[FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma/SM] On A Clear Day You Can See Forever Chapter 21
Mark MacKinnon
emmack at sympatico.ca
Fri May 2 21:56:47 PDT 2008
It's been two years since I posted a chapter of this story, and I'm
sure there are people who didn't think they'd ever see it continued.
Well, slow I may be, but here, at long last, is the next chapter. Two
years. Man, I've gotta stop ending chapters on cliff-hangers. That's
just not right.
If it's any consolation, it won't take two years for the next
chapter to come out. Promise.
On that note, let's get this show on the road.
Previously:
Separated by the Sisterhood's attack, the group struggled to
reunite. Both Yoshi's senses and the strange synergistic power that had
grown up between Mars and Mercury aided the groups, but an
unexpected complication entered the fray. Inquisitors from Alieva's
order, tipped off by Vanka der Gris' treachery, entered the tunnels and
encountered the senshi and, assuming them to be part of the Sisterhood
plot, immediately engaged them in battle. Rei's past dealings with their
leader complicated matters even further, but the arrival of Phobos and
Deimos created a diversion that allowed V to take Vestra Carlina
hostage. Meanwhile, the Sisterhood unleashed the rogue succubus,
Maia, on Moon and Tux. Tux fell under her spell and the princess was
forced into a fierce battle for her lover's life ... and her own. Wounded,
she nonetheless managed to kill Maia and rescue Tux.
The rest of the group encountered the Nightmistress who,
realising the jig was up, had already unleashed her attack on Alieva's
temple, apparently out of sheer spite, and slipped away in the ensuing
chaos.
Escaping from the city's perilous underground, the victorious
group ran straight into another problem; a swarm of succubi had isolated
part of the city and lured Ranma to them in order to take the key for their
mistress, Hild. Mara ordered the succubi to keep the senshi busy while
the wolf, Fenrir, killed Ranma. The battle raged fiercely while Wynneth,
realising that the senshi were about to fall to Hild, decided to intervene.
She used the Genosphere as a trojan horse, unleashing her wraiths within
the palace and then attacking Hild's succubi.
Ranma, driven to the edge by despair, used the key to call up a
power he did not know he possessed, a Storm Dragon made from his chi.
That construct wounded Fenrir and destroyed the Genosphere, scattering
the airborne succubi and wraiths but causing untoward consequences,
including a communications blackout.
At that point Wynneth unleashed a power she had summoned
with the coming storm, smashing the palace defences and levelling the
seat of power for the entire kingdom. Ranma, lost in a berserker rage,
remained unaware of this development as he managed to destroy Fenrir.
Then, out of control, he turned is rage on an unsuspecting Mistress V ...
This story is a work of fanfiction. As such, it owes a great
debt to the creators of the characters used herein: Rumiko
Takahashi, creator of Ranma, and Naoko Takeuchi, creator of
Sailor Moon.
This story contains scenes of a dark nature and Lime
rated material, and thus is not suited for younger readers.
Reader discretion is advised.
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
Chapter 21: Zero Hour
V tried to shout, but the breath had been driven from her body by
the force of the impact. Black dots swam in from the edges of her eyes,
doing some sort of demented water-ballet all over her field of vision.
Still, after a few moments things began to register. Things like the way
the torn-up field was receding beneath her, along with the savagely
beautiful silhouette of Ranma's dragon. Her unbound hair streamed
down from her head, trailing behind her.
She was upside down.
And flying.
The broken roof of Memorial Stadium came into view, then fell
away below her smoothly. V shook her head, sending ripples through her
hair as it streamed in the cold wind. Someone's shoulder was pressed
into her belly, and an arm held her legs tightly.
Rescued, and just in the nick of time. But who?
Her hectic ascent slowed, and V gasped as the arm holding her
legs loosened, allowing her to begin sliding. She squawked loudly, but
was unable to grab on to anything as she was unceremoniously dumped.
The storm-bruised sky spun wildly, righting as fingers grabbed her wrist
in an iron grip. The battered senshi spun, hanging from the hand of her
rescuer, who peered down at her with a calculating look.
"In Niffleheim," Mara said wryly, "we had a word for how things
went down here. We called it a clusterfuck."
"You saved me," V gasped. Things were still a little scrambled, but
there was little doubt in her mind that taking the brunt of Ranma's attack
would have been catastrophic, if not fatal.
"So I did," Mara agreed, curls whipping around her narrow face
as the gale rose and a sudden torrent of rain slashed across them in an icy
sheet. "Now you get to return the favour. Make a little deal with me, as
it were."
V wasn't fooled by Mara's bright smile. This wasn't likely to be
a deal she wanted to make. Craning her head to look down, she
considered her options. Slim, she thought glumly, meet none.
"What kind of deal?"
"Look, blondie, here it is. Everything's gone into the toilet here.
I got one chance to stay off my Queen's shit-list, and that's if I bring her
that key. So you help me, and I help you."
"You want me to help you kill Ranma?" V asked slowly.
"Don't look at me like that," Mara snorted. "Your so-called
friend would have killed your tight little ass back there."
"He's out of control!"
"An excellent reason to ice him," Mara pointed out. "Her.
Whatever. Look, you tell me his weak spot, I punch his ticket, he doesn't
kill you, my boss doesn't punish me."
"That's insane! No way!"
"Blondie, I don't think you're seeing the big picture here," Mara
sighed. "You guys have bigger problems right now than some punk-ass
kid with a hyperlink key. Or did you miss the show?"
V had no idea what Mara was talking about until the woman
rotated in place, causing the sprawling cityscape beneath them to turn
until V was facing towards the sea. It took her a few moments to process
what she was seeing. She was looking towards the tempest-tossed waters,
out across the city, but something was wrong with the view. There.
Where the spires of the palace should be was only a tattered pall of
smoke rising into the roiling skies.
The palace. It was ...
It was GONE.
"What," V whispered. "What ... gods, what did you DO?"
"Wasn't us," Mara informed her casually. "Somebody else
called up some very nasty mojo to pull that little stunt, and the prospect
that they might not be finished doesn't exactly fill me with joy. So, one
last time. Do you help me, or do I drop your pretty blonde ass and go
pick another candidate to play 'Let's Make Mara's Day'?"
V swallowed. Hard. The palace had been destroyed. Ranma
was caught in the grips of some sort of berserker rage, and none of the
others could help her. Frankly, things didn't look so hot for her.
So she did what she usually did when reason and planning failed.
She did something batshit crazy.
"Time for Plan B, Mara!" she shouted, extending the finger of
her free hand. The golden streak of light sizzled through the air inches in
front of Mara's face, causing the woman to shriek and flinch. It also
caused her to loosen her grip on V's wrist.
V twisted, breaking the woman's hold. This better work, she
thought as she started to fall, or my improvising days are over. Tucking
into a ball, she rolled over, summoning her whip as she turned. When
Mara came into view again, she hurled the gleaming length of it up with
terrified exhilaration, catching Mara low across the shin and crowing
with delight as the shining links slid down and encircled the startled
woman's ankle. V felt the tension through her back and shoulders as she
swung at the end of her whip, but that was okay. There was no way she
was letting go.
"You are one crazy bitch!" Mara shouted, face flushed with rage and
fear.
"You have no idea," V grinned, heart still trying to pound its way
through her black leather corset.
"You're not safe down there, dumbass!" Mara gritted, extending
her hand, palm down.
"Ah ah ahhh," V cautioned, pointing her free hand up. "You
don't want to do that, Mara."
"You shoot me and you'll fall, moron."
"True. But if you shoot me, I'll fall, too," V countered. "In
that case,
I'd have nothing to lose by shooting back. If I go, I'm taking you with
me. So let's go down. Slowly."
Mara stared at her, frustration stark on the planes of her narrow
face. With a little distance between them, V could counter any of Mara's
attacks, ensuring they both fell to their deaths. And Mara knew it. V
was counting on Mara's sense of self-preservation to end the stand-off.
She wasn't counting on Mara having another trick up her sleeve.
The air above the woman began to glow, and a strange pattern
resolved itself out of nothingness. With a smirk, Mara soared up through
the centre of the pattern.
Taking V with her.
***
The rain quickly intensified, plastering Mars' hair against her
scalp as the wind drove it at them in sheets. The sight of the seat of the
kingdom's power crumbling under the assault of darkness had left them
all shaken, but there was nothing any of them could do about it now.
They had their own priorities.
She led the small group towards the stadium, Mercury bringing
up the rear. The more injured members of their group stayed in the
middle, flanked protectively by the blood-matted gray wolf. Mars hoped
the sudden chaos, coupled with the breaking storm, would keep the
succubi at bay. They were in no condition to deal with another attack
right now. They needed to get V and Ranma away from Fenrir and make
good their escape.
It was hard to hear anything over the din of the pounding rain,
and the brittle snap of thunder wasn't helping in that regard either. With
the comms still out, Mars had no idea what was happening inside.
Hopefully, V had managed to calm Ranma down.
Otherwise, this was going to be unpleasant.
They entered through the hole that Ranma and Fenrir had made,
helping each other climb over the loose debris. At least it was dry inside,
and Mars made another attempt to raise V.
Nothing.
"Any idea what's affecting our comms?" Jupiter asked as she
carefully shook out her sopping ponytail.
"Maybe it's related to whatever manifested itself in the storm,"
Mercury speculated. Silence greeted her words. None of them had said
anything about what they had witnessed. There was, it seemed, nothing
to say. The attack had crushed the palace utterly in seconds, and for all
their power, there was nothing the senshi could do now. The palace, and
everyone in it, was beyond any earthly help. They were not.
At least, not yet.
"This way," Mars said finally, wringing water out of her sodden
tresses. The spattering of drops on the floor only accentuated the quiet;
in here, away from the ragged hole in the wall, the storm's fury was
blunted by heavy concrete and steel walls.
Quiet? With Ranma fighting Fenrir?
Dread began nibbling at her gut with tiny, ragged teeth as she ran
along the narrow corridor, the others following behind. Yoshi moved up
beside her, limping but obviously game, but Mars didn't need the wolf's
nose to know where V had gone. A steel door hung open ahead, the lock
a melted mass of metal. Mars darted through the doorway and sprinted
up the stairs, nearly losing her footing on the loose concrete that littered
the narrow risers. She caught herself, though, and made it to the top,
skidding to a stop high above the field.
The devastation was truly impressive. Brightly coloured seats
had been flung hither and yon, steel railings were shattered, and the
playing field was a battleground of raggedly plowed furrows and
smoking craters. Rain poured in through the ruptured roof, forming a
bizarre indoor weather pattern, but the falling water was the only
movement to be seen.
"Holy crap," Jupiter muttered as she made it up to the top. "What a
mess."
"What's going on?" the princess asked from below them. "Are
they all right?"
"Good question," Mercury said in a low voice as Tux struggled
to reach their position with Moon still in his arms. "Anyone see them?"
Nobody did. Mars scanned the field quickly, looking for any sign
of their fellow senshi. Dread provided a painfully real image of a
crumpled form, black leather streaked with red, lying broken on the
ravaged field, but it quickly became apparent to her that V was not down
there. Neither was Ranma.
The absence of bodies loosened fear's grip, but not by much.
There were holes and wreckage, places where a human body might lie
hidden. Fenrir, on the other hand, could not hide so easily.
And of the unearthly wolf, there was also no sign.
"Yoshi, wait!" Jupiter jostled Mars as she tried to grab the
injured wolf before he leapt down to the seats below, but Yoshi evaded
her easily despite his injuries. Cursing while cradling her injured arm,
Jupiter clambered clumsily over the bent railing and followed.
"Mars?"
"No sign," she called back to the princess. "Of any of them."
By the time they had all reached field level, Mars' unease had
grown to something approaching frantic worry. Mercury and Jupiter had
spread out, but there was no attack, no ambush, no Fenrir.
And no V, no Ranma.
Nothing.
"My scanner still won't work," Mercury growled, frustration
clear in the line of her back as she tried to scan the area. "I can't find
them!"
"Scents are confused," a deep, gravelly voice informed them.
Yoshi was standing on the far side of the largest crater, partially
transformed back to human. He towered over Jupiter, his face and limbs
still covered with shaggy fur. He turned his beast's eyes on them,
shaking his head as though to dislodge bad thoughts.
"Can you find them, Yosh?" Jupiter asked. She, too, seemed to
be perturbed rather than reassured by the absence of evidence. Had
Fenrir done something with their friends? Or had the succubi returned?
"The wolf," Yoshi growled, a bestial tone tainting his words. "Its
scent is all around, but most strong in there." He nodded curtly to the
huge crater, then gave a twitchy half-shrug, moving quickly away from
the torn-up floor. "V, her scent comes down to here, and then ...
nothing."
"It just stops?" Mercury asked. Yoshi nodded.
"Ranma was close, there," Yoshi continued, moving at an easy
lope across the artificial turf of the stadium floor. "Went out through
there."
Mars frowned. A large hole had been smashed in the far wall,
leading out into the storm.
"So, what? Fenrir grabs V, Ranma pursues?" Tux asked. Mars
could see the obvious strain in the man's stance, hear it in his voice.
