Hi everybody! This is Jendra again, bringing you my next installment of my fanfic. I hope this one holds some surpises for all of you. Standard disclaimers are still the same, that's why they're standard. If you want to tell me what you thought, my address is still Jendra@aol.com. (I tell you that a lot, don't I?) Sailor Moon Universal Chapter Seven Revelations Once more Serena was crying in a guest bedroom. This time, however, Luna wasn't the only one with her. Travis was sitting next to the bed. Reenie, after being warned again about the ribs, was curled up beside her, and Serena was holding on to her almost desperately. Luna and Artemis were nestled next to her, purring for all they were worth. Apollo was standing on the headboard. Even Luna Ball was hovering as if worried. All in all it was a very full and very worried room. Jacobson was out of town again, so the animals didn't bother keeping their voices down. "I can't believe they would do this to her." Luna said angrily. "They know better!" Artemis agreed, "They can't fight without her. None of them has the ability to defeat monsters like she does. What I can't believe is that all of them agreed to it. Maybe, maybe, if they didn't want her as leader anymore after she did something stupid, but not just out of the blue like this." Serena spoke up for the first time since she had collapsed. Her voice was very small and could barely be heard. "They've been yelling at me all week. And...and Lita seemed to think I was going to cause one of them to be hurt. She even said I might get a civilian hurt because I was so clumsy. Did I do something like that and not know it? Di...did I hurt somebody?" "I haven't heard of anything like that, and Mina would have told me." Artemis refused to believe she had done something like that. "I agree. We would have heard." Luna agreed. "Serena asked me after the last arguement if Rubeus had gotten to them. I'm starting to wonder if she's right." "I would have to wonder that as well." Apollo spoke up. "This is not normal behaviour for the Scouts. Even I know that, and I have never met them in this incarnation, and only a couple of times in the last." "Are you sure Mina hasn't been acting strangely, Artemis?" Luna asked again. "I told you. The only thing out of the ordinary during the last week have been the nightmares and questions. Though come to think of it, the nightmares have come almost every night this week." Artemis looked thoughtful. "Darien was having weird dreams," Reenie piped up. "I could tell he wasn't sleeping well and he started to tell me, but then he stopped." "Could Rubeus cause them to have bad dreams?" Luna asked, "No, it couldn't be, the Scouts are too strong willed for something like that to work on them." Luna sounded 'almost' positive. "Why don't you find out?" Travis asked. "And how do you expect us to do that? Go up to them and ask if they've been having weird dreams that have caused them to turn on Sailor Moon?" Luna asked sarcastically. Travis said patiently, "Either that, or watch them tonight while they sleep. There are three of you. You can each visit one of the Scouts that you don't 'know' are having dreams and watch. But Artemis, you'd better go home, or Mina will start worrying about you." Artemis agreed and got up, going up to Serena's face and licking away some of the tears that were starting to dry up as she got interested in the conversation. "Artemis," she said. "Don't tell Mina about this, okay?" "Or what?" he asked trying to lighten her mood, "You'll feed me to a giant cat eating dog?" She giggled, actually giggled, "No, but I do know this giant cat eating spider." "Yuck," Artemis said, backing away. "I hate spiders." He turned to Luna, "I'll go by Amy's apartment after Mina goes to sleep, okay?" "Make sure you stay up long enough to actually do that." Luna snapped as he left through the window. Luna walked up to look Serena in the eye. "I need to go show Apollo where Lita lives. I'll be back in a while." "It's okay, Luna. I'm a lot better now. I'm sorry I collapsed like that." she looked like she was about to start crying again. "Maybe they're right, Luna. Maybe I am nothing but a problem to them in a fight." "Don't start thinking that way, Serena. I know you saved my life this afternoon. I also know you've saved Reenie a time or two." Reenie nodded her head in agreement as Travis continued. "From what I've heard, 'you're' the force that drew them together. If something or someone else is drawing them apart, we've got to find out how and why." Serena nodded tiredly, it was obvious she was about to fall asleep but she had one more thing to say before Luna and Apollo left. "Why don't we ask Catsy?" "What?" Everyone asked, mostly because it made sense and they wondered why no one had thought of it before. "I said, why don't we ask Catsy? Surely the sisters would know if Rubeus was capable of doing it." Serena said the last words even as she slid into sleep. Two fights