On Jupiter, Part Two: Fire-arrow
The morning brought what seemed like silence. With the lack of the howling winds and rumbling thunder from the night before, even the calls of the birds seemed hushed and reverent.
Rei listened closer. There were other noises, too. Gentle breathing. And an easy rhythm that matched the steady beating of her heart…
Her eyes shot open and the events of the night before hit her like a tangible force, but as soon as she took in her surroundings, she forced herself to relax so as not disturb her companion. A crooked smirk tugged at her lips.
Minako’s body was draped over her own. Though the bedroll was cast over both of their bodies, she could feel one of Minako’s long legs laced in between hers, an arm across her stomach, and the woman’s head was nestled securely in the crook of her neck.
After the weakness she’d displayed the night before, it did the Martian a world of good to wake up with the Venusian in her arms.
Rei found herself absently running her fingers through Minako’s golden tresses despite herself. But when she felt the butterfly touch of eyelashes against her neck, she quickly pulled her hand away, even if the arm lightly wrapped around the Venusian’s waist didn’t budge.
“You’re awake.”
Minako snuggled even closer, tightening her grip around the stiffening Martian. “You didn’t have to stop doing that, you know.”
“What?”
“Playing with my hair. You didn’t have to stop.”
“Uh… oh.”
A wide grin claimed Minako’s lips when the Priestess resumed her task, this time a bit more boldly as she ran her fingernails through the Venusian’s bangs and across her scalp. Minako did her best to keep her voice unaffected.
“Do you feel better?”
“Un.” Rei hesitated, at odds with herself. “Thank you.” She said finally.
Minako merely nodded, knowing better than to make a fuss out of the events of the night before so as to not hurt the pride of the willful Martian. Instead, she allowed herself to bask in Rei’s gentle, if hesitant ministrations, and just as she nearly submitted to sleep’s gentle call despite the morning hour, she felt her attention being pulled to a distinct sensation beneath her wandering fingers.
Cerulean eyes fluttered open to examine several small, raised scars on the Martian’s forearm. “What happened?” She asked quietly as she examined the old wounds.
Going by the Venusian’s soft, lingering touch that belied her constant snarky barbs and conflicting behaviors, Rei understood what was being asked without even looking. “They’re scars left from rituals used to promote good luck and fortune before going into risky battle. A Prayer Ritual.”
“A sacrifice?” Minako looked up the Martian’s amethyst eyes. “And it worked?”
Rei snorted. “I’m still alive, aren’t I?” She cracked a distant smile. “I haven’t had to evoke the ritual in some time, but I should show it to you eventually. Your peoples may benefit from it. We may benefit from it against the youma, should the battle against them worsen.”
Minako nestled her head back onto Rei’s chest. “I’m sure we could use all the prayers we can get.” She chuckled softly. “I’m not so sure about the self mutilation thing though.”
The Martian responded by tightening her arms around the golden haired woman. “No, I suppose the Venusians wouldn’t appreciate that, much, even if they are mere scratches.”
The mood shifted slightly. The Venusian swallowed audibly. “Ne, Rei?”
“Hmm?”
“Answer a question for me.”
Whether it was due to the soft fingers that suddenly splayed across her bare midriff, or fear of a question that might wander outside of her comfort zone, the Priestess stiffened. “What?”
Minako propped herself up on an elbow. Cerulean eyes turned serious. “If someone is siphoning what you sense, does it weaken you?”
What was this woman’s need to get to know her better? Rei tore her gaze from Minako’s.
“Yes.”
The Venusian followed the Martian’s feint and her fingers were quick to lightly trace Rei’s jaw line, though the stubborn Priestess offered no small amount of resistance and still refused to make eye contact with her.
But Minako was undeterred. “Then why did you let me do it last night? And the other day?”
“I…” The Priestess hesitated. Her amethyst eyes narrowed. Her fingers gripped the loose cloth of Minako’s shirt tightly, only to release it again. “I… I have to pee!”
Despite the weight that held her down, the Martian managed to slip from Minako’s embrace and stumble out of the tent.
The Venusian sighed and stretched out across the spot Rei had vacated. She chuckled. It was the first ungraceful rebuttal she’d heard from the woman.
‘Have I affected her that much?’“Ah.”
“We should probably get up.”
“Ah.”
“Come on, sleepyhead. I know you’ve been awake for the past hour. We should break camp.”
“Don’t wanna.”
Makoto smiled. This was a side of herself the genius only ever showed to her, but she knew an effective way of rousing the Mercurian. Her lips found the sensitive skin of Ami’s collarbone and suddenly, the other woman’s childish protests turned into very adult moans.
“You’re worse than me.” Ami purred.
