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*Chapter 8: Not Alone (Part A)*
By: Kohan

Hotaru shifted her weight around on the couch, she was trying very hard not to suddenly lash out in crude verbal expressions at an unsuspecting object, such as the wall. For the last hour, she had been desperately trying to catch the eye of Rei or Haruka, but to no avail. Rei was caught in another argument with Wufei, and even though it was constructive, Hotaru thought it should be stopped, and Haruka was having a deep and serious discussion with Usagi, who looked like she was almost about to cry at the harsh treatment that she had been receiving from Haruka. Hotaru had listened for about the first half hour, when the things out of Haruka's mouth were new to her, such as 'don't do anything you'll regret,' or 'you might want to think this over before you go doing anything crazy,' but since then, the message had been repeated several times, but in different ways. Haruka was now at the stage of threatening, and Hotaru found that un-entertaining.

Quatre was still looking very white, and he kept looking around nervously, glancing at Trowa once and awhile, but he seemingly kept looking at Heero, who had his gun out and was cleaning it. Poor Quatre, Hotaru thought, he didn't seem like he would be one to fight...To her, he seemed too innocent, and it was amazing...some of the stories she'd heard...But Hotaru wasn't thinking too much about Quatre, or Usagi even. She kept hearing inside her mind the voice of Setsuna, telling her what she had to do. But this was Rei's thing, knowing the future, mind reading and such. It was true that Hotaru had once seen Eternal Sailormoon in a vision...but that was before...much before.

***

Heero had finished cleaning his gun, and was now shooting his most deadly death glare at the bickering Rei and Wufei. However, both were so absorbed in their argument that they didn't even notice the stare that the perfect soldier was giving them. Duo was finding the 'fight' between his koibito and Wufei very entertaining, however, along with the fact that Wufei could very well be shot to death, judging by Heero's look.
"Would you two just shut up!? I'm getting tired of listening to your constant arguments!"
"This is not an argument, Yuy!" Wufei yelled. "We are having a discussion."
"Huh, yeah." Rei said, not sounding too convinced.
"Well, converse later. Hotaru wants to talk to you, Rei."
'What? How could he have possibly known...'
"Talk to me? About what?" Rei said.
"Er, alone..." Hotaru said, Rei got up and Hotaru followed her outside. Hotaru looked at Rei. "There's something I have to do." She said. "Keep this for me?" Hotaru pulled her heshin wand out of her pocket and handed it to Rei. "When it disappears, you'll know that help is on the way."
"What?" Rei asked, looking down at the wand, she didn't want to face up to what Hotaru was saying, for she had had visions of a fight. Bits and pieces of the ones she cared for being hurt by a dark prince. She still hadn't put two and two together enough to guess what they meant. Hotaru could tell by the look in her eyes, though, that she was beginning to see.
"It's going to happen, Rei. You can't hide from it. I don't know when, and I don't know if I'll be too late, but I've got to do this. If I don't, well, I don't want to know what will happen." Hotaru went back inside, to leave Rei to think her own thoughts alone.

***

"Heero." A voice said from the doorway. Heero turned around at the voice, "I'm leaving. Would you walk me home?" Hotaru said, she had her backpack over her shoulder. Heero nodded, and got up.
"You leaving, Hotaru-chan?" Haruka said, she had since given up her talk with Usagi, seeing that she had almost brouht the girl to tears of boredom.
"Yes, Haruka. I'll be seeing you." She said, Michiru waved a little, and went back to picking at her nails. Hotaru opened the door, and her and Heero left through it. They walked down the steps in silence, passing Rei, who was sitting quietly on them. She gave Hotaru a reassuring smile, and then looked down at the heshin wand of silence.

"What's wrong, Firefly, you've never asked me to walk you home before." Heero said, as they walked along the paved road. Hotaru sighed heavily.
"Mammoru..." She said, "isn't one to attack those he loves."
"Nani?"
"But Edymon...he's different." Hotaru said quietly. "There's no telling what he'll do."
"What are you getting at?"
"I have a power inside me...and it's going to come out. It's what Setsuna, um, Sailorpluto calls a powerup."
"Hn."
"You can't tell Haruka or anyone," Hotaru said. "they wouldn't want me to..."
"Why not?" Heero demanded forcefully.
"It's very dangerous." Hotaru stated simply. Heero gave her a critical look. "If Haruka knew...she wouldn't let me go through with it. If something happens...someone should be able to open the door. I changed my password, and made it so Haruka couldn't override the lock."
"And you want to give me the password."
"Hai."

