Other Side of the Coin

The group of women, all of various ages stood at the end of the street. Behind them lay abandoned wasteland, and slowly approaching in front of them, Hell. The leader of the group, a short silver haired girl turned her gaze to the sky to watch the dark blue become overtaken by back and blood red. “It’s beautiful.” she whispered. “So deadly… so destructive. To think we’ve been fighting against it.”

“Beautiful as it may be, Rena, you can’t stay here any longer.” The oldest of the group said, garnet eyes turning to the wasteland behind them. With a small wave of her hand, a portal appeared, cutting of the image. “We must leave this place. There is nothing left for you here.”

“What a hell of a party, though.” another murmured, three facial piercing glinting in the demonic light.

Rena chuckled darkly. “Indeed, Strike. Indeed.”

“Now is the time.” The youngest of the group said, blank violet eyes watching as a woman was torn apart by one of their enemies, as if it were a semi interesting television program. “No longer can we stay.”

The group nodded, before stepping into the portal, it closing behind them. Not five minutes after that, Hell finished washing over Earth for a long reign. Its protectors were gone.

-----------------

Kino Makoto sighed, wondering how she let her best friend drag her into this place. It wasn't her style, wasn't her thing. And yet here she was, weaving her way around what seemed like hundreds of people that decided that tonight was the perfect time to attend the same rave as her and Minako. She caught sight of her blonde friend laughing and flirting with a couple of guys, a glow stick glimmering around her neck and arms. Shoving people out of her way, Makoto finally reached Minako who was about to hit the dance floor with one of the guys. Her hand reached out and snagged Minako by the arm and jerked her back. A yelp was swallowed by the raging music.

"Mako-chan, what’s the big idea?" Minako demanded.

Makoto shook her head, "I'm leaving Minako-chan. I've got things to do tomorrow, including work. We shouldn't be here!"

A voice shouted over the music, "She's right Minako-chan! Besides I'm getting a bad feeling about this!"

The other girl that joined the, had long raven hair with deep violet highlights. As the blonde and brunette stared at her, her violet eyes went blank, as if she was somewhere else. Minako shrugged and replied, "Fine you two leave but I'm staying. At least I know when to have fun."

"Minako-chan, there's a fine line between having fun and getting into something that could be dangerous. Raves aren't the safest parties in the world. We should have gone to a club or something, but not this."

Minako opened her mouth to argue with Makoto when Rei gasped and turned to the dance floor. Alarmed the other two turned to watch. The crowd had backed up into a circle and the three girls saw what had stolen everyone's attention. Two women had taken over the middle of the dance floor. Strobe lights flashed over their bodies, making it difficult to tell what they looked like. Silently, Minako, Makoto, and Rei made their way to closer, where they could see better. What they saw once they got there, made their mouths fall open in shock.

The multitude of colored lights and strobe lights accented the moving bodies in the center of the dance floor, making the already scandalous dance even sexier, making it seem like something none of them should be watching. The two women took no notice of the crowd only smirking at each other. Shaking her head, Makoto turned to go when something made her stop. The two women had stopped dancing when the song ended and turned to go when one of the large spot lights landed on them as applause and cheers rang out. Makoto heard gasps from Rei and Minako, and knew she wasn't just seeing things.

Minako grabbed Matoko and Rei's shoulder, "Please tell me that I am just seeing things and that girl out there don’t look like me."

Makoto shook her head, "You’re not seeing things cause that other girl looks like me!"

She was right, for the taller female looked almost exactly like Makoto, except for amazing differences in style, the same for Minako. Both had streaks in their hair, the blonde having black, and the brunette having green, both light and dark. Their similarities ended there.

The blonde was dressed in a bronze top with many slashes along the back, front, and arms, one of the slashes showing a glinting bellybutton ring, the other showing a tattoo of some kind. Leather pants so tight that it was obvious there was nothing else under it, and stiletto boots finished her outfit.

