Act IV, Chapter II
Doors
"So why were you leaving?" I asked grasping Lan's hand.
"Because, then I wouldn't have to keep switching between being Lan, and being Lance. You obviously needed and wanted Lan more, so I was going to make Lance disappear from your life," He told me.
"But I think even though you're Lan, you should still be Lance. Like me, I'm Rose, but I'm still Mami, and even though I'm Mami I'm still Megan. I wear a lot of hats for a lot of different people, but I'm fine with that. I'm multiple people anyways," I told him. I leaned up and kissed his chin (which was as far up as I could reach). He leaned down and caught my lips. Have I ever mentioned that I really like his kisses?
"Yeah, yeah lover birds. That's enough," Elle said after a few moments. I could hear her tapping her foot impatiently. I disconnected and turned to my best friend/sister.
"I think you might want to look behind you," Malia said quietly. I turned and once again found myself with an audience. This time it was all the other scouts, and Tuxedo Mask.
"You finally have your romance!" Venus cried happily. She then ran forward and hugged me.
"Why do I have a strange sense of déjà vu?" Jupiter asked Mars.
"Because we already did this with Usagi," Mercury said calmly.
"That would explain it. You think there's a boyfriend from a past life hanging around for us too?" Jupiter asked.
"No, we've never been the focus of the story. That's why we never got any type of romance," Mars said with a sigh. She should be talking, she has Yuuichiro, if she would just open her eyes and look. Of course I shouldn't be criticizing her, I have Lan.
"Ah! There's a Door," I said softly as I turned to look through the little clearing better.
"Where does it go?" Hannah asked excitedly.
"Osseus, the capital, within the last few days of Queen Hannah's life," I told them staring at the Door It may seem weird but this Door looked strangely formal and ornate. I loved the way the light shimmered through the nearly insubstantial door. Green writing almost blended into the trees around it, but I knew the green simply signified the realm of Osseus, it would be silver to go into Meapation, orange for Ka, blue for Christanium, brown for Donquitous, black for Quantios, yellow for Lufiteab, Indigo for the dragon trainer's land, pink for the Queendom of Six, or purple for the Dragon Empire. Or else the writing would be pristinely white if it led elsewhere, like the Hall of Doors, or a different world than the Kingdoms.
"That's morbid," Hannah said in her green and purple brocade. I thought it looked silly, but that was me.
"Yes, it is a bit strange that there would be a Door that requires pure energy to enter, which goes to Hannah's funeral basically," I said reaching for the Door. Hannah grabbed my wrist, and asked, "what if it's a trap?"
"it's not. No one else has my power, nor do they know what I see when I see the Doors. You don't even know. This is a real Door, and it has no trap magic on it. Doors can't be tampered with, not without being able to see the Details," I told her pulling my hand from her grasp, "Besides I can't open without Nadilire's help. It needs absolutely pure energy, anything I give it would be tainted with emotion, and with my personal aura."
"Details? What was that about Details?" Elle asked looking at me strangely.
"The Details. How do you think I know what is behind each Door, and how to open it? The Details tell me everything about this Door. Such as the fact that this one hasn't been used in the last three hundred years, so there has been no one to tamper with it. To so much as touch it with Power you would first have to open it," I told them as I touched the green letters of the Details. They shifted their lines and showed me the exact events happening around the Door.
It was directly across the square from the palace gates, it was the day of Hannah's death. So her funeral would be the day after. But because of the location of the Door on the other side it wasn't much use to us, we would be spotted, and immediately known for dead and dying people. Not a good Door at all.
"We wouldn't want to use it anyway," I told them as I withdrew my hand. I looked around at all their faces. Pluto and Saturn were in the back, and I really couldn't see Saturn well, she still wasn't all that tall. Uranus and Neptune stood really close to them, and to each other. Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon were to the side of them (Sailor Moon's wings were covering Saturn's face), The Inner Scouts were almost directly in front of the Outers, which I think is a little funny. Lan, Elle, Hannah, and Malia all stood close to me. All in all the clearing was a little crowded.
"Why not?" Pluto said something! That was the first thing I've heard her say in about a year!
"Because it opens into a very open, very crowded square, during a time when Elle, and I are dead, Malia's in seclusion, and Hannah is dying. They would all know Hannah at least the moment they saw us. But because of close political ties they would most likely also recognize Lan, Elle, and Myself, and we're all supposed to be dead by a few years. This should be in Rose's reign. Or perhaps it's even Joan's?" I said starting to ponder. It should be either the end of Rose III's reign, or the very beginning of Joan's. I touched the Details, which told me it was a few days from Rose III's accident, which kills her and leaves Joan to rule with only her young daughter by her side.
"Could we use the Time Gat instead?" Pluto asked.
