The Light Never Fades, part seven, by Rose Aquarius & Sailor GlitterGirl, July, 2001 GlitterGirl: We're baaaaack!!!!! Rose-chan: No time to chat, we're hard at work! *shoves up sleeves and begins typing fiercly. GlitterGirl: Ditto! *Not to be outdone by Rose-chan, turns to her own computer and acquires look of deep concentration.* ***@THE UNIVERSAL GALAXY SAGA@*** The Light Never Fades Chapter Seven: Sibling Reunion By: Sailor GlitterGirl & Rose Aquarius 'Rose-Chan' Rated: PG, as usual At: SailorGliterGirl@aol.com or Rose Aquarius@aol.com "Kami-sama..." Michelle whispered, and she felt the hand of Amara on her shoulder, reassuring her. Michelle sent a grateful smile to her cousin. The young man that had appeared before them was no more than twenty, and bore an uncanny resemblence to the two Guardian sisters. Midnight black hair with silver highlights, and silver eyes with flecks of gold and black. Lean, powerful muscles showed through his dark uniform. Only the pleading, desperate look in his eyes and on his face proved that he was not here to harm. "Light murderer," Everyone heard Laxa hiss vehemntly under her breath. "Laxa, Versia, please," The man began. "I knew you'd react like this-" "Ha!" Versia laughed. "If Rena were here she would have put you in a black hole on the spot!" "Yes, she would. And I'd deserve it," The man hung is head. "But please, listen, I want to help! And I...I want...need you to heal me." "Huh?!" The group blinked collectively, and Versia let out a slight gasp. "Wh...what?" Verisa whispered in bewilderment. Dare she hope...? Raye's voice suddenly chimed in their minds. It took all the sisters's control to keep from jumping. Regaining their compusure, they glanced at Raye, then at each other. Laxa asked mentally, her mind voice quiet. Versia whispered. Yet a fourth voice implored, his voice desperate. Looking at each other with sidelong glances. Versia took a deep breath, and did so. She stared straight into the silver and golden flecked eyes of the half-brother that she had loved so dearly long ago. Was it possible that he was telling the truth? And if it was, could she care about him ever again? After what he did? Suddenly, Versia stepped back hastily, nearly tripping. Regaining her balance, she looked up, and realization donned on her as she looked at her sibling once again. Glancing over at Laxa, Versia saw that her sister had seen the same thing as her. With a cry, both Laxa and Versia launched themselves at the young man. Startled, the breath nearly knocked from his lungs when his two sobbing half sisters engulfed him in hugs and kisses. "I knew you'd be back! I knew it!!" Laxa screeched, tears running down her face. "Oh, my gosh, we missed you so!" Versia whispered through her rainstorm. "Why?" Versia whispered suddenly, holding her brother at arms length, looking him in the eye, which were watering. "It's a long story," He whispered. "But I guess I was young and ambitious and those aspects were taken advantage of." He shook his head. "But that's no excuse; I should have known." "Got that right," Laxa grumbled, then she smiled slightly. "But we forgive you. Now, what was this about healing?" The man took deep breath. "I want to help you. I know now that you were right that time so long ago, and I-" Laxa hushed him with a wave of her hand, and her staff appeared in her grip at the same time. "No matter; you're here now," She said, smiling, then her face turned serious. "You really do want to return to the side of good?" She asked. "With all my heart." "Then kneel, Midnight of the Shadow Kingdom," Laxa's own staff appeared, and she and her sister stepped away, and the man -Midnight- complied. They then took their staffs and placed them on his shoulders, Versia on his left, Laxa on his right. The staffs began glowing, and Midnight closed his eyes. The glow of the staffs seeped into his skin, and he began to glow, as color began to take to his skin once more. More silver highlights appeared in his hair, and underneath his eyelids, his eyes lost their evil gleem. All at once, the glow suddenly vanished, and Princess Galaxcia and Princess Universia -for during the glowing they too had been transformed- stepped away. "Now arise," Versia said, tears and pride in her voice. "Prince Orion of the Light kingdom, my dear, dear brother." With waves of their hands, the staffs and fancy clothing disappeared, and even Midnight -Now Prince Orion- was in ordinary black jeans and jade colored top. The two sisters, laughing and crying, launched themselves at their half brother. Still smiling and wiping away tears, they broke the hug and stepped away, finally noticing the bewildered and