Sailor Moon: Secondary Characters: Change
{Jon Carp}
address: jcarp@med.unc.edu









The house was empty.

No, it wasn't, actually. There were four people living
inside. One of them didn't count, though. She didn't do anything.
She just sat by the window in a dark room (so she could see out but no
one could see in), and watched for whatever she thought was coming,
which were very specific, very dangerous things.

Nothing could make her move, not even the one person in the
world she trusted.

Not that Michiru didn't try. And as she got more and more
lonely and desperate, her arguments to get away from the window grew
increasingly intense. She never dreamed it would ruin everything.

It's just a window, for crying out loud.







She walked in, carrying a mug and a plate of fried eggs.
"I've got breakfast," she announced.

Haruka didn't look at her. "Did you make it?" she asked.
Michiru nodded. "Put it over there. I have to keep looking or
they'll come."

Michiru put the food and coffee on a table and sat down near
Haruka. "Please tell me who you're so afraid of."

"Them. They're coming, I saw them a few days ago. Didn't
you?" She didn't wait for an answer. "They were here. If I stop
watching they'll come and take us over."

"What do you mean?"

Haruka swallowed. "They'll hypnotize us and make us do what
they want." Tears came to her eyes. "Like... like they did with
Setsuna. Having her murder poor Hotaru."

"Haruka, how many times do I have to tell you? Hotaru died so
we could save everyone else. Setsuna did what she had to do, why
can't you understand that?"

Haruka grimaced. "You've been fooled. You don't understand."

Michiru sighed. She walked over to the drawer and opened it.
She reached inside and took out a handful of little white things. "I
found your pills, Haruka."

There was no reaction.

"The ones you said you were taking. You..."

"It's all poison," Haruka muttered. "So they can kill me if I
keep them from controlling my mind. But I'm too smart, see, I know."

"Haruka... please. I'm alone without you. Please just take
your pills. Then you'll be okay again."

"You've been listening to Setsuna," Haruka grunted. "She's
made you think these things."

"Haruka, no." She picked up one of the little white things
and held it out. "I know it hurts losing Hotaru, but you have to get
past it. You--"

Haruka grabbed her hand and stared her in the eyes. "Are you
manipulating me?" She shook her head vigorously. "No. No, you can't
be hypnotized. I've been protecting you. But... you believe me,
don't you? You don't think I'm crazy." She smiled gratefully. "You
love me."

Michiru didn't say anything for a second. Then she pulled her
hand away. "I don't think you're crazy. I think you're sick.
There's nothing coming after you. I can help you get better, but you
have to take your pills. Please."

Haruka looked up in horror. "They've gotten you," she
whispered, tears in her eyes. "Oh god...how could I let this happen?
I..." she ran to the door, panicking. "I've got to get out of here!"

Michiru walked up slowly. "Haruka, please, I'm not trying to
hurt you. You have to trust me... because I love you. Don't you
trust me?"

Haruka grabbed her head and groaned slightly. "Why are you
doing this to me? WHY ARE YOU ALL DOING THIS TO ME?!! Why did you
take her? It's not fair..."
Michiru reached to Haruka, intending to stroak her hair, touch
her face, make everything better, just like always.

But Haruka screamed and pushed her to the floor.
"Getawayfromme!" she yelped, and ran.

Sobbing all the way. She wasn't going to come back.












Hotaru's dead, and I'm watching a sit-com.

Oh, I'm not getting any enjoyment out of it. But here I am,
sitting on my ass, not crying. I should be crying. Or I at least
feeling kind of bad about it. After all, I was the one who...

This lanky, stupid guy trips over a table and falls on his
face.

LAUGH NOW.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

See? That was easy. I can fake emotion any time I want. I
just don't want to. It wouldn't be right. Even after watching her
die at my own hand, and telling her father and seeing him broken...
I didn't shed a single tear, because...hmm. I don't know. I guess
I'm just not an emotional person. I...

Oh, fuck it. Why am I lying to myself? I know what's really
true. Unnecessary death is never a good thing, but when it happens,
it happens. Nothing to cry over.

Besides, I didn't really love Hotaru. I don't really love
anybody, so of course I don't feel sad when they die.

I can't afford to. It might distract me from my obligations,
and then what would happen? I

I'm tiring of this program and its wacky situations. I change
the channel.

"I know who the murderer is! It's... the butler!"

