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Chapter One
Attempting to find parking in downtown Tokyo at noon was one of the stupidest endeavors Chiba Usagi had ever undertaken, and she had undertaken some damn stupid endeavors in her life. At twenty three years old, she had plenty of time to do foolish things, but unlike most people she had far more opportunities. Fighting the forces of evil tended to do that to a person. But for the past seven years, there had been no evil. For seven years, Usagi had attended high school and then college. She had married the love of her life, and he was a successful businessman. Having gone to school for fashion, Usagi worked for a small-name designer in Japan, a woman named Ushida Takako.
This particularly day, however, was Sunday, and it was her day off. It was also the day she took Luna and herself and met with all of her old friends in Makoto’s quiet sweet shop located in downtown Tokyo.
After at least ten minutes of searching, Usagi managed to find a metered parking space. She glanced around as she prepared to park and caught someone else eyeing her spot. Without hesitation, Usagi slammed her foot on the accelerator and went barreling into the parking space while Luna screamed in the backseat. She just managed to keep her car from smashing into the other two.
Feeling proud as she ignored Luna, Usagi opened her door. Her cat leaped onto her shoulder, settling around her neck like a scarf. Usagi deposited an hour’s worth of Yen into the meter and stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets. It was cold for May, the temperature only reaching eleven degrees centigrade.
She hurried to the entrance to the little shop, Delicato, and shouldered the door open, careful not to smash Luna against the glass. The young man behind the counter smiled at her as she entered.
“Several of your friends are already in the back room,” he told her.
“Thanks,” Usagi replied with a nod as she hurried to the room. Opening the door, she walked in and smiled brilliantly. Ami, Rei, and Michiru were already waiting for her. Luna leaped from her shoulder and went to the water bowl that was waiting for her.
“Usagi-chan,” Michiru said warmly, standing to embrace the other girl. “How have you been this past week?”
“Well enough,” Usagi replied with a smile. She shouldered her jean jacket off and sat down on the tatami mat floor. Unlike the rest of the shop, which was completely European, the back room was furnished like a traditional Japanese apartment might be, complete with a low table and tatami mats. “Hey, Ami. Rei. It’s really cold out, isn’t it?” she asked.
Rei nodded as she sipped her tea. “Very.”
Ami nodded as well. “It really is. Eleven degrees in May? It should be at least twenty,” she agreed.
“You know, it’s across the world,” Michiru said. “Most countries are ten to twenty degrees below average for this time of year. People are worried about crops.”
The group was silent until Makoto entered the room, carrying two plates of sweets. “Here we go!” she said jovially, placing the plates on the table. “Usagi-chan, can I get you anything to drink?”
Usagi reached for a small pink cake that was strawberry flavored, using the time it took to eat to think. “Perhaps some of the tea Rei is having,” she answered a moment later. “It’s so cold, and I could use something to melt me. Or hot chocolate if you have any of that.”
“You bet,” Makoto replied, turning on her heel to head out of the back room.
“Michiru, where’s Haruka?” Usagi inquired, glancing over at the older woman.
“She’s helping Hotaru pack up right now,” Michiru replied. “They should be home later this evening.”
“Hotaru is coming home today?” Rei asked, looking surprised. “I guess it is that time of the year, isn’t it?” She frowned at her watch, looking at the day as if she was surprised.
“How was her year? Is she still majoring in physics?” Ami queried, closing the book she had been paging through. An intern with the intent of becoming a pediatrician, Ami was rarely without her books. She constantly studied, but this, Usagi thought with a small smile, made her the best intern at Tokyo University’s hospital.
Michiru nodded. “Of course,” she replied. “She’s loving every minute of it. I think she wanted to stay in Tokyo this summer, but we wanted her to come home.” Michiru laced her fingers together and leaned her chin on the little hammock she created, eyes filled with mirth. “She doesn’t understand that we want every last moment we can squeeze from her.”
The group laughed at that as Makoto returned, carrying several mugs and two pitchers. She set the platter down and handed a cup to each girl.
“We’ve got more of Rei’s tea and some hot chocolate,” Makoto said, indicating which pitcher held which drink as she spoke. “Help yourselves to either. Who else are we waiting for?” She sat down beside Usagi, leaning over to nudge her companionably with her shoulder.
“Minako,” Rei replied.
“And Mamo-chan, too,” Usagi added. “He was just getting out of a meeting when I called him on the way over here. He should be coming soon.”
