Ranma ½: New Friends

Ranma ½: New Friends

Arrival of Mars and Saturn Knights

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Chapter 5

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"Sestuna-mama, is there a way for us to awaken his memories with having to put the both of us in danger?" Hotaru asked Sestuna quietly while the others were talking to Duo about his life story.

"The Scout of a planet can make them remember their memories from the Silver Millennium, but it is very tiring and dangerous. If you get the wrong person and try to call past life memories, it can drive them insane." Sestuna said just as quietly.

"But you already said that he was Saturn Knight." Hotaru said, perhaps a little louder then she had meant to because now all talking had ceased and everyone was no starring at the two outer scouts.

"Who is Saturn Knight?" Duo and Serena asked at the same time.

"Um…" Hotaru started and stopped to look at Sestuna for permission to explain. At the woman's nod, the girl turned back to the others. "Duo is. I have this vague memory of him and Sestuna-mama just confirmed it."

"No way! I'm a knight just like Quatre is?!" Duo exclaimed and jumped to his feet in excitement.

Slightly startled by his abrupt movement, Hotaru flinched back, a fact that wasn't lost on a few people in the room, and nodded slowly.

"Are you ok? You looked like I was going to go after you or something." Duo said in his straightforward manner. The other Gundam pilots were also wondering and leaned in a little to hear the girls reply.

"For most of my like I was viewed as a freak because I can heal people and was always getting teased and picked on." Hotaru said and stared down at the floor.

"You can heal things? That's so cool! I wish I could do something like that." Duo said and drifted off into his mind for a moment with a happy little grin on his face as he imagined himself healing people.

"No you don't. Then you would be considered a freak too. You would always be made fun of and people would avoid you. You wouldn't have any friends and you would be always alone." Hotaru quietly and Sestuna wrapped an arm around the small girl's shoulders.

"Hotaru, ever since I was a kid, people made fun of and avoided me because I was a street rat. I only had three people I was friends with the entire time I lived up there which was most of my life. That was Solo, Sister Helen and Father Maxwell. Even when they were there, I was always alone. But if I had had your powers of healing, maybe I could have saved them." Duo said just as quietly as he approached her and wrapped his own arms around her.

Hotaru didn't say anything, but burrowed into his and Sestuna's embrace.

Quatre spoke up from behind the small group after a moment. "You must have had a very hard life, but you're always so happy. Why?"

Duo just shrugged in answer, not wanting to tell everyone that the laughing Duo that they thought they knew was actually just a mask that he wore. He was actually a grim young man that had been surrounded by death most of his life. Now, while he enjoyed his friends and was genuinely happy to find his family, he was still slightly grim.

"So, can you, like, wake up my powers?" Duo said in an effort to change the subject, which succeeded, though Quatre threw him a faint frown.

"Yes, it is possible to do it but it is both dangerous and tiring." Sestuna said and Hotaru nodded. "Now, I know that Duo is Saturn Knight and it think I know who is Mars Knight and I'm fairly certain about Pluto Knight. But while the rest of you guys look like the Knights of the other planets, you are also different. I will have to meditate and study each of you to see if you are the Knights." Sestuna said and Rei looked at her curiously.

"Sestuna, I have two questions." She said and when the green haired woman looked at her. "The first one is, if Quatre saw Zechs Marquee and Treize Kushrenada in one of his memories of the Silver Millennium, what are we going to do? They're the enemies of the guys." She said and Duo and Quatre nodded.

"I will study them and I suggest that you meditate on them as well." Sestuna said and Rei nodded in understanding. "And what is you second question Rei?"

"Who is my Knight?"

"Your Knight has not changed that much since his last life. Back then, he was honor bound to protect you and he took his honor very seriously. But he thought that all women were weak and had been very indignant when he found out that he had too." She said and Duo started laughing.

"That sounds like Wufei."

"That's because it is Wufei."

"What?!" Wufei yelped and Sestuna hushed him with a look.

"You see, just like with the Sailor Senshi, which was passed from mother to daughter, the Knight's mantel was passed from father to son. His father was the protector to the Queen of Mars, though they each married other people. In the Silver Millennium, the Knights rarely married their charges. But all of last group of Knights fell in love with the Senshi. Anyway, when Wufei found out that he had to protect the Queen's daughter, they got into a huge fight…"

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Flashback

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"Wufei, it is time you took over your duties." Wugan, Wufei's father said as he entered his son's room where Wufei was reading a book.

