Chapter 32: Storms of Larissa
March 6, 8983
Haruka smiled as she nibbled on the bitter alyuit fruit, a popular dessert on her world though it was not nearly sweet enough for foreigners to enjoy. Michiru had tried the fruit but had not liked it at all, politely declining to try any other Uranian delicacies. Haruka had sampled Venusian, Neptunian, and Lunarian desserts but found most of them too overpowering for her palate. Shousha had watched the newlyweds intensely for the first half of the meal, but as they moved into the third and fourth courses she had begun to pay more attention to her sister queens and allowed herself to ignore the young princesses. Rei, who was only partly listening to the story Minako was relating to Endymion, met Haruka's eyes across the table, dark purple questioning brilliant green. In the back of her mind she felt a pressure followed by a rush of fire and a short series of words in the most common Martian dialect.
It is almost time.
How are you doing that? Haruka's instinctive response to the mental communication was wild, lacking the precise control that Rei had learned over the years, but the fire senshi heard her.
This is the link Reiko forged between the senshi of her time. This is the link you need to complete your plan. Every time Rei spoke, Haruka could feel a brush of fire along her spine, a somewhat more uncomfortable sensation than the cool rushing ocean that filled her when Michiru spoke. She wondered what it felt like when Minako spoke to Rei.
A soft chuckle in the back of her mind reminded her that she was still speaking with the Martian princess. Light. It was blinding at first, but now that we are more in synch it's more like the first blush of the sun at dawn.
Haruka snorted, smiling when her wife looked up at the noise. Does that mean yours won't feel like a raging wildfire forever?
Only if you can tone down the hurricane-force winds and learn to either project clear images or stop speaking that muddled Sol Standard/High Mirandan that you apparently think in.
Ruka?
Haruka turned her attention back to her wife, smiling as she kissed the Neptunian's hand. She felt Rei's fire fade from the back of her mind, leaving the Uranian in peace with her wife. Rei wants us to take our leave of your mother's party.
We can't leave until she does. It's Neptunian custom that the highest ranked noble must leave the party first or we will risk a major planetary incident. The last thing we need is for my people to think their future king is socially inept.
Their future king is a queen, Haruka returned, turning her eyes back to her plate and the last of her dessert. Do you hear me speaking in Mirandan?
No. I just . . . know what you are saying. It's more like images and feelings.
Haruka nodded, glad that there was something different about the bond she shared with her wife and the one she shared with the other senshi.
Suddenly, the movement so unexpected that the table lapsed into an awkward silence, Shousha stood from her chair, smiling across the ten dining tables as she raised her arms. "I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for coming to my daughter's birthday celebration and welcoming her new husband into the Neptunian Royal Court. My fellow queens and I have not spent much time together over the past two decades so we will retire for now. I leave you in the capable care of my daughter." Shousha stepped away from the table, smiling as the other nobles stood and bowed as she led the queens out of the dining hall.
Michiru smiled as all attention turned toward her, reaching out and taking Haruka's hand. "My mother was most kind to leave you in my care, but I must admit that I must now, regrettably, take my leave of you, as well. I have a few things to discuss with my fellow senshi before my partner and I . . . retire for the night." Neptunians were incredibly polite and reserved, but their fellows from the other planets were not. As the princesses filed out of the hall, Serenity and Endymion safe within their group, cheers and whistles followed them into the silence of the hallways.
Michiru led the group to her wing of the palace, past the opulent quarters that had been assigned to the royal families and toward her own chambers. She led them into her spacious and rarely used sitting room, waiting until everyone was seated before joining Haruka on the small couch at the head of the circle. Endymion, still not accustomed to being included in the senshi gatherings, sat with one arm around Serenity and watched the proceedings with interest.
"Haruka . . . tell us what we need to do."
The blonde sighed and ran her long fingers through her messy blonde hair, unfastening her heavily embroidered outer tunic and dropping it on the nearest table. "Our past selves had a link, a bond that they could feel across the solar system, a bond that let them share their strongest feelings. That bond, along with the bond with their gods, let the senshi break their planet crystals with nothing more than the intensity of their gods' shared grief. We have to do the opposite."
"We don't have the bond they shared," Ami pointed out, glancing at her Amazon partner. "I mean, I can feel what Makoto feels sometimes, but we can't control it. We can speak to each other telepathically, but I don't do it often."
