Chapter Seven

Contact

"Please, please, hear me." A faint stream of tears trickled down the woman's face. She closed her eyes again and focused deeply. Using what power she had left, she tried to send a telepathic message to her friends. "Please! Sailor Scouts! Hear me! I need you!" She opened her eyes. It was a terrible strain trying to use her telekinesis powers when her powers have already faded so much, and her head already throbbed with pain.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps. It was the evil Queen. Trista jerked her head away from the sight. Watching the prisoner's reaction, the dark Queen slightly clucked. She then glanced over her shoulder. "Kanejiro."

Trista's head jerked back up.

From the shadows came the General of Metal. Trista's eyes locked with the eyes of the General. Eyes that once were a beautiful purple were now a bright and glowing red. "Kanejiro," she faintly called, voice shaking.

He didn't answer her.

The Queen smirked. "Kanejiro, kill her."

Trista's eyes bulged. Her throat closed off once she heard the scraping of metal. She looked at her husband's hands. From each hand, three metal blades pierced out from the top of his hands. The General raised his right arm and started to walk towards Trista.

"KANEJIRO!" Trista screamed. "YOU CAN'T! PLEASE!"

"He can't hear you!" Queen Beryl laughed. "He's mine now."

Trista pushed her back to the wall, but there was no escape. Heavy metal chains squeezed her wrists and ankles. The man who seemed more like a monster now approached slowly step by step with his arm raised ready to strike. She gasped hard and closed her eyes.

She laid on the floor next to the warm fireplace watching the flames dance in the darkness. It seemed like an eternity that she stared into the fire, but it was only a few hours. She was happy, but she couldn't sleep. Too many thoughts raced through her mind. Her concentration broke once something stirred behind her. She smiled. Soon her body was surrounded by warmth as an arm came around her and a body pressed against her back.

"What's wrong?" The man asked sleepily.

Trista rolled over onto her back. The man lay on his side facing her with his arm embracing her.

"Can't sleep." She faintly smiled.

"Why?"

She grinned deeply. "I love you." Trista stared up into her husband's deep purple eyes. She reached up and brushed the locks of black and silver out of his eyes.

"Trista?"

"I'm pregnant." She whispered, smiling.

"Wh…What?" Kanejiro stammered. He shook his head in disbelieve but a smile crept onto his face. "I…I…when? I mean…how long have you known?"

Trista smirked. "Tonight."

"How can you tell?"

"I have my ways."

Kanejiro collapsed his head on his pillow and gave a deep sigh. Trista rolled onto her side to face him. They stared at each other for a few moments then started to laugh simultaneously.

Trista opened her eyes again. Memories flashed before her mind in an instant. Soon, the blades started to fly at her.

"STOP!" The dark Queen hollered.

Kanejiro's hand stopped, blades inches in front of Trista's face.

"You may go, Kanejiro." With that, the General of Metal bowed and left the room. The dark Queen laughed. "Remember, that is the power I have over you." Then she walked away.

Trista took a deep painful sigh of relief as her heart pounded in her chest. After her initial shock, she burst into heavy tears. "SAILOR SCOUTS! I NEED YOU!" She screamed in her thoughts.

Raye shook her head as she sat in her chair. Her friends had invited themselves over and proclaimed a slumber party, without her permission of course, but she didn't mind it so much anymore. It was just part of being a Sailor Scout. Serena was loud and obnoxious as usual as she bounced around the room with a large bag of Doritos in her arm. Mina and Lita arranged the sleeping bags around the room while Ami sat at the table working on some homework. Raye smirked and got up from the chair. She grabbed one of Lita's homemade cookies from the table and sat back down in the chair.

Serena walked around the room and looked at all the pictures and knickknacks on the shelves. Serena grabbed a handful of Doritos and shoved them in her mouth. She grabbed a picture off the shelf and grinned. "What's this?"

Raye glanced over at Serena then rolled her eyes. She got up from the chair and ripped the picture from Serena's hand. "None of your business!"

