Epsiode Two

The Outer Senshi's pinch. A helping hand arrives.

"Tsukini kawatte, oshokio!!"



Ami-chan pulled a book off from the shelf. It was a peice of American Literature. A perfect way to test her English out. Next to her, a boy with green hair looked ponderingly at some titles. Ami smiled to him. "Are you a fan of English literature?"

The boy blinked and looked to her, smiling. "Hai. I actually just moved here from America. I know more English than Japanese."

Ami blinked. "Your Japanese doesn't sound bad to me. My name is Mizuno Ami."

The boy smiled. "Arigato, Mizuno-san. I'm Sorano Kizu."

Ami gasped. "K-kizu? You're Usagi-chan's classmate!"

Kizu blinked, "Usagi... where have I?- Oh! Odango attama!" He made a face. "Her..."

Ami laughed a little. "Usagi may seem a little off at times, but she is really very friendly and kind. Please don't be so cruel to her. I'm sure she would like to be friends with you."

Kizu sighed. "You think so? I suppose I have been rather harsh this week."

The doors to the store opened and Mamoru entered with Usagi pulling on him in vain. "Iie, iie, iie, iie! I don't want to go to a book store! We're on a date! Take me some place nice!" She was nearly in tears.

Mamoru frowned at her. "The store has a cafe, it's very adult. Please, Usa- ko, I'll buy my book, then buy you a cinnimon bun from the cafe."

Usagi immediately stopped and smiled cheerfully. "Lucky! Arigato, Mamo- chan! You're the best- Anno.. Ami-chan! And.." She made a face. "Kizu- kun..."

Kizu's eyes grew wide and dreamy. He looked silently at Mamoru for a moment. Turning quite pink. Cue the dreamy 'ooohs and ahhhhs' music and flower petals. Mamoru smiled to him and extended a hand. "Hai! Are you a new friend of Ami-chan's? Chiba Mamoru."

Kizu accepted his hand slowly, still blushing. "A..arigato. I'm Sorano Kizu. Please... call me Kizu."

Mamoru smiled. "Alright. And you can call me Mamoru."

Kizu smiled softly.

Usagi glared. "Don't think you and Mamo-chan are intimate friends. He is my boyfriend and an enemy of Usagi's is an enemy of Mamo-chans!"

Mamoru frowned at her. "Usa-ko! Don't speak so freely for me!"

Kizu looked at Usagi. "Mamoru-san is.. your boyfriend?"

"Hai!" Usagi showed him the ring he had given her. "WE ARE VERY IN LOVE."

Kizu frowned and looked down. "Oh, I see. Gomen, Usagi-san, for being so mean to you. I didn't mean any of it."

Usagi blinked in surprise. "Huh?..." She wasn't expecting this. "Well.. it's alright. Just.. be a little nicer to people in the future."

"Hai, odango attama."

"I'M NOT A DUMPLING HEAD!"

"Hehe.. odango attama"

"Iie!"

Ami looked at Kizu thoughtfully, then to Mamoru. Did he..?

-----------------

Haruka and Michiru walked through a quiet park together. The sun shone down on the two.

"Haruka, I'm worried about Usagi-chan and the others. A new evil is here on the Earth, I can feel it."

Haruka smiled to her. "Well, we're back in Tokyo. I just wanted to relax a little with you before getting into another war. There seems no rest to the barrage of attacks this planet has against it."

Michiru leaned her head on Haruka's shoulder. "I don't mind as long as we fight together."

-----------------

Kizu sat quietly in the seat of a racing game at the arcade. However, he did not play, just sat. Motoki frowned and moved beside him. "Kizu-san? Are you alright?"

He blinked and looked up at Motoki, smiling a little sheepishly. "Gomen, I was thinking about something."

Motoki sat in the game next to his and smiled. "Sometimes I feel a little melancholy, too. I can get very lonely with Rika gone. But it always helps me to talk to someone about it."

Kizu shook his head solumnly, still looking at the video game screen. "You wouldn't understand. I have a loneliness that exsists in two worlds."

Motoki blinked, "You're mysterious, Kizu-kun." Some customers entered the store, so Motoki stood to return to his position at the front, but smiled first and said, "Loneliness, like every pain, must be waited through. Patience is something I've had to build up, but you should, too. That special person who will cure your loneliness with come sooner or later. But you have to be watching the outside, not reflecting inside if you expect to catch them."

He walked off to deal with the customers and Kizu stared quietly after him, a little surprised. "Watching..?"

-----------------

In the dark teahouse, Pyron and Floran sat quietly drinking tea dressed in their perspective red-fire and green/pink-flower decorated kimonos. Pyron looked to the flowery girl.

"Where are Aeron and Aquan?"

She smiled politely. "I think they were called by Choas-sama. Aquan apparently ran into some trouble the other day when investigating an anigai."

Pyron sipped his tea. "Yeeees, I heard about that. Sailor Senshi from other planets are here on Earth. A sad pollution for the planet. They will have to be removed with the rest of the unatural ones."

Floran smiled again. "But there weren't only Sailor Senshi. Two men were there too. One of them even managed to free an anigai from one of the balls."

