Rei was sweeping up outside her temple, taking advantage of the cooler morning to do so. It was already November and she wondered if that winter would bring snow yet again and if she'd have to make proper precautions for it. She had invited the girls out to a random cafe in town to discuss what she had seen in her fire a few days earlier, wondering how many would heed her call and arrive. Once the sweeping was done, she put the broom up and changed out of her miko robes, heading downtown.

/+/

When she arrived at the cafe, she blanched and cringed when she saw just Makoto there, adjusting her ponytail. Usagi was there too, which made her smile a bit, noticing the baby in her arms. She sat down and slammed her head into her arms.

"Ami-chan isn't coming," She decided. "And who knows where Minako-chan is. I thought you'd take this more seriously!"

"The Outers could help us, maybe. They've always been stronger than us." Makoto shrugged.

"That's exactly the problem. Whatever this new group is, we'll be woefully underpowered and unable to deal with them like always. Our last threat was catastrophic so who knows how bad this one will be," Rei said. "This is the worst time for us to all be separated like this."

Makoto looked at Usagi for advice, but she remained silent, feeding a bottle to Chibiusa. She then looked at Rei. "Well, they haven't even shown up yet, so why should we be so afraid?"

Glass shattered outside and there was the sound of screaming accented by the sound of metal being thrown around, and the two girls ran outside to see what had happened.

"Halt! Show yourself! We're not afraid to fight you!" Makoto challenged, taking a fighting stance. Rei assumed one too just as the culprit stepped into the light.

She had a river of aqua hair that flowed to the ground with a white sunhat on top and a flowery matching dress and gold sandals. She was pretty and toned with a utility belt, the strangest thing on her whole appearance, and the girls couldn't shake the familiar feeling she gave them.

"Humans? No...you're something else. Interesting. I didn't think there'd be people with powers and magic here, I thought it was just regular humans," She pulled out a small notepad and pen from her belt and made quick notes.

Makoto and Rei remained silent, staring at her.

"Maybe I should go easy...I don't want to kill you, just incapacitate you." She stuck out her right wrist and several snakes coiled around it, slithering off her arm and growing in size before they reached the duo, hissing and eyeing them. "I'm Hermes, by the way. Introductions are the best way to get to know someone, after all, and I know I'll be seeing more of you later," She jumped back, leaving the girls to deal with four giant snakes.

"Mars Crystal Power, Makeup!"

"Jupiter Crystal Power, Makeup!"

The two transformed and ran, each trying to convince a snake to chase after them. Sailor Jupiter ran fast, luring her snake on top of a bigger building.

"Surely you can't be that tough," She wondered to herself before firing her usual thunder attack, shocking the green monster but not stopping it. Instead, it just slithered faster towards her. "Jupiter! Oak Evolution!" She spun around and then darted out of the way as the sharp leaves cut into the snake's skin, peeling off scales. The snake hissed and glared at her, striking fast and knocking her to the ground with a groan.

"You want to play dirty, huh...?" She brought her leg up and kicked the snake's jaw hard, punching it and shoving it away from her. She jumped off the building and took to running, knowing it was still following her.

"Jupiter! Stay away from here!" Sailor Mars cried, beat-up from her own battle. She fired an attack at the singed snake, which struck her and left a cut on her side. "Ouch!" She collapsed, holding it.

"Mars!" Jupiter shoved the head of the snake away and ran over to her friend. "What should we do?"

"I don't know...two is too few for this,"

The red snake slithered over and coiled up Mars, slithering around and around until she was tightly squeezed in-between.

"Stop! Let me go!" She struggled and tried to put her palms together for an attack before the snake squeezed harder, resulting in a tight draw of breath. Jupiter cringed at her friend's pale face.

"Now would be a great time for backup," She kicked a purple snake that tried to slither over, firing Supreme Thunder at it.

"They're having trouble.. interesting," Hermes said to herself, making more notes on her notepad.

"Dead Scream." A familiar voice whispered, and a purple wave of energy pushed the snakes away, forcing the red one to release Mars. She gasped hugely and collapsed to the ground, trembling and panting.

"You guys!" Jupiter gasped.

"I'm the Senshi of Time, the elegant Sailor Pluto, here to enchant you."

"And I'm the Senshi of Death, the mysterious Sailor Saturn, here to mystify you!" The two jumped down from the building they were standing on, landing perfectly on their boots. "I guess we got here just in time!" She mused.

"I'm afraid we won't be much help, but here we are," Sailor Pluto said.

"We need all the help we can get," Mars reassured her. "Just focus on those snakes!"

