The small group left the walled in house where the crystal ghost had held Usako hostage and immediately attracted curious stares. Aries’ lips quirked up wryly. You’d think these people never saw six soldiers in leather carrying weapons and a sleeping princess while Zodiac symbols sparkled over their bodies.

They walked in silence towards the more downtown area of the city. Aries, Scorpio, Gemini and Cancer ignored the crowd following them easily, however Libra looked distinctly self-conscious and Sagittarius looked a bit frightened. Aries looked over her shoulder to give her best friend a reassuring smile and Cancer clasped one hand on Sagittarius’ shoulder in silent sympathy.

Scorpio shifted Usako in his arms softly and gestured to a pay phone on the side of the road. “Might as well call, Serenity-sama is probably very anxious and we should reassure her.”

Aries sighed and nodded. “Would you like to explain? You know her best.”

Scorpio grinned and shook his head. “You’re the leader of the Zodiac Senshi, I’ll place the call on the private line but you need to do the talking.”

Aries made a face but nodded accepting the task. They walked over to the phone, signs of their weariness beginning to show. The phone had a small screen but the camera had a wide display. It would probably show all of them if they stood close enough. Scorpio placed the call and then moved off to the side leaving Aries standing within range of the camera alone.

After a quick second, Sailor Mercury’s face appeared on the screen. The blue haired Senshi blinked as she saw the red Senshi of war. “I’d like to speak to Neo Queen Serenity-sama please.” Aries said politely.

Sailor Mercury hesitated then nodded and spoke in the background before moving off. Neo-Queen Serenity replaced her. Aries nodded in sympathy to the older women. Her eyes were red from tears and she looked worried sick. “Your Majesty,” Aries said bowing her head a bit in respect. “When myself and Libra first awoke we told you we were guardians of the children of the Senshi.”

Neo-Queen Serenity nodded, a faint flicker of hope entering her blue eyes. “Hai,” she replied.

“Our ranks have grown a bit and we have been fighting the Crystals for you’re children’s safety. Each child has it’s own protector and as their protectors we know when that child is hurt or in trouble. For example I know whenever Phobos or Demios are in trouble and Libra knows about Hana.” Aries paused and smiled to her friend as she entered the range of the camera to stand beside her. “Sagittarius will protect Megumi.” The brown haired girl stepped into range and smiled although her eyes looked faintly awed. “Gemini will guard Aki.” The tall man stepped into range and bowed his head. “So far there is no one for Scorpio to protect, but today we gained Cancer. The protector of your children, Your Majesty.” Serenity let out a sob of relief as Cancer and Scorpio stepped into range, Scorpio still holding Usako.

King Endymion appeared on the screen and held his shaking wife. “You are on the moon? Why did you not just bring her back to the palace?” The purple haired man asked as he studied the group.

Aries looked faintly embarrassed and shrugged. “We only have half our group and it took all of our energy to teleport here and defeat the Crystal holding the Princess captive. We are not strong enough to teleport back and well, most of us are teenagers normally and we don’t have the money to book passage on a shuttle.”

The King’s eyes sparkled with suppressed amusement. “The Sailor Senshi will be there shortly to teleport you back and then we will have some questions for you.”

Aries raised one red eyebrow. “We may answer them but only if it will not endanger our mission.”

Endymion nodded agreement and then the screen went blank.

“That worked out well.” Libra remarked with a smile. “You should only be grounded for a week instead of a month with how late you’ll be Aries-chan.”

The taller girl glared. “One day I will find a way to make up for all those days inside!” She declared.

A small voice said. “Why not just tell your mother you had to come find me?”

Aries looked down at Usako surprised. She had thought the girl was asleep. “I can’t honey, if anyone knew who we were we would not be able to protect you. Our families would be in danger as well and until we reach our full power and gain all our old friends we can’t risk it.”

Usako nodded, looking older then her age. “I won’t give away your secret. But I’m sorry you will be in trouble from helping me.” She looked up at Scorpio and smiled. “Now I know why Hana and the other girls feel so safe with you Unka.”

Aries shook her head at how grown up the girl sounded and then looked up as she saw a flash of light and heard the whispers of the crowd they had gathered grow.

“The Senshi are here, now we just need to get to them.” Sagittarius said glumly as she looked around the crowd and stood on her tiptoes to try and see over it.

“I’ll go tell them where we are and we can fight our ways towards each other.” Gemini offered. When Aries nodded he crossed his wrists. “Gemini Separate!” The two Gemini’s ran into the crowd, running right through startled people as he headed towards the Senshi.

Aries turned and raised her voice and the War Glaive. “Alright people we are coming through I suggest you move out of our way!” She announced, her eyes flashing as flames flickered along the sharp blade.

The crowd reluctantly parted and the group stepped through, walking towards the group of Senshi who stopped as they saw the younger Soldiers were getting through fairly easily. The Sailor Senshi did not seem to inspire as much curiosity as the Zodiacs did. They were something the people knew and they were giving them a wide enough berth.

Old habits came back to Aries as she saw the circle of Senshi. As soon as the group of Guardians were surrounded by those they guarded, Aries turned to Sailor Mars. Planting her Glaive on the ground vertically, she dropped down to one knee and bowed her head. “I serve you and yours in the name of the Zodiac.” She said softly.

Behind her she knew her teammates had copied her gesture, each kneeling and murmuring their fealty. After a second she got up and nodded to the surprised Mars before turning back to her friends. Seeing Scorpio was trying to avoid letting Pluto get a good look at him Aries grinned a bit and raised one eyebrow in question. He shook his head signaling she had not recognized him yet.

