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When Fallon came to, she was only aware of one thing: light. Blinding whiteness cast warmth down on her, blurring her already hazy vision. For a moment, before her mind caught up with reality, she wondered if she had died in the ballet studio. Was this heaven now? Was this the end of her short life?

A woman stood at her side, whispering her name. She touched at a tube sticking out of the crook of Fallon's arm, injected something into it. Fallon reached out to grip her wrist, but the woman simply held the casted hand away until Fallon gave up and rested it back on her chest.

Her hearing was muddled, like she was listening through a door, but she made out the woman speaking to someone in the room. She said, "She should be fully with us soon. Just try to keep her calm. Call for me when she is lucid. The police have been wanting to speak to her, but the doctor will have to check her out first." A nurse. This woman was a nurse, which meant that this was a hospital.

As the nurse left the room, Fallon fought to put together the pieces of her night. There was a battle -- with Tanzanite. The youma-monster. Was she even human? Or had she simply become a super-powered youma? The ballet studio. It was destroyed, no doubt it would be in the news. Ares had glimpsed her death in that place, and then... the mirrors... they had... glowed? She had changed, evolved. After all this time in Destiny City, she had finally begun to move closer to her Black Moon acme of power.

So how had she gotten to the hospital?

Watery magenta eyes blinked themselves clear. Fallon turned her head and found a familiar face sitting in the chair beside her bed. "Eilian..." she said in a hush. "Eilian, what happened to me?"

There wasn't much time. Fallon appreciated the clipped, hurried manner in which Eilian spoke. She was a girl who did not allow for nonsense, and that was one of Fallon's favorite traits in other people. All of the information filtered slowly into Fallon's head. She didn't remember anything from Crystal Academy. She barely remembered the last few moments before she left that ballet studio either.

Her memory came back to her in flickers and glimmers until she could taste the bile of Tanzanite's youma arm rising in her throat all over again. "Tanzanite," she said quickly, straining against the limb-stiffness caused by her hospital stay. "I faced her. I... I wasn't entirely honest with you about my patrol plans for the night. I staked her out, and when I had her cornered, I attacked. Alone." It was true that Blood Moon Court members had to report on their patrol plans. Not only did it ensure that they spread out their efforts evenly, but it also provided a safety net in case anyone ran into trouble.

Fallon had simply chosen to cut the strings on that net.

Now was not the time for lies. She needed to tell it all to Eilian, and she needed to do it now before the nurse came back. "She is no longer who reports say she is. She has become a General, and her... her arm is... I don't know. Worse. It's terr--" She stopped. "It's... a challenge." So was swimming through lava.

The news of her name being carved into the bodies of children stilled Fallon's heart. Tanzanite had threatened it, but the Senshi of Smoke had been so certain she would win that fight. "It was her. She carved the name into the girls. She said she would do it, and Tanzanite is, if nothing, a woman of her word." A dark laugh rolled from her lips, an afterthought. "I rescued two teenagers that night, but the rest perished. And then, those little girls too." Her eyelids drooped down. Disappointment seeped into the lines of her face.

It wasn't just the deaths of these girls that weighed on her. It was the sound failure of her entire attempt. While some might praise her for simply surviving against a General of the Negaverse, Fallon could only feel disappointment that things hadn't gone precisely how she planned. There had been so much planning, so much good planning.

Outside the window, Fallon saw the nurse talking to a woman in a long white coat. They didn't have much longer to go without interruption. "Eilian, I failed. If I hadn't of transitioned in power, I would have failed for the last time ever. And I deserved it. There is no excuse for that kind of failure." Darkness clouded her eyes. Fallon was her own worst enemy, and in that moment, she could only feel like the biggest waste of air on the entire planet for her shortcomings.

She was so wrapped up in those thoughts that she paid no heed to Eilian's presence there, why she went to her room of all places, or why there was an overnight bag sitting in the chair beside her comrade.

There was a silent hum in the air of the mutual recognition of disappointment in Ares. Of course, Eilian was disappointed for entirely different reasons than Fallon. Fallon felt that she failed because Tanzanite lived; Eilian felt that Ares was reckless and foolhardy. The leader of the Blood Moon had done exactly what she warned every single member not to do. She simply failed to see her own shortcomings, even when they were staring her in the face -- even when it put her into a hospital bed.

Fallon watched calmly as Eilian took notes. It was one of her favorite characteristics of the girl and had won her an instant spot by Ares's side as an unofficial secretary for the organization. If she wasn't still affiliated with Team Vogue, she would have already been invited to join the ISS. Her analytical nature didn't hurt either. "I was much more than a super senshi before," she said sharply. Sometimes, Ares complained about the limitations of her current body. It was odd to have her soul displaced into a weaker form, and she had said as much to Eilian before.

But Ares hadn't told Eilian everything -- namely, that she was the Blood Moon Queen. "Yes, well..." she trailed off. She didn't want to lie to Eilian, but it wasn't her rank to know the truth.

