Rubius wanted to gag over the smell of the reanimated dead all around him. Even with all the cases of air freshener, he'd purchased, the fog he had sprayed didn't mitigate the smell. Now everything smelled of the rot of death and the "mountain air" scent of the freshener. He knew he'd never be able to stomach that particular scent again without wanting to throw up.

He knew it was beyond time to put Beryl's plan into action. A plan that had been a lot more attractive when he wasn't in Japan. She was a raging psychotic bitch, but at least when he was living in the same place with her, he could have the benefit of having sex with her. It was the only thing that made her at all tolerable to him. And for some convoluted reason that he didn't follow that had to do with dark magic, she couldn't get pregnant. It all made for an entertaining time for a hot fuck with a sexy woman. One whose conversation he only found entertaining during sex –she had a wildly dirty mouth.

Reubius was now stuck in Japan with the smell from hell and the first sighting of the most beautiful woman he'd ever met —Naru. Sapphire's lover fascinated him. She also focused him back on what he was doing. He would succeed for Beryl in order to gain power and wealth—things he could use to impress her and lavish her with gifts.

He racked his brain over how to see her again. Everything he believed about Sapphire told him he would never put a woman, even a vampire woman, in danger, so he knew he wouldn't see her at the battles. It was a fact that comforted him. He didn't want her in any danger from what he was orchestrating.

Motoki sat at a back table at the arcade with Yamato. He wasn't working that day, but the coffee was free, and they both felt like they needed some. He finally asked, "What do you think about what we heard?"

"What we actually saw stood out more to me," Yamato replied. "I didn't fully understand the by-play of everything that happened with Usagi, but even I get that it could have been incredibly bad."

"I was thinking about that," Motoki said. "I got it was bad, but I'm wondering why I wasn't ever scared of her. I was very clear on the fact that she wanted to murder someone brutally. Still, I didn't feel an ounce of fear then or now. I guess I don't understand why."

"Easy. I'm sure we weren't ever in danger. Yes, she likes us, but even at the most incoherent part of her anger, I believe she would know hurting us would hurt Mamoru. I feel certain she'd rip the world apart by the seams before she let any harm come to him, and she'd rather die than bring him an ounce of pain."

Motoki thought about that and nodded. "Makes complete sense to me, actually." He sipped his coffee and said, "And this is all off track from my original question. What do you think about what we heard?"

"I didn't answer that?"

"No. You talked about what we observed. Today you found out you were kidnapped instead of Mamoru."

Yamato frowned. It was apparent something was troubling him. "That part didn't make any sense to me, though. What would kidnapping him do? Embarrassingly enough, the police department emptied out to find me. That was how Diamond's plan for the bombing worked." It still felt odd to him that he was that universally liked. He always looked at himself as the basement gremlin that spent time with the dead.

"Emerald might have been using magic to look into what would help Diamond get power and misinterpreted the results. If her attention got magically deflected to you, they could plan around that and feel they came to the solution on how to weaken the security. What if she was really looking to find someone who was destined to be more powerful than Diamond?"

"That solution makes my head hurt. You're saying Emerald's attention was changed to me, and they stumbled over the realization they could use me as a distraction?"

"Possibly." Motoki then admitted, "Really, we have no way to know otherwise. Sapphire might, but I don't get the impression he was involved in anything unless he was forced to be."

Yamato sighed and took a drink of his cooling coffee. He then frowned deeper and said, "Apart from the bombing, it doesn't bother me. You know, the whole part about being kidnapped. Yeah, it was ridiculously scary, but I'm safe now. Mamoru is going to blame himself, though, and that I don't like."

"True, but that's the kind of guy he is. You can't change it."

Nodding, he said, "I think it's time for me to be the father I worry I don't deserve to be."

"Deserve to be?" Motoki asked, confused.

"I didn't raise him, help him, or do anything to impact what kind of man he is now. Where did I earn the right to step onto the role of a father when his actual father willingly gave up his life for him?"

"I think you have the right focus and the wrong conclusion. The focus is Mamoru, but the conclusion is that I think he needs you to be a father to him. Obviously, Usagi thinks so, too, since she had you there this morning. And I wouldn't doubt anything she did when it came to him if I were you. Could anyone be more attuned to his needs than she is?"

Yamato gave a wry smile. "Touche." He then shook his head. "I can't imagine how much he's hurting right now."

"A lot, I'm sure. He's wanted to know more about his parents his whole life since the accident. It will be difficult for him to get nothing back but how they died. He doesn't have good memories to focus on when he's upset."

Reflecting on that, Yamato said, "I'll help him with that. In a way, being a coroner is a huge advantage. We have lots of insight into how someone dies but not much of the life they lived. We extrapolate from data and information, and surely there is something we can learn about his parents."

Motoki smiled as he finished his coffee. He was happy for his friend, even in the midst of his sadness. Everything would hurt a lot now, but in the long run, he would see how well he was loved and protected by those around him.

Sapphire's high-rise apartment overlooked the shopping district. So when a hoard of partially-rotted people started bashing windows, cars, and people with bats, he quickly took notice.

He sent out a mass text that included a quickly snapped photo of what was happening, an address, and instructions to hurry. He then went against all his instincts and called Usagi instead of Naru.

"Mamoru and I are on our way," Usagi said as soon as she answered the phone.

"Good," he replied

He hung up and called Naru. This time he spoke immediately, "If you get hurt, I'm sidelining you indefinitely."

"I love you too. I'm bringing Rei." She replied to his worry more than his words.

A short time later, they were all at the shopping district. Rei gestured everyone over to her, and they came. She then cast her glamor, hiding their identities, and quickly told them what it did.

