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Chapter 2: Reminiscence and Running
Rose glanced back once more and saw the clash of powers flare up against good and evil, in the dance of lights she saw a glint of something reflecting the lights rays laying in the rubble from where she had just spoke to Sailor C. She walked toward the object in a slight trance and bent down retrieving it. The object was in bad shape, one of the corners seemed to be crunched in and the surface was scratched and slightly dull. She saw a latch on the object, as she opened it she gasped, there was no mistake that the object she held in her hands was her mothers prized star locket.
The locket no longer played but it brought tears to Rose's eyes, she knew it must be a sign telling her that her mother was still alive somewhere. It had been little over a year ago when her mother Neo Queen Serenity announced that she was going to visit her long time friends Sailor Galaxia, Princess Kakyuu, and the Sailor Starlight's on planet Kinmoku to see how they were fairing as well as discuss some political business. The Queen had not returned from that trip, and a month after the Queen had gone Sailor Chaos and her minions rose up in retaliation.
The people of Earth began to loose hope in ever seeing the Queen ever again, and eventually the Sailor Scouts began to doubt her return. That was when three months after the Queens disappearance her father King Endymion, despite the protests of all of the Sailor Scouts went to Planet Kinmoku in search of answers. None of the Sailor scouts or Rose could have ever imagined what took place the moment he returned.
Rose felt tears trickle down her face as she recalled the memory, when Rose's sister Princess Rini announced that their father was moments away from returning home and began walking towards the teleportation transport room, Rose could not help but run ahead of everyone.
Rose arrived in the teleportation room a good five minutes before everyone else eagerly awaiting her father's news. The gate to the transport opened and the King seemed to walk slowly out. Rose tried to see if her mother was following behind her father when the gate closed and only her father stood in the room with a far off look in his face.
Rose quietly asked "Papa," and took a step forward. Her father hearing his daughter's voice looked towards her and tears began sliding down his sculpted cheek, then he collapsed to the ground sobbing as he punched one of his fists into the marble floor. She rushed towards him falling on her knees and hugged her father tight as he sobbed into her shoulder and managed to whisper into her ear "She never arrived, she never made it to Kinmoku… your mother is gone." The impact of those words made Roses breath catch in her throat, from the shock her mind and body seemed to freeze and no emotion seemed to be able to surface, and that is the state at which her sister and the Sailor Soldiers found her as she was hugging her father.
Rose looked towards Sailor Jupiter and Uranus for support while pleading "Please help me" as she tried to lift her father back on to his feet. Jupiter and Uranus came forward easily lifting him up and supporting him as Rose let go.
Seeing the state of distress in both her father and her sister Rose, Princess Rini took charge "Sailor Jupiter and Uranus please take my father to his room, and then come into the main conference room so we may discuss the situation at hand," Rini tuned towards Rose and Rose nodded back to Rini, indicating that Rose would tell all of them of what she learned from her father, but all of them seemed to know the answers from the scene that just played before them.
Rose shook her head trying to rid herself of the sad memory and realized that she must have been standing in the middle of the rubble with a stupid look on her face, if the Sailor Knights were here they sure would have gotten on her case about that! Rose ripped a piece of cloth from her tattered dress and carefully wrapped it around the star locket while putting it in her subspace pocket next to the package that Sailor C had just given her.
Rose still had a distance to go before she could reach the safety of the time gates in which Pluto guarded, so she ran as best as she could over the crumbled land. A bright flash of light from Sailor C's battle in the distance engulfed everything around her, making Rose momentarily blinded, as she stumbled and caught her foot between a broken slab of concrete, making her tumble unceremoniously to the ground. She attempted to push herself up when she breathed in the dust and debris she had disturbed as her body hit the ground, she coughed rasping to herself "Stupid, of all the times to finally klutz out my first time has to be now."
She blinked and noticed that her vision had gone back to normal. Then it seemed as quickly as the burst of light from Sailor C had gone out, it began to retreat back too quickly for Rose's liking. Dark clouds began building up and covering the sky, shrouding the land in darkness. Rose could not see much anything in front of her except for the faint glow of the gates in the distance. Then the most eerie mangled cry reverberated from the dark, sending a cold shiver down Rose's spine. She quickly got to her feet and prayed that the creatures that had haunted her dreams were not coming to get her, she needed to reach Pluto and not let the others down now that she knew they were alive. She did not want to wait around any longer and once again started running toward the Gates stumbling over the debris that she could not see.
Rose's fear became reality when large bolts of purple lightning rose up from the ground, spewing hundreds of thousands of shadow like warriors across the land. Though she was almost out of breath she pushed herself as she dodged the warriors as best as she could as they lunged towards her. She was merely ten feet away from the gate as thousands of warriors completely surrounded her.
She was out of breath and her legs felt like jelly as she stifled a sob that began to arise in her throat, and bit back the flow tears that were forming. The Shadows took a step towards her, she shook her head in order to clear her thoughts, and then she picked up what seemed to be a long pole of broken metal in order to defend herself as the shadows took another step closing her even more in with no escape. Rose gave a battle cry and began swinging at the shadows and dodging their own punches and kicks as she struggled to make a path the rest of the distance towards the gate. She could never completely destroy the shadows for she lacked any powers to do so.
It had been nearly an hour ago when the shadows had surrounded her, she had only made it a couple of feet from where she began fighting them off. Her energy was practically depleted and she had long ago abandoned the piece of metal for use of just her arms and legs as weapons because the pole had become too heavy for her to swing around. Exhausted Rose's fists dropped to her side as her knees gave out and she collapsed strait down turning her head to the side because she did not even have enough strength to cushion her fall with her hands.
Rose lay on the ground her breath becoming colder with each inch the shadows descended upon her she wished for the warmth of Sailor C's light to once again envelop the sky, but it seemed as if that light had practically gone out an hour ago. Rose wondered if Sailor C had finally perished and if she would never see her family again, having failed the one simple mission she was given by Sailor C to go to Sailor Pluto. Her vision became more blurry each time she blinked and her breath became shallower. As her eyes began to slowly close from exhaustion three large figures came jumping in front, to one side and behind her vision, she wondered if those three now in front of her would finish her off, but she noticed that they had a slight warmth to their aura, much different from the shadows that she had been fighting against, and with that last thought Rose drifted into unconsciousness.
Until next time!
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