The Family Not Known

A/N: Sorry for tanking so long to update...was moving and had lots of hours at work and been sick...not fun, so to make up for it, I have two chapters ready to go.

::Telepathic Speech::

3/13/05

Billie’s First Fight.

Billie and Kolt were already close friends with Andrew. Kolt and Andrew met when Andrew was first brought to one of his girlfriend\'s, Rita - Kolt\'s cousin - family get togethers. The two guys hit it off despite the differences in their ages, Andrew now 21 and Kolt now 28, quickly became close friends. When Billie and Kolt became a couple, she and Andrew became good friends too. The younger man and the couple were usually exchanging letters and would call each other a couple times a month and anytime major news happened to themselves or the families. The couple also kept in touch with Rita too, but now that she was out of the country in the middle of nowhere studying ruins, it was harder to keep in touch with her.

Because Andrew and Darien were best friends, whenever Kolt and Billie visited Andrew at the arcade, Darien was usually there - when he wasn\'t working or saving the world. And with him would be Serena and the other girls, sometimes playing the games, sometime studying, other times just hanging out talking as friends do.

Within the first week after the show, Billie and Kolt met the other group of girls that were friends of Darien, Serena, Rei, Lita, Ami, and Mina. Amara Tehon and Michelle Kaioh, the female couple. Trisha Meioh and Hotaru Tomoe, the oldest and the youngest of the group respectively. As the next few weeks went by, the circle of friends grew to include Billie and Kolt.

Three weeks after the night of Billie\'s show in celebration of the opening of the restaurant above the arcade, Billie was sitting at the counter of the arcade, talking with Andrew as he worked. Kolt had left a couple of days before on a week-long business trip for the accounting firm he worked for, or else the two of them would be enjoying some time to themselves, it had been a long time since they had been on a real date because of the schedules they both had, some days the only times they saw each other was when they got up in the morning and when they were both in bed at night. Billie did a show the night before, and because of the mental strain two nights in a row caused, she never booked two shows with less than a full twenty four hours in between them. She needed at least one day to rest.

Darien and Serena were out on a date this night, they hadn\'t had much time to themselves, alone,
the past week, with school and Darien\'s new part-time job. Everybody felt they needed the time alone. Billie knew that the girls had planned that they would have a sleep over at Lita\'s house for the weekend, but that Serena was really staying at Darien\'s place and not with the others. She knew that the reason for the rouse was because, Serena\'s parents, especially her father, wouldn\'t be happy that their daughter was staying at a guys house for the weekend, no matter that she was
of consenting age or not. The other girls were getting what they needed for the weekend-long slumber party.

Even close friends need some time apart, or each person forgets who they are. Just as couple in a
relationship.

\"Did Kolt call you today?\" Andrew asked Billie, pulling her mind out of the daydream that it was
in.

\"Yeah,\" Billie nodded. \"There\'s nothing that he can talk to me about though. You know how he is about client confidentiality. He doesn\'t talk to me about any details about work. Not that I mind though, debits, credits, balance sheets, they all make my head spin. That\'s why he\'s my accountant for my magic shows. I\'m a client, so he definitely won\'t talk about other clients with me.\"

\"Why do you think that my parents use that accounting firm he\'s at. In fact the only reason they use that firm is because of Kolt. Not because he\'s almost family, but because he\'s one damn good
accountant.\" Andrew paused a few moments while he waited on a customer. When he came back, he asked, \"When is he due back, anyway?\"

\"Thursday sometime. He doesn\'t know how long it will take them to do what they have to do, but they are not staying past Thursday. His supervisor doesn\'t think that they\'ll need longer than a week, he said. But it sounds like it won\'t be sooner than that, either.\"

Billie sighed. She missed Kolt. They hadn’t been apart like this since they first moved in together
a little over a year ago. Even when she had a show that she had to stay away overnight for she was always home by supper the next day. She tried to never be gone more than that if she could help it. She was like that even before she met Kolt when she was just beginning her magic career. She just didn’t like to be away from home for too long. But now that she has Kolt in her life, where ever he was, that was where she felt her home was. The old saying, “home is where your heart is” applied to her. Her heart was and always would be with Kolt.

@}~`~,~~

Rei and Ami entered the arcade and saw Billie talking with Andrew. The first thing that they both
noticed was that Billie wasn’t her normal cheerful self.

In the last three weeks since they met her, they had never seen her as any thing but happy, even in
the few other shows of hers they saw. She was serious, but you could see, underneath, that she was happy. She was usually one of the first to laugh. Always teasing, but always in a way that
everyone could tell it was meant to be good natured, she never ment to hurt anyone.

The only time that they saw her really upset was with Bowden Black the night that they first met
her. And they haven\'t heard tell of him since.

