Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Regency ❯ Chapter 4

Regency

By: InitialA

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.

Haruka was having the strangest feeling, not unlike sleep paralysis: she knew she was awake, she just couldn't move. Sound grew louder and fainter, but there wasn't much to listen to. She thought she heard voices, a man and a woman. Even her thoughts felt sluggish. `We were just going to see Dumpling… then there was that light… why can't I move?'

A searing pain shot up her arm from her hand, and suddenly Haruka could move, yell, and violently jerk her arm—all of which she did before realizing that Luna and Artemis were looking at her with concern; the fur around Artemis' mouth was spotted red from biting her so deeply. Haruka looked around; other people they had been walking with were unmoving. She saw Michiru, Setsuna, and Rei all frozen in place, all looking in the same direction with varying degrees of confusion etched on their faces. They looked like garage kits, between the impossible poses and the way their hair fell with their walk. The tall woman looked back to the cats. “What… I don't understand.”

Luna and Artemis looked at each other worriedly. “We were hoping you would know something. This is troublesome…” Luna said.

“How do we free them?” Haruka touched Michiru's cheek.

Michiru suddenly pitched forward—her gait had been frozen awkwardly—gasping. Haruka caught her lover before she hit the ground. “Like that, I expect,” Artemis replied dryly.

“Haruka? What happened?” Michiru asked, color returning to her cheeks.

“We're trying to find that out. Here, grab Rei's shoulders, I'll take Setsuna—”

The two women unfroze their companions, who expressed similar confusion. Luna jumped onto Rei's shoulder. Rei was surprised. “Luna, you and Artemis are supposed to be on Mau. How did you get here? Why didn't you tell us you were coming back?”

“We tried,” Artemis said as Setsuna picked him up.

Haruka was surveying the hallway; this was a pedestrian area of the National Security compound, and with Usagi's note at security they had been allowed in to meet her for lunch. The sun was shining brightly through the glass roof, but something was off. Not only were the other people in this area unmoving, but the glass was cracked or broken in some places, and the metal framing was rusted through in some spots. Michiru grabbed Haruka's wrist. “Haruka… there's snow. On the roof, there's snow.”

Setsuna was concentrating on nothing in particular. Rei followed Michiru's gaze. “You're never one to state the obvious, Michiru, but there it is. It's August.”

“If we're all just going to just state the obvious…” Luna said.

“We need to find Dumpling. I have a feeling…”

“…that she's behind this. I feel it too,” Michiru finished.

The three started running off, Rei leading the way—she was the most attuned with Usagi's energy. Artemis looked at Setsuna as they left. “Setsuna?”

“Artemis… You aren't telling us something,” Setsuna said; her gaze told him she already knew, but wanted his confirmation. She didn't like it.

The cat looked away from those accusing garnet eyes. “When we find the Princess,” he said. “This is important.”

Setsuna hurried after her friends, her heart dropping further in her chest with every step.

*~*

Rei stood outside of the door she knew held her dearest friend. “She's there…”

Michiru noted the electric key card entry was now dead. “I don't know how easily we could break in. With a deadbolt now truly dead…”

Haruka didn't even wait for them to argue about it; she was just glad she had worn her motorcycle boots as her heel smashed into the door near where she suspected the lock mechanisms to be. The door crashed open, and the tall woman merely winced as she put her weight on her foot again. “As easily as that.”

“And you'll have a sprain to prove it for the next few days,” Michiru chided.

Rei hurried in, and gasped. The others followed. Usagi was frozen in midair; she was half-transformed and surrounded by pink ribbons, arms outstretched, as the Silver Crystal shimmered innocently above. Luna went to the computers and tried pressing a few switches. “They're all dead… Not just off, they're dead.”

“Run out of power?” Artemis asked.

Setsuna reached as if to touch Usagi, but hesitated. “She froze time for living beings… for humans. All of the electricity that wasn't powered by renewable sources is likely run out…”

Luna went to a printer, shifting through the abandoned pages to see if there was anything of use. “I don't know how she managed it without killing herself; this is an enormous stretch of the Crystal's power through her…”

“It would certainly kill me,” Setsuna mused. “It's Taboo to stop the passage of time.”

Luna extracted a sheet of paper. “Unless it's for a truly important cause… and I believe Usagi felt that sixteen reports of nuclear bombs was important.”

“Sixteen?” Michiru asked; her voice was steady, but she looked like she wanted to sit down from shock.

“Is that… is this atomic winter?” Setsuna asked, unsure. “Were we hit by one?”

“I'm not entirely certain…” Luna murmured.

