Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Content Warnings for this chapter:

• alcohol.




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"And this, and this, and this, and this."

The jazzy, soulful old-fashioned pop music wafted in over the foyer speaker. Makoto sighed patiently.

Her friend had amassed a large handful of small, chibi-style idol figurines.

“Will that be it?”

“Yes.”

The cashier bent to close and lock the glass display counter, brushing her long silky fringe bangs behind one ear. She punched briefly on a calculator.

“That will be 9,072 yen, please.”

The blonde’s affect changed immediately to one of regret. “Uh, wait,” she said, with a nervous laugh, and shifting confidently to lean on one hip. Then, with a higher voice, “So that’s…”

“1200 yen each, plus tax,” the young woman said, smiling but visibly tense. She exchanged a momentary glance with Makoto, then looked back to her customer. “Um…?” she started.

“Well, actually, what I didn’t tell you is…” the girl interrupted, plopping her elbows down suddenly to lean on the counter, swaying and jutting a finger at the startled cashier, “I’m a bit of an up-and-coming idol myself.”

"Minako-"

“So, uh…” Minako took a moment to gather her thoughts, palms pressed on the glass counter, staring greedily at the figurines.

“So, you’re… not going to buy all these?” the cashier offered. She fiddled idly with the display key.

The bell dinged as a young man entered off the street, joining a couple more customers in waiting awkwardly behind them.

Makoto laughed nervously.

“Well, I mean, I could, obviously…” Minako said, “but, you know, you’d be doing us both a favor if… you know…” The blonde winked. “… you’d give me-” She leaned in. “Aino Minako, of the Keio Talent Agency, by the way — a couple free of charge.”

Makoto slapped her on the back, forcing a smile. “Minako-chan, we should-”

Minako waved off her friend without taking her eyes off the now-sweating cashier. She spotted the loyalty punch-cards and swooped in. “Oh! And of course I’ll take a point-card too… This is my favorite bar-… shop…” She grinned and looked at Makoto for emphasis.

“Minako-chan, we hardly come here,” Makoto whispered, this time leaning in and tugging on her friend’s t-shirt sleeve desperately. “Let’s go.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean that we won’t be coming here…” the flushed girl stated with stifled annoyance. “Right?” she turned to grin charismatically at the young cashier.

The woman laughed weakly and gave a pained smile. “Um-”

“Then how about just — this — one? ” Minako took a step back, easing up her deathgrip on the counter space and snatching up the first item she had selected, a keychain of a winking woman with a microphone and golden spiky hair emulated in plastic. “I can…” She sidled up to the counter again, covering one side of her mouth with her hand as if whispering to the cashier although Makoto was certain everyone could hear them. “… take a picture of it, post it to my IG, be like… ‘Look what I got from this super-cute place downtown. Everyone check it out!’ ”

“I’m sorry, I can’t…” the cashier was smiling awkwardly, holding one palm up in a motion to end the conversation while covering her mouth with the other hand in an apparent attempt to keep from laughing. Makoto saw her glance over to make desperate eye contact with the bartender in the rear section of the establishment, who nodded discreetly and took a step in their direction.

“Mi-na-ko.” The brunette grabbed her friend’s arm fiercely and began to walk toward the exit, jerking the bargaining woman such that she was forced to take a step back.

“-I’ll bring a signed copy of my upcoming album,” Minako was explaining, beginning to slur her speech, giggling boisterously and gesturing at the clerk as if spreading wild gossip with an old friend. “… complementary!-”

Her remaining hand was finally ripped free of its grip on the glass counter with a suction-y ‘smmck’ that made Makoto think of octopus suckers.

“Ow! Mako-chan!…”

The taller girl smiled sympathetically, bowing self-consciously as the pair retreated toward the door, mouthing ‘Sorry!’ to the blushing, confused cashier who waved in return. The growing line now finally moved forward toward the counter, filling in the space they had been occupying.

With one more forceful step for Makoto, and one more stumbling lurch on Minako’s part, the two women exited the idol-themed bar-and-gift-shop and stepped into the humid evening air.

Minako brushed off the front of her jumper and smoothed her skirt, then noticed she was being left behind. “Uh, wait!” She ran the short distance to catch up to her still-walking friend. “Hey, you didn’t need to do that back there, I was coming! ”

Makoto just rolled her eyes and ignored the comment, though she smiled at the relief of the outdoor air. She stretched, lacing her fingers, and rested her folded arms behind her head as they walked.

Minako swayed her way down the ginkgo-tree-lined sidewalk and stumbled into Makoto, sighing. “Ugh, I just REALLY wanted that Yuzuki keychain. It’s limited edition! ” she added, almost hitting her friend in the face with her gesturing. Her eyes seemed to sparkle in the twilight.

Makoto ducked and moved an arms-length away from her drunk companion, laughing. “Minako-chan…” she said, still embarrassed. “Why not just buy that one?”

“It’s overpriced.” The pair turned a corner and started down another commercial block peppered with bars, restaurants, and occasional shopkeepers sweeping. It was surprisingly quiet for a Friday night. Minako dramatically crossed her arms, pouting. “Besides, I mean… how many other actual musicians do you think probably go there?”

“Probably a lot-”

“They should feel lucky to have me offer to promote their business!” Minako slammed a fist into her other hand, interrupting.

Makoto burst out laughing.

“What?” Minako side-eyed the brunette, suddenly acting hurt.

“Nothing!” Makoto put up her hands innocently. Then she felt a rare beckoning to mischief. She glanced sideways at Minako. Her blood alcohol level demanded that she give in. “But… have you even put out an album yet?”

Minako gasped. “Yes, I have!!” she said indignantly. “Well, it was an EP…”

Makoto cracked up, doubling over. “I’m joking though,” she stated affectionately. “I love your music-”

“Then why drag me out? When I was trying to make a deal! ”

Makoto practically sweat-dropped. “I’m pretty sure they were about to kick you out,” she muttered.

“Oh… wait really?” Minako blushed, jerking a hand behind her head to fiddle nervously with the back of her long hair.

“Yep,” Makoto stated matter-of-factly. But the fact was the street was about to run out and they needed to turn soon or they would wander aimlessly into a residential area. “So where are we going?”

An unmistakable gleam entered Minako’s flushed face as she made knowing eye contact with her friend. “Karaoke?”

“Sounds good.”

They turned off to the right. It was a smaller street with a smaller sidewalk, mainly pedestrian this time of night, so they walked in the middle of the asphalt road. As the sun set on Minato-ku, Tokyo, a couple illuminated signs buzzed to life as they passed.

“Hey, Mako-chan,” Minako started, clasping her hands innocently, her turn to spark mischief. “I didn’t make you embarrassed to be with me, did I?”

“N-no!” Makoto began to reassure her friend.

Meanwhile Minako made a sound in between a giggle and a cackle, ready to bask in the compliments or drama, whichever ensued.

“I mean… yes, but…” Makoto gave up. “I just hate being rude! That woman was just trying to do her job,” she vented. “Just because you’ve never worked in service, Minako…” She clenched her fists in angst, then stopped herself.

“Music is a service to the people,” Minako beamed, continuing to seem increasingly drunk.

The pair continued to stumble their way to the ‘usual’ karaoke venue of late, which was about a block and a half away.

Makoto laughed, shaking her head. “That’s really not what I meant.” Though not as wasted as her companion, the world had begun to gently spin a few blocks ago, and she now felt that the last shot she had taken, about five minutes before they left the place, was kicking in.

She clasped her hands near her chest, expressing her internal swoon. She shuffled her feet as she walked. “I guess also… I just especially didn’t want to be rude to that cuute girl.”

“Hm…” Minako thought, scuffing her sparkly gold flats on a rough patch on the road as she stumbled. “Was she cute? I didn’t notice… Wait.” Minako’s energy level seemed to immediately pick up and she swayed toward her tipsy friend.

“Wait…” the blonde repeated, leaning over toward Makoto, who was broken out of her reverie. “Mako-chan… Do you like girls? ”

Makoto literally stopped in her tracks. “Uh…”

Minako glared at her with a fierce curiosity, now stopped in front of her, leaning forward, wrists on her hips. She gave an expression that stated ‘Well?’

“Um, uh-” Makoto flushed, her heart suddenly racing. “Well, yeah! I mean, I didn’t think I was that subtle. I know I haven’t really come out to you guys or anything but…” She averted eye contact, staring at the closest gutter.

“Oh?” Minako came closer.

“I guess I realized… I mean, you know, the whole thing with…” Makoto twirled a section of her curly ponytail on her index finger, nervously.

Then Minako was suddenly on the other side of her, leaning in and elbowing her in the ribs. How that had happened without her noticing, Makoto could only attribute to either her increasing tipsiness or the dramatic blonde’s mysterious abilities when it came to discussions of love.

Minako grabbed hold of the fabric of Makoto’s top, leaning in significantly. She whispered, “Mako-chan.”

“What?” The stronger girl bristled. She turned to face her friend, tempted to slap her hand away. “I didn’t think it would be a big deal.” Her heart churned. She prepared herself for the response. ‘How could you give up on men?’ ‘Oh, you mean Haruka-san?’ ‘Wait ‘til I tell the others.’ She steadied herself, taking a slow breath, heart beating louder in her chest, suddenly realizing the enormity of this conversation. She braced herself, then, “I just-”

“No!” Minako said emphatically, shaking her head, and poked her painfully in the arm, gesturing dead ahead. Through gritted teeth, she announced, “I mean, Mako-chan, what’s that?! ”

There was a bench in the middle of the road. It didn’t appear that it was merely placed there. It seemed to be growing out of the middle of the road, or just to the right of the middle of the road from their point of view, several doors down from their destination. Thick vines emanating from cracks in the black asphalt, covered in spikes and leaves that gave off an otherworldly quality, though Makoto couldn’t quite place what quality that was, encircled it.

“Is that a bench? ” Minako whispered.

“Uh…”

“That’s weird, right? Like, us weird?” Minako said through gritted teeth, gesturing to herself as if being discreet. She took a breath, shaking her head slightly and suddenly emerging more sober, or… at least of more sober judgment, if not actual alcohol level. “Should we…?” Minako, in addition to being a drama-craving ‘basic bitch’ at times, was also the designated leader of a group of warriors who provided a supernatural defense – of the solar system and also in particular of their princess, an infinitely powerful, equally ditzy woman who they in fact had plans to see later that night.

After a moment of hesitation on both of their parts, Minako unzipped her purse and procured her transformation pen, making eye contact with Makoto which told her to follow suit.

“Venus…” the blonde whispered.

“Wait!” Makoto slapped a hand over her friend’s mouth, to her surprise. She surveyed the area. “We should at least find cover. If something’s happening here, we don’t know who could be watching.”

“Oh, come on!” The drunk ‘goddess of love’ spread her arms in exaggerated annoyance, yelling loudly into the night air. “No one’s here! And besides, it’s not like we don’t look exactly the same after we transform!” She declared, lowering her voice toward the end of the sentence, but still causing Makoto to glance around apprehensively.

The tall girl once again yanked her friend, this time grabbing her by the upper arm and leading her around a corner, to an alleyway.

The brunette laughed nervously. “Yeah, that’s true, but…” She looked in front of them and behind, returning to seriousness. “I just feel better about it if we’re discreet. We don’t even know what’s happening yet.”

The less-drunk of the two warriors, feeling her stomach somersault as she mentally adjusted from one source of adrenaline to another, felt the side of her long, pleated skirt for her pocket. A sense of power, of calm, filled her as her fingers met with her own transformation aid. It’s been a while, she thought. But this was it. It was needed. After steadying herself, the woman whipped the green pen out of her pocket.

“Jupiter…”

“Wait!…” Makoto almost fell on her face in surprise when Minako rushed over and reached up a finger to shush her.

“What?!” The eager fighter swatted her friend’s hand away from her lips.

Minako looked around them before briefly laughing, then continuing, “Well, it’s just that… I’m wasted… You don’t seem too sober either.” She looked down at the ground, blinking thoughtfully.

“Oh, yeah…” Makoto scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed.

“Maybe we should…”

“Call the others,” Makoto finished.

Minako nodded.

After a brief debate of ‘No, you.’ ‘No, use yours.' and an awkward pause during which Minako fished through her cluttered purse to at last find her old orange wristwatch, the two women looked on as Minako, nodding for the other girl’s approval, flipped open the star-embossed cover and pressed the ‘group call’ button.




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A persistent beep awoke Usagi from the nap she had accidentally taken — because of course she had — as she rolled over on her pink comforter.

“Mmmmm,” she murmured, her first salient thought being how unfair it was to be prematurely awakened. A vague feeling of peace and sweetness regarding the flurry of interrupted thoughts she had been ripped from made her think she had probably been dreaming about a cookie. Or maybe multiple cookies.

The platinum-blonde girl sighed, prepared to groggily sit up, but suddenly noticed the annoying beep was accompanied by a flashing light, emanating from her bag on the floor. Immediately awake, she jumped to her feet, retrieving her communicator and plopping back down on the bed, rubbing her eyes.

She answered.

Minako’s face appeared on the screen. “Hey! I’m sorry… it’s just…” She looked off-screen to make eye contact with someone standing next to her, and then Makoto butted into view as well.

Minako continued, “We’re just really drunk.” She smiled apologetically.

Makoto clasped her hands in front of her. “I think we need you all to come as soon as possible.”

Chapter Text

CW:

• alcohol mention.
• past trauma/implied PTSD mention.

When the reincarnated princess arose, it was with a new sense of urgency and duty imbuing her with a new wave of calm and focus.

“We’re fine,” Makoto had reassured them. “Basically, nothing’s happened so far. But we’ll explain when you get here.”

Usagi didn’t forget her purse, communicator, or cell phone, although she did almost forget the latter on her bed before running back for it.

Her parents' house still smelled like the pancakes of late brunch, and Usagi’s footsteps seemed to echo significantly louder in the dark house. With her parents and brother gone for the evening, Usagi paused to unlock and re-lock the front door before stepping out onto the small driveway.

The creak of wicker furniture followed by the small thuds of four landing paws issued from the porch behind her, and the girl turned to see Luna trotting to her from the chair she had been resting on.

“Luna!”

Perhaps by some instinct or by seeing the look on her face, the black cat’s gaze immediately filled with a knowing concern. She jumped down the porch step. “Where are you going?”

“I got a call from Mako and Minako-chan. Something weird is happening, they think.”

Luna nodded curtly, running to catch up the rest of the way to the blonde, as the pair reached the end of the paved driveway.

“What did they say? Where are you meeting? Did you remember your communicator and cell phone? Do you want me to come with you?”

"It'll be quicker if I fill you in later. And of course." Usagi gritted her teeth, irked. She left out the part about nearly leaving her phone on the bed. She was suddenly restless and itching to leave, feeling a familiar but long-absent calling to duty. She looked over the residential rooftops at the setting sun. Usagi lived on the side of town furthest from the location in question of all the inner senshi, and it was already getting dark; she should hurry to meet with her friends.

Luna scampered to the edge of the road, stopping to stand in Usagi's path as they reached the front gate. "Are you sure you don't want me to come?"

"It'll be faster on my own-"

"Then tell me where to meet and I'll go collect Artemis."

“Luna, I’m 20 years old. I’m responsible now, trust me.” Usagi tilted her head, smiling charmingly at her guardian despite her annoyance. "It's at some karaoke place, I remember where but, you know, I'm bad at directions, so… it'll be faster if I just go…" She leaned and gestured in the direction she should be walking, then clasped her hands pleadingly.

The alien cat sighed. "Oh, alright."

Usagi stepped past the cat and hurried down the hilly road.

"I'll be in the control room — you'll call if anything happens, won't you?" Luna called from behind as Usagi sped to a jog.

The thin breeze picked up strands of the blonde's impossibly long hair, which she brushed out of her face as she called back, "Yes!"

Usagi slowed to a walk as she reached the nearest subway entrance and descended, hugging her half-sleeve blouse around her as the airflow gusted. I hope everything's okay, she thought. But she had a good feeling. Minako and Makoto hadn't seemed very worried, only concerned and cautious. Despite the adrenaline rush of a potential new enemy, Usagi felt confident. We're all experienced warriors by now; we could handle anything.

Appropriate ticket in hand, she made her way to the platform and found a seat in an uncrowded car.

The vehicle sped jerkily around the bends. Her ride was silent except for the soothing white noise, leaving the woman to her thoughts.

When Usagi's destination stop arrived, the future queen rose and pushed through the small crowd, exiting. Usagi was prepared to handle this — her potential first supernatural challenge of adulthood — with appropriate seriousness.

That is, until she saw the sight of the drunken senshi, which made her burst out laughing nearly to tears.

When Usagi arrived, all of her inner-guardian friends except for Rei were gathered around near the sidewalk of the small street. Minako and Mercury, who was transformed, were bent around something Usagi couldn't quite see, and Makoto stood back watching with crossed arms.

As the bun-haired girl jogged up the sidewalk to them, Minako giggled and reached to poke something. Mercury swatted her hand away, stammering "N-no-no-no!" in a tone of hushed panic, which caused Minako to giggle harder and lean over into Makoto, who let out a frustrated sigh, patting the hysterical girl's back.

"Hey, everyone!" Usagi announced, out of breath.

As all three heads turned to greet her, she was met with a chorus of "Usagi-chan!" as Ami and Makoto smiled and called her name at a normal volume, and Minako screamed it. Makoto slapped her hand over the other blonde's mouth, shushing her, and as Minako cackled, half muffled, leaning harder, the two of them somehow managed to smoothly but gracelessly topple to the ground.

Usagi lost her shit. "Ohh, you weren't joking about being wasted…" she said, stifled through her fingers, before she eventually allowed herself to succumb to laughter. It seemed like if civilians were going to come investigate the ruckus they would have done so already.

As Makoto stumbled to her feet, brushing herself off and muttering irritatedly at Minako, the latter continued to laugh from her place on the asphalt, pointing at the still-hidden object and calling for Usagi to, "Look, look!"

As Usagi came closer she saw Mercury was typing on her handheld computer, concentrating over a vine-covered fire hydrant.

"What's that?!" she asked her blue-haired friend as she strode up to look over her shoulder.

"I'm not sure." Mercury continued with ease, not even looking up, ignoring the loud chattering from the other two, as she held the small laptop in one hand and typed rapidly with her other. Usagi also noticed she had her AR screen up, on which white digital writing flitted, semi-transparent, in front of the short-haired woman's blue eyes.

"So we're looking at these vines, right?" Usagi crouched to look closer. A combination of thick and fine tendrils curled around the object like a trellis. Small, purple flowers protruded from several stalks here and there. The sight gave her a weird feeling.

"Yes," Mercury spoke, focused. "It wasn't just here, either. It's the second object on this block since I got here. Mina and Mako-chan noticed it around a bench first," she said, pointing to her right.

The long-haired blonde turned to look. Over near the intersection across from the karaoke venue sat a single wooden bench, askew and out-of-place in the middle of the road.

"Huh…" Usagi racked her brain, but knew they'd need more information before anyone would know what they were dealing with. She cast a glance around the block. Aside from being devoid of other people, everything other than the fire hydrant looked perfectly ordinary to her. "How do you know this isn't just a normal plant?"

Mercury clicked off her visor and turned to face her. "Because the vines are giving off a strange, power-indicating energy."

"Whaaat?!" Usagi gasped, feeling stupid for doubting Ami's reaction. "Well, why didn't you just lead with that?"

Mercury sighed. "Sorry, we have a bit to catch you up on."

"Hey, Rei-chan!" Usagi heard her other friends call. She turned around to see the long-black-haired girl speedwalking down the side-street.

"Sorry I'm late," the former miko panted, toting a large bag at her side. "I was just getting these charm materials from a different shrine."

Mercury shook her head. "It's alright. Usagi just got here as well."

Rei apparently noticed the state of a certain other blonde warrior, who was still sitting where she had plopped on the ground, because she made a judgmental-yet-concerned face and muttered, "Minako-chan… are you guys okay?"

"Yes, yes!" the drunkest guardian was reassuring her, as Ami helped drag her to a stand and Makoto watched, tipsily giggling and shaking her head.

Usagi was distracted from the group, absorbed in the surreal appearance of the strange flowers.

"How could you be drinking??" Rei was distantly reprimanding, and she heard Minako blubber, "-Well the weird stuff happened AFTER I was already drunk. How should I have known?!"

There was something ancient about them, almost as if Usagi could tell they were magical just by looking. She bent over slightly, looking just a little bit closer. Pointy bits protruded here and there along the length of the organism as well as at the base of the flower stalks, appearing almost fuzzy on the smaller branches. Her mind wandered to the Xenian flower, and other various botanical enemies they had gone up against. This one, however, seemed somehow more beautiful.

"-This is really not healthy… You’re almost certainly dehydrated…" Mercury was joining in.

The bun-haired girl was jolted back to reality by Rei, who had walked over to peer at the plant beside her. "Usagi-chan?"

She jumped.

"Are you okay?" Rei looked her in the eye.

"Yeah!" Usagi said apologetically, shaking her head, smiling.

"Okay, let's fill everyone in," Mercury declared, and — once Minako could cease being clumsy long enough to stop herself and Makoto from laughing — the group formed a tight circle on the sidewalk.

As it turned out, neither of the newcomers needed much convincing this occurrence was out of the ordinary; the vines somehow "changed" object-locations before their eyes even during the debriefing.

The women talked, huddled over Mercury's computer, then eventually strode back and forth on the block as each witness took turns describing past events of the evening.

Apparently what had happened was Makoto and Minako had stumbled upon a vine-covered bench. The plant seemed to originate from under the ground, as Mercury pointed out; a few deep holes had been bored through the concrete near where the bench, though no longer vine-encircled, still stood. Then, shortly after Ami had arrived, the plant had retreated back into the earth, appearing perhaps a couple minutes later growing around the nearby fire hydrant. Ami's computer had picked up the fact that the organism possessed a strange energy, definitely not of normal Earth plant life, and similar to that emitted by objects of power which had been used by the Dark Kingdom, she had said.

Whilst they talked, the plant recoiled, gently, from the fire hydrant as Usagi watched transfixed and moments later grew — surprisingly rapidly — around a gingko tree across the street, causing Usagi to nearly jump and shout for the others to watch.

The tree trunk gently bent as the vines circled and writhed like caterpillars, leading the group to speculate the plant's strength may explain how its original host — the bench — had ended up in its current position.

The five warriors watched in concentrated silence as the vines were slowly retracted back through the earth. There was a unanimous decision to return immediately to the lab to discuss the data with the Mauians.

As the group left the scene, Makoto plopped a hand on Usagi's shoulder, sighing. "Sorry… I guess we won't be able to do that movie."

"Oh yeah!" Usagi had almost forgotten about their plans to watch Netflix at Minako's apartment. "We can do it tomorrow night…"

As they neared the subway entrance, Usagi cast a gaze back at the location, speculating. "We don't know for sure these plants — entities — whatever they are — are bad," she said.

Ami, newly de-transformed, nodded. "True," she spoke, smiling, "but we definitely need to do research."

"Yeah…" Usagi's mind wandered as she stepped down the stairs. "I almost just feel like I remember them from somewhere," she said, near a whisper as she was aware of the other people passing by them. "Like from the Silver Millenium or something," she said so that just Ami could hear.

The blue-haired woman, now serious, gave her a meaningful look, nodding. "Do you remember something, then? We should tell the others when we get there."

"I'm not sure… but I think so," Usagi spoke as the five passed the turnstiles and stood waiting for their transportation. "I just feel drawn to them, like it's a bit familiar."

On the ride back to Azabujuuban, everyone was quiet, discussing in euphemisms in case anyone curious might have been listening. They shared speculation about "the situation," the identity of "the gardeners," among other phrases, with surprising competency. Minako seemed to be sobering up, gradually becoming quiet and composed.

When they finally reached the back door to the arcade and Minako produced the key, the group looked briefly around. Luna and Artemis must have already been waiting for them inside.

"Are you sure it's okay?" Makoto was questioning, but Minako answered, "Yeah, trust me, it's deserted this time on Fridays lately." And, after waiting for the lone occupant in the joint to take a break from her sports game and head to the bathroom, the five women scurried over, whispering to shush each other and quickly pressing the button to open the stairway to the room built under the Sailor V games.

It turns out they needn't have been concerned. Usagi had forgotten how quickly — and relatively quietly — the stairway opened and closed. With the five warriors joining the two cats securely inside, Ami urgently sat down beside Luna, making herself busy with the computer consoles.

"Here," suggested the black crescent-marked cat, and Ami switched the largest screen to a black-and-green gridded map which looked like it was probably Tokyo.

Ami gasped. "What's-…" she started, but Usagi wasn't able to tell which part of the map might have been alarming.

As the Mauians made tense eye contact, Artemis announced, "Well, tell us what happened. Because we definitely have something to show you."

Usagi voiced what everyone seemed to be thinking. "Could it be the Dark Kingdom?" Solemn murmurs and frantic typing followed.

Ami talked without peeling her eyes from the console. "I won't be able to get a detailed energy reading just from here, but I did notice the signature seemed similar to them — to Beryl's crystals and the Shittenou's energy, that is, not Metalia… But we shouldn't make any conclusions based on that alone."

Usagi let out a breath. She put a hand to her pounding chest. They can't be back. Some of her first traumatic memories, which she wouldn't have been able to explain to any therapist, had taken place at Beryl's hand. But Venus had killed her. And Metalia was gone for good. Right? She looked to Minako, whose face was unreadable but pensive.

"Could it be…" Makoto said, "this is something else from the Silver Millenium time then?"

Rei shifted. "Yeah… Usagi, you told us you thought that plant's flowers were familiar, right?" she probed. "Maybe you remembered them from the Moon Kingdom — or from the Earth Kingdom."

"I'm not sure…" Usagi started.

"Well, whatever we're dealing with, our sensors picked up an anomalous energy source spread around… at least several districts. Going back at least since last week," Artemis stated. He flipped through an archive of similar maps, and Usagi could tell there were light-green, dotted patches indicated, moving and growing as Artemis flipped back through to the current date. "I can't be certain, but based on the way the energies have been picked up by the system, it seems most likely at least part of the activity is underground."

There were a couple gasps. Makoto stepped forward to look more closely at the console. "So, what do we do now?"

Ami shook her head. "Unfortunately, nothing except wait and gather more data, probably."

Luna, from her perch atop the array of computer controls, looked sad, Usagi noticed. The cat eventually sighed. "I'm sorry, everyone. I should have been looking at our scanners here more regularly."

Minako, silent until now, stood up from her previous position of leaning against the back wall. "No, Luna. It's my fault, too. I'm the one with the key to this place at night, and I've been in charge — I should have checked-"

"No! Let's not blame yourselves!" Usagi stepped forward suddenly, aware she had shouted, her emotions boiling up. She tried to smile. "We know now… and we'll handle it."

Everyone present nodded.

It was decided that they should let the outer senshi know about what was happening; Usagi said she would text them.

It was past midnight by the time the group split up to return home. Usagi and Luna silently snuck back in to the Tsukino residence, where Usagi was temporarily crashing. Usagi tip-toed to her bedroom, trying her best not to wake her parents, although they had known she'd be out late that night anyway.

"Join. Become the Moss. Serve the people," said someone in Rei's dreams shortly after she fell asleep that night. She woke up with a pounding heart.

Chapter Text

CW:

• violence.

Makoto had stayed out late. Unable to sleep and not wanting to be cooped up alone, once home she had wandered back out to the nearest bar, where she ordered sodas and sat at a back table, pretending to be absorbed with her smartphone.

The enemy is here. Well, if that's who they are. They haven't done anything hostile. But if they are, they're already here…

She took a sip of cola, resting her chin on her knuckles, wondering whether Haruka and the others had gotten Usagi's message yet, what she had told them, and what they would be thinking.

It had been months since any of the inner senshi had caught up with the older girls — well, and Hotaru. With Chibiusa gone back to the future, and with a lengthier-than-usual quiet, peaceful time on the third planet in the solar system, there wasn't a huge need for group meetings with them. Perhaps until now.

The brunette paid her bill to the smiling older woman and left when the bar closed, intending to head back to her apartment. It was just after two-thirty.

Once outdoors, Makoto sighed in the cool night air and checked her phone again. Her feet carried her along the path, but she didn't want to return home. I should text Minako — or Rei, she thought. She doubted either of them would be able to sleep easily that night either. Ami probably had school or something early in the morning, and she didn't want to bother Usagi again…

Change of plans decided, then.

The course of her walk now changed to route herself to a nearby park, Makoto brought up a group text with Rei and Minako and tentatively typed, 'Either of you up?' Her fingers paused on the next thought.

She heard a sound. Not quite a rustling.

Plants. Vines. She could feel it through the earth. It was different than earlier. She broke into a run.

Closing her eyes to focus in on her connection with the plant life, Makoto, heart racing, had sprinted just to the edge of the wooded park. She stopped, steadying her mind and waiting. Her cell phone was cast, forgotten, back into the skirt pocket.

Roots shifted. The nearby trees were groaning, moving to let them through.

Let what through?

The woman gasped, as she could nearly feel the ground shift under her.

No, she did. Literally. It was an earthquake. The curly-haired senshi ran, pulling out her communicator by pure fight-or-flight muscle memory.

Makoto made it to the center of the small park, taking a protective stance, from which she darted her eyes around, scanning the scene. There was nothing but the dark silence and the streetlights. The earth had stilled. She couldn't feel the roots anymore.

She pressed the button to flip open her communicator. And then the ground opened up.

She was falling.

Surrounded by beings that were screeching at her.

Vines, writhing.

It was hard to tell whether the sound was real or in her head.

She was unable to tell whether or not she screamed.

That was what it felt like to fall in, absorbed by nothing but panic and the vines. Then she was aware she had hit the bottom.

Wind knocked out of her, the senshi struggled up to her elbows, heart racing like her body had been pumped with all the adrenaline in the world.

Makoto groaned and sat, feeling soil under her hands, breathing deeply and frantically. It was pitch black except for the small source of light at the top. So far away. That was more than generous enough distance to be fatal for a normal person, she realized — that is, someone without the resilience possessed by the members of a group of reincarnated warriors whose power set just happens to include good at jumping and falling. She had landed hard on her shoulder but she felt nothing but the racing numbness.

The girl took in a raspy breath and put a hand to her forehead, just coming out of her shocked reverie. Before she could properly react, several things happened at the same time. She became aware that one of the vines — one of the big ones that had watched her fall — was coming toward her. And then there were the words, booming, simultaneously spoken and felt psychically with her being. As she later would wonder why she didn't grab her transformation pen during this instant, it was probably because she thought she'd have at least another second more.

She gasped as the plant grabbed her, lifting up, twisting.

"BECOME," it said.

It was a raspy, inhuman voice that was felt under the skin.

As soon as Makoto had been lifted, she felt herself plunged — she could only imagine, further into the earth, through some unseen chasm. She let out an involuntary scream. Everything was dark now. Her hands could reach only the vine, cool and hard like wood, smooth except for grip-aiding spikes, thicker than a snake. She was held still for a moment, suspended in the air. She tried to reach for her transformation pen, but the creature encircled her waist, blocking access to her pockets.

For an instant she just breathed. "Who are y…-" she started.

"YOU WILL JOIN THE MOSS," the vines said.

The voices now felt plural. A chorus.

Makoto attempted to twist, grappling with the vine that secured her. It was too thick, and her legs were bound together. She tried to push away and shove it, eventually twisting to hit it with her elbows, but the plant absorbed her blows like rubber.

As if in retaliation, the beings, angry, twisted her down.

"SURRENDER," they spoke.

Thrown backwards, downwards, Makoto hit against a hard surface, crying out.

"YOU WILL SERVE THE GREATEST PEOPLE."

Entwining her arms and upper body to hold her now from head to toe, the plant whipped back up, throwing her against some rocky ceiling. This blow was softer, absorbed by the rubbery plant, but she saw stars. The senshi tried desperately to twist and break free.

"YOU WILL JOIN," the plant spoke, certain.

As the vine moved, dragging her down, Makoto's view became briefly unobscured. Through one eye she saw they were in the middle of a cavern. The room pulsed with dots of dull, red light.

"Shit, what?-" she spoke.

"OR SURRENDER," the being ordered, at last.

With that, the young woman was simultaneously thrown down; she yelled as the plant entity, which cavorted first further upward for momentum, rocketed her to the floor with a newfound, startling strength.

As she hit, all remaining air was emptied from the warrior's lungs; her vision blacked out for an instant. Struggling to inhale for a moment against the sharp pain in her ribs and chest, Makoto finally gasped, vision spinning but returning, her body throbbing. She was lying on her left side, face-down as her attacker slowly retreated into the darkness, slithering. Through the dim yellow light that now filtered from above, specks of dirt gently fell; she could just make out rubble around her.

Then Makoto noticed that the thick vines, distant now, began to squirm slowly on the other side of the cavern, making an unnerving sound as they reared themselves up once more.

In shock and just barely able to push herself up, the woman instinctively scrambled to gain distance, shuffling backward until her back pressed against something solid.

Then someone clapped.

She realized later that's what it was. A single clap. The sound echoed, somehow drearily crisp. The creature briefly stilled, then continued its growling and rearing, making the dim red light appear once more. Squinting, the senshi flinched for the entity's next attack, trying and failing to fumble for her pockets.

"Moss, STOP."

The vines stopped. Gazing about frantically through the settling dust, as Makoto blinked and rubbed filth from her blurred eyes, she saw a humanoid man walk into view, in the middle of the crevasse, from behind some rocks to the right. He didn't even look at her, but walked to the far side, addressing the creature.

"I must have forgotten to inform you of your special instructions." The new, human voice was calm but bellowing.

The creature writhed and retreated as he spoke.

"This is an honored guest! You must not harm her." The man, blonde, wearing a spotless khaki suit, finally turned to look at Makoto, who glared back. "Hello. I see you've made it. Welcome!"

The brunette spat out dirt, struggling to a crouch. As the man strode slowly and deliberately toward her, she opened her mouth to try to speak, 'Who are you?' but instead found a lungful of dust and fell forward onto her hands coughing.

"Easy, now!" the man spoke. His voice was casual and sugary-sweet. Makoto seethed. She already hated him.

The warrior coughed and swallowed dirt particles, then tried again hoarsely, looking up as he neared her. "Who are you?"

"Aha!" he said cheerfully, although his face, as he came into closer view, lacked emotion. "Please, you are the guest here." He gestured around at the damn dusty cavern. "It would only be polite to ask you, first."

The senshi propped herself up on what turned out to be a large rock behind her, clutching at her consequently stabbing ribs. With her other hand she reached slowly into her left pocket which — thank gods — still held her transformation pen.

"Fuck you," she stated. As she once again got her feet underneath her, she returned her left hand to the ground for support, holding the pen firmly, keeping it readied but out of his view.

"Oho!" the man chortled, stereotypically charismatic yet emotionless. "Well, you'll please at least send my regards to the others."

Makoto paused, thoughts briefly spinning, You still haven't told me who the fuck you are… "The other who?" she spat, though she tried to act oblivious.

"Oh, no need to be coy! The other sailor senshi, of course!"

At that Makoto rushed to stagger to a stand. The man in the suit laughed heartily and innocently as she winced and doubled over her hurt side.

"That's right, I know!" He continued to approach her, slow and methodical. "That's why I invited you here! So, do inform me, which one are you? " The man, now mere feet away from her, tilted his head back as if curious.

Makoto scoffed, disgusted. She threw up the pen — color of forest depths in the dim cavern light — at last.

The warrior shouted. "Jupiter Crystal Power! Make up!"

She was bathed momentarily in blinding green light; Makoto felt the familiar rush of energy overtake her. It started from within, rippling. Electrical power crackled, coursing in waves.

The sense of calm strength came as an instant relief to a panicked mind and body running on near empty with fight-or-flight. She took a breath, empowered. Her hyperventilation stilled slightly. Pain dulled.

Then Jupiter stared down the khaki-suited man.

She briefly realized — with smugness — that he now stood shorter than her, with heels. He remained still in front of her, unflinching. He laughed with amusement.

"The guardian of Jupiter. Of course!" He strode closer to the warrior, beginning to pace. "That would have been among my first guesses — seeing as you're one of the feistier ones."

Jupiter threw a punch at his face.

The man held up his hand as if to block, but stepped back with uncanny speed, effortlessly.

"Please, you mustn't misunderstand!" He stood now stood about 20 meters away. She didn't quite remember seeing him get there. The man began walking forward again. "I hope my pet here didn't rough you up too bad." He held his hands up emphatically. "But that was a mistake. I really don't mean you any harm."

Sailor Jupiter laughed bitterly, speaking through gritted teeth. "You don't mean any harm?" She charged electricity in one tightly-clenched fist, walking toward the man. Gloved fingers crackled.

"Whoa, whoa," he said casually, without fear. "Right. Or any harm to any of the other sailor senshi." This time he remained stationary as she approached, waving his open palms in front of him.

Jupiter lowered the attack but continued the static in both fists, brandishing the arcing sparks. "Then just tell me who you are," she nearly growled, addressing him through narrowed eyes.

"The name's Sel."

As the senshi of thunder approached, he teleported back. They had now crossed the chasm, nearly reaching the mess of boulders which had previously housed the coils of giant plant. The moist air was bitter and cold. Jupiter clenched her teeth angrily and shivered.

"And please give my regards to your other friends. I'm sure they've noticed our presence by now…" The man turned away, beginning to idly trace out a broad circle. "Tell them we want to negotiate." He straightened his tie.

Makoto became aware of the fact she no longer felt the presence of her botanical assailant, or any of the other aggressive vines. Without them, her ears rang in the empty silence.

Jupiter took a firm step forward. "Where is this place? … What the hell are those creatures? And what do you want?!" She reached to grab the man by his cuff. It wasn't there.

Sel, who had finished pacing now in a full circle around her, tilted out of reach to reappear on her other side, face within inches of hers. He spoke calmly, as if she hadn't made to attack him. "Those are some of my people. And we want you to help us."

Then he and the booming plants spoke all at once:

"You must join or grant us safe passage."

Ami hadn't been able to sleep. Brain cluttered but focused, after lying in bed futilely for an hour or two she decided to pack herself a sandwich and go back to the lab.

Haven't having thought to ask Minako for the key just in case this happened, when Ami returned to the closed arcade at around 2 am she looked around for civilians before picking the lock with a bobby pin — a skill she hadn't quite admitted to the others she had been practicing.

The heavy, sliding front door echoed in the deserted shop. Without turning on the lights, Ami felt her way by memory to the now-7-years-old Sailor V machines and let herself down.

Parking herself at the main console, the young woman booted up the alien computers. She flipped to the map view and opened the archives, intending to go over the strange data from the last couple weeks until things started to make sense.

In silence, she ate her sandwich, taking notes using the text app on an adjacent monitor.

She agreed with Artemis and Luna's conclusion that some of the observed activity may have occurred deeper underground; although records from the previous day showed the strange plant life they observed fluctuated around a fairly constant energy level, patches of light green on the UI showed that earlier that day — and nearly every day dating back for the past 10 days — smaller energy readings would fade in and out of range around town and over several other areas of Japan, registering at a much lower level. She happened to know the control room's sensors — although they possessed incredible range across the earth's surface and atmosphere — stopped receiving input accurately just below ground level; thus, the readings would make sense if the 'dimmer' energy signals were actually just farther away — underneath.

Ami chewed and wadded up her paper trash, stowing it back in her handbag. She flipped to the current feed. Small veins of powerful energy flowed and flickered on the map, clustering just west of the Azabu area. In other places, dim patches similar to those seen throughout faded in and out, slowly pulsing.

She studied silently. What could this be? The blue-haired woman stared at the screens, wondering how this baffling new source of energy — friend or foe — might have arrived on Earth — or whether it was possible it could have originated from the planet.

The interface flickered. Among the cluster of energy threads, motion was being detected. Maybe the being(s) are more active at night, she thought, then realized that, no, this level of activity was practically absent from the rest of the dataset.

The nearby veins of power-source data flickered, taking a more branching path, crawling in unison as they stretched to the east. Ami's heart leapt up into her throat, as she leaned forward.

"Minako… are you there? I didn't want to wake the others just yet, but something's happening. I'm in the control room. Can you meet me?" she spoke into her wristwatch's microphone as soon as she fished it out.

"Urmmmg," came the other woman's reply, apparently sleeping until now.

The energy threads continued to branch unpredictably, moving closer to Ami's area at an even faster speed.

"Yeah… I'm on it," Minako said.

Some of the lines, however, converged to span a much thicker area, pulsing with the level of power seen during the time earlier that day when they saw the strange vines, except on a much larger scale. Ami gasped, typing frantically to pull up more stats on the area.

Then a huge brightly-colored circle appeared, causing Ami to jump from the console's solitary beep. The datapoint, denser in the middle, flashed up and then faded immediately from the view — a much stronger energy signature.

Ami flipped open her communicator again. "Nevermind!! I'm coming out. Please transform and tell the others," she shouted.

A small, gentle — almost imperceptible to Ami in her state of panic — shake to the subterranean lair was followed moments later by a loud buzz to Ami's phone. She snatched it up, standing from the control panel chair. It was an earthquake alert. But there were never any more tremors, just the one.

Running now up the stairs and blinded by the darkness in contrast to the bright underground room, Ami addressed Minako once more.

"Did you feel that?! Have you called the others or should I?" The blue-haired girl burst out the door without bothering with re-locking or even closing the door and shutters, stopping breathless on the sidewalk in order to get her bearings.

The leader's face flickered onto the video feed. Minako, hair down, shown blurred and laggy in the poor lighting, appeared to be shuffling through her home, picking up a shoulder bag with a rustle. "I've called them," she said. "I'm on my way outside. Meet at the park."

Ami nodded, fumbling for her transformation pen and beginning to run.

Ducking into an alley, she whispered the words.

Crystal-clear water revitalized her body, quietly washing over her soul. Twisting. Pure aquatic energy left her charged with a sense of motion, an ancient peace.

Ami leapt onto a fire escape, jumping to her first rooftop in three years. Her skirt flowing freely and comfortably, the only sounds belonging to distant traffic and her own breath in her ears, Mercury ran with the grace of a river.

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

Rei sprinted down the side streets, transforming on the way; she didn't break her stride, rather running faster, when her flats were replaced with heels as a calescent, strong power and passion began to fuel her steps.

Breathless, she made it to the designated emergency meeting spot. A few nocturnal birds conversed, watching as she arrived; they broke their gathering to flee to higher trees as the woman rushed through.

Oblivious to the humans' urgent mood, once the warrior was under the canopy the park air smelled of rich summer life and flowers; a couple insects chirped. Through the dark, three a.m. light, Mars spotted a couple figures near the adjacent streetside entrance — her friends. She sprinted over.

Venus and Mercury were illuminated by the dim, electronic light emitting from the former's cell phone.

"I've texted them in case," the warrior of love was telling the blue-haired figure, silhouetted in the light from the commercial streets behind.

Both women nodded to Mars as she approached.

"You guys!.." Red heels clicked as she slowed. "… What's happened?"

In answer, Mercury opened her right hand, palm up; her blue handheld computer flickered into existence. Without hesitation, she pressed a few buttons, bringing up a flashing blue visual.

"There's been a massive energy reading in town…" The senshi of knowledge tapped the touch screen to zoom in, then pointed to her right. "… several blocks that way."

Mars curtly nodded. "Should we get over there?"

"Not quite yet — let's wait for the others," Venus stated.

"Have you heard from them?"

"Not yet," the leader answered, but was interrupted by her communicator flashing. She flipped it open.

"Sorry I'm running late!! I got your transmission. I'm on my way," Usagi's tired voice came through. "What's happening?"

"Just get your butt over here!" Mars spoke, leaning in toward Venus's device.

"Mercury and I will explain when you're all here," Venus said, flinching slightly at Rei's bold order, laughing in spite of the situation.

"What's that?" Mars asked, nodding to a pulsating reading on Mercury's screen that had the warrior seemingly frozen in thought.

Mercury brought a gloved hand to her chin, thoughtful. "There's something you should know. It's possible the cats were right and the readings from earlier — in addition to what's happening now — are underground." She tapped to zoom in. "These readings are fluctuating weirdly even if that's the case, however.."

"Have either of you heard from Jupiter?" Venus interrupted.

They shook their heads.

"I'll page and text her again."

"Oh, and one more thing," Mercury added, looking up. "Did you feel that quake just now?"

"Yes, it woke me up," Mars responded.

"I think it's probably related."

"So what do you think we're dealing with?" Venus asked, looking up.

Mercury shook her head. "Unfortunately, I've no idea… besides the fact the appearance of that plant organism is involved. We need to investigate."

The three stood in silence. Cicadas started up a concert.

Mars looked around the quiet, dusky surroundings with unease. A feeling of significance tensed in her chest. "Where's Jupiter?"

"… Call her again," Mercury demanded, voice biting with a rare impatience.

Venus obliged, beginning to pace. Rei exchanged a glance with the blue-haired girl, who bit her lip, suddenly obviously concerned.

The golden-haired senshi shook her head emphatically. "She's not answering… This is the third time..”

"Shit, no." Mars brought a hand to her lips.

"This isn’t like her. You don't think-?" Venus started.

"You guys!" Sailor Moon was running through the dim woods from farther up the path. Radiant blonde pigtails were longer than ever, her clear blue eyes seeming to glow in the half-light. Mars would have smiled at the appearance of their princess.

As Usagi caught up, slowing as she reached the group, Mercury made stone-cold eye contact with the other two Inners. "We need to go," she said resolutely, hushed. "I'll guide us from my map."

"What's going on? … And where's Mako-chan?" Moon stopped, catching her breath with hands on her knees despite her magically empowered state. On ‘off-season’ she had practiced controlling her transformation to save energy; thus, as she stood before Rei her wings were — for the time being — absent. Her skirt, gently flowing in a breeze, caught the light on familiar stripes of yellow and blue.

The other two’s eyes went to Venus, who pursed her lips in the darkness. She took a breath, bringing a fist to her chest as she steeled herself. "We should act under the assumption she’s in trouble. They must have gotten to her," she spoke.

"Whaatt?!?" Sailor Moon shrieked, springing upright and looking near tears. "And who’s ‘they’?!? The weird plants?" Mars just grabbed her hand and pulled her along as the group began to jog.

It was about ten blocks to the source of the readings. As Mars ran behind Mercury and Venus, skin numb with the cool humidity, she felt Usagi's hand in hers until the other woman finally ripped it away, as she panted — or perhaps cried — behind her.

"There! This block!" Mercury finally shouted. The group veered to a crosswalk leading to a smaller wooded park.

As soon as Mars reached the entrance she stumbled, feeling as if she just passed through a thick bubble, or a spiderweb.

"You okay?" she heard Venus ask.

".. The fuck was that? … I definitely feel something here." The psychic got her bearings, mentally shaking off the sticky residue of strong energies and ancient-seeming spirits. All senses throbbed. Then she spotted a dark patch in the center of the paving stones. "That!"

Mars kicked into a sprint, stopping to stoop and feel the earth when she reached the edge. A roughly-traced, apartment-sized circle in the middle of the small city block, at the back corner of the tiny park, had been rendered vacant and replaced with just a perfectly-flat patch of dark soil.

"What happened to everything that was here?!" Rei heard Moon behind her, breathing anxiously. Mars stood, turning to face the group.

"This was the epicenter." Mercury typed away on her computer as she approached, soft features illuminated by her electronic visor.

"Jupiter…" The moon princess crumpled to her knees, touching the empty ground.

The leader approached behind her, resting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Whatever happened, I'm sure she's okay."

Sailor Moon stood up, wiping her face. "I know. I can feel it."

Mercury approached the others. "I'm no longer detecting a strong energy from this area. It's spread around. Shall we split up?"

"No!" Venus stopped her. "The same thing could happen again."

"She has a point," Mars spoke. "Otherwise it could take us ages, and if the energy source is moving now, we may need to act quickly… assuming Jupiter was taken."

Usagi, who wiped her eyes on the clear portion of Venus's sleeve as the latter embraced her, nodded, opening her eyes with a fierceness. "I'm willing to take the risk more of us could be separated. Let's cover more ground."

Venus nodded then, smiling with certainty as if to psych herself up. "Okay then. I'm sure we'll find her in no time.” She turned to carry on, immediately turning back. “But… Sailor Moon, one of us should stay with you.”

“I’ll do it,” volunteered Mercury, nodding to their princess.

“Okay. I’ll go check Makoto’s apartment first, just in case. You all cover the area.” Venus turned to abruptly leave.

"Let's keep in close communication if we see – or sense – anything at all," Mercury stated, tapping her visor closed.

There was unanimous assent.

Mars ran as she followed her gut feeling, alone except for passing the occasional shop employee closing up who'd pause briefly to stare at her.

She thought about the feeling she'd had at the park and tried to focus on that. The warrior hurried, closing her eyes at times, trying to tell whether she felt anything like that again. At first she didn't.

Mercury's voice emitted from her wrist as the communicator beeped. "There's been another energy spike. Not as intense as whatever incident caused the earthquake, but still significant."

"Where?" she heard Venus ask.

"Near the north part of the district. Usagi-chan and I will route to the area and I’ll tell you where to meet us."

"I'm near there." Mars pressed the 'talk' button, speaking as she continued northward. The fire senshi picked up the pace.

Residential areas made way to streets packed densely with commercial buildings. As Mars sprinted, buses and traffic lights blurred past her. It began to very lightly rain. Then she slowed.

A presence — a feeling — enveloped her perception. It felt similar to what she experienced at abandoned or poorly kept shrines — an ancient, impossible-to-ignore entity, like spirits left to overgrowth for hundreds of years.

My dream. Yes, she'd had a dream about this. But not soon enough to do anything about it. Mars felt herself pant as she began to sprint again.

The cobwebs of beckoning consciousness led her behind a family temple wedged between tall apartment buildings, under a relatively-new overpass, and into a small, fairly obscured patch of manicured lawn and trees occupying an awkward, unutilized triangle between an office building and a train station. Passing spirits fled and blotted the priestess's vision as she put her feelers out, walking amongst the oaks.

'Join. You will join. Come.'

The words inserted themselves, unprovoked, into the woman's mind. The dream! Information rushed back to her from just several hours before. There was a person — an entity — a group — who told her this, in her dream.

It's an invitation.

The black-haired warrior now knew with sureness that this is what had happened to Jupiter. The entity desired to make contact. For better or worse, they already had — with Makoto — and now the chance was offered to her as well.

Mars mentally tried to send acknowledgment. She closed her eyes, coming to a stop.

'How?'

She was no longer alone. Violet eyes opened. A vague glow from the other side of the commercial park caused her to follow. As she approached, the grass stirred, parted. A spiral of displaced sod made way for a bioluminescent being — round like a jellyfish — which crowned and emerged from the ground with a soft, earthy sound like a shovel pulling apart roots.

Mars stared. She blinked, shaking her head back to reality. "Um, guys…?" With shaking hands she opened her communicator screen as she stepped back, turning to offer a view to whoever wanted it. "Do you see this?"

A moment of silence, and then Sailor Moon's face appeared on the screen.

"Whaaaat? On Earth is that??"

Venus and Mercury were apparently disposed; they answered with voice only.

"What is it, another creature?" Venus probed. "Are you alright??"

Rei straightened herself, trying to think how to best sum up the information she had recently been imparted. Mars didn't peel her eyes from the entity, watching its gentle, sea-creature-like undulations as she spoke. Fully exposed it was massive, the width and height of a small tree. The soft outer layer was purplish and shiny. "I can sense these organisms are giving us an invitation. I'm positive that's what happened to Mako-chan. And they're making contact with me, too." She hesitated. "I'm going to do what they ask."

Chatter emerged from the other ends of the line. Mars listened absently to their questions and doubts; she had already decided. If the well-being of one of their own hadn't possibly hung in the balance, she would have exercised more caution. However, the rapidity with which events had unfolded made her uneasy about the consequences of hesitating, in the case that these entities harbored malicious intentions.

She breathed and listened.

The glowing globule listened back. A gentle tug at her psyche told her the powerful entity — the one she had been sensing and heard in her dream — was awaiting her input.

The plant-like creature did not intend to kill her, at the very least, Mars could tell. She outstretched a hand. As her fingers neared the surface of the organism, its outer wall parted. A hollow inside, with soft solid ‘floor,’ awaited her. Mars took a breath.

Her friends had gone silent. "Are you still there? … It's a vehicle. I believe it will take me with it, possibly underground — but definitely to wherever Jupiter was also taken."

"Are you sure?!" Usagi's voice sounded, hopeful.

"I have a strong sense."

"Alright. I'm just leaving Mako's apartment. It's empty. Where exactly are you, Mars? We'll all meet you there," Venus panted.

"Okay," Mars said uneasily, eyeing the glowing orb as it then twisted and made to disappear, inward, down. "Wait!!"

Rei made a split-second decision that felt right in her gut. She felt watched by this extension of the ancient creature, as she spoke to her communicator. She knew what it was telling her — it was to be only her. It was now or never.

"What?" came several responses.

"It's disappearing. This might be the only chance. I'm going to go on my own." Mars tensed as she readied herself.

"Mars, no! All we know about this enemy is that they may target us when we're separated," said Venus, sounding strained. "We can't lose you, too.... Please don't do anything until we get there."

As if it had heard her, the creature stirred like a scared rabbit. Mars was afraid to lose contact again.

She braced herself. "Is that an order, Venus?" Adrenaline made her limbs feel stiff as the woman realized what she was about to do.

A heavy silence filled the communication channel.

"No…" More silence. "Be careful, Mars."

She smirked, tossing her hair although no one could see. "Don't you have confidence in me?" She entered. The cell-like capsule sealed itself closed.

Chapter Text

CW: *(Starting this chapter I've figured out how to change my CSS to leave spoiler-y cws invisible unless highlighted!! Just highlight the text below if you need/want, don't if you don't want the spoilers.)* Edit: I've also updated previous chapters in this way!

• mild violence.




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"Yes, humans."

The one called Sel paced.

How much time passed while he walked, or while he talked, may have been a mystery for the ages. He always seemed to be in a different place than he should have been. Without the massive creatures the cavern seemed empty, silent. Jupiter stared, shivered.

"They're not all plants. People, like you and me. Human beings." He strode forward.

Jupiter highly doubted the validity of that statement, given especially that neither the 'you' nor 'me' implied were likely even the same type of human. He paced across the cave; he adjusted his suit.

The man was explaining in circles, never getting to the part about how many people lived in his society, or who he was to them exactly, besides leader.

Dazed and long since grudgingly convinced any physical aggression toward the man may be futile, Jupiter had settled upon silently seething, staring, as he explained. At first she willed herself to just hold onto as much information as possible, for later use. He rambled endlessly.

Gods, the palpable yet unfulfilled anger that filled her must have at least produced an excellent bad-bitch glare, the woman thought idly.

The vast subterranean room spun. Eventually the warrior willed herself to just keep standing.

The man called Sel told Makoto she must relay the message, and thanked her for visiting.

That's when Mars arrived. Or, when Jupiter noticed her, anyway.

Perched on a rock face, the beautiful fire senshi aimed an arrow. Burning a hot red-and-orange with a mystical aura, it was immediately noticeable to Jupiter, but not to the man, who was facing away.

The two met one another's gaze and Jupiter nodded.

She felt a twinge of guilt at the possible betrayal, given the slim chance her captor was telling the truth. But then the warrior steadied, hardened. He was cruel and unfeeling. He had kidnapped her and had her attacked on purpose, she was sure of it.

Everything he did was aimed as an indirect threat to the ones she loved, regardless of what he insisted. He was a revolting person. She didn't trust him.

Jupiter kept Sel's eye contact firmly, just long enough.

"Mars Flame Sniper," was almost whispered.

Her aim was true, and the middle of the cavern erupted in a fiery blast. Jupiter stepped back, turning an arm up to shield herself.

"Mars!" Her heart swelled.

"Mako-chan?!" Rei ran to her, heels clicking on chunks of uneven rock.

But Sel hadn't been there to receive the attack. There he hovered, above them.

With backup secured, Jupiter was fine with sticking to this plan, however. As Mars reached her side and let loose another arrow, Jupiter brought up her arms.

"Supreme Thunder Dragon!"

Filling up the cavern now, the vengeful senshi released a thundering wave of static discharge. It reached its target, near the ceiling, in mere moments, moving in the shape of a great, roaring dragon.

The surge of current and the flaming projectile hit at the same time, producing an explosion of shrapnel and fiery sparks.

The two fighters readied themselves once more, watching.

To Jupiter's dismay, the man in the khaki suit now appeared, still intact, again, some distance away. Half-transparent, he faced directly downward at the pair of fighters, smirking.

"No fucking way," Jupiter breathed. Beside her she heard Mars gasp with irritation.

"Oh my…" the unnerving man started. "We'll get along better if we don't do each other harm. And I really don't mean you any. Please send along the message." His image faded with a static. "I will find one of you again soon."

As he began to chuckle, disappearing, Jupiter, yelling, tossed a ball of electricity at his face.

"It's okay. Let's go," Mars was saying, pulling gently on her arm.

"He's the one that dragged me down here! We can't trust him," Jupiter panted.

"Okay." Mars nodded. "What happened?" she asked over her shoulder, motioning to talk whilst making an exit.

Jupiter took a step and stifled a sound, clutching her side. Rei picked up on it.

"You're hurt! Are you okay? Sorry I hadn't noticed.." Mars ran back, holding her upright.

"Yeah. Mostly," Jupiter muttered.

"Here. Is this alright?"

With Mars supporting, the two senshi walked back through the caverns. It was an area that had been off to Jupiter's right, near where Sel had entered.

The air stilled after battle, single flakes of dust were visible, floating and cascading downward through the filtered light emanating from a long crack above.

"There was an elevator over here. Er, sort of an elevator. That's how I reached you," Mars explained, and she didn't protest when Jupiter chose to remain silent rather than reciprocate in recalling her part of the story.

The two made it to a crack in the rock face, which Mars felt with her hand, revealing that it was some sort of living material, which parted for them to reveal a glob-like capsule. At Mars's guidance, they entered.

Jupiter watched, stunned, as the crack sealed back up, enclosing them. "What the fuck?… Are you sure this will bring us back up?" she asked.

"Yes." Mars nodded. "I'm fairly sure," she said, without hesitation. As the capsule budged and began to move upward, the pair letting out a sigh of relief, Mars added with a smirk, "Why tell a hostage to relay a message if you don't let them leave?"

Jupiter laughed, managing to cough up more dirt, and undid her transformation. Mars followed suit.

Although she was certain it would save her energy in the long run, de-transformed the brunette leaned more heavily into her friend, dazed.

It had been maybe a couple minutes and they hadn't reached the surface yet. Rei tried her communicator periodically to check its status. Apparently they didn't work far underground. The darker-haired girl checked their phones as well; her own didn't have service, and Makoto's was smashed to pieces.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Rei asked at one point, looking up at her, concerned.

Rei and her warm-black, perfect hair were all Makoto could focus on in the dim, bioluminescent light.

"I already said, I'm okay." Makoto smiled, strained.

Rei rolled her eyes and scoffed. "As if I could just trust your first answer. I know you too well. Also, you can barely stand."

"Rei-chan!.." Makoto laughed, embarrassed. The statement stung but simultaneously filled her with a warmth.

Rei smiled and didn't say anything else for the intangibly long ride — was it hours or was Makoto's exhausted brain playing tricks on her? — until the fire senshi's communicator worked and she told everyone they escaped alright but needed help.

Makoto leaned back and watched the dull pulsing light until the illumination from streetlights and buildings peeked through. The air inside the capsule was cold. It felt as if they were sleep deprived and hungover, waiting for a slow hotel elevator. The brunette groaned sleepily when the lift stopped, and Rei pulled her out.




---




"Oh, thank god!! … They what?!? They were there the whole time?" Ami jumped up from her desk after speaking with the tinny voice of Usagi over her communicator watch. Shoving her Mercury computer, which she had been studying sleeplessly, into her purse, she rushed through her apartment and out the door. Ami was more or less the only one who possessed her own car at the moment, so Usagi had asked if she would pick them up.

She sped as much as possible, going just over the speed limit, and parked as close as she could to the location Rei had apparently indicated to Usagi. It was a small wooded area behind the train track supports. It was nearly dawn. Ami paid the parking service and sprinted, kicking up moisture onto her skirt from the dew-covered grass.

She spotted her friends, who were huddled in the privacy of some trees.

She nearly shouted at them. "Mako-chan!? Rei? Oh, thank god. Holy crap." Ami reached the pair in seconds.

Rei looked up to greet her with a half smile, looking exhausted, and a groggy Makoto hung on her shoulder.

"Are you both okay?!?" Ami demanded.

"Wha-uh-yeah!.." and "Sort of…" were Makoto's and Rei's responses, respectively, in unison.

"Uh, okay," Ami stated, concern not mitigated but not too seriously worried, as they both were clearly escaped, alive, and standing.

"Mako?…" Ami touched her rescued friend's shoulder, trying to make eye contact in order to elicit a more thorough response, but the girl just grumbled, 'mmm?' and managed to look up blankly.

"Are you okay?!" Ami repeated dumbly as she leaned in to help Rei support her. She noticed that although her hair had managed to stay pulled up, the brunette's clothes, arms, face, and fingernails were caked with some sort of mud or dirt with patches of combination fresh and drying blood. Rei's disgruntled appearance, although dust-covered, was nowhere near as concerning. Ami sucked in air through her teeth as she absorbed her friends' state.

"I'll be fine," Makoto reassured her weakly as she redistributed her weight to lean on Ami, but Rei shook her head, ‘tsk’ing softly.

"I'm alright, but she's been hurt…” the dark-haired woman supplied. Violet eyes illuminated by the sunrise briefly scanned the other girl up and down, Ami noticed, with concern. Makoto offered no further protest.

"Okay… Shit. Let's get you back." As the three of them, as a singular unit, walked to the car, Ami turned toward the other two. "You don't need to go to the hospital, do you?? Rei, you remember what signs to look for, what I can't treat?" As they walked, the sun was rising, cicadas chirping.

The priestess continued a few silent steps before shaking her head. "I think it's probably okay."

A small relief flooded the shortest woman. "Okay, then we'll go to my place." Makoto didn't bother to respond, probably resigned to the fact the other two would insist on deciding her fate. Ami smiled. She didn't feel bad making those decisions for others. She didn't take any chances.

Rei and Makoto both entered the back, bench seat, seeming poised to easily sleep the entire way if left to their devices.

“Rei-chan… If you think it’s possible she hit her head, just keep her awake if you can — I’d need to keep an eye on her,” Ami, sympathetically hesitant to postpone either of their well-earned rest, instructed with a glance to the rear-view mirror.

“I… I’m not sure. Actually… yeah, I think,” the brunette, at first groaning reluctantly, adequately answered for herself for the first time unprompted — probably a good sign.

The wiped priestess nodded, shaking her own head to rouse herself enough to comply; as they wove through freeways and eventually residential blocks Rei nudged her lolling companion awake whenever she drifted off, repeatedly coaxing her conscious enough to return small talk. The two of them stirred to greater alertness and lucidity when the car stopped, now put in park.

"Hey…" Ami leaned back gently.

Rei rubbed her eyes with a stress-saturated sigh and then assisted in going inside. Thankfully Ami's apartment possessed an elevator, so they didn't need to go up two flights of stairs.

In the safety of Ami's small home, her friends' adrenaline seemed to crash further. Rei sunk into a kitchen chair, appearing to enter deep into thought, and Makoto looked like she wanted to either cry or sleep for fifteen hours, supporting herself against the furniture.

"So what happened??" Ami looked from the zoned-out Shinto priestess to the brunette. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Mrm, please don't make me right now…" Makoto begged, leaning on Ami's bedroom door frame, hissing as she prodded her left side. "Terrible fucking night. There was a shitty dude. Also I may develop a phobia of snakes now." She averted her eyes to the floor. "That enough for now?" she spoke, bitterly.

As Ami moved to offer her shoulder to lean on, she looked to her better-faring friend for a response; Rei, who was looking on with a glazed look, concerned, suddenly smiled with tired resignation, standing and making a move toward the med student's coffee maker. Facing away, the darker-haired girl leaned on the counter with a sigh, rubbing her temple. "I'll tell you everything I know once we're caffeinated."

Not wanting to press it further, Ami helped her taller friend into the bedroom. "I'll come check you for injuries in just a few minutes. You can crash in my bed, of course!"

"Thanks!" Makoto muttered, smiling.

"Do you… want to take a quick shower first?" Ami asked, suddenly eyeballing her clean sheets with a slight degree of alarm.

"Uhmm… maybe…" the brunette offered, despite appearing likelier to pass out where she stood.

Ami shook her head quickly, embarrassed at her brief lapse of priorities. "Sorry! Never mind then… I'll just get you different clothes."

After helping her friend change into some shapeless but comfortable old pajamas, Ami confiscated a set of very stylish yet rather ripped and incredibly dirt-stained clothing, and one totaled flip phone, which she set aside in her kitchen in a sad little pile.

Once Makoto had practically face-planted in her bed, with some assistance, and Ami was back out in the main room, she muttered quietly to herself, "What a shame if this has to be thrown away," gazing at the crushed little mobile device.

Rei burst out laughing. "So do you throw all your broken computers a funeral?"

Chapter Text

CW:

• alcohol mention.
• somewhat notable blood/mild descriptions of injuries.

Minako was — unsurprisingly — hungover. After a brief, restless nap followed by a sleepless night patrolling the district with Artemis, the pop singer had rushed to her apartment to down a vitamin-energy drink from her fridge upon hearing that the others were found safe.

The blonde sat on her low single bed, lacing up white tennis shoes after throwing on a change of clothes. She let out a long breath, pausing to massage tense shoulders after re-tying the ribbon in her hair. She heard Artemis padding through the hallway.

"I'm assuming you're all going to have a meeting?"

"Uh-huh," Minako vaguely agreed. She checked her cell phone. Nothing yet.

"I'm going to go back to the control room… Well, you know how to contact me there, so just keep me posted." The white cat appeared in her doorway with a serious face.

As Minako stood, she smiled and stopped to pet his head idly. "You know I will." Her guardian's tail wiggled.

Intending to plop on her sofa to check cable networks for any relevant news, she took a sip of her beverage as she momentarily stood and watched the rising sun begin to cast golden shapes across her tiny living room. Her phone finally buzzed. It was from Ami. The missing two were at her place and going to be fine — although Makoto was hurt, currently being taken care of — and the Inners were to meet there now.

Minako grabbed her bag and rushed out.

Although she usually tended to prefer fancier, girlier — if you will — drinks, Minako was beyond relieved to smell coffee upon entering Ami's minimally-furnished, one-bedroom pad. She sighed audibly and rubbed her throbbing head.

"Hey, Minako-chan!" she was greeted by Ami and Rei, gathered in the kitchen, and a frizzy-haired Usagi, who poked her head out from her seat on the floor of the host’s bedroom.

"Welcome," said Ami, thin bags spread under her eyes. She clung to her steaming mug.

Minako threw her bag on the floor by the door and rushed over, sighing. "Rei-chan… I'm so glad you were okay. How's Mako-chan?!"

"In here!" called Usagi, waving vigorously through the doorway with a sickeningly absurd, to hungover Minako, amount of energy.

As the golden blonde stepped through the doorway, she saw that Makoto — who wore just a sports bra over a badly bruised torso — sat propped up on multiple pillows in Ami's bed, legs covered by fluffy blankets, holding her own mug of black coffee. She half-smiled, pathetically, at Minako. "Hey."

"Oh thank god!! How are you? You okay?" Minako held back the probably very inappropriate urge to throw herself at her friend, instead rushing to crouch next to her injured companion, leaning her forearms on the bed.

Makoto leaned back, closing her eyes and lowering her face close to the steaming beverage. Her features, though Minako knew she tried to hide it, were riddled with hints of weariness and stress. "Yeah…" she said with a sigh, coughing to what seemed like rather excruciating effect before putting coffee to her lips.

Minako quickly noticed a not-quite-fully-blossomed black eye, among other colorful injuries, on the young woman, whose arms were streaked with dark, bloody dirt.

If she hadn't empathized so strongly with the brunette's probable current need to drink her joe uninterrupted, Minako would have grabbed her hand. The senshi leader's mind spun trying to comprehend the intensity of the situation they were already in. All of this happened so fast. Gazing at her friend, as her fists began to tense at the injustice, she could have cried.

Ami re-entered with a small laptop and notebook. She gestured Minako out of the way, dragging over her computer chair to sit close to the battered warrior. "Scooch," she said, patting the edge of the bed, and Makoto did so, painfully.

Minako had nearly forgotten all about her exhausted, hungover state by the time Rei came in bearing coffee and tea. As Ami had run out of mugs, both blondes drank their coffee or, in Usagi's case, sencha out of petite, fancy tea cups. They redistributed themselves on the floor as Rei took her spot leaning against the wall.

The senshi leader had so many questions. But seeing as how she had just arrived, late and clueless, after the others' much greater struggles, and since Ami was now busy focusing on her patient, Minako waited for someone else to initiate. She sipped her caffeine source in silence but lost in thought.

Ami had begun to wipe the grime from the fighter's external injuries with a towelette, starting at her left bicep and working her way down. For a minute or two everyone remained silent. Other than her occasional one-word responses, Makoto still hadn't said a thing.

"Oh — Ami-chan, don't you have a class this morning?" remembered Usagi, stirring and breaking the silence.

The girl shook her head. "I'll tell them I'm sick."

As Ami tossed the latest of several filthy sanitary wipes into the trash can at her feet, switching now to some bottled solution dabbed on with cotton, she let out a sigh. "Usagi, Minako-chan, thanks for coming. Let's talk about the recent happenings." She looked to her patient sympathetically. "Mako?"

The brunette gave a drawn-out breath, eyes closed. "Alright…" Wordlessly gesturing for a compensatory refill, she handed the doctor her empty coffee cup unceremoniously.

The blue-haired woman jumped up. "I'll be right back." She exited, also taking Rei's mug for a refill. "Creamer or sugar this time?"

Rei shook her head. "I'll switch to the tea."

"Just sugar…" was Makoto's answer.

Ami soon returned bearing two mugs as well as a large ice pack. “Hold this to the area around the fractures,” she instructed.

Makoto obliged, wincing as cold fabric met with wounded flesh around the front and side of her left ribcage. She received the coffee refill with her free hand.

Minako bit her lip and tried not to watch too closely as Ami got to work sewing up a lesion along the outside of the other girl’s wrist which she had apparently determined needed stitching.

While the blonde looked out the window at the slowly passing clouds illuminated by the newly-risen sun, trying not to notice the blood or the needle, the brunette began recounting what had happened. Rei filled in missing details when required.

Eventually the group sat in silence, Minako leaning against the bed post, thoughts focused inward as adrenaline and urgency wrestled with her sleepless daze.

Makoto, wrist now fully bandaged, hugged her knees and stared out the window as Ami finished with the one remaining gash on her back.

Rei let out a breath, shifting. “So, if you weren’t able to, is it safe to assume we can’t beat these plants one-on-one?”

The injured brunette laughed darkly. She leaned back against the wall with a sigh. “Actually, the only thing we know is that we can’t beat these things with our bare fucking hands, cause that’s all I had.” She lifted a fist into the air for emphasis.

Rei started. “Wait, you weren’t transformed the whole time?”

“Nope…” Makoto brushed hair out of her face, rubbing her temple. “Sorry, I thought I mentioned that… Only once that guy came."

Usagi stood up suddenly; the girl grasped at her chest, tightening fingers into a fist, tensing. “They attacked a defenseless woman?”

"Uh — well," Makoto started, apparently taking offense to the implication.

Minako thought the princess might say something else, but she merely ran the few paces to the bed to embrace her friend. “I’m so sorry… Mako-chan!! ”

“Ow…” Makoto laughed, but eventually leaned in, placing her head on Usagi’s shoulder, smiling. “Usagi-chan…”

“Were you unable to transform?” Ami questioned.

“No… I… I hesitated. It happened so fast.”

The blue-haired woman let out a tense breath. “Well, I’m so glad you were alright. Relatively.” She placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. Her face turned sympathetic. “Oh — your injuries will likely take slightly longer to heal, in that case. Perhaps at least several days until you’re on your feet.”

“I know…” Makoto attempted to pull back, averting her gaze, but the bun-haired blonde hung on, trapping her anew in a hug.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there!…” Usagi was crying, muffled, into the beaten girl’s shoulder.

“No! Don’t be. One of our jobs is literally to protect you — I’m glad you weren’t there,” the other laughed, weakly attempting another smile.

Usagi rubbed away tears, attempting to nod seriously. She settled into her new spot, which was sitting cross-legged on the bed, wedged between her hurting friend and the wall.

“So this new whoever-his-name-is is full of shit,” Rei spat. She had moved down to the floor. She was the only one still nursing a drink, having changed her mind and stormed out for more black coffee once Makoto had begun explaining gritty details.

“Yep…” Makoto stated. “I can’t bring myself to write off everything he says as bullshit, but I also don’t trust him a single bit. He absolutely orchestrated the whole thing on purpose to send a message, I’m sure of it.” She clenched a bandaged fist angrily as she tensed.

“So this is a threat…” Minako spoke for the first time since processing the information. A taste of what they’re willing to do if we don’t comply, she thought to herself.

"But, what did he say — uh, what did you say his name was?" Usagi asked.

"'Sell,' or something," Makoto said, staring down as she gripped the blanket.

Usagi cocked her head. "Ce-llu?" she pronounced. "Like biology?"

"You said, he told you, 'Join us, or grant us passage' — right?" Rei questioned. She stared at the rug.

"Yeah, something like that."

A moment passed as the group processed that detail.

"I heard something similar in my dream," Rei spoke, quietly. She absentmindedly swirled the coffee as if it were a glass of wine.

Minako inhaled; Usagi gasped audibly.

"You had a prophetic dream?" Ami turned to face her in the computer chair, pushing up her reading glasses as if to focus.

"Yeah… I didn't know what it was at first — until I found that organism that transported me underground. That's when I remembered it. There wasn't time to tell all of you."

"Were there any more details?" Minako spoke.

The dark-haired woman shook her head. "No, just the words… In the dream it felt as if a group — a collective consciousness — was speaking to me."

Makoto leaned forward with a jolt. "That's what I felt! I mean… when those plants first attacked me. I could feel it in my mind." She stared at her bandaged hand as she rotated it in front of her, as if remembering; she hugged herself, pressing the ice pack harder into her torso. "I didn't know if it was, y'know, because of my powers, or if they were actually speaking." Her countenance grew distant.

Ami, as if reading the air, slammed closed the notebook she had been writing in. "Alright, I suggest we adjourn for the time being. At least one of us needs to rest. I suggest the rest of you try to sleep some, too."

Minako's mind was swimming with possibilities and potential strategies. However, she had to admit she couldn't do much productive in her current state. "Alright," she declared to the group. She tried to smile.

"Also, Mako-chan — especially in light of the fact that you received your beating while in civilian form — I highly recommend you let me take you to get checked out later, maybe get an MRI, just to make sure those broken ribs didn't cause any internal injuries," Ami stated, gently but looking to her friend firmly.

"Ugh," Makoto sighed dramatically as she plopped her head back against the wall angstily before smiling. "Okay… Thanks, Ami-chan."

"Mmhmm," the shy girl brushed off the thanks. "I'll see if I can get you an appointment with one of my mom's assistants, so we can remain discreet."

Dodging the hospital system's insistence on records and follow-up appointments had become a half-serious game at this point for the senshi — lest someone make the discovery of their penchant for frequent trouble or swift healing abilities. At this Makoto laughed, clutching her chest.

Minako stood to leave. "Okay… take care of yourselves." She sighed, pressing fingers to the center of her eyebrows against her rising headache. "I need to take a fuckin' nap." She shook her head, returning to seriousness. "Let's be in close communication. We should have a meeting tonight — or maybe tomorrow."

Usagi and Ami nodded their agreement. Rei moved to the bed to briefly take the exhausted brunette's hand, expressing her relief her battle companion was alright, before taking her leave. The group disbanded, Minako made for home.

A kidnapping. A blind-sided attack. One of their own being somewhat-seriously roughed up. These were all things Minako associated with — even expected — being deeper along into a struggle against an entity or group who wished to control Earth. But not right away. Not this fast.

Minako blinked. Her head throbbed; she stared, boring a dazed hole into her ceiling with unfocused eyes. The world spun from dehydration, stress, and lack of sleep as she lay motionless on her mattress.

And they didn't even know what this enemy wanted yet.

Besides the cryptic, vague request.

'Join us, or grant us safe passage,' she heard Makoto and Rei quote, repeating it in her mind.

What was she missing? What had been happening — somewhere — before now — that all this was happening already? It had been not twenty-four hours since she and Makoto had discovered the vines downtown.

Minako shivered, teeth clenched.

She supposed it wasn't too different from, say, the Dead Moon Circus appearing seemingly overnight, rather in an instant. However, enemies such as those had attempted to carry on with their own goals unobstructed, only dealing with the senshi when they became an obstacle. This time, however, the sailor senshi of the Solar system had been targeted — sought out — from the get-go.

They hadn't faced opposition with these sorts of methods since the Black Moon. The blonde turned onto her side, awash with memories of sleepless nights and desolate attempts to comfort Usagi as first Rei, then Ami and Makoto, had been singled out and captured.

At least the two hostages were already safe and sound, now, this time.

A knock on the door ripped her from the tangled thoughts and memories. Minako struggled to composure. She exhaled slowly, practicing a fake smile. "Just a minute!"

She straightened her still-tousled hair and squinted at the painful light from the hallway upon opening the door to her roommate.

"Hey," Rieko greeted sheepishly, apparently realizing she had interrupted the groggy girl's impromptu nap.

"Hey." Minako smiled forcedly. Totally not suspicious at all. She grinned internally at her skills.

The pale, dark-brown-haired girl hesitated. "So, are we still on for tonight? Looking at the new apartments?"

"Yeah!" Minako replied, maybe too quickly. "Um… sorry, I'm just feeling really bad. I'll let you know when, though." Fuck, she was out of practice with making excuses. This wasn't a great time to have a non-senshi-information-privvy roommate. At least it was better than living at her parents' house.

"Oh, I'm sorry… Are you sick? … or hungover again?" The girl fiddled with her hair, laughing but grimacing sympathetically.

Minako sheepishly nodded, although grateful her stressed state could be explained away using a partial truth. "Yeah… I partied a little too hard last night." She giggled.

"Next time you'll have to bring me with you so I can insist you drink enough water. I’ve been told I’m an excellent party companion." The roommate winked before walking away.

The blonde woman laughed nervously.

Makoto's consciousness wove in and out of sleep. She had suffered no major complications at least, and the remainder would now be deftly, albeit painfully, handled by her increased healing. It had probably been several hours since they had returned from the hospital, and Ami hadn't disturbed her once, nor had she even attempted to suggest a second meeting that day. Makoto was grateful.

Night had fallen, as evident by the lack of light filtering from underneath Ami's bedroom curtains. The brunette lay curled up, on her right side, pathetically, in her friend's small bed. The stress and urgency now drained from her, her ordeal finally took its toll. She was agonizingly aware of her heartbeat as her body throbbed from head to toe. The woman kept her eyes closed to avoid the headache which had grown belatedly from her apparent concussion. She remained still as possible as she attempted sleep, aided by the fact that gravity seemed to pull on her with twice the strength; it hurt to move even a finger. She whimpered, in spite of her halfhearted stoic efforts, whenever she shifted.

