Chapter IV " Hideaway, take me now. I cannot face another round..." "Hideaway" by Fuel Way above the clouds and sky, where the stars burnt cruelly bright against the dark recesses of space, the mirror floated intact. All by herself, she didn't need anybody. No one but herself and her lovely dreams. That was all the dark moon queen needed in her life. Not the earth. Not Zirconia. Just her lovely dreams, herself and her own dreams.... " I shall never doubt the power of innocent dreams," came a cold whisper. The bruised and cut face of a tragically beautiful queen stared numbly out into space, locked in her mirror for all eternity. She pressed her cold, white hands against the cool glass, a silent tear streaking out of her left cat-slitted eye." I shall never doubt the dreams of innocent children." Her eyes clouded over, staring at a meteor racing across her vision." I shall never doubt..." The meteor stopped. She gasped, as it came back towards her. Then, to her amazement, she discovered it wasn't a meteor at all-! It was a little bright shining light thing that grew a little brighter as it zipped toward her, right in front of her face on the other side. " Queen Nehelenia...?" She gasped again, wiping away her shameless tears." Yes," she answered, barely a whisper. " Do you want out of that mirror?" She nodded vigorously." Oh, yes!" " Do you want revenge for what has been done to you?" She stared at the little light, thinking. She then shook her head." I just want to dream," she said brokenly." I don't want to be ugly anymore, I just want to stay beautiful-" " Oh, but you can." She hesitated." I...can?" " Oh, yes. What if I told you that you could have all the dreams in the world at your fingertips? Hmm?" Her eyes glowed at the thought, then narrowed." What is the catch?" She may have been beaten down, but she wasn't stupid. " No catch. Well...I may be fibbing just a little. You will have to do something for me, but that something will get you out of the mirror. Tell me, Nehelenia-do you remember discovering something peculiar about the boy guardian you held captive? For the crystal?" At her puzzled look, it continued." No, I guess not. Do you remember the day you took over Elician, anything odd about that day?" The lightbulb clicked on in Nehelenia's head." Why...yes. Zirconia, my sorcerer, told me something had escaped...he said not to worry about it..." " Ah, and what else did you find out along those lines?" She searched her memory, than it came back to her hard and fast so she gasped." The boy," she hissed out." He had a...sibling, or something my servants told me...a girl..." The bracelets." He had a sister!" " Very good!" It praised." Now, I am an old servant of a thing called Death Busters. And I found out a lot about Elician, becuase I wanted what they had-all those pretty dreams and all that power in the Golden Crystal...and I found out that the Guardian's sister is on Earth, as you know, but that she's also back in Tokyo...where the other Sailor Scouts are." Nehelenia's teeth grinded." Stupid Sailor brats!...Wait...Where did you get all this information?" " You could say I'm an old acquiantence of Zirconia. Anyway, peculiar enough," it explained in a talking-to-children-voice," I found out that his sister had a great amount of power, has a great amount of power, that's been lying dormant. She has the twin to the Golden Crystal-it's a pretty jewel that does the opposite of what the Golden Crystal does-instead of opening the gates to Elician, as the Golden Crystal does, in its full power it allows the possessor open access to every dream in the world, meaning you would have a lot of power on your hands...you could take over the world with it. What do you say? I let you out, we conquer. All I need from you is your cooperation." Nehelenia stared the light down, promising visions filling her mind. Slowly, she nodded." Good can come of this." It chuckled as it entered the mirror and into her body, making her gasp as it resided in her mind dominantly. " Oh, yes," Nehelenia said, smiling cruelly." Good will come of this. The Sailor Scouts won't know what hit them..." * * * " Prince Helios." He was in his own world, ruby red eyes wide as his heart seized up and his throat closed, dread filling him as he imagined what could be cuasing this sudden panic attack. He could hardly breathe for the panic that rose...almost like the time he found out Nehelenia was back... " Prince!" " Yes!" His head shot up, dazed and confused at his sudden stupor. What was that? What had happened?" Yes, what is it?" he asked a little breathlessly. The man-sized elf smiled a little." Daydreaming about the princess again, are we?" " Oh!" Helios blushed slightly at the thought of the little pink-haired girl he left only a few weeks ago." No, not this time. What is it, Jake?" The boy nodded." There's a pressing matter at Evening Lakes. Would you like to tend to it?" ' Evening Lakes.' One of the many subworlds of the larger Elician. Helios nodded, raking his white hair back away