The Fragility of Time BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis" Chapter 30 "Objects at Rest" Author: etj4Eagle Email: etj4Eagle@yahoo.com Lasted Edited: 6/1/03

Disclaimer: A reminder I own none of the characters of this story, all rights are owned by others. However, the unique circumstances of the story are mine. If you distribute the story, do only so freely and inform me of where you post it.

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Leaving the Tsukino household with Diana on her shoulder, Setsuna walked a few blocks down the street before disappearing into an alleyway. There hidden from view she placed the kitten down on the ground before reverting to her Sailor form.

"What's happening Pluto-san" Diana asked.

"ChibiUsa's demons from her episode as Black Lady have returned." Pluto replied

Diana simply said "Oh" to that as the she recalled how withdrawn ChibiUsa had been after her previous trip to the past.

"And the action that has caused these demons to resurface will prevent ChibiUsa from seeking any comfort from Serenity. She instead disappeared into the streets of the city following the end of their last battle. We need to find ChibiUsa and comfort her. If I am right, she is in a very precarious state right now and I wouldn't even be surprised if she releases one of her Moon Beams."

Though Diana had never actually seen one of these Moon Beams, ChibiUsa only having produced them during her previous trip to the past, Diana knew what the release of one of these meant. Not only would the already vulnerable princess be even more vulnerable after releasing all that raw energy, she would instantly give away her location to anyone looking to cause trouble. And with Rubeus out there, he would surely not give up such a golden opportunity to try to capture the Moon Princess.

Indicating her understanding of the gravity of the situation, Diana simply said, "I'll find her Pluto-san." before taking her leave.

"Diana-chan, you'll travel easier if you use your human form." Pluto said to the departing form. "I have instructed Luna to stay with Usagi and to not tell her anything, so the risk of using your full powers should be minimal."

"Hai." Diana said, agreeing with Pluto that it would be far easier to search for ChibiUsa in her human form. As an adult, she probably would have been better off in her feline form, but she was still just a kitten. Now in the form of a twelve-year-old girl, Diana headed out into the early evening. ChibiUsa stay strong we'll be there soon for you.

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Captain Keffer was enjoying his 24 hrs of liberty, which had started earlier that day at six. He and his wingmen had immediately taken their leave of base and headed into Tokyo to spend the evening. Like previous liberties, they had no real plan of action on how to spend it. But so far, it was following true to form. They were just exiting their traditional restaurant having all stuffed themselves on the delicious food. Now they were just roaming the streets of Tokyo while they digested their dinner and letting the hour get later. Before long, they would probably begin to wander into bars and karaoke parlors, making the most out of their evening. Then in the early hours of the morning, they would find some place cheap to bed down for the night and most of the next morning as well.

As they walked down the street, the group of four rotor-heads talked about the orders they had received that morning for an upcoming rotation to a live fire training range. As was usual, the different members of the group were bragging over who would finish top in the squadron and by how much more. Before long, bottles of bear and sake would be assigned to the different elements of the training exercise. But for now, they were still in the boosting without stakes stage.

Ivoniva having made her boast and only half listening to those of the others, she only needed know how much she needed to increase her boost when it came time for her to speak again, looked into the various closed shops they passed. One of the stores, an electronic store, caught her attention as a couple of their TVs were still on and these were showing a news channel. In particular, they were currently showing clips of that afternoon's demon attack. "Well it looks like we don't have to worry about having a monster attack ruining liberty." she said.

"Why do you say that?" Yoshi asked.

"Apparently there was already a monster incident today. And since lately we have only been getting one every few days, I would say that we timed our liberty just right."

"Hai you can say that again." agreed the forth member of their group, Hito.

"Hai." Keffer agreed as well. "I'm just glad that we are no longer going up against those creatures ourselves. I may be the best pilot there is, but that doesn't mean that I can handle taking on things that belong in children's stories book. I would rather fight the whole North Korean army than take on another one of those things again.

"Hai!" agreed the rest, Keffer's boost falling to the wayside from the larger issue of the demons. That first mission against those creatures was an eye opener and they all easily remembered the dread they felt when prepping for launch on the subsequent missions. Hellfire missiles and depleted uranium armor piercing bullets just did not have the same effect against one of those creatures as against a tank. Then to top it off the debriefs from those missions made you at times wish you were a POW. For some reasons the brass seemed to expect them to have all the answers, as to where and why these things were coming from and the easy way to kill them. The last one always cracked them up in their squadron post debrief get-togethers, since if they knew the easy way to kill these things, they would be fighting them that way, not any of this lets keep them distracted until the Sailor Senshi can kill them.

The mention of monster attacks and having to fight them again, caused the group to lapse into silence. It had been awhile since they had actually taken to the air to fight these things, not since the wave of euphoria. Though a little over a month back, one of the other squadrons had taken to the air following a large explosion in a tunnel and then only days after that, they had just launched in response to a building that just sprouted massive plant growth, however in that case by the time they got there everything had returned to normal. Consequently, they had begun to see the demon attacks in the same abstract manner as the rest of Tokyo, however now those memories and feelings came back in full causing the group to lapse into the silence of their own private thoughts over this nightmare which had settled over Tokyo.

The group walked two blocks like that, before Ivoniva finally broke the silence. They had come upon an intersection and had to wait for the light to change. An object moving separate from the rest of the flow of pedestrians on the other side of the street caught her trained pilot eye. Coming out of her thoughts, she looked across the street at what had caught her attention and found the object in question to be a young girl. However, the hour was getting fairly late for a child to be out. Curious, Ivoniva voiced her thoughts out loud, "I wonder what such a young girl is doing out this late at night."

Everyone looked up to spot the girl that Ivoniva was referring to. Seeing the girl that Ivoniva was obviously referring to Keffer had to agree that she definitely appeared to be too young to be out this late by herself. She looked to be no older than ten, probably even less. Though as he continued to watch her, he found a strange sensation of recognition. For some reason he just knew that he knew her quite well, yet he had not interacted with any child near her age in the past couple of years. So, what was it that he found familiar? Trying to puzzle out that mystery, he noticed that she appeared to be looking for something, or more likely, someone from the way she was scanning up and down both sides of the street.

At one point, she looked in his direction, allowing Keffer to get a clear view of her face. He instantly knew that he had never seen this girl before, yet at the same time he also knew that he did know her and it was from not that long ago. A glimmer of reflected street lamplight caught his attention and he realized that she was wearing only one earring. Wait only one earring? Keffer thought, suddenly everything falling into place.

Reaching into his shirt, Keffer pulled out his dog tags. Attached to one of them was a solo earring. That earring along with a little bell were the mementoes that that the kitten he had found had left him when it had vanished on that night of the triple attack. He had no idea where the kitten could have gotten an earring from, nor how she had managed to remove her collar (it had been unfasten). The collar he kept with his flight gear as a good luck charm, while he attached the earring to his dog tag, as a reminder that something magical had really happened. Looking down at that earring and then looking up at the child on the other side of the street, Keffer's mind made a leap of faith and concluded that they went together. Not waiting for the light to change, he dashed into the street.

"Keffer no baka, what are you trying to do!" Ivoniva yelled at him.

Just barely dodging a semi, Keffer replied, "I think I know that girl, I'll be only a minute."

"If that baka survives this, I'll just have to kill him myself." Ivoniva said, a sentiment that the others agreed with.

Miraculously making it safely to the other side, Keffer jogged the last few steps, catching up to the child. Well here it goes. he thought to himself as he pulled up behind her. "Excuse me ma'am." he said while reaching out and taking a hold of her shoulder.

"Huh?" Diana mumbled as she felt someone lightly grab a hold of her, turning to see what this stranger wanted her eyes went wide with surprise and recognition.

For Keffer, seeing her double take in recognition was all he needed to confirm that this girl and that kitten were one and the same, he did not even notice that like the kitten she also had a golden crescent moon. Removing his dog tags from his neck, he held them out to her in his out-stretched hand. "You wouldn't happen to be the owner of this earring, which a gray kitten left me?" Keffer ask, while pointing to the earring with his thumb.

Diana was still not sure how to respond; however, one thing she did realize was that somehow Keffer had connected her two forms. How he had done that she had no idea, but he had. Her mother would tell her to just feign ignorance, even if she was wearing the matching earring to the one he had affixed to one of his dog tags, or at the very least claim that the kitten was her own. But this airman had shown her compassion, taking her in when she was injured and giving her a home for a while. She couldn't just turn her back on him and so she made the decision her queen would have wanted her to make instead. "Hai it is. It is good to see you again Keffer-san. I'm sorry that I did not properly thank you for the hospitality that you showed me when you took me in and instead just disappeared on you. And please call me Diana-chan."

