Mercury's Daughter
Chapter One: Tricking A Sailor Scout
A/n: Hello! This is my first posted Sailor Moon fic; it's not my first story by a long shot though. This story, incase you didn't know yet, is future set in Crystal Tokyo. Things will be brought to further details in later chapters, this is really just an intro. Enjoy and R&R.
Dedication: For Jeni, for giving me slightly crazy theories that made me smile, and for making me feel like I'm not a complete failure at life. Also to my beta, Tina. Thanks Dolly.
"Do you insist on calling her 'Little Mercury,' Mina?" Amy folded her arms over her stomach. People talking to her stomach was really starting to weird the genius out. Mina beamed as she stood up.
"You don't have a name picked out yet. 'Little Mercury' is fitting."
"'Little Mercury' is not an optional name." At four months, Amy's extremely flat stomach was just barely showing the bulge of the baby.
"Even as a nickname?"
"Mina..." Amy rubbed her temples.
"That's a great name! You should name her 'Mina'!"
"We're not naming the baby 'Mina.'" Exasperated with the blonde sailor, Mercury chose to let her ramble off reasons as to why 'Mina' was the perfect name for the baby while she carefully eyed the sandwich Lita had bribed her away from her work station with. She thought about the commercials from the twenty-first century for a brief second. The 'Having a Baby Changes Everything' ones.
'Very true,' she decided. Any other day there was no way that a sandwich, made by Lita with all her favorites or not, could lure her out of her work station in the security Red Room all the way in the basement, and up into the living room on the second floor with Mina. She blamed this whole-heartedly on the baby. Mina had flicked on the television on the wall in front of them when Amy came back to her conscious mind.
"Have you seen Serenity by any chance?" she asked. Mina swished the water in her glass around for a second as she watched the latest 'breaking news.'
"I think I saw her and Endymion in the conference room with Pluto." Mercury finished her sandwich.
"Right. They're trying to solve that energy issue with Crystal Tokyo's outer wall." She remembered that briefing. Serenity had been late, Rini had cried nearly the entire time, Greg had sat in as a representative from the advisory board, and halfway into briefing the baby had started kicking. This wouldn't have been made such a big deal if she wasn't only four months along. After the briefing she immediately checked herself into the medical wing for a full work up. All tests showed the baby's development was completely normal and it could quite possibly have been the baby's powers surfacing and not a kick at all. This, however, did not stop her from giving Greg strange hand signals across the table to silently convey her excitement, earning her strange glances from the outer scouts and Greg himself. Endymion thought the briefing went quite well for a change.
The scouts were older, smarter, stronger, and taller now. However, they were not, by any means, more mature or organized. The Crystal Alliance was fairly new; still a baby, really. It was February of 3013 - the Alliance was only 4 years old. Watching Neo Queen Serenity, Amy wondered how Queen Serenity did it the first time around. She raised their Serena, and the Silver Alliance, all while remaining graceful and in control. Anytime she mentioned this to the outer scouts, namely Neptune, but all of them really, they smirked and laughed to themselves. Being the first inner scouts must have been an interesting ride.
"Lita and Raye bribed you into keeping me away from Red Room, didn't they?" Her pregnancy had not slowed her wit. At all. Mina looked flustered.
"Well… uh.. You see… it's like this." She rubbed the back of her neck, grinning like an idiot at the girl.
"That's what I thought," Amy sighed. She stood up from the couch. "I'm going to go find Serenity and see if she's done with her meeting." Venus waved. Amy crossed the room and walked out into the hall.
The Crystal Palace was anything but small. The people had gone out of their way to rebuild the city; along with the city they built a palace fit for a queen. Or, well, a soon-to-be queen and her court. And Endymion, of course. Raye was absolutely embarrassed by its size. The first day they had walked through the construction site, she laughed bitterly and asked if the palace included its own bowling alley. The crew said they could build her one if she wanted. Mortified, she bought the entire crew coffee and doughnuts the next morning. Tokyo had welcomed the scouts with open arms after Serenity awakened the Earth from the Great Darkness. No one was really prepared for them when the time came, but in truth, they weren't as prepared as they thought they were either.
A thousand-year nap hadn't done Serenity a bit of good to prepare herself for what she had known she would do from the day she found out she was the princess. Somehow between her, Endymion, and the scouts, they'd been able to keep peace for the most part. Their biggest worry was dirty diapers and keeping the wall up around the ever unstable Crystal Tokyo.
Amy reached the main floor via the main stairwell. Serenity loved the main stairwell, and Amy had a secret sweet spot for it herself. Huge white pillars reached from the floor to the 40 foot vaulted ceilings. White marble railings were carved in roses and vines, twisting all the way from the second floor to the first, opening up into the main entrance. Mercury's heels clicked off the polished marble floor, echoing though the empty hallway. An empty hall was unusual for the palace, but it was refreshing for the girl.
