Third chapter, still don't own a thing. (impossible to believe isn't it ^_^)
"If you don't answer me before tomorrow morning, I'll be forced to send someone else on this mission…"
After these last words, Setsuna had left the senshi of wisdom alone with her thoughts.
Amy had spent the rest of the day, pondering her and Setsuna's options. If she decided not to go, Setsuna would have to send someone else, but who? It wouldn't be the Queen: she couldn't be missed here and none of the others would allow her to go, especially since she was pregnant. No, she wasn't even a possibility.
Then there was Rei. She was a very strong scout, but she had her family and Amy knew Pluto would rather die then separate them.
Perhaps Sailor Uranus, Neptune or Saturn would be an option? Haruka was great with technology, but if you took those three apart then they would be unbalanced. They would miss the others too much and it would cause problems with their professionalism.
She got up.
That left three possibilities: Venus, Jupiter, and herself. Take Venus away and the palace guards would be unattended for too long. As strong as Makoto and Rei were, the men didn't listen to their commands as well as they did with Minako.
Then there was Jupiter, last but certainly not least. She was one of the strongest scouts they had, but since this was a job with electronica, her powers could do some serious damage!
So that only left her. She wouldn't mind going, she thought to herself, so what was stopping her?
'You're afraid that you won't be able to magically meet the guy in your dreams when you're in that other dimension, 'something deep inside her said.
She shook her head to get rid of that thought. The only logical explanation for not wanting to leave had to be that she was afraid something bad would happen while she was gone.
Then her thoughts went back to the mystery man.
"Oh come on, snap out of it!" she said to herself "How the hell do I even know this guy is real? He's probably just a figment of my imagination..."
...but deep down she knew he was real and that he needed her support and her help. Somewhere in her mind she also realised that she needed him as well.
While she lay next to the pond, she let her hands wander over the water in the pond, playing with it, freezing it and allowing it to melt again.
She needed to get her head off this subject for a while. Studying wouldn't help. If it didn't work for getting the boy out of her head, then it certainly wouldn't help her with this.
She felt way too active to be meditating so what could she do?
Then the solution came to her in a flash: When was the last time she visited the gym to practise her powers and defences?
If she were to take the mission (which she still had not decided) then she would have to be prepared for everything. Which included attacks when she wasn't able to transform.
Returning to the castle, the bluette decided to change into something more appropriate first. Somehow she figured a blue sun-dress wasn't the best outfit when you were training self-defence.
Exiting her room in a black tank top, navy shorts and sneakers, she went to the gym. Arriving there, the Mercurian discovered Minako and Makoto were practising too. Well if practising is what you'd call it …
The two scouts were sitting against the mirrored wall with their bottles of water next to them, Discussing something, with slight frowns on their faces. They stopped talking and looked up when the blue-haired girl appeared.
"Hey Ames! Wow, you're actually going to exercise? But your annual training was only six months ago. Why are you back so soon?" The sitting girls couldn't help but smirk slightly as Makoto said this.
"Oh please guys, don't laugh at me," Amy said, "I know I'm not the most active scout but I still have my black belt. You made me take those classes remember! And it's not like I'm out of shape or anything. Besides, I just need to get my mind off of things."
"Things? What things? There's nothing wrong now is there?" The two others exchanged a knowing look, but this wasn't noticed by the petite girl standing next to the door.
"Oh no nothing's wrong, Minako, just a riddle in one of my books I can't seem to solve. I figured I'd get my mind off it and look back at it later."
"Sounds like a great solution, I always did my homework that way."
"Eh Mina, you never went back to your homework, you just got your mind off it and forgot about it!"
"Eh oops, guess you're right Mako."
If the two other girls hadn't known any better, they'd have thought their friend was back to being the dumb blonde she pretended to be.
"Well anyway, come on Ames, let's spar and see how much of those karate lessons stuck with you."
Amy just nodded and took of her shoes. They went to the battle area and bowed to each other.
Makoto started on the offence, aiming a high kick to Amy's head, which she could only just avoid, ducking before shielding herself against a hit to her chest.
'Aw come on Mako, can't you go a bit easy on me?' Amy groaned, ducking to avoid a few fast hits.
"Sorry Ames, you need to know this. Never know when you'll need it." Makoto apologised, shaking her head and giving a roundhouse kick to Amy's unguarded side. Amy fell to the floor, but before Makoto could go over to the bluette to see if she needed help, the girl sighed and said,
"Oh fine. If you put it that way, Jupiter, I guess I have no other choice."
Mako looked at her in confusion and before she knew it, Amy had shot forward and swept the brown-haired girl's feet from beneath her.
