Author Notes: Yay!!!! I found my second chapter and wrote it all pretty. This was because of a lovely person called Silver Sailor Ganymede who reviewed to all my other stories (mostly those not Sailor Moon based because I've gone on a genre binge) and did with such enthusiasm that I felt guilty about this one. :( Okay it's taken me six months (... more really) to get this chapter up, but it's really long! so I hope that makes up for it. Although I personally at this present state of being stuck in depressing angst (... which this isn't. It's awfully shojo-y because it has to be otherwise the plot won't make sense) it isn't written particularly well... Tell me what's wrong with it and I WILL FIX IT!!!
Episode Two. Past, Future and People
Breakfast at Mamoru's apartment had always been an amusing affair for everyone involved. The radio was always turned on to listen to the news, just incase, Mamoru said but all three of them knew what the just-incase was about.
It had been many years since any major threat had combed the city, from aliens (Hotaru always winced), to supernatural threats from the heart of the planet or from an entirely different dimension. They all listened religiously to the report making sure no large amount of people had been experiencing 'strange' black-outs, or sunstroke. For the past six years there had been nothing but as Makoto always said the first rule to any form of warfare was to wait till the other side was weak, not paying attention or had their attention divided.
So the three of them always listened and knew that in the other districts of Tokyo, and in the other parts of Japan the other senshi were also listening, just incase, because if there was something they all knew it was something was going to come and it would put the entire planet to sleep for a millennia and they wanted to be prepared.
Hotaru smiled to herself and shook her head just thinking about it.
Michiru would be touring around Japan now, and would be on one of the other islands (she guessed Hokkaido) with her artworks and doing her violin work in concerts and she'd would be in the bathtub eyes closed listening to the currents while Haruka stretched out her legs with the radio blaring its standard report. Haruka would be on break, as the motorcross season was at it's end and she was training by herself for the qualifying races to be held in February.
Usagi, Minako and Rei all shared an apartment in Juuban while they studied at the suburban university. Rei with her theology and music studies, Usagi with technology and history, and Minako with languages and geography.
Ami was living on the opposite side of Tokyo district with Setsuna, as they both attended Tokyo University and she studied medicine while Setsuna studied physics.
Which left the three remaining scouts rooming together in Mamoru's forth apartment since they'd known him, the first had been in Juban, the second and third in Tokyo, and the forth was closer far closer to Chiba then it was to Tokyo Makoto had said the day she'd carted moved her stuff into the apartment, apparently on Usagi's orders.
Makoto had finished her chiefs apprenticeship, because due to her history as a troubled student in middle school she'd found it exceptionally hard to get into university so she'd decided that she wasn't the studying type anyway and had become apprenticed with the resident Juban master chief from there she'd spent her time in and out of highschool and had moved to Chiba because of employment opportunities. Usagi had forced her to live with Mamoru because her father wouldn't let her till she had proven herself responsible and capable of holding a career. Usagi had been worried about him, even though he'd proven himself stable by completing his degree, and began his own apprenticeship at one of the various hospitals around the place.
The radio moved onto the weather, and Makoto snorted rudely at the days predictions.
Fine, clear sunny days for the next week. Mamoru raised an eyebrow and she shook her head and served up the restaurant styled pancakes, complete with maple syrup, black-currents and strawberries.
"It'll be fine for today, so a trip to Doiyama High School should go without hindrance but the winds are up and so it'll be cloudy for a day or two then rain, it all depends on how strong the wind gets." Mamoru laughed.
"I knew there was a reason that Usako sent you to live here, other than helping to shelf the rent." Hotaru grinned.
"And It's not just the lovely food." Mamoru nodded and Makoto grinned.
"So I cook, clean, and I forecast what do you do my lovely seer?" Hotaru scowled and lifted her fork in emphasis of what she was about to say.
"I remind you both of how far you have come by studying for my high school exams." Makoto nodded thoughtfully.
"And you do it far more diligently than any of us did." Mamoru rolled his eyes.
"Speak for yourself, besides Hotaru is here so that her foster parents don't worry about her." Hotaru smiled slightly, another one of Usagi's orders. Michiru and Haruka had already given up far more than all of them for their sailor senshi persona's. It was time for them to move into the modern world and leave that side of things behind.
An alarm went near the stove and Mamoru swore as he jumped up out of his seat. He obviously had work that morning, Makoto grinned and reached for the car keys to his lovely red car.
"I'm driving!" She yelled out as the shower turned on and a muffled 'k!' was heard from the direction of Mamoru's room. Hotaru grinned until Makoto's motherly gaze turned her way.
