Starlit Ruins

by Simon Woodington

Endless, the infinite corridor of grey, blue, and black. Immediately near was an oak table of intricate edgework. Upon it was a Chinese checker board of marble, the pieces of which were various precious stone spheres. Her eyes caught on it and latched while her body found the comfortable curve of the leather-bound seat. Naritha, it seemed, was already seated.

  Naritha? Where is this?

  'It's your move, Haisha.'

  Naritha gazed up at her Chinese friend, befuddled by the grammatically sound structure of the sentence. She wore a simple blue dress, her waist length hair casting a deep, unsettling shadow over her child-like features.

  'Naritha? Is that… is that you?'

  'Hai,' she smiled. 'I am psychic, remember? We are talking in a dream.'

  'I believe it!' she gasped. 'But…'

  'We will remember. This is the only way now. We're both too weak to talk.'

  'Weak?' She shook her head with a curled lip. 'What did we… uhn!'

  She leaned forward, holding her stomach as if winded. She felt ill as she never had before. The power of the memory was overwhelming, but somehow unavoidable… The gruesome battle with the clones of Hino Rei and Mizuno Ami. The shattering of bones, the gouts of… she turned her head, heaving, spitting a small welling of blood onto the grey tiled floor.

  'Haisha!' Naritha started, panicked. 'Calm down. Please!'

  The world spun as if suspended in a top, and she reeled, gripping frantically the edges of the game board. Her breath came in uneven, harsh gasps. 'I'm… I'm okay,' she offered windlessly. 'It's… there's j--ju-just so m-much.'

  'That is why I joined you in your dream. You needed a companion.'

  'Hai,' she nodded, her wind reaching a more respite pace. 'A companion, huh?'

  Naritha hinted a smile. 'Hai, Hai-chan.'

  'So?'

  Naritha blinked. 'What?'

  'Why bother? And why is your Japanese so good now?' Haisha questioned as she gestured for them to begin the determining rock/paper/scissors for the first move. Naritha was quiet for a few moments while they each turned up identical items over several attempts.

  'Mind if I go, Hai-chan?'

  'No, I guess not… you were nice enough to drag me here.'

  She displaced a white/grey piece, then spoke with the overtone of confidence and due consideration.

  'Because it is not Japanese that I speak,' she replied shortly.

  'What is it?'

  'I don’t know. But as we are close enough in friendship, does it matter?'

  'I suppose not. So, uh, somethin’ you wanted to talk about?'

  'You recall Yanei, neh?'

  'Sort of. She fought Shao-Enya, right? She toasted that stupid cow?'

  Naritha nodded, acting upon Haisha's movement of black/blue piece. 'She saved us. That's why I pulled up the memories for you. You wanted to bury them, but right now it's important that you don't forget.'

  'Why?' she responded, creating a seemly pattern with a single move.

  'I'm not sure. I can't read her.'

  'No. I meant why did you pull my memories up? I nearly lost it!'

  Naritha considered both word and deed before moving her piece to capture, and word to mouth. 'Because I can't do it alone…' she frowned, seeming suddenly quite the fragile, delicate creature her body portrayed her to be. 'Miserly loves company, right?'

  'What?' she blinked, both at Naritha's sudden fear and her phrase. 'I think it's "misery".'

  'I understand some old people can be both, yes,' she nodded in apparent comprehension.

  'Oh geez,' she groaned. 'No. I mean the phrase is "misery loves company". "Miserly" is totally different,' she sighed. 'I don't mind… I guess. I'm still sane, right? Maybe I'm tougher than I thought.' Then she added thoughtfully, 'I didn't know I could block you.'

  'Hai. Mind-wards, as you put it, can be used to block friend as enemy.'

  'So why did she save us? You didn't answer that.'

  'But you…' she blinked, recalling that Haisha was not a trained psychic. She had let her infinity split, pursuing the interest of question over every other interceding point. Formal discipline negated such problems.

  'What?'

  'Nevermind. I don't know why, but I get the sense it was because she was betrayed. Where is Akari, anyway?'

  'Oh! You're right. Where did he go? He could be hiding. That doesn't matter. It's your move.'

  'It will. For now I guess you're right,' she breathed, plucking a piece with two delicate fingers and making a move she hoped would evade disaster.

  @~%~~~

  Makoto seemed to be praying in the arms of her husband. Masurani and Goku stood either side of the new woman Nasura had brought in place of the captured senshi. Yanei maintained an inaudible hiss from a glaring distance. She was still, like undisturbed snow in the peak of winter, her long purple hair cascaded underneath her comatose form like frozen water. Her healed body was wrapped in a cotton blanket.

  'Yanei, are you familiar with this woman?' Nasura quested, noting the appearance of the bird-like traitor.

  'Not sure,' she muttered in consideration as she approached the prone figure. 'No… I know her. I met her once before I left. She is your clone-sister, Tsukino Usagi-san. She's really very pretty too. How did she get here?'