"It is okay, Diana-chan. While you did have me a bit puzzled with the collar and earring that you left me, a part of me realized then that there was more to you than meets the eye. Even still, I am bit surprised to see that you like this."

Deciding that she could trust Keffer with a little more, Diana said. "I am a magical creature and can take both feline and human forms. For now, I am supposed to remain in my feline form all the time. However, a good friend of mine has run away, haunted by fears and I need to find her as quickly as possible."

Keffer nodded his understanding while also knowing that Diana was not telling him everything. Just seeing her in a human form was enough to convince him that she was connected with those Sailor Senshi. The crescent moon on her forehead, which he finally noticed was further proof of that. All of which of course implied that in all likelihood that this friend of hers was also connected with them. In which case finding her was very important.

"So Keffer who is your girlfriend that you risked your life to go see?" Yoshi asked as he and the others arrived.

"Minna-san this is a friend of mine, Diana. Diana-chan these less than outstanding citizens are I am afraid my fellow wingmen."

"And I suppose that you are an exemplary citizen?" Yoshi replied.

"And what do you mean by afraid?" Ivoniva asked

"Why of course I am." Keffer said replying to Yoshi and then turning to Ivoniva, "Because I have seen cadets who are better pilots than you three. But that is enough for now Diana needs my help. So I am afraid that I am going to have to bail on our plans for the evening."

And with that, Keffer quickly took his leave with Diana. As the two disappeared down the street, they heard Yoshi tell him to "have fun with your girlfriend." Keffer knew that he and Diana had gotten off quite lightly there. Diana for her part had been enjoying herself watching the batter amongst the group of friends. She of course had immediately recognized the other three of the group, having met them in her kitten form back at the airbase.

 "Well now that that is taken care of, lets go see about finding this friend of yours. I think I saw a place not far back along the street where I can rent a moped from, it'll allow us to cover the city much faster."

"You're sure you don't mind doing this Keffer-san?" Diana asked as she followed the older man back across the street, this time he crossed it with the light.

"Nope, anyways I don't care how well you think you can take care of yourself, I can not let you travel the streets at night by yourself. I would spend all my liberty worrying about your safety. At least this way, I might actually be able to still salvage some of my liberty for enjoyment, and hey this could always be interesting, especially if they have any bikes that will be able to get some decent speed.

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The evening found Hotaru sitting in her room doing her homework. Finishing up the final set of writing exercises for the weekend, Hotaru closed her schoolbook and put it away in her schoolbag.  Then walking over to her bed, she flopped down on it while taking her pillow into her arms. Her plan had been to just spend an hour or two lying there on her bed, enjoying the quiet solitude of her room and the eternal twilight that she had put it in with all of her lamps. But as she reached her arms around the pillow, they brushed up against something hard and smooth.

Instantly recognizing what it was, she tossed her pillow over to the other side of the bed. Picking up the magazine and manga that lay there, she smiled with delight. Flopping to the other side of the bed and propping herself up and the pillow she put the manga down on the bed beside her and opened up the magazine and began to read it. With her now attending school, she had lost track of the dates and the passing of time. But it was the beginning of the new month, and Eudial had bought her the new issue of Runners World and a sports manga. The manga was a collection of various one-shot sports stories that was published monthly. Of the two, it was the one that she could actually fully read and understand, as the running magazine was an American magazine and therefore written in English.

Both Eudial and Kaolinite knew of her desire to one day run a marathon. However, where Kaolinite tried to crush that dream every chance that she got, Eudial encouraged the child to pursue that dream. As part of that, every month she bought the professor's daughter the magazine and manga. She bought Hotaru an American magazine as a way to encourage the child to work on her English, plus she knew Hotaru especially dreamed of running a marathon in each of America's big cities.

As she flipped through the magazine reading what she could and daydreaming with respect to the photos, Hotaru found herself to be restless for some reason. Normally when she found these gifts from Eudial she would become wrapped up in them for hours at a time, not even noticing the passage of time. But for some reason tonight she was just not getting into them. Instead, she realized as she sat up and looked outside, she had a yearning to be out there searching for something.

She was the only one home tonight; her father and all his assistants were working late on something. So as she wandered downstairs, she had no one to talk to in an attempt to distract herself from this yearning that she was having. Opening the back door, she walked out in the yard. But as she smelled the fresh air and felt its coolness on her skin the sense of yearning increased even further. "What is it that I am feeling?" Hotaru asked the empty air. "Why do I feel that I need to go out into the night? That there is someone who I must protect?" Someone, that word resonated in Hotaru's mind. Why was it someone and not a something? And if it was a someone, who was it? But even as she was pondering that question, the answer came to her. "ChibiUsa-chan!" Hotaru exclaimed

Even as she voiced that one word, her body became awash in guilt, fear and foreboding. The fear and guilt were not her own emotions, something was wrong with ChibiUsa. That she was sure of. Quickly walking back into the house, she went into the kitchen and dug out a 12-cell Maglight. It was a bit heavy for her, but she felt reassured by its heftiness and knew that if anyone tried to give her trouble she would be able to more than sufficiently fend him or her off with this flashlight. If she had stopped to think about that thought for a moment she would have been puzzled to wonder where her sudden confidence in hand to hand combat had come from, especially given her health, which would probably cause her to faint if she actually had to use the light as a weapon. But she did not, instead infused with the confidence that the alternate use of the flashlight provided; she walked over to the hall closet and took out a light jacket. Putting it on she left the house and headed out into the night.

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Dashing across the rooftops, Pluto was not having any luck finding ChibiUsa. Of course, small lady had more than likely found some little hole of a place to crawl into, in which case it would only be Usagi or Mamoru who would be able to find her. But unfortunately that was not an option right now and she and Diana needed to find small lady before Rubeus did. And the thunder and lightning that had begun a few minutes earlier were not going to help the matter; given how deathly afraid both mother and daughter were of thunderstorms. Stopping to rest for a moment on top of a school building, Pluto summoned her staff.

Resting it on the ground, she stared into the Garnet Orb commanding it to show her what she desired. And to her surprise as her eyes began to glow with the power of Time, it did. She saw ChibiUsa running the streets, ducking under fences and now between piles of dirt. Pluto guessed that ChibiUsa had entered some kind of construction site, however her vision did not show her any actual detail of Small Lady's surroundings. Small Lady's dash finally slowed to a stop and the child crawled into a gap between some construction materials. There in the semi-enclosure, she curled herself up into a ball and her crying and grief began in earnest, now that she was no longer hiding from it by running.

Through the Garnet Orb, Pluto could feel the energy of the Moon begin to build around ChibiUsa and Pluto knew what was going to happen. She did not have to wait long before Small Lady's anguish caused her energy to reach a crescendo and a Moon Beam erupted from the child. With the concurrent thunderstorm, the Moon Beam probably went unnoticed by all except those who she wished not to see it, Pluto figured. And that meant that both Rubeus and Usagi should be heading over to where ChibiUsa had hidden herself away. However, as Pluto thought that, the Garnet Orb flashed and Pluto now saw a view of the Mizuno apartment. And in it, she saw her princess seemingly unaware of the trouble that ChibiUsa was in.

That worried Pluto. While it was true that the second vision like the first could have been of any point in the past, present, future her intuition told her that the orb was showing her what was happening right after the ChibiUsa released the Moon Beam and in that case something was preventing Usagi from feeling ChibiUsa's pain and her use of the Moon Beam. Even as Pluto was puzzled by that mystery, the vision changed back to that of ChibiUsa, but this time she could also see Kaolinite. However, neither Kaolinite nor Rubeus should have the power to block either the mother–daughter bond or the Ginzuishou–shadow Ginzuishou link. But the third person that now appeared did.

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Her heart pounding and her throat burning from her full tilt running, ChibiUsa continued to push herself. She did not let this pain distract herself from her goal, the pain was only a mild price to pay for the transgression that she had been about to make, she deserved far worse. Following her time as Black Lady, ChibiUsa had let her mother and the others tell her that she was not at fault for anything that had happened, that the Wiseman had brainwashed her and perverted her own memories. She had struggled at first, knowing that that wasn't the truth, but eventually she gave in and had even come to believe their version of events.

However, today that illusion of innocence was shattered and the truth was laid before her own eyes. The Wiseman hadn't tricked her into becoming Black Lady; no, she had very much been a willing partner. Yes, he had changed some of her memories, increasing her negativity. But she still had been the one initially to accept his offer. Her mother, Usagi would never have been able to be corrupted by the Wiseman. Even with all the power in the universe and all of eternity he never would have been able to corrupt Usagi, she would have remained pure.