blank looks that they were recieving from all the senshi, save Setsuna and Serena, and burst out laughing again. "Um, girls," Versia giggled at their dropped jaws and wide open eyes. "May we introduce our half brother, son of our mother Queen Unilaxia, and son of the Solar King, Emperor Solaris, Prince Orion." "HOW MANY FAMILY MEMBERS DO YOU *HAVE* SERENA????!!!" Raye screeched at the meatball headed one, her eyes looking positively wild. They all laughed again. All that is, except Setsuna. She simply smiled softly. She hoped, for their sakes, that they enjoyed their free laughter while they could. She doubted they would do it again for a long time. "Alright, enough merry-making," Amara said gruffly. "So, you said you know how to find out how we acquire our true powers?" She looked harshly at the new prince, who was still entangled with his sisters. Laughing and pulling away from them, the trio collecting themselves, they sat down in a row, next to a still standing Setsuna, facing the rest of the Semi-Senshi. "Yes," Orion said. "Yes I do." He looked rather nervous, but an encouraging look from Laxa helped him on. "In the realm of the Shadows, they have this room, where forbidden artifacts that they'd managed to steal from their enemies over time, therefore ensuring they couldn't be used against them. In the room there is one book, a book called 'Truths.' "A long time ago, the Shadow King captured and tortured a sorceress to gain information on what that book did, and just before she died she made a prophecy that it was that book that would bring about the path of his destruction, that it would lead his doom to him. So naturally, he tried to destroy it, but nothing worked. "So, it is kept under lock, key, surveillence, guard, and ward 24/7. It will be no easy task even getting into that room, let alone to the vault that holds it." Orion shook his head. "I might be able to help you get in, if the King does not notice the absence of my evil powers, but that is all." "That's fine," Darien said, speaking for them all. "You get us in, and we'll do the rest." They all nodded together, then Orion sighed and rubbed his brow. "There's another thing," Orion said. "The Shadow King has taken a queen, and she -for most appearences- runs the show." He shook his head. "But she's a puppet, and I think she knows it." "If that's the case we may be able to use that to our advanage." Setsuna said, her voice as stonic as ever. "There's not much more we can do now," Serena sighed, looking tired and worn. "Why don't we all go home, get some sleep, and talk this out the rest of the way tomorrow morning. Then if all goes well, and we don't come to anymore obstacles, we attack tomorrow night." Again, the others all nodded their agreement, Raye and Amara smiling proudly at their leader who was finally *acting* like their leader. Slowly, one by one, they all drifted away, until only the three siblings and Serena were there, Darien of whom had departed after a lingering kiss to his love, and Raye having taken the tea cups and plates to the kitchen. Serena looked at Orion, and smiled gently as she held out her hand, and said two words that made all the difference to the young, naiive prince. "Welcome back." *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* That night was the first in a long time that the girls cried not for sorrow and pain, but for joy as they caught up on old times with their beloved brother, staying up late into the night before they realized that they needed their sleep if tomorrow was the day that they'd be taking on the task of sneaking into an enemy fortress. So with teary good-nights and more hugs, they all retreated to their respective sleeping places, Orion insisting on taking the couch. As Versia laid down in her bed, she coulnd't help but wonder; would this mission be their last? *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* The next morning dawned bright and cheerful, the sky was the clearest, sparkling blue, the birds singing their sweetest songs, the ethereal perfume of the spring flowers scented to the air sweetly. A white-gold haired, fire opal eyed young woman walked slowly down the streets of Juuban on a bright and clear Saturday, obviously deep in thought. "Hey! Hey Mina-chan, wait up!" Mina stopped and looked over her shoulder to see Lita running to catch up. Soon, the two girls were walking side by side, both deep in their own thoughts, most likely pondering the same things. "I still can't belive it," Mina said quietly, thoughtfully, half to herself. "Yeah, I know, it's totally unexpected." Lita replied, looking up at the sky. "I wonder...Last night, I couldn't help but wonder if this was a clever trap, but-" "But something about all this has a ring of truth to it." Mina finished. "I agree; I thought the same things last night, too. But when those two girls explained it to us, my mind was going, 'yeah, yeah, that's it! That's why!'" "Yeah, same here!" The tall brunnette agreed. "You have to admit it makes sense, too, in a way. I mean, how else could we have such control over a power, how the power we've been using always seems to be so perfectly...tailored to *us.