Chapter Nine: Desert Storm:

Tammy walked briskly down several hallways in Castella Palace trying to locate her boyfriend. After telling the group briefly what happened, he suddenly stood up and ran away. He was acting very strange ever since he came out of that door. Tammy wanted to know why and wasn't going to wait around for the answer.

She finally spotted Takemara out on a balcony. He seemed to be in deep thought watching the life of the country down below them. Tammy quietly took a few steps towards him and placed a hand on his left shoulder. "Takemara," she began. No answer. "Takemara, I want to help. But I can only help if you tell me what exactly happened when you went through that door."

She heard a sound come out of his mouth, sounding fairly similar to a scoff. Takemara peeked at Tammy out of the corner of his eye. "You really believe you can help me to understand what I just saw? Really Tammy?"

Tammy stayed silent watching Takemara turn around and face her. He told her everything, from his encounter with Chronos to seeing the Silver Millennium die in front of him. He could tell she was trying her best not to show any signs of surprise or shock in her expression but Takemara knew her too much to know when she put a mask on or not. "That wasn't even the bad part of it all. Someone pulled me back and whether they meant to or not, I saw everything that happened since the destruction of the Moon Kingdom," he said.

"Do you have any guesses on who that person could have been?" Tammy asked him.

"It could have been Chronos but I doubt he would have pulled me back when he could have just sent me back to the present the easy way. It had to be someone there who survived during the attack and was a time being..." Takemara trailed off as the answer became clear to him. "My mother," he mumbled.

"...I don't think she would have wanted you to see all that," Tammy told him.

"Yeah but I did. I may have not understood everything but I saw them. I understood the recent ones though. I saw the time Rini got captured. I watch the Sun Kingdom get attacked while we couldn't help them. I even relived the moment of your death," Takemara said.

Tammy reached towards him. "Takemara-."

Takemara pushed her arms away from him. "Save it. I don't need another lecture about trying to move on from it," he said. Tammy watched as he headed towards the exit. "Tell the others that I'll be ready to make a portal to Aries later today."

Tammy sighed when Takemara left. 'This is the worst time to be disconnected' she thought.

/*/*/*/

Rini raised an eyebrow upon Tammy's return without Takemara as she fell backwards onto a sofa. Tammy turned her head towards Rini with a tired look.

"So where's your "Take~kun" Tammy?" Kenzo asked with a slight hint of imitation in his voice. Yume gave Kenzo a look to tell him that it wasn't the time to be mocking people.

"I don't know," Tammy answered tiredly. "But he said we can leave for Aries later this afternoon."

"Alright. I guess now would be a good time to brainstorm about where Mou could possibly be," Rini said, calling the princess of Aries by her nickname.

"It's hard to brainstorm places when all the search parties found nothing on their investigations..." Uratoh pointed out.

"I wish Queen Setsuna could help us out a bit," Arcturus sighed.

"Who wants to play a game then?" Kenzo asked. Rini turned to stare at him. "What?"

"Really Kenzo? A game? At a time like this?" Rini raised an eyebrow.

"Well I was hoping we could just go to Aries now but since Takemara is being Mister Moody and we have no brainstorm ideas, we need something to pass the time," Kenzo said with a shrug.

"You go do that Kenzo. Meanwhile Aeneas and I are going on a walk," Kimiko said as she stood up. Aeneas looked at Kimiko with a reluctant face. "Oh come on." Kimiko grabbed his hands and dragged him away.

"I'm tired so I'm going to take a nap while I still have the chance," Tammy said then yawned to prove her point. She stretched her model long legs out on the couch and slung an arm over her eyes.

"Alright so that's," Kenzo paused to count the remaining people left, "ten people who can play the game."

"Count me out Kenzo. I'm going to try to break into Aries' military force operations and see if there's any hidden tunnels or military related escape routes. There's a possibility Mou can be in one of those," Ariel said standing up with her computer tablet in her hand. She headed towards the balcony just outside the main living quarters.

"I'm going to go help her," Maximillian said then followed Ariel.

"I doubt anything is going to get done between those two if you know what I mean," Hiroshi smirked. Tsunami rolled her eyes then got up from her spot on the chaise.

"Oh so you're going to leave too?" Kenzo groaned.

