Clash!
The woman’s hard glare was the last thing Usagi saw before a searing pain spread across her face and everything went black.
For a while, that’s all there was, but colors danced before her and shapes began to form in the darkness. Soft whispered words fluttered in and out, the voices becoming more familiar with the given time to form. A low, reverberating buzzing sound carried on, but other voices layered above it. Strange words that she couldn’t understand rolled back and forth, threatening to drown the familiar voice out.
The rushed, unintelligible words from before, when she was trapped in the car with the would-be kidnappers, rang through her mind again.
The episode seemed to be repeating itself. The familiar yet dreaded sensation of being restrained returned and Usagi wanted to scream, but there was no way to make a sound. The attackers’ voices only grew higher in volume before the woman’s face suddenly appeared. Her ice eyes fixated on her; pupils the size of pin pricks. She was moving forward, one slow, deliberate step at a time. There was no change in expression, no words uttered, only her steady pace coming closer- the hooded figures from before, dropping one by one in a pool of blood. The dark liquid slowly spread, filling her area of vision and threatening to overtake everything.
No…No, please, this isn’t what I want…!
But the woman didn’t seem to hear. She continued on with her steady pace while a stream of blood followed her.
The familiar voice returned, no louder than a whisper but the voice was finally in a language Usagi was able to understand.
“Sailor Moon… is this what you wanted?! Answer me!!”
Haruka…?
The woman disappeared and now a pulsating red mass of energy was before her. She remembered where she was: Usagi stood before Pharaoh 90 once more, the guardians of the outer solar system standing behind her in their anger.
But we defeated it! That’s over now!
The memory of diving head first into the mass of energy to help Sailor Saturn alleviate her sacrifice came back. Sailor Moon, along with the rest of the Sailor Guardians, had stopped the destruction of the planet together. Usagi could still feel the weakness in her legs when it was over, standing in the rubble with a reborn Hotaru in her hands. What kept her standing in those last moments before her team could get to her, she couldn’t remember. But, it was over now.
The enemy had been defeated, Chibiusa returned to the 30th century once more, and Usagi was free to enjoy life once more, free from her duties as a soldier. This time, she had thought, would be the time where she could finally return to her ‘normal’ life. Or as normal as it could be.
The humming returned, this time louder and more intrusive. The sound was overtaking her own thoughts. The strange voices followed the hum, and Usagi felt the grasp on her memories loosen. The faces of her guardians and her friends were slipping away. Her parents and her brother, who only this morning were spending a day trip out together, were now fading away as well.
Only the woman remained, and with it the burning feeling of her grip on Usagi’s hair. The humming was deafening, but the deep, raspy voice broke through the hum to repeat those last words spoken.
“I have never wanted to help you”
Usagi’s eyes snapped open and heard the humming of voices, movement, and work around her. Barely awake and with a throbbing pain running through her face, sound around her was muffled momentarily but awareness returned, the true volume of activity around her increased. As her eyes focused, Usagi’s field of vision was now replaced by faded dark blue fabric. Her face kept jostling against the firm, lumpy surface and she found it hard to breathe.
It only took a few moments of bouncing and the lightheadedness of blood pooling in her head, to realize that she was upside down. She looked back and forth to try to gain her bearings and figure out where she was, but her bangs blocked her field of vision. Usaig lifted her arms and hastily placed her hands on the moving fabric. She pushed off to lift herself up and became aware of the large hand pressed firmly onto her lower back and the shoulder she was now slung over.
“Wh-what is thi–” Usagi lifted her head to look forward and was met with the large, shiny black eyes on a bright pink colored, scaled face. The thick lips covered sharp teeth and small fins stuck out of the sides of it’s face. A second passed before it hissed threateningly.
Usagi screamed.
