-Family Secrets-

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I make any sort of a profit by writing this (which is a shame really, since I could probably use the money. Oh well...).

-VII-

Setsuna watched from the front porch as Mamoru drove off. Inside she could faintly hear Michiru and Haruka talking, but her own thoughts were elsewhere. A hero. Professor Tomoe had thought she would do nothing because she was a hero. The Inner Senshi were the heroes, fighting youma in public and receiving public adulation and acclaim. It was the Inners who got lunch boxes and video games. The Outers, and most particularly her, were in the shadows doing the dirty work, the work that the Inners never could or never would do.

A hero?

If he only knew...

--

-Dorset, England, 1583-

She was stationed at the Time Gate by Queen Serenity herself to prevent its use, and was given three taboos which she was forbidden to disobey. She was forbidden from traveling through time, she was forbidden from abandoning her post at the Gate, and she was forbidden from ever causing time to stop. Today, she was violating one of those rules by being here.

She stood near the back of a large crowd as a light drizzle showered down. Serenity's taboo wasn't enough to keep her away today, nor was the stench from the open sewer running down the center of the cobbled street or the black flies that swarmed everywhere. She needed to be here, she had a duty to fulfill. All the same, as she looked about her at the angry and ignorant faces waving sticks and pitchforks in the air, she couldn't help but wonder whether she would ever end up violating one of Serenity's taboos again.

As the wind blew the rain into her face, she pulled the cloak tighter around her. The other women wore their hooded cloaks to protect themselves from the weather, but she was currently more concerned with hiding her Asiatic appearance from these unruly fools surrounding her. She remembered Serenity's final words, trying to take comfort from them as the time she dreaded came nearer.

"One day, all will be revived again. The cycle of life, death and rebirth thus turned will begin again someday. Princess Serenity and all of our Sailor Senshi, may your love be fulfilled in the future on earth. In the future on earth... please live happy lives."

"Oy! Look 'ere," a fat bearded man with a dirty face shouted as he pointed down the road, "'Ere comes the prison coach!"

Suddenly the crowd that was already belligerent became violently unruly, with men, women and even children rushing forward as the coach approached, throwing rocks through the bars of the caged prison coach at the bound female prisoner. The coachman leading the horses laughingly egged the crowd on as some came forward with sticks, reaching through the bars to strike at the captive. The crowd followed the coach as it headed towards the town square, and Pluto silently followed as well from the back.

They all stopped at a large wooden gallows. As the crowd slowly calmed down, the sounds of the prisoner weeping could just faintly be heard as the magistrate stepped up onto the gallows platform and opened up a scroll.

"Alice Clutterbuck," he shouted so that all could hear, "Thou hast been determined to be a witch by the courts and by those accusers who didst turn thee over to the witch finder general of these parts, Edmund Worthington. You stand convicted both of predicting young Jeremiah Smith's death before it happened and of causing the crop fire last May through your converse with the Devil. Having given your confession, after both water dunking in the town cesspool and having been prodded with red hot needles until your witch's mark was found, thou shalt now be hung by the gallows until thou art dead, at which point your remains shalt be burnt upon the stake. Jailer," he now said as he nodded to the coachman, "Carry out the sentencing."

Pluto balled her hands up, her nails digging so hard into her palms that blood began to seep out. One day, in the future, all the Senshi would be reborn together and a new Kingdom would rise to replace the old. In the meantime, the Senshi would reincarnate here and there in various places and at different times throughout human history, waiting for that new age to come. As she watched the young English girl being dragged before the crowd, her eyes involuntarily began to tear up. Serenity had wanted them to find peace in the future, not this.

The girl, bloodied and bruised, was finally dragged by her hair to the top of the scaffold. As she watched, for the first time Pluto thought of rebelling Serenity's orders and interfering. She began to shake as she watched the noose fitted around the girl's neck and her hands bound behind her back.

Then, with a sickening thud, the trap door beneath Alice Clutterbuck was opened and she fell. Her eyes bulged and her feel kicked wildly in the air to the delight of the spectators. But then, suddenly, the crowd hushed as the girl's forehead began to glow bright red. The astrological symbol for the planet Mars appeared on her forehead as a small wand began to slowly form in front of her.