"What do you mean, Father? I don't have any duties that I don't do." Wufei said as he removed his glasses and stood up, putting his glasses and his book on the table next to his chair.

"You will be taking over your duties to protect the Princess Rei. It is your duty as my oldest, and only surviving son as it was for me and the Queen, who was only a princess back then." Wugan said and Wufei shook his head.

"You want me to watch over a spoiled princess? Forget it. I'm not going to waste my time with a weak woman!" he shouted and Wugan abruptly went red in the face.

"Are you calling the Princess and the Queen weak?!"

"Yes! It's a proven fact that all women are weak." Wufei snarled.

"If that's the case than I suppose that you think your mother was weak while she was alive?" Wugan snarled right back, his face an inch from his son's.

Wufei gave a hard nodded before he could think about it and immediately regretted it as Wugan's face went purple in rage. For a few minutes the only sound in the room was Wugan's furious breathing as he sought to control his anger before he lashed out at Wufei.

Finally, he said coldly, you will report to the Palace tomorrow morning where the Queen or the Princess will give you your transformation object and your new weapon that comes with this position. Do not refuse to do this or you will bring dishonor down on this family and most certainly on your self." Wugan said, then turned around and stalked from the room.

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End Flashback

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"The next day, Wufei presented himself to the Princess and the Queen…"

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Flashback

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"Presenting Chang Wufei of the Dragon Clan." A guard announced as Wufei was shown into the throne room. He walked up to the throne and bowed before the Queen and her daughter, who were sitting on the raised dais.

The Queen was a beautiful woman, tall with long black hair that reached her ankles and violet eyes. She was wearing a scarlet, sleeveless dress that was tight in the bodice but fell in shimmering, loose folds to the floor.

Her daughter looked like a younger version of the Queen with the same long black hair, though it only reached her knees, and the same bright violet eyes. She was dressed in white doji that had a picture of a flame on the back and on the upper right side.

"Welcome, Mr. Chang. I assume you are here to take your place as my daughter's protector?" the Queen said and Wufei gave a single sharp nod. "Wonderful. I was just about to give my daughter her wand too."

Wufei didn't understand what she meant so he only raised an eyebrow briefly before regaining an expressionless, aloof look on his face.

"Wufei this is you transformation disk. You don't have to say anything to trigger it. Just focus on being Mars Knight and it will take care of everything." The Queen said as she approached and handed him a red disk about the size of his palm, that has a picture of a flame in the center.

Then turning to her daughter, the Queen held out a red pen that had the symbol of Mars on the top that had a gold circle around it. "This is you transformation wand, Rei. Say, Mars Power, and it will transform you into Sailor Mars. I have a much more advanced version that you will inherit some day." She said and Rei nodded as she accepted her wand.

Stepping back the Queen asked them to transform and they both began their transformations. Rei shouted "Mars Power!" and was instantly surrounded by rings of fire as her clothes disappeared. The fire disappeared to reveal a sailor fuku with a red skirt and collar with purple bows in the front and back. The front bow had a red disk in the center. White gloves reached her elbows with red material at the top appeared on her arms wile red high heels, a red choker and red earrings in the shape of stars appeared in her ears. The last thing to appear was a gold tiara with a red jewel in the center that formed on her forehead.

Wufei missed the Princesses transformation as he was involved with his own. His white outfit disappeared and fire formed around him, molding it's self into a gray uniform (like the nega-verse generals). A red cape was thrown over his shoulders and a red mask appeared over his eyes. An empty scabbard appeared on his back before the fire completely disappeared and Mars Knight opened his eyes.

Turning to the Princess, Wufei was shocked to find her in an extremely short skirt that showed her long legs off. "Urk!" he exclaimed as blood exploded from his nose and he fainted.

The queen and the princess turned at his exclamation and saw him slum to the floor as blood still flowed out of his nose. "Um, I guess he is still a little shy." The Queen said as she shoved some tissues up his nose and motioned for a guard to pick him up and put him on a lounger that was near by.

