"Where the hell are they!" Minako growled. "Who took them!?"
Carl just shook his head. He tapped a button, and leaned backwards in the pilot's seat of the SC-APC Cruiser. "I haven't a solitary clue."
"That makes three of us," Fade commented glibly. Minako threw a mock expression of amusement his way, and sat forward in the co-pilot's seat, mumbling angrily and uselessly to herself as frustration squirmed inside her.
"How is your neck, Usagi? Feeling better?"
She nodded demurely in his direction. "Yes, thank you. Mina, we'll find them, I'm sure of it." Usagi offered in an attempt to console her.
"How the," she swore with a dark scowl, "hell do you know that, Usagi-chan! You don't know who took off with them!"
"I think I do," she said hesitantly, taken aback.
Carl turned abruptly to face her. "You had the same sense?"
She nodded. "Hai. And I think - um, I dunno. I think I can follow it, too."
He looked curious as he tapped a key and took hold of the control stick. "Why don't you just tell me when I'm getting warm, okay?"
Usagi gazed around uncertainly. "Well, we're way cold now, but I don't know if…"
"Just point."
"Okay," and she did so.
"Good enough for me," said he, leaning the APC into Usagi's indication.
"Hey Usagi, we're going to be a while right?"
Usagi merely shrugged in reply. "I don't know. They are pretty far away, though. It's kinda hard to tell."
The elf sighed. "Lovely. Carl, you mind if I rest for a bit?"
"I suppose not. You had best be ready to move, though. There's no telling what took the two senshi. If you've got any defensive magic, you should probably get it ready."
"Will an Armour of Ithan do? Don't worry about me; I got skills," Fade remarked with a confident smirk. After a moment or two of silence, he wandered out of the room.
Mina sat down in a corner and fell into her own considerations as Usagi continued to direct Carl in their bleak hopes. She was beginning to wonder if it was all worth it. What would they do even if they did all get back together? What could they do? They had all changed so much. With Makoto missing, maybe even in another dimension, the likelihood of the senshi getting back together seemed diminished. She knew she was falling in for it too, with Carl. Emotions first, logic second… hardly surprising. Usagi was the only one left waiting.
"Usagi-chan?" Minako started delicately. Force of habit prompted the honorific. Usagi turned to her, looking once irritated and twice angry. Her eyes were so… hard… it was unsettling. She said, "It's about Mamoru. He made it… he's okay."
As the words left her mouth, the anger in Usagi's face melted to a look of godsent relief. Minako could clearly see the tears behind her eyes.
'Where-is-he-what-happened-to-him-has-he…?'
'Usagi-chan! Calm down! Please…! I can't tell you anything if you won't calm down! Here,' she gestured towards the co-pilot's seat as she stood from it. 'Sit.'
'Hai… Gomen, Mina-chan…' Usagi sighed as she seated herself, sounding shaken.
'He's with the woman who saved him, they're going to -'
'He's with who!?' Usagi snapped in high tones.
'Usagi-chan! It's alright! He still loves you… Demelza is only the healer who took care of him. She's psychic, too, and nothing… besides everything, has changed.'
Usagi wiped at her eyes. 'Oh Mamoru, I miss you…' She blinked at a sudden realization. 'Why isn't he here?!'
Mina took a moment to sit down before her reply. 'The both of them have gone after Makoto-chan… Makoto… oh, whichever.'
‘Whichever?’
Mina’s eyebrows scrunched, and she said, ‘Isn’t it strange to use honorifics now?’
Usagi’s blank look was both an answer and a prompt to sigh. Typical of her not to think it through. ‘It doesn’t matter to you?’
Usagi’s blue eyes went to the left, then down. She said, ‘No. If we let go we lose us.’
Mina was nonplussed, and agreed.
'But you haven’t told me anything. Will you tell me?' she pointed out, sounding angry.
Moody as ever, Mina thought. She said, uncertainly, 'Now isn't exactly the best time for it.'
'Do you know of a better time? You can tell me now! Carl doesn't need my directions anymore!'
Mina seemed somewhat startled for a moment before her eyebrows narrowed in irritation. 'Usagi-chan! For heaven's sake calm down! You don't have to yell at me!'
Usagi's expression darkened apologetically. 'Gomen, gomen nasai.'
Mina shook her head morosely. 'I don't know much. Makoto was taken by some kind of spell. We were told that it was teleportation of some kind, possibly dimensional.'
