Breath. Breath. Breath. Breath.
Air gushed thickly into his lungs like chilled sludge, making their efforts laborious, sending uncontrollable shivers through his muscles, into his heart. Beating, beating, beating, beating, bea... bea...
He staggered. Must not. No stopping, no slowing, just running. Running, running, running. Running through undifferentiated darkness, a richest absence that slapped burning cold against his bare feet. There was nothing, nothing anywhere, nothing everywhere. If nothing was everywhere, than it must be everything, nothing was everything and all the same in its nothingness. Everywhere was anywhere was nowhere, and anywhere was as everywhere which was nowhere, and yet he knew he must keep moving, if only for the discomfort it brought. The sting on his flesh was deliciously welcome, the burn in his lungs, the fear in his heart. All of those things Should Be. He Should feel this discomfort in the nothing, to abandon himself to not feeling these things would be to become the same as everything else here: nothing at all; everything else, nothing else, all that Should Not Be. His legs faltered suddenly again, with a painful spasming of his lungs. What Should Not Be was so much easier than what Should Be, but... but... it Should Not Be, so he must keep running, and maintain himself and all the pain. Himself, the pain. Himself. The pain. The only two things that Should Be in the world that Should Not Be.
Suddenly, both the nothing and the everything vanished, and he found himself seeing only something. Instead of being nowhere that was everywhere, he was somewhere. The chill seeped all through his muscles remained, though he air around him was hot, stiflingly hot. His hand touched a warm metal wall. His chest heaved, a thin sheet clinging to the contours of his torso, plastered on by a cold sweat drenching himself and his bed. The light was dim, but precious to his eyes. Warm, humid air flooded his lungs, dispelling little by little the hellish, inexplicable chill that he felt, that sent shudders through his muscles for several minutes after awakening.
Another nightmare.
He brought a shaking hand up to his face, watching impassively for a few moments as it trembled. He brushed the damp hair from his eyes and off his brow. His stomach felt heavy and gross, as though still filled with black, frozen slime. His throat caught and he jumped out of bed, running to the small bathroom. He bent over the toilet and heaved... heaved... heaved. Nothing came out, but still his stomach spasmed. Panting for breath, the quakes finally left him and he slumped on the sink counter, arms protesting their need to support his weight, but his rubbery legs unable to bear the burden. He waited for what felt like an eternity. Mustering his determination, he forced his feet under him and his knees straight. As though the effort had drained him, he found it necessary to lean back onto the counter, hands to either side of the sink. Warm water gushed from it. His hands cupped the clear liquid and splashed into his face.
It was worse this time. Before there had been tremors, exhaustion, ill-feeling, but this was definitely worse. He stared at his face in the mirror. He knew it was a handsome one, more women than he could conveniently count had proven that to him, even before he had any true power to call his own, this silver tongue handed down to him like a divine gift. It could hardly be described so now, haggard and sweat-plastered, with a gauntness in the cheeks that had had been more pronounced over the months. There was a pallid cast to his flesh that was far removed from the brazen, sensual olive tone that had been his to boast of. He knew once he had a healthy face. It was probably just a sign of stress and hard living, time spent underground. He knew that could be it, but it hardly seemed like it should be so.
Should Be.
Should Not Be.
His eyes met his eyes, and locked into his gaze. A hoarse moan rasped his throat.
"Wha... what? What's happening?" His words bounced on the tiled walls, dancing mockingly around him. His eyes, wide with fear, stared back at him, but he could hardly recognize them as his eyes. The pupils were hideously dilated, though the light was not bothering him. The deep brown was only a thin ring around a black hole that appeared as the darkest night sky that had ever been. White pinholes flecked over the blackness like stars and--be it a trick of the light!--they looked as though they winked at him, dozens of tiny, malicious eyes, winking and twinkling in his head. Angry, deep red lines spider-webbed in the whites, running maroon-dark and touching, connecting to his iris as though feeding this disease... or drawing from it. His teeth ground together, and a hiss blew between them. Somebody must be responsible for this! His fevered mind catapulted forward. Yes, yes, yes. This Should Not Be. He stared into his face, and the stars now glowed like a dim fire, tiny embers smoldering in infinite nothing.
Was he being drugged? Yes. The nightmares, his eyes, the dilation... somebody was tampering with his food. No, he ate the same sealed rations as everybody, nobody could tell which meal he would grab from the store room, and nobody else was falling ill like him. Nobody could poison the water supply, either. But he didn't get everything himself, now did he?