"What is it?" Lita looked over while spreading out a blanket.

Mina stepped over to the girls. "Let me see!"

Serena grabbed the picture back from Raye. She flashed the picture towards Lita and Mina, who giggled, and Ami looked up from her homework. The girls caught view of a boy in a soccer uniform with an almost shaved head with a thin layer of brown hair. Lita grabbed a hold of the picture and sighed. "You sure are lucky, Raye."

"Yeah," Mina took the picture. "He's so hot."

Raye snatched the picture and put it back on the shelf.

"So what's it like dating the hottest guy in school?" Serena asked, eating another chip.

Raye shrugged her shoulders. "It's fine."

"You know, you don't look so happy about it." Lita sat down at the table.

"It's fine." Raye turned around. "All fine."

"So how many dates have you been on?" Mina asked.

Raye sat down at the table. "I don't know. We've been out to the movies before and gone out for dinner a few times. We're going out tomorrow afternoon."

All the girls crowded around the table and focused on Raye.

"So," Lita smiled. "Is he a good kisser?"

Raye blushed furiously. "He's pretty good."

"Better than Tuxedo Samurai?" Mina giggled.

Raye blushed even more which made the other girls giggle.

"Pardon me for saying this, but what exactly are you hoping to accomplish with this relationship?" Ami questioned.

"What do you mean?" Raye asked, taken back by the question. The other girls stared curiously at Ami for asking such a blunt question.

"Your grandfather has arranged you to marry Kyoji. Since you're dating Daitatsu, does that mean you refuse Kyoji and thus disinheritance from the Temple?"

Raye sighed. "I don't know what I'm doing about that right now. I certainly don't want to lose the Temple, but I certainly don't want to marry that…that…jerk!"

Serena rolled her eyes. "If you'd get to know him, you'd realize he's not a jerk at all!"

Raye crossed her arms. "Well, it seems you've got to know him pretty well."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Serena dropped the bag of Doritos.

"I think you know full well!" Raye spat. "I think its confession time! Have you been cheating on Darien with Kyoji?"

"WHAT!" Serena's eyes bulged. "I would never! How dare you even say such an awful thing! I love Darien!"

"Well, you've been spending a lot of time with Kyoji." Lita added.

"He's just my friend!" Serena exclaimed. "Nothing more! I don't like him like that!"

"I think he might like you like that." Lita pondered for a moment. "It's just the way he looks at you, Serena. I think something is up."

"Really?" Serena scratched her head.

"Yeah, you're practically the only one he talks to," Raye said.

Serena crossed her arms. "Maybe if you tried being nice to him, he'd talk to you too. Seriously, all of you aren't very nice to him!"

"I don't want to talk to him! I want him to leave my Temple!"

"Raye! You're impossible!" Serena realized she dropped her chips and picked them back up.

"Maybe we have been a little bit standoffish," Ami sighed. "I mean, he doesn't look like he'd be with the Negaverse."

Lita nodded. "Yeah, he looks perfectly fine to me."

"Really perfectly fine!" Mina giggled.

"If you think he's so great, why don't you go out with him, Mina?" Raye snapped.

Mina shrugged her shoulders. "Not my type." She looked over at Raye and grinned. "He's quiet and discerning best suited for someone who is also quiet and discerning."

Raye stared at Mina for a few seconds then dismissed what Mina had to say. She grabbed another cookie at the table and looked straight at Ami. "For someone who likes to add her input into my life, why don't we talk about you, Ami?"

Ami looked up from her book. "Me? What did I do?"

"Yeah, what is going on with you and Shoji?" Lita giggled. "Are you guys dating yet?"

"No." Ami blushed.

"What's the problem? Don't you like him?" Mina tapped on her nose while thinking. "You seem practically perfect for each other." She studied Ami's face.

"Practically." Ami sighed.

"Ami, what's the problem?" Lita asked.

"Nothing." Ami pondered for a moment on the boy with curly sandy brown hair and light blue eyes. "Nothing's wrong," she whispered.

