"Satsu?" Mercury blinked at the name confused, but it certainly meant something to Saturnalius as the senshi had completely snapped.
She narrowed her eyes at Waniko. "I knew I recognized you, Crocoite!" Saturnalius hissed, steaming. Her arm was badly wounded from the attack defending one of the students from Crocoite's attack, but that didn't truly matter anymore.
Saturnalius was plagued, maybe even cursed, with information no one else had. She remembered the past in detail. She remembered the fall of the kingdoms of the Eclipse Guardians, the way they were destroyed from the inside out, the way the Shadow Galaxy had simply decimated them one by one in the most painful manner possible. For Saturnalius, Crocoite was personally responsible for destroying Satsu, Saturnalius's past self.
"We sure had a lot of fun in the past, didn't we, Satsu," Crocoite smirked. "I'll simply have to kill you again."
"Like hell you will!" Saturnalius seethed. Crossing her arms in front of her, one hand reaching across to her opposing shoulder, the other to the opposing hip, she began gathering an immense amount of power, diamonds gathering at both hands before she shifted her stance to a more open one. Drawing one hand back as she pitched a few explosive diamonds at Crocoite. "Purple Diamond Crash!" They missed, impacting with the floor, blowing out part of the nearby window and destroying whatever stood in their way. One managed to hit Crocoite, nearly destroying her arm on impact.
Even across the room, Mercury could feel the amount of power she was generating. With a twist of her earring, she brought up her visor to analyze her power. The readings were off the chart and only rising to even more dangerous levels. An attack with that force behind it could easily level the entire block.
Thinking quickly, Mercury leapt forward, taking Saturnalius's rear arm into her own, hugging it tightly. Saturnalius was much stronger than her, but at least she could deter the attack. "Saturnalius, please stop!"
"The hell do you think you're doing?!" Saturnalius hissed. "Let go. Now."
Mercury shook her head. "I can't let you do this. With the power levels you have now, You'll take down this entire building, maybe even this entire block. There are innocent lives here! As senshi, it's our duty to protect them!"
Duty. She was right of course. Saturnalius paused for a moment, letting her head cool down. "Dammit." She'd let her own anger get in the way, an anger about the past, the pain that plagued her mind every time she transformed into Saturnalius. The only way to be rid of it was to fulfill her duties, she thought, to destroy the Shadow Galaxy and prevent them from summoning Chaos to this world. It was the only logical reasoning.
Saturnalius looked back up only to see Crocoite had fled. "Damn, she's gone." She shook Mercury off her arm.
"I don't know what happened, but I can see that the Shadow Galaxy has clearly hurt you," Mercury spoke up. "But you don't have to do this alone. Please, let us fight with you."
Saturnalius gave Mercury a rather flat, unimpressed expression. "It's not my duty to make friends."
Mercury poked Saturnalius in the shoulder, frustrated. "As a strategist, surely you can see that joining us would really help stop the Shadow Galaxy! You have knowledge we don't! It could easily turn the tides to our favor!"
Saturnalius could easily see her point. "Heh, you truly are my rival," she noted, "but understand this. I can't talk about what I know yet." She turned to pick up her bag. As she began to walk out the door, she returned to her civilian form and simply left Mercury dumbfounded.
...
"Wait wait wait, you're saying, you know who Saturnalius really is?" Minako asked, dumbfounded. "Who is it? Who?"
Ami shook her head. "I think it's best not to say yet. I think she wants to be left alone for a while longer. The Shadow Galaxy did something horrible to her and to someone named Satsu. I offered our help but she quickly refused it."
Usagi frowned sympathetically. "I wish she would become our friend. Then she wouldn't have to suffer alone. We could help her." By the way Ami described it, Saturnalius was carrying a heavy weight and was seriously at risk for an attack. Crocoite had specifically called Saturnalius out, threatening to kill her.
"Everyone, I have an idea," Usagi spoke up after a moment of contemplation.
Rei raised an eyebrow. It wasn't like Usagi to come up with ideas, but she had an understanding of people and friendship stronger than anyone else in the group.
"I want to reach out to her," Usagi continued. "Ami-chan, if you can talk her into it, we can all meet as senshi. That way she doesn't have to reveal her identity, and we can all talk as friends and allies. Maybe we can learn how they hurt her and how we can help. Right, everyone?"
The rest of the table met her question and suggestion with a nod of approval.
"Any time, whenever she's ready, we'll be there to meet her."
...
Meanwhile in Shinjuku, Crocoite had holed herself away in her personal corner of the building. Her arm had sustained an extremely fierce attack, one which she wasn't entirely sure she could recover from.
"That looks bad," Doxite frowned.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Crocoite shot back, wrapping the wound up with some gauze. "That power source you sent me after turned out to be Sailor Saturnalius. An interesting twist, given how I destroyed her in the past."
Doxite didn't have much memory of the past, if any. Yet the lack of memories didn't bother him remotely. He had a job to do and would carry it out without question.
"I may have lost function of this arm," Crocoite smirked. "But she'll lose her life. I'll see to it personally."