Riyna's Tale

Part Two: Bleeding

Setsuna sat at a polished wood desk, methodically working her way through a pile of papers. She usually had some hours of work to shuffle through in the afternoons, so she would fill up her coffee pot and settle down.

In tune with the time stream as she was, she sensed the slight blip in it that happened just as she was getting comfortable. Slightly annoyed, she turned her attentions to the stream to figure out what caused it. Generally, blips of this size were natural 'accidents' in time: though they could also be caused by illicit wanderers, mostly they were nothing to be concerned over.

As soon as the blip was there it had gone, leading the green-haired woman to shrug and cross her legs. Probably nothing after all.

That is, until she got the phone call some time later.

&&&

Riyna came flying out of the dazzling, spiralling tunnel, landing curled up on something semi-soft. Gasping for breath, wincing in pain, she jerked straight, banging her head on a rigid metal wall. The sound reverberated through her ears, and fearing what she might see, she opened her eyes.

She was outside, in some sort of dumpster. Startled at the change of location, she awkwardly pulled herself up to look around. The bin was in an alleyway, with both walls made out of some sort of smooth blue stone.

Gingerly she touched the open gash on the side of her head. It was still bleeding, dribbling blood in a stream down her face to drip on her bare shoulder. At the same time she doubled over again, gasping as the wound on her abdomen sent pain shooting everywhere. Looking down, she didn't know what Mars had done to her, but it damn hurt, and it was staining even more of her vest with red. She had various bruises everywhere, and the ruler strapping her hands together had been fastened way too tight – the edges had cut the skin and now even that was stinging with blood.

With immense difficulty, she heaved herself out of the bin and landed on the concrete floor, sinking again to her knees. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she struggled to her feet, and determined to find out if she was being pursued.

Walking to the end of the alleyway, she peered out into a quiet street made of the same odd stone. Every movement – be it wind, leaves, paper or else – threatened to give her a heart attack. Her ears kept listening for any voices…

"…the last one's just over here."

"I got that, then we can go back to the depot…"

Frightened out of her skin, Riyna swivelled on the spot and loped back towards the dumpster. All she could think of was getting away from anybody, even though the two who entered the alleyway were male, and revealed as dustmen.

"Hey, is someone there?" the first of them called, as they both heard Riyna's frantic scrabbles.

The second, pulling out a torch, shone it round the dark lane, settling on the young woman.

"She's – "

"Holy crap, she's bleeding!"

Unfortunately, Riyna was fearing nothing but the worst. She could not get it through her mind that these men were anything else than under the pay of her probably now ex-comrades. She turned to flee for her life again, but the stabbing pain of her stomach brought her down again.

She was on her feet, clamping onto a pipe for support, as the men approached her.

"Steady now, honey. Don't hurt yourself more," implored one, realising that it was like talking to a frightened animal.

"No!" Riyna gasped, plunging a hand into her pyjama bottoms pocket to pull out the last remaining possession she had left. Her brooch.

Of course, in this period of time the entire population knew what the senshi were, and both men could tell exactly what she was about to do. In a mere two seconds the silver ribbons that had emanated from the white circle left the girl in a senshi uniform unlike any they had seen before.

The blood from her wounds was already soaking the black fabric.

Riyna, positive now that she was being hunted, bolted into the shadows of the alley, taking as many turns as she could find to get away.

Shocked, the men exchanged glances.

"What now?" asked one.

"I think we ought to call the police," the other replied. "The girl's hurt, and she's wearing a sailor uniform like nothing I've ever seen before. God knows what's happened to her, but I reckon they need the professionals to deal with her."

&&&

The call to the police station had been sent directly to the Senshi; namely Sailor Neptune, as she had been the one to pick up. Word had quickly been sent around, and the aqua-haired woman had agreed to take her partner and search for this elusive, furtive girl.

The pair stood in front of the alleyway entrance where the men had reported the sighting. Michiru, as Sailor Neptune was looking thoughtfully at her mirror, trying to work out where this girl might have run. Sailor Uranus was studying the mess made of the path, and grimacing as she found a few spots of blood here and there.

