Incandescence was an orphan looking after other orphans. She achieved this by disguising herself as a boy.
She was of planet Fire and now lived on a War Moon.
It was miserable.
Too cold.
Too many bullies to contend with.
Not enough food.
Not enough clothes.
Not enough shelter.
Not enough of anything.
But they made do; the adults weren't going to look after them.
For now she got up early, dressed like the boy she wasn't, made food for everyone, left Lasma in charge and went to the Rings. She had a fight to organize.
Pyrus -- like all the leaders of the Cluster -- was far busier than he seemed and it was rare that he had any time to spare. Born of Fire and tempered by loss, struggle and tragedy on a planetary scale and all he wanted was just five minutes to himself. But, ten years after finally escaping the Beast Planet, his people were still without a world of their own and they were struggling. So when Blaze caught him on one of the Palace's many balconies, looking out over the desolate surface of the War Moon it was settled on he put aside his thoughts and frustrations and turned his attention to the Captain of the Guard.
"Prince, the Council meeting will begin soon." He said.
Pyrus held back a sigh, nodding and leaving the depressing vista behind. His mood was low, but he would put on a cheerful facade for those around him.
Princess Zera of Ice was was older and wiser for the experiences she'd had since the threat of Beast Planet first became apparent. She was also still just as headstrong as ever... And as perceptive. When Pyrus came into view as the ship's ramp lowered she knew immediately that his confidant smile was an illusion for everyone else's benefit.
She had been in that heartspace many times throughout her young life. Zera understood. She also understood that it was a mask that he had to keep on wearing for his people's sake.
"You're late!" She announced tartly, trying to distract him, knowing that he finds it amusing when she acts snooty.
He rolled his eyes and said, "Not in the mood Zera."
"Must be pretty bad." She replied.
"What?" He asked, confused.
"Your mood."
"I-"
"Normally that would cheer you up... Since you find it so amusing when I act like a snob one moment, then as innocent as I possibly can the next."
Ah, good; that worked better.
Grinning a genuine grin he said, "Lets just get to the meeting."
Incandescence was collecting the credits when the authorities came, raiding the place.
She had no time to run.
Rei had not had an involuntary vision since the defeat of chaos. When it hit her she was crossing the street. No one in the crowd saw her collapse without warning, a red symbol glowing faintly on her forehead. Demos and Phobos, thankfully, were flying overhead and dove down, shifting form and snatched her up.
Humans will see what they expect and can understand, not necessarily reality.
All that the Humans in the area saw was a pair of crows inexplicably dive bombing the pedestrians and picking something up... Because crows obviously can't pick up a seventeen year old young lady.
Must have been a doll.
Yes, that was it; a doll.
Nothing extraordinary happened.
Nothing that they can't understand... Because that's unthinkable.
Sometimes a stepmother can be a God-send... And other times they seemed to be the Devil incarnate. No mother -- biological, or otherwise -- is obligated to love their child.
The same, unfortunately, is true of fathers.
When word got to him of Rae's collapse all he did was ensure that she got a private room at the best hospital... And made certain that word of his only child passing out inexplicably did not make it into the news cycle. It was, perhaps, the kindest thing that he had ever done for her.
He did it for purely selfish reasons though; it would have reflected badly on him and jeopardized his political career.
Her stepmother, however, was a kind woman of twenty years, who understood all too well the nature of Rae's relationship with her father.
She called Rae's friends on her unconscious stepdaughter's behalf.
Incandescence was scared. She was in a cell, seperated from everyone she worked with. About the only good thing that she could say was that she was fed and the cell wasn't too bad. Actually, the food was kind of decent, the bed was comfortable, the clothes were clean and... The guards were actually nice.
Obviously, none of this had anything to do with why she was scared. No, it was the law that had her so scared. The penalty for what she was doing was harsh under Rock law. The penalty for a female owning any kind of business under Fire law was equally harsh.
Yare, the quiet one, interrupted Valour's lesson on mythology.
