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Part 2 - White Rooms. Wilting flowers.

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When she awoke, it was ironically to the hospital room she'd last treated a patient in. The fresh flowers she'd put by the window then had been replaced, but the present bouquet was already in need of changing. It felt as if it had been an eternity, but at the confused look on her face, I could see she couldn't remember any of what had happened.

I stayed at the door, glimpsing through the gap, in the hopes she wouldn't see me.

"Mizuno, you're awake!"
That was Nephrite, or at least his human form. I'd never bothered remembering his human name, we all called him Nephrite.

He said Mamoru had sent him to protect Ami in case the enemy came after her again, though I had the feeling he was just as worried about her as the rest of us, and glad to have her free once more of the dark influence.

He was sitting by her bed, a rather incongruous ornament in his lap, a get-well soon gift.
I saw her smile as she took in his presence and present. The smile she had for Nephrite had grown a special sparkle since the world had been "reset." Half amused and thankful, and also rejoicing at seeing him.

But being Ami, of course, she didn't like not knowing. She bypassed the normal greetings, a rare thing with her, and asked him.

"What happened?"
Somehow I'd known it would be the first question she'd ask.

"You... I... It doesn't matter."
The lack of his usual insolence and flighty mood must have been all the confirmation she needed.

Her eyes darkened and her face paled slightly.
"Sailor Dark Mercury, right?"

There was no use for Nephrite to try lying to her, he wasn't any good at it anyway. He nodded, his shoulders slumped. There'd been no way he could have prevented the situation, but I knew he felt just as much to blame as me or any of the others.

"Usagi? Rei? The others?"
Ami's voice was full of worry and dread.

"They're fine." He said, brushing aside her fears with a sweep of his hand.

"Mamoru's wife is already brewing away get well soon food for you lot as if nothing had ever happened to her."
Ami and I winced slightly at the mention of Usagi's cooking. I hadn't known that bit of our 'princess's' plans, but Ami and I smiled anyways. Usagi's cooking might be difficult to eat at times, but her genuine efforts cheered us.

"Aino and Motoki's wife will just be going around with a couple of bandages for a few days, and Hino's being kept in for a fever, but she'll be up and about in no time." Continued Nephrite.

Seeing Ami's creased brow, he added in a scolding tone and with a glare...
"The only one really badly hurt was you."

She sighed, her sad and apologetic smile coming naturally to her face.
"I... I don't remember what I did but... I'm glad everyone's alright."

"Everyone's not alright!" Cut in Nephrite.
Way to go wonder boy, I thought, cursing at his bluntness. Although I was probably one to talk.

Seeing Ami look hurt at his outburst, he backtracked and said.
"Sorry. I meant it's not alright that you're hurt. You really don't remember anything?"

She shook her head.
"Only that man, what was his name? Diamond? And being given a choice. After that..."

The bitterness at the way she said the word choice didn't escape me. I wondered what it could've been for it to affect her so and result in such a painful ordeal.

Realising at last that it was best to change topic, Nephrite did so.
"You cut your hair." He said.

An amused and tired smile came across Ami's face this time.
"An incident with a little girl and a pair of scissors. It'll grow back in time."

"It suits you."
His comment caused her to blush uncomfortably and look away. This time she was the one who wanted to change topic.

"What am I being treated for?" She asked.

This question obviously baffled Nephrite. He knew what she meant, but the technical answers escaped him.
I slipped away from the door before he could look towards me for assistance and betray my presence.

Anyways, I was reassured as to Ami's state. She was shocked and afraid that she'd been turned into Dark Mercury again, but she was coping with it much better than the first time around.

I returned to Rei's room, somewhat envious of Ami having Nephrite by her side. Motoki would have come to be with me, but I'd told him to take care of the shop for me. His arms would be waiting for me at home this evening though; in that regard, Ami and Nephrite still had a way to go yet. I also came across Ami's mother on the way, and greeted her, telling her that her daughter was awake now. She thanked me warmly, and I suspected her next patient was going to have to wait a little longer as she took a detour towards the room I'd just left. Even if she didn't have Nephrite's arms to support her, Ami still had her mother there and caring.

Minako greeted me as I opened the door to Rei's room.

"Hey Makoto. How's Ami doing?"

I smiled, brushing aside what worries I'd had and answered.
"Okay. She's slightly shaken at not remembering what happened and knowing she must have tried to hurt us, but I think she's dealing with it pretty well. Much better than last time, any rate."

"That's good." Minako sighed in relief. "I'll probably go and see her myself once we've had our talk.

