Chapter 5 – Some extra time
It was Friday afternoon and everybody's nerves were pretty wrecked. Michiru had returned in a few hours with a mysterious smile on her face but refused to say where she had been and what she had done there. Trunks and Goten weren't much more informative either. "We dropped her to Karin-sama's tower," was the only thing they revealed, "and then she sent us up to Dende's palace. She said that you didn't have to know what we were doing there since that demon might be able to read Hotaru's thoughts and that would ruin the whole surprise."
"What if it won't come today?" Gohan asked Hotaru. The girl shook her head slowly.
"Then it won't come at all… but it will come. I can feel it well. My head hurts…"
"So does mine, but that's only because of all that tension," Haruka remarked, coming from the laboratory. "Michiru, darnit, could you please stop being so annoyingly mysterious and tell us what you're up to?"
"Can't," the girl replied, going towards the kitchen, "like the boys said, that thing may be able to read Hotaru's thoughts and I don't want to risk with that." Her face turned serious. "It may not work but it's at least some hope…"
Hours went by. It was almost seven o'clock already and they were all pretty nervous; except for Hotaru who was even calmer than usually. Vegeta was downstairs, training. The others were lurking around the house, having nothing to do, as always when people are eagerly waiting for something. Eventually Bulma announced that she couldn't stand living in that cemetery any more and suggested that they should all go on a picnic.
"Some nice junk food will calm you all down," she claimed, "and besides, I don't want that thing in my house. I just cleaned up, you know."
"Good idea," Gohan said thoughtfully, "a king-sized pizza is exactly what I need right now."
"Let's go to McDonalds's drive-in and order a dozen family meals!" Trunks shouted excitedly. Haruka grabbed the keys Bulma had thrown her and went towards the front door.
"You have McDonalds here?" she asked Trunks as she was starting the plane. The boy seemed surprised.
"Of course. Don't you? McDonalds is everywhere!"
„So I've noticed..." the girl agreed.
The sun was setting and they were all sitting on that same field the Saiyans had landed on when they returned from Earth. Most of the food they had brought with them was long gone. Trunks and Goten were playing nearby (which meant that they were floating in the air and trying to punch each other's face while dodging the attacks), the adults were sitting on the grass and talking. They were discussing all sorts of pointless everyday topics like the founding of Capsule Corporation (Bulma: "They thought my dad was nuts, but just as long as he invented his first capsule...") and the economics of Earth (Haruka: "They seem to think that oil will last forever but I'd say that in a couple of decades I'm gonna have to start racing with electric cars.").
As the sun had completely disappeared behind the horizon, Trunks started telling ghost stories. They didn't have much effect though since they were all waiting for something that was a lot worse than bleeding headless zombies.
"All that waiting is giving me gray hair!" Bulma complained. "Can't this thing come a bit earlier?"
"Send it a written invitation and we'll see," Vegeta suggested sarcastically. The two Saiyan brats burst into laughter.
"Yeah, stick it into Hotaru's ear and it may very well get it!"
Hotaru was sitting on a nearby rock, looking at the full moon that was rising. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to the others. Suddenly she gave a very quiet moan. However, Haruka and Michiru heard it. They both instantly turned their heads to see the thin girl slowly floating up in the air. Her eyes turned completely black.
The others noticed the expression on the two girls' faces, turned to look at Hotaru as well and gasped.
"A little early, I'd say," Vegeta snorted.
"Nah... it's midnight," Bulma discovered in surprise, staring at her watch. "But I could've sworn it was a little past 9 just a little while ago..."
Hotaru's body turned into a black silhouette, then it disintegrated into black mist and wrapped up the rock she had been sitting on. Michiru's Aqua Mirror had appeared into her arms, she silently raised it towards the mist and spoke a few words so quietly that no one else heard them.
"Hotaru!" Goku took a few steps towards the rock. Haruka grabbed his arm.
"She's already gone," she said. Her voice was very sharp. "Now it's just time to fight." Her eyes were a bit concerned but she had a self-confident smile on her face.
Michiru finished whatever she had been doing and whispered to Vegeta: "Now she'll either win or die trying… listen Haruka, don't run into the fire yet. I still have my plan."
"Oh, so this time you do?" They all looked up to the rock to see the familiar, misty, black-winged, black-clad, sharp-fanged demon. The creature seemed rather happy (or at least as happy as a demon of darkness can be); it stretched its wings and cackled merrily.
"True, last time you defeated me," it grinned, "but only because that girl, that Sailor Scout of Death had the power to lock me into the Dead Zone. Now she's gone, her life brought me here and she won't be able to do anything to me this time." It smirked at the ready-to-fight Saiyans. "You wish to defeat me? Go ahead… your energy attacks won't do anything to me."
Haruka's fists clenched. "Michiru. Your plan. More or less now!"
"Don't talk to her," a calm voice said right behind her, "talk to me."
Haruka instantly turned around to look straight into Sailor Pluto's dark brown eyes. The woman nodded slightly and smiled. "Hello once again, Uranus."
"What is she, the deus ex machina??" Vegeta asked in surprise. "She always shows up when everything seems to be hopeless."
Trunks frowned with confusion. "Deus ex-what?"
Sailor Pluto glanced at Vegeta. "I never show up unless things are hopeless… otherwise you wouldn't be needing me anyway, or what?" She turned to the demon. "I am Sailor Pluto, the keeper of Space and Time. I have an offer for you."
The creature seemed amused. "Yes?"
