The heels of her boots clicked as Sailor Saturn walked in the halls of Castle Titan for the first time in years. Even during her slumber, in the Silver Millennium, the princess of the planet of destruction had always been asleep within its halls, silent caretakers passing through like ghosts and waiting for the day their charge would be summoned.

"Princess Saturn!" cried an exuberant voice, and the Sailor Power Guardian that had been waiting for her return all this time shot through the air, only to skid to a halt almost comically in front of her to avoid the collision. Even though, she almost vibrated in her spot, filled with excitement.

"Guardian Saturn," greeted Sailor Saturn with a warm smile, extending her hands out to offer the lookalike sprite a place to stand. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

The small fairy shook her head quickly. "I'm just glad you've recovered fully," said the sprite. "Princess Pluto told me you wouldn't be able to return, so I waited with Titan Castle."

"Thank you," she said, grateful. The magic of the castle that was her birthright felt right. Not old or empty, in the same way cold houses unlived in tended to, but alive. Warm. Welcoming.

The manifestation of her powers smiled, before her expression grew serious. "But we have an urgent matter that needs to be resolved immediately."

Saturn tensed. Neither Pluto nor the others had told her of such a thing. It must have been internal, then, something wrong with the planet that the other sailor soldiers hadn't noticed.

Guardian Saturn met her eyes, and said with more seriousness than she had ever shown before, "I need a name."

Behind her, Sailor Pluto, who had come with her just in case, muffled a giggle behind her gloved hand.

"All the other Sailor Power Guardians received names!" Guardian Saturn cried out, while Sailor Saturn was stunned and silent. "I was the only one left out for so long!"

"Guardian Venus started it," expanded Pluto. "Sailor Venus gave her sprite the name she had back in the Silver Millennium, and the others followed suit when their respective guardians also complained."

Sailor Saturn would have laughed at that image – the small, fairy-forms of their powers organizing a protest in demands of names – but she felt terrible, for having left her own power's manifestation alone for so long.

"I know circumstances didn't allow it," Saturn said quietly. "But I am still sorry, for having left you alone."

Different from the others, alone in that experience – it was how Sailor Saturn had been during their first lives. That her own Sailor Power Guardian had also had to feel she was also alone left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"May I call you Makaria?" she requested. It was a name that felt unfamiliar to her, after a lifetime of not having anyone use it to call to her, but it had been her name before she was reborn as Tomoe Hotaru.

She was no longer Makaria, but she once had been.

Guardian Saturn clapped her small hands over her mouth, eyes filling with tears. "Of course," she breathed. "Of course. It's an honor, princess."

Hotaru's parents moved to Namimori, but Hotaru was away.

Before she left, though, she had taken both Takeshi and Haru to her new house, and introduced them to her three parents. Takeshi and Haru accepted it, not questioning why she had three, or why all of them were women. It didn't matter, as long as the three women cared about Hotaru.

"At least one of them should be here at any time," she said, as Haru and Takeshi marvelled at the large house. "So if you have any questions, or," she paused and fidgeted, lacking confidence.

"If we have any letters," chirped Haru, picking up where Hotaru was hesitant to continue. "We'll bring them here."

Hotaru smiled, relief evident.

One day after she had left, Hotaru's papa had dropped by. Takeshi had missed Haruka, but Haru had come out of the house just in time to see the tall blond woman.

"Hey," she said with a salute and a grin, and Haru blushed. If Hotaru was like a princess, then her papa was like the princes Haru had dreamed of. Tall, handsome, charming . . .

But she loved one of Hotaru's mamas a lot, so that was that.

"Hi, Haruka-san," she said, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ears because there was a sudden urge to make sure her hair was fine. "Is there a letter from Hotaru?"

"There is," she said, handing the envelope over. Behind, Hotaru's neat writing had spelled out Haru's name. "She's already doing pretty well, but she says she misses you guys a lot."

Haru clutched the letter to herself and beamed. "We miss her too!"

Haruka's lips quirked into a fond smile, and Haru had to resist the urge to blush. Hotaru was pretty, Haruka was handsome, Michiru was elegant, and Setsuna was mysterious. Hotaru's family might not have been related by blood, but they were all incredibly beautiful.

