Chapter Text
xxxxx
Reunion
xxxxx
(Set one month following the Search for the Kuiper Belt Senshi)
xxxxx
Saturday, October 14, 2006/Hikawa Shrine/ 8:57 AM
"Hikawa Shrine, Rei Hino speaking" a raven-haired girl answered the phone.
"Rei? It's Lyn," the voice on the other line said. "Max and Sam were wondering if Cammy wanted to come over and hang out."
"I've got a better idea. Why don't you and the boys come over to the shrine? I've got a surprise for all three of you."
"Really? What could it be?"
"Well, if I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise!"
xxxxx
9:03 AM
Out in the courtyard, two girls in karate gis were sparring. One was a Caucasian with long, blonde hair, the other a Latina with her black hair tied in a ponytail. The blonde charged in and swung a fist, but the other girl neatly sidestepped the punch, then swept her foot around and tripped her. The blonde fell hard.
"Oh, Tyra! I'm so sorry!" The Latina girl cried out. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Hel," the blonde replied, rubbing the back of her head. "Damn, that was a nice move! How'd you manage to pull that off?"
"You telegraph your punches. I keep telling you that you have to time your attacks just right, but it seems you still can't get out of your street fighting habits." Helena Fernandes Souza, otherwise known as Sailor Quaoar, held out her hand to her comrade.
"Well, street fighting's easy! You just find an opening and exploit it." Tyra Vanderbilt, a.k.a. Sailor Varuna, grabbed the outstretched hand and pulled herself up.
"The problem with street fighting is that any trained martial artist can counter it easily. Capoeira is all about rhythm and timing. That's why it's known as dance-fighting. Until you can break those bad habits of yours, you're not going to be a good Capoeirist."
Just then, the door to the house opened and a small girl in a Miko outfit appeared. "Tyra, Helena, Sis says to get cleaned up. We got company coming."
This piqued Tyra's interest. "Is it..."
"Yup! Now hurry up. They'll be here in an hour!"
"Thanks, Cammy-chan." Tyra turned to her sparring partner, "Hel, you mind if I..."
"Go ahead," Helena said. "They're your old friends, after all."
"Right. Thanks." And with that, Tyra headed inside for the shower.
"You know," Cammy said after Tyra had left, "She probably won't admit it, but I can tell she's excited."
"You should have seen her when Karin first told her that Lyn was in Japan. But you know, I can't help but think she's also a bit conflicted. I hear they didn't part on the best of terms."
"Well, Max and Sam will be happy to see her again. They're always telling stories about "Big Sis" Tyra. It was hard not to call them up and tell them as soon as I met you guys, but I can understand why Tyra wanted to keep this a secret. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces."
xxxxx
9:21 AM
Tyra wasn't sure she was ready for this.
As she washed in the bathroom, her thoughts turned to the day Lyn left Amsterdam. After being thrown out on the streets when their orphanage closed, Lyn had earned enough money to take her and her brothers to Egypt. She had even offered to take Tyra with them, but Tyra had thrown that offer back in Lyn's face and called her a coward. Now she realized that she was the cowardly one, too afraid to climb out of her street urchin life and try to make something of herself. Now that she had joined the Kuiper Belt Senshi as Sailor Varuna, she had a new direction in life, but when she first arrived in Japan, she found herself unready to face her old friend.
Staying in the same place as Cammy, one of Max and Sam's new friends, complicated matters a bit, but, fortunately, Rei was understanding. The Strombergs lived at a shrine belonging to a woman named Genkai, which was quite a ways from Tokyo, so Max and Sam didn't come to visit that often, but when they did, Rei managed to have them meet at one of their other friends' houses, Yui's or Aoshi's, or have Cammy and the others go to Genkai's shrine.
It's been just over a month since she arrived, and after talking to Helena, Rei, and the others about her anxiety, she finally decided to meet them again, which is why, yesterday, she told Rei to go ahead and invite them over the next time they called. Still, she hadn't expected the call to come so soon.
Well, Tyra, the girl said to herself, one of the reasons you came to Japan in the first place was to see Lyn and the boys again. She took a bucket of warm water and dumped it over her head, rinsing herself clean of the suds. You can't keep hiding from her forever. It's time to make things right.
She grabbed a towel and went off to her room to get dressed.
xxxxx
10:09 AM
"So what's so big that I had to come all the way down here to see?" Lyn asked. She and her younger brothers, fraternal twins Max and Sam, were sitting in Rei's living room.
