Magical Girl Fanfic Theater
By Peter L. Ward
Starring:
- Miyakawa Mika as Exquisite Soldier Lovely Freesia
- Toriyama Akiko as Exquisite Soldier Crimson Rose
- Mura Natsumi as Exquisite Soldier Golden Poppy
- Ferris as Exquisite Soldier Pretty Daisy
- Takara Akira as Exquisite Soldier Wild Orchid
- and Penko as herself
Tonight's Feature: Serena & Luna: The New Adventures of Sailor Moon
- Episode 104 - "A Thoughtful Message"
by Chris Davies
[The lights come up on the MGFT Holovid Theater and all five of the
Exquisite Soldiers, as well as Penko, are present and seated in
their usual seats in the front row.]
[Mika]
Hello there, folks! I'm Miyakawa Mika and welcome to Magical Girl
Fanfic Theater! Tonight, as part of our catch-up effort, we're going
to be reviewing a piece by an author that's becoming familiar to us.
[Ferris, giving Natsumi a sidelong glance]
Especially since one of us has been getting fan mail from him...
[Akira]
Don't tell me you're getting jealous, Ferris.
[Ferris]
Well, it's bad enough that she's the only one who's getting fan mail,
but she's also sending him pictures of herself. Geez!
[Mika]
It's not as if you wouldn't be doing the same thing, Ferris. Well,
I'll take that back. You wouldn't just settle for sending ordinary
pictures of yourself. You'd probably send nudes.
[Ferris]
Hehehehe...guess you've got me figured out, Mika. After all, if you
want to attract the fans, you've got to give them service. Right?
[Mika]
Remind me to stop leaving those Eva tapes within your reach from
now on, Ferris. I think Misato's becoming a bad influence on you.
[Akiko]
I don't think so, Mika. If Misato was a bad influence on her, she'd
be soused on Yebisu and living off of instant foods.
[Mika]
Good point. Anyway, I don't think Natsumi getting fan mail from
certain authors represents conflict of interest. Especially since
she probably doesn't know what it means...
[Natsumi]
Um...what *does* it mean, Mika?
[Mika]
See what I mean? I'll explain later, Natsumi. Anyway, I don't think
it'll get in the way of us reviewing fanfics fairly. Speaking of
fairness...I'm sure that Natsumi's not the only one with fans. Hint,
hint.
[Penko]
Shouldn't we be reviewing a fanfic, Mika?
[Mika]
Of course, Penko. Tonight, we're reviewing the fourth installment
of Chris Davies' fanfic series, "The New Adventures of Sailor Moon".
Tonight, we get to find out what happened to Sailor Mercury in the
seven-year gap that Davies set up as his premise. So, if someone
will bring down the lights...
-----
Serena & Luna:
The New Adventures of Sailor Moon
Episode 104
A Thoughtful Message
Serena dozed on the plane to Austria, not really asleep, but not fully
conscious either. Her weary mind darted over the events of the last week
with uncanny speed.
"Hello, Dr. Mizuno? I attended Crossroads Junior High with your
daughter Amy, and we're ..."
"You mean, Ami, I think?"
"Uh, yeah, right. Anyway, I went to Junior High with your
daughter, and we're trying to organize a reunion."
"A seven year reunion?"
"Uh ..."
"Oh well, stranger things have happened. I'm afraid I can't tell
you where Amy is ... we haven't spoken for the last three years."
"Really? Uh, if you don't mind my asking ..."
"I do. However, I can tell you where she attended university.
She was enrolled in the medical program at the University of
Ingolstadt, in Germany, at age fifteen. I was very proud."
"Wow! I knew she was smart but ..."
"Indeed. Unfortunately, her intelligence did not give her any
great degree of wisdom. Good day, Ms. ... I don't think you never
said your name ..."
"Huh? I mean ..."
"Good day." Click.
-----
[Mika]
Ouch! Looks like things aren't real rosy between mother and daughter.
[Akiko]
That's an understatement. Seems that there's been a major rift
between those two during Amy's college years.
-----
And then ...
"Gut Morgen, Ingolstadt Universitats-Eintritts."
"Uh ... sprechen ... sie ..." flip, flip, flip, "Japanisch?"
"Ja. I do."
"Uh, good. I'm looking for information on a student, namely Amy
Mizuno?"