"Yes. Oh, Rei? Your sixth sense was right by the way."

Rei grinned ruefully at my addition from her pillow. Her guessing correctly the time when Ami would wake up from her sleep obviously cheered her some. We all knew of her aversion to hospitals.

I went to sit at the edge of the window, beside another bouquet of wilting flowers. I made a mental note to send in fresh bouquets from the shop first thing in the morning. Today had been a long day, and last night had been hellish.

The enemy's presence had been getting more and more felt around town, and last night, we'd had to go and fight against it once more.
Usagi was still unable to turn into Sailor Moon, but Mars, Venus and I had been able to transform, ironically because we'd had to face Dark Mercury again. The Shitennou hadn't been happy to see us fight, but they knew that once transformed we were their equals on the battle field. Anyways, they were responsible for protecting little Usagi, and couldn't put her at risk by fighting the monsters in town, so they might as well let us take care of it.

That, and we needed to find a way to get Mercury back.

As expected, or feared, we'd had to face her, in her blue and black uniform, her ice glaive in hand.

She'd found Usagi, and had seemed decided to kill her. A terrible image, that brought me back to our first confrontations with Mercury possessed. Then she had nearly killed Usagi. I couldn't, I wouldn't let it get to that. There must be an easier way to bring Ami back to her senses.

I'd interposed myself, telling Luna to get Usagi to Mamoru and Chibi-Usa. Calling forth Lightning, I'd brought out my spear to face off with Dark Mercury. It was only after hearing her taunts and derisive remarks that I finally began to grasp what she was truly after.

Yes, we were facing Dark Mercury, but it was still Ami beneath all that.

I rubbed at the scab on my lips, which I'd bitten upon the realisation and the painful memory of when I'd been ready to make that same mistake. She saw that I was then too distracted to grant her that wish. She'd called up her mist and knocked me out before I could do anything. I'd found out afterwards that that was when Venus had intervened, having been warned by Luna on her cell phone.

She had managed to bring Dark Mercury across to a more deserted part of town, where the lights were faulty, hoping to use it to her advantage. But as Mars had realized, upon arriving there, after finding me and calling Motoki to come and help me out, Venus was just as unable to stop Dark Mercury as Usagi and I had been.

I sighed remembering my frustration, before looking over to the one who had managed to save Ami.

She looked beat. She hadn't told us yet how she'd managed, but it had been dreadfully tough.
Her usually faultless skin was covered in stitches and healing gels, with the odd piece of gauze. Her face colour remained pale, and her brow looked clammy with sweat.
She had a bandage wrapped tightly around her left forearm and wrist, which we'd been told she had twisted and possibly infected. It probably wasn't the only part of her wrapped up.

I fingered the bandage around my head in sympathy. It was no fun to be wounded. Minako and I were probably lucky not to need to stay over at the hospital tonight. (Although Minako did admit she was tempted to do so anyway, just to taunt her manager.)

"So..." Said the above mentioned pop idol.
"Tell us Rei, what happened? What happened last night after I passed out?"

Without lifting her head from her pillow Rei answered, after a moment's pause to organise her thoughts.

"Well, let's make a long story short.
I distracted her attention away from you and we moved down the road a bit, to the abandoned parking lot.
We fought, and somehow I managed to overpower her enough that she thought she was defeated.
We talked a bit, then scary shade from hell surged from her body and knocked me out somehow.
Next thing I knew, I was here. It's Motoki who found us, isn't it?"

I nodded, the query obviously being directed at me.

"Thanks for calling him." I said softly.
Sometimes I thought Furuhata Motoki was a treasure too precious for me.

Rei had called him, telling him where to find me before heading off in the hopes of helping Venus. When finding me, Motoki had worried at not finding Rei nearby, nor being able to reach her by phone, and had searched the whereabouts, finding Minako first, then the two others, all unconscious. He'd had to call for an ambulance, since we couldn't all fit in the car. He would have brought us to the hospital anyways.

"What did you talk about? What caused this shade to appear?"
Minako was talking in her Venus voice, the one she used as leader of the Sailor Warriors.

It had been a while since I'd heard her use it. I had grown so used to her singer and teasing personas that I felt as if there had been a time warp of sorts. I shrugged, turning my attention to the bedridden girl of the room.

"I told her that her game was up, I knew what she was playing at, and she replied something about the prediction I'd made."

"Oh." I could see her biting her lip with regret.
So I hadn't been wrong in thinking it was the prediction that had caused her to fight us so harshly yet not kill us.

