The next day found three women, one dark haired man and two cats sitting
outside one a the front steps of a temple. All around them were cherry
blossom trees, swaying lightly in the breeze under a perfect blue sky. And
up above, on the temple roof, two ravens watched everything.
"We've said pretty much all there is to say." Artemis finally said, looking at the group.
"Yeah. But that doesn't mean we know what to do." Rei snapped, her frustration with the situation apparent to all there.
"We need more information. Which means..." Serena looked at her friends.
"We go to Germany." Mina finished the sentence for her.
"I'm all for going right now. The sooner the better." Rei said, standing up as if she were going to leave them all behind if the took another second.
Darien sighed and looked up at the dark-haired scout, "At least let us pack first."
After another few minutes of discussion, the group agreed to meet back at the temple in two hours, giving everyone plenty of time to make their excuses and pack.
* * * * *
"Hey, mind if I just grab some of the stuff I've got stashed at your place? It's closer." Darien asked, looking at Serena as they left Rei's temple.
"You need to ask?" Serena said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Moron."
"Meatball-head." Darien retorted, trying desperately to keep from grinning. He had missed talking to her while in the States.
"Jerk!" Serena yelled, her eyes flashing playfully in anger.
"Klutz."
* * * * *
Rei hadn't actually have that much to pack and decided to do a quick fire reading. Maybe they could get some answers this way.
She settled herself down in front of the sacred fire and began to concentrate. Slowly, after several minutes, pictures formed and began to move. Their speed kept on increasing until Rei was only able to glimpse a few details. She saw mostly faces, faces of people she both knew and those she didn't recognize. Feelings of hope and despair, anger, betrayal, love and joy swept over her as fast as the pictures themselves. Finally, everything stopped, leaving her as confused and frustrated as ever. Only one thing had been clear.
Something big was happening.
And they were running out of time.
* * * * *
Mina teleported to her London home and pulled out a small duffel bag from under her bed, digging through clothes and shoes to get to it. Once it was open on her bed, Mina grabbed her cell phone and called Alex. As she waited for him to answer, she continued walking around to different dressers and her closet, throwing the things she wanted to bring in the general direction of her bag.
"Hey Alex, it's me. ... Yea, I know. ... Really? That's great. ... Actually, I have a sort of emergency right now. ... No! Not a shoe type emergency! A real type emergency. ... I know I said a shoe emergency was a real type emergency last time ... Look, I need you to finish everything up there. ... Alex, don't make me tell that red-head your dating about ... See, I knew you do this for me! You're so awesome. ... Okay, I've got to run. ... Yep, tell ya all about it later ...Yes, shoes and everything ...Bye!"
She clicked off her phone and threw a few last remaining things in her bag and zipped it up. Checking her watch she saw that she still had plenty of time as she grabbed her keys to lock up.
* * * * *
Once everyone was gathered together again, they all teleported together into the alley that Serena had used before. From there they checked into a local hotel, Rei's German far more fluent than Serena's had ever been.
"Let's split up." Serena said once they were all settled in, "Rei, Artemis and Darien, you three see if you can track down Zoicite. Luna, Mina and I will find Ami. Don't attack him Rei. I want to know if he remembers who he is or not."
Rei glared at her princess for a moment before nodding and heading out the door with the other two members of her group. She knew they needed information. She knew Serena was right. But that didn't mean that she had to like it.
Mina watched the others leave before turning to Serena, "Are you sure that sending Pyro to find Zoicite was the right thing to do?"
Serena looked after where her friend had headed out, "I trust her." Shaking her head as if to clear it, she looked at Mina, "Rei knows this is important and she won't screw it up. Besides, she's got Darien and Artemis with her to do damage control."
Mina laughed, "Alright. We better head out then too. Where do we start?"
* * * * *
Zoicite sat in the back of a large lecture hall and thought about his plan. It was perfect. Everything was ready and had been planned out.
He pulled out a small ring and looked at it critically. He wondered if he really should have gotten the traditional band and stone like the guy at the jewelry store had suggested. But this had somehow seemed more appropriate, more meaningful.