"Ah, the young doktor Freund!"
"Huh?"
"Ah ... inward joke. She graduated from the medical program,
three years ago. A Wunderkind. What you might call a sterling ...
no, sorry, genius."
-----
[Mika, smiling]
Nice wordplay there. Looks like the author's aware of the differences
between Roboecch and Macross.
[Akiko, grinning]
Question is, which Genius is he referring to?
[Natsumi]
I don't get it, guys!
[Ferris]
We didn't expect you to, ditz.
-----
"I think it would be a really great idea, Moll!"
"Let me see if I've got this right. You wanna go to these three
cities -- Vienna, New York, and San Francisco -- where there are large
Japanese communities, and do cartoons about the experiences a girl
from Japan might encounter in Europe and America?"
"Well, except the second city isn't New York, it's G-"
"And you want the paper to PAY for this?"
"Well ..."
"It's crazy! But it's crazy enough that it might just be great!"
"Then you'll work it out with the publisher?"
"Not so fast, Serena. Is there something you aren't telling me
about all this?"
"Well ... no, not really. I mean, I'm not saying that I really
would like to visit all those cool cities, and do some shopping ..."
"That's not what I mean ... you've been acting really strange
lately. I mean, last week when that phoney Sailor Moon was running
around, you ran off in some kinda blind panic ..."
"I was ... worried that the fake Sailor Moon was gonna try and
rob my apartment!"
"Your eyes should be *brown*."
"Whole lotta people have been saying that lately ..."
-----
[Ferris]
Just what is it about this eye business, anyway?
[Mika]
Maybe she's one of those people whose eyes turn color whenever they
go through stress. Like whenever they lie.
[Ferris]
Interesting...
-----
And then:
"But why not?"
"Because, Raye, if they aren't already sure that you're Sailor
Mars, they'll become certain when she shows up in all these places
that you're also visiting."
"That's pretzel logic! If they *do* know I'm Sailor Mars,
leaving me here isn't going to anything to change their minds!"
-----
[Mika]
"Isn't going to anything"?
[Penko]
Maybe there should be a "do" between the "do" and the "anything".
[Akira]
That'll work.
-----
"Raye ... I'm afraid."
"Oh, big surprise there ..."
"No, not for myself. I'm scared for *you*. I mean, think about
it. This bunch knows who I am, maybe knows who the rest of us are ...
and I'm deliberately searching out the rest of the Scouts. They're
going to sit up and take notice. If you stay here, stay quiet, maybe
they won't come after you until they're finished with me."
"Don't talk like that, dammit!"
"Raye ..."
"I refuse to let you sacrifice your life for me, Serena!"
"But it's okay for you to give up yours for me?"
Dead silence. "I'm afraid, too."
"Don't be. I'll get all the others back, and we'll take them,
just like we took ... all those youma."
"All right. Go. But if you don't come back, I'm never speaking
to you again."
Geez, she hugs so tight!
-----
[Ferris]
Not even in a seance?
[Mika]
I don't think Shintoism covers those. Besides, she's not a priestess
anymore.
-----
She thanked the attendant, and clambered out of her seat. A few
minutes later, she was picking up Luna's carrier and her luggage, and out
of the Vienna airport.
A taxi ride later, she was in her hotel room. "Well, Luna, here is
Vienna! What do you think?"
Luna slowly, ever-so-slowly, crawled out of the kitty carrier. "Never
again, do you hear me? Never again. Do you have any idea how cold it
gets in that ... that metal monstrosity?"
"Come on, Luna ... it wasn't that bad, was it?"
Luna gave Serena an incredulous look. "Next time, how about *I* get
the comfy seat, and the dinner, and the inflight movie, and the ..."
"So now to find Amy, and make sure she's okay before we figure out
whether or not to give her back her memories," Serena interrupted.
Luna momentarily debated with herself whether to chide Serena for
cutting off her rant, or to praise her for keeping a focus on the mission
at hand. She decided to just fume.
"I wonder what Amy's doing now," Serena murmured.
-----
[Penko, grousing]
Luna's lucky. At least she gets to move around in those carriers.
Us robopets have to put up with carrying cases that we have to sit
in, immobilized, like good little machines, with no room to budge a
micron.
[Mika, teasing]
What's the matter? Jealous?
