Chapter Fourteen – Not Everything Stands Forever
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***
Aiyana lay back in her hospital bed, thoroughly refreshed. It had been a long weekend, hard won, but she had lived through it and got a reward—not too small, either—for her endurance.
Her smile went dreamy when she remembered the feeling of her first kiss. Butterflies started flitting in her stomach like never before, and she knew that it had nothing to do with the baby, even though she had started kicking soon after Masaya pulled away. No, these were different butterflies…soft and not unlike the ones she had felt when Masaya first looked into her eyes, yet a hundred times more intense.
The happiness was somewhat lessened when she saw a blue flash move away from the doorway of the kitchen. She just barely caught the look on Izumi's face, and it was one that she was not unfamiliar with…jealousy.
Suddenly the puzzle pieces clicked in place and Aiyana felt like a fool all over again. Izumi liked Masaya; she had a crush on him.
Now, she thought, perhaps she shouldn't have berated herself as she did. After all, since Masaya continuously called Ami "Aunt Ami" and referred to the children as his cousins, it was hard for Aiyana to remember that they were not really related. Obviously, though, Izumi was very aware of the fact.
Masaya, however, seemed oblivious. After they cleaned up the cake remnants, he had called the twins in the kitchen for a quick dessert emergency, and they'd spent the time waiting for Ami and Mitsuru making cookie-cutter shapes in the dough they rolled out. By the time the Amesuinos made it home, they had a batch in the oven and were eating dinner, Izumi included this time.
She was very quiet through the dinner, and excused herself early.
On the way home in Masaya's car, she had asked him about it.
"Masaya-sensei, you know you're not really Izumi-san's cousin, right?"
He'd laughed. "Of course I know that," he said. "Sometimes I forget, though."
"She doesn't."
"What are you talking about?"
"She likes you, Masaya-sensei."
"I know."
"You do?" Aiyana peered up at him. Perhaps he was more perceptive than she thought.
"Oh, you mean…" Scratch perceptive. Masaya reddened a little and kept his eyes on the road. "How do you know?"
"I could kind of tell. I mean, it's a little obvious." She said the last part with indignance for Izumi's sake. Was the man blind?
"It is?" He resisted the urge to chuckle. "Well…I guess I never contemplated the fact that she could. I mean, we're all so close…like cousins, aunts, uncles, just like we call each other. Ami, my mom, and my two other aunts—Rei and Mako—they worked together when they were younger, and they got really close. So it was only natural for us to grow up close. I've always seen Izumi-chan as my little cousin, not much more, just like I see Hitomi and Megami—those are Rei and Mako's daughters and they're about the same age." Masaya paused, then looked at Aiyana. "But I guess that explains why she was acting so strange this weekend."
Aiyana looked down at her fingernails. "If you only see your thirteen-year- old cousin like that…" She looked back up at him. "I'm only four years older than them, and you're…nearly seven Earth years older than me. That's a lot here, isn't it? So how do you see me?"
"Kami-sama," cried Masaya. That was not a question he wanted to answer. He could barely answer it to his own self, much less to the object of his dilemma. "It's different. I was eleven years old when they were born. I remember their mothers being pregnant with them, for kami-sama's sake."
Aiyana had not asked anymore on the matter, a little smile on her face.
There was a short knock on the hospital room door. Rather than be surprised by the entrant, Aiyana applied a new phrase she had learned for answering the door. "Who is it?"
"Ami."
"Come in, Dr. Amesuino-sensei."
Ami burst in, looking harried. But she smiled. "Konnichi wa, Aiyana, how're you feeling today?"
"Just fine," said Aiyana, smiling again.
Ami smirked. "What happened?" she said. "You've never smiled quite like that before."
Aiyana shook her head, blushing.
"Could this sudden happiness have anything to do with my daughter's glumness, apparently acquired sometime this weekend?"
"Hai, it could…" Aiyana looked back up, eyes sparkling. "But I'm not telling you."
"He kissed you, didn't he?"
"How did you guess?" Aiyana asked incredulously, blushing furiously.
"Only thing that could have happened. I mean, Masaya would never…not while you're pregnant, at least…" Ami eyed Aiyana, but she was just confused. The doctor smirked again. "Anyway, Izumi-chan probably saw it, and got a little jealous, hmm?"
Aiyana nodded, feeling bad…bad and happy at the same time, if that was possible.
"Yes, I figured something like that might have happened. I know my daughter, and I know my nephew."
"Is Izumi-san all right?" Aiyana asked timidly. She felt like a heel.
Ami waved a hand. "Oh, she'll be fine. She'll get over it. Teenagers always do, after a while; they have this emotional resiliency that no one else can have." Ami smiled. "And about you. How do you feel?"
"I didn't want to make Izumi-san sad…"
"About yourself, honey. I tell you, Izumi will be fine."
