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When the world rushed back into focus, Super Sailor Taranis was still clutching both his senshiphone and his roommate close to his chest. His hands were drenched in sweat, his heart beating erratically against his ribcage. That had been incredibly close, too close. His eyes fell to his lap. Tate was curled there, in his arms, almost like a child. He hardly remembered dragging her into his lap, and the sudden realization of their closeness made him balk. It was like spooning his sister -- not exactly the kind of closeness he wanted with Tate.

Awkwardly, Taranis inched away, dragging one leg out from under himself so that Tate relaxed onto the warm sand of his asteroid. It was strange. This was only his second time venturing through the galaxy to this world from a life long ago, and yet, he already felt a certain amount of safeness here -- and sadness too. There was no arguing that this world was a desolate one. Just as he remembered, the sandstone buildings with their bright gold wiring formed a hack-and-slash outline against the hazy protective dome that loomed in the distance. Even after the obvious destruction that had been wrought on the surface, it was a marvel to the Senshi of Sand that the bubble persisted.

What had he done? He didn't even know that he could take someone with him to his asteroid, let alone that he could take a civilian. But there had been no other option. Linarite was at the door, and Tate's life was on the line. So here they were. Together.

In space.

Taranis sat there in silence for a moment. The experience of the travel was still incredibly jarring for him. He could only imagine how Tate felt. After a few bated breaths, he said, "Tate, you're not dead." If he was in her shoes, he was certain that would be one of the primary assumptions. How else could such an otherwordly transportation be explained?

"Tate. Please... don't freak out."

Ack, how to proceed. There was a part of Taranis that just wanted to blurt out his name, his real name, to tell her not to be scared because he could protect her and -- ahaha, how funny that she had been living with a senshi this entire time? A wiser, sterner voice in his mind commanded him to stop. If Tate knew his true identity it would not only put himself in danger; it would put Tate at risk as well. It was simply for the best that he skirted the issue... but in a direct way.

"Tate," he said again, slowly. "I know who you are because you know me. I don't just mean as this -- as Sailor Taranis. I mean... as who I really am."

Sitting in the sand as they were, Taranis felt as though they were just two kids playing in a sandbox, trying to sort out how to build the best castle. This situation was, unfortunately, not so carefree. An earnestness carried in his voice, an intensity in his eyes. He was chosing his words carefully and the effort was obvious. "I cannot tell you who I really am because it would be dangerous for you, and for me. There is a reason senshi have secret identities, just like there is a reason--" he stifled the bile rising in his throat "--that the Negaverse does too." One gloved hand reached out and stirred a tiny stream of sand. It was a nervous gesture.

"I can't tell you who I am, but I can tell you that I am a friend -- and I won't let anyone hurt you. I just... I have to ask you to trust me." Above the pair, the air stirred electric, a sudden pulse. Taranis looked up, confused, but said nothing. "Your other question is... more complicated." Hm... how to tell her in the most easy-to-digest way?

After a few moments of pondering, the Senshi of Sand simply blurted out: "We're in space."

It was a welcome relief to see that Tate didn't press the issue of his identity. Granted, the conversation was far from over, but it put the Senshi of Sand at ease when she didn't immediately launch into 20-questions-until-I-know-who-you-are. He was risking enough as it was. He wasn't sure how much farther he could go. No, no, no. Better be on the safe side. He needed to make sure he didn't reference anything that only the two of them would know.

This was going to take a lot of concentration.

His eyes followed hers up to the storm brewing outside of the dome. When he was here last, the sky and all the stars in it had been clear. The wiring on the homes began to hum lowly. Was this... should this be familiar to him? Taranis shook the thought away to focus on the situation at hand. He owed Tate that much.

Still, her frankness made him laugh. "Tate, I'm not ******** with you. This is space. More specfically, this is my home asteroid -- this is the asteroid Taranis. We are floating somewhere out in the galaxy, orbiting near-Earth... though you can't see it from here." Yes, as a matter of fact, wikipedia was very useful when it came to obscure asteroids. "This... is new for me too. I only found out I could travel here a month ago. Only senshi can do it, as far as I know. I've spoken to a few others who have made the journey but... never with a civilian before." This was like science! See? Tate had lived; therefore, civilians could survive the journey.

