Usagi ran through the woods panting. Where was everyone? What was happening? Something was wrong. The blond pigtailed girl paused, gasping for breath as she broke out of the trees. Then her eyes widened and she screamed as a flash of burning light covered her. Sailor Moon stared at the scene before her stunned. Her friends all lay on the ground bleeding, broken, dead.

“Iie, minna-san,” she mumbled disbelieving. Slowly she stepped forward, a choked sob escaping her throat.

Suddenly she was grabbed from behind by a tall shadowed figure. She screamed again and tried to kick at the figure as she was thrown back into the forest away from her friends.

Four people were standing around her, not letting her rise from the ground. They appeared to be Senshi but Sailor Moon couldn’t make them out as the shadows grew and night fell.

“So this is Sailor Moon,” A harsh voice came.

“Not very strong,” This voice was young, full of childishness, and evil.

“Easy to defeat,” the gentleness of the voice only made it worse.

“The world will be ours,” The four laughed and started to walk away.

“Matte!!” Sailor Moon cried, struggling up to her elbows. “Who are you?”

The four turned back and Sailor Moon sensed their grins. And her eyed widened in horror at what they said.

“Called to serve our king by bringing evil and destruction onto the world.” That was the younger one.

“Called to serve our king by drowning out the peace of life.” Again, the voice was gentle and terrifying.

“Called to serve our king by blowing out happiness and love.” This was the strong, angry one again.

“Called to serve our king by smashing the proper flow of time.” Quiet and smart, the brains of the group, Sailor Moon decided.

“Called to deliver chaos,” The young boy finished. “We are the Opposite Outer Senshi.”

One of them stepped forward, and kicked Sailor Moon in the face.

Usagi awoke with a scream as she fell out of bed.

“Usagi!” Luna cried, jumping down to see if her mistress was all right.

“I-I’m ok Luna,” Usagi assured the black cat then looked up as her mother looked in the door.

“Usagi?” the blue haired lady asked.

“Ahhh,” Usagi scratched her head then picked up Luna. “Luna jumped on me and scared me!” Usagi then broke into nervous laughter until her mother went back to bed.

“What happened Usagi?” Luna demanded as the two got back onto the bed. Glancing at the clock Luna sighed seeing it was barely three am.

“I had a horrible dream Luna, it was so real…” Usagi sighed and got back under the covers as she told Luna about her dream.

Haruka watched uneasily as Michiru and Setsuna tried on clothes. Sighing she looked towards the front of the store where Hotaru was trying on hats. “Her too,” her voice was full of resignation.

“I’ll be outside!” She called, and left the store as the two other women laughed.

Hotaru skipped out of the store, between Michiru and Setsuna almost a half hour later. It was a bright day, very sunny and warm and she narrowed her eyes to see through the glare of the sun. Glancing up she saw both Michiru and Setsuna had sunglasses. “Can we get some sunglasses for me Michiru-momma? Setsuna-momma?” She asked hopefully.

Setsuna shifted her bags to her other hand and laughed as she pushed her long hair back. “Of course Hotaru-chan!” She glanced over Hotaru’s head at a group of men. “Hey isn’t that Haruka?”

Hotaru turned, a smile forming on her face. “Haruka-poppa!” She cried, running over and hugging Haruka. “We get to pick out sunglasses! Help me ok?”

The man she had hugged shifted uneasily, trying to dislodge the clinging girl while his friends snickered.

“Hotaru-chan what are you doing?” Haruka demanded, striding down the street to take her daughter away from the stranger.

“Haruka-poppa?” Hotaru asked, looking between the two, obviously confused.

The two looked exactly alike in build, they even had the same hairstyle and wore almost the same outfit of jeans and a jean jacket and t-shirt. Studying the stranger, Hotaru noticed that the stranger had light blue hair instead of blond.

“Gomen Nasai!” She said, squirming out of Haruka’s arms and to the ground. “I mistook you!”

The man next to the blue haired guy laughed, “This is Breeze! He seems a bit stuck for words at finding a twin!” This man looked like a bodybuilder in his muscle shirt and jeans with all his muscles and his short hair back in a small ponytail.

Breeze shook himself a bit. “Foam, my partner,” he said as Foam slung an arm around his shoulders.

Michiru and Setsuna had come up behind them and Hotaru glanced at them. “His hair is the same colour as yours Michiru-momma!” Michiru smiled and gave a nod although her eyes were slightly troubled.

“Midnight,” The last man said shortly, causing Setsuna to frown. He wore a long black coat covering his outfit, and a thin black scarf was wrapped around the lower half of his face hiding his features even in the heat. His skin was darkly tanned and his black hair was woven into a braid, which fell past his waist.

“Silence!” Foam called, and a boy appeared out of a store. Hotaru drew back shyly as she studied him. He had dark purple hair much like hers that was wild and slightly spiked out to the sides. His purple eyes met hers and he smiled pushing a long rattail braid over his shoulder and out of the way.

The adults all exchanged glances as Silence and Hotaru stared at each other and Hotaru started to blush. After a minute the Senshi excused themselves and pulled Hotaru away down the street.

They easily found the other Senshi and Knights at the arcade and got the story of Usagi’s dream.

“We think it’s the Opposite Outers for sure! I mean any one of them has enough power to give that dream to Usagi-chan!” Sean said from where he was leaning against the wall with his arms around Clarissa who was leaning softly against him with her head on his shoulder.

Minako was showing the Sailor V game off to the other Knights proudly and Usagi was sitting in one of the chairs to the F1 racing game with Mamoru beside her. Ami was studying at the counter with Motoki and Rei and Makoto were arm wrestling nearby.

Hotaru appeared to be dancing on air as she ran over to Usagi. “Usagi-chan! I got Silence’s phone number!” She cried happily.

The Outer Senshi exchanged glances at that. “Who is Silence?” Usagi asked confused.

“We met some people on the street and Silence was the youngest, around Hotaru’s age.” Haruka stated.

“That’s great Hotaru-chan!” Usagi exclaimed, brightening as she hugged Hotaru.

Setsuna smiled. “Why don’t you take Hotaru to get something to eat Usagi?” She offered. “We’ll be along soon.”

“Hai!” Usagi giggled and left the arcade with Hotaru telling her all about Silence.

“Minna we need to talk.” Michiru announced as soon as they were gone and everyone gathered out of earshot of Motoki.

“The group we met looked almost exactly like us,” Setsuna informed them quietly.

“Usagi should know about this as should Hotaru!” Mamoru said.

Haruka looked at him and shook her head. “Do you think she can take it right now?” She asked simply. “And it will hurt Hotaru if we accuse without knowing.

Rei nodded slowly. “After we eat we should all split up and try and find out what we can.”

Flamme laid his hand on Rei’s shoulder. “We’ll do a fire reading.”

“The rest of us will split into groups,” Makoto said punching her hand. “If possible we can heal them and never hurt Usagi and Hotaru.”

After their noisy lunch, they convinced Usagi to take Hotaru to the park to play and Minako, Ange and Mamoru accompanied them. Ami and Frost took off towards the Knights old house with Makoto, Storm and Setsuna. Haruka, Michiru, Sean and Clarissa decided to look around the shopping malls to see if they were still around, while Rei and Flamme headed towards the temple.

Late that night stories were exchanged over the phone, no one had found anything, the house was impenetrable and the fire reading had done nothing. No one at the malls remembered seeing anyone looking like the four men. Together, Knights and Senshi vowed to protect their Princess while trying to protect Hotaru’s heart.

End of chapter twelve.

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