Chapter 10-The Talismans
Day after day, battle after battle, Haruka and I hadn't found the talismans. With each passing day, as we felt the Silence approaching, we got more and more restless.
Sailor Pluto, reincarnated as Setsuna, came to visit us the other day. It was the first time we met in person but we felt close to each other. Having seeing each other every night in the premonition, it was like seeing an old friend again.
She had been secretly tracking us, watching us from the space-time gate. She encouraged us to cooperate with the Sailor Scouts as much as possible without revealing our final plan. The scouts knew we were prepared to sacrifice the humans with the talismans hidden inside their pure hearts, but they did not know we were also prepared to sacrifice one more person. Setsuna knew that the Messiah of Silence was hiding inside another human. Once the three talismans were in place, it would conjure up the Holy Grail. According to legends, it had infinite power. If the Holy Grail fell into the Messiah of Silence, then the world would end. If we could kill the Messiah of Silence before it got to that point, then we would have a chance to stop the apocalypse before it happened. Setsuna also urged us to keep an eye out for the Messiah of Light, the one and only who can bear the power of the Holy Grail and save the world.
In one particular battle, while trying to save a girl name Minako, Eugeal, one of the five witches, learned about our true identities. In a surprising turn of event, we also learned the identities of the rest of the scouts and that Minako was Sailor Venus. We were saddened to learn that Usagi-chan was Sailor Moon. Usagi-chan was a girl we met and quickly became friends with. Haruka shamelessly flirted with her and Minako-chan initially. She was always amused by how easy she could make straight girls question their own sexual orientations. Our civilian lives were intertwined from that day on. For some reason, we kept running into each other. In hindsight, it must have been destiny.
The day after our identities were revealed, we got an invite from the enemy. Eugeal claimed that she had found one of the talisman owners. Haruka and I had been seeing it in our premonition, that we would soon reach the final stage of our mission. We thought Eugeal's invite could be a trap but it was a trap we had to walk into nonetheless.
"Haruka…what are we going to do with Sailor Moon? If she continued to muddle with our plans, we might lose… I wanted to believe her when she said she could save the world without sacrificing anyone, but I couldn't let her sway me from the mission."
It was then we decided to do the most despicable thing we could ever think of. We called Usagi-chan and lured her to the aquarium. She came running in, beaming with her usual excitement.
"Don't show yourself in front of us ever again. I won't allow you to slow us down with your half-baked playwar," Haruka said. I watched as the smile vanished from Usagi-chan's face. A shadow of sadness cast over her eyes. Haruka walked up to her and ripped her transformation brooch away. I turned my head so I didn't have to see Usagi's expression. We stripped away her power. We assaulted her. It was betrayal at the highest level. Yet we must carry on.
We turned and walked away. On the way to the helicopter, Haruka grabbed my hand and gave me a squeeze. The premonition had prepared us for this moment. We would walk into the Marine Cathedral and defeat the enemy. We would grab the talisman and then leave. That innocent person would die. I flashed back to when I first learned I killed my parents. That stabbing pain in the heart, the immense guilt and shame that washed over me, Haruka would feel it too. Her hands would soon be tainted.
I stopped walking. Haruka turned to see why I stopped. "Neptune..we have to hurry."
I put one finger on her lips, stopping her from talking. Then I kissed her passionately on the lips. At least in hell, she would be with me.
"Neptune. We won't die today. I promise."
"Just in case, Uranus. Now, let's go."