Chapter Sixty-one: Death Support
Rei had been fighting Dead Moon for too long. They had tormented enough people, including her friends, weaponizing nightmares and curses. Tormented Helios which, in turn, tormented Chibi-Usa. They had touched every one of the Guardians and had started to touch the sea creatures, too.
No more.
She'd struggled against PallaPalla when her friends disappeared from the graveyard, leaving the Flying Dutchman watching for the most part. The ghost sometimes disappeared and then reappeared minutes later. While fighting, minutes stretched like hours. So it seemed like Rei's friends were gone for weeks.
PallaPalla made known her anger and grief at Rei's slaying Tiger's Eye, unleashing the full force of her Lemures. While Rei was nocking an arrow or gathering flames, PallaPalla tried to infiltrate her mind by throwing more Lemures. Rei dodged, distracting her from fighting back.
Now, Rei flew alongside Haruka, Patrick in the older Guardian's arms, and Setsuna, toward PallaPalla. The ball balancer rode atop the zebra-monkey man hybrid, the horse's tail whipping back and forth, the monkey man grunting a wheesnaw. Strange noise to be coming from a monkey's maw.
Below, Squidward yelled, "That's hideous." No encouragement from the octopus.
PallaPalla laughed. "This is gonna be so much fun." She bared her teeth so she looked as monstrous as the hybrid she sat upon. "PallaPalla will enjoy tearing you limb from limb like you did to Tiger's Eye. No one can replace him, but PallaPalla's come damn close."
"He doesn't look like a tiger at all." None other than Patrick.
PallaPalla's face twisted. She dug her feet into the sides of the zebra-monkey hybrid and then jabbed a finger at Patrick. The hybrid dove toward the starfish.
Rei swerved in front of Haruka and Patrick. Aimed her hand at PallaPalla and hybrid. Sensing the urgency of the situation, flames dashed up her arm. She drew a circle in the air. Ever obedient, the flames followed and then separated into balls. She threw her arm toward the hybrid and PallaPalla. "Burning Mandala." The globes of flame shot toward the duo.
"You're not killing PallaPalla's precious creation." Lemures engulfed PallaPalla and the hybrid like they were one giant fly, primed to be swatted. Setsuna rushed ahead and swung her Garnet Rod through the fray of Lemures. Screaming, the Lemures dissolved. With every swipe, Setsuna inched closer to PallaPalla.
The flames swallowed and popped the other Lemures like fireworks. PallaPalla and the hybrid flew out of the Lemures. Rei threw her hand toward the duo, redirecting the remaining fireballs toward them. PallaPalla shielded herself behind her arms. The fireballs pummeled her. Scorch marks sprouted on her arms, legs, abdomen. Remnants of the flames struck the hybrid, and it cried in a cross between a monkey's screech and a horse's whinny. One of the weirdest noises Rei had heard.
Haruka blurred past Rei, throwing Patrick toward their enemies. He tackled the duo, yelling, "Cannonball!" Rei broke into a smile.
He wasn't ignorant. He was fearless.
Haruka dashed toward the two. Rei and Setsuna followed, Rei poised to save Patrick.
PallaPalla whipped her head around. "Where are you guys?"
Blue light glinted from the shadows, the crevices in the ground, between walls and cliffs. Clanking echoed from the hiding spots, and BZZT-Bots, Fodders, Ham-mers, Tar-tar Sauces, robots melted out of the darkness.
Damn. The Guardians had been doing well for a change.
"No," Patrick said. "This is between us and the monkey horse."
Rei had had an inkling that Dead Moon and the robots had teamed up. The robots didn't attack PallaPalla but focused on the Guardians, whereas hours ago, the robots pursued the Guardians and Dead Moon indiscriminately.
Rei took the rear, moving more slowly so she could aim and keep pace with the robots, most confined to the ground while Monsoons and Chucks zipped above.
Splaying her hands, she spread the flames dotting her fingers, enlarging them. "Burning Mandala!" The flames burst from her fingers, honing onto and burning robots alive. Rei returned her attention to her slowing friends, the hybrid, and PallaPalla. Haruka flew sideways, catching Patrick.
