Rio realized who it was. It was her aunt Paige. She asked Harley-Quinn to relay a message of call back with Paige. Aunt Paige was standing at the doorway of the porch. She did not want to be bothered with Rio's problems. She was very tired of dealing with her niece. She was going to have her leave as soon as possible.
"It's your niece…" the Joker said as he slowly started to walk down the stairs from the porch. "Rio…is it?"
"Yes…" Rio breathed loudly. The air seemed to warm up a bit as she told the blue dragon that she was going to take back the two dragons back to Poal and Kathlena's house. Then, she glanced at her aunt, "It's me…Rio…your little thorn!"
"I can't really talk to you right now…how about sometime next week!' Paige's answer was to the quick.
Rio thought, "it's just as well…if I talked to Kathlena…she was a great ear to talk to…anyway. Grandfather and Paige had a fight about the wedding!"
"Sure…sorry to have bothered you!" Rio said. She started to back away slowly. She was keeping an eye on the Joker. She did not want any pranks pulled on her. The Blue dragon was going to be the good little solider and protect his future queen!
Rio turned her back towards the Joker. The dragon craned it neck around Rio's neck as sort necklace. Its head was now rested on Rio's left shoulder. It was hummed a growl with a very protective eye at the Joker. The Joker did not want to take any further chances as he heard a faintly rustling of the leaves from a nearby bush. He told Harley-Quinn and Paige to go back into the house. The fight had gone out of the Joker for now. He had to be careful on where he was going to fight or not with Rio. she was too good of a cool fighter to be messing with. He also was unnerved a little by the idea of another dragon might be in the bushes just waiting for an opened ended slip up.
It seemed like Tenchi was hopping to see the weather to change. He was not upset with the rain coming off and on with the day, the forecast on the radio did mentioned that there was going to wet day. Ryoko and Ayeka were actually busy with Sasami in the attic. They had found an old trunk that someone had left.
Sasami was going to be out for a while. Mishio and Keyone were also awestruck by the old trunk. They were hoping to find old treasures. They were about to be spurred on about.
Ayeka was the first one to up in the attic. She had a large flash and a pair of gloves. She did want to her hands dirty if she was going to open the trunk. She heard the noises of the house as it settled from a large gust of wind. It had been windy since the morning. She had turned on a light from one end of the attic. She looked around at the nearly empty room. There was a couple of old, dust covered chairs sitting in the middle with a large rolled up rug which sat across the chairs. Outside pf that there was the truck. Ayeka stood there for a minute, just staring that the chairs and trunk. There was a feeling intruding. Ayeka did want to do this at the time without someone with her. She had a very strange feeling about if she opened it alone, then unseen forces could be unleased to an innocent world. Ryoko was a little doubtful at Ayeka's ideas. She was going to humor the princess just make her feel a little more comfortable. The two girls had asked Tenchi, but he said he needed to go to the DVM to have his green card reissued. He was not going to long, but if situations got out of hand, to call him on the commutator that Washu had invented.
She had entered the attic from the second floor which had a small staircase. There was a door which had been closed off for a couple of months. There was no real need for an attic. TEnchi and the girls had all they needed in the house. Washu had the knack of using sudo-space to have her own larger than life living questers. The attic was very plain with no walls and just some plan hard wood for the flooring. There were a few boxes that Tenchi had used for clothes and things that they had accumulated.
Outside of the boxes, there was a large old trunk. Sasami was the first to find. She was putting her winter clothes away until they were needed again. She told Ayeka and Tenchi about the trunk. Washu looked at the trunk with the use of a computer to see if there was anything that could harm them. She was surprised to see there was a stack of books and smaller boxes inside of the trunk. Washu had also made a passkey to get inside of the trunk. Ayeka had the key for now.
Ryoko came a few minutes later to see what Ayeka had found. Ayeka was now walking towards a single light bulb on a string,. The house was very old and proved to be a real big mystery. She had the flash light in her one hand. Ryoko said, "Where is the rest of the gang?"
Ayeka pulled at the string when she said, 'Tenchi is at the DMV. Sasami will come up after she is out with Skuld and Reenie. Mishio and Keyone are coming up after they are done with their dishes."
"What about Washu?" Ryoko said. She has entered the attic. She looked around for a chair. She did not find anything to sit on.
Ayeka was sitting on the floor. She had the key in her hands., she said, 'Washu is coming. There are the pictures from her scanner. She had some idea what was inside. there are books. By the look of the trunk…I believe they are very old!"
"Salem is old, but not like Tokyo…" Ryoko said. She stopped in front of Ayeka and sat down next to her.
