Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Regency ❯ Chapter 7

Regency

By: InitialA

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.

Mamoru struggled against Makoto and Haruka; the two women held him fast, Hiro at the ready to grab him if he broke loose. He was pale and wild-eyed. “Let me go! Usako is in danger!”

“She has help! Trust them to take care of her!” Haruka snapped.

“What if they can't?!”

“Usagi is strong in her own right, Mamoru. She can handle herself,” Rei said calmly, though her face betrayed her own worry. Pluto nodded.

“Mamoru-sama, please calm down. What if you rushed in and caused everyone to be hurt?” Hotaru asked. “Chibi-usa-chan needs you here.”

Chibi-usa, holding the coffee table and practicing how to stand, squealed loudly when she heard her name. She waved her arms at her father. He sagged against Makoto. Hiro grabbed Mamoru's shoulders and the three of them guided him to sit. “She's terrified. I can't just let her go… never forgive myself…” he mumbled.

“She's in good hands, our kitten,” Haruka said. “Our girls would die before anything happened to her, and I know they don't plan on dying anytime soon.”

Mamoru mumbled something else incomprehensible, his head drooping.

*~*

The force of the energy blast threw Venus and Usagi back several feet. Venus yelped; Usagi landed on top of her. She rolled off, apologizing quickly and turning to watch the fight. She sucked in a breath; Venus copied her. The light died, revealing Neptune and Mercury suspended in midair; their injuries were gone, and they seemed to sparkle with new energy. The monster shrieked as they landed gently, and took a step forward that shook the entire building.

Mercury and Neptune flew into action, splitting up to cause confusion. Mercury tapped her computer against the monster's leg as she ran past it. Neptune used her mirror again, and the monster shrieked as the blast now cut through its leg. “Go Neptune!” Venus cheered.

“Watch out, Mercury!” Usagi cried as the monster's tail whipped at her.

She nimbly leapt over it, however, and yelled, “SUPREME AQUA MIRAGE!”

Neptune landed in front of the monster; it was distracted by its now frozen tail, and Mercury now ran along its shell. Neptune breathed deeply, letting it out slowly, and raised her arms above her head. “LUNA… MARIA!”

Seawater erupted in front of her, swelled into a wave, and slammed into the creature. Mercury jumped. Her boots skimmed the wave's crest, and she alighted in front of Neptune. The room darkened, the only bright spots glinting from the whites of Mercury's gloves and boots. She swept her arms in a wide arc to cross in front of her torso, screaming, “POLAR MOON GLACIER!”

The monster tried to move as ice grew rapidly around its legs and body; it glinted off the encased creature. Mercury's eyes narrowed slightly as she pulled her arms apart viciously. The ice shattered into millions of tiny crystals. The monster shattered with it. Venus, Usagi, and Neptune gaped. The color drained from Mercury's face.

*~*

“I feel something very odd,” Luna said, sitting straight up and looking westward.

“Hmm?” Artemis didn't look up.

Haruka was working with the cats, making a list out of the stolen NSC papers. “I feel it too. Dumpling, and Michiru.”

They looked at Mamoru, who was finally sleeping. “He isn't reacting. I've seen him wake up instantly if Usagi-chan is in trouble…” Luna said quietly.

“I don't sense any problems. Whatever it is, Minako isn't part of it,” Artemis said, sitting up as well.

“Impossible, unless they've been separated?”

“They weren't going far…”

Haruka was silent. The air felt so dead inside, even with the house crumbling around them. Her connections with her lover and her Princess only gave her an unexplainable feeling. She muttered an excuse to the felines and went outside. The clouds were gray with threatening snow, but there was little wind to speak of. Haruka ground her teeth together in frustration. As she clenched her hands into fists, a calming sense she'd nicknamed her `Michiru-self' sprang to life in her mind. `Easy… I can't sense anything if I'm not patient…'

She closed her eyes, relaxed her hands, and fell into a meditative state. She listened carefully, breathing deeply through both her nose and mouth, blocking out all terrestrial noise. Several minutes passed. The wind picked up, ruffling her short hair. There was a tang of power in the air, a crackle that washed through her and tasted purely of Usagi's immense love and power, but nothing more discernable than that. “Dumpling…”

*~*

Neptune and Mercury guarded the door; Mercury was running more data off of her computer, while Usagi and Venus sat inside with the director of the NSC. The three spoke quietly, only Usagi's impassioned voice breaking through occasionally, but Mercury had tuned them out, focusing solely on the data before her. She had swiped some of the monster's DNA into her computer for scanning. The results were giving her mixed feelings, and she wasn't sure of the appropriate time to share her theories with the others. In the meantime, she was running as many possible causes as she could think of, while simultaneously figuring out if and how this would fit into the larger picture. “What's wrong?” Neptune asked, keeping her voice low.

