Having some mailer problems, so there's some formatting ugliness in this I
just can't seem to get rid of, no matter what I do...
Libra pushed her hood back; it kept falling down over her eyes, rendering
it difficult for her to see. Unfortunately, the costume came with the
job. She took a moment to bind her long ash blonde hair back with a
ribbon when it tried to take over where the hood had left off. Finally,
she gazed down at the horoscope she had just worked out, trying to
interpret it.
Finishing that one, she cast a second one, then interpreted it. She took
her bronze scales and placed each horoscope in one of the balances. It
swung back and forth for a while, then gradually balanced. She'd expected
as much. Both the Senshi and the Dark Kingdom were growing stronger, and
apparently they were matching each other for growth despite the Dark
Kingdom's losses.
The Zodiac, on the other hand, was not getting any stronger. So far,
half the Zodiac had tried and failed to beat the Senshi. It would take an
all out assault, she suspected. But that would only leave the victor to
be picked off by the Dark Kingdom.
Her blue eyes glimmered in the dim light of the room as she studied the
scales and thought. The best solution seemed to be to play off the Senshi
and the Dark Kingdom against each other, then pick off the victor herself.
But with such an even balance, that might take too long; most people
prefer greatly to only attack when victory is certain.
The Sailors would have to be weakened in some way, their balances broken,
to leave them vulnerable. But not too vulnerable; ultimately the Sailors
were only their enemies because they protected the Star Princess and tried
to hoard her power, the power that rightfully belonged to the Zodiac.
Once they had that power, they could easily crush the Dark Kingdom. The
trick would be to not weaken them so much that the Dark Kingdom made off
with the Star Princess.
Libra frowned. Will I be able to right the balance in time if I tip it?
Her power included the disruption of balances and cooperation, but she
never enjoyed using it in that manner. But it seemed she had no choice.
And even though she wished she could weaken the Dark Kingdom as well, to
reduce the danger of this, they were not easy to strike at, unlike the
Senshi.
She got out more paper and began to cast another horoscope, seeking
guidance on what action could best disrupt this balance. Once she
interpreted the results, it made no sense to her. But then, the workings
of her power had often involved her in strange actions.
Rising from her seat and pulling her hood back up, she picked up her
scales and set out to put her plan in motion.
*****
Naru: I'm tired of always running
I've grown tired of the night
I wish I had some cunning,
Had some power, had some might.
We see a collage of Naru running from monsters, grabbed by
monsters, trapped inside big moss balls by monsters, etc.
Sailors: You don't need to keep on running.
You don't need to fear the night.
We can save you with our cunning,
With our power, with our might.
We see a collage of images of Usagi and the other Sailors saving Naru
and many other people from monster attacks.
Naru: I don't want someone to save me;
I'd just like to save myself
I don't want to be a helpless doll
That must sit upon the shelf.
We see Naru sitting at her window, looking out on the starry night
sky of the city. One by one, lines trace the constellations.
Pluto: If you want to have the power
You must reach into your heart
Look inside to find your strength
For that's where power starts
We see Pluto holding out an eight-pointed star, which hovers just
above her hand.
*****
Sailor Moon Z:
Series Concept by Jeff Hosmer and John Biles
Primary Writer this Episode: John Biles
Based on the Series Sailor Moon, copyrighted by a whole lot of people who
aren't us.
Episode 21
"Running Wild in Avalon.
Which Road to Walk?"
*****
Kensuke Mizuno parked his car; he was proud of his new sedan, even
though it wasn't very flashy. Simply put, it was new. For the first time
in his life, he'd actually bought a completely new car with his own money;
oh, he and his now ex-wife had owned a new car, but she had basically paid
for it. And kept it when they had divorced.
It had taken a long time for him to build up his skill and reputation in
the art world to where he stood now. While not internationally renowned,
he'd become fairly well known in Japan for his imaginative watercolors and
fantasy prints. Finally, he was making a decent living off it, and his
parents no longer had an excuse to nag him to get a job, which he'd begun
to think they would do until the day he died.
He whistled a happy tune as he wandered across the parking lot, and gazed
on Ami's school. I'm impressed, he thought. I'd heard good things about
this place, but still...this must cost an arm and a leg. But I'm sure
it's worth it.
A quick inquiry sent him on his way to Perry Hall, where his daughter was
staying. Students darted past him, all out of uniform, because class was
out for the weekend. He passed a young couple smooching on a bench and
smiled a little. Young love, he thought. It burns so brightly, and you
think it will last forever, even though the last time it only lasted two
weeks.
He shook his head and lost himself in thoughts of fond high school
memories. This kept him busy right up to the front room of the dorm,
where the dorm mother perched behind a counter. "Hello, sir," she said.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm here to see Mizuno Ami, my daughter."
The dorm mother blinked. "She left a few minutes ago when her boyfriend
came down and picked her up. I think they were going to meet you at the
parking lot."
"..."
"I can ring her room; maybe her roommate would be in and would know."
The dorm mother thought for a second. "At least, I think that was her who
went out. I have so many girls, it's hard to keep track if they're good
and don't cause trouble."
He laughed. "I'm very proud of my daughter."
She nodded. "You should be. She's one of our best students. Let me
call her room." She got on the phone.
While it was ringing, there was a tap on his shoulder. He spun the other
direction, and to his surprise, he saw the couple from the park bench.
"There you are!" the girl said.
He blinked, wondering whom she could have mistaken him for. Should I
know her? he asked himself. She wore a knee-length white skirt covered
with various math equations, and had short blue hair, like his daughter's.
Black sunglasses hid her eyes; he wished he'd brought his own, as the sun
was quite bright today. She wore a white blouse with a blue vest over it;
the top two buttons were undone, which might have been deliberate or an
oversight from the kissing session on the bench. He remembered having once
tucked his tie inside his shirt after one such session in his high school
days.
The boy with her looked vaguely familiar as well, not very tall, with
short black hair and an honest face. He was wearing dark slacks and a
blue buttoned shirt, with the second button undone, though not the top
one. He looked very, very nervous.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. She sounded worried now.
The voice finally sank in. My daughter, he thought. I didn't recognize
my own daughter. Is she really growing up so fast? "Ami?"
She took off the sunglasses, and smiled faintly. "I see my clever
disguise fooled you."
"I guess it's been a while since I last saw you," he said sheepishly.
"So you must be Urawa Ryo," he said to the boy.
Ryo nodded. "It's nice to finally meet you, Mizuno-san."
"I've been running around to so many shows lately...Well, let's go, while
we still have a day to spend together." He turned to the dorm mother.
"Thank you for your help."
"It's a pleasure to have met you," she said, then stared pointedly at
Ami, making a buttoning gesture at the top of her own blouse.
Ami stared, then looked down, and her eyes widened. She quickly buttoned
her shirt. "I...uh..."
Mr. Mizuno laughed. "Let's go." You never expect your children to grow
up, but then they surprise you, he thought.
*****
Minako ran into her room, threw herself flat, and rolled under her bed.
"If anyone comes looking for me, I ran away and became a nun," she
announced.
Himeko sighed. "What stupid thing did you do this time?" She welcomed a
distraction from her own thoughts; if she didn't keep busy, she kept
seeing the image of Hikaru...the ninja Hikaru of the other
universe...dying.
"I...well...umm..." Minako laughed nervously.
There was a knock at the door. Himeko asked, "What did you do?" Her
voice was sharp; she wanted a distraction, but she was getting very
aggravated with the frequency of Minako doing stupid things these days.
"I sort of agreed to...well...I wasn't thinking about the fact that..."
Minako laughed nervously.
The person knocked again.
"If you tell me you agreed to date someone, I'm going to have to beat you
up," Himeko said. Her brain offered maiming suggestions, which she
ignored.
Minako was very silent.
"What is WITH you these days?" Himeko demanded. "You're acting like a
complete nutcase even more than before ever since we came back from the
TORG universe!"
"At least I'm not moping all the time like you have been!"
"I'm not moping! Okay, maybe I'm moping a little, but you'd mope too
if..."
Dimly through the door, they heard, "Hey, Minako, you in there?"
Himeko sighed. "Answer the door, Minako."
"No one down here but us dust bunnies."
Hime-chan sighed and turned into Minako, then went to the door. "I
changed my mind because..."
The guy, who she dimly recognized as the rather handsome senior Takashi,
swept her into his arms and kissed her. For about a second, she simply
kissed back as her brain spun. Then she kneed him in the balls to get him
to let go when an effort to pull back failed. "I'm dating someone!" she
shouted. "And you could TRY saying Hello first, too!"
"But you said he wouldn't mind..." Takashi said as he stumbled back,
hunched over. "I'll just go home now," he said weakly, staggering away.
"Next time, ASK FIRST!" Himeko-Minako said, then slammed the door and
changed back to normal. "Minako, this is getting ridiculous."
Minako nodded. "I know."
"Then DO something about it!"
"I don't know what to do!"
"THEN FIND OUT!!!"
*****
"Yeeehaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!" Mr. Mizuno shouted as they roared down in
the rollercoaster. Ryo was screaming along with him, while Ami was using
the suffering saint look he was sure she'd inherited genetically from her
mother. He kept trying to get her to enjoy rollercoasters, but it looked
like that today wasn't the day that would happen.
Once they finished on the ride and got off, Ryo said, "I'm hungry."
"I'll be right back," Ami said. "I need to go to the ladies' room."
Mr. Mizuno frowned a little as he watched her go. "I hope that didn't
make her sick. She threw up the first time I took her on one, and ever
since then, it's been like pulling teeth to get her on one."
"I love them," Ryo said. "But Ami doesn't, so we usually stick to the
Ferris Wheel, and other rides she does like." He looked around the park.
"This is a really great amusement park."
Mr. Mizuno nodded. "Do you come here often?"
"Ami and I had our first date here," Ryo said, gazing off at the Ferris
Wheel.
"So how long have you two been going out?" Mr. Mizuno asked, then sat
down on a handy bench.
Ryo sat down next to him. "Well, we met in junior high, and went out a
few times, but nothing came of it. But we've been going out a couple of
months now, ever since I came to Tsunami." He started sounding nervous
again.
Mr. Mizuno wondered if he was hiding something, or if was just the usual
'boyfriend meets the dad' jitters. "Well, you're her first real
boyfriend, I think. Ami's always been sort of shy; I tried to get her to
ask people out, but she always seemed to prefer studying." He shook his
head. "I admire her dedication, but I couldn't do that."
Ryo blinked in surprise. "I really admire Ami-chan's dedication to her
studies. I try to study hard, but I'm not nearly as good a student as she
is."
"Well, I'm just glad to see she's finally letting herself have some fun."
He sighed. "I think her mother forgot about the concept somewhere down
the line. But I shouldn't badmouth people who aren't here. So what do
you plan to do one day?"
"I'm thinking about becoming a stockbroker," he said. "I've always been
good with money, and Dad's got friends in the business who can help me get
a good start. I've also thought about photography, which I greatly
enjoy." He took out his camera, and snapped a shot of Mr. Mizuno, then
smiled.
Mr. Mizuno rubbed his eyes. "Photography is a noble art. Business tends
to suck your life dry and leave you no time for anything pleasant. But
then, I'm an artist, so I'm biased."
"We went and saw some of your work last weekend. I liked it," Ryo said.
"Although I couldn't quite figure out what that weird thing was in the
picture where everyone turned to stone."
"It's called a cockatrice. I saw it in..." He frowned and tried to
remember what it was from. "A game? A book? I can't quite remember, but
it turns people to stone. I modeled its face on a coach I had in high
school who was really lousy."
Ryo laughed. "I hope he doesn't see it then."
"He was just a really bad coach. Most of our coaches were good, but..."
Mr. Mizuno shook his head. "He drove me off the swim team, he was so
awful."
"You did high school swim team?" Ryo asked.
"For two years," Mr. Mizuno said. "And I taught Ami to swim too.
Speaking of Ami, what's taking her so long?"
Ryo shrugged. "Who knows what women do in bathrooms that takes them so
long? If Minako was here, we might never see them again. She'll come out
when she comes out; worrying won't make it faster."
"Thank you, young kung fu master," Mr. Mizuno said, then laughed.
"You're right. I just..."
The explosions started off to their right. Mr. Mizuno leaped to his
feet, reaching into his pocket and grabbing something he knew Ami and her
mother would call him silly for carrying. It was a charm from a shrine
he'd visited, one for warding off magic.
He had become a more serious believer in such things after falling to an
attack in the first wave of monster attacks two years ago. He'd been at a
theatre...he couldn't remember it very clearly, but he remembered enough
to know that normal measures weren't sufficient. He'd always hoped that
magic was real, but he'd learned the hard way that not all of it was
bright, shiny sunrises and elf-queens. Of course, traditional elf-queens
had often been rather nasty creatures.
He prayed the charm would work as he watched the Sailor Senshi battle a
swarm of animatronic animals now possessed by evil. One of them caught
his eye...she looked familiar. "Can I borrow your camera?"
"Hmm? Sure," Ryo said, passing it to him. "We'd better take cover, just
in case."
He activated the zoom feature to get a better look, and then his eyes
widened. The reason one of them was familiar was that she was his
daughter!
He stared just a few seconds too long. A bird broke out of the struggle
and started flying right at him. He turned and ran, as did Ryo, but the
bird was too fast for them.
Spinning on one foot, he bolted into the men's room; Ryo had apparently
gotten the same idea. The bird smacked into the door, its beak stuck
through it.
And then a voice spoke on the other side of the door, something about
ochre illusions. The bird froze up and was pulled out, and then there was
a gentle knock.
He opened the door a crack and saw his daughter, dressed as Sailor
Mercury. "Hello?" he asked.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "I saw the bird chase you in here."
"Oh, we're fine," he said, and wondered if she expected him to recognize
her or not. For that matter, he wondered how he'd never recognized
Mercury before...not that he'd seen the Senshi very many times.
"Good. You'd better stay in here where it's safe until we finish them
off."
"Can you check the ladies' room?" Mr. Mizuno asked. "My daughter went in
and never came out, and I was starting to wonder if something bad
happened, but well...I can't check."
"I'll check for you, Mr. Mizuno," Sailor Mercury said.
You slipped, he thought. I never said my name. "Thank you."
And then she was gone.
Ryo said, "Wow, that was Sailor Mercury!" It was the most fake effort at
surprise Mr. Mizuno had ever heard, but he played along.
"We should have gotten a picture," Mr. Mizuno said. He then remembered
he was carrying Ryo's camera. "Let's see if we can get one."
"Shouldn't we wait..." Ryo began, but it was too late.
Mr. Mizuno got three good photos of the end of the fight, and another one
of the Senshi conferring afterwards. I thought there were only five, he
thought, but it looks like at least nine, and two guys as well. If that's
really her, he thought, she's been keeping this up for two years without
me or her mother finding out. Then again, maybe her mother does know and
didn't tell me. He frowned slightly, then dismissed the thought. Miaka
would never let her do something like this.
The senshi looked about to scatter, and he went back to the bench and sat
down. "I'm starting to think Ami fell in," he said, laughing.
"She probably heard the explosions and is waiting for it to be safe," Ryo
said with the tone of nervousness that made it clear to Mr. Mizuno that he
was trying to cover things up.
A woman came out of the ladies' room, sticking her head out nervously.
"Is it over?" She looked to be in her mid-thirties and was towing a small
child along.
"I think so. I don't suppose you could ask around, and make sure my
daughter hasn't gotten stuck or something?" Mr. Mizuno asked. "She went
in before the fighting started, and I'm starting to wonder what's going
on. If it's not too much trouble. Her name is Ami."
The woman nodded. "I'll check."
Mr. Mizuno glanced over at Ryo, who had settled down with a look of doom
on his face. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm just worried because Ami is taking so long."
The woman came back out. "Very strange; there's no one named Ami in
there."
Several other women came out now, heading off across the amusement park,
and in the distance, the normal sounds of the park revived as the memory
of the battle quickly faded.
Mr. Mizuno scratched his head. "I wonder where she went, then."
The woman shrugged. "Good luck finding her. Come on, Mai, let's go."
And then she left.
"Maybe she fled out the back during the fighting?" Ryo suggested weakly.
"I don't think there is a back door," Mr. Mizuno said.
About a minute later, Ami came running out. "I'm sorry to make you wait
so long. I hid from the sounds of all the fighting, and then I decided to
freshen up my makeup a bit." Her voice wavered just a bit, and he knew
she was lying. Ami had always been a horrible liar, just like her mother.
Their voices would shake, and they looked as guilty as a cat caught with
the canary in his mouth.
"Not a problem. We had a fine show watching the Sailor Senshi fight all
those animal robot things," Mr. Mizuno said. "I was afraid I'd made you
throw up again or something."
She shook her head, came over, and looped one arm around his and the
other around one of Ryo's arms. "You didn't make me sick. I should have
just come out and finished the call out here. Let's go ride the Ferris
Wheel."
*****
Hudson put down the controller. "Why did I have to operate the lambs
instead of the tiger?"
"It was your destiny," Libra said. She put down her controller, then
leaned back against the wall of the van and took a sip of tea.
Libra, Hudson, Izuko, and several other Zodiac agents were all crammed
into the back of a van parked at the amusement park, having just
orchestrated an animatronic rampage.
"My birds were rather sluggish," Izuko commented. "And the visual
sensors kept flickering in and out."
"I'll let Capricorn know," Libra said.
"So why exactly did we just send a bunch of fake animals on a rampage in
a amusement park?" Blake, a short, black haired man, asked.
"Everything is ruled by the stars," Libra replied.
"Is that your answer to everything?" Hudson asked.
"Izuko, get us out of here," Libra said to Izuko.
She nodded and scrambled into the driver's seat, pulling out.
Libra turned to Hudson. "We have cast a stone into the lake; now we must
see if the ripples wash the blossom we desire to the shore."
"Wouldn't it be easier to just get a net and grab the blossom directly?"
"Hungry piranha live in the lake and keep chewing holes in the net."
He looked thoughtful and chugged his now cold coffee. "That tasted
pretty crappy," he said. "So what does this blossom do? And what does
the park have to do with it?"
Libra sighed. "We're being sneaky."
"Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"
"I was being sneaky."
"Oh." Hudson shrugged. "Can we stop somewhere to get more coffee?"
"You should all be able to go home once we drop the van off," Libra said.
"You can get your coffee then." And I will go and see what I have
wrought.
*****
"So, I'm flying over the forest and...aaaack!" Derith was interrupted in
telling Hotaru a story when Minako suddenly popped up from nowhere and
started shaking him.
"I've got to get a grip! I can't stand this any longer! I can't! I'm
going to end up cheating on my boyfriend with Mamoru and become Chibi-
Usa's mother or something!!!!" Minako shouted.
Derith tried to speak, but all he could do was babble incoherently as he
tried unsuccessfully to pull loose. Finally, Hotaru pulled Minako off
him. "You could start by not grabbing people," Derith said.
"I have to get a grip, and I have to get it now! Now! Now! Can't you
just mind whammy me or something?" Minako pleaded.
"Well, I could try taking you to Avalon for a while, and let you run wild
there and get it all out, but that means you'd miss out on school."
"Piffle. Like I care about school. Not being a mental case is much more
important. Like roses for water, you know."
Derith and Hotaru glanced at each other, then Derith said, "Are you sure
you can't wait until your next vacation period?"
"I can't wait all the way to Christmas. I'll be pregnant and barefoot by
then at this rate," Minako said, sitting down. "Aren't there, like, places
where time goes wonky in Avalon? A thousand years in a day and all that?"
"Yes. There's also ones where it goes the other way. And even someone
with my experience may sometimes fail to tell the difference. It's rather
risky."
"I'm just losing it," Minako said. "Desperate mimes call for desperate
measurements, you know. Either that, or I need a cure. Being an elf has
brought me nothing but trouble, and once I get hold of those idiots who
turned me into one, I'll throttle them."
"It's not all bad," Derith said defensively.
"It is for me. There's nothing good about being an elf that isn't
outweighed by bigger aggravations. I have to hide my real appearance, I
act like some sort of deranged whore half the time, and I keep attracting
men I don't really want. I'm SICK of it." She slumped in her chair. "I
don't care if I flunk out. Because if I don't deal with this, I'll flunk
out anyway."
Given some of the things young elves did, he could believe that.
"Alright, I'll try to find a good place to take you and your boyfriend so
you can just run around and get it all out of your system."
She leaped up and hugged him. "Thank you! How soon do we leave?"
"Well, it'll probably take me a while to find somewhere stable enough.
But within a few weeks at most."
Minako bounced around happily, then hugged Hotaru. "Woo woo!" she
shouted. "Okay, give me a call when you know!"
"I will," Derith said, then watched her bounce off.
Hotaru said, "Are you sure there's no way to just make her human again?"
"Not with my skills," he replied. "I couldn't make her an elf or unmake
it."
"I'd like to see Avalon," she hinted.
"Alright. Minako will need to take Steven with her anyway, so she can
condition herself properly."
Hotaru blinked. "Condition herself?"
"Well, you see, it's like this. Someone who has been turned into an elf
starts losing control of their impulses. Impulses you indulge during that
time start turning into long term tendencies, and finally, into fairly
stable traits once the period ends. This tends to mean a certain amount
of personality change, and sometimes fairly radical changes. To some
greater or lesser extent, many of their old inhibitions will be lost, for
good and ill."
Hotaru nodded. "So if you start eating strawberries a lot, you might
become obsessed with eating them?"
"Usually not quite that bad, but yes. I've seen people saddle themselves
with some weird wants as a result of this, though. Puberty for Elves is
just messy, and when a human becomes an Elf...bamm, instant puberty."
"So, if she takes her boyfriend along and sticks close to him and avoids
other temptations, she'll come out of it with a stronger devotion to him?"
Hotaru asked.
"Exactly. On the other hand, if she went to a mad orgy every night,
she'd end up as a wild party animal."
"So, about how long does this take to settle down?" Hotaru asked.
"Weeks to months," Derith said. "Differs by person. Given how long
Minako's been going through it, I don't think she has too much longer, and
I'm sure I can find an area with faster time, but I just don't want to
risk us ending up somewhere that makes us vanish for years of Earth time."
Hotaru looked thoughtful, then said, "I know. We could ask Setsuna or
Hime-chan to help us find the right spot."
He blinked. "I should have thought of that myself," he said. "We can ask
her when she gets home."
*****
"So, then Umino finds out he had forgotten to take off the lens cap," Ryo
said later, laughing. "He just about died of embarrassment."
They had headed to a fairly nice restaurant, and were having a quite
tasty dinner, more elaborate than what Mr. Mizuno had grown used to most
of the time, but he'd decided he wanted to splurge. "I'd imagine. I hope
the photography teacher was understanding."
"No, he reamed out Umino pretty well for making such a foolish mistake.
But he did let him do the assignment over. But luckily, we're a club, so
it's not like you can flunk out."
"Maybe next time you can show me some of your photos," Mr. Mizuno said.
"Oh, and let me know when you develop the roll you have right now. I'd
like to have a copy of the Sailor Mercury picture I took."
"You got a picture of Sailor Mercury?" Ami asked nervously.
"She came to our rescue," Mr. Mizuno said. "I hadn't realized how short
those skirts they wear are. Your mother would probably have a heart
attack if she saw you in one of them." He smiled as innocently as he
could manage. "Got my blood flowing."
"Daddy!" Ami said, turning red. "Don't say such things. You know
I'd..." Then she really blushed, opened her mouth, shut it, then got up.
"I'll be back in just a second." She ran off.
He blinked. "I'd better apologize when she gets back. I didn't mean to
embarrass her that much."
"She's been..." Ryo considered his words carefully. "She has a friend
who's been trying to get her to loosen up some, but the friend tends
to...well, that's the sort of teasing she might have done. Umm... I'm
really not sure what I'm trying to say."
They ate quietly for a little while, then Ami returned. "Sorry about
that," she said. "Had to rush to the bathroom."
Mr. Mizuno said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have teased you like that."
"Oh, it's nothing you said, Daddy. I was just...I just had to go." Her
voice wavered, and he felt concerned.
"Okay," he said. "So how is school going?"
"Really well," she said. "It keeps me pretty busy, although I go to the
chess club when I can."
He nodded. "Just don't study too hard, or you'll burn yourself out. I
know your mother doesn't agree, but that's because she's sworn a war
against fun."
"Mother is just dedicated," Ami replied. "And we used to play chess all
the time, so she does know how to have fun."
"She got mad if I beat her. But that didn't happen very often," her
father said. "Do you play chess, Ryo?"
"Sometimes. Ami's a lot better."
"So, do you make sure Ami has enough fun?" Mr. Mizuno asked.
"Oh, you know Ami, she's a regular party girl," Ryo said. "I have to
force her to study."
"Ryo!" Ami protested. "I am not a party girl!"
"Just teasing," he said. "We play RPGs with some of our friends
sometimes, go to the movies, and stuff."
"No mad passionate sex on the roof?" Mr. Mizuno teased.
They both turned red. "No!" they both shouted.
I shouldn't do this, he thought. But it's too much fun. "Roof's too
steep?"
"Unlike Minako, Ami doesn't sneak me into her room at night," Ryo said
finally.
"Oh, so Minako sneaks you into her room at night instead?" He couldn't
help laughing.
"That's Steven's job," Ryo said, laughing.
"I've never snuck Ryo into my room at night!" Ami protested. "Or
Minako's room or...Daddy!"
"I'll stop this time. Really. So what are your teachers like?"
*****
Dr. Tomoe checked the rat. Three hours after having had the purple slime
from the medkit Ami had given him to examine smeared onto it, Three hours
after administering the purple slime from the medkit Ami had given him to
examine, the rat was now completely free of its fungal infection. He
shook his head in wonder. If only I knew how to duplicate this stuff, he
thought.
Ami had retained the knowledge of how to use it, and some of how the
various lifeforms were grown, but much of that required equipment he
didn't have. But he had kept on studying, trying to learn as much as he
could before it all ran out or died.
They'd at least been able to figure out how to make the nutrient packs
the various lifeforms required to keep them alive. This could do so much
good, he thought.
He heard Haruka coming moping down the stairs. "Hello," he said.
"How's your experiments coming along?" she asked.
"Very fascinating. But frustrating because I lack the facilities to
duplicate any of this." He sat down in a chair and pointed to another
one. "So what's wrong? You only come down here when you need to talk to
someone who isn't Michiru."
Haruka smiled wryly. "Am I that predictable?"
"Yes."
Haruka sighed. "You got anything good for getting rid of nightmares?"
"Still having the bad dreams?" he asked.
"You know about them?" she asked in surprise.
"Screaming in the middle of the night three nights in a row tends to give
the mystery away," he said. "I don't know much about drug treatments for
nightmares if there are any," he continued. "I never really studied that.
Are you having trouble sleeping also?"
"It's not the sleeping, it's what I remember when I wake up."
Shuddering, Haruka brushed her hair aside as it tried to fall down over
her eyes. "And given that some of the others seem to have brought things
back with them and all, I'm worried about, well..."
"Whether we'll have to lock Michiru up at the next full moon?"
Haruka nodded. "I think we're both cured, or I'd be trying to drain you
dry right now, but...When I think about how it felt to be...to be a
vampire and..." She shuddered again.
"I understand," he said.
"How can you possibly...oh," she said as it sank in.
"I spent months being possessed," he said. "I didn't think I'd ever feel
clean again after that. I took baths three times a day. And the
nightmares...I didn't think they'd ever end." His hands clenched. "And
every time anything even slightly strange happened, I worried that they'd
come back. That I would hurt Hotaru. That I would be a puppet again."
"I know it'll be a long time before I can eat a steak rare comfortably,"
Haruka said. "So what made the nightmares go away?"
"Time." His hands relaxed and he smiled a bit. "Both literally and
metaphorically. The memories will fade, and you'll find rest. You just
have to tough it out."
"Meta...oh." Haruka grinned. "Did it until you couldn't think
straight?"
He looked embarrassed. "Umm, well, I wouldn't put it quite like that..."
"We've both been too tense to do anything like that," Haruka said more
seriously.
"Then do something fun. You've got to prove to yourself you're not going
to go on a rampage. Maybe an amusement park or something."
Haruka nodded. "There's a good idea."
"Or a nice long ride."
"My nightmares drive faster 'n me, I think, but yeah." She got up.
"Thanks for talking with me, Tomoe-san."
"No problem," he said. "I hope you feel better soon."
"Me too. Have fun with your slime molds or whatever those are."
"I'll try."
*****
Dr. Mizuno Miaka stopped at the next bed. "How are you doing today?" she
asked the young hairless boy on the bed. He was having to undergo
chemotherapy, and as a result, he'd lost all his hair. So had everyone
else in this ward, the brood of children whom she watched over. She
paused to look at the coloring book on the table near his bed. "Been
enjoying your new book, Miki?"
He nodded and smiled. "Yes, thanks for getting it for me. How'd you
know I wanted this one?"
"You talk about the Shining Rangers all the time," Miaka said. "So I was
sure you'd like it."
He nodded fervently. "Yeah, it's great! Take a look at this one!" He
paged through it until he came to a page of the five rangers posing
heroically. She was impressed by his ability to get crayons to match the
colors as precisely as he had. "See, here's the red ranger, with..."
The boy rambled on, and she did her best to nod and smile, even though
she couldn't follow half of what he was talking about. Miki seemed to
have his own degree in Ranger Studies, so far as she could tell.
He was still going on when the nurses came in to serve everyone dinner.
One of them pulled Dr. Mizuno aside. "Don't you ever go home?" she asked.
"They need me," Dr. Mizuno said, then yawned. "Small children need
attention and friendship, and there's no one else to give it to them.
Some of them aren't strong enough to play with each other, and their
parents can't be here all the time, so I have to do my best."
"Wipe yourself out, and you won't do them any good. It's Saturday...go
home and relax a little. You're going to burn out at this rate."
"I've been doing this for years. I know my limits. And I've only got
two more to go tonight, anyway. But I think getting food right now would
be a good idea."
"Good. Go eat. We'll take care of your babies for a little while."
Nurse Tanaka almost forced Dr. Mizuno out the door.
Dr. Mizuno laughed a little, then headed off to get some food.
*****
Mr. Mizuno buried his face in his hands. "One of these days, I will
learn not to play Trivial Pursuit with you, Ami."
Ryo shook his head. "You can't say she didn't warn you."
Ami patted his head. "How about if we play again, and I'll try to
pretend I'm Minako?"
Ryo looked at the clock. "Hmm, it's getting late."
"I'd better take you home, then," Mr. Mizuno said. "Are you going to
stay here tonight, Ami, or are you going too?"
"I think I'll stay here, since we're going to the art museum tomorrow
morning together anyway. I'll need to go home after that and study,
though."
"Okay. Come on, Ryo, I'll take you home," her father said, then looked
over at Ami and smiled. "Here, I'll turn around while you two kiss
goodnight."
Ami blushed slightly, and couldn't manage a very fervent kiss goodnight,
which she could tell disappointed Ryo a little. He seemed nervous enough
himself, though.
Once they were gone, she went upstairs and took a shower, then wandered
around the apartment in her pajamas, lost in memories of past times she'd
stayed at her father's. The furniture had gotten nicer, she noticed, and
now his paintings were everywhere, along with some prints she'd given him.
She went into his studio room, and looked at the painting he was doing.
It showed a planet with a giant dragon curled round its equator, grasping
its own tail in its mouth. If you looked closely, some parts of the
dragon had cities built on it. The bottom half of the planet wasn't done
yet.
"That's Jormungandr," her father said, startling her. "The world serpent
of Norse mythology. It's for a book cover."
"He looks so real," she said.
"That's my style. I like to do very realistic pictures of very imaginary
things. Your boyfriend seems like a very nice fellow."
She turned around and smiled. "He is."
"He's a very poor liar, but that's a good thing."
Ami started to look a little nervous. "He lied about something?"
"Well, so did you, but you're an even worse liar. He confessed after I
put the screws to him, though." He shook his head. "So how long has this
been going on, exactly?"
"We...we've only done it a few times, I swear!" Ami said in a panic. "I
just...I love him, Daddy. I love him very much, and we were careful to
use protection after the first time!"
The bottom fell out of Mr. Mizuno's brain as he realized what she was
talking about, which was certainly not what he was thinking. She had sex
with him? He couldn't believe it. He had no delusions about teenage
hormones, but he'd never thought his shy daughter would ever do such a
thing. He staggered back a step, trying to get his brain in order. "You
had sex with him????"
Ami's eyes widened more. "Umm...isn't that what you meant?" she asked
weakly.
"No, I was talking about you being Sailor Mercury!" he shouted, then
tried to calm himself down. "You...you...actually had sex with a boy."
Ami winced. "Daddy, I love him."
And then, to her shock, his face lit up. "That's great! You're not
going to end up friendless and alone like your mother!" He sounded
vaguely hysterical.
"Daddy, Mother has friends! And she isn't alone!" There were few things
that made Ami angrier than when her parents insulted each other. It
brought back bad memories of the fighting before the divorce.
Her father tried to get a grip on himself. "This day is just getting
stranger and stranger. So are you Sailor Mercury, or are you just having
sex?"
She sighed. "Well, since Ryo already told you, yes. I am Sailor
Mercury, and I have been for nearly two years."
"Actually, I lied about him telling me. I was just bluffing you," he
said.
"..."
"Does your mother know about any of this?" he asked.
"No," she said.
"You told your boyfriend, but you didn't tell us?" he asked in shock.
"Ryo met me because of me being Sailor Mercury," Ami said, then sighed.
"Let's go sit down, and I'll tell you everything."
*****
Makoto listened to music and did homework in that order. Stuck doing
homework on a Saturday night, she thought. That truly stinks. At least I
got to hang out with Clark for a while last night, she thought.
She decided to take a break from math and wandered around her apartment
looking for something to do. Her eyes landed on her new sword, the
'Hackmaster'. She'd been surprised it had stayed in existence when they
returned from the TORG dream universe thing. Whatever exactly it had
been.
I ought to give this to someone, she thought. Given I've already got a
magic staff. But Clark already has a magic sword. And most of the rest
of us wouldn't know how to use it. On the other hand...
She picked it up, drew it, and swung it about, noticing again how it
guided her hands. This might be good to give to one of the guys, she
thought. Since it seems to know what it's doing, it could help them if
they have to fight. But which one?
She decided that watching some TV might bring her some inspiration.
Sheathing the sword, she plopped down on the couch. There soon proved to
be nothing on worth watching.
Don't want to do math, she thought. Oh wait, I know, I could try reading
one of the short stories from that book Ami recommended. Might as well
get that assignment out of the way now instead of later, since I already
have the book.
After much digging about, she managed to turn up the collection of
Sherlock Holmes stories. They had a short story report due in a few weeks
for English class; everyone was running around in a panic. Getting her
dictionary and placing it where it would be handy, she settled down to
read.
*****
"A good idea," Setsuna said. "This would make an excellent training
mission for Nonohara. She needs something to snap her out of her funk."
Hotaru sighed. "I understand how she feels."
"Alright. Next weekend, I can take her out to Avalon, and we'll find a
good place to take Minako to until she gets over her adjustment period,"
Derith said.
"I'll tell Nonohara when I see her next," Setsuna replied.
*****
"Fortunately, Athena seems to have gone to take a nap," Ami concluded
somewhat later.
{I just had nothing useful to say,} Athena commented.
"Or not." Ami sighed.
"I...uh..." This was all rather overwhelming for Mr. Mizuno. "I think
I'm going to have to sleep on this and discuss it with you in the
morning."
She nodded and got up. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you all this before,
Daddy, but we just...This is something I have to do, and I didn't think
either of you would approve. And...it's hard for me to tell people about
it. It seems to be something about our disguise magic."
He got up. "Goodnight, Ami." And then he staggered off to have strange
dreams.
*****
Himeko leaned against Daichi as she sat on her bed. "I just can't forget
it," she said.
"It wasn't real," he said.
"It seemed real," she replied, shuddering. "I just can't imagine I'd
ever...do something like that."
"You've killed monsters," he pointed out.
"It's not the same," she replied. "It just...I've had times I got so mad
I thought I wanted to kill Hikaru, but..." Himeko turned and stared off
at her desk. "I can feel part of my brain calculating how many different
ways to get out of this room if I was attacked. As I was trying to get
through a crowd, I thought briefly about using tear gas. It's like...It's
awful. Just awful."
"Well, Pluto said it would all fade with time, right?" Daichi asked.
"I keep feeling like I should...I mean, Hikaru's not really dead, but..."
"Sometimes you think too much," he said, then turned and kissed her. Her
eyes widened, and then she leaned into it, letting it wash away her
memories for the moment.
Minako, of course, chose this moment to walk in the door, point and
shout, "Ahah, finally caught you two making out!"
Beating Minako with a pillow also helped Hime-chan forget.
*****
Ami lay in bed and tried to think. What's he going to do? she asked
herself. I should have told him about being Sailor Mercury a long time
ago, but... When she thought about it, she wasn't sure why. Makoto had
told the others she hadn't been able to tell Maguson-sensei about being
Sailor Jupiter at first...maybe it was some sort of spell?
{An aspect of the disguise magic, I suspect,} Athena speculated. {But
our father seems like a fairly reasonable fellow. I'm sure he'll come to
accept all this once he has a chance to adjust. I am glad that thine
parents were not chained together as mine were; mine could not divorce,
and so I'm sure they were fighting right up to the fall of Mars.}
[Daddy is very sweet,] Ami replied. [But I think Mother is going to be
very angry.]
{Yes, it would have been best to tell them before this. And better if
thou couldst only drop one rock on her head at a time. But I suppose thou
hast no choice. It may be necessary to be firm with her.}
[I can't just 'be firm' with my mother! She's my mother!] Ami replied.
{And thou art not a child any longer. Many a woman of my time was
married and living a new life away from home by your age. She has to
understand our duties.}
[Mom is more stubborn than you think, Athena.]
{It boots nothing to give up before the battle is fought. If worse comes
to worse, we may have to abandon thine normal life, but I pray it will not
come to that.}
[Easy for you to say. I LIKE my normal life.]
{So do I,} Athena said. {I envy that you have had such a normal life,
and that you so easily found the true love it took me a lifetime to find.}
Her voice was wistful as she spoke. {And I do not think Ryo will betray
you as Zoicite betrayed me. He is not so skillful a lover as Zoicite was,
but I'm sure with time, we can train him. And when he smiles, it's so...}
[He's MY boyfriend,] Ami thought sharply.
{Our boyfriend. After all, we are the same person, are we not? Hard as
it is to believe for me at times.}
[So why are we so different?]
{I think you exaggerate the difference. But of course, our upbringings
ran in different directions, and we had different opportunities. My
parents were too busy fighting to inspire me to anything except the desire
to not be like them. And I have had far more targets for love than thee,
growing up in a series of courts full of bored, amorous nobles. My mother
only bore me because it was her duty to bear children. Yours set you to a
noble dream. My only dream was to find the joy I had never had as a
child.} She sighed. {Your discipline drives me crazy at times, but
sometimes I envy it.}
[I have to admit I sometimes wish I could be as free with what I think as
you are,] Ami said.
{But Thou can be. Thou are what thou makes of thineself, Ami. Thou
couldst be as free as myself if you so desired. Thou needst but stretch
forth thine wings and fly.}
[I could never act like you do,] Ami said, feeling, to her surprise, a
little regret over that. [I suppose you'd just go tell off Mother and run
off with Ryo to join a cycle gang or something.]
Athena laughed. {I am free, but not stupid. But it may come down to
having to leave the nest. It is frightening to fly free, but liberating.}
She grinned impishly. {Don't make me push you out of the nest.}
[I'm the one who will have to live with the consequences here, you know!]
{We both will. Wherever thou goest, I go too. I do not wish to see us
suffer. But I don't wish to be deterred from my duties to Princess
Serenity if it comes down to a choice between her and your parents.} Her
voice slumped into gloom again. {Not that I will have the choosing of
it.}
[I don't know what I'd choose,] Ami said. [I couldn't just defy them,
but...surely they'll be reasonable.]
{Sadly, one can never count on reasonableness.}
I know, Ami thought. I know. She thought about her parents fighting
when she was little, then drove the memories from her head and finally
found sleep.
*****
Ami was nervous as she made breakfast the next morning, not sure what her
father would do, although she did feel some relief when he came into the
kitchen and smiled at her. "Good morning, Ami," he said.
She smiled back at him. "Good morning, Daddy," she said, flipping the
eggs on the frying pan. "You still like scrambled eggs, right?"
"With ketchup," he said, then smiled when she made a face. "I can't help
it, I like it like that," he said, then sat down at the table. "Hey, the
paper...I guess you went and got it?"
She nodded. "There's a story about art galleries in Tokyo in section B
you ought to read. They mention you."
"They finally printed that? That's great."
Breakfast went by with small talk and no mention of last night. Ami was
beginning to wonder if she'd dreamed it, when finally, her father said,
"Did your mother ever give you...the talk about sex?"
"It was three hours long with illustrations and a quiz afterwards," Ami
said, only slightly joking.
He nodded. "I should have expected that."
"Mother's had me on the pill since I started menstruating, just in
case..." Ami couldn't quite say it out loud. "In case...well, you know."
He winced. "That. Yes. Did he...use protection?"
"Not the first time. We didn't think of it," Ami said, feeling
embarrassment come to full bloom. "But every time since then."
"Has it been very many times?" Mr. Mizuno tried to build up enough
willpower to stop beating around the bush.
"No, it's hard for us to get enough privacy," she said. "Are you going
to tell me to stop?"
"I'm not going to order you, because I know I can't make you do it, and I
can't really check up on you. And I'm not going to tell you to break up
with Ryo, because I think he's a good boy, and you're not doing anything I
didn't do in high school. But you know as well as I do that every time
you have sex, you risk getting pregnant, and that would wreck your life.
You'd never be able to do medical school, or probably even college. So
what do you think would be the responsible thing to do?" Ami had rarely
seen him look so nervous as he did now, though he was trying to project
calm reasonableness.
Daddy is right, she thought. It is a risk, if not a very big one. If I
got pregnant... She couldn't bear the thought of an abortion, but it
would mean giving up her dreams. And that sort of thing almost always led
to an unhappy marriage. But I can still be with Ryo, she thought. I just
have to control myself. I can do that, she thought. She was used to self-
discipline. "To stop doing it," she said. Even though she didn't want
to. But it would be better for both of them.
{Oh, yes, that'll be easy,} Athena said. {You'll have more luck trying
to empty the sea with a bucket.}
He looked greatly relieved. Her father had never been very good at
disciplining her, although he rarely had to. She had been the sort of
child who would do something bad, then tell on herself. "That's good.
Hopefully, that'll keep your mother from freaking out when I tell her."
Ami winced. "Do you have to?"
"We may not be married, but there's things parents of a child don't hide
from each other," he said. "Either I can tell her, or you can. And in
fact, it would probably be better if you did."
She nodded. "I'll call her tomorrow; I think she has it off. No, I'll
go see her."
He got up and started picking up his stuff to put it in the sink. "You
should tell her about being Sailor Mercury, too."
Ami began picking up her own stuff. "Daddy, what do you think about
that?"
"I don't even know how to start thinking about that," he said, tossing
the few remains of his breakfast into the garbage, then loading his plates
into the dishwasher. "It's all very overwhelming. I think I'm going to
have to talk to your mother about it." He looked thoughtful. "I don't
suppose you have any scrubbing bubbles powers?"
She laughed as she scraped her own plates clear of debris and loaded
them. "I could try, but I don't think it would be a good idea."
As she began loading everything she'd used for cooking into the
dishwasher, he said, "The thought of you going out into danger horrifies
me. You're my only child, and I couldn't bear to lose you. But at the
same time, I've been in one of these monster attacks myself, and..." He
shuddered. "It has to be stopped. So I don't know what to say. And I
don't think you'd stop if I asked, or even if I ordered you to."
