"Alright!"
Aino Minako, in all her blond glory, stood with hands on hips staring down at five seated women and two cats.
"Does someone want to explain to me why there are four dead, supposedly evil men currently madly in love with Mamoru?"
"I still don't understand," Artemis complained, "They can't be the Generals, you must have gotten mixed up."
"It wouldn't be the first time," Luna muttered.
Mina's eyes narrowed.
"No, I am not mixed up - show of hands for who thinks Mamoru's new protectors look exactly like ex-Beryl toadies."
Four hands shot up, even Usagi.
"But they're a lot nicer," she added.
"And hotter."
"Makoto!" Several shocked looks landed on the tallest girl.
"What?" She shrugged, "It's true!"
"Definitely not," Mina argued, "The only one with any slight improvement was Kunzite. And that's just because he doesn't look like a zombie now."
"I'd say," Makoto cut in, "Looks more like a sex god. Did you get a look at those abbs when he went back to his sweats? Rock solid."
The cat's couldn't believe their ears.
"Everyone's thinking it!" Makoto declared.
As if in answer, five faces flushed with guilt.
"This is more serious than I thought," Luna observed.
"If these men are at all connected with the Generals you fought, then you must be careful."
"Mamoru seems to trust them," Ami pointed out.
"Mamoru's been the dupe of evil before - no offense," Rei commented.
Usagi glowered at her for this.
"This is all so surreal," Artemis opined, "I mean, Mamoru's guards from the past suddenly show up in Tokyo Hospital.."
"Seriously," Makoto huffed, "When I saw them I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Now I can't even believe that it happened."
"Believe it," Mina warned, "Because as implausible as it sounds - it's real. And we have to deal with it."
"But where were they before?"Ami asked, "And why is it just now that they've chosen to show up?"
"Maybe they were like us and didn't remember who they were until they got close to Mamoru."
"I don't remember Mamoru having guards," Rei added to Makoto's statement.
The girls looked at the cats who shrugged.
"Perhaps we should observe them for a few days or so," Luna suggested, "We can decide for ourselves where their allegiance really lies."
"You mean, spy on them?"
Mina's eyes gleamed with unholy excitement.
"Something like that."
Luna eyed her warily.
"But how?" Makoto frowned.
"It's not like we have a reason to follow them around...apart from Mamoru."
"That's why it's called 'spying'."
"You really think you can go all ninja on them, Mina?"
Makoto crossed her arms and smiled.
"This I have to see."
"She's got a point, Aino," Rei spoke up, "Subtly isn't really one of your strong points."
"And sometimes you're clumsy," Usagi noted.
Mina stared at her in disbelief.
"And you are a bit impetuous," Ami timidly ventured to add.
"What is this! Pick on Minako-chan Day?"
"They have one of those?"
"I thought that was every day," Rei said, earning a well thrown pillow in the face.
"Insubordination!" their leader pronounced, tossing her golden head of hair. Artemis sniggered into his paw.
"But I have a suggestion," Ami spoke up, before things could get out of hand. No one paid any attention. Makoto and Rei were already trying to hit Mina with pillows as she ranted on about loyalty to one's superiors. They finally felled her and Makoto gave their tousled leader a quick and affectionate jab in the ribs.
Playfully, she muttered, "You know we love you, fearless leader."
"More than Rei?"
"Much more!"
"Hey!" Rei's eyes narrowed and her mouth pursed - her usual self-possession momentarily forgotten.
"You have to admit, Mina's much nicer in the mornings than you are, fireball," Makoto joked.
"Obviously you've never spent the morning with Mina in the hospital," Ami commented.
They blinked. For Ami, the insinuation was quite a bold attack.
"Back to my suggestion," she continued, patiently flicking her hair out of her face, "Perhaps we might be able to observe the Shitennou better if we do so under the pretense of making friends with them."
"I don't want to be friends with them!" Rei snapped.
"Me neither," Makoto announced.
"I'm not thrilled at the prospect," Mina added.
Usagi stood up and tossed her long tails of hair over her shoulder in a fair imitation of Mina.