At some point in the girl's exhausted pseudo-dreams, Ami had entered. "Mmm," Makoto muttered her acknowledgment of her friend without stirring. She was briefly grateful none of the others — especially Usagi — had to see her like this. She didn't think she'd have been able to handle the blonde's typical outpour of concern and sympathy.

Apparently immediately falling asleep again, she nearly jumped when a hand was placed on her arm. "Hey," Ami quietly spoke. "I brought you herbal tea. And your meds."

Makoto nodded silently, but assuming Ami could see her in the dim light.

"You know, it'll help if you sit up to sleep," the doctor gently reminded.

"Okay… in a minute," the brunette muttered. She procrastinated movement.

She felt another weight on the bed as Ami sat next to her. Then she felt warmth as the girl lay down, almost spooning her as she softly hugged, leaning against her back. "I'm sorry you've had to go through all this," she said.

"Thanks… It's okay, nothing I haven't experienced before."

Makoto then felt what she was somewhat taken aback to realize was likely a kiss, on the back of her shoulder, through the fabric of the borrowed shirt she was wearing. She felt herself blush in the darkness.

It was no secret among them that, what with the inner senshi's closeness and the bonding of battle, they often exchanged cuddles or situations that would normally be considered romantic, but this was… a bit more than usual. Makoto was okay with it.

Ami immediately pulled back and stood up. "I've left your tea and pills here… I'll let you sleep." The light from the main room faded as the door was pulled closed once again, presumably for Ami to sleep on the sofa. Pillow suddenly feeling softer and welcoming, Makoto pulled the blankets higher to make up for Ami's warm absence. She drifted off.

Chapter Text

CW:

• mild claustrophobia & traumatic flashbacks mention.

'Mamo-chan…' Usagi wrote. She stared at the illuminated phone screen, not knowing where to begin. ‘Ok, what’s happening? Let me know’ hovered the line above, his most recent response. That had been hours and hours ago, before the earthquake, before Makoto had been kidnapped, before Rei had been willingly taken into enemy territory, and before Usagi had spent sleepless hours patrolling Tokyo and staring over Ami’s shoulder at indecipherable maps and numbers before eventually being sent home. Her thighs already ached from all the running.

“We’ve already looked everywhere. I’m going to study the data, and Venus can keep watch on her own… You should get some sleep,” Ami had told her.

Of course, she hadn’t been able to.

Usagi choked back a delayed sob, emotions coming back up after the fact like vomit. Even though she knew her friends were fine now.

She sometimes hated how the others treated her as a precious resource rather than a person with volition — something to keep hidden and protected at all costs. A tear spilled down her right cheek and onto her sweatpants. She smiled and wiped away the trail.

The moon senshi had been as worried about Makoto and Rei as any of them — and of course she didn’t want to stop taking action — even just doing anything at all — if there was a slim chance it would help them come home safe sooner. Usagi had known she couldn’t possibly have restful sleep when she knew she should be involved; she had been slightly offended Mercury had believed any different.

'There’s a lot to catch you up on. There’s been an attack… sort of — but don’t worry, everyone's alright now!' she wrote. The woman frowned, thinking how to continue. 'We don’t really know what’s happening. But I’ll tell you about it on the phone. Let me know when you wake up so we can talk.' She hit send.

Rei made to swing by Ami's apartment to pick up Makoto before returning for the group meeting. Despite not owning a car, the Shinto priestess had offered to help carry the things the brunette had brought over to Ami's place, as the latter had an important training session at the research hospital and wouldn’t be back until late, and Makoto's apartment was only a few blocks from Rei's and her grandfather's Hikawa Shrine.

Cool afternoon breeze on her face, and shrine entrance startlingly more alive with summer weeds and insects, Rei instantly realized — with embarrassment — this was the first time she had really left home since the incidents of the weekend.

An excursion into who-knows-where enemy territory inside the claustrophobic insides of a living creature was enough of a trip to last me months, the young woman idly thought, shuddering, though she was secretly glad to have mentally bounced back enough to enjoy her surroundings as she made the walk to the subway station.

Rei had attempted fire readings, sometimes several times a day, during the three-day period since she had ventured underground to aid in rescuing Makoto. However, all she had gleamed was a verification of past events; a vivid vision of her friend being pulled down, violently ensnared into the otherworldly realm, as well as lucid flashbacks of her own anxiety-ridden descent in the hollowed-out creature, had sent Rei gasping out of her meditation, jerking forward to kneel on the wooden floor before the flames, wrought with a visceral panic.

No, show me the future! Or the present unknown to me, the young woman had frustratedly thought. But the fire remained silent, then. Perhaps there was something she was meant to figure out first. But, why were her normally second-nature talents being blocked? Was she just out of practice?

The dark-haired woman walked the few blocks from the subway exit to the med student's apartment; they lived less than 15 minutes, and just a few stops, apart.

Once she rang the doorbell Makoto answered, as Ami, though still at home, was apparently busy scrambling for her belongings, attempting not to be late to class, for once in her life.

"Yo," Rei greeted, as her friend let her in while attempting not to laugh at the strange sight of Ami running from room to room, finally grabbing a package of conbini anpan before rushing out while muttering her apologies.

With a jingle, a key was liberated from a metal ring and tossed at the brunette, who nimbly caught it.

“Leave it under the mat!” Ami called back, voice fading as she disappeared down the hallway.

“Uh-yeah!” Makoto muttered after her. She turned to Rei, brushing back unkempt, wavy-curly hair worn down over her shoulders. "This 'trying to figure out what's happening' has got her… a bit stressed," she stated, laughing although she gazed with sympathy down the hallway after the blue-haired girl as the pair stood in the doorway. She fiddled with the elastic tie stored around one wrist, pulling her hair into a messy top-knot. The resilient spark in her mannerisms had returned; Rei was relieved but unsurprised at how quickly Makoto had recovered.

Stepping into the living room, she noticed the taller woman still sported a black eye, faded now to a gradient of purple and yellow, as well as other visible bruises and cuts on her face and arms; her left wrist was still bandaged. Makoto looked as if she had merely been in a bad street brawl with some misogynistic assholes — not an unlikely guess had Rei not known what happened. Still, in an effort to not make her friend uncomfortable, Rei withheld a grimace, smiling to her instead.

"Enough about her. How are you feeling?"

Makoto turned away, taking one last swig of tea from one of Ami's mugs before setting it in the sink. She sighed, finally meeting Rei's eye but appearing exhausted — or maybe distant — as she leaned on the kitchenette wall, one arm reaching across her middle as she subconsciously brought up fingers to trace her wounded ribs. "Well, I can fuckin' walk now without feeling like I'm going to pass out, so I'd say a lot better…"

"I'm glad. Okay, what can I carry? You said you needed help?"

"Um…" The other girl, suddenly embarrassed, sprung back to life, hurrying to Ami's bedroom to gather her things. "No pressure, I can totally get all this on my own, but Ami made me promise I wouldn't since-"

Rei closed her eyes, one brow threatening to twitch. She crossed her arms. "Don't you dare fucking apologize for being hurt. Of course I'll-"

She opened her eyes to see her friend, half-apologetically yet amusedly, holding out a fairly large potted plant which was awaiting assistance. Rei sweat-dropped.

"You brought a plant? " She walked to the doorway, holding out her arms to receive the ceramic pot housing the cluster of greenish succulent.

Makoto laughed. "Yeah… I've been nursing this back to health so I was worried about it. I figured all the others could wait a few days…" She rummaged in another pile by the bed, then held out a shoulder-bag for Rei. "… And my computer bag." The brunette cast one more glance around the room. "That should be it."

Rei shouldered the laptop bag, cradling the houseplant, as the other girl shoved some clothes into a hefty-looking backpack and pulled it on. Immediately wincing with a gasp and grabbing her side, Makoto slipped it back off.

"Actually, I guess you should take this…"

They traded.

Thusly, the pair walked the couple blocks to the subway with Rei carrying the heavy backpack and the succulent pot.

They walked in silence, except for Makoto occasionally squealing to express her admiration of cute clothes they passed in store windows.

"Uh-huh. Yeah," Rei agreed distractedly. The fire senshi was lost in thought about the potential topics of their meeting, in addition to her own recent failings at divination.

As she sat on the subway, potted plant in her lap as the dull rush of noise cleared her mind, Rei heard her one consistently clear message echo in her head.

Join. Become the Moss. Serve the people.

Irritable, she raked her fingers roughly across her scalp to toss long black hair out of her face, leaning to rest the back of her skull against the vibrating window.

"Rei-chan?" Makoto, until now daydreaming beside her, had turned to her questioningly, apparently taking notice to her change of mood.

Rei shook her head in answer. She didn't feel like talking now. She just needed to focus.

The other party wanted them to join — in what sort of efforts, Rei had no idea — and that didn't exactly seem good. It was true they barely knew anything about the man who she and Makoto had met or the group he claimed to represent, but based on their limited experiences it seemed doubtful their requests would align with the sailor senshi's morals and desires.

And if they would refuse the alliance? Well, Rei had a feeling the answer to that had already been made clear. They would be attacked.

The walk back to the shrine, although the priestess's arms began to ache from the awkward weight of the plant in combination with the burden on her shoulders, put Rei in a suddenly better mood. Warm humid sun on her face and peaceful spiritual energy restoring her serenity as they approached the Shinto gates, the young woman gave into the optimism which crept up in her.

This trek was also nostalgic — the first time since the new enemy they would gather for a meeting at the shrine. Ami wouldn’t be there, but still — things almost felt normal again.

“Okay, uh- where should I put this?” Once the pair stood in the shade of the awnings at the main house entrance, Rei stooped to awkwardly drop the ceramic pot at her feet, grunting at the weight.

Makoto laughed. “It doesn’t really matter since it’ll be home in a couple hours, but — partial shade.”

Feeling playful, Rei decided to indulge. She wiped the sweat from her face and slid the plant a foot or so to the right with her foot into a dappled patch of sun. She smiled with exaggerated pride and gestured for Makoto to see. “Voila?”

Her friend laughed again. “Perfect.”

Rei slid open the door to the main tatami room, dark and cool in contrast to the summer heat, and flipped on the light. She slid the dense backpack off, shaking the tension out of her free arm as she slipped it off one shoulder. “Gah, how much did you need to pack? ” she joked.

The brunette automatically made to rush forward as if to help, then stopped herself awkwardly. She rolled her eyes, blushing. “Ami went and packed for me… I swear, I think she brought half my wardrobe,” she half-laughed.

Rei noticed a subtle but weighty sigh as her friend turned back to the doorway, staring off into the sunny shrine yard.

“What? Upset you’re not the one to be basically the group’s pack mule for once?” the priestess smirked jokingly, but softened when she noticed her friend’s distant face.

Makoto returned to the veranda, moodily slouching against the wall as she hugged herself. Rei exited and took her place leaning against the wooden frame next to her.

Violet eyes searched her friend’s body language for an answer. “What’s wrong?”

Makoto bit her lip as she looked away. The girl sighed again. “I’ve just been feeling so useless…”

Rei let out a breath, sliding closer to her. She watched as a butterfly made its way erratically across the front of the shrine, temporarily quiet since her louder friends weren’t due to arrive for a while yet.

“This again…?” The fire senshi thought by now she would have adequately hammered in the point that her strong friend shouldn’t beat herself up every time she needed to accept help from her and the others. "You don't need to always do everything on your own, Mako-chan… I'm here for you.." she added, quiet voice tender.

Makoto shook her head, without looking up. “Not now. I mean… underground.” She curled one hand into a fist. “I couldn’t… I couldn’t even lay a finger on him.” Her voice shook. “Every time I tried anything, every time I tried to attack him… he would just teleport away. And then acted like nothing happened… it was infuriating.”

Rei nodded. “Yeah, I saw how that bastard could teleport.” She crossed her arms.

“Actually, it was weirder than that.” She turned to see Makoto at last meet her gaze. “Before you got there he didn’t only teleport… most of the time it was like… as if he could bend time and space. Or my reality. I couldn’t…” She turned away again, distant. “I couldn’t tell how much time passed between events. He’d just suddenly be in a different place than I thought he should be.”

Rei’s eyes widened. That sounded like extraordinary power.

“Have you told anyone else this?” Rei snapped back to a stand.

Makoto rubbed her forehead. “I think so… I would have mentioned it to Ami.”

The dark-haired girl nodded in seriousness. “Okay, good… Cause I’m sure she’ll have some theories about what we’re up against." She turned back to her friend, who appeared to still be brooding.

Rei placed a hand on the other woman’s shoulder, causing her to look up. “But, hey… You definitely weren’t useless back there. If he could teleport, or bend reality… none of us could have done any better."

The priestess felt her friend relax under her grip. Makoto smiled, bringing a hand up to hold Rei’s. “Thanks, Rei-chan…”

“And, you had already been literally beaten bloody by then." Rei crossed her arms. "I'm sure you — or the two of us together," she added with a smirk, "could have at least left a mark on him to remember us by if we were both at our best." She smiled.

"True." Makoto returned the smile, winking. Still, she sighed and gazed out seriously as a breeze rustled the branches of the tall garden pines. "I'm also just worried, though… How are we going to be able to beat him — if it comes to that?"

"Not alone, that's for sure," Rei answered quickly, voice belying more confidence than she felt. To be honest, the potential enemy's silence during the past few days — intensified by the fact that she felt unusually blinded without being able to rely on her clairvoyance and other senses for a feel of what was going on — had been making her increasingly nervous. Sel said he would 'make contact' again soon — what would happen then?

Makoto nodded. "Yeah…" As the breeze picked up, gusting small leaves and bits of pollen across the yard in response to the approach of several low-lying, gray clouds, Rei watched as her friend's eyes seemed to take on a shimmering depth reflecting the change in the intensifying weather. "A storm's coming," she spoke idly, after a while.

Rei didn't know whether or not she intended the double meaning.

"Let's go inside." The shorter girl closed the sliding doors after them just as the first drops of rain began to pelt the outside of the building. She sighed, a loving yet spitefully satisfied laugh escaping her. "If Usagi-chan is running late again, she's going to get soooaked."

Makoto laughed, then returned to seriousness. "By the way, I forgot to ask, have you had any more… visions of what's been happening?"

The feeling of a lead weight dropped down into Rei's stomach, and she slumped to rest cross-legged on the mat, back against the wooden wall. Makoto took a seat next to her.

Rei rubbed her forehead. "Actually… speaking of feeling useless…" She sighed.

Her companion leaned in with blinking green eyes, waiting for her to continue.

The black-haired girl's concerns and frustrations of the morning seemed to come rushing back to her, but she took a breath to still herself.

"I haven't been able to garner anything useful. It's not to say I haven't seen anything, because like I said, I remembered having that dream about the enemy…" She turned aside with a half-sarcastic chuckle. "… after the fact. And, since then, I saw visions — from both of ours and someone else's point of view — of when you and I were in the cave, but…" Rei looked up, blinking away held-back tears, as she met Makoto's concerned gaze. "Besides that, I can't see anything. It's totally blank."

"Rei-chan…" the brunette muttered sympathetically. Then she brought a hand to her face as she bit her lip in thought. She gazed at the floor. "Hm… Could it be someone's blocking you?"

"That's what I thought… A powerful psychic would be able to, which has happened before, but… I usually feel something. It feels like I've reached a blank wall, that's hard to penetrate. But lately… I just get nothing." Rei brushed her hair over one shoulder, gently shaking her head as if to cast away the tension. "My brain hurts from trying so hard… but when I meditate I just see a replay of the past. I’ve even seen you being kidnapped and attacked. But nothing else has come to me."

The young woman hadn't realized she had squeezed her eyes shut, jaw clenched and body tensed with stress, until she felt Makoto's hand on her shoulder break her reverie.

"Rei-chan… It's okay," the other girl spoke, staring at Rei with a determined softness that made her smile in spite of her mental state. "You'll figure it out."

All serious conversation was shattered as a long-haired blonde bust open the room's main entrance. "I'm here!!" Usagi stood, gesturing triumphantly, clothes half-soaked, dripping umbrella in one hand, in the doorway. The sound of rainfall overtook the silence.

The girl's posing silhouette was shortly illuminated by a lightning strike through the doorway behind her, thunder punctuating her repeated fist pump. Rei stared as water droplets were shaken free of the umbrella and plopped onto the brand-new tatami.

"I'm on time!!"

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

Eventually the four warriors sat around the low table in Rei's bedroom. Usagi brushed out wet, frizzy pigtails with her fingers. It was three in the afternoon, but from the absence of light from outside the shrine, one would have thought it was past sunset.

Minako gasped out an exaggerated sigh, flinging herself backward to lie on the rug. The last to arrive, she had been dropped off by her roommate, thereby avoiding most of the rain.

The room smelled like incense and black tea. A portable fan blew humid but refreshing air across the group in a parabolic arc.

"Mugi-cha?" Rei addressed the dryer of the blondes, sliding her the last of four tea cups she had divvied out.

"Yesss," Minako spoke, forcing herself to sit back up with a lazy groan, readjusting her legs on the cushion.

"Have you still not been sleeping?" blurted Makoto, casting the blonde a somewhat judgmental look from across the table.

"Urmm, yeah I have! Just… not… that much," the senshi of beauty flustered.

"Minako-chan! Whyy?" Usagi whined, whipping to the side to give Minako puppy-dog eyes from under clumped bangs.

The previous night on the phone, Minako had confessed her addiction to staying awake at night, searching for pertinent local or international news, since the incidents began. So what if I might do the same thing in her place… Makoto thought. I can still reserve the right to pester her about her self-care.

As the blonde woman was temporarily silenced by a yawn, Rei answered for her. "Because we all have insomnia, apparently."

"Not me!" Usagi and Makoto each shot up an arm, in unison.

"The past few days, anyway…" the latter amended. "Which is convenient because being stuck in bed without being able to sleep would have been hell…"

Rei sipped her summer beverage, closing her eyes. "Usagi is blessed with the ability to sleep half the day even during the most stressful of times," she spoke, half of her thin lips curling into a smile.

"Not all the time! Not… when I'm worried about all of you… Not this weekend." The fair-haired woman stared down at her fists on the table as she choked up, her messy hair obscuring her face.

Makoto leaned over to reach an arm around the princess, gently rubbing her back.

"Anyway… for me, it's… stress, yeah, but also I've been busy." The former celebrity of justice briefly brought up a hand to massage the base of her neck. Liar, thought Makoto.

"Ohh yeah, you're moving, right?" Usagi asked, immediately apparently cheerful again.

Minako nodded. She sipped the iced tea. "That's why I couldn't meet yesterday. Sorry about that."

"At least we found a time that was good for all of… most of us," spoke Rei.

"Ami had a really important class." Makoto, now freed from the task of comforting Usagi, leaned her elbows on the glass-covered wood. "Since it wasn't… y'know, super urgent to meet today, she didn't want to miss it."

The majority of the brunette’s beaten body still ached. She shifted, reclining stiffly to lean a bruised back against the low sofa. Behind her, a thick rain pounded dully on the bedroom window; as quickly as the thunderstorm had come on, it had receded, leaving just the darkened, rainy skies.

"Makes sense," Minako smiled. "At least four of us can be here… which brings me to the first point I've been thinking about…"

She sipped and swallowed, bringing a manicured finger to her lips in thought. The blonde sighed, appearing to study the leafy design on Makoto's tea cup as she stared straight ahead. She closed her eyes as if bracing herself. "I recommend we try to stay together as much as possible for the time being."

Silence ensued, followed by "mmhmm"s as several of the senshi agreed. Minako opened sky-blue eyes.

Rei, who would have seemed most likely to protest the lack of independence, was nodding soberly. The priestess sighed, shifting on her cushion. "It seems to make the most sense."

"Okay," was Usagi's response, nodding at the others with a hesitant smile.

Makoto nodded with seriousness, then smiled. "Yeah…” At first thought, she might have dreaded the idea of a lack of alone-time. However… it could be fun, the nurturing, easily-lonesome woman realized.

"Really? Great…" Minako straightened her tired posture, stretching her arms. "My thinking is… we know so little about who we're dealing with, and from what we do know it seems most likely they would try to target us when we're on our own."

The raven-haired woman nodded. "Definitely. When they — the entity — contacted me to bring me there… I got the strong sense they wanted me only if I came alone…" Makoto watched as her friend's face became distant. "Probably so they would retain the upper hand."

"The fucking cowardly bastards," the brunette cursed, slapping an open palm over a bandaged fist.

“Mako-chan…” Usagi reached out to place a calming hand on the irritated woman’s arm.

Inner turmoil soothed slightly by the gesture and by Usagi’s swimmingly concerned eyes, Makoto relaxed.

Minako continued. “So, buddy system.” She clapped her hands definitively. “I think if we can at least stay in pairs until we have a better idea of the situation, that would be better than nothing.”

Rei and Usagi nodded. Makoto hesitated.

“Mako-chan, you can keep staying at Ami-chan’s place-”

“Uh- actually, I’ve just-” she started, smiling at the irony. The exhausted woman nearly sweat-dropped.

“I literally just helped her carry her stuff here, on the way back,” Rei supplied, laughing.

Makoto nodded. She leaned forward once more, sipping the sweet, roasted tea. “I was really looking forward to being back at my place, at least for tonight. I need to look after my plants, so…”

Minako was silent for just a moment, nodding. “I’ll go with you tonight, then,” the girl offered.

The brunette agreed, smiling. “Okay.” She stretched. “I have that extra futon…”

“Then, Rei-chan and Usagi-chan-”

“I need to stay and look after some duties at the shrine,” Rei sighed, brow furrowed. “… If possible.”

“Usagi… you still have your stuff packed from visiting your parents anyway, right?” Minako asked.

“Uhm…” the bun-haired girl twitched, tightly gripping her teacup, apparently offended it was assumed she wouldn’t have bothered to unpack yet. “Yes..?” So, she hadn’t.

“Great… Can you stay here with Rei-chan for now…?” The other blonde trailed off into a gaping yawn.

The dark-haired woman put on an act of annoyance but smiled at Usagi’s blubbering objections.

Minako apparently pretended not to notice, pleased with herself. “Perfect!” She clapped her hands together.

“What about Ami-chan?” asked Rei, speaking over Usagi as the blonde continued to protest.

“I’ll explain the situation and let her choose once she’s out of class,” Minako stated.

Meanwhile Usagi was pretending to sob — probably only distinguishable from the real thing for those possessing considerable experience watching Usagi cry, Makoto realized idly.

“Can’t I stay with Mako-chan? Rei-chan is so meeaan sometimes!” The rained-on girl clasped her hands, turning to beg the sleep-deprived leader. “Please?”

Minako, visibly irritated, sighed, waving her off. “Whatever. We can decide for sure who’s going where after. Can we please continue for now?”

Makoto laughed as Usagi slumped back into place on her cushion. Rei, composure frazzled from the blonde's insults, poured out herbal tea refills for all four as the rain, slowing now, continued to patter.

“Rei-chan, Mako-chan…” Minako spoke as she gulped her mugi-cha. “You both said you had something to bring up?”

Makoto noticed Rei seemed to slump as she nodded, staring down at her tea. She had a feeling she knew what the dark-haired senshi wanted to tell the others.

The tall brunette sipped her own tea, then spoke. “There was something — just a minor detail — that’s been bothering me, that I’ve been thinking about…”

Usagi finished wiping away her mood-swing tears and turned to listen.

Makoto’s fingers tensed on the table, remembering her enemy's face, the cold empty eyes, the rage and indignance that had burned in her. She closed her eyes, just for a second, to shut out the flash of recent events. She leaned forward.

"Sel said he didn't know 'which one' I was…" Makoto inhaled slowly, steadying her emotions, thinking. "But he obviously had me brought there on purpose. He said he knew I was a sailor senshi."

As the others absorbed this, Usagi leaned in, concern in her big blue eyes.

"So…" Makoto continued, "that must mean…" She trailed off, watching the recognition spark panic in Minako's eyes first, feeling increasingly guilty for forgetting to attribute significance to this detail before now. She clenched a fist, feeling Usagi's soft, sweaty fingers close around hers immediately. The young woman sighed. "If he doesn't know our identities, then he has some way of sensing..-"

"They can sense our power," Minako finished, nodding now in realization and seriousness, as Usagi, apparently not having connected the dots yet, gasped out an "Eh??". The former made eye contact with the tense brunette as she continued. "And our location."

"Exactly…" Makoto's eyes narrowed. She accidentally nearly strangled Usagi's fingers before her friend squeaked and muttered, "Um?"

"Sorry!" the angsty woman laughed in spite of herself as she released her grip, gesturing awkwardly out of embarrassment. Her serious mood evaporated.

"It's okay!" Usagi was laughing, waving off her apology, sweating.

Rei, meanwhile, pursed her lips. She sighed. "That's even more reason to stick together…"

Minako, clueless, benignly began, "Rei-chan, have you-"

"Uh-!" Makoto reached halfway across the table in a gesture to shush her, what she hoped to be helpfully, upon seeing Rei seem to flinch anxiously in anticipation of everyone's apparent burning question of the hour; the latter’s face reddened.

All eyes turned to the psychic priestess, who was silent for a moment. She groaned irritatedly, pressing a palm to her face, then resigned herself to explaining.

"I haven't been able to see or sense anything since Friday night."

Makoto registered with surprise that the girl's eyes shone with the threat of tears again. The other two were quiet.

"I can't tell for sure if someone or something is blocking me, but…" Rei looked down at her folded hands. "I just wanted to tell you all so you know I can't be of much use right now."

Minako was about to speak, but Usagi loudly interrupted as she leaned forcefully across the table. "That's not true! You're not only useful 'cause you're psychic!" she blurted before sitting back awkwardly, apparently remembering she was supposed to be mad at Rei, who smiled softly.

The other blonde placed a hand on Rei's knee, nodding. "It's okay. She's right. But, thank you… That's good to know."

Rei nodded acknowledgment but remained brooding.

At some point, as the afternoon grew late and the rotating fan continued blowing the now-cool humidity across the tired women, it was decided that they would choose who was staying where by a draw from a hat.

Since Rei and Makoto both requested to be at their own places, their locations were non-negotiable; the remaining three's names were written on slips of paper, folded in half and shuffled around in a bowl by Minako.

"Okay, this determines who definitely stays with Rei."

The first name was Ami's.

"Then…" Minako swirled the papers, crumpling them impartially. She lifted one, unfolding it. "… I… stay with Mako-chan."

"Grrrr, I can't stand the anticipation!" whined Usagi at her fate being left for last.

"Oh, we do need Rei-chan's and my names…" Makoto declared, rushing to participate. She scrawled the two hosts' names down on ripped pieces, placing them in a second bowl and pushing it toward Minako.

Usagi bit her fingernails.

"Usagi stays with…" Minako stuck out her tongue as she focused on mixing the papers around. She pulled out one.

Everyone but Rei, who leaned back with crossed arms, face unamused, peered closer to watch.

Minako laughed nervously. "Rei-chan!"

"Ugh!" Usagi cried. "But that's exactly the same as before! No fair, do it again!"

Minako was nodding her head, proud of her job. "That's the point of randomness, Usagi. It's totally fair."

So, Makoto walked the four or five minutes to her apartment with Minako at her side.

The sun was setting; a rainy mist lightly drizzled.

The brunette had figured out if she held the potted plant with one arm it didn't exacerbate her healing ribs. Minako carried the other bags.

Cicadas chirped as the women rounded the sloping, curved sidewalk. Mosquitoes bit and moths flitted.

There was a comfortable silence except for the steps of their tennis shoes, the bugs, and the whoosh of cars.

They were about two minutes away when Minako nervously gasped, "Oh!"

Makoto glanced at her. "… What?"

Upon seeing the look on the blonde's face, Makoto laughed anxiously. "Minako-chan?…" she tentatively asked accusingly through clenched teeth.

Minako inhaled, holding up a finger matter-of-factly. "IthinkIbrokeyourdoor."

"What?!" Makoto stopped walking, leaving the blonde pacing ahead.

The guilty girl slowly turned around. She petted the back of her hair, nervously. "I, um… Like I said. It was when you were missing… I checked your place, and, um…"

"You broke down my door?" asked Makoto, smiling at the hilarity, not sure whether to burst out laughing or strangle her. "Why didn't Ami-chan tell me?"

"It's not broken down! Just… broken. Aaaaand, I told her I wanted to be the first one to tell you."

Makoto resumed walking. She wanted to see it at any rate. "And you didn't tell me until now, because…?"

The blonde's guilty voice was high-pitched; she smiled charmingly. "I forgot!"

The darker-haired woman facepalmed. She sighed. "Well… how bad is it? Does it lock?"

"You can turn the lock, it just doesn't…"

Makoto sweat-dropped. "So, no…"

The pair rounded the front of the apartment building and started up the external stairwell. The taller girl lowered her voice. "You couldn't have just Venus-Love-Me-Chained a window handle off or something? Something less… noticeable-and-expensive?"

"Oh, I'll pay for it!!" the other woman offered. "And, jeez, I thought I might have to bust in there and save you or something so I wasn't thinking. Cut me some slack…"

Makoto relaxed. "You're right… I'm sorry… Thank you."

They reached the third landing and Minako gave the door a gentle shove, letting them inside. "See? It's not that obvious. A crook probably wouldn't have-"

"So…"

"I'm so sorry!" The blonde dropped the luggage, jumping as she apologetically clasped her hands, bowing to a complete horizontal. She spoke rapidly. "Ami-chan didn't tell you because I said I'd tell you and take care of it, but then I forgot to hire someone-"

Makoto held up a hand to stop her. "It's okay…" She sighed. "It's only been a few days." By now she had had a few moments to glance around the main room. "And everything looks fine."

The tall woman found herself squished in a hug.

"You forgive me?!" Minako blurted.

"Yes…" Makoto sighed as she was released, tempted to laugh. "So… I guess this means we have to stay at your place… I'll check the other plants first and leave this babe." She gently petted one echeveria of the recently repotted arrangement, relinquishing it onto an end table.

"Um-" She looked to Minako suddenly with desperation, noticing her stressed body already ached dully from the most exercise she'd had since the events of the weekend. Another trek across town sounded like a marathon. "How are we-"

Minako grinned. "Uber?"

The normally athletic girl smiled lazily. "Yess…"

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

"My god, what happened to you? "

Makoto stopped where she stood in the genkan, brain spooling for an explanation.

Minako's living room smelled of cleaning products. White carpet and surfaces spotless, living room nearly empty and full of partially-packed boxes, a ceiling fan gently worked at drying up the last of the chemicals. The blonde's petite roommate's mouth was making an 'o' shape.

The tallest young woman unconsciously reached up a hand awkwardly to touch her bruised, lightly-scarred face, embarrassed to realize she apparently still looked horrible. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Skiing accident!" Minako blurted.

There was a moment of silence, following which Makoto bit her lip and glared sideways at her friend. The roommate looked from one to the other of them.

"Oh… that's terrible… but, where… um, in June…?"

"Uh, actually, abroad…" The mortified girl cleared her throat as she struggled to lie. "In the southern hemisphere," she added, feeling like a genius. "It's skiing season in-"

"-In Australia."

Makoto nodded with pursed lips, hopefully conveying solemn agreement.

"Oh, wow…" Rieko murmured, nodding sympathetically and — to Makoto's intense relief — immediately then turning to do something else.

The curly-haired brunette released a held breath. She turned to the paralyzed blonde. "Skiing?"

"I'm sorry!" Minako mouthed.

Ami, limbs heavy and eyelids burning from little sleep and much work, dumped her duffel bag on the floor next to the folded futon.

"Slumber partyyy," Usagi was squealing, dancing in place.

The blue-haired girl forced her strained eyes to focus. "So, what now?"

"We try not to kill each other," muttered Rei, arms crossed as she pouted at Usagi's burst of energy.

Ami nervously laughed.

"So… how close do we have to watch each other? Like, do we have to guard each other in the bathroom like that one time-" Usagi chattered, fidgeting.

"No one needs to follow each other to the bathroom, Odango…" muttered Rei, as she crossed the room to the hallway. She hesitated in the doorway, softening. "… I figure if we just all stay inside the shrine grounds tonight, that'll be good enough."

Ami let out a sigh, sitting on the folded mattress to rub her eyes.

"Ami-chan…" Usagi bent down in front of her. "Are you okay? Are you not sleeping, too?" She began to count on her fingers. "Neither is Minako-chan. Neither is Rei-chan…"

The young woman looked up, trying to smile. "While Mako-chan was at my place, I've been sleeping on the sofa…" She looked down at her pastel-pink socks. "So, whenever I'd wake up in the night, since my laptop was right there anyway…"

Usagi's first question caught her off guard. "Why didn't you both sleep in your bed?"

Ami jumped, patches of heat prickling to the surface of her skin. She'd honestly never considered that. The girl had convinced herself it was out of the question since her friend had been injured and she didn't want to jostle her in the night. "It's… It's a really small bed. It's a twin." She blinked at the tatami, running fingers through the short hair at the nape of her neck, hoping Usagi would realize she was objectively right.

"Yeah, I guess it is…"

The blue-haired girl looked up more comfortably. "Anyway, I had transferred a link to the data feed to my regular computer, so I've been doing a lot of studying… to see if there's a change in the energy patterns." She sighed, blinking heavily. "There hasn't been."

The blonde had suddenly placed both hands on her shoulders. She stared into Ami's eyes sympathetically. "… You can't be doing that all the time instead of sleeping…" The tender moment was broken as Usagi then began shaking her. "WE CAME HERE TO PROTECT EACH OTHER, SO I'M GOING TO PROTECT YOU FROM SLEEP DEPRIVATION," she practically cried.

Ami, speechless, just laughed. "O-okay."

Rei had apparently walked back in. The priestess set the large pile of sheets and blankets on her bed, smiling with empathy. "Are we talking about how you of all people overslept today?"

"Eeeeehhh??" Usagi whipped her head around to face Rei, almost hitting Ami in the face with one pigtail. She turned back again, blinking at the blue-haired woman. "You did?"

Ami squeezed her hands in her lap. She felt she was probably blushing. "I'm just-"

"Okay…" Usagi, determined, stood back upright, pointing at her. "I'm going to make sure that as long as we're staying here you only work on your computer stuff… for… um… a normal and healthy amount of hours per day." Satisfied, she smiled, winking; she tilted her head toward Rei as if for backup. "It's not like there's been any weird incidents in the last few days, anyway."

Rei, smile vanishing discreetly enough Usagi probably didn't notice, looked to the short-haired girl with what felt to her like a deep seriousness. "Yeah…" Ami spoke without emotion, nodding. The two inner guardians exchanged a look.

It's not most likely that nothing's been happening, but rather that whatever is happening is going on unnoticed, Ami thought. And Rei knows that, too.

Ami honestly would have felt less stressed if they had been picking up odd readings and activity galore. At least that way she could analyze it. This way feels more unpredictable.

That first night, with Usagi passed out, drooling, in her sleeping spot in front of the doorway, Ami had tiptoed between the girl's sprawled limbs to reach her own futon, while Rei was in the other room meditating.

Ami, exhausted still but feeling revitalized by the supportive socialization, lowered herself to the bed and pulled the folded covers up, cross-legged. About to lie down all the way and attempt sleep, she hesitated. Beside her, the faint glow of her laptop computer, battery indicator blinking as it charged, beckoned to her.

It couldn't hurt to review and study the data, just in case. Just for a little bit. She pulled the computer into her lap, leaning back against the wall, and opened the control room's data feed as Usagi snored.

Satisfied that the live feed was adequately uneventful, she tapped to open the archives. I must be able to make something of this.

She stared, crunching numbers, until Rei returned, at which point she feigned sleep.

Busting through the doorway and kicking her shoes off, laughing, Minako noticed Artemis was waiting, unamused.

"Where have you two been?" he whispered. Rieko must have been in the other room.

"We just went out for some fun!" Minako grinned as Makoto entered the foyer behind her. With Makoto out of work with a doctor's note and Minako with no gigs or appointments until later in the week, they had hit the tea shops.

"I thought you were supposed to-"

"We're just supposed to stay together, not stuck inside!" Minako whispered at the cat with emphasis. There is a buddy system, not a quarantine, she thought.

He sighed, turning away. "Alright. I guess I misunderstood…" He paused, flipping his tail. "But next time you could tell me so I won't be so worried."

"Okay!.." Minako agreed, slightly guilty for leaving him in the dark whilst they ran off.

Artemis slunk to the scratching post as Rieko entered the room.

"Hey! What's up?" The short, dark-haired woman clunked a few cupboards in the kitchenette, reappearing as she swigged a glass of iced beverage.

"Bubble tea and window shopping," Minako answered, swirling her plastic cup which was by now mostly bubble-ice. She and Makoto took a seat at the island counter.

"Nice. Oh, hey again, Mako-san." Rieko grinned. "You been having fun without me?"

“Hey,” Makoto greeted politely, laughing.

Minako flinched with guilt. She had been blowing her 'normal' friend off a lot lately; this would have made a perfect chance to make up for it. "Sorry!" She scratched the back of her neck. "I thought you worked at the coffee shop today!"

"No," the other woman stated, pulling out a conbini meal and chopsticks and popping it in the microwave. "They switched my shifts this week. I thought you were busy though, so I just went to the gym." She tapped her foot against the floor as she waited for her food.

Minako noisily slurped the dregs of her tea. She glanced sideways to her right at Makoto, who seemed to be nursing hers slowly. While entering the apartment Minako had noticed a text message from Ami but hadn't read it. They should probably get on a call soon anyway to touch base with the other group. If Rieko is going to eat now, maybe we can sneak away..

"Anyway, Minako-chan, seems like you and your friends haven't been hanging out here as much. You know, my other friends have been busy lately so I've been lonely." The girl tapped the chopsticks on her sweatpants idly as she smiled, seeming to examine Minako's expression, waiting to scrutinize the reaction.

Rieko is maybe the only one more gossip-addicted and observant than I am, Minako thought. She swallowed. They really shouldn't be hanging out here.

The blonde woman looked down at her beverage, pretending to care immensely about whether she had missed any globs of tapioca.

"Actually… you've seemed pretty busy this week." Makoto jumped as Minako's roommate leaned forward suddenly, placing her palms on the counter. She stared from one senshi to the other, half-smiling. "Anything interesting going on? What'cha all been doing?"

"Nothing!" Minako and her companion blurted at the same time.

Rieko's microwave meal beeped. She turned to grab it, blinking at Minako as she kept eye contact out of the corner of her eye. "Huh… okay." She shrugged.

Minako glanced down as she slid her cell phone halfway out of her pocket, intending to slide to view Ami's text. At least there were no missed calls or communicator rings, so it must not have been life-or-death. She was interrupted when she automatically looked up as Rieko began to speak again loudly.

"So… Mako-chan…"

Minako, tensing, nearly laughed as she recognized her roommate’s strategy of suddenly acting friendlier than usual to coax information.

Makoto seemed to be frozen. Rieko continued. "Why are you staying with us, again?"

"My front door's broken. She broke — I mean — a robber broke it!" and, "No reason!! Just a normal sleepover — two sleepovers! " were Makoto’s and Minako’s answers, at the same time.

Rieko's face looked like her sense of reality was imploding. She blinked.

Minako laughed uncontrollably for a moment, after which a glance at Makoto told her her friend was probably embarrassed to know her. The blonde shut her mouth off, bending to sip vigorously at her ice.

The short-haired girl turned around, hesitating as she made to leave the kitchenette. She spoke without looking back at them. "… Oh!" She spun back around, blushing. "Oh, sorry, wow, why didn't I get it before? Sorry!"

"-What?" both seated girls asked.

Rieko smiled. She gestured to Makoto. "You know, you don't need to make up excuses to come here!" She looked then to Minako. "I'm cool with it. Obviously. I'll leave you guys alone, sorry!"

"What?" Minako asked again, confused.

Makoto, with a start, began gesturing between Minako and herself, wildly. "No, uh-! we're not-"

Rieko made to walk toward her bedroom with her bowl of noodles. "No! It's okay! You've been trying to get me to give you some alone time this whole time, haven't you? I'm an idiot."

Suddenly getting it, Minako felt her face fill with pink. She cackled. "Oh, no, no, no! I'm, like, 100% straight!"

Beside her, Makoto was waving her hands, blubbering, "Uh-I mean, me? With her, of all people? Definitely not!"

Feeling like she had somehow been stabbed with an insult from her sapphic friend, Minako whipped to face the brunette, half-whispering, "Hey, what do you mean, not me of all people? "

As Rieko reached the hallway she cast back a wink at her roommate. "No, no! It's okay! Minako, good for you. I knew it! "

"Oh my gosh, that's hilarious, you have the wrong idea, Rieko-chan…" Minako muttered after her, blushing. The blonde facepalmed as she gently shook her head.

Meanwhile Makoto was stammering, "I mean, y’know, yes, Minako is objectively smoking hot. Of course. It's just we wouldn’t be compatible, and…-"

Minako, mind suddenly yanked out of the drama by another buzz to her phone, left the other two to debate out her relationship status while she opened her texts.

Her two most recent texts from Ami read: 'I've got new information. Call when you can.' and then, more interestingly, and causing Minako’s whole body to run cold, 'The enemy is actually in a pocket dimension.'

Heart nearly stopping with a combination of shock and the excitement to finally have some answers, she attempted to subtly shove her phone in Makoto's face. The girl was still laughing nervously and arguing with a clueless Rieko, awkwardly coming out and spilling her feelings in an attempt to convince her she wasn’t lying. The roommate, meanwhile, stood stubbornly in the hallway by her door as she claimed to understand, impatiently eating her noodles.

"Mako-chan," Minako hissed, prodding her.

"What?"

The blonde raised her eyebrows, gesturing at her phone. Suddenly serious, Makoto nodded, checking her own pocket, probably having received Ami's same texts on her new replacement phone.

While Rieko awkwardly ended the conversation, finally shutting herself in her room, flustered, Minako received one more message.

‘That means we might be able to hack in.’

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

“Mamo-chan.” Usagi felt a weight lifted as she heard his breath on the other line.

“Usako…”

Usagi curled fingers around the phone, feeling tears, neither good nor bad, welling up and spilling out. They usually tried to talk nearly every day, but this time it had been almost a week — and with everything that had been happening.

“What’s going on?”

It was the wee hours where he was. She felt like an overfilled water balloon leaking. He was quiet while she let out a long breath, relieving pent-up pressure through the escape of her tears.

“A lot…” She laughed. Usagi had kept her boyfriend up-to-date on nearly all the major details of the senshi’s recent happenings through text, but now they were finally getting somewhere. With Ami’s unfolding technological discoveries, the cogs were moving — without Mamoru there to support her, as usual. It made her anxious.

She filled him in, the venting and speculating helping her calm. They switched to small-talk about Mamoru’s studies in California. As they talked, at last Usagi smiled, idly picking up the little box in which she kept on the bedside table the beautiful ring he had given her, tilting it in her fingers to see its sparkle and shine in the glow of her ceiling light. It had been over a year since she had decided not to wear it anymore — at least not yet.

Her phone buzzed against her ear, startling her into juggling it before placing it back against her face. “Hahaha… Sorry. Are you still there?” She switched it to speaker and glanced at the text. Rei was reminding her it was time to go. Usagi glanced up at the skyline outside her window; the sun was setting.

“Yeah. Need to go?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Apparently we’re leaving to get Ami-chan in ten minutes.”

“Alright, Usako…” he said softly. “Talk to you soon.”

Usagi hung up the phone. Blushing, and probably visibly glowing, she made her way out to meet an impatient Rei.

Rei stood, shivering in her old t-shirt, in the hallway outside Ami’s section of the university hospital. The air conditioning was definitely kept too low. She didn’t deal with cold well.

Usagi reappeared from the women’s bathroom around the corner. “She not out yet?”

“No…” Rei checked the time on her phone. “She just texted me she’ll be finished for sure in five minutes.”

Usagi sighed, thwacking her purse against her skirt as she leaned on the wall next to Rei. “It must be boring to like working so much.”

The Shinto priestess laughed.

Ami successfully collected, raven-black hair whipped softly against Rei’s shoulders as she stared out the rolled-down window on the way to the shrine, enjoying the brief reprieve.

They managed to arrive about a minute before Makoto and Minako appeared up the steps.

“Yo,” Makoto greeted, waving.

“Good timing!!” Usagi, somewhat clumsily, ran up the remainder of the gravel driveway to meet them.

It appeared as though Minako had recently been laughing to near tears. The blonde dabbed at the corner of her eye. “Hooh, boy, well, we basically had to sneak the fuck out of my place while Rieko-chan was in the shower.”

Makoto nodded somberly, seeming guilty yet, Rei thought, secretly amused and probably attempting not to laugh.

“Okay. Well, anyway…” Rei started, intending to get the meeting going as the five began automatically walking toward the shrine home’s entrance.

Ami, face lowered to her cell phone, silently held up a finger as she paused. When Rei noticed the girl’s face was serious, she stopped as well.

“Ami-chan…?”

“On second thought… can we do this meeting on-the-go?” Ami addressed the group without looking up. Her eyes scanned the mobile device’s screen. “I’ve got a new energy spike notification — nothing to necessarily worry about,” she added to calm Usagi, who had opened her mouth to exclaim. “But, now I’m able to collect more data, and we can be there to make sure if anything happens we’re the first to know about it.”

Rei and Minako, who was almost immediately at her side, nodded; Makoto had already snapped to action and rushed to Ami’s sedan, affect suddenly serious; Rei heard Usagi begin to blubber and grabbed the girl’s soft, sweaty hand without even looking, dragging her off.

Outside a Shibuya business center Sailor Moon’s stray hairs swirled in the wind and rush of cars as she grinned. “See? There wasn’t anything to worry about!! ”

Ami’s sensor map had led them to an innocuous-seeming but dense area of town; signs for real estate offices and fancy shops dotted the ground-level plaza to their right; cicadas, audible but barely discernible from the traffic sounds, droned from nearby trees.

Not seeing anything immediately concerning, Mercury, glued to her mini computer, had begun to read through pages of data in silence. The other four stood, anxious but seemingly useless, transformed.

The shorter of the blondes turned away, preemptively moving back toward the parking garage.

“Hold up.” Rei gestured toward the princess until she grudgingly stopped.

A spiritual residue, half blanked-out like a wiped memory, nearly nudged at Rei’s perception. As she turned back to gaze up the street she felt the blue-haired warrior approach on her left.

“What is it, Rei-chan?” Just as Mercury’s cerulean eyes, concerned, met her own, Rei noticed the flock of high-school boys, nudging one another and pointing, rubbernecking their way down the sidewalk opposite the road. She clenched her teeth, frustrated as she felt her face flush.

Mars shook her head irritatedly. Apparently civilians had become aware of the senshi’s suddenly frequent investigations within the past few days — Rei had already been shown a recent newspaper article by a concerned-but-not-too-discreetly-gloating Minako the day before — most likely concerned what the warriors’ activity meant for the future safety of the world, as well as merely curious. But the attention sure was distracting.

If I could only grasp it, she thought.

Like a memory of a distant time.

What are you trying to tell me?

Ignoring Mercury, Rei inhaled, turning her face into the wind as if trying to place a familiar smell. She mentally asked the kami for support; then, a niggling thought, or maybe a memory, or perhaps an entity, almost locked into place in her mind. Then there was nothing. She closed her eyes, reaching farther.

“Can you sense any-”

“Not yet! I’m concentrating-” Rei snapped, cutting herself off as she met Ami’s blinking gaze. Mercury seemed surprised but not upset, searching the stressed woman’s face. Mars looked down, sighing. She took a moment to still herself. “I’m sorry. I…” she stated without looking up.

The occasionally lingering eye of a Tokyo denizen passing by still seared into her, seeming to bore into her soul, each one a distracting fleck of dust on her attention.

Why can I sense everything except what I’m supposed to?

“Mars-chan?” Rei heard Usagi address her gently.

She turned back to the small group, all looking to her as the other three had apparently finished with their own discussions and caught on to what was happening. Rei raked agitated fingers through raven-black hair before continuing. She sighed before addressing them, looking to the side. “Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get any specific reading on this energy. Except that something is happening. The city feels… different than usual. Like there’s something I can almost feel.”

“Okay…” Usagi sighed. As Mars looked up, she saw Sailor Moon appeared relieved. “Well, we’ll all be careful, right? But maybe…” The moon senshi brought a pensive finger to her chin. “Maybe now they — whoever’s underground — I mean, entering from that dimension — uh — know we’re here, maybe they’re backing down.”

Mars felt a bitter cringe at the princess’s optimism. She looked up to see Jupiter make an uncomfortable expression as well, biting her lip. Venus’s face was dead-serious but unreadable.

Just as she thought — the other inner senshi felt that was unlikely as well. The dark-haired girl felt herself frown, staring at the cracks in the pavement. Nearby to her left, busy students and office workers were exiting the train station, a homogenous group of uniforms and ‘cool biz’ outfits and suits, as if nothing worrying was happening in this world at all.

Rei felt this was just the beginning.

Ami swiveled in the computer chair in the shrine home’s study. Insects chirped through the windows which brought in the last bits of daylight.

As the blue-haired girl zoned out within her own thoughts, she was alerted to the fact that Usagi had fallen asleep when Rei made to loudly close the small, sliding window and the blonde jerked awake, muttering, startled.

“Usagi-chan…” Rei quietly scolded, irked; Ami laughed.

As the shrine maiden sank into a worn living chair, the remaining three were seated on the wood floor, leaning back against filing cabinets and shelves.

Makoto giggled; Minako, on the far side of the princess, sarcastically feigned extreme shock. “I-I thought you said you slept enough last night?”

Usagi yawned, stretching uncomfortably against the furniture as she sat up straighter. “No, I said I got eight hours. That’s not enough…”

The wall clock ticked; Ami could hear Rei’s grandfather shuffling around on the creaky floors in another room.

Rei cleared her throat, waiting to redirect the conversation.

“Okay. Um, anyway!” Minako started. “Ami-chan, you said you had data to show us?” The water senshi watched as the leader’s face struggled to return to seriousness. Knowing Minako as well as she did, she realized the blonde was doing an impressive job.

Ami spun around to face the monitor, which showed the live feed loaded and files almost finished downloading from the file sharing site. She fumbled with and pushed on her reading glasses. “Well, not quite data to show you — that is, I doubt it would be very interesting or informative without knowing what you’re looking at…” The girl turned back to the group. “But I just thought we should regroup and meet in person to talk about what I’ve found…”

“The pocket dimension?” In the dim room, the computer’s blue light reflected in Minako’s eyes as she spoke.

Ami nodded.

Makoto shifted to rearrange her long legs on the wooden floor. Emerald eyes were now serious. “Isn't that like what you made that one time-?”

“When we were fighting against Beryl, yes,” Ami spoke. She frowned, a dull, uneasy feeling rising up. “However, this one is far more advanced…”

“So that means the enemy has super advanced technology,” Rei said, leaning forward to rest her chin on one hand. “Not great…”

“And don’t they need a power source?” said Minako. She inspected her fingernails as she spoke, though her expression remained focused. “With all that’s been going on… Eek…”

“Well — it would have required a power source to create, yes, but hypothetically it could remain stable on its own,” Ami corrected. “But, yes, with all the activity and changes to the dimensional barrier — not to mention letting living things in and out on what appears to be a large scale…” The student trailed off, adjusting her glasses. She met the golden-blonde strategist’s eyes as she looked up. “A large power source indeed…”

Minako nodded gravely.

“Anyways,” Ami started. She turned her attention to the computer, antsy to get her hands back on the new data. The files had finished downloading. “I was just going to continue my work here while we had our meeting-” She looked briefly to the others. “If that’s okay. But I'll be listening!”

Minako stretched, accidentally hitting her wrist clumsily against a cabinet shelf. “Ow! — I don’t think we really have that much else to discuss anyway, except…”

Rei straightened in her seat. “Let me guess. Buddy system again?”

“That’s right.” The blonde nodded. “Extra strict this time, since we know something’s likely going on.”

“But-” Usagi started.

“-I figure, all of us together whenever possible.” Minako pressed her hands together for emphasis. “That way we’re prepared. Otherwise, or while going to and from work or something, a minimum of two.”

The blue-haired woman returned her focus to her statistical calculations about the enemy group’s energy expenditure while her friends discussed, feeling like an addict greedily indulging in her hobby although she knew it was useful and necessary.

At one point Ami’s work was interrupted as she heard her name.

“..-what will happen if you’re able to hack into the enemy’s system?” Makoto was asking her.

Ami spun around once more, pulling off her glasses to scratch the bridge of her nose idly as she thought. “I’ll have access to more information… at the very least. Maybe more. Basically, it’s seeming increasingly likely from their activity that the changes to that extra dimension are being regulated by some sort of computer system. If so, and if I can get access to their internal processes and data and the like, worst case a security system might notice my presence and they’ll be alerted… Best case scenario, I may be able to control certain things — like sealing off the entry points it seems like they’re constructing under and around western Tokyo.”

At that Usagi gasped. “So they’ll be gone??”

“It would buy us more time during which it’d be more difficult for them to attack, but that’s if it works… to be clear, I have no idea if I can do any of that.” She swiveled slightly with pent-up energy, smiling to inflate her budding confidence. The others all looked to her with wide eyes. “But that’s why I’m trying.”

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

The curly-haired woman dusted the last of the flour off the countertop with a paper towel. “You just wanted to come here so I could cook for you, didn’t you?”

Even as she said this, as if automatically, Makoto picked up one cookie with a napkin and gifted it in Usagi’s general direction, at the shorter girl’s head level.

Obediently, like a baby bird, Usagi opened her mouth to receive the offering. It was warm, the consistency delicious, with oats and chocolate. Twice the normal amount of chocolate, since Usagi had had a say in it.

“Not only that.” She winked, smiling; chewing, the girl looked around her friend’s apartment.

Rife with flowering plants and equipped with light air-conditioning, it smelled clean and floral and was filled with collections of things Usagi thought one ought to have collections of: shelves of books, stacks of video games, books about video games, new boxes of interesting types of tea Makoto hadn’t put away yet.

“I like being in your home. It’s cute and… feels safe.”

“I’m glad.” The brunette smiled, leaning her back against the edge of the counter next to her. “Well… it is safe now that my lock is fixed,” she muttered.

“Ahahaha, oh yeah.” Usagi nearly snorted thinking about Minako’s fuck-up.

“What time is everyone else at work until, again?” Makoto had turned to open one of the tall cupboards. “Do you want tea?”

“Yes!! What kind?” Fully self-aware of how easy she was to please, Usagi realized this was the best day she’d had in a while.

“Mmmm…” Makoto tapped a finger on the light-colored wood. “I was gonna have hibiscus.”

"Yes, please." The blonde girl grinned. Eyes nearly watering with happiness at getting spoiled, she resisted the urge to grab another cookie from the cooling rack. “Oh — and, um… I think Minako leaves her studio first, at six.”

“Mmkay.”

A colorful, shiny kettle was being heated on the gas stove.

Makoto sighed wistfully. “It’s soooo nice being back here.”

“Yeah!” Usagi agreed. Serenely, but lustfully, she eyed the sweets from the corner of her eye.

The tall brunette, apparently taking notice, laughed. “You should have another one.”

“Okay! If you say so.” She pulled one apart before sticking each half in her mouth and licking molten chocolate off her fingers. “Mmmm.”

Makoto giggled.

“What?”

“Nothing! … except you still totally have chocolate on your face.”

Drinking tea at the coffee table, Usagi stared off into the distance. Past the fourth-floor balcony birds flitted. She brought the warm cup to her lips; the deep-red tea was sour, tangy, yet somehow sweet.

“Mako-chan, when do you have to go back to work again?”

The other woman sighed as she sipped the herbal tea. “Day after tomorrow.”

Usagi grinned. “So we can do this tomorrow, too!”

“Yeah.” She looked up to meet her gaze. “So no new modeling jobs yet?”

The blonde shifted in her seat; she looked to the pink and green floral rug. “No…”

The other girl’s tone changed. “Sorry! Not to — I was just wondering. Not that you should feel bad about it.” She gave a sincere smile.

“Thanks…” Usagi, relaxing slightly, returned the smile. She’d been receiving a fair bit of pressure from her parents to go back to her old coffee shop job if modeling didn’t start to pay off soon, which she for some reason really didn’t want to do; the gentle absence of judgment was appreciated — and, she should have realized sooner, Makoto would be the last person to judge her by her accomplishments or productivity.

The shorter girl watched as her friend downed the last of her tea. The young woman wore her ponytail in a new, cute, Usagi thought, slightly-shorter haircut, but the outfit was one she had seen her in countless times before. When’s the last time I heard Mako-chan talk about clothes shopping? she thought idly. As much as the girl raved about cool fashion and bargain hunting, Usagi honestly couldn’t remember.

Suddenly consumed with the desire to show her thanks and make her friend happy, she blurted, “Let’s go shopping!!”

Makoto looked to her, eyebrows raised, blinking, as if interested but trying to understand the connection.

Usagi burst out in a self-conscious laugh, moving to refill both their cups. “It’s random, I know, but I just got the idea…”

Makoto chuckled. “Thanks,” she said as Usagi refilled her tea. “Shopping for what?”

Caught up in the idea, the blonde girl gestured extravagantly as if she was wearing a long, draping skirt. “We could go pick out new, fancy dresses!!”

The taller girl laughed but shook her head, looking to the floor. “Thanks, but… I definitely couldn’t afford that right now… especially anywhere you’d probably be interested in.” She sipped her drink for a moment, then smiled. “I’ll go look with you, though!”

Usagi was speechless. Her face flushed. How could she be so clueless as to casually suggest her expensive hobby to her least-wealthy, orphaned friend? Duh. Come to think of it, Usagi couldn’t remember Makoto making any mention of her more distant family ever financially supporting her since middle school. And with everything she does for everybody else…

The princess cast away the urge to promise they’d look at thriftier shops than the ones she frequented and decided on a better solution. Usagi’s fist clenched with resolution.

“I’ll buy things for you!”

Shocked, Makoto took a moment to process before appearing thrilled. “Really?”

“Yeah!” Usagi nodded. “A fancy dress, or… whatever you want!”

“Usagi-chan! … but — will that be okay? You’re still just using your parents’ credit card, right?”

She grinned. “They’ll deal with it. They don’t need to know it’s not just for me.” Psyched, Usagi stood up as she plotted her plans. “I’m the future queen, so then I’ll be able to buy people whatever they want! ”

Makoto sweat-dropped, laughing in disbelief. “I don’t think that’s how that works…”

The streets of Azabujuuban smelled of sweet, midsummer air. After stopping to buy hana-dango at a corner store, they wandered the nearby blocks until the two came upon a familiar strip of upscale women’s clothing stores. Usagi skipped a little as she walked ahead of her friend.

“Ah — this is one of the places I just noticed walking the other day with Minako-chan. I think it’s new…” Makoto slowed as they strolled past the window.

Several paces ahead, Usagi stopped and backtracked to join her, staring into the display. A white, velvety headless mannequin was demonstrating a frilled, pink summer dress. The plaque running underneath the section showed it was by an up-and-coming designer Usagi was familiar with. “We should go in!”

The blonde watched Makoto gaze discerningly at the displayed outfits. “Sure! …I’m not sure if it’s really my style, though,” she mused.

“Well, there’ll be more inside! C’mon!” The princess grabbed the tall warrior’s hand and began to lead her in. There’d be a couple hours more before they needed to escort Minako from work, anyway.

Instantly hit with air conditioning and some sort of sweet perfume, Usagi lightly sighed. This was quickly becoming her ideal type of day.

It being a summer weekend, the two of them had to weave past a couple groups containing some combination of what Usagi assumed were couples, school-aged girls, and tourists. By the time she emerged through one such crowd-clump she came to find that her companion was staring as if mesmerized by a green off-shoulder top that came paired with a black denim jacket.

Usagi approached the rack Makoto was eyeballing. Apparently sensing her presence, the tall woman turned around, happy but wearing a shy smile.

“I know this isn’t exactly what we came here for, but…” Makoto stroked the soft-looking fabric between her fingers. She began to reach to pull out the price tag when Usagi made to hit her fingers away.

“Don’t even worry about it!” She laughed. “I’m paying no matter what! I can afford it, so…” She blushed. The blonde girl hated to feel like she was bragging about her relative wealth, but to be honest she realized this was the kind of designer shop she’d been practically spoiled with receiving gifts from since she was in middle school. Of all the topics her upper-class parents were seriously strict about, the occasional shopping splurge at their expense was not one.

My parents don’t have to find out, she thought.

“But-”

She practically smacked Makoto on the back. “You should try it on! Also, that would look sooo good on you.”

“You think?” The other girl smiled, checking the size and pulling a hanger out.

Usagi nodded and shoved the brunette toward the short line to the changing rooms. “Yeah!” She turned on her heel, eyeing the racks of minimalist jewelry and mini-dresses, trying to decide in which direction to gravitate. “I’ll be right there! I’m gonna look for something, but text me if you need an opinion or anything,” she called over her shoulder, not sure whether Makoto could still hear her anyway.

As the short girl had begun to idly, yet excitedly, walk the isles, she felt her purse buzz. Pulling her smartphone out, she found the screen was illuminated but blank. Her lock screen, a motion-sensitive image of dazzling pink gems, displayed only the time.

“Hmm.” She swiped to double-check for messages anyway, awkwardly moving out of the walkway for a shopper whose path she was blocking. Nothing.

A pink light, dampened slightly from reflecting off the fabric of her tote, caught her attention. Looking up first to make sure no one was watching, Usagi snatched up her communicator, digging it out from under the cardigan and snacks underneath which it was buried.

Her heart pounded.

Like a false start, as she unconsciously rushed to flip it open with frantic fingers, Usagi then realized it was no longer blinking.

“Hm-” She whipped her head back around to search for Makoto, caught between a feeling of panic and relief that it was likely a false alarm. As she rounded the corner the other woman was leaving the changing area.

“That was fast,” the blonde commented, smiling, forgetting her brief injection of panic.

“It was the wrong size.” Makoto laughed, but must have then detected her troubled look, however; her eyes widened then narrowed, scrutinizing the other girl’s expression. “Usagi-chan…? What’s wrong?”

“Did you…?” she started. Then she glanced warily about the shop at the store-goers. “We should go outside,” she said quietly.

Back on the street in the privacy of distance from others, Usagi rummaged in her purse as Makoto patiently looked on, concerned. The moon senshi fondled the gem-embossed cover, noticing the alert lights still remained off.

“Did you get any calls to your communicator?” Usagi asked.

“No…”

“Also, did you just text me?”

The brunette shook her head. “What happened?”

“It was like it almost went off — my phone, too, but then there were no calls.”

Makoto gripped her own senshi communicator, pulling it out of a shoulder bag. “We should call Luna to see. Use mine, in case yours isn’t working.”

Usagi nodded.

Luna, busy with data surveillance at the lab and, apparently, simultaneously busy with an argument with Artemis, denied having sent any calls.

“Keep a close eye on it,” the feline instructed, “in case any of the others try to reach you again.”

“Could it be an emergency call — what if it got canceled ‘cause something happened-?”

Makoto placed a hand on the other woman’s shoulder. “It’s harder to make a call to just one of us — if someone pressed it quickly in an emergency, I would have gotten it too,” she reassured.

Usagi felt her shoulders relax. She nodded.

“But I think Luna’s right. Let’s keep a close eye on them,” Makoto added once they hung up, tapping her communicator before slipping it in a pants pocket.

“Want to make our way to where we get Minako just in case?” Usagi smiled, making to continue down the street.

“Okay,” Makoto agreed, seeming somewhat calmer, folding her hands behind her head. “Plus, if you’re buying me whatever I want I should check out all the options first!” She winked.

Usagi laughed.

Walking along a wide Shibuya sidewalk on the way to Minako’s recording site, Usagi seemed to be imparted with the energy of the bustling city. She inhaled; the humid summer air was intoxicating.

“We’re still going to look at shops on the way, right? ” Usagi nudged the taller girl.

“Yep.” Makoto cheerfully nodded. “If you see any that catch your eye, let me know! I don’t know if this is that big of a commercial area, though.”

They strode through thick crowds walking the opposite direction, likely the first big wave of office workers on their way back to the station. It was probably just after five p.m.

Usagi’s flats clicked lightly on the pavement. She idly realized she should have worn better walking shoes for this.

A blinding light, for an instant, seemed to flare in the center of her vision. She stumbled; one hand shot up automatically to shield her face. Dazed and blinking the light-spot out of her eyes, she avoided colliding with a businessman. The probable culprit, a shiny belt buckle in the dazzling sun. She laughed.

Nearly walking into a tree planter as a result, the girl cracked up at herself self-deprecatingly. “Ahahaha. Sorry. Mako-…” The other girl wasn’t there.

Making a poor attempt at looking over people’s heads, Usagi slowed as she scanned for her friend, keeping to the side of the walkway. Eventually she stopped altogether, figuring once Makoto realized they were separated she’d double back.

Leaning one hand against the slope of a tall, decorative brick planter, the woman looked over her shoulder in the direction of the flow of foot traffic.

She jerked her head back automatically as a figure tripped and stumbled in front of her, bumping her foot.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” A woman in a sweltering-looking, black business suit blurted, smiling apologetically. She bowed lightly. Usagi heard a light clatter as the person’s sunglasses, which had dislodged themselves, skidded to the sidewalk next to the younger girl’s feet.

“Sorry!” Usagi said automatically.

The businessperson she had tripped, a woman with curly blonde shoulder-length hair and more-or-less European-looking features, turned slowly to rejoin the foot traffic.

“Um!” Usagi quickly bent to grab the black sunglasses. “Excuse me!”

The other blonde fortunately realized she was being addressed and turned back to Usagi once more. The pigtailed girl held out the glasses.

“Oh!” Smiling, the lady walked the couple paces back, reaching out to retrieve them. “Thank you.”

She looked closer to Usagi’s age than the younger girl had initially thought yet definitely more mature, wearing light makeup with red lipstick. Her black blazer hung in a nice way. She was pretty.

“I like your necklace, by the way,” the taller woman stated, gesturing.

“Thanks!” Usagi brought up a hand to touch the green glass pendant which currently adorned her chest in place of her transformation compact, which remained safe in her purse.

At the same time, she finally noticed Makoto; the brown-haired girl walked along the opposite sidewalk edge, slowly gazing back and forth from the perimeter, apparently looking for her. Usagi took a step toward her with a start.

The other woman spoke from behind her. “I’m sorry I ran into you. So are you a college student?”

Usagi swiveled back. Across the way, Makoto was pulling out her phone.

“No.” She was impatient to return to her buddy; she attempted to give a last smile to the other woman before breaking away. “Um, you must be in a hurry…”

Usagi’s tote bag vibrated with a text. However, through the crowd she could see that Makoto had already just spotted her. The tall girl weaved through the people as the first post-work rush seemed to thin out.

“Actually, I’m not.” The older blonde gave a relaxed smile. “I work near here and I’m just taking a walk. I’m waiting for someone…”

The strange businesswoman seemed nice. Usagi lingered.

“Usagi-” Makoto addressed her as she cut across the way, confusion and slight concern on her face.

“Mako-chan! There you are! Sorry, I was just talking to, um…” The long-haired blonde looked to the older woman.

Immediately, Makoto was flanking her like a bodyguard. She gazed from one of them to the other.

“Erika,” she smiled, pronouncing it more closely to the foreign version of the name.

“My name’s Usagi. Erika-san… Is that English or… Italian? Where are you from?”

“Usagi-chan, you can’t just ask people that. That’s rude,” Makoto was muttering under her breath, facepalming.

The older woman laughed, covering her mouth, and smiled at the shorter girl. “I’m from somewhere very far away.” Teal eyes caught the sunlight, looking peacefully — or maybe confidently — across the skyline as the cars ran by, before she returned the sunglasses to her face.

For a brief moment Usagi eyed the beautiful lady before looking up to Makoto, whose undertone felt impatient. “It was nice meeting you, Erika-san…” She smiled before bowing to turn away.

“It was nice to meet you, too.”

Pausing to look back, Usagi saw the suited woman stride away in the direction from which she came, swinging a woven sunhat out of her shoulder bag and onto her head.

Makoto hadn’t moved since the encounter. Usagi noticed her gaze followed Erika even as her light hair and hat became indiscernible from the crowd.

“Mako-chan? Is everything okay?”

The taller warrior hesitated. “I’m not sure.”

Chapter Text

CW:

• mentions of past trauma & PTSD.
• mention of murder/death.

Ami stared at the screen. A feeling of significance, of inevitability, tugged at her. She wasn’t nearly as sixth-sense-sensitive as Rei; she reasoned she was subconsciously picking up patterns and cues that her body was translating into a gut feeling. Through her years as a senshi she’d learned to trust these feelings.

Once the other four had met up with the blue-haired warrior — the last one able to leave their work or studies — the five of them had decided to book it to a nearby cafe for discussion.

Warm wind gusted long bangs out of Ami’s face as she typed on her mini computer, facing out toward the street at their round table. The sound of traffic and upbeat music from outdoor speakers shrouded the group in relative anonymity.

Minako, stretching dramatically before burying her attention in her root beer float, grumbled, “Man, I really just wanted to have a fun, carefree night…”

“Sorry…” Makoto put up both hands innocently, cringing sympathetically as she laughed.

Usagi, nervously bouncing a crossed leg as she stared blankly at the stone tabletop, was quietly in her own thoughts, whatever those were. Rei seemed irritable for some reason, stirring a soda idly with a straw while she half-listened to Minako, smiling.

Makoto, though she exuded a certain amount of anxiety, seemed, in a way, in her element — balancing joviality and seriousness, she seemed to excellently multitask playfully chatting while throwing wary glances at the street now and then. Minako, Ami thought, appeared similarly well-equipped — slowly coming down to earth while she complained jokingly, she was secretly giving her complete attention, the blue-haired girl knew.

Eventually Ami’s drink arrived — a slushy, blended coffee drink.

“This late in the day? Ami-chan, you’re amazing…” Usagi laughed, breaking her silence.

The med student blushed, guiltily staring down at her indulgence; the fact that Minako still sported her own dark eyebags made her feel less bad about her wrecked sleep schedule.

As a rotating fan brushed past them, smells wafted from nearby tables receiving sandwiches and fancy plates of waffles. Ami’s frappe was divine; condensation on the glass cup feeling cool to the touch was enough to counter the uncomfortable sensation of her sweat. Typing with one hand, she sighed. The caffeine hit was sure to help deepen her focus on the countless rows of data.

There was something nostalgic about gathering with the Inners and Usagi to combine leisure time with careful speculating and strategizing.

From an unzipped backpack flap came Luna’s peering eyes; crouching inside the bag in order to keep her mouth hidden, she spoke. “Alright… So what actually happened?”

Makoto opened her mouth to answer the cat, tensed brow and hesitant, tenuous inhale as she leaned forward suggesting she was tired of repeating herself every time a newcomer arrived. Instead, Usagi, breaking from her internal reflections, took a turn in recounting the past several hours.

“And that’s weird, because…?” Artemis, skeptical, cocked his head against the lid of the tote bag on Minako’s lap.

“Artemis!” Minako, whispering, scolded; in punishment he was smooshed back down.

Usagi shook her head, gaze locked on her sundae. “It was so strange… My communicator’s never done something like that before. And my phone, too…”

Artemis laughed, trying to finish the fight with his human guardian. “I just meant that I thought it was more likely one of you airheads called her and forgot.” He rolled his eyes up toward the golden blonde.

“Nooo,” Minako sounded out, irritated, before bopping him back into his hiding spot, crossing her arms.

Oh, she means business now. Sucks to be Artemis, Ami thought, cringing at the cat’s lapse of judgment at irritating her.

“That is suspicious…” Luna, ignoring her partner, slowly stated, head bowed as she seemed to turn over ideas in her head. “It’s supposed to be near-impossible to replicate the energy frequencies used. And the likelihood of it malfunctioning like that is-”

“Very low,” Ami finished.

There was a moment of silence.

“That woman, too…” Makoto began.

Luna’s face reappeared. “What all did she say?”

“Basically nothing… right? ” When Usagi nodded to confirm the brunette continued. “But, I got such a strong vibe from her, and it didn’t seem good…” The obviously concerned and frustrated Makoto stared into mid-distance, leaning her chin on her palm as one elbow rested next to a somewhat neglected glass of boba tea. “Obviously I’m nowhere near as good at reading people as Rei-chan, but still…”

Rei, appearing pensive as she listened until now in silence, shook her head. “No, I would trust your instinct.” She hesitated, frowning as she looked down at her hands. “I have a certain feeling, too. A vague one, obviously, but we should all be on our guard.”

Ami was about to relate her own experience of a gut feeling to add to the mix when Minako nodded to the former shrine maiden. “And you’re still sure someone or something with psychic abilities is blocking you, right?”

Blue eyes widened; this was news to Ami.

“Yeah…” Rei rubbed her forehead in irritated thought. “Since that experience I had a couple days ago, plus a couple other things… I’ve been meditating on it and I’m more sure now. They were sure good at masking it, but…-”

“Hheeeeh?” Usagi interjected interestedly. She leaned her chin on neatly folded hands. “So, they have their own psychic, too… Like Koan.”

Rei made a ‘psssh’ sound. “I hope they won’t single me out for a rivalry like her, whoever they are. My experiences with Koan are something I’d hope to avoid…”

She never talked about it, Ami realized, at least not to her, but she sharply remembered the day Rei found the burning body of one of her murdered teachers before being captured and whisked away to another planet herself. The girl shuddered. She eyed the priestess’s jokingly concerned expression with sympathy. She was the first one to be kidnapped back then, she thought. That first attack came out of the blue to all of them but was likely especially traumatic for Rei.

Makoto sighed. “Anyway, Haruka and the others will be here in…” She looked to her left at the black-haired girl.

Rei nodded, double-checking her cell phone. “About three hours, Michiru last said.”

Minako straightened. “That’s good. And you’re both in close contact with them?”

Those in question nodded.

“We’ll need to completely fill them in as soon as they arrive… and then we’ll have backup, just in case…” the leader trailed off.

A ping of blue light on the side of Ami’s vision made her blood briefly run cold as her eyes darted to it. It was an alert at the corner of her small screen. She tapped it.

“Ami-chan?” Luna was apparently the first one to notice whatever worried expression she must have just made, peeking reddish brown eyes from the zipper hole of Usagi’s backpack.

The short-haired girl frowned, not breaking visual contact with the data feed. “… You guys — I’d like us to go now — there’s been another-”

“-A spike like the other day?” Usagi, cheek resting in one palm, tilted her head.

Ami shook her head. “No, more than the other day. This is more like… a week ago.”

Within a few moments the table had hushed. The other four women now leaned in, waiting for more info.

“How close?” Makoto asked, her expression having run a seamless gradient from calm to dead serious despite the dreadful memories Ami was certain that was stirring up for her.

“A few blocks. We can be there in-”

Minako, abruptly scooting out her chair and nearly dropping Artemis as she whipped his bag up onto the table, stood up. “Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

Within a minute Rei was calling over a waiter and apologizing for the need to expedite their bill.

“I’ll wait here while-” the priestess started.

“No.” Minako’s commanding voice got her desired response; everyone hushed, looking to her. “We stay together. All of us together. We’re not leaving anyone alone this time.” The blonde looked to make eye contact with each one of them in turn.

“Okay…” Usagi bit a fingernail while she tentatively replied. “But someone could be in trouble-”

The golden-haired woman shook her head, cutting her off. “Not as far as we know — they’ve never attacked civilians.” She darted her gaze first to Rei, who stood hesitantly beside the leader, and then to Makoto, before looking to Usagi for approval. “If what’s happening right now is hostile, we’re most likely to be their targets.”

Ami noticed Makoto looked down, tensing a fist; Rei pursed her lips. The water senshi couldn’t help but nod along with the hesitant princess; the other two relented after several moments.

So, the five stood, awkwardly tense, around the table until the bill came and Usagi insisted on paying for everyone just to get them out of there faster. In the case that the waning mass of other customers might become interested by the weight of their discussion, Minako and Rei initiated feigned small talk about needing to get to an art show they had just found out about — not a total lie considering the former had attempted to invite them to it earlier.

By the time the group was able to leave the restaurant, with the cats already having departed to take up their positions at the control center, they stepped out into the dregs of evening light. Ami, fumbling with her mini computer before making to stash it in her purse, gave the map screens one last glance to be sure they were headed in the right direction.

As sailor senshi turned to face each other before the computer savant directed them the right way on the city sidewalk, the encroaching darkness of night seemed to smother them in a weighty fog; thoughts and speculations spun, it seemed, in all of their minds although they walked on at first in silence.

Anxiety bit at Ami’s insides; the readings, as she had told the rest of them, were similar in scope to those of the previous weekend — but, what she hadn’t gotten a chance to say is that, to be more specific, this energy signature was like nothing she’d seen seen before.

What her computer had just indicated mimicked the fluctuations of the energy-veins she had watched spread across western Azabu that one night before Makoto’s kidnapping, but with a higher-intensity signature. She speedwalked, biting her lip. At least so far least these readings are weaker than when the enemy’s portals actually caused the earthquake, she thought.

Hopefully, nothing too extreme is happening, the woman halfheartedly hoped.

Hurrying past a crosswalk and up the small slope to the adjacent shops, Ami would have walked right past a startled Rei if Usagi hadn’t quickly grabbed her sleeve. She turned.

The priestess was staring, unmoving, into a display window housing a small television screen; Makoto had taken notice and stopped beside her, slowly approaching.

“Rei-chan?…” Ami heard the brunette query before subtly gasping. “U-uhm…!” she started.

Rei, red-violet eyes reflecting radiant streetlights, turned to face the other three, her jaw set. “Everyone…” She waited until the group stepped closer to close the gap. The dark-haired woman nodded her head in gesture, expression concerned yet apologetic, toward the television inside the window display. “I-… I think I know where the readings are coming from.”

When Ami stepped forward what looked like green vines, obviously of the same species they dealt with before, caught her attention. Thick and slowly writhing, they encircled and entangled the form of a tall building on the news feed.

Ami’s heart leapt into her throat.

The inner senshi ran.

It was close to the Shirokane district, north of Ami’s research hospital. Usagi, harsh breath dragging in air to fuel her out-of-shape body, had managed to join the others in sprinting. They transformed in an alleyway backing a line of restaurants, although that only increased the blonde’s maximum speed slightly; she and Mercury were the last ones to arrive as the five rounded the block.

Coming around the corner of a towering condominium complex, the group entered the line of sight of the creatures’ target buildings — they now encircled two. Running, boots clicking, closer, Sailor Moon gasped at the alien sight. Some distance above a news helicopter circled.

Before they had even crossed the final street to their destination Mercury had already whipped her electronic visor open, seeming to be adjusting some sensor or display with two fingertips. As the five senshi dashed to the sidewalk bordering the affected commercial buildings, the two pulling up the rear had just caught up.

Sailor Moon, panting, resisted the tempting but also horrifying urge to lean against the painted concrete before her for support as soon as she noticed one practically-dragon-sized, snaking creature clinging tightly to a windowsill just meters above her.

Immediately backing up with a shudder, she hung close by Mercury; meanwhile the blue-haired girl held out an arm to cautiously dissuade Mars and Jupiter, who had both begun an impatient rush to approach.

The genius warrior typed on a datapad, blue eyes fixated on the monsters, as Usagi clung to her elbow, craning neck frozen in position as wide eyes glued to the monster. Without making any indication she was aware of let alone bothered by her terrified friend’s invasion of personal space, Mercury announced to the others, “There’s no energy transfer… Whatever these things are doing, they’re not stealing energy from the structures or the civilians.”

“What-what is that, though?! Is that?-…” Usagi dumbly started.