"Well, probably You could use the Time Gate to get to other worlds right? Well then it should get you there without trouble, but at the same time why would we go To tell the truth Hannah's death brings on a short dark period in Osseun history. Besides that it's very close to Rose III's death, and Joan's coronation. So it's also a rather dark time in Meapation. If we wanted answers to something I would suggest going to Osseus in the first years of Hannah's reign, or the middle years of Rose II's (mine)," I told her with a worried expression.
"I think we should go there. I feel the Flow of Time moving slowly around what seems to be a door, which I suppose is the Door. The Flow is very stilted and slow, like it's molasses, rather than flowing in a way like water," Pluto told us staring over my shoulder at the Door.
"Then yes, or I could most likely find us a Door to the same day, maybe a few days earlier. I think there was one in front of Juuban High. I never mentioned it, but I know I saw a rather less impressive Door there, it was into Osseus in the same era," I told them gesturing off towards where I knew Juuban would be.
"I suppose we could look," Hannah said calmly.
"But, we might want to try changing back, yeah," Elle said looking down at her gray, blue, and green dress.
"Okay," I said and started walking. As I walked I concentrated on being Mami. My outfit faded into a pair of jeans and my Chio Chio Italia shirt (It was red with the words Chio Chio written in white Coca-Cola script). I hear Elle sigh at me, of course I make everything look easier than it is, that's what I do.
Lan caught up and grabbed my hand. And it really was Lan, not Lance. It's strange that I still have to make the difference, even though I now know they were the same person. Maybe Lan would come to my school? Since Lance was leaving. And I asked him as much.
"I suppose I could pass couldn't I? I mean I don't look any older than any of you. Although that's a little strange because Lan is technically about a year younger than Rose, and Elle is only a month or so younger. So shouldn't you naturally look older than me?" Lan asked as we walked the paths of the park.
"Perhaps, it's that Lan was always an older, wiser sort of character than the flighty, immature, and childish Princess Rose, or the adventurous, troublesome Princess Elle. Lan was always more mature than either of the sisters," I said leaning on him.
"Yes, I understand perfectly," Lan said as Corey ran up and grabbed onto Lan's other arm. I tugged Lan back tome, but Corey tugged him away.
"My boyfriend," I said warningly looking over Lan.
"My brother," Elle said in a slightly more joking tone.
"Then why do get him? Everyone knows that 'girlfriend' is closer than 'sister'," I told her petulantly.
"Because 'sister' gets him younger than 'girlfriend'," Corey said and stuck out her tongue.
"Not in your case! We both met him at the same time. Then I got him more ever after that, so I'm obviously closer," I told her and stuck out my tongue back at her.
Corey released his arm and stuck her tongue out at me again. Then she ran back to walk with Hannah.
"I've decided that siblings must be a pain," Lan said with a sigh.
"You don't have any?" I asked looking up at his face.
"Not in this life. In my last one I have Elle, who was older, and you might not remember, but I had a much younger half brother named Richard. We all called him Char, because he was a Fire Mage," Lan told me with a sort of dreamy look.
"Oh yeah! He was part of our court right? Then I should tell Usagi, she was trying to find out everyone in our court the other day," I said and looked back to find Usagi leaning on Mamoru, and looking as if she didn't want to be disturbed.
"I'll tell her later," I said and leaned in on him again.
"this is it," I said stopping in front of the semi-substantial Door. This one was worn looking, as if thousands of hands had touched the Door, over hundreds of years along with normal wearing when wood is left out to the elements.
"What do the Details say?" Setsuna asked staring at just to the side of the Door.
"Let's see," I said slowly as I reached out and touched the glowing green words. They gave me pause. The first thing they said was it was the dawning of an unstable era. I turned and looked at everyone else, "We can't use this Door."
"Why not?" Corey asked.
"The Details give me a warning," I said still staring at the huge bold letters
"What does it say exactly," Malia asked with a certain urgency.
"They usually speak in riddles, so it may be hard to understand," I looked around at everyone as they affirmed that they heard me, "Okay it says 'This day is when night turns to dark, and when day turns to dark. To enter is to find a whole other side; to enter is to change. Be cautious, be warned, beware the Door, the tells you TRUTH.'"
"What is it saying? It's contradicting itself, isn't it?" Malia said staring at me. I stared right back.
"As I said before it's a warning. 'When night turns to dark', that's a for me. Both my lives have been known for their love of night's beauty, and both have hated destroying it in any way. So the moon and stars give a haunting light, it's warning me that in this place there is not beauty of night, but only the dark of jet. 'When day turns to dark', this is a warning to any who might hear these words. It says that the beauty of day, which most people see and love, is also lost. So in this time there is no beauty or good to be seen by anyone. 'To enter is the find a whole other side,' I suspect this might refer to a rather dark story in which the royalty of each house of each kingdom inflicted different ideas and different ways than what really happened. I fear this might be the story I once began on a whim, never meaning to finish it. In fact the entire plot-line was never figured out.
