Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights

CHAPTER 22: Recovery and Recuperation, Part II

Chapter 22: Recovery and Recuperation, Part II

The Lighthouse, Vertex Point One

As the bright, hazy lights above her began to resolve into distinct shapes, Minako Aino felt a moment of confusion. This wasn't her bedroom, or her trailer... but the furry weight sitting curled on her belly could only be Artemis, and the noise like a runaway chainsaw from one corner had to be Usagi. No one else could snore like that.

A hospital? From what little she could tell, the room was too clean and orderly to be any of hers, or Usagi's. Overwork, maybe? That last concert in Berlin was a killer. Minako stirred and tried to sit up.

"Lie still, Minako." A voice as gentle as the ocean waves, and a hand resting on her shoulder. "Don't worry, you're safe."

Michiru-san, said Minako. Now she remembered; the battle with Joker and those Witch things outside of Osa-P. Bizarre monsters, chaos, the world melting around her... What happened? Where is everybody?

It took an unusually long time for Michiru to answer. "It's just me, Usagi, Chibi-Usa, Hotaru, and the Reis... along with Luna, Artemis, Diana, and Naru and Gurio Umino." A painful pause as she looked down at her opposite arm, swaddled in a cast and hanging from a cloth sling. "No one else made it here."

Cold swirled in Minako's belly. At least there were survivors, but if all the others were gone... Wait, where's here?

Michiru wasn't listening. She leaned over and gave Usagi's leg a hard pinch...

"Uwaaah!" The chair Usagi was sitting in fell to the tile floor with a crash, Usagi herself following an instant later. "Sakurada-sensei, I wasn't sleeping, honest!" she squealed out of habit. "I- Oh! Michiru-san, what was-" Then she stopped, her jaw hanging open. "Minako-chan! You're awake, thank God!"

Minako laughed as Usagi dove over the bed to embrace her, narrowly missing Artemis, who awoke from his nap with an angry hiss.

"Minako-chan... I was so worried...!"

It's okay, Usagi-chan. I'm here, I'm all right.

"Yeah, I could tell you were. Warn me next time," said a cranky voice from below.

"Sorry, Artemis! Are you okay?"

The white cat hopped back up onto the bed. "I am now. Welcome back, Mina, you gave us quite a scare there."

It takes more than some badly-dressed clown to get rid of me. Minako reached over and scritched him behind the ears, in the good place.

"Mina...?" Something was wrong. Artemis put a paw on her knee, his whiskers drooping. "What's the matter?"

What do you mean, what's the matter?! said Minako, indignant. What are you looking at me like that for? Is there something on my face, or what?

Usagi interrupted her. "Minako-chan? Minako-chan, please, say something-"

I am saying something! Can't you hear me talking to-

Dawning realization broke across all of their faces at once. It was as if the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees in an instant.

No. Oh no. Minako felt herself mouthing the words, but the only sound she heard was from her own thoughts. With a trembling hand, she reached up to touch her throat, still bearing faint marks from where the clown tried to strangle her... No, she remembered. Not strangling. He held her there and drew some kind of weird black card, and then-