Chapter 29: Resurgence of the Planets of Ice
"Okay, so… What do we do now?" Rei asked in a low whisper as she stared at her leader with pleading eyes.
"I have no idea, Rei-chan. I truly don't," Minako answered softly. A small, confused sigh pushed through and escaped her lips as she shoved her empty glass to the middle of the table and rested her head on the smooth, light-pink surface.
Her palpable anxiety was fully understood and shared by her tablemates. Their immediate goal was to somehow retrieve the Silver Crystal from the transformation brooch they had seized from Usagi, but all of their attempts to do so had ended in complete failure. They contemplated using their magical attacks to break open the incredibly solid brooch. Venus's Rolling Heart Vibration might have had far more force behind it than a sledgehammer, but the fact that the sledgehammer didn't even dent the object or leave the tiniest scratch on its gleaming surface tempered their expectations. However, the group's concerns went far beyond what to do with the brooch. Even if they somehow—miraculously—managed to obtain the Silver Crystal, there was the significant and hitherto unsolved issue of actually locating the princess. Without her, there was no point to any of their previous actions. The Dark Kingdom had far more information about the whereabouts of their ruler than any of their shrinking number possessed. That was an untenable situation that they had no clue how to correct, especially without the brilliant mind of Ami to help them.
"How did she know?" Makoto asked randomly, referencing the improbable fact that Ami's mother knew her child had died before any of them relayed to her the sad news.
"Maybe she could just feel her absence," Minako suggested with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I hear that some mothers have a sort of sixth sense like that, where they can feel things happening with their children without knowing exactly what it is."
"I doubt it. That sort of psychic power is rare," Rei said authoritatively with an annoyed glare pointed at the blonde.
"You're not the only psychic around, Rei-chan," Minako replied with only the slightest hint of a wry smile on her lips. "Besides, we're not talking about anything approaching your powers. Just feelings."
"I guess…" Rei said in resignation as she pointed her eyes down at the table. "But it still doesn't explain why she was so cold toward us."
"Maybe she was just stressed out from all the grieving," Makoto offered. She dared to point her eyes up from the table and make fleeting glances at her two comrades. "She had figured out her daughter had died—and I can't think of much worse things than losing your family—and we come and remind her of that very traumatic thing." She pointed her eyes back down at the table and sighed deeply.
"You would think, though, that she would find some comfort in having Ami's friends there, right?" Rei asked.
"Yeah…" Minako said with her voice trailing away. She shook her head and slowly pushed herself up from the seat. "Anyway, I think we should get back to the shrine and try to think about what we're going to do next."
The other two girls solemnly nodded and joined their leader in pushing themselves up from the cushioned seats and onto their feet. The miserable group slowly walked down the steps from Crown Fruit Parlor into Crown Arcade. They shuffled between the game machines and the multitude of young customers and headed for the door. Minako, being the first in line of the train of bemused senshi, opened the door and almost collided headlong into a much taller man with dark hair entering through the same door. The other two girls failed to notice the blonde's abrupt halt and crashed into the back of her, sending the convoy of girls careening into the man. All three of them immediately climbed to their feet and apologetically offered to help the unknown gentleman stand upright. Only then did they realize who it was they bowled over.
"I'm so sorry for knocking you over, mis—Mamoru-san!" Minako exclaimed when she recognized his black hair and dark-blue eyes.
"Mamoru-san, um… how are you, uh, doing this afternoon?" Rei asked innocently. The question came out awkwardly as she did not know whether or not he was aware of Ami's fate.
Mamoru turned his sullen eyes toward their violet counterparts that gazed at the man with a combination of consternation and surprise. He had wanted to talk with the girls ever since witnessing the unexpected and, in his mind, deplorable events that occurred when he arrived at the park after Ami's death. The timely collision gave him an opportunity to exactly that.
"Minako-san, Makoto-san, Rei-san," Mamoru started in a soft voice, "could you come to my apartment with me so we can talk? I'm fairly sure you know what it's about."
All three girls nodded in unison in response to Mamoru's request. They had pretty much nothing but time, so it was no hassle for them to speak with the boyfriend of their departed comrade. Furthermore, he might have had insight into how to access the crystal steadfastly locked within Usagi's transformation brooch. None of the girls imagined that having the conversation would hurt. So, they waited for Mamoru as he quickly swept through the arcade, giving a quick nod and wave to Motoki, before walking back to the entrance to lead the three senshi to his apartment.
—|1|2|3|4|5|6|—
She urged her feet to move as quickly as they possibly could the moment her garnet eyes spotted the unmistakable golden blond pigtails that only could have belonged to one individual. For some reason unknown to her, the young girl had allowed herself to be escorted by the older woman adorned in pink scrubs and wearing jet-black hair. The moment she saw the pair march down the street, away from the hospital where the girl's family was ensconced, she knew something had gone very, very wrong. She could see, and sense, that the woman dressed as a nurse clearly was not either a nurse or a human, and that the blonde knew the exact same thing. Thus, she turned on her heels and began her pursuit of the pair, being careful to maintain her distance from the two while keeping them well within her sight.
