Diamond bright stars fell away, away, away, in uncountable numbers. Above them the Milky Way itself hung like a spangly curtain.
For sheer beauty, nothing beat space travel. Unforgettable, the beauty.
But Sailor Mars had forgotten the other quality of space. Its silence.
In silence, the questions of her mind seemed to blow up as fireworks.
What did Kaidou want? Why was he back, after all this time?
How had Sun gotten to her again?
How had she never noticed, never remembered—
Kaidou shared a resemblance with Jadeite.
Fair hair. Self-assurance. That confident voice, that ability to just become whoever the situation required…
How had she not noticed it before? It had slipped under her conscious memory.
She had known them in such different contexts. The one before, the other after her awakening as Sailor Mars… That year had been a trial by fire. She remembered.
This year, she thought, has been a trial by fire.
The last two weeks have been a trial by fire. James Sun's face flooded her mind.
Awful man.
She had said "surprise me" and he had looked at her with all of his attention—
Her heart gave a funny little lurch, and she immediately decided it was better to fling her thoughts into the whirlpool of Kaidou and Jadeite. So one resembled the other. So what? Their resemblance was accidental and meaningless. Except to her.
It meant she should have defended her heart better—
I was a child of fourteen, Mars thought, how was I supposed to know better? My walls were high enough as it was—I shouldn't have had to defend myself like that—
From the first time she'd known Kaidou… unbeknownst to her, her eyes were seeing someone else and her heart had followed. Was that it?
The awful question. Did I only ever love Kaidou because he reminded me of Jadeite? And there was no answer she could trust, because the asker and the answer were— tangled. Inextricably.
Many an hour in middle school Rei Hino had taken a red pen, and in the margins of her paper she had drawn lines that wove about on solo paths before they intersected, ever so precisely. She'd drawn it over and over again, the red string of fate. It was meant to connect you forever— not to sisters-in-arms, and not to the altars of parents dead or distant. The red string connected you to the one who would stand at your side. The partner of your heart. Red strings would turn to wedding rings. Ribbon garters. Blankets and canopies. Red string would guide you home.
Rei had grown to discard the idea. An idiom, one of those turns of phrase you grew up with, and came to ignore. A comforting daydream at best.
Now the red string seemed not only visible to her, but tangible. Tangible, tangled, snarled up around her hands, weaving all around her into a useless knot.
She was not free of it— she never had been free of it.
"And I suppose that's the cause of all the world's current misery."
She squeezed her eyes shut, briefly. She had to dial it back; dramatic floods of emotion were not helpful. She had a whole life where Kaidou barely figured, and James Sun was little more than a distraction.
For a few minutes she was able to clear her mind. She was unfettered, flying among the stars, what was not to enjoy about this.
Then…
Wasn't there a myth about red string, showing you the way out of a labyrinth?
Something something… the princess uses red string, to help out the man with the sword. Out of a heart fluttering with love, the princess betrays her family, her sacred kingdom, all for the man with a sword. The man with a sword takes her away from home. The man with a sword leaves her for dead, as she naps on a barren island. That's what red string gets you.
Yep. Checks out. Men are scum.
"How long have we been traveling?" asked Sailor Mars out loud.
"Ah," Sailor Jupiter checked her wrist by instinct. "About twenty minutes?"
"Correct," said Sailor Mercury. She was reading a diagram on her wrist-mounted computer.
And they had… three hours and forty minutes more of travel ahead of them.
Delightful.
Mars's imagination easily grew shadowed and winding. In daydream and heartscape and nightmare, she walked a twisted underground labyrinth. All the walls were lined in mirrors. All reflections were her, but no two were quite identical…
The reflections were girls she had been, lives she might have lived, if Crystal Tokyo was not looming ahead of her—
Her hands were still tangled in red string, which led her on and on…
And where did it lead? To a chamber lined in bones. To the reliquary of a murderer.
In short, god damn it.
She scoured her mental mythological dictionary for a thing to which she could compare Jadeite, or Kaidou. Nothing obscene enough came to mind.
And then James Sun's face swam into her vision. James Sun, definite and defiant, looking at her when she had said "surprise me."
She had felt alive.
Her heart had leapt in her chest, warmth flooded her face and fingers.
What… what had that been?