That
was no great trick, she knew; the others were no doubt aware it as well,
but no one wanted to suggest he put the princess down. She certainly
wasn't going to. Coming from her, such a suggestion would only serve to
harden his resolve.
"But why?" Mercury asked as they moved toward the gaping
wound in the concrete wall. "Could Ranma have hurt Fenrir badly
enough to cause him to retreat?"
"Well, Ranma was hurting him," Jupiter pointed out. "Even
when we weren't. Maybe the wolf got smart and ran."
"Taking V wasn't smart," the princess told her. "Ranma won't
stop chasing Fenrir if he has V."
"Funny," Jupiter said with a wry chuckle. "We've known the
guy for such a short time, but I agree with the princess. Ranma won't
give up if V's in trouble."
"And neither will we," Mars said. They had reached the hole in
the wall, and peered out into the storm. Visibility was limited and getting
worse by the second, but there was no sign of Ranma or V, much less the
huge wolf. Fortunately, there was no sign of Mara or her succubi allies
either, which meant that now was as good a time as any to slip away.
"This hole isn't big enough to have been made by Fenrir,"
Mercury mused, examining the shattered concrete.
"Maybe not, but something went that way," Jupiter told her,
gesturing at a snapped tree and two crushed cars with her good arm.
"Then we follow," Mars said simply. They stepped carefully
through the hole into a small, partially sheltered alcove. There would be
a decorative garden here later in spring, but now there was only sodden
dirt verged by winter-brown grass, scattered chunks of concrete flung in a
fan-shaped pattern out onto the street. Rain, driven by the howling
winds, managed to reach them even there, and Mars knew that the storm
would end up being a mixed blessing. It would neutralise the succubi's
aerial advantage, but it would also hamper the group's efforts to locate
their friends.
"The rain is going to wash his scent away quickly," Yoshi
rumbled. "I'll see how far I can track him." With that, he was gone into
the teeth of the storm.
"We should get moving," Mars said. "Put as much distance
between us and this place as we can before those damned succubi come
back. I'll take the point."
"No," Mercury said. Mars blinked.
"What?"
"I'll take the point," Mercury told her.
"Look, your tactical advantage is neutralised with the
interference," Mars began, frowning at Mercury's uncharacteristic
intransigence.
"True," Mercury admitted. "But look at that storm. Fire
magicks will be at a severe disadvantage out there. Both my power and
Jupiter's are unaffected, even enhanced. Lots of natural water and
lightning. Jupiter is hurt, so I'll take the point."
Mars opened her mouth, closed it as she heard Jupiter stifle a
laugh. She wanted to argue. Of course she should go. She always took
point. Plus, she was worried about Ranma and V, and she ...
Damn it. Mercury was right. If she was honest with herself, she
knew Mercury was right. But it galled her, and she had to fight to
swallow the argument that rose to her lips. Judging by the look on
Moon's face, Mars was not the only one astonished by Mercury's take-
charge pronouncement.
That's what I get for stirring her up, Mars thought ruefully.
Sometimes I miss the days when I could intimidate people.
Mercury gave her a sweet smile and even winked before sprinting
out into the storm. Jupiter didn't bother to hide her grin as she waited a
few seconds, then followed. Mars tried not to be irritated by the
situation. Characteristically, she failed miserably.
"Fine," she said, aware that her tone was verging on petulance.
"Princess ..."
"I've got her," Tuxedo Mask informed her. Mars' famous
temper flared at the sight of the pair. Despite her earlier resolution
not to
say anything, it was obvious that Tux was running on fumes, and with
her pride pricked, she found herself abandoning tact.
"We need to move fast," Mars snapped. "Just let me take her,
would you?"
Moon looked from one to the other, clearly torn. Tux, for his
part, met Mars' glare with an icy stare of his own, and Mars could have
sworn she smelled the heavy scent of roses in the rain-laced wind as he
straightened.
"I said I've got her," he repeated, his bearing in that moment
recalling his regal heritage. "You just watch our backs."
With that, he shifted the princess's battered form in his arms and
did something Mars would have sworn impossible. He ran out into the
icy rain, moving with his usual speed and grace.
Mars stared after the pair, her wounded pride and temper
forgotten in the moment. Impossible as it seemed, there was no sign that
Tux had recently been the victim of a succubus's appetites. It should
have been at least a full day before his strength returned to anything near
normal. He had clearly been running on pure grit and stubbornness, and
she gave him credit for that, but she'd fully expected to have to carry both
of them before long.
The warm scent of earth and flowers lingered, and as she
prepared to follow the others, something caught her eye. She turned, then
knelt to get a better look at the ground where Tux had been standing.
There. The impression of his footprints. As she watched, fresh
shoots of green grass pushed up through the sodden earth, filling the
shape of the man's footprints in seconds. Several small flowers pushed
up in the wake of the grass, growing several inches high and blooming
before her astonished gaze.
"What in the hells?" she whispered. In truth, she knew little of
the basis for, or extent of, Tux's powers, but she'd never seen anything
like this before. He did seem to have some link to Earth Magicks, what
with his roses and all. Had he somehow drawn strength directly from the
earth itself? And why did he seem to have been unaware he was even
doing it?
Troubled for no reason she could really articulate, she stood and
set off after the others.
***
"So much," Mara said cheerfully, "for mutually assured
destruction. I take it you know where we are?"
V swallowed the lump that had formed deep in her throat, hoping
her fear didn't show. The sight of Mara silhouetted against the baleful
light of a swollen Nemesis told her all she needed to know.
She was in deep shit.
"So," Mara continued, clearly taking V's silence for assent,
"there's no need for histrionics, right? Your last visit to our
neighbourhood was pretty wild, at least from what I saw. This time
you're all alone, and if anything happens to me, well, there goes your
ticket home. So let's be reasonable, okay?"
"Sure," V said, her mouth dry. "I can do reasonable."
"That's what I like to hear!" Mara's voice was full of joviality,
but V didn't miss the undercurrent of malice. There was no way she
could trust this woman, demon, whatever she was. The best she could do
was play along, try to turn the situation to her advantage.
Oh, yeah, she told herself sourly. Trapped in Shadow with a
murderous woman of unknown abilities who wants me to give her
Ranma on a platter. No way to contact the others, and even if there were,
Ranma was in the grip of some sort of berserker rage, half of the team
was injured, and they really had no way of reaching her here anyway.
On the plus side, it wasn't raining in Shadow. Not a cloud in the
blood-tinged sky. Whoopee.
"But you know," V went on, maintaining her bead on Mara, "if I
tell you what you want to know, what's to keep you from just stranding
me here anyway?"
"You don't trust me?"
"Nothing personal. I have deep-seated issues with trust," V
assured the smirking woman. "But you see where I'm coming from."
"Oh, sure," Mara replied. "But, see, agreements, contracts if you
will, between my kind and mortals are sacrosanct. If we make a deal,
I'm bound to it as much as you are."
"Gods," V breathed, eyes widening. "You ... you're worse than a
monster. You're a LAWYER."
Mara unleashed a clear, genuine peal of laughter at that as V
struggled to take in the details of her surroundings without losing her
focus on her captor. They had drifted lower in a lazy arc, towards the
roof of the stadium. Oddly, there was damage to this version similar to
that inflicted by Fenrir ...
Whoa. Wait a second.
"A lawyer," Mara chuckled. "Damn it, blondie, there's no
reason to be insulting."
"Sorry," V said sweetly. There, in the periphery of her vision, a
pall of smoke and dust rising into the sky. Yeah. Okay. Time for the
Mistress V Special, Mark II: wild improvisation with a side order of
looney, hold the odds. Because it had worked so damned well the first
time. "It's just that, well, you were talking about needing Ranma to
placate your boss ..."
"So?" Mara's inquiry seemed casual, but V wasn't fooled. The
woman was canny and on her guard, despite having all the advantages.
"Well, I don't think that's going to be an issue any more," V
pointed out. "What with the attack on the palace and all."
"I told you, we didn't ..." Mara trailed off, comprehension
flitting through her narrow eyes, and she wheeled, something akin to
panic taking hold of her expression in the space of a heartbeat.
Two things happened nearly simultaneously. First, Mara's gaze
fell upon the smoking, shattered ruin of the Shadow palace, off in the
distance behind them.
Second, V released her whip and thrust her free hand out, sending
a storm of tiny, gleaming hearts knifing through the still, dank air of
Shadow and into Mara, taking advantage of the momentary distraction
to blast Mara's slender form, sending it pinwheeling loosely through the
sky.
V didn't have time to admire her handiwork, though. She tucked
herself into a ball as she fell, spinning to bring the roof of the stadium
into view. They had drifted closer to the dome, true, but the drop was
going to hurt nonetheless. She barely had time to brace herself before the
gray dome rushed up to meet her, the force of the impact driving the
breath from her in a rush. V rolled, losing her bearings as she struggled
to draw a breath. Her legs were numb, black spots danced around in her
eyes and the sky spun crazily.
She was down. And she was rolling off the damned curve of the
dome.
V tried to slow her descent, but her body didn't want to obey, and
the battering from her tumbling wouldn't let up.
Then it did, and she was in free-fall again. Desperately she flung out
her hand, catching a glimpse of the roof's edge through a storm of blonde
locks. Grabbing at as much of her scattered concentration as she could,
she threw all her strength into summoning her whip, sending it snaking
out. For a heart-stopping instant she was sure nothing would happen, but
a string of familiar gleaming motes finally coalesced into the sinuous
form of salvation as she plummeted, and the whip slithered up to wind
around the neck of one of the gargoyle statues.
At least, she hoped it was a statue. If it was real, she was going to
be in even deeper trouble, something she hadn't thought possible only
moments ago. V gritted her teeth and drew the whip slowly tight, letting
her momentum carry her body into an arc along the side of the stadium's
wall. Just snagging the gargoyle would have probably pulled her arms
from their sockets; as it was, she held on for dear life, gasping for breath
as she swung in a long arc, her body spinning at the end of the whip and
bouncing two or three times off the cold concrete wall..
After a few long, dizzying swings coupled with delightful, bone
jarring impacts, she had regained enough of her faculties to extend the
whip and lower herself to the plaza below. Thankfully, the gargoyle was
indeed every bit as inanimate as its counterpart on the other stadium, and
as her boots hit the ground V murmured a quick thanks to the goddess of
bravos and madwomen.
But there was no time to waste. She had to get out of this plaza;
it was wide open, devoid of cover. Fighting to get her breathing under
some semblance of control, V half-limped, half-sprinted to the far end of
the open plaza, ignoring the itch that had begun to crawl along the flesh
between her shoulder blades. Even if her sucker-shot had KO'd Mara,
there were plenty of other dangerous things in Shadow, like wraiths, and
the strange beasts they'd fought before. And that wasn't even taking into
account the horrors that could be lurking here unbeknownst to lovely
blonde senshi; after all, until recently, nobody had realised that this
Crimson Queen had created a court of succubi here. Not to mention the
Black King.
By the time V reached cover, it felt like an army of ants was
skittering down her back. Way to give yourself the screaming heebie-
jeebies, Aino, she thought blackly as she plastered her back to the wall of
a narrow alley. Shadows were deep here, and V weighed the danger of
moving deeper into the alley against the threat of aerial attack. Succubi
had filled the sky before that explosion scattered them like so many
leaves, but V had no idea how great a percentage of the Crimson Queen's
forces they represented. Any succubi that hadn't been in this realm's
palace might still be lurking about. Not to mention incubi emboldened
by their rivals' misfortune.
Or the vampire's wraiths. Yeah, the alley would do just fine.
Cautiously, V summoned a short length of whip and set it to
spinning. She didn't want to create too much of that golden light. In this
place, light would draw attention. No, just enough to reveal any hazards
was the way to go.
She snorted. Hazards. Like, for instance, being trapped in
Shadow Realm with no way out? Yeah, that might qualify. Grimly, V
pushed on, orienting herself as she reached the far end of the alley. She
had a rough idea of where Mara should have landed. Assuming that the
woman had been incapacitated by V's attack, the best plan of action was
to find her before she recovered and force her to take them back out of
Shadow. Okay, it was a pretty thin plan, but right now it was the only
thing standing between V and the gnawing sense of panic uncoiling from
her gut.
Had the others even seen what had happened to her? When the
dust settled, they would look for her, but it would never occur to them
that she might be here. What then?
V thought of the strange link that Rei and Ami shared and felt a
pang of jealousy. What she wouldn't give for that link right now. And
how weird was it that Rei and Ami, of all people, were linked in such a
way? Their powers were diametrically opposed, not to mention their
natures, and anything involving mind-blowing sexual ecstasy? That was
Minako territory, all the way.
Her comm still wouldn't work, which was no surprise. She knew
from experience that she wouldn't be able to sense Artemis's presence,
although that didn't stop her from trying. She was cut off, alone. Even
Ranma ...
Ranma. What had happened? That chi manifestation had been
glorious, terrifying, and the only thing capable of stopping Fenrir. But
what had it done to Ranma? Was he okay now? Would he be looking
for her? Maybe that key, whatever it was, could help him find her here.
