Chapter 65
It was very late when Minako sought out Shin, Luna draped around her neck like a warm scarf as she balanced tea on a tray carefully.
She'd given a sleeping Korin the slip after he'd finally given in to his own exhaustion and fell into a fitful slumber. Minako felt guilty for leaving him when he was so upset, but she needed to check in on Rei and wanted to ensure Suiko was getting the rest he needed too.
She found him, sitting on the same sofa they'd left him on earlier in the day. He'd propped himself up in the corner, and lay in an exhausted sprawl, Rei curled against him in a tense sleep. He still had his undergear on, she noticed. No way could that be comfortable. A low lamp was lit in a corner, casting a warm glow over the couple.
"Hi Minako," Shin's voice rasped tiredly. She gave him her friendliest smile in response, hefting the tray of tea she'd brought in.
"Hi Shin," she said warmly. She set the tray on the table, pouring a cup of gently steaming liquid for him. "How's Rei doing?" she asked, sitting on the low coffee table across from him and offering the cup. He took it from her, expression grateful, and she watched as he savored the first sip.
"Mmm. This is exactly what I needed. Thanks." He smiled at her before his expression dropped into something more serious. He wrapped a hand around one of Rei's blanket-clad shoulders and rubbed gently. "She's resting well, I hope," he said in a strained voice.
Minako nodded, taking the cup from him and setting it back on the tray momentarily.
"She'll be all right Shin," she said quietly. He narrowed his eyes at her, and she could see the fear in his gaze. She didn't blame him. Hearing Rei's screams, seeing the condition the priestess had been in….Minako felt spooked.
Still. Minako reached up, pulling Luna off her neck and placing the cat in her lap, petting her fur softly.
"Luna can help," she said as the tiny black cat leapt from Minako's lap to the sofa carefully. Luna approached Rei, sniffing at her delicately. She sat, giving Shin a somber look.
"I caught a scent around Rei when she was attacked before. I'm going to sit here with both of you so you can sleep, Suiko no Shin. I know we've just met, but I take my duties very seriously. I can keep watch so that you can rest," she told him quietly.
Shin squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before smiling at the cat apologetically.
"I'm not sure if I can. Every time I close my eyes…" he trailed off.
Minako beamed at him.
"Sure you can!" she said brightly. "There's melatonin in the tea!"
Shin's face looked like a thundercloud. "What?!" he snapped. Minako flapped her hand at him.
"Relax Shin. Seriously. You need rest. This is going to take everything we have, and you missing out on sleep is not going to help. Please. Finish this tea, and get some sleep," she cajoled.
He took the mug from her with a grumble.
"What about you?" he muttered uncharitably. Minako smiled at him.
"How long do you think it's gonna take before Seiji realizes I'm not sleeping near him?" she asked instead. Shin snorted, but nodded.
"Point taken," he sighed, drinking the rest of the tea.
"Luna is going to keep watch over you, ok? Rest," she encouraged him. She took the mug from his fingers, replacing it on the tray and trusting that he'd get the rest he needed under Luna's watchful eyes.
Minako carried the tray back into the kitchen and began cleaning the pot and the mug. Once she'd wiped the tray down and set everything in the rack to dry, she sighed heavily, staring out the kitchen window into the night.
This was terrifying. Part of her wanted to curl up and weep for days. It wanted to run and hide until everything was over.
But the rest of her knew that wasn't happening, so now it was Minako's turn to figure out how to rest. Part of the reason she'd ended up volunteering to visit Shin and Rei was because she hadn't been able to sit still any longer. She'd lasted most of the day, but once Seiji had fallen asleep she hadn't been able to remain calm.
A small white cat leapt onto the counter beside her then, turning its gaze to stare out the window with her own.
"Mina-chan, are you ok?" Artemis asked. Minako pulled up her best smile for him.
"Sure!" she chirped at him.
"Cut that out," he grumbled. "I'm sorry about yesterday, all right? I've been stressed. We didn't know what had happened to you. And now that I know…" the cat trailed off here.
"Mina-chan. What do you remember about…it?" he asked tentatively. Minako tried to smile at him, but the ice that crept through her veins at the memories probably turned the expression into a grimace. She knew what he was looking for. Taking a deep breath, Minako set aside the terror that still lived inside her and tried to think about what they'd gone through from a more analytical perspective.
She leaned on the counter, focusing on the autumn night outside the window, grounding herself in the warmth of the kitchen as she slowly, reluctantly took herself back.
"It's…..really big. Like….massive. Just….this huge miasma of….black. Mako-chan and I, we…." She bit her lip here, pausing to gather her thoughts.
