Standard disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. This should come as no surprise. I am simply a teller of stories that occasionally claw their way desperately out of my head.
Notes: This was my Tuxecret Santa gift for xosailormars on Tumblr. She, like myself, shares a great love for all things Rei Hino and Senshi Friendships. Basically this is what happens when I think about things for a month but then don't really sit down to write them until twelve hours before they're due.
(27 December 2013)
The Quest to Find the Thing Rei Didn't Know
If there was one thing Rei did not believe, it was that she was a jolly little elf. It was implied that she should be, of course. She was here, in a workshop, wearing a ridiculous green outfit with red and white stripped stockings, surrounded by toys and other gifts, and ostensibly doing the whole Christmas elf thing. Still, all she could do was look at each item with growing disdain.
Not a teddy bear, it was too obvious. Not a doll, that was even worse. Not a rocking horse or a toy train or any of the other hundreds of insufferably bright items surrounding her.
They were wrong. They were all completely wrong.
"Ho ho ho!" Santa announced to the room, and Rei felt a vein throb in her forehead. So not in the mood. "And how are we doing today, Rei-chan!"
Rei glared down at Santa – for Santa was a good several inches shorter – and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "We," she said with a haughty sniff, "are completely unimpressed."
Santa's face fell so dramatically that even the white beard seemed to become limp and heavy with unbearable sadness. "But … But toys!" Santa gestured to the mountains that surrounded them on all sides. Rei crossed her arms and glared at the piles for daring to be all cheerful and inadequate. "Toys?" Santa tried again, offering Rei a stuffed puppy that yipped when squeezed a certain way.
It also yipped when batted out of mittened hands a certain way. "Aww," Santa said, watching it fly across the room.
"It's no good!" insisted Rei. "Everything's generic and pointless. I have to have the best! It has to be perfect!"
You can't actually snap your fingers when they're in giant fuzzy red mittens, but that didn't stop Santa from trying. "Oh, you want that kind of gift! Well why didn't you say so!"
"I thought it was implied," Rei grumbled, though mostly to herself, lest she distract Santa from finally coughing up the good stuff.
Only Santa didn't say anything more. They stood facing each other, Rei with hand on hips, Santa with arms thrown wide. There was an absurd amount of grinning.
"Well?!" demanded Rei.
"Oh it's not here," said Santa.
Rei very nearly ended Christmas for all time right then and there, but luckily for all the children of the world, Santa had picked up a thing or two and was halfway across the room and cowering behind a dollhouse before Rei realized she'd missed.
"Wait, wait!" Santa cried, signaling surrender by waving a familiar white beard on a stick. "It's not here, but we can get it! You and me!" Santa peeked around a tiny plastic chimney. "It'll be fun?"
"No," Rei replied. "Definitely not. Never."
"Yay, I knew you'd like that idea!" Santa cried, and was suddenly attached to Rei's arm. Rei shook her arm to free it. Rei failed.
The red hat was knocked free, and with the beard gone, all that was left was Usagi in a fuzzy red and white suit. She peered at Rei adoringly. "We're gonna have an adventure!"
"Kami spare me." Rei buried her face in her hand. "Don't you have something to do? Christmas stuff? Here? Where I will not be?"
"The true importance of a holiday is the togetherness of loved ones," announced a voice. Rei looked around, bewildered. Was that a Spanish guitar? "There are no greater responsibilities than helping friends in need."
Movement on the balcony railing caught Rei's eye just in time to see a figure leap gracefully into the air, do a somersault, and land easily in front of them.
"Tuxedo Kamen!" Usagi exclaimed quite unnecessarily.
He stood before them in a cheerful red tuxedo, complete with top hat. "Let your beautiful friendship be an inspiration to the world," he told them, voice clear and strong with passion. "I will remain here to complete whatever duties are necessary."
It looked like Usagi might have literal hearts in her eyes. Rei was going to check, then decided she didn't really want to know. Suddenly Rei found a warm red and green scarf around her neck, and Tuxedo Kamen was lovingly placing an identical scarf around Usagi. "It's cold out, so wear these," he told them. "And remember: Young maidens are at their most beautiful when in support of each other."
Rei considered arguing the point more. She didn't know where she was going, she didn't know how long it would take to get there, and she didn't know what she'd find when she did. But Usagi was affixed to her arm now, quite possibly for the rest of her life, and there was a pressing urgency in the back of Rei's mind. She had to find what she was looking for; time was running out.
So with a hearty sigh (as she could hardly be expected to go forward without voicing her displeasure), Rei led Usagi out of the workshop and into the cold, snowy land beyond.
They walked for a time, Rei letting her instincts pick a direction. Usagi had eventually let go of Rei's arm, and seemed content to keep herself amused by kicking snow drifts or unsuccessfully trying to hit Rei with snowballs. It was good that Usagi was distracted, because Rei had no idea where the hell she was going.