And, Haru wasn't going to lie, she had a major weakness for beautiful people.

"Just drop any replies you want to send her with us," Haruka told her, echoing what Hotaru had said. "If we're not there, you can leave it in our mailbox."

That reminded Haru, though. "We could just mail it to her," Haru suggested. "We don't want to be a bother."

Postage stamps didn't cost too much, and Haru's mother had worried they might be a bother to Hotaru's parents.

Haruka paused before grinning like there was an inside joke. "No bother, don't worry. We're a lot faster than snail mail."

She patted Haru's head – and she was just so cool, it was unfair, Haru didn't know how but it was – and gave a little wave. "See you around, Haru-chan."

Haru quietly had to hold back a squeal, and her heart rate didn't return to normal until Haruka was long out of her sight.

Saturn was much bigger than the Earth. It also happened to have more moons than the planet Tomoe Hotaru had been born on.

But what it had in size, it failed to make up in infrastructure and life, though the latter was partially her fault. Titan Castle was the only inhabitable area on the entire planet, all its satellites included.

Which meant it was really the only place she needed to stay at. The enchanted castle would orbit around Saturn anyways, passing by its moons and being a focal point for the planet's magic. It was a lot better than having to trek all around the planet, and much faster at that.

"And that's the last of it," Makaria said, looking proud.

Sailor Saturn nodded. That was the last of the tour, with Makaria taking her around the castle to demonstrate all the functions available in the rooms. Queen Selene's gift to them might have been beautiful, but their birthrights were also functional. Their castles served as reserves and transmitters of their own power should they be off their home planets, as well as a mobile fortress.

"Impressive," was the word she used, because it was. The castles were truly magnificent, the pinnacle of everything the Silver Millennium's advanced knowledge, magic and technology had been capable of. It was nice to finally be able to appreciate its glory.

Makaria beamed. "Isn't it?"

The only thing that made the castle less than perfect, Saturn thought as they began making their way back to the command room. Was that it was empty and uninhabited. Titan Castle could host a thousand people, easily, and the lack of life save for herself and Makaria left the emptiness all that more glaringly obvious.

Before she could sink into more depressing thoughts, the screen chimed with a request for communication from Miranda Castle.

"Hey, Saturn," greeted Sailor Uranus with her usual confident cheer when she responded. "Getting used to the castle?"

She was. It wasn't impossible to draw her magic while she had been back on Earth, but it was vastly different to do so while on Saturn itself, the wellspring of her own power. Like there was a difference in being able to relax at a hotel, and at her own home. Far easier, far more fulfilling.

And Titan Castle was beautiful, truly. It was unfamiliar to her, and the rooms were elegant and beautiful and pleasing to look at, but also familiar because of the magic that ran through it like blood ran through the human body, the very same magic that was intertwined with her soul.

Sailor Uranus grinned at her answer, and changed the subject to what the planet Saturn and Titan Castle lacked, to make it her true home. "I've got replies from your friends."

Hotaru broke out into a smile.

Namimori was the same, even after Hotaru left to the hospital.

And that felt a little wrong to Takeshi. He didn't realize just how much of his everyday life had involved Hotaru being there. For a long time, she had been always just there.

It left a bit of a hole, to be honest. But Hotaru had promised she'd be back soon, and she kept her promises. Takeshi focused on baseball to keep his mind from dwelling on that empty feeling. He couldn't spend it with Haru, not when she was getting busy with school, because it was their last year as elementary students. Soon they would be in middle school.

Baseball would be more fun in middle school, he remembered his teacher telling him. More serious, if he was up to the challenge.

Takeshi kind of hoped that Hotaru would come to Namimori Middle with him. He didn't have anyone else he would have considered a 'real friend' at his school. Hotaru seemed to believe he wouldn't have any difficulty making friends, but he doubted it. He knew most of the kids from elementary, by name if not by sight, knew that they were the people he would be attending middle school with.

Unless they drastically changed somehow, Takeshi didn't think any of them would become people he truly considered a 'friend' in the way he considered Hotaru and Haru 'friends'. And people, Takeshi knew, didn't change easily.

There were three plans, as made by Mercury, three options she could choose after Saturn spent time on her own planet to 'fully' recover.

