Mercury paused after opening the door to Serenity’s antechamber. She knew Venus’ tired, yet alert gaze had already lighted on her; their senshi powers allowed for heightened senses, but she still felt like an intruder, despite the fact that it was her turn for guard duty.
Rei lay curled into an impossibly tiny ball, her back to the Princess’ door, her head and shoulders nestled in Venus’ lap, her arms twined possessively around the golden warrior’s long legs. Mercury had never seen the Martian look so small and insignificant, and she was reminded that even the fiercest warriors needed rest and reassurance, too.
Mercury smiled at her leader and spoke in hushed tones. “I’ll take over from here. Go get some rest.”
Venus nodded thankfully. With the last of her reserves, she gathered Rei in her arms, and using the surge of strength her planetary powers allowed, she lifted her second in command off the floor and pulled her to her chest without even waking her; her long, raven hair nearly brushing against the floor as the Venusian walked forward.
She stopped next to Mercury, and a mischievous smile touched Venus’ lips. “What do you know about the Martian Prayer ritual?” She asked quietly.
The Mercurian’s brows met as she thought. “A self-sacrificing tribute offered before running head-long into an often hopeless battle?”
Venus smirked. “Yup. That must be the one.”
“I’ll have to brush up on my knowledge...” Venus raised a finely arched eyebrow and Mercury smiled widely. “I’ll have a detailed report ready for your review immediately following my shift.”
The Venusian smiled broadly. “Excellent. Thank you, Ami-chan.”
Serenity poked her head out her bedroom door. She looked into her antechamber with bloodshot eyes that blinked in response to the many lights that burned brightly.
“Jupiter?” She asked.
The senshi of lightening nodded and stepped forward. “Venus and Mercury have come and gone. You’ve been resting nearly an entire day.”
Serenity nodded distantly. “And there’s been no-“
“No, Princess.” Jupiter would not meet her gaze. “There’s been no word from Earth.”
The Princess suppressed a shudder. She looked to her Jovian warrior with cold, blue eyes. She set Endymion’s silent communicator on a table next to the door. It would do her no good now.
“Take me to the courtyard.” She demanded. “I need more training.”
This, Jupiter could relate to.
The Sailor Teleport left their bodies tingling. They had traveled an exceptionally long distance, hopping from point to point through the outer solar system to reach their final destination through space and even time, and the effort had severely drained all three travelers.
On this inhospitable planet, an insatiable wind howled, blowing dust and small stones across an otherwise smooth and eerily barren terrain that gave under their feet as though the ground might not exist at all. A thick, heavy atmosphere pushed down on them and the banded clouds above shifted in earthen tones to the rhythm of the merciless winds.
“There’s no access point here.” Neptune’s cobalt eyes lingered on a whirling, hexagonal vortex that spun madly in a wide arc across the bowed edge of the sky.
“Of course not.” Uranus spat. The winds on this planet would not calm, not even for its avatar. “Why bother sending youma to Saturn? There’s nothing here for them to destroy but destruction itself!”
“Uranus,” Neptune scolded her partner and fell in behind Sailor Pluto, who held her time staff before her like a sounding tool.
“Your talismans,” Pluto said simply, “They will guide us.”
Neptune and Uranus exchanged weary glances. The senshi of the seas withdrew a small, handled mirror that she held before her, reflective side out, with a wavering grip. With a dour scowl, the senshi of the wind drew a jeweled sword from its sheath with a white knuckled grip.
The three weapons resonated with an ancient power and drew their users forward despite two of the three senshi’s reservations on the implications of their use.
As the three warriors were guided forward, the temperature of Saturn’s pole acted in reverse to the norms and its temperature steadily increased as they neared exact center. This planet created its own heat. It was not a comforting thought.
Finally, the women let their talismans fall to their sides. They were deadly weapons in their own right, but their actual purpose for their existence had been fulfilled.
“There.” Pluto said flatly.
Three sets of eyes lighted on a small, cloth wrapped bundle, set with no particular distinction on the smooth surface under the whirling vortex’s dark eyewall. In this space, no wind blew. The air was still and quiet.
Neptune stepped closer to Uranus. “But she’s…”
“Just a child.” The Uranian finished her partner’s sentence.
With great care, and with what seemed a great familiarity, Pluto stepped forward. Picking the small bundle up off the ground, she cradled the dark haired infant to her chest.
“She’s always just a child.” She said quietly.
Outside the city reaches, Rei surveyed the grassy plains that she and Minako had visited on several occasions.