with droids, a major fight with her best friends and a very long crying jag added up to one very tired girl. Reenie noticed that Serena still hadn't let go of her and so just snuggled down farther. She smiled contentedly to herself. For once Sailor Moon had needed her instead of the other way around, and Reenie would be happy to stay there as long as necessary. She looked at Travis. "Do you really think someone made them do that to her? I don't see why else they would. They do love her, you know." "I know. I think it's the best explanation we've come up with so far. I'm glad you decided to stay with her, I could tell it means a lot." Travis hesitated, "If you don't mind my asking, I've heard that you two fight all the time, but I haven't seen it much. And it seems like when you do fight, it's almost on purpose, like to get our minds off more depressing things." Reenie grinned. "When I first came here, we 'hated' each other. She didn't like being responsible for me and I didn't like the way she whined about everything. She thought I was a brat and I thought she was a baby. But she saved me when I needed her, and she let me sleep in her bed, and read me stories, and helped me with a school curry party and I know she'll always be there if I need her. We really like each other, I think, but ..." "But?" Travis encouraged quietly. Reenie looked down at the older girl. "But we can't tell each other because we started out so badly, so we fight. Nowadays we mostly do it because its fun, though. We might not have said anything, but we know. So we fight because we enjoy argueing with each other and it's a 'lot' of fun trying to get her mad." "I know. I've done it myself a time or two. Want to know a secret?" at her nod, "I only made her do her homework that first day because I knew she didn't want to." Reenie laughed. "I heard that," Serena mumbled sleepily. "And I do know how to say it, Reenie. I love you. Happy?" Reenie gasped and turned to Serena, "What? Serena?" but Serena was asleep once more. She turned back to Travis, and for once she looked like a five year old as her eyes shone with tears. "Do you think she meant it?" she asked quaveringly. "I'm positive of it, Reenie." Travis said as he pulled a blanket up over the two and started to leave the room. "Sleep well." He barely heard her whispered words to Serena as he closed the door but smiled anyway. *I think she knows, Reenie. I think she already knows.* The next morning at Travis's house "What did you tell my mom?" Serena asked. She was a little subdued still, and was walking cautiously because of her ribs, but she was looking better than she had the day before. "The truth." Travis said simply. At Luna's sharp look, he elaborated, "I told her that you had had a major arguement with your friends and went to sleep after crying for a long time and Reenie stayed with you. She came over to check on you a couple of times, but felt it would be better not to wake you. Now what do you want for breakfast?" "I'm not really hungry," she said quietly as she sat down. Travis and Luna looked at her sharply. "You need to eat something." Travis said gently. "Yes, Serena, do eat, it will do you good." Luna put in worriedly. "I said I'm not hungry!" Serena snapped. Then she took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I just..." "We know," Travis said when she couldn't finish, "but we're worried about you and we would feel better if you ate." "I suppose, to make you feel better, I could have some cereal." Serena said dejectedly. When the food came she ate slowly and methodically. Luna and Travis just looked at each other. They didn't know what else they could do. Artemis came in as they were eating breakfast and Apollo followed soon after. Serena put down her spoon and looked at them. "Well?" "Unconclusive." Luna said. "Raye stayed up all night meditating in front of the fire." "Well Lita did have one." Apollo put in next, "I heard her quite clearly when she woke up. She said something about 'not another one'." Artemis added his own observations. "Amy woke up from a nightmare too." "So now we tell them about it and everything will go back to normal right?" Serena asked, almost begged. "It won't be that simple," Luna said, "Can you imagine what Raye would say if we told her something like that?" "Well first she'd say that I was making it all up so I could get back into their good graces." Serena said after thinking for a very short while. "If we did convince her, she'd then say she felt all those things in the first place and nothing has changed." "I must admit you're right." Artemis sighed. "It's too bad we can't take advantage of this." Travis said sighing. "I'd love to see Rubeus's face when he's sure he's dealt with Sailor Moon and then have her show up." "Why can't we? Artemis, you turned Sailor Venus into Sailor V, couldn't we do something similar and change my costume so they don't know it's me? Maybe use the Lunar Disguise Pen?" Serena