Sailor Moon: A Call to Arms

Part Three: Rising Tide

Chapter One

But Tomorrow Never Came

They were too slow. The daggers flew, and before Sailor Saturn or Sailor Pluto could stop the attack, they soared above the pink val'kurei's earthen shard that shot out of the ground in a meaningless effort to stop them, too late to end their flight.

But it didn't matter. The blades flew past Sailor Moon, and suddenly, Flouria stopped crying. She looked down, shut her eyes in disbelief, then opened them again. Three silvery blades had sunk deep into her chest up to the hilt. While she didn't feel any pain, she knew what the spreading coldness in her body meant.

"But…" she whispered. "… but there are so few of us left…" She pushed Telnyi's head out of her lap, closed her only friend's lifeless eyes, and tried to stand. "No… I… I can't die… I have to help rebuild…" The world began spinning, and she fell back against the giant oak that had helped killed Telnyi, and slowly slid down.

"Was this the only way?" she asked.

No, but it was the only way she knew.

She really was dying. Another tree was talking to her, now.

Those powers are not yours. You must give the lighting back before you can join the forest.

Join… the forest… The world blurred as she saw something… new. But… I have to go home… help rebuild…

And then, the horrifying truth was revealed to her in an instant by that strangely all-knowing newness. She saw what had become of her world during her absence. There was hardly anything left to rebuild. She had been lied to. There was nothing for her there.

There was nothing for her anywhere…

I am so sorry, my child. Only death awaits you. I have lost a daughter this day. She died helping you. Let me take you as my own. Be my little girl. Be my daughter. I can save you.

The world drifted back into focus as a familiar voice spoke in a once familiar, but now forgotten tongue. Pethospoe was kneeling next to her, pleading to her in Aschothiyli, a language that suddenly seemed alien to her.

"I can't understand you," she replied softly in Japanese.

"Just hold still," Makoto said as she kneeled by her other side. "Hotaru-chan will have you fixed up in no time."

"No, she won't." Flouria placed a hand on Makoto's chest, and both of their foreheads glowed with the symbol of Jupiter as she returned the stolen powers.

"Please," Pethospoe begged. "You can't die."

"It'll be alright," she replied with a weak smile.

My daughter, you will rise again, strong as oak, and sure as the ground itself.

Then, everything became…

Different…

*.*.*

The moment Hotaru saw Flouria's wounds, she knew the young girl was beyond her healing abilities. "Neptune…" Not all was lost. There was another she could still save! She dropped her Silence Glaive and ran to Fake Sailor Neptune.

"Hotaru, no!" Setsuna ran after her. "You're too weak! You'll only get yourself killed!"

Hotaru ignored the warning. She had just watched a twelve-year-old girl receive a mortal wound for reasons she couldn't even begin to fathom, She wasn't about to let Fake Sailor Neptune slowly bleed out. She could at least save her! She could at least…

But Hotaru slowed her pace as she saw her injured foe.

"No…"

Fake Sailor Neptune smiled at her weakly. Her chest was soaked in her own blood, and there was a small pool spreading from the side as it flowed over. "You… really did… try to save me…"

"What happened?" Forcing away the nearly paralyzing pain, Hotaru kneeled next to Fake Sailor Neptune.

"Klijargan… internal anatomy… is reversed… from yours."

Hotaru took Fake Sailor Neptune's hand into hers. "I'm so sorry."

"Me too… I had forgotten that people like you… existed in this universe. I wonder what... kind of a person I would have become if… things had been different. Your… name?"

"Hotaru."

"My name is… Horintai… It's… nice… to meet…"

*.*.*

"No…" Testuya moaned in Japanese. "It's not okay…"

Makoto put her hand on Tetsuya's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

Tetsuya opened his mouth, but before he could beg for the impossible, the impossible happened. A soft sound of creaking and cracking wood emanated as the tree Flouria was lying against turned a darker brown, and the ground around her turned dark and gray… and dead… And in the middle of it all, Flouria's form turned a more lively shade of brown as a single flower bloomed from her forehead. She was alive. She was alive!

Makoto touched her hand. It was cold and rigid, but she felt the life in her. "She's alive…" she whispered. Tetsuya looked at her in disbelief. "She's alive!" Makoto pat Flouria on the shoulder. "Come to us when you've finished healing," she said softly.

Tetsuya said nothing as he turned to look at Telleschya's body. She was covered by a brown blanket of magically woven leaves, compliment of Rin, no doubt. Four more lifeless figures lay next to hers, also covered by blankets of leaves. Hotaru slowly kneeled next to him, and he turned to regard her with empty, distant eyes. "Ahtnamas?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

His expression remained the same. "Where?"

"Down the ravine's edge," she said softly, wincing from pain with every syllable. "Say goodbye to her."

After another moment of silence, he shook his head. "No. I didn't get to say goodbye to Shasha, and Ahtnamas never really meant anything to…"

Despite the pain she was in, Hotaru managed to deliver a slap across his face that knocked him onto his back. "You're a man. Act like one! I know you cared for her. Say goodbye to her. Whatever happened between the two of you, she at least deserves that much."

Tetsuya looked back at her, then hopped to his feet to catch her as she fell forward. "I should throw you down there with her," he snarled.

Despite the threat, Hotaru managed a weak smile. "As long as you do your part… battle buddy."

Tetsuya gasped. "Hotaru… I… I didn't mean…"

Hotaru wrapped a trembling around his back in a hug. "I know."

"I've got her," Usagi said, gently taking Hotaru from Tetsuya and easing her to the ground.

"I'm… going to get…" he mumbled softly.

Usagi nodded.

*.*.*

Usagi felt the warm, sticky wetness from Hotaru's wounds as she held the girl in her arms. She wasn't gushing blood, but she was in pretty bad shape. "You're not dying on me today," she said with not even a millimeter of room for argument in her voice.

Hoturu blinked a fresh streak of tears down her face. "Probably… not." She gritted her teeth and wined pitifully as the waves of pain rolled through her, no longer supplanted as the adrenaline in her blood began to thin. "It's too hot… and I'm in too much pain for… any shock to be setting in. I know what day and time… it is, and there's no… internal damage." She forced a pitiful smile at Usagi. "After everything you did two… years ago, I'm not going to… die in you arms today."

"Mamo-chan…" Usagi realized that Mamoru was probably unemployed now, frantically trying to find a way to get to Hokkaido after feeling his powers return to him. Ami and Luna hadn't had any time to make new watches after Fake Sailor Mercury had stolen all of the spares from her room, so there was no way to keep him abreast of the current events. He was probably going insane being trapped hundreds of miles away.

"He'll be fine," Hotaru said softly, trembling in Usagi's arms.

"He's given up so much for me. And because of me. Oh, if it wasn't for me, he'd be working on his second doctorate, not trying to repair his reputation from his sudden disappearance two years ago. I could've had a Doctor Mamo-chan…"

Hotaru smiled through the pain. "You two can still play doctor."

Usagi's face changed hues to match the color of a standard Klijargan military uniform.

Hotaru's smile faded and she winced. "I sure could use a doctor right now…"

"It's not your fault, Usagi-chan," Ami said, once again the Senshi of Ice. "None of this is. You never asked for this. None of us did. We're just doing the best that we can with what we have."

"I know things haven't always been pleasant," Haruka said, summoning her Space Sword to her open palm. "But I wouldn't have it any other way."

"We're more than just a team," Michiru said as she dismissed her Deep Aqua Mirror. "We're family."

"And when the going gets tough," Minako said, swinging her Love Me Chain.

Makoto, once again Sailor Jupiter, quietly put a safe distance between her and that horrible metal whip.

"Rei-chan," Usagi said, "you missed your cue."

They all looked around. The Senshi of Fire was nowhere to be seen.

*.*.*

"Unbelievable…" Tetsuya said, looking at the circle of gray soil and withered plant life. He knelt down beside Ahtnamas and rolled her onto her back. She was covered in gray soot that was once soil, and there was a large tear in her vest. He inspected the wound, still wet with her blood. There was a lot of blood, but no actual wound. He rolled her back onto her stomach and felt for a wound through the tear on the back of her vest. Once again, a lot of blood, but no wound.

She was alive. "Nice try," he said, chuckling a hollow laugh that was almost a sob as he materialized his sword. Horintai's dying words did not excuse her of the murders she had committed with Schamya and Glaeshya. Telnyi was the worst, or so he had thought. What Ahtnamas, and then Telleschya had done, was worse. Much worse!

They were liars and betrayers. They were typical Klijargans. Their lies had poisoned Telnyi, Heggith and Jihanna to their barbaric, egomaniacal view of their superiority over all other sentient life in the galaxy. And worst of all, they had tricked him into thinking he was their friend. What a fool he had been! "Time to make the universe a better place," he hissed as he raised his sword, but a split second before he could deliver the killing blow, someone grabbed his sword arm from behind and yanked him down.

*.*.*

Tetsuya rolled as soon as he hit the ground and swept his leg out, catching Rei behind the knee. She fell to the ground and he was on top of her in an instant, painfully pinning her arms with his legs and holding the sword to her throat.

"You… but… how are you still alive?! You really were the worst of them all!"

His eyes… they're red… Rei understood immediately that he didn't recognize her through the magic of the transformation and quickly powered down. Tetsuya made a constrained whine as he realized that she was Rei Hino, and not Telnyi. Although he still held the sword against her throat, she smiled at him. "It's okay," she said. "She'll never hurt you or anyone else ever again."

Tetsuya rolled off of her, then stumbled to his feet, mumbling in half Japanese, and half another language Rei didn't recognize as his eyes slowly returned to their familiar hue of hazel. He stopped stammering and silently pointed at Ahtnamas with a trembling hand. "No," he rasped after a moment.

Rei knelt next to Ahtnamas and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that."

His face twisted into an angry snarl, but no words came out of his mouth. After a tense moment, he turned away. In a silent blink, he was gone. She could only hope that he had gone back to the shrine. She looked at the top of the ravine to see the other Senshi looking down at her, and she silently prayed that they hadn't witnessed everything that she had.

*.*.*

"Brother, relax," Pala'din said to Segraius, who was pacing nervously back and forth as the ship's lift took them to the transporter. Thirty minutes had passed, and the one-sided battle would surely be over.

"But we do not know what has happened," he said, still pacing.

"I know. Some high ranking clergyman proclaims that all Emulators are vile, and they can't use transporter or monitoring tech or spells. He probably got turned down for a date by one of them."

The disinherited prince stopped pacing and glared at his adopted brother.

"Ahtnamas would pop you in the mouth if she saw your lack of faith in her. C'mon! Seven against two? Each of them is stronger than the Val'kurei herself, and Pethospoe was still just a Scout when he ran away."

The glare softened as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened. "Of course," he said softly as the two walked hastily to the pad.

"Cheer up. Ahtnamas is gonna use her position as liberator to steal you away from Dortheena."

He smiled at that thought. "We would both be grateful to her for that."

"Transport in three… two…" the young technician called out, and Segraius and Pala'din accepted the sensation of becoming one with everything and nothing at the same time as they were instantaneously teleported down to the Earth's surface.

*.*.*

"We've got company," Haruka said as the other four Senshi who were with her faced the white flash. Four of them were standing over the body of the Emulator who had stolen their powers. Makoto stood over Telnyi's body in Rei's place.

The two strangers stood still as statues before the dark skinned one spoke. "Ahtnamas…"

"She is under our protection."

The light skinned one nodded his head, a look of relief flooding his face, matching the dark skinned one's look. "There are only five bodies."

Makoto pointed to where Flouria had entered some sort of healing stasis. "Flouria is…" she shrugged. "She isn't dead. We don't know what happened to her."

"I know what's going to happen to you," the light skinned one replied. "You're Pethospoe's whore, aren't you?"

Makoto gave him a half smile, cocking one eye. "I am his girlfriend, if that's what you mean."

"Did he pay you like the others?"

Makoto laughed. "You bitter little bug. You lost this battle. It wasn't even close! Your words are just the words of a pathetic, sore loser."

The light skinned one opened his mouth to speak again, but the dark skinned one stopped him, speaking in what Haruka could only guess was Klijargan. The word Ahtnamas was said very clearly, so she could make a few assumptions as to the course of their conversation. The light skinned one nodded, then smiled menacingly at Makoto. "We'll get her back."

"Perhaps," Haruka said curtly. "I believe you two can handle the arrangements to lay your fallen warriors to rest." She stared hard at them for a moment, knowing that Emulators were frowned upon for some reason in Klijargan society. "They died fighting…"

"They will be honored as any other who fell heroically in battle," the dark skinned one said. "You have my word."

Haruka nodded silently and looked to the others. Only then, when looking into the eyes of her four companions, did she realize how utterly exhausted she had suddenly become. "Let's go."

The five Senshi joined hands, and in a flash of light, they left the two Klijargans to recover their dead.