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Gaea
Tsuki frowned at the two Senshi that appeared through the portal. "Who the heck are you?" She asked, blinking as the portal closed, plunging them into darkness.
"Friends of your brother," the younger of the two Senshi replied. "I am Sailor Kinmoku, she is Sailor Orion. She doesn't speak Japanese, though."
Aura frowned as Tsuki translated what the other girl was saying. "How can she? I thought most of the Kinmokunai still didn't know it."
Tsuki smirked slightly. "Her brother," she replied, in English. As her eyes were starting to adjust, she started looking around the room. She glanced back at Kinmoku as she switched back to Japanese. "But what are you doing here? Where's Pluto?"
"We came in her place. Something really doesn't want her here," Kinmoku replied.
Nodding, the redhead turned her gaze back to the room. When the portal was open, there had been too much light to see anything beyond a few feet in front of it. Now, as her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, Tsuki could see several glowing crystals on the other side of the room. "What are those?"
Seeing the Princess point at something, Orion turned to examine it. She activated a visor and began scanning the oddly blue-green crystals. "Boer sch'hi."
Aura's frown deepened. She had mastered several languages during her life, but the Kinmokunai one was still beyond her. "What did she say?"
Tsuki frowned as well. "It's ... difficult to translate. Basically, it's ... a power source." She spoke to Orion in her native language for a moment. "There are people on the other side of that wall, though."
"Is it your cousins?"
Another quick conversation. "She can't tell. The crystals are interfering."
"Giosc ife."
Tsuki tensed, turning to face a dark part of the wall. "Someone's coming," she replied to Aura. One of the Senshi grabbed the two of them and pulled them away from the crystals as the other moved to stand in front of them. They could hear footsteps getting closer, echoing off the rock walls of the cavern they were in.
Earth
The three half-Kinmokunai appeared in the abandoned building Argent had opened the portal in and frowned. Things were much the same as they had been when Usami had first arrived with the others. There were no signs of fighting, or that anything had happened there at all. Even the footprints they had made, were gone. The two Senshi were nowhere to be seen.
"Something's wrong," Usami replied.
StarHealer nodded slightly as she carefully moved toward the next room. "It doesn't look like there's been a fight at all. Surely Pluto wouldn't have- ... Kuso!"
The other two girls ran after the black-suited warrior. Lying on the floor was Sailor Pluto and the green-haired Senshi. Usami grabbed StarHealer's arm, pulling her back before she could reach either woman. "Wait! That isn't ... that isn't Pluto."
"What?!" Kai dropped into a defensive stance, warily eyeing the two figures as ice crystals started dancing around her hands. "If that isn't Pluto ... where is she?"
The black-clad warrior glared at the blood-red-clad figure as she absently clutched her hand around the object that had appeared in it. "And who the hell are these two?"
Usami's eyes unfocused for a moment. "They aren't real," she replied as the figures vanished.
"Well, I never thought I'd run into anyone that could see through my illusions." Cronos appeared in front of them as the building shifted around them. There was not a single surface that hadn't been hit by one attack or another. There were even several large holes in the walls.
"Who are you? And where is Pluto?" Kai demanded, glaring at the green-eyed woman.
Cronos shrugged slightly. "I don't know where she is." A staff appeared in her hand, one Usami immediately recognized as the as the one 'Kiviuq' had made appear. "And frankly, I don't care."
"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!"
Cronos was caught off guard by the sudden attack and was sent slamming into what was left of the wall behind her. StarHealer frowned, ready to launch another attack. "That ... was too easy."
Kai nodded as the temperature in the entire building dropped. The whole place grew cold as the green-haired woman became covered in ice. "'Sami ..."
"She's unconscious," the black-haired Princess replied. She moved closer to the older woman and frowned when she saw several injuries on her body. "Apparently the fight with Pluto took more out of her than she realized."
"Or she wasn't expecting us to fight back," StarHealer replied, glancing around at the damage. "Damn. This must have been one hell of an intense fight. How could they have done that much damage in such a short amount of time?"
Usami knelt next to the trapped woman, her frown deepening. "She wasn't alone. There's another ... her sister ... she's gone after Pluto."
"This one's not going anywhere," Kai replied, kneeling next to her. She glanced through the hole in the next wall. "Jupiter isn't out fighting, is she? I thought she was sticking close to home now."
"Jupiter was at the house," Usami replied, glancing outside. There was a flash of lightning in the distance and sharp smell of ozone was being carried to them on the breeze. "But that does look like her attack."
StarHealer knelt beside the other two and nodded. "Looks like we get to go hunting. Usami, stay here and make sure this one doesn't follow us. Kai, it's time for another snow storm."
Gaea
Fluri stepped into the room and sighed. "Gesre, Ymede? I thought you two were in here checking on something. Why is it so dark in here?" She waved a hand over a small crystal display on the wall. As soon as she saw the four unfamiliar figures standing in the middle of the room, she screamed. "Aevor!!"
Two more figures came running down the passageway as the four newcomers shielded their eyes from the sudden light. The first figure was a tall man with long blue hair. The second, was a tall redheaded woman, that looked similar to Fluri. "What's going-" Aevor put himself in front of the second redhead. "Gaia, go find Cronos. Tell her we've got a problem."
Tsuki quickly glanced at the others and realized that only she and Kinmoku recognized the language. It wasn't exactly Japanese, but it was close. Frowning, the red-haired Princess stepped forward. "Wait, please! We're ... we're looking for ... for our friends."
Fluri glanced at Aevor, then back to Tsuki. "Friends? What friends?"
"Th-three girls. A ... s-set of twins and ... and Mi-ko."
"You're Mi-ko's friend?"
Tsuki nodded. "Yes. She and the twins, Miyo and Shi. Do you know where they are?"
Fluri smiled a little. "The others, I'm afraid ... have been captured. We were only able to rescue Mi-ko, but ..."
"But? But what?" Tsuki asked, frowning. "What's wrong with Mi-ko?"
Aevor motioned for Gaia to leave, then turned to the five women. "She was found along with several others. She only managed to tell us her name and that your other friends had been captured before she had to be put into stasis. She'll be okay, though."
"Stasis?" Tsuki translated what was going on for Aura, while Kinmoku told Orion. The redhead frowned as she looked back at Aevor. "Where is she?"
"She's safe ... for now," Aevor replied. He stepped back and motioned to the passageway he had just come down. "If you'll come with us, we'll show you where you can-"
"NO!!" Tsuki glared at the blue-haired man as energy began swirling around her. "I want to see Mi-ko! I want to see my cousin!"
Fluri's eyes widened as she looked at the younger woman. She hadn't expected her to be a Senshi, especially since, as far as they could tell, none of the other three were, but there was truly frightening power inside the redhead. And Fluri didn't want it to be released this close to their only power source. "Aevor ... perhaps it would be better to show her that Mi-ko is okay."
Frowning, Aevor nodded. "So it would seem. Very well, follow me ladies. Fluri ..."
"I'll deal with it. Send the boys in here to help, will you?" Fluri watched him leave, followed hesitantly by the newcomers. Turning to look around the empty room, she frowned. 'Gesre ... Ymede ... where the hell are you?'
Earth
Urani sighed as he moved the last of the three adults into one of the chairs. 'Hiko, I'm sorry I asked you to do that.'
'It's okay, 'nii-chan. They were trying to stop the others from helping a friend.'
'Yes, but ... forcing them into unconsciousness like that ...'
'They'll be fine.' Hiko smiled at his older brother and ran over to where Yo-Ichi was trying to wake Jinia and Kakyuu.
The older boy sighed as he sat down in the floor and watched the younger aliens. The whole situation with Usami had happened so fast, he hadn't had a choice but to ask Hiko to knock the adults out. But with no way of knowing what the others were going through ... and no way of contacting the other Senshi ... Urani felt like he was once again trapped on that colony, watching his happiness slip away. A pair of small arms wrapped around Urani's neck and the telepath immediately felt all of the bad memories vanish. He glanced up to see Hiko and Yo-Ichi watching him from the couch. "Rei-chan ..."
Rei squeezed his neck slightly, then moved to stand in front of him. "You looked sad." She glanced behind her at the older women, frowning. "What happened to them?"
"They're sleeping, Rei-chan." Urani frowned slightly, glancing toward the stairs. "Is Cy- ... what's his name still here?"
Rei nodded. "Cyril. He's still downstairs. We heard the noise coming from up here and he called 'Vek and made me promise to wait until they got here, but Hiko said you were sad."
"Rei! Where did you-" Tavek ran into the room, followed by a young man with pale blond hair. The young Commander sighed when he saw the little girl standing next to Urani. He then frowned at seeing the three unconscious women. "Urani, what the hell happened?"
