Chapter Fifteen – Eternal Secrecy Brings Eternal Problems
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***
"Three ikkagetsu."
"Actually, more like four months, or 2.8 ikkagetsu now, Emperor Omega," said Delta Hojo.
"And how much will hyperspeed expedite this?" Emperor Omega asked.
"About…a month and a half, maybe almost two. Which is about the same as an ikkagetsu and a tenth, maybe a bit more…but it will be extremely uncomfortable, Emperor Omega."
"Yes…so you're saying this hyperspeed thing could get us there in two months' time?" Emperor Omega inquired, ignoring the Delta's latter comment.
"Yes, your highness."
"Well, then," said Omega, smiling largely, "then what are you waiting for? Punch it up!"
"But, your highness—"
"Whatever the damn thing does, it couldn't be much worse than sitting on this damn ship for four months. If I can get there in half the time, why wait? Punch it up. And have that doctor attend to my son, he's fainted." Emperor Omega's expression turned from one of annoyance to one of concern.
"I've attended to him again for this day; he's sleeping now, your highness," said the doctor, stepping from behind. "He said he had a fearful headache and got dizzy. He fell asleep soon after I came to him. He seems to be suffering from…anemia."
***
"Anemia?"
"Yeah, that's what this looks like." Ami was finishing up her five-month check-up for Aiyana's prenatal care, and she was studying a blood sample. "That's when there's a deficiency of iron in the blood, and the count of your red blood cells goes very low. It causes fainting and other bad stuff…"
"So how do I get rid of it?" Aiyana asked, staring down at her stomach. This little thing was really sweet, but she was causing a lot of problems…
"Well, have you been eating any chocolate?"
Aiyana looked guiltily at Ami. The cookies she had made at the Amesuinos' with Masaya had been chocolate chip, and just this morning she'd had a chocolate cereal for breakfast. Her craving seemed to be for chocolate.
"Well, that can't go on…chocolate contains a bit of caffeine, which prevents the absorption of iron. So you'll have to cut down a bit. You also can eat a lot of iron-rich foods which I'll have prepared for you. And if things get too bad, I might prescribe you some iron supplements, but that might make it worse, so I'll wait…"
Aiyana paled. Why did that sound like torture?
"Don't look like that," Ami said, laughing. "It'll be okay. You only have four more months. You're entering the last trimester; it's the end of the stretch. You're at the bottom of the fifth, no outs, no strikes, all three bases covered, and the score is four-nothing."
Aiyana looked blankly at Ami. "What?"
Ami shook her head in amusement. "Never mind," she said, sighing. "So. How's progress going with you and Michiru-san and Haruka-san?"
Now it was Aiyana's turn to sigh. Michiru and Haruka had kept their pledge of secrecy, and already it was about two weeks later…the time had seemed to fly straight out of the window. And yet the two sleuths had found nothing on Aiyana's birth, nor anything having to do with their long-lost friend. However, they had said that Aiyana could fill Ami in, which she did.
But she hadn't told Masaya yet.
"What progress?" she asked rhetorically, leaning back against the hospital bed. She had been moved to the obstetrics ward of the hospital recently, which afforded her a larger bedroom. She sort of missed the old set-up, with its bright colors and sunny astmosphere, since it was built for children. The obstetric room was larger, yes, but it was decorated in pastels and light colors and didn't have the same brilliance as the children's room. "We haven't had much progress yet. They can't find anything about me or their friend.
"Ami, you know they're not going to find anything on me here. I'm not even from this planet."
"Have you told them that yet?" Ami asked.
Aiyana looked away.
"Well, how are they supposed to know their hopes are dim if you don't tell them?" Ami said, sitting down on the chair placed across from Aiyana's bed. "You've got to tell them these things, Aiyana. They may search and search for you. They are two of the most loyal people in the world, and if they promise you something, their promise will be fulfilled."
"You really think so?"
"I do."
"Do you think they will come over here now? I want to tell them right now. So they know right away. I can feel how much they feel about this friend of theirs…"
"You can?" Ami smiled. "How do you think so?"