"Yeah. I haven't talked to Michael in forever. I just want to know how he's doing. Au revoir!" Tsunami blew kisses at her friends as she exited the room.

"Make that seven people left," Yume pointed out. "Why do you want to play anyway?"

"I just told you why! I'm bored!" Kenzo said.

"But nobody wants to play," Arcturus said with a moan.

"Yeah and your games are pretty lame Kenzo. I'm going to find something to eat. You coming Uratoh?" Hiroshi asked him. Uratoh nodded and the two walked out of the main living quarters.

Arcturus, Rini, Maxine got up. "Sorry Kenzo but we rather do anything else than play your game," Rini said with laugh.

"Whatever. You guys suck," Kenzo scowled at them.

Arcturus laughed. "Sorry dude," he said, walking towards the door with Rini.

Maxine turned back. "You're not coming Yume?" she asked.

"I'm just going to stay here and relax for a bit. You go ahead," Yume told her. Maxine shrugged then followed Rini and Arcturus.

Kenzo looked over at Yume who had leaned back against the chair cushions. "Why didn't you go with them?" he asked.

"And leave you all alone? There are too many fragile things in this room, I wouldn't trust you alone," Yume said with a playful smirk. She put her arms behind her head as Kenzo searched through his backpack for something. What he was looking for Yume didn't know. Soon he pulled out a plastic bag full of gummy worms. "Ah so you wanted to play 'I Never'," she guessed. The group always played I Never with gummy worms since they were everyone's favourites.

"Yeah but everyone decided to be losers and ditch so I guess more worms for you and me," Kenzo said with a grin. Yume laughed and Kenzo laid back vertically along the other sofa. "Sour or regular?

"Sour." A gummy worm was tossed in Yume's direction and she used her levitation to bring the candy towards her before grabbing it with her other hand. The two just rested there in silence eating their worms happily. It was weird how Yume could feel so calm and normal with just Kenzo there. With some of the others, she felt as if she was trying to hide all the time. Trying to hide who she really was.

"Truth or dare?" Kenzo asked in a bored manner.

"Truth."

"What really happened to that breathing condition of yours?" Yume stopped chewing as Kenzo sat up to look at her. They connected eyes and Yume knew then that he didn't buy her earlier statement. She told the group just yesterday after their visit to the Sun about how her condition was better now and the medication was really working. Of course it was all a lie since it was really the amethyst necklace doing the work.

Yume crossed her arms and leaned back again. "You figured out it was a lie?"

Kenzo chuckled slightly. "I know you Yume. Now how did you really get rid of that cough?" he asked again. Yume sighed and pulled out the necklace from her pocket. "What does a necklace have to do with this?"

"Look at it closer Kenzo," Yume instructed him, tossing the necklace over in his direction. He caught it and studied it in his hands.

"Hey isn't this-."

"Yes it is," Yume cut him off. "Nyx gave it to me when I was in the interview room with her just before she escaped. I know it seems bad but she told me that it would get rid of the pain and it did. The medication was just delaying the effects."

"I don't know how to react to this Yume. But you should be careful because I'm pretty sure this," Kenzo tossed the necklace back to her, "might have come with a price."

"I know, I know. I just want to be...normal like the rest of you guys," she admitted. "I haven't told anyone else this so you have to promise not to tell anyone."

"Yume haven't you learned that none of us are normal?" Kenzo said with a smile. "And yeah I promise not to tell. Only because I know you will eventually." Yume gave him a grateful smile and he threw another gummy worm at her. She caught it perfectly in her mouth. "Sweet." Yume laughed along with Kenzo. They continued to eat and talk for a while until they both fell asleep too.


"Gummy worms! I want some!" Uratoh said. The others arrived in the living room about ten minutes ago and discovered Yume and Kenzo sound asleep on the sofas. Not too long after they found the near empty plastic bag of gummy worms on the floor beside Kenzo. Yume rubbed her eyes and sat up once she heard her brother's voice.

She looked over at them with tired eyes. "Hey guys. What's going on?" she asked.

"Takemara says he's ready now. It's time to leave," Rini told her.

Yume checked the time on her phone and realized she was right. It was half past four. She got up and walked over to Kenzo, shoving him. It took a couple minutes of more shoving for Kenzo to finally wake up. "Oh we're leaving now?" he mumbled as he stretched.