“Setsuna said she had something important to do,” Michiru said, reaching for a cup and pouring a glass of tea. She dropped in two sugar cubes and added a bit of lemon. “Of course, heaven forbid she tell anyone what that might be.” With a small laugh, Michiru rolled her eyes.
“What does Setsuna do anyway?” Ami asked. “I mean, we know she works in that lab, but what does she do there?”
Michiru shrugged as the door to the room opened. Mamoru and Minako shuffled in, the blonde wringing her hair out with an expression of distaste plastered across her sweet face. Usagi burst out laughing at the sight of her friend and husband soaked to the skin, and Rei and Makoto joined her. Ami and Michiru managed more dignified and muffled chortles.
“What happened to you?” Rei inquired as she sipped her tea. Her eyes were wide with innocence, but filled with wicked glee.
“The sky,” Minako grumbled. “Mako-chan, stop laughing at us and get us towels. And hairdryers.” She slid her messenger bag from her shoulder and Artemis leaped out, his fur damp, but not as soaked as the two humans. He shook himself before plodding over to Luna.
Makoto stood, shaking her head as she fought to hold in her laughter. “Sure thing, Minako. Hey, Mamoru.”
Mamoru waved, clearly as miffed as Minako. His business suit was soaked through. “This is going to be a hassle to clean,” he murmured to Usagi as he settled beside her where Makoto had been sitting.
Usagi plucked at the fabric. “Nothing dry cleaning won’t solve,” she replied.
“If the water hasn’t damaged it permanently already,” he muttered, crossing his arms. His gaze shifted to the treats and the drinks. “Tea?”
“And cakes!” Usagi said cheerily.
Mamoru laughed softly at his wife.
“The weather really is unpredictable lately,” Rei said, setting down her tea. “It kind of reminds me of that one snow witch. What was her name?”
“Kagura?” Ami offered.
“No, that’s the freaky wind witch in Inuyasha,” Minako replied as Makoto returned with several towels. She dipped her head, wrapping her hair in the towel and pulling another tight around her body. Mamoru took the other towels, trying to soak the water out of his suit.
“It was Kaguya,” Luna said suddenly. A heavy silence fell over the group. During that battle, poor Luna had fallen desperately in love with a human. When she became human, he had thought her Princess Kaguya. It was still a sore spot for her, even though it had happened years ago.
Michiru seemed to choose not to notice Luna’s obvious discomfort, and said, “This whole situation is a lot like that. Granted, we aren’t up to our knees in ice and snow, but the weather around the world is completely erratic.”
There was another moment of silence, but this was filled with an excited hope. Though the senshi tired of fighting near the end of the battle against Galaxia, they were itching to go back to doing what they loved now.
“We shouldn’t jump to any conclusions,” Ami said, leveling a look at the group that begged them to be realistic.
“Ami’s right,” Makoto agreed, popping one of her smaller cakes into her mouth. “It’s been seven years since anything happened. Why should anything change now?”
Rei set her tea down. “Don’t you remember what Setsuna said to us when we were fighting in the future? Usagi will become Neo Queen Serenity by staving off a second ice age,” she reminded them.
“Global warming,” Michiru replied, her response almost instantaneous.
Minako snorted. “Michiru, don’t you remember? Global warming is about the world getting hotter, not colder,” she said, trying not to laugh.
Michiru rolled her eyes. “Minako, you’re just as foolish as ever.” Minako’s snickering died and a look of hurt shot across her face, visible for only a second. Usagi glanced about the table, but was certain she was the only one who saw the expression.
“The last time the Earth went through an ice age, it warmed up considerably before hand,” Michiru explained, looking annoyed.
Usagi didn’t think it was fair of Michiru to be so put off by Minako, but it didn’t surprise her. Despite the fact that Michiru and Haruka had fought beside Usagi and her protectors many times, there was still a huge rift between the two groups. It was perhaps less apparent in Hotaru because of Chibi-Usa’s friendship, and no one was ever certain of how Setsuna felt, but the rift remained, and it was often painful for Usagi to try to bridge it as she did. She disliked her friends fighting with each other. But, with Minako and Michiru, it was a bit more than that. Michiru didn’t think much of Minako’s job as a soap opera actress, and she never hesitated to display her feelings.
“I don’t think we need to worry about a second ice age,” Usagi said with a laugh, trying to break up the tension. “I mean, Neo Queen Serenity looked a lot older than me, so I think we have a bit of time to go before that happens.”
