Setsuna woke up to the site of a plain old ceiling for what seemed like an eternity. Setsuna remembered the past nights events.
*****************************FLASHBACK**************************
"Did you know about this?" Haruka asked angrily. "Well, did you!?"
"Yes Haruka, I did. But you knew I couldn't tell you that, you had to find out yourself." Setsuna said.
Michiru just stared at Setsuna, obviously hurt.
"Couldn't or Wouldn't?" Michiru asked.
"Michiru, I…"
"No, don't 'Michiru' me. I've had enough. If it wasn't this bad, I'd understand, but this? How could you?" Michiru turned and went to the bedroom, Haruka followed.
**************************END FLASHBACK*****************************
Setsuna was on the verge of crying again, but her eyes were dry. She'd cried herself to sleep last night and no more tears were left. Her eyes were bloodshot from not getting much sleep last night. Every time she shut her eyes, the events played back in her mind. Setsuna went to the bathroom to take a nice hot shower. Haruka sat in the window just staring out at the foreign world around her.
"Come back to bed Haruka, it's too early." Michiru said, hopefully persuading her partner.
"It does no good. Every time I try and get some sleep, I keep seeing ourselves being killed by Kiwikiwa's henchman." Haruka said burying her face in her hands. Michiru got up and went to Haruka's side. She wrapped her arms around her lover.
"I know Haruka, it's not easy. You have to try though." Michiru said lovingly. There was a loud crash that was heard a mile away.
"Nani!? They're at it again." Haruka said tiredly.
"Let's go!" Michiru answered. "NEPTUNE PLANET POWER, MAKE UP!"
"URANUS PLANET POWER, MAKE UP!"
The two senshi ran towards the noise. They stopped to see Carriage waiting for them.
"How nice of you to join me. Ready?" Carriage outstretched her arms and glared at the two senshi. Birds flew from her hands and started flying at them. They hit the two senshi. But Uranus and Neptune didn't move.
"She's not winning that easily! DEEP SUBMEREGE!" Neptune yelled.
"WORLD SHAKING!" Uranus called after her. The birds were destroyed, but Carriage wasn't stunned. She made fists and her katanas appeared. She charged at Uranus. Uranus drew her sword. Their weapons met and Carriage is getting slightly weaker.
"I'm the strongest senshi. You're a baka for choosing me to do combat with." Uranus said with a smile.
"We'll just see about that." Carriage grinned back. The two went at it for a while until someone appeared.
"Carriage!"
"Hai! General?" Carriage said, as she looked away. Uranus seized the chance. She sliced Carriage's face.
"Itai! Shimatta!" Carriage yelped.
"You haven't disposed of them yet!?"
"iie, but I can do it! Give me another chance onegai!" Carriage pleaded.
"We don't tolerate failures Carriage."
"Hai! I'll do my best." Carriage bowed. She turned to fight, but they were gone.
Pluto stood atop a building during the whole fight.
"Why are they running? Don't they know they have to beat her to save their lives?" Pluto said angered. She leapt from the tall building and disappeared. Haruka and Michiru were driving down the road leading back home.
"Setsuna must've chickened out. She wasn't there." Haruka said mockingly.
"Yea, that's odd, she's always there. Probably because we got pissed last night. Not surprised!" Michiru smiled. Once they arrived home, they found Setsuna on their couch.
"Why are you here?" Haruka asked angrily. Michiru just glared, starting to feel bad about being rude to Setsuna.
"We need to talk." She said staring at Haruka. The two sat down across from Setsuna.
"Do you understand that if you don't fight and beat these enemies, you'll die?"
"Hai, but it would be nice if you could help too! It's your life here also!" Haruka yelled. Michiru placed a hand on Haruka's.
"Calm down Haruka." She turned to Setsuna.
"I'm not happy you kept something like this from us, but I'm sorry for being rude last night. Onegai, help us fight!"
Setsuna had those eyes that she got when she knows she's loved and she's sincere.
"Hai, I will." She said. The three went off to get some tea from the café downtown.
"Onegai, waitress, can I have a cup of tea?" Haruka asked.
"Hai, sir." She said smiling and staring. She looked at Michiru and noticed her arm through Haruka's. "You ma'am?"
"Tea onegai." Michiru said politely.
"Same." Setsuna said.
"Hai, I'll be right back." She said. Michiru turns to look out the window.
"Wonder what Kiwikiwa's going to do next." She said out loud.
"I don't know, but I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough." Setsuna said. Just then a blast threw a man through the café window.
"Setsuna's always right! Let's do it!" Haruka yelled. They found a place no one was and transformed. They ran out to where Carriage was fighting civilians and the inner senshi.
"Matte!" Uranus yelled. Carriage looked at the outers coming towards her.
"Stop right there!" She yelled. Saturn appeared next to the three outers. Carriage threw a bolt of energy at them and ran to the top of a building. The outers followed, while the inners sat there stared after them. Carriage jumped from rooftop to rooftop and had grown tired. She stopped short turned around to face the outers.
"I-I can't do this anymore!" Carriage screamed at the top of her lungs.
The Senshi stared at her with wide eyes. Just as the battle was starting to heat up, she stops. They watched as she hung her head down and massaged her temples. She looked distressed, to say the least.
