::Chapter 3::

~~On the MOON PALACE~~

"Reenie…" Serenity whimpered the name into her hands as tears flowed down her pink cheeks. Her husband Endymion cradled her in his embrace and whispered soothing words of reassurance to her. "They will find her. The Sailor Senshi will find her. Do not worry, my beauty, my queen, and my angel. Let it all out, cry. You will be fine. Reenie’s just fine; she knows how to fight. Remember, she too is a Sailor Scout."

"Oh to Pluto with the Sailor Scouts! Endymion, our daughter is missing. Gone! Away from us! She is all alone and undefended…I’ve lost my daughter. I’ve lost my love, my Reenie…" she continued sobbing and her shoulders heaved with huge sobs.

"I have not seen her for two earth years! That little chibi me…my light against the darkness. She was always laughing with Hotaru, and Ami would always teach her new things everyday. Where has she gone? And why did that wretched portal appear? I’m not saying Diana wasn’t a big help, for she was; running out of Reenie’s room to tell us as soon as my baby disappeared. Oh, Darion…I miss her!" She threw herself tighter against him and sobbed her name into long vowels.

Endymion knew she was deeply upset, for she never used his earth name unless she was. He also missed Reenie like crazy, but he could not shed any tears. He was hollow with anger at the portal. Yet he was filled with sorrow at the loss of his daughter. Where in the freaking world was she? The question rang over and over in his mind and soul. The very heart of his mind called out to her. Each day, he received with pain the news of the Scouts’ failure at finding his daughter. Yes, he knew they tried hard, but earth…there was too many memories. The probability that Reenie got sucked to earth was huge, everyone knew it. But they weren’t ready…earth was the dent in their lives. They had spent a many good years there, it was true. But that did not cover up the fighting, the bloodshed, and the sacrifices. People died, monsters rose. That was why they would never return to earth anytime soon; they were unstable about it.

And for this reason, Endymion seethed with anger towards himself…all because he was afraid.

~~ON EARTH~~

Goku groaned and Chichi nearly fainted. Bulma gawked and just stared at Reenie. "Absolutely not! Reenie…" she pleaded as the young girl didn’t look at her. "Why do you have to do this? You don’t need to train, and you definitely don’t need to go into that Time Chamber. When Gohan and Goku did…they grew so much. They changed. Do you really want to spend two years of your life in a chamber?"

Reenie nodded wordlessly.

Bulma was stuck. Her Reenie…no, she was thinking selfishly. Reenie wasn’t hers, she never had been. Reenie had a mother, and father, she had hinted to them she did, but she had never told the full truth about them. She had said she didn’t remember whenever Bulma had asked, but Bulma was sensing she was hiding something. The point was Bulma just didn’t want Reenie in that room, or in any other room where she couldn’t watch her smile, or laugh, or sleep.

She loved that sweet child so much, conniving as she was, that she would easily die for her in a second. She knew the rest of the Z gang felt the same way. Each would eagerly do anything she asked, for she asked so less. But this…this was terrifying. When Reenie had first come to live with Bulma, she’d had plans for the little girl. She wanted to buy her cute clothes, share girlish secrets, watch sunsets while painting toenails. But the child had become more interested in training than in brushing her hair. This made Bulma wonder if Reenie had ever fought before, but she quickly put that thought out of her mind when she saw how pretty this girl was. She was twelve. Nobody else knew, for Reenie had only confided in her. She didn’t want the others to know, but Bulma had no idea why. When Reenie had told her and her only her age, she had felt like…like a princess. Having that little beauty share a special secret with her meant more to her than the world. It was like she really was Reenie’s mother.

She knew that was irrational, but she never was one not to listen to her feelings. So she listened now. She felt anger against Reenie’s request, but her heart knew what was right. She didn’t know why, but something was tugging at her, warning her that if Reenie didn’t train, something would be lost. Her mind said no in loud booming tones that would scare a giant. But her heart, her purest resource, said a tiny yes in soft tones that even a baby wouldn’t notice.

The tiny voice touched her every breath, and she formed the words she knew she would regret saying.