Mercury jumped. “I—sorry?”

“You sighed. Your fingers are moving so quickly, and you're growing worry-lines from frowning. I can only think something has to be wrong,” Neptune replied.

Mercury rubbed the space between her brows self-consciously. “It's… going to complicate things.”

“It wouldn't be our lives if it didn't.”

“I'll need to confer with the data we have already to be absolutely sure, but I don't think any of this is coincidental.”

It was Neptune's turn to frown. “All of it is interconnected?”

“I'm afraid that signs are pointing to it. I'm running the data to see if there are any other possible outcomes, but the odds aren't stacked in our favor,” Mercury said.

The two water warriors locked eyes; Mercury could swear there was a hint of fear in Neptune's usually steady, calm gaze, but it was being repressed. She hoped her own worry and fear wasn't written all over her face. `I wish I had her confidence…'

Usagi's voice rang clearly, “I would trust me, if I were in your shoes, Director. My sources are more reliable than yours at the moment.”

“That may be, but you'll have a hard time convincing six billion others. I'm still not sure of it myself. The offer still stands,” the director's voice replied steadily.

“I will need to discuss it with my friends. I will let you know.”

She and Venus came out, and Usagi strode ahead. Her tense, hunched posture said she was in one of her famous temper-tantrum moods, and she could be heard muttering. Venus shook her head when Mercury looked at her, mouthing `just let her cool off'. Mercury was slightly surprised. Usagi rarely let others push her buttons that much anymore—save for Rei—so she wondered what the director had said to put her in this mood.

They were halfway to Makoto's house and ankle-deep in freshly-falling snow before Venus spoke up. “So, Usagi, what was the light show about earlier?”

The other woman whirled, her dress and hair fanning out around her in an elegant contrast to her face, which was set in irritable lines. “What?”

“The finger-twiddling, the upgrades for Mercury and Neptune, you had to have noticed that. What gives?”

Mercury hid a smile. Venus continued to tease and wheedle Usagi out of her irritated mood and into a more pleasant—for Usagi, anyway—whining-slash-please-don't-hate-me mood all the way back to their base and through the door. “All I'm saying is, if you're handing out new powers, you shouldn't be so stingy and give some to me too!”

“Miiiiiinaaaaaaaaaaaaakooo-chaaaaaaan!”

Everyone winced at Usagi's wail. Chibi-usa responded with her own cheerful screech. “MAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Hotaru steadied the child as she stomped around, one hand still grasping the table. Usagi hurried over and scooped her daughter up. “Oh, you're not mean to me like Auntie Minako…”

“Give her a few years, remember,” Rei snickered.

“Hush, you. I'll take what I can get now.”

“What happened earlier?” Haruka and Luna demanded. They started, and looked at each other; rarely were the matronly cat and the tomboy on the same wavelength, and only when it concerned Usagi.

Usagi blinked innocent eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Usagi's being all powerful again,” Venus declared, arms akimbo. “And she's holding out on me.”

“MINAKO-CHAN!”

Haruka scoffed. Neptune rested a hand on her lover's shoulder to calm her. “We've had an… interesting day.”

Mercury held up her computer. “If I might have a few moments, I can collaborate with the data we have and be able to clear up some confusion.”

The others nodded. Usagi sat between her slumbering husband and Hotaru. “He didn't even budge when you screeched, Usagi-sama,” Hotaru said softly.

Usagi made a face. A few giggles escaped the younger woman. “He does that. Between me and Chibi-usa and the hospital… He learned to adapt. Poor thing, he must have stayed up all night watching over us…” She brushed a few stray hairs off of her husband's face. “After all these years, he still only trusts himself to watch me completely.”

Hotaru watched the tender moment in silence, and then shifted her gaze to Makoto and Hiro. She wondered briefly about her own lover, a young man she had met in a gen-ed geography course named Junpei, but pushed the thought away. Now was not the time for distractions. And yet… the thought crept back. She was slightly afraid for him; he was away with family, and she had no way of contacting him. Usagi touched her shoulder. “You okay, kiddo?”

The ebony-haired woman offered a smile. “It's nothing…”

“It isn't.”

