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It was dark. More than that, it was the kind of true darkness where you could only sort of see where your hand was in front of your face and you suspected that that was only because you knew your hand should be somewhere in the general area of your face. Admittedly, Virgo glowed, but it was still really unnerving, and--well. Virgo was scared of the dark.

She didn't get it. This area was usually so brightly lit, that was why she patrolled there, and also because East Heights tended to have people and people meant she wouldn't be alone. But this quiet little side-street (alongside a park with no fence, but with a low brick wall that hit her about mid-thigh) was completely dark. And empty. Also dark. Did she mention the darkness? Because it was really, really, really dark.

With a deep breath, she steeled herself. The Princess had told them to protect the civilians so she would protect the civilians and she was about midway down the street so she should just keep going. Shouldn't she? Virgo wavered, looking left and right as she walked. If she kept staring at her feet she wouldn't spot any monsters and then the whole ordeal of the dark street would have been for nothing. Nothing at all. This was not acceptable, so she looked up, and--bingo! There, in the trees! It looked like...

It looked like...

She canted her head off to the left. Her mouth dropped open, her nose wrinkled up and her forehead furrowed. Then she shut her mouth, teeth making an audible click. What the hell? A youma unicorn? A youmacorn? What was the world coming to?

All the same, she struck her proper henshin pose and announced as strongly as she could, "I'm Sailor Virgo, Zodiac Senshi of Innocence. In the name of the Princess, I'll destroy you--so won't you please give up?"

Of course it didn't. It did approach her. Slowly. The youma stopped, looked up like it was asking 'is this okay?'. She frowned in what she hoped was an impressive manner and attempted to stare it down. This had no effect, apparently, so instead she kicked in the jaw--that startled it, but instead of attacking it just reared and ran off.

Huh.

Brow still furrowed--since when did youma run?--she leapt after it, weaving around the trees.

The amount of noise the youmacorn was putting out was astonishing. Could there really be that many things that went 'crunch' under four hooves? Virgo put a little extra bounce in her step on a whim, and her eyes widened at what she saw. A Lunar senshi! No, no, no, she wouldn't let the Lunar get hurt--she was a good Zodiac, a good senshi, the Lunar wouldn't get hurt.

She put on a burst of speed, wrapped both her hands along the youma's tail, and dug in her heels. With a surprised whinny, it jerked to a stop and reared again before attempting to charge once more. She felt like her shoulders were trying to rip out of the sockets, but it was a minor pain compared to getting stabbed or beaten by that red-haired Negaverser. So she held on, held out, her heels digging into the dirt. Her hands slipped a bit on the tail, so she held on tighter.

Virgo was sweating. The dark and a horse youma? Her life really, really sucked sometimes. But there was the Lunar senshi to protect; she bit her lip and shook her head. (It didn't help, but she tried to pretend it did.) "Sailor--Sailor whateveryournameis!" There was an undeniable quaver of fear there in her voice--it was a mixed sort of fear. The terror of the dark mixed with her much milder fear of the horse, and then the sick feeling in her gut that she might fail, that the youma might escape and then the dark-haired Lunar might die. "Attack it," she urged, her voice increasing in pitch, "and then go home!"

"No but I would really like it if you did all the same," she said, babbling now as her hands slipped down the tail another inch. "It would be really helpful, I would really like it, please please please--"

She was gratified to see him begin his attack. At least he wasn't trying to sass her, she did out-power him, but why wasn't he running? He should be running. He was a Lunar and she was a Zodiac, didn't he know that she was supposed to be looking out for him? Boys were so stupid, but she didn't have time to worry about that because just then a ball of sand or dirt or something exploded against the face of the youmacorn. Virgo went flying as a hoof collided with her chest; what might have collapsed a human's lung was just going to turn into a really nasty bruise for her. She curled up to speed her rotation, got her feet under her just in time.

Gosh, she felt like a bad-- Well. She was awesome. That was that.

But now the youmacorn was free, if blinded; she straightened up, got her balance back, and threw herself at the monster again. This time Virgo didn't bother grabbing for the youmacorn. Why should she, when she had a much better defense for the Lunar? "Virgo Immaculate Reflection," she said, swinging one hand away from the youmacorn's mane to point at Taranis. Abruptly, she stopped glowing; instead, his glow had intensified, turned to a strange springtime green-brown.

Virgo was thrown away from the monster as it thrashed, this time colliding with a tree. Stupid Lunars, distracting her. She dove back in, kicking up at the unicorn-like youma's barrel chest.

She kicked out at the youmacorn's knees--how were you supposed to take down a horse? Or a bear? She didn't have any kind of physical attack besides what she was doing now, which appeared to be some kind of mix between uncoordinated gymnastics, a half-understanding of how to ride a horse, and self-defense training. It did not look all that professional, but it was effective; there was a snap somewhere inside the youma when she attempted to pull it back.

