Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Dream Catcher ❯ Destination ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: The Characters do not belong to me. They are the property of Naoko Takeuchi.

CHAPTER 3: DESTINATION

Rei was staring at her plate for the longest time. She wasn't sure how to tell Yuuichirou about her going back to the old life style. It was decided at the Crown that afternoon that the sailor team was going to reunite, even though it wasn't clear where the danger was coming from. One thing was certain, it was there. Rei could feel it for quite some time, and Michiru only confirmed her suspicions. She shook her had. "I can't put it off any longer," she thought. She opened her mouth, but something terrible interrupted her. A loud crash came from the outside and the whole building shook.

"What was that?" Yuuichirou shouted out, but Rei was already heading out the door. When she got to the back yard, first thing she saw was a great crater. She approached it cautiously. At the bottom of the hole laid a huge meteor. The collision with the ground split it open. Rei noticed something inside. She started to climb down to it. Yuuichirou tried to stop her, but her old stubborn self and curiosity told her to keep going. She finally got to the bottom. She slowly peeked inside the meteor. She saw a metal thing in the shape of an egg. She tried to pick it up but the stone around it was still hot from going through the atmosphere. The girl waited. She was too anxious to see what it was to leave it behind. After a while it cooled off enough for her to be able to kick the stone aside and get the alien egg out. She took it inside. Yuuichirou tried to follow her, but she forbid. Rei noticed the egg had a few buttons on it. It looked almost like buttons on a cassette player. She pushed one of them. The egg started to vibrate and surprised Rei dropped it on the floor. A little window popped up and a holographic image started to display right in front of the shocked girl. It was the image of a young woman in a red dress with long hair put together in two ponytails. She had a blue ribbon around her neck and an orange flower on her forehead. The girl was nervously repeating one sentence "Sailors of the Universe, please, help". Rei was staring at that for a long while. Finally she opened her mouth and whispered in great disbelief "Princess Kakyuu".

That night everybody gathered in Rei's room. They already knew about the message. Now the important thing was to decide what to do about it.

"All we know is that something is wrong on Kinmoku" Luna started, "but right now we have our own problems." She looked around. "We can't just leave everything behind and go save their world."

"Luna is right," Ami agreed "Our own planet is in danger and…."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Usagi interrupted "They helped us when we needed them. All of them were on our side, Princess Kakyuu saved my life." She was getting agitated. "And what about Sailor Starfighter, Starmaker and Starhealer? They fought to protect our planet. We can't just turn our backs on them." Her face got all red from emotions.

Rei looked at her. "Cry baby or not, she always had her heart in the right place." She thought to herself. "I'm not saying we have to drop everything and go help them," she said out loud instead, "but I think we should at least try to investigate. Maybe it's related." She continued.

"It could be," Michiru added. "After all we don't know where the evil is coming from. It could originate on Kinmoku." Everybody nodded.

"Yeah, after all Galaxia came to us from the same region." Minako pitched in. A faint shadow of pain covered Usagi's face for split of a second. The name brought some sad memories back. The only one who noticed anything was Mamoru. He quickly squeezed her hand under the table. That little gesture brought a smile back on Usagi's face. He always knew how to make her feel better. The other girls where still talking about Galaxia, when Setsuna decided to interrupt.

"We have to go to Kinmoku" The longhaired beauty said. Everybody looked at her surprised. She paused. And then add in a very sad voice "I didn't want to tell you earlier, but… the future doesn't exist." One could hear a pin drop after those words. First one to wake up was Mamoru. "What do you mean, the future doesn't exist? There has to be some kind of future."

Setsuna looked at him with great sadness. "There is no Crystal Tokyo." She said slowly. "There is no Earth."

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That night everybody had another dream. It started the same as the last one. They saw a short red forest and hills behind it. They heard the wolf's howling again, this time a lot closer. The huge shadow was covering the whole sky leaving only a tiny ray of light in the middle, just enough to see the landscape. The wind was even stronger than the last time, but something was different. Instead of blowing the voice away, the wind brought the calling nearer. Somebody was screaming "Please, help." And they knew exactly whose voice it was. They couldn't see where Princess Kakyuu was at, but they knew it was her.

Mamoru sit up suddenly with a silent scream on his lips. "The future doesn't exist", those words still echoes in his head. He wiped the sweat of his forehead and looked to his side. Usagi was still sleeping, but she was tossing around as if she was dreaming about something bad. Mamoru would be surprised if any of them had a restful night after what they heard that evening. He slowly got up from the bed and went to the kitchen. He fixed himself some green tea and sat down at the table. His mind was spinning as he remembered Setsuna's words. He couldn't believe that the future they were looking forward to so much didn't exist. How could that have happened? Setsuna didn't reveal the details, but what she said was enough for everybody to agree on the trip to Kinmoku.