was getting excited. "I'm sorry, Serena, but we wouldn't be able to change your attacks and they wouldn't have any trouble recognizing them." Artemis sounded sad. It 'had' been a good idea. Serena looked at Luna who was shaking her head. "The Lunar Disguise Pen won't work on your costume because it already has a disguise spell on it. I'm sorry." Serena looked depressed again. "Well, why can't she actually become another Scout?" Travis asked. "Say Sailor Saturn or Neptune. One of the planets that doesn't already have a Scout?" "Because she must be a princess of the planet to become it's Scout." Luna explained patiently. "And Serena is princess only of the Moon Kingdom." "That's not true." Travis said with a light shining in his eye. Everyone looked at him. "She's my sister, so she's also the princess of the Sun." "But there's already a Sailor of the Sun." Apollo pointed out. "So? Is there another law I don't know about that says there can only be one Sailor per planet?" Travis looked around at the others. Serena was also watching the guardians. No one noticed Reenie standing in the doorway. She had heard every word. Serena was princess of the Moon? But her mother was the Queen of the Moon! Did that mean that...? She made a small sound and Serena turned to look at her with the same look of love that she had seen in her mother's face so many times. "Mommy?" Reenie cried softly. Everyone was silent as they looked to see who Reenie was talking to. They turned in time to see Serena's slow smile and nod. Reenie ran up and threw herself into Serena's arms, crying almost as hard as Serena had the night before. "Serena!" Luna said, extremely shocked, "How could you do that to that poor child, lying to her that way? You know you're not her mother." Serena's smile for once lived up to its name. It was serene and calm as she looked down at the child in her arms. "Luna, Apollo was right, you 'do' jump to conclusions. Just because she hasn't been born yet, doesn't mean she's not my child. Don't tell me you still haven't figured out that Reenie and the Dark Moon family came from the future? Even I've known that for almost two months." She looked down at Reenie, who had stopped crying and was just holding her. "Unless I'm mistaken," Reenie looked up, "Reenie is the daughter of Serenity and Endymion." Serena's body tensed slightly as she said this, and relaxed when Reenie nodded her head furiously. "How long have you known? And why didn't you tell me?" Reenie asked excitedly. "I've been pretty sure since that day the six of us took on the whole Dark Moon Family." Serena started explaining. "I overheard you talking to Luna Ball and she was calling you princess and telling you that the Sailor Scouts would protect you here like they did in your own time. That's when things started fitting together. The family hairstyle, the crescent moon on your forehead, Luna Ball, who really does look almost exactly like Luna." "Does not!" Luna inserted petulantly. "Hush. As to why I didn't tell you, fear." Reenie looked up in surprise. Her mother, afraid? "Fear that I was wrong, when I already loved you like a daughter, and most especially fear that Endymion was 'not' your father. As long as I didn't know for sure, you were my hope that everything would eventually work out between us. Once Darien, yes Reenie," as she was about to speak, "Darien is Endymion. Once he disappeared, you were my hope that he would come back alright. He has to, for you to ever be born." "I wondered why I always felt warm and safe when you and Darien were about," Reenie musingly said. Then she thought of something and looked up at Travis. "If Serena's my mother, then you must be Uncle Tranq!" Travis winced and nodded and Reenie slid out of Serena's lap to hug him. She looked around at the people and animals in the room. "I can't believe I never figured out who you were!" she exclaimed, "Luna and Artemis live at the palace and you, Apollo come to visit whenever Uncle Tranq does. You look the same, but kind of different too. Diana would be so annoyed that I didn't know her parents when I saw them." "Who's Diana?" Luna asked. "Diana's my kitten, she wasn't allowed to come with me. She's your daughter, yours and Artemis's." "Well, well," Artemis said. "It looks like there a lot you haven't told me, Luna." Luna blushed furiously. "Um, Reenie?" Serena said quietly. Reenie looked up at her and grinned. "Secret?" "Secret. Can you imagine what my father would say if he knew you were Darien's and my daughter?" Everybody except Apollo and Serena had a good laugh over that. They all knew Mr. Tsukino's views on his daughter and her boyfriends quite well. Travis and Luna exchanged another look over Serena's silence. "Well," Travis said "it looks like my family is expanding all over the place. Though I didn't expect to become an uncle at the age of fourteen." "Do you think I expected to become a mother at fourteen?" And she carefully picked Reenie up and sat her in her lap to finish the conversation. "You never answered Travis's question. Can I become Sailor Sun?" "I don't see how." Luna said, trying to get her mind back on the conversation and out of the well of shock it had been thrown in. *You know, this might help explain her new maturity, if she knew she had a daughter to protect. Mother instinct is a very strong force.