"You may go."

She watched as the child turned to her. Gasped as she was held tightly. Grinned as Reenie kissed her cheek and dragged Mirai Trunks out of the room, Gohan following. "We are gonna be so bored." Goku sighed miserably after breaking the peaceful silence with another groan.

Then, Bulma let out a laugh that she had been hiding.

Outside, Reenie squealed and jumped and squealed again. "I can go, I can go, I CAN GO!" she laughed and then spread her legs in a fighting stance, tossed her hair and grinned. "Well? Attack me!" Gohan rolled his eyes upward to the sky while Mirai Trunks shook his head. "Reenie, when you train in the Time Chamber, you train alone. In there you have to learn how to channel your power, use ki blasts, raise you power level, fight. We won’t be in there to help you."

"How can I do all this stuff when I don’t even know what half of it is?!" she wailed. "That’s why it’s called "learning". But I’m sure you can do it, since we all know you can raise your power level, even if it is unintentionally." Mirai Trunks winked at Gohan who laughed.

"So, where is the Time Chamber and how do we get there?" she asked, twisting a strand of her hair that had fallen out of her messy bun. Gohan smiled. "We fly." He answered simply. Reenie smiled. "In the hover car? I love the hover—no, wait, are we going to…Gohan! You better not! Get away from me…no, no, you know I hate…GOHAAAAAN!" She gasped and wound her arms tightly around Gohan’s neck as he scooped her up and bolted into the sky with Mirai Trunks following them.

She buried her face against his chest and screamed. "Oh! I’m going to beat you so bad! Just wait till I get out of that chamber! Slow DOWN! Don’t you know what a speed limit is?!?!"

Gohan laughed and only went faster. "It takes a while to get there," he yelled to her over the wind, "so don’t look down!"

Mirai Trunks stayed behind them and watched the two. He observed how comfortable Reenie looked with her arms around Gohan’s neck, and how shy he looked with the feel of her head against his chest.

"Gohan, I’m going to kill you!" Gohan smirked. "Not likely."

That was exactly what Mirai Trunks was thinking about Gohan and Reenie getting together. It really wasn’t likely.

^^^

An hour later Gohan and Mirai Trunks hovered over Kami’s Palace. Reenie opened one eye, then the other and stared down. "Whoa, that’s a long way dooooooooooown!!!" she screamed again when Gohan suddenly dropped and landed softly on Kami’s ground. He let her go and she fell to her knees, angry and scared. "You could have killed me! Could have dropped me! I swear I almost fell! I can’t stand you sometimes! Are you even listening?!"

"Not really."

"Gohan! You’re just a big lump! Why don’t you be more careful when flying? Especially when flying with me in your arms! I wish I could just slap you over and over and over…WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!?" she jumped up and behind Gohan as a little green guy with things coming out his forehead walked toward them holding a walking stick half his size.

"Hey Dende!"

"Hi Gohan! I’m so glad you came!"

"Me too, Dende, this is my…my leach, Reenie—" she whacked him, "—she wishes to use the Time Chamber so she can get training individually."

Reenie blinked several times, and then whispered to Gohan, "Gohan, did you know your friend is a bug?"

"He’s not a bug."

"He has antennae."

"That doesn’t mean he’s a bug."

"He’s green, and he probably has wings."

"He does not."

Reenie burned with anger. "I thought you were taking me to Kami’s place or whatever."

"This is Kami’s place."

"So where’s Kami?" she asked in a mocking tone.

Gohan sighed and looked at Dende.

"That’s not Kami," she pointed out. "No, but Kami left Dende here to be guardian over the earth."

Reenie blushed at realization of whom this young boy was.

"He’s still not Kami." She murmured. Gohan rolled his eyes just as Mirai Trunks broke in with, "Anyways!"

Dende studied the girl in front of him. She was very pretty yes, very spunky. She had a deep power within her that just needed to come out. And then there was her other power. Her dark power. He didn’t like what he was sensing from that power, for if it had been a dead power, as it should have been, he would not have sensed it at all. But he could feel it, and that meant it was alive and waiting. But she cared for everyone just as much as she cared for herself. She was a born warrior and she even belonged to a senshi. He smiled.

