Chapter 7

"Okay, now that Reenie's safe, who are you guys?" Serena asked. "Where are you from? We know that you two aren't Mina's or Lita's cousins, because you told us that. So, who are you? We know that you're not from the Negamoon, otherwise you " she motioned to Claudia "wouldn't have saved us beforehand. Also, if you're not their cousins, then why did you say you were? And how did you know who and what we were?"

Claudia looked up at Serena from where she sat on Darien's couch. Claudia and Shantal had followed Serena and Darien all the way back to Darien's apartment, with Claudia carrying Reenie who had fallen asleep halfway. When they had arrived at Darien's apartment, Darien had taken the sleeping Reenie from Claudia's arms and placed her in a guest room. He had shut the door so that their talking wouldn't wake Reenie up and had come back to the living room, so he could figure out who these other two girls were. When he had arrived, he'd found the two girls sitting on his couch. Serena was standing up in the middle of his living room, waiting for him before she started grilling the two girls. Which was what she had started doing as soon as she was sure that Darien was there, standing beside her.
"Serena," Claudia began, "There is a reason why we lied to you at the beginning and did not tell you the truth. That will be explained. First, however, I'll tell you where we are from. Kirsten, Melanie, Shantal and I are all from the future. The Guardian of Time has sent us back in time. Why? That we cannot answer. All we know is that one minute, we were in the future, or what we consider, the present, and then we were sent here the present, or what we consider the past. As for why we lied to you, well, the Guardian of Time told us that whatever we did, we must not disturb the timeline. We figured that telling you and the others the truth about us would disturb the timeline, so instead, we lied and said that we were their cousins. And because we had no where else to stay, we figured that each one of us would head to our parent's house. Meaning that, we are not their cousins, but their daughters. As the Sailor Scout's daughters, we are considered the Younger Sailor Scouts. Which is what the YS stands for. Younger Sailor and then whichever planet we are. As for knowing who you and what you are is quite easy. We were taught about this century's history, so all we had to do was recall what we learned. Where you lived, all we had to do was look it up in the phone book. Which is how we were there to prevent Small Lady from taking your locket."

Serena sighed and looked to Darien.

"And you two have no reason as to why you're back in the past?" he asked.

Both girls shook their heads in response.
"We don't know why she sent us back in time," Shantal told Darien. "All we know is that we're here, and that something is probably going to happen. Whether it was this attack or not, we don't know."
"Is there a way how you two can contact the others?" Serena asked.

Shantal looked to the floor and nodded.

"Can you contact them, then?" Serena asked. "They may get worried if Amy and Raye don't get home soon."

Claudia nodded, and pressed down on the emerald stone that was on her ring. A few seconds later, Shantal's started glowing yellow. Serena smiled when she saw the yellow glow coming from Shantal's ring.

Kirsten slammed the phone down, wondering why Shantal wasn't answering the phone. She understood why Mina didn't. She was probably off with the other Scouts but why wasn't Shantal picking it up? Had she followed Mina? Kirsten sighed and sat back down on Raye's bed. She could hear Raye's grandfather walking by in the hall. My great- grandfather, Kirsten thought. She nearly jumped as the phone rang. Melanie? she thought. Or was it Claudia or Shantal?
"Hello?" she asked, picking up the phone.
"Kirsten?"
"Claudia?" Kirsten asked.
"It's me, Kirsten. Why haven't you answered yet? Is your ring not working or something?"
"It's working, Claud. Me and Melanie thought that we weren't supposed to get involved in trouble here in the past. We were just phoning you two to see what you guys wanted to do about it? Is Shantal there with you? Where are you guys anyways? Are you two at Lita's?"
"No, we're not at Lita's, Kirsten. We're at Darien's. Small Lady is with us. So is Serena. We have a problem, though."
"A problem?" Kirsten asked, wondering what could have happened.
"Yeah, a problem," Claudia repeated. "I don't have time to explain right now. Shantal's on the other line, talking to Melanie. You two have to come to Darien's. We'll explain everything when you guys get here. Just get your butts over here!"
"Okay, Claud," Kirsten said, "Just one thing. Where's Darien's?"
"Downtown. Apartment building 1809. Go up to apartment number 363. Got it?"
"Got it, Claudia," Kirsten said, jotting it down on a sheet of paper. "See ya in a few." The two girls hung up and with the sheet of paper in hand, Kirsten got up, left the room, and headed downtown, away from the Cherry Hill Temple, towards Darien's.