[Penko, darkly]
Sometimes, child, it takes all of my patience to put up with you...
-----
Dr. Amy Mizuno, Special Agent for Interpol, sneezed as she walked down
the hall to the office she shared with her partner, David Straczynski.
For a moment, she wondered if someone was talking about her, and a brief
smile flickered across her face as she flashed back to reading comic books
in her youth ... the youth that had been ended so long ago and at the same
time so recently.
-----
[Mika]
"Stracynski"? Why does that name sound so familiar?
[As Mika speaks, a bulky, organically-shaped figure rises behind the
team, with only one glowing eye in its head. As it speaks, a
whispery, etherial effect accompanies its words.]
[Figure]
It is a thing...of perfect beauty.
[The figure glides away, leaving Mika and the others wondering about
it.]
[Mika]
What was that...thing? And what the hell did it mean by "perfect
beauty"???
[Akiko]
I dunno, but I think we better keep a better eye on those shadows
behind us...
-----
Her face reverted to its normal sullen expression as she arrived at
the office. If someone was talking about her, it probably was one of the
members of the conspiracy ...
"Morning, Mizuno," her partner said as she stepped through the door.
"Looks to be a pretty nice day, doesn't it?"
"I hadn't noticed," she mumbled as she dropped her large purse on the
desktop, and hung up her trenchcoat. "Any requests for assistance come in
yet?"
"No ... but this report about kraken sightings in the Baltic is the
sort of thing that you'd probably find interesting."
She gave him a look as she took the folder, putting her spectacles on
to read it. David Straczynski had been assigned the task of being her
partner nearly a year ago, as part of an effort to keep her under leash.
He was a complete skeptic when it came to the supernatural and paranormal
events that Interpol's "X-Files" division was supposed to examine, which
clashed completely with her own, *certain* knowledge that mysterious
events happened every day. Nonetheless, they had developed a wary respect
for one another ... and truth to tell, if there was one being in the world
that Mizuno trusted, it was Straczynski.
-----
[Ferris, looking mysterious]
The truth is out there.
[Mika, also looking mysterious]
Trust no one.
[Both girls break out in giggles, then laughter, leaving Natsumi
confused as usual and annoying the others.]
-----
Serena looked up at the rather large house. <Amy lived here? Boy,
doctors must really live well.> she thought, ringing the bell.
The door swung open, and the tall man who answered the bell looked at
her expectantly. He was a major hunk, but Serena pretended not to
notice. She slowly read off the words she'd written on her hand earlier.
/Hello,/ she said in thickly accented German, /I am a friend of Amy
Mizuno. Does she still live here?/
"Nein," said the tall young man, his face suddenly stoney.
/Do you know where/
"Would it be more comfortable for you to speak Japanese?" he asked, in
flawless Nihongo.
Serena felt her face turn beet red, and she stammered an affirmative.
"No, Amy doesn't live here any more. And I don't know, and don't care
to know, where she does live."
"Uh ... how do you ..."
"My name is Rupert von Helsprechter. I was married to her."
-----
[Akiko]
Gee. Amy sure loves to burn bridges these days. First, her mother,
then her ex-husband. Who's next?
-----
The next thing Serena knew, she was in a living room, lying down on a
couch, staring up at him, but he was now wearing a concerned expression.
"You fainted," he explained. "I take it that you did not know that Amy
had been married?"
"Y-yes ... I mean, no, I hadn't known. But ... you're not married to
her anymore?"
"No. It ... went very badly." His face twitched.
Serena slowly pulled herself into a sitting position. "Uh ... if you
don't mind my asking, what ... exactly ... happened?"
"I really don't see that it's any of your business ..." Rupert began
angrily.
"PLEASE. Please, I was one of her best friends when we were kids, but
then she went off to Germany, and I haven't heard from her since, and I
overheard her mother saying some confusing things about her, and I got
worried! So I've come all the way from Japan to find out what's happened
to her! Can't you please help me?" Serena begged. She was dimly amazed
to realize that virtually none of what she'd just said was a lie. <Maybe
I can really get by without them after all.>
-----
[Penko]
I hope you girls are learning from this.
[Mika]
Great...Penko's gone into lecture mode again.
[Ferris]
Where the hell are my earplugs this time?
[Akira]
Um, excuse me Penko, but I'm a guy, not a girl.