It was nothing, came another thought, a protective thought, tinged with wrath. It was foolishness.
And yet—
His every gesture, his every glance, just stole over her memory again and again.
Think of the red string, think of the tangle, the hall of mirrors, think of lies and thieves and hatred. Think of anything, but don't dwell on James Sun.
If this keeps up, she thought, when we reach Mars I am going to be a bag of nerves.
"Hey, Venus," she said out loud. Venus looked at her. "How about we sing something?"
"Mars, I think that's a great idea. Mercury, you got any tunes on that computer of yours?"
"A few, Venus. I thought some karaoke might come in handy."
Mars sighed a little with relief. The stars looked brighter already.
After almost four hours they cleared the Martian atmosphere and made a descent onto the landing pad of Phobos-and-Deimos Castle.
The landing pad was situated in a wide, flat part of the castle gardens. That design element, Mars remembered, was common in all the palaces of the Silver Millennium. In addition to being convenient, this location offered a chance for the royals to display their magical prowess: see how much life our planetary crystal can sustain! We command the dry soil of this planet to yield tamarind and apple! Witness the ixora-trees in their life cycle with our native firebirds! For incense, we nourish whole groves of cinnamon and spikenard and cedar, water spent just so the trees will burn!
Now the canals were dry. The wind shrieked without pause between mountains and plains. And there were weeds everywhere.
"Do you realize what you have here?" Sailor Jupiter appeared at Mars's elbow. Mars, grateful for the distraction, shook her head. "The desert plants are just flourishing. It's been how many centuries?" A plant with purple flowers dangled over the walkway. Jupiter crushed it in her gloved hand and a spicy scent filled the air. "Sage is a favorite plant of hummingbirds," said Jupiter. "This place is just ripe for gardening. Some love and care, and it'll bloom again, just you wait."
They stopped in the shadow of Phobos-and-Deimos Castle for a picnic lunch. Sailor Jupiter summoned two baskets from within her transformation pen.
"Is that homemade?" said Sailor Mars, as she held up a milk bun scored with the symbol of Mars. "Jupiter, you shouldn't have."
"Of course I should have," came the cheerful response.
"Hear, hear!" said Sailor Moon. "By the way," she added, "Venus, didn't you live here on Mars?"
Sailor Venus looked surprised and pleased. "Yes, I was fostered for a while with the royal family. Early training for my career as a soldier. We were always close allies, Venus and Mars."
Sailor Neptune brushed her teal hair out of her eyes and asked, "Was there a culture shock? One, the planet of love and beauty, the other the planet of martial excellence…"
"You'd be surprised."
Mars cleared her throat. "We celebrated love plenty on Mars. When people got married, or swore true friendship, it was always a cause to celebrate. We Martians," she added, "followed our hearts."
Sailor Jupiter nodded, and Sailor Mercury spoke, "'There are as many loves as there are hearts.' Tolstoy said that."
"What, on like a one-to-one ratio?" asked Sailor Venus. "Where's the fun in that?"
Sailor Neptune smiled. "Clearly, Tolstoy never lived in the city of Magellan."
Neptune, Mars thought, was being a little obtuse. Of course they celebrated love on Mars. The bond among sisters-in-arms, the pursuit of excellence, purity of heart— these were touchstones that Aresyne had cherished. What was the word for those cornerstones of the Martian heart, if not love?
The party had different plans after lunch. Mercury was going to find the command center of Phobos-and-Deimos Castle, and work on the Silver Millennium technology. "With a little luck and elbow grease," said Sailor Mercury, adjusting her visor, "our trip home may take only three hours, and not four."
"Great!" said Sailor Jupiter. "I'm going to explore the garden. Anyone want to join?"
"I will," said Sailor Neptune.
And so, Venus, Mars, and Moon took an ambling walk to the Parade Grounds to the southwest. As they made their way across dilapidated orchards, Sailor Venus pointed out areas that could be made beautiful, really, can't you see the potential? And Sailor Mars could see it. There was not just a past here, but a future as well.
This will be a home.
The Parade Grounds featured row after row of elevated benches, carved right into the southerly face of a mesa. Ten thousand years of wind had only scraped away what was unnecessary, leaving a breathtaking, austere beauty.
