Life's Lessons
A Sailor Moon fanfic by Kristin Renee Taylor



Chapter 23 -

Hotaru sat in her own private silence, so shocked that she couldn’t focus on the people talking in front of her.  

Minako leaned back in her chair. "Shut down that lab, Ami-chan, and clean the place out. Find out if there’s any info on Serenity: strengths, weaknesses, what she eats for breakfast, whatever. We’re going to need every scrap of it." Ami nodded and Minako shifted her gaze. "Rei-chan, back to the D-point. We’re going to need Ami-chan’s army to be even remotely effective, but, leave everybody else there. God knows they’re probably safer there, now. I’m going to see if there’s anything left of the CTDF that we can use. Maybe we can, I dunno, drop a hovercraft on Serenity or something."

Makoto said, "You don’t honestly expect the CTDF to be useful, do you?"

"Of course not," Minako said. "But, it’s worth a try."

Terri’s star seed was the Silver Crystal. The Silver Crystal. The object that had sent the souls of the Senshi into the 21st Century. The object responsible for bringing the Senshi back to life on at least one occasion. The artifact that numerous monsters, demons, youma, and a cross-dressing psycho had tried to get hold of so that they could control/destroy/re-make the universe.

"Mako-chan." Minako rubbed at her face, thinking, and eventually said. "Mako-chan, give Ami-chan a hand. See if anything else triggers something in your head. If so, find me and- Ah, dammit! I forgot about the Ku’dath. Hotaru."

The object that, if Minako was correct, was now in the possession of a very psychotic, soon-to-be corporeal entity. And, unfortunately, Minako had the tendency to be correct.

"Hotaru!"

Hotaru jumped in her seat and focused on Minako. "Y-yeah?"

Minako frowned slightly, but said, "Hotaru, I need you to-" A briefly startled look flitted across Minako’s face. She blinked twice, then, with a quiet groan, collapsed across the table.

Everyone was on their feet at once. Being closest, Hotaru reached her first, touching Minako’s shoulder with her hand and sending her health-sense into Minako’s body.

Too late, Rei shouted. "Don’t touch her!"

Hotaru let loose a surprised bleat, and then everything dissolved into whirling chaos and confusion and golden pain. Something, a force, a presence, clawed against the walls of her mind, shoved its way through the cracks, overwhelming her in attempt to push her out into emptiness. She screamed, was unaware that she had done so, and clung desperately to her fading sense of self.

Red slashed. The presence howled furiously as it was dragged out of Hotaru, and it redoubled its efforts. But, Rei’s will proved to be stronger and, inch by agonizing inch, the presence was pried up and flung out, leaving Hotaru blessedly alone in her head.

The cold touch of the floor brought her back to full awareness. She opened her eyes, let her vision swim back into focus. She was lying on the floor on her back. Rei crouched over her, and she smiled when she saw that Hotaru was conscious. "How do you feel?"

Hotaru grunted. There was a sour taste in her mouth. "Like someone just ran me over with a truck. Repeatedly." She tried to sit up, and thought better of it. "What happened to me?"

"You just came dangerously close to becoming Venus’ host body." Minako’s head appeared upside-down above Hotaru, a serious expression on her face. "Lucky for you, we’ve got the world’s greatest psychic in the form of Rei-chan."

Rei said, "When you touched Minako-chan with your talent, Venus leap-frogged from her to you. Since you weren’t the right vessel, she was able to force her way into your mind. She almost managed to take you over, too, but, like Minako-chan said, I’m considerably stronger than Venus was."

"Was?"

"Was." Minako’s smile was humorless. "Serenity has succeeded. Apparently, we have less time than I originally thought."

The sun had vanished beneath the horizon an hour ago, and the sky to the west was still tinged a deep purple. The moon had risen early; it sat high up in the east, full and bloated, painting the sea below with a silver patina that highlighted the crest of each wave.

Out in the sea of silver a single boat floated, its main sail furled. Barefooted, standing at the place where sea met sand, Michiru watched it and sighed wistfully. "It must be wonderful to be so young and full of energy…"

Hands touched her shoulder. "I seem to recall a certain someone mentioning the benefits of being an adult back when she was their age." There was laughter in Haruka’s voice.

Michiru leaned into the comforting circle of Haruka’s arms and smiled. "I was never that young."

"You were never that inexperienced."

"I was just as experienced then as I am now."

Haruka’s voice was a soft purr in her ear. "So, you’ve learned nothing new in all these years?"

Michiru disengaged herself to turn around. She smiled. "Oh, I think I’ve learned a few new things."

"Really?" They were so close together that strands of their hair mingled together. Haruka matched Michiru’s smile with one of her own. "Care to show me?"

"If you want me to," Michiru breathed.

A scream shattered the night.

Michiru stiffened. Haruka muttered a curse as they broke apart and simultaneously turned towards the village. Michiru tilted her head, listened intently. "It sounds like a fight is going on."

"Good." Haruka growled. "Then they won’t mind when I join them."