"I only brought you here because I saw no other option. You know just about as much on this place as I do. I've only been here once, and briefly. With Linarite hounding us back in that closet... well, we might need to settle in for a little bit, just to be safe."

Overhead, a spear of lightning crashed through the barrier and struck the ground thirty feet away. Taranis leaped to his feet. "Tate, come on. We should head inside." He headed off in the direction of the first bulding he had ever entered on the asteroid. It was mostly in-tact, and he led Tate inside, shutting the door. "We should be safe in here."

Once they had hustled inside and slammed the door behind them, Taranis allowed himself a moment to shoot Tate an amused look. "Not Superman," he had said suddenly, as if the mere notion of it was utterly ludricrous. "I throw sand, Tate. He was an alien with a much wider repetoire." An alien. It was what he was, wasn't it? For some reason, that word had never occurred to him, even with his last space odyssey.

Taranis raked his hands through his hair, nervous at the energy crackling around them. It seemed oddly familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. This whole place was oddly familiar. It made sense, he supposed, if this was his asteroid. But was it him who walked on this place eons ago? Did that even make sense? So far, the Senshi of Sand had not been able to make sense of any of this, even with talking to other senshi. There was too much going on in his day-to-day life to really preoccupy himself with worrying over this one thing, but as a man of philosophy and critical thinking, he found himself straying to that topic whenever an idle moment crossed him. Like now.

Thankfully, Tate was there to distract him. "I... don't know. But let's not play the odds on this o--" Another bolt of lightning struck perilously close to the open window. Taranis threw himself to the left, toppling over a squat brown side table. His fall forced open a back door, one that had been covered by a half-eaten tapestry. Inside, there was an empty cabinet on one wall and a hatch in the center of the floor. Through the broken roof, Taranis could see the crank to open the hatch, but he hesitated. How had he never noticed this room before? How had he not seen the hatch when he first stumbled in a month ago?

Worried eyes flickered to Tate. "Do you think... I mean, do you think we should..." Taranis had no idea what was down in that hatch, and he wasn't about to go in headfirst without at least a consenting vote from his best friend.

Whatever was happening on the surface of the asteroid, it didn't look good. Outside, a dull humming noise filled the air. It seemed to be coming from the strange golden wiring and tall rods that covered what remained of the huts of Taranis. The Senshi of Sand stood there just long enough to watch a bolt of lightning strike one rod. Glass orbs hazy with dust lit up suddenly and then dulled. He had hardly noticed them before, the strangely-shaped bulbs that dangled from the buildings. There was no electricity that he recognized on the planet -- so what were these, lightning-capturers?

The thought was a brief one. With a flash of arms and flapping of his coattails, Taranis yanked and tugged and pulled until the rusted crank finally turned. It was harder still to wrench the hatch upward, but when he did, a burst of icy cool air puffed out.

Leaning over the opening, Taranis squinted against the blue-black darkness. It smelled wet and earthy, almost like a cave, but he couldn't make out the composition of the walls. There was only a low, blue glowing at the base of the shaft.

For an instant, as he touched his hand to the lip of the hatch, Taranis saw another hand beside his and a voice saying, "Quickly now, watch your head!" There was the pressure of a hand at his back, warm, familiar.

He turned over his shoulder and looked at Tate. She wasn't touching him. "Did you say something?" he asked. The question was muffled by the sudden crash of lightning.

Without another word, Taranis hiked one leg over the other and began to climb down the sculpted ladder carved into the smooth stone wall. "Be careful," he said. "It's slippery." As if to prove it, Taranis lost his grip for a moment and let out a surprised noise. "...very slippery."

The ladder seemed to go on for ages. For Taranis, the effort was minimal, but he grew increasingly concerned about his civilian counterpart. "Tate, let me know if you need help." After about thirty feet of climbing in near pitch dark conditions, the Senshi of Sand landed his feet on solid ground and then waited to help Tate down herself.

