DISCLAIMER: Sailor Moon and its characters are not owned by me, blah blah blah, and other legal junk. Sparrow Migoto is owned by my friend Christina, and used with her permission.
Author's Note: This fanfic is a direct sequel to Looking Up To You, a Sammy/Ami romance fanfic that I wrote about a year ago. It's still on my profile, so I recommend that if you haven't read Looking Up To You, it would be best to stop, don't pass GO, don't collect $200, and go immediately to my profile to check it out. Otherwise, you'll be kinda confused.
Second Author's Note: This fanfic takes place after Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. (Serena, Ami, Rei, and Mina are 17. Lita is 18. Sammy is 14. Darien is older than all of them.) Also, if you're confused about some of the Senshi's attacks, that's because they got a whole set of new ones in Looking Up To You. So like I said, go check it out.
---
Sammy and Ami continued to sit on the roof of the shrine for several more minutes, holding hands and looking up at the stars as they contemplated how they could rescue their imprisoned friends. Finally, Serena, Rei, Lita, Mina, and Darien stepped out of the temple and called up to them.
"Sammy, it's getting pretty late," Serena said, craning her head upward so that she could speak with Sammy. "Shouldn't we be heading home? Mom's gonna be really worried..."
"What about Rick and Mika?" Sammy replied. "Didn't Rei find out anything?"
Rei shook her head.
"The flame told me nothing useful," Rei said gravely. "I'm sorry, Sammy..."
Sammy's heart sank. His head drooped, and his lips curved into a weary frown as he walked over to the side of the roof. Ami walked up next to him and gently put her hand on his shoulder, causing Sammy to turn around.
"Sammy, we'll find Rick and Mika," Ami said sweetly, a look of understanding on her face. "It's obvious that our adversaries wish to use them again, because they wouldn't have taken them otherwise. We'll get them back, Sammy..."
"That's right!" Lita said with determination. "If there's anyone who can rescue your friends, it's the Sailor Senshi. Sammy, just trust us, okay?"
Sammy nodded, then leapt down from the roof of the side, landing in front of Darien and the girls. Ami took a subtler route down the side of the building, using the ladder that she and Sammy had originally used to get up to the roof in the first place.
"It's just that... I dunno, they both looked so scared in the factory... I'm worried that they won't be my friends anymore," Sammy said sadly. "After going through an experience like this, they might think being my friend is too dangerous. And I don't really want to put them through that kind of danger."
"Just tell them that the danger will be over soon," Serena replied. "And that lightning never strikes twice in the same place."
"I think we should be getting back home now, Sammy," Ami said. "I'll follow you and Serena and Darien, alright?"
"We'll meet up at school tomorrow, alright, Serena?" Lita asked. "We can discuss what to do there..."
"Yeah," Mina said, waving to the others as she headed back to her own home. "We'll get them back, Sammy! You can count on that!"
As he began to walk down the streets of Juuban with Serena, Ami, and Darien, the streetlights illuminating the path and lighting the way home, Sammy could only think of saving Rick and Mika, before it would be too late... and he also thought of what Serena had told him. Lightning never strikes in the same place... even if the Sailor Senshi rescued Rick and Mika, Jekelai and his mercenaries would still be alive, roaming Juuban and hunting down more of Sammy's friends and loved ones... who would be next?
---
Sammy would probably have been relieved to have known that his friends, Rick and Mika, hadn't been harmed since they'd been teleported to Jekelai's palace from the factory. They were being treated rather rudely, as the cloaked mercenary dragged their bound and struggling forms down the halls from Jekelai's room. After passing through several hallways, the man picked up Rick and Mika and began carrying them down several flights of stairs, as well as a few more corridors. The two couldn't help but notice the exquisite scenery of the palace, as its halls were lined with gold plated, well-crafted walls and plush, red-carpeted floors. Hundreds of crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, their lights shining down and giving the walls a bright glow. But as the mercenary carried Rick and Mika down even more stairways, the lights grew dimmer, and the scenery grew damp, dirty, and bleak. Finally, the mercenary arrived at a large, wooden door. As he opened it, the loud creaking noise that emanated out made Mika want to cover her ears, and the dank smell coming from inside made both Rick and Mika want to gag. They were carried down one last flight of stairs, into the dark, musty dungeon. Several cells lined the walls, but it looked like none of them had been filled for quite some time. That quickly changed as the mercenary produced a key from his pocket and opened up one of the cells, throwing the two children inside, their bodies roughly hitting the cold, stone floor of the dungeon. Before the mercenary left, however, he did something that neither Rick nor Mika had expected. He took out a medium-sized sword and cut the bonds around their wrists and ankles, then exited the dungeon and closed the cell door behind him.