* I always kinda thought it was kind of odd for a power that was supposed to be meant for generations and generations of different peopleto be able to use it, for it to be so specialized to us. I always just wrote it off as being part of the gig. Like a glove that shrinks or grows to fit its wearer." "I thought that once, too." Mina mussed. "And it that answer never quite settled me. Now I know why." Silence fell over them once more, and Mina glanced up at the sky. If she looked hard enough, and used her personal powers as Sailor Venus, she could just barely make out the outline of her namesake planet, Venus. Mina stopped for a moment, but Lita went on, not noticing, having gone back deep into thought. Mina sighed, gazing up at where Venus was, and smiled gently. She knew her family was watching her, even in death. "Wish me luck," she whispered. "Wish us *all* luck." *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* "So that's it?" Serena implored. They had all, all twelve Senshi-to-be, and two princes, had been Raye's temple for nearly two hours, discussing possible routes to enter the Shadow Kingdom, and exploring different aspects of their powers. Since the power was *their* power, as long as they had enough of it, they could literally form it into anything they wanted. Shields, hand weapons, make new attacks to fit circumstances, hey, even turn invisible! "I think that's all," Orion leaned back, away from the table. "I've told you all I know of the defences, which is pretty much everything since I was in charge of a lot of stuff." "Alright, here's the plan," Serena took a deep breath, and Darien squeezed her hand reassuringly. Smiling at him, she explained. "Okay, Orion, you are going back one more time. You are going to propose a new plan. Supposedly, you're going to scope out the city to find those who seem to produce the most energy. Got that?" Orion nodded, not too comfortable at having to go back, but seeing the neccessity of it. "Then, as soon as it's okayed, you come back, stay away for a few hours, and then we go back with you, looking as if we'd been 'captured.'" Everyone began to smile. This was actually a decent plan! "Does the Shadow king know our civilian forms?" Michelle asked. "Or even what we looked like in the Silver Millennium?" Orion nodded. "I'm afraid so," the Light Prince said. "And he even has internal defenses programed to sense your DNA signatures." "I could fix that," Amy spoke up, effectively cutting off the groans and cursing that had begun. "I can creat a serum that when enjected into our veins will appear to be temporarily changing our DNA signature ever so slightly. When in fact it'll simply be adding to it, like make-up I guess you could say. After about a day, the make-up will get washed away by the white blood cells." "Hey, we actually understood that," Mina blinked, and Amy blushed. Serena laughed, and clapped her hands "Okay, that solves that problem," she said, then looked at Mina wristfully. "Mina, do you think you could alter our facial looks just enough to get us by?" Mina nodded confidently. "Pretty sure," She said thoughtfully. "I'll need to go shopping for some more serious cosmetics than I have, though, and that's bound to be expensive." "Problem solved," Versia and Laxa spoke together, speaking up for the first time in a long while. Laxa reached inside her white leather purse and extracted her wallet. From that she produced a shiny credit card, and and handed it to Mina. "When you guys are with us, money isn't and issue." Versia told them with a smile. "We literally have endless credit. And once a month we just reach back home and grab some of our less valuable stuff -which happens to be very valuable, here- exchange it for yens, and then fork it over to the bank." "So go ahead and spend as much as you need." Laxa told Mina. "Cool!" All the mall-loving females in the room shouted. The sisters along with the outers and Darien and Orion laughed at the hearts that had appeared in the eyes of the Inner Senshi, including Rini. "Hey," Versia suddenly spoke up, loudly. "How about, after this is all done and over with, and we've kicked Shadow Kingdom butt, Laxa and