They had an almost humane amount of sleep before they had to part again. Rei would finish her stuff in the office until noon and then head for the Shrine. She would leave earth tomorrow before noon. She promised SunTzu to come over to his place so they could at least spent the night together.
SunTzu left for morning sport with the rest of the pilots and Hotaru and then had some flight exercises with Hotaru where he had to grade her.
The natural talent she was, of course everything was perfect.
The pilots all had lunch together before SunTzu went back to the flight center for more organizational stuff. It was afternoon when he took a taxi to his apartment.
It was a hot and humid day and traffic was horrible.
Somewhere halfway on a bridge to regular Tokyo he dozed away and began to dream.
It was a strange dream, he was on the bridge of a war ship somewhere in space. He never had been on this bridge before, it was almost completely empty, just a few lights were on.
Suddenly he heard a tinny sounding Roger, Roger behind him and when he turned around he saw one of the antique Tactical Droids of the Separatists from the Clone Wars give Orders to other Droids.
An alarm blared and made him turn around swiftly . All around dozens of Capital ships, old Separatist Designs, and in Separatist colors, jumped into Hyperspace. And then the ship he was on followed. He looked down on himself, while he was a human he wasn't wearing the Taskforce uniform he had on. He was dressed in complete black, including leather gloves.
And then he noticed that he wasn't himself, well at least not completely.
SunTzu opened his eyes and startled on the backseat of the taxi.
"Bad dream?" The taxi driver asked him with a smile.
SunTzu needed to process his dream for a second. And then he realized, that hasn't been a dream. It was a Vision. The enemy was coming and this time he was coming with more than just a few flotillas.
"Driver, we're changing our destination. Bring me to the Hikawa Shrine as fast as possible!" He commanded the driver before he pulled out his phone and dialed Ami's number.
A short time later he got out of the taxi, after paying with a large note and telling the driver to keep the change. Fuck if they don't want a tip over here, I gotta hurry.
He ran up the stairs to the shrine and crossed through the Torii Gate into the shrine.
With energetic steps he walked straight up to the main building.
Grandpa Hino was in front of the building, sweeping the plaza with a wooden broom.
When he saw SunTzu storming towards the shrine he stopped and looked up, skeptically looking at the foreigner.
When SunTzu came closer the old man straightened up.
"Sumimasen, can I help you? This shrine is not for tourists just to walk around. It's a sacred place."
I wish my first time meeting with Gramps would go different, but this is too important.
SunTzu bowed down politely and produced his Military Service Card.
"Good day and excuse me to disturb you Sir, but I'm not a tourist. I'm here in business for your kingdom. Is your Granddaughter here?"
The old man cleared his throat, his face turning sour.
"If she would be available she would be at the Palace, no? Not that the kingdom keeps her away from her duties at the shrine and her old grandfather most of the time already anyways."
Great, me and the old man will probably become best friends very easily.
"Mister Hino, it's important that I immediately see your…"
"If it's so important than Usagi could have sent someone more important than you or could have come herself!" The old man chimed in as both men got louder.
"Sir, it is from galactic interest that I see Re… Diplomat Hino asap."
"No, obviously it's not. And now leave this shrine!"
"Grandpa!" Rei's voice sounded off from the main building. With an angry face on her look she walked over to her grandfather and SunTzu.
Her eyes widened when she saw that it was SunTzu loudly discussing with her grandfather.
"Su… Lieutenant, what are you doing here?"
"The Gaijin is probably trying to harass you with unimportant things."
"Grandpa!" She tongued the priest and then pointed at SunTzu. "And you, follow me."
The couple stepped away from the angry looking old man and went towards one of the side buildings. When they were out of earshot Rei began to ask what SunTzu was doing here, she in her Miko Outfit walking next to him, her arms crossed under her sleeves.
"What the Yomi, SunTzu? Why are you coming here like that. As you can see Grandfather is extremely delighted." Rei whispered in an angry tone.
"I needed to see you."
"Yeah, I get that, I miss you too. And yes, yesterday was the perfect date but still things go a bit different here than in Europe. I'm still the grandchild of a priest and you just can't come here and demand to see me."
"It's not that. I think… I think I had a vision."
Rei stopped dead in her steps.
"What?"
SunTzu had stopped as well now and turned around to her.
"I think I had a vision of the enemy."
She put her arm on his shoulder and dragged him towards the building where she did her fire reading.
"Tell me all about it."
A few minutes later Rei was sitting in front of the sacred fire, eyes closed, counting in Japanese.
SunTzu was sitting behind her, silently hopeing he had been wrong with his vision.
Rei counted to ten and then she saw it in the sacred fire.
