"Tell me you aren’t serious.” Hi said flatly as she looked first from a smug looking Blaize to a blushing Ai.

“’Fraid it’s true babe, me and Ai here are going out on a date.” Blaize grinned and Ai’s blush deepened.

“You and him?” Hi inquired of her best friend, struggling to get over her shock.

“Yeah, we feel really close to each other.” Ai smiled shyly. “It’s familiar you know?”

“But…”

‘Dair placed his hand gently over his girlfriend’s mouth and quirked a grin at Ai. “We understand. Have a nice night we will call if we need you!” He waved at the others, not taking his other hand off of Hi’s mouth until they were out of sight.

Over the past week, Blaize had settled himself into the group fairly well, adjusting easily to the already formed relationships. He tended to flirt outrageously with all three girls, and ‘Dair had had to forcibly restrain Mizu a couple times when the younger man’s brotherly instincts were trod on. After the first couple days, both Hi and Ki had stopped blushing over his crude, sometimes vulgar language, and were determined to give him back as good as they got, but for some reason he went much easier on the shy Ai, and was almost as protective of her as Mizu was.

On a more professional note, they had been out as much as possible every night looking for both the rest of the Zodiac Senshi, and Crystals. They had found many Crystals, none of them hard enough to need more then a low level attack, but enough to keep their energy low and their nerves stretched taunt. They hadn’t had as much luck with the other Senshi however.

“Well let’s go see how many low level Crystals we can blast tonight.” Hi said with a sigh.

Ai and Blaize stood outside the movie theatre, feeling more then a bit awkward. The supper had gone fine, and although there was a definite since of familiarity, when they reached the theatre and had been faced with the possibility of making out, both of them had gotten matching feelings of wrongness.

“Blaize?” Ai offered after a minute.

“Just friends?” He asked at the same time.

They looked at each other and laughed.

“Ai-chan?” Came a voice.

Ai turned, brushing a lock of hair out of her face, and smiled. “Samantha-chan.” Then her eyes locked on the man with her friend and she blinked.

He had hair that was cut around ear length, parted by the wind in a semi straight line down the center, and he wore a pair of ragged jeans and a black and yellow sports jacket zipped up halfway to reveal a black t-shirt. His skin was slightly tanned, and his eyes were the exact same shade as her own.

“Ai-chan! This is my, well, new ex-boyfriend.” Samantha smiled wryly as the two couples came together. “Ashtun Mame. He’s from Venus. And who is your friend?” She asked, eyeing up Blaize much the same way as Ai was eyeing up Ashtun.

“This is Blaize Natol.” Ai introduced. “We are about halfway through our first date but decided we’d rather be friends.” She laughed softly. “Blaize, this is Samantha Talak, she is Jalinel’s friend from when he lived on the moon.”

“Pleased ta meet cha.” Blaize wiped his hand on his jeans before offering it to both Samantha and Ashtun to shake.

“That’s weird!” Samantha said after a lingering handshake with Blaize. “Ashtun and I were on our first date before we decided the same thing, you two were going to catch a movie as well?”

“Hai.” Ai murmured, still studying Ashtun from the corner of her eye. “Shall we all go together?”

“Sounds great.”

“Powder room break.” Samantha announced when the lights came back on halfway through the movie.

Ai nodded and together to two girls moved into the restroom.

“So, where did you meet Ashtun?” Ai couldn’t resist asking as they checked their make up over in the mirrors.

“A common friend introduced us,” Samantha shot a sideways glance at Ai. “Is it just me or do you think we should be switching boyfriends?”

“It’s not just you.” Ai started to answer, but cut off with a frown as her phone started ringing. “Just a second.” She said with a smile, digging out her phone and making sure her hand covered the Libra symbol before she answered it. “Hai?”

“Ai-chan.” Came Blaize’s voice. “There are a couple Crystals here, they are holding the lot of us hostage and saying they want the children of the Senshi are they will kill us all.” He whispered, and then said slightly louder. “Don’t come in here! Get out of the building if you can and try and get help!”

Ai blinked at her phone as Blaize hung up seconds after she heard a couple screams ring out.

“Oh not good.”

“What is going on?” Samantha demanded.