"I can't stop, Daddy," she said softly. "It's my duty."
"I know. I know." It didn't sound like he liked knowing that. "So what
would you do if...your mother won't like this," he said.
"This is more important than what mother likes," Ami said, surprised to
hear herself say it, then went to get the frying pan. "I can't give up
being Sailor Mercury. I have to do this."
"I was afraid you'd say that," her father said. He could see the train
wreck coming. Ami usually gave in to pressure, but once she dug in her
heels, rare as that was, she was just as stubborn as her mother. He
already knew what Miaka would say. She'd want Ami to break up with Ryo
because she 'didn't have time for such frivolous things' and she'd want
Ami to drop being a Senshi because it was too dangerous and took up too
much time.
I can probably get her to accept Ami's promise to not sleep with Ryo
again, but still date him, Mr. Mizuno thought. But getting her to bend on
the Senshi thing...It'll take a miracle.
*****
The next morning, namely on Monday, Dr. Mizuno had a leisurely breakfast,
and pulled out a big mountain of unread correspondence. She had today
off, at her supervisor's insistence, and had decided to dedicate it to
plowing through all the mail she had kept shoving in the 'read later'
pile. I need to get in the habit of reading my own mail, she thought,
since Ami isn't here to play secretary for me anymore. It's my
responsibility, not hers.
By the time breakfast was over, all the bills were plucked out and dealt
with. There were some eight notices from Ami's school. Five of them
dated weeks ago, but close to each other, a recent one, and two older ones
she couldn't believe she hadn't read yet.
She mentally castigated herself for neglecting these. She'd been in the
habit of talking to Ami periodically about school, which caused her to
mostly ignore letters like these, which always told her things Ami had
told her first. And since Ami never got in trouble, that had never been
an issue. Now that Ami wasn't living at home, this had become a bad habit
she decided she had to break.
The oldest one was simply a 'look at how cool we are, thanks for sending
your daughter' letter. The second one asked her to come to 'parent's
day', which had been months ago. She felt a little embarrassed.
The first of the five which came close together, however, shocked her.
It was a report of disciplinary action for failing to wear the school
uniform. The second reported she'd flirted with a teacher. The third
involved a teacher finding her at a wild, off-campus party. This threw
Dr. Mizuno off her stride, as she wondered what the teacher had been doing
there. The fourth and fifth both involved classroom disruptions.
She was torn between disbelief and shock. She couldn't believe Ami would
do anything like that. Maybe it's a clerical error, she thought. It had
to be. Surely they would have called me at work or something. This can't
be true. It can't be!
She shuddered to think what the most recent one from a few days ago could
be. Slowly, as if it was a poisonous snake, she reached out and took it,
then slowly opened it. It informed her that Ami had been caught with a
boy in her room after hours at her dorm. Her eyes widened, but then she
found some relief when the dorm mother went on to say it had just been a
study session, and several other girls (and boys) had been present. It
was still a curfew violation, but the dorm mother reported that 'Ami is
not up to the trouble she caused a few weeks ago; she seems to have
returned to her normal behavior, thankfully. She's a very sweet girl, but
for a while, I was afraid she'd joined a girl gang or something'.
What sort of a school have I sent her to? Dr. Mizuno asked herself. It
looked like a good school, but any place that could make Ami start doing
things like this...
There had to be something new...something that hadn't applied before. It
couldn't be the school. And Ami seemed to have the same group of friends,
as far as she knew.
She looked at the final report. There was something odd about how it was
all phrased; she had the niggling feeling it held a clue. There must be
someone who had lead Ami into this trouble. Her daughter would never do
such things on her own. The report didn't name any names, leaving her to
stew in her own thoughts. I think I had best call the school, she
decided.
"Principal's office, Tsunami High School, Yuriko Star speaking," the
secretary said.
"This is Dr. Mizuno Miaka, mother of Mizuno Ami. I need to talk to
whoever is in charge of discipline," she said.
"Ahh, let me see if Yamamoto-san is available."
A few minutes passed, and then she said, "I'm sorry, he's already talking
to another parent. Would you like to hold, or can I connect you to our
counselor?"
"The counselor will be fine," Dr. Mizuno said.
Music played a few seconds, and then a firm female voice answered,
"Counselor Mei'ou. How can I help you?"
"Hi, I'm Dr. Mizuno. I need to find out what happened with these
disciplinary incidents of my daughter's."
"Can you come down to my office?"
"Yes," she said. "I'll bring the letters."
"Thank you."
*****
Dr. Mizuno walked into the office and sat down. "Hello, Counselor
Mei'ou," she said.
"Nice to finally meet you," Setsuna said. "Ami has often told me about
you and your work at the hospital."
Dr. Mizuno smiled and let herself feel a little pride. "It's hard work,
but very rewarding."
"I understand you're concerned about the disciplinary problems Ami had
several weeks ago?"
Dr. Mizuno nodded. "I just can't imagine what could have driven her to
do such things."
"Sooner or later, under enough stress, anyone will snap for a time,"
Counselor Mei'ou said. "Ami had finally reached the point of being
overworked more than she could take, and so she started acting up. I was
able to get her back on her feet after a few sessions, and things have
been going much better now. Of course, it would have helped if we'd been
able to contact you."
"My answering machine was broken around the same time as the main batch
of these letters," Dr. Mizuno said. "And I work so much, I didn't have
time to fix it or get a new one for a while. But most people just call me
at work."
"We only call at work for emergencies, not for simple disciplinary
action. Many workplaces frown on personal phone calls."
Dr. Mizuno nodded. "Do you think...this won't happen again, will it?"
"I'm sure there won't be any further trouble," Counselor Mei'ou said
smoothly. "Would you like me to call Ami in now so you can talk to her?"
"No, I'd rather not disrupt her studies. I'll go see her after class is
over. I have today off."
Counselor Mei'ou nodded. "Would you like a tour of our campus? I don't
have any appointments for a while."
Nodding, she said, "I'd like that." She felt better, her fears relieved,
although something kept nagging at her. For the moment, she dismissed her
worries.
*****
"Another night of dining hall food," Minako groaned. "I'm going to die."
Ami laughed. "It's not that bad."
Class was out, and now they were on their way to dinner.
To Ami's surprise, her mother rounded the corner of a building. "Hello,
Ami," she said.
"Oh, hi, Mother!" she said. "I tried to call you earlier, but you
weren't at work or at home."
Dr. Mizuno nodded. "Hello, Minako."
"Hi, Dr. Mizuno!" Minako said.
"Do you have time to have dinner with me, Ami?" Dr. Mizuno asked.
"Sure," Ami said.
Minako sighed. "Well, off to the fault lines for me. Have fun with your
mom! Bye, Dr. Mizuno!" And then she ran off.
"Just come with me," Dr. Mizuno said.
Ami nodded. "I'm glad you found me. I, uh, needed to tell you about
some stuff."
She nodded. "There's a lot for us to talk about."
*****
Dr. Mizuno laid the letters out on the table. "So what happened?" she
asked.
Ami tried desperately to think of an answer that wouldn't require
admitting to hearing her past life talking to her. Her mother would
never, in a million years, accept that. "I stayed up too late studying
too many nights in a row, and then I just...sort of lost it for a while."
She did her best to not start staring off into space the way she usually
did when she was trying to lie. "I just got frustrated, and I couldn't
think straight, and..."
Her mother looked disappointed. "Ami, there's something you're not
telling me. You're as bad a liar as I am."
"I got hit in the head and my personality changed."
Her mother sighed, took a sip of coffee, then said, "Ami, please, I'm a
doctor. Do you really think I'm going to believe that?" And then it
suddenly clicked in her head. I can't believe I didn't think of this
before, she thought. What was the number one cause of teenagers acting
like idiots? A member of the opposite sex. Maybe he was a 'bad boy', and
she'd been trying to attract him, or he'd lead her down that primrose path
for a while, or maybe he'd done something cruel, and she'd freaked out for
a while. That had to be it. "Ami, do you have a boyfriend you haven't
told me about?"
Ami blinked. "Mother, I'm sure I told you about Ryo."
The realization swept over Dr. Mizuno that Ami had mentioned a boy named
Ryo before, although she didn't remember him being her boyfriend. "Is he
responsible for this?" she asked.
"No, it's not his fault at all. He tried to keep me under control when I
was freaking out," Ami protested, then wished the food would hurry up and
arrive, so she'd have time to try to figure out how to handle this. I'd
half forgotten about everything Athena did with my body, Ami thought.
"I'd just gotten so pent up, it all exploded."
"You never had any trouble before," her mother said. "And I thought you
were already spending too much time goofing off with your friends instead
of studying."
Ami frowned. "The more pressure that builds up behind a dam, the worse
it is when it finally breaks."
"As I see here." She frowned. "This never happened when you were living
at home."
"It was your idea for me to live in the dorm," Ami replied, starting to
get more irritated. "Look, this was just an isolated incident! It won't
happen again."
"Five incidents!"
"But it's over now!"
And then the waitress brought their food, and conversation faded, to be
replaced by eating. This gave them both some time to cool down. However,
Ami's anger was replaced by intense nervousness, because she knew if she
now confessed to sleeping with Ryo, or to being Sailor Mercury, her mother
would simply freak. But on the other hand, she'd promised to tell, and if
she didn't, her father would have to, and that would be even worse.
They ate in silence, which Ami's mother finally broke by saying, "Ami,
there's still something you're not telling me. Even if you did snap under
the pressure, I just can't believe you'd suddenly start acting like this.
There has to be something else."
"I can't explain it all here in public," Ami said. "Let's go home, and
I'll...I'll tell you everything."
Her mother tensed. "You weren't...trying drugs, were you?"
"No!" Ami barked, then shrank in on herself when many people turned and
stared. "How can you think such a thing of me?" she asked, hurt by the
idea her mother could even suggest such a thing.
"This isn't like you!" her mother said with a hint of panic. "I can't
understand this! Why?" She stopped and took a deep breath. "You're
right. Let's go home and talk about this."
*****
The backyard of the Mizuno house filled with fog. "I'd demonstrate some
of my other powers, Mother, but I'd break something," Sailor Mercury said.
Her mother tried to wave the fog out of her eyes. "Okay, this is an
interesting trick, but..."
"It's not a trick. It's magic!"
"There's no such thing as magic!" her mother barked back. "Only idiots
and children believe in magic."
"Only idiots don't believe in what they're seeing!"
"It could be a fog machine."
Sailor Mercury did a complete spin around. "And where exactly in this
outfit did I hide a fog machine???" Of all the reactions she'd thought
her mother might have, disbelief wasn't one of them.
"You could have positioned it in the backyard before this, and used a
remote control in that laptop of yours to set it off," her mother said.
Sailor Mercury said, "And what would it take for me to prove to you that
this isn't me going crazy?"
"Show me something I couldn't do."
"Right." She took her mother's hand. "Sailor Teleport!" She prayed her
practice would pay off.
A few seconds later, they stood on the observation deck of Tokyo Tower.
Her mother paled, then looked over the edge. "What...what did you just
do?"
"Magic."
"There's no such thing," her mother said reflexively.
Sailor Mercury took a deep breath. "So what just happened?"
"I...I don't know," she said, looking a little pale as she gazed down on
the city. "This can't be real."
I wonder if having her talk to Hermes would help...no, she'd think it was
just a special effect, Sailor Mercury thought. "Mother, it's real. I'm
Sailor Mercury. Magic is real."
"Ahah, there you are!" a voice bellowed from the direction of the
elevator bank. A four-armed purple humanoid stood there, clad in a
suitably altered dark kingdom uniform. "Come looking for me, have you?
Well, you should have brought your friends! DIE!" He gestured at her,
and four purple knives of glowing energy erupted in her direction.
Sailor Mercury grabbed her mother and dived to one side, then said to her
mother, "Go round the deck and take cover."
Her mother took off running while she began leaping about, trying to draw
the purple warrior's fire. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Samsonite!" he shouted, then threw more purple knives, which missed.
"Like the luggage?" Mercury asked.
"Hey, I didn't get to CHOOSE my own name, OKAY???" Then he formed four
purple swords and rushed at her. "I won't let you people screw it up
this time!"
"SHABON SPRAY!" Half the deck filled with a mist, into which Mercury
faded while the purple warrior ran about impotently.
She began a scan for dark energy...there had to be some reason he was
hanging around here, she thought. She soon found it; he'd altered the
viewing telescopes to drain a little bit of energy from everyone who used
them and feed it to him. She couldn't pick up any more youma or energy
sinks.
And now to deal with him, she thought.
"Damn you! Fight me like a man!" he bellowed.
"Shiny Aqua Illusion!" she shouted, but by sheer bad luck, he stumbled
the right way for her to miss with it, and instead, the elevator bank got
frozen.
"Ami, where are you? What's going on?" her mother shouted.
And then the purple-skinned warrior took off towards her voice. Mercury
chased after him, but he could run quickly when he knew where he was
going.
She chased him right out of the mist, to one of the sides of the
observation platform, where he had grabbed her mother. "Give up, or she
gets it," the youma said, holding two of his swords to her flesh.
Some mothers would have done the noble thing and told Mercury to take her
chances. Others would have begged to be saved. Ami's mother, faced with
the further shattering of her worldview, did the scream incoherently
thing.
I need to kill time while my computer finishes trying to find a weak
point on him, Mercury thought. "Okay, you win," she said, putting her
computer on the ground, then put her hands over her head and watched the
readout on her visor.
"Slide it over to me," the youma said. "I can't smash it while it's over
there."
He could just blast it, she thought. She slowly bent over and picked it
up, then walked as slowly as she thought she could get away with. I
should have called for backup, she thought, sparing a few seconds to
mentally beat herself up.
{Make an ice knife and throat him,} Athena suggested. {His hands are
full, so he won't be able to block you. Or alternately, you could grab
Mother and teleport when he has to loosen his grip on her to try to take
the computer. Although we'll be too tired to do much fighting if you do
that, but you could go for help.}
Mercury blinked in surprise, as she'd assumed Athena was asleep again.
[I don't know how to make an ice knife.]
{Best to go for the teleport,} she replied.
"Hurry it up or she dies!" the youma barked, sounding just a little
nervous.
Mercury came forward, and held out the computer. "Here, take it."
The youma made two of his blades vanish and reached out for it, bringing
a third one up to prepare to smash the computer, while clutching her
mother tightly with the fourth hand, which held no blade.
She started to hand the computer to him, then brought it up to slam into
his chin, catching him by surprise. He lost his grip on her mother, and
she latched onto her mother's wrist. "SAILOR TELEPORT!"
And then they were in the Tomoe backyard. The back porch door opened and
Tomoe-san stuck his head out. "Is someone..."
"Tomoe-san, this is my mother," Mercury said.
She blinked. "Hotaru's father?"
"Yes, I am," he said, then glanced over at Mercury, wondering how much he
could or should say. "Please come in and have some tea."
"Yes, tea, that would be good." Dr. Mizuno sounded quite dazed. "There
aren't any more four armed purple skinned hallucinations waiting for me
inside, are there?"
"No, it's perfectly safe if you like cats," Tomoe-san said.
"We don't bite," one of them said from near Tomoe-san's feet.
"Isis, you're not supposed to talk in front of strangers!" a young girl
shouted from inside.
Ami's mother decided to faint, in the hopes she'd wake up with the drugs
out of her system. Mercury caught her and sighed. "Dad caught me, and I
had to tell Mom and...there's a youma at Tokyo Tower. Someone needs to
deal with it."
Haruka came out. "I'll transform, and we can go squash it while Pops
takes care of your mom. Although you probably shouldn't have brought her
here."
"I wanted to go somewhere safe!"
"We can lick up the spilt milk later," Go said, coming out. "It's time
to hunt."
Mercury considered her energy reserves. "If I do another teleport, I
don't think I'll be in any shape to fight."
"You should have just called us, then," Haruka said, getting out her
transformation pen. "I'll go get Michiru, then."
Mercury nodded. "I'd best stay with Mom, anyway." She went inside and
found her mother having tea with Setsuna and Tomoe-san and Hotaru. She
detransformed, and sat down with them.
Hotaru poured her a cup of tea as Setsuna said, "The truth is that the
awakening of Ami's past self caused her some trouble until she learned to
deal with it."
Dr. Mizuno nodded dumbly, having decided it was best to simply ride out
the strange dream she'd been having. "So her past life was a whore or
something?"
Ami's eyes widened, and Hotaru stumbled, spilling tea on herself as she
went to put the pot down. "Athena was not a whore!"
{Now this is a reverse,} Athena said. {You defending my reputation.}
[OUR reputation.]
"Athena was a little too interested in having fun, but she was the
daughter of the King of Mars, not a whore," Setsuna said.
"Uh huh," Dr. Mizuno said, drinking her tea on autopilot. She turned to
Ami. "Does your father know about all this?"
"Yes, he does," Ami said, then took a sip of tea. "He winkled it out of
me when I stayed at his house Saturday night. I accidentally gave it away
at the park, and then he tricked me into confirming it."
"Why didn't he tell me?" Dr. Mizuno asked, feeling irritated.
"He was going to call you today to talk to you about it, but we decided I
ought to tell you myself first," Ami said. "Are you okay, Mom?" she
asked. "He didn't hurt you before I got you away from him, did he?"
She shook her head. "I'm fine, but...I could have died! So could you!
What are you thinking, getting involved in all of this? You don't have
time to go around being a...a monster cop! You've got school, and you're
not combat trained, and..." She paused and took a deep breath. "Ami,
have you ever been seriously hurt doing this?"
This wouldn't be a good time to mention I've died, been crucified, and
suffered various other disasters, Ami thought. "Yes, I have. But it's a
risk I have to take."
"It is not. I couldn't bear to see you get hurt, Ami," her mother said.
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to forbid this. It's too dangerous if
it's all real, and if it's not, you don't have time for this." She stared
at her cup of tea. "I hope I'm dreaming this, but I fear I am not."
"Mother, I can't give this up! It's my destiny!"
Her mother slammed her glass down. "There is no such thing as destiny!
We make our own destiny! Didn't I teach you that? You can't rely on some
imaginary cosmic force to make things right, and there's no one who sets
out our lives' course but us." She stared at her spilt tea. "Sorry about
that."
"Mother, they NEED me," Ami said. "My partner is counting on me. You
saw that monster. There's a lot more of them, and I have to help stop
them."
Her mother's eyes narrowed. "You couldn't even stop that one! I could
have died! What were you thinking trying to pull a stunt like you did?"
"I was trying to save your life!" Now Ami slammed her glass down and
spilled hot tea on her hand. "Oww!"
"You can't even keep your tea under control and you want to fight
monsters???"
"Now, now, let's calm down," Tomoe-sensei said nervously.
"Yes, let..." Setsuna began.
"Shut up!" Dr. Mizuno barked at her. "You lied to me before,
_counselor_. How many other children have you roped into this... whatever
exactly is going on?"
Setsuna's eyes narrowed. "All of us were born to this task. I have not
'roped' anyone into it."
"Now I know why Ami's grades have dropped the last few years, all those
times she was vague about what she'd been doing, hanging around with all
those lazy, worthless girls, getting herself hurt..." A thought struck
her. "Ami, is this the reason you gave up that chance to study abroad in
Germany?"
Ami nodded. "Yes, it is. My friends needed me more than I needed to go
to Germany."
"That sort of chance doesn't come every day!" It was the last straw for
Dr. Mizuno. She couldn't let Ami's life be ruined by this madness. She
stood up. "Ami, we're leaving. I don't want you to be a part of this."
"Mother, calm down. You're not making any sense," Ami said, taking her
hand. "Please, this is really important! I can't just..."
"You can, and you will. If you want to run off and get yourself killed
once you're no longer my responsibility, then that's your business. But
I'm not letting my only child get tangled up in some sort of violent,
superstitious mess like this!" She took a deep breath, and visibly
struggled to calm herself. "Ami, we're leaving. Now."
Ami tried to figure out how to get through to her and failed. She
glanced over at Setsuna, who was struggling herself to remain calm.
Tomoe-san rose. "I'll drive you two home so you don't have to take a
bus."
"A bus will be fine," Dr. Mizuno said. "Thank you for the tea, come
along, Ami, we're going." She headed for the door.
"I'll talk to you at school tomorrow," Setsuna said softly to Ami. "Best
you go with her now."
Ami nodded and ran after her mother.
*****
"Mother, I..." Ami tried again.
"Do any of the other parents know about this...this...mess?" Dr. Mizuno
demanded.
They were in the kitchen by the phone, sitting at the table.
"No," she said.
"Well, that makes me feel a little better," she said. "I'm going to take
you back to school, and then I'm going to call all of them and see what
can be done about this."
Ami's eyes widened. "Mother, you can't just do that!"
"I can, and I will. It's my duty to let them know. It's a good thing I
got everyone's numbers when you went to the beach." She sighed. "I
suppose you had some sort of group orgy there too."
"MOTHER!" Now Ami was getting mad. "This isn't some sort of weird cult
free love magic thing! We were doing Sailor training!"
"Uh huh." She took the sheet of numbers off the refrigerator door, then
sat down and began to call while Ami fumed.
The first family answered quickly. "Hi, this is the Tsukino house!" an
ebullient female voice said.
"Hello, Usagi. This is Ami's mother, Dr. Mizuno. I need to talk to your
parents," Dr. Mizuno said.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. "Ami's okay, isn't she?"
"Ami is just fine," Dr. Mizuno said, her voice softening. "Just let me
talk to your parents."
"Okay!"
"Please, Mother, Usagi's father is going to just....he'll lose it," Ami
said, making her last ditch attempt.
"She should have told him earlier then," Dr. Mizuno said.
"Hello, this is Tsukino Kenji," Usagi's father said.
"Ahh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"No, not at all."
Dr. Mizuno froze up before she could actually say anything about the
sailors. If I don't have any proof, they're going to think I've wigged
out, she thought. "Do you have time for me to come over tonight with Ami?
I need to tell you something, but I can't show you the proof over the
phone."
"I don't understand," he said.
"I wish I didn't," she said, sighing.
"Well, if you need to come on over, okay," she said.
"We'll be there in a little bit," she said.
"Mother, are you planning to..."
"Best I assemble everyone at once. It'll be easier," Dr. Mizuno said,
sighing. "Even if it is late."
Ami sighed. "Mother, this will likely cause a riot."
"Sometimes, you just have to cut out infected flesh," she said primly.
{Do something!}
[Do WHAT?]
{I don't know.}
*****
The Tsukino living room was about to explode, what with the Mizunos, Mrs.
Osaka, the Tsukinos, the Ainos, the Nonoharas, and a horde of their
children all crammed into it. When Grandpa finally arrived, Dr. Mizuno
said, "I'm sorry to call you all this late at night, but I'm afraid all
our children have been up to some stuff they haven't told us about."
This triggered a load of whispers, and then Mr. Aino said, "You mean
about them being the Sailor Senshi?"
"..." Dr. Mizuno stared blankly at him.
Minako leaped up. "Daddy, you knew?"
"You talk in your sleep, dear, you keep leaving your transformation pen
lying around, Sailor V came from England to Japan exactly when we did, and
you're not very good at being sneaky," her mother said. "You've talked on
your communicator in the bedroom with the door open, your cat kept talking
to you when we were going by in the hallway, and I saw you transforming in
the bathroom, before climbing out the window while leaving the shower
running three times."
"..."
"We've known for years," her father said. "We had a running bet about
whether you'd confess first or screw up and get caught. Looks like I
win."
Many parents boggled in unison.
Then Usagi stood up. "This is my fault. I'm sorry, everyone. As leader
of the Sailor Soldiers, this is my responsibility." She looked far more
serious than usual. "We've lied to all of you because we didn't want our
families dragged into all of this."
"I'm sorry, Papa, Momma," she said. "You see, we're all reborn magical
warriors from the moon kingdom and..."
"Is this some kind of joke?" Mr. Nonohara asked.
Himeko sighed. "No, it isn't." She pulled out her transformation pen.
"Pluto Planet POWER!" And then she transformed.
The others did as well, half-blinding everyone else.
And then the cacophony of angry and confused parental shouting began.
Everyone was shouting at once, and their children wilted before the
onslaught. Ami watched the mounting anarchy, and tried to think of a way
to calm the waters.
Instead, Mrs. Tsukino rose. "Stop shouting," she said.
This didn't work; people just shouted over her.
She went into the kitchen, got a pan and a ladle, then banged them
together. "SILENCE!" she shouted.
Everyone froze up, then she continued. "I see no point in us fighting
with our children as a group. I suggest we all go home and discuss this
with our kids separately, unless anyone has any more bombshells for the
rest of us?"
"I've already decided my daughter will not be part of this...this...any
more. If you chose to let your children continue to endanger themselves,
please keep them away from my daughter." Dr. Mizuno rose. "Let's go,
Ami."
Sailor Mercury felt everyone's gaze on her, and tried to think of
something to say. "Mother, I can't quit being Sailor Mercury."
"You can. You will. So long as I'm responsible for you, I'm not going
to lose another child." Her voice was tense. "I've had to see too many
children buried to want to lose my only daughter. I'm not putting my
trust in a rock to bring you back."
Sailor Mercury winced, not wanting to defy her mother after that, but
still feeling she couldn't just quit. Not now. And so she hung between
irreconcilable demands.
Then her mother simply took her by the arm and dragged her out.
"Rei, let's go home and discuss this in private," Grandpa said.
"But I'm living here right now," Mars replied.
"Why don't you talk to her here, while we go to the kitchen?" Usagi's
mother suggested. "Everyone, thank you for coming, I have some cookies if
you want to take a snack with you."
In short order, Ikuko had everyone cleared out and retreated to the
kitchen with Sailor Moon and her husband, who looked ready to explode.
"Usagi, can you turn back to normal, now?"
"Eh? Oh sure," she said, after taking several cookies. Usagi sat down
at the table and started stuffing her face.
"Usagi, you LIED to us!" her father bellowed.
"I never actually said that I WASN'T Sailor Moon," Usagi protested.
Best not to mention what happened with Beryl, Usagi thought. Not yet,
anyway. "Daddy, I never wanted to be Sailor Moon, but I can't help it.
If I don't do it, people will get hurt, people will die. Beryl would have
conquered everyone, the Black Moon Family would have enslaved everyone and
destroyed the future, and Master Pharoah Ninety wanted to destroy all life
on Earth. It...It's my fate. And..." She tried to muster the courage to
tell them she'd rule the Earth one day, but she didn't think they'd
believe it. "I've seen the future. I have to fight to make it come true.
Even though I'd rather be normal Usagi."
Or would I? she asked herself. This was her perfect chance to get out of
this, but she realized she'd fight tooth and nail to keep being one of the
Sailor Senshi, even if they ordered her to quit. She couldn't just quit
while the Zodiac were after Naru and the Dark Kingdom was back for another
round. "I have to do this. The Dark Kingdom's come back, and the Zodiac
is hunting Naru-chan. If we quit, they'll just kill us all, and we'll die
anyway. You can't protect me by making me stop." I can't believe I'm
doing this, she thought.
"Umm, Usagi-chan, I'm afraid we don't know what any of those things
you're talking about are," her father said.
Usagi blinked, then said, "Oh, yeah, I guess you wouldn't." She then
gave them the abbreviated version of her adventures over the last two
years, which took quite a while.
When she was done, her father said, "Even if we decide to let you keep
doing this, we're going to have to punish you for not telling us about
this. What if you'd died? We never would have known! Can't the police
deal with this? It's what they're for. And the army."
Usagi shook her head sadly. "The police aren't enough. You've been
attacked by monsters, Dad. Did the cops show up? Were they any use in
this?"
He sighed. "No."
"I..." She gulped. "This is my destiny. I am the Moon Princess. It's
my duty to protect the Earth and fight for a better future. I have the
power and the responsibility too. This is the most important thing I've
ever done. Maybe the only thing. Please, don't take it away from me,"
she pleaded. "I'll do anything to make up for not telling you. Just,
please...I have to do this. I'm their leader. They're counting on me.
And...I need them."
Her parents looked at each other, then Kenji said, "Your mother and I
will talk about this, and tell you in the morning what we've decided,
okay?"
She nodded. "I'm really, really sorry."
"You should be," he said, then sighed. "And I'm sorry for barking at
you. You know I just want to protect you, don't you?"
"I know, Daddy," she said, rising and yawning. "I'm going to bed."
Once she was gone, Usagi's mother said, "It's hard to believe our
daughter is a monster fighter."
Kenji smiled. "And the leader. And so...I've never seen her so serious
about anything. I mean, she's been doing this for two years, risking her
life...she couldn't even remember to feed her pet fish when we bought her
some. But going on training trips and everything..." He shook his head.
"Do you think there's some way...she could make a career out of this?
Because if she's actually found something she likes... I mean, I don't
want her to be hurt, but, well, you know what I mean."
"Exactly," his wife said. "Maybe we should approve it provisionally, and
see how things go. Watch them train and so on. She's gone this long and
not gotten hurt, after all, and..."
"And there are monsters out there," Kenji said, sighing. "I remember one
time when Shingo and Usagi and I went..." He trailed off. "Now I now
where she vanished off to during that. At the laser tag place."
They stood in silence for a while; neither of them wanted to let their
daughter go out into danger. But at the same time, they both felt a
little proud of their daughter for actually doing something with her life.
Finally, Ikuko said. "Even if we say yes, we still need to punish her
for not telling us. If she'd died, we might not have ever known what
really happened." She didn't like to think of that.
He nodded. "And I think the best punishment for lying to us would be to
force her to have an obligatory two hours of studying every night, with
one of us watching her, she doesn't do anything else, until she gets it
done. That'll make her regret her actions AND maybe get her grades up."
"She'll try to get us to do her homework."
He shrugged. "She does that anyway."
"True. Well, it sounds reasonable to me."
He yawned. "I think Usagi has the right idea. Bedtime."
*****
"I can't believe you never told me," Grandpa said to Rei.
Rei stared at the floor. "I would have, but..."
"But you didn't." His voice was very disapproving.
"But I didn't. Grandfather, this is my destiny."
"That may well be, but it doesn't change the fact that you lied to me
about this for years."
"You never asked," Rei said instinctively.
"I could have done a lot to help you do this better," he said. "Stepped
up your training...instead, you've been running around behind my back and
risking death without me even knowing."
"I'm sorry," she said, still staring at the floor.
"Sorry is nothing but words. You've been running around, getting into
danger without telling me! You could have died! Your parents would never
forgive me for that! Well, their souls wouldn't."
"What do you want me to do, Grandpa?"
"You're not doing any more monster fighting until I say you're ready," he
said. "And when you're not training, I'm going to give you extra chores.
And I will consult the sacred fire and see what guidance it gives me on
whether or not you should be still doing this."
Rei nodded. "Alright."
"And if you ever run around behind my back like this again, you WILL
regret it."
"I won't," she promised.
He nodded. "Come and see me tomorrow after school, and we can go talk to
the sacred fire together."
"Alright," she said. "I'll see you then."
His face softened. "You understand, don't you, Rei?"
She nodded. "I understand."
"Good. Now, tell me about this threat you're facing right now. I want
to understand what's going on."
"Well, it all started back in the Silver Millenium..."
*****
Minako's dad asked, "Do they help you hear better?"
Minako fingered her pointed ears, being relieved her father had avoided
the Spock jokes she feared were coming. "Yes, which mostly means it's
harder to sleep because I can hear too much."
"Good for hunting in the woods, I'd expect," her father said
thoughtfully.
Her mother returned from the kitchen with three cups of tea, handing one
to everyone. "Is it permanent?"
"Pretty much," Minako said, sighing. "I'm hoping to go to Avalon some
time soon so I can finish adjusting to this. Before I do anything
stupid." She took a sip of tea, then said, "I can't believe you're taking
this so calmly!"
"Oh, this nice Elven fellow came by and explained everything weeks ago,"
her mother said.
"Derith?" Minako asked.
"Oh what was his name...Eien? Yes, Eien," her father said, chugging his
tea. "We just assumed it was more magical weirdness."
Minako stared blankly.
"What we're really worried about is that your grades haven't been very
good lately," her mother continued. "Are you sure you can take this trip
without missing any school?"
"Hime-chan and Derith are going to find a good place for me to go to.
We'll be gone before you know I'm back!" She paused. "I mean..."
Her father looked thoughtful. "Are you going to need a passport?"
"Umm...I don't know."
Her mother asked, "Is it warm there this time of year?"
"Umm...in parts..."
"Well, you see, we haven't had a vacation in a while, and that nice Elf
lord invited us to come visit him some time, so perhaps we could tag
along. I'm sure you could use a chaperone anyway," Minako's father said.
"..."
"Of course, we'll need to make sure we've had our shots, and see about
getting our passports renewed. And stock up on some cold iron in case of
trouble. A pity church bells are too big to carry, but..." Minako's
father began.
"Church bells?" Minako asked weakly.
"Do they actually work?" her father asked. "I did some research after we
met the fellow, but the sources aren't very consistent."
"I don't know. No one mentioned anything about church bells. I didn't
exactly get a manual with these," she said, pointing to her ears. How can
they take this so CALMLY? I mean...I'm glad they're taking it well, but
this is just...
And then she thought about the time they were caught in a nasty
earthquake and her father's first reaction was to make sure the iron was
unplugged. Her parents had always been pretty unflappable and whimsical.
Still, this did seem a bit much.
"Too big to carry, anyway. So when is this planned for?"
"Maybe two weekends from now. This weekend, they find the place, the
next weekend, we go."
"Good, good, I'll need to give advance notice at work."
"I'll see about the passports," her mother said. "Do they have a
magically hidden consulate here somewhere? I want to make sure I don't
break any import regulations again."
Minako laughed nervously. "I'll ask Derith."
"Good, good. Ask him to come round, won't you? And see if he has any of
those 'learn Elvish quickly' tapes. Assuming anyone's made some. It's
always nice to be able to speak a little of the local language, although
with this short of notice, we can't learn much."
"I'll...uh...ask him." Minako said.
"Good. Now, about your grades," her father said. "You've got to study
harder."
"I'll study harder," Minako said, relieved to change the subject. "I'll
be the best student who ever studied a book ever!"
"Just do your best, dear," her mother said. "That's all we ask. I know
it gets boring sometimes, but you'll be glad one day you did."
"I can do better. And I WILL!!!" She leaped up on the coffee table.
"They'll call me the girl genius of Tsunami High by the time I'm done!"
"That's good, Mina-chan," her mother said. "But you're standing on the
coffee cake."
"The coffee-cake trampling genius!" Minako paused. "The getting off the
table right now genius," she said weakly.
"Better go clean your feet, dear," her mother said. "And we need to get
you back to school before it's too late at night."
Minako ran off to clean her feet. This went better than I thought it
would, she thought.
*****
Ami flopped down on her bed, feeling miserable. Mother's lost it, she
thought. At least she didn't make me move back home, she thought. And
she didn't tell me to dump Ryo. Then she realized she'd never actually
gotten around to telling her mother about the sex. I'd better just wait a
few days, she thought. It would only make her go more berserk.
{Best not to wait too long,} Athena said. {If she learns before thou
tellst her, we'll be in even more trouble.}
Ami smiled wryly for a moment. [I never thought you would be the more
responsible of us.]
{I have drunk of the cup of parental wrath too many times to wish to do
it again without need,} Athena said. {Your father will tell her soon if
you do not.}
[You're right. I'll do it tomorrow.]
*****
"The Senshi's parents seem to be taking things poorly," Bauxite reported
to Hematite.
"Keep them under observation. If this hampers their effectiveness, this
may be a good time to strike."
Bauxite nodded. "Yes sir."
"You may go."
He left, leaving Hematite to sit and think. Who should I push to test
their defenses, he asked himself. Amazonite would be easy to motivate,
but also most likely to screw up, rendering the test useless. Unless some
of the Senshi could be pinned down by her somewhere as a distraction for a
better plan. Perhaps Anthracite? He was fairly competent, but his grudge
against Endymion could make him as much of an idiot as Amazonite.
Alexandrite's recent death demonstrated how weak the desire for revenge
makes you. Magnetite had other duties. The same for Sapphire.
Marcasite...he might be convinced to try a strike at Odysseus, who seemed
to have some control over the same star power which obsessed Marcasite.
He might be suitable, and he lacked any self-destructive obsessions.
Pyroxenite was dead, but some of his followers remained. Yes, they might
be suitable as well. At least as fodder.
Also, who could they afford to lose? Amazonite was certainly expendible,
as she was of little use in any case. Anthracite as well. As for
Marcasite, he could be a threat in the future to Hematite's own plans.
Hematite would cry no tears if Marcasite fell.
Hematite decided this deserved more thought.
*****
Dr. Mizuno walked into the ward, doing her best to hide her exhaustion.
She'd been so tense, she'd been unable to sleep, but three of her patients
needed to undergo their chemo treatments today, so she couldn't just take
another day off.
One of them, Kenichi, had somehow gotten out of bed and was holding
Kimiko's doll just out of her reach. Kimiko had a broken leg to go with
her other problems, thanks to a car wreck as her family had been bringing
her to the hospital. "Come and get it if you want it!"
"What are you doing, young man?" she demanded.
Kenichi paled, threw the doll to Kimiko and ran back to his bed. "Don't
hit me! I'll be good."
Dr. Mizuno blinked in surprise. Do I look that scary today? she asked
herself. "I would never hit you, Kenichi. But you shouldn't steal
Kimiko's dolly." Maybe I took too harsh a tone, she thought. I shouldn't
take my anger out of them. Calm, she told herself. Be calm. They need
gentleness, not wrath.
"But...you looked...okay," he said weakly. "I'll be good."
"Good," she said, then went over to Kimiko. "They've given you
breakfast, right?"
She nodded. "Uh huh."
"Good, good. We're going to take you down for another chemotherapy
session. You feeling ready?" She patted Kimiko on the head, and did her
best to smile reassuringly.
"Can I take Rumiko with me?" she asked. Rumiko was her doll's name, a
simple doll made by her mother for her.
"Sure you can, Kimi-chan," Dr. Mizuno said, 'rumpling' Rumiko's 'hair'.
"We all need a friend when it hurts."
"You'll always be my friend, won't you?" Kimiko asked plaintively.
"Of course I will," she said. "Ready?"
Kimiko nodded. "Ready."
"Okay, Nurse, Takamura, get me a stretcher," she said to the nurse, who
nodded and got the one she'd already brought up in the hallway.
"Doctor Mizuno, Chichiri won't give me any candy!" a young boy with short
black hair shouted.
"Chichiri, be nice and let Hiroshi have a piece of your candy," she said.
Chichiri's parents had a lot of money, and tended to give him lots of
small gifts during his stays here, which he then flaunted in front of the
others. She knew he had candy to spare.
Chichiri pouted, then forked some of the candy over, as they were
wheeling Kimiko out the door.
*****
A while later, they wheeled a now slumbering Kimiko back to the ward, and
Dr. Mizuno checked her schedule for the day. "Okay, let's see how
Hiro...where's Hiroshi?"
The nurse on duty said, "He choked on a piece of candy he didn't chew
enough. Luckily, one of the other kids noticed and screamed enough to get
Kozue's attention, and she came in and got his throat clear. But then he
vomited up all over himself and her, so she took him to get him clean and
get herself a new uniform."
What was I THINKING, not making sure he'd be able to handle the candy,
she thought. He could have... She brushed away the recrimination, saving
them for later. Maybe I had better just go home and...no, I can't just
run out in the middle of the day. I have to deal with this, she told
herself. "I'll go check on him before I deal with..." She checked her
clipboard again. "The meeting I'm supposed to be at...when was this
scheduled?"
"Don't ask me, I wasn't invited," Nurse Takazumi said.
Dr. Mizuno finished getting Kimiko back into her bed, then took off.
*****
Do not flirt with anyone, Minako told herself. No one. A boy smiled at
her. His name was Touji, she thought. And he had a cute butt. But she
wasn't going to flirt. Nope.
"So what is this poem about?" Clark asked Minako.
"It's not about Touji's fine butt," Minako said solemnly.
Touji grinned, and Minako turned red when she realized what she said.
"This is true," Clark said. He turned to the rest of the class. "Would
anyone like to interpret this poem?"
There was a great dearth of volunteers.
He turned to Makoto. "How about you, Miss Kino?"
"Well, it was a rather difficult poem," she said.
A lot of the other students nodded.
"You can't fly if you never stretch your wings," he replied.
"I believe the author was trying to use a metaphor for the agony in her
life. The waterfall wearing away at the rock was like the vicissitudes of
life slowly grinding away at her soul," Makoto said. "She was losing
herself and had to get away. I think the fish leaping up the falls then
represented this desire to escape to a higher plane of existence, away
from the waterfall. But the transition between metaphors was confusing
and badly handled. Tennyson did it better, really." She paused. "No,
that wasn't Tennyson. He wrote Idylls of the King, correct?" She spoke
without the slightest trace of a Japanese accent, Clark suddenly realized.
"Umm, among other works," Clark said faintly.
Everyone stared at Makoto, who didn't notice.
"Maybe it was Blake. No, not Blake. Shelly? Byron? Maybe it was...no,
Macauley was a historian, not a poet. Well, now I can't remember what
poem I was thinking of anyway. Sorry." Her voice had returned to normal.
Clark nodded. "Very good, Miss Kino." He turned to another student.
"Mr. Takamari. Would you like to comment?"
"Fish can't really jump up cliffs, can they?"
"Maybe they were flying fish," another student suggested.
The discussion soon turned into a fishing class despite Clark's best
efforts to get it back in line.
*****
Ami shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "Only a few times, Mother," she
said weakly.
"I'm glad you were honest enough to tell me," Dr. Mizuno said, trying her
best not to explode. "But I'm NOT very happy about it."
Ami stared at the table. "I know."
"Ami, you'll never get into medical school and finish if it you get
pregnant before it happens."
"I know."
"And no sex is safe enough to be sure. Fairly safe, yes. Especially if
you use multiple contraception methods." Her eyes narrowed. "Did you?"
"After the first time," Ami said.
"Have you had a pregnancy test yet?"
"No."
"Then we'll give you one. After this."
Ami nodded.
"Pregnancy would wreck your life. It's a risk you can't afford if you
want to make something of yourself. And that's leaving out all the moral
reasons to wait for marriage."
Ami nodded. "I know."
"If you knew, you wouldn't have done it." She took a deep breath and
counted to ten, letting the temptation to shout drain out through her
feet. "I know it's tempting, Ami. You're at an age where it's very hard
to control yourself, but if you don't build the habit of discipline now,
medical school will eat you alive."
"I kn..."
She frowned. "Stop saying that! If you really knew this, you'd have NOT
done it! And, it'll wreck your reputation. Men try to get women into
bed, but once they do, they think the woman's a slut, even though they're
usually far more slutty than most women. Get a reputation like that, and
you'll never find a good man for a husband." She sighed. "Not that it
guarantees you'll find a good one..." She reined herself in again. "Or
that you'll be able to live with him if you do. Your father is a good
man, but we just weren't compatible."
Ami nodded.
"But as long as you have a boyfriend, the temptation is going to be
there. You're going to have to break up with him, if you don't want to
end up pregnant or worse, and have to give up your dreams."
Ami felt her stomach knot. "Mother, I love him. I want him to be part of
my dreams."
"Ami, do you really think you can go back to being celibate with him
having done it once?" she asked. "Because that's what it would take."
"Yes," Ami said. "I can do it," she said firmly.
"Let me guess, your father suggested that."
She nodded.
Dr. Mizuno sighed. "Do you really think you could hold back all the way
through the rest of high school, four years of college, and all of medical
school? Or that he'd want to wait that long? He's a young boy, and even
the best of them have raging hormones at your age. Have you talked to him
about this?"
Ami shook her head. "No, I've been too busy and...I wanted to tell you
before I made any final decision."
