Orion Saga
Part 1
Quest for the Orbs
Chapter 5: Mysterious help
A man who had been standing around the stage for the battle walks away. He vanishes and finds himself in a long corridor. His footsteps echo down the green marbled hall as he walks. He reaches the large ornately carved brass doors at the end of the hall and straightens his shirt collar before walking in.
"You failed didn't you?"
The man kneels and looks up at the woman in the throne, her face covered in shadow. "Queen Andromeda." When he lowers his head, a lock of crimped green hair falls forward covering his left eye. "I apologize…my minion had the senshi trapped. They were helped."
Her cold voice is quick to respond. "By whom?"
"I do not know. The attack seemed to have come from nowhere. I didn't see anyone." He stands and with a thrust of his head, his hair falls back into place. "But I suppose it doesn't matter. That human wasn't the holder anyway."
"You don't think it matters? General Thorn. We must find them. Even if that human wasn't the holder, it's obvious that someone knows what we're up to. We must hurry."
"Yes, Queen Andromeda." He turns to leave.
"And Thorn."
He stops abruptly his voice solid. "Yes?"
"Don't forget your place. You only think you know what matters."
"Yes, my queen." He walks out the room and runs a gloved hand through his hair.
Usagi and Mamoru are eating ice cream when Mianko and Makoto show up. "Usagi-chan, sorry we're late."
"Mina-chan, you won't believe what just happened."
Makoto looks at her as she gives the vendor the money for her cone. "What?"
"Right in the middle of the concert, a monster showed up."
"A battle?" Makoto's eyes widen at the thought. She groans. "I can't believe I missed it! Mina-chan I told you to hurry."
"Oh, cool it. You were drooling over that guy just as much as I was."
"I was not."
"So what happened?"
"It had us all surrounded and then this attack came out of nowhere. I thought it might have been on of you."
Makoto licks her ice cream. "Do you think it could be a new soldier?"
"I don't know."
Haruka and Michiru walk away from the others. "Haruka?"
The tall girl stops walking for a second. "What?"
"Do you think it might have been a new sailor soldier?"
"I don't know. Why would we need another one?"
Michiru shrugs. She looks over at the throng of people, having quickly recovered from their scare earlier. She sees Zentora standing with a rather tall young man. "Hey, it's that girl. Let's go say hello." She and Haruka make their way over. "Zentora?"
She and the young man turn around. Michiru smiles sweetly at the two of them. "Hi."
Zentora greets them both with a quiet hello.
"You look beautiful today."
Zentora looks at Michiru, trying not to blush, but the eyes show gratefulness at her kind words. Haruka smiles slightly and Louise looks at them. "Oh, I'm sorry. This is my older Brother Louise."
The two girls look at him. Michiru smiles and gives a polite bow, while Haruka inclines her head in his direction. Both of them say hello. Zentora turns to her brother. "This is Haruka and this is Michiru. I'm sorry, but we'll be leaving pretty soon."
"Well, in that case, it was nice meeting your brother and seeing the two of you again."
"Domo Arigatou." She nervously flicks the hair out of her eyes. "Maybe I'll see you around."
Haruka gives a half smile. "Hey, we're going to be going out for tea after school on Wednesday if you want to come." Michiru raises an eyebrow at the uncharacteristically warm invitation.
Louise looks at his sister and nods. "Um, okay, domo." She and her brother turn to leave.
Louise decides to forgo the Japanese and speaks to his sister in English. "So how do you know them?"
She looks up at her brother. "I met Haruka at the park and she introduced me to Michiru."
"She?"
"Yeah…Haruka's a girl."
"Louise raises an eyebrow. "O…kay…well at least you're mingling."
"How was the festival?" Zentora walks in to see her mother and father playing a board game with her younger sister.
"It was…nice."
"She introduced me to some of her friends."
Martin looks at his oldest daughter. "Really?"
"Well, I don't know about friends, but they are pretty nice. We're going for tea after school this week."
"That's great."
On Wednesday, Usagi walks over to Rei. "Rei-chan. Are you waiting for Ami-chan?"
"Yeah. We wanted to hear about what happened." The fire senshi and the senshi of air were unable to make it. The two of them had been busy with other things. Rei at the temple and Ami was studying for a test. Rei looks up to see Ami coming toward them.
"We'll have to make this fast. I've got studying to do."
"Oh, come on." Usagi looks at her.
"Well, we are in college and I want to do well my first year."
"You've never made anything below an A in your life. What are you worried about?"
"Maybe we should get on with it." Usagi looks at Rei for a minute and begins the story, careful not to leave out a single detail.
On the other side of the street, Zentora walks to the tea house. When she stands in the door, Haruka looks up. She slowly makes her way over to them and in one fluid motion, takes her book bag off and slides into the booth. "Hi."
Both girls say hello. Michiru begins the conversation. "So, you're a high school student?"
"Yes."
"Which year? First or second?"
"Actually, I'm a fourth year student."
Both of them look at her in disbelief. "Really?"
"Uh-huh."
Michiru smiles. "It's just that you seemed younger."
The waitress comes over and they order. Haruka looks at Zentora as she crosses her fingers underneath her chin. "So, that means college at the end of the year huh?"
"I guess so."
Michiru looks at the quiet girl with an air of enthusiasm. "So what will you be doing?"
"As far as?"
"Your major? I'm going for music now. Haruka's learning about cars."
"Why cars?" She looks at the older girl.
"My dream's to be a professional racer someday. I love the feel of it. The wind."