“Why are we here?” She asked, her curious gaze lighting on a pile of firewood that had been precariously stacked in the middle of a circle, the golden, waist high grasses trodden flat and obviously prepared in advance.
Minako smiled enigmatically and pointedly ignored the question. She released her partner’s hand, her index and middle fingers lingering on the other woman’s palm until the last possible moment, and then she forged forward to the pile of firewood. Sinking to her knees, she sat in seiza, and began to chant.
It had been quite some time since she’d used the Martian language, and the words felt as harsh and gritty as the red sands themselves had when she had first met the barbarian warrior who now stood behind her with wide amethyst eyes and a gaping mouth.
In the course tongue, Minako prayed to the beneficiaries of the savage planet of Mars. She prayed to the gods and goddesses of war and battle. She implored them for their protection on the battlefield, for strength and advantage against their enemies, for an increased element of surprise, and for endurance in the face of unmatchable odds.
She prayed on behalf of the senshi, for the Moon and her Kingdom, and even for the Earth.
She prayed for the gods’ and goddess’ favors to get them through a future battle that might well take their lives.
And as she prayed, Rei gathered herself, her look of awe slowly fading; after all, should she really be so surprised that Minako would honor her in such a touching fashion as to recite a sorely needed ritual?
Echoing Minako’s words, her voice a deep tenor to the Venusian’s quiet, lilting one, Rei finally joined her leader. Minako’s form straightened as the slightly taller woman knelt behind her, pressed her front to Minako’s back, raised her arms parallel to the ground alongside the Venusian’s, and rested her chin on Minako’s right shoulder as they petitioned the Martian gods together.
The prayer drew to a guttural close, but the ritual itself was just beginning. Minako reached forward. Her fingers bypassed a ceremonial blade that lay in the grass, and she picked up two slivers of magnesium marbled rock, a specialty of Mars’ surface.
With shaky hands, no thanks to her lover’s hot breath that tickled her ear, Minako struck the two pieces of stone together repeatedly to no avail. She frowned then, and tried harder, striking the two stones together harder and faster. She was not rewarded with fire, but with an amused chuckle in her ear.
“Here.” The Martian’s voice was felt as much as it was heard, and Rei’s hand drifted from Minako’s waist and reached for the tinder that laced the firewood. She splayed her fingers open, and a small flame was born from her palm, igniting the tinder and starting the fire.
“Isn’t that cheating?” Minako asked with a tempered smile.
Rei chuckled into Minako’s golden locks. “I don’t think the gods will mind.”
They waited for the fire to establish itself, the growing flames popping and flickering in a soft breeze that rolled off the white capped mountain range of Montes Haemus to the north. The Venusian used the distraction of Rei’s body pressed against hers to take her mind off the pins and needles forming in her legs caused by sitting on them.
She waited until the fire was roaring before them, and with a small nod, she reached next for the ceremonial knife; a short, black blade with a serrated tip and a simple, wooden handle. She grasped the rough hilt with her left hand and raised her right arm before her, hovering dangerously close above the dancing flames. Slowly, she touched the blade’s serrated edge to the soft skin of her inner arm.
Rei’s restraining hand on her left wrist stopped Minako before the blade could bite her flesh.
The Martian’s voice was soft and quiet. “You don’t have to do this.”
Minako chuckled softly. “I know Venusians are superficial, but even if the wound wouldn’t heal itself on its own, the scar wouldn’t matter to me.”
“I know it wouldn’t, Mina,” Rei buried her head in the Venusian’s golden hair, “but it’s enough that you’ve done this much for me.”
“I want to do this, Rei. Let’s finish this together, ne?”
After a short pause, the Martian nodded. She shifted her grip from around the woman’s wrist to splay her fingers around her hand. Her teeth found the junction of Minako’s neck and shoulder, and the small nip she gave her served as a welcome distraction as she guided the knife until its blade gently bit into the soft flesh of Minako’s forearm.
An age old Martian tradition tied to another ritual, the scent of her lover’s blood burning in the sacred flame imprinted itself in Rei’s memory. She licked the spot she’d bitten as she guided Minako’s hand and repeated the action on her own arm, not taking such gentle precautions with her own body. With a pop and a sizzle, her blood joined the flame.
With a soft sigh, both women retracted their arms from the heat above the flames. Rei pulled Minako closer to her, and the Venusian leaned back into the Martian.
The prayer ritual had ended.
The Martian was filled with a mixture of pride and release by the gesture Minako had offered. Since her arrival on the Moon, she’d been so busy and stressed that she had gradually drifted away from the traditions that had compromised her life as a Martian Priestess. To return to them, with the one she loved, was a sorely needed retreat that gave her a hope she hadn’t realized had faded.