"Well…" Aiyana looked up to the ceiling momentarily, thinking. "Kaioh-san and Tenoh-san told me that they raised their friend together, by themselves, along with only one other person to help. They feel like they're her parents. And I wondered about how it would feel like to lose my child…and not to be able to find her for years…I would be devastated, and I've only held her inside me for five and a half months! Imagine knowing her for years and losing her then!"
"Well, Aiyana," said Ami, smiling broadly, "it seems as if you've learned two other qualities that human beings possess since you've been here."
"What are those?"
"Empathy and compassion."
***
"So you say you're from another planet?" Michiru asked in incredulous dismay.
"Hai."
Haruka sighed haeavily and leaned back in her chair. "This is incredible," she said.
"Wait! Don't get discouraged. I have something to tell you guys. That's why I asked to stay," said Ami.
"What is it?" Michiru asked, seemingly disinterested.
"Aiyana looks human."
"Well, Dr. Amesuino-sensei, we could tell that ourselves," Haruka said sarcastically, dragging out her title.
"No, that's not what I meant," Ami protested. "I meant, genetically, she looks like a human."
"What do you mean by that?" Aiyana asked, raising an eyebrow. "Even if I wasn't born to who I thought I was, I still originated in Andromeda."
"But how could you know that?" Ami said. "I mean, if they lied to you about your parents, they could have lied to you about your origin too. You could be from any other planet…what planet were you born on?"
"My home planet is Schedar."
"So what if you weren't born on Schedar? What if you were born on one of the other planets in the system…or even a planet not in that system…
"Look, I'm just telling you what I see as a doctor. Medically, genetically, you look human. Haven't you noticed any physical differences between you and the people you're from?"
"Well, I'm about average height there," Aiyana said, racking her brain for her features, "but then again I'm tall to you people here. Andromedans and Omegas are particularly taller than Earthians. The way the people's ears look are a little different, too…kami-sama, I never realized half this stuff before! Their ears are different from mine. And their eyes. They're different, too. Everyone always talked about my eyes…"
"They talk about your eyes here, too," Haruka said solemnly, staring thoughtfully at Aiyana.
"My theory, in the beginning," Michiru said, "was that you were a resurrected form of Hotaru. As in, Hotaru died…and was reborn into your body, and that you were brought here to silence this system. In my findings the Senshi would have prevented that silencing by imprisoning you and preventing you from doing what you were sent to do. So my objective would have been to free you and help you do whatever you had to do."
"And let her kill the queen?!" Ami asked incredulously. Aiyana's eyes widened.
"Sometimes silencing is necessary," Haruka intoned.
"Then, Haruka mentioned something about your eyes. She was harping on them."
"I noticed something uncannily familiar about them."
"Hai. At first they were just intriguing because of their unique color and intensity, but then Haruka realized that they look an awful lot like King Endymion's."
Ami gasped loudly. "You can't possibly think…"
Aiyana raised an eyebrow skeptically. "That sounds a little far-fetched, doesn't it? A murderer-assassin from another planet is captured, tamed, and just happens to be the daughter of the king?"
"You said it, not us."
"Shut up, Haruka," Michiru said, half-seriously. "I thought it was far- fetched, too. That's why I didn't say anything or pursue the matter any further…until I thought about it. And saw you again. And realized that Haruka is right…your eyes do bear an uncanny resemblance to King Endymion's."
"This is crazy," Ami cried. "Utterly crazy. You don't actually believe that King Endymion may have committed infidelity with Hotaru, do you?"
Aiyana sucked in a breath as she realized that this was exactly what Haruka and Michiru were implicating. Ami wouldn't hear of it.
"Endymion would have never…" She took a deep breath. "Endymion loves Usagi-chan as much as she loves him! He would never have considered the fact! And with Hotaru-chan, of all people?! This is preposterous!"
"I know, I know," Michiru soothed, trying to calm Ami down. "I know how much King Endymion loves Serenity, and if he were to have a tryst, the most unlikely of people would be Hotaru. It would. I know. We're grasping at straws here, Ami, we really are! I admit it. That's why we really didn't want you to know, and definitely not the others. You have much better judgment and we still didn't want you to know our speculations."
