Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Regency ❯ Chapter 5

Regency

By: InitialA

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.

Author's Note: We're never given a strict visual on what the girls use to transform into their Eternal forms; I'm taking creative liberty and making them brooches.

Minako squeezed her eyes shut while she stuck a finger in her ear and wiggled it furiously. “I'm sorry Setsuna; I must have misheard you because there's no possible way that you just said we have been frozen in time for five hundred years.”

Artemis shook his head. “No, it's true.”

“FIVE HUNDRED YEARS?!”

Makoto put her hand to her head. “Oh my God. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…”

Rei rubbed her temples as Makoto kept up her blaspheme-chanting up. Ami took her brooch from her pocket and quietly transformed. She touched her earring to activate her visor and summoned her computer to run some calculations. “It appears that only people stopped during that time; the amount of destruction to buildings and roads on the way here was astronomical.”

“So, it isn't nuclear winter,” Uranus indicated the snow outside. “We weren't hit by a bomb?”

Mercury shook her head. “I'll run some calculations, but it's likely the middle of winter. We're safe in that regard. I can't say that we were in the clear when the bombs hit, but if we were enough time should have passed to let radiation levels fall to a safe level.”

“Man, I can think up some awkward freezing points… imagine how some people are waking up?” Minako asked, trying to liven things up.

“It shouldn't be much different than us,” Uranus countered. “I was briefly aware before Luna bit me. I wondered why I couldn't move.”

“I didn't know anything had happened until I fell after you touched me,” Neptune told her. “I wondered if I had tripped. And then I saw that no one else was moving.”

The others nodded. “And everyone else woke up after we brought Usagi back,” Rei said.

Makoto's eyes widened in horror. “Wait a sec… If all of the people stopped moving… What about people traveling?”

“What d'you mean?”

“Airplanes?” The tall brunette asked, and everyone remembered why she'd thought of it. “Suddenly their pilots aren't doing anything—they keep going until they run out of fuel. Ships don't get steered in new directions, they crash at port or at sea. Cars—drivers are frozen in accelerate or brake. Motorbikes. Balloons. Trains.”

She was starting to hyperventilate; Rei got up and forced her to look eye-to-eye. She spoke calmly and rapidly to break Makoto out of this fervor. Luna looked worriedly at Usagi. “We won't know that for certain until we find out how Usagi phrased this… this command. It's entirely possible that nothing of that sort happened, as what should have killed her instead did just that and then brought her back.”

Uranus and Neptune had moved back to the windows. They could hear people outside yelling and screaming as panic mounted. “Communications are offline,” Mercury announced, not looking up from her computer. “It's to be expected; enough time has passed that electricity and battery backups have failed, and most satellites have crashed back into the atmosphere.”

“So no one can check to see who is alive or dead,” Uranus murmured.

“And the government can't establish order without martial law,” Neptune replied.

“That will take time to send out the messages and then mobilize. No cars or fuel, no other transport modes than walking. And I would hardly think that weapons and tanks have lasted either,” Hotaru said quietly.

Pluto watched Chibi-usa sleep peacefully, completely oblivious. “A crossroads in time…” she said, almost to herself.

“What?” Minako asked.

“The Princess and I discussed recently her concerns about the future kingdom to come. While I am not able to observe my own personal timeline, I did glance into her future, and saw little that made sense. A crossroads in time.”

“Turmoil. Emptiness,” Hotaru whispered, her eyes widening. “Our darkest days are yet to come. I saw that in my vision.”

“And you said you weren't a prophet,” Minako jabbed.

“It depends on your definition of a prophet,” Pluto said with a small smile before Hotaru could open her mouth to argue. “But that makes three of us who had these similar prophecies about the future to come: Neptune's the literal, the bombs. Saturn's the abstract, the dark days to come. And mine the symbolic, the crossroads in time.”

“And what is a crossroads in time?”