"Let's climb to the royal box," Venus suggested. Two at a time she climbed the stairs; Sailor Moon followed her at a jog. Mars elected to take the stairs one by one.
Once in the royal box, it was a little hard to enjoy the view because the wind, unceasing, pulled their hair in all directions. Moon and Venus laughed in a cyclone of golden buttercup locks; Sailor Mars wished she had a hair tie. Why wasn't she happier? Why wasn't she enjoying herself? We are only here for a little while, she told herself sternly. Have fun, damn it.
There was a console in the center of the royal box; it took Mars a moment to recognize it, but once she did she was certain. As a piece of Silver Millennium tech, it resembled the console of the command center, back in Tokyo. She brushed away inches of red dust, and passed her hands over carvings of circles and arrows; she pressed one circle and the console creaked, shuddered, and sent up a patchy hologram into the air. Tinted red and violet, the image was distorted, just a few frames on a loop— some sort of parade. Swooping batallions of starlings, chariots and spears, banners of clans long extinct…
"Well done, Mars," said Venus appreciatively. She and Moon gathered near to Mars.
"A way to record and play back," Mars explained, "all the tournaments, all the decathlons, the games that our royal court held in such esteem."
"Ooh, that looks exciting," Sailor Moon said.
"It was trivial, really." Mars said. The wind pulled her hair across her eyes and she brushed it away. "I mean that it was all for show. The Martian royal court had become— what's the word— decadent."
"Well, no harm in a good time," said Sailor Venus.
"It was ridiculous," said Mars. "You and I were the only two really training to be soldiers, and were locked away in the Royal Box like porcelain dolls anyway, the Games. The Solar Games. We— I mean the family, the royal court— it was the Martian way to invite the best warriors to our parade grounds. People to test our skill, to challenge us."
She passed her hands over the console, which sputtered and emitted a couple more images. Here, in shaky color, a score of warriors stood on the Parade Grounds, raising their weapons in a salute to the Martian royals. And here…
A red-and-violet portrait of the Martian royal family themselves, and Sailor Mars recognized— well, she recognized Aresyne quickly. She didn't recognize the queen or the king. She could identify the dark hair, the piercing eyes, a certain family resemblance, but… no more than that. These were not faces she knew. No one to honor with incense and lanterns. She felt nothing. It felt like a void in her chest where honest, filial affection should have been, and Rei Hino suddenly wanted to be home very badly.
"Wait a minute," said Sailor Moon, pointing to the image of the warriors giving a salute. "Isn't that—"
Mars looked up, and across ten thousand years Jadeite regarded her.
Her right hand made a fist, and she drove it at the console but the machinery whined and died, and the hologram died before her fist even connected. Nowhere for her anger to go, and now her knuckles stung like hell.
The wind cast her hair into her mouth, otherwise she would have sworn violently. Mars spluttered and coughed and tried to regain her dignity.
"Um, Mars," said Sailor Moon, "what was Jadeite doing here?"
"That was when I first met him." Mars looked down at the console, not at her friends. "The Solar Games, he was the emissary from Earth. It was supposed to be a diplomatic— gesture of friendship sort of thing, but what a joke, a barbarian from Earth competing with Mars's finest warriors. But he. He wasn't a coward. He didn't quail. That was what brought him to my attention."
She flinched at the touch of Sailor Moon's hand on her shoulder.
"Are you alright, Mars?" asked Sailor Moon.
Even this shock of emotion, Mars had to admit to herself, was preferable to nothingness. She said in a rush, "I wish I could be like the rocks."
"Oh," said Sailor Moon. Then, "You've lost me."
Mars gestured broadly at the Parade Grounds below them, the carnadine colors of the mesa, and the edges softened by time. "You see how the wind has stripped away everything unnecessary? There used to be trees here, and bright snapping banners, but this way is— so clean."
Sailor Moon shrugged. "I guess. Would you say it's a 'pure' landscape?"
Mars drew a breath to answer, and hesitated. The word "pure" was, in the voice of Eternal Sailor Moon, a brilliant jewel of a word indeed.
Mars said at last, "I know how to purify by flame. I wish I could purify the inside of my own head, sometimes. There are things I would scrape out. Useless things, old relics."
She had said too much. She turned her head sharply away.
"I think we all feel like that sometimes," said Sailor Moon. "Maybe we should go back to the Castle."
