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Eternal Sailor Taranis spent the first week after upgrading to the ultimate level of senshi strength honing his shiny new skill. It was a high to think of his battle repertoire now, and once again, the senshi felt glad that he had such an offensive attack. First sand, then hardened sand, now glass. Taranis had felt the might of an eternal senshi first hand when he battled Castor, and then, his friend had been holding back. It still hurt for weeks after. Part of him wanted to challenge Castor to a rematch, but there was a much more important task at hand.

It was time to murder General Linarite.

Castor and Taranis had called a cease fire once upon a time, but the window for the Senshi of Hail to finally correct the mistake he made had passed. Now it was open season, and Linarite was his mark. He just had to find her.

Nights were long now. Taranis patrolled from sun down to sun up looking for her. It was two weeks after Valentine's Day. He was prepared to do this for a year if he had to, two years, three even. For a boy who had been chronically unlucky his entire life, apparently the winds of fortune had changed.

Just a few two stories below him, strolling as if she were walking home from school, was General Linarite. Taranis felt his eyes widen, his heart race. This was the moment he had been waiting for; this was what all his practice had been for. Linarite had nearly taken the only thing in this world that he truly loved. The only way for Dani to truly be safe would be to kill the one who had almost taken her life before.

And that was going to happen tonight.

Without warning, Sailor Taranis wound up his energy and whispered, "Taranis Sand Blast!" It was just his base level attack, but it could get her attention. The orb soared like a rocket from his fingertips and exploded squarely on the back of Linarite's head. Poised at the edge of the roof, Eternal Sailor Taranis did not strike a pose. He had no battle banter to bat back and forth with her.

He was there for only one purpose: to find his revenge.

Taranis stalked along the ledge of the roof. He had been dancing across the rooftops of Destiny City for a year now. At first, it had involved a lot of stumbling and many broken bones. Now it was his turf. 98% of the battles that the Eternal Senshi of Sand got into were fought from a rooftop. If he could manage it, he tried to never give up this vantage point. It was where he was most comfortable, where he was most powerful.

Even when Linarite tried to bait him, Taranis kept silent. He dove out of the way of her first strike, catching himself with an awkward roll before popping right back up. The orb struck the ground beside him. It barely grazed his arm, but the slight contact sent a dagger of ice water rising in his veins.

Apparently he wasn't the only one who had learned a new trick.

Narrowing his eyes, Taranis ducked behind an air vent and maintained his silence, hoping to draw Linarite up onto the roof.

Despite being a largely resolute and logical boy, Taranis had displayed a marked lack of sense in confronting Linarite this way. It was true, yes, that he was now among the elite, small number of eternal senshi out there. This didn't make him any less green to his new power. Most battles were about odds and evens, bits and pieces. This one was about a score to settle.

And this was what made him reckless.

Breath escaped out of his throat in tight bursts. Gloved fingers gripped the smooth metal of the air vent. Taranis thought to peek out from behind, but his reward for the foolish impulse was the sharp spike of panic immediately after Lina struck the vent. Slowly, he whispered to his super attack again, forming a small baseball-sized hunk.

An arm flashed out, throwing it to the left of the vent. Taranis darted out to the right and called a second stronger attack, "Taranis Mud Blast!" A hardened hunk of wet sand went catapulting off his fingertips toward Linarite. Taranis didn't have time to stand and watch for his attack to hit. He needed to keep distance between them. He needed to stay covered.

The senshi kept running, headed for a risen green transformer sticking up off the flat cement of the roofing.

The trouble with senshi was that they all had different attacks with different strengths, different weaknesses, and different patterns. For his skills, Taranis had a lot of attacks to pull from, giving him a magical battle endurance greater than what others had. His attacks, though, lacked the fancy bells and whistles of a magic attack with side effects. The Senshi of Sand had magical weapons, more or less. No vomit-inducing mist, no magical glitter that froze enemies in place. He just hit and hit and hit and hit with either sand, mud, or glass. In this case, it seemed to be a good thing.

Panic sat high in the senshi's chest. He could keep the upper hand so long as he continued to force Linarite to follow his motions. So far, it had gone well, but in all his imaginings of this plan, Taranis had never gotten past the first few blows. Now it was time to improvise.

