VULCAN'S LAMENT
Chapter 7: "The Morning After Guilts"
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.


"Damn."

Ace shifted slightly. He and Minako were lying on the sofa in his office, his back to the cushions and her back to him. His arm was draped across her waist and his face was buried in her golden hair. She'd spoken the single word softly, for only her consumption. But he had heard it, and it wasn't what he was hoping to hear.

Seeking to pull her out of her current mood, Ace leaned in and kissed her shoulder while his hand lightly moved up and down her stomach. She felt good against him. Her merest touch gave him such satisfaction. What she'd given him just now was like ambrosia from the gods. Already his mind was thinking back to what they had done and how good it felt. And after so long without, Ace felt renewed. He felt like he was finally living again.

But Minako shifted in his light grasp. She pushed up to a sitting position on the sofa. Covered by her flowing mane of golden hair, Minako reached down for her skirt, strewn haphazardly in the heat of passion on the floor. Ace lifted his hand and traced the furrow of her spine with a finger.

"Don't," Minako murmured.

"You're sorry this happened," Ace commented.

"Of course I am," Minako growled. "How could I do it? How could I give in to you AGAIN? How? I must be certifiable."

"You were unable to deny any longer what we have," Ace told her.

"What do we have?" Minako glanced back disdainfully at him. She got up and shimmied into her skirt. "You waltz into my life every few years, lure me into the sack and then go skipping off to do whatever it is you do."

"It could be so much more, if only you'd allow it," Ace argued. He seemed in no hurry to get dressed, a fact that was not helping Minako's resolve.

"We've been over this," Minako snapped. "I don't plan to live the rest of my life out of a suitcase."

"I know," Ace cut her off, seizing her hand. She looked at his earnest expression. "I've changed, Minako. I'm not the daring thief you used to know. I'm respectable now." Ace smiled. "Well, at least my position is."

"Really?" Minako asked skeptically, buttoning up her blouse. "You didn't win this studio in a crap game?"

"No, I purchased it," Ace responded. Minako returned that with more skepticism. "I took a modest sum of money and built it into millions, through aggressive financial speculation and shrewd investment, much the way many other bankers, stock traders and investment fund managers have profited over the past ten years. It was all perfectly legal, though some have questioned the ethics of some of the practices, particularly now that the house of cards built by these financial manipulators is beginning to tumble."

"And ethics has never been your Achilles heel, has it," Minako retorted.

"Not when it gets me what I want," Ace said, springing up off the sofa. He had hold of Minako's other hand and he held them to his bare chest. She looked up into his eyes and for a moment forgot herself and wanted him all over again. "And I want you. I have always wanted you. Stay with me, Minako. I can provide you with anything that you want. You want love? You have always had that from me. You want security? I'm not going anywhere now. I have roots now. I planted them for you. And I have the money and power to give you anything you need."

Minako shook her head. "I can't believe I'm listening to you! There's a few little problems with your scenario, Ace. For one thing," and she pulled her hand free and shoved her wedding ring in his face, "I already have a husband."

"I'll buy him off," Ace replied.

"You just don't get it!" Minako gasped. "I don't want Toshi out of my life! I've experienced what life is like without him! And you're a threat to that!" She pulled her other hand away and grasped her head. "Maybe if I go to him and get on my knees and beg him to forgive me, he won't divorce me! But this is going to hurt him, and he's never going to get over that. And I hate myself for putting him in this spot."

"I'd like to sympathize," Ace stated coldly, "but, to be honest, it's difficult, considering he keeps you from me. What you don't seem to 'get', Minako, is that, whatever you feel for him, YOU - LOVE - ME. Your body understands this. It's your mind that refuses to come to terms with it."

"I don't love you," Minako scowled. "There's a difference between love and lust, Ace. I've experienced both, so I know. There's nothing between us but a physical attraction. I don't love you, Ace. I'm sorry if you want more. I just can't give it to you." Minako turned, looking for her shoes.

"You can, if you would only take the step and trust what you feel. And you will." Minako turned back to him, her eyes flaring. "You are not going to go back to your safe, boring little life with your safe, boring little plush doll of a man and leave me back on the outside to look at you and yearn."

"Ace," Minako exhaled. "Give it up."

"You will see," Ace said softly, gently caressing Minako's face with his hand. "One day you'll see. You have to. The Gods can't be that cruel."

Minako felt her skin burning again and knew she had to go. Gently she pulled out of Ace's grasp, stepped into her high heels and headed for the door. She didn't look back. She didn't dare.

Outside, Ace's executive assistant was at his desk. He didn't look up, nor did his face show any expression. There were two people she recognized as film producers waiting in the outer office. They gave her a curious look and Minako felt like they could read her just like Rei always did.

"Oh, brother," Minako muttered to herself as she waited awkwardly for the elevator, "I'm going to have to stay away from Rei for the next hundred years."


