Part 2: Explanations Abound

-September 24th, 1999-

Serena sighed as the group of Mystical and Ronin Warriors neared home, with two guests.  Behind the group of warriors, Julie and Margot were talking animatedly about people and places they didn't know and had no desire to know about.  All the Universal Warriors wanted to know was who they were, why they were there, and how they knew about the armors and the Silver Crystal.  It made no sense to them, except to Celia, but she knew about everything went on.  Whenever anyone asked her how she knew certain things, she said that it was her right to know because it went with her power.  Anytime she said that to anyone, that person only grumbled in response; Celia never gave any answers. 

As Celia's house came into view, Margot and Julie suddenly became quiet.  Cye took a look back at the two girls, who were looking at Celia's house with looks of awe and reverence, like they were seeing vision that came true.  Cye smiled at the looks on their faces.  He may not have known who those two were, but he kinda liked them, for all that they were a little on the weird side.  Their hyperness will take a little getting used to, but I think they can be trusted.  Well, I hope so anyway, Cye thought as they all ascended the walkway up to Celia's front door. 

Celia put her hand to the door handle and pushed it down, opening the door, which she purposely left unlocked.  The group of 18 people filed in, setting their stuff down in the front hallway on the benches.  Julie and Margot just dropped their stuff on the floor as they took in the sight of Celia's house, actually real in front of their faces.  As the others settled in and removed their jackets and shoes, which Julie and Margot had already done, Margot looked down at Julie and whispered, "The library?"  Julie nodded.

"The library," she confirmed. 

Without any warning, Margot and Julie slipped out of the front hall, going unnoticed by all of the warriors, and the next thing the Universal Warriors heard out of the two girls was the sound of their footsteps as they ran down the hall towards the library.  Raye and Serena took off after them, chasing them down the hallway.  "Wait!  Stop!" Serena yelled.

"Get back here!" Raye cried out.  Margot and Julie only ignored each other as they ran down the hallway and turned left, heading towards the library.  They burst in through the door and Julie started scanning the first bookshelves by the door, muttering to herself, her fingers brushing over the bookshelves.  "Ok, ok, 4 shelves over, 3 shelves from the bottom…"  Julie's fingers felt along the inside of the bookcase, her fingers moving over books until she found the small button that she was looking for.  Smiling broadly, she pressed the button and watched as the bookshelf slid away, revealing a hidden passage.  Looking up at Margot, she said, "Nifty."

"Definitely nifty," Margot replied, smiling as well.  Giving each other looks, the two of them entered the passage, the bookshelf closing behind them and Raye and Serena entered the room just at the bookshelf closed up, hiding their secret.  "Now where did they go?" Raye asked.

"I don't know, we're just going to have to look for them," Serena said, beginning to look around the library.

***
Margot sneezed.  The passage that she and Julie now occupied together was dusty and a little dank after so many obvious years of not being used.  "Ok, it's dusty and really dark in here," Julie said, stating the obvious.  Rubbing her nose to stop the itching feeling from an impending sneeze, Margot said, "Thank you, Captain Obvious."  Julie shot Margot a reproachful look, which went unnoticed in the dark, and said, "Let's just find a light switch or something.  I know there's one in here.  I wrote it in to the story."  Margot and Julie began wordlessly searching the walls around the entrance to the passageway for a light switch. 

Margot's hands felt the walls until she finally found something.  "Ah-ha!" Margot exclaimed as her fingers found a light switch and she flipped up the switch, which lit up the entire passage.  Smiling down at Julie, now able to see her, Margot said, "And God said let there be light."  Julie only rolled her eyes at Margot, a smile all the while spreading over her face, before saying, "Come on, let's see if this actually leads to where it did in the story."

"Sure," Margot said, moving down the passage way with Julie.  They walked for about 20 feet and found themselves at the bottom of a set of stairs.  "This is looking good," Margot muttered as they started up the steps.  They walked up a half of a flight of stairs before the stairwell turned, showing another half flight of stairs that led up to a platform. 

Once on the platform, Julie and Margot came upon two spiral staircases, each of them leading to different places.  Julie pointed at the right staircase, the one in front of her, and said, "This is the one that leads to Raye's room, right?"

