Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Ascension Trilogy, Book 3: Ressurrection ❯ Chapter 3

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

RESSURRECTION,
Chapter 3: "Fireball"

By Bill K.

"What do you want with her?"

The gruffness of the challenge Sailor Uranus made to Princess
Kakyuu surprised both Jupiter and Venus. It surprised the surviving
citizens of Tokyo that had been gathered waiting word on the condition
of Sailor Moon. They were just now cautiously emerging from cover to
see who the new people were. Anxiety rippled through the crowd as fears
of a new confrontation so soon after defeating the "Ice Devils", as
their last enemy had become known as, mounted. Her tone surprised
Sailor Star Fighter and the tall, rail-thin woman started belligerently
forward, her long, fine black hair twitching behind her like the great
mane of a horse.

But Princess Kakyuu moved her hand out and blocked Star Fighter's
path. The senshi obediently stopped, but turned angrily to her
princess.

"Her tone belittles you!" protested Star Fighter. "And I can see
the suspicion in her and her partner's eyes! It's an insult!"

"Only if taken as such, Star Fighter," Princess Kakyuu said in the
gentlest of tones. Betraying no malice, as if she was incapable of it,
she turned to her senshi. "They guard their princess the best way they
see fit. We must not begrudge them this, for they do their duty with
honor."

When Star Fighter relaxed reluctantly, Kakyuu turned back to
Uranus and Neptune and gave them both a disarmingly placid smile.

"I am aware," she said, "of the recent ascension of Princess
Serenity. I am also aware of the trouble your planet faces and of the
distress Princess Serenity is in. I may be of some assistance to her
and to you. I humbly ask you to permit this."

And she bowed to them. Uranus was completely taken aback and
Neptune seemed surprised as well. Princess Kakyuu waited patiently for
their permission, even though both got the sense she could blow past
them if she chose. Then Jupiter and Venus moved into the picture.

"I think we can trust them," Jupiter said, with more of an edge to
her voice than she wanted to show, for this was an old wound between her
and these two outer senshi and she didn't want to reopen it. "Besides,
it's Usagi's life in the balance. Do we have a choice?"

As always, Uranus deferred to Neptune. Neptune was still
suspicious, but her expression of frustration told them she was looking
for alternatives and not finding them.

"All right," Neptune grimaced and stepped from Kakyuu's path. "I
apologize if we insulted you."

"I accept with gratitude," Kakyuu replied, bowing again. "Come,
Star Fighter."

Princess Kakyuu glided through the door. Uranus and Star Fighter
exchanged glares as she passed, for there were old wounds between them
as well. But as Star Fighter neared the door, Uranus noted the woman's
glare turn to an expression of dread. Was she dreading seeing Serenity
near death? Or was she just dreading seeing Serenity?

Inside the room, Endymion looked up and saw Princess Kakyuu. He
tensed until he saw Venus and Jupiter with her and Star Fighter.
Through his fatigue he recalled his brief meeting with Princess Kakyuu
after the conflict with Sailor Galaxia. He recalled Sailor Star
Fighter, too. There was a brief, neutral moment of eye contact between
the pair. Then Kakyuu passed into his view.

"You have been keeping her alive through your bond," Princess
Kakyuu said - - it wasn't a question.

"Yeah," Venus began, "Sailor Moon - - Serenity - - she tried to
grow all the vegetation in the world back to feed everyone," and she
swallowed down her emotions, "and I guess she overdid it."

"I am aware of this, too," Kakyuu replied gently.

She glided over to Serenity's side. Her aura jolted Ami and Rei
and they both awoke with a start. Lightly she touched her hand to
Serenity's forehead.

"She has pushed herself far beyond even her newly expanded
ability," Kakyuu pronounced softly and everyone in the room, even Star
Fighter, seemed to tense at the words. "Limitations are often a hard
lesson to learn, particularly at times such as these."

"Can you help her?" Jupiter asked.

"Yes," Kakyuu smiled gently. "I shall add my energies to those of
her life mate's and together we shall fan the flame of her existence."

