Chapter Nine
"Cat got your tongue?" Michiru continued to stand there, drying the ends of her hair and smiling at Haruka.
Haruka could only gape, unable to speak. Part of her wanted to rush to feel that she was real but the other part, the one filled with duty grew ever the more suspicious. After a minute or two, Haruka straightened and cleared her expression of surprise, and instead returned to her usual steady face.
"Michiru." She said simply, not knowing what else to say.
Michiru laughed, turning to a couch and sitting down, looking very casual, leaving Haruka standing, watching her.
"Suppose you tell me where you've been these days?" Haruka kept her voice even, not to betray any inner turmoil.
Michiru tossed her head back, her hair cascading behind her, and returned Haruka's hard stare with a quick flutter of her lashes.
"Oh, must we really talk about it? Isn't it just better that I'm back? I'd have thought you'd be happy."
Haruka swallowed, glancing away briefly, "I am," and returned her gaze, "But it's not like you to just vanish and suddenly appear again."
Her laugh twinkled yet it almost felt cold to Haruka. Suppressing a shiver, she felt something was very much different with Michiru and decided not to speak of the actual case of her sudden "vanishing". Perhaps this was not the Michiru she knew. This crazy idea seemed even less substantial then Michiru's sudden return. Still she would keep certain details to herself until she could be sure.
"Well, if you're just going to stand there, I think I'll head out. I have some things to do before my recital tonight. You are coming, I expect?"
Haruka blinked. She'd completely forgot about that. And a good thing too it seemed. Had she remembered, she have called to cancel and then try to explain why it didn't need to be any more. Nodding, she turned aside.
"I have some things to do as well. I'll see you tonight." Without waiting for a response, she headed back out the door and climbed onto her bike, taking off in a roar.
Not really knowing what she was going to do, she found she was heading towards Serena's. Maybe it was just as well. What was she going to do about Hotaru? She didn't want her exposed to whatever was going on with Michiru, but how to make it seem not suspicious, that was the problem. Even if Michiru seemed different, she was still very intelligent.
Perhaps a few days at Rini's? That wouldn't seem unusual. And even Hotaru might not suspect.
After a while, she reached Serena's and hopped of her bike. Glancing once up at the house, she walked up to the door and knocked.
After about five seconds, she could hear feet running quickly down the hall followed by the quick swing of the door opening, revealing Rini, Hotaru and another girl with a rather interesting hair color.
"Haruka! What are you doing here already?" Hotaru asked in surprise. "I thought I was staying for dinner."
"Well actually, munchkin," Hotaru smiled as she stepped in, closing the door behind her, "I was going to see if you wanted to stay here for longer then that."
Hotaru's eyes lit up as Rini spat out, "You mean like over night?"
"I mean like perhaps a week. If that's all right with your 'aunt'." Haruka winked, glancing only once to the other girl, suspecting it was the one named Naneeka, knowing she'd not know who Rini really was in the house.
"I'm sure it will." Rini smiled, "Maybe with a little persuasion too." She grinned slyly, even as Luna-P was seen floating nonchalantly behind her. Haruka could only grinned inwardly.
"Is this Naneeka?" she asked, looking squarely on the girl now, who seemed rather quiet during everything. Naneeka almost seem to jerk under the stare but nodded once silently.
"Please to meet you." She said quietly. Haruka was still staring, causing Naneeka to turn red. Haruka blinked from her deep thoughts and suddenly smiled. "You too. I've already met your aunt. I gotta admit, the resemblance doesn't really hold on you two." At least not on their features, she thought. This one too, it seemed felt odd, out of place, like she didn't quite… fit.
"Oh," Naneeka said quietly, "Well, I've been told I take after my fathers side more then mom's. And, um, well… Auntie isn't really related."
"Oh, how so?"
"She's mom's adopted sister." Naneeka then glanced to Rini, "Can we finish our movie now? Auntie will be here soon and I wanna see what happens to Tima after Rock kidnapped her. (AN: Hehe, anyone recognize that plot line? Oh come on, have you been deprived? Sigh well, a very good movie by the equally very good writer of my favorite cartoon since childhood, it being Astro Boy, Mr. Osamu Tezuka. The movie, drum rolls Metropolis. That's the end of my little blurb now. Back to the story!)"
