While out on a difficult mission set to her by Neo Queen Serenity, Sailor Uranus loses her way and comes across a young senshi... who has also lost her way. Can they help each other find their way back home?

Sailor Uranus played by Fire
Sailor Nocturnus played by Aurae

Sailor Uranus was starting to awaken from her slumber. As she opened her eyes, she already began to analyze her surroundings. Haruka was in a barren wasteland, by the looks of it. And she was all alone. A desert of reddish sand and cliffs, with a hot breeze blowing into the sand, forcing it to create a sort of thick mist.

She had fallen into that vortex. Alone. Separated from Neptune, unable to complete their mission together, and lost in a place she knew nothing about. Where had she landed? Was she still on Earth? Was this another dimension or an entirely different planet? Or maybe... What if she was dead? What if Haruka had died when she met that mysterious vortex, and now she was trapped in the afterlife? If that was the case... then this was surely not Heaven. Haruka felt fear rising up inside of her but quickly dismissed the notion. "Afterlife"... What was wrong with her? Uranus was embarrassed at her own girlish reaction. She knew better than this.

Since there was nothing better to do, Haruka picked a random direction and started walking. Her only chance was to keep walking - until she ran out of energy or died of thirst, if she had to. There was nothing else she could do.

And after a few hours - hours that felt like weeks! - a silhouette started to form. It was the shape of a woman: long hair, with ponytails in the back. A short pleated skirt... This was a senshi! Sailor Uranus started to run towards the shape, sped up more on more trying to find the person before she disappeared into the sand storm.

"Hey wait!" she shouted.

And then they were finally close enough to make eye contact... "She's just a child!", Uranus thought to herself. She was gasping for air after all that running. Still breathing heavily, with sweat on her brow from the heat and the walking and the extreme thirst... Haruka extended her arm towards the stranger.

"Yo -- You're a senshi. Hello."

She took a few more breaths.

"I am Sailor Uranus."

She hadn't been able to outrun whoever was chasing her, despite her efforts, but... She glanced up hesitantly from her defending position with wide eyes. It didn't seem like this person was going to attack her after all. Sailor Nocturnus acknowledged the non-threatening posture and tone in the taller woman's voice, still somewhat suspicious. She didn't really think she ought to trust anyone--or anything--in these strange places so far from home.

Yes there was something about this woman that seemed honest. It was in the way she presented herself, and the firm look in those blue eyes. The younger girl fidgeted with her hair as the sandstorm whipped the long tresses around.

"Are you from here?" she asked after a pause. "Is this place... 'Uranus'?"

A sudden gust of stinging sandy wind blew forward, throwing the sailor soldier-in-training off balance and sending her tumbling forward into the newly-acquainted Sailor Uranus. She scurried to her feet, overflowing with apologies and bright pink with embarrassment. It was hard to stand here in this raging storm. She wondered if this woman in the navy uniform knew of shelter nearby.

The small senshi had fear in her eyes as she looked up at Uranus. There was obvious suspicion in that look, analyzing Haruka as if preparing to make a decision about her. "Friend or foe?" was probably the question in both their heads. There was no response to Uranus' raised hand - so after about a minute she let it drop. Was the girl not acquainted with the gesture or did she just not want to shake Uranus' hand?

The sandstorm was getting worse. After trying to control her hair, the little girl asked Haruka if she was from "here" and if "this" was Uranus.

"Wait... you don't know either?" Haruka shouted over the noise of the savage storm around them. "I have no idea where we are!" was her response to both those questions.

A gust of powerful wind shot towards them and the small senshi was blown into Sailor Uranus by the wild currents and sands. Unless they found a way out of here - wherever "here" was! - they were both going to be killed while still making their introductions. Haruka caught the little girl and managed to maintain balance for both of them. A torrent of apologies followed, the little one going red in the face as she expressed her embarrassment. 

"Don't worry about it! I can barely stand up myself..."

Sailor Uranus held the small girl by the shoulders, trying to give her more stability in the violent winds around them.

"How did you get here? Any idea on how to get out?"

The pressure of gentle hands steadying her shoulders instantly conjured up memories.

She stared up at her mother, watching the brilliant and gorgeous woman, awed by her gracefulness and power. Above them both, the twinkling stars and distant planets seemed to dance and move to follow the queen's gestures. When she stepped forward again, her mother turned and noticed her, that broad and loving smile shining from her face. Her mother pulled Pamina toward her, nestling her beloved daughter among the inky navy folds of her silk dress, and she carefully rested a hand on each shoulder.

The queen lowered herself to whisper in Pamina's ear, bowing with the beauty of a dark swan.

"Do you see those stars, my darling? We are always together under the same stars."

Sailor Nocturnus glanced up, almost expecting to see her mother's face. Her dark eyes flickered with disappointment as she saw only the handsome blonde, but the small soldier tried to banish those feelings from her mind. They needed to focus on the sandstorm that continued to howl around them. Apparently this other sailor soldier didn't belong here, either.