I take you all on a super delux, absolutely-no-limit-money-wise shopping spree!" "And for you, guys," Laxa nodded to the boys. "You guys can go to a baseball game or racing show." Amara brightened at this. "And you outers can just go do whatever you want. Concerts, trip to the star observatory, whatever." The room erupted into applause and cheers and excited laughter. "Alright then!" Lita shouted, jumping up. With a huge smile on her face, and everyone's attention, she thrust her fist out into the air in front of her. "To finding our true powers as Senshi of the Universe-" Serena leaped up and placed her hand over Lita's fist. "To kicking Shadow Kingdom butt!" She continued for Lita. Mina, quickly followed by a smiling Amy, joined the group. "And to the shopping spree of our lives!" The blonde cried. "But mostly," Amy spoke up, unexpectedly. "Most importantly, to team work, and frienship." Smiles ensued, and everyone was rushing over. One by one, starting with Lita and ending with Orion, all thirteen of them -including Setsuna- had their right hands clasped together in a circle, the team joined in heart, friendship, and cause. Smiling at everyone, each person felt pride swelling, pride that they were there to be a part of this, proud of who and what they were. All of them grinning, the large collection of fists surged down, then up again. Down once more, then as it came up and released, spreading once again into thirteen seperate hands, they shouted, all together, "SAILOR SENSHI: UNITE!!!!!" *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* Mina walked in, a cheerful bounce in her step, excited with the task before her. She set down her overflowing bag, the plastic sporting the insignia of *the* most posh and expensive beauty salon/make-up and hair care salon in Tokyo. Plus a smaller bag from the year-round halloween store. "Bout time!" Raye huffed as Mina came over to join the group, who were waiting while Amy was fine tuning a small 'hypo spray,' like those needle supstitutes on Star Treck. "Done," Amy announced, and opened a small case by her side. Inside there was hard foam, and thirteen slits each held four inch tall, slender clear glass viles full of a slightly glowing dark blue liquid. Selecting a vile, she popped off the top, and inserted it into the 'hypo spray.' "Serena, you're first," Amy announced. Serena gulped, hating any sort of shot, but complied and went and sat on the chair next to Amy. As Amy pressed the flat top of the hypo spray into Serena's neck, Mina went and began unpacking her own booty. "Okay, everyone," Mina announced. "As soon as you're done with Amy, come see me, and we'll get you made all pretty!!!" Groans filled the room, and Mina laughed. From the shadows, keeping to themselves, Laxa and Versia held hands tightly, anxious and worried for their brother, for Orion had left for the Shadow Kingdom over an hour ago, and still hand't returned. Versia cried. Laxa did her best to console her sister, but she was just as worried as Versia. Versia whispered in Laxa's mind. All the silvery blonde haired young woman could do was squeeze her sister's hand reassuringly and stoke her mind with her own soothingly. *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* Orion gulped down the bile that rose in his throat. Now that he was back to his self, no longer full of the evil, hate inflicted darkness, the negative energy all around him was like putrid perfume, staining every nostril that breathed it. Using his years of practice, his slinked through the door and into the main tower of the large, dark and shadowy palace of the Shadow Kingdom. "My master, my mistress," Orion fell to one knee, and bowed his head low, gritting his teeth and trying to suppress his disgust. How could he have ever willingly served these creatures? "What news do you bring, Midnight?" The master's dark and ominous voice seemed slightly pleased. Well, as pleased as his voice could sound. "I have a plan for building on our resources to fuel our darkness, Majesties," Orion announced, willing his voice to drift up into the ominous darkness high above. "If I were to capture the humans that produced the most energy in the shortest amount of time, then kept them here, in the dream boxes that we acquired from Badiyuna, perhaps, then harnessed that power as they emitted it, we would, in human terms, have limitless batteries. It is foul proof, your majesties!" "That's what you said about the Shadow Knight you sent that first time," The Shadow Queen hissed. "And look what happened to him! Splattered to oblivion with a single blow from Sailor Universe! Whom is your lovely *sister* as well, I believe?" "Yes, you're