When Wufei woke up, he found his head in the lap of the princess who was gentle bathing his face with a wet rag. Looking up he got a great view of her breasts in the body hugging sailor scout uniform. He clamped a hand to his nose and jumped to his feet almost running into the queen who stood right next to the lounger.

"I see that you're awake now." The queen said with gentle humor. She stepped away as he daughter stood up and Wufei careful avoided looking anywhere except at her face. "Let us continue. Wufei, this is you weapon, the fire blade. This katana is made out of a special metal alloy that is almost indestructible but light and you will be able to do some of your attacks with it like Mars fire Sword attack where the sword seems to catch on fire and you throw the fire at the enemy, and the energy wave, which is where you slash it at your enemy and a crescent shaped red energy is launched from the tip." The Queen said as she handed the stunned young man a katana, whose sheath was already on his back. It was a beautiful weapon; the blade razor sharp and shined with a faint silver and red shine, and the hilt was wrapped in black leather with the red symbol for Mars on the pommel.

Taking it, the Mars Knight slipped it into its sheath, and then bowed to the Queen and the Princess. "Thank you for this honor. I will protect Sailor Mars with me life." He said grimly and they nodded in return.

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End Flashback

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"After that, Wufei and Rei trained together when they were on Mars and when they got together with the other Scouts and Knights, they trained with them, all the scouts together and all the Knights together." Sestuna finished and Quatre nodded.

"Yes, I remember that vaguely." He said and Mina wrapped her arms around the blond boy, causing him to blush and the others to laugh. Well, most of the others. Wufei, Trowa and Heero only smiled in their minds, behind their blank masks.

"What about Duo's past life?" Ranma asked after the laughter had died down.

Feeling Duo tense up at the question, Hotaru spoke up before Sestuna did. "Why don't we just give Duo and Wufei back their memories now instead of having Sestuna tell us all his memories. That way, Duo can tell us instead." She said and gave the time gate guardian a pointed look.

"Sure. We can do that." Sestuna said and Duo relaxed a little bit and sent a small smile at Hotaru who blushed faintly.

"Rei, Hotaru, you need to put your hands on your knight's temples and concentrate on the Silver Millennium and on your Knights of that time period. Now that one has reawakened, your memories should start coming back of them." Sestuna said and the two girls did as she told them. Rei and Wufei started to glow a bright red while Duo and Hotaru started glowing a deep purple. After about a minute of absolute silence, both Duo's and Wufei's eyes flew wide open in shock and pain.

Suddenly, Wufei gasped in pain and slumped to the ground, panting for breath. At the same time, Duo grabbed his head and screamed, shocking the others. It just kept going and going until finally his voice broke and he fainted. As he fell, Hotaru grabbed him and cradled him in her lap. "Duo?! Duo, are you all right?! Answer me, please!" she said tearfully.

"What did you do to him?!" Lita shouted as she rushed up to he new found brother and the girl holding him. She scooped Duo into her arms and backed away from Hotaru. When she was on the opposite side of the room with Ranma and Ryoga between them, she put him down and started fussing over him.

Hotaru jumped to her feet and ran out of the room in tears, passing a shocked Grandpa and Chad in the doorway. They had come running when they had heard the screams and had watched Duo collapse and Lita accuse Hotaru. Now as the little girl ran past them, both men came to their senses. Grandpa hurried into the room to see if he could help while Chad went after Hotaru.

In the room, everyone was frozen in shock. Finally, Quatre and the other pilots rushed over to Duo and Wufei who was still on the ground, after a moment the other inners joined them. The three outers stood together on the other side of the room, staring at Lita in shock and Ranma and Ryoga slipped out unnoticed to look for Hotaru.

After a few minutes, Haruka, who had been trying to hold her anger in, finally lost her internal battle and her rage got the better of her. She lunged towards the scout of Jupiter but was held back by Sestuna and Michiru.

"How dare you say that to Hotaru, bitch!" she screamed and silence descended over the room as everyone stopped what they were doing to look over at Haruka who was still struggling to get away from the two holding her back from attacking the tall brown haired girl.

"What?" Lita said looking at the tall woman in confusion before going back to trying to wake Duo up.