"Yeah. Follow me," Takemara said heading in the direction of the courtyard. Tammy walked beside him while the others followed. The two walked beside each other in silence until Tammy finally spoke up.

"Takemara I get why you're acting like this but you really have to move on. I mean sure you saw some tragic things happen but I'm sure that you saw the good things too. The happy moments that happened in history. What about those Takemara?" Tammy said. Takemara didn't answer her. "You know I'm right. And I hope you know I'm not going to deal with this moody side of you throughout this trip," she added in.

He still didn't say anything as they walked into the courtyard. Takemara summoned his staff and everyone realized the alterations made to his staff. "Everyone ready?" he asked. They all nodded and Takemara took a deep breath. 'OK, this should be easy. Mom does it all the time and so does Neo-Queen Serenity' Takemara thought. He held his staff up and traced a large enough circle in the air for all of them to fit through then waited. The circle didn't light up and show the destination like it was supposed to.

"Are you sure that's how you're supposed to do it?" Maxine asked Takemara.

"I'm not sure..." Takemara admitted. The group stared at him. "Hey! It's not like this thing comes with an instruction manual!"

"Did Chronos even tell you how to open portals?" Rini asked this time. Takemara thought about it then remembered.

"Oh yeah I forgot to do one more thing," he said sheepishly. Rini rolled her eyes as Takemara traced another large circle then pointed the key-shaped end at the middle of circle and twisted it clockwise to unlock. The circle lit up and the image of the front of Mou's castle appeared. Takemara stepped through the portal first to make sure everything was fine before gesturing over to the others and telling them to cross. They all went through the portal and it closed behind them.

All of them looked at the rest of Aries' capital before the castle. Aries was one of the three military constellations. Phoenix and Orion being the other two, the latter was newly considered to be military. Normally the soldiers here looked refined and very disciplined but right now, they seemed a bit panicked as they scrambled from the command station to the castle and the capital.

"Alright let's find Mou's parents," Rini suggested then started towards the front door when the line of soldiers in front of the castle blocked her path. Rini stared at them in shock since they never acted that way before on any of her previous visits. "Um excuse me?"

"Her Majesty the queen requested that upon your party's arrival princess that you should be directed to the military's command station. The general will come with the car to pick you up soon," the soldier in the middle of the line told Rini.

"Oh alright. Thank you," Rini said politely then turned back to her friends. She guessed they heard the conversation because now everyone was just sitting on the ground waiting for the general's arrival. Ariel gestured Rini over with one hand as she kept typing furiously with the other on her computer tablet. Rini always wondered how she could type so fast whether it was with both hands and or just one hand.

"What is it Ariel?" Rini asked as she sat down beside the blue-haired genius.

"I've been thinking of Takemara's first meeting with Chronos. And I remembered a time when Arcturus and I were little and our mom was telling us about the time she met our First King. It made me wonder why none of us have met our First Royals in person until today. We all know who they are and any special deeds they've done but we haven't actually been to their sanctuaries and temples to meet them personally," Ariel said.

"Yeah that is a bit weird," Rini agreed. She recalled a time when her mom talked about the First Queen of the Moon. The strange part was how her mom never told her what happened to Artemis after the Moon Kingdom was destroyed.

"Anyway back to what I really wanted to say. I've been trying to locate some kind of guess as to where Mou could be but I found this really interesting myth about the First King that could give some kind of indication on Mou's location. It talks about Aries' sacred fire and the form the king took on after he stepped down from the throne," Ariel told her.

"You mean the giant bonfire in the courtyard of the castle?" Rini asked.

Ariel nodded. "Our First Royals are portrayed as personified giants with regular human features and all that stuff. But with the constellations, they are portrayed differently. Some are personified such as Virgo the maiden but others are animals or even objects such as Aries the ram. The first royals of the constellation kingdom were first personified deities then afterwards when they merged themselves with the very kingdoms they created, they became immortal and gained different aspects. One of their aspects is their celestial form. A form everybody would recognize and could identify their kingdoms with. And that's where all the animal representations originated from."

