Meanwhile, the other 9 people were in the living room discussing the problem at hand. "Do you know what the enemy's trying to do." Asked Cye. "Not really, all we know is that they're after us, the 8 soldiers of the planets. But I think that they're planning something pretty big." Replied Michiru. "In my opinion, tomorrow, we should split into pairs and try to find more about the enemy." Suggested Ryo. Everyone agreed. "We'll split up in the following way, I'm with Mia, Rowen with Setsuna, Kento with Hotaru, Cye with Michiru, and Sage with…" Haruka gritted her teeth, "…Haruka." Said Ryo. "No! I'm not going to spend an entire day with Sage." Complained Haruka. Michiru glared at her. "Alright, but on one condition, I'm allowed to hurt Sage if he does anything inappropriate." Said Haruka. Sage grinned. "Well, now that that matter is done, let's all get some breakfast." Said Kento. Michiru stretched and yawned, "Count me out, it's been almost two months since I last used my powers, I've got to get myself into shape now that there is a new enemy." She said as she got up and went outside. "I think I'll join her." Said Cye. Kento nudged Cye in the ribs, "You like her don't you?" Cye just blushed and left to go outside. The others all went into the dining room to have breakfast.
"Cye, do you want to fight with me?" asked Michiru. "Are you sure about that?" asked Cye unsure. "Yeah, why are you a chicken?" teased Michiru. Stung by the insult Cye agreed.
"Neptune Crystal Power!"
"Armor of the Torrent, Dao Chi!"
They both transformed into the soldiers of the oceans. "Under the Deep Sea Star Neptune, I am Sailor Neptune, Soldier of the oceans." "I am Cye of the Armor Torrent." "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" asked Cye again. Neptune's only response was by attacking him, forcing him to defend himself. "Deep Submerge!" yelled Neptune and through the huge ball of water at him. The pressure of the attack knocked him to the ground. Neptune was upon him immediately. Neptune attacked him with her fists, but she could tell that Cye was only defending himself and not really attacking. Not until she cut him in the face with one of her attacks did he get mad. "You want to fight? Well then you'll get it." He said angrily. "That's more like it." She replied. "Super Wave Smasher!" He yelled and threw the attack at her. "Woah!" She said as she ducked the attack. "Submarine Reflection!" she yelled as she held up her mirror and aimed it at Cye. The place between his helmet and armor lit up. "What the…" Cye said as he saw parts of his armor light up. "Deep Submerge!" yelled Neptune again and she aimed this time at Cye's neck. A force field surrounded him and deflected the attack. "That is not fair." Muttered Neptune. She didn't have much time to think, for in the next moment Cye was attacking her with his harpoon. Knowing that she would not stand a chance on land, Neptune dived into the ocean. Cye followed her and dived in after her. He called his ocean friends to him and asked them to find Neptune. To his surprise, not many of them would listen to him and swam away. Only the fish, sharks and eels listened. He heard a laugh and turned around. Standing behind him was Neptune with a swarm of Dolphins and Whales. Realizing that they were equally matched, they both swam out of the water and got out. "I didn't know that you could communicate with sea animals." Said Cye as he helped a dripping wet Neptune out of the water. "I didn't either until I jumped into the water. Then all of a sudden all these Dolphins and Whales came to me, as if they could read my mind." She said in wonderment. "It's not a surprise though, both of our elements is the ocean. Since we're obviously equally matched, let's call a truce shall we?" asked Cye. "Truce." Said Neptune and they shook hands.
"What an odd pair." Remarked Ryo as Neptune and Cye entered dripping wet. "Who are you calling odd?!" asked Neptune. "Who in their right minds would jump into an ocean fully dressed and mess their clothing up." Sniffed Sage. "Obviously not you." Said Neptune as she purposely sprayed most of the water on him. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Yelped Sage as he leaped up grabbing for a napkin and dried himself off. He glared at Neptune. "What a wimp." He heard Haruka grumble. Strike one, he thought to himself. This in definitely not going to make Haruka like me more. He sat down quickly, extremely embarrassed. This sudden change in attitude freaked Haruka out, "OK." She said in a tone that meant that she was thoroughly confused. Ryo looked at Sage in the same way, something was definitely going on, he thought.