"The first is to focus on your control," Mercury had said. Because Saturn had power, almost too much of it, but fine control was not something she had been given time to develop. In terms of her technique, Saturn was sorely lagging behind the others. This was Pluto's idea, because as someone with terrible power at her disposal, she knew best the importance of control.

"The second, your power." Because one could also argue that if she couldn't first know her limits – just how much of her power she could exert without crossing the line to her strongest, most devastating unleashing of her power – she couldn't have fine control. Starting big and gradually decreasing her strength was also an option. Neptune had been the one to suggest this method, because she was the soldier of the deep seas and some things, like the deep, wide oceans she ruled, were best left controlled by swimming with the flow, not against it.

"The third," Mercury paused as she grimaced.

The third option, which had been thrown out by Uranus, was for Saturn to just get used to fighting and using her powers in combat by sparring with the other sailor soldiers on their own respective planets until she received a passing mark from all of them.

"Because nothing beats actual experience," Uranus said, cracking her knuckles. "Especially when it comes to a fight."

None of them could argue against that, but at the same time, their basic moral senses were screaming at them to use their common rationalities and say out loud, 'This is a terrible idea'.

"It's a little reckless," Pluto said, the voice of reason, not outright condemning what Uranus suggested. She was pragmatic, she knew that it was, really, the best way, but that was why she had also suggested an alternative, in the hopes of taking it easy on Saturn.

"But it's the fastest way," Uranus pointed out, ever practical when it came down to discussing combat or speed.

It was also the one that would get her suffering the most. Saturn could just imagine the beating she would receive. Uranus definitely wouldn't go easy on her. Neither would Pluto, come to think of it, because while she may have been reluctant, if Saturn made her decision she would not do a half-baked job. Neptune would be sympathetic before and after her training, but during the sessions?

And she didn't even need to start on the inner guardians. Venus was dead serious when it came to their duties as sailor soldiers. Mercury was strategic. Mars was terrifying even when she was a civilian. Jupiter was powerful, both magically and physically, and while the former Saturn might have been able to match the latter? She would be crushed like a bug.

In short this was the method that would likely get her killed multiple times, like an entire term of physical education classes crammed into one hour.

But it was also the fastest way, as Uranus had pointed out. There were plans for them to start talking to other sailor soldiers, ones that had been revived after the incident at the Cauldron. The solar system had been closed off because of her, but now that Sailor Saturn was back in action there could be no further quarantine.

And opening up the solar system to allow for entrance of other sailor soldiers meant it was best if she could pull her own weight.

If she wanted to fight alongside them, she had to be able to do her share.

Really, there was only one choice she could make.

Saturn ended up going with the third option. The sailor soldiers began planning out schedules, because they had civilian lives as well, and when Uranus was the first one, Tomoe Hotaru silently began planning out her last will and testament.

'My physiotherapist is trying to kill me.'

Takeshi paused at that part in the letter. Hotaru must have really been suffering if she wrote it like that. Not 'this is hard' or 'I hate exercise'.

'I hate physical exercise.'

There it was, that was more like her.

Takeshi read the rest of the letter. That was the extent of her complaints, but this was from Hotaru, who was almost always optimistic, who never really complained about anything. She must have been suffering a lot.

Other than that, she seemed to be doing fine. Her parents were supportive, and the hospital food wasn't as bad as Takeshi worried, he didn't have to worry about her not eating, and she was making progress.

'I'm going to go to Midori,' she had written near the end, decision made. It made sense, Takeshi supposed, carefully folding up the letter like he had with all her letters, despite the bad news this one had brought him. Midori was where the smart girls went, and Hotaru was probably the smartest girl he had ever met, ever would meet.

Still, he couldn't help the sting of disappointment. That meant that in their group of three, he was the only one attending a different school.

Takeshi hoped Hotaru returned quickly. If they couldn't go to the same school, then he wanted to spend more time with her while he could.

Saturn panted, sore all over. At least her sparring with Uranus had been – though it almost hurt her to say – easier than this. Uranus had let her use the Silence Wall when she couldn't dodge the World Shakings and Space Sword Blasters she threw out.

Pluto, on the other hand, did no such thing.

"We both use staff-based weapons," she had said, tossing Saturn a staff. The Silence Glaive was too powerful a weapon to use in basic sparring, and it was her technique they were working on, she said.

