Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Fragility of Time ❯ Objects at Rest (Chapter 30) ( Chapter 30 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Fragility of Time
BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis"
Chapter 30 "Objects at Rest"
Author: etj4Eagle
Email: etj4Eagle@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/etj4eagle
Lasted Edited: 11/16/02

Disclaimer: A reminder I own none of the characters of this story,
all rights are owned by others. However, the unique circumstances of
the story are mine. If you distribute the story, do only so freely
and inform me of where you post it.

Chapter 30 "Objects at Rest"

Leaving the Tsukino household with Diana on her shoulder,
Setsuna walked a few blocks down the street before
disappearing into an alleyway. There hidden from view she
placed the kitten down on the ground before reverting to
her Sailor form.

"What's happening Pluto-san" Diana asked.

"ChibiUsa's demons from her episode as Black Lady have
returned." Pluto replied

Diana simply said "Oh" to that as the she recalled how
withdrawn ChibiUsa had been after her previous trip to
the past.

"And the action that has caused these demons to resurface
will prevent ChibiUsa from seeking any comfort from
Serenity. She instead disappeared into the streets of the
city following the end of their last battle. We need to
find ChibiUsa and comfort her. If I am right, she is in a
very precarious state right now and I wouldn't even be
surprised if she releases one of her Moon Beams."

Though Diana had never actually seen one of these Moon
Beams, ChibiUsa only having produced them during her
previous trip to the past, Diana knew what the release of
one of these meant. Not only would the already vulnerable
princess be even more vulnerable after releasing all that
raw energy, she would instantly give away her location to
anyone looking to cause trouble. And with Rubeus out
there, he would surely not give up such a golden
opportunity to try to capture the Moon Princess.

Indicating her understanding of the gravity of the
situation, Diana simply said, "I'll find her Pluto-san."
before taking her leave.

"Diana-chan, you'll travel easier if you use your human
form." Pluto said to the departing form. "I have
instructed Luna to stay with Usagi and to not tell her
anything, so the risk of using your full powers should be
minimal."

"Hai." Diana said, agreeing with Pluto that it would be
far easier to search for ChibiUsa in her human form. As
an adult, she probably would have been better off in her
feline form, but she was still just a kitten. Now in the
form of a twelve-year-old girl, Diana headed out into the
early evening. <ChibiUsa stay strong we'll be there soon
for you.>

* * * * *

Captain Keffer was enjoying his 24 hrs of liberty, which
had started earlier that day at six. He and his wingmen
had immediately taken their leave of base and headed into
Tokyo to spend the evening. Like previous liberties, they
had no real plan of action on how to spend it. But so
far, it was following true to form. They were just
exiting their traditional restaurant having all stuffed
themselves on the delicious food. Now they were just
roaming the streets of Tokyo while they digested their
dinner and letting the hour get later. Before long, they
would probably begin to wander into bars and karaoke
parlors, making the most out of their evening. Then in
the early hours of the morning, they would find some
place cheap to bed down for the night and most of the
next morning as well.

As they walked down the street, the group of four rotor-
heads talked about the orders they had received that
morning for an upcoming rotation to a live fire training
range. As was usual, the different members of the group
were bragging over who would finish top in the squadron
and by how much more. Before long, bottles of bear and
sake would be assigned to the different elements of the
training exercise. But for now, they were still in the
boosting without stakes stage.

Ivoniva having made her boast and only half listening to
those of the others, she only needed know how much she
needed to increase her boost when it came time for her to
speak again, looked into the various closed shops they
passed. One of the stores, an electronic store, caught
her attention as a couple of their TVs were still on and
these were showing a news channel. In particular, they
were currently showing clips of that afternoon's demon
attack. "Well it looks like we don't have to worry about
having a monster attack ruining liberty." she said.

"Why do you say that?" Yoshi asked.

"Apparently there was already a monster incident today.
And since lately we have only been getting one every few
days, I would say that we timed our liberty just right."

"Hai you can say that again." agreed the forth member of
their group, Hito.

"Hai." Keffer agreed as well. "I'm just glad that we are
no longer going up against those creatures ourselves. I
may be the best pilot there is, but that doesn't mean
that I can handle taking on things that belong in
children's stories book. I would rather fight the whole
North Korean army than take on another one of those
things again.

"Hai!" agreed the rest, Keffer's boost falling to the
wayside from the larger issue of the demons. That first
mission against those creatures was an eye opener and
they all easily remembered the dread they felt when
prepping for launch on the subsequent missions. Hellfire
missiles and depleted uranium armor piercing bullets just
did not have the same effect against one of those
creatures as against a tank. Then to top it off the
debriefs from those missions made you at times wish you
were a POW. For some reasons the brass seemed to expect
them to have all the answers, as to where and why these
things were coming from and the easy way to kill them.
The last one always cracked them up in their squadron
post debrief get-togethers, since if they knew the easy
way to kill these things, they would be fighting them
that way, not any of this lets keep them distracted until
the Sailor Senshi can kill them.

The mention of monster attacks and having to fight them
again, caused the group to lapse into silence. It had
been awhile since they had actually taken to the air to
fight these things, not since the wave of euphoria.
Though a little over a month back, one of the other
squadrons had taken to the air following a large
explosion in a tunnel and then only days after that, they
had just launched in response to a building that just
sprouted massive plant growth, however in that case by
the time they got there everything had returned to
normal. Consequently, they had begun to see the demon
attacks in the same abstract manner as the rest of Tokyo,
however now those memories and feelings came back in full
causing the group to lapse into the silence of their own
private thoughts over this nightmare which had settled
over Tokyo.

The group walked two blocks like that, before Ivoniva
finally broke the silence. They had come upon an
intersection and had to wait for the light to change. An
object moving separate from the rest of the flow of
pedestrians on the other side of the street caught her
trained pilot eye. Coming out of her thoughts, she looked
across the street at what had caught her attention and
found the object in question to be a young girl. However,
the hour was getting fairly late for a child to be out.
Curious, Ivoniva voiced her thoughts out loud, "I wonder
what such a young girl is doing out this late at night."

Everyone looked up to spot the girl that Ivoniva was
referring to. Seeing the girl that Ivoniva was obviously
referring to Keffer had to agree that she definitely
appeared to be too young to be out this late by herself.
She looked to be no older than ten, probably even less.
Though as he continued to watch her, he found a strange
sensation of recognition. For some reason he just knew
that he knew her quite well, yet he had not interacted
with any child near her age in the past couple of years.
So, what was it that he found familiar? Trying to puzzle
out that mystery, he noticed that she appeared to be
looking for something, or more likely, someone from the
way she was scanning up and down both sides of the
street.

At one point, she looked in his direction, allowing
Keffer to get a clear view of her face. He instantly knew
that he had never seen this girl before, yet at the same
time he also knew that he did know her and it was from
not that long ago. A glimmer of reflected street
lamplight caught his attention and he realized that she
was wearing only one earring. <Wait only one earring?>
Keffer thought, suddenly everything falling into place.

Reaching into his shirt, Keffer pulled out his dog tags.
Attached to one of them was a solo earring. That earring
along with a little bell were the mementoes that that the
kitten he had found had left him when it had vanished on
that night of the triple attack. He had no idea where the
kitten could have gotten an earring from, nor how she had
managed to remove her collar (it had been unfasten). The
collar he kept with his flight gear as a good luck charm,
while he attached the earring to his dog tag, as a
reminder that something magical had really happened.
Looking down at that earring and then looking up at the
child on the other side of the street, Keffer's mind made
a leap of faith and concluded that they went together.
Not waiting for the light to change, he dashed into the
street.

"Keffer no baka, what are you trying to do!" Ivoniva
yelled at him.

Just barely dodging a semi, Keffer replied, "I think I
know that girl, I'll be only a minute."

"If that baka survives this, I'll just have to kill him
myself." Ivoniva said, a sentiment that the others agreed
with.

Miraculously making it safely to the other side, Keffer
jogged the last few steps, catching up to the child.
<Well here it goes.> he thought to himself as he pulled
up behind her. "Excuse me ma'am." he said while reaching
out and taking a hold of her shoulder.

"Huh?" Diana mumbled as she felt someone lightly grab a
hold of her, turning to see what this stranger wanted her
eyes went wide with surprise and recognition.

For Keffer, seeing her double take in recognition was all
he needed to confirm that this girl and that kitten were
one and the same, he did not even notice that like the
kitten she also had a golden crescent moon. Removing his
dog tags from his neck, he held them out to her in his
out-stretched hand. "You wouldn't happen to be the owner
of this earring, which a gray kitten left me?" Keffer
ask, while pointing to the earring with his thumb.

Diana was still not sure how to respond; however, one
thing she did realize was that somehow Keffer had
connected her two forms. How he had done that she had no
idea, but he had. Her mother would tell her to just feign
ignorance, even if she was wearing the matching earring
to the one he had affixed to one of his dog tags, or at
the very least claim that the kitten was her own. But
this airman had shown her compassion, taking her in when
she was injured and giving her a home for a while. She
couldn't just turn her back on him and so she made the
decision her queen would have wanted her to make instead.
"Hai it is. It is good to see you again Keffer-san. I'm
sorry that I did not properly thank you for the
hospitality that you showed me when you took me in and
instead just disappeared on you. And please call me
Diana-chan."