He was still amazed that he had actually been able to find a rock that match Ami's eyes. The band was a play on his name that he knew Ami would understand immediately and would appreciate. But the zoicite did give a darker feeling to the ring.
He sighed as he re-pocketed the ring. He knew he was going to give it to Ami someday, and he had made a thousand plans for how to do it but every time he tried something stopped him. It was like he was being torn apart, one part of him urging him to give the ring to her now, before anything happened to take her away from him, while another part held him back, almost as if he knew that giving her the ring right now would be...arg! He didn't know!
All that he knew was that he needed Ami in his life. He had known that she was the one from the moment he had first set eyes on her. And he was sick of all these silly, stupid feelings that something was going to jump out of the shadows and steal her away.
He was just being irrational.
This time he wasn't giving himself a chance to back out.
In two days, he swore to himself. In two days.
* * * * *
Serena and Mina, carrying Luna, walked up to Ami's house. This time there was no one lounging on the front porch to greet them.
"Okay, one last time, what's the story?" Mina asked as they walked towards the front door.
"We're keeping it simple. You two went to the same high school as she did and are new here. You were hoping Ami could help you get oriented." Luna said.
Mina nodded and knocked on the door.
After a few tense moments, a very disheveled woman opened the door and blinked sleepily at them.
Mina immediately introduced herself and asked if Ami was there, or at least that was what Serena thought she was saying. In any case, the end result was the girl at the door turning around and yelling into the house.
Moments later Ami appeared at the door, a curious expression on her face, while the other girl disappeared back into the house.
* * * * *
Ami looked at the two girls in front of her. She had actually expected it to be Zoi. Not many other people came looking for her at her house, at least not unexpectedly.
Both girls were blonde, while the one with the weird pig-tails had a cat sitting on her shoulder the other one had a red ribbon braided into her hair. The other one introduced them as Mina and Serena. While Mina was talking a mile a minute, the other girl seemed to stand a little ways back and just quietly listen.
Well, that was no wonder. Mina was talking so fast and enthusiastically that no one else would have stood a chance at trying to get a word in. When they explained that they were from Ami's old high school, Ami remembered something her mother had called about. Maybe she had misunderstood. Maybe this had been what was meant. Not a high school reunion but a couple old classmates looking for her help while they were new in town. That made more sense to her.
Finally, it seemed like Mina was winding down.
"So, it would be great if you could help us find our way around. We are so lost. Everything is really different and neither of us familiar with Germany at all. Oh, and do you mind if we talk in Japanese from now on. Serena's German isn't too good. Actually, it's horrible. Don't tell her I said that okay? Anyways, will you take us around? Please? I'll love you forever and ever."
It took Ami a second to realize that the human ball of energy in front of her had stopped talking and another couple seconds for her brain to finally catch up and process everything.
"Um...sure. I really should be studying but..." Ami said hesitantly, switching to Japanese for the benefit of the other girl.
"Great!" Mina cheered, and Ami couldn't help but smile as Mina swung around towards Serena and held up two fingers, forming a 'V'.
Ami could have sworn that for a second she saw the cat on Serena's shoulder shakes it's head.
* * * * *
Deep in the shadows a shadow separated its self and, after one last glance at the pair of girls it had been following, disappeared.
* * * * *
Darien watched Rei as she charged ahead and shook his head.
"Rei!" he yelled, managing to get her attention.
"What?" she asked, managing not to snap at him as she stopped walking.
"Where are we going?"
Rei opened her mouth to retort and then realized she had no clue. They didn't know anything about where to find Zoicite or even how to start looking. Looking around madly she saw a university library and smiled as an idea hit her.
"We're going in here!" she said pointing, "First order of business, figure out that guy's last name."
After a hour of searching through the schools directory they were able to find not only Zoicite's last name, Itsu, but his phone number, address and class schedule. Apparently the guy was here on some sort of outstanding scholar award and was studying in the school of Medicine.
The three then put their heads together to plan out their next move.
"Well, he supposedly has class right now. We could go follow him after he leaves class." Darien suggested.
