Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Ascension Trilogy, Book 1: The Coming Ice Age ❯ Judgment Of The Gods ( Chapter 11 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

THE COMING ICE AGE,
Chapter 11: "Judgment Of The Gods"

By Bill K.

Candes regained consciousness slowly. Before moving, she
cautiously opened her eyes and surveyed her situation. She lay on her
side on the floor of the place she had been in before losing
consciousness. The beings there seemed to hold it sacred. Her arms
were bound behind her. One of her captors, the woman with green hair,
sat placidly on a chair several feet from her. She seemed unaware
Candes had recovered, or so Candes thought. Without warning, though,
the green-haired woman shifted in her chair and looked directly at her.

"I'm glad you're awake again," Sailor Neptune said to her. "As I
warned you, your fire powers are useless against me. Perhaps now we can
get down to some serious discussions. As I said before, we don't want
to hurt you - - if we don't have to. We only want to know what's about
to happen. Cooperation could be beneficial to everyone."

Candes glared at her.

"Are we being invaded by Knorr?" Neptune asked her point blank.

"I do not give aid to the followers of Ymir!" snarled Candes, "nor
to their lackeys and dupes!"

"And is Janus one of these followers of Ymir you speak of?"

Candes glared venomously at Neptune. She realized the woman was
sharp and cagey, that even when she tried to say nothing she said
something of significance to her. So Candes hunched her shoulders and
shut her mouth.

Swiftly a pair of hands seized her by her upper arms. As if she
were made of feathers, Candes found herself hauled to her feet. She
stood face to face with the gigantic blonde who was companion to the
devious green-haired sorceress.

"Answer the question," Sailor Uranus rumbled menacingly.

Candes response was to jut her chin out defiantly. Her reward was
to be slammed hard against the near wall, her arms pinned painfully
between the wall and her back. The impact rattled Candes, so much so
that she couldn't retain her balance and tumbled to the floor.

Uranus picked her up and slammed her against the wall face first.
While Candes lay stunned against the wall, Uranus hooked a handful of
the woman's black hair and pulled down. As the agony tore through her,
Candes felt Uranus hook her free hand through the woman's bound arms and
pull painfully up. It became too much to suppress and Candes cried out
in pain.

"Answer the question and I'll stop!" hissed Uranus.

"Never!" bellowed Candes, both from rage and pain.

Uranus increased the pressure on her prisoner's arms. Candes
roared in anguish, but otherwise kept silent. Then a door opened and
the other priest of Hikawa entered.

"Release her!" Akira Fukuoka demanded.

"Butt out, Sensei!" spat Uranus.

"This is a sacred Shinto shrine!" Fukuoka persisted. "Would you
so dishonor it and everything it stands for?"

"Sensei, I already travel the road to Hell," Uranus told him
gruffly. "A few more sins aren't going to make much difference. Now
we're trying to save the world here. If you've got a better way to do
it, speak up."

"I'll try," he replied grimly. The priest walked over to Uranus.
Uranus pulled Candes from the wall, but kept a tight hold on her hair
and arms. "Release her, please."

"She's dangerous," Neptune warned.

"The gods will protect me until such time as they choose not to,"
he told her. "To be worthy of my calling, I must have faith."

Uranus let her go. Candes defiantly shook out her mane of hair.

"Can you please tell me what you know about the strange things
that are happening?" the priest asked her.

"Look to your false gods!" snarled Candes.

Her hands burst into flame, incinerating the ropes around her
wrists. Candes took one step toward the door as Fukuoka-sensei fell
back in surprise. It was her last.

"World Shaking!" roared Uranus.

The ball of geo-force exploded into Candes, driving the woman
headlong into the far wall. She struck a shelf of icons and seemed to
hover on the wall for a few moments. Then she fell away to the floor,
revealing the bloody shelf bracket she had impaled herself upon.

The priest was the first to her side. Neptune arrived moments
later and began trying to stop the bleeding with her skirt. The ragged
coughing from Candes indicated she might not have much time, but Neptune
continued, aided by Fukuoka-sensei.

"You finally have your wish," Candes whispered weakly.

"It was never our wish," Neptune replied with just a trace of
annoyance as she tried to stop the bleeding. She tossed Uranus her cell
phone. "Call for some medics, please. If you hadn't tried to run, none
of this would have happened. If you'd just been straight with us from
the start, you wouldn't be bleeding right now."

"I do not fear death," Candes gasped out. "And soon you will be
joining me."

"How? What's going to happen? What is this 'Ragnarok'?"

Candes smiled in phyrric victory. "The hole in the sky," she
began haltingly, "is a portal. When sufficiently opened, the sons of
Ymir will come to your world and pass judgment."