"Yeah me too!" Hotaru grabbed Naneeka hand and they ran back into the living room as Rini turned to follow.
"Little Rabbit," Haruka spoke quietly, causing Rini to stop and turn, "Please be careful. I fear things are about to get complicated again. And until I know what's going on, I think it would be better if you stayed here where it's safe. Hotaru will watch out for you. Whatever took you from the future might be behind what's happened in the city."
Rini's eyes went wide, "You don't suppose they'd come back for me, do you?"
"I don't know. But right now, I don't know what to believe. Something's not right with Michiru; that's all I can say for now. If she calls, try to find an excuse not to answer too many questions. They might be odd even."
"Haruka, what's going on?" Rini asked, beginning to worry.
"Nothing for you to worry too much about for now. Don't be troubled, I'll be watching out for you and our Princess. Nothing will get past me."
~*~*~*~*~
The docks were quiet, waves splashing against the wharf, the odd bird sounding. Under this though was the silent clicking of buttons being tapped and quiet footsteps following. The late afternoon settled on the lone person standing a large open area squared off by warehouses and twinkled off her sapphire hair.
"Nothing, not so much as a trace that might explain what happened." Ami sighed, looking around her surroundings.
"Come on, Ames," came Mina cheery voice from behind a stack of boxes, "There's gotta be something. I mean, some kind of gateway or vortex or something."
"I've checked all the usual dark energy signatures and nothing shows up. Whoever this enemy is, they're very advanced."
"Or maybe so old that a computer couldn't detect it." Mina walked out in the open area, dusting her jacket and making a disgusted face, "Like this dust. You'd think I could get some kind of warning."
Ami chuckled, "You might be right. We never knew about Neherenia being in our past. And even Galaxia went way back." She smiled broadly, "That's real good, Mina." She began tapping away at her hand computer as Mina just continued shaking her jacket, coughing.
"Whatever."
Then Mina was quiet, her face looking puzzled, "Hear that. Ames?"
Ames continued typing, "Hear what?"
"The birds."
"I don't hear them."
"Exactly."
Ami glanced up, "Well perhaps they went off to look for more food."
"Okay, I can understand that reasoning to a point, but listen. It's something else. Can't you hear it?"
Ami concentrated, "I still don't hear anything. It's very quiet."
"Precisely. Don't you find it odd, being at the docks with a rather large amount of water near by… and not hearing waves?"
Her eyes widened, "You're right. That's not physically possible." She ran down to the wharf side with Mina, glancing over. The waves were still splashing, only no sound could be heard. Mina gave an involuntary shiver, taking several steps away from the water.
"Uh, I think maybe it is time to go home, don't you think Ames?"
"This is extraordinary. I must analyze it for record."
"Let's do that another time," Mina glanced around her. It was growing remarkably darker and colder with each second, even Ami began to look around her. It almost felt like their surroundings were slowly going black and white.
Stepping away from the wharf, she joined Mina. "Perhaps you're right. We should call the others right away. Scouts, come in." She tapped her watch but nothing happened.
Mina tried her, "Girls, come on, it's an emergency!"
Nothing. Mina gulped, "I'd say this is a bad thing. Let's book it now."
"What, are you afraid, you big scaredy cat!"
Mina blinked, turning to Ami quickly, "What?"
Ami had a peculiar look on her face and she was smirking, "Really Mina. Aren't you suppose to be the brave leader of the Guardians? Didn't Queen Serenity select you herself?"
Mina could only blink. What brought this on, "Well, yes. But I don't know why that gives you any reason to call me names."
"Oh that's nothing compared to what the others always say about you. You know, that you're not really good, that you're air-headed and just a dumb blond. And you can't even pass a simple math test. How sad is that?"
Her eyes began to well as she stepped away from Ami, "I-I-I don't get it. You know I try my best and yeah, sometimes I like to have fun. But I don't believe the others would say that."
"Sure they do," Mina turned and saw Sailor Jupiter standing not far behind her. "We know you really don't care. All you ever wanted was fame and fortune. If not for us, you'd be actress right now, or maybe a singer. We're just in the way."
"And so are you." Mina spun and now saw Mercury, posed with one of her attacks.
"No, you can't mean that. I don't wanna fight you."
"Then why wear that uniform?" Jupiter asked.
Mina looked down and gasped, finding she wore her scout uniform after all, not remembering transforming.