Melanie and Kirsten arrived at apartment building 1809 at about the same time. Melanie was just opening the door to the building, when she heard Kirsten yell her name from a few feet away. She stood there, the door open, waiting for Kirsten to catch up. Kirsten arrived at the open door a few minutes later and together, they headed towards apartment 363.

"That's them," Claudia said, as soon as she heard the knocks on the door. She had been pacing in front of the coffee table ever since she had gotten off the phone with Kirsten.

Shantal had watched her friend pace, amused.
"I wouldn't doubt it," Darien said, from the love seat, where he sat with Serena. "I wasn't expecting anyone today."
Claudia practically ran to answer the door. She smiled when she opened the door and saw Kirsten and Melanie there. Quickly, she ushered them inside and shut the door behind them.
"Hey, Melanie, Kirsten," Shantal greeted her two friends. They smiled at Shantal, looking wearily over at Serena and Darien.
"Don't worry," Claudia said, seeing the looks on her friends' faces. "That's part of what we have to explain."
"You two can sit down," Serena said, getting up from the loveseat and heading over to Claudia, Kirsten and Melanie. Kirsten and Melanie headed over to the couch and sat down beside Shantal.
"What's going on, Claud?" Kirsten asked, not wanting too reveal to much. She didn't know how much, if anything,
Claudia and Shantal had told Serena and this man, whom she could only guess was Darien. Melanie just sat beside Kirsten, looking at Claudia, wanting to know what was going on.
"Kirsten, just calm down," Shantal said, a bit angrily. "They know, okay? We had to tell them, so bite her head off."
Kirsten sighed. She didn't like the idea of telling Serena or Darien what they were. "Pluto's gonna have our heads," Kirsten murmured.
"She's the Guardian of Time?" Serena asked gently, looking at Kirsten.

Kirsten just glared at her.
"Kirsten, learn some respect!" Claudia yelled at her friend.

Shantal got up from the couch and walked over to Claudia, so that she was beside her. "Look, Kirsten," Shantal said, not even bothering to put any kindness into her voice. "You may not like what we did, but deal with it. We didn't disrupt the timeline, otherwise Pluto would have been here already to take our butts back to the future. Now, we're going to tell you and Melanie what happened, and you're going to listen to it. Understood?" Shantal looked at Kirsten, anger clearly showing in her eyes.

Kirsten nodded in response, moving her gaze from Serena to Claudia and Shantal.

"Um, Serena, do you mind if you and Darien leave the room for a sec?" Claudia asked.

Serena shook her head and she and Darien left the room together.

"Kirsten, learn to show some respect," Claudia said, trying not to yell at her friend and fellow Sailor Scout. "You know who Serena is, don't you?"
"But she doesn't know who she is," Kirsten argued. "She doesn't know that she's the queen of Crystal Tokyo, so why do we have to show her respect when we're here in the past?"
"I think I'm beginning to see why Neo-Queen Serenity doesn't approve of you spending a lot of time around Small Lady," Melanie said quitely. "You should show respect to her. Whether she knows her future or not, you do."
"Fine," Kirsten grumbled. Then turning her attention to Claudia and Shantal, "So what did you guys tell them anyways?"
"First of all," Claudia said, "What we told them doesn't matter that much right now. What matters is that we must help Serena otherwise our own futures are in jeopardy."

Melanie looked at Claudia, interest showing in her eyes. What was Claudia talking about?