majesty," Orion muttered miserably. He had to say something! Anything! "And I hate them with a vengeance, believe me," He spat. "If I had a chance to rid the galaxy of their oh-so-goody-to-shoes-lovely-light I'd snatch it up!" "Very good," The king chuckled from above. "Very, very good. Exactly what we wanted to hear. But, you know what those humans say; actions speak louder than words." Orion glanced up through his thin, almost non existent eyelashes to see a snake like tendril of black, evil scented darkness slither down from the shadows above. With a whip like movement, there was a flash before Orion, forcing him to close his eyes least he be blinded. "Arise, and destroy what you will find before you," The shadow queen commanded. "Or you will be as a traitor." Wary, Orion looked up, and gasped, barely containing a cry of shock and worry. Before him, chained and roped to poles protruding from the floor, were none other than his sisters, Versia and Laxa, both transformed. "They tried to infiltrate our stronghold on their own, the fools," The king laughed. "But we caught them. Just like we caught their mother. So, ex-prince of the Light Kingdom," The king spat the name of the realm of his enemies. "Prove your loyalty by destroying these two abominations to our darkness." It was all Orion could do to keep from crying. Why? Why had they gone and done something so stupid? They'd had a plan! He whispered mentally to their unconscious forms. It hurt him just to see the cuts and bruises covering their body. Their wounds oozed dark red blood, and- *Wait a minute!* He thought. RED blood? Royals of the Light Kingdom had WHITE blood! Grinning savagely, he raised a fist directly in front of him. His hand began to glow a sinister dark black, as he was using his own powers to make his newly light jade green power appear to be black, as it had been before. With a wordless cry of rage -rage at the Shadows- he released the power to fly at the unconscious forms. They awoke just before the blast hit. "No! Midnight, no please!" He heard the one who was Laxa's duplicate screamed. 'Versia' just stared on in shocked silence as the pulsing sphere gained ground, growing larger as it did. "Die," Orion hissed, the word in truth meant for the Shadow King and Queen who were laughing above him as black electicity engulfed the two forms, their cries of agony echoing through out the kingdom as they were incinerated into nothing. Silence prevailed, until a light, carefree, but no less evil chuckle sounded from above. "Very well," The queen hissed. "You have permission from your King and Queen to execute your plan." Orion smiled, and bowed low again. "My thanks, my regents, you will not regret this." Mentally, he was thinking; *You *will* regret this!* *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* "Where *is* he?" Versia snapped, pacing back and forth. Her long, shimmering black hair was now a dark green, a little light than Setsuna's, whose hair had been transformed to a dark maroon. (GlitterGirl AN: This is anime, okay? Tons of anime characters have wierd colored hair! So deal! Besides, it gives us authors a wider variety to choose from!) "You know Orion; when given a job he does it to the fullest." Laxa said, trying to calm her frantic sister. Unfortunately, some of the other Senshi weren't doing much better. "Still, Versia's right; he should have been here by now!" Raye scowled, and rubbed the fake, faint scare that ran from her ear to her chin. "And Mina, why did you have to give me a scar? And make me a BRUNNETTE?" "Hey, what's wrong with brown hair?" Lita demanded, whose hair was now black. Mina glared at Raye, whether for the cosmetic and hair comments, or for making Versia's pacing worse was unknown. "Chill, you guys," Mina told them all. "And Raye, if you complain about your hair one more time, I will pesonally drown you in hair dye. Look what I did to mine! You're one to be complaining!" Mina held up a strand of bright red hair, all curled up to her waist, her bright blue eyes now a startling green. Serena sighed, running her fingers through her new hair, which had been transformed into shimmering ebony waves, her hair loose, save for one braid starting just above her ear and going to the ends of her hair. Her eyes had been transformed by contacts to a vibrant emerald, her pale, peach cream skin darkened a few shades by foundation. "Just wait, people!" the former Moon Princess said impatiently. "He'll be here, soon!" Just then, as if on cue, a bright light engulfed the room and all but the two sisters -being OF light- were forced to cover their eyes. "Orion!" Laxa and Versia screeched, and everyone else breathed a sigh of relief. While not showing it, they'd all been seriously worried for their newest comrade. Versia launched herself at her brother, and they embraced tightly, Orion seeming to breath a huge sigh of relief. "So, how'd it go?" Laxa asked cheerfully. "They belived every bit of it." Orion said gleefully. He turned to address the princess, and his eyebrows sky rocketed. The sight of the now raven haired Serena caused him to finally notice the new looks of the group, including his sister that was still latched onto his arm. "*Versia?