"Eat, girl. You're far too skinny, and I'll drop you off at the school." Hotaru smirked.
"You sound like a lovely mother." Makoto scowled and cocked an eyebrow and jabbed her finger towards the door where Mamoru had disappeared into.
"He's too much of a wimp for me. I prefer blonde, tall, handsome and available… or at least fighting with his ex so he can pretend to be available." Hotaru grinned.
"What about Nathan?" Makoto glowered remembering the brunette Irishman who she'd had a fling with.
"He was far too space cadet. I think he's writing a report on Pluto, the dead moon one." Hotaru smirked again.
"It's funny how everyone thought that that the Black Moon was Pluto." Makoto raised an eyebrow at the inside joke, that only the outer senshi seemed to get, the others were left wondering but even they were further inside than civilians.
"Your not going to tell me where Pluto really is, are you?" She asked and Hotaru shook her head firmly.
"Not a chance lance."
"I don't even get how you lot know where it is, I don't even remember when you guys were sailor scouts." Hotaru shrugged.
"Do you remember anything from the moon?" And Makoto smiled sadly.
"Nah, you?"
"I get dreams sometimes."
"Oh? Tell us, my beloved seer."
"Shut-up. And usually they don't make sense. I mean, according to everyone I wasn't even around in the Silver Millennia…" Makoto smiled encouragingly.
"But you get dreams from everywhere. I mean you knew that Sailor Moon was going to be able to go super."
"I dream about the earth usually, and what happened before Beryl came."
"Yeah?"
"Did you know that the reason everything went skitso especially with the Negaverse was because Beryl stole a box that was guarded by the royal family. There's a legend about it now days. They call it Pandora's Box."
"Have you told Mamoru?"
"Yeah… But Pluto says not to tell that him the other things…"
"What other things?"
"Like how native earth people weren't our ancestors, they were the missing link. That's why it's so easy for them to become Youma and so hard for us, because they are descended directly from demons. That's why everyone was so opposed to Serenity and Endymion's union: because it was like a union between demons and the children of the Gods."
"Oh." Hotaru smiled sadly.
"Yes, oh." The shower stopped running, indicating Mamoru was getting out and Hotaru smiled sadly.
"I also get dreams about his family you know afterwards."
"They survived?"
"Yeah, one woman betrayed Beryl and fled back to earth but she was ostracised by the major populace, and she fled from Olympus, the capital of Atlantis, and made her way to Japan, eventually marrying into one of the lines and for ages they all inbred together and stuff, trying to keep the line 'pure' and everything went to kingdom come, like the Egyptians and the Chinese royalty. Atlantis sunk and they Atlantians, Youma's began to come from anywhere attracted by the excess energy left from the now closed box and began to hunt them down. Mass genocide."
"That sounds awful."
"It is, I sometimes get dreams about them." Hotaru winced, slightly and Mamoru entered the room, nice and crisply in a pale blue dress shirt, grey pants and black tie. His hair, he was combing his fingers through.
"Dreams about who?"
"People being attacked by Youma." He winced.
"Recent?"
"Past, I'm guessing some of it happened before you guys came into your own, some of it even goes back further than the sengoku period."
"Ah. Let's go then." Makoto smiled, and twirled the keys around her fingers in delight, even though their breakfast was more like her dinner from the long night shift she'd had. She hadn't even gotten out of her white chef uniform, although the checkered pants she said were very comfortable. Hotaru grinned and grabbed her case as the loosely called 'family' travelled down the elevator and to Mamoru's prized car. The motorcycle sat propped next to it.
---
A family sized silver car drove amid a steady traffic and stood out so brightly that Hotaru was so sure she'd been meant to see it for a reason, walking sleepily through the traffic as it passed through her astral body she watched as the blinkers indicated that it was going to pull off the highway.
Hotaru smiled. Four people sat in the car, the mother driving and a young boy in the front seat looking very proud of himself in a red and yellow school jersey, with a ribbon taped to the collar. It read 1st in English. He had short hair spiked up in a cute way with water and he was explaining to his mother what had gone on in because he'd answered her mobile phone. Hotaru wasn't sure how she knew it was the mother's phone but she just knew.
There were two girls in the back of the car, about the same age as the boy and identical in appearance except for their hairstyle and clothing. One had her longer black hair tied up in a braid with a red hair tie securing it in place, she was wearing a jersey similar to the boy's and she was wearing a white skirt where the boy had white sports pants. Obviously those were the school colours.
The second girl had her hair tied in two low ponytails, her fringe framing her face and her jersey was around her waist. She had sports pants, like the boy, and a black singlet, obviously a tomboy. The mother than began to speak to them all in Japanese, which was obviously their native language despite the fact that all of them had blue eyes of varying intensity.