It only took a moment of focus to feel the hard metal surface of the Asturlab in her small gloved hand. The intensity of the storm seemed to increase around them. She tightened her grip on the circular object, pondering her next move. She had to. She couldn't just leave this other sailor soldier behind.

"Stars, guide my way!" she yelled over the roar of the sandstorm.

The Asturlab flared with light, dials and gears rotating and aligning. The glow intensified, bleeding over to cover both Sailor Nocturnus and Sailor Uranus. The small soldier in the dark uniform reached her free hand up to grab one of Sailor Uranus'.

"Don't let go of me!" she warned, her childish voice pleading. If they were separated, she didn't know she'd be able to locate the other woman wherever she might wind up in Time-Space.

...

The barren wasteland of sand and heat was replaced by seemingly-endless ice and glaciers. Sailor Nocturnus shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. Her short-skirted sailor uniform seemed highly unsuited to these cold winds and light snow. It was, however, much calmer than the sandy region they had come from. In the distance a faint trail of steam could be seen, but it was unclear what it was rising from. The unevenness of the landscape made it hard to tell if there were signs of civilization or elements of danger.

"Is this familiar to you, at all?" she asked Sailor Uranus.

The desert situation seemed dire to Uranus - in all honesty, she had serious doubts about either of them being able to find a way out before dying from the heat and thirst. It seemed like such a pathetic way to die for a senshi - you fight demons and monsters for a big chunk of your life and then you're killed off by the elements...

But then something happened. One moment Haruka had her hands clasped protectively around the little senshi's small shoulders; and then the next she was witnessing her new-found partner taking out a small metallic instrument, chanting an invocation to the stars, and then in a matter of seconds filling the entire area with blinding light and energy. The girl took Haruka's hand in hers, screamed something about not letting go and...

Poof! Suddenly it was cold.

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," Sailor Uranus thought in her shock. Funny what goes on in your mind when you don't know what to think anymore. Haruka looked at the small senshi, bewildered.

"H--how did you...?"

The amount of power this little girl could wield was amazing. Sure, they'd left a barren wasteland and arrived in a snowy, icy, cold environment with no sign of civilization. But at least they managed to leave that first place!

"Is this familiar to you, at all?" the tiny one had asked. She was shivering, trying to shield her bare arms with her hands.

Uranus' first instinct was to say "No" but then she took a moment to truly analyze their surroundings. She did not know the exact location, but... She tried to guess the temperature. The two of them were freezing in their short skirts and bare arms, that much was true. But the temperature itself was not something "tragic". Sailor Uranus estimated it at around -15°C / -20°C. She looked towards the sun. It was setting in the distance, purple-ish orange, the same size as she'd seen it her entire life. The sky was navy blue on the other side, and a Moon - a very familiar Moon with craters like the ones she was so familiar with - was beginning its ascent towards the Heavens. Relief washed over Haruka.

"Yes! Yes, we're on Earth!"

She looked towards the other senshi with an honest, warm smile. 

"I think you just single-handedly saved our lives back there... Thank you!"

She then noticed that her savior was looking intently at something in the distance, so she followed her gaze. It was smoke. Grey, calm smoke. This could mean... civilization. And whether or not the people on the other side of the hill were going to invite them over for a nice cup of tea, checking out the situation was definitely better than freezing there in their pleated mini skirts.

"Shall we see where that's coming from?" she asked.

It didn't seem like a long way to go, but the terrain was violent and the snow was deep, and both of them were freezing. Haruka let the small one lead the way, to make sure she'd see and catch her if she slipped off the slope they were climbing. 

Uranus was silent for most of the way there. She thought about their whereabouts and how they could get out of there. First of all, it was weird for there to be civilization in such a remote location. If this had happened in her youth, it would've been perfectly understandable, but this was the era of the second Silver Millennium. There wasn't much of anything outside of Neo-Queen Serenity's Crystal Tokyo. Her empire was surrounded by a protective barrier and the environment surrounding that barrier was still uninhabitable after the disaster that ruined life on Earth so many years ago. How did this area survive the blast? And then, how could she contact the other senshi? She didn't know where she was, so of course she didn't know how to get back. If only she'd had the sense of asking Luna to make a set of those communicator watches for her, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto...

The source of the smoke had indeed been a man-made fire. It was close to exhaustion now, but the wood was there and Haruka knew how to make a fire, so she could easily relight it for them. There were tracks in the snow, but now it was too dark to analyze them properly. Behind the open fire there were cliffs with smudges on them. The area around the campsite wasn't the cleanest, but Haruka didn't even care at this point... Someone had obviously caught and cooked an animal here - or so the small puddles of blood and the random broken bone bits would suggest.

