Disclaimer: I do now own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing.
Author's Note: Hello everyone. I'm back. Sorry it took me a while to update. I've been very busy lately. I saw Sweet Home Alabama today 10/25/02 with my friend Brittany a.k.a. Oz. it's very good and I recommend it! ^_^Although you can kind of see the ending. Oh and this chapter is going to have the strange Hotaru scenes in bold. That's for sure.
New Dimensions Episode 5~ Falling Embers and Glowing Fireflies
"Who is this strange assassin Heero? Lately we have found out that it is a girl who is this mysterious sniper who is constantly killing and leaving a single purple violet behind. It's getting on my nerves." Trowa said as he sat down and yawned.
"Yeah." Duo continued. "I haven't slept well in the past week because we are constantly getting called in to see who is leaving these flowers behind. I'm tired damn it."
"Whoever is responsible for these attacks is going to suffer the consequences if caught but the problem is that it might never get caught. The attacks are so planned out, it's scary to think about it." Trowa said once more.
***
"Okay, I'm in the room." Hotaru whispered into the small microphone on her necklace.
"All right. Who is in the room?" A voice on her single speaker in her ear said that matched Aeris's.
Hotaru looked at the bed just a few feet away from her. "A blond girl... with a pointed nose." Hotaru said as she tilted her head while looking at the girl sleeping soundly.
"Okay now look around the room and look for anything with the initials R.P. or R.P.D. pr R.D." Aeris said.
Hotaru slowly searched the room for the initials. "R.D.?" Hotaru asked as she opened a drawer and pulled out a laminated badge hanging from a necklace.
"Yeah! Yeah! R.D."
"Relina Darlian? Relina Peacecraft Darlian?" Hotaru asked while reading the badge.
"Yes! It's her! Okay, now just kidnap her. I have some questions. Be waiting for you." A click was heard as Aeris hung up on Hotaru.
Hotaru put the badge back and looked at Relina. To her surprise, Relina was staring right at her, her eyes showing disgust and hatred.
"Guards!" Relina yelled. Hotaru flinched. Relina's voice was annoying. (A/N As you can tell, I can't stand Relina.)
Hotaru chuckled. "Your guards are a little tied up right now." Hotaru said. Outside of the door to Relina's giant room were about seven guards who were gagged.
"You can't do anything to me." Relina said getting up from her bed slowly. "I dare you to lay a finger on me."
"No problem." Hotaru said. She jumped up. Since the room barely had any light in it because it was about five-thirty in the morning, Relina lost sight of the purple-headed girl.
Hotaru silently landed behind Relina and put her in a headlock. Then reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a cloth and slapped it onto Relina's face and held it there. Relina screamed in it sinking her nails into Hotaru's skin and stomping on her foot at the same time. Then she passed out.
A small smile appeared on Hotaru's lips as she picked up Relina (A/N I do think that Relina is shorter than Hotaru if I am not mistaken which is why Hotaru can pick Relina up with ease. If I am incorrect, please correct me with a review!), And began making her way outside of the room. "Oh! I almost forgot!" she said as she reached into her pocket quickly and placed a single purple violet on Relina's pillow.
***
"You men... no---boys! You boys are so useless! You were supposed to be at Relina's side every waking moment!" Dr. J screamed to the gundam boys.
"Exactly, every waking moment. She was sleeping and I don't think she would let us into her room at night while she is sleeping." Duo said. "Although I would be right by her side if she does let us." He chuckled.
"You know what I mean!" Dr. J nearly screamed. "Now because of your carelessness, you boys are going to find out who kidnapped her, you are going to find bring Relina back, and you are going to bring the kidnapper back!"
"Awe come one doc!" Duo complained.
"Don't give me that. It's your fault and you guys are going to fix it. You know that all fingers are going to be pointed at Heero since he is known as her main bodyguard. Now you all are going to find out who did this and you are going to find out now! Go!" D. J said shoo-ing the boys out of his office.
***
During the ride towards Relina's hotel room, Trowa asked Heero, "Hey Heero, did you by any chance take back that disk that you gave us with the information on out enemy base? I couldn't find mine this morning."
"Yeah Heero I'm missing mine too." Quatre said.
Wufei and Duo said that their disks were missing too.
Heero continued driving in silence. He slowly let out a frustrated sigh through gritted teeth.
