The Scouts and their ruling Planets :

Kyungsoo – Venus
Chanyeol – Moon
Sehun – Saturn
Baekhyun – Mars
Jongdae – Neptune
Jongin – Uranus
Minseok – Mercury
Tao – Andromeda
Yixing – Pluto
Lu Han – Jupiter
Joonmyun – Deimos (Mars)
Yifan – Triton (Neptune)

Chapter 3 : Hurricane Venus

Kyungsoo was waking up to Chanyeol shouting.

“Venus, Venus! Wake up, come on, you have to see this!”

Kyungsoo jolted from their shared bed, lost somewhere between dreams and reality. “What’s happening?” He asked, rubbing his eyes.

His wrist was grabbed and he was dragged to the balcony. “Look, look at it Venus!”

Kyungsoo blinked rapidly and his vision sharpened. He followed Chanyeol’s gesture towards the sky, and he gasped. “Oh, my god…”

It was a meteor shower, one unlike anything Kyungsoo had ever seen. It must have been caused by something huge breaking up in the sky, because there were hundreds of streaks of light shooting across the sky. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Kyungsoo clutched Chanyeol’s hand tightly. “It’s so pretty…”

“Worth waking you up for?” Chanyeol asked.

Kyungsoo leaned over and kissed his Prince. “Totally worth it.”

The memory faded, leaving Kyungsoo to open his eyes to the mess in front of him. The monster didn’t bleed when Kyungsoo sliced it in half, but it had left a stinky, purple slime behind. Though the remains had vanished, the slime remained. Kyungsoo lifted his hand and concentrated hard, imagining the slime disappearing. It took a few minutes, but eventually it worked. Kyungsoo had no idea where these things went when they vanished, and Kris and Joonmyun refused to explain it to him.

Kyungsoo stood up, swaying slightly before he regained his balance. He removed his pin and his uniform disappeared. He made his way home, repeating the memory over and over in his head as he went, totally unaware that he was being watched.

Tao had been almost relieved when Joonmyun and Kris explained why he had always felt different. Tao wasn’t crazy, he was magic. It was quite a relief, since Tao had actually been seeing flashes of his old life even before he began vanquishing monsters. Nothing substantial, just quick pictures. He had once seen the castle, and the view of the huge moon that dominated their night sky, but some things were more vague—a giant vase, a favorite shirt, a flower left on his pillow. One thing Tao saw very often was a smile, a smile he would come to remember the second he laid eyes on Lu Han.

It the months since meeting, Lu Han and Tao had managed to regain many of their memories of their time together. Like their friends, they clicked into place without much fuss and could hardly stand to be apart any more. Tao’s night time absence hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“Where were you last night?” Lu Han asked, figuring Tao had simply gone for a walk.

Tao was a terrible liar. He blushed bright red and hastily stuffed cereal in his mouth, mumbling around it.

Lu Han looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Huang Zitao, what did you do?”

Tao spat his half-chewed cereal into his bowl. “Nothing!!”

“I might have believed you if you didn’t just make such a huge fuss over a simple question. Now what happened?”

Tao stood up from the table. “Gotta get to school, love you ‘bye!”

Lu Han watched him go, debating going after him, but he had to get to work and he knew Tao couldn’t keep a secret for long.

Kyungsoo started when he felt someone sling an arm around his shoulders, but he quickly realized it was just Tao. Though they went to different schools, they went the same way and had often run into each other in the last few weeks.

“Morning,” Kyungsoo grumbled.

“You’re cheerful.”

Kyungsoo shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“Uh-huh,” Tao said doubtfully. “I was wondering, do you want to come to mine and Lu Han’s house tonight for a sleepover? I just figured, you know we’re the same age, in the same grade, even if we’re not in the same school, and maybe we could study together, or something. Lu Han can help us, he’s really good at making sure I get all my work done, doesn’t let me get distracted and all that.”

Kyungsoo was only half listening. “Thanks but I’m kind of tired. Maybe some other time?”

Tao looked very upset. “We don’t have to study, we can do something else.”