Once the fire was alive and burning, Haruka sat down next to it and invited her little friend to join. She wished she could do more to warm her up - maybe a blanket or something. But in her senshi form she had nothing other than the clothes on her back. And her powers... Mars' fire powers would've come in handy right about now. Heck, even Mercury's control over forms of water would've been nice: some hot water to sink their feet into. But no... all they had was this unevolved little fire. Pensive, Uranus focused her attention on the stone wall behind them and the drawings decorating it. They were very crudely made... resembled the type of things you see in "National Geographic" magazines. This made Uranus uneasy - what was the condition of the people living here? She wanted to say something about it to her new partner but then she realized she didn't even know how to address her.

"Thank goodness we found this fire, eh?" she asked, awkwardly trying to break the ice. "I... don't think I caught your name."

She saw something glittering on the ground next to her. Picking it up, she realized that it was an arrow head. A very crudely sculpted arrowhead. It was made of what looked like black glass - very light and very pleasant to the touch. "Obsidian", Sailor Uranus thought.

And then it hit her. The improbability of this place existing in her historical context. The blood and bones. The drawings. The crude fire and the obsidian arrowhead.

"Umm..." she began to speak. Sailor Uranus meant to present the issue in a matter-of-fact tone, but her cracking voice betrayed the worry behind it. "Your senshi powers wouldn't happen to also affect... time. Would they?"

She looked at the small senshi desperately hoping that her suspicions were going to be infirmed.

"No, my sailor soldier powers don't involve time," Sailor Nocturnus replied, confusion evident in her dark eyes.

She wasn't from Earth and couldn't be said to share Sailor Uranus' current concerns. It wasn't clear to the young girl why her companion suddenly seemed worried. They had found warmth, hadn't they? She was still huddled down by the flames, trying to bring sensation and mobility back to her frigid extremities. She just wished it was a little less messy near the fire; there were a lot of trimmings and such from whatever these people had cooked here.

When her hands were a bit warmer, she looked back up at the other sailor soldier with a smile, holding up the Asturlab in a black-gloved palm. A beam of sunlight glinted across the golden surface.

"This lets us travel through time and space. I don't even need to be transformed as Sailor Nocturnus to use it!"

She gave a little embarrassed chuckle and poked at the dirt around the fire with the toe of one dark boot, fidgeting.

"I'm not very good at controlling it, though."

Sailor Nocturnus! Finally Haruka had a name for the small one... She seemed to be in a better mood - or at least feeling less endangered in Uranus' company - and that made Haruka smile despite herself.

"Well... you're still young. That's a lot of power you have there and it's still amazing you can use it at all," Haruka said.

"Have you ever heard about Sailor Moon or Neo Queen Serenity? I met her when I was about 4-5 years older than you. She was 15 at the time, and controlled the Silver Crystal - which is the most powerful item I know of. She started off as a ditzy little crybaby with no control over anything, but as she matured, she became a savior and the wisest, purest person I've ever known." Haruka paused, then looked at Nocturnus and continued: "Perhaps one day you'll come in full control of your powers, just like she did."

She smiled at the small one. 

"Anyway. The reason I was asking is... This is my planet, I'm sure of it. But... I'm also pretty sure it isn't my time we've arrived into. See these?" she asked, pointing towards the murals behind them, "These belong to a species that existed before humankind... A species WE evolved from! Judging by these drawings and this arrowhead, we might've arrived 200 or 300 thousand years in the past. And that's..." another small laugh, this time nervous, "a rather terrifying thought."

The girl listened intently to the information Sailor Uranus provided about "Sailor Moon." It was a nice story. It reminded her of how her mother would tell her stories, always full of wisdom and anecdotes. In fact...

"Is she 'the Moon Princess'?" Sailor Nocturnus asked. "My mother... she used to tell me a fairy tale sometimes about 'the Moon Princess.' She lived in a white palace and had a beautiful heart. Her beautiful heart was one of the brightest stars."

She couldn't say that she wanted to be like that Moon Princess, as dazzling as the story was. Sailor Nocturnus dreamed of being like her mother, that regal figure of love and strength. Even now, here, she wondered what her mother was doing. She wondered if her mother was okay. There was no way to know how the war might rage on. Sarastro and his forces had been held at bay for so long, but if the queen had been sure she could defeat them, she might not have sent Pamina away. She had to learn how to control her abilities so that she could find her way back home and help her mother protect their world!

If only that was an easier task. It felt impossible.

Her attentiveness to the murals and artifacts wasn't as interested as it could be, but it was hard for the preteen sailor soldier to make much of what was present on this strange planet at this strange time.

"We can travel again, since this isn't where you need to be. Maybe if you focus on where you want to be, it would help?"

She tried not to think about how little that had assisted her as she tried to find her way back home.

