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Gaea
"Usagi!?"
The newcomer looked at the blonde and smiled slightly. "Has it been so long ... that you have forgotten my name ... mother?" She took a hesitant step toward the blue-suited warrior, then jumped back as Elara and two blond men burst through the trees.
"We heard a ..." Elara glanced around the clearing, seeing Cronos lying a few feet away. She fought back tears as she watched Mars kneel next to her. "Is she ..."
"She's alive, for now." Mars motioned the two blonds to help her carry the green-haired woman, glancing at the other blonde that had appeared. "She isn't your mother, Sora. She's ... it's a long story. One that really needs to wait. Haruka, take her to Rosa, please. Everyone else, get to the boats. I don't think-"
The earthquake that Rosalind had been holding back, finally broke free.
Earth
Kakyuu groaned as consciousness finally returned. Her mind was foggy and wherever her body was, was cold and dark. Her head was pounding and she was sure she could smell ... coffee? Forcing her eyes open fully, she found herself in a staring contest with a smiley face. Jumping slightly, she pulled back and saw that the smiley face was on a mug being held by a sheepish-looking Usami.
"Ohayo. Figured you could use this." Usami smiled at her mother as the older woman finally sat up.
Kakyuu adjusted the blanket that had been draped over her, around her legs, then accepted the mug. She let the heat warm her hands as she took a moment to look around the room and try to figure out what was going on. All she was sure of, at the moment, was that this was not either of the houses she normally fell asleep in. "What ... you went out to ... what happened?"
Usami sat beside her mother and snuggled up to her. "Pluto was in trouble. I took Kai and Hikari to go help her. Urani, on my command, knocked you, Goodman-san and Aunt Jinia, unconscious. Hikari, Kai and myself arrived in time to capture both of the women that had come through the portal and attacked Pluto. One of them apparently has powers that lets them warp reality. That's why we only saw the one arrive." She paused for breath, glancing over to another chair where Argent was also nursing a cup of coffee. She had been explaining a few of the details to her, when she had heard her mother groan. "However ... the snow storm we used to distract the second warrior triggered a blizzard. There's already a foot of snow out there and the powers been out for the last two hours."
"Then how did you make coffee?" Argent asked, eyeing said drink.
Usami grinned as another figure stepped out of the shadows, into the light created by a small portable lamp, and placed a small heater in the middle of the room. "I didn't. Noi did."
Noi bowed slightly to the two older women as the heater kicked on. "The children are upstairs gathering blankets so everyone can 'camp out' here. Lt. Cyril has gone back to the ship to see how many spare heaters and thermal blankets he can find. Commander Tavek has gone to the mansion to make sure that they are all okay and to inform them of the battle." He paused as Jinia began to stir and picked up a thermos from the table. He poured the contents into a third mug while Usami moved to make sure she was okay. He handed the mug to the princess, then turned his attention back to Kakyuu and Argent.
"The reporter who was on his way to the fight, was blinded by the snow and slid off the road. Actually, the photographer was blinded, since he was the one driving. Both the reporter and his photographer were uninjured, though, and neither of them saw a single thing. Commander Tavek escorted them home to ensure that they saw nothing. Everyone else ignored the fight when they saw it was two 'Angels' and were gone long before the princess and the others arrived, so the chance that someone saw them is minimal at best. Both of the women that attacked Pluto-san are in custody on the Av'Nai, receiving medical treatment and awaiting your decision."
Kakyuu chuckled slightly. "I'm not Shirou, Noi. You don't have to give me a military-style report." She smiled at the younger man and imagined she saw a light blush on his cheeks. She made a mental note to talk to her son about giving his crew some time off as soon as he got back. She took a sip of coffee, then frowned. "Noi ... the power. Can we ... there are people in this city that won't fare well in weather like this. We realized that with the last snowfall, and with the other storm's snow having just melted ..."
"One of the gentlemen from the mansion has already asked me to speak to the Fleet. I think his name is ... Arthur? I can't really remember. But there are crews on their way now to assist in fixing the problem." Noi glanced at Usami as she started chuckling. "Princess?"
Usami grinned at the older man as she moved back to sit beside her mother. "There isn't an Arthur, silly. His name is Artemis. He's one of the cat-people, like the Stehe, only without the ears and tails."
Kakyuu was sure that Noi was blushing now. "I'm sure that this nice young man has done his best to learn the names of all of our friends. He doesn't see them every day, like you and the other children. And there are quite a few of them."
"And some of them do have some very ... unusual names," Jinia replied, smiling. She glanced up as she heard several pairs of feet come running down the stairs. "Slow down! It's too dark to see to bandage boo-boos."