Before anyone could answer a new movement on the part of the creatures was accompanied by a sort of dull, otherworldly hiss; simultaneously the creature nearest them shifted slightly, almost lazily, and unfurled its single bud to reveal a supple, purple-veined flower.

As Moon’s eyes through the partial darkness snapped to the flower, the center of which briefly emitted a gleaming, fuzzy red light akin to a laser pointer, she became aware that to her left Jupiter had instantly jumped, with a loud gasp, to face the organism, nearly knocking over the curious moon princess as the brunette extended an arm in quick effort to protect her. By the time Usagi turned to look she had an enormous fistful of lightning already half-charged in her hand.

“Whathappened?-” Venus, serious expression firmly set, slurred as she spun around.

Meanwhile Mars lunged to stop the thunder senshi from prematurely provoking the entity, gesturing dramatically as she half-smiled, sweating lightly. “D-don’t attack them yet! ”

Usagi, unfortunately, recognized the quick jump to fight-or-flight from her own experiences. Making the step forward, she placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder sympathetically. “Mako-…”

Snapping to reality, Jupiter took a deep breath to steady herself as the last of electric sparks died down in her readied palm. She laughed, lowering her face to the ground. “Sorry…” The warrior mustered a smile for Usagi before glaring back up toward the foes with a distasteful cringe, blinking. “Well, in case you were wondering, that’s exactly what I saw in the enemy dimension… They did that — the- the hissing and the red light — right after they attacked me…” She brought up gloved fingers to rub her forehead idly, slowly shaking her head. “Thanks, PTSD.”

“Actually, post-traumatic stress,” Mercury, who wore a focused frown, without peeling her eyes from her displays, imparted. “Post-traumatic stress disorder is usually diagnosed when symptoms persist or appear after several months. In this case, a week out from a traumatic experience, it’s not necessarily indicative of the disorder.”

“Oh, well I feel so much better about it then,” Jupiter sarcastically joked.

“Wow, Ami-chan, you know about everything…” Usagi observed.

“How did you know that?” Venus idly asked over her shoulder as she stared in the opposite direction, likely searching for meaningful details which had gone over Usagi’s head. “Did you need to learn that for-… or…?”

Beside Sailor Moon Mercury, burying her neck farther into her slouching shoulders as she typed away, blushed. “I-I’d rather not talk about it.”

More city lights around them flickered on; the twin-bun-haired warrior craned her gaze up to see that the creatures, moving and writhing ever so slightly on the frame of the commercial building, seemed to take turns letting out a burst of the red, dully glowing light; the building sparkled slowly like a Christmas tree. Down a hilly road, in the direction Venus was facing, she noticed two or three additional buildings, farther down, covered in the same, supposedly enemy, creatures. The princess’s jaw silently dropped.

“Anyway, it’s the same as what attacked you,” Venus nodded to Jupiter as she turned to face the other four. “So… what does that mean? Why are they here now…?”

Mercury, visor flipping closed, narrowed her eyes thoughtfully as she also turned to them. As she spoke, dark cerulean gaze still darted over the strange vines suspiciously. “Maybe they serve more than one purpose… Fighters, or body guards, but also… well, they seem to be equipped with several potential sensory organs, so it’s possible they’re just observing. Perhaps waiting or keeping watch.”

“So what do we do now?” Usagi, beginning to subconsciously dance on her boot-adorned feet as she antsily made to herd the group away from the snaking entities, spoke.

Mars’s jaw was set. “I vote we wait — watch them to make sure they don’t do anything until we find out more.”

Jupiter nodded. “I agree.”

“Mercury, do you have any-?” Venus started but never finished.

“Shiiiiitt,” Usagi thought she heard Ami breathily whisper to her right. The Mercurian senshi, fumbling, flipped her computer screen farther open. “Unfortunately, we have more to be worrying about,” she declared. “There’s a central spike that could be a massive amount of transport energy… to or from-”

“You mean something bigger than this could be coming here? ” Usagi, flabbergasted, pointed at the building.

“Not necessarily bigger, but more complex… but, uh-yes.” Mercury stuttered, eyes not shifting from her device.

Venus, with a start taking a broad step forward, commanded, “Let’s go. Lead us.”

Sailor Moon’s breath and quick heartbeat rang in her ears as she kicked up loose asphalt along the slim alleyway.

The source of the energy disturbance, apparently, lay just beyond, in a neighboring complex.

As the five of them wordlessly slowed, quietly grouping together, Venus strode ahead. “Be ready. We could be dealing with anything.”

The other women nodded; Usagi, catching her breath, blinked to bring her attention to the moment at hand. As they approached the side entrance to the plaza, she glanced around them, alert.

A funny feeling overcame the princess as she made out the silhouette of a person, seemingly waiting for them at the alley’s entrance, obscured in a sudden fog. Some sort of aura or vibe seemed like it should be somewhat familiar.

Around her her friends readied attacks, nodding wordlessly to each other. Rei held an ofuda readied between two slender fingers.

“Actually, wait,” Venus called them back in a whisper.

“There’s someone there,” Usagi muttered, transfixed by their eerie surroundings.

“I know. Since we don’t know how they’re able to sense our energy — or, at the very least if it doesn’t make a difference, as an experiment — let’s undo our transformations until we approach. We’ll see what happens then.”

“Are you sure?-” Sailor Moon started.

Rei had already become the first to nod her agreement.

“-And then we have a shot at obscuring which one of us is the princess,” Venus finished.

Immediately Mercury and Jupiter nodded as well.

Stunned, as if hit with a blunt object, Sailor Moon bowed her head. She felt her eyes glisten. Of course, she’s talking to them, not me. She didn’t have a say in the matter. But, she was used to it. If that’s what we need to do, she thought. Never mind the fact she would gladly identify herself as the future queen, even hand herself over, if it would stop her fellow senshi from getting hurt. But perhaps that was selfish.

Some amount of exhaustion traded for the feeling of vulnerability, Usagi walked alongside the Inners as her moon energy broke to reveal her civilian form.

The silhouetted shape was still as they approached.

“We transform if there’s any sign of inevitable altercation. Be ready. Plan A is to just get information.” Minako, now clad in her flowered blouse and long orange skirt, very obviously had her fingers clenched around her transformation device, her right forearm tense.

Usagi lifted a hand to protect her night vision from a streetlight overhead. She squinted; the sparse fog, in a gentle breeze, was clearing. The person, not very tall, was topped with a wide-brimmed hat.

Ami’s elbow dug into the pigtailed blonde’s soft upper arm. “They’re giving off strange energy. Be ready to fight.”

“Okay,” Usagi nodded. Apparently the others heard as well.

They were about fifteen feet from the end of the alley. A sharp wind gusted.

She, wheels turning, suddenly recognized the hat and business suit. The person's curly, blonde, medium-length hair was distinctive.

“Oh, from earlier…” Usagi breathed. A weight inside her heart dropped down into a pit. Had it been a trap, then, all along?

Crap.

Against her will, her voice came out louder then. “Mako-chan, isn’t that-? ” As the moon princess had just turned to her friends, the woman greeted them.

The friendly businesswoman stood, arms relaxed at her sides, some meters into the dark, empty plaza, facing them. “Good evening…” She deeply bowed before continuing. “… the Moon Kingdom’s sailor senshi.”

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.

Chapter Text

CW:

• violence.

As the humanoid enemy directed her gaze briefly elsewhere, distracted by something out of Jupiter’s line of sight, the brunette was finally able to squeeze in an attack.

Not bothering to name the move, the green-clad warrior sent electricity fanning out, sparking in paths along the ground to every plant monstrosity she could see, which numbered about five or six. As high-amperage static jumped to the moving vines, vulnerable tips and leaves shriveled and smoked.

It works. They’re weakened by my attacks, she thought. The senshi exhaled, a rush filling her.

Plant matter shifted, sinking several feet down, for at least a moment drooping. A booming, hissing voice inserted itself everywhere. NO. NO. NO.

Grabbing her splitting head and resisting the urge to cover her ears from the volume — I know that won’t help, she realized — Jupiter took the opportunity to dash through the opening left by wounded creatures rendered at least for now immobile.

She reached the edge of a chasm. What had been walkway was now a ravine; Mercury stood alone in the middle, fighting back snaring vines with aqua-colored forcefields.

Makoto jumped for her.

Ice-cold, burning wall enveloped her path for a second time. Blinking, gasping, awake, she found she had been knocked to the rubble.

Where the hell did you come from? Jupiter thought bitterly; the warrior death-glared, searching, through the dust as she sat and straightened. Erika had seemingly just disappeared to seek other targets.

As if summoned by her angsty thoughts the evil blonde entered field of vision, black blazer blowing in a gust of air as she levitated, and descended to face Jupiter.

Why would she-? A weight dropped to her stomach. If Erika was even bothering with keeping her busy and separating her and Mercury, the other three must already be adequately ‘handled’ by the snake-vines.

For a fraction of a second she chanced a glance over her shoulder. A mountainous mass of spiky green writhed slowly, hissing indiscernible shouts at unseen targets.

“Shit!” Usagi-chan and everyone.

She dodged a hit from Erika before jumping to hover in the air for a better look. “No… You monster,” she breathed to the supernatural woman gearing up another forcefield beside her; of the dozen or so vine monsters present, nearly all had descended on the corner in question, opposite Mercury. “Usagi-chan… and you-! ”

Whipping around, Jupiter gave Erika a fistful of electric current. Instead of hitting, her attack imploded backwards at her, caught by another powerful blockade.

Yelping as her muscles seized and she was thrown to the rocky pavement, she briefly struggled with consciousness, after a few seconds winning out. Landed atop the slope of a ridge, for a moment she could see through a crack in the mass of creatures opposite them. Eternal Sailor Moon was fighting, scepter raised, falling to her knees.

“No! Usagi-” The brunette’s desperately pounding heartbeat knocked against her skull.

Then, a second later a gap in the swirling dust revealed Venus had broken through the monstrous ceiling, flinging out an orb of golden forcefield to keep several striking arms back. A gust of flames escaped from within the tangle; several monsters screamed.

A massive weight lifted. Venus and Mars are at her side. They managed to stay together.

Lifting her head and scrambling to her knees with newfound adrenaline and hope, Jupiter refocused her attention on reuniting with Mercury and hopefully pummeling Erika.

Recovering, she began charging electricity in her hands. Indignant anger coursed even brighter.

Erika, snickering, floated to quickly close the gap between her and the barely-visible, still-struggling Mercury, the evil woman’s high heels making contact with solid rubble as she touched down.

On scuffed combat boots Jupiter got to her feet. “She would have trusted you-” she snarled, heart racing. Tiara antenna found and collected charge from the air and the earth. “Usagi-chan would have helped you. But you-”

Once again Erika’s outstretched palm forced her to the ground. Black energy veins flickered through her vision as the jolt left her body stinging and numb.

Taking note of the fact that Erika never once made a move to attack her, strategically, while she was down, Makoto caught her breath, rising. When she recovered enough to make a run for the ravine, where several creatures — probably still attacking Ami — writhed, she was blocked and knocked down again. And again.

The last hit sent Jupiter whiplashed, face down, onto broken brick and asphalt, ears ringing. She grit her teeth, momentarily immobile. The impact had reverberated through nearly-mended bones; shock racked her left ribs. Sitting up, the young woman spat to clear blood pooling in her mouth from a busted lip.

At that moment Mercury had jumped, escaping a reaching plant’s grasp, to the cliff’s edge some thirty meters away. Upon seeing her the water senshi sprinted. “Mako-chan!!”

The brunette pulled her body into a crouch. Just as she glanced up to her running friend one of the creatures erupted through a fresh break in the dirt to Mercury’s right, swiping her sideways; the warrior was ensnared anew and pulled down out of sight.

“Mercury!!-”

Erika hovered before the chasm but seemed now distracted. Head tilted, she briefly held a finger to one ear.

Horrified, Makoto, crawling to lean over the pavement’s edge, watched as her friend’s form was dragged down, fully encircled, by a creature at least as thick as the one that had snapped ribs the weekend prior, if not larger than that. As the pair went down an addition to the crevasse, wider and irregular, was formed in place of a parking lot as cliff edges fell away.

Eyes refocusing, Jupiter stood. She risked a cocky laugh. “I’m going to keep getting up. You can’t hold me back from her forever.” Eyes frantically searching for an opening, she also hoped boasting might further detract the enemy’s attention. “I know you’re worried about running out of energy. If you had the resources you would have already taken me down.” She stepped forward, smirking.

The floating woman, to her surprise, laughed calmly in response. “I could say the same to you.”

The warrior shook her head. “Don’t even pretend to know how strong we are… I haven’t even gotten started.” She glanced around, steadying her breath as her heart raced. “None of us have.”

Unreadable enemy eyes narrowed in the darkness. “But… I am slowing you down. Little by little… and your princess is faring no better.”

Not taking the bait, Makoto didn’t even turn to look. She’d say anything, she tried to remember, though her heart ached for her to make absolutely sure Usagi and the others were holding their own. To her satisfaction, the enemy hesitated as she pretended to smugly survey the grim battle scene behind Jupiter, arms crossed; the senshi jumped to the offense with lightning speed.

“Supreme Thunder!”

The attack didn’t fully land; Erika, dodging, rocketed through the air with a moment to spare, jumping over and behind the attacker as the electricity licked her ankles.

It didn’t matter. The path to her vulnerable ally was clear. Jupiter bolted.

Touching down at the precipice, through the dust the tall warrior saw a writhing vine, doubtlessly the largest one she’d seen so far, coiling, crushingly, around the other woman. When it sensed her approach it spiraled down toward the canyon’s base with its victim. Several others writhed nearby.

No.

As the athletic girl jumped after them she heard Ami, shrouded by debris, scream; by the time Makoto made contact, clinging to the rubbery, thorny surface with cut-up hands, the other woman was already still and limp in the mass of coils beside her — the vine must have slammed her to the rocky bottom.

“Ami, hang on!!” she blurted but heard her voice crack as stirred-up dirt sent her doubling over the creature, coughing.

It tried to buck her.

Holding on with everything she had only to be rewarded with the feeling of fibrous thorns poking through her skin, Jupiter thought frantically what to do.

If I electrocute it it’ll hurt Ami, her worries panged.

But there was no choice. She’d start off easy; as the woman sent a trial electric shock through the squirming creature to which she clung like it was a rock wall, she felt the booming voice scream wordlessly.

Two or three additional vines appeared from the fringes of the ravine, suddenly, as backup. They reared, lithe, grasping tips coming for her.

Saving herself from attempted ensnarement with a forcefield, she then threw a disc of ball-lightning to fight the new enemies back. Though reality passed slowly, in a blur, so far it appeared to work. The squirming green disappeared at least temporarily from peripheral vision.

Beginning gradually, as static crackled down her arms, the lightning senshi focused on the largest beast below her, increasing the output. In response the massive creature curled in on itself tighter in an attempt to constrict its newer foe in addition to Ami.

“Come on… I know you don’t like this,” Makoto muttered. She gradually strengthened the attack.

On second thought, as the massive coil from the base of the beast twisted crushingly in a desperate attempt, blocking out all light and attempting to smother her, there was no time to lose; I’m sorry, Ami-chan, but I know you’ve survived worse, she thought, as if it would be reasonable let alone possible for the unconscious girl to critique her rescue methods. She intended to get them both out of there safely — and fast.

Focusing as best she could at keeping the damage localized, sending a new jolt, finally it was enough; the creature’s devastating grip on her reduced to dead weight. Hanging on to extend the shock farther for a moment, up the vile monster’s body, with a yell, Jupiter felt it slacken along its length; Mercury was released as well.

Wasting no time as the three of them together were sent falling, Jupiter pushed out of the suffocating helix of defeated enemy flesh surrounding her and ran, jumping, ripping Mercury from the friction of the being’s thorns. Ami clutched in her arms, she leaped up out of the collapsing creature’s protesting reach and into clear air.

With the aid of a weak, flickering energy bubble the two floated, landing at last on the flat rubble surface. The dizzy sight of streetlights and ripped concrete felt like a blessing.

Pushed to near her limits and thoroughly spent, Jupiter dropped to her knees, lightly draping Mercury across the crack-riddled pavement before collapsing onto forearms.

Bright, white energy rippled outward. Sailor Moon’s attack sent enemies coursing backward and up, thorned vines breaking from their close-knit weave. Mars and Venus having defended her and kept several monsters busy long enough, the moon princess was finally able to strike.

Mars, mouth agape, cheeks prickling with heat from her still-dispersing last fire attack combined with sheer awe, watched her. Venus, who had a second ago been distracted, frustratedly wincing as she got to her feet in defiance of a leg which had been unnaturally twisted, was now equally silent, at once calm and struck with admiration.

It had been so long Mars had forgotten how dang beautiful the unleashing of Usagi’s power was — how beautiful she was.

Stunned enemies snaking, aggressively but almost hesitantly, back to the offensive reared in front of the group like an uncanny green tidal wave. Rei, who with an exhausted arm summoned and pulled back a long, fiery arrow, stepped forward and growled out, “Y’all had enough?”

To her surprise the larger entities indeed drew back, retreating as if being summoned; however, two slimmer, lighter, faster ones attacked. Sailor Moon cried out, flinching, as they rocketed to the warriors, reaching; Venus struggled to begin readying an attack but wasn’t going to be fast enough.

Rei let loose her readied Flame Sniper. The projectile pierced several meters from one organism’s prehensile tip, catching aflame as it engulfed what looked like the larger of the two mini-vines. Shrieking, indiscernibly, in the priestess’s mind as it went down, the defeated creature disintegrated to ash. Its companion turned on a dime to follow the larger ones back, the hive-mind-esque voice roughly crying at a booming volume which hurt Rei’s ears — or, probably more accurately, her brain.

Shocked at their sudden success and frantically glancing about in the darkness, panting, Mars realized she likely wouldn’t have enough energy to muster another such attack; merely defending themselves from the hoard of feisty creatures thus far had taken it out of the three of them.

They better actually be leaving, the warrior hoped, chest heaving as she was overcome with a niggling, remaining dread — Where’s Erika? And the other two? Besides dust-cloud-covered streetlights she could see nothing.

As if in answer to the woman’s questions the blonde humanoid appeared through the chaos of dirt and debris from their left. Mars and Venus, reacting instantly, swiveled as Sailor Moon, behind the former, continued catching her breath.

“Have you had fun?” Erika’s thin voice, calm and composed despite it all, made Rei want to smack her over the head with the flaming riser of her Mars bow.

“What do you even want?” the fire warrior, by now tired and angst-filled, growled. “Do you want us dead if we don’t help you, or…?”

“Who are you people?!” Venus, beside her, spat.

The floating enemy laughed. “Oh, you barely let me begin explaining our desires for you. I’m afraid that wasn’t possible once you became aggressive.”

Mars scoffed.

“If you wanted to actually talk you shouldn’t have brought those things with you,” Usagi spoke, tearful.

“Yep.” Venus stepped forward beside Rei. “You’re not playing nice or respecting our Usagi-chan. So… no deal; it’s too late for any of that.” Clenching a gloved fist, she turned to the other two for approval, nodding to Sailor Moon. “Right?”

“That's right.” The long-haired princess nodded, corners of her mouth budding with a confident smile despite her frazzled nerves.

That acknowledgment of permission was all Rei needed. Unable to summon a more powerful attack in her current state, the woman yelled, tossing a spiral of reddish flames that curled up and toward the enemy’s smug, pale face.

For a fraction of a second she began to grin. That’ll have to do. Simultaneously, in peripheral vision, Venus also brought a hand up, gathering golden energy for a follow-up.

Then, seemingly instantly, cracked pavement made contact with the side of the priestess’s jaw; with an invisible, black-energy-laced forcefield she had been forced down, sprawled on her side. Erika had reacted within a fraction of a second. Damn, Mars thought, groaning to sit up.

“Mars!!” Usagi’s face had snapped back to follow her with deep blue eyes.

Rei blinked away dizziness as warm smoke from her own attack curled up around her; patches of her uniform had been burned.

“We need to attack her together. Ready — Usagi? ” Venus aimed, not wasting a moment to look away.

“Okay!” Eternal Sailor Moon jumped. Scepter was raised. “Starlight… Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!” Aiming from her elevated position, the senshi whipped her weapon down. Graceful, white power burst forth.

Erika, though grimacing with what seemed to be disgust or surprise, Rei noticed, held up an effortless right palm. Usagi’s attack was absorbed within a second. Lacking the energy to last long enough to be cast back, however, the opponent’s energy shield crackled into nothingness, hanging in the suddenly still air.

“Crescent Beam!” came from her other side. Within an instant, Erika reacted; pulling back from Sailor Moon, she craned her blonde head.

Golden energy stream collided with enemy shoulder. With a cry of surprise the woman reached to grab herself, ascending in the night air. For a moment she hovered, above them. Mars, recovering enough to force herself to a stand, looked on.

“You…” the strange woman started. Then Erika’s face became distant. She focused on something near the horizon as she seemed to be lost in thought. “Alright…” She floated up and away through the dust.

Was she talking to us? Mars’s mind reached to grasp for significance.

“You guys…” Usagi addressed, floating downward and touching high-heeled boots to gravel to meet them. She reached out a hand to yank Mars upright.

“Are you both okay?” Sailor Moon’s eyes searched but Rei was already distracted.

Riding the lingering gusts of perturbed air, a piece of colorful debris in the swirling wind came to a rest. Mars stepped toward it, crouching. She picked up what it turned out was a fragment of fabric, small and roughly triangular. “Look!”

The other two were already right behind her.

Venus spoke, “Is that hers?”

Rei eyed the textile remnant in her hand. “It must be… We should take it.”

With a nod Venus took it from her, focused blue eyes studying the scrap.

Battle appearing to be over, Mars’s mind struggled to focus, coming down to earth. The something that was still missing suddenly jumped at her, making her stomach turn over. “-You guys- Where are Mercury and Jupiter?” She hadn’t caught any sight of them since the fight had practically begun.

Usagi, gasping with concern, turned to search with her gaze the ruined landscape; a second later, both she and Rei relaxed their worried tension as Venus let out a sigh, pointing to the far side.

Through the dingy dark was the light of a green energy sphere, within it two silhouettes as they rose from some unseen crater.

As if sensing the change in atmosphere the air in the dust-filled courtyard began to, slowly, clear.

Communicators buzzed. World still spinning, Makoto flipped hers open.

“I thought it would be easier to communicate this way rather than shouting across the entire lot.” Mars’s cranky voice was dry.

A burst of relief at what this likely meant filled the exhausted girl’s chest. Jupiter laughed. A glance upward confirmed, among smoldering ashes and clearing fog, in the opposite corner of the wrecked plaza the last of retreating plant entities snaked, one of them smoking, burnt and slow, toward a hole in the ground before finally vanishing. In the center Sailors Moon, Mars, and Venus stood, leaning against one another, as far as she could see unharmed.

She hadn’t sighted Erika in minutes. Was it minutes? Jupiter was willing to assume the other three had defeated her or seen her leave; she didn’t have the energy to ask for specifics.

“Are they gone?” was all she gasped out.

“Yeah… I mean, Mercury would normally be the one to know. But it’s all clear here. You?”

Jupiter gulped precious oxygen. “The ones attacking the two of us retreated-”

“-Are you two okay?!” Mars must have spotted them both sprawled on the rubble.

The brunette warrior glanced up to see the other group was slowly headed over, Venus lightly limping.

Shit. Ami’s still unconscious. Was it normal for them to be knocked out this long?! She was out of practice with gauging fight outcomes.

Making use of a ripped glove to wipe smeared blood from her jaw before detransforming, Makoto turned her attention, brain refocusing, to her companion. Other than light scratches Mercury visually appeared fine but the rescued girl, lying now on her back, hadn’t once stirred.

“Ami-chan,” the concerned warrior muttered tenderly, protectively, moving on hands and knees to the other girl’s side; upon prodding the knocked-out warrior’s shoulder there was no response. She hesitated to answer.

“Mercury- Mercury’s unconscious. But I’ve got her.. I’m mostly alright, just exhausted.” she imparted. “And you all?”

The quick click of heels told Makoto that Rei, leaving the other two behind, was running. Mars, form dust-caked and marred with light scratches and burns, made it to the pair before detransforming. She knelt beside them, bending over Mercury’s still form.

“We’re alright,” Usagi’s voice from the communicator answered in Rei’s place as she and Venus struggled to hurry after her. “Is she okay?!”

Makoto let out a breath before standing, spitting a last mouthful of bloody saliva to the dirt. “I’m glad,” she spoke to the device. “But-” She squatted to scoop up Mercury.

“Whoa, whoa-” Rei interrupted. “Are you okay enough for that?”

She wasn’t sure whether Rei was referring to her still-healing injuries or the fact that she had just witnessed her spit blood, but whichever it was she nodded, holding in a blush and a laugh at the absurdity of the quickly-unfolding situations to maintain seriousness. “Yeah…”

Lifting the unconscious girl and holding her close, bridal style, Makoto’s mind rushed, with a swirling second wind, to focus on the new task as she looked down at Ami. At least her breathing seems normal, she thought.

She addressed Rei and whoever else might be able to hear through the communicator awkwardly left open on the back of the wrist now curled gently around Mercury’s shoulder. “So, we- We need to go- Where should we go?- Oh, my place is closest! … I’ll take her-um-yep!” she suddenly babbled, mouth running without pausing to await any response.

Rei briefly gave her a strange look. Taking a steadying breath, Makoto flushed. She didn’t think she had a concussion this time, but she supposed she couldn’t be sure. Perhaps to everyone else she sounded like an idiot.

Usagi and Minako had reached them.

Breathless, Sailor Moon detransformed with her hands on her knees. “Ami-chan…” she muttered, coming closer.

“So, we’ll regroup at Mako-chan’s place?” Rei, returning to seriousness, addressed them as she automatically moved to brush imaginary dirt from her obviously spotless civilian clothes. “I’d offer the shrine, but I know my ojii-chan is probably still awake, so, uh…” She eyed Mercury briefly, eyes unreadable but glinting pools.

“Alright,” Usagi and Minako quickly agreed.

Re-transforming to avoid the prospect of slowly running the streets in broad moonlight — since it probably wouldn’t bode well to pretend to be regular civilians rescuing, or seemingly kidnapping, a sailor senshi — they took to the roofs.

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

Ceiling fan blazed. Ice in water glasses clinked.

Minako, lying flat on the fuzzy rug under the fan, groaned.

Usagi, with the bedroom taken by Ami, was sleeping soundly on the sofa from the moment she walked in, flipped off her shoes, and was shooed away from trying to magically heal Ami by an adamant Minako.

Rei paced, smartphone on speaker ringing as she connected to the Outers.

“Ugh, alright, alright,” Minako mumbled to no one in particular, giving herself a brief pep talk before getting up, moving closer to the pacing Rei so she would be able to hear; she plopped herself upright in a chair, rubbing her bruised knee.

Everyone awake intermittently gulped cold water as if they’d run a marathon.

Makoto, leaning back into the glass coffee table across from Usagi, uncomfortable but too lost-in-thought and tired to move, held a plastic bag of ice to her split lower lip, the only malady to apparently survive detransformation. Her mind shared time between relief and worry.

‘If it was anything super serious her body would detransform automatically as a last resort,’ Minako had said. ‘She’s said when we briefly black out while transformed it’s usually from overexertion or as a sort of shock absorber for trauma. And we all used a lot of energy… I think it’s too soon to worry.’

From all of their experiences, Makoto tended to agree. It had only been about ten minutes since they had gotten there anyway. However, it was certainly stressful not being able to ask the group doctor. Itching to go check on her again, she knew she wouldn’t be able to relax or think clearly until Ami had come to.

“Where are you? What- h-have you-?” Rei uncharacteristically stuttered out.

Haruka had answered. Dull highway sounds suggested they were driving.

“Hold on. What? Okay, what happened?!” the genderfluid warrior asked.

Michiru spoke inaudibly in the background.

“So you’ve heard-?”

“Yes- Michiru has been checking the news apps basically every five minutes… We saw- is everyone okay?! ”

Rei, still pacing, adjusted the volume to Haruka’s shouts with a sympathetic glance at the wiped-out Usagi, but Makoto was sure the princess could have slept through a tornado. “Mostly, I think so… Mercury took a hard hit and still hasn’t woken up, but the rest of us are fine.” She bit her lip, blinking at the muted television.

Haruka’s sigh of relief was so forceful it nearly turned into a whistle.

The black-haired girl continued. “We’re at Mako-chan’s apartment, do you know where that is? In Minamiazabu. Can you meet us?-”

“We’re still about an hour out — no, maybe fifty minutes — no, never mind, there’s traffic — anyway, can we call you when we’re entering Minato? Is-is there anything you need us to do? Can we-?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Rei let out an exhale, still studying the silent news coverage. “We have cable news on-… U-unless Michiru-san can get any readings…?” She twirled her hair around a finger.

“Nothing specific enough it would probably help tonight. Michiru-?”

There was a pause.

“The princess is in danger…” Michiru, now clear as she was apparently closer to the phone, spoke. Her voice was cold.

“Understood…” The priestess nodded. “That seems pretty standard…” she added under her breath.

Another pause.

“So sorry we just barely missed the action…” Makoto could hear the smile in Haruka’s voice.

“Take care. We’ll see you later,” Michiru spoke.

Minutes later, after convincing herself it had been long enough, Makoto let herself into the dark bedroom to check on Ami, leaving the door ajar for some light.

Dropping to crouch at the futon, she shook the warrior gently by the shoulder. “Ami-chan…” Please, she thought.

With the third or fourth nudge, thankfully, the other woman stirred at last. Makoto finally breathed deeply, realizing only when her own sigh filled the space of silence that she’d been holding her breath.

“Mm-mm…” Turning to see who or what had awakened her, the supine girl grumbled. As the brunette helped her slowly sit up against the wall, Mercury reached up a hand to cradle her head, hissing as she allowed herself to be gently repositioned. “Mm..- What happened?”

“I’m returning the favor.” The taller girl smiled.

Glazed blue eyes blinked, looking around the room before returning to stare back into her own, squinting; Makoto figured she ought to elaborate.

“You’re at my place… in my bed. You got knocked out, do you remember the fight?”

Short blue hair hung around the girl’s face, tousled, individual strands shining with the light from the main room. Ami rubbed her forehead with pale fingertips. “I do now.. But what happened? Everyone else-”

“We’re all fine. We got out — they retreated.”

As Mercury nodded, processing, Makoto placed one hand on the woman’s shoulder, leaning over her. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”

“Hmm..” The blue-haired warrior lightly groaned. Her vision darted across dirt-dusted limbs as she gave herself a once-over before detransforming back into her light-wash jeans; she patted both front and back of her torso briefly. Without answering the other woman’s question, she queried, “I didn’t experience any blood loss, did I?”

“N-no, I don’t think so,” the brunette answered, sitting back on her heels, trying not to be off-put by her friend’s straightforward analytics.

“That’s good.” Ami leaned her head in one hand, eyebrows scrunched inwards in a frown as she sighed. “In that case I think I just have a relatively mild concussion. Only symptoms so far are headache and light sensitivity.” She smiled for the first time, looking up as her doctor-mode deactivated. “I think I’ll be fine aside from that and some bruises.”

The taller woman exhaled a lungful of relief. “I’m glad!… Oh — would it help if I close this?” She sprung up from the futon, nearly tripping over herself as she hurried to remove the solitary external light source — a window to her right.

Ami shook her head, though her expression was grateful. “No, I think that’s fine.”

Makoto had already flipped the blinds closed anyway, quickly realizing with mild embarrassment that the room was, duh, actually only marginally darker with the nighttime city lights shut out.

With the clear of a throat, Rei entered.

“She’s awake..!” the brunette quickly explained to the newcomer, grinning, although that much was plainly obvious.

“Ami-chan… I’m glad!” The dark-haired woman gently smiled before exchanging eye contact with Makoto. “But… we may have a problem.”

Rei had gone out on the landing to wait for the cats, as their knocking would likely not have been well received.

Usagi was roused, cranky and reluctant, by both Rei and Luna, though she had then immediately sprung alert, beyond relieved to hear Ami was fine.

“My word, Usagi-chan is lazy as ever,” Luna eye-rolled as the groggy princess awoke and rubbed her temples.

Rei blinked away some deep, fuzzy feeling. “She used a lot of power just now — for the first time in a while…” She eyed the sleepy blonde as the young woman now rubbed her eyes, long pigtails frizzy and messed-up from being subjected to sofa and blankets. Rei laughed. “Sleeping after battle is basically Usagi’s tradition,” she added.

“That’s right!” The awakened woman nodded indignantly as she still rubbed her face. “My magic muscles are sore…”

Both Rei and Makoto laughed.

Minako was still flipping, silently, through news coverage channels, eyes darting from one screen to the other as she multitasked, with a tablet on her lap doing the same, legs flung over the armrest of Makoto’s tatami-compatible armchair.

Artemis and Luna exchanged a look before the black cat spoke. “We were going to give you some information tonight… We’ve been researching. However…” Luna gazed at the tv screen in time to see a helicopter’s video of the commercial plaza wreckage. She sighed. “… by now you probably already know more than we do.”

Ami, whose absence was notably felt in the speculative discussion, had initially insisted on participating, but minutes before the felines arrived Makoto had successfully, sternly shut her in her darkened room with some ice, Powcari Sweat, and acetaminophen.

“Hit me,” Minako spoke, eyes not peeling from the tv as her left thumb hovered over the remote. “What’ve you got?”

Artemis craned his neck to grab a piece of printed paper that was tucked under the side of his collar. He unfolded it on the flowery carpet with white paws. As he did so, Luna came closer.

“We looked through our databases in case the ‘Sel’ you’ve encountered bears relation to the Silver Millenium time,” the female Mauian spoke. “We found two possible matches… both from the Golden Kingdom just at or before the time of collapse.”

As Luna sprang to gesture on the printout of names and lines of descriptive data, Rei crouched to look close.

“Seleukos was one, an army general prominent in the decade before Metalia’s corruption.” The crescent-marked cat moved her paw to the next entry on the bottom section of the page. “And Selenios, a high advisor to Helios. But you’ve already-…”

The long-haired priestess nodded, cutting her off as their eyes met. “Yes… the enemy tonight said ‘Selenios,’ I’m nearly sure.”

Makoto, leaning an elbow on the low table next to Luna, shifted and nodded to both her and Rei. “That’s what I heard, too.”

Luna narrowed deep, reddish eyes that unfocused, speculatively. “So it may be the same one…”

Usagi noisily set down her melting glass of ice water. “Reincarnated, like the Shittenou, or…”

Minako, not missing a beat, swiveled. “Or literally the same person, like Beryl?”

“And then there’s our next problem.” Luna looked up to dart her gaze between the women’s faces sympathetically. “As I told Rei-chan over the communicator… the energetic activity has increased.”

Minako frowned, sighing as she leaned her chin roughly in one palm, gazing at the floor. “So we may not have as much advance warning for a future attack, if the low-level readings of whatever they’re doing are everywhere.”

“Let’s wait to see what Ami says,” spoke Makoto. “… She might have a way of discerning, still.”

They all nodded.

“-Oh…” Minako, crookedly grinning, reached a hand into a back pocket and suddenly whipped something out — a raggedy, roughly two-square-inch piece of thin, embroidered fabric. “Also… I have this.”

Rei’s eyes lit up. “I forgot!-”

Makoto, from her position on the carpet, pivoted 180 degrees. “What-?”

“Sorry, I forgot I showed Usagi-chan while you were with Ami,” Minako winked.

“But what is it?” the brunette repeated. “Is that…?”

Luna, also attempting to greedily take in the sight of the item scrap, jumped to the table.

“It’s from Erika,” Rei filled in. She herself had, half an hour or so previous, picked it observantly from the rubble.

“What??” Luna and Makoto asked, voices on top of one another’s.

The senshi of love nodded. “Before the enemy all left, I had just hit her with a Crescent Beam. Apparently I cut this bit off her sleeve, whatever she was wearing under the blazer — Rei-chan found it…”

“That’s incredible…” Luna’s eyes were practically glistening. She came closer and used a front paw to smooth out the fabric. “There’s part of a symbol or embroidered pattern! May I-?”

Minako assented and the cats agreed to study the material.

“If I may…” Rei began, looking to Luna, “I’d also like to perform a reading on it.”

“Of course. Is it okay if we take it back with us for now?”

Rei, smiling at the possibility, nodded. “I’m too exhausted to look at it tonight, but maybe tomorrow.”

The woman stepped forward. Slender hands, still buzzing and tingling from the rush of her new power, slightly shook with her nerves. It wasn’t enough. She’d need more.

“It went as you thought,” she spoke to dark nothing. “… The princess did not agree to relent unless certain demands were met. So I gave them a taste.” She half-smiled.

Erika bowed deeply in the dimly lit, cavernous room.

Her leader stepped forward.

“There were too many casualties.” His voice echoed off the surfaces of the minimalist structure.

“Yes,” Erika acknowledged with deference, nodding her head as she gazed at the deep-silver tiles.

“Three… of the one-hundred.” He paused. “Two of them were among the strongest ten.”

She deepened the bow. “I understand…”

As Erika glanced up from her submissive position, the arch of his brow was deepened by the shadows.

“On a simple intimidation-… persuasion mission… It’s a bit costly, don’t you think?” His expression was neutral, too calm, perhaps a test or a trap.

“Yes, sir!” Words, excuses, on the tips of her lips, the first servant brought forth her explanations. “Two of the guardians — the fire and the lightning — their attacks were very effective on them. Must be Mars and Jupiter.”

“Yes, I know. I am aware… We saw.”

Erika’s jaw quivered. “So. Next time we can-”

“I trust that you’ll figure it out. You are creative.”

The blonde human woman, still as she maintained the bow, did not acknowledge the compliment.

Selenios continued. “I care not about the methods but the outcomes, after all.” He turned away. “I don’t need to micromanage you. You will adapt.”

“Yes!” Smiling, trembling, with power and with mirth of anticipation, Erika nodded, torso horizontal, to the interlay of crystal, glass, and stone.

The man walked away, slowly, a few steps. “There is another who is close to waking. He might be of help to you soon.”

“… -Enyo.” Gasping silently to inhale, Erika stood up. It was a name her tongue and mouth hadn’t uttered for centuries.

She had been correct; Selenios nodded.

The recent memory of his face, his body and preservation clothes, appearing through the liquid washed-out but illuminated, shiny, in the blueish-white light made her wonder whether she herself had looked that way.

The thought of it was strange.

That evening she walked to the chief preservation room, dressed in her best. Erika placed a hand on the smooth, hard, clear material of the pod lid. She looked down at his corpse-like, peacefully still tan-olive face. “Enyo… you will help me.”

Feeling boldened, though there was no one there to hear, she added, “I will not be replaced by you.”

The operative exited the chamber and the automated overhead light plunged the sleeping into darkness.

Chapter Text

CW:

• alcohol.

Rei was uneasy about changing locations — what if the enemy, sensing our movement, intercepts while we’re driving? she anxiously mused. But, she knew that was unlikely.

Ami, groggy but medicated and recovering, had insisted it would be best to meet at her residence, so that in the case that they were stranded somewhere overnight she’d have use of the data feed on her main laptop, which she had left there. Thus, once Haruka and Michiru had arrived they’d picked them all up.

In order for them to all fit, the wavy-aqua-haired warrior crouched at the foot of the passenger seat where Ami sat; Minako became the awkwardly-squeezed fourth person in the back bench seat, half sitting on top of Usagi’s and Makoto’s laps as she rode seat-belt-less.

Stashed in the trunk among the Outers’ suitcases were piles of blankets and pillows from Makoto’s in case the senshi needed to spend the night at the med student’s minimally furnished apartment.

“So…” Usagi asked as light, pattering rain began to pelt the windows, “where is Setsuna-san?”

“She’s… busy.” Haruka turned her head halfway to address the backseat.

“Oh…” The moon princess cupped her chin. “I thought she’d be here.”

“Oh, I mean she’s here as in will be on this trip, just not here, y’know?” Haruka cleared her throat. The racer adjusted her grip on the steering wheel as they entered Ami’s residential area. “She can’t make it tonight but will be arriving tomorrow. Not Hotaru-chan, though… although if she’d known there’d be this much action already she would have forced us to let her come.”

Through the rear-view mirror Rei could have sworn she saw Haruka proudly smirk.

Almost immediately a kettle was put on.

The group reassured Ami they would fill her in later and she was convinced, more easily this time, to rest; though the blue-haired girl was thinking more clearly and alertly it was obvious by the time they arrived she felt horrible, her headache worsening. It didn’t hurt that Makoto begged her to remember it would help her recovery to avoid critical thinking for a while; Usagi, who doted on her friend until she agreed to retreat under comforter and pillows, confiscated both of the tech geek’s laptop computers.

The remaining six gathered in the living room, dragging in chairs from the kitchenette. As Minako excused herself to cancel a gig so the Inners would be able to stick together the following day, Rei poured them a first round of green tea.

The cats were absent, having been dropped off in Azabujuuban on the way to Ami’s in Higashiazabu, probably monitoring the control room sensors by now.

Haruka shook her head regretfully. "I'm sorry we weren't here until now… I’m so glad Ami-chan is alright.” She leaned forward, placing a hand on the sofa cushion next to Makoto, who sat close to her left. “And I was so sorry to hear they hurt you last weekend, tiger-kitten-chan."

Makoto blushed furiously, squirming. “Well, I’m fine now, so…”

The butch blonde leaned further as she maintained eye contact with the brunette, suave. "If I could have used any of my clothing to bandage your wounds, you know I would have."

"Haruka-" Michiru chastised in a brusque monotone, although she half-smiled and sipped her tea.

Makoto gulped. "U-uhhh, yeah, thanks," she stuttered, lauging in a high pitch, leaning back.

Usagi appeared to sigh angstily, closing her eyes as her face flushed while she gulped at her steaming mug vigorously, out of internalized homophobia or jealousy Rei wasn't sure which.

The priestess coughed awkwardly, amused at the hilarious tension. She swallowed a smile and looked away from the group, making a mental note to make Usagi uncomfortable by bringing up the gorgeous racecar driver more often in the future.

Minako re-entered. Locking the front door, she tossed her purse onto an end table. “Okay… so I’m good to stay with you all tomorrow since she’s-… Did I miss something? Uh-what’s wrong? ”

Deep blue gaze darted from one to the other of them, though Haruka avoided eye contact and sipped her drink calmly. Rei nearly cracked up, sweating.

“No,” Makoto started, quietly at first, fidgeting as Minako’s eyes landed on her. “Nothing’s fine! I mean, everything’s fine! Nothing’s wrong!! Ha-ha..” she stared into her teacup, twisting it relentlessly in her lap.

“Hmmmmph, Harua-san’s just being kind of ridiculous,” Usagi muttered, bursting into a light laugh at the end of the statement to clear the tinge of judgment from her voice.

Michiru giggled, smiling.

Ouch, Usagi-chan… Rei mused. Odango does realize she’s always had a lil’ crush on Haruka-san, right? She glanced at the two older girls, covering a grinning mouth with her hand.

“Hmmm…” Confused leader briefly narrowed her eyes. “Okay then!” Minako, apparently willing to let that get away without an explanation, cheerfully poured herself some tea in the remaining cup and plopped on the carpet, resting her back on Rei’s chair leg. She sighed. “So…”

“We should talk about how the enemy knows Usagi’s identity,” the black-haired girl began. She shook her head uneasily. “We should have been too physically close together for any differences in our energy to be apparent or noticeable…” Rei chewed on a fingernail.

Haruka leaned back into the blueish cushion as she gestured her head at Usagi. “You said she was the same person you had a random encounter with earlier, right? It was probably from that.”

“True.” Rei held her warm cup, heating up hands that had become clammy from stress.

Michiru nodded. She pulled out her talisman, fondling the dazzling engraved mirror as she laid it across her knees, gazing at it. “The way I can see visions of entities with power, too, If I get close enough when there’s no one else around… or especially if there’s direct physical contact-”

“That’s what I’ve been afraid it was.” Makoto slumped, worried eyes pensive. “Usagi- I should have stuck to you like glue, I’m sorry-”

“No.” The blonde-pigtailed princess shook her head. “It was my fault. I got separated from you because I’m clumsy…” She gave a weary, ironic laugh.

“Anyway…” Minako folded hands behind her head from her spot on the floor. Suddenly she winked. “I guess I won’t be making an appearance as ‘Aino Minako, Moon Princess’ this time.”

The ponytailed warrior looked up, laughing as her mood lightened. “You can still pretend to be her, though.”

“Eh? Minako-chan looks nothing like me!” Usagi whined.

“Yes, I do! I’m very… princessly.” The young woman tossed her hair, fluttering mascara-framed eyes. “I bet my hair’s almost long enough I could still do it like yours.”

“Uh-that barely worked last time!”

As the two blondes continued to argue, the tense room relaxed. Suddenly Makoto bolted to an upright posture, exclaiming, “Oh, don’t forget Ami-chan! We’re too loud…”

Once the serious meeting ended, however, after a few awkward minutes of trying to maintain silence while staring at smartphones, the group decided — to be accurate, some group members more than others — to instead stuff towels and clothes under the door, as a party was in order.

Minako, playful streak unleashed, began showing the other senshi up-and-coming pop idols she looked up to, dancing while lip-syncing in front of the television while Rei jokingly messed with her; the few beers in the serious girl’s fridge were ceremoniously opened, with Haruka promising she’d buy replacements for Ami’s stash the next day.

As the group of Inners decided it would be safest and most practical for them to all stay there for the night, Haruka, hanging back and watching with loving amusement as she turned to Michiru, asked, “Is this what they’re always like when stuff gets serious?”

Makoto, who had apparently overheard as she knelt next to the pair, soundproofing, responded with a laugh. “Pretty much… Yeah.” Looking over a shoulder at her other friends, she proudly smiled.

“Is that so? I’m jealous.” Michiru, looking on as Minako and Usagi had a dance-off, chuckled, lifting slender fingers to her lips.

“We could… stay and keep an eye on them, you know?” The tall, short-haired warrior nuzzled her face close to her partner’s. “We’re already here anyway.”

“What about the hotel?” The woman’s lover pulled out a phone to idly check something.

“I’m sure they can just email a bill to my manager’s office. It’ll be fine.” She squeezed Michiru’s shoulder.

The sea-guided warrior’s eyes sparkled. “Alright,” she indulged.

Haruka coughed, trying to redirect the focus from her more vulnerable social desires. “That way we can be here to protect all of them, if need be, while we still don’t know what the enemy-”

Her girlfriend, to her surprise, was laughing. Haruka blinked at her.

“I feel like they don’t need our protecting anymore… They can usually handle these situations better than we can.” Michiru put a knuckle to her chin, pensive.

“That’s true.” Embarrassed, Haruka looked down at her pants. “For old time’s sake, then.”

Michiru laughed. She looked into the taller woman’s eyes. “In the old times we stayed as far away from everyone else as possible.”

“Uh-that’s true.”

“But we don’t need to do that now.” The turquoise-haired woman gave an understanding, content smile that felt as if it was melting Haruka’s chest organs.

Eventually Makoto and Minako were both passed out, legs nearly on top of one another’s, as they faced opposite directions on the three-seater sofa. The latter had laid claim to a bean-filled travel neck-pillow they’d found in the closet, into which her face sunk.

Usagi and Rei each attempted to sleep in their own tangle of sheets and cushions, the latter’s bed much neater than the other’s. Haruka and Michiru had claimed a fuzzy blanket, the couple sharing a pillow as they sprawled across the front of Ami’s bedroom door on the carpet.

The dirty blonde lay awake, face hidden by her partner as she felt suddenly restless and shy to be sleeping with this much company. If I absolutely had to, I could get used to this, I think, she contemplated warmly, stresses lulled by the Inners’ frivolous enthusiasm and still buzzed from beer.

Luckily she had the violinist sprawled next to her to keep her wandering mind occupied should she find herself unable to sleep. As Haruka wrapped a finger, gently, around a wavy strand of the sleeping woman’s aquamarine hair while Michiru’s chest rose and fell peacefully, smelling the sweet-floral conditioner they had used together that morning, distractions abounded.

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

The Inner five had decided, for the sake of spaciousness, convenient central location, and easy access to the fire room for Rei, to turn the shrine home into their primary base camp for the time being. They were still trying to band together whenever possible. This way, as well, since the shrine was more or less Rei’s workplace, no one would usually need to be left alone during the day or pack to camp out at someone else’s home.

That morning as the young priestess swept the front of the main building, it was Sunday. Makoto had returned to her job at the cafe she worked for, bringing documentation that her ‘doctor’ had cleared her for basic tasks, and Minako and Usagi had just returned from escorting her there; the two blondes, who were grumpy at needing to get up in time for Rei’s and Makoto’s duties, had of course immediately fallen back asleep. With Ami inside as well, concussion finally recovered enough she had buried her nose in a book, that left Rei virtually alone.

Cicadas chirped and the rich summer air blew through the girl’s waist-length black hair. Grateful for the peaceful morning alone time, she was, however, mildly distracted — there was something else regarding the sailor senshi’s conflict she wanted to try. Maybe once the other three woke up she would see about taking a break from her small to-do list of shrine work to meet with the cats.

Ami’s head pounded with a dull migraine she had probably incurred from stress such that it was hard to discern which symptoms were still from her traumatic brain injury, but based on her approximations, for most intents and purposes she would likely be back to full function within a day or two. The short-haired girl stepped out into the sunlight as she shuffled out of Rei’s house, attempting to shield herself from the clear brightness, squinting.

As she approached the shrine building Rei, who clunked around small boxes as she appeared to organize charms and souvenirs in the shade of the open-air shop, noticed her.

The knowledge senshi, toting her laptop under one arm, smiled as she approached.

“Ami-chan!” Rei wiped her brow with one hand as she came out to meet her, wearing her red-and-white shrine garb. “Are you feeling better?”

“A lot better,” Ami sighed. “Have a migraine, though, and got tired of reading. Mind if I join you?”

There were no visitors to the Shinto shrine in sight; the warm yard, quiet with bird sounds, was peaceful.

“Sure, go ahead.” The raven-haired woman blinked at the electronic device the other girl was carrying. “You’re not going to do any work, are you? … You really don’t have to do that for us right now — Luna and Artemis can handle the technology monitoring so you might as well rest.” She leaned her palms on a wooden railing, smiling as she curved her dark brows sympathetically.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to stare at it long…” Ami sat against one of the inner walls as she nestled herself with the computer cross-legged on the wood floor where she could watch Rei work. “To be honest, I guess I brought this as pretense. I’m mainly just bored of sitting in bed.” She laughed, pressing her temple as it made her migraine headache throb slightly worse. “… and feeling a bit lonely.”

Rei snorted to stifle a cackle as she faced away, sorting goods in the small employee room. “Of course you have good taste in company,” she joked, gesturing at herself. “You tired of the Usagi-and-Minako-show? Or are they still sleeping?”

Ami laughed, daring neither to agree nor disagree. “Still asleep.” She was hardly surprised as it was still not quite eleven.

By the time the two blondes awoke the first waves of the day’s visitors had begun to quietly enter the yard. The short-haired girl, sleepy, dull headache receding, was grateful for the nostalgic one-on-one time with Rei as well as for the silence.

She stretched as she finally got up, yawning peacefully. Summer cicadas sang.

Makoto felt great, refreshed, as if experiencing the mental and spiritual equivalent of stretching out cramped muscles, to be back at work. As much as she knew she thrived resiliently under pressure, days of sitting around waiting for information, being unsure of what to do, had been slowly filling her up with stress.

Peacefully the woman stood, leaning a hip against the counter, watching the food processor, waiting with an inspired focus. Various spices and coffees wafted from the barista’s area behind her and filled the place with a warm euphoria.

Upon arriving and seeing there was no new weekly flavor/pastry combination as of yet, the brunette had asked to mess with the dough recipe; the supervisor had told her to have at it. So, the chocolate raspberry scones that would soon quickly take form were practically her baby.

Looking out the kitchen’s window with tired eyes — since, despite being revitalized by her environment she hadn’t adjusted easily to waking up before noon — the woman watched the lively flora and passers-by of Azabu, Minato.

The best thing about everyone there thinking she was ‘one week’ into healing from an injurious ‘bicycling accident’ was that she wouldn’t be expected to mop.

It felt like afternoon when Usagi awoke, warm, dim rays of sun dappling her through the blinds. She stirred to find herself, at first confused, remembering she was tucked into a futon in Rei’s bedroom. Minako, a few feet in front of her, was either still sleeping or too tired to move; either way, Usagi tried not to disturb her.

The princess padded to the bathroom, yawning; with a couple lazy swipes from tired hands she applied clear lip balm, checking her face in the mirror over the sink. Her pocket buzzed.

Mamo-chan. Her stomach lurched.

The blonde’s boyfriend had left messages, left unheard for about twelve hours in Usagi’s single-minded worry and excitement about the battle and related discoveries, that first night while she lay sleeping in Ami’s living room. Mamoru had gotten a feeling about their danger, later waking up to view the news about Tokyo’s minor earthquakes and ‘explosions’ in Minato-ku.

‘Hey, good morning. <3’

Of course he wasn’t upset. Usagi exhaled the tension from her neck and chest, nearly laughing at her anxiety as she smiled at her reflection, sticking in bobby pins to complete a relatively half-ass version of her buns.

But still… are we growing apart?

She, exhausted from constant emotional preoccupation despite getting enough sleep, was half-draped across Rei’s living room table, drooling over thoughts of a bag of chips she had found in the pantry but hadn’t quite asked permission to eat yet, when Rei, Ami, and Makoto returned from their buddy-system trek from Nishiazabu.

“Hey!” Minako, reading manga beside her, greeted as the three entered, apparently much more energetic than the princess felt.

“I want to speak with the cats about reading the energy of that cloth we got,” Rei said, setting her bag down on a chair in the corner, apparently too focused to attempt small-talk first. “Either of you know where they are?”

“Mmmm,” Usagi thought, nodding. “I’ll call Luna. Oh! But we’re meeting with Setsuna later.” Haruka had just been texting her.

“Oh yeah…” spoke the priestess as the other two standing women plopped onto cushions around the glass table; slowly sinking to a sit, she joined them. “I guess it can wait.”

Makoto and Ami were nodding.

“Rei-chan…??” Usagi asked, shifting to press one side of her face into the surface as she looked up to Rei with pleading eyes.

“What?” the dark-haired girl responded hesitantly, smoothing her skirt.

“Can I have those chips?” The blonde jerked a thumb to the kitchen.

Rei laughed. “Which ones? You’ll have to ask Ojii-chan. You know I don’t eat that kind of thing.”

“Yes, you dooo.” Usagi pointed at her without lifting her body. “I’ve seen junk food in your room!”

“Well, anyway, it doesn’t change my answer — they’re his! We can just go to the store later.” Rei half-smiled, shaking her head.

There was a moment of silence. Usagi exhaustedly nodded.

“Oh!” Makoto suddenly, as if just remembering, lifted the bag she was carrying up to the table. She smiled, looking down modestly. “I brought you these — well, all of you,” though she placed the object in the direction of the ravenous girl.

It was a cardboard to-go container of what looked — and smelled, as soon as it was opened — like freshly baked scones.

“Ohmygod!” The moon senshi jumped to prop herself on elbows.

The brunette, untying and redoing her hair, shrugged. “I thought everyone could use it today.”

“Thank yoouuu.” Usagi crooned loudly over Minako’s thanks and sounds of surprise. “Did you make these?”

Makoto nodded. “Yup.”

“Cool! Aw, so they let you take extras?”

“W-well, no, I mean I bought them.”

“Aw!” Usagi felt like it was her birthday come early. “Okay, so how many are for each of us? Um…”

Seeing there were five, Rei reached across the other blonde to smack her hand to the table between Usagi and the sweets protectively. “One, dummy.” She snatched her own.

The princess quickly grabbed her allotted treat. She tried not to panic. “Okay… okay. I’ll make it last.” But within a second nearly half of it was already bitten off.

Ami giggled, covering her mouth.

Outers, including Setsuna, in tow, the senshi returned to a usual haunt: the Crown Parlor. A somewhat recent renovation had supplied the place with one slightly larger booth table, sitting back a ways from the rest; the group of eight chose this more private seating area which, luckily, was free.

Daichi, the dude who had replaced Motoki a couple years back, approached to take their orders, small pad in hand. “Minako-chan, hello!” he stated once he recognized their occasional part-timer.

Minako returned the greeting.

“By the way, did you hear?” His wavy black hair fell over his brow as he gestured, clearly the outgoing, energetic type. “The Crown was broken into last weekend!”

Ami, gracelessly, spit out her water, returning an impressive mouthful back into her cup.

As about 50% of those present’s eyes snapped, shocked, to observe, Minako’s brow and pursed lips twitched as she struggled to contain a snorting laugh.

“Uh- are you okay?” Daichi spoke.

Ami gave a weak thumbs up, smiling. “I-I choked.”

After a moment of pause, the parlor’s employee continued. “Anyway, the arcade door lock was picked.” He brought a knuckle up to stroke at his close-shaven stubble. “As far as we can tell, nothing was stolen, though!”

Minako, taking in a breath as she tried to force her giddy grin to change into a more suitable expression, laughed in a high pitch, turning to him. “Eeh? No, I hadn’t heard… but, I suppose that’s better than it could have been, though.”

“Yeah…” He scratched the back of his head.

Since the group had sat down none of them had yet made mention of or marveled at the strangeness of their new member casually sitting at the Crown with them.

Foregoing her usual bun, the woman wore her juniper-green hair waist-length and brushed over one shoulder. Sitting forward, pressing her gaunt chin into splayed fingertips, she had been quiet. The presence of her regal beauty in this nostalgic specimen of Azabu culture and high-school memories was downright distracting. Then again, Michiru was biased.

“Anyway, Setsuna-san, it’s so good to see you!” Rei smiled.

Michiru turned to see Setsuna grin, nodding as the other Inners and Usagi agreed. “Thank you…”

When the orders came seven of them sipped only at cold sodas or flavored teas, as they were going to dinner right after this; Usagi, however, wasted no time in ordering a towering sundae; “You underestimate me, Rei-chan…” the blonde jokingly accused with a raised eyebrow, already beginning to scarf down ice cream, when the priestess chastised that she would spoil her appetite.

Michiru folded her hands behind her head and laughed. To her left sat the tallest, dark-haired woman, who was clearly beginning to unwind from her travels and worries. To her right, Haruka somewhat discreetly nuzzled up to lean against the aqua-haired woman’s shoulder. All the younger girls who occupied the other two sides of the square booth table, across and to their right, had promptly burst into discussion.

“Anyway, I’m a bit worried…” Setsuna said when the topic had changed, frowning down at the speckled white table.

“Are you allowed to tell us?” Usagi began, curiously leaning in with a head tilt.

The green-haired scientist, with a slight chuckle, quickly nodded. “I’m allowed to tell you about the past, yes.”

“So there is a connection… is it indeed from the Silver Millenium, then?” Ami thoughtfully brought a pensive finger to her lips.

“Did you find out who.. they are?” Makoto added.

“Maybe, and maybe…” Setsuna folded her hands in her lap as she addressed them. “I’m not positive but I checked out several possibilities.” She sipped her iced black tea before lowering her voice. “Selenios was an advisor to Helios during the Silver Millennium time…”

“So, is it the same guy?” Usagi, bending to sip at her straw, couldn’t hide the thirst for information in her hushed tone.

Setsuna shook her head. “Unfortunately I have no way of knowing from my… limited research. I still don’t even know what he looked like then. I’ll update you as I discover more.” The woman leaned in, pressing fingertips together. “However… if he is the same one, you should know this advisor was one of the only Golden Kingdom citizens aside from the Shittennou, Helios, and the prince himself to possess preternatural abilities — specifically, related to the influence of psychic and spiritual energies.-”

Usagi gasped. “Rei-chan! … If that’s our enemy, he could be the one stopping your powers.”

As if sharing in the epiphany, Makoto sharply inhaled at that, suddenly straightening. She turned to the priestess. “You started having problems after you were in close proximity to him that night with me, right?”

Rei, though appearing uncertain, seemed to focus inward, speculative. Her purple eyes glistened with palpable internal turmoil as she bit her lip in thought. “That’s possible, yes…”

As the senshi paused to digest the information, Setsuna continued. “At any rate, I advise exercising caution while we’re unsure what they’re capable of… The Selenios in ancient times apparently built up quite the following — some would say cult-like-”

“That checks out,” Rei muttered; Makoto bemusedly nodded, cheek leaning in one palm.

“-and he was powerful… assisting Helios in special missions across the globe at times. I’m not sure in what way, but I’ll keep on my research.-”

“So are you time-traveling? ” Usagi nearly spat out her spoonful of ice cream in her haste to voice curiosity.

The time senshi, unvexed, blinked the lids of her dark eyes closed as she sipped her tea.

Chapter Text

CW:

• violence.

Snakelike shapes, dark and wispy, squirreled and rearranged themselves.

Erika stepped, with restrained impatience, to get closer to the table. Enyo was, to her annoyance, also observing; the powerful underling stood just behind her to the left.

“Is the shapeshifting… done?” Her own voice felt unused and dry.

“Yes.” Selenios’s reply was in her ear although he physically was not present. It was so like him to arbitrarily not show himself at such a time, she thought.

Within seconds of her question the saplings’ chaotic forms became rigid and interlocking like an alien trying to mimic a drawn optical illusion; the lab aid to her right, sniffling and fidgeting as he rubbed a stuffy nose on his long sleeve, simultaneously dipped a jar and a metal compass, each attached to separate strings, into a glass cage containing more of the small creatures.

He was still sleepy and stiff, one of the first commoners to awake. The skinny teenage-looking man idly cleared his throat.

The Moss on the opposing table, before Erika and her ‘advisor,’ frantically churned, individuals merging and splitting, before becoming still.

Despite knowing what was going to happen, the blonde woman gasped.

The glass jar and the measuring instrument, although appearing soft and sticky and purplish-black as night, had both been recreated in the living material.

The assistant, eyeballing them, dazedly nodded as though processing acknowledgment.

“You know how fast the information travels,” Selenios spoke. “By tomorrow all of them will know it.”

Erika, blinking to quell tears leaking from her awe and excitement, briefly smiled as she stared.

“Use this from now on.”

“Yes!” The woman deeply bowed, to physically no-one, in the dimly lit room.

The lab aid, looking blankly to the other humans, spoke in a monotone. “There will be improvements.”

“Marvelous.” Enyo’s voice.

Erika twitched. Oh well. He is still new and groggy. There will still be time for me to prove myself without him, she thought.

There was time before their leader might resort to the use of — might decide that the sailor senshi’s influence would only be gotten by use of — Enyo’s immense power.

It was early evening, the last of hazy clouds chased up and over to the horizon by the hot-but-descending sun. The former shrine maiden stood, in her work clothes, in the yard before the fire room, the enemy’s fabric scrap cradled in her left palm.

Attempting to concentrate, Rei rubbed the tip of her thumb over its textured surface. It felt like a coarse but soft fiber.

At first she laid the textile atop a flat, gray stepping stone, capturing countless pictures on her cell phone as she sat crouched in the grass. It had felt a little crass — or perhaps anticlimactic — to make use of such a commonplace, unprofessional object to casually photograph such important enemy intelligence. But, then again, although she hadn’t specifically asked what analyses Luna and Artemis had run on the thing, Rei knew that more than anything else the cats could be counted on to be technologically thorough.

Especially since they know I’m about to lay waste to it, she reasoned, with a half-laugh. She entered the shrine room.

Rei held the ripped piece of fabric before the flame.

Pale, rustic pink in a rough weave held navy blue embroidery: a fragment of unknown symbol from an unknown culture.

The fire warrior’s eyes narrowed. An aftertaste of the foreign, dark energy hung on the cloth like a cigarette stain.

As the fire crackled she spoke, more within herself than without.

“Did this belong to the individual who’s blocking me?” Rei stepped toward her fire pit. A calm, energizing force encircled her aura. She took a breath.

The priestess glanced at the inscription one last time. Will I regret destroying it? No, she decided. Besides the pictures, I’ll have it memorized.

She took a step further, wooden sandals feeling warm and comfortable on the old floorboards.

“I release this person’s hold on me,” she spoke — thought.

With a toss, the fabric was gone, sending up sparks and small pops.

The light of the fire filled up the Martian senshi’s soul as she stood before it a moment, closing her eyes. She inhaled. Warmth felt reassuring, burning in her nostrils.

Nothing happened.

In trees planted on either side of the fire-room opening, Phobos and Deimos revealed themselves to her. She turned around.

A half-hope, half-uncertainty filled her.

I’ll have to wait.

Haruka tossed and turned. The sterile, blandly floral scent of the hotel pillowcase welcomed them each time consciousness returned.

A look at the silver watch half-draped off the end table’s edge showed it was nearly 2 a.m. Fuck insomnia, they thought with a barely-audible, frustrated groan. The warrior had just returned their head to the cradle of the weight-induced dent in the pillow when they felt the bed shift.

“Mm,” Michiru mumbled, almost questioningly, as she rolled half a body-width closer. Her exhaling breath tickled a few of Haruka’s short, wayward hairs across their jaw.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” The blonde asked as they gently grabbed their girlfriend’s soft hand, rolling leftward to meet her sleepy eyes.

“Dunno. It’s okay.” Michiru, still half-asleep, pulled the other arm out from under the covers to brush back turquoise bangs. “… What’s up?”

“Just can’t sleep.” Haruka exhaled a slow sigh, blinking at the ceiling.

“Mm…”

“… Is Setsuna still-?”

They both felt it. A jolt, silent.

As soon as the tall blonde felt the energy pass over them — that spike that pierced through awareness like an electric current — Haruka sought their partner’s eyes; Michiru, the skin between her brows creasing, was also instantly glancing, searching. It wasn’t just me.

“What?-” Haruka started; but the turquoise-haired woman was already out of bed.

The femme grasped, clumsily, through objects stacked messily on the maroon suitcase. Underwear and toiletries fell, plastic items clattering, as she pulled out the talisman mirror. Her partner watched her from behind, feeling mutely stunned.

As Michiru continued to rush around, Tokyo lights dimly reaching her pale nightgown through transparent white curtains, Haruka sat, leaning on the headboard, and attempted to wake up further, rubbing their forehead with stiff fingers.

“We need to contact Setsuna. But if I’m right she’ll already know,” the shorter, curvy woman spoke.

“What- was-?”

“Oh, come on.” Michiru was at their side as she leaned on the bed, kissing their temple and jokingly, gently slapping her partner’s cheeks with a stern frown. “Are you a sailor warrior or a sleepy toddler?”

“Sorry.” Groggy yet heart pounding, Haruka stood.

“I’m guessing either it was a disturbance in…” Gesturing quickly in the air as she turned away, Michiru bent to pick up the mirror again. “… you know, everything, like a development in the enemy’s energy…”

“Which is bad…” Haruka interrupted.

“-in which case we’ll all have felt it, or…” The woman sat beside the blonde, breathing heavily as she studied her own tense features in the reflective surface. “… or, that the Inners are in trouble. In which case Setsuna-”

“Which is also bad.” Heart churning, Haruka restlessly paced until they located their communicator.

Michiru nodded; she set her jaw. “I’ll talk to Setsuna, you call Usagi-chan and the others.”

The tall butch grit their teeth, clutching protectively at the communication device before opening it. “Alright.”

The moon surface glimmered purple; aether-like waves carried the girl across dreams. She was half-lucid.

“Sailor Moon.” The voice echoed.

Usagi turned, floating in the air as if it were thick, clear water. Through flowing strands of her hair she spied Tuxedo Mask.

“Mamo-”

It occurred to her it was weird he was calling her Sailor Moon, and not Serenity, in this setting. Wasn’t this the past? Oh, yes, this is a dream.

“Sailor Moon.”

Usagi was standing now.

His dress shoes clacked, as though distantly, across the ruined stones as he neared her. “You need to wake up.”

“Why? Mamo-chan, I’ve missed you.” Heart fluttering, the woman ran to greet him, sliding into a warm, surreal hug. She was wearing her Silver Millenium gown.

Usagi let go, stood back to look up at him. He was a different person, Prince Endymion from the ancient kingdoms now. “Endy-…” she started, with a gasp.

It had been a long time since she’d dreamt him as his former self.

The black-haired man, pale skin illuminated by the pinkish light, placed a firm hand on her shoulder.

“You need to realize that someone from my kingdom is waking up now.”

The dreamer was distracted by his radiant eyes, deep ocean-blue.

“Usagi.”

Her heart picked up. He never called her that.

A poking sensation, pinching at tense muscles in her back, awakened a confused woman to heaps of pink fabric and pillows, face-down. “Mm-” she half-grunted, pulling a tangled mind out from vivid dreams and rising to her elbows.

Her eyes blurry with heavy sleep, she blinked. It was Rei. Straight black hair dangled before her, the friend leaning so close to her sleeping form Usagi was nearly startled. “Wh-?”

Within a fraction of a second the blonde took in the fact that Rei’s violet eyes were serious and wide, worried with a sympathetic brow.

Several things happened very quickly.

Apparently, while she slept, they were already talking; “-what..?- This seems like, I think-” Minako was continuing in a terse hush. She was face-to-face with Usagi on the floor still in her futon, posture poised for an army crawl.

The windows broke. Usagi yelped, shielding her face in the soft pillow as they shattered. Her whole body flinched.

Simultaneously a shockwave rent the air, gusting to fill the home interior with chill wind. Glass and dust brushed exposed forearms; turbulence lifted her untied hair.

“Usagi!” Makoto screamed from somewhere, near.

Gasping for stale breaths as her heart was a racing drum, the princess felt herself pressed down, head and torso tackled. She bit one lip against the mattress; her largest-framed friend shielded her with her full body.

Lights flickered on the other side of Usagi’s desperately squeezed-shut lids.

“Crescent Beam Barrage!”

Makoto shifted on top of her, turning; Usagi craned a kinked neck, opening one hesitant eye.

The room was in shambles; beams of golden-white light knocked through shadowy figures.

After Venus’s attack there was silence and, briefly, stillness.

The protecting warrior sat back. Usagi — now freed and feeling as though weightless and floating, moving as a ghost — realized her limbs were trembling.

Dazed eyes wavered into focus on the scene — outside panes of ruined glass, numerous faceless humanoid creatures stood. Half-destroyed now and ripped, they were still. The beings looked to her like stand-up posters made of cardboard.

She was yanked to her feet by Rei; the blonde staggered.

All but herself and Venus were covered in thin, bloody scrapes — red lightly dripped from nicks across faces and glass wounds on bare feet, staining the beige floor.

“You guys-” But she went ignored.

Together, Mercury, Jupiter, and Mars became transformed.

The five were shielded from either side thanks to two — one green and one blue — energy barriers; Usagi, brain struggling in slow motion but taking the hint, bent, hands shaking, to remove her crystal from beneath the ripped pillow. Bringing it to her chest, she was interrupted.

“Are…-” Jupiter hesitantly started, behind her.

“-… they just cardboard?” the blue-haired warrior finished, her shaky voice astonished but skeptical.

One of Venus’s heels clacked. “Keep your guard up.”

Usagi looked from Mars’s shocked face, pale, to the leader’s. Outside, appearing threatening from behind shadowy shrubbery, the two-dimensional foes were unmoving, their two-legged forms barely wavering in the breeze.

Mars lifted an ofuda. Flames burned fiercely in one hand as she stepped to the front of her princess, just still within Mercury’s shield.

Erika’s voice, disembodied, burst through with a last punch of air. “AT THREE O’CLOCK. THE BIG STATION. MEET ME TONIGHT.” It sounded like a recording, a booming echo.

The senshi gasped as they stepped backwards, closer. The burst of benign energy swept up their hair.

Before anyone could react, as if on a self-destruct timer, at once the fake enemies exploded into pieces; clumps and strings of a strange plant matter fell to the ground, squirming and dispersing.

Mercury typed at her computer frantically, meanwhile Jupiter reacted adequately enough for all of them, “Jesusfuckwhat-is-this..-”

“Tokyo Station?” Mercury posited after a moment.

It was clear to Usagi, heart steadying, that the enemies did mean to retreat; as dark wormlike shadows threaded, shining, through the silhouetted yard, there were no further advances.

Mars, lowering her defensive stance, caught her hyperventilating breath, cursing.

Venus paced, while Usagi just followed her with her eyes.

Jupiter, briefly first scanning the disarray, found and picked up her cell phone, wiping it free from chips of broken glass. She tapped the device then looked up to the other four. “… It’s two now. That’s in an hour.”

Usagi, emotions and mind still just spiraling within herself, merely lowered her gaze, clasping hands which were absent of feeling. She felt her eyes water.

“Usagi…” The woman looked up as Mars approached her.

The golden-haired leader looked to her in turn, with a sensitive smile behind serious eyes. “I think you should transform now.”

The princess uncurled her fingers; she’d completely forgotten, but the moon compact had left a crater of pink dents within her stressed palms.

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

“I guess we just wait.”

Mars shifted her weight on impatiently fidgeting heels. The five warriors’ breath mixed with the wind, and the air above Chiyoda, Tokyo, felt almost too cold for summertime.

“We’re sure they meant this train station, and not somewhere else?” Jupiter worried.

“No fucking clue.” Venus shook her head. “But it’s certainly hammered in by now that the enemy can track our locations… They said to meet at a big station, and here we are.” The leader placed a hand on her hip, surveying.

Busy taxi lights still dotted the streets and distant sirens wailed. Though the train tracks and shops below them lay darkened and empty, some groups of pedestrians, tiny from the warriors' view atop the skyscrapers, meandered and flocked between convenience stores.

“This is one of the busiest stations in Tokyo,” Mercury breathed, reciting as she tapped with focus on her palm-sized computer. Then she said Rei’s anxieties aloud. “Even with it being so late, it’ll be devastating if they try something here, with everyone…” She trailed off.

“So we need to be ready,” Mars growled.

The moon senshi raised her communicator. “The Outers are calling again!”

“Put them on,” Venus ordered, and they gathered ‘round.

Setsuna’s voice came forth. “I, Neptune, and Uranus are together now. Tell us your location and we’ll be on our way.”

“Actually…” the princess began to explain, and her leader nodded.

“We need you to monitor the greater area, keep an eye on the energy and activity and make sure we aren’t caught off guard,” Mercury spoke. “… I’d do it myself, but I think right now I need to be with the other four-”

“Absolutely,” Uranus answered. “But, where are you now?”

“Above Tokyo Station.” Mercury’s short blue hair, deepened by the darkness, whipped her face chaotically in the wind as she bent to Moon’s communicator.

“Be careful!” Sailor Moon blurted to them, unnecessarily loudly.

“Yes. Most of us are vulnerable to their attacks when we’re gotten on our own, and they know this. Stay together, you three,” Venus added.

“Hey, now,” Uranus playfully shot back. “Mina, you’re the leader of the inner senshi, not of us! I think we’ll figure it out.”

Venus stuttered and sweat-dropped. “I-I know! I’m.. I’m just suggesting!” Gritting her teeth, she emphatically gestured to no one in particular as she leaned in toward the device.

Jupiter flippantly giggled, then, apparently seeing the reddening blonde’s irked face, looked as if she regretted it.

“Watching and protecting from afar is what we do best. Hear that, guys-? ” It sounded as if they briefly turned aside to address their companions. “Alright, see you around… We’ll be in close communication,” Uranus then added, more seriously.

The audio call was ended.

Venus stamped her foot on the rooftop half-jokingly. “Gah, sometimes those three drive me nuts! ” She tightly clenched a fist.

Jupiter’s eye roll and pained half-smile as she shook her head seemed to say, ‘You’re just now realizing?’

At three on the dot the readied anxiety was palpable. Nobody spoke until Mercury spotted two figures.

The tech genius zoomed in, using her visor.

“The closest person matches Erika’s stats. And the other one… I’m not sure.”

“Sel?” Jupiter and Mars spoke at nearly the same time, meeting one another’s eyes.

Mercury shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“How do you know?” Mars bent to look over the short-haired girl’s shoulder, curious.

“Because his height is around 190 cm — taller than Jupiter.”

“Uh,-” Makoto struggled with the urge to fall on her face, embarrassed she had bothered to share that boastful detail with Ami. It was true, though… Long gone were the days when she was dismayed half the men she met were shorter than her — on the contrary, she had delighted in the thought that the encounter might have emasculated such a prick. The brunette smiled to herself.

“Then who is he? Are they… calling in backup?” Sailor Moon asked, nervously. She wrapped her arms around herself as if about to shiver.

The five of them shared a moment of silence, gazing up at the pair of silhouettes standing just behind the protective barricade surrounding the rim of the skyscraper across them.

“Let’s introduce ourselves,” Venus smirked, clearly to the princess’s dismay.

“Uhh- what? You mean we go over there?! They might-” Moon danced on her toes as she begged to Venus.

However, the senshi leader interrupted her. “-Usagi, we need to get info… I’m tired of just waiting for them to attack…-”

“I second that,” Jupiter grumbled, cracking her knuckles as she narrowed green eyes at the building across the street; beside her Mars nodded as she peeled her attention from Mercury’s screen, frowning.

“… and I’m thinking if we take their bait, we might be able to tip their hand onto our scales.” The golden-blonde smiled confidently.

“You mean tip the scales?-” Mercury jutted in politely.

“Gain the upper hand?” Makoto asked.

“I – .. both.” An unbothered Venus crossed her arms while Mercury clearly disguised a laugh with a clear of her throat. “… Anyway,” she continued, motioning for the others to gather around so she could lower her voice, “I’d like to try to milk them a little. It’s clear to me their cooperation has a price they hope we’re willing to pay — so they probably think the same will be true of us. Otherwise, they’d be a lot more focused on our annihilation than on games of intimidation and manipulation.”

“Right…” Usagi nodded hesitantly, quietly. “So you’d like me to try to… negotiate?”

“To seem like you’re going to,” Venus answered. “Based on everything Selenios and Erika have said, we’ll very likely have no choice but to fight, but at least for now…” She trailed off.

The other four nodded agreement.

“So… everyone, what are we waiting for?” The golden-haired warrior’s lips tugged into a fierce half-grin.

Silently, with the group’s combined energy contributing to a forcefield which encircled them, aiding their flight, they descended upon the meeting point.

Landing cautiously, the Inner four and Usagi touched down on the roof concrete a couple dozen meters from the opposing group. The two dark figures’ loose clothing billowed, silhouetted, in the breeze.

“Is it just them?” Sailor Moon, shivering, whispered.

Mercury, after a glance down at her computer screen, answered affirmative. “There are no other energy signatures here. Previous times, the creatures always entered the area from portals positioned underground; up here, I’ll have a bit of warning for us. That doesn’t mean don’t be careful, though.”

Jupiter, Mars, and Venus nodded.

Simultaneously, the two strange humanoids, first gesturing to one another, began to approach. Whether out of caution or an attempt to portray themselves as lacking any fucks to give, the pair approached luxuriously slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.

Erika, this time donning a long coat but sticking to her theme of sleek black, was closely followed by an athletically-built man. In the night, Jupiter could just make out chiseled features on his golden tan face. His hair, shorter than Erika’s, was dark and sleek.

“Who are you?” Venus shouted across the divide before the two groups had quite yet met.

The woman in the trenchcoat, taking her time as she took a last few steps, stopped her approach roughly a speaking distance away and jabbed a hand in her companion’s direction. “This is my assistant,” she spoke quietly, with no discernible amount of stress or emotion aside from confidence.