***
"Relina Peacecraft..." Aeris said as she got her whip and whipped the top of her desk making a loud clapping noise. "Now... I will be nice and let you live if you answer my few questions. If not, you will pay the consequences and I think I know the perfect punishment for you."
With her whip, she slowly let it slide across Relina's cheek. Relina turned her head. She was handcuffed behind a chair and each of her ankles was handcuffed to the legs of the chair. She glared at Aeris.
"Where are the whereabouts of the colony X307-686?"
"That is all classified information and you now that." Relina said trying to take her small hands out of the handcuffs.
"Well I need to know."
"Only the prime-ministers and presidents of countries fly to that colony, why would you possible want to go?"
"That is none of your business. Just tell me where the colony is and you are free to go." Aeris said pointing to the door of her office. Hotaru was standing next to the door, watching everything. This was a side of Aeris that she has never seen before.
Relina looked at Aeris as Aeris's beautiful and tender face came closer to Relina's. Relina spit in Aeris's face.
"Oh that's it!" Aeris said as she raised her hand that was holding the whip to strike Relina. Hotaru ran and held her arm back. "Aeris! Aeris calm down."
Some of Aeris's baby blue hair fell out of her perfect ponytail and fell over her perfect face. "Let me go Hotaru." Aeris mumbled.
"Shh, Aeris, it's all right. I'll ask the questions okay?" Hotaru said still holding Aeris's arm back. Aeris calmed down and fixed her hair and dress and walked out of the room, her small hands in fists and her teeth grinding together.
Relina rolled her eyes and sighed. "May you please let me go? I have a very important meeting and I am going to be late if you let me out now but late is better than nothing."
"I'm sorry but I've got orders. Where is the colony?"
"I can't tell you!" Relina whined.
"If you tell us then you can go to your meeting." Hotaru said taking a seat in the giant leather chair behind the giant desk in the very well decorated room.
"It's fine with me. I don't need to be there." Relina said trying to sound as if she didn't care.
"Stop lying, you said it was important." Hotaru said leaning back on her chair.
"Exactly! So let me out! I'm might end up being late! You know what would happen if I don't show up?"
"Shut up, the meeting already started and if you don't show up... I am aware that it can be disastrous. A new war can start huh?" Hotaru was standing behind Relina with a knife blade slowly stroking her neck. Relina began to sweat and breathe hard. "P-please be careful with that." She whispered heavily.
"Don't worry, I will." Hotaru chuckled. 'Damn... this is so unlike me.' The next thing Hotaru knew, she had Relina's hair in her hands and was slowly running her fingers through the smooth strands of hair. "Your hair... it looks so familiar." A quick flash of bright blue eyes and loose blond hair in a big red bow flashed through her mind. Hotaru felt a sharp pain in her head. She moaned.
Hotaru was walking down a dark hallway. Everything was dark gray. There were locked doors all around her. Everyone she tried couldn't open. There were little glowing fireflies all around her. Whenever she caught one in her hand, she felt pain. They all seemed close to her but whenever she held out her hand, she felt only pain. "Hello?" the little girl asked then her same voice replied her only with an echo.
Hotaru sat once again in the giant chair behind a desk in front of Relina. She reached under the desk and pulled out a plastic sport water bottle that Aeris had left earlier. Walking over to Relina, she shifted all of her weight to her left leg and with her right hand, she got the water bottle and slowly tipped it over. Then with her right hand she lifted Relina's head so that it can face the water bottle. Then she let one drop of water come out slowly and land on Relina's forehead, and another one, and another one. Then she waited about thirty more seconds and then let out another round of drops. This round didn't end for about a minute. Then she paused and then let the drops slowly come out once again. Then she quickly let them come out and then slowly once again. Then another pause and they began to flow out of the water bottle.
Relina began to tremble. She turned her head this way and that--- water flying everywhere. She screamed and continued to tremble in her chair. Hotaru put the bottle of water on the desk and took out a key from the back of her pocket. She took off Relina's handcuffs with that key. They fell on the hard marble floor making a clattering sound. Relina remained in the same position as if the handcuffs were still holding her hands behind her.
