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Her smoke cloud was a churning funnel zooming around the youma. Sailor Ares had just begun to prepare for a physical strike when Chaonis interrupted her. She was not one to take orders from anyone who was not her direct superior, and even then, she could be a little skeptical if she disagreed with their choices. But there was something in his sudden seriousness that whispered listen to him. Her intel on this character was nonexistent. If he was warning her to run, then there might be a good reason. She knew that working together was sometimes a necessity when two senshi were thrown together like this, as much as she disliked the idea.

A few civilians had fled back to the car that the two senshi had once occupied. A small child was crying and grasping at his mother's hand, trying to stir her. An old man was clutching an arm that looked broken, even at this distance. There were two middle aged women shaking and holding one another. One stood and crossed to the crying child, began to comfort him. They needed assistance.

It wasn't the kind of aide she usually liked to do, but it seemed like a place where she was needed. "It's a tactical choice," she said briskly. "Take this youma down then. I don't want to have to come back in to clean up." Sailor Ares was halfway down the car before those words could escape. She took one last glimpse and Chaonis and then dove to the other cart and began to assist the injured.

Ares could only hope Chaonis knew what he was doing.

Curiosity nagged Ares to turn around and watch whatever it was the other senshi was going to do. A sense of duty forced her to keep her attention on the civilians. One of the middle-aged women shouted, "Look what your kind has done! Destiny City was fine before you came along!" Her anger dissolved into sobs, and she curled up against the stained wall of the subway car, clutching her purse to her chest.

The words bounced off of Ares like hail against a car hood, leaving small, imperceptible dents in her armor. She knelt beside the other middle-aged woman. Her name was Madeline, she said, fingers steady over the body of the woman on the floor. She was a nurse, and Ares didn't have to feel for a pulse herself to know that this mother was gone. The little boy was oozing tears and snot, clutching to the nurse.

Madeline looked up at Ares, her cheeks flushed. "My God, you're just a child," she whispered. Ares frowned and the older woman shook her head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to suggest that you were incapable." She lifted the small boy into her arms. "There is nothing we can do for her." A hand gestured to the dead woman on the car's floor. "I don't know what happened, but there's no--"

The words were cut short by the sudden lurching of the train. Ares tumbled headfirst over the dead woman's body, landing against the opposite wall. The nurse sprawled to the side at the last moment, taking the hit with her back to keep the little boy safe. The others clung fast to their seats and poles. Someone screamed.

The train skidded to a halt. Air whistled in and out of the car, too much air. When Ares sat up, she immediately shot her glare toward the car where she had left Chaonis. It was not there. Well -- not in any recognizable way. A gaping hole revealed the lengths of black track that extended beyond this subway train. The metal of the car that Chaonis was on had gnarled and twisted like a root, compacted in on itself. It had even bent the end of the car that Ares and the other survivors were trapped on, dipping the metal down so that it skidded against the electrified track.

The other senshi.

Ares was on her feet and running. She hopped the empty space onto the crushed car behind her. "Caution tape?" she shouted. Damn her for not learning his name. "Caution tape, can you hear me?" There was no response. Her arms burned as she struggled to rip free the interlocked chunks of metal. One piece bit into her hand, but she continued to work, slowly uncovering a small patch.

A gloved hand flopped out. "Stay with me, tough guy," she said, prying free more and more metal. Footsteps echoed down the track. She heard one of the survivors announce that the police were there. One of the middle aged women began shouting that there were terrorists on board who had just killed a mother. A shot rang out. Ares dodged it.

Her tugging became more frantic, her shoulder screaming for relief from the effort. Chaonis was unconscious. Ares fought to drape him over her shoulder, grunted at the sudden fiery pain in her shoulder. She could hear a voice shouting, "Secure the suspects! Citizens, stand down!" Sailor Ares spared one last furious glance at the car full of survivors, people who were alive only because of her and the other senshi's efforts, before hopping out on to the subway track.

It was a narrow squeeze, but Ares managed it. She could hear the police behind her. Not fast enough, never fast enough. A shot rang out. "Stop, by order of the DC Police, stop!" Damn, they were too close.

