*Slap* “Wake up Makoto!” Ami’s voice rang out.

Makoto raised her hand to the smarting pain across her face. Blinking her eyes open, she saw Sailor Mercury standing over her. “D-did you just hit me?”

“You need to get up,” the soldier responded, grabbing Makoto’s arm.

As she got to her feet, Makoto couldn’t understand how she hadn’t woken sooner. The fire alarm was blaring, and a strong smell of smoke was in the air. Looking around the room as she steadied herself, Makoto spotted the scorch marks on the ceiling and the empty bed below it. “Where’s Rei?” she asked.

“She’s out here. I need you to carry her,” said Mercury.

“What happened?” Makoto asked as her eyes took in the bloody gash down Mercury’s back, the blackened ceilings and walls of the corridor, and Rei lying on the floor with some visible burns on her skin.

“Please, Makoto,” said Mercury, wincing before powering down to her civilian dress with a blue-white flash. “There’s no time for that now. We need to get her to my lab quickly, and I can’t carry her with my wound.”

“Fine,” Makoto begrudgingly agreed, and hoisted Rei into a fireman’s carry.

Ami hurriedly led them to the stairs, stepping over the stirring bodies of the Youmas’ victims.

“They’re waking up,” Makoto observed.

“Yes. The Youma were defeated, so their stolen energy is returning to them,” Ami explained in a whisper.

“There were others?” Makoto surmised.

“There were four.”

“Four?” Makoto exclaimed. “How did you defeat four of them?”

“I didn’t,” Ami answered. “I defeated two. Rei took care of the other two.”

“REI?”

“Keep your voice down!” Ami hissed. “I don’t want anyone to know we’re moving her.”

“What? Why? Ami, what is going on?”

Ami entered the stairway and peered down over the rail. “It looks clear,” she said, choosing not to answer any more of Makoto’s questions at that time. Luckily, they were able to reach the research floor and Ami’s lab without running into anybody.

“Are you going to explain now?” Makoto asked as she laid Rei down on the cot in Ami’s office.

“Not there,” Ami chided, now standing before a metal door that Makoto didn’t recall seeing the last time she had been there.

Makoto picked up Rei again and followed Ami through the metal door. “What is this, Ami?” she questioned, in awe of the mysterious hidden room and its strange contents. “Are we still in the hospital?”

Ami withdrew a small canister from a cupboard and began to shake it. “Technically speaking,” she said. “It’s an inter-dimensional space I created for conducting my research. Lay Rei down on that table.”

Makoto did so, momentarily relieved to see how peaceful Rei looked compared to her earlier state, then rounded on Ami. “Explain!” she demanded with her hands on her hips.

“I will. First, help me with this,” Ami said, turning and unzipping the back of her gray shift dress to expose her bloody back. “Spray this on the cut. I’ll get someone to stitch me up later, but this will staunch the bleeding for now and prevent infection.”

Makoto took the canister, her eyebrows furrowed, and sprayed it copiously over Ami’s wound. The girl flinched and stifled a moan, but gave a sigh of relief, then lowered herself carefully into a chair behind a work desk.

Ami placed her hands together, leaned forwards on the desk, and began, “I made my way here tonight after my computer detected one of the enemy’s portals. A large energy signature appeared. It turned out to be so large because it was a four-man group of Youma. When I arrived, however, I detected something else; an energy reading similar to Sailor Venus’.”

Makoto frowned, and asked, “Sailor Venus? Not Sailor V?”

“That’s right. A reading similar to the strange new power levels Venus gives off upon transforming,” Ami clarified. “I soon realized, though, that it was Rei. When I got to her, she was surrounded by a cloak of energy just like Venus.”

“Without transforming?” said Makoto, her jaw slack.

Ami paused for a moment, then lied, “Yes. After disposing of two of the Youma, I made it to Rei’s floor in time to see her exorcize the other two using her spiritual powers. The energy she had amassed boosted her normal abilities enough to beat the Youma and cause the damage you saw.”

“I can’t believe this,” Makoto said, shaking her head. “And then, she passed out from the exertion?”

“Yes,” Ami lied again. “Thankfully, it was over quickly, so she hasn’t suffered much damage. She does have some mild burns, though.”

“But why did this happen?”

“Something must have triggered it. We know what the trigger was for Venus, even if we don’t understand the powers she gained. I was hoping you could tell me?”

“I’m not sure. The last thing I remember is trying to fight off the computer Youma. It blasted me when I was trying to protect her,” Makoto recalled.

