Server banks lined the floor as far as the eye could see.
Green and red lights blinked irregularly, creating a universe of stop and go stars. The white noise of thousands of cooling fans was a constant hum that could be felt in one’s feet. The gentle breeze that was artificially pumped through the massive space was goosebump inducing, and the tall brunette held her arms to her chest gingerly.
“It’s creepy in here.”
“The Eternity Main System is hardly anything to be afraid of.” Her blue haired companion said with an airy chuckle, even as her eyes were held captive to the translucent readout before her.
Makoto stomped ten feet from Ami, turned, and paced back again. “Still, this is no place for me. I should be on Mercury, with Venus and Rei-san.”
Ami tore her eyes from her data and swiveled in her chair. She caught the Jovian by the wrist as she paced past. “Mako-chan, you know you don’t have to fight to be useful.”
A blush dusted Makoto’s cheeks and her hazel eyes darted to the floor, yet a small smile teased the corner of her mouth. Ami had taught her this lesson on several occasions, but it was one the tomboy was still learning to accept.
“Besides,” Ami said, “I think this is something Mina-chan and Rei-san have to figure out on their own.”
“And you’re not talking about the mission anymore.”
The blunette raised a suggestive eyebrow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She spun back to her workstation before her best friend could give her a case of the giggles. “Now, you need to go. Serenity-chan will be expecting you shortly.”
The Jovian glanced down at her chronometer and nodded. Their Princess would be wrapping up her tutoring session soon. She laid a hand on the smaller woman’s shoulder. “I’ll bring you something sweet after my guard shift ends.”
Ami looked back over her shoulder. “Why not now?”
“But I don’t have-“
Ami grabbed Makoto by her collar and pulled the other woman towards her for upside down kiss.
“That’ll do.” She said cheerfully before she retuned her attention back to her readout.
Mercury’s atmosphere was notoriously thin, and the solar winds that sheared at the nearly non-existent stratospheres of the poles only made oxygen that much harder to come by.
“You should transform.” Rei said sharply, her words short and clipped to conserve her breath.
“It’s the skirt, isn’t it? I bet it gets you every time.”
“I… what!?” The Priestess looked back over her shoulder where Minako laughed shallowly and then choked from the effort.
“Serves you right.” Rei barked. “I only thought it would make it easier for you to breathe in that form.”
The leader of the senshi touched a finger to her chin. “It probably would.” She admitted. “But you don’t have that advantage.”
Rei’s eyes narrowed. “So?”
Minako opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by the chronometer communicators strapped to both hers and Rei’s wrists.
“Ami to Venus.”
“Minako here.”
The Martian’s brows met and she gestured to the Venusian. “See? Even the brains of this operation thinks you should transform.” She hissed.
Minako snorted. “I am the brains of this operation.”
Rei sighed. “We’re officially doomed.”
The leader of the senshi smiled cheerfully and pushed the Priestess forward as Ami spoke.
“The transport circuit that brought you just left should only be a few hours walk from the technical point of the pole. It shouldn’t be a long journey.”
“Ch’. If only Jupiter had been that easy.” Rei mumbled.
Minako frowned. She wouldn’t have had Jupiter any other way, but then, the Martian seemed to be known for her bravado and careless attitude and she decided not to dwell on it.
The air was eerily still and quiet. The women’s boots crunched on loose gravel and the splintering cracks of thin sheets of ice elicited chilling shockwaves that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.
Minako’s boot crunched an empty hole in the ice. “It’s freezing here, but the ice is so thin.”
“Because the sun’s proximity is so close, its intensity keeps perma-ice from forming, even though it is very cold. The further north you travel, the thicker the ice will get.”
Ami’s text book explanation was obvious, both women could feel the intensity of the sun; its heat was a direct contrast to the cold temperatures, and gave a result of feeling both icily cold and stifling warm at the same time.
After awhile, Minako shuddered. The silence became too much to bear. “You’re missing a very eerie landscape, Ami-chan.”
“I envy that you’re witnessing first hand what I’ve seen only in pictures.” The Mercurian admitted.
“Gotten over your fear of poles, Ami-chan?”
Minako was met with silence. Apparently not, then.
