I flipped a coin and decided I'd finish my story today...
Hey ya'll, sorry for the randomness of that last chapter and if I lost some of you along the way, I promise more will become clear, (as I've just gotten glasses perhaps we'll not have so many typos ne?) but as I've said before, bear with me, I like obscurity ^_^ oh, wait this is me now --- @_@............... Well I think I'm funny and that's all that matters.
One more thing! Some were wondering about my horrible description of Serena and Casey hugging, and the two not quite brother and sister. Heh, yeah that was me trying to be allusive but it didn't work. So rather than trying to explain it in the story line and botch it up worse, I was referring to Rei and Mamoru as the two. ^_^; Sorry for the confusion!
FINALY!
Disclaimer - Godzilla does not belong to me. :(
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Love, Labors, Lost
Chapter 5: Clearing Mist
Rated: PG-13
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Once they arrived home, Usagi swooped up her son and deposited him carefully in very worried Kate's arms, before running wordless and teary eyed to her room.
A perplexed Kate looked to Max for an answer but he only shook his head in wonder, just as lost as his wife. She turned to the shaking boy in her arms, stroking his face lightly.
"What happened Casey-boy? What happened to your mother?"
He sat silent in her arms for a moment, going over what had happened slowly in his mind before giving her a careful reply.
"When she came to pick me up from school, I was with my new science teacher. I- I introduced them and she acted really weird. And when he left, she cried.
"Then, we were in the car and she wanted to take me to Burger King for dinner, and she seemed to be cheering up, but then, this guy, he gave her some money she dropped and she punched him! He said it was ok, and that she was just startled, but then we sat down and she screamed, and asked me if I'd seen him."
Kate looked at the boy horrified, "Who?"
Keisuke evaded her eyes, but when he didn't answer right away Kate shook him lightly,
"Who?! Who did she see?"
He squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "My papa!" He almost yelled.
Kate raised a brown brow, her green eyes widening in fear. She knew nothing of young Casey's father. The only thing Serena had ever said about him was that he was, "a very bad man", and she was glad Casey would never have to know what a scoundrel he was as he had passed away before she found out she was pregnant.
Kate snapped her head to the boy at the memory. "It can't be! You... Baby Doll your father is dead."
Keisuke clutched Kate's shirt as he looked up to the stairwell that lead to his mother room. "Mama..." he cried worriedly.
A crash was heard and Kate jumped, giving a small yelp of surprise. Max took her arm, and placing a coat around her shoulders, he quickly ushered them to the door.
"What are you doing?" Kate demanded of her husband, but he only shook his head as he closed the door behind them.
"She gave Case to you for a reason. She needs to be alone right now I think." He set Keisuke down and took Kate aside.
"I just want you to know Kate, when we get back, I WILL be asking some questions." He clicked a button on his key set and unlocked the family Highlander. "It's high time we got some answers."
***********************
Usagi screamed as she threw her coat across the room. It landed only with a soft thud so, unsatisfied, she picked up a leftover coffee mug from that morning and lodged it with every once of strength she had. It landed with a smash. She kicked the wall, she tore at her hair, and still it wasn't enough.
So she ripped out her wood dresser drawers one by one. They each landed with a crash, and it was a miracle they did not break. But Usagi would not have cared if they had; in fact it enraged her that they had not.
"COME ON!" she screamed, "Everything else is BROKEN in my life! Why don't you just break too?!" she kicked one of the drawers on the floor, shoving it up against her four posted bed.
She stopped dead upon realizing just how much this bed looked like her old one back in Japan, with its golden crescent moons and wise ruby suns. The mahogany bed polls gliding down like a staircase was the only difference. She kicked it too.
Not picking up anything more for her to throw Usagi screamed again until her voice cracked and she slumped down on the edge of her bed, spent.
Looking down she spotted an upside down frame lying on the floor. She raised her foot to smash it, but reconsidered, and picked it up instead. She stared blankly at it for a few seconds, trying desperately to recognize the happy go lucky girl the picture portrayed, side by side with a mischievous looking young man.
The girl was wearing what seemed to be a sailor uniform, with a long blue pleated skirt, and a loose white top with blue trim, a red bow hiding her chest from view. She was facing the young man; a beam gracing her innocent features, and one hand was resting on a pink broche, nested in the middle of the red bow. Her glowing sun-kissed blonde hair was done up in two perky balls atop her head. Long silky ropes of hair hung down below them, and were slightly adrift by a wind that must have swept across her at the time of the photographing.
The boy was adorning a loose, white, button up top with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A wild black mop of hair was hanging into his striking azure eyes, above one a dark brow was raised suggestively. The hand closest to the viewer was wrapped lightly around his companion's thin waist, and the other, hidden from view, was strung through the belt loop in his faded blue jeans.
It took the girl, Usagi, so different from the carefree one in the picture, quite sometime to realize that she was once that girl, and the gorgeous young male was also once hers as well.
How that boy had changed, only eighteen at the time of the photographing, he was now a man of twenty-three, making his living and carrying on with life. He had forgotten all about her.
She scolded herself. She knew for a fact that was far from the truth, and she knew perfectly well what bound him from seeing that the person who had stood in front of him not even five hours ago was, in fact, his long lost love.
She set the picture down and snorted at the laptop that lay next to it.
She opened it to find her last document, fresh from just that morning, still haunting her desktop.
She gave a bitter smile as she pressed the 'enter' key and began to type.
***********************
You want to know the truth? I'll give it to you, you God dammed son of a bitch, I know you'll haunt me till I do.
Endymion took us to the Crystal Palace. He explained to us our past, our present and then finally our future.
Apparently the Black Moon family was one that rejected the purifications of my Imperial Silver Crystal after I allegedly came to the thrown and awoke the people of Earth from a deep sleep that had been cast upon them sometime in the twenty-first century.
The family had mutated somehow, and had become overwhelmingly powerful. They were filled with negative energy and, of course, like all the other negative energy crap we've fought, they were power hungry as well.
But there's a catch, a story they won't tell in the moon records, or even earthen ones.
First I'll say what they do tell you.
Neo Queen Serenity, my future self, if you can believe a pathetic loser like me could ever have earned that title, in any timeline, ran outside the safety of the Royal Palace to find her missing daughter.
Apparently her eyes clashed menacingly with a pair of ice ones, belonging to none other than the Black Moon prince himself. She was hit dead on with an energy blast from him and was imprisoned in a crystal encasing by her loyal Sailor Senshi in a fierce attempt to save her life.
Here's what they don't tell you.
Prince Demando, as he was called, had an infatuation with the Queen. He hated her and loved her all at once. He was a torn man, or at least that is what he told me.
He wanted her, no! NEEDED her, and this was impossible as long as she sleep in that glass prison.
