Here is the first chapter of my promised Sequel to Her Time to Shine. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for reading it.
Chapter One - Jasper
Andrew wiped down the counter as it was after closing time at the Arcade and he looked over at the guy sitting in the booth towards the back, again. He was still there and he had been sitting there for three hours, he knew it was time to ask him to leave so he could close up.
Andrew sighed and walked over to the booth, "The Arcade closed as of fifteen minutes ago. I have a couple of things to clean up if you want to finish your coffee, but then you will need to head out."
The guy just smiled at him and said, "Andrew, we need to talk. It is really important though that we talk in private and it needs to stay between us. Why don't you finish up and then join me back here."
Andrew stared at him not knowing if he was willing to stay and speak to the stranger. He pulled out his cell phone and decided to text Jadeite, he figured Darien would be busy. As he held his phone out to text him the stranger said, "Jadeite won't know who I am either, I am not ready for him to know I am here yet, so please don't text him."
"How do you know who I was about to text?" Andrew was really worried now, he wondered if any of the aliens were able to read minds. Surely that wasn't out of the realm of possibilities with everything else he had seen.
"I actually know you really well." The stranger sighed and said, "You, Jadeite and Darien are close. Darien just got married so you wouldn't bother trying to text him this late at night. Who else would you text?"
"How do you know who I am closest too?" Andrew really wanted to know what was going on and the stranger didn't seem threatening so he sat down.
"Good. Well Uncle Andrew my name is Jasper, and this is even stranger than what I prepared myself for."
He was about to say more when Andrew interrupted, "You are older than my sister so there is no way I am your uncle. Stop this and explain yourself or I will call the police." Andrew had instantly grown suspicious.
The stranger laughed, "Fair enough, you aren't actually my uncle, but I have called you that since I was able to speak. I am from the future and I need you to keep what I am about to tell you just between us. I need an ally here and you are the one I can trust the most to not say something you shouldn't."
"You are from the future?" Andrew looked puzzled and then said, "Well, Jasper is a kind of stone so does that make you one of Darien's Generals in the future?"
Jasper looked pleased, "Nope, but really good guess. Can I have your promise that you won't say anything to the rest of the group?"
"You can have my promise that, if I believe you, I will use my best discretion when sharing information with others. Take it or leave it." Andrew leaned back in his seat and waited for the response.
"Deal. Well, I am not only from the future, but I am also the son of Jadeite and Molly. You and my father are really close friends so I have always referred to you as Uncle Andrew. The two of you are Darien's closest friends and in the future you and dad still fight over who would have been his Best Man."
Andrew looked owl eyed at Jasper and let out a long breath, "Wow… well how… there is so much that I want to ask you. I don't know where to start." He paused and then made a decision, "Why come back in time. What are you trying to accomplish?"
Jasper smiled and said, "That is exactly what I thought you would ask first. You always have a way of cutting to the heart of the matter. I am here to stop the future that I have come from. In at least a month, but maybe longer, an alien egg filled with dark energy will be hidden on this planet and left to grow. Once it hatches, that will take six months, it will release a large source of evil. In my timeline that source was left undetected and it infected Darien and Serena's daughter turning her evil and causing her to fight against us with a group called Black Onyx." He paused and let Andrew start to digest all of that information.
"So we just have to destroy an egg and everything will be fine?"
"First I need to find the egg and then we need to destroy it. No one was able to figure out where it was buried since it had hatched long before it infected Celestine." Jasper explained.
"I take it Celestine is their daughter." Andrew stated and leaned forward resting on his elbows.
"Yup."
Andrew thought for a minute, "Why pick me?"
"You are like a vault when it comes to information in the future. Believe it or not, but everyone knows you are trustworthy and a trusted confidant of King Endymion. There is an expression that people use when they are explaining they will keep a secret, 'It will be like you told Andrew.' The implication of course being that the secret is safe."
"Wow, just… really? I am that well known in Japan?"
Jasper laughed, "Actually it is said in every language on Earth. I think people actually started the expression in Monaco of all places."
Andrew ran his hand through his hair, "It is a lot to take in. Where are you staying tonight? Do you need a place to stay?"
Jasper looked at him, "You just met me and you are offering me a place to stay?"