“Dumpling…”

Artemis hopped down from his perch on Setsuna's shoulder. “If we touch her, we'll wake her… but we'll need a damn good reason to be here. I don't think anyone else is going to stay like this if the source awakens.”

Setsuna pulled out her star-shaped brooch. “I suggest we transform, and remove the Princess from the vicinity until we can gather more information and form a course of action from there.”

Haruka and Michiru nodded their agreement. “We'll need to bring the others in as soon as possible as well,” Rei added, tearing her gaze from Usagi. “I suspect communications will be down, and until the Diet can form some sort of order it's going to be chaotic out there.”

“Ami and Mamoru will want to tend to Dumpling, the rest of us can go on the offensive and keep looters from doing much damage,” Haruka said.

Four hands thrust towards the sky. “MARS ETERNAL!”

“URANUS ETERNAL!”

“NEPTUNE ETERNAL!”

“PLUTO ETERNAL!”

“MAKE-UP!”

Sailor Mars put two white-gloved fingers to Usagi's foot. The effect was nearly instantaneous: Usagi fell, and Uranus rushed to help Mars catch her. “Princess?” Pluto asked.

The Silver Crystal flashed once, and Usagi's transformation to Serenity completed. Uranus was glad she was at least given that modesty. The rest of the room came alive with noise as screams that had been cut off with their owners existence in the timeline finished. The screams turned into a low drone of confusion as they realized their situation was not as they knew it to be a moment before. A tall, tired-looking man turned on the spot and saw an unconscious Serenity surrounded by four of her guardians. “I… Chiba? What on Earth…”

Uranus' eyes flashed protectively and she gathered her Princess into her arms and stood. Neptune and Pluto guarded her flank, while Mars moved protectively in front. “The Princess has done you all a great service,” Pluto stated in her way. “I will you remember that in the chaos to come.”

“Chaos? Princess? Sailor Senshi, what's the meaning of all of this?” A younger man stood. “Why is Chiba dressed that way?”

Neptune snapped her fingers, and the warriors edged back carefully. The cats followed, Luna carrying several sheets of paper in her mouth. When they reached the door, they fled. Mars scooped up the cats, her boots clicking loudly against the tiled floor. “I hope those papers are worth it, fuzzball.”

“They may be.”

The flight through the National Security compound was easier than they expected; most security features were down, and the human security was too confused to do more than shout at the warriors. “Where is the closest safehouse?” Uranus yelled; she was in front.

“Makoto's!” Mars responded.

“Get on the communicators!”

Mars did so; Pluto recalled something. “The Prince, we have no way of reaching him.”

“Where is he supposed to be?” Neptune asked.

“I do not…”

Neptune summoned her mirror. “We need to stop for a moment! Uranus!”

They all heard the tall woman cursing the air blue; they ducked behind a building and into an alley. “Hurry, Neptune.”

Neptune read the mirror's surface as Mars caught her breath and called Ami next; Luna and Artemis were stretched over her shoulders. “Shouldn't you call everyone at once?” Uranus asked impatiently; she was barely winded.

Mars gave her the evil eye, and ignored her. Several tense minutes passed. Serenity didn't wake up, Neptune stared at the mirror, and Mars finished summoning everyone to Makoto's apartment. Pluto stepped over to Uranus and checked her Princess' pulse. “She's breathing,” Uranus said stiffly. “I would have noticed otherwise.”

“Merely a formality, old friend. While I lack the proper medical training, I can at least tell the strength of a pulse.”

Mars watched them. “She's okay?”

“Steady. Likely she's still exhausted from the effort.”

Luna looked puzzled. “It still astounds me that she managed this…”

Neptune finally looked up from her scrying. “The Prince is at the hospital.”

Pluto nodded. “I'll go to him.”

“Please hurry,” Luna said.

Pluto nodded again, and left. The three remaining warriors nodded to one another, and continued to Makoto's apartment.

*~*

Usagi was laid out on Makoto's dusty couch; Neptune was reminded of Ophelia from Hamlet with her gown floating around her in her watery grave. She immediately felt guilty for thinking of death when the Princess had come so close to it. While Rei was content to power down to her civilian identity as they attended Usagi and waited, the warriors of the outer solar system remained on alert. Uranus stood by the cracked window, watching with some concern the snow that was falling.

It had taken the single-minded warriors some time to notice just how weathered and beaten down the buildings around them had become. They still weren't certain if it was due to an atomic bomb or something else. Makoto's small house wasn't spared from the assault, and the upstairs had actually caved in. They weren't entirely certain it was safe, but the alternative was keeping the Princess exposed for longer than any of them had felt comfortable with while they moved. All ears were kept on alert, listening for the tell-tale sounds of the ceiling about to go.