“Some of those Crystal things have taken everyone in the theatre hostage! I’m going to try and call for help, I think they must have taken Blaize’s phone.” She said with a half lie, guessing that Blaize had had a reason for hanging up so fast. He needed to keep his identity secret and if the Crystals saw that phone…

Quickly she pressed the button for Aries and waited impatiently as it rang. “Moshi moshi.” Came Hi’s voice after a couple rings.

“This is Hanano Ai.” Ai said quickly. “My friend and I are hiding in a bathroom of the movie theatre on Third Street, Crystals have taken everyone in the theatre hostage!”

“Are you ok?” Hi asked quickly.

“We’re fine, but we’re really worried about our dates in the main theatre, they are saying they will kill everyone unless the children of the Senshi are delivered!”

“Get away from whoever you are with if you can and transform, I’ll contact the others and we’ll be there as soon as we can.” Hi said before she hung up.

Ai nodded to herself, sneaking a glance at Samantha before she hung up as well. “They are going to try and get help.” She informed her friend.

She looked around. The bathroom was empty except for the two of them, upon hearing her announcement both to Samantha and her talk on the phone, everyone else who had been in the room had run out screaming.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash on the door, and Ai caught the familiar sound of crystal chiming.

Sailor Aries looked into the back door nervously. No one was in sight. She stepped inside and led Scorpio and Cancer, the only two who had been able to get away easily, into the theatre, but upon coming to the first corner she bumped right into someone.

“Aries!” Libra cried.

Aries grinned at her friend, frowning when she saw the other girl was holding the hand of a pale looking Samantha. “What’s going on?”

“A Crystal tried to get into the bathroom we were in, I blasted it but had to transform in front of Samantha. Most everything in empty, I think they are trapping everyone in the actual theatre rooms.”

Aries frowned at that and tilted her head at Cancer.

Cancer nodded and moved forward, brushing Samantha’s bangs out of her face with one gloved hand. “You need to calm down Samantha, we won’t let you get hurt.”

“Jal-Jalinel?” Samantha asked in a trembling voice before she threw herself into his arms with a sob. “I was so frightened! But then when I saw the Crystal I wanted to help and didn’t know how and…”

Aries gasped, feeling the strange feeling of violation, and Samantha blinked as the Virgo pen and phone appeared right in front of her face. “Well…” She drawled. “That could be how.”

“Sailor Virgo…” Cancer said softly. Then he laughed. “I’m glad we won’t have to have secrets anymore!”

Samantha slowly lifted one hand, gasping as her friends brushed over the pin. Streams of shimmering blue light and water poured from the pin, and she stepped back from Cancer as the warm light washed over her, melting away her previous outfit in favor of her fuku. Her colors were royal blue trimmed with a stormy gray, as well as the white gloves and ankle boots. Then the streams of water converged on her left hand, forming a tall staff with a large hand shaped stone on the top, much like Libra’s staff.

“Now then, shall we go rescue a bunch of people?” Scorpio asked, hefting his sword.

They found the projection room, and the small group looked down into the theatre where Libra and Virgo had been watching the movie. Everyone had been kept in the seats, but apparently every couple minutes the Crystals would get made and cut into people in the front rows, working their way steadily back. That theatre was the only occupied one, but there were at least five high level Crystals, and there were still a bunch of weaker ones roaming around, probably guarding the doors into the other theatres.

“Be careful with your attacks, don’t hurt any other people.” Libra advised worriedly.

“I can help heal the wounded.” Virgo spoke up.

They looked to Virgo who blushed slightly. “I remember that much, I don’t fight, I heal.”

“Better then me.” Libra seconded, some dim memory surfacing. “We always worked together, I could weigh souls for healing in a pinch but it tires me, she can heal as much as she wants.”

With a nod, Aries brought her glaive down, slicing soundlessly through the glass window, and leapt down to land in the main aisle, the others right behind her.

“Hands of Gentleness and Purity! Heal!” Virgo cried, raising her staff. The pure gem on the top began to glow, then flashed once with a blinding light. All who were touched by the light found themselves free of pain, from a toothache in the back row, to the wounded near the front.

Sagittarius chose that moment to burst in the door. “Everyone out!” She cried. “The way is clear! Go calmly please!” Then she had to jump out of the way as she was nearly run over by the crush of people rushing out the door.

“Oi, oi. Didn’t they get the go calmly part?” She asked as she poked her head back in a couple minutes later.

The rush had been a good distraction, and in the beginning the Crystals had been too surprised to do much, but then they had shaken their shock off and grabbed a couple teenager as hostages.

“We cleared all the lower ones out in the lobby out.” Gemini announced as he entered the room with Sagittarius, followed shortly by Leo.

“Good.” Aries nodded in satisfaction, not even noticing a feeling that was becoming familiar with time as she concentrated on the five Crystals.

“You will not win!” A human shaped Crystal with a dog head snarled. “If you make a move we will kill these humans! Deliver the children of the Senshi to us!”

Aries narrowed her eyes. “Now you must know us better then that.”

A female Crystal with a cat’s head trailed claws down the cheek of a crying teenage girl. “You would not sacrifice innocent lives.”

Aries pushed her misgivings aside and shrugged. “We would to save the children. They are our charges and they will be protected for the same of the future at all costs.”

“But you would not kill these humans to get to us?” A man with a cow head asked, somehow sounding snide and desperate at the same time.

The Senshi exchanged nervous glances at that, and a Crystal with a rooster head laughed, pulling a pale boy up against him. “Didn’t think so.”

Aries sized the situation up again. The eight Senshi stood in the middle of the theatre, and the five crystals stood in front of the screen with about ten humans held captive in front of them. There was no way they could get to the crystals without harming the humans…

A flicker of movement near one of the emergency exit’s caught her eye, and she sucked in a surprised breath upon seeing a flicker of gold, suddenly placing the strange feeling she had received earlier.

“Cancer? Could you get through them?” She asked, turning her attention away from the door as the form worked it’s way behind the Crystals.

Cancer opened his mouth to protest, but cut himself off as Sagittarius elbowed him sharply in the side. “I could try.” He said weakly, rubbing at his abused ribs.

The Crystals shifted defensively, and Cancer opened his mouth to attack. From the corner of her eye Aries saw the golden form whisper something, and the ground shook, golden bulls erupting from the ground under four of the crystals and sending them flying into the air, one of them shattering upon impact with a chair and the others falling back to the ground.

Aries lunged for the fifth Crystal, seeing the female form had a bat’s head, at the same time as Libra and Virgo moved to help the captives out of the way.

The bat headed Crystal shrieked at her, and Aries let out a scream as everything around her distorted. She felt her mastery over her powers slip and waver, her fuku flickering before she got it under control again. Grimly she moved forward, flames flickering along her glaive as she drove it into the Crystal. Then she sat down numbly on the ground, her ears ringing.

Looking around, she saw Libra and Virgo trying to calm the hostages down, Sagittarius shoot the cat headed Crystal, finishing it with the help of a well timed blast from Cancer, and Gemini and Scorpio each destroyed the other two.

“Well. Ow.” Aries mumbled, rubbing at her ears and wishing they would stop ringing.

Scorpio chucked and came over to help her up.

About ten minutes the group was gathered in a secluded area of the park, all eyeing up the new soldier curiously. His fuku was in the same gold as Libra’s, but his was trimmed with a light brown color. He also carried a long chain in one hand.

“Sailor Taurus. Nice to meet you.” Aries said after a moment of awkward silence.

He chuckled and released his powers. “Nice to be here.”

“Ashtun!” Libra and Virgo cried in perfect unison.

The other Senshi exchanged confused glances until Leo filled them in. “He was Samantha’s date at the theatre, I think we gottraded though…”

Ashtun looked around as the other’s detransformed, giving a relieved smile as he saw Samantha, Blaize and Ai.

“Um, guys?” Hi said hesitantly.

“Yeah?” Cancer asked, pushing a lock of long hair back as he glanced to the redhead.

“Um, the remaining pins are gone?”

“What?”

“Well, they were here, but I felt everything slip when I got hit with that attack and now they are gone…” Hi shrugged helplessly.

The group stood in complete silence for a moment before Blaize summed it up. “Well this bites.”

Back to the main Zodiac page.