Fifteen minutes ago, the sky was clear. It isn't now. Now the sky over Tokyo is dark with clouds, and there is a storm brewing over Uminari.
She couldn't stay at Mamoru's, not feeling like she is right now. Sailor Jupiter needs an outlet for her rage... and as it happens, she knows where to find one.
It's not far. The wind that's kicked up carries her over the rooftops in a rush of petals, and it takes no time at all before the giant Xenian stalk comes into view, huge and twisted, rising up amidst the buildings. Jupiter releases the wind as she nears the stalk, lets gravity and momentum carry her the rest of the way down to make a hard landing only a few yards from the Xenstalk's base.
Up close, it's bigger than she remembered. She can feel its roots digging deep into the earth, leeching its energy, seeking the core. And it's not just this one - there are others, like phantom pinpricks trying to dig under her skin. Maddening.
At least this one, she can do something about.
Jupiter's boots strike audibly against the ground as she approaches the base of the stalk, watching warily for signs of movement, the threat of tangling animate vines. She sets her stance, spine straight, feet apart, braced and steady - draws back a fist--
And drives it into the stalk with all the strength she can muster.
Again. Again. Blow after blow, her fists hammer at the thing, sparking with electricity. She can still see the way that Nephrite looked lying there on the floor of Mamoru's apartment; the shock of impact as each punch lands does absolutely nothing to sate the fury that sight set loose.
There's an unsettling noise around the Xenstalk: the very deep, very low kind that is felt more than heard. It would be simple enough for neighbors and passersby to ignore, for it is easily swallowed up by the noises of the city, but there is no denying it here, mere feet from where the monstrous thing took root.
The Xenstalk drives itself further into the Earth with each passing second. The soil and bedrock groan as they're forced to give way, and the plants scream ever louder as their life drains away.
Still. Beyond the creeping horror of its roots, the plant appears to be doing very little, even when Jupiter starts to survey it. She is right to be wary of animate vines -- several hundred feet of them are spooled up beneath its many flowers, which twitch and jerk on occasion, as though to demonstrate that it is very much alive, and very much a threat. Fact of the matter is, the Xenstalk is conditioned not to draw attention to itself. It and its sisters across the globe are key to the final destruction of the planet, and each one lost is a blow to their cause.
It is conditioned to strike only if struck first. Fortunately, this is exactly what happens.
Jupiter's punches dig into stalk, expelling chunks of green and bursts of acidic yellow sap, but only for a moment. From the blossoms above her shoot great nooses of vine, almost faster than the human eye can see. Those are meant for her fists, to prevent her from doing any more damage. Two that snake along the concrete are meant for her feet, to immobilize her while she is dealing with the vines at eye level.
Curious that one human should be so strong, but no matter. Her energy will fuel the journey towards Earth's core, and the Xenstalk's threat will remain a secret. Certainly.
"Oh no you don't--!"
The vines are no surprise; Jupiter was ready for them from the moment she approached the stalk, and as they uncurl and lash toward her she breaks off her assault on the main trunk of the stalk with a quick, defensive hop-step back. The vine-nooses meant to snag her fists are met instead with the heel of her boot as she whirls into a sweeping kick - a surge of wind whips up with the motion, and a vortex of petals swirls up in a column around her, slashing at the vines like razors.
This. This is what she needed. An enemy to fight, to unleash her rage on.
The Xenstalk is the foremost weapon of the Xenian's arsenal -- it is instrumental to its success, nearly as much as the host or the Blossom itself. It's no surprise that it's designed to be nasty. Hundreds of feet of prehensile vine ready to go at a moment's notice, and the ability to grow more as needed. Nigh impermeable skin on the stalk itself, with bitingly acidic sap flowing through it, should a lucky attack puncture or slash deep enough. Flowers enough to drain a human dry in an instant, not even mentioning the secret weapon that none but the master has even seen.
This frightening thing was built to last -- but what in the galaxy can stand against a Senshi wronged?
The vines fall away, shredded like tissue paper. Spurts of acid evaporate in the perfumed air. And someone has sensed enough distress here to finally investigate.