"It is okay, Diana-chan. While you did have me a bit
puzzled with the collar and earring that you left me, a
part of me realized then that there was more to you than
meets the eye. Even still, I am bit surprised to see that
you like this."

Deciding that she could trust Keffer with a little more,
Diana said. "I am a magical creature and can take both
feline and human forms. For now, I am supposed to remain
in my feline form all the time. However, a good friend of
mine has run away, haunted by fears and I need to find
her as quickly as possible."

Keffer nodded his understanding while also knowing that
Diana was not telling him everything. Just seeing her in
a human form was enough to convince him that she was
connected with those Sailor Senshi. The crescent moon on
her forehead, which he finally noticed was further proof
of that. All of which of course implied that in all
likelihood that this friend of hers was also connected
with them. In which case finding her was very important.

"So Keffer who is your girlfriend that you risked your
life to go see?" Yoshi asked as he and the others
arrived.

"Minna-san this is a friend of mine, Diana. Diana-chan
these less than outstanding citizens are I am afraid my
fellow wingmen."

"And I suppose that you are an exemplary citizen?" Yoshi
replied.

"And what do you mean by afraid?" Ivoniva asked

"Why of course I am." Keffer said replying to Yoshi and
then turning to Ivoniva, "Because I have seen cadets who
are better pilots than you three. But that is enough for
now Diana needs my help. So I am afraid that I am going
to have to bail on our plans for the evening."

And with that, Keffer quickly took his leave with Diana.
As the two disappeared down the street, they heard Yoshi
tell him to "have fun with your girlfriend." Keffer knew
that he and Diana had gotten off quite lightly there.
Diana for her part had been enjoying herself watching the
batter amongst the group of friends. She of course had
immediately recognized the other three of the group,
having met them in her kitten form back at the airbase.

"Well now that that is taken care of, lets go see about
finding this friend of yours. I think I saw a place not
far back along the street where I can rent a moped from,
it'll allow us to cover the city much faster."

"You're sure you don't mind doing this Keffer-san?" Diana
asked as she followed the older man back across the
street, this time he crossed it with the light.

"Nope, anyways I don't care how well you think you can
take care of yourself, I can not let you travel the
streets at night by yourself. I would spend all my
liberty worrying about your safety. At least this way, I
might actually be able to still salvage some of my
liberty for enjoyment, and hey this could always be
interesting, especially if they have any bikes that will
be able to get some decent speed.

* * * * *

The evening found Hotaru sitting in her room doing her
homework. Finishing up the final set of writing exercises
for the weekend, Hotaru closed her schoolbook and put it
away in her schoolbag. Then walking over to her bed, she
flopped down on it while taking her pillow into her arms.
Her plan had been to just spend an hour or two lying
there on her bed, enjoying the quiet solitude of her room
and the eternal twilight that she had put it in with all
of her lamps. But as she reached her arms around the
pillow, they brushed up against something hard and
smooth.

Instantly recognizing what it was, she tossed her pillow
over to the other side of the bed. Picking up the
magazine and manga that lay there, she smiled with
delight. Flopping to the other side of the bed and
propping herself up and the pillow she put the manga down
on the bed beside her and opened up the magazine and
began to read it. With her now attending school, she had
lost track of the dates and the passing of time. But it
was the beginning of the new month, and Eudial had bought
her the new issue of Runners World and a sports manga.
The manga was a collection of various one-shot sports
stories that was published monthly. Of the two, it was
the one that she could actually fully read and
understand, as the running magazine was an American
magazine and therefore written in English.

Both Eudial and Kaolinite knew of her desire to one day
run a marathon. However, where Kaolinite tried to crush
that dream every chance that she got, Eudial encouraged
the child to pursue that dream. As part of that, every
month she bought the professor's daughter the magazine
and manga. She bought Hotaru an American magazine as a
way to encourage the child to work on her English, plus
she knew Hotaru especially dreamed of running a marathon
in each of America's big cities.

As she flipped through the magazine reading what she
could and daydreaming with respect to the photos, Hotaru
found herself to be restless for some reason. Normally
when she found these gifts from Eudial she would become
wrapped up in them for hours at a time, not even noticing
the passage of time. But for some reason tonight she was
just not getting into them. Instead, she realized as she
sat up and looked outside, she had a yearning to be out
there searching for something.

She was the only one home tonight; her father and all his
assistants were working late on something. So as she
wandered downstairs, she had no one to talk to in an
attempt to distract herself from this yearning that she
was having. Opening the back door, she walked out in the
yard. But as she smelled the fresh air and felt its
coolness on her skin the sense of yearning increased even
further. "What is it that I am feeling?" Hotaru asked the
empty air. "Why do I feel that I need to go out into the
night? That there is someone who I must protect?"
Someone, that word resonated in Hotaru's mind. Why was it
someone and not a something? And if it was a someone, who
was it? But even as she was pondering that question, the
answer came to her. "ChibiUsa-chan!" Hotaru exclaimed

Even as she voiced that one word, her body became awash
in guilt, fear and foreboding. The fear and guilt were
not her own emotions, something was wrong with ChibiUsa.
That she was sure of. Quickly walking back into the
house, she went into the kitchen and dug out a 12-cell
Maglight. It was a bit heavy for her, but she felt
reassured by its heftiness and knew that if anyone tried
to give her trouble she would be able to more than
sufficiently fend him or her off with this flashlight. If
she had stopped to think about that thought for a moment
she would have been puzzled to wonder where her sudden
confidence in hand to hand combat had come from,
especially given her health, which would probably cause
her to faint if she actually had to use the light as a
weapon. But she did not, instead infused with the
confidence that the alternate use of the flashlight
provided; she walked over to the hall closet and took out
a light jacket. Putting it on she left the house and
headed out into the night.

* * * * *

Dashing across the rooftops, Pluto was not having any
luck finding ChibiUsa. Of course, small lady had more
than likely found some little hole of a place to crawl
into, in which case it would only be Usagi or Mamoru who
would be able to find her. But unfortunately that was not
an option right now and she and Diana needed to find
small lady before Rubeus did. And the thunder and
lightning that had begun a few minutes earlier were not
going to help the matter; given how deathly afraid both
mother and daughter were of thunderstorms. Stopping to
rest for a moment on top of a school building, Pluto
summoned her staff.

Resting it on the ground, she stared into the Garnet Orb
commanding it to show her what she desired. And to her
surprise as her eyes began to glow with the power of
Time, it did. She saw ChibiUsa running the streets,
ducking under fences and now between piles of dirt. Pluto
guessed that ChibiUsa had entered some kind of
construction site, however her vision did not show her
any actual detail of Small Lady's surroundings. Small
Lady's dash finally slowed to a stop and the child
crawled into a gap between some construction materials.
There in the semi-enclosure, she curled herself up into a
ball and her crying and grief began in earnest, now that
she was no longer hiding from it by running.

Through the Garnet Orb, Pluto could feel the energy of
the Moon begin to build around ChibiUsa and Pluto knew
what was going to happen. She did not have to wait long
before Small Lady's anguish caused her energy to reach a
crescendo and a Moon Beam erupted from the child. With
the concurrent thunderstorm, the Moon Beam probably went
unnoticed by all except those who she wished not to see
it, Pluto figured. And that meant that both Rubeus and
Usagi should be heading over to where ChibiUsa had hidden
herself away. However, as Pluto thought that, the Garnet
Orb flashed and Pluto now saw a view of the Mizuno
apartment. And in it, she saw her princess seemingly
unaware of the trouble that ChibiUsa was in.

That worried Pluto. While it was true that the second
vision like the first could have been of any point in the
past, present, future her intuition told her that the orb
was showing her what was happening right after the
ChibiUsa released the Moon Beam and in that case
something was preventing Usagi from feeling ChibiUsa's
pain and her use of the Moon Beam. Even as Pluto was
puzzled by that mystery, the vision changed back to that
of ChibiUsa, but this time she could also see Kaolinite.
However, neither Kaolinite nor Rubeus should have the
power to block either the mother-daughter bond or the
Ginzuishou-shadow Ginzuishou link. But the third person
that now appeared did.

* * * * *

Her heart pounding and her throat burning from her full
tilt running, ChibiUsa continued to push herself. She did
not let this pain distract herself from her goal, the
pain was only a mild price to pay for the transgression
that she had been about to make, she deserved far worse.
Following her time as Black Lady, ChibiUsa had let her
mother and the others tell her that she was not at fault
for anything that had happened, that the Wiseman had
brainwashed her and perverted her own memories. She had
struggled at first, knowing that that wasn't the truth,
but eventually she gave in and had even come to believe
their version of events.