Coming across a construction site, ChibiUsa stopped running. Not pausing to catch her breath, she searched for a way in. Finding a hole in the fence, she got down on her belly and crawled through a muddy puddle to get through. Through to the other side, she got back up on her feet and began wandering around the construction site. Before long, she found a nice enclosed spot between to piles of I-beams. Crawling into that tight spot, she curled up into a fetal position.

Continuing to remember her temptation by the Wiseman, she remembered how he had infused her with his dark energy. She had not resisted the energy that he gave her; instead, she had readily accepted it, using that energy to grow herself into an adult like the rest of the Senshi of her time, though an even more beautiful and sexy one than any of them. Nor did she stop there, she continued to greedily grab at the energy that she was being fed, she wanted no one to be able to doubt that she had power. As this was happening she did not notice nor even care that her memories were being perverted. What little part of her did notice, just grinned as each perversion increased her ability to handle this dark energy even more.

At least at the time she had some excuses for acting that way. After all, various palace officials and servants were constantly chiding her and then whispering behind her back that she was some imposter, not a real successor to the throne of the Moon. It was those words that had driven her to take the Ginzuishou, to show that she could wield the power of that crystal. But the crystal had vanished when she touched it, a sure indication that she was not worthy of its power, or at least that is what she had thought. However, now she knew differently that only by having the crystal vanish into her body did she now have the ability to become Sailor Moon.

Even though her attempt to prove the others wrong by taking the Ginzuishou had failed, ChibiUsa was not swayed from her desire to prove that she really was the heir to the power of the Moon. When the Wiseman took her and tempted her with the dark energy of the Rogue Planet she saw a way to finally prove that she did have power of her own and readily accepted that energy.

But that was then, this was now. She no longer had anything to prove to anyone. Her powers had finally begun to awaken and she now was Sailor Moon, or at least Sailor Moon in training. She was growing again and even here in the past she had a loving family and a good friend. No one called her names, especially after Shingo had a little talk with that one boy in her class. So, she had no excuse of needing to prove herself or anything, but yet she still had almost stolen Sailor Moon's star seed and made it her own.

How could she be the true daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity if she acted like that? She did not deserve to be the crown princess. Instead, she deserved to be locked up for the rest of her life for even contemplating such a treasonous crime as that. Every Serenity was an angel right up to her mother, one who even had the wings to prove it. But she, she was just a power hungry successor. Obviously, her mother had known the truth when she had given birth to her and named her Tsukino Usagi instead of Serenity. She obviously did not deserve that name and as she thought about it more she did not even deserve the future that they were attempting to restore, nor even the protection of her mother's past self. What she needed to do was to leave Japan, find some backwater country on a different continent to disappear into.

"Okaa-san, I am going to miss you. I love you, but this is for the best." ChibiUsa called out into the night as she stood back up. Her mind was clear, though she had no idea yet how she was going to smuggle herself off this island nation, if she still had Luna-P it would be no problem. Pushing that complication out of her mind, she did not notice the rumbling of thunder as she took a step forward. Large raindrops began to fall as she took her first step and with each step, the rain got even heavier. Coming out from her hiding place, she thought once more about her mother and was overwhelmed with anguish. Collapsing to the ground as the heavens opened up and lightning lit the sky, sobs began to wrack her body.

The storm continued to gain in intensity, with heavier rain and more frequent cracks of thunder, however ChibiUsa did not notice. She was totally focused on her own anguish, an anguish that was building as quickly as the storm. The two storms raced neck and neck towards their crescendo and as the storm reached its peak with a brilliant bolt of lighting snaking down to strike a building, ChibiUsa unleashed her own bolt of energy. Her energy spent, ChibiUsa now collapsed fully to the ground unconscious. The storm as well had passed its peak and fell to just a light rain.

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Being trapped in the fabric of spacetime as he was was the closest thing that the Death Phantom could imagine to being hell. At first, he had been satisfied with just being alive; after all, he had been the only one to survive the collapse of time itself. But just being alive is only good enough for so long. He was trapped in this solitude for all of eternity after all unless Rubeus could free him. His connection with the outside world was quite limited and it was very difficult for him to initiate contact with his minions.

Even still, he did feel a faint hum that was background energy of the Earth. It was not much, but it had told him of the tremendous power that Serenity had harnessed to defeat Metalia. And now it told him of a massive explosion of the Moon's power. This one was similar to some previous releases he had felt not long ago, but different as well. All of them were uncontrolled explosion of power, yet this one felt more immature. That and the energy was tainted with something else. It wasn't pure Moon energy, there was something else there, Earth energy. That of course meant that the Rabbit was responsible for this explosion of energy.

Even though he had expected the Rabbit to be capable of such power, it was after all why he wanted her body; he was still taken back by the size of that release. With that kind of release, she was likely very vulnerable right now and he could make use of that. Concentrating on establishing the connection and expending some of his precious energy, the Death Phantom called out to Kaolinite.

Through the mental link, he told her what to do. It was a risky plan, but it could pay out in spades if it worked. The Rabbit was in a perfect condition for him to turn to their side. The emotions that fueled this outburst of energy were dark ones, ones that he could use to corrupt her with. And having just released so much energy, the Rabbit would be weakened and defenseless for what he planned. Of course, there was always the possibility that Serenity would arrive in time and defeat Kaolinite. But that servant had failed one too many times and it was time for her to either return big or be discarded.

The Death Phantom had no illusion that he could prevent Serenity from freeing the rabbit from his mind washing. But as much as ChibiUsa would be useful to him, by allowing him to access the incredible power of the Ginzuishou, Serenity would be even more so. She could not only tap into the power of the Ginzuishou, but she had somehow found another well of power. Instead, the Rabbit would only be bait for the big catch, Serenity. He had no doubt that she would willing give herself to him to save her daughter. And with her body, he would be utterly unstoppable.

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After having walked for nearly an hour at a very brisk pace, Hotaru slowed down. Absently part of her mind wondered why none of her attacks had occurred; this was by far the most effort she had ever expended at once. But that was something to contemplate later; right now, she had to find ChibiUsa. Walking by a construction site, she felt the need to find a way into it. Using her flashlight, she looked for a way in. Before long she found one by where some of the heavy machinery was parked, the fence had been knocked partially off one of its poles there. Grabbing a hold of the fence, she struggled with all her might to bend it out of the way. It was a struggle that she was not sure she was going to win, but eventually she was able to get it around her body. Then with her body holding the loose piece of fence out, she crawled through the gap that she had opened.

Through to the other side, she got back up and dusted off her knees. Using her flashlight, she panned the different piles of construction material trying to find ChibiUsa. Not surprisingly, she did not find anything and so she continued forward. Multiple times, she tumbled to her feet as she stepped into a ditch or tripped over a piece of equipment on the ground. But like the rainstorm from earlier, she did not pay heed to any of those falls. Instead, she immediately returned to her feet to continue her search. Nor did she even consider aiming the flash light down so that she could she where she was walking. If you stopped her and asked her to look at herself she would have been quite surprised to learn that she was soaked to the bone (the light weight cloth jacket not being much protection in the torrential downpour) and even more surprised to discover that her body was covered with various cuts and scrapes. So focused on finding ChibiUsa she was, that she did not notice any of these things.

Hotaru continued her search down into the heart of the construction site, into the scaffolding of the building being construction. There as the beam of light from her flashlight passed over some equipment being installed, she caught a faint glimpse of a tuft of pink hair. Immediately recognizing who it was, Hotaru broke into a run while crying out, "ChibiUsa-chan!"

As she neared her friend, she came up short as she saw ChibiUsa curled into a tight ball, her body convulsing from what were probably sobs. So focused ChibiUsa was on her misery that she did not hear Hotaru and so was taken by surprise when she felt arms wrapping around her chest pulling her out of her ball. Not wanting to be comforted, ChibiUsa tried to curl back up, but Hotaru would not let her. Instead, after sitting down, she pulled the pink haired girl up into her lap and then held her tight against her own body.

"Shush, ChibiUsa-chan it's okay, I'm here for you now." Hotaru quietly reassured her friend while softly rocking back and forth tightly holding onto ChibiUsa.