"Now with Aries, their First King created that large bonfire so that all the citizens could take a piece of the fire and start one in their homes. When he passed, his personified aspect merged within the fire. But the other, his celestial form, roams around Aries and only seen when he wants to be. He appears as a fiery ram made up of a body with red and orange flames with horns of white fire and a fiery gaseous tail like a comet. With our knowledge the First Royals inhabit their sanctuaries and their temples after merging. Though with constellations they only have temples which they can go to through pathways or the direct summoning."

"This myth says that it is rumoured that there is a mountain where his celestial form lives and only a royal of Aries could gain access to the mountain. I'm guessing the mountain is supposed to be the Temple of Aries. It also mentions that the sacred fire is one way of the pathways to get to the Temple of Aries. But it also says that many dreamers have tried to travel to the temple by land only to find nothing on their discoveries," Ariel finished at last.

"Are you trying to say that Mou could be at this mountain?" Rini asked.

"If she was at the temple then she would have been safe. Plus the Dark Senshi would have to have been royals of Aries to gain access. I'm saying that maybe if we try to travel to this mountain Mou could be hidden along the way and we can save her then. I would have to know the exact time and location when she was taken first to confirm this though," Ariel said.

"Well it's the only lead we have so we might as well go with it," Rini spoke as she stood up.

A stretched black limo pulled up to the castle's bridge at that moment and Kaji stuck his head out of the window. "Guys! Come on!" he called out waving at them with a smile.

Rini laughed slightly and waved back. "We're coming!" she called back as the others got up from the positions. The driver exited the limo and opened the door for the group as they piled into the limo and the car drove off to the command station.

Rini certainly didn't expect much once they arrived at command but it was still very surprising. As soon as they made it to the centre of the station they were given several items including two sets of car keys, several stapled packages of paper and some items that the group didn't already have in their backpacks and were dismissed. They were now standing in the middle of an abandoned lot searching for the two vehicles they were assigned for their mission.

"OK aren't any of you guys a little suspicious by how they just prepped us then waved us off in less than two minutes?" Aeneas asked suddenly.

"It's like they're all going out of their ways to make sure they help us as little as possible," Maximillian said.

"I don't like this," Kimiko muttered.

"None of us do Kimiko," Kenzo said.

"No but I have a really bad feeling about this whole thing. I haven't been able to see a single vision about anything that may happen since Akaaka's disappearance," Kimiko said with a sigh.

"Great we're doomed to fail," Uratoh grumbled.

"Hey don't say that! You know what will happen if we don't find Akaaka so it's important that we do. Look here are the cars," Rini said stopping at two Hummer-like vehicles. "Now who is old enough to dr-."

"That's definitely me!" Hiroshi said with a grin then grabbed one of the car keys from Rini. Everyone groaned upon realizing that Hiroshi was one of the two people out of the group who could drive. "Quit your groaning! I'm an awesome driver!"

"More like a dangerous one! You drive so recklessly on the road!" Maxine protested. She once got in a car with Hiroshi and he ran several red lights, took illegal U-turns and nearly ran over poor pedestrians.

"Yeah but we have no choice so..." Tsunami grabbed the other car key and ran to the driver's side of the second car. The girls quickly jumped into the car and locked the doors. "Boys go with Hiroshi!" Tsunami laughed while the girls behind her cheered.

"We'll die before we even save Mou," Arcturus muttered. He and the other guys reluctantly climbed into the car as Hiroshi got in the driver's seat. He turned the engine on and speedily drove out of the parking lot. Tsunami followed behind at a more moderate pace.

A few seconds later, Hiroshi's and Kaji's faces appeared on the screen in the girls' car dashboard. "Alright so where are we going?" Kaji asked.

"We must go to the place where the desert and forest meet and line the star Polaris with this point of a famous rock at exactly eight o'clock. It should light up a pathway to get to the temple of Aries," Ariel informed them though the video communicator.

"How did you find that out?" Hiroshi asked.

"I read," Ariel told them simply, as if that explained it all. When the boys looked at Ariel blankly, she sighed and went on to explain. "Mou went missing at eight o'clock right?"

"Right. It was on one of the papers in the package they gave us," Aeneas confirmed.

"And where was she at the time?"

"On a desert mission..." Arcturus trailed off.

"See? If this pathway really exists like it says in the myth then Mou would probably be found somewhere there," Ariel concluded.

