Chapter 8 – Facts Are Facts, But Memories May Not Always Be What They Seem
"MURDERER!" Sailor Mars screamed when Jadeite released her lips and she recovered her senses. Her hand made a short, violent arc. The crack of her palm across his face turned every head nearby, not just his. She, Mars thought, remembered killing him after he'd struck her the mortal blow that ultimately killed her. So why the hell wasn't he dead?! What sick joke on her would let her betrayer be reborn?! He wasn't going to be allowed to get away with it or to hurt anyone else again. Angry violet eyes smoldered, darkening as her temper flared.
"YOU BASTARD! You betrayed me!" accused Sailor Jupiter, her hands tightening into fists. Bitterness poisoned every syllable from her tongue as she faced Nephrite, who didn't understand her reaction at all and who was growing more and more confused by the second. A violent storm of betrayal and fury…and fear (of him?!) swirled and flashed in her green eyes.
"I swear I'm going to Oak Evolution you straight back to the depths of Hell where you belong!" she growled, lifting her hands to attack. Thunder rumbled loudly overhead as black clouds gathered. Nephrite's eyes widened in sudden shocked realization as he watched the antenna rise from her tiara and begin to spark. She was serious! He had no idea what she was talking about, but she was really and industriously trying to KILL him!
Sailor Mars was more direct. She slammed a knee viciously toward Jadeite's groin. Her aim was slightly off, but it still hurt enough that he dropped to his knees, cupping his hands over himself as he gagged. The weight of his body on their joined wrists dragged her down with him, and she landed with bruising force on her backside. The connection between them pulled her hand against his hard thigh, intimately close. She let out an infuriated screech, floundering around like a netted fish.
Nephrite had no choice. Offering up a silent apology, he lunged at Jupiter, who cried out in fury as he drove her to the ground, flat on her stomach with him on her back. She heaved and bucked under him, screaming imprecations. Ruthlessly he grabbed the emerald-studded tiara, wrenching it from her head and hurling it far away into the shrubs where it could no longer do any harm. She couldn't electrocute him without it. Which didn't mean she was powerless, however…not by any means. As he clutched at her arm, trying to immobilize her, Jupiter chomped down on his hand as hard as she could, triumphantly relishing his yell and the taste of salt and hot copper which spread across her tongue. She'd gotten him good!
"DAMMIT!" he hollered at her, his own temper flaring. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" With his wounded hand, he wrenched her free arm behind her back and rode out the storm as she thrashed and cursed beneath him. "I don't want to hurt you, angel!"
"But I want to hurt you!" she howled, spitting the blood from her mouth and fighting for dear life. She could feel her heart wrench painfully at the hurt look she'd seen in his eyes just before he took her down, as if she'd jabbed a dagger in his heart. Damn his lying eyes and her own weak emotions! She wasn't going to give in just to die by his hands again, by Zeus!
"DIE, YOU LOATHSOME BASTARD!" The wrathful demand was screamed at Jadeite, whose pain had finally subsided a tad, though his confusion had multiplied a thousand-fold. He caught Sailor Mars' white-gloved hand just in the nick of time before she could Fire Soul him at point blank range.
"Calm down, Rei!" Forcing her hands apart, the flames died back as he pinned her wrists to the ground while he straddled her waist. Jadeite couldn't help thinking of times past when being in this position with his sweet firebrand would have been a pleasure. Of course she wasn't trying to kill or unman him then.
"GET THE HELL OFF OF ME!" she raged, kicking and attempting to rear up under him to claw out his eyes. Grimly he forced her back, letting his superior weight pin her securely. She continued to scream. "Pervert! Hentai! Ecchi! Molester!" Somehow, in the midst of the chaos, a fireball began to form on the flat of her palm.
Jadeite shot a quick look over at Nephrite who was having a harder time containing his physically stronger lady who was fighting him like a berserker. "What the hell's the matter with them?!" he hollered. "Was it that thing's blood? Or that fruity pink bastard? A spell or a neurotoxin or something?! They're out of their minds!"
"If I knew," snarled Nephrite, "don't you think I'd be fixing it right now?!"
The momentary distraction of her captor was an opening for Mars. There was just a bit of room to move her hand. If she could just get it up a little bit more…
"I'm not crazy," screeched Mars, before spitting full in his face, her hand moving as he wiped his face. Her violet eyes flamed, vowing eternal vengeance. "I just think betrayers and stone killers should die and STAY DEAD!" The flame roared up in her palm.
Quick as a striking snake, Jadeite slammed her wrist back down. The fireball bounced away, igniting a pool of oil and gasoline that had leaked to the street from the truck that been sliced into earlier by the wraith. The stuff flamed up in an instant, nearly immolating poor Sailor Mercury.
The blue-haired senshi was spared a fiery demise as a flash of lime green light blinded her. She felt an arm wrap around her waist and the world suddenly spun dizzily as she flew through the air. Mercury hit the ground hard, gasping for breath.
Her rescuer, a man with long, shiny, copper-blond curls and a quietly intelligent leaf green gaze gazed at her, his face mere centimeters away from her own. "Are you hurt, love?"