"We don't need to keep either of you tied up, since you won't be escaping from this place," said the mercenary in a cold, condescending voice. "Have a nice stay."
As the hooded mercenary headed back up the stairs and walked out of the dungeon, Rick started to say something to Mika, but realized that his mouth was still taped up. He reached up and pulled the piece of tape off of his lips, tossing it to the floor of the dungeon and turning back toward Mika, who had already crawled over to Rick and was holding the piece of tape that had been on her mouth in her left hand. She gently reached up to Rick's face and inspected the tiny cuts on his cheek that had been made by Pyretta's fingernails. The cuts weren't dripping blood anymore, but they had opened up again, and Mika feared that they would quickly get infected in the musty dungeon environment.
"Hold still," Mika said, gently pressing the piece of tape over the wounds on Rick's face. "There..."
"Mika, are you alright?" Rick asked, feeling more concern for Mika's well-being than that of his own, at least for the time-being. "That guy... he hit you really hard, and-"
"I'm fine, Rick... it's you I'm worried about," Mika said, kneeling next to him, neither of them having gotten up off of the ground. "You look really scared...."
"I was just worried about you," Rick said, looking down toward the floor of the cell. But as he did, and he saw the cold, hard floor beneath him, tears immediately began to well up in his eyes. "Mika.... I am scared..."
Without a word, Mika wrapped her arms around Rick's chest, her warm face nuzzling up against his shoulder. Rick could feel that Mika was trembling, even as she hugged him, and as the cold realization of where they were and what could happen to them began to sink in, they slowly stood up, releasing their embrace on one another.
"It's his fault... it's all his fault!" Rick shouted, turning away from Mika and walking toward the wall as tears streamed down his face.
"Rick, no!" Mika protested. Rick turned back toward her, his eyes now reflecting far more anger than fear.
"Don't you see?" Rick shouted back, his face becoming red with fury. "Sammy doesn't care about us! He only cares about Ami, and every time she gets involved with the bad guys, Sammy gets involved... and now, because he did something to really make them mad, we're the ones that are paying for it! Dammit, Mika, we're going to die! We're both going to-"
"How can you say those things?!" Mika screamed, tears streaming down her own face as well. "There's nothing Sammy could've done, Rick! Didn't you hear what that woman said? Sammy's got something called the Dark Crystal, and that's what they're after! Not Sammy!"
"Then why doesn't he just give it to them?" Rick asked. "Why doesn't he give them what they want, and-"
"He can't! It's something inside of him!" Mika screamed, even more passionately than before. "They're trying to hurt all of his friends so it'll come out of him! That's why they went after us... it's not Sammy's fault, it can't be-"
"Mika, do you like Sammy more than me or something?" Rick shouted, looking straight into Mika's eyes. "Because I..."
As Rick began yelling again, Mika ran toward the other end of the cell, slumped down to her knees, faced the wall, and began to sob violently, tears streaming profusely down her face.
"I'm sorry..." Mika sobbed, gasping for breath as sadness and grief began to overtake her. "I'm scared too... but it's not Sammy's fault... but... Rick, I care about you.... and..."
Rick knew immediately that what he had said was a big mistake, and his mind filled with intense regret. He walked over to Mika and gently put his hand on her shoulder.
"Mika.... I'm the one that should be sorry," Rick said quietly. "Please... I take back everything I said... but... I just don't know what to think anymore, Mika."
Mika stood up and turned around to face Rick, her face now red and puffy from tears.
"Just believe... what you want to believe, Rick," Mika said gently. "I'll still feel the same way about you... and I hope that I always do."
---
Sammy, Ami, Serena, and Darien could hardly prepare themselves for what happened as they entered Sammy and Serena's house. Right when they entered the door, they were immediately confronted by Rick and Mika's parents, as well as Sammy and Serena's. Five parents in all, and all of them were extremely worried. The first thing that Sammy's parents noticed were the large number of bandages covering Sammy's skin, similar to the amount of bandaging he'd received after his encounter with Alexis.
