Two Faced The next morning, Minako stepped out of her room, fully dressed for work, and walked the short distance to Ami's room. She checked to see if the Scotch tape she had put on the outside of the door was still in place, then she eased open the door to check on her 'guest'. To her satisfaction, Amy was sound asleep in the small bed. Unless she had done any flying in the middle of the night, she appeared to have kept her promise to stay in Ami's room until it was time for her first day as a teacher. The agreement was simple enough. All Amy had to do was follow a few rules, and she would be allowed to essentially live Ami's life for her until Ami was able to get back to them, at which time Amy would then return to her own version of reality, which Minako had nicknamed 'The Twilight Zone'. If Ami didn't return . . . well, they would deal with that bridge when they had to drop their basket of eggs. In exchange, the Senshi would treat her with respect, and not tie her up and lock her in some hot steel trunk, or attempt to kill her. The rules were equally simple, but to be sure the evil, blue-eyed monster would remember them, Minako had posted them on both sides of Ami's bedroom door. The rules were: 1. No transforming into Dark Mercury for ANY reason. The reason is self evident. Thou ist evil. 2. No trying to escape. It would defeat the point, and make us kill you in a particularly painful and slow manner. So don't do it. 3. No flying. It makes us think of bats, which creeps us out. 4. No doing anything that would damage Ami's careerer, friendships, family ties, or anything else. See rule number two for consequences. 5. No fighting. You can hold off for a few days. Besides, there are more of us than there are of you. 6. No wandering around wreaking havoc, destruction, or mayhem. This will make us very angry. So just don't. 7. No wandering at all. Go to work, go home. Go out only when accompanied by one of us. You know who we are. 8. No turning Artemus into a pair of mittens. His fur isn't very thick anyway. 9. No sleeping with Makoto. Not that you would ever get that lucky . . . And most important of all . . . 10. No eating after midnight. God only knows what you would turn into then! It was agreed upon by the Senshi that if Amy broke any of the rules, they would find an . . . alternative way of dealing with her. For her part, Amy seemed to be taking them seriously. All that is except the last rule, which Minako had thrown in since they couldn't come up with a 10th rule to make it an even number. She had thought about making it, no hogging the remote control to the TV, but decided the last one would work just as well. Minako carefully closed the door and headed out the apartment. All of the Senshi felt Setsuna had been crazy to be so lenient with someone who wanted to kill them. When they all voiced their opinions to Setsuna on this, she merely said Amy would cooperate because she really had no choice, and they really had no choice but to let Amy take Ami's place if they wanted Ami to have a job when she returned to them. Today they would find out how much they could trust Amy and how right or wrong Setsuna was. Minako prayed to whatever deity would listen to her that Setsuna was right. While the Senshi were all willing to do as Setsuna suggested, many felt they couldn't trust the woman anymore, including Minako. The entire situation made her head spin. ---------- The sun had risen slowly into the sky, pouring soft orange light into the room of the strange place Ami had found herself in the previous night, but she wasn't aware of this at the moment, because she was fast asleep. She stirred a bit, but didn't wake up when Lita opened the door. Ami was sitting up in a chair at a desk, her face smashed inside the pages of the Rainbow Control Center Procedures Manual. A magnifying glass she had been using to read with lay next to the book, still gently gripped by Ami's right hand, and a tablet with hurried notes scribbled on several pages lay on the floor where it had fallen when Ami had finally gone to sleep. With her left arm in a cast and strapped across her middle, and the position she was in, Lita knew the woman she thought was her girlfriend would be incredibly soar when she finally woke up. The bluenette had studied all night. The Sekkou of thunder had no idea why Amy was so interested in Project Rainbow at the moment, since she had built the damn thing, and they had proved the portal generator worked twice over. However, she didn't care about that at the moment. Anger, and tucked behind that, hurt, flashed in Lita's emerald green eyes. Amy and Lita had shared an apartment ever since they had been married. It had been nearly a decade since the last time Amy had slept in a different bed from her. She had used the excuse