"Mercury! Quick, we're hiding from Luna!" The scout barely had time to turn before her queen, shoes in hand, was dragging her by the arm.
"Serenity! What are we doing?" she laughed. The blonde's eyes searched the side hall and they scurried off.
"Endy has Rini, and Luna wants me to talk to officials from Europe tomorrow. Tomorrow is my mini-vacation that Luna and Endy have been promising me for two years. I've been talking to officials all month. Walk out to the rose gardens with me?" Amy rolled her eyes, arm still locked with her queen's.
"Serenity, the girls tricked me out of Red Room rotation three hours early." Serenity laughed nervously as they walked out the doors into the cool air.
"Oh... Really?"
"Serena." Mercury's voice was dry.
"You needed a break! At least, that baby did."
"Serenity, the baby isn't doing any work, she-"
"Stop thinking like a doctor, start thinking like a mother." The bluenette blushed, cut off before she could start explaining the lack of strain her light mental work put on the baby.
"They tricked me," she argued childishly.
"By order of the queen. Have you and Greg decided on a name yet?"
"Not you, too! Mina just did the same thing!" She decided to ignore the first part.
"Is she still calling her 'Little Mercury'?" The entire palace cringed collectively, or giggled every time the Venus scout's voice rang out with the pet name. The poor child would have identity issues of walking in her mother's impossible footsteps and probably end up committed by age nine. But hey, it could be the palace's first scandal!
"Yes."
"You need a name, and fast."
"I'm well aware." The name game with Greg wasn't much easier than it was with Mina. They had very different ideas and couldn't find a name they agreed on just yet.
"How's Greg adjusting?" The long time friends sat on the circle bench in the middle of the garden. Serenity dropped her white heels onto the brick walkway, glancing at the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the garden. Artemis went sprinting past, probably out looking for her. He failed to glance their way and Serenity squealed in success.
"He's excited about the baby. Though he wants me to take leave and move into the apartment until after she's born." There was no way Sailor Mercury would give up her position on Serenity's court or as Chief of Medicine. Being pregnant hadn't affected her so far, and as long as she could perform her duties she would remain active as both. She had, however, given up patrol and response duties, by choice, the day she found out. Serenity frowned.
"You are so much more graceful pregnant than I was." Amy's first thought was the fact that she was more graceful period, but she controlled herself from saying so.
"Rini was a very stubborn pregnancy." She nodded at the statement to emphasize. Sometimes being a doctor made it easier to lie to the younger girl about her pregnancy. Serenity's was completely normal, but this was still their Serena they were talking about.
"Still!" The girl lost her composure as queen and reverted back to the whiny teenager Amy grew up with. She tried not to smile too largely.
"How is Endymion doing with Rini?" Serenity perked up.
"This is Darien and Rini we're talking about. She is such a daddy's girl, it's not even funny. They're off bonding right now." Amy chuckled. "Oh! I forgot I was supposed to remember because Pluto won't tell me. Is the baby going to be like Rini? I mean, power-wise? I know you said some power surfaced, but have you found out if she'll carry Mercury blood thick enough to be a scout?" Amy shrugged, eyes picking up a spark.
"Not yet, but I suspect. Honestly, part of me really wants her to develop fully. That's totally irrational and irresponsible and I shouldn't want that for her, I know. It's dangerous." The blonde nodded.
"It's also a family trait, like blue eyes." Amy stared at the girl.
"I guess." Serenity kicked her feet, pulling her dress up a little so it wouldn't rest on the ground.
"Think of it this way; she'll be able to defend herself right? Right! So it'll be great. Are you going to raise her in the palace?" Mercury laughed.
"Of course! She'll have a room at the apartment but we have every intention of raising her here with Rini." Amy's communicator went off from her astro-space before Serenity had the chance to squeal again. She took it out, opening the top to reveal Luna's face.
"Hello, Luna."
"I know you're with her. Tell her if she's not back here in five minutes, she'll never get another vacation." Serenity groaned.
"I'm coming Luna, give it a rest!" she said dramatically, slipping her shoes back on. Amy winked at the guardian before putting her communicator back.
"Well, Serenity," she said in her most formal, official voice. "I will see you after your mini-vacation. The palace will be running smoothly with Pluto and I running all operations. Enjoy yourself." She gave a mock bow to her superior.
"Thanks, Amy!" Serenity hugged her tightly before darting off back into the palace. Amy smiled, placing a hand on her stomach.
"Well, Little One, why don't we go and find your father? Yeah, that's a good idea." She started back into the palace as the baby kicked. "Yes, ice cream is a wonderful idea, as well. Glad we thought of it."