There was the laughter of a "herself" that was really anything but, her body shifting and changing, pain and utterly inhuman laughter - and the hunger.
Mistress 9 had been so, so very hungry.
And the energies actually trying to force her out of her favorite - well, only, actually - host had put her in a very bad mood, indeed...
She'd felt Mistress 9 summon the Daimons en mass. And send them all into a feeding frenzy.
They had almost eaten through that particular AIGIS base till Sailor Moon -
No, not Sailor Moon. Hotaru scowled. Sailor Moon wouldn't help her, and she sure as hell wouldn't help be pelting the supercharged Daimons with purifying attacks, tears on her face, while her friends - hah, friends, as if. Flunkeys were more like it - her flunkeys dragged Dr Mizuno and other people off to safety. Why did she keep dreaming that Sailor Moon had really tried to help them? That wasn't right at all.
The Sailor Senshi were not to be trusted. They just were a different kind of Invader, pretending to be heros while they secretly tried to brainwash everybody so that their Queen could rule the whole world.
It was all a plot. Lightwing-sama - Ranma senpai said so, and he said he'd heard it from Sailor Moon herself, that she was looking for a Princess. Who was going to rule the world some day. But no, wait a minute - he hadn't said that. He'd said she'd said she was looking for a Princess, just that. Somebody else had said something about said Princess ruling the world...
Ahh, who cared. The Sailor Senshi were not to be trusted. They fought Invaders sometimes, true, but that was just to get rid of rivals, they wanted to take over the world for themselves after all. And they acted like they really wanted to help people sometimes, too, even actually saved them from the Invaders - but that was just a trick too, they were just trying to make themselves look good while looking for more people to brainwash.
That had to be true. Ranma-senpai had said so, after all.
Hotaru rubbed her dream-body's arms, then. But she - she was a Senshi, too. Powers, mini-skirt school-uniform-ish uniform, and they called her Sailor Saturn...
So may she was not to be trusted, too?
No.
Hotaru bit her lip. No, she was different. Ranma-senpai said she was his friend! And camarade!
So she was different...right?
She resolutely ignored Uranus, Neptune and Pluto hacking through the gore, coming for her head. Well, Mistress 9s head, to be precise, she supposed...
Ah, and long last, the part of the dream she loved.
Ranma-senpai. Lightwings.
Hotaru was sleeping in one of the "rest rooms", cuddling under a large towel. Ranma was glad.
He really, really worried about her, sometimes.
In more ways then one.
She was so dependent on him, which was good in some ways, but -
Ranma blinked. Hey, hey, were the hell had that come from? How could Hotaru acting like a love-sick puppy all the time actually be at all "good"?
Well alright. Not good, but - Well, she was a Sailor Senshi after all, with even more strange powers then even the "ordinary" Senshi it seemed, and -
Well, it was safer that way, wasn't it?
Ranma shook his head. What the hell. Hotaru was Hotaru was Hotaru, his often partner and friend. So what if she was Sailor Saturn as well?
But Sailor Senshi were -
Ranma shook his head. Hotaru was different. She was.
But Uranus and Neptune weren't even trying to kill her any more, were they now? They'd smirked at her and called her his puppy-dog in passing, but -
And as for that Tuxedo Mask - he'd actually had the gall to not only pretend to protect innocents from the Invaders, but had gone and plucked Saturn away from harm when a Jiggar had tried to maul her. Well, it shouldn't have even been able to come near her if she hadn't been exhausted before that, but -
No buts. Ranma sighed. He should have been watching her back better, that's all. But it had still been as aggravating as hell, and knocking Tux-N-Roses into the nearby mountainside had made him feel somewhat better after that, but not really enough, all things considering. Especially since the bloody Tux had actually turned out to be quite badly injured, and -
Ahh, what the hell. Ranma shook his head.
It was scary to think about, but maybe his father was actually right, every once in a while...
Maybe to much thinking really was bad for your brain.
Uranus sat on the ledge of the tall building, Neptune nearby.
"Say, Uranus?"
"Hmmmmm?"
"About Saturn..."
Uranus looked at her, and back at the building in front of them.
Heiya there, Saturn, You-Who-Star-(Or-At-Least-Co-Star)-In-So-Many-Of-Our-Nightmares...
First Princess falls in love, then comes major In-System War, then comes Saturn with her great pretty Glaive... Clean-up duty all around...
Such was the Fall of the Silver Millenium. Which the so-called Inners still didn't remember in much detail, as far as she knew...
Well, lucky them. And lucky little Princess, too, back with her Prince with nobody to scream about taboos this time around.
But the Princess actually seemed to be Moon, this time around, unbelievable though that was, which meant she was Usagi-chan, which was even more mindboggling but -
Oh, what the hell. She couldn't stay mad at Usagi-chan. Or Chiba Mamoru, for that matter. Not deep down.
But Saturn...
"I'm really getting tired of seeing her puppy-dog act around Lightwings, too, actually..."
Haruka confessed. Oh, it had been actually funny at first, in a sick way, but -
"Lightwings..."
Neptune murmured, her tone filled with soft loathing.
"I care less and less whether he is actually doing it on purpose."
Uranus nodded at that.
"But - "
But the very thought of Saturn still gave them nightmares. Deep, deep down, where there souls should be able to rest.
"Not us."
"Well, no."
Haruka nodded.
"She quite literally wouldn't give us the time of day. Unless her beloved Lightwings-sama tells her too, of course. The same with Pluto, probably."
But - Uranus bit her lip.
Saturn. Near Moon. Near Usagi-chan.
Damnit.
Hotaru dreams of dark seas and dark skies.
And Uranus and Neptune. Smiling at her crookedly, with pain-filled eyes...
Who is our Nightmare, Saturn dearest? Who holds the Glaives and pulls down the curtain?
Hotaru tries to push them away, or else close her dream-eyes and put herself away. It doesn't work, as usual.
You Are, Saturn. You Are.
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(Posted Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:37)
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