Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Perfect (Sailor) Soldier ❯ Chapter 01 ( Chapter 1 )

By: stefani teee a.k.a. Koneko

© Tale Spinners inc.

~*~*~*~

Koneko-chan says!

Stefani: Wheeeeeee!!!!!

Nanashi: Translation - She has started the revision. And it's longer than the original.

Heero-chan: *grumbles* We don't even get paid.

Stefani: *shrugs* You can have a cookie. Now explain how old they all are.

Chibi-Relena: *jumps up and down trying to reach the plate of cookies* 18! 18! COOKIE!!!!!

Stefani: *hands her the plate*

Muses: *dive for the plate*

Stefani: *blinks* Wow.

~~~~~

"That is all. Any complaints?"

"Let me get this straight," Duo said slowly, standing up and beginning to pace the floor, frowning, "we've got a new pilot on our hands. and you're telling me that she's. that we're. we're going to be fighting with a. a girl?!"

Dr. J, on the screen, sighed. These boys were special, there was no doubt about that, but it took a lot to remember they still had all the ideas of all men about the place of women. Although, granted, he had been thinking that it would be Wufei with the complaints. "Everything has already been decided. and in fact, you really are in no place to disagree with me."

Duo sat back, grumbling, making all of them, even Wufei, surprised at his vehemence. Then they all looked in surprise when, in the screen behind Dr. J, a woman with long dark green hair in a white lab coat appeared, clipboard in hand. She laid a hand on Dr. J's shoulder, before peering into the screen to see who it was he was talking to. She smiled then, a slow, secretive smile. "Ah, you were already trying to explain to them?" she asked, Dr. J. She sounded distinctly Japanese. She was also startlingly beautiful and the boys found themselves staring despite themselves. They were male after all.

Dr. J smiled, "You might want to explain to them yourself. some of the boys don't seem to believe your new girl is capable of handling the same work they are."

The woman smiled wryly, "I have seen a time when they said that about women and working. Men simply never seem to be able to realize that we're just as capable." She sat down. "But I assure you, my girl is perfectly capable of doing exactly what you're doing. perhaps even more so once she's been trained completely.

"You mean she's not even been trained yet?!" Duo exclaimed, leaping to his feet, forgetting who he was talking to a complete stranger. "And you expect her not to be killed when she starts trailing us?!"

The woman's eyes narrowed, "All of you are more likely to die before she is. In fact, I guarantee it. And if you are questioning her fighting skills. well she has been fighting since before you were even born, if not the way you fight."

Quatre found it the time to ask a question, "But didn't Dr. J say she was around our age?" he asked her politely, interrupting Duo's rant.

"She is." the woman confirmed.

"Then how.?"

Another enigmatic smile appeared on the woman's face. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"When will she be here?" asked Heero finally, not willing to attempt to play the woman's mind games. "And who are you?"

"I am Setsuna 'Susan' Meioh. You might say I'm in the same league as Dr. J here," she patted the older man on the shoulder, while he shrugged at the computer screen when they stared incredulously at him, "though I have really no stipulations of having my name said out loud. I will be around you more often than they will of course, seeing to the training of my girl, and you will address me as Susan. As for your first question. why she'll be with you tomorrow at the very latest."

Then, the both of them signed off, leaving them with a blank screen.

Duo threw himself back into his chair. "Great, just great," he complained. "Just when I thought hanging around with a bunch of guys like me was starting to get along great, and then some girl has to come in and ruin it all."

"Why aren't you going on about it like he is?" inquired Trowa of Wufei.

The Chinese boy shrugged, "If she's as good as they say she is," he replied, "Then I really can't complain. If not. there will be plenty of time to see that she is gotten rid of."

Duo stood up then, and stormed out of the room.

"What's wrong with him?" wondered Quatre as soon as Duo had slammed the door shut.

"He's still upset about that girl he was going out with. Hilde." Heero replied, "she was a soldier."

Quatre sighed, "I don't fancy being in this girl's shoes. it'll be hard enough fitting in among us," he said ruefully, "and Duo's not going to be very helpful, is he?"

"If she's as good as they say she is, she won't need his 'help'."

~*~*~*~

"How did it go?" Hotaru asked mildly, looking up as Setsuna stormed into the living room.

Shaking her head, the older woman threw her lab coat into a chair, before sitting down on the couch and attempting to rein in her temper. "Children, all of them." She muttered, "They don't believe you can be as good as I say you are."

"I don't believe I can be as good as you say I can be. I don't doubt that they would too. They are the best of the best, aren't they?"

"Not unless I have something to say about it," grumbled Setsuna, drumming her fingertips on the polished oaken coffee table. "You're better than they are, and you have the capability of being even better than you are now. They may fight with weapons of this century, but you fight with the magic of millennia. And once you know their style of combat," she spread her hands, "why, wouldn't I have spoken the truth, then?" She stood up, "When I brought this up before all the senshi, it was you who volunteered, not Jupiter, not Uranus, whom we expected. You. Already you have more power than any other of the senshi, excepting the Queen of course, and you will accomplish more than any of them possibly could." She smiled softly down at her charge, "I'm glad you volunteered. you are going to that time where both planetary power and steel must be forged into one."

She had the look of the prophetic when she said this, which Hotaru noticed quite well, being something of a Seer herself. "So you mean to say that this is for our mutual benefit."

"Quite."

Hotaru stood up, her slender frame making her appear more delicate than Setsuna had ever imagined possible for the Messiah to be. "Well then," she said in a wry tone, "show me how to destroy the world in the ordinary mundane way."

"I will."

Unnoticed by Hotaru, Setsuna shook her head, sighing. "When I finally think it's possible that she just might get over being the senshi of Destruction and Rebirth. destiny calls on her to kill with her own two hands, not just her magic." Turning back towards her, Setsuna stood up, "I think you'd better go and say goodbye then." she told her slowly, "You won't be seeing any of them for a long time."