Dr. Mizuno spent a little while trying to figure out how to make Ami
understand. "I'm increasingly coming to think it would be best if we
simply transferred you to another school, so you could make a clean break
with all of this mess. That way, you couldn't be drawn back into it. And
I don't trust Tsunami's administration anymore, knowing that Mei'ou woman
is part of it, using parents and students as pawns in whatever her little
game is."
"Mother, Mei'ou-san is NOT using us as pawns. I was Sailor Mercury for
over a year before I even met her!"
"She's up to something. I don't trust her," Dr. Mizuno said. "She's
using you for her own private monster war."
"Mother, this concerns EVERYONE!" Ami said.
"It will take me a while to arrange a transfer. I'd get your father to
do it, but he'd probably pick some art academy where no one learns
anything useful." She began scribbling possibilities on a notepad.
"Don't I get any kind of say in this?" Ami demanded.
"No, you don't. You've demonstrated I can't trust your judgment or your
honesty any more, and until you either show me that I can trust it, or you
get the skills you need to support yourself, I'm going to have to run your
life for you so you don't screw it up any further. You're going to break
up with the boy, and you're going to get ready to go to a new school, if I
can find one. But in the meantime, you'd better keep up your grades at
Tsunami. It'll help you get into a better school. It's a good thing you
took all the best schools' exams already."
"I'm not a little girl any more!"
"No, you're just old enough to make adult mistakes without having an
adult's common sense," Dr. Mizuno said. "The deadliest of all
combinations. Hmmm...best to send you to an all-girls school."
Ami stood up. "Mother, this isn't fair! I haven't done anything wrong!"
"You lied to me! You lied to me repeatedly! You could have died a
thousand times, and I wouldn't have even known why! And you seem
determined to throw away everything you've been working for since you were
six over a boy! I'm not going to let you ruin your life and die! If you
want to go overdose on heroin or choke on a piece of candy once you're not
under my care any more, I can't stop you, but dammit, I am NOT going to
just sit back and let my daughter ruin her life and die when I can do
something to prevent it! Your father's spoiled you, and I see I didn't
pay enough attention. I trusted you, and you betrayed that trust. I just
want what's good for you!" She banged her fist on the table. "Oww,
dammit."
She closed her eyes. Screaming does not grant authority, she told
herself. I don't want to make Ami scared of me, I want her to listen to
reason. "My decision is made. I'd better take you back to the school, so
you can get to bed at a reasonable hour."
"Father wouldn't..." Ami began.
"I'm your legal guardian," she said. "And it's my duty. You can go
running to 'Daddy' to try to get out of this, but I'm NOT backing down.
And if he thinks otherwise, he can...forget about it."
"Mother, I can't just throw away my life and start over." Ami clenched
the table, trying to figure out some way to get past her mother's
stubbornness.
"Sometimes, we have to start over so we don't throw it away," her mother
replied.
The knot in her stomach finished twisting, and for a moment, she was
afraid she was going to throw up. "Mother, please, I just can't do this."
"You can. You will," her mother replied flatly. And that was that for
the moment.
*****
Kenichi turned around from a late night refrigerator raid, only to see
his daughter standing in the kitchen. He nearly dropped everything when
he saw the tears running down her face. "Ami, what's wrong?"
"Mother...she..." Ami began to sob incoherently and babble.
"Ami, I can't understand anything you said," he said, putting a hand on
her shoulder.
She flung herself at him and began to cry onto his chest.
He put down everything. "Let's go sit down and talk, okay?" he said.
She nodded.
Once she had cried a while longer, she finally pulled herself together
and explained everything.
He sighed. "Once your mother has time to calm down, I'm sure she'll be
more reasonable."
"You really think so?" Ami asked weakly.
He pushed her hair out of her eyes. "Of course...no, I can't lie to you.
Your mother never wants to back down. Once she says something, she'll
fight to the end to defend it. Fortunately, she only says stupid things
when she gets mad, and she usually doesn't get mad. Although I was far
too good at making her mad." He sighed and shoved aside memories. "I
will talk to her, but I make you no promises. She's your legal guardian,
and my rights are pretty limited. I will tell you I'm not going to bother
enforcing the no boyfriend thing, because that's just stupid. But as to
switching schools..." He sighed. "If she won't listen to me, the best I
can do is to try to get you into one that won't be awful."
"She doesn't want me to be Sailor Mercury either," Ami said weakly. "But
I have to. They need me and I need them."
"I know, honey," he said, hugging her sadly. "But legally, she can tell
you not to do that. I think. And if you defy her...well, you know how
that goes."
"Can't you tell her?" Ami pleaded.
"I'll do my best. But with your mother, my best was usually never
enough." He sighed. "She's a good woman; I couldn't do what she does
without going mad. But once she makes up her mind, the Emperor himself
couldn't move her." He patted Ami's shoulder. "Maybe you should ask your
boyfriend if he has foreseen anything." He laughed. "I can hardly
believe I actually said that. I guess having an oracle on tap is kind of
handy."
Ami nodded, feeling a little heartened. "I'll ask him tomorrow."
*****
"I can only foresee things I'm in the middle of, usually," Ryo said.
"But I haven't had any visions for a few days. I guess that means the
future is unclear."
"Well, do you think Daddy will convince Mother to change her mind?"
"I don't know your mother well enough to guess," he said. "But it
doesn't sound like it."
They were at breakfast in the dining hall, early, right after it opened
and while most people were still getting up.
"So what are we going to do?" Ami asked, feeling desperate for some kind
of reassurance.
"Wait...I'm seeing something...oh dammit!" he said in frustration.
"Did you see..." Ami asked hesitantly.
"I screwed up, and I'm gonna get a D on the math test. But I studied so
hard..." He paused to stuff some more cereal in his mouth and chew away
his frustration.
She sagged. "Ryo, we have to do something about this."
He nodded. "I couldn't stand to lose you, Ami," he said. "And if your
mother sends you to another school, I can still go try and see you on the
weekends. But I really don't see anything I can do about your mother."
He scratched his head. "I could try talking to her, but I dunno if she'd
listen."
"You have to try," Ami said. "If I push her more, she'll just explode."
After another spoonful of cereal, he said, "I'll see if I can call her
this evening and make an appeal." A doomed appeal, he thought. But it
was better than doing nothing. I don't need a vision to know how this will
go down, he thought.
*****
Ami sat at her desk and stared at page 200 of the English reader for the
fortieth time. Looking down at her translation, she saw she'd just
translated the third paragraph a fifth time. She tossed the book off her
desk in frustration. "I hate this," she announced.
"Yeah, it's a lousy story, 'mi-chan," Noriko said. "Oh, you mean waiting
for your dad or 'yo-kun to call you?"
"Exactly. I can't think, I can't study, I can't do ANYTHING," Ami said.
"How about if you take a study break and play Senshi Combat with me,
then? It needs more field testing," Noriko suggested. "Or you could read
a nice book you've been putting off."
"I guess a virtual fight might help," Ami said.
Thirty fights later, her virtual avatar froze Tuxedo Kamen in a block of
ice and threw him into the ocean. "Sorry about that," Sailor Mercury said
with a tinny voice that wasn't right at all.
"Does she always apologize after every win?" Ami asked, now feeling a
little more relaxed.
"I stole the sound clip from...Chun Li? I think so," Noriko said.
"Don't ask me why she does it. I just didn't have a good tag phrase for
you."
Ami began trying to think of one, as the phone rang. She ran over to it.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Well, I have good news and bad news," her father said.
"What's the good news?" she asked first.
"I convinced your mother not to transfer you until next year, because
she'd already paid in advance for this year to get a discount and because
it would disrupt your studies, since none of the other school's she
looking at have exactly the same curriculum."
Ami felt a wave of relief wash over her. "That's great, Daddy."
"But she wants you to move back home where she can keep an eye on you."
Ami nodded. "I'll miss being able to see everyone easily here, but I can
handle that, I hope."
"She still wants you to break up with Ryo, unfortunately. And she
doesn't want you to have anything to do with the other Sailor girls.
About all I could get her to back down on was that one thing. I'm sorry,
Ami," he said. "And no being Sailor Mercury, either. She blamed me for
you getting into that, when I brought it up. As if I..." There was
silence for a few seconds. "She's overreacting, but as long as you're
living with your mother, I can't do much about it. But you can see Ryo
when you come visit me. Just tell her you broke up with him. It's not
like she can check up on you."
Ami laughed faintly. "I never thought I'd have one parent tell me to
disobey the other."
"It's just utterly ridiculous. There's simply no reason at all for you
to dump him. I can see why you being Sailor Mercury seems too dangerous
to her...I'm not comfortable with the idea of you risking your life
either. But I think she's overdoing it. But if we tough it out a few
weeks, hopefully, she'll calm down, and we can talk some sense into her."
Ami nodded. "I wish I could come live with you, Daddy."
"Me too, honey, but your mom is your legal guardian, not me, and I can't
afford to take it to court. And I don't think the court would rule in my
favor anyway. I'm sorry I mostly have bad news for you, dear."
"Well, I can handle a few weeks of this," Ami said. "At least, I hope I
can. But if the Sailors need me...I mean, I can't just defy Mother, but I
can't just not go either."
"I really don't know what to tell you, Ami. You're just going to have to
follow your heart."
"Thanks, Daddy," she said. "We'll just have to see what happens." She
sighed. "Talk to you later, Daddy."
"See you, pumpkin."
She hung up the phone, and it rang again. "Hello?" she asked.
"It's me, Ryo," he said. "Your mother won't even talk to me."
"Come on over," she said. "We need to make plans."
"Okay, on my way."
*****
Ami leaned against Ryo, drawing comfort from his presence and from the
arm he'd put around her shoulders. "I'm gonna miss being able to see you
often, Ryo," she said.
"I'm gonna miss seeing you too," he said. "At least we'll be able to eat
lunch together, though. When do you have to move out?"
"Tomorrow evening. I can't believe Mother is overreacting like this."
"But she is." He sighed.
"Maybe...maybe we ought to skip school tomorrow and go on one last date,"
Ami said, hardly able to believe she'd said that.
"We'd have to run from truant officers all day," he replied. "That
wouldn't be much fun. On the other hand...oh heck, let's do it."
Noriko laughed. "Dress up nicely, and everyone will assume you must be
older."
"We just have to make sure we make it back before Mother gets here," Ami
said.
"And that Yamamoto doesn't catch us sneaking off campus."
"Sailor Teleport your way out!" Noriko replied.
Ami laughed. "That would be...oh heck, if we're skipping school, what
does it matter?"
"Right. Bring a change of clothing and meet me behind the dorm, and we
can teleport to my dad's house. He'll be at work, and we can change
there," Ryo said. "Oh wait...problem."
"Hmm?" Ami asked.
"The school will notice we're missing and probably tell your mother. If
she knows we did this, she'll freak out even more."
Ami frowned. He was right. There had to be some way out of it...but she
couldn't think of one. She sighed. "I guess we won't do it, then."
Skipping school wasn't a good thing to do, she told herself. Mom's going
to work me hard, I'd best get used to it, she thought.
Ryo nodded. "We just have to make the most we can of tonight."
"Then let's go do something now," Ami said. "It's not too...drat, it's
already eleven! Where did the night go?"
"Down the tubes," Noriko said. "I need to go to bed soon. Not to be
rude and kick Ryo out, but...I'm gonna be rude and kick him out. Sorry!"
"I understand," Ryo said, getting up and kissing Ami on the cheek.
"We'll work this out, somehow."
"Somehow," Ami said. "We have to."
*****
The junior Pluto turned to Derith. "Well, I'm ready when you're ready."
"Mount up," he said, pointing to Bob.
"I don't think she can handle my weight," Bob said, smiling a dragon
smile.
She climbed up into the saddle behind Derith.
Hotaru said, "I still don't see why I can't go."
"If you had time powers, I'd take you instead, but this saddle doesn't
hold three people very easily. You've got to make sure Minako doesn't do
anything stupid," Derith said.
"Oh, that's probably impossible," Go said from the deck chair nearby.
Hotaru sighed. "Be careful."
"Don't worry," the junior Pluto said. "I can get us out of anything."
She sounded like she was trying to assure herself of that.
*****
Ami popped her transformation pen and computer out of subspace, just to
stare at them for a few seconds and reassure herself they were still there
if she needed them. She'd stashed them there to keep her mother from
confiscating them, then told her mother she'd 'given them back' to her
Sailor friends. She didn't like lying to her mother, but she feared
they'd end up locked away somewhere when she needed them otherwise.
Sending them back to subspace, she then stared at her homework as she sat
in her bedroom at home. She'd been here for half an hour, doing the same
problem over and over because she couldn't focus. The problem was that
she was bored out of her mind. She'd had this problem her first few
nights at home, but now, on Friday night, it was exceptionally bad. Her
mother was downstairs, watching CNN and actually catching up on the
universe outside her hospital, but she was stuck here until she finished
this chapter.
But since she was already eight chapters ahead, and normally would have
been out on a date with Ryo or doing Sailor Training, or anything else but
studying on a Friday night, her brain refused to function. This shocked
her; Ami could study under any condition, even on the bus, but now she
just wasn't interested.
She'd always studied ahead because school always went too slowly, and it
meant she couldn't fall behind if she got sick, which usually happened
once or twice a year. Her love of learning drew her onwards to new
knowledge; Ami enjoyed studying.
But now she felt cooped up where once she'd felt safe and sheltered, up
in the room where she'd done so much studying. It felt cramped, like the
walls were closing in. She got up and did some stretching exercises, and
felt her tensions begin to drain away. But at the same time, it made her
aware that her back felt full of knots.
There was a knock at the door. "Come in," Ami said, continuing to pull
her leg back.
"Your back isn't bothering you again, is it?" her mother asked.
"It's been a while," Ami said, "But yes, it is."
"Well, I can fix that," Miaka said, coming over to the desk and putting
down a glass of tea and some popcorn. "Here's a snack for you, but first,
let me give you a backrub."
Ami lay down on the bed, and let her mother massage her, removing all her
aches. Her mother had done this hundreds of times in the past, and Ami
always enjoyed it. It was almost worth the pain, just for the massage.
She lay there silently, giving a small moan every once in a while.
Her mother worked in silence, until finally, she said, "Better?"
"Much better," Ami said. Her whole body felt much more relaxed. Maybe
too relaxed, as now she didn't want to get up off the bed.
"Better not stay up too late," her mother said. "I'm going to bed early;
work's wiped me out." She kissed Ami's head. "Good night, dear."
And then she was gone.
Ami couldn't quite understand it. Her mother had been much calmer and
more considerate since she'd moved back home, except for pretty much
restricting Ami to physical exercise and studying as her two main
activities; her mother had always emphasized staying in shape, which was
one reason they had a big pool. Her mother went swimming every morning
before work.
Maybe I should go swim, Ami thought. Then I can have my snack and get
back to studying. She nodded. That's a good idea.
*****
Makoto could think of several more pleasurable ways to get her boyfriend
sweaty on a Friday Night instead of sparring with him. Unfortunately, the
need to hide their relationship precluded all of them.
Makoto pressed her attack, throwing everything she had into it; it was
frustrating fighting with the staff; sometimes it would just feel totally
natural. And other times, like now, she was struggling to remember how to
use it at all. She feinted left, then tried to bring the right end around
for a blow to Clark's left shoulder.
And then Clark's blade came around and caught the staff from below,
knocking it right out of her hands. "You've got to drill more with the
basic forms before you try anything fancy," he said.
"I can do those at home," she said, feeling a little irritated. "But I
can't spar without a partner."
"Which doesn't do any good if you're struggling with the basics," he
fired back. "You've got to learn to crawl before you can walk."
"There's probably something more boring than doing staff forms, but I
don't know what it is," Makoto said, then sighed and went and got the
staff. "I'd rather be curled up with a nice book." She paused. "Did I
really say that?"
"We all seem to have retained a few bits and pieces of our other selves,"
Clark said, sheathing his sword and leaning against the wall. She'd been
pressing him hard, for though her skill was low, she was a lot stronger
than him, and deflecting her blows had taken a lot out of him. He wasn't
going to admit this, though. "I caught myself writing a sermon instead of
preparing for the next day's teaching last night." He sighed. "Lost half
my preparation time on it."
She laughed. "I wish I'd retained all of Maggie's knowledge. I'd be
making perfect grades. She had a Mind of 12, and I probably only have
about a six." She sighed and sat down on the couch, which had been pushed
over to one wall to make space for sparring. "I just feel so stupid
sometimes."
He came over and sat down on the other end of the couch. A thought
struck him. "You're not stupid at all, Makoto," he replied in English.
"You could have as good grades as Rei, if not Ami, if you'd just study
more. I was very impressed with your analysis of the poem the other day.
And your English has greatly improved."
"It just sort of came to me," she said in English. "I spent all of
breakfast staring at that poem like it was some magic spell or something,
and then suddenly, bam, I just understood it. Maybe sleep deprivation
helped or something."
"Did you need to use a dictionary?"
She blinked. "Actually, no, now that I think about it. And I just
casually read it at breakfast like it was in..." She frowned. "Maggie
could have read that and understood it easily. I'm not going to start
hearing her voice in my head, am I?"
"I don't think so," he replied. "But some pieces of our other selves do
seem to have remained behind. I don't know if they'll stay or if they'll
fade."
"Well, as long as I don't go mad, I wouldn't mind keeping what Maggie
knew, because she knew a lot more than I do about some things. And I'd be
guaranteed a good grade in English." She grinned at Clark. "And wouldn't
have to bribe you with kisses."
"Well, we have been speaking in English the last few minutes," he said.
"So I think you'll be able to earn that grade without bribery."
Her eyes widened. "I have?" She blinked. "Oh wow, I have!"
No accent either, he noted. He smiled at her and switched back to
Japanese. "Ready to drill in some forms now?"
"No, but I'll do it anyway," she said, getting up and smiling. "So, do
you think I should dye my hair until this streak grows out? Or keep it?"
"I kind of like it," he said. "But I noticed Yamamoto looking at you
rather intently the other day. I don't think Tsunami has a hair dye
policy, but I'm not sure about that."
She nodded. "Well, if you like it, I'll keep it. Let's get going with
the forms."
This consumed the rest of the evening.
*****
Maybe this is Mother's way of apologizing for doing so much screaming
earlier, Ami thought. She won't back down, but she is trying to not just
rant. She slowly did the backstroke under the moonlight.
{A gilded cage is still a cage,} Athena said. {If thou wishes anything
in thine life beyond studying, thou willst have to break out of this.}
[It's just for a little while until Mom will listen to reason.]
{Dost thee really thinkst she'll listen to reason? She's calm now, why
dost thou not go to ask her?}
Ami reached one end of the pool and turned, continuing to backstroke the
other direction.
{As I thought. And what of thine lover? Dost thou not miss him?}
[I miss him a lot!] Ami's body ran on autopilot from long practice,
while she argued with Athena, her legs slowly speeding up their kicks.
[But I can't see him until I get Mother to back down.]
{Which will happen when hell freezes over.}
[I can't afford to believe that! She's already calmed down a lot.]
{Because thou dost not defy her. If thou didst, her claws would be
unsheathed again. The victor can well afford mercy to the vanquished, so
long as the loser knows his place.} Athena's voice was sharp, but then it
softened. {I miss him too.}
[I'm going to go crazy if I don't get my...if I don't figure out how to
focus on my studies,] Ami said.
She pushed off the far end, and switched to the breaststroke, her body
moving fluidly. She'd mastered swimming long ago, and it soothed her.
Already, she felt better.
{Thou art so far ahead it's pointless to do more work and thou knowest
it. All work and no play makes people snap. And thou hast not had any
real play except for swimming all week.}
[It's pathetic! I've hardly been here a few days, and I already can't
focus!] Ami said.
{That's because thou wast learning to not have to study all the time to
keep from going mad with loneliness. Thou didst not need slave away to
forget that you spent most of your time alone when not in school. But
now, thou hast lost thy friends, thy purpose, and thy love. Well, not
lost thy love, but a love from afar is thin food for the soul.}
Ami felt the temptation to get out of the pool, wait for her mother to go
to bed, then teleport to Ryo's room to see him. She shook it off. Too
risky of discovery, especially since his roommate would probably be home.
{Of course, if thou thinkest today is bad, tomorrow will be worse. No
school means an entire day of studying thou dost not need. No Sailor
training with Haruka. No gaming with your friends. And even if a crisis
arises, they cannot call on you.}
[Shut up! Just shut up! I don't need you harping on everything I'm
missing!] Ami scowled and tried to blank out Athena as she pushed off the
wall and went for another lap.
Athena was silent the next fifteen laps, leaving Ami to stew in her own
frustration. The rest of the night didn't go much better.
*****
The next morning, Ami finished off another batch of translations. So
much for that English reader, she thought, laying it aside and stacking
the translations in the English folder. They wouldn't actually be due for
weeks, but it was easy to predict the assignments of her not very skillful
or original English teacher.
It was almost time for lunch, and her mother was gone until around eight
tonight. For the first time since coming home, she could do anything she
wanted without her mother checking up on her, as long as she got as much
work done by the end of the day as her mother expected. She'd worked
feverishly all morning to get that much work done.
And then, as she ate lunch, it struck her that there really wasn't
anything to do with her free time. Not that didn't risk her mother
finding out and require her to lie to her, if she didn't want to get
punished for doing it. I should go shopping for some fiction, Ami
thought. I'm sure Mother won't get mad at me if I find something nice to
read in my spare time. If I get to have any.
She changed into her blue sundress, got her hat, and headed out to catch
the bus and go down to the shopping district.
Her favorite bookstore called itself 'The Library of Alexandria'. It was
pretentious, but always had a lot of interesting old books. She lost
herself in browsing for an hour, and sipping the coffee that they had
there. I haven't been here in forever, she suddenly realized; she'd been
too busy trying to juggle homework, friends, a love life, and senshi
duties to really read much fiction. I suppose that's the one good thing
about this, she thought. There's a lot of books I've been wanting to
read.
She'd picked out five to buy when she rounded a shelf, and to her utter
shock, she found Minako slowly moving along the shelves of imported books,
muttering to herself in English. "Mina-chan, hi!" Ami said, feeling a
surge of joy that surprised her.
"Hey, Ami!" Minako said. "Your mother stopped cracking the whip yet?"
"She's off cracking it at work," Ami said.
"So you snuck off to buy books?" Minako laughs. "Anything good?"
"Yeah," Ami said, and rambled on for a while about the books, until
finally, she decided she was talking too much. "I'm surprised to see you
here."
"Hey, I do read, you know," Minako said. "I'm trying to find a short
story collection that isn't wretched. We have to read a short story and
write a short paper about it for English class. Also, I started reading a
couple of series back in England when I was there, and I'm trying to catch
up on them."
"So how did your parents react?" Ami asked.
"Oh, they don't mind at all. They didn't even freak out about me being
an elf and everything. In FACT, they want to go to Avalon with me,"
Minako said.
Ami sighed. "I wish I could go with you. I just need to get away from
working until I drop. So they're really not mad?"
"Well, you saw how they were at Usagi's. Dad was even more unflappable
than usual." Minako shrugged. "Best not to kick a gift horse in the
mouth. But they did tell me I need to be more serious, that I'd been
kinda out of control. And well, they're right, much as I hate to say it.
If you'd been acting like me, your mother would probably chain you to a
desk until you were forty." She shook her head. "I can't believe your
mom freaked out so much."
"She's just trying to protect me," Ami said, sighing.
Minako checked her watch. "Steven was SUPPOSED to meet me here to help
me find a good book, but I guess he's standing me up. Or he went to the
wrong store."
Ami felt a surge of intense jealousy, and tried to tamp it down. She was
going through hell, and Minako wasn't suffering at all from this. "What
about everyone else?" she asked.
"Well, the Outers don't have any problems. Rei almost has Grandpa
convinced to let her be a sailor again, and Makoto is fine. But Usagi,
Naru, and Himeko's parents are freaking out. They've been punishing Usagi
by making her study constantly." Minako shuddered. "I'd die."
Yes, you would, Ami thought with a surge of further irritation, then
tried to shove that down as well. "That's pretty much my situation."
"But Usagi is a lot lazier than you. We all are," Minako said. "It
amazes me how you can work so hard. Me and Usagi and Makoto...your mother
would have killed us by now with so much studying. But you look like
you're doing fine." She paused, and now her voice became concerned as
realization struck her. "You're not fine."
"I miss everyone, and I'm bored of studying," Ami said, sagging a little
and letting it show.
Minako put a hand to her forehead. "No fever. Must be some other kind
of sickness."
"Mina-chan, don't make fun of me," Ami protested.
"Sorry," she said. "I just never thought you'd say that."
"Have there been any monster attacks?"
"Not yet," Minako said. "Thankfully, our enemies all seem to be busy.
Maybe their parents are mad at them."
Ami laughed at the thought.
"Look, why don't we go do something fun?" Minako asked.
"I really shouldn't," Ami said. "Mom doesn't want me hanging out
with...anyone." She stared at her books. "I wish I could go live with
Dad."
"Ami, you're going to go nuts if you just sit around the house and read!
You'll end up...trying to use the vacuum cleaner!"
"..."
Minako sighed. "Umm...joining a...no. You'd try to...ugh." She
wrinkled her nose. "C'mon, I'm bored too. You deserve a REAL break."
Ami shook her head. "I can't."
Minako grabbed three more books off the shelf. "You're no fun."
"I can't afford to be. If I keep this up, Mother will eventually calm
down."
"You really think so?"
Ami began to shift back and forth nervously. "It has to be true," she
said.
"If you say so. Well, I gotta find Steven and kill him. See ya later!"
She gave Ami a hug, then headed for the sales counter, leaving Ami to her
thoughts.
*****
Three hours later, Ami had plowed halfway through her book, gotten tired
of reading, gone swimming, gone jogging, and cleaned her room. And now
she was about ready to climb the walls using her hair.
Her mother wouldn't be home for four more hours. There wasn't even
anything on TV that wasn't wretched. She'd tried studying, but her heart
wasn't in it.
Then the phone rang. She ran over to it and answered. "Hello?"
"Yeah, I'm trying to do my homework, and it's kicking my butt," Minako
said. "Can you help me?"
"Sure," Ami said. "What's the problem?"
"Can I come over and show you? Math is just crushing me all over."
Ami frowned. "Mother said..."
"Well, just taking this call breaks that, right?"
Ami winced. "Did you have to put it that way?"
"C'mon, it's homework. Your mother loves homework, right? And it makes
you smarter by thinking about it, right? And I'm gonna DIE if you don't
help me!" Minako began to wheedle.
"Well...okay, but we have to get you out of here before Mother gets
home."
"I love you! You're a lifesaver! Be right over!" Minako hung up.
Ami felt a mixture of guilt and relief, but shoved the guilt aside by
telling herself that it would help her practice her math. In fact, she'd
done that homework so long go, a review would do her good. Yes, it would,
she decided.
*****
Helping Minako with homework without doing it for her was a skill Ami had
perfected long ago. Much to her surprise, though, Minako had dispensed
with the usual rituals of trying to talk about other things, 'losing' her
pencil, doodling instead of listening to Ami talk. Instead, she had come
in with all the problems already done. Already done wrong, which was why
she needed help. Ami had pointed out errors, and Minako had picked up on
it quickly, and now she was finishing off the last few herself.
"You're really working hard," Ami said.
Minako grimaced. "You don't have to sound so surprised."
"Well, normally..."
"I know, I know. Normally, I'm a lousy student. But I told my parents
I'd do better, so I will. If it kills me, and it probably will. And I
still don't know where the hell Steven ran off to." She sighed, began to
doodle, and scratched it out. "Athena tried to help me with my studies,
back when I was Inanna, but I always drove her nuts being even less
focused than her. I could never figure out how she could do so well, when
I NEVER saw her study. Until I figured out her secret."
Ami blinked, and tried to think of what Minako meant, dredging up Athena
memories. There were too many of them, though, for her to be sure what
Minako meant. "Secret?"
"Remember her elf friend, Dia?"
Ami shuddered. "Do I have to?"
"Dia had some little hideaway where time was like twenty times faster
than on the moon. So she'd go run off with Dia every so often and do all
her studying there, then come back and act like she didn't need to study
at all."
Ami boggled. "She and Dia were study buddies?"
"Well, I think they were having mad passionate sex too, but yes. She
always claimed Dia was very intelligent, although Dia always struck me as
well...I mean, I enjoyed sex, and I still enjoy sex, but even as an Elf,
I'm not like constantly on the prowl for my next bed partner." She
paused. "At least I'm trying not to be. Even when I start thinking about
things like that philosophy argument." She blushed.
Ami blinked. "What philo..." And then the memory rushed over her.
Athena and Inanna had spent several hours arguing philosophy, much to the
surprise of both of them. Especially to Athena's surprise, as Inanna had
argued far more cogently for free will than Athena had expected. And
then, Inanna had crowned her argument by saying, "For example, nothing
made me do this except that I wanted to do it. Because I care about you."
And then she had leaned over and kissed Athena on the lips.
They'd made love before, but it had always been with their male lovers as
well, four bodies piled together in a variety of ways. Athena had
returned the kiss passionately at first, and then she'd suddenly looked
fearful, gotten up, and run away. The next day, Athena had said nothing
of it, and Inanna had been afraid to press the issue again.
They both looked at each other as the tides of memory ebbed, Minako
wondering why Athena had run away. And Ami because she knew. Athena had
been afraid to really fully give her heart to anyone, for she'd seen 'true
love' go bad too many times, and seen too many married couples hurt each
other. And so she could never let herself take her love affairs too
seriously. Until Zoicite. And until...
Ami gulped. "She was afraid...afraid something would go wrong, and she'd
lose you. That it would all unravel. I can hardly imagine how she ever
got the courage to let Zoicite into her heart, and..." Her heart was
beating faster, for suddenly, she was aware of how beautiful Minako really
was. She could see Inanna in Minako, and she understood why Athena had
loved her, and why she had never been able to completely admit it.
And now she could feel Athena straining to be free, feel the memory of
love and desire generating what was definitely desire, and might be love,
or perhaps just a desperate need for someone, to connect to someone, to
forget her boredom and escape to a better place for a little while.
No, I have a boyfriend, she told herself. I'm not going to do anything
crazy with Minako, she thought. Especially not now. She could feel
herself start to get aroused, so she thought about math. "Got any more
problems?" she asked.
Minako blinked, then turned to her homework, blushing more. "See if you
can figure this one out," she said.
Ami gradually relaxed as they continued working through the problems.
Not too much longer, they were done with the homework, and Minako got out
of her chair and danced around.
"Woo woo! Minako wins!" She made a V for victory sign with her fingers.
Ami laughed. "I wish I felt that triumphant every time I finished an
assignment."
"I'm sure you would if it was as hard for you as it is for me," Minako
said. "And I think we set a speed record."
Ami checked her watch. "Well, it's about time for dinner. Mother said
she would pick herself up dinner on the way home, so I don't have to wait
for her. Want to stay and eat with me?"
"Sure!" Minako said. The phone rang. "I'll get it!" she said.
"No, I'd better," Ami said.
She quickly got the phone. "Hello, Mizuno household," she said.
It was Steven. "Is Mina there? And do I really want to talk to her or
should I go hide?"
"She's here," Ami said. "Mina, phone for you."
She passed the phone to Minako, then said, "I'll go start cooking,"
leaving Minako to eat Steven's head in her absence.
Minako came bouncing in as Ami was busily mixing the sauce for the pasta
she'd decided to make. "Hey, can I help? And you'd better make some
extra...I invited Steven to come too."
Ami's danger sense immediately went off, and she winced. "I really
shouldn't have too many people over...I mean, I really shouldn't have
anyone over at all, or Mother's going to get mad if she finds out," she
said weakly, despite knowing she'd already broken her mother's commands.
"In for a cent, out for a mile," Minako replied, leaving Ami to wonder if
Minako had a random phrase generator in her head. "If you're going to get
in trouble anyway, best to make it worth it, right?"
"But I don't WANT to get in trouble!" Ami protested.
"You don't? I thought you said I could come over so we could defy your
mother together," Minako said in surprise, then struck a 'heroic' pose.
"Brave companions riding boldly into the mouth of the five hundred cannons
of Baklava! Boldly rode the five hundred and..." She paused. "No, wait,
I got something mixed up here...How many people in the light brigade?"
"Didn't they all die?" Ami asked.
"Umm...well...not ALL of them," Minako said. She looked at the sauce.
"Can I help?"
Well, we still have several hours, Ami thought. And there's no way to
contact Steven to tell him not to come. I just have to not do this again,
she thought. "You can set the table," she said.
"But cooking is more fun!" Minako protested.
"Table, now," Ami ordered, laughing a little. "I don't want us to be
still pumping Steven's stomach when Mother gets home."
Minako stuck out her tongue and went to set the table.
*****
How do I get into these things, Ami asked herself as she and Minako and
Steven and Ryo sat at the table and ate spaghetti. I wonder if Minako
planned this, or if she just sort of stumbled into it. And why didn't I
try to stop her?
Because I didn't really want to, she answered herself. This is a lot
more fun than the last few days have been. Her anxiety and inability to
concentrate had faded, and she felt a lot better. Unfortunately, now she
had a new source of anxiety, but she'd have to cross that bridge when it
burned under her.
"So where were you, Steven?" she asked him.
"Ryo asked me to give him a ride to go hunting for some special film he
wanted, and it took forever," Steven said.
"Well, my usual place was out, and the backup was out, and finally we
tracked some down, but it cost us an extra hour and a half," Ryo said.
"So your Mom's finally backed down?" he asked Ami.
Minako and Ami both froze like deer in headlights, and Ami turned to
Minako. "Did you tell them that?"
"I...uh...Steven said he thought it wasn't a good idea to have a little
dinner party here while your Mom was still forbidding you to see any of
us, and I...uh..." A bead of sweat began to roll down Minako's brow.
"You said Ami's mother had given her approval!"
"Well, she didn't explicitly tell Ami not to have a dinner party here
today while she's gone..." Minako protested, then sagged. "Okay, I
shouldn't have done this. Especially since Ami's the one who will get in
trouble, but it's my fault." She turned to Ami. "I'm REALLY sorry. I
just...I'm missing you and Usagi and everyone and we haven't done a double
date in a while and...I guess trying to talk you into sneaking out to go
dancing would be a bad thing, huh?" she concluded weakly.
Ami felt sorely tempted to say yes, but she focused her will. Any open
defiance of her mother would guarantee this would drag out even longer.
"No, I can't do that. I shouldn't even do this."
Ryo's eyes suddenly widened. "What time is it?"
"It's nearly six," Ami said.
"Your mother will be walking in the door at..." he began.
Then the roar of a car came from the driveway.
"Tell me you walked here, Steven," Minako said faintly. "We can flee out
the back door."
"Motorcycle," he said. "Want us to run anyway, Ami?" Steven asked.
"Best I just take my punishment and be honest about it," Ami said,
summoning up every ounce of responsibility she had, and rising to meet her
mother at the door. "She's probably going to call your parents and ask
them to punish you, Minako."
"My parents think your Mom is a fruitcake for how she's acting. They'll
probably raise my allowance for this," Minako said. "Why don't you just
come live with us?"
"I can't do that," Ami said on her way to the door. She thought for a
moment. "Best eat fast, so your food won't go to waste."
Her mother had already come in the door when she arrived. "Ami, do you
know where this motorcycle came from?" she asked. Her voice was calm, and
for a moment, Ami wondered if her mother was being cagey or if she really
had no idea where it could have come from.
Just be honest, Ami thought. "It's Steven's motorcycle. I ran into
Minako at the book store, and I didn't want to eat by myself, so I invited
her over to have dinner with me, and she ended up inviting Steven and Ryo
over as well. And I helped her with her homework." She was taking some
extra blame on herself, but she feared if she didn't, it would come off
sounding like she was covering something up.
Her mother's expression darkened. "I leave you alone for a few hours,
and you choose to defy me."
"I can't be a hermit any more," Ami said as calmly as she could. "I'm
not your slave, I'm your daughter. And there's only so much I can stand."
Through slitted eyes, her mother glared at her. "I just can't trust you
at all any more. You don't have any discipline at all any more. And it's
people like the Aino girl who've ruined it! How you stand to associate
with such a completely useless flunk out?"
Ami clenched her hands into fists, then made herself unclench them.
"Minako is a lousy student, but there's more to life than just studying!
Minako's risked her life and nearly died a hundred times trying to protect
ungrateful people like YOU!" She stabbed an accusing finger at her
mother. "She's one of the bravest, most caring people I know! Not that
you'd know anything about BRAVERY! Do you think I don't know being Sailor
Mercury is dangerous? I've been crucified, frozen in ice, burned,
stabbed, and tied up more times than I can count! But I know it's worth
the risk! I'm not a...a coward like you!"
"Bravery? Risking your life fighting monsters when you've got your whole
life ahead of you and throwing away everything else for it isn't bravery,
it's STUPIDITY! We don't pay for an army and police so that they can sit
around and eat donuts while WE fight evil! Let them take care of it! And
I REFUSE to let you risk getting killed!" Her mother was trembling as she
shouted, and now her voice dropped down several dozen decibels, almost to
a whisper. "Do you know how many children I've had to bury over the
years? That I did my best for, but they died anyway? Ami, I couldn't
stand to see you get hurt. And if you died...I'd die too." And then she
started to cry.
Ami stepped forward, feeling ashamed of herself, and clumsily hugged her
mother as her mother cried. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"I'm sorry too," her mother said, sobbing. "But it doesn't change that
you defied me. But...I just keep yelling at you, and I shouldn't, and I'm
sorry."
Now Ami began to cry as well, overwhelmed by her mother's sorrow and
frustration, letting some of her own out as well. While they did so,
Minako, Steven, and Ryo quietly slipped out, leaving mother and child to
take what little comfort they could from each other in a brief armistice
from their war.
*****
"dead scream." Purple energy blasted more of the gargoyles to ash. They
finally gave up their assault and peeled off. The junior Pluto sighed.
"Well, this was a waste of time."
Derith rubbed his sword clean with a cloth. "Well, it did prove this
would be a bad place to send Minako to."
"It's like every fast time area we find is full of homocidal maniac
monsters," the junior Pluto said, screwing up her nose. "Do they warp
creatures or something?"
"No, not really. We must just be having bad luck," he replied.
"Although I suppose a lot of such places are probably hoarded by people
who want to exploit their properties."
"But even 'Happy Valley' was full of rampaging creatures," the junior
Pluto said, frowning. "There hasn't been a monster invasion, has there?"
"Well, no one at Caer Dwyffed seemed to think anything unusual was going
on," he said, pursing his lips. "But it won't hurt to keep our eyes
open."
She nodded. "I have a bad feeling."
*****
By the next evening, Ami felt ready to chew off her own leg. Her mother
had kept checking up on her every five minutes, and when she'd gone to the
bathroom, her mother had briefly panicked, apparently thinking she must
have slipped out the window and leaped down to the backyard or something.
Ami was tired of doing homework without interruption except for meals,
bathroom breaks, and a round of swimming in the afternoon. She'd
completely finished her history book, and now she was close to finishing
off her math textbook as well. In fact, she would have already finished
it, except that she couldn't concentrate with her mother periodically
checking on her; just as she started to really get her brain moving, her
mother would stick her head in the door and expect acknowledgment of her
existence.
Now her mother came storming up the stairs, and Ami wondered what could
have made her angry. She soon found out.
"I called the Aino parents, and...they laughed at me!" her mother
proclaimed.
Ami resisted the impulse to toss a coin to her mother so she could call
someone who cared. "Her parents think you're insane."
"I am not insane! I'm just trying to protect you and get your life back
on track!" She shifted about with the restlessness of someone who wanted
a target to turn their wrath loose on, but didn't have one.
"I can't do anything about Minako's parents, and I can't focus on my
homework like this," Ami said curtly. "Maybe you should call Usagi's
parents and give them some advice on how to get Usagi to study."
"Good idea," her mother said. "They understand, at least." And then she
was gone.
I'm sorry, Usagi, Ami thought. I shouldn't fob Mother off on you like
that, but I just...
Her pencil broke in her hands. I can't stand this constant surveillance.
I can't stand doing nothing but homework any more. I just can't, she
thought. But I have to.
And then she began to cry.
*****
"MOON KICK!" Sailor Moon flew feet first at her target. Unfortunately,
her target was Jupiter, who stepped out of the way and brought her staff
around to paddle Sailor Moon in the butt, knocking her into a tree. "Hey,
that's cheating!" Sailor Moon yelped.
Her parents watched from the Tomoe porch, both looking rather concerned.
"She's not very good," her father said flatly.
"Well, usually she doesn't get into hand to hand combat," Professor Tomoe
explained. "But she really can't refine her main attack much more than
she already has."
"Don't you worry about your daughter?" Izuko asked Tomoe.
As she asked this, Venus and Saturn were sparring; Venus had borrowed
Jupiter's Hackmaster, so she and Saturn could spar with weapons. Deadly
blades whirred past each other, mere inches away from causing potentially
fatal wounds. Parias stood nearby, giving advice and instructions.
"My daughter could annihilate the entire self-defense force if she felt
the need to do so," Tomoe replied, sighing. "I'd like to protect her, but
I'm afraid she's rather better at protecting herself than I am at
protecting her."
"Put some force into it!" Go shouted to Uranus. "Kick her ass! I've got
a pile of catnip riding on this!"
Uranus and Neptune, bereft of the partners Serenity had assigned them,
were sparring with each other, but neither was trying very hard today, as
both were lost in their own thoughts. Uranus aimed a feeble punch, only
to have it easily blocked by Neptune, whose return kick was a miserable
failure.
Benten turned to Go. "Perhaps we should bite them on the leg to give
them a little fighting spirit."
"That would only direct their fighting spirit at US."
"She just doesn't seem ready for a real fight to me," Kenji said as
Jupiter grabbed Sailor Moon by her hair and yanked her off her feet.
Ikuko winced. "That has to hurt."
Sailor Moon yelped in affirmation, then whacked Jupiter in the stomach
with her Spiral Moon Heart Rod.
"Yeah! Go for the knees!" Kenji shouted.
Jupiter lost her grip, fell down, then recovered and tackled Sailor Moon.
"Make up your mind, dear," Ikuko said, still sounding worried.
"I...uh...ah hahah." Kenji laughed nervously. "I just think..."
"You might want to keep in mind that Jupiter is one of the two best of
the Sailors in hand to hand combat. Judging this by your daughter
sparring with her would be like thinking someone was a poor scientist
because they didn't have a Nobel Prize," Tomoe said.
Sailor Moon tumbled back, then leveled her rod at Jupiter. "SPIRAL
MOON...oof!" Jupiter was on her again, kicking her back. "Give me a
chance to..." she began as she tumbled.
"JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!" Jupiter leveled her staff at Sailor Moon, and a
storm of oak leaves erupted from it, a great spiraling cone which hurled
Sailor Moon further back, knocking her Spiral Heart Moon Rod out of her
hands and into the lower branches of a tree. Jupiter turned and jumped to
grab the Rod out of the tree, only to have Sailor Moon take off her tiara
and hurl it at it. It nailed Jupiter in the rear, sending her sprawling,
then bounced off the tree, and back to Sailor Moon.
"Yeah! Show her who's boss!" Kenji shouted.
Ikuko sighed, looking embarrassed. "Kenji, this isn't ladies'
wrestling."
He laughed nervously. "Yes, yes."
Sailor Moon dove for her rod, only to end up with Jupiter on top of her.
"Leggo!"
"Nope!" Jupiter said, grabbing her legs and standing up. "Give up?"
Sailor Moon looked thoughtful for a moment, then poked her rod into
Jupiter's stomach. "Bang."
Jupiter looked down at it, and grinned. "Okay, I get the point," she
said. "I didn't hurt you too much with the oak attack, did I?"
"Well, I started it," Sailor Moon said ruefully. "Umm...can you put me
down?"
"Needs more practice," Kenji concluded.
