Drops of Starlight

Chapter 46: Too Afraid to Fly, so He Never Did Land

💫 Drops of Starlight 💫
By Strawberry Moon Rose
🍓🌙🌹

_________________________________
Chapter 46: Too Afraid to Fly so He Never Did Land
_________________________________

Spinning, spinning, spinning. Everything was spinning.

The edges of reality blurred into a whirlwind of confusion and agony. Seiya's throat felt constricted, her mouth dry, her eyes wet. This had to be a nightmare, a twisted figment of imagination. Surely she would wake.  

Seiya would find herself tangled in bedsheets, snuggled into Usagi's embrace, drinking in her delicious vanilla scent as the morning sunlight warmed their bodies. Or would she be singing the moon princess a Three Lights song? Or dancing around the kitchen making breakfast together as the waffles burned?  Calming a fussy Chibi-Usa? Yaten snapping at them because she hadn't had her coffee yet? Seiya decided she'd take any of those options. Anything, anything but this.

But it was all slipping away, vanishing like mist at dawn. Seiya longed for any reality that didn't involve this.

Taiki's face swam into view. A flash of blue hair - Ami, perhaps? Someone was screaming, maybe it was her. Seiya didn't know.

"What the fuck just happened?!" Haruka shouted.

"-took her! Out of nowhere!" Minako cried.

"Gone?" Michiru's voice echoed in disbelief. "What do you mean, gone?"

Yaten's shout overlapped, "Just that! I saw it happen! Xenon vanished with her!"

"What do we do?" Makoto bellowed. "How do we go after her?"

Clack, clack - The sound of fingers flying across a keyboard. "Hold that thought, Mako," Ami said. "I'm working on it."

"I swear to god if something happens to her..." Haruka threatened.

Struggling to her feet, Seiya pocketed the charm from the broken bracelet. She could see it now - the surprise on Usagi's face after she had opened the gift on Christmas morning. How Usagi looked up, speechless, with gratitude in her eyes that told Seiya she hadn't received many gifts like that.

And now it was broken to bits.

The memory felt cruel now.  Seiya whipped out her transformation wand. Considering the force she clutched it with, it was a miracle the device didn't snap in two. If that happened, she'd really be screwed.

"Fighter..." Keika said in a calm voice. Maybe it was an attempt to bring Seiya's emotions down a notch. It didn't work.

"This...is all my...fault," Seiya managed, shaking her head over and over. "Bun Head..." Just saying her name aloud made it feel all the more real. Usagi was gone.

"Fighter Star Power..." she shouted, not bothering to look around first. Even if she was dressed as a man, which she wasn't, at that moment she didn't care if the whole world found out the idol Seiya Kou was a woman or even a sailor guardian.

Saving Usagi was the only thing that mattered.

Before Seiya could complete her phrase, the others joined in, their voices melding into a unified chorus.

"Keika Star Power..."

"Healer Star Power..."

"Venus Crystal Power..."

"Make...UP!" Seiya screamed with an unmatched fire.

The leader of the Sailor Starlights rolled her shoulders back. Fighter's exposed skin from her scanty uniform already felt burnt from the bitter cold air, but she welcomed the physical pain.