There was a loud yell…. both Ayeka and Ryoko believed the person who was yelling sounded lot like Mishio. The two of Maski clan had talked about the idea of who was more of a klutz, Serena or Mishio. The verdict was still out. Keyone could be heard as she said when she climbing up the stairs, "What did I just got telling you!"
A whinny Mishio said, "I'm sorry!'
"Serena is a little more on the graceful side!" Ryoko sighed. She knew Serena was getting less and less of a klutz with a few classes of poise.
"And who is behind it. Rio…rio's Uncle Ziegfeld and her Aunt Sophia had their hands in that…she is a great dancer!" Ayeka agreed.
"there is more to life than just comic books and ice cream sodas!" Ryoko sighed. She and Ayeka both her a couple of pairs of feet climbing the stairs.
Keyone was coming up the stairs. She was holding a large flash-light. She noticed Ayeka and Ryoko on the other side of the room. She walked over to where Ryoko was sitting. She said, "Washu is coming, but she had a few things to get done first. She knew there was a great deal of work between getting ready for classes at the high school and just her normal experiments."
"Oh…boy. There is going to be a lot of expositions this coming summer and there are some are going to be any fireworks behind them!" Ryoko winced.
"Keyone…?" Mishio asked as she entered the room from the stair case.
"What?" Keyone asked when she turned to see Moshio walking up towards her.
"Are there any spiders?" the blond police officer said. She hated spiders and other bugs despite being an officer of the law.
"I'm not sure…I just want to see what's in the trunk," Keyone sighed. She was not happy with Mihshio's little questions of spiders. She had a feeling there was more to the house than a mere trunk.
"Washu had made a key and she gave it to me. I hope if there is something…we can figure out who owned the trunk!" Ayeka said. Slowly she got up from her perch on the trunk. She bent down after she moved over to the floor, After a minute of looking for the key, she took out the key from her shirt pocket. She said the key slid into the keyhole very carefully, "Here goes the lock!"
Ryoko knew there was no money or real valuable items in the trunk. She and other heard the key opening the lock. Then, she held her breath as the trunk lid was popped opened. Keyone flipped on the light to her flashlight. She slowly drew a bead on the contents of the trunk. At first, they were mildly surprised to see books and some large envelopes stuffed to one side of the trunk.
Ayeka had the flashlight on the lid. She was surprised to see out of the one corner of the trunk was a large box. She fished it out of the trunk and asked, "Pictures?"
"Maybe…give me the box…. while you flash the light on the box!" Ryoko said. She took the box off of Ayeka.
"If you hold the box steady…" Ayeka said.
The two exchanged the box. Ryoko slowly lifted the box lid. She said after she noticed the yellowing photos, "Well. Take a little look at this!"
"Who is that?" Keyone aksed. She had stood in front of Ayeka and Ryoko with the other flashlight on the box. She fished out a large picture of young woman with an old dress and long hair.
"maybe a kid who lived in the house….remember the house we are in is very old!" Ryoko said. She knew there was something special the pictures.
"and what else?" a voice asked.
"Is that you Washu?" Ryoko asked. She noticed that washu was coming up the stairs.
"We opened the trunk…and at least found books and other things!" Ayeka added.
"I could have told you that…but, the photos," Washu walked over to where Ayeka and Ryoko where. "Can I see them?"
"Yea…sure!" ryoko held out the box.
"Thanks!" Washu took the box. She fished out another picture. This one was of a young man dressed in an old uniform. She studied it for a minute. She realized that the young man who was giving a cheery grin was from the first world war. His uniform was different from other uniforms Washu had seen before. "It looks very old…I'm going to check the back!" she said as she flipped the back of photo. She glanced to see if there was a date. There was no date of any sort. "This picture is too old to be messed with any other way, outside getting someone who is a historian!"
"We can't get a teacher just to look at old pictures!" Ryoko sighed, little miffed at Washu.
"Maybe...it's a little closer than we think…!" Washu protested. She had a gut feeling that Laquiox had an idea of how old the pictures were.
"Let me see the box…" Keyone said. She was studying old photos and wanted to see what else was in the box. Ryoko handed her the box as she said, "thanks…I hope there is more to box."
The box was very old. It was held together with a few strips of tape. Keyone did not see the one concern of the box was weak. She felt the box as she tried to hold it. On the last minute realization, Keyone felt the box slipping opened on the one side. She tried to catch it with the other hand. Ryoko was quick as well. She held out her hand and said, "Watch out!"
