In the pale cold of a Thursday night, Mina sprinted from rooftop to rooftop, her mind a single arc of adrenaline, struggling between panic and calm. Just a stone's throw to her right, the huge, winged demon was slowly outpacing her, rising into the sky noiselessly. Realizing she would not be able to outrun it, she leapt to the next rooftop, rolled, and stood up to take aim. She raised her right hand, guiding it with her left, and as the tips of her fingers began to glow that familiar gold, she realized she had cut her glove at some point in the night and wondered when she was going to find the time to sew it back up.
Lita was on the surface street below, juggling lightning in a dance that was all smashing and crashing and splintering. Her foes, those ugly bug things that stank of molding trash, stabbed and slashed at her, but she bobbed and weaved and brought the crackling light from her palms down on their heads. She had the chance to breath a little as her enemies shriveled to dust, and she looked ahead to the portal in the center of park where the next wave was about to come spewing forth. She pushed a strand of hair up out of her face and thought about how she was going to get the stains out of her uniform.
Amy poked her head out of the bush nearby. She flipped down her visor and scanned the area. Just as she thought, there were not one, but two portals, and placed awkwardly on either side of the park such that a decision was going to have to be made. Fortunately, Lita had gotten to this portal first, but there was no telling what would come out next. A blinding bolt of golden light from above, and the heart-piercing scream of the winged demon, told Amy that Mina had struck a blow. The scream of the demon also told her that their midnight encounter had now been alerted to the rest of the city, and a time limit had suddenly come into play. Amy began to take stock: Mina on the roof, Lita at the portal, and the other two on the other side of the park. She wavered a moment between running back to the first portal and helping the others, or staying here to contain the situation before the police arrived. She wavered back and forth, like wavering between two answers on a multiple-choice test that seem equally true. She thought of her math test the next day. Then she wondered if it was better to take the test on no sleep or on the one hour she was probably going to get.
On the other side of the park, Raye's vision swam and threatened to be overcome by darkness. Don't pass out. Don't pass out. Don't pass out. With strength she didn't know she had, she pulled herself up off the ground, and the fact that her uniform, and her hair, was slashed, stained, and mostly covered in mud was a real, though distant, perception. She looked up at the portal, now several hundred feet ahead of her, and their Enemy perched on top of it, smiling down at someone on the other side. Raye rose, her head swimming, and called up a ball of fire, to take aim at their Enemy, but the portal opened again and a new stream of bug-demons began pouring out. She almost gave up, weak, tired, and only lately realizing that the warm trickle down her ankle was blood. Her hands and lips moved to perform the incantation, to change the fireball into a wave, in the hopes that she could take out this latest swarm in a single blow. She worked through the words of the spell, as she had done a hundred times, but her anger began coughing up its usual tirade: What is a Sailor Scout? Someone who gives and gives and never gets any thanks. She hadn't studied for her test tomorrow. She hadn't done her laundry. She hadn't called her boyfriend in days. She was going to show up to school tomorrow in dirty clothes, fail her test, and come home and pass out and probably be single for the rest of her life. The wave of fire poured out from her hands, and she watched the bugs burn up.
Amy wondered if she had made the right decision the entire time she ran back. When she got there, there was no sign of Raye. She saw a whole lawn torched, decorated with smoldering bug-corpses, and their Enemy standing near the portal. Serena was there, at the foot of the portal, reaching up at their Enemy with one, shaking arm. Amy quickly flipped down her visor and took stock. Serena looked as tattered and broken as Amy had ever seen her: some of her hair had been burnt off, she was covered in blood, and she was shaking, but her vital signs held. Their Enemy was not advancing on Serena: instead, that hideous monster that used to be their friend had paused, and was staring down at Serena where she sat on the ground, a large, wicked blade poised in the air to strike her down. Raye popped up next Amy, scaring her almost half to death.
"What are you waiting for?" Raye yelled. "Let's move before they kill her!"
Raye had already risen to bolt forward, but Amy put her hand on her shoulder and said, "Look!" Raye stopped and took in the scene again, seeing nothing different at first. Then she saw the eyes of their Enemy, and understood what was going on. Those eyes, merciless and cold since the moment the corruption had taken hold, were steadily softening, and a human light was returning to them. The arm that held the blade was relaxing in slow degrees. Raye glanced over to Serena, and saw her mouth forming the words, "This isn't you, you're my friend." At those words the Enemy fell to its knees and dropped the scythe. The corruption rapidly retreated, revealing one of their classmates. Serena, smiling with a radiance that lit up the night, embraced her friend and held her close. As the portal began to fade, the other Sailor Scouts burst on to the scene, but Amy held up her hand to stop them.
Their classmate had passed out in Serena's arms, and as the team patched each other up and prepared to call an ambulance for the poor girl, the adrenaline wore off and they began to feel their injuries.
Amy said, "I'm glad you didn't break your arm."
Mina said, "I'm still going to have to patch up these gloves. It's going to take a week."
Lita said, "I'm so tired. I think I sprang an ankle!"
Raye said, "I'll never get these stains out…of my hair OR my uniform!"
And then, in the middle of it all, as if she hadn't heard any of it, Serena said, "The greatest miracle…is the change of heart. Didn't someone say that?"
They all looked over at Serena, and followed her gaze to the unconscious girl on the ground.
Raye looked down at her mud-covered shoes, and smiled.