Chapter Seven: The Return

The turquoise haired beauty closed her blue eyes and her talisman appeared in her hands.

"What is it?" the tall blond asked.

"They're coming back…" she replied as she looked at three shooting stars entering the Milky Way Galaxy.

* * *

"Usagi!"

"What is it mama?" the girl called from her room.

"Your friend Rei as at the door! She wants to take you out somewhere! Remember to be back soon! You know your father doesn't like you out so late!"

"Ok mama!" the girl called from her room again. She changes in a flash and bounces out and down the stairs to the front door. There a panting raven-haired girl looked back at her with frantic eyes.

"Hey Rei! What's up?" she asked cheerfully, noting her friend's condition.

"They… They're… coming…" she panted out.

"Wha?" Usagi asked confusingly.

"Come!" Rei replied hastily and grabbed Usagi's wrist and pulled her out the door. She dragged her along as she ran, making the whining girl keep up with her.

"REI! What's wrong? Where are we going? Slow down!"

"No time!" Rei threw at her in a huff.

Rei finally let go of her wrist after much protest and they raced to Hikawa Jinja, where Usagi found all the senshi; Inner and Outer gathered in front of Rei's room at the temple.

"Nani?" she managed to pant out as she tried to catch her breath.

"Koneko-chan, someone has come back to see you," replied Tenoh Haruka.

Usagi cocks her head and looks questioningly at everyone. As her eyes rested on Michiru sitting on the wooden elevated walkway, she found that the older girl held her talisman, the Aqua Mirror and most of the people were crowding around her and trying to look at the mirror.

Michiru looked up at her with a smile and motioned for Usagi to come closer. The confused girl walked over to Michiru and leaned down close to the other girl's head and turned her own head to face the mirror. She gasped at the sight.

"Three shooting stars! Wow!" her eyes widened.

"So you get it now?" Haruka asked, lifting her gaze from the mirror.

"Huh? Get what?"

All the girls sighed at her air headed response and most of them stood up from their leaning position near Michiru.

"The three shooting stars dummy! Do you know who they are?!" asked Minako loudly, arms flying up to look annoyed.

"Huh? What do you think? Of course not! What are you people talking about anyway? I don't know anything about this! Rei dragged me out here!"

Rei sighs tiredly, "Usagi, I thought you were smarter!"

"HEY! I am not as stupid as you think!" she snapped with a pout.

"Well then tell us who they are!" exclaimed Minako.

Usagi looked back again at the mirror. A look of realization dawned on her face as she looked at the shooting stars head towards Earth. It quickly faded to be replaced by a surprised and confused look.

"Well?" urged Minako.

"The… The…" she stuttered. Everyone leaned forward a bit, waiting for her answer.

"I really don't know!" she blurted out, a hand going up behind her head and a sheepish grin on her face.

Everyone falls forward with sweat drops.

"Hehehe! They're just shooting stars! What's so special anyway?"

Everyone jumps back to their feet and Rei rolls her eyes, "They're the StarLights you idiot!"

"WOAH!!!! NO WAY!!! YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!!!!!"

"Quiet down! You'll wake grandpa and that stupid brown haired imbecile!"

"Oh… sorry! You really shouldn't call him that!" replied Usagi.

Rei rolls her eyes again and crossed her arms across her chest.

"I think I can calculate where they will appear," announced Ami, pulling out her little portable computer.

"Well… um… so? They're… coming… So?" Usagi stuttered out.

Makoto raises an eyebrow, "Don't you want to see them Usagi? Aren't you missing a certain individual from the trio?"

Everyone smiles at her slyly. Usagi frowns and shoots Rei a death glare. Rei sort of flinches and looks away.

"Well… um… so? What… What if… I did or, I mean… Do…?" Usagi stuttered out again.

"Then we'll go meet them!" Minako exclaimed.

"NANI!?!?!? WOAH!!! I mean… NO!" Usagi nearly screamed.

"SH!!! Quiet down big mouth!" Rei shushed.

"Oh! Sorry… again… Well, I mean, NO!"

"What do you mean "No" Usagi? We know you want to meet… HIM…" Minako questioned her, pointing her thumb at the Aqua Mirror.

"I… I… Um… I…" stumbled the blushing blond.

"It's okay Usagi, you don't have to admit anything if you don't want to," says Michiru with a warm smile.

"Besides, we almost know everything anyway!"

"HUH?" choked out Usagi.

"Minako!" most of them scolded.

"OOPS! Sorry! Forget I said it Usagi! Ehehe…"

Usagi grew smaller and blushed redder.

"They just went past Mars!" announced Michiru.

Usagi's head snapped up and moved closer to Michiru to look at the mirror in her hands.

