Time passed in starts and stops, the wisp lingering companionably as Hestia waited for help to arrive. It was something for her eyes to follow, a reason not to close them. She felt disconnected from everything else, like she was back in that vision-state. A passenger in her own body. The unreality stretched and spread along the alley, lengthening with the morning’s cast shadows.

Outside the alley, traffic was picking up and she let go of her senshi form without thinking about it. The wisp disappeared along with her power, and then her eyes had nothing left to observe other than the graffiti on the opposite wall. Abstract and unintelligible, she didn’t bother trying to read it, instead just staring until colors were no longer colors and shapes shifted into noise.

She barely noticed the black town car that pulled up to the alley’s entrance, and didn’t acknowledge the figure that stepped out, not even when it strode toward her. And especially not when a man’s exceedingly pleasant voice greeted her, “Good morning, Miss Moffat. It’s been a terribly long time, hasn’t it?”

She was pale and feverish to even an untrained eye, and thankfully he didn’t see fit to dawdle for the fun of it. This time. Emily felt herself lifted with clinical carefulness and she let her eyes close.

She’s in front of the All Flame. Her robes are different. Her hair is long and heavy, draping to the ground as many Keepers saw fit to. There’s a certain pride in it, to care for flame with sleeves hung low, with hair swaying past. She was a Keeper now. She could see her future. She could know what needed to be done to be as she should be.

She smelled a combination ot nice quality laundry detergent, masculine aftershave, a hint of brandy, and threading throughout all of it, blood. Her own blood. Emily felt the world gently shift beneath her and knew she was in a car. She felt a chill at her front, a trace of fingertips.

“Well, excessive as always in tending to wounds, my dear. I suppose you ran out of supplies before you could get to the arm? Oh…” Another careful touch along her calf. “And leg. My my. Someone had quite the adventure last night.”

Emily’s eyes slid to the man who spoke like a literature professor and looked like someone who’d leave her in an ice bath, missing a kidney. A service she knew he offered. Sometimes it really was best to judge a book by its cover. Meeting her blank gaze with a pleasant smile, the man pulled out a pen light and abruptly shone it in one eye and then the other, ignoring her features scrunching in annoyance. Noticing him pull out several other items, Emily decided to close her eyes again.

She’s a Keeper now. Sailor Hestia. She didn’t leave her world, but stayed and…tended to flames as before. No. No wait, that was wrong. Do over.

She’s a Keeper now. Sailor Hestia. She didn’t leave her world, but stayed and led the other Keepers in greeting visitors. They came from all across the stars to visit and her world needed a senshi to…they needed her powers to…

Emily’s body was being lifted again.

“We’re here. I see you’ve been helping yourself through the pain, hm? Morphine and…something extra? How very experimental of you, Miss Moffat. Well, I suppose that means it wouldn’t be responsible of me to interfere with your methods of pain management.” He sounded pleased. “If it makes you feel better, and this may be the only thing I offer along those lines today, I’m fairly sure you’ll pass out for the worst of it.”

And, not too long later, but much too much later, she did.