Even with all these thoughts, all the raw emotion that had built up inside her, Rei still couldn’t find a better way to express herself than with a single, choked phrase.
“Thank you.”
Minako turned her torso to gaze at her partner, and her bright smile told the Martian that she understood the deeper sentiment that was hidden behind the simple words. And her laugh was melodious. “My people have nothing like this. The Venusians have a lax, free society and we don’t hold any traditions like that. It was gratifying for me, too. It was remarkably simple for such an important prayer.”
Rei all but shrugged. “It’s the thought that counts, not the ritual or even the words.”
“On Venus, we rely on pomp and circumstance. I like your way better.”
“That sounds traitorous, coming from the Princess of Venus.” Rei smirked mischievously. “Are you telling me to make you a Martian?”
The fire in Minako’s eye rivaled that which she saw in her partner’s. “I’m telling you to make me yours.”
Rei smiled, and with a moment’s distraction, she looked down to her arm. She was unsurprised to find the fresh wound already quickly fading, and this time, she wasn’t quite so disappointed to see her senshi powers at work. She looked to her lover then, and with a glint in her amethyst eyes that replaced the awe and reverence she had felt for Minako moments earlier, the Martian passionately claimed the Venusian’s lips before pressing her to the ground possessively.
Minako and Rei charged into the room, panting and pale as though they’d traveled far and unexpectedly and were dreading what awaited them. Indeed, Minako had briefed Rei as best she could, based on what little she knew, but both women looked worried and confused. No explanation was offered to their late arrival as they took their seats among the rest of the senshi in the warriors’ courtyard.
All eyes turned to Pluto, who held a small, wrapped bundle to her chest.
Minako’s hand balled into a fist. “Is that-“
“Saturn.” Pluto said. It was not lost on the others that the guardian of the time gates was the only one clothed in her senshi fuku; an added layer of protection against the baby in her arms.
Pluto pulled back the soft, purple cloth that shrouded Saturn’s form. The playful, dark eyes of an infant peered at the many curious faces that gazed at her, and she offered them a bright smile and a quiet gurgle.
Rei lifted an eyebrow at the child in Pluto’s arms. “She’s the one that heralds the powers of death and rebirth?”
Serenity stood with wide eyes. “The senshi of death and rebirth?”
Somehow, the Martian didn’t know whether to be amused or worried that their Princess seemed to know less about Saturn’s nature than she did.
Pluto held her quiet bundle and offered Serenity a blank expression. “They are Saturn’s given powers.” She explained. “She has the ability to destroy planets, even solar systems if need be, but that power also has a balance in an intrinsic ability to begin the cycle of rebirth.”
“Destroy and start anew.” Michiru’s voice was a distant whisper.
“Why have I not heard of her powers before?” Serenity demanded.
“Saturn is not a senshi to trifle with, Princess.” Haruka said gruffly.
“She only comes to us when the need for her arises.” Pluto said. “Her very existence would be too dangerous otherwise.”
Ami narrowed cold eyes on the outer senshi. “You are basically calling her a tool.”
The senshi of time turned empty, garnet eyes towards the Mercurian and the Princess. “That’s because she is.”
“Then how do you plan on using her?” Minako’s question hung heavily in the air. The outers and the decisions they made were outside her jurisdiction, but she had the final say on any plan that might impact the Princess of the Moon Kingdom, and any plan involving Saturn certainly met that criteria.
Haruka frowned in Pluto’s general direction. “We don’t know yet.” She answered truthfully.
“When all hope is lost, Saturn will awaken.” Michiru’s voice was haunted, and she gazed at her talisman sadly, as though she regretted the formidable weapon’s very existence.
“But she’s just a helpless baby! How can you put such a responsibility on her?” The Princess tried for reason in the face of a situation that didn’t begin to make the least amount of sense.
“She will age rapidly as the need for her power nears. When she has grown strong enough to wield the Silence Glaive, she will know what to do.”
Serenity was not placated by this answer, no matter how reasonable a woman Pluto appeared to be.
“None of this is very fair.” Resigned, Serenity nearly pouted, but found that none of her warriors could seem to make eye contact with her. She refused to feed off their fear and trepidation, despite the sheer amount of it that permeated the room.
The Princess stepped forward then, her bare feet padding softly on the thick rug beneath her toes. “Can I… hold her?” She asked.
Pluto looked to her with uncertain eyes but offered no resistance when Serenity’s slim arms carefully lifted the child from her arms. Serenity pulled the infant to her chest with a gentle smile.