“Usagi.” Rei’s blithe tone was cutting, but not in a hurtful way. It just made Usagi painfully aware of the fact that she had just messed something up. “Neo Queen Serenity hadn’t aged in years. She couldn’t look older than you.”
“Burned,” Minako said brightly.
Usagi resisted the urge to clobber her friend with a fruit tart. “Thank you, Mina-chan, for your overflowing support of me.”
“Not a problem,” Minako replied, completely ignorant of Usagi’s annoyance.
There was another moment of silence. It was made less awkward as the group picked some treats for themselves and Minako and Mamoru poured themselves hot chocolate and tea respectively.
Ami leaned back in her chair, eyes fluttering shut as she took a long sip from her tea cup. “I have to admit, I do miss the fights a bit,” she said suddenly. “There’s nothing quite like unleashing a magical attack on a fiend from another world.”
“The only place I can get that sort of adrenaline rush is when I’m in front of a camera,” Minako agreed. Michiru’s expression made Usagi flinch.
“I don’t miss it,” the violinist snapped, sounding as if she only said it to contradict the rest of them. Michiru was many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. She knew how all of the others felt, with the possible exception of Mamoru, about fighting. They missed it. “I don’t miss constantly putting myself in danger for people who never once thanked us.”
“That’s what heroes do,” Makoto said softly.
Rei nodded in agreement. “They do the thankless work.”
“Everyone loved and thanked Superman,” Minako pointed out.
Mamoru groaned. “She completely misses the point every time, doesn’t she?” he inquired of his wife. Usagi, with a laugh, nodded.
“Yes, well, those are American heroes,” Michiru replied shortly. “And Americans, quite obviously, don’t have a grasp of what it means to be a superhero.”
Minako rolled her eyes. There really was no helping how Minako and Michiru squabbled with each other, Usagi thought to herself as the blonde busied herself with a cookie and her hot chocolate.
“I don’t think we need to be thanked for saving the world,” Usagi said. “After all, if we didn’t do it, no one else would be able to. We aren’t doing anything special; we’re just being what we are.” She realized her mistake the moment the words left her mouth. At that moment, they weren’t being what they were. They were living lives that someone else had molded for them, yearning for the future that seemed content to remain just beyond the next horizon.
After a long, long minute, Makoto murmured, “Maybe we could go to Hokkaido for a vacation and spend our time sparring with each other.”
It was a good suggestion. Rei and Michiru both jumped on it immediately while Ami and Mamoru nodded in agreement. Going to remote Hokkaido, maybe to a cabin in the woods, would seclude them from civilization enough that they could risk transforming. If they even still could.
Usagi let a small frown crease her brow. What if they had lost their abilities during the past seven years? She shuddered at the thought, pushing it from her mind. But there was that nagging feeling of doubt in the back of her mind and, as her friends began to discuss the possible trip, a sense of dread wormed its way up her spine. Claws of worry sunk into the back of her head, and cold, dark words began to float around in her mind.
----
“Weak creatures,” he spat, crossing his arms. “Weak, and pathetic. Look at them. A whole planet full of them. What do they have going for them?”
“An exponential population growth?” she suggested.
Nikolas snorted. “All that means is they have nothing better to do than ******** each other at a drop of a hat,” he snapped, his pale blue eyes flashing with anger. His expression was one of disgust, set in a glare, marring the beautiful perfection of his face. He had a strong jaw, with lips that most women found perfect for kissing. Small lines ran along the side of his mouth, and many thought them to be from all the years of frowning he had done as Fourth Mare of the Court. They were fools who didn’t realize he had been alive much longer than he had been a Mare.
Pushing a lock of wavy blonde hair from his face, Nikolas turned, leaning against the railing behind him. A glass wall was beyond the railing, and about three feet away, disappearing in all directions. The Earth hovered just beyond the glass, a serene globe of blue, green, and white swirls.
“Oh, someone’s bitter today.” Katerina Megeara laughed. She, like Nikolas, had the flawless beauty of a Grecian statue. She, even more than him, looked as if she had been a marble carving come to life. Some people around the Court whispered that she was Galatea. This seemed to amuse her, for Galatea had been a dark creature, with black hair and blacker eyes. Katerina Megeara was like the dawn. The only thing paler than her alabaster skin was her white-blonde hair, and both offset her startling violet eyes. She was a shapely creature, round and curved where many of the women on Earth were tiny and straight.
