Chapter 8

Sailor Moon screamed and turned her head towards Sailor Electra as the daggers flew towards them. Sailor Electra scrunched her eyes shut and waited for the pain to encompass them. But the pain never came, instead there was a brilliant flash of gold light in front of them. She opened her eyes in surprise to find Sailor Uranus charging around the grass towards Sailor Isis, her golden Earth Shaking had saved them.

Sailor Isis had dropped to her knees, one of her hands pressed against her forehead, her fingers grasping her hair.

“What the hell was that?” Uranus yelled stopping in front of the brunette. “You let them get away with Rei and in the same moment nearly got Sailor Moon killed! It must take some major talent to mess up that badly in that short of time.”

“Hey! I was almost killed too!” Electra protested, straining against the ropes which Sailor Neptune was trying to cut with one of the daggers that had been deflected. “And leave Isis alone, she didn’t really have a choice!”

“No, Electra. She’s right, I screwed up.” Isis said not lifting her head. *Oh God, how am I going to fix this?*

Sailor Neptune backed away from the two tied to the tree. “Something’s up with these ropes, they’re enchanted or something. They’re not coming loose.”

Sailor Uranus grunted at Sailor Isis, her grey eyes cold. Then she turned to help Sailor Neptune. “Let me do it.” She summoned her sword and began sawing at the ropes.

“OUCH!” Electra cried. “You did that on purpose!” She glared at Uranus, “You’d damn well better have a band-aid ready for that cut. Just because the enemies got the better of us this time doesn’t give you the right to be all pissy. You weren’t here to help.”

“Shut up, Shiner”. Uranus growled as she finished cutting the ropes. She helped Sailor Moon steady herself. “Are you alright, Sailor Moon?”

Sailor Moon looked at her, tears streaming down her face. “No, I’m not alright. We have to get Rei back. And we need to stop fighting, Sailor Isis did all that she could. I told her to save Rei.”

Uranus grunted in disgust again.

“What we need to do now is go after them.” Sailor Neptune said.

“Fine.” Sailor Uranus said. “But that still brings the question of where do we go? There isn’t exactly a map that just points out where evil lives. Isn’t Sailor Mercury coming, can’t we use her visor to find them?”

“Where is she?” Electra asked. “I’ll go find her and tell her to hurry her ass up.”

Sailor Isis, who had been silent, raised her head. “Don’t. Electra, call Apollo.”

Sailor Electra looked down at her confused. “Apollo? What for?”

“Just do it!!”

“Alright, sheesh. I don’t know what good a dog is going to do though. Sniff ‘em out? Not likely”. She shook her head, but raised her fingers to her lips. She whistled one long, clear, high note. She licked her lips when she was finished, “She’ll be here momentarily.”


*


Kurai was cackling in evil glee when he and Rei cracked back into existence. It took him a moment to realize something was amiss. First of all, Hasaki wasn’t anywhere to be found and his surroundings were not as they should be. Kurai swore fiercely when he realized he was no where near where he should have been. Something had gone funny with his transport and he and his captive were standing in the middle of the street not far from Rei’s temple.

“What the hell is this?!” Kurai yelled. He swung his head to glare at Rei, “Did you mess with my transport?! Why aren’t we back at the manor? And where is Hasaki?” He stamped his feet angrily.

Rei flinched away from the temper tantrum Kurai was throwing. His arm was still tight around her neck. At least her hands were free, she could reach her transformation wand, but she wasn’t sure if Kurai knowing her identity was such a great idea. She had just decided to go ahead and transform when Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter ran into the street. They stopped short, surprised.

“Rei?!” shouted Venus.

“Kurai!” yelled Jupiter.

“Shabon Spray!” Mercury cried. The blue mist filled the air and obscured everything.

Jupiter squinted through the mist. “Mercury! Are you sure that was such a good idea?! Now none of us can see anything!” A moment after she yelled there was a sharp crack and a dull thud.

“What was that?!” Venus was waving her arms through the air, trying to clear the mist. There was a loud scraping sound, as though something metal was being drug across the ground. Venus could make out two figures as the mist cleared. She ran forward towards them, then stopped once again in surprise.

Sailor Mercury smiled a little bashfully at the looks of shock on Sailor Venus’s and Sailor Jupiter’s faces. She was walking calmly towards them, supporting Rei with one arm and dragging Kurai’s heavy sword with the other. Behind them, Jupiter could make out a limp form on the ground.

“Mercury! How on Earth!! I mean, what in the . . .” Jupiter exclaimed, her face shocked.

“You knocked him out!” Venus said, awed.