Now the situation was reversed . Amy looking down on Makoto with a grin.
"Now what was that first rule again? You know the one you made me say like a thousand times when I got my first lesson. Hey, Mina, do you remember the one?" The Mercurian girl looked at the laughing blonde sitting by the mirrors.
"Oh yes, now I remember, 'Never let your guard down 'cause the enemy won't give you a second chance'" The petite girl rolled her eyes when she remembered how many times she had had to say that after she had lost to the slightly bigger girls.
After a while Mako had to smirk too and admitted it was a good move. "Okay Ames I guess you proved your point. I'm sorry I laughed at you."
"So you should be! Just because you don't see me in the gym when you're here doesn't mean I don't practise. It just means I come here at a different time."
That was true. Amy went to the gym every two weeks, but she always went at night because she didn't like it when people were staring at her.
The two scouts went at it again a few more times, and their friend even joined them for a while. At last Amy got tired of it and decided to quit for the day, leaving the two friends to their training. She returned to her quarters and enjoyed a refreshing shower.
Walking through the castle, Amy was thinking about her choice again. Apparently she was strong enough for the mission. Her work out had proven that, but still, she had these unvoiced doubts buried deep inside her brain. What if they needed her here?
Without realising it, she entered the throne room, where Queen Selenity and Rei were sitting, discussing state affairs . The two of them stopped their discussion with a startled glance when the princess entered the room and greeted them,
"Hi Amy, is something wrong? You seem distracted, that's not like you."
"I agree with her Ames, leave the daydreams to meatball-head and Mina. Your place is on Earth, not in the clouds." Rei smiled and endured the glares Selenity gave her without saying a thing. She might be her queen, but Rei's occasional teasing was something they both needed. It kept them from forgetting who they once were.
"Oh I'm sorry, I was just trying to figure something out, but I still have some problems that get me nowhere. Don't worry about me though. What were you two talking about?"
The two exchanged a look and Selenity answered. "The new spells Luna and Artemis found. They mean that we only need minimal energy for a maximum security. We now only need the silver crystal instead of everyone else's too."
"That's great! That means that even with Hotaru, Haruka and Michiru gone, the Castle will be one hundred percent safe!"
"Yes it does. So we were thinking about sending some of the scouts to act as ambassadors too."
"That sounds like a great idea Selenity. Oh and how is it going with the pregnancy? What did the doctor say?"
"All is well, nothing special."
"I'm glad to hear that. I'm sorry, but if you'll excuse me, I'll go and continue my walk around the castle."
With these words Amy left the room, and kept pondering while she walked away.
The petite woman was so deep in thought, that she passed the two mentors/cats in the hallway without noticing they were there or the fact that they gave her strange looks.
"It appears Sailor Pluto was right." Luna said with a sigh.
"Yes, I guess it does. Perhaps it's for the best." Artemis answered with a frown on his face.
After this interruption they continued their walk and their discussion.
The strange conversation between the two magical beings, was entirely lost to the blue haired girl. In fact everything that happened around her was lost. She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice a thing, until a stroke of music shook her out of her trance.
She looked up and realised she stood in front of the door that lead to the music room Michiru used whenever she was in the castle. But weren't Neptune, Uranus and Saturn supposed to be in America? She opened the door and saw the only other blue haired scout play her beautiful instrument, while her love played the piano. Their adopted daughter sat next to them, enjoying the sweet music.
Without disturbing the two musicians, Amy went and sat next to Hotaru.
Every one of the scouts loved listening to those two. They had the gift of expressing their love for each other in their songs.
The music made the girl think about the white haired man. That pale face, those mesmerizing blue eyes, they reminded her of the water she used in her aqua rhapsody: sparkling, alive and a beautiful blue hue. Oh and then that body!! Sometimes he slept in nothing but his pyjama bottoms and apparently he was in a warm place because he lay on top of his sheets, making it impossible for Amy not to notice his well-defined abs.
Her thoughts made the poor girl blush like crazy and she shook her head hard to get rid of them. 'How could I possibly get obsessed with that guy in such a short time, when I don't even know his name?'
The bluette was so far gone, that she hadn't even noticed the fact that the music had stopped. Haruka used this opportunity (the first one since she had known the girl) to sweep her off her feet and hold her, bridal style, scaring the poor girl half to death.
"Hi Merc, how've you been?"
"Oh God, Haruka. You scared me! Why did you do that?"
"What, and not seize the only opportunity you ever gave me to do that? Come on you know me better then that."
The girl only sighed and smiled at her three friends.
"Was it that bad?"
"You didn't even notice Ruka-papa and Michu-mama stopped playing, Amy-chan."