“When am I not bitter?” Nikolas growled. He watched her as she sat with her sewing in her lap. She was dressed in the traditional outfit for a female Mare. It didn’t really suit her, in Nikolas’s opinion. The empire waistline of the strapless violet gown made her look like she was pregnant all the time. Although, with the motherly nature she showed the Court, maybe it was more fitting than he often gave it credit. Still, such a severe gown looked much better on the severely twisted Amelia.
“When you have a woman in your bed,” Katerina Megeara suggested with a laugh. Her eyes twinkled at him, and he glared back at her.
“Even then I’m bitter,” he replied. “You should know, Katerina Megeara, I am not a pleasant person.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” she said, deliberately feeding his ego. Nikolas wondered, vaguely, what it would feel like to peel her flesh from her body with his nails. The thought wasn’t disturbing to him; the Maria of the Court of the Four Moons were known for their volatile tempers and their violent tendencies. All of them were vicious and depraved when they chose to be. And they chose to be often.
They were silent for a moment. Nikolas closed his eyes and leaned his head back, bearing the long expanse of his throat. His shirt, a white affair that buttoned up the front, hung loose on his large frame, one side tucked haphazardly into his black pants. His outfit, traditional for a male Mare, was missing its jacket. Nikolas only wore the jacket if he was in Court, and even then he often took it off in a flagrant disregard for formality.
“So, then, Nikolas al Gerick, Prince of the Moon Sonarial, Fourth Mare of the Court of the Four Moons, will you honor Mare Amelia’s request that you drive those harpies to their destruction?” Katerina Megeara inquired. She didn’t look at him as she spoke. Instead, she remained focused on her sewing.
“You know how I abhor the use of all those titles, Katerina Megeara,” he told her, dodging the question with a grace that came from years of practice.
“Ah, but names have power,” she reminded him.
Nikolas arched one of his brows and then shrugged. “In such case, Katerina Megeara Panagiotakis, Princess of the Moon Teral, Third Mare of the Court of the Four Moons, I have indeed decided to honor Mare Amelia’s request,” he told her, giving her a courtly bow to compliment his elegant speech.
Katerina Megeara looked delighted by the bow, but even more so by his words. Her sadistic streak always startled him, even though they had known each other longer than people had existed on the planet below them.
“How utterly fantastic,” she purred, setting aside her sewing to stand. She moved with elegant grace to his side, her heeled shoes clicking softly on the floor. Nikolas turned, staring with her at the planet, their shoulders brushing.
“They have one thing going for them,” he said suddenly.
“Oh? What’s that?”
“An author,” he told her. “‘Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun,’” he quoted.
Katerina Megeara laughed, the sound low and husky. “How appropriate,” she murmured.
“There’s more.”
“Oh, do continue.”
“‘Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea,’” Nikolas finished, looking amused.
She laughed again, leaning her head against his shoulder. “So, then, how are you going to honor the First Mare’s request, dear Nikolas?” she asked.
The smile that slithered across Nikolas’s lips held more ice than a blizzard in the arctic could ever hope to muster. It put magnificent glaciers to shame. “With a few of my pets, I think.”
“Those delightful little creatures you craft in your workshop?” Katerina Megeara asked.
“But of course, my dear. I think the rabbit I crafted recently will do quite well,” Nikolas murmured, his deranged smile still splashed across his lips. He drew Katerina Megeara against his side, not because they were lovers, or because he wanted them to become lovers, but because, like all the Maria, with the exception of Amelia, they had a bond that demanded contact. Perhaps it was an ancient safeguard to remind them that they were human with human needs, but the Maria were wonderfully skilled at corrupting anything human and making it something more. Or something less.
Point of view was ever so important.
----
Hotaru lugged a box out the entrance to the dorm hall and hurried down the walk to the curb where Haruka’s car was parked. She dropped the box, full of clothes, on to the ground beside the trunk. She adjusted her coat, wrapping it tighter around herself.
“It’s so cold,” she said as Haruka picked the box up and set it on the edge of the trunk, trying to find the best way to slide it into the mess already there.
“No kidding,” Haruka agreed. “It shouldn’t be this cold in May.” She shoved a few of the boxes around, finally finding a spot for the one in her hands. “Was this the last of them?” she inquired.
Hotaru nodded. “Yep, that’s it,” she said.
“Great. Have you said your goodbyes?”
