"'chiru?"
Teal eyes blinked once, twice and a third time as she slowly drew back to the world moving about her. Concerned steel blue eyes peered out from unruly, fair blonde hair that fell in quite the handsome, if not slightly androgynous face in front of her and gradually grew clearer and more focused. Her hands slowly left the mirror she'd held in her lap, suddenly feeling a great deal more tired than she had when she'd started this entire business in the first place. "Haruka?" She queried softly, clearing her throat politely before speaking once more with a sad, mildly frustrated shake of her head. "No. I wasn't able to retrieve anything new from the mirror."
An unspoken "Again" lay barely disguised beneath her words as Michiru sighed and allowed her lover to remove the mirror from her silk clad lap, taking solace and comfort in the strong arms and accepting embrace of the sword wielding warrior. As expected from a woman raised in finery, the soldier of the ocean couldn't quite bring herself to accept her failures and move forward; expecting perfection and success each and every time and disappointed with herself when things didn't go according to plan. It's been nearly four years; shouldn't we have found someone- or something by now? She wondered to herself with a frown towards her mirror.
The vision had struck all of the Senshi at the same time- most impacting the Outer Senshi and that of the newly throned Neo Queen Serenity- and had continued in infrequent reminders of the potential threat someone posed to their peaceful, busy kingdom. Resisting slightly in Haruka's arms, Michiru wordlessly turned her attention to Hotaru and Setsuna, waiting for any indication their experiment had given either of the two something that could be used to track the threat. Eyes too old to rest in a young woman's face opened, framed by thick black lashes as she too took a moment to regain clarity and focus in her sight. "Still nothing new." Hotaru finally spoke. "Desperation, fear bordering on terror, and regret." She paused a moment, brow furrowing as she corrected herself a moment later. "Intense regret, though even that is putting it lightly."
Setsuna rested a dark skinned hand against the pale soldier of Rebirth's shoulder, giving the girl she had raised as her own a squeeze of reassurance before speaking in her own deep, husky voice. "The location remains the same, I'm unable to locate the time still to this day." For the Guardian of Time and Space itself to fail in something that lay fully within her control was speaking volumes; something was preventing them from eliminating this new threat before it was too late. Scarlet eyes rested on the blonde soldier's expression in sympathy. Haruka was taking it harder than the rest of them; she had no true… extra ability like the rest of them shared and it was taking its toll on her already rather limited patience.
Had they the foreign soldier's voice or scent, Haruka would have been able to use her bond with the Wind itself to search out and locate the threat and quietly take care of her. After all, she was the most physical out of their group of four; and a blessing they had needed time and time again in battles from the present to the far distant past of lives long forgotten. "How is the Queen?" Setsuna asked, attempting to change the subject and engage her fellow soldier a bit more. There was an immediate softening in the tough woman's eyes at the mentioning of their beloved princess-turned-ruler that relaxed all of them in some small way.
"Concerned." She muttered with a scowl of displeasure. "She thinks it's someone asking for help; not a threat that needs to be taken care of." At that, the four of them sighed collectively and shook their heads. All of them loved the Queen, truly, they did. But… as she had been when they had all first met her, so Neo Queen Serenity remained the soft hearted, optimistic soul who believed in the good in everyone and refused to see the potential danger that lurked nearby. Haruka eyed the other girls, deliberating whether or not to leave it at that… or mention the rest of it. Deciding that it wouldn't be fair to withhold, she ran a calloused hand through her short hair. "The King is agreeing with her. "
That certainly caught their attention, three pairs of eyes narrowing in interested surprise and studied her disgruntled expression. A gentle hand with lightly calloused fingertips covered one of her own as she looked into Michiru's eyes. "King Endymion is agreeing with Serenity?" It was hard to disguise the faint note of surprise in the mature woman's voice as she repeated her lover's statement, turning it into a question that had sprung from all of their minds.