Her words were logical. They were also terrifying.

But fear wasn't going to make Sailor Saturn back down, so the Garnet Rod and the Silence Glaive were set aside in exchange for staffs, plain and simple, and Pluto charged at her, wielding it as expertly as she would her Talisman.

And Saturn, for all that the Silence Glaive was an integral part of her own attacks, had never really wielded the Silence Glaive in that sense. As a bladed weapon, in close-quarter combat. It was a conduit for her own powers, a key to unlocking what lay dormant within her, an amplifier for her abilities.

She managed to block the first strike – or so Pluto allowed her to think, before she lashed out with a kick at Saturn's unprotected side and sent her flying.

"First lesson," Pluto said sternly, as Saturn pulled herself back up, clutching at her side. "Guard yourself properly. If you leave a part of yourself open, do so with the intent to protect it at an instant."

This time it was Saturn's turn to charge. She ran forth, feinted a blow towards Pluto's head, and then leapt back to avoid the counterstrike, Pluto's staff swinging up like an uppercut.

Unfortunately for her own head, Pluto followed up with a quick downward strike.

"You should always protect your head," Pluto added, while Saturn saw stars in her vision. "And other vital areas."

Saturn, naturally, learned those vital areas to protect as Pluto struck at them over and over for the next few days.

Presence hidden by the Segno Hell Ring, Acheron slipped into Namimori to check on how things were going. Granny was doing fine, the bloodline of Giotto was still living a normal life, and the descendant of Peleus was still a right terror, so unlike his ancestor.

In other words, Namimori was Namimori.

If only the same could be said of the rest of the world.

Ensuring that his wards were renewed, he made his way to Italy to meet up with one part of Sephira's legacy. It said a lot that his visits to the country were now made with the sole purpose of his job. No pleasure to be drawn from it, just business. How droll.

Especially with the company he was set to meet.

"This is unexpected," he said, feigning ignorance. One of the few amusements he had left in life was the reaction he stirred from people when he refused to give them an easy way of dealing with him. "I had thought I made it clear I had no desire to see your kind. Was I mistaken?"

Even if those in question didn't adhere very well to conventional societal norms.

The pair looked at him, eyes hidden by their masks. Always a pair, because the brain had two halves. Created by Sephira after she decided to split the stones further to make the rings, their job was to watch over the two minor parts that made up the Trinisette after Sephira died, and they carried out their duty religiously. It was literally their life's purpose.

"Due to the Sky Arcobaleno having been chosen from the blessed lineage," said the Cervello to the right. "The Mare Ring of the Sky has created a rightful bearer of its own. In a few years, he will awaken to his powers, and we will deliver him the ring."

He had 'chosen' the Sky Arcobaleno from Sephira's descendant over twenty years ago. Acheron didn't see why they had chosen to reach out to him now. "And?"

They exchanged glances. "The Vongola Ring of the Sky has actively chosen its next bearer, as well."

Yes, he had heard through his own devices just what had happened with the succession of the strongest mafia family. Fate worked in strange ways, trying to bring things all into a full circle.

Sephira had, after all, promised that young upstart Giotto.

But that, like most things, was hardly Acheron's concern. "And?"

They exchanged another glance, and Acheron barked out a harsh sound that might have passed as laughter.

"Do your jobs," he ordered. Technically, they were by no means under him, or under any obligation to listen to his orders. They had been created shortly after the rings for one purpose, and one purpose only.

But their creator had been Sephira, and so they could not help but worry about him.

Acheron didn't need or want their concern. He turned to leave, and the Cervello didn't try to stop him. "And I'll do mine."

Trips to Italy were always for business now. No pleasure in them, not anymore.

Sailor Venus met her on Magellan Castle with a grin so terrifying it nearly made Saturn flee to her own castle. She didn't, but it was a very close thing.

"Sailor Saturn!" she crooned, whip adorned with roses deceptively pretty against her slim waist. It was terrible how something so beautiful was so powerful.

The sword in her hand was by no means nearly as deceptive as the whip, but appearance didn't matter when both ended up putting her through training hell.

