Absence (part 46 of 60)

a Sailor Moon fanfiction by Kirika

Back to Part 45
Sailor Mars dashed down Minato General Hospital's corridors, taking the 
most direct route to the main entrance of the building. The Senshi of 
Fire fiercely forced a path through the moderately packed hallways, 
giving no quarter as she barged aside doctor and patient alike, sending 
many of each hard into walls and onto the floor. While the youma could 
have lied about what was currently underway at Juuban High School, Mars 
couldn't take the risk otherwise. But it wasn't only that... the icy 
cold sensation of fear deep in her gut told her that the youma's words 
rang true, and that Usagi was in terrible danger. And the miko's 
instincts were usually correct... even if she wished sometimes that they 
weren't.

Suddenly, there was loud hollow boom sound, followed by several smaller 
thud noises, eliciting sharp yelps of surprise from the people milling 
along the hall the raven-haired girl was currently sprinting down. Mars 
had a good guess where the explosion originated. Her prayers were with 
Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury back in the brunette’s hospital room, 
as well as with Setsuna and the other remaining two Outer Senshi, but 
the miko had other more important concerns at the moment. Her comrades 
would have to hold their own against the youma without her assistance.

After running along what seemed like a never ending corridor to the 
girl, Sailor Mars finally burst out into the main foyer, the automatic 
doors at the front entrance a welcome sight to her fevered eyes. Without 
pause, Mars continued her furious dash towards the main entrance/exit, 
ramming anyone or anything that blocked her way out of her path.

"Ooff!" one bystander grunted as he was knocked heavily onto his 
backside, sending the stack of snack foods and cans of drinks that he 
had been balancing in his arms skittering along the floor.

Sailor Mars was halted momentarily in her sprint as the man bounced off 
her solid frame, forcing the girl to take a stabilising step back. The 
Fire Senshi spared the source of her delay an angry glare and prepared 
to set off once more, before realising that she knew the man currently 
sitting on the floor.

Sanjuro looked up at Sailor Mars, surrounded by dropped packets of chips 
and containers of soda. "Rei!" he yelled in surprise, and then appeared 
greatly agitated, frightened in fact. "Umm, I wasn't following you or 
nothing, I swear! You see, I have to be here because I have this bad 
cold and... and..." His blurted excuse petered out and he blinked 
several times at the Senshi of Fire, as if it was just dawning on him 
what well-known figure was before his eyes. "Holy crap on a cracker! 
You're Sailor Mars!" Sanjuro shouted, a look of awe coming to his 
features. He then looked up to the ceiling reverently. "Oh, thank you, 
god! My career is saved!"

Sailor Mars reached down and grabbed the idiot ex-reporter by his jacket 
collar, hoisting the man up to his feet. "Shut up!" she cried 
vehemently, shaking the babbling Sanjuro in her firm grasp. "I couldn't 
care less what you're doing here; just tell me that you have your car 
nearby!"

"Yeah, I do, I do, Miss Mars!" Sanjuro exclaimed excitedly. "It's not 
mine exactly; it's rented. I left my own car back in Yokohama. I--"

"I *don't* *care!*" Sailor Mars repeated ferociously, brutally cutting 
the man's ramblings off. She started to drag Sanjuro by his collar to 
the hospital's main entrance, disregarding the shocked and somewhat 
petrified looks she was getting from passers-by. "Just take me to it!"

"Yes, ma'am!" the ex-reporter chirped as he tried to snatch some of his 
fallen junk food up from the floor while being pulled away from the 
scattered, tasty snacks.

The Senshi of Fire jogged out into Minato Hospital's parking lot, the 
girl's pace as fast as it could be while hauling an annoying man behind 
her. "Which one?!" Sailor Mars prompted Sanjuro as she shook the man 
once again, dislodging a few of his retrieved items of junk food from 
his grasp.

"It's that brown one over there!" Sanjuro informed the irate 
raven-haired girl with a motion of his head, since his arms were 
currently occupied with juggling his mid morning meal, trying to prevent 
more items from falling to the ground.

With transportation now in sight, Sailor Mars tore towards it, drawing 
Sanjuro along with her, almost strangling the ex-reporter with his 
jacket due to her tight grip. As the Senshi of Fire and her hostage 
arrived at the rented car, Mars noticed that someone was sitting in the 
front passenger seat. It was most likely Sanjuro's partner in crime.

"You can get in the back," Sanjuro said in a gasp as the girl stopped by 
the car, the man now free from the choking noose his jacket had had on 
him.

Mars let go of Sanjuro and then swiftly opened the car's rear door, 
jumping into the back seat. She waded through the piles of garbage that 
covered the floor and more or less the total back area of the car, and 
pushed aside a mountain of pizza boxes to reveal that the vehicle did 
indeed have a seat there after all.

As Sailor Mars settled herself in the back seat --ignoring the fact that 
her legs were ankle deep in empty plastic bottles and chip packets-- the 
rented car's other passenger bent around the front seat he was situated 
in, blinking his light brown eyes in surprise as he saw who had just 
leapt into the vehicle.