ChibiUsa tried to protest that things were definitely not okay, that they were very, very wrong, however Hotaru never let her voice those thoughts. From how closely she held her friend she knew when ChibiUsa was about to speak and every time that ChibiUsa attempted to speak, Hotaru would place a finger on the other girl's lips. Hotaru only needed to do that a few times before ChibiUsa got the message. Sensing ChibiUsa surrendering, Hotaru gently turned ChibiUsa sideways so that the pink haired girl could lay her head against Hotaru's chest. For countless moments, ChibiUsa cried her sorrows into Hotaru's chest, while Hotaru reassured her best friend with soft words, a gentle rocking back and forth, and by softly stroking the pink hair of her friend.

Slowly bit-by-bit, Hotaru's reassurances began to build ChibiUsa's confidence back up again and the tears began to slow till they finally became nothing more than choked sobs. Even after she finished crying, ChibiUsa remained with her head against Hotaru's chest not yet ready to face the questioning gaze of another. Hotaru's lips turned up in a slight smile as ChibiUsa calmed down, however she did not disturb the other girl. Content to spend all night like this, she continued to stroke her friend's hair.

Ten minutes after she had finished crying, ChibiUsa was finally ready to look another in the eyes and not feel instantly guilty. Even still, the expression she wore when she looked up at Hotaru was one of utter shame and complete unworthiness. The unworthiness was for having such a loving friend as Hotaru after what she had almost done that afternoon.

Feeling ChibiUsa move her head, Hotaru looked down and met ChibiUsa's eyes. Giving her friend a reassuring smile, she asked, "What's wrong ChibiUsa-chan?"

ChibiUsa didn't know how to explain the shame and guilt that she felt to Hotaru, at least not in any way that wouldn't shame her mother even more. Hoping that Hotaru wouldn't press for too many details, ChibiUsa answered, "I almost did something… something… something horrendous. I would have killed Usagi for it" ChibiUsa said between sobs that became full-fledged tears as she barely forced the final words out.

She had expected Hotaru to throw her down to the ground and leave in disgust over that last part, and so was not prepared for Hotaru pulling her into an even closer tighter embrace. "ChibiUsa-chan, ChibiUsa-chan." She softly said while rocking ChibiUsa back and forth. At first, she just repeated saying ChibiUsa's name, not sure of how to ease the guilt her friend was feeling. When the words finally did come, they were of a wisdom far beyond her years, she spoke with a voice that had watched and had experienced thousands of years of life. "But the most important thing is that you didn't. You stared into the abyss of your soul and at the temptation of the Garden of Eden, but then having faced it all you pulled back. You made the choice to follow your soul and not your flesh. You have proved yourself worthy to be who you are. You are not an angel without flaw; you are not the same as those before. You are a joining of Heaven and Earth. You are the first of something new; you are a reflection of the world that you were born into, in all of its good and all of its bad, a world that is in the process of finding perfection and righteousness and so have you had to find it as well."

ChibiUsa did not so much hear the words of what Hotaru said as she instead felt their meaning. And as she did so, her feelings of despair began to vanish. Hotaru was right; she might have been tempted by that power, but would the others have been able to resist temptation as well? And anyways when it mattered, she was able to resist and turn away. She had grown since the last time when she had fully accepted the temptation.

And she wasn't called Serenity, not because she didn't deserve the title, but because she wasn't a Serenity. Every Serenity, including her mother, had just been a reincarnation of the first one. She still had trouble understanding Mars's explanation of that one and Puu had of course been useless in explaining it, only saying that one day it would be clear. Like that was a useful answer. Instead, she was the daughter of Serenity and Endymion, not the result of the power of the Ginzuishou. So hence, she deserved her own name. Of course, Tsukino Usagi wasn't really her own name; it was still her mother's name. But in the future, it was her own name; only here in the past was it also her mother's name. Plus it was a way to honor her grandmother, since the original Tsukino Usagi became the Serenity of a thousand years earlier.

Reassured by Hotaru's words, ChibiUsa choked back the rest of her tears. Feeling better, she moved against the embrace that Hotaru held her in. Feeling, ChibiUsa's movement and sensing that ChibiUsa was going to be okay now, Hotaru released her best friend who moved to sit beside Hotaru. Even though she was no longer in Hotaru's embrace, ChibiUsa still leaned against her friend as she wiped her tears dry. That taken care of she looked up at her best friend and said, "Arigatoo Hotaru-chan."

"Just happy to see you smiling again ChibiUsa-chan." replied Hotaru.

"Hai," ChibiUsa agreed nodding her head. "It's much better to be happy than sad." she said with a smile. To which Hotaru also smiled in agreement.

"How about we head over to my place and get something dry to wear and some hot chocolate?" Hotaru asked and then added, "with lots of marshmallows."

"Hai!" A very happy ChibiUsa replied as she stood up.

"Well, well, isn't this a nice happy scene." came a cold voice.

Looking up, their faces whitened in fear as they saw a figure standing not that far way. They could not make out her face, but between the flashes of lightning off in the distance, they could clearly see the down turned black crescent moon on her forehead. What can I do? I don't have the energy to henshin right now, even if Hotaru wasn't here ChibiUsa thought to herself, knowing that the two of them were in big trouble.

"Run!" yelled Hotaru who had already gotten to her feet. Taking a hold of ChibiUsa's wrist, she pulled the other girl to her feet and the two took off. With one hand held in a practical death grip by Hotaru, ChibiUsa could not use her communicator, especially since Hotaru's hand was wrapped around said communicator.

"Running won't do you any good Rabbit. The Wiseman wants to see you and you don't have your pesky little Sailor Senshi protectors here to save you now." Kaolinite declared before unleashing a series of small fireballs.

Suddenly feeling impending doom, Hotaru shoved ChibiUsa to the side while throwing herself on top of the other girl and thereby just barely avoiding the attack. The two girls quickly got back to their feet and began dashing around the various pieces of equipment and piles of construction materials, hoping that they would provide some protection.

As the ground exploded around them and they were thrown to the ground time after time and their path of escape cut off time after time, Hotaru said to ChibiUsa, "Now where have we seen this before?" Referring of course to the destruction at their school.

In spite of the danger of the situation and the fact that they were likely to be dead soon, ChibiUsa could only giggle at Hotaru's statement. Finally arriving at the perimeter at the property, the spirits of the two girls brightened before suddenly crashing back down. So busy as they were avoiding becoming a smoldering hole in the ground, they had forgotten about the fence, a fence that they had now run smack into.

With their backs against the fence, the two girls turned around and watched as their attacker slowly walked towards them. Fear racing their blood, neither girl knew what to do. All they could do was interlock the fingers of their hands as they awaited what was to come next.

"Guess it looks like the Rabbit has captured itself." smirked their attacker before stepping into the light cast by a nearby streetlight.

Finally able to get a good look at their attacker, Hotaru exclaimed, "Kaolinite?"

Intrigued that this other child who was with the Rabbit knew her name, Kaolinite took a closer look at her. She was quite taken back to realize that it was Hotaru, however she made no outward reaction as to her surprise. Instead, she coldly said, "I thought you were supposed to be home studying Hotaru-chan. You know that your father works very hard for you and for you to go and be so disrespectful to him. I think I'll just have to teach you a lesson. The Wiseman only wants your friend anyways."

Hotaru was just stunned, she had always had a feeling that Kaolinite could not be trusted, but for it to be this, well she had never fathomed anything like this. But as it was, she was about to be killed by the cold woman who was always trying to grind her self-esteem to dust.

True to her form as an Usagi, the words that Kaolinite spoke to Hotaru struck a cord with ChibiUsa. The utter fear that she had been feeling vanished, replaced instead by anger and ChibiUsa reprimanded the older woman with, "How dare you talk about Hotaru-chan like that!" As she spoke those words, she stepped forward and in front of Hotaru.

"Pesky annoyance." responded Kaolinite as she backhanded ChibiUsa. The blow knocked ChibiUsa into the fence. Hitting one of the poles hard, she fell to the ground.

Seeing Kaolinite hit her friend, Hotaru cried out, "ChibiUsa-chan!" and took off towards her friend, arriving at her side just as she fell to the ground. She was relieved to see that ChibiUsa appeared to be okay.

"Making it convenient for me how nice." said Kaolinite as she unleashed a series of fireballs at the two girls.

ChibiUsa saw the energy blast coming and with what strength she had left, pushed Hotaru to the side and rolled her body so that she was now on top. Hoping that her connection to the Ginzuishou through the shadow Ginzuishou would protect her, ChibiUsa blocked the attacks with her own body.