Aiyana nodded. "Great, I guess," she said, letting her shyness evaporate at the remembrance of it. "The butterflies, the heat, the blushing, just like all the little clichés say."
"What do you know about that?"
"We had clichés on Proximi, too, Dr. Amesuino-sensei," said Aiyana, giggling a little. "The girls talked about it a lot. A lot of them got taken advantage of by the older military men, but when they talked about first kisses, boy did they talk."
"And you were let in on these conversations?" Ami raised an eyebrow.
Aiyana smiled. "I was sort of a listener," she said. "I couldn't very well participate…I had no idea what they were talking about. I didn't even know what a crush was. I couldn't grasp the concept of liking someone so much you obsessed over them." Aiyana sighed. "It was as if my emotions had been removed from me for five years."
"Five?"
"The farthest back I can remember was twelve, and I was in the military then."
Ami nodded. "Oh, I remember what I came in here to tell you about," she said, and looked gravely at Aiyana. "Two of my comrades want to talk to you."
Aiyana's eyes widened.
"They just want to question you. They've promised that anything they tell you will remain a secret…they won't even tell the other Senshi, just as I've promised you." Ami stared at Aiyana. "They are definitely going to keep their promise, you won't need to worry about that. Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru are two of the most trustworthy people in the world." Ami looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I don't know why they want to question you and keep what they find a secret, but…each one to their own, I guess. Perhaps for the same reason I choose to keep what I find out from you a secret.
"It's very hard…the other Inner Senshi, my comrades, are like sisters to me. We've grown up together, been through many hard times together, bonded throughout time. When I was younger, I used to be a nerd." Ami smiled as she remembered her younger days in the seventh and eighth grades, finally moving to high school. "I was a nerd, yes, just transferred to a new school from the 'brain factory' as they called the elite academy I went to. No one wanted to be friends with me…until I met Usagi-chan." She smiled wistfully. "That's the queen, you know."
Aiyana winced. She'd once tried to kill one of her mentor's best friends? And Ami had completely forgiven her of it, even let her into her home to watch her children. She wondered at human trust and the development of it.
"Then," Ami continued, "Usagi introduced me to each of the new friends she made—Rei, Makoto, and Minako. Those are each of my soul-sisters, the Inner Senshi. We all swore to protect Usagi-chan, because she was the force that had brought us together, and we're still sworn to that promise to this day." Ami smiled. "In return, Usagi removed a…I don't suppose you could say a curse…she removed a pending prophecy from our lives."
"What was it?" Aiyana asked, very curious about Ami's past life."
"It was the promise that we would never find true love," Ami said, smiling again. "That our lives would be forever devoted to protecting Usagi-chan. She was horrified, so she quickly took the spell off of us, using the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou…the powerful, magical silver crystal that's been in her family for millennia. Since the prophecy was removed, our now- husbands, who had been former enemies and died, were reawakened inside the tiny little stones Mamoru-san—that's King Endymion—used to carry around in his pocket. To make a long story short, their spirits eventually reunited with their present-day bodies, we found them, fell in love all over again, and married them."
"That's so romantic," Aiyana said, and was surprised to hear the words slip from her own mouth. She'd heard other girls say that trite line, but never expected to say it herself.
"Hai, it is," said Ami, smiling dreamily as she remembered. "And then we started families here in Crystal Tokyo. So now we all have children. You've met my three; Minako has two, Masaya and his younger sister; Rei has five—bless her and Sanetoki-san's strong hearts—and Mako has three, like me. But her two young girls aren't twins and they're older than mine. Usagi-chan only has one daughter, Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity—or just plain Usa-chan, like we call her.
"Also, something peculiar happened. We all happened to have a daughter around the same time. It was Rei-chan first, with her daughter Hitomi- chan; then Minako-chan got pregnant with Emi-chan. Then Mako-chan with Megami-chan, and me with Izumi-chan, and finally Usagi-chan with Usa-chan, the princess."
"Well, since you are important power figures now, don't you think that time and space would find some way to replace you once you…leave this world?" Aiyana said.
"That's what we thought at first, too," said Ami, wrinkling her brow, "but you see, the power of Usagi-chan's crystal made us all immortal, or at least live for a very, very long time, when we wouldn't need Sailor Senshi. And the prophecy also said that the Neo Moon Kingdom—the kingdom that now rules Crystal Tokyo and the Earth—would never fade, would be strong because Usagi-chan was able to defeat a curse placed on her."
"You think that with all the curse-reversing, that blessing might have been reversed, too?" Aiyana said. "Not everything stands forever."
Ami nodded gravely at Aiyana's wise comment. "I'll remember that," she said. "Anyway, you still haven't accepted Michiru-san and Haruka-san's interview with you. Will you, or won't you?"