that she had a lot of research to do that night, which at first was all right with Lita. But by one in the morning, it had become apparent that her lover would not be joining her in bed. Unable to sleep from her significant other's absence, Lita had gotten back up to find 'Amy' still reading her books, pamphlets, and research notes almost in a daze. Lita had gotten angry and demanded that Amy go to bed that instant. They needed to rest up to perform their duties appropriately for the following day, and it wasn't wise to stay awake all night when they had work to do. When Amy refused, Lita had thought she was hiding something and said so. When Amy assured her that wasn't it, Lita accused her of being angry with her and avoiding her rather than discussing the problem. Lita had gotten furious with Amy because the woman never even looked up from her books during the argument. It was as if she didn't even care about her. This was very strange of Amy to do, since she normally clung to Lita continuously during their spare time. While she did occasionally take the time to study, read, or tinker with some device, she never ignored Lita. On the rare occasion she absolutely had to do some kind of scientific work, she usually insisted Lita stay with her. Last night however, she had waved her hand to dismiss her as if she were a servant. It was as if the old annoying habits Amy had when they had been dating were coming back. It had to mean she was angry with her, and it infuriated her to no end. Especially since Amy refused to tell her what it was she was mad at her for. Still fuming, Lita said quietly, "Wake up call, honey." She gave Ami a gentle push. Ami moaned in her sleep, then said something about not eating the last cookie. Finally losing it, the tall woman gave the bottom of Ami's chair a violent kick, sending it flying out from under Ami, throwing her to the ground. Dark Jupiter put her foot gently on Ami's broken arm, resting it there. She looked down and said, as if everything were all right and they were just talking about the weather, "Still don't want to talk about what's bothering you?" Ami, now wide awake with her heart racing from the sudden and painful commotion, looked up at Lita with wide eyes. Ami couldn't help but muse that when one was lying on the ground, Makoto's double looked even taller and far more menacing. Trying not to hyperventilate in panic, Ami decided to gamble on the emotions she had seen the tall woman show yesterday. She said, trying to remain calm, "You won't do it." Lita gritted her teeth in anger, and raised her foot, causing Ami to squeeze her eyes shut, waiting for the unavoidable pain she was about to experience. To her surprise, she heard a smacking sound as Lita's foot hit the ground millimeters from the side of her head. When Ami opened her eyes, she saw Dark Sailor Jupiter holding her hand out to help her up. Ami accepted the offer, and was yanked violently to her feet. Lita squeezed Ami's hand tightly, and said, doing a bad attempt at keeping anger out of her voice, "You had better have a good reason for not telling me what it is you're up to." Ami looked into the other woman's eyes and got the distinct impression that Lita was paranoid, but of what, Ami couldn't begin to guess. Finally, Lita let go of her hand and turned toward the door, saying, "Come on, we are going to be late for work." Ami stood there another moment in a daze. The concept that the Sekkou had jobs other than being Queen Beryl's personal hitmen hadn't even occurred to her. "This place keeps getting weirder and weirder," Ami said quietly as she hurried to catch up with Lita. ---------- The hustle and bustle of the school cafeteria was in full swing, with students squeezing through the lunch lines, chatting and yelling to each other, and a few just wasting time between class. The occasional yell from a teacher or administrator reminding students not to run could occasionally be heard as always, along with the usual griping about the food, and the usual rumors circling the rumor mill were starting to spin as well. This was some cause for concern to Hotaru as she sat down to enjoy her lunch, because the two friends she usually ate lunch with hadn't appeared yet, which could mean only one thing. They must still be in Mizuno Sensei's last class. As the short girl looked around, she noticed that none of the students from Ami's class before lunch were out yet. She was just about to get up and investigate when she saw her friend, Satsuki, enter the cafeteria, dragging her feet slowly and rubbing her shoulders. She looked like she had just stepped out of gym class, only she was made to wear her school uniform instead of changing into her gym clothing. Hotaru stood up and called out to get her friend's attention, and it took her