Chapter 25: The return
Hey!!!!! I'm back again this week! I didn't have any homework, so I decided to get another chapter out to all my adoring fans!! So, here it is!!
The next day, when everyone awoke, it seemed the house was brimming with excitement. Quatre was the first one up, hoping to catch his men on their way out, to tell them he was going to leave again. They didn't take it too well, and carried on for a while about how he should stay, or at least let them come with him, but Pluto had warned Quatre that with a person for every Scout, it would be very difficult to support anyone else. Though the men were very upset, they eventually gave up and instead of grumbling, wished Quatre luck. "The best of luck, Master Quatre. With your journey...and with Miss Mercury."
Quatre flushed at the remark, but said nothing. He waved to them as they left and returned to the house.
"Hey, Quatre, you look a little red. Did they say something to upset you?" Venus teased.
"Nothing. Just a little chilly outside." Quatre replied, not quite meeting Venus's eyes.
They were out the door as quickly as possible, as soon as everything was ready, i.e. new clothes, new books, new everything else, and one fish. Since the guys didn't have much, they had but one bag each, and the girls didn't have anything but what they bought there, so they had one bag each as well.
Pluto decided on a small clearing in the woods behind Quatre's house for the best place to portal back. After a short inspection of the woods, the Scouts gathered in a circle around the guys. Pluto looked back at Zechs. "I'll need that key back. My power is connected to it, and since we are part of our time, we can portal right there, without having to go in- between." Zechs fished the small pink key from his pocket and dropped it into Pluto's hand.
She held it up to the trees above and yelled, "Holder of Time, Ruler of the Outer Pluto! I open the doors between the dimensions! I open the Doors of Time!" Her voice echoed through the trees.
And they were gone, with no cloud, flash or flare.
The group materialized in the same field behind the palace the came from before. Everyone seemed to sigh with relief.
"Whew, no wind this time." Duo sighed.
"Get down!" Mars suddenly yelled, knocking Wufei, Quatre, Duo and Venus to the ground. The others followed instantly. A black-purple energy ball knocked hunks of earth into the sky. Dodging the chunks, the group narrowly missed another attack as they made it to the side of the palace.
"What's happening?" Laytha asked quietly.
"We're being attacked. Let's go." Jupiter said gravely as she made her way around the corner.
The small crowd slowly made it to the doors. Zechs reached for the doors, but Mercury waved his hand off. "We're not going in that way. Come on."
Carefully looking for more energy blasts, everyone followed Pluto, who seemed to know where they were going.
Duo leaned up to Venus. "Where are we going?"
"It's this tunnel under the palace. It can only be opened by Scout power, but we have never used it. Pluto is the only one who exactly remembers where it is." Venus whispered back.
They eventually made it to the South Tower, and an abandoned side of the palace faced them. The Scouts were unsurprised by this sight, but the boys seemed a bit taken aback by the picture of a place of gloom in the city they never saw unhappiness in.
Pluto led them to a thorn patch growing against the tower wall. "Geez, why is it whenever you need to get somewhere, there's a thorn bush in your way?" Venus moaned.
"Tough it out Scouts, we have to get through. Scouts and guys, I mean." Jupiter corrected herself. She grabbed a handful of thorns and, ignoring the pricks of pain, pushed through. The others followed, with a bit of complaining.
Once they were against the tower wall, Pluto slid down, trying not to get her hair tangled in the thorns, and put her hand against the wall. "It's here, somewhere." She muttered. "Yes." She said, as a small panel opened, not bigger than the size of a pillow.
"We have to fit through there!" Venus exclaimed.
"Well, it is a 'secret' passage. If it were any bigger, the enemy would have found it." Pluto said as she moved down to her knees and slid her legs through.
"Speaking of the enemy, why haven't we gotten any more blasts? That one we got was definitely from an enemy." Mars commented.
"We shouldn't be standing around, waiting until they find us again." Wufei said as he slipped easily through the small hole in the wall.
Trowa said nothing as he followed and the same for Heero and Quatre. Duo hesitated before kneeling down.