[Penko]
Sorry, Akira. You spend all these years working with girls and it
becomes a habit...
-----
Rupert von Helsprechter sat down in an easychair across from the
couch. "I ... I met Amy five years ago, when I was a student at
Ingolstadt. I was in Law, while she was just beginning her medical
studies. I don't pretend to understand what I saw in her, nor, in truth
what she saw in me. She has ... a very old soul, I think. Or rather, I
thought.
-----
[Akiko]
You, my dear Doctor, have no idea just how old a soul Amy has...
-----
"We were married two years later, and we set up a house here. Things
.. progressed as they normally do, and Amy soon had to take maternity
leave from her studies. Our daughter was born, and things seemed to be
going wonderfully." His voice was becoming increasingly strained.
"I don't pretend to understand post-partum depression, either."
He paused for a long moment. "I came home one day, and I found that
our daughter had ..." He shook his head. "Amy blamed everyone but
herself. She even claimed that the nanny we'd hired to help her take care
of the child was some sort of monster; a ... kyuuketsuki, or something
like that." Again, he shook his head. "It didn't change anything. We
were quickly divorced, and I tried to get on with the rest of my life. I
remember seeing something about her working for Interpol, a few months
ago."
Serena sat, trying to absorb what the man before her had just said.
Amy. Married. Then with child. Then the mother of a dead child. Then
.. BLAMED for it? And claiming that it was the work of a monster. And
from what Serena knew about the doings of her adversaries, it seemed quite
likely that Amy was correct.
"I ... I see. I'm very sorry that I brought all this up, Herr von
Helsprechter. I'll go now."
She went out of the house, and made it all the way to the hotel room
before she broke down in tears.
"Oh, Ami-chan ..."
-----
[Natsumi, quavering]
Mika? Akiko? I'm getting scared...please tell me things are going
to be all right...
[Akiko, comforting Natsumi with the help of Akira]
I'm sure things are going to be all right...more or less...
[Ferris, whispering to Mika]
And they drafted *her* to fight youma?
-----
"Do you think it was wise, doing that?" Luna asked as Serena hung up
the phone. "She might be very upset when you reveal that you don't know
anything about the killer ..."
"But I do, Luna, and that's the worst part."
Luna swallowed. "You mean that you think that Amy's daughter was ...
killed by a youma pretending to be a vampire? That what happened to her
was because of the Enemy?"
Serena nodded, gravely. "So even if I can't give Amy her memories
back, I'll be able to give her some idea of what she's going up against."
"All right. Ten is only about an hour from now, shouldn't we get
going?"
Serena nodded. She pulled the Mnemonic device out of her pocket, and
stared at it. <And then I give you back your memories ... and hope you
don't hate me for my part in this ...> Suddenly, a thought occured to
her. "Wait a minute. What do you mean, we?"
"You don't think I'm going to let you go in there alone, after what
happened with Raye and Mina, do you?" Luna asked, aghast. "Are you out of
your mind? We *know* that Amy's been involved with monsters!"
"Luna ... I know you're only trying to protect me, but you have to
admit, if a bunch of youma pop out of the woodwork, there's not gonna be a
lot you can do! And besides, it's an airport. If you go, you're gonna
have to go in the kitty karrier."
Luna stared at Serena in horror. "You knew this! And you planned for
it!"
"No! Luna, honest, I ... I just didn't know where else to set up the
meeting! Really!"
Luna stared up at her for a few seconds. Then she turned away from
her, padded across the bed, and slumped on the pillows. "Go," she
muttered.
"Luna ..."
"Just get going! You're right, there'd be nothing I could do to
help. I am, after all, just a cat."
Serena stared at Luna's very still form for a few seconds, then turned
and ran out of the hotel room, before Luna could see her tears.
And before she could see Luna's tears.
-----
[Mika]
A very nice exchange between Serena and Luna here. Well, nice in
terms of writing quality, not exactly in pleasantness.
-----
"I'm the one who called you. Uh ..." she looked around suddenly.
"This is kind of a public place for this kind of discussion ... maybe we
can go to the lady's room?"
-----
[Mika]
That should really be "ladies'".
-----
Amy regained consciousness in Serena's arms. She'd fainted only
moments after she had come out of the memory restoration, and Serena had
hustled her into the lady's room.