"The thing is," Rei murmured, amethyst eyes glowing like coals as she met Haruka's eyes once more; "we have done it before. Do you remember Sunrise Bay?" Makoto's chuckle, combined with the blushes on the faces of their shyer senshi sisters, indicated that everyone did. "That's what we have to do again. We need that storm. At the height of our power, at the height of our ecstasy, we will reach for our gods and force them to feel what we feel. That should solidify our bonds with each other and with them and give us the power to unlock the planet crystals."
"We can't do it here," Minako announced, playing with one of her bracelets. "What we did on Venus . . . it only worked because we were alone. If we try to do it here, the very presence of the queens will prevent us from unleashing our full power. We have to be alone, away from them, or Setsuna will know instantly what we are attempting."
". . . and you must be in that small castle on Larissa on the night of Michiru's birthday," Haruka whispered, repeating the words Uranus said to her the day of the council meeting on Titan. "She knew. We have to go to Larissa; it is the only nearby unoccupied moon and the only place we can go without using our own powers and alerting the queens that we have left the palace."
"Who told you that? And how can we get there without our powers?"
"Uranus told her," Michiru whispered, remembering what she had seen in Haruka's memory that day. "And we will go there the same way we went from the Moon to the Earth. There's a transporter in this wing of the palace that will take us directly to the castle on Larissa at the edge of the Coral Sea. There are plenty of rooms there, even though I never had a chance to show them to you, and we will all have plenty of privacy."
"How do we get there?"
"This is my wing of the palace, Makoto. My servants and guards will look the other way as I lead you to the transporter. They always have."
The senshi nodded as they accepted the plan, none of them feeling ready to unlock their planet crystals but all of them willing to try. "Minako and Rei will lead Serenity and Endymion to Serenity's chambers then retire to their own to change out of their ball gowns into something more suitable for leaving the palace. Makoto and Ami will return to their chambers for the same purpose, then you will all return here in about twenty minutes." Haruka turned the full force of her blazing emerald gaze on the only man in their midst, a hint of threat in her tone. "We are entrusting our princess into your care for the night. We cannot protect her while we attempt to complete this mission, and we do expect you to remember that she is fourteen." There was no disguising the threat evident in her words, and the young prince gulped in fear. He understood the message.
Serenity smiled as she stood from the couch, stepping closer to Haruka and taking the Uranian's hand. "He knows that I'm not ready yet, Haruka. He loves me and he would never take advantage of me like that."
"The customs on Earth are different than ours," Haruka murmured, letting her eyes meet Serenity's light blue ones. "On Earth, women are married off as soon as they are old enough to have children, but in the Silver Millennium we protect our daughters for far longer. I want him to understand the consequences of trying to be with you before we think you're completely ready."
"I love you, my senshi," the princess whispered, standing on her toes and giving the blonde a chaste kiss on her cheek. "Thank you for always protecting me."
"We always will," Minako promised, stepping forward with the three other Inner Senshi to take their princess back to her rooms. Endymion joined them, meeting Haruka's eyes one last time before the door closed behind them, smiling with a warrior's respect at her words. The blonde tilted her head to the side in an approximation of a bow, accepting the Earth prince into their circle at last.
Setsuna appeared before the double doors that led to Shousha's private meeting room, garnet eyes still pained. She felt like she had lost both a brother and a lover in the same instant, but she could no more undo her words to Tranquility than she could change her feelings toward his sister and her own mortal lover. She had loved Serenity with a god's unending devotion, but she was more mortal now than she cared to admit, and she loved her queen with every shattered part of her own soul. She had finally been able to let her first love go, and she hoped that the golden god could follow her example.
She raised her hand and gestured for one of the guards standing beside the doors to let her in, knowing that they would have been told of her eventual visit. The servant on the right, his eyes never meeting the queen's directly, opened his door halfway, admitting Setsuna before closing it behind her.
Shousha and the other queens lounged around an ornate blue marble table, drinks and candies covering its polished surface. Rikuriko looked up first, smiling at the dark queen as she scooted closer to Asakaze to make room on their wide couch. "How was your meeting with Aphrodite?"
Setsuna sank into the couch, all eyes on her as she sighed and leaned back. "She, Psyche, and Artemis wanted me to help find the reason for the sudden disappearance of the Cupids across the system. I managed to contact Tranquility and he says that the Cupids are still looking for the source of the darkness in the Time Knot. They've gone into seclusion to train in an effort to increase their power so they can find it."
"Where are they training?"
Setsuna shrugged, mentally berating herself for the mortal habit. "He was on Earth with one of his new priestesses, but he did not specifically say that the Cupids were there."
