Sailor Moon Millenium - The Rise of the Stellar Scouts Chapter # 10 - A New Acquaintance : A Dire Dinner Disappointment - Created May 22nd, 2000 By K.W. Isenor (sailor_sun_@hotmail.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jessica arose to a sitting position in her bed, she was breathing heavily, a bead of sweat dripped off her forehead to the blankets below. Startled by Jessica's sudden movements Kevin and Eclipse turned to face the red head. "What's wrong Jessica? Is everything okay?" Kevin asked concerned as he placed an arm of comfort over her shoulders. She nodded her head 'yes' in reply. "Well what happened? Did you have a bad dream?" Eclipse asked as he jumped up onto the bed settling down at Jessica's feet. Him and Kevin continued to look on somewhat baffled waiting for an answer. Jessica wiped her brow with her arm, he breathing had slowed down to the normal rate. She looked up from her lap to her two close friends. "I'm fine, I just had another dream." Jessica looked back down at her lap, she held the blanket in her hands nervously. "Was it like you other dreams? With the four female figures?" Kevin moved from the cot to sit beside Jessica, he cradled her in his arms. She nodded her head slowly. "Well do you want to tell us about it?" Kevin asked as he stroked Jessica's long hair. "Yeah I guess I remember it good enough to tell you about it, I might leave something's out but nothing too big." She quietly said as she looked up into Kevin's blue eyes. "It all started off like all of the others . . ." *^*^*^*^* Jessica sat on a small stone bench, a willow tree grew beside her, it's long branches reached down towards the purple water, which sat at Jessica's feet. The water was still, everything around her was still. In the breeze a small yellow flower drifted by in front of her face. It was one of the star shaped flowers that the Daystar Knight would give her, they were called a Sunrose. Her head turned in the direction the flower continued to be blown. She arose from where she sat and followed the small flower. It led her to a corridor, it reached down as far as the eye could see. The small flower blew down the corridor, almost disappearing into the shadows Jessica began to run towards it. She ran and she ran, until she was stopped by a voice. The voice called her name, but not her name in which she was known to her family, but the name in which only the Sailor Scouts knew of. The voice called out again, "Princess Cassandra Solaris." She looked around startled. "Who's there?" She asked as she looked around, she did not feel in danger, but was somewhat confused. "Follow the flower." With those words the flower appeared in front of her, it started moving down the corridor at an incredible speed, it was hard for Jessica to keep up with it. The corridor stopped suddenly, she was now in a garden. Before her stood a maze entrance. The female voice spoke again. "Make your way through the maze and all the questions which you want to know will be answered." Jessica stepped forward into the entrance, the green walls towered over her. She looked up, then to either side, there was a path to the left and a path to the right. Without any hesitation she took the path to the right. After walking around for what seemed hours she came to a dead end, a breathy sigh escaped her lips as she leaned up against the wall, which would not allow her to go any further, she fell backwards. The dead end was an illusion, she had made her way to the middle of the maze. She looked up to this large golden fountain. The water that poured from the top was purple, just like the lake. She slowly walked forward and looked into the purple water. Her image appeared in the water. "You have passed the test." Jessica continued to look in the water, her clothes disappeared that she was wearing and formed into her princess gown, four female figures appeared around her. She quickly looked up startled, there was no one around her. "Who, who are you?" Princess Cassandra asked, as she looked around frantically for the female figures she had just seen in the reflection of the water. "That I can not tell you, but in time you will know who we are, for we are much like you, warriors, princesses, but unlike you we haven't been awakened. So that is the task that we give you, for you are the only one that can help us." The voice faded off, and around the fountain four figures slowly appeared, three of the four figure faces and bodies were covered in a shadow. But there was on of the figures, which resembled Alissa. She wore a long turquoise gown. Princess Cassandra studied the gown with her eyes. "yes I am Princess Alissa . . ." "Can't you tell me anything that can help me?" Princess Cassandra looked to each of the female figures, which stood around her in turn. "No we can't, that is for you to find out, we have given you the task, now you must complete it." The female figure to Princess