“Are you ready to return to Earth?” Venus asked after a minute of awkward silence.

Aries nodded. “Hai, arigato.”

The Sailor Senshi closed their circle around the Zodiacs and joined hands, concentrating until their aura’s flared into view even to the normal human eye, then the group disappeared.

Aries suffered a moment of disorientation as they appeared back in the throne room of the palace and stumbled a bit before she caught herself and leaned heavily on her glaive. Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion were sitting on their thrones and Usako quickly squirmed from Scorpio’s arms to run to her parents. Usagi, Hana and the twins of Mars were standing off to the side a bit and Hana grinned. “See! I told you they would find her!” Hana was holding Aki in her arms and the younger child piped up in agreement.

Cancer dropped to one knee and murmured his fealty to Neo-Queen Serenity then stood up and bowed in turn with the others.

Sailor Venus shrugged in return to her Queen’s curious glance. “They did the same thing to us as well. Each Zodiac symbol is ruled by a planet and they seem to swear their lives to the Senshi of the planet that rules their sign.”

Aries nodded agreement. “Hai, it is an old tradition but we will protect the children of our ruling planets. After that we protect the Senshi and people of the planet and to a lesser degree the royal family of the moon.”

Neo-Queen Serenity looked a bit startled. Most Senshi she had met in her long life time had protected her first and foremost and it was kind of eerie to hear someone say she was fairly far down on the list of people to protect for these strange guardians.

King Endymion spoke up. “We want to know who you all are.”

Aries didn’t hesitate in shaking her head. “We will not tell you.” She said simply.

King Endymion raised one eyebrow. “Why not?”

“Because it isn’t safe for them daddy,” Usako answered for them. “They told us they cannot protect their families if their identities were revealed and still keep us safe at the same time!”

Endymion frowned. “We could keep them here in safety.”

Aries rolled her eyes. “No offence, Your Majesty, but you can’t keep your own kids safe let alone all our family and friends.”

Endymion looked disgruntled but didn’t try to dispute it.

“Do not try to force your children to tell who we are.” Scorpio said softly while Aries looked to him in surprise. “They have promised us they will not tell. They are our main targets for protection so it is impossible to hide ourselves from them but until it is strictly necessary, you do not need to know.”

“You children know?” Neo-Queen Serenity asked incredulously.

Usako, Hana and Megumi all nodded together. “We have seen most of them transform.” Hana replied.

Sailor Venus frowned at her daughter but Aries turned to her. “Some of us spend our time in the palace and those that live here are known to the children. If you try and make them tell we will know and we will take them from you until it is safe for everyone to know who we are.”

The parents paled but Cancer surprised them all by turning to look at Uranus and Neptune. “You two are both pregnant,” he said softly. “You should try and stay safe, your unborn children will be threatened by the Crystals soon. If I could read it so easily so can they. You’re pregnancies make you easy targets as your powers are weakened.”

Aries sighed. “Cancer did you need to spring this on us now? We are too tired to think about even finding one more Zodiac Senshi let alone two.”

Cancer grinned faintly. “It comes upon me when it does. If they are careful we will have some time to prepare, I don’t foresee anything befalling them for at least another week or two if they do not leave the Palace and stay in the company of the other Senshi.”

Looking around, Aries decided they Senshi looked like a bombshell had been dropped on them and nodded to her friends. “Lets go.”

The six Soldiers slipped out of the room quietly while the Senshi started talking at once.

“We will have to de-transform here.” Scorpio announced. “The gate guards saw you all come in and will need to see you all leave. If we go to the garden until someone finds us and look like we have been working we should be all right. Someone should be looking for me soon anyway to say Usako has been found.

Aries nodded tired agreement and the ground headed for the garden they tended to always meet in. As soon as they got there they started to release their powers to return to their human forms when Scorpio paled and shook his head. Sailor Pluto was sitting on the bench they had been headed for.

As the group warily approached she stood and smiled wanly. “You did not really think I would not guess Alisdair?”

Scorpio sighed then smiled and released his powers. “I should have known you would guess Setsuna.”

“I will keep your secret, you have nothing to fear from me. I knew you were destined to be a Soldier from the time I found you on that battlefield, why do you think I interfered?” Aries studied the tall green haired Senshi of time and sighed tiredly, which caused the ageless eyes to turn on her. “You are tired, I understand. All your identities are safe with me I have kept many a secret over the ages.”

Aries nodded and de-transformed, the others following her example.

Mizu’s lips quirked in a grin as she saw the school uniforms and bags the girls now carried and he opened his mouth to tease some more before Ki shoved him. “Not a word big brother.” She mumbled.

Mizu shared a grin with both ‘Dair and Jalinel but none of them said a thing.

Hi glared at all three of them, narrowing her red eyes in anger until all signs of amusement were gone from their faces. “I am going home to sleep since we have already been found.”

‘Dair grinned. “We have been here helping our young friends with their homework and studies for hours, ne Setsuna?” He asked his adopted mother.

Sailor Pluto nodded and smiled. “I will vouch for you, now see your friends out.”

“Hai,” he replied as he led the group back towards the gates. When they got them he leaned down and kissed Hi softly on the lips causing her to blush and the others to grin. “Good night Hi-chan.” With a smile he turned and left for his own bed.

Hi touched her lips softly, then glared at Ai and Ki. “Be quiet.” She said, and stalked ahead off towards the apartment building she and Ai lived in, ignoring the giggles that sounded behind her.

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