"You don't know where you're going, do you?" Usagi said, hopping exactly into another of Rei's footprints.
"Yes I do!" Rei retorted immediately.
"Then where are we going?" Usagi didn't look up, instead concentrating on Rei's next footprint. She leapt, and again her smaller foot landed perfectly without displacing any snow. Usagi beamed her triumph, but her accomplishments went unappreciated.
Rei spluttered, but thought she recovered very well thank you and was certain she hadn't been noticed. "We're going to get the thing!" she told Usagi with great conviction.
"Yeah, but where?" Usagi asked again, entirely without guile. "And what's the thing?"
Rei whirled on Usagi. "Don't you know? You're the one who said it wasn't here!"
"Well it wasn't."
"But how do you know if you don't know what it is?"
"Just do," Usagi said with a shrug that was entirely too unconcerned for Rei's liking. Why was nobody taking this seriously? This was a very serious matter!
Usagi was about to learn exactly how serious when something caught Rei's attention. She turned and her face was bathed in a soft pink glow that was steadily becoming more intense.
Clutching fistfuls of Rei's green shirt, Usagi peered nervously around her friend. As the light coalesced, her eyes widened in wonder.
Chibi-Usa floated in the air before them in a long, flowing white dress with gold trim. Her hands were clasped before her as if in prayer, and her eyes were closed serenely. Tiny little wings grew from her back, though she seemed perfectly capable of hovering without them. Rei thought they were a bit cumbersome to be purely ornamental, but had to admit that the overall effect was a good one.
The glow surrounding Chibi-Usa dimmed but never faded entirely. She remained a majestic image, like something out of a painting. She was silent like a painting, too. Kind of unnervingly silent. When several seconds passed without anything happening, Usagi and Rei exchanged a puzzled look.
"Hello?" Rei tentatively asked.
"Hi," Chibi-Usa replied, completely not like she was glowing and hovering six feet off the ground.
"We are here to give you the gladdest of tidings!" a high-pitched little voice said from somewhere far below. The girls looked down, and sitting expectantly at their feet was Diana. The bell on her collar was three times its normal size and perched precariously on her head was a tiny Santa hat. Usagi and Rei made identical squeaks of delight. Usagi actually clapped her hands together and hopped a little, such was the overwhelming cuteness.
"We are the Three Wise Cats," Artemis announced with full pomp and circumstance as he and Luna emerged from the nearby brush.
"Some of us wiser than others," noted Luna, ignoring the baleful side eye she got from her companion.
Diana's little butt was thrust in the air and she wiggled it before pouncing on Rei's impractical and entirely unnecessary curved-toe shoes. She hit her mark, but found it lacking in structure. The toe gave up instantly, and Diana landed headfirst and consequently disappeared into the snow.
Seconds later she emerged, her Santa hat skewed at an angle typically unseen without hefty assistance from alcohol.
Diana was unconcerned. "We have information! Isn't that ever so convenient?"
Usagi nodded, her lips screwed up in a gesture of mild disapproval, but Rei didn't have time to worry about stuff like logic or plot contrivances. "I don't care, let's hear it," she said, waving her hands in a "gimme" gesture.
"What you seek has been taken," Luna told her, now all business.
Artemis finished straightening Diana's hat and looked up at the girls. "It's in the possession of the great furies."
"That's their name? They sound scary!" Usagi turned her wide eyes to Rei for confirmation of the scariness.
Luna shook her head. "It's not their name, it's what they are. They're really, really angry."
Rei sighed heavily. "What did you do?" she asked over her shoulder, as Usagi was busy cowering there.
Chibi-Usa snorted, angelically.
"It wasn't me!" Usagi protested.
"It was, actually," Artemis said like it was just a matter of fact.
"See?"
"Rei-chan, you're so mean!"
It took nearly a full minute for Luna to make herself heard again, but she managed it. "You'll need help to find and defeat them. You must head north, to the farthest point."
As they watched, Chibi-Usa's details slowly began to fade, until all that was left was the pink glow. Then it too faded, until it was a clear but distant point on the horizon, a marker pointing the way.
Rei and Usagi gave their thanks to the Three Wise Cats. Or to Luna and Artemis, anyway. Diana was busy lying on her back in the snow, batting frantically at the white bobble of her Santa hat.
"How are you so cute?" Rei asked with wonder.
Diana giggled and also attacked with her back feet. "It does seem impossible, does it not?"
Difficult as it may have been, Rei and Usagi left the cats behind and walked in the direction indicated by the pink glow. They'd been walking for no more than about fifteen minutes, however, before Usagi became bored again.
"Let's play a game!" she suggested, but Rei wanted no part of it. This was a very serious and important mission, this recovery of whatever it was, and there was no time for games.
Usagi slapped Rei jovially on the back with enough force to stagger her for a few steps. "There's always time for games! I'll show you! Hide and Seek, you're it!"