Cassandra's near right spoke softly. The figures then began to disappear. "No wait, you can't leave me wondering like this." Princess Cassandra looked up into the light purple sky above. Everything around her began to turn black, she could see the outlines of shadows which surrounded her. An icy wind picked up moving Princess Cassandra's hair. "You can't let this happen!" Princess Cassandra looked in the direction of the voice, she soon started to recognize some of her surroundings she was in the Tokyo Park. She looked around, everything around her was dark, no lights from the near by building's shone, not even the pale silver light of the moon could be see. The princess looked around, towards the sun, there was no light there. She then felt herself flying to the sun, passing by the planets, they too were dark, she landed on the sun, everything was dead. Nothing lived, death and a cold bleak area surrounded her. "What happened?" She asked herself as she turned around in circles. Before herface the faces of Kasumi, Kurai-ki and a mysterious clocked face passed by. Her eyes grew wide as a face of a dog like creature passed by, then finally a female face. "To awaken the five points of a star . . .. the sun shines it's brightest . . . . . a step forward . . . . . a step backward . . . . . day becomes night . . . . . a battle of the stars." Princess Cassandra stared at the visions in her mind, everything began to fade she couldn't even see her hands before her face. The dream ended . . . *^*^*^*^* "And that is what happened." Jessica cuddled into Kevin's chest, he continued to stroke her hair. He gently kissed her head and lay her down in her bed, he tucked the blankets around her frail body. "Sleep now, and we will deal with the dream tomorrow." Eclipse tried to protest with Kevin, but Kevin gave the dog a look to say 'not now'. The dog curled up into a ball at the foot of Jessica's bed. Kevin gently kissed Jessica's forehead and smiled. "Sleep now." He kissed her once more but this time lightly on the lips. Kevin crawled under the blankets and slowly drifted back off to sleep. Jessica lay there, still thinking in her head. The words of the stranger repeated over and over in her head. "To awaken the five points of a star . . . . the sun shines it's brightest . . . . . a step forward . . . . . a step backward . . . . . day becomes night . . . . . a battle of the stars." 'What could it mean?' * * * * * Jessica sat in her Math classroom quiet as the teacher went over the work which would be done that day. Jessica sat there gazing out the window trying to make some sense from the words in her dream. She noticed that the classroom went quiet, she turned to see her teacher looming over her desk, hands on the hips and a cross look upon her usual cheerful face. "Jessica, could you please answer the question." Mrs. Crow asked as she tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. Jessica looked up to the board and searched for the question that the teacher was working on. A long pause of silence went on, until Mrs. Crow spoke up again. "Out to the hall Jessica, you can spend the rest of the period out in the hall, and take this sheet with you." Mrs. Crow walked up to the front of the classroom and picked a sheet off of the desk. "You can work on this out in the hall, and you must figure out how to do by yourself." She set the sheet on Jessica's open notebook. "You must have the whole sheet done for tomorrow!" Jessica got up collected her books in her arms, swung her half-empty book bag over her shoulder and walked out of the class. The door was shut quickly behind her. She slouched down onto the cold surface of the hall floor. She opened her notebook on her lap and read over the instructions carefully, after only a few minutes she was frustrated with the work, she slid it into her book bag and sat there waiting for the bell to ring, which wouldn't be for another twenty minutes. The silence of the empty hall was broken as a classroom door from across the hall was opened. A teacher screamed at a girl as she slid out into the hall. The girl stood around the same height as Jessica. She had straight soft green hair that went down just past her shoulders. She didn't have bangs, for her hair was all one length. She had soft green eyes that have the look of innocence in them. Her skin has a bit of a tan to it. The girl slid to the floor and began to sob. Jessica sat there not sure weather or not to talk to the girl. "What's wrong?" She finally asked. The green haired girl looked up, she quickly wiped away some tears. "Oh nothing, really." the girl choked back a sob. "I'm Brooke Rodgers, you must be one of the exchange students if I'm not mistaken." She spoke barely over a whisper. "Well you could say that, I used to live in Japan then I got moved over here because of a job that my dad got offered." Jessica smiled at the shy girl. "Oh and my name is Jessica Walker." She