Everything moved fast after that. Naru morphed into a lioness, stunning almost everyone and prompting all werewolves but Mamoru to change into their wolf forms. Mamoru was determined to fight side by side with Usagi as a vampire.

No one noticed as a very nervous Kunzite transformed without leaving Minako's side. He was terrified over how tired she was. He felt conflicted over his roles with his pack, Mamoru, and the woman he loved. He hoped he could keep her safe without letting anyone down.

Minako was standing by sheer force of will and silently scared of how she would defeat anyone, let alone protect herself. And on top of all that, she just knew Kunzite might do something foolish to protect her.

All that was lost on the others, though. Everyone else concentrated on the thirty, ridiculously strong group attacking everything they could.

"They smell like death," Ami said, shuddering. "What the hell?"

Zoisite launched forward and ripped out the heart of the rotting person closest to him. He felt pretty proud of himself for being the first to attack when, to everyone's horror, it did nothing. The advancing thing didn't even pause. "So not vampire related," he quipped, trying to hide his embarrassment.

Naru moved next and swiped at one with her colossal paw, knocking it back ten feet. Unfazed, the person got up and began trying to flip a car.

Usagi pulled on her knowledge from the old battles she had participated in. None of them had been like this, but she knew when the heart didn't work, generally, the head did. She zipped forward and ripped off an attacker's head. She was shocked when the person turned to ash and then floated away.

"Necromancy," Sapphire muttered disgustedly. He hated that Beryl was dabbling in the same disgusting form of magic his horrid sister did.

Watching Usagi be successful by tearing off the head encouraged others to do the same. Naru, since she was attacked as a lioness, bit off one's head, and she promptly gagged. She got a mouth full of ash, and it grossed her out. She transformed into her regular self and then ripped off someone's head with her bare hands. It was still upsetting but still worlds better.

All around was utter chaos. It included flying glass and so many people swarming and attacking. In the confusion, Minako lost track of the enemy around her, and one bashed her in the back of the head with a metal bat, cleaving her skull wide open. Kunzite, still transformed into a wolf, bit the perpetrator's head off, not caring about the ashes in his mouth. His focus then quickly shifted to ripping his wrist open with his teeth to begin pouring blood into Minako's mouth to help heal her. Ami's blood tablets could sustain a vampire, but they don't work well enough to heal one.

Rei turned pale when she noticed what had happened and blasted off people's heads with her magic as she ran to Minako to aid Kunzite in rescuing her.

Once she got there, she yelled to Kunzite to force the gaping wound on the back of her head closed. He held her brains and pieces of her skull together while Rei forced Minako to bite her wrist and drink some blood. Once she felt a bit light-headed, she made Minako stop and placed her hands near Kunzite's hands to perform her next step. She couldn't figure out why in the hell Minako's body wasn't healing, but she knew she had to do something. Rei then began using magic to attempt to aid Minako's vampire healing abilities.

Meanwhile, everyone else was trying to fight and stop the destruction while keeping the mob away from whatever was happening to Minako.

Usagi was so distracted with worry that she felt Mamoru whisk her out of the way right before a bat would have struck her. She muttered, "Thank you," and then ripped off the person's head.

The battle rated fierce, with everyone working together to stop the assault.

Once all the fighting was done and the weird horrid was defeated, Usagi looked around. Ash covered the ground. It was Sapphire who walked over to her and said, "Necromancy. They were reanimated from the ashes of the dead. Once they were defeated, they returned to their original state."

She nodded, "Yeah. I've seen this before, now that I know what it is, but each time it was a one-off. I've never seen an army of them. Every time I've seen it in the past was because of a grieving loved one who didn't believe the warnings." Normally, in the past, it had been used to get a loved one back, only for the grieving person to discover that the one they loved didn't come back "right."

Usagi then turned to Minako and shook her head in anger. It had been obvious that she was now recovering and could focus on what was said —Rei had ensured that. Crossing her arms, Usagi yelled, "And what the hell were you thinking?!"

Minako looked at her hands and said, "I thought I could-"

"Not you!" Usagi interrupted. "Kunzite, no shit, she doesn't know her limits. Don't you?! You're her mate!"

"How was I supposed to stop her? She wouldn't listen!" He argued back now as a human.

"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, I guess, and assume that you're just supremely ignorant, Kunzite. Without Rei's quick thinking, she'd be absolutely dead now."

She looked at Minako. "How did you lose your power?"

Kunzite was reeling from that information. It struck him so hard that he ran to the side of a building and vomited.

Minako said, "It was a gift. Someone, a human, helped save me a long time ago, and I gave him a power-token. He's using it on something big."

Usagi shook her head. "Then you shouldn't have come. You're not allowed at another battle until I approve it. Cross me on this, and there will be consequences. I will not let you risk your existence over pride. Your value to all of us is too high for that." She then turned to Kunzite. "That is how you stop her. You tell me. I'm her queen, and I can order things, and she must obey. It's not disrespecting her as a woman or her strength to do that."

Silence filled the street. The only ones there were still in the shopping district were those of their group, and they were all shocked that they had almost lost someone.

She then added, "We'll meet at the penthouse. Split up. That is, everyone except Minako and Kunzite. Go home, she needs rest, and I'm too pissed to talk to her right now."

Usagi then walked away. She didn't know how much hurt she could deal with in one day, but she felt everything was stretching her limits. It wasn't only Mamoru she couldn't stand to lose when she saw how weakened Minako was and her injury; she felt in her bones that Minako would die. Rei had, in her mind, performed another miracle.