He lowered his head onto his chest.

"My little Chibiusa…." He whispered. "My little Princess…" He couldn't believe that she was gone. How could someone just disappear like that? Or was it rather the matter of never been born? He slammed his hand on the table. They had to get her back, no matter the cost. His face tensed up. He didn't even hear when Usagi entered the room. She came up from behind and touched his shoulder. Mamoru turned around so sudden that he almost knocked Usagi down onto the floor. She managed to hold up. When he saw what happened he grabbed on to her and hid his face in the folds of her nightgown. Usagi gently caressed his hair. At that moment something strange happened. Mamoru's shoulders started to shake and soon he began to sob. She was totally shocked. That strong man, who was always protecting her, supporting her whenever she needed him, was crying. As soon as his grip loosened up she knelt down and wiped the tears of his face.

"Everything will be all right." She smiled sadly. He looked deeply into her eyes, pulled her face towards him and kissed her lips. There was so much passion and longing in it that it almost took her breath away.

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That night Ami woke up feeling that she was forgetting something. She got up, went to the kitchen and stood there for few minutes trying to figure out what she was looking for. She poured herself a glass of milk. She went to her room and set down at her desk She reached into the top drawer to get some paper and a pen, but instead her hand brushed up against a strange object. She took it out. It was the dream catcher that she received from Mrs. Mansfield just before the old lady died. She pulled the papers that went with it out and started to read. The first two pages were written in a language she didn't know. The next part was written in English. The very top raw said:

"This is the translation of the legend about The Dream Catcher as told by the Ojibwe"

Ami knew from reading a lot of things online, that Ojibwe was a Native American tribe.

"How did this got here?" she thought. The only reasonable explanation was that Mrs. Mansfield's husband was Native American. After all she did say it was her husband's family treasure. She went back to reading the story.

"Long ago in the ancient world of the Ojibwe Nation, the Clans were all located in one general area of that place known as Turtle Island. This is the way that the old Ojibwe storytellers say how Spider Woman helped Wanabozhoo bring sun back to the people. To this day, the Spider Woman will build her special lodge before dawn. If you are awake at dawn, as you should be, look for her lodge and you will see this miracle of how she captured the sunrise as the light sparkles on the dew which is gathered there. The Spider Woman took care of her children, the people of the land, and she continues to do so to this day. When the Ojibwe Nation dispersed to the four corners of the World, to fill a prophecy, the Spider Woman had a difficult time making her journey to all those cradle boards, so the mothers, sisters, & grandmothers took up the practice of weaving the magical webs for the new babies using willow hoops and sinew or cordage made from plants. It is in the shape of a circle to represent how the sun travels each day across the sky. The dream catcher will filter out all the bad dreams & allow only good thoughts to enter into our minds."

Ami stopped reading for a moment. She remembered the old lady say, that when the bad happened in the world, she would need all the help she could get. But what she meant by that was still a mystery and Ami wasn't sure what the dream catcher had to do with it. She began to read again.

"You will see a small hole in the center of each dream catcher where those good thoughts may come through. With the first rays of sunlight, the bad dreams would perish. When we see a little spider, we should not fear her, but instead respect and protect her. In honor of their origin, the number of points where the web connected to the hoop numbered eight for Spider Woman's eight legs or 7 for the Seven Prophecies.It was traditional to put a feather in the center of the dream catcher; it means breath, or air. It is essential for life."

Ami put the things back in the drawer. She didn't understand the meaning behind all that. She decided to take it with her though when the time came to leave for Kinmoku. She couldn't explain it, but she had a feeling they were going to need it. She went back to bed with some sort of satisfaction.

The next few days were busy for the girls. They were trying to decide if they needed to take anything with them on the road. Plus they had to give some kind of reasonable explanation, to their families and friends, on where they were going to be. It was actually quite difficult, because they didn't know how long they were going to be gone and if they would ever come back.

Ami spent a lot of time trying to find out more about the communicator that they got from Princess Kakyuu. She managed to hook it up to the computer and at one point pulled up some sort of a map. It had the names and coordinates of the Galaxies. But most important it showed the way to Kinmoku.

It looked like everything was set. They met at Rei's temple. That night even Usagi was on time, which surprised everybody. They did assume though that it was Mamoru's influence rather than anything else. They didn't talk much, but once everybody was there they transformed into their senshi form. They gathered in a circle and soon they were calling upon their powers. Every single senshi, even Tuxedo Mask, started to glow with the aura of the guardian planet. The time came for the final call. Everybody looked up to the sky and in unity shouted "Sailor Teleport!" Their bodies turned into a ball of energy and soon they disappeared from the face of Earth. Luna had tears in her eyes. Artemis and she were left behind to keep an eye on the events on their home planet. Nobody knew if they were going to see one another ever again.

The travel through space was long and exhausting. They had no idea how much time had passed by. Everybody was starting to feel the difficulties of the trip. Their hands were getting tired. After all they had to hold on to one another all the time for the teleport to even work, not to mention, they probably would get separated and lost if they let go. They passed by some beautiful galaxies, but they didn't make any stops. First of all they didn't have time for that, and second they didn't know what they would come across on those unknown planets.

Sailor Mercury had her special glasses on ever since they left the Earth, and finally, after what seemed like eternity, she announced their arrival at Kinmoku. In front of them appeared a small red planet with two rings. It was about the size of Venus in their own solar system, but it reminded them more of Saturn than any other planet. They finally approached Kinmoku. The planet had one big continent on the north side and eight smaller islands scattered around it. They knew from the communicator where to land to find Princess Kakyuu and the Starlights. When they entered the atmosphere something unexpected and horrifying happened. A strong blast tore the sailor ring apart and the senshi got separated from each other losing any contact what so ever.

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The sound of footsteps filled the air in the usually quiet hall. A long legged soldier ran as fast as she could. Her black hair was pulled in a ponytail and tied with a blue ribbon right above the neck, leaving only a few strands hanging over her blue eyes. The girl wore tight black shorts, long black gloves and black boots. Her black top was decorated with an ornament in the shape of two tiny wings. There was a lot of tension in her beautiful face. She reached the door at the end of the hallway and knocked vigorously. Nobody answered, so she pounded the door.

"Your Highness!" she called out. The door slowly opened. The soldier walked in and bowed. The lady in the room was facing away from the girl. She was dressed in a long red dress with yellow sleeves. The hat she wore was decorated with gems and flowers. Her long red hair was tied in two ponytails. The lady turned around and smiled. "What is it, Fighter?" The young soldier stood up and approached the lady.

"Princess Kakyuu," she started, "We have just received a report about an invasion. Our Southern Observatory noticed a large object approaching our planet from the outer ring." Princess Kakyuu's face saddened.

"How many intruders are there?" she asked softly.

"We believe there were total of ten. That's the number of pieces the object split into after entering our atmosphere. Healer and Maker are already trying to locate the landing points of the enemies." Sailor Starfighter finished her report and waited for a response. Princess Kakyuu's ruby eyes darkened as she thought about what had been happening in her kingdom.

It all started when a strange ball of energy crashed into the planet's Northern Hemisphere. When they arrived at the destination they didn't find anything. Instead a lot of unexplained things started to happen. They were receiving reports about whole towns disappearing without a trace. As hard as they tried they couldn't find the enemy. And since they had no idea where to look for it they couldn't fight it either. That was when Princess Kakyuu decided to send messages throughout the galaxy asking for help. So far there was no response. And now new invaders appeared. The young soldiers were getting frustrated. There were only four of them, Starfighter, Starhealer, Starmaker, and Fireball, definitely not enough. They needed help, badly, but they had no idea where else to turn.

"Princess?" Starfighter whispered. "What are we going to do?" Kakyuu smiled gently and took her brave senshi by the hand.

"My dear Starfighter, never lose hope. Remember the times, when Galaxia attacked the Universe?" Sailor Starfighter just nodded. She remembered well. "Sailor Moon never gave up. And we shouldn't either." The name of Sailor Moon caused Fighter's heart to beat faster. She thought about that girl a lot. The time the black-haired girl spent as a man on Earth changed her forever. Those were rough times, but if she could, she would turn back time, just to be with that blond "odango" again. She had never told anyone, or even admitted to herself, that she missed Usagi terribly. Starfighter shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. She had to worry about the present and leave the past behind.

Somebody knocked on the door and a moment later another girl walked in and bowed. She was dressed similar to Starfighter. She was taller than the other one. Her brown hair was also pulled into a ponytail, leaving her forehead bare.

"Maker, I hope you are bringing us some good news." The Princess welcomed the new senshi with a smile.

"We found the locations where the ten objects had landed." The senshi pulled out a map and pointing to it started to explain. "We know that two of them landed on the main continent. The other eight landed on the islands of Ryujin, Raiden, Benten, Fudo, Ebisu, Emma, Fujin, and Shoki*. I would suggest that we start looking closest to us." With that she pointed to the south of the continent. Princess Kakyuu and Starfighter nodded in agreement. "Healer is getting the things ready for the expedition. We should be leaving in about an hour." Maker continued. "I suggest that you, Your Highness, stay behind. We don't know what we are dealing with." The princess smiled. Both senshi bowed in front of her and left the room.

"Good luck." Kakyuu whispered and withdrew to her chambers.

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(*) the names are taken from the Japanese mythology. I will explain later what they mean and what is the purpose of using them.