Urani sighed as the blond man, Cyril, moved to examine the closest woman, Argent. "Usami brought them here. She said Pluto was under attack and she needed Kai and Hikari to help her. They tried to stop her. We ... I put them to sleep," he replied, glancing over at his younger brother.
Tavek frowned, glancing between the two telepaths. "We'll worry about that later. Are they okay?" When Urani nodded, he relaxed slightly. "Now, you said Pluto was under attack? And Usami went to help her?"
"Y-Yes. J-Just a few ... minutes ago."
"Cyril, contact the ship, have them find Pluto and Usami. Tell Noi to come down here and stay with these four. I don't want Chiba-san notified yet. Last thing we need is for the reporters to get wind of this." Tavek knelt beside Urani and smiled slightly as Cyril pulled a device from his pocket and began relaying the orders. "Cyril and I are going to go find the girls. I want the four of you to stay here and do nothing until we get back. If you need us, you can contact us from the link downstairs. Don't call the Senshi until we get back. The last thing we need is for Meiya's actions to lead to them being exposed."
Cyril placed a hand on the other man's shoulder. "We can leave through the back. There's a car out front that followed Lady Hikari back from the mansion. I think it's that reporter that saw Lady Shi that first day."
Tavek cursed lightly, then looked at the four younger Kinmokunai. "Stay away from the windows, don't open the doors. And whatever you do, don't answer the ... ringy-box thing."
Rei chuckled slightly. "It's called a telephone, 'Vek."
Smiling, the Commander shrugged. "Whatever it's called. Don't answer it. Noi should be here in a few moments. Let him deal with anything." Tavek followed Cyril out of the back of the house and sighed. "When 'Shirou comes back ... I'm seriously reccomending that the entire crew take a vacation."
Cyril smirked. "No objections from me."
Gaea
"You know, this place is actually good for one thing."
Minako glanced over at the woman that had spoken, raising an eyebrow. "And what is that?" After the realization that their kids may still be alive, the Goddesses had quickly retreated to Mercury's labs to start their search, leaving the dimensional travelers to begin making their own plans. That was two hours ago. The blonde, Seiya and the twins were the only ones left in the Throne Room.
Seiya smiled slightly as she glanced over their own plans. "Thinking."
"Thinking too much isn't good for you, you know," Minako replied. "What are you thinking about?"
"Too much," Seiya replied, glancing over to where the twins were curled up sleeping. Sighing slightly, she turned back to the blonde. "Now that we've started singing again, the reporters seem even more intent on making things up about us."
"The reporters are always doing that. You just have to ignore them, like in High School." Minako frowned slightly at the look on the other woman's face. "But that's not what's really bothering you, is it?"
The black-haired singer shook her head. "No, not really. I just ... there's always so much going on in the mansion. Sometimes, it feels like we're kind of ... left out. I know you girls have lived together for a long time, and there are things that happened that we missed. Just as there are things we went through that you girls don't understand. I ... I feel like I stepped right back into the life that I was trying to leave behind."
"I think I understand. You now have a chance to be 'normal' and our life is anything but normal." Minako reached over to take the other woman's hand and smiled slightly. "We haven't all lived in the mansion the whole time we've been in California. Maybe you need to be on your own for a while. Just you and the kids."
Seiya sighed. "That's what I was thinking. I'd actually already planned to move to the other house once we got back."
"That will be good, for you and the girls," the blonde replied. "But why do I get the feeling that that's not all?"
"Because you're good at what you do."
Minako grinned. "And you're avoiding the question."
Chuckling slightly, Seiya smiled. "Yeah, I am. Mina-chan, I know that ... you and Usagi-chan are close-"
"Seiya-chan, just because she's my friend doesn't mean I don't know what she's been doing to you. She's denied herself happiness before when she thought it could change things. And she's doing it again, with someone who travelled halfway across the Universe, just to see her again. But that doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice your own happiness." Minako stood, wrapping her free arm around the other woman's shoulders. "Or that I'm going to deny my own for her sake ... again."
"Mina-chan?"
"I gave up one lover for her. I'm not going to do it again."
Seiya looked at the blonde woman in shock as she leaned down and kissed her. "M-Mina-chan?"
"Just because Usagi-chan doesn't want you, doesn't mean you have to be alone."
