The Resistance had been called into action, since the previously inactive Vortex crystal had reversed its role by issuing forth small amounts of shadowlings into the world of the newly ascended Angel Senshi. The Neo Senshi, on the other hand, moved forward in an attempt to destroy the crystal altogether. Between the two forces, and the courageous citizens, the shadowlings were beaten back to the source, and for a short time annulled.
This, unfortunately, lasted only twelve hours, after which a surge of the creatures from the crystal began to route the human forces, consisting of largely untrained ranks. However, as slowly as the military tended to respond to the formerly unverified threat, they did come into play, bringing all manner of tanks and troops to contend with the enemy spewing crystal, which it seemed remained undamaged by countless rounds of weapons fire. For the time, the war was a stand-off. There was time to plan, among other things.
'I don't know if I can face them. What if I do, only to fail against Uraki?'
The red-haired Canadian regarded the three women as an understanding mother only would, and spoke with concern: 'My daughter is out there right now, risking her life for me, for us. How do you think I feel, not knowing if she's hurt, or worse? This is not a question you should be asking me right now.'
'So sorry, Osaka-san,' Usagi offered plainly in a deep bow. 'This is difficult for me.'
'We're relying on you, Usagi. If you don't know what to do, then I cannot help you. And frankly, the idea scares the hell out of me. We need you more than you know.'
'I've always had a knack for the weird stuff - being Sailor Moon for all these years,' Usagi began in reply softly. 'It's everything else that gets me. School, tests, punctuality…'
Osaka gazed at her with a puzzled, nearly pained expression. 'You're scared.'
With a piercing frown, Usagi looked up at her, her blue eyes glimmering, and nodded. She was afraid to ask.
'Osaka… what about our parents?' she finally murmured, her head bowed as the words slipped out. She looked up again as they fell heavily to the carpeted floor. Osaka paled visibly, the knowledge settling in her small frame like a chilling wind upon her resilient, tempered soul.
'It is not my place to say, not this way. Ami, you will find your mother defending your home with a troop from the Resistance. We have no word on your father. Apparently he is not in Tokyo, so we can only assume he's safe. Their attacks have yet to even spread further than the downtown area. Rei and Usagi, however, I must speak to alone.'
'Then I will go,' she stated, rising to her feet, and bowing deeply to her friends.
'Usagi… before I begin, I ask you to tell Mina that her parents… they did not survive the initial attack.'
Osaka's voice was filled with remorse and delicate tones as she spoke. 'Uraki-Ayo targeted your homes first, and slipped by our forces mostly unnoticed. It grieves me to tell you…'
@~%~~~
Somehow, even with the knowledge that she had survived, facing her made little more sense. What could she say: 'Mama! I went to a strange world, had a split personality who adopted a half-demon girl and got married to a Half-Giant Warrior of Mercy in another dimension! Then I was burned at the stake as a heretic, and resurrected as an angelic being by the incarnation of fate, Phate - that's right "P-h-a-t-e" - in another dimension! Oh, and guess what! I'm Sailor Mercury!'
The best of luck, Mizuno-san.
From her vantage point, she could see her mother in fatigues, wielding an impressive looking double barrelled shotgun as she tore into a half-dozen shadowlings approaching her house. She had admirable aim, it seemed, and as she issued the command to retreat to the several other members of the Resistance, it was plain she was coping quite well. It was as if she didn't miss her.
'Mama?'
She blinked, half-smiling at her daughter. 'Hai Shyanne?'
Ami's winced at the remorse in her voice. 'She's my grandma, isn't she.'
Ami nodded simply. 'Yes, my little blossom, she is. She doesn't know we're back. Not yet.'
The sprite-like girl nodded, then fixed her eyes upon the group as they shut themselves within her barricaded house. There was no wondering, for the moment why her mother had taken the front lines. The building was filled with the wounded and dying that had gone before her. She was partaking of her duty to the best of her human ability. Ami found herself discovering a new respect for her mother. Then Shyanne broke into her train of thought: 'We should help, Mama-san!' she frowned, pointing skyward. 'Grandma's not safe!'