"Rei?" Tsubasa said uncertainly, furrowing his brow. "What are you doing 
here? And why are you dressed like that?" His expression then turned 
panicked, his eyes becoming wide. "It was all Sanjuro's idea to follow 
you!" he said quickly, pointing accusingly at Sanjuro as the 
spiky-haired man opened the driver's side door.

"Shut up, you moron! And man, are you such a loser. Don't you know 
anything?" Sanjuro sighed in a long suffering tone as he sat in the 
driver's seat, dumping the small amount of his salvaged food and drinks 
carelessly on Tsubasa's lap. "Rei's Sailor Mars!" The ex-reporter 
appeared to take a moment to revel in this knowledge once again, his 
mouth hanging open in pure disbelief. "*Sailor Mars*, for crying out 
loud. This is the greatest moment of my life..." he gushed happily, 
slamming the car door shut.

"'Sailor Mars'?" Tsubasa parroted, obviously confused.

Sanjuro looked at his companion as if he had been living under a rock. 
"Sailor Mars! One of the Sailor Senshi. They appeared in Tokyo a couple 
of years back and were involved in a hell-of-a-lot of weird crap. God, 
don't tell me you've never heard of them?!" the ex-reporter 
half-shouted, gesturing emphatically with both his hands.

"Uhh..." Tsubasa mumbled unintelligently. "I think I remember seeing a 
'Sailor V' plush somewhere..."

Sailor Mars violently swept the remaining junk off the rear passenger 
seat, and then focused her steel lavender gaze on the two idiot men. "It 
isn't important who I am!" she yelled angrily, halting the chatter 
between Sanjuro and Tsubasa. "I need to get to Juuban High School as 
fast as possible! Do you know how to get there?!"

Sanjuro and Tsubasa merely stared warily at Mars for several seconds, 
seeing how on edge the raven-haired girl was. Just before the Fire 
Senshi was about to boot the pair of men out of the car and somehow 
drive it herself, Sanjuro piped up, leaning around the driver's seat to 
face the miko. "I know, Sailor Mars!" he declared enthusiastically. 
"We've already been-- uh, I mean, yeah, I know how..." the ex-reporter 
finished sheepishly.

Sailor Mars affixed a smouldering and forceful look directly at Sanjuro, 
causing him to flinch. "Then drive," she ordered coldly.

Sanjuro simply nodded gravely, perhaps picking up on something in the 
girl’s intense eyes. He turned to face the steering wheel and then 
quickly slipped on his seat belt, before jamming the car keys in the 
ignition. Sanjuro gunned the engine, slamming his foot down on the 
accelerator and causing a loud squeal of rubber to come from the 
spinning back wheels of the vehicle. The ex-reporter then forcefully 
shifted the automatic gear into drive and released the handbrake, 
peeling out of Minato General Hospital's parking lot, leaving wisps of 
smoke and a black tire trail in his wake.

"Rei?" Tsubasa said with a slight quaver in his voice as Sanjuro drove 
like a maniac down the street, overtaking other cars rather recklessly, 
and causing the senshi's former neighbour to grip the handle by his head 
tightly, his knuckles white. "What's going on? Why do you have to get to 
Juuban High? Is Usagi...?"

"Yeah," Sanjuro pitched in as he neared a red traffic light, starting to 
slow down the rented car. "Are youma at that school? What kind of youma? 
Are they zombies? Are they? It's zombies isn't it," he waffled on, 
firing questions at the girl.

Sailor Mars ignored the other passengers’ inquires and focused on the 
road ahead. "Faster," she demanded through clenched teeth, holding on to 
the driver's seat with one hand to keep herself steady.

"It's red," Sanjuro said quizzically, as if the miko had lost her mind.

"I said faster!" Mars snarled, her fingers pressing hard into the 
padding of the driver's seat.

"Augh, god damn it," Sanjuro cursed and then swerved the car around the 
queuing vehicles at the traffic lights, flooring the accelerator. 
Sanjuro sped through the intersection, narrowly avoiding oncoming 
traffic, and then wrenched hard on the hand brake while spinning the 
steering wheel to the right, initiating a sharp turn into a side street, 
swinging the rear of the car around at almost a hundred degree angle. 
Tsubasa yelped as his body was squashed against the door due to inertia, 
his hands with a death grip on the handle above him.

"Geez, where did you learn to drive like that?!" the brown-haired man 
questioned Sanjuro somewhat breathlessly, looking like he was about to 
throw up.

"Arcade," Sanjuro said with a smug smirk as he weaved in between a bus 
travelling along the opposite direction and a station wagon in his own 
lane, leaving both vehicles in his dust. "I could go faster, but this 
piece of junk car isn't a manual."

"God, just get us to the high school in one piece, okay?!" Tsubasa said 
in a strangled scream, seeing how close the bus had come to scraping off 
the rented car's ugly brown paintwork, the large public transport 
vehicle's low horn still echoing in his ears.