Haruka nodded, idly sliding down so she could rest her arms and head on Michiru's lap. "Unfortunately. He wants us to find the threat and bring her in to talk." Disgust was clear in the woman's voice. Most found the former Princess of Uranus to be ruthless, cruel and cold hearted in the way she treated and eliminated her enemies on the battlefield; the other three quietly- and even openly at times- disagreed with the public opinion. Sailor Uranus eliminated any threat to her Queen and the place her ruler claimed as her home; no questions asked and no arguments made. It was the duty Haruka had been given in her past and it was a duty the four of them continued to perform of their own choice.
After all; habits formed in the past certainly didn't die easily- and neither did the would-be assassins who approached on a semi-frequent basis.
Setsuna frowned, clearly displeased with the King's order. "Has he already forgotten the near-successful assassin sent to kill his daughter from the Comet Galaxy?" The emerald haired woman asked finally, recalling the pale face and bloodied hands of the Queen as she held them against the gushing wound in her daughter's side as the rest of them fell into place and utterly destroyed the man and woman who stood there with triumphant smiles on their typically expressionless faces.
"Of course not," Haruka replied dismissively, half-waving her hand as she sighed into the brushed white silk of her lover's skirt. " Little bunny is still being guarded at all hours by her team- and then some from her fiancé. " Hotaru's violet eyes glittered for a moment at the mention of Helios, but quietly hid the quiet jealousy beneath an amused smile.
"She does complain about the full guard an awful lot." The black haired soldier of ruin informed them with no small amount of smug amusement in her voice. "I told her it's her burden to bear as the heiress to the most powerful kingdom in the known universe." A pause. "She just wrinkled her nose at me and complained that I sounded too much like her when she tries lecturing her mother."
The comment lightened the atmosphere a great deal as the four women chuckled, shaking their heads at the mental image Hotaru conjured for them. As beautiful and mature as their Queen appeared to the public… the nearly white haired Serenity was still scolded and lectured by her pink haired daughter. Michiru placed a gentle hand atop the soft, short hair of her beloved. "Let us change the subject to something more pleasant for now," She suggested in her usual soft spoken way. "Like… what we should make for dinner tonight?"
Hotaru and Setsuna exchanged knowing looks as Haruka eyed the teal haired woman with eyes that switched from suspicious to… wicked and shook their heads. It was entertaining, watching the one most thought to be the leader, the dominant partner in their relationship, suddenly have her teasing turned back on her so easily by the one everyone expected to be a proper, submissive lady. The dark skinned soldier rose quietly from her seat, listening to the friendly teasing and flirting fade behind her as she and the younger girl gave the two lovers some time to talk amongst themselves while they prepared dinner.
"We'll try again tomorrow." Hotaru spoke softly, all too knowing eyes staring straight up in a particularly intense way at Setsuna's face. Not for the first time, Setsuna felt as if her ancient age had once again caught up with her and she sighed as a result, fingers brushing lightly over one of the keys she kept around a chain beneath her blouse.
"Yes," She replied finally after a long moment of silence, reaching for the handle to one of the cupboards. "We'll certainly try again tomorrow."
Dark eyes shot open, wide and wild with panic as they filled suddenly with tears that burned, hot and filled with shame, slipping down her cheeks as a slight form curled up in the midst of still unpacked boxes and clutched fistfuls of a rather ragged looking blanket to her mouth to stifle the sounds of sobbing. The nightmares still haunted her and that dream of being hunted was still coming. More and more frequently now, she could barely close her eyes without seeing them. Without seeing the bodies strewn about, shards of glass jutting, melted into skin or burns bubbling and blistering on those who'd been too close when the transformation occurred.
"I'm sorry." A young, fragile sounding voice echoed softly in a room suddenly a hundred times too big. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" Hanging beside the cheerful, picture window revealing a sky slowly turning from twilight to night, was a lonely seifuku that signaled the beginning of a new, uncertainty filled life starting the next day.
But first; she had to get through the trials and troubles the night would bring.