-----
[Mika]
Again, that should be "ladies'"
-----
"This is why I wanted to bring you in here for our discussion, because
I thought you might not want to have your memories restored in public like
that, because it would be REALLY embarrassing, and ..." she babbled.
"Serena?"
"Yeah, Amy?"
"Shut up. And get your hands off me."
Serena pulled back as Amy stood up, walked to the sinks, and leaned
over them.
"Seven years," Amy muttered. "Seven years later, after everything,
you come looking for me."
"Amy, I only got my memories back a few weeks ago."
"Why?"
"Because of the youma coming back. Luna ..."
"Why didn't you get them back seven years ago?!" Amy demanded,
swirling around, her face a mask of rage.
"Because ... I didn't need them ..."
"Did it occur to you, or to Luna, that *I* might have needed them?!
That I might have needed ALL of you?!"
"Amy, please ..." Serena begged.
"Let me guess," Amy barked. "Luna and Artemis both spent all their
time watching over dear, sweet, innocent Serena, right? Nary a moment to
spare watching over the rest of us! Because you were too *simple* to look
after yourself, MY LIFE WENT TO HELL!"
"Amy, I'm *sorry*! I want to help!"
"You want to help me? Give me my transformation pen."
"You already have it," Serena sniffled, on the edge of tears.
"What are you talking about, I don't ..." Amy fell silent as she
thrust her hand into her trench coat pocket, and came out with the pen.
She stared at it for a long moment. Then she looked up at Serena. "Would
you care to explain this?"
"Luna said that ... when we were brought back with no memories ... we
were unconsciously programmed to carry the pens around with us, no matter
what ... in case we ever needed them ..." Serena said, dissolving into
sobs.
Amy studied the pen, and then nodded. "Good. Then the other thing
that you can do for me is to stay the hell out of my way." And she
marched to the washroom door.
"Amy! What are you going to do?!" Serena cried.
Amy paused at the door, turned back and said, "First, I'm going to
find the bitch that killed my daughter, and then I'm going to kill her."
And then she was gone.
-----
[Mika]
Phew! Now we can see just how Amy managed to burn the bridges between
herself and both her mother and her ex-husband.
[Akiko]
Take it easy on Amy, Mika. After all, how would you react if you
found out that things could have been differently and that your
daughter could have lived.
[Mika, chagrined]
I see your point...
-----
Out of the washroom, out of the airport, out onto the sidewalk, down
into the alley, then held the pen aloft and screamed, with all the rage of
all the mothers whose daughters the thing had slain ... "MERCURY POWER!"
Icy cold descended on her, hardening her, sharpening her five senses
to a razors edge. Then the ice burst, leaving the woman.
Sailor Mercury, the Beautiful Warrior of Ice.
Without pausing, she tapped her left earring. The visor formed in a
twinkling of frost around her face, and the terminal appeared in her hand
-- dented and dusty, but intact.
Adding her knowledge of the nature of the beast to her memories of
the energy signatures possessed by youma, Sailor Mercury came up with a
workable pattern to track the vampire, and activated the program.
A single signature, in all the city. Good. The grostesque
precautions she'd taken had worked.
Leaping to the rooftops, Sailor Mercury began to run with powerful
strides to where the monster would be.
Time to kill.
-----
[Ferris]
Anyone notice that Amy's a lot more harder-edged than she used to be?
[Mika]
Well, as Akiko pointed out, she did lose her daughter to this monster.
If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if you were even nastier if it
were a child of yours that got killed by this thing...
-----
"And you love me?" the girl asked.
"More than you know ... more than you could imagine," her lover
answered.
They lay in the huge, four-poster bed, huddled together.
"More than anyone?"
"More than anyone."
"More than my mother?"
"More than ..."
Frost formed on the glass of the french door leading to the balcony,
and then it shattered under the weight of the ice.
"What the hell?" her lover asked.
"Liar! None could love so well as a mother's love!" Sailor Mercury
thundered, as she stepped into the room.
"Excuse me, who the hell are you?" demanded the girl's lover, a young
man about seventeen years old, who stood up to prevent this strange
visitor from getting a glimpse at his companion.
"I am Sailor Mercury. In the legends of the ancient world, Mercury
was the escort of spirits to the underworld -- and so shall I send you
screaming to Hell! IN MERCURY'S NAME ... IN SERENA'S NAME ... I WILL
PUNISH YOU!"