"I'm sorry to burden you all like this," said Mars.
"Burden? Honey, you're fine," Venus said. "C'mon, let's go storm the Castle."
So they descended from the Royal Box. Mars did not look back, and though she tried to look around at the gardens and groves, the spots of beauty that Venus and Moon could see, all she could see was more potential for mistakes.
But then something else caught her eye. Sailor Moon rested one hand on the brooch that held the Silver Crystal.
Mars asked, "What is it?" Venus turned to them.
Sailor Moon was slow to answer. She looked skyward. "I don't know," she said. "The Crystal senses… something. I think it comes from Earth. But I'm sure that if Mamo-chan were in danger, I would know."
"Agitation," Sailor Mars repeated. "Alright, then. We're going home."
"Oh—"
"You want to go, right?"
"Yes— but I don't want you to cut your visit short."
Mars assured her, "Don't worry about me. This visit— it's already been everything I could wish for. And if something's wrong on Earth, we all want to help."
Moon's blue eyes sparkled. "You're very kind."
Mars waved that off. "We're moving out."
It didn't take long to reach the Guardians around the Palace, not with the use of their communicators. Everyone was pleased with the visit— Sailor Mercury in particular, she promised that because of her efforts their travel time home would be shortened by an hour.
On the teleportation pad, the Sailor Guardians clasped hands, standing in a circle around Sailor Moon. Mars held hands with Neptune on one side, and Jupiter on the other.
They lifted off.
Mars did not look back… not until they had broken through the atmosphere, and it was impossible to discern any traces of life on the red planet.
One glance backwards— and the red planet was shrinking even now.
Well. Life has its own plans.
Sailor Mars set her mind to the Earth.
At the end of three hours of travel, they re-entered Earth's atmosphere at speed. The Moon's blue-pearlish light cast a benediction over them and the sea.
As they approached, Sailor Mars scanned the cloud patterns. She was sure she wasn't the only one.
It couldn't be… it couldn't be time for Crystal Tokyo already?
This is somehow Sun's fault, I know it, she thought to herself, but that didn't provide the nice spike of anger she was expecting. She felt a little queasy instead. And her sisters… the Princess, Mercury, and Jupiter, they looked so pale in the light of the Moon.
Oh, she thought. Soldiers of Love and Justice, yes, but love can be a millstone around your neck…
All in all, Sailor Mars was very glad when they finally returned to Tokyo. They arrived in the Juuban park in a flash, near the fountain. Just where they had departed that morning. Her red heels went click. Sailor Mars drew in a breath, and Rei Hino exhaled in a whoosh.
What a day.
And it wasn't over yet.
Around her, it was an ordinary autumn day. A remarkably fine day, at that. Rainwater puddles glinted in the setting sun. More brown-russet leaves gathered on the ground; the trees were that much closer to scarcity. It was only a few hours' change; Rei catalogued every difference. No trace of anything apocalyptic. Not yet.
"Mamoru is here in Tokyo," said Usagi. "At the command center."
"So is Haruka," Michiru said.
They set out for Crown Fruits Parlor. Their communicators began to chime with messages from hours past, messages that hadn't reached them outside of planetary range.
Finally they reached the control center. Usagi hurried to meet Mamoru— he was seated in front of the main computer console. Haruka welcomed Michiru with a kiss. Makoto took Nate to the side (shameless, the two of them), and Ami— she took Zander's hand and they exchanged a rapid congress in French. Had Rei ever seen Ami look so— so—never mind the adjective, it made Rei feel uneasy. She looked away. Love is a burden, and I don't want it, she thought.
She began to think that, and halfway through she realized what was wrong.
She turned to Minako. "Sun isn't here."
Next thing she knew Rei was standing by Mamoru's chair at the console. He had a projection of Earth thrown up on the screen. The projection rotated slowly, with ley lines in white. Three ley lines were brightly colored, leading back to Tokyo and the cluster of jewels shimmering there.
Usagi was leaning over Mamoru's shoulder, resting her hand on his shoulder. His fingers brushed hers, but his eyes were still on the Terran map.
"We're trying to find James," Mamoru said, for Usagi's benefit and Rei's. "He's not responding to his communicator. His aura is silent. For all we can tell… he's vanished."