Chapter Sixty-three: The Strangling Fear
For the first time in her life, Michiru was afraid.
Not of the Lemures beating down on the group. Not of the dream world. Of herself.
She feared the powers King Neptune had bestowed upon her. Usually, her power-ups came from within. King Neptune hadn't given her godhood out of love or a desire to protect anything but his own ego.
She couldn't blame the god for her recklessly unleashing her powers upon Plankton.
Despite the Lemures rampaging around her, she took a moment to see where Plankton was. Makoto placed Plankton onto the sand, near Gary, behind the pineapple.
Michiru had to make up for what she'd done to him.
Dead Moon must be nearby. Michiru looked, batting away Lemures with her mirror. Wouldn't dare use beam-based attacks.
Thankfully, Makoto was electrocuting the Lemures while Usagi launched rainbow beams and Mamoru swept a white beam about. SpongeBob blew bubble rockets that exploded upon impact, and several Lemures burst in succession.
Striking through Lemures, Michiru flew near the top of the dream world. The Lemures resembled a solid black building. Hopefully, Plankton wasn't foolish enough to jump into the fray, thinking that the dream world rendered him invincible.
She could see different scenarios simultaneously within the span of a second. A lot of time when fighting, but a risk she was willing to take.
She visualized Plankton. He still hunched beside Gary, behind SpongeBob's pineapple. Their enemies could attack both and no one would be the wiser.
In another, the Lemures drowned her allies in nightmares. Plankton screamed, "Not again."
Couldn't discount any scenario. Before, the one scenario she'd thrown aside had come true.
She couldn't become paralyzed by the future. She always moved forward. Cautiously, but she pressed on.
Then, she didn't have nigh unlimited powers to lose control of. She went with the brash Haruka. Together, they balanced each other. Together, they could do anything.
Here she was, floating in the air with all the powers she could want, and she couldn't do anything.
Michiru closed her eyes, focusing on CereCere. The Dead Moon Circus member might be orchestrating the chaos from afar. If she found CereCere, she could cut the head off the snake, leaving the body aimless.
CereCere, Hawk's Eye, and Fisheye sat behind the treedome. Michiru's instinct was to defeat them, but a voice inside her head—perhaps part of being a goddess—told her to wait and listen. She could glean information that led to Queen Nehellenia's whereabouts.
"Why do we have to wait here?" Fisheye snarled. "I hate humans who take over my home. I especially hate sponges who help those humans."
"Our plan was to take over the underwater world," Hawk's Eye said. "Do you hate us, too?"
"Our situation is different." He pounded his chest. "My underwater family will appreciate what Dead Moon is doing. If the human world is filled with nightmares, then humans can't torture the sea creatures anymore." His expression darkened. "Fishing them out of their homes, eating them. Horrible things."
Who was to say that Dead Moon would stop at the "human world?"
Standing, CereCere watched the Lemures descend on Michiru's allies. "The Lemures will take care of them. No one can resist our nightmares, not even in a dream world. If anything, the Lemures should be more powerful."
They thought their plans ended with these Lemures.
They must not expect Sailor Neptune.
She had to try.
She envisioned the sea lapping the shore, whisking away rocks, debris, eroding the sand. One tsunami away from destroying piers, buildings. Lives.
If Michiru couldn't control it…
Had to stop thinking of the possibilities. The images of drowning fish and people, submerged skyscrapers, crashed into her mind anyhow, too quickly to throw away.
"One's loose," Hawk's Eye said.
She opened her eyes. Hawk's Eye morphed into a hawk and then dove toward her as the sea ascended from the abyss of the dream world. A pit that looked black and bottomless was filled with the sea. The sea followed her wherever she went.
It reared up around her. Ready to defend its master.
Don't, she told the sea. I can defend myself.
We are defending you. The sea grew around Michiru, its own uncontrollable entity.
Hawk's Eye drew back, flapping his wings in place. He, too, feared.
The sea hurled forward. Hawk's Eye flew away in a blur of wings and feathers. CereCere and Fisheye cowered behind a bush. Like a bush would stop the sea.
Hawk's Eye was not fast enough to outfly the sea. Realizing his folly, he shrieked.
The sea wouldn't stop at Hawk's Eye.
Panic rose from Michiru's stomach, to her neck, to her head, a voice insisting, "Stop it now, or else." Didn't need to know what came after the "or else."
"Stop," she found herself yelling, her own voice foreign. Who was this Michiru?
She reached toward the sea and then pulled back her hands. Maybe hand gestures would make the sea subservient.
The sea engulfed Hawk's Eye, drowning him in screams and feathers.