"What the --" the young man exclaimed.
The girl came lazily to a seated position. "I believe she's talking
to me, Roddy. Go away."
"But ..."
"GO AWAY."
The young man yelped as though the words had caused him physical pain,
and fled without bothering to dress himself.
-----
[Mika]
We're just full of inside jokes in this episode. Now we have a late-
night horror movie host turned vampire hunter making an appearance...
or at least the mention of the actor's name.
-----
"Well, well, well," the young girl said. "We meet again, Amy."
"For the last time, Miniko. I swear it."
"By Mercury? Or by Christ? I confess, I am curious in which of their
names you will kill me."
"Shut up! I am going to kill, no matter!"
-----
[Mika]
"No matter!"? Maybe that should be "no matter what!".
-----
"You had your chance to do that, when first you realized what I was."
The young woman got out of the bed with langourous slowness. "But you
passed it up ... and we both know why, don't we?" She came to stand
within arm's reach of Sailor Mercury, staring at her with unhidden hunger,
her red tresses down to her waist.
"Damn you!" Mercury cursed. "My daughter ... she didn't have to
die!" She was weeping openly.
"No ... she didn't. And that's the horrible part, isn't it?"
With a howl, Mercury raised her fist, and drove a punch at Miniko's
face, which the vampire caught with ease. Applying a small amount of
pressure, she broke the knuckles of Mercury's hand. "Pathetic," she
murmured. "I would have expected more from one of the legendary Sailor
Soldiers ..."
Sailor Mercury collapsed to the floor in agony. The smile on Miniko's
face grew even larger, and the points of her teeth became obvious. "And
now, to pick up where we left off ... Ami-chan ..."
-----
[Natsumi, cringing and covering her eyes]
I can't look! I just can't!!
[Mika, whispering to Ferris while Akiko and Akira try to comfort
Natsumi again]
You're not the only one who has to wonder about her...
-----
"No, you won't either."
-----
[Akiko, still busy trying to calm Natsumi down]
I'd drop the "either" from that line. It sounds more direct that way.
-----
Miniko whirled, her eyes slits, to look at the figure who stood in the
ruins of the french doors, silhouetted by the moon.
"I will not let you hurt her any more than you already have. I am the
Soldier of Justice, Sailor Moon, and in the name of the Moon, I will right
wrongs, and triumph over evil. And that means you!"
With a roar, Miniko lunged at the interloper, and was upon her before
she could lift her hand to touch the gemstone set in her tiara. The
stranger struggled with inhuman strength, keeping her neck away from
Miniko's fangs ... but slowly, the vampire began to close in.
And then a black form leapt out of the shadows to slam into Miniko's
face, claws extended and hissing with the sound of a thousand hornets. It
was no more than a moment's distraction, but that was all that Sailor Moon
needed to slam her knee into the vampire's stomach, forcing her off, and
roll to the side.
Sailor Mercury rose up from the floor, her face covered with tears,
and screamed. "MERCURY! BUBBLES! FREEEEEEEEEZE!"
The bubbles which had ever been the signature of all of Sailor
Mercury's tactics raced out, surrounding Miniko, congealing around her ...
forming into a solid block of ice, in which she stood, frozen in a mask of
rage.
With a roar, Mercury raced forward, slammed into the block of ice, and
pushed it through the open doorway, onto the balcony, and over the
railing.
It fell, smashing into the ground, shattering into a million bloody
pieces ...
-----
[Mika, wincing]
Oooh...not a nice way to go there.
[Ferris]
And the bitch deserved it in full.
-----
"Luna?" Sailor Moon cried, running over to where the black cat had
landed unsteadily after slamming into the vampire's face.
"Still think I'm useless in a fight?" Luna asked weakly, as Serena
grabbed her up into a tight embrace.
"Never, Luna ... never before, and never again ..." Serena sobbed,
holding her partner fiercely.
After a few moments, when Serena was *sure* that Luna was okay (and
after the cat had repeatedly insisted that Serena let her go, *now*), she
turned to look at Amy.
Who was standing on the balcony, looking down at the street below with
a blank expression.
"Amy?"
Without looking up, Amy replied. "You came after me. Why?"
