Shelton looked around a bit before pulling out his tricorder and scanning. None of the targets seemed to live near each other, so he was a little frustrated that they were dispatched with only himself and Lieutenant Parker.
Not that the third person would have helped totally, considering there were four people they were supposed to be watching. It certainly would be easier to watch four people with three than with two.
Shelton checked out the scans, then set himself up on the rooftop of an apartment complex that sat near one of the addresses he was given. Parker was sent to a small temple and was posted up in the woods nearby.
“Commander,” Parker called out over the comms.
“Yo?” Shelton replied quietly, looking through his binoculars.
“They all seem to be at my target’s location,” Parker reported.
“You have a visual?”
“Yeah,” Parker replied. “It’s insane, man. They look exactly like them.” Parker paused for a few moments. “Maybe a little bit younger, but otherwise, mirror images.”
“Well, I know you’ve had a thing for Commander Hino,” Shelton mused. “Now’s your chance.”
Parker growled. “You realize they record this shit, right?”
Shelton laughed. “I’m heading to your location, let me know if they leave.”
“Aye,” Parker replied.
The aft turbolift on the bridge opened and Kio quickly walked out. She looked around a bit and noticed Ranma and Shampoo speaking with Makoto. Kio moved over to the tactical station and tapped on Ranma’s shoulder.
“Lieutenant,” he smiled. “Good morning.”
Kio nodded to Ranma. The pigtailed Captain lost his smile upon seeing the look on Kio’s face.
“I need to speak with you, privately,” Kio requested.
Ranma nodded and took Kio over towards his ready room. Kio stopped them outside the doors however and simply had Ranma lean over a bit to where she could whisper into his ear.
All the color in Ranma’s face faded as she softly spoke into his ear. Once she was done, Ranma turned to her, a stunned look on his face. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know,” Kio whispered. “I have to go on the away team, but I thought you should be told in person.”
Ranma nodded. “Thank you,” he said, placing his hand on Kio’s shoulder and guiding her towards the fore turbolift.
“Shampoo, you have the bridge,” he called out as the pair stepped in.
“Is everything okay?” Shampoo asked.
“No,” Ranma said as the doors slid closed.
An obviously distraught Ranma walked into Sickbay and moved quickly to Akane.
“How is she?” he asked.
Akane shook her head. “I think if they had found her even five minutes later, she’d have been dead.”
“Will she survive?”
A real doctor turned and bit his lip. “Maybe.”
“I don’t like ‘maybe’,” Ranma groaned.
“She’s lost so much blood, I can’t be certain of anything at this point, sir,” he said. “If we can get her stabilized, she should be okay, but…”
Ranma sighed. “I want to be kept in the loop. I don’t care how small of an update.”
Both Akane and the doctor nodded. The doctor went back to working on Jitsia. Akane sighed and looked at her PADD. “I don’t understand why, with everything they have access to, why you’d try to kill yourself by cutting yourself open with a knife.”
“She wasn’t trying to kill herself,” Rei, who was sitting on a biobed nearby, dryly stated.
Ranma moved closer to Rei. “What do you know?”
Rei sighed. “She was trying to cut out her symbiont.”
Ranma cocked his head. “Why would she try to do that?”
Rei bit her lip.
“Commander.”
Again, Rei stonewalled for a moment, before turning to Ranma and looking at him softly. “Captain, she trusts me.”
“I only want to help her,” Ranma replied.
Rei slowly nodded and pulled Ranma into Akane’s office and shut the door.
“Gras, the symbiont, is seemingly ‘stronger’ than they usually are and has been exerting more influence over her than normal,” Rei explained.
“Including forcing her to have feelings for one of the NEO officers she recruited.”
Ranma took this in for a moment.
“But what would cause her to go to such an extreme step?”
Rei shook her head. “I don’t know.”
A knock on the door is heard. Ranma and Rei turned to see Akane. Ranma opened the door for his wife and motioned for her to come in.
“Ranma... There’s... something we found...”
“Oh?” Ranma asked.
Akane silently looked to Rei.
“If it’s about Commander Gras,” Ranma said, seeing Akane’s concern, “Commander Hino has Commander Gras’ trust, I assure you.”
“Okayyyyy,” Akane said, not sure but trusting her husband. Rei, unsure whether to be offended or pleased that Akane cared that much about Jitsia’s privacy, listened attentively.
“Well two things, first off, the symbiont was cut, but should be okay-”
“Remove it,” Ranma ordered.
“What?” Akane asked.
