(Chapter Five)

The Queen is gone! The Queen is gone! The Queen is gone! The castle buzzed with the news from every maid and servant. The news of course soon reached the village and it was met with horror from the some and others were filled with hope that the handsome King Endymion might choose another wife among the women of the village if the Queen never returned. They peered out of windows and behind the stands of the Village Square and watched the procession of King Endymion, the princess, the Royal Senshi… and more Royal Senshi? The procession led up to the castle and the minute it left the Square the buzz of conversation began anew, now about the new counterparts of the Royal Protectors.

"If this doesn't cause enough gossip to bring the whole solar system running then I don't know what will." sighed Sailor Mercury. Ami, who was being supported by her counterpart laughed half-heartedly.

~*~*~*~

"Oh no… you've found another girl from the Mystic Moon? What's going on, Lord Van?" asked the slightly squeaky voice of Merelu, the cat girl addressing the young man in the red shirt. Rei stared at the girl. Is that a… cat?! And indeed a cat Merelu looked with her big ears, striped tail and short fur. A girl who'd been talking to one of the men hanging around the corners of the room looked up and seemed especially interested after she saw Rei's private school uniform. She excused herself from her conversation and walked towards Rei with a small smile. "Hi… I'm Kanzaki Hitomi. I'm from Japan… what's your name?" she was twisting a necklace with a pretty pendant hanging from it in her hands. Rei was taken aback for a moment… her name? "Rei. Hino Rei." She replied slowly as the name came to her suddenly.

"Hino… Hino… Are you from Japan?"

"I think so…"

"You 'think so'?"

Rei turned red even though the girl's face held no scorn. "I have amnesia. I was wounded in a… in a fight." She thought bit her lip trying to remember. "A fight… as… as…" she shook her head. "I can only remember being dressed in red and shooting fire…" Hitomi eyed her carefully. "Fire…?"

"As… Mars. Sailor Mars." Rei opened her eyes to see the shocked look on Hitomi's. She began to become a little more nervous when Hitomi grasped her arm, yanking her nearer to her face. "You…" she muttered eyeing Rei carefully.

The guy with the black hair looked just as startled as herself and asked, "is there something wrong, Hitomi?" he gripped the hilt of his sword, just beginning to unsheathe as he spoke.

"You… yes, I think you are her… Did… anyone tell you anything?" Rei stared at her with round eyes. "No… except for this strange lady with long green hair and a big key…" Hitomi registered recognition over the explanation, "Pluto."

"Who am I, Hitomi?" The girl shook her head, sighing. "I can't tell you that Rei. I'm not you. I have only known you once before in all your life." Rei looked surprised as she tried to remember if she'd ever seen this girl before.

"You knew me? Before this happened?"

"Once. I was at a track competition at your school once and we got talking… we both liked fortune-telling."

Rei's brow scrunched as she thought hard. She could remember such a person she sat with, playing… "With… cards?" she asked hesitantly. Hitomi nodded, holding up the deck. "Tarot cards. And you were the one who was more interested in fire Seeing."

The blond man walked up towards Hitomi. She nodded once to him, "She's from Earth." He smiled kindly at Rei then, "I am Alan Schezar, a knight of Kaeli. This is Van Fanel, King of Finaalia." Rei bit her lip nodding silently as she eyed the weapons hanging at their waists. "Who is 'Sailor Mars', Hitomi?" asked Van quietly.

"She's… she's one of the magic soldiers who guard the earth. Everyone in the world knows about them! But as evil is centered in Tokyo, that is where they live." At last, Alan said quietly. "It's getting late, we can talk more in the morning. Come let me take you to your room." he took Rei's hand and led her down the hallway into a bedroom. Stopping at the doorway, he turned and left the room after a smile and a goodnight. Rei looked around. It was rather small and angular and she found a window. She walked up to it and peered out. She gasped. They were in some kind of rock grotto. Why are were they floating then?