"Yeah, and the left staircase leads to Ami's room," Margot said; she knew all about how the secret passageway worked; she was the one who designed it.  "Alright, let's go up," Julie said.  They each took a staircase, Julie on the right one and Margot on the left one.  They climbed about 40 steps or so on the spiral staircases until they each reached a small platform, both of them connecting the stairs to a secret door. 

Julie looked over at Margot, smiling, pointed at the door in front of her and said, "Sage's room?"

"Yep, just like the one in front of me leads to Rowen's room.  You do know how bad this is, Julie."

"Yeah, I know," Julie said, slightly absent.

"No, you don't.  Ami and Rowen's rooms are connected and Raye and Sage's rooms are connected.  It's incredibly evil."

"Why?" Julie asked, "This way, they can sneak to the other's room in the middle of the night.  It's not a bad thing.  Besides, you came up with it."  Margot just rolled her eyes and said, "Whatever, Julie."  Julie looked at Margot and said, "Let's just climb the stairs, Margot."  They each climbed the stairs one more time until they came to another platform.  Margot and Julie walked off the stairs and onto the platforms. 

Margot put her hand to the door handle that was on the secret door and pushed it open.  She smiled.  "Ah, I knew it, Ami's closet.  They do lead to the right place."  Julie opened the door in front of her, which put her in Raye's closet.  Margot looked over at Julie and said, "Let's get back downstairs.  They must be wondering where we are by now."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Julie said, stepping into Raye's closet through the secret door.  Margot did the same for Ami's closet, walking into it.  Once she was in, Margot closed the door behind her and walked out of Ami's walk-in closet, briefly admiring Ami's room.  Careful not to touch anything that would give away that there had been someone in Ami's room, Margot walked through Ami's room, exiting through the door and coming out into the hallway.  She closed Ami's door behind her just as Julie emerged from Raye's room. 

Julie shut the door behind her and leaned against it; it seemed that Julie was already comfortable in Celia's house and she had only been there for 10 minutes.  "Ready to go?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, let's get downstairs."  As they walked down the hallway, Margot said, "I hope they don't kill us for disappearing on them.  They weren't too friendly when we first met them."

"Talk about it!" Julie exclaimed.

"Well, I guess it is understandable.  I mean, if someone I didn't know knew my most guarded secret, I'd be a little suspicious, if not totally distrusting."

"I guess you're right," Julie said as they reached the hallway and turned to go down the stairs.

***

"I can't believe that we lost them!  HOW did we lose them?"

"Serena, I don't know," Raye said, "But they seemed to have disappear on us."

"How then?" Serena asked, leaning against one of the couches in the hallway, "I mean, there's only one way out of this room and that's through the door and they haven't gone out that door; and there's no where to hide that we haven't searched yet."

"Maybe they magically disappeared," Raye suggested, walking towards the door.  Serena pushed herself off of the couch she was leaning on and joined Raye by her side as they walked out of the library.

"Maybe they went home," Serena said as they maneuvered their way through the house, back out to the front hall.  Raye scoffed.

"I don't think we're going to get rid of them THAT easily, Serena."  Serena smiled at Raye.

"I know.  I don't know if I want to get rid of them, either.  They're kinda interesting.  It'd sure be a change to the normal routine around here, that's for sure."

"Definitely," Raye said as they approached the front hall.  Back in the front hall, everyone was waiting for Raye and Serena to get back, hopefully with their two guests.  When Raye and Serena came back empty-handed, Ryo said, "You didn't find them?"

"Nope," Serena said, shaking her head slightly.

"Where did they go?  Didn't you find them?" Sage asked.

"We looked," Raye said, "But they disappeared on us.  There was no trace of them anywhere."  Raye took in a deep breath, preparing to sigh, but stopped herself when the sounds of laughing came from the stairs.  Her brow furrowing, Raye said, "Did you guys hear that?  It sounded like laughing.  You guys heard that, right?"

"Yeah, I heard it," Kento said, his gaze shifting to the stairwell, "Do you think it could be those two?"  Everyone looked towards the stairs as Julie and Margot appeared, walking down them, practically bouncing to the bottom of the steps. 

The Mystical and Ronin Warriors looked astounded, even Celia, as they all wondered how they got from the first floor to the third floor without using the stairs.  "How…how did you get upstairs from the first floor from the library?" Serena asked, needing to know.  Margot and Julie looked at each other, mirth dancing in their eyes, as they said, "Magic."  That statement alarmed everybody.  Of course, how could these two know so much about them if not for magic! 

