Chapter Text
CW:
- violence.
“What the actual fuck are you trying to pull?” Makoto spat, pointing in reference to the buildings they’d run from.
“They’re harmless.” The blonde, sheathed in shadows, took a step forward. A high heel clicked with surprising echo through to the alleyway. “They’re gathering data,” she stated in robotic but almost cheerful tone. “These creatures, bred from an ancient species, are creations of Selenios.” The woman’s voice was one of a museum tour guide.
Usagi, summoning all of her strength not to jump to conclusions, forced herself to remain calm.
“They possess remarkably attuned senses,” the shrouded figure continued.
Ami, clutching blue transformation pen behind her back to Usagi’s left, took a confident step forward. “Collecting what data? What is it you want to know?”
The woman Usagi knew as Erika hesitated. After a few moments of silence, “We wish to integrate,” she spoke. When no one answered she continued, “Into your society.”
Beside the moon warrior her friends were readying themselves. She could practically feel the tension in the air as Minako, in front of her, took one step forward and Makoto, forward to her left, slid a hand into her pocket.
“Specifically, this city.” Erika lifted a finger to her ear and tilted her head.
Is she listening to an earpiece?
“Tokyo. This city’s positive energy is palpable.”
The bun-haired blonde stepped toward her forcefully. “If that’s true — we will help in any way we can.” She ignored Rei’s scoff to her right. “Just, please, stop with the weird stuff.”
Usagi willed herself to move her other foot, take one more step. Erika was silent. Maybe I can get through to her.
“No more secrets. No more hurting anyone.” Her voice, though she forced it steady, still wavered. “You don’t need to use those creatures around here.” She swallowed. “We can help you.”
Subtly, before Usagi knew what was happening, the inner four retracted their positions to stand nearer to her, protectively.
The princess’s heart pounded.
“So, hey… What do you say? … Just, please, explain what you want.”
The lone woman straightened, relaxed. Erika took one step back. Usagi’s chest let go of a few ounces of tension.
“Usagi-san…” She glanced around. At what, the warrior couldn’t tell, or maybe couldn’t make out in the dark of the courtyard.
The long-haired blonde jumped slightly as Erika began moving forward, slowly, calmly. Before her the other four made no further move. So it’s harder to tell I’m the one they’re protecting, she thought.
“We want…”
She glanced around again.
Paranoid, feeling like her skin was crawling, Usagi lifted a hand to scratch the back of her neck. She glanced around discerningly into the shadows. She could see nothing.
Then the ground rumbled.
Racing heart skyrocketing, Usagi felt herself gasp with a start. The other girls remained still, though she could tell they subtly glanced about; to her left Ami slowly, subtly reached a hand into the shoulder-bag containing her computer.
Dimly lit pavement erupted.
Usagi stifled a scream, clenching her throat muscles closed, as shadows poked up past the concrete tiles mere meters from the group. A dull, minor earthquake made the girl struggle for balance.
Fear and betrayal, tangible and hard and cold, filled her quickly panicking heart as her eyes sought to meet Erika’s.
“What-?”
“We want to rebuild our society. Here.”
Writhing shadows protruded and snaked. Usagi’s fluttering heart felt it would explode. It’s the same giant vines, she realized. Dark green in the streetlights with glinting spikes and sparse leaves, the creatures slowly moved in place as if holding a threatening pose.
Beside her her four friends stepped back, closer, nearly walking into her and one another as they instinctively formed a close-knit formation.
The shorter-haired blonde lifted her chin. For the first time since their encounter her slim, chiseled face was illuminated by the golden-yellow lights. Other than this motion she remained still. “Our research shows this civilization is densely populated… but there surely must be room for us — for our society’s revival — somewhere?”
“Sure!” Usagi’s tight throat caught the innocence and eagerness she had wished to portray. To her own ears she sounded like a scared alley cat, trapped in an optimistic bluff. “Um- I mean, my friends and I can teach you all about-”
“Oh.” The older woman’s head tilted.
Usagi’s eyes, through her shakiness, searched briefly for the forms of the plant entities. She couldn’t see them anymore. Then where have they gone?
Erika took one more step forward. “But, the data we’ve gathered shows the current Earth’s societies — especially ones like this — won’t take kindly to a disruption of power.”
The long-haired blonde, through the darkness, was pretty sure the other woman smiled.
Before her to her left, Makoto’s right fist clenched. Rei, in the peripherals of Usagi’s vision, seemed to close her eyes and take a deep, steadying breath.
“Um-” Usagi’s gut feelings were throwing her painfully red flags. But I have to try. “Erika-san, if that’s really your name?…”
Breaking from the cover of her friends, the moon warrior stepped, between Makoto and Minako, forward. She approached, slowly and calmly, until she could just see the whites and teal irises of the strange woman’s eyes.
“Forgive me for not trusting more easily, but…” Usagi interlaced her hands at her chest. “I just want to make sure — I’m not —” She looked back and gestured at her four guardians. “We’re not — going to do anything to displace, or harm, anyone already living here. Is that — is that in alignment with your desires as well?” She extended a hand. “But… wherever your society is from… if you need a place to live, I’m sure that Earth can accommodate you. You deserve that much.”