"Think about it," Haruka said, reclining against a desk and dragging the back of her hand across her forehead. "If you had lost Rei-chan, Minako- chan, or Makoto-chan. What would you have done? Wouldn't you be scouring the planet? Wouldn't you look at each little insignificant detail in hopes of finding your lost loved one? Wouldn't you?"
Ami sat down on the hospital bed, rather weakly. "Of course I would," she replied.
"So are we," Michiru said. "Hotaru…you know who she was to us. How close we were."
"So…" said Aiyana, breaking the short moment of silence that ensued Michiru's comment, "if you really thought that the king and this Hotaru person could be my parents—however unbelievable and implausible that might be—couldn't you do some blood tests or something?"
"That could work," Ami said doubtfully, "but we'd need a sample from Endymion and Hotaru to confirm the test. And I have no idea how to get that."
"Hotaru-chan would be impossible," Michiru said sadly.
"But King Endymion wouldn't," said Haruka. "The whole point of Aiyana being in the infirmary—or so the others are informed—is so that Aiyana could be tested for diseases that might have been passed on to the king and queen. So say you need a blood sample for confirmation of his health."
Ami sighed deeply, looking away from the three others in the room unhappily. "I would hate to lie to them."
"You wouldn't be lying if you said it was for confirmation of a test," said Michiru seriously. "That's the truth. We could run a quick test and make sure of everything."
Ami turned to the Outers, then looked down at Aiyana. She was struggling to keep her face neutral, for her sake, but there was a longing and pain in her eyes so intense Ami was sorry she had looked. She knew that the younger woman longed to know about her heritage, her parentage, to further understand herself. She looked down at the floor.
"I'll see what I can do."
Michiru and Haruka smiled.
***
"You know, paternity tests are kind of outdated in Crystal Tokyo," Ami said, wringing her hands together. She was staring out of the window in Aiyana's hospital room, staring at the crystal spire that rose high above the other establishments in the center of Crystal Tokyo. "Most people don't have a problem with who their fathers and mothers are. They're…married when they have children."
"When was the central organization of Crystal Tokyo established?"
"A little before we were married. Me and the other three, I mean. Usagi- chan was married before all of us."
Aiyana thought hard. "What happened after that? I mean, how many years—on Earth—were you married before I was born?"
"Well, you're seventeen—it's June, isn't it? You're actually about seventeen and a half. Time really has flown…anyway, I was married about two years before Masaya was born, to Minako-chan and Sadayoshi-san, of course. So…I'd say about nine years before you were born…maybe a year before that…ten years before you were born.
"Of course, that's all relative. Really, time passes a lot slower here in Crystal Tokyo. It's hard to explain…it seems like a lot shorter time, but in reality I'm very old, probably almost a thousand years old. Chibi- usa…Princess Lady Serenity…she's about nine hundred and ten years old. So while you are seventeen…it's very hard to explain how the timeline works," Ami said helplessly. "I mean, the Cold Sleep contributed time to however long we were…"
"What's the Cold Sleep?"
"A little before Crystal Tokyo was established, the world was thrown into a period of dormancy. Neo-Queen Serenity used the power of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou and awoke the world. But when we awoke, there were horrible monsters to fight. The past is a little hazy…I'm not sure I remember all the details…I do remember the fight was long and harrowing. Most people were in hiding from the forces we fought, and only we Senshi were awakened to fight the threat. Soon after we finished, Serenity and Endymion set up the city of Crystal Tokyo and granted immortality to the inhabitants, or at least extremely long lives."
"Why do you say either or?"
"To tell the truth," Ami said, "we don't fully understand the timeline or the extent of our lifespans. It's all mysterious, all tied up within the ginzuishou, and I guess you would say only the ginzuishou knows." Ami sighed sheepishly. "Sometimes that thing seems to have a mind of it's own."
Aiyana stared at the floor thoughtfully.
