Chapter 6: Deception

The tip of Atena's nose smudged the  glass as she scrutinized the selection of drinks within. A rainbow of corn syrup and artificial flavors beckoned her, and it was hard, so hard, to choose just one. Behind her, Tomoe fidgeted impatiently. She had narrowed it down to three when a rapid beeping sound from her pocket cut into her deliberation. Without looking, she recognized it as the senshi distress signal.
She thought quickly and swiped her card through the drink machine's scanner several times, feigning frustration. (Nowadays, nearly everyone used the government-issued, DNA-verified "Crystal Cards" to make purchases, and coin or paper money was mostly a novelty. But even in the 30th century, vending machine technology had yet to fully catch up to the trend.)
"Drat! It's not reading. I'm going to go complain to the manager," she told Tomoe.
"Okay, I'll come along!"
Atena shook her head. "Um, no! Please stay here and... make sure nobody buys my Salty Plum Fanta! Okay?" Without waiting for an answer, she rushed out of the lobby.
"I don't think we have to worry about that," Tomoe muttered with a disgusted expression. But Atena seemed very concerned about it for some reason, so she sat down against the wall and waited as patiently as she could.

~*~

"Look out!" Saturn cried as Vesta—no, the robot—fired on Sailor Moon. She made a diving leap and pushed her out of the way, taking the rocket intended for her.
"No! Saturn!" Sailor Moon screamed as her friend disappeared behind a blast of flame and smoke.

~*~

Slowly, struggling against the nauseating ache that seemed to weigh down every part of her body, Souga Miruki opened her eyes. After a few blinks, the familiar, chipped beige plaster of her own ceiling came into focus. Still not quite able to move, Miruki wondered foggily how she had gotten here. The last thing she remembered was that she'd been walking home alone, and had taken a shortcut...
Suddenly, for reasons she couldn't explain, she shuddered. Her mind was warning her not to follow her memory down that shadowed road. That same deep instinct told her that consciousness was a very precious thing. Yes, her last thought had been that she must not pass out. But why?
She gingerly eased herself into a sitting position and looked out the window. The late evening sun slanted over the rooftops, painting the cul-de-sac with the warm hues of sunset. A few early cicadas hummed in the distance. Everything seemed perfectly normal—the neat row of cookie-cutter houses and apartment buildings, the blue chain-link fence around the neighbor's yard, the block of mailboxes at the end of the driveway, the three girls in miniskirts battling a flamethrower-wielding robot.
Wait... what?
In an instant, Miruki sat bolt upright and stared wide-eyed out the window, all aches and pains forgotten as she took in the scene on the street below. The mysterious Sailor Saturn, a senshi normally seen in public only a few times a year, was battling a monster right in front of her house. And she wasn't alone, either. There were two others in pink uniforms who she didn't recognize, though the distinct style of their outfits suggested that they were from the Solar System, or at least somewhere in the Gould Belt. She squinted at one of them, who sported a cone-shaped bun hairstyle that seemed strangely familiar. Was that... a moon symbol on her forehead?
No way! she thought It couldn't be! Sailor Moon is just a legend. But five minutes ago, any Solar senshi other than the seven they knew had been just legends too. Either those two were here from another star system, or she had just uncovered a huge conspiracy. Either way, this was big news.
She scrambled to the closet and fished in her school bag for the camera she used for the school's newspaper. It wasn't there. That troubled her, because she was sure she'd put it right there last time she had used it. But there wasn't time to worry about that now. She gave up, grabbed a notebook, and began scribbling in shorthand, trying to capture every detail of what she was witnessing.

~*~

The impact of the rocket and the explosion that followed would easily have killed a normal human. It was only a small energy shield, conjured at the last second, that saved Saturn's life.
She skidded, rolled into a backward somersault, and somehow landed on her feet. Quickly regaining her balance, she pulled out her glaive and rushed the robot, thrusting the deadly point at its midsection. The robot calmly reached out and caught the blade with one hand, which brought the attacking senshi to a lurching halt. With a twisting motion, she wrenched the weapon from Saturn's grip, injuring her arm in the process, and pulled her in close to knee her in the chin.
Saturn hit the asphalt with a painful cry and stayed down. Ceres was sprawled beside her. Sailor Moon wouldn't offer much resistance with them out of commission. It had been a short fight, Pyrolusite thought with a smirk as he stepped out of the shadows. His little sister had done better than the three of them. Granted, Calomel had only been up against the alpha-stage test, while they were facing the fully-trained, finished product at its highest possible aggression setting.
The pink-haired senshi spotted him and backed up a step. He snickered. "You disappoint me, Sailor Moon," he taunted. "Not only with your weakness, but with your stupidity."
"Who are you? What do you want?" she asked.
He ignored her question and continued to advance on her.  The dying sunlight glinted off the robotic enhancement on his left arm. He wiggled his fingers, making a delightful little click-click sound, a cross between a ticking clock and a rattlesnake. She tried to place herself between him and her fallen friends, which only amused him more. As if she could protect them. "Aren't they supposed to be your guardians?" he said with a sneer. On the ground, Sailor Saturn winced, a moment of weakness that did not escape his attention. So he'd hit a nerve.
He stopped beside the robot, and clapped a hand on her shoulder. It was a heavy-handed touch, showing neither the gentleness of a lover nor the protective care of a father, but the pride of a craftsman. "Of course I knew Carnelian could defeat you in battle. But I thought perhaps one of you might at least notice she was an android. You people in Crystal Tokyo are so naïve. All I had to do was sneak her into the hospital and pass her off as an amnesia victim. Everyone felt so sorry for her, they didn't ask too many questions. Getting her into your school was, if possible, easier still. You even accepted her as a sailor soldier, because she had magic like yours." His arrogant grin broadened. "But it wasn't magic, and it won't be bested by magic. This is the power of science!"
Moon shook her head in disbelief. "So the whole time, Akako was..."
"I suspected as much," Saturn admitted with a grim smile. "But why did the monster—" She broke off with a groan as the truth became clear. "Akako was controlling the monster, wasn't she? That's why she was the only one who could defeat it."
"How can we win against her if she's that powerful?" Ceres wondered.
Pyrolusite decided he had basked in their despair long enough. He stepped back, motioning for Carnelian to finish them off. The robot tossed Saturn's glaive aside and calmly took aim. A low rumble filled the air as her flamethrower charged up. Sailor Moon braced herself, prepared to take the blast to protect her friends.
"Get out of the way!" Saturn cried. With the last of her strength, she heaved herself to her feet and tried to push Moon aside. But she was too late. A jet of searing flame boiled forth from the robot's arm…
And was deflected by a wall of white cloth.
Saturn heard Sailor Moon gasp. She cautiously opened her eyes, wondering what had saved them from a fiery death. She too drew a sharp breath when she found herself face to face with the man in the white tuxedo.
"It's you!" they said in unison, Moon's voice excited, Saturn's filled with suspicion.
He nodded, a slight smile on his face. He was holding out his cape to block the fire. Saturn could feel the heat prickle on her skin even from several feet away, yet both garment and man remained unscathed. After a few seconds, the flames died down and he let it fall behind him with an elegant swish.
"Don't be deceived by an illusion and lose hope," he told the senshi as he turned to face an astonished Pyrolusite. "Anyone can appear strong when she's in control. But real strength shines even in adversity."
Pyrolusite and Carnelian took a few steps back, glaring daggers at the man. Now the senshi could see that Carnelian's arm was warped, melted from its own heat. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Saturn dashed to retrieve her glaive. No sooner was it in her hands than Carnelian's true intentions became clear. The android sprinted in a circle around the senshi and the man, her metallic legs pounding against the pavement like a jackhammer. The speed of her movement created a small whirlwind, forcing the group closer together. Faster and faster she ran, until her image began to blur and the sound of her footsteps was a jarring buzz.
Then, all of a sudden, she stopped. More precisely, twelve of her stopped. A row of identical Carnelians surrounded the group in a tight ring. Like mirror images, they smiled and advanced inward in perfect unison.
Ceres voiced their collective confusion. "What the…?"
Deciding that their situation couldn't get much worse, Saturn struck at the nearest Carnelian with her weapon. To her surprise, the blade passed right through the robot's body.
"This one's a fake!"
Ceres's attack met a similar outcome. "This one too!"
Moon frowned, her eyes moving up and down the row. Every one seemed identical. This is no good. Which one's real?
As if in response to her distress, Diana's voice sounded from her comlink. "Is everything all right, Small Lady? Pallas told me you might be in trouble."
"Big trouble!" Moon squeaked. "It's the Moriae. We're surrounded!"
"Oh my!" Diana paused, thinking hard. A moment of inspiration seized her. "Your tiara might be gone, but you have your Moon Stick. Can you attack with that?"
It was worth a try. Sailor Moon summoned the crescent-shaped wand and held it high.
"Moon Luminous Exaltation!" she shouted. Pink light converged in a glowing ring at the tip of the wand, then burst out in all directions. The ring of Carnelians flickered and vanished.
Ceres looked around the empty cul-de-sac in puzzlement. "They were all fakes? Then where—"
Saturn tensed suddenly. The others followed her gaze skyward just in time to see the real Carnelian diving at them, her body engulfed in a huge fireball.