However, today that illusion of innocence was shattered
and the truth was laid before her own eyes. The Wiseman
hadn't tricked her into becoming Black Lady; no, she had
very much been a willing partner. Yes, he had changed
some of her memories, increasing her negativity. But she
still had been the one initially to accept his offer. Her
mother, Usagi would never have been able to be corrupted
by the Wiseman. Even with all the power in the universe
and all of eternity he never would have been able to
corrupt Usagi, she would have remained pure.

Coming across a construction site, ChibiUsa stopped
running. Not pausing to catch her breath, she searched
for a way in. Finding a hole in the fence, she got down
on her belly and crawled through a muddy puddle to get
through. Through to the other side, she got back up on
her feet and began wandering around the construction
site. Before long, she found a nice enclosed spot between
to piles of I-beams. Crawling into that tight spot, she
curled up into a fetal position.

Continuing to remember her temptation by the Wiseman, she
remembered how he had infused her with his dark energy.
She had not resisted the energy that he gave her;
instead, she had readily accepted it, using that energy
to grow herself into an adult like the rest of the Senshi
of her time, though an even more beautiful and sexy one
than any of them. Nor did she stop there, she continued
to greedily grab at the energy that she was being fed,
she wanted no one to be able to doubt that she had power.
As this was happening she did not notice nor even care
that her memories were being perverted. What little part
of her did notice, just grinned as each perversion
increased her ability to handle this dark energy even
more.

At least at the time she had some excuses for acting that
way. After all, various palace officials and servants
were constantly chiding her and then whispering behind
her back that she was some imposter, not a real successor
to the throne of the Moon. It was those words that had
driven her to take the Ginzuishou, to show that she could
wield the power of that crystal. But the crystal had
vanished when she touched it, a sure indication that she
was not worthy of its power, or at least that is what she
had thought. However, now she knew differently that only
by having the crystal vanish into her body did she now
have the ability to become Sailor Moon.

Even though her attempt to prove the others wrong by
taking the Ginzuishou had failed, ChibiUsa was not swayed
from her desire to prove that she really was the heir to
the power of the Moon. When the Wiseman took her and
tempted her with the dark energy of the Rogue Planet she
saw a way to finally prove that she did have power of her
own and readily accepted that energy.

But that was then, this was now. She no longer had
anything to prove to anyone. Her powers had finally begun
to awaken and she now was Sailor Moon, or at least Sailor
Moon in training. She was growing again and even here in
the past she had a loving family and a good friend. No
one called her names, especially after Shingo had a
little talk with that one boy in her class. So, she had
no excuse of needing to prove herself or anything, but
yet she still had almost stolen Sailor Moon's star seed
and made it her own.

How could she be the true daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity
if she acted like that? She did not deserve to be the
crown princess. Instead, she deserved to be locked up for
the rest of her life for even contemplating such a
treasonous crime as that. Every Serenity was an angel
right up to her mother, one who even had the wings to
prove it. But she, she was just a power hungry successor.
Obviously, her mother had known the truth when she had
given birth to her and named her Tsukino Usagi instead of
Serenity. She obviously did not deserve that name and as
she thought about it more she did not even deserve the
future that they were attempting to restore, nor even the
protection of her mother's past self. What she needed to
do was to leave Japan, find some backwater country on a
different continent to disappear into.

"Okaa-san, I am going to miss you. I love you, but this
is for the best." ChibiUsa called out into the night as
she stood back up. Her mind was clear, though she had no
idea yet how she was going to smuggle herself off this
island nation, if she still had Luna-P it would be no
problem. Pushing that complication out of her mind, she
did not notice the rumbling of thunder as she took a step
forward. Large raindrops began to fall as she took her
first step and with each step, the rain got even heavier.
Coming out from her hiding place, she thought once more
about her mother and was overwhelmed with anguish.
Collapsing to the ground as the heavens opened up and
lightning lit the sky, sobs began to wrack her body.

The storm continued to gain in intensity, with heavier
rain and more frequent cracks of thunder, however
ChibiUsa did not notice. She was totally focused on her
own anguish, an anguish that was building as quickly as
the storm. The two storms raced neck and neck towards
their crescendo and as the storm reached its peak with a
brilliant bolt of lighting snaking down to strike a
building, ChibiUsa unleashed her own bolt of energy. Her
energy spent, ChibiUsa now collapsed fully to the ground
unconscious. The storm as well had passed its peak and
fell to just a light rain.

* * * * *

Being trapped in the fabric of spacetime as he was was
the closest thing that the Death Phantom could imagine to
being hell. At first, he had been satisfied with just
being alive; after all, he had been the only one to
survive the collapse of time itself. But just being alive
is only good enough for so long. He was trapped in this
solitude for all of eternity after all unless Rubeus
could free him. His connection with the outside world was
quite limited and it was very difficult for him to
initiate contact with his minions.

Even still, he did feel a faint hum that was background
energy of the Earth. It was not much, but it had told him
of the tremendous power that Serenity had harnessed to
defeat Metalia. And now it told him of a massive
explosion of the Moon's power. This one was similar to
some previous releases he had felt not long ago, but
different as well. All of them were uncontrolled
explosion of power, yet this one felt more immature. That
and the energy was tainted with something else. It wasn't
pure Moon energy, there was something else there, Earth
energy. That of course meant that the Rabbit was
responsible for this explosion of energy.

Even though he had expected the Rabbit to be capable of
such power, it was after all why he wanted her body; he
was still taken back by the size of that release. With
that kind of release, she was likely very vulnerable
right now and he could make use of that. Concentrating on
establishing the connection and expending some of his
precious energy, the Death Phantom called out to
Kaolinite.

Through the mental link, he told her what to do. It was a
risky plan, but it could pay out in spades if it worked.
The Rabbit was in a perfect condition for him to turn to
their side. The emotions that fueled this outburst of
energy were dark ones, ones that he could use to corrupt
her with. And having just released so much energy, the
Rabbit would be weakened and defenseless for what he
planned. Of course, there was always the possibility that
Serenity would arrive in time and defeat Kaolinite. But
that servant had failed one too many times and it was
time for her to either return big or be discarded.

The Death Phantom had no illusion that he could prevent
Serenity from freeing the rabbit from his mind washing.
But as much as ChibiUsa would be useful to him, by
allowing him to access the incredible power of the
Ginzuishou, Serenity would be even more so. She could not
only tap into the power of the Ginzuishou, but she had
somehow found another well of power. Instead, the Rabbit
would only be bait for the big catch, Serenity. He had no
doubt that she would willing give herself to him to save
her daughter. And with her body, he would be utterly
unstoppable.

* * * * *

After having walked for nearly an hour at a very brisk
pace, Hotaru slowed down. Absently part of her mind
wondered why none of her attacks had occurred; this was
by far the most effort she had ever expended at once. But
that was something to contemplate later; right now, she
had to find ChibiUsa. Walking by a construction site, she
felt the need to find a way into it. Using her
flashlight, she looked for a way in. Before long she
found one by where some of the heavy machinery was
parked, the fence had been knocked partially off one of
its poles there. Grabbing a hold of the fence, she
struggled with all her might to bend it out of the way.
It was a struggle that she was not sure she was going to
win, but eventually she was able to get it around her
body. Then with her body holding the loose piece of fence
out, she crawled through the gap that she had opened.

Through to the other side, she got back up and dusted off
her knees. Using her flashlight, she panned the different
piles of construction material trying to find ChibiUsa.
Not surprisingly, she did not find anything and so she
continued forward. Multiple times, she tumbled to her
feet as she stepped into a ditch or tripped over a piece
of equipment on the ground. But like the rainstorm from
earlier, she did not pay heed to any of those falls.
Instead, she immediately returned to her feet to continue
her search. Nor did she even consider aiming the flash
light down so that she could she where she was walking.
If you stopped her and asked her to look at herself she
would have been quite surprised to learn that she was
soaked to the bone (the light weight cloth jacket not
being much protection in the torrential downpour) and
even more surprised to discover that her body was covered
with various cuts and scrapes. So focused on finding
ChibiUsa she was, that she did not notice any of these
things.

Hotaru continued her search down into the heart of the
construction site, into the scaffolding of the building
being construction. There as the beam of light from her
flashlight passed over some equipment being installed,
she caught a faint glimpse of a tuft of pink hair.
Immediately recognizing who it was, Hotaru broke into a
run while crying out, "ChibiUsa-chan!"

As she neared her friend, she came up short as she saw
ChibiUsa curled into a tight ball, her body convulsing
from what were probably sobs. So focused ChibiUsa was on
her misery that she did not hear Hotaru and so was taken
by surprise when she felt arms wrapping around her chest
pulling her out of her ball. Not wanting to be comforted,
ChibiUsa tried to curl back up, but Hotaru would not let
her. Instead, after sitting down, she pulled the pink
haired girl up into her lap and then held her tight
against her own body.

"Shush, ChibiUsa-chan it's okay, I'm here for you now."
Hotaru quietly reassured her friend while softly rocking
back and forth tightly holding onto ChibiUsa.