* "I have to agree with Luna," Apollo said, "It's true she is a princess of the Sun, but even if it was possible, she doesn't have a transformation pen for it." "Don't you have one in your Lunar Space Pocket, Luna?" Serena asked, the hope dying in her eyes. "I cannot let my Scouts fight without me, but they won't let me fight with them." "Maybe you can use mine," Travis said pulling out his necklace. "That's neat, Uncle Tranq, where did you get that?" Reenie said, looking at the perfect miniture sword he held in his hand. "This is my transformation wand, Reenie, and please, 'don't' call me Uncle Tranq. Serena bought it for me yesterday at the flea market. Boy were we surprised when Apollo told me 'this' was the Sun Stone." Reenie looked surprised. "But I've seen the Sun Stone and it's much bigger than that." "Don't worry, it gets bigger when I transform." Travis laughed. "I didn't get to see you transform, Travis," Serena says almost whining again. "You wouldn't get to see much. I'm told that I get bright." Travis answered. "That's true. He gets too bright to look at when he transforms." Luna agreed. Travis passed the small sword over to Serena, and Serena passed Reenie over to him. "The words are 'Sun Stone Power'." Everyone watched with bated breath as Serena stood up and raised the sword to the sky. "SUN STONE POWER" she cried. Nothing happened. Luna, Artemis and Apollo sighed. They had hoped it would work, for her sake. Travis and Serena both looked at the sword and then each other. Travis put Reenie down and limped over to join her. "SUN STONE POWER" they both cried at the same time. Still nothing. "Wait a minute!" Apollo suddenly said, "Why didn't you change, Travis?" "Because the activation words weren't right." Travis said distractedly. Serena spoke up, "Twin?" was all she said. "We can try, but I don't think so. Two?" Travis answered. Everyone else was completely lost. "Uh uh, what's that other word for two? I think it starts with a d?" Serena was still watching Travis. It was obvious that they knew what they were talking about, unfortunately, they weren't interested in explaining it to any one else. "Duo?" he asked. Then he answered himself. "Duo." "Duo." she agreed. Luna was fed up. "What are you two talking about?" she yelled. Travis and Serena turned to look at the others. Travis laughed at the expressions on everyone's face. Serena started explaining. "When I tried to use the Stone to transform, I did feel something." "As did I," Travis added. "It felt like I needed something else to power it. It was trying to activate, but wasn't getting enough of the right kind of energy." Serena continued. "It was almost like it was reaching out for my energy," Travis said, "So we decided to try it together." "It almost worked. I could tell, but something was wrong. I wasn't sure exactly what until Travis said it needed different activation words. It needs something to tell it that there are two of us." Travis finished the explanation. "It's almost like it's sentient. It knows what it needs to work and was trying to tell us. The word is duo." "Watch." Serena said as they turned back to each other. Their hands met around the sword as they both raised it to the sky and called out in one voice. "SUN STONE POWER DUO". This time the others could see the light building inside both of them. Again they had to cover their eyes from the glare. When they opened their eyes, standing there were 'two' Sailor Suns! Travis looked like he did the day before. Serena mimiced his colors and her normal uniform. Her skirt was gold, the bows were yellow, her boots were yellow with gold trim. A brooch in the shape of the sun was in the middle of her front bow. Sun earings dangled from her ears and the jewel in her tiara was a topaz. Her hair was still up in balls but didn't contain the jewels of her Sailor Moon form. The female Sailor Sun looked up at the sword she was helping to hold. "What's that on the blade?" Travis looked at the blade in surprise. She was right, there was writing on the blade, but he couldn't read it. He held it out to the others, but none of them could read it either. The male Sailor then looked the female over carefully. "Now if we change your hair and your attitude, no one will know who you are." he grinned. "What do you mean by that?" she asked almost angrily. "Well number one," he started to say as he pushed her down into a chair and started to take her hair down. "No more introducing yourself. If we're going to help the Scouts without them 'or' Rubeus knowing who you are, you've got to change the way you act." In an