"This is ridiculous!" she declared, "Mamo-chan has welcomed them back. And even ordered them to allow you -"
She pointed fiercely at all of them.
"To kill them. And they didn't budge an inch! And now you won't even try to get to know them? You're acting like kinder-gardeners. As if the Shitennou had cooties!"
Luna blinked at this unsually mature stance on Usagi's part. Perhaps she was coming back into her own as a former Princess.
"Dark Kingdom cooties."
"MAKOTO!"
"But, Usagi -"
"No buts!" Their princess stormed, furiously, "As commander of the Senshi I order you to be friends!"
She paused, panting, and looking very irate - all five feet of her.
"That's a tall order, Usa-chan," Mina began.
Her princess's eyes silenced her.
"But of course, we'll try, if that's what you really want." Makoto added, pleadingly.
"Even if it's a bad idea," Rei murmured, a sour and grim expression on her face.
Usagi smiled and nodded slowly.
"I'm only asking that you try," she said, somewhat mollified, "And I'll try too. I'll be honest - they may be almost as handsome as Mamo-chan, but they still give me the creeps."
She shuddered, and the other girls glanced away, thinking the same thing.
"We have to see these men as soon as possible," Luna muttered to Artemis who nodded vigorously.
"I've never seen them so affected before," he added, "If it really is the Shitennou -"
"Could it be part of their memories?"
"What are you two muttering about?" Mina asked, suspiciously.
"Nothing," came the reply with two Innocent stares.
"Hm..."
"But wasn't there something else you wanted to tell us about?" Aretmis asked, covering quickly.
Mina's face cleared.
"Oh, that's right. The dreams."
"The dreams?" everyone repeated, their eyes snapping to her face in surprise.
"You've been having them too?" Makoto asked.
"I think we all have," Rei observed, her dark eyes taking in Ami's pale face.
"I haven't."
They turned to look at Usagi.
"That's strange," Ami began, "I dream about you often... you and Mamoru-kun."
She blushed a little as she said this. Usagi's eyes widened and she felt a flush on her own face.
"What do you dream, exactly?" she asked in a strangled voice.
"I wonder," Mina giggled.
Ami's blush exploded onto her face.
"N-nothing like that!" she shrieked.
Makoto and Mina took a while before they could stop laughing.
"I dream about them too," Rei said, ignoring Makoto and Mina's giggles, "And I also dream about the rest of you."
That shut the two up quite fast.
"What do you dream?"
"Something interesting," Rei said, smiling to herself, "Sometimes I dream about you and a tall stranger..."
They all watched in amazement as Makoto's face went as pink as her earings.
"No way!" she whispered hoarsely, "You didn't see everything, did you?"
Rei's eyes opened wide.
"Just what was there to see?" Luna demanded, her whiskers quivering with outraged propriety.
"Evidently more than I've seen yet," Rei commented, sardonically.
"Well, it just so happens that I've seen you in my dreams too, little miss prim and proper," Minako retorted, coming to the rescue, "And you weren't exactly behaving like a vestal virgin."
"Minako!" Artemis' shocked voice rang out loud and clear.
Mina rolled her eyes at the angry cat.
"Jeez, will you relax before you die of apoplexy? You jump to conclusions too fast. I just meant that I've seen Rei holding hands with some blond dude -"
She didn't get any further - the former miko attempted to throttle her to death with a cushion. Makoto had to pull Rei off of her before Mina suffocated.
"See!" the blond shrieked with glee, not even the least bit afraid, "It must be bad, otherwise she wouldn't be trying to kill me!"
"Trying!" Rei growled, her eyes furious, "I'll do more than try!"
"Now calm down," Mako sighed, still holding onto Rei.
"We'll never figure anything out if you keep on like this."
"No more fighting!" Usagi commanded.
Rei and Mina sat down, one with a satisfied smirk, and the other muttering curses under her breath.
"Mars-sama save me from all blonds!" the priestess hissed.
"I'm a blond!" Usagi pointed out, indignantly.
"Must we really go into this?"
"No," she changed her mind, beginning to smile, "I want to hear more about these dream men - that's so much more interesting, don't you think?"
Rei glared at Usagi's sweetly evil smile.