Her level of concern increased with each step she took away from Juuban Second General Hospital. Soon she was outside of Juuban district, far away from where she knew her target and, more importantly, her ward belonged.
"Why on Earth are they traveling so far?" she pondered as she pushed herself around a pair of pedestrians walking dead in her path.
The distance traversed slowly increased, at least half of a mile covered as the blonde and the raven walked an almost-circuitous route through the northern section of Roppongi. Along the way, she could tell that the girl was struggling to maintain her pace or even properly move her legs. Her imposing captor almost had to hold the younger one upright in order to force her to their ultimate destination. At no time during their march did any of the passersby seem to have a clue what was happening right around them. That ignorance was both a hindrance and an advantage to her.
The pair turned a corner to the right, and a few seconds later she followed suit, carefully trailing them by about twenty or thirty feet. Her distance was calculated just so, ensuring that she could feel the lovely, warm radiance of the blonde and the cold, nauseating darkness of the woman who forcefully escorted her without giving away her own position. She blended as best as she could into the crowd of people who were sight-seeing or shopping or just walking about on the cool and cloudy afternoon. However, just like the targets she tracked, she was not like any of the bystanders. She exuded her own energy that, despite not being as intense as that emitted by either being she followed, was powerful and a sure beacon of her presence. If she strayed too close to either of them, she would instantly reveal herself and her intentions and put the girl at tremendous risk.
Suddenly, the two came to a stop next to the fence bordering the construction site of what would eventually become a high-rise apartment complex. At that time, it extended ten stories into the sky. She knew that, once the construction firm settled its legal woes and secured new funding some fifteen months later, the edifice would eventually become a twenty-floor structure. She knew other details of the building's troubled future, but she put that to the back of her mind as she stopped at the intersection, averted her gaze so that she wouldn't inadvertently attract attention, and concentrated on the energy signatures from the two. The moment they proceeded through the gate and onto the grounds of the construction site, she walked down the street and to the gate. She wondered how no one could be concerned or even interested at the sight of a young girl and woman entering the restricted grounds of a construction zone. However, if the pair attracted nobody's attention, then she knew she would be just as anonymous. She gradually pushed open the gate and slinked silently off of the pavement and onto the rough dirt.
From that point, her task of tracking them became more difficult as she witnessed the two enter the building. As long as she was on the same plane as them, she could easily keep an eye on them and feel their unconsciously emitted energy. Once she entered the building, the only thing she could easily sense would be their energy, and even then it would be muted by the thick concrete floors of the building. If she moved too quickly and rashly, she risked stumbling too close to the pair and being detected by the evil being she determined to be an agent of the Dark Kingdom. Doing so would cause her to fail miserably at her vital mission, and the mysterious senshi of time was unaccustomed to such blatant failure. As much as a part of her desperately wished to remain close to her princess, she knew better than to risk completion of her primary assignment because of such petty desires.
She slowly walked through the front entrance of the incomplete building. With every footstep she took beyond the glass doorway, she clearly heard the unambiguous reverberation of her heels against hard concrete. That was untenable and unnecessarily risky. She reached down and deftly slipped her shoes off her feet. The completion of her mission far outweighed personal comfort, and, in any case, whatever injuries she sustained by accidentally stepping on the scattered bits of building materials and equipment would heal quickly. She stealthily proceeded up the stairs, slowly feeling around each level for any trace of her princess and her captor.
When she reached the sixth floor she felt an intense amount of dark energy, far greater than what she had discerned from the lone creature she pursued for so long and immediately knew that another enemy was present. She closed her eyes and concentrated on disambiguating the mixture of negative energies in order to identify the other opponent her princess had to encounter. However, loud shouting that permeated the room and filtered down the hallway obviated the need for her to struggle with such a task and readily provided to her the answer. It was the surprised exclamations of Kunzite, and by his words he clearly was displeased at his purported associate and not the girl. She opened her eyes and crept closer to the origin of the angry yell, hugging the wall and straining to feel the positive radiance from her princess. A loud crash of some object being smashed hard against concrete momentarily stunned and froze her, but she soon recovered and pushed closer to the room she knew her princess and the two beings threatening her occupied.
