Disclaimer: All characters and locations belong to their respective owners.

4.
Big IRON

The night was young, but nothing lasted forever.

"Is something on your mind, Ms. Meiou?" Kenji asked from Usagi's bedside. "You've been awfully quiet."

The woman perked to wakefulness and half-turned from her place at the window. Ah, she'd been drifting off again, and not in the sleepy-tired sense. Get back into place. "I'm sorry," she said. "I have a lot on my mind."

"I know. It's been a very rough day for us." For Ikuko, for Shingo, and for himself; they hadn't left the hospital since yesterday morning.

He pushed his glasses up with a finger. "I wish I had the answers, you know? I wish I could tell everyone why Usagi snuck out the house in the middle of the night and who this attacker is. If I had those answers, my wife and son wouldn't have to worry anymore. No one would." He sighed. "But…I don't. I don't have that ability, and even if I did would anyone believe me? Ikuko and Shingo might, but I doubt the police would consent to a man who has nothing to back his claims."

"At some point in our lives," said Setsuna, "we wish we could contain all the knowledge that is furthest from our grasp. I don't blame you for wanting, Mr. Tsukino. Any parent whose child has been victim to battery would feel the same."

"It doesn't make sense." The older man gazed down at his daughter. "If only Usagi could wake up and tell us what happened. Who knows, she might have gotten a good look at the person. She could give a facial composite to one of Officer Teguchi's artists."

Setsuna nodded, continued staring at the numerous lights across the horizon. "It's possible. That is, if she can remember."

"She must," Kenji said sharply. "The more she remembers the more likely police will be motivated to respond quickly and apprehend the suspect. Every minute detail counts."

"My apologies, Mr. Tsukino, I didn't mean for it to come out that way." Crimson eyes roamed up and locked on the starry sky. "But say she can't recall the suspect's face. If Usagi cannot lend credence, then your next best option would be to ask eyewitnesses."

"Nobody has come by since the morning broadcast."

"Ah, but Mr. Tsukino it's just as you said: every detail counts. There must be someone who is bold enough to offer his or her side of the story."

"That may be so, Ms. Meiou, but not everyone is a willing participant. Stepping forward means you're casting away a sense of anonymity. Stepping forward is the moment where silence breaks and the world is filled with noise." The crow's feet around his eyes curled up grimly. "Once you step forward, your life will be forfeit."

"That's not always the case." But unfortunately, sometimes it was.

"I've seen it before; once, eight years ago, when I had to go overseas for a business arraignment. It was in the States in the city of Chicago, and it was there I saw rival gangs fighting in the streets. One of the sons of the businessmen I was to congregate with was gunned down trying to protect his younger brother. The police conducted an investigation and asked for anyone to step forward and give them the name of the gunman, but the neighbors refused to speak. A week later the younger brother went to the station and told them everything: the gunman, the gang he belonged to, where the gang headquarters were located (apparently because a former friend of his was involved, or so I've heard). The next morning the police received a 911 call and arrived to find the boy and his family dead in their own home, bullet holes and blood strewn all over the place." He paused. "It was horrible, just…horrible. I never thought people could be capable of such cruelty until that day. I can't imagine how deep in anguish that man must have been."

"And you're afraid if anyone were to speak up, that same grisly fate would fall upon them. Or you and your family."

"That's correct."

She hummed thoughtfully, gaze settling on a full white moon. "I assure you, Mr. Tsukino, if for some reason circumstances come to that point, there will be people who will do everything in their power to protect the innocent. It is a duty they will undoubtedly serve, even if it means they must sacrifice themselves in the process."

"Surely you don't think it's going to escalate, do you, Ms. Meiou?" Kenji asked disbelievingly. "How can you be so certain?"

A humorless smile graced her lips. Indeed, how can she be so certain? As a Soldier of Time and Change, how can the future ever be determined truthfully, flawlessly?

She shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. Call it a gut feeling, if you will. Anything can happen; it's a matter of motive, action, and, some might say, providence." What may or may not be defined by the Fates, the stars, God. Metaphysical libertarianism and determinism were very conflicting subjects, but what is considered truth? What is a lie? What made us into who we are? Who else can provide the answers but an omnipresent, omniscient being that to some may or may not exist? It was one of many questions Setsuna had no intention of answering.