Before Haruka had taken two steps, a fireball erupted somewhere near the center of the village. More screams rose into the night. And then a second explosion appeared. And a third. A chain of explosions raced towards the beach, towards them.

"Did you hear that?"

Kiyomi glanced away from the stars, towards Shouji. "Did I hear what?"

Legs firmly panted on the deck, arms folded across his chest, Shouji gazed out at the beach. "I heard a scream."

"I didn’t hear anything."

Shouji cocked his head to one side. "There’s another scream… Something’s wrong."

Kiyomi rolled her eyes. "Just because you hear shouts doesn’t mean something’s wrong." She sat up. "For all we know, somebody’s probably throwing a party."

A fireball turned the sky a ruddy orange. Kiyomi shot to her feet. Shouji looked over his shoulder at her. "One hell of a party."

"Shut up," she growled. "What now?"

"You told me to shut up, remember?"

"Shouji!"

Shouji smiled. "We help them." And in a single fluid motion he dove over the rail and into the water. A moment later he surfaced, treading water. He shouted up at her, "Besides, the swim’ll do you good. You could stand to lose some weight!" He waved and struck out for the shore.

Hands on her hips, Kiyomi shouted to his back. "You better hope I don’t catch up to you!"

The ground several meters away suddenly erupted upwards, covering her and Haruka with sand and grass. Coughing, trying to see, Michiru caught a glimpse of light streaking towards her and she dove to her right, tucking herself into a roll as something hissed past just behind her. The light detonated where she had been. The shockwave flung her further down the beach. She rolled to a stop, hissing in pain from the half-dozen bruises she had gathered during her short flight.

The crack of stave on stave drew her attention. She looked up, towards the source, and stared in surprise and confusion.

Pluto and Saturn fought near the edge of the water, respective weapons blurs in their hands. Pluto attacked with a fury that bordered on desperation, but, although Saturn was slowly being forced backwards, the Senshi of Death remained calm as ice, parrying each swing with casual grace.

Michiru stared in open shock, not quite able to register what she was seeing. Senshi never fought each other. Not since Galaxia had taken the Sailor Wars to Earth. What would make them fight now?

Saturn abruptly shifted to offense and, in a move to fast for Michiru to follow, sent Pluto sprawling to the sand. Instead of finishing her, Saturn circled the fallen Senshi, glaive poised, ready to strike. Pluto glared up at her. "I thought toying with your victims was beneath you, Saturn."

"I am merely trying to understand you," Saturn said calmly. "This sudden desire to insure your death is not normally like you, and your urge to kill Serenity puzzles me. You are not usually so… impulsive."

"There is much about me you do not know," Pluto said. Rising to her knees, she swept her staff at Saturn. Saturn blocked the clumsy blow. "True. A pity you will die before I learn all of your secrets." Reversing her glaive, she brought the blade down towards Pluto’s neck.

"World Shaking!"

"Deep Submerge!"

Pluto rolled clear as the two attacks exploded against Saturn, throwing a large cloud of sand. Holding her side, Pluto got to her feet and said to Michiru, "Thanks. I wasn’t certain that you would interfere."

"Don’t thank us," Haruka said, appearing by Michiru’s side. "You’re next."

Incredibly, Pluto rolled her eyes. "Please, Haruka, I’ve had a long and tiring century. I’ve got Saturn trying to kill me, I just failed at assassinating Serenity, who is now in Terri’s body, by the way, and I’ve just accidentally blown up my house. I don’t need you threatening me. Not now, not tonight."

It felt like Michiru’s eyebrows were trying to climb off of her forehead. "Setsuna?!"

Pluto sketched a slight bow. "One and the same."

Haruka blinked. "Oh. My. God."

That pretty much sums things up. Michiru thought dazedly. She said, "You lied."

Pluto- Setsuna!- smiled slightly. "If we somehow survive the night, I will readily apologize."

Saturn said, "None of you will survive that long." Stepping out of the settling dust, Saturn dropped to one knee, driving her glaive blade-first into the sand. The sand around her rippled, surged outwards towards Michiru and the others.

And Michiru dropped to her hands and knees as a vise clamped onto her lungs and heart. Fighting stubbornly to keep conscious, she dug her hands into the sand, forcing her eyes to remain focused.

Saturn crossed the sand to Pluto, who clung to her staff to stay upright. She prodded Pluto with her glaive, watching in bemusement as blood welled. Her smile created ice in Michiru’s veins. "Now, I shall toy with you." And the stave blurred, slicing into Pluto’s body. Pluto screamed.

Helpless to do anything but watch, Michiru screamed with her.

Forced to run full out to keep up with Shouji, Kiyomi panted. "Why… are we… doing this… again?"

"Because they need our help." Shouji cantered along easily, barely breathing hard despite the pace he pushed and the swim from earlier.

Kiyomi caught his arm and tried to stop him, and almost had her arm yanked out in the process. "Shouji!" He slowed slightly, dropping to a fast walk. Kiyomi jogged alongside him. "Shouji, think about what you’re saying. Those aren’t just any women we saw out there. Those were Senshi. Senshi, Shouji! They can kill us before we even realize we’re dead. It’s suicide to even think we can fight them."

"They need our help," Shouji said.

Kiyomi stopped, and smacked her forehead. "Of course! Why didn’t I see it earlier? Everything is so absolutely clear now! They need us!" She caught up with Shouji. "Why didn’t you just paint a huge target on our shirts so they could find us faster?"

Shouji smiled. "I couldn’t find any paint."

"I really hate you, sometimes."

Pluto collapsed with a thud. The sand beneath her was soaked with blood, and her fuku was crimson. Circling her, admiring Her work, Saturn considered where to place the next cut. She gave Pluto an experimental prod with the Glaive, but evoked no response. Saturn sighed internally. Already unconscious.

Movement out of the corner of Her eyes attracted Her attention. She looked up from Her study of Pluto towards the two Descendants. Michiru was still struggling on her hands and knees, while Haruka had actually managed to rise to one leg. Both of them clearly had murder on their minds.

Saturn regarded them both in silence, appreciating their tenacity if not the people themselves. If Her fellow Senshi had half the integrity that these two possessed, Saturn wouldn’t be trying to kill Them, now.

Oh, well. A job’s a job.

She flicked a finger towards the duo, and they both fell to the sand; dead or unconscious, Saturn neither knew nor cared. Restraining Her usage of Her power was not something She did regularly.

She turned back to Pluto. Time to finish this.

Something heavy and hard struck Her from behind. A weight bore to Her the ground. One arm was twisted behind Her back and She lost Her grip on Her glaive. Someone grunted, "Don’t move."

Saturn turned Her head far enough to see a man crouched over Her. Her eyes narrowed. "You are hurting Me." She didn’t so much throw the human off of Her as fling him away. She stood, idly dusted Herself off, spotted the man charging Her, and gestured sharply, neatly severing his life thread. Saturn sidestepped as he staggered and plunged to the sand before Her.

"Shouji!" Saturn turned towards the source of the scream. She spotted the man’s companion scrambling away, Saturn’s glaive clutched in her hands. Saturn faced her. "Return the glaive," She said quietly.

The girl froze, caught between the Command and Saturn’s direct gaze. Saturn walked towards her. "Return My glaive. Now."

"Kiyomi… run…" The voice, barely heard, belonged to Haruka. The Descendant was actually trying to get up.

Saturn ignored her, keeping Her attention focused on the girl, Kiyomi. The distance between them had shrunk to a few meters. Saturn held out Her hand. "Now."

Trembling with the desire to flee, Kiyomi managed one, two steps backwards before her legs gave out. She fell on her butt, the glaive crossed in front of her. Saturn smiled slowly. "Good girl."

"SATURN." The voice boomed inside of Her head. Saturn’s eyebrow twitched, the only sign of Her surprise and slight pain. "Highness?"

"RETURN AT ONCE."

Saturn glanced about the devastated beach. "I have yet to complete My task-"

"YOU HAVE HAD YOUR PLAYTIME, SATURN. NOW IT IS TIME TO BEGIN OUR REAL WORK."

The real work… "Yes… At once, Highness." Pausing only long enough to retrieve Her glaive from the unresisting human’s grasp, Saturn sketched a faint, mocking bow towards Pluto and left to rejoin Her Queen.

Setsuna groaned, inhaled sharply, and immediately regretted it as she choked on sand. Squeezing her eyes shut, she forced her body to relax and tried to take stock of her numerous injuries. No bones seemed to be broken, which was always a good thing. However all of her pains kept blurring together into one big pain, which kept her from discovering the full extent of the damage Saturn had done. The one thing she was sure of was that it felt like a ten kilo cat was sitting on her back, preventing her from breathing in.

Pushing herself into an upright position was almost an exercise in futility in itself, but she managed somehow.

"Shouji? Shouji, c’mon, wake up."

Wrapping one arm around her chest, Setsuna got to her feet, swaying dangerously. She turned around slowly.

Shouji was stretched out on his back, his head cradled in Kiyomi’s lap. He wasn’t breathing. Haruka and Michiru stood nearby, each supporting the other. Michiru’s eyes were full of sympathy. Haruka’s expression was completely neutral.

Kiyomi said softly, "This isn’t funny, Shouji. You’re scaring me."

"Kiyomi," Michiru began.

Kiyomi’s head snapped up at the sound of Michiru’s voice. "He’s going to be all right, right? He’s just, y’know, sleeping, right?" Her voice took on a slightly hysterical pitch. "Right?"

Michiru looked away.

Kiyomi stared at her for a moment, then dropped her head. "I see." Her hair fell forward, obscuring her face. "You’ll kill her, won’t you?"

"Yes." The word sliced the air. Haruka met Setsuna’s eyes, then deliberately looked towards the distant fires of the village, fires created during Setsuna’s fight with Saturn. Haruka’s gaze hardened. "Yes, we will."

Legal Stuff:

I don't own any of the Sailor Senshi. Er… the Descendants. Or is it the Avatars..? Whatever. I only own the original characters.

This has been a production of Blueberry Enterprises.
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