The Return of Sailor V: Chapter Eleven

by Vchanny

All characters are copyright of the talented Naoko Tacheuchi. I own nothing.

~*~V~*~

Minako winced as she took the impact of jumping in front of a charging Rei.

V here. Sometimes, giving your spare key to a hot tempered friend is not the best idea. Give it to your reliable bookworm friend, or the one who makes cookies. Cookies will make you feel better about locking yourself out anyway.

"Rei, stop!"

The scene in front of him nearly left Kudret speechless. Minako was pinning the fire priestess' arms to her sides, using all the strength she had to keep her from advancing forward. Spurts of flames could be seen flickering from the raven haired girl's fingertips. Instinctively, he wanted to put himself in-between the two; to protect her. But, he was well aware of who this girl was and what she was capable of. Decedent of the God of War himself, Rei was no push over, and maybe for the time being, Minako should handle this. His intrusion might cause more harm than good.

"He is the enemy! Let me go!"

"No! Rei, calm down! I can explain!"

Disgust merged with the rage on her face, "I swear to God, Minako! You've done some hair-brained things before involving guys, but this just about tops it!"

"That's enough," he stated with all the sense of authority he could muster. So much for letting her handle this.

Rei stopped trying to escape Minako's grasp, which for a moment left Minako hopeful, but then Rei spoke. "I don't take orders from you," she seethed. "And I don't know why you are even standing here. I watched you die."

Nope, Minako wasn't letting go yet.

Kudret let go of the luggage he had been tasked with, and raised his hands in front of him, palms forward, as a sign of peace, hoping to calm the girl before him. "I don't mean any harm, Miss Hino."

Rei scowled. "How do you know my name?" She shot a glare at Minako. "Did you tell him the princesses name, too? How can you trust him!? You are impossible!"

Minako steeled herself, keeping her expression as calm as possible, even though she wanted to shake Rei. "I need you to calm down. Promise me you will behave yourself. We can sit down and talk about this. I need you to promise me. Can you do that?"

Rei stood silent for a moment, shifting her glance over to Kudret once, looking him over, trying to decide if he was a threat or not, before looking back to Minako and giving half a nod.

"You need to say it." She wouldn't let go until she heard the words.

Rei's expression was incredulous, but she gave in. "Fine. I promise. Happy?"

Minako stared into Rei's eyes a moment before letting her go. She could hear Kudret let out a breath of relief behind her. Rei might be off the warpath, but the tension was still thick enough to cut with a knife. "Let's sit." Minako gestured to the couch and chair, and waited for Rei to take a seat first before following.

Kudret took the opportunity to get all the bags inside and finally shut the door before joining them. He did not sit next to Minako, however. He decided to stand a bit back against the wall, to give the two girls some space, but be close enough to answer questions if needed, or help clarify, not that he thought Rei would care what he had to say. Sitting next to her, as much as he wanted to, might set Rei off. So, there he stood, intently listening.

"Where should I start?" Minako said, mostly to herself, as she leaned forward a bit, hands clasped.

Rei's arms were crossed, her glaring eyes looking over Minako to Kudret. "How about why is he standing in your apartment?" she asked flatly.

Minako smirked. Classic Rei. "He was carrying my luggage."

Her smirk was met with a scowl. "And why was he doing that?"

"Because we were on the same flight, and we were on our way to the same location after this."

"And there is where?"

Minako suddenly felt like she was being interrogated by her mother or something, and she couldn't help her response. "To Jadeite's."

Flames flashed in Rei's eyes.

"Calm down, Rei," Minako shook her head, smiling a bit, and leaned back into her seat, relaxing her posture a bit, even though she was far from relaxed. She wouldn't be relaxed until she thought Rei was pacified. "If you will just listen, for a second, I might be able to explain all of this. And then you can stop being so grumpy."

"I resent that." Her voice was still daggers, but Rei, too, had relaxed back in her seat a little.

"Yeah, you would. Now, promise not to interrupt."

A short period of time later, which may have actually been shorter, had Rei not interrupted her narrative, Minako explained how that night at the warehouse led her to Jadeite's real estate business, slash ruse to get her attention, had led her to aide him in his quest to awaken the three other Shittenou. She recounted how they found each of them, and how she was sure, through her time with them, that all traces of Metalia and Beryl were not present in them. Artemis was even, she added, scanning them all now over in Jun's flat, just to make sure, before she presented them to Mamoru.

