"To Every Season" Chapter 5 : (PG) Time to Moon Dance... By Alina alinasan@yahoo.com Same disclaimers as always (don't sue! Please--purely for noncommercial purposes) * * * * * Ion prepared to throw his "moon thorn" attack...but was stopped...A hand was pulling him into a whorl of energy...He was about to throw the attack back on this interfering henchman of the wicked one, when he realized he recognized the voice saying "Ion, this way." He looked...it was Susannah...the missing Senshi of Time...Though she was not in Sailor uniform, but wore a simple dark dress with a silver key around her neck. "Something has happened to the time line, and we won't be safe here....quick, before someone notices..." Without thinking he stepped through. The whorl almost snapped shut behind him. "Wait, the others..."He said in surprise. She shook her head darkly...."I cannot remove so many people from the time line." "Cannot or will not?" He felt his anger center on her, eroding his happiness at seeing her again ."My grandmother is ther--you were her closest friend...how can you let her die?" His eyes burned into her. She didn't answer, as she fought to quell her own rising emotions...All she had thought about was how could she let *him* die? How she had longed for the day when she could see him again, as an equal, with no further duties, for the day when the pull between them could become stronger...and then that day had ended every hope of happiness that had sustained her for two millenia and even through death and rebirth. The moon kingdom had a way of protecting itself...but him? What gaurantee did she have that in an altered time line he would still exist? "I know...and I have violated my duty by bringing you here...but....." "Then why did you do this?" He accused her.... " I need to go back and fight....and die with honor if that is what is needed....Let me go! " She didnt move. "If you don't, you will be held responsible for her death...I am the King of the Crystal Millenium now, and I command you...." ." Chokingly, she sobbed " I couldn't live with myself if I were responsible for yours. I'd rather die." His eyes narrowed, as he spat out "And you can live with yourself being responsible for the death of thousands of others?" "Ion, wait...I'm just relying on my faith in the MoonKingdom...I'm no longer a sailor, and I have no power to fight...I don't know what this threat is, or how it happened even. I've gotten used to having a vague idea of the future....because it was history, but now....my knowledge has eneded with my duties as SailorPluto..." "Well, I have my kingdom to protect. My duties are my life...Keep your protections for someone else...." He glared at her..."Give me the key" "I cannot...it is the spare key to time...and only those chosen can use it properly." She was backing away. "Well what could go wrong?" He said..."I just want to appear a second or two before *it* attacks, so we can prevent it!" "But you can't..." She said...how did she explain the difficulty of such precise jumps of time...she had barely learned how to do it when she had the Staff...and without it, this would be impossible..."If you even try...there's no telling *where* we could end up" "We?" He said...Suddenly a thought hit him..."Of course Susannah...but we must try...I beg you please..." He moved forward, slowly, hands down, no longer in a fighting stance..."I was distraught earlier. You're right, quick action is not the best route. " "Oh Ion...I'm sorry...I know...but we must think, and plan how we will fix this rather than acting emotionally and ineffectively." "No, it is I that should apologize..." He smiled, and moved a corner of her hair away from her eyes...He found it hard to reconcile that this was a grown up version of Anna...who was a child just a few seconds ago...but if so, maybe he still could use her crush to his advantage...."Anna, I ask you as a friend, we must do something." slowly he placed his hands on her shoulders... "You're all grown up, into a very beautiful woman....Is it really you?" He leaned a little closer... "Yes Ion...it is... I" She blushed. Involuntarily, her eyes closed.. She gasped as she felt the chain around her neck break, and the time key slipped into Ion's hands...he vannished with a whorl of energy... Despair surrounded her..."Oh Ion, what have you done?" * * * Ion landed, none too gracefully, with a thud...He was staring at someone who looked almost exacctly like him... The man was eating some small fish and rice dish, and as his jaw dropped, the strands slowly sprinkled to the ground....The dark blue eyes fixed on him, and immeditaly the man's body shifted as if ready for attack. Ion need to disarm this man fast...he started to do so millitarily, but quickly realized that was not the way to go...Sometimes the truth was the best policy, in more ways than one! "Um, hi grandpa...there's been a little problem in the future and we need your help." Ion hoped that would get to the point...He still wasn't sure why he'd ended up here...he'd just desperately been thinking that he needed to help...and this is where he'd ended up. "Not again....Just when I got used to the idea of Reenie..." He groaned...and quickly began to pick up the fallen pieces.... "So...." He started to ask a question, but realized that as in most cases it was better not to know the future. "How do we start? Besides I suppose getting SailorMoon..." He was already picking up the phone to dial. He wished they had an instant telepathic link for emergencies that