Act II, Chapter III
The Missing History
"Mami, can you tell me what the answer to this problem is?" Sensei asked me first thing on the first day back from Summer Break.
"I'm sorry, you must not have been told. Over Summer Break I lost my sense of sight, and much more briefly my sense of hearing," I told her staring straight ahead. Which was towards the board, but I didn't know where on the board the problem was, or what the problem was in the first place.
"Is, is that true?" Sensei sounded so incredulous.
"Yes, she's quite blind Sensei," Haruka said from across the room. She was still defending me.
"I can also attest to that, It was very hard to communicate with her for two weeks because she couldn't hear us, or see us," Lance added.
"Well…I…Lance will you answer the problem then?" Sensei seemed at a loss or words at hearing that one of her students had suddenly gone blind. I would think I should be the one in a panic, if I'm not upset about the whole no sight thing, then why should my teacher be?
"The answer is 5xy over 3x10 ," Lance sounded so sure of himself. I slipped my hand over and touched his knee. And smiled over at him, even though I wasn't sure he was looking at me.
The rest of the day was very smooth. No one called on me, and I didn't have to explain that I was blind to anyone else. Then I waited by the gate for Lan and Emma. Lan told me that he was going to dress in normal clothes (except for when he was actively saving my life) so that he could protect me while I couldn't protect myself. And since Emma professed (over and over) to being our daughter he had decided to take care of her too.
"Mami? What happened to you?" Naru asked me as soon as I got to the gate, I jumped because I hadn't heard her coming.
"I don't know It was after school on the last day of the term I was suddenly struck by this extreme pain. I passed out and when I came back to I couldn't see or hear anyone. Then someone picked me up and carried me somewhere. Then I got passed off to a really strong woman (she wasn't really muscular though), and she carried me to the hospital. I was told after I regain my hearing that it was a sailor scout who took me to the hospital. So the first person must have been a friend of theirs. But I spent a couple of weeks without being able to really communicate with anyone. Then I was struck by that really bad pain again and when I woke up I could hear again. So I'm hoping my eyesight will come back sometime too," I explained everything. Well everything that wasn't a huge secret at least.
"Mami?" It was Lan's voice. I turned towards it with a smile on my face.
"Lan! You came. I was starting to worry you had forgotten me. Is Emma there?" I asked cheerily.
"yep, I'm here! Who are you?" Emma asked Naru.
"My name is Naru, I'm in classes with Mami. I was jut wondering what had happened, she was fine before Summer,"
"Yes, Usagi bullied me into picking her up and carrying her as far as I could. That's how I met Mami. But Sailor Uranus found me as I was carrying her to the hospital and took her the rest of the way. I followed behind and waited for her to be well enough to go home, so I could help her get wherever she needed to go. But Usagi showed up and helped her to get home without my assistance," Lan explained calmly.
"really? You met her because she had passed out from immeasurable pain, which was so horrible she lost multiple senses? That's a pretty cool story!" Naru seemed to excited about the tragedy my life has turned out to be.
"She told you the whole story? She doesn't usually tell the whole story. What are you doing?" I could hear the suspicion in his voice.
"Nothing," I said dragging out the syllables, "Em-chan, you want to get home right?" I asked holding out my hand. Emma grabbed it enthusiastically and we started off without Lan.
I heard him saying hurried goodbyes and apologies before rushing up to meet us. I smiled as Lan grabbed my other hand and laced his fingers through mine.
"So what are you really doing?" Lan asked as we walked towards my house. Lan had managed to turn up in the mornings, and whenever else I needed him. So he had learned the way pretty well.
"I was telling the second biggest gossip in the school as much of what happened as anyone who isn't you, Emma, or one of the scouts can know. That way everyone will think that what I told her was everything, and there isn't anything else to find out. If it gets to Umino then everyone will assume that that's complete fact, and that nothing is left out. He's very thorough," I said lifting Emma up onto my hip. She' very small and light I've discovered. So she's easy to carry around. Emma hugged me around my neck.
"oh, so you think by telling only the truth, but only parts of the truth, then no one will question the rest of it, and no one will find out the parts you don't want anyone to know?" Lan asked trying to confirm my plan.
"Exactly,"
"Crazy,"
"of course I am," I joked gently. Lan pulled his arm around my waist so I wouldn't bump into anything. But I liked it just because it was Lan.