"But Princess," Star Fighter asked, concerned. "The danger to
you. . ."

"Is inconsequential," Princess Kakyuu replied. "She will live,
dear Star Fighter, for she must. Any threat to me, however much remote,
is secondary."

Princess Kakyuu closed her eyes. A fire red energy enveloped her
body.

Outside Uranus and Neptune stood guard over the door. Neptune
watched her lover channel her concern and frustration over Serenity's
condition into nervous glances at the people crowding closer and closer
for some sign that the woman who had saved them would be all right. She
could tell Uranus wanted to be inside by Usagi's side, but knew her duty
and remained on guard. It was a feeling she shared - - though she dealt
with it better than Haruka did.

Neptune watched Uranus lock her gaze onto a woman in the
foreground. The woman began gently sobbing and keening - - and Uranus
snapped.

"What are you people all standing around here for?" Uranus
bellowed at them. "Are you waiting for her to give you another miracle?
The first one nearly killed her! There are other people around Tokyo
who still need help! Go help them! Go do something with your lives
besides stand here and wallow in your own self-pity!"

"Uranus," Neptune said softly, touching the woman on the arm to
try to reel her back in.

"Am I being too blunt?" Uranus snapped bitterly.

"They've been through a trauma," Neptune said.

"OK, they've been through a trauma! I'm sorry the trauma ripped
them out of their safe, cozy little lives, but the trauma's over and
they're alive! Now it's time to rebuild - - help the others who are
worse off!" She turned back to the crowd. "Not stand around like a
bunch of sheep waiting for someone to lead them around or promise them
that they'll get their safe little lives back again!"

Some of the crowd began to move off. Others stayed put. Uranus
noticed one of them was the woman who had been sobbing. She was a
slight thing, bruised and tattered and dirty with unkempt black hair and
a young face.

"Well?" Uranus barked.

"Not until I know she'll be all right," the woman said,
maintaining her keening. "Because if she dies, nothing else matters."

Uranus was about to reply when a hand touched her arm. She turned
to it, expecting Neptune.

"Please, Uranus," Serenity said gently, appealing to her friend's
better nature. "She's only concerned."

"Serenity!" Uranus gasped. Then her shock changed to elation.
"You made it!"

Before Serenity could reply, the woman was at her feet. She
wrapped her arms around Serenity's right ankle and hugged tight.

"Thank you!" she sobbed. "Thank you for not leaving us! Thank
you!"

Serenity knelt down and touched the woman's shoulder. The woman
looked up at the blue eyes of charity and hope.

"Thank you for your concern," Serenity said with a hopeful smile.
"But there are many more out there much worse off than I. Perhaps we
need to help them now."

Serenity rose to her feet and faced the crowd. She straightened
and closed her eyes. Suddenly everyone could hear her voice in his or
her mind.

"People of Tokyo," she thought and everyone heard. "People of the
world. This is - - Serenity. We face a daunting task. Much of our
city - - much of the world - - lies in ruins. For most of you, the
simple matter of finding food or medical attention seems an impossible
task. I will try to help as much as my power will allow me. But I can
do so much more with your help. Many hands working together can
accomplish far more than can one person, even one such as I. Will you
help me? Together we can rebuild our world."

Her shoulders sagged a little when she was done. Amid cheers and
cries of ascension from the gathered crowd, she put her hand to her
temple. Instantly Uranus and Neptune were beside her.

"Are you all right?" Neptune asked.

"Yes," Serenity smiled contritely, almost like the Usagi of old.
"I'm trying to learn to pace myself. This is still all so new to me."

"You'll do it," Neptune replied, then hesitated a beat,
"Serenity." It seemed to everyone that she was almost going to say
'Usagi'. Serenity's face flashed melancholy for a second, and then she
touched their hands.

"You must both be exhausted," she smiled charitably. "Please, get
some food and rest. I'm in good hands."

"All right," Neptune nodded uncertainly. Reluctantly she and
Uranus moved off.