"Oh…nuts!" Keyone gasped, feeling the stuffing of the box pushing through with just the normal gravity weighing down on the box. All the contents of the box fell down like a shower. There was nothing to stop even with Ryoko's lighting attempt to hold out her hands to catch a possible stray piece of paper.
"What now?" Ayeka asked, bending down to help Ryoko with the contents. "They were in order…weren't they?"
"I'm not sure…we can look at them and try to fit them all back!" Ryoko said. She bent down to glance at the papers. There some letter with faded addresses. Others were old notes with dates and times which seemed like they were more like an old school note book. There were still quite a few pictures. They were in vastly different time and dates throughout the early 20th century. The most outstand pieces of the whole pile were post cards of cities which seemed to be lost in the very fabric of time itself. "I have to be careful with this stuff…some of it is over a hundred years old!"
"is there any sort of post mark on the letters?" Ayeka asked, picking up a letter that seemed to be too old be new.
"This looks like from…." Ryoko said as she began to look the top of the paper, "Nineteen –seventeen!"
"that's what I have been hoping those paper are!" Washu sighed. She knew the original owners of the house could have been writing letters for years.
"Why?" Ayeka asked.
"There is a feeling in this house like I have not felt in years. I have been trying to find what makes this town tick. I can understand what makes Japan, even Okayama. Yet, Salem…Ohio is so different. The people are nice and all…but, I want to learn just a little more to this normal town," Washu said.
"I have the same feeling. This town is old, but very quaint!" Keyone added.
Ayeka helped Ryoko with the papers while Keyone placed the now disenabled box onto the trunk. There was a great deal of careful grabbing for paper or pictures to see how the people lived.
It was like doing a puzzle. There was a few unseen pieces of history that were now being uncovered. Washu had a few idea on how the people lived, this was just another piece of the puzzle. She wanted to be sure, her studies of Salem were not in vain.
Keiichi was finally getting things ready for his project on fixing his bike. He wanted to see how long he had before the bike would quit running. He had a tool box. Then, getting a book from a local used bookstore, Keiichi Morisato was ready to fix the bike the way he wanted. He had taken the bike to the drive way with a large tarp. He had begun to undo the fold the tarp to place the bike on. He had told some of the others he was working on his bike. They had asked if he needed help, he told them no. he was going to do it by himself. Then, he had stored his toolbox in the garage with his bike. He was not going to take any chances on Skuld getting a hold of the bike. He had her help before on many different occasions. He wanted to learn about fixing a bike on his own this time.
"I'm going to take Bell dandy for a ride later on," he smiled slowly, when he bent down to place the tarp on the driveway. He knew there was more to the trip. He wanted to give Belldandy a kiss, but he could not. It due to the fact that Urd and Skuld was underfoot some of the time. Others both of them were too busy to even have a quiet moment to themselves. He had to find time for her. Summer seemed to be the perfect time to be thinking of going out for a couple of hours of fun.
the birds were singing. A stray neighborhood cat happened to walk across the lawn in front of Keiichi's house. Skuld was still in the house when she noticed Keiichi working on his bike. She was not going bother him. She had been putting off on even fixing her robot for a while. Since she had met up with Reenie and the others, Skuld wanted to make things for the other girls to play with.
Belldandy was looking around for her cook book. She was going make a cake for keiichi and her sisters. She had been in the front room near the TV. She heard Urd walking upstairs. After school had let out for the summer, Urd was going back to her own work. She felt like she was way behind on her work as she attempted to the student works at the high school. She had hooked up with Washu from time to time to disgust over certain ideas.
Urd heard Keiichi tinkering with his bike. He had been very quiet as he worked. The occasional clanging of a tool hitting the ground was a sign that Keiichi was going to be at his job for a while. Urd reached the top of the stairs. She wondered down the hall with no real idea what was in store for her. She was going to get a surprise when she entered her bedroom. The door had been closed for the morning. When she came close, URd experienced a feeling of a stranger in her own room. She knew there were traps that could stop Skuld from going any further. On closing her eyes for just a split second, urd found it was not her little kid sister. She had to open the door quickly to relieve her mother, Hild. Hild was standing in the middle of the room, holding a book in her hands. They were both surprised to see each other. URd stood there, mouth opened as Hild smiled, "Hi…sweetie….missed me?"
Urd was about ready to jump out of her skin.
Hild was looking at a book of some sort. She was resting on Urd's bed. She had come in through the use of the mirror. She said, "What's wrong…you are happy to see me right?"
It was all tht urd could do. Then, Belldandy was coming up the stairs. She aksed, "Urd…where are you?"
after a minute of stalling, Urd gasped, "I'm here!"
