What's this? An update!? O_O
This will be eventually finished if it kills me. I'm on vacation for a while, so hopefully I can get motivated and squeeze out some more chapters asap. This is sort of filler but sort of not. And its kind of long, so plus?
"You think you can escape me?" whispered Mistress 9 into her ear. "I am your darkness…" she cackled. "Where there is light, there is darkness. As long as you continue to exist…so will I."
"No…stop…" muttered Hotaru.
She saw an image of an angel, falling down from the sky, head first, its wings folded around itself, embracing itself, eyes closed, waiting for the impending crash…it could save itself; all it had to do was spread its wings to catch itself, but it chose this, it would rather just plummet and—
"No more…" said Hotaru, whimpering, hunched over…
Her friends all turned into heartless, the wide yellow eyes vacant and void of any sort of emotion, of even any malevolence, just instinct, the instinct of the darkness…
"Stop!" she said, clutching her head. "Please, just stop!"
Two boys in black coats, one wearing a blindfold, both fighting against each other with strange weapons, everything on the line for each…
A girl trapped and wandering through the darkness…
A boy asleep, a coma, his heart broken…
Another boy with a key in hand, losing everything yet still trying to hold on, still trying to save everyone…
A girl with dark hair that flitted across Hotaru's vision only for a brief moment, but sending a sharp, stabbing pain through her…
"Stopstopstopstopstop"
A giant moon in the shape of a heart hanging in the night sky above a city…a dark city, full of…nothing…nobody…emptiness…the heart in the sky, just a culmination of others, trapped and hurting, hearts full of rage and sorrow and envy and pain, someone free them PLEASE
"I SAID STOP!" screamed Hotaru. She was staring into the mirror above her bathroom sink, tears streaming from her eyes. These visions had been bothering her, first in her sleep and now even when she was wide awake. She couldn't decipher anything useful or specific from them; it was either a crippling sadness or just the usual feeling of doom and dread that had already been looming ever since the heartless first began showing up and all of this started.
It had been a week, and the latest fiasco involving Galaxia had become the elephant in the room everyone was refusing to talk about. Haruka and Michiru were too guilt-ridden to dare to broach the subject with Usagi; besides, it wasn't a talk they wanted to have with her anyway. They both wanted nothing more than for Usagi to stay as she was. The rest of the inner Senshi were starting to come around and accept what was happening; they had so far. Usagi was…well, still sad and moping, but could you blame her? She wasn't use to this; having to sacrifice her heart to fight the enemy. It went against everything she believed in.
Over the past week, there were a few routine heartless attacks, but nothing major, nothing involving a face. Galaxia, Maleficent, and…Xehanort…hadn't made another appearance, and were suddenly impossible to track. Naturally, their base would be in another world. Setsuna wanted to go searching, but she couldn't afford to leave, not now of all times when a strike could happen at any time.
I wish the bastards would just show themselves so we could destroy them already, thought Hotaru to herself. Instead, they just focused on the heartless.
Of course, there was a new sort of mechanical emptiness when fighting against the heartless after the latest revelation; that they weren't truly destroying the heartless. That if someone were to get their heart taken…there was nothing they could do. It was simply lost, very possibly for good.
Hotaru sighed and splashed some water in her face. She was supposed to be getting ready to meet with Chibiusa when the latest wave of attacks had hit her.
Chibiusa…there was something different about her lately, too. Whatever was going on in the future was apparently just as grim and miserable as what was going on here. That wasn't very comforting; to know that even 1,000 years into the future, there would still be pain and strife for them. Still, Chibiusa managed to have a brighter disposition then most of them, which was actually doing Usagi some good. The two of them had been hanging out together with Mamoru over the past few days, trying to bring Usagi out of her depression. No one else was really seeing much of each other outside of fighting the heartless, so it was hard to say if it was working.
Some friends they were being.
She heard a light knocking at the door. "Come in!" she called out. Her father opened the door and stepped in cautiously. "Chibiusa's here…Are you okay, Hotaru!?" he said quickly, seeing her hunched over the sink. She nodded. "I'm fine. I just…"
She looked up at her father. "She isn't…?" he asked. Hotaru shook her adamantly. "No. There's no way you have to worry about that!" said Hotaru, trying to sound cheerful. Professor Tomoe turned. "It's all my fault…it's my fault you ever had to…"
"Papa, please don't…" said Hotaru. "You were just trying to save me…"
He shook his head. "I ended up doing so much wrong…you never should have been there in the first place; those experiments I was doing, even before the Death Busters came…I shouldn't have put you in harm's way like that, I…"
"Hotaru-chan!" came a shout from downstairs. "I'm coming, Chibiusa!" called back Hotaru, running past her father to the stairs. She then looked back at her father, and, unsure of how to reassure him, just said, "I love you" and ran down the stairs.