"I can almost pinpoint their landing location… Since they're coming so close they're ready to transport themselves once they reach our atmosphere… I estimate that they've picked out a spot already… Scanning for high-energy levels and altered dimension signals… Almost… got it… Pinpointing…" everyone held their breath for Ami, the computer whiz to finish finding the StarLight's landing spots. "Ok… GOT IT! A park a few blocks from here!"

Usagi practically flew over and nearly tackled Ami. She took one quick look at the little computer screen and raced for the temple steps.

"HEY! Usagi! WAIT UP!" yelled Rei and sprinted after her.

The whole group followed, except for Haruka and Michiru. As the other girls disappeared down the stairs Haruka and Michiru walked over the stone tiles on the ground.

"Transform?" asked Michiru calmly, one hand holding her henshin stick. Haruka took one of her hands from her pockets and produced her henshin stick too and nodded.

* * *

The big group ran down the streets towards the park that wasn't too far away.

Hotaru and Setsuna at the back of the girl group stop suddenly, realizing two people missing.

"They must be…" began Hotaru; two shadowed figures jumping past them on the rooftops proved her hypothesis.

"Hotaru-chan, lets," said Setsuna.

"Hai, Setsuna-mama," the small girl replied, taking out her henshin stick.

* * *

The Inners ran down the streets, too focused on their destination to notice that the Outers weren't with them. Usagi kept her pace even though she felt the muscles in her legs strain till they hurt and her lungs burn from the lessened intake of oxygen. Her mind was a blur, she felt lightheaded but she fought it. She had to stay focused.

'We just have to turn that corner and go down that block…' she thought. She tried to run even faster but her legs would not obey.

Rei that was right behind her tried to follow closely, noticing Usagi's heightened speed. 'She's so fast… although she's still slower than Uranus and Neptune she's never ran this fast before… She must really want to get there first. But I have a bad feeling about this…'

* * *

"AAAAAAH!" she screamed and took another step just in time to fall onto the guest room bed. Her hands tangled in her pink hair that was no longer in perfect buns.

The dark and light pink strands formed a pool around her pain- contorted face. Her sparkling pink eyes squeezed shut with little drops of tears escaping now and then at the corner of them. She rolled around on the bed, a hopeless attempt to clear her head of the horrible migraine caused from the recent downpour of a million images and memories.

She screams again and continues her futile actions to stop her head from splitting open.

* * *

The two senshi dropped into the park and ran towards the hill behind the large playground. They advanced together in perfect unison. As they went past the colorful slides, monkey bars, seesaws, swings, ladders, stairs, sand and approached the hill they saw two figures standing at the foot of the hill waiting for them.

Uranus smirked and thought, 'They catch on so fast these days.' Neptune and Uranus slowed a few feet from the other two senshi and jumped into the air and both did a synchronized flip. Landing precisely in front of Pluto and Saturn.

"Made it here before us," said Uranus with a small smile.

"We just caught on fast Uranus," Pluto replied, returning the smile.

"Let's get into position," cut in Saturn coolly.

* * *

The three shooting stars reached Earth and as they started descent through the atmosphere they suddenly fade and disappear…

* * *

The five teenage girls run into the park and towards the big hill in front of them. They all caught whiffs of trees and grass and different kinds of wild flowers as they ran down the paved path.

Usagi felt herself on the verge of collapsing, she knew she was straining herself too hard but she didn't care, she had to be there… be there first to see her. With that small bit of motivation she urged herself to get her legs to carry her even faster.

As the group advanced towards the playground, the hill steadily grew larger as they approached it, slowly revealing itself from behind the slides and swings. All of them grew more excited.

The black pavement in front of them grew shorter as they ran towards the abrupt stop of path, for after that abrupt stop is green grass with sparkling dew drops. The girls quickly passed the playground equipment and stampeded onto the damp green grass, hurrying towards the hill that was in front of them.

Usagi's blue eyes widened as she slowed a tad and looked up at the top of the hill, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. 'Four people? The StarLights are here already? Who's the other person?' She decided not to think about it now and kept running towards the hill.

"Hey… who's… the… other… person… up… there?" Makoto panted out.

"Mako-chan… they're… not the… StarLights!" Ami managed.

"NANI!?" Usagi yelled as she stopped suddenly, making Rei almost crash into her and the others fly past her. "Ami, what'd… you say?"

"Well… Look… None of them… have long ponytails… and two are carrying a staff… Be more observant, try to look at them more closely," she replied in short gasps.

"You know… They look kind of familiar…" said Mina thoughtfully as she gazed at the four shadows.

"They're… They're the Outers!" exclaimed Usagi.

"HUH?" the other four said together.

"Let's get going! They might do something to the StarLights when they get here!" she yelled and started going all out towards the hill again. The others soon ran after her.

*End of Chapter Seven