"Dead Scream."

The villagers suddenly jumped in shock as something struck the jailer's cart, reducing it to splinters and bent metal. A second and a third explosion caused the superstitious townspeople to run away in terror. One of them, a young redheaded boy with freckles, yelled out after the adults, "Look, another witch! Come back, it's another witch!"

The crowd gone, Sailor Pluto now walked over to the scaffold. Alice Clutterbuck's legs finally stopped kicking, the symbol on her forehead and the henshin wand disappearing as she breathed forth her last and died. Pluto had done her duty; she had seen to it that the wand had not fallen into anyone else's hands. Even now, the wand had no doubt returned to where it had been resting for all these thousands of years. She had also made sure that the girl had died without fully awakening. If Mars were allowed to awaken here, in this time and place and without the other Senshi or their princess, it could've meant disaster to the entire time line.

She opened a portal and returned to her Time Gate.

She'd done her duty.

And not for the first time, Pluto hated herself for it.

--

Setsuna blinked as she realized Mamoru's car was far away by now. She could still hear Haruka and Michiru talking. She envied them; no matter how hard the choice to be made, they had each other for support. She had no one, and there were times when the weight of her responsibilities seemed too much to bear. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she felt another headache coming on. Michiru was a psychic, and the constant strain of guarding her thoughts was giving the Time Senshi migraines. Sometimes she would try to focus on abstract temporal quantum theories, other times fashion design and fabrics, anything other than what might have to be done if their daughter had become their enemy.

There were times when the aqua-haired Senshi would look at her oddly, and Setsuna could almost read suspicion in her eyes. If it did come down to it though, she would once again do what needed to be done, and would once more hate herself just as she had when she watched Mars die by the hands of…

Mars

"Setsuna-chan?" Michiru asked as she came out onto the porch and stood next to the distant Senshi, "What's wrong? Why are you still out here?"

Setsuna turned to her, a strange gleam in her eye. "Michiru, grab Haruka," she said as a smile slowly formed on her lips, "We're going to the Hikawa Shrine."

--

Professor Souichi Tomoe watched as his students slowly filtered out of the lecture hall. It was Friday, and all his students were eager to leave the classroom and go out into the warm summer weather outside.

All except one.

"Tomoe-sensei," a young woman with short brown hair called over as she came up to the professor carrying a graded paper, "Sensei, if you have the time, I wish to discuss your grading of my report."

The professor allowed a sigh as he slowly nodded. Kichi Asagiri was a brilliant and gifted student, which was why the professor had seen this coming. "Hai Asagiri-san, what do you wish to discuss?"

"Well, you only gave my paper a B plus. Surely with the amount of research I put in I deserved an A if not an A plus. And your notes, warning about tampering with things that are better left alone. Isn't that a rather anti-science stance for a science professor to take?"

Professor Tomoe looked at the young student sympathetically as he heard her out. Her paper had been concerned with the work of the German scientist Wilhelm Reich, who had conducted experiments seeking the origins of life during his time in Oslo from 1934 to 1937. His experiments with protozoa, grass, animal tissue and other organic compounds involved suspending them in potassium and gelatin and then heating them until glowing blue vesicles emerged which gave off an observable radiant energy. This energy he called "orgone," and the vessicals he named "bions" and claimed to be a rudimentary form of life.

"Asagiri-san," the professor began, "Your paper was both well-cited and flawlessly researched. The problem is that Wilhelm Reich's work borders on pseudoscience. His experiments were flawed and terribly compromised by modern standards, and even the scientific community of his own time knew enough to distance themselves from his work…"

"With due respect," Kichi interrupted, "The German scientific community of his time were biased against him because he was Jewish. He was even denounced as a 'Jewish pornographer' for dabbling into the origins of life by the fascist press of his time. That hardly seems objective or scientific."