"Oh…I have been looking for you!" Belldandy said as she walked in the hallway towards Urd's room. She did not know that Hild was in the room with Urd. Belldandy had entered Urd's bedroom not knowing that Hild was visiting her own daughter. The door was opened all the way. To see Belldandy face was priceless. Instead of being all mean towards her sister's mom, Belldandy was pleasant.
Hild was all smiles as she said, "Well. Hi there, Bell...long time no see!"
"Hello…Hild!" Belldandy smiled back.
Urd knew Belldnady was standing there behind her. She said, "What are you doing here…mom?"
Hild was too the point as she said, "I just want to see where my baby girl was. What a boring little burgh this is!"
"Hello...Hild...why are you here?" Belldandy asked. Belldandy was a little loss for words when a complete stranger ends up in her sister's bedroom without her even knowing about it. Belldandy stepped a closer to the inside of the room. Urd had her hands tied as well as her hands. The idea of having both her own mother and own her sister standing in the same room was quite a pain in the neck. Hild as a mother could be a pushy helicopter parent with boneheaded ideas. She was an extreme powerful demon. She was had no match in the ultimate force of Belldandy 's purity. Belldandy had a great deal of aide in the troops of mighty angels.
Urd was in a constant flow of confusion. Why was her mum here at the house in the first place? Gathering up enough courage, Urd asked, "what are you doing here?"
Hild, who was sitting at Urd 's desk said, "I just wanted to see you. Remember I'm your mother. Why can't I visit you?"
The last time when Hild had visited Urd there was quite a number of dangerous results. It was starting to sound like a taste of the repeating theater of the bizarre. Urd said, "I'm doing fine mum. In fact, I am happy here!"
"that's O.K. I'm taking not you home…I have been studying why there was a huge influx of powers…" Hilde said. She placed the book on the desk.
Both Bell and urd wanted to know about the influx of powers. Was someone getting into the Yggdrasil system. Hild had to tell her only daughter to be careful. She did not want her daughter getting hurt. It was like Mara had been gathering up her own source of power. She had turned into a trader and started to follow Galaxia. She had power before, but why was the offer of a darker and deeper power of taking over the galaxy was such a temptation to Mara. Was she just plain happy with what she had.
Hild stood up after she closed her hand over the desk, "for once…I wanted to see my baby girl…there is a…eh…please excuse me for saying this…a holy war is coming!"
"what?" Urd utterly with an extreme look of surprise on her face.
"Mara had jumped ship so to speak. She was not longer in her usual place…there was a great deal of power she had taken with her," Hild was very concerned.
"Why?" Belldandy asked. She never stuck her nose into her sister's affairs with her mother, but this was different. Hild had been through a great deal of dread. She wanted to be sure that urd was safe. Mara was becoming uncontrollable. She had seen what was changing Mara. Mara just wanted Belldandy out of her way. Instead, urd was not the idea of complete leader material. This was going to be a complete and utter cleansing of everything that was good.
Hild looked at both goddesses and said, "The darkness is coming for the next full moon. it was going to be a great destructive force."
Belldandy had some idea of what was going on. She did have a nightmare a few weeks ago. She was quickly putting some other issues and ideas in which she and her family had been involved with. There was talk about young female warriors who were dressed in short skirted sailor uniforms. Then, there was talk about seeing creatures at tenchi's house. She glanced at Hild, "Miss Hild...we have to talk about this, but this doesn't leave this what I'm going to say."
Then, Urd heard about a set of dark warriors that had kidnapped Alex, Vachon and Nick. They were hoping to get more victims or candidates for their dark armies. The next moonless night was quickly appearing.
"There are things not even I could even understand, why do you ask me?" Hild asked. her look was that of not fear, but of utter cool surprise.
"I have been around this small town with some strange goings on...there are girls who are magical sailors who have powers that could match my own!" Belldandy sighed. she wondered if there in the reports that had revised from the others in her group.
Neither Belldandy or Urd had no idea who or what was behind the attacks or the missing people. The great deal of power being drained they were goddesses not sailor senshi. They wanted to have the best life possible on earth. Now something was not only pulling Mara into a deeper realm of darkness, but was going after other people in the process of taking away the innocent of people's pure hearts. Belldandy asked, 'what are you doing about it?"
"I'm not really sure. We do have hidden troops of scouts from our own armies. I have a feeling you should go and call up your end of world. I know there are troops of hidden Valkyrie from your father," hild said.
"I have been watching out for Mara as well…she's been gunning for me. It's been while when she was trying to get a hold of my powers for herself. She had no idea what she was unleashing on the rest of Tokyo. I don't want to think about what she was going to do to this nice and peaceful town. It would be a real shame if I was back to the Lord of Terror once again!" urd said. She had been looking over her room. It was similar be to the one back in Japan. It was like she had never left home to be at home. If by chance Belldandy, Urd and Hild were given a foretaste of what could have happen. The was a shift in the time and space fabric which seemed like the tiniest rip. The window in urd's bedroom grew dark as pitch .Belldandy had thought of what could happen as the darkness started to enfold the room. she had to be strong. she said, "I'm the Goddess Belldandy first class. what is your name?"
Hild knew there was a bit of evil which she was not a part of. she did not like being pulled into someone's else act. "Is that you Mara!" she asked very sharply.
There was no reply to either Belldandy or Hild. It was quiet. Urd walked over to a window to look out of it. She was shocked to see everything lying thing covered in a thick fog of darkness. What would be normal flowers and grasses where changed into heavy thorns. She glanced at the tree near the house. It was standing there with no leaves. Despite being a woman of mixed races, Urd had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was no ordain evil, this had a deep longing for shutting out the rest of the world. This was an unexplainable link to Galaxia. She had won over Mara hook, line and sinker. The promise of taking the Goddesses with sailor moon was too sweet of a deal to past up.
Urd asked in a weary voice, "How can this be?"
The air was still as urd strained her ears to hear any sound. There was nothing to be had.
"What are you looking at, urd?" Belldandy asked. She placed a hand up to her heart. She wanted to stop the feeling of dread. She had not one good feeling as she sensed the danger which was coming from the window.
there was no noise. not even a bird song coming from the outside. usually on a hot day there was life of the outside world. even with the windows were opened the noise could be heard.
At the same time, rei was working at the dishes in the kitchen. She was not even thinking of anything of great earth shattering importance. She had her hands in the water as they tried to find a missing spoon. It was after breakfast time. She had a chore list like the rest of the girls at the house to do. The other girls were busy with their chore as well. Mina was the front room with Ami as they dusted around the front room.
Rei felt cold as she stopped her washing. There were a few things left to do. It was like she was waiting for time to catch up with itself. She heard nothing. Her hearing was fine up to the point where the phone began to ring. It was norm for the phone to ring. She heard the mid-ring before she heard dead quiet. Rei turned around to see Luna and Serena entering the room. A bird had been resign on the deck on the outside. In a split second, everything was changed into a still and dark cloud.
"What's going on?" she asked herself. She looked around as she pulled her hands out of the water. She quickly tried to find a hand towel.
She strained her ears to hear a normal sound, like the tick of the clock on the wall in the tv room. There was nothing. She felt cold, alone and scared. It was the time she had visions before meeting the outers. She had horrific visions of the world coming to an end and the sailor senshi could not do anything to stop it.
She had found a towel and quickly dried her hands on it.
Carefully, she thought as she walked away from the sink, "Why is the others sitting so still?"
She had to close her eyes for minute just to get her bearings.
"What you looking for?" a voice out of nowhere asked Rei. It sounded like from her past. She had wondered if her father had been crossing her mind. She had been raised by her grandfather since her mother had died. Her father was too busy to raise her on his own. From time to time her father would show up for a special event, outside of that it was just herself, grandpa and now chad.
She was little scared, "Who are you?"
'Rei?" the voice asked.
"Uh?" she asked. She felt like she was in the midst of a powerful source of energy. She wanted to know or what it was.
"You are the very last link of the defense!" the voice said.
The air seemed cold and still. Rei wanted to have the warmth of the sun back. She looked at the still figures of Serena and Reenie. She felt like she had no control of her own destiny.
"Why are you doing this to us?" she asked out loud. she seemed not to care.
"you are sailor mars and a protector of the earth. You must be strong!" the voice said before the time started up again.
Rei was instantly taken back to the sink. Her hands were in the warm water, trying to find the missing spoon. She gasped as she realized what was going on. "What happened?" she asked herself.
The sounds of a bird singing brought her back to normal. She took a large sigh of frustration and let the water warm her hands. She looked at the bird. It stared back at her. She said, "Keep on signing…I have a feeling it be the last time I'll get hear you!"
The bird blinked before taking off.
Lita had entered the kitchen as she said, "Rei, are you done?"
"Uh?" Rei said as she nearly jumped out of her skin.
Lita was taken aback with Rei's little surprised reaction. She wondered if fighting with the dark forces had gotten to Rei. Rei is usually calm, cool and collected. They needed a break of sorts. Lita asked, "What's wrong?"