She'd forgotten how Usagi was with these kinds of things, and it vexed her as well as warmed her to know that she genuinely cared that much. “My boyfriend. I don't know if he's alright. He was in Nagasaki with family.”

Venus sagged against the wall, rubbing her forehead. “I need to check on my parents at some point. Mom's probably throwing a fit that she can't get anything done around the house. Papa's probably just happy he can't get in to work.”

Rei was hiding her emotions behind her `priest-face', as they called it. “Grandpa will be going crazy too, especially if his precious gardens are overgrown…”

Mercury said nothing of her own mother, hiding her emotions in her work. Usagi thought of her own family and looked away worriedly. Hotaru looked down, a sudden shyness resurging. “I'm sorry I brought it up…”

“No, Hotaru, don't be. We all just have our priorities. And it's just too bad that our families and loved ones slipped down on the list,” Usagi rushed to reassure her.

“The price of adulthood,” Venus grinned. “I'm just jealous you've got a man to worry about, Hotaru.”

She turned crimson, looking down hurriedly. Haruka chuckled. “Much to her old man's chagrin.”

“Papa…”

“We'll have to see about our families later, I'm afraid,” Ami announced. “Even with the limited data I have now, I can conclusively state that we're facing a new enemy.”

“But we didn't sense anything!” Haruka and Michiru chorused, offended. Luna and Artemis mewled in agreement.

She shook her head. “It's not as simple as that. I need a more powerful computer to find the answers I need, but from what I can tell this is something that has been in the works for a very long time. The atomic bombs were the keys. And, unless I'm quite mistaken, Usagi's act of saving us may have made the problem worse.”

Usagi felt numb. Made things worse? How else could she have worsened their problems? Chibi-usa gently beat her hands against her mother's chest. “Maa?”

Luna regarded Mercury carefully. “You're quite sure about this, Mercury?”

“Yes. Again, I'll need a more powerful computer system to complete the analysis, but unless a new element is introduced, I'm afraid we're in trouble.”

“What kind of enemies are we looking at, Ami?” Rei asked.

She turned her computer around, letting everyone see the small screen. “This is a DNA strand I was able to collect from the monster we faced earlier. You can't tell just from looking at it, but when analyzed closely it's clear that the genetic codes have drastically been mutated. This was once human DNA, but with an unknown element and the catalyst of time…”

“I murdered Iwamura?” Usagi whispered, horrified.

Mercury looked at her sympathetically. “In a way… yes and no. It's best to think of it like the old saying, `a wolf in sheep's clothing'. Iwamura didn't exist anymore, not in the way you mean. His body remained, and the creature possessed his consciousness.”

Nonetheless, that was enough for Usagi, who broke down in tears. Pluto leaned in, studying the screen carefully. “So it's like a cancer of the genetic code?”

“Well, cancer is a cell mutation, it doesn't affect DNA*… I suppose in the crudest sense, yes, but based on what we saw it was more like a genetic splicing experiment gone horrifically wrong.”

“Maybe if you filled us in on what actually happened…” Haruka said, glancing at Neptune.

As Neptune told them about the monster who had once been Iwamura, Usagi wept quietly. She held Chibi-usa close; the girl fussed, trying to loosen her mother's tight hold. Mamoru woke up almost instantly. He didn't say anything, merely folding his small wife and daughter into his arms. Most of the others looked on with varying degrees of sympathy, but were drawn back to Neptune as she finished. “And we were only able to defeat it after Usagi used Silver Crystal magic on Mercury and me. We were granted new powers that were strong enough to stop it.”

“Why did Usagi use the Crystal?” Luna asked, a little suspiciously. “Why not just transform?”

“I c-couldn't,” Usagi hiccupped. “I tried and tried, b-but… I wanted to heal Iwamura. He's dead and it's my fault.”

“Usako. What happened was meant to be. Not even your stubbornness could help, not without risking your own life,” Mamoru murmured.

Pluto looked pensive. “Usagi was unable to transform… and so she transferred some of her own power to her guardians. That takes no small amount of control.”

Luna and Artemis nodded. “It seems that way.”

The princess was attempting to control herself. She swatted at her cheeks furiously. “I can't have transferred my powers. It isn't possible. Is it?”