Aiyana comtemplated it. She didn't want anyone besides Ami and Masaya to know her predicament; they'd say she was lying and she was weak, she only wanted sympathy because she had been caught, and that she had gotten 'knocked up' of her own accord. She would have no reputation on Earth whatsoever, and might not even have been considered for the slightest chance of staying.
Yet, Ami seemed to trust the two's promises, so she should too…since Ami trusted her, and she was legitimate. Aiyana had a very great respect, almost reverence, for Amesuino Ami. Ami seemed to respect these two people, so perhaps Aiyana should, too.
"I will," she said, nodding. "I want to see what they have to say."
***
"Dr. Amesuino-san says that the assassin will talk to us," Michiru said, her expression somewhat a mix between awe and happiness.
"She must not have much to hide, then…because I know that, if Ami cares about this girl, she's probably prepped her for our questioning."
Michiru nodded, pushing open the doors to the Crystal Tokyo Hospital. She'd never been there before…she and Haruka had few health problems. She might have come a few days after the attacks to be tended to, but she couldn't remember that if she did.
Ami met then at the door. "Konnichi wa, Michiru-san, Haruka-san. Come upstairs; Aiyana's room is on the sixth floor. Top floor. Let's go."
Silently, Michiru and Haruka followed Ami to the elevator, taking it up and following her to the pediatrics/adolescent care ward on the sixth floor. She paused before the door, knocking on it.
"Yes?"
"Aiyana-san, it's me, Ami," Ami said. "I've got the two I told you I was bringing to the hospital to talk to you. Can we come in?"
"Yes." Ami turned the doorknob and entered. Although she did not seem surprised to see Masaya seated in a chair next to the hospital bed where Aiyana was sitting, Haruka and Michiru were, and they exchanged glances behind her back.
Masaya seemed just as surprised to see them. His eyes widened. "Tenoh- san, Kaioh-san." Since they were not nearly as close as Rei, Mako, and Ami to his family, he didn't call them by an affectionate family title.
"Masaya-kun, Michiru-san and Haruka-san are going to talk to Aiyana for a little bit, okay?" Ami raised an eyebrow at him in a gesture he was familiar with. Masaya nodded and stood up. He smiled at Aiyana a little, nodded and exited after Ami.
Michiru took the seat he had been in, and Haruka stood by the chair. Aiyana stared back at them. Her faced was a little flushed—she had blushed visibly when Masaya smiled at her—but her eyes were as solemn as the two she faced.
"What did she say your name was?" Haruka finally asked.
"Ai—Khalidah Aiyana." She presented her name in the Japanese way, surname first.
"Ah. My name is Tenoh Haruka and this—" she gestured to the woman seated in the chair beneath her. "—is Kaioh Michiru."
Aiyana nodded. The one in the chair was most certainly a woman, but the one standing up Aiyana was not quite sure about. When Ami said that two of her comrades were coming, Aiyana had assumed that meant two females were coming to talk to her. But the one standing up next to the chair was dressed in comfortable, masculine clothes; had short hair cropped close to his or her head; and looked decidedly male. Yet, there was a strange quality about him or her that made him or her seem female.
She was grateful Terrans used unisex suffixes instead of sexually oriented prefixes.
"Kaioh-san and Tenoh-san." She nodded. "I think Masaya-sensei did say your names already."
"Yes. I noticed you caught that." Michiru stared back at the girl. She was very pretty, and those eyes…those eyes, she had realized, resembled the eyes of King Endymion uncannily. He was the former Tuxedo Kamen. And when Haruka said that earlier, it clicked in her mind.
So a girl with the eyes of Endymion and the everything else of Hotaru…did that mean what she thought it did?
"I don't mean to sound too personal, Khalidah-kun…let me just tell you a little about us first." Whatever gender Haruka was, Haruka seemed to be taking the lead. "We're both members of the queen's guard at the palace, but probably more importantly, we're separated from the Inner Senshi. That's Ami and her three comrades, which includes Koikokoro Masaya's mother. We're more powerful than the four of them. But we're also apart from them…"
"…which means that what you tell us, is safe with us," Michiru finished. "For our own reasons we've decided not to discuss with anyone else what we're asking you about."
"I'm sure you trust and respect Dr. Amesuino-san very much for all that she's done for you." Haruka stared at Aiyana. "She'd be the first to testify that we keep our word."
"She's told me already that you're worth my trust."
"Good." Haruka shifted her weight uncomfortably.
"One of you can sit here if you want to."
"Great." Michiru moved to the bed, and Aiyana slid over. Haruka took the seat where Michiru had once been sitting. Aiyana was glad that Michiru decided to move; she wasn't sure she would be comfrotable with serious- sounding Tenoh Haruka sitting next to her on the bed. Michiru seemed kinder and more benevolent.
"So, when Haruka says that she doesn't mean to sound too personal," said Michiru, settling Aiyana's qualms about Haruka's gender, "it means that we are going to be asking a lot of personal questions about you. All about you."
"Where were you born?" Haruka asked abruptly.
Aiyana stared at her.
"Perhaps that question should be asked, were you born in Crystal Tokyo?"
"No."
"Were you born close to Crystal Tokyo?"
"No."
"Do you know who your parents are?"
"No."
This was not getting them anywhere. Michiru already felt a little frustrated. "So your parents died when you were young?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Haruka demanded.
"Look…" Aiyana turned away from both of them, staring out of the small window in her hospital room. "I don't know much of anything about my past. My birth and early life records were falsified where I'm from, and I found out that pretty much everything they've told me were lies. Worst of all, I don't remember anything about myself before the age of about eleven or twelve. So ask me anything before that and I won't have an answer for you."
Haruka followed Aiyana's eyes to the window, and a new thought came up in her mind. "You have a window there. Why haven't you tried to escape?"
"I don't want to escape," she said sharply, meeting eyes with Haruka. "Besides," she said in a softer tone, looking down at her stomach, "it'd be pretty hard for me to escape like this."
"Like what?"
"Like this." She pulled down the blanket that had been wrapped around her.
It was a good thing Haruka and Michiru were discreet, because their jaws would've dropped to the floor if they were any of the younger Inner Senshi. Being older and wiser, their eyes merely widened, staring speechlessly at the protrusion in Aiyana's stomach. The formally slim girl now had the look of a very pregnant young woman.
"You're pregnant?!"
"That's what it looks like," Aiyana said, chuckling. As if to prove her point, the child inside her thumped one of its limbs against the walls of her womb.
"How…how much?"
"About five months."
"Five months?" Haruka looked up in the sky and counted. "You've been here for about that long. They had to have found out as soon as you arrived. And Ami hasn't told anyone?"
"Not a soul. You two, besides her, Masaya-sensei, and me, are the only ones who know."
Michiru and Haruka exchanged some more glances, then stared back at Aiyana's stomach.
"Excuse me if I may seem rude," Michiru said, shaking her head to clear it (it seems that is a popular gesture), "but who is the child's father?"
"It isn't who you think it is," Aiyana said, smiling faintly. "Someone you don't know at all. From where I'm from…well, he was a member of the organization I led. And he was a little jealous of the fact that I, a female, had surpassed him." Aiyana looked sadly back down at her stomach. "So he exercised his vengeance."
Michiru nodded. She understood exactly what Aiyana was talking about, and thought it wise not to ask anymore on the subject. But Haruka, who was a little less intuitive, didn't.
"So why did you decide to keep the child?" she asked.
"I'm…I know this sounds foolish coming from me, but I'm not as bloodthirsty and savage as you all think I am," said Aiyana, her eyes taking on a distrait look. "I have compassion too, and morals. It's not the child's fault I was raped, and I didn't find it right to abort her life for something someone else did to me. And," she added, smiling, "she's been a sweet comfort to me these past months that I've been able to see and feel her."
Haruka turned to Michiru, who merely smiled.
"Khalidah-san," Michiru said eagerly, leaning towards Aiyana, "I've got ideas. Listen. You say you don't know where you're really from because your birth records are falsified; you're not sure of your true parentage or origin. I want to keep this line of communication open."
Aiyana raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I have suspicions," Michiru said, nodding. "Suspicions…I guess I should be forthright with you, since you were being forthright with me. There is someone on this planet that you resemble very greatly…very, very greatly. So greatly…it's very scary."
Aiyana's eyes widened. "So you don't think…"
"We do," said Haruka. "In some way, you might be connected to this person. Michiru also has clairvoyant feelings and she feels things about you and this person that we know about that you look so much like."
"So when I say I want to keep this line of communication open," Michiru said, "it means that I want to have access to what you have to say. You have our honor that we will keep it all strictly confidential…if you promise to tell us the whole truth about everything. In return…we'll help you search for your parents, be you Japanese, American, French, whatever! We'll scour the world to help you find your parents if you help us find our friend."
Aiyana stared back at Michiru, azure eyes intense. "You are very close to this friend, aren't you?"
"Painfully," Haruka supplied, smiling and squeezing Michiru's hand.
"What do you say, Khalidah-san?"
"I say…" Aiyana thought. It was unlikely that Michiru and Haruka would find her parents…they had all the resources on this planet, but she was from a planet three months away at the speed of sound. However, she could feel the intensity of caring they had for this friend. She wondered what she would do if she had lost Ami, and could not find her…or Masaya…
"I will help you, Tenoh-san, Kaioh-san," she said, nodding at the two of them.
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AN: Boo, I can't think of anything to say. Any questions, send 'em straight to me at julymoonbunny@hotmail.com
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***
Aiyana lay back in her hospital bed, thoroughly refreshed. It had been a long weekend, hard won, but she had lived through it and got a reward—not too small, either—for her endurance.
Her smile went dreamy when she remembered the feeling of her first kiss. Butterflies started flitting in her stomach like never before, and she knew that it had nothing to do with the baby, even though she had started kicking soon after Masaya pulled away. No, these were different butterflies…soft and not unlike the ones she had felt when Masaya first looked into her eyes, yet a hundred times more intense.
The happiness was somewhat lessened when she saw a blue flash move away from the doorway of the kitchen. She just barely caught the look on Izumi's face, and it was one that she was not unfamiliar with…jealousy.
Suddenly the puzzle pieces clicked in place and Aiyana felt like a fool all over again. Izumi liked Masaya; she had a crush on him.
Now, she thought, perhaps she shouldn't have berated herself as she did. After all, since Masaya continuously called Ami "Aunt Ami" and referred to the children as his cousins, it was hard for Aiyana to remember that they were not really related. Obviously, though, Izumi was very aware of the fact.
Masaya, however, seemed oblivious. After they cleaned up the cake remnants, he had called the twins in the kitchen for a quick dessert emergency, and they'd spent the time waiting for Ami and Mitsuru making cookie-cutter shapes in the dough they rolled out. By the time the Amesuinos made it home, they had a batch in the oven and were eating dinner, Izumi included this time.
She was very quiet through the dinner, and excused herself early.
On the way home in Masaya's car, she had asked him about it.
"Masaya-sensei, you know you're not really Izumi-san's cousin, right?"
He'd laughed. "Of course I know that," he said. "Sometimes I forget, though."
"She doesn't."
"What are you talking about?"
"She likes you, Masaya-sensei."
"I know."
"You do?" Aiyana peered up at him. Perhaps he was more perceptive than she thought.
"Oh, you mean…" Scratch perceptive. Masaya reddened a little and kept his eyes on the road. "How do you know?"
"I could kind of tell. I mean, it's a little obvious." She said the last part with indignance for Izumi's sake. Was the man blind?
"It is?" He resisted the urge to chuckle. "Well…I guess I never contemplated the fact that she could. I mean, we're all so close…like cousins, aunts, uncles, just like we call each other. Ami, my mom, and my two other aunts—Rei and Mako—they worked together when they were younger, and they got really close. So it was only natural for us to grow up close. I've always seen Izumi-chan as my little cousin, not much more, just like I see Hitomi and Megami—those are Rei and Mako's daughters and they're about the same age." Masaya paused, then looked at Aiyana. "But I guess that explains why she was acting so strange this weekend."
Aiyana looked down at her fingernails. "If you only see your thirteen-year- old cousin like that…" She looked back up at him. "I'm only four years older than them, and you're…nearly seven Earth years older than me. That's a lot here, isn't it? So how do you see me?"
"Kami-sama," cried Masaya. That was not a question he wanted to answer. He could barely answer it to his own self, much less to the object of his dilemma. "It's different. I was eleven years old when they were born. I remember their mothers being pregnant with them, for kami-sama's sake."
Aiyana had not asked anymore on the matter, a little smile on her face.
There was a short knock on the hospital room door. Rather than be surprised by the entrant, Aiyana applied a new phrase she had learned for answering the door. "Who is it?"
"Ami."
"Come in, Dr. Amesuino-sensei."
Ami burst in, looking harried. But she smiled. "Konnichi wa, Aiyana, how're you feeling today?"
"Just fine," said Aiyana, smiling again.
Ami smirked. "What happened?" she said. "You've never smiled quite like that before."
Aiyana shook her head, blushing.
"Could this sudden happiness have anything to do with my daughter's glumness, apparently acquired sometime this weekend?"
"Hai, it could…" Aiyana looked back up, eyes sparkling. "But I'm not telling you."
"He kissed you, didn't he?"
"How did you guess?" Aiyana asked incredulously, blushing furiously.
"Only thing that could have happened. I mean, Masaya would never…not while you're pregnant, at least…" Ami eyed Aiyana, but she was just confused. The doctor smirked again. "Anyway, Izumi-chan probably saw it, and got a little jealous, hmm?"
Aiyana nodded, feeling bad…bad and happy at the same time, if that was possible.
"Yes, I figured something like that might have happened. I know my daughter, and I know my nephew."
"Is Izumi-san all right?" Aiyana asked timidly. She felt like a heel.
Ami waved a hand. "Oh, she'll be fine. She'll get over it. Teenagers always do, after a while; they have this emotional resiliency that no one else can have." Ami smiled. "And about you. How do you feel?"
"I didn't want to make Izumi-san sad…"
"About yourself, honey. I tell you, Izumi will be fine."
Aiyana nodded. "Great, I guess," she said, letting her shyness evaporate at the remembrance of it. "The butterflies, the heat, the blushing, just like all the little clichés say."
"What do you know about that?"
"We had clichés on Proximi, too, Dr. Amesuino-sensei," said Aiyana, giggling a little. "The girls talked about it a lot. A lot of them got taken advantage of by the older military men, but when they talked about first kisses, boy did they talk."
"And you were let in on these conversations?" Ami raised an eyebrow.
Aiyana smiled. "I was sort of a listener," she said. "I couldn't very well participate…I had no idea what they were talking about. I didn't even know what a crush was. I couldn't grasp the concept of liking someone so much you obsessed over them." Aiyana sighed. "It was as if my emotions had been removed from me for five years."
"Five?"
"The farthest back I can remember was twelve, and I was in the military then."
Ami nodded. "Oh, I remember what I came in here to tell you about," she said, and looked gravely at Aiyana. "Two of my comrades want to talk to you."
Aiyana's eyes widened.
"They just want to question you. They've promised that anything they tell you will remain a secret…they won't even tell the other Senshi, just as I've promised you." Ami stared at Aiyana. "They are definitely going to keep their promise, you won't need to worry about that. Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru are two of the most trustworthy people in the world." Ami looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I don't know why they want to question you and keep what they find a secret, but…each one to their own, I guess. Perhaps for the same reason I choose to keep what I find out from you a secret.
"It's very hard…the other Inner Senshi, my comrades, are like sisters to me. We've grown up together, been through many hard times together, bonded throughout time. When I was younger, I used to be a nerd." Ami smiled as she remembered her younger days in the seventh and eighth grades, finally moving to high school. "I was a nerd, yes, just transferred to a new school from the 'brain factory' as they called the elite academy I went to. No one wanted to be friends with me…until I met Usagi-chan." She smiled wistfully. "That's the queen, you know."
Aiyana winced. She'd once tried to kill one of her mentor's best friends? And Ami had completely forgiven her of it, even let her into her home to watch her children. She wondered at human trust and the development of it.
"Then," Ami continued, "Usagi introduced me to each of the new friends she made—Rei, Makoto, and Minako. Those are each of my soul-sisters, the Inner Senshi. We all swore to protect Usagi-chan, because she was the force that had brought us together, and we're still sworn to that promise to this day." Ami smiled. "In return, Usagi removed a…I don't suppose you could say a curse…she removed a pending prophecy from our lives."
"What was it?" Aiyana asked, very curious about Ami's past life."
"It was the promise that we would never find true love," Ami said, smiling again. "That our lives would be forever devoted to protecting Usagi-chan. She was horrified, so she quickly took the spell off of us, using the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou…the powerful, magical silver crystal that's been in her family for millennia. Since the prophecy was removed, our now- husbands, who had been former enemies and died, were reawakened inside the tiny little stones Mamoru-san—that's King Endymion—used to carry around in his pocket. To make a long story short, their spirits eventually reunited with their present-day bodies, we found them, fell in love all over again, and married them."
"That's so romantic," Aiyana said, and was surprised to hear the words slip from her own mouth. She'd heard other girls say that trite line, but never expected to say it herself.
"Hai, it is," said Ami, smiling dreamily as she remembered. "And then we started families here in Crystal Tokyo. So now we all have children. You've met my three; Minako has two, Masaya and his younger sister; Rei has five—bless her and Sanetoki-san's strong hearts—and Mako has three, like me. But her two young girls aren't twins and they're older than mine. Usagi-chan only has one daughter, Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity—or just plain Usa-chan, like we call her.
"Also, something peculiar happened. We all happened to have a daughter around the same time. It was Rei-chan first, with her daughter Hitomi- chan; then Minako-chan got pregnant with Emi-chan. Then Mako-chan with Megami-chan, and me with Izumi-chan, and finally Usagi-chan with Usa-chan, the princess."
"Well, since you are important power figures now, don't you think that time and space would find some way to replace you once you…leave this world?" Aiyana said.
"That's what we thought at first, too," said Ami, wrinkling her brow, "but you see, the power of Usagi-chan's crystal made us all immortal, or at least live for a very, very long time, when we wouldn't need Sailor Senshi. And the prophecy also said that the Neo Moon Kingdom—the kingdom that now rules Crystal Tokyo and the Earth—would never fade, would be strong because Usagi-chan was able to defeat a curse placed on her."
"You think that with all the curse-reversing, that blessing might have been reversed, too?" Aiyana said. "Not everything stands forever."
Ami nodded gravely at Aiyana's wise comment. "I'll remember that," she said. "Anyway, you still haven't accepted Michiru-san and Haruka-san's interview with you. Will you, or won't you?"
Aiyana comtemplated it. She didn't want anyone besides Ami and Masaya to know her predicament; they'd say she was lying and she was weak, she only wanted sympathy because she had been caught, and that she had gotten 'knocked up' of her own accord. She would have no reputation on Earth whatsoever, and might not even have been considered for the slightest chance of staying.
Yet, Ami seemed to trust the two's promises, so she should too…since Ami trusted her, and she was legitimate. Aiyana had a very great respect, almost reverence, for Amesuino Ami. Ami seemed to respect these two people, so perhaps Aiyana should, too.
"I will," she said, nodding. "I want to see what they have to say."
***
"Dr. Amesuino-san says that the assassin will talk to us," Michiru said, her expression somewhat a mix between awe and happiness.
"She must not have much to hide, then…because I know that, if Ami cares about this girl, she's probably prepped her for our questioning."
Michiru nodded, pushing open the doors to the Crystal Tokyo Hospital. She'd never been there before…she and Haruka had few health problems. She might have come a few days after the attacks to be tended to, but she couldn't remember that if she did.
Ami met then at the door. "Konnichi wa, Michiru-san, Haruka-san. Come upstairs; Aiyana's room is on the sixth floor. Top floor. Let's go."
Silently, Michiru and Haruka followed Ami to the elevator, taking it up and following her to the pediatrics/adolescent care ward on the sixth floor. She paused before the door, knocking on it.
"Yes?"
"Aiyana-san, it's me, Ami," Ami said. "I've got the two I told you I was bringing to the hospital to talk to you. Can we come in?"
"Yes." Ami turned the doorknob and entered. Although she did not seem surprised to see Masaya seated in a chair next to the hospital bed where Aiyana was sitting, Haruka and Michiru were, and they exchanged glances behind her back.
Masaya seemed just as surprised to see them. His eyes widened. "Tenoh- san, Kaioh-san." Since they were not nearly as close as Rei, Mako, and Ami to his family, he didn't call them by an affectionate family title.
"Masaya-kun, Michiru-san and Haruka-san are going to talk to Aiyana for a little bit, okay?" Ami raised an eyebrow at him in a gesture he was familiar with. Masaya nodded and stood up. He smiled at Aiyana a little, nodded and exited after Ami.
Michiru took the seat he had been in, and Haruka stood by the chair. Aiyana stared back at them. Her faced was a little flushed—she had blushed visibly when Masaya smiled at her—but her eyes were as solemn as the two she faced.
"What did she say your name was?" Haruka finally asked.
"Ai—Khalidah Aiyana." She presented her name in the Japanese way, surname first.
"Ah. My name is Tenoh Haruka and this—" she gestured to the woman seated in the chair beneath her. "—is Kaioh Michiru."
Aiyana nodded. The one in the chair was most certainly a woman, but the one standing up Aiyana was not quite sure about. When Ami said that two of her comrades were coming, Aiyana had assumed that meant two females were coming to talk to her. But the one standing up next to the chair was dressed in comfortable, masculine clothes; had short hair cropped close to his or her head; and looked decidedly male. Yet, there was a strange quality about him or her that made him or her seem female.
She was grateful Terrans used unisex suffixes instead of sexually oriented prefixes.
"Kaioh-san and Tenoh-san." She nodded. "I think Masaya-sensei did say your names already."
"Yes. I noticed you caught that." Michiru stared back at the girl. She was very pretty, and those eyes…those eyes, she had realized, resembled the eyes of King Endymion uncannily. He was the former Tuxedo Kamen. And when Haruka said that earlier, it clicked in her mind.
So a girl with the eyes of Endymion and the everything else of Hotaru…did that mean what she thought it did?
"I don't mean to sound too personal, Khalidah-kun…let me just tell you a little about us first." Whatever gender Haruka was, Haruka seemed to be taking the lead. "We're both members of the queen's guard at the palace, but probably more importantly, we're separated from the Inner Senshi. That's Ami and her three comrades, which includes Koikokoro Masaya's mother. We're more powerful than the four of them. But we're also apart from them…"
"…which means that what you tell us, is safe with us," Michiru finished. "For our own reasons we've decided not to discuss with anyone else what we're asking you about."
"I'm sure you trust and respect Dr. Amesuino-san very much for all that she's done for you." Haruka stared at Aiyana. "She'd be the first to testify that we keep our word."
"She's told me already that you're worth my trust."
"Good." Haruka shifted her weight uncomfortably.
"One of you can sit here if you want to."
"Great." Michiru moved to the bed, and Aiyana slid over. Haruka took the seat where Michiru had once been sitting. Aiyana was glad that Michiru decided to move; she wasn't sure she would be comfrotable with serious- sounding Tenoh Haruka sitting next to her on the bed. Michiru seemed kinder and more benevolent.