There was a knock at the door and it opened softly. "Rei? It's Hitomi. May I come in?" Rei gave the affirmative and Hitomi walked in. She held out a bunch of clothing. "Here are some of my clothes. I think you should be able to change out of those mud-spattered ones." She put them on the bed. "Thank you." croaked Rei, the enormity of this place finally overwhelming her.

"Don't worry, we'll go back someday, but for now everyone here will accept you. We'll talk more in the morning. Goodnight." She walked out and closed the door behind her. A nightgown was lying on the top of the pile. Putting it on, she found that it fit rather awkwardly, her body being more curvy than Hitomi's athletic one.

~*~*~*~

They found their table in pandemonium. Apparently they'd missed a rather strange episode concerning ChiChi and something that'd happened in the alleyway where she'd run after a lipstick. They found the woman unconscious and everyone in the restaurant was shouting ideas of waking her up. Usagi looked at the woman strangely… she didn't know what, but she had this strange shivering sensation of familiarity and she didn't like it at all. Out of the blue, just as they were about to dump water in her face, she opened her eyes and gaped at the tub of cold water that would've drenched her from head to foot if she hadn't shrieked. "NO! I'm awake!"

Goku looked at her carefully, "Are you sure?" he asked, more than a little worried. This was his wife after all and despite her normal fainting spells, this was different… this was… strange. "Yes I'm sure. We've raised such an uproar, I think everyone else (and I) are ready to eat." Shrugging they all sat down to their table.

By the end of the meal, the conversation had carried to topics that (I'm not going to mention here because I don't want to make either myself or any of you fall asleep writing/reading) Usagi had completely bored herself listening to. Something about college or of that sort? She was tired. She hadn't been able to sleep at all since that morning and like she suspected she would be, after the battle with the youma in the mall. Trunks was sitting beside her, so he was the first to notice her head beginning to bob up and down as the conversation refused to flag and let them pay the bill and leave. Finally he offered his shoulder to lean on and she complied wearily as she fell into a light doze from the exhaustion. Gohan who also had noticed had been a little shyer of offering his shoulder to her and he'd lost his chance as soon as Trunks had.

He wondered to himself if Usagi liked Trunks. It was possible, Trunks was a notorious knockout with the ladies. He shrugged. It was enough to have a kinda-sorta relationship with Videl, there was no reason to go lusting after strange women. Especially one who'd come from a completely different time/dimension and would soon be leaving to some other guy (he guessed).

At last it was time to leave and Trunks woke Usagi. They all walked out into the night and went their separate ways. Usagi shivered in her dress at the blast of cool evening air but found it rather refreshing after the stuffiness of the inside restaurant. "Come on, let's get home and then you can tell us what happened between you and that guy."

"That guy? What guy?" asked Gohan interestedly as he inserted himself in the conversation. "The guy Chisaii-chan here was going out with."

"You're going out with someone?" he asked, feeling almost a little relieved. She was taken, she wouldn't come on to him and then he wouldn't have to work so hard at keeping himself away from her.

"You know, 'was' is the operative word." replied Usagi, her eyes beginning to sparkle, and Gohan swore he saw tears for a moment. "He dumped me a while back 'cause he was too scared to get in a 'serious' relationship."

Lost that excuse… Gohan found himself thinking as this new piece of information. She was single. Trunks laughed, "Hey, let's get home before we start talking and then you can go through the waterworks when we're well supplied with tissues and chocolate, Twinkies and any other make-me-feel-better foods, all wonderfully fattening and sugary."

"YUM! Let's hurry up and get there then!" she never noticed that she had avoided the word 'home'. Probably because she knew she didn't belong here as much as they all accepted her. Luna in Gohan's arms was sighing, "That girl never learns."

That's just the problem Luna… I'll never learn not to fall in love Chijba Mamoru… I couldn't learn in a thousand years before in the Silver Millennium, and I haven't learned it in the present… not even if I'm in a different time, different dimension… and a different set of friends.