“The time when the gods step away and mortals make their mark,” Pluto said sagely. “We must choose our own ways, and forge new paths. At this point, I can see far into the future, and I can see nothing at all. Details escape me because of this point and my own involvement in the timeline. The Princess has had many such crossroads in her lifetime. She will have to choose her, our path one more time.”

All of them looked at Usagi's listless form. Uranus suddenly moved for the door. “I need to do something.”

“Like what?” Minako demanded.

“Like, I don't know. I just… I can't sit here and wait for explanations and all the while look at her and think she's about to… about to slip out on us,” the tall woman said, laced with emotion; she kept her back to the group to hide her frustration. “And if doing something… anything…”

Hotaru stood, and transformed. “The government won't be able to establish martial law, Neptune said it herself. We can go try that,” Saturn said. “If nothing else… well… It's something. People will be safe. From themselves.”

Neptune looked from the others to her lover and foster-daughter. “I… I need to go as well.”

Makoto was still breathing hard, but pulled out her brooch and transformed anyway. “I should… work this out.”

Rei eyed her carefully. “Just don't… just be careful.”

Jupiter managed a smile. “I'll do my best…”

The four left. Artemis looked torn. “I feel the same as Sailor Uranus; I don't like just sitting around. And she looks so… bad right now.”

“We can't do much though, Artemis,” Luna reminded him. “We'd do better to stay back and look over these files with Mercury.”

The blue-haired soldier smiled slightly. “If you don't mind looking at the paperwork; I'm trying to crunch numbers to see exactly what date and time it is.”

Pluto untransformed, and sat next to Mercury. “I could just tell you.”

“Thinking helps me think,” Mercury replied cryptically. “There's a lot we have to think about to move forward and running easy data like this distracts me enough to look at the bigger picture.”

Minako looked upwards. “If you say so Ami-chan. How that makes any sense…”

Rei rolled her eyes. “Leave the thinking to us, Minako.”

Mamoru had remained silent under pretense of focusing all of his healing abilities to his wife. He had been mulling something over ever since Pluto had mentioned the crossroads ahead. It was an idea he wasn't sure he wanted to voice without speaking to Usagi about first. Knowing her friends, they would likely charge on ahead with it, but this was ultimately going to be his Usako's decision. `Please wake up soon…'

*~*

Neptune returned a few hours later with Saturn; Saturn was holding her left arm gingerly, and Neptune had to carry the younger woman's glaive. “Mob broke out,” she said, wincing as she moved her arm to sit. “I think it's broken. I would take demons any day over a mob of angry humans…”

“Uranus and Jupiter seem to be handling it well,” Neptune explained the others' absence as Mercury went to Saturn. “What progress have we made here?”

Luna indicated the papers strewn about. “We have a vague big picture. We don't have all of the cities attacked noted yet. All of them are noted as latitude and longitude, but some of the data is incomplete. We may not know all of the locations exactly for some time. Mercury noted the date and a correct time to go by. It's December 26, 2506.”

“And a happy Christmas to us…”

“And the Princess?”

Mamoru shook his head, and brushed Usagi's cheek. “Still nothing.”

“Mamoru-san, I may need your assistance,” Mercury said, slight agitation in her voice.

Minako took his place next to Usagi as he went to work on Saturn. She took her hand. “I have a strange feeling, Rei…” she said softly.

Rei had long since taken charge of Chibi-usa. “You must be channeling me,” the raven-haired woman said with a slight smirk.

“That's the last thing I need,” Minako retorted. “No, but I'm feeling like… I'm feeling like I need to stick nearer to her from now on. It's… I think it's a protective feeling? I don't know. It's stronger than usual.”

“Pluto mentioned that crossroads. Maybe your… other services are needed.”

The blonde woman's eyebrows furrowed, and she looked back at the woman who could be her twin. Her services as a body-double had been needed so few times in this lifetime; she wasn't sure how well they could manage it now. Meanwhile, Mercury muttered something about needing something for a splint. She and Mamoru discussed what could be used to set the bones until Mamoru or Saturn herself had enough strength to mend the bones completely; Mamoru was taking the edge off of the girl's pain. “The x-ray abilities on my visor are primitive at best, I wish I could see better to set the split right…” Mercury said softly.

