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Once, Vanessa had spent more time as Sailor Vulcan than she had as herself. She'd gone out as the senshi every possible chance in her earliest days, and made a bit of a reputation for herself as 'the funny girl who could carry all of Mrs. Poughkeepsie's grocery bags across the road in one trip.' Mr. Rae had worried a great deal, and asked questions that she wasn't sharp enough to answer with a whole lot of believability.

Sailor Vulcan had come a long way since then.

She was no longer an ignorant child. While it was true that Vanessa still wasn't sure what the ******** she was supposed to be doing a lot of the time, she had gotten a handle on Sailor Vulcan's power. Donning the white and gold fuku always thrilled her. If she could be sure of nothing else in life, Vulcan was at least confident in her own abilities.

The streets of Destiny City were as familiar to her now as the back of her hand. It was a cliche, but it was also true. Vanessa was certain that she had left no inch of the metropolis unexplored. Kam hadn't asked her to, but she'd picked up the hunt for Khetal in his absence. She'd understood why he had to go, but she'd also wanted him back. And so she'd worked day and night for a long time, looking everywhere she could think of for any sign of Kam's little brother-- eventually having to accept that Khetal had to be somewhere else, and that she might never see Kam again.

But Kam had come back. And he had a lead.

Except for when Blake wanted her company, Vanessa had spent every night since Kam's homecoming in full senshi regalia, strolling down the city streets. Hunting for Alkaid, knowing that she might never find her.

Vulcan dusted youma to keep herself occupied, and apprehended a thief sneaking out of a second story window. He swiped at her with a knife, steel glinting cold in the moonlight. Vulcan avoided getting stabbed by darting to the side, sliding across the shingles on her calf to trip him. He fell with a cry, and she slammed the heel of her palm into his wrist, wrenching the knife out of his fingers with her other hand. She chucked it to the ground, cursing loudly when he bit her arm instead, and pulled him back through the window.

It took longer than Vanessa liked to get the thief tied up. He was skinny, but seemed almost made of wire, and she had to shove the heel of her shoe into his spine before he sat still. Vulcan used her own sash to fasten his hands behind his back, and then started emptying his pockets.

The people who belonged to the house weren't at home.

It was quiet enough on the street oustide that the sound of Alkaid's hands clapping together echoed off the surrounding houses. Vulcan looked up from where she crouched over the thief, golden eyes sweeping across the night to where Alkaid radiated with an awful strength.

The senshi pursed her lips. She'd sensed the darkness of the other woman's signature, but had not anticipated spending so much time with the man in the ski mask underneath her foot.

Vulcan moved to grip the window sill, and leaned out of it.

"I'm not going to do that," she said.

Super Van might have trusted Alkaid enough to hand over the criminal like that. Sailor Vulcan didn't. As awful as it was to steal jewelery from honest people on vacation, Vanessa was pretty sure that the man behind her deserved a kinder fate than the one this mysterious woman had in mind for him. The tone of Alkaid's voice and the look on her face didn't just hint at something dark.

There was something wrong about her.

Vanessa zeroed in on Alkaid's long dreadlocks. Kam had said almost nothing about the woman who'd cracked his ribs and broken his leg, but he had dreadlocks too. The logic wasn't sound, and she knew it wasn't, but something about their matching hairstyles had Vanessa connecting one to the other.

"Who are you?" she asked, almost breathless with hope, excited by the prospect of going up against something with such horrible power.

It was her.

After two years of waiting for Kam to come home, and searching for Khetal, the key to finding him had fallen into their outstretched hands. Vulcan was practically beside herself with excitement. Adrenaline surged through her veins like a drug; impeding her judgment, making it difficult to see Alkaid as anything other than an obstacle that needed to be taken out.

Vanessa forgot all about the man tied up on the floor behind her, fingers turning white where they gripped the windowsill. She narrowed her eyes down at Alkaid, infuriated by the way the other woman strolled. As though she hadn't fractured Kam's ribs, or his leg. Or his heart-- taunting him about Khetal like that.

"Sailor Vulcan," she said, helpless to keep the ire out of her voice, "Senshi of Volcanoes."

Vulcan took a deep breath, and had to check herself. While she was ready for this fight, Alkaid had her outmatched. They both knew it. But Vulcan didn't need to win. Not this time. She wanted information.

Kam's peace of mind was more important than her pride.

"I... I know about Khetal."