Mico started beeping incessantly soon thereafter. I set Emma down, and felt through my purse until I found him. When I opened him I could feel him sending up a hologram.
"What's he showing you?" I asked quietly. I really needed to know, but I couldn't see for myself.
"It's a map, of Tokyo," Lan said touching my arm.
"What's up then Mico?" I asked holding my hand open, and Mico resting on it.
"A power is stirring directly below your position. I would advise transforming, and using me as your eyes. If possible send a message to the other scouts advising your position, and your current plan of attack," Mico told me in his cute little boy voice.
"Yes, I supposed that's what I will do. Can you send the message to the girls? I'll transform then," I said and closed Mico's screen. I reached into the black void in front of me, and my scepter fell into my hand.
"Ruby Rose Transformation!!" I cried and lifted my arm above my head. I felt something surround me shading me from the sun. I think it might have been a rose bud. I didn't move, but I knew I was in a simple leotard a few seconds later. Ribbons wound around me forming fingerless gloves, tall socks, short boots, a choker, and the skirt that practically hung off me. But somehow didn't.
I opened Mico's screen and Mico switched on my 'eyes'.
Emma and Lan were staring at me in surprise. I smiled at them over Mico's screen, which was showing me exactly what I was seeing anyway.
"Rose?" Lan asked in an undertone.
"of course it's me," I laughed a little at Lan's tone of disbelief.
"Mamma?" Emma sounded just as disbelieving.
"Of course! Lan, get Emma to my house before you come back to save me, okay?" I smiled and looked right into Lan's face. He looked really good in his modern day clothes.
I turned and ran off in the direction Mico was leading me in. It turned out he was leading me to a drain pipe, so I could climb down, and get to whatever it was we were sensing.
"To the left and down to the fifth junction, then turn right, and take another right so that we can come at it from an angle it won't expect," Mico instructed at the bottom. I turned to the left and followed the slimy, mildewy tunnel down a ways. The walls were an uninterrupted fuzzy green. I was walking through rivers of long stagnant water.
At the first junction the tunnel branched in three ways, but I kept forward, as Mico told me.
I could actually see for the first time in a long time, and this is what I get? Slimy tunnels and smelly water. I guess whatever controls fate dislikes me. I mean making me blind in the first place should have been enough of a signal, but somehow it wasn't.
Several junctions later I could feel some kind of tingling along my skin. It wasn't really like before I'm attacked by something But the feeling of power is the same.
I took the first right just like Mico told me, even though I could tell I was getting a little too close to that power. It felt warm. But I'm sure it should have been a cold feeling, or at least something less comforting, less familiar. I'm pretty sure it was just trying to distract me, make me less on guard.
At the second right I noticed that the tunnels were less slimy, and the ground was drier. There was a perfume-like smell starting to perforate the tunnels. I wasn't following Mico's directions at this point (even though he was practically yelling at me where to go), instead I was following my sense of that warm tingling power.
"Princess? Have you come to find me?" A soft voice asked as I stepped into a large room, lit from all around by candles, big and small, and flashlights in all varying intensities.
"Who are you?" The woman was in a shadowy part of the room, so even with all of Mico's help I couldn't see much of her.
"I'm surprised you couldn't tell from the sense of my presence. I'm Malia," She said stepping out of her shadowy corner. She had long wavy brown black hair, and brown eyes flecked with vivid violet. She was about my height, and didn't look much older than me. But her clothes looked suspiciously like the dress found among war mages of Meapation (a top that only covers the front of her chest, and a pair of tight pants going only to just past her knees, and a skirt slit on both sides all the way up to her hips. She had a thick belt which hung from above the hip on the right and just below it on the left. A dagger was hung on the right side, and a sword on the left.).
"The Immortal?" I asked in disbelief, this seemed too unlikely. Malia was a character I created to be a wise advisor to all the reigning queens of Meapation, all the way from the first Rose to the last reigning queen, at the end of the world.
"Of course, whatever other Malia do you know of?" She asked in her primly feminine voice.
"None I suppose, but why are you hiding out here? Who are you in this life?"
"My life as the mage Malia was so much stronger than whatever life I had here, that when my powers awoke, I lost the memories I had of this life," Malia told me.
"But I must know you, I've known all the others, both in the last life, and in this one," I told her quietly.