“Do what you can, Mercury,” Saturn said through gritted teeth.

The blue-haired senshi went into Makoto's bedroom, and returned with a blanket. “Shred that into strips,” she instructed Neptune, and then cautiously climbed the stairs to salvage any wood planks that would still be of use.

When she returned, she went back to work, setting Saturn's arm. The room was silent for a time, save for the blanket's threads protesting their treatment “Neptune, what else was going on out there?” Minako asked, raising her voice.

Neptune looked up from ripping the blanket, looking haggard and stressed; the normally calm, collected woman's appearance spoke more volumes to the situation outside than her words. “A lot of panic. Mobs were starting in the few districts that we could see. If they start rioting, there won't be much left for them to destroy, most of the city has decayed; there's a lot of work cut out for us ahead. People are going to get hungry soon, too. It's cold. It's snowing. There's going to be a food shortage. There's not a lot of shelter.”

“Did you get a look around to see if we were hit?”

“What do you think, Minako? We barely were able to contain a mob of angry humans! We didn't have a chance to look for ground zero!”

“It was just a question! We need to know what we're up against and what we need to watch out for.”

“We're up against our own people. We're up against a human terrorist organization. It's a human war and we need to think twice before involving ourselves too much. We need to think of this differently than any other battle we've gone up against!”

“I know that! That's why I wanted to know the situation!”

“You guys! Stop fighting!” Mercury yelled as Chibi-usa started to cry. She pressed the two planks she had found too hard against Saturn's arm; the girl yelled in pain.

“Uhhhng, what's it take to get a little shut-eye around here?” A tired voice groaned from the couch.

“Usagi!”

“Princess!”

“Usako!” Mamoru tensed to rush to her, but Saturn yelped again as his concentration was thrown and pain shot up her arm. He muttered an apology and relaxed.

Usagi sat up, holding her head. “Feels like I lost a fight with a hammer… who let me build something? Wait…” She looked around. “I was… I was at work. Just a minute ago. Where…?”

Minako eased the woman back down. “Just relax, Usagi. We're at Makoto's.”

Usagi sighed. “Really though, why does my head hurt so much…” She looked down, and gasped. She sat right back up, and Minako threw up her hands in defeat. “Why am I dressed this way?!”

“There was… an accident,” Rei said. Pluto gave an uncharacteristic snort behind her.

“An accident?”

“Do you not remember, Usagi-chan?” Luna asked, hopping up onto the couch.

Usagi pressed her hands against her eyes. Rainbow lights sparked on her eyelids. “I was at work… we were going through all of those papers. And then the screaming.”

Her hands fell limply by her sides. A tear fell. “The bombs. All those bombs. And the screaming. All of those people, everywhere…”

Minako took Usagi's hand again. “You… you did something with the Crystal, Usagi. We can't figure out everything until we know exactly what.”

Luna nodded. “How exactly did you command the Crystal?”

Usagi stared at the ceiling. “I panicked. It looked like the world was ending—you didn't see all of those new images popping up, I didn't know where the bombs were. I wanted it to stop. I wanted all of it to stop. I wanted everyone to be okay. I didn't want anyone to die… I just wanted everything to stop so no one else would die...”

Minako turned and shared a look with Rei. “It's what we thought then. People might not have died if their vehicles crashed. We're going to have a lot of civilians on the subways…”

“Some died anyway, I bet,” Neptune said, her eyes hidden. “Boats that capsized and sank. People impaled on steel. People crushed under the weight of others. Anyone in the way of the bombs before Usagi reacted.”

“Better than the millions we thought before,” Pluto said sharply, throwing a look at her comrade as Usagi's eyes widened in horror.

“It could be millions anyway. It hit during daylight in China, India, Japan, some of the largest transit populations in the world,” Neptune countered.

“I made it worse?” Usagi whispered.