The two girls looked a each other and silently agreed that they needed to cheer her up, somehow.

\"Man Billie, you really looked bummed!\" Rei said as she sat on a stool beside Billie.

\"What\'s wrong?\" Ami asked as she sat on the other side of her.

Please don\'t let me ever lose him from my life. The pain from that would kill me for sure! Billie thought as she looked at her glass of juice. She didn\'t dare look at either girl in case they saw the tears that she was fighting to keep out of her eyes.

\"She\'s missing Kolt,\" Andrew answered for her, seeing that she was getting more and more upset
as the seconds passed.

\"What?\" Rei said, \"but he\'s only away on business.\"

\"We haven\'t been apart this long since we started living together,\" Billie said, almost sounding like
she was in a trance.

The two girls knew that the couple shared an apartment, the entire group did. They just didn\'t know for how long. They all thought that it was maybe just for a couple of months at most. They still had the \"new couple\" air around them.

\"How long has that been?\" Rei asked, hoping that Billie didn\'t think that she was being too nosey.

\"Little over a year ago,\" Billie said.

Rei gasped in shock. She really didn\'t think that it could have been that long, the two acted like
they were only going out for that long.

Billie looked at her, \"What?\"

Rei just shook her head.

\"How long have you been going together?\" Ami asked.

Andrew watched the two girls with amusement, he knew that they thought that Billie and Kolt were a couple in the first year of their relationship, but he also knew for just how long that they were going out for.

Billie turned her head to Ami and answered her question, \"About four years.\" She looked at her watch and saw that it was almost nine, and there was a show that she wanted to catch on TV at nine-thirty. Looking out the door, she saw that it was starting to get dark. \"I\'d better get going. It\'s getting late and I want to get through the park before too many of the nuts come out.\" She lived on the other side and the park was the quickest way for her to get home.

\"You\'re walking?\" Andrew asked. He didn\'t want her in that park after dark. She didn\'t know it, but there were rumors of high-school and college aged kids being attacked by weird monsters in that park at night. And her being twenty five certainly fit her in with the college aged kids, no problem. It didn\'t matter if they were alone or in groups. The kids from the local high school have been talking about others that they know of that have been attacked and he knew of a few rumors around the campus of the college he attended.

“I wouldn’t Andy, but my bike’s at home. I walked here trying to clear my head, remember,”
Billie said back.

She knew that he didn’t like to be called “Andy” so she only used it when she getting upset, and
he knew it. When she called him that, he usually left her alone, but this time, he just couldn’t.

Andrew was about to say something more when a group of teens came up to the counter for some
drinks of pop and juice. Billie watched him as he walked away from her. She saw that even though Rita was out of the county, Andrew seemed happy. She knew that they truly loved each other, and were true to each other. Rita and Kolt’s family cared for Andrew a lot. They think of him as a member of the family. He fit right in. The family wouldn’t let Rita be if she would do anything to hurt Andrew, neither would Darien, Serena, and the other girls, they were true friends to him. She felt lucky to be counted in their group of friends now. And if Andrew did anything to hurt Rita, Kolt and she, Billie, would be on him so fast, even if they were good friends. Depending on what it was that happened, maybe they could even stay friends. I don’t know how you do it Andrew. You’ve been apart so long now. Does it get easier?

Billie could tell the girls were going to try to talk her out of walking through the park too, so she
got up in a hurry and said a quick good-bye to them and walked to the door before they could say
a word. On her way, she caught Andrew’s eye and gave him a wave good-bye, then hurried her
way out the door.

@}~`~,~~

Andrew finished the orders and took the money, giving the teens their change. Then he went over
to where Ami and Rei were sitting. “You two just let her leave?” he asked them.

“What were we supposed to do? Grab her and hold her here?” Rei asked him.

“But she’s gonna go through the park!” he said.

“She left before we could say anything,” Ami argued back.

Andrew looked worried. The two girls knew the rumors. In fact, they knew they were more than rumors. If it wasn’t for the Sailor Scouts, there would be a lot more attacks and more people getting their energy drained, the one fact that rumors didn’t have. Ami and Rei looked to each other and nodded. Then Rei said, “We are on our way to Lita’s, we’ll go try to catch up with her before she reaches the park and tell her of the rumors about that place alright?”

Andrew nodded, “Alright. Just be safe.”

“We will,” Ami said, “and we’ll let you know how it went when we get to Lita’s.” And with that
the two girls left.

“Stay out of the park yourselves! I don’t want to have to worry about you too!” Andrew called
after them, but they never heard him, since they were out the door.

@}~`~,~~

After they left the arcade, Ami and Rei headed to the park. “Do you think we’ll find her before she reaches the park?” Rei asked Ami.

“With the illusions she can cast? Who knows? If she doesn’t want to be found...it’ll be difficult,
but with my computer I think that I can find her.”

“But we told Andrew that we would call him when we reached Lita’s” Rei said.

“Don’t worry,” Ami said as they reached the entrance of the park and had as of yet to find Billie,
but if she ran, she would have had enough of a head start to reach the park first. Ami pulled out
her communicator and called Lita.

“What’s going on?” Lita asked.

“Rei and I are at the entrance to the park between Billie’s and the arcade. We didn’t catch her before she went in there, so we have to go in after her. Give us enough time to get to your place from here and add on a few extra moments for time that we would need to talk to Billie and then call Andrew and tell him that we found her and that she went around the long way. If he asks why one of us didn’t call, tell him that Rei twisted her ankle after we arrived at your place and I’m helping her to take care of it.”

“No prob,” Lita answered, not asking where Ami got the deviousness from.

“Thanks,” Ami said as she turned off of the communicator and put it away. Then she turned to Rei, “What Andrew doesn’t know, won’t hurt him.” The two took off at a run into the park.

Rei glanced at Ami as they dodged people leaving the park, and chuckled.

“What?” Ami questioned.

“I think that Serena’s carefreeness is starting to rub off onto you.”

Ami just shook her head as she ran, “Well Andrew is going to think that her old klutziness is rubbing off on you!”

They saw that the people that were exiting the park were thinning out in numbers, still they did not see Billie. I guess even these people have heard the rumors, Rei thought. About a hundred meters ahead of the girls they could see one woman walking, “Must be Billie up ahead,” Rei said.

Ami nodded in agreement, and they hurried ahead.

As the girls neared Billie, they heard someone up ahead scream and stopped and looked momentarily dumbfounded as Billie started running in the direction of the cry. They quickly came to themselves and ducked behind some bushes and called Lita and Serena on the communicators and filled them in on what was happening. They then transformed and went to aid in whatever was happening.

@}~`~,~~

Billie had entered the park and had only gone in short ways when everybody around her started, in smaller groups, turning around and heading back to the entrance. She felt a little uneasy. She mentally shook it off, believing that feeling was only because she was missing Kolt. They had often walked through this park since they moved into the apartment that they now live in, a couple of months ago.

After she was about a third of they way across the park, she thought that she had heard someone
coming up behind her. Just as she was about to turn around and see who it was, a woman up
ahead somewhere screamed.

Thinking that maybe the woman was being attacked by one of the creeps that often hideout in a
city park as it gets dark, she started running towards the sound’s origins. An attacker doesn’t
want witnesses, right? quickly flashed through her head. Nothing could have prepared her
for what she saw when she found the source of the sound.

When she got close enough to see what was going on, she froze in her tracks and gasped. She
was expecting to see a monster of the human variety, not of the horror type.

In front of her looked to be a giant sunflower with the tentacles of a squid, all ten of them, at the base instead of roots. It had the woman wrapped around the waist and looked to be squeezing her death. Billie didn’t know how she knew but something inside of her told her that the thing was draining the energy from it’s victim. Without thinking about it any longer, she ran forward to try to help. Something inside of her was pushing her forward and she didn’t know how to, nor want to, stop herself even though she was scared shitless.

The plant sensed her energy as she got about halfway to it from where she was when she first saw
it. It swung around to face her, dropping the woman who was now unconscious.

Billie stood there frozen, as the thing drew closer. It stared into her eyes, almost daring her to
look away. Her mind was yelling at her to close her eyes, or look away, but her body wouldn’t
respond.

As she felt a tentacle wrap around her waist, she snapped out of the trance and tried to get away,
but it was too late. She screamed as it tightened and lifted her off her feet. She struggled to get
free, but the monster just tightened it’s grip on her.

Getting angry, she put her hands on the tentacle and started pushing against it. That’s when she
could feel the energy being sucked from her body. She started to get more scared than she had
ever remembered being. What’s happening? What’s going on? she asked herself.
Everything started to get fuzzy. Let go of ME!

She felt a heat flow down her arms to her hands and out her fingers. The monster let out a roar of
rage and pain, as it loosened it’s grip on her and then flung her aside.

Billie felt herself being caught. When she looked up into the face of the person who caught her,
at first she saw a man wearing a top hat and a mask, then they slowly faded away, and she saw
just the man.

::Darien?:: she thought.

Then she blacked out, but not before she saw the look of surprise on his face, and heard his voice
in her head, ::How could she tell?::

@}~`~,~~

Rei had called Lita on her communicator while Ami called Serena on hers. Lita agreed to wait the few moments more that they would need to get to her place to call Andrew, then she would transform and meet them there. In the meantime though, she would contact Mina and fill her in on the situation.

After they transformed, Mars and Mercury ran to help Billie. She had no idea what she was in for!

They arrived on the scene just as the monster grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off of her feet. Mercury had begun her scan as soon as she was in range, and Mars ran in to help Billie. As Billie screamed, they were joined by Sailor Venus, she joined Mars in fighting.

Through her scanner, Mercury saw an energy that she had not expected to see and she couldn’t find it’s source. She watched in awe that the readings that were coming across her viewer, the energy had come from Billie! To have readings like that, she’s go to be strong! No wonder that thing went for her before the other woman was fully drained!

As Billie was flung through the air, Sailor Moon arrived. Mercury saw that Billie was caught by
Tuxedo Mask, and lowered to the ground gently.

@}~`~,~~

Darien and Serena had just finished their meal and had just left the restaurant, not far from the park where Billie will be attacked, when Serena’s communicator beeped. After answering it and talking with Ami for a few quick moments, Serena turned to Darien, “It’s Billie! She’s in danger of being attacked by the Negaverse!”

“What!?” Darien said, he had a funny feeling that something was going to happen all evening, he
just couldn’t figure out what.

“She’s in the park not far from her apartment and when she heard somebody scream, she ran to
help. That’s the park where all the other attacks have been happening.”

“Let’s go! Even if she doesn’t need our help, somebody does.”

“Right!”

They ran into the closest alley and transformed then jumped to the roof of one of the buildings and made their way across building tops to the park.

The two arrived just as Billie started to push on the tentacle around her waist with her hands. They felt an energy build up familiar, but neither of them could point out as to why. Just like the feelings that Darien had that day.

When Billie was thrown, Sailor Moon ran into help the other girls fight the monster, while Tuxedo Mask ran to catch Billie before she could hit the ground.

As he lowered her to the ground, she opened her eyes and started at him for a few seconds then a
confused look came over her face. He was surprised greatly by the next word that he heard, and
not just because he heard it not with his ears, but with his mind. ::Darien!?::

Tuxedo Mask felt chills run down his spine. ::How could she tell?:: he didn’t even know that he
was sending that thought to her. How did she know who I am? How could she see? How
did her voice get into my head?

Just then Sailor Pluto appeared next to him seemingly out of nowhere. “Tuxedo Mask, you are needed in the fight, I will protect her.” Tuxedo Mask looked up at her, then to where the girls, who now numbered eight since the other scouts have arrived. They were in trouble and needed a distraction to regroup. He nodded and took off to help the others, and didn’t see the brief flash of
light as Sailor Pluto and Billie vanished through a time portal. The safest place for her to be while she learns some of her own history, Pluto thought.

Just as the portal closed, Pluto saw Sailor Moon get hit hard and thrown into a small group of trees. She didn’t see it, but knew a couple of those trees didn’t survive the collision. I wish I could help you my princess, but I know that it is not for me to help you this day. It is time for your bodyguard to return and protect you.

@}~`~,~~

Billie opened her eyes and had no idea where she was. The last that she remembered she was at the park near her and Kolt’s apartment and was being attacked by a fucked up sunflower with tentacles. Looking around her, she saw nothing but white. Then one person came into focus.

A woman in a sailor suit like those of the high schools. She had blue eyes and dark bluish-purple hair that hung down to her waist. At first Billie didn’t recognize the face but after a few seconds the details became startling clear.

“Trisha?” she asked.

“Yes,” Trisha answered, “but in this form I am known as Sailor Pluto, ‘The Guardian of Time.’”

“Where are we? Why are we here?”

“We are in my realm. The point where all time meets. I brought you here for two reasons. The first, to protect you from the battle. The second, and the most important, is to help you to remember who you are.”

“Who I am? I am Billie Merlin! I am an illusionist! I am girlfriend to Kolton Walker! I...”

“That is only part of who you are!” Sailor Pluto said calmly. “To call yourself a mere illusionist is an insult to your abilities. You are more than that! You are what was known as a Mage!”

A Mage? What’s a Mage?”

“One who uses black magic...”

“Black Magic?? I’m evil!?”

“Just listen. A Mage is one who uses black magic and white magic as well as illusions
and weapons in battle.”

“Only in battle?”

“No, strong Mages could use their magic and illusions outside of battle.”

“Why would I be in battle?”

“What else does the captain of the royal guard of a princess do, if not fight to protect her?”

“Who did I protect? What princess?”

“Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom.”

“That is just a story!” Billie said.

“No, it is more.”

“Yes! It was told to me as a small child!”

“Who told you the tale?”

Billie looked stunned. She could not remember who.

Sailor Pluto looked into Billie’s eyes. “Think back. Is it a memory of a tale, or is it a tale from a
memory?”

Billie didn’t know what to say. Suddenly a pain was in her head and she blacked out once again.