“Oh, I highly doubt that. It was you who kept me up last night, despite that snake bite.”
Ami smirked wickedly, another gesture she saved only for the tall Jovian pinned underneath her petite form. “I didn’t hear you complaining then.”
“And you won’t hear me complaining now.” Makoto purred as she lifted her torso to claim the other woman’s increasingly tempting lips…
“I have to pee!”Makoto’s head hit her pillow and Ami sighed.
“Sounds like they’re back at it.”
“Somehow, I have a feeling it was a pretty interesting night in their tent, too.”
Despite the weather having broken, the going was still tough. Instead of the constant rain and wind, the hot, humid weather weighed the travelers down. Attracted by the ever present mud and the promise of fresh blood, biting insects were in abundance, even as they’d progressed out of the tropical band of rainforests and into the flat prairies of tall grass beyond. The sight of the distant sun was a rare treat on the normally cloudy planet, and it slowly trekked across the sparsely cloudy sky.
Hours later, sunset on the Jovian surface brought sorely needed relief and as the orange orb of the sun met with the red and orange clouds near the horizon, dusk on the prairie looked more like a fading firestorm.
“It’s getting dark already.” Minako noted.
“It was harder to tell yesterday since it was storming, but a day on Jupiter lasts only ten hours.” Ami said matter of factly.
“Looks like we’ll be trekking through the night then.” Rei barked.
“Sounds like fun.” The Venusian sighed.
“Oh, it should be.”
“Ami-chan, are you feeling alright?” Minako asked in a mocking voice.
Makoto raised an eyebrow to her leader. “A clear night on Jupiter is full of surprises, and we’re on the perfect terrain to catch some of them.”
“Some of what?” Minako asked, even as she walked right into Rei’s unyielding form. Following the Priestess’ upward gaze, even the yappy Venusian shut her mouth.
A cylindrical ring of light stretched across the ever-darkening sky, forming a lazy circle of electric blue and the brightest white. Nearing the sky’s horizon, one of Jupiter’s satellites raced its way through the night sky. A pocked orb of yellowish green, it wasn’t necessarily its large size that was of interest, but more its plumes of volcanic activity that exploded outwards in wide arcs in the night sky.
“Aurora borealis,” Ami’s observation was more out of awe than instruction, yet it was in her nature to explain the phenomenon, “caused by the magnetic reactions of Io’s volcanoes. It’s a rare treat to see both at the same time.”
“Ah.” Minako’s awed comment could do the view no justice, but then, no words could.
As the women stood in awe of the phenomenon, Io completed its fast, fiery descent just as Ganymede began to break over the opposite horizon. At twice the size of the other satellite, it showered the prairie with a crystal blue light as its smooth, icy face grew over the shrinking rainforests behind them.
Makoto’s arm snaked out to rest around Ami’s waist. Jupiter was her home, and to see such sights was nothing new to her. She was as easily taken by the Mercurian’s beauty as the electric blue light of the aurora borealis mingled with her cobalt eyes.
Still nearly standing on top of Rei from when they’d stopped, Minako tentatively reached out for the Martian’s hand and offered her an unsteady smile. “I guess we should… keep going, huh?”
“Ye… yeah.” Rei replied. And when she found herself lacing her fingers with the Venusian’s, she was rewarded with a full blown smile from the other woman.
“We’re not far now.” Ami said analytically, tearing her eyes from first the majestic display of nature, and then the less majestic yet equally as touching display between the two women, to her transparent read out that hovered before her.
And the Mercurian was right; that magical moment couldn’t last forever. The four women had found the teleport circuit all too soon, and the gentle, reverent mood was broken, for standing around its metal confines, it was time to get serious.
With cold frowns on stern faces, Rei, Minako, Ami and Makoto went into warrior mode as they prepared themselves for what awaited them at Jupiter’s pole.
They tore across the flat valley so fast that the hazy, driving snow couldn’t find purchase, and served only to threaten frostbite to what skin was exposed on the women’s faces.
After donning protective layers of clothing, their packs had been abandoned at the teleport circuit, but they were quick to find that no amount of clothing could fully protect them from the wrath of Jupiter’s pole.
Still, the four warriors plodded forward. Rei took the lead, a spiritual guide with a hankering for youma cutting a path through the snows. Minako trailed closely behind, both longing for the warmth of the animal skin and physical closeness they’d shared back on Mars’ pole, and careful to watch the Priestess for any sign of fatigue. At the moment, the hardy Martian seemed unstoppable. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Makoto and Ami were still up to the challenge.
“The center of the pole’s just up ahead.” Makoto called out over the winds.
“How do you know?” Minako demanded.