“Remove it,” Ranma repeated.
“Shouldn’t we talk to Commander-”
Ranma simply gave Akane a look, one of his very serious and stern faces that Akane rarely ever got from Ranma. The drop-dead sternness of his gaze and the authority in the tone of his voice was usually something he reserved for the people off-ship he dealt with.
Akane decided to assume that Ranma knew something she didn’t and that she would not question her husband. After all, he would not order her to do something that wasn’t ethical or something he didn’t believe was right. That was something she knew.
“Okay,” she said.
Rei smiled slightly. Not for long though.
“The other thing is that our medical exams found semen in Commander Gras. Perhaps whoever she was with could shed some light on-”
“She was raped,” Rei growled.
Both Ranma and Akane turned to Rei.
“How do you know?” Ranma asked.
Rei again stonewalled for a moment but realized that if the rapist was going to be punished, some secrets would have to be let go.
“Jitsia would never consent to have sex with a man,” Rei sighed before lowering her voice. “She’s gay.”
Akane nodded and started to walk out. “I’ll have them run a DNA check and a rape kit on her.”
Ranma grabbed Akane. “Do it yourself, please.”
Akane nodded. “Sure.”
“Thank you,” Rei said.
Akane softly smiled at Rei before turning and heading back to Jitsia. Ranma turned to Rei, shaking his head slightly.
“You know who it is, don’t you?”
Rei nodded before tears started to well up. “I was going to get rid of him. I found at least three things in his record that would have disqualified him from Black One clearance, but with us here,” Rei dropped to the ground and slammed herself against a wall, “what fucking good would it have done? It’s not like he could have left the ship?”
Ranma moved next to Rei and slid down next to her.
“What’s worse,” Rei continued, “is that now I feel like once again I have failed to protect...” she trailed off before wiping some tears out of her eyes. She looked to Ranma.
“Someone I love.”
Ranma took Rei’s hand and squeezed it. "I nearly destroyed half of Vulcan, blew up this ship, and got court-martialed trying to protect someone I love,” Ranma said, looking out towards sickbay. “It’s not an easy task. You can just do what you can do, and if things go wrong, you work to seek set right what’s been wronged.”
Rei nodded. Ranma sighed. “It’s my fault too.”
Rei looked to Ranma who was shaking his head. “Sir?”
“Looking back, just on his behavior in the transporter room, and the way Commander Gras acted around him, I should have seen there was an issue,” Ranma sighed.
Rei sniffled a bit and nodded. “Seems we both let our shipmate down,” Rei softly said as Akane walked back in. She moved to where Ranma and Rei were and went to her knees in front of them.
“Well...” she softly spoke, “While it seems to be no indication that Commander Gras actively resisted the assault, the test does indicate that it was not entirely consensual.”
Ranma looked to Rei, who was glowing red with anger. “You said the symbiont was controlling her. Did you mean that literally?”
Rei simply stared at the door towards sickbay. “If she did not fight that monster off, then... yes.”
Akane looked at Rei a little shocked before continuing, although she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
“There were...” Akane cleared her throat, “...multiple ejac-”
“Akane,” Ranma interrupted.
“Yes, well, we injected Commander Gras with 1.5mg of progestin levonorgestrel to ensure she would not be impregnated,” Akane explained, scanning over the report more. “DNA is 99.999 percent likely match to-”
“Lt. Commander Siohxx Ishran,” Rei stated, standing.
Akane nodded.
Rei began to move towards the doors. Ranma quickly stood.
“COMMANDER!” he barked. Rei stopped. She considered going anyway but realized that would accomplish little but satisfying her own personal need for revenge. As well, she knew Jitsia would be quite angry at her if she destroyed her career when there was no point.
He’s got nowhere to go. Even if he hid, security would find him eventually.
Rei sighed and turned to Ranma. “I’m just going to go sit with her, sir.”
Ranma nodded. Rei walked into sickbay and resumed her spot on the biobed next to Jitsia’s. Ranma hugged Akane, which surprised her.
“What was that for?” she asked.
Ranma shrugged. “For being a good person,” he told her.
Akane smiled.
Ranma slapped his comm badge. “Saotome to Kino.”
“Yes sir?”
“Arrest Lt. Commander Siohxx Ishran and place him in the brig.”
“Yes sir,” Makoto replied.
Ranma walked back out into sick bay and moved next to Rei. He looked to Jitsia for a moment before turning to Rei.