Their suspicions given more room to grow, they all decided to take care of the mystery of the two new girls.  Ryo and Kento moved to Julie and Margot, each of them grabbing one of their arms, as they dragged them off in the direction of the den.  Sage and Rowen grabbed their stuff off of the floor and carried it into the den, follow the mass of people that were already moving into the den at the same moment. 

As she struggled against Kento's grip on her arm, Margot said, "Celia, help me!"  But, Celia couldn't do anything about it.  "Ow, ow, ow," Julie whined as Ryo tightly gripped her arm, "You could loosen up a little, you know."  They reached the den, where Ryo and Kento promptly shoved Julie and Margot onto a couch as everyone else surrounded them, looking at them suspiciously. 

Celia sat down, away from the crowd, and watched to see how Margot and Julie pulled themselves out of it.  Sage and Rowen threw their stuff at their feet; Julie was outraged.  "Hey!" she exclaimed, "Watch the merchandise.  There are some pretty valuable things I have there in those bags.  Things that took a while to get."  Julie leaned over to check that all her stuff was ok and Margot did the same, just to make sure of course. 

Ami stepped to the front of the group and gave the two girls her most intimidating look.  While intimidating, it didn't have much of an affect on Margot and Julie, but the other looks they were receiving did enough to intimidate.  "Ok, I'm going to say this straight out," Ami said in a clipped voice, "Who are you and where are you from?"

"My name's Margot Freeman."

"And my name is Julie Petersen."

"And we're from California," Margot said.

"How did you get here from California?" Sage asked.  Julie looked at Margot and sighed with annoyance.

"We don't know.  One minute, we were in school and the next, we were in the park," Julie said; she failed to mention that Celia brought them over and she did that on purpose; she didn't want to get Celia involved.

"Why are you guys here?" Lita asked.

"We don't know that either," Margot answered.  Cye smiled at the two girls.  He knew that his friends were being a little hard on the two newcomers, which was too bad because he liked them.  He knew that they could be trusted, but he didn't know how to explain it to the others that he knew; he figured that he knew because of his attribute, which was trust. 

In order to lighten the situation, Cye said, with a smirk on his face, "Where were you on 1:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday, September 22nd?"  Everyone looked at Cye in confusion and humor at his random question, which Julie and Margot thought about seriously.  Margot looked at Julie and said, with a sigh in her voice, "Well, if I'm not mistaken, at 1:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday, we were in…"

"Social Justice," Julie and Margot said, grimacing at the thought of their least favorite class.  Social Justice was cool and everything, just not when it was being taught.

"What's so bad about Social Justice?" Mia asked.

"Everything," Julie said, "But only if it's the class.  Then it sucks."  Mia nodded slowly, a little confused by those two yet.

"Can we get back on track now?" Ami asked.  Margot and Julie looked up at Ami.  "Sure," Margot said.

"Alright," Ami said with satisfaction, "Now, how do you know about the armors, the Silver Crystal, and Metallia?"  Julie and Margot looked at each other again, the looks on their faces slightly annoyed, but they gave in. 

Julie turned back to Ami and said, "I created this universe.  Meaning, I know everything about you guys.  At home, you guys are on TV."

"Yeah right," Kento said, disbelief in his voice.  The others didn't believe Julie as well.

"Do you want us to give examples?" Margot asked.  Leaning over to look through her backpack, Margot pulled out a thin, black binder and opened it to a random page.  On the pages were random pictures of the Sailor Scouts, all of them in different poses. 

The main picture that everyone could see was one of Serena, Raye, Ami, Lita, and Mina, all of them wearing evening gowns that were done in their colors.  Ami, Serena, Lita, and Mina were sitting in a group and Raye was lying in front of them, looking into the camera.  The girls had no recollection of ever taking that picture and the guys absolutely flipped out.  The girls looked absolutely stunning in that picture. 

