A/N: Yay! Physics is over! The sad news however is that this means art has started so I will have considerably less time to write as I'm trying to finish about six paintings by the end of the month on top of finite math. Ick. However, this should be finished pretty soon, it's picking up momentum for the big finish!
IMPORTANT!: note on Dorothy. All I'm keeping about the canon-gundamverse Dorothy is that she once stabbed Quatre and the basics of her personality (I hope..) Otherwise, I'm mostly severing her ties to OZ, and instead making her more of a free agent. I meant to do a little more research on Dorothy, but she's pretty minor in the gundamverse and I haven't been able to find a lot of info outside of fanfic and I don't own (and haven't watched for over a year) the actual gundam series.
APOLOGIES to douglas adams for misuse of one of his more famous lines from 'Hitchhiker's'
POINTS to whoever can find the douglas adams line, a reference to 'looney tunes', Buffy,
This chapter is dedicated to everyone who has reviewed, beta'd and encouraged me to keep this going for the (2? has it been that long?) years in which I've been writing on and off. Without you this would never get done!
Special thanks to fallen firefly who recently picked up the story and reviewed every single chapter as s/he went through. Thanks!
Unlucky 13 : Revelations (In which most everything is revealed, this is the chapter you've been waiting for folks!)
****
I opened my eyes to find myself on a palatial balcony, circa the silver millenium. Large fairy lights danced above, and soft piano music wafted around us with the breeze. Strange, I thought, we didn't have jazz back then, did we?
There was a sumptuous afternoon tea set for two at a lone table facing a magnificent blue sunset.
Great. Another dream sequence.
I sat cautiously at the pristine table, eyeing my tall, elegant companion.
"Hello Hotaru," Pluto said pleasantly, "Wonderful to see you again. How have things been?"
I looked at Pluto, then at the lace table cloth, the white doily coasters, and my own lacy dress. "Ugh." I grunted, then let my head thump down on the table. "I can't get away, not even in dreams."
Pluto might have worn shades of a smile on her face, but I didn't look up. "Oh yes, the little cyborg kicked you out. He's rather handsome, isn't he?"
"Shut. Up." I growled. Pluto wasn't supposed to notice things like that, but of course she just had to be all-knowing on top of everything else. "Are you going to make with the cryptic, or could you please, please just tell me what's going on? I'm getting really tired of this." I held out my cup as Setsuna poured the fragrant, steaming tea. Hey, may as well reap the benefits of spectral dream visitors if they brought food, right?
Pluto pursed her lips, as if debating something. "Alright." she said abruptly. I choked on my tea.
Pluto smiled at my spluttering, and waited for my to regain my breath before beginning. "Do you remember the last battle of the Silver Millennium?"
"No. Shini and I weren't allowed to fight. Remember?"
Pluto frowned at me.
"Okay, sorry, sorry, yeah, I remember."
Pluto nodded, "The moon kingdom fell, and the Queen used her power to send all of you to the future, that's what killed her, right?"
"Yeah, she was totally drained," I nodded.
"Wrong." Pluto's impassive mask held, but there were definitely glints of humor in those garnet eyes now. Hmph. She says she's going to tell it to me straight, but she still finds some way to make it into a lesson. "The sheer power of the absorbing everyone into the crystal was great, yes, and the energy to send everyone to the future was tremendous, but it was well within her power to do."
I raised an eyebrow, "Are you going to tell me she died of heartbreak or something?" I shrugged, "Because that would be really... well, sad, I guess."
"No." Pluto replied, actually giving me one of her rare smiles, "The true draining effect was the effort to keep all the power together, evenly dispersed. You see, that's part of the problem with being so closely tied to the crystal. The Queen made it so we will constantly be re-absorbed into the crystal, and re-born, until the negaverse is defeated." Pluto brushed her hair back from her face. The wind was picking up on the balcony. She looked away, eyes downcast, and suddenly looked heartbreakingly sad.
"Serenity couldn't have known how strong the nega-verse would be, or she would never have doomed us to this."
