I got this chapter out a lot faster than I had expected! I hope you all enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own any Sailor Moon characters
Chapter 12: Explosion
Serena paced back and forth in her large bedroom as Sailor Neptune let her leg bounce in anticipation. She, Michiru, Haruka, and Darien were all sitting in her room trying to think up of a viable enough plan to get Stella.
"Ami has already located her coordinates," Darien sighed, "so why are we sitting around and discussing this? Let's just go down to Earth, find her, and arrest her."
"I don't want you guys to get hurt," Serena replied as she bit her nail.
"We've been through worse than a woman with a jealously problem," he said.
"Most of your enemies were women with a jealously problems," Haruka smirked.
"Are we done here?" Michiru suddenly snapped.
"Yes, you may leave," Serena bid.
The two scouts left their king and queen alone in the large quarters. Once the door clicked shut, Serena glided over toward Darien who was sitting casually at the vanity. She sat down on his lap and placed his hand on her lower abdomen. He could feel some sort of glowing heat emanate from that area. She tossed him a sad smile.
"This is why I'm scared for you to leave me," she said, her voice trembling quietly. "I want to have you here when this baby comes."
"I will be, don't worry," he reassured her. "It'll be fast, I will be swift, and I'll be back before you start to show."
"Promise?"
"Promise," he nodded. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he cradled her a bit, "You always become such a baby when you're about to have one."
"My body changes, it's a scary time!" she exclaimed, slapping his arm playfully.
"I'll be around, don't worry. Just like I was around for Rini."
"Good." Serena stood up and patted his shoulder, "Well you better get ready. Michiru and Haruka are anxious to leave."
Darien adjusted his headset as he stared into the monitor at Michiru's face. Her turquoise eyes were blistering with fury as she bounced back and forth in the car. Haruka had been overly excited to get back into a racing car and couldn't control herself as she shifted gears. Her partner on the other hand hit her head over and over again, still not used to the adjusting speed and throttle of the car.
"Will you slow down and stop it!" Michiru exclaimed. "You're going to kill us!"
"Cool your jets, sweetheart!" Haruka laughed.
"King Endymion, I'll be in contact when we get closer to the farm," she replied into the passenger's side mirror.
She flipped it up and signed out of contact with Darien while clutching onto the sides of the seat. Haruka was speeding up to nearly three-hundred miles an hour! Michiru slapped her partner as hard as she could, considering she was practically pinned down by the seatbelt.
"What is your deal?" Haruka asked over the roaring engine.
"My deal? My deal?! My deal is that you can look, but not touch. My deal is that you had once been tempted and never told me!" she screamed
"You spied on me?!"
"Yes I did! I wanted to make sure that you didn't kill the king," she explained as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Why would I kill the king?!"
"Please! You are the one out of all of us who has been the most pissed off at him!"
"It's my duty to protect him!"
"No, it's your duty to protect Neo-Queen Serenity and it's always been your passion to have a relationship with her!"
The speed moved up slowly as the green pastures breezed passed them like a tornado of color. Haruka had always had an undisclosed crush on Serena, but it was a secret that everyone had seemed to know. She thought that Michiru only took it as a tiny crush and she herself thought of it as being playful. After a while, it seemed to have gotten the better of her though especially since Michiru had drifted away over the last few years. It was more and more difficult as the months dragged on slowly with their relationship deteriorating at an alarming rate, like a fast decaying body.
"Seriously, where is the woman I fell in love with?!" Haruka barked. "I have been beside you this whole time as you have been overly enraged, pissed off, and quite frankly an absolute dreadful person to be around! Why haven't we moved passed this dilemma?!"
"You know how hard that war hit me," she replied, her voice shaking with fear at their huge fight and what would amount from it. "And since Rei won't speak to me or even look at me … it's made this whole experience much harder!"
"You're pushing me away, Mich," she announced, "and I don't know how much longer I can stick around."
She snapped her deep eyes to her partner whose gaze was fixated on the road, "Are you … are you trying to … are we ….?"
"It's a thought," she suggested. "We might need a break from each other."
Michiru slammed her fist against the inside of the car door and tried desperately to not cry. It had been a difficult few years together and she knew that the waves inside her were restless while the winds inside Haruka were causing a great storm. The two were bound to create some time of chaos, but neither of them wanted to part. If maybe they could calm their wild feelings down or find a way to work together … but they already tried that didn't they?
