Kaneda reared back, his ploy to hurt the woman he had once tried to seduce had backfired. She was pulling energy from somewhere but he had no idea how. If she got any closer he would be sustaining damage from her Light. “Stay back,” he whispered.
“No Kaneda. I won’t stay back, won’t hold back anymore.” Her voice became soft as her form started to flicker in the growing light. “It is time I joined them, joined my friends.” She reached out her hands and closed her eyes. “Wait for me Chris, I’ll walk you home,” she whispered, a tear of light sliding down her cheek as she flared brighter than the sun. “Unicorn Starlight Explode,” were her final words.
Kaneda’s scream of agony echoed through the night as his shadow form was torn asunder by the pure light of Sailor Star Knight Unicorn’s final attack. He fled just ahead of the flare of energy and dove into a tear in existence a moment before his last vestiges of being were vaporized.
Hana sprang into action. With a twist of her mind she caused the instant to freeze. She paused as Pluto and Minerva came into sight and turned her big dark eyes to her mentor. The tears that she had not shed in many years could be seen quivering but they did not fall. “Did we have to really wait till she did this?”
Pluto nodded, her eyes saddened. “Kaneda had to be damaged enough to give us time to get everything in place.”
Minerva ignored the other two and moved in a beeline to the glowing figure. She had to shield her eyes, the light was brighter than anything she had ever experienced, even the light of the other side was nothing to this.
Instinctively she reached out her gloved hands and gently touched the temples of the figure before her. In an instant she was swamped by the memories of Unicorn. A song from years back came to her and she whispered, “Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are…” The sadness she felt inside the frozen figure was deeper than any she had ever touched before. There was more than a touch of guilt for surviving the deaths of her teammates. Unicorn had indeed loved her two friends, deeper than she had let on, even to herself. Iriko turned to the quietly arguing time senshi and spoke.
“How could you let her go this long like this Setsuna?” Her voice for the first time held something other than politeness.
Setsuna looked up and sighed. “It was necessary Iriko, just as it was necessary to leave you in the Dark Kingdom so long. She has had a long and hard road but she can’t give up yet.” Pluto’s eyes went distant for a moment. “Someone is waiting for her and it is necessary she be there to meet him.”
Hana tilted her head, reaching out to lay her hand on Pluto’s orb. Her large black eyes widened and she looked over at the still glowing figure. "She’s going to be his mother?”
Setsuna nodded. “But that is not yet set. Now you and Iriko must bring her back. You know what to do.”
Sailor Time stepped away from Pluto and nodded. “We do but,” she looked at Iriko who now had her eyes closed as she whispered to Suteko’s glowing form. “Neither of us can physically heal her. We need help.”
Setsuna started to fade from sight. “She can heal most of her injuries herself, if you can hold her on this side. I am counting on you Hana-chan.”
Hana nodded and turned to her work. “I’ll do what I can,” her voice dropped to a whispered. “Thank you Oneesama.”
***
Suteko drifted in the land between life and death. Floating naked in the mists that were neither here nor there her mind brought up all the memories of her past. The triumphs and the failures were laid out before her and she did not flinch from them.
She watched her past self as she grew, making friends in odd places and learning the skills her great uncle was willing to teach. A part of her smiled as he gave her the one word praise when she mastered something, then she felt the sadness as she remembered the day he passed. It was from that day that her life had changed drastically.
She watched as her mother sent her away, on a fool’s quest. She shook her head at the things she had done out of pure pigheaded American pride and then smiled softly as she watched her first meeting with her younger brother. She wondered briefly where he was now and if he had finally married the right girl.
Her eyes misted up again as she once more relived her first meeting with Chris and Akuma. The world she was in made her finally admit to herself that she had loved both of her teammates, more than as simple friends. They were a part of her soul, like two more brothers and she tried to look about for them. They should have been here, waiting for her as should have been her uncle.
Her soul self slumped when she realized that they were not there. She was alone and it could only mean that she would forever be alone. She shuddered, a low moan escaping her lips as she curled into a ball about herself. One of her biggest fears had come true. She was alone.
“No you aren’t, Suteko-chan.” A soft voice whispered to her. She looked up, with tear filled eyes, trying to find the voice that spoke to her.
First one, then a second figure formed in the mists and Suteko’s heart leapt. “Chris-kun? Kuma-san?” She started to uncurl and reach for them.
“No, Unicorn, we are not your partners but we hope we are your friends.” The second figure spoke as softly as the first. It was then that Suteko saw that the forms were those of two women. Two women dressed as Sailor Senshi.
“Who...are you?” she whispered as she felt her heart drop.
“Friends.” Iriko stepped up to the naked form floating in the mists. She gently placed her hand on Suteko’s shoulder and whispered, “Minerva mind heal.” The gentle pressure of her gift worked its way into the grief and loss of the other woman’s mind.
