The Mystical Warriors, Part 8

***Just in the Knick of Time***

Darien and Serena were sitting on a bench in the middle of the rose garden, the ending

activity of their date, kissing. Serena had her arms wrapped around his neck and his arms

were around her waist, occasionally brushing through her long hair. They broke apart and

Darien gave Serena a gentle smile while caressing her cheek. She smiled and closed her

eyes, nuzzling his hand. Removing his hand from her cheek, she kissed it and turned around

in his arms to lean against his chest and look at the night sky.

Sighing contently, she said, "I love the stars tonight. You can really see them clearly.

Look at them Darien." Pulling her closer to him, he whispered, "I like the view I have

right now, thank you."

"And what view would that be?" Serena asked with a small smile on her face, though she knew

what the answer was going to be even before he said it.

"The view of your beautiful face, of course." Serena smiled even wider and nestled into his

arms further. Putting his chin on her right shoulder, he whispered in her ear, "I love

you."

"I love you too," she whispered back. Suddenly, her body tensed up and she sat straight up.

Inwardly, she sighed. Couldn't she have a perfect, peaceful evening alone with her

boyfriend without any interruptions? "What? What is it Serena?" Darien asked her. He took

in her posture and said, "Is it a youma?" Serena grimaced.

"Yeah it is. Perfect ending to the perfect evening, don't you think?"

"I think so," he agreed sarcastically. Quickly, he transformed into Tuxedo Mask and Serena

called out, "Power of the Moonlight!" and appeared in her sub-armor. They broke off in a

run with Darien following Serena, relying on Serena's instincts to get them to the youma.

Since Serena received her armor, she'd been a tracker of sorts in that she always knows

where a youma is. She just has to get to it in time so it won't hurt anyone, which at times

was hard to do, depending on the distance between her and the youma.

When they arrived at the place where the youma was, they saw that it was a robot of sorts

that had many drills and knives and other useful weapons where its hands should have been.

And it was torturing a young couple. "Hey!" Serena cried out, outraged that the youma was

trying to ruin another couple's perfect night, "Just because you ruined my night with my

boyfriend, doesn't mean you can ruin others' evenings. Turn around and fight."

Those last four words still struck Darien as odd. Darien wasn't used to Serena initiating

fights; he was used to her avidly avoiding them. But that had been before the armor.

Serena seemed to gain more than maturity from her armor; she also gained courage. The robot

turned around and glared at them, if that was possible for it didn't exactly have eyes, and

said in a monotonous voice, "You dare challenge me?"

"I dare anything and anyone I want, mister," Serena said. Closing her eyes, she readied

herself for her transformation. "I call upon the armor of the Moonlight! Armor of the

Moonlight, TO ARMS!" Moments later, she stood there in the Moonlight armor, staff in hand

and ready to fight. Darien, in an attempt to keep Serena from fighting as much a possible,

charged the robot, but was backhanded by a metallic arm and sent flying off to the side.

"Darien!" Serena cried out and leapt over to him. Relieved to find him only unconscious,

she turned around and called out "MOONLIGHT CRYSTAL ILLUMINATION!" feeling like she could

kill the youma with her bare hands. A beam of light shot out of her staff and engulfed the

youma in a ball of light. She smiled triumphantly, but that smile faded when the robot

walked right through the ball of light.

She was so surprised that the youma had survived her attack without getting hurt that she

didn't make any move to fight back when the youma knocked her staff out of her hands. She

stumbled backwards and closed her eyes and prepared for the worst, but that never came. "I

wouldn't do that, if I were you," a calm voice said. Serena opened her eyes and saw a woman

a few years older then her in sub-armor that was like hers, except on the woman's, Serena's

silver was dark olive green. She had rose-colored eyes and her hair was olive green to

match her sub-armor. "And why shouldn't I kill her?" the youma asked. "Because you would

never live to celebrate it," the new warrior said coldly. The woman closed her eyes and

said, "I call upon the armor of Time! Armor of Time, TO ARMS!" Swirls of olive green light

surrounded the woman and turned into armor. Her helmet appeared from the olive green light

gathered in front of her face and she grabbed the helmet, putting it on. Then a bolt of

olive green light appeared and created the woman's staff. Her staff looked exactly like

Serena's except it held a red crystal. Her armor was dark olive green, so dark that it was

almost black, and her symbol was a silver infinity sign. Holding her staff in her right

hand, she crossed her hands over chest and said, "ULTIMATE TIME . . . " Wind started to whirl around her and then she thrust her arms out and shouted, "FREEZE!" The youma, who was

making his way toward the olive green-clad woman, froze in his tracks. "What did you do to

him?"

