PGSM THE SECOND STORY
AN: Sorry for the delay on getting this out, it was really hard to write.
Tokyo, Late Summer, Present Day.
They gathered, wordlessly, at the Crown Karaoke parlor. They all knew that something was deathly wrong with the world - as the feeling of powerlessness that came with the Princess' reappearance was enough to send even denial to a back burner. Hino Rei pushed her hair over her shoulder and adjusted the hem of her t-shirt as she tapped her foot impatiently against the leg of her chair.
Minako had gone to get Usagi - she had sent a text from her old number - the one that was connected to those tacky communicator phones that Luna had given them years ago - saying as much. But they were late.
Typical with Usagi, but certainly not with Minako.
The growing uneasiness in her stance must have been obvious as Makoto exhaled loudly and growled, "What's taking them so damn long."
Rei shrugged. She knew that it had to be important for Minako to dawdle. She just hoped that there had not been another attack - as they were still powerless to stop it.
She hated that she longed for the power that she had once hated so deeply for destroying any chance at a normal life that she had once so desperately wished for. Their gift in this life was a curse, and a new threat was just making that more and more obvious. They did not even know who the enemy was.
She frowned, glancing at Ami's nervous hands, fiddling with her handkerchief. She had cleaned her glasses three times since she'd arrived and now was looking for something else to worry on.
"Why do you think she lost control?" Ami asked at length, her tone disbelieving. "I did not think Princess Serenity could still..." She trailed off, the sentence left unspoken as they stared at each other - fearful looks crossing all of their faces. There was something to be said for the fact that they were still sitting here today, a gift of that same awesome, terrifying power that had brought them back so harshly from doom.
Ami swallowed, once, twice before speaking. Her voice was more even now, as the worry for her best friend as Usagi sealed her away with the Ginzouishou."
Rei tilted her chair backwards, balancing by hooking her foot around the table leg and rocking back and forth. She felt like a child in this place - their old refuge. They were adults now - with lives and worries beyond the fate of the world.
Where the hell are you, Mina?
She would not voice her fears without someone else who shared her views to back her up. Ami and Makoto had both made it clear that they were not entirely sold on the idea of tackling another foe just when their lives seemed to be completely at peace. "They are the same person, Ami." She said finally. "For her to lose control and revert to a past personal means that something was so threatening to her that she felt she had no choice but for self-preservation."
Ami's depressed and sullen glare at the table was enough to tell Rei that there was, as always, an underlying undercurrent of Ami's personal hang-ups about their time as senshi in her anger at their having to return to arms once again. Rei had talked to Ami about this fact at length, back when they were fourteen and foolish. Ami had fallen prey to the enemy then, out of fear of losing Usagi forever. Rei - on some level, still wondered about what had happened to Ami during that time - she never spoke of it.
She had befriend Nephrite though, Rei knew that much. They were still friends with all of the men who had once tormented their childhood - it came with maturity that they had not possessed back then. In those days they - she was the only one really - who was likely to attack without warning. It was a simple equation. Action against inaction. She could not risk whatever it was that they were fighting for in favor of sitting pretty and hoping – praying – that nothing would happen.
The door at the top of the stairs opened and Minako's head and shoulders become clearly visible. Usagi's arm was wrapped around her shoulder and she was obviously helping the other girl along. She was obviously very weak, but the wide-eyed look of complete shock in her eyes said far more about what had happened than anything that Minako's hurried texts and phone messages had managed to convey.
"Usagi!" Makoto said, fear clearly in her voice as she hurried up the stairs to take Usagi's weight off of Minako's shoulders. They shared the burden coming down the stairs and depositing Usagi comfortably on the couch. Ami pulled a blanket over her and they all gathered, hesitantly at the edge, fearful to say anything.
"You guys are way too nice to me." Usagi grinned and suddenly the spell of silence was broken and they all began to speak at once. Rei held her tongue, waiting for the right moment to speak as Ami and Makoto demanded to know if she was alright and if anything had happened to her.
"No strange men touched you? Are you sure, Usagi-chan?" Makoto cracked her knuckles menacingly and Usagi deflected, saying that she was far too cautious for something like that to happen. Still, Rei narrowed her eyes as Makoto seemed to accept Usagi's – her lie – at its face. Why was she lying? She had not really truly been attacked had she?
Rei glanced over at Minako, who shrugged elaborately and jerked her chin back to Usagi as if to suggest that Rei ask her.
Rei shook her head; she did not want to be the one. Besides, she frowned at Minako, you are the leader, act like it.
Minako smirked at her and shook her head.
Rei stuck her tongue out at her.
Ami tucked the blanket more closely around Usagi and frowned, "You really should rest, Usagi-chan, you seem very fatigued."
"I'm fine, Ami-chan. It was just … you know how that goes." Usagi laughed disingenuously and Rei raised her eyebrow at Minako who was also frowning. Obviously, they were on the same page with this. If Princess Sailor Moon was going to manifest because of those old allies – or was it enemies (Minako had not been specific) – that had suddenly invaded their peaceful lives; they had the right to know.
"Did you see one of them?" Rei asked quietly, her voice suddenly found amongst the banter between Usagi and Ami. "One of those other Senshi?"
Usagi's eyes went wide. She pouted and sat up suddenly, looking at Rei and by extension Minako, with a disbelieving stare. "You knew?" She whispered. "Why didn't you guys tell me?"
"We did not want to trouble you princess, if it turned out to be nothing," Minako said lamely.
"You should have told me," Usagi said, finishing the curt sentence with a name that neither of them had heard in millennia. Minako's birth name in Venusian was nigh unpronounceable in the Japanese language, and Rei had only recently remembered this fact. The fact that Usagi (who claimed not to remember anything about the past life) could remember such an intimate detail of Minako's past bothered Rei on a deep intellectual level.
The princess could not return. They would not again advent the end of days in their battles.
And yet, Rei closed her eyes, sick to her stomach at what she was about to tell Usagi and the others. "There's something else – a vision that I have been having." She felt stupid for lying, stupid for thinking that she could get away without having to share the words again. They terrified her.
"I had a vision of the end of the world," her voice was more even than she had anticipated it being. "The silence, it was called. A blade fell and the world crumbled around me. A voice that I didn't recognize told me that unless something – they were called talismans – were found, that nothing could be done to prevent the end." Rei shrugged lamely, "I always wake up after that."
The frown that cut across Usagi's face made Rei feel sick to her stomach. Ami and Makoto looked nervously from Rei to Usagi to (hesitantly) Minako as if looking for answers. "I won't do it again." Usagi said quietly. "I won't become her again."
"With all due respect, Usagi," Minako said quietly. "I don't think we have much choice in the matter." In her hands was a pen with a star on the top and the symbol of Venus stamped across it. Rei's eyes narrowed as Minako handed it to Usagi and the others gathered in close.
"Yours are over on the shelf," She said, pointing.
They turned as one, and on the shelf next to the cups for the fizzy drinks that were bad for their teeth and Rei hated (but humored Usagi and the others by drinking) were those same pens.
Serenity save us all, Rei thought desperately as her fingers closed around the red pen.