"Yeah... She was," said Haruka in response to the question about the Moon Princess. "Or rather... she used to be. Sailor Moon is the reincarnation of the Moon Princess. The original princess died many thousands of years before my "present day", when the Moon Kingdom was torn to pieces. She grew a lot as a person since her regal days - back then we all knew her as a beautiful girl and a kind spirit, but her reincarnation had more strength, I think. Anyway, if we manage to get back to Crystal Tokyo you can meet her yourself."

Saying this, Haruka smiled towards Nocturnus again. She thought about Small Lady back in Crystal Tokyo and realized that her and Nocturnus had friendship potential... The little girl could also use a warm bed and a full belly - she looked like she'd been traveling for a long time.

The girl wasn't paying attention to Haruka anymore. She seemed lost in thought. But then when hearing about this time not being correct, she offered to try again. In all honesty, Uranus was relieved to hear this. Nobody had any clue about her whereabouts. There was no place she could find anyone she knew at this moment in time. And to top it all off... weren't there still dinosaurs in the time of neanderthals? This was not a world that Sailor Uranus was happy to inhabit. If she could at least get to a time and place where she can contact Sailor Pluto...

"Yes, we really should leave this place. But are you alright using that power again so soon?"

Sailor Nocturnus shook her head, sending her long dark hair flying. The gold accents on her sailor uniform seemed to twinkle like stars.

"It's not like being transformed," she explained. "It's not me that moves us from one place to another."

She wasn't sure exactly what that meant, herself. The queen gave the Asturlab to Pamina, but she had never seen her mother use it. Although, because it involved time and space, maybe the queen simply returned to her own time and place accurately enough to never be missed by her young daughter. There were so many things she didn't know about these strange abilities. She wasn't even sure if her mother had ever been a sailor soldier. Maybe the queen had always been the queen: regal and elegant. Powerful and reliable. Very unlike poor little Sailor Nocturnus-in-training.

There were footsteps now, coming closer to the campsite. The small sailor soldier took a step closer to Sailor Uranus and gripped the other woman's hand, afraid of what they might see or hear if they stayed any longer.

"We'll try again. Try to think about 'Crystal Tokyo.' Maybe it will help."

And in a flash, just as the looks of confusion were crossing the faces of the approaching neanderthal tribe, the two strange creatures vanished.

...

"Oof!" Sailor Nocturnus exclaimed as she lost her footing on the tree branch and plummeted down into the dense bushes below. She was bruised a bit, but not injured.

She could see trees and flowers as she glanced around, but they didn't seem completely natural. There was too much order. The flora appeared to be laid out in specific patterns, with colours and shapes grouped in various bordered flowerbeds. In the distance, waves lapped across the surface of a large pond. Ducks swam in it, and a few small boats floated across bearing couples on dates or parents with children. Thankfully, they had not spotted the oddly-dressed women near the heart of the park.

Beyond the foliage, tall buildings loomed and the hum of traffic rumbled on. It was mid-day, with a mild breeze and bright sunshine. Not ideal for avoiding notice, but a welcome respite from the extreme heat and cold the two had experienced in previous locations. The outline of an amusement park could be seen to the west, punctuated with giggles and screams of children.

The young sailor soldier stood amazed by all of the activity and noise going on around her. These people at least looked like people-people, not pre-people as Sailor Uranus had cautioned her about only minutes ago, but they weren't people from her world and this was absolutely not her world.

"Do you recognize this place?"

Unbeknown to the foreign Sailor Nocturnus, it was a place Sailor Uranus ought to recognize. It was an often-frequented park in 20th century Juuban. And they were just in time for a Daimon to attack.

Sailor Uranus and Sailor Nocturnus had both taken quite the fall. But thank goodness they left that place - and not a moment too soon, either! While Haruka might've been fascinated to see neanderthals in a documentary or in a magical scrying item, meeting them face to face was not on her bucket list - and something told her the meeting would've ended violently if it had indeed occurred. 

Now she and Nocturnus had teleported (is that even what they were doing?) into a tree. Yup, a tree. On Earth. In the fall, Haruka hit her head on a small metallic fence guarding the flowers underneath - but nothing that could result in more than a temporary bump.

However, after getting up and giving the small senshi a hand, she looked around her and felt a knot in her throat, a slight pang of nostalgia in her heart. This wasn't Crystal Tokyo. This was just... Tokyo. 20th century Tokyo - the city she knew and loved and protected in her youth. Her mouth was wide open, her hands shaking a little bit from the emotional shock.

"Oh gods..." Haruka whispered.

