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: Sad. And even more secrets revealed.
Author's Note, Rimshooter: And to think this was supposed to be a cool-down chapter...
Chapter VIII: Matters of the Heart, Memory Roulette
Hotaru (Outer's Residence, Hotaru's Room)
Hotaru was shaking.
On one hand, memories of the past were trying to filter their way into the present – prompting vague and random flashes of moments of time from her childhood... all rendered meaningless by the speed at which they flew by. On the other... Hotaru wanted to remember. She wanted to have some certainty about this situation but... something was holding the memories back. Instead of coming to her all in a rush like in past situations similar to this, they instead came in chaotic bursts, vanishing as soon as they were apparent. And not only that, but since they couldn't materialize, there were some unfortunate side-effects that wouldn't normally matter...
It felt like someone was shoving needles through her skull.
Try as she might to organize her thoughts, everything was moving too swiftly for her conscious mind to keep up.
One moment, she remembered helping her mother prepare lunch boxes in the kitchen – the next she was running away from some ominous black entity that chased her throughout there house.
One second, she was a child – the next she was who she was now.
It was all one big confusing mess that she couldn't make heads nor tails of – and at the moment, she couldn't even be sure what memories were from her present, let alone decide what was in the past.
Eventually, it all proved too much and the girl finally faded into the comparative bliss of sleep, her transformation dispelling itself with the lack of will to sustain it.
Will / Setsuna
'Pluto's room is bland.' Will decided, moments before Irma voiced her thoughts... in typical fashion.
"Wow, nice place," She noted, "...think you could manage to put anything less in here and still call it a room?"
"An engineer has achieved perfection not when there's nothing left to add," Pluto spoke coolly, turning a frigid gaze on Irma, "but when there's nothing left to take away."
The guardian of water flinched and, for once, had the decency to look sheepish... if only a little.
"As entertaining as it is to see Irma squirm..." Cornelia interjected, "there's a lot of questions, and not so much time to answer them."
Pluto held up a hand, surveying the room. Counting the guardians and inner senshi, there were fifteen people in her room. 'It's a big room... but that's way too many.'
"Before any questions... raise your hands if you can't tell me what Kandricar is." The time senshi queried, and was pleasantly surprised when – other than the guardians, who were expected to know it – Neptune, Venus, Uranus, and the "advisors" didn't raise their hand. 'That's three more than expected.' "Everyone who just raised their hands – out, we'll fill you in later. Mercury, you can stay, we're going to need your input. Chibi-Moon, you stay as well."
There was a small storm of chatter as the inners filtered out of the room; some grumbles of protest, some halfhearted complaints, and even... talk about dinner? At that comment, Pluto let out an unnoticeable sigh as Will's brow rose slightly. Still, the exit held little fanfare... aside from Pluto pulling Irm back into the room by the collar when she tried to sneak out and explore the house.
Shutting the door and standing in front of it, Pluto turned an appraising gaze on those present. "All right. We're here – ask your questions."
"That black-outfitted guardian that showed up referred to Saturn as 'Hime-sama'..." Cornellia pointed out, and Pluto knuckled her forehead.
"Long story short? Former retainer – childhood friends. In Saturn's past life-" She held up a hand, stalling the oncoming storm from the peanut gallery, "she was a princess of her kingdom, much like the rest of us. Fia was very loyal to her princess. All of them were. It's just Fia's nature to be more... expressive... about her feelings than the others."
"Right, so that tells us why she's so upset about anything happening to Saturn..." Will started, and Irma picked it up.
"...but not why she hates you so much."
It was Venus who spoke this time, "They think we pushed her over the edge." She stated, a slight waver in her voice betraying the bluntness of her words, "Might actually have – we don't know. No one's entirely sure what happened."
"What could you have done to make them blame you, though?" Will pressed, "What do you know happened?"
"The queen sent an order to have her isolated and put in exile," Pluto explained, "Her powers were erratic and destructive, and no one knew how to train her. The decision was made to keep her as far as we could from general society until she could master them..."
"So not only was she dealing with the fact that she might accidentally blow up her house, or worse, you cut her off from her support network." Will observed... and then her mind flashed back to the story Yan Lin had told about the fifth guardian. "Fia is, or was, a guardian." The red-head noted, thinking aloud, "so who were the others? Syl, Rumina... what about the other two – the keeper, and the guardian of water?"