It had gotten them out last time, after all.
And she had no doubt he would search for her. They had known
each other for such a short time, but V felt the bond that was developing
between them. Ranma might be all reticence and wounded distance on
the outside, but he was the kind of man that followed his heart with a
vengeance. And V knew that, however confused that boy was, she had
taken up residence his heart.
And when he finally found her, she was going to kiss him until
his spine melted. Then she was going to let him find a way to make it up
to her for almost eating her with his chi dragon.
Those thoughts helped distract her as she flitted like a ghost from
shadow to shadow, staying close to the high walls of the buildings here,
using her whip for light only when absolutely necessary. As the minutes
crawled past, her chances of finding Mara before something found her
danced further and further from the realm of reasonable.
And then something grabbed her from behind.
***
Cold.
It chased me out from wherever I'd been with its dull, frigid ache,
and dimly I thought I might have been feeling it for a while. Then wet
joined the festivities, and a whole raft of physical sensations came riding
along just behind.
I pulled in a shaky breath, another. Opened my eyes. I was lying
on pavement, wet pavement, and frigid lines of rain were drilling into my
back, hitting the ground so hard that they formed a mist where they
bounced back up. It was hard to move, took forever to get my arms to do
what I wanted, which was to lift me off the ground.
I was lying in the middle of a street. Water ran down my face,
coursing maliciously from the end of my nose as I peered around
blearily. I'd woken up in some pretty strange places in my time, but
rarely one as bleak as this. Not to mention that I felt like I'd had every
ounce of strength rung out of me, with freezing water rushing in to fill the
void.
This wasn't good. At least there was no traffic, I thought fuzzily
as I tried to muster the strength to get up. It would suck to get run down
in the road after ... after ...
After what? What the hell had happened, anyway? Disjointed
images flickered across the inside of my skull, fighting, running, the
usual crap ...
Fenrir.
I'd thought it had been cold before, but this new frost settled into
my soul, where the mere physical misery couldn't reach. I struggled to
reach my knees, fighting off drowning waves of light-headedness and
nausea. It had all been going bad, the succubi, the giant wolf, Mara, all
of them. So I'd ...
I'd what? I remembered hopelessness, despair, and above all,
anger. I'd wanted to strike back against them, all of them. Had I?
Fenrir had been charging, and I'd tried to reproduce whatever effect I'd
used against Arj. Things got hazy, then. It all seemed vaguely
dreamlike, unreal.
And now I was here, caught in the teeth of a wild storm, no
stadium, no Fenrir, no senshi.
Alone.
My heart started racing. Alone. Where was everyone?
Gone, the little voice in my head mocked me. All gone.
No. Just like before. Just like ... like home ...
Or are you still home? Did you ever leave?
I fell back on all fours, driven down by the storm's fury combined
with sudden dread.
Maybe you passed out on the street in Nerima. Rescue, another
world where your friends all survived, where you weren't a failure, what
a sweet dream ...
"No." My voice was lost in the drumming rain, the snarling
wind.
And then travelling, finding lovely senshi who befriend you, take you
in? And want to share you in ways you can't imagine? Really? What a
pleasant dream to pass the last moments of your hopeless life ...
A feeling of unreality settled over me, the comforting detachment
somehow familiar. There were flashes of memory, of wandering alone,
of bodies and carnage and fighting ...
"NO!" I came up again, shuddering, clawing at the rain like a
madman. And maybe I was just that, a madman, the last madman in
Japan, maybe the world, lost in a fever dream and waiting for the end.
They'd find me soon, follow the screaming, and then I could go down
fighting, and it would end, there'd be peace and I could rest ...
It was like I could feel it happening, the cogs and gears of my
mind just starting to spin out of synch, thought and memory jumbling,
getting dim, getting LOST. And for a moment, I just wanted to stay
there and let it happen. I was vaguely aware that this particular madness
had fallen on me once before, after Ukyou had died (years ago?
Seconds?). And I'd been left alone. Was still alone. Had always been ...
Something was digging into my waist. That shouldn't have
seemed important, but the sensation cut through the mental fog,
demanding attention. Fingers made clumsy by cold scrabbled weakly at
the waistband of my pants even as I wondered why I was bothering.
Why ...?
The outline was curved. A metal crescent, tucked against my
skin. I'd put it there, when ...
Minako. Her Crescent Compact. She'd made me dry clothes. I
gasped, and it was like pulling the world back into me along with the
cold and the wet.
She was real. It was all real. Wake up, Saotome. Wake the hell
up, GET the hell up, right NOW!
I shook my head, water spattering off my sodden hair. I was still
shaking, but not just from the cold. I'd been right on the edge of
something, something very bad, that ever popular abyss, maybe. And I'd
been that close to sliding over the edge. A part of me had wanted to.
But now I was back.
"V?" I called. My voice was hoarse, weak, and I could barely
hear myself over the din of the storm. I staggered to my feet after two
attempts, nearly falling the second time. Standing there, swaying, I knew
I was in bad shape. It wasn't just being drenched in icy rain, either. I
had all the strength of a wet noodle. Whatever I'd done, it had drained
my reserves.
But had it worked?
"V! Mars! Princess? ANYBODY?"
Nothing. Damn it. No sign of Mara, the succubi, or Fenrir. Had
the others escaped, or had they been captured? And where the hell was I,
anyway? I turned slowly, realising that even though I was in the middle
of a city street, there'd been no traffic at all since I'd woken up. The
buildings around me seemed run down, maybe even abandoned. It
reminded me of the neighbourhood V, Mars and I had passed through
after escaping the subway tunnel, the one near the border to the old city.
But, for all I knew, the city was full of mostly abandoned areas like this.
None of which helped me. All I really needed to know was
where the others were, and there didn't seem to be any indication of that.
If I'd had one of those little earring communicators, I could have called
them, but that was not happening. Hell, without knowing where I was, I
couldn't even find my way back to Minako's place. Or Ami's house,
since that was likely where they'd go.
If they were okay.
I shook my head fiercely and immediately regretted it as a wave
of dizziness hit me. Dwelling on things I couldn't control would get me
nowhere. Doing something, anything, was better than doing nothing.
I turned slowly. There. That way felt right, somehow, a faint
sense of rightness like a half-forgotten memory. Maybe it was nothing,
but it was all I had.
Gathering the few wits I had left, I wiped the water from my eyes
and set out through the raging storm.
***
V struggled as she was pulled into darkness, stumbling against
something yielding, warm. A hand was clamped over her mouth, and as
she and her assailant were propelled back to a sudden stop against a wall,
a strangely accented voice hissed into her ear.
"Merde! Stop struggling, they'll hear us! Please!"
V froze, and in that moment something flashed by outside the
doorway she'd been pulled through, a winged form bathed in crimson
light and flying only feet above the ground.
A succubus. And moments later, another. As V balanced the
threat outside against that of her unknown benefactor, the very air
seemed to tremble with the force of a cry that resounded just below
audibility, grinding atoms of air against each other. V had no wish to
know just what was capable of making such a sound.
She very nearly found out anyway. Something blocked out the
corrupt moonlight, and although she could make out no details, the
embattled senshi's senses cried out at its nearness. It was huge and yet
seemed to move without making any sound at all.
Until it unleashed another of those dreadful cries.
And then it was gone.
"A mixed blessing," that exotic voice breathed hotly into her ear.
"It is tracking the succubi. They will not have time to search for us."
V pulled the slender hand away from her mouth, spinning neatly
as she put some space between her and the stranger. A shadowed form
slumped against the bare wall, hands held up in a placating gesture,
making no move to attack. Which made sense. As V's racing pulse
finally began to slow, she realised that this woman had saved her life.
Had she continued on, she'd have run headlong into the succubi, as well
as whatever Shadow beast was hunting them.
"Who the hells are you?" V hissed, mindful to keep her voice
low. Safety, in this place, was certain to be nebulous and fleeting.
"A friend," was the reply. The woman moved slowly away from
the wall and into the uncertain light, and V let her, keeping a respectable
buffer of space between them. She was dressed in unusual clothes of a
style V had never seen before. The two women were of a height, the
stranger wearing her glossy dark hair in a smooth, shoulder length cap, a
long ponytail falling in back to her ankles. She was slender and
well-built, and her face ...
V stiffened, bringing her hand up as those aristocratic features
were revealed. Adorning the pale skin of the woman's forehead was a
diamond marking, with similar patterns on each cheek. And V had seen
markings not totally unlike those before.
"You're like Mara," V said flatly.
A torrent of verbiage in a flowing language V had never heard
before erupted from the slender beauty's mouth. "I am nothing like
Mara!" she spat, her eyes catching the crimson light as she raised her
chin haughtily. "And I never will be, no matter how Hild tries to tempt
me!"
"Right," V said slowly. The woman's anger seemed genuine.
"Uh, sorry. Those markings on your face ..."
"We are opposite numbers, Mara and I," the woman told her, a
bit stiffly. "But come. We must not tarry here. I used what little
strength I had managed to hoard in my escape, and they will be searching
for us."
"Us?" V raised one eyebrow. "Look, lady, thanks for the help
and all, but I have problems of my own right now. We should split up
..."
"Non! You must listen ..." V stepped back instinctively as the
woman wrapped her arms around her body suddenly, a soft cry escaping
her lips. A soft light suffused the small, sparsely furnished room as a
form coalesced from the woman's back, and all of V's suspicion and
wariness was forgotten in an instant.
"What in the hells?" Her voice sounded faint to her ears as she
gaped, awestruck. The female form that rose behind the stranger was
wreathed in pale radiance and something more, a sense of rightness, of
purity and goodness that pushed at more than just the physical darkness
of Shadow. Blonde hair tumbled around angelic features, the eyes which
sought out V's deep and kind but burdened with a sorrow that the senshi
wanted, in that moment, to banish, no matter what it took.
Especially if it had something to do with the dully gleaming
chains wrapped around that glimmering form.
"Rose," the woman gasped, reaching up to touch the bound spirit.
"It's all right. Calm yourself." The phantom named Rose keened softly
in response, and V found herself drawn towards the pair inexorably, all
suspicion forgotten.
"What happened?" V whispered.
"Rose is part of me," the woman replied, her voice tight. "By binding
her, Hild has bound the greater part of my power."
That name again. "Hild?"
"Mara's mistress. The succubi call her the Crimson Queen."
"Oh. Her. Yeah, I've heard she's bad news."
"You have heard correctly."
"Listen, uh ..."
"I am Peorth."
"Call me V. I can try to cut through these chains with my
magick." Peorth shook her head.
"Pure mithril," she informed V.
"Say, there's some kind of lock here," V breathed, moving for a
better look. "I've never seen anything like it before, but ... well, locks
are kind of a specialty of mine. If I had my tools, I could try to get it
open."
"Nothing would please me more than to be free of this bondage,"
Peorth told her as Rose reluctantly disappeared back into her mistress's
body. "But right now, time is short. The Warden is in terrible danger ..."
"What? How do you know about him?" Without Rose's
influence, V felt suspicion beginning to worm its way back in. What in
the hells was going on?
"I was Hild's prisoner," Peorth told her. "She used my link to
captured Aesir technology to watch you the last time you were here, and
again when Mara attacked you earlier. But when the sphere was
destroyed, we lost contact ..."
"Sphere? What sphere?"
"An artifact constructed by a Genrous named Silkaine," Peorth
replied, a trace of impatience tinging her words. "Listen to me, there is
little time! Your friend, the Warden, has called up a wild power he may
not be able to control!"
"You're not kidding," V muttered.
"I was fortunate to escape," Peorth told her, edging towards the
doorway. "Hild's stronghold was hit by some unknown force. I didn't
think anything in Shadow could breach her defences."
"The palace in our world was destroyed," V said, her stomach
knotting as she recalled the sight. "Mara said that she didn't do it."
"Yes," Peorth mused. "Catastrophic effects in your world can be
translated into this one, although the degree of effect seems random.
Hild's palace was not completely destroyed, but the damage was great
enough to free me and separate us long enough for me to escape. I can't
imagine what could have damaged the human queen's palace that badly,
though. Still, Hild will soon have her few remaining forces searching for
me. And, assuming Mara or the succubi brought you here, they will be
looking for you as well. It is fortunate we found each other."
Yeah ... yeah." V's skin prickled lightly as a happy thought
came to her. "Hey, Peorth. Mara actually brought me here through a
portal she generated. Can you do that, too?"
"Ordinarily, I could get you home," Peorth said. "But my power
is almost completely neutralised. Although ..."
"What? You have an idea?"
"Indeed," Peorth said after a long moment. "Come. We must
hurry."
***
Mara winced as she pulled herself from the remains of the wall
she'd hit on her way down. Damn that girl! She was sneaky, and
damned strong, too. Mara'd barely been able to pull together a shield on
the way down. Even so, she'd been knocked senseless. No telling how
much time had passed.
Her trump card was gone.
Damn. She didn't have the key. She didn't have the sphere. She
didn't know what had happened to the succubi who'd been with her.
Fenrir was toast. And Hild's palace had suffered significant sympathetic
damage from the attack in the other realm.