"So, just like that, you trust them?" Rei nearly spat.

"Rei, I know that this is a lot to take in. And I know you don't want to believe it, but they were not always bad."

Rei rolled her eyes, crossing her arms once more. "Here you go again, throwing your memories in everyone's face. I don't care if you say that we all used to be friends."

"Oh, you were all more than friends..."

"Can it." She shot Minako a threatening glare.

"I can't help that you don't remember." Minako shrugged and then paused before continuing. "Regardless, they are back. They are absent of dark influences. Doesn't Mamoru-san deserve to make the final call? Crystal Tokyo is coming. Maybe he wants his guard back."

Rei leaned in, lowering her voice, glancing over to the ever-so-silent Kudret once before looking Minako dead in the eye. "We saw the future. They weren't there, Minako. There were no Shittenou in Crystal Tokyo."

Minako reached over and grabbed Rei's hand, giving it a slight squeeze. "Time lines change. Ask Setsuna. I don't know what happened, but this is our reality now. Can you accept it? Can you at least not incinerate it before I get to talk to Usa and Mamoru about it?" she added in exasperation.

Rei considered Minako's words for a moment. She thought of her princess. Usagi, despite her better judgment, would probably be just as accepting as Minako. And she would probably be quite sad if Rei wiped the existence of the Shittenou off the face of the Earth, especially before she had the chance to meet them and decide herself. Rei wouldn't be able to deal with that kind of guilt. Damn blondes. "Fine."

Minako smiled and stood. "Good. It is settled then. You wanna come to Jun's with us?"

Rei deadpanned, before shaking her head and walking toward the door, barely even waving a dismissive goodbye.

"You know you want to!" Minako called out after her teasingly, as she closed the door behind her. The blonde chuckled, then turned to the other occupant in the room. "That Rei, huh?"

Kudret shook his head and joined her from his spot against the wall. "She is a bit intense, I'll admit. Nothing new there. I would expect no less from the Senshi of fire."

"That's Rei," Minako shrugged, throwing her hands up a little for effect. She was shocked as he grabbed her arm, and began examining it. "What?"

"You're burned."

"She didn't mean to." She pulled her arm from his grasp and began to walk to the luggage, in an effort to shift the conversation elsewhere. "It'll heal. I'm fine. Let's, uh, get this put away so we can meet up with the others. They are going to start to get suspicious soon if we don't show up. I can just imagine-" she was cut off as Kudret placed his hand over hers.

"The luggage can wait."

Confused, she began to say something, but was cut off when his lips pressed against hers.

~*~V~*~

"Mina-chan!" a voice squealed over the music in the tiny club. Moments later, Minako was assaulted with hugs from her bubbly princess.

"Usagi!" she returned the embrace, holding onto her maybe just a second longer than needed. If there had been one thing nagging at her the entire time she was gone, it was leaving Usa. It never seemed to matter who she left in charge, or how many people were around to protect her, Minako never felt right leaving Usagi for long. "It's so good to see you!"

"I'm glad your trip was over in time to make it," she beamed, grabbing Minako's hand and leading her in the direction of their group of friends. "Everyone is so excited you're back."

The two girls giggled and chatted as they made their way to the gathering. Usagi had reserved a private section near the back of the place. In it were a few round booths surrounded by dark colored drapes, creating a very secluded vibe. All their friends were piled in, drinks scattered among the table, mixed in with a few trays of food she was sure Mako had managed to bring in with her. Mamoru sat near the center, a spot next to him empty, which she assumed was for Usagi. On his other side sat Motoki, who was the only other male present. For now, she chuckled to herself. She was getting giddy the closer this reunion got. Mako and Ami, rounded out that table. As she got closer, she could see around the corner that had hidden the second booth. In it, sat Rei, who shot a devious grin as she caught eyes with Minako. Next to her sat, Haruka and Michiru.

Crap.

"Look who could make it!" Usagi beamed, pointing to the couple. "Last minute, Ruka sent me a message that they'd be in town. I'm so happy! Now, we're only missing Setsuna and Hotaru. But, Hotaru is a little young, I suppose, and Setsuna is super busy. They are going to meet us later this week... You should come! It's been so long since we've all been together."

"Of course!" Usagi's rambling over, Minako quickly said hello and hugged everyone at Mamoru's table before getting ready to take a seat next to Rei. Rei's face was still plastered with an obnoxious grin.