"Yes, we know about the portal," Neptune prodded. "These 'sons of
Ymir' you speak about - - are they some cult in the future?"

"The past," wheezed Candes. "The past, fool. This is their
future. Do you know nothing of your own history?"

"T-The past?" Neptune asked, utterly puzzled. "B-But Sailor
Mercury said . . .!"

"Long ago," Candes said as she slipped further, "before your race
existed, there was another. The snakes who walked."

"Snakes who walked?" asked Uranus.

"The dinosaurs?" Neptune concluded with amazement.

"They were proud and strong," panted Candes. "They ruled this
world. But they reached a point, as all must, when they must prove
themselves worthy to continue. The judgment came down." Candes
swallowed. "To our everlasting chagrin, the sons of Ymir defeated us
and won the right to pass judgment. The portal opened and they poured
out from Knorr, birth mother of us all."

"They who? Who are these sons of Ymir?"

"The Frost Giants!" growled Candes, though it clearly hurt her.
"Mortal enemy of the children of Surt, the children of fire!" She
wheezed and for a moment Neptune thought she would die. "The Frost
Giants walked the world of Midgard. Ice and snow followed them in their
wake. The sun went dark. The stars vanished. The world was cast in a
block of ice."

Candes shuddered out a sickly breath.

"And the Snakes who walked were no more."

"The ancient myth of Ragnarok," whispered Akira. "I learned about
such things in my college days."

"What she's describing is the Ice Age!" gasped Neptune. "The
death of the dinosaurs and the extension of the glaciers down into the
temperate zones of the world!"

"You finally see," Candes grinned maliciously. "The Snakes who
walked perished because they were unworthy. And the accursed Frost
Giants walked this world for thousands of your years. And the children
of Surt plotted our revenge. And then came the unexpected: a new
challenger for dominance on this planet. The first humans walked
upright." Candes smiled weakly. "Oh, how the sons of Ymir erupted in
fear as their grip on this world became threatened. They had been
careless and not covered the entire globe, and a new race rose up to
challenge their occupation of Midgard. They would have killed them as
they rose from the mud, but it was not allowed. The humans had to be
allowed their chance to grow and dominate before they could be
challenged. So the sons of Ymir plotted a plot to use their magic to
open a weak spot in time and jump through to the future, to circumvent
the old ways and challenge these upstarts for the right to this world."

"That's the spot over the lake in Juuban Park, right?" Uranus
asked.

"But so preoccupied were they with this new enemy that they forgot
about their old one," whispered Candes. "And as their great Frost
Giants moved through the portal to this world, the children of Surt
struck!" A coughing fit interrupted her story. "It was my mission to
come to this time and stop their advance soldier - - before he could
open the portal enough. Then the Frost Giants would be trapped between
times, forever in limbo, and we would triumph and pass judgment on the
humans in this time."

With her last strength, Candes turned and looked directly at
Neptune.

"Your choice was simple: trial by fire or trial by ice," Candes
gasped out. "By aligning with the dog Janus, you have chosen ice."

And Candes breathed her last. Even as medics entered the room,
Neptune noticed the woman's body begin to smolder.

"Get back everybody!" she shouted, moments before the body of
Candes burst into flames. The inferno lasted only moments and consumed
every inch of her, leaving only a fine white ash.

Uranus and Neptune stood up, even as Akira and the medics stared
at what they just witnessed. Uranus looked to Neptune for her cue.

"We have to get to Janus," Neptune said. "There still may be a
chance to head this off!"
* * * *
Mercury slammed her fist on the desk in frustration. It drew a
concerned look from Mamoru.

"It isn't right!" she fumed. "Why can't I duplicate the integrity
of the isotope? Why!"

"Calm down, Mercury," Mamoru told her. "She's still alive.
There's still hope. Remember, as long as she's alive, there's hope.
We've all learned that too many times."

"I apologize for my outburst," Mercury said, chagrined that she'd
lost her temper and in front of Mamoru of all people.

"Maybe I should see if I can round up some caramels," Mamoru
smiled slyly. Mercury gasped in shock.

"You know about that?" she gasped.

"Everybody in the office knows," he smiled. "You just think we
don't notice you sneaking a caramel between patients. Naomi even knows
where your stash is."

"Well now I'm sufficiently embarrassed," Mercury told him. She
couldn't keep the smile from creeping onto her face. She returned to
the problem, but it was still unchanged. There was nothing to suggest
how the integrity of the mercury isotope could be maintained. It dimmed
the smile and returned her to her agonizing. How did they do it?

"You'll find it," she heard Usagi say. Mercury looked up and saw
a wraithlike image of Usagi before her. Usagi was smiling, calm and
charitable as always, almost serene. "I have faith in you, Ami. You're
just trying too hard. Take it slow. I promise I won't die on you."
And then she faded from view.