Seeing that they now had their friends' attention, Shantal smiled. "Claudia and I followed our mothers to the battle. The Sailors were doing their Planetary attack and they were pulled apart. Rubeus was there, also. He was after Small Lady. Tuxedo Mask arrived in time and held Sailor Moon as the Sailors were pulled apart."
"They screamed," Claudia continued for Shantal, "and were were taken up to Rubeus's ship."
"And you had to tell Serena and Darien the truth because?" Melanie asked.
"Because we followed our parents as YSJ and YSV," Shantal said, "We figured that we would help them out if they needed it."
"Yeah," Claudia said, "I already had to help them out once before."
"Okay, so?" Kirsten said.
"Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask saw us," Shantal said. "We hadn't been planning on telling them the truth, but they started asking us questions about who we were and everything. Claudia's the one that convinced me that we should tell them the truth. She'd already told Lita. Anyways, we told them everything about us."
"Did you tell them the truth about Small Lady?" Melanie asked, hoping that they had better sense then that.

Claudia looked at Melanie, insulted. "Of course not," she said. "We know that it's not time for them to know yet."
"So, they know the truth about us, but not about Small Lady?" Kirsten asked, making sure that they knew everything. She was still angry that Serena and Darien knew the truth about who they were, but as long as the truth about Small Lady was kept a secret than it was okay.

Claudia and Shantal nodded, yes.
"It's kind of a plus for us, if you think about it," Melanie said, quitely.

Kirsten looked at Melanie as if she had lost her mind. "How?"
"Well," Melanie said, softly, "We don't have to be quite so careful around them anymore."

Claudia nodded. That much was true.
"So, they know?" a small voice asked.

All four of the girls turned to look at the small figure standing just beside the entrance to the living room.

"Small Lady!" all four girls cried out in unison.
"They know?" Reenie repeated her question.
"How long have you been standing there?" Kirsten asked, trying to hide her surprise. She had not expected Small Lady to be listening in on their conversation.
"Long enough to know that Serena and Darien know about who and what you are," Reenie replied.
"Small Lady, you shouldn't be eavesdropping," Melanie said softly, getting up from where she sat on the couch.
"Reenie!" a voice yelled from behind her. "You shouldn't be listening in on other people's conversations!" Reenie turned around to look at Serena and Darien coming out of Darien room.

Serena was looking at her, anger in her eyes. Darien looked to the four girls in his living room. "Is it okay if we talk together now?" he asked. Looking at Claudia and Shantal, "Did you explain everything to them?"

Both of them nodded.

"Yeah," Claudia said. "We explained everything to them. They know that you guys know."

Darien nodded, and they walked towards the living room, Reenie walking in front of them.
"We have to decide how we're going to get the others back," Serena said, the anger that she had a few minutes ago disappearing.
"We'll be able to help you on that," Melanie said. "They're on Rubeus's ship, right?"

Shantal smiled, suddenly understanding what Melanie was getting at. "That's where he keeps his crystals," she said. Melanie nodded.

Both, Serena and Darien looked at them from where they stood, confusion written on both their faces.
"The crystals are Rebeus's power source," Melanie explained.
"So, what you're saying is that if we destroy the crystal, we destroy Rebeus," Serena said.
"Not destroy, even," Melanie said, "Just dislodge. If the crystals aren't in the right place, then they won't work, which means that Rebeus won't have any powers. That'll give you the time needed for you guys to teleport from the ship back here." Serena nodded.
"Stop making the plan seem so simple, Mel," Kirsten said. "There's a catch. There has to be. It's too simple."

Serena looked at Darien and smiled. She was definately Raye's daughter. Melanie sighed.
"Yes, there is a catch," she admitted.

At this, Serena looked to the girl that looked so much like her friend.
"What's the catch?" Darien asked before Serena could open her mouth.
"Serena will have to go by herself," Melanie said.
"There's no other way?" Serena asked.