Hotaru nodded again. “Yeah. Riri is just finishing packing. Her mother is coming soon. Yoshitaka left on Friday, so I said goodbye to him then.” She lifted her hand, ticking off people. “Matsui and I talked yesterday morning, Haine just left this morning, and Mao-chan was gone on Wednesday, the b*****d,” Hotaru said. “Yeah, I’ve said all my goodbyes.”
“Great, then let’s go,” Haruka said, shutting the trunk with a thud. She was on her way to the driver’s side of the car when she stopped. A bizarre prickle ran down her spine and she frowned. “Hey. Did you feel that?” she asked.
Hotaru frowned, cocking her head to the side. “Feel what?” She looked away from Haruka, staring blankly at a point somewhere in front of her as she tried to find the source of her own unease.
“I’m sure it can’t be anything, but…” Haruka trailed off, shifting her eyes to Hotaru.
“No, I feel it, too,” Hotaru told her. “But it’s probably just some kid pouring off some bad vibes because he failed a final or something. Not anything important.”
The heat that slammed into Haruka a split second later, throwing her against the side of her car, was not just a few bad vibes from a pissed off college student. She grunted when the mirror dug into her stomach, turning to see what had happened. Her eyes widened at the sight of the dorm building on fire.
“What the hell was that?” Hotaru demanded, picking herself off the ground. She had dropped when the heat hit her, doing her best to use the car to protect her body. “And what the hell is that?” She lifted her hand, pointing to something shaped sort of like a human that floated over the burning building.
People around them screamed and ran about like fools, as people are wont to do when something goes horrendously wrong. None of them seemed to notice the quite obvious creature.
“I don’t know what that is,” Haruka replied, staring at it. “It looks like a person.”
“A person doesn’t have horns growing out of his head,” Hotaru pointed out.
“So then what is it?”
“An excuse for us to transform,” Hotaru said, reaching into her small purse. Her fingers closed around a small crystal and she withdrew it with a grin.
Haruka regarded Hotaru for a moment before a grin of her own spread across her lips. “This is going to be so much fun,” she said, reaching into her back pocket. She tossed her crystal in the air and caught it. “Ready to kick some a**?”
“The others are going to kill us for not calling them,” Hotaru pointed out.
Haruka’s lips quirked. “Does it look like I care?” She spun the crystal in her hand before glancing around. The students and their parents were too busy screaming to notice the two girls transform. “Uranus Crystal Power! Make Up!” she shouted.
Hotaru mirrored Haruka’s call for herself and seconds later, Super Sailor Uranus and Super Sailor Saturn had replaced the two girls. Saturn spun her glaive in her hands and grinned. “Can I say something really corny?” she asked.
“By all means,” Uranus replied.
“Let’s do this thing,” Saturn said before leaping from the ground. Uranus came after her, and a murmur of surprise went up from the people below them.
They landed, quite precariously, on oak trees growing near to the dorm. Saturn uttered a small gasp as she took in the creature, shocked by its appearance. Its concurrent difference and sameness to a human being was grotesque and shocking. Shaped almost like a human girl, its eyes were large and shaped like almonds. The whites of the creature’s eyes were covered by its golden irises, and in the center was a red slit that acted as a pupil. Small horns sprouted from its forehead, wrapping around its head like a crown. The horns, coupled with large rabbit ears, poked out of thick black hair that would have made any other creature beautiful.
“What the hell is that?” Saturn whispered, taking in the horns sprouting from the rest of the creature’s androgynous body.
“Haven’t the slightest,” Uranus replied. “I just know that I get to kill it.” Saturn growled. “With your help, of course,” Uranus added.
“Hey! You!” Saturn shouted.
The creature turned, its strange eyes wide. It looked both miffed and surprised, something that Saturn doubted it enjoyed being.
“I am Super Sailor Saturn!”
“And I am Super Sailor Uranus!”
Now, the creature appeared annoyed.
“Together, with—”
The creature lunged forward, vicious claws extended. Both Saturn and Uranus swore in a wonderfully creative way, leaping away from claws that could easily rip skin and muscle from bone.
“You know, I really don’t like being interrupted!” Saturn snapped, landing on the roof of the dorm that was on fire.
Uranus dropped down beside her. “They normally listen when Sailor Moon prattles on,” she muttered, her sword suddenly in her hand.
The creature had drawn up short of slamming into the tree, unfurling giant black and white speckled wings to do so. It turned slowly, regarding them with bloodlust and violence in its eyes.
“How do we want to do this?” Uranus inquired as she watched the creature for movements indicating attack.
