That night Sage went into Rowen's room and sat on his bed. Rowen had his nose buried in a book and seemed to not notice Sage's presence. "Yes?" he asked, not glancing from the book. Sage cleared his throat " How do you make a girl forgive you for what you did, and give you a new chance to prove yourself?" Rowen put down his book, "Does this have anything to do with Haruka?" Sage gave him a sideways glance. "Thought so." Said Rowen and picked up his book again. "Well this is a first." "What do you mean by that?" asked Sage. "I mean, all the girls that you've gone out with in the past have always been all over you and would most likely do anything for you. Then you end up dumping them and go looking for someone else. You've never TRIED to impress anyone before." "Haruka's different, she's not ditzy or dumb. She's strong and caring. I really like her, but I think she really has something against me." "What do you think, I don't think she likes guys that flirt and try to get "close"." Replied Rowen. "Besides, I thought that you were mad at her." Sage sighed and spoke, "I wanted her to respect me as a good swordsman, but I ended up being impressed by her. Enough of this, so how do you get a girl to like you?" he demanded. Rowen shrugged, "Treat her with respect, that's all I can say. I've never had that problem before." "Sure you don't, how about you and Setsuna?" asked Sage smiling. He ducked suddenly at an incoming pillow. "Well I…" Sage left the room, leaving in his wake, Rowen's voice defending himself.
That night, Rowen woke up to the sound of tapping. He quietly got out of bed and opened the door of his bedroom. The door to Setsuna's room was opened and there was a thin strand of light spilling out from it. Rowen quietly snuck out from his room and peeked into Setsuna's room. Because her bed was facing the other side of the room, Setsuna did not see Rowen. He walked softly over to her bedside and tapped her on the shoulder. Setsuna almost jumped 5 ft. in the air. When she had finally gotten her heart back in place, she turned on Rowen. "What are you trying to do, scare me to death?!" she asked. "Sheesh, calm down Setsuna." He said. He noticed that her face was very pale, from pain or from fright, he couldn't tell. "Maybe you should lie down Setsuna, you don't look too good." He said. "Maybe it's because you almost scared me to death." She snapped, but she listened to him and got into bed. Rowen was about to sit down on her bed when Setsuna said urgently "Rowen don't move." He stood stock still, thinking that there was some kind of danger or something. He saw Setsuna bed down behind him and pick up something. "Now you can sit down." She said and he sat. "What was all that about?" he asked. "You just almost sat on my $2,000 lab-top." She said as she opened it and began doing what she was originally doing. "So it was you who was typing." Said Rowen in wonderment. "Mmmmm…" she said. He could tell that she wasn't listening. He stood up and looked over her shoulder to see what she was doing. On the computer screen was a map of the city and the surrounding area. She was putting data into her computer and analyzing it. "What are you looking for?" he asked. "I'm looking for something." "Well that's pretty obvious." She continued typing then clicked the ENTER button. She waited for a while, then a red point lit above a part in the city. "Aha! Finally found it. Rowen, do you now where this is located?" she asked, pointing to where the red dot lay. "Yeah, I do. It's the forest preserve by the lake." "Can you show it to me tomorrow?" "If you want to." "Sure, by any chance can we leave at around 5 in the morning?" Rowen laughed, "Why the hurry?" "Well… because if the others knew where I was going they'd try and stop me." Rowen gave her a questionable look, then smiled, "Of course, but if you want to, we'd better get to sleep now. It's almost 2 in the morning." Setsuna closed her lab-top and gave him a grin. "Yes, sir!"