Pyron blinked. "Sugoi! Who's going out to try for one today?"

And yes, Floran smiled once more. "Me."

-----------------

Haruka and Michiru entered the arcade to see if any of the girls were there. None were. The place was rather empty except for two boys that sat in the seats of a racing game. One with green hair, the other blonde. Haruka recognized the blonde one as Motoki-san, an old friend of Usagi's. He said a few words to the green haired boy and then walked over to the two.

"Oi! Haruka-san! Michiru-san! I haven't seen either of you in a long time, did you leave town?"

"Hai.. for a little while," Haruka replied.

Michiru smiled, "Have you seen Usagi-chan or the others? We'd like to visit while we're here."

"No, they don't come by the arcade much any more since entering high- school. Unazuki and I don't see them much these days."

Haruka frowned. "Is that so...?"

A green haired woman entered the arcade dressed in a hunter green turtleneck and long brown skirt with leaf earings. She stopped and looked around, then spotted Motoki. She smiled politely and walked up to the group.

"Konnichi wa! I hope I'm not interupting anything but I have some important business that I need to take care of here."

Haruka blinked and quirked a brow. "Important business..? Fine, we were just leaving." She and Michiru left the arcade but as they did Michiru felt something. A power. She turned to where the green haired boy was sitting only to find his seat empty now. They left the arcade.

The green haired woman smiled to Motoki. "Gomen, I hope I didn't scare off some customers! Maybe I should introduce myself." There was a green flash of light and swirling leaves and Motoki gasped and took several steps back. There stood Floran in her usual celtic-style dress with flowers in her hair. "My name is Floran! It's a pleasure meeting you. But now I have to check something in you. It should only take a moment."

She pulled on the green fire shaped pendant on her chest. The 'Fire of Terra.' It shot a green flame at Motoki which enveloped the screaming boy. Then a silvery shape pulled out from his chest and floated above his body. Floran threw a white ball at it and the ball swallowed the silvery shape, which changed and contorted rapidly. Then there was a blast of light and Motoki fell to the floor, unconscious, above him floated a strange looking man/panda with a stone pendant on his chest.

"Oh no! This is the wrong one!"

"Stone Panda!"

Behind her, Floran heard a voice and snapped around.

"Enchanted by the new age, I am Sailor Uranus, acting gorgeously!"

"Likewise, I am Sailor Neptune, acting gracefully!"

Floran made a face. "It's rude to interupt. Stone Panda, please do something to them!"

"Panda?" The man looked up from the floor as he was sitting and chewing on bamboo.

"This is no time to eat! Get up! You're supposed to be fighting off intruders, not stuffing your face!" The panda stood slowly and glared at Uranus who smirked back.

"A slow enemy can do nothing to one so fast." She lept into action. "World Shaking!" The yellow ball sailed towards the panda, but the beast reached out his large paws and actually caught it!

Uranus's eyes widened. "No.. it's impossible." The beast lauched the ball back at the two, but they lept from the way.

Neptune removed her mirror. "Submarine Reflection!" Then a beam shot from the mirror which the monster simply smacked away into a nearby wall.

"How can we beat it?!"

Now it was the monster's turn to attack. It knocked Neptune HARD into the wall and Uranus quickly after her. The monster was strong. It lumbered toward the two fallen senshi.

Smack.

The bear fell onto it's back. Standing above it was the mysterious ninja. He looked to the two outer senshi. "Uranus! Neptune! I've been looking for you! Ever since I awakened here on this planet."

Uranus blinked. "Awakened...? Who are you? What do you want from us?"

The boy smiled. "Not from... for."

Stone Panda lept up towards the ninja who non-chalantly pointed his crossbow gauntlet at it's stomach and fired. "Scarlet Comet Shot." It blew a hole through the stomach of the beast, out of which the glowing shape of a panda lept and bounded for it's human body. Floran glared at the three.

"Look at what' you've done! This place is a mess and nothing was accomplished!" She held her hand out and vines exploded from the walls and wrapped around the two outer senshi, successfully tying them there. The ninja whipped around and frowned at her.

"Why are you here attacking humans? The Earth has been the target of too many attacks already."

Floran took a step foreward. "That's exactly why we must rid the planet of you humans. You bring forces of evil here and impart those forces on your own. You are all blights on the Earth! And un-natural disease who fights against the planet and natural order instead of with it. Every day you grow thinner and weaker. It is just now that we have had the courage to pounce!"

The ninja pointed his arrow at her. "We'll see who's weak. Scarlet Comet Shot!" The red blast shot to Floran, who mearly absorbed it into a cloud of leaves.

Uranus struggles against her bonds.

Chiron glared. "What a great hypocracy you live in! You who has taken a human shape."

Neptune blinked. "She isn't human?"

Chiron smiled softly. "Of course not. There is a much greater power inside her... but she still isn't strong enough."

"SHUT UP!" Floran clenched her hands into fists and the vines grew tighter.