did *not* involve danger to themselves or other sailors...Though Serena's dad had long since gotten used to the idea of him as his daughter's "steady" boyfriend, he still didn't like to observe them spending too much time together..."out of sight, out of mind or he'll go out of *his* mind, " Serena's warm hearted, though frequently exasperated mother had told him once. Luckily he recognized the (to others) squeaky shrill voice on the other end...to him, it was the sweetest sound in the world "Hello, my love....I'm afraid I am calling because duty is calling us...to the future." He moved the phone as he heard a gasp "Reenie...is she ok? Is she here?" He didn't know one way or the other.... "I don't know...but this time, the visitor is her..." Ion motioned with a headshake to stop the information flow "um, well, emmissary...We need to get a scout meeting together right now." "I'll tell everyone else, and we'll be at the Cherry Hill Temple in 1/2 an hour." She blew a kiss into the reciever "Later" He sighed...he couldn't wait til she finnished growing up...17 was much better than she was at 14, and though she'd grown in the three years they'd known each other there was still much of a child in her...and much that was far older than her years. * * * * "Where are we?" Susannah was confused, as she found herself in the void. "In the space void, I guess...I came back to get you so we could undo what I did..." "And what did you do?" She eyed the other girl...she looked very familar, despite her odd hairstyle of two buns somewaht centered on the back of her head, as most of it fell loosely.... "I shot the moon princess...ok?" She sighed...the worst was over, she'd said it. "I didn't think it would do anything... " The stare on the other girl's face raked through her..."Quit staring at me as if I'd grown horns...I'm trying to fix things..." "And *how* are we supposed to do that?" Anna furrowed her brows... "I've been training to use my powers, and understand the origins of the Moon Kingdom for a year...but I've learned nothing about how to stop a renegade sailor." "You need to jump back to the second you left the time stream, and stop me from shooting..attack if you have to I suppose, .I can't, because, I'm not exactly sure why not...too much paradox maybe.." "I don't even know how to attack anything yet!" Susanna said.. "Wow, that was like the first thing I learned." Susanna thought that was a mistake. "What have you been doing with your time" Miaka questioned.. "Never mind that now, though, You just whisper "dead scream" and take aim with the staff. The rest happens naturally. A huge purple ball of energy sweeps out and crushes the target...it's pretty cool." "Except when you destroy my queen!" "Um, yeah, and its not polite to keep bringing that up, ok...I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude here..." Miaka tapped her foot..."Go on then...go fix this, so I can stop being in trouble." Susannah frowned..she didn't like this...being a mistress of time was more confusing than she thought... * * * * Raye glared at Serena, as bounded in, late as usual. "Serena, how can you be late to a meeting that *you* called?" She muttered... "And you're also late in returning my latest comic book..." "Oh sorry Raye...I brought them though..um, sorry I got ice cream on them..." Serena smiled...Raye found it hard to stay angry at her too long...she just kept thinking back to the day when Galaxia had almost conquered...Its hard to stay angry at someone you love so much, you died for them...and would die for again. But with Serena, it was really hard for Raye *not* to get annoyed. "So should we call the Outer Scouts as well? We still need to work on this teamwork thing...You know, the team that works together gets more done before three am than most teams do all day..." Mina said Lita stifled a giggle, as she set the basket of muffins she'd made on the table. "I don't think that's right Mina." Mina smiled..."Well, who cares, it was an army commercial slogan anyway...I just think we may need there help." Ami nodded. She was dilligently pushing the keys on her computer, " Ion shouted "No...don't". The girls all swivled around to look at Darien and his ....twin? The guy was virtually an identical match...about the same age, height, build, and hair cut..but wait, his eyes were a golden amber... "He reminds of my old" Lita started..."Friend serena's boyfriend.." She was shocked.....Raye, Ami and Mina were shocked... Serena considered this more calmly... "Relatives dear?" She said... "It's not important...really...the future is endangerd enough...Queen Serenity is in terrible trouble, in the Crystal Millenium..." He said. "Which Queen Serenity" Everyone gasped, and looked at Serena who was growing pale "Oh, Reenie..." "When she was a child, she went by that name...."Ion said, evenly. "We must do something." Serena grabbed her crystal. "It's time to transform, and call Pluto..." "NO you can't..." Ion paused. "She's the problem..." "WHAT?" Everyone exclaimed. "She may be working with the enemy. The first enemy that attacked used the same power as her, and was a sailor...then she appeared and tried to stop me from helping...only by tricking her was I able to come back in time. She must not know that we are travelling through time..." "And how do we pull that off?" Raye said "Time is her element...she'll know if we're travelling...you can't hide from her." "With my time key..." He said, holding up the small silver key "This should be able to do the trick..."