"Face it, you're just a wanna be leader. You couldn't even protect the princess."
Venus' eyes grew cloudy with tear, even as she could see before her eyes their princess and her love being destroyed before her by Metallia. She blinked the horrible images from her mind, seeing the posed Mercury.
"Face it, you're just a loser on a losing streak. Queen Serenity probably just felt sorry for you when your mother up and died on you at your birth. Too bad she didn't do the world a favor to go before you came.""
At this, Venus' tears turned fiery and she screamed in anger.
"That's going to far! You die now, bitch!!"
~*~*~*~*~
"Mina, I can't get the scouts and I don't know what to make of this. Maybe we should leave."
"What, the 'brain' lost a fuse?"
Ami turned seeing Venus instead, smirking. When had she transformed? Ami could only blink.
"E-excuse me?"
"Smarty pants Guardian can't even understand what I just said. My that is a step backwards." She began to saunter around Ami, tauntingly. "Always showing off to us 'slower' ones, making us look like the idiots. I'm really getting sick of that."
"Mina, what are you saying? I've never meant to sound like a bragger and if I have I'm sorry."
"Cut the crap, twit!" Ami whirled to find Neptune behind her smirking, "We all know you do it to cover up the obvious."
"What do you mean," Ami was growing more bewildered and upset by the second, "I've nothing to hide. I've shared everything with you guys."
"Really?" Venus laughed nastily, "Like when you knew the odds were very much against us when Metallia attacked? But no," Venus fawned surprise, tapping her chin with a finger as she continued pacing around Ami, "Instead, you decided not to tell the queen and oh, what happened?" she suddenly stopped, as if coming to some grave discovery.
"Oh, that's right. We died."
"Not only that," Neptune said, "The queen's own daughter suffered a rather horrible death. As I recall, it still haunts her to this day. You should really ask her about it some time."
Mercury fell to her knees, tears beginning to trickle, even as she became vaguely aware that she now wore her uniform.
"I…I thought it would give us a better chance. If moral was up, we might have had a chance."
"A load of crap!" Venus hissed, "You knew very well what would happen. And you didn't care. Your little ice heart just ignored the possibility. You really do take after your queen mother. You're both the same; cold hearted. II suppose it was all the same your father died before he could see what a disappointment his little princess had turned out to be."
Mercury screamed, pounding the ground and looking up at Venus' uncaring eyes. Mercury's voice sounded like ice itself.
"Want to test that theory, bitch?!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Venus' brought her hand to her lips, kissing the tips once and glaring with ferocity at Mercury, "Let's see you miss this one Einstein! Love and Beauty Shock!!"
The blazing light shot around her and blazed like a ball at Mercury.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Mercury grabbed her water harp from her space pocket and began to strum at the strings, "How about we analyze your biggest mistake today? Aqua Rhapsody!!" Violent waves shot from the harp, whipping around her and shooting forward like knives.
~*~*~*~*~*~
In a sudden blink, blindly light filled the area and a shock wave resounded off the building, shaking the very foundation. Then nothing.
Dust began to settle and things were silent. Then the sound of waves began again and the seagulls called. The place returned to its former state, leaving only a small new scene.
Two girls collapsed on the ground, their clothes torn and bloody; one lying almost crushed against a wall and the other at an odd angle not far away, face down. Two figures approached them, each smiling.
"That was fun, wouldn't you say." One laughed, nudging one of the girls with her foot, getting no response.
"Too much. Almost too easy. Really, I thought this one would have caught on."
"You give her too much credit. Look like I win the bet."
The other sighed, "Whatever. Just grab yours and let's go. This place is beginning to make me itch."
The other laughed darkly, "Yeah, much to 'nice'. Enough to make one ralph."
The other shook their head, "You know, those words are going to get you caught. I already think I've already been slightly suspected."
"Humph! You worry too much. Anyway, let's get outta here."
"Right." The air shimmered and where each had stood, each with one of the fallen girls under an arm, the vanished like melting snow.
The sun shone again, unknowing of any change that might have occurred under its reign.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sorry this one's so short but I'm tired and been working and blah blah blah! Yeah, I can hear Miko saying "Excuses, excuses!" Well, full time job, and so on, very tired, know you guys (at least a few a think) are still interested. Anywho, let me know what you think. R&R Cha!
Faerie Star