Kyungsoo shrugged him off. “Another time, I promise. See you later, Tao!”

Kyungsoo ran towards his school, and when he was out of sight he ducked into an alleyway and rubbed his finger over his pin. His school uniform disappeared, replaced with his Sailor Venus one. He twirled his wand between his fingers and peered into the green orb at the tip. “In the name of Venus, show me something I can destroy,” he whispered.

Kyungsoo’s staff caught Baekhyun in the ribs. Joonmyun held up his hand. “Point to Venus!”

At once, Kyungsoo was on the defensive. Baekhyun was no easy match, and for every point Kyungsoo got, Baekhyun made sure he paid. Kyungsoo tried to block, but Baekhyun got him in the shoulder.

“Point to Mars!”

And a mere minute later, Baekhyun managed to get his staff behind Kyungsoo’s ankles and knock him to the ground.

“Match! Mars wins!”

Baekhyun pulled off his head gear and helped Kyungsoo to his feet. “Again?” He asked, smile mischievous even though he was panting and sweating.

Kyungsoo shook his head. “I’ve had enough. You’re still the best, Mars.”

“Of course, I am war!” Baekhyun crowed, bowing to imaginary applause. He blew a kiss at Joonmyun, and Joonmyun blushed furiously.

Kyungsoo opened his eyes, one hand pressed to his shoulder, wondering if the fight between him and Baekhyun had been real. Then he remembered the spike-riddled monster he had just vanquished, and how it had gotten him in the arm before it died. Kyungsoo wasn’t bleeding, but he knew he’d have a nasty bruise in the morning. No matter, it would heal. And it had been worth it to get another memory back. He looked at his watch—only 11, plenty of time to take care of the bruise and track down another monster. And gain another memory.

Jongin bent over the barre, groaning as he stretched out his back. “Damn, that feels good.”

Minseok grinned at him. “Know what else feels good?”

“Not being in school?” Jongin offered with a grin of his own. He and Minseok were of the few lucky ones who didn’t have to deal with that nonsense—Minseok because he graduated, Jongin because he dropped out due to the stress of being a reincarnated space warrior.

“Totally!” Minseok agreed.

Jongin laughed and straightened up. He rested his right hand on the barre, feet in first position, and raised his left arm into a graceful arch. Before he could make another move, he felt Minseok’s hand on his waist.

“Straighten your hips,” Minseok instructed. “You’re killing your back like that.”

Jongin let Minseok guide him into proper position. His dance teachers always said that in practice, Jongin had the worst posture they had ever seen. They couldn’t understand how he could then go and be so perfect in performance, but for Jongin performing was like breathing, he didn't have to think about it. Minseok twisted Jongin's body into a slightly different position and Jongin winced as he felt a twinge of pain in his left side.

“Did that hurt?” Minseok asked.

Jongin smiled reassuringly. “Not too bad.”

Minseok frowned. “Let me see.”

Jongin knew it was pointless to argue. He laid flat on the floor and let Minseok run his hand over his waist. One of the first memories Jongin had gotten back was of a sword slicing through a weak spot in his armor and landing him in the medical ward for a month. It was at a time when the monsters were powerful, and Jongin had been an experienced fighter, but he had been overwhelmed. He knew the others often experienced phantom pains from their old wounds, but Jongin had been most seriously wounded out of all of them, and his “phantom pains” could be debilitating.

“Not a lot you can do to a wound that isn’t real,” Jongin said dryly as Minseok poked and prodded.

Minseok smiled and paused to brush his fingers through Jongin’s hair. “But it is real, Uri.”

Jongin’s heart melted at the nickname. He remembered, through the haze the pain had brought, how Minseok had stayed by his side endlessly for those first few days, when it had been touch and go. He remembered Minseok begging, over and over, “Don’t leave me, Uri, please don’t leave me.”

Jongin sat up, clambering into Minseok’s lap. “Not in this world, here it’s all in my head. Just a memory.”

“That’s a contradiction, it can’t be a memory if it wasn’t real.”

Jongin rolled his eyes. “Don’t get technical, Mercury, I’m trying to reassure you.”