His wife nodded. "Yes, she does."
"She should have blown Jupiter away at that point."
Izuko sighed. This is going to be a long afternoon, she thought.
*****
Later, Minako bounced up and down excitedly as Hime-chan dismounted from
Bob. "Well, did you find a good place?"
She shook her head sighing. "Monsters, monsters everywhere. You did
remember to cover for me so my parents don't find out I'm doing this?" she
asked Minako.
"Yep. Luckily, your sister got sick and they canceled Sunday dinner,
which could have been a bit tricky."
"I was pretty sure that would happen, but..." Himeko shook her head.
"This ended up a big waste of time."
Derith frowned. "Something strange is going on. I'm going to be looking
into it, and next weekend, I'll take Hime-chan back for another look."
"I should have come with you," Hotaru said. "If there were monsters
everywhere."
"Mostly nuisance creatures," Bob said. "Hardly a threat to someone like
me."
"But Derith could have gotten hurt!"
"Well, if you want to be technical..."
Derith sighed. "Ha ha ha. Anyway, don't worry about me. I'll be fine.
Mostly I'm just going to go talk to some people I know. But we'll find
you a place soon, Minako."
"Well, thanks for trying, anyway," Minako replied.
"You're welcome." Better tell my parents so we can reschedule again.
This will likely delay us, she thought.
*****
Daichi ambled along with Himeko, idly juggling a soccer ball as he
walked. "Anyway, so I have to do this stupid lab thing tonight, because
my lab partner has to go home tomorrow and..."
They were interrupted by Hikaru, who waltzed up to them. To their
surprise, she'd dyed her hair a bright red in color. "How do I look,
Daichi?" she asked. "I heard that..."
Himeko stared at her, then gave a strangled cry and ran off.
Hikaru blinked. "It doesn't look THAT bad, does it?"
Daichi sighed. "It's a long story I can't tell you." Then he turned and
ran off after Himeko.
Maybe I should have tried being blonde instead, she thought.
*****
"C'mon, get a grip on yourself," Daichi urged Himeko once he caught up
with her. "You can't spend the rest of your life feeling guilty over
this."
"I killed her," Himeko said dully.
"From what you told me, it didn't sound like you had much of a choice,"
Daichi said. He was feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. "And it was
just a weird dreamworld place anyway, right?"
She turned and embraced him, leaning against him. "I just...I need to
atone, but I don't know how. There's not even anyone to apologize to or
anything, and..." She sighed, coming close to crying. "How can you even
stand to hold me when I'm a..."
"You're not a killer," Daichi said. "She was trying to kill you, and you
fought back." He sighed. "Maybe you should talk to my dad. He's a cop.
He's had to shoot people before and..."
"My parents are losing it enough over this without me telling your father
something he'll feel he has to tell them," Himeko said, sitting down on
one of the many benches which dotted the campus. Daichi sat down next to
her. "I don't know what to do," she said.
"Me neither."
"So how did your Dad take all this anyway?" Himeko asked.
"He's trying to pretend he dreamed the whole thing. Or that your parents
were joking when they called him. I dunno what he's gonna think." Daichi
leaned back and stared at the sky.
Himeko sighed. "Mom and Dad are still all shook up. And angry I didn't
tell them. If they knew I'd run off to Avalon with Derith and all..."
She sighed. "I just can't quit this. Though right now, I really wish I
could. I just want to pretend I'm a normal girl and..."
"Oh, you've never been normal," Daichi said.
"Thanks a lot, Daichi."
"C'mon, let's go play a little one on one soccer. It'll make you feel
better," he said, getting up.
"I don't feel like playing," she said.
"You just think you're going lose," he said.
She leaped up. "The day I lose to YOU at soccer is the day I marry
Hikaru!" She knew better than this, but her pride was stung.
"Wedding bells are ringing." He grinned.
She stole the soccer ball and ran with it. "Try and stop me!"
He ran after her laughing. Much better, he thought. This should get her
mind off things.
*****
The next week dragged by for Ami as if it had small mountains tied to its
feet. Finally, on Saturday, Ami had the surprise of being woken from her
sleep by the maid, who normally came in on Mondays. "Hello, Ami-chan,"
she said. "Best rise and shine. It's already nine."
"I slept that late?" she asked in surprise, getting up. "What brings you
here today, Rumi-san?"
"Your mother asked me to switch to Saturdays," Rumi said. "I was
supposed to make sure you got up by eight, but you looked so peaceful as
you slept, I couldn't bear to do it. Anyway, I made you some breakfast,
so you'd better hurry before it gets cold."
As Ami ate her breakfast, it sank in why her mother had gotten Rumi to
switch to Saturdays...so she could keep an eye on Ami on the day Ami had
the most free time but her mother worked. Her stomach knotted, spoiling
her enjoyment of her breakfast.
She trudged back to her room once breakfast was over. Back to the cotton
fields, she thought gloomily.
*****
"Miss Mizuno, your turn to read the next paragraph of the homework
translation," Haohmaru-sensei said. He got a lot of video game jokes at
his expense, but he just laughed at such. He wasn't a very good English
teacher, in Ami's opinion, but he did at least try harder than most of the
ones she'd seen. They did more than simply translate written materials,
although not a lot more. But right now, that was what they were doing.
Ami realized to her embarrassment that she'd taken the wrong sheets of
paper from her stack of already done translations; this assignment
wouldn't be due for at least a week. So, she improvised by stumbling
through it as best she could, which was actually fairly easy. Minako and
Manami were the only people she knew were better than her at English, not
counting adults.
Haohmaru-sensei nodded and moved on, but when the bell rang and she got
ready to go, he stopped her. "Is something wrong, Miss Mizuno?" he asked
in English, apparently counting on no one else being fluent enough to
overhear. "You've been looking miserable ever since two weeks ago, and
now this...not that your performance isn't better than anyone else in the
class. I'm just concerned."
"I'm having family problems," she said. "I really shouldn't talk about
it."
He nodded. "I understand. I simply do not like to see my students
suffer."
She smiled at him. "Thank you, sensei. I will do better next time."
"Have you ever thought about going into translating for a living?
There's a lot of demand in international business for people fluent in
several languages, and I think you have a knack. I'd been meaning to talk
to you about this, and while I have you..."
She laughed a little. "I plan to be a doctor, sensei."
"That's good," he said. "It's a lot of work, but I think you'll do well.
Well, I'd better let you get to your next class."
Students were streaming past them into the room.
"Thank you for your concern, sensei!" Ami said, then turned and sprinted
for the gym, as she had P.E. next.
*****
Minako and Naru were both in her P.E. class, they were doing soccer.
While Naru ended up on the other team, Minako was with Ami during the
soccer game which occupied most of the period. By the end of the game,
she noticed Minako was limping a bit and favoring her left leg.
Afterwards, as they all headed back to the showers to get clean before
lunch, Ami fell in with her. "What happened to your leg this weekend?"
"Youma tried to break it. Hotaru took his head off. But he did hurt
it," she said. "Saturn pretty much put me back together again, but I've
still got a little bit of pain in this leg. That was Friday night."
Ami's eyes widened. "How many youma?"
"It was the usual 'dance club turned into youma factory' thing," Minako
said. "So most of them were pretty wimpy youma. A few dozen. We beat
them, but..." She sighed. "We coulda used you and Naru and Usagi and
Himeko. Rei finally convinced Grandpa to let her come back to us, or we'd
have really gotten our butts wiped and diapered."
Naru, who'd joined them, sighed. "I'm sorry, but Mom is just...I spend
most of my time trying to calm her down. She's been really shook up by
this. Is your mom still riding you hard, Ami?"
"Yes," she said, and felt guilty. Her friends had gotten hurt because
she couldn't help them. "Nobody else got hurt, did they?"
"Uranus got pinned under the sound equipment and sprained her ankle.
Nothing too horrible, though. Some cuts and scrapes and burns and
whatnot. Nothing Saturn couldn't fix for us, luckily."
Ami felt more knives of guilt as they headed into the dressing room to
strip for the showers. We can't fight two enemies with only half our
strength, she thought. We can't. I have to do something...but what? What
can I do? She didn't know.
*****
Ami tried to sleep, but she couldn't. The darkness and her own
exhaustion taunted her. There has to be something I can do for them
without getting in trouble, she thought. And some way to get Mother to
back down. But there wasn't, that she could see. She was lonely and
tired and frustrated and feeling guilty, and she hated it.
[Do you have any ideas, Athena?] she tried asking her past self. But
Athena was silent. In fact, Athena had largely been silent for at least a
week, except for the occasional thought of frustration which Ami suspected
was just her own grumbling anyway.
[Please, say something, anything!] Ami begged, surprised to find herself
wanting Athena's presence. Even talking to herself was better than the
boredom and loneliness she felt, she realized.
But there was still no reply.
I finally get something I've been wanting, Ami thought, just when I don't
want it. She laughed bitterly, then went back to trying to sleep.
*****
Ami woke up, not sure when she'd actually gone to sleep, or how she'd
gotten turned around so that her feet were up on her pillow and her head
was buried under the sheets at the foot of the bed. She disentangled
herself, only to find the moon was shining in her window, and the clock
was steadily blinking 3:15 over and over.
We must have had a blackout, she thought groggily, and got out of bed.
Her door had a full mirror on the inside, and she paused to stare at her
bleary self. Much to her surprise, her shadowy reflection was wearing a
blue tank top that left her midriff bare and blue panties and nothing
else. And she could see someone in her bed, although just their feet from
this angle. She turned and stared at the bed, which had no one in it
unless you counted a stuffed dog which had fallen down off her shelf of
stuffed animals her father had given her over the years. She had one for
every year of her life.
Looking down at herself, she saw her dark blue pajamas, the ones she
remembered putting on before bed. Looking up at her reflection, though,
she saw the blue tank top and panties, but not the pajamas. She rubbed
her eyes, and so did her reflection. The feet on the bed stirred
slightly, and her reflection gave her a wry smile.
Ami put her hand to the mirror, then realized she must be dreaming as her
finger tips touched those of her reflection and met warm flesh instead of
cold glass. And then it struck her...I bet Athena would sleep like that
if she lived now, Ami thought.
"Yes, I would," Athena said. "Don't you find those pajamas confining?"
"You've never tried to sleep through Mother's arctic blast air
conditioning," Ami replied. "It may be warm over in your part of
dreamland, but you'd freeze over here." She glanced over at the bed.
"And who am I dreaming is with you?"
Athena smiled impishly. "Who would you like it to be?"
"I don't have time for games. I need to reset my alarm clock, which
means checking the time."
As Ami reached for the doorknob, however, Athena caught her hand. "Now,
now, this is a dream. So your alarm clock isn't really dead. After all,
I couldn't do this while you were awake, now could I?"
Ami stared down at the hand sticking out of the mirror. "How did you..."
"I am as real as you here," Athena said softly.
"Where have you been?" Ami asked. "I mean...ummm..."
Athena laughed gently. "So lonely that talking to yourself sounds good?"
Ami blushed.
"You have problems enough without me, and if you will not listen, there is
no point in me speaking," Athena said more seriously. "I'll just go back
to taking solace with Ryo-kun, and leave you to your work."
Ami's eyes widened. "You're doing what?"
"I've been enjoying all your fantasies about him." She smiled wickedly.
"You have a very vivid imagination in all the right places, even if you
usually forget these dreams when you wake up."
Faintly, she heard Ryo's voice, "Ami, are you talking to the door?" It
was coming out of the mirror.
"I'll be back in a moment, Ryo-kun," Athena said. "Just having a chat
with my reflection."
"You're MY reflection!" Ami said. "And he's my boyfriend."
"Oh, but I am you, right? So it doesn't matter which one of us is with
him." Athena let go of Ami's wrist. "Go ahead and reset your alarm
clock, if you really want to wake up and go to school so you can come home
and study. I'll go have fun until you want me."
Now Ami grabbed Athena's hand. "I don't have a choice! If I defy Mother
again, she'll just get more stubborn."
"Do you think you can put up with this until you finish high school and
college?" Athena asked. "Or that she's ever going to back down?"
Ami stared at the ground. "No. I don't think I'll keep my sanity so
long."
"Then you have to do something about it. Don't you feel like you're going
to explode?"
Ami nodded.
"Then why don't you come on over to my side and let off a little stress?
After all, it's just a dream, and your mother can't hold you responsible
for your dreams."
Ami nodded. Yes, it was just a dream. And in her dreams, she could do
anything she wanted to. She stepped forward, and cold air washed over
her.
She shivered at the sensation, then shivered again at how aroused she
suddenly felt. She looked down at herself, and realized she was wearing
just the blue tank top and panties she'd seen her reflection wearing. Her
brain swum as she tried to remember why she would have been dressed
differently from her reflection.
She looked in the mirror, and saw it showed a girl wearing dark blue
pajamas, alone in an empty room, looking tired and frustrated. Poor girl,
she thought. I'm glad I don't have to be alone tonight.
She turned away from the mirror and walked over to the bed, where Ryo had
rolled over, apparently either asleep or faking it. I'll have to fix
THAT, she thought, and smiled very broadly. Some problems were fun to
solve.
*****
Ami awoke groggily from the middle of a very ecchi dream as her alarm
went off, and for a few minutes felt confused as to where her boyfriend
had gone and how she'd gotten into her blue pajamas. She staggered out of
bed, got into her school uniform, stumbled downstairs, got breakfast, and
headed off to school.
She continued to feel slightly disoriented through the entire morning;
everything just seemed slightly out of whack, and her uniform felt oddly
rough. She felt like she was running on autopilot, just drifting through
her day.
At least until after P.E., when they were all showering to get clean
before lunch, during which she suddenly caught herself staring at Minako's
chest. That snapped her out of her trance, and she quickly turned to look
elsewhere, only to find, for obvious reasons, that there were naked women
everywhere she looked. She started to blush, trying to control the
thoughts racing through her head.
The hot steam of the showers didn't help, and she finally swooned.
*****
Ami woke up, finding it hard to believe she'd actually fainted, lying on
a bed in the nurse's office. She sat up and saw Hikaru Momonochi, the
school nurse, a tall, skinny man who always looked on the verge of
collapse, making coffee, while Minako sat nearby on a chair, reading a
book. "How long have I been passed out?" Ami asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Maybe fifteen minutes," Minako said. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Ami said.
"It looks to me like you didn't get enough sleep last night, and your
body decided to get a little rude about it," Momonochi said, bringing Ami
a cup of coffee. "Have you been getting enough sleep?"
"Not last night," Ami said.
"Well, that..." The phone rang. "Sorry, I have to answer that," he
said.
While he was on the phone, Minako asked, "Did you stay up too late
studying?"
"No, I was too stressed out to study," Ami said. "And then...hey, is
that a bandage on your arm?"
Minako sighed. "Poison ivy. Keeps me from scratching."
Ami glanced over at the nurse, and Minako traced her sailor sign on her
palm when Ami looked back. Ami nodded.
"I'll be right back," Momonochi said. "Someone's taken a soccer ball to
the head, and they need me. Do you feel ready to go to lunch, Mizuno-
san?"
"I'll be fine," she said.
"Okay." And then he was gone with a small black doctor's bag clutched in
his hands.
"You sure you're okay, Ami?" Minako asked. "You were turning red in the
shower, like you were overheating or something." She came over and sat
down on the bed by Ami.
Ami felt her pulse suddenly speed up, and she started trying to not think
about how close Minako was to her. This included not looking directly at
Minako. "I'd just been groggy all morning. Maybe I'm coming down with
something."
"Ami, you're a lousy liar," Minako said. "If you can't look at someone
when you're lying, it gives it away."
Ami began to flush again. "I...I shouldn't talk about it."
Minako took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Okay, I won't push you.
It's probably none of my business." She rose off the bed, still holding
Ami's hand. "Ryo's probably waiting for you, and you still haven't had
lunch. Once you have some food in you, you won't feel the urge to faint."
Ami felt incredibly self-conscious with Minako holding her hand as they
walked out into the hallway, and at the same time embarrassed about
enjoying Minako holding her hand. Just because Athena and Inanna
sometimes...did stuff, doesn't mean we have to. Or that her holding my
hand means anything except her being worried about me. And then she
thought about the night she'd joked about a foursome and Minako had seemed
pretty eager to do it. It was probably just Minako's new elf nature
messing with her head, but...
What if it wasn't? What if Minako did want to start something? Maybe
she does like me that way, Ami thought. I don't like her like that, she
thought. But then the memory of what had happened in the shower came back
to her. Her heartbeat sped up more, and she stumbled, then managed to
trip over her own feet, but Minako caught her.
"Ami, maybe we'd better take you back to lie down," she said, sounding
worried.
"I'm just...I just..." She closed her eyes and tried to still her raging
mental waters. "Thank you for being willing to stay with me while I was
knocked out," she said.
"Hey, that's what friends are for," Minako replied. "Naru stayed a few
minutes too, but she had to go see a teacher about some assignment. You
sure you're ready to go eat and go back to class?"
"I just can't take much more of this," Ami said. "Mother is just making
me go crazy."
"You need some good loving," Minako said. "C'mon, I'll take you to Ryo
and he can help you put yourself back together. Unless you'd rather I
take you back to my room and do it myself." She winked at Ami. "Elves do
it in the...aargh, I can't think of a good joke. In the woods? No, that
isn't funny. Umm..."
Ami mumbled, "I'm half tempted to ask you and Ryo to both go back to your
room with me."
Minako looked thoughtful. "I'd need to get Steven's permission
first...how about if we wait until after school, and then we can have four
people, which would be more fun anyway?"
Ami's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
"Are you?" Minako asked, her lips quirking into an impish smile.
She's teasing me, Ami thought. "I can't stay after school, or I'll get
in trouble." Might as well tease her back. "Otherwise, I'd go for it."
"Hmm...if we miss class, though, someone will come looking for us..."
Minako scratched her head. "It's a quandary, but I have a few ideas. But
let's get you fed and boyfriended before you fall down again! RUN! RUN,
AMI, RUN!" she shouted, then took off dragging Ami along after her.
Ami laughed as she ran after Minako. You can be such a nut, she thought.
*****
The next day at lunch, Ryo sat on the bench, waiting for Ami, and was
surprised when she suddenly wrapped her arms around him from behind and
kissed his neck. He jumped, managing to nearly spill his lunch on
himself. "Careful!"
She giggled. "Didn't you foresee that, Ryo-kun?"
He shook his head. "There's no real pattern to it. Sometimes it's big
things, sometimes small."
Moving round him, she sat down by him and unwrapped her bento box. "Uh
oh," she said.
"Uh oh?" he asked.
"I'm pretty sure this isn't what I made this morning...I must have
someone else's somehow." Ami frowned. "But it had the same wrapping..."
She shook her head. "How are you today?"
"I'm fine," he said. "I miss seeing you in the evenings, though."
She leaned against him. "I'd be happy just to be able to hold you in my
arms at night. It gets really lonely. I don't suppose...maybe if we ate
fast enough...?" She sounded nervous now, which made him feel a little
better, as he'd started to wonder if she was having an Athena attack
again.
He'd never thought of that. "Well, we'd probably have to skip lunch,
really, but..." he gulped. "We could see if my room is empty."
She stood up, taking his arm after she quickly wrapped up her lunch.
"Let's see."
*****
His nervous tension was greatly reduced afterwards, and he felt silly for
having been afraid like he had been about losing her. And then it struck
him. "Didn't you promise your mother you wouldn't do this? I mean...I'm
glad we did, but..."
She sighed. "I just had reached the point where I had to either do
something stupid with you, or with someone else, which would have been
more stupid. I shouldn't have done this, but I just...I just wish I
didn't have to leave you. I wish I could be with you whenever I want to,
that..." She sat up. "I love you, Ryo-kun. I just wish I didn't have to
drag you into my troubles."
The bell for class began to ring. "Ack!" Ryo said.
Ami started to run for the door. "We have to hurry!"
"We're both still naked!" he pointed out.
She looked down at herself. "My uniform! Where's my uniform?"
Ryo pulled it off the floor, then started getting dressed. "Well, now we
know this isn't the best time for this."
"And now I am going to get you in trouble," she said, sighing as she
pulled on her clothing.
"It's worth it," he said. "You're worth all the trouble in the world to
me."
*****
Setsuna was about to leave, when she realized she needed to stay. She
sat back down just before Ryo ran in. "Are you here?" he asked.
"Yes," she said. "So you want to know about who you were in the Silver
Millenium."
He nodded. "I know one of the Seven Shadows slept inside me...but was
that me, or was it just put there by Serenity when she defeated them? But
you're going to tell me you can't say because of oaths you swore."
She smiled a little. "Vision?"
"That's one of your three standard answers to everything," he replied.
Now, she laughed. "I can tell you that you had little direct personal
interaction with any of us but me during the Silver Millennium, and that
you had no past romantic relationships with any of us. Nor is there some
destined person from that time waiting for you."
"Are Ami and I destined to be together?" he asked.
"Some love is destined. But most love is painstakingly assembled by two
fumbling hearts, trying to beat in unison," she replied. "Your love is
not a spoke upon which destiny turns, and thus you are free to win or lose
in love as your own hearts determine. It is possible that you will break
up, and possible that you will one day be married and have cute genius
children who see the future. But the future is in your hands."
This was somewhat reassuring. "I've just been worried about everything.
And I haven't had any useful visions. I wish I could just turn them on
and off when I need them, but..."
"I have neglected to aid you in perfecting your abilities, in part
because only I could try to train you in them, and I have been busy with
my apprentice. I must rectify this, if you are interested."
Ryo's eyes widened. "Training?"
"While you will never be a warrior like myself, it would be best for you
to learn to gain control over your abilities and a better understanding of
them. As for your past life, once you gain enough control over your
abilities, you'll be able to unlock your own mental block that keeps you
from knowing. Which is what you intended when you sealed that knowledge
away from yourself. Fair enough?"
He nodded. "If that's all I can get, then I'll work with that. When do
we start?"
"Since you currently have Friday evenings free, how about then?"
"Sounds good to me," he replied, then sighed. "I wish Ami's mother would
stop trying to make her study herself to death."
"So do I, but she now distrusts me enough it is best that I do not
intervene. It will be up to you to help her through this, for I fear she
is about to snap." Setsuna said this in such a calm manner that it
greatly irritated Ryo.
"How can you be so calm about this?" he demanded. "She's being driven
nuts, and..."
"So why haven't you done anything about it?" Setsuna asked. "She is your
girlfriend, but you've pretty much sat back and done nothing."
"But I don't know what to do about it! Her mother won't listen to some
teenager. And even if I did..." The vision popped into his mind's eye.
"I just..." He took a deep breath, then said, "If two people loved each
other in a past life, does it mean they'll always fall in love again?"
"It certainly predisposes them to do so, but it also depends on a variety
of things. The problem, you see, is that some people change more than
others when reincarnated. If one or both changes a lot, then they are
unlikely to fall in love again. If they both remain largely the same,
then it is very likely. I assume you are worried about losing Ami to
someone?" She tapped a pencil against her desk. "To Minako."
"Are you reading my mind?" he asked nervously.
"Simply a process of elimination. While I will not pretend to know who
most of Athena's lovers were, there are only a few possibilities here. I
would know if one of them was present, but she is not. Zoicite is dead,
and so far as I know, likely to remain so. Dia has not been coming around
to the best of my knowledge. I suppose there's an infinitesimal chance
that Haruka would try something, but I think she'd be more likely to
seduce Steven than Ami. Which leaves Inanna, now Minako, by process of
elimination."
He nodded. "Well, given all the other romances of the Silver Millenium
that have come to life again..."
Setsuna looked thoughtful. "It's possible. Inanna and Minako are much
alike, especially since becoming an Elf seems to have shattered what
common sense she'd managed to gain in this life. Ami, on the other hand,
seemed to have learned from her mistakes as Athena. In some cases, she
perhaps learned her lesson too well. Unfortunately, she's been making
things difficult for herself ever since she learned what Athena was like."
"What do you mean?"
"The fundamental problem was that Ami reacted to all the disasters Athena
had brought down on herself by attempting to become completely different
in this life," Setsuna said. "Not consciously, of course, because she
couldn't remember that life. But the memories would have influenced her
decisions which shaped her into what she is now. And also, Ami has
something Athena never really had--a purpose in life. Athena, even after
becoming Sailor Mercury, never really quite knew what she was doing in the
long term. Being Sailor Mercury was not her choice. And so she drifted.
Ami, on the other hand, has purpose. She has a dream. And while her
parents fought as Athena's did, they were able to get free of each other,
which meant she continued to love and respect them, and they were able to
inspire her."
Setsuna paused. "Would you like some coffee? I feel the need to make
some."
"Yes, please," he said.
She got up, still talking as she went to work on the coffee. "If Ami had
never awakened to her past, she would likely have remained as she largely
was when you first met her, a shy, quiet girl determined to become a
doctor, very studious, self-disciplined and socially incompetent. She'd
channeled all of her other energies into that, and fairly successfully
repressed all of Athena's behavior patterns. And that would have been
that. But it didn't stay that way."
Setsuna paused, staring into the coffee can. "There should be more
coffee in here, I'm pretty sure." She sighed and poured the grounds into
the coffee maker with a scoop. "Most people never awaken to their past
selves; those selves simply remain part of their past, something they've
moved on from. Ami, however, has two problems. First of all, the process
of the senshi growing in power is based on them recovering their past
memories of how to use those powers. This is necessary because there is
no one to really properly train them. Himeko will thankfully be spared
this, as she has me to train her and no past life as a senshi. Now, when
the past and the present are largely the same, this is not a problem."
"But when the past self and present self are diametrical opposites, it
means you end up with your past self talking to each other and not
agreeing?" Ryo asked, seeing where Setsuna was going.
"Exactly." She set the coffee maker to running. "Although they are not
so diametrically opposite as Ami thinks they are. But because the Athena
in Ami's head reflects Ami's understanding of Athena as much as she does
the real Athena..." Setsuna shook her head as she came back and sat down.
"Athena certainly enjoyed sex and had as much of a desire for it as any
man. But she wasn't the madly rutting animal that Ami thinks she was.
So, she blames Athena for her own impulses. This lets her deny that she
is the one thinking those things. But Athena is only a part of Ami now.
Anything Athena tells her to do, is simply her talking to herself. She
has to accept her past, and then move on past it, in order to be free of
Athena. Part of that is realizing and accepting that some of those things
'Athena' tells her are what she actually wants to do, but feels she
shouldn't."
"Are you saying she ought to do what Athena tells her to do?" Ryo asked,
feeling a little confused.
"Not necessarily. If we followed every whim we have, we'd all act like
morons most of the time. But it's not healthy for her to split herself in
half like that. And Athena did have some good qualities which Ami
suppressed for a long time. Unfortunately, I fear that if Ami remains
under this pressure from her mother much longer, she'll rebel by giving
herself over to Athena completely. When being good fails, we often try
being bad instead."
Ryo nodded. "I don't know what I can do about it, though."
"I don't know either. But I think you're in a better position to deal
with it than I am. And if the dam does break, it's going to be up to you
to help her put herself back together. I suspect that once she blows off
all her steam, that will be the decisive point at which you'll need to
ensure that she doesn't permanently slide into...being simply Athena
reborn instead of Mizuno Ami. She's going to have some hard decisions to
make, and she'll need your help in making them."
"But you don't see any way to keep her dam from breaking?"
Setsuna sighed. "We are crippled by this, but the parents involved would
not listen to me, and were I to use force, all the roads I see are fraught
with disaster. We could make them forget, but sooner or later, they would
remember, and the remembering would make even more trouble. I must tend
to the battle against the Dark Kingdom and the Zodiac, and leave the
struggle with the parents to their children, who are more likely than me
to win such a battle, anyway. They have reason to trust and love their
children, but they have lost any trust in me."
Ryo nodded. "We were hoping we could do something nice for the next time
Ami goes to see her father. That'll give me a good chance to talk to Ami
and see if we can work anything out together."
Setsuna nodded, and her voice softened. "She will need you." The coffee
pot finally got moving on actually producing coffee at this point. "I
need a faster coffee pot."
"I need her too," Ryo said softly. Just hold on, Ami, he thought.
*****
"No, she can't come visit you," Miaka said into the phone to her ex-
husband. "Ami needs to get her discipline back, and goofing off with you
won't help that."
"Hey, I have visitation rights, you know!" he protested.
"One weekend a month, which you've already had. It's because of too much
coddling from you that she's gotten like this! And all the bad company
she drifted into because I was a fool and ignored her for too long. I
thought she was responsible enough to largely watch over herself, but I've
learned I was mistaken." The anger in her voice softened into regret. "I
let myself neglect her too much because of my work. It's no wonder she
turned to all these other things. And you filling her head with
fairytales didn't help!"
"Those monsters threatening our city are NOT fairytales! And a good
imagination is part of being mentally healthy!" he fired back, getting mad
himself. "You're the one being delusional, pretending you can keep Ami
safe by making her life miserable and not letting her do her part to
ensure we don't all end up as monster chow! Ami was doing just fine until
YOU decided to screw it all up!"
"I am doing my DUTY AS HER MOTHER! I'm not going to let her run off and
die being a soldier when she's just a child and not even trained properly!
These people have warped her! They've filled her head full of
superstitious nonsense about being a reincarnated magical warrior, they've
made her lose all her discipline, and they've led her down the primrose
path to teenage pregnancy!"
His eyes widened, unseen by Miaka. "She's pregnant?"
"Thankfully, no. But it's not for lack of trying. If I hadn't had her
on the pill, she probably would be pregnant." She gave a sigh of relief.
"I think I would have shaved my head if the test had come out positive."
He gave a sigh of relief as well. "Miaka, please, you can't push her so
hard, or she'll break. It's not like her grades have sagged at all."
"She's only seventh in her grade when she SHOULD be first!" Miaka said.
"And she's nearly died repeatedly! I will not lose another child! I
won't! Especially not my own daughter!" She tried to calm herself down.
"They drove her mad! She thinks her past life is talking to her! I
should have her seeing a psychiatrist, but I'm afraid she'd end up having
to be institutionalized, and that would wreck her career." She shuddered.
"I...do you think I should? She needs to be cured, but once you go
somewhere like that, it's a stigma you can never escape. And she seems
normal most of the time, but..."
"I don't think Ami is insane," Kensuke managed to say.
"I keep hoping they just brainwashed her into thinking that. Because if
we had to send her away..." She stifled the urge to cry. "My poor
daughter."
"But she may go mad if you keep pushing her."
"I am not to blame for her condition! I'm trying to help her!"
"You're a doctor, not a psychiatrist," he said. "Do you really know the
likely consequences of what you're doing?"
"You're not a psychiatrist either! And your solution to everything was
always to just let it slide and pray it solved itself! Well, I can't just
sit and fiddle while Rome burns! But trying to argue with you is a waste
of time. Good night, Kensuke." She hung up, then sunk down in the chair
and tried to get a grip on herself.
I'm going to need a psychiatrist myself at this rate, she thought. If
Ami needs one...no, I can't, she thought. She'd end up a laughing stock
if the news got out. But if I don't, she could get worse. And Kensuke is
no help, he's probably off buying Ami a ten step guide on how to plan
parties with the help of your past lives.
Unseen by her, Ami quietly crept back to her room, her brain aswirl from
what she had heard.
*****
To her surprise, there were two elves on her bed when she returned to her
room. "Hello, Ami," Dia said. "Minako and I have a proposal to make."
Ami blinked. "How did you get in here?"
"Sailor Teleport," Minako said. "Anyway, Dia's offered me the use of her
estates for as long as I need to get over my whole...um... adjustment
period. A year passes there for every day here. So I can get this all
out of my system. And I wanted to invite you to come along. You could
just meet me at school tomorrow, and we could hop out for a few months of
Avalonn time, then you could go home. You'd miss one day of school, but
I'm sure you'd feel a lot better afterwards."
"Can I bring Ryo?" Ami asked.
"Sure. I'm already planning to bring Steven," Minako said.
"I would be happy to host the four of you," Dia said.
Ami looked straight into Dia's eyes and asked, "Are you going to try to
seduce me again? I'm not Athena any more, and I AM dating someone."
Dia smiled. "Only if you want me to."
Ami frowned. She's up to something, she thought. But the chance to get
away from her mother was too good to pass up. I can resist anything she
throws at me, Ami thought. "Alright. When do we leave?"
"Friday. That way you can get back on time, and I can stay longer if I
need to," Minako said. "Though Derith is sure I'll only need a few months
of Avalonn time, which would be less than a day."
"Okay," Ami said. "I'll be ready then."
"Cool! This is going to be LOADS of fun!"
*****
Himeko was busy wallowing in her own guilt as she sat on one of the
school benches, trying to do some reading for her literature class, when
Hikaru tapped her on the shoulder. "Are you going to run away screaming
again?" Hikaru asked.
Himeko instinctively grabbed Hikaru and threw her, rolling forward as she
did so, then realized too late what she was doing. "Dammit!"
Hikaru rolled across the ground, then lay winded as Himeko came over and
kneeled down by her.
"Are you okay?" Himeko asked desperately.
"No thanks to you!" Hikaru shouted angrily. "Are you going mad? You've
been a complete and utter LOON the last few weeks!"
"Yes, I have," Himeko said miserably. "Go ahead. Beat me up. I deserve
it."
Hikaru sat up and blinked. "What?"
"I killed you," she said. "And I can't get it all out of my head and
it's driving me NUTS!"
Hikaru edged away from her. "You're talking crazy, Nonohara."
Himeko stood up. "You deserve to know the truth," she said. "You could
be in danger."
"From Minako and her crazy friend who keep watching me all the time?"
Hikaru asked.
For just a moment, Himeko smiled. "'Oh, she couldn't possibly notice
us'," she said in a fair imitation of Minako's voice. She offered Hikaru
a hand. "Come with me."
Hikaru took the hand and followed her.
*****
Makoto opened the door. "Oh, hi, Steven," she said. "Come on in."
The smell of chocolate chips filled the air, and he breathed it in.
Laughing, Makoto said, "You can have one once they come out."
"Thanks. So why'd you want me to come over?" he asked, praying he wasn't
about to be used as a furniture mover again.
"Well, I heard you and Minako are going to Avalon, so I thought I'd loan
you my magic sword, since I don't actually need it." She grabbed it off
the table and passed it to him once he came in.
He stared at it. "I don't really know anything about swordfighting."
"It drags your hands around, helping you fight," she said. "I doubt
you'd beat a real swordsmaster, but every bit helps."
He drew the sword and swished it about, feeling how it guided his hand.
"Wow! I'll do my best to take care of it!"
"I wish I could go with you," Makoto said. "But Pluto wants us all to
stay, in case something goes wrong and we're needed here." She sighed.
"Which probably means she knows something is gonna happen here."
Steven sheathed the sword. "So how about those cookies?"
"First, you get to help me move the couch."
He groaned, then nodded. "Alright. Least I can do."
"And my bed. And the dresser and..."
Trapped like a fly in a web, he thought.
*****
Himeko sat down at her desk and gestured to her bed, which Hikaru sat
down on. "So what do you want to tell me, Nonohara?" Hikaru asked.
"Minako and Hotaru have been watching you because they're Sailor Senshi,
as am I. We're afraid the Dark Kingdom may assume you know more about us
than you do, in which case they may try to grab you."
Hikaru's eyes widened. "You...you're one of the Sailor Senshi?"
"Yes. For several months now. And even before that, I've been involved
with magic in various ways."
"So you really did...have magical powers ever since I met you," Hikaru
said softly. "All those weird things that happened...does Daichi do
magical things too?"
Himeko shook her head. "No, he's just Daichi."
"Then I still have a chance!" Hikaru crowed, then wilted under Himeko's
stare.
"There's someone else in your destiny," Himeko said flatly. "Who you
would miss if you got together with Daichi. And the two of you would only
make each other miserable."
"We would..."
"Hikaru, has Daichi EVER expressed any romantic interest in you at all?"
She sighed. "No. He's been...What does he SEE in you?"
"I don't know myself, sometimes," she said. "And I know I've been
driving him nuts lately over this whole business."
"What whole business?"
"It had to do with this game named TORG. You see..."
*****
Ryo stared at the suit of armor in his closet as he finished packing for
the trip on Friday. Take or not take, he asked himself. He didn't trust
anything made by DBI Team #45 any further than he could throw it, but just
in case something went wrong... Of course, with that armor, things
couldn't help but go wrong.
Well, I'll take it anyway, he thought. Who knows, it might prove to be
useful as a club if nothing else, and it is fairly compact.
*****
"And I keep having this horrible nightmares about being a ninja and
killing people and everything," Himeko concluded, sighing.
Hikaru frowned. She'd never seen the usually confident Nonohara this
shaken up. She'd never liked Nonohara, but she'd always envied her
confidence. She put up a front of confidence herself, but it was just a
mask she hid behind. She'd been confident once, but years of failure with
Daichi had shredded that and made her ever more desperate to finally
succeed with him. And seeing Nonohara like this made her feel a burst of
despair. If things were this bad...
"But they're only dreams, right?" she said. "Nightmares aren't worth
worrying about."
"Yes, but I killed...I mean...I killed you. A person like you."
Hikaru shook her head. "But it wasn't the real me. It was just some
weird other universe dream thing, right?"
"Well, yes, but..." Himeko replied.
"And you've killed a lot of monsters, right?"
"Umm, well, yes."
"And from what it sounds like, the other...me...was trying to kill you."
I can't believe I'm defending this, Hikaru thought. She's my rival.
She's...she's...Daichi loves her, and I don't want her to be like this
because it hurts him. "So it's not like you had a choice."
"She was my only friend, and I killed her! There had to have been some
other way!" Himeko began to cry. She tried to keep talking, but she was
becoming hysterical.
Hikaru stood up nervously, and came over to pat her shoulder.
"Just...ummm..." She gave up on talking, and just stood there, patting
Himeko's shoulder and trying to figure out what to do. How can she dump
this on me? It's supposed to be Daichi's job to deal with this sort of
thing! I'm not even her friend! We're supposed to be rivals and...
She couldn't sustain her indignation in the face of Himeko's misery. Her
heart began, against its will, to go out to the sobbing blonde. Finally,
she stepped forward and embraced her, saying, "I forgive you." I'm never
dying my hair again, she thought. "But crying won't bring back the dead.
You...you're a soldier. And sometimes soldiers have to kill people. And
if you can't handle that, you ought to quit and go be a nun or something."
That wasn't very comforting, she thought.
"I can't quit," she said. "I've seen what happens, and everyone dies,
and the world burns and..." She began to sob again. "I don't want to see
the future. I don't want to have to kill people. I just want to be
Himeko again."
"We don't always get what we want," Hikaru said sharply, then tried to
get herself to calm down. "Did you...see yourself killing... people... in
the future?"
"I'm afraid to look," Himeko said miserably.
"Then take us to the future. Don't be a coward. You've GOT to snap out
of this."
"I'm not supposed to..." she began.
"You have to. Because you're no use to anyone like this. This isn't
like you. And if it means breaking the laws of time, you can just tell
the time police it's my fault."
"I AM the time police," Himeko said faintly.
"Good, then stop arresting yourself."
"You're serious," Himeko said more soberly.
"We're going to do whatever it takes for you to snap out of this," Hikaru
said. "So call up your magic, and take us to the future so you can see
you're being a ninny."
Himeko nodded, though she wasn't even sure what she would need to see in
the future to feel better. She transformed, then called up the Gate of
Time.
Hikaru gasped at it all; she could feel the sheer power of the Gate, and
for a moment, she hesitated. But she couldn't let herself show weakness
in front of Himeko, so she said, "Well, come on, let's get going."
"Gate of Time, take us to...ten years from now."
The Gate opened and mist swirled through. The junior Pluto choked back
the feeling that this was a bad idea, then lead Hikaru through it.
They found themselves in an open-air cafe, somewhere in Tokyo. The sun
shone down from a blue sky, and a clearly older Hikaru in a suit-dress sat
at the table, a briefcase in the chair next to her. She was typing on a
laptop as they appeared. She looked up, then sighed. "Of course the
people from the past get here before Himeko does."
Hikaru blinked. "You were expecting us?"
Future-Hikaru sighed. "I've already lived through you visiting here."
"Oh."
Running feet charged up behind them. They turned and saw Himeko, dressed
similarly to Hikaru, come running up, also carrying a briefcase. "Stupid
bus!" she shouted.
Hikaru laughed. "Shouldn't she have known the bus would delay her?"
"It was fate," Future-Himeko bluffed.
Himeko looked her future self up and down; she looked quite respectable
in her navy-blue suitdress and quite happy, though a little tired from
running.
The waitress came over and looked at the four of them, then blinked.
"Take your orders?"
"Tea," both Hikarus requested.
"Coke," both Himekos said.
The waitress brought them their drinks, then departed. Hikaru asked her
future self, "So what are you working on?"
"Reading e-mail," Future-Hikaru replied. "I get a lot of it these days."
Future-Himeko smiled at her past self. "C'mon, don't look so gloomy,
Hime-chan."
Himeko felt more frustrated than relieved from staring at her smiling
future self. "How can you be so...so..."
"Perky," Hikaru offered.
"Exactly."
"Once it sinks in that what you did in that world doesn't reflect who you
are, but something that was done to you, you'll feel better," Future-
Himeko replied. "It wasn't even a persona you'd created for a game; you
were under Alexandrite's mind control. And even in the other
universe's...reality...you spent half the time under Thratchen's control."
Himeko shuddered at the memory, then chugged her coke. "It just...I just
can't stop thinking about it."
"Just give it time," Future-Himeko said. "That's something any Pluto has
plenty of."
"So, like...are you married?" Hikaru asked Future-Hikaru.
"Can't tell you," she said. "It isn't good to know too much about your
future."
Well, she looks pretty happy, Hikaru thought. That was some comfort in
itself. "So where's Daichi?"
"Running a fever at home and complaining a lot," Future-Himeko replied.
"And you're off at a cafe while he's suffering?" she asked irritatedly.
"Well, we knew I had to show up here, so I had to, or I'd change the
past," Future-Himeko replied. "The worst part was both of us knowing he
was going to get too sick to come." She shook her head. "Perfect example
of why you don't want to know too much."
Himeko sat back and listened to the two future women banter with Hikaru
for a while. She did feel a little better, but not as much as she'd hoped
for.
Future-Himeko turned to her and said, "There's no magical cure for pain.
You just have to shuffle through it. It'll get better. I can promise you
that."
"Any advice you can give me on how to get my parents to ease off? They
really need me."
"Well, given you've already ignored that command to go off to Avalon
several times..." Future-Himeko began.
Himeko blushed. "Well, there was...I mean..."
"Just keep working on them. That's about all the advice I can give you
without cheating."
I see I'm going to become as aggravating as Pluto, Himeko thought.
"Can you tell us anything at all about the future?" Hikaru asked.
"You're going to lose a sock the next time you do laundry," Future-Hikaru
said, smiling.
"Which sock?"
"I don't remember any more. I just remember my future self told me
that."
Hikaru turned to Himeko, "I think we might as well head back."
"Just one more question...What day is this?" Himeko asked.
"Exactly ten years in the future from when you left," Future-Hikaru
replied.
Himeko nodded. "Let's go, Hikaru."
She summoned the gate of time, and the last thing they heard was Future-
Hikaru saying, "And forget about Daichi! There's someone better! His
name is..."
Future-Himeko said, "You're not supposed to..."
And then the gate shut, cutting off the sentence.
They returned to their own time, and Hikaru said, "We never paid for our
drinks."
Himeko sat down at her desk. "Well, that did sort of help. I feel a
little better knowing I'll eventually feel better."
"I think it helped me more than it helped you," Hikaru said. "Although I
keep wondering exactly what my future self does for a living."
"Well, it seems to let her dress pretty nicely," Himeko replied.
"You weren't bad either," Hikaru replied.
For a little while, they sat in silence, and then Hikaru said, "Well,
this is it."