"Marielle and Renee – guardian of water and the keeper of the heart, respectively," Neptune asserted, turning an eye to Pluto. "But... wasn't there another one? I can't remember her name."
A chill went down Will's spine, even before Pluto closed her eyes and let out an audible sigh, "The fifth guardian – the keeper of the light – was Saturn herself... which reminds me," Pluto opened her eyes again, fixing the guardians with a steady gaze, "where's your fifth? Where's your light, guardians?"
"We have no fifth. There hasn't been one in centuries..." The guardians exchanged uneasy glances, as Will continued "Saturn's mother... did she...?"
All eyes were on Pluto, and the senshi of time closed her eyes again, nodding, "Die? Yes. We're not sure how, but-"
A knock sounded at the door, followed by a familiar voice, "Setsuna-mama... I need help..."
Pluto palmed her face as the other two outer senshi froze up, prompting Venus and the cats to look at them, confused.
Will's eyes narrowed slightly. That sounded like Hotaru. And she was in pain. 'And she knows someone who normally lives in this room.' She noted looking at Pluto.
There was another knock, followed by an odd... fizzling sound as Mercury's computer suddenly started beeping in alarm. An odd black, lightning-like energy sparked away from the door handle. Seeing it, Pluto's eyes widened and she summoned her Garnet Rod, holding it in a warding position.
"Setsuna-mama!"The girl cried and, to the surprise of everyone present save the outers... the door suddenly vanished beneath a curtain of black lightning, revealing a tired looking Hotaru staring at her hand, expression an odd mix of bewilderment, confusion, curiosity, and apathy. "My head hurts..." She complained, bringing the still-flickering hand up to rub her eyes.
"Pluto..." Will started, "...did my younger sister just blow up the door to your room?"
Reluctantly, the senshi of time gave a small nod, still watching Hotaru warily as if she might suddenly jump out at them.
Hotaru, on the other hand, looked much less alert. In fact, it looked like she was dead on her feet. Blinking, she turned a bleary-eyed stare onto Will. "Onee-chan... aren't you s'posed to be with okaa-san in..." She trailed off, wincing visibly at what those looking on could only assume was a particularly strong spike of pain.
Blinking again, she looked at Pluto again, nervousness showing clearly in her eyes, "P-Pluto! Where... why...?" A cold weight dropped into the pit of Will's stomach as Hotaru's expression descended into outright terror as she fell to the floor, clutching her head, "No! I don't want to go away! I don't want to go to sleep!"
"T-taru..." Chibi-Moon muttered, shocked – only for Pluto to insert herself between Chibi-Moon and Taru as the girl's head snapped to Chibi-Moon, eyes like a deer in the headlights.
"No! No no no no – No!" She exclaimed, throwing up her hands and conjuring a sudden bolt of black energy that Pluto was barely fast enough to put Chibi-Moon out of the way of. Seeing the hole in the wall left by the bolt, Hotaru curled into a ball and shivered. "Mother..." She whispered, desperate, before suddenly falling over, unconscious. The random jolts of black lightning dancing off her form did little to ease the mind, though.
"Pluto-" Will started, unsettled and more than a little angry, only for Pluto to interrupt her.
"No time." She asserted in a clipped, business-like tone. "Chibi-Moon – she needs help. Use your power to calm her down.
Gulping, the small senshi opened her locket, revealing a glowing pink crystal even as her transformation dispelled, revealing her to be Chibiusa... though that wasn't very hard to guess. Ignoring everyone else, the girl bent over to the crystal, whispering to it, "Pink Moon Crystal, I need you to help my friend with her struggle." Whatever the point of speaking to it was, the crystal seemed to respond. A soft pink aura came out from the crystal enveloping Hotaru from head to toe. Already, she looked healthier – the lightning disappeared – but then something unexpected happened.