"You mean she wasn't completely Dark Mercury?"
Minako had a point. The Dark Mercury from our teenage years wouldn't have hesitated to kill us, and when she did, we could see her withdraw in pain. Dark Mercury from last night had, in hindsight, not been so keen to kill us as to beat us into wrath.

Rei hesitated a bit.

"She was... And she wasn't." I could see my priestess friend frown in confusion.
"It's as if Ami had been given enough control of her own to manipulate her dark side into giving us info and only fighting us, not killing us outright... But the Darkness in her made it difficult to not fight at her best... I'm uncertain how to best describe it."

"Only a partial possession then?" I said, trying to picture what she was describing.

"Yes. That would be it. A possession that twisted her enough to make her do our enemy's bidding, without preventing free will."

"But why would the enemy do such a thing?" Wondered Minako, in response to Rei's reply.

I hesitated a moment, while the other two pondered the possibilities.
"I... I remember hearing Ami say just now something about being given a choice? By a certain Diamond?"

"A choice?" Said Rei, startled.

I nodded. "But she didn't say what."

"Diamond..." Repeated Minako, as if trying to place a name. She shook her head, muttering something about Artemis not being there when she needed him.

"What else did you talk about?" She asked, focusing back on the main topic. "Surely talking of the prediction wasn't what caused the darkness in her to leap out at you, or whatever it was."

Rei acknowledged this, and answered that she'd then told her she'd made a mistake in her interpretation of the vision, that a sailor warrior that wasn't one of us was going to die.

"I think that might have been the trigger," she said. "I saw her clutch her head and black flames covered her body."

At this she flexed her right hand, looking at it curiously. I noticed all of a sudden that it was covered in small blisters. Ouch.

"Then she started telling me something about a Puu' person. I think it was truly Ami talking then, and it had seemed urgent and important to her."

Somehow, this caught Minako's attention.

"What did she say about this Puu' ?" At her tone, she considered this information to be critical.

"She said it was a woman, a woman called Puu or Pluto. Sailor Pluto. A tall lady with dark skin and long hair done up in a bun yet loose. Who guarded a door in the time of the moon kingdom. She said Chibi-Usa knew her, which doesn't make sense, in my opinion. After that I felt the spell around Ami shatter as she passed out, and the black flames lurching at me. I was barely able to set up a protection spell and grab the blue crystal in the flames before I too passed out."

"Blue crystal?" I asked. I couldn't understand where that came into the story.

"Ami's soul, Makoto." Minako answered, clenching her jaws.
"That shade was going to kill her as it escaped her body."
Rei nodded her agreement.

"Oh god. And what about this Sailor Pluto? If Chibi-Usa knows her, that means she's living today."

"But why would she be alive in this world today, if she was from the time of the Moon Kingdom?" Countered Rei.
"And if she was, why didn't Luna and Artemis wake up her Sailor Powers to come to Usagi's aid?"

"Pluto... How could I forget!" Minako sudden outburst distracted us.

"Minako, you still...?" I couldn't quite bring myself to finish my question with 'have memories of the past life', but she understood anyway and nodded.

"Hm. I still have strong memories of the moon kingdom, but I can't believe I didn't recall there being other sailors. I guess I never really had to think of them..." She muttered, rubbing at her head.

Rae had shoved herself up onto her pillow to better stare at Minako.

"So you remember this Pluto?" A hint of worry was in the bedridden priestess's voice, but her stern face forbade us to remark upon it.

"Only vaguely... She was one of what we called the Outer Sailors then."

"Outer?" I asked.

"Yes. Like the planets in the solar system are divided into two groups. The inner system, with Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars..." Went Minako, before having her sentence continued by our sometimes stargazing friend Rei.
"... And for the outer, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and finally Pluto."

I merely gaped.

Misunderstanding my muteness, Minako added.
"Which makes a potential of four other sailors being out there. I don't remember Saturn, Uranus or Neptune, but I do remember Pluto as being a very tall stern looking woman. Somehow I always thought of her element as being earth, but, I never did find out..."

"Woah, woah, wait a minute, go back a bit." I interrupted. Too much of this was going over my head.
"I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but Jupiter is one of the outer planets, right?
Does that mean Sailor Jupiter was an outer sailor?"

Minako stared at me in surprise, obviously not understanding the origin of the question.

"I must admit I'm curious too..." Came Rei's tired voice from her bed.

Minako smiled and laughed, the tension from thinking back to the time of the tragedy of Serenity and Endymion leaving her shoulders.
She grimaced in pain as her chuckles caused her bruised ribs to make themselves known, but still smiled none the less.