Hotaru looked at ChibiUsa in confusion as the girl threw her to the ground, a look that turned to fear as she realized what her friend was doing. Her stomach fell into a bottomless pit as she saw the grimaces cross ChibiUsa's face as blast after blast impacted the small girl. Yet as each hit, ChibiUsa tried to maintain a smile on her face, but finally they were too much and her eyes closed as her body went limp. Hotaru did not know what to do or even say to her unconscious friend as blast after blast kept impacting the small girl, each one causing her friend to twitch. The final few fireballs that Kaolinite threw impacted beside the two girls and tossed them threw the air. As she fell back to the ground, Hotaru's head impacted into the side of a metal drum knocking her out.

"Stupid girl. If she's dead, I'm as good as dead as well." Kaolinite said referring to ChibiUsa's sacrifice. Walking over to check on the pink haired girl she was relieved to find that she was still alive. Picking her up by her pink hair, Kaolinite regarded this child, wondering what was so special about her. Though she guessed she must have great power to still be alive. Now there was only one complication left, Hotaru. Creating a series of fireballs in her hands, Kaolinite turned to kill the black haired child. However, as she did so she was surprised to discover that Hotaru had moved. She was sure that Hotaru had been knocked out; the sound of Hotaru's head hitting the metal drum was very clear. But yet somehow the child had managed to stay conscious, but no problem.

Hotaru had indeed been knocked unconscious when she had hit the drum, but that only knocked one half of her soul asleep. Normally the other half was always asleep, but all evening this second half had been awake. The restlessness she had been feeling was a result of Saturn being awake and her attempts to influence Hotaru's actions. Now with Hotaru slipping into unconsciousness from having her head smashed into the fuel barrel, Saturn took control of their body. If Kaolinite had looked closely at Hotaru as she slumped to the ground, she would have been confused to see a very evil smile appear on that girl's face.

Saturn pretended to be unconscious, lying slumped on the ground until Kaolinite turned her back. Then while Kaolinite was checking on ChibiUsa, Saturn opened her eyes and returned to her feet. Picking up the flashlight that she had dropped, she held it in a hold conducive to using it as a weapon. Then with a quick jump, she bounded up to the second floor of the tower that was being constructed to plan her attack.

The black haired Senshi watched with a smile on her lips as a confused Kaolinite tried to figure out where her target had disappeared to. Taking advantage of that confusion, Saturn attacked. Leaping down from the assembled I-beams, she clubbed Kaolinite with her heavy flashlight. The momentum of her jump carried her on into Kaolinite, which combined with the bash to the head caused Kaolinite to fall to the ground with Saturn on top of her. Moving quickly, Saturn rolled off opponent and returned to her feet.

While Kaolinite more slowly returned to her feet, still not fully realizing that she had a fight here, Saturn walked over to where ChibiUsa had been dropped. Picking up the unconscious girl, she carried her over to the fence. Placing her down on the ground, Saturn turned around and walked back over to Kaolinite.

Saturn could see the anger in Kaolinite's eyes and smiled. She was looking forward to extracting her revenge on Kaolinite for what this witch had done to Hotaru. Only when she had had her fun would she then put her out of her misery.

Watching Hotaru causally walk back from where she had placed the pink haired girl, Kaolinite was consumed with the desire to maim this child. She did not understand how this pathetic little child was managing to fight, but she was sure Hotaru would not last long and anyways she was just a child. Prepping a massive fireball, she said, "I am going to make you suffer for what you just did. How dare you attack me!" And with that, Kaolinite unleashed her massive fireball at Hotaru.

Saturn just stood her ground seeming not even to notice the fireball, just letting it come at her. Then at the last minute, she raised her flashlight above her head and swung it straight down, slicing the fireball into two. One half passed to her left and the other to her right both exploding against the fence, instantly melting it. "How dare I?" she asked. "How dare you abuse this body of mine, torture my soul. For those transgressions, I can't forgive you and your punishment will be death. Sailor Uranus and Neptune are quite tame by my standards and don't worry you'll get to experience the full magnitude of my power."

Kaolinite stood stunned at Hotaru's ability to just slice her attack in half. What has happened to Hotaru, this is not the same worthless girl. She was quickly getting the feeling that Hotaru's boost about making Sailor Uranus and Neptune look tame was not some idle boost. Seeing Hotaru pick up a pole and then using it as a makeshift javelin, Kaolinite dodged out of the way. And it was a good thing she did, as the pole exploded upon impact with the ground leaving a nice sized crater.

However the pole attack had only been a faint and Kaolinite was quickly reward with a shot of pain shooting through her leg as Saturn smashed it with her flashlight. Forced down to the ground by that attack, Kaolinite dropped to one knee. From the pain in her leg, she was certain that she had a cracked bone there. Unleashing a wave of fire, Kaolinite forced Saturn to pull back. Then using her magic to kill the nerves that were still crying out in pain, Kaolinite returned to her feet. Under any other circumstance she would have retreated, however she either successfully completed this mission or her life was forfeit. And furthermore, this girl had to die as well; she could not let her talk to the Sailor Senshi not to mention what Hotaru had done to her pride.

Stepping forward towards the awaiting Saturn, Kaolinite formed two small swords of flame, perfectly sized to parry Saturn's attacks. However, upon seeing this development, Saturn just smiled.

"You are planning on killing me with those pathetic things? You might have a chance if you actually knew how to use them, but you don't. Well however you wish to go." Saturn said

That taunt further infuriated Kaolinite who immediately charged the young warrior. Saturn easily dodged Kaolinite's first slash and then parried the second one. Kaolinite was not too surprised when that flashlight of Hotaru's managed to avoid being sliced into two by her fire sword, she was sure that Hotaru was somehow enhancing it with magic.

Parrying that second slash up and out of the way, Saturn quickly brought her weapon back down and slammed it into Kaolinite side. Staggered by the pain, Kaolinite stumbled back a few steps while she let one of her swords vanish so that she could unleash a set of fireballs.

Saturn easily dodged those fireballs, but they were simply designed to buy Kaolinite a few moments to recover. Now with more care, she resumed her attack. Though she did not resummon the second sword, instead focusing on just using the one that she had to the best of her ability. Saturn easily parried the first slice and the slice that followed it. As each swing was parried, Kaolinite brought her sword back and attacked again, quickening the pace with each attack. Before long, it was all Saturn could do to keep up with the attacks and her young frame was slowly being forced backwards as Kaolinite began to overpower her. Finally, the inevitable moment came when Saturn failed to parry one of the slices and the witch's sword sliced into her side.

Her concentration shot, Saturn fell to her knees as the pain became unbearable. The gash was very deep and the heat of the sword had not cauterized the wound. Focusing her energies, Saturn placed a hand over the wound and stemmed her blood loss. Kaolinite, however, did not give her opponent a moment's of rest and slammed a fist into the back of Saturn's head.

Barely holding onto consciousness, Saturn fell to the ground. Quickly rolling to the side, she barely avoided a foot being slammed down in her gut. Needing time to recover, Saturn threw out her hand to summon her protective wall of silence. She summoned the wall just in time to block a slash from Kaolinite's flame sword.

Releasing a sigh of relief as her wall held, Saturn collected her wits and took stock of the situation. This fight was turning out to be harder than she had first figured that it would be, however she still had no doubt that she would be the winner. If need be she would just detonate this whole city block and be done with it. Even still, she wished that she was not forced to use this pathetic flashlight as a makeshift weapon and could instead be fighting with the cold hard metal of her Silence Glaive in her hands. Unfortunately, only Hotaru could summon that weapon.

The warrior from the most feared planet was not sure why things were so different this time from every other time she had awaken to deal with an evil. Though Saturn figured that it probably had something to do with the energy still remaining from the use of  Ginzuishou when she had been summoned to drop her Glaive and silence the Silver Millennium. That magic had somehow caused her to actually be born again and along with that rebirth to have this other half of her soul, a half that somehow had control over the Silence Glaive.

But this was not the time to ponder those thoughts of existence. Right now, she had a job to do, an evil to kill and revenge to extract. Releasing her Silence Wall, Saturn back flipped away from her attacker. Finding a box of nails on the ground by where she landed, Saturn picked it up and dumped the contents into her hand. The nails themselves were useless as a weapon, however they could serve as carriers of her energy and after charging them with power; she threw them at the red haired witch.

Kaolinite just stood and watched what she perceived to be Hotaru grasping at straws when the young girl threw the handful of nails at her. However, the smirk on her face quickly vanished as the nails exploded with energy as they hit her skin and the ground. Wounded, Kaolinite stumbled backwards a bit and was barely able to bring her sword up in time to parry Saturn's attacks. The two then proceeded to resume their "sword" fight.

Quickly it became evident that Saturn's slip from earlier was an indication that she was fading in strength as the movements of the black haired warrior began to slow. Even though she was still parrying all of Kaolinite's strikes, she was not getting them all fully clear of her body. Her body cried out in pain each time she did not get that flame sword fully clear, but she did not let her body flinch from the pain. Instead, she continued to stand her ground and press her own attack.