The tight passageway burst out into openness at the stop that they had just passed. Ares got onto the platform. A flashlight shone down the stairs leading to the street. More officers. With her options quickly running out, Ares did the one thing she could, even if the effort it would take might knock her out at the knees. She hoisted Chaonis up, squared herself with the graffiti'd mirror directly ahead, and dashed through it just a bullet raced behind them.

It shattered the mirror, but the two senshi were gone.

They emerged several blocks away from a full-length mirror beside a well-worn photo booth. Sailor Ares gasped for breath and then promptly collapsed, dropping Chaonis in the process.

The tapping on her forehead prompted a pair of hazy gray eyes to flash open. There was a brief murmur of annoyance in them, but it quickly subsided into pain. Her shoulder hurt -- really hurt. It wasn't the first time she had dislocated it, not by a long shot, and that was precisely the problem. Do that enough and, senshi or not, there would be permanent repercussions. Is this what was to become of them all? To break down like faulty machinery well before they reached middle age? Well before most other people their age would? A part of Ares had always looked at early death as a likely outcome for her life -- taking a bullet, perhaps, for Selene -- and so the squeaks and tremors of her joints gave her little pause.

Still, this ******** hurt.

It hurt worse that she had pushed her own limits to bring Chaonis through the mirror. Ares could travel by herself just fine, but taking along a guest was considerably more challenging. She had only done it once before with Vanessa when they were escaping Captain Nealite and Lt. Scheelite, the night Hairy Pete died. That fight had not been as wearing as this one though, and so it was with a heaving sigh that she brushed the other senshi's finger away and flipped over onto her back to lie flat.

Her chest rose in heaving breaths. "One second," she spat out, face slick with sweat. "Taking someone through the mirror can be--" she searched for the right word, "--difficult."

The stars shone above her like a wafting sea of phosphorescent plankton, weaving between pockets of space and surging out past the horizon. It wasn't often that Ares took the time to look up at the stars. On the Black Earth, she had kept her chin raised and wondered, really wondered, what might lie beyond that curtain. She knew her Queen had once traveled to another place, another plane really, but it was not a time they often spoke of. The stars brought a p***k of sadness to her nose.

She sat up and propped herself up against the side of the photobooth. "It is for me," she quipped, closing her eyes and resting her head back against the smooth metal. "I'm Ares." For a moment, she hesitated. Normally, this was where she proclaimed herself a member of the Black Moon Kingdom, name-dropped Nehelenia, and otherwise puffed her chest out for all to see. But what was she to do now? What was she a part of if her Kingdom had been separated from her, perhaps forever?

Ares let out a long sigh. "Don't try that at home," she said, a poor attempt at humor. Ares had never really been funny. "You'll just get a face full of broken glass." The injury and the memories of her dead comrades kept Ares from gloating over saving his life. Truth was, he had saved hers too. Despite her pride, Ares could never let a good show of skill go uncomplimented. She moved her gaze to him and said, "You stopped the youma from charging me when I was down. I owed you one."

Her eyes moved down the street. Not a car in sight. Her legs were feeling less like jelly, but she wasn't certain she was fit to stand just yet.

Ares snorted and rubbed at her left knee. "I was too busy saving starseeds to worry about some pesky youma," she quipped lightly. It was banter. It was a sort of banter. She was a fan of this kind of post-battle ribbing. Whenever she battled with Hector, they would spend more time reliving the battle afterward than it actually took for them to down whatever enemy it was. Hector. Dead, too -- dead like the rest.

The whisper of happiness on her lips faded. Death was everywhere. She knew that. It had just been around her more than usual, and it was the people she cared about that came out on the losing end.

With a grunt, Ares staggered to her feet, clutching at the photobooth for support. She took a moment to gain her balance and then stepped away. "I'm fine. I can manage it alone." This wasn't entirely true. Ares planned on getting back to the apartment where he mother was staying, rustling up some crocodile tears, and then bursting in to say that she had been mugged and needed to see a doctor. The shoulder needed a medical opinion. Of that, she was sure.

Still, no reason to let Chaonis know that.

Brushing her hands off on her thighs, Ares turned once more to face the boy who had assisted her in taking down that youma. Her opinion had changed of him, but she was still lukewarm. Ares could be that way for a long time. She opened her lips as if to say something, but reconsidered it. They had said enough, done enough. She was tired, too tired for any more conversation.

Without a word, Ares walked away, turned down the street, and then disappeared into the night.