"Hey look!" Serena held up a chip and all the attention left Ami. "This chip looks exactly like Darien!"

Mina glared hard at the chip. "No, it doesn't!"

Lita looked at the chip. "I think it looks like my old boyfriend!"

"That's ridiculous!" Raye shook her head. "I'm going to get some more snacks. Anybody want anything?"

Serene raised her hand. "Get me a soda."

"You've already had three!"

"Ami, can I have yours?"

"Yes," Ami answered without looking up from her homework.

Raye rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine!" She headed out of her bedroom and stepped out onto the deck. She shut the door behind her and the noisy girls behind her. She took a deep breath of the cool night air in relief from a moment alone. She started walking down the deck finally leaving the sound of the girls behind. As she walked silently in the dark, faint music tickled her ears. Curious, she stepped off the deck onto the stone sidewalk and headed through the courtyard. The bright moonlight lit her path extremely well. Pressing on, she continued off the path through the grove of bamboo on the edges of the courtyard. After a few steps, she peered through the bamboo to see the musician sitting on a stone bench.

The boy sat in only the light of the moon strumming a guitar. It was an extremely simple tune, but it had a captivating aura that made the soul ache. Raye froze as she stood in the shadows to listen. Only her heart pounded with the exhilaration of being caught. She tried to keep her breath quiet, but it felt as if she was screaming with each breath.

The music stopped. Raye ducked her head down as Kyoji glanced around for a moment. A deep sigh escaped his lips then he turned his attention back to the guitar. He held a chord with his left hand then started to pick some of the strings with his right hand. Raye let another breath escape in relief. She pondered as she stared at the boy for a few moments. She knew practically nothing about him. Part of that fascinated her, but part of her feared it. She prided herself on her discernment of people's thoughts and character, except this boy seemed unreadable. She didn't know if he was gentle or aggressive, intelligent or unintelligent, funny or serious, or even truthful or a liar—she didn't know anything at all, and that scared her.

She slowly took a step back and eventually turned around. She managed to leave the grove of bamboo and head back to the kitchen. Kyoji looked up towards the pathway in the bamboo and stared for a moment. He then turned back to the guitar and started to play again.

Serena squinted her eyes. Sweat dripped from her forehead. Her head tossed and turned in her pillow and her hands clenched her sleeping bag. Visions flashed through her mind as she dreamed.

"Sailor Moon! Please, help me!" the voice called in her dreams.

Serena popped up off the floor with a scream. The other girls awoke and sat up. Raye reached over and flipped a light switch.

"What's wrong?" Lita asked.

With tears streaming down her face, Serena turned to the others. "Trista's in trouble!"

"She's alive?" Raye exclaimed.

Serena nodded. "I heard her voice! She's alive!"

"How do you know?" Lita asked.

"I saw her in my dreams! She needs our help! She's hurting!"

"What should we do?" Mina asked.

"Let's go to the fire room!" Raye got up out of bed. "Maybe we'll get some answers from the fire!"

"Right!" The girls nodded.

They quietly headed to the fire room as fast as they could. Luckily, Raye's grandfather was practically deaf and wouldn't hear anything and Kyoji's shed was on the other side of the property. Quickly, the scrambled into the fire room and took their places in front of the eternal fire that had burned for 400 years. Raye tenderly kindled the fire for a few moments then kneeled in front of the great fire. With great concentration, Raye mediated for a few moments. Her thoughts focused and directed on Trista. After a few more seconds, Trista's face appeared in the fire. The girls jumped back in surprise, but soon Serena jumped forward next to Raye.

"Trista! You're alive!" Serena squealed.

"Barely." Trista gasped. "Please, I need you all to focus and use your Sailor Teleport."

"Why?" Leta sat up from her knees.

"I'm in danger. I need you to bring me to your world! Please!"

Raye nodded furiously. "Yes, Trista, anything."

"Please, Sailors, focus on me and use your teleportation powers. I will try my hardest to use my powers, but I need your help. I am so weak."