"All blonds!"
"Well, I've only dreamt about a guy once or twice," Makoto volunteered, "And even though I see him, I can never really get a clear view of him in my mind. It's like when I try to remember his face - it sort of slips through my grasp."
"Me too," Mina nodded, "All I can remember is silver hair, I think."
"Well that's probably because Usagi's hair was silver, in the Silver Millennium," Luna pointed out, quickly, "I can only assume these dreams are of your past lives. Your memories resurfacing after all this time."
She shared a significant look with Artemis which the girls didn't catch.
"I sometimes dream about a young man - a guard, I think," Ami said, shyly, "He has green eyes, but other than that I really don't remember too much about him - or our interaction."
Her face said this wasn't entirely true, but the others let it drop.
"So these are people we knew in the Silver Millennium?" Makoto summed up. Suddenly she gasped.
"Hey! Maybe these are the Guys!"
"What guys?"
"You know - the red yarn - the fate thing tied on the finger -"
"I don't believe I follow -" Luna began.
"The Red String?" Rei asked, suddenly.
"It could be -" Mina jumped up, delighted, "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"
"Red string?" Aretmis repeated, staring at his charge as if she'd started spouting Hebrew.
"We'll this goes to show," she sang, "That you can't stop the Goddess of Love! She conquers all, baby!"
"Mina, one small problem," Rei coughed.
"Eh?"
"These men...to whom our strings are supposedly tied...where do you think they are at the present moment?"
Mina's hand dropped.
"I don't know," she admitted.
"I've been doing a little research," Ami spoke up, "About the legend of the Red Thread. It seems, if what I read is true, that the string only appears when the person you are fated to meet appears in your life."
"So - what?" Makoto asked, puzzled, "Does that mean that they're already here?"
"We've already met them?" Mina asked, dumbfounded. She put her hand to her head and closed her eyes and began to search her memory frantically for the last ten men she'd talked to in the past week.
"Or that they've just been born," Rei answered, dryly.
"Babies!" Makoto gaped.
"This is too sweet!"
"How is this sweet!" Makoto demanded of her princess, "I can't be in love with a baby!"
"I meant that you all have fated partners - like me and Mamo-chan. It's what I've always wished for -," Usagi clarified, "And really, Mako-chan, it's not that big of a deal. Age isn't so important."
"It is when there's a nineteen year gap," Ami answered, "That's definitely illegal, not to mention morally heinous."
Makoto looked ready to faint.
"Cupid," she cried, pointing an imperious finger at Mina, "Don't you dare do this to me."
"Hold on there, I don't control fate, Mako-chan."
"No, but it's because of you that Rei can see these strings and so you should be the one to find these guys. And they better not be babies!"
"How do you propose I do that?" Mina countered.
"Shoot an arrow in the sky, follow a rainbow - use your Spider-sense, I don't care, just do it quick before I go crazy."
"Mako-chan, relax, I'm sure if fate took the trouble to reincarnate your Silver Millennium boyfriend, then fate wouldn't just drop him off whenever it felt like it."
"He," Rei added.
They stared at her.
"Fate is a he."
"I'm not even going to ask how she knows that," Mako said, turning back to Mina.
Turning to Artemis, Luna sighed fondly and said:
"It's really nice to have them all back together again, isn't it? Almost like old times."
Artemis, watching the ensuing discussion escalate into yet another argument, was not quick to respond. He knew Luna was suffereing from severe empty nest syndrome, and it was lately necessary to keep his thoughts to himself. If he didn't want to be killed, that was.
But as happy as they were, both cats were more than anxious about the possible return of the Shitennou - they were down right scared. And this red thread business could only mean one thing - (their looks communicated to one another) - and that was that the Senshi and Shitennou were heading down the same course they'd first stumbled on nearly one thousand years ago.
"Crap." Artemis sighed.
"Can we please get back to the Gen - I mean Shitennou?"
"I vote for Ami's plan," Makoto said.
"Everyone?" Mina looked around the room. The looks she received were grudging but consistent.
"Alright then, Operation Sleeping with the Enemy -"
"Mina!"