"Don't worry, Jupiter." She said, slightly mocking.
"You were always one of the Inners. You were never able to just stand back and watch like the Outers had to."

"Stand back...?" I queried.
"And watch?" Questioned Rei, a frown creasing her face.

Minako leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling.
"The inners and outers had different roles back then.
We were in charge of protecting the moon princess and her mother the queen, while they were in charge of protecting the kingdom from afar. I think they were forbidden to intervene inside the kingdom except as a last resort.
Artemis would probably know more about them, if he still remembers.
Anyways, I think that's why, even if they were reborn now, they wouldn't have come forth as sailors yet."

We lapsed into silence as we thought this over.

Four other sailors, huh? We had suspected there being another when Rei's visions had cleared enough to show it definitely wasn't one of us but...
If Rei's prediction were to come true, then that meant that one of these other sailors, be it Pluto or one of the other three, was going to be awakened to her Sailor powers soon. I recalled the loneliness I had felt at first as a sailor, a feeling I knew now came also from the previous life, and not just the absence of my parents. I wondered whether this new sailor would have to face that feeling too, whether it would be worse...
Minako did say they had to protect the kingdom from afar, probably alone. In Rei's vision, the sailor died alone. I squared my jaw, swearing inwardly to myself that I would do my uttermost to prevent that from happening. No one should be alone, and my friends, as well as my husband Motoki, had been the ones to demonstrate that to me.

We were going to have to find this sailor and protect her from her fate.

I cleared my head of these thoughts though when I noticed that Rei was muttering angrily to herself.
"A last resort you said? Hell. For all I know the earth was destroyed again and they still didn't interfere. What kind of sailors are they? I can't believe..."

"As I said," said Minako sternly. "If they are reborn today, they probably don't even know they are sailors. If it weren't for Artemis and Luna, we would never have known we were sailors either, and Metalia would have had her way."

Rei sighed and closed her eyes.
"... I guess you are right. But I'm still going to have to talk with Artemis about this."

She kept her eyes closed in silence. I could see she was bothered by this. It was only natural, I guess, when one sees a stranger dying in one's dreams again and again.

"So..." Minako decided. "Let me see if we've got this story straight.

We are facing an unknown enemy, amongst which there is a man named Diamond who can manipulate shadows like Kunzite did when under Metalia's influence. This enemy is not only after chibi-Usa, a child who appeared out of nowhere, but is also after a grail and the three talismans guarded by three sailor warriors. Since we don't have a clue what these talismans are in the first place, it's probably these outer sailors who have yet to appear who guard or guarded them. Of these four mysterious sailors, one we know, is at risk of dying in the near future."

Rei nodded at this, a pained look on her face.

"The only one we have any clues towards, is Pluto, who Ami said chibi-Usa knows. All we know about her is that she's a tall woman, with dark skin and an affinity to the element earth, although I'm not certain. Chances are she does guard one of the talismans, but I doubt it is this door she's said to have guarded in the past life.
Anything else? "

I shook my head, and Rei merely whispered "nothing."

"Right then, I guess this discussion is done then. I'll have a talk with Artemis and Kunzite, and then we should be able to scrabble together a plan. I'll also have a word with Ami."

"Good." I stood up from my seat on the window edge, twirling one of the dying flowers in my hand.

"Then I'd better go. Motoki's good at keeping the shop, but I need to get some orders ready...
And some new flowers for these rooms." I added, pointing at the dying bouquet with a wry smile.

"See you later Rei!" I said as I opened the door to leave.

Minako was behind me, ready to say her own farewell to Rei, who looked greatly in need of a bit of peace and quiet, but she stopped her saying she wanted to have one last word with her.

I twirled the dying flower in my hands, a rose rid of it's thorns. Pity. I liked the thorns, they reminded me of my tomboy side.

I wondered whether Minako or Rei had found someone yet. I knew Minako was getting on well with Zoicite (who's human name I'd forgotten too) but they both had too many memories from the past life for it to work, at least from what Minako had said. And as for Rei... I sighed. It would be a long trek for her to completely trust a man. I wondered how things were going with her father now.

And thinking of the devil...

"Ah! Mrs Motoki! I didn't know you had been injured..."

I tried not to gape at the man in front of me. I stuttered a surprised response.
"Mr Hino! Pleased to see you. And it's nothing serious, really. You heard about your daughter?"

He nodded sullenly, the bodyguards behind him giving me shy smiles.

