After centuries of being stationed at her post, Sailor Neptune was well aware of just how alarmingly good Triton Castle's light cycle was at generating the equivalent of a drowsy afternoon. She didn't mind this at all and, in fact, found it very useful, as it provided a perfect atmosphere for long hours of painting.
This time, however, the pleasant, meditative silence was interrupted by the intrusive sound of the comm system alerting the castle's sole occupant to a high-priority incoming call. Neptune frowned, made her way to the viewscreen and quickly rematerialized her uniform gloves over paint-stained fingers. One had to keep up a professional standard of appearance, after all.
The face of one of her birth planet military's most recently minted admirals greeted her when she answered the call.
"Sailor Neptune. We are receiving reports of increased energy wave readings, centred on several planetary and some lunar hotspots – namely, two on Larissa and one each on Proteus and Nereid."
Straightforward and to-the-point. Neptune liked her already. She pulled up another screen, casting a quick yet thorough glance over the report summary sent to her, before replying.
"Those readings do seem to match several flashes I've had in my Mirror recently that I hadn't had a chance to pinpoint more precisely. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Admiral, I will investigate immediately. Neptune out."
Searches of Proteus and Larissa ultimately yielded nothing – the two moons were obviously meant to serve as decoys for the main operation. But Nereid was a different matter entirely. Immediately upon setting foot on the moon's surface, Neptune could feel warning waves wash over her, her refined inner senses leading her right to a cave entrance.
The mind behind the attacks, if there even was one, had obviously not done its research on the soldier-guardians stationed at the outer borders of the kingdom. Neptune was well aware that to an uninformed observer she might seem the weak link of the three: fierce Uranus, always quick to cut down any threats that dared encroach on her perimeter, whose skills in both sword and unarmed combat made her a renowned warrior, distinguished even among the Queen's Senshi; mysterious Pluto, with power over time itself, frightening away potential enemies merely by looking at them for a few moments too long.
And then there was her, Neptune, widely spoken of as one of the greatest and most visionary artists in the kingdom's history. Word carried of her accomplishments in various fields ranging from music, to sculpture, poetry, embroidery – oh, and the somewhat unexpectedly famous fountains on Triton Castle she'd designed as a purely self-indulgent exercise. In any case, hardly the qualifications one would expect of a member of an elite royal military regiment, even if the kingdom had been relatively peaceful for centuries.
Few things pleased the senshi of Neptune quite as much as making herself the obvious target for an attack, only to watch with great amusement the reaction of her opponent when they realised just how wrong they were to think her weak.
The sea, even when perfectly calm on the surface, could be roiling underneath, and strong currents hid themselves well, ready to carry off those who were naïve enough not to check twice before diving in headfirst.
The sea in the back of her mind, however, was protesting now, its crashing waves battering against her consciousness and warning her of imminent danger.
Sailor Neptune schooled her features into a well-practiced and entirely unsuspecting neutral expression, and strolled calmly into the sickly greenish glow of the cave.
…only to find herself surrounded by at least a dozen fully-grown youma, all a charming combination of oversized, insect-like, and slimy.
"Oh, I see, it seems I've been caught in a trap."
"Yes, a trap!" The triumphant voice seemed to come from all the youma crowding her at once. "We will finally be rid of you annoying, meddling senshi! Neptune is only the first step in the grand energy-harvesting plans of our queen. You should be honoured, little sea-whelp, to be chosen by her to fall first!"
"Chosen by her? Oh, my. Well, I am greatly honoured indeed. You should take me to her immediately so she can properly enjoy her incipient victory."
The… hive, for lack of a better word, seemed to agree heartily with this suggestion, and Neptune quickly found herself dragged along several winding tunnels and unceremoniously deposited before a particularly large and monstrous-looking purplish youma. The others excitedly made room around her and the hive queen, clicking and screeching all the while.
"Welcome, princess," the queen hissed, her gloating so obvious it almost made Neptune want to roll her eyes, "to your tomb!"
Neptune simply had to chuckle at the ridiculousness of the statement. She politely hid her laughter behind a gloved hand, out of respect to her host.
"Now, I would hardly call it that."
"Really? You dare defy me? What will you do, princess?" The youma screeched and cackled in its exceedingly unpleasant voice, "Will you strike me down with an unpainted canvas? Play some siren song at me until I fall asleep out of boredom?"
"I suppose I could honour you with a song or two, yes," Neptune nodded slowly, as if considering her options, "but I don't think you are quite the target audience I had in mind for my compositions. And I must say I find you altogether uninspiring."
She was being quite honest – the youma queen resembled nothing more than a chain of overgrown Jovian plums and seemed even less threatening. Even during the most peaceful of the kingdom's stretches, Neptune was sure she faced more frightening opponents and unlikely odds every other week before breakfast.
No sense wasting any more time here, she had a rudely interrupted pleasant afternoon to get back to.
"I hate to cut our fascinating conversation short, but you actually caught me in the middle of something I was enjoying quite a bit."
"What? You insolent-"
The youma's offended proclamation ended in a gurgle as a tidal wave of bright blue-green energy washed over the entirety of the cavern, rushing into the surrounding tunnels and sparing only the small patch of ground on which Neptune herself stood. As the conjured tides slowly receded, she took out her Mirror to make sure the labyrinth was truly as empty as it now appeared.
She felt rather like making some sort of quip to conclude the whole thing - If you still think Uranus is the one to fear facing in battle, you are gravely mistaken - underestimate me at your own peril! – but with no one around to hear, it seemed just a little too pointless and self-indulgent. Neptune sighed to herself - a shame, really. She would have liked to have someone to share these moments with. And she knew exactly who she wanted that someone to be.
Triton Castle was much the same as she'd left it. With a cursory acknowledgement of the tiny, flickering presence of Guardian Neptune, Sailor Neptune strode to the main console and placed a call to Miranda Castle. The call was answered almost immediately, offering Neptune a view of her teammate rummaging around in something just off screen, tugging on a mess of uncooperative wires and looking rather annoyed in general.
"Oh, it's back. Hey, Pluto, have you seen the…?" Uranus looked up, and stopped. "Oh. Not Pluto."
"Hello, Uranus," Neptune greeted the other senshi with her most pleasant smile.
"Neptune." Uranus immediately stood almost at attention, obviously trying very hard to seem all curt and business-like, without much success.
"We, that is, Pluto and I were just discussing some official business when we had connection trouble, interference, possibly a meteor shower or something like that, I haven't really managed to-"
A flustered, slightly babbling Uranus was a joy to behold, as always. Neptune couldn't help herself. "Official Outer Senshi business, and you left me out? Should I be offended, or worried?"
"No!" Uranus almost shouted, "o-of course not! It just- it wasn't anything important, just… things. Nothing of much concern to you, so I thought we didn't need to bother you. In case you were busy?"
Neptune smiled and shook her head, deciding to have mercy this time.
"As a matter of fact, I was. You might want to take a closer look at your moons, maybe even send a few patrols to go over them. I've just come back from cleaning up a surprisingly large youma lair on one of mine."
"Oh, I see. I haven't had anything suspicious crop up recently, but I'll do that, just to be on the safe side. Wait," Uranus seemed to edge closer to the viewscreen then, squinting slightly, "I know that smirk. Did you do that thing you do - letting them think you were helpless and completely out of your depth only to crush their great dreams of galactic conquest in a single move?"
"Yes, I did." Neptune confirmed calmly.
"You are a terrifying woman."
"Thank you, Uranus. I do try. I'll be sure to invite you to the next youma incursion, so you can glower at them threateningly and reaffirm your fearsome reputation."
A moment's pause, as Uranus drew even closer to the screen, likely hoping this would somehow help her see through another one of Neptune's ever-enigmatic smiles.
"Are you making fun of me?"
"Perhaps, but only a little. You know how I like to tease."
"Humph. Well." Was that a slight pink tinge on her cheeks? Neptune found it quite endearing. "I'll see you around, I guess. And thanks for the warning."
"Anytime, Uranus." But the wind senshi was already gone, rushing off as was her custom. Neptune shook her head and sat down at the console to draw up some reports to send planetside. No use in having the Admirals worry longer than necessary.
The administrative messes that somehow happened without fail whenever her planet's institutions involved her in things, even marginally, always took more time than she anticipated. Neptune allowed herself a slight sigh and, with a quick instruction to Guardian Neptune to handle all non-critical incoming messages, turned away from the console and let her gloves fall away into quickly fading translucent ribbons.
Her canvas was, of course, right where she'd left it hours ago, as was her brush. She was pleased to see the paint she'd rather carelessly left on her palette hadn't dried yet – not when she'd just managed to blend the perfect golden tone. Setting her painting tools down once again, Neptune reached for her Mirror. As always, it came to her effortlessly, materialising in her grasp within moments, and the glass flickered to life immediately, a small yet clear image of Sailor Uranus slowly and almost reluctantly bubbling to its surface.
The moment reminded Neptune of the first time she'd dared to turn the Mirror's far-reaching glance towards Miranda castle and its sole occupant. It had felt – and still did – thrilling, forbidden, even wrong - a violation of Uranus' privacy if nothing else. But it hadn't been enough to make her stop.
The Mirror glowed slightly more brightly at her unspoken command, the mists reflected in it parting more quickly than usual. If she was honest with herself, Neptune felt pride at her marked progress in skill and control over the sight granted her, not failing to notice the obviously helpful influence of motivation.
Uranus was lying on what appeared to be a relatively standard military cot and seemed to be fast asleep, still in her uniform, the Space Sword within close reach. Neptune often wondered, during her observations of her teammate, why she hadn't bothered to acquire something more comfortable to nap on, but she supposed Uranus held herself to be above such lowly concerns – or perhaps she worried that an acquisition order for a soft mattress might make the Queen doubt her dedication to her duty. The small form of Guardian Uranus flickered near the set of consoles not far from the sleeping senshi, carefully monitoring the state of affairs. Uranus knew how to delegate, at least. Neptune suppressed a giggle at the endearing sight before her and longed, far from the first time, to run her fingers through the tousled light locks.
She reluctantly tore her eyes away from beyond the surface of the glass and propped the Mirror up next to the canvas before her. The blues and greys she'd prepared would do well for a background, blending nicely into brighter hues to very effectively bring to life the impression of the swirling winds always surrounding the painting's subject. But it was the delicate balance of light yellows and ochres that really gave Neptune the feeling this would turn out to be one of her best works yet.
It made her think how it was almost a shame, really, that nobody but her would ever get to see it.