There was little to be seen, just the dull glow of blue light shimmering down the corridor.

Standing in the darkness, Taranis did not notice Tate's bloody lip. He was too busy puzzling over where they were. Was this... a fall-out shelter? It seemed too well carved for that; there were no signs of hasty workmanship. If anything, the smoothness of the rock ledges from the ladder seemed worked and softened by masterful hands, even after eons of neglect.

"Stay behind me," the Senshi of Sand cautioned. He had no idea what was ahead of them, just that this entire chamber was giving him dizzying amounts of deja vu. His head grew fuzzy for a moment, and he stopped abruptly, squeezing at his temples. "It's nothing," he said, before Tate could ask. "This place makes me feel strange."

Then there was a boy in front of him, his back turned to the pair. He held a small glass orb flickering with brilliant blue pulse of light. His long coat brushed the floor of the cave, and the tiny golden bolts on it rattled as he ran ahead. Taranis followed him, trying to get closer, but never able to turn and see his face. They ran through a bending corridor. Through his eyes, he could see it illuminated in the boy's glowing orb, but to Tate, it would remain as pitch dark as it had been.

Taranis was mesmerized. Something about this world was intoxicating, especially when his mind called to visions that he didn't understand. Before, he had thought it was all a trick, but now... he saw a boy. He saw a boy dressed in the same strange style of the people in the ballroom. But there was something else... did Taranis... know this boy?

The tunnel was widening by the second. The glass orbs that had dotted the walls the entire way now seemed to buzz. Every now and then, a flash of lightning sounded in their centers, illuminating the hallway for only a moment before extinguishing once more. Rusted golden fixtures, knocked from the walls, were strewn across the floor now. Taranis stumbled over them, but didn't stop. He chased the boy -- chased him all the way to the edge of the cavern, where the figment abandoned him.

The Senshi of Sand skidded to a stop, throwing one arm out to his side to stop Tate, who he assumed was behind him, from catapulting forward off of the ledge. Stretched out before them several feet below was a glowing city lit by lightning captured in small glass orb. There were no sandstone blocks here like the ones on the surface. Every structure was built of dark black rock and gleaming gold metal. The condition of the asteroid in this chamber was night and day with that of above, but it still showed the ear marks of destruction. A hasty jagged scar like the one that split the castle also carved a crude smile here. The entire right half of the city appeared decimated whereas the left seemed to have minimal damage, at least at the distance.

In the center of the city, there was an expansive, brightly glowing crater full of water -- still full. Small green plants were suspended on clear plastic frames with thin tubing running into their stems in a circle suspended around the lip of the pool of water. From where he stood, Taranis could make out stacks and stacks and stacks of fallen vegetation in varying states of decomposition littering the floor directly under the hanging foliage. As if on cue, a bright green leafy stem bearing red fruit fell suddenly from the contraption to join the other spoiled food on the floor.

Taranis stood there, dumbfounded and speechless for what felt like an eternity.

Taranis swallowed. "Yeah," he said, "I think this is my homeworld." The pair stood at the top of a ledge, but upon closer inspection, it was actually a massive staircase on either side. The staircase to the right looked damaged so they began their journey down the other, one foot in front of the other.

Near the start of the path, there were several orbs attached to long golden staves dug into the wall. Before he could contemplate why, Taranis pulled the strange torch-like object out of its holster. A tiny zap of disconnecting golden wiring buzzed in the air. The staff continued to glow in his grip, and he stared at it for a moment, confused as to how he knew to remove it in just that precise way. He passed the first to Tate and then removed a second for himself.

For a time, they walked in silence, ducking into buildings here and there. The first appeared to be some sort of storage facility. Identical golden boxes were stacked on the walls, though many had fallen to the ground. Tate and Taranis took turns trying to open them, but they had an intricate locking system. For all his miracle knowledge, the Senshi of Sand couldn't figure out how to get one open so they moved on.

There were homes here like the ones above. All of the appliances had the same strange inside-out design, gears and wires exposed wherever possible. There were many, many books, but almost all were molded beyond legibility. The beds were all spring loaded and could be quickly tucked back into walls for more space.