Hana moved to Suteko’s other side and she too placed a hand on her shoulder. “We have come to help you Unicorn, to help you help yourself. It is not your time to join the others yet.”
Suteko took a sudden deep breath and pushed away from the two senshi. “Who are you to decide whose time is whose?” Her voice was filled with pain and anger. “There is nothing left. Nothing left of me or of my family or of...” her eyes closed. “My team.”
Iriko looked over at Hana and the other nodded. “We are Iriko and Hana or better known as Sailor Minerva and Sailor Time. We have come to help you. To prepare you for the next stage of your life.”
“The next stage!” Suteko stopped for a moment, confused. “I’m dead ladies. I don’t think I need help with that.”
“No, Suteko-chan, you aren’t.” said Sailor Minerva. “You are just this side of dead, yes. Time,” she darted a look at Hana, “has stopped just before you would have been totally consumed.”
“But why? My enemy is destroyed.” Her eyes dimmed, as her body seemed to become more solid. “With Kaneda destroyed his hordes of creatures can be easily defeated by the others. What do you need me for?”
Hana spoke. “Kaneda wasn’t destroyed Unicorn-sama. He was just severely damaged, like you.”
“WHAT!” Suteko spun about, her body now as solid seeming as her normal form. “He isn’t dead? You mean I used my final strike and he didn’t die?” She looked at the other woman with disbelief clear on her face. “He killed my…,” she swallowed before continuing. “Team and I blew myself up and he still lives? What does it take to destroy him?”
“That will be revealed in time, Suteko but for now you need to rest and to heal. Let us help you.” Iriko once more lay her hand on the other woman’s arm.
Suteko slumped and shuddered. “He can’t be alive.” For a long moment it looked like she was going to give in but then her jaw firmed and she looked up at Iriko. Her eyes were no longer sad, they were hard and angry. “All right. I’ll go with you. If you can keep me steady long enough I think I can heal most of the damage I did to myself.”
Iriko looked at her partner and Hana nodded. “We can hold you till your body heals. We won’t be needed for anything other than helping you.”
&nbs
p; “Good, I take it that the others are awake and working then.” She closed her eyes and focused. She could feel the tug of her body and the pain she would soon be in but it didn’t touch the pain that she held in her heart. She would have to wait to tell Phoenix and Dragon how much they meant to her. She hoped they waited for her. She let her body pull her spirit to it now. “But you better have some thing you can teach me to take him out. He will be stronger now and he knows I am willing to destroy myself to take him down.”
Hana and Iriko caught Suteko as her body slumped, the light snuffed out as time resumed. Iriko bent her head to catch what Suteko said. “All that matters is destroying Kaneda now.” Suteko went limp then and the other two looked at each other, worry in their eyes.
***
Persephone curled up at the feet of her charge and listened to the conversation that was raging in the other room. “Just how long were you planning on keeping us in the dark about this new danger Setsuna?” Luna sounded angry.
Persephone could understand. Being the Guardian of the Princess of the Moon meant she had a lot of responsibility. She had been working the longest with the senshi and the elder cat had a bit of an attitude about her prerogatives.
“It wasn’t necessary for you to know before now. The Shadow master was not a danger to you or the Moon Princess before now.”
“No, he was just focused on destroying the Star Knights right?” Artemis let the sarcasm drip in his tone. “I know they aren’t part of the main court but they are true warriors. You let them be destroyed when we could have helped them. Were they just pawns to you? Weren’t they good enough to deserve some back up!”
Hana’s soft voice broke into the ranting of the white cat. “Setsuna had no choice, Artemis. She did not sacrifice them on a whim. The events of the past week had to happen. Hard times, demand choices of us all. It was not easy watching those two honorable knights die anymore than it was easy for her to let my team be decimated.”
Artemis shut up to that but he still glared at the green haired senshi. Luna spoke again with a tired sounding voice. “Will She make it through?”
Iriko answered. “I believe so. She is stronger now. The wounds she received from the Darkness sword are healing but very slowly. She can’t heal them herself.”
“Usagi could probably deal with those.” Luna suggested.
“It is time that Moon remembered and the teams be brought up to speed. Luna, have the others come here. We can awaken them all at once this time. Hana, can you convince Matten and the others to come here?”
“I can try. Are you sure it is a good idea to have them all descend here at once?”
Pluto smiled a bit. “Not quite all at once.”
Iriko made a face. “I really think we should keep it down to a couple at first. She isn’t gonna be ready to deal with a crowd for a while yet.”
Pluto’s voice faded as she faded from view. “She doesn’t have much time. Kaneda is stronger than you know.”
The cats and Hana left on their assigned errands as Iriko stepped back into her bedroom. She looked down on the sleeping woman who only looked a little better than she had three days before. “So much depends on you and it isn’t fair.”
Persephone lifted her head. “She isn’t the same girl who first met the scouts. She is more like one of the Kouhei now. Will they give her the room she needs?:
Iriko reached out and lightly ran her hand over the dark fur. “I don’t know Persephone. I can only hope that Serenity can give her what she needs.”