This, unfortunately, didn't seem to have done much except make it mad. She braced herself for pain, because the poor stupid Sailor Taranis was too busy looking for her attack to look out for himself. The horn ripped across his face, and by proxy across hers. Virgo was getting really good at ignoring it when things hurt; granted, she still let out a tiny cry and her hands slipped on the youmacorn's back. But she didn't scream (this could be largely attributed to the fact that she seemed unaware of the blood dripping down the side of her face).

"Just a scratch," she ground out through clenched teeth. Then the glorious, lovely feeling of getting hit in the side by what felt like a brick wall. This time she didn't make any sound at all, just a harsh expulsion of breath. "Come on," she cried over her shoulder; "Get up, Sailor Taranis! Please!" He shouldn't even be hurting right now. Ugh ugh ugh!

She kicked one more time at the youmacorn's foreleg. It was a weaker attack than before, since she was also clutching her side, but with a satisfying crack, the joint reversed completely; Virgo scrambled out of the way as the youmacorn fell to one side.

"I know," Sailor Virgo said. His attack took out the youma, and she winced when she saw he was still moving through the air. This was going to hurt--

And it did. She whimpered, curling her hand against her abdomen, and settled on the ground to check over the state of her injuries. Taranis's glow returned to its normal shade, and her soft radiance shimmered back into view. By this light, she examined her hand; her side was fine, it felt fine, just a dull ache, but her hand felt so weird. But her fingers moved all right; it hurt a little, like the skin was bruised, but they moved all right.

Then she attempted to flex her wrist. It moved all right horizontally, but side to side it just... stopped. It didn't hurt, it just wouldn't bend. This fact discovered, she cradled her hand to her chest and said, "Are you okay, Sailor--um--Taranis, yes?" She walked towards him, uninjured hand extended. "My name is Sailor Virgo, Zodiac senshi of Innocence. It's nice to meet you!"

She glanced off to the side, but only for a moment. Then her eyes were back on his ascot; she seemed to be avoiding his face for some odd reason. One heel scuffed in the dirt for a moment as she thought about what to say. Everyone seemed to focus on her attack... "I know," she repeated. "No one ever does." And if they did, she didn't know what she would do. Still protect them, probably, but she would wonder...

Virgo shook her head, let go of his hand to continue cradling her wrist. "Yes, that's it," she acknowledged, taking in his shocked expression. Then she smiled, shaking her head again. "It's not so bad." She reached up to brush her hair behind an ear, winced as her fingertips brushed the scratch on her face. "No," she said to his disbelieving expression, "it's not."

How could she explain this?

"The Zodiac Court protects the Lunar Court. You're a Lunar senshi, so anything that makes my job easier is appreciated. For a minute, I can keep you perfectly safe from any harm." A slightly beatific smile, and then, "So that makes everything worth it."

"Sixteen," she said, still smiling that obscenely beatific and kind smile. But it guttered for a moment, and she frowned down at her injured wrist. "Fifteen." This was the last reduction, wasn't--no. Now she looked genuinely sad. "No, that's not correct. Fourteen. There are fourteen of us."

Then, wrist still to her chest, she held up a hand. Evidently she was going to count it off for him. "Aries, the Captain," one finger, "Taurus, the Vice-Captain," two fingers, "Gemini Alpha, Gemini Beta, Cancer, Leo, me, Libra, Scorpio--" here she stopped. "We had Sagittarius..." And, much subdued, finished: "Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. Then the Princess, Princess Chronos, and Zue, our Guardian Cat." Of the missing two, she said nothing more, but her smile was not quite so perfect anymore.

Taranis was lucky she hadn't noticed the light splattering of blood on her collar. The bluenette seemed politely attentive, but that would end the second she noticed the droplets. "...Right! Taranis. It isn't safe to be out at night alone, even for Zodiac senshi. So--if you ever need anyone to patrol with you, just call one of us, or come to the Crystal Academy campus and the Captain will set you up with somebody. We're here to protect you and the rest of the Lunars, so let any other senshi you see know, too, okay? Please?"

The bluenette shook her head, the circlet glimmering in the light from their glow. "No, of course not! Aquarius goes to Meadowview, and Gemini Alpha, and Gemini Beta, and Leo goes there! And Taurus! And Scorpio, and Zue." Her look perked up, and she leaned in conspiratorially. "Leo's my brother," she said, in the manner of one sharing a huge secret.

This said, she leaned back out. "The senshi's strongest abilities surface in teams." Her Captain had been quite firm about this. Quite firm. So she nodded firmly, and said, "We lost Sagittarius because he was alone. We will not allow any other senshi to die because they are alone."

Each one would feel like a personal failure to Virgo, at least. That was a surety. Taranis could take it to the bank. "So find someone with abilities that compliment yours and patrol with them, please?"