The Sisterhood marched side by side to the abandoned warehouse. The place where her father demanded she meet him for their duel. The place where she committed patricide.
The place where she died.
Rei hadn't thought much on the topic since Minako picked her brain about it. There was little to divulge, after all; death was a timeless slumber, until every cell in her body reanimated and she cheated it for the third time. By all rights, she should have died when she was a suckling infant and Takashi murdered her mother. Then again, when she suffered Animus overload. And for a third time, when she did actually perish and Minako risked her life to steal The Shroud.
There was nothing to tell Minako about death itself.
And that, regrettably, was the inherent problem.
No Nirvana. No circles of hell. No Asphodel Fields in Tartarus. No purgatory.
Only oblivion.
Nothingness as the true peace of the afterlife did not settle well with Rei. She was a Shrine Maiden, after all. Her personal smorgasbord of religious beliefs, from her deep connection to the kami, to the Buddhist incantations that assisted her with summoning ofuda to ward evil spirits, led her to believe there had to be a divine order in this otherwise chaotic amalgamation that was life.
Rei had a feeling her bland answer would satisfy Minako even less than herself, so she avoided the depressing topic altogether.
Sharanga's weight rhythmically tapped with her steady gait. Minako to her left, Makoto to her right, and Haruka and Setsuna on either side of them. The ancient technology each assassin carried resonated, creating a profound white noise around them. Strapped to her left forearm, inside the sleeve of her leather jacket, was the new hidden blade she selected from the vault.
Rei stole a glance at Minako. The pointed hood was pulled up high over her head, concealing her mass of golden hair. Glittering red tips of the mask poked out. Combining her Piece of Eden with the beaded whip and the blade Rei gave her, Sailor V was as formidable an assassin as the rest of them.
None of the others knew Minako recited the creed and, for all intents and purposes, now belonged to the Sisterhood. If they lived to see the dawn, then they could share the news. But for now, it was their little secret.
Crystalline blue eyes turned with a mischievous glint. "Are you admiring how snugly my new coat fits?"
Makoto snorted. Rei ignored the burning in her cheeks. It was just like Minako to make a suggestion like that for others to hear, thus drawing attention to the figure-hugging nature of the jacket and making it nearly impossible for Rei to look at anything else. Unable to make words, Rei just grunted and shifted the quiver strapped to her back.
"Your jacket compliments your curves well, kitten," Haruka flirted from Minako's left.
Rei stopped to snarl at the lecherous tomboy. Minako didn't need her baseless, distracting flirting. She got enough of that from fans and the media. She didn't need it from her fellow assassins.
Rei opened her mouth to give Haruka a piece of her mind, but Minako stopping in her tracks gave her pause. She heard the hitch in Minako's throat. The pounding of her heart.
"What is it?" Rei asked after the others walked ahead.
"She called me kitten, that's all. Like Michiru. Caught me off guard, I guess." Minako shook the fog from her head and plastered a smile on her lips. "Come on, let's go."
Kaiou Michiru. Rei had a few choice words for the manipulative seer, and none of them had anything to do with her and Haruka's affair. In fact, Rei found the affair meant little to her. Betrayals were a serious matter. But between Michiru's seductive charm and Haruka's weakness for beautiful women, it came as little surprise. Michiru most likely lured Haruka with the same apocalyptic warnings she used to bait her father.
Whether any of Michiru's mechanisms, or the betrayals and the deaths, would come to mean anything in the grander scheme of things… Well, that remained to be determined.
They had to survive the next few hours first.
Minako's confidence returned. She grabbed Rei's hand and dragged her along as if they were going on a play date instead of their potential deaths. They were not yet caught up to Setsuna and the others, when Rei caught sight of Michiru standing alongside another petite blue-haired woman, in the center of the crumbling old building.
"Ami!"
"Mina!" Rei reached for the idol but she sprinted ahead. Cursing to herself, Rei tried catching up before Minako could say or do something stupid. Scanning their surroundings with her eagle vision revealed that the two templars hadn't brought any friends along. Michiru and Ami regarded them with guarded expressions as Rei and Minako approached. This Ami character was an unknown variable to Rei; the Shrine Maiden could only assume she was a fellow templar that, for some reason, Mina was surprised to see here.
Setsuna, Haruka, and Makoto stood a few yards from the two women, creating a barrier to stop Minako before she could draw dangerously close to the templars. With the hand not clutching the Spear of Leonidas, Makoto grabbed Minako and effortlessly held her back.
"The stray kitten has found a home," Michiru broke the tense silence. Her mirror, reflective side facing inward, was pressed against her chest. Yata no Kagami was painted in aquamarine, with a golden trident decorating its center.
Minako ignored the jape. "Ami, what's going on?" she demanded.
"Aino-san," the other templar began. Her voice was soft and unassuming. In her hands, she held a stringed instrument, fashioned from what appeared to be a turtle shell. It must have been a Piece of Eden, though not one Rei was familiar with. "I take this to mean you still haven't read my report on the Lost City of Atlantis."
