AN: When there is dialogue in (parentheses) it's in Japanese. ^_^

NINE

I take a leave of absence from work. I must sound terrible because when I talk to Dr. Harper and he doesn't question that something terrible has happened. His concern is evident as soon as I open my mouth. He assures me that all the paperwork will be straightened out and that my performance thus far has been exemplary and there won't be any question of things being alright with the school. My hand is still shaking when I put the phone down. I feel like I didn't sleep at all.

Minako is in the shower and has been for at least an hour. From the looks of Rei she was in there at least as long earlier and didn't sleep at all. She is sitting at the breakfast bar spinning a spoon in a bowl of cereal, "How were your dreams?" she asks. Artemis is curled up in her lap.

I shake my head, "I couldn't make sense of it. There were so many things that went through my head I could barely sleep. I just—I know—we know so little about what caused Metallia. It didn't make sense to me at the time but it had to have been Uranus, Neptune…they were—weren't they? The other senshi."

Rei drops the spoon, "I just would like to not see something when I close my eyes for ten—five minutes even that involves the annihilation of an entire civilization, or…or more."

I reach over the table and take her hand. Artemis pops up and climbs gingerly on to the breakfast bar.

"I think you're right with the Moon and the others though. When the music played I saw bits of a conversation I had with Saturn," Rei says, "I remember talking to her. That's what I saw first. We were sitting in one of our rooms at the palace talking about what was going on. The coming storm, all very corny, in a way, but the end of it was that she knew they were going to have to go back to the outer rim."

"The inner planets would have only been able to take so many refugees," Artemis says, "and the Queen felt it would be something they could easily handle. So, there was no reason to send others."

"That didn't work out too well for them," Minako remarks, coming from the bathroom with a towel against her head. She sits down against the door frame, "I don't want to dwell," she says, "I got so wrapped up in what little I remembered of what happened before—with the Princess and," she stops, shivering, "well, what happened before—there's nothing we can do about that."

"I think we realize that." I point out, "but Metallia was defeated. We dealt with that."

"It's possible they don't know that," Artemis remarks, "None of us remembered about them until just now. There has to be something to trigger the memory. They could well just be remembering what happened that potentially destroyed their world and not know anything about the rest of us."

"All this speculation is problematic." Rei says.

"Can't you talk to Michelle Ocean?" I ask.

Minako purses her lips, "I honestly don't know. I hope so—but it might not go well."

"We don't know until we try though." Artemis says.

"True enough." She sighs, "Ami-chan, can you see if there's agent contact information on her website? Perhaps I can charm him into letting me come up there and meet her in private."

"I'll see if I can clear out my head and then while you're doing that perhaps we can try for whatever it was that attacked at the race track?" Rei says.

"I hope we're strong enough," I say as I wake the computer up, "That other one took all three of us and those aliens."

Rei sighs, "What about contacting Usagi-chan and Mako-chan?"

"It's about 12:30 a.m. tomorrow there right now." I say, "with my attempts at getting in touch, sparse as they were," I admit, "it seemed as though Usagi-chan had misplaced her phone or completely forgotten how to check email. I got Mako-chan once a few weeks after I moved here. I called her shop and instantly felt guilty." I pull up Michelle Ocean's page and print out the contact information for Minako.

Minako ruffles my head, "Ah, Ami-chan, you are so you."

"I admit I've not been in touch with people well at all," Rei says, "Work had me crazy busy. I never expected to be doing so much and traveling all over." She gives Minako a half-hearted glare.

"Work does that." Minako says, "I can't fault you for my own similar actions. Poor Artemis hasn't been in touch with Luna either." She says, "Have you?"

"I haven't talked to her since I've been here." He says, "The last time we did speak she made no indication that there was anything bad going on over there."

"I don't want to bother them," I admit, "We're already riling up the apparent locals enough. We bring two more into the party—it's just."

"It's possible they do have things going on over there." Minako says, "They might be saying the same about us right at this moment." She inhales, "Alright, after I schmooze Michelle Ocean I'll see about getting in touch with Usagi-chan and Mako-chan even if I have to put an ad out over there I will accomplish it and we can let them decide for themselves. If it's midnight there now I'll call in about seven hours." She puts an alarm on her phone, "If nothing else Mamoru is likely up that early."

Rei excuses herself to run her head under the shower again for a little while and Minako gets on the phone with Michelle Ocean's agent about more terrestrial matters. I change into trek worthy clothes and pack some bottles of water into my purse. Minako is waiting for a call back when we leave. We walk up the block to get money from the bank and wait there for a cab which takes us to the race track.