(A/N: This is an old Chinese way of torture. They slowly let out drops of water on someone's forehead and it actually cracked their skull after a certain period of time but that is probably a long time, I'm not so sure really. It either did that or it made them crazy. We were talking about torture in my world history class. But it is still interesting huh?)
"I'm sorry Relina." She placed her hand on Relina's forehead and stroked her bangs saying, "Where is the colony?"
"In... in a star clus... cluster fifty miles away from Saturn's moon."
"Which one?"
"R-Rhea." Relina muttered slowly.
"See? Now that wasn't so hard was it? I'm sorry Relina for deceiving you but you can't leave. Not yet." Hotaru said. She left the room but not before she took a last pitiful glance at Relina and slowly shut the door.
***
"This is it. This is the assassins' headquarters." Trowa mumbled slowly after checking the navigation system in their Hummer.
"Whoa, it's huge!" Duo exclaimed as they all walked up to it.
All the boys were wearing black.
***
Wufei kicked a door once, kicked it again and it fell completely from its hinges.
"Miss Relina!" Quatre yelled as they all ran up to her. They all tried to take the handcuffs from her ankles and from behind her hands. Relina was in a deep sleep. Some blood coming from her ankles and wrists showed that she was struggling to get out of the handcuffs but she couldn't.
"This is disgusting. Who would kidnap someone and leave them abandoned?" Trowa said sitting next to Relina working on one handcuff on her right ankle.
***
Ami opened a door in her room and walked inside Hotaru's room. Hotaru was brushing her hair and looking at herself in the mirror. She was humming to herself.
"Hotaru, can I borrow some lotion? I just shaved my legs and they are all dry and it's disgusting." Ami explained as she walked next to Hotaru.
Hotaru pointed to a bottle on the edge of her drawer and continued to hum to herself.
"Thanks Firefly." Ami said as she took the bottle to her room. Before Ami shut the door dividing her room from Hotaru's, Hotaru quickly said, "Ami?"
Ami turned around and looked at Hotaru. "Hmm? What is it?"
"Ami, do we know a blond with uhm... blue eyes and always wears a red bow on her hair?"
Ami instantly thought of Minako and realized that she missed all of her friends terribly. She remembered an old photo-album she had laying in her room. She had some developed pictures that she hasn't looked at of the sleepover.
"Minako..." Ami whispered.
"Huh?"
"No. I don't think we know someone who fits that description." Ami said and walked out of the room and shut the door.
"Hmm..." Hotaru said to herself and turned around and continued to brush her hair and sing a strange song with a catchy melody that she knew. Her head hurt terribly. (AN: The Sailor Moon theme song that Usagi always sings.)
In the privacy of her own room, Ami sighed and opened her mini-computer. A fuzzy picture of Setsuna came on.
"Setsuna thank goodness! Do you think I can go over and get my picture album? I left it on my bed back there I think."
"I know you want it but there is no way. I'm bringing it to you now all right?" Setsuna said through the communicator.
"So how is everyone?" Ami asked.
"Everyone is still wondering where you and Hotaru went. I told them that you left with Hotaru for some special training but they all don't believe me." Setsuna said. "Oh, I just sent you your picture album. I knew you wanted it."
"How?" Ami asked.
"My time gate has a funny way of showing peoples desires sometimes. I'm monitoring everything from the gate anyway so that's how I knew."
"You don't follow us into the..."
"No. I know you people need your privacy." Setsuna said.
Ami smiled. Then she felt something on fall on her bed next to her. She looked over towards her left where she felt it and saw that there was her photo-album.
"Thanks Setsuna." Ami said as she shut her communicator tight and began applying the lotion to her legs making them shine. She heard a creak coming from her door. She looked up seeing nothing.
"Who's there?" She asked the darkness. No reply.
Ami shrugged and continued to apply the lotion on her legs. Hearing the creak once again, she stood up and walked to the door. Then her eyes widened and she gasped. She was ready to scream but instead, it all came out in a small grunt as she felt a strong fist smash into her stomach. She hugged her stomach and fell to the floor.
***
Ami woke up and sat up slowly, feeling a pain in her stomach. She sat up and hugged her stomach.
"Don't try anything weird or I'm going to be forced to shoot you." A voice said. She turned towards it and saw a blond boy and a boy with a braid behind him.
"Huh? What? Where am I?" Ami asked confused. "Who are you?"