Deciding that it was time to end this little game, Saturn summoned most of her remaining power and channeled it into her flashlight. Then faking a missed block and taking the resulting strike, she swung at Kaolinite. Kaolinite unprepared for the immediate counter attack was unable to block the blow and the flashlight smashed into her ribs, shattering many of them and cracking others.

Eyes wide with shock as pain more painful than anything that she could comprehend coursed through her side, Kaolinite fell to the ground. As she fell, she found her breathing labored, most likely because some bone fragments had punctured her right lung. Looking up she saw Saturn just regarding her. This time as she looked at the face of the executioner she saw the glowing symbol on the girl's head. That symbol, is that the source of her power? Kaolinite thought in her final moments. I know that I have seen it before… In that research I did for the professor, that was the symbol for lead in some of the formulas. But, there is something more, something more than just lead. Saturn, that is also the Roman symbol for the god Saturn. Wait, does that mean… It can't be… Hotaru is Sailor Saturn? "You're Sailor Saturn aren't you?" Kaolinite said with labored words.

Saturn coldly regarded the fallen foe. Hearing the question, her lips turned up in a very cold smile. "My guardian deity is the planet of Destruction. I am the one who sleeps until she is summoned. I am the Messiah of Silence, I am indeed Sailor Saturn." Saturn said. Then kneeling down beside Kaolinite, she continued, "I have the power to turn planets to dust and dust to life. For your crimes you'll die a thousand painful deaths, reborn and healed after each one so that you can experience the pain again. And now I banish you to the Shadow realm of my planet!"

As Saturn said those final words, her right hand began to course with the nearly black violet energy of Saturn. Then having sentenced Kaolinite, she slammed her palm down onto Kaolinite's chest. The witch screamed out in utter agony as the energy flowed into her body, shattering it like glass. Saturn's hand continued on down to hit the ground and when it did, the symbol for Saturn vanished from her forehead. Loosing consciousness the child warrior fell to the ground where Kaolinite had lain only moments before.

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Contemplating what she was seeing, Pluto knew that Hotaru, or more correctly Sailor Saturn, had the ability to block the link between Usagi and ChibiUsa. However, that should not have been at play here. The blocking effect should only occur when the power of Saturn was awake. Hotaru appeared to look perfectly normal, which should mean that her planetary energy was still dormant. Yet, the power of Saturn was obviously active. For that to be the case, Sailor Saturn had to be awake and just below Hotaru's consciousness, which meant that the Forbidden Warrior could very well truly awake and take full control of Hotaru's soul.

One of the few constants in this new future they were charting was that the Forbidden Warrior could not awaken. The power of Saturn needed to be passed on and the soldier of Saturn absorbed into a new warrior. This was one of the requirements for the awakening of Sailor Cosmos. The soldier of Saturn that had existed till now was incapable of awakening the soul of the universe. She had to become like the rest of her sisters for Cosmos to awaken.

And if the Forbidden Warrior did awake now, she could very well bring down a final solution that would doom this planet. And even if she chose a less severe solution, it would still be the Forbidden One and not Hotaru who would be Sailor Saturn. And with Serenity's state, she might not be able to survive long enough for Sailor Saturn to be reborn a second time. Not to mention the headaches that would result from convincing Serenity that Sailor Saturn needs to be killed so that she can be reborn as a nice child. No Serenity would never go for that.

Pluto pitied Hotaru for the fate that Time had thrust upon her. She was forced to face hardships to ensure that she and not the Forbidden One became the one who retained control of the soul after integration. The first time Pluto had weaved this part of Time's flow, she did not have that much trouble with what she had to do. But every time she partook in the part of the tapestry that corresponded to the raising of the baby Hotaru it became harder to place that child through these hardships.

But she had to, for she was sworn to protect Usagi and her destiny. Nothing else mattered, everyone including Usagi's family and best friends were expandable. Focusing in on her princess, Pluto knew what she had to do. Ending her "Sight Beyond Sight," Pluto resumed her search for ChibiUsa. At least this time she knew that ChibiUsa was hidden in a construction site. Thinking about that, she realized that she should have expected that. After all, in the original timeline ChibiUsa had hidden in one of those places on that day that the four sisters and Rubeus had all gained up to get her.

Making that connection, Pluto got a hunch as to where ChibiUsa might be hiding. While the changes to the timeline had delayed that particular construction project, there was another one not too far from that location. Dashing along the rooftops to reach that location, Pluto began prepping a massive Dead Scream attack. If what she feared was true, she was likely to find Sailor Saturn awake. In which case there would only be one shot at saving the timeline: she would need to kill Saturn and then using her power to stop time bring that soul to Usagi so that she could use the power of the Ginzuishou to have it reborn. It was a risky gamble, but it was the only safe course that she could see through the rapids of Time.

Finally arriving at the suspected construction site, Pluto dropped to the ground and slowed to brisk walk. She did not want to startle anything hoping that somehow Saturn would not awake. There was always the hope that Hotaru's sickly body would prevent Saturn from being able to take hold for long. Coming up to the edge of the construction site, Pluto peered around a corner and was in for a shock at what she saw. Given Hotaru's sickly nature, she had expected just a massive release of energy from Saturn thereby quickly ending the battle. However instead she saw Hotaru actually engaged in combat with Kaolinite. That was not a good sign, as it meant that Saturn was fully in control of the girl's body and was seemingly able to overcome Hotaru's weakness. Pluto was able to take a little bit of relief in the fact that Saturn had not taken her Sailor form, nor that she was using her Silence Glaive. That gave at least a slight glimmer of hope that Hotaru still existed in there someplace.

Watching as the battle approached its climax, the time guardian held her breath. For her it was an extremely nerve racking performance as normally she had a general idea of how anything major would play out. She was quickly finding out in this fluid timeline that she did not like being like everyone else with no preknowledge of the future. Hotaru's declaration of being Sailor Saturn caused Pluto's breath to catch and she almost unleashed her attack right there. But she held off and with great relief she saw Hotaru collapse to the ground.

With the battle over, Pluto stepped out of her hiding place and walked forward to check on the two girls. First, she knelt by Hotaru and used the orb to examine the flow of time. Letting out a sigh of relief, she saw that Saturn was still asleep, barely but asleep. Only after she had determined that, did she examine Hotaru's injuries. They were quite extensive, but none appeared to be particularly life threatening. There was one nasty cut, but it looked like it had been cauterized and even slightly healed. Finished with Hotaru, she moved on to ChibiUsa. With great relief, she determined that ChibiUsa was perfectly fine, though she was likely to have a nasty headache when she awoke.

Stepping back from ChibiUsa, she spoke to the two who had come up behind her during her examination of the two girls. "These two need to be seen to. They don't have any major injuries, however the black haired one here has a fair number of minor injuries that should be bandaged." Having given her instructions, Pluto disappeared up into the skyline.

Keffer stopped walking forward when Sailor Pluto had turned to speak to the two of them. Even though he had fought along side the Sailor Senshi in battle, it was still awe inspiring to see one of them up close. Coming back to the situation at hand he realized that he had a slight problem, while the bike could fit two young girls as passengers with some difficulty there was no way he was going to get a third girl on it. However, he now had Diana and two other girls to transport to a hospital.

That particular problem resolved itself almost as soon as Keffer thought of it, as unlike Keffer Diana was not awe inspired by the presence of Pluto. Instead, she increased her pace to run towards the two prone girls, knowing for sure that one of them was ChibiUsa. While she knew that Pluto would not leave Small Lady here if she was seriously injured, she still needed to check on Small Lady's condition herself. As she made the dash, she realized that it might be a good idea to return to her feline form, it would avoid having to explain herself to ChibiUsa plus with Hotaru as well.

Feeling something warm and fuzzy nuzzling against her cheek, ChibiUsa began to stir. With a groggy voice she asked, "Oh what happened?" while she slowly sat up. Feeling a soft thud as something landed in her lap, she looked down and found Diana. Picking up her kitten she asked, "Diana, what are you doing here?"

"You must be this kitten's owner." Keffer said as he walked towards ChibiUsa. "How are you feeling? You don't look too good." Then after a moment he added, "By the way I'm Captain Keffer."

"Blah," ChibiUsa replied to the question of how she was doing, "though I think I'll be okay." I have felt worse, though telling him that would raise too many questions. "You can call be ChibiUsa-chan, and that is Hotaru." ChibiUsa said, with obvious concern towards the other girl.