“We don't know that,” Artemis piped up, his eyes flashing as he glared at Neptune. “We won't know that for a long time. But you stopped time enough for people to heal; we might have fewer casualties than we think.”

“Until everyone starves…” Neptune muttered.

“Michiru-mama,” Saturn said sharply. “Enough.”

Neptune stood suddenly and went outside. Pluto sighed. Usagi sat up, looking contrite. “I know. She wants us to stay focused… me to stay focused. She doesn't like building up false hope. I know that… It's okay, Saturn.”

Saturn shook her head. “She's worried about Haruka-papa against the mobs. That does not give her the right to needlessly frighten or guilt you, Princess.”

“I'm not frightened,” Usagi said firmly, and for once everyone believed her. “I'm worried. And I'm upset that people died because of me. Guilty as charged. And I accept that.”

Mercury finished tying Saturn's arm. Two wooden planks kept the bones from shifting any further, and the torn blankets served as bandages to keep them in place. “That should hold it for now. You'll be out of the action for a while.”

Saturn nodded grimly, and detransformed. “It isn't like I do a lot of good anyway, my attacks aren't suited for dealing with normal people… or small-scale anything…”

Usagi held out her arms, and Rei gave her Chibi-usa. “All right. Fill me in on what's going on.”

Pluto cleared her throat. “You froze time for around five hundred years. It's now 2506. From what we can tell, you stopped people—we don't know about animals, but plants and weathering have all taken their toll on civilization. Buildings, streets… many have decayed with the passing of time, or been destroyed by natural disasters. Surveillance will be needed to determine that. Communications worldwide are down, and people are panicking.”

Mercury nodded. “I've been running the calculations and fitting the puzzle together. I suspect the Crystal took your meaning quite literally when you said you didn't want anyone to die. If we were hit by anything, you did more than just freeze people. I'll need information to be sure of that, and we can reconnaissance for that later, but I also suspect you halted the fission process of the nuclear devices, halting any further destruction. My observations on the way here were that most of the city is still standing, and that would be impossible if we were hit. The atomic fallout that did occur fell but there was nothing to affect but the buildings and the ground, and enough time has passed now that the radiation levels have likely fallen back to safe levels. I imagine most radioactive hotspots are now livable again. Energy outputs fell dramatically or failed without humans to tend to them, so from what I have noted just from Tokyo's air quality I suspect the worldwide pollution levels have fallen off quite dramatically. The Earth has taken time to heal itself.”

Usagi nodded in understanding. “Okay. Where are Haruka and Mako-chan?”

*~*

“Dammit!” Uranus swore and knelt behind a crumbled wall. She held her shoulder and blood stained her white glove. Her shoulder armor was ripped almost entirely off. “Not like we've saved them from countless deaths before, or that I can do a lot of good while my arm is being ripped off,” she shouted the last part bitterly.

“People are scared and they lash out,” Jupiter said through a split lip. “I can sympathize.”

“Yeah, well, you're not beating the shit out of me while you look for your man.”

Jupiter grinned, and then winced. “Hiro can take care of himself. And I'm not stupid enough to think a Sailor Senshi can keep her patience all the time.”

“Bastards got my fighting arm anyway…”

Jupiter peered over the wall. The mob—those they hadn't convinced to go home—was mostly gone, and the stragglers were left to either abandon the cause or pick up the pace. “I think you were right, earlier. They're heading for the government buildings.”

“'Course they are. Even our people aren't stupid enough to lay low and wait it out in this kind of situation,” Uranus spat.

Jupiter's national pride took over as she frowned slightly at the insult to their culture, but the older woman had experienced a lot more of the negative side of Japanese society than she herself had. “I don't know what they think the Diet or the Prime Minister will be able to do.”

“More pretty words, not a lot of action, I've no doubt. Let's follow them for a bit and see what we can bring back to Dumpling,” Uranus stood.

“Your arm, though—”

“Damn my arm. We have more important things to worry about.”

Jupiter hesitated, and then nodded. The two women took to what roofs and high points remained, following the mob's path to the government sector.