Part Three/Chapter Four
What a thing to post on Chibiusa and Usagi’s birthday. This is the second to last part, coming in at 2195 words.
Link to this chapter on AO3.
The city became a labyrinth when you had one person to find. Ami adjusted her goggles. If she could just find Hotaru, everything would be alright again. The back of her mind whispered insidious thoughts– You won’t remember this life anymore than you remember your last one. She’ll forget you and what are the chances of her loving you twice?– but she could not pay them heed. Usagi wanted this. Prioritizing her above all else is still selfish. She would deny her nothing, and certainly not a second chance at happiness.
She saw a flash of black hair as she turned a corner. Ami ran as hard as she ever had, but it was not Hotaru she found, but Rei, Michiru with her. Still running, they did not notice her.
She almost called out. A better plan entered mind just in time. She could not take them both. Truthfully, she would be lucky if she could take one of them, but separating them would give her a chance.
Ami focused on her element, feeling out the water already in the air to aid her. She needed to keep them from noticing until it was too late. Rei will remember this. She will not forgive you. Ami breathed out sharply. Rei loved Usagi, Usagi wanted this, it would be fine. The air around her felt soupy. Sweat began to roll down her neck. Ahead, Rei and Michiru slowed. Ami smiled. Just a little more water…
And she slammed it into ice around them, cutting straight between Rei and Michiru. With all her might, Ami used it to push Michiru far down a side street and then thickened the walls. Rei turned to face her. The cold arena was large, but still too confined for Rei’s usual fighting style.
“Don’t do this, Ami,” Rei said, her breath forming clouds with each word. “Too many people are dead already.”
“And they don’t have to stay that way.” Ami kept her eyes on Rei’s hands. Her arms were tense, but her fists loose. Their tightness was her worst tell. Ami could keep her guard low until they clenched.
“It’s not the right answer. Setsuna made that clear.”
“Setsuna’s dead. Don’t you want her back?” Ami narrowed her eyes. A part of her she never wanted to acknowledge savored her coming words. “Don’t you want Minako back?”
Rei’s fists clenched. Ami summoned a whirl of water to dowse the fireball she lobbed. “I thought you were above that sort of thing.”
“It’s only smart to fight on an even plane. Have you forgotten this morning already?”
“And look how that turned out. If you hadn’t stopped me, the two of them might still be alive.” Rei shifted; Ami mirrored her. “Hotaru doesn’t want to do this. You can’t force her.”
“We can make her see it’s for the good of the world.”
“The world is already doing good. There’s enough of us left to fight the few monsters that pop up. Even outside of Crystal Tokyo, that’s been the only threat to peace for centuries.” Her eyes narrowed. “What you want isn’t for the world at all.”
Ami took a deep breath. “How can you throw her away, after everything she’s done for us? We would have nothing if it wasn’t for her.”
“That woman isn’t Usagi anymore, Ami. We’ve lived too long. This should have been when we started quietly dying off.” Rei’s stance loosened. Ami could not tell if it was a feint to get her guard down. “Power always corrupts. It broke Queen Serenity, it’s broken Usagi. There’s a line between Queen and God, and with Hotaru she can cross it.”
“You don’t remember Queen Serenity.”
“I remember the final battle, and the fall. That’s all I need.” She stepped forward. “Do you want to have a life where this day is all you remember of Usagi?”
If that life is like this one, I won’t remember anything. “Do you want this day to be the last thing anyone remembers of Usagi?”
“That’s not the only option. We can all move forward, Ami.”
“That’s what Usagi wants to do.” Now was the moment. With a flick of her wrist she brought down the ice above Rei. Rei dove to the side. Ami focused. It was hard enough to freeze something from body temperature, much less something in a body so in tune with Mars’s internal fire. But she only needed to freeze a small bit while Rei was too distracted to break her focus. One little ice shard in the blood stream, heading to the heart. Ami felt it out. Rei stood and faced her, but it was done.
She grabbed her chest as it hit. Ami let the ice walls down. “I’ll make sure you come back. You and Minako and everyone. We’ll be happy with Usagi again.” Tears stung at her eyes, but now was no time to cry.
She turned away as Rei collapsed. If only the remaining obstacles would fall so easily.
Michiru stared down from a rooftop. She knew she could break through the ice easily; it was doing it without pummeling Rei that posed a problem. Part of her couldn’t help but admire Ami’s strategy. She’d given herself every advantage.
“Michiru-mama?”
Her heart skipped. She turned away from the ice. “Hotaru.”
“Where’s Papa?” Hotaru’s voice was small and thick with tears. Michiru abandoned all caution and wrapped her arms around her.
“She has a concussion. She’s resting out of sight.”
“We need to get her and leave. I don’t want to lose you.”
It was easier, somehow, when Hotaru hated them. It hurt, certainly, but her protectiveness was a far stronger pain. Michiru always marveled at how much love could hurt a person. She rubbed Hotaru’s back. “Haruka needs to rest, but as soon as she can move, we’ll get out of here.” She ran through the possibilities in her mind. She’d kept contacts on Kinmoku throughout the generations. Taiki’s descendants had always been excellent pen pals. If they could make it there, she was sure they would be offered asylum. She glanced back. They might be able to avoid a fight if they slipped away now and waited in the shadows until they could leave, but only if she left Rei. It wouldn’t be fair, but family came first. Rei knew that about Michiru. She couldn’t blame her for following her nature.