Plainly; nearly twenty of the shadowlings descended upon the battered and worn building. It had the attitude of weakness, as if… even as the thought came, the front of the building collapsed in upon itself, exposing the makeshift infirmary. Acting before thinking, Ami grabbed Shyanne and flew towards the house, flaring her aura dramatically as she sailed towards the newly razed battle site. Not moments later were the less than two dozen creatures banished, and the passage of an expression of complete astonishment into a loving welcome.
'Oh my God, Ami!'
Tears came, as the hug remained, and Shyanne smiled glowingly, her eyes filled with wondrous happiness, inspired by her mother's emotion.
@~%~~~
They were alone for a suspension of time, it seemed, and the news Osaka bore did not come without its emotional impact. As she spoke it, the force struck her like something of a sledgehammer. Like ice scattered on the pavement, a part of her world had been destroyed. Then came the overwhelming need to be with them.
As she flew to their indicated locale, there was something else, a nagging emptiness that could not be filled by even Mamoru's love and dedication. A young boy who's performance in school had been dramatically altered by her disappearance; a mother who cried every day she wouldn't be late for class; a father who knew all too suddenly that boyfriends would never again endanger her.
There was nothing else to do, they needed her. Returning home through the midnight sky carnage, dispersing the occasional shadowling that threatened. Meaningless. Each of the dozens of creatures she destroyed with little more than a blinking effort mattered naught aside her ascending panic as she noted the destitute surroundings of her block, how many of the homes were vacant, some torn open and gutted, others entirely vacant.
It should not have been a surprise to discover her own to be a shell. Images flashed in her mind, her brother crying, her mother tumbling… limp, hurt… the raised, frightened voice of her father: 'Usagi-chan?!'
Through blurred vision she perceived him, gazing numbly up at the winged woman that had been his scattered, lively, energetic daughter. Beside him was her brother, Shingo.
'Papa-san?' she whispered, landing gracefully, her robes swirling about her slender legs as she approached her misty-eyed father. He hadn't shaved in weeks, and looked as though the emotional buildup inside was finally taking its toll on his body, and his soul.
Reading his face, and his emotion, she could see the tearing between despair and eternal gratitude. Foreknowledge did not restrain her question: 'Where is Mama-san…?'
His mouth opened, held, then shut as he bowed his fatigued visage. Tears came, and she fought them not, she merely came into a desperate hug with lost father and brother.
@~%~~~
Rei had no one to turn to save Adolphus, who gazed as she did upon the long settled corpse of the temple. She wept in his arms, remembering his overbearing voice, his foolhardy disregard for his age, endless chasing of girls, and protective strength.
'I'm sorry Grampa-san,' she whispered. As she did, she felt a distinctly familiar presence, accompanied by the rising flame of her prayer-fire amongst the lifeless wreckage of her home.
issued a somewhat ragged voice.
'Grampa-san?' she blinked, gazing at his transparent image within the flames.
'I missed you, too.'
'Oh Grampa-san…!' she sobbed, her eyes holding to his bald-headed tired looking face.
'I know Grampa… I know.'
Her voice was reverent as she spoke, whispering a
final departure.
'I will, for you.'
@~%~~~
'Usagi…'
They sat upon the edge of the dark, pock marked and war-scarred street, silent until he offered his voice in an attempt to stay the tension of so many years apart, and such violent diversity.
'Hai Papa?'
'I just wanted you to know that I love you.'
She leaned over, resting her head upon his dirt darkened shoulder, letting her right wing shield her father and brother from the silky breeze. The silence after their embrace had been on his part. The death of her mother, and his wife, passed in a brief bout of sobbing. Thereafter, they had listened to Usagi's explanation of everything, her being the super-heroine Sailor Moon, leader of the Bishojo Sailor Senshi, and Princess of the long shattered Moon Kingdom. Like a hamster running in place, the truth of her words, there was no mistaking her now, she was so lucid, hung there, slowly reaching the very point of registration in his troubled consciousness.
'Thank you Papa.'
'I missed you, sis'.'
She smiled warmly at the frightened, yet somehow toughened boy. 'Papa… I want to tell you something.'
'Hai?'
She hesitated, no telling if his reaction had altered since… 'I'm married.'
His face reddened slightly, but he remained silent, knowing she was beyond his parental lockhold in that facet.
'That's… that's… Who is it?'
'Mamoru Chiba.'
'Oh cool! You said he's Tuxedo Kamen, right?' Shingo piped excitedly.