“I want you to be able to spend time with her,” Ranma said, placing his hand on Rei’s shoulder, “But-”
Rei nodded. “I understand, sir,” Rei nodded. “I will not allow my personal feelings get in the way of the mission.”
“I totally trust you, Commander,” Ranma smiled. “I have no doubt that you can be both a loving friend and a professional at the same time.”
Rei smiled at Ranma. “I appreciate all the faith you’ve placed in me.”
“You’ve earned it,” Ranma nodded as he patted Rei on the back. Ranma paused and looked towards the biobed where Jitsia was being worked on before shaking his head and heading with Akane towards the sick bay doors.
“Yuki to Shelton,” Kio called as she stepped onto the transporter pad.
“What’s going on?” Anthony asked as he and Kagurazaka stepped onto the pad as well. “I thought we weren’t going down till later.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Kio grumbled.
“Go ahead, Lieutenant,” Shelton replied.
“Three of us are coming down to the planet,” she reported. “Do you want us to come to your location?”
“If one of you could, that would be good,” Shelton said. “You other guys can check out the neighborhood where they live. See if any Kunos are wandering around.”
“Aye,” Kio replied. She turned to Kagurazaka and grinned. “You ready to play with Alpha team, Ian?”
Kagurazaka nodded.
Kio instructed the transporter operator on where to send them. On the planet, Kio and Anthony materialized in an alleyway. Kio grumbled at the rain that was falling.
“They didn’t say anything about rain,” Anthony scowled.
“Don't be such a little baby,” Kio taunted as she pulled out her tricorder. “I see two ‘Kuno’ bio signs about twenty meters from us.”
Anthony placed one of his hands behind his back and under his leather jacket that concealed his handgun. Kio crept forward with Anthony right behind her. Across the street from the alley, they saw an electronics store with the front window smashed out.
Kio checked out her tricorder again and pointed towards the store.
“The bio signs are in there.”
Anthony started to move, but Kio stopped him and pushed him back behind some garbage cans as a police car came screaming up the street with its lights and sirens blaring. It screeched to a halt in front of the store and two policemen got out.
From the broken window, two young men, carrying baskets full of electronic parts climbed out. They tried to ignore the policemen, but one of them sprayed one of the men with mace.
They both dropped their baskets and turned to the policemen. They quickly advanced on them and allowed their assimilation tongs to shoot out of their hands and inject the policemen, causing them to become assimilated.
“They just assimilated those cops!” Anthony gasped.
Kio nodded and pulled out her gun. She flipped it to phaser mode.
“Will phasers work on them?” Anthony asked.
Kio shrugged. “We need to at least try non-lethal against innocent Kuno victims first.”
Anthony nodded and switched his hybrid phaser as well. The pair quickly and quietly moved across the street as the police officers helped gather more electronics.
The two young men picked up their baskets and started to walk off.
A shot from both Kio’s and Anthony’s guns hit each of them, knocking them over and to the street. The baskets tipped over and spilled out. Neither of the young men got back up.
Kio and Anthony quickly ran over to them. Kio pulled two hyposprays out of her cargo pants pocket and injected the men with it.
“Hopefully this will reverse the assimilation process,” she sighed.
“Where’d those cops go?” Anthony asked.
Kio turned towards the store as the cops came back out. They saw the pair, then saw their comrades on the ground. They set their baskets of electronics on the hood of their squad car and went after Kio and Anthony.
Kio fired at one of the policemen, however, he dodged the shot and drew his own weapon. He fired at Kio, missing her by a few centimeters.
“Be careful Tony,” Kio called out. “They have projectile guns.”
Anthony nodded as he fought off one of the policemen with a roundhouse kick to the head. The policeman fell to the ground where Anthony shot him in the back, stunning him. He quickly injected him with the anti-assimilation hypo, then went to assist Kio, who was trying to stay out of the line of fire of the first policeman.
Kio ended up tripping in what was a pothole obscured by a puddle and fell to the ground. The policeman drew his weapon and grinned.
“In the name of the law, I shall smite thee!” he declared.
Anthony dove across the police car to tackle the policeman but missed by a meter or so. However, his melodramatic attempt at a rescue was enough of a distraction for Kio to sweep the policeman off his feet, then fire a shot and stun him.
She then injected him with the serum before she walked off the pain in her ankle from tripping.
“You okay?” Anthony asked.
Kio nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Just concerned,” Anthony smiled as he walked back over to Kio who was scanning all the electronic parts scattered around. “You were limping a bit.”