"But, I don't understand." My brow furrowed and I knawed on my lower lip, why aren't the rest of the scouts here? Mina and I are here, so is the negaverse. Shouldn't the rest of our friends be here as well?"
Pluto shook her head. "That was another reason for the drain. It took immense power to make sure you were all born in the same generation, and in roughly the same area. It would have been disastrous in that first uprising if you had all fought alone."
My head sunk into my hands. Mina had been right. I'd nodded along with her speeches, and dutifully read the articles she pressed into my hands, but I hadn't really accepted it. My friends had been here, and they were gone, all gone.
"There was another problem with this uncontrolled resurrection, Hotaru." Setsuna's voice was grave and worried. "The power of the crystal is always the same."
"Okay." I agreed. I was still staring at my clenched fists in my lap, mind blank with shock. I expect Pluto had expected me to gasp or moan or react somehow, because she clarified.
"The power is still there and there are only a few warriors left to wield it." When I said nothing, she sighed and continued. "Okay, the crystal is like a rushing river, and you are like a creek running off of it."
I looked up. Call me thick, but this still wasn't making any sense to me."Don't creeks flow into rivers, and rivers into oceans and stuff?"
Pluto glared.
"Sorry, continue."
"So Mina, Shini, and yourself, as well as a few others are small streams running off this river. Some streams, like yourself and Usagi, are wider than others, like, say, your empathic friend, Quatre. You can handle more power, and have greater natural magical ablities."
I looked up at her blankly. "So what you're saying is I have a big stream. Uh, yay?"
Pluto actually growled. "Saturn, are you being purposely thick? Most of the major players in this war are dead at the moment, and their power has been fed back into the crystal. Their streams have been rather effectively dammed, and now that rushing water had no where to go, except for the few streams left open to it."
I was starting to get see the picture Setsuna was painting. I really didn't like it.
Pluto nodded as she saw the realisation creep across my face. "Can you guess why so many of the scouts reborn alone rarely made it out of their twenties?"
I nodded, feeling overwhelmingly nauseous. I was glad I was sitting down. "They were flooded." I whispered.
Pluto nodded.
"What are we gonna do?" I asked.
Pluto's shoulder's drooped. "I honestly don't know, Hotaru. You're the first with sufficient psychic ability to contact this way, Rei had built up considerable barriers by the time she was of age. It was the only way she stayed sane as long as she did. There are certain mechanical advancements, but..."
"Oi! Sis! Pluto lady! Long time no see!" The classy light jazz changed abruptly to... the thong song?.. as Duo swung open the balcony door and bounded up to us. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I? Of course not!" Duo said cheerfully. He twitched, and his smile grew colder. "You better not be talking about anything important without me" his older personality added.
"Ah, Shini," Pluto had composed herself during Duo's flamboyant entrance, "Lovely to see you again."
He shrugged, his muscles seeming to relax fluidly as he broke out a wild grin, "Actually it's Duo now."
"Yes," She nodded, "It's Duo, NOW. You haven't merged quite as smoothly as your sister here."
Duo frowned, and I did too, mirroring his expression, all thoughts of rivers and such flying out of my head. "What?" I frowned.
Pluto just shook her head. Duo cocked his head and pursed his lips, then shrugged again, and flopped into a third chair at the table that hadn't been there a moment ago. "So," He said, stuffing a chocolate croissant into his mouth. "What are you two lovely ladies doing in my dream?"
"What?" I wrinkled my nose, "This is my dream!"
Duo raised one eyebrow, "Oh? So you regularly dream about such hunks of manly goodness as myself?" He smirked, "You know, that's mildly creepy considering you're my sister."
"Oh, ew." My lip curled and I made a retching noise, "Ugh. I may never sleep again!"
"Yes, I know, you're ashamed that you've noticed my nummyness, but haven't we all? I forgive you sis," He replied in a teasing sing-song.
"Argh!" I threw up my hands, "Whatever. Are these your thoughts or mine?"