added. "So Brooke, do you want to come and eat lunch with me and my other friend Alissa?" Jessica asked. "Sure." The green head replied softly as a small smile spread across her face. "Will your friend mind?" She asked quietly as she started to feel more comfortable around her new friend. "No she won't mind, she likes meeting new people, and she always has a smile on her face, she can never be in a bad mood! She is just that type of person." Jessica stated. The two girls talked for the rest of the period, Brooke was even able to help Jessica with her math problem. Their conversation ended as the bell rang signaling break. "See you out back on the bench at lunch!" Jessica waved over her shoulder as she made her way through the crowded halls towards her locker. She wasn't paying too much attention to where she was heading and ran right into an open locker. "Oh sorry." A smiling face said as he turned to face Jessica. It was Jason from her fencing class. He reached down and helped Jessica up from where she sat, in a jumbled up pile of hair and books. "It was my fault." Jessica said embarrassed as she collected her books. Jason knelt down to help clean up the mess. Jason shook his head 'no'. "It was, I never pay any attention to where I'm going!" Jessica said with a quick giggle. 'Oh great now I'm turning out to be the next Serena.' With that Jessica smiled inside. "Oh did you hear about the competition? It is happening in a couple of weeks, and Lou is planning to train us separately from the rest of the class today because we are his two best students." Jason said proudly. "So let me get this straight, I'm going to be stuck training with you!" Jessica joked. Jason sighed and rolled his eyes. "Oh now come on it can't be that bad!" Jason said as he closed his locker. "Well we will just have to wait and see won't we?" Jessica turned and began to leave. "But I warn you now . . . your going to get your butt kicked by me!" Jessica smiled once more then went down the hall almost at a run to get to her locker before the bell rung. * * * * * "Now my pet, what shall we reek havoc on today? Something fun." Kurai-ki patted the snake's head. "Now that we know that the Sailor Scouts are no match for you we can defiantly get the Heart Stones that will make our collection." The snake hissed and nodded its head in agreement. "Go, we will destroy the Sailor Scouts and take that Heart Stone from the blonde girl, and I'm willing to bet that Sailor Sun and her Knight carry two others." Kurai-ki nodded his head to himself. "Alright my pet where do you want to attack today?" The snake looked from Kurai-ki to a holographic map that was presented before them. The snake went from Kurai-ki's hands and slithered over around the 3-D map of the city. It stopped and wrapped itself around a building. "So this is where?" He asked. The snake bobbed its head up and down in agreement. "So there it shall be." * * * * * Jessica and Alissa made their way over to the bench out around the back of the school. They sat down, a soft smiling girl soon greeted them. Jessica waved her to sit down. "Alissa this is Brooke, Brooke this is Alissa." Jessica introduced her two friends to each other. "So Alissa were did you come here from?" Brooke asked quietly as she took a bit out of her tuna sandwich. "Scotland." Alissa replied. "Oh I have always wanted to go there myself, it is such a beautiful country!" Brooke said as she began to feel at ease around her new acquaintance. The three girls continued the day talking about their homes, Brooke has lived in the same place for her entire life, a two-minute walk from the school. They got talking about almost everything and everything. "Hey have you guys heard about the recent attacks being done on the city and the Sailor Senshi that would stop the evil?" Brooke asked. "I have never heard of something so weird, I think that it is all a big hoax. Jessica and Alissa both got filled with anger, but they decided to quickly change to topic. "Well I wouldn't know about that because my little brother was attacked and it wasn't a hoax, he was badly hurt." Jessica stated. "Well maybe your right, maybe there is such thing as Sailor Scouts, fighters for love and justice in Nova Scotia." Brooke took another bit out of her sandwich finishing it off. * * * * * "So how was fencing practice?" Kevin and Eclipse asked as they sat out on the back deck drinking from their glass cups of ice tea. Jessica took a little while to respond. "Well I found out that I will be in a competition two weeks from today. And in that competition each of the districts have a pair of two, they both have to make it up to the finial's in order to participate." Jessica stirred the ice tea in her glass with her straw. "Well who is your partner? Do you think he will do good?" Kevin asked as he placed an arm around his girlfriend's shoulder. "Oh yeah, Jason is really good, we are about evenly matched