Hotaru's fingers moved slowly over the sculpture in front of her. She was aware of the conversations going on around her, the usual ebb and flow of her art class. But where before the noise had been comforting it was now just empty. Hollow.
Unbidden, her thoughts turned back to what Setsuna had said, or rather to what she hadn't, about the sculpture. The look on the older woman's face had been a mix of fear and surprise, a combination of emotions Hotaru had never seen on Setsuna's face before. Then had come the single whispered word: Saturn, before Setsuna had simply turned on her heel and left. Hotaru had not known what to do, had instead looked repeatedly from her sculpture to the open door of the studio.
"Hotaru, you okay?" Hotaru felt a tap on her shoulder and turned. One of her classmates, Harumi was in front of her with a lump of clay in her hands. Her sculpture it seemed had gotten the best of her.
"Just some personal stuff." While Hotaru got on very well with Harumi she could just imagine how the conversation would go if she told the other girl everything. It would be particularly humorous to see how Harumi reacted when she reached the part about how one of the people who'd helped raised her had fled after seeing something which was, apparently, related to a past life where she'd been a murderous psychopath capable of destroying planets. Wonderful.
"Ummm…. Hotaru, you're mumbling." Harumi's brown eyes twinkled with your amusement. "Something about psychopaths."
"Oh." Hotaru laughed nervously. "Just ignore that." A change of subject was in order. She pointed at the lump of clay in Harumi's hands. "Is that your sculpture?"
"Was my sculpture," Harumi corrected. "Was." She looked down at the clay and grinned wryly. "Let's just say I like it better this way. Before it was bad. Now it has," she paused theatrically, "Potential."
"Potential?" Hotaru couldn't help but laugh at that. "I see…"
"Quiet you." Harumi brandished the clay threateningly. "I'm still struggling to get started and here you are with that things of yours," she pointed at Hotaru's sculpture. "And you're treating it like it's got the plague or something. I mean it's a little creepy but it's really good too."
"Thanks." Hotaru took another look at her sculpture. Despite Setsuna's somewhat less than favourable reaction she still liked it. There was something about it that seemed at once familiar and comforting. It just felt right. And wasn't that what mattered? If Setsuna wanted to act all weird about it that was fine. She'd just ask her about it later. Right now, though, she'd just worrying about getting it done and getting it done well.
XXX
Not for the first time, Setsuna was sorely tempted to bang her head on the wall. She had made an absolute mess of things that morning. What had she been thinking, running off like a frightened child? The sculpture might have caught her off guard and true, her experiences with it had been less than pleasant in the past, but that was no excuse for how she'd treated Hotaru.
Still, she doubted her reaction would stop Hotaru asking about it. If anything it would have the reverse effect and that was one conversation she did not look forward to. But it worried her that Hotaru had begun to remember things. Depending on which memories the younger woman got back first she could potentially form a very, very bleak picture of her past. Setsuna needed to make sure that Hotaru had some support so that who she had been in the past didn't distract her from who she was now.
But how much to tell her? All of it eventually would probably be the best option, but then how to explain everything so that Hotaru could understand? Setsuna ran her hands through her hair and suppressed the urge to scream. She really, really needed to plan for the conversation.
Suddenly she jerked to her feet. There… at the very edges of her awareness, like a flash of light in the corner of her eye, something… something didn't feel quite right. Moments later the feeling came again, only stronger. A youma? She frowned. No. This feeling she had was too subtle, too quiet for that. Wordlessly she transformed in a flash of crimson light and teleported towards the site of the disturbance.
Pluto reappeared on top of a building overlooking a busy street. For a moment she could only see the people. They ran in all directions, scared and confused. Then she saw the source of it all.
A sphere of inky shadow some ten feet in diameter floated a few inches over the ground in the middle of the street. Before her eyes it began to quiver then bulge as its shape distorted and changed. The light around the sphere seemed to dim as it jerked itself into a vaguely humanoid shape. A head appeared, then a mouth, which widened to reveal midnight black teeth. Then with a final wet squelch two golden eyes appeared, set above the creature's mouth.
For a few second the creature simply stood there. Then with frightening speed it moved towards the nearest pedestrians with its huge claw-like hands extended. Yet even as it advanced its golden eyes remained locked on Pluto.
With a cry, Pluto fired off a blast of crimson energy and leapt down to meet the creature. As she shot through the air she took the time to send a call for help over her communicator. It never hurt to be careful.
XXX
"Excuse me, Tokai-sensei," Hotaru said. "But I'm not feeling well." She winced and tried to look as ill as possible. Of course, she was fine, but a call had come in from Setsuna. And a call during school hours could only mean one thing: an attack.
