1 Chapter Twenty-Two – Five Years Old For Nine Hundred Years
***
Masaya shifted the tiny pink bundle in his arms and gazed back down at it. Her face was so entirely cute, it was hard not to cry looking at her. After six months of waiting…here she finally was – in the flesh, alive, awake, and doing well.
And Aiyana. She'd waited for seven months and a week, and she'd been the one with the child inside of her. The baby was tiny, yes, and she'd needed incubator care. Ami had said that as soon as Aiyana awoke, she wanted the child to go into hospice – which was basically a method that took the child off artificial life support and put her under the care of her mother, with lots of tender loving care. One of the things that she said would help was "kangaroo mother care," where Little Aiyana would be happily nestled in Aiyana's clothes, kept warm from the outside world with easy access to her meals.
However, Aiyana could only give the child such care if she woke up. Which was the reason he had come to Aiyana's room in the maternity ward – to see if she would wake up. He wanted her daughter and him to be the first two people that she saw when she woke up. She hadn't even had a chance to hold the little girl – when he left her side to cut the umbilical cord of the little girl, she had slipped away into \ post-partum fatigue.
"Aiyana, it's me, Masaya-kun," he whispered, sitting in the chair by her bed. It rocked and was much more comfortable than the folding chair in her old hospital room, for the comfort of the nursing mothers. The room was also more prettily decorated, with designs that would be conducive to the baby's growth and happiness within it. This room was done in shades of lavender and pastel yellow.
"Me and your baby, I mean," he amended, smiling softly at Aiyana's sleeping form. She appeared to only be in a light, short sleep, ready to wake up any time. But she had been asleep for five days now. "She wants to see her mommy. You have to wake up so you can see her. She's absolutely beautiful, Aiyana. I can tell she's going to look like you someday, except—"
Masaya took a deep breath. "Except that her eyes look different than yours. She opened them really briefly, and we saw that they're this pretty hazel color, very warm and expressive. I wonder if she got that from her daddy." He scowled without even knowing it. "She must have, of course.
"Aiyana, you haven't even named her yet. She needs a name, and she needs her mommy to feed her. Ami wanted to hold off on the bottle feeding, and I don't know how they've been feeding her, but she says that you have a right to make that choice yourself. I think you'll want to breast-feed her. It's better for the baby, actually. I'm sure Little Aiyana would appreciate it." He smiled down at the sleeping baby. "Wouldn't you, Little Aiyana? That's what we started calling her. Little Aiyana. Because she looks just like you. But she sure doesn't act like you. She's been screaming since she came out."
That made him smile agan. "Except when I picked her up. She even screamed when Ami came near her, and stopped playing with her toes. But when I picked her up out of the nursery, she didn't cry at all, just looked up at me. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced…having a baby not be afraid of me. Knowing me. Feeling close to me." He stared back at Aiyana. "Babies have this sixth sense about them. Maybe Little Aiyana sensed that I would keep her safe when I was with her, that she wouldn't have any problems with me.
"I'd keep you safe too, Aiyana," Masaya said, his voice dropping in volume. "I won't let anything happen to you, not now. Not after you've had this baby. Because now I look at you…" He sighed heavily. "I had myself convinced that maybe I only wanted to be with you because you were pregnant. I do love children, and the prospect of another one being brought into the world was wonderful.
"But now you've had the baby, and I found I…care for you…more than ever. I've come in here everyday, even the days when I'm not working at the hospital, just to look at you while you sleep and to talk to you and try to get you to wake up. And I didn't always bring the baby with me. I was a little selfish at first – when I woke up, I wanted to keep you all to myself." Masaya's smile was sheepish now, watery. "It wasn't just because of Little Aiyana, or because I felt sorry for you, or anything. I didn't know your baby then, and I still don't know her well enough to want to get to her through you.
"But I know you. And…I love you. I didn't want to say the words before. I didn't want to believe they were true. I still think they violate some kind of ethical code or something, but I don't care anymore…this is different, Aiyana. I love you, and I won't let anything my mother or the Senshi do endanger your life, if it means that I have to spirit you out of here in the middle of the night. I won't let them. I promise you that."