Ah, she could go in.

"Guys, and Reenie, if you’d stop arguing for a second, I could take you to the Time Chamber now."

Mirai Trunks and Reenie stopped yelling at each other and blushed. "Um, OK." Reenie finally said, sticking her tongue out at both boys and hopping after Dende.

"You know, even if I did hit on eleven-year-old girls," Mirai Trunks whispered to Gohan, "I seriously would not hit on Reenie."

"Me either."

Minutes later the guys and Reenie stood in front of the door to the Time Chamber. Dende stood to the side. "Now, Reenie, be prepared for anything in that room, and when you come out Gohan should have a pair of clothes waiting for you." He said kindly. Reenie frowned. "Why should I be prepared and why do I need clothes?"

Mirai Trunks happily answered this. "Unless you want to come out naked because I’m sure your clothes won’t be in one piece. Master Roshi would just adore you then."

She glared at him and stepped up to the door. She glanced back at all three boys, who were looking awed and amused, and knocked on the door. "Hello, anyone in there waiting to ambush me?"

Gohan fell over, Mirai Trunks shook his head and Dende sweat-dropped. "Are you that dumb! Don’t you know how to open a door?" Mirai yelled up at her. "Well, you made it sound like if I were to go in there someone would be waiting to attack me." She said sweetly. "Just get in that stupid room and close the da—just close the door!" Reenie grumbled and walked up to the door then pushed it open.

Blinding white light fell over her and she shielded her eyes. "Guys! You didn’t tell me I’d—oof!" she sucked her breath in as she fell to the ground from being pushed into the room from behind.

She stood and rubbed her cheek, swearing that she’d kill Mirai Trunks for pushing her in the room.

Gazing at her surroundings, she found two large beds and a long cabinet. She opened it and found packages of food, cans and water. Reenie smiled, but closed the cabinet. She had come to that room to train and gain strength, not to eat and sleep. "What to do first." She almost laughed at herself. She was talking to herself already!

But that made her wonder. How was she supposed to train by herself? Wasn’t that, "Impossible? No, not really." Reenie freaked. She hadn’t spoken…

She turned around to face…herself! She was staring back at herself, except her other self had dark pink eyes instead of red ones. OK, now she really wanted to leave. She was hallucinating now.

"No, I’m as real as you are." Again the other her had spoken! And she was listening! What was this? "This is your training." The other her read her mind?! "Yes, I can, and I still am right now."

Reenie’s eyes bulged and she turned to leave. She placed her hand on the doorknob and recoiled in pain as drops of blood slid down her hand to the ground. The other her had shot her hand! She had shot herself! "What’s going on, you ask? Let’s just say, I’m the you that you could never free. And now, I’m here to train you." Reenie backed up against the door. How was she supposed to run from this…from herself?

"You can’t run, Reenie. The only thing you can do, is fight me." Reenie gasped as the other her shot at her again. She dodged, but got a nasty cut on her cheek for not being fast enough.

"Gohan…Vegeta…I need help!" she yelled as she dodged another shot.

The only thing Reenie wanted now was to get out of this with her life.

~~On the MOON PALACE~~

"I don’t care if you have to go to earth or not, I want my daughter and I want her now!" Serenity was angry, raging like a bull. "Fear is what holds you back, Uranus, and I won’t have it!"

Uranus stayed on one knee with her head down. "Queen Serenity, I’m sorry. The scouts and I—"

"The scouts and you have not yet gone to earth. Luna! Get Luna in here, NOW!" Uranus stood abruptly, glanced one last time at her queen and left the room.