"The coordinates are right up here," Michiru pointed as thick clear tears streamed down her face.
Haruka slowed down, a look of concern etched on her face. She reached out to the turquoise haired woman in the passenger's seat, but her hand was quickly removed. She couldn't touch her … it was too hard to bear. Just as they were about to come up to the ranch house, Haruka glanced at her lover before everything went white.
Michiru rolled over onto her back, feeling the cold, wet grass against her skin. Red hot blood was dripping down from her head as she sat up slowly to examine the damage. Her seatbelt had caused a brilliant burn against her shoulder and across her chest. There were cuts all along her bare arms and legs from the broken glass that had flown by her from the explosion of the car; she knew she should have worn jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. She felt a surging pain shoot up her leg as she tried to get up to her feet. She must've broken her ankle when she landed.
"There had to have been a detonator waiting for us," she groaned. "Haruka?"
Her eyes scanned the area around her, but she didn't see her lovely short blonde-haired beauty anywhere in the field. There was the door from her side, a bunch of car parts splattered around, and even a piece of metal, possibly a part of the engine, lit on fire. She stumbled back toward the road, her voice cracking as she tried to scream out loud. Michiru walked along the hot pavement toward the flaming car that had been shattered into pieces.
"Haruka!!" she shrieked.
She heard a small moaning noise coming from the other side of the car. With her bare feet stinging at every step, she finally made it to where her lover was; pinned underneath her own seat, or what was left of it. She lifted up Haruka's wrist which had the communicator still intact – Michiru's was destroyed from the impact against the ground.
"Help! Darien! Send help out immediately! There's been an explosion! We need an ambulance now!"
Small whimpers escaped from her bloodstained lips as she tried to figure out what to do at that moment. Michiru lifted the seat up off of Haruka's body, exposing a rather large cut that was racing across her stomach. Her legs were bloodied up and even some bone was sticking out in her left leg. Michiru started to rip into the leather seat and she dug into the innards of it.
"No! That cost me so much to have custom made!" Haruka gasped.
"Do you want to save your damn car – which is in pieces – or do you want to save your life?!" Michiru sniffed loudly as she started to press the sponge-like material to the open wound. Haruka smiled weakly, her energy fading fast and her eyes shutting. Michiru leaned over and whispered into her partner's ear, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just can't … I can't lose you. Please hang on dearest. Haruka I love you too much to see you die on me now. Don't go. Don't go. I love you. I love you. I love you."
Her sobs were soon muffled by the loud sirens of ambulances and police cars racing to the scene of the explosion. Everything then moved in slow-motion for her. She watched as the paramedics lifted her lover up slowly onto a gurney and then into the back of the van. She climbed in with them, holding Haruka's cold, limp hand. Her eyes were closed and she looked like she was loosing color in her face. There were beeping noises going on through out the ambulance, but she couldn't understand what any of them meant as they drove to the hospital. When questions were asked of her about what happened, she simply shrugged; it was like she was underwater and she could hardly hear what they had to say. She saw a light flash into her turquoise eyes, checking for a concussion and when one didn't seem to be apparent, they asked her a few simple questions which she still had difficulty answering.
"Your name is Michiru Kaioh, right?" one of the paramedics asked.
"Yes. Wait! No! It's Michiru Tenoh," she corrected them. Grasping onto Haruka's hand tightly, she whispered, "I'm her wife."
Haruka was the one who wanted to get married surprisingly enough, but Michiru was always too skeptical to do so. She loved her partner very much, but to be married was a huge step and she had felt like Haruka had never truly loved her. She was always flirting with other women and men, almost as if show off in front of her girlfriend. Yes, it pissed her off to see this blatant flaunting, but now she was realizing that this was part of her; she flirted nonchalantly and didn't mean to.
"Ma'am, your wife is in critical condition," medic explained. "The moment we get to the hospital, we'll have to take her into the emergency operating room. There's a doctor waiting to escort you to treat your injuries."
"I understand," she said, still squeezing onto Haruka's hand as tears washed over her face.
