When the girls arrived at the train station, Edward was there to meet them. He smiled brightly and waved as they stepped out of the car.
“Hey Dad, where’s Mom and E.J.? I thought they would be with you,” Nina said as she walked over to him and put her bag down.
“Yeah, I was figuring there would be a bit more of a welcoming committee too,” Amy said as she came up behind Nina and put her bag down as well.
Edward chuckled. “Well things were a little crazy at the clinic so Mom went to help your aunt and uncle out and E.J.’s still at school. You’ll get to see them later, heck, your Mom might actually be home by the time we get there.” Edward then pulled the girls to him and gave them a hug. When he let them go he looked a bit sad and a bit frustrated.
“What’s the matter?” Amy asked seeing the look on her father’s face.
“I think you two grew while you were gone…” he replied letting out a long sigh. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you two are taller than me now.”
Nina and Amy both laughed. “You didn’t expect us to stay small forever did you?” Nina asked. She knew all about the height complex he’d had when he was their age. “We’re not short like you,” she continued, unable to resist the urge to poke some fun at him.
“DON’T CALL ME SHORT!!” he yelled, his face turning red. Edward quickly calmed down though when he saw the smiling and laughing faces of his not so little anymore girls. He just shook his head and smiled a bit while he picked up their bags. “Come on you two wise asses, let’s go home,” he said as he started to walk away leaving Nina and Amy to hurry in order to catch up with him.
When they got to the house, Natalie was indeed already there waiting for them. “Welcome home!” she said with a smile as they came through the door. “How was the trip?”
“Not so bad,” Amy said as they hung up their jackets and Edward set their bags down by the stairs. “Trains are still as uncomfortable as ever though.”
“Yeah, at this rate my butt will only recover just in time to go back,” Nina said with a laugh.
“You haven’t had any trouble since…” Natalie started until Nina interrupted her.
“No, nothing” she said quickly shaking her head. “Everything’s been fine.” Nina sighed. It wasn’t a surprise to her that they’d been told about what happened to her but she had hoped they’d forget about it or, at the very least, not talk about it. Though she supposed she should be thankful her mother brought it up, at least now it would be easier to talk to them about what had happened and she figured now was as good of a time as any. “Um, but about that, um, do we have time to talk?” she asked, her face turning more serious than it had been.
Natalie and Edward both looked at her wondering what could be on her mind that would cause her to make a face like that. Natalie then looked over at the clock and nodded. “Sure, I don’t have to get E.J. from school for a little while yet. What’s the matter Nina?” Natalie asked sounding concerned.
“You may want to sit down,” Nina said as she herself went and sat in a chair. Natalie, Edward, and Amy did the same taking her advice. “Well that night when that guy tried to kidnap me, something weird happened to me…”
“Weird? Weird how?” Edward asked.
Nina nodded. “Yeah, there was a point when I was actually pretty desperate and scared thinking that something really bad might happen when out of nowhere I was wrapped in this strange, bright light and I transformed…”
Natalie and Edward both looked at each other, their eyes wide. They then both sighed knowing this day would come for one of the girls and they had figured it would be Nina. Natalie leaned forward a bit and looked at Nina. “I need you to explain everything that happened that night Nina. It’s very important that you don’t leave out anything that happened before you transformed or after…”
Sitting back in her chair Nina nodded. She had never heard her mother sound so serious before so she knew this was something big. She also figured she had to tell them about Adrienne too, it was the only way she would be able to tell the story properly. “Alright…” she started and then told them everything from being at Dr. Rothstein’s house that night, to her and Adrienne walking, the entire incident with the kidnapper and then walking back to the dorms. She had left out Adrienne’s secret though, they didn’t need to know about that.
“When we were stopped in the square I put my hand on my chest getting ready to make fun of Adrienne for something and I changed back. It was really weird and the only thing left behind was this,” she finished as she reached into her shirt and pulled out the necklace with the lantern charm. “I’ve tried to make it happen again since that night but I haven’t been able to. I can’t figure out what triggered it or anything.”
Natalie sighed and looked over at Edward who just nodded to her. It was time to show them Natalie’s special talents, not just tell them to them like stories. “Do you girls remember the stories I used to tell you about traveling worlds and the different people we met?” Natalie asked.
Both Nina and Amy nodded. “Yeah, but what’s that have to do with this?” Nina asked.