  'I recovered her from Xalia's home. She appeared shortly after we discovered Sailor Ether's message to us,' Nasura explained.

  'Oh! The kawaii mage,' she frowned slightly. 'How is she?'

  'We don't know, but I can make a fair guess she is not well,' Nasura stated with darkness in her tones, yet no ill-will towards Yanei. The focus, more logically, was Uraki-Ayo.

  'G-gomen… g-g-gomen nasai, Nasura-san,' she offered, heartfelt, if not somewhat uselessly. Nasura's lips thinned as she held back her temper and encouraged the silence that followed. She nodded marginally at Yanei, tension written upon her face.

  Usagi gestured for Masurani to step aside and knelt next to her modified duplicate. She placed her hands upon the young woman's head, and closed her eyes, slipping easily into an exploratory psychic trance. Silence gripped Time's shoulder, her nails nearly piercing his skin, before dissipating as Usagi began an unconscious meditative breathing regiment.

  'She was the right hand of Uraki-Ayo, serving him completely, as a military officer, and as a bedmate. She is solely responsible for gathering the blood samples, which allowed them to create clones of us. Her memory of this service was buried in her subsconscious.'

  Masurani squinted angrily. 'Where did you say she came from, Kei-san?'

  Nasura blinked. 'Xalia's home, why..?'

  It dawned. 'He knew. It was a setup. We were supposed to find her.' Nasura glared at the motionless and entirely vulnerable woman. 'We can't trust this, can we? Uraki-Ayo has proved himself repeatedly.'

  'It may not matter,' Usagi pointed out. 'I can affect her mind.'

  'What?!' the four gasped. Surprise, it seemed, had surpassed Yanei and Goku.

  'Her mind is open, and her heart is not hardened, just misled. She loves Uraki-Ayo, and serves him because she believes his will is righteous. I only have to show her the truth, and she will…'

  'Lose her sanity,' Nasura interjected.

  Usagi was stunned into silence. Her eyes narrowed as the process churned in her augmented consciousness, finally resting on Nasura's inspired observation. She gazed at the woman, who's grim expression brought no comfort.

  'Great… so she was sane before?' Masurani snarled with dark ire. 'She's strong… I mean major league "Can of Whup-Ass" strong. I can sense it. She could match me in battle, all out.'

  ' "Can of Whup-Ass"?' Usagi questioned doubtfully.

  Masurani shrugged with a smirk. 'American saying. Means "kick ass".'

  She nodded curtly, after which Nasura offered her view on the matter at hand beyond Masurani's spoken attitude. 'If you're right about her heart, then I have an idea that may save her sanity, and eliminate her threat.'

  'Oh, I could eliminate her threat right now,' Makoto and Masur
ani hissed in a related phrase. They glanced at each other for a moment, and then fell silent at Nasura's commanding glare.

  'Turn her perspective towards ours by planting the idea that she is already a Neo Senshi,' she instructed.

  Masurani peaked, hackles risen as she growled ferally. 'Are you nuts?! What's the bloody point? If she can just smoke us so easy, we'd be better off ending it now while we still can!'

  'Masurani! Enough!'

  Crestfallen, she bowed slightly, pliant to the tone of command, and aware that she had overstepped her bounds. 'So sorry, Nasura-sensei, but I really I think I'm justified here!'

  'You are,' Nasura replied, to which Masurani's eyes widened, mouth agape. 'You merely need not yell to get your point across. I'm not one of your childish classmates. Do I have your trust?'

  'Hai,' Masurani nodded, chastened despite her exoneration.

  'Nasura-san, I wouldn't worry. She's nowhere near as strong as I am. Only Usagi,' Goku smiled warmly at her, '… is that powerful. And she's not even one-tenth as powerful.'

  'One-tenth?' Nasura blinked interestedly.

  He nodded.

  'Makoto's ability to adapt makes her potentially more powerful than any of us,' Yanei observed, displaying remarkable nerve in speaking amongst her former opponents.

  'Hai. If this woman proves stable, however, we may have ourselves a valuable asset,' Nasura stated clearly.

  Usagi closed her eyes and prodded Jisuruka's skewed mind. 'Uraki-Ayo has given her everything she need to become Sailor Ether.'

  'Ether? But he must know I know.' She shook her head as if pained. 'I mean Mortalis,' she said, a shiver ruffling the feathers of her wings. 'I don't know why I said that. Something's happened. I can sense him weaving a spell here. He's using her presence…'

  'Yes, he's…' Yanei began, then assumed a pale complexion. Her breathing abruptly became labored. 'Trying to tap me.'

  An extremely alarmed glance passed between Usagi, Nasura, and Makoto. Usagi bowed her head and began whispering while the others followed suit. Within moments a shrouding mist encircled Yanei, who's heavy, almost ragged breathing began to ease. As the mystic effect passed, though the protective mist remained, Yanei chanced a question: 'Why? I didn't deserve that,' she stated with honest, heartfelt despondency. 'I almost…'

  'Yanei, you have redeemed yourself,' Usagi supplied. 'In my eyes, at least. You have have earned our trust.'