"But enough about that." Ami looked back up, smiling brightly at Aiyana.
"No, not enough." Aiyana shook her head. "This is all important. It's all tied in. There's a gap somewhere. Somewhere in that small period of time—Cold Sleep, inauguration, fighting period—in the early days of Crystal Tokyo, there the answer lies."
***
"Your highness?"
Endymion jumped and turned around. A look of relief washed over his face as he realized it was Amesuino Ami, the doctor and former Sailormercury. He smiled thinly.
"Konnichi wa, Ami-chan. Don't call me that, please? Mamoru-san is fine, as you always used to call me."
"If you would, Mamoru-san," said Ami, smiling warmly, "I need to ask a small favor of you."
"What is it?"
"A blood sample, that's all, Mamoru-san."
Endymion's face darkened, eyes widened. A blood sample? he thought. "May I ask why?"
"Just have to run a few…tests," Ami said nervously. "Pertaining to the assassination attempt and all. We have to make sure you didn't…acquire…anything from Ai—from the assassin, your highness."
Endymion absorbed in his own nervousness, didn't even catch Ami's wavering tone. Kami-sama, what if they match us up…?!
"It's for your own health, Mamoru-san," Ami reminded him gently.
Endymion shrugged and donned a watery smile. "I suppose that would be wise on my part, wouldn't it?" He looked away from Ami, praying she hadn't already seen the jumpy look in his eyes. "Would I have to come up to the clinic?"
"Yes, Mamoru-san, you would. First floor, triage. I'd like to do this personally."
***
"I've got the sample."
Aiyana looked at Ami and felt bad. She looked sorely vexed, eyes dark and droopy, skin pale. She felt sorry for ever causing any trouble towards her, especially making her deceive her king.
But she wanted to know the truth just as much as Haruka and Michiru did. They were staring at Ami intently, very interested in what she had to say.
"I just thought of something a little earlier," said Haruka. "Birth records. If Aiyana were born here, she'd definitely have one."
"Maybe," said Aiyana. "Although I think you underestimate your king. Don't you think he'd hide that away somewhere so some random nurse—maybe even Dr. Amesuino-sensei herself—wouldn't stumble over the records?"
"No," said Ami. "No one would be able to do that. A special nurse archives all information here. If Endymion was really smart – I can't believe I'm saying this – Aiyana would never even have been born in this hospital."
"But a copy of all babies' birth records are sent to the Crystal Tokyo hospital archives for census reasons and other things like that," Michiru pointed out.
"Yes, but it would have been harder to track if she were born away from the Crystal Tokyo hospital. People barely go in those archives here except to count the number of records for the census, perhaps to update the alphabetical order."
"Really." Haruka stroked her chin.
"The hospitals across the world mandate their own records," Ami added. "If they truly wanted to hide a child, the farther away, the better. The archives from very small hospitals that are far are neglected."
"So, say they went and had the child in China or Taiwan. Not smart," Haruka said.
"But…if they had…me. If they had me in one of your farther countries, like…"
"Norway. Sweden."
"America."
"America. That would have been smarter, would it not?"
"Much smarter. America is excellent. Not too obsucre, so no one would think to start looking there first. Farther from the queen's rule and looser under it's reign. Plus, they contribute their own census from America…no need to go rifling through files."
"Perfect. We'll start looking in America's birth files first, then. In the meantime, run that paternity test, Ami."
"You'll need archival permissions to get in there. Frankly, I'm not sure if giving permissions to you is the right thing to do." Ami sighed, then looked from Haruka to Michiru. "But I'm going to give them to you anyway. I have to process them first; it'll take a couple of days, but look for them in the mail, okay?"
"Khalidah Aiyana." Michiru nodded. She stood up and headed for the door.
"Wonder why they named you that?" Haruka said, before she left.
"Eternal secrecy brings eternal problems," Aiyana mumbled under her breath.
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AN: Has anyone here ever heard of couvade? Mwahahahaha…
Things are finally starting to pick up. Ship in hyperspeed, Aiyana's moving along in her pregnancy, and the investigation of her parenthood is getting somewhere…
Anything else, email me!