Hours passed slowly. The sun, never more than a looming, orange half circle that hugged the cratered horizon, had set and risen once already due to the planet’s short day span, and Minako and Rei had ventured into harsher territory where the colder climate saw less of the sun’s effects.
“Ch’.” It was a simple curse, but she’d tired of mumbling longer ones as falling onto her rear end became a more frequent endeavor. The Martian Priestess rubbed her backside tenderly. She’s take snow over ice any day.
Never one to miss an opportunity, Minako took advantage of the situation. “You know, you have terrible balance for a savage.”
“Please.” Rei groaned. “I’ve picked your ass up off the ground twice as often as I’ve fallen.”
“I’ve barely fallen at all. You exaggerate.”
“You underestimate, Princess.”
“Ah, so you took my words to heart last night, ne?”
“Considering how much you drank, I’m surprised you even remembered your words from last night.”
Rei scrambled to her knees and prepared to rise when a hand was thrust into her face. She smirked at the Venusian and took the proffered hand to be aided to her feet. And there they stood before each other, unsure if their shallow breaths and quickened heartbeats were solely attributed to the thin atmosphere anymore.
They were throwing verbal barbs one minute and holding hands the next, but Rei found herself guessing that the Venusian’s actions were more telling than her words. She could be so gentle one moment, yet harsh the next, but was that really any different than herself?
Under the Martian’s scrutinizing gaze, the Venusian’s eyes darted away and she wrenched her hand out of Rei’s grasp quickly.
“Minako?”
“I don’t want to siphon your energy.” The Venusian said causally, remembering that that she really had chosen to bring Rei with her for reasons that weren’t entirely selfish. With her nose to the air, she began walking away.
The Priestess forged forward and grabbed Minako’s hand. “It’ll be okay. We’re getting close now, anyway.”
The Venusian’s gaze trailed to where their hands were joined. “But…”
“The dark energy is strong here,” Rei said awkwardly, “and there’s lots of it, and…”
Cerulean eyes looked hopeful. “And?”
“Well, I don’t like the youma. It makes them much easier to track…”
Rei’s words died a slow death on her tongue. When last she’d used her sensing abilities, she’d feared for Minako’s safety. Her feelings for the other woman were a jumbled mess. There were a million other reasons why it had drained her so quickly. Rei had only settled on the safest.
“Oh?” Minako asked, and suddenly, her teasing, flirtatious nature had returned. She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Then, do you like – ah!”
Rei sighed and helped the other woman up off the ground, but she kept a firm hand around Minako’s own as she advanced once more.
Having been robbed of the moment, the Venusian was irked and had begun to pout when she felt the first twinges of what Rei sensed through the link they shared. The pout faded from her lips. Her brows furrowed. She found herself biting her lower lip. The darkness that permeated the auras that Rei tracked was nearly incapacitating. Glancing at the other woman, who forged forward despite being bombarded by the same darkness, she steeled herself, for the unpleasantness of the auras they tracked was preferable to the alternative of not walking hand in hand with the Martian.
“You know,” Minako began, eager for any amount of small talk to distract herself from the unpleasantness, “I have an innate ability like your ability to track auras.”
“Hn?”
“I can’t read minds or anything, but I am empathic.”
“Empathic?”
“I can sense strong emotions from others; sadness, loneliness, excitement, but especially love.”
“Love?” Rei’s frown was indicative of a deep mistrust of the word.
“Well, it is the ruling power of my planet.”
“Of course it is.” Rei said dryly, but her clipped words seemed to put off the Venusian. She was unused to all this... speaking openly. But she wanted to try. “Tell me more.” She said hesitantly.
“Well, Ami-chan and Mako-chan, for example.”
“Even I figured that one out.”
“Fine then.” Minako stuck her nose to the air again. “Well then, you haven’t met him yet, and they haven’t seen each other in awhile, but Prince Endymion and Serenity-chan.”
Rei’s eyes narrowed. “Ah.” She said, slowing her pace.
“Un. That’s makes this whole situation with the Earth that much more difficult.”
“Well, what about you, then?” Rei asked over her shoulder, not so offhandedly
“What about me?” Minako asked dumbly.