Rei felt there was an underlying joke there, given the subtle, wry smile on Ami's lips, and the not-so-subtle eye roll from Minako.
"Been a little busy. So just tell me what the hell is going on!"
Heads turned as Haruka moved from her spot beside Minako. She closed the space between the assassins and templars with the silent, swift speed earning her the title of Whispering Torrent. A moth to a flame; Rei blinked and found the tall blonde wrapped in Michiru's embrace.
Minako warned her, and still Rei felt distrustful of what her eyes were telling her. Stunned silence prevailed. The small audience watched The Augur and Whispering Torrent share a brief, but intimate, kiss.
"What the hell?!" Rei had to dodge Makoto as she brandished her long spear. Static surrounded her, powering her weapon and fueling her rage. "Whose side are you on, anyway?!"
Haruka chuckled. Her stormy eyes narrowed into a patronizing glare. "There are no fucking sides in this."
The evasive response wasn't enough to quell Makoto's righteous fury. Rei understood Haruka's point completely. She had seen it all through her father's memories; the imminent Second Catastrophe as prophesied by The Augur's mirror. Visions capable of turning assassins from their creed, and lovers into murderers.
Makoto's sense of betrayal was justified. Rei would not argue that. Makoto was ignorant. She hadn't seen the rapid decay of civilization Yata no Kagami and the sacred flames promised. The sting of betrayal was a feeling Rei understood all too well.
But Makoto's rage could not hold a candle to Rei's. Like a piece of dry kindling, the Shrine Maiden's temper snapped. Sharanga wielded and arrow notched; her projectile was set to land between Michiru's pretty blue eyes.
Calm and collected, the templar shook her head. "You know that arrow cannot paralyze me."
"No. But I bet it can put a hole between your eyes. Care to find out?" Rei countered without wavering her aim.
"Rei." Setsuna spoke for the first time. She'd almost forgotten Setsuna was there, and would have disregarded her if there hadn't been an olive hand resting on her bow, weighing it down. Rei jerked her bow away from her touch while keeping a laser focus on Michiru.
"I killed my own father! And you're going to tell me why!"
Rei heard Minako's feet shuffling beside her. She audibly scoffed when Haruka stepped in the line of fire. Of course Michiru's whipped lover would sacrifice herself.
Or, more likely, Haruka was calling her bluff.
Michiru walked around Haruka's right and twirled her mirror in the moonlight. "I could tell you. But wouldn't you rather see the cause Takashi died for?"
Rei already knew the cause. The cause was Michiru grandstanding about a supposed Second Catastrophe, recruiting Takashi and driving a wedge in her parents' marriage. The cause that was somehow chosen to be Michiru's pulpit and their suffering.
Michiru's statement still managed to bring hesitation. Rei thought about what she was offering: the reason they were gathered here in the first place. The cavern Rei saw in Takashi's memory and the sacred flames. The colored pillars. The onyx scythe.
The pillar that did not respond to Takashi's touch… Would it respond to hers?
"Since acquiring Yasakani no Magatama, visions of a Second Catastrophe have plagued me as well," Setsuna calmly offered.
Rei grunted in annoyance. Fine time to mention that. As if responding to its name, her peripheral vision revealed a jade aura emanating from where Setsuna stood. Haruka blinked as her relic, the sword Kusanagi, and Michiru's mirror beside her, both radiated different shades of blue.
"We must hurry." Michiru advanced towards the confused assassins. If she knew what their synchronized glowing met, she did not say. Instead, she fearlessly approached Rei and Makoto with their drawn weapons. "Yata no Kagami reveals the truth of things. See for yourself."
The aggressive static filling the air diffused slightly, enough to signify Makoto wasn't attacking, but she wasn't dropping her guard, either. The warmth of Minako's palm pressing into the small of her back helped Rei to relax. She focused on the mirror held in her line of sight, using every ounce of willpower to focus her anger, channeling it at the relic.
The mirror did not reveal visions. Instead, it cast a dim light over the ground, transforming their surroundings.
"Wasn't it… here?" Michiru asked almost playfully as the beam of light coming from the mirror settled on a spot on the ground. Rei's breath caught in her throat.
Their bloody, collapsed bodies. The dirty cement coated in Hino blood. There was no mistaking the place Rei laid down to die. The unremarkable slab of rock became a gilded doorway in the ground, decorated with ancient Isu script.
"Amazing," Setsuna whispered from behind.
Ami sidled beside Minako. Her face shone with excitement. "This is the path to the city."
"What city?" Makoto asked, earning herself an annoyed glare from most of the others.
"Sounds like you volunteered to go first," Haruka joked. She raised her glowing sword to eye level and narrowed her eyes. "And make it quick."
"Fine. I'm not afraid," Makoto boasted and tossed her ponytail. Rei knew it was no blunder: Makoto never feared imminent danger, even when she should. Minako's hand slid into Rei's, and the couple shared a glance before falling in line.
After casting its glow onto the hidden entrance, the door remained in place. Michiru returned the mirror to her side, and stood aside with Haruka as the others went first.