More petals join those already in the air; another gust of wind fights Jupiter's cyclone, flurries of pink colliding with one another and scattering every which way. The tiny razors can no longer bite into the Xenstalk -- its protector has arrived, and even before he is visible, his magic shields it from harm.
"What do you think you're *doing*?"
At the shout, a veil of petals shifts itself aside, and there's the familiar form of Fiore, his hair whipped up in the sudden gale, his eyes still mad with rage from the deception of the asteroid. He is not attacking himself -- yet -- but he clasps a gleaming sword in one hand, which he thrusts in challenge toward Jupiter.
"This Xenian is a gift to Mamoru, and I will kill anyone who tries to hurt it!"
Sailor Jupiter abandons her assault on the Xenstalk at Fiore's arrival, and planting both feet firmly on the ground she turns to face him, fists clenched at her sides. The wind still spirals around her, flurrying with petals, more small vortexes forming and breaking up where her power pushes back against his.
Electricity sparks across her knuckles as she lifts her chin to glare up at him, her fury at what was done to Nephrite warring inwardly with the knowledge that Fiore isn't the one truly responsible for any of this - not really.
"This thing is killing the earth, and Mamoru-niisan with it!" she calls back, raising her voice over the rush of moving air. "If you can hear me through what it's doing to you, Fiore, I know that's not what you want! And I'm putting a stop to it, now."
What it's doing to him...?
For an instant, Fiore's eyes flash with genuine confusion. She must be referring to the Xenian: she mentioned it in the same breath as Mamoru-kun, and they are standing in front of one of his flower's proudest creations. But the Xenian isn't doing anything to him -- she's *helping* him. She was the only thing in the galaxy worth bringing back to Mamoru. It's thanks to her that he can fulfill his promise.
So what could she even be talking about?
*/Don't listen to her,/* she whispers in his mind. */You know how humans lie and deceive. Just look what she's trying to do to Mamoru's precious gift./*
Yes. Of course. What a foolish thing it had been to even let her speak.
The confusion washed away by a glint of red, Fiore lowers his sword hand and thrusts the other out toward the senshi. His petals, tinged with the bright magenta of the Xenian, gather in an orb in his palm before he fires a pulse of magic. A spiral gust with the shape and force of a drill shoots toward Jupiter, to drive her away from the Xenstalk she'd already unforgivably damaged.
"You're lying," he shouts when the deed is done. "I'm not doing anything to Mamoru. I would *never* do anything to him. He's the only friend I've ever had -- and this world left him ALONE!" In a single bound, Fiore leaps into the air and kicks one foot out, driving down toward Jupiter from several feet above her. More proof that the Xenian was helping him, if anything. When had he ever been this strong? This capable of defending what he loves?
"It must be punished!"
There's no reasoning with him, not like this. Maybe Mercury will be able to figure out how to free him from the parasite, or maybe when the time comes Sailor Moon will be able to purify him - Sailor Jupiter has none of their talents. Her lips press into a thin line, and then she's springing back and away from the Xenstalk to avoid the gust of wind that drills down to slam into the ground where she was standing.
"Flower Hurricane!" Roses bloom and scatter from her hands as she throws both palm-out towards Fiore, meeting his attack from above with a massive upward rush of air, a wall of wind and petals.
It was unwise of Fiore to underestimate this girl, especially when he'd already had two firsthand experiences with her strength. Not only does she spring backwards in time to avoid his attack, she answers his next strike with one of her own: one that's almost blasphemous to him, given what his life has revolved around since falling to Earth on that fateful day.
She attacks him with flowers, and he has no defense.
The rush of air slows his momentum, stops it -- and then he's flying backwards, pastel pink petals slicing at his clothes and his skin where it's exposed. For all his power, he is overwhelmed, and sent hurtling backwards in the alley until his body collides with a brick wall. The impact shakes the building, cracks spiderweb out from where he lands --
-- but he feels no pain. And he isn't down for long.
"How dare you," Fiore hisses, on his hands and knees but pushing himself up already, the only evidence of damage the rips and tears in his uniform. There had been blood before, the frayed edges of white are stained with it. So where are the cuts those flowers made? "How dare you attack me with roses?!"
The blossoms on the Xenstalk flutter once, and then their own petals are loosed onto the air, a tidal wave of razors that rises and crashes down on Jupiter where she stands, clashing against the wall of false flowers she built between them.
