What We've Lost And What We've Gained.
Chapter Seven - The Reveal
We never learn to expect the unexpected.
continue.
She awoke. There was no feeling of recognition, moments after she opened her eyes, like one would have when waking in bed or at the home of a friend. In fact, there was no familiarity at all. Where was she?
Her blurred vision slowly adjusted to a darkened, barely perceivable room. It was frigid and dank where she lay. And worst of all her head was reeling. Why was she so dizzy?
She shifted her weight into sitting position. Her winter jacket, leggings, and boots were still on, even though she would never have chosen to sleep in them. She rapidly backtracked her memory. Rei left, so she was making her way to Ami. There was a Senshi in an alley. A hand covering her mouth. And then nothing.
This couldn't be good.
Aino Minako staggered to her feet. She got her first good look around the place. It was a much larger area than she had originally perceived. Huge, in fact, with dirty concrete floors. Smeared windows at the top of the nearly twenty meter walls provided patchy illumination from the moonlight. A metal catwalk with railing spanned the perimeter, looking down on old machinery and a few large chain pulleys.
Judging from appearances and the fact that she woke up on a few lined up wooden crates, she had to guess that she was in a factory or warehouse of some sort. And she wasn't going to stick around long enough to find out why.
It occurred to her suddenly that she had been carrying a purse earlier that day. The bag itself wasn't terribly important, but it contained her phone for the backup that she so desperately wanted to call. It wasn't anywhere near her person when she woke up. She scanned the perimeter with careful eyes and eventually saw it. On a crate, in the center of the room, almost spot lit by the moonlight, waiting, beckoning to be claimed.
She stopped herself from immediately leaping towards it. She couldn't possibly be alone. She woke up in a darkened spot. Would it be prudent to expose herself in the light so soon? What if the purse was bait for another trap? She couldn't know.
All she knew was that Aino Minako didn't feel safe here. Perhaps Sailor Venus would. But, was anyone still watching? Were her kidnappers waiting in the shadows for her to make the second move?
It was risky to transform, but it was also risky to go dashing after her purse. Ultimately, being able to throw Crescent Beams at danger won over her justified concern over unnecessary exposure. The flashy light show would only last a moment and would gain her power and peace of mind. She took out her henshin pen and whispered the incantation.
Nothing.
The transformation wand grew hot in her hand. She almost dropped it, but for fear of making too much noise, she set it down as quickly and quietly as possible. A plume of gray smoke rose from the now blackened husk of a pen.
"Shit," whispered Minako.
First, she was kidnapped. Next, she woke up in a spooky warehouse. And now she had to deal with the added insult of losing her magic. It almost seemed like it couldn't get worse.
A guttural roar came echoing from the other side of the room. It was too animal to be human and too demonic to be animal. A youma? Minako ducked behind a wooden crate and peered over the top. Beady eyes. Fangs. Claws. And a disconcertingly large frame. It was no guard dog, that was certain.
Well, so much for things not getting any worse.
When Rei and Makoto arrived safely home that night, they headed straight for the kitchen. Being around the aromas of the restaurant always gave the budding chef a generous appetite to take care of once she was off the clock. The shrine maiden helped by setting the table and staying out of the way while Makoto whipped them up their dinner as quickly and efficiently as she could. It took longer than the microwave meal that the Rei would have prepared for herself, but it was definitely worth it. The emerald eyed cook was a sight to behold behind a wok, and her noodles were unrivaled.
"So, she says I'm giving off 'love waves' - whatever those are," recounted Rei between generous bites, as they shared their meal.
Makoto raised her chop sticks thoughtfully. "Ah yes, the love waves. She's spoken of mine quite often."
"She kept insisting that I have crush on somebody," continued Rei. Makoto sputtered up her drink a bit. "Mako-chan, are you okay?"
The anxious brunette cleared her throat. "Yeah, ahem. I'm fine. Go on. You were saying something about a crush?"
"Right," Rei continued, "Minako-chan seemed pretty adamant about my love waves indicating a crush. I told her she was being ridiculous of course."
Makoto stirred her iced tea absently. "Well, was she?"
The shrine maiden's hand slipped and she almost dropped her glass. "What do you mean?"