"M-Mamoru!" Mercury gasped. Mamoru looked at her. "Did you see
that?"

"See what?"

"Usagi was just here! It was like a spirit form!" Mamoru looked
at her blankly. "You must have at least heard her! She was here!"

"I didn't hear anything," he said. Then he paused and seemed to
look inside of himself. "But I do feel her presence. Maybe she did
talk to you. When it comes to her, I stopped asking how a long time
ago. What did she say?"

"She said she had faith in me," Mercury said, dejectedly. "That
I was trying too hard and I should take it slow."

"Sounds like her," Mamoru grinned.

"Slow," frowned Mercury. "Cold." Then Mercury's face exploded
with inspiration. "Extreme cold! Mamoru, extreme cold would slow down
the molecular rotation. It might make the molecular core stable enough
to use in the anti-toxin! Oh, Usagi! And you always think of yourself
as stupid!"

Furiously Mercury began typing on her computer keyboard. As the
complex equation began to form, Mercury grew more and more excited.
Triumphantly she hit 'enter' and the radiology lab's equipment went into
action.

"I think it's going to work, Mamoru!" Mercury cried. Then she
sobered. "I just hope we're in time."

Mamoru glanced at the clock.

In the interval, Usagi had been transferred to intensive care.
Rei, Makoto and Minako were now in that floor's waiting room. The wait
had done nothing for their spirits.

Minako walked back to her waiting friends from the nurse's
station. She was trying to keep her spirits optimistic, for everyone
else's sake. They didn't need to see her fall apart - - Makoto and Rei
were doing a good enough job of that. They needed her to be strong and
stable.

"Strange descriptions for you, Minako Aino," Minako thought. But
strong and stable she'd be, even though she secretly wanted to dissolve
into tears right now. The greatest friend and possibly the greatest
person she'd ever known was dying and there was nothing she could do.
She could make stadiums full of people hang on her every word, but she
couldn't change the course of one woman's life.

"Um," came the timid voice off to her right. Minako stopped and
looked and saw a girl of fifteen. She seemed frightened and
intimidated, but she also had stars in her eyes - - the same stars
Minako recalled seeing in her eyes at that age. "Pardon me for
disturbing you," she bowed, "but are you Minako Aino?"

Minako wasn't wearing her disguise. The girl had her. Several
scenarios ran through her mind, but Minako remembered Usagi and settled
on one.

"Yes, I am," Minako said gently, summoning up a fragment of a
smile.

"Oh my goodness!" gasped the girl. She reached out and touched
Minako's forearm as if she were sacred. "I'm - - um - - you are just
the greatest! Do you know that?"

"I've heard it once or twice," Minako replied, distracted. "I
never really put much stock in it."

"Oh, you are! I've got all of your CDs! I was at your concert
last month! You rocked! You're not sick, are you?" gasped the girl,
as if her world were about to collapse.

"No. But a very close friend of mine is."

"Oh!" the girl gaped, suddenly realizing she was intruding.
"Well, you probably don't want to listen to me ramble then. I-I'm
sorry." She started to turn, then stopped. "I, um, I hope your friend
gets better."

She turned to go, but stopped when she felt Minako's hand on her
arm. The girl turned back.

"Thank you," Minako said, genuinely touched. The girl seemed to
thrill.

"No, Miss Aino, thank you!" Minako winked at her and moved off.
And the girl suddenly realized that being dragged to the hospital to
visit her less than favorite aunt suffer through her periodic ankle pain
because of her overeating had turned out to be a good thing after all.
For she'd been able to tell her idol, however poorly, just how much
she'd affected her life.

"Stable, but grave," Minako said as she ambled into the room.
"Same story as before."

"She's going to die," Makoto whimpered, wringing her hands.

"She can't die," Rei replied nervously, the words almost a ward
against bad fortune.

"I know she can't," Makoto said, "but she's going to. It's been
too long. How long do you think she can hold out against poison?"

"Depends on the poison," Minako mumbled. "Besides, she's no
ordinary person, remember. She's got the crystal."

"The crystal can only do so much," Makoto argued. "It can't keep
her alive forever."

"Ami and Mamoru are working on it," Rei told her.

"They can only do so much, too." Makoto's hands came up and
struck her on the forehead. "I don't want to go through this again! I
went through this with my parents! And how many times have I had to go
through it with her - - or one of you! I wake up at night sometimes
dreading it - - jump when the phone rings, afraid someone's going to
tell me that she's dead, or one of you, or San-San or the kids!"

Makoto's folded hands pressed to her lips and she began weeping.
Rei and Minako scooted over to hold her and try to console her.