"I have to admit, I don't use a staff-based weapon like you," Venus admitted, after hours of intense combat where Saturn had everything thrown at her, from the whip, to the more basic form of the Love-Me-Chain, to the sword, to even the occasional boomerang thrown at her head. "So I'm just throwing what little I have at you."

Saturn hated that boomerang. It didn't matter if she dodged it the first time, it always came back, and hurt more the second time around.

Also, did she just say 'what little I have'? She would have been outraged, but her exhaustion was bone-deep. No, deeper. Her soul would remember this exhaustion.

"But you're a walking arsenal of other weapons," Saturn pointed out, voice tired even to her own ears.

Venus noted this, and her smile deepened. She didn't even look tired. Somehow this was insulting to Saturn. If she regained her breath and the world stopped spinning, maybe she might realize just what part of Venus was insulting to her other than the unreasonable 'all of her', but her breath, much like an elusive sprite in a forest under a moonlit night, was impossible to catch.

"That I am," the leader of the inners agreed with too much cheer. Saturn considered whether or not 'all of her' was as unreasonable as she tried to tell herself, and found herself on the losing side of the argument. "And Pluto is covering your lessons with the staff. I'm just here to get you used to facing other close- and mid-range weapons."

The long-range weapons lessons were covered not by Venus, but Mars.

"Dodge," the Soldier of Passion and War had said simply, and with only three uses of the Silence Wall permitted for the entire session, Saturn was forced to run from the arrows of fire raining down on her. While she was 'permitted' to use the Silence Wall and protect herself, the five second after she pulled it down meant the barrage of fiery arrows doubled.

Once their game of one-sided dodgeball with real fire and consequences had made Mars satisfied of her dodging abilities, she moved on to letting Saturn try to attack her.

Key word being 'try', because high heels fit for an evening dress affair or not, Mars was quick on her feet and a fighter worthy of the title 'Soldier of War'.

Saturn learned that she hated being kicked by legs in heels. They were very pretty heels, and they hurt. A lot. They were weapons. Mars wore weapons on her feet, because of course she did.

"Dodge my flames, and try to take me out," she instructed. Because long-ranged attackers needed to be countered with the same, or the fight needed to be changed to close-quarters combat.

It was just too bad that Mars was good at both. Saturn continued to be burned and forced to heal herself.

Haru finally got the chance to meet up with Takeshi. She swore – to herself, silently, in her head – it wasn't because she felt bad that Hotaru was going to be attending Midori with her, while he went to Namimori. She also swore – again, to herself, and to no one else, like a secret she planned on taking to the grave – that she wasn't there to rub it in.

It was actually because he needed help with homework. Takeshi wasn't stupid, he was pretty smart when it came down to it. Haru had seen him solve questions with ease after Hotaru demonstrated a few examples.

It was just that he got distracted easily. Baseball, the love of his life, called loudly and Takeshi often couldn't resist the urge to go outside. Sitting still and focusing on studies was harder, without someone keeping him there because books and school subjects were just far less interesting to him.

That was what Hotaru said, and Haru tried to be the one holding him there. She wasn't as good at explaining things, but she could solve things slowly and explain to the best of her abilities why she did what she did, at least with the math questions.

"Negative numbers are easier if you think of them like money," she explained. "So for example, negative three is like saying you borrowed three hundred yen from me. Now you have three hundred yen to pay back to me, right?"

Takeshi frowned. "But I have the three hundred you lent me."

"Ignore that – focus on the money you owe me."

His frown deepened. "Then where does the money I borrowed go to?"

Haru opened her mouth to explain, before she realized that she didn't really know, either. And now she was getting confused, which just wouldn't do.

Time to use a different example, then.

"Okay, never mind the money example," she said. "Think of negative numbers like floors under the ground."

Haru began sketching a tall building, and drew the horizontal ground to represent the ground.

"Positive numbers, the bigger they are, the higher they go, right?" she wrote down some numbers. "The bigger the number, the higher they are from the ground."

Then she drew the basement floors. "And the negative numbers are the opposite. The bigger the number, the lower they go."

Takeshi processed this and nodded. "Okay. So, the ones with the minus signs, the larger the number, the less value they have. But numbers without the minus signs, they just work like regular numbers."

Hotaru would have been so proud – of Takeshi, and her. Haru clapped her hands. "Exactly!"