For several seconds, everything is pink, Sailor Jupiter lost to view entirely under the deluge of Xenian petals.
Has he killed her?
Just as it seems like he might have, the seething mass of pink petals is split from within by a lance of crackling green-white energy, a bolt of lightning that comes roaring out from the heart of the wave burning petals to ash in the space of a heartbeat. In its wake, Sailor Jupiter herself bursts through - not unscathed, gloves and fuku ripped in several places, skin marked with thin lines and trickles of bright red, but a tight spiral of wind around her shields her from the worst of the shredding Xenian petals and carries her up, up, soaring clear of that terrible wave.
"Those roses belong to the Earth you're trying to kill!" she shouts back at Fiore. "So does Mamoru-niisan! His life is connected to it - if the Earth dies, so will he!"
Still borne aloft on that swirl of wind, Jupiter presses her palms together, lets her power spark between them and gather into a tight sphere of raw lightning. With a shout, she hauls back and hurls it full-force, not at Fiore but at the broad trunk of the Xenstalk: "Sparkling Wide Pressure!"
If the Earth dies, so will he!
Fiore's entire posture tightens at those words. From the relaxed stance of his apparent victory comes a scowl, then a groan forced out from clenched teeth. Of course she wouldn't go down that easily -- and of course she'd lob lies at him again and again, trying to break his resolve. It won't work.
(...so why does something at the back of his mind twist his stomach in knots at her words...?)
"That's not true!" he shoots back, forced to look up at her when she rides her wind through his petal storm. "If -- if Mamoru's suffering at all, it's because of what *you're* doing to him! You're trying to torture him and hide him from me so that I won't keep my promise." Yes...that makes much more sense than Mamoru's life being tied to this wretched planet, the one that abandoned both of them, the one filled with despicable humans that lie and cheat and steal. Someone as good as Mamoru would never be tied to such a horrid place.
But he can't think on it any more, because in a moment she's firing a blast at the Xenstalk. A blast of heat and death to burn it alive.
No, no, she must *not* be allowed to damage it any further. But she's just aimed lightning at it, there's no time for the Xenstalk to regrow its defenses. There must be something--
Fiore throws himself in the path of the lightning, thrusts out his sword, and screams as the metal sends it coarsing through him instead of his flower. The pain is immense -- and he should know pain, for he has been on the edge of death more than once -- but it is a small sacrifice to preserve that single piece of his promise.
And when it ceases, he slumps forward but remains standing, charred and panting, propped up on the sword he grasps with whitened knuckles. He does not waver.
"You have -- n-no idea...what Mamoru means to me," Fiore says, his breaths deep and heaving. "If you did, you'd understand why I'm doing this. You wouldn't try to stop me."
A short, abbreviated sound escapes Sailor Jupiter when Fiore throws himself into the path of her ball-lightning - a cry of protest, quickly bitten back. She didn't come here to hurt him, but there's nothing she can do to get through to him so long as the Xenian has rooted itself around his heart--
(Nephrite lying on the floor, slack and unconscious, foot at an odd angle, barely even breathing.)
(Usagi scooting onto the bench next to her to share her lunch bento, not intimidated in the slightest.)
She hangs in the air, the wind of her power blowing her hair and the skirt and collar of her fuku wildly in its spiraling upward rush. "You're wrong," Jupiter tells Fiore, her tone firm and flat and final. "I do understand. That's why I have to stop you."
A sharp sweep of her hand sends the wind rushing between them. It pushes Jupiter farther up, higher into the air; at the same time, it rushes around Fiore, whirling pushing carrying him away from the stalk he's trying to shield.
The Xenian is her enemy. The Xenian is something she can hurt.
Energy sparks along the lightning rod in her tiara, answered by a rumble from the dark clouds overhead as Sailor Jupiter raises her hand skywards. "Supreme Thunder--"
A window rattling BOOM reveberates through the streets as the sky splits with a column of blinding light, a bolt of lightning that meets Jupiter in mid-air and makes her a black silhouette in the center of its brilliance--
--she grasps the lightning, gathers it to her, hangs suspended in the center of a writhing serpentine shape that spreads wings of blazing energy against the dark sky--
"--DRAGON!"