"What's the matter? Scared of the dark?" Venus teased. She smiled slyly and moved around him, picking the thorns away from her skirt. "Don't worry; I'll go first to make sure it's safe." She giggled at the mock- indignant look on his face.
"Will you hurry up?" Mars asked irritably.
"I'm down already, geez." Venus said from inside. The others followed without more disputes.
Inside the passage was dark, save a faint light that emitted from a small flame in Mars's hand. After a small grunt from Venus, she held up a small ball that glowed a brighter, golden light.
"This way." Pluto said softly, yet her voice echoed loudly off the close walls. The others followed in single file, silently, though there was one incident where Venus freaked out when a cobweb got caught in her hair.
After almost ten minutes of walking and increasingly more insistent complaints from, at first only Venus, but soon, the others were wondering loudly when they would get to the inside of the palace. "Almost there." Pluto assured quietly.
Sure enough, Pluto stopped soon under a faint square in the ceiling. "This leads up to my office. It should be empty."
"Well, if we're under attack, don't count too much on it being empty. With power like that, energy ball, as you call it, I would guess there would be plenty of people injured." Heero thought aloud.
Mercury turned to him. "Oh, no. We would port the people out of the city when there was an attack. We've never had to use it, but when Serenity needs to, she can use her power."
"Is your queen a, what do you call it, a Scout?" Wufei asked as he looked up at the tile on the ceiling.
"She used to be. But when we fought our last battle, she pulled enough power to destroy the universe, so yes, she is technically is still a Scout, but she has surpassed us in power, so that is why she is our queen." Pluto informed. She reached up and pushed at the tile. It came up easily.
"Wait a moment." Zechs moved in front of Pluto. "You say that Neo- Queen Serenity, that woman I met just a week ago, has the power to destroy the universe?!" He exclaimed, raising his voice just enough to make the echo knock a bit of dust off the border of the opening behind the tile.
"If you want to be technical about it, each Scout, even Rini, each has the power to annihilate a small planet." Mercury said, dusting the dirt off her glasses.
"Small.planet?" Duo stepped back. Even Wufei leaned slightly away from Pluto.
Jupiter rolled her eyes and laughed quietly. "Only if we use the maximum of our powers, and that hardly ever happens. Now if I may direct our attention to the fact that we are under a little attack on the outside of our palace, can we get up there?" She put her hands on her hips and looked up into the dark hole. "I'll go up first." She volunteered.
Heero stepped forward. "There may be enemies up there. You shouldn't- "
Jupiter cast him a sidelong look. "I think I can handle myself." She smiled at him as she pulled herself up through the hole.
"You are in my cabinet, in the back side of the office. There should be handles on the doors." Pluto called up, careful to keep her voice down. There was a small creak, and then footsteps clicking on the floor above them, and a light clicked on, sending light flooding down the hole. Venus and Mars set down their own lights and they disappeared.
One-by-one the group made their way through the ceiling and into Pluto's nurse's office. Suddenly struck with the seriousness of the situation, everyone quieted as Jupiter carefully peeked out the door. She swung it open. "Clear."
Slowly, they made their way down the hall, checking each door, and around each corner. "Where are the others? Shouldn't they be here?" Duo speculated.
"They are, we just have to find them." Laytha responded solemnly.
Trowa looked at her and opened his mouth for a response, but was cut off abruptly as a blue energy ball came hurling down the hall. Thankfully for a quick reflex, it missed Heero and Zechs, who were furthest away from the wall. Each of the guys pulled out a gun (Heero and Wufei lent Quatre and Zechs one, whom were unarmed.) and the Scouts pulled up their power, ready for another attack.
At that moment, someone threw themselves around the corner and was nearly both shot and blown up before she Mercury recognized her as Neptune.
"Neptune! What's going on? We were attacked outside, and why are you in your uniform? When did an enemy show up?" Mercury assailed Neptune with questions.
Neptune, visibly calmed down, took a deep breath. "Transform and come with me. The others are- Hey! What are you guys doing here?!" She exclaimed.
"We'll explain later. Where are the others and the queen?" Jupiter asked, pushing to the head of the group.
