Mina was, in general, a suspicious person. People never assumed it of her—she played the fool so well people rarely seemed to realize there was a constantly ticking clock contained therein, measuring each minute, each second, each minute movement of every planet.
And today, she sat with her notebook and watched as this boy with long silver hair and an atrociously bright polo shirt flip-flopped his way across campus. He seemed so different now, from the memories, when he was her equal. Well, maybe not equal. He was good. She'd allow that.
But the difference between then and now was both a lifetime and a sliver. Kunzite was still a normal college boy, and Mina was not sure if she was worried about the threat, or gripped with resentment that he had flourished for so long in the light of a normal life.
It didn't really matter. The answer was the same, ever since Rei had accidentally tipped her off that they might not be the only ones with something hidden in them on earth. She was grateful for the accident of the candle, how it had set Rei off, even though Rei herself had not really understood what she was seeing.
Mina did. She wrote down, once more, in her notebook, what she had observed. They were beginning to spark, just like she had sparked at 14, the light within them coming forward, ready to consume them.
She couldn't let that happen. The kingdom was too important. Her job was too important.
But intelligence, she imagined, was an unfortunate part of the military experience, and the most unfortunate thing about intelligence was that she had to ask her future Seer about it. Asking Michiru for help rated somewhere between a root canal and being eaten to death by rats for Mina, but she couldn't put it off any longer. If what she suspected was true, she had to act quickly.
The knock was sharp and quick, and the only way in which it surprised Michiru was that Mina was even bothering to use it. She rose from her seat in the living room and gracefully flowed her way to the door, opening it in a single fluid motion.
"Haruka is off at the car show with some of her friends, Mina, but I will of course tell her you called." She went to shut the door, and Mina hit the palm of her hand against it.
"Number one, I refuse to believe Haruka has friends who aren't me. Number two, I'm here to see you." She stepped through the door. "I brought a hostess gift." She flung a wrapped muffin from the school cafeteria.
Michiru caught it deftly. "Lovely." She set it down on the entryway table. "To what do I owe this dubious pleasure?"
Mina whirled around, saying it quickly, as if she were ripping off a band-aid. "I need your help." She quickly moved to clarify. "For Usagi, not me."
Michiru studied her for a moment. "And how might I assist you?"
"I don't know what you remember about Silver Milennium." She walked into the kitchen and took one of Haruka's beers out of the fridge, popping it open. "And you don't have to tell me, I know, you like your whole air of mystery, whatever keeps you warm at night. We—they-all died in Earth's rebellion against the Moon. Ringing a bell?" Michiru nodded silently. "Well the four assholes that led that rebellion somehow ended up following us thousands of years into the future, you know, details." She made a face as she swallowed a mouthful of beer and looked down at the label. "Peanut butter chocolate beer? Ruka, what the fuck is wrong with you, is Michiru not letting you get enough air before she chokes you in the bedroom or what?"
"Mina." Michiru was leaned against the countertop, her eyes gazing out the window. "Please make your point. So, like Pluto?"
"Naw." She hauled herself up on the countertop and sat. "More like us. A piece of something inside them." She drank again, and shook her head, as if each time it surprised her anew.
"Why, praytell, do you need me?"
"I need you to show me what happens if they awaken." Michiru moved to respond, but Mina stopped her. "I know, I know, these are the shadows of things that may be only, I promise to keep Christmas in my heart all the year, your resistance is noted."
Michiru frowned, but, seeing that Mina was going to be parked on her countertop for however long it took for her to provide an answer, moved to the sink, setting a metal bowl into the bottom of it. Michiru had never liked her visions, had never found the utility or power in them that Rei managed to convey. They were a hand from hell, continually gripping at her ankles, and she did not relish the thought of unleashing them. Not that she could make them come, always, anymore than she could make them leave. This might not even work, it was simply repeating things she knew could trigger the beast. Her sweet Haruka never mentioned it, just offered to always do any dishes by hand that needed it, wordlessly. She could not count the same for Mina. It was dangerous, letting her know the codes to her mind.
And yet the alternative was admitting to Mina that she had not control over her own power, so she simply hit the faucet and stared deep into the bowl, focusing, thinking about the shards of memory she had of Endymion's Knights, the rebellion, the fall. She saw a boy sitting at a piano, his red-gold hair pulled into a ponytail, his face soft and expressive, suddenly, she saw him upon the battelfield, three others with him, the Senshi surrounding them, but it's like a tornado, and Michiru is not sure where she's going, the action is so furious. She trips, and falls. Looking back, she sees Ami staring into the distance, lifelessly. She's tripped over her corpse. She backs up, calling out Haruka's name, but there's no answer, Michiru telling herself over and over again that she's simply out of range, her hearing is not the best, the thought pressing into her mind cannot be real. She looks up, a tall blonde boy looking down at her, a cruel smile across his face. He looks up, and her eyes follow.