A shiver ran down her spine, as she saw dozens, no hundreds of ships, some Separatist, some Imperial and some oddly black and brown colored asteroid looking ships were approaching the Galactic Alliance from multiple locations at once.
She needed a moment before she was able to speak but SunTzu could already feel her shock through the force.
"You saw it too, don't you?" He asked her.
"They're coming in force. Hundreds of ships, and they'll be striking all over the galaxy."
She tried to stand up but slipped, the dreadful vision had costed her immense energy. SunTzu jumped forward and catched her and the priestess fell down in his arms.
"You stay here. I'll go to the palace and inform everybody." He said and brushed a strand of her hair out of her face.
"No, I'll go with you."
That moment the door opened and Phobos and Deimos entered running in, armed with a sword and a bow.
"Princess Mars, we felt your jolt. What happened?"
Rei needed a moment but then could stand up, the two Mikos and SunTzu helping her up.
"Thanks, I'm good." She closed her eyes for a moment. "SunTzu we need to head to the palace and inform everybody. Phobos, Deimos you're tasked with protecting this shrine and my Grandfather."
The four of them, SunTzu in his olive uniform next to Rei and the two Mikos closely behind, heads bowed down, walked out the building and towards Grandfather Hino, who was still sweeping and angrily murmuring to himself.
"Rei. You look worried. What did that Gaijin tell you that you are so startled?"
The young Priestess sighed.
"Grandpa, listen. That's that Pilot I was telling you about several times. He's a Force Sensitive meaning he has psychic abilities as well. Lieutenant SunTzu had a vision and came here to see if I can feel something also. And I too had a vision."
Her face softened and she leaned forward and hugged the old man.
"I might be leaving today already but you don't need to worry, Deimos and Phobos will stay here and take care of you."
Rei did her best to sound positive but SunTzu could see that she was worried and hiding her true feelings.
"Be nice to them, I don't want to hear any complaints because you being obnoxious again."
The old man enforced his hug around her now.
"Oh Rei, you're always so busy nowadays. And I worry with you. A delicate girl like you shouldn't participate in a war in the stars."
"Grandpa, you know that I have my obligations to the crown and the universe. And I promise I take care. And the Lieutenant here is around to watch out for us too."
She gave the old man that raised her most of her life a kiss on the forehead.
"Maybe the next time I'll come home, your granddaughter will be the official person to represent earth in the Galactic Senate already."
Grandfather Hino pressed his lips together. He always had and always would support his granddaughter to the fullest and hoped she could fulfill all her dreams but he knew he was old and his time limited and Rei always was so busy so they didn't have much time to spent together and this made him sad. But he decided to not say anything more, Rei was an adult woman and successful in all that she did. Plus, he knew that for a few years now already, a Sailor Senshi and a fighter against evil. He was just an old monk in a dying profession that people looked at in the same amusement as they watched a play in a theater. No wonder Rei didn't wanted to just be the head priestess of the Hikawa Shrine.
The priest forced himself to a smile.
"I hope you come home with good news then child. I'll pray for you."
They took a taxi back to the Palace while SunTzu tried to call Michiru and ask her to consult her Deep Aqua Mirror and see if she could find anything but only the recorded message answered. He then called Ami instead. Ami was in close contact with Ada but both couldn't find any indication for an enemy offensive. Ada had warned her that an offensive now would have disastrous consequences as the patrolling Taskforces were almost all ordered back to their bases since the enemy had been so quiet lately. Just important systems and Hyperroutes were patrolled with increased forces at the time.
Next to him, Rei tried to contact Usagi and Makoto but couldn't reach them. She couldn't get through to Mamoru either.
When they arrived at the Palace they immediately rushed over to the Military HQ.
Most of the high ranking Officers and Leaders were gone.
The exercise near Sapporo was bigger than SunTzu had known and most of the ground units of the Task Force and it's transports were over there including Artemis and Major Bernard. Hotaru in AICA andMichiru and Haruka in their TIE were joining them today.
And on top today the Royal Couple, guarded by Sailor Pluto and Sailor Jupiter was on a visit there also.
The highest officer in the Headquarters was Captain Santos and soon they were joined by Ami.
They told him what they visioned and although he believed them another major problem occurred.
Except for the Starstruck all the other Capital Ships were in maintenance right now and wouldn't be ready to take off before tomorrow noon.
The four people were standing around the big map in the middle of the control room, their faces looking grim.
Santos had given Info to the superiors but getting all Forces back in the middle of a ongoing field exercise would take time too.
Taskforce Sol wouldn't be Ready for any major combat operations before tomorrow afternoon at least.