Roaring, an enormous dragon dives at the Xenstalk to savage it with claws and fangs of pure raw lightning.
Even in his current state, Fiore can quirk a smile: a cruel smile that's as shaky as his breath, but a smile nonetheless.
"You?" he says. "You think you can stop me?" Tone dripping poison, he pushes himself off of the sword hilt, laughing low in his throat. He barely registers the wall of air she throws up between them -- if he can sense at all what's coming, how the static builds and sparks upon the wind, he doesn't show it.
"What a fool you are. It's already too la --"
'Too late,' he tries to say. But he can't even finish the word before he's drowned out by a crack of thunder strong enough to burst through glass. And he looks up not at a human, not at the deluded opponent he thought he was facing -- but at a goddess of the storm, and the dragon that surges from her spirit.
Too late, yes. Too late did he notice the force of nature his Xenstalk was up against, and now there is nothing he can do but watch it burn.
It's a testament to the plant's awful tenacity, how long it manages to withstand the thunder dragon's assault. For at least several seconds, the Xenstalk regenerates where the claws and fangs dig in, spewing acid in a circle around the alley, but hardy though it is, it cannot be invincible. Jupiter's rage and guardian instinct are simply too powerful, the lightning too strong to withstand. One by one, limbs give way, flowers disintegrate into nothing, and divine fire shoots along the roots underground to purify even the deepest reaches of the Earth.
It cannot reach all the parasites that burrow towards the core -- but it can cleanse this one, and that is more than any can say.
As if in revenge for months of Earth's torture, it is the Xenian who is screaming now, a banshee splitting the ionized air with her cries. Fiore doesn't have time to register anything but terrified awe before she's summoning a hail of petals to carry them back to the asteroid. There is no winning this battle; if they are up against the kind of power that can uproot a Xenstalk, there is always a chance that some of it will catch on her, and she has not come this far to die at the hands of a Senshi.
When the lightning's relief fades, and all returns to normal, there is nothing in the alleyway but broken glass and fissures of concrete.
Somewhere a transformer fails in a shower of sparks, and in the midst of the cacophony, residential Uminari goes dark. The lightning dragon unravels into a thousand scattering threads of electricity; many of them leap outwards to catch the last few scattering petals and burn them away. Not a single flower will escape to take root in this neighborhood. She'll burn them all to ash.
Most of the voltage pours into the ground, though, chasing the root system of the Xenstalk deep into the earth to sear out every last root hair.
Not enough. The Xenstalk is gone, but even now the protector's wrath that's burning in Sailor Jupiter's heart isn't satisfied, won't let the power that she unleashed dissipate itself into the ground as it should. She's not finished.
Instead, it finds a spark of life buried beneath the earth, a thing lying long dormant, pushed aside by the Xenstalk but too small and humble for the parasite to take any notice of. She seizes onto it, curls her fingers in the air as though digging into the dirt as she pours all of her remaining power into a single point.
And in a crash of thunder, she calls it to grow.
Roots spread, fine threads at first through churned-up dirt left loose by the Xenstalk's fall. They grow thicker, reach deeper as a little scrap of green pushes up out of the earth amidst the broken concrete and reaches skyward. It's small and spindly at first, but it grows swiftly, putting out more and more vibrant green leaves as it reaches farther and farther upwards, straight and true and tall.
Sailor Jupiter drops the last few yards and lands heavily on the concrete, scraping a knee when she can't quite stick the landing. Fiore's gone and she honestly couldn't say when he vanished, but that's better anyway - she's exhausted, panting, empty and wrung out from pouring out all of her power in this one great rush.
But where the Xenstalk stood, there now stands a tree. Tall and strong, still glowing faintly green and gold with the remnants of the power that gave it life, roots spreading beneath the pavement to knit back together the earth that the Xenstalk drained and poisoned. A guardian oak.
Pushing herself back onto her feet, Sailor Jupiter stands for a little while and looks at her work. Nods to herself.
Good enough.
Her transformation falls away as she turns on her heel, green and white uniform fading into street clothes. The power here won't be back on in a hurry, and the streetlights are dark, but at this moment it doesn't matter much.
With long, purposeful strides, Makoto heads for home.