“No,” she smiled, grabbing Anthony, and hugging him. “Thanks for... well trying... to save me.”
Anthony nodded. “I’d be lonely without you.”
Kio smiled happily as she looked at her tricorder. “Me too.”
Sirens began to fill the air as the pair ran off into the darkness.
“I really wish we had a television,” Tatewaki grumbled.
George finished brushing his teeth then turned to his brother. “I really wish we had a lot of things.”
“Where are those children you sent to fetch us one?” Kodachi asked Tatewaki.
“I do not know,” Tatewaki replied. “I am not their mother, you are.”
“ME?!” Kodachi bellowed. “Why do I have to be the mother?”
“Do you see any other women here?” Tatewaki asked.
Kodachi began to point to a couple of the assimilated citizens walking around who happened to be female.
“Our drones cannot be parents,” Tatewaki scowled.
“Maybe when we capture her,” Kodachi smirked, “that Shampoo girl can be the mother?”
George growled. “Shampoo will be a mother, but only to OUR children.”
Kodachi and Tatewaki laughed. George pushed past them. “Maybe the pig-tailed girl could be the mother. Her idiotically oversized breasts are big enough to feed everyone.”
“Those are mine!” Tatewaki snapped.
“Where are they, anyway?” George asked, moving back to his siblings. “Why haven’t you brought them back here yet?”
Both Tatewaki and Kodachi looked at each other. “We haven’t located them yet.”
“Have you tried going to their homes?” George asked.
The elder Kuno siblings hemmed and hawed for a moment before George facepalmed.
“You forgot where they lived, didn’t you?”
Kodachi nodded sheepishly. “It’s been quite a while, George.”
George nodded and was about to relay the information to his kin when suddenly he felt it. The loss of four assimilated people from the collective.
“Cripes,” he mumbled.
“What?” Tatewaki asked.
“Starfleet has people on the planet,” George sighed.
“Will they find us?” Kodachi asked.
George shook his head. “No, but this may cause us an issue tomorrow.”
Jitsia opened her eyes for the first time in, what seemed to Rei, days. It had only been about five hours. She’d made an amazing recovery, considering everything she’d been through, and while she wouldn’t be going on any NEO actions any time soon, she might be able to leave sickbay in a couple of days or so.
Rei had to do everything she could not to glom onto Jitsia or start bawling like a small child when the blonde woman began looking around.
“Sia...” Rei smiled.
“Hey,” she weakly replied.
Jitsia was noticing something different about herself. Something different, but familiar.
Her hands moved towards her stomach.
“It’s...” Jitsia mumbled.
Rei felt tears coming to her eyes, despite her best efforts to stop them. “Yeah, we had them take it out, so you wouldn’t try and cut yourself open again.”
Jitsia bit her lip a bit.
“Was that wrong?” Rei asked.
Jitsia shook her head slowly. “No.”
“But?”
Jitsia sighed. “I guess it’s like a part of me is missing... even if it was a horrible part.”
Rei eyed Jitsia for a moment.
“Is it okay?” she asked.
Rei nodded. “It’s in stasis till we get back and can be sent to Trill.”
Jitsia nodded and stared at the lights for a little bit.
Rei scowled as she quietly continued their conversation. “Lt. Commander Ishran has been thrown in the brig.”
Jitsia turned to Rei. “So, you know what happened, then?”
Rei nodded. “I’m sorry I failed to protect you.”
Jitsia weakly laughed. “That’s not your job.”
“Why not?” Rei asked.
Jitsia took Rei’s hand. “‘Cause I’m better than you. It’s my job to protect you.”
Rei laughed and shook her head.
There was a bit of silence for a minute before Rei finally spoke again.
“I love you,” she bluntly stated.
Jitsia blinked a couple of times before turning to Rei.
“It’s okay if you’re not there yet,” Rei smiled. “But just so you know.”
Jitsia looked to Rei for a moment and nearly said something herself before being interrupted by the doors to sickbay opening and Ranma walking in. He smiled at Rei and then at Jitsia.
“Commander Gras, I am glad to see you’re awake.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Jitsia smiled, letting go of Rei’s hand and shaking Ranma’s. “And I guess now it’s Commander Carliz since Gras is safely locked up in a refrigerator.”
Ranma nodded. “I like the sound of Commander Carliz much better anyway.”
Jitsia smiled at Ranma.
“Sickbay has you on medical leave for 14 days, but if you want more, just let me know, okay?” Ranma smiled.
“Thank you,” Jitsia nodded.