She saw his brow crinkle worryingly in their reflections. "I hope it doesn't. I don't want any more people to get hurt." – If at all, she noted to herself— "It's bad enough we as a family have to go through with it, and in the dark, no less."

"One day at a time, Mr. Tsukino, and soon enough the police will cast the suspect from the shadows." But how long? How long until the die is cast and the Rubicon crossed? How long until Usagi wakens?

Setsuna didn't know.

"I'll be taking my leave now, Mr. Tsukino. I have a very busy schedule I must attend to."

Kenji nodded. "Of course, Ms. Meiou, I won't keep you any longer."

"You'd best catch up on your sleep, if you don't my saying so. I don't doubt the days ahead will be difficult."

"My family will do what it can to maintain some semblance of normality. There's nothing more we can do except wait and hope for the answers to come."

"Take care, Mr. Tsukino," said Meiou Setsuna. And you as well, she added as she sent a final glance toward her Princess's prostrate form.

She left without another word.

The elevator reached its destination, and the doors parted on their tracks for her to step through. Stilettos clicked against the tile, resonated loudly in fluorescent silence.

Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru were sitting on the couches, and they looked in her direction as she approached them. They rose and gathered around her.

"How is she?" Young Hotaru asked Setsuna. "Did Usagi wake up?"

"She's still asleep," the older woman replied, "and if something's not done soon, she'll stay asleep for a long, long time."

"How long is 'soon'?" asked Haruka.

"I don't know, and no matter how many times you threaten me I will not go back in time. Some rules I am willing to break, but I'll do no such thing to the taboos Queen Serenity laid in ages past. It's not worth the risk."

"You stopped time for us once and came back afterwards. Are you telling me you won't sacrifice your life in exchange for the Princess's?"

"We don't know who we're dealing with. Do you want me to take unnecessary precautions for an enemy who may not even be youma or extraterrestrial?" Setsuna shook her head. "No, I won't do it. I stand by my decision."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing!" Haruka exclaimed. "You refuse to save a single life, and yet here you are standing among us, away from the Space-Time Door! You should be punished!" She poked her elder squarely in the chest.

"Haruka, she's right," said Michiru, putting herself between the two Soldiers. "We can't act blindly. Haven't you seen the mark on Usagi's face?"

"The one on her forehead?" Hotaru asked.

Michiru nodded. "Yes, that."

"What about it?" Haruka asked.

"It's where all our birthmarks are found when we transform, you know that. If our tiaras are inflicted with enough damage, we revert back to our civilian forms."

Haruka's brow shot up her hairline. "Are you saying—"

"That whoever attacked Usagi knows she is Sailor Moon." Setsuna finished for her, firmly holding each of the Outer Senshi's eyes. "Or, if I may guess, the attacker tried to stop Usagi from transforming and succeeded in preventing her from doing so."

"Maybe the attacker gained the upper hand in the fight," Hotaru suggested.

"Wouldn't we have known if Usagi was attacked?" Haruka asked. "Did she have her communicator on her?"

"I didn't see it when we walked in," said Michiru. "The police could have confiscated her possessions as evidence."

"But the Officer who was here earlier said they couldn't find any." Haruka snorted. "I don't think Usagi even owns a cell phone much less know how to operate it."

"Regardless of the investigation, we must to be vigilant," said Setsuna. "Someone – or something – could be lurking in the city right now, waiting to make its next move. Until we learn all there is about the enemy, our surroundings cannot be deemed wholly safe."

"So what do you suppose we do?" Hotaru asked.

"We hold an emergency meeting, as soon as humanly possible. Schools are closed tomorrow, so you, Rei, and Ami should be available. The rest we can contact the minute we leave." She started for the entrance.

"What time should we give them?" Michiru called at her back.

"The earlier we congregate, the more we can have the day to ourselves."

"And where do you think you're going?" Haruka hailed sternly. "We're all in this together. You have to do your part, too."

"And I will," said Setsuna, and she stopped to bestow the Wind Soldier with an ancient, serene smile. "I've been away from my post for too long. After all, it's a taboo I can't afford to keep breaking." She turned around and continued on her way.

It was going to be another cold night, she could tell as soon as she passed the rotary doors and across the parking lot. At least it wasn't pouring like it did yesterday. The attacker was smart to wait for the storm to culminate, boiling over like a brew that had been sitting too close in its cauldron. The weather was awful, visibility obscured with fog and dime-sized hail, but the conditions – and the environment – were perfect to a T. Every day Four Guardians Park saw its quotient of rambunctious children, dogs running loose after being taken off their leashes.