“See that vortex?” Ami asked, pointing to an eerie, cloudless void of fading aural activity where the light of dawn filtered through the swirling clouds was only beginning to banish the night’s darkness. “It’s a hexagon of high altitude haze that surrounds the polar region.”
“Then, if the youma are here, they should be under that vortex.” Minako concluded.
Ami nodded. “Hypothetically.”
Makoto cracked her knuckles. “Then lets-“
“Wait!” All eyes turned to the Priestess. “Scouting party!” She barked.
Rei unstrung her bow and notched an arrow in a fluid motion, aiming it into the emptiness ahead, and the bright, golden light she associated with Minako’s senshi transformation enveloped the Venusian.
Minako stood before the women as Sailor Venus and urgently turned to her other two senshi. “Don’t doubt her – transform now!”
Blue and green glows, not too dissimilar from Minako’s own, enveloped Makoto and Ami respectively. From the corner of her eye, Rei allowed herself a sideways glance of Jupiter and Mercury. Despite the foolishly scant costumes they donned, she expected them to be nearly as formidable as Venus herself.
It took a few seconds longer than she’d expected, but finally, a dozen of the loathsome creatures haphazardly appeared on the horizon.
“Rei’s right.” Mercury said hurriedly, examining their foes through a translucent blue screen across her eyes. “It’s a scouting party. The odds are three to one, but they don’t know we’re here yet. If we attack first, we’ll hold the element of surprise.”
‘Strategist.’ Rei realized.
Jupiter snorted. She flexed her hand and a brilliant arc of lightening appeared. “Then what are we waiting for, lets get them!”
‘Brute force.’ The Priestess noted.
“Jupiter, you’re with me.” Venus said, and her warriors gave her their utmost attention. “We work best with our close range attacks. Rei and Mercury, you hang back. We’ll depend on the two of you to take out as many as possible with your long range attacks before we get up close and personal with those ugly bastards.
Rei smirked. ‘Commander.’
Jupiter and Venus were off and running.
Mercury chuckled and flexed her gloved hands. A spray of bubbles filled her palms. “It’s never easy to see the ones you care for run off into danger, is it?”
Rei’s arrow faltered in the slightest. She chose silence, and righted her aim.
After several calculations, cobalt eyes narrowed. “Now!”
Mercury released a lethal spray of razor sharp bubbles. Hot on the trail of the elemental attack, an arrow cut through the air, followed by another, and then another, the sound of Rei’s bow snapping tensely with each projectile fired in rapid succession.
Four of the youma collapsed before the scouting party had even detected the threat. The dumb creatures saw the golden and green warriors first, their courageous charge demanding their attention, even as two more of the numbers were culled by a Shabon Spray and a succession of three arrows to the skull of the other.
“Six left!” Venus shouted with a manic grin.
Jupiter chuckled heartily. “Three for you and three for me!”
The chain that had hung around the golden warrior’s waist was in her hands and glowing with an eager light. “I’m aiming for something more like sixty/forty!” She exclaimed as the chain snaked out and wrapped around a monster’s thick neck. She ran behind it and pulled, and it hit the frozen ground with a crash as Jupiter delivered a roundhouse kick between the red, beady eyes of another.
“Showoff!” Rei snarled as her eyes tracked Venus’ movements, even as she dropped another youma with another round of the last of her arrows. “I’m out!” She barked to Mercury, who deftly took out the next of three remaining youma.
And Rei’s observation had been right. Venus leapt from the chest of the youma she’d not only dropped but had run through the chest with her sword, flying through the air recklessly, limbs akimbo in the air.
“Behind you!” Rei shouted, even as the youma she’d dropped earlier rose to shaky feet at the discovery that its wound had not been nearly as fatal as Venus had intended.
But her words would never reach the Venusian in time, and neither would Jupiter; the tall brunette’s fist sparkled with lightening as she sparred with one of two remaining intact youma.
The image of the rising youma pulling the sword from the remains of its chest and rushing Venus from behind burned itself into the Martian’s retina…
A surge of power sparked deep within her. Instinct grabbed her and the Priestess embraced it.
She raised her bow, drew back the empty string and aimed…
Rei was suddenly looking down through the sight of a flaming arrow. It felt natural, like an extension of herself, but refusing to be captured by the wonder, she focused her sight on the youma who charged after Venus… and released it.
‘Please…’Even as the golden warrior thrust her sword deep into the heart of the youma in front of her, the body of another fell beside her, clipping her shoulder with its sharp claws and narrowly missed taking her body to the ground with it. She recognized it as her first victim that hadn’t been dead after all…
And imbedded in the back of its skull, a flaming arrow winked out of existence.
“Rei?” She asked, her eyes darting to the other end of the battlefield where the raven haired warrior lowered her empty bow. Their gazes leveled on one another, and before she was even aware of it, Venus had taken to her feet.