"Shouldn't be a problem," Sanjuro informed the trembling passenger in 
the front seat with a confident grin. "I'm so good, I could lap Ten'ou 
before he knew what the hell happened! Twice even!"

Normally, Sailor Mars would readily have a pithy comment for Sanjuro's 
bluster, especially with him mentioning her racecar-driving friend, and 
his mistake in Haruka's gender. But the Fire Senshi's thoughts were 
elsewhere, her brain only vaguely registering the blur of road through 
the windshield as the tarmac ran beneath her. A million scenarios were 
running through her mind, each one involving her princess and youma, 
each one more horrendous than the last. The moment when Usagi's life 
would be in definite mortal danger was supposed to occur at night, or 
that was what Setsuna had said anyway. But wasn't the future uncertain? 
Could it be that the Guardian of Time was wrong? The woman did say it 
was only 'likely' that the moment would happen after the sun had set. 
Either way, it didn't really matter to Sailor Mars; her true love needed 
her help, and that was enough for the princess's bodyguard to know. 
Nothing would stand in her way, an army of youma or not, all opponents 
would feel the lick of her flames; none would stop her. While Mars 
lived, threats to Usagi's safety died.

The Senshi of Fire felt the anger boil inside her as Sanjuro raced down 
the last street to Juuban High School, mercilessly straining the car's 
engine to it's maximum output. The youma were going to pay with their 
worthless lives for attacking her princess's school, and for ruining the 
start of the miko's and her true love's new life together. Today was 
supposed to be a terrific, heavenly, day, when Usagi finally freed 
herself from Mamoru forever, to spend the rest of her unending life with 
her devoted senshi, with her best friend. That the enemy had disrupted 
things fuelled Sailor Mars' raging fire inside her body. They would all 
be punished in the name of Mars.

"We're here!" Sanjuro announced, easing his foot down on the brake as 
the rented car approached Juuban High School. Sailor Mars snapped out of 
her fevered reverie and refocused her eyes on the location ahead.

Outwardly, Juuban High School didn't look that badly damaged. A myriad 
of smashed windows decorated the building, and some sections of the 
walls were missing, leaving behind gaping holes outlined with twisted 
steel support cables, allowing any onlookers to see within the 
classrooms. Rubble was strewn about the front school grounds, most of 
the masonry probably belonging to the destroyed walls. However, the most 
disturbing thing was the faint screams and cries for help that filtered 
out of the high school, more than one punctuated by an inhuman screech, 
signalling to Sailor Mars that the youma back at Minato Hospital hadn't 
lied.

"Oh no..." Tsubasa whispered as he stared at Juuban High School with a 
horrified expression over his face, seeing the condition of the building 
and hearing the awful sounds coming from within.

"Hey, the cops are here," Sanjuro said, only casually glancing at the 
school building as he trundled the brown car along to the entrance gate. 
"For once the authorities are actually here when you need them," he 
added sarcastically.

Sailor Mars tore her gaze away from the dreadful picture seen through 
the vehicle's windows, trying her best to block out the ghastly howls of 
pain and suffering. The raven-haired girl looked out the windshield and 
saw that the police were indeed outside the high school, the blue 
uniformed individuals having erected a small barricade around the main 
entrance to the building using their black and white cars. Oddly, the 
Senshi of Fire could only make out one officer of the law behind the 
enclosing police vehicles.

Sanjuro rolled down the driver's side window and poked his head out of 
the car. "Yo! Cop dude! What's goin' on here?" he yelled to the 
policeman while still manoeuvring the brown rented car gradually nearer 
the barricade.

However, as the trio got ever closer to the specifically arranged police 
cars, the miko started to feel a tickle along her highly attuned senses. 
She spared a glance back at Juuban High School, believing that the no 
doubt many youma that were currently ravaging the place were responsible 
for the disturbance in nature she was experiencing.

"What the...?" Tsubasa suddenly gasped sharply, leaning forward in his 
seat, staring intensely out the windshield at something.

Sailor Mars narrowed her eyes and scanned them over the police cars 
ahead of her, searching for anything that could be responsible for 
Tsubasa's reaction. The Fire Senshi's intent lavender eyes narrowed even 
more to grim slits as she spotted what was so disturbing to her former 
neighbour. Bodies. Blue uniformed bodies, the small number of savaged 
corpses just peeking out from underneath the blocking black and white 
police cars, dark red pools encircling the still forms.

"Youma," Mars breathed in disgust. Damn, the enemy certainly did get 
around.

"Huh?" Sanjuro uttered in confusion, turning his attention back inside 
the car.

"He's a youma, you dumb ass!" Tsubasa exclaimed, flashing his terrified 
gaze between the 'policeman' and the ex-reporter.

The Senshi of Fire fell backwards and braced her legs against the backs 
of the two front seats, one foot on each. "Run him down!" Sailor Mars 
fiercely shouted, not taking her eyes off the youma outside.

"What?!" Sanjuro said stupidly, hesitating.

"Run him down, you idiot!!" Tsubasa screamed, and then grabbed the 
steering wheel with one hand, while he reached his right leg over to the 
car's driver's side and crunched his foot down on the accelerator, 
sending the vehicle careering towards the youma in a burst of momentum.

