Lucia finished up the last of her school as she stretched her arms relieved to be done for the night. Her parents were away at a social party and she didn't have school the next day so she had the night to herself. She looked to a pen holder that sat on the shelf above her desk, within the cup was a pen topped with a star. Her henshin pen, she always either kept it on her person or near her if she was by herself. She decided then that she would go out to her world, she had needed to visit her planet for a while now and this was as good a night as any. She needed to continue a quest she had put on hold for years now, her search for the three lights of Ara, gems containing pure light. She thought back to the vision that she had had years ago back when she had first visited her world. She had seen her past self be given the task to collect these gems, a ritual that every Ara was supposed to undertake. She knew she had to follow in her past life's foot steps. She had a lead at least, she had seen her past self travel to an old temple dedicated to the sun that orbited the Ara homeworld.

So the teenaged senshi put away the laptop that she had been working on, she hide some pillows under her bed sheets just incase her parents came back before she returned and decided to check on her. She turned off her lights and opened up her bedroom window. Her Bedroom was on the second floor of her families manor but luckily there was a tree next to her window. So she hopped onto the branch of the tree and climbed down it. She took off into the night once she was on the ground, she wanted to get a bit away from her home before she transformed just to be careful. Luckily there was a forest not too far from her home. Once she was away into the forest she transformed calling out the phrase that was so familiar to her at this point. "Ara Constellation Power, Make Up!" The dark forest was filled with pure light as glowing ribbons covered her body transforming her into Super Sailor Ara.

Once Ara was transformed she pulled out her senshi phone and looked for her teleportation app. She hit the app and she felt herself be pulled from the Earth as she passed through space. Within a moment she had crossed countless light years from the dark night in Destiny City to the almost too bright day in the capital city of Ara. The city was a glow with lumination, the white stones of the city reflected the intense sunlight that shone down on it. Although the city was in ruins the beauty of it still shone through. She sighed in contentment it always felt wonderful when she returned to her planet. Then she put on a serious face, she had a job to do tonight.

She crossed the cracked marbled streets and passed the gilded buildings that had been long since overgrown by the local plant life. She wondered what those buildings used to be what became of their ancient inhabitants. She knew a little bit about her world's past from her memories of her past life but there was still so much unknown about her namesake. She wondered if she'd ever know everything, she wondered if past her even knew everything there was to know about the world. She shook off those thoughts she wasn't here to muse about about her planet she was here to find an ancient artifact.

She knew the locations resting place, after a Sailor Ara was finished with the ritual they would return the orbs to same temples. The House of Sunlight, the House of Moonlight, and the House of Starlight she had heard the temples called in her memories. The first location the House of Sunlight was not too far from the capital, it was nestled in the mountains to the east of the city. So with determined glance towards the sparkling white peaks she began to make her trek to the temple.

After a few hours of hiking along an ancient mountain trail she could see an old crumbling ruin nestled into a green valley that seemed to be heated by geothermal vents that littered the area. It was a a domed temple with a stained glass roof, however there many cracks and holes in the glass and part of the white buildings façade was burned and demolished. She thought it looked like a battle had been fought here. She wondered if indeed this had been the site of some terrible battle had her former self taken part in it.

Carefully she made her way into the crumbling ruin the entrance was flanked by two half smashed statues. Looking around the temple was made from marble inlaid with gold, she saw broken colorful glass shards that she guessed once made up stain glass windows that would have caught the bright sunlight of Ara in a brilliant array of colors and perhaps images. She moved past rows of destroyed stone pews that had torn and decayed cushions strewn about them. She approach the front of the temple that had a statue that had been broken at the waist, she didn't see the top half anywhere. Even broken in half though the statue still stood taller than herself, Ara was sure it was an impressive sight in the past. She ran her hand over the smooth stone that made up the legs of the statue, as she did the statue seemed to react. Glowing lines lit up along the legs as the statue began to move backwards along some unseen track revealing a secret tunnel passage.

Ara figured the passage most likely lead to the orb, at least she couldn't think of where else an artifact like that would be hidden. As she entered the passage she saw in the bit of light shinning down from above a checkered floor along the passage. She back to move on the squares when the light of the sun shifted just enough for her to see the square ahead of her. As the light hit the stone it shown throw it revealing the stone to be an illusion with only a pitch black pit bellow it. Ara saw this just in time and managed to throw herself backwards to keep from walking right into the pit. She landed on her backside with a whine. "Ouch!" She grumbled as she clambered back to her feet. 'Some of these steps are fake, I need to use light!' She thought as she pulled out her senshi phone, she turned the light on and shone it down the dark tunnel. The light of her phone made the floor look like swiss cheese, there were holes crisscrossing all the way down the hall. She carefully made her way around the holes as she crossed the passage. She eventually found the end of the tunnel which was a stone archway that was flooded with sunlight. Shielding her eyes against the brightness she crossed through to find herself on the other side of the mountains A side which was being bathed in sunlight currently. She looked around and sound a trail curling along the mountain. Looking up towards the top of the mountain she could see a tower that she guessed was her destination. She began making her way up the path. Despite the mountain being covered in snow she didn't feel cold with the warmth of her sun shinning down on her.

As she reached the tower door she saw a large statue that was seemingly standing guard in front of the entrance. She took a step towards the door and suddenly with a loud groan the statue began to shake and its stone eyes suddenly came to life with a bright light. Gripping a large stone spear the golem began to advance on the teenaged senshi. Letting out a shriek of surprise as the stone warrior thrusted it's spear at her mid section which she narrowly dodged. It swung its weapon at her head as she dodge it trying to think a of plan. As she was trying to avoid the stone edge of the spear she nearly tripped retreating back down the stairs. That was when she got an idea, she just hoped the statue's eyes worked just like a human's eyes. "Infinite Light Parade!" She called on her magic as motes of light formed behind her and fired out towards the statue's eyes. As the light beams struck the stone soldier's eyes it was stunned for a second before it stumbled forward seemingly blinded. It tripped down the stairs landing with a loud crash smashing into pieces at the bottom of the steps. Ara winced at the loud sound and the broken statue but she was glad it was no longer coming after her.

So with nothing else stopping her she entered the tower and saw a that inside was a single room. The room had a pool of water in front of an empty alter which in turn was in front of a painted mural on a otherwise blank wall. The mural was of her past self with her hands open with a rainbow forming between her hands. She suddenly felt a memory flooding her senses. She found herself in the past the room was not much different from how it is in the present however their was an old man in religious garb with her. "Your grace each orb is hidden by the old magics, only a truth of the light can reveal them." The old man who she remembered as the high priest advised her. She understood it was up to her to dispel the illusions placed her. She suddenly came back to the present time and looking at the mural again she had an idea of what she needed to do. The sun light was streaming into the tower from high about through a glass ceiling, it shone right on the alter. She gathered as much water in palms as she could and through it over the alter. Sure enough just as she thought the light refracted on water formed a rainbow over the alter which began glow in response. The altar's top disappeared and revealed a hidden cavity. Reaching into the hidden compartment Ara pulled a glowing golden orb. The orb shone more brilliantly than anything Ara had ever seen, it was almost to bright for her look at. She felt a warm power seeping from it. She slipped the orb into her bag as she left the tower. Once she had teleported safely back to earth she found the orb no longer glowed, she guess the orb lost its power off of Ara, which was good for her as she didn't want to have to try to explain to her parents where she found the magic glowing ball.

word count: 1857