Prologue: In Medias Res

"Have to trust someone to be betrayed." Captain Price, Modern Warfare 2.

The bells rang out the serene landscape. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and their beautiful, pink petals were scattered across the church grounds.

But this was not a day of celebration. Instead, it was a day of mourning, of loss, of grief.

Already, a large crowd had gathered to pay their respects, while a police cordon funneled them into the church to see the body lay in state. The body would be cremated, but for now, everyone could see the now deceased person resting peacefully at the front of the church.

After everyone had been settled in their seats, a man came to the front of the church and began to speak.

"We are now gathered here to remember the life of…"

Minako drifted off in thought. She didn't need to hear the man speaking about the person's life; she knew it front to back. It was inevitable, death, and yet everyone pretended like it never could happen to them…

"Suspect! Throw your weapons out of the window!"

Minako felt her heartbeat in her throat. The thirty or so police officers outside of the door, plus the ten man SWAT team wouldn't have stood a chance…if she had her HUD or other teammates to back her up. But that wasn't exactly the case right now.

Well, this is a very familiar feeling, she thought to herself, cradling a Kel-Tec RFB in her hands. The shootout had lasted the entire day, with lots of running from so called "allies", the police, spies…goddammit, she had fallen yet again for the same old tricks, the same old backstabbing people that had betrayed her and her friends last year.

She had come so close too. Mina closed her eyes and remembered everything that had happened over the last year or so, all the killing, the death and destruction…it was all a blur now.

"Minako…Minako…" A familiar voice whispered to her. Mina looked around the small room she had barricaded herself in to see the young, blue haired woman staring at her intently. She was propped up against one of the walls, with her trusty Glock 26 in hand.

"They don't know I'm here…" she said very quietly. "I could make a run for it, I could get the information out and…"

"Ami, do you even remember the last time we tried that!" Minako hissed at her. "You fucking died! I'm not going to lose you again!"

"But Usagi and the others out there…"

"They're not going to make it in time!" Minako growled, stuffing a couple more rounds into a spare magazine. "We have to shoot our way out of here, or else."

"Minako, what happened to not killing people?"

The question pierced Minako's conscience like an AP round through body armor. What about not killing people? She had done pretty well so far…she had never liked killing, but she was just so good at it, as her experience as a special operations operative had shown. Not that she had voluntary signed up for that part of the mission, but that was all in the past now.

"Ami, it's us or them," she answered back, racking the charging handle back and chambering a round. "I have come so far, traveled thousands and thousands of miles, fucked several guys for information, shot my way through survivalists and crazies, and I am not giving up."

Ami looked at her, and sighed.

"You've really changed, haven't you?"

Mina couldn't answer that question for a second, watching the floodlights dance over the house and the police officers rush from position to position. They were getting ready to do something.

"Yeah, I've changed," Minako sighed, turning to look at Amy. "What about…"

Ami wasn't there.

Minako blinked in disbelief.

"Ami…are you there?" she asked quietly. There was no response. Had Ami never been there at all in the first place? Was she hallucinating again, like before?

Suddenly, several flashbangs detonated outside of the house, and the police moved in for the assault.

Author's Note: And so it begins again. If you have not read "SAILOR-SF", then this story will probably not make much sense. I will do my best to write this story as best as I can, and hope to provide you, the reader, with these author's notes in order to properly explain some things throughout the story. Anyway, please enjoy this story, and I hope that it is to your liking.