[FFML] [FanFic][SM][NETTG] Terra in Tokyo Ch. 19 (of 27) "The Royal Australian Outback Judicial System!!"

[Benjamin A. Oliver]

Heya!  Got a heavy chapter for ya.

Someone once told me that peaks and valleys make for a stronger story.
 We'll see if that holds true this time. ^_^

Disclaimer:
This story is based loosely on Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon by Naoko
Takeuchi. This is a non-profit fan work created as a tribute, and no
infringement is intended. All rights to the characters, settings, and
situations of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belong to Naoko Takeuchi,
Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC. ArbyFish belong to
Daniel Oliver and are used with permission.  Gotta have ArbyFish.
Wouldn't be proper if we didn't.*

*Note: This chapter may not contain as much ArbyFish as you like and
so you may wish to take ArbyFish supplements so as to augment the
chapter's nutritional value.**

**Warning: Do not overdose on ArbyFish without 1) a doctor's or
parent's note, or 2) express written consent from your psychologist.
May cause a histamine reaction.  If swelling or redness persists, dunk
your head in a bucket of ice water.  It usually helps.  Usually.


Onwards!


Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!!
Terra in Tokyo
Final Mix

---Chapter 19:  The Royal Australian Outback Judicial System!!

	After the events at the Starlight Tower, Terra Incognita had gone
back home and told her mom about it.  Her mother looked worried at her
slightly corrupted skin and appearance, but listened patiently to the
tale of time travel, valor, betrayal, and sacrifice.

	"It sounds like you were very brave," her mother said.

	"I know, right?" Terra replied.  She paused.  "You believe me?"

	"Why would you lie to me about something like that?  Of course I believe you."

	"Thank you.  Anyway, I kinda wanted a parade after that, or a medal,
or maybe even a slice of cake?  I don't know.  More than what I got.
Let me tell you what happened after I woke back up in our time."

	Kasumi listened with a great deal of concern about how the other
girls had reacted to the reawakening of their memories.

	"And now they think I'm Princess Terrifying reborn," finished the
redheaded teen with a sad sigh.

	"ARE you Princess Terrifying reborn?" inquired Kasumi directly.

	Terra shook her head.  "Pfft, NO!"  She ran a hand through her coarse
hair.  "But they think I am.  Now they're planning on staging a trial
and probably want to punish me for murder!"

	"Oh my!"

	"They're gonna kill me, Mom," moaned the daughter cynically.
"They're gonna beat the tar out of me and leave me wrapped in a bag in
a dumpster somewhere, I just know it."

	"I don't think they would try to execute you or anything like that,"
said Kasumi with her usual flair for optimism.  "Amy, Rei, Usagi,
and... Lita are such nice girls.  I'm sure they just need some time to
accept that you're a completely different person."

	"They've known me for months!  They've had time."

	"Not like they know you after remembering other things that happened.
 Perhaps they need to just be with you again for a while?"

	"I wish it were that easy."

	"How about," her mother said with a hand on her cheek, "tonight you
get a good night's rest, then I'll make something extra tasty for you
to take for lunch at school--"

	"You're sending me back to school with all this stuff going on?"

	"It's important that you keep a routine.  You and they all need time
to think this over and how silly it is to be upset at each other now.
And this weekend, as a reward for how brave you were, we can take you
out shopping for a nice outfit.  We can do your makeup and get your
hair done.  Then you can talk to your friends, looking very pretty and
showing how innocent you really are, and win them back."

	Terra thought about it.  It seemed like a pretty good idea, really.
Besides, her mother was offering to take her shopping.  As if she was
going to refuse!

	She practically leapt into her mother's embrace.  "Thanks, Mom!  I love you!"

	Kasumi returned the hug.  However, there was something off about the
way the woman held her.  It was more stiff; less relaxed than hugs she
had given in the past.  Her mother, Terra determined, must have been
more worried about the situation than her words led her to believe.

---

	Later in the week, Luna and Artemis walked calmly through the lush,
well-maintained park.  They had been catching up on old times and
remarking how wonderful it was that they were all reunited, complete
with their memories from the past, however unclear some of them might
have been.

	"I'm so happy you're around now, Artemis," Luna beamed.  "With all of
us united against the Dark Kingdom, we shall win for sure!"

	"Uhh," replied the white cat, "well, there is that little thing about
Terra being Princess 'Terrifying' reborn."

	"I'm sure they'll figure out soon enough that our Terra is very
different from that old malevolent girl," Luna said.  "They even
called her up and invited her over to the shrine to have a talk in the
afternoon."

	"Really?  That's great!  But what if they get into a fight?
Shouldn't we be there to, you know, keep things under control?"

	"Come now.  They're all very nice, friendly teenagers.  What could
possibly go wrong?"

^_^;;

	Kasumi dropped off her daughter at the Hikawa Shrine after several
relaxing hours at the mall, enjoying more dress-up time and hair and
beauty treatments than the girl had ever experienced at one time
before in her life.  It felt much better than anything she had done
while acting as a princess during the time she spent in the past.
Probably the best part was spending time with someone who knew who she
really was and obviously cared about her.

	She stepped out of the car in what she considered a very nice-looking
black and white dress and blazer, with a bow in her neatly-styled
hair, a long faux-pearl necklace and probably the best professional
makeup job that she'd ever had.  It almost covered the damaged and
corrupted flesh that seemed to be having difficulty healing properly,
even after a few days.

	"Thanks, Mom.  It means a lot to me."

	Kasumi gave her a kiss on the forehead before departing and said, "Be
nice, take a deep breath, and go in and show them who you really are."

	Rei guided Terra inside.  The shrine was depressingly quiet.  Not
even the ravens or other birds that frequented the place chose to make
any noise.  It was the late afternoon with the events at the Starlight
Tower quite fresh on everyone's minds.