Mercury blushed, “I am a senshi after all, aren’t we women of action?”

“Yeah, but you . . . you usually aren’t so . . . rash!” Jupiter blurted.

“She was very quick.” Rei said, speaking for the first time, her voice a little hoarse. “How did you do that Mercury? I thought you snapped his wrist.”

Mercury blushed again. “One of those extra classes I took a while ago was on self defense. They taught us how to get a weapon away from an attacker by snapping their wrist back really quickly. As luck would have it, Kurai was holding his sword in just a way so that when I bent his wrist back, the flat of his blade hit him square in the temple.”

“Well Sailor Mercury, you are just full of surprises.” Jupiter said.

Rei looked around, “What an idiot Kurai is, we’re not very far from the temple at all.” She stopped very suddenly. “Oh my God!! We have to get back there! Hasaki’s trap!” She took off running for the shrine. The three senshi followed her a little wide eyed, leaving Kurai on the cement behind them, forgotten.

They burst onto the scene to find Sailor Uranus and Sailor Electra yelling at each other, Sailor Isis and Apollo between them. A few feet away, Sailor Moon sat crying and yelling at them to stop yelling while Sailor Neptune tried to calm her.

Rei rushed ahead of the rest towards Sailor Moon, knocking into Sailor Electra, who was sent sprawling into Sailor Isis and Sailor Uranus. A chorus of “Hey!’s” followed her as she dropped to the ground in front of Sailor Moon. “Odango, stop crying.” Rei said.

Sailor Moon opened her eyes and immediately stopped crying. “Rei-chan!” She cried in delight, leaping forward on her. She began to cry again. “But where did you go and I was so worried and then Apollo came and said we couldn’t go where you were and -“

”Sailor Moon!” Rei said with a laugh. “It’s all right, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter came to my rescue after Kurai messed up. I’m glad you’re alright too.”

“Well would you look at that!” Sailor Electra said. She was lying on her back, propped up on her elbows. She looked up at Sailor Uranus and stuck out her tongue. “See?! I told you that trying to browbeat my dog into telling us something would get you no where. I told you it wasn’t necessary!”

Sailor Uranus looked absolutely vicious and was about to snarl a reply when Sailor Neptune laid a gentle hand on her arm. “Let it go, Uranus. Rei’s back and Sailor Moon’s fine.”

Uranus jerked her arm away. “Yeah, fine.”

Electra looked at Venus. “So, what up yo? What happened out there?”

Venus smiled and related the story to them. When she finished Electra yelled “Sailor Mercury! You little bad ass!! Who knew you had it in ya?” She giggled, smiling at Mercury, who blushed again.

Sailor Uranus was smiling slightly as well. She nodded in approval at Sailor Mercury.

Sailor Neptune, however, was frowning slightly. “What happened to Kurai? Sailor Mercury, you knocked him out cold and then what?”

Sailor Jupiter grimaced. “We forgot him. Rei started yelling about a trap back here and we just ran off and left him lying in a pile in the street.”

Sailor Electra burst out laughing. “Ooh! I can just see dignified Kurai lying in a disheveled lump on the pavement. Oh, what an image!! I’ll be- OUCH!” Apollo had just nipped her “Shut it, E.”.

“Fine, fine. I think you’re spending too much time around Uranus, Apps. You’re becoming just little Miss Serious Somber - ow again.” Electra grabbed Apollo’s muzzle. “You bite me again and I’ll bite you back. I mean it.”

Sailor Neptune ignored the two blondes on the ground. “It’s okay, Kurai and Hasaki will be back. We know for sure now. We’ll have to be on alert because they are coming for Rei.”

“I don’t see why we have to wait.” Uranus said under her breath, looking at Apollo.


*


Rei watched Shannon and Apollo run happily off down the street. Everyone had left the shrine, so she turned back to tidy the mess that had been created. She was tugging on one of the ropes when Adara stepped out from behind a tree.

“I’m sorry, Rei-chan.” She said quietly.

Rei looked at her for a moment before replying. “Me too, I overreacted earlier. And I know you tried your hardest in the situation today.”

Adara just nodded.

Rei paused for a moment, replaying the days events in her head. With a start she realized the magnitude of Adara’s actions. Adara had chosen her over Electra, her partner and best friend. She looked at Adara again, her realization showing in her eyes. “I . . . but Electra-”

Adara smiled sadly. “No, don’t Rei. All I need is your forgiveness. Electra knows more than she lets on and she’s fine.”

Rei nodded then smiled. “Of course I forgive you.”

“Thank you, Rei.” Adara hugged her.

“Thank you, Adara.”

*