It's you and me Chapter 3, a sailor moon fanfic

"Are we dead yet?"

"You asked that five minutes ago. No."

"I asked yesterday…I think."

Daiki stretched his right leg in front of him and hissed. The bleeding had stopped some time ago, but the smell of infection had gotten worse; he feared to look under the dirty cloth he'd put on the wound and see something nasty; he was going to lose his leg. Of that, he had no doubt. It didn't really matter though, when was going to die soon; a corpse didn't need a leg.

"Or was it the day before? I can't remember." Manami sighed.

They had been in this hellhole for what seemed like a lifetime, still, it was so much better compared to the cage they'd been put into, hung upside down, when they had been captured. "They need us alive," Manami had said, when two beasts had finally pulled them down and out of the cage, and threw them into this hole, "we're their baits."

Daiki had been trained to pay close attention to his surroundings. One of the traits in his bloodline had been just that, sharp eyes, and sharper ears. So, as soon as the beasts had closed and locked the gate to this hole, he'd been on a hunt: was there a way to escape? Was there the slightest, the tiniest peephole that he could use and figure out where they were? It had been days, he didn't know how many, but days since they'd been in here, and he hadn't find a way out.

Manami made a small move, and in the complete darkness of the hole, Daiki could only hear the rustle of her torn clothes and know where she was. She had lost her index and middle left fingers, and none of those beasts had done nothing to help her. "Law of armed conflict my ass." She had mocked, but there'd been pain and fear in her voice too.

"Ne, do you think they know our whereabouts?" Manami coughed.

"of course. The beasts made a huge show of how easily we were captured. It was probably aired in the whole galaxy."

The outcast brigade had been dispatched to find the source of the soul pandemic that had left one third of the earth population paralyzed for weeks, and it had slowly spread throughout the galaxy after that. Scientists and the most renowned doctors on earth had worked around the clock for a month to figure out what had caused the strange illness; the study had been led by the King himself. But then, the illness had spread to other planets and had different side effects on the residence; in the planet of Jupiter, it had killed children under the age of 12, creating a national crisis. The galaxy's leadership had finally launched a full force research, throwing in whatever resources it still had after the war. When the illness had wiped almost the entire nation of Mars, it had suddenly stopped, and no one knew what had happened. One day it had just stopped spreading, and the people who'd been ill started to feel better.

It had been the council's decision to find the root cause of the illness, even when it stopped. "If it happened once, it might happen again." Sailor Uranus had told the brigade. "We want to be proactive and be prepared for what might come next."

And of course, no one had questioned why the outcast brigade had to be the one taking on the mission; it was the sole reason why they were even allowed to exist, to be the safety net and the sacrificing limb for the galaxy.

Since he could remember, Daiki had known that he was different, that he was treated differently. He had never met his folks; his father had died long before he was born, and his mother had died shortly after giving birth to him. What he knew of his ancestors and his bloodline, was taught to him at the school all the outcasts attended. It wasn't until the short reign of the Mercurian dynasty, that they had been allowed to attend a regular school, and for a long time, Daiki wondered if the decision had been adapted for their best interest, to integrate them within the society, or for the interest of everyone else, so they'd know that even though the outcast lived amongst them, the government had them on a leash.

By the time Daiki had turned 14, only 20 outcast children remained on earth. Some of them had died from illnesses no one cared to investigate; some of them had been transferred to other planets, and a few had gone missing; no one ever looked for them. The remaining were housed in a government run establishment, where they ate, studied, and trained. During the period of transitional government, they had been commanded to wear a uniform. A white pair of tunic and pants, with an embroidery on the chest that symbolized the sign of all the most powerful planets in the galaxy, with moon right in the middle; the silver lining of the embroidery shone in the dark. "They want to make sure that we're seen even in the farthest radiance." Hiro used to say.

Even after Queen Serenity and King Endymion sat on the throne, they kept wearing the damn uniform. They heard rumors every now and then of how hard the new monarchs have tried to abolish the uniform. They heard about the countless meetings the new queen and king had had with the council and with their most trusted advisors, to update the laws about the outcast. "It's just all a show," Manami always said, "they want to prove to the nation that the new queen and king are liberals, and they care about everyone's well-being. I call bullshit."

"Do you think they'd do anything to save us?" Manami whispered sleepily, and Daiki hoped that she would be able to sleep for a few hours.

"I don't know." Maybe he should have given her hope; maybe, as the team's leader, he should have been more optimistic. But he had failed his team miserably. He had watched his men and women fall to their deaths one by one; how much optimism and hope could he have?

"Can I tell you something? Don't judge me." Manami yawned and hissed in pain simultaneously.

"I won't."

"I hope they save us. I really don't want to die here." Her voice faded away and a minute later, Daiki heard her snoring.

Daiki's heart went out to his comrade. Manami rarely ever showed her real emotions, in fact, one of the most prominent traits in her bloodline was the ability to stay focus and neutral, and never swayed by feelings. The same trait had turned her ancestors to the most brutal killers in the galaxy. Stories were told about her dynasty's actions during the great war, and how they had stood over mothers, and forced them to watch their children burn. Manami never talked about it, even though she had been under the care of her father until the age of five, when he'd become a fugitive of justice and the state took Manami under its wing. Aside from showing great strength and powerful fighting skills during the war, Manami had never shown anything akin to aggressiveness. Sure, she had regular catfights with other outcasts, but she had never fought with another person, and Daiki suspected that she tried hard to stay under the radar. She had taught herself to be invisible; something that they all had aced throughout their lives.

And now, Daiki wondered if their invisibility in the eyes of their society would cost them their lives.