aside, "Reenie, will you go get her brush and comb please." As Reenie left the room he continued. "No more crying or klutzing out. We've got to be there when it's necessary and not there when it's not. Kind of like Tuxedo Mask does." "How are we going to do that?" she asked. "We'll watch. Yes, I know its going to be hard to just watch them fight, I've had to watch you fight and get hurt without being able to do anything and it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. But we can't introduce the Sailor Suns to the Scouts. Two minutes of talking to you and they'll know who you are. They might actually start to hate you for going behind their backs like this. Is that what you want?" he asked as he looked into her eyes. "No," she whispered. Reenie came back in at that moment with the brush and Travis started brushing out Serena's hair. "What I'm hoping is that if we purposely change your hairstyle while in this form, it will stay this way whenever we transform and go back to normal when we detransform or you transform into Sailor Moon." "Can you still transform to Sailor Moon in that form?" Luna asked concerned. "No problem, Luna." Serena said as she took her new brooch off her uniform and turned it around to show it was the back of her normal brooch. "How did it do that?" Luna asked, very surprised. "Magic, I guess. Why are you asking me?" Travis worked quietly for a long time, too long. When he turned her around to look in her face, he could see she was starting to get depressed again. He searched for something to distract her. "What should we do about names?" he asked. At her look, "Well do you really want us both to be called Sailor Sun? If someone calls out, 'Hey Sailor Sun', how will we know who he's talking to?" He thought for a long moment, "I know, I'll be Sailor Sun and you can be Sailor Sol. What do you think?" "Sailor Soul? What does that have to do with the sun?" Serena asked confused. "Not Sailor Soul, Sailor Sol, S-O-L it's the Latin word for sun and is the official name of our sun." "If it's the official name, maybe you'd better have it. I don't like officials all that much." Everyone laughed. "Besides, you're the official Sailor of the Sun. I'm the unofficial one." "Okay, Sailor Sun, what do you think of your new hairdo?" Travis asked, leading her to a mirror. Serena gasped. He had taken her hair down and braided the first half of it, then wrapped it around the back of her head in a flat bun. The rest was left loose and pulled through the bun into a two foot long ponytail. She shook her head and felt the way the ponytail moved. "That feels really weird." She said, still staring at her reflection. She turned to look at Travis. "Are you going to become a hair stylist when you grow up? You do good work." "You don't look like Serena anymore," Reenie said, very, very quietly. "That's what we wanted. I can't help the Scouts if they know who I am, they don't want me there anymore." Serena's voice trailed off and she detransformed in silence. Her hair went back to its normal style. "If you don't mind, I'm not feeling so well suddenly, I think I'll go lie down." "I am going to go give Mina a piece of my mind." Artemis said slowly and firmly. He loved Mina like a daughter, in some ways he felt she was, since they had been together so long. But right now, she needed a very harsh talking to. What they had done to Serena was criminal and he meant to let her know how he felt. "No, Artemis." Travis said. Artemis looked up at him in surprise. Travis's face looked very angry and Artemis was suddenly glad that it wasn't 'him' Travis was mad at. "We need someone to be on their side. I'm going to go talk to them. Reenie?" She nodded, "I'll go stay with her." She went into Serena's room. A few minutes later she came back out. She looked like she was trying her hardest not to cry. "She's crying again. She said she wants to be alone." "Try again in a few minutes, okay? We'll go see the sisters later this afternoon." He looked in his sister's direction, "If she feels up to it." Travis walked towards the temple where he knew the girls usually gathered. As he walked he thought more about the way they had been treating Serena and he just got madder. By the time he got to the temple he was practically steaming. He stomped up the stairs. Chad was sweeping the top steps. In a very hard voice Travis said. "I'm looking for Raye, Amy, Mina and Lita, are they here?" Chad nodded slowly. He wasn't sure he wanted this dangerous looking young man finding the girls, but one look in his eyes made him decide against trying to stop him. Travis walked on. Amy, Raye, Mina and Lita were gathered in the shrine. They weren't saying much, they felt bad about how they had treated Sailor Moon and didn't want to talk about it. They were just sitting there staring at each other when Travis stalked in. He glared at each of them for a very long moment. Amy actually drew back in fear from the look in his eyes. Nobody