What a mysterious person, Rowen thought as he went to sleep. Beautiful too. What seemed like the next moment, Rowen felt a bright light shining on him. He groaned. "Ryo, will you please leave me alone. I need more sleep." He muttered. The voice he heard next was not of Ryo's, but a much sweeter voice. "Mr. Sleepyhead, it's five till five and I think we should leave." He opened one eye sleepily and saw Setsuna standing there fully dressed with a flashlight and a bucket of water. "What are you planning to do with that bucket of water?" he asked, eyeing the water warily. "I'm pouring it on your head since you won't wake up." "I'm awake, I'm awake." He said and jumped out of bed. "Some way to treat your hosts." He grumbled under his breath. "You know, you're more ruthless than Haruka." "Why thank you." She replied cheerfully. "I'll meet you at the door." And with that she left the room. Slowly he pulled on a short sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans. He ran a comb through his hair and went downstairs to meet Setsuna. She'd better not make me do this too often, he thought. He ran outside and saw Setsuna staring into space. He cleared his throat and Setsuna came out of her thoughts. "Can we go now?" She inquired. "Shouldn't we bring some food or something?" Rowen asked. "I haven't eaten breakfast." "Don't worry, it won't take too long, around a hour or two." "Alright." He said and they both left. "Are we taking Mia's care or are we walking?" she asked. "The forest preserve is pretty far away so I think we should drive." Said Rowen as he took out the car keys and got into the car. Setsuna climbed in also. After about a 20min. drive, they arrived there. "So, what are you looking for." asked Rowen as he and Setsuna climbed out of the car. Setsuna didn't respond and just walked into the forest. Rowen looked around at the scenery and sighed, Sage would love it here, he thought. With a beautiful sunrise on the horizon, a deep blue lake… He was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard Setsuna's scream. He knew that it was coming from his right. He crashed through the foliage and saw Setsuna in a headlock, being choked by a demon. He could hear very clearly every word that the demon was saying, "Daughter of Pluto, guardian of the Gates of Time, did you come here in search of your prince and princess? Don't worry, you'll be seeing them soon, when you join them!" it said. Rowen saw that Setsuna would be soon losing her consciousness. He jumped out and put on his sub-armor. He saw the surprised look in Setsuna's face; just then the demon asked him, "Who are you?" "I am Rowen of the Strata and I would appreciate if you'd let my friend here go." "Think again." Said the monster and attacked. In doing so, he dropped Setsuna. Rowen was glad to see that she began to breathe more regularly now. But he had no time to think about that for the monster came upon him with tooth and claw. They fought each other for a while. Then the monster hit a punch towards Rowen, he flipped over the monster and when the monster finally turned around, he and Setsuna were gone.
Setsuna opened her eyes a little bit and looked around at her surroundings, she saw that she was on a bed and was in the room of a small building like structure. What happened, she thought. The last thing she remembered was of the demon choking her, Rowen coming to rescue her and… Come to think of it, where was Rowen. As if to answer her question, Rowen entered, carrying a bucket of water. She sat up and asked, "Where are we?" "We're in a little building that Anubis meditated in. Are you all right?" he asked concerned. "Yeah I'm fine, can I ask you something." "Sure, depends what it is of course." He answered. "When you said that you were 'Rowen of the Strata' what did that mean?" "I will if you tell me who you are, ' Daughter of Pluto and the Guardian of the Gates of Time.'" "What! You heard." She exclaimed. "Yes, now will you tell me?" "I asked first so you tell me." She answered. "Alright, where do I begin. Me and the other 4 guys are the owners of the 5 mystical armor. Ryo is Wildfire, Cye is Torrent, Kento is Hardrock and Sage is Halo. We were battling the evil Tulpa, but we defeated him and set free the other 4 armors and their owners. Now your turn, who exactly are you." He said. Setsuna was about to begin when they heard a loud crashing noise outside. Both of them rushed outside. There stood the demon, looking extremely pissed, "So, you tried to escape me did you, now you will face the consequences." Before it could attack though Rowen yelled "Armor of the Strata, Doa Chi!" and he got himself armed with his bow and arrow. He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Setsuna standing there. "Rowen stand back, this is my fight and please stay out of it." She said firmly. "What are you talking about? You'll get yourself killed!" said Rowen. "STAY OUT OF IT!" She said persistently and stood in front of Rowen, facing the demon. "You want me, well here I am. Now all you have to do is fight me." She said angrily. "Pluto Crystal Power!" she yelled and she transformed into the beautiful and mysterious: Sailor Pluto. Rowen was in shock. "Setsuna, are you sure about this?" he asked, staring at her fuku. "Yes I am, so back of!" she said angrily. "Well, well, well. So this is the mighty Sailor Pluto I've always heard about, let's see what you've got." The demon said and yelled a word and threw a couple million tiny bullet sized at her. She twirled her staff in front of her and deflected the attack. "Dead Scream." She whispered and threw a huge purple sphere of energy at it. Because of the speed of the attack, the monster didn't stand a chance and was hit heavily by it. It fell heavily to the ground. Pluto rushed over to it, "I show no mercy towards my enemies!" she said through clenched teeth and slammed her staff hard into the demon, the hard end of the Garnet Orb caught the monster in the chest, killing it instantly. Pluto leaned heavily on her staff and knelt down leaning on it. "I have avenged my prince and princess." she said and fell over unconscious.
