Disclaimer: Neither W.I.T.C.H. Nor Sailor Moon nor anything else that might pop up belong to the writer of this story.
Author's Note, Taeniaea: Sorry about the lack of author's notes, only just now noticed just how few there were... none after the first chapter.
Author's Note, Rimshooter: ...Yeah, that's probably my fault. Same for the delay. (Is shot. Explodes into fire and is revealed to be unharmed as it dissipates). Well... I was -going- to say you an shoot me, but... Don't blame Tae for Hotaru's predicament, it was my idea. If anyone rages about the Heart later... my idea again, niether of us could get past that point so I just figured we could wing it and see what happened.
Chapter V: Beginnings, Part 5
(Hotaru)
Hotaru ran through the house, smiling and laughing quietly to herself as she entered a random, inconspicuous door. It was a closet, filled with linens, and lacking light so that Hotaru didn't close the door all the way but, instead, left it cracked open slightly, peering outward through the narrow window this crack formed. Shortly afterward, a red-haired girl ran by, but stopped and turned around, noticing the closet door that was slightly ajar. The smile on the girl's face the only visible feature Hotaru could see other than her hair, the girl reached to the closet handle and pulled it open.
Hotaru fell into darkness.
She fell out of herself, spiraling down into the abyss away from the girl and her younger self. The closet became a small speck in the distance as Hotaru sank ever downward... and then it disappeared, and Hotaru hit the ground... hard. She lay on the ground, arms and legs limp, like some rag doll that had been cast aside. Her blurred vision saw a chaotic mix of red, black, and white.
The sound of bells.
A light shone from above, and Hotaru's vision cleared to revel that she was laying in a pool of blood. The floor all about her was obsidian black as well as smooth and hard as glass. And cold. So very cold that it numbed Hotaru's body of the pain she was sure she should be feeling right now.
The sound of bells again.
A massive pair of doors barred with chains and locks of every sort appeared before Hotaru. Looking closer, Hotaru noticed that despite the chains, the doors were pushed slightly open, presenting a narrow gap.
The sound of bells.
Hotaru blinked, and suddenly a faceless figure stood before the door. It was a girl, about her height and build, wearing a long, flowing black dress. From her left ear hung a small, silver bell.
"-" The girl said something, but Hotaru couldn't make out what it was. Suddenly, the doors, the girl, and the blood all melted away.
Hotaru awoke suddenly and without warning, her eyes snapping open and vision slightly blurred. As her eyes came into focus, she found herself staring at the ceiling of Chibiusa's room. Dawn's early rays filtered in through the curtains, dimly lighting it.
A Thousand Dreams (Will)
Will awoke without much fanfare, eyes simply opening to stare at the ceiling above. Nearby, her friends shifted in their sleep. The room had a single bed, which Will had been given, while everyone else slept on a futon that had been pulled out, simply because Gorou figured it'd be more practical. Looking over her friends sleeping form's, Will found herself agreeing... Even with bunk-beds, they'd only be able to fit four people in the room, which meant someone would have to sleep on the floor or share... completely disregarding how much of a hassle it was to set up bunk-beds in the first place. Through the window drifted the day's early morning light.
'I woke up early... Not too surprising... It's probably going to bite me in the back later, though.' Will thought as she carefully navigated the room to the door, which opened outward, thankfully. The hallway was unlit as well, and even darker, though there was a window at the end that provided some light. Making her way downstairs, Will noticed Gorou wasn't at the desk. Instead there was a hired attendant, who had apparently fallen asleep on the job. It was a girl no more than two years older than her, so Will figurd she was working part time. Will let her sleep, stepping outside and sitting on the front steps, taking in the morning air and trying to find some sort of solace.
Life had been far too exciting recently.
The letters she'd been writing to Hotaru had finally been replied to after about a year of silence... and Hotaru had apparently forgotten Will completely. And then Will received another letter from Hotaru, this one being dated a year ago and apparently having never been mailed until Hotaru's friend chanced upon it. And included within was a family picture, allegedly found by the same friend. And then there were the anonymous notes on the back of the letters... Add in coming all the way to Japan to find out the truth of the matter, encountering Hotaru herself and having the girl's amnesia solidified as reality, and now, most recently, finding out she was some sort of magical guardian of reality or something... and Will was feeling rather overwhelmed.
'Today I learn how to use supernatural abilities that I'd be just as happy without. There's so much else on the plate already...'
"Penny for your thoughts?" A voice came from behind.
Will turned to see the attendant from the desk standing in the doorway. "Trust me... You really couldn't know the half of it."
"Oh? That bad?" The elder girl responded.
"It's a tangled mess of problems one after another that all lack explanations and solutions." Will answered.
"So try me, what've you got to lose?"
Will's eyebrow rose, "A sense of privacy?"
"Well, yeah... But it doesn't look like you're going to be figuring it out by yourself any time soon. Besides, looking at you all bummed out on the steps kills my mood too."
"You speak English rather well." Will noted.
The girl shrugged, "It comes with managing an inn that gets mostly tourists from the States."
Will turned back to the street, noting the sky was considerably brighter. If she were to hazard a guess, Will would say it's about time for everyone else to wake up.
"Alright, don't tell me what's up." The girl said upon Will's dropping of the conversation, the girl paused before speaking once more, "This your first visit to Japan?"
