Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Conflict and Courage ❯ Uncertainty ( Chapter 6 )

An Unaccepted Love

by Damien Frost

Chapter 6: Uncertainty

~

Venus closed her eyes as she walked over to where Jupiter had slumped to the ground. She needed a plan, and she needed information. She opened her eyes and sighed. `I can't make a plan unless I have information, and information is something severely lacking in this case.'

She looked down at Jupiter as she came upon the prone girl's form. Venus knelt next to her fellow senshi and put a hand on her shoulder. "Makoto, look at me," she commanded, using her real name for emphasis. She waited until the chestnut-haired girl complied. Tears were streaming down her face, and she looked like she just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Venus smiled softly, trying to convey that it wasn't her fault through it. "Makoto, at this point there is nothing we can do until we learn more. So right now, we need to do what we can. What you can do is go see how Ami is."

Jupiter's eyes opened wide as she remembered the blue-haired girl. She looked around in desperation, trying to find her. Spotting her girlfriend, she stood swiftly and ran to her, reverting to herself along the way.

Minako sighed again as she stood. `This is going to be fun,' she thought as she pulled out her communicator. "All senshi. Emergency situation. There is no exception to this call. Meet at Makoto-chan's apartment in one hour. If you are currently out of the country, return immediately. Once more, emergency situation. All senshi must be present." She closed her communicator and severely hoped Michiru and Haruka were currently at home. Everything would be so much easier.

~

Haruka blinked as she felt her communicator go off. She pulled it out of her pocket and popped open the view screen. She blinked again as she saw Minako's face, but it was apparent immediately that this wasn't a call to Haruka alone. Minako was looking into the distance as her voice came through in a chilled and commanding tone.

When the transmission was over, Haruka immediately went into action. "Michiru!" she called into the bathroom as she pulled the suitcases out from under the bed. "Get packed, something happened at home."

Michiru's head popped out of the bathroom. "What happened?"

"I don't know, but we need to be at Makoto's within the hour," Haruka smiled half-heartedly.

Michiru brought her hands to her temples and slowly rubbed them as she walked over to the phone. She seemed to brace herself before picking it up to call her assistant. "Shisokai-san, call the airport and get them to prepare a Concorde for flight in fifteen minutes to Tokyo International. Yes, I do realize I have a show tonight, but I'm afraid I am going to have to cancel it. Family problems. No, I don't believe I need to give you a better reason than that," Michiru rolled her eyes at Haruka. "Yes, Shisokai-san, I realize what an inconvenience it is. But I will refund all the money for the tickets tonight and reschedule a free one for those that had tickets. Shisokai-san," she interrupted, finally fed up with the man, "we are done talking. Get it done." Michiru hung up the phone and let out an exasperated sigh. She shook her head as she looked up at Haruka. "That man is going to be the death of me."

Haruka just smiled at her meekly and shrugged as she returned to packing. Her mind quickly wandered back to the look on Minako's face as she ordered the meeting. She wasn't the bubbly blonde that loved life and shopping. She was… hard. Her eyes seemed hollow, and dead.

Haruka shivered slightly at the differences between the Minako she knew and the one she had just seen. She stiffened slightly, but quickly relaxed as she felt a pair of slender arms encircle her waist.

"What's wrong, love?" she asked, the concern evident in her voice.

Haruka turned in the embrace to face Michiru. "I have a feeling that we're not going to like what's waiting for us at home. And I mean really not like," she sighed as her head bent down so their foreheads were touching.

"Well, we're lucky we only made it to the Hong Kong date in the tour, otherwise we wouldn't be able to make it back in time. As it is you're going to have to drive very fast to get us to Makoto's on time," she smiled playfully.

"But, Michiru, what if it's too late already?" she looked into her eyes, pleading with her to say not to worry, it wasn't that bad.

Michiru's eyes closed as she tried to maintain her calm demeanor. In truth, she was as worried about this call as her partner, and she knew Haruka could sense that. "There's no sense in worrying about what we don't know. We can't assume anything. There is nothing we can do from here. Just remember anything our minds draw up is most likely worse than reality."

Haruka looked at her skeptically. "Most likely?"

Michiru smirked. "Well, we are after all superheroes reborn from a thousand years ago, destined to defend a princess from a kingdom on the moon long since dead."

The tall blonde pulled back from Michiru with a perplexed look on her face. "Right. We should get going," she chuckled while leaning in for a quick kiss.

~

"So you're telling me this is a school?" Rei asked, looking at the girl in disbelief.

The young girl seemed to think hard about this for a second before she shook her head slightly. "I dunno. Kinda. I mean, you get taught how to do really cool stuff like make ice and fire and light and stuff like that come out of your hands!" she said excitedly. "But you have to be careful or bad things can happen," she whispered, her happy demeanor quickly vanishing.

Rei knelt down in front of her and took one of her hands into her own. "Are you talking about how you went blind?" she asked carefully.

The little girl nodded slightly then looked up at Rei. "It's okay though. I learned how to do a trick that let's me see things. But they look all weird. Like a regular fire looks green to me, so I try changing the color until it looks red," she paused a moment as she gazed at the fire. "What color is the fire, really?" she asked sadly.

"A very beautiful silver," Rei told her sincerely.

"Keiko, where are you?" a voice rang through the house.

The girl jumped up from her perch on the piano bench and ran to the source of the voice. "Mama!!!" she screamed with joy running into Telanis' arms.