To be honest, Sailor Mercury wasn't sure. All she could see was those intense eyes, bright as new spring foliage. Her normally razor-sharp and incisive mind didn't seem to be tracking too well right now, though. He seemed to know her but she didn't have clue one who he was. Had she met him before?
"L…love?" she asked, chewing on her lower lip. She felt rather than heard him suck in his breath. The look he gave her sent a completely unfamiliar heat surging in her belly. He opened his mouth to speak, only to have his words cut off by the cry of an infuriated and terrorized lighting senshi.
The sight of a brown and white uniform and flash of green light had caught Jupiter's eye, even in the throws of her temper and she gave into panic for her princess and her friend, seeing the man she now recognized as Zoisite leaning over her.
Zoisite…the Mercurian princess' one time lover and then killer.
"Mercury!" she yelped, "Get away from him! He's one of them!" She strained desperately again under Nephrite's weight, panting. "Just get…Sailor Moon out of here! Save yourselves!"
Her outburst drew the attention of both Nephrite and Jadeite toward the senshi in blue. Mercury's senshi had the medical knowledge. Always had. In the heat of the moment it didn't occur to them to wonder why or how they knew it. They simply did. And that meant she could help them figure out what was wrong with Jupiter and Mars and why they'd suddenly gone berserk. And Zoisite was suddenly there too…
"ZOISITE! You bloody ass! Quit flirting and get over here where you're needed. Nephrite insulted the other man without a qualm. There was no time for niceties now. He could only be grateful that Mercury seemed to have retained her senses, but then, of course, she hadn't been at the fight. "We fought a battle and then this…," he jerked his head at the flailing woman beneath him, "happened. One minute they were fine and the next we had two raving, spitting, clawing hellcats on our hands."
"Yeah, kiss the girl later," Jadeite demanded. "Help us, Zoi, dammit! They're completely out of control. I mean, Mars nearly incinerated poor Mercury."
"I was trying for you!" Sailor Mars hissed, barring her teeth menacingly at Jadeite.
"I'm fully aware of that, Mars," he growled, hanging his golden head in dismay.
The pity in his eyes, false as she knew it to be, was even more infuriating than violence would have been.
Mars spat out a mouthful of her own long, black mane which threatened to suffocate her, cursing as she did so. "Wasn't it enough you destroyed the Moon Kingdom, Jadeite? Did you have to ply your evil here this time? I swear by the blood of Ares, I won't let Metallia win again! You'll have to kill me again before I will!"
His blue eyes shadowed with worry, Jadeite barked again at Zoisite. "Get your ass over here and help, man, or when this is over I'm going to jam my dagger so far into you that I'll be able to rotate your internal organs manually! She's not even making any sense now!"
Heaving himself up, Zoisite helped Mercury to her feet before moving to help his fellow Shitennou, pressing a few key pressure points on the back of Jupiter's neck, swiftly rendering her painlessly unconscious. As Nephrite drew his first relieved breath since their struggle began, the Mercurian water senshi scampered back out of range, completely confused and more than a little frightened. She felt very, very alone.
Zoisite moved on to Mars who was, by this point, even more titanically outraged than before on seeing what had been done to Jupiter. She kicked and screamed and threatened and managed to get in a good bruising bite to someone's arm before she was summarily flipped over, immobilized and then put to sleep courtesy of those same exact pressure points. It was done rather more roughly than with Jupiter, though, since Mars had nearly, albeit accidentally, flash fried someone very important to Zoisite. Jadeite merely wiped his brow and groaned out his thanks.
His work done, Zoisite shrugged away from Jadeite and, with a swirl of his cape, turned around, looking about for his princess. Sailor Mercury felt the blood drain out of her face as he stalked toward her, an intent and hot look in his eye. She felt like prey and backed away until she couldn't move any further, flat up against a wall.
She was prey. He pounced, drawing her into the snare of his strong arms and began lowering his head meaningfully toward hers. Sailor Mercury let out a squeak of protest.
It was just then that Sailor Venus belatedly made the scene, leaping from between two nearby buildings where she'd witnessed the entire incident between Zoisite and Mercury play out. She'd nearly come unglued when she'd seen how close Mars' errant fireball had come to singeing their mutual friend and comrade.
"Okay you three," Venus hissed, her honey blond mane swirling about her in an unnatural wind. "Toss away your weapons, get up, and step away from the senshi right now or I'm going to Crescent Beam you all full of so many holes you'll look like so much Swiss chard."
"Swiss chard?" Nephrite and Jadeite exchanged glances. Wasn't that a…vegetable?
Zoisite took several steps away from Sailor Mercury's side, though the sulky scowl which twisted his features clearly indicated his displeasure with the order. Twice now he'd had his princess in his embrace and twice now someone else had gotten in the way. He'd never been a patient man and starting now didn't suit him.
"Chard…cheese…chalk…whatever!" spluttered Sailor Venus angrily, realizing from their expressions that she'd misspoken, a fact which only added to her ire. "Just get away from them RIGHT NOW!" She stamped a tiny sandal-clad foot and raised her magic finger to point it at them.