A bright golden light burst through the open door of the room and flooded the hallway. It was soon followed by the intense roar of a strong, swirling wind that rumbled down the corridor. All pretenses of subtlety and secrecy went out the window the moment she saw the blast of light, and she sprinted as quickly as she could to the door. The instant she reached the threshold of the room, but before she could turn her eyes to peer into the unexpected darkness, the light dissipated and the wind died down. No longer could she feel the precious warmth of her princess or the frightening chill of Kunzite and the mysterious woman. Instead, there was utter silence and complete emptiness within the room, and she immediately knew that her princess no longer was within her reach and was far from safety. She also knew that what occurred to the teenage girl was inevitable and could not have been prevented despite her attempts to closely watch over the blonde.
"It seems that this part of her fate was unavoidable after all," she mused sadly as she turned and rushed out of the building.
Her identity as the enigmatic senshi responsible for monitoring and protecting the flow of time enabled her to learn much about the future of the planet and its inhabitants. That was not to say that she had outright knowledge of every possible event that could occur to every individual. For some things, like the fate of the apartment complex she hurriedly exited, her knowledge was absolute, but that was a rarity. More often, it was of a game of probabilities, where certain events had a higher chance of occurrence than others, but those inevitably were linked to the details of past incidents. That often led to sudden shifts in the predicted futures of people and places, and it were those shifts that kept her on her toes and interested in her duty.
However, there were the ambiguous cases that especially strained her capabilities to foresee the future. The principal example was that of her leader and princess, for whom she could not predict a single event for much of the girl's existence. When she led the spirit of Queen Serenity to her daughter, there was no single future event that held a higher prospect of occurrence relative to any of the others. Indubitably, that gave the individual great power over her fate, but it also meant that everything else was dependent upon the choices of that person. And, when that person was Princess Serenity, the outcomes of her decisions held tremendous consequences.
Soon after the final reunion between mother and daughter, she began to observe one uniform destiny for the young princess. There remained enormous ambiguity about her immediate future, which prevented her from learning ahead of time the resolution of the conflict between the girl and what ultimately would become her former friends. It also inhibited her ability to know what would befall the other senshi, as the girls inexorably were linked to one another at such a profound level that none of them would understand for a long time. Furthermore, there was great doubt about the future of the princess after the singular predicted event. However, every sign she could observe from every method of prediction available to her pointed to the incident that began with the capture and disappearance of the princess.
She bolted through the gate and sprinted down the street to the corner, low-heeled shoes still in one hand. Her free hand reached out to hail the first vacant taxi she could find. The silver-painted Crown Comfort sedan pulled over to the side of the street and she reached for the door handle before the vehicle could come to a complete stop. The tall woman leaped into the rear seat, slammed the door shut, and directed the driver to proceed to Juuban Second General Hospital without delay. The driver complied and accelerated away from the street corner. She slumped into the soft cushions of the expansive rear bench seat, her long dark-green hair falling about her distressed face, and sighed deeply. Her behavior was far from the stoic, mysterious being she presented to others, but this was a special situation, and the normally calm and unshakable Setsuna Meiou would have to wait for another time.
—|1|2|3|4|5|6|—
Saeko slowly snapped her cell phone shut and slid it into her sweater pocket. About a minute prior she had received a brief text message from Usagi. Anyone else reading the message would have assumed the doctor was holding some sort of celebration to which the young girl unfortunately could not attend. Celebrating, however, was far from the first thing on the woman's mind, and she inherently recognized the message was actually a code, likely typed and sent under duress. The intent of the message was unmistakable: she was to immediately enact the plan they had developed for secretly spiriting Usagi's family out of the hospital. Despite agreeing to follow the wishes of the young girl whose family she left in the doctor's care, Saeko could not help but feel sick about the series of events. She wasn't alone with the sentiment.
"So, does that mean Usagi's…?" Shingo asked hesitantly, tears forming at the base of his eyes. The normally cocky boy could not fathom the possibility that he might never again see his sister.
"I don't know," Saeko replied with uncertainty in her voice. "I have no idea what happened to her… or what will happen to her."
"The only thing we can do now is believe in Usagi. Believe in her and that everything will be alright," Ikuko said with sagacity and calmness although she was just as anxious as everyone else in the room.
Saeko gradually released a deep breath as she attempted to maintain what little composure she had. Even though Usagi was not her daughter, she was Ami's best friend and first true friend, and she did not want to lose another girl for whom she cared deeply. Yet, she also made a promise to Usagi that, no matter what, she would carry out the plan. Breaking promises was not in her character. So it was no surprise when she stood up from the chair and walked slowly, yet steadily and with great determination, to Ikuko's bedside.
"I believe in your daughter," Saeko said resolutely as she steadfastly gazed at Ikuko with warm auburn eyes. She paused momentarily before continuing. "I have the special transfer forms in my office. It doesn't take very long to complete them. I will need the signatures of the hospital's chief physician and other, um… bureaucrats, but I think I can easily get around that," she said with a mischievous smile at the end.
"Normally I would question your ethics and warn you that you're not being a very good example for my son, but given the precarious situation I think I'll give you a pass this time," Ikuko said with a similarly wry smile.