What's a man to do? Well, conveniently for him, he found me in the 20th century. According to him, what age I was didn't matter. I was Serenity. End of topic.
That's how he chose me. That's why I live in hell.
***********************
"Do you really think writing what you already know will help you any?" A cool voice whispered inside her head. Usagi jumped.
"Where are you? Show yourself you- you coward!" she commanded.
His laughter boomed, making Usagi grab her head. "*I* am a coward Usa?" he laughed again. "I was dead. Don't you remember? I died for you!"
Usagi jumped up from her chair, fists clenched. "I said SHOW YOURSELF!"
"As you wish Princess." He sneered and suddenly the voice was no longer in her head but very real and very present.
She felt an ice-cold breath on her neck, and she whirled around, ready to fight, to face her fears. But fate had other plans.
She turned around and there he was, the man that tormented her nightmares, and now even her days as well. She opened her mouth to scream, tried to move her legs to fight, but she was frozen.
He was *here*. Demando, here. The thought hit her with a crash, and made her stumble backwards a little, as if she had been physically hit.
He stared at her; his blue-tinted lips curved in a smile that didn't reach quite reach his frigid eyes.
"This is what you wanted isn't it Usako?" he queried, taking a step towards her.
"You- you can't call me that." She bit; wanting to sound commanding but it came out only as a weak sob.
"Oh can't I?" he asked her playfully.
"How are you--?" Usagi barely choked, grasping one of her bed polls.
"Alive?" The man, Demando, snickered. "Does it matter?" he said, raising his white-gloved hands in the air before clasping them behind his back.
"I'm here aren't I? I can finally claim what's MINE." He took a challenging step towards her and laughed heartily when she stumbled backwards, grabbing the bed pole with both hands now to keep her balance.
"MAX!" Usagi yelled for her fosterer, but to no avail as her voice cracked halfway through his name.
"You still don't get it, DO you Usa?" Demando mused, whirling around so that his back was facing her.
"You," she bit through stinging tears, "are DEAD!" Usagi screamed, barely rasping out her words coherently.
Demando swirled back around to face her, his poor frightened rabbit. He frowned, all those years of HIM, he thought bitterly. He lifted his index finger to his lips thoughtfully. "WAS dead, Love."
"How DARE you!" she screamed again, both arms griping the pole as if it were her only lifeline.
"You cut your hair." He realized suddenly, speaking as an old friend would. He measured it up with his hands calmly.
"And you changed the style of it." Usagi was fully sobbing now and she sank to the floor as he continued to taunt her.
"It used to be in to odangos no? And I am almost certain it came down past your knees. Now it's barely past your shoulders!" he shook his finger at her teasingly, "And do you really need those glasses?"
Demando knelt down to her level and removed them. For Usagi's part all she could do was cry, paralyzed with fear, she made so move to stop him.
"They hide your beautiful baby blues!" he whispered softly, trying to sound gentle, but that edge of mockery still lined his voice.
"Why are you here?" she croaked, defeated. When he only starred at her, the same cold smile lining his features, she screamed, bouncing forcefully on every word, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"
"WHAT?" he held out his arms defensively. "Can't an old friend visit another old friend?"
"You are NOT--" she started but he cut her off.
"Oh I should have known you wouldn't buy into that. You're too smart for me Usako. But Baby." he lifted her chin with two fingers so that her eyes met his. He ignored the blatant fear he saw and continued. You KNOW what I want! I want the same thing I've always wanted."
Usagi's eyes widened and she screamed one last ear-piercing scream and Demando laughed, as she fell unconscious to the ground, all after he whispered one deadly word into her ear.
"You."
***************************
She awoke an hour later to find him sitting in her computer chair looking over her story. At the sight of him she let out a small whimper hunching, defeated, into a corner of her room.
At the movement, Demando turned his head calmly towards her, "Welcome back," he said smiling slightly, only it seemed to her now that that same cold smile never left his lips.
Usagi hugged her legs closer to her chest.
He waved a hand casually to her lap top monitor, "This is rather... Pointless? Don't you think?" He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the bridge of his nose, as a student who had been up all night studying would.
Usagi didn't speak, she only stared, the light in her eyes, that spark, the flare she had for life, gone.
"I mean I'm sure you thought it would help you," he continued. "With what exactly I'm not sure." Then a thought crossed Demando's eyes as they light up, "What did happen anyway? Your story says you left. You left your friends? Your family? Tokyo? With my son..."
Usagi jumped to her feet, screaming in Japanese, "You're no father of his! And if you lay one slimy hand on him by God Demando I'll-"
"Oh he's mine all right. I can tell by looking at him. He has my brilliance, my charm..." he interrupted, smirking.
"He's NOTHING like you." Usagi rudely bit through clenched teeth.
Demando waved his hand nonchalantly, propping his feet up on an over thrown dresser drawer. "Whatever. Think what you like. Who else would his father be, that pathetic excuse for a King?" He sneered, knowing he was reaching her limit. Right where he needed to be.
Usagi sobered up then, his last comment had been a little overdone she realized. She took a deep breath to clear her mind, and closed her eyes, clenching her fist. "Come on Tsukino, if you can survive all the looks you get, and all the comments from those jerks at school, you can live through this." She thought, however she knew that this was different. Way different. This was not just some immature high school boy. This was a man. A man who knew exactly what he was dong. A man who had-
Before she could disprove her own thoughts any further and dissipate her courage entirely, she looked up at him, and spoke, keeping her voice as steady as possible.
"At least my Mamo-Chan had honor. At least he was a real man."
Demando's eyes widened as he looked down at his hands and realized he had started to fade. "Shit." He muttered. He glanced up from his flickering hands to Usagi's piercing blues, set for this moment at least, with determination and strength.
"Of all the-" he sputtered, but was quickly becoming too enraged to speak so instead, he flew at her. But just as she let out a shriek and braced herself for impact, his already fading form disappeared entirely. Only his menacing voice filled the room as he laughed his last echoing words.
"You'll be mine yet Serenity! Just you wait! You'll be mine!"
***********************
"So did you like the movie Casey?" Usagi jumped to her feet as she heard Max's deep voice rumble outside the door and his keys jingle as they turned the lock.
"YEAH! I ESPECIALLY liked the part where the Godzilla was like "RARR"--" Keisuke stopped his re-enactment of the famous sea monster hen he caught sight of his mother, trembling in the dining room; her hand resting on the table for support.
"B-baby?" she whispered, speaking as if any louder tone would cause him to be gone from her sight again.
"Mama!" he called happily, jumping out of Kate's arms and running over to his mother.
Usagi fell to her knees and embraced her son tightly, holding onto him for dear life.