from his face, careful to mind the golden horn." Yes. I'll be there in a moment." Jake nodded and left. Helios sat down hard.' What was it? What is going on? Is it worth contacting a scout?' * * * " No, no, no!" Trista raced back and forth in front of the time gates, not knowing what to do or where to start. The mist swirled violently against her rapid pace, her staff clutched so tightly in one hand her knuckles were white." This wasn't supposed to happen, this isn't supposed to play out like this!" she stressed to herself. There was supposed to be no interference! What happens now? She knew damn well they were supposed to fight the final battle with Nehelenia and move on to the bigger problem, but this disturbance... " Dammit," she said desperately. Raising her staff, in a swirl of mist she took off to visit a few old friends. * * * " Whew!" Mandi let herself fly backwards and plop on the couch, as she opened a can of pop and slugged it down." That was the best first day I've ever had! Especially since we're a world away from home!" " Speak for yourself!" Bryony put down her bookbag and immediately started putting boxes away in their right rooms. Voices carried through the house, so they talked lesiurely as she strolled around, working." I shouldn't even try to count how many boys you talked to!" Mandi grinned." I know it. And those girls were so nice!" " Yeah." Bryony smiled a little." Lita's a good person, and Mina's got a bubbly personality, like Serena." Who was the girl who plowed her over that morning-her name so did not fit her personality." Amy's kinda quiet-" " Like you are around boys!" "...I'll ignore that comment. As I said, she's quiet and shy, but I really like her." " Yeah, they're good people." The blonde stood up and stretched, took another drink and strolled to the kitchen to put away dishes." Too bad we have so much homework on our first day, though." " I know. But like it'll be a problem." Two sets of giggles rang the air." Remember, we'll look suspicious if we get it all right." " Yeah. And speaking of suspicious-" Mandi reached on her tiptoes to put a few large dishes on the top shelves," did you notice their auras?" " Who couldn't, Mandi?" Bri poked her head through the bars of the banister of the second floor loft that peered down in the kitchen." I got that shocking reminder when I shook hands with Lita. Got a different one from Amy, Mina, and Serena had the most impressive of all!" " Yeah," Mandi agreed quietly." Almost felt like they each had their own elements, but not quite. Like, Amy's felt like water." Bryony kept silent. She knew Mandi knew what she was talking about: sorceresses usually do. " Lita didn't really have one, but I smelled something similar to lightning. Mina...I dunno, something warm...light, I guess. And Serena, just..." she shook her head." If I had to put a color to it, it shimmered bright and silver around her." She shrugged, took another drink of pop." But we'll find out when the time comes, eh?" Bri smiled." Guess so. They seem familiar, though." She watched Mandi nod. Suddenly, a shiver of something passed through her. Mandi dropped her pop bottle in shock, spraying pop all over the wooden floor. She looked up at Bryony, fighting off the shudders." What...was that?" She shook her head, golden eyes wide." I don't know. But I think we just found our reason for being here." * * * Raye stopped running at the top step of the entrance to the temple. What was that? She turned around, knowing well the girls wouldn't show up for study buddies for another twenty minutes. She shuddered involuntarily. Weird. She took another step, than halted in her tracks, eyes going wide. Her head shot up to look at the sky just in time to see a meteor flash across the powdery blue of the sky. What does it mean? Suddenly sick to her stomach and and pounding with headache, Raye shook her head and kept on walking, knowing well what would occupy her time that night-she prayed to God it wasn't anything serious. * * * Amara listened carefully to the story Trista had to tell, sipping a cup of late coffee. She looked over to Michelle, who was looking at her with a worried expression on her face, curled up on the blue leather couch of their apartment. " I didn't know who else to go to with this," Trista finished. She was no longer in sailor form, the staff safely tucked away until she called it. Now, she donned a normal-looking maroon business suit." This is totally wrong, and I tried to right it, but it won't work. We just have to play it out." Amara nodded, eyes closed." So this means we go back to Tokyo early?" Trista nodded, looking over to Michelle." Yes. Is it all right with you, Neptune?" Michelle blinked, then stood up, deep in thought.' I'd wanted to see the girls again, the other scouts, one more time, but not under these circumstances.' She smiled a little at her two companions." Let me go get my bags and my violin." Trista nodded." Excellent. Oh, and there's one more person we'll definetely need." " Who?" both asked.