One slap was all that it took to send the body of Usagi flying to the side, her already demure frame crumpling into a limp pile on the sandy ground of the alley. She had uttered no sound, not even a yelp of surprise upon being struck. In fact, the only audible sound had been the dulled thud of her shoulders hitting sand. An immediate and heavy silence fell upon Roshanar followed soon by an odd mixture of responsibility and faint remorse; the feeling loomed as she was suddenly the only conscious person within a three meter diameter. The remorse was the only unusual thing about her perceptions and emotional response. Typically, the one laying on the ground was a contract or someone that wished violence upon her. Not a weak, and mostly helpless, girl. Roshanar didn’t know exactly what had happened in those past few moments outside of being forcefully propelled back by someone a quarter of her size. Some sort of psionic magic, perhaps. Had Usagi been able to use that well enough to save her own damned hide, then perhaps this messy situation could have been avoided entirely. Children are meant to make mistakes. A long, even sigh began to escape Roshanar’s nostrils as she took a few steps over to the girl’s body; she crouched down turn her face up. Usagi’s head lolled to the side once she laid with her back to the ground. Eyes closed but breathing steady. Roshanar overlooked the fast and fresh welt growing on her left cheek and dipped her hand into her still unbuttoned satchel, envisioning a simple sheet of cloth. There were only a handful of times Andalouse had been… upset. If Roshanar had made the executive decision to leave the girl here, essentially to die or worse, it would not bode well.
This entire situation did not bode even decently, but leaving the girl behind would be a fool’s decision. Pulling some grayish linen out, Roshanar’s goal was to hide the garish clothing the girl wore. Unfurling the folded square, she beat it out once before draping it over, her fingers tucking underneath the girl’s body and pulling Usagi up as she stood.
Usagi’s chest collided with Roshanar’s, her neck lax and head rolling around. Hiking her up a little further, she slid over Roshanar’s shoulder, arms dangling and finger tips brushing against the small of her back and upper buttocks. Finishing wrapping the linen to close off Usagi’s back, Roshanar took a few more steps deeper into the alley to squat down and grab at the satchel Usagi had been carrying. Sensing a slowly pulsing, calming power upon finger tips touching the supple cloth, Roshanar was aware of the peculiarity inside the purse and it reaffirmed the reasons for all of this. Shifting the unconscious Usagi, Roshanar used both her cheek and lower jaw to keep her in place so that both hands could be free for movement. It was just one second of handling the bag before Roshanar encountered a problem with getting into the contents: a thin metal line gripped the bag shut with many square little teeth that seemed to be locked together. Pulling at the hem of the bag, Roshanar frowned and attempted to tug it once more, again with no success. After staring at it for a few more moments, she noticed an attachment laid at the end of the tiny teeth. Fingering it for a moment, she pulled upwards. Again, no success. Clicking her teeth in annoyance, she pulled again, this time in a different direction, this time with a change! The teeth unlocked! Roshanar pulled the handle slowly, scrutinizing how the teeth parted once the tear drop mechanism attached to the handle passed over them. Once the metal teeth were entirely unlocked, Roshanar sank her hand into the bag, fingers aching for it now. “Aha,” Roshanar breathed, feeling exhilarated more than she reasonably should, and pulled out the trouble stone. Shre stared at it for a few moments; while although its touch felt warm and soothing, Roshanar snorted and tossed it back into the purse. With the flick of her wrist, she closed the line of teeth before dropping the smaller satchel within her own, fastening the lid’s bone clips. How unremarkable. Roshanar then turned and exited the alley, feeling far more at ease with the wide variety of creature and man, skins of all colors and bodies of all sizes. The sun’s position in the sky told her that it was early evening. She would have until night fall to collect bounty. She needed to hurry. Her walk was brisk, long legs taking long strides. To ensure that the little Usagi wouldn’t fall off, Roshanar planted her palm firmly upon her lower back and walked in silence through the bustling market. The payer for this contract was supposedly located in the furthest east district of this very city. Roshanar found it alarming that the lackey’s scroll had brought them here. Perhaps in his debauched reading of it, Roshanar’s own desire to end this had brought them here. However, past experience had trained her to not be wishful. Roshanar quickened her pace. Sliding between the bodies of others and past stalls selling things from slaves to fruit, Roshanar walked for a period of time, from the beginnings of evening to a deeper pink hue. She had exited the roughest part of that market just in time. Usagi had began to stir, but had began to scream and thrash upon her back. Within moments, Roshanar had pulled Usagi down and nearly threw her to the ground, her eyes regaining severity as her hands gripped at Usagi’s shoulders. “Do not scream. Use your words while you have them.” Roshanar side-eyed a creature that had to have come from the port walk past, it hissing at Usagi. “Can you walk?”