"How dare you do that to Hotaru. She was trying to help him and what do you do? You accused her of hurting Duo!" Michiru said as Haruka growled at Lita.

Sestuna pulled both of the others out of the room in silence, but when she got to the door she said quietly, "If you had just remembered what he had remembered, you would have screamed too." That said, she disappeared through the door, leaving a stunned group behind, excluding Grandpa who hadn't paid them any attention as he tried to wake Duo up.

Hotaru stopped running when she had reached the trees that surrounded the temple. She would have run further but she was still in poor shape and couldn't run that far still. As she sank down to the grass, she let the tears fall from her purple eyes. She was crying so hard that she didn't hear Ranma and Ryoga as they came up behind her until Ranma spoke up.

"It wasn't your fault, Hotaru."

She spun around to stare at him as he knelt next to her on the grass with Ryoga standing just behind him. "Yes it was. I'm a freak, I always hurt people. No matter what I do, I hurt everyone around me!" she said and started sobbing even harder.

Ranma watched for a moment before he pulled her into his arms and started to rock back and forth gently. He felt her stiffen for a moment before she relaxed against him and wrapped her arms around him as she cried on his shoulder. "You're not a freak and you don't hurt everyone around you, but I am and I do." He said after a moment and then felt her shake her head in denial of both statements.

"Yes, I am and no you're not. You may not be able to control everything around you so that people don't get hurt, but if you did hurt everyone around you, those three people you live with would have left you a long time ago and they're still there. But I'm a sex-changing freak who ruins everyone's life. Take Ryoga here for example. I continually beat him out of the last bread of the day and we were always fighting and it's my fault that he got cursed. I kicked him into the spring of drowned black piglet at Jusenko so it's my fault when ever some one thinks he's a real pig and tries to cook him." Ranma said and Hotaru looked at him in shock then turned her gaze towards Ryoga.

"It's not your fault. If I hadn't chased you for years to get back at you for not being there for our duel, even though it was my fault I was four days late for it, I never would have gotten into your way when you were chasing Genma and got knocked into that spring. And you can't be there to save me whenever someone tries to make me into sweet and sour pork and eat me. It's not like you made them do that. And neither of you are freaks. You can't help the fact that your curse turns you into a girl, Ranma, and you can't help being different than other people, Hotaru." He said looking at both of them.

"He's right." Sestuna said as she stepped forward. Ranma and Ryoga had been aware of the three women since they had walked up behind the lost boy while Ranma had been comforting Hotaru. "No one can help how they are and you didn't hurt Duo. He had a very bad life during the Silver Millennium and then having it shoved into his head was just too much for him. It was best that it happened like this though because if we had waited for both of you to be in danger, than it would have left both of you very vulnerable." She said and Haruka and Michiru nodded from where they stood behind the time scout.

"Fine, I don't hurt everyone around me but I can't help them either. In human form, I'm to weak and my scout powers are to strong and I run the risk of destroying the world." Hotaru said bitterly as she stood up and walked away from the group.

"I have a great idea. You want to be strong enough to help others, but you are weak in body, right?" Ranma said and the girl nodded without turning around. "Well, at the moment, I'm just as weak, if not weaker than you and Ryoga is going to help me get back in shape so why don't you join us? We'll both get stronger together."

After he finished speaking, she whirled around to stare at him in shock. Seeing his, Ryoga's, and the other scouts' gins, she let her face break out into a small smile as she nodded and hugged him and Ryoga before she headed over to her guardians who all hugged her tightly before turning back to the two boys.

"Thank you. Where and when would you like to start?" Sestuna said, her arms still around Hotaru.

"How about tomorrow in the park near the lake at noon?" Ranma said and the others nodded before they exchanged goodbyes and left, the outer scouts towards their car, Ranma and Ryoga back to the room where the others were.

Duo opened his eyes to see his sister looking down at him worriedly.

"Duo, are you all right?" Lita asked him as he sat up.

"My head hurts."

"That is all Hotaru's fault." Lita said as she watched him worriedly.

