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IMPORTANT: READ THIS CHAPTER CAREFULLY, IF YOU SKIM YOU WILL BE LOST, TRUST ME. Any questions? E-mail me, cath_6@hotmail.com

Hotaru:



Ow..... I didn't even know I had muscles there. I winced as I slowly lowered myself into bed. Sword practice with Wufei had been fun, but tiring, a strict reminder of how out of shape I was. My eyelids drooped closed, though I fought sleep's pull. My last two attempts had not been, well, pleasant to put it lightly. Nevertheless, the faithful Sandman paid me a visit as I drifted off to sleep.



*******





Trowa sat in the surveillance room, checking up on security before he finished his duties and went to sleep. Most of the rooms were empty, but the Magnuacs were in the garage, Quatre was having tea with Iria in the sitting room, Heero was in the hanger, testing his new adjustments on Wing, Wufei was meditating on a mat in his room, the dark-haired girl was asleep in her room, and the blond girl, Minako if he remembered correctly, was immersed in a book in the Library. He made a mental note to send Quatre to find her, seeing as she would probably never make it back to her room from the other side of the mansion without expert help, even he still got lost sometimes. His brow creased slightly behind his bangs as he rapidly switched video feeds on his screens, yet one member of their party was still missing.

First, he tried Duo's room, no luck. His sheets were mussed and his clothes from that day were on the floor, so he had probably just gotten out of bed for something. Trowa flipped the switches to first the kitchen, the television room, and then, somewhat reluctantly, the surrounding bathrooms. Still no trace of him.

Trowa narrowed his eyes and switched to his own room, thankfully, there was no sign of Duo's scheming, or Duo himself. Having hot pink hair was once too many, and he had been cautious ever since.

He leaned back from the monitors and bit his lip slightly, where could Duo be?

A flash of movement on another monitor caught his eye, and he glanced over quickly.

Well, he thought, this answers one question. He had found Duo, but what was he doing in Hotaru's room?



********



Hotaru's eyes snapped open. Violet met violet across the room. She nodded slightly at the shadowed figure, and he moved closer, into the light.

Duo stood there, his face blank as it had been hours earlier. He bowed stiffly, only bending in a slight inclination, conveying his respect, but not her superiority.

She sat straighter in bed, smoothing the cotton sheets around her legs, she nodded her ackwonledgement. They were equals, no more formality had to be observed.

"Shi no Tenshi." He said gravely, "You have returned."

"It was not I who left, Shinigami. I awoke with the senshi when the evil awoke, I notice you did not join us then." She replied coldly, her delicate jaw set, giving her features a harder look than before.

He shrugged, as if dismissing her accusation. "The timekeeper told me to wait, that I'd be needed here instead." He held out his hand, "What does it matter anyway? We're back together again, sister."

Hotaru gave him a withering look, narrowing her eyes and glaring.

Duo sighed and moved closer, still holding out his hand, "Come, take my hand, I've missed you sister."

"You mean you missed our power."

"Well," he smiled wanly, "I missed that too. Can't you feel it? I can, my power is.., is incomplete, awkward, weak."

"Yes," she replied grudgingly, "But you do know what will happen if we do this." She said, taking his hand.

"Tenshi, my little sib, our hosts have to find out about us eventually. We've been protecting them in battle for, what? Millennia? It's time we merged, you've already started without me. Your host, Hotaru? I believe you call yourselves these days, is already becoming more aggressive, has she not?"

"Yes." She replied reluctantly, sliding gracefully out of bed to stand face-to-face with her twin brother. "It's bound to happen anyway, so we may as well do it right." She reached out her right hand, now shimmering slightly with power to grasp her brother's and placed her left over her heart. "Just like the first time." She said, closing her eyes. They began to glow, faintly at first, then so incandescently that heat waves distorted the vision of the room, and singed the rug slightly where they were standing.

Death awakens death and their power is restored.



******



Long ago:



Shini looked up at his sister Shi across the great palace hall where she stood with the outer senshi in a rigid salute as her Queen and Princess passed, surrounded by their senshi. Shini stood slightly less rigid across from her on the Princes' side of the ceremony. Shini was doing his best to catch Shi's eye but either his twin wasn't as psychic as she let on, or she was ignoring him. He voted 'B', she took her duty way too seriously. He rolled his eyes and risked a short telepathic message. :: Hey, Shi... bored yet?::

As he feared, she mentally slapped him, but to his surprise, she replied, :: No. We are on duty, besides, it's not every day your charge gets married.:: She let a slight smile through her stone-like mask.

:: That's what I mean! Who'd assassinate the Prince of your Princess on their wedding day?::

She looked up to glare at him, letting her expression speak for itself. As she met his eyes, he crossed them and stuck out his tongue. :: Tight-ass:: He shot back.

She rose an eyebrow. ::Oh really? ...::

Whatever he brilliant comeback was, it was never said.

:: I want to see the both of you I'm my office after the ceremony. :: Pluto interrupted. ::Immediately after you are relieved.::

:: Yes Pluto:: They both sent, a little shamefaced.

"Bussssssted..." Muttered another of the Princes guard, Mars, his best friend, who had caught the guilty unfocused look on Shini's face.

By the time the ceremony was over, it was nearing twilight, and Shi had to literally pull Shini away from the dance floor. "Pluto said immediately after the ceremony." She hissed, "I'm not letting you get us in any more trouble."

Shini just shrugged at his twin, like he had no idea what she was talking about and climbed the steep steps to Pluto's tower.

As Shi raised her hand to knock, Pluto's deep, steady voice said, "Enter."

Shi opened the door, and with a slight bow, slid into one of the battered leather chairs across from the senshi of time. Shini, having only met Pluto twice before, proceeded more cautiously, eyes scanning the room nervously before entering and lowering himself slowly and precisely into a chair beside Shi.

Pluto nodded slightly. "Do not be nervous, I have not called you here to punish you." She cleared her throat and folded her hands neatly on the wide oak desk in front of her. "The palace will fall tonight."

"What?" Shi whispered. "We're going to be attacked?"

Pluto nodded, a short, graceful inclination of her head.

"What are we waiting for? We have to warn the others!" Shini exclaimed, knocking over his chair in his haste to rise.

Pluto shook her head. "It's too late, every possible future I have foreseen tells of the fall of the Silver Millennium. Tonight."

"Why are you telling us then?" Shi reached out her hand towards her twin to grasp his hand.

"Because you cannot fight." She replied.

"What?" The twins cried in unison.

"You have not yet honed your power, together, you have incredible strength, but you are not strong enough to use it yet. If you use it tonight, it will use you, and you will destroy us all."

"What do you mean?" Shi asked, horrified.

Pluto shrugged casually, "Together, untrained, you'll simply destroy the solar system, we will be gone."

Shini looked angry, "So we're just supposed to stand by and let evil take over the universe and slaughter our friends?"

Pluto looked sad, "No, but there is one option. It will not save the Silver Millenium, but it will save the future. However, you must die and be reborn, I'm afraid you will not be together for eons as you learn to wield your power, separately."

The twins looked at each other for a few seconds, then nodded. "We'll do it." They agreed.





*******





Mina frowned over the lastest addition to the large stack of books she had leafed though. She rubbed her eyes and let out a reluctant sigh. How long had she been here anyway? The clock over the door read three o'clock. Twelve hours, straight, no wonder she was tired and restless. "I don't think I've even stayed still that long before." She mused. She stood, vertebrae popping as she stretched her arms skyward. She picked up the piece of paper she had been using to make notes, there were two columns of names on the left side, then a point form description on the right.

The first column of names were fallen friends, and enemies from her's and Hotaru's past, the second column is a prominent figure she could match to the first column, and the third is what they had in common. She had five names that had a match.

As far as she could tell, the scouts had been reborn in this universe, but strangely enough, they hadn't been activated at the same time. Ami had been activated first, and was one of the most important of the scouts to figure in this world's history. She had engineered the Tallgeese, a legendary mobile suit almost equal to the famed Gundams of today, whatever they were. Even if, the "Dr. M" mentioned in the first book was only mentioned in passing in the others, there were plenty of references to her creation.

As far as she could tell, Rei had been a professional psychic who had discovered some important metal, Mako had been a heroic general in the colonies' first defense squad, and Michiru pioneered a confusing scientific thing involving propulsion systems to regulate water for the colonies, and the last was a lost Prince of a place called the Sanq Kingdom, who was nearly identical to one of their first enemies. A general for Beryl named Kunzite.









*****



Heero watched the blond girl suspiciously. Out of habit, he clutched his crushed gun in his right hand, using his left to part the books in the bookshelf behind her. Damn. She was still there. He had been researching the origins of the strange mobile suit that Zechs had fought with. Amazing piece of machinery, but ancient. It did not have the typical weak spots of the modern mobile suits, and that perplexed him. Heero did not enjoy being confused, it interfered with his mission to destroy OZ and the Alliance.