The next thing she knew was she was in the backseat of Mia's car and Rowen was driving, fully armored. "You've got a lot of explaining to do Setsuna." He said angrily. "First of all, why are you all of a sudden so weak?" Setsuna sighed. "Remember yesterday when I went upstairs to see Hotaru, well I knew that she was extremely weak, so I gave her some of my life force. It's very dangerous to do so because you could accidentally give too much and end up weak yourself. Well I did just that. But I'll get it back eventually." She said. "Number two, WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?" He asked hysterically. "I, like Haruka, Neptune and Hotaru are one of the 8 soldiers of the planets that are sworn to protect our prince and princess. Our prince is Prince Endymion of the Earth and our princess is Princess Serena of the moon. How that came to be is entirely a different story and I'll tell you some other time when we have more time. Any ways just recently, our prince and princess were kidnapped. We looked for them day and night, then our friend Rei also known as Sailor Mars, had a vision where the enemy was. That place was the forest preserve we were at a couple of moments ago. We went to one of Hotaru's relatives, I think Anubis was his name. But he arranged for our stay here." As she finished talking, Rowen noticed tears in Setsuna's eyes. "Why didn't you tell us earlier! We could have helped you." He said. "I didn't know if we could trust you or not. Will you please stop yelling at me! I'm already feeling guilty enough so would you please SHUT UP!" She said hysterically and crying at the same time. "Setsuna don't cry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm just annoyed because since I'm the youngest, nobody ever tells me anything and treats me like a child. To everyone I'm just "The baby" "The weakling" and "The bookworm"." Said Rowen sadly. Setsuna couldn't help smiling a bit. "Well that makes two of us." Rowen looked at her curiously, "Why, you're the oldest, your beautiful, and smart. What have you got to complain about." She blushed a deep red and then looked at him sadly, "You don't know my life story very well so you don't know what I've gone through." Just then they pulled into the driveway of Mia 's house. Rowen got out and helped Setsuna out. "What time is it?" asked Setsuna. "Oh shoot, it's 8:30, the others are probably awake now. We're in for it now." Right after he said that, as if to prove him right the door was swung ajar and 4 very angry guys came marching out of the house with Sage still holding his eye. "Where the heck have you been Rowen! We've been looking all over for you, and worried our heads off. Don't tell me, you've been out practicing your fighting again, The least you could do is let us know. Will you please take off your armor right now…" the yelling went on and on as each of the guys chastised him. Setsuna stood watching and her temper began to rise. She couldn't bear to see Rowen being verbally attacked on the account of her. She went over to Rowen and stepped in front of him. "SILENCE!" she yelled. The other 4 guys finally turned their attention to her. After a moment of silence, Cye asked quietly, "Setsuna?" "Who else. The reason that Rowen was gone so early in the morning was because I asked him to take me to this place. So if you want to yell at someone, yell at me because it is basically my fault." She said. "Why are you dressed like that?" asked Sage. Setsuna was getting very irritated. "If you actually let us talk, we'll explain. Can we go in and talk though?" They all entered the house and sat in the living room in silence. "Would someone like to explain?" asked Sage. Rowen began and related all that had happened that morning. Just then Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru entered the room. Haruka screeched her surprise when she saw Setsuna. "What on Earth are you doing, why are you transformed?" "Why do you care!" she snapped, then saw Michiru and Hotaru's glance. Setsuna sighed and again related all that happened that morning. This time it was Michiru's turn to get mad, "Setsuna, we told you not to go searching for them, you usually are the one with the most common sense, how come all of a sudden you've lost all of it?" "Michiru, I've got something to tell you." Started Setsuna. "Yes?" "1: I've lived about 3,000 years so I should know what I'm doing, 2: I'm the leader of the Outer Senshi, and 3: I think I can take care of myself." She said angrily and stalked out of the room. "She's lived 3,000 years?!" exclaimed Kento. "Yes and no." said Hotaru. "Actually we all lived 1,000 years ago, it's just that we were reborn again onto this Earth in order to protect our prince and princess." Continued Hotaru.
