an unsatisfying tale of separation.
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chapter 8.
After getting everybody back on board, and passing the next hour trying to learn about Usagi's experience with 'Hotaru', Mamoru angrily approached Helios and said, "We're ending this damned journey. Now."
Chiral suddenly appeared and pointed to a large building looming ahead of them. "Indeed you are; this is as far as I take you; your 'journey' on my ferry is over." And Chiral couldn't have been happier.
Usagi couldn't have been happier to hear the news, either: "Great!" —Because she needed a break. Not only had Mamoru and the girls dismissed her story of Hotaru as a stupid vision, as if she were too dumb to tell a vision from a real person, but she couldn't even LOOK at Helios. 'No way some horned freak who doesn't even like me much is related to me!' she hissed inwardly.
"It was a vision," Mamoru said from behind, holding her shoulders firmly to stop her from fretting. "The girls and I all saw the Shitennou there; you saw Hotaru..."
"Did the Shitennou talk to you, Mamo-Chan?" Usagi asked angrily. "Because the Shitennou are dead — THAT was a vision; THAT I believe. But Hotaru is NOT dead! Hotaru is alive and well, and I saw her and talked with her!" …although what the girl had said made absolutely no sense.
"But you won't say what she told you!" Rei argued.
"Yeah, Usa-chan; what did she say when you asked how she got here? Where was she going to go after leaving here?" Makoto asked, frustrated with rehashing this story over and over again. Usagi had kept mum about anything Hotaru might have said to her; she'd just insisted that the girl was there, and had then disappeared, and that they'd needed to go back and find her!
Usagi couldn't even find support from Minako, who had merely looked down sadly when pressed for her opinion. Usagi let Mamoru pull her against his chest, then she acquiesced, "Maybe it was just a vision, guys. But it really did seem real."
—And somehow, Usagi just KNEW it had been real. She blinked away frustrated tears and set her sights on the town ahead, knowing that she couldn't win this argument when the whole boat seemed to be having visions.
"Where are we?" Luna asked, staring at the strange building they were now veering away from. "And what is that?" she hissed.
"I think it's Dix," Ami said, a bit testily. Though it had been hours since her vision, Ami was still shaken by her own obsession with those invaluable books; she still had the desire to find those books again. She knew that this was some version of Hell and wanted off the boat as much as anyone else here, hoping that would end her unnatural yearnings for those particular tomes. —And after Usagi's strange vision that had led them on a wild goose chase through Mount Hell No, they were all ready to go the hell back home.
Chiral said, "The large building we're passing is Ali Pasha's castle. You can get a tour of it from the mainland." And with that, he docked the ferry and announced: "We've arrived at Ammoudia."
"It's as far as we'd intended to come," Helios said, standing and heading towards the dock with several bags in his hands. He wouldn't even look at 'Ali Pasha's castle'.
Mamoru had rushed Usagi off the boat, then anxiously awaited for everyone else, but then Usagi said she 'forgot' something and ran back at the last moment. She quickly approached Chiral and whispered, "I saw Saturn back there. Sailor Saturn. What is she doing here?"
Chiral merely smiled and gave her an envelope. He said, "You have to tell them you left something; give them this—"
"No," she squealed. "Are you this Charon that leads the damned to Hell or not?" Usagi asked angrily, staring him down though she was more than a foot shorter than he.
Chiral nodded slightly, but more in an act of genuflection than in agreement. "You know who I am."
'Yeah, a creepy droid,' Usagi thought bitterly to herself. But she didn't think that was what Chiral had meant. Usagi bit her lip and, after a moment, said, "I don't like this 'Hell'. —Will you come with us, Chiral? You shouldn't be here, any more than anyone else."
The ferryman looked truly surprised, but stepped backwards and motioned her to the dock. "I'm helping you; that's what I do. …but if you were to remember me or my family in any way after your journey is over? —I would not balk."
Usagi wondered about 'her' journey: "But this is Mamoru's journey."
Chiral merely nodded at first, but said, "He wants to be healed on this journey, yes, and clearly he needs that. But this is, quite literally, your journey."
It would be long afterwards before Usagi would return to free Chiral from his duties here, but in the present, she remembered that Chiral had been honest with her. Cryptic, but honest. She smiled and said, "I'll be back, Chiral."
The doomed ferryman watched her join her anxious friends, and actually hoped that she would keep that promise one day.
.
As they made their way on foot to their next stop, to some oracle place that creeped her out, Usagi couldn't get her mind off of Hotaru.
Mamoru had steered her away from the others, ostensibly to comfort her in her anxiety, but really because he needed a few moments of normality, some kind of joy, after so long a day on this journey. "Usako," he said, grasping her hand tenderly as they moved through Ammoudia, "I would like to spend a few moments alone with you. Why don't we get some ice cream?"
Usagi grasped his hand just as tightly, but was secretly fraught with worry about Hotaru. She let her boyfriend and future husband spin her around, knowing he was expecting a smile… and darn it she wanted to give him a smile because he was apparently sick and she loved him so much…! She looked into his eyes, smiled tightly, and blurted out, "It's just that I'm worried about Hotaru, Mamo-chan!" She begged, "Everyone else we've seen in visions were dead, and what if…? —Can't we try to call someone in Tokyo, just to make sure she's safe?"
