Sorry to everyone who reads this on Lady
Cosmos's page for waiting two weeks to get
the next part of this out. I've been working
on my other fic,"Sister Earth." I want to
hurry and get it finished so that I can start
another. (I have a thing with doing two fics
at once) Anyway, hope no one is angry with me.
(What am I saying? There are a lot of authors
who didn't update last week or the week before...)
Thanks to minna who sent me feedback. It makes
me so happy to know that someone is reading
this!
    I don't own anything except the copy of
"Great Expectations" I bought yesterday for my
AP prep English class. If you want to sue me
for it, first of all, you're pretty sad, and
second of all, you don't want it anyway because
I have to have sixteen chapters read by Wednesday
and I just started it on Sunday. Good thing I
like to read...


Searching
Part Seven


__________________________________________________________

    "Nephrite! Kunzite!"
    Kunzite, the white-haired man, stood and grinned. "Your highness, I..."
He looked back to where the other man, Nephrite, was still sitting. "Baka!
Stand up!" he hissed.
    "W..what are you two doing here?" Usagi asked.
    "Well, the gist of it is-" the other began.
    Kunzite jabbed his comrade in the ribs. "Talk better then that!"
    "I wasn't using slang! Gist is...well, I don't really know what it is."
Nephrite scrunched up his face in confusion.
    "My point exactly," Kunzite muttered, pushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Serenity, as soon as you healed Jaedite, he came to us, his fellow kings,
and told us what had happened."
    "Wait, where's Zoicite?" Usagi asked, looking over the group.
    "He...hasn't decided to join us. Actually, he doesn't even know that
Neffy and I are here."
    "Don't call me Neffy!" Nephrite protested, annoyed.
    A slow smile began to spread on Usagi's face. "You always used to call
him that just to make him yell. Then Zoi would get jealous and call you a
flirt. You both conspired against him just to make him angry..."
    Kunzite looked back at her and smiled. "Yes, Zoicite is very cute when
he is angry."
    "And gullible," Nephrite mumbled. In return, he was once again elbowed
in the ribs. "What? He is! To think that you were flirting with me!"
    "I don't have *that* bad a taste." Kunzite sniffed, trying to hide a
smile.
    "So you do remember the past!" Usagi said joyfully.
    "Just parts, princess. But we were hoping that perhaps you could help us
out with that."
    "No problem!" She pulled out the crystal she had used the day before on
Jaedite. She was about to hold it over her head when Hotohori reached out
and stopped her, concern evident in his eyes.
    "Usagi, wait, won't you just hurt yourself using that?"
    "Hoto...I have to help my friends. It won't be as bad as it was
yesterday because I won't be battling with Nakago today." He still looked
unconvinced. She smiled and touched his face. "I'll be okay. I promise."
    "Not if I have anything to say about it!"
    A person appeared, floating midway in the air. (Miaka and the others
couldn't figure out if it was a male or a female.)
    "Zoicite..." Usagi said, lowering her crystal as she stared.
    "Moon brat! You've turned Kunzite against me! I will make you pay!"
Zoicite raised his hands for a powerful blast.
    "Zoi! No, don't do it. Serenity is our only hope. Don't you see it?"
    He looked up, surprised. "Kunzite? What are you doing here?"
    "Zoi, we're here to be cleansed of Beryl's dark power. She's had us all
under her control for so long, she made us forget our past and even who our
true friends are. She's used us and hurt us. I don't want that to happen
anymore. Do you?"
    "But..."
    "Zoicite, let me heal you," Usagi said, smiling. "I'm your friend.
Please."
    "If you let her heal you, then you and I can always be together."
Kunzite promised.
    "....okay, but not because of you, y'little brat," he snarled at the
Empress. "Because of my Kunzie..."
    For a moment, Usagi looked slightly sick, but she shook her head and
raised her crystal once again.
    The moment the healing process was over, Zoicite fell to the ground at
Usagi's feet. "Princess! Forgive me! I didn't know..."
    "Don't worry about it, Zoi. What happened is over now." Usagi smiled and
helped her friend up.
    The three ex-kings sat back on the couch.
    "Now that all the weird stuff is over with," Nephrite began. "Let me
tell you why we're here."
    "Before you defeated her all those years ago, Beryl set up a kind of
safeguard, storing energy in case she was destroyed. She had it ready so
that she could heal herself and bring us back. She let the power grow for
years until now. She didn't want to fight you the honest way, so she sent
her weakest youma to the present to distract the Senshi while she and
everyone else went to the past. She wants to take over from here. That way,
she could prevent the births of the Senshi."
    "Wait, I don't understand. If she's here to take over, then why hasn't
she attacked yet? It would be no trouble for her to take over with the kind
of opposition she'd find here," Usagi said thoughtfully.
    "As far as I can tell, we came here the same day you did. Beryl awoke
about a week later. Then there was all the preparations and final planning
she had to do, not to mention the fact that she wasn't exactly in a hurry.
One day, we felt your power signature so she sent Jaedite to investigate it.
He came back saying it was nothing and acting weird. Now in the Dark
Kingdom, no one trusts anyone, but Jaedite told us the truth about what
happened anyway. I remembered how Beryl let me be brutally murdered by a
crazed psychopath-"
    "I am not a crazed psychopath!" Zoicite protested, interrupting him.
    "And Kunzite remembered how Beryl had killed Zoi. Not that I minded that
part but-"
    "Will you quit insulting me already?!"
    "Quit fighting, you two!" Usagi shouted in exasperation.
    Jaedite appeared in the room. He looked around at the solemn faces of
everyone but the insulted Zoicite and sighed dramatically.
    "You mean I missed story time?"
    "Sit," Usagi commanded.
    "Yes, your highness," he obliged.
    "Quit calling me that. I am Usagi or Usagi-chan, got it?"
    "Yes, princess."
    "..." Usagi huffed in annoyance. Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait a
minute. Don't we need to warn the Senshi?"
    "It might be a good idea, but what could they do? It would take way too
much of Pluto's energy sending them all here for a long period of time,"
Kunzite replied.
    "Is there any way that we can get Beryl back to the present?" Usagi
wondered aloud.
    The others stared.
___________________________________________________________

