Nyx was equally surprised. One second, she was ready to wipe out these two... anoyances... and now she had that long-ass Glaive pointed right at her throat. The gun would still have taken care of matters if she had used it a few seconds ago, but now Susanne was standing there, just waiting for her to make some kind of move. And from what Nyx had see, she had no doubt that Susanne would have few qualms about cutting her down right here and now.

Susanne strove to look calm and composed. She wanted to look like she had the upper hand, not like she was scared shitless, just like Nyx apparently was.

Nyx moved her finger away from the trigger and slowly put the gun into her HammerSpace. She wouldn't shoot them, at least not now. Perhaps later. She took a step back and spread her hands to show that she had nothing in them, then backed away and left.

Susanne breathed a sigh of relief as she turned to the other girl.

"Not bad," she said. "And, of course, arigato gozaimasu. I owe you one. Oh, I'm Mercy." She held out her hand.

Susanne transferred the Glaive to her left hand and shook Mercy's hand. "Susanne," she said. So far, she didn't seem too bad. Of course, Celly had seemed fairly together a few times, too...

"So, ah... well, I know I've got a story behind my weapon. What about you?"

Susanne looked at the Glaive. Story? Hell yeah, there was a story. There better be. She just didn't know it yet.

She felt a familiar presence nearby and called, "Roger?"

The blonde man appeared from the shadows and stood beside her. "You handled that very well. I'm proud of you."

"Would you mind telling me how the hell the Silence Glaive got into my HammerSpace? I'm feeling a little uneasy carrying it around, you know!"

"That's not the Silence Glaive."

"Nannii?"

"It's not Sailor Saturn's Silence Glaive. It's yours."

"Is there something I'm missing here? There's just something that's not connecting."

"Okay, let me see. Alright, the Glaive is Saturn's, right?"

"Of course."

"What's your sign?"

"That's a pretty old pick-up line, you know."

"NO! You're a Capricorn."

"Your point?"

"Capricorn's ruling planet is Saturn. Sailor Saturn, by the way, is also a Capricorn."

"What, she's real?"

"Of course. Anyway, my point is, that this wouldn't be unusual..." He shrugged. "All it boils down to, is that you've got your own Glaive. It happens to be your weapon. Like Connor McLeod's katana blade."

"So this is one more thing I just need to unquestioningly accept?"

"Yes."

"So some little kid with short black hair isn't going to come by and grab this from me?"

"No, definitely not."

"But I can't destroy the world, right?"

"We can discuss this later," he said, looking around distractedly."What, I CAN?"

He held out a hand. "Get ready," he said, then melted back into the shadows.

"I must have missed something along the line," said Mercy, "because that made absolutely no sense."

"Join the club," Susanne said. "And what was that 'get ready' crap, anyway?"

"I'll tell you!" a voice said maliciously from behind them.

TBC...