“You're Serenity.” It was Neptune who spoke. She and her foster-family had been making it a habit to study the Silver, Golden, and Sailor Crystals over the past several years, and their knowledge now ranked just under Luna and Artemis. Their knowledge of the Golden Crystal was shakier, due to past tensions and information hoarding between the Earth and Moon Kingdoms, but with time and study they would be able to log it into their home castle computer systems. “You have the potential to wield a huge amount of power and disperse with it as you wish. Your power manifested in the form of Sailor Moon in this life, and it is only natural for it to take other forms in the event that the previous outlet has been blocked.”

“The Moon also controls water on Earth. It is possible that your power transferred to Mercury and Neptune because of their ties to the water, and thus a special bond with you. It was the simplest outcome,” Luna offered. Neptune nodded in agreement.

Venus made a face. “So I'm not getting an upgrade. Great.”

Artemis' tail twitched. “Time will tell on that, Minako.”

Luna got up and stretched. “In the meantime, I want to test something. Usagi, if your power is growing the way I believe it is I want you to revive Makoto's vegetable garden.”

As if on cue, stomachs rumbled. Nearly everyone laughed embarrassedly. “Single-day sustainability, I tell you. Our Sailor Crystals weren't designed with the apocalypse in mind,” Hotaru muttered, still very red in the face.

Luna smiled a cat's smile, and twitched her tail to follow. Usagi hesitated, but Rei and Venus made the decision for her: they man-handled her all the way out the door as she voiced protests. Mercury closed her computer gently. Artemis twined around her ankles. “We can see if the control center is still up and running. It's probably in some kind of sleep mode, but as long as nothing has disrupted the main power source on the Moon…”

Makoto gaped. “What, running all this time? All these years?”

Artemis looked at her smugly, as only a cat could. “You would think Motoki would have noticed if the arcade's power bills were through the roof—more so than usual. We've taken care of everything. We'll go later, after we've eaten.”

On that cue, Rei and Venus returned triumphantly, arms full to the bursting of vegetables. “Once she's warmed up, there's nothing our Usagi can't do!”

Usagi followed, looking hesitant as she wrung her hands. Everyone but Mamoru, Rei, and Venus was looking at her oddly, completely silent. Makoto went to the kitchen to try and find something that was still useable for cooking. Hiro accidentally bumped into Usagi, and after his strange apology and hasty exit, she stayed away from the group. Mamoru and Chibi-usa sat with her for a time, but her posture remained stiff and guarded.

It took a little more than an hour, Mars' firepower, and Mercury's water to lay out a spread of stews, casseroles, and assorted vegetarian dishes. It was gone in fifteen minutes, and everyone seemed more pleasant for having been fed. Dishes were argued over, and Usagi slipped away again. Luna followed her. “Usagi-chan.”

Usagi stared out the window at the snow, coming down hard again. She touched her reflection gingerly. “Luna, what aren't you telling me?”

“Usagi, why haven't you changed back? And what was holding you from transforming to Sailor Moon?” The cat phrased them as questions, but her intonation sounded as if she already knew the answers.

“I can't. I've been trying. It just won't come,” Usagi whispered.

“Then you already know the answer.”

“I'm afraid. Hiro-kun was so afraid…”

Luna hopped up onto the windowsill. “Usagi-chan… you hold a vast amount of power. Neptune said it earlier. Hiro was apologetic, and you can see that he regrets his rashness. He won't be the first, and he certainly won't be the last.”

“Princess.” Pluto came up behind them. “What do you fear more? Your power? Yourself?”

Usagi shook her head. “It's not like that. I never liked how much power I held as Sailor Moon, but I accepted it. I'm afraid for what's going to happen. I feel guilty, eating when there are so many out there who can't do the same. I'm afraid for the future of everyone.”

Luna butted her head against her mistress' hand. “If you place your fears for others above anything else, you will succeed. Act selflessly. The others will accept you in time. They always have. This is just… more than they were expecting.”

“All things come in time, my lady,” Pluto rested a comforting hand on her princess' shoulder.

“Yes…” Serenity said softly, meeting her reflection's eyes.

((*I'm aware that hereditary cancer syndrome does exist, but it's a very low percentage. So while there are some genetic codes that are programmed into our DNA, Ami stating that cancer doesn't affect DNA simply means that if a woman conceived a child while she had some form of cancer it doesn't necessarily mean that the child is going to be born with a gene that states he or she will grow up and develop the same form of cancer his or her mother had, or be born with that form of cancer. Ami was also a first-year medical student studying in the year 2003, so she is also likely to make the occasional mistake/not have knowledge that we have now in 2011. /covering my butt ;) ))