Author's Notes: Thank you all for reading this far! I'm so grateful to all of you as well as your wonderful reviews! I am still working on this, I promise! It's quite the journey for these two, as well as everyone around them!
As usual, I don't own any of the canon personages or places.
Setsuna stood at the apartment door for the second time in twelve hours. There really had to be better things to do with her life. Or at least she could get paid for this. That would be acceptable, but unlike their previous life, being a Senshi here was not a paid position. She smiled gently at the petite blonde who opened the door. "Hello, may I come in?"
Minako blinked a few times, "Um, Haruka-san's not here. She's at the track."
The taller woman chuckled gently. "I'm not here to see her. It is nice to know, however, that Artemis behaved himself."
"Artemis?" Minako glanced over her shoulder, to find the cat in question no doubt.
"Aino-san, I really think you should let me inside. You and I have some very important business to discuss." With that, Setsuna pointedly looked over Minako's shoulder to see Artemis cringe before licking his paw, pretending the twitch hadn't happened. She smiled once more as Minako stared at her cat, stepping back slightly and offering Setsuna room to pass through the door.
"Artemis? What is the meaning of this?"
"He won't answer you. I threatened him last night when I was here." She held her hand up as Minako whipped around to face her, noting the flare of anger but not distressed by it in the least. "There are many things you were never meant to know, but times are different and certain rules must be lifted." She shook her head slowly, watching the questions form on the young face before her. "However, all that you really need to know is that you must find a way to wake the other Guardian Senshi."
There were few benefits to her position. Bluntly delivering information people weren't aware she had and watching their reactions was one of them. She knew she shouldn't get nearly as much pleasure out of it as she did, but she wasn't about to stop, especially as she watched the blue eyes widen, turn slowly to Artemis as if she was somewhat afraid to move them from Setsuna. Artemis, for his part, turned his head slightly in a facade of innocence, but the motion said clearly enough that Setsuna wasn't the threat Minako was obviously worried she was. The delivery also had the much desired effect to shift the young woman's visage to the more serious expressions of Sailor Venus. While she had known the Outers could do that without transforming, it was comforting to see Minako comfortable enough to be that well integrated.
"Precisely who are you to tell me what is and is not my job?"
Setsuna chuckled warmly, "Ah, there we are. It's nice to see you. I suppose I should say meet you, but as according to the old laws this meeting was forbidden, perhaps it is best if you remain a little in the dark. Suffice it to say, we serve the same woman."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"No, it doesn't, and I won't. Because who I am is less important than what I know. You need to wake the others. Artemis knows their identities. I told him them last night, though I doubt he needed reminding."
The cat in question looked at her with an expression of betrayal, but if he'd kept that information from Minako, that was hardly her fault. She didn't necessarily blame him, but there were consequences. She faced enough of her own; he couldn't expect her to shoulder his as well.
"That was hardly fair," he paused briefly at her glare before continuing, "Meioh-san."
"Artemis? Why didn't you tell me?"
He sighed, "Because until last night I wasn't aware of exactly what was going on, and without Luna, I'm I bit out of my element when it comes to female psychology. I knew how unhappy you were, and without a clear threat, there wasn't a point in making their lives more complicated."
For a few moments, Setsuna really did pity the girl before her. Her life had been turned upside down by realizing her duty and now she knew her closest confidante had kept things from her. It wasn't that she didn't care, but there was little room for compassion on the battlefield, and whether at the Time Gate or elsewhere, when Setsuna was interacting with people, it generally meant battle. She sighed softly. "Don't be too harsh on him." The tenderness was awkward for her, but she tried to remember that the Guardian Senshi had been raised very differently. The only time they truly experienced the hardness that the Outers faced regularly was at the end. "But none of that changes that you need to wake the others."
"No."
"No?" Setsuna repeated. Had she heard correctly? Surely Venus knew the measure they were up against. "You can't be serious! What about the Princess?"
"Look, I don't know who you really are, and I really don't know that I care, but don't go telling me how to do my job. I may wake the others, I may not, but it is not your place to tell me. You're obviously not
part of my team as I don't know who you are, so I can only assume you're part of Uranus's, so go worry about that and leave my team to me. Where's Neptune?"
Setsuna's eyebrows went up slightly at the question. Venus might not know who she was, but she knew there was a Neptune and knew she wasn't her. What hadn't Haruka told her? Perhaps talking to the blonde where Artemis could hear hadn't been the best idea, but there were things she needed to know and watching the cat's reactions were one of the easiest ways to find them out. "Neptune is doing her job."
"Then worry about your own, Meioh-san. I'll worry about mine."
She knew she should be pleased that Venus was as protective as she was, but the girl wasn't listening and Setsuna just didn't have the patience. She held up her hand indicating toward the obstinate blonde. "Artemis, you deal with this, but you had better make sure she understands that if I have to sacrifice one of mine to protect her sorry ass, that she'd better make that sacrifice worthwhile."
"Sacrifice one of yours?" Minako asked, but Setsuna just shook her head as she closed the door behind her.