ChibiUsa tried to protest that things were definitely not
okay, that they were very, very wrong, however Hotaru
never let her voice those thoughts. From how closely she
held her friend she knew when ChibiUsa was about to speak
and every time that ChibiUsa attempted to speak, Hotaru
would place a finger on the other girl's lips. Hotaru
only needed to do that a few times before ChibiUsa got
the message. Sensing ChibiUsa surrendering, Hotaru gently
turned ChibiUsa sideways so that the pink haired girl
could lay her head against Hotaru's chest. For countless
moments, ChibiUsa cried her sorrows into Hotaru's chest,
while Hotaru reassured her best friend with soft words, a
gentle rocking back and forth, and by softly stroking the
pink hair of her friend.

Slowly bit-by-bit, Hotaru's reassurances began to build
ChibiUsa's confidence back up again and the tears began
to slow till they finally became nothing more than choked
sobs. Even after she finished crying, ChibiUsa remained
with her head against Hotaru's chest not yet ready to
face the questioning gaze of another. Hotaru's lips
turned up in a slight smile as ChibiUsa calmed down,
however she did not disturb the other girl. Content to
spend all night like this, she continued to stroke her
friend's hair.

Ten minutes after she had finished crying, ChibiUsa was
finally ready to look another in the eyes and not feel
instantly guilty. Even still, the expression she wore
when she looked up at Hotaru was one of utter shame and
complete unworthiness. The unworthiness was for having
such a loving friend as Hotaru after what she had almost
done that afternoon.

Feeling ChibiUsa move her head, Hotaru looked down and
met ChibiUsa's eyes. Giving her friend a reassuring
smile, she asked, "What's wrong ChibiUsa-chan?"

ChibiUsa didn't know how to explain the shame and guilt
that she felt to Hotaru, at least not in any way that
wouldn't shame her mother even more. Hoping that Hotaru
wouldn't press for too many details, ChibiUsa answered,
"I almost did something. something. something horrendous.
I would have killed Usagi for it" ChibiUsa said between
sobs that became full-fledged tears as she barely forced
the final words out.

She had expected Hotaru to throw her down to the ground
and leave in disgust over that last part, and so was not
prepared for Hotaru pulling her into an even closer
tighter embrace. "ChibiUsa-chan, ChibiUsa-chan." She
softly said while rocking ChibiUsa back and forth. At
first, she just repeated saying ChibiUsa's name, not sure
of how to ease the guilt her friend was feeling. When the
words finally did come, they were of a wisdom far beyond
her years, she spoke with a voice that had watched and
had experienced thousands of years of life. "But the most
important thing is that you didn't. You stared into the
abyss of your soul and at the temptation of the Garden of
Eden, but then having faced it all you pulled back. You
made the choice to follow your soul and not your flesh.
You have proved yourself worthy to be who you are. You
are not an angel without flaw; you are not the same as
those before. You are a joining of Heaven and Earth. You
are the first of something new; you are a reflection of
the world that you were born into, in all of its good and
all of its bad, a world that is in the process of finding
perfection and righteousness and so have you had to find
it as well."

ChibiUsa did not so much hear the words of what Hotaru
said as she instead felt their meaning. And as she did
so, her feelings of despair began to vanish. Hotaru was
right; she might have been tempted by that power, but
would the others have been able to resist temptation as
well? And anyways when it mattered, she was able to
resist and turn away. She had grown since the last time
when she had fully accepted the temptation.

And she wasn't called Serenity, not because she didn't
deserve the title, but because she wasn't a Serenity.
Every Serenity, including her mother, had just been a
reincarnation of the first one. She still had trouble
understanding Mars's explanation of that one and Puu had
of course been useless in explaining it, only saying that
one day it would be clear. Like that was a useful answer.
Instead, she was the daughter of Serenity and Endymion,
not the result of the power of the Ginzuishou. So hence,
she deserved her own name. Of course, Tsukino Usagi
wasn't really her own name; it was still her mother's
name. But in the future, it was her own name; only here
in the past was it also her mother's name. Plus it was a
way to honor her grandmother, since the original Tsukino
Usagi became the Serenity of a thousand years earlier.

Reassured by Hotaru's words, ChibiUsa choked back the
rest of her tears. Feeling better, she moved against the
embrace that Hotaru held her in. Feeling, ChibiUsa's
movement and sensing that ChibiUsa was going to be okay
now, Hotaru released her best friend who moved to sit
beside Hotaru. Even though she was no longer in Hotaru's
embrace, ChibiUsa still leaned against her friend as she
wiped her tears dry. That taken care of she looked up at
her best friend and said, "Arigatoo Hotaru-chan."

"Just happy to see you smiling again ChibiUsa-chan."
replied Hotaru.

"Hai," ChibiUsa agreed nodding her head. "It's much
better to be happy than sad." she said with a smile. To
which Hotaru also smiled in agreement.

"How about we head over to my place and get something dry
to wear and some hot chocolate?" Hotaru asked and then
added, "with lots of marshmallows."

"Hai!" A very happy ChibiUsa replied as she stood up.

"Well, well, isn't this a nice happy scene." came a cold
voice.

Looking up, their faces whitened in fear as they saw a
figure standing not that far way. They could not make out
her face, but between the flashes of lightning off in the
distance, they could clearly see the down turned black
crescent moon on her forehead. <What can I do? I don't
have the energy to henshin right now, even if Hotaru
wasn't here> ChibiUsa thought to herself, knowing that
the two of them were in big trouble.

"Run!" yelled Hotaru who had already gotten to her feet.
Taking a hold of ChibiUsa's wrist, she pulled the other
girl to her feet and the two took off. With one hand held
in a practical death grip by Hotaru, ChibiUsa could not
use her communicator, especially since Hotaru's hand was
wrapped around said communicator.

"Running won't do you any good Rabbit. The Wiseman wants
to see you and you don't have your pesky little Sailor
Senshi protectors here to save you now." Kaolinite
declared before unleashing a series of small fireballs.

Suddenly feeling impending doom, Hotaru shoved ChibiUsa
to the side while throwing herself on top of the other
girl and thereby just barely avoiding the attack. The two
girls quickly got back to their feet and began dashing
around the various pieces of equipment and piles of
construction materials, hoping that they would provide
some protection.

As the ground exploded around them and they were thrown
to the ground time after time and their path of escape
cut off time after time, Hotaru said to ChibiUsa, "Now
where have we seen this before?" Referring of course to
the destruction at their school.

In spite of the danger of the situation and the fact that
they were likely to be dead soon, ChibiUsa could only
giggle at Hotaru's statement. Finally arriving at the
perimeter at the property, the spirits of the two girls
brightened before suddenly crashing back down. So busy as
they were avoiding becoming a smoldering hole in the
ground, they had forgotten about the fence, a fence that
they had now run smack into.

With their backs against the fence, the two girls turned
around and watched as their attacker slowly walked
towards them. Fear racing their blood, neither girl knew
what to do. All they could do was interlock the fingers
of their hands as they awaited what was to come next.

"Guess it looks like the Rabbit has captured itself."
smirked their attacker before stepping into the light
cast by a nearby streetlight.

Finally able to get a good look at their attacker, Hotaru
exclaimed, "Kaolinite?"

Intrigued that this other child who was with the Rabbit
knew her name, Kaolinite took a closer look at her. She
was quite taken back to realize that it was Hotaru,
however she made no outward reaction as to her surprise.
Instead, she coldly said, "I thought you were supposed to
be home studying Hotaru-chan. You know that your father
works very hard for you and for you to go and be so
disrespectful to him. I think I'll just have to teach you
a lesson. The Wiseman only wants your friend anyways."

Hotaru was just stunned, she had always had a feeling
that Kaolinite could not be trusted, but for it to be
this, well she had never fathomed anything like this. But
as it was, she was about to be killed by the cold woman
who was always trying to grind her self-esteem to dust.

True to her form as an Usagi, the words that Kaolinite
spoke to Hotaru struck a cord with ChibiUsa. The utter
fear that she had been feeling vanished, replaced instead
by anger and ChibiUsa reprimanded the older woman with,
"How dare you talk about Hotaru-chan like that!" As she
spoke those words, she stepped forward and in front of
Hotaru.

"Pesky annoyance." responded Kaolinite as she backhanded
ChibiUsa. The blow knocked ChibiUsa into the fence.
Hitting one of the poles hard, she fell to the ground.

Seeing Kaolinite hit her friend, Hotaru cried out,
"ChibiUsa-chan!" and took off towards her friend,
arriving at her side just as she fell to the ground. She
was relieved to see that ChibiUsa appeared to be okay.

"Making it convenient for me how nice." said Kaolinite as
she unleashed a series of fireballs at the two girls.

ChibiUsa saw the energy blast coming and with what
strength she had left, pushed Hotaru to the side and
rolled her body so that she was now on top. Hoping that
her connection to the Ginzuishou through the shadow
Ginzuishou would protect her, ChibiUsa blocked the
attacks with her own body.

