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It was hard to sleep after the recent events that took place earlier that night. He couldn't sit still. He just had to tell his teammates! This couldn't wait. The Pleiades had to know now, even if it was three o'clock in the morning!

It was easy to sneak out of his apartment again and go to the roof to henshin undisturbed. While it was cold, at least Sailor Merope had enough sense to bring a hoodie with him. This was quickly worn, checking the massive single pocket in front of the sweatshirt to make sure the flag was there. “Whew! I remembered it,” he breathed, clenching the flag for reassurance before running off the rooftop and beyond, heading to the perfect place to call his team together.

Or at least in his mind it was perfect.

As the senshi and negaverse presence in Destiny City grew, the economy and tourism fell, leaving many business empty and devoted of life. The boat rental house on the lake was one of those places. Merope remembered seeing this place awhile ago when it was still active, the colorful pendants outside waving in the breeze as veterans and amateurs alike delighted in taking a boat or two out onto the calm waters of Lake Destiny. Now? Now it was nearly nothing. A battle between unknown combatants had damaged the building, but not enough to completely wreck it thankfully. Merope touched the wooden wall, pulling his hand back when it creaked. “Well, as long as it's still standing...”

The senshi tried the door, surprised to find it unlocked. He tried the lights, looking up in surprise as the bare bulbs flickered to life. It looked as if the city had not yet shut off the power to it, or as if the owner of the place had merely closed up shop for the season.

Merope collected the cans of empty beer, using some old flyers beneath the counter to scoop up the less savory things, dumping them into the empty garbage pail. Was that a heater? Merope took a step towards it then stopped. “OH! Dangit! That's right!” He shouted, summoning his phone. Quickly, one after the other he left messages for his teammates:

“HEY IT'S MEROPE you know that old boathouse on Lake Destiny? Meet me there! It's important, really! Trust me!”

Not very informative, but it would do. In the meantime, Merope began piling up the excess snow that came in from the open window and roof, turning it into a happy little snowman to greet his fellow teammates. Might as well try to make the place look a bit more inviting, right?

Alba's rouse was no more graceful than Simon's. Her phone rang like a belligerent alarm clock, entirely too close to her ear and too loud to bear so early in the morning. She woke up startled, the sensation of falling catching her breath as her eyes snapped open in alarm. It wasn't until a few deep breaths later and her blurry vision focusing on the object above her that it registered what was going on. The sound may have died down to a deep and rumbling hum, but the cell-phone continued to pulse in a dim light that bathed her dark room in a sickly green color as it waxed and waned in brightness: a message had been left.

She hoped Elegancia and Gloria hadn't woken up from the noise.

It took a few more minutes of will-power to get herself out of bed, but once the cold clung to her bare arms the momentum picked up. A sweater, heavy coat and a matching set of knitted gloves, scarf and hat later found her at the door of Simon's suite, mentally preparing herself for the cold and whatever mysterious purpose lied within that abandoned boat house.

As the doorknob turned, Alba was reminded how relieving it was that Simon lived on his own in the dorms. It was much easier for her to drop in at any hour of the day than it was for him to even make it past the door between herself and her suite-mates.

"Here," She started, lifting both arms around his neck and fitted it with a scarf. "It's cold and you are not going to get sick before finals." Even if his uniform had more of a collar than hers.

It didn't take them long to get to Lake Destiny, nor to spy the light that filtered through the windows of the boathouse. It was surprising to see that electricity still ran in that little wooden shack, and it brought hope to Alcyone that perhaps there was a working heater as well. Dried twigs and leaves crunched beneath the weight of their walk as they closed the distance between themselves and their hideout, and without a minute to spare, the senshi of storms knocked on the door to let Merope know they were there.

Merope was putting the finishing touches on his snow buddy when there was knocking. "It's open!" He called, sticking his buddy's stick-arms into their stick-places where sticks usually go. No doubt the next time any of them returned to the hut the sticks would be in other places sticks could go, but that was beside the point.

The team leader waved his teammates in, moving a stick on the snowman to make it join in on the waving. Or at least look like it was hanging for a high-five, which Merope was quick to give. "Hey guys! You'll never believe this!" Merope announced, moving behind the old boat counter. "You like this place? I dig it, it's rather neat and kinda fitting considering what I'm about to tell you. I think there's a stove over there but I dunno how to work it and someone or someones came here to do drinks and other things but there's flyers to start a fire except I don't know how and you'll never believe this!"

The boy ceased babbling to reach into his hoodie and pull out a dark blue square. Despite his obvious enthusiasm (why yes, he was in fact bouncing on his toes in his excitement), he was being very careful. He placed the cloth on the table and unfolded it, a small gasp of surprise still escaping his lips when he was done.