Hild was going to be in a truly foul mood. And she had a way of
taking those moods out on her loyal minion.
"Man," Mara gasped, slowly climbing to her feet. "This day just
keeps getting worse and worse ..."
So. What to do? Return to the palace and face the music? Nope,
not yet. Back to the mortal realm, then? Huh. Warden or not, the kid
had broken Fenrir, and now he was consumed by battle rage. No way
was Mara going up against that.
That left searching the area for the blonde cupcake. Mara owed
her some payback, and if she gave Hild a playtoy who was personally
acquainted with key-boy, that might help her case.
Shaking dust and small bits of rock out of her hair, Mara gave
her clothes a desultory dusting and took to the air. She didn't hold out
much hope of finding V in one piece. Even if the crazy minx had
survived the fall, Shadow was a very dangerous place. As the minutes
dragged on with no trace of her quarry, Mara began to despair. This was
starting to look like a waste of time. V might already be dead.
Or not. There, a ruckus on the ground. Pulse speeding up, Mara
grinned and rocketed groundwards. As she came close to the empty
boulevard, though, she saw something quite unexpected. A woman was
fleeing down the middle of the street, a human woman. Behind her, a
pack of Shadow Hounds tore at their prey, a snarling wraith.
Weird. It looked to Mara like the wraith had brought the woman
through, only to get ambushed. In fact, the Hounds overwhelmed the
creature even as Mara watched, several of their number breaking from
the pack to pursue the woman. With prey's uncanny instinct, she chose
that moment to look back and scream.
Yeah, Mara thought with grim amusement. That'll help. Still,
she altered her course, swooping down to snag the woman a few seconds
before the Hounds would have brought her down. Mara held the woman
tightly around the waist, soaring high above the street and out of reach of
the hunters, who bayed their displeasure. Mara grinned and gave them
the finger.
"What ... oh, gods," the woman gasped. "Gods. Who are you? What
is this place?"
"First time in Shadow, huh?" Mara asked casually.
"Shadow?" The woman's eyes were glazed with shock. She was
quite beautiful, Mara noted, even in her current state. Her glasses were
askew across the bridge of her aquiline nose, her raven hair had begun to
escape from a tight bun, and her full lips were parted with panicked
gasps. She wore a white lab coat liberally sprayed with red, and Mara
was quite certain that it was blood. And not the woman's, either.
"I'm Mara. And you are?"
"Muh-Mariko. Indis."
"So, what's your story, Mariko Indis?" She was a looker. The
succubi would be more than happy to have her as a pet. That, however,
would not help Mara with Hild. And Mara had no doubt that, whatever
damage the palace had suffered, Hild would have survived. The woman
was the consummate survivor.
"The lab," Mariko said slowly. Their bodies were pressed
together, and Mara could feel the woman's heart against her own chest,
vibrating like the wings of a hummingbird. "Oh, gods, they killed
Professor Lewdine. He tried to stop them. With a coat rack. He tried ...
they killed him."
"Yeah, I got that part. Tell me about this lab, Mariko."
"What? The lab? In the palace. We were studying the sphere,
and they came out of it. Wraiths. They shouldn't have been able to do
that. And they killed. Everyone. Almost."
"Not you." A lab in the palace? Interesting.
"The thing, that wraith, it took me," Mariko said, breathless. Her
eyes began to focus on Mara's face. "It brought me here. To its mistress.
I think ... I think she's the vampire. I think ... but those things
attacked,
and ..."
"Mariko, you work with stuff like the sphere a lot?"
"What? Why, yes, I ... I'm the senior ... I work under Professor
Lewdine."
"Not any more. I assume that's him all over your pretty lab
coat?"
"Oh, gods," Mariko whispered, looking down. "This can't be
real. This ... who are you?"
"You know a lot about secrets, I'll bet," Mara mused. Not what
she'd been after, but better than a kick in the ass with a frozen boot.
"Magickal tech, stuff the human queen got her hands on."
"I don't know what you mean." Mariko's eyes were wide, but
she finally seemed to be getting her bearings. Too late, girl, Mara
thought. You've already spilled too much.
"Sure you do. You know, I work for a woman who could probably
use someone with talents like yours. Or you could go back down with
them." Mara tilted, feeling the tension arc through Mariko's body as the
ground came into view below, Hounds still snarling around the scattered
remains of the wraith.
"Please." Mara closed her eyes. She didn't want to see. That
was good. That was very good.
"Well, then," Mara beamed. "Let's make a deal."
***
"Raine, wake up."
Raine didn't want to wake up. She felt like a hundred pounds of
shit in a ninety pound bag. She tried to shoo the voice away, but
although it was gentle, it was certainly insistent.
"Raine. You are needed."
"Greely," she mumbled. "Go away."
"I assure you," her friend said, his tone as dry as the Wastelands,
"that will not be a problem. Raine, listen. You need to find Gar. The
Queen needs him near. It's very important. Remember that."
"Tam, I don't want to hear that." Gar would be lucky if she
didn't skin him alive, that scoundrel. He ...
"Raine."
Her eyes opened. Or one did. There seemed to be a problem
with the other one. She was lying on her back, and Raine felt a moment
of panic, as though she had forgotten something very important,
something crucial. She blinked rapidly, and the face that came into focus
above her wasn't that of Tamiten Greely, but of Queen Kendra. Was she
sleeping in Kendra's lap? Raine tried to spring to her feet, but she only
made it a short was before collapsing back down, coughing.
"Easy," Kendra said, helping ease her back down. "Take it easy,
Raine. I'm not sure how bad your injuries might be."
Injuries? What in the hells?
And then it came rushing back, and Raine reached up, ignoring
how her hand shook as she gripped the young queen's shoulder and
pulled herself up. Something had attacked the palace. Morris had been
reporting from the watch, and then ... and then what? A deafening roar,
light and heat, a jumble of sensations. Raine's head swam for a moment,
and she raised her other hand to touch her face. A makeshift bandage
covered her left eye. Or what was left of it. Which, it seemed to her, was
not much. Damn.
And they weren't in the control room anymore.
"How bad?" she asked, looking around carefully.
"Whatever hit us, it blew through the palace's defences," Kendra
told her, still supporting Raine. "I can't even imagine what kind of
power that took."
"The others?" But she knew already. Greely. That hadn't been
a dream. She'd lived in this city too long to mistake a parting message
from a shade of the dead.
Goodbye, old man. I'll miss you.
"Raine, we were deep inside the palace. Everything was coming
down. There's no way anyone survived. Tam, all my ministers, the
staff, the guards ... they're all gone."
It was too much to take in, and that was a small mercy. All her
guards, handpicked and trained by her. Hinari, that girl in the kitchen
who always got her Kennarian tea. Yaster Fenni, whose teasing she
secretly enjoyed every time their paths crossed. Too much. She was
Captain of the Royal Guard, even if that force currently consisted of only
her. And there was a job to do. She took a deep breath.
"But we're alive," Raine noted. "How?"
In reply, Kendra pointed to something lying beside her on the
smooth rock. Galiraithe. The blade seemed to almost shimmer in the
dim yellowish light.
"I don't understand, Majesty."
"Whatever power hit us, Galiraithe reacted to it," Kendra said,
her eyes dark as she gazed down at the legendary blade. "It surrounded
me with a glow, and the wave of darkness ended up punching me down
through the floor. Far down, by the looks of it. You threw yourself at
me as the roof started to collapse, which is the only reason you're alive."
"I see." Incredible. There were many legends surrounding the
sword carried by every queen since the kingdom had been founded, but
Raine had never heard of anything like this. "Galiraithe protected you."
"Only me," Kendra said, her voice edged with anger. "None of
the others."
"Majesty ..."
"They were right there, Raine! Greely was only a few feet away!
I could have grabbed him, too! Or ..."
"Apparently, it doesn't work that way," Raine said firmly. "And
that is not your fault."
"Don't lecture me, Raine."
"Then don't dwell on what might have been." Raine gave the
young queen a level stare. "We've all experienced the vagaries of great
power in our lives. Why do the gods save one but not another? Why are
some judged worthy to wield great magicks, while others labour in
mediocrity?"
"That's not the same!"
"Maybe." Raine shook her head, instantly regretted it. "Ow."
"You caught the edge of the shock wave," Raine said
immediately, reaching out to steady the other woman. "And I lost my
grip on you when we reached bottom."
"Bottom." Raine looked around at the curved walls. A tunnel
beneath the palace. But not the one she should have been looking at.
"This isn't one of the emergency access links, is it?"
"No," Raine said. "It isn't." She climbed slowly to her feet,
taking inventory of her injuries as she did so. She was a mass of bruises,
and it felt like she might have a cracked rib or two, but the runes inside
her battered breastplate had already kicked in, helping mask the pain.
Those spells would heal lesser injuries, but they were limited in power,
meant for emergency battlefield use. And no healing rune would help her
eye.
Still, she could stand, and she would be able to function. That
was what mattered.
The tunnel they were in was smaller than the main links that ran
under the palace and served many purposes, mostly in times of war.
Their existence was not widely known, but they were still heavily
patrolled, and access to the palace's lower levels was controlled through
a single chokepoint.
This tunnel had to be below that network. The soft light came
from magestones set in the wall, and Raine considered the possibilities
"Most of the tunnels from the First Sidhe War were sealed long
ago," she said at last. "I think this has to be one of those. Maybe it was
missed, or deliberately left off the maps of the time."
"Where does it go?"
"Well," Raine said, looking behind them, "we can't go back." If
there'd still been access to the surface from that way, it was gone now.
Whatever force had let them survive the descent to this level had brought
the tunnel down behind them. It was completely choked with rock. "If
this is one of the old accessways, it would have been mainly used as an
escape route during siege."
"Well," Kendra murmured, moving up beside the battered
captain, "let us hope that's still the case."
"Hmmm."
"What?"
"Most of those tunnels led either to the harbour or to the eastern
districts. We should hope for the former. Otherwise, we're in for a long
walk."
Raine automatically checked her gear as she worked the kinks
out of her battered body. Her guns were in place, as well as the extra
ammo. And her sword as well, which was good. Her armour was dented
and scratched, but not pierced; the runes were still doing their work. Her
rib was barely an itch now, and her knee, which felt stiff, was similarly
benefiting from the runes inside the high boots she wore.
"Raine."
"Majesty?"
"Something broke the palace defences. It very well may be
waiting up there for us."
"Well, Majesty," Raine grunted, adjusting the bandage over her
eye. "That's why you have me."
"I knew I kept you around for a reason. Can you walk?"
"The Grievs are made of stern stuff, Majesty."
"That's why they make such excellent guardsmen," Kendra said
with a faint smile.
"Indeed we do. Come on, Majesty. The enemy's taken their
shot. Now it's our turn."
Steeling herself against the unknown threats of this forgotten
burrow, Raine set off into the gloom, the young queen at her back.
***
The world was drenched in icy rain and cloaked in a raging gale,
but Yoshi stood in the teeth of the storm as though it was a calm day in
the first blushes of spring. Jupiter felt a rush of heat under her sodden
skin at the sight of him, naked and rain-slicked, easy, feral grace
radiating from his rangy form even when standing still.
In that moment, she ached for the warmth of her bed, his heat
beside her. Or on top of her ...
Bad, she told herself sternly. Focus. V and Ranma are still
missing in
action.
Shaking her head, Jupiter sluiced the water out of her eyes with
one gloved hand and moved out to meet the werewolf. His wounds
seemed to have closed, and the rain had washed the blood away. Silver
hadn't been used; he'd be as good as new in no time. Her shoulder still
hurt like hell, a dull, rotted-tooth throb, and she envied him his
ability to
heal. Senshi healed pretty quick, but not that quick. She had a day or
two before she'd be back to normal. Still, she'd taken her arm out of the
makeshift sling for the moment. She wanted the mobility if it should
prove necessary. It'd hurt, but she was willing to pay that price.
A low flat industrial building sat off to one side of their position,
a warren of small streets in front of them. A small, boarded up building,
little more than a shack really, slumped wearily at the nearest
intersection, and beyond that, a wasteland of old stone and brick
warehouses crowded the narrow streets.
This neighbourhood had seen better days, that much was certain.
"Hey, Yosh," she called. Even with the din of the rain, he had
almost certainly heard her coming, but she didn't want to spook him. It
had been a hard day.
All around, she added silently.
"He went straight through there," Yoshi said, not turning.
"Never turned from this path. He knows where he's going."
"Or he's following Fenrir," Jupiter guessed.
"No other scents," Yoshi stated. "And now Ranma's is
completely washed away. I'm no more good to you."
"Yoshi ..."
"I have to leave." He turned to her, and Jupiter saw why
immediately. He'd reverted to full human form, but there was a wildness
in his pale eyes that she well knew. Yoshi was dangerously close to the
edge.
"The moon?"
"I can feel it," he told her, a rough edge lurking in his words.
"Stronger than usual. The lunar alignment, it's unpredictable for us. I
have to go."