Saeko nodded and gave a wink at Ikuko and Shingo before leaving the room and hurrying to her office to fill out the official documents with all the required and correct information and signatures—even the sections which she could not legitimately complete.
—|1|2|3|4|5|6|—
"Did you just feel something strange?" Michiru asked innocently as she turned into the elevator, her fingers intertwined with Haruka's.
"What, with Koneko-chan?" Haruka answered playfully, knowing the pet name she created for Usagi would agitate her lover. The momentary glare from Michiru informed her she was successful and she chuckled for a few seconds. However, as the cab of the elevator slowly ascended, she turned very serious. "Yes, actually, I did feel something different with Tsukino-san."
"She looked as if she was going to approach us before she started talking with that nurse," Michiru whispered pensively, her voice low enough so that only Haruka could hear her. "I don't know why, but whenever she's anywhere close to me I can feel this warm, tender energy."
Haruka nodded and her teal eyes narrowed. "I felt the same thing too. It's as though I'm drawn to her, but it's different from any attraction I've ever felt for anyone."
The metal elevator doors slowly opened when they reached the seventh floor of the hospital and the pair strode into the hallway. They were on the way to the patient's room where Haruka was held overnight for further examinations to collect their belongings and return home. A second examination that morning had satisfied the doctors of Haruka's good health following the crash that the blonde had described as minor. Given her profession as a racing driver and the inevitable crashes that she had endured as a novice in the sport, crashes that had occurred at much higher speeds, she felt that the doctors were being extraordinarily cautious. Cautious and annoying. She couldn't wait to leave, and neither could her Michiru. Yet, she felt compelled to wait a few more hours before departing the hospital for two reasons. The first was that she wanted to drive herself home—she was a driver and not a passenger, after all. Repairs on the minor damage her Skyline sustained wouldn't take very long, but in effect it did delay the pair through the afternoon. The other reason, one that was confusing and becoming increasingly so every minute, was that odd sensation she and Michiru felt immediately after encountering Usagi.
"What do you think we should do?" Haruka inquired as she retrieved a small bag that held the change of clothes that she had packed for a completely different purpose than a hospital stay.
"I don't know," Michiru admitted softly. "I don't know who or what she is, or why I'm so unusually concerned about her." She sighed as she bent down to lift the brown, rectangular case that held the only other thing she considered precious besides her Haruka. She then turned her cobalt-blue eyes to her partner's waiting gaze. "Something deep inside tells me that she's in trouble," she said ominously.
Haruka stood before Michiru with her brow furrowed in deep contemplation. "What kind of trouble, and what does it have to do with us?" she asked with a lowered pitch to her voice.
"I'm not sure, but I feel we somehow are able to help her," Michiru replied in a brooding whisper. She turned her eyes away from Haruka and through the window and into the darkening sky. "I think it's related to those visions that we both received when we first met her."
Haruka slowly nodded. They had discussed at length the strangeness of their introductions with the young blonde the previous night and could not figure out what any of the images that exploded onto their minds meant. Eventually, they set the issue aside and relaxed for the night, together as had always been the case when they realized their profound love for one another. However, the fleeting sight of the girl that afternoon reignited their curiosity and concerns and once again left them perplexed.
"Whatever it is, I don't think we can really do much for her until we see her again," Michiru said in the same contemplative tone.
Haruka's gaze lingered on the blank stare that Michiru pointed at the glass for a few seconds before she leisurely approached her turquoise-haired darling and put an arm around her waist. "If there's nothing we can do, then I think we shouldn't waste much time thinking about it," she whispered into Michiru's ear.
Michiru gently rested her head against the sandy-blond woman's shoulder. "You're right," she agreed mellifluously as she let herself fall closer into her love's embrace. She then looked up at her with a mischievous smile. "Now that you're being kicked out of here, you're free to buy me lunch."
"Hey, I'm the one who was 'injured!'" Haruka responded with a playful tone of faux complaint that further was belied by the resplendent smile that followed.
"I'll have no pity for the weak," Michiru replied with a slight pout as she lifted her head and gave Haruka a deft wink.
The blonde saw in those perfectly positioned lips before her the perfect invitation to have a romantic kiss and bent her head down to provide exactly that. Her eyes widened in surprise as her partner slipped away right before their lips could meet. The ever-graceful Michiru shook her head, pulled away from the looming pucker, pirouetted around Haruka's body in such a way that they ended up standing arm-in-arm, and stood on her toes with her lips near her companion's ear.
"Not until after lunch," she whispered before pulling away with a wide grin.
"You're the ultimate tease at times," Haruka replied with a defeated sigh as she walked with Michiru to the door, pulled it open, and smoothly led the pair into the bustling hallway.
"I know," was the sole response that preceded light giggling from the victorious turquoise-haired woman.