Hikari laughed as she came into the room carrying Hiko and a blanket. They were both wearing glow-in-the-dark necklaces and the young boy was holding a flashlight. "Don't worry, mom. We have flashlights and candles. We can see to bandage boo-boos."
Rei laughed as she followed the other girl into the room, carrying a blanket and a small portable light unit. "Yep, yep. We already had to bandage one on Kai's knee where a dresser jumped out in front of her."
"Rei-chan!" Kai followed the others into the room, her arms full of blankets. "You weren't supposed to tell on the dresser." She dumped the blankets into a pile on the floor and grinned at the adults. "Told everyone how I blacked out the city yet, Sami?"
"Yes," Usami replied. "Though I think Jinia might have missed it."
Jinia hugged Kai and motioned Hikari closer so she could hug her. "You can fill me in later, just answer this: was anybody hurt?"
Hikari sighed, putting Hiko on the floor next to Usami, then walked over to hug her mother. "The two women that attacked Pluto were hurt, as was Pluto herself. Pan said she'd be okay, though. As for us, we weren't hurt at all. Most of the fighting was over by the time we got there. Something to do with one of the Senshi's powers."
Argent frowned. "Princess, you said that one of the Senshi could 'warp reality'?"
Usami nodded, picking up Rei and wrapping the blanket she had brought in around the younger girl and Hiko. "Yes. She said something along the lines of 'I've never met anybody that can see through my illusions', but they weren't really illusions. The warehouse really had been repaired and all of our tracks erased."
"How could you tell?" Argent asked.
"Because when we went back into the main room to try and find something to restrain her, there was a crater in the floor where we had appeared," Kai replied. "And there was no way that that much damage could have been done in the two minutes it took for Usami to come get us. It was like they had been fighting for hours."
"Pluto-san said that the fight went on for a very long time. She was actually glad that the Princess and the others hadn't shown up sooner," Noi replied.
"Stop that." Usami stood and turned to face Noi. "We're not on Kinmoku anymore. It doesn't look as though we'll ever go back. The empire is gone, I'm not a princess anymore, so stop calling me that. Please. My name is Usami."
The flashlights and the one unit that Rei had been carrying, were barely bright enough for the nine people in the room to be able to see each other, but thankfully not enough to let everyone see how red the young officer's face had become. Noi hadn't flinched when he had been forced into his first battle, didn't even bat an eye when he had to seal his own ancestral royalty back into cryo-stasis, but a certain girl, five years younger than himself, made the young officer more nervous than an entire fleet of Hrrrrunai warships ever could. "A-As you wish, Pr- Usami-sama."
Usami sighed, shaking her head slightly. "You don't have to call me -sama either. Just Usami. This isn't Japan, you know."
Seeing the young officer's face made Kakyuu even more determined than ever to make the Fleet take time off. "Noi-san, would you do me a personal favor? Taiki-san's children, the triplets and Rsin ... could you bring them here? They do not do well on their own at the mansion." She saw him nod, then go into the basement where they had set up a teleportation point that allowed even the non-Senshi to teleport to and from the ships. Once he was gone, she glanced over at Jinia and smiled. "I hope you do not mind, Jinia-san."
Jinia shook her head as Urani and Yo-Ichi came into the room carrying even more blankets. "I don't mind. It'll be good for them, I think. But it looks as though we're going to need more blankets."
Gaea
"There was an earthquake?"
"Yes."
"And you guys still made it off the island?"
Seiya nodded slightly at Kaish as Allisto finished wrapping the bandage around her leg. After the spire had started to fall, they had all turned their attacks on it, destroying most of it. However, some remaining small shards had reigned down on them, giving each of the nine warriors several scrapes and cuts. The earthquake that had followed moments later, had Saturn and the StarLights scrambling to teleport everyone back to the palace. "Barely, I think. I just hope the others all made it off in one piece."
Kaish nodded. "I've seen Chibi Moon and Mercury-san, V and Mi-ko-chan, she's got some scratches they're not sure if they can heal, but otherwise she's okay. Several people I didn't recognize, a couple of girls from Kageshirou's ship, but no sign of Uranus, Kou, Zavi or Devii yet."
From her spot next to her mother and sister, Kageshirou frowned. "Did you say girls from my ship? Two Senshi? One with gray hair and one with purple hair?" When the older woman nodded, Kageshirou cursed and tried to stand.
Tanetomi forced the older girl to sit and glared at her. "If you keep moving before the healers say you can, you're going to do a hell of a lot more damage to that leg. You may be a couple of years older than me, but I will kick your ass."