Haru felt ridiculously proud of herself when Takeshi was able to use that building example to answer all the questions on his worksheet correctly.

Mercury and Neptune were the weakest soldiers of the inner and outer sailor soldiers, respectively. Mercury had always specialized as a strategist – brains, rather than brawn – and Neptune, by nature, preferred to play the role of support as the soldier of embrace.

That, of course, was just in comparison to the other, more battle-oriented sailors. At the end of the day, they were still sailor soldiers, still incredibly capable and powerful in their own rights with their own strengths.

Mercury's drills were exhausting – both physically and mentally. She simulated battles using data from past enemies, and while they were still on 'easy mode' the diversity of methods needed to 'clear' the missions, so to speak, forced Hotaru to think more about just power behind her attacks.

"The Dark Kingdom specialized in harnessing the energies of human hearts," Mercury said quietly. The distant look in her eyes, the unreadable gaze she held after dispersing the simulation of the Shitennou made Saturn hold her tongue.

And her mission had been to defeat the possessed humans without evaporating their souls, merely the cause of their distortion, and tracking down the source.

"We can work on the simulations of the Death Busters," Saturn offered. She would not deny that the sight might be . . . less than pleasant, but still. There was a difference between 'brainwashed and forced to turn on their liege lord' and 'became obsessed with power and used even his daughter as a sacrifice'.

It snapped Mercury out of her funk. "We could," Mercury agreed. "But you still need to fight the demons a little better. Let's focus on your mental defenses first."

Saturn resisted cringing, but just barely.

But as challenging as Mercury made her drills, she was still better than Neptune.

"Have fun," the sailor soldier of the deep seas chirped as she waved.

Saturn couldn't respond. She was too busy trying to not drown in the terrifying oceans of Neptune.

The trials Sailor Neptune had for her were, as the soldier of embrace said herself, swimming lessons.

Swimming lessons, if they were given while in space, on the planet of the deep seas itself, with the sailor soldier of said planet having too much fun watching her suffer.

To make things more challenging, because clearly her suffering to keep her grip on the Silence Glaive while also raising her head above the surface of the water once a minute or so to replenish air meant Saturn was having an easy time with the task of staying afloat, Neptune, perched on a throne made of coral, brought out her violin and began to play. The oceans responded to the spell of music, and bore down on her harder like the waters had a will of their own.

Neptune didn't let her drown. Saturn did, however, come close to it several times.

Hotaru-chan, Happy Birthday! I'm so sad you couldn't come back home for your thirteenth birthday, but Haruka-san promised that she'd give you our gifts! I wanted to make you a Namahage costume but Takeshi suggested something else. He knew this one boy from baseball whose dad could print t-shirts!

We looked through our albums but couldn't find a really good picture, so we got astrology signs instead. Setsuna-san helped us get the sign for Capricorn for you, and then said we should have ones as well. Then Setsuna-san taught us how to tie-dye, so each of our shirts are unique. Yours is mostly purple because we dropped it into the purple dye by accident. It's still really pretty though so don't worry! It can be like friendship bracelets, but with t-shirts. We hope you like it! Takeshi's is mostly blue with purple and yellow, and mine's mostly green and pink, like a flower in spring.

Speaking of clothes, starting from our year, Midori is getting new uniforms! Did you get to see the new uniforms? Aren't they cute? Midori has the second-best uniforms in all the Namimori schools! Yumei's is cuter, but their school is also kind of stuffy. That's what the older girl living next to our house says. She went to Midori but she's graduating this year so we won't be in school with her.

Haruka-san said that you're getting a lot better, and that if everything goes well, you'll be able to come back next month! We should have a party then, to celebrate the birthday we missed and to welcome you back! Takeshi's dad says you're always welcome to the restaurant. He also says that Michiru-san has good taste in food. I think he says that because she says she likes the food there.

I really miss you, Hotaru-chan. It's just not the same without you. Takeshi keeps smiling but he looks less happy, and it's the same for me too. It's your birthday and I keep thinking that last year you were really sick, and then that means that in a few days it's been a whole year since I saw you last? I haven't seen you for a year! You said seven months!

I'm not mad at you or anything! I just really miss you! Please tell your doctor to hurry or he / she / they will have to deal with a girl dying to see her friend in Namimori!