"Don't go running off, it could be dangerous!" But Rei's words fell on deaf ears, and within seconds she lost sight of Usagi. How that was possible given she was wearing bright red furs in a landscape that was mostly white, Rei had no idea. But there it was. Rei was alone and Usagi was waiting to be found.
Well that's what she thought. "Fine, you just run off then!" Rei yelled to no one. "I didn't want you to come anyway!" she said to the empty air. "I'm not looking for you!" she added, just happening to peer around a tree because the tree was there and certainly for no other reason than that.
But there was nothing behind the tree but more trees, and Rei ground her teeth together in aggravation.
"Are you looking for someone?" a voice asked at Rei's elbow.
"No," Rei replied, allowing the branches of the bush to snap back into place.
"Are you playing a game?" the voice asked as someone put their chin on Rei's shoulder.
"Definitely not," said Rei, finding nothing in the pile of snow she'd just dug up.
"I think you're lying," the voice said, and it sounded amused.
"I think I'm going to kill everyone," Rei said, as though her glare could make it a reality.
"That'll be the next game. This one first!" Before Rei could respond, there was a blur of motion as someone pounced into the trees, a very loud yelp, and then a bundle of blonde and limbs tumbled end over end to land at Rei's feet.
"I win!" Minako's expression was full of pride, which was a difficult look to pull off with Usagi's foot buried in her cheek.
Usagi's laugh turned into a wince as Minako's elbow dug deeper into her side then became a laugh again as she scrambled free. "That was awesome! Okay, you two hide and I'll—"
"No." In a show of strength doubtless borne from the aggravation of every life Rei had ever or would ever live, she grabbed Usagi by one arm, Minako by the other, and hauled them both to their feet. "No more playing. Walking."
"Playing AND walking!" Minako declared, and Usagi was enthralled by the brilliance of this notion. "It's basically tag. Okay, since you insist, I'm in."
Rei peered at Minako. She was wearing a brown vest over a white blouse with brown skirt and boots to match. In addition to her customary bow, Minako was wearing a headband adorned with a pair of felt-covered antlers. "Why?" Rei asked. It could have been a question about a dozen different things. Rei didn't feel the need to specify which.
"Nobody will play with me!" Minako said, and that was apparently all she felt needed answering. "Plus, you're gonna need me. It's dark where we're going, you'll see. Tag, you're it!"
Minako booped Usagi on the nose, and then ran ahead with a whooping laugh, her red bow glowing to light the way. Usagi tripped, fell face first into the snow, scrambled to her feet without a moment's hesitation, and ran after.
Rei wondered if she maybe Minako could lead them to some aspirin.
As it turned out, no, but Rei grudgingly had to admit that playing was a much better method of travel than walking in silence. She laughed as, several yard ahead, Usagi "tagged" Minako by way of flying tackle that nearly sent them both to the ground. It surprised her how much fun she was having, and she even managed to, for a few moments, blot out the itching feeling at the base of her skull urging her to hurry.
She'd been having so much fun, in fact, that until a particularly violent shiver, she hadn't noticed how much colder it was.
Usagi and Minako fell into step on either side of Rei, huddling a little closer than normal for warmth.
"You guys noticed it too, huh?" Rei asked, looking around curiously. All she could see was snow and yet more snow. Her senses weren't warning her about anything either, but it definitely seemed odd.
"Well, you know. Winter wonderland and stuff," Minako replied, rubbing her upper arms. "Pretty drastic, though."
Usagi, like Rei, was peering at their surroundings. Unlike Rei, however, she picked up on something. "Over here," she said almost dreamily, and crossed in front of them to a patch of trees. Without stopping, Usagi pushed her way through, leaving Rei and Minako no choice but to follow.
Rei marveled at Usagi's ease at moving through the undergrowth, given the trouble she had most of the time simply with walking. Rei was caught by more than one unexpected branch, but for Usagi they seemed to simply move aside. Behind her, Rei could hear Minako hopping over tangles and snapping off branches, and was glad she wasn't the only one having trouble.
It wasn't long before Usagi led them to a clearing. Here, despite being relatively closed off and sheltered, the cold was at its most bitter. The snow had built up several inches deeper and the trees were sagging under the weight. In the center, complete isolated, was a person frozen solid in a block of ice.
"Oh no!" Usagi cried, running to the ice block and pressing her hands against it. "We have to help her!"
Rei brushed aside Usagi's tears, already beginning to freeze to her cheeks. "Of course we'll help her," she said. It would have surprised her to realize that for the first time she wasn't thinking about her quest to find the thing she didn't know. "Minako?"
Minako was already returning with an armload of wood. Some of it was wet and ice-covered, but Rei was very good with fire, and soon flames were working their own magic and rapidly melting the block.
Before long, the girl's head and shoulders were free. "Ami-chan?" Usagi asked, but Ami's eyes remained closed and she didn't respond. "What's wrong with her?" she asked the others, near tears again.
"You mean besides being frozen in a block of ice?" Minako asked, peering around at the rest of the clearing. "Hey, maybe these'll help?" She reached into the snow and pulled out a pair of large blue glasses. They looked to be perfectly Ami's size. Minako brushed them free of the snow and then slipped them onto Ami's face.
There was a shower of sparkles that completely enveloped Ami's body and then, much to everyone's relief, she took a deep breath.
But still she didn't open her eyes. Rei built the fire stronger, and with the ice melting faster, Ami was free within minutes. Without the ice to hold her up, she began to fall, but the others were there to catch her. Gently, they lowered Ami to ground and clustered around her.
"Ami-chan?" Usagi asked fearfully. She cradled Ami's head in her lap and tried rubbing her cheeks. Rei did the same with Ami's right hand and Minako mirrored her on the left.
When Ami groaned and began to stir, the others shared a grin of triumph and relief.
She cracked open an eye and saw three concerned faces peering down at her. "How?" she began, then swallowed hard. "I was so cold and lonely." Rei and Minako felt Ami squeeze their hand in hers. "Thank you."
Usagi's response was to wrap her arms around Ami and hug her tight. This was perhaps the final piece Ami needed, and strength flowed back into her body. Not long after she was on her feet again, this time without her ice prison, and the others were brushing the slow away.
Ami was wearing a light blue outfit accented with overly fuzzy white puffs around her neck, wrists, waist and ankles. It gave her the look of someone assembled by segments, but she laughed and played the same as the others, and so nobody paid it much attention. That she would join them was a given. "I can see things unseen," Ami said, indicating her glasses. Rei knew what that was like.
The group pressed onward. The pink glow had long faded, but through Ami's glasses, she knew the way north. The sky was growing dark, but Minako's bow shone so bright. What's more, Rei felt closer to her goal than ever, a feeling which oddly didn't decrease when Usagi started the snowball fight.
Usagi had been pitching snowballs at Rei since they'd started, so seeing them flying over her shoulder or several inches past her nose had become the norm. When the snowball smacked into the back of her head, perfectly centered and already melting and seeping into her hair, and the only person more surprised than Rei was Usagi herself.
"I hit her!" she gasped, unable to believe it. Then, in increasing enthusiasm with every iteration, "I hit her, I hit her, I—" And then Usagi said nothing, as it's difficult to talk when you've just had an armload of snow shoveled into your face.
Rei stood, shoulders bunched and hands balled into fists as Usagi flailed on the ground under a personal avalanche.
The battle had begun.
"Snow war!" Minako bellowed approximately one quarter second before leaping across Rei's field of vision to tackle Ami to the ground.
Who exactly was on whose team, it was impossible to say. Rei was pretty sure she was under a three-prong attack at some point, and she certainly wasn't being particularly discriminating with her aim. The four of them chased each other across the previously white and pristine meadow, temporarily forgetting everything that did not involve flinging snow at each other.
It was a shock to Rei when she ran into the wall. Literally ran into the wall, it seemed that metaphors had no place here. She was backing away from Ami's evil grin and malicious snowy intent when she collided hard with something solid and bounced forward. Rubbing her shoulder from the impact, Rei turned and was confronted with a massive blockade of stone. Craning her neck, she could barely make out the top. To the left and right the wall extended as far as the eye could see.
Minako and Usagi joined them, each red-faced from the exertion and breath misting in the air as they panted.
"Wow, how did we miss this?" Usagi said, staring at the wall in awe.
"Snowball war," said Minako as though this were all the answer one needed.
Ami stepped close to the wall and peered at it through her glasses. "I don't think it ends," she told the others. "We can't walk around it, but we must get past it."
"Then we'll get past it," Rei said. She reached up and curled her fingers around one stony outcropping and tested it. It seemed solid enough. She tried to find a support for her feet, but her ridiculous shoes were getting in the way. Without hesitation, Rei kicked them off. The stone was rough on her stocking-clad toes, but sore feet were nothing compared to her goal.
"Rei-chan, what are you doing?" Usagi, as ever, wasn't good at hiding her emotions, and her worry leaked out of every word.
"What does it look like?" Rei called back, now about seven feet up. "If I can't go around the wall, I'll go over it!"
"But we don't know how high it is!" Ami called back, watching nervously as Rei tested one handhold after another until finding one she liked.
It didn't matter. Rei didn't say so. She pulled herself up another few inches and let that be her answer.
Minako laughed. She was good about keeping her voice neutral, but the thread of tension was undeniable. "Hey, Rei, let's go back, huh? We'll find something else on this side. It'll be nearly as good!"
Nearly as good. As if "nearly was good" was good enough.
Rei was relentless as she scaled the wall, taking large strides where she could, but satisfied with smaller ones when she couldn't. What was important was the progress, and in that, Rei never faltered.
Until her foot slipped on an icy patch she hadn't noticed, and then Rei was falling.
She wasn't sure how high she was, but it felt like she was falling forever. The screams of her friends echoed in her ears, and Rei was interested to note that she wasn't afraid.
And then, to her surprise, she wasn't falling anymore. At least not down.
Big, strong arms had wrapped around her, and Rei was cradled protectively as she flew sideways for another moment before arriving back on the ground, safe and sound. Rei looked up and into a pair of big green eyes.
"You okay?" Makoto asked, supporting Rei until she could get her legs under her again.
Rei felt her friends surround her, absently wrapping an arm around Usagi's shoulders and patting her head as she cried. "Yeah, I'm fine," she told her rescuer. "Thanks."
"No problem. Cookie?"
Mako extended a large wicker basket filled with cookies, chocolate, and candies. This was the magic word to Usagi, who had stopped crying, shoved a cookie in her mouth, and was reaching for a second before anyone else had even processed the invitation.
"Oh my god, what are you dressed as?" Minako said, narrowing her eyes and craning her neck away from Mako.
Mako looked down at herself. "A bunny?" she replied, unsure of the problem.
Everyone stared.
"What? That's Christmasy, right?"
Nobody's expression changed. Usagi stole another cookie and nibbled on it while continuing to look at Mako with flat eyes.
Mako still wasn't getting it. She smoothed her hand over the fuzzy white arms and her fuzzy pink tummy. "The Yule Bunny? Hops around and delivers delicious treats to the good little girls and boys?" She put two fingers up, crooked them slightly, and made a helpful little hopping motion with her hand.
Ami cleared her throat nervously. "Mako-chan, I think you're confusing holidays."
Mako shook her head, clearly confused. Her gargantuan bunny ears shook with her.
"There is no Yule Bunny," Rei told her. "It doesn't exist. Nobody delivers treats to—OW!"
Rei nearly doubled over from the pain of Usagi driving her heel into Rei's unprotected foot.
"The Yule Bunny is awesome," Usagi insisted with a cautionary glare to everyone, then beamed a smile at Mako, "and you should totally not stop with the cookies."
Mako returned the smile. "Right?" she said, offering the basket again. "I heard you guys laughing and having fun, so I came to find you. It's no good in the forest alone."
"You don't know where we're going," cautioned Ami.
"Doesn't matter," Mako sad.
"That's what I like to hear!" Minako threw her arm around Mako's shoulders, though it took some effort given how much taller the other girl was. "Welcome aboard!"
"Though it'll be aboard to nowhere unless we can figure out how to get over this stupid wall!" Rei said, glaring at her stony nemesis.
Mako stepped forward, the motion exaggerated in her giant bunny feet, and examined the wall carefully. She leaned close, peered at it from multiple angles, gave the problem all due consideration.
Then she punched.
There was a massive explosion where her fist impacted, and an instant cloud of snow and dust from pulverized stone shrouded the area. When everything settled, a massive jagged hole had breached the wall, and the snowy landscape continued unimpeded on the other side.
"Better?" Mako asked.
It was indeed better.
The journey continued. With the five of them together, Rei felt more confident than ever that this time she would make it, that this time she would find the perfect thing. It was all too right now, the way they worked together. Mako helping them over rough obstacles, Ami knowing the way to go, Minako keeping the darkness at bay, Usagi making sure everyone stayed together, and Rei herself always urging the group forward.
Which is not to say there were no struggles. While foraging for lunch, Minako mistakenly woke a very tired, very grumpy yeti. A wrong step, and they nearly lost Ami to a seemingly bottomless crevasse. One of Rei and Usagi's arguments caused an avalanche, which became something of a secret point of pride for them both. For about an hour, Makoto became the living goddess of a tribe of warrior bunnies.
But still they moved forward, and with each incident their bonds grew, until finally they had gone as far north as it was possible to go.
They had arrived at C-Point.
"Well, here we are," Mako said.
"Yes," Ami agreed. "What we seek is in that cave, waiting."
Minako grinned at the others. "Awesome. I'm pretty curious to know what the hell it is after all this."
"You ready, Rei-chan?" asked Usagi.
Rei was. She felt a pang of melancholy that this time was almost at an end, but she hadn't come all this way to stop now. "Ready," she said, and as one, they stepped forward.
Only to jump back as four transparent figures materialized before them.
"Who?!" Rei demanded, naturally falling into a combat stance to match those of her friends.
Sailor Pluto brought her hand to her chest and bowed slightly. "I am The Ghost of Seasons Past."
Sailor Uranus tossed her short hair and smirked. "We're the Ghosts of Seasons Present."
"You didn't think you could leave us out, did you?" Sailor Neptune asked, barely hiding an amused smile behind her hand.
The fourth and final Senshi, Sailor Saturn, was staring not merely at Rei but through her. Despite looking incorporeal, she seemed all too real to Rei, and she suppressed a shudder that had nothing to do with the cold. "I'm the Ghost of Seasons Future."
"We come bearing knowledge," Pluto told them.
"You girls aren't prepared for what's in there," said Uranus.
"But perhaps we can help," added Neptune.
Saturn said nothing at all.
The five friends shared a look, inscrutable to some but saying all that needed to be said to each other.
"What is this knowledge?" Rei asked, and no sooner had the words left her mouth than her mind was flooded with images.
Her Grandfather, after the fall, acting strange. Rei worried and feeling helpless in a way she hadn't since seeing her mother lying in the hospital bed. Finding the courage to tell the others. Watching in stunned disbelief followed by crushing disappointment as they dismissed her concerns and walked away. Then Usagi, there anyway. Usagi, with her stupid daifuku. Usagi, refusing to leave. Usagi, saving her grandpa. Usagi, saving her.
Then the memories were gone, leaving Rei staggered and the emotions roaring within her as though they'd just happened. She couldn't bear to look at the others right now, but heard Ami next to her saying something about a data disk. What Rei had seen was for her and her alone.
"Seasons Present next," Rei heard Uranus say.
"Giving away presents now, are we?" Neptune asked with a light tone to her voice.
"Are you jealous?"
"Maybe."
Once more Rei was helpless to do anything but hold on as memories tried to wash her away. Finding Sailor Moon unresponsive after the assault on Mugen Academy. Rei's concern threatening to grow into panic as effort after effort to reach Usagi failed. Refusing to give up, talking to her endlessly in a small dark room, the relief as Usagi broke, and sobbed in her arms.
Rei reeled physically from the impact of her memories. She felt her cheeks were wet but didn't bother to wipe them. She knew what was next.
Saturn didn't bother to warn them, and the images exploded in Rei's mind like a fist. A battlefield, scorched and desolate. Monsters, terrible nightmare creatures, closing in. Mars and Moon, adults now, in the center, back to back. Both clearly wounded, and Rei could feel the storm of her future self's emotions. Still, she slung a barb at Moon with a devilish grin, and Moon returned it without hesitation. They shared a moment – just one – before the first monster leapt and Rei felt herself reach for power she wasn't sure she was ever meant to wield.
Gasping, Rei's eyes shot open. She half expected to see slavering razor-toothed jaws, but instead there was nothing but clear, black sky. She lay on her back in the snow, exhausted and panting. Around her, the others stirred, each having fallen. But from their relieved laughter and tired chatter, Rei guessed that their experiences were dramatically different. With effort, Rei rolled her head toward the Ghosts, and found Saturn again staring at her with impossibly large round eyes.
"Was that a dream? Or a vision?" Rei said, or perhaps thought.
"Where is the line with you, Rei-san?" Saturn replied, and then turned away and faded from view.
"Go now," Pluto told them, her already translucent form fading to nothing. "Take what you've learned, and find what you seek."
Then they were gone, and only a lone rose petal drifted on the wind to mark their passing.
"Damn, they don't play around, do they?" said Mako, not yet bothering to get up.
Minako chuckled. "Sure hope not. If that's them playing, I'd hate to see it for real."
"Is everyone okay?" Usagi asked, and Rei heard her own voice add to the chorus. "Okay" wasn't exactly how she'd describe it, but okay she'd have to be.
They laid there for a moment longer, all five of them, then slowly got to their feet. They'd landed in a perfect circle, the impressions of their heads forming the hub. They each took in the image without comment, and then as one entered the cave.
It was, as promised, a place of darkness and confusion, but after all they'd been through to get to this point, it was almost refreshingly straightforward.
"Let's keep going, everyone! We're almost there!"
"Watch where you step, the floor is really unstable here."
"This way, the left fork."
"Wow, really glad I can shine some light on this hot rock-on-rock action."
"You guys are doing great. Nothing can stop us now!"
Which was, of course, the cue for a sinister laugh to reach them, extra eerie in the echoing cave system.
"Usagi-chan!" the others accused for daring to invite trouble with those words.
They rounded a sharp turn that deposited them in a vast chamber. An angry magenta light bathed the cavern, giving it an unsettling feeling of infinity, and in the center:
"Mistress 9!" Usagi gasped.
Mistress 9, her hair flowing across the floor like water, smiled at them in greeting. "This is as far as you go."
Minako refused to be intimidated. "That's what you think! Let's show her, ladies!" She stepped forward, her friends right behind her, but when Rei faltered they turned to look at her with concern. She felt … strange. Distant. What was this?
Mako supported her elbow as Rei swayed, and Mistress 9's gentle, cold laughter surrounded them.
"It's happening!" she crowed in victory. "Your time is running out! You'll never make it!"
"Like hell we won't!" Mako swore, her bunny ears seeming to twitch angrily. "You guys go, I've got this."
"Mako-chan, no," Rei protested, fighting to keep back whatever was affecting her.
"She doesn't scare me," Mako replied, jerking her thumb at Mistress 9. "She just needs to remember what it feels like to be a little kid." Then her wicker basket was again in her hand, overflowing with delicious treats. "I can do that. Go."
Rei wanted to argue it more, but Mako had already leapt into battle, flinging a handful of candy at Mistress 9.
"We must take advantage of this opportunity," Ami urged her, and Rei knew she was right. With Mistress 9 distracted, they easily slipped past her and into the corridor beyond.
With Minako and Ami leading the way, Usagi was left to help Rei. "You don't seem worried," Rei observed. "I thought you'd be crying by now."
Usagi brushed the idea aside with her hand. "Nah, this'll have a happy ending. Trust me."
It wasn't long before they came upon another cave, and another lone figure in its center.
"Oh man, this again?" Minako groaned, as Luna-P floated past.
"Shut up!" Black Lady yelled. "You don't know what it's like, being so lonely and unloved!"
"That's where you're wrong," Ami told her, then turned to the others. "I believe I'm best equipped to handle this challenge. Keep to the left forks. I know you can do it."
And before they could protest, Ami was running at her opponent, looking to pass on the warmth that had once thawed her.
"I'm really not enjoying this anymore," Rei remarked as they entered another connecting branch.
"You?" Minako laughed. "How do you think I feel? I know who gets left behind next!"
"It'll be fine!" Usagi assured them both. "I wonder who we'll see?"
She didn't have to wonder long, as the third chamber, bathed in a silvery light, revealed Nehellenia waiting for them.
"How dare you?" Nehellenia seethed. "How dare you try to keep me from eternal youth and beauty! Me, who—"
Minako rolled her eyes. "Blah blah blah. You want to talk beauty, you've come to the right place. Wait right there." And much to Nehellenia's annoyance, Minako turned away from her to face Rei and Usagi.
On seeing Rei, Minako winced. "You don't look so hot."
Rei was sweating and trembling from the strain of resisting some unknown but increasingly insistent pull. It was an effort, but she stood tall, and if she leaned on Usagi too much, Usagi didn't complain. "You try hiking through the wilderness with you people for who knows how long and see how you look at the end."
"Point," Minako readily agreed. "I'm sorry I won't get to see what we've been trying to find this whole time, but c'est la vie." With that she adjusted her reindeer antler headband, tugged down her vest, and sauntered toward Nehellenia without concern. "New game, huh?" she told the evil queen. "I warn you, I play to win."
It was difficult – the pull was incredible now – but Rei allowed Usagi to lead her from the chamber.
"Do you know who's next?" Usagi asked.
"I have a pretty good idea," Rei replied.
And so neither were surprised to see Beryl waiting for them.
"You haven't won yet!" Beryl cried. "It's mine, and no force in the universe can—"
"I don't have time for this!" Rei growled. "Usagi?"
And Usagi smiled at Beryl. That was it, just smiled.
"What are you doing?" Beryl asked nervously.
Usagi shrugged. "Nothing much. Being your friend."
"What?"
"It's a thing I do." Usagi replied, still smiling.
Beryl shifted her staff to her other hand. "Stop that. It's making me uncomfortable."
"Yeah, that's a thing she does too," Rei agreed.
Beryl looked torn between attacking and running. But in the time it took her to consider her options, it was already too late. Usagi's wasn't just smiling now, Usagi was glowing. Usagi was glowing, and her light spread throughout the cave and the people within it, banishing shadows as it went.
Rei felt light encompass her, and smiled as it warmed her, from the tips of her toes to the ends of her ears. She bathed in Usagi's love, and it left her feeling whole and refreshed.
Not so much for Beryl. As the light touched her, she shrieked, and continued to shriek until the light had enveloped her as well. When it faded, no trace of Beryl remained.
"Great job," Rei said, and Usagi nearly glowed all over again from the praise.
The search was remarkably fast. The chamber was empty, save for a dark maroon curtain suspended from the ceiling. Rei felt like the seconds were ticking away in her back of her mind, and she grabbed the curtain in one hand. With a final look to Usagi, who nodded that she was ready, Rei flung the curtain back.
And saw herself.
Herself and Usagi, specifically. In a mirror.
"Are you kidding me?!" Rei yelled to nobody and everybody. "We came all this way for a cliché?!"
Usagi shook her head, looking far too amused with herself in Rei's opinion. "Well it's your brain, Rei-chan. This is what you're telling yourself."
Rei began to argue that she had no idea what Usagi was talking about, that her brain wasn't telling her anything, and if it was, it was a damned stupid brain. But one look at Usagi, and the words died in her throat.
Usagi was fading.
Instinctively, Rei grabbed for her, but her hand passed right through. Panicked, Rei tried again, with the same results.