"I'm thousands of years old," Pluto said, "older than any other creature in this world. I existed in this world long before any dreams at all. I also dream, and my dreams are the oldest ones in this Universe; ancient, powerful and for you definitely very tasty. Here's my offer: take my dreams and spare the rest of this world. That's all I'm asking."
The demon cackled. "How pathetically heroic… ancient, you say?" It seemed thoughtful for a moment.
Haruka was staring at Pluto. "Have you completely lost it? What's a human without its dreams? Even you won't be the same when you lose them and the Space and Time will collide without you… where would the big difference be???" She turned to look at Michiru. "Your big plan, eh?"
Michiru shrugged with concern. "Hers, not mine. I simply asked for her help. Karin-sama was able to contact her."
Pluto didn't seem concerned at all. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing." She looked at the demon. "What do you say? I'm offering you a real gourmet food here."
The creature had come to some decision in the meantime and now had a mean grin on its face. "Fine. We have a deal. I'll take your dreams and spare the rest of this world."
"Don't bel…" The shout froze straight into Goten's mouth as Pluto waved her long scepter without even looking back. The woman took a few steps forward and looked up at the demon that grinned again and reached out its hand. A black whirl of mist surrounded Sailor Pluto's head.
Everyone was quiet for a minute. Pluto didn't even move, she was simply standing there with a mysterious smile on her face. The demon didn't move either, it just kept grinning. The black mist whirled around the woman's head… and suddenly turned white.
"I didn't even hope you'd fall for something so lame," Pluto said with a sharp voice as the grin on the creature's face quickly turned into surprise and then pure fear. Sailor Pluto's smile was also gone, she raised her staff and the Garnet Orb started to glow.
"Now it's gonna scream "nooooooooo!" and disappear or blow up," Trunks whispered to Goten who nodded. It was obvious that Pluto was now in control.
"No! It can't be! No! No! Nooooooo!" The creature spread its arms and fell back, shrunk a little and then disappeared like smoke that comes out of a chimney. Trunks and Goten grinned at each other.
"They really love clichés," Gohan remarked in surprise. "Well done!" Goten went up to Pluto who was now sitting on the grass and breathing hard. He poked her shoulder and as the woman looked up, the kid pointed at his opened mouth. Pluto grinned a bit sheepishly.
"Sorry…" She waved her scepter again, making the sentence in Goten's mouth unfreeze and burst out as "…ieve it!!!" The kid took a deep breath and announced:
"You were really cool!"
Pluto smiled and stood up again. "Thanks." She looked at the others. "I bought you some time but I'm not exactly sure how much. It won't fall for the same trick again though, so be careful." She raised her staff, preparing to return to her duties.
"Hold your horses," Vegeta snapped. "What exactly did you do and what do you mean "you bought us some time"?"
Sailor Pluto stopped. "Well, you see, I may be a human but I'm very old and I possess the powers of Time, therefore I have a little more control over myself than the rest of you. When it tried to drain my dreams out of me, I simply blocked its powers and then made them to suck its own energy out. It will regain its powers eventually and then it will be really mad… but if you hurry, you will be able to summon the Dragonballs by then and these will help you to defeat it."
"You think Eternal Dragon Shenlong is able to destroy it?" Bulma asked. Sailor Pluto glanced at her.
"Come on… the creature is nothing but a demon of darkness. Most of them are practically harmless; this one's just a bit too… ambitious. One magical dragon and poof, there goes the demon. Your materialistic powers may be worthless when fighting it but hey, that doesn't mean that it can't be destroyed."
Goku gasped; he had just gotten an idea. "Say guys, when even Shenlong would be able to destroy it then what about Porunga? The Namekian dragon? He's even more powerful!"
Vegeta glared at him. "Good luck contacting the Namekians with your messed-up translocation powers…"
The Saiyan blinked. "Yeah… never thought of that. Bulma, how's your research doing? There are three weeks till the Dragonballs regain their powers, if I'd be able to contact Namek before that, we'd get rid of that demon earlier. We don't know when it's planning to return, y'know…"
"And how it's planning to return," Haruka added. "Hotaru's gone and I haven't heard of any other Sailor Soldiers of Death. Where exactly did you send it anyway?"
Pluto shrugged. "No idea. I didn't send it anywhere, it escaped by itself. If it happens to find a place full of dreams though then it will return earlier."
Goten pulled Pluto's arm. "Say, if you're able to stop time then why didn't you just freeze that thing until the Dragonballs are back in action?"
Pluto laughed. "Well, one time-frozen demon standing on a rock wouldn't be suspicious at all, would it? Besides, the freezing doesn't last that long and last but not least, it's forbidden. And may very well kill me when I use it. No, like I said, I only bought you some time, and possibly not that much. I'll get going now."
"Hold on!" Bulma shouted. "I have two questions. Goku mentioned something about there being too much magical aura in that house where he tried to do the instant translocation. And that you may be the reason… do you think it's possible?"
"That thanks to my aura the translocation messed up?" Pluto seemed thoughtful. "Maybe." She looked at Goku. "In that case the only cure would be more training. You need to work on your concentration. But that may not be the reason. What's the second question? I'm really in a hurry now."
Bulma frowned, looking at her long green hair and brown skin. "To make a long story short… how come you're thousands of years old and look like that?"
Sailor Pluto laughed. "I prefer to keep that as my little professional secret, thank you…" The Garnet Orb started to glow and on the next second the woman was gone.
"Can we go home now?" Trunks asked with a yawn, breaking the silence. "I'm sleepy."