Patrick jerked toward PallaPalla and the monkey-horse. "Let me back at `em."
The hybrid righted itself and then, flapping its wings, whipped up a gust, upending rocks and boulders from the cliff, sloshing sludge, unburying gravestones, pelting all toward Haruka and Patrick. Haruka's Space Sword materialized in her free hand, and she struck the rocks. A beam shot from the tip of the sword simultaneously, breaking more debris.
Setsuna swung behind their enemies and, with her Garnet Rod, struck PallaPalla's head. PallaPalla spun off her steed, plummeting toward the sludge.
She grasped her head, a bump swelling upon it. "Oww. What'd you do that for?"
The blank-eyed, frothing hybrid kicked Setsuna's torso, knocking the wind out of the older Guardian.
With one of its human-like paws, the hybrid reached into its pocket lining its fur and pulled out a brown bag. Grinning, it flew toward Setsuna, ready to engulf the Guardian inside its bag. Not the most bizarre thing Rei had seen in Bikini Bottom.
Haruka flew forward, only for more rocks to bombard her. Using her Sword, she broke through the rocks and boulders, flying past the remnants. The Guardian of the Skies launched several beams, but more rocks and boulders replaced the broken ones just as quickly.
Sludge crashed on top of Haruka and Patrick, felling them toward the pool of sludge, where PallaPalla was headed.
Rei had been flying toward Setsuna to rescue the nearly unconscious Guardian, but she faltered. Didn't know what the bag held or what lived in the sludge.
From her chest, she loosed a flaming arrow that pierced the bag, enflaming it, its remains raining into the sludge. Fire boomed on top of the sludge, spread. Rei paled. Fish were trapped inside the sludge. Hopefully, their nigh invincibility would protect them from Rei's attack. She had no time to rescue them, much less look at them.
Setsuna kept flying backward. Had to give her something soft to land on, or she'd shatter against the wall. Same for the falling Haruka and Patrick.
Rei couldn't save them alone.
"Help," she cried. Flew toward Setsuna to be the soft landing. When Haruka and Patrick slammed into the sludge, they might burst into flames alongside PallaPalla.
Lightning struck. Rei's heart lifted. Sailor Jupiter?
Sailor Jupiter was busy dreaming. Rei spat the bitterness out of her mouth. Sailor Jupiter was fighting as hard as Rei was.
"How dare you interrupt my beauty sleep?" Another flash of lightning, and the Flying Dutchman appeared, a pink, transparent nightcap crowning him, his pigtails sticking out, the pink bows at the ends of his pigtails complementing his nightcap. "All this screamin', and a ghost can't get a lick o' sleep in the privacy of his own ship." He scowled at Haruka. "Oh, no, ain't helpin' her." He smacked his hands on his cheeks and gawped in a mockery of a fearful expression. "She's too scary for me."
"Damn you," Rei barked. What was the point of the Flying Dutchman coming if he was only going to bitch? She flew behind Setsuna, and the older Guardian slammed into her, not slowing them enough to keep them from breaking into bloody pieces once they crashed into the wall. Rei had overestimated the physical power she'd gained from becoming a Guardian.
"Save us," Rei said. "We're not too scary for you, are we?"
The Flying Dutchman cast half-lidded eyes toward Rei and Setsuna. His eyes roamed over them like they had all the time in the world instead of being seconds away from smashing into a rock wall. "Might as well." He disappeared in green light, coating Rei and Setsuna in green stars and residue.
Beams shot from the Dutchman's eyes and struck the wall behind the two. The cliff snapped in half, the top half sliding toward the Guardians. The Dutchman had made things worse.
A treasure chest fell from the sky, opened. Socks cascaded from the chest, behind the Guardians. Rei collided with the torrent of socks, rancid odors of rotten beef, chicken, and pizza assaulting her nose. Her eyes watered, and Setsuna scrunched her face.
Their flight stopped.
Were the socks Patrick's lost ones? Smelled horrible enough to be. Seemed like the Dutchman washed them as often as Patrick, meaning, not at all.
Rei couldn't hold onto Setsuna, and the two began to fall, Setsuna beginning to slide out of Rei's arms.