"Hikari, be a good girl for mama and go see if you can see the Henderson's, I'm afraid they've gotten lost again." The girl with the ponytails pouted.
"Why can't Jiro, or Fujita do it!" She said obstinately and sticking her jaw out. Her mother sent her a dark look.
"Hikari. Fujita is on the highway side of the car. It's dangerous to send her that way. And don't say she can climb out over you." The little girl frowned delicately and Jiro snorted.
"And Jiro?" She asked and her mother raised a rather fine eyebrow.
"He's just run a race. He's exhausted." Hikari pulled a face.
"No, he's not! He said winning the age championship in Vancouver wasn't what he'd thought it would be. He said setting a record wasn't that har-" Fujita coughed beside her.
"That's because we're gif-" The girl was began and her mother turned around in the drivers seat of the parked car.
"Hikari Chiba. You will get out of this car, now. Everyone makes a contribution to the household and this can be yours." Hikari quaked under her mother's intense icy blue glare.
"Hai. Akira-okaasan" She said and her mother's glare disappeared.
"You can take the video camera if you want. Play with the buttons." Hikari brightened and grabbed the camera and walked up on the hill zooming into grass and the film was genuinely unfocused. She giggled as she zoomed in on the highway traffic and out and spun around ready to see her siblings expressions up close.
The lense was out of focus and the eight year old zoomed out, just in time to catch the red civic bash into the car, its inhuman driver something nobody would ever believe but Hotaru recognised it with ease.
Demon.
Youma.
Hikari gasped, the video camera falling to her chest, on and filming her feet as she ran back to her mother's car as it was thrown into the oncoming traffic.
People didn't stop fast enough and a car caused massacre occurred. Frightened and scared she ran towards the wreckage not paying attention to the chaos as more cars found themselves in car accidents.
She didn't make it all the way to her mother's car.
---
"And this is the train station. Are you sure I can't just drive you to Doiyama." Hotaru sent a glare the twenty-one-year-olds way and Makoto flushed, sunnily.
"I'll take that as a no then…" Hotaru nodded and was ready to get out again when Makoto clapped her hands together noisily.
"I just don't want you to go alone… I mean we all had each other and stuff." The glare intensified and Makoto grew redder.
"You're not coming with me on the train."
"Where did the shy Hotaru go, who saw us as her first friends!" Makoto lamented and Hotaru shook her head.
"… that girl died. Literally. My life started again and I was reraised by Haruka."
"You mean that that Taru-chan is gone?"
"Don't be an idiot, besides I know you guys. I'm comfortable with you, and I don't want to have to fend off the hormonal teenage boys asking for your phone number like junior high school." Makoto pouted.
"Just because I have talent and most highschool girls don't."
"I have plenty of talent." Makoto looked her up and down and Hotaru began to feel uncomfortable in her navy school uniform with its pretty red bow. She was wearing the winter version, simply because it made her feel safer. Makoto smirked.
"You sure do, Just one more thing." Hotaru cocked her head curiously to the right.
"What?" Makoto's fingers pulled at her hair and pulled the beaded tie that was holding her red-brown hair in place out. It was then that Hotaru noticed the two streaks of forest green and sugar pink that had been hidden by the fact that Makoto's hair was up.
"When did you get that done?" Makoto rolled her eyes.
"Sunday, Now listen up. This hair tie has accompanied me through highschool and protected me viciously."
"And your fists and being a black belt in five forms of martial arts, and being a kendo champion had nothing to do with that." Makoto continued on, ignoring her.
"And now, I pass it on to you, so that you shall be protected from the viciousness that is teenage girls'." Hotaru shook her head.
"And lice."
"That too." She sighed and excepted Makoto's hair tie and glimpsed at the glowing green-blue balls that reminded her so much like the view of planet earth from the moon… she shook the memory away before Makoto could notice, and grinned, her fingers working their way into loosely plaiting her waist-length deadly straight hair, and making sure that the hair tie didn't slip out.
Makoto pouted, obviously expecting her to do something else. Hotaru grinned and gave the girl a quick hug.
"See you at six, hopefully I'll be able to tell you that I got in or not." Makoto grinned and hugged back.
"Good luck, Hotaru."
---
"Doiyama Highscool for the exceptionally gifted, and has a 99 rate of getting students into their preferred universities." A girl with large glasses said beside her twitching and Hotaru felt the urge to move away from her. She was definitely weirder than most people, and defineately on a scale in a comparison only available to Youma.