Thousands of years where she will be living a nightmare, and they will be caught in the Dreaming.

Hotaru nodded once, before turning and silently walking towards stairs. One last night with the senshi and then she would disappear.

~*~*~*~

"Has she been in yet?" asked Quatre, peering into the room where Wufei was busy polishing an ornamental dagger of his. The black-haired boy shook his head, not even bothering to look up, "No one's been in except you." He replied, giving the blade one last swipe with the cloth, then holding it up to the light to watch it glitter. Slipping it back into its sheath, he finally looked up. "Why are you worried? The new doctor will be bringing her, won't she?"

"I suppose. I just don't want Duo to find her first."

Wufei raised an eyebrow, "I assume she's that pretty to have caught Duo's interest?"

Quatre laughed out loud, but spoke hollowly, "The complete opposite in fact. he's behaving like a child and is planning to put a plastic spider in her quarters or something like that. He still isn't happy with the idea."

"The fool," Wufei replied almost conversationally.

Quatre shrugged, "That's why." He went back to the door, "Well, I'm going to continue looking. I'll be seeing you."

Wufei waved a hand in his direction, as his attention was redirected to a different blade, a long knife with a serrated edge. This he began to polish as if nothing of importance had really happened.

Nothing really had.

Duo, who was in fact not plotting ridiculous schemes for the new girl, was actually watching his old flame and her new-he seethed-acquaintance. He absolutely refused to call him her boyfriend, even though they were both conversing softly in German, which, of course, left him completely out of the loop as to what they were saying, and he had his arm around his shoulders. Their breakup had been a bad one, his and Hilde's. But that aside, he still thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. and she didn't want him. She'd explained it all quite well. that she only thought of him as a friend, a very good trustworthy friend, but a friend only, which their short time as a couple had taught her. Unfortunately, it had not been the same for him as it had been for her, he having fallen head over heels in love with her. That was how they'd ended it, with the both of them screaming at each other, further convincing her that she couldn't love him like that. and he saying if he couldn't have her love him in that way, then he really couldn't stand her loving him any other way.

He was Death. he'd always thought that she would be his Rebirth.

He'd been wrong.

Wufei, still in the sitting room, polishing his knife, was startled into attentiveness by a strange violet fog drifting around his legs, and a mysterious smell of some exotic scent. A flare of red light appeared before his eyes, and he closed his eyes instinctively, being blinded would not help him if he were caught in a dangerous situation. As soon as the light faded, he was facing the woman in the lab coat again, this time with a pair of glasses tipped up onto her forehead. She smiled at him, a strange, enigmatic smile, "Hello. forgive our surprising entrance. I thought this room would be empty."

"What did you just do?" he demanded, not taking well to being surprised. Setsuna shrugged, "I brought my girl." she sidestepped, showing to him for the first time, the girl who'd been standing behind the taller woman with the abundant dark green hair.

Even he, one of those least vulnerable to the effects of a gorgeous female had to stare for a moment or two. She was pretty, in a sweet, old-fashioned way, with large violet eyes and long dark hair, with just a hint of a color that might have been purple.

"This is Hannah." The girl looked up at the older woman, mildly confused, and then uttered something in Japanese, which Wufei wasn't especially good at translating. The older woman listened for a moment, then nodded, "If it is better for you to call her Hotaru, she would also be more comfortable hearing it. She has only just gotten her dual citizenship."

"I see."

Hotaru smiled at him, violet eyes sparkling in a way she was quite unconscious of, "It's nice to meet you," she said politely, bowing just the slightest bit. It was a habit most Asians found themselves in, whether they be traditional, or. not.

Wufei raised an eyebrow at her, bowing his head to her, before turning back to the green-haired woman, "Do you mean she is the one who you want us to help train?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"Can she fight?" he asked, standing up, and looking her over top to bottom. He had expected someone larger, the type of woman who wanted to prove themselves equal to a man, having more muscles, short hair, extreme self-confidence. This slender, velvet-eyed girl was certainly not what he had expected.

"Well that certainly depends on what you want her to fight with."

"Can she use a mobile suit?"

Setsuna shook her head, "No. to learn that, and to teach her long-range weapons is what I brought her to you for. For those are the skills she must use in battle. the way she fights is. unique."

Wufei raised an eyebrow, but nodded curtly. "I see."

At that moment, the door opened, and Quatre walked in. He blinked in surprise, his mouth open in mid-word, before he stopped and addressed the two newcomers, "Welcome. I didn't see you come in."

Setsuna smiled, gesturing to Hotaru, "This is Hannah, or Hotaru as she will most likely beg you to call her. She is the girl of whom I spoke of." Quatre smiled, holding out his hand, in which she took, and shook it firmly. "It's nice to meet you, Hotaru." he glanced down at the duffel bag and the backpack she had been carrying. Impressed, having known most girls her age usually carried more, he asked, "Do you want me to take you to your room?"

"Please."

He led the way, while Hotaru turned round once more to wave at Setsuna and the followed Quatre out the door.

Setsuna or Susan as the boys called her, plucked her Time Staff out of thin air, to the surprise of Wufei, and smiled down at him. "I will return as soon as I can." with a twist of her wrist, she had stepped through the portal the Time Staff had opened, and disappeared through it.

There was only one way to explain it all. And Wufei came to that conclusion. He simply shook his head and muttered, "Women." going back to polishing his knife.

As soon as they were in the hallway, and away from the room they'd just left, Hotaru finally asked, "What's a mobile suit?"

Quatre stopped walking, turning to her in surprise. "You mean you don't know how to fight with one?"

She shook her head in the negative, "Is it some sort of armor?" she asked curiously.