Neptune led them down the hall and into a small side room. Queen Serenity was sitting near a window, in her usual flowing white, but Uranus, Saturn, and Rini, were all standing around nervously, and all were in their uniforms.
"What's going on?" Jupiter asked swiftly.
"We are under attack. Not a full out one, but an attack none the less." Serenity sighed. "They knew."
"Knew what?" Mercury pried gently.
Serenity closed her eyes. "They knew you left. They knew you left the dimension."
"Who is 'they'? Who is attacking us?" Jupiter pursued.
Uranus spoke up. "They call themselves the Black Moon. They don't have much power individually, but their sheer numbers are the problem."
"There must be thousands!" Rini piped up.
"Millions!" Saturn added.
"Their ships, well, they don't look like ships. More like..." Neptune trailed off.
"Crystals. Black crystals." Serenity finished.
"Black crystals..." Mars repeated. "My vision!"
"The piece of darkness in Wufei!" Mercury exclaimed.
"They pushed them through to get through themselves. But slipped up and a piece of their darkness got pulled into Wufei." Serenity concluded. "They probably put a lock around their own energy to keep you from having visions, Mars. Speaking of Wufei, how did they take being back home?"
"They didn't go home." Heero stepped out from behind Jupiter. The others moved out of the shadows.
Serenity stood up. "So, you got attached."
"Apparently." Wufei snorted.
"Um, Your Majesty, I kind of hate to criticize, but what are you all doing in here?" Duo cocked his head and looked around.
"We can't exactly land an attack right now. Only the Inners can raise the full shield, and we've been relying on the regular shield until now. If we go out there, we'd be blown apart before we could even begin to gather energy." Uranus looked away, as if in anger.
Jupiter turned to Heero. "You all stay down here. We'll be back in a sec." She winked at him. "Don't go anywhere."
Heero nodded and leaned against the wall.
So, what did you think? It took a little while to get out, but this is just a transitional chapter, so sorry for the total lack of action. I guarantee the next one will have plenty! 'Til next time!
Hey!!!!! I'm back again this week! I didn't have any homework, so I decided to get another chapter out to all my adoring fans!! So, here it is!!
The next day, when everyone awoke, it seemed the house was brimming with excitement. Quatre was the first one up, hoping to catch his men on their way out, to tell them he was going to leave again. They didn't take it too well, and carried on for a while about how he should stay, or at least let them come with him, but Pluto had warned Quatre that with a person for every Scout, it would be very difficult to support anyone else. Though the men were very upset, they eventually gave up and instead of grumbling, wished Quatre luck. "The best of luck, Master Quatre. With your journey...and with Miss Mercury."
Quatre flushed at the remark, but said nothing. He waved to them as they left and returned to the house.
"Hey, Quatre, you look a little red. Did they say something to upset you?" Venus teased.
"Nothing. Just a little chilly outside." Quatre replied, not quite meeting Venus's eyes.
They were out the door as quickly as possible, as soon as everything was ready, i.e. new clothes, new books, new everything else, and one fish. Since the guys didn't have much, they had but one bag each, and the girls didn't have anything but what they bought there, so they had one bag each as well.
Pluto decided on a small clearing in the woods behind Quatre's house for the best place to portal back. After a short inspection of the woods, the Scouts gathered in a circle around the guys. Pluto looked back at Zechs. "I'll need that key back. My power is connected to it, and since we are part of our time, we can portal right there, without having to go in- between." Zechs fished the small pink key from his pocket and dropped it into Pluto's hand.
She held it up to the trees above and yelled, "Holder of Time, Ruler of the Outer Pluto! I open the doors between the dimensions! I open the Doors of Time!" Her voice echoed through the trees.
And they were gone, with no cloud, flash or flare.
The group materialized in the same field behind the palace the came from before. Everyone seemed to sigh with relief.
"Whew, no wind this time." Duo sighed.
"Get down!" Mars suddenly yelled, knocking Wufei, Quatre, Duo and Venus to the ground. The others followed instantly. A black-purple energy ball knocked hunks of earth into the sky. Dodging the chunks, the group narrowly missed another attack as they made it to the side of the palace.
