Chapter 2 - Dilemma
"Stupid cursed training grounds. If I ever see the Old Man again, he will feel what I think about his training methods." The blue haired woman that called herself Shiva grumbled to herself. "Throwing me in a pit full of those evil little demons wasn't enough. No, he had to set wolves on me, and a bunch of other stupid ideas. Now he had to ignore the last page of this "training guide" where it warns about the curses."
Shiva no longer wears the armor, she managed to find another training gi in her pack. Its a little small, but fits well enough. She is currently covered in small ice crystals watching a large pot of water boil.
"Why do I have to attract cold water?" She stares at her ice covered arm. "Heck, I could be attracting any water and it would trigger the curse. I don't remember having an aura of cold back in the Silver Millennium."
The water is finally boiling, and she dumps it over her head. She seems to blur a bit before shrinking slightly and being replaced by a young boy. "Finally, now off to bed." Ranma stands up and starts to head to his tent.
*SPLASH*
"Two steps, I only got two steps before you dumped water on me." Ranma grumbles, as he is once again a she. She glares at the tree above her, at the laughing monkey playing with the wet leaves. She sighs to herself. "I'm too tired to worry about this anymore tonight." With that said, she grabs a towel and heads into her tent.
Two days later, in a small town by the ocean.
"I am sorry ma'am, but you do not have enough money to book passage on a ship." A man apologizes to Ranma.
Ranma sighs. "Thanks anyway." She walks off to find another way back to Japan.
After three days of looking Ranma is sitting on the beach staring at the ocean.
"I guess there is no helping it, I will have to swim back." She collects her things and makes for the water. She glumly remembers the trip to China.
"Umm sir? I think you should see this." A deckhand shouts to his Captain.
"What is it? We have a lot to.....accomplish.....before....." The Captain of the fishing vessel isn't able to finish his sentence. He is staring at a beautiful woman, siting on a large chunk of ice, cooking fish over a campfire. She is wearing a blue Chinese silk shirt, and black pants. "Shouldn't the ice near the fire melt?" He mumbles to himself.
The crew just stare at the woman, not believing what they see.
"Ex-excuse me, ma'am? Are you in need of assistance?" The Captain asks.
"I am trying to reach Japan. Are you by chance heading that way?" Ranma asks
"Yes ma'am, we are. Any particular place you want us to drop you off?
"Where ever you are heading is fine. Once I get to Japan I need to look into a few things before I can determine my next destination." Ranma responds. She thinks to herself 'It is weird how easy talking like this is. Must be the influence from my upbringing in the Silver Millennium.'
Three days later at a small port town on the coast of Japan.
"Here you go ma'am, anything else we can help you with before we cast off, and head back out?" The Captain asks.
"No Captain, you have been a tremendous help already. Thank you." Ranma politely responds. As she turns she hears someone shouting in the distance. "RANMA! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
*BOOM*
A large explosion occurs from the direction of the shout. She takes off at a run, hoping it wasn't anything serious.
Approaching the area where she thought the explosion happened she saw a lot of damage. 'What could have done this?' She asks herself. She looks around a bit then starts to head out when piece of conversation catches her attention.
"I thought damage property damage like this only happened in Juban, I mean the Sailor Senshi have only realy appeared over there. Not like we get any Youma this far away." One elderly lady says to another.
Ranma walks up to her "Excuse me? Did you just say Sailor Senshi?"
"Yes dear, I did, I was just talking to my friend here about how this is so uncommon this far from Juban, considering Youma only seem to appear over there. I payed a visit to my sister once, she lives over there. I happened to see a Youma, it was the most hideous thing I have seen." The old woman continues to talk, how she can talk this much Ranma has no idea.
"I'm Elder, as interesting as this is, could you direct me to Juban?" Ranma tries to politely interrupt.
"Oh sure, it is about four to five days travel in that direction." She points off inland to the southeast. "If you are not familiar with the area, You can buy a map, I sell them in my shop over here."
"Thank you." Ranma buys the map and heads out.
After roughly a days travel, Ranma is sitting cooking some food. Thinking to herself. 'What will I do when I get there? How do I know if these Senshi are even connected to the Silver Millennium? I mean...' She pauses and looks off towards her destination. "What? This feeling, its the silver crystal. Serenity. This amount of power... can only mean she is fighting. My Queen needs me, I will not fail again." She says this last bit in Lunarian without even realizing. She gets up quickly downs the food, packs and takes off at a run towards Juban.
"Pluto, for not having any fights for a while, we sure have been doing a lot of fighting. Care to explain?" Sailor Mars asks heatedly over the noise of the fight.
"It's a temporal divergence." Sailor Pluto responds with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice.
"What is that suppose to me?" complained Sailor Moon.
"After the fight Moon. I'll explain." was Pluto's only response as she sent another magical blast at the enemy. Which looked surprisingly like a cockroach. "I HATE COCKROACHS" she screams as a battle-cry.
Later that night at the temple.
"OK Setsuna I want to know why there are things to fight. What did you mean when you said it was a tempo regence." Usagi asks in between mouthfuls of cookies.
Setsuna just sighs. 'She is so impatient' she thinks to herself.
Ami answers first. "What she meant Usagi, is that the time line as changed its path due to an unexpected event happening.
"OK" Usagi responds before nibbling on a cookie in thought. "Whats that mean?"
Everyone falls over.
"It means for the immediate future I can not use the Time Gates" Setsuna responds calmly.
"Oh, I suppose that is a bad thing then." Usagi responds in the same tone.
Setsuna smacks her forehead. "Yes Usagi that's a bad thing. I am unable to see what we fight, when we will have to fight, how difficult the fights will be or how long this threat will last."
"Oh OK" Usagi says. She looks at the plate of cookies. "Anyone going to have that last cookie?"
Everyone just groans
Two days later Hotaru and Michiru were walking down the street to the park when they came across a young woman with long dark blue hair who couldn't be more than twenty years old. She was unconscious, passed out on the ground under a secluded tree.
"Michiru-mama, what's wrong with her? Why won't she wake up?" Hotaru asks.
"I don't know Hotaru, but I think she might need a doctor." Michiru says in response.
An hour later at Juban Hospital.
"Ami, could you do me a favor? Could you go and keep an eye on the young woman in room 103 that your friends brought in? She was physically exhausted past what is considered normal and needed rest badly. I am concerned she might wake up while I go check on my other patients. I will only be gone for a few minutes. Could you do that for me Ami?" Dr Mizuno asks her daughter.
"Sure mother." Ami replies and head off to the room.
She walks in and looks at the young woman. As soon as she lays eyes on her, she gets flashes of memories. She was young, maybe five, playing with a woman with long blue hair, and kind deep blue eyes. Another memory. I am perhaps eight. The long haired woman bows to a woman on a throne, then walks up to her. She gives me a hug, whispers in my ear "Be good little one. I will return later and I will tell you one of my stories." I smile at her and then she kisses me on my forehead. I feel a great sense of love from her.
All too soon I am back in the hospital, with the young woman. I looked at the young woman again...and the final piece falls into place.
"Grandmother?" Ami asks, unknowingly speaking in Lunarian from her recent flashes of memories.
End of Chapter 2