*" He cried, noting her green hair and black eyes. He looked away from a now laughing Versia as she pulled away. "What happened to you all?!" he looked around the room, first giving his sisters a good look over as he stepped away from them. Versia looked like Puu, with her dark green hair all in a braid, and her dark red eyes. Laxa had pale violet hair pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck with one long streamer coming from the center. Her silver eyes now a pale, ice blue. Everyone else looked drastically different as well. Serena with her golden-turned-black hair and blue-turned- green eyes. Amy, her eyes still the same, but with her now shoulder blade length dark purple hair. Raye, with dark chocolate, red tinged locks and darkened complextion, as well as red eyes seemed to encourage her inner temper into her physical appearences, which was what everyone was sure Mina had been aiming for. Lita was pleased with her knee length -compliments of Serena learning about her personal powers, and was able to make her hair grow- jet black, green highlighted tresses, though the the contacts -dark blue in color- seemed to make her eyes itch slightly. Rini stayed the same, save for changing her royal odangos to a simple ponytail. Orion had said she, Hotaru, and himself were the only ones that didn't need disguises, since Rini and Hotaru had been the only ones not present in the Silver Millennium, and they knew him. Setsuna and Michelle looked as if they could be twins. Both with waist length -Setsuna had agreed to cut hers as long as Serena promised to help her grow it out again once this was all over- waist length dark maroon hair, and golden eyes. Michelle's pale, sea folk like complexion had been changed to a different shade. Still pale, just not as light looking, more of a brown. Amara...Amara refused to leave Raye's bathroom. The girls had all swooned over Darien all over again when seeing him in his dark blond, pale blue eye getup. 'I made Darien a sufer dude!' was Mina's announcement. "You all look like a beauty shop fell on you!" Orion laughed. "Hey! We needed to look different, so we look different!" Mina looked indigment, hands on hips, he flaming red curls looking rather appropriate for her mood. "And I wouldn't say anything if I were you, or I'll get Lita to hold you down and turn you into a girl!" Mina held up a wig and a compact for emphasis. Laughter filled the room, but it was a somewhat forced laughter, all of them unable to ignore what they would be doing momentarily, now that Orion was back. "Alright, everyone know their code names?" Darien asked. Choruses of 'yes,' and 'got it,' sounded. "Well, let's hear them again, just to make sure," Laxa suggested. There were some sighs, then a sort of sound off ensued. "Mina?" Laxa asked. "My name's Minako." Mina replied, naming her code name. The others followed suit. "Amy?" "Jessica." "Raye?" "Erika." "Lita?" "Makoto." "Darien?" "Mamoru," Darien smiled at Serena, "Meaning protector." Serena smiled and snuggled closer. "Serena?" "bunny." Darien chuckled and played with a strand of jet black hair. "Michelle?" "Michiru." "Setsuna?" "Trista." "Hotaru?" "Lucy." "Rini?" "Serena." "Perfect," Laxa nodded approvingly. "And Versia and I will be called what?" "Alex and Ali," They all chimed together, sounding perfectly bored. "Exactly." Versia smiled, then took a deep breath. "Alright then," she said, and glanced at her gold watch to see that it was two hours till midnight. "Well, looks like it's time to get this show on the road!" Everyone looked at each other, tense, alert, ready to do anything. "Would someone go grab Amara -er, I mean *Haruka?*" Laxa said, using Amara's code name. "How about we *all* call her?" Mina got an evil gleem in her vibrant green eyes. They all laughed lightly, still unable to shake the new ominous feeling of dread, but they all complied. "**AMARA!!!!!!!!!