Sanjuro was thrown backwards into his seat as the car sped forward, 
directly at the police cars surrounding the masquerading youma. Tsubasa 
let out a whimper as the creature before the triumvirate began to 
transform, exploding out of the police uniform it had been wearing to 
reveal it's true, hideous, appearance.

"MARS FLAME SNIPER!"

Mars held her bow in a horizontal position to accommodate its size in 
the back seat and drew the fiery weapon, before launching a flaming 
arrow surrounded by an aura of shimmering, blistering heat straight at 
the youma as the car continued its lethal collision course. The 
projectile flew in between Tsubasa and Sanjuro, almost scorching off her 
former neighbour's face, and then punched a hole through the vehicle's 
shatterproof windshield, sending multiple webs of cracks along the 
remaining glass.

The arrow pierced the youma's purple bulbous head, taking it by surprise 
before it could even completely finish its metamorphosis, and then burst 
into a ball of searing fire, engulfing the creature's head in billowing 
flames and hiding it from view. A split second later the rented car, 
with its accelerator pedal still being held down by a wailing Tsubasa, 
smashed into two parked police cars, the powerful collision sending the 
black and white vehicles to bang into the youma, the force of the impact 
pulverising its bones and making the murdering thing fly backwards 
through the air. It hit the side of another police car, breaking a 
window and showering small flakes of glass over its blazing head.

A dazed Sailor Mars opened the back door of the car and stumbled out, 
landing on her hands and knees beside shards of broken glass spread 
about the ground like discarded confetti. The sudden, forceful stop of 
the vehicle had nearly thrown the miko right past Sanjuro and Tsubasa 
and through the windshield, and would have certainly done so if her 
brace against the front seats had been any less secure. Mars clambered 
to her feet, using her now crumpled transportation as support. 
Thankfully, she didn't feel like she had sustained any injuries beyond a 
few bumps and bruises.

While Sailor Mars was recovering from the car crash, Tsubasa squeezed 
himself out of the broken passenger side window, the door now a crushed 
mess against a police car and preventing escape. The man snaked onto the 
hood of one of the damaged police vehicles, and then simply lay on his 
back, looking totally shell shocked. A small trickle of blood ran down 
the side of his head from a matted patch of brown hair, the blood stream 
journeying slowly over bright, sunburnt looking red cheeks, no doubt 
caused by Sailor Mars' cavalier attack.

There was a repeated low thudding noise as Sanjuro tried to kick out the 
driver's side door, finally managing to succeed in forcing the bent 
metal open after the fifth attempt. The spiky-haired man exited the 
severely mangled vehicle on unsteady legs, and then after taking a brief 
moment to get his bearings --apparently almost perfectly all right after 
the collision-- he slid over the hood of a police and sauntered over to 
the unmoving youma, the creature's head still a flickering torch.

"Yeah!! That's right, bitch!" Sanjuro yelled triumphantly, stabbing 
furiously with a pointed finger at the shattered youma corpse. "You 
brain eating scum suckers mess with me, and *you* *get* *messed* *up!*" 
He pumped an elated fist eagerly in the air, whirling around to face the 
half-dead Tsubasa lying on the hood of the police car and an intent 
Sailor Mars, the raven-haired girl's gaze fixed firmly on Juuban High 
School as she righted herself. "Woo! Chalk up another youma kill for 
Sanjuro, with an assist by the way cool Sailor Mars! Yeah!" The 
ex-reporter's victorious face then fell as he clutched his right arm 
with his left hand. "...I think I broke my arm," he whimpered, looking 
at his companions for sympathy, but instead only being greeted with the 
realisation that the car rented out in his name was completely totalled. 
"Oh god! Look at the car!" Sanjuro exclaimed, running up to the 
destroyed vehicle as steam poured from underneath the cracked and 
twisted bonnet, the man's supposedly broken arm forgotten. "Damn it! I 
knew I should have gotten the insurance!" The ex-reporter spun back to 
the dead youma, whose body was partially stuck in the dented door of a 
police car. "This is all your fault, you ugly bastard! If you weren't 
dead, I'd kick your sorry ass!"

Sailor Mars tuned out Sanjuro's inane tirade and took one purposeful 
step towards the high school's gate, knowing that Usagi was inside the 
building turned war zone, and that the blonde angel needed her 
assistance and protection. "Both of you; wait here," she commanded 
sharply, and then followed up her first step with other, more faster 
ones, proceeding in a run directly for the school building's main 
entrance, not waiting for the two men's acknowledgements.

Sailor Mars pushed open the clear, half-shattered glass double-doors of 
Juuban High School's front entrance, her eyes focused grimly on the 
chaos that could be seen in the primary hallway through them. Butchered 
bodies were everywhere, their lifeless forms haphazardly littering the 
floor and stairways. Most appeared to have been viciously gutted by some 
wild beast, student and teacher alike remorselessly ripped and shredded 
asunder, not one being discriminated against. Dark sanguine splotches 
mixed with lumps of gory, chewed on internal organs stained the white 
floor and walls in a nightmarish and revolting display of violence.