The silver haired boy has run Usagi through.
Michiru clattered to the floor, her head in her hands, the force knocking her out of the vision mercilessly.
"That good, huh?" Mina looked down on her from the countertop. "I figured as much." She jumped down. "So what are we dealing with, here?"
"They killed us all." The words came through gritted teeth as she pulled herself to her feet.
"Can you look and see if we need to ice just one of them, or-"
Michiru pinned Mina against the refrigerator. "I am not here to entertain you, Sailor Venus."
"Whoa. Calm." She gently pushed Michiru away. "Sorry your shipment of Dom and pate is late, don't take it out on me."
Michiru backed away. "You know what you need to know."
"True." Mina dusted off her shoulder playfully. "You and me, we need to get the group together. This calls for action, before they can gain any powers or weapons or object permanence or anything that might be useful to them."
Michiru rolled her eyes. "I'm so glad we have you of all people to lead us."
"Well, do you disagree?"
"No."
"That's what I thought."
"We can't give them the chance to awaken." Mina was firm but not cruel, unwavering in her insistence.
Usagi's brow furrowed. "They haven't done anything wrong! You don't know if they'll even be against us!"
Mina shook her head. "If they'd awakened first, they'd have done the same to us." She considered for a moment. She didn't even like that Mamoru had been allowed to live, though she admitted that Endymion had no part in the rebellion that had destroyed the Silver Millennium. Even Saturn had only, really, seen an opportunity to act.
But these four Knights. They had led the struggle. They had killed the Queen and crumbled the kingdom.
She would not let them a second time.
"No, Usagi, I'm sorry." She tilted back her chair, giving a casual air to her called hit, as if she were a mob boss who did this every day. "You don't have to be involved."
Usagi tried to fight the tears back, and shook her head. "No. I'm the Princess! I say no."
Mina flicked her eyebrow in irritation, thundering the chair back to the stared up at Usagi. "I'm sorry, Princess. I'm not going to let the whole kingdom, the whole world, go down for you. Not again."
The silence fell like a gavel in the room, none of the Senshi knowing what to say, the words zipping through their heads like mayflies. Usagi did not even know how to meet Mina's gaze, stumbling and stuttering, until finally she found the words.
"I said, we're not doing it."
Mina's eyes took on a particular focus, a keen wildness like a tiger stalking prey. "You are the leader in peacetime. But now is the time for martial law. I won't let you get us all killed again."
Rei was the first to speak up, jumping to her feet. "She's your princess! We follow her."
"To what? Your deaths?" Mina shook her head. "This is the wrong choice. Usagi." Usagi looked up at her. "I'm not going to let you get yourself killed. I'll do this if I have to do it alone."
Rei stood behind Usagi, shock and anger coloring her face. "You can't just do that!"
Mina slowly stood up. "I can and I will. If she lets them live, we all die. Who's with me?"
The table looked back and forth, nobody wanting to make the first move, Rei already firmly enshrined behind Usagi. And then Haruka stood, slowly, pushing her hair back in her thoughtful, nervous way, and let her hand come down the back of her neck, lingering just a moment on her shoulder before she dropped it, standing behind Mina, her eyes downcast. Michiru stood up quickly and stood next to Haruka, her arms crossed, her eyes drilling into Rei's as if daring her, refusing to even attempt to explain herself.
Rei sneered. "Well, that was predictable. You two can't even-"
Usagi's voice was tearful. "Rei, stop."
Mako thundered her fist down on the table and rose behind Usagi, followed by Ami's quiet shuffle behind their princess.
Pluto sighed heavily. "A house divided against itself cannot stand. Please. Sit down, we can talk this over. We can find a solution."
"I've got one." Mina was curt. "You all stay here while the big kids do the work. You know I'm right, Pluto. You were literally there the first time this happened. Don't be so stupid."
"The past only informs the future. It does not drive it." She fiddled with the swirled ring on her hand. "I—" but she simply stood, and moved behind Usagi. Her princess. Serenity's child. She could never stand against her. It had not, she realized mattered if she had seen the future at all.
All eyes turned to Hotaru, leaning back in her chair staring at the two factions. She tugged at the lace edge of her shirt. "I don't trust any of you."
Rei pointed her chin. "Hotaru, remember when those two tried to kill you? Do you want to side with them to kill someone else?"
"Do you want to fly under the banner of someone who believes a war can be won bloodlessy?" Michiru's voice was all at once soft and stern, unyielding even in its delicacy.
"Oh you don't even care, you're just there to protect Haruka." Rei snorted.
"I can take care of myself." Haruka leaned toward Rei.