**" They all shouted at the top of their lungs. "I am *NOT* coming out!" Came the slightly masculine, yet high pitched screech. Mina rolled her eyes. "Come on, you don't look that bad!" "It's not bad, it's just not me!" Amara shouted back. "That's the idea!" Serena laughed. "Come on, Amara-chan, don't be such a puppy!" "A *puppy*?" Amara cried. Grumbling was heard, then a lock being unlocked and door being opened. Soft foot steps were heard coming down the hall, and a tall, muscular, but still slender and lean young woman entered. Long pale blonde hair slightly curled, ringlet framing her petite, delicately cosmetized face. Pale, soft baby blue eyes that were glowering under delicately arched eyerbows, and large, generous red lips. At the sight of the very...un-Amara looking woman, every single jaw dropped, and the silence was only broken a few moments later by a stifled giggle. Surprisingly, it came from Amara. "What?" She snarled when she saw the furthered surprised looks. "Don't think I'm capable of laughing at myself? I know I look ridiculous-" "WHAT????!!!!" Mina screeched, then shoved her sleeves up, charging towards the blonde. Amara jumped back with a positvely femine shriek, and Mina was just barely caught by Orion and Darien, the men using all their strength to hold the raging redhead back. "Yo, chill, Mina-chan!" Lita laughed. Observing all this, Laxa smiled gently at her sister, then Setsuna. The three of them knew that most of this laughter and light heartedness was faked, and they didn't blame them. There was very little chance of all of them coming out of this unhurt, or even alive. Several minutes later found all of them in a clearing outside the temple, in an overgrown orchad that had become a mini forest over the years. The plan was to transform, then use Serena's Lunar Disguise pen to collectively disguise their semi-senshi uniforms as street clothes. All standing in a semi circle, grim looks on their disguised faces and and lips pressed into tight, determined lines, they simontaniously called on their henshin wands, Darien transforming into Prince Darien without any sort of flim flam. In twelve seperate, individual light shows, the girls had become their inner warriors, clad in what had previously been thought of as their Senshi uniforms, but were now called the uniforms of the 'Light Warriors.' So, the Senshi of Light each reached out a hand and placed it over Serena's, whose hand held the Lunar pen tightly. Closing their eyes, together they all shouted, "LUNAR DISGUISE: POWER!!!!!" Their minds each locked in an image of the outfits they wished to be disguised in -all of them slightly battered and dirty. In flurries of stars and colored streamers, thirteen normal girls and one boy in their late teens stood in the middle of a forest, in the middle of the night. Tentively, all of them stiff, wanting to get it all over with, stepped forward, standing closer together. Since it was supposedly Orion who was 'capturing' them and dragging them to the Shadow Kingdom, it was decided that they would be gathered together on the groud. All of slumped over, apparently all unconscious, and roped together, back to back. The girls and Darien did so, Darien wrapped a arm protectively around Serena, and Laxa and Versia went in the center, hidden from view the most, since they were the most recognizable, even through their disguises. Mina produced a tube of red goo,and proceeded to apply it in small doses to Lita, Amara, Laxa, and herself, making it look like they had small cutes. Purple and black foundation type make-up made fake bruises. When all that was done, she sat on the ground and slumped over the top of Lita, who looked to have a large gash on her forehead. Orion looked them over, and nodded. "Looks good," he said. "Just be sure to keep quiet and don't move a muscle. And don't fall asleep for real." "Hear that, Serena?" Raye chided. "Or, I mean, Bunny?" "Stuff it, *Erika!*" Hushing and 'ssshhh' from the other girls provided to shut them up, and Orion shook his head, Laxa and Versia just barely managing to supress smiles. Then, in a flash of green -disguised as black- light, they all disappeared, and the forest was quiet once more. And the first step towards the quest for the Truth had begun. To Be Continued... GlitterGirl: This one wasn't too difficult, not easy, but not as bad as six. Rose-chan: I know we said that chapter seven would probably be the last, but... GlitterGirl: We're not THAT cruel to leave it off THERE! Well, maybe we are. It depends if we get E-mail! If we get enough nagging to do another chapter to this book, then we will, otherwise, you'll just get a short preview of Book Two: The Quests for Truth. Rose-chan: Well, until then, enjoy! Addys are at top if you want to bug us and e-mail us like GlitterGirl suggested. Ja ne1 GlitterGirl: Ja! *ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY*