Author's Notes at bottom - Enjoy!
@------
No Greater Love
Chapter 4 - Taimumashin
By: Bethany
Editor: Meara
Rated: PG
@------
The ride to the house where the Outer Senshi lived was a long and
terrifying one for me. Amongst other things that had disappeared over
night, the car seat was gone. I held Chibi-Usa in my lap, so scared the
entire time that we would crash and she would be hurt. Mamo-chan drove
with extra care, making us five minutes behind everyone else. But quiet
frankly if it came between us being on time and Chibi-Usa being safe, I
picked the latter.
I stepped out of the car slowly, looking around the city. The sun
wasn't up yet, but the first rays were peeking ever softly over the
ocean crystal blue waves. Nothing looked amiss, but I knew it was and
it kept me looking at everything more closely to notice what other
changes, if any, had occurred. We walked up to the front door, which
was pulled opened as soon as we were on the landing. "Hello," Hotaru
said quietly, pulling the door further open to allow us to enter. I
walked in first, Mamo-chan just behind me. The door clicked shut, the
sound echoing in the great foyer like a shot that could shatter a dead
silence. I could remember being here just the day before. If only we
had known then what would be taking place in so little time.
When we entered the parlor Minako was sitting just inside
the door, holding a distraught looking Luna and Artemis. Everyone else
sat on chairs or sofas except for Haruka who paced the length of the
floor. As we walked further in she stopped, looking at me with a
strange glint of anger that both surprised and frightened me. I sat
down, Shingo curled up against my side and Chibi-Usa settling on my lap
to fall back asleep. "So what else has happened?" Mamo-chan asked
bluntly, leaning forward and clasping his hands together in a business
like way.
Ami clicked quickly on her computer, her fingers moving in a
blur. It never stopped amazing me how fast she manipulated the buttons
on her small devise and still managed to hit the right thing at the
right time. "Fifty two minutes ago an explosion occurred in Tokyo
National Laboratories. This explosion seems to somehow be connected to
all the strange happenings. Unfortunately I don't know enough about it
to tell you exactly how."
"The Laboratories?" Mamo-chan asked, looking more alarmed at the
mention of his work place. "Are you sure?"
Ami nodded, clicking on her computer again. "Positive."
Just then a black mist formed in the center of the room, growing
larger until turning into the shape of a door and materializing. Sailor
Pluto stepped out, her eyes wild. "I believe I can tell you how it is
connected." My heart began beating faster as if it knew more than my
mind did. I had never seen the Senshi of Pluto not look calm and
collected, the haphazard way she presented herself now made my nerves
stand on edge. "Something I had thought was impossible has come to
light. The existence of a ripple in space, not in the Time Continuum,
but here on Earth has knocked our entire universe off balance."
"A ripple in space? Exactly what does that mean?" I asked. I
looked around, but even Ami looked to Pluto awaiting the answer.
"I never thought it possible. Just as the existence of the Time
Gate is a scared secret, as is the ability to travel through time. The
explosion distorted time in the way that only one thing could." Pluto's
hands gripped her Time Staff like she was using it to keep her balance.
"Someone has created a way to travel through time. If the explosion is
as I fear, a result of someone trying to pass through time without
using the Gate - then the entire world is in grave danger."
I swallowed this information like a child would take cold syrup;
reluctantly with bitter after taste. My shock was shared with every
other person and feline in the room. Finally Ami shook off her mask of
disbelief and began to calculate what this could mean. "So the
explosion was set off by the Time Portal, basically sending a ripple
out through the surrounding area and distorting everything in its path.
Luna and Artemis' condition, as well as Usagi-chan's things
disappearing could just be the tip of the ice burg," she concluded
grimly, actually looking scared at the possibilities.
"How do we fix this, Pluto?" Mako-chan asked, her eyes swinging
up to the Senshi of Time.
Pluto's response wasn't exactly what any of us wanted to hear.
"This has never happened before; or ever suppose to happen."
"And?" I asked.
"I don't know how to fix it," she admitted solemnly.
@------
After Pluto's shocking conclusion of our situation, we decided
that perhaps we should see if we could find out just how much damage
had been done to Tokyo. I, for one, wanted to find out who was behind
it and had a sneaking suspension that Mamo-chan had some ideas. We sat
silently in the car, me staring out the window and him staring at the
street. We had borrowed a car seat from Michiru who had never gotten
rid of Hotaru's stuff, which made me feel better.
After we had all split up to search the city, Mamo-chan had fell
into a deep silence that was about to jump off my last nerve. "What are
you thinking about?" I asked quietly, turning my gaze from the window
to my husband.
He didn't answer for a minute or so. I wondered if he had heard
me at all until he glanced my direction quickly. "When I got to work
yesterday there was something going on; something I probably should
have told everyone. But in light of everything else, I didn't think of
it again until just a few minutes ago." He pulled into a parking lot,
driving into a space and putting the car in park. I held my breath
until he began again. "Heioko came to me as soon as I walked in, very
excited. He said that he may have found a way to design a time machine
that works, but he still had some bugs to work out. I was calling you
to tell you about it, but when I called--"
"I was at Minako's, hai," I finished for him, looking back out
the window. Somehow I just knew that my problems would create bigger
problems in the end. I let out a deep breath, watching the heat of it
fog the window momentarily before it disappeared. "So you think that
could be what done this? But who would have been at the lab at four in
the morning?"
"That is what we are going to find out," Mamo-chan said, turning
the car off and unbuckling. "Stay here," he commanded, getting out of
the car.
Quickly I undid my own belt, getting out of the car and pulling
the seat up to get Chibi-Usa out. "Not in this lifetime. We don't know
what all has happened and you are not leaving us here. I'm staying by
your side no matter what."
"No matter what Chibi-Usa may see? Or Shingo? Or what may happen
to them?" Mamo-chan bit out, slapping his palm against the hood of the
car.
I swallowed and reached inside to pick Chibi-Usa up and motion
for Shingo to get out. Mamo-chan was staring at me unbelievably when I
stood up again, our daughter on my hip. "Would you rather we stay out
here? And if something happened it would be me trying to save our
children by myself? I think the odds are better if we stick together."
Mamo-chan opened his mouth, but my argument had made more sense
than his reasoning and no sound left his throat. Slowly he bit down and
nodded his head. "You're right," he admitted quietly. I would make sure
to remind him of that next time he made a command decision.
The front doors to the laboratory were locked tightly. Mamo-chan
took the blanket I had around Chibi-Usa and wrapped his fist in it
before punching out the glass. He reached inside, undid the lock, and
opened the door. I stayed behind while he surveyed the lobby and the
motioned us inside. "Odd," he mumbled, keeping me close to his side.
"What?"
"No alarm," he said, pointing to the motion detectors that were
unblinking and the alarms that made no sound. "Even if there was an
explosion in one of the labs, it shouldn't have knocked out the main
generator that supplies power to the alarm system."
"What if the explosion got to one of the generators?" I asked,
looking around at the quiet hallways. I kept my voice low, though there
was no reason. It just felt like the thing to do in a situation like
this.
"Nu uh, a place like this has too many government secret things
that they wouldn't plan ahead for something like that. Someone who
knows the codes has turned it off. And there aren't many people who
do."
I was afraid to ask who had the codes and Mamo-chan didn't
volunteer the information. From the way we came in I figured he didn't
know them and I feverishly hoped Daiki didn't. As we approached the
wing Mamo-chan worked in, we smelled something burning.
Shingo stopped, pulling on my arm. "Mama, something is burning.
We shouldn't go in there."
Mamo-chan stopped, turning to us, his face tense. "Usako, find
somewhere to hide the kids." I started to protest when we heard
something crack followed by the sounds of breaking glass. My husband
turned to me, no room for argument anywhere in on his face. "Now!" he
hissed, nodding his head towards a room on our left. I grabbed Shingo's
hand and pulled him towards the door, going in and shutting it quietly
behind me. It was the women's restroom, also used for tornado or
earthquake safety because every wall was concrete.
I pushed Shingo in the back stall and handed him Chibi-Usa. I
heard another crash and I flinched, looking towards the door. "Shingo,
listen to me," I said breathlessly while trying to soothe Chibi-Usa by
rubbing her back. "Stay right here. Do not leave this stall for any
reason until either I or Mamo-chan come back for you, understood?"
My young brother nodded, fighting off the tears that sprang to
his eyes. I tried to appear calmer than I felt, but failed miserably.
"Try to keep Chibi-Usa from crying. I'll be back." I kissed both their
foreheads quickly and stepped out of the stall, shutting the door. The
bathroom door had a lock on it which I turned, said a prayer, and
slipped out of.
When I turned around Mamo-chan was gone. Another crash, followed
by a roar exploded out of the room Mamo-chan worked in. Clutching my
henshin broach in my pocket, I cautiously walked towards the room and
peeked in.
My husband was standing adjacent from me holding a long metal
pole like it was a baseball bat. I couldn't see what he was looking at,
but I could hear it clearly - it was just inside the door. I looked
around for any weapon, but couldn't find anything in the long hall that
would make do. Inside another crash sounded, I looked in to see Mamo-
chan jump out of the way of a glass beaker. "Come on, give it up. I can
help you if you would just stop trying to attack me," Mamo-chan
explained, trying to reason with whatever it was he was facing.
Just inside the door was an emergency box on the wall, a fire
hose and axe inside. I bent down, easing my hand inside the room to
pick up a piece of broken chair. I reasoned that if I could break the
glass and get to the hose, the force might be able to keep whatever it
was back so that we could attack.
"You can't help me," a voice said lowly, hissing out its words
slowly. Another crash followed, this time pieces of a table being
thrown across the room. "You think I want your help? No, I don't want
your help. But you do have something I want."
I took the moment of silence and slid in the room, glancing to my
right. I nearly gasped at what I saw. It looked like a human size white
mouse, but the truly terrifying thing was the top portion of its body
was human. And not just any human. It was Daiki. I swallowed down the
scream that raised in my throat and smashed the glass on the fire hose,
pulling it out as fast as I could. Mamo-chan ran over beside me, taking
it from my hands. "Full blast," he said, pointing it towards Daiki.
I turned the wheel as fast as I could and the water flew out in
waves. The sound of high squeal filled the room, sometimes sounding
like a dying animal and sometimes like a dying human. I covered my
ears, backing into the wall behind me. After a few long seconds Mamo-
chan motioned for me to turn the water off. When the flow stopped, I
gasped. "Where is he?"
Mamo-chan advanced through the room slowly, his hand behind him
to keep me from following. He searched around thoroughly and then
looked out the window. When he looked back at me, confusion sat firmly
on his features. "The only way for him to have left the room is through
a window, but I don't see him outside anywhere."
My heart pounded in my ribs painfully, each second threatening to
bring about another attack out of the shadows. I looked around, taking
in the damage done to the once orderly lab. Tables were thrown over,
pieces of chairs, wood, metal, glass from broken beakers, spilled
chemicals lay everywhere my eyes moved to. Mamo-chan walked back
through the rubble, picking up a round shaped object with buttons along
the side. He turned it over, searching for a scripture, but found none.
"Is that the time machine, you think?" I asked, easing my way
through the room and to Mamo-chan.
He shook his head, looking around again. "I don't know. The only
one who would know is Heioko. Come on, let's go pay him a visit and
contact the others, telling them what we found."
I nodded, both of us going back to the restroom where I had
locked Shingo and Chibi-Usa in. The door was still locked when we tried
it, an after a few minutes of knocking on it and calling for Shingo, he
opened it carefully. "Mama?"
"Yes, it's me. We're leaving. Where's Chibi-Usa?" I followed him
inside where he had sat my youngest under the bathroom sink, happily
playing with a roll of toilet paper. The sight was sad for me, to think
that Shingo was trying to save her incase it wasn't me at the door. I
bent down and swept Shingo into a hug, tears threatening to fall from
my eyes. For the first time in a year Shingo tightly wrapped his arms
around my neck, hugging me back.
I sat in the front seat of our car while Mamo-chan called Haruka
on his cell phone and explained what we found. When he finally hung up
and looked over at me, his eyes were full of concern. "They said they
have found some things that maybe part of the ripple that went through
here and want us to meet back up at the arcade."
"The arcade, why?" I asked, puzzled. The last thing we needed to
do was talk out in open like that. Mamo-chan didn't seem worried about
it though and we set off.
In the back of the arcade we found Minako sitting at the Sailor V
game, but not playing it. When we approached her, she looked around
slyly and finally satisfied with what she seen, began hitting the
controls buttons on the game in a certain order. When she finished a
beep sounded, the little Sailor V icon on the screen turning towards
us. I stared in amazement as Minako put her palm on the screen and it
seemed to be scanning it.
A few seconds later the planet sign of Venus came up on the
screen and the little icon began talking. "Welcome Sailor Venus, you
may pass." Mamo-chan looked around again, and sure we weren't being
noticed, we passed through a door that appeared in the floor.
As the door faded above us, I turned looked down a staircase and
into a room below. Slowly I descended, looking around. "Where are we?"
"A secret room where all of the Moon's old sub computers are
located," Haruka explained from her perch next to Luna at the keyboard.
To my amazement, Luna could type. Not only that, but quite fast. I
blinked, feeling the need to laugh. My cat could type faster than I
could! Somehow it never bothered me that she could talk, but type? That
was a different story all together.
My eyes wondered over the room, taking in the three computers
lining one wall. But what really caught my attention was everything
else. The large room easily resembled a studio apartment - sections for
a living room, kitchen and bedroom full of furniture. "Who did all of
this?"
"We did," Mako-chan explained, looking around. "We had discussed
the possibility of the Sailor Senshi being discovered, as well as any
other number of emergencies and that the need for a place to hide would
become necessary. After careful planning, we decided this was the only
completely safe place and we began stocking it with items we would
need." She looked at Chibi-Usa, one finger thoughtfully on her chin.
"We didn't bring any baby items though, none of us thought of children
when we were planning."
I sighed, putting Chibi-Usa down and handing her a piece of paper
and pencil. She sat at my feet, sliding the pencil across the paper and
every now and then looking up to make sure I was paying attention. Ami
got up from the middle computer and sat down on the edge of the couch.
"Okay, from what I can tell the ripple has done three different things
that we know about. One, turned back the clock, so to speak. Just like
Mamoru-san's apartment is as if Usagi-chan was never there - there is
other places around the city that mirrors that effect. Tokyo Towers,
for one, is standing again."
"Do we know what time in the past it's gone back to?" Michiru
asked.
"No, because it didn't effect anything specific. Tokyo Towers is
still standing, but the building next to it that was torn down when it
blew up is still gone. There seems to be no pattern for which things
were affected. The second thing I know for sure," she went on, once
more opening her computer. "Is that something's have changed space. For
instance," she laid down a coin on the table in front of us. The penny
had a dime stuck inside of it. Mamo-chan picked it up, examining it. "I
found many things like this; rocks with tree limbs stuck in them, drink
cans with the plastic ring going through them and the like."
"Could a human and animal mix like this?" I blurted out, the
vision of Daiki still clear in my mind.
Ami's head jerked up, her mouth slightly open as if she were
trying to find her voice and couldn't. Finally she managed a whisper.
"You saw something like that?"
"At the laboratory," Mamo-chan thankfully explained for me. I
didn't know if I could stomach explaining what we had seen. "Daiki...
well, he looked like he had been crossed with one of our lab mice."
Ami flinched, as well as Michiru, Minako and Hotaru. I tried to
keep my thoughts blank, remembering made my stomach queasy. Ami
swallowed, nervously looking at her computer. "If that happened, then
there could be more like him." The possibility didn't sit well with any
of us.
"What's the third thing that you found out?" I whispered, hoping
to change the subject - although we couldn't avoid it forever.
"Oh," Ami replied, rubbing her hands on her arms briskly. "It
seems that while some things were affected one way or the other, and
some not at all - some were changed completely, as if part of another
reality leaked into this one."
"A part of another reality? How is that possible?" Rei asked,
looking up from her clasped hands for the first time since we had began
talking. She looked as deeply disturbed about all of this as the rest
of us, only she had yet to show it until now. "Another reality, as in
another universe?"
"No," Pluto said, stepping out of a Time Gate and watching it
disappear again before speaking. "Not another universe, just another
time line that works parallel to this one. Certain decisions you make
in your life course the trail you take to get from one point to another."
I stared blankly at the Senshi of Pluto, never did she sound as
much like Ami did at that moment - completely out of my understanding.
"I don't understand."
"Compare your fate to, say, a stream. It runs one course from
point A to point B. But what if someone dropped a large rock in it? It
would create two streams. Either those streams will continue on
opposite courses or meet up again at point B. At any point they could
separate again. Our life flows through time in much the same manner.
The alternate reality that Ami speaks of would come from a point in
which the streams - or our time line - broke apart by a decision,"
Pluto finished, holding her hands out in a hopeful way. I nodded my
head, understanding.
Only that understanding also brought fear. What if some decision
in my life had changed, which would perhaps explain why my belongings
weren't at Mamo-chan's... and how would it change what I know to be
true? I shook my head, not wanting to think to hard on the
possibilities and concentrate more on the solution. "So what do we do
to reverse this?"
Pluto shook her head, but Ami perked up. "We could find the exact
second in time it happened and reverse it," before Ami finished the
sentence, Pluto shook her head no. "Or we could try and recreate it,
which doesn't guarantee that it will help and not make things worse."
"We can't travel back in time and change things, we run too big a
chance of messing up the entire Time Currents and changing too many
things," Pluto warned, shaking her head. "It's out of the question."
"We have this," Mamo-chan said, pulling out the disk devise we
had found at the lab. "I suspect it is a time machine that one of the
scientists I work with was trying to create. But so far I have yet to
prove or disprove that. I'd need to find him and talk to him."
Chibi-Usa lost interest in her pencil and paper, standing up and
reaching for me to put her on my lap. I readjusted her, trying to
smooth down her hair. "Hungee, Mama," she complained, rubbing her eyes.
"Me, too, Mama," Shingo added.
I sighed, looking at my watch. Mamo-chan, already knowing what I
was going to do, went over to the kitchen area and began hunting for
food. Unfortunately, the choices were limited. "I'm going to make a run
to the store. While I'm out I'll drop by Heioko's and see what he can
tell me about this."
I placed Chibi-Usa in Shingo's lap and stretched as I stood. "I'm
going with you. Neither Shingo, Chibi-Usa or I have anything to wear
and I definitely need diapers for Chibi-Usa." Mamo-chan didn't look too
thrilled on the idea, but didn't stop me from joining him at the
stairs.
Minako promised they would look after the children, but as soon
as Chibi-Usa saw I was leaving, she began crying. I tried to go, but
leaving Chibi-Usa upset wasn't one of my strong points. Just before I
reached the top of the stairs, I ran back down and scooped her up,
sighing. "We'll be back." Mamo-chan shook his head at me as I joined
him.
We cautiously left the arcade and got in the car. The city seemed
peaceful enough. Some people who didn't realize what had happened were
heading to work. We pulled up in front of the twenty-four hour mart
and, preparing ourselves for anything we might see, went in. Not too
much was amiss, however. I placed Chibi-Usa in the shopping cart and we
started down the aisle.
The so far uneventful trip, however, was soon to take a plunge
downwards. Mamo-chan left me to get a loaf of bread as I continued to
pick out baby food and other things Chibi-Usa would need. I paid no
attention to the woman coming up the aisle, only when she stopped and
started at Chibi-Usa did I take notice. Her eyes were huge as she
stared at my child.
As casually as I could I walked back over to the cart and started
away, but the lady stepped in my path. I smiled, my shaking hands
revealing how nervous this woman made me. It wasn't that she was
intimidating as she was; long strawberry blonde hair, beautiful blue
eyes with long eyelashes and a child-like heart shaped face. But with
everything changed from the time ripple, I wasn't sure if this innocent
looking woman was so innocent at all. We stared at each other in almost
a challenging way. "Excuse me," I said politely, again trying to pass
her.
She shook her head no, looking not at me, but at Chibi-Usa. My
palms began to sweat I was gripping the shopping cart so hard. I began
backing up, but she put her small hands on the cart. "That's--that's my
baby," she said slowly, emotions clouding her voice.
I looked at her like she had grown two heads and was fixing to
jump off a cliff. "Nani?" I asked, smiling at her to amuse her idiotic
state.
She moved to the side of the cart, reaching for Chibi-Usa. I
picked her up quickly, stepping back. She reached her arms out, looking
angry at my denial of her claim. "That is my baby," she repeated
slowly, taking a step forward. For every step she took, I took two
back. "Yesterday, someone took her. You took her," she accused, coming
at me again.
I didn't wait to see what else she would say, I turned and ran. I
could hear her shoes slapping the concrete floor behind me, but I
didn't look back. I nearly slapped into Mamo-chan when I found him.
"Usako?!"
I ducked behind him, holding Chibi-Usa tight against my side. "A
woman... says Chibi-Usa is hers..." I gasped for breath, shaking so bad
I was scared I might drop the baby.
He started to question me when the woman came barreling down the
aisle, barely stopping herself from running into my husband. "That
woman has my baby!" she stated, hands on her hips. "Give her back!"
"Excuse me?" Mamo-chan asked, looking completely dumbfounded.
"I'm sorry, but Chibi-Usa is our child. Believe me, I was there when
she was born."
The petite woman put her hands on her hips and glared daggers at
Mamo-chan. "Her name is Miako and she is mine. You kidnapped her
yesterday from my home."
Mamo-chan's eyes grew huge and Chibi-Usa began crying.
"Kidnapped?" he repeated unbelievably. "You're crazy!" At that moment
one of the cashiers came running down the aisle, two policemen behind
him. "Shimatta."
"Mamo-chan," I whispered, backing up. Any escape I might have had
was blocked by the woman who started this mess. I looked from her to
the policemen that were five feet from us.
The shortest of the two officers stepped forward. The thick
glasses on his face made his eyes seem over large and sunken in on his
otherwise thin face. He pulled out a notepad, licking his finger to
turn a page and then flashed his eyes up at us. I had the distinct
feeling of knowing how fish viewed us through their tank. "What seems
to be the problem?"
"That woman has my baby," the lady to my right stated, stepping
towards me and reaching for Chibi-Usa. I moved away from her and closer
to Mamo-chan.
"She's mistaken," my husband began reasonably. "Chibi-Usa is mine
and my wife's child."
"Do you have a birth certificate to prove so?" the policeman
asked, writing something down.
"Of course," Mamo-chan replied, but stopped when he noticed the
blood drain from my face. All of my belongings were gone, that most
likely included Chibi-Usa's birth papers, pictures, shot records and
the like. "Not with us, though," Mamo-chan continued, trying to sound
casual.
"Right," the second policeman said, looking unconvinced. He
seemed to be more suspicious of anything said. I imagined he would have
to check to see if I were telling the truth if I told him the sky was
blue. He was slightly heavier than the first policeman though taller
and acted like he had something else he would rather be doing. He
turned his hazel eyes towards the woman who claimed to be the mother of
my child. "What's your name?"
"Youe Arika and my daughter's name is Youe Miako," she stated,
glaring at me. Determinedly I kept my mouth shut even though the urge
to slap her smug face coursed through my body.
"And you?" he then asked us.
Mamo-chan cleared his throat, his hand reaching for mine. "Doctor
Chiba Mamoru and Usagi. Our daughter's name," he said, pounding his
words into the air at Arika. "Is Chiba Usagi, named for her mother. We
call her Chibi-Usa."
"Well, yes, Doctor Chiba," the policeman said, sarcastically I
thought. "Until one of you can show me proof that this child is yours,
we're going to have to take her downtown."
"What?!" Mamo-chan bellowed.
"No!" I yelled, backing into a shelf and knocking a dozen or so
cans down. "You can't take my baby!"
The two policemen looked at each other and stepped towards me. I
shook my head, looking for an escape. "Chiba-san, don't make this
harder on everyone. If indeed the child is yours, bring the papers to
the precinct and you can be on your way. No harm done."
"No harm done?!" I screamed.
"Usako," Mamo-chan said sternly. "Just give him Chibi-Usa. You're
scaring her. There's nothing we can do but exactly what he said."
"But Mamo-chan!"
The policeman started to step forward and try to take Chibi-Usa,
but Mamo-chan put his hand up. "Usako, listen to me. We are her
parents. We'll go home, get her birth certificate and get her back.
Don't make things worse by fighting them."
Reluctantly we followed the policemen out to the car where I put
Chibi-Usa in the car seat and buckled her in. "Don't worry, sweetie.
We'll come and get you in a few minutes." I kissed her forehead and
backed away. When Chibi-Usa realized neither Mamo-chan or I was going
with her, she began crying. Even after the first policeman shut the
door, her wails found my ears and broke my heart.
As they rounded the corner, I turned to Arika and raised my fist
back. "Kisima**!" I screamed, preparing to release all my heartache
into my punch. The thought of her with a black eye and busted nose made
my pain slightly less.
Mamo-chan caught my hands and hugged me to him even though I
fought him. No matter how much I tired, though, he proved just how much
stronger physically he was than me. "No Usako," he soothed, nearly
crushing me against him. "She's not worth it. Let's go call the girls
and get our daughter back." Finally I stopped fighting and broke down
in tears, Mamo-chan almost having to carry me to our car. I couldn't
get the image of Chibi-Usa screaming out of my mind's eye. Over and
over again I heard her pitiful voice in my head.
@------
"The only way to prove that Chibi-Usa is yours is by blood tests
without any of the other papers." Ami broke the news to us the way a
doctor would tell his patient about a fatal illness. "Do either of you
still have the results from the test ran before she was born?"
Mamo-chan pulled out his wallet, fumbling through the sections.
Finally he produced a piece of paper. "But this doesn't prove who
Chibi-Usa is, only that Usako and I have had a paternity test ran. The
only other thing we have is some pictures I have in my wallet,
everything else is gone."
Ami stood up, going for her cell phone. "Take that down to the
station, I'll cal my mom and get her to bring a copy of the birth
certificate from the hospital and meet you there. Plus, she is Chibi-
Usa's doctor - she can testify to her identity."
Mamo-chan and I left, arriving at the police station shortly
after. I wanted to run inside and get Chibi-Usa back, but refrained
myself. After being redirected ten times - and passing some rather odd
things in the process - we found the child services personnel. "Excuse
me, I'm Chiba Mamoru and this is my wife, Usagi."
"Oh yes," the lady replied, effectively cutting Mamo-chan off in
mid-sentence. "Youe-san was already here and presented the proper
papers and took the child home. You two need to have a seat while I
call--"
"But it's not her child!" Mamo-chan demanded. I couldn't focus my
eyes and my knees began to feel weak. Mamo-chan put his arms around me,
leaning in to whisper in my ear. "Usako, listen to me, we--" His cell
phone began ringing and he yanked it off his belt loop, looking
aggravated. "Chiba."
I sat down in a chair while Mamo-chan listened to the person on
the phone. His face became pale as he hung up. "That was Ami, there are
no records of Chibi-Usa's birth at the hospital."
I began crying, tears falling from my eyes in endless floods.
"What are we going to do, Mamo-chan? My baby... our baby is gone..." As
I continued to cry, I failed to notice the hard look of determination
that came to my husband's face.
He bent down, to comfort me I thought, and began whispering in my
ear again. "I'm going to help you up. Walk towards the door, I'll be
right behind you. If someone tries to stop you, run. Understand?" I
nodded and he kissed my lips gently. "I love you, Usako. It's going to
be okay."
He stood up and took my hands, helping me up. After I got to my
feet, I started towards the door, not looking back. "Hey!" the woman
behind the desk yelled, standing up. "Where are you going? You can't
leave!"
I began running, dodging people and carts as I went. When I got
outside I turned back, Mamo-chan ran past me. "Get in the car!"
I didn't even stop to open the door, I just slid in the open
window and Mamo-chan took off, nearly hitting another car when he did.
As we sped through traffic and down another street towards the highway,
I found myself staring around like someone would suddenly pop up on the
side of the car and put a gun in my face. I was so scared I couldn't
stop my heart from beating twice as fast as normal. "Where are we
going?"
Mamo-chan didn't take his eyes off the road. He reminded me of
Haruka when she was racing. Finally he pulled into a gas station next
to a phone booth and parked the car. "I'm going to find where that
woman lives and get Chibi-Usa back." Without waiting for me to answer,
he got out of the car and went over to the phone book.
I tried to act casual, but my heart was racing so fast and
pounding so hard I just knew everyone in the parking lot could hear it.
Had we just ran from the police? And when we took Chibi-Usa back, we
would be considered kidnappers. I prayed Ami or Setsuna found a way to
reverse the time ripple soon. Mamo-chan jumped back in the car, a piece
of paper in his hand. "I have an address."
--End Chapter 4.
*- If you watch "X-Files" you may know exactly what I'm talking about
here.
**- Kisima translates literally to "you" but it's meant as a really
bad insult.
Taimumashin, for all who wants to know, means "Time Machine" which goes
with the idea in this chapter :)
So will Mamoru and Usagi get Chibi-Usa back? What other strange things
await the Senshi in this parrallel universe? Will I ever stop doing the
cliff hanger endings, thus ending my death threats forever? x_X;; Now
why, pray tell, would I want to end them? At least then I know someone is reading :}
Huge thanks to everyone who reads and reviews on Fanfiction.net and ASMR *huggles* ^_^!! And, of course, I can't forget my wonderful editor Meara -without her this story would be typed the way I talk - southern. And we all know that in the south - anything goes ^_~ *huggles Meara*
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Disclaimer: ::Insert disclaimer than no one reads here ;)
Read, reviews, emails, cheese cubes and Scoobys!!
@------
No Greater Love
Chapter 4 - Taimumashin
By: Bethany
Editor: Meara
Rated: PG
@------
The ride to the house where the Outer Senshi lived was a long and
terrifying one for me. Amongst other things that had disappeared over
night, the car seat was gone. I held Chibi-Usa in my lap, so scared the
entire time that we would crash and she would be hurt. Mamo-chan drove
with extra care, making us five minutes behind everyone else. But quiet
frankly if it came between us being on time and Chibi-Usa being safe, I
picked the latter.
I stepped out of the car slowly, looking around the city. The sun
wasn't up yet, but the first rays were peeking ever softly over the
ocean crystal blue waves. Nothing looked amiss, but I knew it was and
it kept me looking at everything more closely to notice what other
changes, if any, had occurred. We walked up to the front door, which
was pulled opened as soon as we were on the landing. "Hello," Hotaru
said quietly, pulling the door further open to allow us to enter. I
walked in first, Mamo-chan just behind me. The door clicked shut, the
sound echoing in the great foyer like a shot that could shatter a dead
silence. I could remember being here just the day before. If only we
had known then what would be taking place in so little time.
When we entered the parlor Minako was sitting just inside
the door, holding a distraught looking Luna and Artemis. Everyone else
sat on chairs or sofas except for Haruka who paced the length of the
floor. As we walked further in she stopped, looking at me with a
strange glint of anger that both surprised and frightened me. I sat
down, Shingo curled up against my side and Chibi-Usa settling on my lap
to fall back asleep. "So what else has happened?" Mamo-chan asked
bluntly, leaning forward and clasping his hands together in a business
like way.
Ami clicked quickly on her computer, her fingers moving in a
blur. It never stopped amazing me how fast she manipulated the buttons
on her small devise and still managed to hit the right thing at the
right time. "Fifty two minutes ago an explosion occurred in Tokyo
National Laboratories. This explosion seems to somehow be connected to
all the strange happenings. Unfortunately I don't know enough about it
to tell you exactly how."
"The Laboratories?" Mamo-chan asked, looking more alarmed at the
mention of his work place. "Are you sure?"
Ami nodded, clicking on her computer again. "Positive."
Just then a black mist formed in the center of the room, growing
larger until turning into the shape of a door and materializing. Sailor
Pluto stepped out, her eyes wild. "I believe I can tell you how it is
connected." My heart began beating faster as if it knew more than my
mind did. I had never seen the Senshi of Pluto not look calm and
collected, the haphazard way she presented herself now made my nerves
stand on edge. "Something I had thought was impossible has come to
light. The existence of a ripple in space, not in the Time Continuum,
but here on Earth has knocked our entire universe off balance."
"A ripple in space? Exactly what does that mean?" I asked. I
looked around, but even Ami looked to Pluto awaiting the answer.
"I never thought it possible. Just as the existence of the Time
Gate is a scared secret, as is the ability to travel through time. The
explosion distorted time in the way that only one thing could." Pluto's
hands gripped her Time Staff like she was using it to keep her balance.
"Someone has created a way to travel through time. If the explosion is
as I fear, a result of someone trying to pass through time without
using the Gate - then the entire world is in grave danger."
I swallowed this information like a child would take cold syrup;
reluctantly with bitter after taste. My shock was shared with every
other person and feline in the room. Finally Ami shook off her mask of
disbelief and began to calculate what this could mean. "So the
explosion was set off by the Time Portal, basically sending a ripple
out through the surrounding area and distorting everything in its path.
Luna and Artemis' condition, as well as Usagi-chan's things
disappearing could just be the tip of the ice burg," she concluded
grimly, actually looking scared at the possibilities.
"How do we fix this, Pluto?" Mako-chan asked, her eyes swinging
up to the Senshi of Time.
Pluto's response wasn't exactly what any of us wanted to hear.
"This has never happened before; or ever suppose to happen."
"And?" I asked.
"I don't know how to fix it," she admitted solemnly.
@------
After Pluto's shocking conclusion of our situation, we decided
that perhaps we should see if we could find out just how much damage
had been done to Tokyo. I, for one, wanted to find out who was behind
it and had a sneaking suspension that Mamo-chan had some ideas. We sat
silently in the car, me staring out the window and him staring at the
street. We had borrowed a car seat from Michiru who had never gotten
rid of Hotaru's stuff, which made me feel better.
After we had all split up to search the city, Mamo-chan had fell
into a deep silence that was about to jump off my last nerve. "What are
you thinking about?" I asked quietly, turning my gaze from the window
to my husband.
He didn't answer for a minute or so. I wondered if he had heard
me at all until he glanced my direction quickly. "When I got to work
yesterday there was something going on; something I probably should
have told everyone. But in light of everything else, I didn't think of
it again until just a few minutes ago." He pulled into a parking lot,
driving into a space and putting the car in park. I held my breath
until he began again. "Heioko came to me as soon as I walked in, very
excited. He said that he may have found a way to design a time machine
that works, but he still had some bugs to work out. I was calling you
to tell you about it, but when I called--"
"I was at Minako's, hai," I finished for him, looking back out
the window. Somehow I just knew that my problems would create bigger
problems in the end. I let out a deep breath, watching the heat of it
fog the window momentarily before it disappeared. "So you think that
could be what done this? But who would have been at the lab at four in
the morning?"
"That is what we are going to find out," Mamo-chan said, turning
the car off and unbuckling. "Stay here," he commanded, getting out of
the car.
Quickly I undid my own belt, getting out of the car and pulling
the seat up to get Chibi-Usa out. "Not in this lifetime. We don't know
what all has happened and you are not leaving us here. I'm staying by
your side no matter what."
"No matter what Chibi-Usa may see? Or Shingo? Or what may happen
to them?" Mamo-chan bit out, slapping his palm against the hood of the
car.
I swallowed and reached inside to pick Chibi-Usa up and motion
for Shingo to get out. Mamo-chan was staring at me unbelievably when I
stood up again, our daughter on my hip. "Would you rather we stay out
here? And if something happened it would be me trying to save our
children by myself? I think the odds are better if we stick together."
Mamo-chan opened his mouth, but my argument had made more sense
than his reasoning and no sound left his throat. Slowly he bit down and
nodded his head. "You're right," he admitted quietly. I would make sure
to remind him of that next time he made a command decision.
The front doors to the laboratory were locked tightly. Mamo-chan
took the blanket I had around Chibi-Usa and wrapped his fist in it
before punching out the glass. He reached inside, undid the lock, and
opened the door. I stayed behind while he surveyed the lobby and the
motioned us inside. "Odd," he mumbled, keeping me close to his side.
"What?"
"No alarm," he said, pointing to the motion detectors that were
unblinking and the alarms that made no sound. "Even if there was an
explosion in one of the labs, it shouldn't have knocked out the main
generator that supplies power to the alarm system."
"What if the explosion got to one of the generators?" I asked,
looking around at the quiet hallways. I kept my voice low, though there
was no reason. It just felt like the thing to do in a situation like
this.
"Nu uh, a place like this has too many government secret things
that they wouldn't plan ahead for something like that. Someone who
knows the codes has turned it off. And there aren't many people who
do."
I was afraid to ask who had the codes and Mamo-chan didn't
volunteer the information. From the way we came in I figured he didn't
know them and I feverishly hoped Daiki didn't. As we approached the
wing Mamo-chan worked in, we smelled something burning.
Shingo stopped, pulling on my arm. "Mama, something is burning.
We shouldn't go in there."
Mamo-chan stopped, turning to us, his face tense. "Usako, find
somewhere to hide the kids." I started to protest when we heard
something crack followed by the sounds of breaking glass. My husband
turned to me, no room for argument anywhere in on his face. "Now!" he
hissed, nodding his head towards a room on our left. I grabbed Shingo's
hand and pulled him towards the door, going in and shutting it quietly
behind me. It was the women's restroom, also used for tornado or
earthquake safety because every wall was concrete.
I pushed Shingo in the back stall and handed him Chibi-Usa. I
heard another crash and I flinched, looking towards the door. "Shingo,
listen to me," I said breathlessly while trying to soothe Chibi-Usa by
rubbing her back. "Stay right here. Do not leave this stall for any
reason until either I or Mamo-chan come back for you, understood?"
My young brother nodded, fighting off the tears that sprang to
his eyes. I tried to appear calmer than I felt, but failed miserably.
"Try to keep Chibi-Usa from crying. I'll be back." I kissed both their
foreheads quickly and stepped out of the stall, shutting the door. The
bathroom door had a lock on it which I turned, said a prayer, and
slipped out of.
When I turned around Mamo-chan was gone. Another crash, followed
by a roar exploded out of the room Mamo-chan worked in. Clutching my
henshin broach in my pocket, I cautiously walked towards the room and
peeked in.
My husband was standing adjacent from me holding a long metal
pole like it was a baseball bat. I couldn't see what he was looking at,
but I could hear it clearly - it was just inside the door. I looked
around for any weapon, but couldn't find anything in the long hall that
would make do. Inside another crash sounded, I looked in to see Mamo-
chan jump out of the way of a glass beaker. "Come on, give it up. I can
help you if you would just stop trying to attack me," Mamo-chan
explained, trying to reason with whatever it was he was facing.
Just inside the door was an emergency box on the wall, a fire
hose and axe inside. I bent down, easing my hand inside the room to
pick up a piece of broken chair. I reasoned that if I could break the
glass and get to the hose, the force might be able to keep whatever it
was back so that we could attack.
"You can't help me," a voice said lowly, hissing out its words
slowly. Another crash followed, this time pieces of a table being
thrown across the room. "You think I want your help? No, I don't want
your help. But you do have something I want."
I took the moment of silence and slid in the room, glancing to my
right. I nearly gasped at what I saw. It looked like a human size white
mouse, but the truly terrifying thing was the top portion of its body
was human. And not just any human. It was Daiki. I swallowed down the
scream that raised in my throat and smashed the glass on the fire hose,
pulling it out as fast as I could. Mamo-chan ran over beside me, taking
it from my hands. "Full blast," he said, pointing it towards Daiki.
I turned the wheel as fast as I could and the water flew out in
waves. The sound of high squeal filled the room, sometimes sounding
like a dying animal and sometimes like a dying human. I covered my
ears, backing into the wall behind me. After a few long seconds Mamo-
chan motioned for me to turn the water off. When the flow stopped, I
gasped. "Where is he?"
Mamo-chan advanced through the room slowly, his hand behind him
to keep me from following. He searched around thoroughly and then
looked out the window. When he looked back at me, confusion sat firmly
on his features. "The only way for him to have left the room is through
a window, but I don't see him outside anywhere."
My heart pounded in my ribs painfully, each second threatening to
bring about another attack out of the shadows. I looked around, taking
in the damage done to the once orderly lab. Tables were thrown over,
pieces of chairs, wood, metal, glass from broken beakers, spilled
chemicals lay everywhere my eyes moved to. Mamo-chan walked back
through the rubble, picking up a round shaped object with buttons along
the side. He turned it over, searching for a scripture, but found none.
"Is that the time machine, you think?" I asked, easing my way
through the room and to Mamo-chan.
He shook his head, looking around again. "I don't know. The only
one who would know is Heioko. Come on, let's go pay him a visit and
contact the others, telling them what we found."
I nodded, both of us going back to the restroom where I had
locked Shingo and Chibi-Usa in. The door was still locked when we tried
it, an after a few minutes of knocking on it and calling for Shingo, he
opened it carefully. "Mama?"
"Yes, it's me. We're leaving. Where's Chibi-Usa?" I followed him
inside where he had sat my youngest under the bathroom sink, happily
playing with a roll of toilet paper. The sight was sad for me, to think
that Shingo was trying to save her incase it wasn't me at the door. I
bent down and swept Shingo into a hug, tears threatening to fall from
my eyes. For the first time in a year Shingo tightly wrapped his arms
around my neck, hugging me back.
I sat in the front seat of our car while Mamo-chan called Haruka
on his cell phone and explained what we found. When he finally hung up
and looked over at me, his eyes were full of concern. "They said they
have found some things that maybe part of the ripple that went through
here and want us to meet back up at the arcade."
"The arcade, why?" I asked, puzzled. The last thing we needed to
do was talk out in open like that. Mamo-chan didn't seem worried about
it though and we set off.
In the back of the arcade we found Minako sitting at the Sailor V
game, but not playing it. When we approached her, she looked around
slyly and finally satisfied with what she seen, began hitting the
controls buttons on the game in a certain order. When she finished a
beep sounded, the little Sailor V icon on the screen turning towards
us. I stared in amazement as Minako put her palm on the screen and it
seemed to be scanning it.
A few seconds later the planet sign of Venus came up on the
screen and the little icon began talking. "Welcome Sailor Venus, you
may pass." Mamo-chan looked around again, and sure we weren't being
noticed, we passed through a door that appeared in the floor.
As the door faded above us, I turned looked down a staircase and
into a room below. Slowly I descended, looking around. "Where are we?"
"A secret room where all of the Moon's old sub computers are
located," Haruka explained from her perch next to Luna at the keyboard.
To my amazement, Luna could type. Not only that, but quite fast. I
blinked, feeling the need to laugh. My cat could type faster than I
could! Somehow it never bothered me that she could talk, but type? That
was a different story all together.
My eyes wondered over the room, taking in the three computers
lining one wall. But what really caught my attention was everything
else. The large room easily resembled a studio apartment - sections for
a living room, kitchen and bedroom full of furniture. "Who did all of
this?"
"We did," Mako-chan explained, looking around. "We had discussed
the possibility of the Sailor Senshi being discovered, as well as any
other number of emergencies and that the need for a place to hide would
become necessary. After careful planning, we decided this was the only
completely safe place and we began stocking it with items we would
need." She looked at Chibi-Usa, one finger thoughtfully on her chin.
"We didn't bring any baby items though, none of us thought of children
when we were planning."
I sighed, putting Chibi-Usa down and handing her a piece of paper
and pencil. She sat at my feet, sliding the pencil across the paper and
every now and then looking up to make sure I was paying attention. Ami
got up from the middle computer and sat down on the edge of the couch.
"Okay, from what I can tell the ripple has done three different things
that we know about. One, turned back the clock, so to speak. Just like
Mamoru-san's apartment is as if Usagi-chan was never there - there is
other places around the city that mirrors that effect. Tokyo Towers,
for one, is standing again."
"Do we know what time in the past it's gone back to?" Michiru
asked.
"No, because it didn't effect anything specific. Tokyo Towers is
still standing, but the building next to it that was torn down when it
blew up is still gone. There seems to be no pattern for which things
were affected. The second thing I know for sure," she went on, once
more opening her computer. "Is that something's have changed space. For
instance," she laid down a coin on the table in front of us. The penny
had a dime stuck inside of it. Mamo-chan picked it up, examining it. "I
found many things like this; rocks with tree limbs stuck in them, drink
cans with the plastic ring going through them and the like."