Rei titled her head at her and the Venusian blushed faintly. “Oh! Oh. I’ve… I’ve never been able to get a reading on myself, strangely enough.” Minako stopped walking all together, and when Rei was met with resistance, she too stopped and looked at the other woman over her shoulder in question.
The slightly smaller woman claimed the space that had formed between them. “And for some reason, I can’t seem to read you, either.”
Suddenly, their communicators crackled, and both women physically flinched. “Why have you two stopped? Is everything all right? The technical point of the pole is very close now.”
‘Great timing, Ami-chan.’ Minako growled to herself.
Rei pointed to the distance where the ragged edge of a massive crater gave way to a sharp blackness beyond. Minako nodded, and the two women headed in that direction with renewed determination.
“Chao-Meng-Fu Crater.” Ami whispered. “An impact crater that is one hundred and ten miles wide. Could they be hiding there?”
Rei nodded with no amount of doubt.
“We seem to think so, Ami-chan.”
The two women sidled up to the crater’s edge, laying their bodies flat against the rise to avoid detection.
“It’s… too dark to see.” Rei whispered.
“The angle of the sun doesn’t allow any light into the crater’s depths.” Ami said. “I was prepared for this. Switch your communicators to infrared display. My visor will pick up what your communicators see.”
The women toggled through several settings on their chronometers and blue shield like apparatuses, similar to the one Mercury possessed in her senshi form, flashed before their eyes. The Martian was a little taken aback by the technology and took some time adjusting to the false color display. At first, they thought something was wrong with the equipment, as all they could see was a pulsing, undulating mass of reds and yellows. But then…
“Ami-chan, is there-“
“No. Nothing’s wrong with the equipment. There really are just that many youma down there. Tens of thousands.” She whispered. “At least.”
Rei could feel Minako shiver next to her body and fought the urge to do so herself. Regaining her calm composure, her eyes continued to scan the crater. “There,” she finally said, “in the center of the crater, coordinates J3, 1T.”
“Just like on Mars and Jupiter.” Minako said.
“You’re right,” Ami confirmed, “they’re circulating around the access point.”
“And they’re there,” Rei said darkly, “the humans.”
Minako looked to her companion. “Can you be sure they’re the same as the humans we saw on Jupiter?”
“We were rather far away on Jupiter to make out any details,” Ami noted, “and here, all we have is infrared, so we can’t really-“
“They’re the same.” Rei spat. “I can tell by their auras. Four human men, one human woman. They’re nearly as tainted by the darkness as the youma, but… I can’t sense anything distinguishable. The darkness that surrounds them is so great that I can’t identify them further.”
“So we still have little to go by.”
Ami’s comment was purely analytical in nature, but Rei growled nonetheless.
“Wait,” Ami said. “The two of you, focus on the access point. We may be able to leave here with more information.”
Minako and Rei did as they were told, only to be met with the Mercurian’s frustrated sigh. “No go. I’d hoped to get a reading on the access point; to discern if it was made of Earth materials, but I just can’t see clearly enough, not even with all the different settings I filtered through.”
“We could get closer.”
Minako’s brow furrowed at Rei’s dangerous idea. “No.” The Venusian decided swiftly. “We got what we came for. The clues still point to Earth. Now let’s go.”
“Good work, you two. I have a lot of data to analyze and compare to our findings on Jupiter. Please return as quickly as possible. Ami out.” The communicator crackled and the transmission ended.
“Don’t even think about it.” Minako growled warningly, her eyes trained on the Martian, so eager to throw herself into battle. “I know you want revenge, but there are entirely too many of them down there.”
Rei frowned. Her hand balled into a fist, released, then clenched once more. The Venusian laid a hand on her shoulder and the Priestess was forced to look into those cerulean eyes.
“You’ll get your chance, Rei, trust me. Now come on.”
The Priestess nodded reluctantly, and turned, only to be met with the frightening vision of a youma standing right on top of them. She’d been unable to sense its approach – its aura had blended in with mass of the others in the crater, and there was no time to act; only to react.
Minako frowned when the Priestess’ stony expression shifted into a look of shock. “Rei?”
And then the Venusian was being pushed to the icy ground, Rei’s body shoving her down roughly.
And all Minako could see was claws that narrowly missed her face, but that didn’t miss Rei at all. The Martian squinted and grunted as she took the blow, and used the inertia of their combined weight to roll both their bodies away.