Julie leaned over to see what picture Margot was showing them and her eyes went wide as she saw it.  Instead of being done in the Japanese Anime that she was used to seeing, it looked real, like real people had posed for the picture.  "Oh my God.  Margot, look at the picture."  Margot turned the binder around so she could see the pictures and gaped.  "They…they're real-looking."  Turning to Julie, she said, "Why do you think that is?"  Julie only shrugged and said, "Maybe it's because we're in this universe that it looks real.  Either that or it's just a figment of our imagination.  I'm hoping for the former."  Margot closed the binder, refusing to think about it any longer. 

The guys were wondering how they could get their hands on that binder to look at what other pictures were in there.  Ami, a little embarrassed at being seen in a picture where she was wearing a strapless dress, said, "What was that?"

"That was a scrapbook of "Sailor Moon" pictures that Julie gave me for Christmas," Margot said.

"Yeah, see, at home, "Sailor Moon" and "The Ronin Warriors" are TV shows.  It's rather, interesting actually," Julie added.  The others were pretty much convinced, but Ami still needed solid proof that they weren't from the Negaverse and were innocent.

"I still am not quite convinced that you're not from the Negaverse," Ami said.  Julie sighed in annoyance and said, "Alright, I have proof for you.  Hold on a minute."  Julie opened her backpack and took out a purple binder, which was full with paper. 

Skimming through the pages, Julie smiled as she found what she was looking for.  Taking out two to three sheets from the binder, all of them full with typewritten words, Julie handed the sheets to Ami and said, "Read that and tell me if that is what you were thinking on that day."  Ami took the sheets from Julie and began reading them.  Rowen moved to read over her shoulder and Julie stopped him before he could take two steps.  "No, Rowen, don't you dare read over Ami's shoulder."

"How did you know that's what I was going to do and how did you know my name?"

"One, I saw you moving towards her, and two, I know everything about you," Julie deadpanned.  All talking ceased as Ami read. 

Every now and then, a small gasp would be heard from Ami as she read something that shocked her.  At one point, Ami turned bright pink and everyone wanted to know what it was that Ami was reading.  "What did you hand her?" Margot asked.  Julie looked up at Margot and said, "I gave her a section from Book 2, Part 4, her point of view," Julie said, referring to the story that she and Margot and Kateri had written together.  Margot nodded in understanding.  "Ah, so many things make sense now." 

Once Ami had finished reading it, she was thoroughly convinced.  There was no way that anyone could have known what she was thinking the night that she comforted Rowen about his nightmares about his past with his father.  "How did you know that?" Ami whispered.

"I told you a few times, I know everything about you.  But don't worry, I won't tell."

"No, that's not possible, I never told anybody about what I was thinking that night.  I've never told anyone what happened that night."  Suddenly, everyone wanted to know what Ami was talking about, but they didn't ask.

"Well, do you believe us now?" Margot asked.

"Yeah, I do," Ami said quietly, "I'm sorry I was so forward and pushy a few minutes ago."

"It's ok," Margot said.

"We forgive you," Julie chimed in.  Ami smiled in relief.  Everything became quiet in the den as there ceased to be conversation topics.

Sighing, Lita stood up from the chair that she was sitting in and said, "Well, I'm going to go start making dinner."  Kento walked over to Lita and said, "I'll help you."  Together, the two of them walked off to the kitchen and Margot and Julie shared knowing looks; they knew that Kento and Lita had strong feelings for each other, but hadn't voiced them yet. 

The rest of the group dispersed quickly, leaving only Celia, Julie and Margot in the room.  "Well, I guess I'll show you to your rooms."

"No, just tell us where they are," Margot said confidently.

"What?" Celia asked, a little confused.  These girls really messed with her mind and she'd only known them for a couple of hours.

"We know this house," Julie said, "Just tell us where they are and we'll find our way there."

"Um, 2nd floor, any of the first four rooms in the beginning of the hallway."  Margot and Julie picked up their stuff off the floor.  "Thanks," Margot said curtly as she and Julie walked out of the den and moved their way upstairs and to the rooms that Celia told them about, though they already knew what rooms were taken; they did, after all, know Celia's house like the back of their hands.  After discussing briefly the sleeping arrangements, they decided on the first two rooms on the left side of the hallway.  They were sharing a bathroom and next to Julie's room was Rowen's room. 