No longer would he request water from even the most trusted aid! Somebody was against him. Somebody considered this migration they had embarked on a failure. This Should Not Be. All of this Should Not Be! Did he not start his glorious campaign to bring about the great change, to make all that Should Be... be?
An idea, it burst into his mind like an explosion, sudden and jarring. The blame, all the blame was to be put to his enemies. That was what needed to be done for him, this was how to make happen to his enemies what Should Not Be. Only for them, no more for him, that was what he needed to do. Let them feel the pain, the horror, the agony of being at the mercy of what Should Not Be.
A cold laugh filled and poured from his lungs like thick, chilled sludge. He shivered, but he smiled. He smiled and laughed, laughed at the feeling, laughed at the futility. Laughed at the hope that had blossomed in his breath, hope that would be entwined forever with terror and a deep, absolute self-loathing. Loathing... a loathing, a hatred that amused him to no end, extending his laugh until far after his breath had gone, his stomach and chest spasming again and again, hurting as much as his nauseous heaving, and the pain only making him laugh ever harder, silent gasps from a raw, fevered throat.
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"You think carrying these bags will get us another tough time with security?" Makoto wondered aloud. She had a handful of hangers with various clothes on them slung over her shoulder, and another large suitcase in her other hand. Ami carried another small case of clothing and a bag for her toiletries. Makoto privately thought that were she in Ami's position, she wouldn't want anybody digging through her personal items.
"Who knows?" Ami answered, shrugging, evidently not as concerned, or resigned to the necessity.. They returned to the main hall and approached the first guard station. The slowed as they approached, and Makoto felt a nervousness around the guards that turned their way. Their eyes were wide and alert, and the hands held at their side strayed closer to their belted swords and sidearms than usual. Makoto stopped several paces away from them, knowing that this was more suspicion towards them than was warranted.
"Good day, gentlemen," Ami said cautiously at Makoto's side, also having noticed the strangeness in their demeanor. Makoto was suddenly very aware of every second it would take to let go of the luggage and prepare herself for trouble. She tried to be rational, and stop thinking about that, but she could feel something amiss, and her body knew it. Her fingers loosened on the handle. "Something wrong?" She asked.
"Ah, no, nothing," one guard said. He relaxed, and looked over the both of them. "Names?"
"Mizuno Ami, guest."
"Kino Makoto, likewise."
They offered their I.D. cards.
"Everything looks fine." He almost looked relieved as he handed them their cards back. The other man pursed his lips for a moment, then spoke up himself.
"Say, do you know if anything is, er, going on in there today?"
"What do you mean?" Makoto asked curiously, glad for the chance to know what had had them looking so uptight.
"Sailor Mars came by here just a moment ago, looking like the sky was falling down outside and bursting through with hardly a word tossed our way. I mean, we have new security procedures to follow, but she is the one that brought them up in the first place, so we couldn't exactly hold her up if there was something important." He shrugged. "You don't know anything?"
"Sailor Mars?" Ami furrowed her eyebrows, and looked at Makoto. "She said that she was going to... that place, but I thought it would be a while."
Makoto turned to the guard that had asked, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong. Even if Rei had left for the shrine so quickly, what would bring her back like this? "Is there a record of her leaving the palace," she asked pointedly.
"Well, probably, if she came back, you know," he said with an annoying tone of obviousness.
"Ah, but didn't Sailor Venus say something about she and the Queen conversing all morning, though, Mako-chan?" Ami lied easily, frowning with false concentration
"Did you now?" The first guard said, eyebrows shooting up. "I'd like to tell you that you were mistaken, but," he turned to his fellow guard. "You heard her, check the logs." He spoke with the unmistakable air of authority; he must have been the superior. Shrugging, the other looked up the information.
"Huh... no, there's no record of her leaving. What are you trying to say, though?"
He got no answer from the pair of women, nor the bags that were dumped in a pile to the ground as they ran swiftly back in the other direction.
Makoto wondered if the guards were following them. She didn't hear any yells for them to stop or cease or whatever it is that guards would shout, but they weren't exactly breaking any of the rules by running this way either. Stealing a glance over her shoulder, she saw them look at one another and start running towards them. They didn't shout or anything still, however, so Makoto assumed that even they had been able to put two and two together and get... something that told them to move.
"Ami-chan, should we transform now? The Palace Guard is probably going to be swarming the area soon."
"Good idea, let's avoid surprising them later, if we do run into trouble."