'So Makoto and this healer went to find her.'
'Hai!' Mina gasped. How did she know? She continued, 'Um, Luna and Artemis are fine, in love, married, and human, but otherwise okay.'
The blond haired girl jumped to her feet suddenly, an expression of stark disbelief on her face. She gaped, 'Nani! Nani, nani!'
Mina was nearly relieved to see some of the old, and seemingly lost Usagi resurfacing. 'Hai!' she replied. 'I said human. She's beautiful, and so is Artemis…' A dreamy look wandered over her face as she completed the statement.
Usagi arched an eyebrow. 'Oh, really? But… how can she guide us like that… I mean…"
Mina looked uncertain again. 'I don't know. She said nothing has changed. I trust her… it's got to be better than giving in…'
Usagi plunked herself back down on her seat. 'Do you really believe that Mina-chan? What if it's not? What if we ever do go back home? With the rest gone, does Earth really stand a chance?'
Mina leaned forward and pressed a hand to the young woman's shoulder. 'I think we stand a better chance now than we did before. Even if the entire NegaForce has taken over Earth.'
Usagi shook her head in denial. 'What makes you say that? We don't even know anything. There's almost no hope! I don’t understand you sometimes.'
'Usagi… we've survived the Splugorth! They couldn't keep us apart. We've got Carl, Randy, Katrin, and the rest on our side. I don't think there's no hope.'
'Randy?'
She nodded deftly, puzzled. 'So?'
"Carl, you work for Randy?!" Usagi snapped harshly. Mina withdrew her hand suddenly.
"No. We are associates in business."
"Business? What kind?"
"Usagi, please!" Mina explained, aghast at Usagi's reaction.
"He's a demon, that's what he is! He's no human!" she snarled.
Mina stood up sharply. "What? What are hell are you talking about?!"
Usagi! Carl snapped authoritatively in her mind, That is enough. Think of your friends and the effort they have gone to. The blond turned on her heel to face the challenge, the snarl unfaded. He reiterated: You are not among the enemy.
Can I do that? Do I have the time? I guess… I guess I do, she replied, calming slowly. Even as she sat she seemed angry, wary, as though any hand that touched her she would bite off.
Heya Bunny! Issat you? a familiar sounding voice asked in Usagi's mind. She reeled as if struck. Minako caught her shoulder, steadying her.
Garen? I thought…
Dat I wus dead? Gots damn I'm owin' ya all kinds-a sorries, but c'mon, what's a little scrape? The overbearing little man appeared next to Usagi, wide smile on his face. "I jus' don' like usin' m' powers is all, y'know. Makes my clothes feel… tight, or wet, or somethin'. It's jes scaggin’ weird."
Usagi grabbed the fellow in a warm hug. "Gi, I missed you!" she laughed happily. Garen responded by replying her gratitude. Finally, she set him down.
"Sorry I hadda freak ya out like dat Bunny," Garen started. Usagi shook her head, indicating it was an apology long past requirement. “Gots damn I missed ya too.”
"Carl, that mountain, that should be it. There should be - I'm not sure, some kind of cave or something." She turned back to Garen. "Gi, I'm just happy you're still alive. Things actua
lly seem to be turning out alright - I guess. Minako's back, Rei-chan is alright, and once we pick up Ami-chan… we can go after Mako-chan!" Her smile was pleasing, at least to Garen, who grinned.
"Usagi? What cave? I don't see it…"
Usagi sat bolt upright, and was at Carl's side in an instant. Minako made noises of puzzlement. Garen nodded agreement.
"It's right there!" she pointed. "You can't see it?"
"I bets it's a fake-out," Garen pointed out helpfully.
Carl nodded. "I'm quite sure you're right. Usually I can see through such things, however… it seems not in this case."
"I can feel an extremely powerful presence in there. Not like you, Carl, but… pretty damned close."
Minako cast an inquisitive glance Usagi's way, not that she noticed. Somehow, this world, or maybe the Coalition, had turned her into a mystic tracker of some sort. Her harsh temper seemed a clear indication that she had been altered in some sense. The Coalition was capable of almost anything, but just to be sure…
"Usagi, tell me, how magical am I?"
Usagi sniffed, her eyes rolled in consideration before she spoke. "A lot more magical than Garen, and much less than Carl here. You have a spell on you, I can tell, too. Why?"