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***
"Three ikkagetsu."
"Actually, more like four months, or 2.8 ikkagetsu now, Emperor Omega," said Delta Hojo.
"And how much will hyperspeed expedite this?" Emperor Omega asked.
"About…a month and a half, maybe almost two. Which is about the same as an ikkagetsu and a tenth, maybe a bit more…but it will be extremely uncomfortable, Emperor Omega."
"Yes…so you're saying this hyperspeed thing could get us there in two months' time?" Emperor Omega inquired, ignoring the Delta's latter comment.
"Yes, your highness."
"Well, then," said Omega, smiling largely, "then what are you waiting for? Punch it up!"
"But, your highness—"
"Whatever the damn thing does, it couldn't be much worse than sitting on this damn ship for four months. If I can get there in half the time, why wait? Punch it up. And have that doctor attend to my son, he's fainted." Emperor Omega's expression turned from one of annoyance to one of concern.
"I've attended to him again for this day; he's sleeping now, your highness," said the doctor, stepping from behind. "He said he had a fearful headache and got dizzy. He fell asleep soon after I came to him. He seems to be suffering from…anemia."
***
"Anemia?"
"Yeah, that's what this looks like." Ami was finishing up her five-month check-up for Aiyana's prenatal care, and she was studying a blood sample. "That's when there's a deficiency of iron in the blood, and the count of your red blood cells goes very low. It causes fainting and other bad stuff…"
"So how do I get rid of it?" Aiyana asked, staring down at her stomach. This little thing was really sweet, but she was causing a lot of problems…
"Well, have you been eating any chocolate?"
Aiyana looked guiltily at Ami. The cookies she had made at the Amesuinos' with Masaya had been chocolate chip, and just this morning she'd had a chocolate cereal for breakfast. Her craving seemed to be for chocolate.
"Well, that can't go on…chocolate contains a bit of caffeine, which prevents the absorption of iron. So you'll have to cut down a bit. You also can eat a lot of iron-rich foods which I'll have prepared for you. And if things get too bad, I might prescribe you some iron supplements, but that might make it worse, so I'll wait…"
Aiyana paled. Why did that sound like torture?
"Don't look like that," Ami said, laughing. "It'll be okay. You only have four more months. You're entering the last trimester; it's the end of the stretch. You're at the bottom of the fifth, no outs, no strikes, all three bases covered, and the score is four-nothing."
Aiyana looked blankly at Ami. "What?"
Ami shook her head in amusement. "Never mind," she said, sighing. "So. How's progress going with you and Michiru-san and Haruka-san?"
Now it was Aiyana's turn to sigh. Michiru and Haruka had kept their pledge of secrecy, and already it was about two weeks later…the time had seemed to fly straight out of the window. And yet the two sleuths had found nothing on Aiyana's birth, nor anything having to do with their long-lost friend. However, they had said that Aiyana could fill Ami in, which she did.
But she hadn't told Masaya yet.
"What progress?" she asked rhetorically, leaning back against the hospital bed. She had been moved to the obstetrics ward of the hospital recently, which afforded her a larger bedroom. She sort of missed the old set-up, with its bright colors and sunny astmosphere, since it was built for children. The obstetric room was larger, yes, but it was decorated in pastels and light colors and didn't have the same brilliance as the children's room. "We haven't had much progress yet. They can't find anything about me or their friend.
"Ami, you know they're not going to find anything on me here. I'm not even from this planet."
"Have you told them that yet?" Ami asked.
Aiyana looked away.
"Well, how are they supposed to know their hopes are dim if you don't tell them?" Ami said, sitting down on the chair placed across from Aiyana's bed. "You've got to tell them these things, Aiyana. They may search and search for you. They are two of the most loyal people in the world, and if they promise you something, their promise will be fulfilled."
"You really think so?"
"I do."
"Do you think they will come over here now? I want to tell them right now. So they know right away. I can feel how much they feel about this friend of theirs…"
"You can?" Ami smiled. "How do you think so?"