"It?"
"I..." She took a deep breath. "I officially announce I'm going to give
up on Daichi. If it kills me."
"It won't kill you," Himeko said.
"It feels like it should. It's like..." She shook her head. "If
there's someone better out there, I won't find him unless I look."
"Well, there are a lot of guys who find you attractive," Himeko said.
"My natural grace and beauty easily ensnares men. I suppose I should
stop fending them off now," Hikaru said thoughtfully.
Himeko suppressed her instincts to say something sarcastic. "I won't
pretend to be an expert on dating, but I'd say that's a good start." Not
something too sarcastic, anyway.
Hikaru glanced over at the clock. "Urk. I need to go do homework."
Himeko nodded. "Well...thanks for talking to me."
"And thank you for explaining everything to me." Hikaru got up and left,
leaving Himeko to her thoughts and to the realization she hadn't done her
homework yet either.
*****
Ami sat in class tensely that Thursday. There were a lot of ways their
planned trip could go wrong, and she'd been fretting about them all day.
Especially if the time differential didn't work right and they ended up
vanishing for months. Though hopefully, Pluto would come and get them if
they really did vanish for too long. Part of her felt guilty for running
out on her mother; mostly, she just wanted to get away before she went
mad.
"Mizuno-san, are you there?" one of her teachers asked.
She started. "Umm, yes, I'm here," she said.
"Can you answer the question?"
"Umm...what class is this?"
"..."
"Oh, history, right?"
"This is math. Mizuno-san, are you sick?"
"No, I'm just tired."
"Very well. Miyabi-san, can you take a shot at this?"
I feel like a complete idiot, Ami thought. I've got to pull myself
together.
*****
Ami checked her watch nervously. "Okay, we have until about six tonight
before Mother will expect me home. Are you sure the fast time
differential is going to work right, Minako?"
"Pluto even told me it would work out fine," Minako said reassuringly.
"You guys ready?" she asked Ryo and Steven.
"Ready as we'll ever be," Ryo said. "No visions for good or ill."
"Let's get going," Steven said. "Before this sword falls off my back
again."
Ami asked Hermes, "Are you sure you don't want to go?"
"And spend months in a place full of elves?" Hermes sounded disgusted.
"I'd go mad. I'm sorry, Ami, but I don't think I could handle it well."
She nodded. "Alright. I'll miss you."
Minako made her goodbyes to Artemis as well, who wanted to avoid any
chance of an encounter with Queen Hecate.
They piled their luggage in the middle and joined hands. Ami and Minako
transformed, then shouted, "SAILOR TELEPORT!"
The ground cracked and pitted beneath them, there was a flash of light,
and then they were gone.
*****
Water splashed around them as they landed, then sank into a long
reflecting pool. Their luggage submerged completely, and they all ended
up soaked to their waists.
After many cries of dismay, they waded out of the pool, then waded back
in to rescue their luggage, then took a look around. On three sides of
the pool, a great garden of flowers and fruit trees spread out around
them. On the fourth side, a great paved plaza decorated with statuary led
to a huge palace with a central union shaped dome.
Venus stared. "It wasn't like this last time, was it?"
"You've been here before?" Steven asked.
"Dia took me to see the estate and it was kind of...kind of not like this
at all," Venus said. "I hope we're not lost." She began shaking the
water off her legs.
Half a dozen elves emerged from the palace, then stared at the visitors.
They immediately began to cross the plaza towards them.
"Well, on the bright side, my luggage is water proof," Ryo said.
"Really?"
"No, I'm lying to make myself feel better," he said, sighing.
Mercury sighed. "Not a good start."
The elves soon came closer, all dressed in blue and white livery. "Ahh,
Lady Mercury, Lady Venus, it is good to see you," one of them said. She
was short and slender, carrying a blue baton. "May I ask why you landed
in the pool instead of the foyer?"
"There wasn't any pool the last time I was here," Venus said.
The woman nodded. "Well, come with us. I will take you to your rooms
and get you dry clothing."
"Oh, this is my boyfriend Urawa Ryo," Mercury said to the woman, pointing
to Ryo.
"And this is my fiancee, Steven Grant," Venus said.
"I am Chatelaine Milrinde," the elven woman replied. "Everyone, help
them with their luggage."
They soon were all in motion towards the palace. Venus asked, "So why
did you change everything around?"
"Lady Dia wished to make the place comfortable for you, and she'd been
looking for a new theme for a while, anyway," Milrinde replied.
Soon, they were ensconced upstairs, each couple with their own room
across the hall from each other. The servants brought them some dry
clothing, in the style of the Moon Kingdom's last years.
Ryo looked around for somewhere to change. "Hmm, I guess I'll go change
in the bathroom," he said.
"Why bother?" Ami asked. "It's not like we haven't...seen each other
naked." Her voice had an undercurrent of nervous excitement to it.
"Well, that's true," he said, then started changing out of his clothing.
He was down to his underwear when he realized she was just standing there
watching him with a hungry look. There was no need for him to have a
vision to guess what was on her mind. He thought about it briefly, and
decided it was quite fine with him. "So, can you actually take your
sailor uniform off?" he asked.
She looked thoughtful, and curiosity took the place of desire for the
moment. "Good question," she replied.
She reached back and tugged the bow of her uniform, which dissolved away
into red ribbons, falling to the ground. They then coalesced back into
her school uniform, sopping wet. This didn't leave her clad in much.
She smiled, and he smiled back, and they didn't come out of their room
for a while.
*****
"Welcome to my estate," Lady Dia said at lunch. She was clad in one of
her usual provocative outfits which revealed quite more than it concealed,
in blue and white. "You're welcome to stay as long as you like; I hope I
can keep you entertained."
"Thank you very much for inviting us," Ami said. "I really, really
needed a vacation." She was feeling much better now.
"I know you like to swim," Dia said, "So I had a very nice pool
installed."
"We fell in it on the way here," Steven said.
"Not the reflecting pool. A nice warm indoor pool. Perhaps you'd like
to try it out later this afternoon?" Dia asked. "I could use a swim."
Ryo had but to look at her and see the way she looked at Ami to see what
Dia wanted. He'd already known this, but he'd never actually seen the two
of them together at the same time. He felt his heart plunge into his feet
for just a moment of panic. I can't compete with that, he thought. Not
if Ami has any interest in women in this life. He knew that while he
wasn't ugly, he wasn't particularly handsome by a longshot.
Steven sighed mentally. She's going to be trying to get into Ami's bed
this whole time. I was afraid of this, he thought. But I could use a good
swim. "Sounds good to me," he said.
"Me too!" Minako announced.
"That would be fun," Ami said. "But we should wait a little after we eat
so we don't get cramps."
"Of course," Dia said. "I can show you around the estates while our
lunch settles."
"That would be good," Ami said. "How closely modeled on the Moon Palace
is this place now?"
"Fairly closely," Dia said. "But if you can point out any mistakes, I
will correct them."
"Well, if we can _remember_ the old estate well enough to point them
out," Minako replied.
"You don't remember your past lives completely yet?" Dia asked.
"Just fragments," Ami said. "It comes and it goes."
She nodded. "Well, let's eat."
*****
A tour later, Dia asked, "Ready to go swimming?"
"I am," Ami said.
"Me too," Steven said.
"Let's go change into bathing suits," Minako said.
"Bathing suits?" Dia asked.
"..." Minako stared at her in surprise. "You know, for swimming."
"You don't swim naked?" Dia asked.
Ami blushed. "No."
"But you all have such nice bodies," Dia said. "Why hide them? And
drying clothing takes forever anyway."
Ami blushed more. "I really wouldn't be comfortable with that."
Dia sighed. "Alright. Well, you'll have to show me what one looks like.
And I'll have to tell everyone to put some on."
"Thank you," Ami said.
*****
There were a fair number of elves, pixies, naiads, satyrs, dryads, and
other faerie folk enjoying the huge swimming pool when they arrived there
a little later after changing. About three-quarters of the guests were
female, and most of them were beautiful. Ryo and Steven did their best
not to stare, but it wasn't easy.
The introductions took just about forever, and Ami knew she'd never
remember half the names, but she did her best. Soon, she was swimming,
feeling quite content with herself.
Everyone was quite friendly, and they soon each found themselves with
several hangers-on. Ryo was quite surprised to find two blue-skinned
naiads and a tiny green haired male pixie seeking out his company. The
naiads were named Nike and Aria, while the pixie was named Luka.
"So where are you from?" Luka asked.
"Japan," he said. "I was born up on Hokkaido, but I've lived all over
Japan."
"Does Japan have any nice rivers?" Nike asked.
"We have lots of beautiful beaches, but our rivers aren't very
impressive," Ryo said. "It's an island nation."
Aria smiled. "I like islands." She looked thoughtfully across the pool.
"How about a swimming race?"
"I don't think I could beat two naiads in a swimming race," Ryo said
ruefully.
Nike tickled his chin, nearly sending him into shock. "Oh come on, just
try. You'll never know how well you can do unless you try."
Luka snorted. "You're a WATER fairy. I might as well challenge him to a
flying race."
Ryo felt himself go red as Aria cuddled up to his left arm and shoulder.
"How about if we each only use one leg?"
"How can you swim with just one leg?" he asked.
Ryo glanced around at the others, but his friends were all distracted by
their new acquaintances. "Oh heck, it can't hurt to try," he said.
"Sure, why not."
They both applauded. Luka sighed. "Well, I'll be judge, then."
Ryo could tell they were going easy on him once the race started, unless
he'd vastly improved his swimming skills without realizing it. Both of
them were ahead of him, but it was just a slender lead. Every so often,
he'd pull ahead slightly for a few seconds, and then they would pass him
again.
About the time they reached the far end of the pool, kicked off it, and
turned to swim back, he realized everyone was watching them. Ami was
staring in shock, Steven was laughing, and Minako was waving fans and
shouting, "Go, Ryo, go!"
He faltered and fell behind in a moment of panic, then redoubled his
efforts. Losing to them was one thing, losing in front of an audience was
another. He pushed himself to his limits, kicking and stroking as fast as
he possibly could. To his amazement, he actually found himself catching
up to them. They both smiled at him as he passed between them.
He won the race by only a hand's length, as they both pressed harder in
the last hundred feet, nearly catching up to him. He leaned against the
side of the pool, exhausted. Lukas announced, "I'll be damned. You won,
Ryo."
His friends began applauding. Nike and Aria both seemed hardly winded at
all, which made Ryo wonder why they hadn't tried harder. Then he found
out. Nike said, "Well, you won, which means you get the traditional
prize."
"Prize?" Ryo asked, huffing and puffing.
She swept him into an embrace and a kiss, then passed him over to Aria,
who did the same. Minako began to hoot, and Ami ran over.
"What are you people doing with my boyfriend???" Ami exclaimed.
"Just giving him what he earned," Nike said. "If you want a kiss, you
can race us too."
"..."
Ryo finally managed to pull away from Aria. "I didn't know you were
going to do that," he said feebly.
"I'd do it again, but I think Lady Mercury might freeze me in a block of
ice," she said. "Perhaps another day." And then she dove out of sight
and swam away.
Nike was more bold. "If you would dispute the fairness of our race and
its prize, Lady Mercury, then you must needs race with me."
After flapping her lips soundlessly a few times, Ami nodded. "Alright.
I will. Let's race."
She slipped into the water, taking a moment to stretch. Nike bounced
about, waiting impatiently. Soon, they were both ready.
"Ready. Set. GO!" Luka shouted.
And then they were off like rockets, churning the water behind them. Ryo
watched in shock. "She's so much faster," he said.
"They threw the race because they wanted an excuse to kiss you," Luka
said flatly. "But they were both smooth enough to make it look like you
won it by your own merit."
Ryo sighed; he'd been half-hoping he really had won the race under his
own power, but what Luka said made sense. He hopped up onto the edge of
the pool and sat with Luka on his shoulder, watching.
Ami pushed herself as hard as she could, but it was quickly obvious to
her that she wasn't going to beat a naiad in a swimming race. Maybe I
should transform, she thought. Then she realized that she WAS still
transformed. She'd never changed back after teleporting here.
I've never stayed in sailor form this long, she thought. Then again,
Hermes had been telling her that the transformation had never been
necessary to use their powers; it was just a disguise that also supplied
them with some battle armor. But she felt stronger in this form.
{I suggest thou usest thine powers to freeze her legs together,} Athena
whispered to her.
[That would be cheating!] Ami replied.
{She is using her magics, canst thou not feel them?}
When Ami concentrated, she could feel them. No wonder she's so much
faster this time, Ami thought. She must have been not using any magic
when she raced Ryo. [Is there some way I can use my powers to speed up
without actually attacking her?]
{Our power is more over ice than water. I see no other options.}
[I don't want to attack her, even if she's using her magic. After all,
she's not using it on _me_.]
{Doest thou wish to see her hanging all over our boyfriend?}
They reached the far end, kicked off it, and began the home stretch.
Nike pulled far enough ahead that the turbulence from her very powerful
legs was now interfering with Ami's progress until she swung further over
to the side, which cost her more ground.
Ami began to push herself, drawing on every reserve of energy she could
find in herself, and started to close the gap. However, she quickly saw
she wasn't going to close it fast enough. Nevertheless, she kept pressing
herself, hoping her analysis was wrong.
She pulled forward; her head was now even with Nike's feet. Twenty more
yards, and her head was up to Nike's knees. She tried to kick her legs
faster, regretting she'd never pursued swimming as seriously as she might
have despite her enjoyment of it. The water rushed past her and the edge
of the pool drew closer. Every time her head turned so that her right or
left ear broke the surface of the water, she could hear Minako and Ryo and
Steven cheering her on. Some of the fae were cheering for her as well,
while others were urging on Nike. Dia herself simply sat in a deck chair,
watching and looking amused.
Fifty feet left, and now her head was almost to Nike's waist. She began
to hope for victory. And then Nike sped up, spurring Ami to a final push.
Her final push got the tip of her head almost even with Nike's
bellybutton, but then Nike's hand touched the edge; Ami had a hard time
stopping herself short of smacking right into the edge of the pool.
Nike turned to her and said, "I'm impressed."
Ami just breathed hard in reply. Ryo helped her up out of the water to
sit on the edge. "You okay, Ami?"
"I'll be fine," she managed to say.
Steven looked over at Nike, then asked, "Are you going to ask Ami to kiss
you now?"
Ami turned beet red. "..."
"You thought that too, eh?" Minako said to Steven.
"Well, we didn't say what the prize was, and Lady Mercury did challenge
me..." Nike began.
"I couldn't...I mean..." Ami said weakly.
{Sure thou couldst,} Athena said. {Is she not lovely?}
[She's after ou...my boyfriend!]
"But while your skills are legendary, I must admit I prefer men," Nike
continued. "As I suggested the duel as a means by which the fairness of
my kissing Ryo could be settled, I will simply accept your admitting I had
the right to kiss him as my prize for this contest."
Ami didn't want to kiss her, especially with Athena urging her to do so.
And she didn't want to admit the woman had kissed Ryo fairly, since she
didn't want anyone getting the idea they could go around kissing her Ryo
whenever they felt like it. But... She sighed. "Right. Just don't do
it again."
Nike grinned. "Only if I earn it." She turned and swam off.
Ryo put a hand on Ami's shoulder. "You're a better kisser than her."
"Yeah! And I'm sure there's no danger she put any evil love magic on Ryo
with her kiss," Minako said. "Though I could shoot him up with love
arrows for you, just to be sure."
"I'm sure that won't be necessary," Steven said. Once that bow comes
out, disaster will ensue, he thought.
"I'm just glad I didn't have to kiss her," Ami said.
Dia came over. "Very good, my friend. I know I couldn't do that well
against a naiad."
"I'm kind of surprised myself," Ami said. "But I was pretty determined."
"You did great," Ryo said.
"You got played like a violin," Steven said, shaking his head. "You
should have challenged her to something you could win at."
"Steven, be nice," Minako scolded.
"We'll all be ending up as some faerie's love slave by the time we're
done here if we're not careful," Steven said flatly. "Even though it's
hard to resist because of the glamor." Dia glared at him and he wilted a
bit. "I don't mean to give offense," he said. "But we didn't come here
to be seduced, at least as far as I know."
Dia was not appeased. "Everyone is just trying to be friendly."
"I'm glad everyone's so friendly, but there's such a thing as being a
little too intimate too fast," he said. "We're all taken."
"Now, now, we've made some concessions," Dia said. "Like wearing these
silly bathing suits. You have to be understanding of our ways as well."
"Yeah, loosen up, Steven, it's all in fun," Minako said, glomping onto
him. "They're not bad people."
Steven was too aware of his own moment of temptation a little earlier to
want to risk loosening up too much. This was a bad idea, coming here, he
thought. But maybe we can make it work out. I'd better talk to Minako in
private later, though.
"We are not used to your ways," Ryo said. "Or aware of your customs."
Dia nodded. "So I see. I will assign each of you someone who can
instruct you, so we can avoid any more disasters."
"Thank you," Ami said. "We'd appreciate that."
"Well, I'm here to swim," Minako said. "So let's swim! Last one in is a
rotten keg!" She dived into the water.
Everyone went back to swimming.
*****
That night, Steven said to Minako, "We need to talk about...mrph..."
His attempt at conversation was interrupted by Minako jumping on him. A
bout of lovemaking later, he tried again.
"Minako, we need to talk about all this."
"Did I make a mistake?" she asked, worried. "It was the earlobes...I
could feel you twitch. I didn't hurt them, did I?" She tried to peer at
his left ear.
"No, no, not about that. I mean..." He tried to figure out how to say
it. "I think we need to find somewhere with less temptations to do this.
I've sort of gotten used to your glamor, but..." He shook his head. "I
nearly ended up in the same sort of situation as Ryo."
"We can do it! Our love can conquer anything!" Minako proclaimed. "And
if we do stumble, we can blame it all on them and reunite by teaming up to
kick their asses!" She waved her fist in the air. "C'mon, Steven, this
is going to be a lot of fun. Just loosen up a little."
"Minako, I'm afraid if I loosen up a little, I'll end up doing something
really stupid," he said.
"You have my permission to be stupid," Minako said. "If something goes
wrong, I'll take all the blame. I just NEED to cut loose, Steven. So I
can get this all out of my system."
If this works, it'll be worth it, he thought. But a lot of these elves
seem about as flaky and impulsive as Minako is right now. Is it really
going to get much better?
"Just don't cut too loose," he said.
Minako nodded. "Hmm. We could just break up, run wild, then get back
together afterwards."
"Minako, are you actually thinking about anything you're saying at all?"
"No," Minako said. "You're too warm and soft for me to be able to
think."
If he hadn't already sated himself, he wouldn't have been able to think
either. But as it stood, he said, "Count to ten and think."
She did so, then her eyes widened. "Did I really suggest breaking up?"
"Yes," he said, feeling annoyed.
"AAAAAHHH!!!! I'm gonna do something really stupid. I can hear it in the
air." She looked miserable. "I'm going to end up having mad passionate
sex with Ami and Ryo and Dia and that guy with the really nice ass all up
on the roof at once, causing a meteor to fall on us, killing us all!"
"A meteor?"
"The wrath of the gods!" she shouted. "They punish those who break the
sacred chains of love! We're all going to die!"
Fix one problem, create another, Steven thought. "Calm down, Minako," he
said soothingly. "We're not going to die."
"I'm going to cheat on you, and then you'll get jealous and I'll put on a
cloak poisoned with Dia's blood and die!" Minako was getting hysterical.
Steven decided to not ask for an explanation. "Minako, calm down. No
one's cheating on anyone."
She leaned against him. "I'm gonna do something stupid. I can feel it."
"I'm afraid of that, too," Steven said.
"But I just...I can't go. I can't. At least here, if I screw up or you
screw up, we'll know it wasn't our fault, and we can forgive each other
and not break up, right? I mean, you know I'd never cheat on you if I
could think straight, right?" She stared into his eyes.
"I know," he said. "But I think I'm going to have as hard a time as you
thinking straight if I stay."
Minako yanked on a lock of her hair thoughtfully. "Maybe if I riddle us
both with love arrows, we won't be tempted."
Steven was tempted to say yes, but also feared Minako would end up making
them both fall in love with the bed, or their underwear, or something else
ridiculous. "Are you sure you know what you're doing enough with that bow
to take the risk?"
"Well, if I never practice, I'll never get any better," she said.
He couldn't argue with that. "Well, let's wait. If it gets to be
totally too much temptation, then we'll try that, okay?"
She nodded. "Okay." She kissed his cheek. "I'm going to sleep now,"
she said.
"Goodnight," he said, watching her drift off to sleep and wishing he felt
relaxed enough to join her.
*****
The next morning, Ami woke up feeling refreshed. Ryo was still sound
asleep, so she decided to go take a morning swim. She changed into a
black and blue one piece bathing suit, then headed down to the swimming
pool. Except for the occasional patter of feet in the distance and a few
nice smells coming from the kitchen, she got the impression that sleeping
in was probably the order of the day most days on Dia's estate.
The swimming pool was empty, which was a relief to her, as she'd suddenly
realized right as she arrived that there might well be naked elves here
with the same idea as her. Instead, she had it all to herself, which
suited her just fine. She plunged into the water and began doing laps.
She was on lap number twelve when she heard people splashing into the
water. She surfaced, but didn't see anyone, to her surprise. Plunging
underwater, she looked around and spotted Nike and Aria halfway across the
pool, quite naked. They waved. Ami waved back, blushed, and finished her
lap.
By the time she surfaced, Nike and Aria had popped up by her; their speed
impressed her. "Are you alright, Lady Mercury?" Aria asked. "You look
flushed."
"You...um..."
Aria slapped her forehead. "Oh yes, many humans become embarrassed by
nudity." She looked thoughtful. "Doesn't that make taking a bath
difficult? Or sex?"
Ami made herself look at Aria's face, and felt her embarrassment
subsiding. "Seeing myself naked isn't a problem. And seeing my boyfriend
naked is, well...I like that. But we don't normally get naked in co-ed
places like a swimming pool."
"What's a 'co-ed' place?" Nike asked, leaning back and floating on her
back.
"Where men and women mingle," Ami said.
"Why?" Nike asked.
"Because men and women aren't supposed to see each other naked unless
they're married. Or intimate, anyway," Ami said.
"Why?" Nike asked.
Aria giggled. "Nike, don't be a pain."
"But I want to understand. I've never met a real human who wasn't raised
here in Avalon before." She now drifted into the side of the pool. "Ow."
Ami tried to think of an actual reason why not seeing each other naked
was a good thing. She could have given a sociology lecture on why people
in most Earth societies had nudity taboos, but that didn't actually
justify their continuing existence. It had simply been something her
mother had taught her, rather than something she'd ever tried to justify
to herself. "It's embarrassing. Being seen naked, that is. And if you
wander around naked, people get the wrong ideas about you."
"Wrong ideas?" Aria asked.
Ami decided to float on her back; she began to gently backstroke with
Aria and Nike trailing after her. "Well, getting naked around men tends
to make them think you want to have sex with them."
"What, just because you're not wearing any clothing? I mean...yes, you
generally need to take your clothing off before sex, but...I mean...if it
means you want to have sex with someone, how does the right person tell
you want to have sex with them? And not with someone else?" Nike asked.
I never thought I'd meet naive elves, Ami thought. "That's why we only
do it in private. Or when it's just other women around, so that it
doesn't matter."
"But what if some of the other women like women?" Nike asked.
"Ummm...that's pretty rare on Earth," Ami said.
"Well, you like women, right?" Nike said. "How do you...oh." Her eyes
widened. "No wonder you're uncomfortable. Us being naked must seem like
a come-on to you."
Ami blushed more. "I...uh..."
{Don't lie and claim thou doest not,} Athena said. {I did, and that's
the sort of thing that doesn't go away.}
[I don't! I don't!] Ami shouted at Athena.
{And what about the shower incident? Or when thou kissed Dia? Or the
way thou canst not look at Nike and Aria because it would force thee to
admit to thineself that thou likest the way they look?}
[I don't like women! And I'll prove it!] Ami shouted at Athena.
{Is that a challenge?} Athena sounded amused.
Aria laughed. "I'll take that as a yes. Well, we'll go get changed so
we don't embarrass you too much more, okay?"
"Thank you," Ami said weakly.
{So how doest thou intend to prove to me that thou doest not find women
attractive?}
[You'll see!]
*****
If Athena hadn't kept badgering her, Ami would quickly have relented of
her impulsive decision, but she knew the only way to prove to Athena that
she wasn't attracted to women was to do what she was planning to do, and
then not like it.
What did snap her out of it was that when she went and knocked on
Minako's door, Steven answered, a blue robe wrapped around himself. He
yawned. "Good morning, Ami."
What was I THINKING? she asked herself. Minako has a boyfriend! But
proving I'm not attracted to Minako is what I really need to do to shut
Athena up, Ami thought. "Minako still in bed?"
Steven laughed. "Do you really have to ask?"
"Good point. Can you tell her I need to talk to her later?"
"Sure thing," he said. "Have you had breakfast yet?"
"No, but I'm starving," Ami replied.
"Cool. Gimme a second to get dressed, and I'll go score some food with
you."
"I'll go get dressed and see if Ryo is up yet."
********
Ryo responded to 'Do you want breakfast?' with silence, so Ami changed
into one of her outfits she'd brought with her and hooked up with Steven
to head to the kitchens. Having been told breakfast was served, they went
to the dining rooms where many bowls of fruit and cheese and bread were
laid out, along with a lot of fruit juice and spiced mead and apple cider.
A fair number of the guests had drifted in and were eating already.
"Dia tried to climb into your bed yet?" Steven asked, his tone half-
serious and half-joking.
"Not yet," Ami said. "Maybe she knows better."
"You really think that?"
"No." Ami sighed. "With Athena in my head, I don't know what I'd do."
"I think she's a good example of why people are designed to usually not
remember past lives," Steven said. "Much as I'm curious as to who I might
have been in the Moon Kingdom, I wouldn't want past-me trying to tell
present-me what to do." He began carving his orange into eighths.
They ate in silence for a while, then Ami said, "Ryo told me that Pluto
told him he'd sealed away his own memories of the past for some reason.
It has something to do with his powers."
"Maybe he foresaw something in his past life, some reason why he
shouldn't remember his past," Steven suggested. "Maybe he wanted to
forget something."
Ami frowned. "Like what?"
"Maybe he wasn't happy with his life, and didn't want to burden his next
life with it, but knew his next life would start remembering if he didn't
seal the memories." Steven took a piece of cheese and ate it. "Or maybe
it's important he not remember until some specific thing happens." He
shrugged.
Ami had a sudden thought. "Hmm, when you look at someone, you can see
all sorts of things about them, right?"
Steven blinked. "Well, sometimes, if I look really intently, I can learn
things about someone, yes. It's kind of tripped out and symbolic and
well...it sort of scares me a little. But yes." He had another piece of
cheese then said, "Are you worried someone's put a spell on you or
something?"
"I need to know..." Ami felt her resolve weakening. It was hard to even
ask. She leaned closer and whispered, "I need to know if I'm...in this
life, I mean...Athena was, but..."
Steven stared at her blankly, trying to figure out what she meant. His
hands moved on autopilot, getting a pear and beginning to slice it. "If
you're what?"
Ami whispered, "If I like women."
Steven blinked. "What, you can't tell?" He could imagine Minako
confusing herself so much she needed magical help to tell, but not Ami.
"I just...I mean...I can't tell if it's me or Athena."
"Athena IS you," Steven said. "And I don't think that sort of thing
changes. Haruka still likes women, and she used to be a guy in her past
life. If THAT couldn't change it, I don't think simple reincarnation
could." I can't believe I'm having this conversation, he thought.
"But I'm not the same as Athena in a lot of other ways," Ami said.
"Yes, but..." He thought a moment. "Well, look, let's see..." He
looked around, then pointed at a tall, willowy dryad clad in a loose red
tunic and sandals. "Take her for example. When you look at her, what do
you notice first?"
"She's got brown skin and green hair," Ami said.
"After that."
"She's thin, she looks to be in her late twenties, she's color
coordinated her hair and her dress."
Steven laughed. "Do you think she's sexy?"
"Too tall and too skinny," Ami said. "But then, I think that about that
Satyr over there too." She pointed to him. "And I know I like men."
"Well, find someone female you do think is sexy."
Ami began looking around the room. Before she picked someone, arms
wrapped around her from behind. "Good morning!" Minako announced. She
then went over and sat in Steven's lap, following this up by kissing him
intensely. Ami wondered for a moment if Minako could kiss like Inanna
had. This caused her to blush.
"So what are you two doing?" Minako asked.
"Just talking," Ami said.
"Ahh, there you are," Aria said. "Dia asked me to be your guide to elven
life, Ami. If you don't mind." Aria now wore an elaborate red and yellow
Renaissance dress.
"I don't mind," Ami said.
"Nike is assigned to Ryo, Morgan is..." She looked around. "Morgan is
trying to be cute by hiding herself, but if she ever bothers to stop
hiding, she'll be helping Steven. And Lady Dia wants to help you herself,
Minako."
No danger of Dia trying to seduce me, Ami thought. But Nike with my
Ryo...she frowned, but then decided she would trust in Ryo. After all, if
he didn't reciprocate, it didn't matter what Nike tried. She would trust
him.
*********
Morgan was a nightstalker, tall and dark skinned, but capable of turning
invisible if she so desired. Unlike most of the elves, she wore a muscle
shirt and jeans instead of renaissance garb or moon kingdom garb. "So
you're worried about Minako doing something crazy?" she asked Steven.
He nodded, gazing out across the land from the balcony they stood on.
"Yeah."
"But didn't you come here SO she could do something crazy?"
"Well..."
Morgan pursed her lips. "It would have been better if she hadn't been
turned into an elf, I think. I pretty much wrecked my mundane life when I
went through that, and it was natural for me."
Steven blinked. "Eh?"
"I was a changeling, an elf baby switched for a human one. It's done so
that we can learn about how the human world currently is, so we don't
completely lose touch. Of course, then no one will actually pay attention
to you or believe you when you try to tell them things that contradict the
way things were before we started hiding." She sighed. "Anyway, puberty
gets pretty insane for us changelings. You're just going to have to
accept she WILL do some stupid things she wouldn't normally do. Better
she do them here with people who will...well, a lot of them may not
notice, but at least some of the people here will know better, and they
won't get glamored by her so they lose control of themselves."
Steven frowned. "I'm worried about those who won't know better."
Morgan nodded. "Well, just don't let it eat you too much. You have to
be understanding. And you have to sort of..." She scratched her head.
"Guide her. The impulses she acts on the most are the ones that will tend
to last. If you keep her busy with things like impulses to play tennis,
you'll have less problems."
Steven nodded. "How radically can someone be changed by this?"
"Well, I've seen people turn into drunkards or wild party guys or
suddenly develop an obsession with bonsai. And other strange things.
Often, it's simply a matter of the thoughts you used to repress, you stop
repressing, but sometimes people change in weird ways. If people around
you encourage you to do something, you're especially likely to get a taste
for it you didn't have before." She drummed her fingers on the railing
thoughtfully. "I wish I could give you more helpful advice."
"I just don't want to lose my girlfriend," Steven said.
"Oh, I don't think she'll dump you. But she may end up cheating on you
without meaning to. You just..." Morgan fell silent. "Stay close to
her. That'll help."
I hope she's not getting into anything crazy right now.
*****
Minako stared at the wall of fog before her. "It's very foggy," she
said, feeling the need to make commentary.
Lady Dia laughed. "These are the mists of Creation. We build new realms
in Avalon by entering the mists and dreaming our visions into reality."
"Wow!" Minako said. "I bet Usagi would dream up a giant refrigerator!"
Lady Dia smiled. "Perhaps."
"So anyone can do this, even a mortal?"
"Especially mortals," Lady Dia said. "Your lover could probably do a
better job of this than either of us. When the time comes for you to set
up your own realm, you might well ask him to do it."
"Why are mortals better at it than elves?" Minako asked, staring at the
mists, and trying to think of what her ideal world would be like. She'd
want a big gymnasium, and a soccer field, and some nice woods for romantic
picnics, and maybe a big stadium for her concerts and...
"Because most elves can't focus on one idea long enough to create it.
And a lot of us lack imagination. But mortals are better at it."
"Steven would probably create a big space empire," Minako said, after
some thought.
"Hmm, that could be interesting. We don't have many of those. He'd need
a lot of vision to make something that large. Anyway, once you create a
realm, you can change it if you like, though it requires some effort, such
as how I transformed my realm to resemble the Moon Kingdom. I'm sure it
must bring back some memories."
Minako nodded. "I keep remembering all sorts of things." She frowned.
"Which is probably a problem for Ami."
Lady Dia blinked. "Why would Lady Mercury not want to remember her
past?"
"Because she doesn't like how Athena was." Minako sighed. "She's over
reacting, really. Although I have to say that I wouldn't want her to be
all the way like she used to be."
"Why not?" Dia asked. "I always found Lady Athena's company a delight."
"Well, I'm trying to be more responsible myself, and Athena was
just...she was more crazy than me, sometimes. Though I wouldn't
mind...ummm..." Minako trailed off and stared at the ground. "But then,
I suppose you want that too."
Lady Dia laughed and began walking back to her horse. "Now, now, I
promised I wouldn't try to seduce her."
Minako followed her, turning beet red. "I just want to...I
mean...aaaargh, I'm being a stupid elf again!" She began kicking a handy
tree. "This is just driving me nuts!"
"Now, now, not every impulse is a bad one," Lady Dia said. "After all,
is not love which transcends death one of the great dreams of both elves
and men?"
"..."
Lady Dia lithely leaped up onto her white stallion's back. "I'm sure she
would return your affections. Athena always spoke very fondly of you to
me when we laid together after a bout of lovemaking."
I will never understand how elves think, Minako thought. Even if I am
one. "But I already have a boyfriend!"
"He is quite handsome and intelligent," Lady Dia replied. "Come, mount
up, we can talk as we ride."
The dun mare looked Minako in the eye, then whinneyed. He's laughing at
me, Minako thought. Because I nearly fell down eight times on the way
here. "Here I COME!" She leaped up high onto his back, landed wrong,
snagged her feet in the saddle, and ended up hanging over his side, her
hair dragging the ground. Spooked, her horse took off running. "THIS
ISN'T HOW IT GOES IN THE MOVIES!!!!!"
Lady Dia rode after her. "Whoa, Tokawa, whoa!" she shouted.
Tokawa sped up.
"Giddyap!" Minako tried, hoping maybe the horse was trained backwards."
He sped up.
"Don't make me blast you!" Minako screamed.
So he stopped. Minako's feet slipped loose and she went tumbling into
thorn bushes. "OWW OWW OWWW!!!!!" She leaped out of the bushes and
blasted them with a Venus Meteor Swarm. "Hah! Take that!"
"Bad horse," Lady Dia said, whacking it on the nose with her riding crop.
"Are you alright, Lady Venus?"
"No, but I'll survive," Minako said, getting up onto the horse more
carefully.
"I'm sure the four of you could work something out," Lady Dia said.
"Well, it worked for us back on the Moon, but Ryo and Steven don't have
any romantic interest in each other. If they did, I'd be all for it,"
Minako said. "But I don't know if it could really work. I mean, I
wouldn't want to make them just WATCH while Ami and I...you know."
"Well, there are ways in which a man and a woman can both pleasure a
woman at once," Lady Dia says. "Though yes, it would be more stable if
any of the four of you could pair off. Although the two of them might
like it if they tried."
Minako turned red again. "I couldn't ask them to try that. I mean..."
"Why not?"
"..."
"I could ask them for you, if it embarrasses you too much," Lady Dia
offered.
"..."
They rode along through the woods. Birds sang while Minako tried to
figure out something to say. Finally, she said, "Now I know how Steven
feels when I say something crazy."
Lady Dia frowned. "That was rude."
"I...umm...sorry," Minako said. "I just...I'd like to do that with Ami,
but I can't see how to make it work out right. I could always shoot them
up with my bow, but it doesn't last."
"Well, it would be one way to get them to try it and see if they like
it."
Minako sweated. "Don't tempt me." She could already feel her brain
planning out how she could do that.
Lady Dia just smiled. "Well, you'd want to ask them first."
"Also, I think Ami would resist it because she's so dead set on not being
like Athena."
Lady Dia nodded sadly. "She needs to get over that."
"Well, if Athena wasn't talking to her in her head, it would help."
Dia looked thoughtful. "She is?"
"I thought I told you that," Minako said. Oh wait, maybe I shouldn't
have told her. Since Ami doesn't want the whole world to know.
"I must have forgotten if you did," Lady Dia replied. "Perhaps I can
help her with that."
"You really think so?" Minako asked.
"I have done a lot of study of magics of the mind. So Athena is talking
to her as if they weren't the same person?"
"Exactly."
"Is this happening to all the senshi?"
"Nope. Just Ami, really. The rest of us are gradually getting our
memories back, and we have flashbacks sometimes, but our pasts don't
really talk to us. Now, Ryo and Steven, on the other hand, they can't
remember anything at all."
"Well, it is possible this is their first life."
"I guess," Minako said. "But it just seems like they should have one.
Do you think you could help them remember?"
"I could try. If there is anything TO remember. But don't get your
hopes up too much."
"Thanks," Minako said. "Ami's really been struggling with this."
"I'll talk to her this evening."
*****
"Games and challenges and contests are very important to us," Nike told
Ryo as they walked along the river together. It wound lazily through the
large forests on one side of the estate. "They help us resolve things
without too much violence. Not that we die easily, but we never back down
without some kind of fight. Better a non-violent contest, right?"
"Quite," Ryo said. "It's a good idea, given that elves are known to be
picky about their honor and the like."
"Indeed, your reputation is often all you have," she said, kneeling by a
bush. "These grow by rivers. They're very nice." She plucked a berry
and handed it to Ryo.
Ryo tried it while she got one for herself. It was yellow, but tasted
like raspberry to him. He liked raspberries. "Good."
"You can always refuse a challenge, but you lose face for it," Nike
continued, grabbing several more berries and giving half to Ryo. She
started walking again. "If no prize is stated before hand, the victor can
claim something appropriate, like a kiss or an apology or whatever, as
their prize."
"Like when you manuevered me into kissing you," Ryo said bluntly.
"Yes," Nike said, without the slightest shadow of a hint of remorse.
"Just remember, no one can ever force you to accept a challenge. And
unfair challenges cause little loss of face if one refuses."
"Like when you manuevered me into kissing you."
Nike frowned. "You're angry with me."
"Just a bit, yes. And with myself for being dumb enough to try to
outrace a naiad."
"Well, I could apologize, but I'd be lying. I don't regret kissing you
at all. You're quite good, and rather handsome," Nike said. "I like
you."
Ryo blushed slightly. "I'm not very handsome."
"Certainly you are. Not to mention, any man who could win the heart of
Lady Mercury so firmly would have to be quite remarkable." She shoved a
branch out of the way long enough for Ryo to get by.
Ryo smiled at that. "I wish I could always be so confident about it."
He looked around. "What exactly are we searching for?"
"Oh, just taking you out into the woods to seduce you," Nike said.
"..."
"I take it I'm being too honest again," she said.
"I...I don't WANT to be seduced!" Ryo said.
"Why did you come out in the woods with a beautiful woman, then?" She
paused. "Or do you think I'm ugly?" Her voice quivered.
"I thought you were going to show me something out here!"
"Earth people are just strange," Nike said, sighing. "So does seeing
someone naked on Earth really usually mean they want to have sex with
you?"
"..."
"You see..."
"Well, it can mean that, though usually you don't get naked until you
already know they want to sleep with you."
She nodded. "You'd best not come and visit any naiad cities, then."
Ryo laughed nervously. "I suppose not."
"Well, if..." She started walking again. "So, I understand you're an
oracle?"
He laughed. "You could say that. I don't have very good control yet,
but I'm going to be training with Pluto."
"So who were you in the Moon Kingdom? Anyone I would have heard of?"
He shook his head. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" she asked in surprise.
"I can't remember anything about it."
Nike frowned. "But your powers have awakened?"
"Well, yes. Shortly before the one of the Seven Shadows which had been
bound into me broke free."
Nike started. "One of them was bound inside you?"
"Along with a piece of the Silver Moon Crystal. I sometimes wonder if
maybe the monster WAS my past life." His voice was sad and soft as he
said that. "And that's why I can't remember."
"You're no monster," Nike said, taking his hand. "Lady Dia is good with
that sort of thing. She might be able to help you remember."
Ryo nodded. "Pluto told me I'd probably locked them away myself, and she
wouldn't tell me who I was."
"Now I'm curious," Nike said. "If I don't find this out, it's going to
eat away at me."
"You really think Dia could help?" And can I trust Dia not to monkey
around in my head, he asked himself. She hasn't tried anything yet,
but...
"Yes, I think she could."
"You ought to go see her right now, then," Nike said, turning around.
"No time like the present!"
"Whoa, I want to think about it some," he said.
"Don't you want to know?"
"Well, yes, but..."
"Then come on!" She dragged him along.
*********
"Well, we don't have a really formal government," Aria said to Ami.
"There's a council of really old elves who make the really big decisions,
after a few decades deliberation, after which it's usually too late.
There are a lot of kings and queens, but they come and go and they usually
only have as much power as their ability to convince people to follow them
gives them. Generally, the nobles rule, and you become a noble by
creating your own realm in the Mists of Creation."
They sat on a bench by the tennis courts, having just finished a game.
Ami asked, "And each noble makes their own laws?"
"Yes. Although some things are pretty common customs everywhere, like
challenges and duels and ordeals and so on. I think Lady Dia simply uses
the Seelie Codex for her law code." Aria stretched and stood up. "I'm
surprised you want to know all this stuff. Don't you remember it from
before?"
"No, I only remember a few things, and in twenty five thousand years,
things could have changed."
"Well, Lady Dia could help you remember. She's good with magics for the
mind."
I remember too much of Athena already, Ami thought. Although maybe she
could...no, she'd want Athena to just take over. I wish I could get her
help, but... "I don't want to just become Athena."
"As you like. Want to play another game?"
"Sure," Ami said, getting up. "Let's play."
*********
"I'm a little worried, but I think I'll ask her to see if she can unlock
my memories," Ryo said to Ami later, when they got together before dinner.
"I'm kind of curious now."
"Minako and Aria both told me Dia could help me with Athena, but I'm
worried that she may just try to make me become Athena completely," Ami
said.
He nodded. "I don't think she sees you as you are now."
"Although if I could get her to promise she won't do anything to
me...Aria told me that Elves can't break an oath."
"I've heard that about Elves," Ryo said. "But if you ask her to promise
that, she'll probably feel insulted and get mad."
"The first time I saw her...Athena just took me over. I couldn't help
myself. I'm scared of doing that again," she said softly.
Ryo put a hand on her shoulder. "I know. Well, do you want to go with
me after dinner to see her? You can watch what she does with me, see if
it seems safe."
Ami nodded. "Good idea."
*********
Lady Dia took both of them down the hallway to her sorcerous workings
chamber. It was about fifty feet across, a pentagon in shape, with a door
in each face, and a lit brazier in each corner. The floor was polished
granite with many old chalk scribblings still to be seen. A large cabinet
sat against one wall. Dia brought out three chairs from a closet, then
sat herself, Ami, and Ryo down in them. "Lady Mercury, Minako told me
you've been having problems with reconciling your past self and your
present one," Dia said.
"Just call me Ami," Ami said. "I'm not here as a Sailor Senshi."
Dia smiled. "Well, I feared you were angry with me."
"I'm not mad. I just... I don't want to hear Athena talking to me. I
don't want to be Athena."
"Why?"
"Because I like the way I am." Ami caught her eyes straying to gaze on
Dia's rather ample and exposed bosom, and forced herself to look up and
gaze into Dia's eyes. "I'm not like her. I wish I had her skills, but
she's always telling me to do things I don't want to do."