"It isn't necessary that we name it," Artemis snapped. His tail flicked angrily at the idea of a certain silver-haired Shitennou in connection with this title.
"But it's more fun that way," Mina argued, "So, Operation Befriend the Freaks -"
Usagi frowned warningly.
"Befriend the Heavenly Kings - begins!"
"Good luck."
"We'll need it," Rei commented, pinching the bridge of her dainty nose.
"Friends," Ami muttered, "Friends."
She approached the boys' dorm room with trepidation. After about two full minutes of hopping back and forth from one foot to the other, she stretched out one trembling hand and knocked the faintest of knocks.
Immediately the door opened and a pair of green eyes met her own sending her stomach plummeting down instantly, as it always did whenever she saw Zoe - but she wrote this down to his resemblance to Zoisite of the Dark Kingdom, and thought no more about the strange familiarity of his features.
"Ami," he grinned, pushing the door open wider. He looked genuinely pleased, if surprised, to see her.
"What can I do for you?"
"Uh -" she gulped, trying to recall the speech she'd rehearsed just for this occasion.
"Would you - would you...like to study with me?"
He blinked, then, to her astonishment, his smile widened.
"I'd love to, but what subject did you have in mind? We don't really have any classes together, that I recall..."
Ami blushed.
"N-no that's true...but -" How could she have forgotten something so obvious!
"But of course you mean," he went on, noticing her embarrassment, and thinking how cute it was:
"You want to study while I'm studying?"
Ami's mind froze.
"Yes?"
"Great!" He jerked his head back in the room and closed the door in her face.
Before Ami had time to blink, he was outside the door, his jacket already on and a text book under his arm.
"Ready?" he asked, smiling.
"Where are we going?" She muffled a squeak as he placed a light hand on her arm.
"The room's a mess," he explained, tugging her gently along the hall, "So I'm going to my favorite place to study."
"The roof."
Ami nearly fainted when his hand slipped down to hold hers. 'This is totally unnecessary touching!' she thought. But then wondered why her heart gave a little lurch.
"Ah - that sounds good."
'Good! To be alone with a Dark Kingdom General - however miraculously reformed he might be?'
But she'd promised Usagi. She wanted to keep her promise. She gritted her teeth and allowed him to pull her up the stairs to the dorm roof.
"You know," she heard him say, "I was really surprised to find out that you were - that you are who you are."
"O-oh?"
"Yeah," he said, stopping at the top step and turning back to her so fast she almost tumbled back down the long spiral staircase. She just caught herself on the rail.
"I was really happy though," he murmured, his face closing in on hers, "because..."
She held her breath. He was Too Close.
"I'm a big fan."
"I beg your pardon?" Ami blinked at the Chibi Sailor Mercury key chain dangling in front of her face.
"I love you."
"W-what!" Ami's heart nearly flew out of her chest.
His green eyes deepened with an odd mixture of reverence and depraved male appreciation.
"I love you - your alter-ego. I have posters of you in my dorm...Those miniskirts are so sexy, by the way," he replied, his eyes flashing mischievously at her legs, even encased in their slacks.
"You're my favorite Senshi, you see," he explained.
Ami felt very embarrassed - more embarrassed than she could remember feeling in all nearly twenty years of her life. Seeing a silly cartoon version of herself swinging in front of her just seemed to be the cherry on an already melted ice cream.
"Is that so?" she managed a smile, "I'm glad to hear that."
"You don't look very glad," he laughed, tugging her into the empty hallway, "You look like all the blood in your body has gone to your cheeks."
Ami's blush deepened.
"It's cute," he drawled. His dimples showed when he gave her his trade mark lazy-tom-cat smile.
'I've got to get out of here!' Ami thought, frantically. But there was no escape.
"Do you really think that I'm a bad guy?" he asked, suddenly. She was surprised to find him frowning.
Here was the moment - Ami called on all her meager acting skills.
"No."
His face didn't lighten, but he seemed to be satisfied with her answer. He grabbed her hand again and held it up between them. Ami tried hard not to notice how much it made her heart beat when he did that.
"Thank you," he said, his expression serious, "I really appreciate that. I just want you to give me the chance to show you that I'm one-hundred percent loyal to Endymion and Serenity. Completely Beryl free."