Melanie looked to the person who would grow to be her queen. "No. I'm not sure if Rebeus knows that we are here in the past or not. We cannot disrupt the timeline in anyway. If he does not know and we show up on the ship, than that can really mess up the timeline."

Serena nodded, and looked at all four of the girls in Darien's living room. "Have you fought on the ship before?" she asked, curious. At this question, the four girls fell deathly silent and looked to the floor. Serena felt her face go red in embarrassment and looked to Darien, hoping that he would break the uncomfortable silence.

Darien smiled a comforting smile at Serena and looked at the others. "Can you tell us what happened?" he asked, softly. He himself was wondering why the girls had all fallen silent. Had they fought on the ship before? What had happened? Was it so horrible that they couldn't speak of it?

Kirsten, Melanie, and Shantal all turned their heads to look at Claudia. So did Serena and Darien. Serena was a bit confused to see that tears were in the girl's eyes.

Claudia cleared her throat and spoke. "I'm sorry, Darien, but I don't think we can. I'm not sure whether or not telling you would disrupt the timeline."

Darien nodded. "Okay, then," he said.
"Are you going to be okay?" Serena asked, gently.

Tears had formed again in Claudia's eyes. Quickly, she wiped them away and nodded.
"We just have one thing left to figure out," Kirsten said, trying to get the attention away from Claudia so that the girl would have time to gather her emotions.
"And what's that?" Shantal asked.

Kirsten smiled. "How are we going to get Rebeus to contact us?" she asked. "We can't get on the ship unless he brings down the shield or he brings us up there like he did the Sailors."
"You're right," Melanie said, a little embarrassed that she had forgotten that fact.
"Well, if Rebeus is anything like any of the other evils that I've fought," Serena said, "He'll be contacting us sometime soon with some kind of off" Serena's sentence was cut off by a clap of thunder in the distance. Reenie shrieked, frightened by the noise and Serena jumped.

Melanie, Kirsten, Claudia, and Shantal outside to Darien's balcony and looked to the sky. It was dark and covered by clouds.
"Sailor Moon!" a voice yelled from the clouds. "In ten minutes my sheilds will come down, so you can come on my ship!"

Melanie nodded. She had been expecting Rebeus to do this any second. The four girls turned to head back into the apartment, but stopped short when Rebeus spoke again. "Younger Sailors! I suggest that you come along with Ms. Moon. Otherwise, you may not exist!" Those were the last words spoken, before the clouds suddenly disappeared and the sky became a clear blue once more.
"Not good," Melanie muttered, shaking her head. "Not good."
"Disruption of the timeline?" Darien asked, from where he was standing in the living room, his arm wrapped around Serena's shoulders.

Melanie nodded. "Rebeus knows we're back in time, too," she said.

Shantal smiled. "At least Serena won't have to go up on the ship alone," Shantal smiled, trying to see a good side to Rebeus's knowing about them.

Kirsten shrugged. "Maybe this was why we were sent back here," she said. "Maybe after we help rescue our parents, then Pluto will send us back to the future. Claud, are you okay?"

Claudia was still out on the balcony, shivering. Taking a deep breath, she turned around to face the others who were inside Darien's apartment, and shook her head. "I'm not sure if I can go up there, again," Claudia said, her voiec quivering. "Not after the last time. Not after what happened before."

"Claudia," Serena said, gently, walking outside to the balcony. She wrapped an arm around the teen and led her inside. "What happened on the ship before?"

Claudia looked Serena in the eye and Serena almost gasped when she saw the pain in Claudia's eyes. Claudia sat down on the couch.

Sitting down beside her, Serena gently repeated her question. "Can you tell us what happened, Claudia?" She didn't mean to pry but she needed to know what tortured this teenager so.

Kirsten looked at Shantal and whispered, "I can definitely see a bit of Neo-Queen Serenity in her now."

Shantal smiled, and nodded. "We told you, Kirst," Shantal whispered back, smiling.
"Claud, you don't have to, you know," Melanie said, sitting down on the other side of Claudia. "If it hurts too much, you don't have to."