"So what did she say?" Mercury asked Uranus at the meeting that the scouts had called that evening. It was in the stables, where Serenity would most likely not look for them. "She wants us to go to earth," Uranus replied. A gasp went through the crowd. "Then we have to go." Everyone looked at Mars with a glint in her eye. "I feel a dark presence somewhere, it’s not here, but whenever I walk a little ways from the moon palace, I feel something terrible. I can’t say whether it’s a demon or what, but it definitely is pretty close to either the earth or us. And my best guess is it’s nearer to the earth

"Could it be after Reenie?" she finished. "I sure hope not," Luna said from Venus’ shoulder. "Our first problem is we can’t even find Reenie, and now our second problem is something could be looking for her just as we are? That’s final, then. Scouts, you must all go back to earth in disguise. I had wished I would never have to say those words again. But you might not want to go back until school starts on earth. It would be kind of suspicious to see a bunch of new girls in a town out of no where." The scouts looked down at their feet, angry, but saddened.

"Just when we were starting to have a normal life on the moon." Jupiter sighed. "Oh come now, cheer up everyone." The group looked at Saturn sitting cross-legged and smiling. "Earth wasn’t all bad. Remember the fairs? And the candy? And you, Jupiter, remember Andrew? Guys, this will be fun if we make it. Even when we were on earth, we had so much fun. Venus chasing after every guy she saw, Mercury always studying and staying bright and nice. Neptune playing such beautiful songs. Besides, I get to see Reenie in her regular form and not feel nervous that she’s a princess. This will be fun and an adventure at the same time."

Her kind words rang through the air as happy memories surfaced. "Thanks, Hotaru. We all needed that." Artimus said, smiling. "Well, scouts, you ready?"

Of course they weren’t, but they would do it for Reenie any day.

~~On Earth~~

"GAAA!" Reenie crashed landed and skidded to a halt breaking tiles wherever she slid. "Come on, Reenie, fight me. You must know by now you are not going crazy. If you don’t fight me, you’ll die." The other her came at her from the sky, fast and angry. Reenie turned. If she could just reach the door…

She hopped up and ran as fast as she could, grabbed the doorknob and turned it. The other Reenie halted on the ground, crossed her arms and glared. "So you couldn’t handle it? I thought you wanted training. You’re just a failure. You’re no better than those half-wit friends of yours. Especially Gohan, the loser with the hair. He’s fifteen and he still has no school education, what a—"

"Shut up."

The other Reenie smiled wickedly. Finally, this crybaby she was sent to help was learning something. She knew this because Reenie’s face was flushed, her eyes were shining and her hair began to whip around her as if it were having convulsions.

"That’s right. You’re not worthy of this room, or your friends. You know, they don’t even respect you. You whine, you’re a brat…you can’t even hit. What a waste of energy you are."

"That’s it…" With a scream, Reenie ran full speed toward herself and punched, hard, fast and angry.

The other her, thinking she wouldn’t be fazed by a thing, was sent hurtling backwards with a busted lip. She wasn’t expecting that, nope, not at all.

And the real fighting began.

The other Reenie threw the real one a punch a kick and a blast. Reenie, now figuring out how to channel her power, yelled, "Cosmic Destruction!" and sent a wave of blinding white heat at the other her, bruising her other self and burning her flesh.

The other Reenie yelped and flew backward. Her skin ached but she had to keep going. Had to teach Reenie…her mind fogged when she was sent up in the air, then kicked back down. How many people were fighting her? Or was it that the real Reenie was moving so fast she couldn’t see her, just feel her punches? Was she even fighting back?

The other Reenie blocked Reenie’s kick and sat bleeding on the ground. Reenie, full of energy and mad, backed off but didn’t let her guard down.

"You learn pretty fast." The other her finally said. Then the real Reenie noticed something. The other her was healing, rapidly! In a matter of minutes, there were no bruises or anything! Reenie groaned, she couldn’t do this all over again. "Yes you can." The other her said.

"Oh shut up and stop reading my mind." The real Reenie was tired and her energy began to fade. "It’s such a shame Lunarians need sleep."

Reenie froze. Where had she heard that name?

~~flashback~~

"Reenie, Reenie, come here!" Serenity was laughing and chasing after her tiny girl. "I wanna go to earth!" chibi Reenie was saying. "But you are of Lunarian blood, my love." Serenity…her mother…was saying. "You are from the moon, and we miss you. Reenie, you have to come back! Hurry, you are in grave danger…hurry!"