"We had to go inside it to get the Star Seeds."
She shuddered, feeling unbearably cold for a moment.
"It's not solid. Like I never noticed a body. It has a core, but I don't know what's inside that part. It almost felt like it had….gravity," she swallowed, nervously. "It was very hard to get away. I didn't think we'd make it there for a second. Mako-chan is so strong.
"But also inside of it are…..I don't know. Monsters? Demons? Things. They're part of it but not. Like extensions. But fighting them is wasted effort. It doesn't matter how many monsters you knock down, there are always more. Always more." She paused here, shuddering again.
She turned then, looking at Artemis.
"I have no idea how we'd take it down. I don't really think that trying to go at it head on would be a good strategy. We need to figure out what's in the core. Figure out how to get at its insides, I think." She paused now, trying to push the fear and darkness aside as she thought about strategies.
"Whatever they're doing with the vibrations they've been talking about feels….right. When we saw Saturn, she said that she tried to drop her glaive but it stopped her, so direct confrontation might be ineffective. I'm sorry, that's probably not much help. It was so overwhelming, I didn't really pick up any details," she whispered, putting her forehead in her hand as she tried to rack her brains for anything she could think of while trying to escape the nightmare memories that threatened to eat her alive.
A warm arm wrapped around her shoulder suddenly, and Minako blinked up into the face of Ryo Sanada.
"Here you are," he said quietly. He pulled her close, tucking her against him, and he was so warm, and Minako still felt so cold. "I was getting a little worried."
She smiled then. She'd forgotten that Seiji wasn't the only worry wart she had to be conscious of. The Troopers had been a bit of a mess since they'd found Rei – on high alert, constantly tracking the Senshis' well-being.
"Sorry. I wanted to check on Rei and Shin and help Shin get some sleep," she said quietly. Ryo released her.
"Yeah, I peeked in on them and they're both out," he confirmed. Minako sighed.
"Good. I'm glad he's finally getting some rest," she said, stretching, trying to work some of the tension from her muscles. Artemis jumped up, landing on her shoulders, and draped himself like a scarf around her neck. The sensation was so familiar her eyes teared up, and she gently petted his head with a finger.
"Mina-chan. How did you and Makoto get the seeds?" he asked quietly. Minako crossed her arms and leaned against the sink.
"I don't really know, Artemis. Luck? Ami built a…thing to track the signal and we followed it. We had no idea we were inside that thing until we were on top of the seeds. It was a little like being in the Underworld. Like it was a place and a thing. There were a lot of tunnels. It was very confusing, and it's kind of hard to remember now. The paths kept changing on us. If Ami hadn't given us something that let us track energies? I don't like to say it, but I don't think we'd be here right now. "
She rubbed her arms uncomfortably, and Ryo leaned against the counter beside her, draping an arm around her shoulders and tucking her up against him again. He wasn't Seiji, but he was a good friend, someone she trusted, and she soaked up the warmth he offered her.
"There was this tunnel. Near the Star Seeds. And I think…" she hesitated, then firmed her resolve. "I know, somehow, that that was the….core of it I guess. It was so dark, and so cold," she whispered, losing herself for a minute as she hunched her shoulders.
That had been where the monster had found them. It had hunted them, relentlessly. They'd given it the slip – buying enough time to get the Star Seeds to Rei and Ami and Usagi. They'd sent Usagi to safety shortly after and then had parted ways, fleeing for cover elsewhere, too frightened it would track them to Ami and Rei.
It hadn't taken it long to catch up to them, and by then her injuries had gone from grave to dire – before the thing had even gotten its grimy paws on her. Between getting the Star Seeds and battling to get Usagi out, they'd all had precious little to defend themselves with. The memory of the oppressive air, the terrible weakness that had sapped the strength from her bones, the dark and the cold – gods, she couldn't –
"Minako!"
She came back to herself in a rush to Ryo jostling her. She gasped, looking up into his fear-addled face, and then felt guilty for scaring him.
"S-sorry. Sorry. I'm ok. I just got caught up in remembering. I'm ok." She forced herself to take measured breaths, in and out.
"We're done talking about this," he growled. He was holding her again, wrapping her in a warm hug now. "Hell. You just took another five years off my life, Minako Aino," he grumbled.
Minako gave a wet laugh and dashed at her eyes with a finger. "Sorry. It's hard to think about….everything and not remember it," she gasped out, squeezing him and patting his back in an attempt to comfort him. "You ok Ryo?" she asked, pulling back to look up at him. He released her, giving her some side-eye.