"Oh my gosh, Sammy..." said Mrs. Tsukino, her voice heavy with concern as she rushed over and hugged Sammy. "Are you alright?"
"Mom, I'm fine," Sammy said, gently nudging her away. As soon as he noticed Rick and Mika's parents, he heaved a heavy sigh. "Hoo boy... guess I've got some explaining to do."
"Have any of you seen Mika?" asked Mika's mother, who looked extremely depressed. "I know that she and Rick were with you guys..."
"If anything happened to my son, I'm going to have a heart attack," whispered Rick's mother into her husband's ear.
"Do you know exactly what happened as the two of you left Rick and Mika today?" asked Rick's father. "It's getting really late, and neither of them returned home after they went out with the two of you."
Sammy's mind frantically raced for something to tell Rick and Mika's parents, but Ami didn't seem concerned at all. Instead, her quiet demeanor and calm stoicity compelled her to reach down to her waist and slowly begin to pull her henshin stick up in front of her.
"I'm not going to lie to them and make them more worried than they already are," Ami thought. "Telling them the truth will scare them, but they know who the Sailor Senshi are... I think. Hopefully Serena and I will be able to convince Rick and Mika's parents that we'll get them back. Rick and Mika already know our identity... I'm fairly sure that their parents will keep it a secret."
Serena gasped as she saw Ami begin to lift up her henshin stick. She placed her hand over Ami's and turned to chastise her.
"Ami, what are you doing?" Serena whispered. "We can't transform here, it would-"
"Serena, we have to," Ami whispered back. "I will not tell these parents that their children are safe while I really know that they've been taken to some secret villain hideout far away from Juuban. We have to tell them the truth, Serena. Your parents already know about your identity, correct?"
"I told them after we defeated Lazuli," Serena whispered. "They... didn't really mind. And of course they know who you are, they figured that out from Sammy. That's when I decided to tell them I was Sailor Moon."
"Well," Sammy began, his voice beginning to quake. "You see, Rick and Mika are-"
"Moon Crystal Power!"
"Mercury Crystal Power!"
A bright flash lit up the room, quickly blinding its inhabitants. Sammy gasped as he turned around and realized that Ami and his sister were transforming.
"In front of all of these people?" Sammy thought. "You guys have got to be crazy..."
---
Meanwhile, far above the hectic scene at Sammy's house, far up into the sky, and about five hundred miles out into space, a small space pod was rapidly floating toward a huge, floating island, orbiting the Earth. In the center of that island was a huge palace, the palace of Jekelai, leader of the Pale Mercenaries. This is the palace where Rick and Mika were being held. But that was unknown to the occupant of the space pod, a beautiful, silver-haired girl, aged 20 years. She wore a long, simple white shirt, and a black, sleeveless leather top that gave her chest a sleek shine. Her legs were adorned with long pants, of the same color and leather material of her top. Her boots were also solid black, also leather. This woman, completely aware that her tiny ship was headed straight for Jekelai's orbiting island, was headed there for a reason, with one thing on her mind. Her name was Sparrow Migoto, and she wanted vengeance. Vengeance for four years of captivity at Jekelai's hands. Vengeance for the beatings, the pain, the anguish, the torture. She knew not, nor cared not what Jekelai was up to, or what his plans were concerning the Dark Crystal. She didn't even know of the Dark Crystal in the first place. All she wanted was blood, Jekelai's blood, spilled onto her hands. That would be worth all the Dark Crystals in the universe.
"Warning, we are approaching a large, rapidly orbiting mass," came the voice from inside Sparrow's space pod, the voice obviously belonging to a computer of some sort. "If we do not begin landing procedures, we will crash. Do you wish to land?"
"No," said Sparrow. "I wish to crash. Anything to make a statement, Jekelai."
"Warning, warning, warning," shouted the now much-louder voice, accompanied by warning sirens and bright red lights.
The space pod quickly approached Jekelai's palace, and before Sparrow had the chance to steer it away, it crashed near the left side of the huge palace in a fiery explosion.
---
"Rick, did you hear that?" Mika shouted as a loud, booming noise disturbed the quiet solitude of their dungeon cell.
"Yeah," Rick said, walking over to the bars of the dungeon and straining to look outside. "What's going on out there?"