Violet energy seemed to leak out of Hotaru's forehead, shifting about before it seemed to gain definition, turning into a spectral version of Sailor Saturn, only with longer hair... and wearing the same outfit the guardians did, blurred and indistinct as it was. The wraith turned a baleful gaze on Pluto, before softening as it looked to Chibiusa, and then Hotaru. It appeared to sigh, before kneeling beside Hotaru, placing a finger on her forehead. "Too much too fast, little one." It whispered, "You carry too much already. Let me take this burden."
The wraith tapped the center of Hotaru's forehead, and the astrological sign for Saturn flared into being, as if in response, before it dimmed and the wraith began to fade. Standing once more it turned back to Pluto and the outers. "Be glad. Were it not for the little one's compassion, you would have just died." And with that ominous word of warning, the wraith faded away completely.
"Frieendly." Irma commented, staring at the space the wraith had just been, "People from Saturn really don't seem to like you."
Pluto just sighed, rubbing her forehead and leaning against the wall, too tired to retort.
Fortunately, Will had that covered. The look she gave Irma might have melted steel.
This time there was nothing halfhearted about Irma's shamed expression. "Right, sorry... too close to home."
Unknown Perspective (Saturn Palace Ruins)
The girl paused in her ascent of the castle stairs, staring off into the chaotic stormy sky. "..." she whispered, eyes sorrowful. "Hold on a little more. I'll be there soon – I promise."
Then she returned to the long, lonely walk it took to reach the top of the palace's highest spire – since riddled with countless holes and collapsed in several places. 'A miracle it's still standing,' she marveled, even as she followed the trail of familiar energy to her destination. It was not long before she stood atop the spire. She froze, gazing about the ruined tower-top, eyes far away. 'Rumina was there – Fia over there...' She looked to the right, where a massive spike of ice stood impossible sentinel against the ravaging storm.
Walking closer, she saw a small form hovering protectively in front of the spike, and immediately averted her eyes. 'Syl,' She noted automatically, wincing with every step afterward as she walked past the frozen corpse, deliberately avoiding it to look up at the spire of ice.
It was less a spire, and more as if several great waves had converged on this point, racing upward into a spiral – frozen in position for the rest of eternity. At its tip was a distinctly female figure, arms spread out in a cross as if she had been crucified in mid-air. "Marielle," She whispered. The ice seemed to pulse slightly – dimly, like a fading flame. "Marielle, I am with you." She spoke, more confident as she placed a hand on the ice, flinching at the chill. "You are not alone anymore – you must wake up."
There was another pulse, and the girl removed her hand. "I know you don't want to," She spoke, pleading, "I know you want to sleep forever. That waking up will be painful... but she still needs your help, just as she did then. She saved you – saved me... She might not have even known what she was doing – might not h, "ave even remembered our names but... She's out there, Mary. She needs us to help her stand up again... or she'll just fall back down"
There was a period of inactivity, and then the ice pulsed once more, brighter. And then again, and again; steadily growing brighter with each consecutive pulse. Then it reached a critical point, and the light seemed to emerge from the ice, gaining form and shaping itself until she was looking at a frozen statue of Marielle... and then the statue opened its eyes, color bleeding into it gradually so that in a few moments, the girl could swear she was looking at flesh and blood... only she knew better.
"This will have to do," The newly formed elemental spoke, brushing several stray snowflakes out of its silver-blue hair.
The girl shook her head, giving the icy maiden a hug despite the cold, "It's fine, Marielle. Amazing, actually," There was a weak chuckle, "You learned how to do this on spot, didn't you?"
Marielle averted her gaze, "I could always do this," She insisted, "It's just not very efficient to transfer my consciousness in the middle of a fight..."
The other chuckled, "Right, because there's nothing you can't do when you put your mind into it."
"That was a sad pun, Renee," Marielle commented dryly, "it freezes my heart."
Renee clapped the other's back "It's good to have you back." Releasing her friend, Renee adopted a serious expression. "But, much as I would like to talk and laugh forever... She needs us."
Marielle nodded, the tiny smile that had worked its way onto her face vanishing, "I know."
"Then we'd best get to Earth," Renee replied, raising her hand.
A blue portal appeared between the two of them.
"Why Earth?" The former water guardian asked, as the pair entered the portal.
Renee's response was as simple as it was sad "It's the only place left that she could be. Everywhere else is dead."
With a flash, the portal closed behind them, leaving the remains of their friends to their tombs.