BE SUPRISED NOW.

"Gasp!"










Barbara was suprised to find no alchohol in the house.
Strange. She ususally kept as much as possible as close as possible.

She did, however, discover a great deal of vomit in the
toilet. She suspected it was an important clue in the Case of the
Missing Liquid Happiness.

Aha. The culprit was found in only a few minutes. Michiru
was in her room sitting on the bed, an empty bottle of gin in her
right hand. She threw it on the floor and looked up at Barbara with
bloodshot eyes.

"She's gone," she muttered. "Thought I was trying to kill
her, just ran off." She stood up and shook her head. "Shoulda tried
harder. Shoulda made sure she took her pills and taken better care of
her and helped her more. 'Sall my fault. Shoulda tried harder."

Haruka...? But that's impossible! That couldn't happen, not
for those two. It was Haruka/Michiru the same way it was
Usagi/Mamoru. They... they were supposed to be together forever!

Barbara was embraced, tears soaking through her shirt and
wetting her shoulder. "She's not gonna come back," Michiru muttered.
"Gone gone gone gone gone."

"Oh god," Barbara whispered, returning the embrace. "How
could she do this to you?"

Michiru refused to respond. Instead she stared off into space
and began talking to the wall. "I remember the day she first said
she loved me," she murmured. "Wasn't special, wasn't after we died,
or we started taking care of Hotaru or anything. Just some night, she
walks up to me, and she looks so scared and sad, and I'm afraid I'll
hurt her if I don't agree. So I just... pretended. And now the only
person who ever loved me is gone because I didn't take good enough
care of her, and I didn't even love her back."

Barbara froze. She could feel opportunity smashing her over
the head with a mallet. Which cliche to go for? The familiar, easy,
intoxicated stupor with the tragic loneliness, or the reach out for
the stars, be-all-you-can-be risk that could bring actual, permenant
happiness?

She smelled Michiru's breath and gagged. Then she realized
that she'd been tasting the exact same thing every day for years.

"Michiru..." she whispered. "She wasn't the only one who
loved you..."

Cloudy blue eyes looked up, confused. "What?"

"I love you, too. I always have."

Neither spoke. They just looked at each other, not even
really understanding what was happening. Then suddenly the primal
and spontaneous parts of them took over, and it was good.







Setsuna heard it. Or maybe she felt it or smelled it or
tasted it or something else, but she knew it happened. And it
confused her greatly.

She dropped the remote control and stood up slowly. "What the
hell?" she muttered. "What the HELL?"







The three people stood in the kitchen. They knew they were
tresspassing, but weren't hurting anybody, so figured it was okay.
Pluto went to the refrigerator and got out the milk and
leftover berbequed chicken. He took a leg and munched on it, after
handing the carton to Jesus. "Anyway, like I was saying, everything
is just a rule for you, isn't it? Can't have any fun or you'll be
commiting some sin."

Jesus grinned. "That's not true. See?" He started drinking
directly from the milk carton. "Look what I'm doing!"

A small hand smacked him. "Don't do that!" Hotaru yelled.
"That's disgusting!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Jesus said. He snickered. "That's the most
unsanitary theology lesson I've ever given. Now I have to throw this
milk out, don't I?"

"No, leave it," Pluto said, rolling his eyes. "It probably
cures the plague now, or something."

Hotaru covered her mouth and giggled. "Yeah, or
schizophrenia. Maybe Haruka-mama will come back and drink it, and be
cured. Then she'll see what her girlfriend's doing and go crazy
again."

"Yes," Pluto agreed. "Amazing, the power of the Holy
Backwash."

"You're just a real joker, aren't you?" Jesus muttered,
grinning slightly. "Now I see why they named a cartoon dog after
you."

"Hey, don't go there, man."

"Ruff ruff!" the Son of God exclaimed. "Pant pant! Ruff!"

Hotaru giggled.

Pluto shook his head. "Oh, aren't we just the three fucking stooges tonight."

"Now see, people would enjoy working with you more if you showed your
sense of humor. Now..." he trailed off. Setsuna was standing in
the doorway watching them.

"Hi," Hotaru said. "I'm not back, we're just delivering a
message."

Setsuna didn't notice. Instead she went up to her god and
grabbed his arms. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" she screamed.

Pluto cooly pulled himself away. "If you're refering to
what's going on in the other room, then it is lesbian sex. I'll go
into further detail if you want, but then I would get all caught up in
that and completely forget about saying anything else. So I'll let
you just use your imagination."

