From the land of dreams

[wingsofprayer]

Helios kneels, hands clasped and eyes closed. He murmurs the quiet words of a prayer but cuts himself off mid-syllable as something suddenly feels changedHis eyes snap open and he stares around himself at wherever he has come to. He gets to his feet quickly. There is moonlight, he notices; nighttime. He is in some open park, not far from

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[maanverrotten]

Dream, dream, don't doubt it. She doesn't doubt. She won't. And here was someone that made her stop and look. Holy dream energy, oh, how pure it was. It left her smitten with hunger.

She watches him, not caring she'd left her castle again. Dreams were always in transit, and so was she. Changing worlds, dimensions, nexus nonsense, it meant nothing to her. Only dreams meant anything. Only dreaming dreams meant anything.

[wingsofprayer]

He's on guard immediately the second he sees her, which is immediately. He could never fail to notice that presence. His eyes widen.

But she was defeated; by the maiden and by the prince's golden crystal. How is this possible? A fake? A nightmare of his own?

"Nehellenia..."

[maanverrotten]

"You know of me."

Excellent. There is no need for silly unimportant introductions.

"You have many dreams, don't you?"

[wingsofprayer]

"They aren't yours to watch - or take." Yes, he knows her very well, feeding on the dreams of others, hunting him down within them until she had been defeated - gone!

"How is it you were revived?" he demands.

[kiramekinoishi]

Delightful, he thinks with a degree of irritation and more than a bit of sarcasm; the nexus again. What would it come up with next? Nevermind, he didn't want to know. And he doesn't fit in tonight either, dressed in his shitennou uniform complete with cape and sword.

His hand comes to rest on the hilt of his sword, and he glances around suspiciously, trying to gain his bearings. His eyes fall on the other who looks like he doesn't quite belong. He says nothing yet, but takes a couple of steps closer.

[wingsofprayer]

Helios opens his eyes to find himself confronted by a person he would never have expected.

"Lord Kunzite?" he asks with no little surprise. "But where is the King?" The shitennou, fully revived in his world, still rarely venture far from their liege's side, save when surveying their portions of the Earth for his sake. And this, he thinks, is not Kunzite's realm of the Middle East; rather, it reminds him of Japan where he had hidden inside the maiden's dream.

And yet, the greeting is at least polite and respectful for now. For them to meet is a welcome chance indeed, or would be in Helios' world.

[kiramekinoishi]

Kunzite's gaze turned, surprised that someone recognized him; especially in this place. He eyed the boy, brow furrowing slightly. "I am Kunzite," he says with a small, slow nod. "But who are you?"

He turned to face Helios completely. "King?" he echoes then as if just catching it.

[wingsofprayer]

Strange that Kunzite should seem not to recognize him, but no stranger than some of what's already happened.

"I am Helios, priest of Elysion, where the king's Golden Kingdom once stood," he introduces himself formally, hoping perhaps to make the other man recall it.

[amazoness_palla]

There's a girl running down the street, playing with the blue ball in her hands. Palla Palla is wearing something more normal though today, it's the blue dress-like piece of clothing that she wears more often when she goes out.

She stops running though as she notices another person, a person who somehow seems familiar to her, but she can't exactly put her finger on it. Palla Palla slightly frowns as she stares at the other person, now holding the ball still in her hands, as if staring would help her figure out the other person's identity.

[wingsofprayer]

Already from a time when Sailor Pallas has become Lady Serenity's senshi once more, Helios recognizes the girl easily but has a smile for her. He approaches, easily focusing on the familiar person in this unfamiliar place (but why is she here? why not sleeping in the Amazon? has something happened to cause her to be needed?)

"Sailor Pallas," he greets her. "Where is this?"

[amazoness_palla]

"Eh?" Her look turns into confusion as she keeps frowning. Sailor Pallas? Was this person mistaking her for one of those annoying sailor senshi who always ruined everything when she was playing around? "Palla Palla is Palla Palla!" She holds her ball in front of her. She could easily take on a human, even if this human somehow looked different from the others.

[wingsofprayer]

Palla-Palla? But the Amazoness senshi had only talked about themselves that way when-

It can't be.

"Are you feeling alright?" Helios asks carefully.

[asleepinsilence]

Hotaru kicks her feet from through the grass, shivering again. First that strange place with the piano playing man, and now here... Tonight's definetly been strange. And while she feels better from that nap she had, she would like to get back to the orphanage to she can have a proper sleep.

Perhaps this man can help? The man before with the silver hair wasn't too bad, though he was very shy...

"Hello?" she says softly, blinking up at Helios.

[wingsofprayer]

He recognizes her at once, but Helios has a smile for the young girl, albeit a faintly puzzled one. She had grown, more than this, by the time he had seen her last. She is also no longer the first, no longer nearly the first, person he has seen who has confused him.

Almost, he calls her Saturn, but this young, he does not believe she is fighting. She had grown to be able to fight alongside Lady Serenity.

"Tomoe Hotaru?" he questions, as if making sure of his guess.

[asleepinsilence]

She nods, "Yes." And then her face brightens, and she looks at Helios eagerly, "Do you know me?"

Maybe this man can explain more than Mercury-san and Uranus-san did.

[wingsofprayer]

"Perhaps," he says somewhat enigmatically. "I had thought you were older."

That, of course, has the advantage of being true, as well as a prompt for her to tell him more. He also has the excuse of a faulty memory, if something needs to remain unrevealed.

[freezingkiss]

The Tsukino residence had been the first place she had looked; Chibiusa wasn't surprised to find they weren't there. Fear was starting to set in as she ran through the list of possible places everyone could be and tried to ignore things she had heard and seen as she ran through the familiar 20th Century landscape...a famous race car driver and violinist both missing... No one had heard from Ami or Makoto in days...

She was running to the Hikawa Shrine by way of the First Bridge Park when it rang. It was her secret that she still carried his bell wherever she went, as a reminder of a promise. Sometimes it jangled dully in its pouch when bounced along like now, but it rang quite clearly. So she stopped, bewildered, to pull it out of her pocket and stare bemusedly at it. She held it up by its delicate handle, and it rang again. She lowered the bell, her confusion growing by the moment, when she saw him. And all she could do was stare as something caught in her chest.

It couldn't be...

[wingsofprayer]

He, too, feels the tug of the music of that bell, always ready to summon him, but it is different this time. Nearer. It is no summons but herald.

As soon as he sees her, Helios feels a rush of hope. An assurance that his questions can be answered, that she and he together will find a path through wherever this is.

"Maiden," he greets her. The smile that breaks over his face is both gentle and content.

[freezingkiss]

It takes her a moment to realize that she's not breathing. Or to think at all; the shock had frozen her. But everything resumed function too fast; she got slammed with swirling panic and bewilderment and

[wingsofprayer]

He becomes serious at once, misconstruing Chibiusa's obviously confused emotions.

"Has something happened?" he questions her, even as he reaches out his arms to enfold her in an embrace. Too many strange things have happened to him, even in this short time here, not to be concerned for her.

His mind races ahead. He had seen Lord Kunzite. If one of the shitennou was here in this place, then-

"The king?"