"You know there's nothing going on there today, right?" The cabbie says.

We assure him its fine and get out looking around. Rei hones in right away on the area where the attack took place and we're walking over there when a voice calls out to us. I turn around. The blonde woman from the hospital is striding across the tarmac towards us. She's wearing racing leathers and has a helmet held loosely in one hand.

"That area's off limits!" she says. Then she stops and cocks her head slightly, "There's something about you."

I try to look innocent and confused, "Off limits? I'm sorry—we must have missed the sign."

I put a hand on Rei's arm and she turns around, "What's going on?"

"Yeah, it's for rac—weren't you the cute nurse from the hospital?"

I feel the heat in my face and Rei laughs and nudges me.

"You are." She gives me a devilish smile, "I haven't been able to be by there today. How's he doing?"

"I—I honestly don't know I'm on leave, but when I left yesterday he was stable."

Her expression darkens a little but then she smiles again, "So, what brings you down here?"

"Um…I was curious...you reminded me that I truly haven't seen much of the world outside the hospital," I feel the words catching in my throat. I really wish I could be a better liar.

"Oh, well, then, let me show you around, Ami, right? And…" she extends a hand to Rei, "Alex Haruka."

"Rei Hino." She says, shaking the hand. She flexes her fingers after Alex lets go.

Alex leads the way away from the area we were trying to go. I whisper to Rei in Japanese that I'm sorry.

"(It's okay)," she says back, "(she's just as energetic as the violinist.)"

Alex is leads us away from the back of the machine shops, most of which were locked up, and towards the stands, "If we go up to the commentary box you can see the whole track." She says.

"Do you race here often?" Rei asks.

"I prefer off-road really but you take what you can get." She seems bemused by us, "You don't have to pretend, you know?" she says, "I can tell you're not really interested in the track. Are you doing like on House? You know where they investigate places a patient got hurt looking for toxins and stuff to see if there's something else going on?"

"Yes, that's exactly it. She pegged us, huh, Ami-chan?"

"Y-yes, right." I feel myself blushing again hopefully it looks more like guilt at being caught in the fake lie than being terrible at lying all together. If she has the senshi energy though maybe she wouldn't look at us like we're crazy if we said we were trying to track a youma especially as I have nothing in my bag that I could possibly put samples in.

"Well, then, I'll take you where things happened so long as I'm with you should be okay."

"Great." Rei says, forcing enthusiasm.

We find ourselves going back towards the machine shop. The sun is beating down hard and the heat is getting unbearable considering the black top we're right near. I slow down to take a drink and Rei stops to get a bottle.

"(Maybe we can just tell her the truth?)" I offer.

Rei frowns, "(I'd like to think so but what would you think if I came up and said that to you? We have no idea if she's even awake? If she's not she's going to think we're as nuts as well, I thought you and Usagi-chan were...)" she looks back towards Alex who has turned around to see what's keeping us and then looks down at her belt, "(Though at this point, who cares? We already have aliens pissed with us.)"

I nod, "(and no word from Minako about things with…um…the violinist?)"

Rei checks her cell phone, "(Phase one successful)," she reads, "(I guess she has the meeting then? Or she's gotten in touch with the others. I wish she'd been more specific.)"

"Everything okay? Not going to die on me are you?" Alex calls. She has her own cell phone in one hand.

Rei follows after me texting Minako her displeasure at the cryptic phrasing.

"It's a bit hot." I consent.

Alex rolls up the door on the shop and we walk inside. It's even hotter in there. She goes to turn on the large fans that are on the ceiling, as she walks off I hear those strains of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik again, and she says, "Hey, babe," as she disappears around the corner.

"What do you feel?" I ask Rei.

"(Definitely it started over here…)," she points behind her to the left, and she steps backwards, "(There's a surge here)," she says.

She's standing in a scuff mark, a deep rubber gouge from a tire that moved backwards at quick speed, though there's not much backwards room for a bike to go.

"(I think we're looking at a conversion entity)," she says, "(I think it possessed someone's bike)."

"(So, we need to find out whose bike this was? That's not going to seem suspicious.)"

I hear the bleep-bloop of a phone disconnecting and Alex is standing in front of us, "(You know,)" she says, "(It's really not polite to talk in a foreign language in front of other people. They might think you have something to hide.)"