Part 3
“What happened?” Ami asked, studying Rei’s features. The miko looked distressed, and none of them really knew what had happened.
They had all shown up at the shrine an hour later like Rei had told them. Even Usagi had shown up on time, and the outer senshi had joined them after a call from Minako. Yet since they’d arrived, no one had really spoken other than in greeting, and Rei telling them to come inside. Her grandpa had come in earlier to leave them a plate of cookies, but from then they’d all just sat in silence, looking between each other trying to guess what had happened and nibbling on the cookies.
Rei sat at the end of the table, silent as she seemed to stare at nothing in particular. Ami sat to her left, Makoto beside her. On her right Minako and Usagi sat, scarfing down the cookies. The outer senshi stood just outside the room, listening in. Michiru and Haruka were standing beside each other, Hotaru standing in front of them with Michiru’s hand on her shoulder. Setsuna was questioning the remaining Starlights as they waited.
They all waited in silence for an answer, but the raven haired young woman wasn’t sure where to begin. She had had visions which worried her before, but something felt different about this one. And then there was that voice. Who had it belonged to, and what did they want with Serenity?
She glanced toward Usagi. If it wasn’t enough they had to worry about what happened to Seiya, but now they would have to keep a closer watch over their princess too.
“Rei?” Usagi blinked, wondering why she was being stared at.
The miko shook her head, taking a deep breath before finally opening her mouth to speak. “We’re in trouble,” she told them, her expression dark.
“Like we didn’t know that already?” Yaten scoffed, rolling her eyes. This earned a glare from Rei, and for once the silver haired starlight shut up, actually in fear for her life at that moment.
“As I was saying...” she continued, moving her gaze from Yaten back to the rest of the girls. “There’s... something out there. And it’s after Serenity,” she paused for a moment as a couple of the girl’s gasped, but all eyes turned towards Usagi who just looked shocked. “I still don’t know how this involves Seiya,” this earned a groan from Yaten, while Taiki sighed. “But I saw something...”
“Could it be chaos?” Makoto interrupted. “We’ve already seen that it takes a lot to get rid of it. Maybe it wasn’t really destroyed...”
Minako shushed her, wanting to hear what Rei had seen, but now the thought of Chaos re-emerging had nestled its way into all of the senshi’s minds. “What did you see?”
“Ruins...” Rei’s spoke in an ominous tone. Ruins? No one could understand why that was so bad. She had seen ruins before hadn’t she? “At first, I thought it was the moon kingdom. It didn’t look like Earth,” she explained.
“What was it then?” Michiru asked softly. She probably one of the most concerned. How was it that she hadn’t gotten a single sign? The first she had known of anything being wrong was when Minako had called for them.
Hotaru sighed, she had thought it would be something like this, but she had hoped it had only been a horrible premonition and nothing more. But then again, she was the senshi of ruin... “It was the Earth, wasn’t it? Or, what was to be Crystal Tokyo,” she spoke up, projecting an image that came into her mind, Haruka placing a hand on her free shoulder as she did so. They still couldn’t take the chance that her powers could go out of control.
It was the exact Ruins the Rei had seen in her vision, but now that she had been able to get a longer look at it, she could tell it really was the earth. It was different though. They could see signs of the city they knew now, but at the same time there were small sections of what they now knew to be the beginnings of Crystal Tokyo, or rather, the Crystal Palace.
The youngest senshi wasn’t able to keep that projection up for long though, and it soon dimmed, before fading away. “How could this have happened...?” Ami wondered, glancing toward Setsuna. She was the guardian of time, she had to have some idea.
She shook her head. “Nothing is ever set in stone, the future changes with every thought a person has,” she explained.
“Where’s Luna and Artemis?” Ami spoke up, looking for the two felines.
“Researching,” Minako answered, getting a few looks. “You know, trying to find out about Seiya. If we can remember him, surely there are other people?” she finished in more of a question than an explanation.
“That would make sense,” Haruka nodding, speaking up for the first time. Really, she didn’t care if they never found the missing starlight, but she had agreed to go along with this anyway, but only because the missing girl could be connected to this new enemy, and that was the only reason.
A cough interrupted them, and everyone turned to see Luna and Artemis standing at the doorway. “How’d it go?” Yaten asked, actually speaking in a softer tone when she addressed Luna.
The purple cat shook her head. “We weren’t able to find anything on the internet, or any old newspapers,” she told them, earning sighs throughout the group.
Artemis nodded. “Even in photos, it’s like she’s been erased from them,” he explained. Producing photos he had been carrying. Everyone still had no idea where these cats hid those things, or how they carried them.
The girls around the table all picked up a couple of photos, Yaten and Taiki also leaned over to grab a couple. Some of them looked fine, like there was only ever supposed to be one person in the picture, or Yaten and Taiki by themselves. But others were strange. There was a picture they had taken sneakily of Haruka and Seiya arguing. Now it was only a picture of Haruka seeming to argue with herself. Another was supposed to be Minako with her arm wrapped around Seiya’s neck, pulling her over for the photo, but again, there was no dark haired female. “She’s just... gone,” Makoto breathed, shaking her head.
“Actually,” Luna spoke up, patting something on the floor with her paw. Usagi blinked, reaching over to pick it up. “Who’s this?” she asked, looking over the photo.
Minako snatched it from her. “IT’S SEIYA!” she shouted and the others all practically ran to see the picture, excluding Mamoru and the outer senshi. Even Yaten was quick to get there.
“But... how?” Taiki wondered, her eyes wide.
“We don’t know. But this is the only real proof we could find of Kou Seiya’s existence,” Luna told them.
Minako handed the picture back to Usagi. “So where do we go from here?” she wondered, and everyone began to think of a strategy. Everyone except for Usagi, who was staring at the picture of the male disguised Seiya with an arm wrapped around her shoulder, winking, while she smiled and flashed the peace sign.
*****
Darkness shrouded the entire... room? She couldn’t tell it was that dark, and no matter how many times she blinked, or just tried to stare into the darkness her eyes didn’t adjust. “Where am I?” even though her voice was soft it echoed through the entire place.
She didn’t like this place. She didn’t like that she was pretty much blind, that she couldn’t see where she was, or what surrounded her. She hated that she couldn’t tell if something was making her way toward her, getting ready to attack.
She couldn’t even tell if her eyes were opened or closed, but then, she saw something... gold? She strained her eyes, trying to see what it was. Whatever it was, it was coming closer.
Now she could see. It wasn’t gold, but blonde... blonde hair. It couldn’t be? Could it? She had no idea where she was, how would the other be able to find her?
The figure drew closer and she could tell it wasn’t who she had first thought, but rather a man. He was tall, taller than her, with short blonde hair and gentle blue eyes. Eyes that seemed so familiar to her. His expression was far from gentle though, his lips pulled into a smirk, and though his eyes seemed kind, they also had a flickering darkness in them.
He laughed suddenly, making her jump. She hadn’t expected that. “What’s so funny?” she looked the male over, taking a defensive stance.
He cocked his head, staring straight into her eyes and sending a shiver down his spine. “You sure do cause a lot of trouble for such a small thing,” he looked her over.
“I’m not small. Who the hell are you?” she frowned, averting her eyes. For some reason she couldn’t look straight at him.
“All will be revealed in due time,” he chuckled. Damn she hated all that mysterious crap.
She glared at him. “What do you want with me?”
“You’ll see, dear Seiya. You’ll see...”
