It was night-time when the group left the Audience Chamber. Luna led them through the palace until they reached a large staircase that led up to the second floor. At the top of the stairs, she stopped them while she doubled checked the sketch on her clipboard.
Rei found out that she was in the third room down the hall, the closest out of the group to the steps. So she was forced to stand outside the door and watch as the others were led away to their respective rooms. To her ‘surprise’, Minako still was avoiding her; the Venusian didn’t even glance back as the group left.
What’s she so mad about? Hmm... Maybe I’ll figure it out if I sleep on it. Rei sighed to herself. She was about to turn the door knob when Haruka came running back.
“Hey, Rei!” The short-haired woman paused, looked at Rei, and then tilted her head. “...What’re you doing? Don’t tell me you’re going to bed already...”
“What do you mean by ‘already’? We aren’t little kids anymore Haruka, and I’m tired.”
Woah, someone’s in a nasty mood. “Well...”
“Look. What do you really want?” she shot the woman a sharp look.
“Okay, okay, would you just chill for a sec?” Jeez... “I know you’re probably tired and cranky, and don’t me wrong, we all are...but I just wanted to know one thing, just one. If you answer it for me then I swear I’ll leave after that. You can go to sleep or do whatever you want to do.” The comment earned her another annoyed frown, but it appeared that she had the go ahead. “I was just wondering...well, if everything was okay. You know, we were all pretty worried about you. When Minako told us that the connection between you two had cut out, well, it was a big surprise! We were almost expecting the worst.”
“Minako said that? Did she say anything else?” She mumbled.
“What?”
“...Nothing. I was just saying that some stuff happened, and I was forced to cut the link. That’s all.”
“You mean, because of Hotaru? You weren’t hurt, were you...?”
“I was--” The remark reminded her of Usagi and when Minako first barged into the room. The surprised look on the Venusian’s face bothered her for some reason. “Good night Haruka.”
“Uh-wait!”
“Good night!”
Slam.
“Oh. Umm...Good night then...?”
Wow, that went well. Hmm... She sure seemed to be in the bad mood. I wonder what’s up with that.
Inside the room, Rei stepped beside the bed and peered around at her new surroundings. She didn’t sense anything unusual in the room. Feeling suddenly tired, Rei fell down on the bed and curled up on top of the sheets.
Sorry Haruka... I just, don’t want to see anyone right now.
(Rei, her room, late at night)
Late at night, Rei was tossing and turning fretfully in her sleep.
. . .
She was running. She didn’t know where to, but it didn’t seem to matter. Everywhere she looked it was dark, and the ground was hard and barren.
Fssh!
“Hah! Hah! Hah! Huff!”
Fssh!
‘What’s that strange smell?’ As she ran further, a pool of dark liquid flashed through her mind. ‘Blood...?’ Something inside twitched and her senses shuddered. ‘Oh no.’
She ran harder but the smell only grew more potent. There was something up ahead.
Fssh!
Her heart skipped a beat to see the figure’s shadow. A terrible crunching sound reached her ears. The Martian came to a halt, and nearly stumbled as a golden light began to shine over the area.
Her heart was pounding hard. Suddenly, she saw a face and screamed.
. . .
“No!” Rei bolted upright with her hand stretched out. When it met nothing but air, she blinked and realized that she was still in her room.
Oh!
“...It was...just a dream...” She let out a shaky breath and let her hand down. It was just a dream. Get a hold of yourself, Rei. It wasn’t, real!
That was when the Martian noticed that the room seemed brighter than usual. Her gaze was drawn to closed double doors; there was a white light shining through the curtains.
“Huh? What’s that?” Where is that light coming from?
Before Rei knew what she was doing, she had gotten up and was standing in front of the doors. She couldn’t understand it. Why were her breaths coming out in shorter gasps? Her hands shook slightly as she reached out and grabbed the door knobs. The moment her flesh touched the metal, a strong wave shot her through; her head was filled with the screams of people.
Lubb Dubb!
“Ugh!” Rei’s hands slipped off of the handles as her knees buckled beneath her. The screams had stopped, but her instincts were awakening. She grabbed a fistful of her shirt in pain as the sick sensation from her dream came rushing back.
Lubb Dubb! Lubb Dubb! Lubb Dubb!
Oh no.
“S-Shit...Not...again! Where is it?” She instinctively groped her side for the pouch, but found nothing.
W-Where is it?! It should be right here! Rei was beginning to panic. She threw an anxious gaze around the room, but it was nowhere to be found. Then Usagi’s face came to mind.
What a minute. That girl!
Rap! Rap! Rap!
Rei nearly had a heart attack when she heard someone knock at her door.
Oh no! Not now! She was starting to break out into a sweat. “Just go away!”
There was a pause. “...Rei? Wait, you’re awake?”
The Martian woman did a double-take when she heard the person’s voice. Wait a minute. I know who that is!
Seconds later, the door was flung open and Rei found herself staring at Usagi in the face.
In the outer corridor, further down the hallway, Minako was walking towards Rei’s room. There was a thoughtful expression on the blonde’s face until she noticed that there was someone else standing in front of Rei’s door. Rei was there too--she was standing in the doorway. What were they doing up at this time of night? Why were they seeing each other?
Rei couldn’t believe her luck. “It’s you. Get in here, quick!” She hissed.
Minako felt her heart breaking as she watched Rei pulled Usagi inside and shut the door promptly behind them. Unsure of how to react, the Venusian spun on her heel and quickly ran back to her room.