"What! How can my having a headache be her fault? I just regained a bunch of memories of a past life that was extremely bad. I'm grateful that I got them back this way. Can you image what would have happened if I had got them back in a battle? I would have been killed when I was distracted." Duo said grimly as he stood up and started looking around. Grandpa had left a minute ago to answer the telephone and Duo noticed that the four outer scouts plus Ranma and Ryoga were missing.

"Let me guess, you blamed Hotaru-chan and she and the others left?" Duo said as he looked down at his sister who looked at her hands as she nodded. Without a word, he dashed out of the room and across the courtyard, where he almost ran Ranma and Ryoga over. They pointed where the others had headed and he dashed off in that direction, yelling a thank you over his shoulder.

He caught up with the others just as they reached their car that was parked at the bottom of the steps. "Hotaru wait." he called and the girl turned around.

Hotaru didn't say anything as he stopped in front of her and quickly caught his breath. As soon as he had his breathing under control, he stood up straight, pulled her against his body and kissed her as deeply as he could.

Sestuna and Michiru were motionless in their shock while Haruka timed the couple. After they broke apart, gasping for breath, she said, "I was wondering if you two would ever come up for air."

Hotaru blushed at the comment while Duo ignored it to lean down close to Hotaru's ear and whisper, "I promised that the first thing I did when we were reawakened would be a welcome back kiss, remember?" His words brought a forgotten memory forward in Hotaru's mind of when he had first promised it…

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Flashback

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"Duo?! Duo, where are you?!" Sailor Saturn screamed as she raced across the battlefield that had once been the Moon Kingdom. The battle against Beryl was almost over and all the other scouts and knights besides were dead or almost dead.

Sailor Saturn had gotten to the fight at the very end and she knew that everything was going to end soon. Now, she raced across the ground in a desperate attempt to find her true love, Saturn Knight, or Duo when he wasn't busy being her protector.

"Ho…ta…ru.." It was just a faint croaking sound that she almost missed as she dashed past a groove of trees. Turning, she saw the edge of a black cape trailing from behind a tree.. with a sinking feeling n her heart, she circled the tree and found Saturn Knight propped up against the truck of the tree with a sword sticking out of his chest. By some miracle, it had missed his heart but had punctured a lung and he was slowly dieing as his blood pooled on the ground beneath him.

"Ho…ta…ru…" he whispered again as he caught sight of her as she dropped to her knees next to him. "I'm…sorry, but…I don't think…I'll be able to…take you…to the dance …tonight…" he said with a weak grin up at her.

"You can't die on me!" she sobbed as she pulled the sword out of his chest and started trying to heal him. It was soon apparent though that it was a loosing battle. She had used up most of her power as she had raced to get to the moon in time to help and now, she didn't have enough to heal him.

"I sorry…Hotaru-chan. I…want to kiss you…goodbye, but my mouth…seems to be filled…with blood." He had to stop for a moment to cough up more blood before he could continue to talk and when he did, his voice was weaker than it had been before. "You know…it's ironic. Death has…taken so much from…me and now it finally…comes to take me too. I promise…as soon as we are reborn…and we regain…our memories…again, I will…give you the biggest…most take your breath…away, welcome kiss…that anyone has…ever seen. Remember, I…love…you…" he trailed off as his last breath left his body.

"I love you too, but why did you have to die?!" she screamed as she cradled her dead love against her chest. She was still crying a few minutes later when a soldier for the Nega-verse snuck up behind her and stuck a sword through her back. The point pierced her heart and she died a moment later.

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End Flashback

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"I remember, Duo-chan, and I am never going to let you go again without a goodbye kiss ever again, no matter what is going on." Hotaru said as she kissed him, surprising all present, including the group at the top of the stairs who was watching them.

"Our little girls all grown up, now." Michiru sniffed as she watched them. Sestuna and Haruka nodded after a moment. They waited for several moments before Duo and Hotaru separated before Sestuna said in her calm way, "Hotaru, we need to go home. It's getting late and the two of you are exhausted, aren't you."

"Yes Sestuna-mama. Duo, meet me in the park tomorrow at noon, ok?" Hotaru said and Duo nodded before he kissed her quickly then gently pushed her into the car.

"See you tomorrow, Firefly." He said and then the car pulled away, leaving him alone on the curb. Looking up at the top of the temple steps, he saw the group of people standing there and knew that it was going to be a long night.