Ranma looked around, making sure none of the doctors were nearby before continuing. “I know this isn’t the time or place, but when you feel around to it, we need a statement from you on what happened between you and Commander Ishran.”
Jitsia’s smiled faded.
“I respect your privacy, Commander,” Ranma continued, “which is why only the three of us and your doctors know what’s happened. So, when you’re ready, I’d like you to speak to me.”
Jitsia nodded. “Yes sir.”
“I can-” Rei began.
Ranma’s shaking head cut her off. Rei wouldn’t admit it, but she was relieved that Ranma wouldn’t allow her to take Jitsia’s statement. She was already hurting because of what happened to her. The last thing she needed was to hear was Jitsia tell her every horrid detail of the encounter.
Ranma patted Jitsia on the shoulder and smiled at her. “I’m happy you’re getting better.”
“I’m just sad I can’t help with the mission,” Jitsia sighed.
“Well, when we go back, according to DTI it will be almost the same time we left, so there will be plenty of more missions.”
Jitsia smiled and nodded as Ranma turned and walked off.
Rei leaned over and kissed Jitsia on the forehead before whispering in her ear. “I have an away team to go on. But I promise I will be back as soon as I can.”
Jitsia nodded, ran her hand across Rei’s face, and smiled.
“Be careful.”
Rei nodded and smiled back at Jitsia before slowly leaving sickbay.
Parker was snoozing away with his head resting on a rock as Shelton watched the temple from the makeshift trench they had created. The sound of the transporters woke Parker from his slumber however and he sat up quickly and looked around as Minako, Makoto, Usagi, and Rei beamed down next to him.
“Commanders,” he whispered.
The group, all dressed casually, ducked down, and hid in the bushes. Rei turned to Shelton, “Where’s Kagurazaka?”
“Um, the one who looks like Commander Aino went for a jog,” Shelton reported. Shelton turned to Rei. “He followed her.”
“So, they all spent the night here?” Makoto asked.
Rei looked at the temple in awe. “It looks just like my grandfather’s temple.”
Shelton nodded. “Yeah,” he said, showing the group a tricorder. “They’ve been here since we beamed down.”
Parker nodded as well, looking occasionally to Usagi. “They were talking over a bonfire about what their plan was to get ‘Usagi’ back today.”
Shelton sighed. “And just when I thought seeing duplicates of you guys was the weirdest thing ever, they had two cats that could speak as well.”
Makoto laughed a bit. “I’ll have to take you to meet the directors of Section 31 someday.”
“Huh?” Shelton asked, staring at Makoto with a blank expression on his face.
“Well,” Minako started, “if my duplicate is alone, she might be the best one to approach first.”
Rei nodded. “Agreed. If we can convince her of our intentions, the rest should be easier to convince.”
Rei tapped her concealed communicator. “Hino to Kagurazaka. Where are you?”
“About a half kilometer east of the temple and headed back that way,” Kagurazaka replied.
“Let’s go,” Rei said. She looked to Parker and Shelton. “Stay here and keep an eye on things.”
Both men nodded as the four girls ran off.
Minako-2 continued to jog down the trail. She enjoyed staying at Rei’s since she had these trails. The scenery was beautiful, especially at sunrise. She could kill two birds with one stone; enjoy nature and keep in shape at the same time.
Her mind wasn’t really on the jog, however. It was on Usagi-2. They weren’t sure what they were going to do. The people who kidnapped Sailor Moon had the Silver Crystal, so even if they were going to trade the crystal for Sailor Moon, they couldn’t. So, the only option was going to be to defeat them.
However as proven in their last battle, these new enemies didn’t seem to be affected by their attacks at all.
Hopefully, they could figure something out, combine their powers together or something to rescue her and regain control of the crystal and destroy both the Negaverse and these new creatures.
Minako-2 slowed from her jog to a walk as she heard footsteps in front of her. All of this was Rei’s grandfather’s property, so there shouldn’t be anyone else running on it.
“Oh, hey Rei,” Minako-2 said as she noticed Rei walking up the path. Rei smiled at her. The Rei she saw though seemed different from her Rei. This Rei was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of black cargo pants, rather than her temple clothes.
“Hello, Minako,” Rei said. “I can already tell you realize I am not who I appear to be,” she said.
Minako-2 went to the pocket of her gym shorts and quickly pulled out her transformation pen. Makoto leaped out from behind Minako-2 and grabbed her arm with one hand and covered her mouth with the other.