He stood up, not even noticing that a tear had slipped from his eyes and was rolling down his cheek, even as he held Aiyana's child. "Didn't you hear me, Aiyana? I love you. Isn't that supposed to make you wake up miraculously or something? That's the way it always happens in the movies." He laughed bitterly. "I guess that's not the way that it happens in real life, though. You're going to stay asleep until you're ready. But that's okay. I'll just wait until you're ready to wake up. I know you can hear me. I'll just wait until you're ready. Then I'll come back. I'll try to be here before you wake, okay?"
He leaned over the bed and prepared to kiss her forehead, but changed his mind and pressed his lips to hers. "Goodbye, Aiyana. I'll be back when you wake up."
***
*Aiyana, wake up. Come on now, darling. It's important for you to wake up.*
~Why should I?~ Aiyana asked. ~I'm safe in here. I don't have to face them. I don't have to face him.~
*You don't have to do anything in there. But this is not good. Didn't you hear him?*
~I didn't hear anything.~
*Don't lie. You heard him. Your baby needs you, Aiyana. You have the food that she needs, as well as the love and the care. You're her mother. You're a mother now. You have a responsibility to that baby.*
~No responsibilities. None of this would have ever happened if I hadn't screwed up. That day at school…~
*You remember that?* The voice was startled, taken aback, shaky. *What happened that day, Aiyana?*
~I don't know. I don't really remember. I just have this hazy vision. It's not at all clear. I don't know. I just said something.~ If she were floating in the real world, Aiyana would have eyed the voice, but there was nothing to eye. ~What do you know?~
*Aiyana, Masaya loves you.*
~He loves Little Aiyana.~
*He loves *you*. He said that. He told you. You heard him. You're really there, not here. Go back to the real world…take care of your daughter…* The voice was desperate, clinging.
~Why do you care so much?~ Aiyana asked bitterly.
*Masaya loves you, Aiyana. Don't disappoint him. Take care of your daughter as I couldn't take care of you…Aiyana.*
Aiyana sat up in her virtual ward. ~Take care of me? Who are you?~
* I wasn't able to take care of you. I wasn't able to take care of *my* daughter. Take care of *your* daughter.*
~Your daughter *and* I? Who are you?!~
*Take care of your daughter.*
~Mother?!~
***
"Mother?!"
"Mother? Girl, you're crazy. Were you having some kind of dream or something? Because I sure ain't your mother."
Aiyana blinked hard, looking around. Her entrance back into this world hadn't been miraculous. The only other person in the room was an older nurse, bustling around and cleaning things up. She fluffed Aiyana's pillows – although the girl was no longer laying on them – and stood back to study her, making a *tsk tsking* sound. "You look horrible," said the nurse, shaking her head. "You need some food. And if I'm not mistaken, that baby of yours will probably want some, too. Let's go see if we can get them both."
Aiyana shook her head. She wasn't floating in oblivion, speaking to some faceless voice any longer. She was back, awake in the hospital room, and hungry.
And her stomach was completely flat.
Her baby! Her heart jumped. Her baby was alive, outside of her body, and she hadn't been there to greet it into the world. She had been selfish, hiding out within herself. Her baby had gone for…how long?…without her mother's care. What had she done? How could she have?
"I'll be right back," the nurse said.
***
"What are you doing?"
The nurse looked up absently at the doctor for a split second before bending back at the task at hand. "I'm taking this baby to her mother, as well as this food. She looks beat, and she's hungry."
"Which one?"
"Both," the nurse said, chuckling.
Masaya looked again at which incubator she was reaching into. "Ma'am, I think that's the wrong one."
"Little Khalidah Aiyana, right?"
Masaya sat up in his chair. "Yes, that's her. But her mother—"
"Just woke up. She's powerfully hungry and she wants to see her baby. Could you grab the food while I get the baby?" When the nurse turned around to see the look on Masaya's face, she smiled. "Make that vice versa."
***
"Masaya-kun! Please, calm down! My child is in your arms!"
He planted one last kiss on her nose before he paid attention to her, sitting in the comfy rocking chair by the bed. "I didn't hurt her, I swear I didn't, Aiyana. I was just so happy to see you – awake and alive and well—"
"All right." Aiyana giggled a little, then looked up at Masaya, eyes dancing. "May I hold her?"
"May you?" Masaya said incredulously. "She's yours!" He handed the little pink bundle over to Aiyana, which she gratefully took. The baby, which had been gurgling loudly and was dangerously on the verge of breaking into a fit of tears from all the fuss Masaya had been making, sighed and shifted position, quieting.