And SunTzu couldn't even take AICA into space right now.
It took twenty minutes before an answer came out of Sapporo.
AICA and the Voyager would be ordered back to base tonight, meaning they would be combat ready by dawn, maybe even earlier.
The staff in the Kingdom's Military Headquarters analyzed which Forces would be available immediately and it amounted into Commando Team 2, the Starstruck, a Lambda Shuttle and a squad of Royal Guards that Motoki, who had now joined them in the Control Center, could spare. With luck maybe a pair of Headhunters from Terra Squadron if they would pulled out of the Exercise in the north immediately.
"This is a joke, isn't it? I thought we were a Force ready for quick response." Rei remarked in a snarky tone.
"We are, but machines need maintenance and people need to be trained." SunTzu replied.
"There's a huge enemy fleet steaming towards the galaxy and we have to sit around and can't react. This is pathetic."
"It's not something we can change. And it's very unlikely that these fleets will come anywhere near the core and Earth." Captain Santos explained to her.
"But what about the other regions? Ever thought about those people? Or we don't care about them because they're not from rich Core Worlds?"
"Rei. It's not the XO's fault. Or anybody else's of the Taskforce. You know we're doing all we can. And at least gave Intelligence a headsup to keep their eyes open and if we're lucky the rest of the fleet will react in time." SunTzu told her.
She angrily looked to the ground before she stormed out of the room.
Ami and SunTzu looked at each other.
"I'll go after her." SunTzu said and left too.
"We'll be trying to get a force together ASAP. We'll stay in touch."
SunTzu left the room, he felt kinda useless. What they needed were Starships.
He rushed after Rei and finally catched up on her as she stepped out of the building.
He grabbed her arm and tried to stop her.
"Hey Rei, stop."
She turned around and swallowed hard.
"What's the matter, have I been out of line again? But isn't it true. We just sit around here and wait, instead of trying to save people."
"I think the XO can take it. And when it comes to me, you know how much I adore this temper of yours. But it is, what it is. I hate it too, without AICA I'm forced to wait too but I can't change it. So I rather try to focus and be ready when I can."
The Senshi of Fire and Passion sighed, he was right.
"I just feel so goddamn useless right now."
"Same here, as you should know, but things are what they are right now. C'mon let's have a cigarette."
They went to their usual place to smoke.
After a few drags Rei's demeanor had cooled down slightly and as they sat down next to each other she leaned her head on his shoulder.
"What do we do now? We stay here and wait?"
SunTzu took a draw and after a moment blew out the smoke, thinking about Rei's question.
"If you ask me it's probably even better if we go home and wait there instead here. It will just make us feel worse being here. And who knows, maybe we just messed so hard with our psychic powers last time on Mars that we just had visions that won't become true."
He didn't believe in that but he wanted to make her feel better and If the expectated would happen he didn't want to have Rei see how things would go down in real time feed in the HQ. It would hurt her even more than it already was.
They left the Palace and went back to his apartment where they tried to kill time.
After a few hours of trying to take her mind off a frazzled Rei gave up and yelled out.
"Ahhh! This is so stupid! Why we are not in space already?
SunTzu almost jumped up from his place although he was expecting this to happen sooner or later.
Rei curled up, visibly angry and annoyed and her boyfriend immediately put his arms around here.
As soon as he embraced her he could feel tears falling down her cheeks and dripping on his sleeves.
"It's okay. Let it out Love. I understand."
"This is so unfair. Life was going so well right now. We had such a great time lately and then this fucking war intervenes again. And now we're damned to just sit around. I don't get it!"
"Rei, don't be so hard to yourself. Even we have our limits and this galaxy is to big too save it alone. Even if we would left already we wouldn't even know where to go or if we could make it in time."
Tears streamed down her face as she shivered in his embrace.
He consorted her with his closeness until she stopped crying.
"Whew… this needed to come out I guess. I'm sorry." Rei sniffed and SunTzu handed her a handkerchief. "I probably look like a mess right now." She wrung a smile from herself.
"I think you're still adorable. But I might be biased as my heart is yours."
She smiled again, it was not forced anymore.
"Since it's probably our last few hours together for a longer time, can we just stay together and cuddle?"
"Of course."
After a while on the sofa and a dinner SunTzu and Rei prepared together they continued their cuddling session on the bed. Rei got a bit better after the fondling she received from SunTzu.
Before they fell into an uneasy sleep the couple made love very tenderly, who knew when they would see each other again.
Before sunrise SunTzu was awake again and Rei almost simultaneously opened her eyes too, she had been sleeping on his chest while he had an arm around her.
They didn't speak a word and an uneasy heaviness was in the air.