"You trying to be smart with me?" he muttered. She grinned, the expression falling from her face after a moment.
"Seriously though. It might be difficult, but maybe we should start talking about what we remember. It might help," she said softly. Artemis made a grumbling sound in his throat.
"It might," he admitted, sounding as if he weren't entirely thrilled with the idea but couldn't say no to it. Minako patted him on the head and turned her smile onto Ryo.
"After what just happened in here? I don't think I'm up for a stroll down memory lane with any of you, and especially not Ami," he replied. Minako sighed, trying not to roll her eyes.
"Ryo, of any of us, Ami is going to have the most detailed and complete information. Besides, I guarantee you, she's already been jogging her memories for a while now. That's just what Ami does. She'll do anything she can to get what she needs," she said softly, her smile warm as she thought about Mercury. "She's the best."
Ryo sighed heavily, scrubbing his hand over his face and shoving it up into his hair.
"I hate this," he said in a low voice.
Minako put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.
"I hate it. I hate that someone has to drag you all back through literal hell just to get some information. No wonder Ami's been having nightmares. And Rei…" he trailed off, his expression pained.
"I don't ever want to hear anyone scream like that ever again. But especially not anyone here," he said softly. Minako squeezed his shoulder gently.
"I don't either, Ryo. We're going to do the best we can to prevent it," she tried to reassure him. He made a frustrated noise, rubbing his face with both hands now. When he looked back at her, she was shocked to see the hollow quality to his expression. He looked down and away, off to the side then.
"Minako…the last time we faced this thing, it ripped you away. You didn't have a choice, let alone a warning. This morning….it was the same. Rei didn't get a choice or a warning. It went after her. And just like last time, we were completely helpless. It hurt her, it might have killed her, and the only thing Shin could do was hold her and try to bring her back.
I can't….I can't deal with that. I can't combine the memory of what that thing did to all of you with the knowledge that it could do it again while I have to stand by and watch, powerless to do anything. I can't live with that knowledge. It's driving me mad."
Minako huffed out a breath.
"I get it," she said quietly. "But we have to have faith, right? We'll figure something out. And I have an idea, I think, about why it hasn't just done that already," she murmured to him. When he turned, his wild blue eyes alight with hope, Minako felt self-conscious. She cleared her throat.
"I don't…..I don't exactly understand what our resident geniuses are going on about, with the vibrations, but I've been thinking it over. And based on what I know about the Netherrealm, it sounds like while it exists in parallel space with you here, it's not directly connected to you, am I right?" she asked.
Ryo blinked, then looked up at the ceiling, thinking.
"I guess so? I mean, they got here, right?" he replied. She bobbed her head.
"They did. But it sounds to me like they had to fight to establish the connection. Things….don't pass easily between your realms. There's a lot of gatekeeping, right?"
Ryo put a hand to his chin. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I mean, if they tried to like….open a connection, believe me, we'd know." Minako nodded again.
"Right. You would know." She shifted now, resting against the counter more fully. "So, Elysion was kind of the opposite. It was the land of dreams, and reasonably, there had to be a pretty open and passive connection between our Earth and Elysion, I think. Theoretically, anything could pass itself between the realms, if it knew how, easily enough. So I'm thinking that last time, maybe….maybe that's how it got in. It found an in through Elysion. And Elysion is directly connected to Earth, particularly through the Golden Crystal. Once you're in Elysion, it's easy enough to find who you're looking for if you know how to do it. But the Netherrealm…..That's different," she said carefully.
Ryo immediately perked up.
"Right!" he said, slamming a fist on his open palm. "The Netherealm is closed off from Earth. The connection is very tightly controlled, so it must be unable to get what it needs!"
"Yes!" Minako gushed, pleased that someone else was on her wavelength, "Exactly! It has to actually search for and find the connections it needs, it can't just come in. I'm not sure how it found Rei, but I'm imagining it's starting to make deeper connections, following threads to get to us. We don't have much time, but I have faith that we're still reasonably safe," she finished. "The problem is figuring out if we can use the gatekeeping in the Netherrealm to our advantage because it'll hold, or if things are more dire, and the gates are slowly giving way," she frowned now, fretting her lower lip with her teeth.
She was shocked when Ryo suddenly grabbed her hand, pulling her into the hall and then toward the office.
"Ryo!" she yelled, stumbling after him, "what are you doing?!"
He threw open the office door and pulled her inside, thrusting her in front of him toward the desk.
"Tell them! You gotta tell them that!" he said impatiently. Minako blinked, feeling suddenly self-conscious again.