Telanis picked up the young girl and spun her around before giving her an Eskimo kiss. She then noticed Rei, and stopped in shock. "How did you get out of that room?" She practically screamed.

Rei stood up and regarded her coolly. "The wall might need repairing," she smirked.

A booming laugh caught both women off guard and caused Keiko to cling tight to Telanis as Kilag entered the room. "That easy for you, huh?" he smiled at the miko.

She stiffened and simply nodded. While she believed Telanis would be no problem in a confrontation, she knew she would be outmatched when it came to this giant.

"I have a light surprise for you for… passing your first test," he smiled. That smile unnerved Rei more than she would ever admit. "Follow me."

Rei followed the man, figuring she would be in worse condition if she disobeyed him, and at this time she didn't have any other options if she wanted to make it out alive. After a few minutes of walking they arrived at the door that had been opposite of Rei's own.

"Open it."

Rei steadied her hand, a sudden chill running down her spine. She grasped the doorknob lightly, testing for any wards, then turned it and let it swing open. Upon seeing the contents of the room, she forgot all pretenses of safety as she ran in.

Usagi lay unconscious on the bed.

Rei fell next to the bed and reached out for the princess' hand only to pull back at the last second, feeling a barrier around her body. She stood and spun on the other occupant of the room. "What the hell is going on? What is she doing here? For that matter, what the hell am I doing here?" she screamed at him.

The man lowered his head, the shadows playing across his face casting him into an evil light as he glared at her. "She is here to make sure you do what you are told."

~

Minako stood in the living room of Makoto's apartment, staring at the clock. `Five more minutes.' She took a quick mental inventory of those present and sighed.

Makoto had been in a bad way. She believed Usagi's kidnapping should have been prevented by her, and having her attack hurt Ami just added to the weight. Ami had been fine; she only had a few slight burns on her body. When Makoto told her what had happened, Ami immediately went to her computer to try tracing the princess' communicator. Ami had started to cry when no signal returned had shown up. `They are so alike,' Minako thought with a wry smile. `They feel that if anything happens to her, they should have been able to prevent it or be able to fix it,' Minako sighed. They were currently in the kitchen making tea. It was something routine to help them calm their nerves.

Hotaru sat on the couch near Minako, eyes closed and head back, seeming as if she was trying to sleep. Minako knew better, though. She could tell the youngest senshi was opening her senses up to become aware of everything around her. It was something she had learned through hours of trying to come to terms with having the power to destroy the world. Minako remembered several talks long into the night with her. She had always felt unsettled at being the Senshi of Death, and the responsibility that came with that title often scared her. Minako had finally told her that she couldn't help her come to terms with her power. But she needed to remember that she was also the Senshi of Rebirth. She was life as well as death. Since then, she seemed more at ease with herself, and had become more in tune with life around her.

Haruka had called a few moments ago saying she and Michiru had just landed at Tokyo International and they might be late, though with Haruka driving, Minako knew they wouldn't be more than a couple minutes late.

Minako had stopped by Usagi's and her own home to pick up Luna and Artemis. Setsuna, Minako knew, would probably show up in five… four… three… two… one…

Minako opened the door to see Setsuna standing there with her hand raised to knock on the door. If the situation were not so grave, Minako would have laughed at the timing. Instead she waved the older woman in. "Please sit. We'll get started as soon as Haruka-san and Michiru-san arrive."

Minako went back to watching the clock, her mind drifting to the one thing worrying her more than the captured princess.

Rei had not checked in. She had not shown up or even given any acknowledgement she had heard the message, or for that matter, if she was even alive. Minako had tried several times over the past hour to attempt reaching the miko, to no avail. She knew that if they didn't have her in the upcoming battle, they were going to be missing one of their biggest guns.

There was another knock at the door and she walked over and opened it. She did not expect to see the man on the other side.

"Where is she?" Mamoru asked, his eyes pleading with the Senshi of Love to not slam the door in his face.

"Come in Mamoru-san, have a seat. We have much to discuss," she told him while gesturing to the seat next to Hotaru on the couch.

As soon as he sat down he was hauled back up immediately by a strong hand on the back of his collar. "I thought I smelled a skunk," Makoto snapped. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing here?" she growled, barely contained rage evident in her voice.

Before he had a chance to respond, though, Minako was at the tall brunette's side, glaring at her with an equal amount of anger. "Stand down, Jupiter," she barked. "He has as much right to be here as the rest of us. His soul and hers are still bonded, and through that virtue he is welcome here. Maybe not with open arms, but he is welcome here nonetheless. Now put him down." The last sentence was said with so much force that it startled Makoto into dropping the prince. Luckily for him, the couch was still underneath him, and he fell relatively unharmed.

At that moment police sirens decided to make themselves glaringly present in the silence. Minako gave a warning glance to Makoto before going to the window to see what the commotion was. She looked out in time to see a gold and white blur fly by the building and power slide into the next turn. The officer following her wasn't expecting the move and couldn't stop in time to make the turn, and instead flew through the intersection.

Minako shook her head and smiled softly. "Haruka and Michiru are here," she announced to the waiting room.

~

A/N

Okay, so I know nothing really happened in this chapter, but it's necessary to set up things in the future. Minako seems like a hard-ass right now because she's reverting back to Sailor V, when she worked alone, and was - in my belief - harder, had more of an edge.

I'm gonna try to get the next chap up ASAP, but my brain might not cooperate.

Anyways, as always THANKYOU FOR READING!!!

-Damien