"Well…" Aiyana looked up to the ceiling momentarily, thinking. "Kaioh-san and Tenoh-san told me that they raised their friend together, by themselves, along with only one other person to help. They feel like they're her parents. And I wondered about how it would feel like to lose my child…and not to be able to find her for years…I would be devastated, and I've only held her inside me for five and a half months! Imagine knowing her for years and losing her then!"
"Well, Aiyana," said Ami, smiling broadly, "it seems as if you've learned two other qualities that human beings possess since you've been here."
"What are those?"
"Empathy and compassion."
***
"So you say you're from another planet?" Michiru asked in incredulous dismay.
"Hai."
Haruka sighed haeavily and leaned back in her chair. "This is incredible," she said.
"Wait! Don't get discouraged. I have something to tell you guys. That's why I asked to stay," said Ami.
"What is it?" Michiru asked, seemingly disinterested.
"Aiyana looks human."
"Well, Dr. Amesuino-sensei, we could tell that ourselves," Haruka said sarcastically, dragging out her title.
"No, that's not what I meant," Ami protested. "I meant, genetically, she looks like a human."
"What do you mean by that?" Aiyana asked, raising an eyebrow. "Even if I wasn't born to who I thought I was, I still originated in Andromeda."
"But how could you know that?" Ami said. "I mean, if they lied to you about your parents, they could have lied to you about your origin too. You could be from any other planet…what planet were you born on?"
"My home planet is Schedar."
"So what if you weren't born on Schedar? What if you were born on one of the other planets in the system…or even a planet not in that system…
"Look, I'm just telling you what I see as a doctor. Medically, genetically, you look human. Haven't you noticed any physical differences between you and the people you're from?"
"Well, I'm about average height there," Aiyana said, racking her brain for her features, "but then again I'm tall to you people here. Andromedans and Omegas are particularly taller than Earthians. The way the people's ears look are a little different, too…kami-sama, I never realized half this stuff before! Their ears are different from mine. And their eyes. They're different, too. Everyone always talked about my eyes…"
"They talk about your eyes here, too," Haruka said solemnly, staring thoughtfully at Aiyana.
"My theory, in the beginning," Michiru said, "was that you were a resurrected form of Hotaru. As in, Hotaru died…and was reborn into your body, and that you were brought here to silence this system. In my findings the Senshi would have prevented that silencing by imprisoning you and preventing you from doing what you were sent to do. So my objective would have been to free you and help you do whatever you had to do."
"And let her kill the queen?!" Ami asked incredulously. Aiyana's eyes widened.
"Sometimes silencing is necessary," Haruka intoned.
"Then, Haruka mentioned something about your eyes. She was harping on them."
"I noticed something uncannily familiar about them."
"Hai. At first they were just intriguing because of their unique color and intensity, but then Haruka realized that they look an awful lot like King Endymion's."
Ami gasped loudly. "You can't possibly think…"
Aiyana raised an eyebrow skeptically. "That sounds a little far-fetched, doesn't it? A murderer-assassin from another planet is captured, tamed, and just happens to be the daughter of the king?"
"You said it, not us."
"Shut up, Haruka," Michiru said, half-seriously. "I thought it was far- fetched, too. That's why I didn't say anything or pursue the matter any further…until I thought about it. And saw you again. And realized that Haruka is right…your eyes do bear an uncanny resemblance to King Endymion's."
"This is crazy," Ami cried. "Utterly crazy. You don't actually believe that King Endymion may have committed infidelity with Hotaru, do you?"
Aiyana sucked in a breath as she realized that this was exactly what Haruka and Michiru were implicating. Ami wouldn't hear of it.
"Endymion would have never…" She took a deep breath. "Endymion loves Usagi-chan as much as she loves him! He would never have considered the fact! And with Hotaru-chan, of all people?! This is preposterous!"
"I know, I know," Michiru soothed, trying to calm Ami down. "I know how much King Endymion loves Serenity, and if he were to have a tryst, the most unlikely of people would be Hotaru. It would. I know. We're grasping at straws here, Ami, we really are! I admit it. That's why we really didn't want you to know, and definitely not the others. You have much better judgment and we still didn't want you to know our speculations."