***

Rei sat on the steps, studying the beautiful heshin wand that she had been given by Hotaru. She knew what Hotaru was going to do, and gave her a lot of credit in her mind. Never, would she be able to go through a transformation period by herself. She smiled a little. Hotaru wasn't alone now, Rei knew that Heero wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. But what about school? With the visions Rei had seen, she didn't think that they would be returning to it...how sad. Rei put the wand in her pocket and got up.
"You look unhappy, koibito." Duo said from the doorway.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Ever since Hotaru and Heero left." He said, and then added a hmmm, when a look of fear came over Rei's face. "Don't worry." He said, "I won't tell about your new toy." Rei got up.
"It's getting late," She said, "but I don't think we should be going home just yet." Duo nodded in agreement, and followed Rei back inside.

***

Hotaru unlocked the door to the apartment and walked in, Heero close behind her. "Here." She said, "I'm writing down the password for you. Don't forget, your promised not to tell Haruka."
"I always keep a promise." Heero replied. Hotaru handed Heero a piece of paper, and walked to the door of her room, where she punched in a few numbers on the keypad.
"I don't know how long this will take me." She said. Heero put his hand under Hotaru's chin and made her look at him.
"Don't get yourself hurt, Firefly." He said, and kissed her softly.
"I...I...I won't." Said Hotaru, her door opened, and she stepped into her room. "Aishiteru, Heero." The door closed.

***

"Rei, your sure Hotaru said it was okay to stay for dinner?" Usagi asked Rei about 10 minutes later.
"Hai, Usagi..." Rei said, "I'm sure." Rei said absentmindedly. She had other things on her mind, and so did Haruka, judging from how she kept changing the subject back to Mammoru.
"From what Heero says, Mammoru wants Usagi to be his Queen, ne? Okay, and he said that he would take her by force if she didn't come willingly. Well, I think she's made it clear that she's not going to come willingly back to him so..." Haruka trailed off, "Are you listening to me, Michiru?"
"Yes, Haruka! I am listening to you, go on, please!" Michiru said.
"All I'm getting at is this: I don't think that it's a very good idea for us to be making contact with them anymore."
"So, what are you saying Haruka? You want Usagi to stop going to school, is that it?"
"I wasn't getting to that, no, but now that you mention it, that sounds like a good idea." Haruka said, looking happy to continue the conversation. But just then, Heero came in, and they also had to postpone the discussion for dinner.

"So you made it all right, Heero?" Duo said, putting a rather large roll into his mouth.
"Hn."
"Back to the 'hn's' I see."
"..."
"Heero's just tired, probably." Rei said very quickly, "Duo, some of us would like some rolls, also." Duo grinned, and passed her the rolls.
"I think that there must be some way to overcome this...problem...without getting anyone hurt." Quatre said. A few people stopped eating to look at the blond boy. "A suggestion, only."
"Quatre, do you think we fight because we want to?" Michiru asked quietly.
"Because we only fight when necessary...for example, if Usagi were to suddenly disappear out of her chair into a void or something, and be transported to Mammoru's dark lair, or whatever-you-call-it, then we would be forced to fight." Haruka said.
"Wait, where is Usagi?" Rei said. Usagi's chair was empty, and the food uneaten. Very strange. (The food I mean ~_^)
"She was here just a minute ago, wasn't she?" Said Michiru,
"We have lots of food," Rei said, "I can't imagine her not eating food if there was such an oppurtunity."
"Rei"
"Sorry." Rei said, and leaned her head on her hand. Suddenly, from the sky (or celing) dropped a single envelope. On it, in green pen, was written this: To: Senshis. It landed in front of Rei.
"What the...?"
"Open it." Said Heero, and Rei did as told. Inside, in the same scrawly handwriting that Rei didn't recognize, were these words:

Senshis:
Usagi has joined the Dark Prince out of her own will.
To have the other Senshis, yourselves, join her, would
be very nice as well. If you choose not to come, she
may suffer greatly. For her sake, and yours, meet the
Dark Prince at 1:00am in front of the city clock.

It had no signature, and no trace of where it had come from at all.
"This is bullshit." Rei said. "'Usagi has joined the Dark Prince out of her own will', who wrote this crap?"
"She could have be abducted." Duo suggested.
"How? She was sitting right here." Michiru said, she had turned slightly paler.
"She just left to get a breath of fresh air..." Rei said quietly.
"We have to go. We should call Hotaru." Haruka said, dead set in her ways. She picked up the phone and punched in a few numbers. A few moments went by. "There's no answer."

***

AN: That took awhile, didn't it? Well, I was getting a little stressed over the end of the 2nd trimester of school...and my report card. But, I know it will be okay, because...I know it will. One of my compare and contrast essays got me an A, so that brought my L.A. grade up to a B+, so I'm happy with that. Plus, I was having some trouble deciding weather I was going to do L.A. Honors next year, we're regestering for school, and my L.A. teacher recommended it, and I talked it over with my folks, and I guess I'm doin' it. Anyway, enough of the excuses...but you're happy, right? I mean, I got this chapter out to you, even if it was a long wait...and if you are complaining about the wait, then I say: Tough.
*Kohan*