"Don't give us that bull." The braided boy said as she walked closer to her. Seeing her bare legs he gulped. The blond one blushed as he stood behind the braided boy. "Aren't you the one who is murdering all these people and leaving a violet behind?" He put his gun away as she looked at Ami with one eyebrow raised. The braided boy had the same expression.
"Have we seen you before?" The braided boy asked.
Ami smiled. "I'm glad that you guys at least remember." She giggled.
"Ami!" They both yelled at the same time while running up to her. They began to take off her handcuffs.
"Wait." Said another male voice who came out of a door. "Just because we know her doesn't mean that she is free from her crimes. Why did you kill all of those people?" A man came out of the shadows with gravity defying hair and behind him was a man with a tight ponytail.
Ami thought for a moment and then laughed and said, "You've got the wrong girl boys. You meant to get the girl with the room next to mine. Hotaru."
"Oh! The schizophrenic!" Duo said remembering the sleepover, which happened years ago, to them at least.
"Don't call her that. You guys really hurt her you know that? Now can you please let me go? I'll tell you what happened." Ami said looking at the boys with water filled eyes.
The boys looked at each other and nodded showing that it was okay to let her go.
***
"Ami?" Hotaru said opening the door to her room. "Ami it's ten in the morning. Time to wake up. Ami?" Hotaru walked inside and realized that Ami wasn't inside it. She looked inside the bathroom and saw that Ami wasn't inside there either. "Ami where did you go?" Hotaru asked the air. Then she shrugged figuring that Ami was somewhere around the house. She was about to leave the room when she noticed a thick book sitting on Ami's bed. A book that she has never seen before. She walked up to it mumbling, "I guess it won't hurt to just peek at it."
Hotaru was standing in a field of long grass and purple (AN Not blue!) violets. Fireflies were all around her. Fireflies and also falling embers from a fire up in the sky. Each firefly and ember holding a special memory. Hotaru wanted to grab a Firefly and see what the memory was but she didn't want to at the same time because she feared pain.
She opened the book and saw that it was an old photo-album. Flipping through the pages, she saw that there were pictures of girls mostly, girls that she had never seen in her life. But the strange part was that she saw herself in some of them. One picture was a girl with dark red hair (AN If you notice, she does have dark red hair, not black) and a blond girl with long pigtails fighting, a girl with a pony tail smiling cheerfully standing next to Ami and that blond girl that Hotaru thought just the day earlier was standing right next to her smiling cheerfully. Hotaru saw that she looked emotionless in the picture while standing next to a girl with bright pink hair. A tall man was standing next to them and there were three accompanying them. The picture looked like one of those pictures you have to pose for in those department stores.
"Ami lied." Hotaru mumbled softly as she continued to flip through the pages. When she reached the end of the album she was in tears. The only reason why was because her head was throbbing so badly that it made her cry because of the pain. She didn't dare open the envelope, she was scared it would cause her more head pain.
Hotaru ran out of the room, tears falling. Her head hurt so much and everything was blurry. "What's wrong with me?" Hotaru said to herself as she walked down the large hallway falling on the walls occasionally falling on the walls. She would pause here and gather herself and make her way to the room where Relina was being held captive. She was hoping Aeris was there, and she was. When Aeris looked up at Hotaru she gasped and ran up to her and grabbing her arms she asked, "Hotaru what's the matter? Why are you crying?"
Hotaru didn't reply. She opened her mouth and tried to find her voice but instantly became scared when she couldn't hear a voice coming out of her throat. Instead, she breathed out shakily and fell on Aeris.
"Hotaru!" Aeris screamed as she fell on her back because of Hotaru's weight. (AN No I'm not saying that Hotaru is heavy. Something that I didn't explain earlier is that Aeris is just as skinny as Hotaru, which is why she can get shoved around easily. You'll see some of that later on, not now.)
***
"So she took the job of an assassin while I just stayed because I needed a place to sleep. I didn't kill all those people. I couldn't. I could still remember fighting for love and justice. I couldn't just forget that and fight against everything I stand for."
"Whoa..." Duo said. "If I hadn't said that about her none of this would have happened. Damn why is it always me?"
"Well Miss Mizuno, if you would like to stay here you are more than welcome to." Quatre said politely.
"You know what? I think I will. I don't want to go back there. I might get blamed for all of this." Ami said slowly.