"Oh dear, I guess it was then."
"So tell me Amy, who caught your eye?" Michiru asked, smiling softly.
This question surprised Haruka and made Amy blush, while Hotaru and Michiru's smiles only grew bigger.
"W-What do you mean Michiru?"
"Oh come on Amy, you hardly ever blush unless it's about a boy. Now I don't see any allergic reactions. So that means you haven't received a love letter, but you are head over heels. I can see that much."
Haruka's expression became stern and she started to question the poor love-sick girl about this boy: How old was he? Was he kind to her? Did he treat her with respect? Did she know him? Hotaru interrupted her, asking if he was cute, making Haruka glare at her while she looked as innocent as she could, but most of all they wanted to know WHO HE WAS!
The girl turned practically purple in embarrassment, but knew that she had to answer, otherwise they wouldn't stop questioning her. She waited a moment until she had her normal colour back and began,
"Well, he's about my normal age, perhaps a few years older. He's very kind, and not only to me (that was something she had noticed when she saw him looking lovingly at some people in a photograph .) He does treat me with respect, but I don't know if you know him. Oh and Hotaru," Amy got a dreamy look in her eyes and continued in a shy and soft tone, "He's very cute." This last thing made Hotaru squeal, while Amy grew red again.
"Now if you don't mind, er, I've got to go find Setsuna." She almost got to the door before,
"Hold it right there Amy, you forgot to tell us one little detail," Haruka said with an almost evil grin on her face, "What is this guy's name?"
Amy smiled sweetly and answered truthfully, "I would love to tell you that, but unfortunately, I have no idea."
With this said she left the three very confused scouts in the room while she went to look for Setsuna. After the door closed the three started discussing fiercely with each other.
Just as Amy raised her wrist to contact her on her communicator, a door opened to her left and Setsuna walked into the hallway.
"I understood you wished to talk to me?" The girl blinked, but didn't ask. After all, Setsuna was the guardian of time and space. Knowing when people need you was probably part of the job description.
"Yes, I have some questions for you."
"Go ahead Amy. You know you can ask me anything, but it is possible that I'm not allowed to give you the answers." Amy nodded, understanding that her friend had to obey the rules of time and space.
"Well, the first question is rather simple. Could you give me some more information about the mission? I still haven't decided, but if I knew more about it, it could make things a lot easier."
"Sure. All the information I can give has been put into a map, which has been put on your desk."
"Thank-you, but now for my second question. As the guardian of Space, does that mean you could find anyone on the planet?"
"As long as they don't use dark energy to hide themselves from my eye then yes, I should be able to."
"And when you don't know their name?" The mercurian lowered her eyes in shame as she heard the eagerness in her voice. The green haired woman chuckled and answered,
"That would make it a bit difficult, but it isn't impossible, nor is it against the rules."
Watching her friend practically glowwith contentment, the older scout asked,
"Who is it you wish to find?"
"Well that's just it, I don't know, but if I can send you a mental image of him, do you think you would be able to find him?"
"I don't see why not? Now please show me who this man is, you've got me quite curious." Setsuna's smile widened when Amy's blush appeared .
The blue-haired girl calmed herself down and twenty seconds later Pluto had the image of the young man in her head. She transformed into her sailor fuku and made her staff shrink. She placed the shrunken staff in the palm of her hand and concentrated on the image of the man. The magical object started spinning and kept going on and on. After a few minutes, that seemed like hours to the guardian of Mercury, it stopped. Setsuna changed back and looked at her younger friend with a sad expression on her face,
"I'm sorry Ames, but I'm afraid this young man doesn't walk this Earth. Perhaps it is a face from your past? Where did you see him?"
"I saw him... never mind. It is of no importance." She looked at the ground while her short locks of marine hair hid the expression on her face.
Then she looked back at the other scout with a decisive expression on her face. "I have made up my mind. I accept the mission. If you don't mind I would like to leave very early tomorrow morning. There's no need to bother the others with this now is there?"
Setsuna seemed a bit surprised,
"You don't wish to say goodbye?"
"I-I don't like saying farewell, every one's always so sad. I don't want my last memories of them to be sad."
"I see. How about tomorrow we meet at six am at the fountain in the garden?"
Amy nodded and left to go to her room to look upon the information about the dimension and to pack the stuff she could use into her sub-space pocket. She did not notice that someone had heard their entire conversation, and that that someone went away with a grim expression on her face.
Amy was dressed in a navy top held together over her left shoulder, black shorts that reached to her mid-thighs and a light blue jacket tied around her waist. She was sitting on the edge of the fountain and trying not to think about her dream of that night.
She had seen the guy again and had done what she did every night, but with tears in her eyes because she knew for sure that they would never be able to meet in person and that she would probably stop dreaming about him in that other dimension. There wouldn't be a connection with him there. Her history was in this dimension, not that other one.
She had woken up in the middle of the night with a wet pillow and red eyes.
Trying to forget the dream, she read the information about the other dimension again and again, but as she sat there, the realisation came back and her eyes became moist again.
Pushing back the tears she shook her head and wondered where Setsuna was. It was almost time and she was afraid that the others would wake up and she would have to say goodbye.
"I see that you're ready to go, Mercury. Unfortunately something will have to happen first. And before you ask, I have nothing to do with this."
She heard the voice behind her and turned around only to see all of her fellow scouts standing there together with her queen and king and even the cats.
"Please don't be upset Amy-chan. But I heard you and Setsuna-mama talking and I knew the others would want to say goodbye too, so I told them when you were going to leave. Are you mad at me?" Hotaru said softly.
Amy smiled sadly and shook her head.
"No Hotaru, I'm not mad. I realise now that it would have hurt you guys far too much if I had left without saying something. That's why I left all of you a note at the breakfast table. Each letter is personal in its own way. And it's something to keep you company while I'm gone."
"Well then I'm glad that we have our own gifts for you as well, or I would have felt really guilty," Minako said. All of them had grins on their faces.
"I'll go first if that's fine with you guys," the queen said. She already had tears in her eyes.
No one minded and she took Amy's hand and put something in it, saying that it was from her and Endymion. The ice wielder looked down and saw a beautiful necklace. It had the shape of a circle with the sign of Mercury on it. When it was opened it played the tune of Rainy Day Man. A song that Michiru had written especially for Amy, when she and Greg had broken up.
"This necklace isn't just a jewel. When you hold your wand next to it, the two of them will melt together and from then on you'll use this to transform. I figured you'd like something practical, beautiful and emotional all in one." Amy said nothing, she just gave Selenity a bone-crushing hug that said more then a thousand words. They let go and Selenity went back to stand next to her husband who held her closely while silent tears ran down her cheeks.
Then the two cats came. Amy knelt down to their level and softly scratched behind their ears.
"Amy, could you please do what the queen told you about the necklace?" A bit of a weird question, but she had always (well, almost always,) done what the black cat told her, so why not now? Once the jewel was her new transformation object, Luna asked her to put it between them on the ground.
Again she did as she was told, and two orbs came from the moons on the cats' foreheads into the circle. Afterwards it shone a light blue for a while and Artemis explained.
"We're sure that your original fuku would stand out to much in this new dimension. So this will make sure that it will change into a shape that won't stick out that much, but will still be protective."
This was very thoughtful of the two cats and Amy made sure they understood how grateful she was for it.
She stood up again and the cats stayed at her feet. In the meantime Minako and Makoto came to her, hiding something behind their backs.
"We are going to miss you Ames, but we know you well enough to know that you'll be able to handle this mission. However, we weren't so sure about you having fun while you were on this mission. That's why we got you this gift," Minako explained while they took the object from behind their backs. It appeared to be a box.
When Amy opened it she saw one of the most beautiful gowns she had ever seen. It was both the colour of her eyes and the colour of her hair. A split would show her right leg up to mid-thigh and the upper part would fit perfectly.
"We would have given it to you for your birthday, since we saw it in a shop not too long ago, but now we want to give it to you now. But in return you have to promise you'll wear it on this mission and have fun while wearing it," Minako said and Makoto continued,
"And that's not all. As Selenity already said, we know you like practical things. So we cast a charm on it. Now when you're wearing this dress and you want to alter its looks, just think of how you want it to look and it will change itself."
The smaller girl looked at her two friends and smiled, then, dropping the dress into the box, she jumped on her fellow scouts and almost crushed them.
"Hey Mako, are you still sure you're the strongest inner? I mean she's almost breaking my ribs."
"Well they always said so, but I'm seriously starting to doubt that," they said jokingly.
Amy let them go and wiped the tears away from her eyes.
"Sorry, but I promise I'll have fun. Who knows, I might pull a prank on someone. I mean it's been a while since I got to do that."
"Oh man, now I'm feeling sorry for the people in that dimension!" Minako groaned.
The senshi of ice didn't pull pranks that much, but when she did pull one you could rest assured that it would be a good one and it would be impossible to get out of it.
When every one was done laughing at the blonde's joke, Hotaru came to stand before Amy. The purple-haired girl hugged her friend softly and didn't let go for a time. Then she asked the other scout if she could put her right hand over her heart. Amy did so and Hotaru put hers on top of it. the smaller one closed her eyes and concentrated.