"You don't even know what one is?"

She shook her head again. "Hasn't Susan explained it to you why I'm here?"

It was his turn to shake his head, "Only that you would be staying with us to be a part of our team and learn some of our skills." He shrugged, "I never expected you wouldn't know anything about fighting."

"I do know something about fighting. I just suspect I don't know how to fight the way you do."

"You'll learn, the Doctors are very good at what they do. I should know. they each trained one of us."

She shrugged, "I don't think even Susan knows how to work a mobile suit. Theory and abstract is her specialty, not practical applications. It's probably why she's working with the rest of those people. I'm going to learn from you." She frowned, "Although I'm not sure what the implications of 'you' mean. I suspect it involves you, and that other boy we met back in the other room."

He looked flustered, "Oh dear. well. I wouldn't even know where to start."

She smiled at him for the first time, her large violet eyes breathtaking, enhanced so much more because she didn't know the effect they had. "You're not going to teach me by yourself I don't think. but. for a start, you might show me to my room. these bags will get heavy if I have to carry them all day."

Quatre looked even more flustered at that, "Why, uh, yes. I believe. well. this way. do you need help with those?"

"I'm fine," she held up one dainty fist, "I'm not as weak as I look."

The room they ended up in front of was plain. very plain. Hotaru stepped in, allowing her bags to drop to the ground, and looked around with curious eyes.

"It's probably not what you're used to back home. but." Quatre began, but she stopped him with a smile. "Oh no. it's." her eyes had a strange, dreamlike quality to them that they hadn't had a minute before. And Quatre, being an empath, recognized it, finding it similar to the dazed look he sometimes got on his face. "Someone died in here," she said in a soft, singsong voice, "someone died, and was reborn."

"Well. there was a soldier who used to live in this room. and I. I suppose you could say she died. she was drowned, in the bathtub there. and someone brought her back to life. with. with CPR."

She nodded slowly, eyes still drifting around the bare walls, before she seemed to catch herself, shaking her head just the slightest and looking back at him. "Sorry." she sighed, shaking her head, "You must think I'm insane."

"Oh no." he was quick to reassure her, "It's not the first time this place has been faced with unexplainable questions. You're just another apple in the barrel. By the way, is that the only reason you're here? Learning new battle techniques, I mean?"

"I'm looking for my Death," she told him softly, cryptically, "And I've almost begun to believe that I might never find him."

"Death, is it?" he replied, "Literally or metaphorically speaking?"

"Both." she replied.

Any other boy in that direct vicinity would have become ten ways uncomfortable. But this was Quatre, and he had been known for accepting the weird in all its forms. But. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" he asked her kindly, "You're trying to see if all you're saying is getting to me."

She sighed, "I'm really fitting in," she mumbled under her breath before answering him. "No. but I have taken up the habit of talking in riddles. Being prophetic and living a life near Setsuna-san will do that to anyone. In prose you might say I'm looking for someone. But my reason for being here?" she shook her head unsmilingly, her eyes dark and serious, "The reason is that this is a crucial period untouched by the forces that have been bound to it by destiny, between the past and the future. The dark forces have found it, and have already begun to exploit it. That's what I'm here. to even things up a little I suppose."

She looked up suddenly, at the end of her jumbled explanation, "Do you understand any of this?" she asked, scrutinizing his face, "Has anything happened yet in this place before either Susan or I came here? Anything. unusual?"

He looked grim for a couple of moments, "Yeah. yeah there has." He stopped, "But let's not get down to business at once, shall we? Would you still like a tour of our." he paused, looking around at the cold steel walls of the narrow corridor, ".magnificent facilities?" he finished wryly with a touch of sarcasm.

Shrugging, she nodded, "So. where to first, sensei?"

Quatre grinned at the term, and he gestured to the door, "Let's let you meet the others."

Heero looked up in quasi-interest when he noticed Duo storming in through the door, flashing his ID at the security guards. "That scheming bastard!" He was muttering furiously under his breath, not even noticing Heero's raised eyebrow.

"You went looking for them?" he asked finally, after Duo had kicked the soda machine near the door enough times for the security guards to glare at him for it. The American spun around, his face still stormy, "No, I found them, sitting there, acting like they owned the place-"

"Not like you own the place yourself, Maxwell."

Duo growled something offensive in his direction, gave the soda machine one last derisive kick, before he stalked off.

Quatre and Hotaru appeared down the hall a minute later. Heero looked up again, from his perch on one of the wooden benches where he was reading a book. He watched them as Quatre led her right to him, stopping in front of him. He looked her over, raising an eyebrow as she took in her slender, delicate frame. "You're the new girl?"

"Yes, Hotaru Tomoe." She held out her hand. He looked at it for a moment, and her smile faltered. Just as she was going to drop her hand, he grasped her hand and shook it gingerly.

"Heero Yuy."

"Seen the others around?"

"Wufei's sharpening his blades somewhere down the hallway, Trowa's been sent out with two other soldiers to scout the border, and Duo just went down that way." He gestured down the hallway.

Quatre shook his head hurriedly, "I. don't think she should meet him just yet."

Heero nodded, agreeing with him, considering the state Duo had worked himself into. "Trowa should be back any moment."

"What do you have to patrol?" This from Hotaru, who had a voice like old-fashioned wind chimes.

"There's been talk of some. unusual activity on this facility's borders. and they're outside double-checking everything." It was quite a mouthful for someone whose daily vocabulary was usually three words long.

"What kind of. unusual activity?"

He frowned at her, looking her over a second time before answering, reluctantly, "Monsters."

If anything, he had expected her to laugh mockingly at him, to disbelieve him. Instead, she smiled. A soft, steady, mysterious smile that was so akin to Susan's.

When she turned back to Quatre though, she was all business. "I'm going outside."