"It's true. Whoever you work for isn't strong enough to remove all the humans. Otherwise you wouldn't be searching humans for a greater power. All evils do it, search for an energy that only exsists within HUMANS, because they have the easiest power needed to destoy themselves."

"You don't know anything!" Floran retorted, "it is the HUMANS who are evil, not us. You have been plaguing this Earth for far too long now! A child who smacks it's mother who bore and raised it."

The ninja used the chance. He knocked Floran to the floor with a swing of the gauntlet. Then whirled around to face the two Sailor Senshi. "It is time for you to remember." He held up the gaunlet clad hand and the yellow gem on it glowed. "Saffron Comet Execution!" The room started to shimmer and the vines holding Uranus and Neptune melted away, then they were standing together in a place that was all white, the mysterious ninja and new enemy had both disappeared.

-----------------

"Michiru?" Haruka's voice echoed.

"I'm here Haruka." Michiru took her hand.

"Where are we?"

Then, the place began to fill out. A white castle sillouted in the night sky. Uranus and Neptune stood in a beautiful garden, but they were no longer their Sailor Senshi selves. Both were dressed in beautiful gowns. Haruka wore a grey and white one with a gold chest ornament that hung from her shoulders and a bluish jewel on her forehead. She even had blue wings. Michiru wore an ice blue and white dress that had several see through frills and long ribbons extending around. The sleeves of her dress were very long and hung far over her hands, almost to the ground. She had two beautifully colored fan like fins extending from her back which reflected the light of the moon into all sorts of colors. Her hair was tied up in a small bun, except for one lock which hung over her face.

"It's a beautiful party isn't it, Uranus?"

"Yes it is Neptune. And I saw Princess Serenity dancing with that Earth Prince."

"Endymion? Yes, I noticed. He's cute, believing a tiny mask over his eyes will fool anyone."

A green haired man approached the two.

"Chiron!"

"Hello Princess Uranus, Princess Neptune. I'm glad to see you could make the ball."

"We're more surprised that you came!"

He laughed. "I love these things."

There was a shimmer in the image and it changed to that of the attack on the castle. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune fought off Queen Beryle's forces. Beside them, the mysterious ninja did as well. All three held on as long as they could, but were ultimately killed.

The image shimmered again and Uranus found herself alone in a world of white once again. She looked around. "Neptune?" Her voice echoed long and clear all around her.

The ninja's form flashed, blinking several times before finally taking root in the world.

"Chiron." He said.

Uranus frowned. "That's you, isn't it? Chiron. The man in the vision. Why can't I remember you?"

The white below him rippled outwards from his downward pointed toes.

"Memories are lucid. There is no truth. No god. The world becomes more and more an absurdest's vision."

Uranus frowned. "How can you say that?"

He looked away from her, down and to the side. "Man has the power to disturb the fabric of his world now. He has only used it twice, but it prophesizes the death of god."

She blinked. "I don't understand! You speak so evasively, what are you trying to tell us?

Chiron frowned. "I'm sorry, but I can't reveal it all just yet. But I can help you. I will give you power. Haruka Tenou... creature of the wind and rocks, soldier of rebellion. Become a soldier of eternity!"

Uranus felt herself drop. All around her leaves and flower petals flailed about in the wind. She could hear a traditional sounding Japanese music, but it was distorted, almost techno like. The bang of wood on wood, with each beat, she felt a new strength.

Her tiara disappeared. Only the jewel on her forehead remained. On the center of her choker a decorative wing appeared. The sailor cape changed, the line of it fading and a new decorative pattern of flowing likes and curves appeared as an outline in it's place. On her broach, the same wing appeared. Her bow grew longer, almost ribbons, that hung down to her stomach. Her skirt became softer, almost flowing, and the ribbons on her back changed from two to four, a pair of them see through. Her gloves disappeared totally, replaced by gauntlets. A shieth hung around her waist with the space sword on it. Her boots smoothed out and became almost metalic looking. She became not only Sailor Uranus, but Eternal Uranus, the last living representation of the planet.

-----------------

Eternal Uranus opened her eyes. The ninja was on the floor clutching the sides of his head in pain. The front of his bandana was red by soaking blood from his forehead. Floran stood, blinking down. "What happened to him?" Uranus pulled at her vine bonds on the wall. Her crystal glowed and Michiru looked at her in shock and almost fear.

"Uranus..?"

"AHHHH!!!! SPACE TURBULANCE!!!!!!"

The very air around them all began to shake and vibrate. Uranus's body glowed and the vines touching her exploded into itty bitty peices. Floran gasped. Uranus thrust her hands foreward and a ripple in the air shot foreward and hit Floran. She flew backwards through the window and into the street. Random people who had become curious about the strange noises in the arcade saw it happen and screamed, rushing to the fallen girl. And explosion of leaves sent them flying away. She disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Uranus looked down at her hands in awe, then to the bleeding boy who was on his knees. She kneeled beside him, and realised he was crying. "What's wrong? What happened?" The boy stood, wiping the blood and tears from his face.

"Nothing. I can only help one of you at a time, but with this new gift, you should grow on your own."

"Grow?"

"Yes. With your current strength... you will all die."