"Do you have a crush on anyone?" asked Makoto, meeting her friend's confused gaze.
"Well I-" Before Rei could answer, the phone shrilled incessantly. "Just a second, Mako-chan."
As Rei rose to answer the telephone, Makoto went through a mental list of potential males that could have caught her friend's eye. How could she have not noticed anything? They practically spent all their time together. It bothered her immensely to not know who it could have been.
"Oh hi, Ami-chan...Oh no, but we were just talking about her actually…No, I haven't seen her since this afternoon..."
Makoto's internal distress was interrupted by the increasing urgency in Rei's voice. The raven haired woman began to wrap the phone cord around her index finger and squeeze. Makoto had long observed that Rei did with her hair or loose thread when she was nervous, so something was definitely up.
"Have you tried calling her parents...We'll pick you up and we can wait for her here...Okay...Don't worry...I'm sure she's fine and forgot to charge her phone again...Okay...I'll see you soon."
Rei and hung up. She sat back down and started unconsciously twirling a long piece of hair. "Minako-chan never showed up at the hospital tonight."
Makoto was on her feet immediately. "What? Where is she?"
"We don't know," revealed Rei worriedly, "She's not picking up her phone or communicator. Her parents and Usagi-chan haven't seen her. I told Ami-chan that we'd come get her. It's still not safe to be alone."
Rei could tell Makoto was ready to do something drastic by the way she glowered at her clenched fist. "Mako-chan, there's nothing we can do about it right now, other than make sure Ami-chan is okay."
Without another word, the anxious fighter loosened her hand and ran off into the next room to retrieve her coat. Left alone, Rei took out her henshin pen and gripped it desperately.
"Please be okay, Mina-chan..."
Minako was fairly sure that the youma still hadn't spotted her from her shadowed corner. It hadn't attacked her yet, after all, and seemed to just be wandering about. The monster's vague meanderings luckily bought her some time to formulate her escape plan. She could see her purse and she could see the exit door in the distance.
The plan? Run like mad.
Minako took a deep breath and sprung out of the shadows. She nimbly leapt over a stack of crates and zoomed towards her bag. Sweeping up her intended prize, she continued her sprint towards the door. The youma took notice of this and grunted in her direction.
The blonde glanced back and found that the beast was moving much slower than she was expecting. If it kept that sluggish pace up, her escape plan would go off without a hitch. She reached the door and skidded to a stop.
Slight hitch...
She squealed in panic. The exit door's handles were wrapped together with long strands of steel chain. They seemed to lack a padlock, but whoever put together the makeshift security system made up for it by putting in a hell of a lot of chain.
The ocean eyed woman found one end and began frantically threading and pulling the chain through. As she made slow progress, the youma was gaining on her. She fervently yanked a length and found the other end. Unfortunately, there was still more left on the door handle.
"How many damn chains are on this thing?" Minako yelled in frustration. Before the could get to work on the next one, the giant took a powerful swipe at her. She managed to roll out of the way, though sharp claws still clipped her leg.
It resumed its advance on her, and the panicked blonde did the only thing she could think of at the time. She swung the length of chain as hard as she could, directly into the youma's face.
And surprisingly, it worked.
The demon recoiled, bellowing in pain for a moment. It didn't take much time for it to shake off its surprise and continue its assault. But by that time, Minako was already back at the door, unraveling more lengths of chain. The beast turned and lunged at her. She narrowly dove out of harm's way once more before throwing her jacket at her enemy's face. In the few seconds it took for the furious monster to successfully tear the covering away from its eyes, the swift soldier wrapped a length around its thick legs and pulled.
The chain tightened around the youma's ankles, and it went clumsily crashing forward to the ground. A thick cloud of dust and earthy grime rose off the floor upon impact. Minako didn't let the dirt invading her lungs distract her. There wasn't time. She choked it back and left her eyes to burn.
When the monster tried to regain its footing, the athlete jumped directly onto its back. Another chain wrapped around its neck and was pulled as tightly as possible. Since, she was concentrating on the youma's throat, the chain around its ankles became loose enough to be discarded.