Zentora gives a silent nod and the teal haired violinist looks at her. "So how about you? Is there a dream you're going after?"
"What's the point?"
Michiru looks at her with a slightly surprised expression. The curt response, catching her off-guard. She looks over to her partner who thinks carefully before responding. "There has to be something you've always wanted to do."
The girl's quiet voice softens even more, though in it there is a strange tone. "You can't spend your life chasing after something that will never happen."
As soon as the words escape her mouth, the waitress approaches their table. "Hey, I just overheard what you said a second ago. There's no telling what can happen. I mean. I want to be a singer and I learned that if you want something out of your dreams, you have to put something into them."
Zentora looks at her for a moment and stands suddenly. Haruka looks up in concerned surprise. "Are you okay."
The thick purple twists are pushed away from the small brown eyes. "Yeah…excuse me."
They watch her as she goes to the bathroom. Michiru turns around to look at Haruka. "It's sad. Her life is just beginning and she's already given up hope. Dreams are important."
"Especially for girls her age." Haruka is silent for a moment. She and Michiru are in their second year of college, having professed to be a year older than the other scouts were. After taking some time to realize her destiny as a scout, she later promised herself that she would not give up on the things that she wanted. It pained her to see this girl doing the same thing. She felt a strange energy from the quiet koijin.
The waitress leaves them and goes back to the counter. On her way, she bends over to pick up a teabag from the floor. As her hand touches it, it begins to take shape. The waitress screams as the monster grabs her. Haruka and Michiru look on in surprise to see a woman dressed as a tea bag with green hair and leaves holding up the long ponytail. Michiru whispers to her friend. "We can't transform in here."
"But we have to do something!"
"Lead her outside."
As the waitress's energy is being drained, Haruka picks up a nearby teacup and hurls it at the attacker. Catching the monster off guard, the teacup hits her in the eye and her target falls to the floor. Turning to see what happened, she sees the two girls as they run out. "I'll get you later." She leaves the half-drained woman on the floor of the teahouse.
"THIS WAY TEA FACE!"
Rei's head suddenly snaps up in the middle of the conversation. Usagi and Ami look at their companion. "What is it Rei-chan?"
"There's something close by. Something bad."
"Well let's go." Ami pulls out her henshin pen. "Mercury Crystal Power!"
"Mars, Crystal Power!" Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury stand before Usagi. "Come on. Hurry up. There's no telling what's going on."
"I'm coming Mars. Moon Crisis Power!" The three inner senshi run in the direction of the evil emanation that Rei had felt. They arrive at the teahouse to see Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune fighting a new enemy. "Sailor Uranus! Neptune!" The two older scouts turn to see their friends.
"What's going on?"
The soldier of water looks at the fire senshi. "I don't know, but…Neptune Deep Submerge!" She is forced to stop talking so that she can attack.
"We should help them. Sailor Mercury stands next to Sailor Moon. "Shine Aqua Illusion!"
"Mars…Fireball…Ignite!" The creepstress falls to the ground in pain.
Sailor Moon looks down at her. "I don't know what you're doing here, but we're here to protect the citizens of Earth. In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"
The teabag looks up. Not if I can help it. I'm Jasmine, and you look like you could you a nice glass of tea to help you cool off. "Tea Leaf!" She whips her ponytail in their direction and razor sharp tealeaves shoot out of it.
"Hey! Watch it!" Sailor Moon dodges as the tealeaf passes her.
Jasmine stands and pulls the string of her teabag skirt. "Tea Mist Torture!" Tea squirts from the bag and a mist falls over the soldiers.
"What's happening?" Sailor Moon can feel her knees growing weak.
"There's something in the tea. I can't fight it." Mercury falls to her knees.
In the teahouse, the waitress lies on the floor, unconscious. A figure stands over her. "It's too bad. I thought she might have been it." The gloved hand is kissed and the kiss is blown to the woman. May the energy of your dream be reborn."
Slowly, her eyes open. She looks up to see a youthful face, full of concern. Eventually, a soft smile appears. "Well, it looks like you'll be okay. I guess maybe I should go help."
Outside, the senshi can only wait as Jasmine prepares to attack again. "Tea Leaf Grin-" She is interrupted by her own bone chilling scream as her body begins to shrivel.
Uranus looks up. "Sailor Moon?"
"I didn't do it." They look over to see a figure among the shadows near the edge of the building. Sailor Moon tries to get a good look at the person but can not even tell if it is a man or woman. "Hey…wait!"
Instead of staying, the mysterious helper runs off. They look at Jasmine as her body continues to shrink into itself. Sailor Mercury turns to her fellow scouts. Is everyone okay?"
"Yeah." Uranus stands and pulls Neptune to her feet.
Looking up at her sister soldier, she reminds her of the teahouse. "We'd better go back and make sure everything's alright."
The five of them allow their fukus to disappear and Haruka leads them into the shop. The waitress is sitting on the floor with Zentora kneeling next to her. "Are you sure you're alright?"
The waitress looks up to give the soft-spoken black girl a weak smile. "Yes, I'm fine."
Haruka looks at her. "How is she?"
When Zentora stands, the others see that she is just an inch shorter than the tall racer. "She says she's alright." She glances down at the waitress and then back to Haruka. She suddenly becomes aware of the other girls looking at her and picks up her book bag. "Um, I have to go. Sorry to cut this short."
"Um, okay." Haruka and the others watch her as she leaves.
Ami thinks for a moment. "That was the girl from the museum wasn't it?"
Michiru nods. "Yes, we were having tea with her."
Rei looks after Zentora intently.