Her sign appeared on her forehead and a purple shine came over her and the bluette's hand.
Quickly Mercury closed her eyes as well and soon her sign showed too, but something new had appeared as well. A purple circle went around it. After a few seconds they opened their eyes and everything was normal again. the younger girl sat down quickly on the fountain's edge and explained what had just happened.
"I figured that there will be times when even a great doctor like yourself could be helpless if people are hurt. That is why I copied my powers and gave them to you. They'll only work when you're transformed and you'll feel exhausted afterwards. They need to grow and get used to you body but I think they'll come in handy, and it's all I can give."
"Hota-chan, this is more then I could have ever asked of you. I can't believe how thoughtful you are. A lot of people will possibly owe their lives to this gift of yours."
This time the senshi of wisdom didn't bother to wipe the tears away. She just let them fall while softly hugging the girl for a few more minutes.
When the girl felt strong enough to stand on her own she went back to her parents and Rei went to one of her oldest friends.
"Ames, I know you're going to miss us and we're going to miss you as well, so this is a little something so you won't forget any of us."
She gave her a small book wrapped in fiery red leather. When the already emotional girl opened it up, she didn't know what to say. In it were pictures of them all. She remembered the day they had been taken. It had been the last day before she had to freeze the entire Earth, so they had decided to make it the best they could. Pluto had even allowed Chibiusa to come and party. They had taken pictures of every little thing, the sleepover where it all had started, waking everyone up, breakfast in their pyjamas, meeting up with the Outers, the surprise Chibiusa was, the fun at the park, the picnic, the fun at the pool, the dance in the evening.
That had been the best day of her life.
When she tried to thank Rei her throat was hoarse and she couldn't utter a word at first. Which made them all laugh of course. When she could talk again she thanked the dark haired girl with another hug, tears rolling down her face .
Then, last of all were Michiru and Haruka. The two of them came and hugged her like they never had before. When they broke apart they each took one of her hands and concentrated deeply. A white light surrounded the three of them and music sounded softly.
When the light disappeared they let go and Haruka explained,
"Sometimes emotions like homesickness can't be solved by materialistic things like food, and you can't exercise all the time, so we gave you a gift of music. From now on you'll be able to let out your feelings by playing the piano or the violin. But I must say you surprised us both. We never knew you could play the harp." The others exchanged a look of mild surprise.
"I-I didn't know either, it would explain my aqua rhapsody. Perhaps it's something from my past life. I never tried it though."
That was enough of an explanation and the bluette gave everyone another strong hug. Which caused Haruka to groan and say,
"Damn! now I know why you're doubting yourself, Makoto."
Another laugh was shared by the group, but then at last it was time and Amy turned to Setsuna with a sad smile on her face.
"I believe you are one gift short, my dearest Mercury." This made Amy look up in confusion and Setsuna smiled softly.
"Even though I am obliged to follow the rules set for me by my father Chronos, I am also obliged to follow my own heart and help my best friend…" This caused Amy to smile widely.
"…Like, for instance by searching for a loop-hole in the rules." Setsuna started to grin a little, and the others' eyes widened.
"This key I give you can bring you home when you want it to, but remember that it takes a lot of your energy and you can only use it every three months. That means that when you are back in the other dimension after visiting us, you can not come back for another three months. I also have no idea of how the time will run between the two dimensions. One second here might be a week over there when you use this key." She hardly ended her sentence when Amy hugged her as well. "Don't worry, it won't be much harder for me to contact you than if you were here. Our conversations won't stop just because you are in another dimension," Setsuna said to reassure the sad young woman.
Amy took the key and put it in her sub-space pocket with her other gifts, except for the necklace, which she kept around her neck until Setsuna advised her to put that away too since she didn't know where she would land exactly.
"The only thing I know for sure is that you will land not far from where the Thunderbirds are, since International Rescue are the ones you'll have to help."
So Amy put the necklace away too and kept herself ready. Setsuna opened a door-like portal.
One moment Amy was stepping through while waving back at her friends, the next she was 400 metres away from an island and floating in the south pacific sea.
Okay that's enough, sorry no Tracy part in this chapter but I hope you can live with that since the rest of the story will be in their world.
Oh yeah and you might be wondering why I'm updating already. Well, even though hardly anybody is interested in this fic, I'll just write it for myself ^_^. So it's okay if you don't review.
Next chapter: how will Amy react when she meets IR, but more important, how will IR react when they meet Amy?
Thanks again to my beta: TheRimmerConnection she rocks (and she puts up with me, which is amazing ^_^)