"Think about it," Haruka said, reclining against a desk and dragging the back of her hand across her forehead. "If you had lost Rei-chan, Minako- chan, or Makoto-chan. What would you have done? Wouldn't you be scouring the planet? Wouldn't you look at each little insignificant detail in hopes of finding your lost loved one? Wouldn't you?"
Ami sat down on the hospital bed, rather weakly. "Of course I would," she replied.
"So are we," Michiru said. "Hotaru…you know who she was to us. How close we were."
"So…" said Aiyana, breaking the short moment of silence that ensued Michiru's comment, "if you really thought that the king and this Hotaru person could be my parents—however unbelievable and implausible that might be—couldn't you do some blood tests or something?"
"That could work," Ami said doubtfully, "but we'd need a sample from Endymion and Hotaru to confirm the test. And I have no idea how to get that."
"Hotaru-chan would be impossible," Michiru said sadly.
"But King Endymion wouldn't," said Haruka. "The whole point of Aiyana being in the infirmary—or so the others are informed—is so that Aiyana could be tested for diseases that might have been passed on to the king and queen. So say you need a blood sample for confirmation of his health."
Ami sighed deeply, looking away from the three others in the room unhappily. "I would hate to lie to them."
"You wouldn't be lying if you said it was for confirmation of a test," said Michiru seriously. "That's the truth. We could run a quick test and make sure of everything."
Ami turned to the Outers, then looked down at Aiyana. She was struggling to keep her face neutral, for her sake, but there was a longing and pain in her eyes so intense Ami was sorry she had looked. She knew that the younger woman longed to know about her heritage, her parentage, to further understand herself. She looked down at the floor.
"I'll see what I can do."
Michiru and Haruka smiled.
***
"You know, paternity tests are kind of outdated in Crystal Tokyo," Ami said, wringing her hands together. She was staring out of the window in Aiyana's hospital room, staring at the crystal spire that rose high above the other establishments in the center of Crystal Tokyo. "Most people don't have a problem with who their fathers and mothers are. They're…married when they have children."
"When was the central organization of Crystal Tokyo established?"
"A little before we were married. Me and the other three, I mean. Usagi- chan was married before all of us."
Aiyana thought hard. "What happened after that? I mean, how many years—on Earth—were you married before I was born?"
"Well, you're seventeen—it's June, isn't it? You're actually about seventeen and a half. Time really has flown…anyway, I was married about two years before Masaya was born, to Minako-chan and Sadayoshi-san, of course. So…I'd say about nine years before you were born…maybe a year before that…ten years before you were born.
"Of course, that's all relative. Really, time passes a lot slower here in Crystal Tokyo. It's hard to explain…it seems like a lot shorter time, but in reality I'm very old, probably almost a thousand years old. Chibi- usa…Princess Lady Serenity…she's about nine hundred and ten years old. So while you are seventeen…it's very hard to explain how the timeline works," Ami said helplessly. "I mean, the Cold Sleep contributed time to however long we were…"
"What's the Cold Sleep?"
"A little before Crystal Tokyo was established, the world was thrown into a period of dormancy. Neo-Queen Serenity used the power of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou and awoke the world. But when we awoke, there were horrible monsters to fight. The past is a little hazy…I'm not sure I remember all the details…I do remember the fight was long and harrowing. Most people were in hiding from the forces we fought, and only we Senshi were awakened to fight the threat. Soon after we finished, Serenity and Endymion set up the city of Crystal Tokyo and granted immortality to the inhabitants, or at least extremely long lives."
"Why do you say either or?"
"To tell the truth," Ami said, "we don't fully understand the timeline or the extent of our lifespans. It's all mysterious, all tied up within the ginzuishou, and I guess you would say only the ginzuishou knows." Ami sighed sheepishly. "Sometimes that thing seems to have a mind of it's own."
Aiyana stared at the floor thoughtfully.
"But enough about that." Ami looked back up, smiling brightly at Aiyana.
