The mists of time swirled as restlessly as ever as two of the sailor senshi walked through the damned Halls of Chronos. The first, the taller of the two, had short sandy hair and navy eyes that darted around suspiciously, seemingly looking for anything out of the ordinary. She seemed unusually tense and held a glowing sword in her right hand. If it hadn't been glowing, you would have seen the multicoloured semi-precious gems embedded into the sword.
The second of the senshi was smaller and had hair and eyes that reflected both her emotions and power. Calmness: a collection of many variations of turquoise. However her normally calm gaze had become stern and hardened as she stared into a navy coloured mirror that bore the radiant symbol of Neptune.
"So, you are here," a voice spoke from within the mists. A woman came into view. Her hair was of such a shade that one could say it was black, another could say it was green and there would be no argument. Her eyes stood in severe contrast to her hair, as they were red as blood and icy and wise infinitely beyond her external youth.
"Why have you summoned us here Pluto?" the smaller senshi inquired. "The oceans are restless; something is soon to happen, something that shall affect the fate of more than one world. This much the Mirror has shown me, but as for the rest, I don't know…."
"What does this have to do with us?" the other asked bluntly. "Is there a new enemy? If so why are you warning us now; you never did in the past."
The third of their company spoke as she fixed her red eyes on those of her companions. She sighed deeply and spoke, "No, Uranus, Neptune, there is no new enemies as of now; there is no threat to us all. However if we do not act quickly then a tragedy will strike us and one of our number will be lost… and so will another. But if I work quickly enough than two lives will be saved… two cursed lives made more sufferable…"
"But Pluto, what does this have to do with us?" the taller, Uranus, repeated her question, slightly annoyed by Pluto's cryptic response.
"It has everything to do with us," Pluto replied, "But I will have to leave this post in order to carry out what I am obligated do. I want you two to take my position as guardian while I am gone."
Uranus frowned, "Haven't you left the Gates unattended before though?"
"No" Pluto replied, "I left a shade of my soul here then, but since the fight against Chaos I lost my power to do that; the stint as a servant of evil – albeit an unwilling one – caused the Council of Time to relieve that power from me." She paused and looked up at her companions. "Please, I beg of you."
Neptune nodded silently and Uranus followed her lead; Pluto was not one to beg for anything, so the circumstances they were in must have been direr than either on of them could ever know.
"Thank you," Pluto whispered. "Here, let me show you both whom I must help; then you may begin to understand what I must do, who I must help, and why it affects you both as deeply as it does me." She raised one hand and her garnet orb began to shine, emanating a series of images, all of which showed one girl. She seemed quite small for her age and had blonde hair and dark eyes: she also seemed depressed and silent. "This is Sohma Kisa; she is the Tiger."
"The Tiger?" Uranus questioned.
"The Tiger of the zodiac: she is cursed. Cursed to be possessed by the Tiger's spirit," Pluto replied. "Now let me show you the second whom I must help." One again images came from the Garnet Orb, but this time Uranus and Neptune knew exactly whom the girl in question was.
"So now you see. I must save both the Tiger and the Firefly," Pluto whispered.
The other two senshi nodded, sighing; they knew exactly what would happen if Pluto did not help. She had already died three times and been reborn; she would die again, but not if they could help it. They had to save the lives of the Tiger, Sohma Kisa, and the one they considered their own… the Firefly, Tomoe Hotaru.
Hotaru sat on the sofa staring mindlessly at whatever dumb game show was playing on the TV. She was so bored; she wished Rini would come back; she had always had boring holidays since her pink-haired friend had returned to her own time. Well she got to see the Inner Senshi sometimes, but nothing else really. She didn't have any friends at school and was sure that there was no way she would be able to make any anyway; she always seemed to scare others away. She didn't understand it. Her healing power was good. Why did people think she could hurt them with it?
Hotaru turned back to the TV in her boredom and flicked the channel. Great, yet another game show: she sighed in boredom. She really wasn't in the mood to be doing anything that required thinking, so TV seemed the perfect answer for once. Nothing unusual had happened that day; no youma had appeared for years, since Galaxia had been defeated. In fact, Hotaru mused, the only youma around were the kids at her school. She sighed at how bitter and jaded her thoughts seemed but still that acrimony didn't change the fact that it was true.
She sighed again and rested her head on the arm of the sofa. Thank whatever gods there were that spring break had finally started. If she had had to have another day like the ones she had recently been forced to undergo… She shook the thoughts out of her head once more; it was no use to dwell on the utter stupidity of people's minds.
"Maybe I'll be allowed to move to another school for eighth grade" Hotaru mused aloud. It would be great to do that, but she doubted that it would ever happen.
"Well maybe you will" a voice replied. Hotaru's violet eyes widened; that couldn't the person she thought it was… could it? She turned around and saw Setsuna standing in the doorway of the living room.
"Setsuna-mama!" Hotaru said feeling a true smile grace her face for the first time in months. "What are you doing back? I didn't think you were coming back from the Gates for another month or so…"
Setsuna smiled slightly and shook her head.
"I'm not going to be home for long," the enigmatic woman replied quietly and Hotaru's face fell. "But then again neither are you," she added.
"What?" Hotaru asked quietly.
"I'm not staying here for much longer and neither are you," Setsuna replied. "We're leaving."
"Are we leaving Japan?" Hotaru asked curiously.
"No and yes," Setsuna replied and Hotaru saw that she had that look on her face that plainly said 'I know a lot more than you do about this but you'll find out soon.' Hotaru hated it when Setsuna got that look on her face; it was infuriating.
"Go and pack a couple of bags; we leave tomorrow," Setsuna said, still not telling Hotaru where exactly they were going.
Hotaru sighed and resigned herself to the fact that she would have to wait a while to find out. She turned the TV off, deciding that anything would be preferable to watching another game show, and went to pack her bags for well, wherever it was they were going.
It was cold: that was the only thought that went through Hotaru's mind. It was really cold. She reached over to grab her comforter and found it wasn't there. Neither was her pillow. Then her mind registered that she was on the floor.
Hotaru sat up and blinked, holding a hand to her head as she tried to figure out what the heck was going on.
The door opened and Setsuna came into Hotaru's room.
"Are you still not up?" the crimson eyed time guardian asked. "I've been calling you for twenty minutes."
"Why are we getting up so early anyway," Hotaru grumbled, standing up and glaring at her foster parent as her mind registered that not only was it cold but it was still dark outside too.
"Don't you want to go?" Setsuna asked, even though she knew that Hotaru would come without a second thought.
"Go where?"
"To the place I mentioned yesterday."
Hotaru remembered then, and she also remembered that Setsuna had never actually said where they were going or indeed when they were going. Grumpily, Hotaru though about this until a voice rang out, breaking her train of thought.
"So, do you want breakfast or not?"
Hotaru groaned; wherever they were going it had better be worth it.
Hotaru shivered as they stood outside in the garden in the freezing morning air. She was annoyed as she noticed that Setsuna seemed completely unaware of the cold, though she was dressed more for summer than spring. She seemed unaffected by the unusually cold March weather.
"We're ready," Setsuna whispered as though she had heard some sort of signal.
"Ready for what?" Hotaru asked as Setsuna grabbed her hand. Setsuna began to speak in a completely alien tongue, which Hotaru somehow knew was as ancient as the Time Guardian herself.
"Hold on to me tightly," Setsuna said as she stopped chanting. Hotaru was about to ask why but before she could she started feeling extremely dizzy. She tried to close her eyes but before she could, an abyss of total nothingness surrounded her.