She nodded.
'I'd like to talk to him sometime,' her father issued, picking his glasses away from his face and wiping them with his grimy formal shirt. 'I wouldn't want to have to hurt him for mistreating my lovely daughter.'
His face, while mostly stiffly unemotional, was betrayed quite simply by the fondness and trust in the tones of his moderate voice. Usagi wrapped her arms around him and beamed a smile. 'Oh Papa-san!'
His arms encircled her, and he wept gently, silently, and she only knew by the psychic wash of fear and love that encompassed her as the glow of warm entitled to those of family love in truth grasped them like a divine calm.
'I love you Usagi… I always will…'
@~%~~~
Usagi had time thereafter to deliver the message to Mina, who took to Carl immediately without regard for the surrounding warriors. Carl removed her from their presence, and upon discovering the cause of her tears, offered what little support he only could. There were no words in her heart for him, or anyone else. Only a powerful, nearly overwhelm roaring wave of loss, hurt, and confirmation of a long nursed nightmare.
In many ways, despite being an angel, and beyond surviving a world which shredded people like discarded paper, she reached that edge… the one where during a late night, the car would halt in the middle of the empty, cold road, while the occupant would leap to a watery death for no apparent reason… or digging a knife into the wrist merely out of curiosity, only to be caught white and dead the following morning. The edge of the human mind that so frequently teased fracture. What sturdied her soul at the brink? Her newfound resilience? Carl’s devotion?
None of it mattered.
There would be time to heal, but not then. It was enough that she had to find it in her to be functional on the most basic level. Lives depended upon her. Perhaps that was another factor driving her onward when nothing else might have. Perhaps.
@~%~~~
'Mama?'
She gazed at her blue-winged angel child, her face an unreadable mask.
'Yes Ami-chan?'
'I'm sorry I have to do this.'
'Why? I know how important this is.'
'But you… you… you aren't… Mama… why aren't you smiling?'
'I'm sorry angel… would you rather I fake it?'
'Mama…!' she pined, looking deeply stricken.
She bowed her near-black haired head, the conflict of emotion pulsing powerfully within her as her heart thudded against her caging ribs. She was weeping when she finally raised her head to regard her daughter.
'It's everything you told me,' she started, hands folded limply against her bandaged stomach. 'I can't get my head around it. Died? Half cyborg? Insane…? What is the world trying to do to us?'
Ami just shook her head in silence.
'You know, if I could have done anything… I just wish… I wish I could have protected you!'
'But Mama, I feel like this was my fault. I couldn't stop it.'
'No, dearest child, it’s not your fault,' she almost whimpered, wiping her eyes awkwardly with her war-sodden hands. 'You did the best you could…'
'But it wasn't enough.'
'A little guilt is healthy. Just… don’t leave me again.' There was a shifting silence. 'You know I'm just happy to have you back,' she offered sincerely. 'My little intellectual is an angel…! I always knew you were, but this…'
'Hai. It seems impossible.'
'All of it. Why didn't you trust me enough to tell me you were Sailor Mercury?'
'Mama… How could I?'
'How…' she glanced around at the ruins of their home, ‘well, however you felt, there’s no denying it now. I hope you trust me more now.'
'Oh Mama…' she almost crooned, then supplemented: 'I love you.'
'I love you too angel.'
'Um…' she started after several moments of silence. 'How is she?'
'Sleeping. She's amazing Ami… so beautiful. So much like you! I told her a story, like I used to when you were so young, and such a gorgeous doll… and she fell asleep smiling. You're a wonderful mother Ami. I'm so proud!'
'Oh Mama! Thank you…!'
'We will take care of her until you get back… okay?'
'Mama… I…'
'No. Don't argue. We've got a war to win. Besides, she's a tough girl.'
'Hai Mama-san,' she smiled gloriously.
@~%~~~
For Makoto, there was no one to lose, for her parents had died long before the war. Her feelings, as a result, when she eventually learned of the plight her friends suffered, was directed in the offerings of sympathy and emotional support. It was a learned thing then, for never before had she been leaned upon with so great a need, nor by so many at once.
It was for her a time of selflessness, and undeniable growth.
Chapter 37
Uniform Cause
Starlit Ruins Page 39