"She's hurt," she reported.

"The men didn't really give a good description of her, but they said she's still probably in the alleyway system somewhere."

The taller nodded, and the pair set off on their search.

"What about the turns, Haruka? We might have to split up, to cover more area…oh God…"

Both women's eyes were wide as Haruka took her hand off a relatively large patch of red ingrained into the wall. She stared at the stain on her gloves.

"Okay, I'm updating the situation. She's badly hurt."

"Well," Michiru swallowed. "At least we know how to follow her."

They followed the increasing blood-drip trail almost a mile through the vast system of alleyways that was an integral part of Crystal Tokyo. Eventually, as the women's worry for their objective's health escalated more and more, they finally came across her.

Riyna, after having run for what seemed like hours, had stopped to catch her breath, and ended up slumped against an alleyway wall. Her breath just wasn't coming back. Moreover, whenever she tried to get back onto her feet, the alleyway started spinning and she had to sink back down again. She had to press her elbow against the wound on her stomach, and the crimson pattern spreading through the threads of her gloves was almost mesmerising.

Until she saw Sedna's shadow fall over her.

With a shriek she bolted, leaping up from the floor as if it was red hot. The alleyway turned itself over and she only managed three steps before she fell head over heels once more.

Baffled, the two senshi exchanged glances much like the dustmen had. Michiru was stunned by the oddness of the girl's uniform, and Haruka had stepped forwards to speak to her, but she had attempted to flee before she even had a chance to say a word.

It was totally pitiful, watching the young woman try to run from them. Each time she fell down badly, but it was the last time she tried that made both of them wince. She tripped over an empty bottle, and they saw her ankle twist as she hit the ground hard.

Riyna's heart sank, and her tears mingled with the blood on her face. She was at Sedna's mercy, of which she possessed none at all. Anguished, on her knees, and with her chained hands clasping her head, she watched the shadow step closer and closer to her…

"No…oh please no…"

"Haruka." Michiru went forwards to put a hand on her partner's shoulder. "She's utterly terrified. I don't know why, but you seem to scare her…let me talk to her."

The short-haired woman realised how her shadow seemed to be the culprit, so she nodded and stepped back. Michiru continued forwards, picking over the scattered litter to crouch down in front of the shaking teenager.

Riyna opened her eyes to see another shadow looming over her.

"They sent Varuna after me too? Oh f…"

Her sorrow was wiped by a white-gloved hand coming into her limited vision, gently reaching under her chin and lifting her head.

"Hello," Michiru spoke softly, seeing that the girl's frightened, tear-filled eyes were squarely on her now. "You're hurt, you know. I think you should get some help."

She couldn't help but look at those eyes and shiver. There was something ominously familiar about those eyes. And, for that matter, the girl's hair, tied up into twin bunches…

The girl managed to get only a few words through her mind, hardly knowing that a red mist was beginning to cloud her vision.

"You…you're not…you wear…you're like the…the…"

At that, Riyna slipped into unconsciousness and pitched forwards. The startled Michiru caught her, turning her onto her back. For the first time, she saw the girl's hands and the metal strip that fastened them together. However, Haruka had noticed something else.

"Oh shit!"

She bent down, one hand on the black bodice, and alarm bells started ringing as her hand came back up stained completely red.

"Oh God, she's bleeding to death!"

"She's going into shock. Haruka, we have to get her to a hospital before she does!"

"Call Ami; she'll be able to help her."

Lifting the unconscious, black-and-silver clad senshi, whose hair was oddly reminiscent of an important person, in her arms, Haruka set off at a quick pace, ignoring the blood soaking into her own uniform from the girl's abdomen. Michiru sent only a quick message back to base, calling for Ami to get into doctor mode. Before they could find out who this teenager was, and why on earth she was running around in a never-before-seen sailor uniform so badly injured as she was.

Wootage, I'm on a roll. Glompage to Eternal Lady who reviewed: and do not worry, thou shalt recieve mucho explanation from Riyna's own lips in the next part. Giving she survives, o'course!

Aliso