It's one thing to see a past that you've only read about in books and magazines. And a totally different experience to revisit a place or a scene that existed in your own lifetime. This peaceful city - this prosperous world, full of normal people living normal lives and battling their own, tiny, normal, little problems... This didn't exist anymore. Not to Haruka, at least. She'd seen it blown up, seen the people of this world dying painfully, perhaps even people walking next to her on the street right now. It was more than a thousand years ago that it happened for Haruka, but she still felt in this envirnoment as if she'd never left at all. It felt like home. She knew this park - the fountain, the winding paths, the small patches of flowers and grass, and of course - the playground. In Crystal Tokyo this park had long been destroyed to make way for the urbanism of the 30th century - necessary for all the Earthlings Serenity had saved and made a new home for.

"Do you recognize this place?" Nocturnus asked Sailor Uranus.

"Aham," was Haruka's very articulate answer.

"This was my home. Before the disaster..."

But Uranus' moment of melancholy was cut short. A woman's piercing scream rang all through the park and snapped Haruka out of her own head. Her instincts immediately set in, and she shouted to Nocturnus:

"That scream! It's coming from this way!"

Sailor Uranus ran down the rubble paths in the park, following the direction the scream had come from. "Talk about a blast from the past", she thought when she saw the source of the noise. It was a young woman, now leaning unconsciously against a tree, her Pure Heart Crystal floating gently next to her chest. She'd fought in this battle before and she remembered the young woman. She was a friend of Makoto Kino's - a young chef. When these attacks were happening, Uranus and Neptune - 16 at the time - were out on a mission to find special Pure Heart Crystals called Talismans. They were taking advantage of the enemies who could extract the heart crystals, because they had no means of doing it themselves.

Then she saw a smaller version of herself, accompanied by a smaller version of Neptune, jumping down from the top of a tree. The eternally 24 year-old Haruka hid behind a bush, dragging Nocturnus with her.

"Don't let them see us", she said. 

The old Uranus and Neptune inspected the heart crystal, spoke a few words to each other, and then glared towards the other arriving sailor senshi.

"Sailor Moon, this is not your fight! Go home!" said 20th century Uranus.

30th century Uranus slapped her own forehead and covered her eyes, mumbling the word "Idiot!"

She had been so arrogant in her youth... And a few months after this incident it came back to bite Uranus in the bum when it came to light that her, Neptune, and Pluto were the carriers of those special heart crystals... And then it bit them again when Sailor Moon managed to save everyone despite their protestations. Thank goodness Moon had insisted on saving Hotaru. Haruka looked at small Nocturnus next to her and remembered the fast-growing little girl she'd helped raise. Now she was an almost immortal adult, like her. But at the time she was just a girl in a bad situation. 

Uranus was tempted to drop into the battle and help out Sailor Moon and her friends. But then again, Pluto might have a heart attack if she did that. It was not okay to meddle with the past - especially your own past. Chibiusa had manipulated that taboo to Hell and back, but somehow Haruka didn't think Pluto would be as lenient with her. So she just kept watching the show... Soon enough, Sailor Moon took out her heart-shaped Rod, shouted out her attack name, and eliminated the ugly pencil-shaped Daimon. She went ahead to return the crystal to its rightful owner, and she and her friends stayed around to watch the victim wake up and leave the park safely.

Now that the battle was over, Uranus looked at her small companion.

"That was Sailor Moon. And those were her friends. We were... not on the best of terms during this time in our lives."

A small break, and more to herself than Nocturnus:

"I was a bit of a bum."

But now Haruka and Nocturnus had a decision to make. They could either stay here for a while - enjoy the days lost past - or try again.

"Do you think we should try again, one last time? This time and place is safe for now, and we should be alright as long as I stay away from my past self. But the others need me in Crystal Tokyo... And this world will turn into that world again - eventually. It won't be pretty. Many people will die..."

Then she remembered her mission.

"Oh, wait a minute! I have to take care of something first!"

Sailor Uranus knew this seemed completely random, but this was the best solution imaginable to the mission Neo Queen Serenity had set her out on. So with the risk of confusing her small new ally, she ran out of the park and back into the park a few minutes later, carrying two large plastic bags.

"Okay, we're good now!" she said, smiling at Sailor Nocturnus.

It was comforting, at first, to think that Sailor Uranus recognized this place. It became less comforting when they heard sounds of distress. She realized that the blonde was truly a warrior, watching as she charged towards the noise, rather than running in the opposite direction. The elegant woman in the navy sailor uniform seemed to soar, and for a moment Sailor Nocturnus imagined softer light and beautiful rose petals swirling around her, illustrated in her moment of adoration and awe. Would she ever be a sailor soldier as proficient and mature?

It didn't even upset her reverie to be pulled into the leaves and branches, out of sight from the group. There was elegance even in the way the older sailor soldier dragged another person into the bushes! What skill!

It was fascinating to see the "Sailor Moon" she had been told about not too long ago. Sailor soldiers in action! The flurry of light and energy as attacks were unleashed on the school supply-looking Daimon were incredible. Her own abilities seemed as useless as a few embers compared to the roaring flames of their dazzling powers. Even when someone tripped over another person's feet, or the Daimon temporarily ensnared team members, the young sailor soldier-in-training remained rapt.

