A Double Edged Sword Part 7
Killer Instincts
By
Sailor Janus
Deidera opened her eyes and blinked. 'Something is different,' she thought as she pushed the covers away and pulled the devices off herself. But that was her last certain thought everything else seemed almost robotic.
Swinging her feet to the ground she stared at the wall. Plain, white paint and nothing more could best describe it. Abruptly she stood up, went to the closet and got changed. Without a second thought she left the room.
"Miss Doubre! You should not be up and about with your condition," a nurse said as she chased after the girl.
Deidera however continued to walk down the hall, not paying the slightest bit of attention to the babbling woman as she walked out the doors of the hospital.
*~*~*~*
"Anything Rei?" Ami eagerly asked as her friend slowly walked outside the shrine where the others were waiting.
The dark haired aspiring priestess shook her head and looked forlorn at the group. "No, I can't seem to find anything. I guess we'll just have to wait and hope we come across something."
"That bites," Makoto said leaning against the wall. "So what do we do now?"
"Yeah, I mean, we seem to be stuck," Minako sighed wishing that things could have stayed peaceful for a while. She was finally starting to get back into volleyball and now it appeared she may have to quit again.
"I don't know. We really don't know what we're up against which makes the situation much worse. I just wish I knew what our enemy was planning," Rei quietly said as she looked solemnly at her friends.
"We'll figure something out," Usagi said as she tried to cheer up her friends. Unfortunately, it didn't help. At least her boyfriend offered a little reassurance.
"Try to be a little more optimistic girls," Mamoru said, holding his girlfriend's hand. "This type of situation has never stopped you before. You'll get through it."
"Well, since you can't find anything, we're going home." Haruka said as she climbed to her feet from where she was sitting on the steps. Michiru and Setsuna also got up and glanced at Hotaru who was rather quiet.
The younger girl took one look at the three women and stared at them in disgust. She was growing tired of having to choose sides. Slowly she got to her feet and turned to the inner scouts. "I'm going for a walk," she announced as she turned her back to the others and started down the street.
"Hotaru-" Michiru started to say when Setsuna interrupted her.
"Just leave her be. She has a lot on her mind."
"Why is she so angry at us though?" the aqua haired woman asked as the senshi of Pluto shook her head.
"For one thing, she's having a difficult enough time adjusting to being a teenager again, not to mention, that she is the youngest in her class and has not yet made any friends. I guess she thought that since she and Deidera had something in common, that they could be friends. After all, Chibi Usa is back in Crystal Tokyo, which leaves Hotaru with no one. However since we pretty much made it clear in that last battle that we did not want anything to do with Deidera, Hotaru has now determined that we are being unfair and is angry at us."
Michiru thought in silence for a moment. "We did come to the hospital to see Deidera though. Doesn't that say anything?"
"Actually yes. It gives Hotaru the assumption that we do not trust Deidera. She'll come around. Don't worry."
*~*~*~*
A light breeze gently blew through Hotaru's hair. She didn't find any comfort in it though. Nothing seemed to change for her. She was still basically the baby of Sailor Senshi even though she was only two years younger than the inners but that did no good. Instead they always protected and never asked for her opinion. The outers always seemed to expect her to follow what they said like good little daughter. Hotaru deeply sighed and kicked a rock that was in the middle of the street. "Why am I either the freak or the baby? My classmates still don't like me. Never even gave an effort to get to know me. Then Deidera comes along and immediately she is the enemy when she is still one of us. Am I not allowed to have any friends? Is that it? Why do they always have to treat me like an infant! I'm a teenager again, have they forgotten or something?!" the dark haired girl sighed and felt the frustration in her begin to boil.
Hotaru glanced up and found herself in the park. She smiled as she recalled when she met Chibi Usa the first time as well as the first few times her father brought her there for a special treat as a child. To her surprise, however, she found Deidera sitting in the one of the swings. In curiosity she pondered how the girl was cured so quickly.
"Deidera? Hi, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the hospital?" Hotaru said as she ran up to the girl who was sitting quietly on the swings and didn't appear to have heard what Hotaru had said. After a moment, her classmate blinked and glanced up.
"Huh? Oh hi, Hotaru." Deidera briefly smiled as she dragged her feet on the ground. "So what are you doing here?"
Hotaru smiled in return and decided to sit in the swing next to the burgundy haired girl. "I thought I'd go for a walk. So are you okay now?"
"Yeah, I think so." Deidera squinted a bit as she continued as if still trying to piece things together herself. "It was really strange. I was getting these explosive headaches and then everything would go blank." She paused and frowned, running a hand through her curls. "Now that I think of it, I don't even remember checking out of the hospital. So what are you doing hanging around me anyway? I'm sure you have plenty of better things to do."
"Actually, I don't really any friends. I'm new here and everyone seems to think I'm weird for some reason. I don't really know why but anyway, I kinda figured that we had something in common and could be friends," Hotaru smiled, taking the other girl by surprise.
"Friends? Why do you want me for a friend? Everyone always calls me names Like Depressing Girl or Therapy Girl, just because I write very dark stuff not to mention that they tend to call me a liar because they say I did or said something that I did not. That seems to be the norm lately," Deidera explained as she stared at the ground. "Sentenced to solitaire without even so much as a trial…. or a full deck of cards. Can't play solitaire without at least the aces. But nope. No aces in the deck they give you."
Hotaru snickered. "I know how you feel. No one understands me either and being the new girl doesn't help."
Deidera looked at Hotaru skeptically. "Why are you being so nice? Sorry if I'm being a little defensive, but you might understand why."
"Because I know where you're coming from. No one even gave the slightest effort to say hi or when I did, they'd turn their back on me or say something terrible about me behind my back." Hotaru explained as she cringed at recalling the past few days of school. "It's like they already have enough friends."
Abruptly Deidera began to laugh. "I have been in several different schools in different countries and the people always seem to act the same. They just don't really care about the new kid. But I still don't understand why they ostracize you."
Hotaru bit her lip. "Basically, it's because of my father. He used to run an academy, but it was destroyed in a lab explosion. People called him and myself creepy they stay away from us. What about you?"
"Me? They just call me a liar and say I said or did things that I did not. They also find my poetry disturbing which at times I can agree with them, but I can't really seem to help writing. I mean, sometimes I have cheerful poems about romance, warm summer skies, and flowers, but lately, I don't know. It's just getting dark," Deidera said as her expression went almost far away but then she snapped out of it and laughed.
"So do you want to be friends?" Hotaru warmly offered which made the other girl smile.
"Yes, I'd like that very much. Listen, sorry I have to leave so soon, but I really must go. See you later, Hotaru."
"Okay, Bye Deidera."
Hotaru smiled with one last thought as she waved good-bye to Deidera. 'Finally I have a friend. Of course Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru will not approve but I don't care what they think!'
*~*~*~*
Lord Cacus sinisterly smiled. He knew his prize would finally join him today. All he had to do know was wait patiently. 'As long as I keep the one side in power, I'll have complete control. At last, she has arrived.'
"I wasn't sure you'd make it," the man said softly from behind a mysterious woman.
"Don't be silly. I wouldn't miss this for the world," woman smirked. "So what is it you wish of me, my darling Lord Cacus?"
He reached over and stroked her hair gently as he whispered in her ear, "Nothing more than fulfilling the simple duty of ridding this miserable planet of the Sailor Senshi."
"Done," she purred back her golden eyes glinting maliciously as she turned to face the evil man whom she knew so many centuries ago. Carefully, she reached behind his neck and placed her lips to his. 'Oh how long has it been since we were last together?' she thought as she let her kiss linger on then pulled away.
"Wonderful," Lord Cacus breathed in her ear. "I even have a present for you," he said as he took her hand and placed what appeared to be a henshin wand in it. However, there was something almost corrupt about its slick black appearance.
"What is this, my love?" the woman asked as she examined the black wand with swirls of silver and gold in a starburst formation and a backwards J, half of the symbol on the top.
"A special transformation pen, which will hide your appearance, fooling those idiotic sailor senshi into thinking that you are still the goody goody girl scout that you pose as. Your features will transform into that of a woman who's only intentions are assassination with a name I find perfectly fitting. "Kalika."
The thin female smirked at the name. "Perfect. At last I have a name of my own. Do you have anything else for me, my Lord Cacus?" she said as she tried to look like an innocent schoolgirl but burst into fit of giggles after failing at her attempt. 'Oh, it feels wonderful to be back in control.'