Mamoru rolled his eyes, but kissed her on the tip of her cute nose. "No. Usako, these are weird visions we're having, but we can't carry them into our real lives. You know that Michiru and Haruka like their privacy. A paranoid call from us—"
"About Hotaru!" Usagi interrupted. "A girl I snatched from the jaws of death, if you'll recall! And, —I'm practically her godmother, Mamo-chan! I dragged her away from a sure death when nobody else believed!" She then smiled sweetly and said, "Haruka wouldn't mind if I called."
He sighed, then led her to the nearest fruit stand, as there were no actual ice cream stands in this particular port of call. He watched her well-developed body as he let her squirm around him and take the lead. His eyes darkened as he imagined making that shapely body his own—
She was looking into a wooden bin of various fruits, quite disappointed. Mamoru pulled her close and asked, "Hmm, fruit?"
And while his future wife ignored his offer, the other girls suddenly descended on them fitfully, claiming starvation.
Usagi just couldn't shake that terrible feeling though, and while the others were busy draining Mamoru's wallet, she ran up to a bystander and asked for a phone. She got shot down, probably due to the language barrier, and kept getting shot down, but finally, when she was sure the others weren't looking, she ran to a phone booth and placed a long-distance call to Michiru, reversed the charges, then quickly asked for Hotaru.
Michiru replied calmly that Hotaru was gone on a visit to the future to see the long-missing Chibiusa. And that yes, it wasn't allowed, but Hotaru had insisted she MUST go to Chibiusa, and Setsuna held a special place in her heart for the teen.
Helios was beside her, looking at her closely, when she sullenly hung up. She turned to him defeated and asked, "Helios? What do you know of Hotaru?"
Helios grimaced and turned to walk away, but she grabbed his arm and held fast: "Helios! Please! She… she said you were my brother! She said everyone claimed you were my brother but she didn't believe it—!"
Mamoru ran upon them just then, yelling, "Usako! You shouldn't disappear like that in a strange country!"
Helios suddenly pushed Usagi into the nearest shop then dragged her though it quickly. Usagi initially squealed, but turned to keep up with the strange priest, who was finally acting like he was doing something besides standing around like a boring old tree on this 'journey' — and hopefully doing something about Hotaru! When she heard Mamoru calling her name, she looked behind her and saw him catching up to them, but she merely smiled back at him and let Helios lead her through a back door. When she turned back to face the priest, they were in Elysion. The minute she stepped foot on the soft grasses there, Helios finally turned to her and said, "I am not your brother, Princess."
"I know," Usagi replied breathlessly, shocked at their current situation. She looked around, wondering if maybe Helios had wanted to speak with her privately. Finally, she glared at him with determination and said, "But Hotaru said we claimed to be related —and don't say she wasn't real! Now, why would she say that?" Usagi swallowed, then asked the now-more-pertinent question, "—And why are we here? Mamoru was following us." She tried to look behind her for Mamoru, but there was nothing but trees and some kind of tree nymphs floating in the air.
"Yes, and I need to be back to him. I now know that he's in the gravest danger, and that this journey was necessary," Helios said. "But you have another path to follow, Princess." He knew his breath was hitched right now, not as calm as he liked, but what could the girl expect when she'd just confirmed his worst fears.
"You're not leaving me here! I want to be with Mamoru!" Usagi whined, glaring at Helios. "How could you separate us like this!"
"I didn't separate you; you were never supposed to be together!" Helios replied, all too sharply. —And stupidly. He quickly added, "You can be together, of course, but not until you finish your journey. Journeys," he emphasized. "Separately."
But Usagi was stuck on his first statement. "Wait a minute! Did you say we weren't supposed to be together?" Usagi stammered, backing away from the horned beast, about to cry. "—Helios! Is… is that why he's sick?" She started pacing. "Maybe I'd been right to stay away from him so long!" She spun on the priest: "—But we have a future together, Helios! Chibiusa!"
"And keep that in mind!" Helios answered. He stopped her pacing and grabbed her by her shoulders to shake some sense into her: "If you remember nothing else, Princess, remember him, and your inextricable bond with him. You have a difficult journey ahead of you—"
"No!" Usagi insisted. "I'm scared, Helios! Take me back to Mamoru! NOW!"
"I really can't, but the difficulty is probably not what you're thinking," Helios said. "The physical part will be easy for you; you won't be in any danger." He smiled weakly at her: "You merely have to remember, Serenity." He closed his eyes in silent prayer; if he told her the trouble of Mamoru's journey, if she found out now, she'd tear entire worlds apart. So instead he said, "TRUST me."
Usagi clamped her mouth shut, watching the strange priest closely. He'd used her future name; Chibiusa's mother's name. Her mother's name. She stammered out finally, "Hotaru said that Serenity was your sister, Helios, and I'm— I'm really getting grossed out right now!" Her future daughter was supposed to marry this guy, but Helios might be Chibiusa's uncle! "If you want me to trust you, tell me the truth about that."
"Serenity," Helios said quietly, shaking his head, "I already told you. Now I've got to return to Ammoudia; but this is where YOUR journey begins. And of that, I have little information. What I do have for you is here, at the altar, where it's always been."
.
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She is made swift, so frequent come who claim
Succession in her favors. This is she,
So execrated even by those whose debt
To her is rather praise: they wrongfully
With blame requite her, and with evil word;
But she is blessed, and for that recks not:
Amidst the other primal beings glad
Rolls on her sphere, and in her bliss exults. —Dante, Inferno, Canto VII, regarding Fortune