Hotaru looked at ChibiUsa in confusion as the girl threw
her to the ground, a look that turned to fear as she
realized what her friend was doing. Her stomach fell into
a bottomless pit as she saw the grimaces cross ChibiUsa's
face as blast after blast impacted the small girl. Yet as
each hit, ChibiUsa tried to maintain a smile on her face,
but finally they were too much and her eyes closed as her
body went limp. Hotaru did not know what to do or even
say to her unconscious friend as blast after blast kept
impacting the small girl, each one causing her friend to
twitch. The final few fireballs that Kaolinite threw
impacted beside the two girls and tossed them threw the
air. As she fell back to the ground, Hotaru's head
impacted into the side of a metal drum knocking her out.

"Stupid girl. If she's dead, I'm as good as dead as
well." Kaolinite said referring to ChibiUsa's sacrifice.
Walking over to check on the pink haired girl she was
relieved to find that she was still alive. Picking her up
by her pink hair, Kaolinite regarded this child,
wondering what was so special about her. Though she
guessed she must have great power to still be alive. Now
there was only one complication left, Hotaru. Creating a
series of fireballs in her hands, Kaolinite turned to
kill the black haired child. However, as she did so she
was surprised to discover that Hotaru had moved. She was
sure that Hotaru had been knocked out; the sound of
Hotaru's head hitting the metal drum was very clear. But
yet somehow the child had managed to stay conscious, but
no problem.

Hotaru had indeed been knocked unconscious when she had
hit the drum, but that only knocked one half of her soul
asleep. Normally the other half was always asleep, but
all evening this second half had been awake. The
restlessness she had been feeling was a result of Saturn
being awake and her attempts to influence Hotaru's
actions. Now with Hotaru slipping into unconsciousness
from having her head smashed into the fuel barrel, Saturn
took control of their body. If Kaolinite had looked
closely at Hotaru as she slumped to the ground, she would
have been confused to see a very evil smile appear on
that girl's face.

Saturn pretended to be unconscious, lying slumped on the
ground until Kaolinite turned her back. Then while
Kaolinite was checking on ChibiUsa, Saturn opened her
eyes and returned to her feet. Picking up the flashlight
that she had dropped, she held it in a hold conducive to
using it as a weapon. Then with a quick jump, she bounded
up to the second floor of the tower that was being
constructed to plan her attack.

The black haired Senshi watched with a smile on her lips
as a confused Kaolinite tried to figure out where her
target had disappeared to. Taking advantage of that
confusion, Saturn attacked. Leaping down from the
assembled I-beams, she clubbed Kaolinite with her heavy
flashlight. The momentum of her jump carried her on into
Kaolinite, which combined with the bash to the head
caused Kaolinite to fall to the ground with Saturn on top
of her. Moving quickly, Saturn rolled off opponent and
returned to her feet.

While Kaolinite more slowly returned to her feet, still
not fully realizing that she had a fight here, Saturn
walked over to where ChibiUsa had been dropped. Picking
up the unconscious girl, she carried her over to the
fence. Placing her down on the ground, Saturn turned
around and walked back over to Kaolinite.

Saturn could see the anger in Kaolinite's eyes and
smiled. She was looking forward to extracting her revenge
on Kaolinite for what this witch had done to Hotaru. Only
when she had had her fun would she then put her out of
her misery.

Watching Hotaru causally walk back from where she had
placed the pink haired girl, Kaolinite was consumed with
the desire to maim this child. She did not understand how
this pathetic little child was managing to fight, but she
was sure Hotaru would not last long and anyways she was
just a child. Prepping a massive fireball, she said, "I
am going to make you suffer for what you just did. How
dare you attack me!" And with that, Kaolinite unleashed
her massive fireball at Hotaru.

Saturn just stood her ground seeming not even to notice
the fireball, just letting it come at her. Then at the
last minute, she raised her flashlight above her head and
swung it straight down, slicing the fireball into two.
One half passed to her left and the other to her right
both exploding against the fence, instantly melting it.
"How dare I?" she asked. "How dare you abuse this body of
mine, torture my soul. For those transgressions, I can't
forgive you and your punishment will be death. Sailor
Uranus and Neptune are quite tame by my standards and
don't worry you'll get to experience the full magnitude
of my power."

Kaolinite stood stunned at Hotaru's ability to just slice
her attack in half. <What has happened to Hotaru, this is
not the same worthless girl.> She was quickly getting the
feeling that Hotaru's boost about making Sailor Uranus
and Neptune look tame was not some idle boost. Seeing
Hotaru pick up a pole and then using it as a makeshift
javelin, Kaolinite dodged out of the way. And it was a
good thing she did, as the pole exploded upon impact with
the ground leaving a nice sized crater.

However the pole attack had only been a faint and
Kaolinite was quickly reward with a shot of pain shooting
through her leg as Saturn smashed it with her flashlight.
Forced down to the ground by that attack, Kaolinite
dropped to one knee. From the pain in her leg, she was
certain that she had a cracked bone there. Unleashing a
wave of fire, Kaolinite forced Saturn to pull back. Then
using her magic to kill the nerves that were still crying
out in pain, Kaolinite returned to her feet. Under any
other circumstance she would have retreated, however she
either successfully completed this mission or her life
was forfeit. And furthermore, this girl had to die as
well; she could not let her talk to the Sailor Senshi not
to mention what Hotaru had done to her pride.

Stepping forward towards the awaiting Saturn, Kaolinite
formed two small swords of flame, perfectly sized to
parry Saturn's attacks. However, upon seeing this
development, Saturn just smiled.

"You are planning on killing me with those pathetic
things? You might have a chance if you actually knew how
to use them, but you don't. Well however you wish to go."
Saturn said

That taunt further infuriated Kaolinite who immediately
charged the young warrior. Saturn easily dodged
Kaolinite's first slash and then parried the second one.
Kaolinite was not too surprised when that flashlight of
Hotaru's managed to avoid being sliced into two by her
fire sword, she was sure that Hotaru was somehow
enhancing it with magic.

Parrying that second slash up and out of the way, Saturn
quickly brought her weapon back down and slammed it into
Kaolinite side. Staggered by the pain, Kaolinite stumbled
back a few steps while she let one of her swords vanish
so that she could unleash a set of fireballs.

Saturn easily dodged those fireballs, but they were
simply designed to buy Kaolinite a few moments to
recover. Now with more care, she resumed her attack.
Though she did not resummon the second sword, instead
focusing on just using the one that she had to the best
of her ability. Saturn easily parried the first slice and
the slice that followed it. As each swing was parried,
Kaolinite brought her sword back and attacked again,
quickening the pace with each attack. Before long, it was
all Saturn could do to keep up with the attacks and her
young frame was slowly being forced backwards as
Kaolinite began to overpower her. Finally, the inevitable
moment came when Saturn failed to parry one of the slices
and the witch's sword sliced into her side.

Her concentration shot, Saturn fell to her knees as the
pain became unbearable. The gash was very deep and the
heat of the sword had not cauterized the wound. Focusing
her energies, Saturn placed a hand over the wound and
stemmed her blood loss. Kaolinite, however, did not give
her opponent a moment's of rest and slammed a fist into
the back of Saturn's head.

Barely holding onto consciousness, Saturn fell to the
ground. Quickly rolling to the side, she barely avoided a
foot being slammed down in her gut. Needing time to
recover, Saturn threw out her hand to summon her
protective wall of silence. She summoned the wall just in
time to block a slash from Kaolinite's flame sword.

Releasing a sigh of relief as her wall held, Saturn
collected her wits and took stock of the situation. This
fight was turning out to be harder than she had first
figured that it would be, however she still had no doubt
that she would be the winner. If need be she would just
detonate this whole city block and be done with it. Even
still, she wished that she was not forced to use this
pathetic flashlight as a makeshift weapon and could
instead be fighting with the cold hard metal of her
Silence Glaive in her hands. Unfortunately, only Hotaru
could summon that weapon.

The warrior from the most feared planet was not sure why
things were so different this time from every other time
she had awaken to deal with an evil. Though Saturn
figured that it probably had something to do with the
energy still remaining from the use of Ginzuishou when
she had been summoned to drop her Glaive and silence the
Silver Millennium. That magic had somehow caused her to
actually be born again and along with that rebirth to
have this other half of her soul, a half that somehow had
control over the Silence Glaive.

But this was not the time to ponder those thoughts of
existence. Right now, she had a job to do, an evil to
kill and revenge to extract. Releasing her Silence Wall,
Saturn back flipped away from her attacker. Finding a box
of nails on the ground by where she landed, Saturn picked
it up and dumped the contents into her hand. The nails
themselves were useless as a weapon, however they could
serve as carriers of her energy and after charging them
with power; she threw them at the red haired witch.

Kaolinite just stood and watched what she perceived to be
Hotaru grasping at straws when the young girl threw the
handful of nails at her. However, the smirk on her face
quickly vanished as the nails exploded with energy as
they hit her skin and the ground. Wounded, Kaolinite
stumbled backwards a bit and was barely able to bring her
sword up in time to parry Saturn's attacks. The two then
proceeded to resume their "sword" fight.