The nurse took the pressure off by bustling back into the room, no doctor in sight. She checked Fallon's vitals again and made a few notes on her chart. "The doctor is making rounds on the floor, but we're a little backed up. Did you need me to call anyone for you?" Fallon glanced to Eilian and then shook her head 'no.' Her parents were out of the country. She could only hope that cell service there was bad enough to keep them from ever learning she had been hospitalized... again.

Once the nurse was gone again, Fallon turned back toward Eilian. "Is there any news? How far has my injury diffused down the Court? I assume the ISS was made aware."

Fallon didn't react when Eilian touched her hand, beyond a mere flickering of eyes to the spot and then back up to Eilian's face. If they were in fuku, this sort of comfort would be unacceptable, but here in the hospital, she appreciated the quiet gesture. More than that, of course, she appreciated Eilian getting her here in the first place. A lot of other BMCers might have reacted less effectively to find their captain sprawling half-dead out of a mirror. Eilian was, if anything, entirely dependable.

"Hopefully I am out of here soon, even if it means missing out on the perfomance of the efficient young blonde," Fallon said, a touch of quiet humor affecting the edge of her words. She eyed the IV in her arm. For a second, her gaze suggested she might be preparing to rip it out and storm out of the hospital, but after a moment, she relaxed back into the pillow and stared out the window.

The snow had melted for now, but it would be back. It was only January. February would certainly bring worse weather, wouldn't it? Something was brewing on the horizon, and Fallon was not convinced it was entirely the weather. The air hummed electric. "I started something with that attack," she said suddenly. "Tanzanite is our mark. If we kill her, then we send a message to the Negaverse. We are not like the others. We will not cower behind invisible princesses and guardian cats full of riddles. We will go after one of your strongest and kill her because she is so strong. Where they build up walls, we will bring sledgehammers to destroy their foundations." Fallon tried to sit up, but a sharp pain split her side. She winced and then relaxed onto the bed again.

Outside, the nurse was busy talking to another woman in a long white coat. It seemed like the two were flirting. Fallon sighed and then said, "A mirror please. And a brush. Do you have my makeup bag in there?" She gestured to the kit at Eilian's side. "I will need to call a meeting with the ISS immediately. Alert Laocoon to spread the message. Tell Gunn to come early. I need to address something with her before the others arrive. And you--" Her eyes hardened.

"Well, I would love for you to attend. You would be indispensible to us, of course, but your conflicts of interest continue to... persist." It was no secret that she was referring to Sailor Albali's continued participation in the affairs of Team Vogue. It was a smaller faction of senshi. Ares would have loved to absorb them into the ranks of the Blood Moon Court, but so far, they had resisted her offer. It was unfortunate, certainly, so she had instead begun to hack away at individual members, hoping to get them one by one instead. Albali was the one she seemed the most fixated on convincing, though there were certainly others with more experience and battle training within the ranks. "Perhaps they are having some sort of scary movie sleepover you could spend your evening on instead?"

The timing was not great for her to attack Team Vogue, but Fallon never skipped an opportunity to try to convince Albali of what she was missing out by holding on to them. Not even in the hospital, not even after all that Eilian had done for her.

Fallon was, if anything, a creature of habit.

Dear God, Fallon could've kissed Eilian. As she took note of each dutifully covered grooming accessory with increasing glee, she felt more and more certain that she made the right choice when choosing which Blood Moon senshi's to Hail Mary her body through in a moment of desperation. Truth be told, Ares had planned on traveling instead to Gunn's bedroom. It was a bit of a mystery to her why her brain had focused on Eilian instead. No matter -- clearly her mind had prevailed over her initial instinct.

Ticking fingers bounced from bag to bag as Fallon arranged the toiletries in the order she was accustomed to having them during her hospital stays -- yes, plural. She angled the swiveling hospital tray to cross her body and pressed the bed controls to make herself more upright. Her eyes bounced to Eilian briefly when the girl touched on her changing feelings toward Vogue. It was all Fallon could do to maintain her passive expression.

"While it is admirable that Perseus remains so dedicated to her team," she began, lifting a hairbrush, "her talents would be better served in our ranks."

This was not the first time Ares had made such a statement. She had originally gone after Team Vogue with the purpose of recruiting their captains and doing some recon on the team itself. She noticed Abali on patrol one night and decided to focus her efforts on her instead. Originally, she was just going to use Albali to figure out how to best recruit the entire team, but after a few meetings, Ares realized that the senshi she thought useful only as a gateway to greater power was an asset in and of herself.

If she had it her way, Ares would see the Blood Moon absorb all of Team Vogue. She was certain she could instill some order in Rosalind, perhaps she could even bring out the inner savage in that Calypso -- at least the girl could be a vital resource as a decoy to lure in Negas. Yet they resisted. It was an obstacle she still intended to overcome, starting with Albali. And for the first time in a long time, she felt as though she were making headway.

The brush began to move slowly through Fallon's hair. "You are capable of amazing things, Eilian," she said. "But in order to become warriors, we have to learn to priortitize victory above all else -- even friendships." The door opened abruptly, and the nurse and doctor bustled in.

For now, this conversation was done, but when Fallon left the hospital the next morning, she called Eilian to her side once more. It was time to plan. It was time for action.

The time was now.