"If you do, I doubt you will be able to figure it out, because I awoke with my powers near here, and I couldn't remember a thing after the end of our world, I remember how I could do nothing to stop them, and the queen of that time was killed, and her protector mage's power was taken, and so her life," Malia said in a quietly intent voice.
"Wait what? Is our world still there?" I asked excitedly.
"No, it was destroyed by an unknown power we didn't see until it was to late. All of our powers in this life began to awaken as our world ended. Well as far as I can tell," Malia explained.
"But that should have been a year ago, or more," My voice was soft.
"If our powers had come in faster than they did, then it would have killed us. You got powers as a 'Sailor Scout' before you awoke as Princess Rose. But the rest of us awoke as who we were in Meapation, before we awoke to our powers here. You and I were stronger, and so the gods gave us more to deal with. I lost my memory, and from the way you orient yourself, you lost your sight," Malia said quietly.
"But why are you hiding here?"
"This is where I awoke," Malia answered.
"When did you awake here?" My voice was quieter than Malia's even.
"A few hours ago,"
"Then that's why Mico didn't tell me about you until just a little while ago. Why don't you come with me? You can stay at my house. We have plenty of space, even with Emma there,"
"Emma? As in Princess Emma? The one who abdicated her inheritance of the throne in favor of her daughter, Rose III?" Malia looked so shocked.
"Yes, I think, she came from the future and says that she's my daughter, and Lan's,"
"But I will take your offer, I feel that in the passing of time, you will eventually need me,"
"Yes, I think you're right,"
I had transformed back, and closed Mico's screen, so I was warned of the other scout's approach, only by my ears, and Malia's quiet gasp. But when I heard the jingling mail of Lan's armor I had to smile.
"Mico needs to learn to distinguish friend from foe," I said stopping in my tracks, "This is Malia, I don't know who she is here, but that's because she doesn't know. But Malia was an Immortal. She saw the end of Meapation, and Osseus, and all the other kingdoms. I judge that Galaxia did it. According to Malia's estimations our powers began awakening about the same time that Galaxia destroyed our world. So our power wasn't ever in Galaxia's grip. If it had been then our powers wouldn't have awoken the way they did. We would have been reawakened in our own world. But because our powers were never Galaxia's, Our world wasn't reset with everyone else's. I'm sorry Elle, Osseus, but the reason we awoke here was because our world was destroyed," My voice was solemn, and I knew they felt the same heart-wrenching grief that I did, "I was hoping the reason Chibi-Usa couldn't remember me was because we went back there, but that world is gone. The typical ways of getting there are destroyed. I think we must have a greater deed waiting for us to fulfill. But I think we'll need to access the Hall of Doors."
That last line should have been so stunningly amazing and profound, it should have made everyone fall silent. Instead I hear Sailor Moon asking the most obvious of questions.
"What's the Hall of Doors?"
"It was Megan's idea. It was hidden high in the Gibb mountains, and it wasn't really part of any world. It was a bit like the Wood Between Worlds from The Chronicles of Narnia. But it had a single entrance in our world, but any number of doors in any number of other worlds. It was Megan's way of connecting all her stories. She liked it when there were two almost completely unrelated books, or series of books which were connected in only one place, like the Hall of Doors. Megan was the only who knew how to enter every door in this world. But every door went to a different place, or time. So one door might take us to the Gibb mountains during Queen Rose II's reign. But one right next to it might land us in the middle of the Queendom of Six in the middle of the war with Ka, Drakul, and the Queendom. The first might be pleasant, the second deadly. The problem with this plan is that this ability to find the doors was tied into Megan's sense of sight. The one sense she no true access to." Hannah explained rather thoroughly. I'm rather proud of her.
"And before someone asks, Mico can't help us. You see it was tied into my magic. The power that made me a very powerful, completely uncontrollable mage. It also allowed me to have an instinctual grasp on Ancient Mean (a language of magic) and the ability to see the Doors. Mico doesn't have to ability to see the doors because he can only sense that they are there. He can't tell when, or where each door would take us, or how to enter it. Because you see some Doors can't simply be walked into. Some you have to go into at a certain velocity, and others have to be opened with magic. The Doors themselves are very complex pieces of magic, which have been in place since the creation of the kingdoms. But only Rose's completely singular type of magic could access them properly," Why did I have to create my world so in tune with how I was? Now I couldn't touch this magic, not without training.