The Dutchman sighed. "Can't you do anythin' by yerselves?" He whipped a hand, and the socks flew under the two, catching them.
The socks held them in the air. The smell was almost ignorable, Rei was so out and done. When she thought Bikini Bottom could no longer surprise her, she and Setsuna rode on socks.
"We have to get to Haruka-san and Patrick." The cliff below blocked Haruka, Patrick, and PallaPalla from Rei's line of sight. If they landed in the flame-covered sludge…
Like they'd read Rei's mind, the socks flew toward the sludge in time for Rei to watch Haruka, Patrick, and PallaPalla drop inside. Rei glanced at Setsuna behind her. The two blinked at each other.
Rei dove off the socks. Setsuna followed.
They plunged into the sludge. The butter-like viscosity made swimming nearly impossible.
Directly in front of her materialized images of Phobos and Deimos growing giant beaks and eating her grandpa. She literally batted the images aside and kept going. Haruka and Patrick drifted ahead, and Setsuna swam beside Rei.
A gurgling PallaPalla floated feet away.
Heat spread throughout the sludge. The flames were coming.
The two had meant to save only Patrick and Haruka. PallaPalla didn't need saving.
Something pulled at Rei's heart. Her, too.
No. PallaPalla had hurt not only the Guardians, but also the sea creatures. Pursuing the Guardians was one thing, but torturing innocent fish was despicable.
Rei remained focused on Haruka and Patrick. Was closest to Patrick. She could wake him.
Rei reached the starfish, while Setsuna reached Haruka. Rei couldn't snap her fingers, the sludge was so thick. Patrick probably couldn't hear anything but the nightmares assaulting him.
Rei grabbed Patrick's shoulders and pulsed heat through her hands, to him.
"Just enough fire to heat my turkey." Patrick smacked his lips, eyes closed, somehow speaking within the sludge, perhaps a side effect of being a creature of the nonsensical Bikini Bottom. His smile turned into a frown, and his eyes shot open. "The turkey lives. It tries to eat me." Eyes wild, Patrick grabbed Rei's arms. "Throw it out of the oven." He hurled Rei through the sludge. She collided with Haruka. Haruka collided with Setsuna. Setsuna slammed into PallaPalla, and the four shot out of the sludge, hovering in the air, at the crest of their flight just before starting to fall.
Haruka grabbed PallaPalla and flung her toward the sludge.
She's important. She must be saved.
Rei shook her head. Demons were attacking her mind, possibly from Dead Moon itself, trying to manipulate Rei into saving her enemy. She was not a fool.
She did have to save Patrick. He may be awake, but he was not smart enough to climb his way out of the sludge or distinguish between dreams and reality.
Rei flew toward the sludge. Haruka joined her. The two flew past PallaPalla, leaving the Dead Moon Circus member to fend for herself.
Only for the hybrid to swoop down, catching PallaPalla. Letting their master live.
PallaPalla cackled. "You're more loyal than Tiger's Eye was." She pointed at Haruka and Rei. "Get them."
Setsuna swiveled in front of PallaPalla and her steed. "Try me first."
Rei drowned out PallaPalla's scream of frustration. The flames covered the sludge like the sea. Soon, the sludge would be submerged in so many flames that they wouldn't be able to escape unscathed.
Haruka swung her Space Sword through the flames, dissolving them, only for more to take their place. "Damn, you're stronger than I thought, Mars. Weren't your powers supposed to be weaker down here?"
As the Guardian of Flames, maybe Rei could swim through the sludge and escape without five-hundred-degree burns.
She dove into the sludge, where Patrick had fallen. The liquid muted Setsuna and PallaPalla's fighting. Patrick drifted yards away, hands tucked under his arms, asleep, unaware of the spreading flames, heating the sludge so much that Rei felt as though she had dived into hell.
Haruka joined her, the stronger Guardian swimming past.
Without opening his eyes, Patrick glared. "The turkeys come for me." He reached toward Haruka, but Haruka grabbed his arm instead. Wrapping her arms around Patrick so the starfish couldn't move, Haruka began swimming toward the surface, nodding at Rei. She followed the older Guardian.