Serenity returned inside. She found Endymion sitting where he had
been since this began, sleeping. A timid smile crept onto her face. In
spite of everything that had happened and all the growing they'd done in
twenty years, he still looked like a sweet little boy when he slept.

Jupiter was forcing Ami to eat. That elicited a grin from her.
Venus was next to - - was it really Sailor Star Fighter? It had been so
long and yet she seemed unchanged.

Then she noticed that Rei had noticed her entrance. And the look
on Rei's face: concern for her, and something else - - a distance
between them, a distance Rei sensed and seemed confused as to how to
bridge. And instantly she sensed that Serenity had sensed it and
glanced away uncomfortably. The others seemed to be taking their cues
from Rei. The tension in the room seemed like a thing alive. Serenity
just couldn't take it any longer and left the same way she came in.

Outside, Serenity avoided the stragglers from the crowd that still
lingered for want of anyplace else to go. She glided around to the back
of the building. It was relatively free of debris and just dark enough
to suit her. Serenity leaned back against the wall and looked down.
The tears came, softly at first, but eventually betrayed by dainty
sniffles.

"The path ahead of you is indeed daunting," a voice whispered
behind her. Serenity turned and found Princess Kakyuu.

"Forgive me," Serenity replied, wiping the tears away in
embarrassment. "Thank you for your help."

"For one who gave life back to the universe?" Kakyuu replied
gently. "I could do no less."

Serenity shifted uncomfortably, but knew better than to argue
Kakyuu's judgment of her value to the universe.

"Do not feel self-conscious about your tears, Serenity. May I
call you Serenity?"

"I'd really prefer Usagi, but I don't know if that's accurate
anymore."

"Usagi, then," and Princess Kakyuu smiled warmly. "It is only
natural for you to have doubts. You have ascended to something that is
above the rest of your kind. This can be very intimidating."

"I don't want to be above the rest of them," whimpered Serenity.
"I want to be the way I was before."

"That can never be," Kakyuu told her sympathetically. "It is the
way of things. However, while you may be beyond them in ability, you
need not be beyond them here," and her hand touched Serenity's chest
over her heart. "In fact, it is the wise ruler who remembers never to
be beyond her people in her heart."

"But what's if it's already too late?" Serenity asked. "I see the
way they look at me - - like there's a wall between us. Like I'm so far
above them that they're afraid to even touch me. Even Haruka won't call
me 'Dumpling' anymore. How do I get them back?"

"You must have patience and faith. They want to be with you,
Usagi. They need you as much as you need them. They're just not sure
the one to whom they are so devoted still exists. Give them time. A
time will come when you will do something so uniquely 'Usagi' that they
will know the one they love still exists within you."

Serenity stared at her feet, barely visible under the hem of her
flowing white gown.

"I hope it's soon," she mumbled.

Around the corner from them, Rei stood and listened. Her gaze was
on the toes of her shoes as well. Dabbing a tear from her eye, she made
her way back to the others.

"Thank you for trying to cheer me up," Serenity said. "You seem
to know so much about this."

Princess Kakyuu tried to smother a smile and couldn't. "Your
trials are not unknown to me. I went through much of what you go
through upon my ascension from Sailor Firestorm to Princess Kakyuu. I
was guided at the time by a mentor who taught me how to live with and to
use my newfound consciousness and ability."

"Really? Maybe you could help me - - if I'm not imposing? When
do you have to leave?"

Princess Kakyuu smiled again. "I shall remain for as long as you
have need of me, my friend. I only pray that you do not grow tired of
me."

"Oh, no! Never!" gasped Serenity, some of the magic of her broad
smile and dancing eyes returning to her expression. "I only hope I
don't drive you away. I've never been a very good student."

Princess Kakyuu gathered Serenity's hands in hers.

"May I tell you a secret? Neither was I."
* * * *
"I was wondering where you got off to," Venus said. She and
Sailor Jupiter walked down a broken street, passing a group of survivors
burrowing through the rubble of a clothing store to try to salvage
something.