"And there goes our little evil genius Ariel solving problems with no difficulty," Rini said with a smile. "We're lucky to have you."

"What about me? I'm smart too," Arcturus said with a pout.

"Yeah sure whatever you say," Hiroshi waved him off. "Send us a map," he told the girls. Soon the screen split into two halves, the bottom one showing the map. "Even at top speed this is going to take a long time. The desert and forest are like on the other side of the capital."

"Patience is essential to this mission. The more patient we are, the more time we'll gain in the long run," Takemara said.

"Oh so you're all poetic and philosophical now Takemara? Interesting," Hiroshi said with a slight laugh.

"I'm surprised you even know what 'philosophical' means," Takemara smirked. Hiroshi scowled and focused on the road ahead of him.

"I suggest you guys get some relaxation time now instead of later," Ariel told them all. They all nodded and adjusted themselves to more comfortable positions.

An hour or two later they finally entered the desert as the sun was setting, giving the whole place a deep red-orange glow. The girls were chatting and making fun of the boys while the boys were just fooling around like usual. Hiroshi kept trying to cut off Tsunami who overtook the lead from him several times.

Kenzo gazed out the window watching the desert and the sunset. The desert reminded him of home which made him want to complete this mission as fast as possible. Then his mind somehow shifted onto Yume. It was odd how their friendship grown to the point that she trusted him to keep secrets she hadn't told anyone else. It almost seemed like she was a different person but he could tell that she was the same person that she was last year.

'Wait, why am I even thinking about her?' Kenzo thought. His mind came up with a blank as he stared at the orange sky. He spotted a ram running across the horizon. Then he really noticed the special thing about the ram; it was blazing. It was as if the whole ram was made up of flames with a long fiery tail that flowed like water. Kenzo blinked then rubbed his eyes and looked out into the horizon again. The ram was gone. 'I am dreaming way too much these days' he thought with a shake of his head.

"We need to pick up the pace! We still have a long way to go," Uratoh complained from the backseat.

"Hey if I could speed, I would but Tsunami's in my way," Hiroshi said with a groan. "She's too girly that's why."

"I can speed if I want to! I just choose not to," Tsunami argued through the video communicator.

"Oh yeah?" Hiroshi knew the right way to challenge Tsunami in order to get what he wanted in the end.

"Yeah!"

"Then let's see!"

"Fine!" Tsunami slammed her foot down on the gas pedal and the car shot forward. Hiroshi smirked and accelerated faster to cut in front of Tsunami. But then she sped up even more to meet up with Hiroshi's car. They glared at each other through the window when Rini suddenly pointed to the front.

"Stop guys! There's a little girl on the road!" Rini shouted. The two siblings broke their stares and their eyes widened at the sight of the girl in the middle of the road. They both slammed on the brakes and came to a screeching halt.

"Dammit Hiroshi! Look what you did!" Tsunami shouted at him as she got out of the car. The girls followed Tsunami out of the car as did the boys with Hiroshi.

"I didn't make you do anything! You have control over your stupid actions!" Hiroshi shot back at her. Tsunami narrowed her eyes and raised her hand when Rini stopped her.

"Enough fighting! We have to see if the little girl's OK," Rini said. Tsunami lowered her hand but was still glaring at Hiroshi as they ran up to the little girl.

The little girl had white bangs covering her eyes and hair that reached her shoulders. Black streaks were found all over her hair. She held a white stuffed bunny in her hands and wore a long white dress with black shoes. Despite the unusual hair style, she looked like a typical little girl. Rini bent down in front of the little girl. "Hello there. Are you lost?" she asked.

The girl, who had her head lowered, raised it so she was looking at Rini in the eyes. Her irises were a light lilac coloured while her pupils were silver. She smiled then leaned forward to Rini's ear. The little girl opened her mouth, "Dormio." Yume's eyes widened, hearing the single word but was too late to react when Rini fell over onto the ground.

That was when the monsters started to attack.


A/N: Eh I'm not completely happy with this chapter but it was better than I thought it would turn out. Lately I've been ending chapters with cliffhangers...I don't know why. I'll try to get out of that habit. Also I have the feeling that there are some grammar mistakes in this even though I read it over like five times. Anyway I hope you guys are happy with the chapter nonetheless and please leave me a review :)