Strategy had never been Vulcan's forte, and she was even worse at mind games. Alkaid knew something about Khetal. But, what? Kam had not wanted to talk about whatever it was that happened between him and Alkaid. Vulcan was shooting in the dark, seeking answers to formless questions, confused about how to manipulate someone into giving her the information that she needed without physically beating it out of them.

Her heart leapt victoriously when Alkaid's eyes narrowed. It was obvious to Vulcan that she'd struck a nerve, but she didn't have the faintest clue why. What was Khetal to Alkaid? He was Kam's little brother, and a civilian-

'There are worse things than being dead, Van.'

It struck her suddenly what Kam's words must have meant. Vulcan scowled down at Alkaid's defiance, refusing to believe the connections her brain was making between Khetal and the creepy little traitor throwing a tantrum beneath the window.

But then Alkaid vanished.

"What the-

Vulcan reeled backwards, stunned when the concentration of chaos energy that was Alkaid reappeared at her side. She swore, lifting an arm to shield herself from the electric cord. It coiled around her forearm like a snake. Vulcan grit her teeth, looked Alkaid in the eye, and seized the cord in both hands. She used it to try and yank the lamp out of Alkaid's grip.

"b***h," she said, "I already ******** owe you."

Holy s**t.

Vanessa's heart swooped into her stomach when Alkaid forced her upper body out the window. There was a stretch of roof directly underneath her, but that mattered for little when a good shove from Alkaid could send her sprawling over the edge and onto the ground below. Not that Vulcan couldn't take a little tumble from a second story window.

She'd be fine. As long as she didn't land on her head.

The white of the electric cord stood against the caramel of her skin. It dug in, and was slowly, but surely, cutting off the circulation to her hand. Vulcan grit her teeth, fingers tight around the pole lamp. She pushed back, and then cried out when Alkaid slammed down on her foot. Pain shot up her leg.

Alkaid was right. Vulcan knew nothing. And she didn't have the faintest clue how to get the information that she was looking for.

Instinct had Vulcan letting go of the lamp with one hand, letting the cord unravel. She seized it without thinking, prepared to try wrapping it around Alkaid's neck. At the last second she changed her mind, and struck the other woman across the face with the back of her hand.

The electric cord went flying.

The back of her hand stung where it'd smacked against the other woman's face, but the pain was sweet, and reminded Vulcan of her own power. She watched Alkaid stagger backwards through narrowed eyes, heart pumping satisfaction through her veins.

There was a sneer on Vulcan's lips when Alkaid looked back.

It was dark in the house, but Alkaid's face was illuminated by the light of the moon that streamed in through the open window. Vulcan gasped, eyes widening at the site of the dents in Alkaid's cheek. For a moment she was horrified. The next she was exhilarated. Vulcan had gone looking for this fight anticipating defeat, and not caring about that because Kam needed answers.

Alkaid might not have been human anymore. But she was still breakable-- and Vanessa had shattered more than her fair share of dinner plates.

She could win.

Vulcan caught the lamp after Alkaid threw it, and chucked it at the wall herself. The bulb shattered into tiny pieces, and was lost to the carpet.

She pursued Alkaid without a thought for the thief tied up on the floor, the sound of her own excited pulse rushing in her ears. Vanessa was not clever, but she had a resolve like steel, and an affinity for battle. She moved slowly throughout the house, relying on her ears when her eyes failed her in the dark, and stopped at the top of the staircase.

Where had Alkaid gone?

Fast as flies could be, spiders were almost always smarter. After Alkaid shouted there was little time for Vulcan to do anything other than spin around, golden eyes narrowed in defence against the bright light that appeared suddenly above the corrupt senshi's hands. She lifted her hands to shield her face.

The first comet hit Vulcan square in the side, and almost knocked her over. It was followed by a second, and then a third before Vulcan remembered she could use magic too. She balanced precariously at the top of the stairs, heels close to the edge, and slammed the bracers on her wrists together. The gold glinted in the light of Alkaid's attack.

"Extreme Vulcan Shield!"

The house started to shake. Between Alkaid and Vulcan the floor cracked. Jets of steam and sulphur dioxide shot up from the ground, but the fourth and fifth comets struck Vulcan in the chest, knocking the wind out of her, before she could finish putting up the wall. Her foot slipped, and she stumbled backwards, hands flying to grip the stair rail.

Her magic failed.

Vulcan grit her teeth together against the pain that blossomed in her chest and at her side, and whirled to flee down the stairs, hating herself for having to retreat. Vanessa had never been afraid of pain, but there was nothing she could do when every one of Alkaid's blasts was like being punched by a really angry bear.

She couldn't ******** breathe, and she was hurting.