After her ordeal with Demando she had come downstairs to talk to Keisuke and explain as best she could her actions earlier that day. However when upon looking she discovered him to not be anywhere in the house, she began to panic. She ran outside and searched there only to find the Anderson's Highlander was also missing. She then retreated inside and slumped down at their dinning room table, doing the only thing she could do, wait.
She lifted her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes when they clashed with Max's, and narrowed. She smoothed down Keisuke's hair and kissed his forehead lovingly, never taking her eyes off her male fosterer's.
Max hung up his coat on the rack behind him breaking their unspoken staring contest. A shiver went down Keisuke's back as he felt the icy atmosphere start to settle around his mother and older caretakers.
Usagi swallowed and stood up straight, placing one soft hand on her son's shoulder.
"Baby go to your room," she commanded softly, "The grown-ups have some things they need to discuss." She said, finishing coldly.
Keisuke bit his lip, "Mama..." he protested but was cut off by Max.
"Do as your mother says Casey."
Outnumbered now he gave one last look to his mother before retreating cautiously up the stairs to his room.
Once she was sure he was fully out of earshot Usagi turned on the couple before her, enraged.
"How DARE you take MY son out of this house without my knowing it! How am I supposed to trust you? If he had been hurt, or lost, or if you had gotten into a car crash or some other dreadful thing how would I have known huh? TELL ME HOW I WOULD HAVE KNOWN!"
Usagi realized that she shouldn't be as angry with them as she was. Under these same circumstances what she thought of as a normal mother, that is one who hadn't gotten pregnant out of wedlock and was old enough to handle it, would probably not be as upset, but she, Usagi, was not a normal mother, nor did she have a normal life. And thus was her rationalization.
Max growled at her and only shrugged off the calming hand Kate had placed on his arm. He strode over to Usagi, and towered over her small form, dwarfing her significantly. He pushed her firmly back into the chair she had raised from minutes before. She looked up frantically into his eyes; the anger fueling her was gone and was now replaced by fear.
"You listen here Serena Tsukino, sorry if that's not your "old name" but it's the only one I know." Usagi tried to protest but he continued on.
"YOU handed Casey to US and flew up the stairs. Now I know that I am no longer your legal guardian, but you, YOU have entrusted yourself and your son into my wife's and my care.
"That MEANS that if ever I judge you are not in a fit state to care for your son, OR if I determine that Casey's well being is at stake, it is my DUTY to do what I think best for the both of you. And today I thought it best not to disturb you in your temper tantrums, but I ALSO thought it best that Casey should not have to hear his mother in such a frantic state."
Usagi's rage was set off again as she screamed, much like a child, at whom at the moment she thought to be her opponent.
"How DARE you say those things! You have NO idea what I've been through!"
"That's RIGHT!" Max almost sobbed as he fell to his knees. Usagi gasped as he grabbed her hands.
"That's right Serena, we have no idea whatsoever what you've been through. Do you know why? Because in all the years we've been with you, you've never given us any information, save the bare minimum, about your life up to when we met you, and even afterwards."
Usagi's eyes widened at his now gentle tone, as the Max she knew returned.
She laughed inwardly at her own words. Of course they knew nothing. She'd never even thrown them a line to nibble on. Why? She knew why. She swore to herself long ago she'd never trust someone that much again. Trust got you hurt, and the last thing she needed was to be hurt again.
But just as the doors of her heart were about to close once more, a hand slipped in the crack and held it in place. Max squeezed her hands lightly and brought her attention back to him.
"We want to know." The door was opened an inch, and Usagi's eyes widened again at his words.
"Know? Wha- what's to know?" Usagi whispered.
"We want to be able to help you Serena, and I know that for my part, I- I die a little inside every time you shut yourself in from us." She turned around as she heard Kate's kind voice behind her, and felt her warm hand rested on her back.
Her eyes flew back to Max's as water threatened to fall from them. "Max?"
Max nodded in agreement. "Despite all the things you hide from us Serena, we-," he swallowed not used to saying the words that came next. "We love you, Serena."
The doors were flung wide open as Usagi, for the first time in all the years she had known them, broke down and cried in front of the Andersons. She threw herself into Max's awaiting arms and cried as if she had never cried before.
Kate's eyes too, filled with tears as she knelt down and joined, her husband and Serena, no, her family, on the floor, embracing them both tightly.
She hoped beyond hope that now she would finally able to help the precious girl in her arms. Not like she had helped her in the past with just a place to stay and some food. No, like how she wanted to help her three years ago when she first saw her in that shelter back in New York.
When she saw her sitting huddled in the corner feeding her one-year-old baby boy the only way she could, Serena's pain became hers. She had clutched her husband's shirt, because in this then fifteen-year-old girl's eyes she saw the whole world. She saw the fear of the thought of what she would do when her baby became too old for her ilk. She saw the sadness of loosing a family, a future, a life. She had lost all of it, before she had even been able to begin it. What she saw was maturity where there should be naiveté, knowledge in the place of innocence, and emptiness where there was life.
But the thing that told Kate that this girl was not beyond all hope was the love she saw for the tiny life in her arms. As much pain as his birth had given her, Kate saw it in the girl's eyes that she blamed none of her misfortune on her son. In her gaze at him, Kate saw only undying love.
Serena and Casey knew that they had met in a baby store next to the shelter. They knew that the couple was there on a tour of the city, but Kate knew that that was a line of shit.
Kate and Max were there for her. If not her exactly, they were there to foster someone in need of them. But at that first sight, Kate knew exactly why she was there. She knew that this girl and her son were the reason why God lead her to the path she was on.
Kate sat up and wiped her eyes, and looked into Usagi's and for the first time since that day at the shelter she could see clear into her soul. Her walls were down, and Kate knew that now, finally, she'd be able to help. She'd be able to help heal her heart.
"Will you tell us then Serena? Tell us what makes you cry yourself to sleep every night?" Max asked tenderly, wiping away the tears from her eyes with his thumbs.
Usagi nodded and smiled. Her heart felt light; she was finally going to tell! She was going to share her pain and it was going to be all right.
***********************
"I was fourteen." Usagi said after taking a sip of water. She, Kate and Max were sitting at their circular dinner table in the dinning room.
She swallowed hesitantly, unsure about how to continue. Where does one start with such a story? She started to feel guilty once again as she realized that even this story couldn't be the complete truth. She couldn't tell them she was Sailor Moon, they would think she was crazy. In America the story of Sailor Moon was a myth, and was actually turned into a TV show. She almost fainted the first time she saw an advertisement for it on TV.
NO! Usagi screamed at herself, regaining her resolve. She could tell them the basics and leave out the magic involved. She'd kept this in for far too long and if she had to a minute longer she was afraid she'd die of the burden.