Just like they always are, Makoto thought; her blood boiled at the casual tone. Just pretending to never be rattled.

“I mean all of you.” Venus, voice harsh, clacked a heel as she took a step closer. A gust of wind coming off the air over the freeway briefly obscured the discussion by blowing just about everyone’s hair in their faces, ally and enemy alike. As soon as the senshi leader recovered from the distraction, flipping her wayward blonde locks over her shoulder with elegance, she went on. “It’s about time you gave us more information.”

“Oh, I agree.” Erika snapped and the man beside her strode obediently to the forefront. “This is Enyo.”

The one called Enyo, wearing earthy colors of oddly-cropped garb that didn’t seem to be of this world or fashion era, silently greeted the warriors with a deep bow. After no one on the senshi’s side of the confrontation made any move to react, he blandly stated, “It’s nice to make your acquaintance.”

Mars just huffed.

“Who are you? Let’s start with that,” Venus bit back.

After a moment during which the enemy didn’t answer, Mercury glanced up from her tech to look Erika in the eye. “The Moss?” she posited, voice calm but firm.

“No,” Erika spoke. “But, very perceptive. The Moss is our ally.”

“The creatures we’ve fought?” Mercury returned. There came no response.

“Let’s talk about our alliance?” Erika began to pace. Her tone suggested it was as much a suggestion as it was a demand.

Taking her cue, Sailor Moon took a step forward; Mercury and Venus, being the closest on either side of her, followed. “Yes! I’ll do anything you want, within reason, so that you won’t hurt anyone…” Clasping gloved fingers together, she held both hands tentatively at her chest.

The woman across from them took her time in inhaling and lifting her chin. “Good. That’s a good start.” She sighed with relief and turned her warm ivory features to nod at Enyo. “That’s all that we want. Cooperation.”

The tall man then took the liberty of addressing them again, first looking to Erika. “Apologies for everything up until now. We wanted you to not underestimate us. We wanted to… impress you.”

Makoto aggressively scoffed, but Mars shot her a steadying look that said ‘don’t you dare do whatever you’re thinking right now.’ She settled on closely glaring at the pair.

“So, how about…” Sailor Moon, though trembling slightly, set her posture with confidence. “I’ll lend you my ability to protect your people…” Then she blurted, rapidly, “-You’re coming from a different dimension, right?”

Erika stirred from her still position, seeming to chew on the princess’s words, but didn’t respond.

“That’s what you want, right?-.. To have a place for all of you to live on Earth?”

Venus took a step closer to the other blonde, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Wait,” Makoto heard her whisper. In response, all senshi followed Venus’s glare as she looked at the mysterious duo to await an answer.

After a moment, Mars stepped forward, seeming unable to contain her temper. “Answer her!”

“… That’s correct,” Erika spoke. She made impassive eye contact with Enyo.

“Which part of it?” Jupiter shot.

"Both. You are right, we are coming from a different dimension, and that is what we desire. Continue." The woman gave Sailor Moon a calm, empty smile.

“Uh- … okay!” the moon senshi stuttered with a start, apparently caught off guard by the rare, direct answer. Composing herself once more with a kindhearted, confident expression, she regained firm footing. “So…” Her voice unbelievably gentle, she continued, “What if you don’t harm or displace anyone, and we use our power to help protect you from anyone hostile — or maybe even help create a home for you, somewhere uninhabited, somewhere other than Tokyo? If that’s our only condition, would you accept?” Her eyes shone in the near-distant city lights. “We’d… need some answers from you, though.”

Erika was already shaking her head. “I’m afraid this city is non-negotiable. It’s what we’ll need. I suppose my question for you, Serenity, is…”

“I’m not Serenity,” The princess interrupted, steadying herself. “In this place and time, you can call me Sailor Moon. But you’d only know that if-”

Mercury took a step forward. “-Where are you from? ..–When are you from? You’ve just now emerged from somewhere. Tell us.”

Erika seemed to be either smirking or merely biting her lip, fidgeting. Usagi took the opportunity.

“I won’t help you unless you answer her. We deserve to know a lot more. Please…” the blonde warrior asserted.

The enemy woman, appearing gleeful, lifted her head and laughed. “I supposed it would come to this. You deserve to know, after all.” She turned to Enyo, who merely pursed his lips and subtly nodded.

Makoto knew that they all likely anticipated where this was probably going, Usagi and Ami most of all. Still, she waited, looking to the other four as Erika briefly readjusted her wardrobe, walking firmly toward the moon princess with an extended hand.

“Sailor Moon…” Erika began. “One of the reasons you should trust us — ally with us — is because…” The woman smiled as she exhaled serenely, assuredly. “The society I live in is a sacred sect of the long-extinct Golden Kingdom-”

“-I knew it,” Mercury was quietly muttering.

“-… The rightful heirs and stewards of this planetary body.”

“-How?” Venus, beside the other blonde senshi, gasped.

“Sailor Moon,” the other continued without addressing Venus, “I know about your liaison — relationship — with the Prince Endymion. There’s no need to hide it here, among allies.”

As Makoto shot a sideways glance at Sailor Moon, the princess quickly brought up and pressed a hand to her lips, confused; nevertheless, the enemy continued.

“Princess… please embrace it. Our paradise, our kingdom, which in your past life destiny once led you to so desire… It can be yours.”

Chapter Text

CW:

• violence.

The Moon senshi, eyes shimmering, seemed momentarily frozen before she began, with a start, “O-only if you don’t harm any civilians of Earth.” She looked briefly around her at the Inners. “Or any of my friends or allies. Like I’ve said, that’s the only condition that matters to me.”

Erika just cracked into a brief, amused laugh. She took one step backward, rescinding her still-extended hand. “That’s funny. I’m sorry, but in case you don’t get it by now, we set the conditions. You can accept the alliance or we’ll take your cooperation by force.”

“And… there it is,” Makoto muttered under her breath. Beside her, Mars tensed up.

As Usagi had seemingly melted, for the time being, into a tongue-tied statue of silent, angry tears, Venus took over the scheme. “I think what Sailor Moon’s trying to say is, what’s in it for us? Power and immunity, that’s all you got? We’ll need to know more before-..”

As a quick breeze gusted, Erika shot, with Enyo immediately on her tail, to hover in the air several meters above the concrete rooftop. With her newly improved view she whipped her neck to eyeball the city surrounding them. Laughing and smiling as though she held some dirty secret, she touched her ear and stated, quietly but just audibly, “Come now.”

A distant crack and series of rumbles sent the senshi scrambling to look, Mercury whipping out her computer frantically once more; at a distance, Jupiter spotted at least two different veins of the powerful creatures erupting through highways. The princess simultaneously emitted a shrill gasp that comingled with the cacophony of car horns which reached the rooftops after a brief delay.

“If you’re going to prove to be opposition…” the enemy woman went on with a sly smile, “we’ll have the threat eliminated. You’d better make up your mind, Princess.”

“The same creatures-” the blue-haired technician spoke as she snapped her head up to glare at the humanoid enemies. “They’re surrounding this area! But…” She turned back to her devices. “-there are much fewer of them. And, I still don’t believe they’re large enough to reach us up here; like before, the portals are below ground-level..”

Venus was unamused. With a gasp she jumped to indignantly address Erika, her golden chain forming and glowing in her balled hands threateningly. “But — no!! You’re bluffing.” The woman grit her teeth. “You need Sailor Moon to operate the Silver Crystal! Otherwise you’d have just tried to do away with us by now. You’ve shown your hand — that’s what you’re missing — you don’t have enough power to take over Tokyo — Earth — alone. If you kill Usagi-chan you’ll never get what you want..-”

“Oh,” Erika effortlessly replied while looking down to inspect her fingernails, “you see, the Silver Crystal is all we need. I guess what I was going to say before, Princess, is… How much are you willing to lose to resist us?-”

“-Eh?” Sailor Moon immediately snapped to react, barely a whisper. Her emotional features were frozen in the dim lighting as she stared, listening.

“-..Don’t get me wrong, while your senshi allies would prove a great addition to our ranks..-”

Jupiter, Mars, and Venus simultaneously tensed further, bitterly; Mercury still hadn’t peeled her eyes from her computer’s stats.

“-.. ultimately, Sailor Moon…” Erika went on, with a snarling smile although her sorrowful tone suggested feigned sympathy, “your friends are just as expendable as your precious civilians.”

“YOU CAN’T-!” the bun-haired warrior, in an explosion of panic, cried out.

“You guys…-” Mercury spoke urgently, quietly; she elbowed the thunder senshi in the side, who in turn prodded Mars in the shoulder to alert her.

“What?” the dark-haired girl began.

Then, as they turned to Mercury, who faced the fenced edge of the rooftop, it became apparent. The giant creatures, which snaked and writhed through the concrete of various freeways within their line of vision, had begun to seek targets. Cars were lifted up or crushed; individual people, though sparse, were backed up against building walls, some trying and failing to run.

“Fuck!”; “NO!” Jupiter and Mars simultaneously reacted.

“Usagi-chan! Everyone!” Rei shouted to Venus and Sailor Moon; the two still hovering turned from Erika to look.

“People are… No! You can’t-” the princess began crying. She threw herself to the metal barricade beside Mercury, gripping the fence with a shaking hand as she watched.

Mars and Jupiter, with a brief moment of deep eye contact, turned on their heels to face the antagonists. While the fire priestess, without further hesitation, summoned and charged a flaming ofuda from where she stood, Jupiter jumped to the confrontation; tiara buzzing with electricity, she addressed Erika in a rage, all stops pulled out. “You ABSOLUTE fucking irredeemable asshole.. Innocent people have NOTHING to do with this! How dare you-”

Venus, who had leapt to the air beside her to rejoin the offensive as she brandished her blindingly golden energy, blurted, “You’re just going to attack random people out of spite?! You’ll waste your own resources — you’ll just-”

“Oh, what a waste..” their opponent muttered sarcastically. “We’ll see… just where your breaking point may lie, Princess…”

Upon hearing herself directly addressed once more, Moon turned; seeing three of her friends poised to attack, with a start she quickly summoned her scepter. As she grabbed it from the still air a white, rippling energy burst through; the warrior briefly glowed, gracefully, and strands of her platinum hair were blown back.

“Ready, everyone?” The Inners’ leader addressed them confidently from her elevated position.

At that point Mercury had peeled herself from her monitors to prepare herself for an attack; she nodded.

“Let’s obliterate this trash…” Jupiter muttered with satisfaction.

Venus moved first; in an instant, her golden glow had materialized as a radiant, whip-like chain. “Venus Love-Me Chain!”

As she tossed it, Erika responded by thrusting out a hand to conjure her signature energy barrier. Its reflective, warped surface formed a partial dome in front of herself and Enyo.

The remaining four senshi attacked; the dark night became alight with power.

First, the golden chain, as the leader whipped it against the powerful barrier, faltered. Appearing to first bounce before successfully wrapping caused the attack to consequently be sucked in, the energy weapon yanked the blonde warrior along with it.

“Ah!” Venus, caught off guard as the force of the pull jerked her by the shoulder, let go before dropping to a crouch on the pavement, clutching a dislocated arm. “Shit.”

The others, attacks already beginning, went for it.

“Akuryo Taisan!”

“Jupiter Coconut Cyclone!”

“Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!”

“Moon Gorgeous Meditation!”

The center of the skirmish was lit aflame; the two enemy forms, flinching with the strain as they both rushed to contribute energy to strengthen their shield, were smothered within a barrage of colors.

Mars’s attack hit first; a wall of flames sought to purify, alighting the battlefield with an immense heat. On its heels came a whirlwind of storm and water, punctuated by Sailor Moon’s blindingly white light. The combination swirled and sparked; altogether it hit like a tidal wave.

A burst of turbulent air churned as the enemy forcefield struggled. After a few moments, the glimmering wall emerged from the center, absorbing and repelling. Attack bits dispersed before the shield was snapped back, throwing the remaining energy shards back in a messy blast.

The five senshi flinched, raising arms here and there to shield themselves.

“No way,” came Sailor Moon’s voice, shaking, at the culmination of the fray.

Beyond and above them Erika was revealed through the lingering smoke, panting with effort as she still held out her shield-generating arm. Beside her Enyo, dimly glowing as he appeared to exude a vague glimmer of the same dark energy, held his arm out to support his spent companion.

“Grrr,” Jupiter grumbled. “Seriously?”

Mars had already, wordlessly, dashed forward to get to Venus.

“You’ll probably want to save that effort for them,” Erika addressed them with a weary chuckle, nodding smugly to the unfolding chaos behind them.

“Hold on..-” Venus, now standing though she still gripped her right shoulder, commandingly began. “One more chance, just for the heck of it, to see if we can call this off.” She let out an exhausted sigh as she smiled ironically. “Does your leader actually know what’s happened since the time of the Golden Kingdom?”

“Well,-”

“I’m not talking about world history or anything. I mean…”

“That’s right..” Sailor Mars, who was still practically hanging off of the blonde since her initial burst of concern, looked up at the duo, confidently smiling. “Do you have any idea what we’ve done? What we’re capable of? The Golden Kingdom was taken over, and then-”

“Yeah, yeah!” The long-haired princess stepped forward, nodding, suddenly excited. “Your kingdom was taken over and brainwashed. And destroyed. And then when that same enemy came back, we defeated them. So we defeated the evil force that defeated your society-… So..-”

“Not to mention other enemies much greater..-” Mercury chimed in.

“-All seeking power, or to use the Silver Crystal, just like you…” the brunette added.

“So, basically…” the senshi of love straightened, staring up to the enemy assuredly. “We will win in the end, if you seek to harm this planet.” Venus laughed irreverently, crossing her arms. “It’s bold of you to think otherwise.” She turned to glance at the others before continuing, “And I highly doubt you lot possess some quality the forces that came before you lacked.”

“Perhaps…” Erika spoke. Recovering from her energy expenditure, she had straightened as well, stroking her chin while she focused on Venus’s speech. “I admit I’m not familiar with most the prior forces you speak of. However, it’s possible our society has something unique…” The woman turned to Enyo smugly. “That Beryl and Queen Metalia lacked.”

“-What?” Jupiter began, taking a step forward with surprise at the name drop.

“You — you did know?” Mercury, beside her, gasped.

The other three stood frozen.

“… But if you came from before-” Venus, puzzled, reasoned after a startled pause.

“We heard about them, yes. But thank you for informing me you defeated them. And that that’s how the kingdom went down.. I did wonder what ever happened with all that.” She grinned.

“So what do you think you have-?” Sailor Moon, shocked, blurted.

“Our technology,” The short-haired blonde answered, turning to her assistant for emphasis; in what was probably the greatest display of emotion he’d shown them thus far, the man, suddenly wide-eyed, gasped.

Enyo turned quickly. “Erika-”

“-Advancements that left even the rest of the Silver Millenium in the dust,” she continued over him, bragging.

In a clear act of enemy disagreement that made Makoto smirk — after all, enemy infighting was hilarious — Enyo, gasping, continued to eyeball his partner with astonished confusion. He made a gesture to whisper to her, but it went ignored.

“What sort of technology?” Mercury, clearly hungry for information, put forth.

“Perhaps we’ll show you.”

In a shimmering field of energy that managed to kick up dust, blowing each of the senshi’s hair, Erika and her assistant slowly ascended in a move to teleport away.

“No!” Jupiter reacted, shouting at the pair futilely. “Don’t you dare-”

“Usagi-chan,” Venus called back, “… have another attack in you for spite’s sake?” she spat, although Makoto was unsure whether or not she was sarcastic.

Regardless, the princess chuckled at that, holding up her scepter. “I can see…”

“Don’t-” the water senshi was stopping her, checking her AR glasses. “They’ve already begun to dematerialize — it’ll be wasted..”

As Mercury predicted, a moment later the two enemies vanished.

With a gasp, Sailor Moon quickly looked around, craning to see over the edge of the skyscraper. “Does that mean the creatures are retreating, too??” she cried hopefully.

“I don’t think so,” Jupiter, with the dully crushing weight of realization, spoke faintly once she turned to look back at the scene. As she watched through the partition, taxis and street-level floors of buildings were being smashed in. With a rising panic and flood of anger, the woman tensed a fist.

“Um!” Mercury rushed to meet the others at the barrier, gesturing somewhat wildly as she was apparently at a loss of words. “You all, there’s something happening. Some similar — but different — portal activity, and I’m not sure what, but-”

“We need to get down there,” Mars and Jupiter both said, almost at once.

Chapter Text

CW:

• violence.
• notable blood/mild gore/mild description of major injury of unnamed minor character.

“Have you sensed anything?” Mars spoke into the communicator.

“Not other than what you’ve picked up on,” Haruka’s husky voice said in answer. “Your area of town is the only one affected from what we can see.”

“Ow-”

“But we’re-”

“Ow!!”

“-.. Uh, what’s happening?!”

“It’s fine,” Jupiter blurted into Rei’s receiver reassuringly. “Venus is just — .. we’re fine.”

Mercury finished returning Minako’s joint back into its proper place, feeling — and hearing, what to the non-medical-profession others on the rooftop was very likely disturbingly loudly — a satisfactory pop. She winced sympathetically but smiled, offering a thumbs up.

First letting out a very slow ‘whoooooh’ sound, Venus suddenly brightened, turning her head back toward the communicator. “Yep, nevermind me, it’s fine now!”

“Uh-uhh, okay…” Uranus replied, apparently either too polite or not quite curious enough to ask. “Anyway, we’ll keep watching and securing the area borders! Call if you need.” They hung up.

“We need to split into groups,” Venus was immediately suggesting, not missing a beat. “But pairs at least, so we’re not disadvantaged. Usagi-chan?-”

The princess shook her head equivocally. “I don’t mind. I’ll team up with whoever.”

“Okay…” the golden-blonde leader bit her thumb, thinking. “Mars, Jupiter. You two are best equipped to deal with the vine creatures. So we should have one of you in each group. How about Mars and I stick with Usagi-chan, like last time? Mercury and Jupiter, you stay together.

“Sounds good to me,” Jupiter stated.

Ami’s heart leapt, increased circulation filling her body with a wash of cold, tingly chills. It’s just because I’m nervous for the battle, she told herself. And NOT because I impulsively kissed her and then neither of us ever mentioned it for days and this is the first time we’ll have been alone together since then except for when she saved my life and carried me to her bedroom.

“Ami-chan?” Venus’s clear blue eyes were asking her.

She nearly jumped. She felt like such an ass for even worrying about her social life instead of the people in dire need for protecting. Mercury shook her head, clearing it. “Okay.”

The group of senshi scanned the horizon.

“There’s two main bunches, right?” Mars contemplated out loud, pointing. “Those streets where the monsters are are pretty close together — we can go there.” She gestured to the west. “And Mako-chan and Ami-chan can take care of that intersection..” The dark-haired woman nodded to the mess of slowly-developing destruction to the east.

The other four warriors nodded.

Descending together to street level, the groups split. Through the streetlights and hazy clouds of dust Ami could see that since the time of their confrontation atop the skyscraper the area had been mostly vacated. Several flipped cars along the way lay abandoned, along with a solitary, bent-up bicycle, wheels still spinning.

As she and Jupiter slowed to a walk, Mercury whipped open her data screen, quickly searching for signs of human life. Thankfully she found none. “There’s no one still here. And no bodies. I guess they all got out okay…” she communicated with a weight-relieving sigh.

“Thank god…” the brunette warrior muttered, gazing back and forth at the smashed convenience stores and bits of rubble. “Is that-..?” she spoke, stopping.

Mercury nodded. “Three of the vine monsters, eleven o’clock. One of them is massive.”

As if in response, the creatures revealed themselves. Rising from the broken asphalt and shadows, at once they reared up before lunging.

“What, only three? We got this.” Without hesitating Jupiter jumped, sending a focused field of electricity with a punch. The smaller foes were almost immediately incinerated, disintegrating as their ashes spread to permeate the air.

The larger monster, twitching and squirreling as it made to evade any future attacks, veered toward Mercury. Within a moment she had aimed and charged an unnamed freezing attack; with one motion of her hands the creature’s middle section was immobilized within icy crystals, stuck to the pavement. Its prehensile tip seemed to writhe in pain and panic, pathetically.

“Well, this is only in this area,” Mercury responded, continuing the conversation as they worked. “We’ll have to face more of them once we get down the road. So-”

“I know, but-” Jupiter spun on her heel, thinking as she charged. She let loose a modified version of Oak Evolution which bombarded the creature’s length, battering all rough, plant-like skin not already enclosed in ice with concentrated points of energy, shocking it violently.

As the ice broke amid the newest attack the monstrous vine, moving in a shuddering, sluggish crawl, pulled back from the senshi, retreating along a large crack in the pavement.

“But, what?” Mercury asked over her shoulder. She was already checking the AR data overlay for stats. The creature was retreating toward a now-activating portal.

“But, now that I think of it though-..” The brunette returned to her side, panting slightly from her athletic attacks. “Why wouldn’t they overwhelm us from the beginning again?” She suddenly laughed, darkly, narrowing her eyes at the dimly lit street. “Is this a trap or something?”

Mercury frowned. “I’ve been honestly worried, too. I calculated based on the organic energy, and even with the approximations of how many you and Rei-chan said you ended up destroying last time, there are fewer creatures than we know exist. They’re not sending out their entire ranks… But with the new ground-level portals-”

Jupiter suddenly exclaimed with a start, pointing.

“What?-” Ami followed her gaze with the tech visuals, calibrating.

“Where we’re headed — that intersection they’re destroying — there are people — let’s..!”

“Discuss while we run,” Mercury finished, immediately joining her companion in a sprint.

“No… no…” The princess placed a hand over her mouth, seeming primed to sob.

Rei held her breath to steady similar emotions, blinking eyes stinging with the lingering smoke of small fires.

Venus immediately made to comfort Usagi, swinging her recently-repaired, still-twinging arm to wrap around Sailor Moon’s shoulder as the trio walked, quickly scanning their surroundings.

Blood spatter and signs of struggle lay here and there at the edge of the sidewalk adjoining the freeway. Mars noticed what Usagi had apparently just sighted — a middle-aged civilian man dangling face-down from the wreckage of window-frame fragments amid the rubble of a streetside shop which had been smashed in. He bled from his chest and stomach, staining through his button-down shirt. The body hung motionless.

“No…” Sailor Moon hid her head in the crook of her arm as she shuddered. Venus made to hurry her past the scene, quickening the pace.

The wounded man groaned, a pinkish hand twitching.

The moon princess snapped her eyes open, teary orbs immediately brightening. “He’s alive?!” She dashed to the civilian. “Mars! Venus! What can we do? Help get him down!”

Rei, already on it, had leapt to the collapsed wall the person was trapped in. “Venus..” she quietly called; the blonde warrior left the princess’s side momentarily to help the priestess pull.

“I don’t think…” Mars began, head spinning due to her unfortunate proximity to the gore.

“His legs are crushed — trapped — without Ami-chan I don’t want to move him, we might hurt him more..-”

“But we have to-” Usagi was crying, voice indicating she was near panic attack.

“There’s nothing we can do..” Mars, jumping back down to the marred asphalt, reached out a hand to help lead the princess away.

“We can call an ambulance! Call-”

“We don’t have our cell phones — that all went into subspace when we transformed-”

“Then detransform and-”

“Usagi-chan,” Rei took the woman by the shoulders. The pigtailed blonde was hyperventilating. “This whole fucking district was destroyed. You don’t think paramedics are coming?! Trust me, someone’s already called…”

“Yeah but-” Sailor Moon let out a loose sob, leaning into the priestess’s shoulder.

“Our job is to fight the OTHER MONSTERS that are STILL attacking people!” Mars, finally snapping with frustration, shot out an impatient arm to point.

Moon, shaking slightly, soberly nodded.

Just then a streetside door burst open; the three turned to look.

“Um-um!” a terrified youngish woman with a tawny-beige complexion and long, dark hair craned a neck around the doorway wearing a pajama top, trembling. “Sailor senshi! Are they- are they- is it over?” She clung with whitened knuckles to the edge of the wooden door.

“Hey! Are you alright? Um-” the moon warrior spoke as she dashed the couple paces to address the person. “I’m not sure, but for sure stay inside-”

“Will you call 119 for this man? And stay with him? He’s trapped-” Mars imparted urgently, glad to take the weight off Usagi’s mind.

“Yes-.. Oh! ” the woman gasped as she turned to look. “Okay..!”

“Thank you!” Venus quickly called as she gestured for the warriors to turn and leave.

Ahead, under the broken streetlights, Mars could make out several mountainous coils of the supernatural creatures that were still actively causing destruction, slithering as they cut through dark pavement and topsoil like butter.

“Are those fucking news helicopters? You kidding me?” Jupiter grunted as she sprinted to the topmost, level piece of broken road.

The two of them were firing ranged attacks, holding away a circle of encroaching enemy creatures as the warriors stood back-to-back.

Mercury shielded her eyes from the night-vision-killing searchlight with spread fingers before struggling to focus and locate the enemy, readying a last, strong attack.

“Shine Snow Illusion!”

To Ami’s delight and relief, the freezing temperatures and purifying energy left the smallest few organisms lifeless and limp even after the brief flurry cleared.

“We almost have them. There are just a few more creatures..-” Mercury panted as she pressed buttons to switch through the optional stats displayed on her visor.

“But, like, seriously? Right now? Have some freaking decency, they’re only blinding us..” the stronger girl complained as she paused, charging an attack.

The short-haired warrior froze, mind spinning to contemplate the blinking blobs of datapoints she was seeing.

“Jupiter… wait, there’s energy amassing — I don’t know, but-!” she sputtered.

“Huh?” The brunette turned, looking over her shoulder to peer out of the corner of her eye at Mercury’s screens. Then, she stuttered with a start. “W-what’s that? Ami-chan..-”

Too busy focusing frantically to answer, the genius put two and two together. She’d been too busy looking at the AR overlays to see the shadows encroaching.

The new energy reading is a new lifeform. Ami’s heart leapt to her throat. “It’s — It’s-” she struggled to communicate to Makoto in time. Luckily, her friend obviously didn’t need to know the scientific classifications or biological stats in order to properly react.

As a tar-black, shapeless mass of matter flung at them with frightening speed, Jupiter yelped and reflexively surrounded the two of them with an energy shield.

Breathless now from the adrenaline and stress hormones, Mercury slowly straightened once the target had been successfully blown away by the shield’s energy and looked around.

“Mercury…? Wha-..?” Jupiter speechlessly begged for information.

“It’s from the new portals I mentioned! The dimensional rifts are too small for the vines, but of course that’s what-”

“Just what the fuck are they?” the brunette cut to the chase.

“… It’s living material. Giving incredible readings. They’re appearing from ground-level dimensional rifts — not deep in the soil like the others — so watch out. More can materialize at any time, any place.”

“Fuuuck,” the other senshi muttered. “Okay. Tell the others!!”

Mercury was already on it. Communicator flipped open as they stood together, huddled under their dual-powered shield, Ami paged the other group.

“Hello?” Usagi’s voice, surprisingly cheerful considering the situation, sounded.

“Usagi-chan! Everyone!” Ami blurted urgently. “What’s your status?”

“We’re okay! We’re doing great — almost done clearing the monsters and we kind of just saved someone. Why?”

Mercury’s jaw clenched as she struggled with just how to convey the information. “Be. Careful,” she slowly emphasized. “There’s a new type of creature appearing — it looks like a mass of shadows — it-..it has apparently started spawning from street-level portals in our area, attacking us.”

“Okay. We’ll keep our eyes peeled!” Venus was answering.

The two senshi dashed to an area of crude cover — a formation made by bits of freeway and median which had been ripped from the earth — for Ami to continue studying her viewscreens.

Jupiter climbed from the ditch to peek over the highest edge, keeping lookout. “See anything?”

“Same as before. They’re keeping to our peripheries right now. I’m — I’m not sure what they’re doing but at least there are no longer any civilians around. So, we’re their primary targets.”

“Crap. What are they-..” the taller warrior reacted as a pocket of the strange, living matter apparently began to form a rudimentary conglomerate shape, rising up. Mercury whipped around to ready herself, scrambling to look.

As Jupiter prepared a fist of electric energy, taking a protective stance, a quick amplification of the deafening sound above accompanied by a ruthless gust of air announced the return of the news helicopter, navigating over some of the lower buildings as it sailed over them. Once it had whooshed by, the lights were directed without warning back at them and directly into unprepared eyes.

“Akh!” Mercury quickly shielded her face with a forearm, but her vision had already been blinded. She dropped back behind the wall of rubble, blinking, as spots populated the center of her vision.

“Grrr,” the brunette muttered through a tensed jaw, covering her eyes as she reacted similarly but maintained her position atop the edge. “See what I mean? That’s so irresponsible, like do they want the city to be destroyed or-”

The woman cut herself off with a surprised cry as a protrusion of the organic matter, having launched forward like a sprung jack-in-the-box, knocked her in the shoulder. She toppled off the edge of the marred rubble, disappearing.

"Mak-” Mercury began to shout.

“-Ugh! I’m okay,” Jupiter was already exclaiming, having dramatically somersaulted, as she popped back up and grabbed the concrete edge.

Mercury gestured frantically for her to jump back in the makeshift trench, covering them both with a clear-blue shield once she’d done so. The blue-haired woman pulled up her mini computer, typing as she watched the energy readings mirror the movements of the dark, shapeless creatures now moving about, above them.

For a moment they both watched the screen in silence.

“What did it feel like?” Ami suddenly asked in what felt like the most obvious, pressing question.

“What?”

She then realized how weird and random that sounded without understanding the nature of her confusion. “When it touched you.. I mean, what is it? Substance or energy?”

“Hmm. Um, it felt like… rubber? Hard rubber?”

“So it IS a solid,” Mercury murmured. “But…” With blue eyes she scanned her screen. The molecules and even whole, individual cells were volatile and rearranging, much more similar to what she would have expected from a plasma.

It took only a single beep for Ami to flip the communicator open. “You guys…” Venus’s voice was heard. “We-… I think we might have the weird stuff you were talking about. We have a problem.”

“Are you three alright?!” Jupiter leaned forward.

“Yeah. Sort of. Very, very outnumbered.”

“Same with us here,” Mercury spoke. “I think we might need to regroup.”

“Do you think it’s worth retreating? We don’t-” the leader began.

They were interrupted by Uranus’s panicked voice. “Everyone-.. what the hell is happening?!”

Oh shit, Ami thought with a sweatdrop, mentally briefly kicking herself in the pants. She’d forgotten she only explained the recent developments after paging the Inners’ channel.

“Are you okay?!” came the low-quality audio of Usagi’s and Rei’s simultaneous concern as they apparently yelled to speak into Venus’s communicator. From one microphone or another issued the sound of a distant crash, and Usagi somewhat-comically screamed.

“Yeah. But uh-.. wait are you all okay?!”

Why do we keep forgetting there’s another button for the Outers’ communicators now? Venus forgot to group-call them too.. god… Ami nearly laughed at the inefficient redundancy, but her inner mood was darkened by a shape whizzing above hers and Jupiter’s hole in the rubble. How long until they start trying to see if they can break our shield? she wondered, brow tensing.

“Anyway, there’s… we have… -oh-fuck! ”

An explosive crash and bang came through the line.

“Uranus!” Jupiter automatically shot forward to lean so close to the device she had to catch herself before toppling into Mercury’s lap. Similar interrogatives issued from Venus’s end.

Mercury rushed to analyze the data, zooming out on her computer’s viewscreen as she awkwardly held the up the wrist bearing her communicator and balanced the other device on one thigh. Obviously she couldn’t check the Outers’ status from here, but she noticed the radius of activity had increased.

She must have made a startled sound, because Jupiter shot her a subtle, “What?”

“The affected area is growing… the new enemies are spreading..”

Makoto’s eyes widened.

“You guys?” Venus questioned abruptly, voice shaky and layered over sounds of vaguely distant fighting. “Sailor Moon, Mars, and I talked about it really quick. I think it’s worth retreating, since we don’t even know the enemy’s goal,-”

“That’s true,” Ami spoke.

“They might just be sending an unending supply of monsters to fuck with us..-” Jupiter added bitterly.

“-.. So, Setsuna-san and Michiru-san, and Haruka if you can hear this too, we want you all to come find us — if you can. We’ll regroup somewhere safe until we find out if this whole deal’s posing an immediate threat or if they’re just trying to trap or distract us.”

“Roger that,” Jupiter answered for the pair.

A couple other affirmatives were muttered, one of which sounded like Michiru’s voice.

Mercury snapped her computer shut, exhaling a long sigh.

Jupiter laughed at her. “You ready?” she spoke sarcastically yet enthusiastically, winking.

“Guess so… No point in waiting.” Ami smiled halfheartedly before eyeing the darkness just beyond her energy barrier with futility.

As she released the energy, the protective dome fizzled to a close. Leaping back out into the battlefield, they ran.

Chapter Text

CW:

• intense violence.
• unintentional, brief wrong pronoun use.
• somewhat notable blood.

Uranus steadied their arm, feeling the familiar cosmic energy, empowering, building within them.

They hated to admit it, but Michiru had been right when she said the Inners didn’t truly need their protection anymore — on the contrary, now facing the edge of the skirmishes for the first time in years, the warrior mulled over the poisonous realization with a gulp: we’re nowhere near as versatile as they are in the midst of things.

The shadows, squirreling just outside of Haruka’s vision, intruded on their perception like creepy puppets, weird jet-black appendages popping out here and there from behind mailboxes and telephone poles, but becoming indistinguishable once more from the poorly-lit night as soon as they’d whip around to look.

A warm, organic, golden glow encircled the fighter. Darting their vision about for a worthy enemy to focus on, they were ready now in case retaliation was necessary. They tensed a strong fist.

There was probably a reason the three eldest outer senshi’s ancient, traditional role was to guard the Silver Millenium’s peripheries, serving as the first — and not last, like the Inners and Saturn — line of defense. How many World Shakings or Space Sword Blasters can I muster within a given period? Two? Three? Haruka turned over the blunt realization of rising danger briefly in their mind. I’ll have to be choosy with when I let loose, they thought. Spend myself now and I won’t be able to protect Usagi… or maybe even myself.

The cheerful, insufferable-but-adorable young leader had probably been — it viscerally injured Haruka’s ego to admit — right. They should quickly find the others.

“What on… Earth…” The androgynous wind senshi took a step back, taking a fighting stance anew, as an inhuman creature cackled. In the shadowy perimeter of the street, the shapeless monster, or monsters — if they’re connected, is it technically more than one? — made themselves known.

Uranus almost emitted an unusually unmanly scream as the source of the sound crept forward, eyeing the warrior with beady eyes; here and there disturbing nightmare versions of carnivorous animal heads peered forth from the shadows.

They panicked.

“World Shaking!!”

And the abominations were blown away, the narrow street rent with radiant, destructive light.

Haruka took the opportunity and sprinted through the shadows, whipping open the communicator on their wrist as their heart pounded with worry and they felt their legs carry them to speeds unimaginable since high school track-and-field.

“Everyone! Michiru, Setsuna..!” They paused but then decided not to risk waiting for a reply. “We need to find each other before we reach the others. They’re multiplying and fucking mutating — we’ll be outnumbered.”

“They just keep coming…” Venus spoke uneasily.

“Gah, how long are Mako-chan and Ami-chan gonna take?” Rei grumbled.

The mudlike conglomerate of creatures was circling the three warriors, rearing up clublike protrusions and lunging forward periodically like snake heads as the disturbing enemy frontline crept gradually closer.

“They’re only a few blocks away… but that’s not taking into account our, uh… traffic of sorts here.” The leader laughed.

Mars shot a palm-sized ball of flames at a blob which was edging closer, threateningly nearing her and Venus. Although the strange growth was cleared, burning back a few meters, it filled back in again within seconds.

Sailor Moon was focused although her blue eyes betrayed her anxiety; as she held her scepter, panting, she darted her gaze about. Rei turned, leaning over her left shoulder to address her. “Usagi-chan — now would be a good time for another one.”

“Alright!” The woman assuredly nodded, empowered. The bun-haired blonde lifted the weapon, her wavy bangs blowing back, parting to reveal the tiara on her forehead as the pure energy filled her. Sailor Moon directed a stream of blinding light around the group in an arc; Venus and Mars quickly rearranged themselves so as to not get in her way, for multiple obvious reasons, as she completed the destructive circle.

The tops — … heads? — of the close-by enemies singed off, the mass of shadows briefly struggled, writhing, as it pulled back like an ocean shore getting ready to bring forth another wave.

“Awesome!”; “Nice one, Usagi-chan!” the other two echoed.

The princess smiled and nodded confidently, chest rising and falling with labored breath.

“Do you think it’s worth retreating up to the rooftops?” Venus asked, looking up.

“Probably,” Rei answered, but was immediately grabbed by the ankle with a tendril of snakelike monster goop.

“Rei!” someone screamed, but the priestess was already airborne, feet pulled from under her.

She quickly reacted, reaching a hand to grab at any friction-producing feature of the rough highway as she hit the ground. She was pulled by the monster regardless, glove ripping as she dug desperate fingers into the asphalt.

Rei then became aware of Venus roughly grabbing her wrist, securing her, and a golden beam emitted overhead; with a high-pitched squeal of the enemy organism, Minako pulled the stunned Sailor Mars to her feet.

“You okay?!” The senshi of the moon was immediately at their side. The three tightened to form a close-knit group once more.

“Yeah..” Rei muttered, flexing her hand to inspect bloodied fingertips but shaking off her stunned discomfort. Meanwhile Venus relinquished her protective grip on her upper arm.

“This shit reminds me of the weird purple Pharaoh-90 goo,” Venus venomously observed as she resumed a defensive stance, facing outward from their little triangle.

“Ewwww, you’re right. Gross…! ” Sailor Moon cringed, dancing on her heels as she seemed to shudder. “That stuff was the worst..” To Rei’s left she shook her head.

Venus sweat-dropped. Her voice increased in pitch. “The worst?…” To Rei’s right she readied a Crescent Beam, lifting and supporting her right index finger. “You didn’t even have to fight that as much as we did…” she somewhat jokingly accused, as she finished powering and shot forth her attack, arcing it to blaze through all nearby ‘goo’ before her.

“Fight it?!” Moon argued, turning her head to face the other blonde. “I dove into it!!”

“Oh, that’s true…” Venus, in a regretful, sympathetic tone, relented.

“Guys, can we maybe not right now??” Mars irritatedly huffed, growing strained. “Look!”

She elbowed Venus and the princess in turn, the latter of whom made an awkward squawk as she expelled her breath, protesting — as Rei may have admittedly done it a little too purposefully hard — and the two of them turned quickly to look.

“What is it?” Venus breathed.

The shadows were rearranging, forming what appeared to be a more complex assortment of chaotic features.

“… Is that?”

The mess of shadows, churning here and there as their forms changed one-by-one, was revealing itself as a more threatening variety of shapes.

As Mars watched, teeth shone, dagger-like extensions bared, and tentacle-like coils formed, the ever-changing mass of monsters ebbing and reacting like a nightmarish hive-mind.

As soon as the self-proclaimed crybaby princess caught sight, she properly screeched. “Uh- I don’t like that!! Nope, nope nope..!” the blonde warrior subsequently complained, backing up and turning to hang off Rei’s shoulder.

“Venus…” Rei began seriously.

The leader, speechlessly absorbing the new situation, nodded. “I’ll page the others.”

But their communicators were already beeping.

“Ami-chan!” Jupiter reacted, jumping for her friend as the other girl was knocked airborne and immediately pummeled by one of the strange enemy forms.

She didn’t reach her in time but the blue-haired warrior landed in a capable crouch, barely stumbling. As Makoto ran, keeping hold of Mercury’s hand even after she pulled her up so as not to be separated, the two of them slowly neared the other Inners’ location, turning a corner.

Sparks were flying as the lightning senshi at last let go of Ami’s hand to charge up a Sparkling Wide Pressure, eyes narrowed as she glanced about them defensively.

“Jupiter…” Mercury spoke, panting but quickly recovering as they stood together, “I’m noticing the physical structure of this entity — although it’s technically still plant cells — is different… These creatures are not particularly vulnerable to flame and heat — which unfortunately includes most of your attacks as well as Rei’s — like the other ones were.” She clicked off her visor for a moment, glancing over to meet Makoto’s eye. “So we no longer have that advantage.”

“We should tell Rei-chan,” Jupiter spoke, as she allowed the electric energy to die down, taking a moment to think.

When Mars answered the communicator she was not surprised. “I’ve been having a much harder time with them, so I thought as much…” she angstily admitted. “But, you guys, do you know what’s happening with the newest type?? Mercury, do you have any stats on them? We were about to tell you.”

“What?…” Mercury physically froze momentarily in place as she slowly gasped, wheels spinning. “What new type?”

“Um…” came Rei’s voice.

“Wait, what is this-?” Jupiter readied a powerful attack again, glancing about in the darkness.

Where the shapeless mass had lain in wait just moments ago, new, strange animal-like shapes were creeping in.

Pluto took one step back.

It was silent.

Her position atop a midsize skyscraper gave her an advantage; brushing her long, deep-jade hair out of her face, she made note of the others’ positions.

While Neptune as well as Mercury and Jupiter had dipped out of view, behind Pluto’s blind spots along the skyline, to her left and in front of her she could spy Uranus and the others.

The butch blonde was fighting their way, running as they resorted to melee attacks against the glob-like masses, toward Pluto, but they sure were taking their time.

I need to wait for them and Michiru to regroup before we reach Usagi and the others, Setsuna realized.

Then a channel on the communicator opened, with Mercury’s hurried voice pouring in. “Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, I’m sure you’re already aware, but the new enemy is mutating. Take extra care, as it seems to be more adaptive and dangerous!”

“Noted,” Uranus muttered on their side of the comms.

“Uranus, you’re okay! ” Usagi’s bubbly voice came through.

“Of course I’m okay. Sorry, Odango.. I just can’t talk and outrun and dodge these motherfuckers at the same time,” they spoke bitterly. “I don’t know how you all got used to using these communicators…”

“-Anyway,” Mercury interrupted. “I’m also picking up three concentrated groups of energies — I’m assuming that coincides with you three’s locations? A-are you all being targeted?”

“Obviously,” Uranus shot back, and Pluto heard Neptune also mutter a ‘yes’ that sounded vaguely strained.

Setsuna’s eyes searched through the darkness while the wind whipped through her hair. “Possibly…” she finally answered Mercury, afraid to give wrong information. “But I’m not… oh.”

Beginning to crawl with sickly, suckered tentacles as they reached blindly, scaling the building’s edge, the creatures had reached her.

Shit.

“Woah… Yes, they’re at my location as well. You all — the buildings aren’t safe!” She rushed to exclaim, brandishing her staff alongside a small burst of energy although it did nothing to deter the oncoming forces of nightmare fuel; bits and pieces of predatory animals, stuck together as if by a disturbed child playing with a Mr. Potato Head, formed individual monsters that reared up at the tall warrior, all seeming to be attached to one another by the shapeless mass of shadows. “They can climb..” Pluto spat, turning to scan her surroundings and backing up.

“Oh, no… there goes my first plan,” the water senshi admitted.

“There they are!” Mars’s voice was hoarse.

“Mercury! Jupiter!” Venus, sweating now with the effort of each golden attack, looked up to see them.

The pair jumped down, descending from a streetside roof inside Jupiter’s green protective bubble; the group of chaotic, monstrous forms directly underfoot was struck back as they landed, the forcefield crackling against the dark ground before dissipating.

“Everyone!” Jupiter addressed them as they dashed to join the safety of the inner circle guarded by the other trio.

Sailor Moon, wiping her brow on the back of one glove and briefly lowering her pink scepter, smiled. “Now we can just find the outer senshi!”

Mercury was already one step ahead, rushing to trace the energy signatures on her computer’s visuals. She nodded. “I can guide us to them. But they’re… most likely still not together.”

“Dammit,” Venus murmured, glancing about to spot any potential creatures growing bold enough to try attacking the group of five. “They’re gonna make us rescue them one-by-one, aren’t they?” she complained through clenched teeth. The blonde exhaled slowly, calming herself. “But… we should at the very least make sure Usagi-chan is safe first.. Gah, I don’t know.”

“They want me, right?” The pigtailed warrior spoke stiffly, though underneath it all her voice was full of salty, bubbling emotion. “You all are safer if I’m around, since the enemy wants me alive.” She turned to make sober eye contact with Venus. “I think we should stay in a large group… Once we get the three of them, we can escape together — watch each other’s backs.”

“I agree.” Jupiter guardedly nodded. “Usagi-chan is technically safest in the company of all of us, anyways, I feel.”

Minako hesitantly approved, especially once she saw Mercury’s small nod of agreement. Ami’s deep blue eyes met hers searchingly. “I think they’re right,” she spoke as she flipped through maps on her touch-screen thoughtfully. “If we combine our energy we can fly there quickly and then get out — or as a backup, I can route us through the path with the fewest latent enemy portals.”

“Good enough for me,” Mars muttered, looking uneasily around the squirming enemy peripheries.

“Alright.” Venus looked to the sky before beginning to summon a golden glow. Blowing her hair back, it radiated until she could feel, though her eyes were shut, the energy softly encircle the five, forming an expanding sphere. One by one, the others’ energies began to join her own, passively helping her power it.

One concentrated eye shot open as the senshi of love heard Sailor Moon scream.

“Um, um, um-!” the princess was bouncing on her heels as she darkly, ironically laughed, cringing back from the edge of their circle, from which several black, tentacle-like forms teased, threatening to practically tickle her.

Jupiter, the next one to break from the fruitless group-meditation, sprang to place herself between Sailor Moon and the entities, holding electricity readied, arcing between her palms.

Mars quickly reacted also, dashing to protect the princess from the opposite side. “I don’t think these guys are keen on us leaving,” the fire warrior observed, grumbling. Violet eyes darted about in the dark.

Fuck, Venus thought; she broke her concentration, along with it her sphere of transportation. That would have to wait.

Enemy creatures, fanglike protrusions bared, had begun to growl and yip, herding the senshi backward into one another as the area not occupied by nightmarish monsters grew quickly smaller.

“At least all of us are properly together to deal with this now,” Venus muttered, long hair falling over one shoulder as she quickly turned to address the others with confidence. She sought Makoto’s gaze, finding it. “You ready, Jupiter?” Minako spoke, voice now revved up with sass.

“Always.” The brunette threw her a wink.

Venus readied her attack; she didn’t know how well this would work against a mess of creatures that was capable of changing shape, but their tried-and-true duet method was worth a shot.

“Venus Love-Me Chain!”

As she had hoped, a carnivorous beast head shot forward from the shadows, retaliating; the business end of the golden chain caught it around the ‘neck,’ securely wrapping. Hoping she wasn’t making a grave mistake, Minako tugged.

Within an instant the enemy was scrambling to change forms, shiny black body liquifying, but the chain automatically buried itself harder, deeper, constricting the strange flesh. Simultaneously Jupiter let loose.

“Sparkling Wide Pressure!”

The onslaught of electric current coursed through the now-bulky form of the large individual Venus had trapped, and all connected monster tissue going back for a surprising radius, nearly clearing the block.

“Yay!” Sailor Moon briefly cheered, jumping. In the streetlights her cheerful, worn-out face shone with sweat and debris, although Minako’s vision of her now swam from the near-continuous exertion.

As the enemy dissolved, sizzling to a green, textured dust, a relieved Venus let go, de-materializing her weapon, panting.

Mars turned to face what was left of the fray. “Burning Mandala!” she cried. Though the survivors dodged, a wall of cleansing flames sought, individual fireballs hitting receding targets. Knocked back, engulfed, they vaporized.

“Now!” Mercury rushed to face the others, gesturing, as her blue eyes scanned the computer screen held in her hand. “Enough of them are gone!”

Not wanting to wait for anything else to go wrong, Jupiter leapt to the sky, the princess’s hand securely in hers. Waiting some meters above, they hovered; the Jovian covered them with a forcefield.

Nodding quickly to the other two, Venus summoned her own, aiding Mercury and Mars as they lifted up, floating to stop just above Sailors Moon and Jupiter.

Mercury was apparently already typing. “They’re that way,” she rapidly spoke, pointing. “If they haven’t reached one another by the time we get to them, Uranus will be closest — we can get her first. —… them? ” she hastily corrected.

The black-haired warrior nodded. “Gender-neutral as of when I last spoke to them, last night.”

Immediately, with Venus’s and Jupiter’s combined powers condensing into a single bubble, the five began to soar.

“Ooooh, Rei-chan’s been talking to Haruka-san!” the bun-haired senshi teased, lightly laughing.

To Minako’s right, albeit through the dense darkness, Rei’s face immediately pinked. “I’ve never had a crush on Haruka.. like you have,” the warrior retorted.

“Yeah, I-think-you-did,” Sailor Moon said, sing-songy, ignoring the last bit. “At least that one time-”

“-I pretended because Yuuichiro was being a heterosexist ass,” Mars explained as they flew over city blocks, her voice softening. “That dude needed to see that being both my friend and a man didn’t mean he owned me.”

“Mmhmmm..?” Moon agreed sarcastically.

Enigmatic creatures bit at Neptune’s neck.

“Submarine Reflection!”

They were blown away, in a blast of nostalgic, sea-scented water and radiant aquatic light.

Sailor Neptune steadied herself against the building edge; she stood alone, perched atop the flat surface of an office building’s maintenance floor exterior. She had sight of Pluto but no others.

When Uranus had made the call for the three outer warriors to converge, at first Michiru had been hesitant to leave her post, thereby potentially allowing the creatures to escape into the rest of the city.

But she had immediately corrected her thought processes, wondering, Are we keeping them in the area? Or are the monsters keeping us out?

As the dozens of minutes, perhaps over an hour by now, had gone by, however, Neptune had spotted no waves of the shapeshifting enemies attempting to break through the gap between hers and Pluto’s range of easy coverage. They simply formed a vague wall, crawling and undulating along corners and shadows once they branched out from wherever they’d come, lying in wait threateningly between waves of attack. The answer was clear.

Then Mercury, over the communicators, had confirmed the bastions of enemy forces around the district’s periphery were mainly centered on the three outer warriors. Keeping the three of them back, indeed. How arrogant she’d been, to think she hadn’t been playing into a trap.

Usagi-chan. Everyone, she thought.

With a clang a formation of deep-purple goo had arrived next to her, on the fire escape just around the corner.

With a cry she kicked it off, knocking it in the apparent jaw with the heel of a teal boot, saving her more energy-producing powers for future onslaughts.

The mess of nightmarish organism fell, however clinging by shadowy tendrils to the building below her.

Time to move, she thought. If Michiru could just leap a couple buildings before being hindered again, she and Pluto might be close enough to help one another out.

Then several dark masses made it to the ledge surrounding her. Daggers, like grappling hooks, dug into drainpipe and wrapped around fire escape fencing.

Michiru gasped aloud. Readying energy within her, she held up her mirror. Before she could let loose, a single, agile glob formed a ropelike protrusion and struck her in the throat. Unable to react other than garbling a yell, wincing at the sharp attack to her trachea which left her reeling as her airway was cut off, she realized it was wrapping, squeezing.

Her communicator was pinging but, though just raising her wrist before collapsing to the pavement, she was unable to open or activate it. Panicking, I have at least one more good attack left in me for now, she thought.

Simultaneously other monsters were taking advantage, wasting no time in leaping on her. Clublike appendages attempted to beat the warrior into the concrete while others were whipping her, drawing blood that felt icy-hot as it spilled from cool skin becoming numb from lack of circulation.

Unable to gasp in air to speak the words to focus her energy, Neptune desperately shot an unnamed attack. Raising a shaky right fist in an attempt to shift and loosen the now-multiple creatures that bound her, the senshi of the seas sent a burst of aquatic force from her aura, overtaking and loosening, breaking, destroying the enemy organism.

Shaking, vision blotted with spots and stars, and gasping, Neptune pulled herself to hands and knees and pressed clumsily on her communicator.

Haruka’s voice answered — certainly a beautiful one — but the ‘Uranus here. What?’ was something the woman really hoped wouldn’t be the last thing she heard alive.

Michiru’s vocal cords felt like fire. “I need help.”

The turquoise-haired woman felt a few rope-like strands crawl over her face, gagging her and covering her nose.

“Change of plans!!!” Haruka’s voice sent near-panic shooting into the Inners’ awareness by the sheer tone of their voice when Venus answered. “Don’t come and find me. They're moving to dogpile Michiru and she's overwhelmed by them. I think she’s hurt. Pluto and I are almost there, but we need to provide backup and help her out, now! ”

Chapter Text

CW:

• violence.

Rei touched down onto terrace bricks as Venus guided them briefly down.

The beautiful blonde warrior reached out a hand to lean on the skyscraper’s balcony wall before her golden sphere sparkled faintly, dissipating. “Hang on…” she murmured, breathing slowly, heavily. “Just a sec-”

“Sup?” Rei began, gently grabbing her shoulder. “You okay, Mina?”

Venus quickly caught her strength again, straightening with a curt nod. Mercury’s and the princess’s eyes both met Rei’s own worryingly, as Jupiter stared off protectively into the night, stepping to the terrace edge.

“I think… that if I continue to transport all of us like this, I won’t have enough energy to get us back out with the other three,” Venus spoke circumspectly. “Jupiter — do you think you have enough strength left to use your forcefields to protect the others while you all go,” she panted, “to safety?”

“Minako — what-?” Mars probed, unamused.

“Yes.” The brunette nodded dutifully as she turned back from the roof’s edge, eyes shifting between Sailor Moon’s and the leader’s with seriousness.

“No offense, but my powers allow me to fly faster.” Venus took a breath, pacing and briefly turning away as she thought. “I’ll go-”

“No.” Heart erupting in ice, Rei firmly grabbed her hand. The blonde turned to look over her shoulder with a resigned smile. Mars had to think quickly; she knew Minako was stronger and could break from her grip easily. She’d have to convince the others. “M-Minako- you’re not even fastest unless we fly with you to contribute energy — going on your own ruins the point-”

The leader turned back to the other four, blinking at the ground. “I’m also still the fastest at navigating rooftops, from my time as Sailor V.” She nodded resolutely, looking quickly from one to the other of them. “I need to help them — but-”

“That’s absolutely rediculous, Mina-chan..” Rei hissed, nails digging into the other woman’s glove like claws. “You’re not going totally alone. At least take me.”

Mercury stepped toward them. “It’ll be ideal if I can give you a heads-up where enemies are detected,” she spoke. “How many of us can you feasibly carry?”

Venus sighed, lowering her head.

Makoto spoke next. “It doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing.” She shook her head somewhat pleadingly, making eye contact with an unbelievably grateful Rei. “If you don’t have the energy to take the rest of us quickly, I’ll help the others scale the more difficult buildings and we’ll be right behind you.”

Venus shook her head quickly, emphatically. “But then the second group could get left behind- Fine…” she said bitterly, with a change of disposition. “I’ll let one or two of you come with me, but Mako-chan, hurry to escort at least just Sailor Moon to safety-”

“No!” The shorter blonde protested, “I want to help!” She roughly pushed away from Jupiter, who had made to interlace their arms. “They don’t even want me dead..-”

“But they could kidnap you,” Mercury spoke up, tension in her voice as she looked to Sailor Moon, who seemed now near tears. She shook her head. “Please, Usagi-chan… -I’m sorry to doubt you, Venus, you were right to worry. I’ll accompany them to make sure Sailor Moon’s safe. You take Mars for extra backup — Rei’s right it’s careless to go alone.”

The black-haired warrior, unable to believe she won against Minako’s recklessness, let out a shaky breath of relief as she released her steadying hand, moving it to the other woman’s shoulder. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Venus nodded with resignation. Mars jumped to hover in the air alongside her as the Venusian senshi’s energy filled them both, surrounding the pair, and they took off.

Together, Jupiter, Mercury, and Moon retreated over the rooftops.

“Is there anywhere truly safe..?” Makoto mused, though the group had automatically set a course for the Hikawa Shrine. To gain speed they had defaulted to leaping between buildings, the lightning senshi summoning her flight-aiding sphere around the three whenever they were briefly airborne, for maximum protection and the quickest route.

Mercury sighed, short blue hair flowing around her soft features. “We’d have a few minutes’ warning wherever we are as long as I’m looking at my scanners nonstop. I can ask Artemis and Luna to spot us from the control center, as well, but I don’t think they’re able to pick up the generation of interdemensional portals like I am, only energy, so there’s not much point in that assuming I’m not incapacitated…” Then she gasped with a start. “Actually, I can take us into a hyperspacial pocket generated by my computer, but we’d need to reach the control center — unless we could find a large enough area clear of monsters and other people.”

“That’s a great idea, Mercury!!” Sailor Moon exclaimed, throwing the genius a smile.

“How about a rooftop?” Jupiter offered as they continued to leap. Even compared with the more-distant shrine, the control center at the arcade seemed dauntingly far away.

“Since the enemy portals are still prevalent at ground level in this district, I’m worried the creatures would find some way to follow us..”

Sailor Moon turned to the other two with a confident smile. “If you bring them by mistake, we can just fight them in there!” She laughed, winking.

There was a silent pause as everyone processed.

Eventually Mercury shook her head. “Normally that would be totally reasonable. I’ve no doubt that the three of us could defeat a large number of them. But since we know the enemy has very similar technology, probably even better than mine, and the creatures seem to communicate as a collective consciousness, I’m worried the enemy would be able to track us. Also, it’s better off if they aren’t tipped off about my dimensional portal technology.”

“Right…” Makoto brought a pensive hand up to her lips. “Fuck… Okay, we’ll keep going toward the command center then, yeah?”

“How far is it?” The warrior-princess asked.

After a beat, Mercury answered, “… Still about one-and-a-half kilometers as the crow flies. But that’s not including the safest route out of Chiyoda-ku.” She paused. “We’ve been fighting for hours. Jupiter, are you still good on energy for this technique? We can take a break, or find a route along the rooftops where we can just run normally, although that’ll be slower.”

Between precipice leaps the trio slowed to a walk atop an apartment building. The tall warrior flexed the power in her hand experimentally as the other two waited, gazing at the path ahead. “I… I think I can keep going. If I’m being honest, the shielding aspect of my forcefields is growing weaker, though, so we’ll need to be extra careful even so.”

She hadn’t wanted to think about that prospect. I can’t run out of energy if I don’t let myself think about it, an aspect of the brunette’s internal willfulness had been telling her, though she knew, when it came down to it, that wasn’t true. Ami’s words, though practical, had brought Jupiter’s attention to the dizzy exhaustion which had been threatening to creep in.

Dammit, Mercury.. the warrior thought, albeit lovingly, as she directed her focus once more at keeping fatigue at bay.

“Okay…” the technician agreed with a wary glance at her viewscreens, finding them a path relatively devoid of enemy portals that would take them into Minato-ku and eventually Azabujuuban.

It turned out, however, that any decisions regarding how to best continue ended up being inconsequential.

They answered a call on Mercury’s communicator, during which they arguably should have kept going; Usagi had been was worried the other two might be needing their help, however, and Makoto agreed. So, rather than continue to increase the distance between the senshi groups, the trio momentarily hovered, all three catching their breath, at the considerably safe height of about seven floors up from the darkened road, while they listened.

“You guys!” Sailor Moon addressed, hovering closer. But they heard just a blip of Mars’s voice before the signal became incoherent.

“You’re breaking up..” Ami muttered. “Crap,” she spoke as the call was apparently dropped.

“What does that mean?!” the blonde questioned as she blinked, voice tainted with worry.

“I’m not sure..” the genius admitted, eyes narrowing at her screens. Suddenly she took in a sharp breath. “Watch out… there’s something below us.”

“But it can’t get us from here right?” Jupiter looked down to see several patches of the dark, shapeshifting entities snaking into the deserted road below, reaching up tentacle-like arms tauntingly yet fruitlessly into the air.

“It shouldn’t be able to…” Mercury spoke. “We’re far enough away from the buildings even if they climb.”

“-I thought there weren’t any portals under us here?” the princess interrupted, glancing down apprehensively.

“There aren’t,” the blue-haired woman clarified. “I’m not sure where these have followed us from. They must be getting faster…”

“I can take us higher just in case,” Jupiter proclaimed, psyching herself up after first permitting herself a weary sigh. Channeling the viridian electromagnetic energy, she lifted the group some dozen meters more.

The other two warriors briefly waited, while Mercury fiddled with her communicator and attempted a diagnostic. As the three of them hung suspended, relatively protected by the green sphere around them, the slowly-writhing monsters below appeared small, insignificant. Sailor Moon shivered in the breeze as the wind gusted the long strands of her pigtailed hair.

“Uh-!” Jupiter exclaimed suddenly, as motion below them caught her attention, then muttered an apology seeing as how Mercury had been testing the microphone sensitivity. “Watch out..” she added once the others had glanced to look at what turned out to be long tendrils of the enemy entities snaking up, falling only a few meters short.

“Ah!!” Moon squealed. “What are they doing??”

Pulling herself away from the electronics long enough to look, the blue-haired senshi gasped.

“We should go..” Jupiter spoke uneasily, with a dark laugh.

“They’re adapting so fast…” Mercury, stunned, muttered. “I vote if we can’t regain contact with Venus and/or Mars in a minute or two, we just keep going. I’m sorry, Usagi-chan…”

“I unfortunately second that,” Makoto agreed with uneasiness, extending one hand to temporarily fortify the protective aspect of the bottom of their vehicular shield as they floated upward.

The creatures were faster; gasping alongside Sailor Moon’s fearful cry, the curly-haired senshi struggled to hold the shield in place as long, ropelike tendrils shot upward, reaching, whipping against the energy barrier.

“Shine Snow Illusion!” As a second wave came forth, the water senshi was on it.

A wave of intense icy energy, freezing as it met with the numerous malicious tips of snaking organism that were branching upward, seeking a target, enveloped the air below the senshi.

Frozen at once, the goo-like threads were immobilized before shattering.

Sailor Moon, having readied her quickest attack, tossed a weaponized tiara which soared like a boomerang, cutting off most, but not quite all, of the rope-like extensions.

Though struggling for energy, Jupiter desperately rationed all power into continuing to launch the three of them airborne, accelerating faster.

A feeling of dread crept up in her as simultaneously she became aware that one rope of enemy goo, quick as a lasso, had coiled itself up her left leg to the knee. Mercury, noticing as she glanced down while readying another attack, made to exclaim to her but merely had time to open her mouth.

Makoto had instinctively tensed, preparing herself to break away; as soon as she pulled on her calf, resisting, the rope grew deep spikes like teeth which simultaneously penetrated her flesh, anchoring as it tugged. Yelping in pain and surprise, she was yanked down.

“Jupiter!!” the other two voices called from above, though they became quickly distant.

During the mere second or two of falling, the panicking warrior struggled with detaching the enemy creature’s hold on her to no avail; crumpling and apparently losing consciousness upon impact, she blinked awake moments later, world spinning, to see that Mercury was practically upon her.

As the short woman stood facing away, battle-worn blue uniform illuminated in streetlights, in the middle of the chaos-ridden street, the air around her briefly swirled with power as she summoned an attack.

“Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!”

As Usagi screamed indescipherably, still hovering in the air several stories above, Jupiter watched from the ground as Mercury’s energy, a massive, whirlpooling rush of moving water, overtook the street; like a deadly river it barreled into and washed away all deep-purple shapeshifting creatures in sight.

Strained, having cleared practically the whole block, the blue-haired senshi, panting, collapsed to her knees.

“Ami.” With a sharp groan Makoto forced herself up; she shoved back against gravity to hands and knees, nearing the other girl enough for her to place one hand on her shoulder. “Thank you..”

“Look out!” Sailor Moon cried from some meters above as a gently blinding light brewed; she was readying an attack.

Jupiter squinted through the darkness beyond Mercury, who appeared too exhausted to react, in time to see opportunistic reinforcements coming. Rapidly branching into more of the thin ropes to travel faster, the monsters aimed for the princess as well as the two warriors kneeling, vulnerable, in the street. From the corner of the brunette’s vision Sailor Moon was just barely shooting out small attacks with near-perfect aim, decapitating all creatures that threateningly neared her but apparently unable to charge up the energy for more.

But, I’ll be damned if I let my dearest friend be hurt protecting me, Jupiter thought tenderly, frantically. All remaining strength went into generating a forcefield to barely cover herself and Ami. Though sparking with the strain of keeping the several, now-violently-whipping monsters back, it held. Within a moment or two Mercury, chest still heaving as she looked up, was finally able to summon a weak blue shield as well, combining with Jupiter’s own.

Thankfully that had been long enough for the moon princess to charge her power; “Moon Spiral Heart Attack!” she cried from her vantage point, hovering above the two.

A bright white light rent the scene, dissolving creatures to green dust and causing others to flee the area of destruction, squirming.

Nearly passing out all over again from the dizzy exertion, panting, once her protective forcefield dissipated Jupiter fell to lean forward on her hands until she felt Mercury, who had just shakily staggered to a stand beside her, nudge her shoulder.

“Can you stand?” the water senshi hoarsely asked, extending a gloved hand.

“Yeah,” Jupiter muttered breathlessly, admittedly before she knew whether it was actually true. Taking her friend’s hand, she allowed herself to be pulled up. Thankfully it hadn’t been a lie; her legs, even the bloodied one, supported her.

Mercury immediately summoned her computer, typing frantically as her eyes darted about. Meanwhile Sailor Moon had hovered lower to meet them, her energy also appearing strained, as she surveyed the block warily.

“Are you guys okay?!” the blonde gasped out, panic on her face.

“We need to go as soon as possible,” the blue-haired warrior spoke in between breaths. “Before the next ones arrive — in a minute or so.”

Jupiter nodded, gazing to the hazy, darkened sky. Taking a step to support herself on a metal railing while her drained energy recovered, the brunette’s left calf shot her a painful proclamation of recent events’ consequences: she could walk but she sure as hell couldn’t run or jump anytime within the next few minutes. Closing her eyes to hone in on any remaining strength, the warrior surrounded herself in an emerald glow. Within a few short seconds it fizzled out, as she winced from the strained attempt and cupped her pounding forehead.

“Mako-chan-?” the blonde warrior began.

“Can you-..?” Mercury, frowning in equal measures sympathy and panic toward their quickly-worsening situation, eyed her swimmingly.

Makoto averted her gaze, weighed down by bitter shame of having overestimated her endurance. She shook her head as she slowly inhaled, leaning into the sidewalk railing. “No…” She turned finally to look at the tech genius. “No, I can’t anymore.. I’m so sorry, I thought-” One fist tensed.

Mercury forced a stiff smile, shaking her head while she rapidly spoke. “That’s okay then, we’ll take the lower rooftops, or even just the streets, as fast as we can, but we need to leave now-”

Jupiter shook her head preemptively as she tried her bad leg without support, gritting her teeth; she knew what her next answer would likely have to be. As she had thought, it nearly collapsed under her weight. As Mercury, seeming to be panicking the more time went by with the trio still standing there, rushed forward helplessly, Makoto tried her best to give her a knowing, pleading look.

“Your leg-”

“I can’t run. Please, go ahead without me.”

Mercury, now speechless and looking rather like someone had just stabbed her, shook her head mutely.

The bun-haired blonde, appearing to be slowly absorbing the dilemma, blurted, now frantic, “-I’ll carry you!!”

The taller warrior looked into the princess’s blue eyes regretfully but firmly. “Anything like that will slow you down, and you’re both nearly as low on energy as me.” She darted green eyes worriedly down the street before gazing back to realize that Usagi was already, silently, crying. “Usagi-chan… You need to be safe, and I can try to catch up.. — leave me! ” the brunette practically yelled, begging, seeing as how the next wave of abominations was already approaching, goo-like arms creeping around the edges of buildings just a street or two away.

To both hers and Mercury’s surprise, the blonde warrior turned around, gazing to the street. She took one step, wiping her nose with a sniffle, before she smiled and spoke a single word. “No.”

Amid a blinding light the Moon Calice appeared in her hands. “Moon Eternal Make Up!”

An array of feathers and soft pink light surrounded her; Sailor Moon emerged, glowing, specks of sparkling power briefly drifting away, radiating from her two gorgeous angelic, white wings. Mercury, still frozen, gasped, and Makoto saw her faintly blush.

“I’m not leaving anyone behind.” Sailor Moon, Eternal Tiare flickering to life in her hands and held brandished, turned her head regally to Mercury. “Mercury… if this entire block were to be cleared of enemies and portals, could you use your hyperspace sphere right now?”

“Y- Actually, yes!” The blue-haired woman stammered.

The moon princess nodded. Energy surrounded the young woman, building in her hands. “Silver Moon… Crystal Power Kiss!”

As the warrior held the shining weapon over her head, pink and golden light radiated, cleansing. While snaking enemies were just beginning to approach, changing shapes threateningly, the silent street was bathed in power.

Jupiter watched, still leaning on the railing wordlessly as she gasped at the sight. It’s been so long.. she thought, I had forgotten how radiant she is.

Once the energy cleared, disintegrating all monsters in its path up and down the few nearby streets, the moon senshi, with a soft groan, collapsed to her knees. The Eternal Tiare dropped to clatter on the pavement.

“Sailor Moon!” Mercury ran the few paces to her, blinking away her raw expression of shocked relief.

Makoto merely hobbled over, grabbing Mercury’s shoulder urgently. “Now!” she suggested, voice tense.

Mercury nodded hastily, straightening and whipping out her tech. “Right.-” she shot one hand quickly into the air. “Hyperspacial Sphere Generate!”

With a quick blip of physical reality, a deep-blue bubble extended from the genius warrior. Overtaking the street below and stars above alike, the hyperspace field replaced their surroundings with a dim, digitally-blinking field of flat, blank terrain.

Finally able to, at last, let down their guard, the three senshi simultaneously dropped to rest, panting, against the cool, synthetic-matter floor.

Chapter Text

CW:

• violence.
• mention of major character death (but don't worry, it didn't actually happen, everyone's alive!)

“Feel anything?”

“No…”

The wind whipped the senshi’s long, dark hair against her face. She closed her eyes as they flew, in her friend’s golden bubble. After reaching no substantive feeling other than the wind itself and the exhaustive strain of her spent muscles and pounding heart, she shook her head once again, definitively.

“So, I guess it’s not Erika, then,” Venus spoke, barely turning her head to look at Rei as she focused on racing them forward. The priestess had told her about the ritual involving Erika’s garb and the fire.

Rei clenched her jaw, biting her lip. “Or, if it is her, she’s really good,” she commented. To be honest, that was being hopeful. She was worried Minako was right; what if the psychic blocking her ability was Selenios himself, or some other higher-up? Or, the creatures? If that turned out to be the case she may not get the full range of her spiritual powers back until the entire conflict was won. At that thought her stomach churned uncomfortably with nauseous stress.

She decided to change the subject.

“How long until we get to them?”

The blonde sighed. “Probably just a couple minutes. We weren’t that far away from where Mercury said Uranus was when we split up… I hope they can hang on.”

“Me too..” Rei quickly added, "I know they will."

Without warning, as they cleared the distance between two precipices below a gooey, deep-gray matter had coalesced, shooting upward to form the appearance of bars protruding from the roof structure before them.

"What the-" Mars began as she and Venus abruptly stopped meters from the otherworldly barricade. In the darkness, the magma-like material crawled, subtly undulating as if in wait, meters before Rei's eyes.

"Well this is new," Venus muttered in a quiet tone of forced confidence. "Fuck."

"Can we go over it safely..?-" Mars craned her neck in gesture.

"Yeah.." Venus tenuously agreed before putting forth a quick burst of the radiant, golden energy. As she prepared to take them soaring, the two senshi dimly glowed.

"Hello," said a sharp voice that seemed to cut through the air from behind to send a chilled tingle up Rei's spine.

They whipped around.

"Erika…" Venus growled. "I thought you left!"

"Go.. go! " the fire senshi urged in a gruff whisper, with a prod to Minako's shoulder to quickly get them away from the ambush.

Snapping back to reality as she returned with a confident nod, the leader didn't wait to hear the enemy woman's answer. Rei felt her hair lifted with energy as Venus's aura pulled her along like the obedient orbit of a moon; the golden warrior lifted them both, accelerating skyward.

The molten metal of the creature-barricade snaked upward in answer to the evasion. Mars's body tensed in anticipation; beside her Venus poured strength into the protective, glimmering forcefield, wincing from the power strain as she caused the edge of the barrier to singe the threats away.

Mars began a relieved inhale which turned to a hard gulp as she turned to check Erika's location over her shoulder but was met head-on with a wall of pulsing energy, rock hard and blindingly painful.

Though the world within and around her for an instant felt replaced by a disarmingly bright, numb confusion, she thought she heard Venus, who took the brunt of it in front of her, scream. Aware that she was falling, Mars instinctively reached out an arm, grabbing at and failing to catch the hard surface of a ledge. Clumsily, while regaining her shocked senses, she rolled to a stop on the flat, stinging pavement of what turned out to be a balcony.

Groaning and pushing up off the floor, the dark-haired girl saw Erika descending from the opposite direction, in front of the spot she and Venus previously occupied.

"How… did.. you do that?" Rei asked, each word laboriously slow as she felt partially paralyzed. As she rubbed her numb face, various muscles twitched from residual pangs of the electric-like, dark energy.

Erika laughed at Mars’s incredulity. "I've been bestowed upon greater power since last we met," the woman spoke as she floated out of view, toward street-level.

Rei dragged herself to her feet, rushing to lean to the balcony's edge. Near where Erika hovered was Minako, sprawled on the narrow street face-down, unmoving. "Venus!!" Without a second thought she hoisted herself over, leaping to the ground and springing to the other warrior's side. Mars readied a fiery attack in one hand defensively while she confirmed her friend was breathing, nudging one shoulder but receiving no response besides a twitch.

The evil subordinate cackled. "Are you impressed?"

The black-haired warrior's eyes darted about the street apprehensively as she cautiously stood. "Where are your creatures?" She dared not turn her back to Erika but chanced another glance down to Venus, who was regaining consciousness at her feet, weakly murmuring as she winced.

"They're busy."

Figuring she might as well take a chance, Rei unleashed a string of fireballs at her target, who had gracefully touched black heels to the rough pavement as she made to approach them, slowly.

As the woman put up a hand to block, her form simultaneously receded into a turbulent blip, disappearing.

Knowing what she’d find before she turned to look, Mars spun around to see her hovering on the other side of them. "Teleportation… interesting," she commented dryly as she stared.

Just then Venus stirred further, groaning. Without ceasing her glare toward the attacker, Rei dropped to a crouch, nudging the awakening girl's shoulder desperately. "Venus, are you okay? Wake up," she urgently hissed.

"Yes, wake up so you can watch me destroy your friend and then you as well," Erika added calmly as she strode over.

The blonde warrior, apparently finding her strength at the threat, pushed up to lean on an elbow in order to adequately glare, shooting Erika a rather overt death stare as Rei clumsily pulled her to her feet.

"Never," Mars heard her mutter under her breath as she gripped the priestess's shoulder tighter, perhaps protectively. Rei's head briefly dizzied as she blushed.

"Right now our creatures are attacking — defeating — both groups of your allies," Erika's cocky voice ventured.

Rei clenched her teeth, slowly shaking her head.

"-and when they're finished, they're going to double back and deal with the two of you."

"Nice try.." Venus nearly huffed as she removed her weight from Rei's shoulder, straightening as her hands glowed subtly with a charging attack. "We've been successfully fighting these things for hours — I've killed a fucking ton and I'll gladly kill some more." She smiled. "But first.. Venus Wink Chain Sword! "

She let loose, arching the tethered blade up and swinging toward their opponent amid the burst of energy.

Erika's eyes briefly widened, confident facade cracking, before she snarled and grinned, creating a warped energy barrier and promptly disappeared from sight.

Venus growled in frustration, meanwhile Mars whipped around to see the enemy's petite form, floating as she undulated visibly with more energy than she’d seen from Erika before, having reappeared on their other side some meters in the air. Rei noted at least, with some satisfaction, that Erika was concealing a wound; with a pale right hand the woman gripped her other, from beneath which a dark sheen of blood was forming.

About to search for Minako's eyes to offer her an encouraging wink, out of the corner of her vision she noticed the other girl falter, dropping to hold herself up with hands on her knees.

"Mina!" Rei breathed, grasping for and squeezing the woman's shoulder.

"S-sorry. I'm just.. just still really low on energy," she lightly panted.

Rei grit her teeth, unconsciously tensing with worry at their worsening situation. "Hang in there," she muttered, mind spinning but thus far coming up with no solution. What if it's just me versus her? the priestess warrior thought, gazing briefly at their sneering opponent. She tried her best to be optimistic about the prospect; Without having had to keep up the shield like Venus did, at the very least I've still got enough in me to not go down without a fight.

Confident affect quickly recovered after the moment of weakness, Erika's posture had straightened. The enemy no longer attempted to hide the fact Venus had injured her hand, which bled freely at her side, dripping, and she laughed. "You two might have actually been able to take me on if you were at your finest," the enemy spoke. "But.. at this point you're… really not," she snickered the last bit, folding her arms.

Rei clenched her jaw, eyes darting about and then back to their opponent as she mentally sought a plan. Beside her she felt Venus breathing heavily, seeming to be recovering back the albeit dwindling, remaining portion of her strength.

"Especially with the new addition of my upgraded power…" Erika continued, smirking, as if pleased with her advantage in afterthought.

My, this one REALLY does like to brag, Rei noted bemusedly.

"You're too quick to judge.." Venus's quick breath evened out as she stood straight. "I've not gone down yet." Out the corner of her blue eyes she turned to Rei. "Mars?" she spoke, nodding.

Rei was already summoning and lifting a burning arrow. Venus stood back, quickly readying an ability beside her; the blonde's aura was awash with energetic orbs as she whispered, "Venus Love and Beauty…"

"Oh? … Ha!…"

The two warriors paused to take in Erika's movement and puzzling outburst, as the woman lifted her bloody hand to touch the apparent receiver in her ear.

She muttered softly into the unseen device before blurting, "What's that??" The curly-haired antagonist's expression then became completely wild. She cackled, tone of voice curdling to a sour glee. "I've actually just got word…" Erika lowered her face briefly into shadow as she descended to properly stand on the roughened pavement, leveling with them. She snapped to look up, hardly able to contain her grin. ".. your friends, the outer senshi, have just been defeated."

"Wh-" Rei started, confused and perturbed but not yet harboring a semblance of belief.

"-They're dead! " she added, nearly shrieking. "Those three-…" the woman was continuing, but Rei could hardly hear let alone listen and she went drowned out.

"What?!!-"; "NO!!" Mars and Venus cried in unison, the latter breaking into a preemptive sob.

The fire senshi's heart hammered alongside the dread which rapidly filled her chest.

"YOU'RE LYING! " Venus spat as the radiant energy of her nascent attack was dropped, forgotten. She took a fierce step forward, angry tears sparkling on her cheekbones; the love senshi's recent exhaustion now seemed a million miles away as she raged. “She must be…” she whispered, presumably either to herself or to Rei.

Erika chuckled as she appeared to be blinking away happy tears. Rei stared numbly, unseeing, as the enemy strode toward the pair, the simple sight of the city street in the wee hours turning to a hazy, unperceivable nightmare.

“It’s true… Perhaps now their untethered souls will return to the outer solar system, where if they knew what's best for them they would have stayed..” the enemy continued to spout, grinning maliciously.

Mars blinked and shook her head back to reality as she watched Erika extend her uninjured hand which caused the air to flicker, bringing to life a treacherous forcefield. Rei tried to speak urgently to Minako but croaked, dumbfounded and frozen, before she jumped to shove the blonde warrior out of the way.

The air was rent with the sensation of turbulent pressure as Mars toppled over Venus and dove, the attack quickly colliding and grazing the left side of her body.

Venus, who had until now been rendered motionless as she cried, frozen with fury, into her splayed fingers, snapped to reality like a rubber band as the two of them landed, Rei crying out as the pain of Erika's attack somewhat belatedly hit her.

The golden-haired warrior, gasping, leapt back and to her feet, pulling Rei up by her side, who stood dizzily and nearly half-paralyzed, quickly clutching at her pounding chest.

"I'm sorry, Rei-," she spoke as she shook her head, ashamed at her lapse.

Meanwhile Erika, panting, jumped to hover above, readying herself again.

Mars shrugged it off but darted a stern look tenderly at her companion. "Don't you fucking give up," she chastised. "Even if it's true," she muttered quietly.

Venus took a firm breath and nodded. "Right.. We need to win this."

As the enemy woman sneered and powered up another, massive forcefield attack with both hands, visibly shaking, Venus reacted in time; Mars, though recovering, was on her heels.

"Venus Love and Beauty Shock! " the senshi yelled viciously, with satisfaction as her waiting power came to a head, though she promptly dropped once more to catch her racing breath against her knees.

Rei sent along a nameless move simultaneously, a flaming projectile rocketing alongside Venus's incandescent orbs that sought to block and crush Erika's offensive move; thankfully, lacking the energy to send their energy hurtling back at them, Erika's power surge merely absorbed it, doubling in on itself. The forcefield collapsed with a burst, knocking its wielder back.

Panting, trembling, but snickering, Erika lifted her grinning face to the early-dawn sky. Rei's optimistic feeling of bold satisfaction quickly withered when a sound along with a hazy presence crept into her side vision. She silently nudged Minako to look.

Snaking tendrils of deep-purplish-gray matter crept beside buildings and around the corners. Venus gasped.

"Now that our creatures are finished with some of your other friends…" Erika's power pulsed once again in her hands as she rose up. "You both can be next." She grinned widely. "Let's try my new technique!"

With a flick of both wrists Erika's dark force extended. To Rei's brief surprise the shapeshifting blobs were engulfed by the enemy’s own attack, but a second later it was clear they were unharmed. The shadowy forms reared up, tingling Mars’s mind with their blocked-out psychic chatter as the dark shapes now buzzed, energized.

"What-?" Venus began exasperatedly. "Damn it…"

Luckily Mars was quick to summon a field of flames, which grew as she channeled her energy, which danced around them.

"I really am sorry, though, Rei-chan," Minako laughed sarcastically. "I shouldn't have brought you along for this mess.."

Rei glanced quickly, over her shoulder, to see the other woman’s head was lowered as she smiled ironically, though she charged a weak-seeming attack and looked around warily.

The black-haired girl, rolling her eyes, nearly could have screamed at her. "Minako-.. this is NOT a suicide mission, you hear me??" She shook her head, laughing darkly. "We're gonna kick this bitch's ass and get out of here.." she spoke through her teeth. "And if you get too tired and pass out, I'll just save your butt and haul you back."

Venus laughed and Mars, though facing away, could tell she was smiling. "Kay… I’ll be counting on that. At least I’ll have you carrying me to look forward to." She leaned back over her shoulder to look at Rei, winking.

The heat of Rei's fire illuminated and thoroughly warmed her as she extended it, burning away at the now-encroaching line of creatures though it was taking a slight toll on her endurance.

The purplish shapes screamed incoherently but reassembled. Mars could vaguely make out that they were rising like a wave before several glob-forms lunged, plunging out the flames as they caught her off guard, knocking her and Venus both skidding across the ground.

"Damn!" the priestess exclaimed as she rebounded, rushing to shield herself and Venus quickly with a forcefield which kept several snaring, hook-like forms away.

The golden-haired warrior, groaning, quickly sat forward beside her. "A-are they that much stronger with-?" but whatever her question was was cut off.

A sharply unpleasant — albeit, smaller than Erika's — burst of the strange, dark force cut through Rei's haphazard shield from one of the enemy creature's protrusions as she yelped, the two of them now uncomfortably vulnerable to a new attack as Rei lay back against the asphalt. She blinked away the alien, stinging numbness in order to sit up, the dim but lightening horizon spinning before her focusing eyes.

Venus's shout sent Mars's heart pounding as she quickly searched only to find her being dragged away by the ankle into a clump of writhing creatures as she struggled, barely keeping them back.

"Mina-!!" Rei shakily stood, adrenaline racing as she stood alone before the smugly smiling Erika, who hovered into view. Rapidly her racing thoughts focused. I can do this, she willed herself to think. But first…

Rei hated the idea of wasting time — both her own precious moments of reaction, as well as the other three's — especially when I don't even know if they're safe yet, she thought. And how do I tell them about..? Her thoughts trailing off, she wouldn't even let herself think it let alone worry with that yet. She hoped to hell the Outers would somehow answer and prove Erika wrong, but at the very least she needed to update Usagi and the other two.

The senshi snapped her communicator open, eyeballing Erika and not taking her eyes from the creatures, most of whom were scrambling to contain and smother Venus before apparently moving on to her. Taking a breath, she spoke desperately as she shielded and dodged, not waiting to see whether she was connected. "Everyone! Erika's here. Venus and I-" It sparked in her face, causing her to draw back. “Hello?-”

With the guide of Erika's hand a tentacle of matter grew, sparking with energy, and rose; she cried out as it barreled into her. Immediately slammed backwards into a nearby building, Mars had no air left in her lungs with which to scream, but she slumped into the entity's tight, snaking hold, her body reeling.

"Rei-chan!" she heard and weakly turned to her left to see that Venus was still holding her own, pinned to the asphalt by several strands of shapeshifting creature as she held them at bay with an outstretched hand of glowing energy.

Blinking to refocus the urgent reality and swallowing a groan once she’d gasped for air, Mars lifted her left wrist, on which her communicator hopefully still lay open — it did!

"Anyone, can you hear me?" she began, but cut herself off with a scream as a massive glob of creature responded by smashing into her wrist like a hammer. A sickening crunch signaled that the communicator was thoroughly broken against the concrete wall, and uneasy nausea filled her as she opened squeezed-shut eyes to see that the device's magical, nearly-indestructible material and panels was crushed into several distinct pieces, computer circuits sparking. "No way.." the senshi gasped out as she winced; she felt her arm was at the very least still in one piece, but blood began to quickly seep from where the hard edges had broken fabric and skin.

Just maybe it still works, she thought, but perhaps the monstrous entity read her mind because immediately a prehensile tendril shot up and attempted to pry the broken device from her arm.

She watched with wide eyes as with a last snap the band was severed and the functional bit snatched up; the monster goo hurled it, whereupon it bounced, clattering to rest halfway between herself and Venus, who to her dull horror seemed to be losing her struggle.

A tar-like mass of the creature, moving in for the catch, had soon surrounded the lifeline, swallowing it.

Erika, smiling as she made venomous eye contact with Rei while observing her struggle from the safe distance at which she hovered, taunted loud enough for both warriors to hear, “If your blonde friend so much as reaches for hers, I’ll tell them to cut off her hand.”

Sailor Uranus whipped their sword back against the onslaught of creatures though lacking the power for an energized attack, countering with the blade again and again, chaotically.

Finally, “Dead… Scream,” Pluto whispered for the second time, and a hole was at once blown in the enemy’s shapeshifting forces.

Uranus dropped to the concrete, ripping aside the last of the wounded creatures they had just driven from their sole target. The warrior caressed Neptune’s face, bringing her lolling head to rest on their lap. “Michiru.. Michiru!! ”

Setsuna, holding the staff to summon a weak, makeshift deterrent field of pulsing energy, looked over her shoulder, strained, to ask, “Uranus?-”

“She’s not breathing-” they spat in answer, panicked, “but she’s-” Beneath Uranus’s trembling fingers they felt a pulse pounding against their partner’s skin.

Suddenly Neptune jerked forward, wheezing. As Haruka stared numbly, blinking as a whole body’s worth of tension was released from their shoulders, the aqua-haired warrior sat, coughing and breathing raggedly as she gripped her bruised and bloody neck. The blonde, warmly embracing the woman’s battered form, was rendered speechless.

The dark-green-haired warrior had no sooner sighed in relief than quickly murmured, “Shit…” as to Haruka’s left she struggled to maintain the weak, improvised attack while the creatures kept coming. “I need help here!”

Uranus shot up, begrudgingly leaving Michiru’s side to lash out with their weapon at the nightmarish forms which were threatening to overwhelm them. The knowledge the other warrior was alright — at least for now — had given them a rush of power. “Space Sword Blaster! ” they cried, and several pieces of monster were cut in half, the rest of them at least temporarily scattered.

Though the sun had nearly begun to rise, the frequent explosions of energy had filled their view of the horizon with a hazy dinge.

The wind senshi waited, watching for more, panting. “If this keeps up, I’m afraid the two of us won’t be able to hold out for long-… We need to know where the others are… Call them?”

“Hang on…” Pluto murmured, stepping back from the short-haired blonde and ripping open her communicator. She punched on it briefly. “… Nothing.”

“-What?”

“I don’t know. It’s not even working. I-it doesn’t say it’s ringing-”

Haruka yelled as a mace-shaped glob whipped stealthily over the building’s edge from somewhere below, punching them in the face and down onto the concrete. Staggering to their feet as Pluto helped them up, they tersely muttered obscenities before responding, “Well.. that’s bullshit. I’m sure the five of them are fine — the enemy..-they must be doing something to them!”

“To the communicators?” The long-haired senshi spoke as she lifted the garnet rod, emitting a dark pulse to drive away another similar attempt. “-How?”

“I don’t know..” Uranus grunted as they dodged the swipe of a creature’s claw from an upper level of the fire escape. “We need-”

They paused mid-sentence as they saw their taller partner freeze with a slow, surprised inhale as her eyes snapped to her side and she grabbed up something from the accessory chain hanging around her waist.

“What’s-?! Why-” Pluto began; Haruka hesitantly broke from their survey of the battlefield to see that at least one of the time keys Setsuna carried was glowing gold, vibrating.

A burst of energy shot forth from directly behind them, casting aside several scared entities which ricocheted from the area before they could attack. Uranus and Pluto, both gasping, held up their forearms to shield themselves from the gust of air as they turned.

The time gate, glowing as it hovered in space a foot or so above their maintenance terrace, was already opening as they watched.

Behind it, coming through, was a woman bearing a stone-cold but resolute gaze framed by deep-purple hair.

“Hotaru-chan?!-” Haruka spat.

Sailor Saturn, stepping out and glancing first down at the nearly-unconscious Neptune before taking in Uranus and Pluto’s predicament as if completely unfazed by all of it, including the several weapon-flinging monsters in the process of snaking upward, brandished her glaive.

A strong, glimmering field of purple-veined energy shot forth in a dome, surrounding them.

Beside Haruka Setsuna sputtered.

“That’ll hold them for a while,” Saturn explained plainly, softly, before bothering with saying anything else. Apparently able to hold the energy field without the use of her glaive, she lowered the weapon to her side and turned to face the two fighters.

Pluto, with a concerned yet proud smile, strode forward. “Remember I told you you’re not supposed to use the time gate for spacial travel — there could be consequences.”

Hotaru’s serious countenance cracked into a small yet emotional smile. She gazed from Setsuna to Haruka and back. “I had a vision… You needed my help.”

“But-” Pluto protested, though Haruka saw that her eyes began to water, and she merely stooped to hug the girl.

Saturn returned the hug, smiling soberly over the tall warrior’s shoulder before glancing then to Uranus. “Hello, Mama… Papa.”

Chapter Text

CW:

• intense violence & blood.

As Usagi made to staunch the bleeding from Makoto’s rapidly-healed leg, with the brunette waving off the blonde’s fussing, assuring her it would be fine, Mercury read through the data files she’d acquired.

The technician had remained transformed for convenience, though she was exhausted; the blue-haired senshi spoke aloud, tentatively, one of the voice commands indicated in the automatically-downloaded manual.

“Activate…” She squinted at her mini-comp without the use of either her corrective viewscreen or her glasses to correct her farsightedness, making sure she was saying it properly. “Supplemental Data Terminal.”

In front of the short-haired girl, an electronic platform rose up, command-interface lights flickering to life.

Makoto, who immediately leaned to look over her shoulder with awe from where she and Usagi both sat on the illuminated floor, amusedly, blurted, “Whaaaaaaa-??”

The princess was still distracted as she searched fruitlessly for a proper bandage despite the fact that they had all transformed, empty-handed, in their pajamas and Makoto had of course immediately, blushing, vehemently refused to accept the blonde’s offer to remove and utilize her own shirt. When she did glance up, the blonde did a double-take as she noticed the development, shouting, “Uh! AWESOME!! That’s our Ami-chan!! You made… um, what.. is it?! ”

Mercury giggled, though she was also secretly, to be honest, wholeheartedly proud of herself. “Apparently my computer’s still programmed with commands created during the Silver Millenium, though I’ve never used these before… This terminal lends me access to basic data about the hyperspacial sphere-”

“You mean where we are now?” Usagi asked.

“-Yes.. As well as remote access to, and control over many functions of, the command center’s computer.”

“Great!!” Makoto sighed, visibly relaxing as she slumped halfway to the floor. “So we can contact the others?!”

“Probably.”

“But, our communicators were-!” Usagi, visibly worried once more, began.

Ami shook her head, mentally praying as she pressed a few buttons on the foreign layout, responding whilst she checked. “If there was an issue with the connection on our end and not the others’, the same problem might not affect the comms system here… I’ll try-” She gasped as a request loudly pinged. She answered it.

Luna’s and, behind her, Artemis’s faces appeared on the touch screen, frantic. “Oh, thank god!!! Mercury?! And- are any of the others there?-”

Ami nodded, beginning to speak, “Usagi and Mako are here with me. And..-”

Meanwhile Usagi looked up, smiling, with a sigh, gasping, “Luna!!”

The cat interrupted, “I’m glad..! Please update me, and please say everyone’s alright?! There have been massive data readings from here unlike anything else-… What the hell have you all been dealing with??”

Mercury, heart leaping as she hesitated, looked back to make eye contact with Makoto, who had also tensed at the reminder of the situation, worried eyes glistening. The short-haired warrior turned to face Luna again. “We were recently unable to make contact with Mars and Venus — the communicator’s signal got cut off.. The three Outers are in trouble, so they split off to rendezvous with them… Luna, Artemis, can you contact any of them from the command center?!”

The black cat quickly frowned. She shook her head. “No, I’ve been trying periodically ever since the fight took a turn, but this is the first time I’ve gotten an answer — I pinged you as soon as I got the notification your hyperspacial portal was activated.”

“Oh, no…” Ami murmured, placing a hand to her lips in thought. If the other five have no way to update us on their status…

“Shit,” she heard Makoto mutter. The brown-haired woman tensed a fist.

“Then everyone…” Usagi simultaneously spoke, quietly trailing off.

“We- we have to go back for them, then! ” Makoto spoke, abruptly standing. As Usagi leaned from her spot on the floor, reaching up to stubbornly hug and entrap her by the legs in a protective gesture, the taller woman added, “I-I mean, as soon as we’ve recovered enough..-”

Ami was already shaking her head firmly, turning her back to the comms terminal to face the other two senshi. “We specifically need to keep Usagi-chan safe from them. And here they can’t access us-”

“-Then I’ll just go!” The green-eyed girl slammed a fist into her other hand as she eyed Ami desperately. “We need to make sure they’re..-”

“Mako-chan?! Noo!” Usagi blubbered, shaking her head.

Meanwhile Mercury put her foot down. “Mako, please, wait a minute while I try to think of something…” She turned back to the newly-generated data screens, from which the digital image of the Mauians watched silently, listening. She leaned the heels of her palms on the terminal as she spoke, thinking. “It’s too big of a coincidence that our communicators were apparently also unable to receive calls at the same time the others’ were malfunctioning… So that fact likely has nothing to do with their status and may simply mean the enemy had something to do with it…”

Makoto, though she still had tears budding in her eyes and appeared to be slightly shaking, stilled and relaxed at that. “You’re right… But, then how can we make sure they’re okay or see where they are?”

“I’m not sure…” Ami spoke, rubbing her tension-fraught forehead. “But there might be a way if we just wait a bit to see if the energy interference wears off — if the enemy didn’t use this technique until now there may be a reason — like maybe it uses up a lot of their power. So, we could brute-force our way to a connection by spamming requests… As soon as they turn down the level of interference, we’ll likely know right away whether I’m right. Luna, do you think you can do that??”

“Yeah! .. Yes! ” the crescent-marked guardian smiled briefly with relief as she nodded her small head. “That’s a great idea, Mercury…” The digital image of the black cat leaned back from the camera slightly as she moved to look at a different console, typing. “I’ll set up a scanner to automatically alert me if even a weak connection to any one of their communicators is reached.”

“Great…” Worn out from thinking, the blue-haired warrior slumped to lean over the console in her relief.

“Okay…” The brunette, calming herself down, scrubbed her face with her hands. “Okay… I just got so worried.. oh, my god.” Slowly she bent over, plopping with a groan to sit once more next to the exhausted princess.

Usagi wrapped one arm around Makoto comfortingly as soon as she’d sat down. “It’ll be okay. They'll be okay…” she said quietly as she tried to smile. “I have a good feeling about it.”

Venus charged and desperately unleashed a quick golden attack to the monsters which held her roughly against the ground. Mind rushing as she fought as if in slow motion, several meters to her right her she heard Mars do the same, and the surrounding air burst with an increase in temperature corresponding to her flames.

It had been maybe a few minutes since she had last made visual contact with Erika, and since then the entities had seemed to be losing the increased strength she had given them — which led Minako to believe the enemy might indeed have taken her leave suddenly, without warning. But, why?

But she had more urgent things to worry about. With the absence of Erika’s power the creatures, as if once more becoming feral, were also reverting to more chaotic techniques, shapeshifting dangerously. Crying out, she was able to block the improvised shape of a dagger which had rocketed toward her face, though the goo still held her firmly by the ankles such that she was unable to escape.

Mars, from somewhere just beyond and above her, yelled and threw a string of flames at a lunging creature. Through swimming, dizzying vision, Venus glanced up to see her; she had escaped her own opponent’s hold and was running, almost there.

Then the blonde was nearly barreled over. “Venus!-” Mars was instantly upon her, grabbing her by the shoulder and leaning over her as she drove away several monsters fiercely with a barrage of flames.

Minako, gasping for breath, allowed herself to be pulled to a stand, leaning hard into Rei as she stumbled, nearly blacking out.

“Shit, are you okay?!” the priestess breathed.

“I think so..” Venus struggled with maintaining her transformation as her senses slowly returned. “Don’t worry, I’m.. just…” she panted as she blinked away the stars at the edges of her vision enough to look around. The creatures had withdrawn save for a few on the peripheries, but another wave was coming.

“I know..” Mars hurriedly spoke as she prepared an attack. “You used up so much energy getting us here this quickly, and then…”

Suddenly, the crook of Rei’s neck and shoulder as Venus leaned on her felt somehow safer. It was unusual for the black-haired girl to be validating, complimenting her rather than teasing or fighting with her.

“-… you were great back there.” the fire warrior finished, smiling.

“Thanks,” Minako spoke with a sassy smile. She winked. “What would you do without me??”

“Shut up..” Mars rolled her eyes. “Remember it’s me who’s gonna save your ass,” she added as she raised an arm to protect them against the coming onslaught.

Creatures of varying sizes and shapes, with animal-like faces, emerged from the glob of matter and swung at them; Mars swiftly protected the pair with a scarlet forcefield, though it was obvious to Venus she was struggling to hold them back.

Minako, hating how useless she felt, tried to stand straight, summoning a bit of power.

“No,” Mars advised practically, shaking her head. “Save your power for when we can retreat. I’ve got it for now.”

Minako blushed slightly with warm gratitude, nodding. As she watched her friend keep up the shield protecting them with all her strength, her face illuminated by her energetic red glow as she strained to push back against a large, quickly-shifting form, the blonde worked up her courage to ask, “Rei-chan… do you think she could have been right? About… the Outers?”

“I don’t know.. But we can’t give up hope regardless,” she spoke stiffly. Then suddenly she gasped with a thought. “Wait. Now that Erika’s not here to fuck with us, see if your communicator can reach anyone!”

Venus was quick to comply. In a surreal swirl of potential realities briefly rattling around, all wrestling with each other alongside her dire hopes inside her mind, she awaited an answer. Her chest was bathed in cold as her eyes widened when nothing happened. “I can’t get an answer from anyone! Not even the other three-..”

“What?!” Mars responded softly. She shook her head, blinking. “That’s not right… If anything happened to Usagi-chan and the others, we… we would have sensed it. But… something weird is definitely going on.”

Venus nodded, taking that in. “They could just be interfering with our technology…” she thought out loud.

However, a worse explanation occurred to her: Mako’s and Rei’s communicators hadn’t worked in the enemy dimension…

My god, if Usagi and the rest have been taken…

Erika couldn’t have been right, could she? The Outers weren’t killed, the others intercepted, and the two of them helpless but to be next?

A staticky buzz from Venus’s left wrist ripped her from her thoughts as Mars gasped.

“Answer it!” the priestess shot.

“I’m trying..” Minako muttered, groaning to remove her other arm from around Rei’s shoulder to fumble with the device. The first few tries, the call was glitchily ended just for the communicator to resume its ringing, but nonetheless a boundless hope filled the woman’s chest.

A garbled sound came through, intermittent and cut-up but quickly recognizable as Luna’s voice.

“Luna!” Mars breathed beside her, smiling with relief.

The fire warrior had backed up, steering them both against a wall for its limited protection while they spoke. Though her face lightened, against the enemies which periodically pelted her shield Mars’s arms now shook.

“Can you hear us?” Venus beamed into the receiver though her optimistic mood quickly faltered. “We can’t reach the others..-”

After a few moments of static the black cat’s connection stabilized. “They’re fine. I’ve just been in contact.”

Minako, lightheaded but summoning now her own forcefield alongside Rei’s despite the priestess’s tuts, sighed deeply. “All of them are okay?! I’m so glad… but… even the Outers…?”

“It’s a long story so I’ll save it, but they’re holding their own now — they’re on the way to retreating as we speak! We just need you two to get out-”

The blonde senshi laughed out loud in her relief. “They’re alive…!” she breathed.

“Wait-” Luna’s alarmed voice began in confusion before she was cut off, “What? Why-”

“About that last bit..” Mars spoke, voice strained as she struggled to hold the barrier steady. “I’m worried that we can’t hold on much longer on our own-”

“Would it help if you knew Erika has abandoned your area?” Ami’s disembodied voice came through despite the communicator not receiving another call — she must be with Luna, Venus thought, or connected through another channel. “The creatures you’re facing now are likely the last wave. You’re so close-”

“Mercury!” Mars smiled at her appearance on the call. “But… are you sure?”

“Not entirely, but based on new portal activity to the east of you I suspect they’re now allocating most resources for taking on Saturn.”

“-Sailor Saturn is here?!” Minako nearly choked.

“Apparently yes,” the water senshi answered. “But, you guys-”

“-Don’t give up!!” Usagi’s voice interrupted to add. “Here- I’ll pray and lend you my energy…”

Venus, from where she leaned exhaustedly against the cool brick wall and Mars’s sweaty upper arm, looked down when she saw — and felt — a radiating glow filling the golden crystal adorning her chest. By her side as the other woman gasped, Minako saw Mars’s was doing the same.

“Usagi-chan…” the blonde muttered softly with a tender gratitude as she raised a hand to touch the brimming energy source. Why had I ever thought it could be hopeless? she thought as she shook her head at herself. We have her…

She wasn’t exactly feeling peachy, but she could now certainly conjure the attacks necessary to escape. Venus stood straighter and took a clearing breath as she half-smiled at Rei.

“So, you are able to transport us directly to the shrine, then?” Makoto asked.

“Yes…” Exhausted but energized by her ceaseless focus, Ami nodded and cheerfully smiled. She adjusted her glasses. “But the mechanism needs to charge.” Wearily, she spun back around to face the other two. “So, we wait.”

The brunette warrior dutifully nodded, with a sigh dropping to kneel on the cold floor next to the prone Usagi, who after assisting Mars and Venus had curled up like a cat. “Usa-” Makoto began to address her as she playfully smacked the tired princess on the shoulder. “..-gi?” She froze guiltily when a snore was heard in place of a response, then laughed when the blonde failed to wake up all the same.

Ami giggled with a sweat drop. “She’s asleep?!”

Makoto blinked at the other girl. “Apparently. Wasn’t she talking to me not sixty seconds ago? Unless it was sleep-talking…”

“Not even that,” the short-haired woman continued to laugh. “I mean, how could she sleep there? It looks the opposite of comfortable..”

The green-eyed girl, wavy hair pulled loosely out of her face in a low ponytail since she’d detransformed, was already in the process of responding by gently uncurling the snoring blonde to place the sleeping woman’s head in her lap.

Ami, eyes watering, practically had to hold in an interjection of cuteness just watching them. And… envy? No, why would I want to nap on the floor with both of them? That’s impractical, she told herself, laughing at the machinations of her adrenaline-infused, sleep-deprived mind.

After first gazing contentedly at the sleeping moon princess, Makoto leaned forward, resting her elbows on Usagi’s squishy upper arm as if she were a cushion. “Ugh,” she spoke, slumping a cheek against both fists, “I just realized this makes another day this week we’ve gone without sleep.”

“Usagi-chan might beg to differ,” the blue-haired woman quipped, though she grimaced at the reminder as she turned to check the portal’s progress on the console. “You should sleep now, too — it may be twenty to forty-five minutes until the energy-allocation transfer is complete, and we don’t know what will happen after…”

Makoto darkly chuckled. “Can’t… there’s no freaking way I could sleep now.” She shook her head before anxiously glancing up and changing the subject. “Have you heard anything more regarding the others?”

Ami shook her head. “No…” Her eyes darted to the feed of alerts from Luna; there was nothing new.

However, the genius’s attention was snagged by a couple notifications regarding the dimensional barrier’s security. The timestamps on the failed access attempts were marked at nine and eleven minutes ago. Surely Luna or Artemis wouldn’t have been trying to access our hyperspace area without telling me since we were still on the phone during that time, she quickly processed. Her jaw automatically dropped.

“What?” Makoto asked from behind her, noticing her friend’s change in disposition without her needing to say anything.

“Omygosh,” Ami muttered. “I- I think I’m receiving data from when the enemy activates some of their portals.” She spun to face Makoto. “Either that or they’re trying to break into here and doing a terrible job of it..”

The brunette speechlessly leaned forward with interest, resultingly rolling Usagi face-down into her thigh, somehow still without waking her. Idly, she rubbed her lacerated shin. “…How? And-.. i-is that good?! ”

“It’s fantastic. I’ll have at least a tiny bit more data to work with about how their pocket dimension works — I mean… it may still take me weeks to make anything useful of it, by which time if our conflict with the enemy has already come to a head my efforts may prove to be fruitless, but-”

Makoto laughed ecstatically. “Ami-chan — that’s great! ” Gently prying Usagi’s form from her lap, she practically jumped up to limp to Ami’s side at the data console. For a moment the shorter girl thought she was going to hug her in excited congratulations, but Makoto seemed to hesitate inches away, fiddling with her hair as she glanced away toward the data screens.

After an awkwardly confusing second or two she did, squeezing the now-surprised blue-haired senshi tight.

“Rolling Heart Vibration!”

A clump of monsters was scattered as Venus briefly leaned, panting, to rest both hands on her knees; Mars beckoned for her to run.

The morning sun filtered through thin clouds and filled the alleyways with warm colors and shadows. As Minako’s heart pounded, the two women’s heels clicked on the pavement and echoed in the abandoned streets.

A swarm of creatures closed in on their path, shapeshifting immediately to bare weapons made up of sharp blades and eye-less, fur-less animal heads.

As Minako sighed in frustration, clenching her teeth, Mars aggravatedly groaned before jadedly smirking and muttered, “Well, we’ve beaten a hundred of these today.. What’s a dozen more?..”

Venus nodded with a weary laugh. Meanwhile the other senshi took action; “Mars Snake Fire!” echoed through the block as the creatures’ frontlines were burned away. However, the now-dozens appearing from behind them were faster. “Shit. Shit,” the fire priestess immediately spat.

Minako capably reacted by turning on her heel to guard the rear, awkwardly running backwards beside Mars as the two panted, readying attacks.

“We just need to reach the shrine where Sailor Moon, Mercury, and Jupiter will be and then we’ll have safety in numbers,” Mars commented as she ran.

The senshi of beauty cringed slightly at that thought, laughing. “Not thrilled at the idea of this lot chasing us all the way there, though — hopefully we’ll have killed them by then..”

“True,” Mars agreed dryly.

It seemed, however, that this last wave of enemy goo, as if renouncing self preservation in a last-ditch effort, was more brazen than the ones that came before. A shiver went up Minako’s spine as the web of creatures rapidly approached in jerking motions from around buildings, surrounding the pair in an intersection.

Venus grimaced, blinking at the sight while she charged a golden energy. “Actually, looks like we don’t have a choice after all, do we?”

“Venus Love Me Chain!” she cried as she whipped the enemies back. Some were destroyed but others leapt to cling to the surrounding buildings in attempted evasion.

As they stood back-to-back Mars aimed and sniped individuals out of the air, sending them dissolving into ashes. “Just a handful more..” she spat between heavy breaths, but that handful was already approaching a close range, nightmarish mouths snarling dementedly.

Minako yelped with surprise as one approached from her direction; she cast it away with a crude forcefield before it could ensnare her. Mars similarly gasped and Venus felt the heat of a nascent attack from the fire senshi; while they both apparently awaited the return of enough energy to summon another powerful attack, they wordlessly coordinated rough defenses against the small handful of undeterrable creatures, keeping the more immediate threats back.

In peripheral vision Minako noted with a fraction-second of panic one that she hadn’t seen.

Venom shone in the creature’s eyes as meanwhile, as if in slow motion, it broke through Venus’s guard, from the right.

Unable to react in time other than a hasty lunge to avoid the risk of potentially being bitten in half, as sabre fangs closed around Minako’s hip and bit through the base of her thigh, she screamed. Hands shook against her will as her charging attack fizzled out; vision clouded as eyes watered from the pain.

“Venus!”

Finding herself somehow crumpled to the asphalt on her knees, hyperventilating, Venus looked up to see Mars frantically, savagely sling back-to-back attacks to take out the other incomers.

“There are only a couple more, so we can run..!” the dark-haired woman panted. “Are you okay??” She dashed to Minako’s side, dropping to crouch next to her as Venus groaned and lifted her left hand to prod at and clutch her sharply stabbing right hip.

Immediately Mars sharply inhaled, expression erupting in shocked sympathy. “Oh no-” She placed a ripped glove over her mouth.

Venus could probably guess why, as with her shaking hand she felt moisture and looked to see blood pouring from the stinging, numbly throbbing wound, saturating her skirt; as she watched the dark fluid begin to trail down her leg her mind dizzied and spun. “Fuck,” she muttered once she was able to speak. “I guess this throws a wrench in things-”

“Come on, I’ll support you, can you get up? ” the other senshi shortly questioned as she tugged on her.

With a hesitant nod as she whimpered and grit her teeth, Minako stood against Mars’s support and the two of them extremely awkwardly half-ran, half-limped at a brusque pace through the Minato streets.

Chapter Text

CW:

• significant blood.
• pretty mild descriptions of kinda gory injury.

By the time the pair was nearing a mere several blocks from Sendai Zaka, at which point they’d reach the last stretch to her shrine, birds chirped in surprising normalcy although it appeared most pedestrians and drivers were still avoiding the greater area.

Rei could spot only two remaining shapeshifting entities, which followed them subtly from the peripheries, as if an ominous reminder that they couldn’t afford to stop or slow down, but thankfully hadn’t engaged.

‘So they can hang back in wait to finish me off once I collapse like an injured gazelle,’ the salty Venus had dramatically complained — but Mars had gruffly shushed her.

In the dozen or more minutes during which they tirelessly made their agonizingly slow retreat, Minako had recovered enough she was able to partially run, only permitting herself to stagger or limp every fourth step in order to quicken their pace, although she winced and cursed. Rei, who wasn’t exactly keen on regularly exercising as much as friends such as Minako or Makoto were, noticed her right shoulder was growing sore and fatigued from holding up the heavier blonde.

With a rough sigh — only three more blocks, she told herself — Rei flipped open Venus’s borrowed communicator. Expecting Luna to answer from the command center, she was surprised when a regular channel opened for the first time and Makoto answered, Ami clearly with her.

“Rei! It’s Makoto. Thank god. The enemy’s interference wore off.”

“-How’s Minako?! You said she-” Ami’s voice frantically interrupted.

“She’s walking so I’d say she’s recovering fine,” Mars measuredly answered. The warrior hesitated, side-eyeing her injured companion as she made a guilty grimace at the omission of how badly she’d been bleeding — but, if Minako was still as squeamish as Rei remembered, they’d stand the best chance at making it in one piece if she didn’t remind Venus to look down at it, she noted wearily with a stab of humor, sweating. “But -” Mars surmised to inform the doctor, “Ami-chan, please, she’ll need help as soon as we’re back.-” Her heart pounded in her ears and she hoped she didn’t sound too panicked, but a glance to her right proved Venus was most likely too dazed to pick up subtleties.

“Roger,” Ami answered somewhat calmly, and Rei briefly, idly wondered at the med student’s confident preparedness when they were purposefully avoiding the use of Usagi’s healing and weren’t even anywhere near Ami’s emergency-stocked apartment, but she shook off the curiosity.

As the sun coming through the clouds heralded a budding relief and hopefulness the battle was over, the slog up the hill to the Hikawa Shrine finally neared its end. Rei didn’t see or hear another peep from the monsters that had followed.

Rei resisted the urge to collapse on the grass and kiss her home turf once she and Venus made it through the gates. Like a last kick at the end of a marathon, she’d used virtually all her remaining strength to pick up and carry Minako up the steps.

‘I’m so sorry — but I’m not able to come out to meet you yet — the three of us are just finishing a sweep of the property’s rear, so once you get here hang tight!’ Mercury, sounding strained and rushed, had told her.

So, while Venus caught her breath at last, leaning gratefully against the house’s side wall, Mars dutifully watched the front property border, relief pouring into her though she didn’t dare break her focus from her scan for enemies; from the high vantage point the dark-haired girl carefully eyed the street, extending her psychic energy in a search for omens or threats despite the fact that as far as she knew her extra powers were still, more likely than not, useless.

“All clear,” came Mercury’s voice from Minako’s communicator, behind her. “I’ve calibrated my computer’s sensors to alert me if anything enters the area, so it’s safe for you two to stop guarding the front. What’s your status? ”

Mars turned, approaching to listen as she leaned against the bark of a gnarled evergreen. She cringed as she realized the once-again peppy Venus, among her various, more practical updates, was telling Ami she was fine and not to worry, for she was ‘already healed.’ Rei rolled her eyes. At the very least, however, it did ease her concern to see the trails of blood stemming from the blonde senshi’s hip and upper thigh now appeared mostly sticky and dried.

Venus finished her conversation with Mercury, who along with Moon and Jupiter was apparently on her way from the woods behind the lot. In her impatient exhaustion Rei detransformed as she stood, waiting, under the tree.

As she looked on the blonde, eyebrows tensed with stress, was still lightly panting. With a loud sigh she plunked her head to rest against against the shrine wall, leaning into the support.

The psychic eyed her with a sympathetic suspicion. Now that things had calmed down, for better or worse, she was becoming more observant. Even though it had been probably over half an hour — enough time for it to typically be telling whether any of them, when injured in their senshi forms, had already recovered substantially — a deep exhaustion still seemed to radiate from the other warrior each time she closed her eyes.

Rei approached her, head tilting in a cautious curiosity. “It bit you really deep, didn’t it?” She bit her lower lip when Venus, caught off guard, merely flicked tired eyes up to meet her gaze without answering. “Minako…”

Detransforming, smiling as soon as she was visible again from within the shroud of her sparkling, golden light, the blonde looked up; she shook her head. “No, I’m tired but fine. See? It hardly even hurts anymore. Probably barely just a scratch now that I’ve detransformed.”

With a confident half-shrug the woman snapped shut and pocketed her communicator in her sleep shorts. Absently she patted her thigh, to her credit without flinching.

Rei’s eyes wouldn’t budge from the site of the injury. The girl pressed a hand to her pinched lips, blinking in thought. After a moment she spoke, quietly, holding back an I-told-you-so tone out of better judgment. “Um, then why are you still bleeding?”

“Aah!” Minako looked down to see a quarter-sized area of her athletic shorts around the front-most hip wound had become fully saturated; a brand-new stream of red blood wound its way down the front of her leg in place of that which had disappeared when she detransformed, already reaching her knee. “Oh god. Oh god.”

With a stubborn glare, first briefly crossing her arms, Rei reached and snatched the other senshi’s device from her back pajama pocket. Minako leaned on the wall, massaging her forehead as she glanced away.

“Update: Minako IS hurt. We’re coming inside,” Rei spoke through her teeth. She closed the communicator with a sigh and gestured with an open arm for her panicking friend to lean on her.

“It’s so weird though. I-I’m not lying, I really can’t feel it now. Why is it doing this? Ugh-”

The black-haired woman rolled her eyes, grabbing her. “Just shut up and come in,” she growled, half-whispering.

Though she was still winded and quickly becoming light-headed just from seeing the blood, Minako did her best to clear things up by dispensing orders.

“Rei, you’re gonna lock up and check that we didn’t wake your grandfather, right?”

“Yes.”

Ami, still Mercury, was quickly typing with a mini-comp that was probably aimed at her.

“Where’s Jupiter?”

“Here!” Makoto had apparently just bust in through a different entrance, sweating, hair frizzy and becoming loose. “Minako, are…” She stopped midway through her sprint to their side of the main room, cupping hands over her mouth. “… you okay?”

Minako tried not to look at what was so shocking, just imagining a gush of blood escaping out from her shorts. As if my period hasn’t given me embarrassing moments like this enough, she mentally griped.

By the next time she had blinked, which felt as if it had transported her several seconds into the future, Mercury had a supporting hand on her shoulder and was eyeing her up and down. “There’s a major artery near there — I’m going to need to see…” She frowned, shoving Rei aside and forcing Minako to sit.

Oh shit, if Mercury’s worried it must be bad right? the panting girl thought with a budding, tired sarcasm; however, she had an intuitive feeling it would be fine, and besides, it wasn’t as if any force in the world could convince their healing-powered princess to let a single one of her friends die.

With some effort, the squeamish girl rolled up the shorts leg without glancing down; Ami promptly bent over her right thigh. Minako blushed and nearly grinned with inner mischief as her most prudish friend had to pull aside pink microfiber panties embellished with lace in order to prod and examine the bite wounds.

The blue-haired woman was subtly shaking her head; while Makoto and Rei had stood back, Usagi was leaning in with puppy eyes.

“I can’t be sure. But… this is pretty severe bleeding. How long-?” Mercury spoke.

“This is just since she detransformed like a minute ago,” Rei supplied in answer to the guessed question, one hand on her hip.

“Okay… and before that?”

“It seemed the same. Maybe worse at first. I thought it stopped but-”

“Okay…” Mercury, peeling her eyes from Minako’s groin and the less-severe, accompanying ass wound in order to apply pressure, sat back on her heels. She detransformed amid cloudy blue orbs and chewed on a pallid lip.

Minako, mental state feeling high on being woozy and dazed, subdued a grin — Is she pale from my blood or from the see-through lace?

“There’s…-”

Now Minako’s lightheaded brain struggled to interpret the fact that Ami’s expression looked… what? Nervous? Guilty?

“… there’s an emergency measure I haven’t told you all about yet, that I can try… so that we don’t have to risk going to the hospital-…” As if quickly pondering, Ami folded and unfolded fingers in her lap.

“The hospital?! Is she okay?-” Naturally, Usagi was freaking out.

“Y-yes! I mean, she will be, I’m sure-”

Ignoring the doctor, Usagi bent to place both hands on Minako’s knee as she addressed her directly, instead. “I can heal you!”

“Yeah,” Minako, attempting to conceal the fact her world was spinning and dimming, dumbly answered to reassure her. She nodded, smiling at the princess.

Usagi stood, interpreting that as immediate permission, transforming and conjuring her staff.

“No!” Ami and Minako shouted at once.

“Uh-..uh- what I mean is, is- listen to Ami-chan! ” The seated blonde waved a hand at her, laughing, vision swirling. When the motion apparently made her heart pump the blood more quickly out of her, she bent to drape her torso and arms over her knees with a sigh, any pretense of being fine already likely dropped anyway.

“Usagi-chan, you know that leaves you more vulnerable for a day or two…” Ami’s voice.

Jeez, she hardly ever speaks that firmly to the princess… This is spicy, Minako idly thought as she dangled her head and arms over her shins, attempting not to pass out.

“…-even if the effect is subtle, it’s still there! We can’t have you-”

“Guys.” Rei had apparently approached, placing one hand on the wounded’s shoulder. The blonde could practically hear her grit her teeth. “Are we going to just let her pass out? ”

“R-right! ”

“God, without Mina with-it we’re such a mess…” the priestess muttered softly; Minako smiled, eyes closed, from within the cascade of her hair.

“Mako-chan, you’re in contact with the Outers, right?” Ami tenuously continued.

“Yes.”

“Find out whether they sense any obvious activity around town — between here and my place. If there is, then Usagi can heal her. But..”

There was a few moments’ pause while the brunette texted.

“No, they haven’t sensed anything.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

Ami’s plan, it turned out, began with the five of them squeezed into the student’s car. While Usagi rode shotgun, Makoto and Rei sat on either side of Minako, who leaned into both of them crookedly as she fanned herself, freaking out and nearly stretching sideways.

“You’re okay, Minako..” Rei jokingly grumbled to stop her loud fussing as she lolled her head on Rei’s shoulder.

“I thought you were telling me I wasn’t- but anyways that’s not-”; “I just meant.. gah, never mind-” the two spoke over each other while Makoto nervously laughed, avoiding getting involved as well as pressing herself into the seat to equally avoid being hit or kicked.

Usagi, either concerned or just zoned-out, had barely spoken except to mumble to Ami.

Once they were entering the highway, Makoto idly listening as she occasionally comfortingly patted one of Minako’s legs which had been awkwardly sprawled across her lap, the tall senshi realized she’d already managed to completely forget about her own earlier injury; she’d been sitting long enough it simply slipped her notice. Heck, at the rate things were going it would be completely healed before the normally-cautiously-doting Ami could even touch it.

Minako’s bickering with Rei soon switched to repeated complaints. “Oh god. It’s.. bleeding? It’s still bleeding? Oh; OhnoIcan’tsee; Ohno I shouldn’t have checked; Gah; There’s blood-there’s somuchblood; I’m gonna pass out-” she alternated as a pallid Rei tried to calm her and Makoto exchanged a grimace with Usagi, who peeked back at the three of them.

“She-? -she’s actually?!” Rei, dumbstruck as she awkwardly, helplessly blinked and glanced between Makoto and Usagi, propped up Minako’s now nearly-limp head and torso.

The blonde, however, was apparently still semi-conscious as she managed to occasionally make squeamish, uncomfortable noises, covering her eyes with one hand or fanning herself before once again dramatically leaning back further into the panicking Rei.

“Uh- Is this normal?! Ami-chan?-” Usagi leaned to poke her.

Makoto, who after recovering from her initial panic had apparently interpreted the situation rather differently, comically fanned Minako and muttered, “There, there..” Though it did kill her to see Rei so worried and stressed, the brunette tried not to laugh as she sought the dark-haired woman’s eyes, smiling cautiously but reassuringly. “I-I think… I think she just… fainted. Like… you know, just from-..” Though she also tried not to think to hard about it, her eyes darted to the bloody clump of towel she held pressed to Minako’s hip.

“Y-yeah…” Rei, color returning, was quickly nodding.

“I agree — she doesn’t have most symptoms of shock, so-” Ami was quickly, nervously reassuring Usagi and Rei. “Besides- I definitely have enough packs of her blood-”

Minako, suddenly blinking, had shot her eyes wide open to gaze at the ceiling from Rei’s lap. “Excuse me…” she squeaked. Then, as with one fluid movement she jerked straight forward, “You have my WHAT?”

The car went silent, the only sounds those of tires gliding over bumps in the pavement.

Makoto awkwardly laughed, paling with disbelief. “A-Ami-chan-, it can’t be that… that you…”

The med student’s deep flush visible through the rear-view mirror as she receded, slouching, into her shoulders without saying a word seemed to answer it.

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

Once they had all shuffled back, Makoto lay on her back on the tatami, dizzy from sleep deprivation. She tossed an underripe peach into the air above her and caught it repeatedly, procrastinating the chore which would likely be trying to sleep but finding herself too anxious.

For an hour or two, she, Usagi, and Rei had waited or slept, too exhausted to speak to one another, in Ami’s main room while the medic tended to Minako with the door shut.

Somehow, no one had teased Ami or made a fuss about the revelation that she kept an illegal blood supply for them all, of all things; it did actually, all extenuating circumstances considered, feel comforting.

After Minako’s blood lost had been replenished by an infusion of Ami’s stash of type B, Usagi was permitted to perform a bit of minor healing so that she wouldn’t need deep-tissue stitches — to the groggy, squeamish patient’s colossal relief.

Silently they had since filed back to the shrine where they all but collapsed in the living area. Makoto had been curious that Rei hadn’t asked them to be more secretive or keep to her bedroom — she’d have thought the priestess would be concerned her grandfather would have suspicions aroused by everyone’s haggard appearance and behavior, but Rei had mumbled something about him being asleep, and Makoto wasn’t exactly complaining so didn’t question it.

The Outers, including now somehow Hotaru, were apparently back at their hotel, and Ami had put her foot down that Luna and Artemis not pester the senshi about meeting for a few hours so that everyone could nap. Makoto released a sigh, her body feeling heavy against the woven mat. Maybe I can sleep, now, she thought.

Several feet away Usagi lightly snored; also not having made it to their friend’s bedroom before giving into exhaustion, she had sat on one of the dining room cushions, leaned back, and been asleep as soon as her head hit the spongy mat. The brunette tiredly chuckled remembering that the princess was stretched flat on the tatami except for her butt which was cushioned, but the warrior was too weary to turn her head to look again. So, she kept idly throwing and catching the fruit, eyes on the ceiling.

The sound of a closing door and a sigh potent enough to spawn its own typhoon announced that Ami entered the room. She’d probably just finished checking that Minako, who was drugged up and sleeping in Rei’s bed, had everything she needed.

As Makoto stiffly sat up to greet her, groaning, Ami muttered, “Hey,” nearly in a whisper as she’d apparently just noticed the pigtailed blonde was sleeping.

“Mako-chan,” Ami then promptly addressed her as she bone-tiredly dropped to sit right next to her, tapping her on the knee. It was completely unsurprising yet somehow caught her completely off-guard.

She literally jumped, and now her heart was racing. Gods, what sort of state am I in that my friend saying my name and moving a foot closer sends me into overdrive? she thought.

Makoto realized she was staring into Ami’s eyes, probably like a spooked deer. “Sorry!” The senshi waved a hand awkwardly, laughing it off. “I’m-… I’m jumpy.” She rubbed her forehead tiredly, or perhaps as part of an impulse to force herself to look away.

“Understandable.” Ami laughed and then sighed again, still appearing so overtaxed that she seemed to be sinking further into her own skeleton with each movement. “Okay, let me see your leg — I’m SO sorry I wasn’t able to tend to you sooner, I.. just..-”

“It’s okay!” The brunette brushed it off. “There were… so many worse things urgently happening..” She nearly shuddered at the memories of said worse things. Hesitantly she pulled up her left sweatpants leg and flexed her calf, eliciting a twinge. The puncture marks, however, seemed to be completely closed up leaving only shallow red divots and swelling. The woman sighed, grinning at Ami, as it looked even better than the last time she’d checked and she was glad to not burden her friend. “It’s fine!”

Ami bent closer to look, and Makoto blushed as the girl’s soft fingertips gently touched and ran over her skin — probably because she hadn’t been shaving her legs and for that reason ONLY, is what she told herself, although she knew Ami wouldn’t judge.

“How is it?” she was being asked.

“Sporadically hurts like heck, but it’s basically healed, see? ”

Ami let out a stressed breath of relief once she finished checking each wound for herself, nodding. “… Yes, that’s excellent! I might not even need to wrap it..” She closed her blue eyes briefly, massaging the tension between her eyebrows, and she appeared primed to collapse into the floor. The doctor shook her head quickly and returned to alertness; she looked up again at Makoto, trying to smile. “Let me just get you something for the swelling and pain.”

Quickly the med student began to stand, but the brunette practically shoved her back down.

“No.” When Ami was confused, Makoto simply held the other woman by her shoulders firmly. “You need to rest. The rest of us will be fine for-”

“Oh, that’s right, Rei’s arm is also cut — I should check-..” she began, but Makoto shook her head.

“You’ve worked so hard taking care of Minako… trust me, the rest of us will be just fine while you sleep.” Definitively, the woman nodded. “Do you want tea? I can’t sleep anyway, so…”

As Makoto stood and stepped to the kitchen door, Ami rubbed her eyes and smiled up at her with weary astonishment. “Okay… Mako-chan, thank you…”

“Of course!” She cheerfully leaned to reach a cupboard and got out Rei’s teapot.

“But, take care of yourself, too.”

“I will,” the taller woman smiled, “in a minute…” Just after tea, and maybe after making lunch, she amended to herself, compromising.

When the five of them returned from Ami’s apartment Rei checked to find her grandfather’s bedroom empty. Her stomach, and heart, and basically all organs, dropped.

If he’d gone to look for her…

And, we didn’t have time to clean up the broken glass from my room or make an excuse for it… she thought.

Or the bloodstains.

He was hard of hearing, sure, but Rei had already been lucky as hell to find him still asleep when she’d run to find him, intending to lie reassuringly, before running out after the creatures’ attack on the shrine. What had made her hope she’d be that lucky twice, the priestess didn’t know.

She swallowed, feeling a strangely peaceful resignation that whatever had happened or whatever he had discovered had already happened. The fact that he hadn’t come to find her, yelling, furious that she’d made him worry, made her hopeful and relieved.

Maybe I won’t have to hide this from him anymore, she thought hopefully but worried that the relief was selfish.

Actually… she knew exactly where he was.

He didn’t want to embarrass me so he’s waiting just for me, Rei thought. With a cold, pounding heart she made her way out to the veranda and down to the private garden.

He was sweeping, calmly, clearing dirt and pebbles from the stone path. Slowly she approached.

“Ojii-chan.”

But it didn’t feel the same. It felt similar to when she’d spoken his name, shyly walking to hug him, the day she’d learned she’d be living at the shrine with him permanently. She knew they were both the same, but she also knew the way they thought of each other might never be, and that was terrifying.

The gray-haired man turned around slowly and stood, hands folded atop the broom handle, to face his granddaughter with an expectant expression. Inside Rei guilt, and relief, and bone-chilling fear erupted and comingled.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit! Shit.”

“What’s up with her?”

“My cell phone! Whereisit-” Usagi’s form, long untied blonde hair trailing and bouncing after her, zipped indecisively from hallway to hallway with uncharacteristic speed, as if a cryptid or youkai trying not to be seen by human eyes.

“I told her I found out Mamoru’s been trying to get ahold of her…” Rei stated plainly, watching the blurry evidence of the short girl’s chaotic movements as she leaned back on the counter.

There was a pause during which Makoto set down her stirring spoon, wiped her hands on a towel, and picked up her smartphone from where it lay on the kitchen windowsill. “Oh.” The brunette paled, nearly cracking into a laugh as one arched eyebrow twitched. “No kidding…”

“You, too?” Rei, trying not to make her amused smile too obvious, leaned forward with interest over the wood countertop.

“Four missed calls,” the cook recited as she glanced through notifications, “a voicemail, a few texts from the same number — ah, yep, he said it is Mamoru — saying to tell him..-” Then she hesitated, taking a breath and making a frustrated noise through her teeth.

“What?”

“He got my number from Furuhata Motoki?..” She spun to face the window again, strangling the hand towel before whipping the lid off the pot she’d left to sit and needlessly stirring it again, fervently, the wooden spoon scraping against metal. “Doesn’t he have something better to do than keeping the contact information of women whose one-sided crushes he led on for years when they were like fourteen and then never spoke to again? Like going on dates with his super-hot wife and living abroad and-”

Rei placed a hand on her arm to stay her. “Hey… You’ve got nothing to be jealous of. You really dodged a bullet by not dating that asshole, in my opinion..-” The dark-haired woman’s eyes narrowed judgmentally as she crossed her arms.

Makoto stopped stirring the curry and silently nodded, rubbing her eyes. “Yeah…”

“By the way, Mako-chan, this smells amazing.”

“Thanks!” Her friend smiled exhaustedly. “There’s rice, too. Obviously.” She pointed to the steaming, fragrant rice cooker in the small kitchen’s corner without looking up as she returned to rubbing her face. “Should be done.” The young woman sighed and deflated, seeming to wobble where she stood.

“Have you… slept? ” Rei, not exactly usually the nurturing one, had nary enough spoons for convincing one, yet alone two of her friends to not prioritize over their own well-being within the span of a few hours. She raised an eyebrow to convey the sternness her words hadn’t the energy for.

“No…” Makoto sulked guiltily into her hands.

“You should..” Rei tried to say softly, but it came out sassy and through her teeth. To her relief the other girl just mumbled, “Okay,” and strode to the low sofa against the wall of the adjacent room.

The priestess laughed as she received another text from Mamoru which read, ‘So, she’s really okay? Hasn’t she found her phone yet?’ but by the time she looked to see Makoto’s reaction the taller senshi had already curled up in the cushions and appeared extremely unconscious.

Ami and Minako were shocked — Minako delightedly and Ami with a pinch of guilty dejection — to wake and find that food had magically appeared since while they napped, like a nocturnal fairy godmother, Makoto had cooked for them all and then passed out.

Usagi slunk, rubbing sleepy eyes, from the direction of Rei’s bedroom hallway to refill her glass of water before returning to the privacy of the veranda. She spoke quietly after unmuting, clearly still in the midst of a long phone call with her reincarnated prince.

Ami, jittery from the mug of coffee she had just poured and quickly swallowed half of, stood against the dividing wall and spoke dazedly with Rei while they both waited for Minako to shower. “Do you think… I-… Does Mako-chan seem okay to you? She was really stressed — and-” she spoke as her eyes fell on the person in question.

Rei watched Ami’s face — utterly fixated in her caring concern — and bit her lip but didn’t succeed at containing a laugh. Mortified, she realized without understanding the context of her unspoken thoughts, which she wasn’t primed to share, that that must have seemed heartless. She settled on a half-truth, explaining, “Um… it’s just, Ami-chan, doesn’t that sound familiar? ” The dark-haired girl smiled ironically at her.

The med student blinked at her and yawned before pointing at herself. “-… You mean me?”

The clairvoyant senshi just nodded, watching to see if the gears now spinning in place would click. She herself yawned, moving to the coffee maker and grabbing a cup; to be honest, though her morning meditation had energized her she was starving, and she wasn’t about to stand in a room that smelled this dang edible without orally fixating on some of the goods. “Mako-chan kept talking about you while she was cooking… apparently you were really tired and wouldn’t stop doing things?” The raven-haired woman sipped the hot, black coffee.

Ami grimaced and pursed her lips. “Yeah…” she admitted, with a sigh like a puff of air.

“She was worried and wanted to take care of you, too, you know…” Rei phrased it thoughtfully as she spoke gently. Are these two for real? she thought at their obviously oblivious parallels. She shook her head once Ami couldn’t see, blinking and chewing at her upper lip with amusement.

Considering everything, she really wanted to talk to Makoto first, however; Rei felt a quick flash of guilt at perhaps being too transparent with the facts she’d just presented to Ami — or, worse yet, that Makoto might wake up and hear them discussing it.

A glance at the blue-haired girl, though, who nodded distractedly as she lowered her face to sip her coffee without taking her deep blue eyes off their beautiful, slumbering friend, reassured her rather hilariously that the genius, ironically, was of course without fail too dense to notice. Rei looked from one to the other of them. She normally felt strongly repelled by the kind of sappy matchmaking Minako excitedly reveled in.

But this is different, she thought. The sooner these two could shuck off the tension and reservation they carried and allow each other to take care of them, the better. It simply made sense, right? She was interested and impatient because she wanted what was best for her friends and for the sailor team, right?

As she idly, smiling dryly to herself at both women’s thickheadedness, pictured the thought of them, the dark-haired woman’s eyes unconsciously glanced to Ami’s soft lips — pink, pressed firmly to the ceramic mug’s cusp, moist in the center where they parted — before darting to the small sofa where Makoto slept, Rei’s gaze tracing the wavy brown strands that messily fell over the girl’s temple and cheekbones, brushing her bare neck, framing striking features bathed in the window’s early afternoon light.

In an inner moment of absolute, overwhelming engrossment and panic, Rei flushed, mortified, and looked down to her drink. How perverted am-…??! her mind began to reprimand.

Sorry, Mamo-chan. Sorry, Mamo-chan, the young woman had thought as she paced, carefully so she wouldn’t wake Minako or cut her feet on the tatami’s minefield of broken glass. Her phone probably had enough charge that she could speak to him without also digging out her charger, so she wove her way out and took her leave of the disaster zone.

There were fourteen missed calls. She squeaked through her clenched teeth, blood draining from her now tingling extremities as her heart leapt into a subtle pound. At least she knew from Rei that he was fine. But really, fourteen?? She would have laughed and teased him at the excessiveness if she hadn’t felt like such a terrible girlfriend at the moment.

There were texts, too, and voicemails, but she might as well just call. The phone rang.

“Usako-” his voice blurted rapidly, and Usagi found herself too overwhelmed and emotional to speak yet, so she just took in bittersweet, shallow breaths in the silence, eyes watering, and sighed.

“Are you alright?” was the next question.

The blonde girl sniffled, nodding, and answered, “Mmhmm. Are you?”

Well, she knew nothing had happened in America, so what she more accurately wanted to ask, and apparently what went without saying, was: What do you know?

“I had a vision…” Mamoru answered.

“I had a dream, too,” she spoke. “In the middle of the night. We were on the moon. That was really you?” She blushed hopefully.

“I tried my best to psychically reach out and hoped that I warned you,” he said, “after you didn’t pick up any of my calls.”

Usagi tilted her head. “Calls? Before that I was sleeping-..” She would have to think about the implications of that later — right now her mind was too fuzzy. “Anway, thank you… I woke up right before they attacked..” She left out the bit wherein Rei actually woke her up, and the others were on it and would have protected her regardless.

“Of course. I’m glad…” The PhD student’s voice grew quiet. “I don’t know how I knew, but… I- I saw the enemy. In the scene I saw, I knew they were entering a time capsule of sorts from the Silver Millenium time… from the Golden Kingdom on Earth-”

“- I know..” Usagi nodded as she spoke.

“-and, one of the people was a man who saw that I was watching, and he made eye contact and addressed me…”

The long-haired girl chewed on her cheek as she listened intently.

Mamoru sighed. His tone was beginning to sound firmer and more like himself, but a hint of worry was creeping in. “… He told me, ‘nice try.’ But I was shut out of the vision. He said he would be watching me.”

“-What-?” Usagi rapidly blinked.

“That’s when I woke up. I was on the subway, so it was lucky I didn’t miss my stop from blacking out. I ran home and tried to contact you…”

The princess swallowed hard though her throat felt dry. “That’s scary, Mamo-chan… I want you to be careful.”

She could hear his confident nod as he sighed. “Thanks, Usako, but I will…”

Enyo kicked his feet up onto the stone ottoman. The fragrant pipe from which he smoked before handing it off to Erika, who took the last puff before extinguishing it, left coils of musky, sweet smoke trailing into the chamber air and his optimistic focus pleasantly buzzed.

“It worked,” she said, with a subdued, wry smile as she looked down; she continued to wrap her left hand with a white, synthetic bandage. “I have to give you credit.” She paused, seeming to be thinking. “It worked surprisingly well.”

“Ha,” Enyo laughed heartily from his diaphragm. “Yes, like I told you… Venus and Mars get despondent — and, their proficiency and motivation take a huge hit — when they think their friends have failed.” He flipped through the cards of notes in his hands, pleased. He chewed on the writing implement from his pocket, thoughtfully, as his mind continued to run. “Don’t, however, try that with Jupiter. It will backfire… Ha, don’t tell her her friends have been hurt unless you have a deathwish.” He smirked. “As for the princess… it’s about a fifty-fifty.” The man looked to mid-distance as he played out the emotional response. “It’s possible something like that would demoralize her, but it’s risky. She’ll either lose hope or annihilate you instantly.”

He flicked the pen from his hand demonstratively, yeeting it such that it launched and spun, clattering to rest on the far end of the solid-marble table before them.

“Huh.” Erika laughed her interested curiosity. “What about Mercury?”

“Hmm…” Enyo thought about her, the glimpses of the powerful mind and careful, but cluttered, thought processes he’d witnessed. “I suppose… I’m still calculating.”

Chapter Text

CW:

• mild drug use/mention.

“REI!!” Came a voice from the hallway to Rei’s bedroom, muffled as it traveled through the thin walls.

“What?” The priestess waded through the thick, warm humidity and smell of shampoo which permeated the area from the open door to the baths. That was a lot of steam for someone who had only washed her hair so she wouldn’t get her medical dressings wet, which is what Minako had promised to Ami. With a withheld scoff, Rei rolled her eyes.

She poked through her ajar doorway to see that her friend had already nestled herself back in among memory foam pillows on her bed. The blonde smiled from where she lay sprawled on the bedding lazily, her arms draped back over her head. A rather intense, sizeable bandage poked out from where it wrapped around the curve of her right hip under the borrowed pajama shorts, but despite that visual reminder of the recent, brutal fight she looked peaceful, her damp hair staining the bright pillowcase to a deeper red.

Rei stared at first and must have been gently smiling at her with sympathy, for the blonde nearly cackled and winked, batting her eyelashes. “Wow, Rei-chan, I’m flattered that I apparently don’t even need to break out my puppy dog face… So will you do me a favor??”

“W-what do you need?”

“Can I just eat in here?” Minako moaned as she went limp and sunk farther into the pillows. “Urggh, I feel like shit.”

Apparently Ami had come up behind Rei and was listening. “Makes sense… Pain signals are felt more strongly once your body and brain no longer think you need to escape from the danger. Also, I gave her a pretty heavy-duty medication that’ll make her feel zonked for a few hours yet.”

Rei turned to face the newcomer in the doorway. Not able to resist the jab, she probed with a subtle laugh, “And I suppose that was… over the counter? ”

Ami pinked, making a rough squeak of shame before she coughed and looked at the floor. Rei giggled and placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. “I’m only teasing. I’m sure it’s much appreciated…” She looked over to Minako, who gave a drugged-up grin and a hearty thumbs up.

“I’ve been sleeping like a baby…”

Rei made up plates of curry-rice along with a salad of fresh lettuce she picked from the shrine’s garden — as Makoto had lately been excitedly giving her tips how to best grow things using the outdoor space she had. The priestess had given in and agreed to bring Minako her meal in bed, so that left only Ami and Usagi to idly wait around the kitchen, the latter of whom was basically leaning over the counter, drooling.

“Should we wake her up..?” Rei gently asked, but not without a half-jokingly judgmental eyebrow lift to roughen her tone, once the three of them had sat at the table and it was clear Makoto hadn’t stirred. “Or wait..? Or…”

“I’d feel so bad starting to eat this without her since she stayed awake making it for us, but..-” Usagi picked up and lowered a fork to her plate preemptively, her mouth producing torrents of saliva as her stomach growled. She glanced from Ami to Rei mischievously, hoping that one of them would give her the blessing to just eat already.

Ami blinked thoughtfully, also looking down hungrily with guilt. “Probably, given the fact that we’re by no means starving, along with the fact that she’s been tired enough to manage to sleep through everything we’ve been doing, that means rest is likely more immediately crucial than calorie intake? But as for us, since we’re awake and burning more calories…”

Rei nodded quickly in approval before any of them could change the altruistically practical blue-haired girl’s mind, and without wasting further time trying to wake up their tallest friend, they quickly proclaimed, ‘Itadakimasu,’ and started without her.

Once the brown-haired warrior awoke, perhaps because the other two were also as anxious as Usagi certainly felt as she ate slowly in thoughtful silence, they had all only finished half their food anyway. Makoto, zombie-like, dragged herself to take up her place at the table to join them, chugging from a mug of lukewarm coffee, which she clutched close with a sigh.

Though their caffeinated fourth member soon became much peppier and talkative than the other three given that the bar was indeed low at this point, without Minako to cheerfully talk their ear off it was still surprisingly, uncharacteristically quiet.

Usagi yawned and rubbed her eyes once she was blissfully full, and she showered Makoto and Rei with her grateful, excitedly-blurted thanks. The princess sat back, looking around the tatami room as her head spun, but it felt as if her energy was trickling back into her. It was hard to believe it was just several hours ago they had been fighting, running, planning, escaping.

Her insides did a flip-flop as she briefly worried for the Outers, but as her brain returned to reality she quickly remembered with a sigh of relief that was already resolved. The long-haired woman glanced to her phone, compulsively opening it to look at Haruka’s text saying that the four of them were together and resting; Michiru was hurt pretty bad initially, but allegedly Hotaru healed her. Regardless of the specifics, she reminded herself, all my friends are safe and relatively fine. The stress can wait.

An idle glance about the room while Makoto finished eating and Ami and Rei traded quiet small talk, too exhausted for regular speech, reminded Usagi about the convenient absence of the priestess’s grandfather. “Rei-chan?” she blurted, interrupting her. “Where is your grandfather? There’s no way he’s still sleeping…?” She looked to the smartphone in her lap, which said it was after noon.

Rei seemed to freeze where she sat, her mug of tea stopped halfway to her mouth as she looked at the table, and suddenly Usagi couldn’t tell whether she was about to laugh or cry. This caused Makoto and Ami to also turn to her with interest, and Rei flushed.

“Rei..?”

The psychic interlaced and squeezed her fingers together in her lap, appearing flustered but lost in thought. “He’s… on a trip now.”

Ami merely blinked at her in wait of more, but the brunette eyed her suspiciously. “… Since when?” Makoto curiously ventured.

Rei clenched her jaw before speaking. “Since this morning.” After a few moments, she took a deep breath and went on, “.. Since we came home and I found him waiting for me and he knew that the shrine had been attacked and we ran out without saying anything or remembering to bring our phones and didn’t return until after sunup on the same night half the city was attacked and Minako’s blood was all over one of the ottomans.” The black-haired woman had seemed to deflate, releasing the tautness in her muscles and in her speech, with each rapid word.

“Oh-.” Makoto stated, looking to her with dawning realization and empathy.

“Really??” Ami and Usagi blurted alongside one another.

The princess added, high-pitched in her stunned surprise, “Did he find out??!-”

The fire senshi cupped her face in one hand and groaned quietly. When she surfaced from the reverie, looking up at the other three, she somehow seemed furiously agitated but also as though she might burst out in hysterical laughter at any second. “I think so??” she grumbled, sweating. “I mean… I didn’t just say, ‘Hey, I’m Sailor Mars,’ but…” Rei rubbed her forehead. “He communicated that he knew something was up, and we… came to an understanding,” the dark-haired warrior spoke stiffly before tipping back a swig of the tea. She glanced down. “I’m sorry, guys…-”

“No, don’t be!!” Usagi frantically shook her head as she sympathetically smiled.

Makoto nearly leapt across the small table in her rush to hug her, as from Rei’s other side Ami leaned in to do the same. “I couldn’t imagine..! If I had any family I was close with, I’m sure I would have-… I couldn’t have beared to not tell them by now..” the athletic woman muttered tenderly as she gazed, now blinking back tears, at the tatami. “So you shouldn’t feel bad…”

“Wow, thanks.” Usagi tauntingly raised her eyebrows at her, grinning. “Remind me not to tell you any secr-..”

“Uh-!! That’s not what I meant! I wouldn’t have…-! Well..-” the thunder senshi scrambled to explain, waving her hands in front of herself defensively, while Usagi cracked herself up laughing.

“So… where is he now?” Ami pressed, seriously despite the others. “Is it-?”

“It’s fine! He actually seemed to take it well.” Rei smiled at her wearily, drinking her tea once more after Makoto released her from the firm hug. “I kind of convinced him to… evacuate — take a vacation — and let us have the property to ourselves for a while..”

Pluto deposited her suitcase on the corner rack, detransforming with a sigh. The hum of the air conditioner made it feel like a summer vacation, but the smell of sweat and tension in the air marked a returning conflict.

“Only you would stay transformed to move heavy luggage so you don’t have to work out,” Haruka teased her with a kiss to the temple as they left Michiru’s side, on the way to the bathroom.

“That’s…-” Setsuna blushed, but her heart, to be honest, all but ached with happiness to be with her family — those who understood and loved her so well despite all the aloof machinations and walls her mind put up in order for her to seem always calm and collected — even now, despite all that was happening…

She should have hoped Hotaru would stay safely at home during this time, should have stayed in a different hotel room like she had the previous few nights, in order to not risk a hurtful scandal on her celebrity partners’ public image and life… But given the fact that a threat to her princess and Earth had arisen again… given everything, this felt right and it felt whole.

Hotaru uttered something between a wordless murmur and a sigh as she slept, draped across the hotel room’s sofa, her eyes moving under closed lids in response to exhausted dreams or unconscious thoughts.

Haruka returned from the bathroom and rubbed their temple, exhaling a weighty breath and shrugging off their top in favor of just the comfortable, gray sports bra. “Gah, some weirdo who last used this room left the toilet seat heating on… In this summer heat? Gross..” they mumbled as they fumbled through the hastily strewn luggage for a reusable water bottle.

The taller woman laughed, stretching to relieve sore shoulders and arms. Maybe I should exercise once in a while, she idly mused; even with having been transformed, she could already feel the workout from lifting and wielding her Garnet Rod.

“..Maybe I should have re-thought the whole bottom surgery thing. I mean… I could have been able to just-” Haruka carried on, to Setsuna’s panic becoming somewhat louder.

“Harkua!” the green-haired academic half-chastised, covering a smiling mouth with one hand. Her glance popped from the slumbering teenager to the bed where Michiru rested and back. To be honest, she wasn’t sure whether she was more concerned for a pleasantly sleeping Hotaru potentially being woken up… or a half-awake Hotaru overhearing the crude discussion.

“She’s still sound asleep?” they said quietly to Setsuna, who nodded.

“At least until now,” the time senshi sternly emphasized.

“Sorry! Right…” Haruka lowered their voice. The tall blonde stretched, groaning. “Anyway, I’d say we should check on the others, but…” They plopped on the queen bed beside where Setsuna stood, with a content grunt. “… they’re probably sleeping, as should we be…” Haruka blinked their eyes closed in feigned, dramatically-fast sleep.

Setsuna sat down beside them, eyeing their other partner who lay sleeping in the second bed beside the window. Michiru’s chest still rose and fell slowly in her deep sleep, which was doubtlessly good and what she needed right now, but Setsuna ached to see her awake and check on her. “I’d only just gotten here myself when you came back in, and these two have been sleeping since I arrived… How is she? ”

“She’s tired as heck but her injuries are healed to a… not-super-concerning level now. I think she’ll be mostly okay in a few days…” Haruka spoke calmly, nodding, without opening their eyes.

They must have noticed the green-haired woman then ‘tsk’ sympathetically while unconsciously glancing to the sleeping Hotaru, because the blonde warrior smiled and opened their bold, sky-blue eyes and quickly reassured her, “I told her not to worry, and not to heal all the way this time, don’t worry! She’s just a little tired, still… hence the sleeping.” Haruka trailed off as they eyed the weary girl who, although she physically appeared only a few years younger than the three of them now, was more or less their daughter.

Rather reassured, since she really knew their Hotaru could be protective, always trying to outdo herself in her healing prowess, Setsuna sighed and nodded, soon after lying beside Haruka — still wearing her civilian clothes and on top of the covers — and herself falling asleep.

Chapter Text

CW:

• mild angst.
• illicit (but arguably medically necessary) drug use.

Unfortunately, the bone-tired, luxuriously comfortable, rather dazed series of naps didn’t last long enough for Minako’s liking. Eventually, yawning and feeling that her body’s calling for her to sleep didn’t outweigh her mind's nagging for her to go talk with the others, she stretched and got up.

Though they initially hadn’t bothered her, and even with Usagi’s minor application of healing to speed things up, Minako’s monster-bite wounds dully ached when she moved, and practically her entire right hip, butt, and upper thigh felt deeply bruised. Muttering, “Oww,” to herself as she hissed, growing accustomed to her newly upright position, she padded over to the bedroom door.

The blonde giggled darkly at the realization that, other than a straight path Rei had cleared between the bed and the door, the room’s tatami floor and surfaces were still utterly covered with the shattered glass of her window panes. Rei will have some explaining and cleanup to do… Minako grimaced although she laughed cheerfully, sweating, at the thought that this meant she was no longer the only senshi to have done an extremely poor job of concealing recent developments from her housemates.

Gah, having reminded herself of her own current predicament, Minako thought with a niggling, guilty dread. Ah, well, I’ll just drink the water under that bridge when the horse comes to it. She brightened, pushing the sliding door open to the main hallway.

Other than Usagi, who tripped over herself to slam her with a mildly painful hug, everyone seemed dead tired. Minako pulled over a cushion for herself and sat back against the wall near the table, where she greedily grabbed one of the mugs of black tea Rei was already in the midst of dishing out.

“Thanks so much for the food, Mako, Rei…” Minako clunked her head back against the wall as she held the warm, steaming cup and sighed.

“No problem!..” Makoto turned to grin at her with a jittery cheerfulness that contrasted starkly with her dark eyebags and otherwise frazzled appearance. She appeared to be nursing a helping of black coffee, which she promptly slumped back over as soon as she’d finished speaking.

“… And for the impeccable, five-star room service, Rei-chan,” Minako continued as she turned and winked at the dark-haired girl.

Rei huffed. “Don’t get used to it!” she complained, crossing her arms and burying her gaze in her teacup, though Minako saw her subtly smile.

“So you’re feeling better?” Ami smiled wearily as she addressed her over the table. The group doctor had her own tired, purplish puffs protruding under her sea-blue eyes, but she finally, for the first time in the last day or so, appeared to be somewhat relaxed.

“Yeah!” Minako half-lied for the ease of quick summation. “Okay, so…” The leader’s eyes narrowed as her tone completely changed; she set down her tea and clapped her hands definitively. “Discussion! Any theories, or more information, or…?” She pressed one knuckle to her lips.

The spacious room was quiet for only a moment of thoughtful introspection before Usagi blurted quietly, rather like she was admitting a secret to a therapist, “Mamo-chan had a vision…”

Everyone else looked to the blonde princess expectantly to listen. Usagi glanced down wordlessly, blowing on her cup of tea before taking a sip. Her tired face was unreadable.

“He did?” Rei turned to her.

“I-is everything okay?” Makoto, setting down her coffee, leaned over the table to gaze empathetically at her with concern.

Minako waited curiously, eyeing the princess. She had also picked up on a note of worry in Usagi’s normally-clear voice.

Usagi shrugged moodily, not taking her eyes off her lap or restlessly fidgeting fingers. “I dunno… He- he said he saw a man in his vision watching him, who said he knew and would be keeping an eye on him.” The young woman took a sip of her drink, which almost hid the fact that her lip quivered.

There were a couple gasps. “That’s… that’s so ominous! Usagi-…” Makoto blurted, quickly reaching and gently grabbing both of the princess’s hands as soon as sparkling tears began to visibly bud in the platinum blonde’s eyes.

The pigtailed warrior nodded. “That’s what I said…” She pulled one of her hands out of Makoto’s briefly to wipe a shining tear without even looking up, then sniffled faintly and slid her fingers back across the table for her protective friend to take hold of once more. “It’s just… It’s so hard not having him here. You know?” Usagi blinked at her lap before glancing up.

“It’s okay! You know we..” Rei began, leaning in reassuringly.

Minako nodded, winking. “We’re here for ya..”

The brunette squeezed the other girl’s hands, smiling. “I- the four of us will protect you — we’ve got your back for sure.”

Usagi softly laughed, cocking her head as she leaned back. “I… actually kind of meant the opposite… I’m worried if he’s so far away I can’t protect him.” Laughing again, her face brighter now but embarrassed, she blushed and blinked thoughtfully.

“Oh yeah…” Minako put a finger to her lips, feeling silly that she didn’t immediately think of all the times Mamoru was, in fact, used as a hostage, brainwashed, tricked, and/or nearly killed.

“That does check out,” Ami spoke idly, almost as if she was thinking out loud. “Statistically, as much as he talks about wanting to protect you, it really makes sense that-”

Usagi blushed and whipped around quickly to interrupt the blue-haired girl in exaggerated offense. “He-… he’s not that bad!! ” She waved her hand at Ami defensively, cracking up. “But…” She slouched.

“But, anyway..” Minako allowed the conversation to be redirected. “Did Mamoru say what the person looked like? Or anything about him?”

The other, stressed blonde shook her head. “No… But I can ask.”

After that the unofficial meeting moved quickly, naturally. Minako had gotten them to practice, a year or two back, each presenting ideas as they popped up in free-flowing discussion without worrying whether each detail was important or relevant. The five lay around the quiet, humid room deep in thought, as Rei’s portable fan periodically blew past them.

Makoto sighed before speaking. “So, the shapeshifting…”

“Yeah…” Usagi seemed to be tracing the ceiling's wood boards with her eyes as she lay sprawled back. “So is that the technology they were talking about?”

“That’s actually a good point, Usagi-chan…” Ami stirred, sitting up straighter as she thought. “For some reason it didn’t necessarily occur to me that the organisms were created artificially — I’d figured it was just more selective breeding like Erika mentioned, or maybe another sentient species that they’d brought from the Silver Millennium but that had gone extinct in the past. But…” She chewed on a lip, tapping a pencil which she held despite having no paper to write on, as if the studious instrument alone somehow helped her think. “If they’re capable of genetic manipulation, or something similar…”

“Could they still be doing that?” Minako shot Ami a glance worriedly.

The blue-haired woman nodded. “Exactly. Since they didn’t use the second type of organism until now, it could be they just now found a way… or…” She trailed off, wheels clearly spinning inside her head. “Anyway, we’d need to be extremely careful, since they could surprise us with even more varieties…”

Makoto and Rei both nodded silently.

“Um…” Usagi turned her head from her spot on the floor, rubbing her tired eyes. “Also, by the way, Mina and Rei-chan…” The girl made a hesitant sound, as if she was unsure how to continue.

“Oh!” Ami gasped as she shot upright where she sat. “That’s right, the three of us were worried because…”

Minako cocked her head in answer, waiting.

Ami frowned, glancing briefly from Minako to Rei and then back. “… You thought the Outers — Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna-san — were…”

Makoto sat up, leaning on her elbows, to assist. “.. Killed,” she enunciated hesitantly as she finished Ami’s sentence plainly.

“Hmm. Yeah…” Minako rubbed her forehead as she shook her head, clearing her still-cluttered, foggy mind. I’ll have to ask Ami-chan what that pain drug was, she thought, and would have laughed if the current, serious situation hadn’t made it rather terrible that she couldn’t think straight. Cause, hoo boy, is that ever dank… “It’s what Erika told us. It was like she got word from Enyo or something that their attack had succeeded..”

The brooding, quiet Rei rolled over on her cushion on the tatami to face her. She gave a small nod to the others before smiling reassuringly. “Yeah, don’t worry, obviously we knew she might have been exaggerating, or the enemy was getting smug and ahead of themselves, but…” She directed a stress-filled frown at the floral pattern on the cushion as she sighed. “Weren’t they in bad shape?”

The other three seemed to exchange a glance, and several brows tensed.

“Well,” Usagi began thoughtfully, fiddling with her cell phone case’s jeweled texture between her fingertips, “when we finally talked to Haruka-san on the communicators, they said they were outnumbered but managed to stay on top of the creatures until Saturn arrived…”

Minako was silent, taking it in.

“I heard Michiru-san was hurt rather bad, though, right? And Haruka had been worried… but she’s doing alright now?” Rei sat up and placed her chin on one hand, leaning forward with increased interest as her frown tightened. She looked thoughtfully into mid-distance between herself and the moon princess.

“Yeah..” Usagi nodded. “But… Neptune was overpowered before the two of them got to her, and it seems like as soon as they were all together nothing else bad happened… And then luckily Saturn-..”

“What we’re saying-…” Ami blinked, a serious curiosity flashing in her eyes. “.. that is, the point is, we thought it was unlikely you — or the enemy — would have thought that. So, we’ve been curious to hear what really happened.”

Rei let out a long sigh, leaning back into a reclined position again. “I guess they really jumped the gun after taking out Michiru-san, or were totally bluffing… Man, I can’t believe we got so worked up and worried..” Her face rolled to meet Minako’s eyes and the blonde froze. Heaven knows what expression she made. The dark-haired priestess tensed up before backtracking, softening her voice with what seemed like regret. “I- I mean… it was fine.. I guess it turned out okay…” The fire warrior rubbed her temples.

Minako clenched her teeth tightly, avoiding everyone’s gaze and feeling frozen as a warm, molten mix of anger and shame rose up in her, up to her chest…

Memories flashed of just how much of a generous understatement Rei’s explanation was. She was obviously trying not to make the senshi leader look bad, which honestly made it worse. Minako remembered being utterly immobilized by the fear, fear of her own failure, and grief…

God, I cried when I thought it was over and Rei… Her cheeks tinted and she clenched both fists in her lap, thinking. Rei had to push me out of the way to snap me out of it and was hurt because of me..

Minako made sure her exterior facade, her expression, was as neutral and stone-still as possible. Fuming at herself, she set her gaze on her lap and crossed her legs, visually examining the chipped polish of her salmon-pink pedicure.

Thank fucking god, was what Minako’s thoughts exclaimed in relief once Ami brought up another topic; the genius quietly mumbled, “We should talk about the collective consciousness..”

“Yeah.” The brunette, now suddenly deep in thought, turned to Rei. “Rei-chan, you’re sure that’s what you saw — and felt — right? .. Do we have any other information?”

The raven-haired woman nodded. “As sure as anything… that was before my abilities became almost completely blocked.”

“So, are Erika and Enyo and all them a part of it, too? Or…” Makoto chewed on a fingernail. “… just the monsters?”

Rei sighed, and everyone else turned to her. “That’s a good question… I honestly haven’t even sensed the collective entity — or heard the monsters communicating clearly — for quite a while, definitely not the last couple fights.”

Makoto sat straighter, plopping a hand firmly to the tatami with a 'tap' as she leaned forward, as if resolutely. She blinked curiously at Rei as a fact dawned on her. “Neither have I…”

“So, it’s…” Ami speculated, speaking rapidly with sudden interest. “It’s possible it was an accident and they didn’t know about your abilities, Rei-chan-” She turned then to Makoto. “-or about the fact that you can connect with things such as plants.”

Rei was shaking her head slowly, one hand’s fingers pressed to her lips. “I was definitely contacted with purpose, in my first dream…” She straightened, pulling her legs behind and under herself on the cushion to sit in seiza. She sighed, thinking deeply. “The way the entity or entities contacted me with their request for help… It wasn’t a vision from my end but rather a communication they, consciously or otherwise, initiated. When my dreams are just a vision of talking to someone in the past or the future it feels… different.”

“It doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing, I suppose,” Makoto put forward thoughtfully. She turned to face the priestess. “Maybe they wanted to put out initial contact with you like they did when they took me… but now they’re worried about us purposefully finding out more?” She shrugged, but the athletic warrior’s posture straightened now with confidence.

Rei chewed on a lip, nodding absently. “Maybe… So, now they’ve blocked the channels…?” the woman thought out loud. But something still appeared to be bothering her.

“If they can still read our minds, though,” Usagi spoke up suddenly, “that could maybe explain how they always know where we are…” She laughed uneasily, grimacing as if she hoped someone would say she was wrong.

“Could that just be it?” Ami spoke quietly. “I don’t know…”

“Hmmmm,” Makoto hummed skeptically as she thought to herself. “I dunno… at least that first night, when they trapped me with that portal…” She laughed darkly, “or, when Erika found you when we were shopping, Usagi-chan-…” The young woman folded her arms behind her head. “That would be some weirdly specific knowledge of the most random corners of Tokyo in order to tell where we were from our thoughts…”

Usagi suddenly gasped, scaring Minako bolt upright — which, to be fair, wasn’t a difficult feat given that the leader's mind had already been racing, zoning out as she inwardly indulged in her own angst, insecurities, and thoughts.

“What if there’s cameras?!”

Four faces looked confusedly but seriously at the moon princess.

“You know, like what if what the vines were doing was installing microscopic security cameras everywhere??”

Makoto laughed with relieved dismissiveness, “Usagi-chan..”

“Cameras?” Ami went along with it, taking her wholly seriously. “Cameras where, though?”

“Everywhere!” Usagi held her cheeks in preemptive fear. “Like what if they have tiny cameras to know what every square-inch of Tokyo, or the world, looks like, and they’re always watching??”

Minako cracked up in a laugh of disbelief, coming out of her reverie. “M-maybe.. But, Usagi, don’t worry, I really don’t think..-”

“Or maybe they’re watching us from space?! ” Usagi continued, continuing to rile herself up.

Ami finally seemed as if her brain detached from its ride along the possibility of that thought train. She lightly sweated, laughing as she slouched. “So, how does that relate back to the idea of psychic abilities, though? .. It doesn’t, does it? ” She finished quietly.

Rei was facepalming, muttering about conspiracy theories under her breath. Meanwhile Makoto was gesturing to calm the blonde down, laughing as she reassured her, “I-it seems like there’d be so many easier ways of tracking us… That’s probably not what-”

Minako took this moment to stand up. She needed a breather and she needed it now, and this was a good opportunity to collect her thoughts alone. She tried to charismatically make a joke and excuse herself.

Unfortunately, her smoothness was interrupted by the fact that she’d forgotten about her limited ambulatory abilities and dwindling medication levels. Instead of opening her mouth to summarize with a joke like she planned, Minako cheerfully lifted a finger as she got the group’s attention and rose, only to squeak, “Ow!!” and wince, bending over her hip; she promptly, utterly and rather comically, fell back into the wall behind her, whacking it with her tailbone and sore glutes.

Also unfortunately, this didn’t have the desired effect of letting her slip out confidently and quietly. “Are you okay??” nearly everyone blurted, as Minako cracked up at herself embarrassedly and flushed, trying to back out of the room but failing to outmaneuver Ami due to her sore leg.

“You’re lucky that was a wall behind you!!” Rei chastised, closing her eyes as she shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. “If your clumsy ass bust through one of the paper doors, I’d be-..”

“-Have your pain meds worn off? Also in a few minutes I can check the swelling-” Ami was questioning, closing in while the overwhelmed blonde tried to flee.

Minako just laughed nervously, face burning with the combined unwanted attention, claustrophobia, and strain of holding back her emotions for just that little bit longer. Suddenly she straightened, taking a breath and successfully silencing everyone but Rei, who continued to complain over her.

“-Thank you, I’m fine, Ami-chan — I’ll come let you know in a little bit. For now, I need to text Artemis-” Minako mentally hesitated, realizing how stupid that sounded, but no one seemed to notice. “And-… I’m just going to lie down…”

Which was a lie — she’d been hoping to get some air outside, but at this point she didn’t see how she’d do that without one or more of her friends following her. So, finally escaping and feeling the weight of her inner world return like the pressure change of descending into a heavy planet’s atmosphere, Minako slumped back to Rei’s bed.

She tried to brush it off, telling herself that she should relax and rest anyway now that she was here, but… her mind panged, reminding her of the tough battle, the close calls, and her bad calls: Was I a failure? Am I just constantly a failure?

In silence now, Minako blinked at the ceiling as she breathed.

Chapter Text

CW:

• mild drug use.
• mild sexual content.

By the time the cats arrived, the energy level among the inner senshi had risen due to the needed rest, and Rei and Makoto had finally stopped politely yet firmly protesting when Ami tried to look after their by-now-minor injuries.

Minako sat on an ottoman which had been wiped clean from her own blood from not twelve hours previous, dazed and mentally recuperating but not yet ready to confide in any of her friends about her insecurities or regrets from the last battle, let alone the fact that she’d more or less almost cried because of how ashamed she was about having cried. Gah, I’m such a dramatic dork, she thought to herself, her feelings stinging slightly worse as she gazed at the floor.

Ami decided that Makoto’s lower leg only required topical antibiotic and ice, and she moved on to Rei. The two of them stood together by the side door, Rei hissing her mild complaints as the medic dabbed something on the half-healed but inflamed, zig-zagged lacerations to the sensitive skin of her inner forearm.

For the most part, no one spoke for a while except Usagi and Luna, the two of whom were hurriedly sharing information about what had happened, the black cat off-and-on becoming heated in response to the blonde loudly speaking over her.

Minako smiled, deciding to try to focus on the present before she thought too hard about how she felt about her past actions and reactions. Her right hip sharply stung whenever she moved her leg or the surrounding joint, but it… itched now?? Was it supposed to itch? That means it’s healing, right? she thought. She really shouldn’t have turned down Ami’s offer for more meds. But, alas, the Minako of thirty minutes ago had been more impulsive and desperate to hide her feelings and vulnerability, while the Minako of the present was itchier.

Once the priestess’s forearm was bandaged and Ami’s attention was switched again to the blonde, Minako gleefully accepted the offer for more medication like a kid getting a free sample of candy. It quickly made her brain slow and dopey, so while the others talked she sat back and mostly just listened, absorbing.

When it came to light that Mamoru’s vision had included the knowledge that the enemy society had utilized some sort of stasis technology rather than time travel, Luna and Artemis were taken aback but altogether not surprised; the Moon Kingdom had in fact used stasis pods for the two of them just prior to the civilization’s collapse, so Luna hypothesized the equipment was largely the same.

Rei, of course, playfully thwacked the princess on the back of the head for forgetting to mention that earlier in the day.

“Owwww, sorry, I-I was tired and just worried about Mamo-chan,” the blonde dramatically defended herself, laughing. “Besides, we already knew they came from then ‘cause they told us.”

“But it makes a difference on what information they had access to…” Rei countered, seeming mildly irritated.

“Is it possible they could have awoken from the stasis pods every so often — to see what was happening in the world? That could explain how they knew about Metallia…” Makoto spoke, looking thoughtfully to the cats as she leaned back in the chair opposite Minako, crossing her arms.

Luna shook her head. “I don’t think so. As far as I remember, the pods could only be activated once. Maybe it would have been possible to re-energize them for reuse at the place they were manufactured, but it’s doubtful that would have been possible after, well… after the Silver Millenium’s collapse. It could be the enemy in fact used a different device, however…”

“Also, let’s not forget they likely weren’t even on Earth during their time of stasis, but rather in their artificially created dimension.” Ami, finally finished with her medical duties after zipping up her duffel of supplies, sighed and seated herself beside Rei.

“Speaking of that…” Artemis looked up to her. “Ami, have you made any more progress on figuring out their computer system?”

The blue-haired girl shrugged and smiled weakly. “I’d be lying if I said it was straightforward progress. That is to say, all I can do is continue to stab in the dark, trying various things until I hopefully figure out a formula or mechanism that explains their data patterns consistently. Then, I can move on to the hacking. However…” She looked between Makoto and Usagi. “I did confirm that the enemy’s portal encryption is similar enough to my own that they’re picked up as failed access attempts by my computer’s subspace system. Which already puts me leagues ahead of where I was even yesterday.” Ami grinned, modestly but assuredly.

“Wow!”; “That’s amazing,” came a chorus from several exhausted party members, as well as both cats. Minako saw Ami blush under the attention and look down at her slippers.

“Okay, anyone have anything else to add about today’s — uh — last night’s battle? Cause, if not we should-…” Minako began, rubbing her forehead with her knuckles.

While the leader looked down, she had apparently missed Rei’s angsty glare so assumed the fire senshi’s tension-wrought huff wasn’t directed at her, only to be caught off guard.

“Only that Mina needs to STOP fucking trying to go off alone like some conceited, selfless martyr-”

“Akh!-” Minako whimpered surprisedly as Rei reached over and grabbed her sleeve tightly, yanking her closer for effect.

“… Believe it or not, not only did she try to pull that solo mission jazz we all witnessed, but after that, when for a minute we basically thought we were gonna die, she implied she shouldn’t have brought me and regretted-…”

The blonde senshi spluttered flusteredly but produced no words, wrenching her eyes briefly from the angry Rei to look pleadingly to the others. Her brain still spun from her sedating painkillers, which made acting serious harder. “But- I just meant- If I got one of you four taken down with me, it’d be my fault, and-…”

Minako probably nearly turned blue with embarrassment when she saw that Usagi and Ami were just nodding soberly at her alongside Rei’s continued explanation, the looks on their faces practically saying, ‘truth hurts.’ Makoto glanced sharply away with a turbulent expression, blinking at the tatami with pinched lips, but Minako wouldn’t be surprised if even she, too, were secretly judging her.

Usagi reached to place a tender hand on the leader’s arm, smiling with unbelievable warmth as she blinked up at her. “Yeah, Rei’s right. I appreciate you protecting us, Mina-chan, but we need you.” The princess pulled back to hold both hands sweetly at her chest, gazing down. “I-… I believe in all of us — in our ability to succeed together. So — and, this goes for you, Mako-chan, too-” she went on, looking at the other accused warrior over her shoulder.

“..What?” Rei snapped narrowed eyes to the brunette, and for a second Minako thought this might be her escape from further scrutiny.

Usagi laughed when the tallest girl cringed back from Rei’s expression, her cheeks subtly reddening and eyes becoming wide. The blonde princess scratched her head. “Yeah, um… She tried to get us to leave her to save ourselves, or go alone..-”

“Technically two times,” Ami spoke calmly, matter-of-factly without looking up from the laptop computer now open in her lap, and Makoto withered under the benevolent lack of a disappointed glare.

“-Yeah, twice…” Usagi finished.

“Of fucking course you’d also do that, Mako-chan…” Rei spoke through her teeth.

Minako was about to laugh with giddy relief at her fortune of slipping once more under the priestess’s radar, but felt herself grabbed again, tighter this time.

“Uh- Hey!!” Makoto blurted beside her as she and Minako both found themselves yanked closer by each of the priestess’s angrily grabby hands, held tightly by the hair and clothing respectively like guilty, handcuffed criminals.

“You… two…” One of Rei’s eyebrows twitched as she, eyes closed, began to lovingly lecture them, “need to STOP almost fucking getting yourselves-”

“-But what other choice did I have?! I had to-..!!” the brunette began to blubber.

“-But since I’m technically leader, it made the most practical sense-” Minako stubbornly went off, overtop of her.

“Unbelievable…” The priestess shook her head in judgment though half her lips threatened to tug into a partial smile, and a desperate glance at the other two told Minako that Ami was sitting back watching the reprimand play out, amused but sympathetic, and Usagi was cracking up but quickly intervening.

“A-anyway-” the moon senshi blurted, holding out both hands to help calm Rei. “I think we all get it.. Be careful, okay? She’s just mad cause she loves you guys..-” She grinned, laughing.

Rei let go immediately and the struggling Minako nearly whacked herself against the wall with overcompensation.

Michiru’s head spun from lingering exhaustion. Sighing, she returned the cool glass of water to the nightstand, instead reaching for her mirror.

Haruka had gone to the ground floor in search of sustenance other than the room service they’d subsisted on for the past day and a half. That left Michiru with Setsuna, who calmly read in silence from an ancient-seeming hardcover book which seemed to be in something like English or Italian, while Hotaru was taking a shower.

Hearing the turquoise-haired woman groan while repositioning to sit upright, Setsuna looked up with a smile and strode over. As Michiru pulled the talisman into her lap, the taller woman reached the bed and sat on the edge, taking her hand.

“I’m alright.” The wavy-haired senshi rested her head against Setsuna’s shoulder and smiled. “You really don’t have to come worry every time I move.”

“Oh?” Setsuna pulled back enough to look Michiru in the eye before running fingers through her hair and leaning to nuzzle her. She kissed the shorter woman on the forehead. “Who said I have to be worried just to come cuddle with you?”

Her breath felt simultaneously cool and hot as it glided over the skin of Michiru’s cheek and temple, sending her shivers when the other woman moved close enough for every word to vibrate into and blow across her ear.

“Hotaru-chan is just in the shower, and unfortunately probably won’t be for that much longer now,” Michiru answered her with a sly smile by way of admitting her need. Heaven forbid she be direct — that was more Haruka’s thing.

The scientist laughed, seeming a rare combination of cheerful and amused but knowing all the same. “I’m not exactly taking my clothes off, am I? All I did was kiss you,” Setsuna spoke in a low tone.

Michiru simply grasped the green-haired woman around the waist and pulled her closer against her, until Setsuna’s breasts brushed her collarbone.

“Am I that damn irresistable-” Setsuna was staring to say in a joking boast, when Michiru grabbed her now by the face and back of the neck and pulled her down to her own height, and closer. The teal-haired woman kissed her hungrily and firmly; she briefly pressed against and glided over Setsuna’s soft lips with her own, tasting her sweet musk along with the residue of her lip gloss.

Deep red eyes met her own in a look of peaceful surprise when the kiss ended, Setsuna’s focus darting sutbly from eye to eye or perhaps taking in various features of Michiru’s face. “I love you,” the time guardian spoke.

“I love you too. I’m glad we figured that out,” Michiru answered, and the other senshi laughed.

Setsuna sat back, appearing to look for her book again, as she blinked and rubbed her sepia-colored face. “So, do you think they’ve figured it out yet?”

“Who, the Inners?” Michiru casually tilted her head. “We’ve been dating for years, sweetie. They’ve probably noticed without us having to mention it.”

Setsuna looked back to her out of the corner of her eye. “Not officially.”

“But basically.” Michiru remembered what she’d been doing before becoming… distracted, and she reached to pick up and rub her hands idly over the mirror, which had slid off her lap in her haste to kiss this beautiful woman. “I do remember a time when all three of us wore rings on our ring fingers. You don’t think that even counted as dating, let alone marriage betrothal?”

The long-haired woman chuckled, cracking into a grin. “I recall even between you and Haruka back then your use of relationship labels was… hesitant.”

“That’s true.” Michiru stroked a few strands of her thick hair back into place while gazing at her reflection in the talisman. I’ve been in bed for too long, she thought in combined embarrassment and boredom as she twirled and pulled on some frizz to tame it. “To be fair, though, the definitions of our relationship were… weird because everyone and the media chose to believe Haruka was my boyfriend. When, in fact, she hardly ever leans toward identifying as a man.”

“Yeah…” Setsuna groaned and grimaced. “And it wouldn’t be legal, if…” She trailed off, a brief glimpse of a sad but colorfully radiant mood in her eyes.

“If we did get married,” Michiru finished, pulling anxiously now on her hair to tone back the rage at the world’s homophobia. “… Except, sort of some places in Tokyo.”

The taller warrior nearly chortled. “Well… except that that still doesn’t help the fact that there’s not two of us, but three.” She blushed, placing hands on her lap to smooth her skirt.

Michiru laughed too. “So, what do you think about the Inners? They probably wouldn’t be the type to take it in stride, would they? They all seem a bit… traditional. Usagi always talks, or used to anyway, about marrying Mamoru-san and becoming king and queen together… Mako-chan always talks about getting a boyfriend… well, actually there was one point I thought she would have agreed to be in a triad with Haruka and me in a heartbeat, but she kinda did a 180… and Minako might be polyamorous but to be honest I doubt she’s figured that out herself yet… and…”

She looked up to Setsuna, smile pulled into a subtle laugh, to see her reaction. The tall warrior had picked up the book again, and based on the cover it was almost definitely in Italian. When did she learn Italian?

Setsuna blinked back at her, smiling hesitantly. Once she realized Michiru was pausing to inquire about her opinion, she stated, “I don’t know… They might surprise us.”

Michiru cocked an eyebrow without restraint. She blinked a few times. “Is that supposed to mean something?”

Her juniper-haired girlfriend rolled her eyes and turned to walk away with the Italian novel back to her spot on the other bed.

“If Usagi and Mamoru-san’s relationship becomes strained or more… open, does that mean Haruka and I will have a chance again?” Michiru daydreamed out loud, smiling into mid-distance playfully.

Setsuna laughed. “What about me?”

“Oh?” Michiru questioned, with a curious thirst for gossip written on her face.

The other woman grew spots of warm red on her cheeks and lifted the tattered book to cover her expression.

The ensuite bathroom door opened to Hotaru, who brushed her clearly recently blow-dried hair. Michiru apparently hadn’t even noticed the water turn off, let alone the hair dryer. She sipped her water again.

“Can we see the others?” the teenage girl asked as she turned around in place, still brushing her jet-black, purplish hair.

Setsuna sighed. “Soon.”

“Today?” Hotaru followed up straightforwardly. She placed the hairbrush on a glass table and ran fingers through her straight, shoulder-length locks and fingered her bangs to adjust the angle of her subtle part in the wall mirror. She spun around again, smiling, and Michiru’s heart just about melted. Hotaru was so cheerful and so, so herself even a couple days after she’d broken the laws of time and physics as well as curfew to save her parents’ lives.

“Maybe…” Michiru spoke thoughtfully, looking to Setsuna in question.

“So, are you afraid of the enemy attacking while we’re out in the open, or are you just afraid of the paparazzi seeing us leave the same hotel room and finding out you’re both gay and poly?”

Michiru mildly choked on her water, and Setsuna laughed, flushing from behind the pages of her book as she twitched an eyebrow at Hotaru at the savagery.

“Um…” Michiru coughed, blinking at the white hotel blankets on her lap.

“Or both?” Hotaru cocked her head questioningly, lifting a determined eyebrow.

“Well, well hey now-” Setsuna tried to set her off the topic calmly, laughing and beginning to sweat.

“So, if you all are too chicken, can I just go? I think it’s important,” the dark-haired girl continued with determination as she searched for an elastic hair tie and pulled half of her short hair into a partial ponytail, a new look for her lately.

“NO,” Michiru and Setsuna spoke quickly, firmly, in unison.

“I know, because it’s dangerous to be alone right now, right?” Hotaru smiled convincingly, what Michiru thought to be a little preemptively victorious. “So you three have to come with me.”

Michiru swallowed the ice water calmly. “You’re forgetting that not only are we gay and poly…” She leaned forward on the bed for emphasis, pulling back her hair with one hand and pulling down her nightgown collar with the other. “… but I currently look like this.” The woman gestured pointedly at the black-and-blue bruises, swollen red marks, and scabs that dotted her face and chest.

In fact, her throat was one of the only places to not possess a single mark, due to the fact that was primarily where Hotaru healed her. It stuck out like a patch of dry ground after a rain shower, which was much preferable to the state she was in when their daughter had found her. Even with her senshi healing, had it not been for Hotaru’s powers she’d probably still be unable to speak.

Hotaru laughed and grimaced. “Oh yeah… Well, everyone’ll just think you’re kinky.”

Setsuna gasped and nearly threw her probably priceless antique book, while Michiru sweat-dropped and gaped.

“How-how do you know that word?” Setsuna blinked at the girl in what would have been motherly disdain if she’d had the heart for that sort of judgmental thing.

Hotaru rolled her eyes and grinned at her tallest parent over her shoulder, slowly beginning an attempt at walking away toward the sofa innocently. “Uh… the internet exists.” She reached her goal and plopped down. “Also, I’m seventeen. It’s not like I haven’t-”

“Shh-sh-shhh!” Michiru shushed Hotaru; at the look of terror on the time guardian’s countenance, she snorted a giggle and gestured frantically. Turning to Setsuna, she added, “Don’t ask questions you’re not ready for the answers to..”

Setsuna looked down to her book, beet-red, and muttered, “You’re four-and-a-half…”

“Seventeen,” Hotaru corrected, though she was laughing.

“Four-and-a-half!” Setsuna argued playfully, although her tone was dumbfounded and dry.

“Also, there’s probably no safe, sane, and consensual kink in the world that would explain away this,” Michiru muttered more quietly to herself while the others talked, as she idly hugged herself to rub her contused shoulders.

Her hand almost moved automatically to her cell phone, but she stopped herself. She’d been too busy sleeping and groggily napping off her now-minor-seeming aches to mention to Setsuna what she’d shown to Haruka that morning, in a near panic.

It was probably nothing, since tabloids dispensed more ridiculous shit on a regular basis before the hyped-up celebrity gossip train would eventually move along. However, a cold icicle had felt as if it stuck into her heart when she’d seen one of the more conspiracy-leaning online magazines bearing a minor headline that read, ‘Does World-Class Violinist Kaiou Michiru Have Connections to the Mysterious Sailor Senshi? Concert Cancellations Coincide with Supernatural Events for the Last Six Years in a Row.’

She’d forgotten all about checking her mirror, so she did so in silence while everyone else contentedly marveled and drooled over the delicious-looking muffins and delivery menus Haruka promptly jovially returned with.

A spiral of deep-purple energy seemed to swirl. It was the same thing she kept seeing, except closer now. All the other, more specific clairsapience she’d gotten before when gazing at her mirror was either altogether gone or fuzzy, hazy with fog. Thankfully she could still get a sense for the city around them, and no creatures or enemies seemed to be physically encroaching. Michiru blinked as she looked up unfocusedly at Haruka, who had a hand on her shoulder now and was asking her a question.

“Hm-?” The teal-haired woman asked as she rubbed her forehead. The hotel room was spinning, but when she closed her eyes it was no better. Her hearing was dim. It was as if the confusion and haze itself had entered her like a vision. She could nearly see something in her mind’s eye, but it felt blocked off.

“Are you okay?!” Haruka leaned over her, and Michiru smelled her cologne. “All of a sudden you’re really pale.”

“Yeah,” Michiru spoke, nodding as she rubbed her eyes. Impulsively she looked at the reflection again out of the corner of her vision before flipping over the mirror and placing it aside, scooting to let Haruka sit beside her on the bed. The deep-purple cloudiness still swirled.

I can worry them with it later, she reasoned. Once we’ve eaten and rested; once I’ve actually thought about what it means.

Chapter Text

CW:

• angst.

The following day at breakfast — which Usagi and Minako, excited for the occasion, had insisted on calling it despite the fact it was well into late brunch territory — the inner senshi were thinking more clearly. This meant the information and ideas flowed as they hung around casually discussing with Luna and Artemis, but it also meant most party members were angstier, the mood in the shrine home relaxed yet sober and heavy.

Minako, insisting on giving Makoto a break from feeding them all, made heaps of eggs and toast for everyone; she did it well but almost broke dishes tripping while cleaning up, which Makoto had a suspicion Rei wouldn’t let her forget for a day or two.

The windows and sliding doors were open to the veranda and yard, a gentle breeze coming through now that the brief threat of an afternoon thunderstorm had come and passed. Usagi texted someone, probably Mamoru, as she returned from helping Minako clean up the kitchen, not taking her eyes from the screen even as Luna began to tease her for it. Plentiful coffee was present once again, for about the umpteenth day in a row, and Makoto could swear Ami seemed to be drinking her helping nearly twice as fast as usual.

The major, noteworthy news: Ami was still close enough to a breakthrough that they’d need to discuss their eventual plan, and the Outers were visiting that night — finally leaving the ‘safety’ of their hotel room, although the gossiping Minako had other theories about why they were acting so reclusive.

The group had broken off into individual conversations, so while the blondes sat talking with the cats, Makoto and Rei sat together, silently stewing and slowly sipping coffee at the low table in the main tatami room.

“So, since everything Usagi-chan’s said makes it sound like the enemy has been occasionally fucking with our phones in addition to the communicators,” Minako finished explaining, seeming to be half thinking out loud, sounding distant from the hallway, “we should… probably check in more often. The more often we check on and exchange info with the Outers, the better..”

Makoto was leaning on an elbow, slumped over the low table. As she idly fiddled with the handle of the ceramic mug, the scent of dark-roast Indonesian blend still permeating even though it was rapidly cooling off, she took in the buzz of cicadas and reveled in the energy brought by the rich humidity and distant, quiet rumble of thunder.

Across the table from her, Rei was similarly lost in her thoughts; her violet eyes hadn’t moved from where they’d ended up focused on a random spot the floor, her expression calm but heavy, deep as a well.

“But what about work-” Usagi distantly blurted in protest to whatever Minako was proposing.

And just like that, Makoto felt as if briefly stabbed in the stomach with something akin to an icicle. Withholding an exasperated groan of distaste, she slid to rest both forearms folded on the table, face lowered as if to enjoy and absorb any remaining warmth from the coffee. She tried not to worry about that just yet. Not things as unimportant as that yet. Not yet, she thought. She wouldn’t let herself.

With a breathy sigh, Ami sat down beside her and Rei with her filled mug, at which point Makoto unconsciously pulled back and shot up to sit herself straight.

“Ami-chan, how are you doing??” the brunette smiled while Rei moved empty cups and coasters to make room for the addition.

Ami laughed. “You ask as if you haven’t been with me all day.”

Makoto felt herself briefly freeze. “Uh. R-right. Well,” she laughed. “It’s been… it’s been.. an hour? And you’ve been busy, so-”

“Since you last asked me? Not since you’ve seen me, ‘cause..”

“Yeah!”

The blue-haired woman slid off and folded her reading glasses, hanging them on the collar of her shirt, and she smiled. “I’m doing fine since I got a full night’s sleep, really.” She blushed slightly, adorably, as she tilted her head and softly laughed. “You don’t need to keep worrying about me, but- but thanks. Honestly, this is really probably on-par with the schedule of most regular doctors-”

Makoto was suddenly aware that Rei had stood, drawing Ami’s attention. “-I’ll be.. right back!” she was exclaiming before she spun around to leave, her expression before it disappeared from view cheerful but stiff, as if she was floored or trying not to laugh.

“Okay!” she and Ami called after her, as Makoto waved with sarcastic enthusiasm, tempted to laugh at the priestess’s mood. Perhaps, Makoto wondered, she’d gotten yet another hilarious text from Mamoru.

Okay, so what were we talking about? Right… doctors’ schedules… work-

Makoto dropped her gaze to the table with a sigh as the weight came rushing back to her, and Ami must have noticed the change of disposition.

The blue-haired doctor cocked her head at her. “But… are you okay? Is something wrong? How’s your leg-”

The taller woman shook her head with a half-smile, leaning back from the table to stretch and interlace her hands behind her head. “It’s not that, it’s… I’m-…” Hesitating, she realized Ami was staring back at her with that unwavering empathy, that soft blue gaze that always opened her up like a cracked egg. She really couldn’t lie to her… But she didn’t want the others to worry right now, didn’t want for her ‘regular’ and senshi worlds to come crashing together awkwardly at such a time.

Darting a glance at where Usagi and Minako still stood chatting in the adjacent hallway, Makoto successfully reassured herself they couldn’t hear and went on quietly.

She squeezed her eyes closed, sighing. “I realized I… missed a work shift. I was apparently supposed to be there to open yesterday, but we were still fighting. And…” She rubbed her forehead, realizing that Ami had leaned in sympathetically, even going so far as setting down her coffee. “Ugh. I haven’t said anything. I-I didn’t know what to do until we get our stories straight so I panicked and haven’t contacted anyone there to make any excuse.” The brunette laughed darkly, running frantic fingers anxiously through her messy bangs. “I got one missed call asking where I was and… that’s it, so… I dunno if I like still have a job, or...-”

“Oh, Mako-..” Ami slouched over the table, reaching to take one of her hands in hers. “It’ll be okay somehow… And, I’ve actually been thinking of bringing this up later when we meet with the others…” She cast a weighty glance down, drawing back, and Makoto watched her patiently. “It might be time for us all to come up with something, and put in notice that we’re taking emergency family leave, or…” The blue-haired girl trailed off.

Makoto sighed, sipping her rapidly-cooling coffee as she weakly nodded. “Right… This conflict is more important than, well…” She thought of her countless daydreams of owning a bakery or flower shop, or maybe even making it as a chef. The chasing of those dreams could wait a little longer; the looming promise of Crystal Tokyo was why she hadn’t decided to go to college or culinary school, after all, and she suspected the same was largely true for the other three besides Ami.

In the end, she couldn’t think how to finish the sentence, so she left it trailing off as her mind drifted.

Ami nodded knowingly. “Yeah. It’ll be a little more difficult for me, since, well-”

“Oh-” The brunette quickly shook her head, worried she’d unintentionally projected her self-sacrificial priorities onto the ambitious woman. Seeking the other senshi’s gaze, she mustered a smile. “Don’t worry, Ami-chan, I just meant… — I mean, the rest of us really get it. Your non-senshi responsibilities are more important than ours.” Makoto laughed, what she thought was reassuringly. “So if we need to pick up the slack, or let you skip meetings for class, or-…”

“Oh, no, it’s okay, I’ll-” Ami fidgeted with the back of her short haircut, posture tensing with a start.

“What I mean is, Minako, Usagi-chan, and I can always get a new job, and Rei could take time off and close the shrine, but…” Makoto leaned forward onto her elbows, meeting the solemn girl’s worried eyes with a smile. “Med school — and your dream of becoming a doctor — is really important to you. And, is actually important compared to what the rest of us do… I mean, learning how to save lives…” She trailed off.

Ami unfortunately still appeared to be brooding, eyes now glued to the surface of the table as if reluctant to receive the praise of prioritization, so Makoto cheerfully went on.

“Plus, it helps you literally save our lives by being our medic.” She laughed, hoping that Ami wouldn’t notice it was in part just an effort to mask her angst. “So, compared with dreams like mine… it.. it’s what you need to do, all of us understand, so don’t worry yet..”

Ami straightened, pulled back with a short inhale. “Yeah, that’s right…” She rubbed her eyes, taking a small sip of her coffee. “Becoming a doctor is the most important thing I have to offer everyone, so nothing whatsoever can get in the way..-”

“Uh.. Ami-?” Makoto began, now confused. If she’d started out clueless, she’d definitely just now felt the blue-haired warrior’s inner mood shift like the tectonic plates.

“-and I always have to put that first. It would be foolish, selfish, to do anything to jeopardize that.”

Makoto gaped at her, watching her friend blink listlessly down at her drink. Like a switch had been flipped, the blue-haired woman suddenly looked like a robot.

“Just like always… But, you’re right,” Ami went on, expressionless. “It’s good to know even you, Mako-chan, think that too..”

Makoto, suddenly, practically felt the whiplash of that response as if Ami had snapped her with a broken rubber band. A shocked, albeit indignant anger began to broil. She placed her hands on her hips. “Now, that’s not fair.. That’s not what I said at all…” Quickly, she searched Ami’s expression. With the self-restraint that always seemed easier in the presence of Ami’s soft, gentle blue eyes, in spite of the flash of her temper the taller woman softened her tone. “Ami-chan… are you okay? This isn’t like you – is something going on with you-??”

With a brusqueness that slapped Makoto in the face, her companion stood stiffly. Stinging internally, yet simultaneously wrapping her mind around the idea that it must have been all her fault, somehow, the brunette just stared up at her.

“I-.. I’m sorry. There are things I should be doing — I have to go-” the doctor began, and with a weak smile that reeked of unspoken pain, passive aggression, or both, she turned and walked away.

“Ami- what-? ” Makoto clumsily stood, nearly cursing as she banged her shin against the table and sent her lukewarm coffee chaotically sloshing, lapping at and spilling over the cup’s edges.

In a demonstration of either perfect or terrible timing, Rei had apparently returned from around the corner somewhere within or around that moment.

“Everything okay?” The priestess, sipping calmly at her own coffee mug, was now dressed in her work clothes as she stood in the brunette’s reeling peripheral vision.

“Yeah. I just spilled- I’ll get it-” Makoto blurted, and in her desperate attempt to not snap at poor Rei just for being the only person in her fuming vicinity, she darted unnecessarily quickly towards the kitchen counter for a paper towel.

Of course, by doing so she had thereby missed the chance to call Ami back before the blue-haired woman’s figure disappeared through and slid closed the hallway door. Should I have apologized or stopped her..? Or would that have made this worse.. whatever ‘this’ is..?

Mopping what she was self-consciously sure was overdramatically, angstily at the minor coffee spill, Makoto obscured her face from Rei by throwing herself fully into the task. Her mind began running defensively, What did I possibly say to deserve..?! I didn’t do anything wrong… but simultaneously that simple, brief encounter was quickly proving to have left her more broken than she’d care to admit.

“What’s wrong? Did I miss something?”

“Um-..” Makoto attempted a laugh, unsure how it actually sounded. Still wiping, she was half-aware, as she hoped that Rei wasn’t, that with the oversaturated towel she was now just moving the liquid around and around on the glass surface. Looking up, she glanced over her shoulder to attempt to smile cluelessly at Rei. “Why? Am I..?”

The dark-haired priestess answered by putting a hand firmly on one shoulder, stopping her cleaning. Makoto’s awareness wrapped around the fact that in contrast to her stillness the table was shaking.

“Uh-..”

Rei reached out a hand to save the poor furniture from the reverberations of its localized earthquake. “You’re spilling more…” she stated calmly but purposefully, and Makoto felt all the blood drain from her entire body to enter her hot, mortified face.

“Um-” the brunette squeaked. All but tempted to flee, she jumped back and away from the damning evidence of her mood.

“It’s kinda wobbly because it’s old. So, you have to be careful..” Rei began, flipping over the towel and with a deft, circular motion soaking up the rest.

“I’m sorry! I-”

Rei glanced up bemusedly, straightening to look the taller girl in the eye with a victorious eyebrow raise. “So, um… what’s wrong? ” she repeated, leaning to place one hand on her hip. Briefly, with searching violet eyes she glanced around. “Where’s Ami-chan?”

The brunette’s jaw tensed at the mention. Blinking away hot, defensively confused tears, she looked sharply away to bore a hole through the tatami at her feet. “… She said she had something more important to do…”

Rei’s resulting silent stare questioned adequately for itself, until under the pressure of her admittedly self-imposed, sulky aloofness the sincere girl cracked.

“… Okay, fine, so she kinda ran out. I’m worried ‘cause one moment she was cheering me up and the next she’s upset..”

“Okay…” Rei’s accusatory gaze had softened when Makoto eventually glanced up. “… So…? How does that explain you looking like you desperately want to confess to a murder?” She folded her arms.

“..Because it was probably my fault and I don’t know why,” Makoto spat, addressing the floor once more. She rolled her eyes, sighing, before she slouched and bit her lip. “We were talking, and she acted as if I said something..” she explained.

“Well, did you?”

“No! I mean, I don’t think so.. I mean, I didn’t mean..” Biting her lip once more, the tall warrior shot a glance longingly at the closed-off hallway.

To her bewilderment, Rei laughed. Makoto just blinked at her.

Scooping up the saturated towel and now-near-empty mug, Rei paced and tossed the trash into the burnables bin, setting Makoto’s confiscated coffee on the rim of the counter. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, Mako… She must be in a bad mood, since a lot’s been going on, but she’ll come around. If you want, I’ll check on her later.”

“Yeah…” nodding, with a sigh Makoto slightly relaxed.

“.. I mean, I know this sort of thing is rare between you and Ami, but… it’s really not a big deal.” She… smirked? Or maybe Makoto was imagining it. “I mean.. I doubt you usually look this devastated whenever I take something personally and storm out..-”

Makoto’s hand shot up impulsively in her nervous panic, so she pretended to suddenly adjust one earring-back with purpose. “I-.. Sometimes I do..” she breathed, mortified it might be too late now — that this might mean Rei of all people was finally noticing what she herself was still struggling to pin down.

Though the tall senshi had skillfully averted the probably-giveaway look on her face, in the corner of one eye she still saw Rei’s eyebrow shoot up.

“Hm… rather defensive about that fact, are we?”

“Wha-?” Makoto’s heart shot pounding into her throat such that she couldn’t breathe, so she attempted a convincingly confused smile and laugh. “What? Wh- I-..”

Rei, smiling wryly with amusement as she turned away, grabbing another paper towel to mop the still-moist dining table innocently, spoke gently under her breath, “It’s okay. I’m not going to tell anyone, but… I just mean, somehow I can’t imagine you this furious-but-also-near-tears about having a disagreement with any of us.. except when it’s Ami-chan.”

The brown-haired woman gulped but, mind spinning, began to come back down to Earth. Rather than argue or risk agreeing, she was silent as she leaned back against the wall.

After a few moments, Minako, Usagi, and the cats loudly proceeded back in; apparently they’d been talking outside.

“Wherme’s Ami-chanm?” Usagi mumbled through a mouthful of mochi she’d just found on the counter, ripped ravenously from its convenience-store packaging, and shoved whole into her mouth.

“Um-” Makoto tactlessly laughed nervously before her remaining composure broke and she facepalmed to hide her mood, slumping darkly against the wall.

“… Mako-chan?” a confused Usagi blurted, which of course made it immediately worse.

Minako wiped sweat from her brow, fixing her hair. “The four Outers are coming over in about an hour, you all!” she announced.

She was met by the other three’s tired, distracted ‘okay!’s, and Ami still hadn’t shown.

Exhausted already by all the discussion, Minako grabbed a glass of water. She’d calmed herself down a bit from her self-blame the previous day, but just knowing she’d certainly need to bring it up with the whole group made her insides squirm.

“I… have been meaning to help move the firewood for my grandfather. I could use someone to get the heavy ones… Mako-chan? Will you come..?” Rei spoke hesitantly, breaking the brief silence that had entered the room while Minako stewed, checking and re-reading her texts.

More specifically, her barely-answered texts — from Rieko, from landlords, from recording studios… The blonde cringed.

“Yeah,” the brunette nodded, and together the two of them silently left the room; citing mosquitoes, Rei slid closed the sliding doors.

Chapter Text

CW:

• angst.
• internalized homophobia.
• anxiety/internalized ableism/PTSD mention.
• drug use.

“So…” Rei began, and it had an air of accusation.

And, feeling numb and walking on autopilot, Makoto followed her down and into the yard. Gah, why does this have to feel like all the times I’ve asked a guy I liked out? she thought. This is nothing like that. Nothing to do with that. Nope, I’m misinterpreting.

“… So…” and, this time it was more gentle, “Do you care to explain why recently all of a sudden you forget how words work whenever Ami-chan’s around?”

Makoto froze. “Uh-um,” she stuttered before her throat closed up. It was happening. She’d half-expected this confrontation from Minako, but not from Rei.

Dammit..

“The logs are over here,” Rei spoke, gesturing with one hand. But neither of them made a move to begin the task. Given that everything so far was supporting Makoto’s suspicion that the chore was merely an excuse, the athletic girl wasn’t sure it mattered.

“Is…” she began, then turned away from the priestess, feeling her face flushing. “Is this not about how I made her mad at me, then?”

Rei laughed. “I guess tangentially, seeing your reaction. But, no. I’ve actually been wanting to talk to you alone for days.” The raven-haired woman began a slow walk along the garden bordering the house.

Nervously, the tall woman laughed. She swallowed. “Oh… So, how long..-” she ventured.

“Basically since this whole thing started, with the new enemy. Literally every time I’ve seen you with her since last week — or for that matter even whenever the conversation is about her.” Rei sighed. “But, then again, until recently it had been a while since I’d seen the two of you one-on-one. Why,” and the priestess smirked at her sideways then, “has it been longer..?”

Halfheartedly and extremely distractedly, Makoto began to pick each of the larger wood chunks up, throwing them in the wheelbarrow.

“And,” and once again Rei’s voice softened, “you’ve always been friends.. like all of us have… What’s made you act like you feel so different all of a sudden?”

“I…” Makoto tossed the final, biggest log effortlessly like a basketball, causing it to stir up flakes of dirt and bark from the pile with a thunk, and she redirected her nervous energy to brushing hair and dust from her eyes.

Alongside Rei and the wheelbarrow, she began to slowly pace. Taking their time, the two ambled gradually back up toward the house.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve just been realizing… I mean, it’s nothing super new, but just.. going through dangerous stuff together again, after all this time we had away from senshi conflicts since Galaxia — after having had time apart from you all, time to myself just to think — I mean- you know, not time APART, since we always see each other- but just-”

Makoto’s whole body continued to feel numb. She couldn’t believe she was admitting this.

Rei giggled, shoving a fist to over mouth as if to stifle an expression. They’d reached the veranda again. “So.. you have been thinking about it, then? Okay, good. I was worried you were in denial, too..”

“Too?”

“Um- nothing. But…” Rei left the wheelbarrow by the step and leaned somewhat playfully against a supporting column, casting a quick glance back at the kitchen window and closed doors to the main room. “So, was I right, then?” she probed gently, after a minute.

The former shrine maiden glanced up then to Makoto slyly, cheeks pink with a hint of blush. An afternoon breeze seemed to be blowing through the needles and upper branches of nearby trees, but somehow as the two Inner senshi stood together on the veranda the air surrounding them was still and untouched. As if they were within the eye of a storm.

“… You do like her?” the dark-haired woman finished.

“I-..” Blinking, bringing a hand to her lips, the thunder senshi felt her heart thumping in a way it hadn’t even during the past few days during which she’d been fighting monsters. “I…”

Whatever her feelings were for Ami, Rei’s statement was at least close enough to the truth that it’d hurt too much to deny it. Yet, she hadn’t really qualified the feelings even to herself. Not yet. If she was being honest, she guessed she’d purposefully been putting off labeling things. So, she left the statement hanging, neither a confirmation nor a rebuttal.

When Rei was quiet, Makoto momentarily tried to shake herself back down to reality. “.. I mean-… No.. This is stupid. I can’t… Our relationship isn’t like that.. and.... she probably couldn’t even like me like that..” she blurted, and it stung to feel the weight of those last few words in her mouth.

To her surprise, Rei said nothing at first. When the taller girl glanced up, the violet-eyed warrior was smiling, leaning casually against the wood column, fidgeting by sliding her sandal along a rough edge in the floorboards playfully.

“You might be surprised.. I actually bet you’re wrong about that,” Rei spoke softly, almost as if she held some hilarious secret.

Makoto straightened suddenly. Hope and terror filled her chest. “R-really?? What?- You think she’s..?”

Gah, she thought ashamedly to herself, I can’t even say it.

The priestess turned around to gaze at the yard again, with a cough that seemed more like a laugh. “Mako-chan.... Don’t you remember those couple’a times she just turned BEET red at the sight of my, um… magazines? ”

“Oh-..” The brunette felt herself blush vibrantly. Somehow she managed to not laugh. “So, you think that means-…?” She turned aside in order to breathe, fixing her ponytail and curling one finger around a strand of hair.

Rei was silent, but Makoto could practically hear her smiling.

“But-..” the stunned brunette went on, “that doesn’t mean she’d ever like me! I mean… We’re just friends. I hardly think I’m her 'type'..” And, she somehow continued to flush further.

“I-.. I really think you are, Mako-chan…” Rei stuttered as if in frustrated disbelief, fidgeting at the bangs of her long hair.

Ignoring her, Makoto went on venting, “-And… and, she’s never done anything to make me think-… well, except for kiss me that one time-”

Makoto then stopped as abruptly as one would while slamming on the breaks to avoid crashing into a moving train, as soon as she saw Rei’s reaction; the priestess’s whole body had immediately jolted, and she looked as if she’d barely stopped herself from falling forward and face-planting into the garden.

“..WHAT???!!?” the fire senshi demanded suddenly, whipping to pointedly give Makoto a withering glare, eyes wide as dishes.

“-Um…” Utterly embarrassed and put-on-the-spot, the other senshi scratched at the back of her neck. “Ahaha-!” she laughed, rushing to fix what must have been an incredibly misleading statement, “I- I mean, it was just that first night at her apartment!! It.. it wasn’t on the lips or anything. I was just in her bed, and she-.. I-.. I honestly think she just felt bad for me since I got beat up.”

“Mako-chan....” Rei began accusingly, through clenched teeth in a tone that was normally reserved for Usagi and Minako.

Makoto blinked incredulously at the floored other girl, who now held one fist tightly clenched; automatically, she launched into a flight of preemptively defensive laughter.

“… One doesn’t simply…” And, the priestess’s expression looked hot enough to explode, an eyebrow twitching. “… CASUALLY, platonically kiss a friend not-on-the-lips at night, in bed together out of sympathy..”

Makoto was nothing but stunned at first, putting the pieces of that assumption together as Rei nearly fumed like a steam engine.

“….. Oh.” She spun around, bringing a now-shaking hand to cover her mouth. “Oh, god… you think?! ”

“Yes, Mako… I do not think people generally do that…” the priestess emphasized firmly. Suddenly winking, she added, “Especially Ami-chan. I mean… if that girl gets hives at the sight of love letters, I kinda doubt she takes kisses lightly… Don’t you?”

“I-… uh-…” Makoto felt like such an idiot. She had never, ever, ever thought to think of it that way. Not in the million years which seemed to have passed since that week-and-a-half ago.

“So, it seems more-or-less clear to me.” Rei leaned in, smiling now. “But, even without knowing that… I already was willing to bet there’s a good chance she likes you.”

“Is that so..?” The sweating woman was struggling for thoughts, let alone words, as she gazed at the floorboards.

This conversation had gone both worse and better than she’d thought it would, somehow.

The two had long since reached the main room doors again but dawdled, walking slowly along the long veranda.

As the taller senshi stood, numb to all but the beating sun, her beating heart, and her own hesitant breath, procrastinating going back inside, what she said was, “Why did you want to talk to me about it?”

Rei smiled, seeming for a moment distant and, Makoto realized with mild surprise, embarrassed. The shorter woman shuffled her feet. “Besides just the obvious, which is that I care about you two and wanted to ask what was going on…” Rei smirked, tossing her long hair back over one shoulder. “I suppose as the inner senshi’s resident lesbian, I wouldn’t be doing my job unless I offered a helping hand to the fledgling, questioning baby-gays, would I?”

“Um, thanks…?” Makoto laughed.

She supposed she hadn’t really known Rei was a lesbian, but rather than being surprised by the coming-out, she felt it made sense. As the pair slowly shuffled toward the door, buying time before rejoining the others and thereby leaving privacy, Makoto found herself walking somewhat closer now to the confidant. It was comforting, albeit shocking, to all-of-a-sudden realize that she wasn’t the only one who’d dealt with this.

Until a year or so ago, she’d felt so alone among the other Inners, had let herself feel like a pervert for noticing women for so long… In fact, she’d been so afraid to mention it that, among all the senshi, Rei was technically now only the second she’d told.

Then, a terrible thought occurred to her. “WAIT.. did Minako tell you I’m bi?? ”

Rei snorted. “WAIT, you mean to tell me that you came out to Mina and she managed not to tell me?!?” She crossed her arms forcefully, gruffly exhaling with a smirk, “Surprisingly, no.”

“Oh, thank fucking god. I was nearly about to kill her.”

Ami sat stiffly in the desk chair, facing the computer’s screen but not yet having bothered to turn it on. She clenched her jaw unconsciously as she slowly lowered her face into her hands, immediately regretting it as she winced, rubbing at one of the stress-generated knots sitting tight within the muscles of her neck.

After a few minutes she realized that the lights were out. That’s right, she’d forgotten to turn any on. With the study curtain drawn, she was sitting alone in the near-dark.

God, she thought. To think that one of the others might come find me here and think I’m having an utter breakdown.

… Am I?

The young woman swiveled with a sigh, realizing by the uneven feel of her own clearing, deep breath as she attempted to calm herself that she was apparently shaking. With a press she turned Rei’s desktop computer on.

“Fuck..” she muttered out loud to herself.

Ami hadn’t thought clearly enough to bring one of her laptop computers, but oh well. She was sure she could make some excuse for why she had shut herself in here with just this old, slow one. After her outburst she still half-expected Makoto to come find her, worried, so she rehearsed the first excuse she could think of quickly.

I still had one of the files open here and got an idea; I didn’t want to break my focus by running to get my main computer, she practiced visualizing herself saying. Hopefully if she needed to do so, it could be with a smile and without an ‘um’ or stutter. Otherwise, hopefully her friends would attribute her nerves to her relentless focus.

But it was maybe half-an-hour and none of the others had come to check or ask what she was doing, which was both a relief but also made a somewhat lonely, sinking feeling creep up. By then she was already doing the thing she had decided to lie about doing, anyway, so the former feeling was outweighed by the latter.

That’s not fair of me, Ami self-critically thought with a pinch of self-hatred as she seemingly-endlessly tapped to scroll through the feeds of her extracted portal data from Luna and Artemis’s archives. I practically did this to myself. If I didn’t want to be alone, then I shouldn’t have…

She could hear the others talking, just outside. At least Usagi and Minako, anyway. The blondes cheerfully chattered and laughed, and Ami could hear Luna joining in.

Willing herself to calm but feeling both hands subtly shaking, the student looked down momentarily and tensed a fist.

She replayed her conversation with Makoto — to the part that had set her off, the words that sounded so familiar to the thoughts she was already no stranger to within her own mind: This is the most important thing, part of my role as a senshi. I can’t jeopardize it.

And yet, here she already was, and already had been for longer than her friends had even known. And for what?

And all the while, to make her stinging guilt even worse, close friends such as Makoto constantly prioritized her risk-addled goals over their own…

To her dismay and self-disappointment, as her breath caught in her chest she felt a tear leak out.

Then again, in addition to guilt she was also nipped at by disappointment since she did wish that at least Makoto would have noticed, without her needing to say anything… But, well, the blue-haired girl thought with utter shame, flushing, I DID almost snap at her, after prying and making her feel safe to divulge her own problems..

It wouldn’t be surprising if the reason no one had come was that Makoto assumed she needed space and everyone else was clueless or genuinely trying not to further upset her, she realized. However, that did nothing to calm her spiral enough for her to feel comfortable re-joining the others without alarming them with her struggling mental state.

Or, Ami thought, tensing with dread, how could I have not realized Mako would blame herself? OR, is beyond pissed at me for making it about myself when I encouraged her to open up.. and might want nothing to do with me again…

The blue-haired woman physically shook her head, closing strained eyes as she ran fingers through her long bangs with a slow sigh. No, she told herself.

What time is it..? Ami cautiously thought. She stilled in the desk chair after seeing it was after five, listening for activity in the hallway. Can I…?

Slowly, she stood up. Taking a breath and stretching first, the knowledge senshi slid open the hallway door and silently walked to Rei’s bedroom. Even though they’d moved all the sleeping arrangements out of the priestess’s room since the destruction, Ami still kept her toiletries and bags there, little blue pieces of luggage sitting discreetly on the tatami leaning against the wall.

With a sigh of relief that she was still alone and unnoticed, she reached through her purse to find a paper bag. One little container housed within held antidepressants. The other package, from which she reached and plucked out a pill, was for anxiety.

Certainly nothing out of the ordinary — especially so given that Ami was one of several who’d been fighting silent wars for the fate of the Earth since early teenhood.

Perfectly understandable and ordinary — except for the fact that she hadn’t told anyone.

Ami swallowed one without water, sighing. It was probably contraindicated in the long run given that her bouts of anxiety were most likely stemming at least in large part from undiagnosed PTSD, but hey… For now, she did what she needed to do to simply continue on.

Now that her first dreaded secret had come to light — that she’d stocked up illegally and stolen from blood banks in order to secure supplies for the senshi — she could probably realize the others wouldn’t judge her for also medicating herself.

However, since broaching that conversation would likely also trigger an anxiety attack of its very own, and she had more important things to focus on regarding the fate of the world… Ami realized, or rather told herself: Now is not the time.

Chapter Text

CW:

• mild angst.
• violence.
• physical/emotional abuse (of minor/antagonist character).

The golden-blonde checked a numbered box off her list, scratching out another note. Gosh, there was so much to do and keep track of.

She flipped the paper over, to where she’d scrawled a second part to her own to-do list on the back of the senshi-meeting notes. “Eeehhhh,” Minako drawled out loud, hesitantly, as looking at it nearly made her feel sick. Shamelessly, she flipped it back over again. This side was much neater, and contained fewer items. Yes, much better.

“Hmmmmm,” Usagi murmured as she chewed on a random pencil eraser she’d found while she frowned with focus, scrolling through Mamoru’s texts. Minako felt as if she hadn’t seen the other girl this focused and stumped since high-school math classes, and she nearly laughed.

“Brown hair. Or black;” “He says he saw plants were there, but can’t remember what sort. Maybe the same as the monsters??” the moon princess sporadically parsed helpful chunks of information, summarizing for Minako to write down; Mamoru had sent his girlfriend a slew of bullet points about his vision rather than make her remember the whole thing.

Nodding, the senshi leader wrote down more tidbits to bring up with the Outers, and sighed. She rubbed her forehead, looking around.

The other two inner senshi had come back in; Rei had immediately disappeared once more to help work the shrine’s duties, at which point the reminder that at least a couple regular employees were on the property and needed to not see anything suspicious did not make Minako feel wonderfully relieved. Makoto, on the other hand, had silently buried herself back in her usual sofa with a moody grunt, facing the wall, and last the blonde checked appeared to be glued to her phone. A vague social intuition made Minako briefly wonder whether the stronger girl was crying.

That would make two of us! she thought, probably altogether too cheerfully as she reached for her familiar coping mechanism, as with a laugh embarrassing memories of the previous day flooded back.

Finally, the strategist stretched, wordlessly voicing her tension as she yawned loudly, to Usagi’s apparent amusement. Throwing herself forward onto the table with an exaggerated sigh, Minako checked her watch. “When are they gonna be here??” She peered out the window. It seemed like the sun was setting, and first they’d said ‘night,’ then they’d said ‘6 p.m.,’ then changed their minds and said ‘sundown.’

Internally, Minako laughed that the older, more successful adults seemed to occasionally have a harder time getting their shit together than she did.

But… she still wasn’t unconvinced Setsuna was in a triad with the other two and that’s why this time around it seemed like a pain in the ass to simply get them together in public, in the same place, at the same time, without undue mystery. Rolling over to look at Usagi upside-down from the table, Minako smiled. “Still don’t wanna make a bet? There’s still time!”

“Nooo,” the other blonde whined, blushing. “Haruka-san and Michiru-san seriously love each other!!”

“That doesn’t mean Setsuna doesn’t love them, too!” Minako beamed, waggling her eyebrows. Which caused Usagi to giggle uncontrollably and turn red, averting her gaze to her phone screen as she squirmed. “And, remember, you’d be betting on monogamy. So, if you’re so convinced, then you’d win-”

“I-I know, I just…” Usagi squirmed harder in her seat. “I just don’t want to make it a game..”

“Mrmm, fine, if you say so.” Already bored again now that she’d gotten her mind off other things, Minako puffed out her lips in a pout and rolled the other way, still sprawled on the cool tabletop. “Where’s Ami-chan? She’s not still working on the data, or on homework or something, is she?”

Rei, who had apparently just opened the door, come in, and begun to slip off her sandals, nearly scared the shit out of her from behind by blurting, “Oh, FUCK!! I forgot-” and taking off for the back rooms.

Minako blinked in her confusion, laughing. “Forgot what?? Wait, was something wrong? Why-”

The priestess promptly disappeared, opening and closing the hallway door with a light slam.

Minako simply laughed but made a quizzical gesture to Usagi, who scratched her head and swiveled to eavesdrop without a moment’s hesitation.

“I’m so proud of you..” the love senshi whispered, tears in her eyes, once she and Usagi were both moments later pressed up against the door, crowded awkwardly together in their attempt to listen. “You didn’t even need me to give you the idea and then peer-pressure you into it. I’ve taught you so well.” She sniffled, beaming.

The princess shushed her, trying not to laugh, and whispered back, her mischievous eyes glinting with joy, “Thank you!!”

With a crack of baton to cheek, Erika hit the cold floor, whimpering.

“Pick yourself up.”

Seething, half-opening one stinging eye, the scorned servant glared up at Sel.

What hurt her most in that instant, however, was the icy feeling of Enyo’s eyes on her. Her friend, roommate, and companion from millennia ago, with whom she’d devised the idea to make something of themselves — to get into this mess.

As he did nothing.

Spitting a small amount of bloody spit, Erika got to her hands and knees. Impulsively she swirled her tongue around to taste the damage; one tooth, her upper left canine, was loose and cracked. The woman knelt in silence for a moment, confused and raging amid her inner disgust and turmoil.

“Can you tell me what you did wrong?”

“I-…” As her throat was tight from tears and tension, the blonde’s voice came out hoarse. “I was under instructions not to kill them, this time. So when I returned to intercept Mars and Venus, I acted accordingly — scared them and roughed them up, but I didn’t try-”

Her leader’s voice was cold, his face pale in the blueish light as he stepped forward. Erika didn’t meet his eye. “'Do not purposefully kill,' which is what I believe I said about the sailor senshi,” and at that Enyo, looking on from Erika’s right, obediently nodded in agreement, “seems like it would still leave a great deal of options on the table…” Selenios began to pace, the baton dematerializing as he instead clasped both hands behind his back. “And, with your reward of greater power from the loyalty you’ve shown…” The cruel man stopped, facing away from the two servants, as he fiddled idly with a ring on his finger. “… the best you could think of to intimidate them was to imbue the shapeshifters with your power and control them?”

Erika winced preemptively, cringing internally at her shame and lack of creativity. “I-…”

But, Sel didn’t so much as turn around. “With your lack of imagination, I’ve become aware that the battle data shows the two senshi you chose to target this time — Mars and Venus — had an equally difficult time against your ranks as they already had before… What a waste of such pure, precious power.”

Erika blinked hot tears as she glared daggers at the marbled floor beneath her. With one hand, she reached up and rubbed at her numb, stinging left cheek.

Selenios commenced pacing, around her and Enyo in a semicircle. “Had you not forgotten that our sentient allies — even at such a young age as these versatile saplings — are natural predators, ingenious and conniving,” he began to subtly raise his voice, “and therefore capable of using their shapeshifting skill to craft weapons, to maim, to taunt… to much better efficacy if left to their instincts and free will… we might now be much closer to breaking the princess’s will, to using her.”

Enyo nodded in Erika’s peripheral vision, and she tried to withhold an indignant scoff but it escaped — an angry breath that proved just loud enough in the quiet chamber.

The leader whipped around. “What was that?”

Erika shook her head at the ground, heart rate picking up. “N-nothi-”

Then the woman was grabbed by the collar, dragged up to her feet and then farther, held a foot or so above the ground by some glowing purple force. Taking in rapid breath, she instinctively kicked feebly with her dangling feet.

“What-” she breathed. A moment later, with a small cry Erika met with the floor again; by the same power she’d been released and tossed down.

“Until further notice,” Sel’s voice boomed, louder but no less calm, “you two, Erika and Enyo, are switched in rank.”

“-No!” Erika blurted.

“Erika… please follow our new first servant’s advice and orders. Enyo… I like your ingenuity and skill. Please don’t disappoint us. I look forward to seeing what you're capable of.”

“Yes, sir,” Enyo firmly answered with a deep bow to their superior.

“… Ami-chan?” Rei gently slid open the door to first her bedroom, then the study. A clack of some item on the bathroom counter, followed by the sink faucet running, finally alerted her to Ami’s whereabouts. At least she’s doing some self-care, instead of stressing out… she thought. Maybe Mako-chan overreacted.

Striding back into the long hallway, Rei tried to decide whether to knock but was greeted by a newly-showered Ami opening the door instead. To the priestess’s slight newfound concern, upon seeing her the blue-haired warrior seemed jumpy, as if shocked to find herself not totally alone.

“S-.. sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you!” Rei offered with a soft smile in response to Ami’s apparent panic.

The med student shook her head quickly, stepping into the hallway in fresh, casual clothes as she finished running a hairbrush through her bobbed, blue hair. “I-it’s okay! No, I was just…” Ami glanced at the floor, confirming Rei’s suspicions that for some reason or another their stressed technician was ruminating.

Rei motioned that she’d follow the other girl rather than interrupt her post-shower routine, so with a sheepish smile Ami led them to Rei’s ruined bedroom, replacing her hairbrush in her bags which sat by the door.

Not one to easily possess the patience for beating around the bush, the black-haired woman crossed her arms and sighed at the ceiling while Ami rummaged through her things. “Ami-chan… how are you really doing?”

“What-?”

Gently, Rei laughed. “Okay, I’ll be honest. I got a tip from a very-confused Mako-chan that you might be… stressed and upset? I promised her that I'd check up on you.”

“Oh.” With a weighty sigh, Ami stood and spun around to meet the other woman’s gaze. Frowning what seemed like nervously, she reached to scratch at the back of her neck. “I see. No, I’m okay, I’m-…”

“Ami-..” Smiling, Rei stubbornly placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. Please, be honest if you need a break…” Rei grimaced. “I know we’ve been asking a lot of you, but…”

“No,” Ami began with a shake of her head, finally looking up again with a smile, “I’m-.. I’m feeling a lot better now, really. I just needed a breather and a shower, and…” Subtly, her stressed brow pinched. Even without the aid of her usual skills as a psychic, Rei could easily see the worry and stress, and her heart ached for the workaholic.

“Is this… about the whole thing with taking care of Minako?” Rei asked.

Ami nearly jumped but relaxed slightly by the sentence’s end, emitting a stress-filled sigh. “Yeah, that’s… that’s part of it.”

“You don’t need to worry. I’m sorry I teased you about the meds, but…” Rei bit her lip, remembering the funny situation that likely felt not quite so funny to their aspiring-professional-doctor friend. “Ami-chan, we’ll keep your secrets just like you keep ours! And, thanks…” Drawing back, Rei crossed her arms. “… for caring so much.”

Mutely, Ami nodded and stared at the floor for a second. “Thanks, Rei-chan…” With yet another sigh, the young woman rubbed at her own shoulders. “Anyway,” she spoke, blinking at the tatami, “I’m sure you’re busy with shrine duties. But thanks for check-”

“Ami,” Rei spoke more curtly, both hands moving to her hips as she eyed her friend’s apologetic expression disdainfully. “You’re not only my friend but my guest, as long as we’re staying here at my Hikawa Shrine, so checking on you is my job.” Cheerfully, she winked.

All the same, Ami still seemed to shrink, avoiding her gaze and appearing listless. The fire senshi harbored the feeling there was something she wasn’t saying — but heaven knows she couldn’t wrangle it out of the reserved inner warrior if she wasn’t ready, and as it stood she already felt she’d intruded on the blue-haired girl’s privacy.

After a reassuring but awkward hug, Rei decided to leave the genius to her devices. Maybe after they’d all had more of a chance to relax, they’d talk later.

Usagi slid a couple bobby pins through her hair, standing in front of a half-length mirror. For some reason her heart thumped while she gazed, her attention finely attuned to listening for the doorbell any minute, extremities down to her bare feet against the wood hallway floor feeling vaguely sweaty.

Convinced her signature buns would now stay in place against the weight of her below-butt-length tresses, she turned to rejoin the main room but slowed and hesitated, eyeing herself sideways. Her complexion seemed ruddy and stressed, her eyes betraying the acute anxiety she’d endured for the past few days. Usagi gave a small smile at her reflection, mentally pulling herself up; that usually helped, anyways.

At the ding-dong, the moon senshi jumped and scuttled to the main-room doorway, where she stopped, leaning a mildly clammy hand against the wooden frame, and internally floundered over whether to be the one to answer but was soon rescued by the fact that Rei handled it.

As if she were an archaeologist discovering her complex, glorious — if she did say so herself — self, Usagi allowed a second for nearly laughing at the fact that even she wasn’t sure whether her nerves were primarily from anticipating or dreading the meeting with the Outers. Both… she realized with a confused gulp. But she gave herself permission to not make sense. Mamo-chan would think her complex moods were cute, after all…

‘There’s so much to you… So many sides of you, all of which leave me in awe,’ he’d sometimes told her. As if a pressurized bottle had been tapped, Usagi felt warm tears well up into her eyelids; she clenched her teeth to retain a straight face as she watched Rei open the door and Haruka became the first to walk in.

“Hey, kitten!” The tall blonde waved at her, and Usagi grit her teeth harder.

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

‘She’s stressed, not mad.’ lit up on Makoto’s phone screen which she already held in front of her face, and she nearly jumped.

The brunette exhaled a slow sigh into the cushions, staring at Rei’s text. She half-smiled. Somehow, that intel did not make her heart beat any less quickly, though. Hopefully the flush was nearly gone from her face by now — or at least would be by the time company arrived.

The doorbell rang.

So much for that, Makoto thought comically, rushing to rub her face and glazed eyes, fixing her messy hair. Groaning tiredly, she flopped over on the couch and sat up, briefly stretching before burying her face in her hands.

I don’t think at this point I could fucking LOOK at Ami-chan without… the girl’s inner thoughts panicked.

“I’ll get it!” Rei’s calm voice chimed, and Makoto heard sets of footsteps toward the main room’s front door.

Okay, don’t panic. Don’t panic. She could run to the bathroom or hallway mirror to check that she didn’t look like she’d been alternating crying and profusely blushing. But… then, she’d have to go past everyone else to get there.

“That won’t work,” she quietly muttered into her hands, sweat-dropping.

Resigning herself to socializing in her current state, she hoped that maybe if she seemed a mess the rest besides Rei would assume it was just because she was tired.

Then, she caught sight of Haruka in her short, clingy dress and denim jacket… and gained a whole new excuse for being a flushed mess.

Makoto, you fuckin’ simp, she mentally chastised herself — what would Ami think if she knew this is how fast my hopeless-romantic brain changed course after thinking longingly about her??

Then, a single look at Usagi, who hovered flustered by the hallway door, face rouged, biting her lip, eyes wide and staring straight at Haruka… told her the practically-engaged blonde was experiencing the exact same thing; nearly snorting and sweating once more, Makoto had to stop herself from laughing at the strange camaraderie.

“Please, come in,” the violet-eyed priestess greeted.

Setsuna bowed her head lightly, smiling at the inner warrior. “Thank you for having us.”

“It’s no problem!” Rei lowered her voice then, slouching and giving an irritable pout while she closed the main door behind the tallest senshi and Hotaru, who had proceeded in after her. “Not like we have many other feasible options,” she complained.

“That’s true, huh?” Hotaru giggled and then froze.

Nearly everyone present stopped dead at the sight of the youngest warrior — Makoto, Usagi, Luna and Artemis, Rei for a moment until she seemed to pick up on Hotaru’s embarrassment and looked away, and even Haruka who for some reason had begun to stare in apparent curiosity at why everyone else was staring.

“Hotaru-chan!” Usagi began, grinning as she half-walked, half-ran to greet her. “It’s been so long!! It’s good to see you — you’re so, um…-” She fidgeted.

Luna, perched on a table, spoke up. “This is the oldest, as far as I’m aware, anyone has ever seen Saturn…” the black cat marveled matter-of-factly as everyone turned to her. “Even in the previous world..”

Hotaru fidgeted with her dark hair, awkwardly laughing as she sullenly dropped her gaze. “P-please! Don’t remind me of my terrible track record for staying alive…” She shrunk in on her petite frame, wrapping one arm around herself to grip her shoulder. “Given.. you know, what I’m actually for..” A deep, weighty frown took hold of her, which was somehow able to coexist with a subtle, polite smile.

Everyone was silent for just one moment before Usagi shook her head firmly and sprung to stand directly in front of Hotaru; the lanky teen now nearly towered over the princess, Setsuna realized.

“Hotaru-chan…” the long-haired blonde spoke gently, taking one of the outer warrior’s hands in hers. “You’re really one of us now. You’re-..” Smiling, she looked to nod at Setsuna for backup. “Pluto told us Sailor Saturn exists now in our future, in the Earth of Crystal Tokyo era. So… you’re definitely meant to be here now, with a new role! You don’t have to bring death and destruction — you can bring…” Usagi cocked her head, inhaling as her thoughtful eyes wandered to the ceiling. “… umm…-” she ineloquently struggled.

“A super-goth fashion sense?” Haruka filled in, reaching to ruffle Hotaru’s hair and eliciting a ‘Hey!’ from the girl.

“You bring rebirth,” Setsuna interrupted the jokes. “And rebirth can exist without full-scale destruction. In the time of the Moon Kingdom… well, that was difficult for all of us to imagine. But in this life, Hotaru-chan, your powers and gifts clearly show a much broader purpose.” Her voice was quiet and even, but the rest had turned to intently listen, nodding; even the tension in Hotaru’s shoulders relaxed.

“W-… what she said!” the moon princess added, grinning as she crossed her arms.

Ami returned, taking her spot alongside everyone, including the four Outers, who now sat together around the main table. However, she still couldn’t meet Makoto’s or Rei’s eye — especially not after the priestess had just come to check on her, concerned — and that fact made her insides roil with guilt.

She was the only one not marveling near-speechlessly at how much older Hotaru looked, since after all Ami had been the one to examine the youngest girl each year in order to approximate a believable age for each new round of faked medical records. The Saturnian senshi was likely about seventeen now, which meant that she’d seemingly caught up with the form she would have taken had she not died fighting Pharaoh 90 and returned as an infant; to the Meiou-Tenou-Kaiou-Tomoe household’s great relief, the senshi doctor had most recently speculated that from this point on on the reborn girl would develop normally.

Minako gave a weighty sigh, unfolding a piece of paper in front of her. “Okay, so… Setsuna-san, Michiru-san, Haruka-san, Hotaru-chan, do any of you have anything to bring up before I start getting through our meaty questions as quick as possible?” Lightly, she laughed.

Michiru shifted on her cushion, mood seeming weighty, and Ami’s gaze snapped to her; silently gasping and taking in details of her appearance, the med student was embarrassed to realize she’d apparently been too dazed and distracted to remember the turquoise-haired senshi was recovering from significant injury. How rude of me, she thought. She was no longer spiraling or trembling with anxiety, thank god, but instead apparently her thinking was slightly slowed.

Michiru had entered the home wearing pants, long sleeves, and a broad sunhat, hair worn down and styled to nearly cover her face — no doubt since she was a celebrity who would garner unwanted questions if any member of the public noticed her bruises and partially healed welts.

Quick to remedy her mistake of not immediately inquiring or offering, Ami rose, stuttering, “M-.. um, first, Michiru-san..! Will you allow me to check you over?! I’d like to see if I can give you any aid for the injuries that haven’t yet healed.”

As the ocean senshi turned and gazed up at the med student, she smiled. “Certainly. If you’d like.”

Secretly relieved and literally exhaling a held breath, Ami was glad to have at least a few more moments to gather herself before socializing with the whole group — but especially Rei and Makoto.

… Especially-most-of-all Makoto, she realized with a nervous churn of her heart and flip of her stomach.

What was I even thinking? Talking to her and then blurting that and then running off and making her worry so much she didn’t even feel comfortable-.. And it bothered her enough to send Rei? I’ve got to-…

But, when the person she needed to talk to was also the person she was, in a way, the most afraid to talk to… Ami was in a slight emotional predicament indeed.

Procrastination was her friend.

“Here, roll up your sleeves,” she spoke with a forced but sincere smile to Michiru as soon as they were in the other room. “And I’ll be right back with my things. I’ll start off by taking your vitals!” she blurted, feeling a bit weird to realize she was excited to have this task — technically the product of Michiru’s misfortunes — to focus completely on.

… Before I have to admit to myself…

… That there’s probably no way around admitting to myself… that for some reason, somehow, I’ve now got a crush on my friend, the blue-haired woman thought with a hard swallow.

Everyone lounged and small-talked while waiting for both water senshi to return.

Haruka laughed and boasted, dramatically pulling her cellphone out of her purse with a wink as she promised to 'clear up' Makoto’s and Minako’s work and recording appointment absences.

“Really?!” both younger women beamed, leaning in over the dining table.

“No problem,” was Haruka’s confident response.

“But how could you even-”

“Hello. Sorry to bother you. This is Tenou Haruka.. Yes, yes, THE Tenou Haruka, former junior racer and three-times motocross champion,” the tall blonde was explaining a moment later while Rei sweat-dropped in disbelief at the hubris, watching in amusement as she leaned on the wall across the room.

“I’m calling about your employee Kino Makoto-san… Yes, she’s a long-time friend. SO responsible and creative, isn’t she? … Anyway, I must beg that you overlook a recent misunderstanding — Kino-san was helping me with a personal project and my assistant regrettably forgot to call…-”

“Yes, I personally hired Aino Minako-san to perform at my soiree to celebrate my partner’s, Kaiou Michiru’s, recent awards ceremony… Great up-and-coming talent, isn’t she?! But there was a mix-up and Aino-san wasn’t able to make… -So, as a thank-you I promised I’d call on her behalf and reschedule. Yes, yes, it’ll be my treat for her, so the VIP studio room, please… for… a month from now?”

Looking up, Haruka gestured questioningly to the other blonde, who at first failed to respond as she'd been staring with elbows on the table, utterly star-struck.

Makoto nudged her out of it, and the two of them along with Rei looked amongst each other ambivalently, nodding and shrugging.

“Yes, one month from today, please. That should work for our Aino-san’s busy schedule,” Haruka finished, pulling on a strand of hair as she leaned casually on the wall. With a sigh and a half-smirk, she hung up. “Well, that’s that!”

“You’re the BEST!! ” Minako proclaimed, and she leapt up to hug her, awkwardly with her mild limp.

“Th-thank you, Haruka-san!!” Makoto grinned, mildly blushing.

Setsuna, Hotaru, and Usagi returned from the gardens as the exchange was just ending; softly scoffing, Setsuna rolled her eyes at Haruka as she entered and placed one hand on her hip. “Of course..” she muttered.

Rei laughed.

“So… will you bet me five hundred yen on whether I'm right about something?” A surprisingly bubbly Minako tilted her head.

“No,” Rei spoke as she automatically cleaned up her laziest friends’ teacups from earlier; they clinked as she looped the handles around her fingers, stepping into the kitchen.

Minako went on anyway, “Mako-chan and Ami-chan… are fighting?” she deduced, and Rei nearly tripped.

Spinning around, the dark-haired priestess turned in time to see Usagi approaching; seeming to have heard, she gave an unhinged laugh of unmistakable guilt as she fidgeted with her sundress. At that Rei dropped her tensed shoulders with a frustrated sigh and set the cups down, lest she break them in rage should Minako do anything more surprising.

“You were eavesdropping on me and Ami, weren’t you?!” she muttered to the closer blonde. Thank gods, she thought, however, that means she didn’t actually notice…

“No!! Well.. I mean, yes, but we couldn’t really hear anything! I just guessed. And then you sounded unusually sympathetic and you mentioned Mako-chan’s name…”

“We?” Rei asked with an upturned eyebrow at Usagi, although it was solely to tease her; she’d thought as much. But, it gave her a grand satisfaction to see the pigtailed blonde’s frantic expression.