Walking over to where Hotaru lay, Keffer knelt down to check on the black haired girl. Unlike ChibiUsa, Hotaru remained unconscious. However, from his first aid training, Keffer could not find anything that particularly worried him. She had a good pulse and steady breathing, though he could see some nasty cuts on her body, including many where her clothes had been torn as well. Ideally, he would have liked to have had an ambulance come get this child. However, he had forgotten his cell phone at the base and this was not an exactly good part of town to leave these two alone in while he went to call for an ambulance.

Turning back to face ChibiUsa who was still sitting on the ground, he said, "She's been very badly beat up. I am going to need to take her to a doctor. Do you think you can stand up?"

"Hai." ChibiUsa said as she pulled herself up to her feet, already feeling the power of the Moon and the Earth begin to heal her body.

With that settled, Keffer reached down and picked Hotaru up in his arms. Carrying Hotaru over to the rented bike, he waited until ChibiUsa had seated herself on the back. Then very gently he placed Hotaru down in front of ChibiUsa who immediately reached out to hold Hotaru upright in a tight but gentle hug. Picking up the helmet that Diana had worn earlier, he placed it on ChibiUsa. Then taking his own helmet he fiddled with it until he could get it to fit on Hotaru's head. With the two girls all settled, now he just had Diana to take care of. Picking up the kitten from where she was sitting watching on the ground, he placed her part of the way down his jacket so that her head just poked out and then mounted the bike himself.

ChibiUsa lost in worry over Hotaru as she was did not even think to wonder why this stranger had a second helmet and in particular a child's helmet. Instead, ChibiUsa was trying to figure out what had happened after Kaolinite had knocked her out. She had a feeling that she had been out for a quite a while and Hotaru looked far worse for the wear. ChibiUsa only partially noticed when Keffer got on the bike and more mechanically than anything else reached out with both of her arms to hold onto him, though she did have enough thought to ensure that she was holding Hotaru secure.

Giving the starter a kick, Keffer drove over the barely discernable remains of the property fence and out onto the side road. Keeping the speed of the bike slow, he proceeded down the side road and to its intersection with a main thoroughfare. Coming to a stop at a red light, he felt some movement from behind and figured that the other child might finally be coming to.

Opening her eyes, Hotaru looked around trying to figure out where she was and what was happening. That she was in an entirely different place and position than when she had passed out did not help matters. Finally feeling a warmth behind her, she craned her head to see the now smiling face of ChibiUsa.

"What's going on?" Hotaru finally asked in a weak voice once she realized that she was with ChibiUsa and therefore safe.

"I don't know what happened to the two of you, but it looks like you were at ground zero for one of those demon attacks. You have been hurt pretty badly so I am going to take you to the hospital so that they can look you over and bandage you up." Keffer said having heard Hotaru's question to ChibiUsa.

Demon attack? Wait that lady in the shadows, she was attacking us? Guess that makes sense. Hotaru's mind thought as she began to process what Keffer said in conjunction with reviewing her scattered memories. Wait did he say the hospital? "Iie! I can't go to the hospital!" Hotaru cried out

This outburst surprised Keffer and he remained stopped at the light, as it turned green. "What do you mean no? You are hurt, you need medical attention."

"Iie. My dad says that I am not to go to the doctors." Hotaru said emphatically.

Great one of those people. Keffer thought to himself, figuring that Hotaru's father most be one of those new age wackos who did not believe in modern medicine. Well if I want to be thanked instead of being chased off and accused of molesting these two children by her parents, I guess I should just do as she wishes. "Okay then we won't go to the hospital. How about giving me directions to your house?"

However, after having heard that he had acquiesced, Hotaru slipped back into unconsciousness. "I'll tell you how to get there." ChibiUsa said

_______________________________________

Fifteen minutes later saw Keffer pull up in front of a large mansion. Stopping the bike, he carefully got off before turning back around and lifting the black haired child into his arms. Once Hotaru was off the bike, ChibiUsa hopped off, while Diana wiggled her way out of Keffer's jacket. Free of that enclosure she padded over to ChibiUsa who picked her up and placed her on her head. Seeing how ChibiUsa was carrying Diana, Keffer could only shake his head slightly and smirk.

Now all set, the group walked up to the front door and ChibiUsa reached out and rang the bell, however there was no answer. ChibiUsa tried a couple of more times but again there was no answer. Keffer was a bit concerned by that, but ChibiUsa guessed that Hotaru's father and the other members of the household were just working this evening at the lab. Keffer didn't really think that to be a good excuse for leaving a child home alone, though he did agree that it was plausible. ChibiUsa figured that Hotaru must have a key to the door and so Keffer knelt down so that she could search for it.

ChibiUsa's fingers brushed along Hotaru's neck hunting for the thin chain that Hotaru wore now a days. Finding it, she took a hold of it and pulled it up and out from Hotaru's shirt. The chain held a small locket, which contained a picture of the two of them. ChibiUsa also had a matching chain and locket, they had bought them following Hotaru's first day at school. But the locket was not what ChibiUsa was looking for; instead, what interested her was the house key that was also on that chain. Slipping the chain off of her best friend, ChibiUsa unlocked the house and then slipped the necklace back over Hotaru's head.

With the door unlocked and the chain returned the black haired girl, Keffer picked Hotaru up again and followed ChibiUsa into the mansion. Walking in, he could only gawk at the size of this house, realizing that this child's family must be quite rich given how valuable land was here in Tokyo. ChibiUsa wasted no time in leading Keffer up to Hotaru's room where he then laid the young girl down on the bed. After placing Hotaru down on the bed, he took a moment to take in the room in which he now stood. It had a quite unique décor, though as he looked around he found it be also be very beautiful.

"ChibiUsa-chan I am going to go get some towels, water and bandages for Hotaru. I need you to change your friend out of these soiled clothes and into something loose fitting."

"Hai." ChibiUsa agreed.

Diana followed Keffer out of the room while ChibiUsa walked over to Hotaru's dresser. After rummaging through it for a bit she found a pair of pajamas that she thought would work. They looked like they might be a bit large on Hotaru and at the same time were beat up. While Keffer didn't say so, she had a feeling that something old would be good as well, so that any further bleeding from her friend's wounds wouldn't ruin anything good. She had enough experience with the finer details of wound bandaging from being a Senshi.

With the clothing retrieved, ChibiUsa walked back to the bed and placed them down next to her best friend. Then with extreme effort, she carefully removed Hotaru's clothes. Unfortunately, her friend's habit of wearing tight fighting clothing did not make this an easy task. But her concern and love for her friend prevented this effort from being a chore and kept her from cursing out its extreme difficulty. Then after removing the old clothes, she dressed Hotaru in the clean ones. She finished the task just as Keffer and Diana walked back into the room.

"You've got a smart kitten here." Keffer said referring to how Diana had helped him locate the necessary items. Of course, given that Diana could talk, it was not that surprising. But he was letting ChibiUsa believe that he did not know that Diana could speak. "Now lets see about getting your friend bandaged up. I'm glad to see that you changed her into some old clothing; I had forgotten to mention that to you. Normally it would be best to bandage then change her into new clothing. But that form fitting outfit that she was wearing before just wasn't conducive to that."

Walked over to the bed, Keffer placed the bowl of warm soapy water down next to Hotaru. Then sitting down beside her, he rolled up her shirt so that he could clean the long cut on her stomach. That one looked quite gruesome and he wandered how she had gotten it. But thankfully, it did not seem to be that deep, otherwise she likely would not be here right now. Slowly over the next ten minutes, her cleaned and bandaged her various wounds. Besides the extent of her injures, he was also taken back by how sickly this child in general was. He felt very sorry for this child as he observed her pale skin, braces and reduced body weight. Though as he did so, he began to understand why her father did not want her seeing doctors when she got sick or hurt. Only the regular pediatrician of this child likely would be able to properly diagnose any ailments and not be distracted by the preexisting condition.

Finishing up with the final bandage and rolling the pajama leg back down into place, Keffer turned to look at ChibiUsa. "Now ChibiUsa it's your turn."

"Huh?" the young girl asked, having completely forgotten about her own injuries.

"You've got some nasty scrapes on your body as well plus what looks like some burns on your back. And now that your friend is taken care of, we can get you all cleaned up." Keffer said while standing up. He had of course realized right away that ChibiUsa would have refused to be cleaned until after Hotaru had been taken care of.