dazed friend a few more moments to make her way to her. Flopping down on the bench next to Hotaru, Satsuki said, sounding exhausted, "Sorry I'm late, Hotaru. Don't count on seeing Masakazu today either. I have a feeling he will be stuck in Mizuno Sensei's classroom the rest of lunch." Hotaru cringed inwardly as she imagined how class must have gone. She blinked a few times, feigning surprise, and asked anyway, "What happened? Was there a fight or something?" Flapping her arms in an attempt to get her shoulders to stop aching, Satsuki answered, "Something like that. I don't know what has gotten into Mizuno Sensei today. The class started out normally, but the further in it got, the stranger things got. It started when Masakazu raised his hand to ask a question, because Sensei had started to talk really fast and none of us could keep up. When Mizuno Sensei realized he was trying to ask her to slow down without actually saying it, all hell broke loose." She stopped and shook her head a moment before continuing. "She gave him detention, as well as several other students who gasped out in surprise. Then later, she said she was going to ask us each a question to see how well we had followed along, and she would be asking us in alphabetical order. Much to my horror, she decided that the alphabet started with S today. I got asked, 'What is the speed of light when passing through an event horizon'." Stopping a moment to groan out in frustration, Satsuki said angrily, "When I told her that wasn't even in the chapter we went over, she decided to make an example out of me and had me hold an extra text book from her advanced physics class in each hand with my arms spread out for the rest of the class!" Letting her head thump against the table, she said, sounding exhausted, "And as you can see, she extended class by 20 minutes. Half the class has detention, and they get to start by staying the rest of lunch cleaning the classroom. She's got them working like slaves!" Hotaru frowned as she heard another student who had been lucky to get out of Ami's class say something about 'Mad Madam Mizuno' - that being Ami's new nickname. Turning her attention back to her friend, she said quietly as she patted Satsuki's shoulder, "Maybe Mizuno-Sensei is just having a bad day. I'm sure she will be back to her old self in no time." Sounding as if she were crying, Satsuki said, "I know you know Mizuno-Sensei outside of class, Hotaru, so maybe you can talk some sense back into that woman. But if you don't think you can, I suggest you skip your last class today." ---------- Ami had so far spent her entire time in this twisted version of reality in the same building, and she had finally found out why. The building was Queen Beryl's personal palace. As such, it was ludicrous in size apparently to symbolize her power over the planet. And yet, it was only half finished. Amy's (well, at the moment, Ami's) job was to ensure said building was engineered properly and that the construction stayed on schedule. This was no small job, since Ami had learned that getting a contractor to re-model just her mother's kitchen on time had been a nightmare. To keep everything going in a construction zone the size of this was frustrating to say the least. At the moment, Ami stood on an unfinished floor near the newest levels which had just started being built. She could see for miles while she re-read over a schematic, which was so complicated she couldn't understand some of it. To add to her mounting stress, she had already had to have three projects re-started because the work was substandard even to her limited knowledge. She stared out at the city skyline for a while, finally tiring of giving orders, something she didn't like to do anyway. It was such a different city from the one she came from, and it wasn't just the city's layout that was different. Its infrastructure and technology were so advanced that it astounded Ami. Hover cars zoomed by in neat lines, using a navigation system Ami was still trying to figure out. She could see what she had learned were advanced space ships and shuttles taking off for space within the city's space port regularly without problems to various parts of the solar system. Some of the newer skyscrapers' architecture looked so magnificent that Ami couldn't imagine how they were built. It was all she could do to instruct her construction crews for just that reason. They used standard tools such as drills, saws, and arch welders, but they also used robotic suits to lift heavy equipment, rocket packs, plasma welders, and a few tools Ami hadn't tried to figure out what they were to avoid looking like an idiot in front of people she was supposed to be in charge of. Still, despite all the differences, the first moment she started to observe the