The first beams of sun became visible when AICA came in over the communicator on SunTzu's chronometer. He picked it up from the nightstand.
"AICA?"
"Good Morning. Sorry to wake you up but from what I heard I guess you guys didn't sleep much anyway."
"You're Right. Where are you?"
"Over Tokyo Bay, I'm coming to get you." The AI paused for a moment and SunTzu sat up. "It has begun already. We have massive fleets made up of CIS, Ex-Imperial and Republic as well as from a renegade clan of Yuuzhan Vong, vessels invading from various directions all at once."
"Affirmative, I'll be out in a minute." SunTzu replied and looked over to Rei. She had turned around and looked at the wall.
SunTzu didn't see the pain in her eyes and how much she had to control herself.
For once I wish my predictions were wrong.
"I'll get ready." SunTzu said quietly and got up, heading to the bathroom. A few minutes later he was out again and threw on one of his Taskforce's Uniform.
"I'm sorry Rei. I wish we were wrong."
She didn't move, still lying in the same position she was before.
"Now it's official that the Galactic Alliance acted too slow. Once again."
"Which doesn't mean we won't strike back, hard and effective." This made her turn around to him, her face looking serious.
"Tell that to the already dead innocent. Or to the people that still will die because they caught us off guard again."
"Rei. To battle an armada, we need an armada ourself. And this isn't that easy logistically. You know that. I know it's cynical and very calculating to say but we cannot be everywhere at the same time."
"Then let me come with you, if we need every Warrior we can get."
"No. We all, Usagi, Mamoru, Me and the rest of the Senshi, need you on Coruscant. You need to make us being heard in the Senate. This will make more difference than everything earth can participate to onto an battle in space."
She closed her eyes and was quiet for a moment.
"You're right, but I don't like the fact that you and the others are out there fighting and I'm on Coruscant, having dinner parties with the upper class of the Galaxy."
"And I'm more than happy to have you away from the war, Senshi or not. Plus, you know that Coruscant isn't the safest place either. I wouldn't mind if you take at least one of the Crows with you."
"I can look out for myself, you know that. But who will take care of you?"
"I told you already, bad weeds grow tall. Plus I have a reason to come home, haven't I?"
"Now is the point again where I ask you to promise me that you come home safe and you'll tell me that there are no promises in war."
"No, not this time. Why should I promise something that you know is true. Not all warships in the galaxy can stop me from coming back to you."
"Take care, nonetheless."
"Of course, after last night you should know that I take care every moment and in everything I do." He told with a wry grin.
"I'll contact you as soon as I know what's up."
Rei nodded, as he finished getting dressed and put his shoes on.
"Take Care on Coruscant. And I don't want to hear of any burnt senators. At least if they're not hitting on you.
He stood up from the edge of the bed and had a look at himself in the mirror of his wardrobe. You have to be presentable while you have to admit that your Galactic Government failed once again to act.
She hugged him from behind, still sitting on the bed.
"I'll miss you like crazy."
He grabbed her hands that were around his stomach.
"I'll miss you more. Take care, will you?"
"Yes, yes I will."
He turned around and leaned down and the couple shared a long, affectionate kiss before they hugged each other as firm as they could.
"I love you." They whispered into each other's ear.
When they broke the embrace SunTzu kissed Rei's forehead and stroke over her cheek before he went out of the room and his apartment.
Just as he walked down the stairs up to his apartment's door AICA landed in front of the building and opened the canopy, SunTzu ran up and jumped into the cockpit.
While AICA shot into the sky and back towards Crystal Tokyo Rei's gaze followed her as she looked through SunTzu's bedroom window.
She had her hands crossed and prayed.
SunTzu just shot over the Bay when he let AICA made a call.
"Hey SunTzu, where are you?"
"Tokyo Bay. You heard it already? It already has begun."
"Fuck! We came back in the night and heard about Rei's and your vision but we decided to go home first. You're heading to the base?"
"Affirmative."
A small pause followed.
"Can you make a detour and pick Michiru up? I'll get to the base on my bike but I'm faster alone."
SunTzu immediately turned AICA towards the city again.
"On my way."
A few minutes later Michiru was sitting on AICA's backseat and Haruka was on her way on her white racing motorbike.
"I asked my mirror. And it showed me exactly what Rei told she saw. Pity, that the Far Side is out." Michiru told him. "Guess it's just the Starstruck and our two fighters for the time being."
SunTzu dropped Michiru at the Voyager's Hangar so she could already get the TIE-Aggressor ready for take off while SunTzu flew over to the Palace. He wanted to get the latest Intel on what was exactly happening.