"So, when Haruka says that she doesn't mean to sound too personal," said Michiru, settling Aiyana's qualms about Haruka's gender, "it means that we are going to be asking a lot of personal questions about you. All about you."
"Where were you born?" Haruka asked abruptly.
Aiyana stared at her.
"Perhaps that question should be asked, were you born in Crystal Tokyo?"
"No."
"Were you born close to Crystal Tokyo?"
"No."
"Do you know who your parents are?"
"No."
This was not getting them anywhere. Michiru already felt a little frustrated. "So your parents died when you were young?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Haruka demanded.
"Look…" Aiyana turned away from both of them, staring out of the small window in her hospital room. "I don't know much of anything about my past. My birth and early life records were falsified where I'm from, and I found out that pretty much everything they've told me were lies. Worst of all, I don't remember anything about myself before the age of about eleven or twelve. So ask me anything before that and I won't have an answer for you."
Haruka followed Aiyana's eyes to the window, and a new thought came up in her mind. "You have a window there. Why haven't you tried to escape?"
"I don't want to escape," she said sharply, meeting eyes with Haruka. "Besides," she said in a softer tone, looking down at her stomach, "it'd be pretty hard for me to escape like this."
"Like what?"
"Like this." She pulled down the blanket that had been wrapped around her.
It was a good thing Haruka and Michiru were discreet, because their jaws would've dropped to the floor if they were any of the younger Inner Senshi. Being older and wiser, their eyes merely widened, staring speechlessly at the protrusion in Aiyana's stomach. The formally slim girl now had the look of a very pregnant young woman.
"You're pregnant?!"
"That's what it looks like," Aiyana said, chuckling. As if to prove her point, the child inside her thumped one of its limbs against the walls of her womb.
"How…how much?"
"About five months."
"Five months?" Haruka looked up in the sky and counted. "You've been here for about that long. They had to have found out as soon as you arrived. And Ami hasn't told anyone?"
"Not a soul. You two, besides her, Masaya-sensei, and me, are the only ones who know."
Michiru and Haruka exchanged some more glances, then stared back at Aiyana's stomach.
"Excuse me if I may seem rude," Michiru said, shaking her head to clear it (it seems that is a popular gesture), "but who is the child's father?"
"It isn't who you think it is," Aiyana said, smiling faintly. "Someone you don't know at all. From where I'm from…well, he was a member of the organization I led. And he was a little jealous of the fact that I, a female, had surpassed him." Aiyana looked sadly back down at her stomach. "So he exercised his vengeance."
Michiru nodded. She understood exactly what Aiyana was talking about, and thought it wise not to ask anymore on the subject. But Haruka, who was a little less intuitive, didn't.
"So why did you decide to keep the child?" she asked.
"I'm…I know this sounds foolish coming from me, but I'm not as bloodthirsty and savage as you all think I am," said Aiyana, her eyes taking on a distrait look. "I have compassion too, and morals. It's not the child's fault I was raped, and I didn't find it right to abort her life for something someone else did to me. And," she added, smiling, "she's been a sweet comfort to me these past months that I've been able to see and feel her."
Haruka turned to Michiru, who merely smiled.
"Khalidah-san," Michiru said eagerly, leaning towards Aiyana, "I've got ideas. Listen. You say you don't know where you're really from because your birth records are falsified; you're not sure of your true parentage or origin. I want to keep this line of communication open."
Aiyana raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I have suspicions," Michiru said, nodding. "Suspicions…I guess I should be forthright with you, since you were being forthright with me. There is someone on this planet that you resemble very greatly…very, very greatly. So greatly…it's very scary."
Aiyana's eyes widened. "So you don't think…"
"We do," said Haruka. "In some way, you might be connected to this person. Michiru also has clairvoyant feelings and she feels things about you and this person that we know about that you look so much like."
"So when I say I want to keep this line of communication open," Michiru said, "it means that I want to have access to what you have to say. You have our honor that we will keep it all strictly confidential…if you promise to tell us the whole truth about everything. In return…we'll help you search for your parents, be you Japanese, American, French, whatever! We'll scour the world to help you find your parents if you help us find our friend."
Aiyana stared back at Michiru, azure eyes intense. "You are very close to this friend, aren't you?"
"Painfully," Haruka supplied, smiling and squeezing Michiru's hand.
"What do you say, Khalidah-san?"
"I say…" Aiyana thought. It was unlikely that Michiru and Haruka would find her parents…they had all the resources on this planet, but she was from a planet three months away at the speed of sound. However, she could feel the intensity of caring they had for this friend. She wondered what she would do if she had lost Ami, and could not find her…or Masaya…
"I will help you, Tenoh-san, Kaioh-san," she said, nodding at the two of them.
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AN: Boo, I can't think of anything to say. Any questions, send 'em straight to me at julymoonbunny@hotmail.com