He blinked at her, "Miss Tomoe-"

"Hotaru. My name is Hotaru," she interjected.

"Miss Hotaru, it's dangerous outside. We've only just managed to keep them out-"

"For the first time since I've come here, after listening to all your talk about mobile suits and war. for the first time, I actually do know what I'm doing." She pulled something out of a pocket in her black pants. It looked like a pen, or a small wand. Quatre gasped. in his inner eye it was glowing a deep violet.

"How many are there?" she asked the two of them in general.

Heero shook his head. "Trowa will be back soon. He'll tell you." He looked at her seriously, but not disbelieving as Quatre was trying so hard to hide. She and her guardian had been accepted into the fold by the Doctors. she must have her own talents. they didn't just accept anyone. "How do you know you can handle them?"

"Handle them?" repeated a voice from behind Hotaru, making her nearly jump in surprise, though she recovered moderately quickly. Behind her was a tall boy that looked about her age or maybe older, wearing a uniform and a frown.

"She wants to know how many are out there." This from Heero, who had an odd look on his face as he glanced at Hotaru. "She wants to fight them."

Trowa looked down at her, and he was quiet for a moment before saying, "You think you can fight them?" he gestured to one of the soldiers being dragged in on a stretcher, his leg a bloody mass. "They did that to him because he got to close. What can you do?" His voice was expressionless. That was perhaps what made her fume.

When she answered him, she had a steely expression on her face. "You never answered my question. How many are out there?"

"Four small ones. Two big ones."

She raised an eyebrow, "You gave them enough time to breed?" she looked disgusted by the thought. "Damn, this is going to be a little harder than I thought-" she wasn't given enough time to utter another word, when a familiar voice broke in.

"-Which is why you're going to need some help." Hotaru didn't move an inch, nor did she even have to turn around. "Nice of you to come around, Pluto."

The three boys were already staring at the woman in the white lab coat and the annoyed expression on her face. "I change, I get to the lab, I start working on your equipment, and the next moment, I'm needed here. Do you know how to stay out of trouble?"

Hotaru raised an eyebrow, "Would it have been better if you had sent Usagi?"

The green-haired woman nearly shuddered at the thought. "She'd kill herself in the first week." She replied wearily, as she pulled out a wand similar to that of Hotaru's. She pointed to the three males still standing there, still silently listening to this odd conversation. "You three. Provide us with cover fire if we need it. Stay behind us throughout. No wild shows of bravado."

Hotaru waved that away with a dismissive gesture, "There's no need to warn them. they're not the type. Now he," here she turned and pointed to the disappearing soldier on the stretcher down the hall, "he is that type," she informed the older woman in Japanese. "Let's get moving."

They disappeared out the door, flashing ID cards as they entered the nearly empty front courtyard. There were several guards posted near the electrified fences, and the things (a bit more slimy, furry, disgusting, and a slightly less female appearance than what Hotaru was used) were all clustered near the entrance to the fence.

Setsuna yelled over to them, "Get in! We'll take it from here." The guards looked at each other uneasily for a moment, before a loud growl from one of the monster ensued, effectively making their decision for them. They cut and ran back into the building. "The less eyes, the better," mumbled Setsuna, flourishing her wand. "PLUTO ETERNAL POWER. MAKE UP!"

"SATURN ETERNAL POWER. MAKE UP!"

It was glorious. There was no other way of putting it. Their clothes disappeared in a wave of magic, and only the shimmering silhouette of their bodies could be glimpsed past it as the rush of power clothed them in the white leotard and short skirt. Another burst of magic completed the transformation, and Saturn's Silence Glaive materialized in her hand. Pluto's Time Staff in hand, they ignored the open-mouthed expressions of shock on the boys' faces and strode forwards into battle. "Stay behind the fence!" warned Pluto for the last time, as they both vaulted over it, landing on booted feet behind the startled monsters.

The four smaller ones charged first, leaving the two behind. "SHOOT!" yelled Saturn, pointing at the larger ones. The boys opened fire, effectively distracting the two larger ones so as to buy time for the two Outers to vaporize their spawn.

The smaller ones spat fire, rushing at them with claws and fangs. "SILENT WALL!" The shield crashed up just as the first of the four lunged at the two of them, their bodies smashing against the half-visible shield with a loud crunching of bone and scrabbling of claws.

Saturn released the shield to allow them to begin the offensive. Pluto was the first to attack. "Dead Scream." The words were ironically almost a whisper, as Pluto decimated three of the slobbering demons with the blast. With a quick swipe of the Silence Glaive, handling it agilely for such a large, heavy-looking weapon, Saturn side-stepped the demon's long handful of claws, and sliced it in half with the blade. Dripping green blood, it dropped to the ground, both halves twitching in its death throes. Saturn eyed it in disgust before moving on, just as the boys' guns clicked empty and they immediately began reloading the ammo clips.

The two larger ones charged, before suddenly, with an agility that seemed impossible in the large, hulking creatures, they dodged to opposite sides, coming at them from both sides. "Move!" grunted Saturn, shoving Pluto out of the way of both charges, and leaping over one of them. She was lucky it was crouched down in a charge, otherwise she never would have made the jump. She landed, skidding in the dirt a few inches, spun around adroitly on the balls of her feet to face the two of them and yelled, "SILENCE GLAIVE APPLY!" as she slammed the point of the blade into the dirt and unleashing her power through the massive weapon. The attack was devastating to say the least. The nearest, taking the brunt of the attack was decimated, exploding into. pieces. for lack of a better term. The other was still relatively whole, but dead all the same.

Stabbing the end of her Glaive into the dirt, she kicked the blackened carcass. "Overdid it a little. didn't have to waste this much power." She methodically began to check the lump on the ground.

