Author's Notes:
Well, for those waiting for this, here is the sequel to Return of the Valkyries, Heroes of Eternity. There are a number of characters and for a recap of the last story, here are the added characters:
(Kyle) Kylane is Kunzite
(Matt) Matthias is Nephrite
(Zale) Zarek is Zoisite
(Jared) Janus is Jadeite
(Aren – Haruka's husband previously) Adriano is Adamite
(Cirocco – Setsuna's husband previously) Coen is Cordylite
(Ian – Michiru's husband previously) Ilar is Iolite
(Raine – Hotaru's husband previously) Ranae is Rhonite
If the name and planet thing is confusing you, please check the read-me/prologue.
Heroes of Eternity
Chapter 7
It was late in the day when they came across their first real indication they were on the right path toward Mina's cousin. Ruka's eyes lit up with fiery determination when guards rushed at them, fists rushing through the air toward her head and face. She easily dodged them and turned her own movements into pivotal strikes toward their knees and neck. She was quite disappointed that Mina and Kylane wanted them alive. Her loyalty for the Royal Family demanded that she take vengeance against those that took her princess.
But there was enough fighting to at least partly satiate that demand, that need for vengeance and to protect the princess. In the thick of the battle, she didn't notice how fast her strikes came, how she moved like quicksilver, or how deadly her attacks really were. She was a lethal force to be reckoned with, but she didn't notice how her skills were so much higher than when she had left Crystal Tokyo. She didn't notice the strange feeling in the back of her mind that told her body what to do. She didn't know about the glowing box inside Mina's pack, and the pen of Uranus that was unconsciously feeding her power and strength and experience.
There was something close to shock for Ruka when she found herself standing in the middle of a pile of broken bodies, moaning at her feet, and not a scratch on her. She blinked and looked closely at some of the strikes, mildly perplexed at some of the attacks that she had obviously done. She could not honestly say she remembered learning some of the moves she could vaguely remember doing. It was all something of a blur of memory, really. As if she hadn't really been paying attention to what she had been doing.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side," Adriano commented as he came up beside her, kneeling to check someone on the ground.
"I don't…I don't think anyone wants to get on our bad side."
Ruka turned to look at Amy, surprised at her shaking voice. The woman was pale and watching her hands as if she didn't think they should belong to her. "What do you mean?" Zarek asked, hesitantly touching her shoulder, as if to calm her down.
"She means that we are much more deadly than we have any right to be," Ranae said grimly. "I don't know about anyone else, but I know I never learned some of the moves I did. And look at us. Not one of us is even slightly winded! And I can make a few guesses that at least a couple of people in this group didn't know how to fight." He leveled speculative look at Amy as he said the last sentence.
Raye nodded, and wrapped an arm around Amy. "You're right, Amy never learned how to fight, but yet she was up there beside Lita the whole time and holding her own! Not to mention myself. Sure, I know a few things, enough to keep me up there in a schoolyard brawl, but not enough for this."
Taru crossed her arms. "I say we only really have a couple of people that seem to be proficient in physical fighting: myself, Ruka, Lita, Kylane, Matthias, and Ranae. The others here either don't know enough or shouldn't know," she finished, giving Mina a pointed look.
Mina was so busy staring into space, it didn't seem as if she was even hearing what was going on around her. Ruka, somewhat concerned and irritated that she wasn't paying attention, went to her side and jogged on her arm. "Mina! Mina!"
The princess jerked and blinked, looking at the others. "What? Come on, we're wasting time!" She dragged up a man and pressed him against a tree, beginning a rigorous interrogation, while those around her watched her in varying degrees of concern, worry, and irritation.
-
"Give it up, Mina, he's not going to talk!" Ruka said from her seat on the ground. "You've been at him for the past hour and a half and he's not talking."
Mina growled in frustration and let the man's shoulders go, where he slumped on the earth, glaring balefully at his captors. The woman began to pace, obviously trying to work out some inner problem she was coming across. Her strides were long and powerful, taking her the space of their camp in three steps and having to turn her around to do the other way in three steps.
"What do we do with him now? And more importantly, what do we do now?" Ilar questioned, sitting next to Michi.
"I don't know," she snapped. "We're in the middle of a crossroads, apparently. We came from the west, but that still leaves the east, north, and south that we can go. If we go the wrong way, we'll have no way of telling or how long we'll go before we decide to head back. And even assuming we go the right way, we might have to travel for so long that we'll think we went the wrong way and turn back. Argh!" She slammed her fist into her palm, an obvious outlet for her frustration.
