` If That's What It Takes `

a a a

a a a

a a a

Days -- perhaps a week -- passed before Saffir came back to the Ayakashi sister's apartment. Not one of them tried to call him in the sojourn, either; Petz had said "Wait for him," and no-one questioned her authority. Besides, they didn't know what they would've said to him once they got a hold of him. After all, they had not known Saffir at all, outside of a professional sense at any rate.

It was Beruche who answered the door to discover Saffir smiling back at her in his typically shy manner. It was very early in the morning -- it had only just gone seven -- but he was cradling a bottle of fine wine in one hand, which he extended to her. "Just a visitor's gift," he said mildly, brushing his unruly bangs out of his strangely untroubled eyes. "May I come in?"

Beruche stood back slightly, allowing him room to come inside. "Sure... if you'll just wait a second in the living room, I'll go get Petz-oneesama... I think she's on the phone in the other room."

As Saffir thanked her, she smiled and took off, running into the kitchen to catch the tail end of Petz's conversation.

"... sure you can drop by. You want to come now? Oh, detention after school, I see... yes, I'll be here... ah, Beruche has just bounced in, she looks a little panicked. I'll see you soon, then."

Petz hung up the phone, hand moving to entwine fingers about her necklace. "Who was at the door, then?" she asked softly, though she thought she knew.

"Saffir-sama's in the living room," she replied, just as softly. "I told him that I'd go and get you... "

Petz sighed, then frowned when she saw the wine bottle in her hands. "Where'd you get that, Beruche?"

"Saffir-sama gave it to me," she replied, putting it on the bench. "He actually seems to be in a relatively good mood, you know. He actually smiled at me... and he's got colour in his cheeks, and he looks somewhat happier..."

Petz gave Beruche a level look, then turned her eyes away. "I wonder why..."

Ignoring Beruche's beginning of a sentence, Petz reclaimed her half-empty coffee cup from the breakfast bar, moving into the living room. She found Saffir seated rather demurely in an armchair, quietly staring off into space. When he heard her arrive, however, he turned those dark eyes on her... and she was shocked to realise that Beruche had been right. Something about him was indefinitely happier... his dusky blue eyes no longer held that peculiar worry and despair she had thought was an inherent characteristic.

He stood instantly, moving over to her to clasp her free hand in both of his. "Petz, you're looking wonderful!"

"So are you," she managed, still somewhat confused. "Uh... do you mind if I ask you why you're in such a good mood?"

He laughed delightedly, a sound she had never heard coming from Saffir before. "Not at all! Truth is, there isn't really any reason for me to be so happy, it's just that... well, I seem to have found myself someone who will never turn on me... she's the sweetest little kid, and I'm very fond of her... she's like a little sister..." His expression had turned suddenly wistful, but he abruptly schooled his face back into attention, suddenly appearing much more serious. "But that doesn't matter right now. I thought I'd drop by since I decided to take another day off work..."

She looked a little surprised. "Haven't you been back to work yet?"

He waved his hand in dismissal. "Oh yes, I was there just now. Most peculiar news -- Eudial's had an accident, they think she's... passed on to a better world." He looked vaguely distressed, before he shook his head in bemusement. "It makes sense, knowing the way she drove... still..." His voice trailed off again before he sighed. "They offered me a day off to 'cope with the shock.' I don't need it, but still..."

"You were friends with her?" Petz ventured, trying to quash the jealousy in her heart. "But I thought she was the one who shot you..."

"Oh, she did... you know, there's something not altogether right about Mugen Gakuen, actually... but as I'm an oddity myself, I fit in perfectly well. Besides, none of the other workers seem to want to tear my heart out of my chest, so..."

Petz gave him an odd look before finally taking her hand from his and taking a chair. Saffir followed suit by sitting back in "his" chair, his troubled expression vanishing. "So she's dead, then?"

Saffir shrugged. "That's what they tell me. What are you doing today? Do you want to hang around with an idiot physicist? Personally, my schedule's pretty empty until I need to go and see Hotaru-chan, but aside from that, I'm free as a bird. How about you?"

The green-haired woman placed her coffee cup on the table, leaning forward to meet Saffir's eyes evenly. "Saffir, what about Demando-sama?"

Saffir instantly dropped his eyes from hers, hands moving about each other in a sudden uneasy gesture. "Why do you bring him up?"

"He's your brother, isn't he?" pressed Petz, seeing that there was only one reason why Saffir was in a good mood. He had obviously pushed all thoughts of his brother right out of his mind. "You still haven't explained to me what happened-"

Saffir abruptly stood, looking suddenly angered as Petz followed his lead and got up. "That's none of your business, Petz! Actually, if you want to talk about that, I think I'm just going to leave right-"

A high-spirited knocking on the door interrupted the pair quite neatly; both stood stock-still as Cooan called "I'll get it!"

Saffir turned to Petz, looking slightly suspicious. "Expecting a guest, Petz?"

Petz groaned, slapping her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Dammit! That must be-"

"Hiya, Petz-san!" cried Minako, leaping into the room, trailed by a cat several seconds later. However, her bright smile congealed and voice caught in her throat when she noticed her companion. "Who's..."

However, she was abruptly interrupted by a very loud sneeze; both Petz and Minako acquired huge sweatdrops as Saffir turned away from the group, body suddenly wracked by a sneezing fit.

Cooan, standing in the doorway with a curious expression, was pushed aside by the more practical Beruche, who moved to the former prince's side with a large box of tissues. "Here," she said, with a slightly amused smile on her face.

Saffir gratefully accepted the proffered tissues, inching away from Artemis's general direction. "A-arigatoo, Beruche-san," he thanked before sneezing again. "I thought I had gotten over this, but it seems..." He sneezed again, looking more than a little embarrassed.

Minako finally found her voice again, looking a little startled. "What's wrong with him...?"

"I'm allergic to cats," Saffir spoke up, around the wad of tissues he held to his face. His eyes were swiftly reddening, but she saw a wry smile in amongst all the tissue paper. "If you don't mind, I'm going to go in the other room..."

Beruche smiled just as wryly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Would you like a glass of water or something?"

He nodded as she led him out, Calaveras rolling her eyes as she stuck her head in and saw what was going on. "Still allergic to cats, I see?"

"You'd better believe it," he muttered sheepishly, disappearing with Beruche into the kitchen. Calaveras trailed after them, Cooan remaining in the living room with Minako, Petz and Artemis.

"Poor guy," Petz said, shaking her head with a smile. "I always felt sorry for him because of that..."

"Who was that?" piped up Minako suddenly, looking a little lost. "I mean, I'm sure that was... what was his name... Hirosada Saburo?"

Petz jumped, understandably somewhat surprised. "Excuse me?"

"That was the guy who got his heart crystal stolen a few days ago -- a couple of days before I got mine taken out, I'm sure of it!" Minako looked down at Artemis, obviously somewhat annoyed. "Isn't that right, Artemis?"

The Mooncat jumped, a little surprised. Obviously, he had been somewhat put-out that Petz's other guest hadn't seemed to enjoy his presence all that marvellous much. "Now that you've pointed it out, he did look somewhat familiar..."

Minako turned back to Petz, hands on hips as she dropped her black schoolbag on the floor. "Who is he?"

Petz swallowed slightly. "Uh... he's just someone I knew back on Nemesis... nobody important, not really."

The blonde glanced down at Artemis, then looked back up at Petz, blue eyes surprisingly serious. "Then how come he recognised Prince Demando?"

"Everybody recognises-"

"Prince Demando recognised him, too," she completed in that same quiet voice, her expression oddly suspicious. "He called him almost by name, and acted as if he had found his lost best friend or something." She paused for a second before giving Petz a penetrating look. "Who is he, exactly?"

Petz bit her lip, a gesture not missed by either the cat or the girl. "As I said, he's just a guy from Nemesis..."

"I knew Prince Demando-sama through my work," spoke up a male voice from just outside the door. "I was a Savant... an advisor, of sorts. It's just that I jumped ship on him, and I suppose he wanted me back." He laughed, the sound wry and bitter. "I suppose, by all means, he should have had me executed... but people have their uses..." He shook his head, blowing his nose in a decidedly decorous and polite manner. "Excuse me... cat fur and I don't mix too well." He then smiled at her tiredly. "I suppose you're a Senshi, are you? Otherwise you wouldn't know Prince Demando-sama..."

Minako cast Artemis a look before turning back to talk to "Saburo." His story simply didn't sit right at all... but looking at the faces about her, she could see that no-one here was going to tell her the truth. Not in the slightest.

a a a

Amethyst bit her lip, adjusting the wide dark glasses on her narrow nose. Still the sun was too bright for her; it was simply driving her mad. And the heat... she couldn't make head or tail of the heat. Nemesis had permanently been cold and almost frozen; this sunlight and its warmth was so alien to the Nemesian native that she had to resist the urge to scream that she was being burned alive.

She smoothed her skirt again, the pleats falling straighter as she did so. Rudra had insisted that she "blend in" -- he had forced her to wear a school uniform. The one she wore today was from an apparently very elite school; it was maroon and green, and fairly flattering. However, she still hated having to wear a school uniform, as she felt she was a little old for it. However, Rudra had pointed out -- rather dryly -- that since she looked far too young to be out of high school anyway, it worked just fine.

The cat at her side -- a beautiful Siamese specimen -- looked up at her briefly before rolling ice-cold azurean eyes. "Amethyst-san, kindly refrain from making yourself stand out," he said politely in a deep bass tone, one that would have startled an unfortunate stranger, no doubt. "You know I chose you because Serpentine is much too conspicuous, not to mention the most unsubtle man alive. As his future bride, and a reclusive archivist, I thought you could be trusted to behave..."

Amethyst nodded, still wincing against the sunlight. "I can be trusted, Rudra-sama... I just didn't think that the light would be quite so bright all the time... I prefer it when we do this at night."

Rudra rolled his eyes again in further exasperation. "Typical. You people want Earth so badly, yet you put one foot in the sunlight and start complaining." He shook his head, before looking around. "Now, we have to find Demando again... now, he was here last night for awhile-"

"Who's that?" asked Amethyst, interrupting the Prime Minister's commentary. The cat frowned for a second before relenting and staring in the direction that she pointed.

A young blonde girl with a white cat draped over her shoulder was staring up at the apartment building in front of her, having just walked out of it. As the pair watched, she waved at a figure on the balcony, smile a mile wide. "Ja ne, Saburo-sama, Petz-san!"

Rudra almost lost his composure when he followed the blonde's gaze upwards to see a blue haired man with his arm about a woman's shoulders in a brotherly gesture. The woman and the man both lifted hands in farewell, seemingly a little baffled by her exuberance. What struck him, however, was the fact that it looked kind of like their Petz, the former Tower Avatar, and that man with her looked so hauntingly familiar...

"Stop that girl," Rudra muttered under his breath, in a stage whisper so that no-one save Amethyst could hear. "Amethyst! Stop day-dreaming and stop that girl!"

"But what about-"

"They've gone inside! Stop that girl and ask her some questions!" Rudra hissed, hackles rising. Without any further protests, Amethyst straightened her disguise -- the infamous Mugen Gakuen High School uniform -- and called out "Excuse me...!"

The blonde stopped in the street, turning around to face the violet-haired girl with surprise. "Uh... hi," she said carefully, looking a little surprised. She then looked at her uniform, her face brightening. "Hey, you go to Mugen Gakuen! You must know Haruka-san!"

Amethyst looked a little bewildered, but Rudra startled her out of her stupor by butting her leg with his head. "Uh... hi."

The girl looked at her quizzically for a moment, her cat accompanying that stare with an oddly human look himself. "Do you know Haruka-san? What's your name?"

"Sumireno Amadare," Amethyst stuttered when it seemed Rudra would butt her again. Actually, now he was rubbing against her leg, startling the blue Hell out of her. He was her Prime Minister after all...

"I think your cat wants your attention," the blonde finally pointed out, looking amused at the look of terrified horror on "Amadare's" face as she looked down at her cat. "He is your cat, isn't he?"

Amethyst suddenly blushed as she realised what was going on. Rudra obviously wanted her to pick him up so he could talk to her without being pulled up for being a talking cat. "Uh... yeah," she muttered, leaning down to tentatively take Rudra into her arms. She had trouble for two reasons; one, Rudra was not a small cat, and she was a small person, and two... he was her superior, and it just didn't feel right to cradle the Prime Minister of Nemesis in her arms like some common cat.

The blonde cocked her head to one side, still looking amused. "Well, what's his name?"

"Rud- I mean, Ryu-sama," she corrected herself when Rudra glared up at her. She stroked his head uneasily to keep up the pretence, worried the whole time that he was going to kill her for this later.

"Dragon, ne?" asked the blonde. "Well, I'm Aino Minako, and this is Artemis..."

Rudra almost coughed; instead, he hissed "I was right, Amethyst-san... this is Sailor Venus..." A low growl issued forth from his throat, one that didn't escape the notice of either Minako or Artemis. "And her companion cat, Artemis..."

Amethyst's smile congealed on her face as she looked down at her cat. "Huh?" she asked, quite clearly and loudly. This meant that Minako and her feline friend caught this, and ended up looking a little surprised.

"You talk to your cat?" asked Minako, with a knowing smile on her face.

"You do too," remarked Rudra imperiously from his position in Amethyst's arms, almost causing the woman to drop him in her surprise. "However, we don't pull you up on it, do we?"

Minako's jaw almost hit the ground; Artemis's eyes were so wide it was a shock that his eyes didn't fall out of their sockets and trundle down the street. "Amadare-san, your cat just..."

Amethyst bit her lip, giving Rudra a helpless look with her own wide verdant eyes. "Uh..."

Rudra merely looked disgusted, leaping down from Amethyst's arms. "Oh, you're all useless." He turned back to Minako, bowing his head in the semblance of some minor respect. He then sat on the concrete and gave her a Look, tail wrapped primly about his front paws. "I am Rudra, eternal Prime Minister of Nemesis and Lord of the Tower of Law. This is Amethyst Ja'Redran re'Padparadscha, Director of Records and Mistress of the Archives of Breccia University. You are Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Venus, ai no senshi and you are Artemis, her cat advisor, are you not?"

"H-how did you know that?" asked Minako, flabbergasted by the Mooncat's cool, contemptuous voice and the mixture of confusion and respect on the woman's -- Amethyst-s? -- face.

Rudra would have tossed his head in disgust if he were human. "Please. I'm the Prime Minister of Nemesis -- I make it my business to be able to read people's auras. Yours is a very brilliant orange, and it was too much of a coincidence that you owned a white cat with a golden crescent moon. You don't try to shield your appearance very well, Sailor Venus...any half-assed sorcerer should be able to see your power." Rudra looked only vaguely amused as he then added "Well, any half-assed sorcerer with a thousand years of experience, at any rate."

Amethyst looked a little nonplussed at Rudra's less-than-eloquent wording, but before she could speak, Artemis slithered down from Minako's shoulder. He approached the silently-watching Prime Minister with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension, obviously quite startled to learn of Rudra's existence. "You are Demando's Prime Minister?"

"More he is my prince," Rudra replied sharply. "The Prince and his doctrines and diatribes will come and go, but my bureaucracy will remain eternal. But that is hardly why we stopped you."

Minako was giving Amethyst a speculative look. "So you don't know Haruka-san?"

Rudra looked up from the oddly accusing eyes of Artemis, snapping out "Amethyst!"

The violet-haired woman snapped to attention, looking away from Minako. "H-hai, Rudra-sama?"

"Pay attention, would you?" he asked in an orderly tone, eyes irritated. Before she could reply in the affirmative, he looked back to Minako and Artemis and bowed his head again. "Venus-sama, Artemis-sama, may I humbly extend an invitation to you?"

"An invitat-"

"You accept?" asked Rudra rhetorically, smoothing interrupting Artemis's suspicious tone. "Perfectly marvellous. Amethyst, escort my guests to the Tower of Law in exactly one cycle's time, if you please. In the meantime, make it clear to anyone who asks that I wish not to be disturbed. I wish to give this situation further thought before making my decisions."

With that, the Siamese Mooncat turned and vanished back into the timestream as the air misted about him. Amethyst removed her sunglasses tiredly and rubbed her eyes, still wincing in the sunlight. "Venus-sama and Artemis-sama, as Rudra-sama has extended such a rare... invitation, I must insist that you accompany me back to Nemesis." She gave both of them an appraising look, and smiled wryly. "Of course, I can't force you to join me, but I'm sure that if you don't come now, I can convince Serpentine-sama to send an escort for you."

Minako shot Artemis a look; the little white Mooncat, however, was staring mutely in the direction in which Rudra had vanished. "Amethyst-san..."

The violet-haired woman placed her large dark glasses back on her small nose, brushing absently at her uniform. "I'll open the Door for you... and there's no need to worry, I'll play host to you. There's not a person on Nemesis who would dare harm the fiancŽe of Serpentine re'Carnelian, or her guests, for that matter. And then you are favoured by Rudra-sama himself..." She paused, and then asked, quite politely, "Are you coming?"

Minako fingered her henshin wand, giving the silent Artemis a look which he ignored. "Uh... yes..."

Artemis finally awoke out of his stupor and turned on Minako. "NANI?!"

However, Minako had already trailed Amethyst into the Door, which left Artemis with two choices. One; go with Minako and end up in a whole heap of trouble, or two; stay here and run to the others with this weird little story, and get a severe tongue-lashing from Luna.

Artemis, oddly enough, did the manly thing and followed Minako and Amethyst into the Door.

a a a

"She's an interesting kid," sighed Saffir as he took his arm from about Petz's shoulder as they wandered back inside. "Do you think she's realised...?"

"That you're Demando's brother? I don't think so... but she suspects something, that much is obvious." Petz sighed, running her hand back through her hair, messing up the tidy chignon. "From the looks of it, she knows that you two have some kind of... relationship, she just can't put her finger on it."

Saffir gave her an odd look. "Are you meaning to imply something rather immoral there, Petz?" he asked, only half-joking.

Petz shook her head, knowing better than to imply such a thing, even in light-hearted jest. Saffir did not take such joking well; in fact, Saffir did not take jokes very well at all. He had a... repressed sense of humour, a typical characteristic of a Savant.

"Would you like something to drink?" asked Petz finally, guiding him back into the kitchen. "After listening to Minako's incessant chatter, one needs to re-energise themselves..."

Saffir almost laughed, giving her a sideways look. "I could say the same about you..."

She hit him gently, and he smiled almost shyly back at her. He quietly assisted her in making the coffee, and they took it back to the living room, where they sat down together. The conversation flowed fairly easily up to a point; it was when Petz mentioned Demando again that things started to turn sour.

However, before the conversation could go any further, both were startled by a panicked-sounding banging on the door. They gave each other a strange look before Petz nodded slowly and moved to the door, abandoning her coffee mug. Saffir stood behind her, at her elbow -- she was uncomfortably aware that this was the way he had always attended upon Demando -- and pulled the door open.

Minako stood before them, breathing heavily. Both were shocked to see her bedraggled appearance; she was dressed in long orange robes that were absolutely saturated, her loose hair hanging in long strings about a very pale face. She looked like she had been for a swim in a very cold ocean, if the smell of salt and her shivering was anything to go by.

Saffir gave Petz a look, then turned back to Minako. "You just left here five minutes ago, didn't you-"

"Saffir-sama!" she almost screeched in relief, staggering forward to take his hands, almost falling forward into his arms. Saffir took an involuntary step backward from the girl, eyes very wide.

"What did you call me?" he asked slowly, very distinctly.

Minako shook her head, splattering both of the startled Nemesians with water from her hair and robes. "I don't have the time to explain!"

"And there's no way you could have had the time to... to... to do whatever it is that you've done," Saffir broke in, obviously more than a little perplexed by the girl and her behaviour. "Where's Artemis?"

Minako stopped for a second, baby-blue eyes wide and shocked. "What do you mean, I haven't had the time? I've been away for days-"

"The timelines are unequal," came a voice from her side, a dark and tall figure emerging from the mists of a timeslide. Petz and Saffir almost fell over when they recognised her; it was Sailor Pluto, the angel of time herself, and she was accompanied by a tiny woman with short violet hair. Like Minako, Amethyst was dressed in what appeared to be robes of state, though hers were purple and black and much more opulent. Aside from that, she looked as much of a drowned rat as Minako, her tiny form obvious beneath the wet material.

"We've been through a bit more time than they have," remarked Amethyst, brushing her hands back through her drenched hair. "But we still don't have any time to waste..."

Saffir had made to turn back to Sailor Pluto, but the dark-haired angel had vanished after escorting the two women to their destination. Only the two half-drowned girls remained, Minako still clutching his hands tightly. He tried to pull them away from her, but it only served to bring Minako's attention -- which had temporarily been directed at Amethyst -- back to his face.

Saffir almost cried out in pain when Minako's hands tightened about his so that her nails dug into his skin. He noticed with a wince that her nails were ragged and torn, not their usual manicured selves. "Prince Saffir-sama, we need you to come with us back to Nemesis right now." There was a definite note of desperation in her voice as she said it; all her attention, caught in her pleading blue eyes, was on Saffir alone. However, Amethyst looked to Petz and her three sisters, who had gathered in confused silence behind their oneesama.

She bowed her drenched head in respect, her voice courteous and humble. "I must extend the same invitation to you, Avatars... we need you back in Nemesis... perhaps not as badly as Saffir-sama is needed, but badly enough..."

"What's going on?" asked Saffir finally, his voice strangled. "How do you know my real name? What would you know about Nemesis?"

Minako shot Amethyst a desperate look. "Do we have the time to tell them?"

Amethyst swallowed, looking as her watch in obvious distress. "If you hurry, perhaps." She looked up at the four sisters before suddenly shuffling everyone back into the apartment. Everyone moved in confusion to the living room, both frightened and bewildered by the obvious distress of Minako and Amethyst.

Minako did not deign to sit; instead she paced uneasily as Amethyst bit her lip and watched silently from her own chair.

"Nemesis is in a terrible state," she began in a trembling voice, staring directly at Saffir. "We need you to come back..." She sighed, looking out the window. "It all started when Artemis and I ran into Amethyst and Rudra downstairs, which would have been about fifteen minutes ago to you... but to us, it has been a lot longer than that..." A long, tortured sigh escaped her throat. "A lot longer..."

To Part Thirteen

Back to the Index