"Chibiusa…"
"Yes Hotaru?" replied Chibiusa sweetly.
"I know you think I've been feeling badly, but…the circus?"
"What?" asked Chibiusa shrugging. "I want to see PallaPalla and the others! They're only going to be in town for a little while more!" Hotaru and Chibiusa were talking together, Diana walking beside them quietly. She was no longer quite as tiny as before, and so refrained from letting herself be carried in any way.
Hotaru sighed. "Fine, fine." They walked a little while more in silence before Hotaru asked, "So, do you want to talk about it?"
Chibiusa frowned. "What?"
"What's going on in the future."
Chibiusa sighed. "You know, it's kind of similar to what's going on here, honestly. Weird monsters similar to the heartless have showed up. Sailor Nemesis was leading them. And…more people opposing Crystal Tokyo have cropped up. It's almost like the Black Moon Clan all over again." Chibiusa shrugged. "We don't really know what we can do for now. I…I came back here for training. To become stronger here, so I can help fight the enemy there. In the future, everyone's too busy holding back the enemy…she thought that here, I could fight while still being watched over."
Hotaru nodded. "I guess…that must mean this is a battle we win then, right?"
"Of course!" smiled Chibiusa, nodding. "Come on, we're Sailor Senshi! What else could happen?"
Hotaru wanted to believe her, but couldn't completely shake the feeling those visions had given her…
"How many weeks ago did you get this flower?" asked Ami as she typed on her computer. She, Rei, and Minako were all in Makoto's apartment, standing around a strange
"Just a little while before the heartless showed up."
"And you got it from the mysterious boyfriend you decided to keep a secret from us…" said Minako, a hint of accusation in her voice. Makoto rolled her eyes. "You're still not over that? Anyway…I noticed it was looking sort of suspicious today. A lot of my other plants have been withering, while this one has just been growing more than ever."
"I definitely sense something weird about it…" said Rei closing her eyes. "But…nothing specific. I don't think it's going to attack or anything."
"No, I don't think so either," said Ami, typing on her computer. "But…I can't quite say. It's as if the plant is…" she frowned for a minute. "Monitoring you. You're heart, your emotions…it's very strange."
"I say we torch it," said Rei, crossing her arms.
"Monitoring my emotions, huh…" said Makoto. "Well, I guess it's a pretty safe bet my by boyfriend was working with the enemy…but why would they want to be monitoring my feelings?"
"Well, what have our feelings been lately?" said Ami grimly. "Depression, despair, hopelessness…they're probably just making sure their plans are going accordingly."
"Say, what did this boyfriend of yours look like anyway?" asked Minako. Makoto blushed a bit. "Well, he was a red-head…and he had…"
"Wait a minute," said Minako. "Red-head? Freaky flowers? I've heard all that I've needed to hear."
Makoto gasped. "You don't mean…Fiore?"
"Wow! You guys were great!" said Chibiusa happily.
"No big deal!" said VesVes proudly, winking.
"Hey, now that we're done, wanna come hang out with us?" asked CereCere.
"That sounds like fun!" said Chibiusa. She turned to Hotaru. "What do you think?"
A dark shadow crept across, smothering them all, shutting out all the light…
"You go on ahead. I think I'm going to head home."
Chibiusa's face fell. "Are you sure? Do you need me to take you?"
Hotaru shook her head and smiled. "No way! You go ahead and have fun." Chibiusa lingered a moment, then walked off with the Amazoness Quartet. Hotaru turned and started heading home.
Chibiusa and Usagi…they can always make friends so easily, she thought to herself, a little enviously. And here I am, the weirdo stuck with these crazy visions…
Hotaru suddenly grasped herself and doubled over. A seizure? She began gasping for air. I haven't had one this bad since…
Since I was last here?
