"Haruka, I won't let you die…"
"Wait! Neptune! Don't move!"
She stepped forward, clutching her wounded arm. The bullet had shattered her elbow, embedding itself deep inside her arm. Her white glove was stained with her blood, tightly gripping the wound, trying to prevent any more blood from leaking out.
All along her body there were more wounds where the bullets had struck. Though her arm had been hit the hardest, becoming dead weight, her entire body was crying out in pain. Most of the wounds were fairly shallow.
Then the turrets fired again, triggered by her single step. She screamed, trying to cover her head and neck with her arms as the bullets struck, as the turrets fired unceasingly, as the fire bloomed on her skin, spreading over whatever area it could find. Sailor Uranus stared on in horror, unable to do anything thanks to the gun pointed at her chest.
"NEPTUNE!" she cried out when the bullet-ridden Senshi of the Sea collapsed to the cold floor.
"Haruka!" Neptune choked out, staring at her with teary eyes that Uranus wanted to forget the sight of.
"This is reality!" The echo of a dream forgotten came back to her and for a moment Uranus saw both horror and a deep coldness she'd never seen before in her green eyes reflected in the metal of Eudial's gun. Then they was gone, taken when Eudial had pulled the gun away from her face.
"No!" she yelled, jumping up quickly when she saw where the villainess was pointing it now. But the bullet in her leg stilled her and Uranus fell to the ground, blacking out when her head met the stone floor.
Humidity
one
Haruka was watching the rain fall again, barely aware of her reflection in the window.
She had awoken that first day in Tsukino Usagi's house, screaming for Michiru. Somehow the odango-headed girl had saved her from the red-haired villain and had dragged her all the way from the Marine Cathedral to her house. As for Michiru, Usagi had produced a small hand mirror.
Haruka hadn't known what it was until she saw the symbol of Neptune on its back. It was a talisman. Michiru's talisman.
"We know there'll be sacrifices!"
"Then why?"
"It's our mission!"
Murdering her lover for the talisman had been the last thing she'd anticipated doing. She had sat there, holding the mirror and watching her reflection, half-expecting to see scars. And yet there was nothing.
She was tired of watching the rain fall now. She stood, a smile flitting across her face as she awaited the next attack. Now that the Witches Five knew she was the holder of one of the talismans, they would stop at nothing to get her heart.
There had been eight attacks so far, all targeting her. But even as she had stood in front of the Daimon, waiting for her inevitable death, Sailor Moon had come; Sailor Moon had come with the foreign idea that maybe, no one had to die.
In war, there were always sacrifices. Sailor Moon was simply delaying fate. Tenoh Haruka would die.
During those last eight times, she'd bared her chest, arms outstretched as she waited for the Daimon to take her heart.
"Don't go off into a world of your own. I can't follow you there."
She had to die. It was for the good of the world. It was so the Earth could be saved…
Again, she picked up the ornate mirror and looked into it. Her tear-streaked face looked back at her. The shadow of the window curtain, reflected in the mirror, rustled as if there was a breeze…
…but when she looked behind her, there was only a closed window, the curtains hanging limply at its side.
Evening fell, and the Senshi of the Wind was having trouble getting to sleep again. Even though Michiru had died a week ago, her scent was still on her side of the bed. Haruka had placed the mirror on the Sea Senshi's pillow and was facing away from it, futilely trying to get to sleep. But the moonlight shining on the mirror was reflected onto the ceiling, preventing her from getting sleep.
She stood and walked to the window, pulling the curtains shut. Sighing, she laid down once more.
The mirror jabbed into her side, jostled by her movement, and the smell of Michiru's perfume wafted into her nose again.
It was a long and sleepless night.
two
When she awoke, there were cold, drying tears on each side of her face.
She always awoke like this, ever since Michiru had died. Every morning she would awake to the muffled noises of her own sobs. Every morning she would sit up, pick up the mirror, and gaze into it, barely seeing her own reflection.
No, she never looked at the mirror to see herself. Always she peered into it, looking, searching for any sign of Michiru's pure heart, barely daring to hope that it could be removed from the talisman.
She never found anything.
After a few minutes, she stood up and walked into the bathroom to splash some freezing water on her face. For a brief moment she was reminded of the long hours the Sea Senshi would spend in the shower, and how often the racer had joined her.
More tears fell. She splashed more water on her face. Her fist clenched.
"I can endure anything with you. Even being burned by the fires of Hell…"
"Hell? It doesn't suit you."
"I don't regret it."
And again, she was sobbing.
three
She counted on her fingers while waiting for the Daimon to do its job.
Nine. This was the ninth one. Smiling a bitter smile, she looked at the piano-monster and threw her arms out, baring her chest to it.
"What're you waiting for?" she asked it quietly. "Go on. Take it."
"TREBLE!" The keys of the piano moved in time with the utterance of its name, then twisted up into a grin.
"You're so unfair, Michiru," Haruka whispered to the mirror hidden in her subspace pocket, voice soft. "To leave for a world of your own."
The Daimon's foot pedal sprang up to the Senshi of Wind's chest, revealing a black star on the bottom of her sole. Haruka could feel the talisman burning inside of her heart.
She closed her eyes.
"Hey! Daimon!"
She opened them again, her gaze at the painfully familiar sight dull and lifeless. She watched disinterestedly as Sailor Moon went through her usual song and dance, sitting down on the curb once the monster had been disintegrated with a final cry of "LOVELY!"
"Haruka-san! Are you all right?" the Senshi of the Moon cried, running over to her.
"Haruka..."
"What?"
"Am I all right?" Haruka repeated, voice monotone. She began laughing, throwing her head back to face the inky night sky. "I am never going to be all right ever again."
"H-Haruka-san…" Sailor Moon seemed to be at a loss for words.
"She's dead, Odango Atama," Haruka said, not really caring whether passerby heard the nickname. "She's dead. I killed her."
"No, Haruka-san. Eudial did." Sailor Moon reached out, putting a hand on the racer's shoulder. Almost immediately Haruka's demeanor changed; reaching up with one hand, she firmly pushed Usagi's off.
"I want to touch you... Haruka..."
"No. I couldn't save her when I had the chance. I failed, Usagi. Even if we made that goddamn promise I still failed her." There were warm, fresh tears in her eyes, but she didn't care. "She had the talisman. I have a talisman. Just let me die."
"No! There don't need to be any more sacrifices! Haruka-san, please!"
"I said, just let me die. I want to die! Do you hear me?" she asked, and Sailor Moon fell silent. "I want to die."
four
The next day, a Daimon came, and Haruka greeted it warmly. She closed her eyes, baring her chest again, ready to meet Michiru in death.
"I can see the light..."
When at last they killed her, all they found was a sword, broken in half. There were small shards of glass scattered around it.
"You're warm...
"...Michiru."
end