Apparently, Linarite could improvise too.

The General soared into the air, her staff held high. Taranis heard her coming at the last moment and banked left, but two booted feet caught him hard in the shoulder. The lanky boy sprawled forward on his stomach, sliding several feet over the concrete roof. He rolled immediately to the side to avoid any follow-up attack she might have and then kicked outward at her legs, hoping to knock her off her feet so that he could again find the advantage of distance on her.

Sailor Taranis darted behind another air vent. He was fortunate that this was an industrial building. It meant lots of objects jutting out from the roof for him to hide behind. It had been obvious where he ran so the senshi wasted nothing in the element of surprise by responding to the Negaverse General.

"I don't need a miracle," he said, a surprising amount of calm in his voice. "I need you to die. You deserve death. I don't believe in karma, but I plan on personally ensuring that you get a proper response for the evil you spread in Destiny City."

His mind was reeling. There was another air vent about ten feet away. Linarite knew exactly where he was. He couldn't exactly use the misdirection trick again. He doubted the plot would work twice. So he bought himself some time to think.

Speaking had always been his main skill in life. He tried to use it now. "Tonight, I am going to get revenge for Sailor Magellan -- and I am going to set Castor free from you, from whatever you did to make him betray the senshi by loving you," he said, a hint of anger bleeding into the words. There was a part of Taranis that would never forgive Castor for being involved with a Nega, but another smaller part told him that Lina's death might finally release the Eternal Senshi of Hail from the chains that bound him. An even smaller, much smaller part, was hopeful that perhaps, just maybe, he could get his friend back.

It would start tonight. It would start with her death.

His ears pricked at the sound of Linarite's boots drawing near. The next air vent was too far for him to reasonably make. If he lost the upper hand, he might lose the fight, lose everything. It was not a concession he was willing to make. The peals of laughter, manic laughter, made his skin crawl. He pictured her then, eyes cast in a shadow in the very same way they had been the night she nearly killed Sailor Magellan.

There was something else there: a tilt in her voice, a rusted hinge swinging wide. In all his years of debating, Parker had prided himself on only debating the facts. It didn't mean he hadn't been tempted to make a low blow when he sensed one. In battle, low blows were the only ones he knew.

Taranis swallowed hard, preparing his tone for a speech he knew would have to be convincing. Then Linarite struck. The Senshi of Sand hit the deck, scrambling along on his stomach just as the Nega rounded the corner. She expected to see him standing there, or perhaps running into her arms. Instead, he was making a beeline for the water tower a few feet away.

Before she could reach him, the senshi was hidden again, this time by the water tower. His voice echoed -- was he inside of it? Under it? Behind it? It was not clear.

Now it was his time to play his card.

"When Castor told me he could ******** a Nega if really wanted to," he said, raising his voice, "I didn't believe him. I had seen him get dozens of girls before -- but a Nega? What Nega would be stupid enough to trust an enemy? Castor was certainly stupid enough -- though he'd say confident -- to try it." Gloved fingers gripped metal. He needed to be convincing. He needed to employ every manner of manipulation he had ever possessed.

The boy let the words resonate before he continued. "Castor likes a challenge. You must know that, seeing how close you two were." Taranis had no idea if Castor and Lina had slept together, but he knew from experience that Castor was quick to sleep with most people. So a girl he loved? It didn't seem like a risk to assume it. "The other girls weren't as receptive to his advances as you, it would seem. I guess senshi who pretend to love you -- you as a person, you as a woman, you as more than just a piece of Nega trash... I guess that is your weakness."

Taranis fell silent.

His finger had pressed a nerve and then dug in a nail. If Taranis had expected to rattle her, then he had over-performed in his duties. The Nega seemed perfectly unhinged. Her scream made his hair stand on end, but he prepared himself for the wave that she brought out, even though it was a touch more literal than he expected.

From behind the water cool, Eternal Sailor Taranis rode out, moving with the jet of water that Linarite had created. He caught her squarely in the jaw with his fist, and then scrambled backward out of the way, dipping low and sweeping out one leg to trip her if she tried to pursue.

"I'm no coward," he spat. Fingers swirled, and he summoned a ball of mud and slammed it straight for her. "I will not kill you and then run off into the night. I'll stay to watch you die!"