Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Super Sailor Mercury: Shattered Ice ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Super Sailor Mercury: Shattered Ice Part One

"Ami!" Chibi-Usa startled her, bustling into the kitchen with a smile.

"Good Morning," Ami smiled down at the little pink haired girl, "breakfast is nearly ready."

"Did you make pancakes again?" she asked eagerly.

Ami smiled slightly, "Of course." She went over to the stove, flipping them expertly as she asked, "What do you want to do today?"

"Could I go over to see Hotaru?" Chibi-Usa asked happily.

Ami avoided showing her wince as she answered, "Of course. I'll go visit my mom after I drop you off there."

"Ok," Chibi-Usa smiled.

'The resilience of children,' Ami thought sadly. Chibi-Usa wsn't over it, of course, the nightmares came to her more often than to Ami, and often she would slip into Ami's bed at night. Especially right after it happened...

Ami's first reflex had been to try to return Chibi-Usa to her own time, but on further concideration she discarded that idea. Ami had developed two theories on the child's continued existance after her parent's death in the here and now, neither one terribly pleasant.

The first was that Chibi-Usa was now some kind of temporal anomaly, a little blip in the fabric of space time. If so, attempting to transport her through time could cause her to simply cease to exist. As grim as that idea was, another darker possibility also soon occured to her.

Sometime in the future, Usagi, Mamoru and all the others would be reborn. Usagi and Mamoru would get married, eventually becoming the rulers of the future era of Crystal Tokyo, and have Chibi-Usa as planned. Then, they would quite deliberately send their daughter back in time to face the slaughter of her own parents' past selves.

If that were so, Ami had grave misgivings about sending her back home. However, Chibi-Usa had taken the decision right out of her hands. On a visit to the Tsukino home Chibi-Usa had used the Luna-ball to hypnotize everyone in Usagi's family into forgetting that she had ever existed, then explained to Ami that she was going home with her.

'Which lead to it's own problems, of course,' Ami thought as she helped Chibi-Usa up into her compact car.

Ami drove the car with the same sort of precision she used in everything, reaching the little house in only a few minutes. She reached over and unlocked the passenger's door, but Chibi-Usa hesitated. "Is something wrong?" Ami asked her softly.

"Well," Chibi-Usa looked down, "Hotaru told me that Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna would really like you to come in, sometime."

Ami opened up the passenger door as she softly said, "I'm not ready to do that, not yet."

Chibi-Usa nodded, "It's all right." The front door of the house opened up and she ran forward, nearly knocking over the slightly older Hotaru.

Ami noticed three figures standing at the front window looking out at her, and for a moment met their gazes steadily. Then she started up the car and was off.

'The Outers,' Ami remembered their first meeting, 'that was a incredible disaster.' They had met when the Heart Snatchers had begun to attack, a event that quickly broke down into shouted recriminations and harsh words that couldn't be taken back.

Uranus had been brutal with her, but the worst had been her own cold fury with Pluto, the Senshi of time. Rationally she knew that Pluto was bound by her duties not to interfere, but at that point she had just not cared. It had been poor Chibi-Usa who had brought her to her senses, tearfully pleading with her to stop yelling at Puu.

'Of course, Haruka was right about my failing Usagi,' Ami admitted as she climbed out of her car to walk towards the hospital doors, 'probably why I got so angry. And my feelings of guilt are what's keeping me from working effectivelly with them.'

The nurses called out their greetings to Ami, and she gave them a wave. "Dr. Mizuno's up on the fifth floor, doing her rounds," the youngest nurse smiled.

"Thanks," Ami smiled as she stepped into the elevator. The ride up was silent, and she saw her mother fairly quickly as she entered the wards on that level.

Dr. Nicole Mizuno looked up with a smile as she pulled Ami into a swift hug. "Good to see you," she murmured into her daughter's ear softly.

Ami blushed a bit, but returned the hug gently. "You about done?" she asked, knowing the answer having timed her arrival to her Mother's break.

"Just about," Nicole agreed. They soon retired to Nicole's office, and the good doctor poured out cups of tea for both of them. "So how's your... other job?"

Ami smiled slightly. After her injury, and especially after bringing Chibi-Usa home with her, she had told her mother everything about her double life and how she got hurt. "Pretty quiet, lately. I'm hoping it lasts," she added.

"And Chibi-Usa?" Nicole asked.

"On the surface she's fine," Ami sighed out softly, "but I'm not so sure. I wish I could read her just a little bit better." She looked up to see Nicole smiling at her oddly. "What?"

"You sound like a mother," her mother pointed out with a smile. Ami groaned, and Nicole smirked as she sipped at her tea, "And her friend, Hotaru?"

"Fine, I think," Ami looked away uncomfortably.

"You haven't tried to make friends with the other Scouts off-duty, have you," Nicole made it a statement, not a question at all. She sighed, "Usagi and your other friends wouldn't have wanted you to mourn them forever."

"I know," Ami nodded. She smiled wryly, "It doen't help that the three of them sort of hold be in awe now, either."

"Wha..?" Nicole blinked.

The battles against the Heart Snatchers had all ended in a foot race, of all things. The Holy Grail shone before them all, hanging there in midair between the three talismans, and it came down to whom would reach it first. Sailor Mercury had leapt for it, putting all her strength into that effort, and her hands closed on the Grail.

And the world exploded around her as she transformed to another level.

The power surged outward, erradicating the remaining Witches Five in only a single moment. Professor Tomoe's lab as next, the dark presence in his body expelled forcefully even as Sailor Saturn awoke, her and the Grail's power destroying the presence of Mistress Nine within her.

"It can't be her," Sailor Uranus' shaken voice in the stillness.

"The legends spoke only of a princess and a champion," Sailor Pluto's voice quietly replied, "so why not her?"

The Grail sang in her mind, telling her how to erradicate all evil, purify the entire world. It was rediculously easy, the detailed map laid out in her brain. But with all her will Ami turned away, letting the light of the Grail die down as she floated to the floor.

"Are you all right?" Chibi-Moon asked worriedly.

"I will be," Sailor Mercury managed weakly.

"Why did you stop?" Sailor Neptune asked softly.

"This power isn't meant for me to use," Sailor Mercury had said to them softly, "it belongs to the future."

And Sailor Pluto had gravely nodded her approval.

"That's incredible," Nicole blinked at her daughter. "But what did you mean, it belongs to the future?" she asked softly.

"We, the Senshi, visited the future once, a utopia called Crystal Tokyo," Ami answered her quietly. She touched the Grail crest on her broach, "I think they used this in creating it."

"Incredible," Nicole repeated it softly. She hesitated for a moment, "Do you ever regret moving out?"

Ami smiled sadly, "I regret fighting you over Chibi-Usa and the rest of it when I left. But I still think that it's for the best. If what happened to Usagi, Rei, Makoto and Minako taught me anything, it that the life I lead is very dangerous." Her eyes narrowed with resolve, "And I won't see you being hurt by it."

"I can never argue with you when you make that face," Nicole said with a smile. She reached out to take her daughter's hand, "I know that Makoto left you a great deal of money, but if you need anything, anything at all, just call."

Ami hugged her back, knowing that her mother's break was just about over. "I will," she answered her softly.

"And try to make friends with those Outers," Nicole gave her a no- nonsense motherly look, "that's an order."

Ami actually laughed softly, "I'll try."

To be continued...