"I wonder when those two will finally come back," Jedite muttered, idly tossing a ball of black energy back and forth between his white gloved hands.
"Well," Hotaru began dimly, "they did take their entire doujinshi collection with them on this 'engagement drive', so who knows how long it will be before they return." She sighed. Haruka-poppa and Michiru-momma had constructed their own Kama Sutra using the "best" (and she used that term very, very loosely) of the Hentai Doujinshi about themselves that they had found on eBay. It was the source of many of her sleepless nights. The other source, she mused darkly, turning her head to the Mountain Dew machine in the corner of the livingroom, was the rocking TARDIS belonging to Minako-sempai and Xadium-san.
It had gotten worse after they had gotten married; she worried what Haruka-poppa and Michiru-momma would be like after their nuptials.
"The longer the better," Hotaru concluded, sighing leaning back on the large leather sofa that dominated one corner of the livingroom, which had been affectionately dubbed "Das bercouch." Idly, she began to crack open a copy of "Lady Chatterly's Lover", hoping that Jedite did not notice what she was reading. There was still much research to do.
Jedite snickered. Her foolish attempts to hide the book behind the cover of "Ulysses" had failed. He didn't know who Goth no Senshi was planning to woo, but she was certainly going all out with her explorations of love. Well, as all-out as a shy introvert with a distaste for internet smut could, anyway.
The Dark General pondered the most humiliating, cutting remark to throw at Tomoe the younger when a loud, metallic, screeching and scraping sound filled the room. He frowned. It sounded like "sneaky future girl" Sakura Aino's TARDIS, but the sounds it were making were more out of joint, rapid, unharmonious.
"What the--" Hotaru asked, rising from her seat and tossing her book aside as Sakura's TARDIS materialized in the livingroom, its normally sleek and pristine silver monolithic surface mottled and pitted, black scoremarks all over the front.
Jedite yawned and smiled, sliding sideways and stooping down, securing the false cover to the book and burning it. He readied a small camera for the moment when Hotaru would pick up the novel once again.
With a hissing noise, the door to Sakura's TARDIS appeared, recessing and retracting into the thin transcendentally dimensional monolith. Black smoke bellowed from somewhere within the depths of the machine, and a pulsing blood-red light could be seen from the interior, but little else.
Hotaur took some tentative steps forward. She had never been in Sakura's TARDIS-- no one had, and was uneasy about trespassing. Her concerns, however, were mooted as within seconds, a coughing and hacking Sakura stumbled out of the smoke, staggering and falling into Hotaru's arms. The taller blonde was heavy enough to push the frail Hotaru right off her feet.
"Sakura-chan?" Hotaru asked with growing horror as she noted Sakura's outfit was bloodied, torn and scorched. Sakura herself looked as if she's lost a fifteen-round fight with a boxing elephant.
"Hotaru-P," Sakura coughed, spitting up some blood, still lying prone across Hotaru. Hotaru pushed herself up and let Sakura rest on her lap.
Sakura looked up at Hotaru with a wild look in her brown eyes. "Wha.... what year?" she rasped, hacking.
"2005," Hotaru replied, uncertain as to what was going on. The sound of a crash and an explosion could be heard from within Sakura's TARDIS.
"G-good," Sakura muttered, forcing herself to sit upright. Pulling out a chain from under her shirt, she grabbed a small rectangular pendant on its end and pointed it at her TARDIS. The front door extruded and sealed the surface of the monolith just as a massive shockwave from the interior of the machine impacted against it. Smoke leaked from the invisible seams in the front casing.
"What... happened?" Hotaru asked, somewhat shocked. "Did you have an accident?" Sakura was known for being a tinkerer. Perhaps she had modified her TARDIS improperly.
"It was no accident," Sakura muttered. "T'was an ambush."
"An ambush?" Hotaru didn't understand. Jedite, however, perked up a little, even if he didn't show it.
"There's a war going on," Sakura said darkly, narrowing her eyes. "My people are on the losing end of it."
"Heh," Jedite snickered. "I always said you Time Lords were an effete bunch of losers."
Sakura didn't even move. "Hah. We were attacked by the only force capable of taking us down. Ourselves. A splinter faction."
"Nothing like a good civil war to drive up the body count," Jedite chuckled.
"You're a barrel of monkeys," Sakura replied darkly. Her wounds were already closing up, thanks to the hybrid vigour of her Gallifreyan / Senshi genome. "My home, the planet I loved, the friends I made..." She balled up her fists. "And now..."
She cast her gaze to the Mountain Dew vending machine in the corner. "He has to know."
Hotaru looked at Sakura worriedly. The girl had usually visited the house when her past parents were away or indisposed. Previously this had been because she could not face the pain of seeing parents long thought to her to be dead, but now-- as she had explained it-- it had been in order to avoid creating a temporal paradox. For her to suddenly decide she had to meet them--
"The situation is grave indeed," Sakura replied, almost reading Hotaru's mind. "This is a war fought across not only space, but time. Fronts in the past impact fronts in the future and vice versa. Nowhere and Nowhen is safe. There are so few of us left, that we have to hide. That means for now, until either my people rally, or... until it's over..."
Jedite replied to the pressing matter by falling asleep and snoring loudly and obnoxiously.
Getting up with purpose, Sakura walked over to her father's TARDIS and banged on the door.
Sakura waited, but there was no reply. She cocked her head to one side, looking at Hotaru with a stern expression that was light-years removed from her normal, happy-go-lucky one. "Are they in there?"
Hotaru nodded.
Sakura banged on the door again, harder, more insistently. Still nothing.
"Oh, I don't have time for this," she muttered, the irony of the phrase not escaping her. Fishing around in her pockets, she produced a series of keys. Tentatively, she tried each one in the lock hidden in the front of the TARDIS' vending machine exterior.
"Are you breaking in?" Hotaru asked in shock. "The could be..." she paused, unwilling to give voice to her thoughts.
"I've seen it all before," Sakura said, almost chuckling, but not quite. She forced a key into the lock, but stepped back with surprise as the key started to rotate on its own in the lock. The door was opening from the inside.
Stepping back, she waited for the door to open. Her hearts skipped a beat. Granted, she had already reunited with her parents in the future, but this was going to be, as the lawyers said, a case of first impression with her parents of the now. And despite the urgency of her mission, she didn't want to mess it up. She tried her best to put on a smile.
"Ugh," Xadium said, rubbing his eyes. He was wearing his usual formal outfit, that looked like something out of the 18th century. It was clear he hadn't had much rest.
"She's been keeping you up again, I see," Sakura quipped instinctively, forgetting herself for an instant. Mentally, she slapped herself on the forehead for that. Great. Annoy Pop first thing.
Xadium scowled and stepped out of his TARDIS, coming face to face with the cheeky girl making bad puns. She was about his height, with blonde hair, brown eyes, and wearing a quasi-victorian outfit. A bright orange hairbow and neon green socks rounded out the ensemble. She also looked like she had been in a horrific fight.
The Time Lord paused and regarded her. For a moment he was unsure of the girl. His latent telepathy told him almost instantly he was dealing with another Gallifreyan... but her features reminded him greatly of Minako... and himself, especially the eyes. He guessed her identity, but didn't want to look the fool on the off chance he was incorrect.
"Very droll," he finally said as dryly as possible, leaving the ball in the girl's court introduction-wise.
"Umm..." Sakura began. Drat it, she thought. Why the frell am I stalling? This is my pop! He's a Time Lord too, he should know these kinds of meetings are possible... but what if he rejects me! I might jeopardize my own birth! Arrghs. Well that bride has been burnt anyways, so...
Sakura curtsied. "Sakura Xadium Aino, pleased to make your acquaintance... Pop." She looked down and then up at her future father, eyes full of hope and also fear. She found this distressing and also amusing, considering that at the present moment she was probably twice his age.
Xadium looked at her for a moment, allowing his expression to be unreadable, mainly because he was in shock at her presence. He needed time to compose himself. "You..." he began slowly, trying to cover his lack of being able to formulate a cogent reply, "You're breaking a law of time, you know that?"
Sakura froze. Was he angry? Was he disappointed? She didn't want that, not now, not after having come so far! The look in her eyes became almost one of panic.
Sensing he had said the wrong thing, Xadium did the only thing he could think of. He reached forward and pulled Sakura close, hugging her to let her know it was all right.
Sakura's composure simply broke, and she began to cry, sobbing as she spoke. "I doubt anyone will enforce that law... Pop... it's so horrible... everything's gone.... everything and everyone... Gallifrey... gone...!"
Xadium's blood ran cold and he gently pushed Sakura away, locking gazes with her, holding her by the shoulders. "What... do you mean?"
"It will be faster if we mind-link," Sakura replied, referring to a sort of telepathic "conference" that Time Lords could do.
Xadium nodded, and allowed his mind to synch with Sakura's, receiving image after image of a horrific conflict that spanned several universes and quadrillions of years in all directions. He saw the demise of his home planet, and the scattering of the few survivors. He also saw tidbits of his future family life with Sakura, something he knew the girl had purposely allowed to leak in so he could know her a bit better, and feel at ease. Mentally he gently bopped her on the head for that. He saw Sakura's skin-of-the-teeth escape, saw her TARDIS take catastrophic damage, and her valiant attempt to get to 2005 and warn him.
"So you're stuck here while it self-repairs," Xadium said slowly, gently breaking off the mental contact.
"Yeah, and we shouldn't use the TARDISes again until this conflict is settled," Sakura replied. "You and I both know that our people would accept defeat so easily... but for now, we're on the losing side. As far as the universe is concerned, all the Time Lords have passed from history... and so the record must remain."
Xadium nodded numbly. It wasn't that big a deal to him, since he had settled in quite nicely in 21st century Earth with Minako, but he knew that for Sakura being cut off would be a horrible, terrible thing. She was used to skipping around time and space at will, like he had been in his youth. He smoothed out Sakura's hair and straightened her bow for her to try and put her at ease. It was an almost silly gesture, considering she was an adult now, but she smiled and blushed all the same.
"Mina...!" Xadium called into his TARDIS.
"Hai?" came a cheery voice from somewhere inside. Sakura smiled despite herself. Her mom's voice always made her happy.
"There's someone you should meet," Xadium said, stepping aside, letting Minako come face to face with her future daughter.
"Sakura-chan!!" Minako squealed, pushing past her husband and giving Sakura a big, warm hug. She had caught fleeting glimpses of Sakura ducking and hiding whenever she'd shown up, and had been waiting for the day when the girl would just give up the hide-and-seek and say hello. She squeezed and squeezed and squeezed some more.
Sakura grinned and smiled, wincing from the pain in her bones. She still hadn't healed completely from her narrow escape.
"Are you going to stay with us?" Minako asked hopefully, her crystal-blue eyes shimmering with hope.
"Well I just came to warn you, but my TARDIS is all shot to hell and it would be unsafe to move it, so..." She looked to her father for permission, who nodded with a smile.
"Yeahs! I am!!" Sakura grinned and returned the hug, catching both her parents together at once. She felt happy, and relieved. Of all the points in time and space to be stuck, she was glad she'd picked this one.
"fack itz u skankura," Chibiusa muttered, skipping down the stairs, stinking of men.
"Why hiyas, Lady Serenity," Sakura replied, turning and nodding. "Been up to your old tricks again?"
Chibiusa replied by flipping Sakura off.
"ror dere gews ur sax lif," Chibiusa said to Minako, laughing "u gat a kad in ur hose new"
Minako blushed, and Xadium turned red. Sakura, for her part, was nonplussed. Age had made her immune to almost everything. It took much to phase her.
"I'm going to stay in the old Aino part of the house," Sakura replied with a smile, slapping her parents on the back simultaneously. "But I have no desire to be born early or to have siblings, so keep that in mind." She chuckled and walked off, leaving them to their flustered looks and nervous laughs. As she listened to the sounds of Jedite and Lady Serenity trying to kill each other, and Hotaru trying to avoid being scandalized by her mom's talk, Sakura smiled.
She may be trapped in a past before her time, cut off from her as-of-the-moment-destroyed world, but still, Sakura Xadium Aino had finally come home.