"All right, Hotaru." Tokai nodded. "Just head down to the nurse's office."
"Thank you."
But Hotaru didn't go the nurse's office. Instead she found a suitable hiding place, transformed then took off across the rooftops towards Pluto's signal.
XXX
Pluto regarded the twenty feet tall creature with grudging respect. It was tough. Its skin was like liquid shadow, a flowing, almost darkly metallic substance that hardened to form the creature's claws and teeth. Her previous attacks had blasted chunks of its flesh away, only for the inky shadow to simply flow over and close the wound. However the creature could bleed. Silver ichor stained the pavement where she'd wounded it.
The creature was on the move again. It darted swiftly across the road towards her and she flipped backwards and away, the Garnet Orb thrust towards it.
"Dead scream."
As always she delivered her attack with a whisper. The blood red energy rocketed towards the creature slammed into it with a howl that blew out several of the nearest windows. The high-pitched tinkle of shattered glass was drowned out by the creature's roar of fury.
Its response was both unexpected and brutally effective. Rather than charge, it simply jerked one arm towards Pluto. The limb elongated with impossible speed, became almost like a harpoon. She dropped to the ground and the arm speared into the mercifully deserted shop behind her. Then she was running, scarcely able to breathe as the creature swung its lengthened arm about like a scythe. A telephone pole crashed to the ground, then another. She was about to turn and fire off another attack when she felt a wave of pure heat shoot past her and into the creature. Mars.
"Pluto!" Mars landed beside her, hands still wreathed in fire as she took in the property damage. "What's going on?"
"Careful," Pluto cautioned as she steadied herself. "That creature is very dangerous."
And it was angry too. Its black flesh bubbled and boiled under Mars's flame but rather than fall back, the creature advanced, its golden eyes alight with malevolent fury. Then it wailed, a strange, discordant keening that cut through the air like a knife.
Still wailing, the creature charged. Pluto and Mars leapt apart, attacking as they retreated in opposite directions. The creature went after Mars's dodging another bolt of fire with surprisingly agility. Then it attacked, one claw shooting forward. Still airborne, Mars' tried to dodge but was only partly successful.
The raven-haired senshi was thrown backwards through the air as the sheer force of the blow ripped a gash down her back and hurled her through a nearby window. She felt the glass break, felt pain shoot through her body, then a dull thump as she skidded to a halt on the floor of the shop.
"Mars!" Pluto bit back a curse and attacked again. She needed to keep that creature away from Mars until the other senshi had a chance to recover. This time though, she aimed at the creature's legs. Her attack cut through black flesh and the creature staggered, hobbled, if only for a moment.
As Mars stumbled dazedly out of the shop, more attacks rained down on the creature. Moments later Venus and Mercury appeared at Mars's side.
"Mars, you okay?" Venus draped an arm around the other senshi to help her stand. "Mercury, you need to take a look at her."
Now with four senshi to contend with, the creature retreated. It leapt upwards onto the roof of the nearest building. It landed with a crunch that shook loose chunks of masonry before it broke into a run and leapt onto another building. Pluto moved to follow it but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.
"Mars is hurt." Venus's voice was cool. "We can't leave her here."
"I know." Pluto gestured towards the fleeing creature. "But we cannot let it run loose in the city."
"I'm fine!" They turned at Mars's voice. The senshi of fire was on her feet, obviously in pain, but furious all the same. "Tell them, Mercury."
The aqua-haired senshi grimaced. "The cut is long, but it isn't overly deep and while she's bruised she hasn't broken anything, though I'll need more time to be sure." The scan visor shimmered in the air in front of her face.
"You hear that?" Mars said. "Now let's go after that thing. I want some payback."
The four senshi took to the rooftops and followed the creature. For something of its size it was surprisingly agile. Finally the chase came to a close as the creature leapt down from the roofs and stumbled into a park.
"We stop it here." Pluto's voice was grim. "Now be careful."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Mars's joke fell flat as Venus gave her a light bop on the head.
"Don't joke about things like that."
They caught up with the creature beside a large pond. Mars was the first to attack. Her flame raced across the pond, only inches from the surface and left a trail of steam in its way. Heat billowed outwards as the fire exploded against the creature's chest. At the same time, Mercury and Venus swung into action. A chain of golden light arced towards the creature's legs as jagged shards of ice shot slammed into its right arm. Silver ichor sprayed from the wound.
The creature howled with fury then dropped to the ground as the chain of light tightened around its legs. Even on fire and hobbled it managed to go on the offensive. For rather than try and retreat, it instead hurled itself towards the senshi. It landed in their midst as they scattered like a flock of birds.
