Broken Melody

Chapter Two: Undone

Disclaimer: If I owned this I wouldn't be writing fanfic now would I?

You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.

-Barbara Hall

The home of the Outer Senshi was a vast mansion on the outskirts of Tokyo. A classical design with sprawling grounds, it afforded the secretive group the privacy that they craved and needed, given their "night" jobs. The younger Inner Senshi continued to be impressed by what the Outers called home, despite having come over numerous occasions to either train or just hang out. Today, however, was a different story. Today they were taking their destinies into their own hands.

Setsuna led the sombre group into the basement of the estate, where she had covered all the windows, swathing the room in darkness only broken by several strategically placed candles. Pillows lay scattered in a loose circle on the floor and there was a faint hint of incense in the air. Haruka raised her eyebrow in question, "Isn't this a little much, Setsuna?"

Setsuna merely gave her a tight smile, "It's necessary, trust me. This is a very sensitive spell. I need everyone to select a pillow and settle in. Once the ritual is started, it can't be stopped, we'll be out for a couple of hours at least."

"Sooo," Minako cut in, trying to lighten the situation, "If you need to go to the bathroom go now?"

Everyone groaned at her poor attempt at mirth. "If we're quite ready then?" Setsuna sighed.

Nods came from everyone and the girls seated themselves as comfortably as possible. "All right," Setsuna began, "Everyone hold hands and clear your minds. Listen to only the words that I am saying. Focus on them, repeat them in your minds and in your hearts: Eles an chronos. Helet an pacia. An chronos est helenest pacia vacarre."

Once the girls had the incantation down, they continued to chant until one by one, the slipped from the circle, falling back into the pillows they had chosen, lost in the past they had once forgotten.

Rei

"My Lady? My Lady, all you alright?"

Rei opened her eyes and turned to face the person addressing her. Unsure of what exactly was happening, she was surprised when she answered the woman before her. "Yes Phobos, I'm fine. My mind just wandered for a moment."

"You haven't forgotten your meeting have you?" Phobos asked her mistress worriedly.

Rei smiled at her companion, "No I haven't and I wasn't hiding from it either. I was just on my way now."

"Very good my lady," Phobos curtsied, "Would you like me to accompany you?"

"No, that will be all," Rei found herself replying, "This meeting will probably take some time. Why don't you find Deimos and get yourselves something to eat?"

Phobos curtsied again and hurried off down the hallway. As Rei headed in the opposite direction, she realized that she was observing her past from her own point of view. She had thought she would experience it like a movie but she supposed that this made more sense. She decided to sit back and go with whatever happened.

At this point, Rei came to a large set of oak doors engraved with the various planetary symbols. Placing her hand upon the symbol of Mars, the doors glowed for a moment then swung open. Inside was a round chamber with nine large chairs surrounding a circular table. Each chair was designated to a planetary official, and thusly decorated in that planet's symbols. Rei sat in the one meant for herself and placed her hand on the red jewel embedded in the armrest. It began to glow. Moments later, the blue jewel on the seat designated to Mercury began to glow and a holographic image of the Lady Mercury appeared, seated as Rei was. "Enya," Lady Mercury acknowledged Rei with a tilt of her head, "Early as always."

"Of course Hermia," Rei replied, wondering if Ami was also present at this particular memory, "I do have a reputation to keep up."

One by one, the jewels on the remaining chairs began to glow as the other members of the council came online. Only one chair remained dark, the one belonging to the Earth. The Lady Venus, commonly known as Aphrodite, who had called this meeting of council, began the proceedings, "You are all probably wondering why I have asked for this meeting, and hopefully you will all agree with what I would like to share. As you may or may not know, I have formed a friendship with the Moon Queen. The Terran one. Her people are actually quite like the Venusians and they have a tendency to keep an eye on the Terrans, which, as we all know, is a good thing to do. In any case, the Moon Queen is with child and I thought that we could give her a gift. She has some latent illusionary abilities which are fine for minor defence but I figured that we could come up with something for her that would make her less dependent on us for her satellite's survival."

"Maybe a resonance crystal to enhance her existing abilities," Hermia mused.

"Are we sure that's a good idea?" Rei heard herself ask, "Can we really trust this Moon Queen?"

"Of course we can trust her," Aphrodite replied indignantly, "I trust her...and if an empath cannot trust a person who can?"

"Or even just a shield around her moon..." Hermia continued muttering to herself, turning possibilities over in her mind.

"Look," Lady Jupiter, Ayla, interrupted, "It's the first time in centuries that a baby has been born to planetary nobility, so we're expected to present her with something, why not something useful?"

"I still think this is a bad idea," Rei said crossly.

"Well, I think it has merit," Lady Pluto spoke up after weighing the options and possibilities herself. "And Hermia was onto something with the idea of a resonance crystal, if we could tune it to her, particularly while she is with child, we could ensure that only she or someone of her bloodline would be able to use it. We wouldn't have to worry about it falling into the wrong hands."

"Exactly!" Aphrodite said gleefully, "Hermia, Sophie, you're both geniuses! This crystal thingy will be perfect...except...how will we make it?"

AN. So here it is...chapter 2...it is currently 2am, I'm tired and I should be marking exams...hopefully I'll get another chapter of this out and one of Brothers and Sisters within two weeks. No promises though, there are exactly two weeks left of school then I'm unemployed for two months so there may be more this summer...review...it might encourage me to blow off my marking and write some more.