Pluto came up from behind her, "Overdid it? No, I don't think so," she pointed with one gloved finger, "See the scorch marks? That means they were armored beneath all that fur, if such a thing were even possible. Your magic is not fire. There were strips of armor running along it, and protected most of it. Any less, and you would just have seared off its fur. Unpleasant, but still alive." She stood up from where they'd both been crouched by the corpse, and dusted off her skirt. "And by the way," she added wryly, "You didn't have to shove."

"I was in a hurry."

Hotaru turned round just in time to see Quatre to come running. "Are you all right?" he asked, his face masked with worry. "Just fine," she replied smiling, "Although. I don't envy whoever has to clean up." She kicked the lump on the ground again, "I'd say it needs to be incinerated."

"What did you-I mean, how did you.?" he gestured helplessly with both his hands. "That was amazing."

She shook her head, hair flying around her face. "That was a demonstration of the way I was trained to fight. And what I was trained to fight. One can't afford to make mistakes when you're of the queen's personal guard."

Pluto quickly slipped out of her transformation quickly, as if the sailor suit had simply melted and disappeared from existence, being replaced by her former clothing in a split second. She glanced at her watch and grimaced, "You," she ordered, pointing to Hotaru, "will explain everything to them. Everything. If they've already begun to invade this plane of existence, it means there are going to be more. In masses stronger than anything that we've first expected. It is your duty to keep this Earth from being destroyed because it is a time in which the other senshi, excluding the Outers, may not touch. But as Neptune and Uranus are deep in the Dreaming, there is only you and I who have the power to protect this time." She looked grim, "You'll need what help they can give you. Let them teach you what I cannot." She turned as if to go, but Saturn grabbed her by the arm. "All of them?" she asked gesturing with a gloved hand at the building.

Setsuna stopped for only a moment, addressing not Saturn, but Quatre who had become quite lost in the unusual conversation the two Outers had been engaged in. Heero and Trowa had stayed discreetly behind the fence. An unusual incident, as discretion was almost entirely unknown to either of them. "I suspect you know which of you I want to help teach her?"

"I suppose you mean the only five who know how to pilot a gundam well." His voice was tired, as if he was already beginning to be growing tired of being known as "that guy, you know, one of the gundam pilots".

Susan's face softened, "I know how much it can affect a boy's life, choosing the path that you did," she told him gently, "And I also know that you are the best of the best, and that's what we need in order to keep this world alive. Otherwise." she frowned, before her Time Staff appeared out of nowhere in her hand. "I suppose it is better to show you."

The red gem in the center of the violet heart glowed, its light a brilliant crimson, before Quatre was swept into a vision of such earth-shattering destruction and pain, and despair that he fell to his knees, blinded by the onslaught. His mind was bursting with the glimpses his empathic ability gave him of the feelings of any still alive in the face of such destruction. Setsuna cut the image instantly, as soon as he fell. "You have the empathic ability!" she looked shocked and quite horrified at the implications of what that meant as she went down on her knees beside him.

Hotaru too, was aghast at the image. She too had abilities of a psychic; a prophet like Pluto and it had been horrible enough to live through it in her mind. To be barraged by the consuming fear and despair of those that might die. she dimly noted Heero and Trowa come running as soon as they saw their friend fall. She also went down in the dirt beside him, taking him into her arms, pressing her forehead against his. On her forehead appeared the sigil of Saturn, glowing between the two of them, as she gently, ever so gently, poured some of her own psychic ability, her power into him. The magic threaded its way through him, securing his sanity and washing away the remnants of the utter despair and agony of the minds in which he'd unknowingly entered.

She pulled away as soon as he'd calmed down, looking up to stare up the barrel of a very large gun, held by a very confused, very angry Trowa Barton. "What the hell did you do?" he ground out, glaring at the girl who still had Quatre's head nestled on her shoulder.

A spark of anger flew through her, which quickly developed into a hot hum of rage. She stood up, shoving the gun out of her face, as she placed Quatre's prone body on the ground. "I just saved his sanity," she snapped at the taller boy, "because he has absolutely no idea how to control his empathic ability and didn't know enough about it. Pluto had no idea and showed him the future of this world if I did nothing, and his mind immediately locked onto the thoughts of those in the vision and they overwhelmed him."

Setsuna, who did not have a gun held to her face, was still being closely watched by Heero, and she was eyeing her watch nervously. Hotaru made a swift motion in her direction. "Go." She told her sharply, her voice hitting a discordant note in her anger, directed not at her as it may have been, "You have things that need doing. I'll explain everything to them, and just hope they are intelligent enough to believe what I say to them."

The green-haired woman nodded once, fading into nothingness with a wave of her staff, right before the startled face of Heero Yuy. He looked around wildly once, before regaining his composure and turning his gaze on Hotaru. "Explain then," he said, not aiming his gun, but not putting it away either.

"Not here," she told him exasperatedly, violet eyes flashing, gesturing at Quatre still lying in the dirt, and the remains of the monsters. "If we don't get rid of the corpses soon, they'll start attracting more of them. and we've got to get Quatre back inside." She bent down as if to pick him up, before Trowa stopped her. "I'll do it," he told her stiffly, holstering his gun at his side and bending down, picking up the unconscious figure on the ground so gently and so tenderly, Hotaru instantly understood. One look at the unabashed adoration the tall boy had for the blond, and everything made sense.

Trowa turned away suddenly, as if not to see her reaction should it be of disgust. Of course, as the adopted daughter of Haruka and Michiru, her outlook on homosexuality was much more accepting. The other boy was being characteristically silent, reflecting on the events that had just come to pass, and as Hotaru bent down again to grasp the Silence Glaive she had dropped when she'd gone to Quatre, he finally asked her slowly, bluntly, "What are you?"