"So what have YOU found?" Artemis asked over his real-time connection with Luna, because he had come up with nothing.

"I checked into Saijou Takeda's financial affairs dating back to 2002," Luna told him. "He was quite the active trader: Stocks, bonds, commodities, asset speculation, mortgage reselling. He was quite active in the financial markets, and was a very bold and audacious player. He also seemed to show an uncanny knack for knowing when to move out of an area and into another."

"Insider information, maybe?" Artemis asked.

"There's not really any concrete evidence of it," Luna reported, "though I'd hardly put it past him. His history shows some losses. It seems more along the line of a gambler who has an inner sense of when to get out, when to minimize loss and when to maximize gain."

"That's Ace to a 'T'," mumbled Artemis. "Any idea just where he got his initial bankroll in the first place?"

"None that I've found. There seems to be very little history of Saijou Takeda at all prior to 2002."

"Probably his criminal days," Artemis surmised. "I imagine he was keeping a pretty low profile from '92 to 2002, since he was wanted by the police AND couldn't be sure he was the only survivor of the Dark Kingdom. And we all know what he was doing in '92."

"Well, I'll keep looking," Luna told him. "How are things at your end? This morning's news item couldn't have been welcome news."

"Neither one of them has been home yet. I expected Minako for lunch. She only had to record a few loops for the show. But she hasn't come back yet."

"She's not - - with him, is she?"

"Not unless they're watching the ocean in Odaiba," Artemis answered. A screen was minimized in the bottom corner of his computer, relaying Minako's senshi communicator tracking signal on a GPS map. "I'm worried, Luna. I'm worried that she's going to fly off the handle and play right into Ace's hands. And I'm worried that Toshihiro is going to believe all of that crap and do something crazy."

Luna looked on in sympathy, but she didn't respond. She recalled her own dalliance, if it could be called that, with the failed astronaut Kakeru. After everything was over, both Usagi and Minako had told her in very blunt terms how much she had hurt Artemis by her actions. She would have never known otherwise, for Artemis would never have told her. To this day he hadn't told her. Toshihiro had a lot of similar qualities to Artemis and Luna thought he would act in a similar manner. And it couldn't be good for their relationship.

"Hopefully Minako will be responsible and everything can be resolved nicely," Luna offered. "I'll get back to work now." She started to log off, but hesitated. "Um, Artemis - - have I - - well, have I told you recently that I - - that I'm quite - - fond of you?"

Artemis looked on in surprise, but it changed into a small grin. "Not recently. Not nearly enough for my tastes."

"Well, I am," Luna continued. Then she grew quite uncomfortable. "I'll be going now. Good-bye." The connection went dark.

"Wonder what brought that on?" Artemis mumbled to himself with some amusement. Just then the front door opened. Toshihiro entered. He seemed all right to the cat.

"Hi, Artemis," he said, his large frame moving over to the table where Artemis sat with his laptop. "Mina back yet?"

"Afraid not, Toshihiro," the white cat said.

"Must still be at the studio," Toshihiro assessed, his spirits falling slightly. "Or out shopping. She does know how to spend money. It's a good thing she's got so much coming in."

"Yeah," Artemis nodded. He took a steadying breath. "Toshihiro, I'm guessing that you've seen that report."

"About Mina and Saijou Takeda?" Toshihiro answered, sitting down across from Artemis. "Yeah. Don't worry. I could tell the minute I saw it that the picture was faked. It was probably some bottom-feeder who got wind of Mina's history with Takeda and concocted the whole thing for a quick payday. It's part of the price of fame. Mina's not too mad about it, is she?"

"I don't know," Artemis replied. "I haven't talked to her all day. Knowing her, though, she's probably pretty ticked."

Toshihiro nodded and thought for a moment. "Artemis, you know her better than I do. Is it possible that Mina could . . . ?" Toshihiro looked at the cat, unable to verbalize his fears.

"She has in the past," Artemis answered reluctantly. "But it was before she met you."

"Does that make a difference? I know I can't compete with Saijou Takeda on looks. And I can't compete with Takeda's wealth, or his importance in the industry."

"Sounds like you're giving up," Artemis told him.

"Is there even a competition? Mina says she wants to be with me. But does she? And if it is a competition," and the man looked down at his hands, "I've never been a fighter."

"Do you want to be with her?" Artemis asked.

"I like being with her," Toshihiro responded. "She's fun and exciting. She brings a little crazy into my life. I'm not very spontaneous. And she made me feel good about myself. I mean, she's a goddess. She's the most beautiful woman in the universe - - and she picked me. Who wouldn't want to hang on to that?"

"I know the feeling," Artemis told him. "There's this slinky little cat that I once thought I never had a chance with. And one time I thought I'd lost her to someone else. And it didn't feel good. Not at all. I wanted to just hole up and shut the world out."

"Did you fight for her?" Toshihiro asked.