"I'm sorry," Jupiter flushed. "I just had to get away from that
whole scene with Serenity. We hurt her and I don't know about you, but
I feel like a rat about it." She sighed. "So I figured I'd better get
away before I do or say something to make things worse. And then I
figured, now that she's all right, I ought to go look for my family."

"Hey, I didn't ask for your life story," jabbed Venus.

"You're lucky I'm too tired to crush you," grumbled Jupiter.

A clatter caught their attention. After listening intently, the
two senshi picked up the frightened cry of a woman. Venus pointed in a
direction and the pair sped for the source of the disturbance.

In the shell of a caved in floral shop, three men had a woman
trapped. She was a ragged woman in her mid-twenties, her eyes peering
bright with terror out of the hollows of her sunken face as she pressed
against a surviving wall. The men, thin and tattered themselves, closed
on her from three sides.

Venus raised her hand to use her attack, but Jupiter stopped her.

"Those shock waves might bring the building down on all of them,"
warned Jupiter. "I'll handle this." Summoning her power, Jupiter
cupped a ball of electricity in her hand, wound up and bellowed,
"Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

Turning to the noise behind them, the three men grew wide-eyed
with terror. One turned tail and ran, but the blue-white ball of
electricity exploded from the senshi and felled him in his tracks. The
other two fell to their knees and pressed their heads to the ground,
hoping to appease the monstrous sight before them.

"Don't move," warned Jupiter coldly.

"Mercy!" screamed one of the men, quivering in terror on the
ground. By now, Venus had moved to the woman and was comforting her.

"They," the woman sobbed, "wanted my ring. It was my mother's.
She gave it to me on her deathbed. It's all I have left!"

"You're safe now," Venus said as the woman cried on her shoulder.
"Do you have a place to go?" The woman nodded mutely. "Then go there.
We'll take care of these guys."

The woman gazed up at Venus timidly. Something in Venus's manner
must have given her reassurance. She released Venus and quickly moved
away, pausing only to glare at the men on the ground before she was out
of the building and gone. Venus walked over to where the two men
cowered.

"Leave it to a crisis of world-shattering proportions to send the
rats scurrying out of their dens," Venus scowled.

"Forgive us!" one of the men cried. "We are weak-willed and gave
in easily. We don't have the strength of you or the mistress of the
lightning demon!"

"That rolls so easily off of your tongue!" snapped Jupiter. "You
must have a lot of practice using it! Get up!"

"You know," grumbled the other man as they both got to their feet,
"it's easy for you to criticize. We don't have your fancy powers to get
by on."

Jupiter suddenly threw a palm thrust at the man. He blocked it
easily, but she quickly turned, grabbed him by the arm and in one
blinding motion he was on the ground on his back. Jupiter had her knee
planted squarely on his sternum and her flat hand extended, the
fingertips pressed to his throat.

"It's even easier for me to take your head off!" Jupiter growled.
"You just remember this the next time you think about bullying somebody:
There's always somebody who's bigger or stronger or more skilled than
you who'll make you pay." Jupiter rose from him, then kicked the soles
of his feet. "Collect your friends and help some of these people dig
out. And remember what I said."

The men bowed quickly and left in an even bigger hurry, taking
their stunned companion. Venus turned to leave, but stopped when she
saw Jupiter hesitating.

"I knew the woman who owned this shop," Jupiter said. "I met her
at a meeting of the Juuban District Small Business Association. She was
a real nice lady." Jupiter's jaw clenched tight, as if trying to stave
off tears. "I hope she survived."

They turned the corner and stopped. Jupiter stared down the
street at the little bakery/restaurant nestled in the middle of the
block that had been her life and her dream. Then the disaster came.
Now it was a broken shell. Tears were welling up and she clenched her
jaw to keep them at bay.

"Oh, man," Jupiter whispered. "Just go ahead and rip my heart
right out of my chest!" She felt Venus's hand on her shoulder. "All
that work - - all those years of saving and the place was only open for
five months."

"World dominating bad-guys have never been known for their
timing," Venus mused.