---
Sparrow, unharmed by the space pod's explosion, leaped out of the ruins of the space pod and into the large hole that the explosion had created. The explosion had did just what Sparrow intended. It opened up a large, cavernous hole in the ground, and also in one of the walls of one of the basement rooms. She climbed down into the hole and entered the palace basement, looking around at the damage that she had caused.
"Maybe I should have crashed through the front door," Sparrow mused as she wandered around the dark, dank room that she'd crashed into. The presence of barrels and crates indicated that Sparrow had crashed into one of the palace's many storage areas, located deep below the palace itself, and a story below the dungeons. Sparrow quickly explored the storage rooms, using small blasts of magic to destroy any crates that she found. "I don't want to leave anything for those jerks..."
Finally, Sparrow reached a long, narrow staircase. She walked up the stairs, not worrying about being caught.
"If I do get caught, I'll just kill the person that caught me," Sparrow thought, a smile appearing on her face. "That'll show them to mess with Sparrow Migoto..."
When Sparrow got to the top of the stairs, she again surveyed her surroundings. She had entered the palace's dungeon, and Rick and Mika were just a few cells away. As Rick looked out of his cell again, he could see Sparrow, briskly walking down the dungeon corridor.
"Who's that?" Rick thought as he saw Sparrow walking toward the cell. "Is she friend, or foe?"
"What are you looking at, Rick?" Mika asked as she ran over to peer out through the bars of the dungeon. By now, Sparrow had already reached the cell next to theirs, and she spotted Rick and Mika as they both gazed out to look at her.
"Just as I thought," Sparrow said quietly. "They've got more slaves."
"More... slaves?" Mika asked, recoiling away from the dungeon bars and back toward the rear of the cell. "Does she want to turn us into slaves?"
Rick, also hearing Sparrow's words, warily stepped away from the front of the cell just as Sparrow approached them.
"It's alright," Sparrow said gently, a sweet smile appearing on her face. She knew that Rick and Mika were afraid, and she immediately felt compelled to help them. "I'm here to rescue you."
"You... are?" Rick asked skeptically. "Really?"
Sparrow nodded. She pointed her arm at the door of the dungeon and fired a small blast at it, blowing away the hinges. She removed the door and flung it across the room, making a loud clattering noise as it skidded across the stony floor of the dungeon. Rick and Mika gasped.
"Whoa..." Rick breathed, the fear in his body subsided. "You're... really here to help us?"
"I think she is," Mika said, walking up to Sparrow.
"My name is Sparrow Migoto," Sparrow said, extending her hand to Rick and Mika. "And like I said, I'm here to help... I promise."
"My.... my name's Rick," Rick stammered, blushing at the sight of one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen. Mika groaned at Rick for a second, but then quickly turned back toward Sparrow, a look of relief on her face.
"My name is Mika," Mika said, shaking Sparrow's hand. "Thank you... I think that you might have just saved both of our lives."
---
Rick and Mika's parents stood watching in shock as the two Senshi transformed. When the transformation was over, neither Rick's dad, nor Rick's mom, nor Mika's mom could find anything to say.
"I know this may seem like a shock to you," Sailor Moon said. "There aren't really too many people who know about our true identities..."
"That's right," said Sailor Mercury calmly. "But... we are two of the Sailor Senshi, and we also know what happened to Rick and Mika."
"P-please..." said Mika's mother, the initial shock of the Senshi's transformation beginning to wear off. "Tell us... tell us what happened."
"I can tell you that," said Sammy, feeling guilty about what happened to Rick and Mika. "You see-"
"Sammy, no," whispered Sailor Mercury, placing a finger to Sammy's lips. "Let me tell them... if I told them the entire truth, it would reflect badly on Sammy..."
"Are they hurt?" shouted Rick's mother, beginning to panic. "Please, please tell me they're not hurt..."
"While Sammy and I were out with Rick and Mika, something attacked us," Mercury lied, her mind quickly concocting a story to take the heat off of Sammy. "We were at the carnival, and suddenly, this strange woman showed up out of nowhere. Apparently, she was working for an enemy that Sailor Moon, the other Senshi, and I are currently engaged in battle with. When the monster came, I transformed, and-"
"In FRONT of it?" Mika's mother shouted. "You revealed your identity? That's probably why Rick and Mika were-"
"No, it never saw me transform," Sailor Mercury said, continuing her fabricated tale. "As I attacked the woman, Sammy, Rick, and Mika ran off somewhere to hide along with the other people at the carnival."
