Chapter Twenty:
Love is a Battlefield

by Emiko, Greg, Rach, and Tami

Sophie glared. She wasn't glaring at anyone or anything in particular, she was just glaring. She had perfect reason to. Jace had called sometime during the night (two? three in the morning?) and said they should meet before school to discuss something of grave important. The legless senshi hadn't said what. So Sophie was standing on the corner watching buses and people pass by, waiting for Jace to show up.

The person who greeted her, though, was not Jace, but someone Sophie could have done without seeing that particular morning.

A very unhappy Leta staggered towards Sophie, looking as if she needed several more hours of beauty sleep. Her hair was more untidy than usual, her accessories didn't match perfectly and she wore an extremely bitter expression. "Mornin'," she yawned at Sophie, shaking her head to keep herself awake.

"I wonder why Jace called this meeting, don't you, girls? Hmm. Odd. Very odd. How in the world does she have your number, Leta? It's early, isn't it? Have to love that fresh, morning air. What time is it exactly?" babbled Percy cheerfully, as he landed on Leta's messy nest of hair and settled his head into his puffy, bright feathers. Leta was too tired to even bother to sweep the nuisance out of her hair and just stared at Sophie groggily.

Nonplussed, Sophie answered, "It's ten after eight, birdbrain. Where the eff is Jace?"

Leta yawned and stretched, pulling out a mirror to reapply her lip gloss. "I dunno," she drawled, and puckered her lips to wipe on the pinkish goo.

"I do!" whistled Percy cheerfully, shifting his perch in Leta's hair. "She's coming," hummed the parrot, clacking it's beak noisily as if in an effort to attract more attention to the odd group.

Jace indeed emerged out of the morning gloom and skidded to a halt in front of them about three secondslater. She did not look in any way injured, although this had apparently been an emergency call; in fact,she looked rather content, though there were black rings of tiredness under her eyes.

"Well, at least you -came-," she grunted by way of good morning, leaning back in her wheelchair. "The way Leta whined, I thought I was gonna come to thin air."

Her smile dropped slightly as she moved closer, crimson eyebrows drawn in an expression of seriousness as her voice quietened. "...Fleming's a target."

"A target?" Sophie repeated.

"Dark U. They're going to attack today, though God knows why they fucking focus on the schools." She leant her head on her hand. "Phoned you guys to warn you - and to see if we're going to fight. We're going to kick their asses, right?"

Leta's face had drained to a ghostly pale as she stammered for words. "T-the DU? Like, that's, like, bad and stuff, right?" the blonde breathed, and looked desperatley at Percy for guidance.

The normally chipper bird had stiffened slightly on Leta's shoulder and dug his claws in more tightly, as if to keep himself from falling over as he submerged his brain into thought.

"Yes, Leta," he replied gravely, letting out a mellow squawk, "very, very bad. Do you have any other information, Jace? Who actually gave you this information in the first place?" he grumbled, and cast a shifty gaze about. "And are you guys actually up to this fight?"

"'Course we're fucking up to it," Jace grumbled. "We're invincible. Right, oh Gracious Leader?"

Sophie smirked, looking very happy. "Hell, yes. I can't wait to beat that demented smurf reject into the ground."

Just then the first bell rang, forcing the group to proceed to their first class of the day: Latin. For Sophie and Leta, that meant another day listening to Mr. Campbell screech at the class and threaten to quit if they misbehaved one more time. For Jace, it meant something completely different. Tibby.

As they hurried through the math building, Jace had little time to think about what potentially be a very awkward situation. By the time it did occur to her, it was too late, as she was already in the door of classroom.

"Good morning, Jace," said a distinctly British voice colored with a tinge of uncertainty.

Jace looked up. Tibby (and the rest of the class) were treated to the sight of the girl's cheeks going much the same colour as her hair.