"Well," Rei started, "As you may have heard, the ranks of the Sailor Senshi have grown a bit larger, recently. Five girls from around the world, Texas, Nigeria, Brazil, Australia, and Holland, have been invited to come to Japan and stay and train with us. The two girls from Brazil and Holland have been staying here at the shrine."
"Cool! There's a girl from Holland?" Max and Sam said, simultaneously.
"Why didn't you invite us down sooner?" Lyn inquired. "We would have loved to meet her."
"I wanted to get settled in first," they heard a voice from around the corner say. As the speaker stepped into view, Lyn recognized her immediately. Apparently, so did Max and Sam, because they immediately rushed up and sandwiched her in a hug.
"Hammer!" they cried out, calling Tyra by her street name.
"Hey, Max, Sam! You guys have gotten big! You guys are how old now? 13?"
"Yup!"
"You've grown, too, Tyra," Lyn interjected.
Tyra fell silent.
Rei, being the observant woman that she is, spoke up to diffuse the situation. "Hey, boys, why don't I introduce you to Helena, the other girl that's staying here? She's outside with Cammy right now."
She led the boys outside, leaving Lyn and Tyra alone.
Tyra started. "So... About that little conversation we had 5 years ago..."
"What about it?"
"I... I wanted to apologize for what I said. I never thought you were a coward, Lyn. I was just a stupid young girl who was afraid of change. Now I see that what you did was the smart thing, and that I was the coward. Can you ever forgive me?"
As an answer, Lyn went up to the blonde-haired teen and gave her a hug. "Oh, Tyra, there's nothing to forgive. Now come on, we've got five years of catching up to do.
xxxxx
10:45 AM
"...so let me get this straight," Tyra said, after a long conversation. She and Lyn were strolling around the courtyard. "This Ishizu lady taught you how to summon your dragon at will, which you used to help the Sailor Senshi and their other allies to defeat the Rajita invasion, but now that this Yugi kid defeated Pharaoh Atem, you can't summon it anymore?"
"Well, the fact that I can't summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon has more to do with the fact that the Millennium Items were destroyed than the Pharaoh's defeat, but essentially... yes."
"And to top it all off, you're dating the Seto Kaiba?"
"Is that so hard to believe?"
"Frankly, yes! How have the paparazzi not gotten wind of this?"
"Oh, they had a field day three years ago, but once they couldn't find anything about my past, I pretty much dropped off the radar. You know them, they only care about scandals, so I just keep my nose clean and they leave me alone. But enough about me, what have you and the gang been up to?"
"We've been... surviving. Up until Karin and the other Kuipers showed up, we were pretty much living life day to day. But that's all changing, now."
This piqued Lyn's interest. "Oh, really?"
"I talked to Miss Setsuna, and she's reopened the orphanage. Not only that but she's hired teachers to help all the street kids get an education."
"Wow! That was nice of her. I'll be sure to thank her next time I see her."
"That's... not all," Tyra sighed. "When I first got my powers, the first thing I did was to seek out Tobias Hawke, the man who killed my parents. I was going to... I don't know, kill him, I guess, but he told me the story of how my parents died, how it was an accident, how he tried to save my mother, and how he turned himself in. If Karin hadn't been there to stop me, and if those Animamates hadn't been trying to kill me, I don't know how I would have coped, but I pushed it all into the corner of my mind and dealt with the task at hand. I managed to hold it together until I actually went back to Amsterdam with Miss Setsuna to help her with the reopening, and we found in my file the letter Tobias said he had written, and it all came rushing back, and I was just so... angry. I was angry at everyone, Tobias, my parents, you, and even myself. I was so angry about it... it hurt." Tyra grit her teeth as tears started to well in her eyes. "I don't want to be angry anymore."
Lyn stopped and held her friend. "Shh... It's okay. You've held this in for thirteen years, just let it all out."
And Tyra did. For a while, the two just stood there, Lyn comforting Tyra as she cried.
Soon, the tears stopped, and Tyra regained her composure. "Thanks," she sniffed. "I needed that. But if you ever tell anyone what just happened here, I'll kick your ass."
"Hah! Like you could," Lyn retorted.
"Oh, yeah? You ain't got no dragon to protect you this time."
"Like I ever needed it to whip your scrawny little butt."
"That does it. Arm-wrestling. You and me. Right now."
"Oh, you're on!"
xxxxx