Among Friends, Part 7
Finding the Truth
By Taerir

All Sailor Moon references are the property of their respective owners. Any concepts, characters, world names, plotlines, and so on not found in the Sailormoon television series or manga are the property of the author, Taerir, copyright 1999. No duplication is permitted without written permission from the author.

Asami finally stepped back into her apartment building, after spending the evening by finding anything to do that would let her avoid going home. It looked as if there would only be one catastrophe after another with the coming of this new enemy. And now...

What am I going to do with myself? I'm relatively useless as a Guardian, and I'm not much of a leader or contributor... She glanced around her, suddenly determined. Nuru would be a better leader, and Asami would defend the others in any way she could; that was what she would do. Leader or not, Asami would give her life if needed... again.

An hour later, Asami stopped herself just before her hand touched the phone receiver for what seemed like the hundredth time since she had gotten home.

You don't need to call the others, she told herself firmly. If they want to talk, they'll call. There's no point in bothering them.

She sighed and settled back down on the couch. Never in her life had she felt so unneeded, and it was a feeling she definitely did not enjoy.

Nuru sat on a sidewalk bench quietly, watching the nighttime passerby travel the sidewalk. She wasn't surprised to find out about being Sailor Isis somehow; that part seemed natural. What disturbed her was not being able to remember a past life as a senshi, when Taerir and Sailor Ilia had seemed to imply that there was a past life she should be remembering.

The only thing she did have was a feeling that Taerir was an incompetent leader, but she didn't even have any memories or proof to back that up. None of it made sense.

One thing was certain. Nuru refused to go home tonight. Her mother would just ask questions, and Nuru never had the patience to handle that. She would just have to find somewhere else to sleep.

Someone cleared their throat uncertainly, and Nuru found that Sailor Ilia, in civilian form, stood waiting for Nuru to notice.

Nuru stood up. "Your name's Elina, right? Listen, I know I've only known you a few hours, but could I ask you a favor?"

Elina smiled. While she wasn't quite sure what exactly had changed Sailor Isis so much, she had decided that the only way she would ever find out would be to get to know the girl. "Sure."

"Could I stay with you tonight? I don't want to go home right now, and sleeping on a bench doesn't really appeal to me." As Elina laughed, Nuru continued. "So, what do you say?"

"Sure, why not?" Elina replied, still smiling. "We should probably get to know each other better anyway."

The two girls began walking back to Elina's home, chatting as they went.

Asami frowned as she heard a knock on the door. It was too late at night for most visitors. Wondering who could possibly have come by, she opened the door to find Mizuno Ami waiting on the other side.

The younger girl held up her portable computer with an apologetic smile. "I hope I'm not bothering you, Asami-san. I thought maybe there would be something in here that would help you find some of your other teammates."

"Come in," Asami told her. She sighed. "You might want to bring the suggestion to someone else, though. There was a little bit of an argument today."

"Over what?" Ami questioned, frowning as the two girls seated themselves.

Asami smiled humorlessly. "Our Sailor Isis challenged me as leader. She was right, so I stepped down."

"But haven't you known you were supposed to be a Gate Guardian longer than any of the others?" Ami protested. "You received the most training, and you were the most prepared."

"That doesn't make me more competent," Asami pointed out. "It just means I was more prepared in the past, and now, after everything that's happened, it doesn't mean that I'm the best choice anymore, or even that I was then. Isis' civilian name is Nuru... She pointed out that it could just have been favoritism."

Ami hesitated for a moment, and then opened her computer and punched in a few keys. "There might be something here on that. It's amazing how much information I find here, now that we're getting older and our memories are getting clearer." She paused, and then brightened. "Here it is. 'Queen Selenity of the Moon Kingdom conferred with her advisors to appoint a leader for the Gate Senshi. At length, all agreed that Rhanwyn al Llew was the best candidate, due to her extensive training in both combat and telepathy.'"

Asami said nothing.

"Asami-san..." Ami said, and bit her lip. "You were chosen fairly. Queen Selenity wouldn't have taken something like that lightly."

Asami leaned back in her chair, thinking for a moment. "Maybe it was true then, when we hadn't gotten a chance to show what we were really made of, but after that..." She grimaced, rising and going to the window. "I had my chance, and I lost that when I died. So we'll see if Nuru can do a better job. It's not about who people think the best leader should be; it's about who is really the best leader, who will keep the Gate team intact. I'll give other people a chance, because I may not be the best choice now."

"You didn't dishonor yourself by dying," Ami commented quietly. "We all died. I think it was fated to happen, in a way. I don't know why Sailor Isis objected to you, but I don't know her, either, so I don't know what kind of a leader she would be."

"Time will tell," Asami responded bleakly. "I'm not going to set Nuru up for failure before she even has a chance to start. I'll be there for them, no matter who leads us." She smiled. "But it's late, Ami-chan. I'll be fine, and if there's time soon, we can start looking for the other Gate senshi with your computer. Right now, I think we should all go to bed." Asami laughed a little. "And Kensaku is getting home tomorrow morning. I'd rather not crash his car into a telephone pole on the way to pick him up."

Ami smiled back. "I should get a little more studying done before bed, too. Cheer up, Asami-san. I'm sure it will all work out." Putting away her computer, Ami gave one last wave and left for home.

Asami awoke early the next morning.

It's Sunday, she thought with a groan. It's too early to be awake already. But the sacrifice was worthwhile, since it meant Kensaku was returning home from his short study trip. At the moment she felt very cut-off from her two fellow Gate senshi, and Kensaku always helped to make her feel better.

After getting dressed, she quickly grabbed something to eat, and headed out the door. She pulled out Kensaku's car keys and smiled, slightly wistful. No more borrowed car for a while... Not that she'd ever used it very often anyway.

Finally, she arrived at the airport and waited for Kensaku's flight to arrive.

Kensaku left the terminal gate and scanned the crowds at the airport. He smiled as his eyes focused on Asami, who was looking for him as well. While her face was turned in the other direction, he sidled closer and put an arm around her shoulders. She grinned and turned to face him, and he kissed her.

He glanced over her appraisingly. "Still alive?"

She laughed. "Yes, still alive."

Kensaku noted a pained expression behind her eyes, despite the smiles and laughter. "Wyna, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," she said nonchalantly.

He frowned. "I know you better than that; there's something wrong. Come on... I'll get my luggage, and you can tell me in the car on the way home."

Once everything was loaded, Asami sighed and told him of everything that had happened the day before. He smiled at her.

"I'm sure things will work out, sooner or later," he said. "But until they do, I'll still be here, you know."

She smiled back. "Thank you."

They parked, unpacked Kensaku's belongings, and left the apartments to enjoy the day.

Nami watched Asami and Kensaku enter a public recreation area and sit down by a public swimming pool.

Apparently, they're not the types to go for a swim. Well, we can change that. It's really too bad that it's such a dangerous passtime...

Nami entered the dressing room and found a lifeguard about to go on duty. Pulling the victim aside, Nami transformed the woman and pulled away to watch.

The youma entered the pool area and created a tidal wave which succeeded in dropping most of the swimmers onto the surrounding concrete. She glanced about for her next victim as Nami laughed to herself and watched from the shadows.

Can a team with a rift among them succeed? Nami thought, almost giggling. I guess now's the time to find out.

Many thanks to both Andromeda and Pisces yet again.