city earlier that morning she had gotten the feeling she had been here before. She had been up here for four hours now, and the feeling just wouldn't go away. It was something about the newer, more advanced buildings, but she couldn't place her finger on what it was about them that made her feel she had been here. A loud whistle screeched out, causing Ami to jump in surprise, then relax and sigh to herself as she stretched her arms once she realized it was the call for break. The nagging feeling about the city would have to wait. She had some things she wanted to check out while she had the chance. Besides, if she spent any more time this high up without something tied to her, she was going to scream. ---------- Hotaru sat down at her desk quietly while waiting for Amy to get to the class room so she could start the last class of the day. The rest of the unsuspecting students wandered between desks chatting excitedly about their plans for later in the week. Hotaru looked up just in time to see Amy quietly walk in to the room to her desk so quietly that the class representative didn't even notice her enter. The twisted teacher sat down on top of her desk with an innocent smile plastered onto her face as the majority of the students continued to ignore her. After a few moments, the Sekkou turned teacher started to creep Hotaru out, because she wasn't moving. She didn't blink, and Hotaru wasn't even sure Amy was breathing. She was as still as a statue, just sitting on the desk, waiting. The short girl also found it frustrating that the rest of the class wasn't noticing their teacher's odd behavior, or the fact that she wasn't wearing glasses. Despite the identical face and clothing, everything about Amy screamed that she wasn't the same person. It frustrated Hotaru how dense some people in her generation could be. The bell rang out, and like unsuspecting cattle being led to the slaughter house, the class continued to chat quietly to each other and find their seats. Being late was their first mistake. Amy immediately jumped off the desk, grabbed a ruler, and smashed it against the marker board so hard it snapped into pieces, the parts landing inches from the students in the front row. The remaining students who were still standing, (now including one boy who was half way in his seat) stopped right where they were, too surprised to make any comment on their usually docile teacher's sudden burst of movement. To the least observant, it was as if their teacher had just suddenly appeared right before them. Now sure she had the class's attention, Amy pointed what was left of the ruler in her hands at each of the standing students as she spoke. "You, you, you, you and you, have detention today after school. Now, please take your seats so that we can begin class." The student that had been half sitting, finished sitting down as he protested under his breath, "But it's my first offense! Aren't we supposed to be given three chances?" Amy smiled happily and said as sweetly as she could, "Oh, OK. Don't worry, though, I'm sure I'll find another reason to make your life a living hell today." Addressing the rest of the class, she said, "Well, no time like the present for a pop quiz!" The entire class groaned loudly, with the exception of a few students who whispered out of surprise to their neighbors. Sensei Mizuno never gave pop quizzes. Amy handed the stack of papers to Hotaru and had her start passing out the tests wordlessly. As she made her way around the room, Hotaru had time to read the title of the test. Chapter 32: The workings of the universe, an adventure in science. After reading the title, she glanced at Amy and saw her watching with an amused expression as Hotaru continued to do the bidding of this evil monster. "Chapter 32? Thats the last chapter in the book! We are only on chapter 12!" Hotaru thought to herself angrily. To make things worse, she also noticed the test had no multiple choice answers. Everything required the student to write in sentence or paragraph form explaining the answer. Those were the hardest tests for Hotaru. As she sat down, she realized Amy was doing this specifically to get at her. If this was how she wanted to play, Hotaru would give her no satisfaction. She kept her face an expressionless mask as if this were an everyday, normal event in class and started answering the tests as best she could. When Hotaru had gotten to question three, a student said quietly on the other side of the room, "This is ridiculous!" Glancing down at her desk to find out the student's name, Amy said just as quietly, "See you after school, Mr. Oshiro." Oshiro said angrily, "What!? You can't --" Sounding rather bored, Amy cut him off with a sigh and said, "For the rest of the week then. Anyone else have a complaint?" Later on