	Terra noticed that although Usagi's attire had reverted back to
normal from her princessly gown, her personality had not.  The blonde
fawned over Mamoru, always calling him Endymion, and he vaguely seemed
to remember her as Princess Serenity as well.  Rei, Makoto, and Ami
seemed pretty much themselves, aside from having a set of new and
sometimes disturbing memories from another life long ago.

	It was those memories that currently troubled Terra the most.  She
had a truly inexplicable experience--traveling back to an ancient
civilization, fighting, and finally managing to save a portion of a
formerly doomed people.  The person whose place she took had been a
very nasty, unpleasant girl.  It was true that this "Terrifying"
looked quite a lot like her, and she had experienced some aspects of
her life, but Terra could not grasp that she herself was somehow a
reborn murderer.

	The others seemed to more readily accept that possibility.  In fact,
they appeared to all be utterly convinced of it.  They had avoided her
at school for these past few days, and the only message she had
managed to squeeze out of them was a brief phone call from Ami, who
told her that the Princess would have a hearing-her-out session for
her today.

	Well, actually, Ami had said, "a hearing," but Terra hoped it wasn't
going to get ugly.  Best case, she hoped for an apology and maybe a
philosophical discussion about karma or something.  She didn't expect
her best friends to dump the whole bleeding Spanish Inquisition on
her.

	"Look," the redhead said, "if I'm Princess 'Terrifying,' why wouldn't
I know about it?"

	"Tell me," Serenity said, "do you remember my mother?"

	"I think I met her once," Terra said.  "Her name's Ikuko, right?"

	"Not that one!" the blonde retorted.  "I mean Queen Serenity.  The
one who put so much trust in you and cared for you so deeply despite
what you did."

	"I met Queen Serenity," Terra admitted, "and she was nice and all,
but I'd hardly say she cared for me that deeply.  We just barely met,
after all.  Fought together.  I was very sad to see her die."

	"You killed her too?!"

	"She died from overusing the Ginzuishou Crystal," Terra said.  "The
last few hours of the Moon Kingdom, well, the best way to describe
them is 'Hell.'  I screamed into the face of Queen Metallia, I battled
the Seven Great Shadow Youma--I flew somebody's transforming jet
against the corrupted Terran fleet--"

	"Endymion-sama flew against the traitors!" Serenity shot back.  The
one whom Terra could hardly think of anymore as Usagi looked away and
slid closer into Mamoru's arms.  "Such a liar.  How dare you try to
take credit for his accomplishments and skill!"

	"Actually," Mamoru interjected, "she WAS the pilot.  THAT, I remember
clearly.  That's not some crazy experience you just forget."

	Serenity looked at him and frowned.  "But... how could anyone but you
fly like that?"

	"I was good," said the young man, "but not THAT good."

	"Giant transforming fighter robots are pretty simple things when you
get right down to it," Terra explained.  "You got your operating
systems, your servos, your engines, your power reactors--I'm really
surprised everybody doesn't have one nowadays."

	Serenity breathed a heavy sigh, her expression focused.

	"Your so-called 'case' is falling apart, 'your highness,'" Terra said
with perhaps a bit too much smugness.  "Neener-neener."  She winked.

	"Silence, murderer!" Serenity said.

	"I was TRYING to lighten the mood!  Sheesh, bite my head off, why don't you!"

	Ami twitched, holding her neck, obviously reliving a nasty memory.
"Please... please don't talk about that."

	Terra looked at her.  "You're kidding, right?  Terrifying really--ew.
 The more I hear about her, the more I hate her."

	"Let us return to the subject at hand."  Serenity pounded her hand
against the table since she did not have a gavel.  "Princess Terra--"

	"I'm not a princess and neither are you, Usagi."

	"Call me SERENITY!"

	"Fine, 'Serenity.'  Speaking of Serenity, there's this neat film I
want us to watch together--"

	"Stop changing the subject!"

	"I'm not changing the subject.  It's a really nice movie!  Whedon has
to be my favorite director!"

	"Terra!" Serenity nearly shouted.  "You admit that you remember your
past life, but refuse to acknowledge your crimes!"

	"My crimes," Terra replied, "were that I failed to win when we had a
freaky giant shadow monster bearing down on top of us!  It was just
too much.  For everyone.  My crimes are that I ordered good men and
women to their deaths against impossible odds just to buy a few more
stinking seconds for others to escape.  THOSE are the things I feel
guilty about."

	Princess Serenity stared at her.  "YOU ordered?"

	Terra nodded.  "Yeah, I ordered.  Serenity SENIOR named me Queen just
before she died.  When it became stupidly clear that nothing any of us
could do would mean a victory--or even SURVIVAL--I ordered an
evacuation.  I still don't even know for sure if that was the right
choice or not.  A lot of people died.  And I mean a LOT."

	"You were a regicide," Ami muttered.

	"Or a conquerer," suggested the pretty, stylish girl whom Terra first
knew as Sailor Venus.  She said her name was Minako, but when Terra
saw her write her name on a paper in class, it was spelled more like
"Mynnako."  "People of the Moon," she said while feigning a gruff
voice, "I am your queen!"  She threw an imaginary decapitated head
into a nonexistent crowd.

	"I told you," Terra said, "the Queen did not die by my hand."  She
looked down at her digits.  "It wouldn't have been my hand anyway, it
would have been Terrifying's."

	"There it is again," said Ami.  "You keep saying that you are not
Princess Terra, and yet you remember everything she did with crystal
clarity."

	"Not CRYSTAL clarity," said Terra.  "I got a few flashes here and
there while I was in her body.  But I didn't think or feel that any of
that was ME, as such."

	Serenity shook her head.  "How would you have been in her body if you
are not her?"

	Terra looked around at everyone.  "Who here has seen Quantum Leap?  A
show of hands!"

	Ami's hand went up.

	"Hah, thanks.  Of course YOU would, Miss Nineteen-Eighties American
Television Fan.  Could you explain the concept to everyone else?"

	"That wouldn't explain it if you're telling the truth," Ami replied
without batting an eyelash.  "You could only time travel within your
own lifetime."

	"A technicality," Terra said.  "What I was getting at was I did a
body-snatch on her and that's how I know about what happened.  I
talked to people in that era and worked things out."

	"If you're going to make something up," Rei said, "at least make it
believable!  Chronoskimming is SUCH a hokey plot device!"

	"Chronoskimming?" asked Ami.

	Rei leaned over and whispered what was apparently an explanation into her ear.

	Ami soon nodded and said, "Ah, Marvel.  I hadn't read that one."

	"You're making up powers based on some comic book you read," Rei
accused Terra.  "Besides, even if you did Chronoskim, it would still
be to an earlier version of yourself!"

	Terra threw up her arms in bewilderment at this.

	"Everyone, don't you think we're being a little unfair to her?" Minako said.

	"Unfair?" asked Rei.  "Princess Terra killed you along with us, when
she was done torturing you.  I'm surprised you're not holding more of
a grudge."

	"I have a doubt," Minako said.  "Part of me is angry and wants
justice, but... at the same time, she does not act like Terrifying."

	"She's Princess Terra all right," Rei said.  "Her unmistakable aura
is stronger than ever.  It's mixed with things, but the all-prevailing
darkness consumes her very soul."

	It doesn't consume my soul, thought Terra, it's just a power source I
use.  And it doesn't even go that deep, does it?

	Terra checked her power sources.  Red was reasonably strong, yellow
was at a low ebb, green was so overpowering that it nearly made her
ill, and black formed the backdrop.  The green probably accounted for
the accursed marks all over her body.  Her spine still felt weird in
the place that it had been broken and repaired, and during the week
she had used gobs of makeup trying to cover up the marks visible on
her face, arms, and legs.  People didn't say much at school, but she
still felt pretty dirty all over despite three abrasive showers every
morning since the Starlight Tower incident.  She wanted Arby to come
and explain or perhaps fix the problem, but he was nowhere to be
found.

	"Sailor Venus," sighed Serenity, "of all my friends and subjects from
the Silver Millennium, you seem to have changed the most.  Perhaps you
do not remember with full clarity Terra's actions."

	"Maybe."  Minako hesitated.  "But I was one of the people who got
murdered.  Aren't I in a better position to say whether or not she was
the one who did it?"

	"Terra remembers the events," said Ami.  "Logically, it is unlikely
that anyone else would have that information."

	"I think you're right," said the princess.  She looked around at the
others.  "Does anyone truly doubt that this is Princess Terra, who
killed you and so many others in cold blood?"

	Minako hesitantly raised a hand, as did Mamoru.

	"Endymion-sama?" Serenity asked with a frown.

	"The Terra I remember fighting alongside against the Dark Kingdom,"
said Mamoru, "could never have done what everyone here is accusing her
of doing."

	"Don't let her deceive you," Serenity cautioned.  "She is a liar and
dangerous.  I am convinced that this is the one who killed all of you
and brought about the fall of the entire Silver Millennium Alliance, I
feel it appropriate now to pass sentence."

	"Sentence?!" cried Terra in shock.  "Who do you think you are?!  And
I didn't do anything!  It was that mean old nasty Terrifying!"

	"I am convinced that you are the one," the ponytailed blonde said in
a calculated and dispassionate voice, as if trying to mete out a fair
judgement to someone she despised intensely.  "You were crafty then
and you are crafty now.  Lie and bargain all you wish.  We have done
all we can to ensure that all proper procedure has been followed."

	Ami, Makoto, and Rei nodded nodded.  Their expressions showed that
they thought they had acted with the utmost care, patience, and
restraint.

	"Have we just been teleported to Australia?" inquired Terra weakly.
"Because I'm suddenly seeing a lot of kangaroos."

	"You will not make a mockery out of these proceedings," replied Serenity.

	Terra rolled her eyes.  "Give me a break.  Like you need any help to
do THAT now."

	"I don't think we should--" started Mamoru.

	"Sailor Mercury will state the charges," interrupted Serenity.  "And
then we will decide if it is time to pass sentence.  Mercury?"

	Ami put on her glasses, took a deep breath and stood.  She also
looked narrowly at Terra as she spoke.  "Count one:  murder in cold
blood of Thalia, Queen of Venus--Regicide.  Count two:  murder in cold
blood of Erato, Empress of Mars--Regicide.  Count three...."

	"Statute of limitations?" inquired Terra.  "Being on a different
planet?  The Moon Kingdom being defunct as an actual government...?"

	Makoto hushed her.  "The Princess is here," she whispered sharply,
"and while she's here, she IS the law!"

	"Huh!"

	The bespectacled girl went though another half dozen regicides, and
got to the plain homocide group.  She mentioned Pyra: Princess of
Mars, Althea: Princess of Venus, and her voice got very cold when
mentioning, "Hermione:  Princess of Mercury."  She shot Terra a nasty
glare.

	"And we can't forget Iolanthe," Makoto added, "Princess of Jupiter."

	Terra winced from their withering gazes.  She didn't feel guilty of
any of the crimes mentioned, but it was nevertheless disconcerting to
be addressed in such a manner by her friends.  It would have been one
thing if she had been caught and actually did what she was being
accused of; it was quite another to have done all she could to save
her friends and stop the Dark Kingdom, and afterward being formally
prosecuted by those very same friends.

	"Destruction of Jupiter's defensive infrastructure and total genocide
of Jupiter's people," Ami continued to read from the list in front of
her.

	"Hold it," Terra said.  "THAT was Supreme Commander Thomas and
Earth's starfleet."

	"Who was, by your own testimony, acting under your influence."

	"Not MY influence!"

	"You remain guilty," Serenity said.

	"Oh?" Terra cut in shakily.  She wanted to sound indignant, but it
all came out in a truly frightened voice.  "Did I kill Elvis, Abraham
Lincoln, and Saint Patrick, too?"

	"Princess Terra," Serenity said, "you will not sass back at this
court during the listing of charges."

	"And the dinosaurs!" Terra continued.  "Can't forget the dinosaurs!
I must have ran them over with my tricycle or something!"

	"Silence!"

	"Fine," Terra sighed.  "I'll just... sit here, and take it, I guess.
Tell me when you're done."  She rested her head against her arms on
the table.

	Ami mentioned the deaths of the worlds' populations that had happened
under Earth's command, with their approximate numbers.  By the time
she finished, the numbers were well into the billions.  "And that,"
said Ami professionally, "concludes the reading of the charges against
the accused."

	"Oh, good," whispered Terra, who rolled her eyes in frustration.

	"All in favor of passing sentence, say 'yea,'" Serenity intoned formally.

	"Yea!" said Serenity, Ami, Makoto, and Rei while Terra, Mamoru, and
Minako said, either "Nay!" or "No!"

	"It seems that the ayes have it," said the princess.  "In light of
your recent contributions to the Alliance--"

	"Contributions?" Terra whispered.  "I saved your great big dumb
ungrateful lives!  A couple of times!  NOT counting what I just did
for the Moon Kingdom a couple days ago!"

	"Shh," Makoto hushed her.

	"--the sentence of consigning your soul forever to the void," Usagi
continued, "is commuted."

	"...consigning my soul to the void?!" echoed a wide-eyed Terra.  She
stood up.  "I'm going now.  You people are all crazy."

	Makoto stood up.  "You're not leaving, Red."

	"Oh, I think I am," insisted the Irish girl.  "OW!" she yelped when
the other girl got her into a very difficulty to escape--and
painful--armlock.

	"Instead," added Serenity, "you shall be immediately stripped of your
position within the Sailor Soldiers."

	"Fine!" said Terra.  "Like I want to be your friends anymore anyway,
after all this.  Psychos."

	"Your powers shall be suppressed and removed."

	The redhead blinked.  "You can do that?"

	"And finally," continued the Princess, "you are to be banished from
this world, never to return."

	"What?!" Terra shouted.  "No!"

	"Don't resist, Terra," Serenity advised, and took out the wand with
the Ginzuishou Crystal on it.

	"The way you're acting goes way beyond any concept of 'justice,'"
said Terra quietly.  "You're pushing this much too hard."  She looked
into the blonde's blue eyes.  "Terrifying must have done something
truly horrible to you personally for you to feel so strongly about
this.  She secretly killed your friends, but there's more to it, isn't
there?  What did she do?"

	Serenity did not respond; she merely glared at her.  Her expression
practically screamed, "Like you don't know!"

	"Anyway," Terra said, "you have no right to do anything to me.
You're a princess?  If you're a princess, then I'm the gosh darn
QUEEN.  The kingdom's been gone for thousands of years.  I don't
recognize your authority over me."

	Serenity raised her wand.  "THIS is my authority."

	"Might makes right, huh?" asked Terra.  "Then how about this?"  She
closed her eyes and reached within.  Her black power responded to her
call.  It compressed time slightly.  She focused her strength enough
to slip out of Makoto's firm grasp, and she kicked her leg upward
quickly--so quickly that it tore the skirt of her new dress--and
knocked the wand out of Serenity's hand.  She followed the trajectory
of the artifact as it sailed in her direction.  She caught it and
allowed time to return to its normal pace.

	Her arms and kicking thigh stung from their abrubpt, extreme usage.
The move had slightly strained those muscles, she guessed.  She held
up the wand while Serenity cradled her bruised hand.  "This was your
authority?  So is this MY authority now?"

	Makoto reached over, yanked it out of her grasp, then handed it back
to Serenity.

	"Hey!" Terra protested.

	"You demon," Serenity said with barely hidden malice.

	"I'm a demon?!" Terra asked incredulously.  "Then I guess I'll have
to use my hellish tools to get you to see reason!"  She held her
transformation locket and intoned, "MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE UP!!"

	The transformation didn't fling her around this time.  It was a soft,
somber glow that suffused her body and formed her Chibimoon getup.
The yellow-golden power made itself available to her once more.

	"That will do you no good," said Serenity.  "With the Ginzuishou
Crystal, I can dispel and remove those powers of yours without any
effort.

	"Usagi-chan," said Minako, "stop this."

	"Justice must be done," said the Princess.

	Sailor Chibimoon tried to feel out the telekinesis abilities she had
learned about in the Silver Millennium.  She found that she had them,
but based on their magnitude, she determined that Chibimoon powers
definitely were on a much smaller scale than the planet-wide abilities
she had made use of in the Moon Kingdom.  She would not be throwing
around buildings anytime soon, but small objects shouldn't be much of
a problem.

	She reached out and yanked the wand out of Serenity's grasp again,
then stomped on Makoto's toes.  After seeing that several of the girls
seemed primed to activate their powers and attack, she considered
fighting for a moment.  Her mind flashed to images of gore and death
in what once was an ornate dining hall.  She saw a couple of her her
friends' faces as they were killed in varyingly terrible ways.

	"No," she whispered, pounding on her head with the edge of the wand.
"THAT'S NOT ME!"

	Sailor Chibimoon turned and ran out of the building.

---

	While running, Chibimoon dug out her cellphone and had it dial her
mother's number.  It rang and then picked up.  "Mom?  Good, it's you.
Things kinda took a turn for the worse--do you think you could come
pick me up?  Thanks!  Love you.  Bye!"  She put the device away.
"Crap, crap, crap!"

	However much bravado she had used earlier, her heart really wasn't up
for fighting her friends.  First of all, she told herself, there was a
good chance she couldn't win it.  Venus especially was an awesome
fighter if she decided to join in.  Second, even if she had the power
to win, she didn't want to hurt her friends, no matter how much they'd
been mean to her in the past little while--they were almost certainly
just confused or messed up all funny in the head because of their new,
traumatic memories.  Third... well, there was no third yet, but she
was certain she'd think of something.

	"Oh," she whispered, "right.  What if I CAN win after all and I go too far?"

	By this time, Sailors Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury had already
activated their transformations and caught up with her.  They powered
up their attacks and let them fly.

	"Shine Aqua Illusion!"
	"Moon Tiara Action!"
	"Burning Mandalla!"
	"Supreme Thunder!"

	Chibimoon got hit from behind.  There was no way Terra could have
dodged.  There was no way she could have blocked such an onslaught.
The best she could do was grit her teeth and try to control her fall
so that she wouldn't get a concussion.  At first, her defenses held
and her boots just scraped forward through the dirt, but the attacks'
duration was too long to endure for very long.

	The Irish girl finally tumbled forward through the air, still
engulfed by the blast.  The wand with the Ginzuishou Crystal got
knocked out of her grasp.

	The black power within her simmered.  It wanted out, and out in a big
way.  To appease its sudden request to be used, Terra pulled on the
threads of time.  She savored every last second of the blast as if
they were minutes in the compressed temporal stream.  She didn't have
the power or desire to turn back time again, though, it seemed.

	When the black power gave out, Terra released the compression and
slammed hard up against a short stone wall.  The wall broke, and her
spine squelched at the impact.  She slid down, and lay still, without
feeling like getting back up.  She could still feel her extremities,
but... OW!

	"Fight back!" Makoto shouted at her.

	"No," Terra responded sullenly.  "You're going to have to kill me in
cold blood.  I'm not fighting you."

	"Then die like the cowardly murdering traitor you are!  SUPREME THUNDER!!!"

	Terra winced at the harshness of the words.  "Whoa, hardcore!"

	The bolt of lightning hit Terra pretty hard.  It should have hurt
quite a lot more, but her recent experiences had numbed her
considerably to pain.  She noticed her body writhing around, her
outfit got burned in places, and her makeup started searing off.  The
transformation device at her chest sparked with the destructive
energy, and it finally broke into pieces that fell to the ground.

	The powers of Sailor Chibimoon flew apart in great sparkles, and
faded into the air.  Terra was returned to her gift dress, torn and
stained from her recent experiences.

	The black power really wanted out now.  Terra felt like, if she let
it, she could explode like a great big nuclear bomb.  Instead, she
pulled the power into time compression to further deaden what should
have been intense, screaming pain.  In doing so, she got a good look
at her friends' expressions.  They were familiar faces, though looking
distastefully at her, like they had been asked to do an unpleasant
execution job, or been asked to take out the trash.  It was one of
those.  Terra wondered if that's what the youma they fought saw before
being killed by them.

	She never thought she'd die like this, surrounded by former friends
who now hated her.  It would have been much more pleasant to have died
a heroine after saving the lives of those friends.  Why couldn't she
have died back then, after beating Jadeite?  She could have been so
much happier, and wouldn't have had to live to see this.  Why couldn't
she have stayed dead after battling Metallia?  Why did the past have
to catch up with her and make her life miserable now?

	Sailor Mars hurled another huge fireball at her.  Without the
protections of her Sailor outfit, Terra thought, the blast would
definitely kill her.

	Sweet oblivion, the girl mused, open your arms....

	...but there was a flash of red and a long-stemmed red rose split the
fiery strike asunder.

	"STOP IT!" shouted a familiar voice.  It was kind of like Queen
Serenity's, but much more... human.

	Terra's eyes shot wide open when she recognized it.  "Mom!"  She
thought about it.  "You sure got here fast!"

	Kasumi Incognita ran from her car to where Terra lay, putting herself
between her daughter and the Sailor Soldiers.  "Enough!" the woman
cried.  "Leave her alone!"

	"Mrs. Incognita," Sailor Moon said in almost a snobbish tone as she
drew closer, "please stand aside and let us bring justice to this
murderer."

	"This is my DAUGHTER you're attacking!  Look at her!  She has been
hurt badly!  She could even be dying because of what you did!"

	"I'm getting better," lied the moaning girl on the ground.

	"She doesn't deserve to live," Serenity nearly spat.  "We gave her as
much mercy as we could, but she chose death rather than banishment--"

	Kasumi stepped forward and smacked Sailor Moon hard across the cheek.
 The magically-enhanced warrior could not have been hurt, but the
shock sent her tumbling to the ground.

	"I expected BETTER from you!!"

	The echo from the slap rebounded through the shrine grounds.  Terra's
blood went cold.  She had never seen her mother angry.  EVER.  She
briefly considered which was more frightening: seeing that face upset,
or watching Demon Goddess Queen Metallia bearing down on her with
hundred-meter-wide beams of destruction.  She leaned toward the
former.

	Mars and Jupiter stepped forward between Kasumi and the felled Sailor
Moon.  They appeared to be showing restraint in not retaliating.

	"You dare strike our Princess??" demanded Rei.

	"I have nothing more to say to you," Kasumi replied.  This time, it
looked like she was the one having to show restraint.  "Terra and I
are going home.  Don't try to stop me, or... or face a mother's
wrath!"

	Her words seemed to have a measurable effect.  The Sailor Soldiers
backed down, and Kasumi helped Terra up, and together they limped over
to the family vehicle, and departed amid a loud screeching of wheels.

---

	Sailor Moon saw the rose near where Terra had lain, and looked up at
Tuxedo Kamen, who stood on the roof of the shrine.  "Why did you
intervene, Endymion?" she asked.  "Princess Terra caused the very
downfall of the Silver Millennium!"

	"If you had succeeded," Tuxedo Kamen said, "that would not have been
justice.  Don't tell me you didn't feel that way too.  I saw your
faces when her mother came.  This wasn't right."

	Serenity looked between everyone, seeing their expressions, some in
agreement with her and some not in agreement.  "Very well," she said.
She walked over and retrieved the wand with the Ginzuishou Crystal.
"Instead of vengeance, let us now focus on the future.  The Dark
Kingdom still plagues us.  With the power of the Ginzuishou Crystal,
we will swiftly find the path into their domain, and put and end to
them.  Then we may focus on re-establishing the rule of the Silver
Millennium Alliance!"

---

	Terra and Kasumi didn't go home.  Instead, they went straight to the
hospital.  It didn't take long for Terra to get checked in.  A couple
of the nurses joked morbidly and halfheartedly about her having a
sudden relapse of death.

	"Not funny," Kasumi said pointedly.  "That is NOT funny."

	Nurse Joi was being dragged along by two other health care workers
into another room.  "But I'm not really a nurse!  I'm a veterinarian!"

	"You crazy interns crack me up," one of the techs pulling her said.

	"I said I'm not a nurse!"

	"And I said you crazy interns crack me up!"

	Terra got into a hospital gown and then was given a nice room with
lots of beeping machines and things that a team of doctors hooked up
to her.  She even got an IV put into her wrist.  Her pulse was erratic
on the EKG and her brainwaves all flatlined at the top of the screen
on the EEG.  Some other monitor seemed to show strange characters that
melted away whenever she tried to focus on them.  The doctors were
freaking out and proclaiming that the end of the world was at hand.

	Meanwhile, Terra calmly read a few teeny-bopper magazines and tried
not to think about anything having to do with her life in general.
She barely winced when the medical group drew blood and stool samples,
and hardly flinched when they took a biopsy of the mushroom-cursed
flesh on her back.

	A couple of hours later, Kasumi was let in, along with a Catholic
priest and a Jewish rabbi.  This being Japan, they must have either
been at the hospital already, or had been very hard to find.

	Terra ran the scenario through her mind and said aloud, "So, an
architect, a priest, and a rabbi go into a hospital to see a teenage
girl with all kinds of things wrong with her.  The girl asks what
they're all doing there.  The architect says she's there to realign
the bed and help her feel more comfortable.  The priest says he came
to perform her last rites.  The rabbi looks back and forth between the
girl and his companions, shrugs, and says, 'Don't ask me.  I thought
we were going to the cafeteria.'"

	Terra laughed.  It wasn't really funny, but she laughed anyway.  She
felt that maybe if she laughed hard enough, she could keep from
crying.  She was kind of slap-happy, whether from the lingering
pain--both emotional and physical--from the fight with her friends, or
from the medication.

	"They insisted on coming," her mother said, pointing to the other two.

	"Have you thought about your eternal salvation?" the priest asked the girl.

	"No," replied Terra, "but now that you mention it, if my friends are
to be believed, I'm probably going to a very nasty place when I die.
I've never read Dante's stuff, but does anyone here recall what circle
murderers, regicides, and traitors go to?"

	"Terra," Kasumi whispered, shaking her head.

	"Ahh," the priest hesitated, "I wouldn't consider Dante's Inferno as
a proper textbook on the afterlife."

	Terra slipped in and out of consciousness while the others were
present.  According to her old friend Anne Ohara, she as even a
barely-passing protestant should be violently against letting the
Catholic priest live, but Anne was also a deranged psychopath, so what
did she know?  Both the priest and the rabbi seemed nice as they
talked, and the Jewish guy gave her an squarely-shaped little spinning
top thing that she could play around with on the tray in front of her.
 Apparently having received her full dose of prescribed religion for
the visit, the two men said their goodbyes and walked out.

	"When I asked them what could be done for you," Kasumi said, "the
doctors told me that if I believed in prayer, that could probably
help."

	"Well, that sure inspires confidence in my recovery," muttered Terra
sarcastically.

	A pair of doctors came in behind Kasumi.

	"The test results are in," the first said.  "We've got some good news
and some bad news."

	"What's the good news?" Terra asked hopefully.

	"The good news is," the second doctor said, "you get to have a
disease named after you."  He paused.  "Well, after ME, but I'll make
sure to mention you once it's published.  You'll be famous!"

	Kasumi looked concerned.  It quite obviously was NOT the news she had
hoped for.

	"Oh goodie," deadpanned the Irish girl.  "Just what I've always
wanted.  And the bad news?"

	"The bad news is that a bizarre fungus of some kind is rapidly
devouring your body.  If we can't find a cure in, oh, about three
days, you'll be truly beyond help.  As it is, you still probably won't
even be able to walk again once the parasite's been removed."

	"That's pretty bad news," Terra agreed.  "Am I contagious?"

	"Not as far as we can tell.  The organism won't seem to grow when
separated from your skin.  We tested it on a couple of other things.
Our options are pretty much limited to either find an anti-fungal
agent that can affect it, or to try and remove it surgically.  I
wouldn't recommend surgery, though.  It's affecting about thirty-five
percent of your skin, plus however deep it's gotten.  I'd like to do a
few X-rays and maybe an MRI to see how much of you we can salvage."

	Terra looked away.  "I've got three days?"

	"Until the point of no return, yes.  But even in our best-case
scenario, you will at the very least be crippled by any cure we can
provide."

	Kasumi looked like she wanted to cry.

	Terra chewed her lower lip, demanding a solution from her mind.  It
didn't seem like one would be forthcoming anytime soon.  Checking her
power levels, everything useful had pretty much fizzled out.  It was
like her powers were fluids in bottles and getting hit so badly from
her friends' blasts had broken the glass.  Green energy dominated and
suppressed all.

	"Can we have a few minutes alone?" Kasumi asked the doctors, who
nodded and walked away.

	"Well," commented Terra after a while, "this certainly sucks."

	Her mother nodded.  "I thought I lost you once.  I don't think I
could stand to lose you again."

	"Yes, yes, the life of a warrior is fraught with such hardships and
all that," said Terra.  "Maybe, months ago, I should have said no to
the heroine offer and stayed in my room to do my homework instead."

	"But if you did, all of your friends would be dead and the world
would already be overrun by the Dark Kingdom."  Kasumi hesitated.  "At
least, that's the impression I got from all told me."

	"I guess," Terra said uncertainly.  "But I'm not buying it this time.
 I can count at least three situations where I thought I was a goner,
but I came back without a scratch.  Okay, maybe right now I'm a little
more than scratched, but I still bet there's a way out of this.  I'll
find it, though I admit this is probably the second toughest one I've
been through."

	"Second?" asked Kasumi.  "What was the first?"

	"Queen Metallia, Queen Beryl, her Four Heaven's Kings, the Seven
Great Youma, and an army of millions of armored soldiers bearing down
on my location when I'm the only thing between them and a couple
million innocent people.  That's pretty much the most excessive,
stupid odds I've gone up against and won."

	"Won?"

	"I know, winning is such a strong word, isn't it?  How about I say I
'didn't exactly lose' and leave it at that?"

	"So how did it work, time traveling to the past?  Did anything change
from what you noticed?"

	"No, not really, aside from my friends going all loco crazy on me."

	"You're speaking Spanish now?"

	"Nope!  Read the word on the Internet once."

	"Ah.  Well, I know that the rest of us shouldn't notice anything
different, us being inside the timeline, but if anything did change,
you would probably be the first to notice."

	Terra shrugged.  "Beats me.  All I know about time travel has felt
like rewinding a tape or jumping bodies."  She rubbed her forehead.
"Mom, do you know anyone that's good to talk with about time travel?
Someone preferably not in a library?  Been there, done that, didn't
help."

	Kasumi paused in thought before answering, "I... know someone, yes."

	"Oh, and another thing on my wish list for my birthday: can I have a
psychiatrist?  I don't know what it is I'm feeling right now, but I
bet it's trauma or shell shock or something funky like that."

	"Of course.  Our insurance will cover that.  And anything else you need."

	Terra realized that she was being quite talkative for a dying girl
and found that she felt just fine, relatively speaking, despite the
death sentence she'd been given.  "Mom, could you see if we can go
home too?  I kind of want to sleep in my own bed tonight.  I doubt
they're gonna be able to do anything useful for me here."

	"Of course, dear.  I'll ask them."

---

	Bruce opened his eyes.  The deep glow that had permeated the Dark
Kingdom dimension soon subsided.

	"That was it?" Nephrite asked.

	"No," the White ArbyFish replied.  "It was a first step.  Your
precious demon goddess has not reawakened yet, but her heartbeat grows
ever stronger."

	"We have been badly weakened and are somewhat strapped for time," the
Second General noted.  "Any minute now, the Sailor Soldiers could
break into our dimension and finish us off!"

	"Patience, boy," Bruce spat.  "And have some faith."  He grinned,
baring his fangs.  "We have a contract, after all.  It simply wouldn't
be proper for me to not fulfill my end of the agreement."

	"Your track record hasn't exactly been spotless."

	"It's true that some things have gone beyond my control," Bruce
admitted, "but even the finest plots of 'Fish and youma require their
own little adjustments."

	"Do you even WANT to kill the Sailor Soldiers?!"

	The creature feigned looking hurt.  "Why, little Nephrite, I'm
shocked.  We are on the same side, after all.  We both want to see
certain members of their group eliminated, for our own reasons."

	"I don't trust you, Bruce!"

	"Perhaps I wasn't clear before.  You have no choice now.  And if YOU
wish to break your end of the contract, heads will roll." Bruce's eyes
gleamed when he brandished his advanced vorpal switchblades.
"Literally."

	Interrupting their conversation, a shining portal appeared behind
them.  Nephrite shielded his face from the stinging power and shouted,
"It's a dimensional portal!  Those Sailor girls have found a way in!"

	Bruce sighed, as if the imminent destruction of the Dark Kingdom were
a minor inconvenience.  He snapped a flipper, summoning a dozen youma
to his command, which he sent into the bright gateway.  The Sailor
Soldiers' surprised screams seemed to satisfy the White ArbyFish
immensely.

	"Sweet, sweet suffering," the creature whispered contentedly.  "I'll
see if I can capture one alive."  Like a bird, he hopped off of his
perch and fluttered over to the portal.

---

	It only took a few release forms to get Terra out of the hospital.  A
young doctor had broken out a bottle of Champaign, declaring how
famous he would become since he discovered Terra Incognita's
Degenerative Fungal Disease--he changed it to her name from his in
exchange for a couple more samples when she got up and left.
Cautiously yet curiously, people swarmed around her as she left.

	"Why don't you write a paper?" Terra quipped at them.  "It'll last
longer!  Sheesh!"

	When they got home, Kasumi made her daughter her favorite for dinner:
steak, loaded mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli.  Terra didn't
know why, but she liked her steaks fairly rare and really tear into
them with the sharpest, most jagged utensils she could find.  She
found the activity cathartic.  As usual, her mom's cooking was
excellent.  She thought the peppercorns were a nice touch.

	When that was done, Terra took a bath, brushed her teeth, got into
her pajamas, and climbed into bed.  After a bit of thought, she got
back out of bed, went downstairs, picked up the phone, and dialed
Usagi's number.

	After a few rings, a man picked up.  "Moshi-moshi?" he said.

	"Hi," Terra replied.  "Mister Tsukino, right?  What in the heck did
you just say?"

	"I, ah, said hello?"

	"Yeah, that's better.  Anyway, this is Terra, one of Usagi's friends.
 Is she there right now?"

	"No, she hasn't been back all day.  We're getting worried.  Do you
know where she might be?"

	"Last I saw her, she was at the Hikawa Shrine with the rest of us.
But that was this morning.  Or was it the afternoon?  My head's
blurry.  I was kind of... out of it all day long after I left there."

	"Did she say she was going anywhere?  I've been trying to get a hold
of her other friends, but none of them have been back either."

	Terra blinked.  "Really?  That's weird.  No, I didn't hear anything
about if they were going somewhere afterward."

	"Okay, well, if you hear anything, please call me."

	"Sure.  I'll do that."

	Terra hung up and dialed Rei's number.  The phone rang and rang, but
nobody picked up.  The same happened for Makoto's place.  She tried
Ami's phone and got an answering machine for Dr. Mizuno.

	"Odd.  Did a youma attack or something?"

	On the kitchen counter, Terra saw a pink calculator-thing she
recognized as her special Sailor Communicator.  "Hey, I thought I'd
lost this.  Mom must have found it."

	She turned it on and checked to see if any of her friends were on.
The buttons for Moon, Mercury, and Mars came up with static, but
Makoto's face popped up on the screen when she tried for Jupiter.

	"Hi, Lita," Terra said blandly.  "Wow, do I ever have stories to tell you."

	There were blast sounds from behind Sailor Jupiter.  "Terra!"  She
grimaced.  "I thought we were clear on what we thought of you!"

	"Call me a glutton for punishment," replied the redhead.  "What do
you have going down?"

	"We opened up a portal to the Dark Kingdom to finish them off once
and for all, but we were ambushed!"

	Terra frowned.  "Ambushed?"

	"A big old squad of youma poured out on top of us!  We managed to
seal the portal, but we're still pinned down at a clearing near the
Shrine!  It wouldn't have been so bad if not for that dumb white
ArbyFish!  He's taken the Princess!"

	"That's terrible.  Let me tell you how really, really bad I feel that
something bad happened to someone that was trying to do something bad
to me."

	"So not up for helping out tonight, eh, Red?"

	"Gee, I wish I COULD help, but my transformation stuff kind of
EXPLODED on me.  Maybe you remember something about how that happened,
hmm?  In fact, I've still got some deep cuts and things from the
shrapnel.  Doctors even gave me a plastic baggie with souvenir pieces.
 I wasn't paying attention, but I think I might have gotten some
stitches."

	"Figured."

	"Yeah," Terra's voice cracked.  "At this point, I'm not sure I would
even if I could.  Trying to kill me kind of puts a damper on our
relationship."

	"You killed us first."

	"Dang it, Lita!  How many times do I have to say it?!  I.  Did.  Not--"

	"Fine!  Guess I can't blame you for all that after today."

	"You know what I want?"  Terra's face flushed red with anger.  "I
want an apology and I want... I want a signed card!  A nice one!  A
BIG one!  And I want EVERYONE to write personal messages on it."

	"...not feeling it yet.  Sorry."

	"Guess we have nothing more to talk about."

	"Guess not.  Goodbye, then, Red.  Maybe forever."

	"Sure, bye."

	Terra switched the device off.  It was just as well she didn't
mention her terminal disease.  There wasn't enough time to have a
proper discussion about it.  Another moment's consideration led her to
note that it was the most pleasant conversation she'd had with her
friends all week, although that wasn't saying much.

	Since there was nothing more she could do, she went back upstairs and
went to bed.  She hadn't slept so well in months.  The next morning,
Terra hardly noticed Arby the ArbyFish and the Star Light Knight
tapping incessantly on her window pane.

---End of Chapter 19

And now it's time for... MIND YOUR MANNERS!!! with Sailor Nuke.

(Terra gets sentenced to death by her friends)

Sailor Nuke:  Today, we learned what to do when all your friends
suddenly think you've become the reincarnation of all evil.

(Chibimoon gets totally thrashed in the fight)

Sailor Kawaii:  Act cute and helpless, hoping that they'll stop?

Sailor Nuke:  Nah, that'd never work.

(The girl recuperates in the hospital)

Sailor Nuke:  If you're a wimp and challenging them to a duel to the
death doesn't work out, you can always--

(Kasumi shows up and saves Terra)

Sailor Kawaii:  --hope your mommy shows up to save you?

Sailor Nuke:  No!  You retreat, concentrate your forces, build up your
weapons of mass destruction, and BLOW 'EM TO BITS!!!

(Millions of youma are engulfed in an atomic blast)

Sailor Nuke:  Sailor Nuke sez.  BWAHAHAHAHAHHAAAA!!!

Sailor Kawaii:  But if the direct approach doesn't work, fall back and
try to be a little more subtle.  Sailor Kawaii says.  Tee-hee!



Still here after all that?  Wow, I'm impressed, and honored.  Thanks
for reading! ;)


-- 
Benjamin A Oliver
benjamin.a.oliver at gmail.com

Technical Writer / Translator
M3 Engineering & Technology

Master of Science in Management Information Systems
Eller College of Management
University of Arizona

Writings: Fan Fiction
http://boliver.florestica.com/

Webcomic: Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!! The Early Years
http://nettg.com