Guardian of Dimensions - Chapter 8: Discoveries
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Minako was walking through the park,
enjoying the nice spring day and thinking about
the newest, but already very popular, idols, a
group called the Three Lights, when a child ran
right into her, and they both fell down from the
impact.
"I'm sorry, miss" a quiet girl's voice
spoke. "I wasn't looking where I was going, I'm
afraid."
"Oh, that's alright" Minako said cheerily,
getting up. "I used to do that as a child too. I
was always running into people."
The little girl was about to reply, when
a man called her. "Hotaru! What are you doing 
there? Come back here!"
"I'm coming, papa!" she called back. "I
apologize again for what has happened" she said to
Minako with a small bow. Then she ran away, 
unaware of the fact that the blonde was staring at
her.
The senshi of Venus stood frozen for a
second, then she shook herself and reached for her
communicator. She had to inform the others as soon
as possible.
***
Ten minutes later, at the Hikawa shrine, 
the shocked Minako told her friends what had 
happened. Needless to say, the girls weren't less 
shocked to hear it.
"Are you sure it was really Hotaru?" asked
an incredulous Rei.
Minako nodded. "It _was_ her. And, judging
from how tall she is, she must be at least six
years old."
"But that's impossible! She was reborn as
a baby just one year ago! How can she possibly
have aged this fast?" states Ami, while punching
furiously on the keys of her minicomputer to try
and get some answers.
"Well" Himeko spoke calmly "the girl's 
probably trapped in a dimensional pocket."
"A dimensional WHAT?"
"Pocket. It's sort of like what happened
to me and the guardians while we were sealed away.
We aged more slowly than we would have in this 
dimension. Infact, even if we should be thousands 
of years old, we're really only seventeen, because
time was slower in the dimension we were in. This
was because the Queen knew that on my thirteenth
birthday I would achieve my birthright and become
the guardian of dimensions, and she obviously
wanted to be long dead and buried when I got free.
But I couldn't come here right then, so I put a
mind block spell on the guardians, replacing their
old memories with fake ones. When the time of their
thirteenth birthday came, I took away their henshin
sticks and tied the memories to them: this way, when
the time came for us to get back here, I just gave
them their items, and they remembered."
"No, wait a second" Ami said. "I'm not 
following you. Why did you have to do that to your
guardians?"
"Because if they were to grow up with those
memories, they would have wanted revenge for what
the Queen had done. They'd have forced me to come
back here at the wrong time, and it would have
spoiled everything."
"This is another thing I don't understand"
Ami said. "Why couldn't you just come back when
your thirteenth birthday came?"
"For a very good reason. You see, for Haruka
to recognize me as her twin and thus remember all
that happened in the past we have to be both of
the same age. Since a day in that dimension is more
or less a year in this one, my thirteenth birthday
was exactly 1460 years ago." She paused, letting
the concept sink in. "You understand now?"
Ami nodded, at a loss of words.
"Now, back to Hotaru. When she died and was
reborn, this fact broke the dimensional continuity.
As a result, she was trapped in this invisible
dimensional pocket that causes her to age faster
than normal. She will also awaken again soon - next
year if all happens normally, but--" she stopped,
and her eyes clouded over for a second. She shook
herself and stood up suddenly.
"What is it, Hime-san?" Usagi asked.
Himeko had already ran out of the door, with
Haruka and their guardians following closely behind.
"A monster is attacking in the park!" she answered.
Michiru and Setsuna bolted out, while the
Inners exchanged a confused glance before getting
up and running out as well.
"Hey, Hime-san" Rei said, panting. "We
could have transformed back at the temple."
"We could have", Himeko answered. "But not
unless you wanted your grandfather to see us."
"You mean he was spying us?" Rei almost
shrieked. "Why that...that..."
"Lecherous old man?" Makoto supplied.
"YES!!!"
Himeko suddenly stopped, right in front of the
park entrance. A lot of people were running out of 
it, amidst screams of "a monster!"
"Looks like we can't transform here either"
Haruka pointed out. "Now what?"
"We go in there" Himeko said, pointing to a
nearby phone booth.
All the others facefaulted. "We can't 
transform in there! We're not Clark Kent!"
"That's not what I had in mind. Follow me."
Himeko then stepped into the booth and disappeared.
The other senshi stared in shock. Then Himeko's head
appeared, apparently out of nowhere. "Well?" she
said impatiently. "What are you waiting for? I can't
keep this portal open forever, you know."
***
Two minutes later, the senshi were transformed 
and ready to battle.
"You could have said you had opened a portal 
for us!" Jupiter complained.
Sunaru grinned. "Yes, but it was more fun this
way, wasn't it?"
Titania sighed. "To think that I've spent with
her basically my whole life and still couldn't guess 
what she had in mind..."
"Yeah" the other guardians agreed.
Sunaru shrugged. "Well, let's take care of
this monster, shall we?"
The senshi stepped out of the altenate 
dimension to see that the monster was chasing around
two people: one was Hotaru, and the other was a young
girl with wavy shoulder-lenght auburn hair that the
inners instantly recognized as Naru.
"I wonder why the thing has chosen them as an
energy source" Mercury said to herself.
"Probably because their energy level is the
highest, since they're both dormant senshi..." Uranus
answered distractedly.
"What?" Moon shrieked. "You mean Naru-chan is
a senshi too?"
"Well, yes" Sunaru answered "she's the 
reincarnation of the younger sister of Beryl..."
"Of WHO??"
Sunaru rolled her eyes. "Look, let's discuss
this later, ok? The faster we take that monster out 
the better."
Meanwhile, the monster had succeeded in cornering
Hotaru and Naru and was closing in to them, preparing to 
feed itself of their energy, when suddenly there was a 
flash of light: the monster was thrown back and 
disintegrated, and the senshi stared, shocked, at its two
would-be victims.
Hotaru had aged again, returning to the age of
13 she had in her previous incarnation. She was 
glowing a violet aura, and the Saturn symbol shone
clearly on her forehead; Naru was surrounded by a
golden-brownish aura, and the symbol of Earth, a circle
with a cross in it, was bright on her forehead. Henshin
sticks appeared from nowhere in front of them: the two
girls grabbed them, and in an instant they were clothed
in senshi fukus, Hotaru's being violet in the skirt,
collar, choker, tiara gem and brooch and bronze in the
bows, whilst Naru's was brown and golden and resembled
more the one Sunaru wore than the others.
A voice spoke out from behind them: "The circle
of senshi is complete."
The senshi turned around to see...Queen Serenity?
The past Moon Queen smiled and continued: "The
time for you has come to remember all of your past. The
Prayer Tower has held your memories for you through the
centuries, waiting for a time when you would be ready to
get them back. That time is now."
"The Prayer Tower?" Mercury asked.
"It's the crystal monolyth that the Moon people
used as a sanctuary - hence, the name of Prayer Tower",
Uranus answered. "It was situated in the center of the
Moon Palace, and it's the only thing that remains of it
now."
Queen Serenity seemed surprised. "You remember
that?"
"I already got all my memories back. And besides,
I went there almost everyday..." She didn't say what she
prayed for. It was implicit.
"You still haven't forgiven me." It was a 
statement, not a question.
Uranus simply averted her eyes, not saying 
anything.
The Queen lowered hers. "I see" she said sadly.
"So we're going to the Moon?" Moon said excitedly.
The Queen nodded. "Artemis, Luna and Selene are
already there."
"Selene?" Neptune asked. "Who is that?"
The Queen smiled secretively. "You'll see."