It took a long time, I know, but I've been extremely busy. Thank you to all who have reviewed, I hope you love this chapter.
I do not own the characters of Sailormoon or Batman Beyond.
Chapter 2 – The battle and Dana
It took two tries before she was able to make a grab at the jewel on the top of its and three more to get a good enough grip to crush it. Her satisfied smirk was cut short, however, when she realized that the damned thing wasn't crumbling into the dust pile it was supposed to be crumbling into.
"Shit." She backtracked fast and tried to think of a course of action. A second before she lunged back to face the youma one-on-one a back blade whizzed by her. Lita blinked twice and then gave a horrified groan. It would just figure that batman would show up. She didn't need anyone getting hurt… if Uranus and Neptune didn't transform and help sometime soon, she was going to be fighting one of the good guys so he wouldn't end up another youma casualty.
"You might want to back up and let me handle this." She narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to the-still unharmed- youma.
"You might want to back up and wait till one of the senshi get wind of this." Lita shot back, still staring at the youma. 'why won't it die? The jewel should have been the main source of power!'.
"Senshi? You know them?"
"I know of them. They'll show up to trash this thing." 'Leave, damn you.'
"Why did you come down here, you should go back where it's safe." He changed the subject. The youma seemed to be listening to their conversation. It had stopped all of its former destruction. 'What is it doing?'
"Because I've fought them before." 'Opps, wasn't supposed to say that'.
"You have?"
"Sure, they're all over Japan. I've held off a few before the senshi arrived." As if it were timed, two attacks came from opposite directions and hit the youma head on. A second before the dust cleared, they saw twin blurs that charged the confused monster before another short explosion rocked the racing arena and Lita was knocked unconscious by a piece of flying rubble.
Terri POV
What the hell is she doing down here? Leave, damn it. And why the hell has she had to fight them before? Terri grimaced and thought about picking up his friend and dropping her off to safety when twin balls of energy collided with the transformed joker. A battle seemed to ensue in the dust cloud and when it finally cleared, a few moments later, Terri's eyes quickly swept the area for the monster. He gave an internal sigh of relief when he noticed that there were only two figures in sailor senshi suits. His heart started to race as he realized that there were only two girls in senshi suits standing and his childhood friend was no longer standing. It only took him a second to realize that she was lying on the ground, a ragged gash cutting obscenely across her forehead. By the time he had ran over to her side, the senshis in aqua and yellow were already there.
"Oh god," he dropped to his knees next to the one in navy blue and yellow and gently touched Lita's head.
"What are you doing here?" The woman next to him fairly growled.
"She's hurt. We have to get her to a hospital." He didn't bother to answer the question.
"They can't do anything that we can't." It was the one in the aqua that spoke. "In fact, we can probably do more." She looked at the blonde and then back to Terri in his batman suit. "Let her deal with the injury while we speak." It took a few seconds before Batman nodded.
"You're the sailor senshi?"
"Who else would we-"
"Yes." The one in aqua interrupted with a slight glare. "I am Neptune, this is Uranus."
"How did you know to come?" She gave him an amused glance.
"We fight with magic, Batman, we knew that there was a youma here because it gives off certain negative waves."
"So you are there for every fight?" The aqua senshi gave a pained look.
"No. Though we are senshi, we are also people with our own lives. You can relate, I imagine. And as the public does not know our identities, it is nearly impossible for us to come running at the drop of a hat. There are enough of us that one of us can usually get to the scene on time to stop the youma before it does too much harm, but there are times…" she trailed off and looked sad. "There are times when we cannot."
"I haven't seen anyone here lately for the 'youma' attacks as you call them."
"Though we have magic, we do travel by normal means, Batman. It took us this long to find out enough information that we could fight without fear for hurting ourselves or others with ignorance." He looked at the ashes of the youma before turning back to Neptune once more.
"And what happens to the man that became that youma? Does he just die?" His tone was accusing. Her gaze was once again heavy with the knowledge of past pain.
"No. It was one of the things we researched. Our Princess can heal those infused with dark energy, cleanse them, if you will. It seems that this new enemy is not taking any chances that her cohorts will turn against her. She chooses only that cannot be healed by us senshi. We can tell if there is good living in them, it is one of our powers. If there is no good, we must destroy them. It is our curse, and our duty." Without another word, she turned back to her partner. They stood side by side.
"She will wake soon." Uranus looked at Lita carefully. "She has helped us in the past and certainly did so today by holding off too much damage before we arrived. Take care of her." And without a backwards glance, they were gone. A groan sounded a minute later from the ground and batman looked at the face of his friend. The cut was almost completely gone.
"Are you alright?" He helped her to sit. She looked at him in confusion for a moment.
"Yes. The senshi, did they come?"
"They came." He tried no to notice how her gaze seemed to pierce past his mask and straight into his eyes.
"Did you get hurt?"
"No, but you did."
"Was anyone else injured?"
"No one but you." He helped her stand. She gazed at him for a moment and a split second before he was going to leave, she spoke.
"Why do you do it? You don't have the powers to hold of that youma, yet you came and tried until I stopped you."
"Because it is my job, my duty as the Tomorrow Night. It is my job to protect Gotham."
"Then perhaps you can help the senshi as I do. But do not endeavor to take on a youma by yourself, Batman. It will kill you and then where would Gotham be?" With those words, she began to walk away, leaving a puzzled hero.