else could look him in the eye after that first glance either. That made Raye mad. "What are you doing here? You weren't invited." she said challengingly. Travis ignored her. He started to speak. "I thought you were her friends." He said very softly. Somehow they would have preferred if he shouted. "I thought 'she' was 'your' best friend. I guess I was wrong. I don't know of any one who could treat a 'friend' like that. I don't know what happened last night, I don't really care. What I care about, is that I have one of 'my' best 'friends' crying her heart out in a spare bedroom. She cried herself to sleep last night in there. She's still crying. It tears me up to see her like that and to know that it's the fault of people she thought were her friends. From what I've seen of her, her friends mean more to her than almost anything else in this world and they turned on her. Well, I'm not going to let it happen again. People like you don't deserve to be friends to a person like her. She's one of the sweetest and most caring people I know. And you tore her heart to pieces." By now, the girls all looked like they wanted to cry, but Travis wasn't finished with them. "Stay away from her." He said, almost snarling. "Don't even come around trying to apologize, just 'Stay' 'Away'. Do you understand?" They nodded and Travis turned to leave. "Oh, one more thing, if I find out that one of you caused her broken rib, I'll forget all about how guys aren't supposed to hit girls and make you regret it. I had thought you weren't the kind of people that would beat up your friends, but after last night I'm not really sure anymore and she had to get those bruises somewhere." He left. Amy started to cry as he left. Even Raye looked disturbed. Although they knew they had hurt her the night before, they hadn't realized how much. Travis's words made them think of their actions as 'she' must have seen them. Mina started to cry as well, and Lita tried with all her might to keep the tears away. Raye was thinking of Travis's parting words. "I wonder what he meant about her rib and bruises." she wondered out loud. "I could tell you, but I don't know if I should." A voice spoke behind them. They turned to look. Artemis stood there looking almost as forbidding as Travis had. "What happened, Artemis? Why didn't she come?" Mina asked in a subdued tone of voice. "She was fighting." He answered, "She went up against a droid at the flea market. Alone. She didn't want to call you, she wanted to prove that she could take a droid down by herself, so that maybe, just maybe, you'd see she wasn't always a coward and clumsy. I hear from Luna that your call startled her, allowing the droid to hit her and throw her into a pole. She would have told you, if you had ever given her a chance. I'm ashamed of you," he looked at Mina, "all of you. And I agree with Travis, stay away from Serena. You are the last people she needs to see right now." He turned to look at everyone. "It should be interesting to see how you fare against a droid without her." He turned to leave. "Ar..Artemis." Mina called out. He turned back, "I'll talk to you at home Mina." "At least he said he'll be there," she said quietly to herself. "How could we do that to her?" Lita cried out. "Me especially! I'm supposed to protect her, not hurt her. What's happening to us?" "Do you think we should do what they said?" Mina asked. "Should we stay away from her?" "We can't take a chance on hurting her more. We've hurt her enough." Raye said, turning to stare into the fire. "She'll get over it," she suddenly said, sounding like she was desperately trying to convince herself. "That airhead can never keep a grudge." *I hope.* The next day at school, Amy and Lita got a first hand view of what exactly they had done. Serena didn't even want to look at them, and the one time Amy tried to talk to her, she turned around and walked away. She stayed as close as possible to Travis and he glared at Amy and Lita if they came closer than he thought necessary. They could also see how she was favoring her side. By the end of the day Amy was almost in tears again. Serena hadn't felt like going to visit the four sisters the day before, so she and Travis picked up Reenie to visit them that afternoon. "Hi Serena, Hi Reenie, and who's this with you?" Birdy called out when she saw them. "Hi Birdy, this is Travis, he's a friend of mine. Is Catsy busy?" Serena asked quietly. Birdy frowned at Serena's almost dejected expression. This was not the Serena they knew. "She's in the back, go right in." "Hi Catsy," Serena said as they saw her in the back. "This is Travis, he knows everything. Can I ask you a question?" "Sure," Catsy replied, "After the way you helped my sisters and me, I'll tell you anything I can." "Does Rubeus have the ability to influence people's dreams?" Serena's eyes were almost begging for an answer. "No," Catsy said and watched despair fall over Serena's face. She saw how Travis held her