"What's happening?" Laytha asked quietly.
"We're being attacked. Let's go." Jupiter said gravely as she made her way around the corner.
The small crowd slowly made it to the doors. Zechs reached for the doors, but Mercury waved his hand off. "We're not going in that way. Come on."
Carefully looking for more energy blasts, everyone followed Pluto, who seemed to know where they were going.
Duo leaned up to Venus. "Where are we going?"
"It's this tunnel under the palace. It can only be opened by Scout power, but we have never used it. Pluto is the only one who exactly remembers where it is." Venus whispered back.
They eventually made it to the South Tower, and an abandoned side of the palace faced them. The Scouts were unsurprised by this sight, but the boys seemed a bit taken aback by the picture of a place of gloom in the city they never saw unhappiness in.
Pluto led them to a thorn patch growing against the tower wall. "Geez, why is it whenever you need to get somewhere, there's a thorn bush in your way?" Venus moaned.
"Tough it out Scouts, we have to get through. Scouts and guys, I mean." Jupiter corrected herself. She grabbed a handful of thorns and, ignoring the pricks of pain, pushed through. The others followed, with a bit of complaining.
Once they were against the tower wall, Pluto slid down, trying not to get her hair tangled in the thorns, and put her hand against the wall. "It's here, somewhere." She muttered. "Yes." She said, as a small panel opened, not bigger than the size of a pillow.
"We have to fit through there!" Venus exclaimed.
"Well, it is a 'secret' passage. If it were any bigger, the enemy would have found it." Pluto said as she moved down to her knees and slid her legs through.
"Speaking of the enemy, why haven't we gotten any more blasts? That one we got was definitely from an enemy." Mars commented.
"We shouldn't be standing around, waiting until they find us again." Wufei said as he slipped easily through the small hole in the wall.
Trowa said nothing as he followed and the same for Heero and Quatre. Duo hesitated before kneeling down.
"What's the matter? Scared of the dark?" Venus teased. She smiled slyly and moved around him, picking the thorns away from her skirt. "Don't worry; I'll go first to make sure it's safe." She giggled at the mock- indignant look on his face.
"Will you hurry up?" Mars asked irritably.
"I'm down already, geez." Venus said from inside. The others followed without more disputes.
Inside the passage was dark, save a faint light that emitted from a small flame in Mars's hand. After a small grunt from Venus, she held up a small ball that glowed a brighter, golden light.
"This way." Pluto said softly, yet her voice echoed loudly off the close walls. The others followed in single file, silently, though there was one incident where Venus freaked out when a cobweb got caught in her hair.
After almost ten minutes of walking and increasingly more insistent complaints from, at first only Venus, but soon, the others were wondering loudly when they would get to the inside of the palace. "Almost there." Pluto assured quietly.
Sure enough, Pluto stopped soon under a faint square in the ceiling. "This leads up to my office. It should be empty."
"Well, if we're under attack, don't count too much on it being empty. With power like that, energy ball, as you call it, I would guess there would be plenty of people injured." Heero thought aloud.
Mercury turned to him. "Oh, no. We would port the people out of the city when there was an attack. We've never had to use it, but when Serenity needs to, she can use her power."
"Is your queen a, what do you call it, a Scout?" Wufei asked as he looked up at the tile on the ceiling.
"She used to be. But when we fought our last battle, she pulled enough power to destroy the universe, so yes, she is technically is still a Scout, but she has surpassed us in power, so that is why she is our queen." Pluto informed. She reached up and pushed at the tile. It came up easily.
"Wait a moment." Zechs moved in front of Pluto. "You say that Neo- Queen Serenity, that woman I met just a week ago, has the power to destroy the universe?!" He exclaimed, raising his voice just enough to make the echo knock a bit of dust off the border of the opening behind the tile.
"If you want to be technical about it, each Scout, even Rini, each has the power to annihilate a small planet." Mercury said, dusting the dirt off her glasses.
