Soon the nights were safer than the days because all of the nightlife had turned themselves in or had been killed. The Sacred fire still showed nothing and neither did the Mercian computer. Somewhere in the back of everyone's mind was a fear and curiosity if the Mercian computer could still be accurate being as it's base was on the Moon. It was as if everything was right in the world, there was no indication of danger. Serena had passed all her courses and had shown more maturity in almost everything that she did. Christmas had come and went along with New Years Eve and still nothing happened. Pluto hadn't come back from the Gates and if anything was happening with the planets of Uranus and Neptune they weren't showing it.
In actuality Amara was beginning to feel a slight tremor in the wind that blew but it was so slight that she wasn't sure if it was there. The seas on the other hand were so calm that they looked like a mirror, like glass, like someone could walk over them and not fall. It was frightening.
Pluto refused to talk about what the future held when she came to visit them on tour. She wouldn't tell them if it had changed, if it was still frozen, or if it was 'alive' once again. She would avoid any questions that pertained to that subject.
@~%~ Europe ~%~@
Amara, Michelle, and Hotaru had been on the tour about a week, playing sell out performances and a completely sold out race. Unfortunately for Amara she only had one race on this tour.
A couple of times Hotaru and Amara accompanied Michelle in the performance, Amara on piano, and Hotaru on flute. It was the middle of the last performance for the week when the winds started to pick up and the waters started to become turbulent.
Their training as Senshi kicked in and they continued without missing a beat. It was on this night that Michelle had planned on unveiling a new song. Of course it wasn't new to the three that would be playing since it had been written during the Silver Millennium, no one from the present had ever heard it.
The duet was between piano and violin. The song was rather slow and while playing it visions from the Silver Millennium balls flashed before their eyes, the entrance of Princess Serenity, when all the Senshi were finally together.
It also reminded them of the time that they had almost lost their princess. The song finished with the last note hanging on the air. Hotaru came out from back stage and with hands clasped they took a bow. True there was supposed to be a few more songs played. But there was urgency in the air and they knew they had to get back. The blue velvet curtains closed after a thunderous round of applause. A few more bows were made before they were able to go back to the dressing rooms.
"Cancel the rest of the concerts, they are to be made up at a later date." Amara was speaking into the phone. She paused and her face began to turn red. "NO! I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG IT WILL BE!" She finally yelled into the phone before turning it off and throwing it against the wall.
Michelle laid a calming hand on her arm and offered a smile. "I think you are going to need a new road manager." Amara finally mumbled.
Michelle sighed, that would the third road manager, and shook her head. "We'll handle it later. We need to get back to the hotel and get packed. We have to leave as soon as we can." She said while carefully placing her treasured violin in its blue velvet lined case. Looking over at Hotaru she saw that she was cleaning the old wooded flute before placing it its crimson velvet lined case with great care.
With the instruments carefully put away they quickly grabbed what few things they had in the dressing room and exited, heading out to the stretch black limo that was waiting outside the exit doors for them.
Once inside the limo and away from the growing crowd, they were able to talk somewhat freely. "Should we let them know we are on the way back?" Hotaru asked. She knew that something was going up but she wasn't able to really tell anything.
"No, we should wait. If things get really bad, I'm sure they will contact us." Michelle said, as Amara snorted. "Well, they may call us." She amended.
"We will be there, nothing will happen to the Princess." Amara added on.
Hotaru knew that this conversation could wind up going in many different directions, and knew that it was usually best to stay out of it for a while, until the need came to have some silence. The ride back to the hotel passed in relative silence, none of the three seemed willing to bring up the subject of what they may find in Tokyo once they returned.
They had to wait three days before they were able to get a flight straight through to Tokyo. This only served to aggravate Amara more, as the tensions began to rise. Hotaru had though about calling Serena a couple of times to make sure that everything was okay, but then with one look at Amara knew that it would be better not to.
The outers arrived back in Tokyo about a week after they called an end to their tour. Amara didn't want to seem too obvious about coming back directly after it was cancelled and insisted that they wait. So a week later they were departing the airport with their luggage in tow and on their way to the car that Amara had left in the parking lot. Fifteen minutes later found them on the road and to their mansion on the outskirts of Tokyo.
It had been agreed silently that they would settle in back at home before the contacted the Inner Senshi. Since they hadn't heard from them they went ahead with this plan.
Pluto watched all of this from the Gates of Time. Well…it looked like things were going to start happening faster from now on. Uranus and Neptune finally admitted that they could detect something. But even with them on guard it wouldn't do to let her guard down, if anything it would only make it rise. The threat was still unknown and that fact was enough to drive her to a higher level of vigilance. As bad as it seemed, she hope that something would happen soon that way they would know what or who they were up against. And maybe with whoever it was acting, maybe…just maybe she could access the Time Stream.
Amara and Michelle talked quietly in the den; they knew that they were going to have to meet with the other soon. After all they had to make sure that they defenses around Serena were strong enough. They only thing that they had been able to gather about the mysterious force that was no threatening the planet was that it was strong. What could be strong enough to freeze up the Time Stream and effectively lock Pluto out of it? What could be strong enough to hide it's presence from the Outer Planets for so long and suddenly send them into turmoil?
The Inner Scouts where enjoying the peaceful week. The unknown threat had retreated to the back of their minds for a short while. Today they were set on doing nothing but enjoy the sun and have some over due fun. Of course plans that are meant to be good…never last for long…
AN:
I am so sorry that this has been so late in getting out. Things around me have been really hectic and I forgot about everything that I was writing, now that things are calming down some, I am going to pick them all up where I left off. Once again I apologize for the time it took, ~bows formally~
~Silvra