"Oh." The little exhalation of breath was the only sound Aiyana could formulate. Could this perfect tiny form actually have come from her body? Everything was perfectly formed – ten fingers, ten toes, tiny baby hands and feet, and she was small enough to fit in the crook of one arm. She had dark curly hair on her small head. Her eyes were open and Aiyana could see that they were the warm, luminous amber that Masaya had described.
"They are her father's," she whispered.
"What?" Masaya asked sharply.
Aiyana looked up, into curious grey-blue eyes. "Her eyes," she said. "You said they must have been her daddy's. They are. The Second Delta had eyes just like that."
Masaya stared at the floor.
"Masaya-sensei," Aiyana said, leaning forward. "As far as I'm concerned…you're more Little Aiyana's father than him. He hasn't been here to help me…even the liaison that created this perfect life was horrible and undesirable. There's no way that I have feelings for him over you. No way. Don't even believe it for a minute."
Masaya smiled, looking back up at her. "I guess I just have a jealousy problem," he said, ducking his head. "Maybe I had some crazy notion my head that somehow…she'd look like…well, like me."
Aiyana smiled. "She already has your sweet, quiet disposition."
"Quiet? That baby has been screaming since she came out."
"And so have you."
Masaya laughed. "Yeah, I'm not too quiet myself." He stared back at Aiyana, then down at her baby, and finally back up at Aiyana.
"I love you, too," she said softly.
He hugged her and kissed her, gently.
"Help me feed her," Aiyana said, smiling, "before she starts screaming and whacks me with one of her perfect little hands. Now, how do I do that? I have a feeling it's another embarrassing place."
Masaya burst into laughter.
***
Ami frantically but meticulously poured the chemicals together. Aiyana's life rested in this paternity test. If she could prove that Endymion was truly Aiyana's father, then she could try to persuade the king to rule in favor of Aiyana. For some reason, Endymion had hid Aiyana for years – if he truly was her father – and if she truly were his child, and she could prove it, Aiyana might be able to live freely on Earth with asylum. Endymion could pretty much get Selenity to agree to anything.
There was a knock on the laboratory door, and Ami scowled. She'd told those workers to have no one bother her. "Who is it?" she demanded.
"Us." The voices of Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru floated through the door.
Ami hurried to unlock the door, and the two came in. "So how's progress with the paternity test coming out."
"Great. I am able to cross-check all the blood types and they come out exactly right. I just have to work out a few bugs that may affect the results and I'll be all done…and then I can check."
"Do you really think you should bother? Tomoe Keiko, the baby in the records, was born about the time of the Cold Sleep – perhaps a little before or after. Those records are unbelievably old."
"Hai," Haruka said. "If that really were Aiyana, that would make her…just over nine hundred years old."
Silence ensued in the room as Michiru, Haruka, and Ami exchanged glances, eyes widening as they realized what Haruka had just said.
"Chibi-usa…is over nine hundred years old, yet she appears thirteen!" Ami said. "There has to be an explanation! Tomoe Keiko *could* really be Aiyana!"
"I have another theory," said Michiru, smirking. "Since my first one worked so well, let's try the new one."
"Go on."
"I speculate…that the ginzuishou had something to do with this."
Haruka rolled her eyes. "Thank you, scientist Michiru."
"No, listen. When Sailormoon wished for her life to continue forever with her friends at the end of the battles before the Cold Sleep, she wished for all of us to live young immortally. None of your children were conceived at the time, so they would continue to grow normally. But Chibi-usa was conceived at the time, and obviously, so was Aiyana."
"So you're saying that the ginzuishou caused them both to stop growing?"
"Didn't Chibi-usa stay five years old for nine hundred years?"
Haruka and Ami nodded. "So…the ginzuishou could have selected an age for each girl to stop growing," Ami said, nodding. "Chibi-usa's body stopped growing at five, and Aiyana's stopped growing at…another age. Until Selenity reversed the effects of the crystal and made them age faster, but still much slower. So Aiyana might not have even realized that she was aging very slowly…"
"…especially if she had someone to convince her that she was perfectly normal." Haruka nodded. "Her mother could have reassured her of that constantly, telling her it was all normal. She could have easily explained her daughter's aging problem because the Irish authorities and school system knew she was from Crystal Tokyo, and they would have cooperated." She shook her head. "It's all falling into place now. Tomoe Keiko *could* be Khalidah Aiyana."