She put her hands up when they all turned to stare at her curiously. "O-okayy," she said carefully. She swallowed, and then gave them a more condensed version of her conversation with Ryo. Touma blinked at her with wide eyes. Ami gasped excitedly.
"Oh!" Some of her excitement immediately faded. "I wish we knew how this monster got into Elysion in the first place? A nightmare?"
Ryo frowned at her. "I think we need to know more about Elysion in general." Ami bobbed her head at him.
"Yes, let us explain," she said. Ami, Usagi and the cats began a detailed recitation of Elysion's history, and then moved on to describe Elysion's role in their world. Minako listened idly, but internally her thoughts were flying a mile a minute as she tried to calculate the implications.
Say….say that Elysion had been the point of corruption. That would imply that the Golden Crystal itself was corrupted. Had they sealed their own fate by rebirthing the Golden Crystal here? Worse, if the Golden Crystal was the source of entry, what did that mean for Mamoru?
Was Elysion really inside the crystal now?
…How much access did this monster have to the dreams and memories of everyone? Reasonably, she thought, it couldn't be too much. It hadn't come after her, for example, with things pulled from her nightmares. And it hadn't come after her using memories of her loved ones instead.
It had used the Shittenou.
And a record of the Shittenou would certainly be found in Elysion. They'd been Endymion's guardians, after all.
Okay then. Okay. Given the low level of intel this thing seemed to have on them now, Minako was convinced that it was in fact limited in what it could and could not do, but she just wasn't sure how.
For example. Was there a place like Elysion here? Did this monster stalk the dreams of other creatures, waiting for a weakness, and then wreak havoc in the realm of dreams before moving further afield? She needed to make the connection to the attack on Rei. Rei had been meditating, not dreaming, and Minako wondered if someone who was meditating- in a controlled state of mental openness instead of something like a dream would be vulnerable to attack, or if maybe they should all be worried about dreams in general.
She put a hand to her chin, looking at the ceiling as her brain tried to work it all out.
Theoretically, Elysion was a place, and so theoretically, the time stream could have been accessed from there. Pluto might not have been looking for an attack from Elysion until it was too late – it was Elysion, and they'd left the land healing after the damage caused by Nehelina.
Once in the time stream, past Pluto's defenses, it would have access to a lot of information, but Minako figured that that…..would be a lot of information. It would have to be looking for specific things. So maybe that explained it.
It cracked open a door in Elysion – who knew how – and then once inside had corrupted Elysion?
Minako frowned now. That didn't make a whole lot of sense. Wouldn't Mamoru, and indeed, the planet have shown signs of illness and weakness? For sure.
So then what?
Had it tried to get into the core of Elysion only to be blocked? Maybe then it had started looking for other openings?
She was getting a headache. Minako forced herself to backtrack out of the weeds she'd wound up in.
Back to her initial thoughts.
So. Elysion had been breached. Then the time stream. In theory. But Pluto had noticed the corruption in the time stream – had Mamoru noticed anything with the crystal? He would have, surely. And he would have noticed before Pluto, which meant that he'd have been able to warn her, possibly.
Her thoughts hit a brick wall again and she grumbled, rubbing her face before shoving her hands up into her bangs, trying to clear her mind.
She felt close to something. She wanted to tell Ami, let her friend make the connections, but right now she had no idea what she was even thinking.
Even if Elysion somehow had been spared devastation by an initial invasion, it would have fallen eventually, and lay in ruin. If it had laid in ruin, how on earth would Mamoru even have a Star Crystal now?
Which meant, she thought, a tiny, fierce light of hope sparking inside her, that Elysion might still exist. And somehow, perhaps at its core, still be safe from the influence of this…thing.
Artemis might be right. Elysion had somehow ended up inside the golden crystal.
But what did that even mean?
That Elysion was still around? It was linked to a dead landscape, a collapsed universe. And the Golden Crystal was supposed to be getting its energy from Elysion, so how did that even work?
Frustration hammered at her, followed shortly by exhaustion. Minako yawned, her thoughts swirling around themselves in circles as she fought to make sense of them. Ugh. She felt frazzled. On edge but needing sleep.
Minako finally gave in to her body's need and crawled onto the couch, curling up beside Seiji as everyone else continued to speak in loud, excited voices. Korin cracked an eye open as she cuddled close, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into him, making a low, contented sound in his throat.
His fingers rubbed gently at the back of her neck, seeking the points where muscle had knotted with tension, and rubbing them gently.
Man. He sure knew how to give a good neck rub.
Minako was out within moments.