"Hi," she managed, her mouth quirking in a half-smile. She felt incredibly shy, for some inane reason; however, it would -not- do to start giggling girlishly in the middle of Latin class. This was not going to be a comfortable period. Her smile ended, though, when a realization managed to force it's way through. "Theo - I didn't know you were coming in today."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Campbell needed my help to go over third conjugation... New material for this class." He pushed his glasses up on his nose, clearly trying to make some sort of small talk and failing miserably at it.

Jace snorted. "Oh, God, don't make me depressed. All I want to do is sleep through this damn class." She had actually been planning to do that in the first place; however, all the nervous butterflies in her stomach wanted to make her do was throw up. This was insane.

The redhead winked at him and carefully reached out a hand to push a stray lock of hair in his face behind one ear, fingers almost shaking as she touched him. "Go home after this," she asked him, voice suddenly serious. "Promise, Teaboy?"

"Home?" he repeated in confusion just as the second bell rang. "What are you talking about?"

"Take your seats, students!" yelled Mr. Campbell.

Jace rolled her eyes at the teacher's voice and moved past his desk slowly. "Go back to ISAS," she murmured urgently. "Don't hang around here. Cut it if you need to. Just go!"

His stare was still blank, but he nodded. He would do as she had said.

The next part of class proceeded as usual. Mr. Campbell shouted and tried to drill the third conjugation into his students' heads with minimal success. Tibby was always close behind, ready to help those students whose minds left them scrambling to figure out the assignment. Jace, unfortunately, did not fall under this category, her own Latin skills well-honed by the Brit's tutalege, so Tibby spent most of his time on students other than Jace. In fact, he didn't speak to her again for the whole first half of the period.

Just when it seemed things couldn't get any more boring, Leta's backpack began to squawk.

Leta sat up awkwardly in her chair, large eyes moving to her pink backpack. The whole class turned to stare at her as she laughed nervously and gave her backpack a discreet shove with her foot. The squawking continued however, getting louder by each shrill cry. Leta bent down quickly, grabbed her bag and gave it a tight squeeze. The squawking quieted down after that. "Ummm, like... cell phone?" squeaked the blonde, and opened the backpack hastily. "What?" she hissed, as the ruffled bird blinked back up at her.

"Perdix," muttered the bird as quietly as possible, preening to fix his colorful plumage. "Perdix is -here-."

Leta closed the bag fast and chewed her lip, trying to decide what to do. She raised her hand and instantly began speaking. "Umm, Mr. Campbell? I gotta, like, take this call and all. Can I go to the bathroom? Thanks!" she blurted and then leaned over to murmur to Jace, "Follow me and stuff, okay? It's, like, really important.". With that said, she cast a meaningful glance at Sophie in case Jace didn't say anything to her and sauntered out of the room,silent backpack in tow.

Jace's nerves immediately collided together into a knot at her stomach. Damn, damn, damn. Why was Perdix attacking so early in the morning? Were the DU all punctuality freaks or something?

She looked behind her. Campbell the Neo-Nazi was attending to some poor dunce at the back who had probably slept through all the other classes and thought that Latin was actually a music type, and what's more, hadn't noticed Leta's absence much either. With a pointed look at Sophie to come with her, she rolled forward to the front of the class and into the door Leta had left open.

Sophie stood and began to move to the door. Unlike Leta and Jace, however, her movement attracted the attention of Mr. Campbell, who had watched Sophie like a hawk ever since that first day at school.

"Sit down, Miss Dunn," the aging teacher grated out. Sophie did anything but.

"Going to the bathroom." She coolly strode out of the room to follow her compatriots.

Mr. Campbell could only shake his head. "That girl," he muttered, gazing at the ceiling. "Heaven only know what goes through her head." Glancing back earthward, the Latin teacher suddenly realized that he was missing more than one student. "Where are Miss Kellen and Miss Forma!?"

Tibby finally looked up from where he had been holding a low conversation with the hapless Fleming student he was trying to assist. "Sir?"

"I don't believe this, those girls have gone and left class again! I swear, I ought to leave this school. I'm retired, you know, I don't have to put up with this! I could leave today and not come back tomorrow, and then Fleming wouldn't have any Latin program! The teacher at North Cross is too old to put up with this, so I'm all the school has, and this is how I'm treated! I don't have to put up with it..."