It swiped at Venus first, forcing her to relinquish her hold on the chain. Then it was all claws and teeth as it attacked with unbelievable ferocity. As she ducked and dove and weaved for her life, Pluto saw Mercury take a glancing hit and go flying into the pond as another blow clipped Venus and threw her backwards. She was about to call for a retreat when she felt, rather than saw, the arrival of Jupiter and Moon then Neptune and Uranus.
XXX
Saturn landed lightly on her feet outside the park and broke into a run. She could feel the others nearby. Some of them were hurt. Worse, by the flashes of the light and the explosions that rocked the ground, she could tell that the fight was a difficult one.
When she arrived at the scene of the battle she could scarcely believe her eyes. It looked like a war zone. There were scorch marks and deep gouges cut into the earth. At the centre of it all was a big, black… thing covered with silver ichor that must have been its blood. Bits of ice were embedded in its back and a chain was wrapped around one arm.
But the Senshi weren't doing much better either. Mars looked like she was about ready to pass out and most of her uniform was either missing or drenched with red. Venus and Mercury looked battered too and the others all had signs of injury as well, though thankfully none of them looked quite as badly hurt as Mars.
As she ran towards Mars, Saturn heard the roar of Neptune's attack as a geyser of water rushed towards the creature, accompanied by a sphere of yellow energy that could only be Uranus's World Shaking.
"Mars!" she inspected the wound on the other senshi's back quickly. Though not deep, movement had torn the gash wide open.
"Saturn…" Mars gasped. "Nice to have you here."
"Hold still," Saturn commanded as she went to work. Purple light flowed down her arms and into her hands. Immediately the wound began to heal as the flesh knitted closed under Saturn's fingertips.
Before Saturn could finish though, Mars pulled away. "That's good enough for now. Go help the others."
"Mars…" Saturn trailed off. The creature had somehow sprouted an extra pair of arms on its back and was advancing with murderous intent on Pluto. "Pluto!"
The creature attacked and Pluto went down in a storm of claws and teeth. A horrified screamed burst from Saturn's lips as she moved faster and more desperately than she ever had in her life.
For her part, Pluto could scarcely see through the haze of pain. Flashes of light told her that the others were still attacking, but the creature hardly seemed to care. It was mortally wounded, surely, but it seemed determined to take at least one of them with it. Another blow slipped through her faltering defence and she felt a rib break.
"Pluto!"
Pluto looked up and Saturn was somehow in front of her. The Silence Glaive glinted darkly in the light and Pluto felt a shiver run up her spine. And then she was being dragged away, pulled away from the creature by Jupiter as Saturn and the shadow-born monstrosity exchanged blows with frightening speed.
And for a moment Saturn was winning. The Silence Glaive was sharper than any sword ever forged and the creature's flesh parted like so much paper before it. But Saturn made one mistake: any normal opponent would have flinched, would have given her time to breathe and recover after she severed a limb. Not this one.
In the instant that Saturn took to drag in a haggard breath the creature struck. And it struck hard. The blow hit Saturn across the chest and threw the violet-haired senshi through several trees before she finally slammed into the brick wall of the park kiosk. Then she slid slowly down the wall and landed with a wet thump in a steadily growing pool of blood.
"No!"
XXXX
Saturn was dying. At least that's how it felt. She couldn't feel anything, couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anything. It was so dark and quiet. And cold. But she needed to get up. The others needed her. Pluto needed her…
If only she'd been stronger…
"Tell me, girl, do you want to be strong?"
There was a voice in the darkness. It was… familiar… and the words… surely she'd heard them once before… images… sounds… smells…
Rain.
Lightning.
Blood.
"Then take my hand."
A hand appeared in the darkness. It was a warrior's hand, rough and calloused and scarred. It was familiar too.
"But remember. There is no going back."
Darkness claimed her.
XXX
Author's Notes
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor am I making any money off this.
With that out of the way, let's move on…
Firstly, I'm sorry for the delay. I had a draft of this written up earlier this week, but unfortunately other commitments meant I didn't have the time to write it up properly till this weekend. That said it is a little longer than usually, so hopefully that makes up for. It also has an extended fight scene. Yay (hopefully).
As always, I'm interested to here what you think. From here on in we'll be finding out more about Saturn's past as well as the past of the Moon Kingdom in general. If you have any questions about my interpretation of the Moon Kingdom (or about the Sailor Moon universe in general) just drop me a line and I'll get back to you.
Please tell me what you think. It's the only way I'll get better and it'll keep me from going off on any overly crazy tangents.