Raye, who had hitherto been silent, suddenly said, "She's north. Princess Serena is north."
Ruka glanced at the others, missing the fact that when Mina's eyes touched on Raye, they never left her. "How do you know?" asked Janus hesitantly.
"I don't know," she said, shaking her head and looking almost frightened at herself. "I don't know. I just know she's north."
"How…how can you know that…?"
Ruka jumped to her feet and dragged the terrified and shocked man to his feet. "What did you say? So she is north?"
But the man couldn't do anything but stare at Raye. "It's…it's not possible! You can't be!"
"Can't be what?" Janus demanded. "What can't she be?"
"It's said…It's said that the Sailor Mars had a…psychic ability. Are you…are you her?"
Raye snorted. "No, I'm not Sailor Mars! Baka! If I was this Sailor Mars, do you think we'd be wandering around in this Kami-forsaken forest?" she snapped.
But a few of them were looking thoughtful, Ranae and Coen among them. "You know, that could explain some things," Coen murmured.
"You can't be serious," Ruka and Lita said at the same time. Lita motioned for her to finish, when they glanced at each other almost embarrassingly. "Look, yes Sailor Mars had psychic powers, according to the stories, but what's more known is that they had magical powers. Raye has no magical powers. And besides, their loyalty to Neo Queen Serenity I is well known. If she was Sailor Mars, she would be in that fuku in seconds and burning this forest with her fire!"
"Ruka has a point," Michi said, standing. "There's no way, from the stories that we know about the Senshi, that she'd do anything less."
"Maybe not is but perhaps the reincarnation of Sailor Mars," Suna said, tapping her finger against her chin. "Unless Raye has had this ability before and it didn't just show up when the princess was kidnapped?" She raised her eyebrows at Raye in question.
As Raye shook her head that she hadn't had such ability before, Mina laughed. "You're suggesting that if Raye is the reincarnation of Sailor Mars, that Serena would have to be the reincarnation of Neo Queen Serenity I!" She laughed again. "I may not know a lot of things, but I know my cousin, and she isn't the reincarnation of Neo Queen Serenity I."
"Why is it so far-fetched?" Amy jumped in, surprising those already in the heated debate. "We've already established that some strange things have been happening to us, like with that fight. What if some of us are the reincarnations of the Sailor Senshi? What if these abilities were just latent and have now awoken because we the Senshi are needed again?"
"Hold up now!" Lita said, throwing up her hands. "Come on, think straight! Now not only is Raye Sailor Mars, but we're all Sailor Senshi? That's just ridiculous! It's crazy!"
Ilar shook his head, jumping in. "Not as crazy as you might think. It's been documented that reincarnation happens all the time, and that's what déjà vu is: memories of doing something similar in another life."
"I'm not saying that reincarnation isn't possible, but all us being Sailor Senshi—"
"Open your mind to the possibilities—"
"Serena is hardly the candidate for Neo Queen Serenity I—"
"We're saying about Senshi, not—"
"But she goes directly in with them—"
"You can hardly separate the Senshi and Neo Queen I—"
"But if Neo Queen I is in contention, we must also wonder about King Endymion—"
"This argument is about the Senshi, not—"
Zarek, pursing his lips, whistled as voices broke out over each other in argument. "Are we considering that perhaps this guy is extremely superstitious? And that maybe Raye knows its north because she's been unconsciously chewing on the evidence we've seen and has put the puzzles together? And that maybe even if we never learned some of the moves, that say, Amy learned how to fight by being around Lita a lot? Maybe she picked up a few things unconsciously?"
"There's a lot of unconsciously going on in there," Matthias cut in. "What's the difference between unconscious and memories of a past life? Aren't they the same thing?"
"Hardly the same thing, Matthias," Kylane told him. "The unconscious mind is the part of the brain that stews on problems and such, things that aren't in the forefront at the moment, not a repository for past life memories."
Taru was silent as she watched those argue and commented in a quiet aside to Ranae, "Quite a lot of speculation."
He turned to her. "Well, what do you believe?"
The martial artist tilted her head. "I can't really say either way," she murmured to him. "There just isn't enough that can be said either way. Both sides have very valid points to make. There isn't a definitive telltale sign that says either way. But that…" She looked at the pack of Mina's sitting on the ground like a lump of precognition, "makes me worry."
Ranae only nodded and turned back to watching the debate, having dropped out of the conversation long ago.
--
End of Chapter 7
Sorry it took so long to get out another chapter. Been really busy.