~~end of flashback~~

That hadn’t been in the original flashback. What did her mother mean, grave danger? Reenie sat on the ground and looked confused. "Hey!" she called to the other her, who was meditating in the air. "Just who are you anyway." The other her opened her eyes and smiled. "None of your business, nosy. But I’ll tell you anyway. I’m Sailor Chibi moon, your warrior self. We need to be combined by the end of this training if you want to reach your full power level. You ready for some more fighting? I’m going to teach you how to call your power, fly, and shoot without having to get angry first."

And she did.

They fought, punch to punch, blast to blast, and Reenie’s power grew, and so did she.

The last day of her training had come, finally, and in an hour, Reenie, fourteen, was to come out of that room. "I can’t go out there!" she screamed. "My clothes are all ripped! You can see my bra!"

"Oh don’t whine so much, Reenie." Sailor Chibi Moon was saying. "Gohan will have clothes for you."

"But—just do the thing, please!"

"Oh fine! Here." Sailor Chibi moon threw Reenie the Disguise Pen. "Yes! Now I can pick whatever I want to wear. Let’s see…disguise me as—"

"You are wasting our hour." Reenie blushed and put the pen away. "Come on then!"

Sailor Chibi Moon raised her hands. "MoonBlade Attack!" Reenie hadn’t seen this attack. She was nervous, but ready. Thousands of light daggers were hurled at her, cutting her cheek, again, and her legs. "Energy Shield!" a wave of her energy rose up from behind her and shielded her against the daggers. "Cosmic Destruction!" she sent her light at Sailor Chibi Moon, who dodged and laughed. "You can’t use that attack on me all of the t—"

Reenie had gotten behind her when she dodged and was now kicking her and punching her from behind. Sailor Chibi struggled but turned around and fought her face-to-face. "If you don’t beat me," she said between punches, "we don’t fuse and you stay just Reenie."

Reenie kicked her, remembering what she had said about Gohan, about her friends, angry at how she had to stay here because of a portal. This anger rose into power and she screamed, "Galaxy Suction!" In less than a second she was sent backwards while she watched Sailor Chibi Moon’s terrified face. Her attack "Galaxy Suction" was a blackhole sucking Chibi Moon into it. When she was finally sucked in kicking and screaming, it exploded and sent her right next to Reenie, bruised, burned, and not moving.

Reenie rubbed her forehead, blinked and stared at the smiling Chibi Moon. "It hurt, yes, but I can heal myself so I’m fine. Wow! What was that? Why didn’t you tell me you could do that, that was amazing!"

Reenie smiled. "I didn’t know myself. It got pretty dark in here, maybe it was a disguise attack." Sailor Chibi Moon smiled. "Maybe. Ready to fuse? You leave in a few seconds."

"How do we fuse?"

"Close your eyes and concentrate on forming all of your energy into one big ball." Reenie did this and held it in her hands. "Good, now stand there and wait." Reenie waited. She felt her warrior self place her hands on Reenie’s, then felt something push. She opened her eyes at a sharp pain in her chest.

Sailor Chibi Moon was nowhere. "I guess we fused." She said, searching for the disguise pen. When she found it, she grinned. "Disguise Pen! Change me into a sporty chick!"

When the light uncovered her body, she found she was wearing short gym shorts that tied at the waist, a red T-shirt that showed her stomach and white Keds. She looked down at herself and smiled. "Cute!"

She didn’t know why, but she wanted to look her best when she left. So, she did something just for fun. Concentrating on her energy, she sent her hair whipping around her face; it went past her behind; in smooth waves while her eyes glowed. Not only would this freak everyone, but also it would help her to use her energy whenever.

She stopped at the door, took one last look around, and pushed it open.

That was a long chapter, heh. Well, I told you it would be better than the last, and I guess it was. A lot more fighting, not much romance, but hey, you’ll see some of that pretty soon!!

I’ll write more about this evil guy Teero in the next chapter, I promise!!!!

(I have to anyway hahahaha)

~*~FicChik~*~