Stay, she wanted to say. But he couldn't. She could protect him
from many things, but not from himself. Even if it was hard to accept,
she had learned long ago that it was the truth. "Be careful," she said
instead.
He stepped forward, catching her off-guard, and then she was
pressed against the lean muscle of his chest, head tilted back as he kissed
her. It was hot, his mouth, hungry, and she could taste the untamed need
in that intimate contact, desiring to break its leash and consume them
both. But even in that moment of careless passion, when his hand slid
around her waist to draw her near he was careful not to bump her injured
arm.
Jupiter thought she might whimper as the kiss re-ignited her
earlier thoughts of bed and intimate heat, but all too soon Yoshi tore his
mouth from hers and was gone, running into the sheeting rain.
"Whoo-hoo!" a cry rose from behind her. "Hot stuff!"
"Princess." Jupiter's brow furrowed slightly as she watched Tux
and Moon emerging from the storm. She certainly hadn't expected them
to be so close behind her. And the way Tux was moving, easily yet
coiled with dangerous grace, was a surprise to her. The succubus had left
him about as strong as a ratty washcloth, but he was certainly looking his
old self now.
"He got something?" Tux asked as they drew near.
"He had to leave," Jupiter told him. "The moon. It's getting too
strong. And the rain's washed Ranma's scent away."
"Damn."
"But Yoshi says he never deviated. Straight line, all the way.
We can keep following this path."
"Easily enough," Moon added, clinging to Tux's shoulders.
"Wherever the path leaves the street, something smashed holes in fences.
And buildings. And everything else that got in the way. But why would
Ranma do that?"
"You two stay here a minute," Tux said, his eyes suddenly
narrowed. "I'll be right back."
"Trouble?" Jupiter asked as he set Moon gently on her feet. Tux
just shook his head and vanished quickly into the shimmering gray rain.
"I love a man with broad shoulders," the princess sighed, leaning
on Jupiter for support.
"Me, too," Jupiter admitted, recalling the feel of Yoshi's broad
back under her hands, hot even through her gloves. "How you doing?"
"Okay," Moon told her. She'd changed her outfit back to her fuku,
but her leg still looked bad. Jupiter was sure she was lying about being
okay, but let it go. The princess wouldn't rest until they found V and
Ranma. And she wasn't alone. "Mercury?"
"Up ahead, I guess," Jupiter shrugged, supporting the bedraggled
princess with her good arm. "I hope we catch up to V and Ranma soon.
Even in senshi form, this rain's damned cold."
"They're okay," the princess told her firmly. "I know it."
Ever the optimist. Jupiter wanted to believe that was true, but she
was beginning to have a bad feeling about the path they'd been taking.
Before she could articulate her suspicions, though, another familiar form
emerged from the storm.
"What's happening?" Mars asked, raking her long, wet hair back with
both hands as she approached. Jupiter fought the urge to scowl. She and
the princess looked like drowned rats, yet somehow Mars managed to
appear sleek and elegant, as though she'd just emerged from under some
tropical waterfall like some wanton nymph. Water glistened on her limbs
and seemed to bead lovingly along the edge of her high cheekbones.
I hate the way she does that, Jupiter thought darkly.
"Yoshi had to go, Tux is checking something, Mercury's out in
front," the princess summarised.
"No sign of the others, then?"
"Afraid not," Jupiter sighed, fighting the urge to be irritated. It
seemed she spent an inordinate amount of time struggling not to be
irritated with Mars, although this was a comfortably familiar irritation,
and not the anger that had grown up between them of late. Which was
something, anyway.
"Hey!" Mercury appeared from out of the storm just then. Jupiter
had thought that Mars looked good wet, but Mercury strode up to them
clad in tamed rainwater, a fey sprite dancing across the storm tossed
urban landscape. And neither of them was wearing the remains of a t-
shirt over their tattered fuku. "Where's Yoshi? Did he lose the trail?
Because the damage continues that way."
"Yeah, he had to leave," Jupiter said, trying futilely to keep the
rainwater from running into her eyes. "The trail is clear?"
"For a little ways," Mercury told her. "It heads into the old
towers near Femguri Park."
"Yeah," Jupiter said, her earlier misgivings returning. "Ranma's
heading straight into some bad territory. If we don't catch up soon, we're
going to end up in the Zone."
"You don't suppose he's following something there?" Mars mused.
"Fenrir?"
"Oh, please, let's hope not," the princess moaned. "That's all we
need."
"Bad news," Tux declared, leaping down from a nearby
streetlight and damned near giving Jupiter a heart attack.
"What now?" she growled. Bad weather, missing friends, injured
comrades ... how much worse could it get?
"There's a police street post just up by the old bypass. Pretty
well fortified, I hoped to find someone there, get some info."
"And?" Mars asked.
"They're pulling out," he told them grimly. "It's not just your
comms. Citywide communication is down, wireless anyway, and most
phones, but they got through to 78 Division, near the river. There are
reports of monsters appearing all over the city."
"This is news?" Jupiter asked archly.
"New monsters, types nobody's seen before. Details are sketchy,
but some of them are reported to be extremely resistant to magick."
"Oh, swell," Jupiter muttered into the silence that followed.
"Any around here?"
"The post's senior officer hasn't seen any, but they have orders to
retreat to Division, help set up a secure perimeter. There's wide-spread
panic in some areas ..."
"They hear about the palace?" Jupiter interrupted.
"Yes," he replied heavily. "That's not helping matters."
"Okay," Mars said. "We need to get moving as fast as possible.
Mercury and I should flank the main path, looking for any sign of Ranma
or V, while you guys go right up the middle. If we get separated, we
meet at the old Twin Towers Bridge at the outskirts of the Zone."
"Sounds good," Jupiter said. This time, Mercury didn't bring up
Mars' tactical disadvantage. Dangerous or not, they needed to speed
things up.
In silent agreement, they turned and vanished into the raging
storm.
***
V dropped into the narrow courtyard, flattening herself against
the cold stone wall. Peorth was already there, her eyes anxiously
scanning the blood-tinged sky for any sign of trouble.
"So far, so good," V panted. They'd been going all-out for some
time, putting distance between them and the area where V had shaken
Mara off. "I kind of expected more pursuit."
"Hild sent almost all her subjects across with Mara," Peorth said
absently. "To corner the Warden. Given the state of her palace, she's
certainly holding most of those who remain back to guard her treasures
from scavengers. She hoards mysteries, and she hates to lose something
she's acquired." The woman gave V a smile tinged with wry amusement.
"Like me."
"So she will be hunting us."
"Hunting me, cherie. I doubt she knows about you yet. Yes,
she'll keep what few succubi she can spare dogging my trail until she can
take up the chase personally."
"How insulting," V breathed with a crooked smile for her new
comrade. "She values those other treasures more than you."
"Not so," Peorth admonished. "But she probably feels she can
afford the time to secure her other treasures because, no matter how far I
flee, I cannot escape her realm. And I know enough of Shadow from my
years as her tool to avoid its many snares."
"But you said ..." V began, breaking off as Peorth ducked
through a high, arched gateway and sprinted along the outer wall. V
followed, shadowing the other woman until they reached a narrow street
fronted by four storey buildings.
"Hey," V gasped. "Slow down. If you can't leave ..."
"Not on my own," Peorth agreed, her slender shoulders heaving
with the exertion of their latest run. "But with you, we have a chance."
"Me? I'm no Shadow Witch, Peorth."
"No, you are the next best thing, V. I observed your power
during the earlier fight. It is based in Light, the antithesis of Shadow.
Your power is especially effective against Shadow creatures ..."
"So what? If Mars were here, maybe we could find one of those
Shadow patterns and cross back, but I can't just carve a hole in Shadow
Realm!"
"Not quite," Peorth informed her, lips curving into an enigmatic
smile. "But you are not far from the truth. The relationship between
Shadow and your plane is not well understood, but I can tell you that the
two realms have drawn closer together, perilously so, since the death of
the Azakaru Queen."
"The Azakaru have a queen? I didn't know they even had
gender," V blurted. "And she died?"
"Murdered," Peorth told her. "How, I cannot conceive, for the
Azakaru are an ancient race, believed to be as old as the Osiren or the
Phantom Guard. And part of the natural order of Gaia."
"Who did it?"
"Even Hild could not discover that," Peorth said wryly. "But it
happened fourteen years ago. Just before the event your people call ..."
"The Long Dark." V's mind raced. Mysteries. She loved them,
and longed to pick Peorth's brain further. What was Peorth, anyway?
Mara's opposite number? If Mara was some sort of demon, did that
make Peorth an angel?
"Since then, the barrier between Shadow and your plane of
existence has been weakened. It is possible to cross even without
Shadow Magick. Not safe, but possible."
"I'm listening."
"We need a place where Shadow is held, drawn by forces beyond
this realm, into a pool of rawest darkness. Unleashing an antithetical
magickal force with enough power should sunder the barrier."
V opened her mouth, closed it. Banri. The fake Banri. Jupiter's
lightning attack had hit it, and they'd been thrown into Shadow. So that
was why ... wait. That meant the fake Banri was actually some sort of
Shadow artifact. That damned vamp again.
"Sunder the barrier," V said slowly. "I think I've encountered
this sundering recently. It was not gentle."
"Indeed," Peorth replied. "The transition would be violent. Our
options, however, are hardly ..."
A sharp crack split apart the cool, dead air, and both women
jumped as the sound rolled over them. Something was rising into the sky
in the distance, and V gaped as it roiled, coalescing from a shapeless
morass into a huge face, hundreds of feet high. It was a woman's face,
haughty and beautiful, mocha skin contrasting perfectly with hair of
purest platinum, and on her forehead and cheeks were the ubiquitous
markings, this time six-pointed stars. Those perfect lips parted, and a
word thundered forth, an auditory avalanche that cascaded across the
sterile landscape of the Shadow city.
"PEORTH!"
V felt the cry in her bones, and even as the last echoes died away
she realised she was still shaking. The apparition's mesmerising eyes
swept the ground all around with an intensity that loosened the senshi's
knees and threatened to drop her to the ground. V clung to the wall,
trying three times to speak before she finally wet her dry lips and
managed to croak, "Hild?"
"Yes," Peorth hissed. "She has finished stitching together her
defences, and now she'll come for me. Quickly!"
Peorth set off at a dead run, no longer clinging to the tenebrous
shadows of the city, and V followed, panic lending her feet speed. She
had no desire to meet this Crimson Queen in person, not after that little
display.
"How far?" V shouted. Even though Peorth had a head start, V
quickly caught up to her.
"Not far," Peorth replied grimly. She appeared to be trying to
look in every direction at once as they raced down the narrow street.
They had come to an older neighbourhood, one that in the real Saeni
would have been noisy and full of squalor and activity, much of it illegal.
This place was still far enough from the barren zone bordering the Old
City to be inhabited, but close enough that no one lived here who had any
place else to be.
Here, though, the streets were eerily empty, the buildings mere set-
pieces for some deranged play staged for the amusement of something old
and mad. V found herself wishing for the cover of the storm, but here the
skies were naked and Nemesis held sway unchallenged.
"This is going to work, right?" V panted as she ran, reaching back to
grab Peorth's hand and drag her along.
"Oh, I don't think ... that will be the problem." Peorth's breath
came in quick gasps as they pushed themselves to the limits.
"Meaning there will be a problem?" V didn't much like the
sound of this, although she was hardly surprised.
"Unleashing your power against the sinkhole ..."
"Sinkhole?"
"Just listen! The resultant clash of forces ... damn! ... will
catapult us
through the barrier, but ... the reaction will be violent. We may end
up ...
quite far from the point ... where we enter. And we may become ...
separated."
"Got it," V said. Jupiter's assault on Banri had separated them,
come to think of it. And not all of them had been sent through. "If that
happens, I'll find you ..."
"The most important thing is ... to find the Warden ... and make
certain he is safe," Peorth gasped, showing the strain of their constant
flight. "If I ... cannot find you, I will wait ... at the Peace
Fountain at ...
noon tomorrow."
"Wait," V said, tossing a glance back at Peorth. "Protect Ranma
from what? He beat Fenrir ..."
"From himself!" Peorth cried. "Here, in here, quickly!"
They veered down a narrow, crooked laneway between two
shabby fences and came out in a small courtyard surrounded by blank
stone walls. In the middle of the yard was a circle of stones about two
feet high. It was an utterly unremarkable looking old well, and they
skidded to a stop in front of it, hearts still racing.
"Peorth, I don't understand. Ranma ..."
"Your friend is not ... properly a Warden," Peorth blurted
between gasps. "Takzvyrmishammir. Wild one ..."
That word. That was the word Ranma had seen in the tunnels. V
grabbed Peorth's shoulder, excitement rising. This woman had answers,
more than the rest of them anyway.
"What? What does that mean?" she demanded.
"As I feared. He ... does not know ... none of you ..." A sound
like thunder rolled through the air, starting as a low grinding in the soft
parts of the body and ratcheting up quickly. Whether it was Hild or
something native to Shadow, it was getting closer and V was willing to
bet they didn't want to be here when it arrived.
"No time! We jump in, you ... unleash as much ... power as you can!"