Minseok sighed and nuzzled Jongin’s neck. “I’ll be so much more reassured when this whole thing is over, and we can just go back to how things were.”

Jongin scratched his nails lightly over the back of Minseok’s neck and Minseok sighed happily. Jongin smiled and kissed Minseok’s forehead. “We’re getting there. But right now, we’re getting lunch. I’m starving!”

Minseok laughed and Jongin got to his feet, holding out his hand for Minseok. The two of them left their dance room and went down to the street. Jongin’s attention was pulled in the opposite direction of their favorite ramen place, and he did a double take.

“Minseok, I think I just saw Kyungsoo run by in uniform.”

Kris was surprised when he looked at the “monster tracker” and saw the hours Kyungsoo had logged. It made a note each time their pins were activated—it was supposed to be for security, if one of them was ever in trouble—and Kris had no idea why Kyungsoo had so much extra time, he couldn’t remember any reports of strange creatures. He had a bad feeling about it, and it was confirmed a few minutes later when Jongdae came into the arcade breakroom.

“Kyungsoo’s been skipping class.”

Kris asked, “How do you know?”

Jongdae held out his phone. “Jongin texted me to say he saw Kyungsoo around noon. He said it was only for a second, but I believe him. Tao’s been worried too, he told me so this morning in the locker room.”

Kris sighed and rubbed his forehead. He was hoping this wouldn’t happen. “Alright, I’ll…should I tell Chanyeol, or talk to him myself?”

Jongdae shrugged. “Both?”

Kris sent a text to Kyungsoo asking him to come to the arcade. If he didn’t answer in 20 minutes, Kris was going out to find him.

Kyungsoo heard his phone ring, but he ignored it. The bruise he had sustained earlier was a lot bigger than he had originally suspected, and more painful than it had first been, too. He supposed that just came with healing, but it was still annoying. In addition he now had scrapes on his hands from getting knocked down repeatedly in his last fight. He was tired, but he didn’t want to sleep. Once the scrapes were cleaned, Kyungsoo checked his phone. It was from Kris, and it summoned him to the arcade. Kyungsoo changed and grabbed his pin and made his way over.

Kris, Jongdae, Joonmyun, and Baekhyun were the only ones at the arcade when Kyungsoo arrived. He was probably a bit too early for a school day, but he didn’t really care.

“What’s going on?”

Kris gave him a serious look. “I told you that the monster tracker logs hours spent in uniform. You have an awful lot of hours logged.”

Kyungsoo shrugged. “I ran into a lot of crazy stuff. It happens when you have white hair.”

“It also happens when you skip school,” Kris said. “We’re supposed to keep a low profile, remember? Keep a low profile.”

“So I skipped once,” Kyungsoo snapped. “No one will care.”

“It’s been more than once, and I know it.”

Kyungsoo paled. “How did you know that?”

Kris’ stern expression dropped. “I didn’t, but now I do.”

Kyungsoo threw himself down on the worn sofa. He flinched mightily when his arm was jostled, but he didn’t think anyone noticed since his face was in the cushions.

Someone sat by Kyungsoo’s head and place their hand on his shoulder.

“Kyungsoo,” Joonmyun said gently, “We all know that this isn’t easy. You have eleven friends who have all been where you are. Just talk to us.”

Maybe it was exhaustion, maybe stress, maybe both, but suddenly Kyungsoo was crying and he couldn’t stop. Joonmyun pulled Kyungsoo up and hugged him, and Kris sat on Kyungsoo’s other side and hugged him as well.

“I just want to remember,” Kyungsoo cried.

Jongdae and Baekhyun got in on the group hug and they were in danger of toppling off the sofa, which got Kyungsoo to stop crying and even smile a little.

Kris wiped the tears from Kyungsoo’s face. “You will remember everything someday. But if you keep this up, you could be really hurt. We just want you to be safe.”

Kyungsoo nodded and sniffled. “I’ll be safe,” he mumbled.

“And no more skipping school,” Joonmyun threw in.

