Sailor Stardust—Chapter 4

A Sailor Moon Fan Fiction

Ren sat where Tsukino had placed her at Hino Rei's bedroom table, where the other Scouts—Inner and Outer—had gathered as well. The Scouts were gathered to discuss the impending attack by the warlocks of the neighboring galaxy, Raia.

She had had to be guided to the meeting by Tsukino and Tenou. The entire way to Hino's, she had felt the tension between the two leaders. Obviously they had some issues to work through, but Ren was not going to get in the middle of them—not unless she had to.

"I still don't see why we have to be talking about this at all," Tomoe Hotaru said (Ren imagined the young girl shaking her head). "They mean us harm, as evident by your last encounter with a warlock. Trying to make peace with them will do no good."

"But we've faced enemies like them before," Kino Makoto pointed out. "Remember Nemesis, with Prince Diamond and everyone? We got them to turn to the side of good."

"True," Setsuna Meiou agreed, "but that was after you let Dark Phantom win the heart of Small Lady, and let him kill off everyone of the Black Moon Family."

"Hey! We didn't let him do anything!" Hino argued.

From the way their voices were bouncing around the room, Ren got a relative layout of her surroundings, but not enough to trust herself with standing and moving around.

"Enough!" she said, forcefully. "You won't solve anything by arguing like this! The most you'll accomplish is letting the enemy in!"

"And how would you know?" Minako Aino asked.

"Because I had something similar happen."

No one spoke, waiting for her explanation.

"I am actually from the time of the first Queen Serenity. It was my job to protect the Moon Kingdom from outside attack. I thought the Kingdom was safe, but Beryl and her army slipped passed me—the Moon Kingdom fell, and Galaxia sent me back in time with the rest of the Princess's Court to watch over space. It is now my new duty to watch the recesses of space surrounding Earth, to protect the future Crystal Tokyo."

Silence met her words. If she had been able to see, she was sure that everyone in the room would be either huddled together at the other end of the room or gone—replacing themselves with plastic replicas or something. She was surprised when Tsukino spoke:

"So…you were sent to guard the space outside of my mother's kingdom?"

"Yes." Ren dry swallowed—Tsukino sounded more like her Princess Serenity than she had before.

"But it wasn't her fault that Beryl formed an army!" Tenou came to Ren's rescue. "Hoshino, how old were you when this happened?"

"I was new to my Scout powers and duties—it was my first assignment. But that doesn't excuse what I did."

"Of course it does!" Setsuna chided. "Someone new to their powers—not even trained properly—cannot be charged with such a large responsibility."

"She still let Beryl inside f our perimeter!" Tsukino argued, voice getting louder. "Maybe if she had done her job right—!"

"Maybe if someone hadn't been sneaking off to Earth to see their precious Endymion!" Tenou shot back.

"STOP IT!" Ren shouted, stopping all cross chatter. "I take partial blame for the fall of the Moon Kingdom and that is the end of it!"

Was she tearing up? It wasn't anyone's fault but her own that the Moon Kingdom had fallen—and Beryl, of course. But it was Ren that had not done her job properly. Tsukino was right to accuse her of that. In fact, all of the Scouts should hate her! Ren had failed in her one mission as a Scout.

Ren felt a calm hand rest on her shoulder.

"Leave her alone, you guys." Minako's voice sounded inside of Ren's head, an angelic bell amidst the condemning tones of the others. "That's all over and done with. What matters now is finding a way to defeat the neighboring enemy. We need to work with Hoshino-san. She's one of the few of us who has any idea what's out there in space. We need her help."

Ren heard everyone agree, and Tsukino's mumbled approval. She knew that the dicision to trust was probably very hard for Tsukino. Even though the girl had integrated into her life on Earth—but really what choice did she have?—the Moon Princess had her moments of complete isolation and mistrust of the world just like everyone else.

"Hey, where's Mamoru?" Makoto asked, changing the subject.

"He said he had a paper to write," Tsukino answered. "He told me he'd be by later."

Ren sat quietly at her kitchen table. Minako had been kind enough to drop her back at her apartment. Big surprise, her father still wasn't home—not that he would be able to see that anything was wrong. Ever since Ren had turned sixteen he had been showing less and less interest in her life. Now he was barely around anymore, and when he was, he was sleeping.

Before leaving the meeting, everyone agreed that it was a good idea to leave someone at home with Ren. Even though she was used to living/surviving alone—for although her father was rarely home, he still took care of her as best as he could—Ren found the gesture touching. In all honesty—though she would never openly admit this to anyone—she had not felt deeply moved by anything since she was a younger teenager, when she and her father still did activities together.

Minako offered to stay over with Ren. The two were making the couch into a bed when Minako asked a question:

"What made you leave your post?"

Ren paused in her action of smoothing the sheets. "I did not leave; I was patrolling the other side of the Moon's sphere. It is a large object and takes a great deal of time to encompass. I was caught off-guard by Beryl's brazen attack."

"That is understandable," Minako consented. "But why haven't you asked Galaxia for a partner? Or help?"

Ren smiled, suppressing a laugh. "My lady would not do such a thing. My duty is as a lone protector."