Ami felt like the lowest scum on the rim of the toilet bowl of Life. He was completely sincere, and she...
"Of course," she said, and surprised herself by meaning it.
He smiled, and this smile was so bright it dazzled her.
'Perfect,' he thought, 'Got you right where I want you.'
'I don't care what Kunzite says,' he considered, gazing down at Ami's sweet and innocent face.
'Spying on the Senshi is a piece of cake.'
"I really don't like the idea of spying on the Senshi," Nolan reflected as he and Jade made their way down the familiar path to the Hikawa Shrine.
"Why? I bet they'd do it to us - if my memory of them is clear."
"You remember them?"
"Yeah, bits here and there. I remember they always had a huge hang-up about Endymion visiting their princess. And I'm pretty sure I got into an argument with at least one of them on a regular basis."
Nolan frowned - that didn't seem to match what he remembered.
"I remember the Senshi as polite and distant, and extraordinarily beautiful."
Jade smirked.
"Well of course they're gorgeous," he replied, "But that doesn't mean they won't fry your ass the first chance they get."
"Point taken."
"It's weird though," he went on, "I always thought all that Sailor Moon stuff was just a publicity stunt."
"I told you some things are beyond scientific explanation."
"Oh, I'm sure there's some explanation for all of this," Jade countered, waving his arms grandly.
"We just don't know what it is."
Nolan watched him for a while, as the daylight faded around them and they approached the first step.
"Would you like me to find out?"
Jade eyed him askance.
"What do you mean? You know the meaning behind all of this? You're going to consult the tiki goddess who lives on the hill?"
Nolan ignored this barb at Rei.
"No, I mean there are other beings to consult."
"Like who?
Nolan gazed up for a moment and finally located the evening star winking faintly in the fading light.
"I'll show you tonight."
"That sounds ominous."
"I can read the stars."
Jade burst out laughing only to slowly come to a painful pause.
"You're serious."
"Yes."
Nolan's tone was clipped.
"This I have to see."
"Then you will, you sacrilegious dog," his friend muttered, "But first..."
They took a deep breath. Knowing that the pansy-eyed woman before them was a talented priestess was one thing - knowing that she was also a powerful warrior who could immolate them where they stood was another. Expecting an up hill fight, literally, they had prepared for a battle. Her first words nearly paralyzed them.
"Welcome, gentlemen. I was hoping you'd come back soon."
Nolan and Jade shared a look - one that communicated the following sentiment: either they were dead men, or Rei Hino had undergone a change of heart. Jade, ever the pessimist, began preparing his last words in his head.
Something epic and noble, he thought.
"Is this them?" came a voice.
Nolan sucked in a breath.
"Hey, guys!" Makoto called, cheerfully, "You're just in time for dinner with Rei and me. Come in."
"Uh, thanks," Nolan began.
"Why are you being so nice?" Jade broke in, his instincts screaming at him to run.
Nolan suppressed the urge to clobber Jade to a pulp with his bare hands. Just when things were going smoothly -
"Well," Makoto said, giving Rei a small smile, "We just thought we ought to get to know you - all in the same family, you know."
"That's wonderful." Nolan practically beamed.
'That's B.S.' Jade thought, but kept it to himself.
Makoto and Rei smiled again - it creeped Jade out. But Nolan followed them into the Shrine without a backward glance for his friend.
"Nos morituri te salutamus," Jade muttered.
He thought he heard Rei chuckled under her breath.
It was Saturday, thank the gods. Why wasn't she sleeping?
Oh, that's right. Because today she had to pay a visit to the head honcho of the Evil Boys Are Back in Town club.
Mina took a deep breath, checked her reflection in the glass windows outside the American Embassy, and flashed herself a V for luck. Several men on the side walk gawked at her, but none was brave enough to ask her what she was doing. Or if she'd give him her phone number.
Mina didn't notice them, though she most certainly would have under normal circumstances. She clutched her bag, where the reasuring bulge of her henshin wand poked her ribs.
"Smile, baby." She reminded herself, and suited her actions to her words with dazzling aplomb.