The pool is almost empty when Michiru arrives. A solitary swimmer glides through the water, emerging only occasionally for breaths. Michiru takes a moment to admire her before she too slips into the water. The other girl swims beautifully, there's no doubt about it. Almost as if she, too, was destined for the water.

When Michiru surfaces for air, she says so to the girl. And then, spontaneously, "let's have a race". It's been so long since she's seen such swimming; it makes her itch to prove herself, to reassure herself that she still is the best. (But of course she is – she's the senshi of the ocean, after all.)

The girl seems hesitant, but then Haruka – who'd declined to swim with her, preferring to observe from the highest spot she could find – calls time and Michiru is off, not even checking if the other girl is keeping up. As they race Michiru relishes the feeling of the water under her, around her, pushing her forward. There is a certain thrill from racing, from pushing yourself as fast as you can go, that she can't get from swimming on her own. It's been a long time. She's missed this feeling.

The other girl keeps up with her – no, more, pulls ahead of her by precious millimetres – and for the first time in a very long time Michiru forgets all about her destiny, about her mission. There is only the water and the race and the burning of her muscles.

And then she feels the other girl slowing down, almost imperceptibly, next to her. All of Michiru's elation at the race turns into humiliation. This girl feels sorry for her, is going easy on her, is patronising her. As if she doesn't consider her an equal, just a lesser swimmer whose feelings must be spared.

They slap the wall at the same time – a tie. Michiru swims away without a word, showing the girl the same respect she's just shown Michiru. She'd planned to spend the rest of the hour here, but finds she no longer feels like it.

...

"This is getting ridiculous," Haruka tells her. "You've been brooding about this for hours."

When Haruka Tenoh, of all people, tells you you're brooding too much, it might be time to reconsider what you're doing with your life.

"I guess you're right," Michiru says. Sometimes she worries, about Haruka, about how honest she finds herself being able to be with her. She shouldn't let herself get this attached. They have a world to save, and this, whatever this is, will only get in the way. And yet she finds herself opening up to Haruka in a way she never has to anyone else.

"Do you want a rematch?" Haruka asks.

Michiru finds she does. She can race the younger girl again, fair and square this time. A proper race, one where she isn't being patronised. (She makes sure to find a less dressy, more hydrodynamic, set of togs this time, though – no sense in needlessly giving away an advantage.)

Sure enough, Haruka fetches the girl. (Michiru doesn't entirely know how she found the same girl again in a city the size of Tokyo, and isn't sure she wants to ask.) They race again. It is a proper race, this time, and the exhilaration of it doesn't leave Michiru even after they're both slumped by the side of the pool, panting.

"It's a tie," Haruka tells them, and Michiru finds herself grinning at her blue-haired opponent.

"We should do this again, sometime," she says, and the other girl smiles back.

...

The pool is almost empty when Michiru arrives. The other girl – Sailor Mercury – is swimming laps. They are fast laps, all tight corners and methodical strokes, none of the slow grace Michiru remembers from her first time observing this girl. Sailor Mercury swims like she's trying to outrun something. Still beautiful – she truly is born of water, just like Michiru herself is – but different. Tenser.

Michiru knows the feeling.

The other girl seems to sense her the second Michiru slips into the water, pausing in her laps and waiting.

"Sailor Neptune," she greets her.

"Sailor Mercury," Michiru returns. She is cautious – the inner senshi aren't her enemies, but they're not exactly allies, either. They have the potential to mess things up, to interfere, to get involved. She and Haruka (- and Setsuna, now, they have a third) have been trying to deter them from doing that. Getting friendly with one of them would defeat the whole point – but she can't help but remember that race, the real one. Of course she wants another.

"Are you here to race?" the girl who is Mercury asks her, and Michiru smiles, slow, almost predatory.

"Of course."

It is another tie. A good, real race. Neptune is undoubtedly stronger than Mercury, but in this water, untransformed, they are equals.

"Wait!" the girl who is Mercury calls as Michiru turns to leave the pool. "Why are you avoiding us? We can help! I know what you see, but surely if all of us work together we can think of a better solution."

Michiru ignores her, as she has ignored every other attempt by the inner senshi to reach out to her. Mercury may be clever, but, just like the others, she is hopelessly naïve.

...

The girl who is Mercury is standing in front of them, arms wide open, shielding the Messiah of Silence.

"She doesn't deserve to die," she says, loud and firm, and if she shrinks a little when faced with the full force of both Haruka and Michiru's glares she doesn't back down. "This girl has committed no crime."

So you will doom a world to save a single girl, Michiru thinks, and pat yourself on the back for holding the moral high ground whilst the planet crumples around you. Haruka, she knows, will admire the other girl for sticking to her convictions; Michiru just thinks it is hopelessly foolish.

Before their argument can escalate any more, they are discovered. The inter-senshi fights must stop, for a while, as they fight a common enemy.

"You were the one who said science doesn't need heart," Mercury says to a dying woman, surprisingly cold for someone who just minutes ago was arguing against the death of the girl destined to destroy their world. It is almost a contradiction in terms, but Mercury has shown herself to be nothing but consistent in her beliefs.

Maybe, Michiru thinks, the inner senshi can be ruthless but choose not to be. Maybe she has been giving them too little credit.

Or maybe not. After all, Mercury's actions have just prevented Michiru and Haruka from saving the world. Maybe the inner senshi deserve just as much credit as Michiru has already been giving them.

...

The pool is almost empty when Michiru arrives. Ami is doing slow laps of backstroke, gliding through the water, eyes closed. She still stirs when Michiru enters the water, and swims towards her.

"I thought you'd left town," she says.

"We're leaving tonight. I thought I'd come for one last swim."

She and Haruka are leaving town together tonight, driving into the sunset with no more plans than 'us' and 'away'. Before, her plans had ended here. Save the world or die trying. Well, now they've saved the world, and she's still alive. What does she do now? She has no idea. She looks forward to finding her answer, with Haruka. But before she leaves for good Michiru had felt the urge to return here, swim in this pool one last time. The odds of Ami being here too… it is almost fate.

"It is a lovely pool," Ami agrees, and returns to her backstroke.

Michiru settles in to swim beside her, matches her pace. "I'm sorry about that… incident earlier. I don't know what got into us."

"It was the ruins," Ami says. "I scanned them afterwards. There was trace malevolent energy there, like that daimon that came out as well. So we understand; none of us were acting like ourselves."

"Nonetheless," Michiru says, "that was entirely the wrong parting impression, and all of you have my deepest apologies."

"I'll pass it on."

They swim in silence for a while longer.

"Do you want to race?" Ami asks eventually.

Michiru smiles at her – a genuine smile, full of nothing but the love for the water they both share, deep down to their cores. "I thought you'd never ask."

Together, they swim.

Michiru is my favourite Outer (even if I am really all about the Inners, which (as I think I've mentioned before) is super ironic considering I would have never watched Sailor Moon if it wasn't for harumichi) and Episode 97 is one of my favourite episodes of the entire show. I wish we got to see more of the Michiru-and-Ami dynamic, but alas it was never to be. But, you know, on the plus side it gives us more fanfic fuel, which can't ever really be a bad thing :P

I hope you liked it :)