* * *
Lita swore slightly as she walked away from Batman. Part of her was so tempted to take off his mask and see who he was. But there was something in his tone when he answered her that bespoke of her own pain. She was a senshi. Protecting others was her job, her duty. But she also did it for love and friendship and listening to the Tomorrow Night she didn't know if he had the same emotions driving him. All she could do was leave him with a warning which he'll probably ignore, taunted an inner voice. She was also upset that she had to play the civilian while Uranus and Neptune kicked the youma's ass. Add to that, she got knocked unconscience, something Uranus would NEVER let her live down. Her thoughts turned back to the odd behavior of the youma as she searched for her Uncle and friend.
It took, her a few more moments to find them, Bruce was standing propped against the car while Terri was no where in sight. She allowed her Uncle to reprimand her for her "reckless" behavior and fuss over the cut in her head for exactly two minutes and ten seconds before she pulled back.
"Where's Terri?" Her Uncle's face went almost comically blank.
"Looking for you. He was extremely worried when you and the young Miss Michiru took off in the direction of the youma." He glared down at her and she just smiled, reaching up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"That glare would be so much more intimidating, Uncle Bruce, if I didn't know that it was born only out of worry." It was then that Terri ran up to both of them, enveloping Lita into a warm hug.
"There you are! I was worried." He frowned as he checked over the cut on her head. "Ouch. What happened?"
"Youma, senshi, boom, rubble, ow." He frowned again at her childish description. She just shrugged impatiently.
"Well let's head-"
"Oi! Mako-chan." It was Haruka and Michiru in her yellow sports car. "You need to come with me. We have to talk about Usagi."
"Usagi?" Terri questioned. Bruce just raised an eyebrow. Why would they need to talk about a rabbit?
"A friend of ours. Recently married. I'll be back later, okay? I just want to catch up with Haruka and them about what's going on back home."
"Be back by-"
"Dinner, I know. Terri's having his girlfriend over. I remember." She rolled her eyes. "See ya later." And with a motion that bespoke ppractice, she hopped over the car frame and into the convertible's back seat without ever opening the door.
* * *
It was 5:15, and Lita was late returning to Wayne Manor. Haruka and Michiru had spoken for four and a half hours about the developments back home, how Crystal Tokyo was faring and such. And then came the more serious news. There had been rumors in the north that a weaker branch of Chaos was back. It had taken Haruka, Michiru and the rest of the senshi almost four weeks to confirm these rumors and another half to gather enough information on the youmas to figure out how to kill them. As Michiru had described to Batman earlier, there was absolutely no good left in any of the youmas it was creating. The only way to kill them was using two high powered energy surges from different sides. Their senshi attacks worked, but so would the new phasors that the police were coming out with. Haruka had decided to not let the Queen know yet because there had been no attacks made in Japan as of yet. It seemed that the Chaos was focusing entirely on New Gotham. It could be, Michiru hypothesized, because there was so much crime and evil in the city and only one human man to try and stop it. Granted, Haruka added, that human had really cool toys, but he was just a human. And if Chaos attacked, Batman would not have any of the information that the senshi had.
But they had found out, so it was a moot point. However, it did bring up another topic of discussion, Batman. The Tomorrow Night was going to have to be informed of something or they risked him getting injured and none of the senshi wanted that. Haruka was all for leaving him an anonymous present with a letter explaining a little about Chaos and how to destroy the youmas, but Lita had rationally pointed out that they didn't know who he was or where to find him. So they opted to have another chat with him at the next battle and drop more hints. That way it wouldn't seem as if they were against him, but, in keeping with tradition of the outer senshi, they wouldn't have to work with him either. Lita had declined having Haruka drive her up the drive to Wayne Manor and was starting to regret it when she smirked. She could fly[1], but that would lead to a lot of explaining that she didn't want to do. She slipped in the door as quietly as she could, glad that she had taken a quick shower and changed into a combination of Haruka's pants and one of Michiru's shirts before coming over. The effect had made all three of them laugh, because it was just right on her. Haruka complained that if Makoto wasn't so feminine that they could be sisters and Michiru replied that if Makoto would give up her tomboy tendencies they could make sure to save her from the awful fate that had descended on Haruka. She smirked as she remembered the looks on her friend's faces. They were so in love it was tangible. She sighed as she thought about how she would have to play nice with Dana all evening even though the girl had made it clear from the start of Lita's enrollment to school that she did not like the brunette. Similarily, Lita was astonished at how much it hurt to see her best friend with another girl. You've been gone for four years, did you actually expect him to wait for you like he said he would? You were both children and he probably wasn't even serious. Besides, it's not like you've waited for him. The inner voice was chiding, but Lita gave a sigh. Four years ago, she and Terri had been convinced that they were just friends. Until the day she had to leave. He had told her that he loved her that day, that he would wait for her forever if he had to. But they had stopped writing and grown apart.
It was appalling to have to admit that after spending a month and half back in Gotham, Lita was once again falling for her best friend, a man she could never have because of her duties as a senshi. She turned the corner and stopped dead. There was Ace, in front of the giant grandfather clock. That wasn't what amazed her though, it was that he was backed up against it, growling at Dana who held a small camera in her hand.
"Move back, dog, there's something back there, I can feel it. There's more the Terri's job then he lets on and I'm going to ruin Bruce Wayne forever for what he did to my father and then my boyfriend will go back to being the perfect lap dog he was before he ever set eyes on this manor."
* * *
[1] You don't have to read 'Son Usagi-the real Usagi" cause it sucks, but she learned how to fly like the G-boys along with the rest of the senshi.
DUN DUN DUN!! The plot thickens. I'm sorry, I really don't like Dana tho… don't know why. Hm, wait, yes I do! It's because I want Terri to be MINE!! Simple jealousy!
Is there anything YOU want to see? Well then, Review review review or no new chapter!!
-Fate