Minako-2’s eyes went wide. This Makoto was different as well. Dressed like Rei, and seemingly stronger than her Makoto would be. They must be Negaverse youma in disguise. They are likely here to steal her body as well.
“Please, calm down for a moment and let us explain,” Minako said, walking up.
Minako-2 nearly fainted at the sight of herself.
“MEROWWWWWWWWWWWWW!” a growling hiss is heard, and a white streak is all that is seen as Artemis leaps onto Makoto’s head and begins to claw and bite at her.
“Please stop that!” Minako calls out.
Artemis looks wide-eyed at the duplicate Minako as Makoto, despite the pain, maintains control of Minako-2.
“What is going on here?” Artemis demands to know.
“We’ll explain, but first don’t attack us and don’t transform,” Rei demands. She pulls up her shirt slightly to show she has no weapons. “We’re unarmed and we won’t hurt you.”
Artemis, despite his better judgment, nods in agreement and hops off Makoto. Minako-2 also nods. Makoto releases her and allows her to put the transformation pen back in her pocket.
“Is everything okay, Commander?” Kagurazaka asked over comms.
“Yes,” Rei replied. “Go join Commander Shelton.”
“Aye,” he replied.
Artemis looked around to try and see where the voice was coming from. Minako-2 looked her duplicate over a few times, pausing and smiling coyly as she glanced at her wedding ring, before turning back to Rei.
“Well?”
“You remember the battle you had where Sailor Moon was captured?” Rei asked.
“Obviously,” Minako-2 scoffed.
“Well, the people you fought, they are from another universe. One that is nearly duplicate to yours, except about 500 years in the future.”
Minako continued. “They managed to open a portal between the universes and come here. We work for an organization known as Starfleet. Our job is to stop people like them, so we followed them here.”
“So, you go from dimension to dimension fighting bad guys?” Artemis asks.
Rei shook her head. “No. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this happening. I can’t really explain too much about our universe, as that would violate our rules, but we’re basically a peacekeeping force for our government. We normally don’t get involved in other people’s problems, but when it’s due to outside interference like this, we had no choice.”
Minako-2 sighed. “Well, you need to do a better job. Those ‘people’ kidnapped Usagi.”
Rei nodded. “Yeah, but now we have her, and their spaceship is destroyed.”
Artemis and Minako-2 both looked to Rei, shocked. “You can defeat them?” Minako-2 finally asked. “Our attacks were useless against them.”
Minako sighed. “The Kunos, that’s their names, have the ability to adapt to energy attacks. Your attacks are nothing more than a meta-energy attack. It may be more powerful and hit differently than our energy weapons, but it’s just energy all the same.”
Rei nodded. “We have a special operations team that uses... well, bullets.”
“How do you know so much about our attacks?” Minako-2 asked.
“We’re you,” Usagi said, stepping out of the bushes from where she was obviously waiting to make the most dramatic entrance she could. “We did exactly what you’re doing now. I was Sailor Moon, she was Sailor Mars, she was Sailor Jupiter, she was Sailor Venus, Ami was Sailor Mercury...” Usagi trailed off a bit, bit her lip, then continued. “Quite frankly I hated it, and I don’t really want anything to do with this mission now.”
Makoto, Minako, and Rei looked to Usagi, with a comforting expression, as she continued. They were starting to understand why she was so freaked out earlier.
“The whole ordeal was terrible, and it caused me a lot of pain, both during it and when it was over,” Usagi’s eyes moved to Rei slowly, then back to Minako-2. “But I don’t want anything bad happening to you guys, so I am willing to deal with it again to try and help you.”
Artemis walked up to Usagi and placed a paw on her boot. “That’s very honorable of you.”
Usagi squatted down and scratched Artemis behind his ears. Artemis began to purr, which made Usagi smile.
“Our Artemis loves this too,” she grinned.
Minako-2 smiled. “Okay, so you guys are duplicates of us.”
“I think you guys are duplicates of us,” Makoto stated.
“It doesn’t fucking matter,” Rei snapped, drawing a shocked look from Minako-2. “Sorry,” Rei blushed. “If you worked on a spaceship, you’d swear too.”
“I don’t swear,” Minako gloated.
“Should I tell her what you do with Ryouga?” Rei growled.
“WE’RE MARRIED!” Minako snapped. “It’s allowed!”
“Uh,” Makoto pointed towards Usagi and Artemis who were several meters away, walking towards the temple, “we should probably catch up with them before she freaks them out.”
The group nods and takes off running after Usagi and her kitty partner.