Chapter 2
"Mmmm. And you didn't offer to stay and help him eat the cookies?" Minako crooned, making Makoto cringe. She shot the blonde a dirty look.
"Do you actually listen to the things that come out of your mouth?" she asked incredulously. Minako put a hand to her chest, a dramatically wounded expression rolling across her face.
"Of course I do. I am the Goddess of Love and Beauty. I give expert advice. I'm telling you, you missed a golden opportunity Mako-chan. This boy next door is gone for you. Probably taken in by your sweet smile and thoughtful consideration." Minako waved an arm dramatically, arcing it through the air and nearly hitting poor Ami in the head.
Rei smacked the offending appendage away in time, her face a thundercloud aimed like a weapon of destruction in the blonde's direction. "Watch it, you idiot! You almost took out poor Ami! Not all of us are as boy-obsessed as you are!" she snarled. Minako turned large, overly teary eyes in the priestess' direction, cradling her arm and giving a hurt sniff.
"I'm just trying to help Mako-chan land the boy of her dreams! She deserves to be happy!" she keened, voice warbling with unshed tears. Beside her, mouth full of the cake Makoto had brought to their picnic lunch, Usagi nodded sagely.
"Mina-chan is totally right Mako-chan! I bet if you'd asked you'd probably be going on a first date right now!" she agreed enthusiastically. Makoto blushed, even as she tried not to roll her eyes.
"What is with you two? We're not in high school anymore. He's my neighbor. We've never said more than like five words to each other!" she waved her hands, trying to express her exasperation.
Honestly, Hashiba often barely spoke to her. He had a strange habit of giving her a vacant stare and muttering in a voice that was almost too low to hear when she was around. He was cute, but clearly he wasn't remotely interested. And she kind of thought he might be a little lost. She'd given him the cookies because she sort of worried if he was getting any proper nutrition. Or enough sleep. He always looked so glum and worn out.
"The energy signals are getting stronger," Ami said then, mostly to herself. But the result was the same – it was like dumping cold water onto the conversation.
"Any idea what they even mean?" Minako asked gravely, all trace of the goofy blonde matchmaker gone. In her place, the stony determination of Venus regarded Ami gravely. Ami tangled fingers in her bangs, a clear sign of frustration.
"No. I've compared them with last week's attack, but it hasn't given me anything. I feel like we're only just at the beginning of something terrible, but I don't know what," she said quietly. Rei put a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, take it easy. We don't expect you to have all the answers. We'll stay vigilant," Rei reassured her with a soft tone. Makoto nodded in agreement.
They'd all been on edge waiting for Crystal Tokyo – even more so now because it was late. By half a decade at this point.
The minor attack downtown last week combined with some kind of new and menacing energy Mercury had picked up on her computer had them all waiting for the storm to roll in. Was this the Black Moon Clan? They'd defeated them in the past and, Makoto supposed, technically in the future, so how did that even work? Did they come now because this was just part of their timeline?
And speaking of time, the outer senshi had been awfully silent lately. They'd taken their crazy amounts of money and had relocated to Germany – something about Haruka's racing career that had felt like a fat load of crap – and gone radio silent since. Leaving the Guardian Senshi to deal with all these new and unsettling events on their own.
It stung a little. They'd always been distant, but she'd assumed after everything that had happened with Chaos that they'd loosen up a little. Maybe be friends. Or at least, more friendly.
Rei thought it might be because of everything that had happened with Chaos. Underneath it all, the priestess was certain that it had hurt them – badly – after what they'd done under its influence, but Makoto didn't understand why they couldn't just let that be water under the bridge.
"There's been a series of quakes echoing through the time stream."
Makoto grabbed at her chest, attempting to keep her heart behind her ribs as she fell over in shock.
"Don't sneak up on a body like that!" Minako snapped from her spot on the ground. The blonde was rubbing her rear and shooting Setsuna some serious side eye. Rei had crossed her arms, her gaze on the Senshi of time distant and suspicious. Ami was looking at Pluto with dread behind her eyes, pleading with a glance for Pluto not to be a harbinger of doom – just this once.
Usagi jumped up, hugging Setsuna with unmitigated joy.
"Long time no see! What have you been up to?!" she chirped, hanging on Pluto's arm. Annoyance began to filter into Rei's expression, building until she banged the pigtailed woman on the head.
"She doesn't need you hanging all over her Odango-brains! She's a person, not a tree!" the priestess growled. They all turned expectant gazes toward the tall, green-haired woman in the heavy silence that followed.
The stoic Pluto sighed, looking defeated in a rare moment of vulnerability. "I've been waiting. Watching. Early last month, something started causing ripples in the time stream. The ripples gradually began evolving into…quakes. They're obscuring everything, and I've lost my vison of the timestream itself," she admitted reluctantly.
"And you waited until now to tell us this because…?" Minako asked archly, standing and brushing the grass from her skirt. "Don't you think that would have been something we'd need to know immediately?" she added. Rei stood beside her, arms crossed, her expectant gaze on Setsuna's face.
The woman sighed and turned her head, not meeting their eyes. "I had hoped I could determine the answer on my own and put an end to the problem," she said quietly.
"Pretty hard to defend the world from evil if we don't know it's hanging around ,"Rei cut in, a bite in her tone. Usagi looked hurt.
"Why wouldn't you tell us?" she whispered.
Setsuna winced. Even the cool, stoic Guardian of Time wasn't immune to Usagi's baby blues. "My apologies, Princess. I had every intention of coming to you – if I couldn't resolve it on my own," she replied. Makoto clenched her fists, trying to keep her anger in check.
"So you kept important information from us," she growled. "You waited, when we all could have been preparing for whatever this is that's coming for us."
"How much time did you waste trying to 'resolve it on your own'?" Minako snarked, face dead serious, belying even the sarcastic humor. Usagi shot her a pleading look, but Minako ignored it and Makoto agreed with the sentiment. Any time the Outer Senshi withheld things from them it never ended well.
They weren't high schoolers anymore. And not for anything, but the Outer Senshi had never featured in Pluto's visions of the attack on Crystal Tokyo. Makoto had always wondered, in the back of her mind, where they'd been while the Guardian Senshi had been using their literal life energy to keep the heart of the city safe from the assault.
She tried to shake the Black Moon Clan from her mind. This wasn't that. That was the past, even if it was the future too.
Now she'd confused herself.
Setsuna sighed, sounding weary. "I don't really have any other information. I don't know the cause. I don't know the reason. I don't know what's happening, any more than you do. But I'll be sure to keep you updated on any changes, and I expect the same from all of you." She straightened. "Be vigilant," she told them.
And walked off. Just like that. They watched as her figure slowly became distant.
"Man. I figured she'd poof out of here the way she poofed in." Minako said, the levity in her tone forced – an attempt to lighten the mood.
"Or we were so engrossed in what we were doing that we weren't even paying attention while she strolled right up in broad daylight. She's right. We need to be vigilant," Rei said softly. Makoto nodded.
Storms were brewing against the horizon.
And she didn't like the look of them. One bit.