Garnet eyes watched the Princess with a great amount of wonder. She watched the pair with only one, listless thought, ’Even her mother refused to hold Saturn, all those millennia ago. Is this her power?’
The thoughts of the others weren’t far off from Pluto’s mark. Openly amazed eyes gazed at their Princess, carefully cradling the infant in confident arms. It seemed silly for them to be afraid of a baby girl when Serenity would welcome the now cooing and giggling child into comforting, open arms, and each of the senshi, inner and outer alike, were reminded of just what and who it was they were fighting for.
’Her black hair and dark eyes,’ Serenity lamented, ’it reminds me of Endymion.’
She smiled sweetly, and hugged the infant closer to her chest, and they stayed that way for what seemed like forever, and perhaps it was, because her warriors had nearly had to pry Saturn from her arms, for the time for sleep had come and gone.
One by one, and with no words spoken, the rest of the senshi dispersed, and soon, only Rei and Minako were left in the senshi’s courtyard.
In the wake of the others, the Martian couldn’t help but notice how heavy the mantle of leader weighed on Minako’s slim shoulders. The golden haired woman stared out a window halfway across the room distantly. Rei had to make a conscious effort not to let the fear and distress that rolled off the Venusian’s aura seep into her own.
But she could and she would help ease her partner any way she could. She left the rigid, upright seat she had claimed during the meeting and approached Minako where she reclined on a chaise lounge. All too eager for the Martian’s quiet form of reassurance, Minako wordlessly let Rei slip behind her and silently hold her, one arm lightly slung over the Venusian’s hip.
Minako shut her eyes then, and Rei hoped the stressed woman would succumb to some much needed rest. She dutifully kept her eyes open, intent on keeping watch for any distraction that might disturb her partner and leader.
Long after Rei had hoped the Venusian had fallen asleep, Minako finally spoke in a broken whisper, “There’s no turning back now, is there?”
“No.” Rei replied simply. There was no use sugar coating a false reality. “War is inevitable.”
The golden haired woman turned her torso to find Rei’s unreadable amethyst eyes. The Martian distractedly brushed Minako’s bangs from her forehead.
“Rei, can you see anything? Anything that would help us? Anything about that child?”
The Martian shook her head. “No. Nothing about the girl.”
“But that premonition you had, back on Earth… you knew Endymion would attack Serenity, even though you weren’t sure if it was a premonition at all. You’re the only one who can still see into the future. Not even Setsuna or Michiru can do it anymore.”
Rei shrugged. “Maybe it’s because my powers are more spiritual in nature than they are dependant on my senshi powers.” Her brow furrowed, and she stared into the distance. “In any case, even if I can still do it, it’s unpredictable, unreliable, and it,” her dark pupils dilated and she frowned, “it can’t… be… controlled…”
“Rei?” Minako asked, but she knew the tell tale body language too well. “Rei!”
The woman’s body went eerily rigid, her breathing all but stopped and her complexion blanched, turning her face as white as chalk. She was only out for split seconds, but it had been far too long for the Venusian. When Minako went to see to her partner’s welfare, Rei brushed her off, grabbing Minako’s hands by the wrists and pressing her forehead to the other woman’s.
Rei’s panicked voice was a hoarse whisper. “Don’t… hesitate!”
“What?” The word fell limply off Minako’s tongue, for the contact of Rei’s touch brought the frightening realization of what the Martian had seen.
The basalt pavers of the courtyard were torn and broken; the marble walls of the palace were shattered and toppled. The ancient oak which Rei had sought solace under too many times was charred and blackened.
In the courtyard, amidst jagged chunks of stone and upturned concrete, three warriors faced off against too many youma, and in the courtyard’s center, one other warrior; a golden soldier, faced off against a red haired woman. But it was the force behind that woman, a shapeless, dark energy that towered over all.
They had both seen this premonition before. But time had passed, and they’d seen and done much in the interim, and the hazy, uncertain figures could no longer be mistaken. It was Venus and Beryl who faced off against each other, and it was Metallia who hovered powerfully in the background.
The golden warrior charged her opponent, her sword held high, and Beryl launched herself forward. Her attacks were fast and brutal, and Venus could do little more than defend and skitter backwards on panicked feet. She intrinsically knew that the strength and speed Beryl used was not her own.
The din of the fighting around her rose to a decibel that was impossible for even her to ignore, and she was vaguely aware of her warriors falling. Had they all fallen? Venus looked over her shoulder. The dark form of one of her warriors lay on the ground, nearly torn in two. She couldn’t see clearly enough, but it was not for lack of proximity or want; her vision was merely clouded.