Lots of love and stickers, Haru.

"I think you're close to holding your own," Uranus commented. It was terrible to hear that from her right now, because Uranus was facing her with her sword held in one hand.

While Saturn was barely deflecting each and every blow with both of her hands clutching at the Silence Glaive. None of its death-related powers would leak out, she wouldn't allow it, but it was still a weapon, allowing her to face of Uranus to a certain degree of limited success.

"Better with calculating the reach," Uranus continued, switching from slashes to stabs. Saturn adjusted her own defensive maneuvers, making sweeps to throw the sword off-course and away from her body. It was harder defending against stabbing attempts, but it was hard, period, facing off against Uranus, so.

The soldier of flight bared her teeth in a grin that struck fear in Saturn's heart. "World Shaking!"

No warnings. No heads up. In this half of training, the sailor soldiers liked to bombard her with attacks suddenly, to see if she was on her toes.

After taking several attacks head-on due to not being able to react in time, Saturn was prepared. "Press Crusher!"

With a slash of her glaive, she released an energy wave that collided with the ringed sphere Uranus had thrown towards her. The resulting impact caused an explosion that threatened to throw her back.

Saturn let it. Through the smoke flew Uranus, charging towards where she had been just before.

"Silence Wall!"

"Space Sword Blaster!"

The paradox, of what happened when an unstoppable force met an immovable object, was often recounted with the tale of the two gods-blessed animals, the hound that never failed to catch its prey and the fox that never failed to elude its hunters.

In the myth, the gods, realizing this paradox, could not allow for the two graces to clash with each other, and forever made the results a tie by turning the two into static stars.

In reality, one or both would have to give – and as powerful as Uranus was, and as strong as her Talisman was, Saturn's Silence Wall was unbreakable. The barrier she erected held steady even as the blades wrought from the energy of the heavenly planet hammered against at it.

Saturn was ready to continue attacking, but Uranus seemed satisfied. She put the Space Sword away, in her own pocket dimension, and crossed her arms, a smile of triumph on her lips.

"You're ready," Uranus said.

"Are you sure?"

As soon as the words had left her mouth, Saturn regretted it. Uranus smirked, the curl of her lips wicked, and she barely held back the cringe.

"If you're up for more training, sure," drawled Uranus. "Great initiative, I'm proud of you, let's start with-"

"I mean, I'm sure your judgement is absolutely sound and perfect," Saturn interrupted, rude but out of necessity and desperation.

But, she had to ask. "Are you sure, though?"

Uranus let her smirk soften into a fond smile, and Saturn slowly loosened her tense shoulders. "I'm sure."

With a relieved exhale, Saturn relaxed fully. Her training wasn't done – it would never be done, really – but now she could return to a civilian life, live as Tomoe Hotaru.

See her friends again.

"Thank you," she said gratefully, both for deeming her ready, and for all the hard work she had put in training her into shape.

Takeshi had the advantage in leg length and experience in baseball, but Haru was no pushover when it came to running, and she had ecstasy fueling her drive. The two of them bolted down the streets of Namimori to the house, and almost comically skidded to a stop.

With very little patience leaving them almost vibrating on the spot, Takeshi – who was closer – pushed the doorbell.

The door opened two seconds later, and Hotaru beamed at them. Whatever the treatment and rehabilitation had done for her, Haru thought, it had worked. Hotaru looked so solid, so present. Her pale cheeks were slightly flushed, and her hair had been cut recently. She looked healthy.

"Haru! Takeshi!" she cried out, throwing her arms around their necks.

"Hotaru!"

She was back. Everything in the world felt right again.

AN: Finally, we can get started on KHR. This would have been stretched out over a few chapters, but it was all crammed into one because I'm a very impatient person.

The Sailor Power Guardians are fairy lookalikes of the sailor scouts that appeared in the Dream Arc.

Makaria is a goddess of death whose name means 'blessed', and given Sailor Saturn's job as someone who brings the necessary death / destruction it was perfect. It's also the name of a daughter of Hercules who voluntarily dies as a sacrifice to ensure victory for the city she's in, as well as keeping others safe. Both fit so well it just had to be Hotaru's name from the SilMil.

Sweet Dreams~