“I’ll show you, wait here for a minute,” Natalie replied as she got up and went upstairs. A few moments later she returned with what appeared to be a pen in her hand. She then stood in front of them all and lifted the pen into the air. “Charon Star Power Make-up!” she said as she was enveloped in light. Nina recognized it right away; it was the same light that she’d been wrapped in that night. When the light faded away Natalie was standing there in her Sailor Charon outfit from the old days, complete with the black sailor dress, the crimson skirt, collar and boots, the red bows and the golden tiara with the crimson jewel in it. She even had her lantern staff.
“That’s exactly what happened to me,” Nina said as she got up and looked at her mother. “My outfit was a lot different though.”
Natalie chuckled. “I’d imagine it probably would be. Here, let me see your necklace,” she said as she went over and held the charm from Nina’s necklace up to compare it to the lantern head of her staff. “As I thought, take a look.”
Nina looked down at the necklace and then at the top of the staff, they were the same type of lantern. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “So… then… what…”
“Well you remember the stories; it was under my power that we were able to travel to different places. That’s the power of the star seed in my soul and that power comes from a world that is completely different than here.” Natalie then sighed heavily. “This can’t leave this room and I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. We knew one day one of you girls would most likely inherit my powers we just weren’t completely sure which of you it would be.”
“So then I have this power to travel worlds too?” Nina asked.
“That would be my guess or at least some variation of it. I don’t honestly know all too much about the specifics of how the abilities pass from one generation to the next. But you should also have more than just that since I also have an offensive ability called the Spatial Rift but I can’t show you that in here… I’d blow up the entire house.” Natalie then looked up at the clock and looked over at Amy and Edward. “Would you two go get E.J. from school? I think I need to spend more time explaining things to Nina…”
“Sure no problem, come on Amy,” Edward said as he got up and got ready to go.
Amy didn’t look like she was inclined to go with him. She wanted to stay and hear this too. It was all pretty unbelievable. “But…”
Edward gave her a look that said not to argue. Amy sighed heavily and finally got up and went with her father. She just hoped Nina would fill her in later.
Once they were gone Natalie transformed back to normal and sat back down with Nina. “Now, we have to figure out how to get you to transform again. We’ll be able to figure more things out if I can have a look at you.”
“But I don’t know how I did it to begin with.”
Natalie thought about it for a minute. “Well let’s try this first… stand up and put your hand on the charm and say the same thing I did when I transformed, Charon Star Power Make-up.”
Nina did as her mother asked and stood putting her hand on the charm. “Charon Star Power Make-up!” Nina just stood there, nothing happening. She looked over at her mother.
“Weird… OK, then try this, put your hand on the charm again and just focus on the feeling you felt that night, clearly focus on it and then will yourself to transform again. Just relax and remember that desperate need”
“But I’ve already tried that…”Nina started to protest.
Natalie shook her head. “Just do it alright? I’m thinking you were focusing too much on everything and not enough on that one moment, now go on, give it a try.”
Nina sighed and put her hand on the charm again closing her eyes. She replayed that night in her head, the feeling of him having her pinned down and feeling desperate. Then she remembered something she hadn’t before, a momentary feeling of sadness that she’d never see her loved ones again. When she remembered that, the warm, bright light enveloped her once more and she transformed. Natalie looked Nina over once the light vanished.
“Well that’s certainly interesting… What are those?” she asked seeing the circles on the backs of Nina’s hands. She took Nina’s hands into hers and examined the transmutation circles. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Now I’m wishing I hadn’t sent Edward to get E.J., he’d probably know better what all of this meant…”
“Well I was able to manage finding some of them,” Nina said taking her hands back from her mother and going over to her bag. She pulled out the notes she’d written down that day in the Central Library and handed them to Natalie. “I know there’s alchehestry there and look here,” she said pointing to a symbol on the page. “The books I found said this one is commonly used in teleportation and transportation alchemy. At first I didn’t understand exactly how that was possible since I’d never read anything else about the subject but since your power had something to do with something similar, it doesn’t seem so farfetched to me anymore.”
“There’s a lot more there than what you have written here though.”
“Well I couldn’t exactly get all of them when I was transformed before so I wrote down what I remembered of the circles and went from there. Actually, since I did manage to transform again, would you mind helping me copy down the rest of what’s here so later on we can look them up?”
Natalie nodded. “That’s a good idea. Come into the other room and we’ll sit at the table and take care of it.”
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