Beryl didn’t give her the opportunity to pursue and she forged forward in a wild lunge. Venus turned back to the charging woman and the golden warrior hesitated. If she didn’t react right now, she’d be run through by Beryl’s sword.
And she was.
Both Rei and Minako gasped deep strangled breaths of ones who had been held under water for too long. Clawing at each other, seeking reassurance that the other was still very much intact and alive, they were slow to recover from the nightmare image they’d seen.
“Was it-“ Minako gasped, “was it a premonition?”
“It could have been.” Rei said through gritted teeth. “I don’t know anymore!”
“The battle, the carnage, the death-“
The Martian shook her partner’s shoulders. “It won’t happen if you don’t hesitate!”
The Venusian shook her clouded head. “But something… something made me pause. Something I couldn’t see clearly.”
Rei frowned. “No! No. Don’t look into it too hard. Don’t think about it. It might not have been a premonition at all.”
The Martian sighed one more deep breath and forced herself into a state of calm, urging Minako to follow suit as she pulled the other woman against her once more. “Even Pluto said the time stream was confused, that she couldn’t get a clear reading. We shouldn’t jump the gun on this.”
The golden haired woman’s uncertain eyes narrowed. “Then we don’t tell the others?”
“No.”
The Martian’s resolute certainty seemed to placate Minako to some amount, and she finally relaxed her body against Rei’s familiar form, forcing her heartbeat to slow to a more reasonable pace until it finally fell into rhythm with that of her partner’s.
For a brief moment, in the silence that wasn’t completely comfortable, the two women debated whether or not to tell the other a particular fact that weighed heavily on each of their minds. Rei, harboring the knowledge of what it was that had distracted the golden warrior, and Minako, the eerily distinct feeling that she hadn’t meant to hesitate at all.
Minako was the first to speak, but it wasn’t the words that were on her tongue. She settled for a different sentiment.
“We should cherish what time we have together.” She said quietly.
Rei tightened her hold around the Venusian. “I already do that, every second of the day.”
Minako allowed for a sad smile and leaned into her lover and her second in command, and the two women settled into an uninterrupted silence once again.
Author’s Notes:
I was a little worried about the Martian prayer ritual at first, and I ran that snippet past the folks at docspace to make sure it wasn’t all: “Oh noes! Rei and Minako are cutters!!11!” I was looking for some kind of ritual that Martians might participate in, something that would both bring Rei and Minako closer, and draw parallels in Rei’s senshi’s powers that she still hadn’t come to terms with.
I hope I struck a balance between fluff and reality in this chapter. It’d been such a long time since I’d written it, and I’ve been writing much darker fiction in the meantime, that the amount of waff in this chapter took me by surprise!
Please leave a review and let me know what you thought!
Special thanks to:
Sporadic and Neuo: leave it to you two to find my plot holes. . Good job!
Bomichan: if I’ve never praised your creative use of analogies, let me do so now. Saturn can be a tricky character. I think it’s easy to turn her into nothing more than a plot device, but I hope as you continue to see her in later chapters, that she’s less a tool and more a part of the story, and indeed, one of the girls.
Mels! Thank you! I think Beryl is a lot more enjoyable to write when she’s not purely evil villain. All bad guys are bad guys for a reason, and half the fun is to explore why they are that way.
Krampus: I aim for parallels, except for the big one at the end. Thank you for your praise!
Crimson Blood: It sounds like you and I saw the same things out of Rei and Minako’s relationship.
OOO
Preview, Chapter 18: First Line of Defense
Their resident genius suddenly went very, very pale.
“Ami, Ami, are you alright?” Makoto was at her side at a moments notice, kneeling next to the smaller woman where she sat at the end of a long couch in the senshi courtyard, her legs folded underneath her as she busily analyzed several windows on her computer.
Minako spun her long legs off Rei’s lap and sat up. Haruka and Michiru left their tentative posts in the back of the room and came forward. Setsuna quietly slipped in through the door as if summoned, and took a seat near the room’s wide bank of windows inconspicuously.
“Ami-chan?” Makoto prompted worriedly.
“The youma,” the Mercurian’s voice threatened to betray her, “They’re on the move. They’re leaving the pole and heading south – straight for us!”
Minako jumped to her feet. She lifted her wrist and hailed the Moon’s tacticians, shouting orders through her communicator. “Move the armies out now!” She barked.
The voice on the other end of her communicator was slow and confused. “But… to where, Venus-sama?”
“Just send them north!"
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