Ami remained silent and slid off the cabinet, slinking over to the modified paternity machine. She tinkered with the chemicals a little bit more, then slid the vial into the refined opening where the liquid would have been poured before – she'd changed it to make it more accurate. Tentatively pressing the button, she and the other two Senshi watched the printout side for the results.
A = 3567012, AB = 849306
Subject Mmrx20%Ayn
Formula match-up T175469YJH774
Blood match-up 20%paternity
...test results positive
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------
AN: …
Comments and questions: julymoonbunny@hotmail.com
***
Masaya shifted the tiny pink bundle in his arms and gazed back down at it. Her face was so entirely cute, it was hard not to cry looking at her. After six months of waiting…here she finally was – in the flesh, alive, awake, and doing well.
And Aiyana. She'd waited for seven months and a week, and she'd been the one with the child inside of her. The baby was tiny, yes, and she'd needed incubator care. Ami had said that as soon as Aiyana awoke, she wanted the child to go into hospice – which was basically a method that took the child off artificial life support and put her under the care of her mother, with lots of tender loving care. One of the things that she said would help was "kangaroo mother care," where Little Aiyana would be happily nestled in Aiyana's clothes, kept warm from the outside world with easy access to her meals.
However, Aiyana could only give the child such care if she woke up. Which was the reason he had come to Aiyana's room in the maternity ward – to see if she would wake up. He wanted her daughter and him to be the first two people that she saw when she woke up. She hadn't even had a chance to hold the little girl – when he left her side to cut the umbilical cord of the little girl, she had slipped away into \ post-partum fatigue.
"Aiyana, it's me, Masaya-kun," he whispered, sitting in the chair by her bed. It rocked and was much more comfortable than the folding chair in her old hospital room, for the comfort of the nursing mothers. The room was also more prettily decorated, with designs that would be conducive to the baby's growth and happiness within it. This room was done in shades of lavender and pastel yellow.
"Me and your baby, I mean," he amended, smiling softly at Aiyana's sleeping form. She appeared to only be in a light, short sleep, ready to wake up any time. But she had been asleep for five days now. "She wants to see her mommy. You have to wake up so you can see her. She's absolutely beautiful, Aiyana. I can tell she's going to look like you someday, except—"
Masaya took a deep breath. "Except that her eyes look different than yours. She opened them really briefly, and we saw that they're this pretty hazel color, very warm and expressive. I wonder if she got that from her daddy." He scowled without even knowing it. "She must have, of course.
"Aiyana, you haven't even named her yet. She needs a name, and she needs her mommy to feed her. Ami wanted to hold off on the bottle feeding, and I don't know how they've been feeding her, but she says that you have a right to make that choice yourself. I think you'll want to breast-feed her. It's better for the baby, actually. I'm sure Little Aiyana would appreciate it." He smiled down at the sleeping baby. "Wouldn't you, Little Aiyana? That's what we started calling her. Little Aiyana. Because she looks just like you. But she sure doesn't act like you. She's been screaming since she came out."
That made him smile agan. "Except when I picked her up. She even screamed when Ami came near her, and stopped playing with her toes. But when I picked her up out of the nursery, she didn't cry at all, just looked up at me. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced…having a baby not be afraid of me. Knowing me. Feeling close to me." He stared back at Aiyana. "Babies have this sixth sense about them. Maybe Little Aiyana sensed that I would keep her safe when I was with her, that she wouldn't have any problems with me.
"I'd keep you safe too, Aiyana," Masaya said, his voice dropping in volume. "I won't let anything happen to you, not now. Not after you've had this baby. Because now I look at you…" He sighed heavily. "I had myself convinced that maybe I only wanted to be with you because you were pregnant. I do love children, and the prospect of another one being brought into the world was wonderful.
"But now you've had the baby, and I found I…care for you…more than ever. I've come in here everyday, even the days when I'm not working at the hospital, just to look at you while you sleep and to talk to you and try to get you to wake up. And I didn't always bring the baby with me. I was a little selfish at first – when I woke up, I wanted to keep you all to myself." Masaya's smile was sheepish now, watery. "It wasn't just because of Little Aiyana, or because I felt sorry for you, or anything. I didn't know your baby then, and I still don't know her well enough to want to get to her through you.