She sprinted past Mercury, each woman dashing in opposite directions with different targets. All too soon, the leader of the senshi was standing before the Martian in baited silence.
Rei avoided the obvious. “Shouldn’t you have that looked at?” She pointed to the ugly wound left by the youma’s claws. It wasn’t deep, but it must have been painful.
Venus looked to her shoulder. She looked back at Rei. Her golden light enveloped her once more. Venus Minako was left in its wake, clad in her winter gear. The woman tugged at the collar of her heavy jacket, revealing the wound. Rei gasped. The skin was slowly mending itself right before her eyes.
She had questions, but so did Minako.
“What was that.” She demanded almost coldly.
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Rei. How did create that fire-arrow?”
The Priestess faltered. She’d like to know the answer to that question herself. “I… don’t know.” She whispered, her voice rising in volume quickly. “It just happened!” There had been no time to analyze the situation; she’d acted on instinct. She didn’t even know if she could access that wonderful, frightening power again.
The two women stared at each other. The wind howled through the small gap left between their bodies.
“Mina-chan! Rei-san!”
The two turned to Makoto, and the tall warrior pointed urgently to a slight rise in the distance.
Rei looked back to Minako and nodded, for she knew.
The youma base was just over that rise.
Underneath the atmospheric void of the pole, a gathering of youma that rivaled what Minako and Rei had found on Mars was a bustling city of youma.
“Wait.” Ami said distractedly, analyzing the data her VR goggles relayed to her. “It’s not just youma…”
Rei’s brows furrowed. She squinted and sent a part of her consciousness out and over the youma camp.
“I see… people.” The Mercurian said, magnifying her goggles to show her the center of the youma camp. A small projection appeared before the four warriors.
“Victims?” Rei asked. “They feed off of, and gather life energy-“
“No. They’re alive.” Ami’s cryptic response was more than unsettling.
The grainy projection blurred, and then refocused. Amongst the foul creatures, surrounding the access point from which more and more of the disposable monster soldiers appeared, were five other forms.
“Their signatures are weak.” Ami said hurriedly as she analyzed their astral footprints. She gasped. “They might be-“
“Humans.” Rei spat with no small amount of derision. “I can sense it.”
“Earthlings?” Makoto’s whispered words were telling. “Ami?”
The petite woman could only nod darkly.
Minako snorted. “Serenity won’t be happy about this.”
“The Queen?” Rei asked.
“And the Princess.” Minako confirmed.
This chapter lays the groundwork for several threads to be explored in upcoming chapters.
By the way, the youma that I’m using are direct copies of the youma that appeared early on in the Sailor Moon S arc, like the one that attacked when Haruka first accepted her henshin wand. They were by far the ugliest of the monsters, and somehow, the most realistic in terms of actually looking like monsters.
I also have to admit that I took the easy way out with Ami and Makoto’s relationship by having them already be an item before the story started. I’m not as comfortable writing them, and since they weren’t the main focus of the storyline, I cheated a little by having them already be together.
OOO
Preview, Chapter 5: When I’m Sober
“Mina-chan, shouldn’t you be with the others? I thought the four of you were going to develop a plan for your next mission.”
“Yes, I’ll join them soon.” Plans had already started to form in the Venusian’s mind, but they could wait for the moment. Minako stepped closer to her Princess. “I… hope you don’t mind, Serenity-chan, but, there is a question I’d like to ask.”
Serenity took Minako’s hands. “Anything.”
The Venusian’s shoulders stiffened and their hands became quite interesting. “When we attacked the scouting party on Jupiter’s pole, Rei ran out of arrows,” a lengthy pause ensued and Serenity did not press the matter. Minako finally met her Princess’ gaze, “but she saved me with an arrow born of-“
“Shh.” The Princess of the Moon pressed a finger to her senshi’s lips and when Minako looked to her in question, her sweet smile somehow set the other woman at ease.
“It’s supposed to be this way, Mina-chan.” She smiled sagely. “Now, your friends are waiting for you.”
OOO
(preview, part 2)
“People are watching.” She finally hissed.
Minako sucked her teeth noisily. “Let them.” She met Rei’s amethyst eyes with no small amount of amusement. “Unless you could honestly say that you wouldn’t appreciate two beautiful women walking down the street arm in arm?”
Rei snorted and looked away. Minako won.
“Besides, I think you like it.” She said smugly.
“Or maybe I just don’t have a free hand to ward off your drunken advances.”
The Venusian chuckled. “Aren’t we doing this all backwards?”
“What?”
“Isn’t the sober one supposed to take advantage of the drunken one?”
“I hate to break this to you, Minako, but it’s not seduction if you tell the other party what you’re doing.”
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