"Why would it be set up that way?" Another obnoxious question. But from the voice this one was from Chibi-Moon rather than Sailor Moon.
"Because I have a singularly selfish mind which constructed my entire world in a way which would benefit me more than anyone else. But would harm no one else. But if I remember correctly Rose taught Hannah some of the basics of connecting with the Hall of Doors. And Rose's daughter Emma spent her life's work into learning every language which could be of benefit to her in this. She accessed the Hall of Doors at age twenty after learning a dozen or more languages. She found love in this other world, she married and had a daughter she named after her mother. This was Princess Rose Emma-Ann III,"
"Then could Emma help us?" This question was Lan's. I'm surprised he couldn't figure out how unlikely it would be for this Emma to be as scholarly as the Emma of the past. And even less likely that she would have the memories of her last life to help us.
"Not likely. She isn't likely to actually be Princess Emma Rose reborn. It's even less likely that she would be able access the memories of that life. I think that if she could access these memories she would be rather scarred because of it. I mean Emma Rose lived her entire life; had a husband and a daughter. The impact of the memories of my last life is screwing with me enough as it is. Imagine if you're an eight year old who can remember being an old woman. I think it might actually drive me crazy as everything else is most definitely trying," I told them in my most serious voice.
"Wait, you can access all your old memories?" Usagi asked a bit in wonderment.
"Yes, all of them. In fact all those times when I was looking catatonic before? I was reliving the corresponding day of my last life. I can still do it. But when I do I have complete access to everything I knew at the time, and everything I saw, and did. It's as real as this life, sometimes a bit more so," I touched the ring on my finger gently, "I think the link has to do with the outpouring of power I got on my birthday. You might have noticed the power surge we all felt. Yours leveled out to something more controllable, but mine is still in its complete full power that Rose lived with her entire life. If I'm not careful I think I could kill the entire city in a rage without even blinking."
"She's right. Her power is as high as mine. I never was able to figure out how Rose wasn't an Immortal with the amount of power she had. I think Rose worked so hard for worldly goals that even with her constant outpouring of power she was unable to create a shield from her emotions, like I did during the first war," Malia put in from behind me.
"Well we can tell you the rest of the History later, for right now, let's just get Malia some clothes that don't scream powerful mage. Why are you wearing a war mage's uniform anyway, you could just as easily have worn an Immortal's Soft Dress," I asked starting on again. I could feel the scouts moving out of my way as we walked the smelly tunnels.
"I told you my powers in this life began emerging at the time of my death in my last life. At the time we were in the middle of a war, so the dress of a war mage were the last things I wore. You should have seen the queen's protector. She was in her full regalia,"
"How come no one ever wore full regalia for me? Well except at my coronation. But I was in some dangerous wars too," I whined piteously.
"The entire war was never on the line for you. We were even allied with the Empire. Yet we still fell,"
"YOU WERE ALIGNED WITH THE EMPIRE?!" My stunned voice echoed through the tunnels, bringing back to me my words just as I said them.
"Well, I said we were desperate," Malia was definitely trying to defend their actions to me.
"Well I guess if the protector was wearing 'full regalia'" I was making a face and waving my arms as I walked. I liked the full regalia. But I had also said that it was only worn in the event of a disaster.
"What's 'full regalia'?" Jupiter asked uncertainly from somewhere behind me.
"Just like the coolest outfit ever! Okay so it's stiff leather protecting the chest and private areas, just enough to guard those vital points. Then very soft leather forms an open skirt, much like Malia's war mage skirt. Then there was a nearly impenetrable field that covers everything like a second skin, even their insides. But this shield is so thin you can't tell it's there. But the best part is that if magic (which can sometimes penetrate a shield no matter how well constructed) comes too close it's returned to its sender without damage to the inner shield, or any of the protector's charges. Which would be the entire royal family, and any soldiers fighting for them. In fact the protector is much like a General, but better equipped to actually protect her people," I really loved the idea of the shields. But they had only once been worn for me. I think only once for any but the last queen.
"Oh, I see," Jupiter sounded unimpressed. Well I thought it was a good idea.
"Another cousin! Well you'll just have to stay in Sean's room," My mom cried happily after being hypnotized by Luna-P again. I have to say that Luna-P is almost as useful as Mico.