Claudia wiped the tears from her eyes, and shook her head. "It's okay, Mel," she said, sniffing back tears. "I can handle it." Looking at the floor, Claudia began her story. "It was about eight years ago, in the future. We hadn't been the Younger Sailor Scouts for that long. A year or so at most, when it happened. Rebeus had been pounding on the palace and everything for so long that they figured that it was time for us to finally get on his ship and attack from the inside. All of us, the younger and older Sailors went on this attack. They figured that all of us would be needed, since the attack was on Rebeus's ship." Claudia stopped talking for a second, and closed her eyes. She lifted her head up, looked at the ceiling, trying to gather her emotions. Could she really get through this? She opened her eyes and taking a deep breath, continued. "All of us were needed. In fact, it probably would have helped if we had even more people along with us. There were about thirteen of us on the ship and it still couldn't prevent what happened. We were fighting against Diamond, Rebeus, and about every other person they had on the ship. We'd caught them by surprise. Elder Mercury Amy was able to lower down the sheilds for eight minutes. We had eight minutes to fight them all. I was fighting against Emerald, and Saphire. My mother, Elder Jupiter, had finished off whoever she was fighting and decided to knock off or dislodge the crystals that gave Rebeus and the ship their powers. She grabbed one of the crystals and pulled on it as hard as she could. Unfortunately, it was the crystal that was connected to their weapon systems. Elder Jupiter was pulling on the crystal when sparks from it began to fly, causing tiny fires in the room. She yelled at everyone to teleport out of there because something was going to happen. Diamond and everyone else except Rebeus had teleported themselves away." Claudia brushed some tears away and had to stop herself for a moment.

Seeing that her friend was struggling to get through this tale, Kirsten continued. "We were all in the circle to teleport away. All of us, that is, except for Claudia. She was trying to help her mother pull the crystal out. Elder Jupiter was yelling at her to move it, to get away safely with the rest of us but Claud wouldn't listen. I think Elder Jupiter might have had a premonition or about what was going to happen or something. Anyways, Elder Jupiter was still yelling at Claudia to move it but she, herself, couldn't do anything to push Claudia away, because both of her hands were on the crystal, pulling as hard as she could. So Shantal, Melanie, and I broke from the inner circle and together the three of us dragged Claud away from Elder Jupiter and the crystal. We were lucky enough to drag her away in time, too. We'd just gotten Claud a safe distance away, when Rebeus launched a huge bolt of dark energy at Elder Jupiter. We heard Elder Jupiter cry out as the black energy hit her. Don't tell me how, but Elder Jupiter countered the energy with some of her own, just long enough for her to pull out the crystal. After that, a whole bunch of sparks flew out from the crystal center. Elder Jupiter had no energy left to defend herself from Rebeus's attack. We tried as hard as we could to defend Jupiter from the dark energy with our own attacks, but we were too weak then at the training process to block that much dark energy. We heard Elder Jupiter cry out one last time, before we saw her drop to the ground, motionless. The Elder Sailors teleported us out of there as fast as they could before Rebeus had a chance to take his attack out on us. We were all pretty saddened after that attack. Claudia most of all. Out of all four of us, she had used up the most energy trying to protect her mother. She had continued protecting her mother, even after Elder Jupiter had fallen to the floor, motionless. By the time we got back to Crystal Tokyo and the palace, Claud was out of it. She'd fallen into a coma and stayed that way for three days. The Elder Sailors all were pretty tired too. Sailor Teleport wears them out, especially if you have to teleport more than just yourself. The fact that they were minus one Sailor Scout didn't help, either.

