes. The two sat in silence for a bit before Kate turned to her grandmother to give the locket back.
"You know what? I think I'm going to come and visit you and your mother for a while. Just in case you need a little extra help with this new threat. I haven't fought in so long, it'd be nice to get a little action."
"Really, Grandma? That would be amazing!" They hugged once again and her grandmother laughed happily.
Later, the two generations of Sailor soldiers packed to return together to New York City.