I climbed the stairs up to my room with Malia trailing in my wake. She pounded as she walked nearly as much as my little brother. I hadn't seriously thought it possible.
"We'll have to enroll you at my school. You can borrow one of my uniforms for tomorrow. I think it will fit you," I opened my closet door and blindly ran my hands through the clothes until I found one that felt like a school uniform. I had five, one for each day of the week. Don't ask me how my mom came up with that one, she is a force all her own.
"What is this?" Malia asked quietly.
"Didn't I give you a sailor uniform? Like mine? Don't tell me I grabbed the wrong thing!" I reached in and started feeling for a uniform again.
"Well it looks like what you're wearing, but isn't this a little undignified for two princesses and an Immortal?" Malia asked moving the outfit so it rustled on its hanger.
"Well I personally have wanted to wear a sailor outfit since I was six or seven. I think it's perfectly dignified," I told her groping for the closet door.
"Well I suppose I will wear it if I must. But won't such strange clothes make people pay more attention to me?"
"You have to be happy that there was an anime convention in the area, or everyone would have thought you were crazy. As it is people will think that you're strange enough being a cosplayer. But it could have been worse," I told her and opened my bedroom door before Brian could slam into it. As I said, he walks very loudly.
"What?"
"Mom wants you to empty the dishwasher,"
"What if I drop a cup. I it will shatter, and I will die. Plus I have to figure out how to do my homework. You empty the dishwasher," I told him and slammed the door in his face.
"What was that about?"
"My little brother trying to pawn the jobs which used to be mine onto me, because he doesn't feel like doing it So I exaggerated. He'll figure it out eventually. When that happens I'll simply have to tell my mom what he's been doing,"
"You might just be the most devious person I've ever met," Malia said with an accompanying sound of moving hair. Which would have been quiet except for how she wore her hair. She wore her hair in braids. Each braid had a small charm woven into the end of it. So you could hear tinkling when she moved her head. I may need to do something about that.
"You realize that those charms are very strange here right?" I asked walking over and bumping my legs against my bed. I turned and flipped myself up on it.
"But, they're both symbols of my powers and amplifiers of it. I can't leave them off. As it is I seem to be missing more than half of them. Only half of my hair is up," This made me raise my eyebrows. If they had been in danger, and they were fighting why didn't she have all her charms?
"I suppose they can stay for now, but be careful about them huh? People here aren't used to stuff like that. Which ones are you missing?"
"The ones which dampen the powers of the people around me mostly. I took them off so that all the mages could protect us with their all,"
"Oh, then it makes sense that you wouldn't have them in. I was a little worried, because I can't remember ever seeing you without all your hair charms woven into your braids," I told her pulling at the strands of my hair.
"Well yes, you have so much power I don't know what you do with it all, well other than leak it all over,"
"I know as Rose I had a locket, it suppressed some of my power so that I could function. Mico said that I would have all my powers back on the seventeenth birthday. But it feels like when I was wearing my locket And I haven't had any magical mishaps," I told her confused.
"That's because on the day before your seventeenth birthday you got a ring, which absorbed much of your magical energy, and Lan got another. This way the two of you could keep in contact with each other, without too much trouble. But your ring was also designed to dampen your magic to a certain extent. I would expect that when you found Lan he would have given you the ring. How else would you be wearing it?" Malia explained and touched the ring on my index finger.
"Lan didn't give it to me. And I don't think Lan wears one,"
"But for the dampening magic of the ring to work you would have had to imbue both with your magic, but the second ring would have to have been touching Lan when you had a power boost, as on your seventeenth birthday,"
"But Lance has the other ring. He swore to protect me, before he knew I could protect myself. I haven't seen much of him lately. Not since Lan reappeared, when I was blind and deaf. He's been wearing normal clothes, and taking care of me all the time,"
"Lance? Who's he?"
"Oh, he's a guy in my school. He came up to me randomly and said 'Na cöhl ta Meapation, Princess'. I have to tell you that I'm the only person who knew what that meant in this time Although Corey (Elle) might have recognized it if she heard it," I flopped back on my bed (which was made for once).
"'Na cöhl ta Meapation' Why would he say that?"
"I don't know. But he protected me until Lan showed up. But he's still been a good friend to me,"
"Stupid, stupid, stupid princess," Malia forced out between giggles. I didn't even stop to ask what she was talking about. It wasn't that important.