So many footsteps, so much DNA. With their equipment, it would be a while yet before the police could scrounge a thread of hair or dead skin cells belonging to Tsukino Usagi. Mister Teguchi didn't even have to say so to drive the point home.

Where did that leave them?

Where did that leave the Senshi?

The Inners and the Outers were the only known Sailor Senshi to exist within the Solar System, but there was innate ability only they could utilize. The girls, including the cats Luna and Artemis and Chiba Mamoru the Soldier of Earth, were able to detect spiritual energy via a sixth sense ingrained unto them upon their rebirth after the fall of the Silver Millennium. It was a unique gift, one that could unravel the strengths and weaknesses of individuals and how far and apart they were in location. The downside to this lay in the fact that the sixth sense was extremely weak in civilian form compared to that of the Senshi form, which amplified tenfold in accordance with the release of endorphins and epinephrine.

For Setsuna, she didn't detect any foreign residue among Usagi's energy, nothing human or youma. If she couldn't sense it, then it was likely the other Senshi couldn't as well. Still, it did not explain the glaring red mark on her forehead. It looked angry, raw, as if it hadn't been healing correctly. Problems would arise if the wound got infected, and if it wasn't treated quickly and septicemia set in it was going to put Usagi out of commission, regardless of whether or not she woke from the coma.

Could it be that the mark caused her Princess to sink into darkness? To a mortal who was not born from the rebirth, it would appear as a regular scratch, probably the result of a rough play-fight with a friend or pet. However, to the eyes of those reincarnated after the fall, it was different. Setsuna spent many a minute studying the mark, searching within her mind any unusual or suspicious energy.

She was surprised to find nothing of the sort. It left her feeling hollow and deeply unsettled.

There were too many loose ends and not enough information. Perhaps I should have listened to Haruka and gone back in time; it would save everyone, and Usagi, a lot of trouble and heartache.

But what good would that do? You said so yourself, we don't know who we're dealing. This may not be the work of a single person, but a group. Except the last group who waged war with the Sailor Senshi was Shadow Galactica, and it had been two years ago since Sailor Moon cleansed Galaxia from the taint of Chaos.

Damn it, she should have gone after Rei when she had the chance. If there was one Sailor Senshi who could detect malevolent, foreign spiritual energy better than the rest, it was her.

Setsuna stopped at the mouth of a yawning alley, looked both ways, and strolled into the shadows. It was too late now. Maybe she could bring it up at the meeting, learn what Rei had to say.

She produced a jingling key ring from her pants pocket and rifled through them. Car key, house key, car alarm, garage door opener…ah, there it is. She pressed the bronze skeleton key between the cracks of the cement wall and turned it.

A door-size rectangle spilled glowing radiance into the alley, cutting sharp reliefs into corners that would put neo-noir films to shame. Beyond lay an endless expanse dotted with beds of black roses and poppies. The sky wheeled high above, speckled with stars and colorful aurorae. At the far edge of the horizon, a behemoth of an arch could be made out.

The Space-Time Door.

Setsuna crossed the threshold, and the gateway noiselessly sealed shut behind her.

Time did not exist in this dimension; time held no purpose in this universe or any other in the multiverse. The Brink existed outside natural conventions, didn't abide by the laws of physics but quantum mechanics. It was a window to the windows outside the grasp of mortal comprehension, contained closed spaces of everything and nothing that can and cannot but will or will not see fruition in the nearest or farthest futures. If you can think, it is possible. If you think an event impossible in one universe, it can be possible in another.

In short, Meiou Setsuna was the lord of all she surveyed – past, present, and future, and she was well into doing her part for the slumbering Princess

"Luna," she called into the vaporous ether. "Have you found anything?" Despite The Brink's vast enormity, her voice did not echo.

"I did, actually." The black cat scurried into view like a ghost suddenly materializing from a painting. Her tail bobbed behind her, wrapped at the end by a vaporous, translucent ribbon. "Unfortunately, there aren't any more similar in nature."

"You did what you could," said Setsuna. She indicated a nod at the ribbon. "Let's see what we've got." She unwound the wisp from Luna's tail and spread it out along the palms of her hands.