during the test, Hotaru saw Amy stand up without making a sound. Being careful not to let Amy see she was watching, Hotaru let her eyes follow Amy's determined gaze to see who her next target was. "Oh no!" Hotaru whispered to herself. Her friend, Kitsune, had many of Usagi's qualities. Chief among them was her tendency to fall asleep in class. The rest of the class seemed to have noticed what was going on about the time Amy pulled "Explaining Einsteinian Physics in all its Wonder" out of her bag that she used to carry her reference books. It was a particularly large, heavy book. Hotaru nearly stood up as Amy slunk quietly toward the unsuspecting student. Hotaru whispered frantically to herself, "Wake up, Kitsune!" Amy reached the girl's desk and raised the book high over her head. One of the students apparently had also noticed what was happening and said nervously, "Oh dear God, she's going to crush her head!" Amy slammed the book down as hard as she could on Kitsune's desk, right next to the girl's head. In a panic, the young student tried to stand up, and in the process tipped herself and the desk she had been in over with a tremendous crash. Amy laughed happily to herself. It wasn't much, but any chaos she could bring to this world the better. To everyone's surprise, she didn't give the boy who spoke up or Kitsune detention. Her reason for this was simple enough. She had filled the entire room that afternoon already, except for one seat. That particular seat was reserved for a special student Amy dearly wanted to see there. Exactly seven and a half minutes into the test, Amy said excitedly, "Well, time is up! Please turn your papers over. My dear sweet Hotaru, would you be ever so kind as to gather the tests for me?" Hotaru had finally had it with this nonsense. She said, deciding to abandon her attempt at staying quiet, "Don't you think we should have a little more time, Ami?" Amy smiled and said politely, "Hotaru, you will address me as Mizuno Sensei." Seeing the black expression on Hotaru's face, Amy said a little more seriously this time, "I'm sorry Hotaru, do you have something you would like to discuss with me privately?" She opened the door to the hallway and gestured for Hotaru to follow her. As Hotaru got up, Ami said in amusement, "This will only take a moment. Kitsune, please collect the rest of the tests." The moment the door closed behind them, Hotaru hissed, "What are you doing? You are supposed to be trying to be Ami! Even the most dense of those students can tell there is something wrong with you!" The 'teacher' smiled, then shrugged innocently as she spoke. "What did you want me to do? I haven't got the slightest idea how to teach a class of petulant children. I really am doing my best." "You could at least follow the lesson plan," Hotaru said, trying to keep her voice down. "Ah, she tests me! She tests me," Amy said, clearly irritated by Hotaru. Placing a hand on Hotaru's shoulder, she started speaking as if they were old friends. "Listen, Hotaru, maybe I should --" "Get your hand off me, Mizuno Sensei". Hotaru growled the last word angrily. It was as if Amy knew exactly what to do to get under her skin. Gripping both of Hotaru's shoulders as she started to get close to loosing her temper, Amy said angrily, "Listen, you little --" She stopped when she noticed a custodian start coming down the hallway on his way to clean some other part of the building. Lowering her voice to a whisper, Ami's impostor bit out angrily, "When I am out of this building I admit and surrender to your authority as your prisoner, and will comply with any requests you have. But when you are in this classroom," Amy stopped so she could move closer and leaned down a bit to whisper into Hotaru's ear, "I am God! You will do what I say." Standing back up to her full height, she said happily, just as the custodian passed them, "Do we have an understanding?" Taking Hotaru's silence as a yes, Amy said, "Good. Now take your seat." Then, to add insult to injury, she added as Hotaru opened the door, loud enough for the students in the room to hear, "Hotaru will be joining you for detention, Oshiro." ---------- As she walked through the darkened control room, Ami found the Wizard of Oz reference for the name for the portal generator to be amusing. Regardless of which side of the portal one originated, the other side probably always seemed a bit like Oz. Sighing out loud to herself, Ami said, "Now, if only I could find a pair of ruby red slippers." From what she had read in the manual the night before, turning on the portal and trying to leave through it would take quite a bit of time to do by herself. Since she would be missed at the moment if she took too long, all she had time to do was turn on a few of the generators and warm up some