The pair approached the husk of the shop. As she picked her way
into the place through the door, Jupiter's foot brushed against
something. Looking down, she saw it was one of the ornate wire napkin
holders that used to adorn the tables in the restaurant section.
Bending down, she picked it up and stared at it. She was going to cry
- - she just knew it.

"Please tell me you're not going to start cleaning," a man's voice
said from the back of the storefront.

"San-san!" Jupiter gasped, her mouth pulling into a wide smile.
She quickly crossed over to the man and enveloped him in her arms.
Though he was five foot seven and solidly built, Jupiter's frame
encompassed him as she locked her arms around him and squeezed tightly.
Her grateful lips sought out his and they locked in an embrace that
spoke eloquently of their twelve - - no, it was now fourteen years of
marriage and of their long separation.

"Hi, Sanjuro," Venus smiled. "How are you holding up?"

"Well," the man replied after disengaging his mouth from
Jupiter's, "it was touch and go there for a while, but I'm still here,
thanks to Usagi, I guess. Good to see you, Venus. That was her I felt
reviving me, wasn't it?"

"I'm sorry I didn't get in touch with you sooner," Jupiter
fretted. "It was just so . . ."

"I know," he smiled, gently caressing her face. "Senshi business.
You got the job done."

"Where are the kids?"

"Just listen," Sanjuro whispered. Jupiter concentrated and heard
footsteps through the rubble.

"Mama, Mama!" Ichiro yelled plaintively. Jupiter knelt down as
her son ran up to her. She scooped the boy up in her arms and smothered
him with kisses as he clutched his mother's neck, loath to let go. "I
was afraid you weren't coming back, Mama!"

"Never think that, Ichiro," Jupiter whispered, her voice choked
with emotion. "I will always come back to you, even if I have to march
through Hell itself!"

"Mom!" she heard Akiko squeal. The girl, smudged and tattered
like her brother, scampered across the rubble-strewn floor. Jupiter
knelt down again and took her in with her free arm while Ichiro hung on.
The trio squeezed in tightly together. "You beat 'em, Mom! You beat
'em all, just like I knew you would!"

"I'm glad you knew," Jupiter grinned, hugging her daughter to her.
"Frankly I had my doubts."

Sanjuro glanced over to Venus and noticed the senshi's eyes
misting over.

"What's the matter, Venus?" he asked.

"Nothing," Venus said, flushing slightly. "I just - - it's
nothing." She forced a smile onto her face. "Hey, kids, how about a
hug for your favorite idol?"

The kids disengaged themselves from their mother and ran over to
Venus. While they hugged, Jupiter turned to Sanjuro and caught his hand
in hers.

"Was there any trouble here?" she asked.

"No, it's been pretty quiet." Sanjuro smiled puckishly. "And
I've got a surprise for you. Come on."

Sanjuro led them to the back room of the storefront. Originally
it had been divided up into a kitchen and a stockroom, but since the
disaster had claimed their home, Sanjuro had set the place up as a
temporary home for him and the children.

Jupiter's eyes popped in wonder. Growing out of the middle of the
room was a huge fruit tree. She stumbled into the room, staring up at
it as it thrust up into the sky, through the roof and up to the
nourishing sun. Venus smiled and shook her head.

"Nice to see Usagi's aim hasn't changed," she chuckled.

"This isn't inconvenient for you, is it San-san?" Jupiter asked.

"No more than having most of the front of the building blown out,"
Sanjuro replied. "At least the kids won't have to go outside to get
breakfast. Although I'm going to hate to have to cut it down when we
begin to rebuild."

Jupiter looked at him funny, hoping she heard what she thought she
heard.

"Did you think I was going to deprive the world of my wife's
cooking?" he smiled. "Besides, I was beginning to like running a
restaurant."

Jupiter threw her arms around him. "Baby, you're the greatest!"
she cooed.

As their mouths found each other again, Venus quietly took the
hands of the children and backed out, a huge smile on her face.

Continued in chapter 4