"We could also go check out his place, since we know he isn't there right now." Rei suggested.
Darien thought about it for a second, "I'm not sure. It might be hard to find him later. But I can see where we might find more interesting things at his apartment. What do you think Artemis?"
Artemis looked at the two of them. "Let's find Zoicite first and try and figure out who's side he's on first. Then we can try breaking into his apartment."
"Rei?" Darien asked.
"Sounds fine to me." Rei nodded.
Darien breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like the fiery priestess had calmed down. He could tell that she was still angry but she was thinking now as well. She was like a little sister to him and he hated seeing her in pain. And she was. Rei had always masked her feelings with anger. The way she constantly yelled at Serena some days was just Rei's way of showing how much she cared. He had also heard Serena complain about Rei enough times he knew, in a way, it was because Serena respected the other girl so much. And if he were to guess, the reason those two fought so much wasn't because they hated each other, but because they cared so much about each other. But she also masked pain and hurt with anger too and Jadeite's betrayal had hurt her deeply. And now those old wounds had been ripped open anew.
Maybe they could finally be healed?
* * * * *
Rubeus listened in delight as the dark demon in front of him reported.
"And you were able to tract their energy signature back to it's origin?" he asked.
"Yes master. I originated in one of the temples in Japan."
"Wonderful. I want you to go back to watching the blondes. One of them is Sailor Moon. I know it. You and you!" he said pointing to two other demons crouching against the wall, "One of you watch this shrine while the other finds the other three that teleported from Japan to Germany."
The red haired man chuckled as the monsters under his control scampered off. His net was slowly contracting around Sailor Moon and soon he would have her. He wouldn't make the same mistakes everyone else had made. This time around he had no intention of fighting Sailor Moon.
No. This time he would kill her. And he would never even give her a chance to fight.
Rubeus pulled the hood of his cloak up once again and wandered off, deeper into the maze of caverns, lost in thought.
* * * * *
Hey! I know, you are probably shocked that it didn't take me a month to get this out to you. Actually, this chapter is in honor of a severe allergic reaction that caused a professor of mine to cancel class. I was thinking about holding it for a week but...I'm impatient and I owe all the wonderful people who read my stuff something to make up for all the times I take forever to get out a chapter. Anyways...is there anything else? Oh yea! I've been trying to figure out about how much time has passed in this story since I began it. I'm going to say about 6 months but if anyone thinks otherwise, drop me a note.
And on to my wonderful reviewers!
Adyen - I know. Well, this is my thinking. Allen and Ann probably took Serena alone a while to get rid of and after them came Rini, who she never saw because she was never on that walk with Darien. And it was usually the other scouts, like Ami and Rei, who figured out where the big bads were based, not Serena. It's only been about 4 years (I think that's what I wrote) so Serena was about 18 when this fic started. Figure two of those years she was fighting Allen and Ann, about 6 months to a year of nothing much as the bad guys chase around Rini. Then another year or so of fighting off and on, never making any real head way. In the first chapter I think I mentioned like two months of no fighting what so ever. That doesn't mean there were no attacks, just none that she ever got to in time to stop them or know about them. Does that make sense?
SJ - lol! You review, and I write! Hope ya like. hee hee.
princessserenadreamsforever - lol. Well, I never saw a review for chapter 13 so you don't get mentioned. Though if you did review, I blame ff.net. They are eviler than my villains some times. I thought about making up my own villains but I wanted to try and see if I could play with already made characters. Besides, I like evil Rini.
Lauren - thank you! I really glad yo found and liked my story so far.
jupitergreen12 - woo hoo! new readers! yea! Oh, and you have wonderful taste, BTW. I was checking out your fav. stories on ff.net and I had a great time reading some of them.
BenRG - evil laughter mwa ha ha. You fell for my 'make everyone think he's a bad guy type thingy'. (lol. Sorry, lots of caffeine in the system makes certain authors revert back to their two year old stage) Seriously. You have become one of those reviewers that I pay a lot of attention to and I just wanted to say thanks again for reviewing. I'm trying to keep things semi-original but it's hard since so many people have written Sailor Moon stories. So thanks for the originality bonus point!