Sailor Mars waded through the congregation of the dead, the body pile 
thickest near the double doorway entrance, all most likely having been 
slaughtered during their efforts to flee the earlier carnage. The miko 
could still hear shouts and roars coming from the floors above her, but 
the ground floor she was currently on was eerily quiet. No moans coming 
from the mortally wounded, no sounds of approaching enemies-- merely the 
silence of Death.

The raven-haired girl hurriedly freed herself from the thick bloody mass 
of the fallen, stepping over an armless corpse of what looked to have 
once been a teacher, the missing limbs nowhere to be seen. Mars did her 
utmost to block out the detestable images from her mind, seeing so many 
futures snuffed out around her. Was this Fate's doing? Was this 
Destiny's last-ditch effort to end Sailor Mars' meddling? Was Usagi and 
Mamoru's predetermined future so important as to validate this much loss 
of life? The thought infuriated Mars, heightening her rage to an 
inferno.

"Help..." croaked out a small voice to the side of the fuming miko, 
coming from the direction of a group of visceral smeared lockers.

Sailor Mars paused and turned towards the lockers, before marching up to 
the source of the noise. Just as she was about to pull open one of the 
grisly covered lockers, the door to one swung open, depositing a black 
uniformed high school student into her arms. Mars caught the falling boy 
and then lowered him gently to the floor on his back, kneeling beside 
him.

"You gotta help me," the boy sobbed desperately, gripping onto the front 
of the Fire Senshi's fuku tightly with both blood soaked hands. "Th-They 
changed... everyone... even my tutor, Satoshi..." The student winced in 
pain and pulled Mars down closer to his face. "Monsters... th-they're 
killing people... m-my friends..." He coughed weakly, and then gritted 
his teeth, in obvious agony. "One of those things got a good hit on 
me... am I going to be al-alright?" the boy asked, pleading to the miko 
with panicked blue eyes to tell him what he wanted to hear.

Sailor Mars smiled sadly down at the student, noticing the blood that 
had collected in the ridges of his teeth and the red droplets that now 
marred his lips. She glanced away from the boy's begging face to the 
deep and weeping gouges that scarred his lower body, seeing the white of 
bone embedded between exposed muscle and flesh.

"Yeah," she lied compassionately, looking into eyes that were the same 
shade as her true love's. "You're going to be fine."

The critically injured student smiled in relief and loosened his 
white-knuckled hold on the senshi's fuku, relaxing somewhat at the 
comforting news. "That's it... just relax now," Mars said softly to the 
dying boy. "Everything's going to be just fine."

The miko watched the life fade from the student's eyes, and his hands 
fell away from her outfit, leaving small red marks on the now creased 
white material. She closed his unseeing blue eyes tenderly and then 
stood up, feeling moisture in her own lavender orbs. Someone was going 
to pay dearly for all this. Without warning, Sailor Mars’ fist flashed 
out to one side, crunching into a locker door and forming a round dent 
in the grey metal. All this death around her... why? Why had the youma 
attacked this school? Because of the Sailor Senshi? There were only two 
attending school right now for the gods’ sakes. Why did the youma have 
to attack everyone? These were innocent people, people Sailor Mars and 
the other senshi were supposed to protect from such dangers. Why had the 
enemy engaged in such malicious overkill? Mars narrowed her vision to 
sinister slits. She knew why. It was her other enemy, the one all around 
her at every single moment, the invisible one she had been striving 
against for so long. Fate. The Senshi of Fire's clenched her left fist 
tightly, trembling with fury as her nails bit into her palm through her 
gloves, seeping blood into the cloth. She looked back to the boy's body 
next to her feet, and then to the other cadavers that were strewn about 
the area. They would be avenged. Blood was everywhere, red, the colour 
of anger, and fire. And of determination. Their lives would have not 
been lost in vain; all this did was make Sailor Mars more determined in 
her challenge against Fate.

The screams of the suffering echoed down the stairway to the Senshi of 
Fire ears, and she raised her head to the sounds, seething in rage. She 
had delayed long enough-- Usagi needed her. Sailor Mars bolted for the 
stairs, climbing up them two steps at a time, stepping over the many 
people whose futures had been sacrificed by Destiny, until she reached 
the first floor. She was greeted by the disgusting sight of a lone 
quadrupled armed youma feasting greedily on the corpse of a young girl 
in the hallway, tearing at her violated body with a multitude of sharp, 
pointed fangs. If somehow detecting the miko's presence, the alien 
creature looked up from its meal, twisting its head towards the Senshi 
of Fire. The youma gave Mars a wide toothy grin while scraps of meat 
dangled obscenely from in between its blood covered needle-like teeth, 
appearing positively evil incarnate.

"MARS FLAME SNIPER!"

