"So, what? Our time line's changed?" Rei looked around. "I truly don't feel any different. Everything seems to be the same..."
Setsuna nodded. "I know it does. The only one who had a chance of remembering some of the changes that have happened over the last day was Ami, but I had to make her enter completely into the flow of time again to keep her from dying."
Usagi leaned forward. "Were you really shot, Ami-chan? I can't believe it! You look fine."
Ami was calmly contemplating her own close brush with death. "You don't understand, Usagi. I don't remember being shot, because to me-" she placed her hand against her chest, "-it never happened. I suppose you could imagine it as a copy of me that existed for a while, and got shot, and then disappeared again. She's not real here."
Usagi thought silently about that for a minute, then shrugged. "Sure, whatever." She leaned close. "What'd it feel like?"
"Baka odango atama! Weren't you listening?!" Rei hit her over the head.
"Hey that hurt!"
"I'm surprised you could even feel a thing through that thick skull of yours..."
Ami sighed and turned back to Setsuna. "Please continue."
"This is still not my original time line. There are some small differences from my original time. This is a problem, but from what I see all the differences are minor. Things like different styles. Michiru's hair is longer, and I took a late class this semester for some reason. Small changes in the greater scheme of things, not really worth much attention, except they indicate that somebody wants things to be different.
"The next change was much worse. Someone drastically changed things. Japan won WW II. Americans never had any influence here at all. It was..." Setsuna searched for the right word, and came up empty. "...different."
Luna's eyes were wide. "I guess so!"
"I had to fix that, and decided Ami-chan would be the one most able to handle the disturbing news that I wanted to go into the past and make Japan lose the war. When I visited her she agreed to help, and went with me back to the early 40's. We stopped the Americans from falling into a trap, but in the process she was shot."
Usagi stopped sticking her tongue out at Rei long enough to look confused. "But I thought she said something about not really being shot."
"Someone else went back to the past and changed things so Mercury wasn't shot. But, since I was protecting her from the shifts in the time line, the change couldn't take effect until I released her from my protection."
"The boy!" Ami's head jerked up. "That's why you were yelling at him, and he seemed to know me, but I couldn't remember! It was the boy that saved me!"
Setsuna nodded. "Yes, Ami-chan, it was the boy. It seems he's working for whoever's trying to change the time-line. Unwillingly, I might add."
Minako quietly walked up behind an unsuspecting Ami, who was still a little surprised at her revelation, and pounced. "What boy, Ami-chan? Was he cute? Was he as good looking as Urawa-kun?"
Ami blushed a little, but refused to respond. Usagi was too busy worrying over what she'd just heard from Setsuna to join in the teasing. "But that's terrible! How is our new enemy forcing him to do these things?"
"He said something about her holding his family hostage."
"Her? Our enemy is a woman?"
"He said 'her' when talking about the enemy, so I assume so, Mako-chan." Setsuna shrugged. "I know next to nothing, and chances are if the enemy changes things again I'll have to tell this to you all over again, but I thought you should all know, at least in this time stream, since I almost got Mercury killed. At the very least it helps me feel a little less guilty." Setsuna stared down at the ground, faintly ashamed that the inner senshi and her princess saw her being something less than absolutely sure for once. Maybe it was better that they know she wasn't infallible, but she didn't like it. Next time she told them to do something inexplicable, they'd have reason to argue. Setsuna was too tired, however, to summon enough energy to really care right now. She'd been up for almost twenty-four hours, all of them stressful. She looked up. "I want you to all watch for anyone who appears suspicious. Maybe Ami could use her computer to draw up a composite of that boys face, and you could search for him." She wiped her hand across her forehead. "I could use all the help I can get."
She felt herself jump as a hand landed on her shoulder. Usagi sat down next to her, her arm over her shoulders. "You look exhausted, Setsuna. Why don't you go rest for awhile. I'm sure that the enemy can spare you enough time for that."
She smiled at her princess. "Thank you, Usagi-chan, but I have too much to do. Things I don't understand..."
Artemis was standing at her feet. "Why don't you ask us? Maybe we can come up with some helpful ideas."
"I doubt it. It has to do with the mechanics of time travel...I think I'm just going to have to think about it for a while."
"You should sleep on it," Usagi pronounced firmly. "That always helps me think."
"Oh, so that's why you're sleeping all the time, hm? You're really thinking?"
"I'll have you know, Rei, that I'm a lot smarter than you think I am!"
"You'd almost have to be, wouldn't you?"
Ami-chan looked slightly embarrassed and coughed into her fist before she spoke. "I don't think your endorsement speaks well for your idea, Usagi, but Setsuna does look like she should get some rest."
Mako-chan nodded. "You look like you're about to collapse. Get some sleep. Surely they can't do any more today."
Setsuna opened her mouth to argue, then stopped and nodded. Whether or not their unknown enemy could cause any more trouble today, she simply couldn't deal with it if she was this exhausted. That decided, she stood. "I suppose you're right." She began to walk out of the temple courtyard, stopping long enough at the entrance to half turn around. "Arigato, minna," she muttered into her shoulder, and left.
Usagi watched her go. "I'm worried about her, you guys."
*****
"Setsuna! Where have you been? You've been gone all night!" Setsuna looked up with weary eyes at the concern in Michiru's voice.
"I have something to tell you all, minna," she said, catching Haruka and Hotaru still eating breakfast.
"Can it wait until this afternoon?" Haruka muttered around a mouthful of food, "I have a race in two hours." She swallowed. "It's nice to have time to do it again."
"No." Setsuna spoke quietly, but even she heard the suppressed panic in her voice. "I've been telling the other girls about it. They sent me home," her lips pulled up in a tired smile, "to make me rest. But first you have to know about this in case you see anything."
Hotaru watched her collapse on the couch with wide purple eyes, suddenly looking too young for her nearly grown body. Setsuna put her head in her hands and mumbled at the floor. "Somebody's messing with the time stream. It was very dangerous for a while, there, but I think I fixed the worst of the danger."
"You mean everything's back to normal now?" Michiru asked, concerned.
"No, this timeline is still altered from the one I originate from, but the differences are minor. Remember that I came home late and almost missed class, Michiru?" She waited for a nod, and continued. "The reason I came home is because in my original universe, I'm not taking that class."
Hotaru's head was tilted to one side as she thought about it. "You mean we're all wrong? We're not really who we're supposed to be?"
Setsuna laughed. "Don't even get me started on that. As my professor says, it's all a matter of your frame of reference. I suppose you could say that you're all in the wrong place, but it'd be just as easy to say I am, since I'm the only one that didn't change with the diversion of the time stream."
Michiru spoke up. "You mean you, and the one that's changing the time stream."
Setsuna looked at her. "Yes, and the ones that are changing the time stream."
"Ones? As in plural?" Haruka looked interested. She seemed to be looking forward to a fight.
"Setsuna-san, I don't understand why you're telling us this."
"What, Hotaru-chan?"
"Well, if we all change with the shifts in the time stream, what can we do? As soon as this enemy changes things again, we're going to be different. We won't know any of this happened."
Setsuna smiled. "Very good, Hotaru. At first glance it doesn't appear that you could do anything, but I've found some information that may help us, even when we're working within the time stream. I know the identity of one of our enemies."
Haruka stood. "Well then, let's transform and go after him!"
"I don't know who it is,"
"But you said-"
"Well, I misspoke," Setsuna felt suddenly testy. She'd had a rough day and night of it, and now Haruka was grating on her tightly wound nerves. "Give me a break, Haruka! I meant to say that I and Ami-chan have seen our main enemies' accomplice."
"Great! We'll find the accomplice, follow him back to his boss' lair, and get them both at once...why not?"
Setsuna stopped shaking her head and answered. "There's no way you're going to be allowed to hurt the one I recognize. He's pretty much a hostage. He actually helped Ami and I, but was too scared of his captor to leave with us. Usagi-chan feels sorry for him-she's not going to allow him to come to harm."
Haruka cracked a knuckle. "What Odango doesn't know won't hurt her."
Michiru gave Haruka a slightly annoyed look, but the way she shifted her stance indicated she was thinking the same sort of thing. Setsuna sighed. "He's not really an enemy, and seems willing to help us as long as it doesn't place his family in danger. If we get rid of him, who can say what our next adversary will be like? I don't think we dare risk hurting this boy unless we've no other choice." She pulled herself back to her feet with a muffled groan and began to walk toward her room. "Ami will be able to describe the boy to you. I need to get some rest while things are calm. Wake me if something comes up." She closed the door firmly behind her as she walked into her room, looking forward to a chance to catch some much needed sleep.
*****
"You did well, boy." Hito fumed under her superior attitude, and was tempted to mention that he did have a name-in fact, she'd used it herself before. But he decided not to push his luck. She added insult to injury by patting him on the head. He gritted his teeth. He had to get his family back. "Do you need anything?"
Hito forced his voice to stay calm and even. "A bed would be nice. I really need to get some sleep. And I'm hungry."
"Hungry? Again? Didn't you just eat?"
Yeah. He'd eaten once this whole horrible day. "It was quite a while ago. I'm really hungry again."
"Oh." The woman looked taken aback for a minute, and Hito couldn't help wondering if she didn't need to eat or sleep. She lifted her staff and shimmered out of existence. Hito stood in the cold fog that swirled around him, nonplused, but before he could even think of escape she was back, sitting on a bed with a self-satisfied grin on her face. It was the most human expression he'd seen her wear yet. The bed was obviously never meant for a boy. Lace overflowed from the shams, sheets and blankets, threatening to smother whoever tried to sleep in it.
"Where did you get that?" Hito exclaimed in surprise.
"I borrowed it from myself," was her enigmatic response as she got up off the bed, holding her ever-present staff in one hand and another plate of steaming food in the other. She handed him the plate and he couldn't restrain his eagerness as he grabbed for it.
"This smells wonderful! Again! Where'd you get it?"
Her smile widened. "I have-"her eyebrows drew down for a second and Hito held his breath, hoping that she wouldn't get angry. "-had-a friend who's a wonderful cook. She made this."
Hito's mouth was too full of food for him to respond, but he decided that whenever he got out of this mess he'd find out who this weird woman's friend was and try to get ahold of more of her cooking. He gobbled the food down as fast as he could, watching the lady in black the whole time. She'd gone back to staring into space, silently standing guard over the fog. He wiped the last few crumbs off his face and shook his head. He didn't even want to know what she was thinking. With a tired sigh and a small wince he crawled into the frilly bed, and as he settled down into the blessed softness of pillows and a feather mattress he was too comfortable to even worry about how much lace was on the bed with him. He closed his eyes and huddled into a ball, trying to fall asleep. Tomorrow could wait-the way things were looking, it wouldn't be any better than today had been.
*****
"What the hell?!"
At Setsuna's shout Michiru and Haruka burst through her bedroom door, then saw what had caused her verbal explosion and skidded to a halt just inside her room.
"What? What is it? Let me in!" Hotaru didn't get any response from the older girls as she pushed her way through the door. As she stumbled through the barrier they made she gasped. "How'd this happen?"
Setsuna looked frightened. "Was the house ever empty?"
Michiru shook her head. "No, I was here pretty much all day yesterday, and we all were home last night."
Setsuna sank down to the floor. Hotaru quickly sat down next to her. "It's all right, Setsuna. I'll let you sleep in my room."
Setsuna smiled weakly at her. "Thank you, Hotaru. I had hoped I'd have time to get some rest, but it seems my enemy's not done with creating her mischief. But this is bad." She gestured around her room, from the torn wallpaper and scattered books and notes to the empty spot in the middle of her room where her bed had been. "This couldn't be a simple burglary. There's no way they could get the bed out of here without you noticing. The only explanation is that my enemy's found out who I am. Which means...."
"Which means they probably know who we are, and possibly even the Inners." Haruka's voice was grim. "We're going to have to warn them about this."
"And have someone up and awake at all times." Michiru smiled. "This isn't going to help our normal lives any. Haruka and I will go talk to the inners about this. Hotaru, you stay here with Setsuna while she's sleeping. We can't allow anything to happen to her."
"What am I supposed to do if they change time again?" Hotaru looked worried. "I won't even notice anything changed, then."
Setsuna got up and walked to Hotaru's room. "Do what you can to protect me. This is really my fight, but right now...right now I need some sleep."
Michiru reached out and grabbed her arm. "Wait! Setsuna! Didn't you say you protected Mercury from the effects of the time line? Couldn't you do that with all of us?"
Setsuna shook her head. "Maybe one or two of you if I were near full strength, but I'm too exhausted right now. I maintain my own protected status instinctively, but it takes quite a bit of energy to take someone else out of their normal timeline." She sighed. "It's something to keep in mind for later, though."
Michiru patted her arm with sympathy. "Don't worry about us, Setsuna. Rest up. We need you in top form."
Hotaru led her into her room, and Setsuna fell into Hotaru's bed with a happy sigh.
*****