"I don't understand!" Rei said.
"What do you think it means?" Usagi asked, looking like a washed out painting, but not sounding at all upset by that fact.
"I don't know! Where are you going, come back!"
"I can't," said Usagi, and this time the regret in her voice was unmistakable. "You're waking up, Rei-chan."
Usagi reached for Rei and Rei reached back. Their hands met, and for a moment Rei thought she felt something, but then it swished through empty air.
"Thanks for today," Usagi said, her voice little more than whisper in Rei's ear. "It was the greatest."
Rei's eyes snapped open. She was completely disoriented, for a moment believing she was alone in a dark cave. She felt adrenaline rushing through her body, but had no battles to fight, no friends to save. It wasn't the first time she'd had vivid dreams, and so knew how to recover her equilibrium quickly enough, but knowing didn't make the confusion any less unpleasant.
What had she been dreaming about this time? Another vision? Rei hoped not. She'd barely had time to recover from the relentlessness of the last one.
Then one thought stood out in Rei's mind: Christmas.
She turned to the wall and checked the calendar, confirming the date. The 10th of December. Two weeks to go, but Rei was no closer to an idea for what to get Usagi. The others had come easily this year, but Usagi was proving frustratingly difficult. The fact that she was so easy to please actually made things worse for Rei. Usagi would be happy with anything, but Rei didn't want to get just anything. It was Usagi. It had to be perfect.
Rei had been turning this problem over since the end of October, and here it was, two weeks to Christmas and she still had nothing.
And now she was dreaming about it. Ridiculous, unhelpful dreams about pointless epic quests and ghosts and Minako wearing antlers for some reason. What the hell was the point of being the one cursed with prophetic dreams if they couldn't—
Thanks for today. It was the greatest.
Suddenly Rei had an idea. Two weeks though? Two weeks would be pushing it, but if Rei worked hard – and when didn't Rei work hard? – she could do it.
Rei grabbed the pen and notebook she kept by her bedside at all times, and began to fill an empty page with notes. When that page was filled, she turned to the next, and then the next.
... ... ...
Christmas wasn't a particularly big deal for any of the girls individually. Usagi's family was the one who embraced the holiday with the greatest enthusiasm, but for her friends, it was really just a day like any other. But Usagi loved the idea. She loved the bright lights and the silly hats and the idea of togetherness and excuse to overeat and the presents.
Oh yes, the presents.
And so Christmas had become a big deal for her friends as well. Once again they'd gathered at Rei's Shrine, decorating her room with so much red and green that it looked like Christmas had actually come to life and thrown up everywhere. It had been a particularly personal Christmas this year, after all they'd been through, with the lingering effects of Pharaoh 90 and the confusing effects of whatever the hell was up with that horse. They had each felt the need to express their love and devotion to each other, and it seemed Christmas was the perfect excuse to do just that.
Rei had arranged it so she went last, and her final gift was for Usagi. Usagi, wearing a cheap paper crown and Mako's handmade sweater, was literally bouncing in her seat from the excitement (and the entire box of chocolates she'd sucked down). Rei was feeling much more anxious about this gift than she was letting on, but then she'd worked to the wire to get it done. Even last night she was still making final touches, before deciding to wrap it to keep herself from tweaking it until the end of time. So as she placed the flat package into Usagi's hands, she swallowed back her nervousness.
Usagi's eyes lit up and she made several excited noises. Without hesitation she ripped the packaging away.
In her hands was a thick set of bound pages. Confused, but intrigued, Usagi opened the homemade book while the others gathered around her.
On the first page was a hand-drawn Rei, and Usagi cackled at her elf outfit. Everyone read as Rei was confronted by "Santa", who barely placated Rei and then insisted on joining her. They were engrossed at their encounters with the angel and the Three Wise Cats, as they found their friends, and their seemingly unending and hilariously bizarre struggles to reach their goal, and their final triumph over all their foes.
Usagi was so moved she burst into tears, and although Rei generally considered that not to be a particularly difficult achievement, she nevertheless felt her pride swell as Usagi threw her arms around Rei's neck and babbled about how much it meant to her and how much she loved it and how it was the greatest Christmas gift of all time.
She immediately began to read it again, and the others complimented Rei on her work.
"You realize I expect a full-length Sailor V doujinshi for my birthday," Minako told her with a friendly smile that made it clear she was being absolutely serious, and then went to join Usagi and insist she skip to the parts that featured her.
"That was fantastic, Rei-chan!" Ami told her, and Rei tried not to blush too hard. "It must've taken you a very long time."
"Nah, I just slapped it together," Rei replied with a wave of her hand. "No big deal."
Ami smiled knowingly. "Of course."
"I just have one question," Mako said.
"What's that, Mako-chan?"
"Why am I a bunny?"
Rei lobbed a wadded-up ball of wrapping paper at her. "Shut up, Mako-chan."