Sailor Mars roared out her greatest attack, sending a blazing arrow on 
its benevolently vengeful course, straight at the sadistically smiling 
youma. The targeted creature let out a bloodthirsty shriek and charged 
seemingly suicidally forwards, directly in the path of the arrow. At the 
last possible instant, the youma bent its multi-jointed legs and sprung 
into a mighty leap, sailing over the fiery projectile and striking 
Sailor Mars in the chest with its feet, taking the senshi unawares. With 
its lower pair of clawed hands, the youma grabbed both of Mars' wrists, 
holding the miko's arms by her sides, effectively immobilising the 
limbs. Sailor Mars flung her head backwards as the creatures other, free 
pair of blood strained hands slashed in front of her face, tails of red 
dribbles being left behind in the air as the six large talons almost 
deeply lacerated her features.

Mars let herself fall to the floor and curled into a roll, letting the 
youma's own momentum throw itself off her body. The creature went flying 
backwards down the corridor, leaving a collection of cuts on the Fire 
Senshi's arms as it furiously tried to maintain its hold on her. Sailor 
Mars completed the roll and righted herself onto her feet, before 
whipping around to face the now prone youma as it thrashed on the floor, 
attempting to quickly regain its footing. Mars didn't intend to give it 
the chance.

"BURNING MANDALA!"

The youma screeched in torment as it was cruelly burnt alive, its dark 
purple armoured carapace no match for the fires of the righteous. The 
four-armed thing writhed on the messy floor as its body disappeared from 
sight in its own funeral pyre, but the figure responsible for its 
condition was already racing away from the doomed creature, dashing up 
another flight of stairs as she followed the sounds of the enemy.

As Sailor Mars burst out of the stairway and onto the second floor, she 
saw the source of the racket. At least half a dozen youma were taking 
turns at leaping at a pair of badly damaged doors, which if the sign 
above them was any indication, led to the music room. The corridor had 
the welcome sight of many youma bodies lying with human ones, telling 
the Senshi of Fire that her two comrades had been dealing out punishment 
of their own. More screams were coming from within the music room, these 
ones human in their pitch and with a desperate, fearful edge to them.

Swiftly taking stock of the situation, Mars realised that there must be 
a small pocket of survivors who had fortified themselves in the music 
room, and were now making a last hopeless stand against the youma 
incursion. As the mangled door to the makeshift bastion threatened to 
cave in completely, Sailor Mars decided it was time to give a burning 
ray of hope to the remaining students of Juuban High School.

"MARS FLAME SNIPER!"

The intensely hot, pointed instrument of deliverance took the lead youma 
in the eye and then exploded in a brilliant fireball, the heat so fierce 
that the creature's blood and brain fluid from the contents of its 
shattered skull evaporated before the liquids could hit the ground.

"MARS FLAME SNIPER!"

Sailor Mars continued her barrage of arrows at the other youma, fluidly 
bringing up blazing arrow after blazing arrow from an invisible quiver 
as she ferociously roared out her attack words, launching fiery death 
and incinerating the demonic things in cleansing flame. One arrow ripped 
into a youma's knee joint, brutally amputating its lower leg and 
cauterising the wound instantly. Another projectile tore into the chest 
of a second evil creature, easily punching a hole in its chitinous 
exoskeleton and roasting its soft internal organs, cooking the youma 
from the inside out.

The remaining horrendously maimed youma still standing turned to Sailor 
Mars, glaring hatefully at their executioner. One creature let out a ear 
piercing shriek and ran at the Senshi of Fire, jumping high into the 
air, the top of its head nearly brushing the scorched and blackened 
ceiling, and aiming its remaining three fingered clawed hand at the 
girl, its other arms ending in charred stumps.

"MARS FLAME SNIPER!"

Sailor Mars gritted her teeth and shot a dazzling hot arrow at the 
impetuous creature, striking the leaping youma in the throat and 
forcibly removing its head from its shoulders as the bolt exploded. The 
raven-haired girl casually strafed to the right as the decapitated 
corpse landed heavily on the floor, a few inches to her left.

Just as the two surviving youma dodged yet another volley of flaming 
bolts from Mars, a bright yellow beam blasted out of the music room 
door, blowing the structure off its hinges, and then hit one youma in 
the side of its head, melting a hole completely through its skull, 
before bursting out the opposite side in an explosion of gore and 
searing into the forehead of the final creature, detonating the 
surprised youma's head like a rotting melon and sending bloody bone 
shards into the air.

Sailor Mars dropped her arms, her flaming longbow vanishing from her 
grasp. She then ran over to the entrance of the music room and peered 
in, observing a bedraggled Sailor Venus and a large group made up of 
terrified students and teachers cowering as far away from the remains of 
the door as they could manage.

"Mars!" Sailor Venus said with great relief, tiredly wiping a mixture of 
sweat and blood from her forehead. "Thank god! Youma are everywhere; 
they were disguised as my classmates and teachers! We tried to contact 
you, but it all happened so fast I--"

"Where is she?" Sailor Mars demanded simply as she scanned the many 
wounded people under Venus' protection, searching for any sign of her 
princess.