Mina put up her hand. "Shut up, both of you. Hotaru, you want to go with us, or do you want to sit back while everyone dies? Those are your choices."
Hotaru nodded. Mina was a lot of things, as a leader, but she wasn't a liar. Lying was the greatest sin. If she thought they would die, she must honestly believe it. She stood up and walked over by Mina's side.
Usagi's face fell. "I don't want to fight you!"
Mina stood. "Then don't get in our way, Princess, while we do what needs to be done."
Usagi might have believed that they would never go through with it, in her deepest heart, but to her credit, she still had her girls keep an eye on the boys who would be Knights. Jadeite was sitting, legs crossed, in the college library, studying a book of financial theory, while a tall and very dark woman shelved books behind him, seemingly endlessly, rolling the cart from one side of the shelves to the other.
Jadeite was not sure what a librarian was doing here at 9 at night, but he didn't consider it long. There was too much work to be done, the tick-tack typing the only sound aside from an errant cart wheel.
He did not hear her, she simply appeared before him, a girl with green hair and the sea in her eyes. He lingered over the beauty of her face, delicate and faraway, when he noticed the dagger in her hand. She did not say a word, simply pounced across the table, the dagger slicing toward his throat, stopped only at a few inches by a staff driven into the table.
Both he and the girl looked up at his savior, dark and intimidating but somehow familiar. He couldn't quite place why, and did not spend much time considering it, weaseling under the table.
Michiru pursed her lips in irritation. "Pluto, I have no wish to hurt you."
"Nor I you, Neptune." Her eyes softened for a moment. "Michiru."
Michiru paid no mind to the use of her own name, simply withdrew quickly from the table and began to bend under it, and it surprised everyone in the room when the tip of Pluto's staff cracked against her jaw, sending her reeling back against the wall.
"I serve my Queen." Pluto stood still a statue in front of Michiru.
Michiru sneered, rubbing her jaw.. "You serve the memory of a love that never was." She leapt to her feet and batted away her staff with her buckler, Pluto barely having time to move away before the dagger sliced her side.
She reacted quickly, a firm swipe of her staff blocking another blow. Michiru jumped, striking her across the face with her buckler, Pluto falling onto her back with the force of it, rolling onto her side and tripping Michiru with her staff, blocking her once more as she attempted to move on Jadeite, huddled under the table, frozen as a mouse before a snake.
"Pluto!" Her face was hot with frustration.
They both wheeled to their feet, and Pluto was not quite quick enough, a red gash appearing on her side. She barely felt the pain of it, her adrenaline flowing, but she considered for a moment that Michiru might, in fact, kill her to achieve her goal. She touched her ring delicately, a quiet cry for help, and swung again at Michiru, her ducking underneath it now, suddenly in Pluto's face, the glimmer from her dagger bright as a solar flare in her eye.
It clattered to the floor, accompanied by a whistle of air. They both looked left, where Rei stood, aimed and ready, her bow drawn.
She glared. "I don't have to miss."
Michiru stepped back for a moment, smiling politely. "It seems I'm outvoted at the moment." She touched the ring on her hand. "If that's the way we want to do it, then, I suppose, we shall."
"See, now it's a party." Mina stepped out of the shadows. "Little more even."
Mako and Ami appeared behind Rei, like three wise men following a star, and Mina leaned against a bookshelf and clicked her tongue. "I've taught you three nothing."
As if on cue, the bookshelf next to them came crashing down on top of them, Haruka rubbing her hands together on the other side. She smiled and moved toward Michiru.
"If you stand close together, it's easy to wipe you all out in one blow, how many times have I said this!? No one listens to me." She shook her head and laughed as if they were at a training session, the bookcase rumbling, Mako growling underneath it as Ami slipped out from the space she'd left.
Ami looked up at Mina with rage in her eyes, almost vibrating with it, but she said nothing.
Mina strolled over to where Rei and Pluto were helping Mako get the bookcase off herself. "What's the deal, little blue, you got something for me? Aw, you're crying."
Ami wiped away a tear, berating herself internally for the way her rage always turned to tears. Mina turned her back to talk to Haruka, and Ami tackled her to the ground, getting in a couple good punches to the neck before Mina threw her off and stumbled to her feet.
She smoothed her hair. "Okay, listen, this has been great, but—" her eyes flicked over to where Mako adjusted her tiara, a stare of dedication on her face.
Then there was a gurgle from under the table, and the smooth metallic song of metal leaving flesh. Hotaru looked up from her bloodied glaive, straight at Pluto, a look in her eyes almost resembling apology. Jadeite fell from his curled position, eyes gazing into nothingness now as the red river streamed from his mouth.
Michiru stepped forward and placed her hand on Hotaru's shoulder, following her eyes to Pluto. "We serve our Queen."