She straightened slowly, slower than she would have if she weren't buying time to think over his question and her answer to it. "Me?" she asked rhetorically, as she allowed her sailor suit to shimmer and disappear, instantly replacing itself with the clothes she'd worn previously. "Do you really want to know everything that's happened to me for the past two thousand years? And what I will live through for eternity a thousand years hence? I am immortal god damn it, and I can and will die over and over, and I will always be brought forth again because I was destined to live forever and serve forever the princess, the Neo-Queen for all of eternity, unless it may pass that she may be killed. I can't be a normal girl no matter how much I want to be, and I will always have to fight those things for as long as they continue to exist. And the hardest part of it?" She looked up at him, her eyes darkened with the despair, the agony of the knowledge she held. "The hardest part is that I have to do all that with a smile on my face, even though it's killing me from the inside out knowing one day I will have to bring the Silence. Knowing that one day I will see every one I have ever truly cared for die by my hand."

She stopped short, turning away from him, quite aware of the humiliation burning in her cheeks because of her untimely outburst. He had not done anything wrong. He had asked a reasonable question after all.

She turned back to him, eyes hooded, "I. I'll explain it all when we get inside." She ran through the gates, which had been flung open upon the two boys' dash out. He watched her with a curious expression on his face, something to be noted considering he was not a man of many expressions. When she had cut the transformation, the sense of power had diminished, almost entirely. It had been the same with both her and Susan both, even if the costume had been a tight white bodysuit and a short skirt, he had had the feeling that the two of them could take on the world, and whatever chose to oppose it. She hadn't been joking when she'd told them she could fight. she had talent and she had strength, especially with that weapon, that blade of hers. But that sense of power. of it diminishing. he shook his head thoughtfully as he began to walk back to the building after the three that had already passed before him. Did she only have that sort of power, that sort of strength while she was transformed? Or had she trained enough to know how to fight, to have the strength to fight when she was masquerading as a normal girl and not prancing around in a short skirt and heels playing the superhero?

The scene upon which he entered was close to complete chaos. The entire building was abuzz with the story of what had happened. By the time someone actually had the guts to run up to him to tell the tale, it was being said that she had fought off the monsters with her own bare hands, then had lost control and attacked Quatre blindly. He shook his head, disgusted at how fast gossip traveled, and how wrong it usually tended to end up.

He calmly walked into the conference room that had been annexed off for Hotaru to "explain what on God's green Earth had happened out there" to put it in Lieutenant Noin's words. He didn't even need to flash ID. He was in because of who he is, and everyone knew it. It wasn't exactly the low-profile assignment he'd taken on, but there really wasn't anything he could do about it.

He found himself amazed to see Relena Peacecraft in the center of the discussions, in a place where she should have had no idea even existed. He frowned, if this was another attempt at trying to catch his attention again. but no. She had barely looked up and given him a civil nod before going right back to arguing with Trowa about what to do with Hotaru, who was sitting in the corner, calm as can be with a cup of tea in one hand and a cookie in the other. "What's going on in here?" he finally asked, and as monotonous as it was, his voice still carried, making a brief silence fall over the crowd.

Trowa opened his mouth to speak, but he grimaced suddenly and shut his mouth quickly. Heero also caught the dirty look Relena had shot him, and suspected the girl had stomped on his toe. "We were trying to hold a civil conversation with Hotaru about what the hell happened out there, and Trowa was beginning to get quite unhelpful." She glared at the taller boy again. Heero raised his eyebrows. It took a lot to make the princess cuss.

"And what are you doing here?" he asked, voicing the question that had been on his mind.

She shrugged, eyes still angry, "You're taking military action against these creatures, while still attempting to keep this a secret operation. It's bullshit. The whole world already knows about it and I couldn't do a thing to stop the flow of information. My being here is damage control. Dorothy is taking care of things up there in the political world while my being here proves another war isn't about to begin." She stopped, took a deep calming breath, before sitting back down, regaining her lost composure. "Excuse me," she finished, simply, and refused to say a word more.

He nodded, taking it at face value, before returning back to the point at hand. "So, to quote our beloved princess. what the hell happened out there?" he asked dryly, turning to the violet-eyed pixie herself.

She put down her cup of tea down on her lap, brushing off the few stray crumbs on her lap with her other hand as she did so. "What really do you need to know?"

"All of it." This from Wufei, who had not been present during the fight and was still skeptical (rightfully so) about what the local gossip told about it.

She raised an eyebrow, "Could you not be more specific about that?" she asked him delicately, "There is after all a lot to explain."

"Then why don't you start with what you turned into? You were wearing something." someone from the back asked out loud.

"One should hope so," replied a wry voice from the doorway. They all turned as one to face Duo standing there. "Otherwise it really would have been a show now wouldn't it?" there really was no humor in his voice as he said this, nor did his eyes flare with his customary humor.

Wufei frowned at him, "Be serious," he snapped.

"I am. First question: do you need to change into a." he paused for the word, which Hotaru readily gave him, "Sailor soldier."

".into a sailor soldier to fight?" he finished, surprising the congregation with the incredibly worthwhile question.

"That depends really," she told him, "What are you asking me to fight? The monsters that were patrolling outside the gates, or people?"

"Both."

"I have to in order to kill the demons, but that doesn't mean I can't do them any physical damage to them while I haven't transformed. As for dealing with modern day weapons." she eyed him steadily, "Why, I believe that's the reason I'm here."

"Then I suppose the next question to follow is why," said Heero, sitting down in one of the chairs beside the table. "Why do you need to learn?"

"I should think I'd already explained that to you, wouldn't you think?" she asked him coolly, "I'm one of the Royal Guard to the Queen and to be one requires all knowledge and specifics of battle techniques they can master in order to protect the Queen. If she were to die here and now in the present, then the entire race of man might be wiped out in the near future. I am here both to learn and aid, as well as make certain the fact that the future of Crystal Tokyo remains, and the Queen's bloodline continues."