Professor Tomoe sighed inwardly. As if he didn't have enough to deal with already, it was clear that the young lady in front of him was not about to back down. "There's an old saying, Asagiri-san. 'The worst kind of treason is to do the right thing but for the wrong reason.' Yes, Wilhelm Reich was unfairly vilified because of his background, but that still doesn't exonerate his faulty reasoning or his absurd ideas. I mean, he claimed that orgone was some sort of cosmic primal energy responsible for everything from the formation of galaxies to the color of the sky to biological expressions of emotions and sexuality. Based on what? A few experiments with grass and one-celled organisms? And his orgone accumulators…"

"Now we get to the real issue," Kichi said. "If I remember correctly, your harshest criticisms of my paper were related to his orgone accumulators."

The professor nodded. In 1940, Reich built boxes called orgone accumulators to concentrate atmospheric orgone energy; some were for lab animals, and some were large enough for a human being to sit inside. Composed of alternating layers of metals and organic insulators, his orgone accumulators had the appearance of a large, hollow capacitor.

"Reich's work with Orgone accumulators is nothing more nor less than mad scientist drivel."

"Now you're sounding like the fascist press that claimed they were sex boxes that caused uncontrollable erections."

"Asagiri-san, you don't understand," Professor Tomoe said as he suddenly became impassioned. "I've been down the same road you're going, gone down the same path you're now heading. In my case it was experiments with extra dimensional physics, and I ended up a widower and a broken man because of it. I'm not talking to you simply as your instructor, but as someone who doesn't wish to see anyone else hurt as I was by trying to take science places it shouldn't go. Abandon your infatuation with Reich, and forget about his work with orgone accumulators."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, professor," Kichi explained defiantly. "You see, I've created my own accumulator."

Professor Tomoe's eyes widened apprehensively, "You did what?"

"I've created an orgone accumulator. I've even made some improvements to Wilhelm's original designs. The accumulator I made is collapsible, and can be folded up or unfolded and set up in any location I choose. Tomorrow night I plan to demonstrate it to a few of my classmates. You're welcome to come and observe as well."

"Asagiri, don't…"

"Tomorrow night, at the top of the Tokyo Tower. After which, I'll expect my grade to be adjusted accordingly." And with a wink she turned, walking out of the lecture hall before the speechless professor could think of anything more to say.

--

Minako looked up as Hotaru exited the rest room. She kept the skirt and boots on, but at the blonde's request had substituted the more suggestive top for one of her more usual black turtlenecks. She'd convinced the younger Senshi that it wasn't necessary to change so radically so quickly. The black-haired girl had also removed most of her makeup save her midnight black eyeliner. The blonde had hoped that by getting her to dress less adult she'd be able to go back to seeing her as just little Hotaru-chan again.

It didn't work. The spell had been cast, and she realized Hotaru would never be a simple child in her eyes again. Something deep within the blonde stirred as Hotaru came closer, but was quickly suppressed. As Minako struggled to come to terms with the new and quite frankly unwelcome feelings, the younger Senshi looked around curiously. "Where's Artemis?"

Minako pulled the chair out from the small dining room table. "He's out on a date with Luna." She turned the chair to face Hotaru and sat down, "So it's just the two of us this evening. Hotaru-chan, we need to talk."

Hotaru frowned slightly as she sat down on the bed across from her. "I know that tone. That's the 'Hotaru, we need to talk about you and your folks' tone."

"Hotaru-chan, they're all worried about you. They've involved the police and…"

"And?"

Minako debated whether or not to tell Hotaru about her father's suit, and quickly dismissed the idea as being too much for her to handle at the present time. "Hotaru-chan, when I talked on the phone with Haruka, she… She didn't sound like the Haruka I knew. She…"

"Minako-chan," Hotaru interrupted, "With all due respect, I understand what you're trying to do, but you've no idea what I'm going through. Everything I thought I knew about myself and everything and everyone has been turned upside down. I thought I knew who I could trust, who I could believe, and I had no clue. I… I know I stunned you a bit, dressing this way and piercing my tongue and everything, but I'm all alone now and I'm having to start from scratch to find out who I really am, not who I've been told I am. Right now I'm lonely and scared and… And tired of having my heart broken every time I open it to someone."

Minako watched as Hotaru fought the urge to cry. "Hotaru-chan," she said in a soothing voice, "You weren't simply speaking about you parents just now, were you? Who broke your heart?"