Remembering what Jace had said to him earlier, Tibby felt a pit open up in his stomach. "I'll go find them, Mr. Campbell."

"Oh, Theodore, you shouldn't have to put up with this either!"

"Don't worry, it's no problem, sir. I'll be right back." Tibby quickly made his way out the door before Mr. Campbell could try to object.

The hallway was strangely deserted. Tibby wasn't certain what he was doing, but he thought he could hear girls voices to the right, so he headed in that direction.

The layout of the school was such that each subject area had its own building with a large central hallway and classrooms on either side. Halfway down each hall was a small side hallway that ended in a set of doors leading outside. These doors facilitated movement between buildings and served as emergency exits in the case of fire for the classrooms in the middle of the building. Tibby was heading toward one such side hallway now. As he did, a set of wheels came into view. The back of Jace's wheelchair. Tibby hung back to try and hear what the girls were saying.

"Hephaestos Deus Power, Make Up!"

Tibby's eyes widened as what he could see of Jace's wheelchair was engulfed by an odd light. A tingling sensation swept up his arms and neck. Jace-- No, it couldn't be--

But it was. Tibby flattened himself into the alcove of a classroom door. His heart seemed to be beating at the speed of light and whatever words were exchanged in the side hallway after that moment were drowned out by the loud thumping in his ears. The only sound he did hear was that of the side doors opening and closing.

Instantly Tibby set off running down the hall towards Mr. Wilson's room. He knew Ravi had math in there this period. His hands fumbled with the slippery silver handle but he forced it open.

"Yes?" Mr. Wilson prompted, his mustache bristling.

"Mr. Wilson, sir, might I borrow Ravi for a moment?" Tibby gasped.

"Certainly."

From the sound of Tibby's voice, Ravi guessed that this was a matter of some urgency and quickly walked past the rows of desks and out the door. He fixed Tibby with a calm gaze, awaiting some indication as to what was going on.

Tibby cast a glance around just to make sure there was nobody else within hearing range. "Senshi," he hissed at Ravi, "there are other senshi here. Not Astronomia, though-- Graikos. We'd better transform."

Though Ravi had little experience with the other senshi groups, the enemy was the enemy. He gave a slight bow and said, "Sarin Astra Power, Armor Up!" Moments later Sarin Knight was standing there, weapon at the ready.

"Horologium Constellation Power, Suit Up!" Golden light spilled over the area in the form of giant pendulums. Slipping his pocketwatch into his vest, Horologium Kamen said, "Come on, let's go."

The two Astronomia made their way to the far end of the building and walked out into the large open field known as the Quad. There stood three Graikos, already well engaged in a shouting match with a man and a bird standing on the roof of the library.

"You dumb bird, get your stupid little fat feathered ass down here right now!" one of the Graikos was yelling.

"No, I don't take orders from you, Sailor Metis!" the bird yelled back.

"Perdix!" hollered the redhead next to her. "Can we take this dumbshit battle AWAY from Fleming? If you kill us, you and your gay-as-Paris-in-spring companion can do whatever the hell you want with it! But only afterwards! It's not like there're any other senshi here anywa..."

The senshi trailed off as she looked down at her hands and shivered slightly. Then, with great care, she looked over her shoulder.

Her eyes fell upon Horologium.

And lit up as the sleeping rankling feeling that had always remained with her ever since she had first been thrown off a building awoke.

"Fuck the battle!" she immediately shrilled. "Perdix and his bitch can go to hell! That's that bastard who threw me off a building! He dies first!"

"Like, GUUUYYYYSSS!" shrieked Aphrodite, purple orbs wide. "Stop, people! Can we, like, just get this stupid thing away from the, like, school and stuff?" she pleaded, much to the disgust of the parrot on her shoulder.