The rest of that afternoon was spent resting and practicing their attacks. Sage and a reluctant Haruka were fighting against each other with swords. Cye and Kento were racing each other. Ryo, Michiru and Hotaru were planning what they were going to do tomorrow. "Where's Rowen and Setsuna?" gasped Cye as he stopped for a breath. Sage looked up from where he was fighting and was knocked over by the attacking Haruka. "I was just checking and the two them are asleep, with Setsuna's head on Rowen's shoulder." Sage panted as Haruka lay on top of him. Haruka got up quickly and brushed herself off. "I don't really care what she does anymore, it is utterly of no concern to me." Sage gave her a look, "I don't believe that." He said. "What do you mean." She asked, amazed that she was actually having a normal conversation with him. "I mean, you don't just forget a friend of yours that you've known for 3,000 years just because of a little fight." He responded. "That's not the point though. The point is that she doesn't think of me as a friend, only as an ally. So what am I supposed to do?" she complained. Sage shrugged, "I don't know, all I know is that you should think about the friendship you've had with her before you decide to make her obsolete to you." Just then Sage realized that everyone had stopped what they were doing and were staring at him. "What?!" he asked. "Absolutely nothing." They all replied and returned to doing what they were originally doing. Sheesh, Sage thought, I can't even stop flirting with a girl without attracting attention. Ryo whispered to Michiru as they resumed what they were doing, "What's up with Sage, he seems so pleasant today." Michiru smiled, "Maybe Sage finally realized that a way to a women's heart is not through flirting." Ryo rolled his eyes, "That'll be the day."
Rowen felt something soft tickle his face. He slowly woke up and opened his eyelids. He found out that the tickling sensation that he had felt was Setsuna's hair drifting across his face. He stood up quickly and Setsuna (who was leaning on him) fell heavily onto the bed and woke up with a start. "What time is it?" she asked as she and Rowen de-transformed. Rowen looked at his watch and gasped, "Woah, it's around 5 in the evening, We've been asleep for about 9 hours." Setsuna jumped up, "Oh my gosh! It's been that long?! I've wasted a whole day sleeping!" she said urgently. Just then Rowen put his finger to his lips and silenced her and pointing to the door. Setsuna stopped talking and she and Rowen pressed their ears against the door. It was Ryo, Michiru, and Cye talking. "So what do we do about those two." Said what seemed to be Cye. "Leave them alone, I checked in on them a couple minutes ago and they were still asleep. I think they shouldn't come with us tomorrow." Said an exasperated Ryo. "Why not." Asked Michiru in her whimsical voice. Ryo sighed, "Because they snuck out this morning without telling us and almost got themselves killed. They'll probably try to defeat the enemy by themselves and get captured." "I don't think they will listen when we tell them." Said Michiru. "We won't, we're going to lock them in." said Cye and Ryo. Setsuna heard a jingle of keys and knew what that meant. Without thinking, Setsuna opened the door with Rowen right behind her. "What do you think you're doing?!" asked an annoyed Setsuna. The three conspirators looked shocked. "How did…" started Cye but stopped at Rowen's glare. "We have ears." He snapped. "I don't care if you heard or not, you're not leaving this house tomorrow." Said Ryo angrily. "Want to bet?" asked Setsuna coolly. "Oh, just let them go, they're powerful enough to take care of themselves." Sighed Michiru. "Thank You." Smiled Setsuna. "1: Rowen is the youngest and probably the weakest.." Rowen glared at Ryo."…2: I've never seen Setsuna attack before so I don't know her power level." Ended Ryo. "Ryo, I could defeat you with my hands tied behind my back." Setsuna smirked. "Oh really? Give me your best shot!" challenged Ryo. Setsuna smiled and lifted her hand above her head and yelled seriously, "Dark Dome…" Michiru gasped and quickly muffled Setsuna before she could finish. "What do you think you're doing!" she yelled and let go of Setsuna. "You do know that the attack only works when I'm transformed right?" asked Setsuna. "Don't take chances, I thought you told me that you would never use it again unless there was some extreme emergency because of what you went through." Replied Michiru. "Did I…just miss something?" asked Ryo. "She just almost used her forbidden attack." Said Michiru. "What does it do?" asked Cye. "It stops time." Setsuna answered. "Oh. Can you all kind of explain what each of you can do?" asked Ryo. "Alright, Pluto's element is time (though it should be death.) My element as most of you know is the ocean. Uranus's element is earth and sky. And Saturn's element is death (though it should be time.)" said Michiru. "What do you mean by Saturn's element is Death?" asked Ryo questionably. "It means she can destroy the world and maybe the Galaxy." Replied Setsuna coolly. The 3 guys stared at her. "You're not serious are you?" asked Cye. "She's not lying." Said Michiru. "Remind me not to make her mad." Said Ryo, eyes wide in amazement. "Now do you believe that we can take care of ourselves." Asked Setsuna. Ryo nodded. "Why don't we all go and get some dinner?" asked Cye. "Good idea, I'm starving, I haven't eaten since yesterday night." Said Setsuna. They all headed toward the dining room. Ryo and Rowen took the rear. Ryo glanced at Rowen, all to be returned by an icy look. "Rowen, I'm sorry if you were offended by what I said. What I meant was…" "Ryo, I heard what I heard, no use in trying to change it. The problem with you is that you always forget what others do for you, all you think about is yourself." Snapped Rowen. "Rowen, all of us appreciate what you do for us and you are…" "Well you'd better. Last time when all the other guys but us were captured by Tulpa, who was it that basically got them out? I'm a lot more powerful than you think. You think that just because you've got the White Armor you are undefeatable. Well you know what, if you don't want me as part of your team, then I Strata quit." Said Rowen angrily and stalked off into the opposite direction. He was so angry that he didn't watch where he was going and crashed into a wall. Ryo shook his head and sighed. Rowen got up and scowled at him. "You are not my mother, Ryo Sanada!" and he went to chase after the others who were well in front of them. Tomorrow's going to be a long day, sighed Ryo.