"Shouldn't your uncle invite you?" Andrew asked, amused with how shocked Jasper looked.
"You trust me already?"
"I do." Andrew paused and said, "So are you going to tell me who I marry?"
"Do you really want me to?"
"You told me that Jadeite and Molly marry," Andew reasoned.
Jasper rolled his eyes, "One they are already engaged, two I haven't told them that."
"True." Andrew stood and then said, "You keep talking while I finish closing up, follow me over to the counter. I have to restock napkins first."
Jasper stood and walked over with Andrew, "What do you want to know?"
"Do I call you by your real name or do we hide that because of your parents?"
"So, you have decided to keep the secret?" Jasper looked pleased.
"Did you really doubt I would?"
"No, but it is nice to be sure you already agree."
"Yes, I agree to keep the secret. Now you can tell me what you are hiding. Something must have happened to make you feel like you had no chance in the future to fix things and you had to come to the past."
"I can't tell you everything. For right now will you accept the fact that I will admit that is true, but I don't want to tell you?" Jasper hoped Andrew would be okay with it.
"I can and I appreciate the truth."
"I will stick with that. If there is something I don't feel I should say I will tell you and I won't lie to you about it. Can you accept that I will be lying to others and believe that I am truthful with you?"
"I will try. If I am struggling with it I will let you know." Andrew hoped what he said sounded fair.
"Fair enough for me." Jasper paused and shook his head. "It is weird to be in the position where I know more than you."
"I am going to be honest and admit I don't get why anyone would have heard about me." Andrew tried to fathom being known world wide.
"Well you know about Crystal Tokyo.,,,"
"No I don't."
"Oh, wow. Well, the Earth will eventually come under attack and Serena and Darien will save it as Endymion and Serenity, the whole of Earth will look to them as leaders. He becomes King Endymion and she becomes Neo-Queen Serenity and she brokers alliances with planets from all over the galaxy. You are Darien's right hand man and everyone knows it."
"What?! I serve the King of Earth? "
"Well, actually yes, but you also serve Neo-Queen Serenity who is the Queen of the whole solar system. Hence her Sailor Scouts being from different planets."
"That is a lot to take in. Wait, and their child has become part of Dark Onyx… shit. I just figured it out. Serena is dead isn't she?" Andrew grew upset.
Jasper looked shocked and slowly nodded his head. "I didn't want to say something because it will be hard not to let on that you know."
"I get it. Dang It. Now their daughter who is possessed by dark energy rules the solar system and Darien is a wreck so he isn't any help." Andrew managed to quickly reason out.
"You got it in one guess. It was just awful. You can't imagine the sorrow I have experienced lately both suffered by others and myself. It has been a particularly hard time."
"I hope to never experience that. So, what do I need to do to save my friends and their child?"
"I need you to convince them to help me to find an evil alien energy egg and trust that I am here to make the future better. And yes you can use my real name."
"You will tell them you are from the future?"
"It is too easy to slip and let something out I know. So yes, and it would explain to them how I know them. I feel I need to give them something so that they will trust me." Jasper hoped that was the right decision.
"Okay, well that works for me… We discussed this already didn't we?"
"What do you mean?"
"You and future me planned this out didn't we?" Andrew didn't know how he knew that, but he did.
"Yes we did. It was your idea in the first place to send me back and to find the egg. I am really good with detecting alien power and tracking, you approached me."
"That is strange to think about. Do you have a place to stay?"
"Yes, you told me about the apartment building Darien lived in and I rented a place there."
"Seems like we had this all planned then." Andew smiled.
"Mostly yes, we figured whatever adjustments needed to be made could be done by the two of us." Jasper told him honestly, he was pleased with this Andrew.
"I need to head home, I have class in the morning and I am getting a headache. I need a little time to process everything you told me."
"Hey, this is already going according to our best case scenario. Here," Jasper handed Andrew a piece of paper. "This has my phone number on it, call me any time. I will call you tomorrow."
"Don't you need my number?"
"You already gave it to me." Jasper smiled at him. "I will head to my apartment, I also wrote the address down for you. Good night."
"Good night."
That night Andrew closed up with his head filled with the future and what he needed to be doing to help Jasper and save Serena. It sounded like the whole galaxy would suffer without her, but he was most worried about Darien.