“I won’t skip,” Kyungsoo agreed.

Kyungsoo said he’d be safe, and he was. His arm was bandaged, he was sticking to well-lit streets, and he’d had a bunch of energy drinks so he was alert. He also promised he’d stop skipping class, so it was important that he finish his hunt in time to go home and change. If nobody knew, then he wasn’t breaking his promise.

In the back of his mind, Kyungsoo knew he had a problem. He was addicted to the memories, and the feelings that came with them. He had been trying to live a normal, mundane life for almost eighteen years, and now that he had found the life he could have been having, he wanted those eighteen years back. He wanted to go home, to his real home, where he was engaged (possibly married) to a Prince, where he was a warrior and he was strong and respected, where everything from the animals to the sky was beautiful and far beyond anything he could have imagined. He was also kind of pissed at his fellow Sailor Scouts for slacking off and leaving so many monsters alive. Honestly, they should have been like him, skipping school and sleep to get these things as dead as possible.

Kyungsoo swung his wand back and forth, practically throwing it at shadows. He’d been walking for two hours and nothing had attacked him. If he had to conjure a pumpkin carriage to make a monster take note of his presence then by Venus he would do it! It wasn’t the first time Kyungsoo had been forced to lure a monster to him, he wasn’t afraid of them.

“Hear that?” Kyungsoo yelled, “I’m not scared of you!” His wand shot a jet of green light at a dead bush and it blossomed with neon pink roses.

That seemed to do it. Kyungsoo heard a growl and he turned around to see an acid-trip of a monster standing behind him. It had the body of a lion and three heads resembling mutated sharks.

“Aren’t you terrifying,” Kyungsoo said, holding out his wand. The monster lunged and Kyungsoo dodged, but it managed to get him in his bad arm with it’s tail. He flinched and the laser he shot from his wand struck the beast’s foot. It screamed and Kyungsoo screamed with it.

“HOLD STILL!” Kyungsoo shouted as the monster lunged again. They were circling each other and he was getting dizzy, and he thought the stupid creature was casting a spell on him because his vision was going cloudy. He fired laser after laser at the beast.

“In the name of Venus, I release you!” Kyungsoo yelled, again and again, but he kept missing. The beast ran forward and Kyungsoo hit the floor, but he didn’t brace himself properly. His injured arm buckled and his wand went flying. Kyungsoo heard a shout of his name, and then nothing.

Tao knew Kyungsoo was in trouble, but he underestimated just how bad it was. He leapt over the still-smoldering remains of the monster he’d just blasted to bits and skidded to a halt beside Kyungsoo’s body. He felt for a pulse, relieved when he found it. He fumbled for his phone and dialed Lu Han. While it was ringing, Tao checked Kyungsoo’s arm—the one had seen buckle a few seconds ago—and he screamed into the phone just as Lu Han answered.

“What’s wrong?!” Lu Han demanded.

Tao sobbed into the phone. “K-Kyungsoo, he’s been attacked, oh god Lu Han send help!!”

Joonmyun was the first to find them. By that time Tao had ripped off Kyungsoo’s shirt and was staring in horror at the wound on Kyungsoo’s arm. Joonmyun swore and fumbled for his medical bag.

“What happened?” He asked.

Tao shook his head. “I don’t understand!” He wailed, “That thing, the one I destroyed, it wasn’t a daimon, I don’t understand how this happened!”

Joonmyun assessed the wound. Kyungsoo’s entire forearm, from his shoulder to his elbow, was covered with black, purple-streaked skin. “This didn’t happen just now,” he said grimly. “He must have been attacked hours ago. Damnit.”

Distantly, Joonmyun heard Lu Han screaming Tao’s name.

Tao sobbed into his hands. “It’s my fault, it’s all my fault, I’m an idiot!”

Lu Han dropped to his knees by Tao’s side and Tao threw himself into Lu Han’s arms. Lu Han looked at Kyungsoo, horrified.

“Get Tao out of here,” Joonmyun ordered. He knew Kris and Chanyeol weren’t far, and he didn’t want Tao around when the Prince showed up. “NOW, move it!”