One of the first things the trio saw about the taller female were the glints of light that came from the piercing in her nose, lip, eyebrow, and the rows of them on her ears. The top she wore was a halter, black and neon green, obviously not caring it was to small, to where her breasts seemed barely confined. The tight top also proved that she had other piercing as well. Her pants were nearly the exact opposite of the top, almost two sizes too big, chains crisscrossing around them, and connecting to her top, holding them up. Docs showed from under them.

The girls smirked once more at the three Senshi before, one glanced to an upper balcony, Rei following her look, gasping. There stood two others, one being a darker mirror image of herself, the other of Ami. “Guys…”

The two girls on the balcony smirked, Rei’s double turning to her partner to say something as Minako and Makoto looked up also, spotting them.

The taller one, Rei’s double had the same hair, but the violet streaks were covered up with blood red ones, and the girl was dressed in lace up leather pants, glimpses of flesh showing through on the side. Her top was the same red as the streaks in her hair, being a tube top, and as she turned to speak to the one beside her, they could see the beginnings of a very large tattoo on her back. Her shoes were blocked from view.

Ami’s was by far the most shocking, looking almost nothing like the sweet girl the knew. The girl’s hair was still blue, but grown out, and choppily cut, with navy streaks in it. She wore jeans that were skintight, but slashed at various angles all the way down. Her shirt was the same, a neon blue baby top, but they could see a navy tank through the slashes.

The music was cut off suddenly as all the lights went out. A few people panicked until a single spotlight shone straight down one a pole in the middle of the floor. This time, the three girls were not the only one to gasp. The female standing there was nothing short of a dangerous type of gorgeous. Dressed completely in black leather, from her top, to her boots, to her trench coat, she had long silver hair, grown past her waist, was also streaked with black, but with a glimpse it seemed more like black streaked with silver.

“My dear ravers,” she spoke. “I regret to inform you that this little hootenanny has to end.”

Her words brought forth great protest which the female looked on in interest before reaching into her pocket, and pulling out a gun, aiming it towards the ceiling. The crowd silenced, watching the wood and plaster fall. “None of that. Leave now, or I’ll force you too.”

The crowd quickly headed for the exits. The three Senshi turned to leave, but were stopped by the four females they had seen earlier.

“Looking for these?” the blue haired one asked, waving their transformation sticks. “Pockets aren’t the best place to put things at raves, you know.”

“You’re staying here. Feel free to call your little friends. We are very interesting in meeting them.” the blonde one said. “Her most.”

The three couldn’t help but turn to look at the girl who was still leaning against the pole staring at them. They froze. They knew those eyes. Cold, and blank though they were, they knew those eyes.

They were Usagi’s eyes.

-----------------

Under the watchful eyes of the five women, Rei contacted Usagi and Ami and told them where to come. Usagi's face appeared fuzzy over the communicator but Rei could see the puzzled look on her face as she asked, "You want us to come where?"

Rei sighed and repeated herself, "Come to the third warehouse down by the harbor, we really need you. I uh...well I don't actually know how to explain. Better for you to see for yourselves. Just come...and hurry. Bring the Outers, ok...we might need their help."

Sensing that Usagi was about to argue she said once more, "Just come ok. It will all make sense when you get here." And with that she snapped her communicator close leaving Usagi no choice but to listen. Rei glanced over at the Senshi look alikes and said, "The rest are on their way. Happy now?"

The Ami look alike smirked and looked up from the laptop she was fiddling with, "Ecstatic."

Rei shook her head and joined Minako and Makoto who were talking quietly to themselves. The five watched them for a moment before whispering themselves.

The blonde was the first to speak, "So...you think they will really come?"

The brunette rolled her eyes, "Don't be stupid Star, of course they will. We have three of theirs...they'll want to save them."

"It’s what the whities do, haven't the last six months proven that to you?" remarked the dark haired girl.

Star shrugged, hair falling over her shoulder, "Yeah well, ten to one odds say they have someone waiting on the outside to barge in and rescue them."

The blue haired girl laughed, "No one is stupid enough to take those odds."

Star looked like she was about to say something when a quiet voice interrupted, "Star...Strike...Pyro...Ice...Chill out...now. Everything is going according to plan...just roll with it ok?"