V stared into the well for only a moment, but that was long enough for
her to see that those stones were filled with a viscous darkness that
looked like oil, thick enough to touch. She had no desire to throw herself
into that.
But staying here meant death. Or capture by Hild, which seemed
to frighten Peorth more, and which would surely mean V would never see
her friends again. And they needed her.
Ranma needed her.
She grabbed Peorth's hand, shouted a warning, and hurled them
both into the narrow maw of the old well.
And unleashed a furious storm of clean golden light.
The effect was immediate.
The universe groaned like an old wooden staircase, then V was
buffeted, spinning through a confusion of fleeting sensations her mind
could make no sense of. She was aware that Peorth's hand was no longer
in hers, then she was hit by a wall of rain as she tumbled to the ground,
sliding across sodden old grass to fetch up roughly against a wall of
splintery wood. V lay there for long moments as the icy rain hammered
her skin, trying to shake the aftereffects of the transition. The reaction
had been violent, she sensed that much was true, although she seemed
none the worse for wear. The brunt of the forces unleashed had been
borne by something else, perhaps the fabric of the barrier between the two
realms. A question to be pondered another time, not while lying in a
muddy puddle ...
V blinked rapidly, her thoughts falling back into some semblance
of order, or what passed for order in her mind at any rate. She put her
hand against the wood, which turned out to be the wall of a rather
ramshackle old shed, and climbed slowly to her feet.
Rain. She'd made it back. But where was Peorth? V called the
woman's name, but there was no response. Damn it. Peorth knew
things, knew about Wardens and keys and Takzvyrmishammir, whatever
in the hells that was. Ranma would want to talk to her, gods knew he'd
have questions.
Unless he was still in marauding berserker mode.
And had that been what Peorth had meant by protect him from
himself? Would she know how to break Ranma out of his newest altered
state of mind?
First things first. V keyed her earring and tried to call the others,
got only static. Damn it, the comms were still out. She tried again on all
frequencies but got nothing, not even on the police or public bands.
Crap.
V leaned back against the shed wall and closed her eyes, trying to
sense Artemis. If he was close enough, she'd be able to feel his presence.
But again, nothing.
Damn it all! She'd made it back, escaped the perils of Shadow
for the second time in as many days, and that had to count for something.
But she'd lost Peorth, and now she was lost herself in a raging storm with
no way to contact the others. And Ranma could still be running around
the city in a blind rage. He could hurt someone.
Or be hurt himself.
Frustration rose up, and it took all her willpower to force it back,
hold off its imprecations as she tried to think. Go back to Ami's house?
Or Michiru and Haruka's? But she didn't even know where she was,
although by the look of it she was still somewhere in the eastern districts
of the city. Think, Minako, think. Use that head of yours for something
other than a perch for stylish hats. Something is jamming all
communication, and Ranma doesn't have a communicator anyway. I
probably couldn't even track the transmitter in his coat if I had ...
Stop. Wait. Hold the damned phone.
The Crescent Compact. That handy little jack of all trades gizmo
might save the day yet. If Ranma was still wearing the costume she'd
made him, and he had been last she'd seen, then maybe there was a way.
Fumbling at her ear, V unclipped her earring comm and held it out in
front of her, letting it dangle from her gloved fingers.
It had been Artemis's idea, of course, the canny old alley cat.
She'd once needed a way to bug a target and track it, and he'd found
someone to lay a sympathetic magickal spell on her comm and the
compact using V's blood. She'd been able to plant the earring on an
unsuspecting target and follow using the compact. The one part of the
spell sought out the other part, dead simple and not detectable by
electronic devices or even most magickal sweeps.
And the best part was, it should work both ways. Whatever was
jamming the comms shouldn't keep the damned spell from working. She
hoped.
V held the earring out with one hand, using her teeth to pull her
other glove off. Then she touched the earring with her bare finger and
intoned the spell trigger. The earring gleamed dully in the gray light, and
just as she thought it wasn't going to work, it began to twitch, then
swing, then spin in lazy circles.
And finally, it stopped, pointing straight out into the storm.
"Boo-ya! Who da man?" V whooped. The earring wouldn't
give her a distance, but at least it gave her a direction.
Hang on, Ranma. I'm coming.
***
I ran like hell as Buster finally got tired of throwing glowing balls
of energy at Jaws and decided to go the more direct route. Howling loud
enough to be heard over the storm, Buster tore part of the top two stories
off of a nearby building and threw them like they weighed nothing,
staggering his dance partner. Nice to know something could hurt old
Jaws, I suppose.
Pieces of the abused building rained down around me, adding a
little fibre to the plain old water variety rain that I'd thought,
foolishly,
was making me miserable. Apparently, I didn't know what miserable
was.
And, just as apparently, I wasn't on speaking terms with smart.
Drawing Jaws away from that ragged little convoy of vehicles had been
as much instinct as anything; those people had been sitting ducks, fleeing
the neighbourhood in anything that would move. I still felt like a limp
noodle, and there was no way I'd be replicating what I'd done earlier
against Fenrir. Even if I wanted to, which I didn't.
Finding Buster had been a bit of good luck, if getting one monster
to duke it out with another in a shitstorm could be considered luck. I
thought about that as I ran and decided that if I made it to the big round
stone building at the middle of the town square then I'd consider it lucky.
If Buster and Jaws squished me while going the distance with each other,
my Nobel Prize for Genius would probably get revoked.
I dove as a big chunk of ragged stone dropped from the sky,
sliding easily across the rain-slicked street and rolling to my feet as the
monster-generated hail of building exploded against the ground, sending
fragments everywhere. I was tired and wet and cold, but I'd been all
those things before, and none of them trumped my training. My legs
found their way under me and I was running almost before I could think
of the need, heading towards a very solid looking wooden door as Jaws
and Buster got funky in the rain.
I expected my impact with the door to hurt. I didn't expect it to
be thrown open at the last minute, or for hands to reach out and pull me
inside.
Gosh, I love surprises.
The high-ceilinged entryway was cluttered with shadows and
gloom, and it took me a few seconds to make out the details of the person
who'd pulled me the last few feet to safety. She was fairly tall, wearing
some kind of light armour that had been through a war or two and a
makeshift patch over one eye. Judging by the smear of darkness on her
cheek, the patch was a recent addition to the ensemble.
She pulled me over by a window that was little more than a
narrow slit in the stone, where I could see that the dark smear was
definitely blood. A second woman waited there, watching the action
outside. She wore a dark blouse and matching pants of some expensive
looking material, her hair pulled back and hanging in a braid nearly as
long as mine. Stray wisps fell across her forehead, where she wore a thin
metal circlet with a small, gleaming gemstone. Must have been purely
decorative; too flimsy to be armour. Unless, I supposed, it was magickal.
It definitely didn't go with her sword. The blade seemed to
glimmer in the half-light, and for a second I thought I saw patterns
shimmering deep in the metal. And felt, just for a moment, an answering
pulse from the key lying against my chest, weak enough that I was left
wondering if it had even happened.
"What were you thinking, miss?" the second woman asked, not taking
her eyes from the action. "You should be in hiding."
"Jaws was gonna lunch on a caravan of refugees," I told her, my
breathing returning to normal as I wrung rainwater out of my braid.
Damn, I was soaked through. "So I thought I'd distract him, give them a
shot at the road."
Both women turned to stare at me.
"Jaws?" the one with the eyepatch asked incredulously.
"And Buster," I said. "Jaws is the low-slung dude with the eight
legs and the big teeth. And those rainbow scales. Buster's the big dude
with the horns and the glowing fireballs."
"Daemonfire," the swordswoman corrected me.
"And I'm Ranma," I added.
"Charmed," eyepatch grunted.
"And you?" I asked. Both women froze again, storm sounds
mixing with horrendous screeching in the background.
"Pardon?" the swordswoman asked, her eyes wide. They were pretty,
those eyes, and they wore surprise well.
"Your name?" I prompted. She was probably in her mid-
twenties, beautiful in a way I was starting to take for granted in this
city,
but she seemed to be having trouble remembering her own name.
Trauma, maybe. Eyepatch opened her mouth to say something, looking
pissed for some reason, but the other woman cut her off with a look.
"My name," the swordswoman said with an enigmatic smile, "is
Kendra. And this is Raine."
"Nice to meet you," I said. Kendra blinked, like she'd expected
me to recognise her name or something. Famous bounty hunter, maybe?
"You," Kendra said quietly, "are not from around here, are
you?" For some reason, this thought seemed to amuse her.
"Nope," I grunted, pushing forward to sneak a peek out the
narrow window. Slot. Whatever. "Come on, you clowns, kill each other
already."
"You ... don't you know this is?" Raine blurted. Great, Kendra
was famous.
"Nuh-uh," I muttered, not bothering to turn around. "Sorry."
"Quite all right," Kendra assured me. "Now is scarcely the time,
at any rate."
Neither Jaws nor Buster showed any inclination to stop fighting,
and they were quickly laying waste to the dilapidated buildings around
us. I figured that it was only a matter of time until they got to this one,
and although it looked sturdy I wouldn't place any bets on it surviving
the Jaws and Buster Show.
I turned from the window to see the two women watching me,
Raine with exasperation and Kendra with something that could have
been amusement. I could see that, in addition to twin pistols, Raine had a
sword as well, shorter than Kendra's and scabbarded crosswise at the
small of her back, but she hadn't bothered to draw it. Kendra's blade
drew my eye again, and I marvelled at the way the light seemed to flow
inside the metal. The key flared again momentarily, kindling a spot of
warmth in the exhausted void in my chest.
"Nice sword," I told her.
"Powerful," Kendra corrected me. "But not nice." That dry
amusement vanished in an instant, and I saw loss in her eyes. I knew that
look well, and decided not to pry too deeply into how they'd come to be
in this desolate part of the city.
"Ranma, is this the Parkoset Tower?" Raine asked.
"I have no idea," I told her. Raine blinked. Clearly, that had not
been the answer she'd been expecting.
"Well, which district is this?"
"Um, don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I'm new to the city," I said. Plus, I spent half the bloody day in
a blackout, not something I was keen to talk about. Minako, where the
hell are you? "What's your excuse?"
"We were underground!" Raine shot back. Whoa. Kendra may
have had her sword out, but I watched the way Raine moved when she
was pissed and knew she was dangerous, even with one eye.
"Oh," I said. "Say no more. I've been underground. This city's
crazy enough up here, with the monsters and the vampire and succubi ..."
"Succubi?" Kendra broke in sharply.
"Oh, yeah. Tons of them. And wraiths. And a giant, flying
wolf." I glared at her, daring the woman to accuse me of lying. I should
have known better.
"You," Raine said, moving in to get a better look at me. "You're
the one, aren't you? That hair, the clothes ..."
"Raine?"
"She was the one on the monitor, before all the comms went
down," Raine murmured, looking at me with a new respect. Or wariness.
"At the stadium."
"Oh. Um, yeah, that would have been me," I admitted.
"Your construct was impressive," Kendra said. "I must admit, I
don't believe I've seen anything like it."
Construct? I opened my mouth to ask her what she meant, but
the Jaws and Buster Show chose that moment to come back from
commercial break with a bang. The entire building shook, small bits of
stone raining down on us as we scurried away from the outer wall.
"Okay, we need to find a way out of here," Kendra announced.
"Find a guard station or someplace with working communication, hook
up with the largest force we can find."
"I've been out in that mess for hours, and I can tell you it's
really not
good out there," I told her, eyeing the wall as I waited for another
impact.
"Most sensible folk are in hiding, and the streets are full of monsters.
And then there's the weather. That storm is fierce."
"And not natural," Kendra pointed out, as if that made any
difference. Natural or not, wind and rain and lightning ruled the city
now. That, and the monsters.
"Plus, the sun has set," Raine sighed. "Full dark won't help matters.
Perhaps it would be wiser to hole up here until morning. This is a
defensible position, and we can always retreat back down to the tunnel
if things get bad."
"No, Raine," Kendra said firmly. "I won't hide here while
people are dying."
"I'm responsible for your safety," Raine shot back. "And I'm
telling you that running around out there in the dark, in a conjured storm,
on Baniesti of all nights ..."
"It can't be helped," Kendra said with an air of finality. I
wondered if Raine would press the issue, but apparently Kendra got the
final say.
"Then we need to know if this place has a back door," I said.
It did. Apparently, Raine was familiar with the layout of the
tower, even if she didn't know if it was the Parkoset Tower. I probably
should have asked them some questions, but to tell the truth I was a little
preoccupied. The dark thoughts that had haunted me when I'd woken up
in the street threatened to seep back into my head as I worried over all the
bad things that could have happened to the others. And one question kept
surfacing above all others.
Minako, where are you?
Then Raine eased the door open, and all thoughts of Minako
were momentarily driven from my mind as a ball of howling teeth and
claws tried to charge inside.
Just as the roof caved in.
***
"Left!" Phobos cried.
"Right!" Deimos insisted.
"That's not helping!" Artemis gritted, wrestling the car around a
narrow, rain-slicked corner. The back end broke loose and started to
slide, forcing the pale-haired Mau to spin the wheel quickly, wrestling the
car back under control.
