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Earth
Almost as soon as they appeared, the fourteen warriors sank into the snow covering the street. Kunzite held on to Zoisite as the smaller Shitennou sank up to his chest. "What is this stuff?" the white-haired woman asked as she tried to pull the blond free from a snowbank.
"Cold and annoying," Kageshirou replied as she tried her best to keep her plastered leg out of the snow. Mercury had been too tired to completely heal the broken bone but had assured the redhead that it would heal fine, as long as she kept the cast dry. The redhead glanced around the spot where the portal had opened and frowned. "Where are we, anyway?"
Tanetomi glanced around, frowning. "With all this snow, I can't really tell. Plus it seems the power's out." She took a step toward her sister, only to slip and fall face-first into the snow. Growling, she transformed into Papillon and used her powers to melt the snow around them. Once she was on solid, but wet, ground, she smiled slightly. "I think I could get used to that power pretty quickly."
Nephlite picked himself up off the ground and nodded his thanks to the blue-haired warrior. "Please tell me this isn't a natural occurence in this world?"
"It is. In most worlds, actually," Taiki replied. She spoke to Truli in Kinmokunai for a moment, then turned to the brunette. "Did you guys never have snow in the Dark Kingdom?"
"There was never anything in the Dark Kingdom but demons, darkness and more demons," Jadeite replied, helping Hotaru to her feet. He glanced up at the sky as the white flakes continued to fall. "There certainly wasn't anything like this."
Hotaru smiled a little at the blond man, then reached for her communicator. Frowning at the device, she glanced toward the others. "I can't get a signal on this thing. Anybody else having any luck?"
Minako shook her head, staring down at her own communicator. "None. Though it usually isn't affected by weather like this."
Truli shook her head at Taiki, slipping her own communicator back into her pocket. The redhead sighed. "This ... isn't good. We can't even get a signal to the ships," she replied. She looked around the street, then motioned to a small building off to the side. "Let's go somewhere warmer and try to figure out where we are before we go teleporting into trouble."
Tavek and Cyril appeared in a snow bank a short distance away from where the strange readings had come from. They hoped it was their friends, but were afraid to take any chances, just in case more strange warrriors appeared. Digging themselves out of the snow, the two men slowly made their way toward the source of the readings. "How much farther is it?" the purple-haired man asked.
Cyril glanced at the device in his hand and frowned. "Just a few more feet. We should be able to see something."
Tavek frowned as he looked through the driving snow to the street in front of them. There was no sign of anyone, or anything having appeared there. The snow was untouched. "Are you sure this is the spot?"
"These are the exact coordinates the ship's computers' reported. But I'm not getting any- .." The blond glanced at the device in his hand and frowned. It had beeped, as if someone were trying to send a message, but no message was there. He waited for several moments before looking up at his Commander. "That's strange."
"Please don't tell me another of those stupid things is on the blink. I'm about ready to vaporize the whole line."
Cyril let a small smile cross his face. The communicators belonging to the entire Fleet were notoriously bad for malfunctioning. They would report signals when there were none, send messages that had no source and would just stop working, for no reason at all. These 'ghosts', as the signals were called, were ignored for the most part, but they could show up at the worst times. The blond ran a quick diagnostic on the device and sighed. "Looks like it was just another 'ghost'."
Tavek sighed, turning back to the snow-covered street. "Damnit. I knew it was too soon for them to come home." As he turned back to his companion, he heard laughter echoing off the buildings. And from the look on Cyril's face, he wasn't the only one. "Was that ..."
Cyril nodded as he punched a series of commands into the communicator. Within moments, a steady stream of data scrolled across the screen. "Another reading, similar to the first one. In exactly the same spot."
"Call Sakuma-san, tell her we need to speak to Dr. Goodman. Ask her if she knows of any portals that open here."
Argent frowned at the computer screen as it showed a map of where the two men were standing. "There ... was a portal there, but ... the world it went to no longer exists. That entire universe was destroyed, centuries ago."
They could hear Tavek frown through the communicator. "Then do you have any idea what could be causing these readings? They've happened two more times since we've been here."
"What are the readings you're getting? Maybe we could-" Argent was cut off as the screen in front of her changed to a continuously scrolling text. Frowning, she glanced over to the young man sitting behind the console. "Any clue what that means?"
Noi glanced at the screen and nodded. "Those are the same readings we get when you open a portal on the planet. Except ..." He stopped the scrolling text and scanned through it manually until he came to the last line of information. He frowned as he looked at the line, then turned to Argent. "Except those portals aren't opening on this planet."
Kakyuu frowned as she looked over the young man's shoulder. "How long have we been getting readings like these?"
Noi used the computers link to the Fleet to quickly scan the logs. "Readings like this one have been coming in since just after Princess Tsuki went to the other world."
"Since those two alien Senshi came through the portal." Kakyuu glared at the computer screen for a long moment before turning to face her daughter. "Tavek ... are those women still on your ship?"
"Yes, Kakyuu-sama. They're in the med bay still. I checked on them myself before coming to the planet. They're both still unconscious."
"I'm not so sure about that. Usami-"
Usami nodded, vanishing from the small room. Kakyuu tightened her hands into fists and turned to look at Argent. "Usami said one of them can change reality. Could she have ... could she have made it impossible for them to return?"