The demon sprung to its feet, launching Minako off its back. Fortunately, she retained firm hold of the chain and was still fighting to pull it taut. She needed proper distance, however, if she was ever going to make this work. As her enemy started to barrel towards her, she released a generous amount of slack, wrapped the chain around her wrist, and leapt as high as she could manage.
Her aim was the second level catwalk. It would have been an easy jump for a Senshi. But it wasn't Venus making the leap of faith. It was Aino Minako, armed only with the vertical leap of a star athlete and the fuel of her own desperation.
She managed to grab hold of the pipe railing. It wasn't as high as she had been hoping, but it would have to do. She thanked her lucky stars for her gymnastics background, as she swung herself with great effort onto the grating.
Wrapping the chain around the pipe for additional leverage, she pulled with all the strength she could find.
The beast had no where else to go. It couldn't jump high enough to reach its target, as it was too far lumbering and heavy. And it was losing ground to the steel the was cutting of its air supply. It struggled, trying to claw away at the chain around its neck, but only caused itself more injuries with its graceless flailing.
The youma made one last attempt at breaking its opponent's hold, throwing its full body weight in the opposite direction. The rusty metal wore roughly against Minako's hands, scraping against opened flesh, but she didn't dare let go. She pulled even harder, and every muscle in her body threatened to detach itself against the pressure.
The ocean eyed warrior gripped for all she was worth. The youma choked out a stifled roar, trying to break free before the metal chain unhinged its neck.
And suddenly their desperate game of tug-of-war ceased.
The weight on the other end went limp, as it dissolved into dust, sending Minako falling backwards onto the hard, grated surface. She groaned openly at the unforgiving impact, head reeling. Slowly as she regained her bearings, she finally released the chain from her bloodied, greasy hands. Blinking away the dust in her bloodshot eyes, she let out a deep, exhausted exhale.
Staring up at the darkened ceiling, she let the victory wash over her. She won. And she had barely a scratch.
Well, actually that wasn't right, she realized quickly. She was scratched all over, her arms and back couldn't remember the last time they were that sore, her twitching fingers were covered in a thick sheen of blood, and her brand new leggings were ruined beyond repair from the gash. Goddammit, she really liked those leggings. But the bronze lining was that she was alive and not mortally wounded.
It was still a victory nonetheless.
When the adrenaline had finally worn down, she leapt from the catwalk back to the main level. The landing stung her gashed leg quite a bit, but she ignored it and pressed on, not even stopping to wince.
Upon retrieving her purse, she took out her phone. Seven missed calls. Five from Ami.
She winced.
"You're where?" yelled Ami into the phone. Makoto and Rei watched anxiously from the opposite sides of the table.
"We'll come and get you...But a youma could...It did...You did...Are you...Fine...I'm at the shrine, get here as soon as possible...I've been worried sick...Alright...goodbye..." Ami hung up her phone and laid her head on the table with a huge sigh.
"Is she alright?" asked Makoto, when Ami didn't speak right away.
The bluenette looked up wearily. "She says so. But she's been in a fight. I'm going to need to borrow some stuff out of your first aid kit Rei-chan."
"A fight?" repeated Rei, a sick feeling dropping in the pit of her stomach, "With a youma?"
"Apparently," mumbled the stressed genius tiredly, "She said she would explain everything when she got here. All I know is that she had to kill a youma in the warehouse district."
Makoto leaned back in her chair. "Well, at least she's alive."
Rei held back her relief. "Shouldn't we have picked her up?"
"I asked," relayed Ami, "She said no, it's dangerous and she'd be fine. She didn't say anything else. But Minako's the one who set up the Buddy System in the first place, so I'm just going to sit here and wait." She hadn't liked it, but their leader was fairly insistent. They had to just trust in her.
"Mako-chan, can you call Usagi-chan and ask her to get Mamoru-san to drive her over here?" asked Rei. The uneasiness of Ami's voice and the throbbing in her right temple told her a big meeting was going to happen whether they liked it or not. She rose. "I'm going to go get the first aid kit."
Makoto nodded and whipped out her phone. Rei returned with the bandages in tow. Ami made no attempt to disguise her mental exhaustion. Usagi arrived with Mamoru and felines in tow. They all waited anxiously for their wayward blonde to arrive.