A deep rumbling cut off her suggestion that they start moving. A few blocks away, one of the tallest buildings collapsed in on itself, sending up a cloud of dust and crystal fragments.
Hotaru gasped. “She’s doing it. Mako wouldn’t so she is.”
Haruka. “We have to go, where Haruka is might be next.”
Hotaru nodded, horror in her big dark eyes, but a voice behind them said, “No.”
Michiru turned and pulled Hotaru behind her. “I thought you’d be too gentle for this sort of thing, Ami.”
She didn’t respond. Michiru knew she couldn’t tell if it was a snipe or a compliment. It was, of course, both. “How did you incapacitate Rei?”
“She’s dead.”
Her heart sank. She shouldn’t have hoped. It is probably better this way. How much more could Rei’s heart take? “Oh, say it right. Say you killed her.”
“She won’t stay dead. We’ll all have another life soon.”
“Some people believe in heaven, Ami. They believe that everyone has a second life after this one. And yet.” She called out her mirror into her hand. “When they send people there, they’re still murderers.”
To Ami’s credit, she didn’t lash out. “And some people choose not to save others when they can. In the medical field, we call that negligence.”
Hotaru tensed. Michiru reached back and squeezed her hand. “Refusing to end millions of lives for the sake of one is not negligence. Do you think anyone will be the same in rebirth? You don’t remember how different it was last time. Reincarnation births new people. Every life taken today is a life taken, not put on pause.”
“Usagi–”
“Is functionally gone.” Another building rumbled to the ground. “Would Usagi do that? Would Usagi kill Minako?”
“It’s for the sake of rebirth. She wants her life back.”
“She’s had her life. A thousand years of it.” Rei had never been comfortable with how long they had lived. Michiru was beginning to see the merit of it. At what point did no length of life become enough? Mina should have let Usagi die. They all should have died a long time ago. For a fleeting moment, she imagined what it would have been like to grow old with Haruka, dying slowly together surrounded by grandchildren who hadn’t had the instinctual urge to keep their distance from such unnatural, unaging elders. Haruka would have loved it, even as her knees got too bad for her to run or even drive. It should have been that way. “We all have.”
Ami’s eyes narrowed. “Then don’t try and save Haruka.”
Michiru laughed. Hotaru and Ami both jumped. “You prove yourself to be so smart, and yet you misunderstand so horribly.” She sent one blast from her mirror at Ami. It hit her square in the shoulder and she stumbled back. “She and Hotaru are all that are left for me. And I won’t let anything break my family any further.” One swift kick, and Ami was gone over the edge. It was cold, it was murder, it was what needed to be done.
“We’ll find Papa,” Hotaru said. “And leave. Serenity might stop once she realizes I’m gone.”
Another building crumbled. Michiru was certain it wasn’t true, but she nodded. “Let’s go.”
Usagi twisted the crystal in her hands. It had been so easy for Queen Serenity, the crystal had shown her. She’d made the wish and Saturn had come. Easy, instant. The crystal was ready, the crystal was willing. Why wouldn’t Saturn come?
Why wouldn’t the crystal bring everyone back on its own? It always had, before now. Usagi hated it even as she relied on it. When it mattered most, it would not obey her. That, at least, was the same in this lifetime. With another twist it brought down another building. It was backwards, now. The Queen would bring destruction and Saturn would bring life. She despised Hotaru for making her do it. She despised Minako for bringing them to this point. All her life, her long, long life, she’d never felt so much hatred.
Maybe that was why everything was so broken. The crystal responded best to a pure heart. She’d felt nothing but hatred from the moment her daughter died. Hatred could not bring her back. So it fell to Saturn.
She brought down another building. Residents screamed from inside, but they were quiet soon enough. Hotaru would come stop this soon. She had to.
People had begun running into the streets, trying to escape the destruction. Crystals ran them through with barely a thought from Usagi. Maybe it should have scared her, how easy it was. It had, that morning with Mamoru, when he’d tried to stop her from going to find Saturn. She’d cried, screamed, she’d hadn’t meant to at all, she’d only wanted him to stop holding her back, but then she realized. It was all to make her choice easier. If everyone was already dead, there was no reason not to send them all into another life. So now she did the same for Saturn. Hotaru. Whichever she was, it didn’t matter. The crystal had shown her more of the past life today than she’d ever remembered, and it was hard to keep it straight.
She’d seen the war and the aftermath. The earth tearing itself apart in the fallout, the rest of the solar system dying in the kingdom’s absence. At first she’d thought it was a warning. But if the earth had recovered before her return, it would be more than alright this time. They’d done so much more for it than the Moon Kingdom had. They deserved to return again.
Usagi walked down another street. More people, and then more corpses. Where was Saturn? Usagi didn’t want to do this anymore. She was ready to rest, for the long sleep that came between lives. And then she’d wake up with Chibiusa and Mamoru and everyone again. Or not quite, but she’d have them soon enough.
She looked around wearily. The realization of where she was bit at her heart. She and Chibiusa had been here just last week, disguised as civilians to get donuts. She could see her little princess now, dancing in the street in place of the corpses to celebrate getting to the last chocolate sprinkle donut before Usagi could. They’d be together again soon.
The store was closed, odd at this time of day, but maybe understandable given the circumstances. But the blinds were drawn. The never drew the blinds, it kept people from seeing the donuts, and that was no good.
It was strange enough that Usagi had to peek inside.
As soon as she opened the door, she smiled. She’d found another way to make Saturn come to her.
SittingOverHereDreaming 