"We've said pretty much all there is to say." Artemis finally said, looking at the group.
"Yeah. But that doesn't mean we know what to do." Rei snapped, her frustration with the situation apparent to all there.
"We need more information. Which means..." Serena looked at her friends.
"We go to Germany." Mina finished the sentence for her.
"I'm all for going right now. The sooner the better." Rei said, standing up as if she were going to leave them all behind if the took another second.
Darien sighed and looked up at the dark-haired scout, "At least let us pack first."
After another few minutes of discussion, the group agreed to meet back at the temple in two hours, giving everyone plenty of time to make their excuses and pack.
* * * * *
"Hey, mind if I just grab some of the stuff I've got stashed at your place? It's closer." Darien asked, looking at Serena as they left Rei's temple.
"You need to ask?" Serena said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Moron."
"Meatball-head." Darien retorted, trying desperately to keep from grinning. He had missed talking to her while in the States.
"Jerk!" Serena yelled, her eyes flashing playfully in anger.
"Klutz."
* * * * *
Rei hadn't actually have that much to pack and decided to do a quick fire reading. Maybe they could get some answers this way.
She settled herself down in front of the sacred fire and began to concentrate. Slowly, after several minutes, pictures formed and began to move. Their speed kept on increasing until Rei was only able to glimpse a few details. She saw mostly faces, faces of people she both knew and those she didn't recognize. Feelings of hope and despair, anger, betrayal, love and joy swept over her as fast as the pictures themselves. Finally, everything stopped, leaving her as confused and frustrated as ever. Only one thing had been clear.
Something big was happening.
And they were running out of time.
* * * * *
Mina teleported to her London home and pulled out a small duffel bag from under her bed, digging through clothes and shoes to get to it. Once it was open on her bed, Mina grabbed her cell phone and called Alex. As she waited for him to answer, she continued walking around to different dressers and her closet, throwing the things she wanted to bring in the general direction of her bag.
"Hey Alex, it's me. ... Yea, I know. ... Really? That's great. ... Actually, I have a sort of emergency right now. ... No! Not a shoe type emergency! A real type emergency. ... I know I said a shoe emergency was a real type emergency last time ... Look, I need you to finish everything up there. ... Alex, don't make me tell that red-head your dating about ... See, I knew you do this for me! You're so awesome. ... Okay, I've got to run. ... Yep, tell ya all about it later ...Yes, shoes and everything ...Bye!"
She clicked off her phone and threw a few last remaining things in her bag and zipped it up. Checking her watch she saw that she still had plenty of time as she grabbed her keys to lock up.
* * * * *
Once everyone was gathered together again, they all teleported together into the alley that Serena had used before. From there they checked into a local hotel, Rei's German far more fluent than Serena's had ever been.
"Let's split up." Serena said once they were all settled in, "Rei, Artemis and Darien, you three see if you can track down Zoicite. Luna, Mina and I will find Ami. Don't attack him Rei. I want to know if he remembers who he is or not."
Rei glared at her princess for a moment before nodding and heading out the door with the other two members of her group. She knew they needed information. She knew Serena was right. But that didn't mean that she had to like it.
Mina watched the others leave before turning to Serena, "Are you sure that sending Pyro to find Zoicite was the right thing to do?"
Serena looked after where her friend had headed out, "I trust her." Shaking her head as if to clear it, she looked at Mina, "Rei knows this is important and she won't screw it up. Besides, she's got Darien and Artemis with her to do damage control."
Mina laughed, "Alright. We better head out then too. Where do we start?"
* * * * *
Zoicite sat in the back of a large lecture hall and thought about his plan. It was perfect. Everything was ready and had been planned out.
He pulled out a small ring and looked at it critically. He wondered if he really should have gotten the traditional band and stone like the guy at the jewelry store had suggested. But this had somehow seemed more appropriate, more meaningful.