Once they got to the hospital, she had a desperately hard time letting go of her lover. She could hardly control her sobs as they shook her body. Michiru was escorted into the hospital by a tall man in a white coat with thin glasses. When they entered the examining room, she was met with Darien who had an expression of deep distress and worry written all over his face. She immediately dove into his arms, burying her face into his chest. There was an instant comfort and warmth that encased her as she did this which made her realize why the queen did this so much.
"What happened?" he asked quietly as he bid the doctor to wait for them. He patted her head gently and waited for her answer.
"We were arguing on the way there. I wasn't paying attention to my senses because they were all muddled up from the fight and we came across a land mine or some sort of detonator that was expected to go off the moment we got to the prescribed coordinates. The last thing I remember is Haruka trying to reach for my hand and I refused to let her hold it!" she exclaimed, her fear of losing her partner washing over her like a thick ocean wave and nearly drowning her in sorrow. "Then I woke up in pain on a field and I was able to stumble over to her. She was practically buried underneath her car seat which she refused to have torn open so I could get something, anything, to soak up the blood. She is so stubborn!"
Michiru pushed away from Darien's grasp and tried to gain her solid composure that she had been known for. She gestured for him to let the doctor in and start examining her wounds. He stared at her for extra second or two before letting the doc in.
"She hasn't moved from her side since?" Serena asked as they all stood in the waiting room.
"No, she hasn't," Darien replied, shaking his head.
Mina, Lita, and Rei had come along with Serena to Earth in order to find Stella themselves. Ami was back at the Golden Palace, replaying footage of the explosion from outside wired road cameras. Hotaru was helping Rini with her training and studies, trying to get her to not worry about what was going on at the moment.
Rei stood up to her feet and started to walk toward the room where Michiru and Haruka were residing. The rest of the group merely looked at her curiously and she smiled at them silently. She strolled into the room, its cold sunlight coming in through the fluttering white curtains. On the television set above was a violinist and pianist playing together. When Rei was able to adjust her violet eyes to the light in the room, she saw that it was a recording of one of Michiru and Haruka's recitals together. She turned to discover the ocean goddess trying her best to dab away the salty tears. Just the sight of one love holding onto another made Rei want to weep. She simply stood still as Michiru got up and stepped toward her. The two embraced whole-heartedly and cried into one another quietly. Now Michiru knew what Rei had lost and Rei had finally found a connection with this sailor scout that she hadn't had before.
Pulling back from the hug, the dark-haired scout asked the one from Neptune, "How is she doing?"
"She's been touch and go these last few days."
"I was just testing you," a raspy voice said, piercing the air.
Michiru swirled around and found the love of her life awake with that glint in her eye. She rushed toward her and gently hugged her, remembering that she had a bunch of wounds all across her body. She cupped her pale face and kissed her all over until Haruka held her head in place and planted a deep passionate kiss right on her lips. Removing her wet mouth from her lover's, she joked, "Bad breath, I know. I haven't been able to brush my teeth days."
"I'll take your bad breath any day!"
"Oh and don't think I didn't hear your exclamation in the ambulance ride over here," she winked. "Wife, eh? We'll have a ceremony in a music hall and then we'll ride off into the night in a beautiful Ferrari that's painted the same color as your hair."
"What makes you think I'm ever going to get back in a car with you after what happened?" she smirked. Before Rei could sneak out of the room and away from their reunited moment, Michiru stopped her, grasping onto her wrist, "Thank you. You're the only one who understands."
She nodded to the outer scout in an all-knowing sort of way before exiting the hospital room. She sighed and crossed her arms as approached the rest of the group. Serena was simply tense with hope with how the couple was doing.
"Looks like we're going to have another married couple on our hands," she said, rolling her eyes.
The group cheered and laughed out loud. They had all speculated that the two scouts would marry and when they hadn't after years and years, it was becoming more likely that they just wouldn't go through that process.
"What are we going to do about Stella?" Lita asked. "This woman has more tricks up her sleeve that we had anticipated."
"We'll find her," Serena assured her.
"No," Darien corrected as he patted her stomach as a reminder. "We all will, but you need to be careful. I'd rather have you safe and out of this situation than in danger and risking your life and the life of our child."
Serena arched an eyebrow at him; it was strange to see this overly protective side of Darien. He was looking out for their future and the future of their child. It was rather sweet really and something she had missed over the last few years.
Up next: Will the scouts be able to find Stella before she destroys them one by one? Find out next…