Margot had set her stuff down in the room, marveling at the actual size of the room.  She had pictured the rooms in her mind, but never as big as they actually were.  Rummaging through her stuff, she pulled out regular clothes and began changing out of her uniform.  She had just finished changing when Julie walked in through the slightly open bathroom door.  "Hello," Julie said, announcing her presence.  Margot turned to see Julie standing there, wearing dark blue jeans and a white tee-shirt, and said, "Hey Chica, what's up?"

"Nothing."  Moving over to sit on Margot's bed, which was done in variations of a blue-greenish color, Julie sat down and said, "Nice room."

"Yeah, and I bet your room is just as nice."

"Actually, it is.  Mine has a rocking sound system in it.  I don't know why, but I'm not going to ask.  I'm just going to leave it there."  Margot glared at her.

"Lucky," she said resentfully, not really meaning it.  Julie only smiled at her briefly before her smile faded.  "Hey, what's wrong?" Margot asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking about home.  Do you think they miss us?  Everybody?  How are they going to deal with us being gone?  How long are we going to be here for?" Julie asked all at once.

"Well, I know lots of people are going to miss us.  I don't know the answers to the other questions.  Only time will tell, Julie," Margot said regretfully, wishing she could answer her friend's questions.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Julie sighed.  "But," Julie continued, "The cool thing about being here is that we know stuff that others don't know about."

"Like what?" Margot asked, needing an example.

"Oh, like the secret love affairs of the Silver Millennium.  Do you think the others know about that, Margot?"

"No, actually, I don't.  If they knew, they'd all be acting differently."  Suddenly, they felt another presence in the room and turned to see who entered the room.  "What secret love affairs?" Celia said as she walked into the room.  Julie and Margot were shocked.  Celia didn't know about those?

"You mean you don't know?" Margot asked.

"No, I've never heard about that.  Tell me what you're talking about?" she demanded.  How could she not know about it?  Margot and Julie gave each other looks of apprehension and shock before turning back to Celia.  "Well," Margot began, "In the Silver Millennium, Darien's 8 generals fell in love with the Mystical and Ronin Warriors.  In fact, they engaged to be married.  The couples were Ami and Cairngorm, Mina and Malachite, Lita and Nephrite, Raye and Jedite, Kento and Almandine, Rowen and Labradorite, Cye and Zoicite, and Sage and Heliodore. 

"But, the princes and princesses somewhere along the line fell in love with someone one else.  Lita feel in love with Kento, Ami fell in love with Rowen, Raye fell in love with Sage, and Cye fell in love with Mina and vice versa.  They all had affairs, cheating on the person they were meant to marry, but they didn't care.  They had to keep their love affairs a secret, but, the generals found out eventually and turned to Metallia for help on getting revenge on their betrothed, just like Beryl did when she found out that Darien preferred Serena over her." 

Margot finished her tale and Celia looked like she was absorbing the information for a couple of moments before she greeted Julie and Margot with a smile.  "Thanks," Celia said, "I never knew about that.  And don't look so shocked," she said in response to the shocked looks on their faces.  "Just because I command the power of time doesn't mean I know absolutely everything.  But, don't tell anyone that I don't know everything; it'll ruin my reputation."  Turning on her heel, she began to walk back out of the room, calling over her shoulder.  "By the way, I came up here to tell you that dinner is at 6:00.  Don't be late."  With that, Celia left the room, closing the door behind her, leaving the stunned girls behind. 

Finally, the shock wore off and Margot looked at Julie.  "I can't believe that she didn't know about that," Julie said, looking at the floor.

"I know.  But, to totally change the topic, what do you think dinner's going to be like?" Margot asked.  Julie only smiled and shook her head in disbelief and humor, chuckling slightly.  "I don't know, but I can't wait to find out.  It's going to be interesting."

"Yeah, our first dinner here," Margot said, a smile on her lips.  Julie only smiled back.

************

Alright, this may be it for a while, although I keep saying that and then updating the next day.  Bad me!  However, I took on a job as a sound board op for a non-profit show and it's made me a bit stressed, what with the amazing amount of schoolwork due and this on top of it all.  Seeing as how this is tech week, I may go insane.  I've already dreamt that I was working sound board, which didn't help me sleep at all  But on the other hand, in my sane moments when I have to take a break, I decided to update for all of you.  So I hope you all enjoyed the chapters and I will hopefully find some time to update after opening night . . . or in other words, after tomorrow. ~DestinyBabe : )