Revival of Senshi

Chapter Twenty: Ruri Defeated! Peace is Ours?

"Hai. Seiya, it's me." I sighed. "Chibi-Usa, would you mind doing the honours?"

"Mm. I'll do it," she said grimly. "Even though... it's not going to happen..." She wiped tears from her eyes. "I should stop being such a weakling. All I'm doing at the current minute is crying about my girlfriend. I'm... it's like I'm grieving, but... she will be fine, she'll heal." She stood up, her knees knocking, sniffing. "Twilight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!"

Andradite was stifling a yawn. "Really, kid? Is that the best that you can do? Well, watch this, Moon Child," she scorned. "Amazonite Rain!"

Chibi Moon tried to shield herself. "Nani? What's happening?" She mumbled under her breath. She crossed her arms over her chest, as if Andradite was giving her a holy communion of some sort that she didn't wish to recieve. She glared at Andradite and gritted her teeth. She leapt out at her and got ready for a fight of some sort in a mock stance. "How dare you doubt me? I may be the Moon Child... but you cannot assume, based solely on how I appear to look, that I am weak. This here is for you, Andradite." She frowned. "Moon Twilight Illusion!"

"How dare you!" The enemy howled with gritted teeth, barely dodging the attack. "Amazonite Rain!"

"Toxidity like yours should have been vanquished from this world years ago!" Juno hissed. "Holy Blade of the Amazon and of the planetoid, Juno — Juno Storm Blade!"

Pallas nodded sagely. "And now, for my show," she began. "I shall be seeing into your fears. Holy Blade of the Amazon and Holy Shell of Pallas! Pallas Shell Ripples!"

"I shall send my judgement now, and it won't be pretty," Vesta added. "Holy Blade of the Amazon! Holy Torch of Vesta! Vesta Volcanic Elimination!"

"Holy Blade of the Amazon! Holy Thread of Ceres! Ceres Ribbons Dancing!" Ceres attacked Andradite.

Andradite barely dodged Vesta and Pallas's attacks, but didn't manage dodging those that Ceres and Juno flung at her. Andradite licked her lips, an annoyed expression on the guard's face. "You stupid kids," she muttered. She sent out her usual attack, and she ran forward, towards Venus and Mars. She drew a sword from her pocket, frustrated at how easily the attacks from the other, though younger, senshi were getting through her skin. She was not adept at dodging the attacks, and easily got frustrated.

"Who are you calling a kid, lady? I, for one, am quite mature," Mars snapped. "Mars Flame Grenade!"

"Though I mayn't look it, I, too, am quite mature," Venus murmured, half to herself. "Venus Love And Beauty Depression!"

"And, though I'm shy to admit it, I do consider myself smart... if only a little bit," Mercury admitted. "Mercury... Aqua Solo!"

"Mhm. All right! I'll do this for you," Jupiter grunted. "Jupiter Oak Mutation!"

Chibi Moon looked at me."I'll... be back later. I'm heading to the infirmary. Hotaru's nearly fully healed," she told me. "I promise to be back later."

I lifted my gaze to the girl. "No, no need," I responded, immediately after she had finished speaking. "We shall fight for you, Chibi-Usa. You just... you just go to the infirmary and look after Hotaru. I know, for one, that she will be extremely happy to see you."

"Thank you, Mama," she said, closing the conversation there. "Please defeat Andradite and Ruri."

I cracked a small smile. "I shall try, Small Lady," I affirmed. "I didn't want this to start in the first place. I believe it is vengeance that the woman seeks, but I couldn't be sure. She caused a tear in space time."

"I mean, gee, what a revelation!" She snarked. "Yeah. She must have, to cause Zodiac to come at such a short notice. But, she did get us thinking about the future."

I stifled a laugh. "Go forth, Small Lady," I directed.

She nodded sagely and went, leaving the rest of us to fight the enemy. My heart was pounding. Andradite could send Ruri on us at any possible moment. I watched as everybody kept on fighting, as if I were a statue. Those on Kinmoku considered me something akin to a Goddess. I had to show them that I was worth their idol tier worship, didn't I? I summoned the power within me, but the battle went on. Cosmos's hypotheses had been that the fighting would never end, and I was beginning to believe that was the case. But, I couldn't give in, I had kept telling myself. If anything, I had to do something about it. I had to step up and attack...

The Ginzuishou materialised in front of me, and, before phasing back inside of my body, produced me a sword. This was my mother's way of giving me a new way to fight. I gritted my teeth and charged right for Andradite, sword in hand, and then stopped. She wasn't moving, she wasn't moving. I knew what this meant. This meant that she was dead and Ruri was coming to send out the final judgement on me. I glared as Ruri's silhouette appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and loomed over the city. I gripped the sword with a trembling hand and charged for Ruri, who immediately jumped down to reach my level. I continued ploughing through to her and closed my eyes.

I opened them upon hearing an ear piercing shriek and a cry of, "Ruka's in labour!" I snapped my eyes open and raised my head over to where the cry came from. It hadn't been three months already, surely! Then, I counted the days from the last battle. I would have had to take my boots of to get the counting done faster. We had slept for days since that last battle, and it had been two months since Hotaru had been fully healed, she was still being kept in the infirmary, just in the case of her condition taking a turn for the worse. It had been three months. The typical senshi pregnancy lasted three months.

"Michi, I can't, I really can't! The baby, she's coming!" Haruka affirmed.

"Ruka, I'll take you to the infirmary in a moment, but, right now... it's not as important! Sailor Moon is about to defeat Ruri," Michiru observed.

"To hell with that!" Haruka snapped. "I have a BABY that's kicking, and the contractions have started! Do you not give a damn about me, your wife?!"

"Ruka..." Michiru soothed, still transformed into Sailor Neptune. She held Sailor Uranus close.

I closed my eyes and Ruri's evil was fading into a confined spot. She was dead now.