He was still amazed that he had actually been able to find a rock that match Ami's eyes. The band was a play on his name that he knew Ami would understand immediately and would appreciate. But the zoicite did give a darker feeling to the ring.
He sighed as he re-pocketed the ring. He knew he was going to give it to Ami someday, and he had made a thousand plans for how to do it but every time he tried something stopped him. It was like he was being torn apart, one part of him urging him to give the ring to her now, before anything happened to take her away from him, while another part held him back, almost as if he knew that giving her the ring right now would be...arg! He didn't know!
All that he knew was that he needed Ami in his life. He had known that she was the one from the moment he had first set eyes on her. And he was sick of all these silly, stupid feelings that something was going to jump out of the shadows and steal her away.
He was just being irrational.
This time he wasn't giving himself a chance to back out.
In two days, he swore to himself. In two days.
* * * * *
Serena and Mina, carrying Luna, walked up to Ami's house. This time there was no one lounging on the front porch to greet them.
"Okay, one last time, what's the story?" Mina asked as they walked towards the front door.
"We're keeping it simple. You two went to the same high school as she did and are new here. You were hoping Ami could help you get oriented." Luna said.
Mina nodded and knocked on the door.
After a few tense moments, a very disheveled woman opened the door and blinked sleepily at them.
Mina immediately introduced herself and asked if Ami was there, or at least that was what Serena thought she was saying. In any case, the end result was the girl at the door turning around and yelling into the house.
Moments later Ami appeared at the door, a curious expression on her face, while the other girl disappeared back into the house.
* * * * *
Ami looked at the two girls in front of her. She had actually expected it to be Zoi. Not many other people came looking for her at her house, at least not unexpectedly.
Both girls were blonde, while the one with the weird pig-tails had a cat sitting on her shoulder the other one had a red ribbon braided into her hair. The other one introduced them as Mina and Serena. While Mina was talking a mile a minute, the other girl seemed to stand a little ways back and just quietly listen.
Well, that was no wonder. Mina was talking so fast and enthusiastically that no one else would have stood a chance at trying to get a word in. When they explained that they were from Ami's old high school, Ami remembered something her mother had called about. Maybe she had misunderstood. Maybe this had been what was meant. Not a high school reunion but a couple old classmates looking for her help while they were new in town. That made more sense to her.
Finally, it seemed like Mina was winding down.
"So, it would be great if you could help us find our way around. We are so lost. Everything is really different and neither of us familiar with Germany at all. Oh, and do you mind if we talk in Japanese from now on. Serena's German isn't too good. Actually, it's horrible. Don't tell her I said that okay? Anyways, will you take us around? Please? I'll love you forever and ever."
It took Ami a second to realize that the human ball of energy in front of her had stopped talking and another couple seconds for her brain to finally catch up and process everything.
"Um...sure. I really should be studying but..." Ami said hesitantly, switching to Japanese for the benefit of the other girl.
"Great!" Mina cheered, and Ami couldn't help but smile as Mina swung around towards Serena and held up two fingers, forming a 'V'.
Ami could have sworn that for a second she saw the cat on Serena's shoulder shakes it's head.
* * * * *
Deep in the shadows a shadow separated its self and, after one last glance at the pair of girls it had been following, disappeared.
* * * * *
Darien watched Rei as she charged ahead and shook his head.
"Rei!" he yelled, managing to get her attention.
"What?" she asked, managing not to snap at him as she stopped walking.
"Where are we going?"
Rei opened her mouth to retort and then realized she had no clue. They didn't know anything about where to find Zoicite or even how to start looking. Looking around madly she saw a university library and smiled as an idea hit her.
"We're going in here!" she said pointing, "First order of business, figure out that guy's last name."
After a hour of searching through the schools directory they were able to find not only Zoicite's last name, Itsu, but his phone number, address and class schedule. Apparently the guy was here on some sort of outstanding scholar award and was studying in the school of Medicine.
The three then put their heads together to plan out their next move.
"Well, he supposedly has class right now. We could go follow him after he leaves class." Darien suggested.
"We could also go check out his place, since we know he isn't there right now." Rei suggested.