"But I'm sure she's that way!" Deimos growled, clinging to the collar
of Artemis's leather coat as the car finally shook itself from the teeth of
the skid and careened through the gloom. "They all are!"
"Not all," Luna said sharply, and Artemis felt a familiar pang of
worry. The twins were having trouble maintaining their link with Mars,
but one fact had gotten through loud and clear.
V was missing.
Ranma seemed to be pursuing her, but so far the others hadn't
found either of them. And all of Artemis's attempts to reach them had
been thwarted. Roads had been blocked or flooded and bridges
destroyed, forcing them into countless detours. Hours slipped away and
they seemed no closer to reaching the searchers.
And the weather was only one of the problems.
"Look out!" Luna cried, and Artemis tromped hard on the brake
pedal, bring the small car to a shuddering halt. The road ahead was filled
with debris, but that wasn't the issue. No, they'd nearly driven right into
another monster. This one was huge, and clad in those strange rainbow
scales that shimmered even in the storm's gloom.
Fortunately, someone had found the monster before they had.
The flashes of light showed Artemis where several heavily armed
police officers were raining rounds onto the howling hulk from positions
in the surrounding buildings. He just had time to consider that the beast
seemed more enraged than actually hurt when two hulking forms lurched
out of the grayish curtain of rain, flanking the monster neatly.
"What are those?" Phobos asked, close by his left ear.
"Police armour," Artemis said with a savage grin as the two
heavy mechs opened up on the creature with their cannons.
"Wolverines."
"Oh, that's gonna leave a mark," Deimos breathed as the monster
was pounded by heavy weapons, tracer rounds continuing to pour in from
the surrounding buildings.
"Score one for our side," Luna said with unmistakable
satisfaction. They'd seen such monsters too frequently in their
nightmarish drive across the city; they seemed to be everywhere.
Apparently, the authorities had finally managed to mount a counter-
offensive.
"We're not getting through here," Artemis sighed, slamming the
shift into reverse and accelerating, leaving the wild fight to fade into the
downpour. "Let's try the Queensway. It's wide enough that we should
be able to get around any abandoned vehicles or collapsed buildings."
"Artemis," Luna said softly, reaching over to place her hand over
his where it rested on the stick shift. "She'll be okay."
"Thanks," he replied, not taking his eyes off the road. "But I'll
feel a lot better when we find her."
Spinning the wheel neatly, he set off in a new direction, looking
for a path through the storm.
***
Digging my feet in, I strained at the slab of rock with all my
might, deep red pulsing around the edges of my vision. It groaned,
twitched, and finally overbalanced, falling away with a crash that was
lost in the din of the storm.
Luckily, the entire back of the tower hadn't collapsed. The walls
had provided some cover and kept me from getting crushed. As for the
others ...
There. Kendra was balanced neatly on a pile of shattered stone,
her blade gleaming wickedly in the deep gloom. It cut our new friends as
easily as it cut the curtain of rain, and she laid about her with a
series of
short, lethal strikes that kept the howlers at bay. There had to be a dozen
of them at least, with four more lying on the ground in pieces.
Flashes of light off to the left, and there was Raine, her sword still
sheathed but those wicked-looking guns in each hand. As she fired,
shimmering symbols appeared momentarily at the end of each barrel.
Magick guns. Cool.
And effective. She was covering Kendra's flank as the
swordswoman mowed through the newcomers. They worked well
together. Professionals, as I'd thought.
Then I saw it, a man-sized bundle of razor-sharp death leaping at
Raine from her blind side, the side with the ragged eyepatch, coming out
of the rain and dark fast, too fast.
Training. When there's no time for thought, training takes over.
A chunk of rock was in my hand before I could think of the need and I
spun, using strength and momentum to fire it straight and true. Raine
caught the motion but had no time to react before the chunk of stone was
rocketing by her head. By the time she turned, the thing was on the
ground, not moving.
She nodded, called something that was lost in the storm, moved to
put her blind-side against the remnant of the tower's rear wall. Smart,
and not easily shaken. Good combo.
Then the ground started shaking, and I realised that I was still
inside the narrow vestibule that led to the back door. And the dynamic
duo that had brought the house down was still rolling around in the
tower, fixing to finish what they'd started.
I tell you, I was starting to regret ever having introduced those
crazy kids.
Panic gave me the strength to jump clear of what remained of the
back hall, and I rolled through the icy water, catching a glimpse of the
wrestling titans as lightning slashed the darkness. In that moment, the
whole world was blue-white, and I could see dark forms scuttling away
from us. The howlers had had enough, apparently.
I could relate.
I got to my feet and backpedalled, Kendra and Raine joining me.
The dark shapes thrashed inside the rapidly disintegrating tower, falling
stone obscuring the scene.
"Being inside two collapsing buildings in one day must be some
kind of record," Kendra spat, raising her voice over the din of the wind
and rain.
"Three is my record," Raine shot back.
"Swell!" I gritted. "What say we don't push our luck, huh?"
"Uh-oh," Raine replied. I followed her gaze to see a dark shape
looming over the edge of what remained of the tower's wall. Two
bulbous orbs of eyes glowed softly in the darkness, staring down at us,
cold and alien. Something was in its mouth.
Buster's head.
"Run," Raine suggested.
We ran.
Jaws let loose with a weird, ululating cry that cut easily through
the storm, and then the chase was on. The street behind the tower was
fairly wide, verged by old industrial parks. Not much in the way of
cover, only a twisted ribbon of old chain-link fence off to the left that
wouldn't slow Jaws down for more than a second.
But running down the middle of the street wasn't much of a plan.
Jaws had heaved his bulk out of the wreckage of the tower and was
bearing down on us fast, big as a semi and moving like he'd had rocket
fuel for breakfast. Making a stand here was suicide.
"Split up!" I shouted. Raine gave me a thumbs up, turning to
snap a couple shots over her shoulder. I went left, Kendra right. Raine
kept running down the street. Not exactly what I'd had in mind, but I
soon saw the method to Raine's madness. Jaws kept on going after her,
leaving his flanks exposed as he rocketed past us, and I caught a glimpse
of Kendra's quicksilver blade through the blur of legs. Then came a
shriek that rivalled the thunder, and Jaws was skidding to a stop,
spinning quickly. I could see something dark dripping from his flank.
Buster hadn't made him bleed, but Kendra had.
Damn.
Of course, now she had our new friend's undivided attention.
Flashes in my peripheral vision told me Raine was still shooting, but
those pistols were just too small to bring down something like Jaws,
magick or not. Kendra held her ground, knowing that Jaws would run
her down in seconds if she tried to flee. Still, that sword was looking
awful small next to Jaws.
So I charged.
I still didn't think I could manage a chi-blast, but I'd be damned
if I just stood there and did nothing. Two quick jumps took me up that
long, spiky tail, and then I was running up Jaws' back, shouting like a
lunatic. The damned scales were slippery as hell, and it took all my
concentration to keep moving forward without falling off. Especially
when Kendra lashed out at Jaws again, making the dumb critter rear up.
Rain lashed my exposed skin, Jaws bellowed, and as I reached his wide
head he came down again and I knew I was going to fall.
So I jumped, focussing all of the energy of my fall into my fist,
and I struck a spot between and just below Jaws' bulbous eyes.
And boy, did he feel that.
This time he didn't bellow, he shrieked, and I threw myself
forward as he bucked furiously, clearing that gaping mouth by inches at
least and tumbling across the cracked pavement. Water sheeted away
from me as I slid, then a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my
feet.
"You are insane!" Kendra shouted as we ran. "But thank you!"
I just nodded, not wasting breath on talking. Behind us, Jaws
was spinning in circles, tail lashing dangerously. Geez, who knew such a
big monster could be such a sissy? Still, he was shaking it off already,
and I was thinking that we needed to take advantage of this distraction.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one with that thought.
"That way!" The rising wind nearly drowned out Kendra's cry,
but I looked where she was pointing and saw Raine running ahead of us.
Now that her friend was relatively safe, Raine had stopped shooting and
... what? What was she doing?
When we got closer, I could see what she'd found.
A car.
Raine had the car running by the time we reached her, which was
lucky considering that Jaws had recovered and was, apparently, very
angry. Of course, I'd never seen Jaws anything but angry. Maybe for
him, this was normal.
Kendra yanked the passenger-side door open and jumped in. I
had time to register that there was no back seat before she pulled me in
on top of her. Awkward. But hey, she managed not to stab me in the
process, and that was probably harder than it sounded with a sword in
one hand in those close confines.
"Go! Now!" she shouted. Raine went. The car fishtailed as we
rocketed down the deserted street, gaining speed and control at roughly
the same rate. The door had slammed shut as we took off, and I was
squeezed against Kendra in the low seat. I wriggled until I could see out
the tiny back window. Jaws was still back there, but at least now we had
a shot at getting away.
"Are those what I think they are?" Kendra asked. She had managed to
wedge her sword between the seats, the blade jammed into the narrow
cubbyhole in the back, which should keep everybody's blood on the
inside. I turned back to see that she was pointing at some black, fuzzy
things hanging from the rear-view mirror.
"Yes," Raine said, flipping the wipers on full speed. That didn't
help much.
"What?" I asked, squinting. "They look like fuzzy dice or
something."
"They are," Raine said. "Black dice, red dots. It's a gang
thing. This
car belongs to the Doom Riders."
"That would explain what it was doing out here," Kendra said,
trying to find space for her feet and mine in the footwell.
"It does?"
"This part of town is an urban wasteland," Kendra said, turning
to look at me. We were awfully damned close in this seat, me mostly in
the woman's lap, and her rain-soaked louse clung to her body
provocatively. For the first time in hours I felt warm. "On the border of
the Badlands that lead up to the Old City. Perfect for conducting
business in private."
Raine cursed and jerked the wheel, and I half-fell on top of Kendra.
Yeah, definitely warm in here. I pushed myself back up, trying to keep
my hands in safe areas. Kendra didn't take advantage of the situation, not
like a certain blonde of my acquaintance would have.
"Sorry, Ma ... my friend," Raine muttered, exchanging a quick glance
with Kendra. "I can't see squat."
"Can you get us off this street?" Kendra asked, grabbing the
headrest of our seat and trying to spot Jaws behind us. "I think we're
heading towards the White Orb."
"The what?" I asked.
"It's the river at the edge of the Badlands," Raine replied. "And
I'm trying, but there are a lot of small streets in here. We don't want to
get caught in a dead-end or whhhaAAAAAGH! Damn!"
She spun the wheel again, and the small car nearly spun around
before she managed to regain control. As the front of the car ended up
pointing back down the road, though, the headlights showed me a
glimpse of Jaws, still giving chase although no longer hot on our tail.
Hadn't given up yet.
Raine got us out of the spin and floored it, opening up some more
distance between us and the persistent monster. Unfortunately, the street
we were on chose that moment to end at a T-shaped intersection.
"Right!" I shouted.
"Left!" Kendra cried at the same time.
Raine went left, sliding through the turn while clinging grimly to
the wheel. A flash of lightning gave me a glimpse of Jaws following us
through the intersection, taking out the one forlorn ancient traffic
light on
his way through.
"This is insane!" Kendra spat. "We'll kill ourselves trying to get
away, find a place where we can fight this thing!"
"I know what you're thinking," Raine growled.
"Is that so?" I could feel the tension in Kendra's body as she
spoke. No great trick, that. The way her wet blouse clung to her, I could
feel pretty much everything.
"Yes. It may have protected you from whatever hit the palace,
but may I remind you that many people have died over the centuries
while wielding Galiraithe, including your mother? I have one duty
right now, and that is to keep you alive!"
Okay, I officially had no clue what was going on. But before I
could decide whether to push for details, dark shapes loomed in the pale
glow of our headlights. Something had knocked most of a building into
the narrow, winding street we were following, and Raine barely had time
to throw us into a tight turn.
We burst through a gate made of mismatched sections of planks
and plastic and careened across a cracked lot that seemed to be where
piles of junk went to retire. Raine slalomed the car through obstacles that
loomed up out of the storm, taking us deeper into the yard. Off to our
left was a long, low building with the same desolate look of abandonment
as everything else in this neighbourhood , but it wouldn't provide us
much in the way of shelter. That tower we'd been in had been far
tougher than some old warehouse, and it hadn't been able to stand up to
Jaws.
We were reaching the back of the lot, and that was not good
news. There was another fence, and beyond that, darkness.
"Raine!"
"I know! Wait, I've got an idea!"
That was good, because something was creating a hell of a
commotion behind us, and I didn't need three guesses to figure out what.
We passed the end of the warehouse and Raine cut behind it, the
headlights sweeping across the fence.
"There!" she shouted. "They've got one!"
One what? I saw a gate, leaning drunkenly in the middle of the
fence, and something gleaming on the cracked pavement ...
Steel?
Jaws chose that moment to plow through the side of the
warehouse behind us, apparently having decided that it was quicker to go
through than around. Raine sped directly at the gate, and as we braced
for the impact I realised what I'd been seeing on the ground.
Railroad tracks.
