No, your eyes do not deceive you, I really am back. I know it's been a long time since I've update (the longest it's ever taken me, in fact) but you should notice that this is the most complex story I've written so far. The others kinda suck. (except for 'merry Christmas, Mr. Yui' and 'Let's get one thing straight… I'm not') Anyway, the main problem is that I was finishing up school and had a bunch of finals and then the day after school let out for summer I left for Japan for a month. I went to school for two weeks there (it was hard cause all the classes were in Japanese) and then visited my family for the remainder of the time. I had a BLAST by the way and bought all of the Fruit Basket manga that's out so far. After that, I came home and started working as well as having some home problems. Then, I started to finish these chapters and my best friend's grandfather died. My mother has known my best friend's father since she was ten and so she grew up with his family much like I have grown up with Justin (my best friend). She was devastated and still is. I took some time to just be with her.
I hope you like these two chapters, I was kinda iffy on this one.
Sorry for the wait, Read and Review if you want the next chapter, I already have it done.
Chapter 12
Author: Fate's Child (Terra Brooks)
Date: April 30, 2002
E-mail: Prncss_Earth@hotmail.com
"Damn." Serenity gave a quick frown. "I forgot about that. We did make his life a living hell though, didn't we?" Heero smiled back.
"Yeah. Since Makoto was in charge of the kitchens all of his meals were messed up. Everyone targeted him in practice, Michiru and Haruka refused to play music when he was in the room, Rei accidentally burned his clothes, Ami made sure that any book he wanted in the library was out and you-" He broke off and blushed.
"Are you blushing, Heero?!" Serenity smirked. "It wasn't that bad. You guys just made sure to lead Endymion to me while Duo and I were… occupied."
"He almost had a heart attack." Heero smiled.
"My memories of him are a little fuzzy, though. Could you tell me who I was engaged to?"
"Actually, for all intents and purposes, you were engaged to Duo. But because he wasn't from Earth and your mother thought of the alliance thing, she was going to talk to you about marrying the Earth Prince." He sneered. "We told her to ask you and you told her no way in high holy hell would you ever agree to even be in the same room with him if you had your way. Pretty soon he got upset and left the palace with those snot nose guards of his."
"I killed them." For the first time since doing so, Serenity was glad. She suddenly remembered how- "Oh my god." Her voice dropped. "I killed all of them."
"What?"
"Beryl's generals. I killed all of them. Well, Beryl killed Zoicyte and put Jadeite into a crystal. Nephrite was killed by Zoi, so I guess it was just Kunzite that I killed."
"Who?"
"The generals I was telling you about. Beryl's minons? I'd forgotten." Her voice got soft. "Jadeite and Nephrite were pure evil along with Endymion even back in the Silver Millennium. But Zack (Zoi) and Keven (Kunzite) were in love with Ami and Minako." Heero looked solemn as Serenity lowered her head trying to come to terms with the fact that she'd killed her best friend's lovers.
* * *
"You know, I never figured you for a sadistic bitch," Rei said thoughtfully as she looked at Lita from where she was perched on the ground.
"I never figured you all were THAT out of shape. With the exception of Minako, you guys'll never be ready!" Makoto gripped. Rei and Ami just glared. "Anyway, we'll have one more joining us in a few minutes. She just went to go get some supplies…" Makoto smiled.
"Who?" Minako questioned. She looked down at her friends in amused disappointment. "You guys, it's only been one day. Not even. It's the end of the first day, only six hours since Mako-chan told you." Before either senshi could come up with a come back, a quiet voice broke into their thoughts.
"I'm here, guys." They all turned around to notice the senshi of rebirth and silence.
"Heya, Taru!" Minako chirped.
"Run, Hotaru," Ami groaned. "You're too young to be tortured like this. Run while you still can!" Everyone looked at Ami in mild amazement for a moment since the comment was so out of character.
"No thanks, Ami-san." Hotaru replied. "I already started training with Haruka-papa a long time ago. I still have a lot to learn from Mako-chan though." She dropped the three bags she'd been carrying. "Here's the supplies."
"Thanks T…" Makoto gave one last look of amused disgust to the senshi on the ground. "I am going to head home and shower, pick up a few things from the apartment and plan on staying here for the remainder of the training period. I suggest that ALL of you find a way to skip school. All your attention needs to be focused here, on me." Ami opened her mouth, but Minako beat her too it.
"You guys have no clue what it is like living in the AC period. It's tough, it's dirty, and it's dangerous. If we're expected to fight during that time we're going to need every second of this month. When we get back, if we get back, we can study all we want. But for now…" she gave a grim smile, "we're out of school. Besides, Ami, you're like twenty two chapters ahead."
"How are we going to convince everyone that it's okay to be out of school?"
"I'll take care of it." Makoto smiled. "I'll hack into the school data base and send out an e-mail telling the head of school that we've all been chosen to do a strict program here at the temple by a very important teacher. Your grandfather will vouch he's taking care of it." Rei paled.
"Grandpa? What are you going to do to-"
"Nothing that hasn't already been done, Rei." The fire senshi tried not to gape as her grandfather walked out of the temple, much taller then he'd been before. He was still short, but…
"Grandpa?"
"Yes and no. In the future I am one of the doctors who creates the gundams. Specifically, Gundam 05. They call me Master, or Doctor O." Rei sat dumbfounded for a moment before turning to Makoto with a hurt anger in her eyes.
"You knew about this?"
"I just learned recently that Pluto had your grandfather taken back in time to watch over us-"
"And it never occurred to you to tell me?!"
"Rei, we just made up with each other. Don't do this." Mako's voice was quiet.