"What Queen?" asked Relena from her spot on the couch, her quiet voice carrying, "There has not yet been such a position since Trieze released me from it."

She shook her head, "I did not mean a temporary figurehead, I meant one with magic, with power. She has the bloodline of several millennia of Queens in her. And in her and her future daughter, they have the power to bring the universe to a time of peace that is never more broken never more disturbed. She looked up at the princess with a strange look in her eyes that none of them could recognize. "You are all insignificant, you can most likely be disposed of without any dire consequences. She dies, it kills us all."

There were angry mutterings about this, especially more of the lesser officers, until Trowa spoke. "So you're saying you don't care whether or not we all live or die."

She looked at him with empty eyes, "Honestly?" she asked, her voice flat. "No, not in the long run. I will mourn your passing, but eventually you will all be forgotten once I bring the Silence and the destruction of the planet comes to pass."

Relena held up her hand, "No, start from the beginning. Of everything. We have as much time as we need to listen to what you have to say. First things first. Who are you? And I don't simply want your name, what is a sailor soldier? This past and future that you keep making references to? We don't all have psychic abilities."

Hotaru cocked her head to the side, "Don't you?" she asked Relena bluntly, her eyes having reached a stage of calculated dreaminess as she stared at Relena. "Or do you only think that?"

Because around the girl's slim figure burned an almost invisible fire one that brought to her a sense of Earth, of Terra. And not only that, she sensed a certain feeling of power in her. Not of her inner strength, but power, mystical power. Being a princess shouldn't have given her this power that was found only in the Sailor senshi. There should be no other. Who was this girl?

She shook her head, having fully distracted herself. It was not permitted. She had been brought up as a normal child it was true, but memories like the ones she retained and the knowledge of what she could and would do had shaped her into a girl who knew only what she had to do and did it. She was not like Heero in many ways, mainly because of the people she had grown up with, but that didn't mean that she hadn't developed many of the qualities necessary for a competent soldier. For that was what destiny had decreed she be, and she would be that soldier until the end of Queen Serenity's reign.

"I was born in Tokyo, Japan and lived a normal life up until I was eight years old in which I was caught in a lab accident and was killed. My father survived and allowed an evil entity known only as Mistress Nine to take over my body and another evil to take over his own, to protect me. The other sailor scouts found me out, both as a sailor soldier, the dark soldier of destruction Sailor Saturn, and as Mistress Nine. In the end I killed Mistress Nine myself, and I challenged Pharaoh 90 on my own. It was certain I would not survive, but Sailor Moon jumped in the fray. I died nevertheless, but she brought me back alive, as a baby and I was raised by my father for about a year before I was again called to live up to my destiny. I lived with Michiru and Haruka with both of them acting as my foster mothers. By the power of Saturn, I was brought to the form of a girl old enough to fight and I did. I died again against another enemy known as Sailor Galaxia, and was betrayed by my own parents which was what I had accepted Haruka and Michiru to be, and they killed me, tore my starseed out of my body and watched me die with smiles on my faces. All for what they thought was the greater good, but their plan failed and they too died. I was brought back by Sailor Moon once she'd defeated Chaos and have and will protect her until the day she passes away several millennia later. Only then will I die." She looked at them all with her eyes empty, having holed her own heart, her own soul deep down into her body when she spoke of her past in order not to burst into tears. That was something no soldier, sailor or no should ever do.

"Anything else?"

"What did you mean when you said you had to destroy the world?"

Hotaru whirled to face Quatre, who was lying down a few seats behind her, his head pillowed on Trowa's lap. He was awake now, but he was still groggy as he stared around the room. A look of concern actually swept over her features as she rushed to him, placing a forefinger on the startled boy's forehead, a hum of energy began as she closed her eyes and whispered several arcane words. Opening her eyes, she took her finger away with an enigmatic smile to rival Pluto's. "Do you remember anything?"

He looked at her, still with that bewildered expression on his face. "Remember what?"

"What Pluto showed you in the globe?"

He shook his head. "You said I'm not supposed to remember." he trailed off as he realized that she hadn't said this out loud, he'd only heard it in his head.

"That's right, I did. She did wrong in showing you without realizing you were such a strong empath. That kind of power, when used unintentionally can kill you." She told him firmly, "And it still could have if I hadn't blocked it up in your psyche. When the times calls for you to remember, you will know, and you will be strong enough to know."

She returned to her seat, smoothing down the front of her shirt. "I told you I was destined to bring around the destruction of the planet to rid it of evil, and then bring forth its rebirth. I am Sailor Saturn, Bringer of the Silence, a revolution of change."

They gawked at her. "You mean you're going to kill us all?" demanded Duo, "I thought you were one of the good guys!"

She raised her eyebrows, "Are you truly that naïve?" she asked him, "Do you think it is that easy to determine which is in the right just because they say so? I bring the Silence to rid the world of people, but there is a price to that, and that is to deliver the world alongside myself over to Death." She looked up at the people hanging on to her every word. "I don't control Death," she told them, "He is an entity unto himself, just as he cannot bring forth Destruction or the course of Rebirth, that is me. He has no power over me, but he and I are eternally linked, no matter where we are in the Universe. And yet I can't find him." A look of despair had settled on her delicate features, one she couldn't hide, no matter what. "I can't find him, even after two and a half thousand years of looking."

She stood up. "And. that's it, I suppose," she told them all. "I'm here to protect this present from being endangered. Only Pluto and I are immune to paradox, so the others were sent into Dreaming during this time period, while I continue to fight for the peace that is to come. Pluto and I are the most powerful of all the Sailor scouts other than Sailor Moon so the previous Queen thought we would be enough. It seems she might prove to be wrong and that I might have to bring the Silence."

"Won't that. won't that kill your princess?" asked Relena almost hesitantly, watching the girl with her big blue eyes.