"No," Artemis confessed. "I thought I didn't have a chance, that fighting for her would only offend her. I just slunk off. Sort of like what you're thinking of doing now."

"What happened?"

"He was never interested in her to begin with. He hooked up with someone else, and she came back broken-hearted. And I took her back."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Artemis grinned wistfully. "Because I'd rather be her doormat than live without her." He shifted uncomfortably. "But if she hadn't come back, I don't know where I'd be. You might want to think about that."

Toshihiro looked very soberly at nothing in particular.


Minako sat on a bench looking out over the Pacific Ocean. The bench rested in the seaside area of Odaiba, near the Rainbow Bridge. People walked up and down, hurrying along, lost in their own lives. Occasionally someone would recognize her and ask for an autograph. Minako complied, for even in melancholy she knew how much she owed her fans. But the questions would come about the news report, either asking if it was true or declaring their disbelief of it. By the fifth round of the same questions, Minako dug out her sunglasses and put them on.

A hand reached out and touched her on the shoulder. Minako turned, expecting another fan, and found Usagi, Makoto and Rei standing there. Instantly Usagi sat down next to her, while Makoto and Rei stood on either side.

"Mina-Chan?" Usagi ventured, oozing sympathy and concern from every pore.

"How did you find me?" Minako whispered.

"We traced your senshi communicator," Makoto told her.

"We looked everywhere else and couldn't find you," Usagi added. She grasped Minako's hand and looked at her friend, an almost terrified empathy coming from her big blue eyes. "What can we do to help?"

Minako glanced at Rei. "Boy, nobody can keep anything from you, can they?"

"I haven't said a word," Rei replied archly. "I didn't even know what happened until about two seconds ago. But it's written all over your face that something major has happened. You don't need second sight to see that."

Minako expelled a breath.

"Then those news reports are true?" Makoto asked.

"They are now," Minako admitted, her disgust clear.

"Blondie, have you lost your mind?"

"Yeah," she scowled. "Happens every time I get within six inches of Ace. I tried so hard, too." A tear trickled down from under the sunglasses. She looked up at Rei again. "You're the big time priest. So what do I do now?"

"You tell Toshihiro what you've done," Rei said, softly and without judgment. "You apologize as sincerely as you can. You accept the consequences without protest." Then her face hardened. "And you DON'T see Ace again."

"That's what I thought. I've been trying to work up the courage to do it for a while now."

"Toshihiro is a nice guy," Usagi told her. "Maybe he'll forgive you."

"Maybe," Minako said skeptically. "But he might not. And he's got every right. I stabbed him in the back. I took a nice guy, a guy who has always been there for me, and stabbed him in the back. And now I've got to cut his heart out, because if I try to keep it from him, it'll only make it worse."

"You didn't do it on purpose," Usagi countered gently. "Maybe if Toshihiro does forgive you, you can work on forgiving yourself."

"Even if all of that happens, there's still Ace," Minako added. "Ace isn't just going to go away. He said as much. He wants me and he's going to do everything he can to get me."

"We could always take Ace out of the picture," Makoto suggested.

"He's not the type you lean on, Makoto," Minako looked up at her, a hint of a smile on her lips, "and you're not the type who kills because it's convenient."

"Well, we have to do something," Makoto argued. "If you can't keep your hands off of him, then we have to think of some way to make him go away."

"I'll use the Moon Tier if you want," Usagi offered.

"I don't think it'll work," Minako said, then patted Usagi's hand. "But thanks."

She pushed up off of the bench. Usagi followed her to her feet.

"First things first. I've got to go home and break Toshi's heart." Minako swallowed. "Every experience in life is grist for the actor's mill. Hope that works in reverse. Maybe I'll be able to con him into thinking I'm not the worst person in the universe."

"You're not," Rei said, grasping Minako's arm. "You're a person who made a mistake. Own it. Learn from it. Move on." Makoto nodded in the background, while Usagi looked at her hopefully.

"Yeah," Minako said, forcing a smile. As they walked Minako back to Makoto's car, Usagi got a call on her cell phone.

"Hello?" Usagi inquired. "No, Ami, we found her." Usagi paused to listen. "I'll tell you about it tonight."


Entering their apartment, Minako felt a dread she hadn't felt since she first got up on a stage and wondered, momentarily, if she would fail and see her lifelong dream die. That feeling shunted to the background when she saw Artemis scurry out of the kitchen.

"Minako, I . . ." Artemis began.

"It's going to have to wait, Fuzzy," Minako said. "Is Toshi home?"

"Yes, but," Artemis tried to say.

"Toshi!" she called out. Artemis began to speak again, but stopped when Toshihiro emerged from the kitchen. "Toshi, I've got to tell you something, and you're really not going to like it."

"I already know," Toshihiro replied. There was an emotional quaver in his voice. For a moment, Minako thought that he was talking about the bogus news report and the doctored picture.

Then Ace emerged from the kitchen.

"I told him," Ace said.

Continued in Chapter 8