##
Neptune sat perched in the tree. It had become one of her favorite places over the last few days, watching over the Princess's mundane home. There wasn't much activity, but she'd had plenty of experience in monitoring nothingness without losing her concentration. In fact, there was something soothing about it, comfortable. In truth, when she was painfully honest with herself, she would admit that watching the Princess was the only thing that kept her loyal. Her belief that this princess would change the rules, would allow her to be with Uranus. Of course, that desire rested on Uranus's willingness to forgive her. She hadn't done anything necessary of redemption just yet, but even the thought had been enough to chase Uranus away. She gritted her teeth trying to keep the tears from falling. All she had now was her duty. The Queen's curse finally settled in her soul leaving the hollow she'd never truly accepted before. No, Uranus shouldn't forgive her. She didn't forgive herself. She couldn't.
The evening wore on without incident until well after dark. In the distance, she saw something flash in the dark, heard someone land in a tree nearby. Lips thinned and eyes narrowed, Neptune leapt towards the intruder, ready to attack when the woman whipped around to face her. She deftly dodged the whip before landing behind the other soldier.
"There isn't a reason for hostility, Venus."
Venus spun around, ready to attack a second time. Neptune pulled out her mirror and shook her head slowly. Venus didn't lower her weapon, but neither did she attack. "Neptune."
"I'm impressed. I didn't think you knew of me." Impressed wasn't the word she wanted to use, but she was attempting to be civil and antagonizing the other woman was counterproductive to their shared duty.
"Uranus and I spoke." Neptune's face hardened as she nodded. Uranus had confided in her. Uranus had told this soldier of her existence and hadn't given her the courtesy of a warning. Her mirror vanished from her hand as she absorbed the information. "What are you doing here, Neptune?"
"I'm doing my job. Last time I heard, Senshi were not forbidden to watch over their ward." She watched cautiously as Venus lowered her own weapon.
"Interesting choice of words, but you can go back home now. I'm here and Artemis and I are waking the others. Your services are no longer necessary."
Neptune gaped, "My services? Who are you to dismiss me? I do not care that you are head of her personal retinue. Until and unless I can see that she's protected, I am under no obligation to return to Neptune."
"Who said anything about that? You are no longer necessary, Neptune. In the Princess's absence, I am asking for your resignation due to conduct unbecoming a Senshi." The tone of voice and the way Venus held out her hand expectantly left no opportunity for misunderstanding. She firmly believed that she had the right to demand just that. Whether she did or not was irrelevant. Neptune had sacrificed everything for the Princess; she wasn't about to stop halfway. If she was going to be dead inside, she would die truly in the service of the one who had destroyed her.
"I've done nothing of the sort." Did Minako understand who she was in their mundane lives? Did she understand that the date with Kunzite had been nothing more and nothing less than a strategic move?
"You seduced a fellow Senshi and now you are willingly cavorting with the enemy."
"I am doing recon, Venus, because until tonight I wasn't aware you were awake and monitoring things. Really, do you really think it wise to spy on your old flame yourself?"
"I know that you and Uranus were lovers."
"You know nothing." The trees stirred with the wind and Neptune briefly wondered if she was going to be escorted physically off the premises by Uranus as well. The thought that their once impenetrable partnership was in complete shambles left her hollow. Not even her duty could warm the cold creeping into her heart.
"I know enough."
Neptune clenched her fists. She rarely let someone get her this riled up, but obviously she should have kept her defenses intact when she'd realized it was Venus. They were on different teams for a reason. The Guardian Senshi would never understand what the Outer Senshi went through. No matter what Uranus had told the girl, there was simply no way she could understand it.
"No, you don't. Endymion's generals are after all of you. I bought you time, time to find the others, wake them before it's too late. I'm trying to find out what happened, why they don't want us here. What is it they remember that we don't because they don't have the aura of evil." She watched understanding glimmer through Venus's eyes, but the lack of forgiveness never eased. Neptune would consider the implications of that later, when she wasn't having to face down the particular soldier involved. Currently, she needed Venus to at least not make things harder on her, even if she wasn't able to work with Neptune, at least not to make her life more of a hell than it already was.
"What do you mean, too late?"
The urge to shake the younger woman grew inside her. How did this girl become the leader of Serenity's private retinue? Neptune took a breath, "Their goal is to rid this world of all servants of the Moon Kingdom, but one possible path to that is to have us, you four in particular, resign."
"That won't happen."
"I think it might have already happened with Mars."
Venus shook her head, ignoring Neptune's warning. "I don't want to see you around the Princess's house again. So far as I'm concerned, until she says otherwise, you're a traitor, Neptune, and Uranus and I will treat you as such."
The implication that Venus and Uranus made a closer team than Neptune and Uranus pierced her soul, shredding it on the way through. "Uranus knows the truth, but if that's how you see me, then understand this, Venus: you declared us enemies, I did not."
Neptune took one last look at the Princess's window before heading by way of Tokyo Bay. She needed some time to calm herself, time to cleanse her soul of the pain she felt.