"Hannah, I believe it refers to 'that' story. The one I began because one of yours began in a way that made me upset, and made me feel I couldn't work on my other stories after reading. This is the second Emma's story," I said this last in a very soft voice. It boded ill for us if this was really what I thought it was. That story was completely twisted from what it should have been. The only thing that was actually correct was that Osseus was on the side of good, the side of freedom. Even my own kingdom did not survive this massacre of the nature of the world. In fact I didn't even survive it.
"But, Megan I didn't think you ever did more than a few pages," Hannah said worriedly, she understood, although no one else would have.
"I didn't that's what worries me. This place shouldn't be able to exist, it was never fully thought out I can't even remember what was supposed to happen in the capital, or why she didn't want to go there, why Hannah would have stopped her. I really can't figure it out. What worries me more is that next line, 'To enter is to change' what if this means that to enter is to become like ourselves from that time? If that's true, then I think we may be in trouble. We can't use this Door," Hannah looked at me horror-struck. I know she's mad at me because I ended up doing this because I was depressed, so the story is naturally a depressing one. It begins with the main character finding out both her parents, and her older sister have all died. I shudder at what that might have meant to my subconscious.
"Megan…" Hannah started then she turned and looked at Setsuna, "If Megan's right, and I think she is, then there is no question, we cannot use this Door under any circumstances. If Megan is right than what is behind that Door, is beyond our worst nightmares. It is all of reality flipped on it's head. Knowing Megan she even made it so that the very nature of Power is no long finite, and graspable. She'd have made it all on the verge of myth and superstition. And if going through this Door changes us, then it's likely that none of us would have any type of Power left at all."
I think Hannah figured it out nicely. And she's right, I did change the very nature of reality, I flipped things on their heads. I kicked convention out the window. I wonder that I didn't just dump everything and start over anew. But I'm rather scared at the fact that it exists, because if this half thought out world could be sitting here, then the next thing we know we could be pulled into Time Gap, or kidnapped by half-rabbits, or even hidden away in a secret future, where evil rules, and only two girls an see it. Of course that story is perhaps my scariest ever. You see in that one, evil wins.
"Rose, I have to ask, why would you write that?" Lan asked me as he walked me home. I was pretty sure the moment we walked into the house we would be virtually attacked by Emma, Brian, and my mom. They are all rather prone to jumping all over me.
"Well, I was depressed at the time. It was near the end of seventh grade, several of my friends were moving, next year I was going to have to deal with the wide varieties of idiots who only come in male, and Hannah's story itself that I began from get me depressed to begin with. You see in Hannah's story the main character us orphaned near the beginning, I began mine the same way, the problem is that I not only did that I flipped the loyalties of all the kingdoms except for Osseus, it was too central to everything to change. But I'm not sure why it was written, I suppose for no more reason than I began my Good and Evil duet. That one was begun because in every book, every movie good always wins. Perhaps it's because evil in and of itself will eventually fold in on itself leaving only destruction behind, but I used to think that it was because no one had any creativity any longer. I wrote those for the sole reason of letting evil win. I worry those may be real someday, if so I apologize for those years of darkness I have inflicted upon everyone," I did feel truly bad about my darker stories. Maybe they'll go away if I delete them?
"Mami…" Lan's voice was so gentle and soft. I looked at him, and took in the beauty that I could look at him. He looked at me so gently, "You've been through so much, and yet you've been through nothing at all. You are a conundrum if ever I saw one. My Mami, Megan, Rose; You are so many people, and you hold the hopes of the ignorant masses who don't understand their danger."
"I think we all do. We all have to be strong, I don't think there's any way to say that one of us has been through more than any other. We have bad memories from two different lives, but Usagi has had enough bad memories in the last five years to last several lifetimes. I think it really depends on the outlook as to whether we are strong. You've had family die in this life, and the last You've lost battles and watch thousands of nameless, faceless men die. I've seen you in the depths of despair, wishing that you could go back, use your strange talent with the Doors and change everything. But everytime I have seen you try, you come back and everything is as it was to start with. You have had so much pain. But in reward to all the pain we all live through, we have as many joys. Like having each other, I think that counts as a joy worthy to be opposite that pain you've had," Lan said cradling me against him. We were outside my house now, but I didn't want him to leave. I wanted Lan to stay just a little longer. I think he sensed it, because he made not a single move to leave me.
While I understood Lan's words, and the meanings behind them, they had dredged up memories from my last life. Memories that were really best forgotten.