"I froze time. You can destroy him now." Serena picked up her staff and cried out,

"MOONLIGHT VANQUISH!" and a bolt of light flew toward the youma, destroying it quickly.

Serena turned around and said, "Who are you? Why are you here? And why does your crystal

in your staff look like mine?" The woman waved her hand over the glowing red crystal and as

her hand passed over it, the crystal stopped glowing and Serena could hear the sounds of

movement again. Serena thought about it for a moment and then realized that the woman had

unfrozen time.

"My name is Celia and I wear the armor of Time. I am here to serve you and protect you, my

princess, and the crystal that I have in my staff is the Time Crystal, the crystal that

controls time."

"So, why did it take you so long to get here?"

"I'll explain when the others get here."

"What do you mean?" Suddenly, the other four appeared, ready to fight, but calmed down when

they saw Celia. "Who are you?" they all said, confused looks spreading over their faces.

The woman smiled slightly and answered their question.

"My name is Celia and I control the Armor of Time."

"So, what took you so long to get here?" Serena repeated. Celia was about to answer when a

groan was heard coming from the bushes. "Oh God, Darien!" Serena said, rushing over to him.

"Darien, are you ok?"

"Nothing two Aspirin and a good night's sleep wouldn't cure." He looked up and saw Celia.

"Who are you?" She sighed in annoyance of having to answer the question a third time and

said, "I am Celia and I control the Armor of Time."

"Nifty," Darien said, still kind of out if it, as Serena helped Darien off the ground,

supporting him as he stood on his feet.

"Now, I'm not going to be interrupted again, am I?" Celia asked. When all of them shook

their heads, she said, "Ok. Serena asked me why it took me so long to get here and I'm

going to answer her question. For a thousand years, I have been guarding the gate of Time

as Sailor Pluto. Not a short time ago, I received this armor and was told by a voice to go

to the real world and protect the Moon Princess. I complied and here I am."

"Are the other three coming soon?" Serena asked.

"Yes, they are coming soon, but that's all I can tell you." A silence fell over the group

and Serena said, "Ok, is it ok if I get home now? I'm supposed to be home in about 20

minutes." Serena's nose crinkled as she realized that she didn't know what time it was. "I

think," she concluded

"Yes, I need to get home myself," Ami said.

"Yes, meet me here tomorrow at 5 o'clock and we will discuss this further," Celia said and

began to walk away. "Wait," Serena said, "Where are you staying?" She needed to know that

Celia at least had somewhere to stay while she was down on Earth.

"I have my own house on the outskirts of town. I'll be fine," Celia said and continued to

walk away until she was out of sight. The others stood silent and then all of them

detransformed. Hooking her arm through Darien's, Serena said, "Darien, will you walk me

home?"

"Yeah sure. Bye, girls," he said to the others as he and Serena began to walk away from.

"Bye Darien. Bye Serena, see you tomorrow," they all called out as they too began to walk

home.

"Bye you guys," Serena called back just before she was out of hearing range.

***

Serena and Darien approached her house and Serena said, "Some night we've had, huh? I mean,

we fight a youma during our date and meet another Warrior. It's a good thing that she came

along when she did. Or I'd be dead."

"Yeah I know. Good timing, huh?" Darien said.

"Yep," Serena said. When they got to her front door, Serena said, "I guess this is my

stop." She leaned forward and kissed him briefly. "I'll see you tomorrow. I love you."

"I love you too, Serena. Good night." He kissed her again and started to walk home,

leaving her on her doorstep. Serena sighed contently as she watched him walk away and

walked inside her house.