—|1|2|3|4|5|6|—
Saeko gazed at her handiwork with her mouth pulled into a bittersweet smile. She knew that, if Usagi somehow could resolve the whole conflict with the Dark Kingdom and they all could live in relative peace, her career as a doctor at that hospital would be ruined. Forging the signatures of her superiors on legal forms tended to do that to one's profession, after all. However, it also ensured that the covert transfer would begin that afternoon and that Usagi's parents and younger brother could be moved to a hospital in Kyoto without the risk of discovery. She had participated in a few such transfers and knew the protocol well enough to determine that few people would question the veracity of the signatures until after the move had been made. Furthermore, with her esteemed status and reputation as a stickler for the rules, it would be a shock that anyone would even second-guess her presumed authority. All she needed to do was to make a few phone calls to her counterparts at the receiving hospital and the process would be in motion.
She leaned back into her seat and sighed. A part of her pondered whether the effort would be fruitful as she had no idea of Usagi's condition. The girl she eagerly supported, the princess she desired to defend when nobody else but her family and she believed in her, was in the hands of the ruthless Dark Kingdom. For all she knew, the young blonde already might have met her demise. Yet she refused to accept such a thought, for she knew that Usagi possessed immense personal strength and would not allow the evil such an easy victory. The girl would do whatever she could to resist them, even in the absence of her transformation to Sailor Moon and despite whatever risks that entailed. Her defiance in sending the text message earlier that afternoon proved as much. With that mindset, Saeko hardened her determination, lifted the phone, and punched in the number of the office of the chief physician at Kyoto City Hospital to inform the requisite people to expect three new patients.
—|1|2|3|4|5|6|—
The silver taxi skidded to a halt at the main lobby entrance of the hospital. The frantic woman with dark-green hair and garnet eyes tossed a few 1000-yen notes at the driver and leaped out of the rear seat. She knew she overpaid for the trip by double, and she had a pretty good idea what the driver would do with the extra money, but she didn't care at that point about other people's debauchery. Her primary goal was to locate two women whose assistance she knew she required if there was any hope of preventing some of the more dire futures that might befall her princess. Fortunately, she knew exactly where to search for them.
Once Setsuna strolled through the automatically-opening sliding glass doors that brought her into the lobby, she reduced her pace and attempted to collect herself. Although time was of the essence, there was no reason to completely destroy any semblance of the personality her colleagues had grown to appreciate. Instead of appearing hurried, she adopted a calmer and yet more determined stride down the main hallway.
"Meiou-sensei, there are a few new patients for you," one of the nurses said while swiftly marching to catch up to the woman who, for all intents and purposes, was considered one of the better doctors at the hospital. They thought her young but full of potential. She handed Setsuna a few folders with patient health records bound within.
"Thank you, Sayaka-san," Setsuna replied while taking the folders from the brunette's hand.
This was one of the few times, incidents regarding the princess notwithstanding, where a person's future was all but impossible to predict. The reason was that it directly involved Setsuna, and while the senshi of time was reasonably good at determining event probabilities of others' lives, she had no clue about her own destiny. It was only proper that knowledge of her own future was denied to her as it prevented her from taking steps to change her fate that might inadvertently cause tremendous damage to the entire timeline. Her solemn duty was to monitor time and to ensure its proper flow, and she was expressly forbidden to alter the sequence of known events in the future or to prevent a certain predicted destiny from occurring by changing the past. However, in those situations where no clear outcome would ensue with a reasonably high probability, she had the authority to do what she felt would best suit her and support her other mission of protecting the princess.
"Who are they and what are their injuries?" Setsuna asked as she continued to walk down the hallway in the direction of the hospital's cafeteria.
"Male, age ten, fell from a skateboard and fractured his femur. X-rays are in the file," the nurse said in a rapid-fire style but also with calmness. "Female, twenty-five years old, second-degree burns along arms, first-degree burns on chest from coffee spill. Finally, male, forty-three, head contusion and back injuries from falling off a ladder but otherwise alert."
"I see…" Setsuna replied. She stopped right before she reached the entrance of the cafeteria. The nurse halted in kind. She opened the top folder and quickly flipped through the pages, then did the same thing with the other two folders. Her eyes pointed at the ceiling and a look of deep contemplation fell over her as she searched for a solution to the problem. At that specific time, a solution meant finding some way to avoid taking those patients, as the likelihood of her having the time to treat them was extraordinarily low.
"For the woman, I suggest having Tokatsu-sensei in the burn ward treat her, as he's much better at dealing with burn injuries," Setsuna said, drawing a curious stare from the nurse.
"You're refusing a case?" the nurse asked warily.
"I'm not refusing," Setsuna answered resolutely as she lowered her eyes to meet the nurse's hesitant light-brown counterparts. "I'm just making sure she has the best shot of a decent recovery. That means giving her case to someone with better expertise." The nurse nodded understandingly.