"Could a human and animal mix like this?" I blurted out, the
vision of Daiki still clear in my mind.
Ami's head jerked up, her mouth slightly open as if she were
trying to find her voice and couldn't. Finally she managed a whisper.
"You saw something like that?"
"At the laboratory," Mamo-chan thankfully explained for me. I
didn't know if I could stomach explaining what we had seen. "Daiki...
well, he looked like he had been crossed with one of our lab mice."
Ami flinched, as well as Michiru, Minako and Hotaru. I tried to
keep my thoughts blank, remembering made my stomach queasy. Ami
swallowed, nervously looking at her computer. "If that happened, then
there could be more like him." The possibility didn't sit well with any
of us.
"What's the third thing that you found out?" I whispered, hoping
to change the subject - although we couldn't avoid it forever.
"Oh," Ami replied, rubbing her hands on her arms briskly. "It
seems that while some things were affected one way or the other, and
some not at all - some were changed completely, as if part of another
reality leaked into this one."
"A part of another reality? How is that possible?" Rei asked,
looking up from her clasped hands for the first time since we had began
talking. She looked as deeply disturbed about all of this as the rest
of us, only she had yet to show it until now. "Another reality, as in
another universe?"
"No," Pluto said, stepping out of a Time Gate and watching it
disappear again before speaking. "Not another universe, just another
time line that works parallel to this one. Certain decisions you make
in your life course the trail you take to get from one point to another."
I stared blankly at the Senshi of Pluto, never did she sound as
much like Ami did at that moment - completely out of my understanding.
"I don't understand."
"Compare your fate to, say, a stream. It runs one course from
point A to point B. But what if someone dropped a large rock in it? It
would create two streams. Either those streams will continue on
opposite courses or meet up again at point B. At any point they could
separate again. Our life flows through time in much the same manner.
The alternate reality that Ami speaks of would come from a point in
which the streams - or our time line - broke apart by a decision,"
Pluto finished, holding her hands out in a hopeful way. I nodded my
head, understanding.
Only that understanding also brought fear. What if some decision
in my life had changed, which would perhaps explain why my belongings
weren't at Mamo-chan's... and how would it change what I know to be
true? I shook my head, not wanting to think to hard on the
possibilities and concentrate more on the solution. "So what do we do
to reverse this?"
Pluto shook her head, but Ami perked up. "We could find the exact
second in time it happened and reverse it," before Ami finished the
sentence, Pluto shook her head no. "Or we could try and recreate it,
which doesn't guarantee that it will help and not make things worse."
"We can't travel back in time and change things, we run too big a
chance of messing up the entire Time Currents and changing too many
things," Pluto warned, shaking her head. "It's out of the question."
"We have this," Mamo-chan said, pulling out the disk devise we
had found at the lab. "I suspect it is a time machine that one of the
scientists I work with was trying to create. But so far I have yet to
prove or disprove that. I'd need to find him and talk to him."
Chibi-Usa lost interest in her pencil and paper, standing up and
reaching for me to put her on my lap. I readjusted her, trying to
smooth down her hair. "Hungee, Mama," she complained, rubbing her eyes.
"Me, too, Mama," Shingo added.
I sighed, looking at my watch. Mamo-chan, already knowing what I
was going to do, went over to the kitchen area and began hunting for
food. Unfortunately, the choices were limited. "I'm going to make a run
to the store. While I'm out I'll drop by Heioko's and see what he can
tell me about this."
I placed Chibi-Usa in Shingo's lap and stretched as I stood. "I'm
going with you. Neither Shingo, Chibi-Usa or I have anything to wear
and I definitely need diapers for Chibi-Usa." Mamo-chan didn't look too
thrilled on the idea, but didn't stop me from joining him at the
stairs.
Minako promised they would look after the children, but as soon
as Chibi-Usa saw I was leaving, she began crying. I tried to go, but
leaving Chibi-Usa upset wasn't one of my strong points. Just before I
reached the top of the stairs, I ran back down and scooped her up,
sighing. "We'll be back." Mamo-chan shook his head at me as I joined
him.
We cautiously left the arcade and got in the car. The city seemed
peaceful enough. Some people who didn't realize what had happened were
heading to work. We pulled up in front of the twenty-four hour mart
and, preparing ourselves for anything we might see, went in. Not too
much was amiss, however. I placed Chibi-Usa in the shopping cart and we
started down the aisle.
The so far uneventful trip, however, was soon to take a plunge
downwards. Mamo-chan left me to get a loaf of bread as I continued to
pick out baby food and other things Chibi-Usa would need. I paid no
attention to the woman coming up the aisle, only when she stopped and
started at Chibi-Usa did I take notice. Her eyes were huge as she
stared at my child.
As casually as I could I walked back over to the cart and started
away, but the lady stepped in my path. I smiled, my shaking hands
revealing how nervous this woman made me. It wasn't that she was
intimidating as she was; long strawberry blonde hair, beautiful blue
eyes with long eyelashes and a child-like heart shaped face. But with
everything changed from the time ripple, I wasn't sure if this innocent
looking woman was so innocent at all. We stared at each other in almost
a challenging way. "Excuse me," I said politely, again trying to pass
her.
She shook her head no, looking not at me, but at Chibi-Usa. My
palms began to sweat I was gripping the shopping cart so hard. I began
backing up, but she put her small hands on the cart. "That's--that's my
baby," she said slowly, emotions clouding her voice.
I looked at her like she had grown two heads and was fixing to
jump off a cliff. "Nani?" I asked, smiling at her to amuse her idiotic
state.
She moved to the side of the cart, reaching for Chibi-Usa. I
picked her up quickly, stepping back. She reached her arms out, looking
angry at my denial of her claim. "That is my baby," she repeated
slowly, taking a step forward. For every step she took, I took two
back. "Yesterday, someone took her. You took her," she accused, coming
at me again.
I didn't wait to see what else she would say, I turned and ran. I
could hear her shoes slapping the concrete floor behind me, but I
didn't look back. I nearly slapped into Mamo-chan when I found him.
"Usako?!"
I ducked behind him, holding Chibi-Usa tight against my side. "A
woman... says Chibi-Usa is hers..." I gasped for breath, shaking so bad
I was scared I might drop the baby.
He started to question me when the woman came barreling down the
aisle, barely stopping herself from running into my husband. "That
woman has my baby!" she stated, hands on her hips. "Give her back!"
"Excuse me?" Mamo-chan asked, looking completely dumbfounded.
"I'm sorry, but Chibi-Usa is our child. Believe me, I was there when
she was born."
The petite woman put her hands on her hips and glared daggers at
Mamo-chan. "Her name is Miako and she is mine. You kidnapped her
yesterday from my home."
Mamo-chan's eyes grew huge and Chibi-Usa began crying.
"Kidnapped?" he repeated unbelievably. "You're crazy!" At that moment
one of the cashiers came running down the aisle, two policemen behind
him. "Shimatta."
"Mamo-chan," I whispered, backing up. Any escape I might have had
was blocked by the woman who started this mess. I looked from her to
the policemen that were five feet from us.
The shortest of the two officers stepped forward. The thick
glasses on his face made his eyes seem over large and sunken in on his
otherwise thin face. He pulled out a notepad, licking his finger to
turn a page and then flashed his eyes up at us. I had the distinct
feeling of knowing how fish viewed us through their tank. "What seems
to be the problem?"