of the computer processors. Then, she was going to go meet up with Serena who had a few things she wanted to tell Ami. There was, however, one other thing she was going to do while down here. She wasn't sure if it was curiosity or the drugs still racing through her system, but she wanted to get a closer look at one of the portal activators the Sekkou wore on their chokers and used to leave Ami's home dimension. Unfortunately, she didn't know the location of the key to open the locker that held the extra ones. Luckily, there was a tool box she had come across that had several conventional tools in it. She figured the crowbar would suffice to break the locked doors. She jammed one end of the bar in between the door and the cabinet frame and started to push. It took a lot less effort than she had expected. When the lock broke and the door popped open, her bar went flying away, crashing against something in the dark, sending a series of clanging sounds through the large room. Ami cringed and backed away for a second as if she had done something wrong while taking a moment to insure no one heard the commotion. When no alarms went off and no doors flew open so guards could come rushing in, she silently stepped forward and pulled out one of the small star-shaped pendants, put it in a shirt pocket, and stepped back into the shadows to leave. Just as she was nearly to the door, it slid open unexpectedly. She wasn't quite close enough to have set them off, so Ami knew someone was coming in and dove behind one of the many generators in the room. Two female silhouettes walked in and closed the door behind them, plunging the room into darkness. As Ami watched from her hiding place, neither of them moved a muscle for what felt like several minutes. "You might as well come out, Amy. We know you are in here." Like a ghost, Trista's quiet haunting voice echoed through the room. Despite its softness, to Ami, it seemed to be the most terrifying of sounds. Hotaru added, "Yeah! Come on out! We already know you are busy giving yourself a little tune up, so your secret is safe with us!" Hotaru showed some frustration on her face when the comment failed to get a response. "Yes, that's right, you little freak! Beryl told us all about how you got your butt handed to you by -- " Hotaru stopped talking a moment when Trista put a hand on her shoulder, silently suggesting she change her tone. Hotaru rolled her eyes and said, sounding like she was talking to a dog she had just kicked and only half heartedly wanted it to stop cowering, "We are here to . . . offer you something. Friendship, if you will." Then the short girl started tapping her foot and glared at Trista as if to say, 'Well?' She whispered to her taller companion, "See? She is a bit of a recluse. I told you we should have tried Lita instead." Trista put her hand on Hotaru's shoulder again and said, equally quiet, "Come now, you know Amy is the one out of them with the biggest grudge against Mina. She will cooperate once she hears what we have to say. She just needs some . . . persuasion to talk to us." Then the two outer Sekkou started walking into the room. Louder this time, Trista said, "You cannot hide forever. Besides, we really aren't looking for a fight. Just hear us out and we will be on our way." Ami looked behind her, trying to find a way out. All she saw was a steel wall and . . . a vent leading into the ventilation system. There it was, the one real chance she had of getting away from her two pursuers, and she couldn't take it for two reasons. First, they would hear her the moment she started crawling around the vent shaft. Second, she only had one arm to use since her other was still broken, and resting in its sling. Ami peeked around from behind her hiding place and noticed that her uninvited guests had walked past her hiding place and were about to get close enough to see the damaged locker. Realizing she had no choice, Ami stepped out of the shadows and said with as much authority as she could, "I'm running a rather delicate experiment at the moment, so I'd appreciate it if you would make this quick." The two Sekkou turned around, momentarily surprised 'Amy' had come out of hiding so quickly. Apparently, they had expected her to take more convincing. It hadn't occurred to her that some of the Sekkou didn't entirely trust each other. A few more moments passed with no one moving. Realizing the two intruders probably thought she had something planned, she decided to walk toward them. That was when they made their move. Hotaru handed one end of a rope she had kept out of view to Trista, then the two flew at Ami, closing the distance between her and them. Once they reached her, they flew circles around her so that Ami was wrapped up in the rope, and unable to move her arms or