Mina shrugged, satisfied. "Just curious."
Dearest, what are you up to? Carl's soft mind-voice prodded.
Just trying to figure out with the CS did to her. So far as I can tell, they've made her into a magical predator of some kind. Thing is, she doesn't know it.
They have done much in my time away, and I am troubled not to have been privvy to it, but… Carl concurred. That is not all they've done.
Usagi suddenly looked startled. As the expression passed, another of feral anger wandered onto her face. "Let me out!"
Mina gave her ample space as the former leader of the Bishojo Sailor Senshi darted towards the hatch of the vessel.
"Carl!"
"Why," he asked. "What is it?"
"Damn you," she cursed, as if he had just insulted her. "Let me out!"
"Bunny! Hey! Watcha doin'?" Garen ran up to her and grabbed her overcoat, tugging insistently in an attempt to entreat her attention. Usagi merely ignored his concerned cries.
Let her go. You want to see what they did, right? Mina shook her head. I think she knows what she's doing… in an instinctive way.
That I do, and… if you wish, he replied, then tapped a few buttons. Without so much as a "thank you," Usagi leapt out of the opening. Minako gasped, fearful despite her apparent faith.
"Bunny!" Garen cried. “What're you guys doin'? She's gonna—”
Usagi did not fall, but flew the distance to the cave, to most everyone's astonishment. Her spread eagle form gripped enough surface area to suspend her in the midst of it.
“Come," Carl said. His words somehow distracted from the great leather-skinned wings which grew suddenly from his back. He took Minako and Garen's hand. Without warning, he let himself fall through the hatchway. Garen yelled in protest, and Minako merely wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him, loving the thrill of the fall.
Fade ran out of his room just in time to note the leaping forms of the three. His voice trailed behind faintly as he attempted to gain Carl's attention.
Carl cursed softly. We well return. Guard the ship until we do.
Fade swore. "I guess I'll grab a drink, or something?"
They arrived too late to witness the interaction, though Usagi's feral expression had not abated. Fists clenched and glowing with energy, she seemed entirely prepared to do battle. Opposite her stood four figures, the first she instantly recognized as Rei - albeit with dramatically shorter hair. They were paired; the two each opposing and also clinging to each other. A tall, long and dark haired male held to Rei as only a lover would; one arm around her hip, while her head rested on his shoulder. She perceived the entire situation, though she had not formed a response to her missing friend's sudden appearance.
The second pair seemed to be of mother and child. She could not relate either of the two to anyone she could recall. Oddly, the woman of long blue hair reminded her faintly of Ami, but the two looked so different that she found it hard to believe that such change was possible. The young girl knotted to her leg looked very similar to Sailor Venus; she had long blond hair which cascaded to her undefined waist. She also had calm blue eyes which radiated such familiar intensity, and occasionally, additional colours. Her eyes registered with such intelligence that Usagi paused, amazed, before speaking with Rei.
"Who is he!" she growled.
"Usagi. He's my soulmate," Rei confessed. Usagi's eyes narrowed as if trying to focus on something. After a few moments, she calmed. She turned to the child, who snarled at Usagi when she approached. Rei stared aghast after her.
Adolphus, what did she do? I felt something… she queried, running fingers through hair which still felt oddly short. Sorrow and soul-flickering concern followed Usagi by Rei's continued gaze upon her.
"Ami?" Usagi ventured uncertainly, seeming quite on her guard in spite of her defensive posture.
"Who? Shyanne, wait… calm down honey!"
"I don't like her," the child remarked.
"You don't have to, demon," Usagi snapped coldly. Sarah's eyes narrowed as the woman neared. She pushed Shyanne behind her, raising her hand from which three slim blades slid easily forth.
"Stay back! Don't ya dare touch m' girl!" Sarah stated angrily. "I don't know ya are, but Ami's dead!"
Rei gasped. "Sarah! No! Don't say that! Usagi…! She doesn't know what she's saying!"
"No!" Usagi clenched her fists and jabbed at Sarah as if punching her. A burst of light shattered over Sarah, knocking her away from the girl, who cried out, "Mom!" The woman lay motionless on the ground. Shyanne faced Usagi, looking near tears.
"Stop it!"
"Usagi-chan! She's just a child!" Rei screamed, hoping to fetch her ear.
"I cannot let this be, I cannot stand by. Step back," Adolphus stepped in front of the enraged Usagi. He grabbed her shoulder. "Usagi, the girl means you no harm."
