Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or anything attributed to the manga or anime.
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All the scouts were stunned by this new soldier. Who was she and how did she have the power to put a large group of people to sleep where they stood? And how was she sure that they would be safe there, since the Youma had not been taken care of and may use the death of some of those inert humans as punishment for attacking it. "Girls wake up! We only have so long before the spell wears off and these people will again be in the middle of the fight. Trust me that they are safe where they stand!" yelled the girl in the shadows, running towards them.
Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter looked at each other and then back at the girl, two new people to deal with, and a large monster that appeared to be as dumbfounded as the girls. It had lost it's source of energy, and almost felt trapped by the spell that had been cast on the humans. The girls decided that introductions could be made later, after the youma was dispatched to where it came from. "Lets go!" yelled Mars.
It was as though someone turned on a light in the girls. They all worked in complete harmony with each other, seeming to know which spell to cast to weaken the monster and in what order, while defending each other. Finally, when the monster had been beaten to an inch of it's life, the newest scout screamed "Healing Animation!" With that the creature turned back into the tire it had been originally and the threat was over. All five of the girls stood looking at each other, unsure what to do next. "I'm very proud of you all," started the powerful scout. She looked identical to Sailor Moon, but with a different outfit and a different attitude. She seemed to ooze grace and peace, even throughout the vicious fight with the youma. "You have all started to tap into your protection powers much more efficiently than your predecessors. Soon you will ascend to your former glory and be able to again protect the entire universe from evil threats. You will not see me again unless a dire emergency. Peace and wonder continue to work in you." And with that she started to walk away.
"Wait!" yelled Ami. "Who are you?"
She slowed and looked back at the scout of intelligence. "You know who I am, even if you don't want to realize it. Search your souls to find the answers you seek. You have them all trapped inside." And with that she just disappeared in a shower of sparkles.
Mars looked at the girls and knew they had to leave. She had an idea of what was going on, whether that was because of her experience earlier that week or some other reason, but this was not the place to discuss it. "Girls, lets get out of here. The people are starting to wake up and will have questions." She looked at the new girl, who had retrieved the white cat who seemed identical to Luna. "I would ask that you come with us. I know we have a bunch of questions for you."
The girl with the big red bow just smiled. "That was the plan all along Mars. There is much that I have to tell you and now just as many questions. Just lead the way."
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As the girls got back to the temple they were full of questions. They had all dehenshined along the way, and had discovered that the new scout, Sailor Venus, was Mina Smith. The name was familiar to all 3 girls as the most recent model for the Sailor V manga series. She had been brought back to Japan by that company after years of living in England.
"When did you find out that you had your special abilities?" asked Lita. This was all still so new to her it was hard to imagine someone as proficient in it as Mina. "Artimus found me when I was twelve and had just started looking into modeling. We started fighting crime in London almost immediately, but he was fond of reminding me that this was just practice, that my real tests would be much harder once I had found my team, you guys. He explained as much as he could remember from the Silver Millennium, which wasn't as much as I would have expected," she answered while glancing at the white cat that was busy quietly talking with Luna who had been his partner in the past.
Rei was extremely interested in what Mina had learned from the old cat, but she was very concerned for Serena. The girl who had forewarned all the scouts of the imminent youma did not show up to help fight, or now at the temple when they were discussing the events at the battle. She did not know yet that they had found the last of the inner senshi, their given title from the Silver millennium. And what was most troubling was that they could not reach her on the communicator. She had never ignored a call before, why start now when she had been so vigilant in everything else that had happened since finding Lita? Her other concern was that Darien, otherwise known as Tuxedo Mask had not come to the fight. They were really not sure as to how he knew of the battles, especially because he did not have a communicator and his identity was only recently discovered. The cats did not remember him from the past either, which was also troubling. Was he really part of the Negaverse, or was he simply an unknown factor that had arisen in time of need?
Rei was not the only one who was concerned. Luna knew that Serena was on the way to the battle earlier that day. For her not to have arrived was very frightening. Luna jumped on to Amy's lap just then and said, "Girls, I know you are all as concerned as I am, and hiding it very well, but we need to find Serena. She knew that you all would be fighting, was on her way in fact, and for her to have not arrived to help is very disturbing indeed, and her not arriving just makes the situation that much more perilous."
"I agree," said Lita. "Before I would have said that she got lost or something, but whatever was awoken in her after the fight with Jedite would not allow her to be this tardy. Something must be wrong!" Lita emphasized the last statement with slamming her fist into her open palm.
Amy looked slightly sheepish. "I have already run a scan for her. She's not in the city. I was hoping she would somehow get here, but without a reading there is no way that we will be able to find her. Somehow she vanished." And with that statement Amy looked away at the wall. She had not wanted to tell the scouts this troubling news. She was scared pandemonium would break loose.
But instead of the outburst that Amy had expected the girls just sat in stupor. Their friend was missing more than they had suspected. To not be in the city at all was very frightening indeed. And if Amy did not know how to find her, that was even worse. "Can't you try again? Maybe you got the energy signature wrong? Maybe that changed in the last week with her composure," asked Lita.
Amy was impressed by the ingenuity of her friends. "I'm impressed that you would think of that Lita, but I have already changed her signature, and you are right that it did change. She seems to be becoming someone else, and her signal is constantly changing, but for some reason the computer has been compensating for the changes just fine and I've never had a problem till this afternoon in locating any of you girls if I needed. In fact, all of our signatures are always changing, more with each fight that we have. The encounter with the mystery scout has extremely changed our readings, they are much stronger than they have been in the past, but Serena wasn't there and therefore would not have the strong change yet."
Just then the door swung open, and Darien was carrying an unconscious Serena.
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Sorry for the wait. I haven't been inspired for awhile, and I'm trying very hard to get some new chapters out for this story. I thank you all for your patience. Firelightz