at our skill level." "So what's wrong? You two have a really good chance at pulling out on top and bringing home to gold." Eclipse said reassuringly. "Well the thing is that I can't stand Jason, he is so irritating! He always bugs me. Sometime I feel like punching him in the face." Jessica stated as she took a drink of her ice tea through the red and white straw. "I think someone has a crush on you Jessica." Kevin said teasingly, as he playfully nudged Jessica's shoulder. Jessica shook her head quickly. "No it isn't that, it is just that he is so immature. Unlike you Kevin." Jessica stared up into Kevin's eyes lovingly for a few moments. "Hey Kevin why don't we go out on a date tonight?" Jessica suddenly asked. "Really? You want to go out on a date?" Kevin asked a bit shocked and startled by Jessica's sudden question. "Yeah sure, why not." He looked down at his watch. We had better go get ready! We can still go out for some supper if you want." Kevin suggested. "Alright, meet back down here in twenty minutes!" Jessica said as she ran into the house to get ready. A wide grin was across her face. * * * * * Jessica and Kevin walked into the restaurant. Jessica wore a black dress that went to just above her knees, over her shoulders she wore a small red coat. Kevin wore a long black coat, with a green shirt and blue jeans. "A table for two." Kevin requested. The waiter walked them over to a window seat, there they sat and browsed through their menus. Jessica gazed out the window and saw Brooke walking along the street all alone. She tried to get her new friends attention by waving her hand fiercely. Her new friend didn't see Jessica waving, she walked around the corner of a furniture store. Shortly after screams were heard. 'No.' Jessica thought to herself as she sat there. 'Why now?' She asked herself. Kevin looked up from his menu to see a chair being flung out the window. "Why don't we go to thew washroom to wash up before eating?" Kevin suggested. Jessica nodded her head and got up from the table. She slipped into the washroom. No one was in there, she held out her transformation brooch and quickly called for Alissa. "We need your help down at the Metro Furniture Store." Alissa's voice could be heard in the other end. "I'll be there in five." The conversation ended as Jessica held her transformation brooch above her head. And called out the phrase. "SOLARIS STAR . . . . . POWER!" Jessica then closed her eyes. The Solaris Medallion disappeared into many little orange and gold sparkles, this caused her body to shimmer the colors of the sparkles as they fell onto her body. Then her silver tiara appeared with the red jewel in the center. The jewel then emitted a blinding flash of orange light that surrounded Jessica giving her the feeling of the bright morning sun on her body. Then a swirl of orange and gold sparkles warped around her body moving upward as it spun around her body. The body suit of her uniform then appeared. And the bows came out of the heart in the center of her chest. Sparkling golden rings then went around her feet forming boots. Then more sparkling rings went around her arms forming her gloves. Soon afterward the golden sparkles went around her waist forming her skirt. At that point there was a large burst of golden sparkles that flew up into the air, when the sparkles fell to the ground Sailor Sun was then revealed fully transformed. She did her transformation pose. She stood there with one hand across her forehead and the other across her stomach with her legs together. Her long red hair then blew to the side. Sailor Sun knocked out the window and ran out into the street, the Daystar Knight soon greeted her, and together they ran across the street into the furniture store. "Alright where are you?" Sailor Sun asked as she walked through the front door, a green fungus covered the store. Sailor Sun walked carefully across the floor with the Daystar Knight at her side. "Ha you stupid humans, come back for another round with my sweet pet?" Kurai-ki appeared in front of them. Around his arm the snake was coiled. The small black snake slithered down Kurai-ki's body and landed on the floor. It started to grow in size. It grew until it was the same serpent monster as they fought the other day. "Oh great, just what we didn't need." Sailor Pollux said as she stepped into the store behind Sailor Sun and the Daystar Knight. "Hey glad all of you could make it!" Kurai-ki said cheerfully. "Now go get them boy." Kurai-ki commanded the snake to attack. It hissed loudly and lunged at the three senshi. All moving in different directions to dodge the serpents two heads and long pointy tail. "We have to find its weakness! And now!" Sailor Sun said as she jumped off the wall doing a flip over the serpent's body. "This monster has no weakness!" Kurai-ki laughed as he watched the battle that his pet was winning. Sailor Sun got read to do one of her attacks. But