At one point, they came across an impossibly long dried out husk of a skin. At first, Taranis theorized it was a tarp, but then they reached the unmistakable bump of eyes and mouth. "A massive snake?" he volunteered. "Let's just hope they're all dead."

More revelations came at the center of the town. The suspended plants appeared to be some sort of hydroponics system that was designed to be self-sufficient in all ways except harvesting. Without people there to harvest, the mature vegetables and fruits simply fell to the ground when they became too heavy and then the cycle started again. At least, this was all that Tate and Taranis could theorize. The stench was overpowering the closer they got so the pair steered in the opposite direction.

Wide, branching tunnels stretched out from the central cavern in countless directions, but by that time, Tate was too tired to keep walking. There was a smaller pool of water held in a golden container farther away from the rotten vegetables. They walked to its edge and took a seat there on a smoothed out lip. Taranis pulled off one of his gloves and let his fingers dangle in the water.

"How do you think it collects here?" he asked. There was no way it had been here for eons. Evaporation would have happened. No, somehow, this water was being replenished. The Senshi of Sand just didn't understand how. His fingers still dangled in the water. "Do you think it's safe to drink?" They had been walking for awhile. If Taranis was thirsty, he could only imagine how Tate felt.

But perhaps Tate had more on her mind than space water.

The two staves of light were laid on their side beside the seated pair. Taranis noticed a collection of notched holes toward the edge of the water. He got to his feet and lifted one lighted staff from the ground. After a few tries, he managed to fit it into one of the holes. The orb of lightning flashed brighter. "I don't know, Tate. I wish I did," he said quietly. Taranis repeated the process with Tate's staff and then sat back down across from her.

The surface of the metal was not exactly comfortable to sit on, but Taranis didn't see any cushins around, not that he expected to. Most things were decaying or already gone. It was a graveyard of a once-vibrant society and was not exactly suited for visitors of corporeal nature. The Senshi of Sand adjusted, kicking both legs out it front of himself and knocking his boots together. Rotted plant debris fell free. He wrinkled his nose and then swept it away from the water with one of his gloves.

"I wish there was a manual. Or an answer guy. Where is my magical guardian ready to dispense the rules of my universe to me in one quick burst of knowledge?" Taranis thought briefly of Derpraline and then dismissed the idea. At least Tate might appreciate his own knowledge of tropes. "It's hard... doing this. Being what I am. But I wouldn't trade places with you. My whole life, I have been a bystander, constantly reacting to the negative things that have been dumped onto me. But the day that I was awakened as a senshi? That was the day that I was in the driver's seat. For the first time, I feel like what I do matters, really matters."

It was so nice being able to open up to Tate about this. She was his best friend, but for over six months, he had to hide the biggest part of his life from her. It had put distance between them, a distance Taranis felt closing with each word he spoke. Unfortunately, Tate could never know the truth; she could never fully understand why Taranis enjoyed this openness with her so much.

"I know that there are other senshi who have been reborn. And I mean reborn -- with full memories of their past lives and everything. I never thought that I was one of those. I never thought that I had lived in any time except the present, but..." Taranis raised his hands to the room. "This is my asteroid. Even if I've never lived here personally, this is where my... powers are from, I guess." Before now, the Senshi of Sand only thought that the Zodiacs and the royals had ever lived before. But if there was an asteroid Taranis where his energy had been born... then maybe he was special too? It was a theory, one that he had no way to prove.

Two glistening nails (female senshi weren't the only ones who got the sassy paint job in fuku) picked at the pleated seam of his pants. "Tate, I will tell you anything you want to know about all of this, but I don't know everything. I wish I did. I wish I knew why this place looks like it was smashed to bits and where all the people are. I wish I knew how in the hell my powers come from some far-off asteroid while I was born in -- well... on Earth." He met her eyes. "I wish that I could understand the science of how you and I teleported here using a cellphone -- but I can't. I just... I just want to protect the people I care about." Taranis dropped his gaze and finished silently:

Like you.