"I was fourteen," she began again. "I had a wonderful life, a boyfriend, five best friends, un-divorced parents, even a snotty little brother. I loved them all so, SO much. But-"
She tore the corners off her napkin and gritted her teeth.
"Do you need--?" Kate tried to ask, placing a hand on Usagi's.
"No! No, I'm fine..." she hesitated slightly, God it really was an impossible story to start!
"First I should probably tell you two that I wasn't born in New York. Or even America." She looked back to her torn napkin to avert her eyes from their shocked ones.
"I was born in Japan actually. Born and raised, well until I was fourteen anyway. My real name... Shit!" She cried. "I'm sorry this is so drawn out."
"Don't apologize, it's OK, take as much time as you need." Max interjected reassuringly. "You're real name?" he started again for her.
"Right." She smiled. "My real name is Usagi Tsukino, and Casey's is really Keisuke. But I'd prefer that you'd not say anything. Serena and Casey are fine, just think of them as nicknames, please?" she blurted out in a hurry.
"Sure, whatever you want." Kate smiled warmly at her.
"Thanks." Usagi sniffed, feeling better every minute. She needed more though; it wasn't enough to just stop there. So in the next few minutes Usagi found herself pouring it all out, every ounce of her soul for the first time since it happened. It: her life, everything. She wanted it gone.
"I knew him, Keisuke's father. He was... an enemy of mine actually. But he wasn't quite, quite right in the head. I reminded him of someone, someone he thought he loved. So he-- Well... he..." She started to stutter again. HOW did one DO these things? Should she just blurt it out? Should she beat around the bush? Should she--? But her thoughts were interrupted by Kate's soft gasp.
"He... Oh Serena, he didn't! Tell me he didn't!" Kate blurted out suddenly gripping Usagi's hands.
Max's brows furrowed as his gaze heated on the two women. "Didn't what?"
Usagi swallowed hard. Here goes. "Rape me. She wants to know if he... if he raped me." She turned away as the shame burned in her heart. "I- well I guess some people would call it that but, it couldn't have been. I mean... I guess. That is..." Usagi furrowed her own brows in confusion. Was that what it was? Rape? She'd never thought about it that way except once when that girl, Jenn, from her school, when she told her of her experience she found herself thinking of it as rape. But she'd never actually thought about what to call it exactly.
Kate rubbed her arm, gently rubbing the fabric of Usagi's pink cardigan sweater against her skin. "Sweetheart were you willing?" She asked softly, the thought suddenly hitting her that Usagi might not realize fully what had happened to her. If it was rape, there was a very good chance that Usagi might not even be aware that the fault didn't lie with her.
Usagi looked down. "Well, no. Not really. But it was my fault Kate! I mean at least part of it lies with me! It takes two to tango doesn't it?" She really wasn't sure anymore. Was what Demando told her when she awoke that dreadful day the truth?
Kate's features softened in pure anguish for this girl. "No honey. If you didn't want it, and he made you do it anyway, then that is in NO way your fault."
"But," Usagi protested, "but I didn't do anything to stop him! He took me totally by surprise, and after that surge from the Dark-" She struggled to find a word to replace 'Dark Crystal', "Wine. He gave me some dark wine, that's the last thing I remember all that clearly." It wasn't a total lie. When explaining to her the effects of the power surge he had given her from the Dark Crystal, Demando said that it was much like the buzz people get once they have consumed quite a bit of wine.
She had always partly blamed herself for what had happened with Demando. She thought that because she didn't make an effort to fight him off, she had betrayed her Mamo-Chan somehow. But as she spoke he actual account aloud for the first time, what she'd been trying to accomplish all along with her writing slowly started to unravel here. She was searching for some sort of understanding, a resolution to her toil, a reason why things were the way they were.
"Serena, you mean he gave you wine, and then you two...?" Max asked, trying to fit the pieces of a puzzle he'd been trying to solve for so long together.
"He, he threw me on the bed, and told me that he loved me, and that he was way better than Mamoru would ever be for me. I didn't understand what he was doing at first until I was naked and--" She stopped, choking on a sob.
Max just sat there, eyes ablaze with rage, while Kate threw down her chair and embraced Usagi tightly, rocking her gently, trying with all her might to ease the young girl's pain.
"I didn't know what to do!" Usagi sobbed in her own defense, even though she didn't know whom she was defending herself to. "I said stop but he just wouldn't listen! I didn't want to betray Mamo-Chan but I had no choice! I couldn't get away!"
Usagi cried into Kate's shoulder as she rocked her back and forth for a while, before suddenly pulling her at arms length.
"Now you look here," Kate said, tears lining her own eyes as tried to wipe away Usagi's. "NONE of that was your fault do you hear me? NONE of it! I don't care if you were as sober as a priest, what he did to you was NOT YOUR FAULT. Do you understand me?" Kate shook her a little to get her point across as Usagi nodded meekly.
"I want to hear you say it." Kate ordered.
Usagi swallowed, but even though she was crying and on her knees, she felt as thought she could fly.
"It wasn't my fault."
She said it soft at first, just barely above a whisper. But it felt good and she smiled as she said it again, louder this time.
"It wasn't my FAULT."
"That's it sweetheart it wasn't your fault." Kate coaxed on further, laughing and crying with joy at Usagi's release.
It was OK. Usagi knew it was OK. Whatever might come after this, whatever Demando wanted to do to her, it was going to be OK. Because for the first time in five years, she couldn't feel him hovering over her heart, because she now knew,
"IT WASN'T MY FAULT!"
***********************
A couple neighborhoods away a phone was ringing off its hook. A handsome young man dashed, dripping wet, out of the shower. He caught the phone in the nick of time, wrapping a white towel loosely around his waist.
"Hello? Oh! Moshi moshi Kaze sensei." His deep voice switched quickly to his native tongue of Japanese. "Hai Sensei, I just picked out the student today... His name? Casey Tsukino... uh huh, he's of Japanese decent but that's not why I picked him sir, don't worry... Top of the class sir... Yes sir, thank you for your call... Hai, I'll call you as soon as I get permission from his parents, well, mother... You bet... Oh sorry sir it's an American phrase...Hai talk to you then... Sayonara."
Mamoru Chiba hung up the phone with a sigh, but couldn't help smiling at the thought of his student, Casey Tsukino. His grin broadened when he thought of his mother, Serena. She looked so much like Usagi, even if they were plainly different... somehow... But he knew this was the start of something new, something good.
He kept smiling as he made his way to pick up the bathroom. Oh yes, this was something very good indeed.
***********************
Phew! Well that's all for now folks! Next part will be out anywhere from next week, to the 6th (of January) to a month. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please review!!!! Oh! And whish me luck on getting my Driver's Permit! (UG! FAILED it the first time, BUT NOT AGAIN!)