Other fish were drenched in sweat, eyes shut. Couldn't wake because of their nightmares. Rei's flames weren't helping.
Could Rei save all the fish?
Throbbing burst in her forehead. Hated having only attacks that could mostly hurt, not defend.
Rei glanced at the fish, some writhing. One fish covered his mouth and began to melt, his remains melding into the sludge. The breath left her body.
Around her, the fish melted, one crying that he hadn't been able to redeem himself from the wind blowing his pants into the sky on the night of the school musical. Another cried about rabid worms chomping his butt off, causing his butt to be amputated.
Perhaps the fish were dead, but Rei couldn't take chances. Had to save them. Somehow.
How could she combat her flames?
How could she breathe properly?
Resisted the urge to clutch at her throat and instead swam toward the surface, to take a breath. A melting fish grabbed her leg, pulling her down.
"It's your fault I shall never be redeemed."
Rei reached toward the surface, shaking her foot, but the fish's grip remained as strong as concrete.
Rei's mouth popped open, and bubbles floated to the surface. How easily bubbles could reach the surface when Rei, under every survival instinct, couldn't.
A shameful way to go.
Haruka didn't like that her allies were going in circles, not getting closer to saving the Dutchman's Graveyard, the ninth dimension, or the world by defeating PallaPalla.
Rei had had many an opportunity to kill PallaPalla, but she hadn't. Haruka would not make the same mistake.
Setsuna was facing PallaPalla. Leave the killing to the Guardian of Time.
Meanwhile, Rei was in dire straits under the sludge, and so were the rest of the fish, the flames spreading upon the sludge's surface.
Carrying Patrick, she swam toward the surface. Fish hollered. Rei hollered. She wasn't one who hollered. Perhaps she was hallucinating that the fish were dying. Or the fish were dying from her flames, meant to protect.
The Guardians couldn't save everyone on their own. The Flying Dutchman needed to pitch in, too. All he'd done was throw them into the ninth dimension when he'd requested their help to save the graveyard.
Haruka didn't have nice words for the ghost, but she had to pretend she loved him.
She almost barfed. She hated putting on a front, especially to protect fragile feelings. At least her niceness would save two dimensions.
Rei's flames lashed the surface, the thickness of the sludge keeping the heat from reaching Haruka. As she swam closer to the surface, the heat grew, breaking Haruka into sweat. A second skin of sweat covered Patrick. The nightmares might be getting to him. Haruka had mastered the art of batting away hallucinations of she and Michiru arguing in an art gallery. Michiru tossed a voodoo doll and, thus, Haruka, into one of Squidward's paintings of him playing the clarinet, which looked like a five-year-old had drawn it at best, trapping Haruka into an eternity of listening to Squidward's screeching clarinet.
Channeling energy, Haruka pierced the surface, her sky-blue aura trailing her like a comet's tail. Patrick's eyes broke open. He blubbered something unintelligible.
Above the fray, the Flying Dutchman floated, yawning. Floating pretty, yawning like the situation was boring, instead of helping.
She had to be nice to him.
Below, Setsuna and PallaPalla fought in blurs to the human eye, but to Haruka's trained, supernatural eye, she could see every move, from Setsuna's lightning-fast swings to the zebra-donkey thing's kicks. Robots on the ground and on the floating ships cheered them on, raising fists.
Some robots on the ships stood behind cannons. If Haruka suddenly exploded in a flurry of feathers and fabric from her skirt, she'd know why.
The Dutchman scowled at her. "What do you want?"
Haruka resisted the urge to spew the first thing that threatened to vomit out of her mouth. From experience, usually the first words that she thought of weren't the best to speak. In this case, she nearly blurted that she wanted him to do something to himself starting with the letter "F."
She said, "Hello." Leagues away from the four-letter greeting.
The Dutchman boomed out a laugh. Burrowing into his good side through humor. "All this fightin' goin' on below, and all you got to say is, 'Hello'?" Hypocrite.
"I do have more to say."
"Do you now?"
That's what she'd just said. Haruka bit her tongue and then said, "I do. If you're willing to hear me out."