The mood around the palace was pretty sad after that. You, Darien, were the one who tried to keep everyone's mind on task. You were the one who reminded everyone that we had to fight back against the Negamoon even harder because of Elder Jupiter's death and not just because..." Kirsten stopped in the middle of her sentence, realizing that she was saying too much. She had almost disrupted the timeline.
"Because of what?" Serena pressed, curious now. She understood why Claudia didn't want to go back up on Rebeus's ship and fight against the bastard. She couldn't believe that Rebeus was forcing Claudia to go back up and fight against him. Although in a way she understood. Nemesis had no heart, whatsoever. But where was she in this story? Why was it only Darien that tried to keep everyone's mind on task? Why didn't she try? Was she so overcome with grief from one of her best friends dying that she couldn't help? And what were her and Darien's roles in this entire story? They hadn't been mentioned yet in fighting against Rebeus or anyone else on the ship? Why not?
"Kirsten, because of what?" Darien asked, also intrigued by this story. Something else had happened in the future that the girl either didn't want to tell them about or was afraid to tell them about.

Kirsten looked to Melanie and Shantal, asking them with her eyes whether or not she should finish. Both of the teens nodded. Kirsten had gone so far she might as well finish the rest of her story. Besides, maybe Serena and Darien were supposed to know ahead of time or something. After all, if they had disrupted the timeline Pluto would have been here, wouldn't she? Kirsten took a deep breath and continued. "I have to back up," she explained to Darien and Serena. "I think it was at the beginning of the fight against the Negamoon, Diamond had fallen in love with the Queen. Anyways, Her Magesty was fighting against Diamond and everyone alongside King Endymion when she was struck. By what, we do not know. She now lays in the palace, sleeping for eternity in a containment made of clear crystal unless the doctors and scientists find some way to awaken her."
"Who's King Endymion?" Serena asked. She didn't know anyone called Endymion, did she? Or would she meet someone named Endymion in the future? And who was this queen that was sleeping for eternity?

Kirsten looked at Darien and smiled. "King Endymion," Kirsten began slowly.
"Is Darien," Claudia finished.

Serena's eyes widened in surprise. Why was his name Endymion?

Darien, however was smiling. "King Endymion," he said, thoughtfully as he remembered something from the Moon Kingdom. His mother and father used to call him Endymion. "And that leaves the queen as being Serena, huh?" he said.

Melanie nodded.

"Neo-Queen Serenity, actually," Shantal said.
"So, I'm asleep forever?" Serena asked.

Shantal shrugged. "You were asleep when we still left the future," she said. "The scientists and doctors could have found something to awaken you by now, however."
"Um, guys," Melanie said. "We only have about three or two minutes left until Rebeus lets his shields down."
"Oh, crap!" Kirsten exclaimed. "I almost forgot about it!"
"Claudia, can you handle it?" Serena asked the teenager, gently.

Claudia nodded. "I want my revenge on that bastard," she whispered just loud enough for Serena to hear.

Serena nodded, understanding. Claudia wanted revenge on Rebeus for killing her mother, just like Serena had wanted her revenge against Beryal and the rest of the Negaforce for killing her mother and their life on the Moon Kingdom. "Darien," Serena said, "You stay here and take care of Reenie, okay?"

Darien nodded and patted Reenie's shoulder.

Serena smiled at her boyfriend and took out her locket.
"Moon Crystal Power!"
"YMercury Star Power!"
"YMars Star Power!"
"YJupiter Star Power!"
"YVenus Star Power!"
Sailor Moon turned to look at the Younger Sailor Scouts, standing in Darien's living room. She smiled at them and asked, "Are you guys ready?"

Each one of the girls nodded in response.
"We going to use Sailor Teleport?" Younger Venus asked.
"Would it work with Younger and Elder Sailors together?" Younger Mars asked.
"It should," Sailor Moon said. "Let's try it and find out."

The Younger Sailors nodded and spread out in a circle, Younger Mercury and Younger Mars beside Sailor Moon. They grasped each other's hands and closing their eyes, said, "Sailor Teleport!"

Darien and Reenie stepped back into the hallway, and watched as almost magically, Sailor Moon and the Younger Sailor Scouts floated a few feet about the ground. Then suddenly, a blinding light flashed. When the light disappeared, Sailor Moon and the Younger Sailor Scouts were gone.