legs. Both in surprise, and because Trista tightened the rope around Ami's feet by giving it a tug, Ami fell face first to the ground. Dark Saturn rolled Ami on to her back, then lifted her off the ground by her collar, as Ami protested in fear and surprise, "What's the meaning of this!? I thought you wanted to talk!" Trista said, surprisingly calm, "Just a precaution. We know you are rather sensitive about your disability, and that you don't take kindly to being interrupted during your . . . procedures." Ami looked at the tall woman, feeling a strong sense of rage course through her. Not because of this disability they were talking about, of which she knew nothing, but because she felt stupid for being caught off guard. Hotaru looked up at Ami, watching her squirm momentarily before saying, "Now now, it's OK. Here, perhaps this will help you to trust us some." She brought up her hand and touched Ami's broken arm. Ami clenched her eyes tight, expecting the demonic version of her student to try to hurt her. Instead, she felt . . . nothing at all. No pain. It took her another moment to realize that Dark Pluto had healed her arm similar to how Sailor Saturn healed wounds. Trista gently set Ami down so that she was somewhat sitting on a large crate near them. "You can stop wearing that ridiculous sling, once we untie you of course. We have much to discuss with you, Mrs. Anderson." Hotaru leaned causally on her staff and said, "You see, we need help. We want to replace Mina with . . . well, us. Since you are the most intelligent out of all of us, we were hoping you could help us with a plan to do so. It would be the best way to get her back after all for what she did to you." When Ami didn't answer, Hotaru elaborated. "We want to discredit, humiliate, and dishonor her." Then, in an attempt to show her they were serious, Trista untied Ami. "What do you say, Amy?" The Sekkou of destruction held out her hand and finished, "Partners?" For her part, Ami looked back and forth between the two of them while gingerly testing her now healed arm, and trying as hard as she could to hide her confusion. 'What disability were they talking about? Her scan of Amy hadn't turned up anything other than severe injuries, but they all appeared to be healed, hadn't they? What did Amy have against Mina?' Many questions circled through her mind, but perhaps the most important question that entered Ami's mind was, 'Do I help them?' It turned out, Ami would have no time to answer. Ami heard a sound from above, and looked up just in time to see Dark Sailor Jupiter jump from a catwalk and land between all three of them. Before anyone could move, Lita kicked both Trista and Hotaru, sending them crashing against surrounding equipment. Standing victoriously, Lita said angrily to her two victims, "We have pledged our loyalty to Mina and will never bow to the likes of you." Dark Pluto and Saturn rose to their feet, but backed away. Trista looked at Lita and said with a sharp edge of anger, "You know we can defeat you." Softening her voice just a bit, she said to Ami, "Do you really share that commitment?" Before Ami could answer, Trista said, pointing at her own brain, "Think about it." Then she grabbed Hotaru and the two quickly made their way back to the door. Ami started to leave as well, until Lita grabbed Ami by the arm and said, "Come with me. We need to have a chat." ---------- Haruka loved Michiru dearly. However, she hated it when she had to borrow her lover's car. An aquamarine Volkswagen beetle just wasn't her choice for a mode of transportation, no matter how 'cute' Michiru might think it was. Unfortunately, Haruka needed something to pick up Hotaru from school. Adding to her frustration, Hotaru seemed to be running rather late. Just when she reached for the door handle to get out and start looking for her daughter, she saw the teen walking quietly out of the building, head hung low in apparent shame. Haruka got out of the car and met her halfway. "What happened?" "Mizuno Sensei gave me detention for standing up for my classmates at the hands of a bully." Haruka narrowed her eyes. "This . . . bully, wouldn't happen to be who I think it is, would she?" Hotaru sighed. "It's OK, Haruka-papa, really. I think she just wanted to blow off some steam and . . . impress . . . upon . . . me . . . where are you going? Haruka-papa?" She watched Haruka walk past her and into the building. Hotaru made the decision to wait in the car because whatever her parent did would almost certainly be polite, well thought out, and responsible. After nearly reaching the car, Hotaru sighed again, shook her head in disappointment, then put her book bag down next to the car, turned around, and ran in the direction Haruka had gone.
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