With a crow of protest, the bird gestured a wing towards the newcomers. "Hephaestos! Forget them! Forget where the battle is held!" squwaked Percy, and then gestured his other wings to the first couple of enemies. "Attack them! And attack them now!" The senshi of love rubbed her large ear painfully and gave the
lovebird a sour look. "Stop, like, shouting!"

As if purposefully trying to annoy Aphrodite, Metis shouted, "Forget them, we need to take care of those fuckers on the roof! Perdix, you coward, take sissy boy and get down here!"

"I'll have you know I am a great and mighty senshi of the Dark Universe, not a coward!" the man on the roof shouted back.

"Coulda fooled me when you ran away downtown!" That silenced the irate alien momentarily.

Sarin surveyed the scene. "What do you want to do?" he asked Horologium, who merely gulped and seemed afraid to go anywhere near the hotheaded Hephaestos and her heavy metal legs.

The metal-legged senshi had broken away from the other two and Percy and left Perdix and the Dark Universe senshi on the roof, moving towards Horologium with her grey eyes alight in anger, bordering on practically joyous at finding her old nemesis again. She stopped a few feet in front of him, moving into a defense position.

"Haven't got any buildings with you now, have you, lubeboy? It's been a while and I've learnt a hell of a lot. I'm going to wipe you over the grounds, -then- take care of the DU." Hephaestos looked as if she hardly knew what was coming out of her mouth; it all burst out in a raging snarl. "Just you and me, now. Oh, and your faggy friend over there, but he looks like he wipes his ass with specially bought aloe vera tissue paper."

"I-- Please accept my apologies! I assure you there was no insult intended," Horologium blurted, looking very pale behind his mask.

"NO INSULT INTENDED?" she howled, grabbing his wrists in her hands. "You. Knocked. Me. Off. A. Building. Believe me. I've -never- forgotten it." Hephaestos' smile drew back in a grin devoid of anything but happy cruelty as her fingers tightened their grip. "I've already killed that girl on rollerskates who was there that day. Sextans. One down, three to go, I suppose?"

A sudden cry from Aphrodite made Hephaestos' hands loosen on Horologium's wrists, and she licked her lips nervously; there was something almost completely devoid of aggression in him, one that she'd experienced the last time they'd wrangled but now was in his eyes with something - more - ?

"Later," she hissed, "damn you," and turned back to the Graikos and the Dark Universe. There appeared to be a third figure emerging onto the roof.

All seemed to go silent, save for the quick crackling snap of energy, and then a gentle flapping of material. A new player stared into the eyes of the Dark Universe. "I am Seraphiel," he said, the mass of brown curls atop his head blowing softly in the wind. He pointed a sparkling white sword at his enemy, and sneered. "And I will strike down upon thee with GREAT vengeance and FURIOUS anger, those who attempt to POISON and DESTROY my brothers, and YOU WILL KNOW MY NAME WHEN I LAY MY VENGEANCE UPON
THEE!!!"

Aphrodite gaped at the newcomer. "Like, whoa. What did he just, like, say? What's with all the, like, thee stuff and all?" she squeaked, and tossed a blonde pigtail over her shoulder.

Hephaestos at her side sighed deeply. What with the Dark Universe, the Astronomia -retards-, and the sudden appearance of yet another player, this was turning into a farce. She ignored Aphrodite; most people usually did.

"Get into line," she howled at the Angelus curtly.

Seraphiel glanced down. "Silence, wench! I have no quarrel with the Graikos this day. Today my sword thirsts for the HIS blood." He stepped towards Demantoid.

"Can you hurry this up?" the redhead moaned to Metis. "I've got better people to do today. I mean, uh, things."

Metis cocked an eyebrow and aimed it in Jace's direction. The "you do people?" implication was clear.

Demantoid looked down at the senshi below, at the Angelus on the roof, and finally at Perdix. "You know," he finally said, "I'd just love to stay and talk with such obviously hostile folk, but we have to, uh, go. Look over there!" He pointed his finger down in the direction of the cafeteria.