“What she needs is her friends at her side. She is only one part of a whole. How is she going to survive alone?”
Iriko sighed sadly. “I wish I knew.”
***
Luna and Artemis eased themselves into the dorm where Usagi and Mina lived. It was late, almost dawn in fact when they finally got into the room they were looking for.
“At least this time we don’t have to do much more than let them in on what is up.” Artemis tried to lighten the mood. He was still angry but he was worried about Luna’s mood.
“If we had been paying attention we could have saved the Prince and his friend, never mind poor Unicorn. Persephone told me that when she found her the girl was mad with grief. I knew she shouldn’t have been made a knight.”
“Luna you did not. Suteko was a fine and strong girl. None of us knew the depth of feeling that those three shared. Or the fact that Unicorn was an empath, she was destined to be Unicorn, Phoenix saw that. They were a special team is all.”
The black cat glared at her friend. “All of the children are special Artemis. All the teams.”
Artemis spoke even more softly. “True, but they were a three person team. Two men and a woman who worked as one. Closer than even lovers they were. Amazing really. They never settled with other people yet they weren’t romantically involved. It was like they were one soul almost.”
Luna blinked at that. Artemis had hit on something there but there wasn’t time to think about that. She jumped up on Usagi’s bed as the white cat did the same on Mina’s. She softly batted her charge’s face, trying to gently wake the girl up. She knew better but she had to try.
Finally both Artemis and Luna had to settle for yelling in the ear of their charges. Both Usagi and Mina sat bolt upright. “I’m late!” they both cried out into the pre dawn morning.
After a minute of blinking and looking about the two girls looked down at the cats perched on their laps. For a moment they had no idea what was going on but then the thin veil that had been put over their memories faded and they started.
“Luna, where have you been?” Usagi hugged her feline friend with joy, not noticing the look in the green eyes.
Mina was just as happy to see her friend but a bit more perceptive. She caught the look on her cat’s face. “What’s wrong now Artemis?”
The cat proceeded to explain the past week’s happenings to the two young women. Usagi’s compassion had her up and dressed in record time. She remembered the lone female Star knight and was saddened at the loss of her cousin. She could not stop herself from heading out. “Mina, you and Artemis gather together the other scouts. We have to help Unicorn. We’ll meet you at Iriko’s place.”
Mina quickly dressed and as they stepped out the door, she paused to ask. “Artemis, who is Iriko?” The white cat hung his head and laughed. He started filling Venus in on the sailor senshi of secrets.
***
Usagi slowed down when she realized that they needed to grab a bus to get to Iriko’s apartment. She spoke quietly to her cat as they waited. “So Iriko was one of my court. Why don’t I remember her at all Luna?”
“Because she was always a quiet and shy girl, Usagi. She loved plants then as much as she does now. That and she spent most of her time undercover you know. It wasn’t like she showed herself before she helped you break Beryl’s hold on Mamaru’s mind.”
“Is that what happened?” Usagi sounded surprised. “I remember Beryl’s scream of rage but I was too busy to see what caused it.
Another voice broke in from behind. “She did her job Usagi. She didn’t mind that you had no idea she was there.”
Usagi turned about to see Setsuna standing behind her with a small smile on her face. “Hello Setsuna. Why didn’t you bring her to join us after that? I mean we had Rini and Michuru and Haruka and Hotaru. She must have felt left out.”
“We decided she deserved a rest for a time Usagi. After all she had spent all the years from the fall of the Moon kingdom till you defeated Beryl working behind the scenes. She was tired.”
“Oh well then…hey wait. We?”
Pluto just smiled and faded from sight. Usagi ground her teeth a bit. She hated it when Setsuna did that. “Luna do you know who she meant.” Luna was saved from answering by the bus arriving.
***
Usagi was the first to arrive at Iriko’s small apartment
. She burst in like a whirlwind, smiling at the woman she thought of as a friend even though she was really more Mamoru’s friend. “Where is she, Iriko?”
Iriko waved toward the bedroom. “I put her in my room. She is still sleeping as far as I can tell..” She turned to answer the door as the bell rang once more.
Usagi started forward then she stopped in surprise. Standing or more leaning against the doorjamb was a small woman with dark hair pulled back in a braid. She was holding a hand to her side and trying to bow at the same time. “Your highness,” her soft voice floated out. “Forgive me for not bowing but I can’t seem to stand up.” Slowly Suteko started to slide to the floor as her knees let go.
Usagi somehow managed to not trip over anything as she rushed to Suteko’s side. She wrapped her arms about the other woman and with strength that belied her frail seeming form helped the other woman to the couch. She could feel the tremors that raked Suteko and made her stretch out on the couch. When she lifted her hands she saw the blood that was staining the pajamas that Suteko was dressed in. “You’re bleeding!”
When Shadows Rise Page 2