"Valour," He said, drawing the other male's attention around, "We may have a legal out for her."
Wait. They knew that she's a girl?!
"What is it?" Valour asked in his deep and unusually smooth voice.
It was a voice that made him easy to listen to for an extended period.
"The 'Desperation Clause'." Yare explained, "The gist of it is that if they were out of other options they can be absolved of any crimes done in that desperation. Depending on the specifics the State and Crown are obligated to remedy the situation. It's one of Prince Pyrus' fixes to what he called 'out-dated laws'."
Valour nodded, turned his attention back to Incandescence.
"Seems that it might not be a worst case scenario for you after all."
Head spinning and pounding Rea woke up in the hospital and looked around, confused. It took her a moment to realize where she was. When she did Rae pressed the button to call for the nurse.
The doctor -- Ami's mother -- left the room to give them some privacy. It had come as a bit of a shock to find out that the woman was considered the most skilled on the Eastern side of the planet, bar none.
Even Ami hadn't known.
Regardless, she left and they got down to business.
"I had a vision." She said before anyone could pounce on her, "I don't know what it was that I saw. I..." Rae trailed off, brows furrowed and emotions uncharacteristically raw on her face.
That worried them all. It wasn't like her.
Usagi reached over and put a danty hand on her shoulder. Before the blond could say anything the door opened again to let some of Rae's school friends in.
The rest of the conversation would have to wait until later.
Incandescence strained to listen as Yare spoke to someone out of sight. Jittery with nerves she jumped back when they came into sight.
Prince Pyrus!
She wondered whether or not his cheerful demeanor was a good sign, or a bad one. He paused for a moment when he caught sight of her, looked her over. There was no leering, so it took her a moment, but she knew that expression and was surprised to see it from the Prince himself. Normally the correct response was to go on an aggressive defense, but her life was currently in his hands.
She didn't know what to do.
"You going to let her, or not?" A rough, female voice asked, noticeably annoyed.
No response from the Prince. Incandescence, on the other hand, was gawking up at the queen of Rock in disbelief.
She hadn't even noticed that the woman was there!
"I think that he may have forgotten that we're here." Valour commented, his voice colored in amusement.
Jade startled and whipped around with an exclamation of, "I know that voice!"
"Hello Jade." He said by way of greeting.
"Where have you been?!" She demanded in return.
"I go where I'm needed." He replied with a shrug.
Teeth grinding Jade growled out, "That's what you always say."
"Because it's the truth."
"Then where were you when Graveheart needed you?" She demanded in return.
"He had you."
"Until he became a Miner!"
"Then he went where he was needed."
"And what about Meca?!"
Meca? She and Lesma knew a Vitra named Meca. He helped them a lot.
"He was the one who joined the military; he knew the risks."
"He was your son!"
"And there is a hole in my heart where he used to be that won't stop bleeding. Are you done poking at it yet?"
Jade's mouth closed with an audible clack.
"Jade... Graveheart could have always come home; my door was open."
Valour sighed, hooked a thumb at Incandescence and said, "I believe that you two are here for this young one."
Pyrus glanced at Valour and said, "The Vizier told me about you."
That surprised everyone.
"Did he now?" Valour asked mildly.
"I only have one question." The Prince told him, "Did you really call Graveheart a rug scurious?"
'Scurious' was one of those inter-planetary terms that the Cluster used. It referred to small, burrowing rodents with long tails.
Queen Jade burst out laughing.
"All the time." Valour assured him, "All the time."
Incandescence couldn't quite believe it. Couldn't quite get her head wrapped around what was happening.
The Prince was taking them all to a State House to be educated. It was closer to the palace and they would have food and clothes... But the one Lesma had been at had been abusive. The others had never been in one and only had her stories to go on.
They were all afraid and silenced by that fear and too hungry to object. When things went bad, they would just run away.
It's all they could do.
Rea sat in her room with the other Inner Guardians. She'd meditated as soon as she could and thought on what she had seen.