When she finally did, Usagi tackled her with a melodramatic display of concern and affection. Minako winced under the pressure, as her body had been more than slightly battered. She made another mental note not to bear hug injured persons in the future.
"I'm glad to see you too, Usagi-chan," Minako smiled faintly, "I'll be okay." Her expression went immediately deadpan. "But down to business."
All eyes gave rapt attention towards their leader. "I was attacked deliberately. There is no doubt about it this time. I was knocked out in an alley on my way to the hospital. This was between being buddied up with Rei-chan and Ami-chan. Whoever did this waited till I was alone to drug me in a dark spot. I woke up a few hours later, unbound in a warehouse. I was separated from my phone, and my henshin went black. I fought a youma as a civilian. It is dead, and I am alive."
"Yes, but you're injured," fussed Ami, "Your hands are a mess. I'm going to need you to wash them so that I can patch them up."
"I'll do it later." Minako pushed the doctor-to-be's hands gently aside. "Right now, it's more important that we discuss the enemy. The only reason I had stepped into that alley was because I thought I saw a Senshi."
Usagi was the first one to ask, "Why would a Senshi kidnap you and leave you to fight a youma alone?"
Minako sighed, "I have no idea. I don't know who it was. I would have guessed it to be something like a Sailor Animamate, but I swore I saw a tiara. It doesn't make sense though. I know it wasn't any of you and the Outer Senshi would never do anything like this."
"Wouldn't they?" voiced Mamoru distrustfully, "They've betrayed us before."
"Mamo-chan!" reprimanded Usagi. She slapped him in the shoulder. "They've sworn that they won't do anything like it again."
"Haruka-san and Michiru-san have betrayed us before, but this isn't their style," noted Makoto, "They were much more up front about it last time."
"Plus the obvious fact that they're on tour with Hotaru-chan right now," pointed out Ami, "I saw Michiru-san's picture in the paper from when she was recently in Hokkaido."
"Is Setsuna-san with them?" asked Rei.
The room went silent. Artemis, who hadn't yet said a word, spoke in her defense, "She has no reason to attack Minako."
Makoto thought she caught a glimpse of Luna shooting Artemis a dirty look before the black feline continued, "Setsuna-san is with them. And we will confirm that for you. For now, we should be talking about your next course of action."
"I thought about it a lot on my way here," started Minako, "I believe was specifically singled out because my powers would no longer work. Mako-chan and Ami-chan could have been coincidences, but now there's a stronger link. Whoever loses their powers gets attacked. And the next one-"
"Would logically be Rei-chan or Usagi-chan," finished Ami, blue eyes wide with horror.
Rei, who had been entertaining similar notions, was already gripping her henshin wand tightly. She had transformed earlier that day. But she knew that they would all want to see it again.
Usagi and Rei became Sailor Senshi before their eyes. Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars glanced at each other uncertainly. One of them was to be next. And there was no way to tell which until it happened.
"I think we should dissolve the buddy system," declared Minako abruptly.
"What? At a time like this?" questioned Ami.
"It's obviously not working," argued Minako, "They got me as soon as I was alone."
"But that's more of a reason for us to have to stick together right now," protested Makoto, "We should give them as little chance a possible."
"Mako-chan is right," agreed Ami, "It's one thing for me to get caught alone, but the last person I want to face off with a demon is our Princess."
"We can't protect each other like this," insisted Minako, "When Rei-chan loses her powers, is Mako-chan supposed swoop in with a baseball bat and save the day?"
"You're damn right I will!" barked Makoto.
"Minako-chan, we may not be much, but we've all survived better than we've expected," reminded Ami, "If you and I have to face a youma alone, we've proved that we can do it. But just because we can doesn't mean that we should or have to."
"If I see a goddamn youma lay one grubby finger on Rei..." started Makoto.
"You'll what? Poke it until it rips you apart?" challenged Minako. The brunette shook with anger, glaring daggers at her tightened fist. "What are you going do Mako-chan?"
"I'll fry its stupid skull!" she roared.
The bulb in the lamp shattered in the corner. The room was plunged into darkness, but they could all still see fighter's fist sparking blue-green arcs. The electric pulse trailed over her hand, illuminating the completely bewildered expression on Makoto's face.