With an expression of understanding, Ami concluded, “I guess that explains it. As well as why I found this.” Ami got to her feet slowly and handed over Makoto’s Crystal Change Rod.

“Oh, thanks,” Makoto said, accepting the transformation device with a note of regret about not being able to use it. Instead of protecting Rei, she had once again been the one protected, and others had suffered the consequences. “So, what about Rei? Will she be okay now?”

Ami had moved over to the examination table where Rei lay. “I don’t know,” she said, attaching leads to the sleeping girl.

"I mean, is she going to be the old Rei again?"

“I know what you meant, Mako,” said Ami. Then, twisting the truth once more, she added, “The Rei I saw was full of rage, simply reacting to the proximity of the Youma’s evil presence. She was behaving just as she does during her occasional fits.”

Makoto’s face fell upon hearing this. “It has to be a good sign that some part of her reacted to me being attacked, though. Even if it means her powers have gone nuts.”

“Perhaps. If that was indeed the trigger,” Ami answered. “I’m afraid only time will tell if she recovers. With the sort of condition Rei has, she may even be worse than before. Either way, after the power she displayed, it’s not safe for her to remain around other patients.”

“So that’s why we brought her here?”

“Yes. I’ll have to monitor her myself from now on. I may be able to learn more about the change in her powers if I compare it with the data that I have on Minako. It could lead to a way to reverse it, or even a new way to fight the Blood Moon Alliance.”

“Or a way to help Rei…” said Makoto, voicing a fleeting moment of doubt in Ami’s intentions.

“Of course,” Ami confirmed with a reassuring smile.

***

“This is humiliating!” barked Morgan as she and her servant, Jadeite, made their way to the Blood Moon Alliance’s meeting room. “Another of these time-wasting sit-downs, and for what? For the other three leaders to criticize me? Me, the only one pulling their weight around here?”

“Indeed, Mistress,” Jadeite responded simply, opening the door to the meeting room, where they took their positions at the circular table.

“Explain,” said the Umbris Clan leader from beneath his hood, succinct as always.

“Are you addressing me?” Morgan retorted.

“The mission we discussed yesterday has failed,” Commander Vardas informed the others.

“What?” Tanzan piped up. “I thought you were sending a whole team of your Youma this time.”

Morgan paused before replying, trying to decide if she liked Tanzan’s tone. “Jadeite,” she said.

Jadeite stepped out from behind her chair and answered on her behalf. “A group of four Youma was dispatched to gather energy from a highly vulnerable and populated location. I’m afraid none have returned.”

“Weak!” said Desperre angrily.

“What did you say?” Morgan snapped.

“Youma,” said Desperre. “Weak!”

Morgan gripped her staff tightly, which began to spark from its red gem. Desperre’s identically cloaked guard moved out from the shadows as if preparing to defend its master.

“Enough!” said Vardas. “It was the Sailor Soldier. We picked up her use of the Silver Crystal’s immense power again. None of our forces could have stood against that sort of power.”

“Still, to think she was able to respond to the assault so quickly and defeat all four Youma… Something isn’t adding up,” said Jadeite.

The leaders sat in silence for a few moments before Tanzan spoke. “That settles it. We wait until Alexandri recovers before moving again. We need all the intel we can get.”

“And when will that be?” Morgan sneered.

Tanzan adopted a menacing stare before saying, “Any day now.”

“You’ve been saying that for a while,” said Morgan, no doubt happy for the opportunity to point out one of the other leaders’ failings. “Aren’t your people supposed to have healing powers? Isn’t that part of your minimal contribution to this alliance?”

Continuing to stare daggers at the red-haired woman, Tanzan explained, “My best people are working on him. I’m told his wounds have all but healed—"

“Thanks, in part to our bio-technology,” interrupted the Raptilian commander.

“—they just need to expel the harmful radiation from his system now, and that takes time.”

“Energy!” Desperre croaked, apparently triggered by Tanzan’s mention of the word.

“The Youma should resume their covert collection efforts on a smaller scale,” hissed Vardas.

“Oh, should they now?” said Morgan with a note of mock surprise. “In case you haven’t been listening, I just lost four of my warriors! It will take me days to replace them!”

“You better get started, then,” said Tanzan with a self-satisfied grin.

Morgan got to her feet and stormed from the room in silence. Jadeite gave a polite bow to the other leaders and followed after her. “Shall I coordinate the remaining Youma, Mistress?” he asked as they returned to their section of the castle.

“For now,” she responded to Jadeite’s surprise. “We’ll maintain appearances and collect enough energy to keep those alien freaks happy, but I think I’ve had just about enough of this alliance. We’re getting that crystal!”