Hotaru waved off the question bitterly. "It doesn't matter. She's a thousand years in the future now in love with someone else."

Minako's eyes widened in understanding, "I see."

"Everyone I love seems to eventually either betray me or else they don't return it. So I'm sorry, but you're the Senshi of Love, there's no way you can understand what I'm going through."

Minako stared at her silently for a few seconds before slowly rising up from her seat and walking over to her. "You're wrong, Hotaru-chan," she said as she sat next to her on the bed, "I do know what it's like, to be hurt by love. There have been four people I've loved, and not one of them ever loved me back. Back when I was Sailor V, I'd fallen for a British police officer named Allan who ran off with an Interpol agent I thought of as a big sister. For the longest time I felt betrayed by both of them. Then I fell for a guy named Ace Kaitou, who I thought was a knight in shining armor and who turned out to be the head of an offshoot of the Dark Kingdom known as the Dark Agency. His betayal hurt the worst. And…"

"And?"

Minako suddenly looked pensive, "You promise not to tell?"

"Cross my heart," Hotaru said as she made the motion with her finger over her chest.

"I sort of had a crush on Usagi and Rei for a while." Noting the surprised look on Hotaru's face, she smiled sadly as she continued. "I know, Usagi has Mamoru and Rei… Well, Rei's just Rei, isn't she? Besides, I almost suspect that my falling for those I obviously can never have is part of my curse."

Hotaru looked at her funny. "Curse? What curse?"

Minako looked away, wishing she'd said nothing. "Ace placed a curse on me," she admitted reluctantly, "I will never be able to know love." Her voice began to crack as she wrung her hands. "I am doomed to always place my duty first, and I can never choose love over duty. So you see, you're not the only one to know what being lonely feels like."

Hotaru said nothing as the beautiful blonde sat in front of her with her head turned away so the Senshi of Death wouldn't see her tears. Even now she thought, even in pain, the Senshi of love was beautiful. She wanted to reach over and hug her, to comfort her somehow. Just as she was about to, Minako reached up and wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. "Heh," she said as she tried to force a laugh, "Enough about my problems though. We were talking about you and your problems, not the other way around."

Hotaru was in awe; instead of dwelling on her own pain, Minako was instead still trying to reach out. She'd already placed herself in harm's way by taking the younger Senshi of Death in, since there was no telling what might happen if she were found. And truth be told there was little for the blonde to gain. She seemed to genuinely be concerned for Hotaru's well-being. The thought touched something deep within her.

"So," Minako said as she wiped her eyes again and forced a smile, "I promise I won't bring up your parents again, okay? As for your other problem, though, you're in luck. I may not be able to help myself in the romance department, but as the Senshi of Love I can help others. Is there anyone else, other than a certain future pink-haired princess, that you have feelings for?"

Hotaru's lips slowly formed into a smile as she carefully edged a bit closer to Minako. "Well, there is one. But she doesn't know yet."

"I see…" Minako said, the smallest hint of jealousy rising within her. "Is she into girls too?"

Hotaru's pulse picked up a bit. "Yes, I think she is," she said. Part of her was afraid of what might happen next, but another part of her desperately wished for enough nerve to see it through.

"Well," Minako began, noting to herself that Hotaru was suddenly sitting much closer to her, "What's she like?"

"Let's see, she can be a bit of a flake at times," Hotaru said as she locked eyes with the blonde, "But she's also kind, and sincere, and she thinks of others, and," she lowered her voice as she unexpectedly reached up and cupped the side of Minako's face, "She's a beautiful person both inside and out."

Minako suddenly felt like a deer caught in the headlights. This wasn't happening, it couldn't be. And yet, as Hotaru closed her eyes and slowly leaned in, she found herself leaning in too. Hotaru was so attractive to the blonde right now, and she was hurting too. The blonde wanted to lose herself with her, to take away her pain and her own as well. She began to lean into her as well.

Suddenly, she realized what she was doing.

"No!" Minako cried out as she backed away, falling off the bed and landing on her rear end on the floor.