The Senshi of Love didn't have to ask who 'she' was. The exhausted girl 
blinked at Mars and then her face fell, turning apologetic, while she 
shook her head. "I'm sorry, we got separated. I was leading her out, but 
she broke away from me and said she had to help Naru and Umino."

Sailor Mars heard a multitude of inhuman howls coming from above her, 
and then whirled away from Sailor Venus, heading back to the stairway, 
jumping over the smoking and lightly burning youma bodies. The blonde 
staggered out of the music room after the purposeful miko. "Wait! Where 
are the other Sailor Senshi??" she called.

"It's only me," Sailor Mars said over her shoulder, reaching the bottom 
of the stairs.

"What?!" Venus cried anxiously. "There's too many youma for you alone! 
You'll never survive by yourself!"

Sailor Mars paused with one foot on the first step to the third floor. 
She turned her head and met her fellow senshi’s concerned gaze with one 
of severe determination. "I'll survive. Their numbers are meaningless; 
their deaths are already assured. And I won't be alone." And with that, 
Sailor Mars dashed up the stairs, leaving a battle weary Venus behind, 
the blonde slumping to her knees on the floor as she stared after the 
miko.

Sailor Mars was led up the stairs by her ears, following the sounds of 
the enemy, believing that Usagi would be the cause of the creature's 
screeches, until she reached the fifth floor, where the youma were 
apparently amassing. As she was about to tear into their ranks from the 
flank, there was a crash from overhead and the youma started bellowing, 
before sprinting up the steps to the roof. Mars cursed and then swiftly 
chased after the charging blackish creatures, ending up on top of Juuban 
High School.

The scene before her was an anarchic one. In one corner of the chain 
linked fenced roof was a large body of the student and teacher 
population of the high school, some clambering up the safety fence to 
get away from the abominable scenes before them. More people were spread 
about the roof, but lay motionless, all having met their ends. 
Four-armed youma were absolutely everywhere, but were being held back 
from feasting on the second group of Juuban High School survivors by a 
lone girl, who was alternating between throwing her tiara and using the 
power of the rod she held aloft in one hand. The blonde girl appeared 
drained and wounded, but was fighting on nevertheless, defending her 
classmates and teachers from the enemy that was threatening to harm 
them.

Sailor Mars' heart sang at the sight of her princess, of her love, the 
gorgeous girl still a part of the mortal domain. The divine being's 
valiant resistance in the face of such overwhelming opposition was more 
than enough to inspire the Senshi of Fire into punishing, unstoppable 
retribution, the feelings mixing with her already searing fury. With a 
blood-curling battle cry that gave even the youma pause, Sailor Mars 
leapt into the fray, screaming out the activation words to the purifying 
flames of her attacks, commanding her fire's assistance, her extreme 
anger manifesting from her hands.

A collection of glowing rings slammed into the densely packed youma, 
charring their flesh and turning their carapaces into liquid black. The 
Fire Senshi lashed out mercilessly with fists and feet, brutally 
crushing bone and hard armour beneath her unmatched onslaught. 
Innumerable youma dived and charged at her, hacking and slicing at her 
body as she delivered oblivion to her princess's adversaries, but Mars 
moved like quicksilver, her reflexes heightened to an unnatural level in 
her frenzied state. Taloned limbs were burned off unforgivingly from the 
murdering enemy, the youma howling and wailing in agony as they were 
made to pay for their sins. Recognition seemed to form in the doomed 
creatures' beady crimson eyes, and terror soon replaced it, as if the 
human girl spilling their dark violet blood meant something to them.

Sailor Mars continued her berserker rampage, roaring wordless shouts of 
defiance as she repeated her powers' phrases, turning the roof into an 
inferno of destruction that could be seen from the other side of 
Minato-ku. The nightmarish images of the maliciously butchered 
population of Juuban High School she had previously been succeeding in 
blocking out were now flashing in her mind, the loss of such innocent 
life fuelling her righteous indignation. Fate. Mars felt she was 
fighting her invisible enemy itself, a formless mass of purple-black 
alien legs and arms, the senshi delivering justice for Fate's murdering 
machinations. Couldn't Destiny let her be? Why did Fate have to involve 
the innocent in its attempts to stop her? Why couldn't it accept that 
her and Usagi were to be together?! Why?! WHY?!

The Senshi of Fire screamed out the question to Fate, but received only 
choked gurgles and sharp howls of pain and suffering in reply. Sailor 
Mars was livid. She felt that she could incinerate her enemy by sheer 
will alone, as if her aura were shimmering in a heat haze around her, 
only needing to be expanded out to burn Destiny to nothing. The miko 
dealt out a conflagration hotter than the fires of Hell to the evil 
force surrounding her, so hot that her tears dried the moment they were 
shed. Tears. Mars hadn't realised she had been crying.

And then suddenly, Fate was gone, the last shred of its personification 
collapsing to the ground. Sailor Mars blinked, looking down at the 
mutilated youma she had just vanquished, the torched corpse joining the 
many others. Fires burned all around her, the bodies of the fallen the 
fuel for the blazes, cremating the slain creatures on the spot. Ash was 
blowing gently in the air, sticking to the raven-haired girl's wet 
cheeks, her tears still flowing numbly down her face. All the youma were 
dead. But Mars didn't feel satisfied, instead she felt... hollow, empty. 
She wondered why that was.