Usagi laughed harder, skipping forward to slap Minako square on the back. “Nope, she misspoke — she definitely means just her!!”

“So…” Minako nearly whispered then, placing one finger to her chin. “Are they?? But.. has that, you know........ ever happened before?!” She shot a detective-worthy frown in the direction of Usagi, who cocked her head at the suddenly shocking thought. “The two of them are kinda like…” The blonde grimaced mischievously and gestured with index and middle finger, plink-ing them together.

Makoto appeared around the corner from the back rooms just then, stopping in her tracks as she’d apparently heard enough to guess their conversation topic. The brunette shot Rei a mortified glance of panicked shame from behind the two clueless blondes before she retreated, spinning on a dime to flee the scene.

Rei cringed at the drama she’d unintentionally escalated, bemusedly shaking her head with a sigh as she massaged her forehead, looking to the wood floor. “Mako thought Ami-chan was mad at her, so… in other words, it’s probably literally nothing..” Rei tried to smile. “Ami’s just stressed, like we all are…” she added thoughtfully, idly wiping a rag across the kitchen counter.

“Mmmmmm, oo-kaayy then,” Minako sing-songed as she seemed to settle her mind skeptically. “So… then will you bet me five hundred yen on something else? ”

“… Also no,” Rei spoke sassily, with a smile as she didn’t look up from her cleaning.

“Aw! But I hardly have any takers on that one…!”

When the raven-haired girl failed to humor her by asking what the bet was, completely ignoring the senshi of love instead as she put dishes away, Minako ended the awkward silence by thrusting herself forward to Rei’s ear, cupping a hand.

“We’re betting on whether Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru are all in a relationship!” the blonde giddily whispered.

Usagi for some reason scoffed uncomfortably, squirming behind her.

Rei set down the last mug in the cupboard with a hard ‘thunk’ and whipped around to yell. “Why would I want to bet about that? Minako, you PERVERT!” she snapped.

“Sh-shh-sh-sh! ” The golden-blonde held up her hands, sweat-dropping; for, two of the three in question were sipping tea behind them, in the next room. “Anyways,” she laughed at Rei, still not willing to give up, “I’m always right about these things.” Closing her eyes confidently, she thrust a hand over her chest. “But if you’d dare to doubt me, why not put some money on it?”

“Heh!” Rei scoffed dismissively to the amusement of their princess, who was still listening in, hovering in the kitchen archway. “Sure you are…” she grumbled teasingly.

“I am! It’s my romance intuition!” The other woman winked.

Blushing and nearly guffawing out loud as she turned to leave the gossipers to their devices, the priestess pondered just how much the blonde wasn’t ‘always right.’

“Fine, be that way, Miss Stick-up-your-ass!”

As Rei was leaving, Minako slapped her lower back teasingly, so low in fact that she nearly spanked her.

Holding her breath and forcing her pace and expression to remain calm, Rei exited the kitchen with a dizzying flush, heart on-edge and pounding. Point. And. Case… she thought to herself with a muted, frustrated sigh as she nearly rolled her eyes.

It’s been so long since we’ve talked about it… Rei thought. But she’s got no idea that I still-… Well, no, never mind — my guard was just down.. the priestess justified sadly.

Chapter Text

CW:

• mild descriptions of injuries.
• mild angst.

Ami finished disinfecting the last of the most obvious cuts, on Michiru’s right shoulder. The older senshi, thus far, had been silent while she worked.

“Just let me know if this one shows any signs of infection in the next day or two, but most of the other lesions are healed over enough by now I’m not concerned! Any of the bandages can likely come off after a day at the rate that you heal, and this butterfly stitch will fall off on its own so you won’t need to worry,” the med student spoke with a smile. She pulled out an adhesive, external suture and applied it over the deepest, still-healing portion, securing the wound’s edges closed tight while Michiru sighed and nodded.

“Thank you, Ami-chan,” the other woman spoke at last. She smiled and pulled her long-sleeved shirt back on over her bra, wincing as she did so.

Ami nodded tiredly by means of responding, turning around to throw away the mildly bloody trash and wash her hands at the laundry sink.

“Say, I hope I’m not being too nosy, but… You seem a bit quieter than usual. Is everything alright?” Michiru’s voice came from behind her.

The blue-haired girl stopped like a statue and swallowed; she dried her hands and turned around slowly. I’VE been oddly quiet? she thought to herself. Michiru had barely said a few words, after all. Rather than voicing that argument, she met the teal-eyed woman’s gaze and shrugged.

“Maybe it’s just an intuition — but then again I could be completely wrong…” Michiru spoke, reaching into her purse beside her on the small couch. She grabbed a small, turquoise compact, which she snapped open to inspect and fix her hair. “But I almost wonder if you’re… feeling burdened by a secret.”

Ami flinched at that but tried to hide her state of fluster, hastily packing her med supplies back up in her duffel bag. “I, um…”

The sea-green-haired senshi eyed her curiously. “… Or more than one secret? You don’t need to tell me, of course,” the outer senshi added with a small laugh and a wink. “And like I said, it’s just a feeling.” She sighed, shoulders slouching. “But it could be that I’m noticing in you what I’m also doing subconsciously. It’s stressful, isn’t it?”

The younger warrior blinked at her, hands stopping what they were doing in the middle of replacing her roll of gauze back into its sub-compartment. She chose her words carefully, afraid to scare Michiru off during a rare instance of her opening up. “Do you.. have a secret?”

Michiru stretched and ran fingers through her hair. “I guess it’s not a secret, since… I told Haruka. But don’t worry yourself with it. It’s just celebrity drama.” The older woman stood at last; picking up her purse, she sighed. “But, Ami-chan, be careful if you do end up being a celebrity doctor of sorts — which doesn’t seem that unlikely with your prestigious academic history, does it? You’ve skipped grades and made the news, after all.”

“What are you-…” Ami eyed her nervously as they stood in the small laundry room, hesitating by the door.

“People notice your every move, every coincidence.” Michiru’s countenance darkened as she gazed at the floor, one hand hovering over the handle of the sliding door. Suddenly, she softened with an exhale. “No, never mind, I’m being dramatic.” She smiled, shaking her head without looking up. “I’m sorry to worry you. I suppose I’ve been in a rather dark place.”

Awkwardly, unsure how to respond, Ami quickly shook her head. “No, it’s alright! You don’t need to apologize at all.” She zipped up her medical bag at last, straightening and making a move to follow Michiru out. “So, then does that mean…?” she began to ask, softly. “Has someone in the media figured out-? Is it because you came here?”

Michiru rubbed her forehead with a tense grimace. “I hope that’s not what’s happening. But, we’ll see.”

“Okay, so.” Haruka clapped her hands together, smiling with a wink. “Does anyone else have any job or commitment issues I can help settle before we get our meeting started?”

She’d honestly meant it as a joke, not expecting an answer, but suddenly Usagi and all inner senshi besides Rei seemed to simultaneously slump.

“Well, I still need to figure out how I can go to or cancel my shifts for the rest of the week,” Makoto griped, slouching and rubbing the back of her neck.

Ami sighed, creases of tension blooming on her forehead. “I haven’t studied at all for my immunology exam this Friday, and I’ve missed two lectures so I need-”

“My parents are gonna kill me if I can’t think of an excuse for why I haven’t been constantly applying for jobs or talent agencies or-” Usagi whined, suddenly almost crying.

“Ummm, I might be HOMELESS in two days!!” Minako raised her hand forcefully with sarcastic cheerfulness; the blonde nervously laughed.

The room promptly went silent, at that.

“Oy, oy…” Haruka muttered, sweating, shaking her head and attempting not to facepalm. “One of these problems is not like the others… Umm, so can someone help Mina-chan out or what??”

“Minako…” Rei began firmly, crossing her arms. “WHY did you NOT mention this sooner?!”

“So can I stay here at the shrine?” The blonde clasped her hands. “For a little while, at least until the evil-fighting shit stops going down? Please, Rei?!” She batted her eyelashes, smiling.

“Of course, but-”

“Weren’t you going to live with Rieko-san again?” Usagi mentioned.

“Ughhhh,” Minako sighed, posture sinking. “No, I’ve been M.I.A. so she found a new place to rent without me! But, heh.. maybe it’s for the best so I won’t have to worry about seeming suspicious?”

“I mean, isn’t going dark and not coming home for days when you’re supposed to be packing already suspicious…?” Rei raised an eyebrow, examining her fingernails.

“No, she’s just convinced I’m U-Hauling with Mako-chan.”

Haruka spat a small amount of tea out of her mouth laughing and attempting not to choke, but luckily it splooshed back into the cup held in front of her lips.

“You-what? ” Usagi asked, scratching her head.

Makoto nearly started laughing hysterically. “We’ve known each other for years, Mina, so would that even be U-Hauling?”

“She’s right. Get your stereotypes straight,” Haruka laughed with a wink.

“Well, no, y’know, I just mean cause we just started dating.”

“You WHAT?!” nearly everyone exclaimed.

To Haruka’s left, Michiru shifted to get her attention and covertly raised a significant eyebrow; Haruka elbowed her under the table, subtly flicking her gaze as if to roll her eyes and say, ‘not over yet…’ The two had wagered money on who, if any, of the inner senshi would come out as LGBT+ first; Haruka bet it’d be Usagi, while Michiru, darn her, had serious money on Makoto.

“No! No! We’re not- we’re NOT dating! We’re not dating! Aha! ” Makoto scrambled to explain, literally jumping up from her seat.

“Well, Rieko-chan thinks we started dating- ANYWAY! That’s besides the point,” Minako spoke, gesturing wildly.

Haruka cockily grinned sideways at the sea senshi then, eliciting a subtle shove which was so hard it nearly actually knocked her over.

“Anyway, anyway-” Rei began without looking up as she massaged her forehead, slouching frsutratedly, “Mina, you can stay here, but can we discuss it later?”

Minako sighed audibly — and visibly, as her shoulders un-tensed by lowering several centimeters — at that, and she nodded with relief. “Okay. And all my stuff, and furniture-? I’d need to bring-”

“-I do really wish that you’d told me, but of course…” Rei grumbled. “We’ll make it work…”

“… It’s been the same, every day for the past few days, but the vision was worse today. The purple, the confusion, it’s so vast, nearly endless, like a sea… Nearly infinite droplets…”

Haruka bit at a callus on one knuckle, staring down at the table’s surface as she felt the intensity and silence wash over the others while they listened about Neptune's talisman.

To her left, Michiru twisted a wavy curl around an index finger as she adjusted her hair and sighed.

“Rei-chan, are you still not able to see anything?” Hotaru questioned.

Across from the girl, the priestess shook her head without lifting her gaze. “No…”

Setsuna shifted, sitting to Haruka’s right. “Why would Mars’s abilities be cut off… but not Neptune’s?”

The tall blonde could have sworn Rei sunk slightly at that, and a barely audible, soft, frustrated sigh escaped the dark-haired warrior.

“I don’t get clear visions like you do, Rei,” Michiru was beginning, smiling now. “So there wasn’t really much to ‘cut off.’” She leaned back, inhaling. “Usagi-chan, didn’t you say that the prince had a vision that was interfered with?”

Usagi nodded slowly, rubbing her eyes. “Yeah…”

“And I haven’t had any visions this time around besides the night you were in danger,” Hotaru spoke.

“So, what about the guy? Selenios?” Minako sighed and folded her hands on the table. “Setsuna-san, do you have any more info?”

The tall, green-haired senshi nodded, straightening on her cushion. “He’s the same one that served Helios, I’m nearly sure. Disappeared from records shortly before the Moon-Earth conflict started.”

“… When he entered a stasis capsule?” Makoto tentatively filled in, listening intently.

“Most likely,” Luna spoke with a nod from where she and Artemis sat on the corner farthest from Haruka.

“There’s something else concerning, too,” Setsuna spoke with her amber eyes fixated on her mug of green tea. “His close associates and followers — aside from Helios, of course — for the most part went dark just before or around the same time as Selenios-”

“I figured as much,” Minako muttered. “And that’s who we’re fighting now… Erika, and-”

“-But,” interrupted Setsuna again, and the table went silent as the Inners caught the tense expression on her face. “… so did thousands of regular Golden Kingdom citizens.”

Haruka bit her lip, blinking into her half-finished tea; she’d heard the update from Setsuna the previous day but still hadn’t fully digested it. She practically felt the palpable shock and confusion from around the other end of the table as Minako blanched and Makoto gasped, the other three merely rendered statue-still and silent.

“B-but…” Makoto spat out.

“Thousands?” Minako uttered with a suddenly stone-serious, tense expression. “Are you sure?”

Setsuna shrugged noncommittally, half-grimacing. “Of course, their disappearance from records doesn’t prove they were associated or involved whatsoever. That said, it is possible…”

Ami shifted forward onto her elbows, pushing her reading glasses up with a thumb. “If all of those people were brainwashed or recruited… Enyo and Erika… Those two might only be the beginning…”

Shock seemed to play across Usagi’s features at the realization; Minako and Makoto slightly tensed, and Rei remained expressionless, her serious face distant.

“They might have… an army,” Minako spat softly, as if the words themselves were poisonous, and the whole table seemed to flinch at the leader’s inference.

Throughout the conversation Hotaru had been tense, emotional and distant, but at this point the youngest warrior tensed a shaky fist on the table; immediately Michiru leaned over to wrap an arm around their daughter and pull her into a hug. The teen exhaled softly, closing her eyes, as her head rested on the stoic Michiru’s shoulder.

“If that’s the case…” Ami shakily went on, “we might have to attack as quickly as possible… before they all wake up.”

Everyone nodded.

“Speaking of which, Ami-chan,” Michiru said, with a nod to the blue-haired woman as she soothingly stroked Hotaru’s hair, “didn’t you say you’re close to breaking the encryption to the enemy’s pocket dimension?”

Ami nodded soberly. “Yes… I can’t give a date I’ll be ready to let us infiltrate, so just in case I think it’s wise we come up with a plan for when that happens.”

The four Outers nodded, and Makoto slapped a fist into one open palm, suddenly grinning. “It’s about time we get them off guard and at a disadvantage… I’m sick of it being the other way around and think it’s high time to pay them back…” the brunette mused.

Haruka nodded, smiling, as she downed the last of her tea in a gulp and slammed the cup definitively to the table. “Agreed..”

Usagi had been surprisingly silent, and while their more talkative members bantered Haruka noticed it seemed like tears were glistening in the beautiful princess’s eyes.

“Princess…?” the short-haired blonde questioned to her, tilting her head.

The bun-haired woman pursed her lips, her chin sinking farther into her palms as she rested her elbows on the table. “I’m just…” She sniffled, and the rest of the group immediately silenced. “What if they can read our minds, like we’ve suspected? … What if no matter what we do they can see us coming? And what if they-.. what if Mamo-chan’s-” Usagi’s shaky breath hitched, and as she clearly struggled not to cry Minako wordlessly wrapped one arm around her.

“I’m sure he’ll be okay… right?” Hotaru spoke suddenly, softly smiling. “Because he has to be. We’re meant to all be together in the future…”

Usagi buried her face in her hands, shaking her head with a sniffle. “That hasn’t stopped things from happening to him before… or to all of you, like with Galaxia… but now he’s alone, and-”

“Usagi-chan…” Michiru began softly, and the crying blonde paused long enough to look up. “I’ll keep an extra-close eye on his energy in my mirror… so please try not to worry… I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

The princess rubbed her eyes with the back of an index finger, nodding weakly. “Thank you… Okay..”

“Now, if those details are settled,” Minako spoke up stiffly, and all heads turned to her, “I feel like I need to address something else…” She sighed, folding her hands in front of her. Her brow furrowed. “My lack of communication with you all the other night and failure to plan for the possible outcomes-..”

“Oh, don’t even start!” Haruka interrupted, straightening in her seat. “Please, Mina, we three… but especially me… failed to communicate our plans properly… We should have been on the same page from the start, and not assumed we could handle the threat any better or differently than you five could…”

“Haruka-..” the golden-blonde leader breathed, seemingly stunned by the abrupt apology.

Haruka waved her hand in the air dismissively, defensively letting out an impulsive chuckle. “Oh, don’t make me say it again! But, Minako-chan… any lack of coordination in the battle the other day was not your fault.” The tall woman crossed her arms, cheeks already prickling with the vulnerability of the admittance.

“I suppose…” Minako spoke hesitantly. “But, I regret that I should have thought of something better… or been more adamant… and my risky mess of a plan for Mars and I to rescue you all was a whole-”

“-And what should you have done?” Michiru interrupted, voice by all measures objectively soft and even, yet commandingly loud for those who knew her well. She sipped the dregs of her cup of tea. “Left us three to die had Saturn not rescued us? I know you’d never decide do that, not without trying… not a single one of you. So, don’t hold yourself at fault for what’s unrealistic.”

Mutely, Minako nodded soberly. She opened her mouth to speak a couple times, but nothing came out. Then, “Well… I owe you all an apology at least for my lack of judgment by thinking I could just fix everything if I went alone… And how personally I took everything when I thought I’d failed… And, I wasn’t the leader you all deserved since I ultimately overestimated my own ability..-”

“-Hey, hey!” Makoto interrupted, frustratedly reaching across the table in gesture to take the guilty blonde’s hand. “I did the same damn thing, and I don’t hear you lecturing me-”

“Everyone’s right. You don’t have to be perfect, Minako-chan, that’s nonsense,” Ami said firmly, shaking her head as she gave the blonde an emphatic, sympathetic look.

“But…” Minako stared at the table.

Rei lifted her head for the first time in what felt like forever, and softly she spoke, “They really pushed your buttons, didn’t they?”

“… What?” The golden-haired warrior turned her head to look expressionlessly at Rei, blinking.

The black-haired senshi sighed, shrugged, and fixated her gaze on her interlaced fingers sitting in her lap. “… I just mean, don’t worry about it, Mina… I think it just got under your skin.”

The blonde inhaled sharply and turned further as if to defensively snap at her, but before she could do so Rei went on.

“… I mean, a couple miscommunications, a couple ambushes, and that bluff to make you feel like you’d let everyone down… and you’re off your game for days.”

“… What are you saying?” The edge in Minako’s voice rose as she straightened on her cushion.

This caused Rei to snap. “Chill out… I’m trying to make you feel better, not worse about it.”

“You think I shouldn’t have overreacted?” Minako challenged, biting her lip.

“No, I just think you’re overreacting to think you’re a failure,” Rei finished, crossing her arms with a long exhale. “At least… that’s what I’m hoping it is with me…”

A brief silence crossed the group.

“What do you mean…?” Makoto began, eyeing the priestess.

Rei sighed, closing her eyes. “Just… it would make sense if the enemy is manipulating me into feeling useless, discouraged… by blocking off my powers more than everyone’s…”

“Rei…” Minako softly spoke, after several moments.

No one else had moved, except for Usagi, who had begun to rub Rei’s shoulder.

“… unless it’s… actually just me..” The dark-haired warrior tensed, rubbed idly at her face as she sat straighter.

Minako laughed lightly at last, turning her head to look squarely at her. “… You’re not seriously that put-off by that, are-”

There was a brief clatter of one of the teacups jiggling on the table’s surface, as Rei stood suddenly and uncharacteristically clumsily in what seemed like rushing anger or sadness and turned for the door. “I have to… go meditate. Please excuse me, and let me know later what else you covered in the meeting.”

Slipping on a pair of sandals which sat by the back sliding doors, their priestess inhaled shakily and departed into the darkness.

“Uh, I…-” Minako breathed, face showing confusion as her eyes subtly glistened.

“Rei-!” Makoto meanwhile abruptly stood, presumably to follow her out until Michiru reached up in gesture to stop her.

The sea warrior was shaking her head. “She’ll be alright. We shouldn’t waste any more time. Then we’ll catch her up.”

“… Yeah..” the brunette relented, nodding soberly, and hesitantly sat with a frown.

Awkwardly, Haruka chewed at the ends of her short, unpolished fingernails before breaking the new silence. “So… what are we going to do once Ami-chan can get us in? ”

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

“Is there a specific location within Tokyo where we’ll have better luck?” Minako asked, bouncing a crossed leg over her knee.

Ami shook her head. “Fortunately, no. We should be able to create a portal in from anywhere.”

Regardless, the love senshi was already gratefully grabbing Hotaru’s laptop, on which the youngest had pulled up a map before sliding it over.

Luna leapt up beside the computer with a nod. “Artemis and I had thought the underground energy hubs indicated the presence some sort of permanent portal network since the locations seemed unusually consistent, but-..”

“But, that’s not the case,” the blue-haired woman filled in, “since I’ve now confirmed portals activate wherever the enemy needs them, not just at the hubs-”

“… Hubs?” Usagi asked, leaning her cheek on one fist as she scooted closer.

“Um…” Ami began to explain, summoning and flipping open her Mercury computer to display the area map. “Luna and I are just referring to the areas where we’ve consistently sensed the creatures’ energy..”

“Like that first night?” Makoto sighed, also leaning in as she peered at Ami’s display. “… So those are the same areas of town where you first showed us the green blobs on the map at the command center?”

“Exactly,” Luna responded, “for the most part, anyway.”

“There are fluctuations in the locations targeted, but there's a statistically significant tendency toward this handful of underground areas,” the med student added.

“So,” Setsuna spoke, shifting, “if the concentrated areas you’ve talked about aren’t for portals, and with the creature sightings are as rare as they are, then why..?”

Artemis and Luna exchanged a glance before Artemis promptly jumped to the table beside his Mauian partner, clearing his throat. “Mina, may I borrow Hotaru’s computer for a moment?”

The senshi of beauty agreed and sat back, rotating it for the cat to use.

Luna, meanwhile, shook her head uncomfortably. “I’m sorry for not bringing up this information sooner, but after all Artemis and I only caught this article in the command center’s automatic news search a few minutes before coming here…”

The white cat finished tapping at the keys and grimaced at the senshi, sitting back on his haunches as he nodded for Minako to take over.

Usagi craned to look as her blonde friend angled the laptop’s monitor for the other Inners; the outer senshi scooted from around the table to peer over their shoulders.

Minako gasped first, then Makoto, who blurted, “What?!”

“What, what?” Usagi complained, shoving into the love senshi’s shoulder to see the smallish screen.

“What on Earth? Gross! ” Haruka gruffly half-joked as Minako scrolled past enlarged images — which looked to Usagi like close-up photos of mold-infested drywall — to get to the article’s text.

“Those are…” Makoto gaped, leaning in nearly on top of Minako’s lap. “… the same, original vine monsters, right?! Just.. tiny?? ”

At the brunette’s observation, Usagi also squinted and just made out the characteristic spikes and sparse leaves. Absorbing this mild shock, the princess slowly nodded.

“A New Household Pest Is Plaguing Businesses and Data Centers?” Minako read the title off the screen. “So… they’re targeting buildings with a high-speed internet connection?”

“That’s what we figured,” Artemis answered, “but we thought we’d wait to bring it up and see what you all — especially Ami — think. However, we thought it might explain…”

“They’re ‘gathering data’… is what Erika said.” Ami pressed a finger to her tense lips in thought as she spoke. “The larger vines we saw across the city and on the news seem to have sensory organs likely equipped for sight and the like, but… if they — or if these smaller ones — can parse or intercept electrical signals…”

“They’re just ‘downloading’ all of humanity’s computer data??” Minako filled in, frowning.

“So…” Setsuna leaned forward, obviously eager and curious about the science. “… then, Luna and Artemis, are you saying the higher-density energy regions on the map correspond to these locations?”

Luna nodded hesitantly. “So far they seem to.”

“That’s certainly a helpful explanation for why from what y’all have said they seem to know so much about us… about the present-day Earth, that is,” Haruka pondered and crossed her arms.

Everyone else nodded.

Rei paced in the humid, dark employee room, waiting with her ringing cellphone to her ear. With the fingers of her other hand she picked idly at the adhesive bandage Ami’d wrapped on her sore arm; from washing her hands and splashing water on her face to calm herself, the tape along her wrist had come loose.

In the confused, exhausted state of her circadian rhythm it felt late as hell, but in reality it was just after eight-thirty. She tensed, waiting for her grandfather’s rough voice. It’d been days since she’d spoken to him, and thankfully he hadn’t hounded her about the aloof brevity of her texts.

The line crackled as he apparently picked up the landline hotel phone. “Hello?”

“It’s Rei,” the woman spoke, feeling anxiety mildly tugging at her gut and her heart racing.

She’d intended to get away briefly to clear her mind, maybe try her hand at meditating by the fire given the new information. However, she’d realized that given the circumstances it would ease her mind to check on and reassure her Ojii-chan.

“Rei-chan…” he breathed, and it sounded to her like he was smiling. “So, are things going okay then, eh?” He chuckled. “I’m having a lovely vacation… As I mentioned, I picked a ryokan right near Tokyo Bay…”

So, is this how it’s gonna be…? she thought, unsure whether it truly made her feel better or worse. … He’ll pretend everything’s normal and fine?

The priestess softened her posture, half-smiling and exhaling. “That’s nice… I just wanted to say..-”

“So, you’re safe?” he interrupted.

Without quite nodding to herself there where she stood in the dark, she murmured, “Yeah.”

“Or..” he — perhaps nervously — chuckled again, “at least relatively so?”

… Or, perhaps not, she realized, mind swimming and dizzying with thoughts of what she would and wouldn’t tell him.

“Yeah..” Rei flushed, fiddling with her long black hair as she struggled to redirect and lie, “.. Um, you know, since you’ve probably been watching the news, but luckily there haven’t been any more strange attacks in the area in the last day or so… And, my friend Minako-chan, who I explained was injured in the last incident, is-”

Her grandfather laughed, and her throat nervously closed in a gulp, reflexively.

“-..is doing okay now,” the young woman finished in a quiet voice, gazing at the dimly lit tatami floor.

The man sighed, chuckling again with surprising cheerfulness. “Well, I’d hope so given that you apparently brought her all the way back to the shrine instead of the hospital. I saw on the news. That was kilometers away that those shops were wrecked.”

Rei felt the color drain from her face. “Um, right…” Shit. “No, I meant- that was from the small earthquake at the shrine that broke my windows. We'd run outside but we were-”

Her grandfather cleared his throat, and Rei’s own clenched and threatened to close up.

He laughed, oddly. “That’s not what I mean… I mean, Rei-chan, when I ask if you all are safe, I mean…”

The woman resumed pacing, fingers tightening against the edges of her phone.

Calmly, he spoke, “I must be honest with you about what I know, and what I know is that when I woke earlier that morning, though I didn't realize anything was amiss or think to check for you, Phobos and Deimos were looking for you outside my window. So please, there’s no use pretending that you were home, because I know whenever something’s wrong and you’re nearby… they’re always at your side.”

Rei’s stomach flipped, and she dizzied.

“… I know you were in danger that night, and I’m not going to ask you why because I’m certain a young woman as responsible as you are must have your reasons for keeping it from me, but… Please, take care of one another. I suppose it's like you used to, eh?”

Rei froze. “… What?”

“Oh, come now, you didn’t think I would agree to leave you there in danger with no questions asked if I didn’t know something, did you? I must assume it’s like it was years ago… that you and your friends are tied together with some greater destiny, whenever strangeness.. — no, violence,” he seemed to correct himself, “since strangeness itself is no harm — threatens our world.”

The dark-haired senshi was silent, automatically nodding although he couldn’t see. “… You knew I-?”

“I knew you had people to support you, so I knew everything would be alright without my intervention. I know it’s likely no surprise someone gifted with your powers would become part of a world I likely couldn’t understand, is it?”

She inhaled. “Ojii-chan… it-it’s not that you couldn’t understand it, it’s… If I had known I would have told you-”

He yawned. “It’s alright. Maybe you’ll tell me another time. But, it’s getting late, and I’m eager to fully enjoy my vacation — thanks to my thoughtful granddaughter who offered to give me a summer break from head priest duties for a few weeks. It’s like an early taste of retirement! … Right?” He chuckled. “That’s what I’ve been telling the folks I meet here, anyways, so don’t you worry.”

A softness, some unnamed emotion, stirred in Rei’s chest. As if an unbelievable weight was lifted. Upon opening her mouth to reply, she surprised herself by nearly crying. “… Thank you, Ojii-chan… And yes, I promise, my friends and I will look after each other. Like we always have.”

“That’s my girl!” his tired voice interjected.

“And…” Rei paused. “Actually, to be completely honest I’ve been avoiding something — which is, I’m ashamed to admit, the real reason I called you… Ojii-chan, what would you do if you were me and you were having trouble accessing…” She hesitated, swallowing and blinking at the shrine ceiling. “.. well, like you said, my powers I’m gifted with? For the first time in my life I’m having trouble 'seeing' things, and I-.. I’m worried it’s because I’m in a slump or doing something wrong-..”

“-Rubbish!” the elder man interrupted, laughing. “Rei-chan, I don’t know what’s going on but I’m sure you’re doing nothing wrong. After all, it’s your desire to protect your friends and loved ones that has driven that sixth sense of yours… so as long as you have that, I’m certain your gifts will come back to you in time.”

She exhaled a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, upon hearing that.

“Please don’t be too hard on yourself,” he added.

Smiling and wiping her glazed eyes, Rei straightened her posture, looking at the clock. She’d missed less than half an hour of their meeting — and she should get back. “Thanks, Ojii-chan… I appreciate your wisdom and advice.”

“Goodnight,” he surprisingly cheerfully spoke before the fire senshi hung up, took a deep breath, and locked up the shrine to walk back through the yard.

Rei came back in just as Luna was explaining the new communicators.

“Since we’re fairly certain the new enemy can sense your locations anyway, with Mercury’s help and input I’ve made plans to generate new ones which will have a GPS-like signal for all of you to track each other… Oh, Rei-chan, good timing!”

The priestess nodded embarrassedly and took a spot, sitting down in seiza on the end cushion next to Minako.

Luna padded over to the newcomer along the table’s surface, immediately smiling and catching the raven-haired girl’s eye as if to clear the mood. The cat cleared her throat. “Alright. Rei-chan, you’ll be first, since yours was destroyed..”

All eyes watched as the feline guardian did a flip in the air above the table, producing a red communicator watch nearly identical to the old version; in the ceiling light overhead, its plastic-like surface glinted briefly with renewed magic.

Rei bowed her head gratefully, a hesitant yet sincere smile spreading across her still-heavy countenance. “Thank you, Luna…”

“And then, the rest…” Luna began, turning around.

Usagi leaned forward, interrupting. “But ours are fine. Do we need all-new ones?! Wouldn’t that waste your energy, Luna-?”

The Mauian cleared her throat once more, twitching an eyebrow. “I’m getting to that… No, Usagi-chan, you’re right. I ask that the rest of you transform momentarily, so that I can use my power to update the ones you have.”

After a few serious nods and a few smiles, the room was filled with a chaotic menagerie of the eight different, poorly timed and overlapping transformation phrases, colorful bursts of light, and billowing skirts and hair that might have been humorous under a different ratio of stress to sleep deprivation.

As it was, Jupiter merely half-laughed dryly, leaning her chin in one gloved palm to tiredly watch the strange scene of senshi sitting around Rei’s and her grandfather’s living-dining room table.

Rei, once she’d watched the demonstration with mild awe and what looked like a slight blush, uttered something between a laugh and a scoff and blinked down at her lap. “Well, I feel rather under-dressed..” she quietly mumbled, to Sailor Saturn’s soft laughter.

Venus winked and lightly bopped her on the shoulder with a fist. “I see someone’s feeling better!” she said, as Rei rolled her eyes.

“Hey, don’t push it,” Rei responded with a light — possibly joking — scowl. “I just figured I ought to-”

“-Anyway, I’m sorry, Rei-chan…” the blonde leader spoke with a sigh and smiled, slowly shaking her head at her. “I should have thought about how much the enemy’s interference was affecting you…”

Venus wrapped an arm around their only non-transformed warrior; Rei let out a sigh and half-smiled, giving into the hug without a fight.

Meanwhile, Makoto saw that Luna was gazing down at her front paws in focus, closing her eyes. Briefly, the crescent mark on her forehead glowed. One by one, around the table in a circle each senshi’s wrist communicator went up in a poof of sparkling light energy.

Jupiter gazed to inspect her own, poking at it curiously, while meanwhile Sailor Moon was the first to exclaim, “Ooooh! Wow! So, what does this button do??”

Luna sweat-dropped. “If you were listening, Usagi-chan, you could probably guess that it allows each of you to see one another on a map.”

Mercury nodded with a smile, ignoring the chatter as the two cats and moon princess proceeded to argue. The genius pressed the new button on her own, to a few gasps as a holographic area map appeared perpendicularly over it. “The cats and I figured it’s appropriate as a new safety measure… since, as Luna said, there’s little risk that the enemy would intercept our signal since they’re more or less already doing so.”

The golden-haired leader peered over, looking at the colored dots on Mercury’s virtual screen, each of which appeared to be marked with a planetary symbol. “Well, we’re all sitting in a circle, so I guess that means it’s working!” Venus observed with a laugh.

The med student warrior nodded, modestly yet rather proudly. “Indeed. The adjusting scale was my idea. See…?” She pointed, circling the holographic map with a gloved finger. “Since we’re close together, the map only shows the shrine grounds. But if we were separated further, the distance would increase until we were all shown… Of course, you can tap on each of our symbols to zoom in, then again to zoom back out.”

Makoto caught herself staring in admiration a half-second too late, after Mercury’s smiling gaze had darted to her; the brunette jerked to automatically pretend to fix her hair, glancing abruptly down and away — then kicked herself for how awkward that must have seemed.

Fuck, I’ll have to figure out my feelings and deal with this soon, she frustratedly mused, and the tall inner senshi blushed.

“So, then what about in the enemy dimension…?” Uranus posited, leaning forward with what was perhaps the most serious expression out of all of them.

Jupiter opened her mouth to speak the bad news, but Rei beat her to it, shaking her head.

“I’m almost certain it wouldn’t work… Since when Jupiter and I were there,” she continued with an acknowledging glance over to Makoto as she nodded, “neither of our communicators could catch a signal. Not even to each other’s.”

“Right,” the brunette added and folded her arms, gazing at the table. “At the time we thought it was because the enemy base was underground, but-..”

Mercury pursed her lips before speaking. “They must have technology that interferes with our devices’ signal. If they’re sometimes able to do it here, it’s no wonder our communicators are completely blocked in their world…”

“Speaking of which,” Pluto spoke up, “we still don’t know the source of the enemy’s power, do we..?”

The moon senshi shook her head, both pigtails bouncing, and she seemed to take in an anxious breath. “If Selenios, who seems like their leader, had powers back when he was helping Helios, then…” she thought out loud, then trailed off with a glance toward the time senshi as if waiting for Setsuna to fill in.

The Plutonian warrior tilted her head in thought, shifting to brush her long jade hair over one shoulder as she continued, “Well, you’re right, Sailor Moon, that is to say I’m not surprised about him. It’s just that… for a power of this scale, based on enemies we’ve fought previously I would assume there’s a larger source if his subordinates and creatures are imbued with it…”

Venus narrowed her brow, posture on her cushion tensing. “Right. When Rei and I were fighting with Erika during the past battle, I recall she said she was ‘bestowed’ upon with power. So, it must be coming from Selenios or some other source?”

Meeting Venus’s eye, the black-haired woman nodded to confirm. “Yes, I’m sure that’s what I heard her say.”

Mercury detransformed in a glimmer of blue and automatically made to push up her wire-framed glasses — though of course they were still as perfectly positioned as she’d left them. “Perhaps we can figure that out on our first scouting mission.” She nodded to Venus.

Jupiter, reminded there was now no need to maintain the transformation, followed suit — as did the rest over the course of several moments.

Minako brushed back her long hair after emerging from her glowing, golden light and nodded soberly at Ami. She sighed. “Right. Ami-chan, as soon as you’re able to generate us a portal to the enemy’s dimension, I think we should just plan to go gather information.”

Usagi paled. “Eeeeh? We’d have to go more than once? ” she complained, squealing.

The blue-haired senshi grimaced then shrugged. “I won’t eliminate hope that it’s possible we’d be able to defeat them in one go… But…” She placed one finger to her lip. “… we shouldn’t plan on that.”

The blonde leader nodded. “Then, as much as I’d love to recommend we all stay together this time, I think the Outers should stay behind — just so that we don’t leave Earth completely defenseless.”

Makoto nodded quickly. “That sounds like a good plan.”

She noticed Haruka and Michiru briefly tensed, exchanging a worried glance, but after a moment the Outer four agreed.

“Oh, before you four lovely ladies and gentle-genderfluids depart..” Minako spoke up, suddenly swaying with sass and leaning in as the Outers made to stand up from the meeting table, “I do have one question.”

Usagi winced, body tensing at the sensitive situation along with Minako’s cringeworthy bluntness. She felt a drama-curious smile creep up on her face, however; she’d have been hard-pressed to look away, even though she’d refused to partake in the bet.

“Yeah? What’s that?” Haruka answered with a smile and a toss of her messy, short hair.

Minako took in a breath. “Are you, Michiru-san, and Setsuna-san all dating??” she rapidly spoke, as if the words tumbled out of her mouth; she made a finger-gun.

“M-uhh-m! ” Haruka awkwardly sputtered as she and the other two tensed.

Hotaru appeared to be hiding her face as she spun around, nearly bursting out laughing.

Setsuna flushed, and Michiru let out a slow sigh; the latter then smiled as she ran a hand delicately through her hair.

“Yes,” the sea senshi spoke simply, definitively, lifting her chin and closing her eyes.

“… Eeeeehhhh???”; “Yes! I knew it!”; “What-?! Damn!” briefly erupted from around the table as the five Inners gaped.

Minako wiggled her golden eyebrows minutes later, side-eyeing the curly-haired senshi as she slid a grabby hand underneath the table. “.. Mako-chan?”

The brunette scoffed and reached into a jeans pocket to pull out a thousand-yen bill, which she reluctantly slid into the girl’s hand.

“Thank you!” Minako stated cheerfully, then zipped open her purse, pocketing the money only to take out five hundred-yen coins. Without a word or glance, she reached to deposit them in Ami’s eager, open hand. “As promised,” she muttered under her breath.

“Wait.. wait-… the other taker was YOU, Ami-chan?! ” Usagi and Makoto blubbered at nearly the exact same time.

The med student subtly smirked, pocketed her winnings, and turned a deep pink as she returned to her school books.

Chapter Text

CW:

• alcohol.
• arguably (but super-mild) internalized homophobia/heteronormativity.

“So, are you still sulking?”

Erika twitched; she thought she’d been alone.

Enyo bit off the tip of a nutrition pod as he strode in without looking up at her, sucking it dry with a content ‘-Ahh’ and throwing the polymer trash carelessly to the ground, where it dematerialized.

“I’m just here to… I’m just meditating, taking a moment to practice my thoughts.” She looked up at the vast, obsidian-black ceiling, the soft white from the rings of lights.

“Right.”

“Enyo…” Erika softened.

This whole whirlwind series of events — which had technically, apparently, taken place over millennia but to her felt like a mere few months — had been transformative. The recruitment, the promotion, the developments and planning, the fighting… the arguments and the demotion…

Sel couldn’t stop us from talking freely to each other, could he? the woman thought. That wasn’t one of the promises.

When the man didn’t answer but instead turned to silently inspect the wall mural behind her, she went on, “… Do you remember when we were friends?”

“.. Ha,” he laughed, and in his dark brown eyes she wasn’t sure whether she saw genuine confusion or regret. “What, like… not like we are now?”

The curly-haired blonde shook her head. “Before we had roles to fulfill, when everything we did was just because it felt right.”

The dark-haired man gestured broadly at the spacious chamber. “We had to be a part of something… the Greatest People, the future of the Earth, the- …” Erika heard him walk over, coming up behind her, and he smacked a burly hand on her shoulder. “So, you are sulking…” he spoke slyly, as if it was just a joke between old friends, which in a way it was.

Erika blinked, clearing her head as she looked at him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about your doubts… Given the situation and what you’ve gone through, it seems natural. So, I’ve got nothing to report.”

Instantly, she stiffened. Erika rolled her neck, idly prodding at a pinched muscle in her shoulder. “Right…” She nodded, giving a half-smile to him. Blinking rapidly to clear her glazed eyes, the servant quickly grabbed from the table and sipped from her glass of herbal infusion.

How has it come to this? Erika wondered as she watched Enyo’s athletic form turn his back and exit into the atrium. As he did so, while Erika was left frozen in thought, with half a mind to call back to him although ultimately her heart sank upon finding herself too cowardly, the pain of tension and confusion deep within the woman’s chest smarted.

At least she could seek revenge on the sailor guardians, the objects of her failure to perform. Burying the doubts in her mind as she swallowed from the warm drink, Erika decided to promise herself she’d plot — ensure the success of her Great People and earn back her respect — from the sidelines.

Minako tied back her hair, which was still wet from her shower. Through the warm, humid pre-dusk cicadas chirped.

She approached the open door to the tatami living-room area, from which talking and laughter cascaded out. Makoto was seated on a floor cushion, cackling as she leaned over the coffee table toward Usagi, who stood leaning against a wall, gesticulating embarrassedly as she seemed to loudly explain some story or joke. Rei, who stood barefoot on the veranda watching them in quiet amusement, saw Minako first and nodded in greeting.

“Anybody want to go for a jog??” the blonde gestured energetically and bent one leg as if she were about to take off running.

“No!” Usagi answered cheerfully, shaking her head emphatically.

“Mako?” Minako addressed her usual contender.

“Sorry, but Usagi-chan and I have just opened the wiiiinnee,” she lazily announced with longing enthusiasm, reaching to grab and pour from the uncorked bottle on the table, filling the first of two empty glasses before hesitating, leaving the dripping bottle hovering over the second. “Wait-… I’m not ‘allowed’ to purposefully exercise until tomorrow, and I’m basically fine now. I doubt that Ami-chan would let you-”

Minako giggled innocently when Rei also shot her a look. “Well, Ami said the main monster tooth didn’t even damage my muscles, just ligaments, so…” She grinned, patting her right hip.

“Do you even know what that means?” Rei accused with pitying, narrowed eyes.

Makoto took a big sip of merlot while Usagi impatiently pulled the waiting bottle from the brunette’s other hand, filling her own glass for herself and in the process spilling some. The tall senshi lifted a finger in thought. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure ligaments also move when you run, so…”

“Well, I may not have gotten permission, but Ami-chan didn’t say ‘don’t go for a jog,’ so..-”

Rei raised her eyebrows and gave the golden blonde a stern look of amusement. “It’ll be a walk,” she dictated commandingly as she closed the distance between them and set one hand on Minako’s shoulder.

“So, you don’t want to come with me, then?” Minako offered, tilting her head invitingly at her other active-minded friend.

Makoto just gestured in answer at her generously full glass with a shrug, giving an apologetic smile and pointing at the blonde princess, who was now knocking around game boxes in a nearby cabinet. Usagi was babbling, “Oh we should play CHARADES! Wait. Can you play Charades with only two people? … Rei-chan..-?”

When Usagi immediately then looked, batting pleading eyelashes over her shoulder, at the priestess, Rei backed away from the doorway and smiled wearily at Minako. “I’ll go with you for a walk…” the girl emphasized slowly.

“So, why did you need to get out?” Rei asked her once they were walking on the dirt trail weaving through the unkempt trees behind the shrine.

“I just needed some air,” Minako spoke, flipping her long hair and slapping at a mosquito on her upper arm. “Also, I have a confession to make…” she forced herself to speak before she could change her mind.

Rei was faced partially away but her expression seemed to freeze. They walked for a couple moments in silence. “What is it?” she asked stiffly but warmly, quietly.

Minako inhaled strongly and then puffed out a sigh. Beyond the hill the sun played beautifully on the clouds and trees, and the hum of even more summer cicadas joined the sounds of the ones on the shrine’s property. “I’ve been going to therapy,” she rapidly blurted, loudly.

Rei was frozen for an additional moment before she turned, folding her hands behind her back, and lightly laughed with a raised eyebrow. “That’s your big confession? What, were you just going to tell whoever agreed to go on a run with you?”

“No,” Minako flushed slightly, “only you…” When Rei turned to her curiously then as they strode along, she added, “I mean, that wasn’t why I needed to go for a walk. I just spontaneously decided to tell you now! Haha! ” She lifted an arm and wiped budding sweat from her forehead, whacking her elbow clumsily against a low tree branch with an awkward wince.

“Okay…” Rei blinked at the path ahead as they continued. “So, that’s good, but why did you want me to know?”

“I mean, because…” Minako tried not to do what she always did and laugh hysterically, defensively. Instead she clenched her jaw and made a self-judging squeak-chuckle. “You know, how years ago we all agreed and decided that would be-…”

“Oh,” Rei stated in realization, nodding. She turned to blink back at the blonde. “Right. So, how have you managed to-”

Minako burst out laughing uncontrollably this time, reaching up a hand to scratch at the back of her neck. “I mean, I doubt she believes me!! You know, I kind of just told her I had these intense hallucinations and fantasies, and we work through them, along with, y’know, the more normal stuff.”

“H-… huh…” Rei uttered, scratching her head. “That’s actually a good idea…”

“And, you know, with the patient-client privilege, it’s not really a risk that-” Minako continued to explain, babbling.

“But, why did you tell me first? Do you… want my permission or something?” The dark-haired friend crossed her arms, gazing ahead. “You’re the leader, so I thought you’d-”

“Because of…” Minako gestured in the air and then blanked out on how to not make it sound callous. “Because of how you accidentally kinda told your grandfather.. I thought it would make you feel less bad about it!!” was what she ultimately blurted.

“Uh-” Rei muttered and stopped where she walked, sweat-dropping. “That wasn’t my fault!!”

“Yeah, I know!!” Minako laughed airily, holding up both palms innocently. “But I just wanted you to know that you weren’t the first-”

“So, you did tell a therapist about confidential senshi stuff??”

“No! I- Well, I use metaphors! ” The leader dramatically explained in self-defense as she walked. “Or sometimes tell her it’s a dream, or-..”

A summer breeze ruffled both women’s long hair, and they ended up laughing.

Two large crows followed, almost protectively, overhead.

Makoto took a deep sip from the glass of red wine and sighed happily. She was already feeling buzzed, and Usagi hadn’t even finished setting up their board game. It was quite frankly a welcome change to have any break whatsoever from the fast-paced, tense mental state she’d been occupying at least two-thirds of the time as of late.

“Okay,” the odango-haired princess declared, thumping down the empty cardboard box. It seemed she'd finally found the booklet of rules that she’d somehow promptly lost. “So…” She squinted at the page, turning it over before busting out with a high-pitched laugh and handing the rulesheet in Makoto’s direction with pleading puppy-dog eyes. “There’s too many weird kanji on this..” she admitted with a sweat-drop, and fanned herself with her free hand as if to ease her hysterical, self-deprecating laughter.

Makoto lovingly laughed loudly as she took it from her, nearly snorting. “Really?! I thought you wouldn’t forget how to write kanji for another hundred years or so, let alone how to read it,” she admitted, literally tearing up at how hilarious that was as she smiled at the blonde. Distractedly, she began to eye the brightly illustrated rule pages of 'Fairy-Monster's Choice', an indie-looking game likely leftover from one of Rei's or Yuuichirou's club fairs.

Usagi pinched her lips together and fiddled with her skirt. “Well, of course I can read anything like this, but certainly not when I’m drunk! I mean, I can barely see straight.” She laughed again, leaning back into an uncomfortable-looking bookshelf without appearing to notice.

The brunette blinked at her, looking down at the half-full glass on Usagi’s side of the table. “Um… you’re drunk already? ”

“Yeah!” the blonde exclaimed, still fanning herself as she now leaned over in a different direction, which thankfully, upon a quick inspection by the panicked other warrior, didn’t possess any dangerous or fragile items. “I thought I just always randomly talk about it so I assumed you’d know, but when I’m under stress I’m a total lightweight.” She laughed girlishly, swaying on her cushion.

“Um-…” Makoto tried not to laugh audibly as she thought what to do. “Let’s just.. you know what? How about you let me know when you finish half of that, and I’ll.. take… it,” she proposed gently as Usagi took another sip. One of the last things she wanted to do was get a lecture from Ami about enabling their princess to black out from alcohol poisoning.

The blue-haired doctor had retreated into a spare room with a crime novel and a shamelessly full glass of the wine, and by golly Makoto wanted her introverted friend to have that without needless interruption… especially knowing how stressed Ami had been lately.

At the thought, her heart rate picked up viscerally in her chest; had Makoto not trusted in her own resolve as much as she did, she might have thought she was leaving Ami alone to put off talking to her. But… I will later, or tomorrow — but DEFINITELY before we plan our attack, she promised herself. And she knew she would, too.

Had she thought farther than that? Oh, hell no. But one thing was for certain: Kino Makoto, with all her personal experience with broken hearts, wouldn’t DARE let her friend incorrectly believe she’d been rejected in her shy advances. At that thought, her heart somehow managed to soar with confidence and twist with nerves at the same time.

Realizing that she was staring down at her lap, practically twiddling her thumbs, Act normal! she told herself; truth be told, she did not exactly want Usagi to know about this yet — whatever ‘this’ was. So, she took a large gulp of red wine for the time being and sighed wistfully.

“What?” Usagi playfully asked, giggling. “So, did you finish reading the rules yet?” She tilted her head tipsily.

“-Uhh! No.. I mean, um- give me a sec,” Makoto laughed, mortified that she’d been daydreaming so hard she’d already forgotten what she was doing.

What followed was an unassuming, lazy hangout in the main room, as the sunset dissipated.

Unassuming, that is, until Minako stretched her arms overhead with a light groan and blurted, “Man, do we ever need to get laid when all this is over… I’m maximally stressed already… Or,” she added with a seemingly abrupt thought, “at least it’d be nice for those of us who aren’t ‘destined future soulmate-married queen of the Earth’ to be able to get a boyfriend or something…” she added with a snide, envious look at the blushing Usagi.

Yawning, at that moment the golden-blonde senshi’s gaze met with Makoto’s hesitant cringe, and Minako froze.

“… Or, girlfriends!” she ammended, burying her face in the glass of wine she’d just poured. “You-know-whatever!! ”

Makoto knew she’d meant well, but oh boy did the brunette senshi’s world ever erupt in heart-pounding panic, as she looked around to make sure no one noticed Minako had directed that addendum directly at her.

Usagi, bless her baby-gay heart, laughed loudly at that, sprawling tipsily across the table. “Haha, what?! ‘Girlfriends’? It’s not like we’re-…”

Makoto tensed, wincing internally as she nervously picked at a broken fingernail, hands interlaced under the table. To her right, she felt Rei tense significantly; the taller warrior thought about shooting an awkward glance of closeted solidarity her way, but to her dismay she felt herself completely frozen.

An awkward silence came and passed through group of five; finally, the senshi of courage took in a breath, seizing the moment to prepare herself.

“Uh, she means me. I’m…” the brunette blurted, heart beating a million miles an hour.

She gulped.

I’ve started the sentence… Now I’ve just got to-..

Ami’s and Usagi’s heads had snapped to gaze at her.

“I recently told Mina that I… I like women too. I’m bi,” Makoto exhaled, smiling in spite of her nerves, and in one sip she downed the last of her wine refill.

As the fear of rejection — especially Ami’s — crawled through her, she let her gaze hang low, not yet meeting the others’ eyes.

“Eeeeeeh? Really?” was Usagi’s thoughtful response as the blonde princess pulled back, one hand to her lips. “I mean, I guess if you are, Mako-chan, then I.. -if I really think about it, I…”

Some sense of brimming hope within Makoto’s chest brightened.

“… think it doesn’t matter to me what someone’s gender is…” Usagi went on after what felt like forever, nodding. “As long as I love — or like — them for who they are. So, does that mean I’m bisexual, too?” She cocked her head, blushing.

Another moment of silence.

Nodding and shrugging ambiguously with a blush, Makoto gave the princess a reassuring smile. Simultaneously Rei relaxed, giving a languid exhale, and the tall inner senshi turned in time to see the fire warrior’s face take on a bittersweet smile.

All eyes were suddenly patiently looking to the priestess.

“I suppose I’ve always known I was a lesbian,” Rei spoke quietly with radiantly glistening eyes, a distant expression. Slowly, she sipped the tea she was drinking in place of the others’ wine, and the young woman wistfully reached to pull a strand of her beautiful, raven hair behind one ear.

Everyone present smiled at her to listen patiently, intently — except for Usagi. “Heeeeehh?? Rei-chan, you don’t like men?! ” she squealed, getting rowdy once again in her seat. "Like-.. at all?"

Rei instantly sweat-dropped and scoffed. “Usagi-chan…!” she spoke irritatedly, although she was subtly laughing. “… I’ve always said that I don’t care for men and don’t want a boyfriend. Haven’t you been listening??”

“B-but, I thought you meant like they drive you crazy and you don’t trust them but…” the pigtailed princess waggled her eyebrows. “… but maybe they still ‘drive you crazy,’ y’know what I mean?”

The priestess utterly facepalmed, hiding her angry cringe. “No!!… I..-” she nearly growled.

“So, then, if all of us are-?? ” Usagi began with an amused gasp, gesturing between herself, Makoto, and Rei, “what about…”

Ami, poor soul, was the next to blush a shade of pink and avert her gaze. Usagi pounced on it.

“What about you, Ami-chan??”

The med student immediately flushed a shade of fuchsia, gazing at her lap.

Makoto bit her lip, heart frozen, wishing that it didn’t feel just for that moment as if her whole world was hanging vulnerably in wait.

… Which it did.

Ami’s eyes widened as she blinked at the table in embarrassment, then she opened her mouth. “… I don’t really tend to ‘like’ people in that kind of way very often… but… when I do…” Her voice trailed off, becoming quiet, but then she finally exhaled with a smile. “… it tends to always be with someone I feel a close connection with.. Other than that, I don’t think it matters to me if they’d be a man or a woman, or-…” As if she wished she were a turtle, the short-haired girl’s flushing face and neck nearly retreated into her tensed shoulders.

The lightning senshi automatically stopped holding her breath, slowly and deeply inhaling at that revelation, and she swallowed.

Usagi blinked at the blue-haired woman, grinning.

Minako laughed, downing the rest of the glass of green tea she was double-fisting with the alcohol; her bright, airy laugh was nearly a cackle. “So..” She grinned between them, lifting her eyebrows. “… am I the only straight one in the group?!”

Rei scoffed, audibly.

Minako noticed. “… What?” she asked, smirking.

The priestess’s gaze sunk to the bottom of her tea mug, as she unreadably smiled. “… There’s no way you’re straight, Minako..”

The blonde in question snorted, leaning a chin in her palms as she swayed and looked at her. “Huh? … Well, I mean, I am.”

Rei stiffened, nearly either laughing or angrily exclaiming, and Makoto wasn’t sure which. She cleared her throat. “Hm, Minako-chan… I’m just saying that I happen to know you’re not straight,” she spoke gruffly, as if she were referencing a dirty secret.

Minako, for her part, blinked cluelessly at the dark-haired girl. “Well… I mean,” she laughed haughtily, “I really am!! So!…”

For the second time in that twenty-four-hour period, Makoto’s heart ached as she watched Rei, this time after after a moment’s hesitation and an eye roll, abruptly stand; without another word, the raven-haired priestess turned in a moody huff, speedwalking to the back door, and angstily she fled.

A moment of awkward, confused silence took hold of the group. Barely breathing, they gazed at one another.

Then, the golden-haired woman appeared to suddenly, silently gasp. Minako stilled, one hand reaching her pallid face. “Wait.. Is this because I’ve kissed her before, sometimes…?”

“WHAAAAAT?” Usagi shrieked, nearly seeming to become unhinged as her gaze snapped towards her. Her expression froze in place as she grinned crookedly, deviously, at the gossipy revelation.

“-a lot?” Minako added, one finger to her lips thoughtfully.

Ami’s gaze at once became completely locked on her lap again, the water senshi’s entire being filled with a pink flush. She may as well have been mute.

Makoto had nearly collapsed onto the table, choking as she quickly swallowed her remaining mouthful of wine, sweating. “Yes, Mina-chan… I’d say it’s probably because you’ve kissed her before!!”

“Oh.” The blonde senshi of love’s face filled with a blush. She was silent, immobile, for a minute. Then her complexion nearly turned pale-blue with dread. “Oh, god, what have I… Oh, Rei-chan…! ” She stood up.

Usagi, struggling to compose herself but gesturing wildly like a drunk, concussed cheerleader, waved a fist at her. “Go!! Go, Minako-chan!!”

“Fix this, Minako-chan!” Makoto reassuringly yet desperately waved, gesturing her out of the room until the blonde, nodding with a mortified hand over her mouth, floated airily toward the door as if first needing to remember how legs worked, then ran.

Chapter Text

CW:

• alcohol.

The backyard air was sweet from the blooming roses and irises. Her heart jolted when she heard the door slide open again, then footsteps she knew at once were Minako’s coming towards her, into the yard.

“Rei…” It would have been romantic, poetic, hell — even tender, except that then she also blurted, “I, uhh-! ”

The priestess laughed, wiping the solitary tear trail from her cheek that she was certain was tinted with a rosy, visible blush.

“Listen.” Minako’s hand was suddenly on Rei’s shoulder, but the shorter woman didn’t look up. “Ijustrealizedwhy-… Ijust-I’m… I’m an idiot. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me, why I didn’t think that you’d think that I-”

Rei scoffed as she gazed up at her, although she smiled. “Save it.. It’s not like I’m ‘in love’ with you,” she reluctantly spoke.

Not like her… the fire warrior’s thoughts amended. But even ‘her,’ I can’t-…

She hurriedly tried to brush images of the stunning, caring, optimistic… engaged, off-limits princess from her mind. Rei nearly laughed as she realized she would have mentally added ‘straight’ to that list, but as of today — or, to be fair, as of long before today… Well, still, not like that changes my chances or anything-…

“Okay. But still, listen- I just… I’m sorry I hadn’t thought about it. Hadn’t thought about it like that. I just…”

Rei crossed her arms now, half-scowling half-smirking into her sincere blue eyes. “Mina, seriously? ”

She bemusedly recalled the conversation she’d just had with Makoto — and although to be fair it was Ami she’d been advising about and not the quasi-hypersexual goddess of love, by the gods Ami’s damningly flirty actions ironically had had nothing on Minako’s. At the thought, Rei mildly felt herself flush further, slouching.

Minako sighed, apparently hesitating for words.

Rei went on, “So, if you didn’t… if you weren’t…” She flushed.

… Attracted to me? her brain finished.

Gods, she apparently couldn’t even say it out loud.

“Why kiss me — and cuddle — and-.. all those times, if you weren’t into…” instead she let it trail off. … And flirt? she thought as well. She was certain Minako, even if confused, had flirted. Although that was of course easier to deny.

She had seen it in Minako’s eyes… right? Maybe… perhaps… she had been wrong. But Minako had, at some point, in some capacity… ‘liked’ her, right?

It had been casual though, of course. It’s not like they’d ever ‘confessed.’ And it had been a couple years, but…

Mentally, the young woman pushed back bitter tears at their relationship that had ended in nothing but loose ends like a frayed rope. Calm yourself, Rei, she chastised as she found herself almost crying. It’s not even like this is a breakup. You’re not even still doing whatever ‘that’ was, so… There’s nothing to be sad about. You’ve always been just friends.

“Gosh, I-… I..” the blonde woman started. “I don’t know. I like guys, right? Like, 100%! But I guess I’m… orally fixated? Cuddly? Affectionate?”

A quick glance at Minako’s face showed she was avoiding looking at her friend, slightly blushing.

She went on, “… I thought it was as friends.”

Rei snorted. “You make out with people as friends? ”

“Well, I-” Minako laughed now, as well, and Rei was damn well relieved as the collective mood lightened; the senshi leader fiddled with her hair. “I guess, maybe?” Suddenly, she struck a pose. “Heck! I’m the goddess of love. I even confuse myself sometimes!! I want what I want, why put a label on it?” Her eyes gleamed.

It was at that that Rei suddenly remembered she’d been partaking in the imported wine of her grandfather’s Usagi and Makoto had popped open. She giggled silently, staring at her feet. Why did Minako have to be so damn cute even about this? Even while basically rejecting her?

Feeling a tug in her heart, although at this point the priestess was gladly letting herself be taken along with the flow of lighter, comedic mood, almost forgetting the reason they were having this conversation was that she’d run outside to cry, Rei laughed, “You’re drunk, Minako-chan.” She rolled her eyes, giving the now-panicking, apologizing blonde a smirk. “Of course you would be drunk for this conversation. Why’d I expect anything else?” She facepalmed.

“I- I- no! I've only finished half a glass of wine, I’ll have you know. I’m just…” She swayed, putting both hands into her loose cardigan pockets and kicking her foot out to create a rut in the gravel like a kid. “… feeling confident.” Minako shrugged.

“Glad that makes one of us,” Rei grumbled as she began to turn away.

“Hey – no! Listen, I’m sorry, you’re-..” Minako reached to grab her shoulder, and the raven-haired woman ignored her notice of the returning electricity between them. “You should be confident, too. You’reb.. B-beautiful!” she slurred suddenly.

Rei snort-scoffed again and grinned this time, rolling her eyes and jabbing her in the ribs. “You are drunk, then?! Mina-!”

“Ookay, so I may have poured a shot of vodka into the wine to spice it up before-”

“Ew! That sounds gross as hell. Who does that?”

“… Me?” Minako giggled, blinking as she proudly continued to shuffle her feet.

Maybe it was good Mina couldn’t return her confusing, remaining feelings — as Rei suddenly felt as if she couldn’t handle this disastrous, unpredictable bubble of energy that was her friend. She sighed, making a slight face at her.

“.. But, but anyway! I interrupted myself. Or you interrupted me? But, Rei-chan, you’re beautiful as heck!! Like…”

“Stop,” the fire senshi flushed, shaking her head.

“-but, like in a platonic way. But I’m sure you’ll find a… girl. I’m just sorry it couldn’t be me,” the other woman finished, and at the end her voice lowered.

Rei breathed slowly, still gazing at her feet, as she processed that. Deflecting, she allowed the heat to enter her voice once more in a jab, “Heh, don’t flatter yourself. You’re acting like I’ve just asked you out or something…” It was Rei’s turn to shuffle her feet on the garden gravel. “It’s been, like, years since we-”

“Yeah, but still-” Minako sounded apologetic, slightly squealing.

“-I’m just confused, that’s all,” Rei finished, perhaps at last feeling better as she took a deep breath and blinked, tension in her shoulders relaxing. “I mean, to me you were-…”

Thank all the gods Minako didn’t ask or force her to continue that sentence; she didn’t even know what she had been going to say. The other girl just hugged her, still apologizing for confusing her and seeming to be babbling on with her amusingly tipsy, straight party-girl bullshit.

Rei smiled, joking with her and staring at the garden for a few minutes until they returned indoors to their friends. It seemed like it should be symbolic, had she had the rest of her sixth-sense powers back or something, but even in the early dark of quiet night a caterpillar was busy, clumsily climbing to the top of a flimsy, grassy weed growing by the porch as if sure it was nearly home.

“That’s not going to work,” Erika murmured. The air in the key servant breakroom was hot and humid, bitter with the tinge of calming smoke; sitting, half facing away from her new supervisor, she examined her fingernails.

Enyo made a sound between a chortle and a scoff. “Know your place,” he spoke with the sharp edge that had lately been weaving its way into his habitual speech. The man leaned back on the bench carelessly, halfheartedly, to address her. When Erika said and did nothing, he continued. “Your limited success at ruffling their feathers was due to me.”

The youngish woman laughed. “No, I could have given them a fight they wouldn’t forget either way. Before our arsenals got… distracted.”

She nearly jumped as Enyo leaned now more forcefully, looking her in the eye. “Erika, the very fact you became so focused on containing the outer warriors, which was unrealistic-”

Erika looked up, mildly confused and blinking, as he’d stopped mid-sentence and cleared his throat.

Then she saw the reason. Standing casually in the doorway as if it was nothing, Semele watched from the shadows. As they stepped forward, the blank expression of post-awakening comingled with their characteristic aura of powerful efortlessness, which had the effect of sending a shiver up Erika’s spine. She looked away, heart beating faster, like she was in the presence of a ghost or silent, watchful deity.

Their long, flowing hair, a nearly translucent platinum, contrasted with the skin of their bare shoulders, which was a cool, pale bronze. Semele momentarily stepped back out and through the archway, their thick hair falling over a muscular yet wiry frame as they turned.

Even Enyo was afraid of Semele, Erika noted with what was nearly a smirk, as evident by his palpable tension whenever the newcomer to the twenty-first century was in the room.

Erika honestly wasn’t sure why Selenios had trusted and employed Semele; the quiet subordinate was mysterious and reserved, the infrequent things they said poetic, emotional, and measured. As she had learned through their data collection that many people of the current time tended to say, it’s the quiet ones you need to be worried about.

Since the third servant had awakened, they had spent most of their time with the Collective — or, to be more specific, with the Moss. They seemed to trust the plants more than others. Erika knew she needed to have more faith in their allies, but still she got heebie jeebies at the thought of Sel or Semele taking the elevator down. She herself avoided that area, shuddering whenever she’d walk the hallway with the lifts.

The curly-haired woman would look, gazing down from the overpass balcony like the rest, but for some reason the mere knowledge that she was nearby a clear path to physical proximity made her terrified that she could give in to an impulse, a whim, to just give in and get lost.

Every time she passed an elevator pod, her mind ran: What if one of these times I would just get in, go down, and lose myself?

Michiru tossed her paperback book toward the bottom of the hotel bed, smiling, and made room for Haruka, whom she was in the midst of pulling down to smooch her. Her partner laughed as she was pulled off-balance, gave in, and sat beside her; their lips met. Michiru smelled the calming, almost musky scent of the bodywash and products Haruka preferred on her more masculine-presenting, boy-ish-and/or-butch days, and her heart fluttered.

“Any news?” the blonde was still coyly smiling as she asked, so it took the woman a few blinks to realize Haruka was staring in gesture at her mirror on the windowsill.

“Oh..” Michiru spoke, massaging her forehead, what was apparently despite her efforts a bit too noticeably disappointedly; Setsuna was treating Hotaru to lunch and shopping in the plaza adjacent to the hotel for a couple of hours, and Michiru was not-so-subtly hoping to make the most of it.

The racer laughed in a low voice, right in her ear, “Sorry, not to ruin the mood..”

The sea senshi shook her head. “It’s alright.” She sighed, subduing a smirk. “Anyway.” Sea-blue eyes flicked to her mirror. “The vision I sometimes get of the enemy has still been the same. It’s just that now it’s…”

Haruka leaned in.

Purple, dark, oppressive. Haze. There were many more now, not all-together.

Many more what, though? she asked herself. People? Monsters?

“… Michiru?”

“Right.” The woman shook her head, rubbing it, then finished her thought: “… Closer.”

Haruka stared. “You mean the enemy is now closer?” A frown flashed across her countenance as the tall senshi watched her expression curiously.

The turquoise-haired woman nodded. Almost automatically, whilst thinking she leaned to pick her talisman back up to check. Her dazed eyes stared into its surface, searching deeper, past her own reflection. Yep, there it was. “Yes…” she answered Haruka at last, “like more entities are just almost reaching into our world, but not quite.”

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught something else. More like a feeling of danger than an image.

“Hmm,” Haruka murmured, scratching her chin. “So, sort of like they’re preparing to enter our world again? How does it compare to the way it looked when-.. Uh. Michiru-…?”

She’d nearly been sucked into it, brow wincing as her eyes unfocused. Michiru wasn’t certain what it was, but there were… a few? And the danger was even closer, though she swore she’d checked only a few hours ago. She felt the blonde’s hand on her shoulder, squeezing her, and with a jolt the warrior snapped out of it. Quickly, her eyes met with Haruka’s own worriedly searching blue orbs.

“… What is it?” her partner asked.

The young woman’s posture tensed as she stared down at her knees on the bed, heart pounding. “I’m not sure. But compared with just earlier today the energy seems different. Not in a massive way, but-”

Curtly, Haruka nodded and plunged a hand into her loose pants pocket, pulling out her communicator. “Then we should tell the others.”

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

“Rise and shine!” Rei banged on a wooden strip along her paper door. “This was your idea to save most of the moving til today, so, Mina, you better…”

“Urggh,” she heard quietly from the other side in addition to the sound of her own cushy blankets and comfortable mattress shifting, and the fire warrior rolled her eyes.

How had it gotten to this? While the other four inner senshi had long since moved camp to her grandfather’s bedroom, though she was no longer arguably injured Minako had somehow subtly failed to relinquish her private ownership of Rei’s room…

… Which embarrassingly enough they still hadn’t cleaned since the attack.

Rei nearly shook her head. How Minako slept this soundly with all the bugs and who-knows-what coming in through the currently un-sealable windows was beyond her.

The priestess heard a small throat clear, and she was surprised to turn and see Ami seemingly waiting in line to get into the hazard zone currently occupied by the sleepy senshi of love. Ami’s gaze was downcast, and as if feeling modest or nervous the blue-haired woman held both hands clasped in front of her thighs, fingers folded around a book’s hardcover spine.

“… Ami-chan?” Rei interrogated.

Without meeting the other girl’s eye, the water senshi fidgeted with her hair. “I, um, left my stuff — other than my clothes — in there, and… I need to get-..”

“Right…” Rei remembered, cutting her off with a nod. Knowing Ami, she probably needed pads or the like and wouldn’t be able to meet anyone’s eye until she could secretly retrieve her period products in peace. Suddenly smirking, the impatient fire senshi took this opportunity to rap her knuckles on the bedroom door even harder.

“Coming!!” Minako’s mildly irritated voice spoke from within, and a moment later footsteps preceded the sliding door being quickly wrenched open.

Rei stepped back, giving a wry smile to the blonde and an outstretched hand pointing her blue-haired friend towards the door as if to say, ‘voila.’ Ami giggled, sweating.

Makoto made quick work of sweeping up the glass, then vacuuming, in preparation of the accidentally-nomadic warrior’s things. Losing herself in the calming chore, she vaguely hummed to herself, a melodic song that likely didn't even exist.

“Someone’s feeling better!” Usagi chimed through the doorway to her right around a mouthful of toothpaste, as she passed by during a brief break in the vacuum’s noise.

“Huh?” The tall woman turned, hesitantly smiling.

The moon princess shrugged, having prematurely resumed brushing her teeth as if not expecting the response. She then struggled to speak through the suds, “You seem more… like yourself.”

The brunette senshi laughed. “Well, yeah, I didn’t have work again today so I guess I didn’t have to stress over whether or not to-”

“Oh yeah,” Usagi mumbled. She cocked her head. “But then don’t you still have to decide what to do tomorrow, or-”

Makoto sweated, immediately tensing. “Yes. Thank you. Of course, you could just not mention that first-thing on my last day off from work and probably fighting and when-” she began to impulsively vent in a quiet voice, roughly kicking the vacuum to ‘on’ and angstily maneuvering it to reach under and around the legs of a corner table.

“S-sorry!! ” Usagi cracked up laughing, and her adorable face tinged with guilt as she continued back to the bathroom sink.

The other senshi sighed, eventually relaxing although her posture deflated. She wasn’t about to tell Usagi the other main reason she was — at least for the time being, and crossing her fingers that didn’t change — so cheerful today. That being: barring an earthquake, alien invasion, end of the world, or other extenuating circumstances, of course, she’d made up her mind… She was going to talk to Ami today.

Switching it off and straightening to wipe sweat from her brow with an exaggerated sigh of satisfaction, the brunette turned to face Minako. “You know, you really could have asked for my help sooner!” Makoto laughed, briefly shaking her head. “If I’d known you’d just keep sleeping here-..”

“No no, it’s fine!!” Minako held her hands up, laughing as she momentarily paused her task of making Rei’s bed. “I know you’re good at cleaning, but it’s not just your job. I could have, too!!”

Makoto scoffed at her in loving protest, one hand moving to her hip. “You were hurt.”

“So were you,” Minako argued as she turned away to fold some of her new influx of laundry with a shrug.

“Not nearly as bad as you! ” Makoto retorted.

Minako’s voice was chipper, as still without turning around again she clasped hands at her chest. “Aw! But you’ve also been doing most of the cooking for us, and I just…” She spun around at last, puppy dog eyes loud and clear as she blinked pleadingly at her taller friend, grinning. “… Like, the sheer fact that you’d even help me move in here on your day off… What would I do without you?” Her eyes glimmered as she now cocked her head. “You’re the fucking best, Mako-chan!”

“… Y-you’re gonna ask me for another favor, aren’t you?” the lightning senshi deadpanned, idly rubbing her forehead as she closed her eyes, lest she burst out laughing at her devious friend from eye contact alone.

“Whaaat?? No, um… Well, it’s just- can you bring in my bed, and the coffee table, and-… well, now that I think of it that's basically all the furniture… for me?” The love warrior batted her eyelashes.

“Why did I agree to let you move in with all your junk into my room, again??”

Rei shook her head as Minako, Makoto, and Usagi together were able to get the moving senshi’s bed frame through the doorway without banging it. The side the two blondes were carrying promptly nearly slipped, and they squealed as a wooden leg dropped with a mild scuffing noise to the floor; Makoto sweat-dropped as she held the other end.

“N-not on the new tatami!!” Rei barked at that, face threatening to turn red.

The other furniture, however, was not too unwieldly for Makoto to handle on her own, so in no time she’d hefted all the dressers, tables, and little sofa inside, cramming it to fit in Rei’s bedroom as if it were a storage shed. The strongest senshi dusted her hands once finished, smiling proudly and secretly enjoying Minako’s sideways stares of awe. “Well then!” She winked and made a ‘guts’ bicep-flex pose for the admiring golden blonde.

What she didn’t expect, however, was to turn and see Ami hovering in the doorway, averting her gaze as quick as if Makoto's pupils had been bright as the sun and fidgeting as soon as her spectatorship was noticed. The blue-haired woman’s face seemed a bit… flushed and sweating??

That was… well… good, right? Makoto’s heart pounded; she gulped, doing her damndest to not become a puddle of nervous laughter as she brushed past her flustered friend to exit the room.

That was when the communicators went off. The three nearly answered at the same time, then locked eyes in turn as Ami and Makoto both nodded for the leader to use hers. Within a couple seconds Rei and Usagi had busted open the hallway door as well; the priestess was speedwalking to rejoin the group while the princess awkwardly scrambled over.

“Minako here. What’s up?” the suddenly-serious blonde spoke as they looked on. Makoto exhaled a sigh of relief upon noticing Minako’s new tracker map flicker to life showing the four Outers’ colored dots all accounted for and together.

“This is Haruka. First off, don’t panic — this is a non-emergency call.”

“Okay…” Minako shifted against the bedroom wall, crossing her arms slightly as she held open the device.

“Michiru sensed a new… quality in the energy in her mirror just now. Wanted to give you all a heads-up that she feels the enemy might try something new soon…” Haruka’s voice explained.

“New how? ” Ami asked, taking a small step into the furniture-filled room to get closer — which to Makoto’s great relief meant they were now slightly less awkwardly close together and the tall brunette could at least fucking breathe.

Michiru’s voice now sounded, “Closer in some way. Also spaced out.” While the Inners frowned, she explained the vague feeling of danger she’d gotten.

Minako soberly nodded, eyes darting between those of the other Inners as she flashed a hopeful, spirits-raising smile. “Alright, you four. Thanks for the heads up! We’ll stay ready.”

Usagi had a forkful of steaming hotcakes, which Makoto had made as a snack, lifted to just millimeters from her mouth when her currently wrist-worn communicator next went off. With a begrudging sigh, she shamelessly continued her bite all the same, though she guiltily rushed to chew and swallow the mouthful as quickly as possible; the princess sloppily wiped excess syrup on the back of her hand before reaching to answer.

Just then, apparently, Rei had rushed into the room. “Usagi!” she growled, “What the heck? You’re just eating? Instead of-.. um, when your communicator is clearly-”

The pigtailed blonde scoffed back at her, placing a hand on her hip and sticking out her tongue from where she sat. “Well, you’re just as bad if you’d stop to lecture me before answering yours-” she teased in a sing-song.

Ami nearly tripped over herself rushing in, her own device already opened, and the two squabblers hushed immediately. Flustered and mildly ashamed, the moon warrior turned quickly away from Rei in order to feign seriousness, blushing.

“Luna? This is Ami. What’s-”

“There’s a strange reading from the command center computer,” the feline’s voice spoke, “not unlike the signatures of other times the enemy’s simple ground-level portals were activated, and-”

“Okay,” Ami tersely cut her off. “Send me the coordinates and we’ll be right there!”

Upon hearing that, Usagi began the urgent task of shoveling the remaining hotcakes into her mouth.

Rei scoffed loudly at her, holding out a hand demonstratively to Ami, although her carefree attitude suggested that at least in part she was joking. “See? Ami-chan… doesn’t Usagi-chan need to work on her priorities? Look how irresponsible-”

The blue-haired woman, however, merely giggled benignly as she pocketed her communicator, shrugging at the princess before she turned away.

Usagi stared apologetically at Rei with a teasing smile, as she swallowed her impossible mouthful like a champion eater and wiped her mouth again. She shrugged, standing up to leave. “… Last-minute fuel?”

“Everyone!” two voices chorused, and the three of them stopped where they stood. Makoto and Minako rushed into view after nearly bolting out of the hallway, both of their expressions showing a strange brand of casual worry which seemed to Usagi like serious and cautious at best, spooked and rattled at worst.

“There’s-…” Minako hesitated, exchanging a glance with the brunette. “Um, we didn’t answer the communicators in time but I’m just guessing-”

Makoto grimaced. “We were just watching TV, and…”

“What?” Usagi spoke curiously, the suspense nearly eating at her although truth be told she wasn’t yet worried in her gut.

“On the news, there are monsters,” the tall inner senshi finished.

The blonde princess nearly gasped. “H-how many?” she thought to ask.

“Um…” the other two responded, both looking to each other with what almost seemed like a smile.

“Like, what, two? ” Minako filled in, bearing the relatively good news — although she was clearly trying to remain serious — with a cocky upraise of one eyebrow as well as one edge of her lips.

“Ooooh!” Usagi nearly squealed, clasping her hands and downright smirking. “So, we can… we can do this! ” She punched a fist into one palm. “… Simple, like the old days!”

“..- we don’t know that those creatures are the only ones who will-” the always-practical Ami was already explaining, a stressed bead of sweat forming at her temple.

Minako, however, fully raised her cocked eyebrow at her, seeming to almost laugh as she stepped forward. “U-Usagi-chan…? Are you… excited? ” The leader crossed her arms.

Usagi fanned herself, feeling the skin on her face suddenly turn red. “Um. I… No-.. D-don’t judge me!! ”

Makoto laughed, grinning; meanwhile Minako had to lead Ami, who was fully absorbed with her mini-comp and spouting information about the enemy’s past strategies, away by the hand.

“Yeah, let’s get going and tell the Outers,” Rei summarized with an eye roll, seeming to tense and flush as she walked past the princess, her long raven hair brushing Usagi’s shoulder.

The princess briefly felt herself automatically freeze, and she eyed the priestess with a suddenly curious suspicion. Rei seemed… mad at her?

No, maybe not that. But… her targeted teasing and weird looks haven’t been…

Usagi momentarily thought back.

… haven’t been like this in a long time.

Shaking her bun-adorned head to clear the brief worry, Usagi breathed out a sigh, rushed to grab her purse, and became the second one out the door; on blissfully dizzy, adrenaline-fueled autopilot, she followed behind Rei. She’d just have to worry with asking her later.

Chapter Text

CW:

• mild violence.
• mild/implied mental health stuff.

Shadows appeared through the dusk in peripheral vision as the teenage girl ran; Saturn lifted her glaive, twirling it overhead before she sprung, jumping and landing at the hideous monster’s feet.

“Silence Glaive Surprise!” she cried, and purple energy sparked from her weapon, barreling into her surprised, tentacle-monster-esque shapeshifting foe. The creature rocketed backward to crumple in the gutter, turning to shapeless green ashes and purple dust.

“Nice one!” Jupiter winked as she ran to approach.

Meanwhile, Venus appeared from around the building’s corner; Hotaru struggled to react as the blonde woman immediately jumped at her for a double-high-five. “Woot!! Yay, Hotaru-chan!” Venus cheered, then paused to blink between herself and the younger girl. “… Eh? Are you taller than me, now?? Gosh, girl, you still haven’t stopped growing?”

Saturn laughed. “I, um..”

Jupiter clapped a hand softly on her shoulder. “Anyway, let’s find the others. Rei-chan and Usagi-chan were-…” she spoke, pointing ahead as she tentatively thought.

“Aaaarghh!” they were interrupted by a screech, as Sailor Moon’s form was thrown from an alleyway to land in a heap on her face, her butt in the air, on the sidewalk directly ahead of them.

Hotaru tried not to guffaw outright and quickly spun on her heel to turn away, hiding her probably hilarious expression; behind her she heard Usagi wail, “Owwww,” Mars’s voice joining in out of sight to lecture her, while the four bickered. Some things haven’t changed… the youngest warrior warmly thought, idly running a white-gloved hand along her weapon’s staff.

Even just standing here, transformed on the sidewalk as she gazed at the glaive, with each of her own thoughts and movements she could feel the immense energy flow from her guardian planet. Almost imperceptibly as she gazed down the cleared-out street, she smiled to herself; she felt damn powerful, and Hotaru realized that… she'd missed this.

Saturn hadn’t felt this much belonging with everyone since…

A quick breath caught in her throat, hot emotion creeping up which the warrior shook away. Can’t think about that right now..

“Hotaru-chan!” Sailor Moon’s voice chimed from behind, and Saturn was ripped from her reverie. “We got the other one, so let’s go!”

“..Yes! … Coming!” Hotaru eagerly, cheerfully responded, smiling with a forceful nod as she spun to face the others.

Uranus popped open a beer with the thumb of her ripped glove, downing a sip before she’d done so much as wipe the smeared grime from her face.

Michiru laughed at her, leaning in to fix the tall woman’s hair as she detransformed herself in a turquoise light, chastising, “Come, now, priorities… Detransform before relaxing, lest a neighbor come in and see Sailor Uranus raiding a civilian’s fridge…”

The blonde swallowed a gulp, then laughed. “Are they gonna come in?? You really think after the theatrical crap Odango pulled to clear the area, someone’s gonna think, ‘Hmm, yes, gonna go in there without knocking!’ ?”

Hotaru giggled, almost choking on her flavored water; 'You said WHAT NOW is coming out of the toddler?? What’s that — PROJECTILE vomiting?!’ Usagi had allegedly exclaimed in an audibly loud hush in front of Minako’s apartment door in order to allow the gaggle of nine senshi to enter. ‘A-and you say your friend’s kid’s running trying to OPEN the DOOR? So… should I not come in there yet or..? WHAT? It smells HOW bad?!’ she’d pretended to whisper as she hunched over her cell phone, pacing close by a couple awkwardly rubbernecking yet revolted neighbors, who’d apparently quickly fled.

The women had done so, of course, first of all so that Mercury wouldn’t need to stop the progress of her computer’s scan in order to de- and re-transform, and secondarily so that everyone else’s — most specifically, Minako’s — identities wouldn’t be put into question by association with the senshi. However, regardless of the reason, Hotaru had found the group’s mad dash into the apartment building, up the stairs, and stealthily into the pop musician’s place while most party members opted to remain transformed felt like a hilariously thrilling reintroduction to the team.

Except… The dark-haired girl swallowed, bringing a hand up to hide her expression as she thought, … it’s the first time without Chibiusa-chan.

In one of the bedrooms down the hallway, Rei’s and Minako’s voices chatted, Usagi laughing alongside them. To the left, Mercury stood engrossed in her computer’s screen as she stood leaning against the hallway wall, Makoto commenting something to her as she watched over the blue-haired woman’s shoulder.

Of all of them, no one had yet mentioned it since she, Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna had arrived in Minato. At least not to her.

But that’s fine… Hotaru thought, pulling herself straighter on the barstool as she fixed the collar of her shirt. How would they know? It’s not like Chibiusa-chan probably told them that I-…

Rei spoke as she strode from Minako’s room with both blondes close behind her, pulling her long black hair over one shoulder to straighten it, “This is the third random attack in a row with no apparent purpose…” With a thoughtful frown, she crossed her arms and nodded to an equally serious yet seemingly distracted Minako, then over at Michiru, Uranus, and Hotaru. “We should talk about it…”

“I agree,” Setsuna sighed as she ducked out of the bathroom — literally, for the door frame proved too short for the tallest senshi now that she’d done up and fixed her hair in the mirror, even without her heeled boots. “… Mercury, have you finished?”

The warrior in question nodded, detransforming finally as she let out a long sigh, pushing up the glasses that had reappeared on her face in place of the transparent visor. In an empty hand she conjured her mini computer once more, vision glancing over it as she spoke, “There are no new energy signatures. But, then again that’s what happened the last two times. And then…” Ami trailed off.

“A random shapeshifting monster shows up somewhere else a few hours later with zero warning,” Makoto finished, crossing her arms bemusedly as she shifted her posture against the wall beside the other senshi.

“Exactly…” Ami frowned, eyes unfocusing as she glanced off into the furniture-less foyer. “So it seems all we can do is just..-”

Haruka, who had at last detransformed as well, scoffed loudly. “Keep on guard? What, for single creatures that we can just sprint to and one-shot in five minutes?” She strode over to forcefully slam down the beer can on the kitchenette counter, sighing and joining Michiru in leaning against it. “What bullshit…” the blonde muttered somewhat more quietly.

“Well, this time there were two or three in two different districts simultaneously, so if we hadn’t all been prepared and together, it would have been more difficult to contain…” Ami began.

The celebrity racer almost began to argue but was stopped when Usagi took a step forward in gesture, eyes glistening. “And not to mention we have to stop people in the city from getting hurt.. So,” and the princess placed a wrist on her hips, “Haruka-san, everyone, we need to stop debating it… There’s no question about what we’ll do. We’ll take it seriously, okay?”

Blue eyes searched each of their faces until there were several nods, some reluctant, and Haruka shut her open mouth and slouched. The wind senshi's downcast look seemed to say, 'Fine, then.'

Minako scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. “Unfortunately, I also agree with Usagi-chan. It may not be ideal, but we’ve got no choice but to keep on keeping Tokyo monster-free.” Then, mood seemingly turning on a dime as to Hotaru’s surprise Minako abruptly laughed gleefully, striking a confident pose, the blonde blurted, “Plus, I mean, you’ve got to admit it’s a nice change from this enemy’s other tactics. Cleansing the world of evil creatures one-by-one is certainly easier!”

“Mmhmm!” Usagi, already wiping aside her near-tears from seconds ago, smiled and nodded enthusiastically at that as she reached to open and visually scour the already-empty fridge.

Makoto clicked her tongue uncertainly, gazing up at the ceiling as she leaned back. “Yeah… I dunno, kind of worries me why they’re doing this, though. Given how their tactic before has just been to outnumber us.”

Ami nodded, brow creasing as she seemed to stare off into space. “Yes.. It would be consistent with, for instance, a test of some new method or weapon. But…” She trailed off.

“Or a distraction,” Minako added; the Inners’ leader rubbed her forehead.

After a moment left silent by everyone’s contemplation, Rei sighed and smiled. “So anyway, Minako-chan, you ready to get the last of the stuff and lock up while we’re here?”

The priestess poked the blonde in the ribs, causing the woman to tiredly nod.

Haruka smirked, crushing the beer can she’d been holding and pointing a finger playfully at Hotaru. “We’ve helped you clean out your fridge!” The racer winked. “So, you’re welcome!”

Minako sweat-dropped and looked between the two of them with probably-feigned irritation; Hotaru blushed with guilt and softly, nervously laughed, quietly dropping her empty drink bottle and snack wrappers in a trash bag, tying and taking it out with her.

“Ami-chan.”

The young woman tried not to feel ashamed by the extent to which her heart rate and adrenaline levels undeniably jumped at the sound of this particular friend’s voice from behind her.

She spun, at first carefully keeping the focus point of her blue eyes fixed at floor level, so that her emotions wouldn’t bleed through.

Makoto half-smiled, leaning with one hand on the study's door frame. She seemed… nervous?

Ami swallowed, and her head swirled with guilt. No doubt my own fault, she thought weightily. She's probably upset I haven't explained or apologized yet since.. The student nearly shook her head to clear her mood. “Hey! Good evening!” she greeted, before realizing that sounded silly — but what else were you supposed to say at one a.m.? Despite herself, Ami grinned, fixing her hair and scratching at her neck. “How are you-?” she began.

“-First of all, um- I-I’m sorry, Ami-chan!” the other woman interrupted, firmly shaking her head as she approached.

The med student blinked, anxiety draining from her, and resisted the urge to visibly hold her breath in wait and cock her head. What could this… the most giving fucking person who’s been punching and cooking and moving furniture for us… think she has to apologize for? the genius mused, all remaining guilt from her aloofly stormy mood the other day twisting in her.

“… For blurting all that stuff about how being a doctor’s most important for you. I just.. Minako-chan and Rei said something about you taking risks to your career and I realized…” As Ami looked on, speechless, sparkling tears glistened in the other woman’s green eyes and she proceeded to somewhat rapidly blurt, “I get it now what you must have been thinking and I didn’t mean to emphasize that, so I’m sorry I just-”

Ami’s fervent shaking of her head cut the taller girl off. “No, it’s okay. I’m sorry, Mako-chan… I…” She felt her cheeks mildly heating up, and the blue-haired woman glanced to the floor. “I asked you to open up about what was bothering you, and then I ran off, leaving you alone without even talking about it…”

When she gazed up, Makoto was blinking, gaze averted, and flushing; the brunette idly scratched at her neck. “No, it’s okay!" If Ami had been more with-it, she would have then noticed that the brunette smiled gently. "Also…”

“… Also?” Ami spoke, her emotional response feeling muted and distant. There were so many possibilities this could be that scared her. She forcibly kept her facial expression neutral, smiling mildly.

Makoto blushed, opening her mouth and hesitating. With one finger she flipped back a strand of her hair.

It felt like forever.

“At your place, last week, when…”

.. Oh no.

Ami nearly jumped, heart rushing. “Uh-” She felt like she’d uttered a first syllable but couldn’t speak. Her world crashed around her as she floated in wait.

In another dimension, a foot away from her, her friend smiled wistfully, and she turned her back to the small study's wall, loving emerald eyes glistening. But Ami could barely see it, barely absorb it.

“… when you kissed me,” the lightning warrior spoke quietly.

OH. THAT. GODS-

All Ami’s alarms went off. She gasped, quick to remedy this fuck-up; tears sprung to the ready just within her lids. She barely heard herself speak, “I- oh NO, I’m sorry!! I wasn’t thinking- I crossed a line- but it’s not like that- I- I SHOULDN’T have- please, let’s just pretend like I NEVER-”

At first Makoto laughed, giving a half-smile awkwardly, but then within a second’s pause she’d seemed to shrink. As if steadying herself, the brunette turned slightly further away, her voice when she next spoke heavier. “.. Oh? I see, of course.. I’ll understand if you regret it and thought we shouldn’t…”

Ami gazed sideways at her, reeling nerve-endings and emotions feeling dumped in a bucket of ice. The other girl’s cheeks were blossoming, slowly, with the color of pink roses. Frozen after her defensive outburst, Ami just stared at her, halfway leaning on the wall; she just watched her friend breathe.

A realization, a tug of regret, pulled suddenly at the shorter senshi. She’d answered defensively, negatively, because she’d assumed… but… Could it be she…?

Luckily, the other warrior knew to cover her bases.

“Anyway, well,” Makoto spoke evenly, without glancing back up, “I just need to tell you that.. I felt…. that.. that when you kissed me that night, I was okay with it.”

“… Oh.” Ami spoke numbly as if stuck in silly putty, her confused brain up in fireworks. “You were… okay with it?” The med student felt herself turn fuchsia. “Y-you…” she nodded dumbly.

Lighting up again beside her as if with hope, Makoto giggled. Turning, the tall woman appeared to search her face. “So.. did-.. um, are you…? ”

“Um!” Ami reached with one hand to nervously fidget; she swept indigo hair behind her ears.

“… because I…” Makoto went on, blinking now at the floor. “… liked that,” the normally brashly courageous warrior finished in a small voice.

The water senshi nearly laughed outright with the relief. “Y.. you did?” she quietly spoke. She was nearly blinded with the ensuing headrush. She hoped to high heaven that Makoto, knowing her as well as she did, could read the answering feelings in the speechless woman's bewilderedly smiling expression. Because, damn did Ami feel hard-pressed to find words. “I… I wish we could talk about this more now, but… I’m on call from Luna, who’s going to be sending me the calculated location of the next predicted portal opening based on their amalgamated data, and-”

“R-right, right!” Makoto cheerfully stuttered, cheeks still hotly flushing. “We don’t need to talk about it or-.. decide anything right now. I just…” She breathed deep, standing straighter as she smiled and sighed. “… wanted to tell you, especially once I realized you might be worried I hadn’t said or done anything yet,” the taller girl admitted with a laugh.

Ami, probably also blushing furiously by the feel of it, just vigorously nodded. Her wristwatch communicator then beeped with a ping. “Oh-”

Not missing a beat, Makoto went from confessing to serious, leaning in. “Is that it?”

The med student spoke, “Mmhmm. It’s…” Her face fell while she read the corresponding text message, though she tried to hide the dramatic expression.

“What?” the other warrior probed with sudden concern.

“… Terrible news,” Ami admitted while she sweated, nodding to herself soberly.

“What?!” Makoto repeated. “So, is it predicted to be a place with heavy civilians, or…?”

“No, but it’s far enough away that I calculate, by the time we return, I won’t be able to study any more for tomorrow’s exam…” the med student griped, voice nearly squeaking with her stress.

Quickly, Makoto released a tense sigh before clapping a hand over her mouth to reduce a loudly hysterical laugh. “… Oh, Ami-chan!…” She shook her head, slumping as she leaned even closer, giggling.

Chapter Text

CW:

• mild violence.

Haruka wriggled tiredly, groaning as they struggled to extricate their arm from around Michiru’s waist and under the softly snoring Setsuna’s shoulder; distantly, the hotel room door opened and closed with a clack, and an alarm — no, the communicators — were going off. Again.

Flipping over from the fully clothed, over-the-covers cuddle pile and rubbing their tired eyes, Haruka fumbled and managed to gracelessly knock two out of the three pinging communicators from the nightstand to the floor.

A soft giggle came from the doorway area, and Haruka chuckled, yawning and blinking to gaze blurrily at Hotaru. The girl, slurping a container of flavored yakisoba noodles, was almost-discreetly replacing Michiru’s wallet onto the front table.

The blonde raised an eyebrow. “Why do you have that wallet?”

“Cause you’re terrible parents,” Hotaru winked with a smile, and she strode to pick up the ringing communicators, throwing them both onto the pile of sleeping adults, the other two of whom immediately jolted awake. “… Who sleep instead of feeding me!”

“-Buh!”; “Gah!” Michiru and Setsuna chorused.

“At four a.m.? Of course we’re sleeping, we haven’t been able to catch a break all night and.. Fine, I’ll answer,” Haruka muttered as they picked one of the communicators off a confused Setsuna’s thigh. “But, again…?” they muttered more under-their-breath before answering and slipping on shoes, already poised to leave the hotel room on autopilot.

They just caught Setsuna’s tired yawn-murmur, “I swear the enemy’s trying to sleep-deprive us..”

Ami speedwalked through the dawn-lit sidewalks, panting. A heavy briefcase was clutched close at her side.

It was dangerous to travel alone, yes, given the enemy’s past track record — but at least Usagi and Rei had ridden with her before taking their leave at the parking garage, under Ami’s orders to quickly rendezvous with Minako, who was walking Makoto to work, just in case Luna’s most recently reported blip turned into a threat.

Gods, it felt like a complicated strategy time-management game just to handle all this. Ami sweated.

“I swear, if this makes me late to my exam, I’ll-…” she mumbled to herself, then stopped.

What WOULD I do? she thought, dejected. Punish the monsters harder for spite?? That’s all that I COULD do.

Her mood soured.

Then, a thought occurred to her. She reached for her phone, touching to record a voice-to-text to everyone, “New potential hypothesis. The enemy might be gathering data… checking our strategies and responses to stress? Maybe to check for a weak point? That’s at least what I would do…”

Makoto jogged down a busy Shibuya sidewalk, awkwardly in her work clothes. At least she’d made sure they were relatively comfortable, and had the foresight to wear a sports bra under the logo-adorned black tee. But, run a marathon in these slacks? And with practically zero energy and without having eaten and with the swirly migraine she felt was coming on? Nah, pass any day.

“I know, I know,” she muttered irritatedly as the communicator in her pocket chimed yet again. “I’m going as fast as I can like this!”

Would it be that rude if she didn’t open it? She was almost there, anyway… Or would they assume from one missed call she’d been murdered?

A niggling bite of guilt made the young woman bite her lip, groan to herself, and just answer the darn thing.

As she’d thought, however, it was just Mars’s voice once again asking, “So, WHERE are y-”

“-I JUST got off work and can’t fucking abandon my belongings to transform, let me just-…” the brunette panted to interrupt through her teeth.

Then, as a pedestrian gasped just in front of her, Makoto looked up and sighted the three promised monsters barreling aimlessly through the early afternoon traffic of the large intersection ahead. Running at top speed from a side street and nearly there were Mars and Neptune.

“I-see-you-bye!” she blurted with triumph into the receiver as if to a Lyft driver before clack-ing it closed.

Taking advantage of the chaos erupting down the sidewalk, the warrior promptly peered both ways, sprinted, and ducked inside a fluffy hedge unnoticed. Throwing her backpack carelessly to the mulch with an exasperated sigh of relief, she finally grabbed her henshin stick, transformed, and emerged.

Jupiter leapt up, new energy brimming within her as she cracked her knuckles; she dashed to the intersection in time to see…

“Hiya!” Venus, having appeared out of nowhere, exclaimed. Throwing a gold chain, the blonde lassoed a vine monster and a quadrupedal nightmare-creature, wrapping and pulling such that both monsters were taken off-balance and they clunk-ed together.

Sailor Neptune smirked from across the street, raising both arms and conjuring her weapon. “SUBMARINE REFLECTION!” she yelled.

With a gust of seawater rolling through and past them, both creatures were left dead as a drowned rat; with a poof, they disintegrated on the asphalt.

Jupiter grinned, just opening her mouth to congratulate and ask where the next one was, when…

To the brunette’s right, Mars was already releasing an arrow; before she knew it it was sailing through the air, had pierced the strange, purplish-black flesh.

The last creature was successfully, fully incinerated.

When the implication of that dawned on her, the lightning senshi’s smile and cheer nearly could have turned into an aggravated scream.

“UGH!” Jupiter whimpered dramatically as her fight-or-flight posture deflated and she sunk her face into both hands. “Are you kidding?! I finally get here and you don’t fuckin’ NEED ME?” she loudly vented.

Venus giggled. “.. Whoops?”

“There, there,” Mars commented in a sarcastic monotone as she walked up beside her and gently patted the brunette’s back consolingly.

“…Grrr, I just REALLY wanted to punch one of them after all that, y’know?! ” Makoto exclaimed as she suddenly straightened and released a tight fist into the air — which unfortunately contained a hanging metal shop sign, which unfortunately flew off its nails and deeply dented a support post of the balcony railing above.

Which unfortunately caused a curiously watching grown man to scream and flee in terror of the senshi while Venus practically fell to the concrete sidewalk laughing.

“Shitsorry!!” Jupiter squeaked in utmost embarrassment, and she cast a panicked glance around the street for other onlookers.

Mars was saying something about, “Just don’t punch a PERSON,” accusingly under her breath while she pinched the bridge of her nose.

Neptune, panting from her powerful attack, wiped a sweat drop off her brow as she approached; the sea senshi laughed and muttered, “What are the odds the enemy’s purpose in this is just to set us up for news slander, by making us so stressed we lose our shit?”

‘Hey!’ Jupiter tried to retort, though through her vivid, curdling guilt she actually only managed to nervously laugh in a tiny voice.

“It’s probably just to fuck with us.” Makoto slammed her fridge door closed unceremoniously and held out an ice pack to Rei, who nursed a purple goose egg from being thrown against a light pole before transforming.

“Thank- aahh.” The priestess held it to the bruise where her left forehead met her dark hairline.

“You… have… a point,” Minako commented, pausing between near every-other word to dip her hand into a bag of plum-flavored chips, stuffing her face to quell her growling stomach; the musician dizzily paced back and forth in the apartment kitchen, her mood suddenly giddy and surreal from sleep deprivation. “I mean, when was the last time we slept properly? Or rested? Or planned? Or ate? It’s gotta have us off our game by now.”

Missing the facetiousness, Ami checked her watch. “Roughly between twenty-four and thirty-six hours.”

Minako stopped where she paced. “Wait, just since yesterday?! ” She laughed loudly, darkly and near-maniacally, and she threw up her hands. “Grrrh, this wave of attacks feels like it’s been daaayyyys!! ”

Usagi seemed to become a liquid as she sank into a kitchen chair with one fluid motion. “Whooo. Glad that battle’s over, though.” She slouched across the small dining table, faceplanting and seeming primed to fall asleep. “That one was haaard,” the princess whined in a muffled but high voice, and then she turned her head and tiredly laughed, “… Ha. Think they’ll give us the weekend off??”

“Don’t complain, Odango, you’re fine!!” Rei muttered as she adjusted the cool pack.

The pigtailed blonde scratched the scalp along the part of her hair, laughing once more. “I do kind of feel bad I’m still the only one who keeps not getting hurt this time around..”

“It just means we’re doing our job right,” Makoto winked at her as she cracked open a can of black Boss Coffee and tipped it back.

“It’s because Usagi has a luck stat of ten!!” Minako beamed at the princess, also winking. She ran her fingers through humidity-frizzed, tangled hair. The leader then idly leaned on the wall opposite the kitchen until Ami, who apparently noticed she was leaving dirt-smeared sweat marks all over Makoto’s wallpaper, reached over to frantically stop her.

“..Are you sure it’s not zero?” Makoto remarked coolly, more quietly, as she looked skeptically at Minako, currently appearing unable to care less about the state of her wallpaper. The brunette leaned her elbows on the counter.

Rei laughed. “Is it possible it’s both? ”

“What-? What are you talking about? What do you mean? ” Usagi inquired, nervously defensive.

“You know,” Minako spoke, grunting tiredly as she leaned over to closely address the princess and then decided to pull out her own chair to sit on the far side, lazily sharing the nap-table, “like in some video games-”

“No, I know that-” Usagi began, scooting over a bit to allow Minako to also drape her whole upper body over the glass table.

Rei, however, seemed set on explaining her reasoning. “Usagi-chan, why don’t you tell them why you didn’t get thrown into a streetlight when I did-”

“Oh!” The princess exclaimed, laughing, holding a finger in the air. “You see, I tripped while Rei-chan and I were walking so right when the monsters hit us I had already ducked and-”

Minako and Makoto exchanged a long look over Usagi’s head, the former blinking, stunned, while the latter almost spat out her coffee and slammed the can to the counter. “You’re right, that’s uncanny…-” they both spoke in unison.

Usagi eventually paced in the bedroom, tender feet feeling bruised from walking the couple kilometers back to Makoto’s place un-transformed so as not to risk giving away her friend’s identity to the one curious reporter who had at first been following them. Her new, pretty periwinkle-blue heels which were currently lying chucked aside in the genkan definitely hadn’t expected to see that much action — to the chagrin of Rei, who had of course lectured her for being too optimistic to plan adequately for yet another attack that day.

The blonde’s heart raced, briefly, as she heard another ring on her cellphone.

“Usa?” Mamoru sounded tired.

The woman smiled, nodding to herself. “I missed your call…?” He’d been trying to touch base at least every several hours since the random monster attacks started. It was funny — to her this felt less concerning, more reminiscent of the usual old days. But for some reason now that action had started up again her boyfriend was panicking.

“Yeah, I just…” The man made a brief sound between a sigh and a groan. “… It’s good to hear your voice!”

Usagi poked at a leafy plant growing up and out of a small, painted ceramic pot on Makoto’s dresser — then dutifully stopped herself with a sweat-drop, so that she wouldn’t clumsily knock over and uproot it like she’d done with that other one… “Yeah…” The fidgeting princess backed away from the wardrobe, returning her restless energy to merely pacing. “You too! Um.” She twirled a sprig of her hair. “We just had another fight, but it’s over now! How are you doing?”

“Okay… Again? I’m doing fine, but…” It sounded as if he stretched or turned away from the phone to glance over his shoulder, distracted. “Usako, I’d like to… I feel like I need to be there for you.”

The odango-haired girl froze, half-smiling. She’d wanted that, so much. So why, now, did the moon senshi feel that bit of disappointment, that coolness in her chest? It was as if just this once she was happy to handle it on her own… And to not be tasked with worrying about her staunchly protective yet squishy boyfriend’s well-being during every battle.

“But, you…” Usagi’s eyes also began to glisten with sympathy for him, simultaneously. “You put off your studies so much for me!” She smiled, lowering her voice and holding the mobile device a little bit more tightly to her face. “Please, don’t. Not this time. You can’t be thinking about dropping out to fly back for me…”

“It wouldn’t be dropping out…” Mamoru spoke, sighing. “I could just put a pause on getting my Ph. D, maybe go back into the program the next year-”

Usagi was already shaking her head, near tears. “No, Mamo-chan. I love you. And I want us both to be safe, but… Please just send me your love — lend me your powers — from there, like you have been.”

“Don’t you think this is a serious enough occasion that I should be there with you?? Fighting with you, or… protecting you?”

Fuck.

If Usagi had been asked this a day or two ago, she’d probably have begged him to come — especially given the added worry of the telepathic enemy who’d more or less threatened him. But, the more she thought about it…

The last time he planned to catch a flight across the world in the midst of crisis… Usagi’s breath hitched as she thought of it. But, that’s silly, she reminded herself, and she pushed the memories and flashes away; there’s no correlation — this isn’t like then.

Still, the thought of Mamoru continuing with his status quo, safely away from battle and safely away from being used as a hostage or leverage for her, felt better to her now — at least for the time being.

Now that I'm in the swing of things…

The sailor warrior giggled, suddenly proudly shaking her head. “Well, actually I’ll have you know that I’ve been doing really good this time!! I haven’t been too clumsy or fallen into a trap or gotten hurt at all,” she blurted with a smile, pigtails whipping sideways as she shook her head. “Oh- although my feet are bruised, but..”

The young man seemed to attempt a soft laugh, as he did when clearly endeared but also amused or somewhat embarrassed by her. “Tha-that’s great, Usako!” She heard the smile in his voice as he laughed again. “But…”

“And, the others protect me,” she beamed, eyes tearing up again as she lifted a fist to her chest, “like… they’ve got my back one hundred percent!! Even the Outers. And, um-”

There was a knock on the closed door. “Usagi…? Mako-chan wants to know if you want to go with her to the grocery store to pick out stuff for dinner-..?” came Minako’s cheerful voice from just beyond.

“Uh, I haftago, bye! Later! ” the ravenous young woman lovingly blurted into the phone.

She’d just managed to hear the half-laughing but shocked, "Oh- alright, bye!" from Mamoru’s end of the line before hanging up and eagerly racing out.

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

Hotaru woke and turned over with a vague, numb, heavy feeling of unrest; she kicked and rearranged her legs, struggling to get comfortable.

Was this just going to be a thing now? Instead of visions, she’d wake up in the nick of time with evil-detecting restless leg syndrome? The warrior sighed irritably.

She got up, paced, looked at her sleepless face in the mirror, and made tea. She sat, sipping it, on the edge of her bed while she watched the clock and wrestled with deciding whether to wake the others. They likely need their sleep, she ultimately figured.

On cue, a few minutes later the communicators rang. Through the dark, a shuffling and a few groans promptly came from the other, larger bed.

“Hello?” the dark-haired girl was already answering, flipping on one bedside light as she turned on the viewscreen to see the black cat guardian’s face. “Luna?”

The cat sighed, and Hotaru, in all her time as a sailor senshi, hadn’t even known it was possible for a cat to really sigh like that. Do Mauians need as much sleep as Earth cats? she briefly wondered, with sympathy. Meanwhile, the other three were finally flipping open devices, rubbing sleepy eyes, and blindly grabbing for clean clothes.

“The command center’s algorithm has detected another anomaly consistent with previous indications of an upcoming creature attack. I’ve already sent the location to Usagi-chan and the Inners,” Luna straightforwardly explained once the adults were crowded around Haruka’s communicator screen.

“In Japanese…?” Haruka deadpanned as they rubbed their face.

This caused Luna to give that uncanny, awfully human sigh — again. “There’s most likely going to be another batch of portals carrying a few monsters through. But… no need to worry yet; Artemis and I will keep you all posted.”

“Where?” Setsuna asked as she straightened, pulling fingers through her long emerald hair.

“Not far. In Minato-ku. I’ll text the coordinates and address to all of your devices just in case. If I’m not mistaken, the inner senshi are going to use this enemy spawn to try out switching off with you four.”

“Roger,” Haruka answered with a nod. “So you don’t want us to head there yet? They’ll handle this one, we’ll get the next?”

“Correct — because, I believe, Ami-chan has begun to take into consideration the effects of partial sleep deprivation on all of you.”

“… Much appreciated,” Michiru muttered, rubbing her shoulders.

“So… unless contacted again, you four are under instructions to please sleep.”

After the call ended, a peaceful yet thick silence drifted in. Until Haruka shifted.

“Hey, Hotaru…” her papa broached, running fingers through their hair as they cleared their throat, “I know we’ve said this before but, you know…”

She blinked blankly at them, through the partial dark.

Michiru had seemed to catch on and was also nodding, smiling in a near-pitying yet loving, sympathetic way.

“… When we were your age, we had no choice but to save the Earth, because no one else could. But, now…” Haruka let out a weighty sigh, then also smiled widely. “Please don’t feel like you have to. There are eight of us — enough that it’ll be okay if you’d ever rather not fight.”

Setsuna turned towards Hotaru, too, from the far side of the king bed. “Haruka’s right. I know we say this often, but while you’re just a kid… Well, you deserve to have someone tell you that. Please, think about it. You can leave most of this to the adults.” The tall woman smiled, weightily but peacefully.

Hotaru ran her now-tingling fingers over each other in her lap, gazing down. She’d already thought about it; had felt the answer come from within her unsolicited since this first time in several years she’d become Sailor Saturn. The energy, the destiny and desire, was bleeding through her. It felt right and she knew it was what had woken her up tonight, those other recent nights, and that first night last week, when she'd dreamt of her parents’ danger.

‘I’m only physically a few years younger than you,’ she thought of sticking her tongue out and saying. She’d jokingly argued that many times. But instead she sighed, smiled, and murmured down to her folded hands in the lap of her pajama bottoms, “Thank you. I know. I… want to fight. I still choose to.”

After a brief silence, her three parents exchanged a subtle smile with one another and respectfully nodded.

She had to — wanted to. Chose to protect this world. Help strive to protect her friends, this family she’d found, and their future together… and the future containing her best friend — the only girl she’d ever loved.

Rei woke with wide eyes, staring peacefully up from her pillow. A slightly bad, but slightly resolved, feeling ran through her. That was all she’d been able to get lately — day by day, her non-senshi powers had been dwindling. She hoped her grandfather would be right — that it would come back to her in the end.

The communicators went off, and Ami groggily answered. They were all asleep on futons and bedding strewn throughout Rei’s grandfather’s bedroom’s tatami floor — as Minako had reluctantly given up Rei’s cozy bed so the five could stay together.

Luna and Artemis’s tracker had picked up another early indicator of the enemy’s portals, and Mercury went quick to work decoding it once they’d sent her the coordinates, trying to get more info.

What is this feeling telling me? Rei probed her mind. It felt at least a little foreboding, so she tried to ask it.

Stay close to the princess, was all she felt and heard. It was as if someone was telling her.

Who? Mamoru? No, probably not, for the voice was too feminine. Mars’s inner self, maybe?

Alright, she decided regardless. She’d stay extra wary by Usagi’s side.

The five picked their way silently through rooftops, aiming towards the scene of the next ‘monster of the hour,’ as Usagi and Makoto had dubbed these threats.

Once Mercury picked up the portals’ generation, it was in two pockets about a mile apart from one another, so the group split off — Mars, Sailor Moon, and Venus going one way, with Mercury and Jupiter going the other. They should be able to defeat both batches of creatures with little problem even without the others, so for now Venus was going to stick to Mercury’s plan and wouldn’t contact them.

The other two had seemed a bit awkward, giving each other a strange sort of smile before splitting off together, and Mars resisted the urge to say anything, blushing slightly. Did they…? she wondered about the state of things she and Makoto had discussed.

Then, as soon as the two groups had left earshot and eyeshot over the city rooftops, Venus got a page from Mercury.

“My energy detection shows the monsters in the area Jupiter and I are heading towards have… they’ve retreated, and the portals are gone,” the genius imparted.

“Roger,” Venus spoke.

“I’m not sure why, but… well, there’s no point in us being separated now so we’ll circle back and head your way.”

“So, see you in a sec!” Jupiter’s voice added.

“Alright…” Venus started to Mars and Moon while they waited for the others to catch up. “We five will continue our route to the main point. If anything else weird or off-pattern happens, we’ll call the Outers, yeah?”

“Sounds good…” Mars nodded, and she shifted uneasily.

However, about a minute and a half later when Mercury and Jupiter came rushing to them from over the industrial roofs, the water senshi’s expression was panicked.

“What?” Rei questioned, immediately noticing.

Mercury, out of breath at Jupiter’s side apparently from just how hurriedly they’d sprinted, blurted, “The energy at the remaining point is different now! More complex — so they could be transporting humans. I’d just tried to call you while-”

“Whoa, slow down!” Venus immediately became serious. “What are you saying? And didn’t we just talk to you?”

“Yes, but after you hung up I tried to call back with that info. It-”

“The communicators aren’t working!” a more mildly panicked Jupiter finished. “Thank god we found you already — or we might not have noticed until-!” she began to blurt.

Mars mentally froze. Sailor Moon gasped.

“They’re cutting off our signals again? ” Venus spoke slowly, as if sounding it out. “They use that trick sparingly, so why would they be…”

Rei’s heartbeat jumped to a quick tempo in her chest. “Tonight’s attack might have been a trap…”

In front of her through the dark, Jupiter stiffened and clenched a fist. “But regardless of if it was a setup, they must have been planning something, so…”

“Call the-” Venus commanded before her face fell. “… Shit… well, just try everyone just in case.”

“I’m on it,” Mercury responded, stressed face already buried in her tech. A moment later, she finished, “The command center and the others, even Mamoru-san… I’m getting nothing. Even using my computer’s wifi to dial the Outers’ cell phones.”

“Fuck,” Jupiter muttered. “What should we-…”

“Well, are they okay?!” Sailor Moon quickly bent to look over Mercury’s shoulder at the various screens. Rei could see each of their colored dots on water senshi’s holograph display, the Outers still in their original place.

Mercury nodded, gesturing at her mini comp screen. “Yes. No activity is in their area, so there’s no need to worry for those four for now. And the dimensional portal activity is still only around Tokyo. Mamoru-san is also okay, Usagi…”

“Then…” Sailor Moon’s silhouette gazed worriedly off into the distance, in the direction they’d been heading.

The other blonde turned to face the group. “Well, the emergency protocol we’ve established states if any of us are unable to reach one another, we use Mercury’s and Luna’s new tracker maps and rendezvous at Usagi-chan’s location. Before long the cats or the Outers will notice something’s up and they’ll be on their way here. So, then we need to find out,” Venus spat, turning her chin up regally to face into the wind, “what the enemy was — or still is — planning tonight.”

“I agree,” the brunette senshi nodded.

Mars, first steadying her breath, hesitantly hummed her approval, “Mmhmm.”

Whatever it is, she reassured to herself — to the feeling in her head, I’ll stay beside her.

Two or three blocks came and passed in their peripheral vision and no sign or word had come yet from the others.

They descended to lie waiting in the shadows at street level. On multiple displays, Mercury watched the energy and portal data picked up.

The blue-haired woman lifted a finger silently to point at a wide crux in the low-traffic, dark but streetlight-lit highway. “That’s where the energy just came through.”

“I don’t seee anyone,” Sailor Moon whispered as she peered over the bush she hid behind.

“There-” Jupiter and Mars almost said at the same time.

The hair on Rei’s arms and neck stood up as two figures appeared through an equally sudden fog.

“Erika and Enyo?” Venus whispered close to Rei’s right.

“Yes,” Mercury answered; she must have already been checking their biological stats.

Rei nearly softly laughed — that thorough, lovable nerd of ours…

From one of the figures, which were still about a hundred meters away, came a call in their direction, “We can detect your presence! Come out.”

Erika’s voice.

The senshi exchanged glances behind their shadowy cover, nodding uneasily as the foggy silhouette of the petite enemy woman gestured with one hand, ‘come here.’

Anxiety ate at Rei’s chest by the time the five were purposefully striding toward what was seeming like a face-off in the middle of the street. Cars likely full of confused nighttime commuters were, thankfully, now slowing, stopping, and pulling illegal U-turns at the sight of the five down-to-business sailor senshi blocking the way.

Erika spoke again first. “Have you given any more thought to our truce? If not, I think you might be kind enough to engage us in a little chat — just right now, the seven of us?” It seemed she, standing side-by-side with Enyo this time rather than in front of him, was glancing around.

“I-” the moon princess began, stress and emotion cracking in her throat.

But, both the blonde princess and the enemy seemed as surprised as any of them when she was abruptly cut off. “Mercury!” the taller, white-cloaked figure of Enyo had nearly barked out, without even moving besides a twitch of his neck.

“What?!” Sailor Mercury and Erika both reacted in surprised unison as everyone’s attention was drawn.

Enyo stepped forward from his companion, with just two bulky, quick strides, to point while his eyes picked their way up and down the warrior’s person, then darting to her computer. “That’s what she’s…” he breathed.

Mars tensed as she inhaled, and semi-consciously she drew closer to Sailor Moon’s side, taking just one step while the rest were frozen.

“NOW!” Enyo finished, waving frantically to Erika.

“N-now?” the woman squeaked.

“Yes!”

“Stop! What are you doing?!” came the echoing and somewhat distant call from behind them of Sailor Uranus.

They've reached us, she thought.

But Mars’s stomach dropped from under her as a sickly-soft sinkhole, within it a dark, reflective portal, appeared at her feet. She heard Usagi scream.

Chapter Text

No major content warnings for this chapter.

“Owwwwww!” Usagi complained, her face down in the dirt, her nose smooshed. She roughly pushed up, spitting out soil and profusely coughing on the particulate matter which had been stirred up. Her chest heaved once she’d caught her breath. Her pulse pounded, feeling quick as a hummingbird’s wings, throughout her entire body as she knelt with both hands pressed into soft ground.

The blonde heard a voice that was definitely Rei groan beside her.

“Rei-chan!!? Everyone?” Sailor Moon turned, panicky, to assess what was happening.

Mars bent to sit forward and coughed desperately, silhouetted through the dimly lit area while she buried her face in the crook of one elbow.

Usagi crawled over to her, closing the meter or so between them. “Are you okay?!” She could barely make out the outline of the priestess nodding to her though she was still too unable to stop coughing to speak. Mars gasped finally, spitting and wiping her filthy face. Moon watched her with a patient concern. “Where’s everyone else?! Are they-”

Mars stood wobbily, clearing her throat, and Usagi got to her feet beside her. The dark-haired senshi whipped around in place to look, before closing her eyes and waiting a moment. Rubbing her forehead, she assuredly shook her head. “They’re not here… The enemy probably tried to separate us, but you and I must have been too close together..”

“Well, at least I have you!” Moon realized she was shaking now as she began to comprehend that fact, glancing about fruitlessly in the pitch-dark place that seemed to be a cave. She couldn’t begin to think what she’d do if she found herself here terrified and alone. The princess suddenly turned to the other warrior seriously, bringing a trembling fist to her chest. “So, is this the enemy dimension, then? Was that exactly what happened to Mako-chan?! Do you recognize i-”

“Shh.” Mars sharply spoke to silence her and placed a finger to the portion of her silhouette that might have been her lips.

Usagi’s heartbeat and quick breath provided the only sound in her ears while she glanced around. There was a small light source, shaped like a narrow, slithering worm, above them and over some distance away, in what might have been a ceiling. A dimmer circle, a blurry pinpoint as the warrior blinked stinging sweat and dirt from her eyes, was directly above.

“Rei-…?” she whispered questioningly, wondering why they were pausing.

The other senshi shook her head. “I wanted to see if I heard or sensed anyone or anything else before we get distracted.”

“And did you?”

“Not really… There’s a presence near here — not one of our friends, but something else — but I can’t get a reading on it.”

Moon silently nodded. She tried to still her heavy breath.

“I’d be surprised if there weren’t, though…” Mars added as she gestured to start walking and Usagi followed. “Even with…" She shook her head. "… So there’s really no new information. But we’ll be careful-”

“So, do you recognize this place, then?”

Mars seemed to think for a moment, then idly scoffed. “How am I supposed to recognize it? It’s almost pitch dark..”

“Yeah, but wouldn’t it have been dark before, too?”

The other woman went briefly silent, apparently thinking as she stiffened her posture on an inhale. “You’re right, it wasn’t… The crack of light above was different. So this isn’t the same area.” She lowered her voice to a soft, speculative tone. “How big…? Ugh.” She cut herself off and stopped in place. The blonde could see she was pulling off her shoes. “These are useless…”

Mars swung both heels by her side as they continued, and Usagi giggled at how much she looked like a blistered, hungover party girl doing the walk of shame.

“Gyaahh,” Jupiter muttered uncomfortably, groaning as she turned over roughly, after landing face-down with a poof of loose soil that sent her coughing on the airborne bits.

Then, the texture under her hands, the subtle, moist, earthy scent that filled the air… Her heart shot pounding into her throat and the warrior rocketed to a stand, backing up as she spun to look about, hyperventilating.

She would say she knew exactly where she was, but in truth this area was different than where she’d been before, with Mars…

The first time, the setting had seemed like a dusty but rocky cavern. Here, it was narrower though no less deep, the ground soft and untrodden, more like an animal’s den. It was dimmer, harder to see…

Makoto made out several coils of large, spiked vines protruding from and slithering within the wall of dirt in front of her. She gasped repeatedly, pulling in breaths automatically and uncontrollably until she worried she might actually manage to make herself accidentally pass out. The warrior continued to back up, more slowly this time, placing a hand on her chest and forcing her own breathing to slow. Don’t be a fucking coward, she criticized herself, although a rational, more mature part of her knew that maybe that wasn’t fair. Still, the dry self-critique almost helped her stay calm.

Taking an additional step backward, as a small section of the loose ground crumbled and compacted under the heel of her boot, Jupiter extended a hand behind herself and made contact with the rear wall of the narrow, winding ravine, lightly leaning against it.

A slithering motion of the curved surface under her fingers made her jump away, swearing repeatedly in what was nearly a shrill whisper. Spinning around, within the fragment of a second that was still ruled by that fight-or-flight leap, she saw what she knew she’d see but did a double-take all the same: they’re in the walls EVERYWHERE, and I fucking TOUCHED one.

The senshi exclaimed wordlessly in an uncharacteristically high-pitched yelp, cringing back with a shudder until she stood precisely in the middle of the narrow area. Her scream echoed back faintly from the other branching pathways around her.

Okay… Okay. Okay.

Visceral reactions out of the way, she processed the situation. At least they’re not attacking. Should I…?

She realized she was automatically holding out a hand to either side, eyes darting between the two groups of creatures watchfully and threateningly, as if she were holding them at gunpoint should they dare to move. Hesitantly, and almost laughing at her reflexes, Jupiter relaxed just slightly to take advantage of the fact the organisms weren’t yet hostile — or, maybe they haven’t noticed me? she speculated, but doubted it. Turning slowly in place, the senshi looked around.

But, where are the others?

Makoto thought about yelling to them to see if anyone was within earshot, but I suppose I’ve already done that, haven’t I? she thought dryly, pursing her lips with mild embarrassment, hoping that she hadn’t awoken all the slumbering beasts in the wretched place.

Thinking more clearly as a practical, almost dutiful curiosity took ahold of her, Jupiter took a slow, deep breath and moved against every primordial survival impulse and brain cell telling her not to slowly approach one of the creatures protruding from the vertical wall of earth to take a careful look.

Holding her jaw firmly set in order to concentrate on not launching into hyperventilation once more, she leaned in, peering at the organism. When they weren’t attacking they looked peaceful, she realized, like sections of branching, verdant tree roots, or gigantic earthworms. Their rough, green skin appeared nearly grayscale in the near-dark.

“What are you?” she spoke quietly, almost to herself. Makoto held a hand up as if to touch the tree-trunk-sized one near her, but merely hovered an open palm inches from the monster, daring not to make contact. The resultant aura of calm life energy between them felt little different, somehow, from what she often sensed when gardening.

A thought suddenly occurred to the woman, and she took a risk by further trying to address the organism. “You’re not bad, are you?…” the brunette whispered. When her limited vision sensed movement on the part of the creature as it retreated into the soft wall surface a bit, almost in response, she pressed on. “Can you talk to me..-?”

Jupiter almost gasped as the vines surrounding her all moved at once, as if flinching; some pulled back into the soil, disappearing. She felt a presence, more concentrated than before.

‘MUST not anymore.’ A red light dimly glowed, probably from one of the flowers somewhere along the tunnel, as one or more of the creatures spoke.

Makoto stood straighter, emboldened. “Why?! Come on.. You don’t have to fight us alongside them…” She shook her head, desperate and irritated. “Tell us what you need and we can help!”

‘MUST NOT anymore..’ The being closest to her was retracted, vanishing into dark earth. ‘WILL NOT repeat it again.’

Making a frustrated scoff as she stepped back and tensed a fist, clenching her teeth, Jupiter eyed the wall disdainfully. “Fine… suit yourself.” Backing up and blinking through the darkness toward the branching path to two or three other, identical-looking crevasses and deciding which way to try, she didn’t make it more than ten meters before a cracking noise from a higher ledge, behind her, signaled the first aggression.

Mercury woke up flat on her back in the near-pitch-dark. Shooting to alertness, she sat straight forward, her heartbeat racing.

“Everyone!! Are you-?” she shouted to the vast blackness before stopping herself. That’s right. She remembered falling alone into a narrow, sinkhole-like pit — from the creation of an enemy portal — before passing out in darkness. They must have transported us each to different areas of their base, probably in order to separate us.

She stood stiffly with a wince, feeling the mild effects of what must have been a long fall dampened by her powers. Something like rocks clicked under her boots, and she smelled rich soil. Breathing heavily from adrenaline, she squinted as her eyes adjusted. “Everyone…?” she spoke, quieter this time in case she might be in enemy, rather than ally, company. Ami blinked and looked around, making out only an incredibly large area of rough terrain, and reasoned that even in the dim lighting she’d have been able to make out the white of their uniforms had any of the others been present.

So, she was right. My friends aren’t here, she thought, refocusing with renewed concern. Mercury made a mental note that, rather than having something akin to a transporter room, the enemy must then be able to bring up portals at multiple locations within their base — or possibly even anywhere — and presumably simultaneously, with great distance between them.

How big exactly is this pocket dimension? she wondered.

Ami peered upward, toward the light. Despite the size of the room she was in, if you could call it a room, the only feature visible above was narrow and tiny, or perhaps very far away. Mercury knew that the enemies tended to close their portals as soon as their intended purpose was complete, so she reasoned it incredibly unlikely that the distant light she saw was was from Earth. What’s up there, then? she wondered, focusing and pressing to whip open her AR visor.

Mercury heard a sound — like a pebble being kicked. She froze, both physically and mentally. She gulped, and held her deafening breath.

After a few moments during which nothing else happened, and figuring whoever or whatever it may be, if they had sensory organs to detect visible light, could most likely spot her easily by her glowing visor anyway, she turned around. Tensing, clenching her jaw, she waited to see if her systems picked up any stats automatically, but none appeared on the screen.

Silently as possible, moving nothing except for her one arm, Ami lifted a hand to press the buttons beside her screen, cycling through modes. Still nothing. She exhaled a breath. Eventually, after what was likely seconds but felt like agonizing minutes, she’d cycled through to the night-vision option.

The screen tinted slightly red, with AI-algorithm-detected topological features highlighted with increased contrast. Ami sighed; turning about in place, she saw it was most likely that she was, in fact, completely alone.

The area looked like a vast cave, but with walls not nearly reflective enough to be stone. Could a hole this large be dug out of soil without it caving in? she thought. Perhaps with support. Also, she didn’t yet know all the variables of physics in this place — although, it IS an artificial dimension made specifically for and by inhabitants of Earth, and besides Mako and Rei didn’t mention anything, so it’s unlikely gravity is different.

She jumped a couple times in place, hesitantly checking out that option just to be thorough. Nope, her computer confirmed that she fell while accelerating at the same rate as she would due to gravity on Earth. Gazing around, the blue-haired woman picked a direction and decided to explore — perhaps she’d find a break in the wall which might lead somewhere else.

Chapter Text

**General content warning for the next bit of story!** (highlight to see spoiler:)The next few chapters in this lil arc beginning with this one (just until they stop being named Enyo, Pt. _) will overall deal with fairly intense psychological manipulation, potentially triggering/reminiscent of emotional abuse, for all main characters except the Outers. In case anyone wants to skip this/skim/come back to it later, I'll try to remember to do a "tl;dr" summary of this little arc at the beginning of the next chapter after. ✌🏻 💚

CWs other than what's mentioned above:

• violence.

“Sailor Venus.”

Minako woke in a pounding panic, spitting hair out of her mouth. Her head was splitting, ears mildly ringing, and she lay on her back under the blurry vision of a colorful, domed ceiling.

“You’re Sailor Venus. You must be.”

The voice sent the blonde into automatic overdrive, her brain working to comprehend. She rocketed up to her feet, stumbling and feeling a tiled wall to her left meet her skin through a ripped glove.

“You’re the spitting image of the one I used to see in drawings and paintings,” the masculine voice spoke.

Minako spun about but saw no one. She stood in a circular, modest but ornately designed room, beyond which lay several darkened tunnels.

“Who are you?!” she raised both fists defensively — as if I knew how to box, she thought. “Where are you? Come out..” she spat, and her voice cracked with the feeling of dust caught in it; she coughed into one elbow.

Venus’s mind was racing now, taking in information and clues like a vacuum cleaner. She took a step and found a coarse, brown dirt underfoot, sparse and trailing toward one of the shadowy archways. The warrior took an additional shaky step, the sound of her golden shoe on the jewel-toned pebbled tile deafening in the ringing, panicked silence.

She crouched slightly, finding alongside it an uneven, thin trail of some fluid — blood — which proved a plausible match for her skinned knee upon quick self-inspection. I was dragged here.

Venus unconsciously clenched her teeth; her mental state steadied and tightened, going into war-mode.

“I’m not her,” the senshi of love spoke, as she looked around herself warily, baiting the mysterious voice, “I’m her reincarnation. I don’t look the same in this life.”

The man, still unseen, said from all directions, inside and behind her, “But your beauty is unmistakable. That long blonde hair, generous figure…”

Minako self-consciously popped a glance down at herself at that, mortified if this person was watching her while she was unaware. Her short skirt really hadn’t been properly positioned when she’d regained consciousness on the floor, legs clumsily spread. She briefly patted to check her butt coverage and smoothed the orange fabric down her wide hips. “Nah, that’s all genetics, random luck, my addiction to sweet foods, and the booty blaster yoga course I just finished,” she said as she strode toward the center of the room with a faint, self-proud blush. “You just memorized the colors, didn’t you? But nice try. Where are you? Show yourself!”

The voice laughed, and Venus automatically tensed with a worried, frustrated scoff.

“I’m not here,” he said. It’s Enyo’s voice! she realized with a satisfying click of the details. “And I don’t need to be. Do you know why?”

Venus tightened her jaw, remaining silent. She resisted the annoying urge to sneeze from dirt particles permeating, swirling in the light from the wall lanterns.

“Because you’re so weak in the mind I bet I can take you down from here. From just talking to you.” He paused before he went on, “Of all of you senshi, you’re-”

“No I’m not!! I-” Venus stamped, stirring up the flaky dust. She sopped when Enyo laughed. He was nearly chortling, and it fucked with her more than she’d care to admit.

Minako inhaled, wheels spinning, trying to think of a response. Heck, she knew she was vulnerable to manipulation, but so what?? She straightened her posture, lifting her chin and glaring to exude confidence. At least if I can buy time, get him to talk while…

“Oh, you think you can fool me with that bluff of attitude? From my analysis, you think you really don’t want to know what I think of you… But, then again, you do.”

The golden blonde gasped, moving ever so slightly backward against her strong will, the facade wavering. Her heart thumped in newfound speed, turning her extremities numb. “It’s you!! ” she realized aloud.

It’s…

She reeled herself in, breath steadying. Don’t reveal too much, she cautioned herself. Only tell him what-

Enyo’s voice laughed. “Oh, but when your thoughts are so engrossing, like a page-turner, that I can’t put them down, you don’t have to tell me.”

Minako squeaked as the voice felt nearer, louder, as if whispering in her ear, vibrating her being: “So do you want to know what I think… nay, what I know about you? Or not?”

The woman yelped as she saw shadows, blocky and unnatural, appearing around her. She turned to look and her head spun. Her thoughts felt thick and syrupy. The shadows moved and glanced off surfaces without regard to the architectural geometry.

I’m hallucinating… she briefly thought, realized. Minako grabbed her forehead, squeezing it until her long nails nearly dug in, as if the pressure and pain could wake her up, like from a dream.

Taking any chance she possibly had, desperately, to throw him off his game, she spat, “I know you’re Enyo. Very clever, pretending to be an assistant…” Venus smirked as she spun slowly in place, willing her sense of vision to return to reality. She rapidly blinked until the shadows drew back, colorful geometric surfaces returning as it seemed to work. “But you’re stronger than Erika… aren’t you?”

A sound from the archway to her rear rustled, and Venus nimbly spun. With a snap a glowing chain was already summoned between her hands and held taut; I’ve done it, she thought, expecting the provoked Enyo to finally come, to confront her in person.

There was a brief silence, and goosebumps rose on Venus’s skin, down her arms, as she heard a soft sound and a chatter. But her adversary didn’t appear.

“I will neither confirm nor deny,” he said, and then he laughed. “Unlike you. You’re so focused on offense that you forget to think of defense — giving away your secrets..-”

Venus shook her head firmly. “No!” Fuck, I keep forgetting he can see into my thoughts, she realized with a panicked, abrupt dread.

The shadows returned — different shadows — this time smooth, curving and with sharp points. The warrior’s breath caught in her throat.

“How about this?” Enyo questioned, his words still seeming to boom from everywhere at once. Venus’s heart fell when she realized he still wasn’t present. He must have been the bait, keeping her here and talking, while the monsters found her. Her chest and throat felt tight, her face hot. “You can take your chances with our friends,” and at that two or three vines, enormous, revealed themselves just through the entryway, “or, you can take me up on my bet that I can beat you with minds alone. What’ll it be?”

Minako eyed the several creatures beginning to poke through the doorway from the darkness. She swallowed hard and took a moment. She really didn’t want to be subject to mind-games; that was, all things considered, one of her least favorite things. However…

Be brave, she told herself. It’ll be hell, maybe, but I can do this. It was possible, even though he was doubtlessly reading her mind at this very second, that Enyo was unaware of her recent mental fortitude and improvements. If that was the case, he would underestimate her.

One side of her lips curled into a shaky smirk, and she answered quickly, before she could change her mind, after a confidence-boosting inhale to quickly puff her chest, “Okay, deal!”

Enyo snickered and Venus’s skin crawled as the vines crept toward her nonetheless. She stepped back with a shaky gasp as tendrilled tips threatened to wrap her ankles. Minako backed up until she stood in the center of the smallish room, directly under the dazzling ceiling.

“So, do you want to know what I think your superlative is amongst the sailor senshi?” a gleeful voice proposed.

Fuck it. Venus grinned broadly while brandishing her Love-Me Chain, at which the entities slightly recoiled. “Sure, tell me..”

The senshi cried out in a yelp. Hard tile threw the wind from her lungs as her chest and face caught the momentum of a sudden forward flip. She felt creatures poking uncomfortably into her ankles with spikes, and they’d apparently just taken her feet from under her from behind. Venus grunted, sitting up, looking about now wildly, and struggled against the holds on both ankles.

“The most gullible,” the voice spoke plainly, and it cut through her like a knife wedged into a sturdy boulder’s deep, deep crack.

“Venus Love-Me Chain!” she nearly screamed, throwing back the now-four-or-five monsters that approached, banishing them back into darkness. But it was already over.

The warrior whipped around and craned to look in time to see a massive form launching out from the wall, down at her. She flinched with a startled cry and felt herself immediately tackled and wrapped by the ankles. As the creature began to drag her, deeper back the way she’d come, Jupiter readied electricity in her gloved hands and pressed them to the creature automatically, but thought and hesitated.

“Fuck… I DON’T want to kill you.. STOP! ” she growled angrily at the being, but it didn’t slow down or let her go. “I-… I might have to kill you..” Jupiter pleaded as she tensed, heart racing and lightning attack held at bay, readied in her hands, frantically deciding how long to wait. Time passed in a slow-motion blur. This is crazy, she thought. What made me even think they would listen?

“Fine!” the warrior spat at the thing that slowly, perhaps almost hesitantly or lazily, dragged her across uneven soil. With a yell she let loose her energy and it recoiled.

Jumping to a stand, she ran, firing another more powerful attack to make sure it wouldn’t follow. “Supreme Thunder!” The static cracked and echoed down the narrow crevasse, and the warrior tried not to feel a tug of guilt as she heard — and felt — the creature as well as several sentient others scream in distress in her mind, shriveling before lying limp.

Running and glancing about frantically for additional danger, she kept up a good pace in a random direction until a low noise from all around made dread and disappointment catch in her throat. She was being surrounded from both sides as well as below. Utterly pissed and beyond displeased that she’d even tried to communicate with the entities once more, just for it to come to this, again… Jupiter turned directly to face the threats and prepared herself.

Unfortunately, the fact that the attackers were readying from more than 180 degrees around her almost guaranteed she wouldn’t attack the correct one in time, even once she’d sensed quick motion.

Promptly, a rough tangle of rubber-like skin appeared through the dark to take her to the ground. A second, heavier vine quickly followed, pinning and crushing her as it came down. The warrior yelled and struggled, reeling under the weight as its thorns broke through fabric in numerous places to deeply graze her skin.

‘I’m sorry,’ some entity above her seemed to speak, while simultaneously more monsters, from farther down the tunnel, seemed to slither in.

“You’re SORRY?! You could just NOT!” Jupiter gasped out bitterly before attacking. She shot out a burst of energy into the ones that held her, and the ones that didn’t die immediately drew back. “We don’t have to do this…” she murmured, mentally beating herself up for even now wasting more time showing this futile mercy, as she straightened and stood, panting.

When several more vines reached to grab and entrap her, the senshi blew them away with an improvised attack, her heart racing. However, it felt like the distance she put between herself and them was becoming less each time. More were coming, she could feel it in the ground. There were so many. Desperately, she stood her ground and drew in energy for a Coconut Cyclone, even when she was tackled and grabbed again.

“Jupiter Coconut Cyclone!” she spoke from within a tangle, and the energy exploded around her. It had the desired effect; large monsters lay raggedy and limp or disintegrated, torn apart. The electric energy had cleared a wider path through the dirt, blowing back or destroying all approaching creatures within it.

Makoto stood for a moment alone, proud but winded and raggedly panting. See? If you try me I’ll fuckin’ kill you, she thought to herself but hadn’t even decided whether to say it out loud.

‘No… There are MORE of us,’ a creature boomed, regardless seemingly answering the thoughts running through her head.

‘… Than there are of YOU,’ she heard a second later.

Jupiter tensed angrily and braced for an attack, summoning power coursing through her fingers as she held both fists up in front of her. From all directions she felt the plant life moving in, burrowing through the earth — well, I guess it’s technically probably not the Earth — to her location. Gods, there were at least dozens.

“Shit..” she muttered before just bolting, running blindly away. What were the odds she would run into one of the others before the creatures caught her? Probably at least greater than the chances she’d defeat them if she stayed and continued to fight stubbornly in place.

Slithering in from all directions except up — as the entire length of the tunnel seemed to have no ceiling but instead that single, long crack of light she’d seen before — the warrior felt herself all at once intercepted, wrapped, and crushed to the soil; she wouldn’t have been able to say from which direction they came first.

In a panic, she reached out a hand in the direction which had felt so right down the zig-zagging tunnel. If she was unsure before, she was sure now that was the way. No… If I can just… “Usagi-…” she squeaked out longingly toward the direction of that warm, gentle light and energy.

She, almost distantly, felt herself being dragged, slowly and roughly backwards, creating a rut in the soft dirt that ground against her face. Regaining her senses and wits briefly, she shocked her countless captors violently and desperately. If that managed to injure or handicap them in any way, she wouldn’t have known the difference, for others, smothering her with coils and painful spikes, continuously piled on to take each previous monster’s place until her endurance couldn’t hold out any more.

A feeling of failing, failing to win the fight, failing to find and protect her, and of being helplessly alone, made it difficult to hold on to reality. A weighty mental fog crept in, altogether different from unconsciousness.

No… Jupiter opened her eyes to fight it, to try one more time. I have to…-

“You aren’t strong enough. Try as you might, you can’t find her. Or any of them-” There was a voice.

No! The warrior shook her head, trying to hold on to the hope she’d felt a minute ago. She tried to hang on, focusing on the sensation of the soil being dragged across her face. But the sensations drifted away.

“It doesn’t really matter the reason. For one reason or another, you always leave people.”

No, I don’t!

“… Unless, of course… they leave you first.”

“Shut up!” she spoke to the thoughts inside her head. But, now she was no longer really arguing from within the coils of creature that dragged her who-knows-where, but from within the thoughts herself.

“It’s easier for you to fight than to go to the ones you love… how sad that is.”

I tried to get to her!

“No, you tried to prove you could defeat the monsters. By yourself… How conceited.”

Jupiter slumped, and in a distant-seeming world she felt thorns pinch and close in around her. She was no longer moving, but being held still. She tried to painfully struggle, but her faint connection to physical reality was dwindling with every ounce of realization that she had been defeated.

How could I have thought?…

A deep, aching shame began to fill her like a flood plane with water during a hurricane. Yes, I’m practically nothing… on my own, she answered for the voice even though it hadn’t asked.

No!… I have to-..

The woman forced her body to move with a deep willfulness that for a moment broke through, but the movement felt matched by constricting spirals that stabbed from various angles, tearing at clothing and entrapping her like a contortionist between swords. There seemed nowhere to go. Her consciousness was pushed further down the spiral.

“You try not to think about your ego, don’t you? … About how you’re a selfish fool.”

A fucking selfish fool…? her thoughts echoed, mind finally obeying.

With all that was happening internally, Makoto failed to notice when the vicious creatures had long since released her physically and slithered back, into the darkness, away.

Chapter Text

CW:

• aforementioned psychological manipulation stuff.
• violence.

“Rei-chan…?” Usagi addressed as the pair entered yet another darkened room. The ceiling was tall, walls dark and shapeless as if themselves made of dirt, and in the cool humidity the princess shivered.

“Uh-huh?” Mars answered as she ventured ahead several paces, the light from a palm-sized flame she conjured immediately illuminating their vicinity, including her dust-covered features, in a warm, red glow.

Sailor Moon hesitated, squeezing fingers within her gloves. She didn’t really have a question; to be honest, she was just feeling needy. The fire senshi’s thoughtful silence was beginning to get to her nerves. “You think we’ll be able to find the others, right? So far we haven’t even encountered any monsters, or anyone who’s tried to-”

“Shh!” Mars froze, quickly lifting her other hand, which still held her comically dangling red heels, in a frantic gesture to quiet her.

“Wh-” Usagi’s mouth started to form the next word, then she jumped nearly a foot in the air with a stunned yelp, nearly knocking over Rei as she leapt to cling on her friend’s sailor fuku; shadows, moving in an indescipherable shape, danced on the far wall — which meant that whatever made them was between Mars’s flame and the wall, moving in, camouflaged with the soft dirt.

“Get down!” was the next order, and Usagi’s heartbeat deafened her ringing ears as Mars shoved her, knocking her protectively to the ground as the princess cried out. Dense, loathesome soil molded to her face, entering her nostrils, obscuring her vision.

A burst of heat erupted alongside Rei’s wordless shout, and Moon squinted as she peered up through the fiery light; directly above them, the blonde registered the shapes of squirming, deep black tendrils crumbling, lit aflame. Usagi’s eyes widened; shakily, she gasped.

“Come ON! ” Mars demanded, swiftly dragging her up by the sailor uniform’s collar, and the two of them ran.

The moon senshi tripped amid clumps of loose soil, her desperate breath stinging at her lungs, before chancing a look back and readying an attack.

Usagi darted her vision across the threatening ground but could make nothing out. She’d have to just attack blindly, then. The princess stopped abruptly and inhaled, drawing energy as well as the quickest version of her scepter into an open hand. White light glittered. “Moon Gorgeous MEDITATION! ” she yelled.

A wordless, animalistic roar of pain echoed as the beautiful light left monsters scattering throughout the high-ceilinged room.

Sailor Moon observed breathlessly, nearly screaming out in terror against her will as her quick breath caught; in the momentary light from the attack, she and Mars stood watching the shapeshifting blobs dart away and split to flee, worm-like, through small holes in the ground.

“Nownownow-now-” was all Usagi put into words as she shoved her equally-stunned companion into a run, urging her back toward the random direction they’d initially started in, as she blindly sprinted.

In the pitch dark now neither of them dared waste an ounce of their energy for a light, but they fled through what the brief illumination of previous attacks showed to be a tunnel. The pigtailed woman could hear nothing but her own desperate breath and the ringing of her ears, with Mars panting beside her, and wordlessly the priestess grabbed her hand. After several silent paces the two fell into quick stride, matching pace.

Usagi was unable to speak as she breathed, lungs and throat burning from exertion and a sharp stitch stabbing at her side, but her grip tightened automatically around the fabric of Rei’s gloved fingers. As soon as she could gasp out a word, she breathlessly spoke, “Wh.. what was… that-?! ” Then, a pause for a ragged, painful series of breaths as her limited vision swam. “Is-… that-..” More inconvenient breathing.

But, Usagi didn’t dare slow her pace to communicate — not when something about the fire senshi’s affect and quick pace seemed to suggest she doubtlessly sensed even more of those things behind them.

A million thoughts ran through the moon warrior’s mind. 'Is that the same shapeshifters from before?' was what she was trying to say. Then, 'Where are we going? Do you sense something? This better not be a trap, right?'

Then, Mars screamed and the warmth of her presence beside the princess was cut out. “Rei!!” Usagi cried as she struggled in her momentum to skid to a stop, swiveling in the dark to rest hands on her knees, panting.

A laughter cut through the thick humidity, somehow more echo-y and crisp than it should have been, and along the dirt walls a series of lights, sickeningly fluorescent and bright in Usagi’s widened, night-adjusted eyes, were flipped on.

“Agk!” Moon immediately reacted, squinting her eyelids shut and roughly covering her face, and when she reopened them Sailor Mars wasn’t there.

Ami ran, turning a darkened corner and slowing once it became clear she’d entered a structured tunnel of some sort.

Her boots echoed back from around her, and the dark, dusty ground in this area had a bit more spring. Curious, she flipped through visual stats. This tunnel was more rectangular, doubtlessly artificial. The most likely material match for the structural integrity was… metal?

What the hell is this place? she wondered at the strange variations in architecture and biome she’d observed, but mentally praised herself that rather than stay and poke around to gather information, like she felt tempted to, she chose to instead think while she ran.

Mercury routinely checked data overlays periodically as she sprinted; she figured she’d have the best chance of rejoining the others in a timely manner if she at least covered some ground, hoping her computer would encounter data suggesting signs of life or unusual energy.

Caverns… stony tunnels covered in deep, fertile detritus and soil… and now metal infrastructure…

And that’s not to mention the massive light source overhead. The senshi had calculated an approximate distance from the gaps of light visible from within the larger caverns, which she had all reason to assume was part of the same dimension. It was at least more than a kilometer.

Panting, Ami slowed, taking a break to walk and catch her breath.

With a modest wave of hope, Mercury thought perhaps the fact that she’d reached a path which appeared to be more purposeful, reinforced, meant she was closer to finding something of importance.

Why would they just let me run amok, though? she realized, more pessimistically; since the enemy had seemingly teleported her here with purpose, it was unfortunately more likely she was plopped in the middle of nowhere.

Still, with every few steps she took into the unending darkness, she feared she’d come across an enemy yet hoped she’d come across one of the other senshi — or, maybe better yet — some sort of computer or control room. Intentionally or not, the tunnel into which she continued deeper was completely unlit, subject to almost zero light visible to the human eye, with the glow of her visor providing the only source. So, though her Mercury computer sent echolocation pings which sensed no entrances nor exits for at least the next near-half-kilometer, she half expected at any moment to come across an open doorway, run into an ambush, or drop into an open pit…

Come to think of it, her data visuals had been fuzzy, pulsating with the superpowered life energy of the original vine creatures, but the instances were too far away to locate, and she’d seen no sign of them yet. If I’m isolated, then why has no enemy come to capture or do away with me?

The young woman sped to a sprint again, deciding it might be better to make use of this opportunity and be grateful, rather than jinxing it.

“Mizuno Ami.”

At once, Mercury became aware that she’d heard her name. Rather than hearing with her ears, it entered her awareness. She stopped, heart pounding quickly as she caught her breath.

Though she was under a great deal of stress to say the least, Ami knew the chances were infinitesimally small that she was hallucinating, or that the darkened, echo-y environment was playing tricks on her senses, compared with the much more plausible threat of telepathic power.

Remaining still so as not to walk further into a trap, Mercury was silent as she gazed analytically about; summoning her handheld computer for more advanced commands, she pressed a few keyboard shortcuts deftly to scan for nearby threats or energy.

“Who’s there?” Her own voice echoed in a way the other hadn’t, so she more or less knew the answer.

Blue eyes darted to the lit-up display; it had finished loading the local scan. Nothing.

Ice seemed to pump through Ami’s veins; unconsciously, she swallowed.

“What’s that? … Is your greatest strength also your greatest fear?”

“What?” confused, Ami answered with a question before thinking.

There was a small laugh. It echoed, more than the voice in her head but less than her own voice had.

Mercury tensed up, nearly jumping into the air with surprise, when she heard footsteps dead ahead. Backing up automatically, she snapped shut her computer and tensed one fist.

Then the other person laughed again.

“Your genius mind is your source of power… But, what happens when someone’s IN IT?”

Ami gasped aloud as goosebumps prickled on her skin — the voice was now both. It was here, nearing her, echoing off the walls alongside the continuing footsteps, as well as reverberating in her head.

Shamelessly, she launched into fight-or-flight.

Within half a second a pressurized torrent of water was formed, gripped within her hand. “Shine Aqua ILLUSION!” The warrior threw the energy, unleashing it into the darkened bit of path ahead.

Panting, nearly shaking with rage as well as from that unwelcome surprise, Sailor Mercury strode forward to inspect the damage dealt by her quick reflexes.

Ami didn’t know what she expected, but it definitely wasn’t a human man clumsily sputtering, laughing as he spat out water and sloshed, trying to stand.

After regaining her wits the blue-haired senshi charged another potential assault. “Tell me, who are you?! Where are my friends?” she spat, tentatively nearing the opponent as aqua-colored energy swirled.

The person continued laughing; like a drunk party-goer he rolled and rocked on the mud-covered metal floor.

Furiously, Mercury shined her computer’s light directly on him. Though it was a makeshift flashlight at best, in the pitch dark her night-vision found it sufficiently bright. Thin, straight black hair stuck to his sopping face as a large hand jerked up to brush it back before the enemy man looked straight at her. Wryly, he smiled.

Mercury gasped. “Enyo?”

“Ha-ha!” he laughed heartily, in exaggeration. With each syllable he spoke, Ami still heard a duplicate as well in her mind’s eye. It drove her nuts, like a rusty spatula was trying to dig deep, wedge between her skin and her bones. “I’m shocked you hadn’t figured it out.” The man, appearing maybe in his thirties although for all Ami knew he could well be millennia old, gave a crooked, accusatory smile.

“H-how could I have?” Ami took a step back, although she still aimed her computer’s light at the foe and felt her planetary energy just below the surface of her hands, ready should she need to attack. “Mars stopped being able to use some of her psychic powers before you appeared. That was the only evidence I-..”

Enyo laughed, rolling back before using the momentum to finally sit forward. “I meant just from my voice.” Slicking back his wet locks, with a groan, he finally stood. “… Oh, you didn’t think of that?” He pointed at where the Mercury computer was held clutched at her side. “You could have programmed that to respond to voice recognition from your encounters with me and Erika, right?”

Ami scoffed, frowning. Regardless of what she could have done, she still didn’t know what game he was playing. Before she could open her mouth, he continued.

“Or… you could have simply noticed the people around you. It’s so sad that feeds of data, facts, information are more familiar to you than people, when you claim people are what you love.”

“What are you trying to do? Where are the others?!” Mercury readied an attack.

“Oh, you know you can’t overpower me physically. Don’t you?”

Within a moment’s hesitation, Mercury was up against the wall, snapped back, upper body held to the surface by something clamping around her throat and wrists. Within a second the blow was followed by throbbing, splitting pain from the back of her skull that obediently reverberated like an echo. Barely able to move, she squinted open one eye. But her vision was like a kaleidoscope, her ears ringing.

“If you’re going to defeat me, it’s going to be with your wits. And, well..-”

Something that felt like metal closed tighter around the woman’s neck. Ami squeaked out a wince, barely able to breathe. Upon struggling, she felt that the unseen restraints had tightened on her wrists as well. Sharp edges abraised her skin.

“When I can read and manipulate your very mind, that’s going to be a problem, isn’t it?”

Ami cried out hoarsely as the doubled voice in her mind made her headache triple. With Enyo leaning to closer to speak, feeling inches from her face, it felt like he was attempting to drive a pitchfork through her brain. She could barely think.

“See, I told you this was your greatest fear.”

The sailor senshi’s eyes shot open. “No-…” She smiled, resolutely to herself.

“When your mind — your thoughts and imagination — are your one true solace, when I’M in here, where can you go?-”

“No… You’re wrong.” Ami spoke as loudly as she could, which was a whisper. She thought about her real fear, or to be more accurate, the opposite of it. Usagi. Makoto. Rei and Minako. Everything they stood for, just being with them, and their friendship. Their connection and possibilities of their future together.

As if a kid eavesdropping, Enyo was silent while he awaited her response. In the darkness, the only sign she had that he hadn’t turned and left was the sickly feel of his breath against her face.

“You couldn’t possibly take away what I love.” She smirked. “You’re nothing compared to them, compared to her-..” Mercury closed her eyes, feeling the warm, bright light of the moon. The truth was, she didn’t need her computer’s stats to know that Usagi was nearby and well, and the other three were, too. That she wasn’t alone. “My actual fears are something you couldn’t possibly-”

Enyo interrupted. “But, you protect them, yes? And your love of knowledge is your greatest asset-”

“No-.. I mean…-”

“So what does it say about your devotion that you’re laying it all on the line?”

Ami swallowed hard, feeling the cold metal press sharply into her neck as she did so, but that wasn’t what hurt most in that moment.

Enyo laughed. He was pacing while he spoke now, walking away. “What, did I hit a nerve? I didn’t even say anything yet-”

The water senshi was about to retort but quickly took a moment to soberly think. Her Mercury computer had doubtlessly fallen to the ground, and she couldn’t reach it, not even to kick it with her boots. Please, she begged her brain, eyes closed to concentrate, think of something.

In one more frantic effort, Mercury summoned her power. I can still fight. In a nameless move, she shot icicles, strong as steel and more powerful now, from her body toward the enemy, hoping beyond hope she would stab him. At the same time, with a yell to focus, the warrior encased her arms in rock-hard ice, shattering it with a blast.

As hope turned to disappointment, she struggled and found that she still hung there, whatever Enyo had used to secure her seemingly undamaged by all that force. With every firm yank, twisting, she only felt her wrists bleeding.

Enyo laughed.

Then, the genius idea, the observation, that she’d been waiting for and nearly had her finger on throughout the fight occurred to her. She threw it back at him.

“Why aren’t you trying to kill me? If you have me helpless… If you can summon and warp metal out of thin air.. you could be-”

“Why… do you want me to?”

Mercury spat on him.

The man, invisible in the darkness but sounding inches away, laughed heartily. She heard him pace, walking backward a few steps and turning his back. “We have something in common, you know… My mind is also my greatest weapon.”

“You still want us alive-… You want-” Mercury was grasping, thinking out loud.

“But, unlike you, my mind isn’t also my greatest weakness.”

“I… You’re worried I could defeat you!” Though she was shaking, Ami smiled slightly to herself. Fuck it; she was holding nothing back. If the bastard could read her mind anyway, she might as well throw her theories like knives, analyzing the situation based on his reactions and seeing what stuck. “That, if you gravely injured me, in a last-ditch attempt I would-.. Or, that Sailor Moon would..”

Then it occurred to her the enemy could be siphoning her energy… Focusing on the sensations from her body, though in her spinning mind her attention to physical details was dwindling, Mercury tried to sense whether she felt weaker than she should, whether her energy was draining… That would explain…

But, to be honest, she couldn’t feel much of anything at all. In fact, even the shackles around her wrists and neck felt distant, unreal.

Frantically, Ami struggled, trying to summon a field of ice around herself to break her bonds. But with his excruciating voice in her ear, with her head still pounding, all she managed to do was glue herself to the tunnel wall with a layer of frost. Come on… pull yourself together, she willed herself.

Enyo punched her in the face, with such force that the woman was immediately reeling, gritting her teeth as she lay helplessly now on the ground. She heard a sound, as if he was kicking debris at his feet as he walked. “If you want physical pain so bad, then…”

She was on her back, in the dark. But, there was some semblance of light now, coming from everywhere at once. So, seemingly, he had punched her through the wall? Where was the-.. oh no.

Mercury gasped. “We’re not there,” she wheezed out dryly, and her heart pounded.

The enemy man clicked his tongue. “Very good. See, while you were so focused on how long you could hold out, you failed to consider that you’d already lost.”

Chapter Text

CW:

• aforementioned blanket warning stuff for this "fight".
• violence.

Venus followed the man, down the corridors.

She wasn’t sure whether it was real or not, but since there was nowhere else to go anymore, she followed.

Her footsteps clacked as she chased him at a speedwalk, along a tile floor.