"Now, the other two patients are not so severe cases. The boy's leg should have been stabilized by now, and it's just a matter right now of properly setting the cast," Setsuna said firmly. "And the gentleman should have a CT scan done to check for potential brain injuries, if it hasn't been done already." She shuffled through the pages of that patient's folder once again. "It doesn't look like one has been done, so I strongly suggest sending him up to radiology for CT," she said in a stern voice.
"I'll have that done right away," the nurse said timidly while taking the two files that Setsuna pushed toward her. She started to scurry down the hall when she heard her name being called.
"Sayaka-san, could you get a nurse to set the cast for our young patient's leg?" Setsuna asked with less harshness in her tone. "I'm extremely busy right now and I'm looking for someone important, but I'll be by to check up on him a little later today." She then offered the third folder to the nurse.
"Certainly," the nurse said with a quick nod before jogging away.
Setsuna's shoulders dropped ever so slightly as she gradually released a relieved sigh. She looked at her watch and saw that it was not quite one o'clock in the afternoon. That meant the princess had been detained almost forty-five minutes ago and transported away from that construction site fifteen minutes ago. She pushed open the door to the cafeteria, walked to a solitary spot near the ordering line, and scanned the tables with narrowed eyes. There were several people occupying the tables as expected for the mid-afternoon lunchtime, but it didn't take her long to locate a certain elegant woman with wavy turquoise hair and her companion with short sandy-blond locks and masculine dress. She determinedly strode toward the pair's table and stood stoically in front of the pair, drawing their attention.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Setsuna Meiou," she said politely while bowing before them.
Michiru looked up at the tall woman and gave her a warm smile. "Hi, Meiou-sensei, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Michiru Kaiou, and this is Haruka Tenou," she said with a friendly tone while gesturing at her partner with an open hand.
"Likewise," Haruka said with a curt nod of her head.
"I hope I'm not being too imposing, but I have something very important to discuss with both of you," Setsuna said with a low-pitched tone that readily conveyed her urgency. "Would you two mind joining me in my office so we can speak in private?"
Confused expressions fell across the visages of both women, although Michiru was the first to convert her appearance into comprehensible words. "Does it have anything to do with the accident we were in?" she carefully asked.
Setsuna shook her head. "It has nothing to do with that, and by my casual observation I can readily discern that neither of you has anything to worry about from the minor accident," she said calmly. She took a small step closer to the table and spoke with a lower and more apprehensive voice. "Instead, it has something to do with a teenage girl you may know." Upon uttering those words the two pairs of eyes that stared upward at Setsuna simultaneously narrowed.
"You're talking about Usagi Tsukino, right?" Michiru asked anxiously, generating a nod from the doctor.
"What does that have to do with us?" Haruka tersely asked.
"That's what I want to talk to you about in my office," Setsuna responded evenly. She held her arm out to her side in a polite gesture requesting that they walk with her. "Now, if you'll please accompany me, I'll tell you anything you want to know… within reason."
After exchanging one worried glance at one another, the pair stood from the table, Haruka more begrudgingly than her partner, and securely grasped their belongings. They followed Setsuna out of the cafeteria, down the hall, and to the bank of elevators, all the while pondering the situation within which they somehow found themselves mired. A few minutes later, all three were inside Setsuna's private office. Haruka sat slouched in one chair with a slight scowl on her face, Michiru sat with wide-eyed attentiveness in another chair, and the doctor leaned with her back against the door she had just shut.
"Now, I'm sure you're all far more perplexed now than you were just a few minutes ago," Setsuna said.
"You're damned right about that," Haruka growled impatiently.
Any other person might have been flustered or felt insulted by the sandy-blonde's complaint, but for Setsuna it drew a tiny smile to her lips. "I see you haven't changed all that much," she said, which only served to further bewilder the pair.
"What does that mean?" Michiru asked agitatedly.
The doctor took a few steps away from the door and toward the seated lovers. "I'll get to all of that, if you'll allow me," she said as her eyes gazed intently at Haruka's impertinent stare before gradually shifting them to Michiru's questioning look. An awkward silence filled the room for several seconds before they both nodded in acquiescence. Only when she noticed the two slowly relax their postures did she begin to speak.
"Now, I'm sure both of you are aware of the existence of the Sailor Senshi," Setsuna said calmly. She received more nods in reply which prompted her to continue. "You may have seen news reports of the five fighting various creatures—youma as they are called—in this district of the city and occasionally elsewhere. They have been moderately successful at their task. In any case, those five girls are not the only senshi that exist."
"You mean there are more of them? Why haven't we seen them before?" Michiru alertly asked.
"Absolutely. Four more senshi to be exact," Setsuna replied with an uncharacteristically staccato voice.