Even though Hawk's Eye had been the enemy, she didn't rejoice at killing him. His death had been because she'd lost control, a prelude of other killings to come.
"No." CereCere reached toward the sea, like she could raise Hawk's Eye from its depths. "Hawk's Eye."
Had to reign in the sea before it killed indiscriminately.
Another shriek permeated above the Lemures. Plankton.
Michiru couldn't have failed him too. Because she was busy losing control of the sea, she hadn't been able to save him.
If Michiru flew toward Plankton, then she'd abandon the sea to do as it pleased, moreso than it was doing now. Surely, her friends were saving Plankton.
Had to trust them. Had to trust herself to restrain the sea.
"Stop." Michiru pulled at the sea. It reared up, stopping. Hovered before Michiru. She faced it. She couldn't back down.
"I need you to stop."
The sea didn't move. Silent. Obedient?
Lemures flew up behind her. The sea swelled. Its job was to protect her, regardless of her commands.
The sea and the Lemures roared toward each other. Michiru was in the middle, to be caught in the crossfire. She flew toward a gap between the sea and the Lemures.
Not enough time.
The sea and the Lemures clamped down on her, and blackness took over.
How many times had the Guardians been knocked unconscious, enslaved to their own thoughts? She'd believed that only the younger Guardians were weak enough to succumb. She thought her "mental toughness" made her immune to Dead Moon's ploys.
She was not a goddess. She was human.
Michiru floated. The helpless Plankton had bravely, or senselessly, joined the Guardians and SpongeBob in the dream world. Perhaps only to fantasize about his dystopian kingdom. Perhaps to test ways to save Karen and rebuild his Chum Bucket.
She visualized the outside world. The Lemures surrounded her friends, Makoto striking the Lemures with lightning while Usagi and Mamoru pelted rainbow and white beams through them. Plankton zigzagged, trying to avoid the Lemures. Must have been flushed out of his hiding spot. Gary shook in a bush behind the pineapple. Maybe the snail had made it back to his hiding place. Their enemies were more interested in Plankton than a snail.
Plankton wasn't her friend, but she was most concerned about him.
Michiru thought of herself as rational, acting for the greater good to her own detriment, but she worried about one part of the whole, someone who had never been her ally. She'd thought that emotions couldn't sway her. Here, guilt was.
She reached toward the outside world but tapped a barrier. She was trapped inside her head.
Michiru reached telepathically, reluctant to use her full power.
Perhaps her powers wouldn't affect anything in the outside world.
Perhaps she could affect the outside world by projecting her own utopia upon it.
She was a goddess. Why not?
Reaching toward the outside, she visualized an art museum. The building appeared, floating beside Sandy's treedome and then drifting down. It slammed upon the platform and whipped up a cloud of dust.
For once, she had built something, not destroyed. Lightness filled her, but she couldn't let her emotions overwhelm again.
Fisheye swiveled toward the building. "What's happening?"
CereCere grit her teeth. "She can't be."
They must not know that Michiru was a goddess. Good for her. Bad for them.
The sea hovered like it was watching the museum, confused.
The world brightened. The barrier blinked and then faded. Perhaps because she had built instead of destroyed, was less afraid of using her…abilities, she had been released from her mind.
She flew out, returning to the outside.
The sea roared toward CereCere and Fisheye. The Dead Moon Circus members hollered. CereCere threw her hands toward the Lemures, and the black balls flew toward the sea. The sea kept barreling toward CereCere and Fisheye.
Michiru could stop the sea from killing them.
Maybe here was the opportunity Michiru had been waiting for.
They'd wreaked havoc on countless lives. Manipulating the circus audiences. Countless people outside of their circus performances. Had started before the Guardians had known that they'd existed. They deserved to die.
Like Hotaru had?
Michiru stopped breathing, and her hand splayed in hesitation, the museum's lights flickering. The sea hesitated and then hurtled toward CereCere and Fisheye.
Back then, Michiru had been a different person. More black and white. More lawful. Now, she tried to work with the gray areas. Something that the younger Guardians had taught her.
She could either stop the sea or let it loose.
Sweat broke from CereCere's forehead. The Lemures pounded into the back of the sea, blackening it.
The sea hastened.
CereCere grabbed Fisheye's hand and dashed into Sandy's treedome.
"The threat is gone," Michiru yelled at the sea. "Stop." She drew her hand back, and the sea slowed, inched forward, and then stopped.
She'd finally controlled it.
Until it reared back, covered in Lemures, toward her instead.
Michiru couldn't react. She shut her eyes, and her defender swallowed her.