Hi all! We're finally in the last leg of 'Still' and I am rather excited...I can't wait to see it get done! Not that it hasn't been absolute joy doing it...but I wanna see it be done! So yeah, today Usagi looses her temper, and Hotaru reveals critical info...the whooooole bit. So enjoy!
Usagi damned Mamoru for not being there. She cursed him for daring to go to some silly, useless, pointless lectures in New York City, and leaving her to deal with this alone. She had seen the souls ripped from three people, two of them amongst her very greatest friends. She had seen one of them transformed into a disgusting mockery of her former self.
As she released a choked sob at seeing the still figure of the swan saint, she needed Mamoru there. She needed his warm, solid strength behind her, his whispers that all would be well and that she could fix this. That she could solve this disaster that had been so kindly laid on her plate. Her shoulders felt heavy.
"Usagi...Usagi, what happened? Usagi!" The bubbly blonde's normally nonexistent temper snapped, and she glared at Haruka, who maintained a painful grip on her arms.
"God...damn...IT!" she shrieked, ripping away. "Why the HELL are you worried about me? Why the HELL are you shaking me around when there is someone laying on the ground without a freaking soul?!" The tall Avatar of Uranus blinked and stepped back. Sailor Mars peered cautiously over her shoulder.
"Jeez, Usagi. There might be someone in England who didn't quite hear you." By now, the complacent rabbit was literally shaking with rage. Why were they so focused on her? Why were they so panicked when poor Hyoga was lying like a vegetable in the grass. What was wrong with them?!? She stepped aside, and pointed at the motionless body, her arm trembling slightly.
"That is what we should be worrying about at the moment. Not me. Not Ami. Hyoga. Hyoga is the topic of all conversation as of now." Sailor Mars covered her mouth, and Sailor Uranus snarled.
"Another one. Damn." The others arrived, spilling into the lawn from various directions. The dragon saint entered from the same direction that Haruka and Rei came from. Shun and Sailor Saturn came from the direction of the manor and Ikki and Michiru appeared out of the foliage of the bordering wood.
"Oh, fuck." Ikki said matter of factly, looking at Hyoga's body. Little Shun looked horrified, and Shiryu was an interesting mix of grim determination and positive fury. Sailors Saturn and Neptune maintained a calm air about themselves.
"It'll be interesting to see what happens next. If the legends are right..." Hotaru trailed off thoughtfully, her hand tightening on the glaive. She jumped slightly when she realized that the whole group's attentions were focused on her.
"What legends?" asked Shiryu, his frown deepening. She shrugged slightly.
"When this first began, I bought some books at a local store...They were mostly in archaic French that I had to translate to read. But they were about a sorcerer who supposedly created terrible creatures that survived off of the souls of others. I guess he experienced some sort of...I don't know...suicidal impulse and he created one that could drink up the souls of the world in an instant. It would-"
"Layer the Earth with a blanket of silence so absolute that not even the wind would be prompted to whistle across the soulless bodies left behind." Shun finished. When everyone had transferred their gazes to him, he blushed and looked sheepish.
"You left your book behind that day..." he murmured. Hotaru smiled.
"I suspected as much. Back to the Soul Eaters...what troubles me is the latest selection of these creatures. Their last four targets have not been regular humans, but us. The great creature the sorcerer created was sealed away long ago in a black void. Could someone be aiming to release it?"
"We'll just have to beat them before they can. Where is this thing sealed?" Ikki asked confidently. Hotaru shook her head.
"I am afraid it's not that easy; it's sealed in a separate dimension that we don't have access to, and-"
"And I am afraid you are too late."