ChibiUsa walked over to the bed and sat down where Keffer had been sitting. Picking up a clean towel, Keffer then proceeded to clean ChibiUsa's wounds. None of her wounds needed any bandaging being mostly scrapes and bruises. He had been a bit fearful of what he would find when he treated the burns on her back given that her shirt was blackened. But thankfully, she somehow had managed to get away with only first-degree burns. Finished bandaging the last of the wounds, he told ChibiUsa that she was all set. Then picking up the various supplies he brought up, he headed back downstairs to put them away.

All taken care of; ChibiUsa got up from the bed and returned to Hotaru's closest. Again rummaging through it, she found a second pair of pajamas. Though this time a set that would fit herself reasonably well. Changing into those, she walked back to the bed. Picking up the magazine and manga that were still on the bed, she put them over on Hotaru's desk. Then returning to the bed, she pulled down the covers, a task that was made a tad more difficult by Hotaru laying on them. Once that was done, she crawled into the bed with her best friend and pulled them back up.

As she lay down beside her friend, she saw Hotaru open her eyes slightly. When Hotaru saw her friend she smiled softly and ChibiUsa returned a great big one, while telling her black haired friend that everything would be all right. Hotaru appeared to accept that and smiled even more before drifting off to sleep, though this time in a nice peaceful slumber. Hotaru's contentment increased when, ChibiUsa wrapped the young girl up in a hug and her last remaining conscious thought for that evening was how warm the embrace felt.

Keffer returned from cleaning up just in time to see the little interplay between the two girls. Seeing Hotaru awake even if it was just for a few moments made him feel a lot better, as now he had no doubts that the little girl was going to recover fully. Walking over to the bed, he quietly asked ChibiUsa for her phone number so that he could call her parents. Getting the number he proceeded to head downstairs where he called the Tsukino residence and left them a message telling them that their daughter was spending the night at her friend Hotaru's place, that Hotaru had gotten hurt and ChibiUsa did not seem to want to leave her that night. Unfortunately he only got the answering machine, he would have like to have been able to talk to one of her parents.

That taken care of he took a little time to explore the downstairs of the house before settling down on a couch and turning on the TV. Though first he found a desk and took out a piece of paper, a pen and something to write on and brought those items with him to the couch. For some reason, taking care of these two girls this evening made him want to write home to his parents. So sitting down and partially watching the TV he began to write a letter home, it was his first in quite a many months. Though after this night it would become a regular and frequent occurrence.

Diana had also followed Keffer downstairs, mainly to give him any assistance should he need to find something than to look after him. She curled up beside him on the chair and watched the game show that he had turned on while quietly purring to the petting he was giving her.

Two hours later, Keffer heard the sound of the front door being unlocked. Okay now for the hard part, not to be seen to be an intruder and attacked. Keffer thought to himself. Being a military officer, his build would be one to instill concern in the Hotaru's parents under these circumstances. Getting up, he slowly walked towards the front hall while making sure to keep his hands out in front, open, and down. Diana rode on his shoulder while he walked, hoping that whoever it was who had just come home might recognize her and at least give Keffer long enough to explain.

Eudial was a bit surprised to hear the TV when she entered the house. Kaolinite did not watch TV and Hotaru should be up in bed by this time. And even if for some reason Kaolinite had not made it home to put Hotaru to sleep, Hotaru was too well behaved to be trying to sneak in some extra TV. Seeing the stranger walk into the front hall further put her on alert and she instinctively slipped into a fighting stance while at the same time slipping down the backpack she carried, opening it and reaching a hand in. Inside of the backpack, she had a mini version of her patented Fire Buster, one perfect for emergencies such as this.

But even as her fingers closed around the cold metal of the handle, she noticed Diana riding on the stranger's shoulder. Seeing ChibiUsa's kitten here caused her to relax some, she knew Diana well enough to know that the kitten only rode around on people she knew well and trusted, such as ChibiUsa, Hotaru and ChibiUsa's cousin Usagi. Diana had also just recently taken to climbing up around and hanging around herself as well. However, Diana stayed a far distance away from Kaolinite. Figuring that this stranger must be somehow related to ChibiUsa, maybe an older brother of Usagi, Eudial decided to let him explain himself before barbecuing him.

Before Eudial could ask who he was, Keffer introduced himself. "Sorry for startling you like that. My name is Keffer, Warren and I'm a captain in the air force. I'm a friend of Diana here, as I took care of her for a while when she had gotten separated from ChibiUsa some months back. As to why I'm here, I found Hotaru in a construction site injured. I think she might have gotten too close to one of the Sailor Senshi battle. I brought her and ChibiUsa back here and bandaged the two of them up. Since no one else was home, I thought it best that I stayed and waited for someone else to arrive so that I could tell them what happened and also make sure that there was someone to look out after her."

Eudial's face paled as she learned that Hotaru had been hurt. As soon as Keffer finished speaking, she headed up to Hotaru's room to check on her young charge. Entering the room she was not surprised to find ChibiUsa there curled up with her own charge, the two of them sleeping peacefully. Being careful not to disturb either girl, she checked on Hotaru's wounds.

Satisfied with Hotaru's condition she left the room, closing the door. "Arigatoo for taking care of Hotaru. We are in your dept." Eudial said as she joined Keffer in the hallway.

"Don't worry about it." The air force officer replied. "I take it your Hotaru's mom?"

Eudial just smiled and laughed at that, not that she wouldn't mind being Hotaru's mom. "Iie, I'm not. I'm just a graduate student working with professor Tomoe at Mugen Academy. This is his home and he gives me free room and board for helping to take care of it and look after his daughter." Eudial explained. While Keffer was not that familiar with Tomoe's name, he did know of the Mugen Academy and its reputation.

As the two of them arrived back by the front door, Eudial asked, "You're stationed at the Zama airbase right?"

"Hai." Keffer replied, not exactly sure what this lady was getting to. He was not surprised that she knew the name of his base, as it had pretty much become a household location with the air support for the city defense against those demons coming from that base.

"Well as it is getting quite late and will be even later by the time you get back there. You are free to spend the night here. It is the least we can offer after what you have done for Hotaru."

Keffer was going to argue that since he was on liberty he was not planning on heading back to the base this night. However, at the same time, having a place to spend the night instead of having to find motel room was an appealing idea and would leave him with more of his paycheck left. Plus it would give him the opportunity to see how the two girls were doing in the morning. "Arigatoo for the offer. I don't deserve such a kind offer, but if you insist, I'll stay. Plus I would like to see how those two are doing in the morning."

-End Chapter 28



End Notes:

Well this chapter is seeing the light of day before summer (though not by that much). And once again, what I thought was going to be short turned out to not be quite so short. Though, guess that it is good news for you my readers in that you get more story to read.

This chapter was also originally not supposed to have any fight scenes in it, but it just seems like I can't write a good Hotaru – ChibiUsa scene lately without having somebody crash their happiness.

Hope you Hotaru fans and Hotaru-ChibiUsa fans liked this chapter. And to just be clear, the Hotaru-ChibiUsa relationship is the same as that of Usagi-Rei and nothing more.

I had been looking for a way to bring Keffer back for another appearance and finally found a way.

The next chapter is well underway, though as I finish up this chapter I wonder if I need to tie up some more loose strings from this and the previous one. Well we'll see what the muses decide.

There was a reference a both another show and a manga in this chapter. You will need to be an old school fan to get the first one (think 80s action cartoons), though the second one any reader of Sohen Jump should be able to get.

As for things to look forward to in future chapters: the return of Clark and a cameo by President Jack Ryan, the final displaced person, Q going "Oh H*ll", Rubeus happy and of course the mother of all battles. Oh and Ami might come up with another experiment that has the potential for killing Sailor Senshi again, but of course what do you expect when you play with the Ginzuishou?

And now time for another fanfiction that you may want to check out: "The Secret is Out" by Comet Moon. It is deals with an interesting premise of Ikuko checking on her daughter one night and finding her missing and the resulting consequences of that. While it is a crossover, that is not till the later chapters and even if you don't want to read a crossover, I suggest that you read the first ten or so chapters at least. Another good one to check out is "I Could Only Watch" by k340029, for this one you will have to go to ASMR. And just for the record my Hotaru-Saturn scene was written before I read this story, but as you can guess I like her premise. And a good silly story to read when you don't want anything series is "Nuke 'em Till They Glow" by Benjamin A Oliver. The earlier chapter are quite amusing, though the later ones don't quite work for me as well. You can find this one at www.fanfic.net

And if you have come across any gems out there, send them my way. There are many good stories out there; unfortunately, I no longer have the time to look for them. Of course sending them my way might not be a good idea if you want me to finish this story anytime soon, as you would end up distracting me from delivering my next chapter to you my loyal readers.


Till next time, Enjoy