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Gigi was late to the restaurant. It had been hard to park her car, she’d had trouble finding the place. She had a million excuses. But it was her dad she was going to meet, and there was a better-than-half chance that he was running late too. She got her curls and her sense of timing from him, she thought, smiling to herself as she hurried towards the knot of cheerful little tables outside, red-and-white tablecloths and tiny tealight candles brightening each one. It looked familiar, strikingly so, but in a welcoming kind of way. It was an Italian place, new and a little fancier than she usually went to, but her dad had insisted they try it out, and he was paying. And who was she to argue with proper restaurant gnocchi?

Her dad was already there, she could pick out his tousled dark hair as she got closer, looking over the menu by the door while he waited. She half-raised her arm to wave to him, to call out, but something in the way he turned around brought her up short. It crept over her, like the shadows falling across the little tables, a sense of déjà vu, a pit-of-the-stomach falling. She’d been here before. She’d seen this before.

And the restaurant felt like a movie set, all hollow. Rehearsed.

A horror movie.

The youma crept out of the side street, on a cue that only Gigi seemed to sense. Big and beetle-black, it stared into the oblivious crowd, huge crab claws clicking faintly. It stayed in the shadow, but Gigi could see the path it would take, a memory so strong that the whole world seemed to slow down to make space it, for a future that she’d been so sure wasn’t true.

She could see it, rampaging through the little café street. She could remember it snapping those heavy pincer claws around the civilians as they tried to flee. Around her father. The sound of bone on bone, cracking. The sound of his scream.

She’d been too far away. It had happened so fast. She hadn’t even had a chance to power up. Tragedy spread out all around her, inevitable, swelling into despair as her father noticed her standing and gaping. She hadn’t saved him. She couldn’t save him.

The crash of cutlery and breaking china diverted his attention, but Gigi had been expecting it. And the first scream.

Only the first.

It was happening right now. It wasn’t too late. There was still time.

Gigi closed her eyes, forcibly dragging her mind from the swirling future memories. She’d promised herself she’d stop this future. That she’d fight. When she opened her eyes again she could see beyond the memories, the blood that wasn’t yet spilt. The youma wasn’t in quite the same place. The tables weren’t arranged the same way. The memories had to be wrong.

With that conviction, time seemed to rush back up to speed. No time to waste. Gigi tipped over a table, little candle and all, shielding herself behind it to summon her pen, her power. To do what her future self hadn’t been brave enough to.

Sailor Subamara felt the strength of the youma’s aura immediately, a cold shiver running up her spine. It wasn’t just big, it was powerful too, heavily armoured and nearly as big as her car. And she didn’t even have any attack magic to use. She was just one senshi, and there was nothing she could…

I’m not alone, she reminded herself, and summoned her phone with shaking hands.

She didn’t have a lot of contacts, but ‘A’ brought up Athene, and ‘C’ for Chara just below. She jabbed both numbers and typed a hasty message:



Another scream, and that would have to do. The youma was trashing tables as it made a grab for one of the waiters. Subamara dismissed the phone and picked up a fallen chair, hurling it at the youma with all her meagre might. It bounced off the thing’s shell. She needed to get its attention, lead it away from the civilians, out of reach and out of sight. Stop time. Pray her friends would get her message, get here soon.

Chara's fist was quickly closing around the throat of some youma beast a few blocks away when his phone beeped annoyingly in his pocket. He was not in a good mood (then again, when was he ever..) and the sound just urked him more. It was more than likely one of those annoying mass text messages he had been getting more and more recently. As much as it annoyed the s**t out of him, he couldn't bring himself to block the numbers. You never could know when it would be a cry for help, or some huge a** meeting that was going on, and he made a case and point to make sure he didn't lose out on anything that involved other people.

It still took a bit of time to dust the beasts he had been fighting; there were so many, it truly felt like it was none stop. Once he wiped his hands on his shorts, he pulled out his phone, glaring down at it until he saw who it was and his expression truly softened.

How long had it been since he had last heard from Subamara? Far too long! He half expected the message to be a simple "you okay?", but it wasn't. No, it was far more desperate. Fingers flew to type out a simple omw before shoving the phone back into his pocket. Chara darted from his place in the back alleys of Destiny City towards the cafe. He couldn't let Subamara get hurt. Not her, who was kind enough to be there for him through all of the s**t involving his eye, and her strength that he depended on so heavily.

The cafe was close, he could see it! Though the aura of the Youma was terrifying, he still forced his way in through the front door of the Cafe, not caring who saw, and did his best to locate Subamara through the chaos.

Athene had picked up Liryn and then made his way towards the café italiano as fast as he could, a part of him relieved that he was much faster as an eternal than he was as Arian.

Despite this it took him much longer than he would have liked, conscious of the fact that each minute - no each second mattered.

Even if he hadn't been able to sense the cold chill of chaos that was the youma's aura, the panicked people stampeding down the road would have suggested that he was heading in the right direction, the twin auras of a senshi and super senshi both just icing on the cake.

Then Athene turned the corner and the café was there...

And so was the youma - a big ugly thing - a large swinging down to smash down against a front window, causing the glass to crack - although for the moment it miraculously held.

Athene reached to set down Liryn, but the small mauvian was already springing off his shoulder and so he called out to him
"Liryn can you find Subamara" before turning his attention to the youma.

"Blue Beads of Nazar – intensated!"

It was his super level magic that he called on, because it was little less temperamental than his base magic, directing the glowing ball of ethereal-looking beads that formed and floated before his raised left hand in the direction of the youma.

Because whilst his magic wouldn't hold the thing forever, Athene was hoping that it would at least hold it for now -

And that his magic would actually co-operate.



