--Prayer Of The Faithless, Chapter Two--
A sharp wind howls across Rei Hino's face as she struggled to find Usagi and the others, who have gone ahead of her; yet, no matter where she goes, she always ends up being farther behind. At last, she sees Usagi's outline - or at least, she hopes so.
"Usagi!" Rei cries. "Wait for me!"
As she moves toward the figure however, Rei suddenly becomes surrounded by a white fire. She tried to run through it, but the flames just grew larger. Out of nowhere, Rei hears a voice:
"Warriors from another world, you must save us!"
Rei turned around.
"Who are you?" she cried. "Tell me!"
But the voice only repeats itself:
"Warriors from another world, you must save us!"
"But - But I don't know how!" Rei cried.
The voice remains silent for a few moments, but then, it speaks again:
"Too much blood has already been shed. If you do not come and help us, everyone will die."
Rei suddenly wakes up panting and dripping in cold sweat. As she wiped the sweat from her forhead with the back of her right hand, she sits up in bed and begins to think.
"What is it with this dream?" she said aloud. "Who or what on earth is summoning us?"
Suddenly, Rei heard a noise comming from outside. Curious, she walks outside & notices Usagi, Minako, Matoko, and Ami looking up towards the sky.
"What are you all looking at?" Rei asked.
Usagi heard her voice and looked at her, chipper (yet often oblivious) as always.
"Hi, Rei! We came over to see how you were doing, but your grandfather told us you were asleep, and we were leaving when - "
"-The sky! It's changing!" Ami cried. "It's turning silver and white for some reason."
"Hey!" Usagi said, pouting. "I was just about to tell her!"
"Wait: silver and white?" Rei said, ignoring Usagi's whining. She looked upwards and it was just as they had said: the sky was changing colors. 'Maybe - Maybe it's a sign from that dream I've been having,' she thought. Rei was about to say something when everyone suddenly was surrounded by a large white fire.
"The dream!" Rei suddenly cried out, then said, "I'll explain it to you later" once she saw the others' confused looks on their faces. A voice, the same as in the dream, spoke to the Sailor Soldiers:
"Warriors from another world, you must save us! Too much blood has already been shed. If you do not save our world, everyone will die."
"What are you saying!" Minako said. The voice, however, said nothing.
The flames grew larger and brighter until it finally engulfed the girls, then vanished.
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While at home, Michiru suddenly gasped in shock while she is looking at her mirror in the bedroom: for a moment, she thought she saw a white and silver flame.
"What the hell is going on?" she wondered. As she looked at her mirror again, she screams.
Haruka immediately runs into the bedroom.
"Michiru! What happened?" Haruka asked.
"T - The mirror.." Michiru mumbled. Haruka glanced over at the mirror and was as surprised as she was: it was dripping in blood.
"I don't know what this means, but something is about to happen," Michiru said. "Of that I am certain."
"I agree," said a familiar voice.
Michiru & Haruka turned around to see Setsuna & Hotaru in the doorway.
"They have already gone," Hotaru said. "The Sailor Soldiers from the inner planets have already gone to end the crisis."
Setsuna nodded. "I have noticed a great shadow on the earth, but I don't know where it's comming from or who or what is causing it. We have to find the others and help them."
"But we don't even know where they are," Haruka replied.
All of a sudden, the room became engulfed in a white flame.
"Everyone, let's transform now!" Setsuna cried.
"Wait!" Hotaru said. "This flame will not hurt us. It is here to take us to destroy the cause of the crisis."
Once again, a voice spoke to them:
"Warriors from another world, you must save us! Too much blood has been shed. If you do not save us, everyone will die."
Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna stood there in shock, while Hotaru seemed oddly calm.
"What should we do?" said Haruka.
"Listen to the flame and trust it to lead us to the crisis," Hotaru replied. Michiru nodded in agreement, as did Setsuna. Haruka, though still suspicious, nodded as well. As before, the white flames engulfed them all, then vanished.
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Harry, Hermione, and Ron had been waiting in the forest for something to happen, but it was all quiet: far too quiet.
"I don't think that spell worked," Ron said. "You sure we did everything right?"
"I know for a fact that we did!" Hermione hastily replied. "I remembered every single detail of the spell!"
"Then why hasn't anything - "
Ron was suddenly cut off when a large dome of white flames suddenly shot up from the ground.
"What the bloody hell is it?" he cried.
The flame seemed to have read Ron's mind, for moments later, it vanished: in the middle of the circle where the flame was, there were nine young women. Ron just blinked.
"Bloody hell. Who are you all then?" Ron asked.
"These must be the people that the spell summoned," Harry said.
"S-Summoned?" Usagi said, standing up as she did so. "So, you didn't tell us that everyone would die if we didn't help you?"
Harry stepped forward. "I - I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," he said.
Ami cleared her throat and began to speak:
"She means that before we appeared here, we heard a voice say, 'Warriors from another world, you must save us! Too much blood has already been shed. If you do not save our world, everyone will die.'
Hermione shook her head. "Yes, we did summon you here, but we weren't even sure if the spell would actually work," she admitted. "It's just - we've been fighting this enemy, we've had so many of our friends die and we needed some help." Her eyes quickly filled with tears.
"W - We're sorry if we did anything wrong but - "
"It's okay," Usagi said. "We understand and as odd as this situation is, we'll help. Right, guys?"
Everyone nodded, which brought a smile to Harry's face.
"Then let's introduce ourselves: I'm Harry Potter, this is Ron Weasley, and this charming young lady is Hermione Granger," Harry said.
"Nice to meet you all!" Usagi replied. "I'm Usagi Tsukino, this is Rei, Mina, Matoko, Ami, Hotaru, Michiru, and Haruka!" All other greetings were underway when suddenly, they heard a woman's voice:
"At last, I've found you!"
Everyone turned around and saw a woman with silver hair & green eyes. Her robes were the color of blood as a wicked smile crept across her face.
"Who are you?" Hermione cried.
"Me? I'm just the one who's going to kill you all and take the Scarred One," she replied. "But since we're being formal, my name is Mikiko. Now, if you'll just stand to the side, I might let you die quickly. After all, no enemy can stand before the Dark Queen."
'Dark Queen..?' Harry thought.
Mikiko quickly swooped down towards Harry, but Hermione quickly stood in front of him. With her wand pointed at Mikiko, she cried: "IMOBULUS!"
Mikiko threw an attack at the others in the form of dark spheres. Hermione stood there for a moment in shock.
"How can it be that she's immune to this spell?" she said. "And how can she fly without a broom?"
"Surrender to me in the name of the Dark Queen!" Mikiko cried as she attacked again.
Usagi looked at the other Sailor Soldiers: if they had any chance of survival, they had to transform. Ami knew what she was thinking, but she turned to Usagi and said, "We can't. We don't want those people or our enemy to know that we have powers. We have to get them out of here for now and come up with a plan."
Usagi said nothing for a moment, then spoke:
"Ami, I know what you mean, but when someone is in need, I just can't ignore that. We were called here to help others and that's exactly what we'll do. Everyone, get ready to transform now!"
"Um - transform? Are you all an Animagus or something?" Ron asked. Luckily for them, they would soon find out.
--End of Chapter Two--