Darien thought about it for a second, "I'm not sure. It might be hard to find him later. But I can see where we might find more interesting things at his apartment. What do you think Artemis?"
Artemis looked at the two of them. "Let's find Zoicite first and try and figure out who's side he's on first. Then we can try breaking into his apartment."
"Rei?" Darien asked.
"Sounds fine to me." Rei nodded.
Darien breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like the fiery priestess had calmed down. He could tell that she was still angry but she was thinking now as well. She was like a little sister to him and he hated seeing her in pain. And she was. Rei had always masked her feelings with anger. The way she constantly yelled at Serena some days was just Rei's way of showing how much she cared. He had also heard Serena complain about Rei enough times he knew, in a way, it was because Serena respected the other girl so much. And if he were to guess, the reason those two fought so much wasn't because they hated each other, but because they cared so much about each other. But she also masked pain and hurt with anger too and Jadeite's betrayal had hurt her deeply. And now those old wounds had been ripped open anew.
Maybe they could finally be healed?
* * * * *
Rubeus listened in delight as the dark demon in front of him reported.
"And you were able to tract their energy signature back to it's origin?" he asked.
"Yes master. I originated in one of the temples in Japan."
"Wonderful. I want you to go back to watching the blondes. One of them is Sailor Moon. I know it. You and you!" he said pointing to two other demons crouching against the wall, "One of you watch this shrine while the other finds the other three that teleported from Japan to Germany."
The red haired man chuckled as the monsters under his control scampered off. His net was slowly contracting around Sailor Moon and soon he would have her. He wouldn't make the same mistakes everyone else had made. This time around he had no intention of fighting Sailor Moon.
No. This time he would kill her. And he would never even give her a chance to fight.
Rubeus pulled the hood of his cloak up once again and wandered off, deeper into the maze of caverns, lost in thought.
* * * * *
Hey! I know, you are probably shocked that it didn't take me a month to get this out to you. Actually, this chapter is in honor of a severe allergic reaction that caused a professor of mine to cancel class. I was thinking about holding it for a week but...I'm impatient and I owe all the wonderful people who read my stuff something to make up for all the times I take forever to get out a chapter. Anyways...is there anything else? Oh yea! I've been trying to figure out about how much time has passed in this story since I began it. I'm going to say about 6 months but if anyone thinks otherwise, drop me a note.
And on to my wonderful reviewers!
Adyen - I know. Well, this is my thinking. Allen and Ann probably took Serena alone a while to get rid of and after them came Rini, who she never saw because she was never on that walk with Darien. And it was usually the other scouts, like Ami and Rei, who figured out where the big bads were based, not Serena. It's only been about 4 years (I think that's what I wrote) so Serena was about 18 when this fic started. Figure two of those years she was fighting Allen and Ann, about 6 months to a year of nothing much as the bad guys chase around Rini. Then another year or so of fighting off and on, never making any real head way. In the first chapter I think I mentioned like two months of no fighting what so ever. That doesn't mean there were no attacks, just none that she ever got to in time to stop them or know about them. Does that make sense?
SJ - lol! You review, and I write! Hope ya like. hee hee.
princessserenadreamsforever - lol. Well, I never saw a review for chapter 13 so you don't get mentioned. Though if you did review, I blame ff.net. They are eviler than my villains some times. I thought about making up my own villains but I wanted to try and see if I could play with already made characters. Besides, I like evil Rini.
Lauren - thank you! I really glad yo found and liked my story so far.
jupitergreen12 - woo hoo! new readers! yea! Oh, and you have wonderful taste, BTW. I was checking out your fav. stories on ff.net and I had a great time reading some of them.
BenRG - evil laughter mwa ha ha. You fell for my 'make everyone think he's a bad guy type thingy'. (lol. Sorry, lots of caffeine in the system makes certain authors revert back to their two year old stage) Seriously. You have become one of those reviewers that I pay a lot of attention to and I just wanted to say thanks again for reviewing. I'm trying to keep things semi-original but it's hard since so many people have written Sailor Moon stories. So thanks for the originality bonus point!