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Tallulah met Kaatje at the corner, and she could hear her blood pounding in her ears. It was a crisp night, early spring, full of possibilities. And for one unlucky lieutenant, it would be their last. The more Tallulah steeled herself for this, the more ready she felt - or else, maybe Kaatje’s spirit was contagious. Four years was long enough to dance around the realities of war. If she was serious about killing Leto, then she needed to prove she could take a life - any life - first. Getting to the moment and then freezing because she couldn’t push herself over that edge wasn’t an option.

“I told them we were going to go meet up with some other friends for coffee,” she said, about her parents. Her henshin pen felt heavy in the front pocket of her hoodie, and Tallulah was anxious to get going and to get this over with - at least partially because she was sure that if they didn’t get on with it already, she would chicken out. In fact, she was sure that the only reason she’d even risen to the challenge was the desire to impress Kaatje - like her friendship was conditional on her thinking you weren’t a complete and utter waste of time.

Four years, she reminded herself, clenching her fingers around the pen in her pocket. You’ve had all the time in the world, and it’s now or never. Better with Gunn and some little s**t lieutenant than with the whole operation depending on you.

“Anyway,” she said. Was there any kind of appropriate preamble for going to go kill someone? She couldn’t think of one if there was. “Let’s go.”

Gunn’s transformation might have been sparks, but Europa’s was a spray of bubbles and shadow, one that left long blue ribbons brushing against her legs. “Princess is a rank,” she said, bristling slightly. It was a rank, and one she’d likely never hold at that. “Not something to call people lightly.” She’d never considered it before, but being mistaken for royalty in disguise was likely to be a disaster. Luckily, it was just the two of them right now. “And I’m going to be fine. I feel pumped.”

She checked her own internal radar, trying to confirm the signature that Gunn was sensing. She found it, not too far away and almost certainly a captain. It didn’t have the weird tint that Dark Mirror signatures tended to have, not the huge outpouring of energy that she’d learned to associate with corrupt senshi. “You’re right, definitely a captain.” She pointed towards the back of the alley and up, towards the roofline. “That way. Stationary.”

Europa nodded to Gunn. “I’m ready to move when you are,” she said. Her heart was beating fast and they hadn’t even done anything yet, and she felt faintly ridiculous, like any moment she was going to wake up from this gonzo dream. But, on the other hand, it was seriously about time.

It wasn’t anyone she recognized, thought Europa, with mild relief. Agreeing to this, only to have their target turn out to be someone from the conspirators’ meeting, would have sucked. Completely. For example, she doubted that Gunn would have understood or been very sympathetic to we can kill anyone but not this one because reasons. Part of her hesitated, before they even started, that here was a kid who wasn’t hurting anyone, who looked like he was maybe eighteen, who was enjoying his cigarette.

Fortunately, common sense intervened. This was not a kid, this was a captain. To become a captain, he had likely killed dozens of times. He had killed indiscriminately and he had done so gladly. Like Wolframite’s conspirators, he had volunteered to put his life on the line the day he joined the negaverse. And that made him fair game, as fair as anyone would ever be.

“Judgement day’s come a bit early,” she quipped to the captain as she advanced past Gunn, fists curled at her sides. The name of her first attack lingered on the tip of her tongue, begging to be cast, but that struck her as unfair, to paralyze the captain before he even engaged. If she was going to do this, she wanted to do it right. No cheating. A clean fight.

Not that the negaverse would know a clean fight from a filthy one, but Europa had standards she needed to uphold.

Europa rolled her eyes at Gunn, but only for a moment, because she did earnestly appreciate that the other senshi was here to goad her on for this moment - she wouldn’t be able to, otherwise. But once she got this out of the way, she assured herself, everything afterwards would come more easily. She’d be able to snuff Leto out no problem. She wouldn’t need to worry about being able to do it or not, because she’d know: Eternal Sailor Europa could take a life.

The sight of the axe sent a shiver of anticipation through her. It would have been easier to target a lieutenant, true. It would have been safer to target a lieutenant, absolutely. But she already felt bad enough about this as it was, and that kind of power differential was something that, considering it now, she just did not want to involve herself with. “You’re not doing anything right now, sure,” she said. “But I know you’ve got quotas to fill. Catching you on your smoke break doesn’t make you any less what you are.”

This would be so much easier, she thought, if he would just try to attack her already. She’d never been good at making the first move! But she could feel Gunn’s stare on her back, urging her to strike. At least he’s armed now, she thought to herself, as it it was any kind of consolation. She gestured with her right hand, singling out her target. “Europa deep ocean pressure!” she shouted, and followed up with a flying kick that, with any luck, she had aimed for the captain’s chest.

That had worked exactly as well as she’d expected it to - she’d used the same combination dozens of times against youma, so it was pretty predictable by now - and Europa let out a little victorious laugh. Perhaps she’d celebrated too soon - the punch connected. Maybe not with all the force he’d hoped for, because she’d seen it and begun to move away, but she could already feel tomorrow’s bruise along with her jarred molars.

She came back with a punch of her own, to the solar plexus, and with her other hand she reached forward to single him out once more. With the axe gone, he’d lost his only advantage, and Europa meant to finish this as quickly as possible, before the excitement wore off and she caught herself unable to finish. He’d be dead either way, whether at her hand or at Gunn’s, and for the sake of the exercise, she was going to finish what she started. “Europa deep ocean terror,” she hissed, urging the magic forward.

With her other hand, she swung another punch.

She’d never seen her magic have quite so strong an effect before, and Europa had to admit she was impressed with her own strength. While the exact details of the captain’s nightmare remained a secret, the senshi of the deep felt powerful, like there were ancient monsters at her back. Creatures that had waited for this moment ever since she’d awoken, for her to force a screaming man-child to the ground in fair and just vengeance, to put her boot against his throat and press-

-Or maybe that was her imagination running away with her. Whatever.

“I’m not scared,” she said to Gunn. She leaned down towards the captain, digging her heel against his windpipe. “When you get back to the cauldron,” she hissed, “Tell it that Sailor Europa sent you. And tell it that Leto’s next.” And she put her full weight onto her foot, felt the crunch of cartilage under her, heard the captain’s rattling last breath - and it was not a nice sound. It was not a sound she liked. But it was a necessary sound. A righteous sound.

She stood and turned to Gunn.

“I told you I could do it,” she said. Her legs felt like rubber beneath her, and she locked her knees to stay standing.

“No, I’m not gonna puke,” said Europa, but she did feel queasy in the worst way. While Gunn did her thing with the captain’s pockets, she wandered over to the AC housing and crouched beside it, trying to retch as quietly as she could into the dust. She’d never been more glad for her parents’ frustrating tendency to eat dinner ridiculously late than she was right then, because it meant there was hardly anything to bring up.

She tried not to look too closely at the corpse as she rejoined Gunn, feeling sheepish about getting sick. “Yeah, you did,” she said, wiping her mouth on her glove. “No point sticking around this unfortunate soul. Apollo’s?”

Tallulah followed Kaatje shakily out of the alley, not sure whether caffeine would help her or hurt her at this point, but there was always something comforting about a latte regardless. She wasn’t - she wasn’t sure that she agreed with Kaatje’s appraisal of purification, because she knew it could work for people who were actually dedicated to doing so, but for the rest--

As much as it hurt, she knew that Kaatje was right. And as much as her own power was beginning to scare her, now that the challenge and the adrenaline was wearing off, she had the power to be part of that solution.

“Thanks,” Tallulah said shakily. “It was time.”