It was like watching a film reel brought to life, a play-by-play story one draws a series of doodles on a sketchpad and flips the pages so that it is given animation. The pictures were blurry and jilted, but it sustained enough structure to provide her an idea of what was occurring.

Her brow scrunched in confusion. "What is this?" In the pictures, a girl was fighting against a plethora of monsters. The monsters were…unlike anything Setsuna had ever seen. Their bodies were not corporeal but instead abstract, a collage of Renaissance artwork and Disney drawn abominations slapped together by spiked wheel ruts, vines oozing viscous sap, children's building blocks, metal rods and cable cords, all vibrating and stretching and clawing to escape the prison holding them back. They could almost be described as humanoid or beastly, but their limbs were long and twisted at impossible angles, their expressions exaggerated with lustful hunger and rage.

But that wasn't what surprised Setsuna.

It was the girl. She was firing into the mass of creatures with what appeared to be an old-fashioned Tommy gun. One of the creatures, a towering, hulking giant with nine eyes (seven of which were closed or blind) and felled tree trunks protruding from its back, lunged forward and slammed its gnarled hand down to earth.

Just as it was about to engulf the street, it froze. The monsters froze. Except the girl was still moving, vanishing in and out of thin air like sunshine reflecting off running water. She placed grenades around the thing's hand, up its arm with a series of camera-shudder flickers, and in front of its numerous eyes. The girl reappeared seconds later back on the streets away from the beasts.

The resulting chain reaction was too brilliant for Setsuna to look at. She dropped the ribbon and shielded her eyes until the lights dimmed and the spots floating in her retinas faded.

"How is this possible?" the Outer Senshi asked Luna when her vision cleared. "This girl can stop time…and yet she still lives. She doesn't even bear the mark of a Sailor Senshi."

"My guess is she's a post-reborn Earthling like Mamoru," said Luna, "or a youma."

"How is this possible?" Setsuna repeated aloud. She gazed up at the eternal night sky. "Who is this girl that dare cheats death?"

The barrier collapsed, and reality reassembled its physical state. The street was as bare as it had been before the assault, cold and bathed in sterile lamplight.

She clutched her chest and doubled over, wracked with crushing pain. She should have taken them sooner, shouldn't have been so careless as to forget. What if she had suffered this while fighting? Then what? But the battle was won. There was no cause to worry.

She grunted and fell to her knees, changing back to her civilian form. She patted down her clothes and withdrew the bottle from her breast pocket. Shaking, fumbling fingers unscrewed the safety cap and shook a couple pills into her waiting hand. She popped them in her mouth and dry swallowed before Old Friend Guilt could reach through the bars and take her by the throat.

"Well done, Homura! You certainly didn't pull any stops this time." A shadow fell before her, and through lidded eyes she saw him – no, not him, it – like the curious feline he pretended to be. "Ah, but I'm afraid it's still not enough to fulfill my quota. I guess these Witches were, how do you say, all hat and no cattle, wouldn't you agree?"

"Fucker," she snarled, struggling to her feet. "I am far from finished. I can still fight. I can still stand and keep on going."

"Maybe so, but you can't keep ignoring those Grief Seeds," said Kyubey. "Your Soul Gem is getting very dirty; how will you ever reach your potential if you don't take what is yours?"

"Your time will come," Homura continued. She limped over to one of many black jewels littering the ground and picked it up. "It happened once. I will make it happen again."

"Miracles are almost exceedingly impossible to recreate, even for Puella Magi."

"It can be done." She let the empty Seed roll from her hand and stared into the depths of the cleansed Soul Gem. "There is still hope."

"Yes," said Kyubey quietly, "there is still hope."

"There are miles to go before I reach the end, and when I do" she glared at the Incubator "I will destroy you, you…and that traitor."

"You can't kill me," he said matter-of-factly. "It's useless to try."

"Then I will keep trying. Human or Witch, I will slay whoever stands in my path. If I cannot do that, then I don't deserve to breathe the same air as Kaname Madoka!"

She started walking. Far away the horizon glittered like colorful jewels floating adrift on a black, black sea.

I will find you, Madoka. I will do everything in my power to deliver the future that is meant to be, Fates be damned. A world without you is a world unworthy of existence. She looked up at the expressway sign above her. SE TOKYO 25 MILES KEEP LEFT, it declared in bold white letters.

This time, I will not fail!

Akemi Homura marched forth, straight of posture and steely-eyed.

The night was old, but nothing lasted forever.