"No, no, why is that happening? That's not the way it's
supposed to be!"

"Why?" Pluto asked. "Because Haruka and Michiru were Uranus
and Neptune? And because of that, they're SUPPOSED to stay 'together
forever', right?"

"Yes! Exactly!" Setsuna's hands were shaking. "That's my
duty, to keep things the way they're supposed to be!"

Hotaru sighed and shook her head. "How do you know that
Barbara doesn't love Michiru as much as Haruka, or more? There're
lots of different ways things can be, Setsuna. You should know that
more than anyone."

"Yes, but there's a BEST way! There's a timeline that can't
be corrupted, and that's what's happening now!"

"Just out of curiosity, how much have you changed to preserve
this timeline?" Hotaru asked timidly.

"A lot of things. Sacrifices. Having Ami move to Tokyo so
she'd meet with the others. Saving Haruka and Michiru from the
helicopter crash. Letting all the inners die so the Princess could
fight alone. Dying myself so she could do it again. Having Makoto's
parents die so she'd live by herself, and be able to join the rest of
the inners. Letting Haruka have Michiru. Killing you. Many, many
things. I've fought for this my entire life."

Pluto grunted. "You really have been brainwashed," he
muttered. "Listen, remember back to who first told you about this
duty of yours. Okay? You got that?"

Setsuna glared up at her god. "Yes," she growled. "I
remember."

"He was lying. Okay? Nothing he said was true."

Setsuna blinked. That was impossible.

"No, it's not impossible," Pluto said. "You really don't have
a job. Maintenance, is all. Once in a while you show up at those
funky Gates o' Time, make sure there're no cracks or dents, and then
go back and enjoy your life. You don't protect the human race, you
don't guard it from outside invaders, that's those other guys' jobs.
You don't try to manipulate things so there's this future, which MIGHT
be good. And most of all, you don't sit on your ass by yourself all
the goddamn time! Maybe I should have told you this at the beginning,
I guess I didn't care enough. Well, you have no excuses now."

Setsuna looked confused. It was a frightening sight. "What
do you mean?"

"We mean that you should just relax," Hotaru said. "You can
be just as happy in the Silence as in Crystal Tokyo. Remember how
much fun being dead was? You can have that exact thing now, except
alive. Nothing to worry about, no problems, minimal duty. Sounds
pretty good, doesn't it?"

"Uh huh," Setsuna muttered. "It does."

"Well, go!" Pluto yelled. "Be a person. Find happiness."

Setsuna nodded, still in shock. She left the room without a
word.

"WAAAAHOOOOOO!!" they heard her yell several minutes later.








"This is really good chicken," Jesus exclaimed. "Even cold!"

Hotaru nodded. "The sauce is very good," she said, swallowing
a chunk of white meat.

Michiru strolled in. She went directly to the refrigerator,
and pulled out a bag of grapes.

She put one in her mouth and looked up at her guests. "Oh,
hello, Hotaru," she said absent-mindedly. "And Pluto. How are you?
And who's this? I don't think I've met you."

"Jesus Christ," Jesus said, bowing slightly. "I'm the messiah
for the Christian religion."

"Oh," Michiru said. She squinted at him, then suddenly pointed at him
in surprise. "So YOU were the guy we were lookin' for!" she yelled.
Why weren't you... around here? It would have made things a lot
easier!"

Jesus shrugged. "I decided it would be best not to get
involved. I'm sorry."

Michiru waved her hand through the air dismissively. "Ah, no
one's blaming you. Hey Hotaru, I'm gonna be really surprised about
seeing you all in the morning when I'm sober, aren't I?"

"Yep. Hey, tell Barbara I said hi, okay?"

"Sure." Michiru popped two grapes into her mouth.

"Michiru!!" Barbara's voice came from the bedroom. "You
coming back?"

"Yes," Michiru called. She sighed and looked at the people in
her kitchen. "You guys are either dead, gods, or messiahs. You
should have some insight. Am I making a mistake?"

"Only one way to find out," Hotaru said.

Michiru nodded. "You're right," she said finally. "Help
yourselves to anything in the fridge. See ya." She stumbled out of
the room.

"They'll be happy," Hotaru said, smiling.

"Yeah," Jesus agreed. "For the time being, at least."