The Lone Sailor Soldier - Part Two
Falling... falling... for a long time, that was all Aqua was aware of. No sound, no sight... nothing but the sensation of falling.
"Where am I... what is this..." Aqua's thoughts came a lot slower than normal, and she had to struggle to hold onto them. But when she completed the sentence in her head, there was an abrupt stop to the weightless falling, and every bone in her body was jarred. Aqua forced her eyes open. Now she was merely floating, in an unearthly plane of darkness. It was all...nothingness?
But she could see herself... Aqua looked down at her hands. It was as if there was a spotlight on her, but she couldn't locate the light source. There was none. Oddly enough, in this realm of blackness, there were no shadows.
Something was coming into view... from the side of her vision. It was then that Aqua realized she wasn't upright, but lying down. And still falling, but slowly. A lake! A clear, dark blue lake in the middle of nowhere. For some reason, irrefutable dream logic told her that water was the pacification she needed.
Aqua stretched out her arms... turning so she was falling face-first towards the water... closer... closer... then, just before her fingertips touched the glassy blue-black surface, something pulled her by the back of her neck, and she was speeding along sideways, faster than before.
"No!!" Aqua cried in dismay, the water skimming past her, still a breath's width away from her. "No!!" She was leaving the lake now, plunging back into the oppressive darkness.
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"No!!" A heavy weight. Solidness beneath her. But soft... and she could breathe. "Where..."
May opened her eyes again, not realizing she'd ever closed them. This place was familiar... it was her bedroom, back on Earth. Back in the past. It was night time. She sat up. This situation seemed familiar, too... why did she feel so confused? May looked at the clock. It was two in the morning, not night. She should get some sleep, she had school today... why did thinking that feel odd?
Because... because... May stood up from her bed and walked to the full-length mirror mounted on the back of her door. She looked at her reflection, greyish in the moonlight. She was wearing her nightgown. But... that wasn't right. She was last wearing a different night gown... royal clothing... because she was in the Moon Palace!
It was all coming back to her now. She'd been at the Moon Palace, back in her own time. The Element Senshi had completed their mission back in the past. And no - she wasn't last wearing her nightgown. She'd been wearing her Sailor fuku.
And she'd been wearing her Sailor fuku because they'd been in a battle. Insect monsters. The Moon Kingdom. That mysterious being!! It was the reason she was here. It opened that portal!
May dove for the phone on her bedside table, and dialed Jessica's number, even though it was nearly three in the morning. It rang a couple times, then there was a strange clicking sound.
"I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service," said a recording. "Please check the number and try again, or dial zero for operator."
"What?" May said to the recording. That couldn't be possible. Jessica was her best friend - they talked on the phone so often she had memorized her number and was able to say it backwards. Still, she dialed again, and again, and each time got the same recording.
"Stupid phone!" May hung up and flopped down on her bed, feeling defeated.
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May hadn't been able to sleep after that. She just sat in bed until it was time to go to school, then got dressed dutifully and left the house.
The streets looked slightly different from the way she remembered them, but May just accounted that to being too used to the Moon Kingdom. Two girls were running towards her, giggling. May stepped aside to let them pass. The girl in front had a very strange hair style... long blond hair tied in two pigtails with big round balls on top. Like tennis balls...
"Neo Queen Serenity?" May blurted, and the girl skidded to a halt, making the other girl, who had long blond hair tied in a red bow, crash into her and fall down.
"What did you say?" It was the Queen! But... younger. Much younger.
"What are you doing in the past?" The girl gave her an odd look. May tried again. "Queen Serenity, it's me, May!"
"I... er... don't know any Queen Serenity, gomen," Young Serenity scratched the back of her head, and glanced at her friend. The other girl shrugged. "Sorry, but I've gotta go... I'm late for school." She waved, and the two ran off, leaving May standing on the sidewalk, stunned.
It was definitely strange, but it didn't take long for May to figure it out... she wasn't just in the past... she was in Neo Queen Serenity's past! This must be before she found out she was the Moon Princess. But... May turned around to look at her house. Her Earth home... that was her past. Much after the time of Princess Serenity...
Even though she was standing right out in the open, May took out her transformation locket and opened it. Each of the Element Senshis' lockets gave them the ability to communicate with each other. "Jessica... Sailor Wind! It's May! I just saw the weirdest thing! ... ... ...
"... Sailor Wind?"
~Continued in Part Three~
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Sailor Aqua's Realm /
On to Chapter Three-->