LOVE YOU ALL AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Hey ya'll, sorry for the randomness of that last chapter and if I lost some of you along the way, I promise more will become clear, (as I've just gotten glasses perhaps we'll not have so many typos ne?) but as I've said before, bear with me, I like obscurity ^_^ oh, wait this is me now --- @_@............... Well I think I'm funny and that's all that matters.
One more thing! Some were wondering about my horrible description of Serena and Casey hugging, and the two not quite brother and sister. Heh, yeah that was me trying to be allusive but it didn't work. So rather than trying to explain it in the story line and botch it up worse, I was referring to Rei and Mamoru as the two. ^_^; Sorry for the confusion!
FINALY!
Disclaimer - Godzilla does not belong to me. :(
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Love, Labors, Lost
Chapter 5: Clearing Mist
Rated: PG-13
***********************
Once they arrived home, Usagi swooped up her son and deposited him carefully in very worried Kate's arms, before running wordless and teary eyed to her room.
A perplexed Kate looked to Max for an answer but he only shook his head in wonder, just as lost as his wife. She turned to the shaking boy in her arms, stroking his face lightly.
"What happened Casey-boy? What happened to your mother?"
He sat silent in her arms for a moment, going over what had happened slowly in his mind before giving her a careful reply.
"When she came to pick me up from school, I was with my new science teacher. I- I introduced them and she acted really weird. And when he left, she cried.
"Then, we were in the car and she wanted to take me to Burger King for dinner, and she seemed to be cheering up, but then, this guy, he gave her some money she dropped and she punched him! He said it was ok, and that she was just startled, but then we sat down and she screamed, and asked me if I'd seen him."
Kate looked at the boy horrified, "Who?"
Keisuke evaded her eyes, but when he didn't answer right away Kate shook him lightly,
"Who?! Who did she see?"
He squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "My papa!" He almost yelled.
Kate raised a brown brow, her green eyes widening in fear. She knew nothing of young Casey's father. The only thing Serena had ever said about him was that he was, "a very bad man", and she was glad Casey would never have to know what a scoundrel he was as he had passed away before she found out she was pregnant.
Kate snapped her head to the boy at the memory. "It can't be! You... Baby Doll your father is dead."
Keisuke clutched Kate's shirt as he looked up to the stairwell that lead to his mother room. "Mama..." he cried worriedly.
A crash was heard and Kate jumped, giving a small yelp of surprise. Max took her arm, and placing a coat around her shoulders, he quickly ushered them to the door.
"What are you doing?" Kate demanded of her husband, but he only shook his head as he closed the door behind them.
"She gave Case to you for a reason. She needs to be alone right now I think." He set Keisuke down and took Kate aside.
"I just want you to know Kate, when we get back, I WILL be asking some questions." He clicked a button on his key set and unlocked the family Highlander. "It's high time we got some answers."
***********************
Usagi screamed as she threw her coat across the room. It landed only with a soft thud so, unsatisfied, she picked up a leftover coffee mug from that morning and lodged it with every once of strength she had. It landed with a smash. She kicked the wall, she tore at her hair, and still it wasn't enough.
So she ripped out her wood dresser drawers one by one. They each landed with a crash, and it was a miracle they did not break. But Usagi would not have cared if they had; in fact it enraged her that they had not.
"COME ON!" she screamed, "Everything else is BROKEN in my life! Why don't you just break too?!" she kicked one of the drawers on the floor, shoving it up against her four posted bed.
She stopped dead upon realizing just how much this bed looked like her old one back in Japan, with its golden crescent moons and wise ruby suns. The mahogany bed polls gliding down like a staircase was the only difference. She kicked it too.
Not picking up anything more for her to throw Usagi screamed again until her voice cracked and she slumped down on the edge of her bed, spent.
Looking down she spotted an upside down frame lying on the floor. She raised her foot to smash it, but reconsidered, and picked it up instead. She stared blankly at it for a few seconds, trying desperately to recognize the happy go lucky girl the picture portrayed, side by side with a mischievous looking young man.
The girl was wearing what seemed to be a sailor uniform, with a long blue pleated skirt, and a loose white top with blue trim, a red bow hiding her chest from view. She was facing the young man; a beam gracing her innocent features, and one hand was resting on a pink broche, nested in the middle of the red bow. Her glowing sun-kissed blonde hair was done up in two perky balls atop her head. Long silky ropes of hair hung down below them, and were slightly adrift by a wind that must have swept across her at the time of the photographing.
The boy was adorning a loose, white, button up top with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A wild black mop of hair was hanging into his striking azure eyes, above one a dark brow was raised suggestively. The hand closest to the viewer was wrapped lightly around his companion's thin waist, and the other, hidden from view, was strung through the belt loop in his faded blue jeans.
It took the girl, Usagi, so different from the carefree one in the picture, quite sometime to realize that she was once that girl, and the gorgeous young male was also once hers as well.
How that boy had changed, only eighteen at the time of the photographing, he was now a man of twenty-three, making his living and carrying on with life. He had forgotten all about her.
She scolded herself. She knew for a fact that was far from the truth, and she knew perfectly well what bound him from seeing that the person who had stood in front of him not even five hours ago was, in fact, his long lost love.
She set the picture down and snorted at the laptop that lay next to it.
She opened it to find her last document, fresh from just that morning, still haunting her desktop.
She gave a bitter smile as she pressed the 'enter' key and began to type.
***********************
You want to know the truth? I'll give it to you, you God dammed son of a bitch, I know you'll haunt me till I do.
Endymion took us to the Crystal Palace. He explained to us our past, our present and then finally our future.
Apparently the Black Moon family was one that rejected the purifications of my Imperial Silver Crystal after I allegedly came to the thrown and awoke the people of Earth from a deep sleep that had been cast upon them sometime in the twenty-first century.
The family had mutated somehow, and had become overwhelmingly powerful. They were filled with negative energy and, of course, like all the other negative energy crap we've fought, they were power hungry as well.
But there's a catch, a story they won't tell in the moon records, or even earthen ones.
First I'll say what they do tell you.
Neo Queen Serenity, my future self, if you can believe a pathetic loser like me could ever have earned that title, in any timeline, ran outside the safety of the Royal Palace to find her missing daughter.
Apparently her eyes clashed menacingly with a pair of ice ones, belonging to none other than the Black Moon prince himself. She was hit dead on with an energy blast from him and was imprisoned in a crystal encasing by her loyal Sailor Senshi in a fierce attempt to save her life.
Here's what they don't tell you.
Prince Demando, as he was called, had an infatuation with the Queen. He hated her and loved her all at once. He was a torn man, or at least that is what he told me.
He wanted her, no! NEEDED her, and this was impossible as long as she sleep in that glass prison.