"Anxious aren't we, my dark princess? Very well. I have a list of names that Chamelia had so thoughtfully acquired after those insipid sailor senshi paid you a little visit when you were in the hospital. Sad enough to say, that was almost too easy. All she had to do was change her appearance to that of a nurse and leave a tiny recording device, which recorded every word that they said. Although we don't know who is who, we still know that they are indeed the senshi," the silver and gold haired man said with a grin as he ran his fingers through the girl's hair and then placed a small piece of paper in her hand. "Think you can take care of them?"
"Certainly. After all, I like to have fun every now and then. I even know exactly how to go about it," Kalika said as she turned to face Lord Cacus and fluttered her eyelashes and she cocked her head as she softly said, "I can play with them of course. Right?" Then the girl deeply kissed the man in front of her and abruptly pulled away. "After all, it's not very nice to kill them right away. You need to tease and traumatize them a little so that they are running scared and then move in for the kill!"
Lord Cacus looked down at the grinning girl. Oh she was quite the huntress. This should be quite enjoyable to watch. Softly he kissed her forehead and smiled. "Do what you like, my treasure. Just make sure in the end, that they are dead."
"Don't worry. You can count on that," the woman whispered as she left her lover with one last kiss and then broke away to begin her duties. "I think I shall begin this game with a bang," she smiled as she transformed into her alter ego, Kalika.
*~*~*~*
The usually calm and quiet mansion of outer senshi was very active and booming with voices in a very heated argument. Haruka paced the living room angrily. She was still very furious with how Hotaru was acting as well as the fact that no one seemed to care that they were in a rather hopeless situation and that Deidera was the cause for all of the newest problems. After all, everything went to pieces the moment the new girl arrived.
Setsuna and Michiru, however refused to agree with the hot-headed woman who seemed to be jumping to conclusions rather quickly. As far as Hotaru was concerned, she was no longer a child nor their responsibility anymore. Unfortunately, Haruka would not accept any word the two said.
"Deidera is the victim here, Haruka! She is the one in the hospital screaming her head off because of what they did to her! Why can't you see it?" Michiru said from her place at the piano bench. She was growing frustrated with the blonde. At first, Haruka seemed to agree with them, but quickly changed her mind back to "Deidera is the enemy" once again.
"Listen to her, Haruka. This is in no possible way Deidera's fault. Why did you decide that she is the enemy once again anyway?" Setsuna softly said from the sofa. She was getting really tired of Haruka's attitude and decided that once the woman did her usual stomping off to her car to burn off steam, that she would probably need two or three cups of green tea this time to help get her mind off the endless bickering that she both heard and participated in.
"Think about it, Setsuna because I have! I thought she was innocent too at first but once we got back from the hospital I thought of something very interesting. When did all of this start? When did the new enemy show up and the fact that our powers are now useless occur? When Sailor Janus appeared!" Michiru and Setsuna started to open their mouths but short haired woman quickly continued on. "Also, why is it that she was able to defeat the youma or whatever it was called with one simple attack when she appears to be at the same level as us? Something is extremely corrupt and it's her!"
"Haruka! Listen to yourself! You don't know where to place the blame so you choose the person you feel is most likely to be at fault and unfairly pronounced Deidera as the enemy," the aqua haired woman shouted. 'Great. Not a good move. Now she's either going to yell back or storm out the door which leaves me to either run after her or staying here crying my eyes out because I have had enough of these stupid screaming matches,' Michiru thought as she bit her lip.
Sure enough, Haruka was starting to get really fired up and rather than continue on with the dispute, she turned and stomped out of the room, pulling out her car keys from her pocket, and left the house.
Setsuna and Michiru each deeply sighed in frustration.
"Make me a cup too this time," the music prodigy said as she raced after the unreasonable woman who was once again, going to retreat to her car for a long ride.
*~*~*~*
"Damn those two!" Haruka grumbled as she unlocked the door. "Can't they see I'm right?!" Quickly she placed the key in the ignition and turned it, then suddenly froze. 'Wait, what is that strange ticking noise?' she thought as her eyes went wide. Without a second thought she opened the door, raced away from the car as fast as she could.
At the same moment Michiru, ran out of the house. "Haruka!"
"Michiru! RUN!"
But Michiru never heard what the champion racer said because the explosion of the sports car muted her. Both girls screamed as they were thrown to the ground. Pieces of metal went flying and suddenly everything went black.
From a far, someone giggled evilly. "And now the games have begun," Kalika smirked as she dropped her cigarette on the ground and disappeared into a rather large growing crowd of onlookers who heard the explosion and came to investigate.
*~*~*~*