Strangely, a pride and strength ran through her, from heart to fingertips. Dang, that was eloquent, she thought. Usagi felt her cheeks blush. Am I becoming more like a queen already?
The young woman jumped to a startled stance as she felt, once more, the concrete groan. Her head whipped around but she saw nothing. Within a second she was warm with her friends’ body heat; Ami and Makoto nearly shoved themselves into her side, and though on her right Minako retained her subtle distance Rei’s long hair tickled her, pressing to her right shoulder.
Erika’s face flickered with humor. Or maybe I imagined that. She lowered her chin, shrouding all but the pale yellow of her curly hair in the shadow of her hat. The woman extended her right hand and made to approach Usagi.
The princess’s heart leapt.
After two or three paces the outreached hand dropped. “It’s a shame… It’d be a shame if you won’t help. You don’t quite understand.”
The courtyard and alleyway were still. Nonetheless, Usagi felt she was being watched. Her widened eyes darted. Everywhere she thought she saw monsters it was nothing but potted plants, or passing shadows of clouds under the moonlight.
The strange woman’s voice was perfectly even as she stated, “We, I, don’t mean any harm if we can all get along.”
The dark, cool ground vibrated. Usagi’s eyes searched desperately as her heart dropped.
In a mere second, Usagi became aware that, without bothering with so much as transforming, Makoto had charged at the threat.
The moon princess opened her mouth. Violence. We’re fighting them. Is it too late? Or maybe that was her naivete. Maybe it had already been too late. Still, within the split second of Erika’s remaining moral ambiguity, Usagi’s heart ached. A surreal anxiety bloomed.
The brunette, shouting to intimidate the foe, had reached her target and threw a punch with all her weight.
The mysterious woman jumped skyward. Dodging by means of levitation, her shoulder-length hair spread out uncannily as momentum swung it up past her ears. Erika hovered, moving slowly as if on an invisible bungee cord, about ten meters up.
Usagi gasped.
Erika, with a flick at her elbow to outstretch one arm, threw what looked like a wad of electric forcefield, speckled with black veins, translucent yet glimmering like a migraine aura, down to her assailant.
Makoto had narrowly evaded, leaping aside in a roll.
A glint of radiant blue behind and to her left told Usagi Ami had transformed, wasting no further time. She dashed forward. Jupiter followed suit.
Doubling back to Usagi’s side, Minako exchanged a meaningful nod with both her and Rei. The platinum blonde swam with a shocked anxiety, hesitating, but beside her Venus’s colorful pen was whipped out.
“Not so fast.”
Moonlit faces froze or snapped upward.
“Before any of us get hasty, as a sign of trust, let’s put down our weapons.”
She means our transformations.
With a grumble the existing holes in the earth gave way to dark, snakelike tendrils. Thicker than a human and emitting a whisper-like, sickly roar, the plant monsters poked a modest few feet, threateningly, from the concrete. Flashes of fuzzy, blindingly red light illuminated the rubble surrounding the cavities from pinpoints originating from the creatures.
Okay, what the hell?!
Venus, transformation complete in spite of the threat, stepped forward. A sparkling golden chain was already brandished at her side. “Sorry, but you’ve crossed us now. There’s no making us stand down now you’ve shown your true colors.”
Erika, hovering still, descended to just above head level. “Alright,” she said with nearly no emotion, nodding.
An index finger flicked forward, directly aligned to Usagi’s face.
“Moss, this odango-head is the moon princess,” the woman barked.
“Whaat?!”
Shock stung Usagi’s chest. Teeth clenching and head raised, she transformed right to her Eternal form.
Within a moment Venus and Jupiter had leapt back to shield her.
“Usagi!” Mercury, one hand holding her computer, screamed. “There’s-”
The information came too late.
Concrete surrounding the princess cracked. Mountainesque forms jutted, releasing the snakelike plants from peaks like a volcano eruption.
Before she knew what was happening Sailor Moon had been thrown to one side, separated from her friends. With a cry she collided with Mars, who had run up to catch her; the fire senshi yanked her back to her feet and together they ran amid the dust. The monsters which had threatened them before had also returned, humongous forms snaking from the rubble at the courtyard peripheries.
As she blinked away stirred-up dirt she saw Venus and Jupiter had been launched down the opposing peak side, tumbling to a stop at Erika’s feet. Mercury was nowhere to be seen.
“You guys!” Moon called; but a shrill warning cry from Mars made her look up in time to avoid a particularly beefy plant tendril plummeting to earth.
With a rumbling smash it collided with the spot she had previously occupied. Coughing to clear lungs aggravated by dust and debris, Usagi took a shaky step back. Her hand met the cool brick of one of the bordering buildings.
She glanced about. She was alone in the newly created artificial valley. An eerie roaring silence surrounded her despite the smooth, ceaseless motion of monsters in the peripheries; they were searching like blind worms, stacking, creating great, curving walls to obstruct her.