Now she outlined it.
They listened.
After the fight with Sailor Galaxia Usagi had finally did some maturing. The weight of responsibility had settled on her as she realized how much had gone wrong since the fall of the Queendom.
It tempered her.
Evenso, a good milkshake still cheered her up.
It was after hours at the arcade and Motoki -- now the owner of the place -- was letting them discuss things over their favourite treats. Rae had already outlined things for him and the man was unnerved by the possibility of what was coming.
Ittou sat with them, listening, hands shaking.
Another threat. But... He hadn't run when the Black Moon Clan had come from the future, nor had he run when Pharaoh 90 had been looming over them. He wasn't going to run now.
Makoto noticed his shaking hands and asked hesitantly, "Ittou-kun... Are you okay?"
Artemis and Luna turned sharp eyes on him, wondering if he was beginning to remember. Usagi had been noticing that something was wrong for a while now and had told Ittou that it's okay to talk to them about his problems.
He had (gently, because it's Usagi) called her a hypocrite.
She had crossly given him a sharp-tongued lecture about how precious her friends are and how they all support each other through life and battle.
"It's okay," She had told him at the time, "To lean on the strength of others when the strain is too much. Our shoulders are strong enough to take the burden and ease yours."
Having taken her words to heart he said, "I've been having dreams... Well, nightmares really. It's set in Greco-Roman... Ruins? I think the place is being destroyed. There's something like what Rae-san was describing in the sky, except..."
"Except what?" Venus prompted, already aware of where this was going.
During the fight with Galaxia they had all ended up in the Galaxy Cauldron. It hadn't destroyed their Star Seeds, but it had weakened Queen Serenity's Seal on their memories. They had all been remebering more as time wore on. One of the things that they remembered was that he had been on the Silver Millennium. His role still remained unclear, but the emotions attached to those memories were fond ones. Concerningly, they hadn't seen any evidence of him when they went to the future and were a bit afraid that he would be lost along the way.
Ittou started trembling more, but managed to get out, "It looked like an amorphous purple-black miasma with a... A learing red face. Sort of."
His eyes went distant and he blinked rapidly, clearly distressed.
"People around me were dying. Just dropping to the ground, lifeless and..."
Makoto put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, it's okay..." She said.
"He wasn't exposed to the Galaxy Cauldron." Rae interrupted, "Which means that his memories wouldn't be emerging unless it was necessary for him to remember."
Ittou stopped the trembling with an effort, fists clenching. If they needed him... He would do whatever he could to help them.
"Well, wait. Hold on here." Makoto objected, "He's been involved before and no memories emerged!"
"Something must be different this time." Motoki put in.
Silence crashed down.
"It's alright." Ittou said, "I'll do what I can to help."
None of them liked this and some of them resolved to minimize how much of what was coming would impact him personally.
Hopefully they would be successful.
Hotaru paused in her painting. She usually found that visions of the future came to her while she was relaxing. It was generally of whoever was closest to her heart that she would see.
Right now, with Chibiusa in the future, that was a friend named Ittou.
Hm. Well. Setsuna-mama had said that he would have a role to play in the altered course of events. She'd have to talk to Setsuna-mama about what's coming.
Charon Castle was sleeping. Held in suspension until she could regain her energy. It was an insistant pinging that finally began to get through her defences to contact her.
"-E-lo. Elo? Ch-rn stle?... Oo-read?"
Baffled, she boosted her outer sensors to full active state and adusted their angles until she got a direct signal. If she had been at another point in her orbital trajectory she would have missed the call. She stopped her orbit, moved a few kilometres closer to the signal source, micro adjusted her sensors and-
There.
"Hello? Charon Castle? Do you read? This Ajax Castle. Do you read?"
"Oh, gods! We thought that all of you were dead!" She replied, astounded.
"That's a negative, Charon, but a lot has happened and a lot is coming your way. I request that you conference this."