Sailor Stardust—Chapter 5
Minako left Ren's apartment in the morning, before Ren's father woke up for work. When he came into the kitchen, he noticed Ren already seated at the table, head bent over a cup of coffee.
"Good morning, Ren," he said, showing no real interest in the goodness of the morning.
"Good morning, otou," Ren responded, eyes closed.
"You got in late last night."
"Really? I hadn't noticed the hour."
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Ren kept most of the sarcastic tone out of her voice. "I got carried away at the office."
To make things easier on her father, Ren had told him that she had a non-paying internship at a newspaper. She gave him a false name so that he couldn't track it—not that he would. In truth, the whole thing was a over-up for her work as a Sailor Scout. If he ever questioned her—which was rare—she would blame whatever it was on work.
They lapsed into silence, which was broken a few moments later by a polite knock on the door. Ren felt her father look to her, then go and answer the door.
"Good morning, Hoshino-san," Ren heard Setsuna greet her father, and heard the slight rustle of the woman's business skirt as she bowed slightly.
"Good morning," Hoshino sounded a tad surprised. "Who are you?"
"My name is Setsuna Meiou, and I am a…coworker of Ren-san," she introduced herself.
"Has she done something wrong?"
Ren bristled at her father's initial reaction. If her mother were still living with them… He would never have said something like that.
"No, sir," Setsuna said, "I came to tell Ren-san some work related business. May she come out today?"
Hoshino blinked. "Of course."
Ren got up and made her way to her room slowly. She put on a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a tank top. Then she grabbed a light jacket and went to meet Setsuna.
"Meiou-san," she greeted, smiling. "How nice of you to visit."
"I would have called," Setsuna replied, "but I wanted to talk to you in person."
"How thoughtful." Ren touched her father on the shoulder. "Have a good day at work, otou, and I'll see you later."
"A—all right," Hoshino watched the two girls—women, really—leave down the hallway and out into the spring morning.
Ren and Setsuna walked silently for many moments. Setsuna touched Ren's shoulder when they reached a street corner.
"Haruka, Michiru, we are here," Setsuna alerted the other figures standing on the other side of the street.
Ren concentrated and could just make out the slight vibrations the other people made as they crossed the street. She gripped her transformation pen—which she had slipped into her pocket before leaving the house—in case the other two decided to pull something like at the school.
She still hadn't really forgiven them for that.
"Good morning, Hoshino-san," Michiru greeted.
"Good morning to you as well, Michiru-san."
"We can't talk here," Haruka cut straight to business. "We should go someplace more secluded."
"The trees behind my school," Ren suggested immediately, knowing Haruka would get her meaning.
Ren felt the air around their small group grow tense. Then it was gone and Haruka agreed.
They walked over to the private school, where Ren used her student ID card to gain access to the grounds—not that Haruka and Michiru couldn't have just hopped the fence.
"What is it that you need to tell me?" Ren demanded when they had reached the location. "Don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about."
"Well…" Setsuna began. "I may be able to shed some light regarding your mother."
"My mother left my father after giving birth to me," Ren said.
"That's not completely true," Michiru told her.
"What are you talking about?" Ren asked, growing more and more puzzled.
She heard Haruka sigh heavily. The grip on her transformation pen increased.
"When I had been a while at my job as the Guardian of the Gate," Setsuna explained, "my lady queen, Serenity, thought it necessary that I should receive an assistant. She introduced me to your mother, Hakura Tanya, who transformed to become Sailor Generation. She was to be responsible for the Sands of Time that were kept in a pocket of space directly behind the door that I guarded.
"But she longed after one man whose time she watched more than anyone else's: your father's. One day she stole away from her post and went to Earth. She sought him out and they fell in love. Eight months into her pregnancy with you, I finally caught up with her and brought her back to our posts. She sent you in a basket to your father with a note."
Ren absorbed all of this in silence. Then:
"Is she still alive?"
"Yes, she has remained at her post these many years," Setsuna confirmed. "She also performs my duties, when I am away on other Scout business."
"Can I see her?"
"Perhaps when you regain your vision…"
"No!" Ren folded her arms. "I am not going to sit here and not see the mother that abandoned me as a child. I want to know why she did what she did. I need answers, do you understand?"
After several hours of unsuccessful reasoning, Setsuna agreed to take Ren to see her mother in the outer pocket of space that held the Gate and the Sands of Time.
Stardust and Pluto stepped into the outer space. Gradually, Stardust's sight returned.
"Your sight is restored here because we are in a place that is not within the same time as Earth and its Galaxy," Pluto explained to her unspoken question.
Stardust nodded, jumping slightly as a voice said with authority: "Halt! Who goes there?"
"It is I, Sailor Pluto!" Pluto tapped her staff on the floor of the space, commanding presence. "I have brought another Scout as well."
"Who is this other Scout that has entered our domain?"
Stardust stepped forward, farther than Pluto. She glared into the shadow space that the voice had come from.
"Check your sands, Sailor Generation, and perhaps my identity will be revealed to you!"
The voice did not answer. Then a figure slowly stepped into the light. The woman that stood before Stardust could have been her twin—besides the obvious years that separated them. Sailor Generation had the grey and black color scheme: grey collar, black bow and skirt, black gloves with grey ends and white circlets at the wrist. Her bow at the back of her skirt was also black, and she had black, full-legged tights that disappeared into grey boots that came up to her mid-calf. The older Scout had a staff similar to Pluto's, but with a white star atop it, which matched the white star on her silver headband and in the center of the black bow on her chest. The same white star that Stardust had on her own Scout uniform.
Generation had the same color hair as Stardust, with the exception that it was slightly longer—mirroring the length of Sailor Mercury's—with three white pearls nested in her hair on either side of her hair part. Generation had gone through all of her evolutions, and now stood at her post as a full Scout.
Stardust stared at her for a long moment, not knowing what to say. The woman before her had an equal reaction.
Pluto glanced between the two of them, ready to step in if things should get out of hand.
But nothing did. Dropping their staffs in almost perfect unison, mother and daughter Scout closed the distance between them and embraced in their first hug.