"Yosh! I will get in." She eyes brightening and she turned to give Hotaru a manical grin. Hotaru smiled warily and kept her eyes peeled for any one else from either Juuban Middle School or even somebody remotely friendly. A purple head of hair cut firmly in a stylish bob was walking towards her, face full of recognition and her left hand was clasping a boys ear.
"Let go Momo-chan… Look I'm sorry that I jinxed you by saying that you get in probally top of the class." She whacked him firmly on the head.
"You did it again you inconsiderate jerk!" She exclaimed and Hotaru smiled, recognising them from the Juuban district. Kyuusuke Sarashina and Momoko Momohara, had both been Chibiusa's friends and she'd been so much older than them when she'd met them both but now it seemed that they were now her own age.
"Momohara?" Hotaru asked sweetly and the Momoko blinked and spun around, her purple hair flaring out and coming back to her head. She blinked trying to place the girl and Hotaru smiled.
"I'm Hotaru Tomoe. I was Chibiusa, I mean Usagi Tsukino's friend. It's okay if you don't remember me, we met more than six years ago." Momoko's nose twitched as she searched her memory but the boy had no problem.
"Yeah, I remember you. You were a lot taller than us back then and wore a lot of black." Hotaru ignored the comment. She still wore a lot of black.
"I thought you were already in highschool back then…" Momoko said confused and the boy hit her on the head.
"Obviously she wasn't because she's doing her entrance exams with now." Momoko blushed.
"Sorry about that." She muttered twiddling her fingers together and Hotaru shrugged.
"It's okay, I was an early bloomer, grew a heap when I was young and haven't grown again like that for ages." She smiled brightly, ignoring the girl who was chanting to herself about being so intelligent that she'd make the first class. It was the truth, one can not go from being six-months to six then somewhere between nine and ten and not call that a heap of growing that she could repeat. Since she'd turned twelve however, without the cyborg-counterself and sickness to get in the way of growth, she'd shot up again to a size where her glaive didn't look so ridiculous against her own height. Like all the outer senshi, she towered over the inner senshi, excluding Jupiter who she measured in almost exact height as when the girl had been fifteen.
"Your lying," The boy said and Hotaru raised an delicate eyebrow and he sidled up to her and was shorter. He stuck out his bottom lip, disappointed.
"You've grown even more since then. Maybe you should join the basketball team." The very mention brought horrific memories of the year before and she shook her head.
"I already know that I'm going to be in the kendo club, karete club, music club and track club… well according to the lovely people who've heard of me. I'm already trying to get out of track. I simply despise running." The boy whistled lowly and opened his mouth to say something more – an apology Hotaru hoped.
"Come on Raisu, I can't believe that it's only you and me and the fan girl quartet who are even going to attempt to get in at Doiyama." She could see a very loud girl walking next to a boy in the standard black middle school uniform. His brown hair touched his collar and was spiked in some places and his green eyes looked, as Makoto would say, dreamy, and he was taller than her… and he was quite cute. Momoko whistled and his already red face grew redder.
Kyuusuke poked her.
"Aren't you going out with me?" He whispered and the purple haired girl grinned.
"Just because I'm attached doesn't mean I can't appreciate."
"It doesn't mean anything Yochi-san, and my name isn't Raisu. I've told you that." The girl grinned again, and Hotaru blushed. They were both very beautiful, she was tall also, as tall as probally Michiru during her highschool years, and her black hair was pulled into a tight ponytail at the back of her hear. Golden eyes stared out beneath her fringe and if not for them Hotaru would've thought her to be a perfect girl. There was something wrong with those eyes.
Kyuusuke whistled and met Momoko's furious gaze.
"Just because I'm attached doesn't mean I can't appreciate." He mimicked and Momoko hit him again.
"Ow!" He replied wincing and rubbing his head.
"That's what you said." The girl – Yochi-san laughed.
"I'm pleased to met you, my name is Kari Yochi, and this doofus is Raisu-" She began and the boy cut her off.
"Takeshi. The name is Takeshi." She rolled her eyes and pointed over her shoulder at a girl that Hotaru hadn't noticed. She was looking intently at her feet, black hair covering her face and shielding her eyes.
"And this kitty here is Midori-chan" The girl blushed and bowed her head even further.
"I'm very pleased to meet you." She said softly and Hikari laughed, pushing the girl into Takeshi who thankfully caught her.
"I'm Momoko Momohara, and this is Kyuusuke Sarashina and Hotaru Tomoe."
"Is this the group in BRACKET A?" A teacher asked, calling from a microphone and Hotaru was able to catch a sight of Midori's very green eyes beneath her black hair, cut in a style that made Hotaru reminiscent of her first time around entering Middle School.