Mr Hino was a regular customer to my shop, even if he rarely had the time to come in person. Rei had told him in passing about my shop, it seemed, and since, he regularly called upon our services not only for flowers, but sometimes for food at receptions too. He probably ordered at us at first because I was a friend of his daughter, but I knew he would have been obliged to go somewhere else had the flowers not been satisfactory.

"I came to the hospital for an official visit, but I guess the official part can wait a bit, if you'd be kind enough to point me to her room? I heard my daughter was injured in a car accident... You were in the car as well?"

I nodded, a bit too quickly, causing my head to throb a bit, but I refrained from showing it. The car accident was the most likely story Motoki had been able to provide when questioned by the hospital staff. The doctors who had treated us frowned at the story, obviously not believing it, but for outsiders and the uninformed, it worked well and avoided embarrassing questions.

I smiled slightly amused that Rei's father still felt the need for work related excuses to see his daughter, but he was getting better at showing his concern for her.

I led him to the room and jotted down on a paper in my purse an order for some flowers. He was not an easy man to have normal chitchat with.

When we got there, Minako was just leaving, saying something along the lines of "Don't worry, I'm fine. If there's a problem I won't be afraid to sort it out this time."
Rei's reply was muffled, but Minako made it final.
"You just get some rest Lady."

She left the room and, noticing us, winked at Rei's father and waved at me. She couldn't stop to chat, her manager and bodyguard had just noticed her and she quickly went down the corridor in the opposite direction.

I smirked, not only amused by the manager's reaction but also at noticing Mr. Hino blush slightly. Whoever Minako would fall for, she'd have no problem seducing them.

I left as Mr. Hino signalled to his men to stay outside the door while he went in to inquire on his daughter's well being.

This time, as I walked down the corridor, it was my mind full with thoughts about all that we'd learnt today, and many, many questions, doubts and worries.

It was as I turned a corner that I made the third random encounter of the day.

I hissed as the shock of bumping into another person caused my head and arms to smart. I hadn't been walking that fast (although I had been using big strides), but the other person must have been jogging rather fast, as we both found ourselves splayed on the floor.

"Ow, ouch. You okay there?" I said, sitting myself up and looking towards them.

The other person, a woman probably as tall as me, and not more than a year or two older at first glimpse, picked herself up slowly, muttering excuses in a worried voice. Once she managed to stand up, she leaned towards me and offered a hand up.
I took it, but not before I got a good look at her dress.

"I'm sorry, I should have looked where I was going. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I answered. "No worries, I was distracted too."

Although now it was her dress I found distracting. I'd never seen that kind before.
It wasn't the kind of dress you saw in shops, more the kind you'd see in fashion shows, but with a more practical and every day side. A light mauve dress layered onto a dark green underskirt, with a hand embroidered design over the left breast, going up and all the way down the left sleeve. Wherever she got the dress it must have cost quite a bit.

Having established that in my mind, I finally brought myself to look at the woman herself. At first I'd assumed her age to be in the early twenties, but now she looked ageless and in the good way. She gave off an aura of maturity and responsibility, despite the fact that her fall had messed up her long black hair which she had had tied up. Although what drew me in most were her eyes, that looked into mine, giving her face a sad yet nostalgic expression. I barely noticed the dark tan of her skin.

"I'm sorry, have we met before?" She asked.

Embarrassed at having been caught staring, I turned my face away and hesitated. Now that she mentioned it, she did feel familiar. But I couldn't place her, and I certainly didn't know anyone personally who could afford such wonderful clothes.

I shook my head.
"No, I don't think so, you must be confusing me with someone else."

She smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry. My mistake."
She then looked at her watch, bit her lip and excused herself, murmuring something about wishing time could slow down.

A confusing encounter.

I pondered it as I left the hospital and headed towards the bus station. It was only once on the bus that I realised what had bothered me most about the impromptu meeting.

That woman fitted Rei's description of Pluto perfectly.

"Damn!"

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tbc...

Author's note: Yup, I'm one of them slowish authors. Anyway, a couple of notes on this part...

I haven't forgotten about Pluto being Plutoed (demoted from Planet to dwarf Planet) and it will hopefully come up later on in the story. I'm starting to venture into new characterizations of introduced characters (because one of the parts I loved about the live action was it's new perspective on our favourite sailors) and would love any crit' or suggestions regarding what I should avoid doing or what you think shouldn't be forgotten. I should probably also start thinking about the villains more and craft them into something as interesting as Beryl and the Shitennou were. Hee, Lot's of fun ahead.

Edited to correct a mistake. I can't believe I wrongly assumed Furuhata was Motoki's first name.

Anyway, next part shouldn't take too long. Hope you enjoyed!

-Dagron.