    "Are you sure you can do this?" Jaedite asked skeptically, raising an
eyebrow.
    "Do what? Get us to the time gate? No problem." Usagi tossed a small bag
of yu ye up and down in her hand. "Get Setsuna to let us through without any
complications? Now that'll be a tough one!"
    "I still don't understand what's going on," Miaka said, scratching her
head.
    "I'm going back to my time to talk to my friends." She tossed the yu ye
up one more time then stuffed it somewhere in her dress for safekeeping. Her
eyes lit up suddenly. "Hey! Why don't you all come with me? Miaka, I'm sure
you'd like to see home again, and I definitely know you've wanted everyone
else to see it."
    "How'd you know that?"
    "Because I feel the same way. I want to see how they'd cope with
everything there." She turned to Miaka's Seishi. "So, do you all want to
come to the future with me? It'll be fun."
    They agreed and crowded around her asking questions. Usagi noticed that
the only one who didn't seem exited about the trip was Hotohori. Somehow,
she managed to squeeze away from the others and go to him.
    "Hoto? What's wrong?"
    "Oh? Nothing is wrong, Usagi," he smiled. "I hope you'll have fun on
your trip."
    "My trip? Aren't you coming?"
    "I cannot. You know it as well as I, Usagi. I must stay here and rule
Hong-Nan."
    "No, you don't. You can come, really!"
    "No, I cannot. You don't understand." He looked away from her. "I will
miss you while you are gone," he added softly. She noted that he was keeping
all emotion out of his voice.
    "No, you're the one who doesn't understand!" She pulled his face over so
that he was looking at her. "I happen to be close, personal friends with the
Keeper of Time. We can go to my time and be back without any time passing
here. Trust me. I know you want to go," she grinned slyly. "And I really
want to see what you think of my world. Please?"
    He sighed. "I know it could prove disastrous to the country, but I
cannot resist you."
    "Does that mean you'll go?"
    "Yes, I will go. If only to see you smile."
    In response to that, he was nearly toppled over by her hugging him
fiercely.
    "Okay, everyone, gather around. We need to get in a circle and hold
hands, because I can only teleport all of us if you are touching me or if
you're touching someone who's touching me." She gave her husband's hand a
squeeze and smiled into his eyes. "This'll be fun, I promise. Before we can
go to the present though, we have to stop and see Pluto, because only she
can let us in. So be on your best behavior. Nuriko, Zoicite, that means you.
Oh, and if Puu is a little scary, don't worry about it; that's her job."
    Usagi took a deep breath and decided to keep it a secret that she had
never teleported so many people at once before. It should be okay though;
the kings were there, and she could borrow their power if she needed to.
    She closed her eyes and concentrated.
    Puu, you better not knock my head off when I get there...
    Usagi felt her familiar power flare up, and from behind her eyelids, saw
a flash of light. She opened her eyes to see that she was surrounded by
mist. She let go of the hands she was holding, Hotohori's and Chichiri's,
and stepped forward.
    Suddenly, but not entirely unexpectedly, a staff came out of the mist
and swung at her head. Somehow, she managed to dodge it.
    "Who dares to trespass the Gates of Time!" a voice shouted out.
    Usagi began to laugh. "Oh, please, Puu! Are you still using that same
worn-out line?"
    "Princess?" The same voice that had once sounded so threatening now
sounded bewildered.
    "Well, who else would it be. Sheesh, for someone who's supposed to know
everything, you sure are easy to sneak up on!"
    The mists cleared. Before the group stood a girl with green hair, Sailor
Pluto.
    "Serenity, who are all these people?"
    "Oh...some friends. You recognize, of course, the generals."
    "Of course I do! Are you trying to imply that my memory is bad?"
    "...no."
    "But who are the others?"
    "I decided to take them with me. These people never take vacations."
    Said people had all noticed that she was avoiding telling Pluto who they
were. What they couldn't understand was for what reason.
    "Where have you been, Serenity? I noticed you disappear from our world
some time ago, and I couldn't find you anywhere. What's more, I couldn't
look ahead or behind in the time streams."
    "Mother sent me to ancient China. It's a long story, but I have Naru's
cure and would like to go back now please."
    "And you want to take all those people with you?"
    "Uh-huh. Could you maybe set it up so we have like a house or something,
and maybe some clothes and money."
    "Of course I can! Are you trying to imply that I can't take good care of
my princess?"
    "No. Sorry, Puu; I didn't mean to offend you."
    She twirled her staff. "I know, your highness. Everything is ready. I
will return you to the day after you disappeared, only you will be in Tokyo
instead of China. Anything else?"
    "Oh, when we come back, can you return us to the exact time when we
left?"
    "No problem!" She opened a giant door. "You know the rules, princess.
Walk straight ahead and don't touch anything or you could be lost forever."
    "Thanks, Puu." Usagi turned to leave, taking Hotohori's arm.
    "Wait!" They stopped and turned around. Setsuna peered at the young
emperor. "I know him from somewhere...oh, yes! I think he was in one of your
possible futures. Have you two, by any chance, thought of getting together?"
    Usagi began to laugh. "Puu, I recommend that you look through the time
I've been in as soon as we're gone."
___________________________________________________________