Lu Han grabbed Tao and hauled him up and around the corner, a second later Joonmyun heard the squeal of tires, signaling Lu Han and Tao’s departure. He turned back to Kyungsoo. He was unconscious, his face flushed and sweaty. He was running a fever, and that wasn’t good. Joonmyun grabbed a vial and a syringe. His hands were steady as he filled the needle, cleaned Kyungsoo’s arm, and injected the serum right into the nasty wound. Kyungsoo moaned in his sleep and Joonmyun laid a hand on his cheek.

“You’re going to be okay,” he said quietly. “Daimon wounds won’t kill you, even in this state, but they hurt like hell. I’m amazed you were still able to get around with this thing. Maybe you didn’t realize how bad it was.”

Joonmyun heard footsteps and a second later Chanyeol yelled, “KYUNGSOO, VENUS! What happened?!”

Joonmyun threw out an arm to keep Chanyeol from yanking Kyungsoo up. “He was attacked by a daimon, probably this morning. He’s going to be fine as long as you let Kris and I take care of him.”

Chanyeol backed off, staring at Kyungsoo with tears in his eyes. Kris began to wrap Kyungsoo’s body up in a sheet.

“I gave him one injection already,” Joonmyun said.

“Good,” Kris said, “He’ll be fine until we get him to your place, but he is in so much trouble when he wakes up.”

Kyungsoo wanted to keep sleeping, but he knew that something wasn’t right. His dreams had been full of moments from his old life, or at least he thought they were—he didn’t know what was a figment of his imagination and what was a memory. He needed answers, damnit, and there was only one way to get them. So as much as Kyungsoo wanted to stay in this lovely bed, he needed to get up. Kyungsoo tried to move his arms and realized that someone was holding his hand. He knew it was Chanyeol, he would have recognized that scar on his palm anywhere, but how had Chanyeol gotten in his house? Then Kyungsoo opened his eyes and realized that he wasn’t in his own house.

“What happened?” Kyungsoo mumbled.

Chanyeol moved closer. “Are you okay?”

“I think so.”

“Does your arm hurt?”

Kyungsoo was confused. “Why would it hurt?”

Chanyeol shook his head. “For heaven’s sake, Venus. You gave us all a heart attack.” He showed Kyungsoo a picture on his phone screen, and Kyungsoo recoiled from the image of the black-purple arm on the screen.

“What is that?!”

“That was what your arm looked like when Tao found you collapsed in the street,” Chanyeol said.

The memory came rushing back, and Kyungsoo sat up quickly. “Did I kill it?”

“No, it got away. That wasn’t the monster that did this to you. It was a Daimon, and this wound is at least a day old. How long have you been fighting monsters in secret for?” Chanyeol’s voice rose, “What would possess you to do something so utterly stupid?”

Kyungsoo felt the blood drain from his face. He wrenched his hand from Chanyeol’s.

“That’s enough.”

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol looked towards the door. Kris and Joonmyun were there, both looking very disapproving.

“Chanyeol,” Joonmyun said, “Don’t raise your voice to Venus, that’s our job.”

Chanyeol sighed. “I know. I’m sorry Kyungsoo, I didn’t…when I saw you lying in the street, when I saw your arm, I was terrified. And I just can’t understand why you would wear yourself ragged.”

Kyungsoo refused to look at Chanyeol. “I can’t believe you don’t understand.”

Joonmyun put his hand on Kyungsoo’s arm, and Kyungsoo threw him off.

Kris spoke next. “We told you, it’s important to keep up appearances. You can’t go without sleep, and you can’t skip school—”

Kyungsoo covered his ears, feeling a scream building inside his chest, and he let it out. “How can I possibly do that when there’s an entire life missing from my head?!”

There was a stunned pause, and then Kyungsoo began to cry. Chanyeol hugged Kyungsoo close, and Kyungsoo was too upset to remember that he was supposed to be mad at Chanyeol. He threw his arms around Chanyeol’s neck and sobbed into his chest.