"Is this anything we should be concerned about?"
Setsuna shook her head, smiling in gratitude as Asakaze handed her a flute of Black Hole from the filled glasses waiting on the table. "I do not think there is anything to worry about. Tranquility is determined to find Serenity, but I there is no indication that he or his Cupids are a threat. How was the banquet?" Asakaze, who had asked the question a moment earlier, smirked at the dark queen's obviously forced change of subject.
Shousha seemed willing to let it pass, however. "It was a wonderful event. I'm just sorry that you could not be there. Michiru charmed the entire court and her new husband was quite reserved for a Uranian. If I hadn't seen him challenge me that day that Michiru was dying, I wouldn't believe that he was a relative of Kazeko and Hikari."
"Michiru was dying?"
Shousha nodded. "You told me . . . you told me that I needed to hand over the henshin stick before something happened to her, but I didn't listen. I was on Oberon for Kazeko's remembrance when she managed to force that vision and Rukaze sent me a message that she was dying. It was the first time in two decades that I was able to transform into Sailor Neptune. I teleported home and Rukaze shamed me into handing over the henshin stick, which brought Michiru out of her coma. If it wasn't for him, my daughter would be dead."
"I want to meet him more than ever now," Setsuna murmured, garnet eyes boring into the dark liquid in her glass.
Haruka stalked down the darkened hall, five senshi following in her wake. Michiru's ladies-in-waiting had managed to have the guards reassigned from the princess's wing for a few hours, giving the senshi the time they needed to get to Larissa. The group entered the transporter chamber without a problem, holding hands as they dematerialized, each of them needing some sort of confirmation that they were not alone in their trepidation.
They appeared in the huge main hall of the Larissa castle, the piano near the wall cloaked in darkness as stars peered in through the blue glass windows. Two nearby shepherd moons were visible above the Coral Sea, all of the senshi taking a moment to admire the beauty outside before turning to face Michiru and Haruka.
"Makoto and Ami, you have the top floor in the west tower, and Rei and Minako will take the east one. Ruka and I have chambers on the second floor in the main wing. We should be far enough away from each other that we don't risk our powers clashing while we attempt this."
"And far enough away that I don't have to hear Rei screaming," Makoto quipped, grinning at the outrage on the fire senshi's face. "What? You know you're loud!"
"Not as loud as Michiru, I can assure you," Haruka chuckled, ignoring her wife's flashing blue eyes. "On that beach at Sunrise Bay, she could have beaten all of you."
"Haruka!"
The blonde Uranian turned to her partner, smiling as she raised Michiru's hand to her lips and kissed it apologetically. "They're going to be too far away to hear you, aren't they?"
"It's a big castle," Michiru demurred, refusing to answer the question directly despite the blush on her cheeks that confirmed her wife's hypothesis.
"What about our powers? What effect will they have on the castle itself?"
"There shouldn't be any damage to the castle itself, Ami, though I can't speak for the resistance of the furniture. Do try to not completely destroy your room."
Rei bristled as all eyed turned toward her, knowing that her powers were the most likely to cause permanent damage to Michiru's retreat but unwilling to allow herself to be the center of attention. "Lightning and winds can destroy just as quickly as fire," she pointed out, taking Minako's hand and heading for the east stairs. "And please try not to flood the lower levels of the palace or we'll be stuck here for days."
Makoto led her lover in the opposite direction, Haruka following Michiru to the stairs in the back of the main hall that led to a bedroom she had yet to see. The sea senshi was silent as they walked, lost in her own turbulent thoughts, but the Uranian was strangely calm. For the first time since she watched Rei's battle with Rikuriko on Mars, Haruka could see the end of their journey. She was ready to wake the planet crystals and set in motion the events that would save the Silver Millennium, and she was no longer worried that they could not do it or that they would be discovered by Shousha before they could complete their mission.
Michiru glanced up at Haruka as she led the blonde into a modest suite, a small vanity against one wall and a huge curtained bed against the other. It looked well-kept, which meant that Michiru's servants regularly visited the small castle, but the siren herself had not slept there in some time. Haruka walked forward and ran her long fingers over the soft, cushioned seafoam blanket and silky pale blue sheets, taking a moment to admire the delicate embroidery along the edges of the blanket that matched the patterns on the gauzy curtains. "You truly believe that this will work." Michiru did not phrase the words as a question, but it was clear that she still entertained doubts.