"Then why don't you just ignore her?" Dia asked.
"Because she won't shut up," Ami said.
{Because I'm telling you what you actually want to do, but you're too
scared to, or you've been taught you shouldn't,} Athena replied.
[I do NOT want to do any of the things you tell me to do!]
{Like when I gave you advice on what to do with Ryo last night? You
didn't want to do that?}
Ami blushed. [Okay, maybe a few of the things you tell me aren't bad,
but...]
"Like right now?" Dia asked softly.
Ryo sighed. "What's she doing this time?"
"Have you given her a fair chance to try out what she suggests and see
for yourself if you like them?" Dia asked.
"I know I don't want to do these things!"
"Now, now, if someone else suggests something, do you just reject it out
of hand?" Lady Dia asked.
"Well, sometimes. If I already know it's a bad idea."
{Thou art a scientist, right? Don't scientists do experiments?} Athena
said.
Ryo said, "After all, sometimes people do suggest stupid things."
"Well, I will make you an offer," Lady Dia said. "While I could seal off
Athena and all your past memories, I think it would be healthier for you,
and more permanent, if you came to terms with your past by embracing it
for a while, so you can decide what parts of it you like and which you
don't like, instead of this knee-jerk rejection of it."
"By embr..." Ami's eyes narrowed. "You don't mean letting Athena take
over for a while, do you?"
Dia shook her head. "That would not prove anything. What you need to do
is to try all the things Athena liked that you think you don't like about
her. If you like them, then you can keep doing them. If you don't like
them, then you'll know for sure. After all, you can't be sure you like
something until you try it."
There was some sense to that, Ami thought. But I don't want to cheat on
my boyfriend. "Well, the problem is that I'm dating someone, and well,
most of what Athena and I disagree on is sort of, well, umm..."
"Now, now, Ryo, you want to help Ami, don't you?"
Ryo could feel the weight of her gaze upon him. He'd never been the most
forceful of souls anyway. "Yes, I do," he said. "But I've seen Athena,
and well...I couldn't stand to watch her carry on like that."
Dia pursed her lips. "Well, if I was to just seal Athena away without
you coming to terms with how she lived and accepting that some of her
lives on in you, she'll just break out again eventually."
"I know she was me, but I just can't accept how she acted," Ami said.
"Then you'll have her in your head forever. The more you fight her, the
stronger she gets. If she wasn't telling you things you really want, I
think she'd just fade away."
"But I don't..." Ami clenched her fists. "You just want me to be Athena
because she was your lover!"
Dia just smiled, which made Ami more angry. "Yes, she was one of my
lovers. And I would not be adverse to rekindling our old relationship.
But I would advise this even if it meant you would find out you really
didn't want to be like Athena at all. I swear that. You may not like me
now, but Athena was my friend, and you are her. I do not wish to see you
suffer, and no one is supposed to have voices in their head. The more you
repress her and treat her as not being you, the longer this will last, and
the worse it will get."
"I don't want to...I mean...I can't live like Athena."
Lady Dia smiled very broadly. "If you gave me one night with you, I
could change your mind, I think."
Ami paled. "You mean to..." She could feel her pulse speed up at the
thought. I'm just nervous, she thought. Just nervous.
Ryo said fiercely, "She's my girlfriend! I can't just..."
"Oh, you could join us, of course," Dia said smoothly, turning her smile
on him. He felt his whole body tingle; some of it was glamor, but he
suspected she would have impacted him like this even without it. "I could
teach you many ways to bring your lover pleasure."
Ryo gulped and tried to pull himself together.
"I don't like women like that," Ami said weakly.
"How do you know if you haven't tried?" Dia said. "Just give me one
kiss. If you don't like it, I'll drop the entire issue."
"You've already kissed me before, but it just..."
"Didn't you tell yourself that was just Athena? And not really you?"
"Umm, well..." Ami began to sweat. "Not today. I'll think about it,
but not today."
Dia looked disappointed. "Alright. Well, then Ryo, let's see what we
can find. Just close your eyes and open your mind." She began to chant
softly.
Ryo sat nervously, listening to her chant, and wondered what it would
feel like.
Dia opened her eyes. "Impressive."
"What?"
"Your memories were sealed off. There's a wizard's mark, but I don't
recognize it."
"A what?"
"A sort of magical signature. I'll have to look it up in my books of
lore. It's part of the seal. A rather impressive one."
Ryo asked, "Do you think you can open it? Should we open it? Maybe they
were sealed off for a reason."
"I'm going to try and look up this sigil and do some research. This
should be a challenge." Lady Dia smiled. "I like challenges."
*********
The next few days drifted by lazily, lost in games and archery contests
and swimming and riding and tennis and picnics and dances. Dia had an
infinite number of diversions for them, and in all, it was a very fun
week.
One day, Dia announced at breakfast, "Today's entertainment is a
scavenger hunt." She passed out a list to all her guests. "We'll draw
names from this hat to see who pairs up with who."
Ami went first, drawing Minako's name.
Ryo drew Ami's name, had to throw it out, and drew Nike.
Steven drew Morgan's name.
Various other folk drew names and paired off.
Ami took Minako up to their room to sit down and carefully plan out where
to find everything. "A four leafed clover. A silver rose. Two blue
socks. A forget-me-not. A scoop of honey not from the kitchens. Four
inches of silia vine. A cup of salt water. A pink scarf. A hair from a
hare. Six blueberries. I think we'll have to go out in the forest for
some of these."
Minako nodded. "We should probably ransack the palace first, then head
out into the forest."
"Right. Now, let's see where we would look for these items..."
Brainstorming commenced.
*****
"Where are we going to find SALT WATER?" Morgan asked.
"Can't we just put salt in water?" Steven asked as they moved down one of
the hallways. They had secured some blueberries and blue socks and a
forget-me-not from the gardens already.
She slapped her forehead. "Yes. I think we'll have to go out in the
woods for most of these, though."
"That's true," he said. "In fact, this whole hunt seems to be designed
to enable people to go out in the woods together in pairs." He frowned
slightly.
Morgan giggled. "You're an insightful man."
"I have a knack." He sighed. "Well, maybe we'll win while they're busy
making out."
"Sounds good to me. I'm not in the mood, anyway."
"Then let's go."
*****
Nike dragged Ryo by the arm. "Come on, we'd better hurry!"
He ran along with her. "Um, where are we running to?"
"We're going to make off with Aria's scarf and socks before she remembers
she has them!"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked.
"It's not like we're going to STEAL it and keep it forever. It's a
scavenger hunt. And we have to get my silver rose, before she can make
off with it."
He nodded, though he still felt a little uncomfortable.
They soon arrived at the room Nike and Aria shared. Ryo was somewhat
surprised it wasn't underwater somehow, but it was quite dry and normal.
"I'd think you'd want a wetter room."
"Oh, I live underwater at home, but the Moon Palace didn't have any
special Naiad rooms, so I have to make do." She began rifling through the
dresser drawers. "Just poke into stuff."
So he did. "Ahah! Silver Rose!" he said, pulling the pin out from under
the bed.
"That wasn't supposed to be under the bed," she said, scratching her
head, then shrugged. "Okay, sit. I'll be done in a minute."
He sat down on the bed and waited. She finally pulled a pink scarf and
blue socks out. "There we go."
Ryo asked, "Why does she have socks? You two always wear sandals."
"Her feet get cold at night," Nike said. "So she wears socks."
"Even underwater???"
Nike came over and sat down by him. He scooted over to make room, trying
to hint. She took it. "Looks pretty silly, I have to admit."
Aria came running in with a tall nightstalker. "Excuse me!" she said,
running past them.
"Time for us to fly," Nike said, taking Ryo's hand and dragging him out
of the room, leaving Aria to tear it apart behind them.
*****
"Score one silia vine," Minako announced, slicing it off a tree. "If I
remember what they look like, anyway."
Ami took it and stuffed it into their bag. "Are you sure we shouldn't
have searched the palace first?"
"I spotted this the other day; I wanted to grab it before anyone else
could." Minako stretched in the warm sun. "Man, what a beautiful day."
Ami stretched as well. "I know."
Then Minako began tickling her. "Don't let your guard down!"
They started to wrestle; Ami dropped the bag, but it didn't help.
Eventually, Minako had her down on the ground, tickling her. "Surrender!"
"Okay, okay, you win," Ami said, still laughing. "Going to claim a
prize?"
"Hmm...how about..." Then Minako leaned down and kissed her firmly on
the lips.
Ami felt her whole body go rigid, but it swiftly relaxed. Instinctively,
she kissed back while her brain gibbered in confusion. Her arms reached
up and pulled Minako down closer, and then she parted her own lips,
sliding her tongue into Minako's mouth. This went on for several minutes,
until Ami's mental chaos calmed, and Minako fully realized what she was
doing. Her eyes widened and she pulled her head back. Ami's arms were
still wrapped around her. "Ami, I...I'm sorry, I didn't think and..."
Very faintly, Ami said, "I liked it."
"I...what?"
"I liked it. I have to admit that I liked it," she said.
Minako gulped. "I liked it too, but we have boyfriends, and..."
Ami kissed Minako softly on the lips for just a few seconds. "I know."
Then she wiggled out of Minako's grasp. "Okay, we need to talk about
this."
Minako moved into a sitting position. "Yes."
Birds chirped. Fish swam. The breeze blew.
Finally, Ami said, "It's weird. I'd expect Athena to be crowing right
now, but she isn't saying anything."
"Maybe she doesn't have anything to say," Minako said. "I didn't mean to
kiss you."
"But it happened. And I have to face it. I'm not madly in love with
you, but I do...find you attractive. And if I wasn't dating someone, I'd
want to...do more." Ami made herself turn and face Minako. "I guess I
have just been fighting it off."
"Yeah, that's how I feel too," Minako said. "It's a pity the guys
wouldn't go for a foursome. But I don't know how well it would work
without them liking each other like we like each other."
Ami nodded. "It just makes me wonder what else I've just rejected
because Athena said it which I would actually like."
"Well, experiment a little. Find out." Minako picked up a stick and
began twirling it about. "Just don't start flirting with Haruka, or
Michiru will kill you."
Ami laughed. "Yes, she would." She took Minako's hand and stood up.
"We'd better get going or we'll lose."
"BANZAI!" Minako took off running with Ami behind her. They ran and ran
and ran and then Minako stopped.
"Do you see something we need?"
"Umm...where are we? I'm lost."
"..."
*****
Nike plucked a four leafed clover and passed it to Ryo. "All we need now
is a hair from a hare." She looked around. "I don't suppose you have any
magical hare summoning abilities?"
"Not even vaguely."
"Too bad. And no useful visions of the future?"
"They never seem to come when I need or want them."
"Visions are like that." She frowned. "How to find a rabbit..."
*****
Steven jumped up and down in front of the rabbit. "Hey, look at me!"
It took off running. Morgan appeared, becoming visible, holding a hair.
"You know, it helps if you don't PANIC the rabbit."
He laughed nervously. "Wasn't sure what else to do."
"Well, we got the hair. Now we just need four leaved clovers."
"And honey."
"Hmm. I know there are some bee hives around here..."
"I am NOT going to distract the bees for you," Steven said.
Morgan grinned.
"Oh no, not the bees, not the bees!"
About twenty minutes later, Steven found himself standing in front of a
bee hive, wishing he was dead. "La, la, la!" he sung. "I'm over here!"
Then he ran like he'd never run before. He could hear the bees swarming,
but they weren't getting any closer.
He turned and looked, and then heard Morgan start yelling. Bees were
swarming around a suspiciously nightstalker shaped open space.
Smoke drives away bees, he thought. But where am I going to get a fire
around here? No time to try to make one with sticks...
And then Morgan turned visible and ran right at him. "Run! Run!!!!!!"
So he ran, with the bees chasing them both.
*****
"Are you sure this isn't cheating?" Ami asked as she used her computer to
scan for the remaining items."
"Everyone else will use their magic. You can count on that," Minako
said.
"True." She watched the computer scan. "Okay, this is very strange."
"What is?" Minako asked, staring over her shoulder.
"The nearest honey is coming closer."
"It must mean someone found some."
"Oh, that makes sense," Ami said.
"AAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!" In the distance, a wail began to rise.
"Scan for bees, Ami," Minako said.
"They're coming closer too."
Then Steven and Morgan came into sight. "Run! Run!" Steven shouted.
Ami stood and watched the bees come closer. "SHABON SPRAY!" she shouted.
A mist spread out, covering the bees, who fell unconscious to the ground.
Morgan leaned against a handy tree. "Thank you!"
Minako said, "You can thank us by sharing your honey."
Morgan stuck some of the sticky clump onto Minako's hand. "Enjoy."
"Ewwww."
"How are you two doing?" Steven asked.
"We're doing great!" Minako said. "How about you two?"
"We're close to being finished," Steven replied. He kissed Minako on the
cheek. "And now we'd better run and see if we can finish off our list."
"Us too," Minako embraced him, kissed him, then replied. "Good luck!"
And then the two pairs parted. Minako asked, "How close are they to
winning?"
"They still need a silver rose."
"Us too. So hunt one down for us."
"Will do." And Ami went to work.
*****
Ryo watched another hare bolt down a hole. "I think everyone's scared
all the rabbits."
Nike frowned, putting her hands on her hips. "Blast it, it's all we
need! We have everything else! I really want to win this!"
"Is there a prize or are you just feeling competitive today?" Ryo asked.
"Lady Dia traditionally gives a boon to the winner," Nike said.
Ryo nodded, then tried poking a stick down the hole. This accomplished
nothing. "What are you going to ask her for?"
"Advice on how best to seduce you. Lady Dia is reknowned for her..."
Ryo sighed. "I'm dating someone! I don't WANT to be seduced!"
Nike smiled at him. "You only think that now."
Now I know why some women hate men, Ryo thought. 'Cause I know a lot of
guys who take that kind of attitude with women. At least she hasn't tried
using her glamor on me to MAKE me do it. He shuddered at the thought.
"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice concerned. "You suddenly don't look
so good."
"I'm just...irritated. I don't want you to seduce me, and I MEAN it.
And don't even THINK about trying to use that Elven Glamor trick on me.
I'm...I'm wise to it."
"Now, now, I don't want to force you. I know some of our folk rely on
that too much, but I prefer to win you with my own charms, not magic."
She smiled at him, and he could feel his hormones surge just a bit against
his will. If he hadn't been dating someone, he would have welcomed her
advances, but as it was...
"You're very pretty, but I'm taken," Ryo said firmly. "Let's go hunt
more rabbits."
Her smile made it clear she hadn't dropped the subject, just delayed it.
*****
Lady Dia finished toting up the list. "Very good, Lady Mercury, Lady
Venus. You've got everything, so I declare you the winners. What boon do
you desire?"
"Boon?" Ami asked.
Lady Dia blinked. "Yes, the winners each get a boon from me."
"I suppose asking to be human again isn't an option," Minako said.
"It is beyond my power to grant," Lady Dia replied.
"Oh, I know! Your boon to me can be to get Ami's mom to ease off on her
so she won't drive Ami crazy when Ami goes back home."
Dia nodded. "Hmm, that may be difficult from what you've told me."
"Well, it's what I want. Nothing much I really need for me."
"Thanks," Ami said. "If it's really hard, maybe it should count as the
boon for both of us."
"No, no, feel free to ask something else for yourself," Dia said. Her
eyes made it clear what she was hoping Ami would ask for.
"I'm going to have to think about it," Ami said.
"Alright. Don't forget there's a dance tomorrow night. And you promised
to play chess with me in the morning."
"I won't forget," Ami promised.
********
Later, that night, Ryo found himself out in the gardens with Minako.
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.
The Earth hung in the sky like a giant moon, making the night quite
bright. Minako gazed up at it for a little while, then turned back to
him. "Ryo, do you think I'm cute?"
"Yeah, you're cute," Ryo said. She called me out here to ask me this?
She smiled brightly. "Thanks. You're pretty cute too."
And then it sank in. Oh great, I think she's called me out here to
seduce me, he thought. Okay, it's flattering, but...
She stepped closer to him. "Well, I owe you a kiss, since it wouldn't be
fair of me to kiss just one of you, so..."
Ryo blinked. Kiss just one of...oh. His brain took just long enough to
figure out what she meant that when Minako swept him into an embrace and
her glamor rushed over him, he didn't have time to say anything. Once it
hit him, his mental defenses quietly collapsed, and he quite willingly
(for some values of 'willing') let her kiss him quite fiercely.
The rush of the glamor receded as his conscience chimed in, and pretty
quickly, he pulled back from her. "Minako, what are you doing???"
"Well, Ami and I made out for a little while in the woods, so it's only
fair that I make out with you for a while to restore the karmic balance."
"..."
"We kind of sort of made out for a while, then decided it was a bad idea,
since we're both dating someone else, and you and Steven don't want to
make out like mad weasels like we do, and therefore, it couldn't work to
pile us all four in one bed, even though the thought of it is making me
kind of hot, plus you smell nice." Minako kissed Ryo's throat on the left
side. "Although if you do want to make out with Steven too, just say the
word and we can all fit in my bed, I think."
"..."
Minako started to unbutton Ryo's shirt, following her nimble finger
movements up with kisses. "Although we could always just try trading off
one night, or finding each of you a second girlfriend, just to be fair."
Ryo could feel himself getting turned on, and her glamor was beating
against his mind. It was hard to think coherently. "Minako, is Ami doing
this with Steven right now?"
"Well, I...dammit, I forgot to plan this out with her like I meant to!"
She stopped unbuttoning his shirt. "Having mad passionate sex with you
while Ami ISN'T having mad passionate sex with Steven would just make
things more unbalanced. I knew I forgot something."
Ryo jumped back and buttoned his shirt. "Minako, you have to think
before you act."
"You're right. Let's go find them and have mad passionate sex AFTER we
all talk." She took his hand and dragged him off.
********
Dr. Mizuno checked on another of her patients, Kameko, who was napping.
The bruises she'd had when she was brought in for her latest round of
treatments were fading, thankfully. She had her suspcions about their
origins, but without any proof, there wasn't anything she could do about
it.
Supposedly, Kameko had fallen down the stairs shortly before coming to
the hospital because she 'didn't want to go there, so she ran off and
fell'. Dr. Mizuno would have believed it if Kameko hadn't had bruises the
previous times she'd been brought in as well.
There was just something about Kameko's mother as well. The woman
usually ended up bickering with her daughter about how poorly she was
doing in school, as if a child who had to miss school for medical
treatments could be expected to do as well as others who did not.
Kameko's mother had very high expectations, higher than a sick child could
reasonably meet. And she was very harsh about enforcing them.
Thinking about that stirred up more uncomfortable thoughts for Dr. Mizuno
as well. Am I being too harsh on Ami, she wondered. I would never hit
her, ever, but I just can't let her throw away her life like she's been
trying to do.
I just want what's best for her, she thought. Not a life full of
monster-
fighting. What if she got hurt? Dr. Mizuno couldn't bear the thought of
her child getting hurt or dying. Surely it is necessary for her to
endanger herself like that.
Then the worry crossed her mind. What if I push Ami into running away?
She'd watched too many TV movies about teen runaways to ever want that to
happen. The thought of her daughter ending up as a prostitute or worse to
support herself horrified Dr. Mizuno.
I'm just being silly, she thought. Ami is too sensible to run away.
But the thought nagged at her. I can't let her get caught up in that
life of danger again, she thought. But if I keep pushing her as hard as I
have, what if it gets to be too much?
She was shaken out of her reverie by a nurse's arrival. "Here's the test
results, Dr. Mizuno."
"Thanks," she said. "Can you check on Ken?"
"Of course I will." The nurse headed off across the ward, and Dr. Mizuno
turned from contemplation back to her work.
********
Ami sat back to let the program compile. "So why did you ask me to scan
for monsters, Steven?" she asked.
"Just a moment of paranoia. A lot of these alternate time areas have
been attacked, according to Derith, and I'm just worried something might
be coming for this one." Steven got out a deck of cards and started
shuffling. "Still thinking about what to ask Dia for?"
Ami nodded. "I'm not sure what to ask for. I think Dia is right about
sealing off Athena being a bad idea. I just need to come to terms with
her on my own." She got up and stretched, then spent a while shaking one
foot, as it had fallen asleep. "Which may not be as hard as I thought it
would."
Steven blinked. "What makes you think that?"
"Well, I found out today..." She blushed. "Umm...did Minako tell you
yet?"
Steven frowned now, putting the cards aside. "No."
"Umm, well, you know Athena and Inanna were, well...they sometimes shared
men or...each other..." Ami could feel her new sense of confidence
wilting under the power of his frown. "And, well, Minako and I ended up
kissing and trying to talk about how we felt about each other."
"No, she didn't tell me about that," Steven said, then sighed. "I should
have known better than to let Minako come here. Or else stayed home
myself and just not asked what she did. I know it's hard for her to
control herself, but...I just can't cut loose like that. I almost wish I
could. If we were both running around wild, neither of us would have to
feel guilty about it. But I'm just a stick in the mud."
Ami shook her head, getting up and coming over to sit down by him on the
edge of the bed. "No, it means you're a good guy, and Minako is lucky to
have someone who wouldn't cheat on her. A lot of guys would just run wild
here."
"I can't pretend I haven't been tempted," Steven said. "Although Morgan
hasn't been half-jumping on me the way Nike keeps doing with Ryo." He
sighed. "So what did you two...decide?"
"There's a lot of feelings there, but it's not viable under the current
circumstances," Ami replied. "Athena and Inanna could handle it because
they only both had permanent boyfriends at the same time once, and that
was Kunzite and Zoicite, who liked each other too. Since you and Ryo
aren't into men, the four of us couldn't make it work. So we decided we
wouldn't do that again. And it made me realize that I do like women like
that. Which makes me wonder what else I might enjoy that Athena is always
telling me to do."
"Are you sure this isn't going to lead to, well...Athena taking over?"
"I've been running away. Once I try things for myself, I'll know what's
part of me, and what's just a memory of things I've outgrown," Ami said.
"And then I'll be free to just be myself." She stood up and stretched.
Then Minako and Ryo came in. "Ahh, here you guys are. I thought you
were reading in our room, Steven," Minako said.
"I had an idea, and I went over to ask Ami to scan for monsters. I'm a
little worried there's going to be an attack."
"Did you see some out in the woods?" Minako asked, sounding worried.
"No, but I was thinking about what Derith told us about the attacks at
some of the other places like this. Just paranoia." He turned and looked
at Minako. "Ami told me about you two making out in the woods."
Minako blushed. "We tripped and fell down, and sort of...yes. Yes, we
did." She sighed. "Maybe we'd better just go home, Steven. I'm having a
lot of fun, but I can't really run wild here any more than I can at home
without ending up cheating on you. I don't want to, but I just... This
isn't fair to you."
"Well, at least here it won't have any long term consequences. Except
for me going insane," Steven said.
"Umm, should we, like, go, and let you two discuss this privately?" Ryo
asked.
"This is Ami's room," Minako said. "So WE should go. But first, you
need to kiss Ami to restore the karmic balance. As I've kissed Ryo
already."
"But then, wouldn't Ryo and I have to kiss each other to fully restore
the balance?" Steven asked sarcastically.
"Dammit! You're right!" Minako began to pace. "Hmm, I could shoot you
two with my bow just long enough for one good kiss, then undo it..."
"Except something would go wrong, and I'd be in love with Ami's computer,
while Ryo would be filled with mad desire for the door or something,"
Steven replied.
Minako sighed. "I'll never get good with this bow if no one ever lets me
shoot them with it." She summoned it up. "I'll be really, really
careful!"
{Don't let her do it. That thing is dangerous,} Athena said.
"Even Athena thinks it's a bad idea," Ami said.
"Hrmph." Minako sat down on the floor and pouted.
This is just driving me nuts, Steven thought. Now I'm going to be
paranoid all the time about whether those two are smooching every time
they're off together. I wish I could just beat up whoever exactly turned
Minako into an elf. I ought to try asking Dia; she probably recommended
it be done.
********
"Lord Eien used the wand, but yes, it was done at our advice."
"And there's no way to undo it," Steven said.
"Given we did it a permanent way, there's no way that I know of," Dia
said.
They were in one of her lounges, a room in shades of blue and green with
very comfortable furniture.
"There has to be some way."
"I suppose a human sufficiently skillful in magic of shapechanging could
do it, but I don't believe any such human exists," Dia says. "Nor is one
likely to appear any time soon." She looked thoughtful. "The Elders
might know a way, but I don't think you could rely on them enough to be
sure they wouldn't get confused and think she wants to be a badger,
unfortunately. Hmm...there is one option."
"What? I'll try anything," Steven said.
"Well, It's not exactly the solution you're thinking of, but...we could
make you into an elf too."
"..."
"We normally refrain from doing such, especially with people who aren't
as suited to it as Minako is. Even with those who are suited, it is a
gift rarely given. The Council of Elders has to approve the use of such
options; they gave Eien the wand. But if the Senshi Venus petitions the
council, it could be done."
"But I don't want to be an Elf. I want to be human," Steven said.
"It is hard for an Elf and a human to have a relationship," Dia said.
"And often it ends in tragedy. It may well be the best solution. But I
can understand. I would not want to become human any more than you want
to be an Elf. But while you're here...I understand you can't remember
your life in the Silver Millennium."
"Yep. Assuming I even had one."
"True. You might well be once-born. If you like, I could try to give
you access to the memories."
He thought for a moment, studying her. His powers gave him no hint of
deceit from her. She's not after me or Minako anyway, he thought. Heck,
why not? "Sure, let's do it."
Dia smiled. "Alright, close your eyes and open your mind."
"How do I open your mind?"
"Just don't resist me," she said, getting up and coming over to him and
placing her fingertips on his forehead.
He closed his eyes, listening to her chant seeming nonsense syllables.
His head began to tingle.
"Now, I'm suspicious," Dia said as the tingling stopped.
"What?" Steven asked, not liking her tone.
"Your memories are sealed as well. And the same person did it."
"What?"
"If I have identified the sigil correctly, it was Tilerna the Time
Priest. Which would be a bit of a trick."
"Why?"
"He died during the fall of the Silver Millennium."
"That would be quite a trick."
"I know. However, I think I know how to break through this."
"You THINK you know," he said, warily.
"I've been doing some studying; Tilerna had a reputation for doing this
for people or to people."
"So who was he?" Steven asked.
"He was a mysterious priest who was rumored to have been Pluto's
sometimes lover. He wandered around meddling, telling people things were
their destiny, and hiding various secrets in an irritating manner."
"Perfect for Pluto, then."
Dia laughed. "I suppose so. What she did to poor Lord Eien..." She
shook her head. "Anyway, do you want me to try?"
"What could happen if this goes wrong?"
"Probably I'll just fail with no side effects. There's some risk of your
memories getting jumbled, but I should be able to avoid that."
Steven frowned and tried to decide if it was worth his. His curiosity
was aroused now, though. "Well, try."
"Okay, let's try again."
His head started to feel fuzzy, and then to ache. He could sense the
magic flowing into his brain somehow, and in some way he didn't
understand, he knew she wasn't doing anything she shouldn't. Of course,
it was possible she was making him 'sense this' to cover up real monkey
business, but Steven had learned to trust his magical intuitions.
And then the memories rushed over him.
******
"Maglan-chan!" Two arms folded around Lt. Maglan from behind. "Wait for
me!"
"I couldn't wait any longer for you to come out of the privy," Lt. Maglan
said to his partner, a female elf named Gwynnaefael. "We were supposed to
meet Senshi Venus twenty minutes ago."
"Oh, but she's always thirty minutes late," Lt. Gwynnaefael replied.
Like Lt. Maglan, the blue-haired Sidhe was a member of the Solar Patrol.
She began to play with his short black hair. "Are you mad at me again?"
"Captain Derkin will have our heads if this goes awry because we missed
our rendevous with Senshi Venus," Maglan replied. "We're both about three
inches away from him killing us most of the time, anyway." Although, from
his past dealings with Senshi Venus, he had to admit she was probably
right about Venus being late. He liked Senshi Venus, but she was as
flighty as Gwynnaefael at times. Probably because she'd grown up among
Elves, here in Tradetown, he assumed.
"That's because Dwarves are cranky and don't know how to have fun,"
Gwynnaefael said. She began striding along at high speed. Despite being
nearly a foot taller than the fairly short elf, Maglan had to scramble to
keep up with her. "Hmmm..."
Maglan had learned from experience that whenever Gwynnaefael said
"Hmmm...," trouble was sure to follow. He dodged passing elves and
humans, and continued to follow her through the streets of Tradetown, the
human trading enclave on Venus.
Most of Venus was given over to all the various faerie races, but the
humans maintained a fair sized city for trading with the fae folk. It was
policed by the local watch, and by the Solar Patrol, the interplanetary
police force maintained jointly by the Five Kingdoms. Most of the major
work of the Solar Patrol was done in the Outer Planets, but there was a
small force of them based at Tradetown, each selected because they had
some advantage in dealing with Elven criminals. Many of them, like
Gwynnaefael, were in fact Elves. In Maglan's case, he had the Sight,
enabling him to see through Elven glamors. In fact, he had it incredibly
powerfully, considering that his magical skills were otherwise fairly
poor. He'd been teamed with Gwynnaefael because her magical powers were
quite vast, and because his common sense restrained her natural elven
flightiness.
They reached Blue Plaza, but Senshi Venus was no where in sight. "See, I
told you!" Gwynnaefael said. "Now you owe me a kiss."
He blushed slightly. "Patrolmen shouldn't be seen smooching on duty."
"Well, then, I'm going to get to dress you up tonight," she announced.
"You'll have to pay interest on this kiss, bucko!"
He wondered again what a bucko was. "Shouting about it in public is even
worse."
She frowned. "I looked it up, and the regulations don't say ANYTHING
about that."
"..."
Grinning, she sat down on one of the benches in the center of the Plaza
around the statue of King Tirazzar III. "I went and looked up everything
in the regulations, and as long as we don't get naked in public, anything
else goes. Well, and don't neglect our duties." She patted the bench
next to her. "Sit, boyfriend, sit."
He came over and sat down by her, putting an arm around her shoulders.
She sighed happily and snuggled up to him. Part of him was sure that
being his partner's lover was probably a bad idea, even if the regulations
didn't actually forbid it. It drove Captain Derkin insane; on the other
hand, just about everything drove Captain Derkin insane.
Another part knew from experience that dating an Elf was a rollercoaster
ride between ecstasy and heartbreak and back again. The Elven definition
of faithfulness was the lover who came back to you after a fling with
someone else, not the lover who never had flings with other people. He'd
been young and cocky and horny enough when he'd first started this with
her not to mind, and even to enjoy their various 'side ventures', but now
he was starting to wish it could be just the two of them. Like right now.
He decided to give her the kiss she'd asked for right now.
But as he leaned over, a hand came over his eyes and over Gwynnaefael's as
well. "Zap, you're dead," Senshi Venus said, giggling, then took her hand
off their eyes. "I see you two made up."
"Oh, we always make up," Gwynnaefael replied. "No point in having a
quarrel if you don't kiss and make up afterwards. So did you and Kunzite
really get engaged?"
Senshi Venus nodded. "Yep! We still need to set a date, but..." She
smiled rapturously. "You guys ready to go smite some evil?"
Maglan reached down to his belt, and made sure his maklar, a thick magical
rod which could also transform into a fighting staff, was actually there.
His previous mission had gone horribly when he'd accidentally reversed
where his lightrod and his maklar hung from his belt and then had tried to
stop a charging ogre with a flimsy crystal rod. That had, to say the
least, not gone well. "I'm ready. So how did you get called in on this
anyway? Captain Derkin was so mad at the elves calling in someone from
outside the Patrol to deal with this that he didn't do a very good job of
explaining WHY they called you in."
"Well, you see, the Dream producers have been buying up bulk quantities of
love potions." She brandished her bow. "I can counteract that or turn it
against them if I need to. So the Elders called me in. Plus, I think
they know something they aren't telling us that also led them to call me
in."
"Such as these people having some major monster that takes a Senshi to
stop enslaved by the love potions?" Gwynnaefael speculated.
"Yeah, Artemis thought that too," she said.
"So where is Artemis?" Maglan asked.
"He's off trying to talk to some cats he knows. He'll hook up with us
later."
"Right," Maglan said. "Then let's get going."
*******
Steven felt the rush of the memories as his past life fell into place.
He'd been born on Ganymede. A strange man in green robes had come to his
namegiving ceremony, and blessed him with the Sight for reasons
unexplained; he'd never seen the man again, nor had his family. That had
launched him on the path that had eventually led him into the Solar
Patrol, where, after a year at the Solar Patrol Academy, he'd been
partnered with Gwynnaefael and assigned to the Tradetown beat, due to his
special talent.
They'd been partners and lovers for several years before... before...
He frowned. "I can't remember how I died," he said.
"Some of these are very well sealed off," Dia said, sounding frustrated.
"I have to admit I'm impressed by Tilerna's skill, especially considering
this must have faded some in the last twenty five thousand years."
I wonder if she's still alive, he thought. Or if she even remembers me.
"Dia, can I ask you a question?"
"Hmm?"
"How is that after twenty five thousand years, you can still remember
anything at all from the Silver Millenium? It just seems like an awfully
long time to remember anything."
"Elves have infinitely better memories than humans, though we have to put
more effort into it. Even people from thousands of years ago will
register dimly, and if I concentrate for a while, it will all come back to
me. On the other hand, we sometimes don't pay enough attention to
remember things as well as we could. Are you wondering if some elf you
knew then would remember you now?"
"And how you remembered Ami after all these years."
"If something is important to one of us, we will never forget it, ever.
Even if we should, like Lord Eien and Pluto."
"You wouldn't happen to know a Sidhe named Gwynnaefael, would you?"
"Doesn't sound very familiar...wait, was she in the Solar Patrol?"
"Yes," he said.
"Haven't heard anything from her in thousands of years. I dimly remember
her family being very proud she'd made it into the Solar Patrol; most
Elves washed out of the Academy, if I remember correctly. Too much
discipline. Were you in the Solar Patrol with her?"
"I was her partner," Steven said, leaving out the 'and her lover' part.
"Ahh," she said. "Well, I don't think there's anything I can do to get
those last few memories unlocked without more study. I may have to make
some inquiries."
He got up. "Well, I still have some quest...oh, here's something. Can
you think of any Silver Millenium wizard types in green robes?
Apparently, one of them came to my naming ceremony when I was Maglan, and
gave me the Sight, somehow."
Her eyes widened slightly. "One of the Three?"
"The three what?"
"The THREE. Three powerful beings who advised the rulers of the Star
Kingdom and helped to maintain the Great Shield. I don't know very much
about them, but I know one of them wore green robes and was said to be in
some sense 'the master of the present'. There may be more to be found in
my library."
"I think I'll take a look tomorrow," he said. "Wait...was one connected
to the past and one to the future, then?"
She nodded. "I'm not sure whether they had actual time powers, or that
was just intended to be enigmatic and spooky."
Seeing what is, what I do, that could be seen as mastery of the present,
in a sense, Steven thought. But why did he give me that power? "Thanks
for helping me," he said.
"You're welcome. If you see Ami, remind her we have a chess game
tomorrow morning."
"I will," Steven said.
***********
"So, spill the beans," Minako said, tugging Steven's arm. "What did you
find out?"
"Well, apparently, some of my memories were sealed so well, Dia can't get
into them. But I was Lt. Maglan of the Solar Patrol."
Minako's eyes widened. "Oooh, I remember him now! His girlfriend was a
real flake."
"Pot, meet kettle," Ryo said, smiling.
They were in Steven and Minako's room. Steven and Minako were sitting on
the bed, while Ryo and Ami were in chairs.
"Nyaaah," Minako said. "Even as an elf, I'm less flaky than she was."
She paused. "I hope. Although, when it was important, she was pretty
without it. With it. Whatever."
"Well, Maglan dated Gwynnaefael for several years and kept his sanity, so
that gives me more hope for us." Steven kissed Minako on the cheek.
"Though he was a bit more of a wild man than I am."
"Good," Ami said. "And Minako will settle down more in just a few
months, anyway."
"Have you figured out what you want for a boon from Dia yet?"
"Not yet," Ami said. "I'm going to think about it some more."
Minako yawned. "Time for this happy camper to go to happy camperland."
Ami got up, taking Ryo's hand. "See you tomorrow."
"Bye-bye!"
********
Dia sat by the chessboard, contemplating strategies and waiting for Ami
to arrive. Her mind hazed by thoughts of openings, she didn't realize
anyone was there until Ami tapped her on the shoulder and kissed her
cheek. "Good morning, Dia," Ami said.
Ami then went over and sat down opposite her. She was dressed rather
more scantily than Dia had come to expect from her reincarnated friend, as
her blouse was unbuttoned almost all the way to her waist, and her skirt
came down only to mid-thigh. Dia rather liked what she saw, and hoped it
was an omen of things to come. Perhaps she's finally realized she's been
too much of a prude in this life, Dia thought.
Dia held out two hands. "Pick one."
Ami picked the left hand. "Ahh, black."
"And white for me."
They set up their pieces, and then Dia suggested, "Shall we make a
wager?"
"Sure," Ami said. "Do you have something specific in mind?"
"I would like a kiss from you," Dia said. "Should I win."
"And if I win, I want your help in trying to figure out how to duplicate
these healing organisms I picked up on a recent adventure."
Dia frowned. "That sounds like a lot of work."
"It is a lot of work," Ami said. "But I think I could do a lot of good
with them if I knew how to make more."
"It's worth rather more than a single kiss," Dia protested. "If I must
pay that much, then you should match what I'm putting up."
Ami looked very nervous for a moment, then nodded. "Well, what would you
consider a fair counter prize?"
"One night of passion with you," Dia said, grinning. "You can bring your
boyfriend if you like."
Ami stared at the board thoughtfully, then said, "Alright."
Dia smiled broadly. "I see you have loosened up."
Ami smiled a confident smile. "I simply don't intend to lose."
"Neither do I," Dia replied.
As the game progressed, Dia found it hard to concentrate on the present,
because Ami kept moving in ways that drew her eyes to her old lover's body
and evoking memories of fun times with Athena. Much to her
disappointment, Ami hardly seemed distracted at all by Dia's own figure,
and she wondered what was wrong.
And Ami had gotten better. Or perhaps Athena had thrown some of their
past games. As the game progressed, Dia soon found herself getting
crushed. She began to take bigger risks, and most of them didn't pay off.
Finally, she could see the end of the line approaching. I have to do
something, Dia thought.
"Hmm, I feel a bit hot," Dia said. "You just think about your next move,
while I change into something cooler."
She went to her closet and selected an outfit, then stripped right in
front of Ami, watching her reactions in the mirror she used to change.
Ami began to blush, which pleased Dia. I CAN get a reaction out of her.
She must just be very focused on the game.
Dia sauntered back, then waited for Ami to finish her move.
This seemed to help a little, but not enough. Dia took one of Ami's
bishops, but lost a knight and a rook in the process. This wasn't going
to be enough.
Maybe I can slip a spectral piece or two onto the board, Dia thought.
Then again, Athena could usually see through my tricks like those. There
has to be SOMETHING. If I'm chained to the lab, I'll go mad. I could try
turning the board around...no, wrong game.
A gambit came to mind, so she moved out a pawn, hoping to lure Ami's
Queen into a trap. To her surprise, Ami moved her Queen to take the pawn.
"Check."
"Aha!" She began to move the supporting pawn to take it. "Got you!"
Ami shook her head. "My rook will be open to take your King if you move
that pawn, so you can't move it."
"But then, next turn, you'll take my pawn and checkmate me!"
Ami examined the board. "Well, not immediately. I think it'll take a
few more moves after that."
"Alright, you beat me this time. Give me another chance! Double or
nothing!"
"How exactly are you going to double your stake?" Ami asked.
"I'll give you my magic sword, Mynfar, to give to your boyfriend." I
haven't drawn the thing in a hundred years anyway, Dia thought.
"Alright. Let's play," Ami said.
Eight hours and three more games later, Dia still had yet to win, though
she had worked herself up into a properly obsessive frenzy. She'd gambled
away her lab services, her magic sword, a silver figurine that transformed
into a winged horse on command, and a wand that could call down lightning
from clouds. Dia tried to weigh whether her entire wardrobe would be
worth risking to try to cancel her debt she now owed.
Ami stood up and stretched. "That's enough chess for one day for me."
"We have to play again!" Dia protested.
"I need to go change for dinner and the ball," Ami said. "But thanks for
playing with me. It was lots of fun. What time tomorrow do you want to
start our lab work?"
Dia sagged. "You tricked me!"
"You're the one who wanted to gamble."
"You knew I'd want to! That's why you dressed like that!"
Ami shook her head. "No, I decided I wanted to see if I'd enjoy dressing
like this. I'm trying to find out how much of what Athena is always
telling me really is right."
Dia nodded. "So, are you enjoying it?"
"Well, it does seem to have its uses."
Dia snorted.
Ami smiled at her. "Well, all I really want is your help in the lab, as
I still don't remember most of my old alchemy. You can keep the rest of
the things you gambled away." She looked down at herself, and said, "Did
I really affect your game that much?"
Dia sighed. "I'm just disappointed I didn't effect you much."
"Well, getting naked did distract me for a while," Ami said, blushing a
little.
Dia stalked over to her, putting a hand on Ami's shoulder and leaning her
face close to Ami's. "Athena, why are you so cool to me in this life?"
Her voice was fraught with passion and she looked close to tears.
"My name is not Athena, and I have a boyfriend who I happen to be in love
with!" Ami said. "I'm not going to cheat on him no matter how tempting
you are to me!"
Dia's tears vanished. "So you do find me attractive."
"Yes! But I've made a commitment to Ryo, so I'm not going to ACT on it,"
Ami replied, folding her arms over her chest. "And don't you even DARE
think about trying to break me and Ryo up."
Dia frowned. "You wound me by..."
"Like you did with Aresia and Malpan."
"Like you can talk about breaking people up! What about Lady Fortitude
and Berek, hmm? Dia sounded rather angry now. "I seem to remember
someone who had little regard for marital bonds, let alone mere lovers."
"I never once broke someone up who knew true love! And all of my married
lovers were in marriages of convenience, so it didn't count! A marriage
for political advantage is no true union of love! And their wives usually
had lovers too!" Now Ami was getting angry.
"You aren't even giving me a chance!"
"When did I ever agree to give you a chance? We swore no oaths! We
pledged no bond! I don't think you've spent the last twenty five thousand
years waiting for me! You're in NO POSITION to be angry because I won't
hop into bed with you like I was in heat every minute of the day!"
"I am not a rutting animal!"
"That's true! Animals can't help it! You could, but you're just a
slut!"
"Big words from the pot to the kettle!" Dia shouted back.
"I am not a slut!"
"If you hadn't died, you'd have been with MORE men and women than me over
the last twenty five thousand years! You spread your legs more freely
than I!"
Ami slapped Dia. Dia slapped Ami. And pretty soon they were rolling
around on the floor beating the hell out of each other. Finally, Ami
ended up shirtless and pinned to the floor by Dia, who was taller and
stronger than her. Dia hadn't started with much clothing, and she had
even less left now. For a few seconds, Dia glared at her, then she
sighed, let go of Ami's arms, and rocked back into a squatting position.
"This is ridiculous," she said.
"I'm sorry I slapped you," Ami said. "I just...I'm not the same as
Athena, and it drives me crazy when you treat me like I am." She sighed.
"I shouldn't have come here. I'm sure this must be hard for you, seeing
an old lover with someone else."
"I'm sorry I hit you as well," Dia said. "It has just...it has been so
long. I cannot say Athena was the love of my life, but we were good
friends, and I have missed her greatly. I did not think there was any
chance of seeing her again, for normally, when mortals are reborn, they
remember nothing of the past." She got up and picked up her clothing,
putting it back on. "And our kind is easily prone to obsessions."