“I can distract it and trap it with my Silence Wall attack and then you can World Shaking its a** into the ground,” Saturn suggested with a growl in her voice.
“Sounds damn fine to me,” Uranus replied.
Just as the creature lunged forward, Saturn leaped off the roof of the building. She twisted in midair and brought the blunt end of her glaive down on the creature’s head. Hissing with anger, it whirled on her, using its wings to turn itself.
“That’s right, ugly, come get the pretty sailor soldier,” Saturn said, taunting the creature. It sped after her, and she leaped back from it, leading to the wall of another dorm nearby. Glee spread across its features as it realized she was pressed against a wall. It prepared itself for an attack and as it moved forward, Saturn leaped upward. Landing elegantly on the other side of the creature, she shouted, “Silence Wall!”
The creature screamed as the invisible wall pressed it against the wall it had flung itself toward.
A moment later, Uranus called out, “World Shaking!” A fiery orb of death flew toward the creature. Saturn dropped the wall, and the attack slammed into the creature’s back. It let out a blood curdling scream before it was obliterated.
Breathing heavily, Saturn looked over her shoulder at Uranus. “So. What the hell was that?” she asked.
“I still don’t know,” Uranus replied, glaring darkly at the scorch marks on the wall.
A crowd of people approached from behind, the rumbling murmur of their voices drawing attention to themselves. Saturn and Uranus glanced back at the crowd before leaping onto a roof and hurrying away to find a place to shift back into human form.
Ten minutes later, they were milling around with everyone else, trying to figure out what had happened. Of course, no one had anything useful to say. Everyone had come to the same conclusion: Some crazy monster had appeared, and two of the sailor senshi had appeared, after seven years of inactivity, to destroy it.
As Hotaru and Haruka slid into Haruka’s car, they both let out a hard sigh.
“I’m calling Michiru,” Haruka said suddenly, reaching for her cell phone.
Hotaru nodded. “Probably a good idea,” she replied.
Haruka hit 2 on her number pad, using her speed dial. The phone rang four times before switching to Michiru’s voicemail. Haruka muttered a curse as the waited for the message to play. “Hey, Michiru, it’s Haruka. Look, there’s something weird going on. When I was moving Hotaru out, some creature attacked the dorm. I think we’ve got a problem. Call me back, okay?” She hung up.
“Wasn’t there?” Hotaru asked, even though the answer was obvious. “Try Setsuna.”
Haruka nodded and quickly dialed Setsuna’s number. The woman picked up after the second ring. “Meioh Setsuna. How can I help you?”
“Setsuna, it’s Haruka,” Haruka said.
“Hello,” came Setsuna’s reply.
Haruka waited, expecting more, but got nothing. Setsuna was a strange woman. “Something’s up,” she said. “While I was helping Hotaru move out, some creature attacked the dorm.”
Setsuna was silent for a minute. “Can you describe it?” she inquired, her voice soft.
The edge in her voice, the tone it carried, chilled Haruka for a reason she couldn’t place. “It was human-shaped, with a human face, and completely androgynous. It had huge almond eyes, like aliens often have in pictures. The irises bled across the whole of the eye, and it had red slits for pupils. Horns grew all over its body, and it had some nasty claws. Rabbit ears and black and white speckled wings, too.”
“You killed it?”
“Yes,” Haruka replied.
“Did it touch either of you?”
“No.”
“Good.” Setsuna hung up.
Haruka pulled her phone from her ear and looked at it oddly. “I think that was by far the strangest conversation I’ve ever had,” she said to Hotaru.
“Why?”
“After I described it to her, she asked if we killed it, and then if it touched us. When I said no, she said good and then hung up,” Haruka explained.
Hotaru nodded. “That was definitely a weird conversation.”
Shaking her head, Haruka set the phone down and started the car. “Whatever. Let’s get home. We’ll deal with this more then.” Pulling out of the driveway in front of the dorm, Haruka took off toward the highway.
----
Nikolas crossed his arms, staring down at the Earth with venom in his eyes. A glass with red wine rested on the table next to him, and a woman sat at the table, holding a pitcher of the wine.
“Is something wrong, Mare?” she asked.
Nikolas’s expression changed completely. When he looked at her, it was with love and tenderness. “Oh, no, precious. There is nothing wrong.” But even as he said it, he felt Lilith’s presence leave the room as she slid from her shadows to the door. He had no doubt that Amelia would hear of his failure soon. A rock settled in his stomach, and he couldn’t bring himself to enjoy his wine.
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