"That woman has my baby," the lady to my right stated, stepping
towards me and reaching for Chibi-Usa. I moved away from her and closer
to Mamo-chan.
"She's mistaken," my husband began reasonably. "Chibi-Usa is mine
and my wife's child."
"Do you have a birth certificate to prove so?" the policeman
asked, writing something down.
"Of course," Mamo-chan replied, but stopped when he noticed the
blood drain from my face. All of my belongings were gone, that most
likely included Chibi-Usa's birth papers, pictures, shot records and
the like. "Not with us, though," Mamo-chan continued, trying to sound
casual.
"Right," the second policeman said, looking unconvinced. He
seemed to be more suspicious of anything said. I imagined he would have
to check to see if I were telling the truth if I told him the sky was
blue. He was slightly heavier than the first policeman though taller
and acted like he had something else he would rather be doing. He
turned his hazel eyes towards the woman who claimed to be the mother of
my child. "What's your name?"
"Youe Arika and my daughter's name is Youe Miako," she stated,
glaring at me. Determinedly I kept my mouth shut even though the urge
to slap her smug face coursed through my body.
"And you?" he then asked us.
Mamo-chan cleared his throat, his hand reaching for mine. "Doctor
Chiba Mamoru and Usagi. Our daughter's name," he said, pounding his
words into the air at Arika. "Is Chiba Usagi, named for her mother. We
call her Chibi-Usa."
"Well, yes, Doctor Chiba," the policeman said, sarcastically I
thought. "Until one of you can show me proof that this child is yours,
we're going to have to take her downtown."
"What?!" Mamo-chan bellowed.
"No!" I yelled, backing into a shelf and knocking a dozen or so
cans down. "You can't take my baby!"
The two policemen looked at each other and stepped towards me. I
shook my head, looking for an escape. "Chiba-san, don't make this
harder on everyone. If indeed the child is yours, bring the papers to
the precinct and you can be on your way. No harm done."
"No harm done?!" I screamed.
"Usako," Mamo-chan said sternly. "Just give him Chibi-Usa. You're
scaring her. There's nothing we can do but exactly what he said."
"But Mamo-chan!"
The policeman started to step forward and try to take Chibi-Usa,
but Mamo-chan put his hand up. "Usako, listen to me. We are her
parents. We'll go home, get her birth certificate and get her back.
Don't make things worse by fighting them."
Reluctantly we followed the policemen out to the car where I put
Chibi-Usa in the car seat and buckled her in. "Don't worry, sweetie.
We'll come and get you in a few minutes." I kissed her forehead and
backed away. When Chibi-Usa realized neither Mamo-chan or I was going
with her, she began crying. Even after the first policeman shut the
door, her wails found my ears and broke my heart.
As they rounded the corner, I turned to Arika and raised my fist
back. "Kisima**!" I screamed, preparing to release all my heartache
into my punch. The thought of her with a black eye and busted nose made
my pain slightly less.
Mamo-chan caught my hands and hugged me to him even though I
fought him. No matter how much I tired, though, he proved just how much
stronger physically he was than me. "No Usako," he soothed, nearly
crushing me against him. "She's not worth it. Let's go call the girls
and get our daughter back." Finally I stopped fighting and broke down
in tears, Mamo-chan almost having to carry me to our car. I couldn't
get the image of Chibi-Usa screaming out of my mind's eye. Over and
over again I heard her pitiful voice in my head.
@------
"The only way to prove that Chibi-Usa is yours is by blood tests
without any of the other papers." Ami broke the news to us the way a
doctor would tell his patient about a fatal illness. "Do either of you
still have the results from the test ran before she was born?"
Mamo-chan pulled out his wallet, fumbling through the sections.
Finally he produced a piece of paper. "But this doesn't prove who
Chibi-Usa is, only that Usako and I have had a paternity test ran. The
only other thing we have is some pictures I have in my wallet,
everything else is gone."
Ami stood up, going for her cell phone. "Take that down to the
station, I'll cal my mom and get her to bring a copy of the birth
certificate from the hospital and meet you there. Plus, she is Chibi-
Usa's doctor - she can testify to her identity."
Mamo-chan and I left, arriving at the police station shortly
after. I wanted to run inside and get Chibi-Usa back, but refrained
myself. After being redirected ten times - and passing some rather odd
things in the process - we found the child services personnel. "Excuse
me, I'm Chiba Mamoru and this is my wife, Usagi."
"Oh yes," the lady replied, effectively cutting Mamo-chan off in
mid-sentence. "Youe-san was already here and presented the proper
papers and took the child home. You two need to have a seat while I
call--"
"But it's not her child!" Mamo-chan demanded. I couldn't focus my
eyes and my knees began to feel weak. Mamo-chan put his arms around me,
leaning in to whisper in my ear. "Usako, listen to me, we--" His cell
phone began ringing and he yanked it off his belt loop, looking
aggravated. "Chiba."
I sat down in a chair while Mamo-chan listened to the person on
the phone. His face became pale as he hung up. "That was Ami, there are
no records of Chibi-Usa's birth at the hospital."
I began crying, tears falling from my eyes in endless floods.
"What are we going to do, Mamo-chan? My baby... our baby is gone..." As
I continued to cry, I failed to notice the hard look of determination
that came to my husband's face.
He bent down, to comfort me I thought, and began whispering in my
ear again. "I'm going to help you up. Walk towards the door, I'll be
right behind you. If someone tries to stop you, run. Understand?" I
nodded and he kissed my lips gently. "I love you, Usako. It's going to
be okay."
He stood up and took my hands, helping me up. After I got to my
feet, I started towards the door, not looking back. "Hey!" the woman
behind the desk yelled, standing up. "Where are you going? You can't
leave!"
I began running, dodging people and carts as I went. When I got
outside I turned back, Mamo-chan ran past me. "Get in the car!"
I didn't even stop to open the door, I just slid in the open
window and Mamo-chan took off, nearly hitting another car when he did.
As we sped through traffic and down another street towards the highway,
I found myself staring around like someone would suddenly pop up on the
side of the car and put a gun in my face. I was so scared I couldn't
stop my heart from beating twice as fast as normal. "Where are we
going?"
Mamo-chan didn't take his eyes off the road. He reminded me of
Haruka when she was racing. Finally he pulled into a gas station next
to a phone booth and parked the car. "I'm going to find where that
woman lives and get Chibi-Usa back." Without waiting for me to answer,
he got out of the car and went over to the phone book.
I tried to act casual, but my heart was racing so fast and
pounding so hard I just knew everyone in the parking lot could hear it.
Had we just ran from the police? And when we took Chibi-Usa back, we
would be considered kidnappers. I prayed Ami or Setsuna found a way to
reverse the time ripple soon. Mamo-chan jumped back in the car, a piece
of paper in his hand. "I have an address."
--End Chapter 4.
*- If you watch "X-Files" you may know exactly what I'm talking about
here.
**- Kisima translates literally to "you" but it's meant as a really
bad insult.
Taimumashin, for all who wants to know, means "Time Machine" which goes
with the idea in this chapter :)
So will Mamoru and Usagi get Chibi-Usa back? What other strange things
await the Senshi in this parrallel universe? Will I ever stop doing the
cliff hanger endings, thus ending my death threats forever? x_X;; Now
why, pray tell, would I want to end them? At least then I know someone is reading :}
Huge thanks to everyone who reads and reviews on Fanfiction.net and ASMR *huggles* ^_^!! And, of course, I can't forget my wonderful editor Meara -without her this story would be typed the way I talk - southern. And we all know that in the south - anything goes ^_~ *huggles Meara*
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