***
Hotaru fell to the floor, both of her hands in fists. Her eyes were mostly white because her pupils were small. She was shocked. Hotaru was breathing hard, tears were falling and they were out of control. She opened her fists they glowed inside. Fireflies flew out of them and some embers stayed put in her hands. Too many memories, she couldn't handle them all. This was too much for her little self to handle. She wanted to be loved at the moment. She wanted someone to come up to her and hold her in his or her arms and tell her that she was going to be all right. She needed someone. Someone to help her. She needed love.
Hotaru woke up finding herself in a room she had never seen before. A bag of ice was on her forehead. She stirred in the bed and saw that Aeris had her head down next to Hotaru's small body. Aeris was taking care of her and apparently slept on the job. Seeing Aeris sleep in that position reminded Hotaru of a certain pig-tailed blond who was familiar and unfamiliar to her at the same time and was sleeping in the same position as Aeris was only the memory had a bubble of mucus coming out of the unknown girls' nose, not Aeris's. An image of a blond girl with long pigtails flashed in her mind once again. This was a different memory. The girl was spinning while clothes were appearing on her. Gems appeared on the two balls of blond hair on her head. Gloves, a short skirt, and boots came next. Hotaru felt her head hurt once more. She groaned and placed a hand on her head.
Aeris stirred and looked up and saw that Hotaru was awake.
"Hey, are you okay?" She asked.
Hotaru looked at Aeris. "I'm confused." Hotaru said.
Aeris's small eyes were filled with concern while Hotaru's big ones were filled with confusion and misunderstanding.
"Aeris... I am so confused."
Aeris took a seat next to Hotaru and stroked her face causing Hotaru to blush slightly. "Tell me what you are confused about." Aeris said nearing Hotaru.
"A... a lot of things."
"About what?"
"About... my past. I don't remember it... but I have strange memories that happened at certain periods of time. I don't know when they happened and the people in them are unfamiliar to me."
Aeris tilted her head.
"It's strange. And whenever I try to remember my past, I get really bad headaches and... I want to look back at them but I'm scared at the same time."
"Oh Hotaru." Aeris said, her voice filled with concern. "I'm sorry." She said as she hugged Hotaru. Hotaru let Aeris hug her. Hotaru still looked shocked.
Hotaru tried to stand up from her fall from earlier on after she caught all of the falling embers and glowing fireflies. Seeing that she was too weak, she was just about to give up and stay lying on the floor when a hand popped in front of her. Hotaru looked up to see whom it was who was offering its hand for Hotaru to take. Seeing a young man in front of her, she wanted to take the hand offered to her. She wanted to instantly tell the teenager who looked just a tad older than her all of her problems. She wanted to tell him everything about the embers and fireflies and how they caused pain. She wanted to warn him about them. She wondered if he could help her. But at the same time she didn't want to take his hand because she was scared that it would cause pain. More pain than the falling embers and the glowing fireflies. She only looked at the hand. Then she let her hand slowly come towards his but she stopped her hand. She saw that he made no move to grab her hand, which was so close to his. He seemed patient. He looked like he knew all the things that she was going through. All the pain she was feeling with all of these forgotten memories. He knew that if she went to fast she would go crazy so he waited for her. His deep Prussian blue eyes stared into her amethyst ones. His eyes filled with concern and understanding. Tears fell from the girls eyes and they stayed in the same position as if forever.
Author's Ending Note: Konnichiwa peoples. Hope you liked this chapter. It's kind of long. That's my problem. When I start to write I get too carried away. I'm hoping that that it not a problem because if it is just leave it in a review and tell me to shorten my chapters. Uhm, so I am hoping you liked it. Next chapters preview: Aeris gives Hotaru a painful order that Hotaru has no choice but fulfilling. I hate writing in bold. And Italics too but I friggin have to. So uhm... be expecting the next chapter within the next three days or I just might work on it right now. I'm not so sure. I have an English test and a Psychology test to study for so I'm giving in. Please review and tell me what you think of it! REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!!!!!
Oh and if you can't see it now (which is something I highly doubt), but if you can't, Aeris DOES have feelings for Hotaru which is more than just a friendship. This shouldn't surprise you since homosexuality is so respected in anime so please no flames but do it if you must. Later.