"Uranus told me that it would," Haruka replied, not quite answering the question. "This is the end of our quest, one way or another, and I doubt the Universe would let us get so far just to deny us at the last." She felt a whisper of fire in the back of her mind and she shuddered, still not used to hearing anyone's thoughts except Michiru's. "It feels like Rei is starting." Her wife shivered at the strange feeling of the growing link that the Martian senshi was forming between the six princesses, reaching out and taking Haruka's hand as a way to fight the strange burning along her synapses.
"Does it always feel like this when she speaks telepathically?"
Haruka nodded, wrapping her arm around Michiru's shoulders and pulling her to the bed. "Just add your own power into the link and it will help to dull hers." Michiru sensed Haruka's wind wrap around Rei's fire in the multi-senshi link, followed by Ami's ice and Makoto's lightning. Michiru's sea and Minako's light were last, but their contributions finally dulled the raging fire in the Neptunian's mind. With the link reduced to a hissing whisper in the back of her mind, Haruka could concentrate on her wife at last. "Rei and Minako will force Aphrodite to lose control of her powers, and every god including Zeus and Poseidon should succumb to her lust. Uranus, though, is too old and too powerful a god to fall prey to Aphrodite's hormones, so I have to be ready to push her as soon as the rest of the gods are over the edge."
"Are you going to be able to do it?" Michiru slipped out of her dress and helped Haruka remove her jacket and tunic, unbinding her breasts and removing her pants.
"Yes," Haruka replied, her voice confident and strong. "I have to be."
Minako gasped as Rei's hand danced across her breasts, the fire in her lover's touch matched by the one beginning to consume her. She felt her own senshi powers rise to meet her partner's, but she forced the light back, letting it grow inside her. "I'm not sure . . . I'm not sure about this."
"Just hold it until you can't anymore," Rei whispered, amethyst eyes glowing in the dim lights of the room. Fire danced along her arms as she slipped the last of Minako's undergarments off and tossed them on the floor. "Just think about that instant when you realized Aphrodite was standing in front of you, that joy you felt to see your god."
"I'm trying," the blonde gasped, her own blue eyes closed against the pleasure Rei was giving her. The Martian had barely touched her, just removed her clothes and guided her to the bed, but the anticipation was nearly enough to make her lose control.
Rei climbed up beside her partner, cooling her own fire as she reached for the other senshi with her mind, beginning the process of forming a tenuous bond between the six princesses. She waited until the other five princesses joined the link before running her fingers through Minako's silky golden hair. "Think about the battle on Mars, then. Think about that instant when you realized Mother was going to kill me and your soul screamed. Remember that first rush of power when you changed into Sailor Venus and stopped her."
Minako nodded as Rei leaned down and gently bit the side of her breast, raising her hands and running her fingers through her partner's fiery hair. "I will never let anyone hurt you, my love."
"And I'll never let your goddess touch you again," the Martian growled, her possessive fury flashing across their link. The light glowing inside Minako began to pulse, reaching out into the divine plane as it searched for the bond every senshi shared with her god. "You're almost there, my love. You need to push her."
Aphrodite chuckled as she sipped her drink, blue eyes dancing in the starlight blanketing Mount Olympus. "You should have visited Antares with me. You would have loved it there, especially their intriguing fashions."
"Possibly, but I'm not much for parties," Ares replied, leaning against a nearby column as he watched the blonde goddess. The marbled courtyard, a small covered cluster of benches that overlooked Artemis's valley, was one of Aphrodite's favorite places to relax at night. Ares had offered to keep her company after she, Psyche, and Artemis returned from their visit to Neptune. None of them would speak about what happened there, but Ares could sense the residue of Se's power on his lover. Deciding that there was no reason to be subtle, the god of war stepped forward with one hand resting on his sword. "What happened earlier?"
"With what?"
"Aph, don't play with me. I know you were with Se."
The blonde sighed and placed her glass on the bench, standing up to face the taller god. "We lost track of Tranquility, so we went to Setsuna and had her call him."
"It's unusual for our cousin to visit Olympus during her mortal lives."
"It was an emergency . . ." Aphrodite trailed off as she felt a strange warmth on her skin, a kind of prickling light dancing up her arms and across her chest. Her eyes darkened from a pale blue to a nearly sapphire shade as she began to glow a vibrant pink.
"Aph?"