Quickly it became evident that Saturn's slip from earlier
was an indication that she was fading in strength as the
movements of the black haired warrior began to slow. Even
though she was still parrying all of Kaolinite's strikes,
she was not getting them all fully clear of her body. Her
body cried out in pain each time she did not get that
flame sword fully clear, but she did not let her body
flinch from the pain. Instead, she continued to stand her
ground and press her own attack.

Deciding that it was time to end this little game, Saturn
summoned most of her remaining power and channeled it
into her flashlight. Then faking a missed block and
taking the resulting strike, she swung at Kaolinite.
Kaolinite unprepared for the immediate counter attack was
unable to block the blow and the flashlight smashed into
her ribs, shattering many of them and cracking others.

Eyes wide with shock as pain more painful than anything
that she could comprehend coursed through her side,
Kaolinite fell to the ground. As she fell, she found her
breathing labored, most likely because some bone
fragments had punctured her right lung. Looking up she
saw Saturn just regarding her. This time as she looked at
the face of the executioner she saw the glowing symbol on
the girl's head. <That symbol, is that the source of her
power?> Kaolinite thought in her final moments. <I know
that I have seen it before. In that research I did for
the professor, that was the symbol for lead in some of
the formulas. But, there is something more, something
more than just lead. Saturn, that is also the Roman
symbol for the god Saturn. Wait, does that mean. It can't
be. Hotaru is Sailor Saturn?> "You're Sailor Saturn
aren't you?" Kaolinite said with labored words.

Saturn coldly regarded the fallen foe. Hearing the
question, her lips turned up in a very cold smile. "My
guardian deity is the planet of Destruction. I am the one
who sleeps until she is summoned. I am the Messiah of
Silence, I am indeed Sailor Saturn." Saturn said. Then
kneeling down beside Kaolinite, she continued, "I have
the power to turn planets to dust and dust to life. For
your crimes you'll die a thousand painful deaths, reborn
and healed after each one so that you can experience the
pain again. And now I banish you to the Shadow realm of
my planet!"

As Saturn said those final words, her right hand began to
course with the nearly black violet energy of Saturn.
Then having sentenced Kaolinite, she slammed her palm
down onto Kaolinite's chest. The witch screamed out in
utter agony as the energy flowed into her body,
shattering it like glass. Saturn's hand continued on down
to hit the ground and when it did, the symbol for Saturn
vanished from her forehead. Loosing consciousness the
child warrior fell to the ground where Kaolinite had lain
only moments before.

* * * * *

Contemplating what she was seeing, Pluto knew that
Hotaru, or more correctly Sailor Saturn, had the ability
to block the link between Usagi and ChibiUsa. However,
that should not have been at play here. The blocking
effect should only occur when the power of Saturn was
awake. Hotaru appeared to look perfectly normal, which
should mean that her planetary energy was still dormant.
Yet, the power of Saturn was obviously active. For that
to be the case, Sailor Saturn had to be awake and just
below Hotaru's consciousness, which meant that the
Forbidden Warrior could very well truly awake and take
full control of Hotaru's soul.

One of the few constants in this new future they were
charting was that the Forbidden Warrior could not awaken.
The power of Saturn needed to be passed on and the
soldier of Saturn absorbed into a new warrior. This was
one of the requirements for the awakening of Sailor
Cosmos. The soldier of Saturn that had existed till now
was incapable of awakening the soul of the universe. She
had to become like the rest of her sisters for Cosmos to
awaken.

And if the Forbidden Warrior did awake now, she could
very well bring down a final solution that would doom
this planet. And even if she chose a less severe
solution, it would still be the Forbidden One and not
Hotaru who would be Sailor Saturn. And with Serenity's
state, she might not be able to survive long enough for
Sailor Saturn to be reborn a second time. Not to mention
the headaches that would result from convincing Serenity
that Sailor Saturn needs to be killed so that she can be
reborn as a nice child. No Serenity would never go for
that.

Pluto pitied Hotaru for the fate that Time had thrust
upon her. She was forced to face hardships to ensure that
she and not the Forbidden One became the one who retained
control of the soul after integration. The first time
Pluto had weaved this part of Time's flow, she did not
have that much trouble with what she had to do. But every
time she partook in the part of the tapestry that
corresponded to the raising of the baby Hotaru it became
harder to place that child through these hardships.

But she had to, for she was sworn to protect Usagi and
her destiny. Nothing else mattered, everyone including
Usagi's family and best friends were expandable. Focusing
in on her princess, Pluto knew what she had to do. Ending
her "Sight Beyond Sight," Pluto resumed her search for
ChibiUsa. At least this time she knew that ChibiUsa was
hidden in a construction site. Thinking about that, she
realized that she should have expected that. After all,
in the original timeline ChibiUsa had hidden in one of
those places on that day that the four sisters and Rubeus
had all gained up to get her.

Making that connection, Pluto got a hunch as to where
ChibiUsa might be hiding. While the changes to the
timeline had delayed that particular construction
project, there was another one not too far from that
location. Dashing along the rooftops to reach that
location, Pluto began prepping a massive Dead Scream
attack. If what she feared was true, she was likely to
find Sailor Saturn awake. In which case there would only
be one shot at saving the timeline: she would need to
kill Saturn and then using her power to stop time bring
that soul to Usagi so that she could use the power of the
Ginzuishou to have it reborn. It was a risky gamble, but
it was the only safe course that she could see through
the rapids of Time.

Finally arriving at the suspected construction site,
Pluto dropped to the ground and slowed to brisk walk. She
did not want to startle anything hoping that somehow
Saturn would not awake. There was always the hope that
Hotaru's sickly body would prevent Saturn from being able
to take hold for long. Coming up to the edge of the
construction site, Pluto peered around a corner and was
in for a shock at what she saw. Given Hotaru's sickly
nature, she had expected just a massive release of energy
from Saturn thereby quickly ending the battle. However
instead she saw Hotaru actually engaged in combat with
Kaolinite. That was not a good sign, as it meant that
Saturn was fully in control of the girl's body and was
seemingly able to overcome Hotaru's weakness. Pluto was
able to take a little bit of relief in the fact that
Saturn had not taken her Sailor form, nor that she was
using her Silence Glaive. That gave at least a slight
glimmer of hope that Hotaru still existed in there
someplace.

Watching as the battle approached its climax, the time
guardian held her breath. For her it was an extremely
nerve racking performance as normally she had a general
idea of how anything major would play out. She was
quickly finding out in this fluid timeline that she did
not like being like everyone else with no preknowledge of
the future. Hotaru's declaration of being Sailor Saturn
caused Pluto's breath to catch and she almost unleashed
her attack right there. But she held off and with great
relief she saw Hotaru collapse to the ground.

With the battle over, Pluto stepped out of her hiding
place and walked forward to check on the two girls.
First, she knelt by Hotaru and used the orb to examine
the flow of time. Letting out a sigh of relief, she saw
that Saturn was still asleep, barely but asleep. Only
after she had determined that, did she examine Hotaru's
injuries. They were quite extensive, but none appeared to
be particularly life threatening. There was one nasty
cut, but it looked like it had been cauterized and even
slightly healed. Finished with Hotaru, she moved on to
ChibiUsa. With great relief, she determined that ChibiUsa
was perfectly fine, though she was likely to have a nasty
headache when she awoke.

Stepping back from ChibiUsa, she spoke to the two who had
come up behind her during her examination of the two
girls. "These two need to be seen to. They don't have any
major injuries, however the black haired one here has a
fair number of minor injuries that should be bandaged."
Having given her instructions, Pluto disappeared up into
the skyline.

Keffer stopped walking forward when Sailor Pluto had
turned to speak to the two of them. Even though he had
fought along side the Sailor Senshi in battle, it was
still awe inspiring to see one of them up close. Coming
back to the situation at hand he realized that he had a
slight problem, while the bike could fit two young girls
as passengers with some difficulty there was no way he
was going to get a third girl on it. However, he now had
Diana and two other girls to transport to a hospital.

That particular problem resolved itself almost as soon as
Keffer thought of it, as unlike Keffer Diana was not awe
inspired by the presence of Pluto. Instead, she increased
her pace to run towards the two prone girls, knowing for
sure that one of them was ChibiUsa. While she knew that
Pluto would not leave Small Lady here if she was
seriously injured, she still needed to check on Small
Lady's condition herself. As she made the dash, she
realized that it might be a good idea to return to her
feline form, it would avoid having to explain herself to
ChibiUsa plus with Hotaru as well.

Feeling something warm and fuzzy nuzzling against her
cheek, ChibiUsa began to stir. With a groggy voice she
asked, "Oh what happened?" while she slowly sat up.
Feeling a soft thud as something landed in her lap, she
looked down and found Diana. Picking up her kitten she
asked, "Diana, what are you doing here?"

"You must be this kitten's owner." Keffer said as he
walked towards ChibiUsa. "How are you feeling? You don't
look too good." Then after a moment he added, "By the way
I'm Captain Keffer."

"Blah," ChibiUsa replied to the question of how she was
doing, "though I think I'll be okay." <I have felt worse,
though telling him that would raise too many questions.>
"You can call be ChibiUsa-chan, and that is Hotaru."
ChibiUsa said, with obvious concern towards the other
girl.

Walking over to where Hotaru lay, Keffer knelt down to
check on the black haired girl. Unlike ChibiUsa, Hotaru
remained unconscious. However, from his first aid
training, Keffer could not find anything that
particularly worried him. She had a good pulse and steady
breathing, though he could see some nasty cuts on her
body, including many where her clothes had been torn as
well. Ideally, he would have liked to have had an
ambulance come get this child. However, he had forgotten
his cell phone at the base and this was not an exactly
good part of town to leave these two alone in while he
went to call for an ambulance.

Turning back to face ChibiUsa who was still sitting on
the ground, he said, "She's been very badly beat up. I am
going to need to take her to a doctor. Do you think you
can stand up?"

"Hai." ChibiUsa said as she pulled herself up to her
feet, already feeling the power of the Moon and the Earth
begin to heal her body.

With that settled, Keffer reached down and picked Hotaru
up in his arms. Carrying Hotaru over to the rented bike,
he waited until ChibiUsa had seated herself on the back.
Then very gently he placed Hotaru down in front of
ChibiUsa who immediately reached out to hold Hotaru
upright in a tight but gentle hug. Picking up the helmet
that Diana had worn earlier, he placed it on ChibiUsa.
Then taking his own helmet he fiddled with it until he
could get it to fit on Hotaru's head. With the two girls
all settled, now he just had Diana to take care of.
Picking up the kitten from where she was sitting watching
on the ground, he placed her part of the way down his
jacket so that her head just poked out and then mounted
the bike himself.

ChibiUsa lost in worry over Hotaru as she was did not
even think to wonder why this stranger had a second
helmet and in particular a child's helmet. Instead,
ChibiUsa was trying to figure out what had happened after
Kaolinite had knocked her out. She had a feeling that she
had been out for a quite a while and Hotaru looked far
worse for the wear. ChibiUsa only partially noticed when
Keffer got on the bike and more mechanically than
anything else reached out with both of her arms to hold
onto him, though she did have enough thought to ensure
that she was holding Hotaru secure.

Giving the starter a kick, Keffer drove over the barely
discernable remains of the property fence and out onto
the side road. Keeping the speed of the bike slow, he
proceeded down the side road and to its intersection with
a main thoroughfare. Coming to a stop at a red light, he
felt some movement from behind and figured that the other
child might finally be coming to.

Opening her eyes, Hotaru looked around trying to figure
out where she was and what was happening. That she was in
an entirely different place and position than when she
had passed out did not help matters. Finally feeling a
warmth behind her, she craned her head to see the now
smiling face of ChibiUsa.

"What's going on?" Hotaru finally asked in a weak voice
once she realized that she was with ChibiUsa and
therefore safe.

"I don't know what happened to the two of you, but it
looks like you were at ground zero for one of those demon
attacks. You have been hurt pretty badly so I am going to
take you to the hospital so that they can look you over
and bandage you up." Keffer said having heard Hotaru's
question to ChibiUsa.

<Demon attack? Wait that lady in the shadows, she was
attacking us? Guess that makes sense.> Hotaru's mind
thought as she began to process what Keffer said in
conjunction with reviewing her scattered memories. <Wait
did he say the hospital?> "Iie! I can't go to the
hospital!" Hotaru cried out

This outburst surprised Keffer and he remained stopped at
the light, as it turned green. "What do you mean no? You
are hurt, you need medical attention."

"Iie. My dad says that I am not to go to the doctors."
Hotaru said emphatically.

<Great one of those people.> Keffer thought to himself,
figuring that Hotaru's father most be one of those new
age wackos who did not believe in modern medicine. <Well
if I want to be thanked instead of being chased off and
accused of molesting these two children by her parents, I
guess I should just do as she wishes.> "Okay then we
won't go to the hospital. How about giving me directions
to your house?"

However, after having heard that he had acquiesced,
Hotaru slipped back into unconsciousness. "I'll tell you
how to get there." ChibiUsa said

* * * * *

Fifteen minutes later saw Keffer pull up in front of a
large mansion. Stopping the bike, he carefully got off
before turning back around and lifting the black haired
child into his arms. Once Hotaru was off the bike,
ChibiUsa hopped off, while Diana wiggled her way out of
Keffer's jacket. Free of that enclosure she padded over
to ChibiUsa who picked her up and placed her on her head.
Seeing how ChibiUsa was carrying Diana, Keffer could only
shake his head slightly and smirk.

Now all set, the group walked up to the front door and
ChibiUsa reached out and rang the bell, however there was
no answer. ChibiUsa tried a couple of more times but
again there was no answer. Keffer was a bit concerned by
that, but ChibiUsa guessed that Hotaru's father and the
other members of the household were just working this
evening at the lab. Keffer didn't really think that to be
a good excuse for leaving a child home alone, though he
did agree that it was plausible. ChibiUsa figured that
Hotaru must have a key to the door and so Keffer knelt
down so that she could search for it.

ChibiUsa's fingers brushed along Hotaru's neck hunting
for the thin chain that Hotaru wore now a days. Finding
it, she took a hold of it and pulled it up and out from
Hotaru's shirt. The chain held a small locket, which
contained a picture of the two of them. ChibiUsa also had
a matching chain and locket, they had bought them
following Hotaru's first day at school. But the locket
was not what ChibiUsa was looking for; instead, what
interested her was the house key that was also on that
chain. Slipping the chain off of her best friend,
ChibiUsa unlocked the house and then slipped the necklace
back over Hotaru's head.

With the door unlocked and the chain returned the black
haired girl, Keffer picked Hotaru up again and followed
ChibiUsa into the mansion. Walking in, he could only gawk
at the size of this house, realizing that this child's
family must be quite rich given how valuable land was
here in Tokyo. ChibiUsa wasted no time in leading Keffer
up to Hotaru's room where he then laid the young girl
down on the bed. After placing Hotaru down on the bed, he
took a moment to take in the room in which he now stood.
It had a quite unique d‚cor, though as he looked around
he found it be also be very beautiful.

"ChibiUsa-chan I am going to go get some towels, water
and bandages for Hotaru. I need you to change your friend
out of these soiled clothes and into something loose
fitting."

"Hai." ChibiUsa agreed.

Diana followed Keffer out of the room while ChibiUsa
walked over to Hotaru's dresser. After rummaging through
it for a bit she found a pair of pajamas that she thought
would work. They looked like they might be a bit large on
Hotaru and at the same time were beat up. While Keffer
didn't say so, she had a feeling that something old would
be good as well, so that any further bleeding from her
friend's wounds wouldn't ruin anything good. She had
enough experience with the finer details of wound
bandaging from being a Senshi.

With the clothing retrieved, ChibiUsa walked back to the
bed and placed them down next to her best friend. Then
with extreme effort, she carefully removed Hotaru's
clothes. Unfortunately, her friend's habit of wearing
tight fighting clothing did not make this an easy task.
But her concern and love for her friend prevented this
effort from being a chore and kept her from cursing out
its extreme difficulty. Then after removing the old
clothes, she dressed Hotaru in the clean ones. She
finished the task just as Keffer and Diana walked back
into the room.

"You've got a smart kitten here." Keffer said referring
to how Diana had helped him locate the necessary items.
Of course, given that Diana could talk, it was not that
surprising. But he was letting ChibiUsa believe that he
did not know that Diana could speak. "Now lets see about
getting your friend bandaged up. I'm glad to see that you
changed her into some old clothing; I had forgotten to
mention that to you. Normally it would be best to bandage
then change her into new clothing. But that form fitting
outfit that she was wearing before just wasn't conducive
to that."

Walked over to the bed, Keffer placed the bowl of warm
soapy water down next to Hotaru. Then sitting down beside
her, he rolled up her shirt so that he could clean the
long cut on her stomach. That one looked quite gruesome
and he wandered how she had gotten it. But thankfully, it
did not seem to be that deep, otherwise she likely would
not be here right now. Slowly over the next ten minutes,
her cleaned and bandaged her various wounds. Besides the
extent of her injures, he was also taken back by how
sickly this child in general was. He felt very sorry for
this child as he observed her pale skin, braces and
reduced body weight. Though as he did so, he began to
understand why her father did not want her seeing doctors
when she got sick or hurt. Only the regular pediatrician
of this child likely would be able to properly diagnose
any ailments and not be distracted by the preexisting
condition.

Finishing up with the final bandage and rolling the
pajama leg back down into place, Keffer turned to look at
ChibiUsa. "Now ChibiUsa it's your turn."

"Huh?" the young girl asked, having completely forgotten
about her own injuries.

"You've got some nasty scrapes on your body as well plus
what looks like some burns on your back. And now that
your friend is taken care of, we can get you all cleaned
up." Keffer said while standing up. He had of course
realized right away that ChibiUsa would have refused to
be cleaned until after Hotaru had been taken care of.

ChibiUsa walked over to the bed and sat down where Keffer
had been sitting. Picking up a clean towel, Keffer then
proceeded to clean ChibiUsa's wounds. None of her wounds
needed any bandaging being mostly scrapes and bruises. He
had been a bit fearful of what he would find when he
treated the burns on her back given that her shirt was
blackened. But thankfully, she somehow had managed to get
away with only first-degree burns. Finished bandaging the
last of the wounds, he told ChibiUsa that she was all
set. Then picking up the various supplies he brought up,
he headed back downstairs to put them away.

All taken care of; ChibiUsa got up from the bed and
returned to Hotaru's closest. Again rummaging through it,
she found a second pair of pajamas. Though this time a
set that would fit herself reasonably well. Changing into
those, she walked back to the bed. Picking up the
magazine and manga that were still on the bed, she put
them over on Hotaru's desk. Then returning to the bed,
she pulled down the covers, a task that was made a tad
more difficult by Hotaru laying on them. Once that was
done, she crawled into the bed with her best friend and
pulled them back up.

As she lay down beside her friend, she saw Hotaru open
her eyes slightly. When Hotaru saw her friend she smiled
softly and ChibiUsa returned a great big one, while
telling her black haired friend that everything would be
all right. Hotaru appeared to accept that and smiled even
more before drifting off to sleep, though this time in a
nice peaceful slumber. Hotaru's contentment increased
when, ChibiUsa wrapped the young girl up in a hug and her
last remaining conscious thought for that evening was how
warm the embrace felt.

Keffer returned from cleaning up just in time to see the
little interplay between the two girls. Seeing Hotaru
awake even if it was just for a few moments made him feel
a lot better, as now he had no doubts that the little
girl was going to recover fully. Walking over to the bed,
he quietly asked ChibiUsa for her phone number so that he
could call her parents. Getting the number he proceeded
to head downstairs where he called the Tsukino residence
and left them a message telling them that their daughter
was spending the night at her friend Hotaru's place, that
Hotaru had gotten hurt and ChibiUsa did not seem to want
to leave her that night. Unfortunately he only got the
answering machine, he would have like to have been able
to talk to one of her parents.

That taken care of he took a little time to explore the
downstairs of the house before settling down on a couch
and turning on the TV. Though first he found a desk and
took out a piece of paper, a pen and something to write
on and brought those items with him to the couch. For
some reason, taking care of these two girls this evening
made him want to write home to his parents. So sitting
down and partially watching the TV he began to write a
letter home, it was his first in quite a many months.
Though after this night it would become a regular and
frequent occurrence.

Diana had also followed Keffer downstairs, mainly to give
him any assistance should he need to find something than
to look after him. She curled up beside him on the chair
and watched the game show that he had turned on while
quietly purring to the petting he was giving her.

Two hours later, Keffer heard the sound of the front door
being unlocked. <Okay now for the hard part, not to be
seen to be an intruder and attacked.> Keffer thought to
himself. Being a military officer, his build would be one
to instill concern in the Hotaru's parents under these
circumstances. Getting up, he slowly walked towards the
front hall while making sure to keep his hands out in
front, open, and down. Diana rode on his shoulder while
he walked, hoping that whoever it was who had just come
home might recognize her and at least give Keffer long
enough to explain.

Eudial was a bit surprised to hear the TV when she
entered the house. Kaolinite did not watch TV and Hotaru
should be up in bed by this time. And even if for some
reason Kaolinite had not made it home to put Hotaru to
sleep, Hotaru was too well behaved to be trying to sneak
in some extra TV. Seeing the stranger walk into the front
hall further put her on alert and she instinctively
slipped into a fighting stance while at the same time
slipping down the backpack she carried, opening it and
reaching a hand in. Inside of the backpack, she had a
mini version of her patented Fire Buster, one perfect for
emergencies such as this.

But even as her fingers closed around the cold metal of
the handle, she noticed Diana riding on the stranger's
shoulder. Seeing ChibiUsa's kitten here caused her to
relax some, she knew Diana well enough to know that the
kitten only rode around on people she knew well and
trusted, such as ChibiUsa, Hotaru and ChibiUsa's cousin
Usagi. Diana had also just recently taken to climbing up
around and hanging around herself as well. However, Diana
stayed a far distance away from Kaolinite. Figuring that
this stranger must be somehow related to ChibiUsa, maybe
an older brother of Usagi, Eudial decided to let him
explain himself before barbecuing him.

Before Eudial could ask who he was, Keffer introduced
himself. "Sorry for startling you like that. My name is
Keffer, Warren and I'm a captain in the air force. I'm a
friend of Diana here, as I took care of her for a while
when she had gotten separated from ChibiUsa some months
back. As to why I'm here, I found Hotaru in a
construction site injured. I think she might have gotten
too close to one of the Sailor Senshi battle. I brought
her and ChibiUsa back here and bandaged the two of them
up. Since no one else was home, I thought it best that I
stayed and waited for someone else to arrive so that I
could tell them what happened and also make sure that
there was someone to look out after her."

Eudial's face paled as she learned that Hotaru had been
hurt. As soon as Keffer finished speaking, she headed up
to Hotaru's room to check on her young charge. Entering
the room she was not surprised to find ChibiUsa there
curled up with her own charge, the two of them sleeping
peacefully. Being careful not to disturb either girl, she
checked on Hotaru's wounds.

Satisfied with Hotaru's condition she left the room,
closing the door. "Arigatoo for taking care of Hotaru. We
are in your dept." Eudial said as she joined Keffer in
the hallway.

"Don't worry about it." The air force officer replied. "I
take it your Hotaru's mom?"

Eudial just smiled and laughed at that, not that she
wouldn't mind being Hotaru's mom. "Iie, I'm not. I'm just
a graduate student working with professor Tomoe at Mugen
Academy. This is his home and he gives me free room and
board for helping to take care of it and look after his
daughter." Eudial explained. While Keffer was not that
familiar with Tomoe's name, he did know of the Mugen
Academy and its reputation.

As the two of them arrived back by the front door, Eudial
asked, "You're stationed at the Zama airbase right?"

"Hai." Keffer replied, not exactly sure what this lady
was getting to. He was not surprised that she knew the
name of his base, as it had pretty much become a
household location with the air support for the city
defense against those demons coming from that base.

"Well as it is getting quite late and will be even later
by the time you get back there. You are free to spend the
night here. It is the least we can offer after what you
have done for Hotaru."

Keffer was going to argue that since he was on liberty he
was not planning on heading back to the base this night.
However, at the same time, having a place to spend the
night instead of having to find motel room was an
appealing idea and would leave him with more of his
paycheck left. Plus it would give him the opportunity to
see how the two girls were doing in the morning.
"Arigatoo for the offer. I don't deserve such a kind
offer, but if you insist, I'll stay. Plus I would like to
see how those two are doing in the morning."


-End Notes:
? Well this chapter is seeing the light of day before
summer (though not by that much). And once again,
what I thought was going to be short turned out to
not be quite so short. Though, guess that it is good
news for you my readers in that you get more story
to read.
? This chapter was also originally not supposed to
have any fight scenes in it, but it just seems like
I can't write a good Hotaru - ChibiUsa scene lately
without having somebody crash their happiness.
? Hope you Hotaru fans and Hotaru-ChibiUsa fans liked
this chapter. And to just be clear, the Hotaru-
ChibiUsa relationship is the same as that of Usagi-
Rei and nothing more.
? I had been looking for a way to bring Keffer back
for another appearance and finally found a way.
? The next chapter is well underway, though as I
finish up this chapter I wonder if I need to tie up
some more loose strings from this and the previous
one. Well we'll see what the muses decide.
? There was a reference a both another show and a
manga in this chapter. You will need to be an old
school fan to get the first one (think 80s action
cartoons), though the second one any reader of Sohen
Jump should be able to get.
? As for things to look forward to in future chapters:
the return of Clark and a cameo by President Jack
Ryan, the final displaced person, Q going "Oh H*ll",
Rubeus happy and of course the mother of all
battles. Oh and Ami might come up with another
experiment that has the potential for killing Sailor
Senshi again, but of course what do you expect when
you play with the Ginzuishou?
? And now time for another fanfiction that you may
want to check out: "The Secret is Out" by Comet
Moon. It is deals with an interesting premise of
Ikuko checking on her daughter one night and finding
her missing and the resulting consequences of that.
While it is a crossover, that is not till the later
chapters and even if you don't want to read a
crossover, I suggest that you read the first ten or
so chapters at least. Another good one to check out
is "I Could Only Watch" by k340029, for this one you
will have to go to ASMR. And just for the record my
Hotaru-Saturn scene was written before I read this
story, but as you can guess I like her premise. And
a good silly story to read when you don't want
anything series is "Nuke 'em Till They Glow" by
Benjamin A Oliver. The earlier chapter are quite
amusing, though the later ones don't quite work for
me as well. You can find this one at www.fanfic.net
? And if you have come across any gems out there, send
them my way. There are many good stories out there;
unfortunately, I no longer have the time to look for
them. Of course sending them my way might not be a
good idea if you want me to finish this story
anytime soon, as you would end up distracting me
from delivering my next chapter to you my loyal
readers.
? Till next time, Enjoy