She glared at him, then shrugged off his hand. "First, mage, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. Second, you just got a freebie there. Any part of you that touches me next you're not getting back."
Rei stood, again shocked.
Rei, stand ye back. I fear she be affected by a malady of the Lone Star, Apolphus warned.
What? Why? What're you going to do?
I know not, he paused. I fear we are outmatched, my phoenix.
"I wouldn't," Usagi snarled, "dare. Nothing you can do will keep you safe. So long as you let me alone, I won't bother you. Got it?"
"Usagi!"
For a moment, the torn, former leader of the Sailor Senshi gazed at her friend, confusion aside anxiety and artificially instilled instincts that drove her onward. "I'm sorry Rei…" she muttered. "I don't mean to do that… but your guy, he's really getting in my face."
Your guy? Rei thought, incredulous. Usagi’s whole manner was odd, confused, and very unlike the girl she knew. Wisely, she reached for Adolphus, and was quiet. "What do you want?"
Usagi whipped around to face the source of the voice, hard resentment on her face. Suddenly Shyanne snarled, though it was clear she did not understand why she felt such fear. Usagi's eyes and heart fell at Carl's identification of her former friend. Her instinct had proved correct. How was it possible? What had they done to her?
"What are you," Shyanne snapped at Carl, who strode with determined ease.
"I mean you no harm, young one. I only wish is to help your mother.”
The corner of her lip curled upward unpleasantly as she backed towards her surrogate mother. "No. Stay away. I won't let you hurt her too!"
'You know of me, and my world, don't you, little one,' Carl offered softly in a foreign, guttural tongue. Mina's uncertain gaze shifted quickly between her love and the doll-like child.
'Yes, Silver One,' she replied calmly, meeting th
e level of his word in tongue. "I am the daughter of Sarah Night, woman," she snarled faintly to Mina. "Be careful where you wag your tongue, lest I remove it."
Carl snorted loudly. 'Your attitude is not welcome before me. Consider your manners.'
'Consider whom? How do you regard your trinket?'
'My trinket?'
'You dally, and I do not like you. Where is your trust if you will not show it? Farewell.' Like the flicker of a badly edited film, the child disappeared. A moment later, so did Sarah.
"Ami-chan!" Rei cried.
"Love, 'tis of no use. They have gone places we cannot follow," Adolphus offered.
"No. You're wrong," Usagi stated. "I can follow them. I followed you."
"Aye, mayhap. Thou mayest try. Eh? I suspect within your words the wavering flag of truce?"
Carl stepped forward. "That is something which warrants discussion later, perhaps? We cannot afford to waste time now. The CSM await us."
"The what?" Rei asked.
“Exactly," Mina chimed in with a smirk. "Let's go babe."
Carl nodded. With a bowed head came another ill cut clip of film.
@~%~~~
Above her grey sweater vest and stonewashed jean combination of clothes, her hands inspired a brief span of dark shadows to run from the sphere of yellow like the burn within them. She said, "I told you, you would regret our meeting, creature."
"Where is she?!" she demanded, making a twin palm strike with hands of energies nimbus, slamming the shadow shrouded being with white light.
"The demon child, her child," she breathed heavily. "The trace came to you. You must know!"
"Answer me!"
"What did you call me?"
"No…" she squinted, teeth grinding. "You're not telling me everything. What aren’t you telling me?"
"What are you raving about?"
The massless creature shrunk into the shadows, and beyond her mystic sense. She sniffed the air, the trail of the powerful alien obscured mystically.
"No!!" she wailed, angry light trailing from her clenched fists and she swung them about uselessly. "Damn you Morcanis!"
Alone again. Vaguely, like the fade of music against the wash of static, a briefly passed channel some distance out of range, she recalled a mild-mannered girl, not fueled by the incredible sway of power which tore at her young soul. Also came the sense of a feminine warrior, a heroine dimensions apart from her current locale and mindset. Stumbling blindly through the dense forest of sky touching evergreens, these thoughts transported her, and then fled as a flurry of a spooked owl.
What did he mean "find friend / mentor / whatever when gone"? she mulled, pacing quite literally on not-so-thin air.
Usagi-san.
Her eyes flicked upwards to a great serpentine silhouette winding through the loose tangle of heaven touching spires. Yes?