What's a man to do? Well, conveniently for him, he found me in the 20th century. According to him, what age I was didn't matter. I was Serenity. End of topic.
That's how he chose me. That's why I live in hell.
***********************
"Do you really think writing what you already know will help you any?" A cool voice whispered inside her head. Usagi jumped.
"Where are you? Show yourself you- you coward!" she commanded.
His laughter boomed, making Usagi grab her head. "*I* am a coward Usa?" he laughed again. "I was dead. Don't you remember? I died for you!"
Usagi jumped up from her chair, fists clenched. "I said SHOW YOURSELF!"
"As you wish Princess." He sneered and suddenly the voice was no longer in her head but very real and very present.
She felt an ice-cold breath on her neck, and she whirled around, ready to fight, to face her fears. But fate had other plans.
She turned around and there he was, the man that tormented her nightmares, and now even her days as well. She opened her mouth to scream, tried to move her legs to fight, but she was frozen.
He was *here*. Demando, here. The thought hit her with a crash, and made her stumble backwards a little, as if she had been physically hit.
He stared at her; his blue-tinted lips curved in a smile that didn't reach quite reach his frigid eyes.
"This is what you wanted isn't it Usako?" he queried, taking a step towards her.
"You- you can't call me that." She bit; wanting to sound commanding but it came out only as a weak sob.
"Oh can't I?" he asked her playfully.
"How are you--?" Usagi barely choked, grasping one of her bed polls.
"Alive?" The man, Demando, snickered. "Does it matter?" he said, raising his white-gloved hands in the air before clasping them behind his back.
"I'm here aren't I? I can finally claim what's MINE." He took a challenging step towards her and laughed heartily when she stumbled backwards, grabbing the bed pole with both hands now to keep her balance.
"MAX!" Usagi yelled for her fosterer, but to no avail as her voice cracked halfway through his name.
"You still don't get it, DO you Usa?" Demando mused, whirling around so that his back was facing her.
"You," she bit through stinging tears, "are DEAD!" Usagi screamed, barely rasping out her words coherently.
Demando swirled back around to face her, his poor frightened rabbit. He frowned, all those years of HIM, he thought bitterly. He lifted his index finger to his lips thoughtfully. "WAS dead, Love."
"How DARE you!" she screamed again, both arms griping the pole as if it were her only lifeline.
"You cut your hair." He realized suddenly, speaking as an old friend would. He measured it up with his hands calmly.
"And you changed the style of it." Usagi was fully sobbing now and she sank to the floor as he continued to taunt her.
"It used to be in to odangos no? And I am almost certain it came down past your knees. Now it's barely past your shoulders!" he shook his finger at her teasingly, "And do you really need those glasses?"
Demando knelt down to her level and removed them. For Usagi's part all she could do was cry, paralyzed with fear, she made so move to stop him.
"They hide your beautiful baby blues!" he whispered softly, trying to sound gentle, but that edge of mockery still lined his voice.
"Why are you here?" she croaked, defeated. When he only starred at her, the same cold smile lining his features, she screamed, bouncing forcefully on every word, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"
"WHAT?" he held out his arms defensively. "Can't an old friend visit another old friend?"
"You are NOT--" she started but he cut her off.
"Oh I should have known you wouldn't buy into that. You're too smart for me Usako. But Baby." he lifted her chin with two fingers so that her eyes met his. He ignored the blatant fear he saw and continued. You KNOW what I want! I want the same thing I've always wanted."
Usagi's eyes widened and she screamed one last ear-piercing scream and Demando laughed, as she fell unconscious to the ground, all after he whispered one deadly word into her ear.
"You."
***************************
She awoke an hour later to find him sitting in her computer chair looking over her story. At the sight of him she let out a small whimper hunching, defeated, into a corner of her room.
At the movement, Demando turned his head calmly towards her, "Welcome back," he said smiling slightly, only it seemed to her now that that same cold smile never left his lips.
Usagi hugged her legs closer to her chest.
He waved a hand casually to her lap top monitor, "This is rather... Pointless? Don't you think?" He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the bridge of his nose, as a student who had been up all night studying would.
Usagi didn't speak, she only stared, the light in her eyes, that spark, the flare she had for life, gone.
"I mean I'm sure you thought it would help you," he continued. "With what exactly I'm not sure." Then a thought crossed Demando's eyes as they light up, "What did happen anyway? Your story says you left. You left your friends? Your family? Tokyo? With my son..."
Usagi jumped to her feet, screaming in Japanese, "You're no father of his! And if you lay one slimy hand on him by God Demando I'll-"
"Oh he's mine all right. I can tell by looking at him. He has my brilliance, my charm..." he interrupted, smirking.
"He's NOTHING like you." Usagi rudely bit through clenched teeth.
Demando waved his hand nonchalantly, propping his feet up on an over thrown dresser drawer. "Whatever. Think what you like. Who else would his father be, that pathetic excuse for a King?" He sneered, knowing he was reaching her limit. Right where he needed to be.
Usagi sobered up then, his last comment had been a little overdone she realized. She took a deep breath to clear her mind, and closed her eyes, clenching her fist. "Come on Tsukino, if you can survive all the looks you get, and all the comments from those jerks at school, you can live through this." She thought, however she knew that this was different. Way different. This was not just some immature high school boy. This was a man. A man who knew exactly what he was dong. A man who had-
Before she could disprove her own thoughts any further and dissipate her courage entirely, she looked up at him, and spoke, keeping her voice as steady as possible.
"At least my Mamo-Chan had honor. At least he was a real man."
Demando's eyes widened as he looked down at his hands and realized he had started to fade. "Shit." He muttered. He glanced up from his flickering hands to Usagi's piercing blues, set for this moment at least, with determination and strength.
"Of all the-" he sputtered, but was quickly becoming too enraged to speak so instead, he flew at her. But just as she let out a shriek and braced herself for impact, his already fading form disappeared entirely. Only his menacing voice filled the room as he laughed his last echoing words.
"You'll be mine yet Serenity! Just you wait! You'll be mine!"
***********************
"So did you like the movie Casey?" Usagi jumped to her feet as she heard Max's deep voice rumble outside the door and his keys jingle as they turned the lock.
"YEAH! I ESPECIALLY liked the part where the Godzilla was like "RARR"--" Keisuke stopped his re-enactment of the famous sea monster hen he caught sight of his mother, trembling in the dining room; her hand resting on the table for support.
"B-baby?" she whispered, speaking as if any louder tone would cause him to be gone from her sight again.
"Mama!" he called happily, jumping out of Kate's arms and running over to his mother.
Usagi fell to her knees and embraced her son tightly, holding onto him for dear life.