"Sure Rena." they all murmured, turning to watch the girls again.

-----------------

Tsukino Usagi paused in front of the warehouse that Rei had instructed her to come to. Mizuno Ami, Tenou Haruka, Kaioh Michiru, and Tomoe Hotaru were standing close behind her, obviously waiting for her to make the first move. Something in Rei's voice had made her nervous and just being in this area of town added to that nervousness. There wasn't a youma attacking, she knew that for sure because Rei wasn't henshined. Glancing over her shoulder at the others she remarked, "Guess we should go in."

Haruka nodded, "Yes, let’s see what kind of trouble Minako, Makoto, and Rei found tonight."

Hotaru protested softly, "I'm sure they didn't mean to find trouble. It just found them."

"Lets not fight over it, from the way Rei sounded, there's not time for that." Usagi said, reaching for the door to open it so they could go in. Instead, just as her fingers brushed against the handle, the door swung open and Usagi let out a yelp and jumped back, clearly frightened by what she saw. Haruka and Michiru stepped up in front of her to protect her but they too fell back in shock. Ami peeked over Usagi's shoulder and her mouth fell open. She was staring at herself, but only she wasn’t.

The woman in front of her looked like her, at least from the blue hair color and eyes, though the eyes held a more empty look than Ami's. The hair was longer and the outfit, well the outfit was something Ami would never be caught dead in. Ami's mind started to race, taking in this new development and what it might mean if there were others that looked like the rest of the girls, which there probably was, hence why Rei was so upset.

Hotaru, surprisingly enough, was the first to react. In a flash her Silence Glaive was in hand and pointed it at the Ami look alike's throat. The look alike just smirked and pressed a finger to the tip of the glaive, causing frost to gather and ice to race down the blade and handle. Hotaru yelped and dropped the glaive, and it disappeared. The woman sneered, "Don't try that again or I'll kill you."

Hotaru gasped and backed up against Michiru as Haruka glared at the woman, her hand clenching in a fist. Ice held up her hand and shook one finger at Haruka, "No no no, I don't think so. Let me tell you this right up front, you can't beat me. You will never be able to beat me. So get any silly notions of kicking my ass out of your head ‘cause the only ass that will be kicked around here is yours if you push me. Now follow me if you want to see your friends."

Without another word she turned and headed inside. Exchanging glances the girls followed her in, silently. Within a few minutes they came to a large room where a small table and two chairs had been set up. Behind one of the chairs stood Rei, Minako, and Makoto. Not noticing the others in the room, the rest of the Senshi joined their three friends. It was only after they shared some hugs and got reassurances that everything was ok, did they notice the others in the room. Everyone but Ami, who had come to the conclusion that there were more look alikes, stared in shock. Especially Usagi, who couldn't take her eyes off her counterpart. It was almost too much to comprehend and Usagi stuttered, "Wh-Wh-Who are you people?"

The blonde smirked, "So glad you asked...Princess is it? Why don't we let Rena tell you our little story."

"Yes, I'm sure you'll find it...fascinating." drawled the brunette standing behind Star. All four women looked at their leader, who was sitting in the only other chair in the room. “But please don’t interrupt her. She hates that.”

The girl in particular chuckled darkly, standing, and walking to an unoccupied window seat, staring out of it. “She’s right. Don’t interrupt me. You might find yourselves unable to talk for the rest of the meeting.” She quieted, closing her eyes for a moment, before speaking again.

“I suppose I’ll start when I found out of my ‘destiny’” Rena said, sneering the last word. “I was 15, I think, when I encountered my first vampire. How I had managed to get that old, I’ll never know, for they were abundant. We even had a section on the police force meant for dealing with them, and demons, though they rarely showed up at that point in time.

But I’m getting off the subject. One night, after a hard day of avoiding school and DDR, I decided to go visit some people in the graveyard, and accidentally stumbled across one of the undead. It was then my powers suddenly developed.” she stopped and looked at Usagi. “We don’t need to transform to use our powers, though they aren’t exactly the attacks you have. Thank God… What white magick crap…” she mumbled before continuing.