She turned to Ares, a predatory smile spreading across her face as she rose to her full height. The god of war took a step back as Aphrodite's light reached for him, tendrils winding around his arms and pulling him closer. She reached for the straps of her gauzy dress and slipped them off her shoulders, the shimmering fabric pooling at her feet as she walked toward her current and most frequent lover. The God of War froze as the slender blonde goddess reached for him, desperate to maintain control of the situation despite his rapidly growing lust. She smiled and reached for his black leather tunic, loosening the straps and tossing it to the ground.
"Aph, what are you doing?" He cursed the tremor in his voice, hating any weakness in himself or his followers, but at the moment he wanted nothing more than to flee the tiny woman and hide behind the nearest planet.
"I should think that would be quite obvious," the blonde purred, running her pink-tinted nails down the war god's sculpted chest. It was very, very rare for the goddess of love to lose control of her powers, but when she did the entire pantheon responded in kind.
"What's come over you? I haven't seen you like this in millennia."
"Ares, shut up and kiss me."
Poseidon glared at his monitors, waving his hand at a particularly bad tidal surge on Jupiter, calming the sea before it caused any major damages to the tree-lined village on the shore. Jovians tended to pray to him more than any other non-Neptunian people, the interaction of their moons with their planet causing some of the most violent tidal waves in the Silver Millennium, and Poseidon was perfectly happy to give them a little extra attention. Certain that Jupiter would be fine for a while, the god turned away from his screen and headed for his throne, wondering where his wife had gone.
Later, when he spoke to Aphrodite and asked her what had happened on Olympus that night, he realized that there was no warning. One moment he was walking toward his throne and the next he was standing in front of his wife in their chambers, kissing her like he had been away from her for months instead of an hour. Amphitrite responded to his sudden passion as ardently as she had on their wedding night, removing her dress and his tunic before pulling her husband toward their bed. She never paused as she pushed him onto his back, leaning over him as he arched up into her, never noticing the pink power swirling around them and fueling their lust.
Thunder split the heavens of Olympus as Zeus and Hera coupled for the first time in centuries, godlings and the lesser Olympians pairing up throughout their realm. Hermes entered Athena's temple without a stitch of clothing on, his curly blonde hair still damp from his morning bath as he searched for the goddess of war. Her owl watched in silence as pink light filled the chamber, pulsing as the gods coupled beneath the stars.
"It's working," Ami whispered, hissing as Makoto bit her nipple a little harder than she was used to. "I can feel Hermes in the back of my mind for the first time. He's with . . . Mako I can't think when you do that." Her partner chuckled against her stomach as the genius let herself fall deeper into her bond with her god. "He's begun to couple with Athena. I can touch her mind, Mako . . ."
"Don't get lost in your god's lover's thoughts," the Jovian warned as she raised her head, the Mercurian whining at the loss of contact. The green-haired woman purred against Ami's thigh, emerald eyes glowing as she felt her connection with Zeus expand as he coupled with Hera. "This is certainly the oddest feeling ever." Despite her warning to Ami a moment earlier, Makoto could feel both Hera and Zeus within her mind as her powers strengthened in preparation for the storm Haruka had planned.
"It feels right," Ami whispered, pulling Makoto up to kiss her, surprisingly strong for her petite size. "I can feel this new, very fiery bond in the back of my mind that is growing stronger the more Hermes couples with Athena. Can you feel it?"
Makoto nodded as she reached for her god again, pushing him deeper into his lust as Haruka had instructed her to do. "Yes. And now . . . there's a strange bright light mixed in with it."
"Our turn, then," the Mercurian whispered, struggling to join the link that the other senshi were slowly forming. Haruka's instructions had been very clear, but it was getting hard to remember what she was supposed to do with Makoto's hands dancing across her skin. She called on every ounce of self-control her Mercurian ancestry could provide to focus her mind, ignoring Makoto's physical touch and Hermes's mental one, calling on her powers and pushing them into the sleeping moon underneath her. She felt a brief, hard resistance as the moon fought the unwelcome infusion of senshi magicks, but a rush of static electricity filled the room as Makoto added her power to the mix and forced the moon to accept their enhanced power. At the same time, the two of them pressed on the links they shared with their gods, trying to break down the last walls their sleeping planets had built between the inhabitants of Olympus and their mortal charges.
Haruka cupped Michiru's breast in one hand, rubbing her palm against one nipple as her wife gasped. Michiru raised her hips against Haruka's other arm, desperate for some sort of friction, but the blonde knew that her partner needed more than a quick release. She ignored her siren's needy whimpers as she leaned down to kiss her belly-button, grinning as Michiru's belly twitched at every feather-light touch. Staring at the lightly tanned skin beneath her lips, Haruka felt her heart swell with love and a need so intense that it almost hurt. She could never stand to be separated from her wife and she loved her more than a Uranian would ever admit to. The strength of the emotion almost overwhelmed Haruka, and she raised her gold-emerald eyes to meet Michiru's lust-clouded sapphire, needing to convey her feelings but not entirely sure how.
Michiru, as always, understood without the need for words. Reaching out and tenderly running her fingers through Haruka's hopelessly-messy blonde locks, the Neptunian smiled at her partner. "I know, my only love. I always know." She bucked her hips again, a gentle reminder to her Uranian partner that there was a purpose to their coupling, and Haruka lowered her lips to Michiru's breasts.
Haruka kissed her way back down Michiru's body, reaching her core and slipping her tongue inside, sensing her wife's shock at how quickly she had moved from teasing to pleasure. The sea senshi felt her powers grow, responding to her emotions and to the distress from the moon beneath their feet. Since the other senshi had started first, their powers had irritated the small satellite to the point where it demanded that its senshi protect it from the unnatural elemental onslaught. Opening herself to the life force of Neptune and pulling on the growing link she shared with Poseidon, Michiru poured her power into the moon, listening to the waves beneath the castle slam against the cliff. As Poseidon and Amphitrite coupled, the power flowing from the gods grew, filling the senshi of their world beyond what she could safely contain. Haruka added her wind to the mix, turning the angry sea into a hurricane, Makoto's lightning striking the castle roof as icy rain pounded against the windows. Fire and light chased each other through the clouds and along the ground, somehow avoiding the castle as it coiled around the lightning and danced across the sea. The senshi turned themselves into conduits, taking the power their gods were emitting and sending it into the small moon, knowing that its intense resistance to their elements would help awaken its planet and the other six slumbering solar satellites.
The released elements, feeding on the life force of Larissa, sensed a stronger satellite nearby and reached for it through the link Michiru had formed with Neptune. The gas giant welcomed the power, having been too long without a direct connection with its senshi, and the blue-green clouds of methane that comprised its atmosphere swirled violently as the planet stirred in its sleep. Encouraged by the welcome received on the eighth planet, the wild elements grabbed for Triton, copying the strange storm onto Neptune's largest moon, growing as the senshi's passions flared.
Shousha stood from her couch, gliding to the window and peering out at the violent storm pounding on the side of her palace. Moments earlier, the night sky had been mostly clear with only a few wispy clouds obscuring the other moons and the stars, but it had quickly devolved into an elemental onslaught not often seen among the Outer Planets. "How odd. I did not know we had a thunderstorm scheduled for tonight."
Asakaze exchanged a charged look with Rikuriko, Meika, and Amami. They knew that their children had caused the sudden hurricane and that Shousha could not be allowed to know the true reason for the elemental upheaval until the senshi finished whatever they were doing. The blonde, still recognized as the leader of the planetary queens, rose to her feet and joined Shousha at the window, shrugging as she gently pulled the Neptunian away. "Certainly you have these freak storms just as we do on Venus, usually during a system update. We had a very strange hurricane over Sunrise Bay within the last few weeks, and there was never an explanation for it in the weather control software."
"Really?" Amami joined Shousha and Asakaze at the window, scrunching her nose in distaste as she closed the curtains. Thankfully, the other queens knew that she disliked storms and would never question her actions. Hopefully Shousha had not noticed the fire and light dancing through the dark clouds, elements that would certainly betray the senshi involvement in the storm. "I must have a team of technicians look into your weather control grid. It's the Hermes 6100, correct?"
"Mine is," Asakaze replied, understanding instantly where her partner queen intended to take the conversation. "Shousha, you have the 6800, don't you?"
"Yes," the queen replied, returning to her couch and taking the wine Yumemi offered her. "The 6100 did not have the extra solar controls that I needed so far from the sun. Kazeko had to have her 6800 completely refurbished twenty-five years ago due to an odd glitch that prevented it from controlling sandstorms."
"I remember," Amami replied absently. "You don't have that problem, however. I will send some techs out to look at yours, as well, Shousha. We don't even manufacture parts for the six-thousand series anymore; it might be time for you to upgrade to the Hermes 9200 Elite Weather Control System that Setsuna uses on Pluto."
The dark queen chuckled and sipped her liquor. "I swear I didn't need the upgrade, but your husband became quite the salesman after your wedding."
Amami smiled and played with the fruit candy in the dish on the table. As the queens' conversation turned to more mundane memories from their youth, Asakaze glanced at the covered window and the storm raging outside and wondered what the senshi were up to.
Uranus stood at the edge of Artemis's Moon Temple, staring down into the forests blanketing Olympus's flanks, wondering what her lover had chosen to hunt that night. The ancient goddess could sense the residue of Se's presence in the temple and she knew that only the huntress could have brought the senshi to Olympus, though there was no telling why. The wind, which had been a gentle whisper against her skin for most of the Olympian night, suddenly began to gust, pulling at Uranus's golden dress and burning her senses. Narrowing her golden eyes at her rambunctious element, she reached out to calm the air, shocked to find that her powers were being overridden by something else. Correct that, by someone else. As she tried to touch the mind of the woman riling the wind, a blush of heat passed through her, a soft hum vibrating along her bones. Shocked, Uranus glanced out at the temples hugging the lower peaks of Olympus and the ones nestled in the dark forests below the ancient mountain, staring in disbelief at the pink light glowing from Aphrodite's temple and swirling through the trees, reaching for every shrine and building and the unsuspecting gods within.
Uranus had not seen Aphrodite lose control of her powers in more than a thousand years, and never without any sort of provocation. As a Titan, Uranus was immune to the love goddess's lust spell, but it still prickled along the edge of her senses as nearly all of her fellow gods succumbed to the siren's call. Determined to stop the uncontrolled goddess, Uranus raised her hand in preparation to teleport, freezing as a mind brushed against hers. She recognized Haruka's thoughts instantly, wondering why the young senshi was trying to contact her in the middle of the night. She reached back, trying to pinpoint her senshi, recoiling and trying to close her mind as the link between them flared and Haruka's lust slammed against her. She recognized the mind as the one controlling the wind, allowing herself a moment to be amazed that Haruka had enough power to reach Olympus at such a young age. Uranus grunted and fell to the ground as her senshi pushed harder, the power of the entire lust-lost pantheon behind her untrained mind.
The goddess of wind abruptly realized why the gods had been encouraged into this near-orgy across Olympus. Haruka needed their unwitting help and unleashed power to open their link completely, to force Uranus to feel everything she was feeling, even as Nao had been able to. For a moment, Uranus wanted to resist, to keep their bond superficial, but she had missed that closeness with her senshi over the past three thousand years and Haruka carried her daughter's soul, even as Nao had. Closing her eyes, Uranus dropped all of her carefully-constructed defenses and opened her mind, resisting the urge to scream as Haruka's mind joined with hers at last. Everything her senshi had experienced in her short life filled the god's mind, briefly reminding the ancient deity why she rarely let a mortal touch her soul. The memories of the other senshi bled through in bits and pieces, though only a few moments from Michiru's time with Haruka were clear enough for the god to catch. Haruka's lust filled Uranus, a lust far stronger than Aphrodite's power had engendered in the gods, a lust fueled by the desperate power of mortality. Tired of resisting, she found herself responding in kind, more strongly than the younger non-Titan gods, and she called for Artemis through the winds.
The silvery huntress appeared before her lover, eyes wide with the thrill of her recent hunt, her bow in one hand and a long knife in the other, splatters of blood on her white tunic and skirt. She let her wild silvery-blue eyes meet Uranus's glowing gold ones, recognizing the need in her lover's gaze. She dropped her bow and knife, releasing her quiver from her back before dropping her dress and pulling the taller god to her feet. Uranus removed her clothing, as well, grateful that her lover was willing to respond to her need without asking why. The Goddess of the Winds was convinced that Haruka needed her to give in to the lust, though she could not fathom why. Following her huntress to a nearby low couch, Uranus was all too happy to surrender.
The Mercurians had invented the weather control devices used throughout the solar system, so of course the one on their planet was the most advanced and well-kept of the hundreds of systems they had created. They never expected it to fail, and yet a storm ravaged their capital city as thousands of people scrambled for shelter from the rain, sleet, wind, lightning, light, and fire that had suddenly begun to assault their small world. The communications grid had been knocked out of alignment, preventing them from calling their queen or any of the royals who had attended Michiru's party. Huddled in their homes, they prayed that the storm would tire itself out soon.
Storms filled the Venusian domes and the people watched in silent understanding as a very familiar thunderstorm raged over Sunrise Bay. The Martians, both on the planet itself and on the twin moons, ignored the storm out of principle. They would not acknowledge any enemy they did not intend to fight, and one could not fight a natural phenomenon. They were curious, however, and the communication traffic between the three celestial bodies centered around the fire-laced thunderstorm. They knew that their princess, their beloved senshi, had to be involved, though they had never seen Sailor Mars create such a storm before.
Jovians on all of their moons climbed their trees in order to get closer to the storm, thanking Zeus for the lightning and reveling in the turmoil of the elements. They were never upset at the workings of their moons, worshipping nature in any and all forms, even the most unpredictable and violent. They were excited to see new and unexplained weather patterns, though they intended to ask their senshi for an explanation when she returned.
Saturnians watched in uncomplaining silence as the sky exploded above them, though conversations flying between the moons did wonder at the simultaneous storms. Freak storms were not unknown to them, especially since their world had no patron god and rarely had an active senshi, but there had never been fire in the skies of their moons before and the gas clouds on Saturn had never been that color in their history. Not for the first time since the founding of their kingdom, the people of the sixth planet wished they had a deity of their own, one to whom they could pray to for answers.
The gases that composed Uranus's thick atmosphere began to glow with a brilliant golden radiance, the rocky chunks that composed its diminutive rings glowing with a blue light that shifted from navy to aqua and back. Sandstorms rushed across the surfaces of the inhabited moons, whispering through the streets and screaming against the cliffs as the people celebrated the Goddess's power. The dark clouds overhead only managed a few token sheets of icy rain before the heat of the summer dried the moisture, leaving behind the lightning and fire and the howling of the wind.
The planets began to stir in their sleep, shaking off thousands of years of chains, the worlds desperate to reconnect with their senshi partners. If they managed to break free, if the senshi could pull enough power from their gods to reverse what Nao had done, they would never return to that powerless state of slumber.
Sitting with the queens in the palace on Triton, Setsuna grunted uncomfortably, not sure what was tickling the edge of her senses but determined to find out. She could hear the echoes of a whisper at the edge of her consciousness, and her planet was fidgeting in the back of her mind. Curious, she reached out and touched Pluto, hoping to figure out what was bothering her planet so much.
Haruka gasped as she was suddenly one with Uranus, feeling Artemis beneath her even as she brought Michiru to a screaming orgasm. The combination of Uranus's lust and Michiru's rush of pleasure pushed Haruka over the edge, golden light cloaking her form. The planet crystals on the table, each sitting beside a keystone, began to glow and sing as aqua light surrounded Michiru, prolonging her orgasm beyond what she would normally experience. The crystals sang louder as the storm outside screamed, each of the planet crystals in the other rooms responding in kind. Haruka shuddered at the echoed pleasure coursing through her, no longer able to tell where Uranus ended and she began, eyes locked with Michiru, knowing that her lover had fully linked to her god, as well.
The power swirling around Haruka suddenly shifted, moving from the Uranian into her lover, exploding in a shower of gold and aqua light as the storm outside suddenly stopped. The six planets cried out at that instant, glowing with the colors of their senshi as a shockwave of multicolored light exploded from each of them and spread toward the outer edge of the solar system. The two women collapsed, their bodies unable to maintain consciousness after sustaining an extended orgasm, and neither one noticed the light glowing in the hearts of the two planet crystals.
Rei fell to the floor in shock, holding a hand over her heart as she struggled to understand what had just happened. She and Minako had been resting for a just a moment from the stress of pushing Aphrodite to lose control when Haruka finally connected with her goddess. At that moment, as light blossomed in the hearts of their planet crystals, Rei had seen Aphrodite in Minako's blue eyes, and she knew that Ares looked out from her own. No matter what had happened or how, Rei knew that her planet was now awake, whispering in her mind for the first time in thousands of years. Mars was singing with joy, its light pulsing in the red heart of the Fire Dust Crystal. She reached for the glowing stone, amazed to find it warm in her palm as Minako pushed herself into a sitting position and reached for her own regenerated Heart Shock Crystal.
"We did it," Minako whispered, staring at her glowing stone. "And I can hear more than just Venus in my mind. I can sense Aphrodite now even though I was only barely aware of her before. And I can hear the others . . . Ami and Makoto."
"I think Haruka and Michiru passed out," the Martian replied with a grin, rejoining her lover on their bed. "The storm has ended, too."
The two women realized the problem at the same instant, jumping off the bed and grabbing for their clothes. The queens had to know what the senshi had done, and they were most certainly coming.
AN: I am both alive and still writing. I've edited this chapter probably fifty times, but I think it's time for everything to come out in the open. The next chapter should be quite the ride as everyone finds out the truth at last. There are only 5 chapters left now.