Duo grinned again, "Beats me, the grenades and babes are missing."
"Ugh. Definitely mine."
Pluto shook her regal head, "You two," She sighed, trailing off, "This won't be easy, but you have to fight them. Save this world. It's the only way any magical channel can survive, the crystal won't let go of our power until the negaverse is defeated. It's the only way any of our souls can ever be free.
Do you remember that song you used to sing as children? 'Baby's been lied to: Mama said, Mama said. Baby should go on back to bed, Mama said, Mama said. But baby-girl's the jewel in their crown, Mama said, go to bed. Tell the truth, and they'll all fall down, Baby's head's as good as dead.
"That's just an old nursery rhyme, Puu. I don't understand. How are we supposed to do this?" I asked, the gravity of the situation finally settling onto my shoulders, and grinding me into the elegant stonework.
" You will, Hotaru, you will. Duo, child, millennia have passed, but the memories remain. Meditate on them this morning, and the answer will come to you. Hotaru..." Pluto trailed off as she saw the set of her jaw and the tears welling in her eyes, "You don't want to do this again. None of us do, but this is what you were born for. Mina is downstairs looking for you, bring your new friend when you leave. You may find she's not as new as you might think."
Pluto smiled, not unkindly, but with a measured hardness behind her eyes. She leaned in to kiss each twin on the forehead, then down to level her mouth between their ears. She covered their eyes with her palms before whispering softly, "Are you ready?"
*****
Hotaru woke with a gasp. Pluto hadn't waited for her answer, which was in all likeliness a resounding, "NO!" , but as soon as Pluto had withdrawn her hands her eyes had snapped open and she'd been rudely jolted awake.
"Hey Sleeping... well, I think you'd agree that Beauty's not the right word for the moment, but reasonably-attractive-for-someone-really-disheveled just doesn't have quite the same ring to it."
Hotaru groaned and rolled over, pulling a pillow over the rat's nest that was masquerading as her hair. "Noooo." She groaned.
"Cheer up, kitten, it's not that bad!" Dorothy's comment was punctuated by said bottle hitting 'Taru's head with a hollow 'thunk!'
"Ow!" Hotaru sat up and glared. Dorothy seemed resistant though, she used one hand to re-button her shirt and used the other to towel-dry her long damp blonde hair.
Hotaru sighed and flopped back onto the bed. The fate of the world was resting with her yet again, and she REALLY didn't like it. She was so tired, but she was prepared to throw herslf fully into the only option she could think of at the moment: A good, long sulk.
Just as her eyes were getting nicely teary, Dorothy jumped onto the big bed, about a foot from Hotaru's head, bouncing it a good four inches into the air. "So, nightmare?" Dorothy asked casually.
"Uh, what?" Hotaru replied intelligently.
"Nightmare. Did you just have one?" Dorothy asked nonchalantly, studying her nails. Hotaru stared at her. "What? I'm perceptive. There was the thrashing, the," Doro wrinkled her nose and started counting off evidence on her fingers, "The sweating, the whimpers, the intermittent screaming of 'No! Not the face!'..." Hotaru hadn't blinked. "Okay. Bad joke." Dorothy said, shrugging. She turned her attention back to her nails, painting them a brilliant shade of blue. The acrid smell of the polish burned Hotaru's nostrils, apparently there'd been no great leap of cosmetics in the time she's missed. There was a long ghastly silence.
"Screw it." Dorothy plunked the bottle harshly down on the bedside table, blowing on her nails. "What're you running from?"
"I'm not running." Hotaru replied, avoiding Dorothy's eyes, choosing to look at her nails instead. "You know if you run them under cold water, they'll dry faster."
"Is that so? Your redirection skills suck." Dorothy said with a slight smile. "You're terrified, I can tell.