close as she almost sagged. "But the Wiseman does." she continued as quickly as she could. "The Wiseman?" Serena asked, life coming back into her expression. "I think I heard Rubeus say something about him once. Who is he?" "The Wiseman is the leader of the Dark Moon. He is running the campaign in the future and comes to visit every once in a while to see how Rubeus is doing." "He's the one that gave me the strobe." Prisma put in. She had come in as Serena asked her first question and listened to the answers. "That's right." Catsy agreed. "I think he had already set a dream on somebody, Prince Endymion I think, that would make him think that if he was close to the Princess she would die. Or something like that. It was one of his back up plans for changing the future. He figured that if he could keep them from marrying, Crystal Tokyo would never exist and the future would be much easier to take over. I got all this from Rubeus in one of his boasting moods so I don't know how much of it is true. But the Wiseman definately has the ability to plant dreams." Catsy finished. Serena looked transformed. "That explains everything, Catsy, thank you so much." She went up and hugged the older woman. "Have good luck with your store. I've got to go tell Luna." "One last thing." Prisma put in. "Rubeus stays in his spaceship almost all the time so it might be a little hard to find him. If you can get him to the ground you might have a better chance at defeating him. If you do get to the ship, or get taken there, be careful, there are a lot of traps." "Thank you Prisma," Serena smiled and hugged her as well, "I'll remember." Reenie hugged the two women as well and then took Serena and Travis's hands as they left. "I wonder what that was all about?" Catsy asked Prisma. Birdy came in then. "Whatever you said to her sure made a difference. She went out of here in a lot better mood than she came." "Birdy, if you're in here, who's minding the store?" Prisma asked. "We don't have any customers at the moment, and I just came in for a minute." Birdy answered. "You were probably wanting to put on more make-up and are just using that as an excuse." Prisma accused and Serena's questions were temporarily forgotten. As they were leaving the store, Serena looked much happier. Travis and Reenie smiled at the way she was bubbling. Then the smiles were cut short when Serena's communicator beeped. She pressed the button that let them listen. "Guys, this is Mina, there's a droid terrorizing people at this restraunt. I could really use some help." "We're on our way." "Serena?" Amy said tentatively, "you can come too, if you're listening." Serena seemed torn whether to answer or not. Then Raye's voice came on. "She's not listening, you know she never notices the communicator unless Luna points it out to her." Serena's face firmed up and she put down her wrist. She turned to Travis. "Well, should Sailor Sol and Sailor Sun go watch?" "I think we'd better. Reenie, will you stay with the four sisters? We'll come pick you up afterwords." Reenie nodded and went back inside. "Let's go, and remember, no speeches, don't talk to anyone. We go in only if it seems they can't handle it themselves, not before. And watch your ribs." Serena nodded and they went into an empty alley to transform. "SUN STONE POWER DUO" they cried and Sailor Sun and Sailor Sol stood there. Sailor Sun had her new hair style as well. Serena's ribs were well bound and didn't hurt her nearly as much as they had, and Travis's twisted ankle was completely healed, so they were able to run to the battlesite. When they reached the restraunt, Sailor Sol and Sailor Sun found a place where they could watch the fight without being observed themselves. This droid seemed to have a liking for kitchenware as its weapons and the Scouts were busy trying to dodge thrown knives and forks. It was obvious that some attacks had gotten through to the droid because it was scorched in several places, but it did not look to be seriously hurt. "MERCURY ICE STORM SPLASH" took care of a number of the knives coming towards her and "MARS CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND" took out more. But more and more kept coming. One knife hit Venus in the leg. She fell with a cry. Sailor Sun started to go to her when she noticed Sailor Sol holding on to her arm. "Not yet," was all he said. Sailor Sol whispered in his sister's ear. "Do you know what your attack is yet?" "I don't really have one." she whispered back. "I have a wall that can protect them though." "Alright, I'm going to go around and try to find the back entrance. When you see me behind the droid, try to give me a distraction. 