Kageshirou glared at her sister, but didn't try to stand again. "You don't understand, 'Tomi. If Nami and Truli are here, then that means so is one of the princesses. Usami must have gotten it into her thick head to try and help."
Tanetomi stepped back, glancing quickly over to where Taiki, back in her normal form, lay unsconscious. She transformed into Papillon again, glancing over her shoulder at Seiya. "I'm going back to the island. If Usami is there ..."
Glancing at Kageshirou, Seiya nodded. "Just be careful, 'Tomi. And don't give Taiki a reason to kick my ass."
"Why would Aunt Taiki want to kick your ass?" Xavier grinned as every one of the Kinmokunai turned to look at him. He chuckled slightly when they saw who was standing beside him. "Sorry we're late. Got stuck between a rock ... and a rock. Took a few seconds to realize the wards were down."
"Ts-Tsuki?!" Kageshirou's jaw nearly hit the floor as the younger redhead ran over to them, nearly tackling Papillon.
Tsuki started mumbling in rapid Kinmokunai as she latched on to the older girl. Papillon shifted back to her normal form, hesitantly hugging the younger woman. "Tsu, what ... what are you doing here?"
"I-I wanted to-to prove him wrong. I-I wanted to sh-show him that I'm n-not just a-a spoiled brat." The younger girl buried her face in the older one's shirt, so no one would see her crying.
Tanetomi tightened her grip on the other girl and smiled slightly. "But you are a spoiled brat, Tsu. We still love you anyway."
Tsuki looked up at Tanetomi and made a face at her. Glancing over at Kageshirou, she noticed Taiki for the first time. "Wh-What's w-wrong with ... StarMaker?"
"Exhaustion, mostly. It's been a hell of a day." Tanetomi led the younger girl over to the two redheads and motioned to a chair. "You sit here, Princess. Last thing we need right now is to lose track of anyone else."
Dysnomia, the oldest of the goddesses, had stayed behind at the palace, rather than participate in the fighting. She, it turned out, was the true equivalent to Pluto. Although Cronos could manipulate reality to her whims, Dysnomia was the Guardian of it. She was not allowed to fight and so had spent her time organizing everyone in the palace to act as medics. It was while she was doing this that she first began to notice that something was wrong.
It only took a single glance to figure out when it happened, but how would continue to remain a mystery. When the Shitennou broke Beryl's hold on them and broke free of the Dark Kingdom, they severed a link to a dimension that had existed, weakly, in their world for over seven centuries. A dimension whose time moved so much faster than their own that it was impossible to tell how long one had been there. Now that it had been sealed from their world, links to other dimensions were forming. Though she could not open these links herself, Dysnomia could see some of them. The dimension their new friends had come from, for instance, was the easiest one for her to see, but it seemed to have slowed drastically.
Time, though it seemed to remain consistant to the people of Gaea, had become accelerated, compared to the realm of Earth. What had been a month here, was only a week to their new friends' world, but over a month had passed now since the Dark Kingdom's destruction and just over a day had passed in the other world. The last link between the worlds, the one that had brought the younger princess and her companions, had been hours to Earth, but over a week for Gaea.
Dysnomia was hesitant to tell the others, since most of them were injured, and some of them had not yet returned. For most of them, the time difference wouldn't matter much, they would simply be slightly older than they should be, something she could tell that they had dealt with before. In fact, it could even be beneficial to the twins to remain on Gaea until they were the age they had been on Earth, but ... if their time accelerated to the point that the other world stopped moving completely ... would their new friends even be able to return home?
Deciding that further investigation was required, but having other duties to attend to, she closed the Time Gate and walked to the Throne Room. Since it was the biggest room in the palace, it was easier to gather the bulk of Mercury's supplies there. All of the guards that had been left behind, as well as most of the children had been put to work as medics. No one really knew what exactly to expect from Cronos, but they knew that she wouldn't give up without a fight. The white-haired goddess had tried to plan for every contingency, but there was one thing that even the Guardian of Time could not see coming.
As she stepped into the Throne Room, looking for a very familiar head of yellow hair, she was stopped short by the sudden appearance of not one, but four faces that she never imagined she'd see again. Beside an injured Venus, a black-haired woman was describing her life as a prisoner to Beryl. To her left was a red-haired man and two blonds. On her other side, clinging to Mercury, was, "Nera."
Hearing her name, the younger white-haired woman spun to face the doorway. Seeing Dysnomia, she smiled and started running. "Mama!"