was struck down before being able to call out the phrase. She was flung into the far wall, as she hit the fungus wrapped around her, making her unable to move, she struggled to get free from the slimy mass that held her so tightly. Meanwhile the Daystar Knight and Sailor Pollux were having their hands full trying to dodge the attacks. The Daystar Knight ran up the serpent's back and tried to stab his saber into the monsters back. Nothing happened, the wound healed instantly. "What are we going to do?" He asked, Sailor Pollux couldn't reply for the Daystar Knight soon suffered the same fate as Sailor Sun, they were both being held tightly to the wall by the same slimly mass of green fungi's. Kurai-ki's laughter rang throughout the furniture store. "This is the best entertainment that I have had in a long time!" He continued to hover over the battle between Sailor Pollux and the serpent. The new scout managed to jump up onto the stairs and stand there long enough to get her breath. The serpent decided to attack Sailor Sun, it bit into her arm much like a vampire and began to suck her blood draining all the energy from her body. The other head of the serpent bit down into the Daystar Knight. While the snake bit into her Sailor Sun was filled with the visions of her dream, the nightmare was lived over and over again. She screamed out. The Daystar Knight was filled of thoughts and visions of losing Sailor Sun, he screamed out in pain and sadness as he saw Sailor Sun being killed right before his eyes. Sailor Pollux was then knocked to the ground from the place she stood, the snake went at her, blood dripping from its sharp fangs that hung over it's jaw. It flicked its tongue out and lunged at Sailor Pollux, but before the serpent could get to her the words just came to her lips. "POLLUX SONG OF INNOCENCE . . . . . CLEANSE" She smiled a soft smile and did a full turn. She held one knee in the air, her other leg held her up. The phrase came out of her mouth pass her lips like a beautiful melody. The air filled with a sweet smelling wind, it flowed through and traveled into the heart of each of the living beings that were in the area. As the song entered the pure hearts of Sailor Sun and The Daystar Knight it healed any wounds making them feel refreshed. The song entered the un-pure heart of the Serpent which cleansed it, making the serpent go back to it's small frail snake form. Once the sweet melody entered the heart of Kurai-k, which was too full of hate and evil it began to eat away at him, slowly destroying him. He let out one last scream of pain as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves and small twigs. He reappeared on the other side of the store. "I will get each of you, and once I get the Heart Stones from your body I will see to it that you die a painful death!" Kurai-ki disappeared again this time not to reappear within the store, but he reappeared outside the store in the back alley. He took in a deep breath. He clutched his chest, there was still pain within himself. The small snake slithered out from a crack and slid across Kurai-ki's foot. He looked down at the small animal. "A lot of help you did me!" He slammed his foot down on the snake's head crushing it. "These Senshi are becoming too much, something must be done!" He slammed his fist on the wall leaving a dent in the cement. "Oh I might as well give up, my little pet was a complete failure, maybe I can find a way to put this whole stupid city to sleep and then they can have all the nightmares that they can handle!" Kurai-ki walked off down the alleyway. He snapped his fingers. "That is it!" He suddenly realized what his plan would be. He got a smug smile across his face as he walked off down the alley, once he came to the dead end his disappeared in a swirl of leaves and small twigs. * * * * * "Why does everything always have to be ruined?" Jessica asked as her and Kevin walked down the street towards home. "Why can't we put our personal life before fighting evil?" Jessica asked as she looked up at Kevin. "Come on you know we can't do that, if we are selfish then the entire world will suffer. You don't want that to happen now do you?" Kevin asked while pulling Jessica closer. "No, but look what happened tonight, our date was ruined and we didn't even get to eat supper." Jessica said with a deep sigh. Kevin looked around, his eyes stopped on a McDonald's. "Come on, were aren't going to go home without having our date!" He dragged Jessica into the fast food restaurant. "Kevin what are you doing?" She asked a bit baffled. "We are going to have our date tonight!" Kevin pulled the red head up to the case register. "What do you want?" Jessica then realized that Kevin was serious and scanned the menu boards behind the cash registers. The ordered and had their supper in peace without any interruptions. I might not have been in a fancy restaurant but it was a date none the less.