Makoto sighed. Whenever the situation became more than just beating the bad guys, it always felt like it was out of her hands. But if they were really dealing with some kind of manifestation of themselves, then Mako had a lot of thinking to do in place of calling down lightning bolts. Deep thinking.

"Yeah, sure..." she said, before standing up from her chair. She realized how unenthusiastic she sounded and tried to smile. "I'll see you guys after school tomorrow then. I forgot I had to pick up groceries today." It wasn't a lie, but she felt kind of bad for using her shopping as an excuse to be alone for a while. 

After leaving the arcade center and stopping by the convenience store, Mako ended up alone in her apartment, stuck on the subject of Sailor Thunder even as she cooked dinner. The others said they'd help with her, but... Sailor Freeze had only really been defeated when confronted by Ami. At the end of the day, Mako would have to be the one who figured out what to do.

But how do you beat yourself? Mako thought she understood herself well enough, but Sailor Thunder felt like a warped, distant version that she couldn't "get" at times. This would take a while...

Rp Info:

Ami quietly said her goodbyes to the group. She couldn't stop thinking about Sailor Freeze as she walked home; the final request from that strange part of herself echoed endlessly in her mind. Sailor Freeze was actually part of her own soul, now reunited with the rest. She had asked Ami to help the others understand their true selves, rather than the revenge-driven entities they currently existed at to assist Queen Theia.

It was strange to think that there had been a dormant part of her, something locked away with the core of the planet that gave her power. She mulled over this, and all that they had experienced, during the silent trek back to her apartment.

"I'm home," she greeted the emptiness of the dark apartment. Of course, Mama was working at the hospital again. It was just Ami, as usual. She slipped off her shoes, rustled around in the kitchen for a cup of warm tea and a plate of neatly-trimmed sandwiches—comfort food. She couldn't dwell on this too much more. She needed to sleep on it; to awake with a clear mind. Tonight, she'd do some studying and go to bed. Tomorrow, there would be so much more to do.

The next day was strangely quiet after the ice rink incident, with no hint of any new activity. It seemed that whatever the Phantom Senshi were planning, it wasn't in motion yet. There was certainly talk about the ice rink though, but the public consensus was at least more trusting of the real senshi now.

After school, everyone gathered at Hikawa Shrine as agreed upon, trying to find a way to get the upper hand on their unwilling enemies. Even after all the thinking she had done last night (and the stress baking she'd done after), Makoto still hadn't really come up with much of a plan. Though the dango she made was pretty good... A platter of skewered dumplings was on the table for anyone to grab from, but she refrained from taking more than one at the moment.

"So...our darker selves, huh?" Mako didn't even take a bite of the dango, just absentmindedly twirling the stick between her fingers.

There had been so much to think about since their last encounter with the Phantom Senshi. Usagi felt like she could barely wrap her head around it. The things that Sailor Freeze had said before she had “died” had Usagi thinking so much that it literally had given her a headache.

What were they going to do about Theia? How were they going to stop her? She was the primary threat. The Phantom Senshi were simply being manipulated by her. To some degree, it made Usagi angry, but she also pitied Theia. If only they could talk—really talk—one-on-one, in person… maybe they could come to understand one another.

These thoughts plagued Usagi throughout the day and her teachers scorned her constantly for her inattentiveness. She even was told to stand in the hall “if she wasn't going to pay attention to the lesson” by one of them. It was awful and she knew her mother was going to scold her when she got home, but Usagi chose to stand in the hall. She needed time to think.

After school was over, Usagi shuffled her way to the shrine, still thinking about their newest adversary. After arriving, she sat down near the others, but somewhat away from them. She began to wonder if Theia was a shadow of herself, somehow. Or was she merely an old enemy, like Nehellania, who had awoken. But Theia had power over both the Silver and Golden Crystals. Maybe Usagi was the imposter after all… Her hand instinctively clutched her brooch. The Silver Crystal hummed softly with a familiar essence of magic—the radiation of her very soul.

Queen Serenity, how we could use your guidance, Usagi thought, not completely present to the current conversation.

OOC:

Ami nodded slowly at Makoto's comment. Her hands gently cupped the warm tea, fingers wrapped around the traditional textured ceramic. The girl genius kept gazing through the steam that curled from the beverage's surface, recalling the events that had culminated in Sailor Freeze's disappearance. She still felt that thrum inside of her own chest, where the missing piece had been rejoined. The blue-haired teenager wanted to assist her friends—and the poor manipulated sailor soldiers they faced, as promised—but she hadn't come up with any solutions.

"Perhaps we need to encounter them again. Although I suppose they will be upset about Sailor Freeze. I'm not sure they will understand, from the outset, that we saved her."

The voice was calm and logical, as always, stating the facts as plainly as she could. She kept her internal emotions below the smooth surface, like currents within a deep lake.