"Hai!" The children called and the teacher smiled jovially.
"Come this way."
---
The tests stopped for lunch time and Hotaru glimpsed the sight of a boy very familiar to her. His white hair stood out in the crowd and his golden eyes sparkled as he interacted with the boys near him. Hotaru couldn't be sure though. So she waited till the end of the exams, when he was alone and most students were hanging around to see the results that would go up as soon as the machines and processes their answers.
"Helios!" She shouted out and he turned around to look at her, curiously his eyes wandered her face.
"Do I know you?" He asked and Hotaru blinked. That was unexpected, but not entirely confusing, after all Setsuna existed in two planes: The Passage of time and her reincarnated self so it stood to fairness that so did the Guardian of the Golden Crystal.
She laughed, rubbing the back of her head.
"Sorry, I thought you were somebody else." The boy smiled, sadly with a grin that made her feel quiet melancholic and shrugged.
" Lucky guy, to have my name, be look somewhat similar to me, and know you." Hotaru blushed as he walked dazedly away.
"Something tells me he like astrology." She blinked and looked around for the voice, when she spotted the speaker below her. He grinned, unashamed.
"What? He seems like a space-case to me." His blue eyes twinkled.
"I like astrology." She said slowly and he shrugged.
"So do I, but there are many other forms of divination to use. For example I know that I'll be 5, Yochi will be 1, Henderson 25 and you'll be 7…" She blinked.
"UNAGI!" A voice yelled from behind the building and he looked guilty and handed her a business card.
"The name is Unagi, me and Henderson are trying to start a rebellion. We are going to plant real roses in the plastic garden beds. Call me, if you agree." She grinned and he wheeled away quickly, faster than a person who was wheel-chair bond should've been able to.
On one side of the card was a rose, and on the other two names and two numbers, and translated into both English, katakana, for Henderson and hiragana, for Unagi.
U-na-gi Shi-n
Hotaru shook her head slightly and turned towards the board where results from the multiple choice test were being posted sure enough the names with Yochi leading and following each of his predictions. Hotaru sighed.
It was all too difficult.
Then came the scream, and she put the card in her pocket and began running, just knowing what she'd find as she turned the corner.
Blood coated the walls, and a blonde girl was looking at the remains of a boyfriend as a Youma's large teeth sunk into the corpse. Hotaru's eyes widened as she slipped back around the corner, her hands already fumbling with the buttons of her coat to press against the bare skin where her heart crystal emerged from when the Alien that had been Mistress Nine had occupied her body.
Her presence had completely deformed the personality that had been Hotaru so Sailor Saturn found herself more firmly engrained in the youngest of the senshi and so she didn't need the henshin wands in order to transform. It just required thought process and contact with where her very pointy, and spiky heart crystal should be.
"Saturn, Planet Power, Make-Up!" She whispered and for a moment darkness engulfed her and all she could hear was the constant ticking of a clock counting to twelve. Then, instantly she was dressed and she rushed around the corner, as Super Sailor Saturn her glaive clasped firmly in one hand.
"Stop!" She yelled and the youma regarded her curiously.
"Erm. Stop in the name of-" She began in hope that imitating Usagi would stop him in his tracks, he didn't wait for her to finish and she was forced to duck down, yelping.
"Fine. In darkness and in destruction may you find absolution." She whispered and rushed at the youma, like all outer senshi she only had little thought for wellbeing – her own coming first. With skill she ducked and dodged, and eventually ripped the glaive through the hulking form with reminded her very much of a rat, huge incisors and all.
It screamed shrilly, as dark light ripped through it and returned it to the form a boy also her age. She winced and heard the familiar sirens and decided that the best idea was to simply detransform and look collapsed and in shock.
She hoped that the Youma's appearance didn't mean anything but, knowing her own luck far too well, knew that the world was, yet again, on the move.
She didn't notice the dark woman in the shadows lick her lips hungrily, or the fiery hand that stayed the woman's anticipation, a smile on his own features as he watched one of the God's Children slay one of his many mindless minions.
End of Episode Two+
Yeah, other than being shojo-y it's awfully fillery, I needed something that said where the scouts were, what they were doing and moved Hotaru into meeting her newest classmates. All who I name are important. And I although I kinda planned Mamoru living with Hotaru (kept changing my mind) Makoto appeared out of nowhere. Hotaru seems very outgoing at the moment but she has to be, it's been years stuck with the extroverted sailor senshi but her personality does get more complex as she gets closer to people who don't know her pas- oops.
Well, what did you think? Should I have attempted to beta-myself even more or is it okay as it is? As for Shin, mwah mwah mwah.