Saturn was not happy with the way things were going. They were almost to the end of the hall, and they'd found nothing yet. But they were attracting a lot of attention. People were sticking their heads out their doors to find out who was knocking door to door. Saturn felt distinctly uncomfortable with all of those eyes on her. Uranus was grimacing as well. "This isn't good. Our enemy will have warning of our presence." Neptune looked up at her and nodded in agreement as Mars moved on to the next door.
Mars raised her hand to knock, but froze in place before she brought her fist down. Everyone looked at her. Her eyes were blank and unseeing. Saturn moved in and place a hand gently down on Mars' arm.
"What is it? Mars?"
"Something's wrong. I can feel it. I-I think whatever we're looking for is behind this door." Her voice sounded forced. Neptune pulled the immobile Mars back from the door as Uranus moved in to knock. Mercury watched the door very carefully, and Saturn reached out to snatch her Silence Glaive from the air. Mars let herself be led away from the door without any protest, but just as Uranus' fist descended she let out a high-pitched shriek. Saturn whirled to face her, and her mouth dropped open in surprise.
Mars had the most amazing look of pain on her face, as if she were trying to walk with two broken legs. She slowly turned to face everyone as the door began to open, and her eyes were filled with--fear!
"Get back! Back! It's a trap! Gomen, minna! I couldn't stop him! Gom-" Her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed to the ground. Saturn took a worried step toward her, but she heard Uranus yell a war cry and turned toward the now open apartment door. Mercury was typing frantically on her computer as Uranus and Neptune attacked a large group of the same oily creatures they'd all seen the day before. Saturn moved in to help the other outers, but she didn't really know what she could do. If she used the Silence Glaive Surprise she'd destroy this building, and since they were on the twenty-second floor. . .not a good idea. She readied her Glaive--at least she had a weapon other than her destructive attacks. She stood just outside the door to keep Mars and Mercury safe.
Suddenly a huge noise distracted her. She looked up as she recognized the voice--Mercury!
"Attention! Attention! This is an emergency! I want everyone in the building to evacuate, right now! I repeat! Evacuate the building!" Doors were yanked open as Mercury finished speaking her message into her computer and people looked at the armed senshi and ran down the hall toward the exits. Mercury put her computer away, glanced with worry at Mars, and stepped around Saturn to help the two outer senshi.
"World Shaking!"
"Deep Submerge!"
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
Their attacks ripped through the ranks of the monsters, but more poured forth from the other rooms in the apartment to replace them.
"Where are they coming from?!" Mercury shouted. "If they're being gated in through some sort of space distortion, we're in trouble."
"Should I try to get Jupiter and Venus to come help us?"
"Iie! We can't take away the royal family's protection! We'll just have to take them out ourselves!" Uranus didn't even turn to answer Saturn's breathless question.
Saturn guarded her friends' backs with her glaive as the fight wore on. She noticed a thinning in the youma ranks just as she felt like she couldn't fight for another second. Neptune wavered on her feet and pulled out her mirror just as a heavily shrouded figure strode into the room.
"Well," a deep voice, obviously disguised, emerged from the deeply shadowed hole in the face of the cowl, "you were more difficult to kill outright than I was led to believe. How amazing."
Mercury wearily raised her head and shouted "Shine Aqua Illusion!" She aimed the swirling column of water at the figure but before it could hit a strange light emerged from the figures hidden face and the water slowed its advance and fell harmlessly to the floor of the apartment, splashing a few drops onto the bottom edge of the figure's covering.
Saturn heard a smile in the man's voice as he spoke up again. "I know all of your tricks, and I can stop them all. You can't defeat me. Just give up. I don't want to destroy you, just your contaminating influence on this world." Saturn began to shiver as she felt the man's gaze center on her. "Even you won't defeat me, Sailor Saturn."
She took an involuntary step back, and Neptune took advantage of the figure's preoccupation with Saturn to hold up her mirror. "Submarine Reflection!" Instead of attacking the figure, a picture flared up in the mirror, but before Saturn could see what it was the figure turned to face Neptune. A bright red light flared from it's face and Neptune gasped and fell to her knees.
"You bastard! Space Sword Blaster!"
An echoing laugh emerged from the cowled figure as he stepped back and shimmered out of existence, and Uranus' attack blew a hole through the wall out into the open sky. Saturn rushed forward to kneel at Neptune's side. Her mirror was blank again, and Saturn leaned in close as she noticed Neptune trying to whisper something.
"Did you see his weakness?" Saturn put her face right up to Neptune's.
Neptune nodded. "I saw he's amazingly strong. There's only one way to defeat him. He only has one weakness." Neptune's voice began to fade. Uranus knelt be her side and held her hand, her face wearing the stiff expression that let Saturn know she was desperately holding back tears. "His weakness. . .it's you, Hotaru. You're our only hope." That message delivered, Neptune ignored Saturn completely and turned to Uranus. She brought a hand up to Uranus' cheek--it looked as white and stiff as bone. "Don't worry. I'll be. . .fine. . ." She lifted one finger to capture the single tear that escaped Uranus' wet eyes. "A tear? Now. . .really. . .Haru. . .ka. . .there's no. . .need. . .for. . .that. . ." She closed her eyes and her hand slowly fell to her side. Uranus lifted her gaze from Neptune's still face to glare at Saturn. She opened her mouth to say something, but it seemed as if she couldn't get her voice to work. Saturn didn't need her to say anything. She put her hands on Neptune and reached in with her healing sense. She closed her eyes a she tried to see what had happened.
"She's just like Setsuna. I don't know what--"
"We can keep her alive, Uranus." Mercury's weary voice broke in, "but we have to get her and Mars right back to the palace. Now." Saturn opened her eyes as she felt Neptune move under her hands, only to see that Uranus was lifting her up. Mercury turned to Saturn. "You'll have to help me carry Mars." Mercury's jaw was clenched with worry. "This is looking very bad. He's taking out anyone with any information on him. My computer doesn't seem to be able to find him, and Pluto, Mars and Neptune were all taken out before they could give us whatever knowledge they had."
Saturn kept looking over the silent Uranus, waiting for her to explode. She forced herself to think of their situation. "Whoever he is, he took out Pluto first. And she had no idea he was coming until the last minute. Wouldn't that suggest our enemy is a time traveler?"
Mercury grunted as she pulled Mars' arm around behind her. "That would make sense, especially if this enemy is from the future. Since the future is, in some sense, fluid, she wouldn't be able to see what he was doing until he came to the present. Of course, he somehow controlled Mars, so maybe he just did that with Pluto as well, and time travel's not involved at all." Mercury's eyes were narrowed as her mind ran through different trains of thought. "We just don't know enough. But at least he gave us an indication of his goal."
"'Remove our influence'. . .doesn't that suggest a time traveler too?"
"I suppose it might--or it might just be someone who hates us. We'll have to talk this over with everyone once we get Rei and Michiru stabilized."
The senshi left the building through the back entrance to avoid attention. Mercury signaled for the van, and they crawled in to ride back to the palace to lick their wounds and make some new plans. As they drove away Saturn looked up at the building, wondering if Mark was all right.
*****