The Dutchman turned toward the fray. Setsuna and PallaPalla, upon her steed, clashed against one another like they were in an action anime that boys were crazy about. "You've insulted me to my face a few times. And you destroyed me paintin'."
"You punished us for that already. You banished us to another dimension."
"Another…? The Fly of Despair ain't another dimension. It's just a hidden one."
Technically, Patrick had whisked them to another dimension. Haruka did not feel like doing mental gymnastics. "Anyway, I'm sorry about destroying your painting. I was trying to defend myself. Like you're trying to defend your graveyard." Even though you're doing nothing but floating on your ass…tail. "We were supposed to be saving your graveyard, but we got sidetracked in your art gallery." She bowed as best she could with a starfish in her arms. "I'm sorry." Her blood roiled at feeding the ghost's ego.
The Dutchman stroked his beard. "I see."
Setsuna and PallaPalla and a flying donkey were fighting below; robots were standing behind cannons, poised to fire when the spirit moved them; Haruka's blood was roiling; Patrick was snoring, and all the ghost had to say was, "I see."
"What do you want from me?" the Dutchman said.
Haruka wanted him to bare his chin so she could punch his face, giving him some sort of wisdom. "I want you to help us. We can't do this without you. We have too many enemies around us."
"Even though I hired you specifically to save me graveyard." He chuckled. "How the tides have turned. First, I come to you for help, and you make fun o' me. Next, you come to me for help. Should I make fun o' you?"
Haruka bit her tongue so hard she drew blood.
He stared at her for a short time in regular time, but hours in fighting time, with Setsuna and PallaPalla damn near killing each other.
If she bit any harder, she'd fill her mouth with blood.
"I owe you nothing."
Haruka's veins nearly ruptured from her boiling blood. The Dutchman was right, though. He didn't owe her anything.
"You do owe your graveyard," Haruka said. Didn't know how a place could owe its owner, but she'd twist crap to make her argument work. "You owe it to your graveyard to keep it peaceful. So you should save it."
He clicked his tongue. "True," he said quietly, gazing at the fight below, the robots ready to fire his cannons on a whim.
"Can you handle the robots taking over your ships, the ones you've nursed since they were baby ships?"
The Dutchman's eyes softened. "How cute me ships were when they were mere babes, sucking at bottles of seawater. I remember nursing them, feeding them until they became big enough to feed themselves."
Haruka almost asked what ships sustained themselves on but decided that she'd have enough nightmares from Bikini Bottom already.
Green wisps drifted from his hands. "All right, I'll help ye. But not because of you," he spat at her. Thankfully, the spit was transparent, so it slipped through Haruka. "Because of me precious graveyard." He ground his stumps of teeth. "I can't stand to see it taken over by robots, with their grubby hands all over it. Prolly never washed those hands a day in their lives." He floated higher, clapped his hands, and a lightning-filled cloud stretched between them. His eyes glowed an electric green, brightened until shooting a lightning-filled mist that zapped one of his ships. His ship flashed green and white, timber crashing into the sludge, some burning inside Rei's flames. Fodders, Tar-tar Sauces, Ham-mers scurried to jump off the ship.
Swiveling to face the other ship, the Dutchman threw the electricity-swollen cloud. It hovered above the ship. Lightning struck the robot, and they exploded upon impact, their remnants showering upon the green sand and the sludge.
The Dutchman faced Haruka and the snoring Patrick, the starfish sticking his thumb into his mouth. "I said I'd help ye, not do all the work for you." Maggots crawled out of his eyes.
Haruka couldn't help but stare at the maggots. Mesmerizing, how quickly their stubby legs moved.
"Now yer gettin' scared?" He faced the Chucks circling above. "In the middle of a fight?" Why was he using his useless scaring tactics on the robots?
The maggots shot out of the Dutchman's eyes, latching onto the Chucks. Wings extended from the maggots, and they flew the robots into the sludge.
Oh. That's why.
"You're a damn good fighter." Haruka withdrew her sword, a beam extending from it. "You could've defeated these robots by yourself."
"Of course I could've. I was testing you. I'd heard humans had come, and I wanted to see what you all were made of."
No need for Haruka to mention his false bravado. She'd pissed him off enough.
