"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"
Sailor Moon deftly dodged the attack, leaping out of the way just before one of the orbs of energy struck her wing and in seconds, she was facing the assaulting senshi, her weapon drawn and poised at her chest, ready to strike.
"Good, good, well done!" Luna said, and the two sparring warriors relaxed, laughing as they shook themselves off. For the past two weeks, the senshi had been training intensively, honing their abilities to their former state and beyond, shaping themselves into formidable fighters once again. The darkness that threatened them continued to grow stronger; so strong that even Jupiter and Venus were beginning to feel it, a gentle pull in their chest or a light tingling in their fingers from time to time. But it was the other three that really began to suffer.
But these effects were not without benefits. With increased severity came an increase in accuracy. Raye could now feel the direction from which the threat was coming, and Usagi began to be able to predict when there would be a surge of the dark energy. Ami could now describe and identify the boy on the alter from her dream, and from the examination of these visions, the senshi developed a preliminary goal: find and protect this boy.
Sailor Moon swung her arms, her wings stretching lightly as she relaxed. "Man, I'm beat!" she said, yawning as she leaned against a boulder in the dusty, empty canyon that they had teleported to in order to train privately. "We've been training so hard!"
"We have to in order to be ready," Mars said, wiping her forehead and breathing deeply.
"Yes, but I think we have had enough for the day," Luna said, stretching and walking toward the girls. "Are you all ready to go?"
"Yeah, I think so," Venus said, looking toward the sun as it set behind them. "It's getting late, and we've been here pretty much all afternoon."
"Yes, and I have quite a bit of studying to do," Mercury said, and the other girls groaned and shook their heads.
"You never change," Jupiter sighed. "Aren't you ahead of your classes yet?"
"Yes, but only by five chapters! All this training has really been cutting down on my study time."
"Wow, you're really slipping," Mars said, completely deadpan as she grabbed Venus and Moon's hands.
"Alright, alright, let's get back, Miss Bookworm," Jupiter said, taking the smaller senshi's hand and standing in the circle with the other girls.
With the two cats standing in the center, the girls focused their energies, and for one brief moment, their energies were like one, and in the next moment, they were gone, the canyon once again dusty and empty.
They reappeared at the Hikawa shrine before the sacred fire, now burning weakly under the dark energy that hung over the temple. In a flash of light, the girls were back in their civilian clothing. With a yawn, Usagi plunked down on the ground. "I'm so sleepy!"
"You are always sleepy. Or hungry," Luna sighed, shaking her head at the Moon Princess. "You girls have been doing good work," she said proudly, surveying her warriors. "But we still have a long ways to go, and we do not know how much time we have left."
"Right, we need to discuss what needs to be done," Artemis said, standing next to Luna.
"That's easy!" Usagi said lazily. "We protect the guy from Ami's dream."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about that…" Raye said softly. "According to the dreams, this guy is needed to resurrect a dark god that will destroy the world, right?"
"If the dreams are actually accurate, then yes," Ami said, rubbing her eyes and flipping through pages of her planner, sighing at the amount of work that had been accumulated that she had yet to attend to.
"And if these bad guys get him, they need to kill him to do it," Makoto said, and Raye nodded.
"So I've been thinking. If this evil can only be brought to the world if this guy is sacrificed, then if he dies under different circumstances, this evil can't be revived, right?"
The room was silent for a while, save for the light crackling of the fire. Slowly, Ami managed to whisper, "Are you suggesting that we let him die?"
"No, but it needs to be something we consider," the priestess said softly. "If we save and protect him, then no matter what, the enemy, whoever they are, will always be after him. But if he were to die somewhere else, not in the circumstances that are necessary to call this evil god…well then, the world would be spared."
"But we don't know yet if they need him specifically," Ami said softly. "And we don't know if he just needs to die for their goal to be accomplished, or if it needs to be under certain circumstances."
"That's true," Luna said. "But if it is those circumstances that are needed…if it has to be him, and he has to be sacrificed…if that is the case, then maybe the world cannot have peace unless he does not exist."
"No!" Again, the room fell silent, and everyone looked at Usagi, standing up and tears in her proud blue eyes. "None of this is right! You're saying that we have to kill him to save the world? Well, I won't do it!"
"Usagi…"
"No! We're supposed to be defenders of love and justice! What kind of people would we be if we can't even save one person!"
"There might not be another way."
"Then we will find one! We can save both him and the world. We'll defeat whoever comes for him, I'll fight the rest of my life if I need to. But we will save him."
"I agree with Usagi," Makoto said, and Minako nodded.
"Yeah, we can't kill an innocent person."
"And we've done this before!" Usagi added, growing more confident. "Hotaru had Mistress 9 inside her, remember? And that was necessary to bring Pharaoh 90 to the world."
"Yeah, but we couldn't save Hotaru, not really," Raye said somberly. "She sacrificed herself to save the world. She had to be reborn. She is not really the same person she was."
"We will find a way, we will," Usagi emphasized. "We can do it, right Ami?"
The blue haired girl sighed. "I want to save him as much as you do, but we may not have an option down the line. The important thing now is to stay open and not make any decisions yet. We do not really know anything, after all. Let's just wait and see what happens. We can make a decision about what to do after we know more about him and our enemy."
The girls nodded, tense and somber, and it was at this moment that the door slid open, a blond boy standing in the doorway, clutching his said tightly as blood seeped through his fingers and fell in thick, dark drops upon the wooden floor.
"Please," he craoked, shuddering and breathing ragged as the horrible red liquid began to pool at his feet, his red eyes dull and distant. "Please, help me."
He dropped to the floor, and the horrified senshi, frozen in their places, were suddenly moved into action, quickly running to the badly injured man. The girls dropped to their knees, their pants and skirts soaking up blood, and they placed their hands over several long, deep gashes in his side.
"Luna, Artemis, quick, go get Mamoru!" Usagi cried, pressing as hard as she could as per Ami's instructions. "He's…he's got to be able to help, he's going to be a doctor!" The cats were off like a shot, and no sooner had they left, Ami stopped, and she took her blood covered hands quickly away from the man.
"What, what's wrong?" Minako asked quickly as she dialed the number for the ambulance.
"The boy from my dream," the blue haired girl said quickly. "That's him."