Hotaru closed her eyes and focused her powers. She would not let this get to her. Mistress 9 would not see the light of day again. Hotaru stumbled into an alleyway and sat down against a wall, still groaning. You destroyed her before, you can at least hold her back…
Hotaru's thoughts were interrupted by a slobbery wet sensation on her cheek. Hotaru opened her eyes, her seizure suddenly ending and all traces of mistress 9 gone. A dog was sitting in front of her, wagging its tail excitedly.
"Huh? A dog?" Hotaru reached down and checked its collar. "Pluto? Well, that's a nice name!" smiled Hotaru. "Now let's see...owner...Mickey Mouse?"
The dog raised and ear, and quickly started to run off. It stopped after a few feet and looked at Hotaru expectantly.
"Okay...I can take a hint..." After all, she'd done weirder things than follow dogs around.
"Apollo, get back here!" shouted Nikko angrily. The dark-skinned girl with long red hair chased after her mischievous cat. "You little...brat!" she said, catching up to the cat at last and scooping him up. "Why are you running away from me, huh? Finally gotten sick of me?" The cat looked up at her questioningly. "Come on. Can't I at least count on you to stick by me? You know I hate people. How am I supposed to become a crazy cat lady if you run away?"
Both Nikko and the cat turned around as they heard barking coming in their direction. Pluto was bounding towards them excitedly.
"Uh oh…good dog…no…no…NO!"
Pluto leaped up, jumping onto Nikko and knocking her down. Apollo had already jumped out of her arms and landed gracefully on its feet. "Traitor," she hissed.
"Oh my god! Uh…bad boy! Get down!" said Hotaru. Pluto gave her a defiant look as if to let her know that she wasn't the boss of him, but got off of her nonetheless.
"Is that your dog?" she said snidely as she got up, "Because if it is, you should really invest in a leash."
"Uh…no, he's not mine…" said Hotaru meekly at this girl wasn't much taller than her, but she somehow knew she was in the same class as Usagi and the others. "I just followed him here…"
"You followed some random person's dog?" she asked. Hotaru frowned. "Well, no need to get all judgmental…"
"Yeah? Well I think that…"
Pluto suddenly perked his ears up and started growling. Apollo also started hissing. "What in the world has gotten into these animals…"
Hotaru felt it too late; in the blink of an eye, the two girls were surrounded by Neo-shadows. Hotaru took out her transformation pen, but hesitated for a brief moment as she looked at Nikko, whose eyes were wide with fear.
"Transform already if you're going to transform!" shouted Apollo. Nikko's eyes widened, but she was glaring down at her cat. "Did you just talk?"
"No."
Nikko screamed and kicked the poor cat. Hotaru gulped and raised her pen in the air. "Saturn Crystal Power Make-up!"
Hotaru already had her glaive ready as the first heartless pounced, slicing right through it.
"When did you change and do you know what those are and WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT GIANT SCYTHE!?" screamed Nikko.
"Death Reborn Revolution!" Blasts of energy shot out, destroying the rest of the surrounding heartless as they leaped forward. Nikko looked back and forth from Hotaru and to where the heartless were a few moments ago. "Okay…" she said, taking a deep breath. "I take it that you're a super heroine of some sort. Power to women. And those were monsters of some sort that you destroy. Well, thank you," she said shakily, "get that dog a leash, and good bye." She turned around to go, but several more heartless popped up, blocking her way. Several more popped up behind Hotaru as well. She grimaced. There was no way she'd be able to take all of these out herself…not while trying to protect Nikko…
"Nikko!" said Apollo, crawling back over towards her. She jumped back. "Stay away from me!"
"Okay, I haven't been honest about a few things…"
"Understandable. I suppose if I was a talking cat, I'd keep that to myself too."
"Enough with the sarcasm for once!" he shouted. "Look, there's no time to explain this, but take this pen." He closed his eyes and a transformation pen appeared in front of Nikko's face. A symbol appeared on her forehead, a circle with a dot inside…the symbol of the sun.
"Now, you're powers will be limited because you don't have your crystal yet, but that should suffice for now. Raise it in the air and say 'Solar Crystal Power, Make-up!'"
"Death Reborn Revolution!" Hotaru destroyed several more surrounding heartless, but more and more kept popping up. "Hurry up!" said Apollo. Nikko shook her head. "This is bizarre…Solar Crystal Power Make-up!"