“When it attacked me, I remember simply hitting it in the stomach, not having noticed the energy surrounding it. The vampire became ash soon after. And after that my hair changed. I began researching these powers as much as possible, and training with them. We didn’t have talking cats, but unless it was Cheshire from Alice®, I doubt any of us would have listened anyway.

About a month after that, I met Ice on one of the rare days I went to school, when she unanimously fried all of the computers in the school with the insert of a floppy disk. We became fast friends after that expulsion, and her powers were discovered when someone tried to mug her. She inadvertently froze part of the wall behind her before dodging, and the moron came away with ice shards embedded in his hand, and ran away screaming like a little girl. I trained her as I had trained myself, and after that, we pretty much just used to powers to cause chaos.

It was a few months afterwards that we met Pyro, in a cell. Ice and I, for assault, Pyro, for arson. We all got out after a night of talking, and explaining our powers. Pyro had developed hers about a year before me, and had been lighting fires all across town since. She had more control than either Ice or I, so she helped us with that.

After that, she introduced us to Strike, and her girlfriend Star, at a street race. Both of them already had their powers as well. Strike used hers to sabotage opponents by frying their engines in races, and Star to help her get what she wanted. It was just us for about 2 and a half years after that. Then, Strike met Speed and her group, who you haven’t met yet, and most likely won’t for a while, at a race, being caught sparking the wires on another opponents car by Incarnate, who said she wouldn’t tell, for she had powers herself. They all did, much more advanced than us.

That night after the race, we had decided to go somewhere to talk about our odd little similarities, when we were ambushed by a slew of vampires. It seemed our powers had been watched very closely by the race, and they wanted us for themselves. Needless to say we got rid of them quickly, but one of them spoke quite a bit before Aqua killed it.

It seems we were made to fight against vampires and demons and keep the world from being covered in darkness. Excuse us if we weren’t too thrilled, though I was happy I get to fight regularly. So, time went on, and we fought and killed the baddies, though we were never exactly the good guys ourselves. Eventually, we found ourselves with jobs.

Ice became one of the country’s most wanted hackers, but got quite a bit of money for her jobs, Star became a jewel thief, working for hire, and getting part of the profit, Strike and Speed continued their racing, having always got their money that way, Aqua and Incarnate going along for the ride, and Pyro… we always said her job was lighting one fire a week, and boy did she work hard to keep that rule. And I… I became the only vampire and demon killer for hire, and got quite a bit of money off of that. Eventually, we all lived in one big house since we pretty much hung out all the time anyway.

Then, not soon after that, we met two… allies in a sense. A vampiress and a fire demon. They were mates; husband and wife in demon speak, and helped us out when we needed. I think all of us knew that the darkness we were fighting would win, but they said it first. I think it was before the last battle, she said:

‘I can smell the portal opening. It brings the smell of blood, decay… war. I love it. It’s my perfect home. Once it opens, we are no longer allies. I’m going home, and I can honestly say I hope you lose. I’ll love the new world, even though your deaths will be tragic. I’ve grown fond.’

A week after that, the battle began. She got her wish, but we didn’t out up much of a fight. We were sick of fighting for bastards who were ungrateful. Let them die. So we lost, and they took over. We ended up here about six months ago.” Rena paused, to smirk. “They should be happy. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve already fought their way to be rulers.”

Silence was heard until Ice chuckled. “You failed to tell them how we got here.”

“Oh, yes. Well, you’re green haired friend helped us. I assume she had her reasons, so don’t ask me why. Any other questions?”

The pure Senshi looked as if they had many questions, but Usagi spoke first.

"Well..." Usagi started, nervously staring at the group across from them. "What about... Didn't you..."

"Spit it out, girlie, we don't have all day." Pyro said, from where she was slowly chipping the paint from her fingernails.

"Well, what about Mamoru... you had him, right?"

All of the corrupt one's eyes went to their leader, who turned her head to the blonde, one eye peeking out from a curtain of hair as if she were Sadako herself. After coldly staring at the girl, she turned back to the window. "I killed him. He was an annoyance."

