Setsuna sighed as she listened to the arguing rise to fever pitch. She winced as Usagi launched into full voice and stood up. "ENOUGH!" she thundered angrily. Ami and Usagi stopped arguing and turned to face her with wide eyes. "I am sick of your childish bickering! You're seventeen! You're Sailor senshi! Can't you be a little more mature?" She looked down with a sigh and massaged her temples. Great, she was developing a headache now too. "Ami, Usagi is in charge. She's the head of the senshi--she has the final word in decisions."
Ami stuck her hands on her hips. "Why? Huh? I'm a senshi too! I have as much right to make decisions as she does!"
Setsuna looked at her silently, holding her suddenly short temper in. Everyone in the room watched the two of them silently. Setsuna was vaguely aware that they were all still frightened by her display of power back at the site of their first real battle. After a few minutes Ami began to wilt under her silent gaze, and finally Setsuna nodded with satisfaction. "She just is, okay? I can't tell you why, but there's a very good reason. Our problem now is deciding what to do about the enemy, now that they're out and active. Oh!" She looked up as a sudden thought hit her. "Why didn't Tuxedo Kamen show up?"
Usagi looked at her. "He doesn't usually, anymore. He used to show up all the time, but lately he only shows up if we're fighting something for a long time."
Rei nodded shyly. "It--it's as if he has a long way to travel to get here." Setsuna nodded. That made sense...if he lived in a different part of Tokyo...damn, things were complicated.
"All right then. Artemis?"
"Yes?"
"Is your memory returning?"
The white cat nodded slowly. "A little...but things are still fuzzy." He looked down for a second, then back up. "We...somehow we were transported here from another kingdom--a magical kingdom. And we're supposed to find our princess--somehow she was brought here too."
Luna suddenly spoke up. "And we need to find Ginzuishou!"
"Ginzuishou?!?" Makoto and Artemis cried in unison.
"What's a 'Silver Crystal' have to do with the enemy, or this princess you're talking about?" Makoto asked. She was leaning against wall in the far corner of the room, distancing herself from the others. Setsuna looked at her with concern, but answered her question without comment.
"I think I can tell you this safely. You are all...well, I don't suppose there's a gentle way to break this to you. You're all originally from a magical kingdom that used to exist on the Moon a few millennia ago."
Ami snorted. "Yeah right. We're originally extraterrestrials. Funny." She raised a derisive eyebrow. "That would be news to my mother, considering she had to have a c-section when I was born!" She looked around the room, and her smile widened as she caught both Usagi and Makoto snickering at her gibe.
Setsuna resisted an urge to choke her. "The kingdom was attacked, and you and the princess were killed--"
"Oh, we're dead now too!"
She ground her teeth and pushed on. "so the ruler of the Moon Kingdom--"
"Original name. Couldn't you come up with anything better while you were inventing this fairy tale?"
"-ruler of the Moon Kingdom, Queen Serenity, used Ginzuishou to encase all of you, and the attacking enemy, in bubbles of space time, and sent you here, into the future, to live."
"Oh, brilliant! So she sent the enemy here too? What kind of retard--"
"THAT'S IT!!!!!!!! " Setsuna shrieked and took an angry step forward to slap Ami across the face. "You will not say such things about Serenity-sama! She died to send you here!" Setsuna was horrified to feel tears in her eyes. "She died to save you! Don't you dare speak of our queen in such a manner!" She turned away from Ami and walked over to Makoto's corner of the room to give herself a little space. She saw Makoto stare at her with wide eyes, and looked away, already ashamed of her outburst.
She felt a warm hand descend on her shoulder. "You remember her, don't you? You know her somehow." Usagi.
Setsuna quickly dashed the tears from her eyes and turned to face Usagi with a nod. "I knew her. I swore an oath of obedience and loyalty to her." Her princess nodded, the hard look in her eyes gone for a bracing second, then a false smile came to her lips and she backed off, giving Setsuna a light punch on her shoulder.
"Well, look, calm down. We already know Ami's an annoying little b-"
"Usagi!"
"Oh, very well, Minako, I won't say it, but we do know it, don't we?"
Makoto said nothing, watching the scene with interest, while Minako and Rei backed away from the line of sight between the two fighting girls. Ami was still rubbing her red cheek after Setsuna's blow, but her eyes caught fire as she heard Usagi's challenge, and she looked up to pin an angry glare on her.
"Girls!" Luna shouted, jumping on Usagi's bed to get a little closer to their line of sight. "Stop that! We've finally run into the enemy! We have to work together and become strong! We can't fight among ourselves!"
Artemis nodded in eager agreement. "Yes. Now that we've all found each other we can be much stronger! We have to get to know each other, and we have to learn to trust each other! Who knows what the enemy's capable of?"
Makoto finally spoke up, nodding her head in Setsuna's direction. "She does. And she was in the process of telling us, but somehow we all got sidetracked." Setsuna looked at her in surprise. Makoto sounded strangely detached from them...it worried her. Sailor Venus had integrated well into the other senshi after working alone for so long...but maybe Sailor Jupiter wouldn't. Great. Yet another thing to worry about. She sighed and leaned against one wall. "Queen Serenity sent all of you forward in the hopes that the enemy wouldn't escape, and you could live normal, safe, lives. But just in case the enemy escaped she left the possibility open that you could become what you once were--Sailor senshi--so you would be able to defend both yourselves and Earth." She looked over at Luna and Artemis. "You were their guardians and teachers, much like you remember, and you have to find Ginzuishou to have a hope of defeating this enemy."
"Where is this Ginzuishou, then, Setsuna?" Rei asked in a voice barely above a whisper. "I have a feeling you know where it is."
Setsuna looked at her helplessly, wondering how much she knew about her own psychic powers, and then looked around the room, being careful not to stare too long at Usagi. She couldn't tell them that it was in Usagi's most heartfelt tear, could she? That it would only come out in a time of desperate need...great. Would she have to create a crisis in order to force Ginzuishou to even emerge? She rested her head in her hands. "I know. I know too damned much...and not enough," she whispered into her palms as she stared wide eyed down on Usagi's carpet.
Silence reigned in Usagi's room for a few tense moments, then Usagi jerked her head up to look at her clock. "Oh my! Look at the time! You've got to clear out, minna. I have to go to work in a minute or two!"
Setsuna stared at her open-mouthed. "You mean to tell me you have a job?"
*****
Ami's fingers flew across the keyboard. "You were right...there are other energy signatures similar to the one emitted from that store. I've pinpointed two in the Juuban district. I wonder why they're concentrated here?" Setsuna yawned and struggled to make her tired mind work. "Look," the younger girl didn't look up from the screen. "I'm sorry about that scene at the Tsukino's. It's just...well...I find that girl so annoying!"
Setsuna yawned and blinked. "Mmmmmmm...well, you're going to have to find a way to work with her. She's really nice, Ami, and she'll be the best friend you've ever had. I can guarantee, whatever else has changed, that's immutable."
Ami looked at her out of the corner of her eyes. "I have a question..."
"Yes?"
"You said you swore loyalty to this Queen Serenity. Maybe you swore loyalty in a former life or something, but it didn't sound like that to me."
Setsuna sighed. "No. I wasn't killed. I wasn't reborn."
"That means...!"
Setsuna summoned a tired smile at Ami's wide eyes. "Yes, I'm that old. Look, I'm sorry I lost my temper too...but I was there...I watched her use the last of her strength to send you to safety, and I watched her weep in fear for her daughter because she couldn't leave the enemy behind. It-it's hard for me to hear you disrespect her like that, even if you don't remember her yourself."
"So is that why you're so much more powerful? Because you're older?"
"Among other things."
Ami let out an explosive breath. "You're so damned cryptic! Can't you just come out and say anything?!?"
"No. You think I'm doing this just to keep secrets? Your lives depend on this fight, and if I say or do the wrong thing, I could make you lose it! And losing doesn't just mean the bad guys get away. Losing means you die, and the rest of the planet as well." Setsuna sighed and sank lower into the couch. "We'll have to visit those sites tomorrow! We have to find the enemy before they can gather enough energy to..." she trailed off uncertainly.
"What? Damn it, finish a sentence for once! Energy to what?!?"
"Energy to release Queen Metallia...a being of pure evil. We can't let Metallia emerge, because I don't think Us-the princess will be strong enough in this timeline to defeat her."
"Why? Did she do it in yours?"
Setsuna looked at her in silence. Ami frowned, but didn't say anything more. She turned her eyes back to the computer screen. Setsuna sank all the way back into the couch cushions and closed her eyes. She just needed to rest...tomorrow would be a long day... "Get some sleep, Ami-cha-Ami. We're going to have a long day tomorrow...no midday naps for you."
"Yeah, yeah, just a minute."
Setsuna tried to fall asleep with the constant rattle of keys as Ami typed, but after a couple minutes her eyelids snapped open with annoyance. Ami was hunched over the keys, her eyes inches from the screen, with a superior grin on her face. Setsuna saw the link running from her little palm computer to the laptop and suspicion colored her features. If she was using senshi equipment to... "AMI!"
The girl jumped nearly half a foot into the air and fell backwards onto the carpet. "What?!?" she gasped, clutching a hand to her heart.
"Are you using your palm computer to hack?" Ami blinked up at her, but didn't answer. "Well?"
"Only a little..."
"Stop."
"But-"
"NO! You will not do that! You have a responsibility! What about honor? You're the soldier of the planet Mercury!"
"Honor?" Ami snorted. "Worrying about honor gets you killed. I'm smart--I don't have to worry about something as old fashioned as honor."
Setsuna pulled the girl closer to her. "Yes, you do," she breathed softly, "because if you don't, I'll take your henshin rod away from you. For good. No. Hacking. Understood?"
Ami nodded in silence. Setsuna let go. "Good. Now get some sleep." She turned over without another word and closed her eyes. She heard Ami mutter some blistering comments under her breath, just loud enough for Setsuna to hear, but she did close up her laptop and her palmtop, and she did go off to bed. Setsuna settled for what victory she could get and went to sleep.
*****
"She killed Kunzite! We can take her by surprise! She'd be dead before she knew what hit her!"
The one with long auburn hair shook his head. "I don't know..."
"What?" Ponytail sneered in the other man's face. "Are you afraid? Are you a coward?"
Auburn crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Knowing what battles you can win and what battles you can't is hardly cowardly. I think she's too powerful. She knows too much. We can't do anything about her now."
Hito tried to shrink farther into the shadows. If they'd only forget about him...if they'd only forget that she had brought him here....
"What about you, Jedite? Are you willing to-"
"Give it a rest, Zoicite!"
"What?!?" The offended tone of Ponytail's--Zoicite's voice made Hito struggle to stifle a slightly hysterical chuckle. The auburn haired man leaned back with a knowing look on his face.
"Someone knows he's in the good graces of the powers that be since collecting his energy, and doesn't want to upset the balance of power right now, isn't that right, Jedite?"
Jedite didn't even bother to hide his smirk. "Exactly. Do you take me for a fool?" Jedite made a point of unconcernedly buffing his fingernails on the front of his uniform. "If you really need to kill someone over Kunzite, Zoicite, what about the boy? He's nothing....take out your anger on him if you can't stifle it."
Hito gulped as Zoicite's head turned toward him, and his eyes shone with hatred. "That's right....the boy....I'd forgotten about him..." Hito scrambled to his feet and bunched his fists as the man began to walk toward him. He was sick of taking this abuse! He may not be able to win a fight with anyone here, but he wasn't going to cower in a corner anymore!
"Don't touch him!" Hito's head jerked up at the familiar voice. The black lady strode out of the mists. "Don't even consider it, or I'll see you meet a much more painful and humiliating end than your... friend." Zoicite clenched his teeth but stepped back. Hito sagged with a sigh of relief. The lady's lips lifted in a frightening smile. "If you have something you want to say to me, Zoicite, go ahead and say it." She cocked her head, but the man took another step back. The lady took Hito's hand. "Come. I have another task for you." As they left the room the lady shot one more sentence over her shoulder. "Tsk, Zoicite, did you really think you could take me by surprise?"
Hito was almost happy enough over the look of fear on Zoicite's face to forget that the lady was sending him on another mission.
*****
"You mean we're going to start a fight?" Usagi asked. "We've never done that before!"
Setsuna shrugged. "We have to stop their plans of gathering energy, or they'll get stronger. We really have no choice." She looked around at the girls. "We'll walk into the store normally, just in case Ami's calculations are faulty somehow, and-"
"Hey!"
Usagi rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, and Setsuna hastily broke in. "Listen Ami, this was your first time doing this, ne? What if you're wrong? We can't blow up a family's source of income on nothing but your say-so." Ami still looked slightly insulted, but nodded after a few moments. "We'll look for signs of people's energy being stolen, all right?" The girls all nodded and Setsuna stood. "I'll be there with you, but I'm not going to transform and reveal myself unless it's absolutely necessary. I wasn't here for this fight before, in my own timeline, and I'm not going to involve myself unless I see no other options, okay?" The girls nodded again, and began to follow her out. Setsuna looked down at the list she'd been given and shook her head. "First on the list, OSAP Jewelry." Usagi clapped her hands happily and the girls began to chatter excitedly to each other. Some things never changed.
*****