"Small.planet?" Duo stepped back. Even Wufei leaned slightly away from Pluto.
Jupiter rolled her eyes and laughed quietly. "Only if we use the maximum of our powers, and that hardly ever happens. Now if I may direct our attention to the fact that we are under a little attack on the outside of our palace, can we get up there?" She put her hands on her hips and looked up into the dark hole. "I'll go up first." She volunteered.
Heero stepped forward. "There may be enemies up there. You shouldn't- "
Jupiter cast him a sidelong look. "I think I can handle myself." She smiled at him as she pulled herself up through the hole.
"You are in my cabinet, in the back side of the office. There should be handles on the doors." Pluto called up, careful to keep her voice down. There was a small creak, and then footsteps clicking on the floor above them, and a light clicked on, sending light flooding down the hole. Venus and Mars set down their own lights and they disappeared.
One-by-one the group made their way through the ceiling and into Pluto's nurse's office. Suddenly struck with the seriousness of the situation, everyone quieted as Jupiter carefully peeked out the door. She swung it open. "Clear."
Slowly, they made their way down the hall, checking each door, and around each corner. "Where are the others? Shouldn't they be here?" Duo speculated.
"They are, we just have to find them." Laytha responded solemnly.
Trowa looked at her and opened his mouth for a response, but was cut off abruptly as a blue energy ball came hurling down the hall. Thankfully for a quick reflex, it missed Heero and Zechs, who were furthest away from the wall. Each of the guys pulled out a gun (Heero and Wufei lent Quatre and Zechs one, whom were unarmed.) and the Scouts pulled up their power, ready for another attack.
At that moment, someone threw themselves around the corner and was nearly both shot and blown up before she Mercury recognized her as Neptune.
"Neptune! What's going on? We were attacked outside, and why are you in your uniform? When did an enemy show up?" Mercury assailed Neptune with questions.
Neptune, visibly calmed down, took a deep breath. "Transform and come with me. The others are- Hey! What are you guys doing here?!" She exclaimed.
"We'll explain later. Where are the others and the queen?" Jupiter asked, pushing to the head of the group.
Neptune led them down the hall and into a small side room. Queen Serenity was sitting near a window, in her usual flowing white, but Uranus, Saturn, and Rini, were all standing around nervously, and all were in their uniforms.
"What's going on?" Jupiter asked swiftly.
"We are under attack. Not a full out one, but an attack none the less." Serenity sighed. "They knew."
"Knew what?" Mercury pried gently.
Serenity closed her eyes. "They knew you left. They knew you left the dimension."
"Who is 'they'? Who is attacking us?" Jupiter pursued.
Uranus spoke up. "They call themselves the Black Moon. They don't have much power individually, but their sheer numbers are the problem."
"There must be thousands!" Rini piped up.
"Millions!" Saturn added.
"Their ships, well, they don't look like ships. More like..." Neptune trailed off.
"Crystals. Black crystals." Serenity finished.
"Black crystals..." Mars repeated. "My vision!"
"The piece of darkness in Wufei!" Mercury exclaimed.
"They pushed them through to get through themselves. But slipped up and a piece of their darkness got pulled into Wufei." Serenity concluded. "They probably put a lock around their own energy to keep you from having visions, Mars. Speaking of Wufei, how did they take being back home?"
"They didn't go home." Heero stepped out from behind Jupiter. The others moved out of the shadows.
Serenity stood up. "So, you got attached."
"Apparently." Wufei snorted.
"Um, Your Majesty, I kind of hate to criticize, but what are you all doing in here?" Duo cocked his head and looked around.
"We can't exactly land an attack right now. Only the Inners can raise the full shield, and we've been relying on the regular shield until now. If we go out there, we'd be blown apart before we could even begin to gather energy." Uranus looked away, as if in anger.
Jupiter turned to Heero. "You all stay down here. We'll be back in a sec." She winked at him. "Don't go anywhere."
Heero nodded and leaned against the wall.
So, what did you think? It took a little while to get out, but this is just a transitional chapter, so sorry for the total lack of action. I guarantee the next one will have plenty! 'Til next time!