Sailor Jupiter felt a leaden ball weighing down in her gut. This was something she'd never, ever thought she would have to do. Running past the smooth crystalline walls of the Crystal Palace, legs straining for every ounce of speed she could draw from them as they propelled her to the throne room where her Queen and friends might be threatened. They arrived where they had left Usagi and Rei arguing, deep in the recesses of the Palace. Swearing to apologize later, Jupiter used her forward momentum to lever a brutal kick to a door that might have been felled easily with a fraction of the force it faced. A burst of splinters showered into the room as she entered, the doors slamming into the walls, barely on their hinges. She slowed and looked around, only to see the very last person she expected.
"Ami-chan?" She said dumbly. Ami stood in the Usagi's incongruous intra-Palace sitting room, looking at her fearfully. Jupiter blinked, and whirled around. "Sailor Mercury?" Sailor Mercury was still with her, too. Alarms began blaring; one of those men must have remembered to do that, too. Mercury stepped her way into the room, and blinked several times at herself in the room.
"Mako-chan?" She said.
"What?" Sailor Jupiter replied, only to earn a startled glance from Sailor Mercury. Jupiter's mind was having trouble processing everything that was going on at this point.
"Quick, Mako-chan, you're being tricked, she's an enemy!" A voice from the middle of the room called out. Jupiter looked to see that Ami had transformed to Sailor Mercury, and she had her visor down. "It's producing some kind of sophisticated illusion, get away from it!" Jupiter jumped back from the Sailor Mercury she stood beside, just as that Sailor Mercury looked at her and leaped back, bringing up her visor and looking between Jupiter and... herself? Jupiter was getting rather confused trying to think about it all, and it didn't help when Sailors Mars and Moon ran in from the bedroom.
"Rei-chan?"
"Usagi-chan?"
They both blurted, looking into the room, and then back at one another.
"No... but... I don't get it! Illusions shouldn't be able to fool my visor, unless somebody is creating an illusion of my visor for me? But how, nobody knows how my system works, they couldn't copy it, to put it in front of my eyes or in my mind." Sailor Mercury spoke calmly, and probably to herself, because Jupiter couldn't figure out what she was trying to say.
"Quick, attack it! Please, Mako-chan, kill it before it hurts anybody!" The other Sailor Mercury shouted at her, and Jupiter's head swam dizzyingly for a moment, but she shook the sensation off. This was easy enough to figure out by now, however; everybody's reactions only made sense when Sailor Jupiter figured the person in the middle of the room to be the fake. She set her lips in a thin line, teeth clamped tightly together in outrage at this enemy, at the audacity it had, coming to this place. She raised her arms over her head and began calling her power. The Mercury in the middle of the room hissed, an inhuman sound that was underlaid faintly with a bizarre, rapid-fire clicking noise. Suddenly, the room was full of people. Sailor Jupiter saw more Mercurys, and also her other friends and senshi, and Palace Guards with vague, hazy faces. Something burned her nasal passages, and an annoying, high-pitched whine joined the blare of alarms going on throughout the palace. The walls shimmered and vanished, just as Sailor Jupiter felt her shoulder hit a wall. She hadn't even realized that she'd moved.
"I've got it!" a voice managed to fight its way above the clamor, and a hand grabbed her by the arm. She roughly tore it free and readied to defend herself from her assailant.
"No, wait, Mako-chan, it's me!" It was a Sailor Mercury, but Sailor Jupiter wasn't going to trust her eyes right now.
"Sailor Mercury, Jupiter? What's going on!?" She heard Mars' voice demand, and Moon lent her voice to demands for information as well. An ache formed deep in Jupiter's head and she clenched her eyes shut painfully, only through thin slits seeing the Mercury who had accosted her doing the same, sinking to her knees with her hands at her temples, and the room kept melting around her.
"Jupiter, Flower Hurricane! Do it, now!"
Flower Hurricane? That was maybe the last thing Sailor Jupiter had thought of doing at the moment. It seemed somehow a much better idea to just blast everything and sort it all out later. But the voice was one she trusted with all her heart, so she readied the attack, fervently hoping she weren't making the biggest mistake of her life. Her headache somehow began to fade immediately with the first infusion of sweet flowery scent swirling in the air around her, as well as the burning in her nostrils. Her mind felt clearer, too, and she realized that this just might be the right thing.
"Flower Hurricane!" She flourished her arms in grandiose circles, willing the strong winds to fill the room. The remnants of the front door were blown wide open and the hinges snapped with a sharp crack! The people filling the room wavered and faded, blowing away as flimsy creatures of dust, all but Sailor Mercury with her, her Queen and Mars at the other end, and a glaring Ami still standing in the middle of the room. She... seemed to blur and stretch, a flat cloth snapping in the breeze, revealing something behind. Sailor Jupiter thought she caught glimpses of something distinctly less lovely in appearance than Ami.