'No' 'Speeches'. Okay?" "Okay, already. Now do it before any more of them get hurt." He left quietly. Sailor Sun waited impatiently for her brother to show up. As soon as she saw him behind the droid, she ran out in between the droid and the Scouts and called out her 'attack'. "SOLAR CORONA WALL" as her arms spread wide, a mixture of yellow light and yellow flames spread out incinerating anything in their path. When she lowered her hands the air was clear and the Scouts and droid were staring at her in surprise. They soon had something else to be surprised at. "SOLAR FLARE" was called out from behind the droid and the scouts looked to see a 'male' version of the scout in front of them. Yellow flames burst from the hands that were outthrust towards the droid. The droid screamed as it was burned from behind. "Now, Sailor Scouts, finish it!" The male scout called out. His words broke the Scouts out of the paralasys they had been under. He moved towards them as the droid started to throw its weapons again. The male Scout called out. "Sailor Sun, can you keep the air clear until we're ready?" The female scout nodded and turned back towards the droid. "SOLAR CORONA WALL" she yelled her arms going out to her sides once again, creating a wall of fire and light that kept the air behind her clear. "We need to hit it all at once." the male scout said. "Wait a minute, who are you?" Mars asked. "A friend of the Moon Princess. She asked us to look after you, although I have no idea why. Now do you want to take this droid down or don't you? If you don't then my sister and I can just leave." and he looked like he was getting ready to do just that. "Don?t mind Mars." Venus said quickly, "she's suspicious of everyone. What do you want to do? And what can we call you?" "Thank you Sailor Venus." he bowed courtesly. "I am Sailor Sol and she is Sailor Sun. As for what we do, we hit this droid with a combined attack of everything we have." Just then, Sailor Sun spoke up. "Sailor Sol, I hate to rush you, but I can't hold this wall forever." "Put it down on the count of three, but be careful. One," he nodded to the others, they nodded back and got ready "Two, Three!" As he called the last word, Sailor Sun's arms went down and across her chest, enclosing her in a column of fire that would protect her from almost anything. "MARS CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND" "MERCURY ICE STORM SPLASH" "VENUS LOVE CHAIN ENCIRCLE" "JUPITER THUNDERCLAP ZAP" "SOLAR FLARE" Venus?s chain flashed forward surrounded by a glowing barrage of energy. The five powers intertwined so much you could barely tell which was which. The chain flew towards the droid with such speed that it couldn't dodge. The combined power of the five attacks was too much for it and it collapsed into dust. Sailor Mercury turned to thank the new Scouts, but they were already on their way out the door. She turned back to the others. "Did you hear what he said? The Moon Princess asked them to look in on us. Maybe she doesn't hate us as much as we thought." "Well if she knew who they were, why didn't they join us before?" Mars asked. "Why didn't 'who' join you before?" Artemis said as he and Luna walked in the door. Luna looked around at the Scouts for a long moment, sadness and anger plain in her gaze. The Scouts looked down, they knew what she was thinking. They'd thought it themselves a time or two since Saturday night. Venus spoke up, "Two new Sailors, Sailor Sun and Sailor Sol, Sailor Sol's a man. He said that the Moon Princess asked them to watch over us." "The Sailor Suns are not a part of the Sailor Scouts." Luna lectured. "The Sun Kingdom was a kingdom of its own and was not part of the Silver Millenium. I'm surprised they would help you, but they always did get on well with Serenity." She looked around again, "Artemis can debrief you. 'I' am going to check on Serena." She walked out, leaving the Scouts depressed again. "Well, at least we've got a cute new scout. He reminds me of my old boyfriend." Sailor Jupiter announced to try to lighten the atmosphere. It didn't work too well. Outside "Well, it worked this time. Do you think they're okay?" Sailor Sun was asking as they detransformed in a handy alley. "They'll be fine. They know what they're doing. I do notice a problem." Travis said as they walked out to the sidewalk. "What's that?" Serena asked surprised. "You're too happy. Finding out that Rubeus was behind all of this has highly improved your attitude." Serena was extremely surprised. "Isn't that a good thing?" "Well, that depends, do you want to explain it to Amy and Lita tomorrow?" "You mean I have to act mad at them for awhile? WWWWWHHHHAAAAAAAHHHHHH That's going to be so hard!" Serena whined. Travis grinned. It was good to see her back to normal again. She looked up at him as they walked. *I wish it was going to be hard to be mad at them. But they really meant what they said, even if they normally would never have said it. And it still hurts. But he has enough problems, he doesn't need to know.* ------------------- Well, what did you think? Did you expect it? I hope not. Next Chapter, finally, the Return of Darien. I know some of you have been waiting for him to come back. Tell me what you thought. Jendra@aol.com