"Guys, c'mere and look at this," he whispered. "You'll never believe where I found it. On Merope." The cloth turned out to be a flag, with about a half-inch of both the top and bottom portions falling off the counter's edge. On a dark blue background that looked suspiciously to be the same blue of Merope's pants was a pattern of nine silvery stars in a particular pattern: it was a rendition of the Pleiades Cluster. Beneath the stars was an arrow with a silvery point. Merope tapped this and said, "I think this means you, Orion. I mean, look at it -- the feathery bits and shaft of it match the orange and pattern of your outfit, right?"

In order to allow Alba to reach Simon's shoulders so she could actually wrap the scarf around his neck, he had to learn forward a little bit. To be perfectly honest, he was more concerned for her well-being than he would be for his own in this weather... his fuku had pants. And gloves. And practical shoes. and sleeves. By comparison, Alcyone was much more in need of a scarf than he was -- among other details, her legs were totally bare! He couldn't bring himself to voice a protest, though. Chances were she'd find a way to brush it off if he did.

Nonetheless, when they arrived at the little shack Merope had called them too, Atlas was hovering behind Alcyone a little closely as if in doing so he could at least shield her from some of the wind. No dice -- and then Alcyone was wrapping a scarf around someone else. Atlas frowned down at his for a bit and fidgeted with it, idly wondering if she'd want that one back too.

Merope had started chattering away before he could even ask, unfortunately: and in true Merope fashion he got entirely too ahead of himself with his talking, leaving Atlas in the dust with what the subject of conversation even was. There was the flag, yes, and the color and pattern on it made his eyes widen a bit, and he couldn't help but be sure he'd seen it somewhere before... but his memory bank was stubbornly refusing to give any details, and he honestly could not recall a part of his life that it would have been in. So, in place of the expressions of awe his captain was no doubt expecting, he just gaped a little in bewilderment.

"Yeah, I'm not following," said Atlas, awkwardly adjusting his scarf. "Sorry."

Merope flailed as Orion grabbed his shoulder and made him lean forward, the boy slamming both of his gloved hands onto the table for stability. "Whoah! I told you!" He insisted, standing up to tap the flag again. "I was there! On Merope! You know how we all get powers from the stars, right?" He held up his hand and summoned his phone, flipping it open.

"Just, well, look at this --" he turned his phone and held it out to them, the screen lighting it up simply as:



"Our phones can only call other senshi, right? Then how'd I get my home number in there?" Merope challenged, gesturing to the flag. "I was there. Haven't you guys wondered if there was something else out there? I mean, we all call on stars in the Pleaides or around them. It's our team name! Why are we here on Earth with space-object names? Ever thought about that?"

The boy stopped, taking a deep breath. "Trust me, I swear it's real! If you just try to listen. Can't you hear it? It's home, calling to us. Our power. It's where we come from." Quietly he added apparently under his breath. He was still unsure about the past-life thing, but if Kurma said it... Maybe it's true?

This didn't make any logical sense. People haven't been able to land on anything further from the moon, let alone outside the gravitational pull orbiting their sun. It was only recently declared that Pluto wasn't even a planet at all, destroying years of schooling and a fascination with astronomy as the man with the funny ties said her world was a lie. It was still hard to cope with.

This was hard to cope with.

This couldn't possibly be what Merope was insinuating.

The phone, on the other hand, claimed it was. It was hard for her to grasp, and harder still for her to relax and even consider an attempt at listening to her surroundings closely to find that inner melody. It was easier for her to think that maybe this was all a hoax, that it would have been a simple feat to simply type in Home into the address book. Without a real home to call, it would continually be unavailable, as it claimed to currently be.

"Stars are gases burning millions of miles away. People can't possibly live on them, Merope."

She almost sounded pleading.

"YES!" Merope said triumphantly to Atlas. Did he get it? It looked like it! He wanted to give himself a pat on the back, settling instead to look eagerly at Alcyone. "But it's true!" He protested, "They don't live on the star -- that would be painful and quite burny, but..."

He trailed off and closed his eyes, swallowing. It was hard for him to even come to terms with how his homeworld looked like. There was no denying that it was -- there was a ring of Truth to it, a feeling of certainty that the boy clung to. He couldn't help but to touch the flag, reassuring himself that it was real.

"It's like..." He began, opening his eyes to look at each of the, "It's like... Meditation? I don't know. If you just... stop and listen, and I mean really listen not just with your ears but with..." He trailed off, gesturing to himself. "With your everything you can hear it. Trust me. If you just take a deep breath and wait...?"

Meditation? Listening with your.... everything? Atlas was getting a headache. He could tell that whatever Merope was describing -- if it was real -- it was a concept that was difficult to be put to words. Perhaps it was indeed something fantastic and surreal, but he sure wished that Carter had a greater capacity to describe it! The discussion would run around in circles forever at this rate.

"Hey, Merope... maybe we should just sleep on this a bit," he meekly suggested. "I'm not going to say I don't believe you, since I can't say that for sure yet. But this is a lot to take in, especially at this time of night."