After her ordeal with Demando she had come downstairs to talk to Keisuke and explain as best she could her actions earlier that day. However when upon looking she discovered him to not be anywhere in the house, she began to panic. She ran outside and searched there only to find the Anderson's Highlander was also missing. She then retreated inside and slumped down at their dinning room table, doing the only thing she could do, wait.
She lifted her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes when they clashed with Max's, and narrowed. She smoothed down Keisuke's hair and kissed his forehead lovingly, never taking her eyes off her male fosterer's.
Max hung up his coat on the rack behind him breaking their unspoken staring contest. A shiver went down Keisuke's back as he felt the icy atmosphere start to settle around his mother and older caretakers.
Usagi swallowed and stood up straight, placing one soft hand on her son's shoulder.
"Baby go to your room," she commanded softly, "The grown-ups have some things they need to discuss." She said, finishing coldly.
Keisuke bit his lip, "Mama..." he protested but was cut off by Max.
"Do as your mother says Casey."
Outnumbered now he gave one last look to his mother before retreating cautiously up the stairs to his room.
Once she was sure he was fully out of earshot Usagi turned on the couple before her, enraged.
"How DARE you take MY son out of this house without my knowing it! How am I supposed to trust you? If he had been hurt, or lost, or if you had gotten into a car crash or some other dreadful thing how would I have known huh? TELL ME HOW I WOULD HAVE KNOWN!"
Usagi realized that she shouldn't be as angry with them as she was. Under these same circumstances what she thought of as a normal mother, that is one who hadn't gotten pregnant out of wedlock and was old enough to handle it, would probably not be as upset, but she, Usagi, was not a normal mother, nor did she have a normal life. And thus was her rationalization.
Max growled at her and only shrugged off the calming hand Kate had placed on his arm. He strode over to Usagi, and towered over her small form, dwarfing her significantly. He pushed her firmly back into the chair she had raised from minutes before. She looked up frantically into his eyes; the anger fueling her was gone and was now replaced by fear.
"You listen here Serena Tsukino, sorry if that's not your "old name" but it's the only one I know." Usagi tried to protest but he continued on.
"YOU handed Casey to US and flew up the stairs. Now I know that I am no longer your legal guardian, but you, YOU have entrusted yourself and your son into my wife's and my care.
"That MEANS that if ever I judge you are not in a fit state to care for your son, OR if I determine that Casey's well being is at stake, it is my DUTY to do what I think best for the both of you. And today I thought it best not to disturb you in your temper tantrums, but I ALSO thought it best that Casey should not have to hear his mother in such a frantic state."
Usagi's rage was set off again as she screamed, much like a child, at whom at the moment she thought to be her opponent.
"How DARE you say those things! You have NO idea what I've been through!"
"That's RIGHT!" Max almost sobbed as he fell to his knees. Usagi gasped as he grabbed her hands.
"That's right Serena, we have no idea whatsoever what you've been through. Do you know why? Because in all the years we've been with you, you've never given us any information, save the bare minimum, about your life up to when we met you, and even afterwards."
Usagi's eyes widened at his now gentle tone, as the Max she knew returned.
She laughed inwardly at her own words. Of course they knew nothing. She'd never even thrown them a line to nibble on. Why? She knew why. She swore to herself long ago she'd never trust someone that much again. Trust got you hurt, and the last thing she needed was to be hurt again.
But just as the doors of her heart were about to close once more, a hand slipped in the crack and held it in place. Max squeezed her hands lightly and brought her attention back to him.
"We want to know." The door was opened an inch, and Usagi's eyes widened again at his words.
"Know? Wha- what's to know?" Usagi whispered.
"We want to be able to help you Serena, and I know that for my part, I- I die a little inside every time you shut yourself in from us." She turned around as she heard Kate's kind voice behind her, and felt her warm hand rested on her back.
Her eyes flew back to Max's as water threatened to fall from them. "Max?"
Max nodded in agreement. "Despite all the things you hide from us Serena, we-," he swallowed not used to saying the words that came next. "We love you, Serena."
The doors were flung wide open as Usagi, for the first time in all the years she had known them, broke down and cried in front of the Andersons. She threw herself into Max's awaiting arms and cried as if she had never cried before.
Kate's eyes too, filled with tears as she knelt down and joined, her husband and Serena, no, her family, on the floor, embracing them both tightly.
She hoped beyond hope that now she would finally able to help the precious girl in her arms. Not like she had helped her in the past with just a place to stay and some food. No, like how she wanted to help her three years ago when she first saw her in that shelter back in New York.
When she saw her sitting huddled in the corner feeding her one-year-old baby boy the only way she could, Serena's pain became hers. She had clutched her husband's shirt, because in this then fifteen-year-old girl's eyes she saw the whole world. She saw the fear of the thought of what she would do when her baby became too old for her ilk. She saw the sadness of loosing a family, a future, a life. She had lost all of it, before she had even been able to begin it. What she saw was maturity where there should be naiveté, knowledge in the place of innocence, and emptiness where there was life.
But the thing that told Kate that this girl was not beyond all hope was the love she saw for the tiny life in her arms. As much pain as his birth had given her, Kate saw it in the girl's eyes that she blamed none of her misfortune on her son. In her gaze at him, Kate saw only undying love.
Serena and Casey knew that they had met in a baby store next to the shelter. They knew that the couple was there on a tour of the city, but Kate knew that that was a line of shit.
Kate and Max were there for her. If not her exactly, they were there to foster someone in need of them. But at that first sight, Kate knew exactly why she was there. She knew that this girl and her son were the reason why God lead her to the path she was on.
Kate sat up and wiped her eyes, and looked into Usagi's and for the first time since that day at the shelter she could see clear into her soul. Her walls were down, and Kate knew that now, finally, she'd be able to help. She'd be able to help heal her heart.
"Will you tell us then Serena? Tell us what makes you cry yourself to sleep every night?" Max asked tenderly, wiping away the tears from her eyes with his thumbs.
Usagi nodded and smiled. Her heart felt light; she was finally going to tell! She was going to share her pain and it was going to be all right.
***********************
"I was fourteen." Usagi said after taking a sip of water. She, Kate and Max were sitting at their circular dinner table in the dinning room.
She swallowed hesitantly, unsure about how to continue. Where does one start with such a story? She started to feel guilty once again as she realized that even this story couldn't be the complete truth. She couldn't tell them she was Sailor Moon, they would think she was crazy. In America the story of Sailor Moon was a myth, and was actually turned into a TV show. She almost fainted the first time she saw an advertisement for it on TV.
NO! Usagi screamed at herself, regaining her resolve. She could tell them the basics and leave out the magic involved. She'd kept this in for far too long and if she had to a minute longer she was afraid she'd die of the burden.