The pure Senshi all had different reactions, but they all quieted when Usagi stood, staring at her corrupt double. "How can you kill somebody because they annoyed you?" she asked in a trembling voice.

Rena let out a derisive snort. "Funny. Last time I checked, I did that every night when I killed demons and vampires. And if you bring up the fact that vampires were humans once... well, I guess that makes me a murderess then. It doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother them either, so don't go asking if they think I'm in the wrong." she said, motioning to the dark girls by her side.

The silence was deafening as the pure Senshi stared in disbelief, corrupt staring right back, before Usagi broke the silence once more. "You all... You've all killed people?"

"People, demons, vampires, scum... There honestly wasn't much of a difference for any of them. Not there." Ice said, referring to their home dimension. "We had no 'pure light' such as you, so excuse the darkness that resided and slowly took over. Though I do admit we didn't really try to stop it. There wasn't much of a difference for before and after, unless you count the fact that demons and vampires were top of the food chain, instead of humans."

"But, you're human! Surely you felt some remorse-" Usagi said, walking slightly around the table.

Usagi was cut off as Rena rose, speaking. "Shut up. We're too dark to be considered human, no matter the vessel that carries our souls. You remind me of the moron I killed three years ago."

Usagi's eyes widened in nervousness as her corrupt double walked up to her, not stopping until they were face to face. The girl had to stop herself from shivering as she stared into the cold, blank blue orbs that looked back at her.

"Look, Princess," Rena said, spitting out the last word like it was something vile. "We do what we have to for victory, I the most. I'll kill anything that gets in my way." she murmured darkly, hand coming from her jacket pocket to bring a gun out, pushing it under the blonde girl's chin before anyone could act, making Usagi tense up in fear. The other pure Senshi screamed in alarm, but didn't move as a blank gaze was pointed at them, along with Rena's finger going to the trigger. "Including you. I could shoot you now, and not even flinch when you're pretty little skull exploded all over me. Killing is what I do, sweetie. It's my job. And this tiger isn't going to change its stripes just because you want it to."

Minako bit back a cry of distress at the sight of a gun pointed at her princess. The other pure Senshi were shocked as well, but unwilling to do anything that would cost their princess her life. The blonde could see Haruka and Makoto shaking with rage and she took a small step forward, as if to stop them from doing something stupid. Her movement was noticed by her dark counterpart and a low sultry laugh echoed in the darkness. Star moved until she was pressed against Minako, her arms wrapping around the girl in a almost lover like embrace. Her head moved forward until her lips were hovering over Minako's lips.

"Tell me honey, that weren't going to do something stupid like try and save your Princess?" Star whispered softly, and yet everyone could hear her. Minako's eyes widened and she fought to control the urge to tremble. Star smirked and a hand came up and caressed her counterpart's cheek, "See, you're probably thinking that we are so dark and twisted, beyond saving, correct? Well, sweetie, I'll tell you now, we don't want to be saved. You can be the goody two shoes, but every good guy has a corruption, and I'm yours. Rena is Usagi's. And each one of you whities have one, so deal." She let Minako go, pushing her away to where she stumbled before falling, staring up at Star in disgust and fear. Star glanced over to Rena who was watching in mild interest with Usagi still at gunpoint. Walking backwards, she resumed her place next to Pyro and strike. "You do your thing, I'll do mine, and I'll bet I get done first."

Silence reigned for a third time since the beginning of the meeting, Rena placing her gun back in her pocket. The corrupt ones tensed for an attack as their leader went back to her sitting place, but the pure ones were more worried over their princess as she slowly walked back to her place, trembling.

"Hime, are you alright?" Haruka asked, herself and the others rushing to comfort the blonde.

"If she weren't, she'd be dead." Strike pointed out, popping the barbell in her tongue in and out of her mouth, much to the disgust of her double.

The conversation stopped as the door opened. The corrupt Senshi stared in disgust as Mamoru finally arrived. Rena growled in annoyance. "For Selene's sake... The bastard even looks the same."