"There it is!" Ami called again, get it!"
"Mars Flame Sniper!" A voice hot with anger filled the room, and an arrow dripping flame shot towards the apparition, its aim disregarding absolutely the flowery winds still swirling in the confined space. A pained, hissing screech ground on their ears, and the cloth tore; for a few seconds Sailor Jupiter had an unimpeded view of her enemy. It was grossly insectile, with a bloated abdomen as thick around as a man dragging on the ground and a quadruplet of smooth, glass-like legs emerging from the joint to anchor the thing to the ground. A body like an upturned teardrop grew from there, with segmented "arms" coming out where a person's shoulders might be, and one of those such hung limp and useless at its side, black and dripping some foul fluid. Its face was hideous, flat and expressionless, with something resembling a beak for a mouth, but with twitching, wickedly fanged tusks thrusting out to the sides. All of the creature there was to see, but for its eyes and burn-scarred joint, shimmered with colors all across the spectrum of visible light, almost nauseating as the patterns seemed to shift the eyes down, up, or to the sides, anywhere but to focus on the creature itself. The abdomen pulsed repulsively, and the image wavered as Jupiter felt a renewed burning in her nostrils and the figure wavered again. She drew from reserves of strength and redoubled her efforts on the Flower Hurricane, trying to direct the flow of air towards the creature and then sharply around and out of the ruined door in the room. She could only assume she was succeeding, as the sensations faded and the creature came into sharp focus. Its head jerked around wildly, and with a blinding speed, its legs burst with energy and it vaulted itself towards the doorway. Sailor Jupiter heard a chorus of dismayed voices out there.
She scanned her eyes around the room, which looked like... well, like a windstorm had blown through it. Sailor Mars and Moon, looking shaken, stared back at her from the bedroom doorway, and Mercury was at her side, looking relieved that her plan had proven correct.
"Quick, follow it! We can't let it get into the city, who knows what it might do!" Sailor Mercury said firmly, startling the rest of them into action. Just as Jupiter began her spring to the entrance, however, a calm voice yelled from the hallway.
"Venus Love-Me Chain!"
Jupiter ran out into the hall and saw the glowing links fly across her vision. Whirling around, she followed their path through the air towards the hideous thing, which was perched in a corner of the high ceiling. It fired it's limbs again to leap away, further down the hall, but Sailor Venus' chain caught one of its legs in a secure grip. All of its impressive velocity was suddenly arced, the creature sent hurtling back to the ground with a crunching thud that sent vibrations through the floor all the way to where Jupiter was standing. It tried to level itself up with obvious difficulty, several limbs ruined and fluid leaking from breaches in its shell. Mandibles twitching, it screeched its pain fury to its captor.
"Crescent Beam!" Was the reply Venus offered. A tightly focused beam of energy shot from her extended finger with unerring accuracy, right into the wide-open beak. The screech stopped abruptly. The Crescent Beam went further than the neat, round, smoking hole in the creature's skull--or whatever it had that passed for one--to carve a respectable gouge from the wall behind it.
"Ah... good job." Sailor Jupiter in the following calm. She shifted her eyes to see Sailor Venus' serious, determined face, just in time to see it shatter entirely.
"What the heck was that thing! It was so ugly, do you know what it's like to have something like that just suddenly jump out at you while you're just running down the hall!?"
Sailor Jupiter stood disbelievingly as the Senshi of Love and Beauty looked at her with stricken, watery eyes and lunged at her, burying her face against her chest. "Um, there there?" Jupiter said lamely. She shrugged helplessly, glancing behind her to see the other senshi staring, and reached an arm around to pat Venus on the back. A number of Palace Guards stood nervously about, Sailor Jupiter noticed, some rising from the floor, some walking in from side passages; somewhere between two or three dozen, weapons drawn and all of them shaking like chihuahuas in ice-water. They all focused on the first vision of security they could identify.
"Sailor Mars!" One saluted, and the rest followed.
"My Queen!" They all added, unable to hide the quality in their voice that made it sound like an afterthought. Jupiter raised an eyebrow and caught Sailor Mars' eyes. Her friend colored only just noticeably, and hid it in arranging her hair all blown awry. As was often the case, military tended to trust its own above the political leaders, when in doubt.
"It's all right, men. The threat has been removed."
"Sailor Mars?" Mercury voiced tentatively.
"Yes?"
"The Palace employed Professor Tomoe to head genetics research, right? I think we might want to get his input on this."
"Right. You, corporal, get somebody to fetch the Professor. The rest of you, back to your posts, we have the situation under control."
"Yes, ma'am!" The guards, thankful for some direction that didn't lead to giant, screeching murder bugs, marched smartly off.
"Uh, Venus?" Sailor Jupiter finally said after a few minutes of her waterworks. Sailor Venus stopped sobbing dramatically against her chest with surprising alacrity, and looked up at her with a twinkle in her eye.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Sailor Jupiter," she said loudly enough for the others to hear, but in a softer voice that was for Jupiter's ears alone, she whispered: "If it were Ami-chan, I wonder how long you would keep her in your arms? Jeez, am I the only one who notices these things? I suppose I am the Senshi of Love, after all." She pushed herself away and walked with apparent reluctance to the monster she had felled. "So, any idea what the heck this thing is?"
"Dead?" Mars suggested blandly. "I'm not going to try and guess anything. Professor Tomoe is on the way, and he's our expert."
"So what do we do, just stand here with it and wait for him?"
"You can go if you want to, Venus," Sailor Moon allowed. "Really, the only people that need to be here are myself and Sailor Mercury, and I only need to be here for appearances. The Queen can't just run off, now can she? I'm sure Mercury has a few things that she'll want to tell the Professor when he gets here."
Sailor Mercury nodded an affirmative. In that case, Sailor Jupiter had a reason to stay too. Seeing that neither Jupiter nor Mars made move to go, Sailor Venus just shrugged and remained. Perhaps a quarter of an hour or so later one of the Guard stepped smartly in and saluted.
"Your Majesty, Professor Tomoe is just behind me, as requested. Er, there are also three others with him; I'm not sure if this is acceptable, but the Senshi would not be refused and, er, they have rank."
"Senshi?" Sailor Moon echoed, eyes widening with apprehension. The senshi all tensed and Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus jumped over to protect Sailor Moon from what they feared was another attack. Perhaps not doing a great deal of credit to his station, but displaying a remarkable prudence, the Palace Guard hastily removed himself from between the door and the Senshi guarding the Queen.
"My, you ever get the feeling that our welcomes only get colder as time goes by?"
"How fortunate it is that I'm forever warm in your company, then."
They stepped through the doorway, looking about as concerned as tigers in a bunny pen. An openly wry, challenging grin met them from a face that seemed made to pierce through adversity. All hard lines and angles from her sloping cheeks to her pointed nose, gentled only by the soft amusement in her eyes, Sailor Uranus rubbed a nonchalant hand through her swath of tawny blonde hair. At her side, as always and as would ever be, stepped the graceful Sailor Neptune. Though they often seemed very different from one another, there was a faintly mocking quality to her little, demure smile that betrayed the same amusement with their reception that her lover shared.
"Uranus, Neptune!" Moon said happily, all thoughts of danger forgotten at the sight of two not oft-seen friends. Or, so she considered them, while Jupiter and the rest of the Inner Senshi tended to settle more comfortably on "allies," given the pair of Outer Senshi's own tendency to express less than warm affections for them all.
"Hold on, Sailor Moon. How do we know this isn't some other trick?" Sailor Mars stepped forward challengingly.
In response, Uranus rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "I told you--"
"Yes, you told me. Let's just get it over with," Neptune interrupted her with a finger on her lips.
"Straight to business today, hmmm?" Uranus spoke around Neptune's hand, dipping her head closer and and allowing her lips to graze the glove. "That can be fun too, sometimes."
"You know," Sailor Venus whispered in a low voice that only Jupiter, whom she stood beside, could hear, "I think we get it, they do the unclothed tango with one another on a regular basis, do you think they'll ever get tired of all of... this?"
Sailor Jupiter smiled tightly, but she was still with Mars on this on, and wasn't prepared to trust any unexpected arrivals just yet.
"Here," Uranus said, seriously now. A short, broad, curved sword appeared in her hands, at the same time a mirror materializing in Neptune's. They tossed them towards Sailor Moon. Mars caught the sword dexterously by the handle, while Mercury managed to grasp the mirror.
"What do you think, my Queen," Sailor Neptune called out. "Do these verify us?"
Wordlessly and before Sailor Mars could argue, Moon reached out and touched both items. Just faintly, at the edge of her hearing, Sailor Jupiter thought she heard a faint thumping in a rhythmic, steady staccato. After a few minutes it became clear: the sound of two heartbeats, just out of sync, thrumming through the room and her mind and soul. Sailor Moon smiled gently, and took her hands off the items, the sound or feeling, whatever it was, fading with the contact.
"It's them," the Queen assured them. "Those are the evidences of Sailor Uranus and Neptune's pure hearts."
"Sailor Moon, are you sure?" Mars asked intently, while Makoto echoed the question internally.
"Absolutely. You can't fake that. Surely you all felt it?"
Sailor Jupiter nodded grudgingly, and saw the others doing the same.
"I take it we've passed the test, then?" Uranus butted in. "I suppose all our late hours studying paid off then," she directed to Sailor Neptune.
"Studying, is that what you call it?" She said with laughing eyes and a buried heat for Uranus alone.
"Now look..." Sailor Mars grumbled, rubbing her eyes with a thumb and forefinger. "Did you have anything important to say or do, or were you just going to impress us all with the depth of your devotion to one another today?"
"Isn't that important?" Uranus replied, eyebrows shot up as though surprised. Thankfully, Sailor Neptune appeared prepared to stick to her earlier willingness to take care of business.
"Now that you've accepted us, we would like to vouch for another, that none of us had seen in quite some time. She's rather upset, but try not to let that scare you, she's really just a softy on the inside."
"I don't need your introductions, Neptune." Sailor Jupiter was even more surprised now than she had been at the appearance of Uranus and Neptune. The brazen voice matched the woman that entered next, her deep bronze skin standing out starkly from the pure whiteness of her uniform.
"S-Sailor Pluto?" Sailor Moon greeted her with a great deal more apprehension and less enthusiasm than she had the other two.
"What in the Solar System have you all been doing in this section of time?" The tall, imposing woman demanded, punctuating her statement with the clash of her staff to the ground. She stormed forward, heedless of the ring of defensive Senshi surrounding the Queen. Sailor Jupiter saw a frightful cold fury in the set of her mouth, but what was of far more concern was the betrayal of a stark fear deep in her eyes.
"What's been going on, give me information!" She glanced at the insect-monster's corpse still laying in the hallway and her face darkened. "Is there some new threat? This entire section of the time line has obscured itself to me. Me, the Guardian of Time! It's never happened before. The stream has branched, twined, braided, and otherwise obfuscated itself to anything but centuries of painstaking observation, but this is the only time in my knowledge that a section of a time line has darkened. It's black right now, and I have no idea what that means, other than a surety that it's nothing good. My Queen, with all respect, you had better have this situation under control."
She stared intently into Sailor Moon's eyes. For a moment she reacted just as Sailor Jupiter would always have expected Usagi to react. Her eyes widened in fright and guilt, and ducked down from the Senshi of Time's gaze. From somewhere deep inside, though, she found a pocket of courage, for she raised her head again. They glinted like flat blue stones, hard and regal and unflinching, meeting Pluto's equally unshakable gaze.
The stare-down continued for several tense breaths. "Is this a bad time to interrupt? Perhaps I could go back to my quarters until you have need of my services, my Queen?" His was a quiet voice, but not a weak one. It would be a remarkably self-assured person, confronted with the sudden company of all but one of the Senshi of the Solar System, and in the middle of a squabble no less, to be altogether at ease, but he still cut a far more comfortable figure than many lesser men would have. Professor Tomoe somehow managed to look exactly the same as any other time Sailor Jupiter had seen him. The first thing the eyes recognized, his brilliant shock of anachronistic white hair, still hung simply cut around his head and brow, seeming to lend him an element of timelessness. Lines still hadn't touched his youthful face, and most people would have had a difficult time pinpointing his age. He was dressed simply in his knee-length white lab coat and a plain button-up shirt and slacks on beneath.
"No, Professor. Sailor Pluto was just about to stand down and behave civilly amongst her friends and allies, while I address her concerns. For that, we're going to need your opinion on a few things. Now then, Pluto?" The Senshi of Time's chocolate complexion darkened further, but the sense of the words, and probably something in the Queen's bearing, had their effect. Sailor Pluto stepped back and inclined her head in stiff apology before she strode back to the other Outers.
"Were you going to discuss matters calmly here, or in more a more scenic environment? I'm assuming that this," the Professor pointed at the crumpled form of the creature, "Is the reason I was called here. If your business might take a while, I'd like to get a few people up here to gather the specimen and take better care of it."
"This may take a while, so please do," Sailor Moon nodded her acquiescence.
While Tomoe excused himself, Sailor Moon stepped out of her protective circle of friends and walked down the hallway without preamble. A half-step ahead of Sailor Jupiter and her companions, the Outers followed her. Sailor Jupiter stepped heavily, the memory of Sailor Pluto's troubled face and words hanging grim on her shoulders. Somewhat to her surprise, Moon led them into the throne room. Without changing her calm, graceful pace, she ascended the few stairs up to her seat and sat down, a light shimmering over her and spinning itself out into a ruffled gown.
"I wish this reunion could have been under less dire circumstances, Sailor Pluto, but joyful happenings can hardly be expected to herald a rare visit from the Guardian of Time. It still gladdens my heart to see you again, however, and to find you well."
"Would that time needed no Guardian, and that I could gladden your heart more often, my Queen." Sailor Pluto walked forward and bowed deeply, holding her staff before her in a timeless gesture of fealty and respect. Then she raised her head with a less formal smile. "You're getting good at this, Usagi."
"I've been practicing," Usagi admitted with a warm, appreciative smile. "I confess that I do not enjoy it altogether too much, but it's nice to know I can do it well."
"I know you can, because I know you have--or will, rather."
"Oh stop, before you give me a headache. Now, as we mentioned, there are dire circumstances about. I think our formality here makes up for before, so let's get to it.."
"This section of the stream of time has become polluted," Sailor Pluto stated immediately, though more calmly than before. "I apologize for my... brusqueness before, but I'm very troubled by this. It had not happened before, that any section of time had become obscured from my sight by simple darkness. It's not the haze of an indeterminate future or the gnarled bramble of possibility, which I've seen many times. It's just... it shouldn't be like this. It doesn't make sense. Worried, I entered this section of the stream... and found the sun still shining and the world mostly at peace, the glory of the Silver Millennium working steadily to bring prosperity to the solar system. Yet still, my vision of time in this place was blind. Neptune and Uranus quickly found me, concerned at my arrival, and we started then for the Palace, where I discovered you and the Senshi in a battle never seen in my watch over time. Everything following that you know."
"And now you believe the two may be connected?" Sailor Mercury spoke aloud the thoughts of everybody in the room.
"Yes. Now please, tell me the story of this time, what's going on now, who is this enemy?"
"Originally, we thought it was mundane," Usagi started. Then she frowned, as though searching for the correct words. "Sailor Mars, perhaps you should explain the situation to Sailor Pluto. You've been more intimately involved with policy and information than I have been."
Sailor Mars looked surprised, but recovered swiftly. "Ah, sure, Usagi-chan, I'd be happy to." She turned to the waiting Senshi. "It all started some months ago with a relatively small-scale terror attack in Crystal Tokyo. Their objective, in the aftermath, appeared to have been the demise of at least one Senshi--which they almost accomplished. Only blind luck saved Sailor Jupiter, who was then able to assist Mercury in apprehending the culprits. After questioning them, everything pointed to an utterly human, if still quite dangerous, threat. Volunteering for the opportunity, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury headed for the South American country of Brazil, going on information from the terrorists, to hunt down more information. To keep this long story short, they were forced to flee after being outmaneuvered in the enemy's headquarters, and attacked by a... a youma. They escaped, and came back here. Nothing else of significance happened in the meantime--besides the fiercest scrutiny of our administration since its founding as we weren't able to do anything--until they returned, and this attack occurred."
"So, in essence, you're floundering in the dark. Suiting, given Pluto's vision," Uranus said bluntly, lip twisted in distaste.
Mars bristled, but Jupiter found herself reluctantly agreeing. Even after all this time, they were still floundering around, blinded by ignorance and secrecy. Nonetheless, she recalled with a twist of her lip...
"So what?" Sailor Jupiter thrust out her chin defiantly at the Senshi of the Sky. "It's not like we haven't been in this situation before. How often were we absolutely clueless as to the identity of our enemy? How often did we have to piece together their goals and motivations on the fly, never knowing when to expect another plan or attack, never knowing which seemingly innocent person would suddenly reveal themselves as an enemy, never knowing which truly innocent person would fall victim to them? We've made it through before, and we can do it again. But no, please, don't listen to me. Just jump in after we've done all the work and disparage our efforts, like always." Allies and friends they might be, Sailor Jupiter thought, but that pair of Outer Senshi had always managed to push all the right buttons to raise her ire.
"Still a hothead, huh? I might have thought a few years of cooling your heels in peaceful Crystal Tokyo would blunt your edge. Glad to see that isn't the case, but you'd better be prepared to back those words up in the future, when I'm not in such a good mood." Sailor Uranus' eyes flashed dangerously, and Sailor Jupiter could remember only too well the solid, breathtaking, absolutely humiliating blow she'd taken from this selfsame Senshi years before. Fear wasn't a part of her equation, however.
"I'm prepared now, and I will be then. My words won't go away, so if you're ever in a bad mood, please look me up."
"Are you all done bickering, then?" A harsh voice coming from a most uncharacteristic source silenced them, and they looked into Usagi's glowering gaze. "There are more important matters at hand."
"Perhaps, but I don't feel that two more sets of hands grasping helplessly in the same spot will accomplish more than the dozen others already engaged. I think that we should leave, and do what we can in our own way, on our own terms. We work best this way, my Queen." Neptune spoke politely, and her face was a mask of neutrality. Turning on heel without waiting for any reply from Usagi, she walked back the way she had come. Casting one last glance at Sailor Jupiter and at the Queen, her own face composing itself, Sailor Uranus followed. Sailor Pluto stayed.
"My Queen, I'll apologize on behalf of the other Outers, but I must agree with them at some level: dividing our forces seems the best way to cover ground. I operate best with them, for all the occasion we've worked together, so I'll be going their way. Thank you for your assistance." With a short bow, Sailor Pluto excused herself as well. Everybody in the room breathed more easily after the tension had melted in their wake.
"Sailor Jupiter," Usagi started in a slightly disapproving tone, "Did you really have to--"
"Yes. If they want to go work on their own now, fine, at least they're doing something. I'm not going to have them come in and lash at you and everybody else, while they've been out doing who-knows-what secret 'Outer' things for months. If she believes they could handle this so well, she should have been doing it instead of flapping her jaw at us." She looked directly into Usagi's eyes, and her Queen must have seen the implacable surety that Jupiter felt, because she dropped the matter.
"Fine, let it be only us five--six--eight--again," Usagi stopped for a moment, and started counting off on her fingers as she muttered, "Four of you, me, Mamoru, Luna and Artemis... right. Yes, let it be just eight of us, and we're no worse off than minutes before." Usagi smiled, pleased with herself, and her friends all smiled, feeling somehow more confident.
At that precise time, as though he had been hiding from sight until the obvious signs of danger had passed, Tomoe stepped back into the room. "The specimen is under preliminary examination now. Shall I send you updates periodically?"
"Yes, please. Wait! Actually," Usagi's eyes glanced surreptitiously over to Sailor Mercury. "I'll give you an address to send the report to later; I'd like it going to somebody who can get more out of it than myself. Professor Tomoe, are you sure this isn't inconveniencing you? You haven't spoken a word of protest since you were called."
"In all reality, Your Highness, this is my job. My other research won't go anywhere, and this is bound to be fascinating."
"I'm happy you think so. Then please, organize your reports at your discretion, whenever you feel you've discovered something noteworthy. I'll provide that address shortly, so you may get to work at your desire."
"I desire this moment, my Queen. I'll be going now."
"Thank you, Professor."
Bowing, he left the room.
"Sailor Mercury--"
"I know, Usagi-chan. Just give him an anonymous address and forward it to my secure Palace e-mail. I'll report the practicalities of the information to Rei-chan and yourself so you can decided what we do next."
"Excellent. Now then, some royal pronouncements. Everybody, do just what you were going to do before. Including Sailor Mars retreating to her family shrine, and Venus filling in for her in the Palace workings." Usagi looked at the ceiling for a long moment, and sighed. "Heaven help me without you, Mars, and also the Palace Guard under Minako-chan's directives."
Sailor Mars' eyes widened in shock, and she shot a suspicious glare at Venus. "Hey, you don't need to--"
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Sailor Venus assured her. "I won't change a thing. Geez, Usagi-chan," she pouted at her Queen.
"Just trying to be fair," Usagi grinned cheekily. "Now, Jupiter, Mercury, you heard me earlier. No more working, or else! In fact, you already disobeyed by coming to save my life after I gave you orders to vacation--you better not let it happen again!" Usagi pouted, pursing her lips comically. Sailor Jupiter couldn't help it, she had to laugh, and heard Mercury's laughter chiming as well.
"I'll try, Usagi-chan, I promise."
"You had better."
"Shall we, Ami-chan?" Makoto asked, clothes falling comfortably back over her limbs.
"We shall." Ami answered. "I do hope my belongings haven't fallen too far into the Palace bureaucracy at this point," she added, a fretful frown on her lips.
"Let's go see." Makoto smiled thankfully to her Queen. No matter what, Usagi was good for raising her friend's spirits, and Makoto's was flying high above the clouds even while her mind stayed firmly earthbound, wrestling with all the problems that faced them. Even as she had said in anger, though, she felt calmly. They had surmounted every challenge issued them before, led by their Queen's indomitable spirit and their own fierce love for her and their fellow Senshi. This would be no diffe
[End notes: Not that this was an unimportant part of the story, but perhaps if I can quit dancing around that little bit of angsting I can get crackin' on the rest of it ^^