Megaira
Naru jogged down the street, her bag slamming against her side. 'I'm late! I can't believe I'm this late!' the curly ginger thought as she panted for air when she reached a street corner. 'I bet Usagi is already at school before me today! Oh no! That means I'm really late!'
As she wiped the sweat from her brow, Naru heard a high, chirpy voice ask, "Where are you headed?"
She turned her head and looked down at a short girl with thick, wavy hair so blonde it looked directly dyed by a canary yellow crayon. "School," Naru replied.
"Oh, Juuban?" the girl asked as she wiped a piece of her bright, yellow hair behind her ear. Naru looked at the girl's uniform, and she realized she went to a nearby school.
"Oh yeah," Naru said, then she added, "I'm Naru. It's nice to meet you."
"I'm Kayori," the girl said as the light turned. Naru gave a hasty wave good-bye. She didn't think of the girl again that day. But as Naru ran away, Kayori's bright, lime green eyes, which looked a bit like those of a cat, followed her movements until she disappeared.
Several days passed, and Rei found herself sullen while going about her business at the temple. She kept an extra eye on her grandfather, and found excuses to be around the eccentric old man as often as possible. 'They could be coming for him next,' Rei theorized. Luna shared her concern and offered to come and help, but remembering the secret youma locked in her room, Rei politely, but adamantly, refused.
Thoughts of Makato drug down her mind as she swept the leaves off the front steps. 'I wonder if she's alive. Is she okay?' Rei asked herself as the absent swishing of the broom acted as a monotonous background noise to her thoughts. Every so often, Rei would look up at the trees, where her two crows sat. 'They've hardly left me alone! I came back from that mission, and they were sitting outside my room cawing their heads off! I had to scare them away to get them to shut up. At least they're on better behavior now.'
Only Rei could tell the difference between Phobos and Deimos, and her grandfather always wondered how she did it. 'There's just something sweet about Deimos. She'll come down and perch on my shoulder more often,' Rei tried to explain once. 'She's a bit gentler, and she follows Phobos everywhere. Also, Phobos is the louder of the two. She's much more vocal.'
As if the crow could sense her thought, Phobos let out a couple squawks. "Yes, I know you've not been leaving me alone. If you're concerned about someone, go watch grandfather, eh?"
As if on command, the two birds flew off to the other side of the temple. Rei raised her eyebrows and continued to sweep. 'Well, it seems they got the point,' Rei thought as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She turned around and trudged back up the stone steps to the temple, set down her broom, and headed back into the shrine. People had left for the day, and in the early evening, Rei found she had the shrine to herself.
'It's nice that it's so private,' Rei thought as she sat down and lit the fir in front of her. The flame jumped out and seemed to lick at her face, but Rei felt no fear and settled in to meditate in front of the crackling flames. 'Kami, please guide my mind. Our burdens have been heavy, and I see no way to get into the Negaverse. Grant me the ability to be stronger.'
Just then, the flames seemed to jump, but instead of hopping away from them, Rei opened her eyes as the fire flickered close enough to burn anyone else. Then, on the other side of the flames, Rei saw another woman with long, dark hair. "Who are you?" Rei asked the dark haired woman, who wore leather armor and a silver crown with bloody rubies set into it.
"You know me," she said in a steely, regal voice. "I am Megaira. No one can stem my vengeance."
The flames between them shot upwards, and for a moment, Rei thought they covered her completely, but then, the fire died down to its normal size. Rei searched for the woman, but she realized that she was alone in the room. Instead of staying, Rei put out the flames and almost ran out of the shrine. 'Why does she terrify me?' Rei wondered as she headed down the hallway without thinking where she was going. Before she knew it, Rei found herself at the door to her room. She entered, shut the door, and then leaned against it, as if the door needed her weight to keep the terrifying woman in the shrine at bay.
"What's wrong?" Abinar asked, and Rei jumped because she hadn't noticed him sitting in the other corner.
"N-nothing," Rei muttered.
"Bullshit."
Rei shot the youma a sour look before she said, "Well, there is quite a bit wrong, but I saw someone in the shrine. The problem is, I don't even know who they were."
"Well, what did they look like?" Abinar asked in his normal, raspy voice. Rei gazed at the youma for a moment before she decided to answer truthfully.
"She wore armor and a crown. She called herself Megaira and told me she would have her vengeance," Rei answered, and she felt anger when her voice shook. 'Why am I so afraid?' Rei asked herself. 'Why am I even talking about this? It was nothing. Just a vision.'
However, try as she might, Rei could not dismiss the sheer power in the woman's eyes. "I know her," Abinar said after moment. "Rei, do not think of her. She's dead. I promise you she's dead. She was around during the Silver Millennium, but she died in the war."