A golden light washed over her. Hotaru looked over in surprise as she transformed. Nikko stood forward triumphantly. "I won't allow you creatures of darkness to spread! I am the defender of the light, Sailor Sun! On behalf of this Solar System, I will punish you!" She frowned. "That just came out of nowhere. Why do I suddenly have an introduction speech out of nowhere?"
"Never mind that, the heartless!" shouted Apollo.
"Uh, right…Solar Flare!" A wave of golden fiery energy exploded from her hands, instantly vaporizing all of the heartless in sight. Hotaru turned and regarded the new Senshi strangely.
"Huh…" said Nikko, looking at her hands. "So, I have powers know...I could get used to this..."
"Anyway…I'm Sailor Saturn. My real name's Hotaru." She looked down at Apollo. "And who exactly are you?"
Apollo laughed nervously. "Well, I'm Nikko's guardian, from the planet Mau…"
"Guardian? What are you guarding me from?"
"I'm supposed to mentor you!" he replied snarkily. "Anyway, I was waiting for the right moment to awaken your powers, but…well, no time like the present!"
"Exactly why have you waited so long?" asked Hotaru. "My friends and I have been fighting…"
"Friends?" Nikko groaned. "There's a team of you isn't there? And I'm going to have to get to know you…get all 'buddy buddy'…"
Hotaru ignored her. "Why have you waited until now?"
Apollo smiled a bit. "Well, you see, that's an interesting story…" His eyes widened. "But you might want to look behind you."
Hotaru turned. A giant Darkside Heartless was raising its fist. Hotaru barely had time to push herself and Nikko out of the way as it slammed down its fist.
"Uh…how to we beat that thing?" said Nikko worriedly. Hotaru raised her glaive. "Stab it enough times, it should die…"
Nikko frowned. "Why don't I have a cool weapon? You suck, Apollo."
The Darkside raised its fist again…but a flash of golden light struck through it. It sat for a moment, then then collapsed upon itself, fading away. Hotaru felt something strange as it died…like something had been released. It's heart?
As the dust cleared, Hotaru saw a tiny figure clutching a large golden key in his hands. Pluto barked excitedly and ran up to the figure. He turned around and laughed. "Aw, good to see you too pal!"
"That would be…a 3 foot tall anthropomorphic mouse. Who apparently owns a dog. And wields a giant key." Nikko turned to Apollo. "Well, I think I've had enough for one day. Thoughts?"
"This is a first for me too…"
"Oh, are you, um…Mickey?" asked Hotaru. Mickey nodded and held out a hand. "Good to meet you!"
Hotaru took the hand. "I'm Hotaru. Nice to meet you too. But, I have to ask. That weapon…is that…a keyblade?"
Mickey frowned. "How would you know about the keyblade? Unless…you wouldn't happen to know Setsuna, would you?"
"You're here to see Setsuna?" He nodded. "Well, I…I'll call her…" she said, taking out her cellphone.
Setsuna gritted her teeth. Stupid little pink spore. How had she talked her into this?
Chibiusa thought that it might do some good for Setsuna to go on a blind date, to ease some of her stress. Well, one good thing was coming out of it: Setsuna felt fully ready to go out and kill whatever enemy came forth in whatever form.
Chibiusa, no doubt, thought that a history professor would be just the sort of person Setsuna would like to connect with. Well, that wasn't the case with Setsuna, guardian of time who had watched over the history of Earth for centuries. Nearly everything this idiot was spewing out at her was something she had witnessed before, and he was saying it all wrong. And besides, was it normal for people to talk about history on a date?
Setsuna was all too grateful when the phone rang. "Hello? Hotaru? No, I'm definitely not bu—MICKEY!?" she shouted. "No, this is not bad, this is perfect! Meet me at the house."
Setsuna turned to her date. "Forgive me, but I really must go, family emergency. Perhaps another time?" She was already out of the door before he could answer. He sighed. He should probably stop bringing up history on dates.
"I'm glad you're here, Mickey, but, well…what brings you here?"
"Yen Sid was worried about you, and said I should pay a visit."
"Oh yes, of course, I haven't been able to get back to him…" she sighed. "I can't afford to leave this world right now, and the pathways I normally use are being closed off anyway."
Hotaru and Nikko were sitting on the couch of the living room nearby, Apollo sitting in Nikko's lap. Both were trying to absorb what was going on, but still stewing over the "multiple worlds" thing. Hotaru was actually sort of starting to feel sorry for Nikko; this was a lot of things to absorb all at once. And she didn't even know anything about the enemy they were facing…
"What you do need to know is that I've encountered Xehanort."