She was almost disappointed when the battle was over.

Sailor Nocturnus opened her mouth to ask Sailor Uranus a question, but the older woman was gone. Dark eyes blinked, confused, and she stepped forward, glancing around the park. Was that... was that it?

"Usagi-! Oh, really!"

The voice caught her attention, but she froze. She didn't have time to duck back into the hiding spot before the pink-haired girl stood there, staring at her.

For a moment neither moved. A soft breeze rushed through, rustling inky and cotton candy hair on the respective heads. They seemed to be about the same age, although Sailor Nocturnus couldn't be sure. The pink-haired girl didn't seem frightened or even all that confused to find herself facing someone dressed as oddly as Nocturnus' uniform looked compared to "normal" clothing in the 20th century. The girl smiled, and there was something in her ruby eyes and pink cheeks that made Pamina feel a leap in her heart. As though a jolt of understanding and camaraderie passed between them.

This stranger... she seemed almost familiar. Pamina suddenly imagined herself free from the trappings of the Sailor Nocturnus attire, once again dressed in the gowns of her past, when she was happy and safe in her home alongside her mother. The other girl no longer seemed to be wearing her school uniform, but instead a dress like peony petals, fluffy and pink. Like her hair.

"Chi-bi-U-sa-cha-a-a-a-an!"

The noise cut through her daydream, shattering it and returning them both to reality. The other girl smiled--apologetic this time--and winked, pressing a finger to her lips. Still silent, Sailor Nocturnus nodded. Somehow she felt like she knew what she was agreeing to, although nothing had been said. It was a promise, in some way. A promise she understood, but could not articulate.

She watched as the girl turned and ran off, heading towards the voice. Her dark eyes stayed focused on the flutter of the girl's school uniform sailor collar. Maybe someday, she would know who that girl was.

So distracted was the young Nocturnus that she didn't realize Sailor Uranus had returned until the woman was right beside her.

"You came back!" she exclaimed, her voice a mix of relief and excitement. She had heard the woman say she would return, but that didn't mean the small girl hadn't been at least slightly concerned that Uranus wouldn't.

The rustle of plastic reached her ears, and she peered around the navy skirt at her companion's new cargo.

"Oooh, what's in the bags?"

"Of course I came back! Didn't think you'd get rid of me so easily, did you?", Haruka said and winked at the small soldier. 

"These are... you know what? It's a surprise. The Queen gave me and my partner a mission and since we're here I can't think of a better way of accomplishing my task."

Sailor Uranus didn't have 20th Century money on her, but she did have some Crystal Tokyo change - the pieces themselves were made of solid gold. So she traded a few pieces for the stuff in her bags, and she was partially proud and partially amused of the way the whole thing was coming full circle.

"So... shall we try again?"

OOC:

Sailor Uranus made sure that she was holding her bags properly - she didn't want to lose them somewhere in space-time - and took Sailor Nocturnus' hand as the small senshi worked her magic on her metallic instrument. Haruka tried her best to think of Crystal Tokyo, visualize the Crystal Palace, Neo Queen Serenity, and Sailor Neptune trying to catch her as she fell into the vortex. She concentrated really hard on these images and soon enough...

BOOM.

Her butt hit marble and her bags made a rustling sound as they landed next to her and Nocturnus.

Sailor Uranus looked around her and in her relief, she sighed and threw herself back on the cold marble. She was home. Her "now" home. They had landed in the front hall of the Crystal Palace. Haruka looked at Sailor Nocturnus and said:

"We made it! I think we're finally back in the 30th century!"

She got up and ran up the small stairs on the side of the Hall. These led to Sailor Mercury's office, which was the closest one to the entrance. Sailor Uranus didn't even bother to knock. She just opened the door, said "Hey!" and looked at Ami whose eyes were as big as saucers. The water senshi wanted to know where she'd been.

"Listen... I just wanna know the date - I'll tell you guys all about it soon, I promise".

The date was the 28th February 3025. Perfect. Uranus had only fallen into the vortex on the 19th, so she and Nocturnus had landed just a few days away from the date she had envisioned. Compared to 200.000 BC and the 20th Century, this was Swiss clockwork precision!

"Wonderful, thank you!" Haruka said to Mercury and ran back down to where she'd left her small friend.

All this time she'd been carrying those rustling plastic bags with her, protecting them for Neo Queen Serenity. She found Sailor Nocturnus in a room not far away from the main entrance.

"I'm gonna go request a meeting with the Queen - I have to give her these before they turn to mush. Would you like to meet her and the others? I can ask Small Lady Serenity to give you a tour of the palace when you're all nice and settled!"

Haruka was in an excellent mood. The guards let her enter the throne room and sure enough, there was Neo Queen Serenity, looking eagerly at her. Some of the other girls were spread around the hall, and they all eyed Uranus with surprise as she entered. It was only now that Sailor Uranus realized she'd actually been absent for almost two weeks. The others must've gone mad searching for her, and searching for ways to find her! And now here she was, prancing into the throne room like nothing had ever happened.

"Your Majesty," she said, bowing in front of Neo royalty.

At this point the Queen lost her composure: she got off the throne, opened her arms and hugged Uranus, squishing the contents of their bags. She might be the queen, but sometimes she couldn't help be the good old odango atama. Serenity asked if she was alright and where she had been.

"It's... actually a really long story, Your Highness. But this young lady saved me and brought me back home safely."

Sailor Uranus gestured towards Sailor Nocturnus.

"Your Highness, allow me to introduce you to Sailor Nocturnus. Nocturnus, this is Her Majesty Neo Queen Serenity... Aaaaand this," Haruka flung the bags in front of Serenity like she would've done years ago to Usagi Tsukino, "is what you set us out to find for you. I'd have Mercury put them on ice, if I were you..."

Sailor Nocturnus observed the Crystal Palace with her eyes wide and mouth agape. She felt like she was suddenly living inside a diamond, standing in the central core and looking out through the beautiful surface. All around her was soft white marble and dazzling clear glass. It wasn't as lovely as her mother's castle--but that was because that place contained her beloved mother--but it was truly gorgeous in its own different way. It felt as bright and thrilling as her home was dark and comforting. Sailor Uranus and her friends definitely came from a strange and beautiful place...

So distracted was she that, once again, her companion zipped away before she had noticed it. The dark-haired girl turned around to ask a question, but Sailor Uranus was gone. She glanced up and down the hall, but it appeared deserted.

"...Uranus?" she asked, voice faint and concerned. The stillness remained undisturbed.

The low heels of her black boots clicked on the marble floor. She peered around corners, finding empty spaces. The sheer size of this place astounded her. It seemed to go on forever, winding and folding into itself with another room or another doorway quietly emerging. The decor was sparse, but very tasteful. Some seating, a few pieces of artwork... It was clear that people did not live in this area, but that it was sometimes used. It vaguely reminded Nocturnus of some of the reception spaces within her mother's abode.

She was admiring a small diorama of another castle, something with domed white roofs and beautiful reflection pools, when Sailor Uranus returned.

She nodded at being asked to meet the others, although only seconds after agreeing she felt the hard knot of fear in her stomach. The darkly-clad sailor soldier followed Sailor Uranus like a small shadow through the passageways towards their destination, peeking out at the world from behind the taller woman's back. She shied away from the guards outside the throne room, but although they raised eyebrows they did not prevent her from entering.

She thought she had been doing a good job keeping herself hidden, but the young girl suddenly found herself wrapped in a tight embrace from the golden-haired queen. Dark eyes blinked uncertainly. Something cold from the plastic bags touched her back, and she yelped. At that moment the queen let go, laughing.

"Oh, she's so cute, Haruka!" Sailor Nocturnus still felt uncomfortable hearing such a youthful, carefree voice spoken from the lips of this beautiful, serene figure. It especially seemed strange as the woman stood there, arms occupied with the contents of the plastic bags, peering into the depths.

"Yay, my favourite! This shop doesn't exist anymore, you know!"

There was a long pause in the throne room, and all eyes from the sailor soldiers turned towards their queen.

"Usagi... what 'mission' did you send Uranus on?" The voice of the dark-haired woman in the red sailor uniform was accusatory and low.

The queen chuckled and hastily tucked the plastic bags around their contents, hoping to block it from sight of the others. Despite her royal trappings and crown, she looked awfully guilty somehow. The queen side-stepped towards Sailor Mercury, thrusting her baggage into the blue-haired woman's confused hands. She looked down at the parcels, bewildered.

"Y-your majesty!"

"It's nothing! Right, Ami-chan?" pleaded the queen.

Sailor Venus popped up between the two, wrenching open the plastic.

"It's...!"

"ICE CREAM?" chorused the entire room, with notable exclusions of Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Nocturnus.

Immediately, the chiding began. The queen tearfully denied any wrongdoing in sending her two warriors to pick up dessert. The sailor soldiers in her court respectfully and forcefully disagreed. Sailor Nocturnus felt like she was going to get dizzy, flipping her head back and forth as she tried to follow along with the heated conversation.

"Wha... what's going on?" she asked, weakly, looking up at Sailor Uranus.

Sailor Uranus was standing back, enjoying the show, a big proud grin on her face. After sending her off on a suicide mission to bring back ice-cream, of all things, Serenity could be sure that Haruka was going to make a public spectacle out of the delivery. She could've just given the ice-creams to the kitchen workers, of course, but where was the fun in that?

"Wha... what's going on?" said a small voice next to Sailor Uranus.