Maggot-covered robot after robot plunged into the sludge, their mechanical screams echoing and then fading as they sunk. Haruka swept her sword and the beam about, slicing robots, their halves falling into the sludge.
PallaPalla's eyes widened at the falling robots. Setsuna struck PallaPalla's side, and she fell off her steed, spinning end over end. She screamed for her steed to save her.
The hybrid flew after her. Haruka looked at the snoring Patrick, to the steed, and back.
Haruka was a terrible person. Not so terrible that she'd throw a starfish at a horse-monkey concoction to wake the starfish and stop the steed at the same time.
Patrick's eyes shot open. Homed in on the steed. "Cannonball!"
Haruka readied her sword to strike the hybrid.
"I said, 'Cannonball.' That means, throw me."
Haruka's thoughts exactly. Either Patrick had a great mind, or Haruka was an idiot, too.
She threw Patrick. The starfish curled himself into a ball. He slammed into the hybrid, careening it off-course. They pounded onto the ground.
PallaPalla blanched. Setsuna flew before her, following her down. Aimed her Garnet Rod at the Dead Moon Circus member.
To finish her.
A funnel of flames burst from the sludge, reddening the sky. The flames upon the surface of the sludge congealed, sucked into the funnel. Fish after fish flew out, screaming about their burning underwear and losing their marbles during marble competitions.
Lastly, out flew Rei, flames coating her, eyes a deep purplish-red.
Her Super upgrade had finally kicked in for the greater good.
However Rei had done it, her new flame funnel attack was badass.
Attacks could be used to defend others. Even though Rei carried only attacks in her arsenal, she'd found a way to protect the fish while saving them from their nightmares.
Haruka grinned. What awesome teammates.
A red glow surrounded Rei, and she floated above. The fish dropped onto the ground, free of their nightmares. Everyone stopped, gaping at her.
Except Setsuna.
The Guardian of Space and Time slammed her Garnet Rod onto PallaPalla's heart. Said so quietly that she seemed to only mouth, "Dead Scream."
"No." Rei threw a hand toward Setsuna, and the funnel of flames curved toward the older Guardian. Wincing like the flames were no more than gnats, Setsuna kept aiming at PallaPalla, and the beam struck true.
PallaPalla screamed. A noise that she'd forced from countless others.
"I must live for my queen." For once, PallaPalla hadn't referred to herself in the third-person. She grasped the rod with both hands and then swung herself upward, doing a handstand upon the Garnet Rod, the beam having eradicated her clothes, her skin charred.
PallaPalla bounded upward, landed on the ground. Energy burst around her, and she flew for the first time, blurring through the sky.
Setsuna aimed her beam at the retreating PallaPalla, but the ball balancer flitted about, dodging.
Haruka flew after PallaPalla, only for a curtain of flames to fall in front of her. All at once, she became drenched in sweat.
By now, PallaPalla must be gone.
Haruka swiveled toward Rei, almost shoved the girl. "Rei, what the hell?"
To her credit, Rei looked Haruka, who towered over a foot above her, in the eye. "Something told me that we should let her live."
Haruka ground her teeth. "You let our enemy go, and all you say is that 'something' told you to let her? Some stupid intuition of yours?"
Rei's eyes sharpened, and the flames swelled. Haruka backed away from the flames; she and Patrick, Rei's morality pet, might be engulfed if Rei lost control.
"You think we do nothing but talk out our asses. That we're impulsive, childish. I thought long and hard about the decision I made. I promise you, I did not take it lightly."
Haruka glowered. "First Makoto, then you. Maybe Michiru and I would be better off without you."
"Did it work out when you two were alone?" Setsuna said, arms crossed at her waist, Garnet Rod tucked at her side.
Haruka flinched.
Suddenly, she ached to be alone with Michiru.
You're no different from Makoto. Shaking her head of the unwelcome thought, she said, "We have to find Hotaru." Barely heard herself. Wasn't like her to be soft-spoken.
She flew. Leaving the Flying Dutchman. Leaving Rei and Setsuna. To find Hotaru instead of having a pissing contest. Unlike Minako and Makoto, she wouldn't dare return to her allies without one of their teammates. She was not like them.
She was better.