"Last minute, huh?" Minako said quietly in Rei's direction, while she adjusted her skirt and took a seat.

"Yup."

The waitress came, seeing there was a new arrival and took her drink order.

"And you didn't think to tell me?"

Rei sipped from her cocktail straw. "There's no fun in that."

Touche. Luckily, Minako was quick on her feet. She excused herself to go use the restroom, declining several offers to go with her. How she managed to break the unspoken rule of going to the bathroom in numbers, she would never know. She also knew that she may have drawn suspicion to herself, so instead of stopping at the table the guys had managed to snag for themselves, as they waited for her signal to approach, she shook her head quickly as she glanced over and made her way to the restroom.

Once inside, she closed the door to a stall and pulled out her phone. Jun had already sent her a message.

What's going on? That didn't look like a "come on over to the table" signal.

Abort. Mission aborted.

What? Why?

Haruka is here.

Who?

Ask Kudret.

You think she'd cause a scene?

Haha, you don't know her. Let's not lose Usagi's security deposit. I think it's better we go with plan b.

~*~V~*~

Kudret sighed and took another sip from his glass, while Jun tapped away on the screen on his phone. Nate shifted in his seat, and Zack tried his hardest to look disinterested, but he knew the poor guy's anxiety must be through the roof.

This was the reason he never came. Well, one of them. Mostly, he wanted to do as much as he could to make a dent in the world for good before he presented himself to his former master. He needed something to show for himself, that he was changed, and had repented for his sins. He needed to show he was a good man again. That he could be trusted to do the right thing. He hadn't really felt like he'd made it to that point yet, but fate decided to throw him a curveball in the form of Jun awakening on his own, so there was no helping that. He took another drink.

The other reason he hadn't showed up sooner, was he didn't want to put Minako through this. As much as he wanted to see her, to hold her, to beg for forgiveness from her, he didn't want to see her struggle to convince her friends to accept him back. He had always been quite certain she, the prince and the princess would accept him, but he was never sure about the others. He knew her, and he knew she would do everything she could to make this work, and to be as perfect and flawless as possible, without evoking the authority of the prince and princess to make everyone get along. These girls would do anything her highness requested, even begrudgingly.

He knew she hadn't stopped thinking about this for days now. She'd planned everything so precisely. Where they would sit. How long they would wait. What they would say. What they would do if any of several scenarios played out. Even this right now. Even though they'd only just arrived, they were going to finish their drinks, Jun, the least conspicuous of the group would pay the tab, and they would meet with Minako at the rendezvous point when she sent the text. Which meant a lot of waiting on their part, but she had insisted that the Senshi of Uranus was not to be messed with, and she did not intend on ruining Mamoru's party. This had been made quite clear to him earlier. So, despite being ready to meet their prince in this life, they had all agreed to follow her lead.

Minako had a way of making people do what she wanted, he thought fondly.

He watched a mess of blonde hair glide back across the room, and Jun shoved his phone back into his trousers.

"So, we leaving?" the sandy blonde hair man asked.

"You can finish your drinks."

Zack shook his head no. Nate finished his in a single gulp. Jun pushed his away, and stated simply he wasn't worried about it. And so, the group of three men made their way out as quickly as they seemed to arrive, not daring to cast a glance backward, as to not be seen. Jun, however, knowing what had happened the day prior, purposely glanced over while waiting for his card to be ran through the machine. When violet eyes met his, he winked before turning away and exiting. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the miko shift every so uncomfortably in her seat, and he grinned wildly as he met up with his bothers waiting outside.

~*~V~*~

AN: I make you wait all this time, and there still isn't a reunion...

I will be honest, I made it to this last paragraph, and I thought about it, but I think this is an alright stopping point. It might get too long, if I did. And, I apologize if you were hoping for an encounter with Haruka. Maybe in the coming chapters. She has to find out eventually. It could be quite entertaining.

I'm planning on more fun stuff, I just have to trudge through this reunion first. Maybe trudge isn't the best word., but I can't think of another way to describe it right now. All this seriousness is kind of sucking the fun away. Anyway. . Again, apologies for the wait. And apologies for the lackluster chapter.

Thank you for all the new reviews and follows. I appreciate it! I'd like to say this erratic update schedule isn't normal for you new guys... but it is. Ha.