The Senshi of Fire dropped limply to her knees, the tears coming more 
forcefully now. Why was she crying? And why couldn't she stop? Sailor 
Mars took shuddering breaths as she wept, tears streaming down her 
cheeks and leaving tracks in the black soot all over her face. Suddenly, 
someone was holding her in a tight embrace, whispering her name 
soothingly in her ear over and over again. Mars hugged the figure back 
as if her very existence depended on it, only remotely aware of the 
aches and pains her body was signalling to her brain.

"It's okay, Rei," Sailor Moon's voice said softly in a comforting tone. 
"You're okay. We're all okay."

Sailor Mars nodded weakly and rested her head on her princess's 
shoulder, seeing through blurry eyes that all the people at the corner 
of the rooftop seemed all right, but were looking at her with shock and 
awe. Yes, it was all okay. She had survived the ordeal and her true love 
had too, and that was that was important... wasn't it? There was a 
fleeting thought in her mind that she couldn't pin down, some dire thing 
she couldn't quite put her finger on, before it vanished into the 
recesses of her subconscious.

"Rei, please say something," Sailor Moon said, her voice wavering. The 
blonde touched Mars' cheek with one hand and angled her bodyguard's face 
to hers. "Are you hurt? Are you in pain? Please talk to me..."

Sailor Mars shook her head carefully, not wishing to disturb the warm 
dainty gloved hand on her blackened cheek. "No more than I'm used to," 
she said through her gradually lessening tears, her voice slightly 
croaky. "I just..." Sailor Mars sighed and gazed lovingly into Sailor 
Moon's concerned blue eyes, the colour reminding her of the boy that had 
died in her arms earlier, one of many lives she had failed to save this 
terrible day. She reached up with one somewhat shaky hand and tenderly 
touched her fingertips to her love's beautiful face, before trailing 
them down to cup her chin delicately. "I'm glad you're alright," the 
Fire Senshi said truthfully. "When I heard what was happening here, 
I..." She swallowed uneasily and averted her lavender eyes from her 
princess.

Sailor Moon smiled affectionately at her lover and began stroking the 
raven-haired girl's cheek beneath her hand. "I'm perfectly fine," she 
reassured her zealous senshi. "You got here in time."

Sailor Mars nodded uneasily. "I know. B-But so many... if I had been any 
later, you would b-be..." she stammered, feeling a fresh batch of 
teardrops spring to her eyes.

"But you weren't. You arrived in time to help me," Sailor Moon said 
quietly, continuing her soothing ministrations.

The Fire Senshi raised her head to meet her princess's compassionate 
eyes and then smiled faintly at her, the smile quavering only minutely. 
Seeing that her senshi needed further proof and loving support, Sailor 
Moon leaned forwards, capturing Sailor Mars' lips with her own, kissing 
the girl tenderly. The miko's eyelids fluttered closed and she let 
herself be taken away by the kiss, tuning out everything around her but 
her true love.

The kiss was over in mere moments, but Sailor Mars felt better, her 
usual self-confidence starting to return. Suddenly, she sensed someone 
by the top of the now ruined stairway to the fifth floor of the high 
school, watching her and Sailor Moon. No, more than just someone. The 
Senshi of Fire turned her head to the top of the stairway at the same 
time Sailor Moon did, both girls' breath catching at the unexpected 
sight.

Tuxedo Kamen looked at the two hugging, and previously kissing, Sailor 
Senshi through his white mask, his face expressionless, but with his 
mouth tight, his lips drawn into a thin line. Sailor Venus held on to 
the prince to assist her drained and battered body to stay upright, and 
Mars saw that the Senshi of Love’s features nearly mirrored her lover's, 
the girl alternating from staring with a stunned and foreboding look at 
Tuxedo Kamen and at her pair of caught friends. The final new onlooker 
was Sailor Saturn, who glared at Sailor Mars coldly, clenching her 
Silence Glaive in a firm grip, the material of her white gloves 
squeaking against the hard metal.

"Liar," the Senshi of Death whispered frostily, but somehow the miko 
could hear the pale girl's single word accusation. Saturn abruptly spun 
her Glaive around and levelled the lethal weapon at the Senshi of Fire. 
"LIAR!!" she screamed before charging towards Sailor Mars, the shining, 
curved blade scintillating the light from the fires around her leading 
the way.

******

To be continued...


Author's ramblings:

I debated carefully whether Saturn would be motivated enough to attack 
Mars, but after considering the Chibi-Usa situation, and her believing 
that Setsuna and Rei are involved, I decided, why not? Besides, Sailor 
Mars V.S. Sailor Saturn; I just couldn't resist. ^_^

Sanjuro going on about zombies is a little in-joke I have with a friend 
that character is based on.

And did anyone catch the subtle Trigun reference?

Onwards to Part 47


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