"No." Will replied simply. "You usually spend your work-hours chatting to the visitors?"
"No," the girl answered, "You just looked like you need to talk to someone."
"Yukari!" Gorou's voice came from within, "Where are you?"
The girl, Yukari, winced upon hearing the agitation in Gorou's voice. "Crap, I got caught. Talk to you later, Will." Yukari left then, entering through the front doors, a sheepish expression on her face.
'How'd she know my name?' Will thought as Yukari vanished through the door. 'Maybe Gorou told her... we're his only tenants at the moment, and we kind of stand out from each other.'
"Hey Will," Irma spoke, walking through the door, "Know anything about the commotion inside?"
"A little... Apparently Yukari was at the desk in place of Gorou, but she left it to talk with me outside... Gorou woke up before she went in." Will explained.
"Ouch. So what'd she talk to you about?"
"Nothing, really," The red-head answered.
"Hm..." Irma trailed off, clearly unconvinced, "Well, doesn't matter, I guess. Granny wants us upstairs in her room to talk about... well, you know."
Will nodded. The two girls left through the foyer, past a chastised and dejected looking Yukari, and up to Yan-Lin's room. Upon entering, the two saw the rest of their group had assembled. At the sound of the door opening, Yan-Lin turned to the two new arrivals.
"Ah, Will, Irma..." She said, "...We were just discussing a possible location where you could practice your powers without drawing attention to yourselves... Unfortunately, all the places I once knew are now no longer available. Do you have any suggestions, Will?"
Will paused, thinking about it. Here was a problem that was, in comparison to the others, relatively easy to solve, and thus it gave her a sort of buffer between them for the time being, allowing her to focus on one thing. 'The park we used to go to will be too populous... Same for most of our old places...'
"...I can't really think of any places where there won't be many people to see... not during the day, anyway." Will admitted, and Yan-Lin nodded.
"We'll have to wait until night falls then, there's no helping it. In the mean time... you don't look so well. Do you want to talk?"
"No... not right now." Will stated, pointedly avoiding contact with any of her friends' gazes.
"Why don't we practice in the sewers?" Hay Lin suggested, only to be immediately shot down by Cornelia.
"No way! What if we accidentally damage them? And besides... they're sewers. You're not getting me down there, any circumstances."
"Hm..." Yan Lin mused to herself as the group of friends began tossing out ideas and then shooting them down just as fast. As their brainstorming activity continued, Will's attention was temporarily averted as her neck began to grow slightly warm. Looking down, she saw the Heart of Kandrikar was now glowing brightly and hovering above her collar. The others noticed it as well, and the room was temporarily silent, as Yan Lin exclaimed to herself, "Ah! How could I have forgotten-"
Without warning, the room was enveloped in a blast of pink light, which soon faded away, leaving an empty room behind with none the wiser. Elsewhere, in her room, Ami Mizuno's computer signaled an alert, and she checked it quickly, only for whatever it detected to be gone. "How odd..."
Somewhere Else... (Will)
When Will's vision cleared, she found herself standing on a barren plain under a scarlet sky, surrounded by her friends, with nothing else to see any direction.
"...we can use the Heart to enter a barren dimension."
As the guardians took in their surroundings... or relative lack thereof, Irma pointed out a flaw with this plan of action.
"So how do we know how long we've been in here? I don't know about you, but I don't see a clock or anything laying around and I didn't bring my watch."
In response, Yan-Lin pointed to Will. "We can only stay here so long. The Heart will pull us back when that time has elapsed... We have three or four hours worth of time for now. But you should still take the opportunity, no sense wasting any time."
"Not like there's anything else to do." The water-user responded as the others gathered about.
"So... how do we practice when there's nothing to practice with?" Cornelia asked.
"Simple." The elderly woman answered, "Will just needs to think about releasing the full extent of your powers."
As if on cue, Will cupped the Heart in her hands, speaking the words, "Guardians, unite!"
Another wave of power washed over her, several beams of light shooting out, one to each girl present, and another to Will, encasing them all in a sphere of energy. When these dissipated, there were slightly talller and older, but, more notable, they were dressed in odd, tightly fitting clothes with a pair of butterfly-like wings adorning each of their backs.
"So... where's Puck?" Irma said upon taking in their appearances. Upon the end of her sentence, another beam of light shot out into the sky, only to fall forward, as if running out of energy, before it could travel outside their line of sight.
A slightly worried frown appeared on Yan-Lin's face.
Tsukino House, Chibiusa's Room (Hotaru)
Little had happened since the time Hotaru had awoke from her nightmare, but she was just beginning to hear the sounds of activity downstairs.
In that span, Hotaru had simply sat, leaning against the bed she'd slept in after she got ready for the day... thinking about the events she'd witnessed in her dream. 'Will and I were really close... or were we? I can't tell anymore. Everything was so messed up!' In all the time she'd been awake... Hotaru had yet to come to any sot of grips with the subject she was thinking about. It didn't help that her memory of it was already growing progressively more mixed up and vague.
That was when her communicator rang... preceding an odd feeling of being left out of something. Shaking it off, Hotaru pulled the communicator from where she'd stored it, opening it to see Ami's face.
"Sorry to bother you, but something's just come up. We're going to hold an impromptu meeting... Could you wake Chibiusa and Usagi up?"