The Venusian scrambled to her feet and pulled the Priestess up with her. She hadn’t even finished transforming, the golden light hadn’t even faded when Sailor Venus thrust her sword through the youma’s neck and sliced upwards savagely. Its head fell to the ground and rolled at their feet.
“Run.” Venus barked. “Do it now! We have to get away from the crater!” Already, more of the monsters were rushing them. “We have to lure the scouts away so they don’t call for reinforcements or we’ll never stand a chance!”
Both women sprinted, running as fast as they could from the gaping mouth of the crater. Rei soon lost speed. Breathing had already been difficult due to the thin atmosphere, but to sprint under such conditions, and to do so while being chased and wounded, was quickly taking its toll. Venus ran alongside her, and she knew the senshi was slowing down to keep pace with her. The Martian dug deeper, and upped her pace.
But they were soon surrounded by far too many youma.
Wild eyes of amethyst and cerulean looked to the circle that tightened around them of what was easily three dozen youma, three times what they had fought as a group of four. The women pressed their backs to each other, slouched into defensive stances and unsheathed their swords.
Of all things to do, Venus laughed. “If we make it out of this alive, I’m going to kill you.”
Rei snorted. “Now what did I do?”
“That stunt you pulled back there that earned you that wound.”
“The wound is nothing, it’s just a scrape. Look, I’m fine! I’m barely even bleeding.” The Martian sliced the air before her, effortlessly twirling her sword in wide arcs to prove her point.
The golden warrior was unimpressed. “I’m warning you, Rei, don’t you ever sacrifice yourself for me again.”
“Sacrifice?” Rei cried. “What are you talking about? You claim to be this great diplomat, but you know nothing of Martian behaviors-”
The youma took that as their cue and as one, with arms raised and mouths wide open, their lumbering forms charged the two women.
But as the wall of monsters approached, the Martian dropped to her knees in a boneless heap. Her hand came to rest above her heart. Her breath all but froze in her lungs. Her vision turned red. ‘What is this?’ Her eyes focused on the golden warrior – standing, she was an easier target, and as fierce claws reached out for Venus’ slender form, Rei felt the power she’d experienced on Jupiter surge to life within her.
She didn’t hesitate. She embraced it fully. Rei screamed. She felt like she was on fire.
In reality, she was.
The flames of Mars enveloped Rei’s body, flaring to life first in individual red-orange tongues of fire, and then, Rei was no more. A bright red light blinded the youma, blinded Venus, blinded herself. The fire of her ravished planet, long held captive within her body, surged forward, and when it had vanished, the senshi of Mars stood in Rei’s place, and the many youma that had threatened her and her companion lie scattered across the ground. Some were burned, some were charred, and some were disintegrated completely.
“Rei…” Venus’ voice was a whisper.
The raven haired warrior shook her head. “Mars.” She whispered as correction.
“Mars.” Venus’ tongue sampled her new comrade’s name like an exotic delicacy.
But the youma weren’t defeated yet. Many rose on shaky legs. Most of them were injured, weakened, but they still had sheer numbers to their advantage.
Venus pressed her back to Mars’ once more.”Ready?” She asked.
“When you are.” Mars replied.
With a piercing shout, the golden warrior launched herself into the fray, sword raised as she sliced with one hand, her other arm cocked behind her as she unleashed a steady stream of precisely aimed crescent beams.
Mars could have been Venus’ dark reflection. She too lunged into the fray with a chilling shout, her sword swinging, while she unleashed a similar attack that was based not off of light, but of fire; a burning mandala that would seek out prey and incinerate it within its whirling vortex.
Venus kept an eye on the new senshi. Mars’ power was raw, untamed, and fiercely reactive, much like the Priestess herself, but the biggest surprise was that together, the two women fought as one in a near even match of skill and power. Complementing each other’s weakness and reinforcing their strengths, they seemed to come together and cover each others’ backs when the enemy crushed in around them, and they spread out for maximum kill effect when the youma dispersed.
It had seemed like an impossible task, but in little time, the icy ground was littered with youma corpses.
Rei thrust her sword into the heart of a monster that twitched on the ground, bleeding, but not dead until her finishing blow killed it off. “Did we get them all?”