Mickey frowned. "You mean, his Nobody?"
Setsuna shook her head. "Xemnas hasn't made any appearance here, although Xigbar has. There is a Xehanort here…from the past."
Hotaru gasped. "So, that's why you were worried?"
Nikko rolled her eyes. "Time Travel? Let me guess, there are aliens too."
Apollo frowned. "You know, technically, I'm from another planet…"
"He traveled through time!? But…how is that possible?"
Setsuna sighed. "It was actually a brilliant move. It's an ancient method of traveling through time that is difficult for me to detect; one of the restrictions on this method is that you cannot change the course of destiny, which is usually the first thing I look for. Instead, he brought a version of himself that exists outside of time to the present."
"But, what for?" asked Mickey. Setsuna shrugged. "I can't imagine what he could gain from it. Either way, it doesn't matter now. Tell me, have you tried to use a stop spell recently?"
Mickey nodded. "It just…didn't work."
Setsuna nodded. "My father, Chronos, has recently awakened. He's been…hibernating, in a sense, since the Keyblade Wars. Apparently, he was able to sense what was going on, and has completely sealed off even the element of time magic. This Xehanort is trapped in the present, at least for now. I think that's why he took such an interest in Chibiusa…"
"Setsuna…" began Hotaru cautiously. "Who exactly is this Xehanort guy? And what's all this about your father awakening?"
Setsuna sighed. "It's a little hard to explain…you have to understand, my father would only awaken under the gravest of circumstances. Something…something apocalyptic."
"Like a second keyblade war?" asked Mickey. Setsuna nodded "Maybe...maybe even worse." Nikko blanched from where she was sitting, and she quickly turned to avoid being seen by anyone else.
"Are you okay?" asked Apollo, climbing on her lap. She nodded. "Yeah, just an apocalypse, no big deal…"
"As for Xehanort, well…he's one of the most dangerous humans to ever plague the worlds. He's certainly just as powerful as any enemy we've faced before, possibly stronger. And not alone, it would seem…" Setsuna's eyes widened fearfully. "Oh God. He's here."
Sailor Nemesis stepped forward through the darkness, bowing slightly before Galaxia, who was sitting at her throne.
"I think we've found her." Galaxia said nothing, but closed her eyes. Nemesis sighed. "I have to say, Galaxia, you're more heartless than any Nobody I've ever met."
"Are you dissatisfied with my orders?" asked Galaxia, her voice calm but the threat clear. Nemesis shrugged. "Hey, just making small talk. We're all villains here. Still haven't figured out if pointing out each other's bad deeds is a compliment or not…"
"Just make sure she's eliminated as quickly as possible," interrupted, a minor hint of annoyance in her voice. Nemesis bowed dramatically. "Of course, ma'am," she said, obviously mockingly and without a shred of respect. Galaxia let it go, though, as she closed her eyes and lost herself to her thoughts once more.
Nemesis walked off, the playful smile dropped and a grim look replacing it.
Wooh! A Chapter! And FINALLY the introduction of Nikko as Sailor Sun (if that wasn't glaringly obvious who she was going to turn out to be. Assuming you remember anything from way back then...). I think I overdid her a bit; I was trying to make her more of a no-nonsense type person who actually notices how weird things are around her. She's typically not very friendly and often not overly accepting of things going on around her; in a situation like this, however, she's been stunned into silence. She's a bit of a loner, but not because people reject her; she honestly doesn't feel like other people are really worth the effort. She's also independent and doesn't like to rely on others. These are things that should be apparent as a writer goes on, but hey, I'm not that good a writer and I'm impatient.
And yes, I had to go for the most obvious attack ever, Solar Flare. She'll be upgraded later, and hopefully I'll be done by then...here's a concept of her normal and super form, brought to you by Sailor Senshi Maker: albums/j363/deathrebirthsenshi/SailorandSuperSailorSun. jpg
Also that Setsuna scene is something I had in my head for a while and realized I hadn't used, so I threw it in there.
I love how Hotaru's question to Apollo was dodged there...
Also this answers the question about why only 4 beings have time access right now; Merlin, Luxord, Fairy Godmother, and Chibiusa. Chronos locked Xehanort out and threw away the key ;) Odds are, he'll just take it in stride though... :P