Argent sighed. "I ... it's possible. But to do that, she would have to-"
"Dema, they're not on the ship anymore. It was another trick."
Tavek cursed into the communicator and immediately started relaying messages to his crew. Jinia was standing at the entrance to the room, frowning. She held on to Hikari's arm as Kakyuu's words began to sink in. "Kakyuu-sama ... they couldn't really ... if they're trying to come back and can't ... where are they?"
???
"It's so cold, I think my frostbite has frostbite." Kageshirou smiled slightly as Tsuki snuggled up to her on one side and Mi-ko did the same on her other side. The small building they had found was abandoned and after clearing out a section of the floor, Papillon was using her new-found powers to try and keep a small fire lit.
Taiki had been gathering anything she could find to burn, but nothing seemed to want to stay lit for more than a few seconds. She dumped another arm-full next to Papillon, then wandered over to the blonde by the window. "Mina-chan, can you see anything?"
"Just snow. Lots and lots of snow. No moon, no stars, nothing." The blonde woman sighed as she turned to look at the others. An hour ago, they were forced to leave nearly half of their group on Gaea. No one knew if they'd ever see them again. And now they were being forced to hide in an abandoned building in their own world, weakened, exhausted and some, still injured. Unwilling to teleport blind, they were waiting for some sign that the snow was stopping or that their friends had found them. "'Tomi-chan having any luck with the fire?"
"Yes and no. Mostly no," Taiki replied as whatever Papillon was working with flared up, then sputtered out. She saw Saturn and Chibi Moon returning with another armload of stuff that should burn, followed by Jadeite, with an armload of material. "Looks like they at least found something to keep us from freezing, hopefully."
Minako nodded as she walked over to the blond man. "What have you got there, Jade?"
Jadeite shrugged as he dumped the material next to Kageshirou and the girls. "I have no clue. The one with the big knife said it would come in handy," he replied, pointing to Saturn. He smiled slightly at her, then went in search of his companions.
"At least he's stopped calling me 'the one with the big, scary knife," Saturn replied. She turned to the pile of material and started pulling some of the material loose. She wrapped the thin material around the three aliens and smiled a little. "It's not great, but it should at least help."
"It's perfect. Thanks, Aunt Hotaru." Kageshirou pulled the other girls closer as she tightened the makeshift blanket around them.
Saturn stood and walked over to Taiki. "Taiki-chan ... has Mi-ko-chan said anything yet?"
Taiki shook her head, watching her niece. "Not since Pandora told us the island was gone, but I don't think she said much of anything before that, either."
Minako shook her head. "She hasn't said a word since we left the island. I think she's terrified that she's going to wake up back in that stasis pod. Even Kunzite can't get her to talk."
Saturn frowned. "Hopefully she'll be okay once we get her home. Just seeing her siblings again will help, I'm sure." She glanced around the group and frowned slightly. "Aura and the others not back yet?"
"Not yet. Truli wanted to try contacting the ship again and Aura ... I think she was going to try to reopen the portal to Gaea, just in case they've already found them," Taiki replied, smiling sadly.
Zoisite came running into the room and straight for Chibi Moon. "Sarah, help!"
Chibi Moon barely turned in time to catch the little boy. "Zoi-chan, what's wrong? What's happened?"
"That ... little brat ..." Nephlite stopped a few feet away from the others, obviously struggling to catch his breath. His hair was wet and there was snow on his jacket. The material in his arms was also covered in snow.
Kunzite followed the others into the room, trying to stop herself from laughing. When she started receiving strange looks, she forced herself to calm down. "Zoisite declared war on Nephlite and made ammunition out of the snow."
Chibi Moon giggled as the younger blond grinned. "Who won?"
"I did!" Zoisite replied, bouncing over to Papillon.
Nephlite glared at the blond, then turned his glare on the others when he heard several snickers. Jadeite had followed them back into the room, a smirk plastered on his face. He smacked the brunette on the shoulder and grinned. "What have I told you about turning your back on him?"
"He's a kid! How was I supposed to know that he could do that?"
Taiki chuckled a little as she walked over to the brunette. "Few words of advice ... kids can do anything. Especially when you're not looking." The fire roared to life behind them and Papillon 'eeped' as she fell backwards. Kunzite was staring in shock at something on the other side of the flames. The redhead turned to help her daughter, then frowned. "You okay, 'Tomi?"
Papillon nodded as she stared at the flames. Instead of a normal orange, they were a mixture of red-orange and blue-black. She shifted back into Tanetomi and continued to stare at the flames. "That ... how the hell did he do that?"
"Who did what?" Nephlite asked, frowning. "Where's Zoi?"
"I'm right here." A tall figure stepped out from behind the flames and smiled at the brunette. Zoisite, now back to his adult self, grinned slightly as flames danced around his fingers. "I think I really like this world."
"Did it work?"
"Yes. The pathways back to our own world are sealed off from Earth. No more of these ... Senshi ... can interfere with mother's plans."
Ymede nodded and looked down through the snow at the building where the Sol Senshi were resting. "Good. Then all we have to do now is figure out which of these ... children ... is the one that can open the portals."
Gesre smiled as she turned to watch Aura, Truli and Nami making a return trip through the snow. "And once we know how she does it ... we can eliminate her as well."