"No, not enough." Aiyana shook her head. "This is all important. It's all tied in. There's a gap somewhere. Somewhere in that small period of time—Cold Sleep, inauguration, fighting period—in the early days of Crystal Tokyo, there the answer lies."
***
"Your highness?"
Endymion jumped and turned around. A look of relief washed over his face as he realized it was Amesuino Ami, the doctor and former Sailormercury. He smiled thinly.
"Konnichi wa, Ami-chan. Don't call me that, please? Mamoru-san is fine, as you always used to call me."
"If you would, Mamoru-san," said Ami, smiling warmly, "I need to ask a small favor of you."
"What is it?"
"A blood sample, that's all, Mamoru-san."
Endymion's face darkened, eyes widened. A blood sample? he thought. "May I ask why?"
"Just have to run a few…tests," Ami said nervously. "Pertaining to the assassination attempt and all. We have to make sure you didn't…acquire…anything from Ai—from the assassin, your highness."
Endymion absorbed in his own nervousness, didn't even catch Ami's wavering tone. Kami-sama, what if they match us up…?!
"It's for your own health, Mamoru-san," Ami reminded him gently.
Endymion shrugged and donned a watery smile. "I suppose that would be wise on my part, wouldn't it?" He looked away from Ami, praying she hadn't already seen the jumpy look in his eyes. "Would I have to come up to the clinic?"
"Yes, Mamoru-san, you would. First floor, triage. I'd like to do this personally."
***
"I've got the sample."
Aiyana looked at Ami and felt bad. She looked sorely vexed, eyes dark and droopy, skin pale. She felt sorry for ever causing any trouble towards her, especially making her deceive her king.
But she wanted to know the truth just as much as Haruka and Michiru did. They were staring at Ami intently, very interested in what she had to say.
"I just thought of something a little earlier," said Haruka. "Birth records. If Aiyana were born here, she'd definitely have one."
"Maybe," said Aiyana. "Although I think you underestimate your king. Don't you think he'd hide that away somewhere so some random nurse—maybe even Dr. Amesuino-sensei herself—wouldn't stumble over the records?"
"No," said Ami. "No one would be able to do that. A special nurse archives all information here. If Endymion was really smart – I can't believe I'm saying this – Aiyana would never even have been born in this hospital."
"But a copy of all babies' birth records are sent to the Crystal Tokyo hospital archives for census reasons and other things like that," Michiru pointed out.
"Yes, but it would have been harder to track if she were born away from the Crystal Tokyo hospital. People barely go in those archives here except to count the number of records for the census, perhaps to update the alphabetical order."
"Really." Haruka stroked her chin.
"The hospitals across the world mandate their own records," Ami added. "If they truly wanted to hide a child, the farther away, the better. The archives from very small hospitals that are far are neglected."
"So, say they went and had the child in China or Taiwan. Not smart," Haruka said.
"But…if they had…me. If they had me in one of your farther countries, like…"
"Norway. Sweden."
"America."
"America. That would have been smarter, would it not?"
"Much smarter. America is excellent. Not too obsucre, so no one would think to start looking there first. Farther from the queen's rule and looser under it's reign. Plus, they contribute their own census from America…no need to go rifling through files."
"Perfect. We'll start looking in America's birth files first, then. In the meantime, run that paternity test, Ami."
"You'll need archival permissions to get in there. Frankly, I'm not sure if giving permissions to you is the right thing to do." Ami sighed, then looked from Haruka to Michiru. "But I'm going to give them to you anyway. I have to process them first; it'll take a couple of days, but look for them in the mail, okay?"
"Khalidah Aiyana." Michiru nodded. She stood up and headed for the door.
"Wonder why they named you that?" Haruka said, before she left.
"Eternal secrecy brings eternal problems," Aiyana mumbled under her breath.
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AN: Has anyone here ever heard of couvade? Mwahahahaha…
Things are finally starting to pick up. Ship in hyperspeed, Aiyana's moving along in her pregnancy, and the investigation of her parenthood is getting somewhere…
Anything else, email me!