  Yanei prolonged the silence, allowing thought to take her focus. A glance at Makoto told her that she agreed.

  'Thank you, Usagi-sama,' she offered simply.

  With a soft smile, Usagi returned her regard to the still comatose Jisuruka. She mused, 'What about my relationship with her?'

  'Why have one? It certainly isn't necessary. It's your choice.'

  Usagi nodded in reply, shutting her eyes. Her face tightened, and she was still for several minutes. Each watched in earnest.

  'It would be wise to not turn the young woman away. She will be distressed, and lost. She will want a companion, a friend to lean on,' a familiar, motherly voice elaborated. 'No one else can understand her more completely than you, Usagi.'

  Usagi smiled, the light of it shining through her entire being.

  'Hai Luna-san!' she agreed wholeheartedly, a welling of emotion lodged in her throat. She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry, and bowed her head, eager to complete the task. Minutes flew by in an instant, and Usagi rose to face her guardian, whom she had not seen since her ascension to an angel. Luna and Artemis stood intimately joined by hands, and joined by a startling manifestation of their professed love for each other.

  A young short purple haired girl gazed wondrously up at Usagi, the silvery caress of innocence in her amethyst eyes. Her mouth turned slowly upwards in an adorable smile as she played with the wide hem of her pastel violet sun dress.

  'Hi Usagi!' she began in the placating tones of an unruffled child, all caring and warmth.

  'This is Diane,' Luna smiled, slipping her fingers back through her hair and pushing a shift of the purple strands behind her ear. 'She's your cousin.'

  'How old is she?' Masurani asked, smiling and waving at her.

  'Three months.'

  The expected gasps passed rapidly, leaving only questions, save Makoto, and Hanlan.

  'Now isn't the time for that,' Artemis decreed. 'We have a war to win. Ami?'

  Ami, and the remainder of the Inner Senshi faded into existence, sans Minako. Ami, and Rei each bowed in turn to the gladly aghast Neo Senshi, who bowed immediately in response. Ami began, cutting to the quick without hesitation.

  'Uraki-Ayo is as ill prepared to carry out this war as we are. The majority of his resources have already been tapped. With so little energy to utilize, he will be pressed to end the war quickly. The vortex crystal supplies him with the vast energy he requires to attack our dimension. Without it, he is nearly powerless to endanger us. Uraki-Ayo is no fool, very unlike Beryl. He is a realist, knowing his weaknesses, and exploiting those of his enemies. He believes Xalia to be valuable to the Neo Senshi. This is not entirely true.'

  A dread silence drifted over the assembled group. A gifted young woman captured and now suspended between the rails of life and death. They feared what she suffered, and hoped that she might be spared, all the while knowing the truth of Ami's words, even as they found it difficult to accept.

  Masurani gave a somewhat reproachful look, but Usagi raised her hands as the brute warrior opened her mouth. 'We will do what we can. I promise you this.'

  'I guess I speak for the Neo Senshi, for now,' Masurani realized dimly. 'I trust you. I'm pretty sure the others would agree. The ball is in your court.'

  Silence beckoned and was greeted enthusiastically, until Usagi spoke once again, only moments later. 'The five of us will face Uraki directly, and end his cursed existence. If it is possible, we will rescue Xalia, and preserve her life.' She paused. As for the "if not," what was there to say? Nothing. 'As for you, Neo Senshi, the Coalition Society of Mutants, and our mates, you will all confront the armies Uraki will manage to send to earth. Your ultimate goal must be to destroy the vortex crystal. It is his only link to our world.'

  'Why not have your…' she blinked at the choice of word '…mates with you?'

  Rei bowed her head solemnly, then latched her eyes onto Nasura's. 'I don't think is this the right time. We really aren't ready for it yet. We haven't been with them long enough.'

  Ami nodded, and added: 'I agree. It will take years for us to co-ordinate our abilities. Until then, we're better off alone.' She paused sheepishly. 'Do you really think it's easy for me to admit that?'

  Nasura sighed, as if understanding, but not quite accepting the reasoning.

  'How are the remaining Neo Senshi?' Ami asked finally.

  Nasura frowned. 'Well. Ayla is meditating, praying on the upcoming battle. The others are preparing in their own ways. They're still quite weak.'

  Usagi nodded. 'Better than they were yesterday,' she observed. 'Luna, Artemis, are you ready?'

  'Hai,' Luna affirmed. 'Diane sweetie, you're going to stay behind.'

  'I agree,' Artemis grunted. 'You can stay with Iesha.'

  'But Papa!' she whined. 'I want to help!'

  'You can, by keeping Iesha safe,' he replied gently. She pouted, but was quiet. There was no argument.

  Chapter 45

  Allegiances