"I used to have spells like that, you know. I don't know why. Something would just trigger it, I never can quite tell what it will be. A song, a phrase, a person, but suddenly there's this horrible paralyzing fear that hums right under my skin and terrible things flash in my mind, like bad memories or something. S'weird, because I'm not really afraid of anything." She was staring at Hotaru, through Hotaru as she said this, before shaking her head and laughing. " Wow, why the hell did I just tell you all that shit?" She hopped up from the bed, snapping her holsters in place, "No harm done. You already knew I was crazy... Besides, if you told anyone, you know I'd kill you."
Doro grinned and cocked her gun up to the ceiling, "Eh, I'm going downstairs to get a beer, but YOU should get a shower first, and just so you know, I know exactly how much money and ammunition a I have. Not that I don't trust you... well, actually, I don't. Nothing personal, I don't trust anyone."
"Why did you pick me up then?" Hotaru asked. She was too depressed to be scared by her new friend's strange behavior. Hotaru's question seemed to catch Dorothy off guard. She stopped to think, fiddling with a strand of her hair.
"I really don't know. I never pick up hitchhikers either, but for some reason you just seemed familiar. Maybe we knew each other in a past life or some shit like that, huh?" She winked and walked downstairs, heels clicking on every step.
*****
Dorothy was right about the shower. It's stupid, but facing the apocalypse is easier with clean hair. The bar was dark and smoky, and the saxaphone of a blues record wailed in the background, courtesy of the jukebox. Hotaru suppressed the urge to grin and wished she had a fedora and a pinstripe suit to make the atmosphere right. Hmm... and possibly a henchman called 'Mugsy'.
Pluto had been right. There, among a knot of shady, dark-clad men, was Mina. Hotaru was happy to see her, but a little mad that Mina had just stood by as Heero put her out on the street. She was debating going back upstairs, when the choice was taken out of her hands. Wham! "Taru-chan!" Mina squealed, sitting on top of Hotaru from where she'd been tackled. Couldn't Mina ever greet her like a normal person? She thought in exasperation.
She wanted to say something nasty to make u for the betrayal she's felt, when Mina burst into tears. "I'm sorry!" She sobbed, "I didn't know what he did! He's sorry too! I swear! Please come back!" Hotaru's anger toward Mina melted. She probably should have put up more resistance than that, but she was carrying so much resentment inside her that it felt good to let some of it go.
"It's fine Mina. Forget about it. We have bigger problems now."
"What do you mean?" Mina asked.
"I had another dream. Let me explain..." And she did.
****
"Wow." Mina said. "So..."
"Yeah." Hotaru replied.
"Woah."
They stood, facing each other, in relative silence. "Well, we'd better start planning then." Mina decided, nodding firmly.
"What?" Taru gasped, "No, Mina, I can't do this. Not again! We can't just jump into this straight away. We're from the past. The PEACEFUL past. We can't just jump into a huge battle without knowing anything about it! Haven't you had enough of fighting? Enough blood? Enough war? Enough DEATH?" Hotaru's voice rose to a pitch perilously close to being shrill.
Mina shook her head, "Hotaru, think about it, it's the only way. You heard what Pluto said, we're trapped until we finish this once and for all. Now, if you're not going to help, quit whining and get out of my way. I have a world to save." Mina's voice became heated as she moved to brush past Hotaru, stopping as Hotaru grabbed at her wrist.
"Mina, wait."
"Well?"
"I... I just can't go back there. They don't want me to fight with them. I'm not welcome." Hotaru whispered. "I'm sorry, I just... I can't."
Instead of softening and agreeing to go hide for a very long time somewhere warm and safe, and Hotaru had not expected, but rather hoped, she would, she laughed. "What do you mean you're not wanted? You've got the most firepower out of all of us. They'd be insane to not want you watching their backs."
Hotaru sighed, leaning back against the wall. "Well, I always figured Heero was a little crazy."
"What?" Mina exclaimed. "You're totally wanted! Trust me! I think Captain Cardboard actually felt a little bad about what he did.
"Really?" Hotaru said with a little more enthusiasm than she's meant to project.
"Oh?" Mina said, perking up, "Do you need the goddess of looooove to help?"
"No, Venus, I don't like him I.. I just... argh!" Hotaru slid down the wall into a sitting position, her face in her hands.
"Nope, you don't like him at all." Mina grinned, leaning over, trying to peek through the cracks in Hotaru's fingers.
"Yeah, just like you don't like the blond kid. Wasshisname? Quatre? Yeah, him." Hotaru shot back, the snappiness of her comeback slightly impeded by her hands.
"Um, well, yeah, that was sort of a given when he..uh... kissed me." Mina blushed.
Hotaru's eyes snapped up to Mina's blushing face. "Well, well. Now I know why you were too preoccupied to notice Heero dumping my pitiful arse on the street."
"Hey! Not funny. I am sorry about that though."
"S'okay. The real problem here is that even after all he's done to me, I can still feel him brushing the hair out of my eyes so I wouldn't mess up my grip in target practice, or his hands on my shoulders as he corrected my stance, and my skin feels like it's on fire. I don't get it. He's a monster. A murderer. An unspeakable bastard. So why don't I hate him?"
"Because he's got a cute butt?" Mina suggested and was rewarded with a glare, "Okay, I have no idea. But, target practice? You sure have weird ideas about romance."
*****
Meanwhile, in Heero's drunken thoughts...
Heero was upset, he had gotten stuck in a huge pot of honey, making it terribly hard for him to move. There were also little fairies hitting him on the head, saying that he'd never, ever, be a little teapot like he wanted. He was struggling, but he was so terribly tired that he was about to give up, when, suddenly, and dark-haired angel swooped down, plucking him out of the honey.
He looked up in wonder, she had the prettiest purple eyes. He knew, somewhere deep down that he was very, very drunk, and none of this was actually happening, but instead he concentrated on the feeling of her soft breasts crushed against his cheek and the perfect curve of her hips, and suddenly didn't care.
The laptop suppressed nearly all hormones not necessary for growth, and the sudden lack of programming and strict regulation of feelings. Was new, and currently not entirely unpleasant.
Damn that lap-top withdrawal!
*****
"Hey! 'Taru! Where have you been?" Dorothy shouted, making her way over to them, a beer clutched in each hand.
"Who's that?" Mina asked.
"That's Dorothy. Pluto says she should come back with us."
Mina eyed the visible holsters, the low cut blouse, mini-skirt, and leather boots. "Do we have to?"
"Shush, she helped me out."
"Hey 'Taru. Was this who you were running from? I don't see why." Dorothy eyed Mina, who blushed, "Ex-girlfriend?"
"Do we really have to?" Mina hissed.
"Yes, ... uh, I mean, no, she's just an old friend." Hotaru stammered.
"Mmm hmm, I get it." Dorothy smiled knowingly.
Hotaru sighed and looked over at Mina. Mina rolled her eyes, and made a gesture that Hotaru took to mean, 'whatever'. She turned back to Dorothy, "You up for a road trip?"
It took them less than ten minutes to re-pack their things. They decided to take Mina's car. There was only one small problem with this plan of events, so astutely stated by Dorothy. "Yo, what the hell happened to the kinky bondage soldier boys back here?"
******
In the end, Hotaru had drawn the short straw and ended up squashed in the back seat with the bound Trieze, and the nearly unconscious Heero. About an hour into their trip back, Hotaru's luck had run out. Heero had re-gained some lucidity, though sadly not any of his motor functions.
"Mm..H'lo 'Taru." Heero wavered as he tried to sit up, before giving up and collapsing into the crook of her shoulder. She tried to shift his body off of hers, and leaning back onto Trieze, but he was rather heavier than she'd expected and only succeeded in settling him into a slightly more comfortable position as he dropped off back into his drunken sleep. His arms snaked around her waist and his nose was pressed against her neck.
At a sharp turn, he jolted back to awareness, looking up at her through bleary, but admittedly pretty dark blue eyes. "You smell nice." He said, with surprisingly little slur, and a strange half-smile, then leaned down to puke all over her shoes.
******
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