"And you're just sooooo calm." Rei rolled her eyes. "Sure, why shouldn't you be? I mean, no one lied to you."
"Rei, what do you want me to say?" Makoto angrily spun on her heels. "You want me to show up and say 'hi, Rei your grandfather's not really your grandfather, he's a crazy doctor from the future that builds a killing machine'? I figured that he'd tell you when he was ready. You want to try hiding everything that you are from the people that are supposed to be your friends? You think that this was easy for me? You think that pretending that I was all alone was easy when I knew that my little brother was in a future where he could be killed for trying to survive?"
"Makoto-"
"No. You all shut up and listen to me. We are supposed to be a team. We are supposed to trust each other not because our lives usually depend on it but because we're supposed to be friends. Best friends. And best friends try to share everything together. But because of some bad twist in the timeline, that's not how it worked out. Haruka, Usagi, Minako and I all had to either forget or hide who we really were. There was deceit and lies and-" she broke off with a frustrated scream. "You want to yell at me, fine. Maybe I deserve it. But do it now. When this night is over we will either be friends or I will simply be your commanding officer."
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry!" Rei turned around and looked at her grandfather. "You should have told me! I hate being lied to and deceived, you know that! My father did too much deceiving." Here eyes started to sting with tears and she angrily wiped away a tear. "I hate this! I hate doing this!" Minako put a hand on her shoulder.
"Crying?"
"No, fighting with you guys. I beat myself up after I pushed you away. And I… I just want things to get back to the way it was before. I don't want to have to learn to live another life." Makoto narrowed her eyes. 'Damn, this is a pointless argument. What's she getting at?'
"What's really bothering you, Rei?"
"I killed her, okay?!"
"Killed her?"
"Usagi, Serenity, whoever the hell she is! I know that I should have been there, everything you said that night was right."
"No, not everything. I know this isn't going to be easy, Rei. I know this is going to be one of the hardest things we'll all have to do. But trust me, your life is about to get a whole lot better. I personally know that the future has some very important… things involved."
"I'm incapable of having healthy relationships with anyone." Rei turned around and started to walk away.
"Rei Hino, you freeze right now." It was Ami that spoke.
"You think that this is supposed to be easy?" Hotaru asked.
"It's going to be hard and painful, but that's what friendships about." Minako looked at her seriously.
"Where do you think they get all the clichés from? Friendship, just like true love hurts like hell. But it's the laughter and the study groups that dissolved into gossip sessions and the shopping and the trusting and healing that make friendship worth it."
"How can you put up with me?"
"Because we love you, silly." Minako giggled.
"And because as much pain as you're in, Rei, we've felt it too. We all lost something that night and instead of banding together like we should have, we fought and slashed each other to bits because we were hurting. With the exception of Usagi, none of us ever had friends, REAL friends before." Makoto looked at Ami and the ice senshi picked up where the brunette had left off.
"And maybe we started out the wrong way. We all have what it takes to be great friends, friends that will be together forever." Ami started to pace, a habit she had never showed in front of the senshi. It showed that she didn't have complete control or full knowledge of everything around her-something she'd always seen as a weakness. As she figured things out, she mentally smiled. Not anymore. They were going to get all of Ami. "But we didn't start out as friends, we started out as teammates. And while this may work for other, being a group of young adolescent girls… we all felt, on some level that we HAD to become friends. That we HAD to protect our princess and do our duty. And we started out doing it because it was our duty and not because we were friends. That's how it was in the Silver Millennium and how it should have been here. We should have found each other and befriended each other and LOVED each other before we started fighting. Because that's what Usagi always saw that we didn't. She saw us for ourselves, she saw us as friends before she ever saw us as senshi. Do you remember the first time you met her?" Ami continued after a short pause.
"Before she found out that I was the senshi of Mercury, she went out of her way to apologize for participating in the gossip about me. Then she brought me to the arcade. She tried to be my friend before she tried to be my princess and fellow senshi."
"She said that I was incredible for doing what I was doing: training to be a Shinto priestess." Rei said, looking up at her friends.
"She sat with me at lunch even though every one told her I was the karate maniac."
"She let Chibi-Usa become friends with me regardless-" Everyone paused at Hotaru's comment.
"Oh god! Chibi-Usa!" Ami looked panicked and took out her computer.
"That pink haired devil was a POSSIBLE future for us. Not the one we're having though. Don't worry about it." Makoto smiled at the slightly relieved look on everyone's face. "Has anyone seen Mamoru lately?"
"Nope. He disappeared almost as soon as you did. We haven't heard from him since." Minako looked thoughtful. "Not that I mind because she didn't love him." All of the senshi looked shocked. Makoto sighed and explained EVERYTHING Serenity had said to her before she'd died. After another bought of tears over how they couldn't believe what awful friends they'd been, everyone came to the same conclusion.
"Friends first, senshi last." It was a dangerous thing to do, promise that they would fight with their hearts first and not their warrior instincts but it was what Serenity had always done and she was the greatest friend and leader they could have ever had. Makoto and the senshi (minus Rei) decided to head to home for showers and most of their things-they also decided they would all move into the temple to train and learn more about each other-Rei headed in to talk to her grandfather.
Before entering the temple, Rei looked up into the sky and smiled at the moon. Maybe things would be okay after all. For them all.
End chapter.
August 4, 2002
If you ask me why it has taken roughly five days for this to be posted read about Justin's grandfather on the top of the page at author's notes. The next chapter is a little longer and will be out tomorrow or the next day depending on when I can get to a computer to post it. But let me tell you one thing. No reviews, no chapters. Love you all,
Fate