"It's my fault," Sammy said, stepping up to face Rick and Mika's parents.
"Sammy..." Mercury said quietly.
"We were about to go hide, but Sailor Mercury was having a hard time fighting the woman, so... I went back out to help her..."
"Sammy and Ami are in love, you see," said Sailor Moon.
"I know that, I've seen you together with Rick and Mika," Rick's father said.
"So anyway, when I went back out to help her, Rick and Mika followed me.... the woman saw them, and took off with them. She tried to capture me too, but...."
"I couldn't protect them," Mercury replied. "I.... I could only help Sammy. Rick and Mika were taken... I'm sorry."
"Oh, God!" Mika's mother shouted, bowing her head and beginning to sob. Rick's mother began to sob as well, and was quickly embraced by her husband, who turned his head back toward Sammy and the two Senshi, with a look of understanding on his face.
"You know where they are... right?" asked Rick's father. "You can get them back, can't you?"
"Well, we don't know where they are," Sailor Mercury admitted, and Rick's mother let out another loud wail.
"But we can find them!" Sailor Moon said quickly. "We have ways... and we've rescued people from villains a lot worse than the ones holding Rick and Mika. I promise, from the bottom of my heart, that we'll find them and return them to you, completely unharmed."
"We believe that our adversaries may want to use them as bargaining chips, or they wouldn't have been captured," Sailor Mercury said. "That means that we'll have an opportunity to get them back. And if it comes to where one of us has to go in their place... I would gladly go to save either of them."
"I'd go too," Sammy said, genuinely ready to put his life on the line to help his friends. Upon hearing the Senshi's promises, the three parents were slightly less worried than they had been before. Mika's mother blinked back some of her tears and was able to compose herself enough to give encouragement to the Senshi.
"Sailor Moon... you've saved my daughter's life before," said Mika's mother, remembering the doll-making incident from four years ago. "And I know that you can do it again..."
"I remember... that time on the news...." Rick's mother said, sniffling slightly. "That time when thousands of people got attacked by this monster... but... the five of you, the Sailor Senshi... you came and you destroyed the monster, and not a single person was hurt. I... I trust you... I trust all of you."
"Please, please bring my son back safely," Rick's father pleaded.
"We'll do our best," said Sailor Moon. Darien and Sammy's parents, who had kept silent through the whole ordeal, nodded.
"I've known Serena for a long time," said Darien, "and she's a fighter... she won't let your children be in danger for long. She's saved me, and she can save them too."
"So that was why Sammy left," thought Sammy's mother. "He... he was trying to save Rick and Mika... that's why he was hurt... Sammy, please, whatever the Senshi are up to now, please stay out of this... for your sake as well as Serena and Ami's..."
---
"How are we going to escape this place?" Rick asked as he and Mika followed Sparrow through the halls of the level just above the dungeon. "You've got a ship, right?"
"Yes, but I crashed it..." Sparrow said quietly. "This place has ships, though. There's a hangar a couple of floors above this one."
"You've been here before?" Mika replied.
"Yes, I have," Sparrow said. "I... I used to live here."
Rick and Mika gasped, causing Sparrow to turn around and shush at them to quiet down.
"Jekelai's the person that owns this place... he kept me prisoner here for several years," Sparrow said. "After we moved out of that castle on the desert planet, anyway... it's a long story. I'm actually not here to free either of you, I'm here to kill Jekelai, once and for all."
"Who's Jekelai?" Rick asked curiously. "Is he like... the head honcho of the bad guys?"
"Yes," Sparrow replied. "But... I can't fight Jekelai with the two of you here. You might get hurt... and the lives of two innocent children are worth far more than my vendetta. I can put that off for another day. I'm going to find a ship and take the two of you home."
"Oh, wow..." Mika said, a smile appearing on her face. "Thank you... but... do you know where home is?"
"I would presume that it's somewhere on that large planet that this palace is orbiting, correct? It's on Planet Earth, right?" Sparrow asked. "I really hope it's Earth... I'd really hate to have to fly all over the galaxy to get these two home..."
"That's right," Rick said. "Juuban District, Tokyo, Japan."
"Alrighty then, we're in business!" Sparrow said, smiling. "Now... let's get the two of you home!"
"Not so fast!"