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Liryn had spent pretty much of the journey on the way over to the café italiano using his paws to hold onto Athene's shoulder as the dark-haired eternal ran, but he nodded his head once at his request, purplish eyes unusually solemn before making a dash for the café door.

He had to dart pass the youma in order to do so, but the thing had been focused on the window and would hopefully have something else to focus on as Athene called on his magic.

"Subamara!" He called out for the curly haired senshi as he squeezed his way in, using the tables for covers as he tried to spot her amongst the crowd.

Subamara’s face fell at the harsh greeting. Chara was right, this was a terrible way to meet up. She should have called before now, made time to hang out. She’d been so busy with classes and family, but she knew how alone being a senshi could feel – they shouldn’t only see each other in battle. And his poor eye still wasn’t healed yet, if the eyepatch was anything to judge by. Unless that was part of his new uniform. It wasn’t a surprise to see her friend’s change in power, his ready attack. Even with a youma so big, he was already planning, a far better senshi than herself.

“I’m sorry!” she said, and the words were small for the amount of contrition she poured into them. “But I’m so glad you came!”

“And you too,” she added as another familiar voice called her, though it wasn’t the one she’d expected. Liryn was here, which meant the Eternal signature outside was almost certainly Athene.

As if in confirmation, an array of small bright beads floated past the cracked front window, arcing out into a ring around the youma. The crab-like claw, raised again to smash through the glass, instead smacked harmlessly against the magical barrier.

“Athene’s trapped it!” she told Chara, catching his arm to tug him over to where she’d heard the guardian cat’s voice, so both would be within her range. “Hit it while it can’t hit back! Subamara Coffee Rush!”

Her magic filled the restaurant air with the scent of coffee, the thick black liquid flowing from her hands to pool around her allies’ feet. It left no residue, no stain, only the slight boost of caffeinated alertness.

“This whole street is restaurants, we need to dust it quick or lead it away from here,” she said, the words coming at espresso speed. Though again, she wasn’t sure how she could help. But she couldn’t leave Athene and Chara to face that thing without her, either.

“It’s real big, Liryn,” she cautioned the small cat, in case he was planning to jump into the fray as well. “I need something else to throw.”

Chara wasn't in the mood to be friendly, much less to some cat that seemed to irk it's way into his short and curt conversation with Subamara. In fact, he only offered a small 'tch' at the greeting it gave, before giving a quick nod. As much as he hated cats, Subamara was his priority.

Once he felt the rush of coffee hit him, he gave the older woman a quick squeeze on the shoulder before darting out from behind the makeshift barrier between them and the crab-like youma. The others could keep scrounging up things to throw, but it looked like he really was the only one with some sort of aggressive magic. That was FINE with him; maybe they would stay safe and out of the way.

The instant he was within reach of the Youma, Chara chucked some of his handful of chocolates at it, doing his best to distract it from it's perpetual attack on the glass.

"HEY, CRABCAKE!" He called, watching the first few chocolates hit the shell to no use. Again, he hurled some more of his chocolates at the beast, growling and hopefully aiming at it's eyes this time.

Athene straightened, intending to use the opportunity created by his magic to lob his hastily cobbled together bundle of some of the snapped chair legs and what had most likely formerly been a table cloth at the youma–

But at that moment he heard a voice yell out something about crab cake as something went whizzing past to strike the over-sized crab thing on the shell.

The source was a teenager with the aura of a super senshi and he followed up by throwing more - of what Athene was assuming was his magic - at the currently trapped youma that had stopped trying to hit at the beads in favour of using its pincers to scrape awkwardly at its shell instead...

And then the youma gave a loud groan as one of the things hit a violet eye and Athene took the opportunity to lob his 'projectile' at it, hoping that it would at least help to damage it further, a part of him wondering if he could cobble another together before his magic faded–

Only he found himself stumbling as the youma retaliated by bringing claws down hard on the asphalt of the sidewalk, causing the ground to buckle as the asphalt cracked.

He managed to catch himself, his eyes turning to the unfamiliar super senshi as he said quietly "Thanks for that" adding "You wouldn't happen to have seen a senshi called Subamara by any chance?"

He cast around to see if there was anything else he could use against the youma and spotted a trash can, but got distracted as the beads surrounding the youma started to glow with their telltale warning glow as he added a warning "By the way it looks like my magic isn't going to be able to hold that thing for much longer."

They probably had a few more seconds, but not much more before the beads shattered and let the youma go.

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Whilst the super senshi hadn't answered his request in any real words, Liryn had caught the slightly annoyed sound that the other had made.

He didn't comment on it though, especially as the super senshi had followed up by darting out to engage with the youma.

Something that Liryn wished he could be doing too, because he was sure that he could teach the crab youma a thing or two - at claw point...

But he also trusted in Athene and the super senshi to keep the youma busy as he turned in order to gently take one end of the brown and beige henshin pen that Subamara offered to him and carefully place it on the ground before answering her.

"Because there's something that I need to do with it," his voice whilst still cheerful was a little distracted as he reached out to firmly place a paw down on the henshin pen. "But it won't take too long - I promise..."

And then Liryn concentrated, his star glowing as he focused on the pen - a pen, which after a few moments started to glow too, faint at first - but then getting brighter as it spread to cover the entire pen–

A pen which had started to change its shape...

And whilst it took a few moments more, when the glow finally faded away Subamara would find that her henshin pen had changed.

Liryn looked at it in satisfaction and then nudged it back to her his purplish eyes usually serious as he said "You're ready for this" and then with a wink and a cat grin he added "Can you pick this up for me and power up again for me" a part of him hoping that his friend - and he very much considered Subamara one of his friends now - would get the hint that it was something that he wanted her to do it straightaway "And make sure to call out 'Subamara Asteroid Power, Make-up!' when you do."