Inside Rei’s room, Usagi was at a loss for words when she was suddenly pinned against the door. Somehow, she was getting the feeling that she came at a wrong time. Rei looked like she was ready to murder someone.
“Where is it?” She growled in a low voice.
“W-Where’s what?” Usagi stammered back.
“Don’t play games! The pouch that I was carrying with me! Where is it?!” She saw the Moon Princess flinch, and did feel a twinge of guilt but right now being polite was low on her priority list. She was starting to see red, literally.
Rei was surprised when she felt a hand gently grasp hers. She didn’t realize that she was shaking until then.
“It’s in the other room. I can go get it for you right now if you’d like,” Usagi calmly offered.
Rei was at a loss for words. She could do nothing but dumbly nod back and watch as the woman slipped out the door. However, Usagi had kept her promise. As soon as she returned with the pouch, Rei snatched it out of her hand and pulled out the miniature gun. Her companion watched in curiosity as the Martian pressed the device against her neck and breathed a sigh of relief when a small hiss sounded.
For a moment, neither of them said anything. Usagi waited until Rei had calmed down before she asked,
“Are you feeling better?”
The dark-haired woman glanced back and saw the earnest in her blue eyes. It looked like she sincerely cared. She almost felt bad for shaking her earlier.
“...Yeah.” She said in a quiet voice. “Thanks... and I...umm...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you earlier.”
The comment made Usagi turn red in the face. “Oh. I-It’s no problem at all. I’m just glad I could help. Umm...A-Anyway, if you don’t mind me asking, I’m just curious, but why do you need it? What does it do exactly? Are you...sick or something?” The question came out before she even realized what she had said. “Ah! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to say it like that! I umm... oh jeez...”
...I did it again!!
Rei blinked back as the blonde continued to fret. She was momentarily at a loss for words; Usagi was making it a bigger deal of it than she had herself a few minutes ago.
“It’s complicated.” Rei finally said. “But do me a favour. Don’t tell any of the others about what you just saw. I...don’t want them to worry.”
“Oh. I see...so it’s a secret.” The thought of knowing something so important made her go red in the face again. Ahhhh!!! What’s wrong with me?! She could feel her face burning up, especially when Rei looked back at her with those dark eyes of hers.
“Are you...okay?”
“Umm...yes! I’m fine! Everything is perfectly all right.” Usagi lied. “It’s just, I was thinking...”
“Thinking?”
“Yeah. Liiiiiike--!!” Her eyes whipped around the room for something to use, but then she spotted the terrace. “About that light!”
“Huh?” Rei watched as the woman sped across the room. “Hey, wait!”
Usagi flung open the doors and light instantly flooded into the room, surprising them both. Rei had tensed and half-expected the screams to come back, but this time it was strangely silent. In wonder, they both stared at the light’s source in silent awe.
“Oh wow...” Usagi breathed once she had caught her breath again. She heard Rei walk up from behind and stopped beside her. “Take a look at that. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?”
Judging from the stunned expression on her companion’s face, it looked like she was surprised as well.
“What’s making it glow like that?” Rei asked tentatively.
From where they stood, they could see the entire Kingdom. Unlike earlier, it was emitting a white light. If one were to look even closer, they would have seen small lights particles rising up from the buildings. The lights would float up from the tips and edges of the structures and then vanish seconds later without a trace.
“I don’t know. To be honest, I’ve never seen it like this either.”
“Are you serious? But it’s your home, isn’t it?”
“...Yeah, but just because it’s my home, it doesn’t mean that I know everything about it.” This prompted a confused look from the soldier. “Heh, I wouldn’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter anymore, anyway...”
Rei heard the hint of sadness behind her smile, and for the briefest second it reminded her of Minako.
“Why did you really come here?” She finally asked. The question seemed to have startled the blonde. “I highly doubt that you go out in the middle of the night and knock on people’s doors just for fun. Especially, someone you don’t even know.”
Usagi seemed to look thoughtful, but then she turned and looked the woman in the eye.
“...Well. To be honest, I wanted to apologize.”
Rei was taken aback. “Apologize? For what...?”
“For earlier. Well, I guess I technically need to apologize twice now after what happened. It’s just, you seemed really angry with me earlier, and, well...I felt kind of bad. I didn’t mean for us to start off on the wrong foot.”
“You mean you couldn’t get to sleep because of that...?”
“Huh?”
She thought about how Minako was avoiding her again.
“If that’s all it was, then couldn’t it have waited until the morning? You don’t have to lose sleep over something like that.”
At first, Usagi didn’t know what to say. But then, she smiled. “I suppose. But if I hadn’t stopped by when I did, then you wouldn’t have gotten your medicine back. So, wouldn’t you say that it turned out for the best?”
The disbelieving look on her face earned a giggle from Usagi.
“...You’re...weird.” Rei remarked in a flat voice.
“Maybe I am. But at least it’s a good weird, right?”
“Hah, yeah right.”
“No? All right. Then next time, someone else can heal your wounds.”
“Huh? You mean...you?” The Princess didn’t say anything, but she could see it in her smile. She didn’t know what else to say. “Why?”
“Why? Well, I couldn’t just leave you like that. You were hurt, silly.”
I don’t understand you. “I take it back. You’re really weird...” She heard Usagi giggle again.
The two continued to watch the lights on the balcony in silence. In two other rooms, both Setsuna and Hotaru were watching the lights as well.
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