Keen observation, replied the distinctly male mind-voice. The silvery dragon descended upon the fearless, altered young woman, who seemed, oddly enough, within her own realm of respite.
There was a burst of white light, a shimmer, and the mythic dragon became a white silk shirted and black slacked short brown haired middle-aged man. As he approached her, his foot caught upon an unearthed root, and he paused to dislodge it, muttering something unpleasant.
"Then why become human? I'm not afraid of your dragon form," Usagi stated dramatically.
"Very few are," he replied as he neared her, brushing off his cotton clad legs. "Good people have nothing to fear from me."
Her blue-eyed gaze hardened. "What are you saying?"
"Fact. What does that tell you?"
"That I'm good?" she blinked.
His regard also hardened as hers dissolved into uncertainty. "You don't sound terribly certain of yourself. From what I have seen, and experienced, survival here requires great strength, whether it be physical, or emotional."
Her mouth curled downward. "Where is Ami?"
"I know, and for that, I also see that you are blessed most generously, Usagi Tsukino." He paused, letting the words penetrate the shrouding fog of her augmented mind. "Why are you avoiding my words?"
Reality was, he knew perfectly well. The exercise, as he saw it, was merely an attempt to further prod her awareness of her unwilling metamorphosis, as little as there might be of it.
"I don't like them," she answered promptly, and truthfully, pulling a dramatically shortened length of pony tail over her shoulder and wringing it in both of her delicate hands. "Why do you push me?"
"Is that how you feel?"
"Yes."
"Then I apologize."
Silence, the breathing Earth, tresses of nature flowing with each gentle release, and calm pull. He made a similar request in temperament: "My turn."
"What?"
"To change the subject: Luna misses you."
She averted her eyes, and spun away, releasing the hair to which she desperately clung - for comfort. Carl proceeded about her, seeking to reach the confused young woman.
"She…"
"No!" she said and recoiled, anxiety blurring her vision and rising her voice in tone. "I don't want to talk about this!"
She was gone.
"Oh fantastic…"
@~%~~~
"Luna-san," he bowed, as he entered the red and green accented apartment-sized living room. A slender, purple haired woman adorned in a black silk kimono faced and addressed him with a deep inner strain.
"Hai Carl-san?" she bowed, deeply, hands clasped together. "Do not blame yourself. The choice was hers."
"Undoubtedly," he stated glumly. "It is you for whom I suffer. I know what it is to lose someone who has such an intimate connection to your heart. Moreover, I am concerned regarding the psychological alterations performed upon her, beyond the mystic, and physical."
"And the crystal?" she breathed expectantly.
He sighed. "Hai. It has been embedded within her torso, placed next to her chemically augmented heart. That much I can ascertain. I would need to examine her to.…" he fell silent.
"It is worse," she gasped, hands coming to clench upon the island-style kitchen counter. Carl said nothing, appropriately enough, waiting for her to speak, sensing very clearly that she would.
"Ami?"
“Sit down, please," he urged her. A roaring beast of fear lurched in her stomach, and her face paled slightly, reading the emotional darkness within him.
"There is a local alien intelligence that has gained the confidence of Shyanne. When she teleported from the cave, she went to it. I discovered Usagi just as she had frightened it off. You know what that means, don't you?"
Numbly, she shook her head.
"Morcanis, that's what this one is called, controls thousands of local animals, and a multitude of semi-intelligent monsters. For it to actually want to avoid your friend…" He could see that she understood the implications of his observation. "We don't know what has happened to Ami, but Usagi has lost the trace of her. Optimistically, I suspect outside intervention."
"Hai. There has been."
He blinked at her. "You know?"
"Akari and Yanei."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Doesn't it? Who else could have known?" she quested, folding her hands nervously in her lap.
"Awareness of her situation has nothing to do with this event."
"No, you're right. It doesn't. I just get this sense…"
"Luna-san, we will do what we can, I promise you that."
She gazed at him, expression clearly thankful.
"If I may ask, where is Artemis?" he requested softly, after a time.
"He is praying."
He nodded slowly. "I must leave, Luna-san. If we are to locate Makoto Kino, there cannot be more time invested here. Usagi will come to you, I am certain of this."
She nodded, only half-believing him out of some squalid hope, eyes closed, one hand to her mouth. Even as Carl closed the thin wooden door behind him, he could hear Artemis' entrance into the at
tention, and tending of his beloved.
Chapter 26
Nursing for Shelter