"So, how's it—" Makoto approached the engraving in the ground, startling when it rippled like a reflection in the water before disappearing. Stairs made of marble and gold descended as far as the eye could see. Torches kept alive by what Rei could only assume to be ancient Isu technology lit their path. "Here goes nothing."
Makoto took the first step, startling when it hummed and glew with a bright green light beneath her foot. "Whoa!"
"That's so cool!" Mina practically cheered. "That's the same color as your aura."
Rei suppressed an eye roll. Cool was not how she would describe anything right now.
"It must be reacting to your Isu heritage," Setsuna assumed.
Ami nodded and adjusted her glasses. "That's correct, Meiou-sama."
Rei didn't ask how Ami knew Setsuna's name. She came across as meek and quiet, telling the Shrine Maiden she was the type to know a lot more than she let on.
After the initial surprise, Makoto continued down the stairway, followed by Minako, then Rei. The flooring beneath them became an interactive rainbow, changing color beneath each woman's footprint. Green, orange, red… the colors of the rainbow flickered beneath them as they descended single-file into the room below.
Trepidation and anxiety swelled in Rei's chest with each step. She knew what to expect. Where they were going, it was the vast chamber she saw in the Animus. Pillars stretching as far as the eye could see, which told Rei they were in for a long trek down to the center of the Earth.
The walk was long, but no one spoke. Unanswered questions lingered on the tips of their tongues. Rei still needed answers from Michiru. Not only about her father, but the Isu bloodlines as well. What was the significance of it all? Who was Serenity? And what did recruiting those worthy of her guard have to do with preventing the Second Catastrophe?
Minako turned, looking up over her shoulder at Rei. That glittering red mask. Rei had been obsessed with it at one point. Sailor V's Piece of Eden was what she needed to prove herself as an assassin.
Rei considered the events that transpired between her blundered attempt at assassinating Sailor V and now. Never in a million years would she have thought she'd fall in love with a templar; not considering that the templar she fell for was a gorgeous worldwide superstar, who, by some accident of the cosmos, loved her back. And, while Rei had fantasized about avenging her mother's death hundreds of times, she was still in shock that it actually happened. Both of her parents were dead; sacrificed for a cause that none of them truly grasped the meaning of. Rei only knew what the Animus and Sacred Flames found her capable and worthy of knowing. Michiru kept a stoic face, but something told Rei she was also frustrated with the limited amount of knowledge bestowed upon her by the mirror.
Minako cast Rei a gentle, nostalgic smile. This solemn march had the cheery popstar in a similar state of melancholy, Rei guessed. Sighs and grunts of exhaustion filled the narrow passageway until, after what felt like hours of descension, they reached their destination.
"Holy shit!" Makoto, the first to arrive, gasped.
Knowing what to expect, Rei had no such reaction. A sense of familiarity, instead of wonder, filled her. Pillars covered in Isu carvings lined the half-circle of the cavern. The spacious, flat center was nearly bare, save for a pedestal that Rei did not remember from Takashi's memory. His focus had been entirely on the crimson pillar. Just like him, Rei was drawn to it. Like her Piece of Eden, it was meant for her. It called to her.
"Hey wait." Rei didn't realize she began walking towards it, until Minako was tugging on her jacket. "Look."
Rei looked back at the pedestal, except now she couldn't see it. Michiru, Haruka, and Setsuna stood in a circle around it, offering their Pieces of Eden, as if in tribute. The auras resonating around the items pulsed and grew so intensely, the three women were shrouded from sight.
"What's happening?" Mina asked no one in particular.
"After centuries of separation, the three sacred relics fulfill their purpose," Ami explained. It wasn't much of an explanation, but nothing more needed to be said.
The lights died out, and the three women were holding new objects. Not new, but transformed. Michiru's mirror looked brand new, no longer showing any signs of wear and tear. Haruka's sword became longer and bejeweled, the hilt covered in gems of assorted shapes and colors. Setsuna's item endured the most significant transformation. The small jade gem was now a silver rod taller than its wielder, with a heart-shaped ornament cradling a garnet orb inside.
The theatrics weren't over yet. A beam of aquamarine light shot from Michiru's mirror towards the ceiling, hundreds of feet above them. Similarly, a navy blue light from Haruka's sword followed, and a burgundy beam from Setsuna's staff.
"What's going on?" Minako whispered. Rei felt her arm wrap around her waist.
Everyone else was too stunned to speak.
A shadow appeared, floating above the pedestal. A spectre of death, wielding a scythe like the reaper himself.
Except this wasn't a man, but a woman. Of youthful appearance, with short raven hair and dark violet eyes, much like her own. Unlike Rei, this ghost's visage appeared lifeless, jaded from centuries of watching the waxing and waning of civilizations.
The scythe-wielding reaper's gaze pierced each of them, one by one. When her gaze fell on Rei, it felt like a kindred spirit of sorts: as if she knew every moment of the assassin's existence. Where Rei had been, and where she was going. This woman held all the answers.
Whether she would divulge them, however, remained to be determined.
After the violet spectre finished dissecting each of them with her eyes, Michiru lowered her mirror.
"And this is where my visions end."