"Let's circle up." Mina stood up off the ground. The other girls followed Mina's lead. They got in their positions and locked hands. The other girls looked to Serena for leadership, and Serena nodded.

"Alright, let's do this." Serena closed her eyes and started to focus on Trista. In the mind of each girl, images of the dark warrior of Pluto appeared in their minds. They concentrated all their thoughts on their friend while evoking their powers of teleportation. It would only work if Trista could find enough strength to use her powers as well. Soon, each girl started glowing her respective color and a white light appeared upon Sailor Moon's forehead. The crescent moon appeared on Serena's forehead. The bright light even shone through the eyelids of the other girls. The others opened their eyes to see Serena engulfed in white light. The same ditzy, klutzy, messy Serena now in her aura looked like Princess Serenity. She was calm, graceful, commanding, and utterly beautiful. What Serena always had inside her poured out in front of them.

"SAILOR TELEPORT!" Serena commanded.

And soon, just as they had hoped, a purple light appeared in the middle of the circle and soon, Trista, their long lost friend stood before them. She immediately collapsed over and was caught in the strong arms of Sailor Jupiter. Lita kneeled to the floor and laid Trista down, keeping Trista's upper body against hers.

"Oh gosh! Look!" Mina grabbed a hold of Trista's hand. "Her wrists are cut and swollen!"

"I'm on it!" Ami ran off for medical supplies.

Trista faintly opened her eyes. "I've been a prisoner for the last…" She breathed heavily. "I don't know how long anymore."

"Prisoner? Where?" Raye asked.

Trista gasped again. "The Negaverse. Queen Beryl…I…" She gasped again.

"Hush." Serena placed her hand on Trista's forehead. "Let's wrap up your wounds and put you to bed first."

They sat in silence for a few moments until Ami ran back in with medical supplies. Ami kneeled next to Trista and started to clean the cuts and scrapes Trista had all over her body. To get at more of the wounds, Ami ripped the large and ragged cloak Trista wore and tossed it to the side.

"Lita, please get some spare clothes." Ami asked while concentrating on her job. Lita didn't answer. "Lita?" Ami looked up. All the Sailors were staring at Trista.

"My, Trista, you've sure packed on the pounds since you've stopped being a Sailor Scout." Serena said, her old self returning again.

Raye shook her head. "No, Serena. She's pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Serena looked baffled.

Trista faintly opened her eyes and a smile crept upon her face despite the immense pain and desperate circumstance she was in. "Yes, my husband and I are expecting our first child."

"Husband?" All the Sailors questions.

With that, tears leaked from her eyes. "Beryl has him. He's under a spell. He…he…"

Serena ran her fingers through Trista's hair. "Hush. We'll do anything to help you, and get your husband back."

After a few minutes of cleaning, wrapping, and dressing, Lita carried Trista into Raye's bedroom. They put the wounded warrior in Raye's bed and crowded around. Serena grabbed Trista's hand and squeezed it gently. "You're safe now. We'll take care of you."

"Thank you, Sailor Moon." Trista's head sunk deeply into the pillow. Tears gently streamed down her face as she lay in the bed "I don't know what I would have done without your help. Beryl threatened to kill me many times and…and…our baby."

The Sailors glanced back and forth to one another. Never had they seen the battle hardened Sailor Pluto so vulnerable and broken. She was always the rock—the strong one. Now someone needed to be strong for her.

"You're safe here. You've been through so much since your banishment, and we're going to make sure it's not all in vain." Raye said.

"Tell us, what happened to you. We thought you were dead." Mina asked.

Trista took a deep breath and wiped her tears. She tried to compose herself but had a difficult time doing so. "One I stopped time, I knew my fate was sealed. I thought I would be executed for such an action, but Queen Serenity came to my defense. It was agreed that I would no longer be Sailor Pluto and that I must be banished to the Outerworld."

"Outerworld?" The girls asked.