"My princess?" Hotaru repeated, before answering. "No, she is immune to our magic I should think. If I were to bring the Silence, Death would take away the lives of all but she, and if she remains alive, so do we all. We will all return so that I may bring about the Rebirth."

Duo stood up from his impromptu seat on the floor. "Right. I get it. You're just a snooty bitch who just likes to go around spewing a bunch of bull and hoping people believe it."

"It wasn't a story about a bull, it was a story about the senshi!" she told him, with a rather confused expression on her face, unfamiliar with the English term.

"Whatever. Listen lady, I don't really give a shit to why you're here, and I don't get why everyone around here is walking on eggshells because you're around, but don't go around acting as if you're Miss High and Mighty!" he exited the room, leaving the place in complete silence.

Hotaru raised an eyebrow, surveying the rest of them. "So, none of you believe me?"

There was another silence, broken by Relena. She had an apologetic expression on her face as she spoke. "Can you really expect us to believe something that we have grown up thinking never existed. You're talking about magic and things none of us have ever come in contact with. You can forgive us if some of us are more skeptical than others."

"I see. So, explain to me what your theories were regarding everything that's happened. The monsters that just decided to show up. perhaps they were the result of a genetic-alteration experiment gone wrong? That Pluto and I could fight with magic. that is was all just a grand light show? Do you really need proof that I can end the world? Because that is proof that I refuse to give."

Lady Une stood up. "I believe you," she told her simply. "Pluto and I have made acquaintance before and I believe you as I believed her. She told me something was coming, which is why I accepted your presence here. And if the other don't believe you, it is because of their own judgement, and if you prove yourself as good a fighter as she says you can be, they'll have nothing to say to you." She shot a sharp glance at everyone in the room that reminded them all instantly of her old days in the war. "None of them." She eyed the doorway, as if her venomous look could carry all the way to wherever Duo had gone.

"Thank you," replied Hotaru stiffly as she stood up. "And now that I have explained myself, made sure Quatre is still sane, and been insulted by someone I don't even know, I am going." She stalked out of the room with dignity until she reached the relative safety of the hallway and began to run. She furiously rubbed at the tears that were threatening to spill over in her eyes. They did not matter. they shouldn't matter. And yet she had told them everything, more than she had first thought to tell them. And it had not all been about what was going on, she had delved into her own past, her own life to tell them things that she had thought she would never tell anyone. When had she become so much like the Inner scouts? When?

From a doorway in that same hall, Duo watched her run past. She was gorgeous in her own way, and he had not been entirely himself when he had snapped at her back in the room. And those eyes! He shook his head, trying to get the image of those large expressive eyes that betrayed her feelings no matter what she could do with her facial expressions. He watched her run, the shoes on her feet that oddly resembled black ballet slippers making soft tapping sounds on the floor. She was draped in black and looked stunning. He imagined that if she were wearing violet, a shade or two darker than her eyes and should would look gorgeous.

But what was she to him? He still didn't believe her cock-and-bull story, but that didn't mean he had had to put it that way. From the way her eyes had looked, she had believed her story, wholeheartedly in fact. Even if she was delusional, even Heero and Trowa had had to admit that she was almost an equal to them, and he valued their opinions because of his friendship and his respect for them. But that didn't mean that he had to believe what she told him. Still. he had been a little hard on her. especially for the first day.

He shook his head again. He'd been enraged even further when he'd come back to find Hilde humming a little song to herself as she strolled down the hallway, effectively not noticing that he was even there. And then seeing this gorgeous new girl. and somehow, the fact that she was beautiful, like Hilde was beautiful. it had certainly not improved his temper. He kicked the wall again, forgetting about the idea of going up to Hotaru and apologizing. He went back into his room, flinging himself on his bed. "God, why am I still here?" he muttered to himself. He didn't really have any important job around here, not that any other officer couldn't accomplish. He'd never been put out on patrol duty, or any other important jobs, just several small recon missions and that was it.

But what she'd said. Rebirth.

He shook his head, looking up at the cross necklace hung on the wall over his bed. "Raina." he whispered, losing himself in his own past of painful memories that involved more pain and death than maybe even Hotaru's. It was one of the reasons Heero respected him, even though neither of them consciously knew it. He had suffered so much, and yet still remained something of his former self. He had faced the pain and had managed to keep on smiling. It was something that should be respected in the face of what Heero had become himself in order to fulfill the mission. He closed his eyes, actually trying to remember that selfsame event that he had once tried to forget.

There had been rain, he recalled. Lots and lots of rain that night when she'd told him. She had been a fortune-teller, one of the few he'd actually believed in. Mainly it was because he had known her so well, without every getting into any emotional entanglements with her. She had looked at him with those large golden eyes that he had almost thought were fake, and she had told him, the words so bluntly put with none of the false dreaminess of other fortune-tellers. "You are Death," she'd told him, holding up what she had called his 'Tarot ID' in layman's terms. "But three parts make up the one. Death deals with change that's based on the destruction of what already exists. You are one; there are two left to be found. Whether they be fused together in one, or to be two separate entities remains to be seen. If you those missing halves of your soul, only then can you ever feel completeness." She told him, her face serious. She had been his friend. and she'd died, like so many others.

"Be complete, huh?" he said softly, "And I thought being with Hilde was. was the best thing that had ever happened to me." He turned over, his head on his arm as he closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep, ignoring the fact that is was still day, and there was work to be done. None of it was important really, there hadn't really been anything they had been able to do against the monsters before that new girl had come. He hadn't even caught her name.

~*~*~*~

End of chapter one.

Relena-chan: *still gorging on cookie* Didn't you say you were going to finish this in one chapter?

Stefani: *shrugs* It got too long. The next bit will come out soon. :D

Heero-chan: So you say. *stuffs another cookie in his mouth*

Stefani: *walks away muttering* Note to self. Keep muses away from chocolate chip cookies.