    Miaka and her Seishi looked in awe at the house they arrived in. The
fact that it was extremely big and fancy, despite the fact that aside from
Miaka, none of them had ever been in a modern structure, rendered them all
amazed.
    Usagi squeezed Hotohori's arm and squealed. "Oh! It's so nice! See, I
told you, when 'ol Setsuna does something, she goes all out! This is totally
awesome."
    "This is what people of your world live in?" Hotohori asked.
    "Only the lucky ones," Usagi laughed. Then she looked down at her
clothes. "Oh, I guess we should go and find rooms so we can change. What
we're wearing now...well, let's just say we'll get stared at."
    "Why?"
    "Now, Hoto, I know you're used to people staring at you, but less
beautiful people like the rest of us sometimes find it unnerving," Usagi
laughed as she led him and the others through the hallway.
    "Hey!" Nuriko protested. "I'm beautiful! How dare you say I'm not!"
    "I didn't say you weren't. Ah! The rooms have name tags on them! How
cute!"
    "Usagi, you are not less beautiful; if anything, you are more so than
me..." her husband said quietly so only she could hear.
    "You need your eyes checked. Ah! Here's our room." She opened the door.
"I guess Puu looked at the past. See you all later!" She pulled Hotohori
into the room with her and immediately went to the large dresser and began
pulling out clothes. When she finally settled on something good, she handed
it to him. "Here, put these on, okay? I really wanna see you in a pair of
jeans." She winked and went back to rummaging.
    Hotohori looked at the clothes, shrugged, and began to change. It took
Usagi longer to find what she wanted to wear, but she did and had just
gotten her underclothes on when she heard Hotohori say he was finished. She
turned around.
    And burst out laughing.
___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
To be continued
Sorry the chap is not that long and not much happened,
but this is where I'm stopping for the week. Ciao!