Pluto nodded and fired another attack, knocking the snakes out that time. Jupiter sensed her cue and used Jupiter Oak Evolution, spinning around and ripping more scales off the snakes. Mars used her fire powers in every form to burn them while Sailor Saturn used Silence Wall to protect the girls from sudden strikes.

"Stop!" Hermes called out, waving her hand, making the snakes slither back and coil around her wrist again, forming a long bracelet. "I think I've seen enough."

"Who are you?" Jupiter demanded. "Who do you work for? And why did you just stop the attack?"

"I saw everything I needed to see." Hermes responded cryptically. "Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn. Are there more? Or just you four?"

"There's more! Not like it matters, we'll defeat you!" Saturn said.

"So there's a Mercury?" She stepped closer to the Senshi and studied them. Mars took notice of her somehow inhuman aura and glowing eyes. "I didn't want to kill you because then I couldn't study you. I'm interested in this world where some have powers,"

"Are you going to attack us?"

"I've done enough here." Hermes jumped back and vanished, leaving the girls bewildered.

"Hermes..." Pluto said to herself. "The god of trade and a Greek psychopomp. I wonder why she took that name."

"We need Mercury here. She'd be able to answer these questions!" Jupiter said.

"I'll call her tonight," Mars promised, just as Usagi wandered over to the group, Chibiusa asleep in her arms. "About time you got here! What took you so long? We can't refresh the monsters or anything without you, you know!"

"What did you expect me to do?" Usagi asked seriously. "The moment Usagi was born, I lost my transformation. You know this."

Mars paled and swallowed, trying to clear her throat. "R-Right, I'm sorry."

"That is still very concerning. You had an important role on the team, and without you we've lost a very powerful ability." Pluto reminded her.

"As long as the Silver Crystal is still inside of me, I might still retain my healing powers. I can try to tap into it somehow." Usagi promised.

Saturn just smiled down at Usagi in her arms, her face lighting up at the sight of the baby.

"Hopefully at least Venus gets here soon," Jupiter said before detransforming, and the other three followed suit. Setsuna and Hotaru simply went home, while the other three resumed sitting at the cafe.

"Hermes...it must mean something!" Rei announced. "That's why I have to call Ami-chan tonight, she'd know everything,"

"She looked like her too, just a bit. Maybe it's a parallel, maybe they have to fight or something," Makoto suggested before her phone rang. She pulled it out and sighed. "Sorry, I have to go. Mayumi's daycare ended for the day and Ittou-kun is busy at work so I have to pick her up."

Rei and Usagi said their goodbyes to her and a few minutes later decided to go their own ways as well.

/+/

That morning, Ami came home from a long night at work and shrugged her coat off, smiling when she saw her husband Ryo in the middle of getting ready.

"Right on time," He smiled shyly, and Ami hugged him. "Busy day?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't trade it for the world," She excused herself to go into their bedroom and got a call as she was in the middle of undressing, answering her phone. "Hello?"

"What do you know about the Greek god, Hermes?" Rei asked seriously on the other line. Ami couldn't stop her heart from leaping into her throat at that question.

"A lot. He's associated with snakes and sheep, a psychopomp, and his godly duties are a bit of everything, traveling, medicine, commerce, wealth, intelligence, fertility, to name a few. He's seen as a mischievous person and is associated with the Roman god Mercury."

"We met one of the villains today, and her name is Hermes. We're thinking you might have to fight her to defeat her, because she might parallel you in some way."

"You're joking!" Ami gasped. "It's too soon!"

"We could just barely defeat her snake monsters. She removed them and spoke very cryptically. She seemed to be studying us and said she was surprised to see people with magic here and that she didn't want to kill us."

Ami sat on her bed, looking down at the floor.

"She's so powerful, it might be easy to find you. She even said she was glad there was a Mercury."

The daze returned then, the daze related to sensing evil and calling to do her guardian duty. Her transformation pen, tucked under layers of clothing at the very bottom of a drawer, called out to her.

"Like I said, I'm keeping my eyes peeled here. There's no strange occurrences at my hospital, but at Ryo-kun's office he's noticed huge swaths of people who just grow ill and never come back to work. His boss believes they're either faking it to quit or there's an epidemic of tuberculosis going around. I think it's related to the enemy." She remembered.

"I still want you here, but if Hermes is going to where you are, I guess there's nothing to worry about. Just be safe," Rei sighed. "I worry she'd be too strong for you."

"I can do more research on the subject if needed, I don't have much to do here doing the day anyway."

The two hung up and Ami raced into the bathroom to throw up. Once she finished, she changed into more casual clothes and got on the computer to start doing more research.

She didn't need the others, she could take on Hermes perfectly fine on her own.

/+/

Author's Note: This story's also on AO3 so go give it some love there if you prefer that site!