There was a knock at the door. Neptune looked out the peephole and then admitted Minako and Ami. “Neptune? What on Earth happened—USAGI!”

Makoto was hurrying up the garden path. “Wait!”

Neptune closed the door after her; the Princess' personal attendants all crowded around her. “Idiot,” Minako cursed softly. “What did you do?”

“She stopped time, didn't she?” Makoto asked; she appeared to be too worried to care that her house was in ruins.

Ami was checking Usagi's vital signs. “I was only aware that Sailor Pluto could do such a thing. In any case, it appears that she merely sped up time. The last I checked it was August 4, and it doesn't snow in Japan in August.”

“It might not be normal snow. Sixteen atomic bombs have gone off,” Uranus said grimly.

“What?!”

Neptune noted that Luna and Artemis remained uncharacteristically silent in offering explanations. There was frantic knocking at the door, and she checked again before opening the door for Hotaru. “I came as quickly as I could—what on Earth is going on out there?”

“We're trying to figure that out,” her foster mother replied, returning her gaze to the Princess' feline advisers.

Minako looked up as Hotaru edged towards them. “Hotaru-chan… you made that premonition a few days ago…”

Hotaru shook her head. “I'm not a prophet. I merely saw we had a great tragedy on the horizon, much like Michiru-mama saw it in the mirror. Is this… is the Princess…”

Ami shook her head. “She appears stable, she's just exhausted. Mamoru-san is more qualified than I and can check for sure when he arrives—”

Pluto and Mamoru didn't bother to knock, they just barged in. Or rather, Mamoru barged in; Pluto followed at a more reasonable pace, carrying Chibi-usa in her arms. Neptune felt a pinch of guilt—she had forgotten the young princess in their rush to protect her mother. Uranus moved to her side, sensing her lover's guilt. “We can't think of everything,” she murmured.

“We need to start. She's just as important now.”

“True. But she hasn't been around that long. Give it time.”

Mamoru took his wife's hand, and a faint golden glow surrounded it. He closed his eyes. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, waiting, until he spoke. “She's recovering from such a powerful outburst. She will wake soon, but until then we must let her be, and let the Silver Crystal finish reviving her.”

“Reviving her?” Several voices asked.

“The power nearly killed her, didn't it?” Ami asked. “Stopping atomic bombs?”

“Atomic bombs!”

“How many?”

“Were we hit?!”

Luna coughed delicately, bringing the attention to her. “Likely, sparing everyone from radiation damage did kill her, but the phrasing of the desire that caused this somehow managed not to.”

Artemis nodded. “Or so much time has passed that the Crystal was able to not only kill her, but also bring her back.”

Uranus and Neptune had looks of suspicion on their faces, and glanced between both the cats and Pluto. Ami and Rei were looking at them; it dawned on Ami first, and she uttered a soft, frightened `oh!'. The others were slower to catch on. “Artemis… Why are you here?” Minako asked, her voice like soft iron. “Why aren't you on Mau? Why didn't you tell us you were returning? What aren't you telling us?”

Both felines looked uncomfortable. Hotaru's eyes widened as she started to catch on as well, and looked at her foster-mother. Pluto remained steadfast as always, not meeting anyone's gaze. “Setsuna-mama?” Hotaru asked.

Luna looked them all in the eye at least once. “We tried contacting you. We were due to return around Usagi and Chibi-usa's birthday. We thought it would make a nice surprise, to let the young Princess meet us for her fifth birthday.”

Mamoru's eyes were narrowing as he started to put the pieces together. His grip didn't change on Usagi's hand, nor did the golden glow of his bond with her fade. “You were returning four years later? Were? As in, the past tense?”

Makoto looked at Chibi-usa. She looked the same as she had the last time she had seen her, just a few weeks after her first birthday. “But Chibi-usa's right there. She's still thirteen months old.”

Artemis wasn't looking at any of them. “Imagine our surprise, then. To find the whole world as if a giant pause button had been hit. And we tried to wake you before, we did. We came back about once every ten years; we figured… we thought that if we weren't able to help here—and believe me, we tried for a few months to figure out a solution, some way to break the spell—we may as well continue our mission on Mau. And we did a lot of good there. It's flourished well, after all of these centuries of work…”

“All…”

“…of these…”

“…centuries?”

Pluto spoke up quietly. “By my estimate, we have been frozen in time for over five hundred years.”