"I was fourteen," she began again. "I had a wonderful life, a boyfriend, five best friends, un-divorced parents, even a snotty little brother. I loved them all so, SO much. But-"
She tore the corners off her napkin and gritted her teeth.
"Do you need--?" Kate tried to ask, placing a hand on Usagi's.
"No! No, I'm fine..." she hesitated slightly, God it really was an impossible story to start!
"First I should probably tell you two that I wasn't born in New York. Or even America." She looked back to her torn napkin to avert her eyes from their shocked ones.
"I was born in Japan actually. Born and raised, well until I was fourteen anyway. My real name... Shit!" She cried. "I'm sorry this is so drawn out."
"Don't apologize, it's OK, take as much time as you need." Max interjected reassuringly. "You're real name?" he started again for her.
"Right." She smiled. "My real name is Usagi Tsukino, and Casey's is really Keisuke. But I'd prefer that you'd not say anything. Serena and Casey are fine, just think of them as nicknames, please?" she blurted out in a hurry.
"Sure, whatever you want." Kate smiled warmly at her.
"Thanks." Usagi sniffed, feeling better every minute. She needed more though; it wasn't enough to just stop there. So in the next few minutes Usagi found herself pouring it all out, every ounce of her soul for the first time since it happened. It: her life, everything. She wanted it gone.
"I knew him, Keisuke's father. He was... an enemy of mine actually. But he wasn't quite, quite right in the head. I reminded him of someone, someone he thought he loved. So he-- Well... he..." She started to stutter again. HOW did one DO these things? Should she just blurt it out? Should she beat around the bush? Should she--? But her thoughts were interrupted by Kate's soft gasp.
"He... Oh Serena, he didn't! Tell me he didn't!" Kate blurted out suddenly gripping Usagi's hands.
Max's brows furrowed as his gaze heated on the two women. "Didn't what?"
Usagi swallowed hard. Here goes. "Rape me. She wants to know if he... if he raped me." She turned away as the shame burned in her heart. "I- well I guess some people would call it that but, it couldn't have been. I mean... I guess. That is..." Usagi furrowed her own brows in confusion. Was that what it was? Rape? She'd never thought about it that way except once when that girl, Jenn, from her school, when she told her of her experience she found herself thinking of it as rape. But she'd never actually thought about what to call it exactly.
Kate rubbed her arm, gently rubbing the fabric of Usagi's pink cardigan sweater against her skin. "Sweetheart were you willing?" She asked softly, the thought suddenly hitting her that Usagi might not realize fully what had happened to her. If it was rape, there was a very good chance that Usagi might not even be aware that the fault didn't lie with her.
Usagi looked down. "Well, no. Not really. But it was my fault Kate! I mean at least part of it lies with me! It takes two to tango doesn't it?" She really wasn't sure anymore. Was what Demando told her when she awoke that dreadful day the truth?
Kate's features softened in pure anguish for this girl. "No honey. If you didn't want it, and he made you do it anyway, then that is in NO way your fault."
"But," Usagi protested, "but I didn't do anything to stop him! He took me totally by surprise, and after that surge from the Dark-" She struggled to find a word to replace 'Dark Crystal', "Wine. He gave me some dark wine, that's the last thing I remember all that clearly." It wasn't a total lie. When explaining to her the effects of the power surge he had given her from the Dark Crystal, Demando said that it was much like the buzz people get once they have consumed quite a bit of wine.
She had always partly blamed herself for what had happened with Demando. She thought that because she didn't make an effort to fight him off, she had betrayed her Mamo-Chan somehow. But as she spoke he actual account aloud for the first time, what she'd been trying to accomplish all along with her writing slowly started to unravel here. She was searching for some sort of understanding, a resolution to her toil, a reason why things were the way they were.
"Serena, you mean he gave you wine, and then you two...?" Max asked, trying to fit the pieces of a puzzle he'd been trying to solve for so long together.
"He, he threw me on the bed, and told me that he loved me, and that he was way better than Mamoru would ever be for me. I didn't understand what he was doing at first until I was naked and--" She stopped, choking on a sob.
Max just sat there, eyes ablaze with rage, while Kate threw down her chair and embraced Usagi tightly, rocking her gently, trying with all her might to ease the young girl's pain.
"I didn't know what to do!" Usagi sobbed in her own defense, even though she didn't know whom she was defending herself to. "I said stop but he just wouldn't listen! I didn't want to betray Mamo-Chan but I had no choice! I couldn't get away!"
Usagi cried into Kate's shoulder as she rocked her back and forth for a while, before suddenly pulling her at arms length.
"Now you look here," Kate said, tears lining her own eyes as tried to wipe away Usagi's. "NONE of that was your fault do you hear me? NONE of it! I don't care if you were as sober as a priest, what he did to you was NOT YOUR FAULT. Do you understand me?" Kate shook her a little to get her point across as Usagi nodded meekly.
"I want to hear you say it." Kate ordered.
Usagi swallowed, but even though she was crying and on her knees, she felt as thought she could fly.
"It wasn't my fault."
She said it soft at first, just barely above a whisper. But it felt good and she smiled as she said it again, louder this time.
"It wasn't my FAULT."
"That's it sweetheart it wasn't your fault." Kate coaxed on further, laughing and crying with joy at Usagi's release.
It was OK. Usagi knew it was OK. Whatever might come after this, whatever Demando wanted to do to her, it was going to be OK. Because for the first time in five years, she couldn't feel him hovering over her heart, because she now knew,
"IT WASN'T MY FAULT!"
***********************
A couple neighborhoods away a phone was ringing off its hook. A handsome young man dashed, dripping wet, out of the shower. He caught the phone in the nick of time, wrapping a white towel loosely around his waist.
"Hello? Oh! Moshi moshi Kaze sensei." His deep voice switched quickly to his native tongue of Japanese. "Hai Sensei, I just picked out the student today... His name? Casey Tsukino... uh huh, he's of Japanese decent but that's not why I picked him sir, don't worry... Top of the class sir... Yes sir, thank you for your call... Hai, I'll call you as soon as I get permission from his parents, well, mother... You bet... Oh sorry sir it's an American phrase...Hai talk to you then... Sayonara."
Mamoru Chiba hung up the phone with a sigh, but couldn't help smiling at the thought of his student, Casey Tsukino. His grin broadened when he thought of his mother, Serena. She looked so much like Usagi, even if they were plainly different... somehow... But he knew this was the start of something new, something good.
He kept smiling as he made his way to pick up the bathroom. Oh yes, this was something very good indeed.
***********************
Phew! Well that's all for now folks! Next part will be out anywhere from next week, to the 6th (of January) to a month. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please review!!!! Oh! And whish me luck on getting my Driver's Permit! (UG! FAILED it the first time, BUT NOT AGAIN!)
LOVE YOU ALL AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!