Rowen got up and went after Setsuna. After a quick search, he found her in her room. "You've lived for 3,000 years?" he asked. "Yes, I know that that is strange, but will you please leave me alone." She replied. "What were you going to tell me about on the car?" he asked, sitting next to her on the bed. "I was going to tell you about my life story, would you like to hear about it?" she asked. "I'd be honored to." He replied.
"I was born on the planet Pluto 1,000 years ago in during the Silver Millenium, daughter of the King and Queen of Pluto. Our planet's element was Time, thus I was the soldier of time. During then I never knew the burden I was to carry because of it. One day when I was at the age of 17, the Queen Serenity called me down to the Moon Kingdom. When I got there she told me that since I had the blood of the planet Pluto in me, one of my duties was to guard the gates of time. She told me that there at the gates of time, I would remain at my current age until 60 years later when I would be relieved of my duties and live a normal life. The Gates of Time was located in a barren area, filled with mist and fog. It was a lonely place where not a soul dwelled. But unfortunately, before I had been there more than a month, Queen Metallia and her band of evil people came and destroyed the Moon kingdom, thus also wiping out all of my Planet's population. Queen Serenity sent all the kingdom's people to Earth so they could be reborn and live a better life, everyone except me, for she, in her haste had forgotten me. After the Queen died, I was but a memory, until 2,000 years later, when Neo-Queen Serenity, the previous Princess became Queen. She sent me to the past, 1,000 years ago to help defeat the evil that was threatening the past. After the evil was destroyed, the merciful Queen told me that I no longer had to guard the Gates of Time, but I would only need to defend it in times of danger. So ever since then, I have come back here to live a normal life. Though I will no longer have eternal life and youth, I will be able to live a normal life." She said, ending her story.
Rowen put his arm around her, "I promise you, that you'll never be alone again." He said as he hugged her close to her. What a sad and lonely way to spend your life, he thought. Setsuna started to cry in his arms. "What's the matter?" he asked in concern. "I should have stayed there and have never come to live in this world." Said Setsuna in frustration. "Why?" "Because no one was there to guard the Gates of Time, an enemy sneaked through and was able to travel anywhere in time. With that ability, he went and captured our prince and princess. But they're not stopping there, they're also trying to capture us, the other 8 soldiers. This all happened because of me." She said, crying again. At that moment, everything that had happened that day and the day before came into place. No wonder Setsuna had always cried when they mentioned anything that would have to do with the kidnapping. "Setsuna, it isn't your fault. It could have happened to anyone else, so please stop blaming yourself. " He said soothingly. "Yes it is, if I hadn't agreed to come to live here, our prince and princess would still be here." She said soberly. "If you hadn't come, I would've never have met such a wonderful person like you." Said Rowen. And with that, they both fell asleep, with Setsuna's head lying on Rowen's shoulder.