“There!” Venus shouted, and she pointed to a limping straggler who was desperately trying to edge its way back to camp, back to the crater, back to reinforcements.
Mars thrust her left hand before her and cocked her right hand to her shoulder. Suddenly, she found herself looking down the sight of not only a fire-arrow, but a fire-bow, the other half of the deadly attack she had sampled in her last skirmish against the youma. A flame sniper.
The fire-arrow screamed through the air and found its mark. The monster hit the ground well shy of the crater it had hoped to seek reinforcements within.
The still air was oppressively quiet as the two senshi stared at each other. The warrior of love openly examined the warrior of fire. Her crimson colored fuku was unremarkable with its similarities to the rest of the senshi’s. Her powers, though exceptionally strong, were equally as unremarkable, nearly a similar attack compared to her own, albeit with a different element.
It was the woman herself, however, that was remarkable. And it was a thought that the Venusian just couldn’t seem to shake, no matter how hard she tried.
Venus took a hesitant step towards Mars. Her voice turned serious, scolding. “You would so willingly become a senshi, Priestess?”
“Apparently, that decision was not mine to make. It is who I am.” Mars’ voice shared Rei’s cold tone that harkened back to when the Venusian had first met her.
“Then you would give your life for our Princess?”
“I’ve been informed that it is my duty. To defend and protect…” she paused, and looked into Venus’ cerulean gaze, “what is mine, comes with this price.”
Minako wasn’t sure how to interpret the Martian’s words. She took another step closer. “And you would accept my command on the field of battle?”
“You’ve already proven your leadership abilities to me.” The Martian’s voice lost some of its previous venom. She would have never expected it, but she could see this woman as her equal and her commander, If not something more.
Venus took one step closer, so that there was no more distance between them. “And you would trust me, with your life?” It was obvious that this was no longer Venus speaking, but Minako.
“Have I not already done that?” Mars asked, her words quiet, thoughtful. “Since the first day that we met? As you did for me?”
The Venusian’s tense body relaxed slightly, her shoulders slumped, but her fists did not release. “Then why didn’t you tell me you were the heir to your planet, Rei?”
“It wasn’t relevant at the time.”
And that was just like the Martian. Practical. Relevant. Both those words accurately described the Priestess, but Minako had learned the fiery Martian also had other words in her hidden vocabulary. Passion. Loyalty. A fierce sense of determination. And when these seldom seen attributes were aimed at her, the fact that the quirky Priestess could sometimes be distant and closed didn’t seem to matter so much.
‘But… am I relevant to her now?’ It was a question that begged to be answered, but it was not the place or the time.
As was becoming quite the norm, Venus’ melodic laugh shattered the stillness between them. She pointed to the Martian’s senshi footwear. “It would have to be high heels, for as much as you complained about them.”
The Martian frowned. In the heat of battle, the last thing she’d taken notice of was her attire, and to find herself clothed in the same skimpy outfit she’d so thoroughly poked fun at raised an embarrassed blush to her cheeks.
“I think you like it.” Venus said in a singsong voice.
“I do not!”
“Still, you should thank me for tricking you into wearing dresses and high heels in the palace. It was good practice, don’t you think?”
Mars felt her hackles rise. “So it was a trick!”
“Come on already,” Venus walked away casually. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Mako-chan won’t be happy to hear we broke both of her conditions.”
“That power would have been helpful a few hours ago, you know.” Venus whined.
“Oh, you know me,” Mars spat. “I just love to give you things to complain about.”
The Venusian laid a mocking hand over her heart. “Your sarcasm wounds me so.”
“I’ll bet you’re just disappointed that you don’t have an excuse to lean on me anymore.”
“You’ve seen right through me, Rei.”
The Martian looked to the Venusian. It was all too obvious that the golden warrior wasn’t really joking.
Mars grabbed Venus by the wrist roughly. The barbs, the innuendo, the tension between them, not to mention the near misses and Minako’s drunken inhibitions the night before… it was all too much for the Priestess to ignore any longer.
And if the Venusian was too afraid to take that step that she so obviously wanted to take, then she’d just have to take it for her.
“I’ve had enough of this.” Mars spat.