"Where exactly are we going?" asked Rowen as he gazed at Setsuna. It was the next morning and all the others were split into groups to try and find out something. Cye and Michiru were headed for downtown where they would first visit the aquarium (this had nothing whatsoever to do with their mission, just for fun visit you could say.) then they would look around and search the rest of the downtown area. Sage and Haruka took over the parks and the surrounding forests. Kento and Hotaru were going to go with Mia and Ryo to the University and research some things. "Shh, be quiet." Said Setsuna quietly, putting a finger to her mouth. He and Setsuna were walking outside the house and Setsuna was sneaking to the backyard. "May I ask why we're sneaking around on our own property?" asked Rowen confused. Setsuna didn't answer him. Rowen sighed, Setsuna was one of the most mysterious people that he had ever met. She never told anyone what she was up to or thinking. Just then Setsuna stopped suddenly, making Rowen (who was not watching where he was going) crash headlong into her. She fell forward, but caught her fall with her hands. She turned around and glared at him. "Oops." Said Rowen sheepishly. Setsuna stood up quickly and put her hands out in front of her. She stood that way for about a minute and then a blinding white light appeared in front of them. What appeared then was Setsuna's Time Staff. She grabbed it and turned around to speak to a very confused Rowen. "Stay close behind me because we're going to travel to the Gates of Time." "The What?" asked Rowen in confusion. "You heard me, the gates of time. You know, the place I was guarding for 3,000 years?" she said. "Why?!" he asked (you can tell by now that he is extremely confused.) "We're going to visit an old friend." She said mysteriously. Rowen shrugged. Setsuna held up her hand and yelled, "Open!" and a gray portal opened up. Setsuna walked in closely followed by Rowen.
This is crazy, thought Haruka. She and Sage were walking aimlessly around the forest. "What are we looking for?" she asked exasperated. Sage shrugged, "I have no idea." "What!? Then what are we doing here!" she asked, very irritated. Sage shrugged again and when Haruka blinked her eye, he was gone. Haruka was shocked, "Ok, how did you do that?" when she didn't get an answer, she started looking for him. Just then she heard a laugh from above her, "Find me if you can!" he said, taunting her. "Sage, this is not the time to play games." She said between her teeth. She sighed and went crashing after his voice. After about 20 min. running through the dense forest she came to a waterfall. Perched on the ledge of a rock jutting out into the waterfall was Sage in his sub-armor, sitting cross-legged meditating, half in and half out of the water. "That took long enough." Said Sage, not bothering to open his eyes. Haruka glared at him, "I thought you disliked water." She asked. Sage grinned, "I love fresh water, but I can't stand salt water. It stings your skin when you swim in it." He said. Haruka looked longingly at the cool water, feeling suddenly very sticky and hot. She plunged in, despite the fact she was fully dressed. She sneaked up behind Sage and pushed him head first into the pool 10 feet below him. "Ahhhhhhhhhh!" yelled the surprised Sage as he found himself sinking into the water. He swam quickly to the top and scowled at Haruka who was on the ledge, grinning her head off. "You thought that was very funny didn't you. Well let's see about that." Sage jumped out of the water and flipped out of the ledge, facing a very surprised Haruka. "How did you…" but before she could finish Sage had pushed her over. She tried to grab hold of something to stop her fall, what she ended up grabbing was Sage's foot. This resulted in both of them landing in the pool with Haruka sitting on top of Sage's head. "Mfph! Get off of me!" Grumbled Sage. Haruka laughed and splashed water in his direction, this started the water fight.