Sparrow, Rick, and Mika immediately looked up to see a large group of hooded men, crowding the hallway in front of them. Leading the pack was the man that had dragged Rick and Mika all the way to the dungeon, the man who had abducted Rick and Mika from Earth in the first place. Upon seeing him, the two teens immediately gasped with fright. Sparrow didn't seem concerned.
"I really hate when people get in my way," Sparrow said, smirking. "Lessee... looks like twelve guys. Well, this won't be very difficult..."
"Speak for yourself," said the lead mercenary. "All I see are a dumb blonde and a couple of bratty kids that obviously should've been left bound and gagged. Well, I guess we'll have to kill all three of you. Too bad about Jekelai's latest bargaining chips, though."
The mercenary ran toward Sparrow, obviously unaware of her immense power. The other eleven hooded men simply stood back, confident that their leader could quickly dispatch Sparrow. They were wrong. As the man got within four feet of Sparrow, she lunged forward and plunged her finger straight into the man's chest. As the man bumped up against it, he stopped, with a puzzled look on his face.
"What kind of attack is-"
"Pokey pokey!" Sparrow shouted, smiling brightly. As the man looked up at Sparrow, a large seismic blast emanated from Sparrow's finger and absorbed into the man's chest, crushing his heart and ribs and killing him instantly. The man blasted back toward the other mercenaries, who could only watch helplessly as a huge explosion engulfed all of them, blasting them all back into the wall. Unlike the lead mercenary, the other twelve men had simply been knocked unconscious by Sparrow's attack, although they had been severely injured as well.
"Holy sh-" Rick began to say before Mika clapped her hand over his mouth.
"What Rick meant to say is... wow, what a cool attack!" Mika said brightly, all of her fear being replaced by pure joy. "What exactly do you call that attack?"
"The Power Poke!" Sparrow said, giggling slightly.
"So much for her being a badass," Rick thought. "But still... she is pretty cool. And she did save our lives. I wonder if the Senshi have met her..."
Sparrow, Rick, and Mika ran past the fallen mercenaries and turned the corner toward the staircase leading up to the next floor. As they climbed up one set of stairs, Sparrow stopped suddenly. Rick and Mika stopped as well.
"Sparrow, what's wrong?" Mika asked. "Why did you stop?"
Sparrow glanced to the piece of tape that was on Rick's cheek, serving as an impromptu bandage for the cuts he'd received earlier. She reached up and stroked her hand across the surface of the bandage. Then, she slowly peeled it from Rick's face.
"Hey... what did you do?" Rick asked, feeling the spot on his cheek where the bandage had been. "Can't you see I-"
"Rick, the scrapes... they're gone!" Mika said, noticing that all of the breaks in Rick's skin had completely healed. "Sparrow, you... you healed him?"
Sparrow nodded.
"It's nothing, really," Sparrow said, beginning to walk up the stairs again. Rick and Mika followed her, but one thought now permeated through their minds.
"Who is this Sparrow, anyway?"
---
"Well, here it is!" Sparrow said as the three of them entered a huge room with solid, metallic walls that shined in a silvery color. The room was filled with several different types of small spacecraft. "After Jekelai developed his portals, these ships weren't needed anymore... but they're still here, probably gathering dust."
Sparrow walked up to one of them, a small, orange space-pod with room for four seated people.
"Nah, there's not a single speck of dust!" Sparrow said, running her hand over one of the pod's clean, shiny wings. "Wouldja look at that... well, I guess we should climb in!"
Sparrow slid the pod's door open, and climbed inside, followed by Rick and Mika. Sparrow sat in the front seat of the pod, while Rick and Mika both sat in the back two seats, leaving the front passenger seat empty. Mika shut the door of the pod behind her, as Sparrow quickly began pressing buttons to activate the pod's controls.
"How do you know how to fly one of these things?" Rick asked. "Maybe I should be asking her, DOES she know how to fly one of these things?"
"I used one of these to escape, that's why," Sparrow said. "They're all really essentially the same. The problem's going to be getting out of the hangar, since it's probably operated from controls on the inside of the palace."
Sparrow closed her eyes and slowly began to concentrate. Her hands began to glow a bright shade of red.
"What's she doing?" Mika whispered to Rick as Sparrow continued building up magical energy.
"Not sure," Rick whispered back. "But it's gotta be something good..."
As soon as Rick finished those words, the large gate at the front of the hangar began to open. After a few seconds, it had opened completely, and the space pod quickly flew out of the hangar and rapidly toward the planet Earth.