"Hey, nobody's going anywhere," Minako whispered to her.
"Remember, we've all got a date in the thirtieth century. I'm not going
to miss it. Neither are you and neither is she."

"You know what Setsuna always tells us," Makoto choked out.
"About how the future's always shifting! We can't rely blindly on
Crystal Tokyo being our absolute future! Maybe it's not! Maybe that
future ends here!"

The three hushed, sensing a presence near them. They turned and
found Setsuna standing there, looking at them.

"Makoto speaks correctly," Setsuna said with a flat, emotionless
tone that barely masked the turmoil beneath the surface. "The future is
constantly shifting. While you three have seen a future, you have not
necessarily seen your future. The dream of Crystal Tokyo could very
well end, perhaps even this night."

"Thank you, Little Mary Sunshine," grumbled Minako.

"That is science and it is inviolable. However, there are ways
other than science. There is also faith. Our Princess is very devoted
to the concept. She accepts many things on faith. Perhaps, if we are
to follow her, there are things we must take on faith as well. Perhaps
it is not her faith that will make the dream of Crystal Tokyo come to
pass. Perhaps it is the strength of ours."

Makoto looked down, the words helping her to cope with thoughts
she could otherwise not cope with. Even Rei seemed to consider them.

"You don't watch a lot of TV, do you?" Minako jabbed playfully.

"No," smirked Setsuna, rising to the bait. "I find it quite
immature and a waste of time."

"Here," Rei said, patting a cushion nest to her, "come join the
party. Four can worry more easily than three."

The four women spent the better part of an hour waiting. They
talked a little. They stared a lot. They gave four updates to Luna and
Artemis surreptitiously over their senshi communicators. And they
waited.

"Hey!" Rei said suddenly. "That was Mamoru who just ran by,
wasn't it?"

"I don't know," Makoto said, lurching out of her seat as Mercury
ran by the door, "but I know that was Mercury!"

They reached the hall just as Mercury was passing through the
doors to the Intensive Care Unit. The four raced through the doors
before they closed and locked. A staffer started to challenge them, but
retreated after one menacing look from Makoto. They reached the
Intensive Care Unit and looked around in confusion until Minako spotted
Mercury in one of the cubicles. They entered quietly to see the
attending physician administer the anti-toxin.

"Did you do it?" Makoto asked desperately. "Is she going to be
all right?"

"We have to wait for the anti-toxin to take effect," Mercury
replied, staring intently at Usagi's vital sign readout. "I worked as
fast as I could. I did my best. I just hope it was enough."

Mercury felt Rei's hands on her shoulders from behind her. "Your
best's usually good enough, Mercury."

They waited for some sign that they were in time. Seconds ticked
by into minutes. Tension grew. Mercury, Mamoru and the doctor studied
the readouts with grim expressions that only made the apprehension of
the others mount. Rei looked down at Usagi. She was so still - - so
pale. Memories flooded back to her of a scene similar to this involving
another woman dear to her. The priestess felt tears flooding her eyes
and she summoned her legendary anger to push them down. No one moved,
fearing the slightest noise would somehow shatter Usagi and finish her
for good.

Then Minako noticed Mercury's expression begin to change. Signs
of encouragement began to show through. She nudged Makoto and directed
her gaze. Makoto began to dare to hope. Rei noticed Mamoru's face
begin to brighten as he sat by Usagi's side, holding her hand. She
glanced at Minako. Minako noticed and nodded enthusiastically.

"She's coming around," Mercury whispered. "Vitals are
strengthening."

"I think you did it," the attending physician said.

"Is it true?" Makoto asked. "Is she going to be all right?"

"Heart rate's increasing. Blood pressure's easing back to normal.
Pulse is strengthening," recited Mercury.

"Say it," prodded Minako. "You know you want to."

"I think we can safely say," Mercury began, then hesitated.

"Say it," Minako prodded harder.

"She's going to be all right," Mamoru said. He gripped her hand
harder.

Makoto pumped her fists in victory. She felt Minako's arms wrap
around her neck and squeeze tight, and didn't mind a bit. Rei's arms
closed around Mercury from behind. She felt Rei's head on her shoulder
and only at that moment allowed herself to believe the triumph. Setsuna
bowed her head and gave thanks to any and all that listened.

Delicate eyelids opened very slowly. A soft, radiant smile began
to timidly peek out. A head turned on a pillow and looked to her one
true love.

"Mamo-chan," Usagi said softly, like the gentle breeze at dawn.
"I was dreaming about you. Is this still my dream?"

"No," Mamoru said, bringing her hand up to his lips and kissing
it. "This is real. You're back, my love."

"I'm glad," she smiled. "I wouldn't want you to be lonely."

Continued in Chapter 12