Chapter 5

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Inter-dimensional abilities. Having been around Ami for the past year he had gotten used to all the stories of her past she told him, stories that dealt with things magical and completely unexplainable but what she was telling him now was on the verge of going over his head. He understood what they were doing: keeping ahead of Sailor Pluto and her hounds until they came up with some way to defeat them. But beyond that . . .

Sailor senshi were immortal. He already knew that. But evidently, if killed, they could be reborn in a different time and Setsuna controlled that. And as Setsuna had been possessed by the Negaverse (he still thought it was a stupid name) she had not only stopped anyone from preventing the deaths of the scouts, she had never arranged for them to be reincarnated. She had effectively murdered the girls.

And the whole deal was completely unpredictable. They never knew when or where the hounds would show up, when they did all they could do was zap back up to the time gates long enough to trap the dogs there and then leave again only to be found once more. The realities they hit blew his mind. Some didn't seem like they could be possible, even Ami admitted she was shocked by them. They were just so . . . ~different~. But so far, that first one was the worst for them.

Once they were safely away from the bank, Ami nearly had a breakdown. She wanted nothing more than to warn her friends of their impending doom and Setsuna's betrayal, in fact she wanted to so badly that Heero had to hold her back. He became the voice of reason for a few moments at that time. She couldn't tamper with the past, anything could happen and it would be completely out of her control. The senshi could die even more horrible deaths than they had. The entire world could be obliterated, billions of innocent lives lost. Time would be permanently altered and could possibly turn out for the worse. There was nothing she could do. Ami almost wept at that realization, but yet again she kept her tears to herself.

Not long after that little spiel of his, the time hounds had shown up. Luckily, though, when they had 'ported up to the gates Pluto was too distracted to notice they were there until they were gone once more with the dogs trapped behind them, howling in frustration and their mistress screaming right along with them. The lovers landed in a world foreign to them both.

On one side, grass stretched about twenty feet before shooting upwards to form a forest full of trees, growing thick and dense. On the other, a well, covered in ivy stood three feet high and on closer inspection was seen to go down at least another teen feet below the ground. Wind whistled through branches and ducked under leaves, showing off the color in all of natures finest. It was a beautiful world, pollution-free. It was a world neither of them recognized.

Then suddenly, hurtling towards them from the direction of the forest came a barrage of sounds. Yelling was the most distinguishable they heard, followed by a dull thud and a long string of curses. Heero let one eyebrow raise, impressed. He hadn't figured there were that many obscenities in only one language. Ami gave him a strange look and, as the sounds moved closer, pulled him with her behind the well.

Just then, two figures emerged from the trees. The first was a young girl, peddling furiously on her bike towards the well. Her pretty face was scrunched up in both concentration and anger. Every few seconds she would turn around and yell to someone over her shoulder, tossing a long mane of black hair behind her. Chasing after her was a boy her age, his snarls and growls much like those of the time hounds. Long, white locks of hair billowed after him as he ran, his gold eyes (incredibly sexy gold eyes, Ami noted) glinting with barely restrained rage. He was the one doing most of the yelling. And most of the cursing.

"Get back here, Kagome! We have shards to find!"

"I'm going home! I have a test this afternoon, and thanks to you I haven't studied."

"I said, come back! You aren't going anywhere, wench."

"Ouswari!"

"OW! Bitch!"

With the one word from the girl's mouth, the boy seemed to trip over absolutely nothing and plummet face-first into the ground. There he was held, kicking and screaming and writhing and cursing until the spell's hold on him was released and he could chase after her some more. "I'll get you for that!"

"Ouswari! Ouswari, ouswari, OUSWARI!"

"OW, OW, OW, OW! YOU BITCH!"

Ami and Heero exchanged a look of utter confusion. What was this place they had come to? A girl in a twenty-first century school uniform? A guy chasing her, wearing an ancient Japanese kimono? And a pink kimono at that? They didn't know whether they had gone farther into the past or into the future or into a whole other dimension, but in what kind of place could a single word hold so much power? They both shrugged and turned back around to watch what was going on.

Only to find two pairs of eyes, one blue and one gold, staring down at them. The owner of the latter was the one to speak.

"Who the hell are you freaks?"

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and more review responses:

huffpuff: yeah, i'm doing good work!!! anyways, i think i've figured out how they're going to destroy the hounds. and here's another reality!

rogue angel barton: nix on the threats, por favor. But i seriously do like that fic, and as this week is spring break for me, updating will halt until about Sunday the 31st.

serena yuy: look above

fate's child: i think i may have answered your question in this chapter

kaiya: i liked the whole destiny thing too. and . . . 'honesty is the best policy but insanity is a better defense.'

suisei no mitsukai: ami meeting ami would have been interesting, but i wanted to move them along to another reality

silverkeeper: don't worry, i like this fic too much to drop it

fluffy pink bouncy bunny: i think what i meant was that the g-boys won't be in that reality, but they will be around later. and so will the outers. and personally my favorite ami/? couple is ami/do, but that may just be me. glad you like the story!

sakura: it's not revenge its . . . okay, so it is revenge. but my vengance has yet to go into effect. keep reading!