"Telekinesis!" Sparrow said, smiling. "But really... it's not that big of a deal for me."
She looked behind her to see Rick and Mika, staring and rubbing their eyes, not believing what they saw.
"But I guess it is for you two!" Sparrow said, giggling. "Ah well... maybe I'll teach it to you someday."
The space pod flew around Earth for a few seconds, until Sparrow quickly found herself over the country of Japan.
"That's the place, right?" Sparrow asked. Without waiting for a response from Rick and Mika, she lowered the space pod and began her descent toward the planet. But as they were headed back to Earth, Jekelai was standing in the still-open hangar. He knew that Sparrow had been inside his palace, and he wasn't very happy about it. Not that she had came... but that she had left.
"You returned... and you didn't even say hello," Jekelai said. "And you took my two future slaves... how rude of you, my beautiful Sparrow. But rest assured... I will catch you now. The hunter might just become the hunted, if you're not careful, Sparrow Migoto..."
---
Rick and Mika's parents, after talking to the Sailor Senshi for a short while, were finally ready to return back home.
"I'll be up all night waiting for Mika," said Mika's mother, as she stepped down from the porch of the Tsukino house. She was followed by Rick's parents, who, while still clearly concerned for the safety of their child, were somewhat ready to trust the Sailor Senshi with Rick and Mika's lives. Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sammy, Darien, and Sammy's parents watched as Rick and Mika's parents slowly walked down toward the sidewalk and headed for their homes.
"Those poor parents," said Sailor Mercury quietly. "I... didn't have the heart to tell them that we still didn't have a clue where their children were..."
Suddenly, out of the large grove of trees behind the house across from Serena and Sammy's, came loud shouting, and then two silhouettes, identities concealed by the night darkness. As they entered the street and dashed toward the Tsukino home, the streetlights shining on them made it clear who they were.
"Mr. and Mrs. Sumaki, Mrs. Erikson, wait!" shouted Sammy, running out into the sidewalk. "WAIT!"
Rick and Mika's parents turned around toward Sammy, just as their two children turned in the opposite direction. As soon as Rick and Mika saw their parents, their faces lit up with glee. The two teenagers dashed toward their parents as quickly as their parents dashed toward them, and they met in the middle of the street under one of the streetlights, quickly embracing each other as tears began to come to all of their faces once more, but instead of being tears of sorrow, they were tears of joy. Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sammy, and Darien all rushed out to witness the happy reunion, as did Sammy and Serena's parents. Truly, it had been a miracle, and only Rick and Mika, who had seen the abyss, the hopeless situation that they had been in just minutes before, could appreciate its magnitude. But everyone could appreciate the miracle itself, and that's just what Rick and Mika's parents did. Their children were safe, and in their loving arms... and that was all that mattered.
And the one person who had made the miracle possible, the one whom only Rick and Mika knew of, was also a witness, watching from high above the grove of trees from which Rick and Mika had emerged. The space pod used to transport Sparrow, Rick, and Mika to Juuban was resting in the clearing, having served its purpose. It would probably never be used again, as Sparrow could return to her home if she wanted to, albeit at the expense of a great deal of her power. But instead, she wished to stay. Her eyes remained fixed on the two Sailor Senshi in the crowd of rejoicing people, Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury. She sensed their power, and knew that they must have been part of the reason that Jekelai had come to Earth.
"Who... are they?" Sparrow mused to herself. "Could they be the ones that Jekelai is truly after? I must stay on Earth and learn all I can about those two..."
---
The next morning, after everything had passed, after Rick and Mika and their families had returned home, and after Sammy and Serena had gotten a well-deserved rest, life continued on, and Serena found herself, like she did every single day, walking to school. But that day, as she walked down the sidewalk, someone was watching.
"She's got the same power signature as... she's one of them. One of the two that I saw."
Sparrow leapt from her hiding place in the nearby bushes, jumping in front of Serena and blocking her path, oblivious to the cars going down the street a few feet away. Serena gasped and stumbled back, stunned by Sparrow's sudden entrance.
"Who... who are you?" Serena stammered. "Are you one of them?"
"No... and I know a lot more about them than you ever will," Sparrow said. "Sailor Moon, we need to talk."
---
Who is this Sparrow woman? ^_^ After saving Rick and Mika, she goes and spooks Serena! Well, I guess you'll find out next chapter!