She looked down and saw that Sailor Nocturnus had a tired and confused look on her face. Haruka laughed a bit before explaining what all the commotion was about.

"Well... Neo Queen Serenity sent me a note one night - she wanted me and my girlfriend in her room, as soon as possible and without telling anyone else about it. Very secretive, very hush-hush. Uuuu, something serious is happening! So we went to her, convinced there was a new enemy on our trails or that SOMETHING was wrong and needed fixing! And she tells us that she's got a mission for us - but the other senshi shouldn't be told about it. So she gives me another paper and tells me to read it when we're back to one of our rooms. So me and Neptune brace ourselves for the worst and open the letter... The Queen wanted ice-cream! But not just any ice-cream! Ice-cream that's as good as that certain ice-cream they used to make next to the park in Tokyo!... In the 20th century!"

Haruka looked back to the room full of angry or amused senshi and smiled at her masterpiece. 

"And that's the mission that got me lost in time. yep. Ice cream."

Sailor Uranus waited for the noise to subside before she spoke again. The general consensus in the room seemed to've been that "Usagi will always be Usagi" and that "Rei is a meanie." Also, the ice cream was starting to melt and everybody wanted a piece. Lucky thing Uranus brought back enough to feed the whole court.

Finally the Queen agreed to turn in the bags to Jupiter who could shove them into the freezers they had in the kitchens. She then looked at Sailor Nocturnus and smiled maternally. She thanked her for helping Haruka and then immediately added "You two must be famished! I'll ask Sailor Venus if she could perhaps guide you to one of the spare bedrooms in the palace, and after you're all washed up and ready, Jupiter will sneak you something to eat before dinner." Sneaking food out of the kitchens was Jupiter's specialty, thanks to the Queen's random appetites. Serenity promised they'd talk more at dinner and then she whispered something to Venus who then looked straight to Uranus's small ally... And then the blonde monarch wooshed away to look for Small Lady.

Venus walked over to take Nocturnus to her room, and Haruka promised to see them all later.

Sailor Uranus just wanted a moment alone with Neptune. And a hot bath. She wasn't sure whether or not she wanted these two things separately. Oh and she never wanted to hear the words "ice-cream" ever again!

Sailor Nocturnus kept sneaking shy glances up at the leggy, long-haired blonde who was leading her in the palace. She knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that she ought to be on her guard in this unfamiliar place... but after all she had been through with Sailor Uranus, who clearly trusted these people, it was hard to feel suspicious. It was also hard to feel suspicious when one was so tired and so young. Their adventures through time and space were exhausting physically, even if they didn't have much impact on Nocturnus' powers as a sailor soldier.

"You can relax in here," the orange-suited woman was saying, opening the door and ushering her inside. "I'm sure the queen would like to know more about you and where you've come from, but that can wait until after you've rested."

Sailor Nocturnus nodded uncomfortably. She didn't know what to tell the queen, or anyone. There was so much she didn't know herself.

"Please make yourself comfortable. We'll bring you dinner in a half hour or so. Is there anything you'd like?"

She shook her head. She didn't know what to say.

"Anything you don't like?"

"Um... not spicy, please."

Sailor Venus smiled. "No problem!"

She turned to leave, hand on the door...

"Small Ladyyyyyyy...!" yelled a voice, faint and somewhat indistinct.

Sailor Nocturnus watched a blur of pink rush past. She gasped. Somehow that bright streak of ruffles and cotton-candy hair was a person, and she looked so familiar. Was it... was it the girl from the 20th century? She felt a confusing butterfly sensation in her stomach, unsure of what that might mean.

"Who was that?" she asked softly, shuffling her feet and avoiding eye contact.

Sailor Venus sighed, but her facial expression still looked happy.

"The princess, Small Lady. We thought you two might like to meet--you're probably not the same age, but she's likely to be more fun than us 'boring adults,'" laughed the woman. "Apparently we have to catch her first."

---

When Sailor Jupiter knocked on the door, there was no reply. Carefully balancing the tray, she eased it open. The well-trained fighter tensed slightly, unsure of what she might encounter. The tall brunette was always on guard to protect her kingdom. What she saw inside, rather than prompting her to fight, merely made her chuckle and smile.

On top of the ornate white bed decorated with the golden crescent moon motif was a small sprawled figure with dark skin and dark hair. She seemed buoyed atop the down comforter like a tiny sailboat, her chest rising and falling rhythmically as she slept.

Sailor Jupiter carefully set the tray on a small table near the door, careful not to disturb their guest. She looked exhausted, like she was finally getting well-deserved rest, and her young face was peaceful and calm. Jupiter wondered what she might be dreaming about; she looked much less troubled in sleep than she had while awake--tensions temporarily removed.

Unbeknownst to the sailor soldier of courage, the small traveler dreamed of a pink princess and a beautiful garden. Very soon, they would meet again.