"Because I wanted to make amends for what happened because I ..."
"It wasn't your fault. It would be stupid to blame you for something
like that," Amy noted without emotion. "I only said those things because
I was angry." She was silent for a long moment. "I named her after you.
My daughter. I didn't know I was naming her after you, of course, I just
thought, Serena, there's a nice name for my f-first child ..."
"Amy ..."
"And then ... then I hire a babysitter to help me take care of her,
because b-babies are, are hard to handle, everyone knows that, and I
become ... f-f-friends with her ... and ... and ..." She was sobbing
now. "And I don't know what I w-was expecting to feel ... I didn't think
I was going to be elated, but ..."
Serena came and held Amy, as she collapsed into tears.
-----
[Mika]
Well, at least the friendship between those two didn't get thrashed.
[Akiko]
I don't think any of us thought it would, deep down. Though you had
to wonder at times.
-----
"So I'm going to be transfering to Interpol's Japanese bureau next
week," Amy said, a few days later, as she stood with Serena in the airport
lounge.
"Do you think that's a good move, career-wise?" Serena asked with a
dubious expression.
"I don't really care. I need to get back to my roots, Serena. My
partner is pretty shocked, but he's made some noise about getting a
transfer over there with me. I don't know if he'll actually go through
with it."
"Oh, the cute guys just follow you everywhere, Ames!"
Amy blushed. "ANYway, I'm hoping that I'll be able to patch things up
with my mother. She didn't approve of ... the marriage. And I'm going to
have to find some way of admitting that she was right without losing too
much face ..."
-----
[Mika]
You know, that would make for a really good side story, if it's not
already planned for later on in this series. I'd like to know just
why Amy's mother disapproved of the marriage. Was it because of the
interracial aspect of it, or what?
-----
"And when you get to Japan ... you'll help me and Raye, right?"
Amy was silent, then sighed. "I don't know, Serena. I've ... I've
had enough of war, I think, to last me for the rest of my life. I'm more
than willing to give you any support I can, but ... I don't know if I want
to be Sailor Mercury anymore."
<Remind her about the connections between that vampire and the youma
in Japan,> a part of Serena insisted. The rest of her ignored it.
"Whatever you decide will be okay with me, Amy. You're my friend, and I
love you."
"You're my friend too, Serena," Amy replied, and gave her a hug. "But
girls really shouldn't say that they love other girls. It gives people
the wrong idea."
"Oh, *Amy*!" Serena fumed, and kissed her on the forehead.
"Get going, you've got a plane to catch," Amy said. She waved as
Serena dashed off.
As Serena rounded a corner in the terminal, she ran smack into ...
"Herr von Helsprechter!" she gasped.
"Ms. Tsukino," he said gravely. "I saw you in the distance, with Amy
.. and I thought we should talk."
"We really don't have anything to discuss," Serena said, remembering
how shabbily this man had treated Amy. "I'd just like to say that maybe
you should have given your wife a little more credit for telling the truth
when she said she found your daughter drained of blood like that!"
"Drained of blood?"
Serena blinked. "Yeah! Isn't that how your daughter died?"
"Is that what Amy told you?"
"Uh ... no. She didn't really say a lot about it ..."
"Our daughter, Serena, was not found drained of blood. There wasn't a
lot of blood in her body, but that was because of the stake that was in
her heart ... is something wrong?"
The End
(For Now)
-----
[Mika]
Now we're delving a bit into Hitchcock here. Interesting twist, by
the way. Was Amy the one who killed baby Serena? If so, was it
because baby Serena was turned into a vampire, or did Amy merely
suspect it and rashly acted on those suspicions?
[Akiko]
I guess we won't find out until later, if at all.
[Mika]
Any final thoughts on this story?
[Akira]
I thought it was pretty good. Not the usual fare, I'll admit, but I
enjoyed it.
[Ferris]
I hate to say this, but I agree with pretty boy. This was pretty
good. I especially liked seeing that bitch get hers.
[Natsumi]
Well...I didn't like it at all! I hate horror stories! They scare
me! Now I'm gonna have nightmares for days to come!
[Mika]
It'll be okay, Natsumi. I think this was for only the one story and
we'll see the usual kinds of stories from Mr. Davies again starting
with the next installment. Anyway, I think it's time to call it a
night. See you later, everybody!
