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Praying for strength, Rei sprinted across the coffee shop toward the exit. Some sort of lethargy was slowing her down, and she knew what it was. She had triggered the Time Key to bring them here. It was draining her energy to power itself and give them a chance.

"Rei!" Amy yelled, but there wasn't any response. She and Mina took off in pursuit, wondering what had gotten into her. Just a minute before, it didn't look like a hurricane could have moved Rei.

`Why did we have to be on the second floor?' Rei silently cursed. Every step she went down was another step farther away that Lita was.

Amy and Mina reached the top of the stairs just as Rei was leaping off of them and heading for the door. They were all moving at roughly the same speed. She couldn't see Lita anymore, but Rei knew which corner she must have turned at.

Rei burst through the doors, ran out into the street and nearly got run over by a car. She didn't stop, but rather she gained momentum, and Mina and Amy began to fall behind. The sidewalk had very few people, but they were still getting in Rei's way, forcing her to move around them rather than just blunder through. A fall now would cost her more time than any measures she might have to take to avoid them.

It took a little over a minute for Rei to reach and turn the corner. Less than a hundred yards away, she could see the profiles of Malachite and Lita, almost face to face; she was attacking him. Rei didn't pay any mind to "Game Machine" Joe on the ground. Out of breath, she kept running.

She was over halfway there when she saw Lita land a punch right across Malachite's jaw. Either shock or the punch itself had stunned him. Within under ten yards, she saw him raise his hand.

Her lungs were empty. She hoped her voice was louder than it sounded in her own ears. "Lita! Look out!"

* * * * * * * *

There were many times in Rei's life when time seemed to slow down at crucial moments. Perhaps adrenaline allowed her to think and respond more quickly than usual, or maybe it was a higher power looking on her favorably. She didn't bother to ask why it happened, she was just glad it did.

The moments she spent after lunging at Lita with every ounce of power she had were some of the slowest she had ever spent. She had seen instantly that Lita would not get out of Malachite's way (in these slow moments, she had time to realize it was rather foolish of her to think Lita would know what to do if a stranger ran up telling her to look out, anyway).

Lita's head turned quickly, but she looked like she didn't know what to make of this girl flying at her. She seemed to be a good fighter, but with terrible reflexes--at least compared to the Sailor Scouts, Rei thought.

Malachite didn't bother to turn his head, or acknowledge Rei at all, for that matter. His attention was completely focused on the pathetic human who had just committed suicide by hitting him.

Rei stuck out her arms, aiming right for the back of Lita's shoulders. She could feel the waves of pressure emanating from Malachite's hand as she impacted with Lita. She tried to curl her body for what was about to happen.

Time resumed its normal flow. Lita fell to the ground. Rei went flying backwards into one of the walls with a sickening thud and then came down on the concrete.

Amy and Mina had passed the corner just in time to see it happen. "REI!" Amy screamed, in horror.

Malachite turned to them. He was powerful, but had not come prepared to take on these three Sailor Scouts. The crystal--and revenge--would have to wait until a little later. He teleported away.

Lita was on her hands and knees, probably trying to make out what had happened, but she was definitely alright. Amy and Mina ran over to Rei. She was trying to sit up on her elbow, and failing. There was some blood running from her nose. Amy helped her up a little. "Rei..." she started.

Rei smiled at her, weakly. "We did it..."

"You did it," Amy said, unable to stop a few tears from running down her cheeks. Mina usually managed to stay more composed than the others, but her eyes were already watering.

"No need to cry, it's going to be okay..." Rei said, and closed her eyes. The Time Key's flickering glow finally died out.

The three of them disappeared.

* * * * * * * *

Serena's entire body jerked to attention as she awoke. Not a good start to the day. Her dreams had been weird, but eventually ended up with her and Darian all alone... And then she had to go and wake up. It figured.

She felt unusually tense.

`What time is it, anyway?' she wondered.

"Ack! 10:30?? Why didn't you wake me up, Luna?"

"I tried. Twice," Luna sighed. "The first time I was sure you were going to strangle me, and the second time you kissed me before I could get away--all the while mumbling about roses."

"Roses?" Without thinking, she reached up to touch the earring she was wearing. "I'm not going to make it in time for the meeting if I don't get it in gear!" She hopped out of bed and made for her dresser drawers.

"I'm ready to go," Luna said, smugly.

"Like you ever have to get dressed or anything," Serena muttered.

"Well, I must admit, it is nice to see you take these meetings seriously for a change."

It took Serena all of about fifteen minutes to get ready and dash out of the house. The temple wasn't too far away--if she hurried, she could still make it in the ten minutes she had left.

She ran into Molly and Neflyte--almost literally--close to her house. Molly was carrying some sort of basket in one hand, with her other arm wrapped around Neflyte's.

"Hey, Serena!" Molly nearly yelled, although Serena was only about five feet away. "We were just going out to the park for a picnic. Wanna join us?"

Serena glanced at the basket momentarily. Tempting. "Sorry, but I'm way late for something already. Maybe another time, okay?" She kept moving torward the temple without waiting for a response.

"That's Serena..." Molly said, smiling and shaking her head.

* * * * * * * *

Rei was eyeing the time as she swept up, waiting for the others to get there. Nobody had shown up yet, surprisingly. She could usually count on Amy being early, and Serena always being unfashionably late.

Apart from looking for the others, she was thinking about her nightmare from the night before. It was a jumble of images and events that wouldn't resolve into anything coherent, leaving behind only some sort of haunting premonition that something wasn't right. She couldn't discern anything from the fire, though, the fortune she'd grabbed from one of the temple's booths had been favorable, and even Phobos and Deimos seemed at ease. Rei had been known to be wrong about these things before...

`Like when I first met Serena,' she thought with a smile.

Her muscles felt like she must have tossed and turned all night long, making a simple task like moving the broom a chore.

She saw Amy walking up to the steps with a curious look in her eyes--eyes that were looking straight at Rei. "What?" Rei asked.

Amy kept coming closer until she was only a few feet from Rei, at which point she ran up and gave her a big hug. Amy closed her eyes and squeezed tight, not noticing the contorted look on Rei's face as spasms of pain wracked her arms, back and ribs. Rei barely stifled a grunt, but Amy heard it.

Slowly, Amy loosened her hug and backed off a little, though she still had her hands on Rei's arms.

"So I wasn't the only one," Mina said, coming up the steps and surprising the two of them. "What happened?"

Artemis, sitting in her arms, had no idea what she was talking about.

"I don't know," Amy said. She could sense that she wouldn't ever know what--if anything--had happened. The more time passed, the further the images she had felt faded, and the same probably went for the others too. The only thing she could remember with any clarity now, Rei's death, was entirely false anyway, as Rei was standing right there in front of them all.

Mina got to the top of the stairs as well and, before Rei could protest, she was once again gripped in a painful hug, this time between both Amy and Mina.

"What's going on, guys?" Serena asked. "You look like you haven't seen each other in forever."

Rei didn't know which was going to make her fall over first--the intense hug or the fact that Serena was actually on time. "Wow, you're not late for once," she sniped. "If it wasn't such a pretty day, I'd think the end of the world was coming."

"It's not like you have to worry about being late," Serena griped, "since we always meet at your house."

"We could meet at yours, but once we went in your room, we'd probably never be able to find the door again," Rei said, strangely pleased to be arguing with Serena.

"No sweat, you could just do your hocus-pocus and throw those little sticky notes around and we'd find it in no time, hmmm?"

"It's not hocus-pocus!" Rei shouted.

"I thought she was going to take the meeting seriously," Luna said, sadly.

Unnoticed by Rei or Serena, Lita had arrived. "Hi, sorry I'm late," she said. All four of the girls turned to stare at her.

As soon as Serena saw Lita, she knew she was forgetting something, but she managed to remember in just a few seconds. "Oh yeah!" She reached up and took off the rose earring. "I think you dropped this, " she said, handing it to Lita.

"Thanks!" Lita said, "I've been looking for this." She happily put the earring on her empty ear.

Rei, Amy and Mina looked at each other in puzzlement. Rei suddenly had the impulse to pat her chest, as if something was hanging around her neck. There wasn't. `Why should there be?' she wondered.

"Are we going to stand around here all day, or get busy?" Artemis asked, in his usual impatient tone.

"Right," Luna said. "What we need to discuss..."

Rei smiled as she half-listened to Luna go on about their latest problems. Whatever was wrong earlier seemed fine now, and she didn't mind at all not knowing what had happened. As long as the five of them were together, it really didn't matter.

She never gave it another thought.

* * * * * * * *

At the Gate of Time, Setsuna smiled.

---

(July, 1996)