"Would that we could, Senshi Venus," Nephrite said, casting the Venusian senshi wary glance as his eased his weight off Jupiter's still form carefully so as not to accidentally wrench her arm and arranged her head to gently rest in his lap. Then he tenderly stroked the hair of his poor, sick, confused love. Jadeite was doing likewise for the now insensate Mars.
"I said NOW!" Venus was in no mood for excuses, cracking her Love-Me chain like a whip.
"But…" The brunette man held up his hand, bringing Sailor Jupiter's with it. The chain on their joined wrists jangled. Hidden in the depths of the alleyway, Sailor Moon sucked in an audible breath at seeing her friends in handcuffs.
Venus's eyes widened fractionally and a dull, brick red flush heated her cheeks as understanding set in. "Oh…I see."
Sailor Mercury darted away from the intense, green-eyed stranger, feeling much safer when she was standing beside Sailor Venus, though she was alternately staring bug-eyed at her cuffed comrades and the caped stranger.
"Mercury." The sound of Venus' voice made her jump.
"Y…yes?"
Sailor Venus frowned thoughtfully. There was something about how the stranger was looking at Ami that seemed familiar. Jerking her mind back to matters at hand, though, she asked, "Is there any way to unlock those cuffs without the key?"
Being presented with a problem to solve was just exactly what Sailor Mercury needed to regain her lost focus. Peering at the cuffs carefully, Mercury shook her head. They were hardened steel and without something to cut through the metal… Suddenly she grinned, whispering intently in Venus' ear. Venus looked startled for a moment, azure eyes widening. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely," Sailor Mercury responded. "Part of your planetary influence is over metal…like your Love Me Chain. You can probably manipulate the metal on a molecular level enough to cause the cuffs to fall off Jupiter and Mars' wrists. Just concentrate."
Sucking in a deep breath, Sailor Venus walked over to the cuffed pairs. "Freeze them solid, Sailor Mercury, if they so much as twitch the wrong way. I don't know who they are but clearly Mars and Jupiter didn't trust them."
With a brisk, businesslike nod, Mercury followed, hands raised in attack position. "That means you too," she informed the green-eyed man, who did not look pleased. "Stay back."
Muttering to herself, Venus placed both hands over the cuff that bound Mars to Jadeite and concentrated. Golden light bloomed between her gloved fingers, flickering as the molecular structure of the cuffs began to weaken and break apart. She stuck her tongue out, pushing harder on her powers. Finally she felt the give and lifted her hands, gasping in delight as she eyed the cuffs. "Yes! I did it!"
The ring which had encircled her friend's wrist had completely disintegrated, a faint hint of silvery dust left visible around Mars' glove. Jadeite's half of the cuff, on the other hand, was still locked tight around his wrist, the chain swinging free. He now, however, had freedom of movement.
Reaching to scoop up Sailor Mars, he froze when Venus leveled him with an icy stare. "Put her down gently and step over there to join your friend." She jerked her head in Zoisite's direction. "And keep your hands where I can see them."
"Hey," he began to protest, but bit his tongue when Sailor Mercury stepped into his line of sight again, her face set in uncompromising lines and her hands upraised. Though it went against his wishes, he carefully laid the unconscious senshi down on the ground, glowering at her friends, and then stepped aside.
Zoisite, who had more than a small idea of what damage Mercury's powers of ice could do to a body that was some sixty percent water, hissed a warning to his compatriot, who growled something profane under his breath in response.
"This isn't over," Jadeite informed them with a steely eyed glare. "Not by a long shot."
"It is tonight, big boy," Venus said curtly, moving on to free Sailor Jupiter. This time she acted with assurance and confidence in destroying the binding cuff. It took less than half the time it had taken with Mars. She blew on her fingers as she finished, then dusted them off on her fuku's sailor collar. "A neat job, I think."
"Get Mars' feet," she ordered Mercury pleasantly, after she had banished a disgruntled Nephrite to the male warrior's ghetto to join his fellows. "I'll get her head. Tuxedo Kamen," she called out, knowing he was there, "please pick up Jupiter since we can't carry her. We'll meet at…" she paused for a moment, thinking, then smiled. "…at Central Control."
"Now wait just a damned minute here," protested Jadeite. "Aren't you going to free us too?"
"You can't just take her and go…" Nephrite objected as the strange tuxedo clad man emerged from the shadows to pick up the inert Jupiter, leaping with her to the roof of a nearby building. Seeing her in the arms of another man turned his expression murderous.
A purely evil look slid over Minako's face as she held up her hand again, itching to fire off a Crescent Beam attack or three. "It's already done, gentlemen. Consider it payback for your friend's free-hand sleep inducing technique." She shot a nasty look at Zoisite, who scowled back at her unflinchingly. "Anyway, I don't think they were too pleased with you guys as it was."
She smirked faintly and laughed, catching up Sailor Mars under her arms. "Mercury…how about some cover for our escape?"
The petite blue senshi obliged with a quick Shabon Spray, blanketing the area in thick blinding fog. When it cleared some moments later, the man in the tux and all of the women were gone without a trace, leaving only the slowly awakening salaryman to hear the curses of the three Shitennou.