Hotaru stood up to help the blonde up, but Minako was already up on her feet nervously pacing back and forth. "What are you doing?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around herself, "Kami-sama, what am I doing?"

"Minako…"

"I'm the adult here," Minako said excitedly as she began to back further away. "We can't do this, we just can't."

"Yes we can," Hotaru said as she slowly came closer to the blonde. "I'm only two and a half years younger than you, and we're both lonely, you yourself admitted it. We're both lonely and we both need this."

"Need this?" Minako asked as Hotaru came ever closer.

"Yes, we need this," Hotaru said as fresh tears slowly formed in the corners of her eyes, "We need this to know that we can open ourselves to another and that it doesn't have to end in pain. We need this because otherwise we're just going to remain two broken people afraid of love. As the Senshi of Love, you have to know I'm right about this. You have to."

Minako's arms slowly fell to her side, and her shoulders sagged as she swallowed hard. "Exactly when did you grow up so fast?"

Hotaru smirked through her tears, "I think it was sometime around when I ran away from home."

Minako wanted to believe Hotaru, that this was right, but the war that was suddenly raging within her cast another doubt at her. "And my curse?" she whispered, "I can never choose love over duty."

"No one is saying you do have to choose," Hotaru said as she once more cupped Minako's cheek in her hand. "Don't you understand? They don't have to be at war with one another, Minako-chan. They can coincide."

Minako didn't know what to say. Hotaru once more cautiously leaned in. This time the blonde closed her eyes and leaned in as well. Slowly, shyly, their lips barely brushed against each other before both pulled back. They kissed again, this time longer and more fully. Minako reached up and wrapped her arms around her fellow Senshi's neck as both became lost in the moment.

--

"Yuuchirou, are you done with the lawn work yet?" Rei yelled out as the aspiring Shinto priest in question was busy tending to the many chores necessary needed to maintain the shrine's grounds."

"Just about," Yuuchirou answered as he wiped a bit of sweat from his brow.

"Well try to hurry up. Grandpa should be almost done with his nap and I'm going to need you to stay with him while I finish with dinner and…" her voice died off as she heard the footsteps behind her. She didn't have to turn to look, she knew their auras. "Tell you what," she said abruptly, "Forget about the rest of your chores for today. Go on in and take a nice hot shower." Once the young man was gone, she turned slowly towards her three visitors. "What's wrong?" she asked acerbically.

Haruka rolled her eyes. "She's direct, isn't she?"

"Rei-chan," Michiru said as she came forward, "We need your help."

Rei was barely able to hide her annoyance as she turned away from the three Outers to collect the tools Yuuchirou left behind. "I've already done my best," she said as she picked up a rake, "I spent hours in front of my flame, and what I got is of no help whatsoever."

"Which is why we're here," Michiru continued. "We believe we can aide you."

Rei turned back towards the group. "Help?" she asked curiously as she came over to the emerald-haired artist, "How?"

"First of all, we're her family," Michiru explained, "We've been closer to her than anyone else, save Chibi Usa. That bond may act as a link if we were to join together, a sort of psychic scent if you will, that we might be able to follow. Second, I'm a more developed psychic than you. No disrespect."

"Of course not," Rei said through gritted teeth.

"And third…"

"Third?"

"We have the talismans," Setsuna said as she stepped forward, "The mirror, sword and garnet stone that awakened here in the Silver Millennium, and which brought about her awakening in this time."

Rei looked from Setsuna to the other two and back. "I see," she said finally. "And what's the plan?"

"We will go to your sacred flame," Setsuna explained, "And the three of us will use the talismans to force Hotaru's transformation into Sailor Saturn. Then we all join hands, and you and Michiru will focus on finding her."

"Hopefully," Haruka said, "Even if the four of us aren't able to form a familial psychic link Michiru and you can follow, we'll still be able to pick up on her unique aura when she's transformed into Sailor Saturn. Plus, it'll be harder for her to hide incognito in her Sailor form."

Rei considered the Outer's proposal carefully. "Very well," she said as she slung the rake over her shoulder, "It's the best idea I've heard so far. Let's get started."

-To Be Continued-