Rei looked at Abinar, and then asked, "Were you around during the Silver Millennium? And how do you know she's dead?"
"I would assume that she died with everyone else. She was a warrior of Mars," Abinar supplied.
"What? Is that why she's appearing to me? Did I do something to wrong her?" Rei asked in a rushed voice. "Abinar, you have to tell me."
"I told you," the youma repeated, "She's gone. Let her go. You didn't wrong her. She only thought you did. She . . . she thought a lot of people betrayed her in the end. I suppose she felt very betrayed. Don't ask. I don't know any more, I swear to you on what's left of my miserable life."
Rei glared at the youma and nodded in consent. 'He's not lying,' she realized. 'I hope he's right about Megaira being dead. If she's alive . . . well, she'll want to kill me. That's all I need. An angry warrior from Mars trying to take vengeance on me for something I don't even remember I did.'
Then, staring at the youma once more, an idea came to Rei. "Abinar, have you been to the Negaverse?"
"Where do you think I was all this time?" he muttered.
"Could you get us into the Negaverse?"
"Why do you want to go there? Nothing good comes from there," Abinar said dismissively.
"No, you don't understand. They've captured Jupiter. We tried to get in several days ago, but we failed. Now, we're afraid they might brain wash her like they did to our other friend, Tuxedo Kamen. If you know how to get in, now is the time to say so," Rei stated frankly.
Abinar looked at Rei warily before he said, in a guarded manner, "Yes, I can get you in, but by you, I take it you're referring to all the senshi? If so . . . well, you're not my biggest fan, and the senshi aren't going to be mine, either. I also don't want to get left there."
"You won't. I swear on my life," Rei pledged. "I will protect you like one of the senshi, and if you fight with us, that will help our numbers."
Abinar cocked his head to one side. "You want me to fight with you?"
"Yes," Rei replied, just as surprised she'd asked as Abinar had been. "Fight with us, and I promise you the senshi will trust you."
"I doubt that a bit, but I will fight with you. It would be an honor," Abinar supplied. "Now, call them, and I can get you in at sundown, which is when the doors are the weakest. We have to hurry. The entrance is by that warehouse where you found me."
While Rei planned to contact the scouts, on the other side of the city, perched on top of a roof, a woman, who looked nothing more than a shadow, stood on one of the tallest buildings in the city like a living statue. Her long, green hair flowed out around her, and she crossed her arms impatiently over her chest as she scanned the city.
'If the scouts are reborn, then they all may have been reborn,' the woman thought as she gazed down at the lights. From up where she stood, it looked like the sky had been inverted onto the earth. The building lights twinkled like stars below, but the woman seemed unimpressed and impassive. A gust of wind picked up, but nothing moved but the woman's long hair, which ripped silently around her face.
'Of course, I am not trusted by the guardians now, so I cannot go to them.' The woman's black dress tied over one shoulder, like a toga, but it was also bound with a cord to keep it close to her body. Even so, the wind caught it and whipped it around her pale figure. It billowed out like a dark sail, but she did not seem bothered by the wind like a normal woman might have been.
'I cannot tell who knows what. If I only knew what the guardians have told them . . . but I suppose it does not matter. I cannot know that. I must focus on finding the one person who disappeared long ago.'
Her dark purple eyes scanned into a past that appeared far too distant, but she saw it with accurate clarity. After all, being the senshi of time allowed her the ability to remember everything, no matter how painful or how long ago. In her mind, the freezing of her world began to play again.
"What have you done!" she heard herself screaming as she looked on from a distance as the planet became a cold, barren cube of ice. She turned to the young girl standing beside her. The girl's mouth fell open as she stared at the death of the planet. The older time guardian bore down on her, but the girl simply shook her head.
"It wasn't me! I didn't know she would come for . . . please, please," the girl pleaded as the princess drew a sword. Then, without thinking, she stabbed the girl through the chest. The girl shrieked as the darkly cloaked time guardian finished her work before the girl flopped at her feet in a pool of blood.
'I should have known. When did it happen? I cannot say, but alas, I should have killed the ones who began this when I knew them. To think, they sat in my halls unnoticed.'
The senshi's wandering mind came back to the present. 'It is no matter. If my brother is not reborn, I must find one that can show me the final resting place of his treasure.' With that thought, the guardian of time fizzled off the roof in a snap of blurred light, and the wind continued to blow like she'd never been there looking down on the sleeping city.
A/N: That's right! Pluto is here! I wanted to maybe put in another flashback, but I'll save that for a future chapter. Anyway, the next chapter is huge one, so this one is a bit small. I'm also sorry if the part with Naru seemed abrupt, but I wanted to get that introduced before later chapters happened.