Venus’ breath caught in her throat. A firm tug on her wrist had her falling into the slightly taller woman and the next thing she knew, the Martian’s lips had roughly claimed her own in a savage kiss.
With a gasping breath, both women parted. Venus couldn’t read Mars’ cloudy eyes.
The Martian frowned. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
“Am I the selfish one, Rei?” Venus’ uncertain voice was so unlike the woman. “Am I the only one that wanted that?”
Mars hadn’t been equipped to deal with that imploring response, the emotion in Venus’ voice, and she couldn’t find a single appropriate word in any language with which to express herself.
And Venus was waiting.
Those amethyst eyes softened. One arm wrapped loosely around Venus’ waist and her gloved fingers found the other woman’s chilled cheek.
This kiss was soft. It was tender. It was thousands of unspoken words too early to utter.
They parted again. Venus’ cerulean eyes were slow to flutter open, as though she were caught in a dream-like state.
From there, it was impossible to tell who initiated what. If their first kiss had been awkward, and their second gentle and sweet, then the third was exploratory. Mars’ arms tightened around Venus, and Venus clawed at Mars’ back. The fourth was excited, and the fifth… the fifth was sheer passion, and both women were left panting in its wake.
But Mars wanted more, and was surprised when she was met with resistance. A gentle finger was pressed to her lips and the Priestess opened her eyes in confusion.
“Don’t get me wrong. I fully intend to pick up where we left off,” Venus whispered, and then smirked, “but could we please get the hell off this pole?!”
“Race you.” Mars whispered huskily.
“You’re on.” Venus growled.
The two senshi made a break for it, for the faster they could get back to the transport circuit and back to their shuttle on the other end of the transport jump, the faster they’d be back in each others arms, exploring this new dynamic to their relationship.
Finally! So, was the wait for the inevitable Rei/Mina get-together scene worth it? And no, don’t worry, it’s not nearly over between the two of them. What did you think?
Oh, and the Eternity Main System is the manga name for the super computer on the Moon. And yes, Chao-Meng Fu crater really is a real location on Mercury’s northern pole.
OOO
Preview, Chapter 7: On Venus: Martyr
A barely controlled fist pounded the table.
“What do you mean she’s gone back to Venus!?” Rei exclaimed at breakfast the next morning.
Makoto’s hand lunged for her juice glass and her quick reflexes kept the orange liquid from spilling onto the table. “We got a dispatch from her planet late yesterday afternoon. Apparently, the youma invasion is getting worse on Venus and there was a skirmish outside the main capital.”
“And you guys let her go alone?”
“Its not that we wanted to let her go by herself, Rei-san.” Ami clarified.
The Priestess frowned darkly. ‘That hypocrite! She can’t be allowed to scold me for not accepting her help the way she did on Jupiter if she’s going to do the same thing to me.’
“You know how she gets,” Serenity pointed her fork at Rei, “all we can do is support her from here. Besides, we made her promise she wouldn’t fight. She was only allowed to go if she agreed to check the damage, show her support for her people, and come back.”
‘Sure. We promised not to fight the youma on Mercury’s pole, too.’
Makoto nodded brightly. “Yeah, and if the youma attack the city again, she knows we’re on standby if she needs our help.”
Rei pounded the table again, and this time, Makoto’s juice did splash out of her glass.
Serenity jumped to her feet. “Rei-chan, where are you going?”
The Martian halted at the door before glancing back over her shoulder. “To Venus!”
She slammed the door behind her with an air of finality but she’d no sooner turned down the next hall than a timid voice caught up to her.
“Rei-san, wait!”
Against her better judgment, the Priestess stopped and waited for the blue haired genius to catch up. The small woman stood well outside the Martian’s boundary of personal space and bit her lower lip nervously.
“Before Mina-chan left, she consulted me about something.” She said tentatively. “I… explained to her about Martian possessiveness, that when a Martian finds something they deem worth protecting, they go to great lengths to protect it.”
“Why are you telling me things I already understand?”
“Because you don’t know about Venusians. Rei-san.” Ami said with a sad frown. “It’s in a Venusian’s nature to either love freely, or love deeply. I… just don’t know which Minako is.”
Back to A Single Voice Index - Back to Sailor Moon Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction