23: "By Jove"
Makoto had barely begun to heal when she got the call to follow her enemy. The monster who identified himself as Gandarewa made his announcement abundantly clear, and at a time and place Makoto was most vulnerable, the shower. She had been trying to make sense of everything underneath a hot spray when the droplets suddenly coalesced and formed a shape right before her eyes. Naked and terrified, she could only step back in fright, covering herself in an ill attempt at modesty. The creature shimmered for a moment as it reveled in this newest humiliation, before issuing its decree. Makoto was asked to be at a certain place at a certain time, and if she were even a moment late, he would visit unspeakable horrors on her loved ones.
"I don't need to remind you not to alert anyone of this meeting, do I? Because it would be absolutely delightful for me if you forgot. Give me reason to drag your husband and children over razors, or hang them by their own entrails, or force them to swallow fire. Give me that opportunity, Mrs. Kino, and I will gladly take it."
She glared with every shred of hatred that she had ever known.
"Or not. All the same, do not be late. Oh, and Mrs. Kino?" Before the droplets became droplets once more, the monster dragged its eyes up and down her naked body, its tongue slithering out perversely. She immediately turned the water off, dried, and dressed, pausing only once, at her private dresser. Pictures of the entire Kino family smiled back at her—and somewhere on that dresser were the images of her other two families. She had been so young when her parents died that those photos were oftentimes the only memory she had left. They, along with the Senshi, grinned back at her, cheering her on, pale shivering lights in the absolute darkness.
She was given five minutes to arrive at a location that was ten minutes away. It was cold, and raining very hard, and quite dark outside, when she bolted from her house onto the streets. She knew exactly where the "meeting" was being held—she had walked by it countless times—but she also knew she must run at full speed if she wanted to make it on time. Thankfully, she had spent a large portion of her decade of retirement keeping herself physically fit, and might even reach her destination with some time to spare. Unfortunately, it would take a massive toll on her body, and she would be weary and breathless when she arrived. No doubt this was part of the monster's plan.
Crossing wet streets in the darkness was the worst part. Some roads were so congested with cars that she was forced to go out of her way to an intersection and wait for a light to change, costing her precious seconds. She was nearly run over a few times during fits of desperation and blindness. The heavy rain clung tight to her clothes; her shoes and stockings were saturated from darting through puddles and ditches; her hair whipped around, getting caught in her face. She paused to check her watch and catch her breath, but ignored her body's searing needs when she realized she had less than a minute to go.
The location was a private runway, of all places. Gandarewa obviously took everything into account and chose the one place Makoto would stray from as a destination point. Even now, more than twenty years after her parents' passing, she still hated airports and airplanes, and could not easily linger at one. Minako's departure had been the last time she visited one, but even then, it took her long minutes to brace herself. Now she found herself heedlessly careening onto it, where she found the glowing pillar of pale blue light. She threw herself at it and tumbled out onto dry, dusty, rocky ground, mere moments before the interdimensional portal closed.
"Good, you are here," came the demon's voice, still soft and calm and overflowing with quiet malice. "And one point oh nine second early. You must make your old sempai so proud—but let's not delay any further, Mrs. Kino. I'll not let you rest, unless you'd like to see your loved ones boiling in their own blood."
"Just tell me where you are and let's get this over with!" she screamed. "What the hell do you want, anyway?!"
"The delight of your company, of course. Come, Mrs. Kino, as quickly as you can. Stop and you will only wish I had killed your family." A pillar of smoke erupted out of the blasted alien wasteland, clearly her beacon. Makoto set herself to putting one foot ahead of the other, trying to catch her breath and stem the throbbing injuries she had received earlier.
Gandarewa's world, if that was where she had been taken, reminded her of the planet Mars a little. It was utterly desolate, not so much as a desiccated shrub or tree dotting the arid landscape. The blasted rocky landscape was reddish in color; the sky was similarly red, but darker and richer, almost like soil. Three or four volcanoes dominated the horizon, one of them active and gurgling. There was actually a stream not far from where she had emerged, but Makoto dared not even look at it. A putrid odor wafted from the black water, and she got the feeling that it was responsible for draining this land of life. The sickening irony made her stomach churn, and she marched on harder than ever, determined to kill this creature if she could.
It wasn't long before Makoto's legendary stamina came to an end, and she collapsed on the ground. Gandarewa's polite voice immediately whistled in the wind, mocking and tormenting her. It goaded her to give up, and offered to fill the land with the shrieks of her loved ones if she so desired. She silenced him by crawling, grabbing clumps of rock-hard dirt as she pulled herself little by little towards the column of smoke. She managed to get a second wind and climbed to her knees, breathless and dirty, the fire in her eyes flickering. None of her previous tribulations were as wretched and Herculean as this.
Makoto summed up the strength to mount a rocky dune, but her energy left her as she toppled over and rolled down the other side, utterly beaten long before the battle. She wanted to go on, for her husband and children, but no amount of anger or spirit could rouse her. She had reached the end, at last, and she could not help but think that, if she had only joined the other Senshi when they asked her, none of this would have happened.
"That's correct," came the voice of her most hated, before a sharp blow crashed against her ribs. Makoto tumbled and clattered helplessly, barely even strong enough to grunt. "Rely on those feelings of yours. Sailor Jupiter could have done so much more. But alas, this is your limit, Mrs. Kino. Now I shall endeavor you to your purpose."
This was the first time she got a good look at the monstrosity. Gandarewa was humanoid, but unusually small, roughly Ami's height. Its body consisted of densely-packed muscle, skin as dark as the depths of the ocean, with barnacles and anemones growing out of it. An eel's head jutted out of its left arm, silently screaming; the heads of countless fish decorated its right arm, opening and closing their mouths stupidly. It had shells and starfish on its shoulders, gills on its neck, and a chillingly bulbous head. Its mouth was filled with teeth but it barely moved when the monster spoke; it had the eyes of a squid, huge and dull. Makoto wished she could think of something uglier she had seen, but was very hard-pressed.
"S…screw you," she coughed, tasting blood. The monster knelt down, idly rocking her back and forth with its chilly hand. It pressed down firmly, crushing flesh and bone, causing her to roar into the dusty ground.
"Your defiance suggests you have forgotten what I am capable of. But let me remind you later. Do you know why I have called you here, Makoto? I don't normally go so far out of my way to torment a single person. I'm usually so…indiscriminate. But your condition is very special." He hit her again so she rolled around, then lifted her by the jaw so that they were eye-to-eye. The stench roiling from the monster's breath made Makoto gag, but she still refused to give in.
"The Apkallu have been a rather obstinate lot for the duration of history, yet there is something about the ones of this era that give them considerable strength. A great number of my fellow Druj have been killed, and this concerns me. Through my channels, I have learned of your affiliation with them. Whether you are Apkallu or merely their confidante is still unclear, but irrelevant. I have brought you here to demonstrate what I am willing to do: not just to you, but to the rest of them, to all of mankind, to the gods, to all of creation itself. I am Gandarewa; I am he who devours creation—even if I must do it one person at a time. And when your body and the bodies of your loved ones are splayed out in the thousands of pieces for the Apkallu to see, then I will have broken them. No victory could ever be surmounted against a foe whose strength is so terrible."
Makoto coughed louder, struggling to stay conscious. She bared her teeth, clenching her fists. "Sounds…like something…cooked up…in a really…bad…manga! I've seen better…plots…in sitcoms!" She coughed again, spitting all over Gandarewa's face. The monster roared, threw her high into the air, leaped up, smashed its fists against her, caught her, and slammed her into the ground, where she lay still. He quickly picked her up again, laying a terrible punch to her face, a knee to the gut, and a cruel slash across her chest and stomach. Clearly he could kill Makoto any time he wished—but they both knew there are fates much worse than death, and he wanted his victim to experience that.
Makoto was forced to stand after so many beatings, bloody and half-blind. Gandarewa gestured, and three stones rose from the lifeless landscape. Motoki, Shinozaki, and Naoko were bound to the stones, bleeding and bruised and barely alive. Rage filled Makoto until Gandarewa purged it from her with a crushing blow.
"Of course, you could always save them and spare yourself this torment. All you have to do is surrender to me. Pledge your undying loyalty to Gandarewa and none of this will have ever happened. Or you may yet see the full measure of my brutality. Even I do not know my own limits. I have never been so…permitted." Still quiet, still calm, still peaceful, Gandarewa bared rows of deadly teeth, not laughing or smiling but certainly reveling in his wicked triumph. Makoto rolled around to face him, caked with blood and grit. Her eyes turned to her husband, her son, her daughter. The family she had never had, finally granted to her.
She spat. "Never."
"Oh, you don't know how happy this makes me feel," he whispered. Gandarewa slowly turned around, gesturing to his prisoners. Black watery tendrils lashed at their bodies, driving her loved ones to indescribably pain. Motoko could take a little punishment but his son and daughter were screaming, wailing, crying for their mother. Makoto found new life and sprang after her enemy, but was struck down before she could even touch him. He stopped suddenly, pulled her up, and stuck his chin out.
"Go on. Do it. Strike me. I want you to be assured of how helpless you truly are."
Makoto summoned everything she had and crashed her fist right in the center of the monster's ugly bulb-head. Wretched torture shot down her arm as it flailed uselessly at her side, all the knuckles surely broken. Gandarewa returned the favor, and Makoto lay flat on the unforgiving surface.
"What say you, Makoto?" it called gently. "Free yourself and those you love, or suffer an undying death? And don't delay, they are miserable over there." The screams of her loved ones tore through her chest into her heart, and Makoto Kino finally understood true defeat. She laid miserable, staring up at the crimson sky, battered and broken. Her hand clutched her heart in sorrow.
"Okay," she whispered, "you win. I surrender."
"I know," it hissed, leaning down to glare at his new acolyte. Makoto's vision fluttered as Gandarewa began to claim her—but then her foot launched itself against his groin.
Gandarewa winced.
Well. That hurt him.
"I wasn't talking to you, idiot!" she snarled. Gandarewa's peace abandoned him, and unblemished rage overwhelmed his demeanor as he lifted his victim off the ground, crushing her throat in his icy hand.
"IMPUDEEEEEEENNNNNNNCCCCCE!" he screamed. "Just for that, you filthy pus-filled pimple, I will devote of my existence to inviting every conceivable horror upon you and every living creature on this miserable world! You die NOW, knowing you have damned everything you have ever known to my greatness! What pathetic attempts at bravado do you have to display for me now, dog?!"
"You…asking…for last…words?" she gargled. "Well…I only…have…three."
Makoto took a deep breath, closing her eyes.
I'm sorry…but I surrender myself to you now. Please use me as you will.
And then shouted to the lifeless heavens, clutching her heart and the talisman she had kept hidden under her clothes, "JUPITER CRYSTAL POWER!"
The blast had such terrifying strength that it knocked back Gandarewa and everything else within four meters. He bounced, crashed, came to a rough start, stood up on shaky legs, utterly stunned by the energetic explosion. It felt like he had been struck by lightning, or kicked square in the chest by the lord of all horses, or buffeted by the storms of Adad. Rage and bewilderment flashed across his face as the dust settled and he beheld what had become of his victim. A crackling surge of electricity flowed around her, tendrils of white-hot heat dancing, humming and buzzing. Beneath her, despite all of his efforts to drain his realm of life, grasses were sprouting, and as she walked towards him, the land turned green at her feet, almost as though her very presence could renew the world.
Of course, without the band that kept her hair tied in her trademark ponytail, Sailor Jupiter looked a little frazzled. Her long auburn mane was flowing in the stiff breeze, dancing snakes writhing around every fiber and strand. She burned white and green and golden and carnation-red, unadulterated hatred and fury manifested and magnified a hundredfold in her blazing eyes. Gandarewa stared in horror at what she had become, screamed wretchedly, and lashed out, evil black rivulets gushing from his arms. Jupiter's neck flexed, her head tilted incrementally, narrowly avoiding the blast. He fired again; she blocked it with her palm, lightning and thunder rumbling, splitting the blast in two. The monster crept back in fright and anger, stammering; Jupiter summoned a disc of sparkling energy, wound back, and hurled it sharply. Gandarewa shrieked and ducked, narrowly avoiding the attack. It fizzled uselessly in the distance.
"HA! What was that?! If that is all the mighty Apkallu can muster, then you are no threat after all! Now writhe in torment, you—"
"Shut up!" she screamed, her body glowing with electric sparks. "I wasn't aiming at you." Gandarewa pursed his ugly lips in bewilderment, jerking around to see what the attack had wrought. A scowl rose from the depths of his belly as he noticed the binds keeping his prisoners secured had been cut, freeing them. Motoki had already limped over to his son and daughter, taking them both in his arms.
"Hey babe, you okay?!" Jupiter shouted. Motoki stared hard at his wife.
"Not yet. I will be once you turn this son of a bitch into a splatter on the ground!"
"With pleasure." Gandarewa turned back to Jupiter, cursing and screaming wildly, flailing his arms as he shot wave after wave of evil energy. Jupiter weathered his attacks, calling forth the rage of the heavens, channeling them into the conduit on her tiara. She compressed, balling everything up before unleashing it into a trembling wave of destruction, striking her hated enemy full-force. The fiend was pushed back against a rocky outcropping, the force so great it eventually cracked and shattered the huge stone. Gandarewa had to focus to free himself, and when he was finally released, his black body sizzled and smoked. Great gasps of hatred and psychotic malice issues from his foaming mouth; his fingers twitched and ached as he called forth all his powers.
"I think you have your permission now," Jupiter called darkly. Gandarewa screamed, lunging a blast three times larger than himself. The landscape trembled and broke as it screamed through the air; Jupiter leaped high, calling on the meager life still clinging stubbornly to the blasted landscape. An updraft lifted her further; a shield of grass blades surrounded her. She fired off another blast of thunder while soaring in mid-air, but Gandarewa deflected it, shooting again in retaliation. Jupiter could not move well in the air and had to brace herself against the attack; it struck her indirectly, sending her crashing to the ground. She hit the surface hard, her left shoulder absorbing most of the damage. Gandarewa was on her in a flash, writhing with retribution.
"Perhaps I shall rip your filthy little head from your ugly little neck and douse your children with your own blood. Or maybe I'll just tear your limbs off and leave you a wriggling, writhing little freak, out here in the middle of nowhere! The possibilities…"
He lifted her up by her weak shoulder, squeezing it hard. Jupiter couldn't prevent herself from screaming in pain, but willed herself not to be taken so easily. She punched; he caught her arm; she thrust her head, crashing her skull against his stubby nose. Her leg shot out again, plowing directly into his abdomen; sparks surged as she regained strength. Gandarewa, a creature of the water, was immediately repulsed, and was forced to let her go.
"You'll…suffer…for that…!" he cringed, foaming and fuming with pain. Jupiter smirked.
"Put it on our tab!"
"Our?" Gandarewa didn't even notice the person sneaking up behind him until it was too late. A heavy blunt object smashed the back of his head, felling him. It struck again and again, merciless and violent, until it broke in two. Motoki stood growling with rage over his tormentor, every scar and bruise flashing with vengeance. His foot immediately went to the monster's throat, stomping over and over, concluding with a vicious kick. Gandarewa regained his senses and leaped away, clutching his head with more hatred than even he dared conceive.
"THIS MUST NOT BE HAPPENING! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT LOWLY MORTALS! YOU ARE AS FLEAS BEFORE THE MOUNTAIN, CHAFF IN THE FIRE! YOU ARE LESS THAN INSIGNIFICANT! PATHETIC! WEAK! TRIFLING! HELPLEEEEEESS!"
"Yeah?" Motoki spat, stretching and flexing his arms. "Well, these helpless mortals just kicked your ass. What does that make you?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH—" The entire world shook as Gandarewa screamed, thrusting his arms into the earth, devoting every shred of his radical powers to his vengeance. The ground quaked open, spewing geysers of vile black filth that surged and flooded the surface. He lifted his arms, imploring the skies to rain down death as thousands of obsidian needles pelted the land. Just for good measure, he called forth the last of his reserves, ejaculating a shockwave of such magnitude that it cleaved a distant volcano completely in two. He wheezed hoarsely, shoulders heaving, teeth bared, eyes wide and pulsating, as the dust settled and empty silence gradually returned.
He looked around. There was nothing left.
"That was it," he murmured to himself, gasping and choking on his subsiding fury. "That was…my limit. I finally bore witness to my full greatness. It was even more beautiful and spectacular than I could have imagined!"
"Wow, really? That was all you had to offer?"
A chill and a fear crawled up his spine as a familiar, ghostly voice called out to him. He dared not imagine…
"Because if that's all you've got, mister…"
He slowly turned around, seeing Sailor Jupiter, her husband, and her children secured inside a dome of electrical and botanical energy. Heartbreak.
"Then you're in trouble!" she grinned, pointing her finger at him. He quickly lashed out, but Motoki caught his arm, pulling him into the energy sphere.
"Anyway, die." Jupiter's fury blasted out, a scorching-hot column of power that passed through Gandarewa's body like a bullet through gelatin, severing his head from his immolated body. The blast slowly subsided; the head bounced along the ground, coming to a sickening stop. The monster's eyes and mouth still twitched in horror and surprise as what little of its life ebbed away.
"Ooh, decapitation!" Motoki purred, giving his wife a kiss. "Nice!"
"Thanks," she giggled. "Wanna finish him off?"
"Hmm, maybe we should let the children handle that. You know, really rub the irony in his face."
"Not a bad idea, hon! May as well start grooming little Nao right now! She's gonna succeed her mommy someday!" Motoki smiled at his daughter, spinning her in the air just as she loved.
"Didja hear that, princess? Your mommy's a superhero, and someday you'll be one, too."
"Soopa hewwo mom?" He laughed and kissed her; Jupiter nuzzled her son. It was then, and only then, did her husband seem to take notice of her transformation.
"Well-well, Sailor Jupiter. My hero. How can we ever thank you for your daring rescue?" He gently kissed her cheek; she blushed and laughed. "Wait, I know," he said, digging through his ruined pockets. He pulled out a familiar pink braid, and with his wife flustered and tittering, gently wound it around her hair, giving her a very distinguished ponytail.
"There," he smiled, "I knew something was missing. Now the look is complete. Did I ever tell you how abundantly sexy you look in that uniform?"
"Motoki!" she squealed, turning hot red, "Don't say things like that in front of the kids!"
"But it's true! You should wear it more often." He winked lewdly, but she knew deep down what he was really implying. Jupiter smiled fondly, embracing him, kissing and crying and sighing with relief.
"I guess…I'm gonna have to make some humble pie, huh?"
"I'm sure that won't be necessary. I'd settle for a perfectly ordinary blueberry pie—and maybe some Makoto a la mode." He swatted her rear end gently, causing her to shriek and grin. The more pressing issue of leaving that blasted hell came up, and for awhile they were stumped. Suddenly, a portal opened not three steps in front of them, and a voice called out to them, broken and distant.
"Leave… Go… You have your freedom. But don't dare believe you have won. Do you think…that I am the worst the Druj have to offer? The Asha, the gods, they all fear…my name… Tremble…at my greatness. Gandarewa is suffering and doom and hopelessness and everlasting darkness to the Asha, yet he is counted among the least of the servants of Ahriman. There is one whom…the gods…abandon all hope. One who…sews an evil…many times greater than mine. The calamity…above all others. Leave this place, you fools…and deliver that message to your friends! I give you your freedom! I curse you with…a far greater doom!"
Sailor Jupiter's fingers snapped, blasting the monster's head into a gooey mess, splattering the ground just as her husband asked. She did not look back until the vortex had completely sealed behind them.
"Sheesh," she whispered, "I hate it when they monologue."
Makoto Kino returned, and collapsed on the ground, blessedly relieved in the middle of a downpour.