The mysterious mobile suit was apparently so old that no computer record of it still existed, so he took the only option left open to him. Old fashioned book research.

He had left the library briefly to get his laptop so he could type his notes, but when he had returned, the blond had been sitting in his chair, flipping through his book, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.

He knew that she was one of the girls Quatre had taken in. After his run in with the first one, he had immediately gone to the security room to find the other.

Who was currently researching OZ's secret weapon. Quatre was convinced they were harmless, but as he ran his fingers absently over the crushed barrel of his gun, he certain that it was otherwise. Nevertheless, they could be used for information if they were spies, yes, they could be useful. He would just have to watch, and wait.









*******



The violet haze as well as their near-forgotten memories faded. Hotaru/ Shi no Tenshi wobbled on her feet, and tumbled onto the bed, pulling Duo/ Shinigami along with her.

He looked over at his soul-sister, who was retching slightly, her head hanging over the rails of the hospital bed. "Kami, I'd forgotten how much that power-melding hurt."

He shrugged, "You always hurt the ones you love."

"Do you think we still would have agreed if Pluto had told us we would only come out as the battle personas of our re-incarnated?" Shini asked.

Shi wordlessly nodded, " Probably, but even if she had told us, we couldn't have known what it would be like to live only t destroy. I guess it's this coldness that we need to control the destruction."

Shini nodded, "Yes, but we'll begin to merge with the nicer side, your little brush with death probably helped." He stated, detached.

"Probably." Shi agreed.





****



Mina lay down in bed, rubbing her aching arms. After an hour of wandering aimlessly, carrying a few choice books borrowed from the library, she had finally found her room, wanting nothing more than to go to sleep. Sadly, distressing pieces of a puzzle spinning around in her head kept her awake, wondering. She had never been the smartest person on the team, that had always been Ami, but a theory was forming in her head. The most important thing was, what was it?

"Okay girl, rewind." She took a deep breath and mentally reviewed what she learned today. "I've learned that Ami, Mako, Michiru, Rei, Kunzite and ..... have been re-born in this reality and have already died. I know that there are no records of crystal Tokyo..... I know that there is a war being fought between Earth and Space..... I know that Quatre has a cute butt..... whoops! Stay on track, girl!" She growled, something was missing...but what? She hit the headboard of her bed in frustration. "Dammit! I wish Ami was here! She's figure this all out, or at least Rei, to make one of her mystical 'guesses'." She sighed, then something suddenly clicked. "Wait..." she paused, "What did Rei do again?" She leaned over and picked a book from her stack, "The Great Events in early A.C." She flipped through the book and found the passage she had bookmarked. "Ah, here we go," she muttered, absentminded, to no one in particular.



" Raye Gunda, an amatuer archeologist and proffesional psychic led a team of government agents for the Asian Alliance to the site of a believed meteor crash.

'It's strange.' She is quoted as saying on the day of it's official discovery, 'I kept seeing this place in my visions, almost like I was being drawn to it. Strange though, I didn't see a meteor," She laughed, ' I saw a great palace!'

This site had been undiscovered for years because of a local taboo that ghosts haunted it. Nevertheless, large fragments of crystal have been found, along with a new, previously unrecorded metal which appears to be virtually unbreakable by modern standards. It was named, 'Gundamium' after it's discoverer."



Below the picture, there were co-ordinates of the discovery. Mina flipped to the index, where there were maps showing the events. She traced the co-ordinates and came up with another surprise.

The 'crash site' lay almost exactly where crystal Tokyo had been.

"Kami," Minako gasped as the pieces suddenly feel into place, "This is the future."





********



Trowa frowned and re-wound the tape of the strange scene in Hotaru's room. What had just happened? As far as he could tell, Duo had entered the girl's room, spoken to her, and then what? He shook his head slightly, trying to clear his thoughts. "It should be suffiecently re-wound by now," he thought. He pressed play. It showed Hotaru sleeping. He hit fast-forward, she was still sleeping. Nothing had happened throughout the enitre tape, all it showed was the girl asleep in her bed. He glanced up at the monitor trained on Duo's room, he was there, peacefully sleeping as he should be. He glanced back at the monitor for Hotaru's room, still nothing... except, why was there a large charred spot in the center of the rug?





********





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