"Outerworld is a forsaken world. In fact, it is in the Negaverse itself." Trista shook her head. "At first, I wished that Serenity wouldn't have intervened. Outerworld is worse than death. Always cold, dark, and cruel. Only the most evil and vile people live there. My powers were, and still are, fading, and I was trapped in such a terrible place. I wished for death over and over again."

"Trista." Serena squeezed Trista's hand. "I'm sorry."

"It was horrible until I met him." Trista's dazed off. "He was like a flicker of light and hope in the darkest of night. He was good and pure. He wasn't like the other people of Outerworld. He wasn't evil. He didn't deserve to be there."

"Who?" Ami asked.

Trista shook her head from her daze and looked down to her feet. "Kanejiro, my beloved husband." She bit her lip.

"How'd you meet?" Mina asked, always interested in a great love story. "What's he like."

"I thought he was a thief, so I attacked him." Trista faintly chuckled. "He overpowered me since I was losing my powers as Sailor Pluto, but he freaked out when he found out I was a woman."

"Why?" Serena asked

"Women are rare in Outerworld."

"Why?" She asked again.

Trista looked down to her blankets. "In Outerworld, if you're a woman who can't defend herself, you're likely to become a sex slave to one of the gangs. It is better to die than become a slave like that. This place has ever kind of evil imaginable."

"Oh," Serena uttered.

"Once he found out I was a woman, and I found out that he wasn't trying to rob me, we decided to work together to find food. Food is hard to find there. He even allowed me into his shelter which was extremely wonderful compared to anything I had ever made for shelter. He had been there a long time and had many years to build an underground shelter."

"How did you guys fall in love?" Lita asked.

Trista sighed again. "We were constantly together, and we were all each other had. After awhile, my heart entwined with his. I couldn't stand it anymore. I…" She blushed.

"What?" The girls went wide-eyed.

"I went to his room. I sat down on the bed next to him, and confessed my feelings for him. We took vows of marriage to each other, and I gave him my life and my heart, and then I gave him my body." Tears started again. "I never thought I could learn to love someone so deeply and passionately, but now that it's gone, it's as if my heart was as cold as Outerworld."

"We'll do everything we can to get your husband back." Raye sighed. "The Negaverse won't get away with this!"

The girls sat in silence while Trista closed her teary eyes to try to sleep. The silence interrupted once the sliding doors to the bedroom screeched open. The girls quickly spun around and gasped.

"Amara! Michelle! Hotaru!"

The three other outer Sailors stood in the doorway of Raye's bedroom in their pajamas. Amara stepped in first. "Trista. I felt her presence. Where is she?"

The Sailors parted away from the bed to reveal Trista's position. Amara headed straight over to the bed and kneeled down. Michelle and Hotaru followed behind her.

"You're alive." Amara gasped.

Trista nodded. "Yes, it is good to see you."

Michelle leaned down to place a kiss on Trista's forehead, but rested her hand on Trista's stomach for balance. She gave Trista an odd look, and Trista only smiled.

Hotaru pondered for a moment. "You're carrying life."

Amara looked at Trista in confusion.

Trista nodded. "I'm going to have a baby."

"What? Who?" Amara asked, furiously. "Who did this to you? I'll kill him! I swear I'll kill whoever it is for doing this to you!"

Trista laughed. "Amara, he didn't do this to me. I love him."

"What?" Amara asked, still baffled. "You? In love?"

"Yes," Trista nodded.

Michelle smiled. "Wonderful, Trista."

"Your baby should come soon, right?" Hotaru asked.

Trista nodded. "Yes, I believe so."

Amara scratched her head. "Well, who would have thought, tough, cold, battle-hardened Sailor Pluto would have ever fallen in love, and especially with a man. Really now, did you like men the whole time because Michelle and I had this bet going…"

Michelle elbowed Amara. "Shut up." She smiled.

Trista rolled her eyes. "I liked men the whole time. You're just too arrogant to think that I could like anyone else but you, Amara," Trista teased.

Amara crossed her arms. "Whatever."

"Tell us how you survived," Hotaru asked.

All the Sailors gathered around the bed as Trista again began to tell her story.