She and Mars had been separated.
Jupiter pushed up onto elbows; she scrambled to her feet. Beside her, in hazy peripheral vision, Venus struggled on hands and knees.
The ground, quaking, moved and crawled like a loose tarp in the wind.
And she was above, just beyond them, laughing.
Wisps of brown hair tossed by the churning air whipped her face as Makoto turned to glare upward. “You.”
She wished her anger alone could melt the manipulative jerk’s face.
A golden glow brewed to her right. Venus was up and fighting.
While the bitch was occupied with snapping to react to her companion, Jupiter began to do the same.
“Venus Love…" ; "Sparkling-”
Before phrases could complete or charge could come to a head a monstrous vine reached to slap the ground between them. Simultaneously sidewalk cracked, shockwave following the creation of a new, jutting ridge.
Tossed skyward and tumbling, Jupiter caught herself on a fragment of hard, broken concrete. She was now on nearly the opposite side of the vast courtyard from where they started. Minako wasn’t in sight.
As she blinked to clear pavement-dust from her stinging eyes, dark shadows of vague forms rose and coalesced; the rest of the battlefield was lost to dense fog and floating detritus. The young woman realized she was isolated from Venus and the rest.
Shit. Was this their plan?
Usagi, she desperately thought.
Somewhere, meters away, Venus screamed. Makoto scrambled to the top of the rubble for a view.
As the golden-haired warrior leaped to the air to evade Erika’s energy attack a clump of writhing plants made a beeline for her, encircling.
Visual contact was severed by rough, thorny snakelike bodies.
“Venus!”
About to jump to action, Jupiter realized she’d have to trust Minako would be alright, however — on the far courtyard corner Mercury stood alone, left vulnerable by the fact she held her computer, typing frantically. Beside the blue-haired girl ground shifted.
As she raced to approach, Mercury turned, spotting her.
“Jupiter!” She shielded her eyes from a glaring streetlamp. “They’re-”
Mercury was silenced, however, by something unseen. Simultaneously Jupiter felt as if she slammed into a turbulent wall; as if clotheslined, she was knocked back.
Blinking open dizzy eyes and struggling to sit forward, the brunette saw that Erika hovered, descending, between them.
Ami, facing away as she appeared to react to something unseen, was whipped from view.
“Ami-chan!”
Venus, fighting, became ensnared by a mass of rubbery coils. It was too fast to react to. An index finger initiated a beam of burning light; the creature flinched, retracted, before wrapping harder. Her arms crushed to her sides, she felt thorns catch and pull at her sailor fuku fabric as she winced, gasping out the last of her breath.
A rush of heat, then a dull explosion lit beside her.
“Minako!” It was Mars, voice distant and muffled.
Another flaming projectile was released and the monster coiled back for just long enough. Mars practically pulled her away; Minako felt herself yanked as she was caught by the elbow and she half-blindly followed, tripping, to a crater shape of vacant rubble.
Struggling to will her body to recover, Venus got her bearings, glancing across the scene. Between the dark and the stirred-up particles of debris, she could hardly make anything out. Aside from Mars she could see no others. The blonde, massaging her aching chest with one hand, struggled to adjust to full inhales; the creature had crushed all the air from her lungs. Makoto didn’t mention they could constrict, too, she thought. Is this a new move? Are these ones stronger?
“Are you okay?” A hand appeared gripping her shoulder as Mars turned to her, panting, sweat dripping.
Venus nodded. Regaining her senses, the blonde darted her gaze desperately for information, but her vision was near useless in the hazy, streetlight-illuminated dust. She could hear only vague roars and distant explosions or impacts. Dust and earthy soil filled her nostrils.
Where are the others?! … And the monsters?
Usagi. Is she-?
Heart racing, pounding, adrenaline forcing her body to a powerful calm, Venus turned with a start to her companion. “Where’s Usagi-chan?!”
Mars, to her great relief, nodded back toward the corner behind them. “Just there!” Her voice was even and serious. “I was separated from her just a minute ago.”
Without needing to say anything else aloud the two jumped to hover and survey, long hair cascading and blowing into each of their faces, reaching altitude just meters above the scene.
Though Erika was absent from sight Venus noticed a mass of writhing vines hung in the far corner. Jumping between them, shooting occasional attacks but quickly becoming cornered, was Mercury. A spark of light and a crash of rubble at least fifty meters to the left of that indicated Jupiter’s probable location.
Fuck. The enemy has each of them fighting on their own, she thought desperately. She turned to search the nearer corner. But, Usagi…
Minako at last spotted her, still standing but cornered. With a gasp of acknowledgment from Mars the two of them dove for her, wordlessly. Landing in time to slide between their princess and a mass of parallel vines slowly writhing and grinding, at Mars’s side Venus shot out a shield-like forcefield and prayed for the best. As Sailor Moon, cringing with weapon raised, shrieked, the plant matter threatened to block out all city light.
Minako braced her footing and held on to her strength for dear life as they were slammed.