Reign from the Shadows

Taken

The sky was a gloomy one over the city as it had been for days now. Just when people thought the sun would finally come shining down on them, it got darker or windier...or rainy. Snow had begun to fall at some point but it didn't last long. It seemed like the entire weather was preparing for the biggest snowstorm possible, and yet there was no explanation behind the radical climate change.

"Right, so those are the people Senka's attacked so far," Azula slid over some photographs of the victims to Mamoru sitting across her. "You can see that in some pictures it looks like she's gaining actual form. I think the more power she sucks out of the victim, the stronger she gets leading to an actual body figure."

Mamoru picked a photograph up and stared at the woman in it. He remembered her perfectly because she had been the first victim Senka had taken when he saw her. He moved along the other photographs on the table. "How did you even get these?"

Azula smirked and looked around the cafe shop before she answered quietly. "I like hacking into things. I'm very technical."

"Yeah, I know," he said casually, not even noticing he had said it in the first place.

While Azula had retained the main truth from Mamoru - that he was a reincarnated Earth Prince - she had cleared up the fact that some time ago he had known her. Due to an attack similar to Senka's, people's memories - including his - were erased. He did ask, however, how she managed to remember, to which Azula honestly answered with an "I don't know". Neither Luna nor Artemis were any closer to figuring that out.

Surprisingly, the little Azula told Mamoru was enough to quell his suspicions for the moment. She supposed he didn't insist much on the memories of Usagi because he was still processing the fact he liked the girl again.

"So in each of those, Senka has tried to retrieve this Shadow Crystal and failed," Azula explained the general overview of the case. "Now her searching for the crystal implies that only one person has it and that it's someone who's probably hiding amongst us."

"But then that would lead to the question of why a human would have it in the first place," Mamoru picked up another photograph. It was more specific on Senka.

"Which leads me to Sailor Hemera," Azula waved another photograph on her side. "She harnesses powers of light and day, but she's mentioned that she's an honoraryguardian. It kind of alludes that perhaps she's, I don't know, of a higher rank than other guardians?" she'd been thinking that over for a while now but hadn't come up with anything concrete about it. "And then there's this mention of 'Shadow' which I'm assuming is the planet she and Senka are from. She has to know who put the crystal on Earth and why."

"Shadow's princess," Mamoru had yet again spoken so casually, like he knew it for a fact.

Azula's eyebrows knitted together. "Shadow's princess?" she repeated.

Mamoru stiffened then, now realizing what he said. Azula tilted her head, eyebrows still raised as she waited for him to explain.

"I...I may have seen Sailor Hemera in a...vision..." he explained quietly. Azula knew that whatever memory he was talking about wasn't one that he'd ever mentioned before the memory wipe. This was something entirely new. "And she talked about a...Queen of Shadow...and a Princess. I thought it was crazy but now that you say there was a memory wipe incident...I'm not so sure."

Azula looked down for a brief moment to hide her guilt. The lie she fed him kept gnawing at her mind but she couldn't bring herself to correct him."So you've seen Sailor Hemera before?"

"Yeah but it was weird because...she called me by another name. And I was wearing some...armor or something..."

Azula was now even more confused than before. Had Sailor Hemera really met Mamoru - then Endymion - so long ago? But how was that possible?