Haruka and Michru continued to stare attentively into a narrowed pair of garnet eyes that were attached to a seemingly tranquil face. Strangely, Setsuna was less composed than she let on. There was so much the two women needed to learn about the situation and about themselves, and she wanted to inform them about that without completely startling them. Yet, she needed their assistance as quickly as possible, and every second that elapsed made her impending task far more difficult. She exhaled a tense sigh to collect herself and stifle the nervousness building within her, as well as to organize her thoughts, before resuming her explanation.
"I may be getting somewhat ahead of myself by saying this now, but I'm sure it will help your understanding of what I am trying to say," Setsuna said with evenness once again. "Anyway, the primary mission of the eight senshi is to protect a figure known as Princess Serenity. A side effect of this mission is that they tend to engage in a lot of fighting against the youmas that have appeared over the past several months. The goal of those youmas and the entity that created them is to ultimately kill the princess and destroy the Earth as they revive their own evil matriarch."
"I think I understand," Michiru said softly while slightly tilting her head to the side, "but I still don't get why you're telling us this information. And you haven't answered my question."
"I'm giving you this explanation about the senshi because you've met one of them," Setsuna replied. She momentarily paused. "Actually, you've met two of the other senshi by now, but more importantly is the fact that you've encountered the princess."
"Usagi?" Haruka murmured.
Setsuna nodded. "Yes. Usagi is Princess Serenity," she said calmly. "I'm certain you've noticed something peculiar about the girl whenever you're in her presence."
"I felt this strange warmth the last time I was with her, and again this morning when I briefly saw her," Michiru answered.
"Yeah, me too," Haruka quickly concurred, "although it wasn't painful or anything. More like calming and pleasant."
Setsuna's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "That is to be expected from her," she said with a brief smile before focusing her gaze on the turquoise-haired woman. "Now, to directly answer your question, Kaiou-san, the reason you have heard nothing of the other senshi is that, for the most part, they haven't awakened and become aware of their powers." She deftly reached into her jacket pocket and wrapped her hand around the Lip Rod used to power her transformation. "Fortunately, that soon will change," she said in with a remarkably lower pitch to her voice that portended a sudden revelation.
In a move that utterly stunned both spectators, Setsuna pulled the lavender rod from her pocket and lifted it high above her head. With a shout of "Pluto Planet Power, Make Up," her body emitted an intensely bright lavender glow that threatened to blind Haruka and Michiru if they failed to shield their eyes. Seconds later, the woman with the dark-green hair topped by a small bun, the one who wore a businesslike dark red blouse, black skirt, and white lab coat, had disappeared. In her place was a tall woman who had the exact same dark-green hair, but she wore a uniform reminiscent of those sported by the senshi. Her skirt and tall boots were black, her bows were dark maroon, a garnet pendant hung from her black choker, and long, chevron-shaped garnet earrings were suspended from her ears. In all, she looked every bit like a senshi, except everything seemed darker and more morose. Furthermore, she held a tall staff in her hand that was topped by a softball-sized garnet-colored orb and which looked like a long, slender key.
"W-who are you?" Haruka shouted in a combination of fear and irritation. She stood in front of Michiru and glared at Setsuna with furious eyes.
"Please calm down, Haruka," Setsuna said with immense tranquility in her voice that countered the agitation she could sense from the other two. "I apologize for frightening you with my transformation. I am Sailor Pluto, the senshi of revolution and the one with the task of ensuring the proper flow of time."
"What are you going to do to us?" Haruka asked threateningly.
"If you're asking whether I intend to harm either of you, please rest assured that the answer is an emphatic 'no,'" an unflustered Setsuna replied. "Instead, I plan to awaken two more senshi."
Teal and cobalt-blue eyes widened and a pair of jaws dropped in surprise at the sudden admission. "Senshi… you're talking about us, right?" Michiru whispered, her voice slightly muffled by the close proximity of the woman who continued to shield her lover.
"Yes, Michiru. Both of you are Sailor Senshi," Setsuna said calmly. "You are Sailor Neptune, while Haruka is Sailor Uranus."
"But how is it possible that we're senshi?" Haruka asked harshly, her continued distrust of the stoic senshi standing before her plainly evident. "And, if this true, how haven't we noticed this before?"
"The memories of your true identities have not been awakened. Until that process occurs, you cannot transform," Setsuna replied. "Normally, the memories eventually become unlocked on their own, but given the pressing situation that I explained to you earlier, it's imperative that I assist you in accessing your dormant memories."
Michiru slowly pushed against Haruka's back, signaling to the blonde that she didn't need to stand in front of her with such a defensive stance. Haruka readily interpreted the sign and slowly moved to the turquoise-haired woman's side, her narrowed eyes locked on Setsuna the entire time. Michiru then slowly stood from her chair and walked toward the senshi, completely startling the ever-protective Haruka.