Whether or not this was intended to be a trick would never be known, for standing roughly in the indicated direction was Ms. Driver, the large, unilaterally despised principal of William Fleming, waving her arm at the assembled senshi. Spittle flew from her mouth as she spewed out a torrent of incomprehensible syllables. She clearly suffered from the same contagious malady that had affected downtown Roanoke earlier.

"And with that, I think I'll exit," Demantoid grinned. "Or would you prefer to fight my new champion?"

Something-- or, more accurately, some/one/-- bounded forward and went hurtling through the air to land on the roof just in front of Demantoid and Perdix. Horologium Kamen let out a strangled cry.

"Sarin!?"

Sarin Knight, his gigantic knife held at the ready, glared at Seraphiel. His eyes were strangely lifeless in their anger, but his intentions were clear. Demantoid laughed shrilly. "Ah, sometimes I just love your chaotic little planet!"

"Sarin!" Horologium shouted again. "What have you done to him?"

"Consider it our going away present," answered Perdix in a smirking tone.

"You know, this started out a -good- day," Hephaestos sighed, then raised her voice; "Is that the -best- you can do, fuckers?" she bellowed before turning back to Metis quickly. "I want to take out the two Astronomia. Aphro and Sir Fagalot can go knock out Driver. You can do what you want, but I have a previous claim on -their- team."

The Archangelus looked to the General first, then met the gaze of the tranced Sarin Knight. "I want the Dark One this day, Astronomia. Yield or die," he declared flatly.

Sarin's lack of reply was answer enough. Silently, he raised his knife above his head and swung it down towards Seraphiel in a glimmering arc.

Seraphiel let a small growl of surprise, quickly throwing his crossed forearms in front of him. The sharp clang of metal against metal rang out, his gauntlets shielding the blow. Muscles tensed and swelled as the blade bore down against him. Sarin was out for blood, but weren't all of Astronomia, whether mind-controlled or not? He swung out his leg, in front of him, intent on throwing his enemy off-balance.

Sarin jumped in the air as Seraphiel's leg came around, twirling the flat of his blade and hitting Seraphiel in the back. Seraphiel, already off-balance from the kick, found himself flying sideways off the roof and into open air. He landed on the ground below with a -WHUMPF- that sounded painful but did little besides momentarily stun the Angelus. Sarin followed moments later, padding softly down.

"Sarin!" Horologium yelled once again, starting towards his teammate. "Answer me, Sarin!"

Hephaestos sniggered behind her hand at the prone Seraphiel and cracked her knuckles. "Seems like your knifeboy's gone loopy, Clocks. You should really let me put the both of you asses down."

Sarin's head snapped around. Before Horologium could say another word, Sarin was off, bounding towards the offending Graikos with his oversized knife, flying past a surprised Horologium at breakneck speed. With nothing but superhuman balance and acrobatic skill at his side, Sarin catapulted into the air and bore down on Sailor Hephaestos.

The air around Horologium shimmered. His heart raced. Time seemed to move more slowly. Hephaestos standing there with no time to react. Sarin flying through the air with his knife. Surprised senshi watching with horrified expressions. His mouth opened to shout again but he couldn't draw a single breath.

And just like that, Horologium found the world around him suspended in time. Sarin hung in the air with his knife two and a half feet from Hephaestos's chest. Metis, who was in the process of stumbling forward to try and help Hephaestos, had one leg up in the air and both her arms outstretched. She looked like a badly balanced statue in the process of falling over. Without looking, Horologium knew Seraphiel was similarly frozen, probably in the process of getting up.

Horologium Kamen fought his way towards Hephaestos. The air around him was thick like water and it took every ounce of his strength to move. He knew somehow that it was only his strength that kept this scene frozen, only his strength that kept Hephaestos from a grisly death, and he knew also that his strength would not last forever. Ironically, stuck in this single moment, he had only enough time for a single action.

Stalwartly he plunged forward through the thick air, mind swimming from lack of oxygen. Every agonizing step brought him closer to Sailor Hephaestos.

No, not Sailor Hephaestos. Jace.

With that single realization, time resumed.

There was a sickening crunching noise as metal splintered bone and Hephaestos was driven backwards to the ground. Nearby, Metis's palms dug into the dirt, her fall completed four feet short of Hephaestos. Aphrodite screamed.

A pool of blood formed on Hephaestos's stomach. When her eyes opened, she saw the featureless white mask on Horologium's face in the space above her, a strange smile visible. Horologium's lips parted.

"Jace."

Horologium's arms were braced against the ground. Sarin's knife had gone straight through his chest, destroying ribs and internal organs in its path before coming to a grinding halt mere centimeters away from Hephaestos.

Still wearing his strange smile, Horologium fell to the side, his left arm collapsing. The mask fell from his face, revealing familiar features.

There was so much blood.

It was sticky on her stomach and she could feel it pooling down her thighs as Horologium collapsed against her; he fell back on the ground, blood still seeping as his heart tried to pump fluid through his arteries. He had slid so limply off Sarin's sword; her brain didn't quite match the rest of her as Hephaestos sat up in bone-chilled horror, irked, as her enemy fell in front of the weapon and breathed her -name-...

Metalmaterial glove heavy from his blood, Hephaestos reached out to trace Tibby's features, not quite believing, suddenly stuck in a very bad nightmare she was sure to wake up from in a few seconds. God, blood hadn't been this hot since Sextans. She...

"Theo?"

The penny dropped and a great many things fell into place for Hephaestos. Immediately, she rolled him over, her body gone cold as she pulled one of her red-cloth panels forward and tried to staunch the massive wound in his chest; her breath came in staccato beats as she tried to swallow the whole thing. Finally giving up understanding, she pressed down hard on the cloth and gnawed her own lip until red dripped down her chin. "You fucking stupid bastard! You moron, you English asshole, you jerkwad, you, you..." Her throat closed up. "Tibby, don't leave me. Don't die, not yet, if you do I'll fucking kill you. -Please-, darlin'." Rocking back and forth, her metal legs heavy weights on the ground, she ignored everything else living; insane Sarin, sword coated in blood, Seraphiel, Aphrodite, Metis. The Astronomia senshi could have killed her and she would not have noticed. "Goddamn love you so -much-... Teaboy, no. -No-!"

Sarin took a step back. He could see Hephaestos, Horologium, and the blood on his knife, he just couldn't understand it. What had just happened?

"You fucking bastard," spat Metis, pulling herself to her feet. She reached over and grabbed Sarin's knife from his hands. Sarin didn't bother trying to hold on, letting his hands fall limply to his sides.

The sword was lighter than Metis had expected. She held it out at arm's length, wavering in the air next to Sarin, her grip firm but unpracticed.

Aphrodite watched the whole scene unfold through huge, violet eyes. Whimpering a bit she backed away from the senshi and managed to stifle the instant gag reflex from all the blood. And - desperate for anything to divert her attention from Horologium and Hephaestos - started to screech at Metis.

"Put that down! You, like, might hurt someone!" Her eyes twitched back towards Horologium for a brief second and instantly turned away fully. "Like, what the -hell- is, like, going on here!?" Aphrodite shouted.

"This one saved me the trouble, for one," Seraphiel growled softly, suddenly behind Sarin. He held a glimmering, white dagger at the Astronomia's throat, taking advantage of the situation. His eyes darted to the slain Horologium, and then into the tortured eyes of Hephaestos. His warrior heart went out to her, but just for a moment.

His voice softened but his hold on Sarin did not. "I'm sorry for your loss, Graikos. The battlefield is no place for love. I can, however, see justice done. Say the word, and this one's life is done."

The Archangelus' words hung tantalizingly in the air.

Hephaestos looked up at the tableau in front of her. Sarin stood stock-still, inbetween a rock and a hard place, Metis firmly keeping him at bay with his own sword in front of him and Seraphiel's dagger at the mostly-unprotected throat. She drew Horologium's body up in her arms, very gently, and ignored the heavy hot feeling of his blood on her chest.

Her mouth twisted in a snarl of hatred, teeth gritted, and she looked at Seraphiel directly in the eyes. Grimy tears were trickling down her cheeks. "Do it."

Seraphiel blinked once, and whispered into Sarin's ear. "You let yourself be taken. I have no pity for you. Rest well."

The world fell silent as Seraphiel twisted himself around. Sarin's eyes shut as the blade whipped over his larynx. A spatter of blood shot outwards, and the heavy metal clank of the Astronomia's weapon hitting the ground rang out. He fell to his knees, gurgling softly. Seraphiel looked down at him with a soft contempt, and wiped the blade with the end of his cloak before it blinked away. The blood remained.

Tearing her eyes away, Hepheastos placed her fingers at Horologium's neck, feeling the faltering barely-there heartbeat under her fingers and taut with heartfelt prayer to nobody that it would continue. "Just a little while longer," she whispered. "We'll make it."

Seraphiel shot a glance to Metis, whose sword was now pointed at him.

The blade fell from her hands and she turned from him, kneeling at Hephaestos's side. "Go call nine-one-one," she asked, "then get away before they find you here." She placed a hand on Hephaestos' back and did not look up again. Sarin's sword and fuku quietly faded into thin air, leaving behind a normal teenager and a pool of blood.

Seraphiel looked down at the body, and shook his head. His eyes darted back to Hephaestos, and he quickly turned his back. The pain in her eyes was heart-wenching, even to the Archangelus.

"When next we meet," he said coldly. "Things will be as they were." With that, he leapt upwards, back to the roof, his fuku already melting away and leaving behind Casper once again.

Hephaestos looked up, blank-eyed and hopelessly bloodstained, metalmaterial panels packed into the wound that Sarin's sword had left on Horologium's body. Her gloves had been stripped off, and one of her hands was tightly gripped around his; apparently, despite the huge injury, he still had some life left in him.

"Sophie," she whispered. "Sophie, what the fuck do I - "

Her sentence was cut off and she let out a cry as Horologium's fuku suddenly shifted, melting away; the mask next to him disappeared entirely and Theodore Parfett was left, deceptively normal, wearing khaki pants and a button-up shirt with a sweatervest that soon had a huge blossoming bloodstain on the front. Reflexively, Hephaestos let out a heartbreaking whimper and drew him closer.

Metis's fuku melted away as she returned to her untransformed state and knelt beside Hepheastos. Behind her, Aphrodite followed suit. Sophie placed a hand on Jace's shoulder. "Detransform," was all she could think of to say, and Jace did without replying.

The minutes ticked by slowly, each moment an agonizing eternity for the figures left scattered around the battlefield, though only three of them were ever aware of time's passage. Soon they heard sirens approaching. Seraphiel had obeyed Sophie's request. The sirens broke the sanctity of the scene; suddenly everything was a blur: paramedics loading Tibby onto one stretcher and Ravi onto another, Jace's unanswered pleadings to be allowed in the ambulance, the retreat of the sirens, the police demanding explanation, the denials and shocked silences, Jace looking distant, the news that Tibby was still alive.

It was later written off as a Columbine incident, though no one was ever able to explain how two boys had come to be injured or who had committed the crime. The girls were cleared of any suspicion, written off as bystanding victims to the atrocities of that day, friends of the fallen who ran forward to try and help. It was an attempt for vengeance on the principal, they said, citing the poor woman's delirium when the police finally found her hiding in a janitorial closet. Drugs were mentioned in official reports. Ms. Driver never returned to work.

The last few days of school were a time for mourning. One student lay stone-cold in the mortuary while another lay in the hospital, machines pumping air into his lungs, kept in a living death by the marvels of modern medicine.

Only the senshi knew what had truly happened that day. The war had taken its toll once again. While some saw this as a signal that the war was wrong, others found in it the resolve to continue their fight. For each, a personal journey had begun, a journey that would lead them to their ultimate destinies. The sad truth was that this was only the beginning.

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