Ami picked up and put on her blouse, buttoning more of it, but not all
the way up, this time. "If I didn't have a boyfriend, I'd be open to a
closer relationship with you, Dia. And I hope we can be friends. But I
can't give you what you want. I have Athena's needs. I can't deny that.
But I'm not Athena, and I don't satisfy them the same way."
Dia sat down on the bed. "Why have you changed so?" she asked softly.
"I'd like to think I learned a few lessons that Athena didn't," Ami said.
"But I guess it's mostly because I grew up differently than she did.
Even though my parents got divorced, I'm not as disparaging of marriage as
she was. And even Athena eventually found someone to marry."
"Who killed her," Dia said dolefully. "I could not save her." She
shrank in on herself a bit. "And the Elders chose to withdraw, to run
away and leave everyone else to their fate."
Ami sat down next to her. "Well, we're not going to lose this time."
"The Moon Kingdom fell, and it was stronger than a handful of warriors,"
Dia said, turning to her. "Do you really think you can win?"
"We have to," Ami said. "And we've seen the future. We know we'll
create a better world. So don't worry about us."
"I have seen dark omens in the future, Ami. The future is not set in
stone. You can't be sure that future will come to pass. And I would not
bear to see you fall again."
Ami patted her on the shoulder. "Have faith in us. We'll win. My
boyfriend isn't going to kill me this time, either."
"I don't think he could if he tried," Dia said. "Unless he has vast
powers sealed away in those blocked off memories."
Ami frowned. "Tilerna the Time Priest...I know he and Pluto sometimes
worked together. He was very, very obnoxious, what with his constant
babbling about how the future couldn't be changed and how he was the
incarnation of fate and all that."
"You knew him?"
"Vaguely. He was from the Star Kingdom, and he could see into the
future, though he couldn't time travel like Pluto did. Usually, he wore
this horrible purple outfit with gold trim, and..."
"He could see into the future like Ryo does?" Dia asked.
"Y... You think he might have passed his powers on to Ryo or something?"
"Perhaps he sealed away his own memories so that he could be reborn AS
Ryo."
"Ryo could never be that obnoxious," Ami said, then thought about the
events surrounding when she first met him. "But why would he seal his own
memories?"
"Perhaps he saw it as necessary. Or perhaps he would normally have been
reborn with full memories, and he needed to forget everything so that he
could take on a new identity. Or maybe he just wanted to forget the
things he had done." Dia frowned. "I'm also wondering why certain of
Steven's memories were locked away better than others."
"Perhaps Tilerna foresaw that someone would try to unlock them, and knew
only a few would have to stay hidden at that point."
Dia nodded. "They seem to relate to his death? Why hide it?"
"I don't know," Ami said. She got up. "I really need to go change."
"And I as well. Will you dance with me tonight?"
"Yes, I will," Ami said, holding out a hand to her.
Dia took the hand, and Ami pulled her up to a standing position. "I
apologize for hitting you," Ami said. "Friends?"
"Apology accepted, and I am sorry I hit you as well, my friend."
Ami leaned forward and kissed Dia's cheek. "Then I'll see you later,
Dia."
"See you."
Dia watched her go and wondered what was to come.
*******
The ballroom bustled with brightly colored clothing and brightly colored
people as the music played and the fair folk danced. Steven did his best
to guide Minako, who kept getting a bit too wild for the remarkably calm
dances. His feet were starting to hurt from repeated crushings, however.
Thus, when Lord Fishrun cut in, he was quite happy to let the man swoop
off with Minako while he retreated to a chair to sip lemonade and let his
feet stop hurting.
And then two hands clamped over his eyes, and a woman's voice said
cheerfully, "Guess who."
He would have assumed Minako, but it wasn't her voice. I know this
voice, he thought. But who is it? "Ami?" he guessed.
"No," the woman said.
"Morgan?"
"No."
"Nike?"
"No." The woman started to sound just a little aggravated he couldn't
guess who she was.
A sudden nervous thought came to him. "You're not Polly, are you?"
She sighed. "Have you forgotten me?"
Oh great, he thought. Must be some elf I've met here, but... And then
he suddenly recognized her perfume. "Gwynnaefael?" How did she find me?
"You remembered! It is you!" she said, then took the hands off his eyes
and embraced him from behind, placing her head next to his. "Oh, Maglan,
I never thought I'd see you again."
Steven didn't know what to say. "I never thought I'd see you again,
either," he replied. "But I'm named Steven now."
"Did you get bored of your old name?" she asked.
"I died and was reborn, and no one is named Maglan these days," Steven
said.
She pulled him to his feet. "Dance with me, now," she commanded.
"Do you promise not to stomp on my feet?" he asked.
"I promise," she said.
They moved onto the dance floor, getting into a dancing position. Unlike
Minako, she was an excellent dancer, moving fluidly and gracefully, and
never crushing his feet. In fact, he quickly came to the conclusion she
probably knew more about these dances than he did, as he knew only the
basics of ballroom dancing, which Polly had crammed down his throat back
when they had kind of sort of gone out.
It didn't help that he could just look at Gwynnaefael and tell she wanted
to go back to things being the way between them that they had been before
Maglan died. How could she still be in love with me after twenty five
thousand years? he asked himself. Elves were usually far more fickle than
that. Sure, they could sometimes become obsessive, and he remembered from
his time in Tradetown that some Elves really did have fairly long lasting
relationships, but...he couldn't even remember some of the people he'd
been in Kindergarten with ten years ago. Let alone so long.
"C'mon, you can dance better than this," she said. "Let's try a four-
corners step."
He felt embarrassed. "I haven't had much ballroom dance training in this
life, and the dances I remember from the Silver Millenium aren't what
everyone's doing right now."
"Well, I'll teach you," she said.
Steven had a good memory, and after a few tunes, he'd picked up a lot
more moves from Gwynnaefael's teaching. He also needed to sit down for a
few minutes, and said so.
"Alright, let's sit," she said.
They went and got some punch, and Steven pulled out a chair for her, and
another for himself. She pulled her chair right over next to his, then
sat down, holding his hand. "You're younger than I remember."
"That's because I died and was reborn, and I'm only sixteen," Steven
said.
She looked embarrassed. "I never thought of that. Mortals get reborn as
babies, yes. It's been a while since I've been out in the mortal world."
"I have to ask you a question," Steven said. "But I'm afraid it will
sound rude."
"I didn't forget about our promise to get married," Gwynnaefael said.
"Even though you told me I shouldn't just wither away waiting for you to
come back. So, I won't pretend I haven't had any lovers. I've had a lot
of them. Especially right after you died. I was distraught for decades."
She shook her head. "So if you're afraid I'll be mad because you had a
girlfriend in this life before or something, I won't get mad." She
paused. "You're not mad at me, are you?"
He felt both relieved and panicked. He was glad she hadn't just been
wasting away for 25,000 years. "I'm not mad at you." Okay, he thought.
Now, just tell her you're engaged to Minako. And that you can't marry
her. Even though she must have loved you enough to remember for 25,000
years. "I just...I'm kind of surprised you still remember me after all
those years."
"I promised to marry you. And after you died, I swore an oath that I
would never forget. And so I didn't," she said. "I suppose we'll need to
wait until you're eighteen, though."
He gulped. "Well, you see..."
"Well, it doesn't mean we can't enjoy each other's company until then.
So how did you get to Avalon, anyway? Lady Dia didn't tell me."
"I came here with...Senshi Venus and Senshi Mercury. They teleported.
Their names are Minako and Ami now."
"Ooh, I see Mercury right over there," she said, pointing to Ami, who was
dancing with a satyr. "So you're all sixteen now?"
He nodded.
"Did Senshi Venus really get turned into an elf like I heard?" she asked.
"Yes. And..."
"And, you know, we haven't kissed properly, yet." She rectified this by
rising, sitting in his lap, turning, and kissing him passionately. His
body moved on instinct, embracing her, and he reciprocated the kiss, as
memories of his past with her flitted through his head. "Hmm, you will
need further training," she said afterwards.
"Gwynnaefael, I can't marry you," he said.
"I know, you're too young. But what's two years? An eyeblink." She
paused. "Oh, wait, don't tell me your new mortal family has engaged you
to someone to cement some political alliance?" Her voice was tense.
"I'm engaged to Senshi Venus," he said. "I'm sorry. I didn't remember
anything about my past life until just yesterday night. So I fell in love
with Minako and we got engaged."
"How could you not remember?" she asked. "I remembered! I finally
remembered something! I made myself remember!"
"Tilerna the Time Priest sealed away my memories," he said.
She growled. "That bastard! If I get my hands on him, I'll rip out his
heart!"
Steven felt a twinge of fear. Gwynnaefael didn't get mad often or
easily, but when she did, it tended to be pretty terrible. "Now, now,
it's not worth screaming about."
"I trusted him and he did this to you! He'll pay!"
By now, lots of people were staring, as screaming is not traditional at
Elven balls. Minako came over. "There you are, Steven."
"Umm, Minako, this is my old partner, Gwynnaefael. Gwynnaefael, this is
Senshi Venus, now known as Aino Minako."
Gwynnaefael tried to pull herself together. "So you're engaged
to...Steven?"
"Yes, I am," Minako said. "I...hey, you were...Wait...you were his old
girlfriend! And what are you doing in my fiancee's lap!"
Steven blushed. "She, umm..."
"I was kissing him because we're engaged!" Gwynnaefael announced proudly.
"We got engaged before our last mission where that bastard Tilerna the
Time Priest messed with his head!"
Minako blinked. "I thought Steven couldn't remem...oh, YOU remember it.
Duh. Steven, how could you get engaged to someone and not remember
it????"
Steven had a very bad feeling. "Mina-chan, I told you. The Time Priest
sealed my memories away!"
"Now you've made me a bigamist! I'm going to have to join a girl-gang
and slice people's tires!"
"..."
Gwynnaefael joined in. "..."
"I'll spiral down into darkness and be known as Dark Venus, the avenging
angel of the night, before I perish because I lived by the sword!" Minako
began to rant really intensely now.
Everything is going to go to hell now, Steven thought.
Ami and Ryo came running over. "What's going on?" Ami asked.
Minako whipped out her bow. "Well, I'll fix this!" She nocked an arrow
right at Gwynnaefael, who screamed in terror.
"Minako, no!" Steven shouted. He threw Gwynnaefael to one side, then
tried to lunge at Minako.
"Minako, calm down!" Ami shouted, as she charged forward.
"Mine, mine, mine!" Minako shouted. "You can't have him!" And then she
began firing arrows wildly everywhere. "Love! More love! Just a
spoonful of love will do the trick!"
Ryo dived to the floor and tried not to look at anyone. Not again, he
thought. Then an arrow bounced off a chair and fell on him. He felt it
pierce his butt, then vanish, but he didn't feel himself falling for
anything. At least it didn't make me fall in love with the inside of my
eyelids, he thought. But now I can't open my eyes.
Then Ryo got trampled and knocked out, and wasn't going to be opening his
eyes anyway.
Aria took an arrow right as she got a cup of punch. "Punch. I love
punch!" She dove into the punchbowl and tried to swim around in it. It
was a pretty tight fit.
Dia dodged the arrow fired in her direction, so it struck Lord Malsey
instead. "You evil bitch! DIE!!!" He drew his sword and came at her.
She dodged, then had to run. We should have burned the bow, she decided.
Steven dodged a pointblank arrow shot, shoving it to one side before it
fired, then began wrestling with her for control of the bow. More arrows
kept firing somehow, and he cursed the bow, its inventors, the elves, and
anyone else who might be vaguely to blame for it.
Ami jumped onto Minako from behind, then shouted, "SAILOR TELEPORT!" As
they vanished, more arrows flew wildly, including Steven getting shot.
He sighed, shutting his eyes as soon as he saw the arrow coming at him.
"I hate that bow."
Gwynnaefael said softly, "Did she hurt you?"
He could hear anarchy all around him. "No, Minako would never hurt me.
But I'd be better off if she had. Though hopefully, Ami will wrestle her
down and they'll come back and undo this."
He felt her arms wrap around him. "So, you fall in love with the first
person who you see from these?"
"Probably. Although she might have fired some hate arrows too. As I can
hear people hitting each other."
Gwynnaefael said softly, "You tried to protect me."
"The more I'm around you, the more I remember how Maglan felt about you.
But still, I can't marry you, Gwynnaefael. I'm with Minako now."
She kissed his cheek. "I can wait. She'll get old and die, and
you...oh, dammit, she's the elf and you're the mortal! You'll get old and
die first!" She began to cry. "After all this time, and I'm too late.
Too late again."
He turned around and embraced her. "Don't cry, Gwynnaefael. This is my
fault, not yours." It pained him to hear her cry.
"Well, if we can't...can I have just this one night? Even if it's just
magic, I just...just one night. And I'll release you from your promise."
He was sorely tempted to say yes. He could easily blame it all on the
love arrows, and just holding her brought back his memories of the times
they'd shared together. "Gwynnaefael, I..."
And then a guardsman ran into the ballroom. "There's an army of knockers
and goblins coming this way! Where is Lady Dia?"
Someone lucky enough not to have been shot pointed off towards a doorway.
"Running for her life, that way."
"Has anyone seen the Chamberlain, then?"
A satyr pointed to a couple making out on one of the tables. "Over
there."
"What is happening?" the soldier asked.
"Senshi Venus snapped," the satyr said.
"Take me over to him," Steven said.
Gwynnaefael guided him over to the troll guardsman. "Here you go,
Steven."
"I'm sorry," Steven said. "My fiancee freaked out and started firing the
Venus bow everywhere."
"Which goblin kingdom is this army from?"
"I don't know. Their leader is demanding Senshi Venus come out and fight
her or she'll sack our lands."
Steven frowned. "Who is their leader?"
"She says her name is Amazonite."
"Of the Dark Kingdom?"
"She didn't say, sir. Umm, why are your eyes closed?"
"Because I'll either fall in love with or hate the next person I see,"
Steven said. "Due to getting shot with the bow."
The troll stepped to one side. "Right. Where's Senshi Venus now?"
"Not a clue. Oh wait, I can...no, that won't work."
"What?" Gwynnaefael asked.
"I need to use my communicator, but I can't activate it without being
able to see...Artemis! No, wait, he stayed on Earth with Luna....Is Ryo
around here somewhere?"
"What does he look like?" Gwynnaefael asked.
"He'd be the only other male human," Steven said.
"I don't see him anywhere," she said.
"Okay, she probably took Minako outside somewhere no one could get
shot..." Steven started trying to think of what to do.
********
Ryo found himself laying on a soft bed when he woke up. He sat up and
opened his eyes before he remembered what happened, then closed his eyes
tightly again. This is Nike's bedroom, he thought.
And then one of his visions hit him, of himself making out with Nike.
There was water all around them. No, no, I wouldn't do that, he thought.
Except for the stupid love arrow. Must be a love arrow, he thought. But
if I saw it, then I can't help it.
Nike sat down next to him. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm still aching from being stepped on," he said.
"Did you get shot with one of Senshi Venus' love arrows?"
"Or maybe a hate arrow," he said, though he was sure it wasn't the case.
"Well, once she comes back, I'll get her to take the spell off you.
You'd better stay here until then; I'll guard you from any accidentally
sightings of anyone." She moved to sit behind him.
"I'm...ummm..."
"Surprised I'm not trying to pry your eyes open?"
"Uh, yeah."
"I want you, and I will have you. But not with love magic. You'll come
to me of your own free will." He could almost hear her grin confidently.
"And you'll owe me one for this."
"Yeah," he said, and wondered if the vision he had meant she was right or
just that something would happen to open his eyes.
*******
Ami and Minako landed in the forest, wrestling on a bed of leaves and
grass. Ami managed to wrench Minako away from the bow, rolling across the
ground with her. Minako was taller and stronger, however, and she soon
managed to roll Ami over and pin her on the ground. "Ami, snap out of it!
You're being mindcontrolled to attack me!"
"Umm, actually, I was trying to stop you shooting people with your bow."
"Oh, great, I was being mindcontrolled, and I didn't even notice!" Minako
said.
"No, you got mad at Steven and...who was that elf he was with?"
"His old elf girlfriend from his last life, Gwynnaefael. She claims
she's his fiancee! I don't remember any such thing. I mean, sure, Maglan
and her were lovers, and I caught them making out in the bushes during a
stakeout one time, and...and..." Her eyes widened. "And he's alone with
her right now!" She started to get up, but Ami grabbed hold of her.
"Minako, calm down, or you'll go on a rampage again!"
"Right. Count to twenty, then kill her."
Ami thought for a moment. "Now, if you knew Steven in his past
life...why didn't you recognize him?"
Minako blinked. "What?"
"I mean, you didn't have any memories sealed, right?"
Minako frowned. "Do you think this is part of some kind of trick?"
"No, I think...I'm not sure what I think. But this just suddenly came to
me, and now I'm wondering what's going on."
"Well, Ryo has sealed memories too. Maybe Tilerna made everyone forget
who Ryo and Steven were in their past lives, as well as making Ryo and
Steven forget."
"Could he really have that much power? And why?" Ami asked.
Minako sat down next to Ami, thinking. "I don't know, but now I'm
curious." She flopped back down on the grass. "So, did you spend all day
playing chess with Dia?"
"Yes," Ami said.
"Just chess?"
"Yes."
"Damn, I lost my bet!" Minako said.
Ami frowned. "What did you THINK we were doing?"
Minako said, "Well, I mean, chess doesn't take like eight hours, and,
well, umm..."
"You thought I was having sex with Dia????" Ami boggled.
"Well, now that I think about it, that doesn't last eight hours either,
usually."
"What made you think I'd do it?"
"Well, I just..." Minako wilted. "I'm sorry." She kissed Ami on the
cheek. "I mean, you wouldn't sleep with me, and I'm much cuter than Dia,
anyway."
"I have a boyfriend, and I'm going to be faithful to him if it kills me."
Ami shook her head. "Although if I'd lost that first chess game, I'd
have been in trouble. Fortunately, Dia went double or nothing, which
didn't further obligate me to double my bets on the later games."
"What?"
Ami explained everything.
"Yeah, that was pretty risky. Have you told Ryo yet?"
"Not yet," Ami said, sighing. "Haven't had the chance."
"Hmm. So do you think I should shoot up Gwynnaefael to make sure she
doesn't try to steal my Steven? Or should I let them have a fling to get
it out of their system while I make out madly with you and Ryo? Because
if I have sex with both of you, then it wouldn't be cheating on the part
of either of you, and Ryo is pretty cute."
"..."
There was a moment of silence.
"I just gave you water for chocolate, I think," Minako said.
"..."
Minako said, "That's the problem, really."
Ami blinked. "What exactly?"
"I can't really run wild all that much here, any more than I could back
home. Although this will protect my reputation better. But I still have
to watch everything I do like a snail."
"Like a hawk."
"That too. I just want to do something wild and crazy and fun. But I
also don't want to do anything that could hurt my relationship with
Steven. And all the stress from that is just not fun."
"I'm tempted," Ami said. "But it's not something likely to work out in
the long run."
"I know, I know," Minako said. "You don't think Steven will run off with
Gywnnaefael, do you?"
"No, I don't think he will. But she might try something on him," Ami
said. "I didn't know her in my past life, and barely know anything of
her, so I can't say."
Minako scratched her head. "Am I forgetting something?"
Ami thought a moment, then said, "The ballroom! You shot everyone up
with love arrows. We'd better get back so you can fix them."
"Right." They joined hands. "SAILOR TELEPORT!"
*********
Ryo heard something buzzing coming towards him and blindly swatted at it.
"Watch where you're swinging, Ryo!" Luka the pixie said.
Ryo opened his eyes in surprise in a fit of stupidity. "Sorry
about...that." And then the love magic took hold. "I never realized
you're so handsome..."
"Dammit, Luka, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that! He got shot
with a love arrow," Nike said, restraining him as he tried to leap at
Luka.
Luka flew WAY across the room. "Sorry, not interested, ESPECIALLY with
someone human-sized!"
"But I love you! I need you! You're all I've ever wanted!" Ryo shouted.
Nike managed to wrestle him down onto the bed. "I don't suppose you can
break love spells, Luka?"
"No, but I've heard dunking the victim's head in water helps," Luka
replied.
"It doesn't break naiad love spells, I know that," Nike replied.
"Was this done by a naiad?"
She frowned. Couldn't hurt to try. "Here, help me...okay, that's not
possible. Go find Aria, and tell her to meet me at the pool."
"I'll try to find her," Luka said and took off.
"No, don't LEAVE ME!" Ryo shouted, then began to cry.
Nike sighed and hauled him, screaming and kicking and trying to recite
bad love poetry, through the anarchic halls of the palace. She wondered
how many people had been really shot, and how many were using it as an
excuse to run wild.
She reached the pool before Aria did, and decided not to wait. She cast
a simple water-breathing spell on Ryo, then leaped into the pool with him.
Thinking he was drowning, Ryo began to flail about in an abject panic,
howling and screaming.
"Calm down, you won't drown," Nike said.
"AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" He pounded on her, trying to yank himself loose and
rise up to the surface.
"Look, you couldn't be screaming that loudly and annoyingly if you were
really drowning," Nike said, ever so slightly aggravated.
He paused in mid punch. "Hey, I'm not drowning."
"Are you still burning with mad passion for Luka?"
Ryo turned bright red. "Oh man, I wanted to..."
"Does that mean you're better now?" she asked.
He nodded and she let go of him. "Wow, I'm breathing water," Ryo said,
just a little excited.
"It comes naturally to us," Nike replied. "I guess Luka was right about
a good dunking breaking the spell."
"More like total fear of dying," Ryo said. "I guess I was so scared, the
shock broke me out of it."
Nike smiled at him. "So, do I get a reward for helping you out, hmmm?"
It suddenly struck Ryo that this was where his vision of a little while
earlier was set. It also struck him that he hadn't actually seen the two
of them getting to the naked stage, just making out a bit, and that,
perhaps, if he gave her a kiss, it would fulfill his vision without
leading to something worse. Her clothing drifted loosely about her, only
hinting at the delights to be found inside it, thanks to the water flowing
in and out of it, but the hints were quite enticing.
So he stepped forward, embraced her, and kissed her as fiercely as he
could manage, trying to do what he'd seen himself doing. This caught her
by surprise, and for a few seconds, she just stood there with open eyes,
looking confused. Then she wrapped her arms around him and leaned into
it, participating quite eagerly.
This went on longer than was strictly necessary for vision-fulfillment.
But Ryo finally tore himself away from her when he started to feel the
impulse to go further. He laughed nervously. "How's that?"
"A good start," she said, stepping closer to him.
He shook his head. "I can't go further than that."
"You mean, you won't."
"Same difference," Ryo said, then said, "Thank you for keeping me out of
trouble."
"You're welcome, and I can only hope I get more chances to help you out."
She winked, and he laughed, then climbed out of the pool.
"Now I need to go dry myself off."
"Want help?" she asked, winking again.
"I'd better handle this myself."
**********
"Okay, now the goblin cavalry is posted on the left," Gwynnaefael said.
"And the archers are behind them. There's some feral trolls on the right,
and..."
"This would be a lot easier if I could look at them myself," Steven
grumbled.
Gwynnaefael said, "Then I'll take the risk."
"The what?"
"Look at me. Either you'll love me and we can get on with this, or
you'll hate me, and I can stuff you in my magic bag until I find Senshi
Venus."
"But either way, I won't be able to do anything."
"Sure you will. You always had a strong sense of duty, and even though
I'd like to drag you off in the woods and have my way with you, so do I.
We can beat this invader, THEN go make out. And if you hate me...well,
then you can't do anything. But you can't do anything like this."
He nodded, then opened his eyes, and realized that he really, really
hated Gwynnaefael. No doubt she was trying to cast evil magic on him to
take him away from Minako. He whipped the Hackmaster out of its sheath.
"Now you die!"
Next time, we keep his eyes shut, she thought, leaping backwards. She
began to cast a spell, but Steven lunged forward, nearly impaling her and
ruining it. Her next three attempts also went awry.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Steven shouted.
Okay, time for plan two, Gwynnaefael thought. She took off running with
Steven chasing after her.
*******
The ballroom had largely cleared out by the time Ami and Minako returned
to it. Some searching found a servant, though, who said, "Lady Venus,
there's an Amazonite out on the grounds. She has an army and is
threatening to burn everything if you don't come fight her."
Minako sighed. "Have you seen Steven?"
"Lord Steven is trying to chop some sidhe woman I don't know up with a
magic sword the last I saw of him."
Ami sighed. "A hate arrow."
"Curse my bow and the horse it rode in on!" Minako shouted, then calmed
down. "Where did you last see him?" she asked.
"He was in the kitchens a few minutes ago."
"I'll find him with my computer," Ami said. "We'd better go stop that
army first, though."
"But what if Steven hurts her?" Minako said, worried.
"Steven doesn't know anything about swords," Ami said. "And it will take
time for me to search for him, anyway." She got her computer out and went
to work.
"Well, I guess," Minako said nervously. "Take us to the army."
**********
As Ryo and Nike tried to shake themselves dry, Gwynnaefael, hotly pursued
by Steven, sprinted into the pool room. "Someone stop him!" she shouted,
then dodged another slash from Steven.
Ryo sighed. "Hate arrow."
Nike chanted several magical words and a large gout of water rose out of
the pool, rushing at Steven, who casually sliced it apart with the
Hackmaster. This gave Gwynnaefael the chance to run and hide behind Nike.
Steven turned. "You're in league with her!" he shouted and rushed at
Nike.
Ryo gritted his teeth nervously, then threw himself at Steven's feet.
Steven tripped and fell down, shouting, "You too! Everyone's betrayed me!
But you won't get away with it!"
He got up on his knees and raised his sword, only to have Gwynnaefael
finally get a spell off. He felt his body slowing down. Desperately, he
fought it, while Ryo got to his feet and ran for his life.
Instead, Steven toppled over. Nike gave a sigh of relief. "Toss him in
the water," Nike said.
Gwynnaefael did so. "Now what?"
"The shock should bring him out of it," Nike said.
They waited a little while, and Steven didn't come up. Ryo blinked.
"Umm, Nike, did you put a water-breathing spell on him?"
"..."
"So he's lying at the bottom and..." Ryo began.
"MAGLAN!" Gwynnaefael dove into the pool after him, bringing him back
up.
Steven made interesting gargling noises.
If I have to give him mouth to mouth, I'm going to die of embarassment,
Ryo thought.
Nike quickly got the water out of him, and got him breathing properly
again, saving Ryo from that fate. "Are you done being insane?" she asked.
"Yes," he said weakly. "I'm sorry about that, Gwynnaefael."
"It was magic. Couldn't be helped," she said. "We'd better find Venus
and Mercury and see if they need our help."
"I don't feel like I'm very much help to anyone right now," Steven said,
standing up.
"Piffle," Gwynnaefael said. "You're a Solar Patrolman. There's nothing
you can't handle."
"WAS a Solar Patrolman. Now I'm a high school student."
"Come on." She took his hand. "There's work to be done."
*********
"So, Venus! You have come!" Amazonite bellowed from horseback.
Sailor Venus (she'd gone ahead and transformed on the way there) nodded.
"So, this is going to be single combat? Loser's army yields the field?"
Mercury stood nearby. She'd tried calling Ryo and Steven, but they
weren't answering their communicators. A computer search showed them to
be inside the Palace, where she hoped they would be safe.
Amazonite nodded. "This time to the finish!"
Venus levelled her bow. "Let's get it off!"
"On," Mercury said.
Amazonite leveled her spear and charged. Venus shot Amazonite's horse,
which developed a sudden lust for a tree, which it then charged at.
Amazonite cursed and leaped off, then charged at Sailor Venus.
The goblin army and the much outnumbered Elven guards watched as Venus
backpedalled, firing arrows like crazy at Amazonite. She dodged half of
them and swatted the others aside. "Stand and fight me!"
Venus decided to give up on the bow and sent it back to its waiting
place. "VENUS LOVE ME CHAIN!" She cracked the whip of hearts at
Amazonite. It struck home, but Amazonite just grunted and kept coming.
"Uh oh."
Mercury quietly watched and scanned Amazonite. If Amazonite grabs her,
she's doomed, Ami thought.
Venus took off running. "Come and get me if you can!"
"COME BACK HERE!" They ran off out of sight.
Mercury paused and studied the goblin army, which was grumbling among
themselves. I have a bad feeling about this, she thought. She fell back
to the guard commander. "Do you want me to try to find Lady Dia?"
"And any other help you can find."
"I will, then." She headed towards the Palace.
*********
Venus took a punch and landed in the reflecting pool. She snapped off a
Venus Meteor Swarm, but it only succeeded in charring Amazonite's hair.
This woman is tough, Venus thought. I wish I'd made Artemis come. He'd
know what to do. Then again, he'd probably just play dead.
That's IT, she thought. She fell down in the pool again, and played dead
when Amazonite gave her a rap to the head.
Amazonite, however, proved not so easily fooled, as she announced,
"You're faking," and gave her a harder blow. Then she lifted her foot to
stomp Venus' head.
Venus leaped out of the pool and out of the way. Think, Minako, think,
she thought. Her brain was full of ideas, but they all required her to
have the other sailors around, which wasn't an option.
She backpedalled, dodging blows, and wished her bow could also turn into
a staff or something. She feared to try blocking with it, as she had gone
through enough hell to get it, the thought of what replacing it would
require was too much to bear.
"FLARE ARROW!" Someone shouted, and a glowing arrow slammed into
Amazonite's back. Then the water of the pool erupted upwards, followed by
it forming into a fist and coming down on Amazonite, who was caught off
guard and fell down.
"This is a single combat!" Amazonite shouted. "Stay out of this!"
Venus saw Steven, Ryo, Nike, and Gwynnaefael at the far end of the pool.
Nike's face was scrunched up with concentration as she brought the water
fist down on Amazonite again. "I can take her! I can...oof!" She took
another blow to the torso from the spear, which Amazonite tended to use
more as a staff than a spear, and went flying.
Steven was torn between the part of him that wanted to rush to his
girlfriend's aid, and the much larger part which told him that it would be
suicidal, even with a magic sword. "Dammit!"
Then, from the other side of the building, the sound of fighting broke
out. "I think the goblins got impatient," Gwynnaefael said. "We'd best
go help out."
Steven thought. "Venus, you need to break the spells you put on
everyone, so that all the guests aren't helpless to fight back against the
goblins!"
Venus nodded and sprinted backwards. I should have thought of this
earlier, she thought. She fired off an arrow into the air, which split
into dozens of dispelling arrows, to seek out the victims of her earlier
fit of stupidity. This time Amazonite lunged forward, spear-point
forward, so Venus had no choice but to parry with her bow. To her relief,
it turned aside the spear without breaking. "Find Mercury! Get her to
help you!"
"Right!" Gwynnaefael said, and then they ran off, leaving Venus and
Amazonite to their battle.
********
Steven wondered if his old skills had come back to him, if the sword was
just really good at helping people fight, or if he was just incredibly
lucky. Venus breaking her spell had provided enough reinforcements that
the battle between the elves and the goblins was now pretty even; despite
his fear, he'd pitched into the fray because every person would count in
such an even battle.
He'd taken a cut to his leg, and he had bruises all over, but most of the
blood on him wasn't his, and he'd taken down or scared off several
goblins, so he was feeling pretty good about himself. Having a powerful
sorceress backing him up didn't hurt either. She was cutting a broader
swathe than he was, with fire and lightning.
He wondered again what Ryo had gone off to get, and why it had made him
so visibly nervous. The answer came when a clanking suit of metal armor
flew out of an upperstory window of the palace, right into the middle of
the battle, firing energy beams wildly from its palms as Ryo screamed in
terror. The armor crashed into a tree, and cool, refreshing water
dribbled out of its mouth. It then soared through the lines, sending
goblins and elves alike scattering in terror. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!
AAAAAAAA!!!!!" Ryo screamed.
Nearby, Sailor Mercury winced. Her computer indicated the flight
guidance systems on the armor had gone out; she couldn't find a good way
to stop it before the batteries ran down, given she couldn't try to fix it
while it was flying about. A knot of goblins charged her; she blew them
away with a Shiny Aqua Illusion.
An idea struck her; she tried establishing a remote link to the armor,
and to her relief, was able to connect to its guidance systems. Must be
because they're both dwarven-made, she thought. She then patched her
communicator in, attaching it to the universal access port on her
computer. "Ryo, can you hear me?"
"Yes! Something's busted, Ami!" he shouted.
"I'm taking control. Can you handle the weapons systems?" she asked.
"Yes, I think I can," Ryo said.
"Good. I'll pilot, you shoot," she said.
Just pretend this is a video game, Ryo thought. He started firing away
as Mercury flew him around. Of course, in a video game, the toggle switch
for a drink of water wouldn't break off and soak me in a slow dribble,
but...
**********
Venus was down. Amazonite stood over her, preparing for a final blow.
And then Venus remembered another one of her powers. "SAILOR TELEPORT!"
And then she was gone to the roof of the Palace, leaving Amazonite far
behind.
Okay, she thought. Think. Think. My attacks don't hurt her very much,
she's stronger than me, she's tougher than me, the only advantage I have
is that I'm pretty and she's ugly, which isn't much use here. Dammit, I
should have brought Artemis; he'd know what to do. Hey, past me, you got
any suggestions?
Inanna didn't say anything, so Venus started dredging through her
memories, trying to find a good trick. As she did so, she gazed down on
the battle on the other side of the roof.
Before she found one, Amazonite spotted her and teleported onto the roof.
"Stop running!"
"So why are you so determined to fight me, anyway?"
"I wish to prove myself against you in single combat!"
"Well, you've done that. I don't think I can beat you by myself. You
win."
Amazonite paused. "What?"
"You've won," Venus said. "I admit it. I can fight you all day, but
sooner or later, you're going to beat me. I'm part of a team, and our
strength is in fighting together. You couldn't beat us all at once, but
as for me, I think I've lost."
"Hah! I am triumphant!" Amazonite crowed. "Now your army must yield the
field to mine!"
"Unfortunately, your army didn't wait around for us to finish, and now it
looks like they're being driven off the field by our army. And since I
didn't actually have any authority over our army anyway..."
Amazonite's eyes widened. "You tricked me!"
Might as well take the credit for my luck, Venus thought. "Well, it
looks like in a battle of brains, you don't have any feet. Call it a tie?"
Venus said sweetly.
"You will pay for this. Later." Amazonite took off after the remnants
of her army, cursing. So much for my big plan to recruit goblin
auxillaries to aid our conquest of Earth, she thought, as she left. If
Anthracite laughs at me, I'll beat him to death.
********
"Now we know what's been causing all these attacks lately," Lady Dia
said. "Though I have to wonder why Amazonite focused her attacks on fast
time realms."
"Perhaps that way, she could sack the place before it could send for any
effective help," Ryo suggested. "She probably was sacking them to get
plunder to convince the goblins to follow her."
"That makes sense," Dia said. "Well, all's well that ends well, but if
you ever fire off your bow like that in the middle of another ball, Venus
dear, I will have to take it from you and beat you into the ground with
it. You understand, don't you?"
Venus blushed. "I won't do it again."
"Good. I'm going to order the repairs to begin, and then I'm going to
bed."
They all scattered. Minako turned back to normal, and took Gwynnaefael
and Steven aside so she could talk to them. Instead, they ended up
staring up at the stars and the huge Earth in the sky in silence for a
while. Finally, Gwynnaefael said softly, "Hard to believe there was just
a huge battle."
Minako said, "Gwynnaefael, I don't know what to tell you."
"I've missed my chance," she replied softly. "I'd like...just one night
with Maglan...with Steven...just because we...just because I've waited so
long. But if I can't have it, then I hope, at least, that you'll both be
my friend."
"If I let myself feel those feelings again, I couldn't stop with just one
night," Steven said to Gwynnaefael. "But I'm sorry I can't keep my
promise to you."
She nodded. "I release you from it, then." She glanced over at Minako,
then said, "But if she ever dumps you, I'm coming after you again." Then
she stepped forward, embraced him, and gave him a final fierce kiss, then
let go. "Until then, my friend."
"Gynnaefael, can you tell me how I died? I can't remember."
"The Silver Millenium was coming apart. The Great Shield only guarded
Earth, and monsters were destroying everything. The Solar Patrol fell
apart and only those of us based in Tradetown were left. The humans of
Tradetown were given the choice of either staying in Avalon forever, or
returning to Earth. So I asked you to marry me and stay on Avalon with me
forever."
Steven listened quietly. Minako listened tensely.
"But Tilerna the Time Priest came to you and told you it was your destiny
to help the people going to Earth. So I decided to go with you, to help.
I hoped that I could teleport us both back to Avalon once we got the
people to the Earth. But monsters attacked us before we reached the Great
Shield."
Her voice grew very soft. "They had this living ship they crashed into
ours. Tilerna and you fought your way onto their ship. I tried to
follow, but Tilerna sealed the way in behind him. I don't know what
happened next, but their ship fell away from ours and blew itself apart.
I managed to land our damaged ship on the Earth once we all cleared out
the remaining ones who boarded us, then teleported back to Avalon to mourn
you." She sighed. "It was horrible."
Minako impulsively hugged her. "I'm sorry," she said gently.
"Before we left, you promised you'd marry me when we got back. And I
promised you too." Her voice was choked with emotion. "I'd almost
forgotten after all these years, but just hearing you were alive..."
They both held her for a while as she cried, and then Minako pursed her
lips. This is almost certainly a stupid idea, she thought. It will
probably end in utter emotional agony for all of us, and the sun will fall
into the ocean and Aslan will drown when the wave hits him, and I'm not
making any sense. But... "Alright, Gwynnaefael. One night."
Steven's eyes widened.
"And then you two will both have to be just friends, because Steven and I
are going to get married and love each other forever. But I'm the Senshi
of Love, and I can't stand to see people cry. So, I'm going to help you,
my old friend." She whipped out her bow.
"Minako, what are you doing?" Steven asked.
"It's not cheating if it's both of us with her," Minako said softly.
"Venus, thank you," Gwynnaefael said softly.
"Minako, if we do this, I don't know if I..I mean..."
"You can. You must. You will. I trust you, Steven," Minako said. "Now
trust me."
He nodded.
The bow twanged several times.
You can imagine the rest for yourself.
*********
"That was a really big risk you took with Dia, Ami," Ryo said.
"Are you mad at me?" she asked, looking up from her efforts to fix the
armor's guidance systems.
"No," he said.
"You're lying," she replied.
He sighed. "Okay, I am mad you didn't tell me."
"Well, I won't take that chance again."
"Well, as Dia said, all's well that ends well. How's the repairs coming
along?"
"Well, if we're ever desperate enough for you to use this again, it'll be
ready in a day or two. I don't think I'll finish tonight."
He nodded. "I hope everyone else isn't having this much excitement."
"They're in school, so probably not."
*******
Mamoru listened to Takeshi present his research results, and wished his
own research was coming along faster. At the rate I'm going, Usako will
graduate from college before I do. And then the PA system kicked in.
"Endymion, I know you're listening. I have your little blonde friend with
me. Scream for the nice man, won't you?"
A shrill female scream erupted over the speakers, causing many of those
present to wince and cover their ears. Mamoru simply gritted his teeth.
Anthracite, you bastard, he thought.
"I'm in the third floor lab if you want to come and watch me conduct some
experiments."
There was another scream and the voice cut out. "What the hell ws that?"
the teacher asked. "This had better not be another practical joke."
"Someone ought to go call the police," another student said.
"I will," Mamoru said. "Just in case this isn't a prank."
Dr. Tagami nodded. "Good idea."
Mamoru ran out of the room, found a quiet corner, transformed, and ran
upstairs. Tipping his hat to Dr. Yageshi after he nearly ran the man
down, he sprinted up the stairs onto the third floor. The air smelled
strange, a smell he knew. Did someone break a gas line, he wondered,
pulling out a handkerchief and praying he could hold himself together long
enough to deal with this.
The door to the lab was locked, so he smashed his cane through the lock,
then opened the door. Unconscious people lay everywhere, and he could
hear the gas vents. Why didn't anyone notice the smell before, he asked
himself. There should be classes on the third floor right now, like the
one these people must be from, right?
He could see someone blonde tied to the table with the vents. He rushed
over to her, only to realize as he drew closer that it wasn't Usagi,
though she looked somewhat similar. But not quite similar enough to fool
him. And she was holding something. A lighter.
Realizing what was coming, he dropped down over a knot of unconscious
students, drawing his cloak over all of them, saving a few if he couldn't
save them all. The lighter flicked on, and the disguised youma burst her
fake bonds as the gas exploded into flame. Tuxedo Kamen focused his power
into his cape, and managed to save himself and the three students from the
blast. Then the floor collapsed under them, and they toppled down into a
class in session. People scattered as flaming debris fell down and the
walls began to burn. Tuxedo Kamen discovered to his horror that one of
the people had already suffocated from the gas, and the other two were
close to death. He took a few seconds to help them breathe as best he
could, and wished Saturn was there.
Slapping his forehead, he picked up the two survivors and tried to hustle
them out, even as the flaming blonde youma dropped down after him. "The
party's just begun, Endymion!" the youma shouted.
I've got to get backup, he thought.
"Anthracite, I've found him!" the youma shouted to the air. He took this
chance to dart through a door, across a room, and out a window to the
ground below. Dammit, I left my communicator in my briefcase, he thought,
then laid the people down on the grass outside, and ran into the now
burning building.
His briefcase turned out to be missing, along with his classmates and
professor, who he guessed must have evacuated. He decided to do likewise,
heading back to the stairwell, only to find two youma coming up the
stairs. He ran upwards instead, and opened the door only to find yet more
youma waiting. At the next doorway, they'd already come through, so he
aimed a thrust with his cane at the chest of one, forcing it aside, and
kicked the other in the lower torso, then leaped over it as it fell.
Soon, he found himself up on the roof, with Anthracite waiting for him.
"You can't hope to get away!" he announced.
Youma began to charge out of the staircase door behind him, forcing him
to retreat away from it as Anthracite advanced. "Coward! You can't fight
me without an army, I see!" he said.
Anthracite winced. "I don't need an army to deal with you, Endymion!"
He charged, sword forward.
Tuxedo Kamen stepped aside, parrying the blow with his cane. If I'm
lucky, his pride will make him keep fighting me by himself, even if he
starts to lose, he thought.
They began to battle back and forth across the roof as the youma watched
and smoke billowed up out of the windows of the building, while a crowd
gathered to watch the fire and sirens blared in the distance.
********
Setsuna sighed. Anthracite is insulting my intelligence by thinking he
can fool me with the 'your boyfriend is in danger' trick, she thought.
She sat in the teacher's lounge, having a cup of coffee with two other
teachers who had this as their off period.
One of them, Serena Anderson, was fiddling with the radio. "Anyway, so
this girl gets coffee confused with tea, and..."
The radio was currently playing music, but Pluto's ever present sight of
the future informed her that in five minutes, it would begin informing
them that there was a fire at the Akagi Science Building at Tokyo
University, along with signs of fighting between persons unknown. She
pursed her lips.
Perhaps I'd better call Souchiro, just to be sure, she thought. And I
must look into this. She rose. "I need to make a phone call. Talk to
you later."
"Okay," Serena said, then began to pour out her sob story of her disaster
date onto one of the coaches, who glared balefully at Setsuna's back as
she left the room.
*******
"There's youma all over the place," Hudson said into the phone. "We need
an attack squad."
"Have the Sailors appeared yet?" Libra asked.
"No, but I think I saw Tuxedo Kamen."
Libra frowned. "The rest of them should have shown up by now."
"I hear the cops and the fire engines coming. But no sign of the
Sailors." He looked across the street again. "Hey, Izuko, who's that on
the roof?" he asked her.
She peered through binoculars. "Four youma, Tuxedo Kamen, and some man
in a black uniform with silver trim. He's carrying a sword."
"The man's going to die if we don't get some people down here," Hudson
said impatiently. "Not to mention everyone still in the building!"
"The sailors will come. And then, while they are scattered and off-
balance, then it will be time to strike."
Hudson frowned. "I don't see any sailors, and..."
"And you will wait and observe. When they appear, call and tell me which
of them have come, so I know which of my plans to use."
"Yes, ma'am," he said through gritted teeth, then hung up. "Bitch."
"Libra is just..."
"A bitch," Hudson said. "I should have just quit this organization
after...everything. I hate this covert work."
"No one quits the Zodiac," Izuko said quietly.
"I know. Dammit." He watched the fight on the rooftop for a little
while. "I can't just watch." He began heading over from the payphone to
their car.
"The last time we got involved, you nearly died!"
"I should have died with the rest of my unit," he said grimly, opening
the backseat door and getting out the rifle from the footwell, then loaded
it. "Of course, with my luck, these things will just laugh at even the
special rounds they issue us, but at least it'll annoy them."
Izuko sagged. "You're going to be the death of me."
"Stay back and watch. That way, if they frag me, you can at least bitch
out Libra for being an idiot," he said.
Most of the people in the area were watching the building burn, or
watching the fight, or listening to the sirens coming. But several people
noticed a man with a rifle, which is not a normal thing in Tokyo, even
when the man is a gaijin. The threat they knew scared them more than the
threat they didn't.
He raised the rifle and tried to get a bead on one of the youma or the
man with the sword, but they kept bouncing around, making things
difficult.
"Saturn's coming." Izuko pointed up to the black-winged senshi who was
flying towards the rooftop from the east.
"Good. I hope she can silence the flames or something, then," he said.
He finally got a good shot and took it. To his surprise, the youma's head
burst like a ripe melon. "Hey, it actually died." He grinned. "It
actually DIED!"
Another youma turned and leaped through the air at himself and Izuko. He
plunked three more bullets off its head; it reciprocated by blasting him
off his feet with lightning. Then it landed and stalked towards him,
opening its huge fanged mouth wide. "You will suffer for that, human," it
said.
He pulled out his emergency grenade from the inside of his jacket, pulled
the pin, and tossed it right into the creature's huge mouth. "Chew on
that, BASTARD!"
Then nothing happened.
"SHIIITTT!!!!!" Hudson screamed in terror.
That thing must have really strong digestive juices, Izuko thought, and
called Libra's number again.
Police cars roared up and cops poured out. Saturn dove down onto the
blazing roof and pulled Tuxedo Kamen up and away. Many of the cops fanned
out around the building, while several trained guns on the creature
stalking Hudson. "Stop!"
They got blasted with lightning. The creature began trading shots with
the police.
"There's a bulletproof monster after Hudson and I. We NEED BACKUP!"
Izuko shouted into the phone. "And Saturn is here."
"No other sailors?"
"SCREW THE SAILORS! WE DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
"Language," Libra said. "You've been around Hudson too much."
"What part of 'we're about to die' don't you understand?" Izuko said
angrily.
Hudson made it over to her and grabbed the phone. "I didn't join the
Zodiac to play these stupid games! Whatever your stupid ass plan is, it's
gone all to hell!"
"You will not take that tone with me!" Libra snapped back.
There was a flash of light, and Sailor Pluto, Sailor Mars, Sailor Uranus,
and Sailor Neptune appeared. "Pluto, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune just
appeared," Hudson said. "Can we get some backup NOW?"
"Just get out of there," Libra said. "That's what I needed to know."
"What, aren't you going to..."
"The Sailors will take care of these fools. I have a higher priority."
And then Libra hung up.
"Shit!" Hudson said. "Well...shit." He sighed. As he watched, the
Sailors swung into action on the roof. "I guess they will. Let's get out
of here before Mr. Bulletproof decides to fry me again."
They ran for the car, hopped in, and drove off.
********
Makoto stood in the hallway, grumbling, with buckets in each hand.
Stupid teacher getting mad just because I was trying to go to the
counsellor's office like I was told to.
Vice-Principal Yamamoto came round the corner. "Kino-san, didn't
Counsellor Mei'ou call you to her office some time ago?"
"Hyooba-sensei decided I ought to be punished for trying to do that,"
Makoto replied.
Yamamoto frowned. "Well, I will have a talk with him about that. Go see
Counsellor Mei'ou, then you can come back and finish standing in the hall
later."
"Thanks, Yamamoto-sama!" she said. She dropped the buckets, and then she
took off running.
She reached Setsuna's office, but everyone was gone, so she got out her
communicator to call them. Past her, in the hallway, three women, a man,
and a centaur quickly strode past the office. Makoto stuck her head out;
she knew some of them, though the bow-weilding centaur was certainly a
surprise. Zodiac. They must have lured half of us away, and now they're
going to try to grab Naru.
She closed the door, transformed, then prayed she remembered what
classroom Naru was in right now. Clutching her staff, she shouted,
"SAILOR TELEPORT!"
She landed with her feet in a cake, standing on a table. Home economics
students yelped and scattered in all directions. "Sorry about that.
Everyone, there's monsters in the school! Evacuate! Evacuate!"
People began fleeing in all directions, soon leaving just her and Naru in
the room. Naru turned to Jupiter as soon as everyone was out of the room.
"Dark Kingdom?" she asked.
"Zodiac," Jupiter said, getting out her communicator. "And I think I'm
the only Sailor left in the building who won't get reamed out by parents
for fighting."
Naru transformed. "Then I guess I'll get reamed. I'll call Hime-chan
while you call Usagi."
"Right." Jupiter got out her communicator and hoped Usagi would be in a
position to answer it. Before she could call, however, she was
interrupted.
"Surrender now!" Libra said as she, Virgo, Leo, Scorpio, and Sagittarius
(the centaur) charged in the door. "We're just here for the Star
Princess."
"Ummm...no," Jupiter said. "Can't you people wait until school is out to
do this sort of stupid thing? You made me ruin a very nice cake!"
"Like a gorilla-woman like you would know anything about a nice cake,"
Scorpio sneered.
"I am NOT A GORILLA-WOMAN!" Jupiter shouted. "JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!"
The exploding oak leaf barrage slammed into Scorpio, who was thrown back.
"We need to get the others," Odysseus said. She grabbed Jupiter's hands.
"SAILOR TELEPORT!"
Libra sighed. "They never ran away before."
"Any more brilliant plans, Ascendant One?" Scorpio asked.
"Virgo, track them."
"They're just partway across the building."
"Excellent. Let's go."
********
Students milled about outside Edo Hall, listening to the sounds of
fighting inside. Then there was a flash of light and four Sailors and
five Zodiac landed outside the building, in the midst of the students, who
mostly screamed and ran every which way.
While Jupiter went toe to toe with Scorpio, the junior Pluto battled with
Virgo, and Sailor Moon faced off with Leo. This left Odysseus in the
unhappy position of trying to dodge Sagitarrius' arrows and Libra's staff
at the same time. She ran and dodged and weaved, using trees as cover,
and hoping one of the others finished their fight fast enough.
But it wasn't going to be fast enough, especially since she could see
Cancer and Capricorn approaching. Umino could see this too, as he watched
and fretted from behind a tree. He shouted at the White Knight who he had
dreamed of after the TORG adventure. I could use a transformation phrase
here!
Yuki shouted down from a tree, "Jupiter, Odysseus, switch off! Jupiter
can fight Libra better than Odysseus can, because she's armed! Cover the
switch with a Solar Flare!"
"SOLAR FLARE!"
While the Zodiac members were all wincing in pain and frustration, the
switch was made. But now Capricorn was running towards the tree Yuki was
in, and Cancer was still closing in on Odysseus.
"Yuki! RUN!" Umino shouted, then grabbed a stick and charged at
Capricorn, who took a few seconds to boggle in surprise.
Yuki, realized she'd stuck her neck out just a little too much, jumped
out of the tree and ran.
Umino went for a power leap, which wasn't very powerful, and brought the
stick down on Capricorn's head. The branch broke, and he rubbed his
forehead. "That hurt."
He kicked Capricorn in the knees. "I bet that hurt too."
Capricorn swiftly picked him up. "Boy, this isn't your fight."
"I won't let you hurt Naru!" So he kicked Capricorn in the balls.
Capricorn winced in pain. "Well, you have spirit. But you should know
better than to try to attack the master of the sign you were born under,
Umino Gurio."
Odysseus saw Capricorn holding up Umino. "GURIO!!!!!" she screamed. She
tried to break out of the trio of people attacking her, but had no luck.
"GURIO!!!!!!"
He glanced over. "She knows you. Well, everyone has their weak point."
He turned to Odysseus. "Surrender, or the boy gets it."
"Put my friend down!" Sailor Moon shouted. "I won't let you hurt him!"
Capricorn yanked Umino into a position where he could snap Umino's neck.
"You can't stop me."
Odysseus sagged. "I can't let you hurt him."
"No, keep fighting!" Umino shouted. "I've died before for you. I won't
let them take you!"
"You're brave, boy," Capricorn said. "But it's the stupid kind of brave.
Well, Odysseus, do I break his neck?"
"You cowardly BASTARD!" Jupiter shouted. "Put him down and fight us!"
Umino's mind raced desperately. The Zodiac could draw the power out of
those who had their sign. Could those who were of their sign do the same
to them? He didn't know how, but he didn't really have any other options.
He closed his eyes and tried to will Capricorn's power to flow out of
Capricorn and into himself. He could feel his skin begin to tingle.
"What the..." Capricorn blinked. "You're a determined one, boy," he
said to Umino. "Unfortunately for you, you don't have the training or the
link to the Star Force to do that right. Still, I'm impressed that
you..." He felt himself shiver. There's actually a little bit of a power
drain, he realized. Not much, but...
Umino felt the tingle build. I need to become the White Knight, he
thought. And then he felt the air around him begin to shimmer.
Odysseus' eyes widened, and then she nodded. She put her hand on her
brooch. Let the White Knight be called forth, she thought. I choose
Umino as my champion, now and forever. Unfortunately, this left her
vulnerable to Scorpio blasting her where she stood. She screamed as she
fell.
Umino's eyes snapped open, and he gave himself over to rage.
"NARU!!!!!!!" And then Capricorn glowed with a nimbus, and the nimbus
ripped itself loose from Capricorn, flowing into Umino. There was a small
explosion, and the White Knight lept to the ground, leaving Capricorn to
lie dazed on the ground. He whistled and his horse charged out of the
nearby trees.
He charged past Sagitarius, lashing out and slashing Sagitarius'
bowstring with his sword, then charged straight at Scorpio, leaping his
horse right over Odysseus as she lay dazed. Scorpio fell back before his
onslaught.
This distracted Libra for a few seconds, and Jupiter brought her staff
around, whacking Libra in the head, then shouted, "JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!"
This threw Libra back away from her, though it didn't hurt her too much.
Then two dozen teenagers with strange guns charged forward. "Invaders
from another evil dimension!" one of them bellowed through a megaphone.
"Return to your dimension of choice immediately or prepare to be
terminat...Daichi, what does this mean?" Hikaru scratched her head.
"Extreme prejudice," he said.
"But what does prejudice have to do with it?"
This is going to hell, Libra thought. I can't afford to bring in our
marines where so many people could see them, and most of the rest of us
aren't strong enough right now to be of much use. I could call in our
Istarii, but most of them are only half-trained. And now these meddling
kids... She sighed. There will be more chances. "Withdraw!"
The Zodiac teleported out.
Jupiter leaned on her staff. "That woman was good."
"But not good enough to beat us!" the White Knight crowed. He paused.
"You know, it's hard to breathe with this helmet on." He began fumbling
to try to take it off.
"Mom's going to kick my ass," the Junior Pluto said.
"Well, maybe we can convince them all that we can't quit, even if we
wanted to," Sailor Moon said. "My parents were about ready to let me go
back to full time fighting anyway, I think." She turned to Odysseus.
"Are you okay?"
Odysseus nodded. "Only hurt in my pride. We'd better all go vanish and
turn back to normal before our teachers figure out we're missing." She
thought a moment. "Sailor Moon, I think we need to think about bringing
Yuki in as an Auxillary. The Dark Kingdom and the Zodiac may end up
targetting her, and well..."
"And Capricorn got a very good look at her," the White Knight said. "But
we'd best discuss this later."
They scattered to resume their normal lives.
*******
Mamoru sighed as he watched the fire fighters put out the burning hall.
He said to Setsuna, "I got suckered by Anthracite."
"You should have called and let us know," Setsuna said. "But I'm sure he
counted on you playing the lone wolf."
He frowned at her. "Pot to kettle."
"Touche." She shook her head. "We cannot fight a two front war
forever."
"I'd almost think they coordinated against us," Mamoru replied. "We need
to strike the Dark Kingdom and take it out. They have the Orb of Stars,
which Odysseus needs to finish the Zodiac."
"Soon," Setsuna said. "The final battle comes swiftly. Still, I have to
wonder if Anthracite really intended to win this one."
Mamoru blinked. "What makes you wonder that?"
"Perhaps he simply overestimated his ability to trick me. Or perhaps he
seeks to lull us into a false sense of security."
"Or perhaps he's an obsessive moron," Haruka said.
"Time will tell," Setsuna said. "Come, Haruka, Michiru. Time for you to
get back to school. And for you to go home, Hotaru."
"Thank you for your help," Mamoru said.
"You're welcome." And then they teleported out.
*******
Ami and Dia continued their experiments. As Ami continued to pore
through a lore book, Dia asked, "I assume your mother has no special
mental defenses?"
"What???"
"Well, it seems a simple attitude adjustment spell should do the trick
for getting her to let you resume your duties as Sailor Mercury."
Ami frowned. "I don't want to warp mother's mind unless I have to." She
closed the book. "I don't think looking for past parallels is going to
work. These creatures are on a completely different set of principles."
"As you like," Dia said. "I see no other way to convince a woman so
stubborn as you describe." She peered through a lens at a small jar of
green slime. "Hmm. Since this stuff is all alive, perhaps we can
convince it to reproduce."
Ami slapped her forehead. "Yes. It is biotechnology, after all. I
can't remember how they did it, but..."
"Well, triggering a reproductive cycle will require some adaptation, but
yes, I think we can figure it out in a few days or maybe weeks."
"Good thinking, Dia," Ami said, smiling. "If we work it out, maybe we
can bribe Mother with it."
Dia laughed. "Perhaps so."
*********
"Whatcha thinking about?" Minako asked Steven as they looked up at the
stars.
"Just wondering about why Tilerna did what he did. How far he saw, and
what he wanted to achieve."
"And about Gynnaefael?"
"A little, yeah," he said, putting an arm around her. "I hope she'll be
okay. After waiting so long..." He sighed. "I told you that I'd have a
hard time forgetting about all that if we did...soemthing like what we
did."
"I don't mind," she said. "I think about some of my past life's lovers
sometimes. And I trust you. Do you trust me, Steven?"
"I trust you," he said. "I love you. I may go insane trying to rein you
in until you calm down, but I can put up with it, if you can put up with
me."
"Just don't think it's going to happen again," Minako said. "Unless you
and Ryo develop a burning passion for each other so the four of us can get
together, anyway."
"Not too likely," Steven said. "Even if I liked men like that, Ryo
wouldn't be my type."
"So, who would be, hmmm?"
Steven tinysweated. "Uhh...Haven't really thought about it."
"C'mon, tell me. There has to be some guy who you'd like, if you liked
guys."
"Most of the guys I know, you wouldn't even recognize."
"C'mon, tell me." She began to tickle him.
And then two shadows loomed over them.
Minako looked up and froze in fear. "Uh oh."
Her mother glowed red. "Someone forgot their chaperones, I see."
"AAAAAHHH!!! I knew I forgot something!"
Steven gulped. "How did you get here?"
"That nice Derith boy remembered we'd been planning to come too and got
us," her father said. "Not a minute too late, I see."
Minako decided she would kill Derith later. Once she survived her
parents, anyway.
********
Dia peered into the bottle. The jelly-like organisms were turning purple
and crumbling to dust again. She sighed. "You really need to do
something about Earth's mana levels, Mercury."
Ami glanced over and frowned. "Are you sure that bottle actually
simulates Earth conditions?" They'd been working on this for weeks of
Arcadian time, and had little to show for it. She wished she'd retained
more of Quinina's knowledge of how these organisms worked, but only bits
and pieces remained.
"It may be that the use of magic to accelerate their growth so we could
results in the time we have is leaving them dependent on that magic to
survive."
Sighing, Ami slumped against a large cabinet near her. "It's going to
take us years to figure out everything we need to do in order to get these
to reproduce AND stay alive on Earth."
"Well, you're welcome to stay longer," Dia said, coming over and perching
on a stool.
"I can't. It's getting into the late afternoon back on Earth." She
frowned. "But we have at least learned some stuff I can tell Professor
Tomoe."
Dia sighed. "Ami, if you go back..."
"You fear I'll die."
Dia nodded. "I have seen things...the omens are not good."
"The omens...the omens can bite me," Ami said defiantly. "I've died
before, and I'll probably die again, but I won't turn away just because I
might die. I'll make my own destiny, thank you."
Dia sighed. "I hope you are right." She paused. "Do you think..."
"No, I can't," Ami said. "It's much easier to refuse something I haven't
had. Even if you invite both of us again."
Smiling, Dia came over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. Ami
carefully restrained herself from giving any sign of the thrill she got
from that or the memories it evoked. "Oh, just once wouldn't hurt."
Ami leaned over and kissed Dia on the cheek. "Maybe some day you'll find
out what it's like to be with just one person."
"I hope not," Dia said, smiling. "It has been wonderful to have you
here, though. I had not realized how much I had missed you until I saw
you again."
"I'm surprised you could remember me at all after so many years," Ami
replied.
"Elves remember what they need to and forget the rest until they need it
again." She shrugged, then sighed. "How soon do you leave?"
"In about two more days, I think," Ami said. "Well, I think we've done
enough here for one day. How about if we all go boating together?"
Dia smiled. "That sounds like an excellent idea. Let's go."
********
"Oh, I have a simple solution to your problem, honey," Minako's mother
said to her.
"What is it?" Minako asked.
"I'll follow you around with a stick while you're here, and whack you in
the head when you get out of line, until you're over it," her mother said
sweetly.
"Everywhere? All the time?"
"Well, your father and I will take turns. Operator conditioning, you
know."
"Operant," her father said.
"Whatever," her mother replied.
"Does it have to be a stick?" Minako asked pleadingly.
"The bow," Steven said. "There's a good use for it."
Minako grabbed Steven's shirt. "For the love of all that's holy, we
can't let Mother hold that bow! She'll USE IT!"
"And that's different from now, how?" Steven asked, laughing.
"CIVILIZATION IS DOOMED!" Minako screamed.
"Now, now, honey, you've got to get a grip on yourself," her father said.
"Luckily, your mother and I took some time off from work, so we can stay
here with you for as long as you need, even if we have to spend years here
getting you to calm down."
Minako twitched. "Years." Years of my parents breathing down my....
She sighed. "Then again, given the use I've made of the bow, Mom might
make better use of it."
"Third time is the charm in theory, but let's not find out," Steven
replied. "Really, though, you've gotten somewhat better the last few
months." He shook his head. "It's going to be hard going back to school
when this is all over."
"Well, it gives us more time together, and that's good," Minako said.
Steven nodded. "I just hope everything goes well for Ami when she goes
back tomorrow."
"Oh, I'm sure her mother will see reason. One way or another."
********
Dr. Mizuno watched the news reports. "I take it that this 'riot' was
actually a monster attack, Ami?"
Ami nodded.
"And did you disobey me by getting involved?"
"I should have, except you've been pushing me so hard I ran away to
Avalon for several months instead," Ami said flatly. "I had a hard time
convincing myself to come back."
"..." Dr. Mizuno felt her stomach dive down into her legs, heading for
her feet. Just the sort of thing I was worrying about earlier, she
thought.
"Mother, I love you, and I admire you, and I want to be a doctor like
you, but I don't want to BE you. But the way you've been treating me,
you've come very close to making me forget about all those things. And I
have duties I can't ignore just because they scare you. My friends could
have used me today, but I had to run away from you instead because I
couldn't take it any more."
"But they DID win without you. And there's no way you can possibly get
through medical school while doing this, even if it was your duty. And
you lied to me. How can I trust you if you keep lying to me?"
Ami winced. She had lied to her mother, and she couldn't blame her
mother for being angry about that. But her senshi duties were something
she couldn't neglect. "You're right. I lied to you, and you have a
right to punish me for it. And I can't...I understand why you're having a
hard time trusting me. But...my senshi duties have to take priority. And
I can't study all the time. Not any more. I just can't stand it."
"You can, and you will! I'm going to make you get your discipline back,
or you'll never get through medical school! And I'm not going to let you
throw your life away in this stupid fighting! And if you run away again,
I'll..." She didn't know what she would do, really. She'd already tried
everything she could.
Ami sighed. "Is shouting a sign of discipline?"
Her mother winced as if she'd been slapped. "I'm just looking out for
what's best for you!" I am, she told herself. Someone has to make the
hard choices, and if Ami can't do it, it's my job.
"I'm not an infant who can't make choices for herself any more," Ami
said.
"As long as you live in my house, it's my duty to make the hard choices
for you if you can't make them yourself," her mother said. You'll never
make it through medical school while trying to fight monsters and having a
boyfriend, she thought.
Ami sighed. "Will you at least talk to Pluto about this? There are
things about the future I've seen, that I think you ought to see to
understand why this is so important to me."
"Time travel is impossible." Her voice was more certain than she
actually felt about that, with all the strange things she'd seen.
"I've done it."
"Even if you did show me an alleged future, I don't trust that shyster
counsellor enough to believe any of it. I'm sure that's how she conned
you into thinking all this monster fighting is something you should be
doing."
{Perhaps Dia's solution is best,} Athena said, sighing.
[I won't mind control my mother,] Ami replied.
"Aren't you even curious a bit?" Ami asked, trying another tack.
"Of course, I'm curious, but I don't trust that woman one inch."
"Please. I can ask Hime-chan to do it if you don't trust Pluto," Ami
said. "Just...please."
Miaka sighed. "Alright. I'll give you this chance to convince me."
Best to expose whatever it was as a fraud, she thought. So Ami will know
she's been decieved. And she had to admit, the idea of travelling to the
future was a little enticing, although she was sure it had to be some kind
of trick.
"I'll call Hime-chan, then."
*********
Dr. Mizuno had to admit it all seemed rather real. She knew that
hypnosis was rarely capable of the sort of hallucinatory mindwarping many
people thought it was, and that she herself was very resistant to it.
Barring that, it was hard to imagine a way in which a door to some other
place could open in the middle of her living room which had previously not
existed, short of very advanced technology or magic.
Now she stood in a great city of crystal; it was greatly beautiful, but
also looked rather fragile to her. People bustled about, and the life of
the city unfolded around her. Nearby, her guide, the girl Himeko, was
consulting with a woman who looked like an older version of herself. The
older Himeko said to Dr. Mizuno, "I will be your guide."
"And you're supposed to be the grown up Himeko?" she asked.
"I am Sailor Pluto the younger, born Nonohara Himeko," the woman replied.
"This is the city of the future, the land we seek to create, which your
daughter is a part of creating."
It all seems so real, Dr. Mizuno thought. Surely they couldn't mock up
this whole place just to fool me, and yet... "If this is really the
future, you already know if you'll convince me or not."
"If I simply told you that you would come around, would it bring you
around?"
"No."
"Then we must play this out, whether or not we know the end in advance."
She turned to her younger self. "I'll bring Dr. Mizuno home when all this
is over."
The younger Himeko nodded, raised her staff, and vanished. The elder
Himeko turned to Dr. Mizuno, "What would you like to see first?"
"I want to see my daughter."
The younger Pluto nodded and took Dr. Mizuno's hand and teleported. They
landed in what Dr. Mizuno could easily recognize as a hospital, despite
the differences in decor and equipment from her own time.
Her breath caught as she gazed upon her grown-up daughter. Ami wore a
simple white tunic with a blue belt; the tunic was pinned in place with
golden brooches with the sign of Mercury upon them in blue. She had grown
into the full bloom of maturity, though she still looked younger than her
mother. Smiling as she talked to a young boy patient, she seemed unaware
of her mother's presence.
"I know the medicine tastes disgusting, but it's good for you," Ami urged
the young boy, as she held a small cup of red liquid near his head.
"Do I have to?"
"Well, if you don't want to stay sick forever, you do," Ami said.
The boy screwed up his face and drank it.
"Now, you'll be good and drink what the nurse brings you, won't you,
Tanaka?" she asked the boy.
He made another face. "Do I have to?"
Ami nodded.
"Okay," the boy said, then yawned. "I'm sleepy."
Ami pulled up the covers and watched him fall asleep, then picked up a
crystal slate and stylus from the nearby table. She turned and her eyes
widened. "Oh, is this happening today? You said you'd tell me, Hime-
chan."
"It's more fun to watch you be surprised," the younger Pluto said,
grinning.
"But our suite is a mess, and we haven't gotten all the pictures chibi-
Ami drew on the walls erased yet and..." Ami sighed. "I'm sorry, Mother,
but our home is a disaster area right now. I was going to clean it up
this weekend, but...well, you know how it is having children."
Dr. Mizuno laughed. "I remember you trying to draw dinosaurs on the
living room walls. And I caught your father helping you too."
Ami said, "Let me call Ryo and tell him to get off work early, then."
"I thought I'd take Dr. Mizuno over to see the museum, then you can have
dinner with her when you both get off work."
Ami gave a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Hime-chan. I've got lots more to do
today."
"It's a busy job," Dr. Mizuno said. "Being a doctor. Hard to find time
for other things."
"I know, I know," Ami said. "I do my best, but it's not easy. I'm more
a researcher than a doctor proper these days, but still...well, it gives
me more appreciation for what you went through."
Dr. Mizuno smiled. It felt good to know Ami would understand that. "I
always wanted to spend more time with you."
"I know, Mother. And I know you did your best."
One of Ami's blue crystal bracelets buzzed. Ami sighed. "I'll see you
this evening, okay, Mother?"
"Okay," Dr. Mizuno said.
***********
Dr. Mizuno stood and watched the Moon Kingdom burn. It horrified her
beyond belief. It couldn't be real. Things like that didn't happen. And
yet, it felt like she was right in the middle of it.
Is that really the Tsukino girl, she asked herself. And all the others,
all here, and that red-haired woman...
And then the VR tape ended, and reality returned. She took off the
helmet and the gloves and shuddered. "What was that made from?"
"Pluto's memories," Ryo said. He had grown into a dignified maturity,
Dr. Mizuno had seen. She'd never imagined him helping to run a museum,
but it seemed to suit him. "That's a fairly simple VR tape. There are
more sophisticated ones where you can actually interact, and not just
watch."
It was all starting to be a little too much for Dr. Mizuno. There was no
way this could all be fake, and yet if it was real, she didn't know what
to believe in any more. All this magic and high technology intertwined,
magical civilizations on the moon, monsters...
"So how far in the future am I?"
"A thousand years," Ryo said. "Roughly."
Now I know what a samurai would feel like in modern Japan, Dr. Mizuno
thought. "You and Ami have been married...a thousand years?"
"Well, we slept through most of it."
"..."
"It's a long story."
"I have time," Dr. Mizuno said.
"Well, it's best not to know too much about the future, but, it all began
in the late twenty first century..."
*********
"I can't believe that girl rules the Earth," Dr. Mizuno said as she
walked through the halls of the Palace with Ryo. The younger Pluto had
gone off, saying she would return later.
"Neither can she, sometimes," Ryo said. "But we all have hidden depths."
He opened the door and walked into the living room of their suite of
rooms in the palace. His little eight year old daughter launched herself
at his legs. "DADDY!"
He picked her up and hugged her. "Hello, little one," he said. "How was
your day?"
"Hermes made me wash all my pictures off the walls! He's a meanie!"
Hermes came into the living room. "Hello, Ryo. Hello...Is that you, Dr.
Mizuno?"
"Hello, Hermes," Dr. Mizuno said weakly.
"I'll get cooking," Ryo said. "Is Ami home yet?"
"She says traffic is bad today," Hermes replied.
The house really wasn't that messy, Dr. Mizuno thought. Other than a few
child toys scattered about. Though possibly she'd called Hermes and had
him and little Ami clean up.
"Hello, Ami," Dr. Mizuno said to chibi-Ami.
"Grandma!" Chibi-Ami ran over and hugged her grandmother, who picked her
up. "Did you bring me lots of presents from the past?"
"I'm afraid no one told me to bring any," Dr. Mizuno said. "Or I would
have brought you some nice ones."
"I guess crying won't help?" chibi-Ami asked hopefully.
"Not at all."
"You're going to stay with us, won't you?" chibi-Ami asked hopefullly
again.
"Just for tonight."
"Well, tell me lots of stories, okay? I never get to go back in time."
Dr. Mizuno laughed and carried her over to the couch. "What sort of
story would you like to hear?"
"Hmmm. Did you ever meet any dinosaurs?"
"I'm not that old, Ami-chan," Dr. Mizuno said, laughing.
"How about dragons?"
Dr. Mizuno thought for a minute. "How about if I tell you about the time
your mother hid all the canned goods all over the house?"
"Okay!"
********
Dr. Mizuno put down her fork. "What do you call this again?"
"Tylasta. It's a Juraiian dish," Ryo said.
She took another bite of the stuffed bread. "Is this wheat?"
"It's a kind of Juraiian grain."
Dr. Mizuno frowned. "So I would have a hard time making this when I go
back."
"Well, most of the items can be substituted for. But it won't be quite
as good," Ami said. "I'll write out the recipie for you, mother."
"Thank you," she said. She took a sip of wine. "This is all just a bit
overwhelming."
"The future always is," Ryo said.
"It's just hard to believe anything this nice could exist," Dr. Mizuno
said.
"Well, nothing lasts forever," Ryo said. "But good times do come, when
people work for them. It wasn't easy making this future."
Dr. Mizuno nodded.
Chibi-Ami said, "It wasn't easy scrubbing the bathroom, either."
Dr. Mizuno laughed and patted her on the head. "Have you been studying
hard, Ami-chan?"
"Hermes bites me if I don't."
"I do not!" Hermes said.
Chibi-Ami giggled. "I'm trying."
"Good. You'll be glad he made you, one day," Dr. Mizuno said. "So
you'll grow up smart like your mother."
Ami blushed a little at that.
"Will I be able to go back to the past when I get big?"
"Why do you want to go?"
"Chibi-Usagi shouldn't get all the fun," Chibi-Ami replied.
Dr. Mizuno laughed. "And who is that? The Queen's daughter?"
"Yes, she is," Ami said. "It's a long story."
"You don't really time travel all the time, do you?"
"Just the Plutos. Or when it's really important," Ami said.
Dr. Mizuno said, "Is my decision really that important?"
"You saw everything in the museum," Ryo said. "It is."
"We're a team. We need each other," Ami said.
Dr. Mizuno looked at Chibi-Ami, who was now eating again. "Could you
really send her into battle?"
"I wouldn't want to, but the Queen herself had to send her own daughter
into battle at this age. In fact, poor little Chibi-Usagi had to go back
in time by herself with just her Luna ball at Ami-chan's age." Ami
sighed. "I hope Ami-chan doesn't have to grow up so fast, but power
brings responsibilities. And she will be Sailor Mercury one day."
Her mother nodded and took a sip of wine. "It terrifies me."
"It scared me too, Mother," Ami said.
They ate in silence for a while, and then Dr. Mizuno said, "This doesn't
change that you lied to me about all of this."
"I know, Mother," Ami said. "And my past self understands that too. But
I think you overreacted."
"Maybe I did," she said softly. "I will have to think about this."
"Well, let's enjoy your visit while we can," Ryo said. "This doesn't
happen every day."
Dr. Mizuno nodded. "Let's enjoy it."
**********
Later, as the evening wound down, the younger Pluto took Dr. Mizuno home,
then came back to Ami and Ryo's quarters a few seconds later (by their
reckoning). "You did well," the younger Pluto said.
Ami sat on the couch, now close to crying. "Mother...I haven't seen her
in so long. And now, just like that..."
Ryo put an arm around her. "At least we got to see her again," Ryo said.
"I couldn't let her stay longer," the younger Pluto said.
"I know, but I wish she could. I had forgotten how much I miss her until
I saw her again," Ami said sadly.
"It was fate," Ryo said.
"Stupid fate," Ami said, leaning against her husband.
The younger Pluto started to say something, then decided it best not to
press her point. "At least you did get to see her again for a little
while."
Ami nodded. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me. I only did it because it had to be done. It's not a
good idea to send people jaunting all over time just because, whatever
chibi-Ami thinks." The younger Pluto sighed. "I miss my mother too,
sometimes."
Ryo yawned. "We'd best get to bed, dear."
"Goodbye," the younger Pluto said, now feeling a bit melancholy.
"Goodbye," Ami said.
And then the younger Pluto left, leaving Ami to cry with her husband, and
wishing there had been some other way.
*******
At breakfast, Dr. Mizuno said to Ami, "Alright. After what I've seen, I
can't say no to you being Sailor Mercury."
Ami gave a sigh of relief.
"But you're grounded for another month for deceiving me about it. And
you'd better keep your grades up, or I'll have to take measures."
"Alright," Ami said. "That's fair." I can handle a month, she thought.
"We'll work out a schedule later, alright, honey?"
Ami smiled. "Alright, Mother. I'd better get to school."
Her mother smiled. "No school today, dear."
"..."
"Well, that's a good sign, I think," her mother said. "Time for me to go
to
work. I'll see you later."
"Goodbye, Mother."
********
"Anthracite, you have failed me," Jadeite said sharply.
Anthracite and Hematite stood before Jadeite, who sat upon his throne,
looking
displeased.
"It would have succeeded if Pluto had not proven more callous than I
realized."
"It would probably have worked better if you'd kidnapped her real lover,
instead of trying to trick her with a shoddy fake," Hematite said.
"The man hardly ever comes out of his fortress without her," Anthracite
replied. "And we couldn't take the risk of there being alarms or other
security measures chewing up valuable forces."
"Which meant she could easily check and see if you had taken him,"
Hematite
replied.
Anthracite fumed. "It worked on Endymion," he muttered.
"Why did you not inform me of Anthracite's plans?" Jadeite now demanded
of
Hematite.
"When I learned of it, he was still planning it. And I have not seen you
between when I learned of it and now. I assumed he would inform you of it
before attempting it. It was just a probing attack, he said."
"I assumed that you were approving of it when you didn't tell me not to
do
it!" Anthracite snapped back. "And it could have produced vaulable
results."
Jadeite frowned. "It yielded nothing."
"I would not quite say that, my lord. It showed us the Senshi are
vulnerable
during the hours of school, because they cannot easily respond to aid one
another and keep their identities secret. A weakness to be exploited,"
Hematite replied.
Anthracite blinked in confusion, surprised Hematite had said anything
good
about his work.
"That and the Zodiac's foolish obsession with the Star Princess. Should
we
strike the Senshi while the Zodiac is attacking them, our odds of victory
will greatly increase."
"I believe that was the Zodiac's plan, but with us as the patsies,"
Jadeite
said. "And I want to know how they could have foreseen this. I must
speak with Marcasite. See what you can find out. Anthracite, there are
to be no attacks without my approval except to defend operations already
in place."
"Yes, Lord Jadeite, I will remember that," Anthracite replied.
"Yes, my lord, I will," Hematite said. "With your leave?"
"Go."
They departed to their bases, leaving Jadeite to sit alone and plan.
*********
Libra sighed. This was not my finest hour, she thought. And soon it
would be
Scorpio's turn as Ascendent One. Not much time to make less of a fool of
herself. Perhaps we should have stayed and fought, she thought.
But that risked everything, and the results were unclear. Libra didn't
like
things to be unclear.
Perhaps we will have to risk it all to claim the prize we seek, she
thought. I don't think they could fight everything we have at once, and
yet...if we
fail even then, we are done for.
She sat at her desk, trying to put her thoughts back into balance, but no
inspiration came.
*********
Minako lay on her bed, working on her homework. I feel much better, she
thought. A little vacation is good for the soul, and I think my brain is
finally no longer on the fritz.
Himeko came in. "Hey, Minako," she said.
"Hey," Minako said. "You feeling any better?"
She nodded. "Yeah. How about you?"
"I haven't had any mad impulses to seduce people or dress up as Xena
today, so
I guess a few months at Dia's has done me some good. Although I still
don't feel quite totally normal, like I used to be."
"You were never normal," Himeko teased.
Minako laughed. "Well, I feel better, and Steven and I spent lots of
time
together, and his old elven girlfriend didn't steal him, so all ended
well."
"Old Elven girlfriend?" she asked.
"Okay, it goes like this..." Given Minako was no great storyteller, this
took
quite a long time to explain. And even then, Himeko wasn't sure she
understood.
"Well, all's well that ends well," she says. "I think Hikaru and I
finally
buried the hatchet."
"Good," Minako replied. "Now we just have to figure out how to keep her
safe
without mounting a perpetual guard."
Himeko sighed. "I know, I know. I'll keep thinking about it."
Minako nodded. "Well, back to homework."
"Have fun."
"Not likely, but I'll do it anyway." And Minako went back to work.
*********
Usagi sat at her desk, struggling with her homework. "Stupid earth
science,"
she muttered. "I hate writing these lab reports."
Rei walked in and boggled. "You're doing homework when there's no shool
today?"
Fumi-no-Kami followed her in, leaping up to sit on the bed. "Hello,
Usagi,"
he said.
"Part of my deal with Mom," Usagi said, sighing. "It's no fun at all.
But
I'll be done soon, Rei-chan, so we can do something fun."
"Well, Grandpa's +accepted things to the point of giving me a lecture on
how
to hunt monsters this morning," Rei said, sitting on the bed.
Usagi laughed. "I've been thinking about Yuki. She really helped us out
yesterday."
"I heard," Rei said. "Sometimes I wonder if she knows our powers better
than
we do."
"I'm not sure if we really should tell more people. The more who know a
secret, the more who can blab," Luna said from the floor.
"Hey, Luna," Rei said, picking her up and petting her.
"Hmmph," Fumi-no-Kami said.
"You already got cuddled this morning," Rei replied, laughing. "What do
you
think, Fumi?"
"From what I heard, it sounds like she'd be a useful ally, especially for
situations where we can't go, like school."
Usagi nodded. "Given how much she knows, she's probably figured us out
already, anyway." She frowned. "I just hope Capricorn doesn't try to do
something to her."
"I think the final showdown is coming," Fumi-no-kami said, leaping up to
the
window and looking out on the city. "Soon."
"I think you're right," Rei said. "I can feel it in the wind." She
wondered
again if there was some way to save Jadeite from himself the way Naru had
saved Nephrite, and whether she would have the strength to do it. Can I
kill him if I have to? She didn't know the answer.
The End (Until the next chapter, anyway...)
**************
Dia Says:
[We see Dia looming over John, who is seated at his computer]
Dia: Why didn't I get any sex with Athena like you PROMISED ME?
John: Well, Minako didn't get her mad foursome either, so you're even.
Dia: I am not interested in getting even. I am interested in many long
passionate nights with Athena!
John: It kept getting pornographic, so we cut it.
Dia: How was I supposed to have a long passionate night with Athena
without it getting pornographic????
John: That's not my problem.
Dia: Can I at least have a 20 page flashback of me and Athena [censored]?
John: ...
Dia: Well?
John: This is a family show. No on-screen nookie.
Dia: Hmm...
John: You could always try leaning on Jeff.
Dia: How about if I just turn you into a turnip and write the next
episode myself? Then I could have all the sex I want.
John: Don't make me powergame all over you.
[Dia turns John into a turnip]
Dia: Okay! I'm going to change a few things around here...
Minako: [comes in] Or not. You still owe me a favor, you know. And
since you didn't have to help with Ami's mom, I'm going to make you turn
him back to normal.
Dia: But if we leave him a turnip, you can have a harem of your very own
and he can't stop you.
Minako: Ooooh....
Minako's Mother: No harem for you, young lady. Not until you clean your
room.
Minako: But Moooommm....
Dia: You want to be a turnip too, lady?
Minako's Mother: [whips out a CD] Get back or I'll use this!
Dia: No, HANSON!!!!!! [runs screaming into the distance]
Minako: Not bad, Mom, but it does leave John turned into a turnip.
Minako's Mother: Hey, I'm just supporting cast. Don't expect me to solve
all your problems for you.
Minako: And today's moral is...
Minako's Mother: Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for you taste
good with ketchup.
Minako: Turnips and ketchup? Ewwwww.
************
Closing Credits:
"My road leads me far away."
We see Nephrite telling Juno that he must go soon for a great
conflict is about to begin.
"Though my heart tells me to stay,"
We see Princess Serenity clinging to a worried looking Endymion.
"When my duty calls, I must go"
We see Pluto appearing in the midst of the ballroom at the Diamond
Gala.
"'Twixt worlds of fire and worlds of snow."
We cut to a shot of the solar system, with the nine planets and the moon
lined up from the Sun at the left to Pluto at the right, with the Senshi
and Prince Endymion standing on their planets as shadowy figures.
"The road I travel will be long"
We see the White Knight galloping down a Tokyo street on horseback.
"To set things right, to end the wrongs."
We see Tuxedo Mask tossing a red rose into the barrel of a gun, which
backfires and explodes.
"But this message will I send,"
We see Rei picking up a blue crystal, which starts to play back a
message.
"Wait for me at Journey's End."
We see Naru waiting for someone outside a restaurant.
"Do not forget the love we share"
We see Princess Serenity and Endymion tearfully bidding each other
farewell.
"Though I must leave, my heart will stay."
We see Naru crying as Nephrite dissolves away in her arms.
"Do not think I ceased to care"
We see Beryl implanting crystals in the foreheads of the four
Guardians and cackling maniacally.
"When my duty took me away."
We see Steven waiting at a restaurant, then sighing as he checks his
watch.
"The road I travel will be long"
We see the Sailors using the Sailor Teleport to travel to the ruins
of the Moon Kingdom.
"To set things right, to end the wrongs."
We see Umino trying to fight a monster in "Tuxedo Umino Kamen" mode.
"But this message will I send,"
We see Luna trying to use a dial only phone.
"Wait for me at Journey's End."
We see Umino leap to his feet as Naru comes running up the sidewalk
to him with Usagi and company.
"I have only my heart to give"
We see Haruka and Michiru sharing a quiet moment.
"For my life is not my own."
We see the baby Saturn in a crib.
"It is for others that I must live"
We see Pluto having a frustrating time trying to counsel a young girl.
"But it is for you that I come home."
We see Mamoru following a trail of smoke to Usagi in his kitchen.
"The road I travel will be long"
We see Capricorn vanishing through a portal.
"To set things right, to end the wrongs."
We see a chamber with stars for a ceiling and a horoscope on the
floor. A man stands in grey robes in the center and stares down at the
horoscope.
"But this message will I send,"
We see Usagi listening to a message on the phone, her eyes getting big.
"Wait for me at Journey's End."
We see a closing tableux of the Sailors, Umino, Naru, Steven, Tuxedo
Mask, and twelve shadowy figures standing on a Zodiac wheel.
John Walter Biles : MA-History, ABD, Ph.D Candidate at U. Kansas
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu http://www.dkcomm.net/rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net http://maison-otaku.net/~rhea/
"That all princes shall kiss the foot of the Pope alone."--Dictatus Papae,
11th century
John Walter Biles : MA-History, ABD, Ph.D Candidate at U. Kansas
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu http://www.dkcomm.net/rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net http://maison-otaku.net/~rhea/
"That all princes shall kiss the foot of the Pope alone."--Dictatus Papae,
11th century
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