"Are these memories anything like those I experienced when I came into contact with Usagi?" Michiru hesitantly asked.
Setsuna nodded. "Yes. You're contact with the princess allowed those memories to come to the forefront," she said evenly. "However, the brief encounter with her was insufficient to fully release your memories and enable your transformations."
"So, what can we do to become the senshi we're supposed to be?" Michiru asked even more insistently.
Setsuna lifted the key-like Garnet Rod and tilted it so that the brilliant Garnet Orb was a few inches away from Michiru's face. "As I said before, I am the senshi responsible for the flow of time."
Immediately afterward, the orb began to emit a dark-red light, and a light wind swirled around the office. Michiru fell into a trance with her eyes fixated upon the orb. Her body gradually released a light-green glow, which indubitably alarmed Haruka. The blonde attempted to pull Michiru away from the orb but the elegant woman's frame would not budge. One last attempt to pull her lover away from the orb failed as her hands slipped and she flew backward into the metal desk, luckily escaping serious injury. She was relegated to staring in horror at the trembling Michiru as the red light flooded memories from a time long past into her mind. Suddenly, the astrological symbol of Neptune appeared on Michiru's forehead in radiant sea-green, and a rod, similar to the one Setsuna used minutes ago, floated before her body.
"When you take the rod, you will forever hold the identity of Sailor Neptune," Setsuna said somberly.
Michiru slowly reached for the rod levitating in front of her chest. A small part of her was fearful for the sudden and irreversible change in her life that would result the moment her fingers touched the lavender rod topped by the sea green, crescent-shaped symbol of her guardian planet. However, she inherently knew that it was her true purpose in life to become Sailor Neptune and to protect the moon and its princess from all threats. She wholeheartedly accepted that identity and with unflinching determination tightly grasped the rod in her hands. After a brief yet forceful explosion of green light, she stood dressed in the sea-green skirt and dark-blue bows of her senshi uniform. Her lips were pulled into a light smile as relief flushed over her.
"Michiru-chan…" Haruka uttered in disbelief and fear of what may have become of her dearest companion.
Michiru turned her head to gaze upon Haruka with the same grin and a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Your turn, Haruka-chan," she said with a somewhat playful tone that dissipated any anxiety that her partner had regarding either her condition or the process of regaining her memories. Her smile became wider as she smugly added, "Unless you're too scared."
"Heh, as if," Haruka muttered as she lifted herself from Setsuna's desk and walked to the center of the room. No longer was she afraid of what would happen as she knew that the senshi standing next to her was the same woman she loved dearly and who loved her just as strongly in return. Furthermore, Michiru's taunt ignited her competitive senses, and she was not about to admit defeat so easily.
"Do you accept your memories and identity as Sailor Uranus and the changes that will happen in your life as a result?" Setsuna asked solemnly.
Haruka's eyes closed and a deep furrow appeared along her brow as her mind intently contemplated the answer to Setsuna's query. She knew that her life also would be irrevocably altered by the process of becoming a senshi. Yet, she felt that she could not leave the love of her life isolated. She knew that the senshi regularly risked their lives in the battles against the youmas the senshi of time and revolution described. No part of her being could fathom leaving Michiru to fend for herself in such a struggle, even with the enhanced strength and magic that her identity promised. So, with only a few seconds delay, Haruka gave her response as a proud and resolute statement of one word: "Absolutely."
Setsuna pointed the Garnet Orb at Haruka in the same manner she did with Michiru. Seconds later, the identical dark-red light filtered from the round stone and flooded the room. The blonde could feel her body frozen in place as the memories of her past life and rightful identity inundated her mind. It felt intensely painful, yet the pain was dulled by the realization that what she saw in that sudden recollection was her true self. Furthermore, she was determined to stand by Michiru's side as a senshi, so determined that she doubted it was a coincidence that most of her memories closely involved the senshi of the sea. Soon, the golden symbol of Uranus appeared on her forehead and the rod that allowed her transformation materialized in front of her chest. Without any hesitation she grasped the rod and, with a tremendous flash of gold light, stood clothed in the navy-blue skirt and gold frontal bow that composed the trademark uniform of the senshi of wind, Sailor Uranus.
Setsuna released a huge sigh of relief at the sight of her fellow senshi. "Thank you," she said with absolute sincerity and a hint of joy when she pulled the Garnet Rod away from Haruka.
"Hey, it's our job after all," Haruka said with an arrogant grin. Her eyes narrowed and became more focused as her countenance revealed her shift to one of complete seriousness. "Now, what has happened to our princess, and whose ass do we have to kick to save her?" she asked with a harsh tone that, despite all appearances, was not intended for Setsuna.
The only response the senshi of revolution could give was to display a beaming smile as the pair of senshi she knew and desperately missed finally returned to her.