"Can't do...what?" Saturn asked quietly.
"Fight! I can't fight anymore! If I keep going I'll just die! I wasn't meant to do this!"
"Do what?" Uranus added.
"Don't you understand anything?! I didn't chose this path! I was forced in to it!"
"I know the feeling." Neptune commented to herself.
"They're just using me! For my powers! For my knowledge! Not my skills! They don't need me! I'm the weakling! Just a pawn in their stupid game! They used me first as a test! They just want to see how strong you are! Well! I won't be playing this game anymore!"
They stared at her once more. Could it really be as bad as she said. Merely a child's play toy in the game of life. Only used to be destroyed.
"Well?!" Carriage looked at them sharply.
"Well what?" Uranus asked.
"Kill me! Prove to them that you're strong! They don't need me anymore!"
"We can't do that!" Saturn yelled.
"I'm the enemy! Of course you can! Now just do it!"
"No." Pluto said flatly.
"If you won't do it...I'll force you to!"
With that she raised her hands to her ears, fingertips toward her back. She closed her eyes and concentrated all her energy to her hands. Then, with a flash, two katanas appeared, one in each hand. Large steel katanas that glew with a dim green light. She opened her eyes.
"You wouldn't." Uranus said.
"Care to wager on that?!" Tears now streamed down her face. Anger was plastered all over her eyes. But most of all she looked hurt.
"You're not really like this! Please! Don't make us do this!" Neptune pleaded.
"Shut up!" Carriage screamed as she charged toward them.
She raised her hands above her head, ready to strike with her katanas. She was going to force them to fight back against her. She sped up her pace, she was gaining ground. BANG! She stopped in her tracks. Her eyes wide in horror. Her hands limply let the katanas slide out from her grasp. She fell to the ground lifelessly. Not a single cry of pain was uttered, nor a breath taken. There was a bullet wound just under her left shoulder blade. She had been shot in the heart, from behind. Who had such good aim?
The senshi drew their eyes from the rapidly decaying body of the former Carriage, the hit man. A slim figure stood off in the distance, clocked in an all white suit. Violet eyes seemed to glow through the darkness. They could see the barrel of the gun, smoke still seeping from it in ribbons. But they couldn't tell who the gunman was. Just then the figure lowered its gun to the corpse.
"Sayonara...baka-sama." It said in a female voice. Then it fired three more rounds. The senshi watched as the lifeless body flopped with each shot. The sparks from the gun lit up the assassin's face, but not enough to reveal its identity.
Then the figure disappeared into the darkness, as if was never there. They looked back at the body. It was a horrific sight. Neptune put a hand over her mouth as she looked away and gagged.
"How terrible." Saturn said, young eyes full of tears, "No one deserves that kind of fate."
"How can someone she so blood thirsty as to kill their own companion." Pluto said as she looked at where the mysterious white figure once stood, "A traitor to their kind."
Kiwikiwa sat on her throne waiting for the return of General Carla. There was a knock at the throne room door.
"Enter." Kiwikiwa said not moving. Carla entered and bowed to her mistress.
"Have you straightened things out?"
"Hai! She has one more chance. The If she fails, I'll kill her myself." Carla said never raising her eyes. It wasn't that she hated Mistress, but she hated the way her eyes look and went through your soul.
"Good, get Aya ready just incase."
"Hai!" Carla said. With that Kiwikiwa vanished from the throne room. Carla teleported to her office. She hadn't been sitting there long when Aya burst in.
"General, Carriage is dead!" Aya said frantically.
"Nani? What happened?" Carla asked. She didn't think she would be dead so soon.
"I don't know, I came to see if she needed any help and she was lying on the ground with numerous bullet holes in her as she decomposed. It was so horrible." Aya said, tears forming in her eyes. She was playing a trick, and so far it was working.
"Aya, you are now in charge of the plan to kill the Sailor Senshi. Do not fail me Aya."
"Hai, General." Aya got up and bowed slightly and turned to leave. She was going to brag to Nevlin about her new position. She shut the door behind her and turned to go down the hallway that led to Nevlin's quarters. Nevlin was her senior and was 5 years older than her. They met each other in training camp, and happened to be placed with General Carla together. She knew he liked her, but always played it off, ignored it, teased him, or spoke harshly to him. Even though he was her senior, she still spoke to him like that. Another thing that Aya noticed was that he always did what General said, no matter what it was. Aya came to the doors of Nevlin's quarters and slowly opened the door.
"Nevlin! Where are you!" Aya yelled.
"In here!" Nevlin called back from the kitchen. Aya walked into the kitchen.
"What are you doing here Aya?" Nevlin asked.
"Oh, just came to tell you that General assigned me to do Carriage's old job cause she's dead." Aya said mockingly.
"Really, well, good for you. How'd Carriage die?" Nevlin asked.
"I don't know, I just found her there." Aya said. She turned and walked out the door. Nevlin ran after.
"Matte!" he yelled. Aya turned around.
"Nani?"
"Where are you going?"
"…"
"Well?"
"To do my job. I'll prove to the General I'm the best man she's got." With that Aya ran down the hall to her room.