Raine got us lined up with the tracks and then we hit the gate, the
little car lurching and nearly going out of control as the old chain-link
gates flew open. The car started to shudder badly and I thought we'd
broken something, until I glanced out the window as another sheet of
lightning threw the world into stark blue-white relief.
There was a ravine behind the warehouse, a swollen creek at the
bottom. And we were crossing it. On a railroad bridge.
We bounced madly as Raine pushed the little car across the
narrow bridge. Raine was the only one wearing a seatbelt; Kendra and I
clung to each other and managed some pretty inventive curses.
Then there was a thud and we were back on an even surface. I
gasped and pulled myself back up in the seat, trying to see where we
were. Details were blurred by rain and dark, but we sped down a narrow
alley between what looked like two buildings, then we slid out onto
another street. Looking out front, I could see that we'd lost a headlight,
probably going through that second gate. Also, the hood was bent up on
one corner, and there was a crack in the windshield.
"These little Tritons were built for speed, not toughness," Raine
gritted as if reading my mind. "And with visibility like this, I can't open
her up."
"Maybe we lost it," Kendra said hopefully, using my shoulder as
a brace as she craned around for a view out the back window.
Just in time to see a dark shape crash through the near side of one
of the buildings we'd just squeezed between.
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" I wailed. "This guy just will
not give up!"
"Wish I could say the same for the car," Raine announced. I
glance her way, saw a bloom of red lights on the dash. Oh, that wasn't
going to be good news.
"Raine?"
"Damn! We must have clipped the fuel line!" No sooner had the
words left her mouth than flames began to lick up from under the hood.
Swell.
"Ladies," Raine said, her face grim, "we've got to bail."
"There!" Kendra cried out. "Look, a bridge! Get us that far,
Raine. Maybe we can drop this thing into the river!"
By the time we reached the bridge, fire was oozing out all around
the edges of the battered hood, fighting with the rain for a foothold.
There were concrete barriers flanking the old drawbridge; it looked like
they'd once blocked access, but had been pulled aside by heavy
equipment. We coasted between them onto the bridge until we were just
over half way across, then Raine hit the brakes and we piled out, putting
the car between us and Jaws.
For all the good that would do. The damned fire was dying down
already, and one flaming little sports car wasn't going to slow down a
juggernaut that plowed through buildings.
"Can we take out the bridge?" I shouted over the storm. I wasn't
sure I could muster a chi-blast yet. Maybe one of the others had
something in reserve.
Or not.
"Can't you conjure that construct again, like at the stadium?"
Kendra asked. I shook my head. Whatever construct I'd used, it had left
me drained. I wasn't going to be doing that again anytime soon.
"It looks like there's a control booth on that end!" Raine yelled,
pointing. "In one of the towers! Maybe the drawbridge controls still
work!"
I doubted it, but that was more plan than I had. Except jumping
into the river and swimming for it, and one look at the swollen, raging
waters told me just how great an idea that would turn out to be. Raine
sprinted across the bridge with Kendra at her side as I caught sight of
Jaws, revealed in a nightmare strobe of lightning. Closer. And closer.
I gritted my teeth and tried to summon up some chi. Even if
Raine made it to the booth, even if by some miracle the bridge still
worked, she'd never get it up in time. I had to take out the far side
of the
bridge. Come on, Saotome. Come on!
No good. Whatever I'd done back at the stadium, it had
exhausted all my reserves. I just didn't have the strength to fire off my
chi. So here came the monster, and my best plan was to get back on his
head and try to hurt him enough to distract him. I braced myself to
dodge; as fast as he was going, I should be able to at least get around
him. Unless one of those legs caught me. Or the tail. Or ...
Or unless a brilliant beam of light lanced down out of the sky and
hit him in the head.
Jaws skidded on the wet roadway and onto the bridge, bellowing
loudly enough to rival the thunder. The beam seemed to have just
bounced off his scales, but it had at least distracted him. And as he
opened his mouth, a storm of golden light smashed into his maw, turning
that bellow into an ear-splitting shriek of agony. Jaws reared up, head
whipping from side to side, and I saw something dark running from
between those huge, curved fangs.
Shot him in the mouth. Just like the salamander in the old
subway tunnel.
It had to be her. It had to be.
Jaws thrashed, and a flurry of golden lances fell all around him,
slashing at the bridge deck. A queasy shuddering threw me off my feet as
the far side of the old drawbridge shifted, then slid gracefully out of
sight
with a grinding roar, carrying the wounded beast to the river below.
Cautiously, I crawled forward to the edge. Our side of the bridge didn't
seem in any danger of falling, but I wasn't keen on taking any chances.
The water churned and swirled below. Of my old pal Jaws, there
was no sign. Either the fall had killed him, or the current had carried him
away. Either way, good riddance.
I stood and turned back, my heart thudding against the inside of
my chest. I could make out motion on one of the towers that stood at the
far end of the bridge, and then a lithe form was sailing through the air,
landing neatly on the roof of our smouldering ride. I took in the long
legs, the blonde hair, and the crooked, devil-may-care smile, and raw joy
hit me like a shot of adrenaline.
It was almost scary.
"Mistress V one," she intoned, striking a pose where she framed
her eye with a sideways V of fingers. "Monster, nothing. Boo-yah!"
I didn't think. One moment I was standing there, the next I was
on the roof of that car, sweeping her up in my arms and spinning her
around in circles. It was a miracle we didn't fall off, I suppose, but
mundane thoughts were for later. Right now she was here, she was real.
Soaked and slightly bedraggled, but real. V looked startled by my
sudden burst of enthusiasm, but that didn't last. She leaned in and
planted a kiss on my mouth, brief but hot, and I let her.
"Damn it!" I shouted when she pulled back.. "Where the hell have
you been? I was worried!"
She looked down at me, and it seemed to me she was trying not to
smile. "Where have I been?" she demanded. "I suppose that means
you're going to tell me you don't remember what happened?"
"Happened?"
"At the stadium?"
Oops.
"Um," I said, searching those blue eyes for a clue. "Actually, no
..."
"Uh-huh. Not that I'm complaining, but are you gonna put me down
any time soon?"
I realised I was still holding her in the air. Funny, I didn't feel so
exhausted any more. I set her gently on her feet, and V took off her cap
and whacked me on the head with it.
"Ow!" I said. "What was that for?"
"Trust me, you earned it," she said sternly. "Just because you
don't remember why I'm mad at you doesn't mean you're off the hook.
You're going to have to make this up to me."
"Okay."
"I'm serious!"
"Me, too," I said, and I was. I was so glad to see her that I'd
have done whatever she wanted. "Um, what exactly did I do, anyway?"
"Later," she sighed theatrically, tugging her cap back on over her
wet hair. "Come on, introduce me to your new friends. I hope they're
friendlier than the one I just dropped in the river."
We hopped down to see Raine and Kendra coming out to meet
us. They were staring at V as though leather-clad blonde maniacs didn't
drop out of the sky to save the day regularly. Sucked to be them,
apparently.
"V, this is Raine," I said as we crossed the deck to meet them. "And
Kendra. They ... OW!" I rubbed the side of my head. V had hit me
much harder this time.
"You idiot!" she shouted, cheeks flushed.
"What?"
"You can't call her that!"
"What, Kend ... OW! Will you stop doing that?"
"Mistress V, also known as Sailor Venus, at your service, Majesty," V
declared, sweeping off her black cap and offering a low, graceful bow. "I
apologise for my friend's clumsiness, she meant no disrespect. Ranma is
an outlander. She's also moderately insane."
"So I've seen," Kendra said. She seemed amused.
"Majesty?" I asked, rubbing my head as I looked from Raine,
who seemed pleased, to Kendra, and back again.
"As in the Queen," V said, fixing me with a glare.
"The Queen? Like, as in THE Queen?"
"That would explain why she's wearing a crown," V pointed out
archly.
"That's a crown?" I asked, peering at the slender circlet Kendra
wore. "I expected a crown to be, well, you know, bigger. Pointier."
"Your life must be difficult, dragging her around," Raine said
with a crooked grin.
"You have no idea, Captain," V sighed.
"Captain?"
"Of the Royal Guard ..." V broke off, eyes widening. "Wait.
The palace. It was attacked, destroyed! How ...?"
"Did we survive? There is a story there," Kendra told her. "But that
is a matter for another time. For the moment, only you and your friend
know I still live. I must return to take command of my forces."
"I passed a group of police trucks back that way," V told her. "They
were recovering something from the river, looked like a crashed flier. If
we get you there, they can escort you back into the city."
"You're not coming?" Kendra asked. Well, even soaked to the skin, I
suppose she had a certain poise, but still. I mean, how was I supposed to
know she was the Queen? She might have said something. Geez.
"We need to find our friends. Unless you know where they are?"
V asked me.
"I thought they might be with you, actually," I told her ruefully.
"Swell."
Of course, our first problem was getting back to the other side of
the river. V spotted an old light pole at the entrance to the bridge, and
used her whip to snag it. We each grabbed the whip in turn and crossed
hand-over-hand, then V made the leap, landing neatly beside us.
Showoff. If I hadn't been so drained, I could've done it that way,
too. V led our small group along the road that followed the river, all of
us on the lookout for more trouble as the blonde senshi caught me up on
the high points of the fight at the stadium. Still, the torrential downpour
seemed less oppressive now, and the cold and the wet didn't weigh on me
the way they had only a short time before. Now, it seemed, everything
was going to be all right.
That thought was comforting but also a little scary. It brought
me right back to where I always seemed to end up; namely, what now?
Nothing could change unless I wanted it to, and there was the problem. I
didn't know what I wanted. Or I did, and I was afraid to go after it,
which was certainly no better. But every time I glanced over at V, all I
knew for sure was that I was happy she was here. The thought of
glancing over and not seeing her was a cold and lonely one.
It had been thoughts of Minako, after all, that had dragged me
back from the edge not so long ago. But wallowing in the complications
of my personal life, of my guilty desires and whether or not I could ever
be entitled to happiness again, these things were a luxury that would have
to wait. For now, apparently I'd beaten Fenrir, but we were still
wandering in a storm that wasn't entirely natural, with all
communications out, and the others might still need our help.
"A succubus queen living in Shadow," Raine scowled. "That's a
new one on me."
"Us, too," V said. "I must say, she seems unpleasant from a
distance. I wouldn't want to get to know her up close."
"Perhaps she was responsible for the attack on my palace,"
Kendra said. We had to raise our voices to talk over the drumming of the
rain, even walking clustered close together.
"Her minion denied it," V told us. "Which makes sense. She
lives in the Shadow version of your palace, and it got it pretty hard by the
attack. Not completely destroyed, mind you ..."
"The destruction of our palace was total?" Kendra asked. It looked
like those words had physically hurt her, and V spared her a long glance.
"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "You didn't know?"
"We escaped underground," Raine said. "I guess we hoped that
maybe the attack was focussed, or ... well. No survivors?" She was all
business, even though she had to have hoped for some good news.
"I'm sorry," V said again. "That's unlikely. I saw it from the air.
Nothing's left."
We walked on in silence for a time, and just as I thought nobody
was going to pursue further conversation, Kendra spoke up.
"V, I have a question. Please feel free not to answer if it is too
personal."
"Ask away, Majesty. It isn't often I get to chat with the Queen,
after all."
"These rumours about you and the other sailor girls, they claim that
you are linked to the White Moon Court of legend in more than just
name."
"There are rumours about us?" V asked, apparently delighted. "I
wholeheartedly approve." Kendra smiled, and if she wasn't honestly
delighted by V's personal brand of charm, she certainly was good at
faking it. "But seriously, Majesty, that part is true. We are all
reincarnated from the defenders of the White Moon Court."
"Remarkable." For the first time since I'd met her, the shadows
seemed to retreat fully from Kendra's eyes. "You actually lived through
that time, nearly eight thousand years ago! The things you must have
seen!"
"None of us remembers everything about our past lives," V
shrugged. "But I can tell you, if you think a full moon is beautiful, try
standing in a garden at night with Gaia high in the sky. Now that,
Majesty, is a sight to behold."
For a moment I sensed a kinship between the two of them, two
women who loved mysteries and secrets and unravelling the hidden gems
of the past. Wouldn't it be nice, I thought wistfully, if they could
just go
out and dig up all these old ruins around the city without any vampires or
demons or plots?
"How did only a handful of you come to be reincarnated,
though?" Raine asked, tugging at the sodden bandage over her eye.
"And why here, why now?"
"That we don't know. Queen Serenity must have done it, I
suppose, given us a second chance."
"And you've acquitted yourselves quite well, from the reports.
Although the collateral damage attributed to some of your escapades is,
shall we say, extensive."
"Trust me, Captain, we did you a favour taking out Beryl and her
goons," V grinned. "Well worth a little property damage."
"That would probably depend on whose property it is, V."
"Maybe. But she came from the same time we did, and the lady
carried one hell of a grudge."
"Have you ever considered lending your expertise to the Royal
Archives?" Kendra pressed. "They have many old documents and
artifacts from that time period. It would be fascinating to get the
perspective of someone who lived then on the