“Venus, my love, it’s not worth your health…”

“Don’t you dare,” Kyungsoo cried, “How can you sit there and—and tell me that anything is m-more important than our past?”

Chanyeol leaned back and wiped Kyungsoo’s cheeks. “Kyungsoo, you’re not understanding. You collapsed in front of a monster. If Tao hadn’t been there, you could very well have been killed. We could have lost you.”

Kyungsoo stopped crying. “Tao?”

Kris sighed. “You’re not the first to run yourself ragged, trying to get your memories back. Tao did the same thing, but luckily he wasn’t alone when he messed up on assignment. It wasn’t any less scary, though. Tao was following you, trying to make sure you stayed safe. He’s a royal mess now, he blames himself.”

That made Kyungsoo more ashamed than anything. “It wasn’t his—”

Joonmyun interrupted, “And everyone knows that, heck even Tao knows it deep down. I suppose we can’t even put the blame solely on you. We thought you understood, apparently we were wrong.”

Kyungsoo felt tears sting his eyes again. “You don’t understand!” He yelled. “I’ve gone eighteen years without knowing that I had another life—and it was amazing, it was beautiful and exciting and I’ve been so afraid of being different! I’ve missed so much, I can’t understand why I would give up all of that for this! I want my life back! I want to go home!!”

Kyungsoo couldn’t see anything beyond the tears that filled his eyes, but he could hear Chanyeol crying. He bowed his head and let the tears fall. “I just want it all back.”

Chanyeol took Kyungsoo’s hands. “I want that too. But I also want to enjoy what this planet has to offer. I want all the Sailor scouts to make peace with having to leave this planet, I want all of us to be in good health when we go. And I want to make sure that we’re leaving the planet safer than it was when we came.”

“Maybe we can compromise,” Kris said. “Kyungsoo, we might be able to work something out, like we did for Jongin. Can you please look at me?”

Kyungsoo wiped his eyes and looked up.

“When Jongin’s powers awakened, it stressed him out so much he could hardly function. He convinced his parents to let him drop out of school to pursue dance, but he had some help. We, Joonmyun and I, managed to sway Jongin’s parents in his favor. We can do that for you. You can drop out of school and use that time to help us find the monsters, but there will be conditions. You cannot go out alone, and you have to swear that you’ll sleep. I will be brutally honest—you are only going to make things worse for everyone if you go out on a mission poorly rested. Do you understand me?”

Kyungsoo nodded, and he was finally hit with guilt over what had happened. He lowered his eyes again.

Kris put his hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “Believe it or not, I wasn’t trying to guilt you. We’re all worried about you because we love you. We are your friends and we want to help you. Nobody is mad at you, not anymore. Maybe for a hot second we were, but again it was more out of love than anything. Ugh, Joonmyun take over, my Korean isn’t good enough for this.”

Joonmyun and Chanyeol laughed, and Kyungsoo managed a smile.

“What Kris is trying to say is that you’re like family to us. We may get mad, and worried, but it doesn’t change the fact that we care about you and we want to be here for you.”

Kyungsoo sniffled. “I really am sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Chanyeol said quietly. “I wish I had seen this coming. I really wish none of this had happened.” He sighed. “Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if we really knew what we were getting into when we agreed to be reborn on this planet. I wish I had my memories back, too.”

“It will come in good time,” Joonmyun said firmly. “We have to believe that someday this will all make sense. Now, Kyungsoo, if you’re ready there’s a lot of people out there who would like to see you.”

Kyungsoo wiped his face on the sheets and drank from a water bottle. “Where are we, by the way?” He asked as he handed the water back to Chanyeol.

“My house,” Joonmyun said, blushing slightly. It’s the only one big enough to hide all our medical equipment in.”

Before Kyungsoo could say anything else, Joonmyun yelled, “Okay guys you can come in!”

Kyungsoo was swarmed by his friends, and after only a few minutes he began to feel much better. It was hard to be upset when he was surrounded by eleven people in the same boat as he was, especially when those people had baked him chocolate chip cookies.

66 subscribers and 8 comments? Come on, guys, give me something!