"But I know you. And…I love you. I didn't want to say the words before. I didn't want to believe they were true. I still think they violate some kind of ethical code or something, but I don't care anymore…this is different, Aiyana. I love you, and I won't let anything my mother or the Senshi do endanger your life, if it means that I have to spirit you out of here in the middle of the night. I won't let them. I promise you that."
He stood up, not even noticing that a tear had slipped from his eyes and was rolling down his cheek, even as he held Aiyana's child. "Didn't you hear me, Aiyana? I love you. Isn't that supposed to make you wake up miraculously or something? That's the way it always happens in the movies." He laughed bitterly. "I guess that's not the way that it happens in real life, though. You're going to stay asleep until you're ready. But that's okay. I'll just wait until you're ready to wake up. I know you can hear me. I'll just wait until you're ready. Then I'll come back. I'll try to be here before you wake, okay?"
He leaned over the bed and prepared to kiss her forehead, but changed his mind and pressed his lips to hers. "Goodbye, Aiyana. I'll be back when you wake up."
***
*Aiyana, wake up. Come on now, darling. It's important for you to wake up.*
~Why should I?~ Aiyana asked. ~I'm safe in here. I don't have to face them. I don't have to face him.~
*You don't have to do anything in there. But this is not good. Didn't you hear him?*
~I didn't hear anything.~
*Don't lie. You heard him. Your baby needs you, Aiyana. You have the food that she needs, as well as the love and the care. You're her mother. You're a mother now. You have a responsibility to that baby.*
~No responsibilities. None of this would have ever happened if I hadn't screwed up. That day at school…~
*You remember that?* The voice was startled, taken aback, shaky. *What happened that day, Aiyana?*
~I don't know. I don't really remember. I just have this hazy vision. It's not at all clear. I don't know. I just said something.~ If she were floating in the real world, Aiyana would have eyed the voice, but there was nothing to eye. ~What do you know?~
*Aiyana, Masaya loves you.*
~He loves Little Aiyana.~
*He loves *you*. He said that. He told you. You heard him. You're really there, not here. Go back to the real world…take care of your daughter…* The voice was desperate, clinging.
~Why do you care so much?~ Aiyana asked bitterly.
*Masaya loves you, Aiyana. Don't disappoint him. Take care of your daughter as I couldn't take care of you…Aiyana.*
Aiyana sat up in her virtual ward. ~Take care of me? Who are you?~
* I wasn't able to take care of you. I wasn't able to take care of *my* daughter. Take care of *your* daughter.*
~Your daughter *and* I? Who are you?!~
*Take care of your daughter.*
~Mother?!~
***
"Mother?!"
"Mother? Girl, you're crazy. Were you having some kind of dream or something? Because I sure ain't your mother."
Aiyana blinked hard, looking around. Her entrance back into this world hadn't been miraculous. The only other person in the room was an older nurse, bustling around and cleaning things up. She fluffed Aiyana's pillows – although the girl was no longer laying on them – and stood back to study her, making a *tsk tsking* sound. "You look horrible," said the nurse, shaking her head. "You need some food. And if I'm not mistaken, that baby of yours will probably want some, too. Let's go see if we can get them both."
Aiyana shook her head. She wasn't floating in oblivion, speaking to some faceless voice any longer. She was back, awake in the hospital room, and hungry.
And her stomach was completely flat.
Her baby! Her heart jumped. Her baby was alive, outside of her body, and she hadn't been there to greet it into the world. She had been selfish, hiding out within herself. Her baby had gone for…how long?…without her mother's care. What had she done? How could she have?
"I'll be right back," the nurse said.
***
"What are you doing?"
The nurse looked up absently at the doctor for a split second before bending back at the task at hand. "I'm taking this baby to her mother, as well as this food. She looks beat, and she's hungry."
"Which one?"
"Both," the nurse said, chuckling.
Masaya looked again at which incubator she was reaching into. "Ma'am, I think that's the wrong one."
"Little Khalidah Aiyana, right?"
Masaya sat up in his chair. "Yes, that's her. But her mother—"
"Just woke up. She's powerfully hungry and she wants to see her baby. Could you grab the food while I get the baby?" When the nurse turned around to see the look on Masaya's face, she smiled. "Make that vice versa."
***
"Masaya-kun! Please, calm down! My child is in your arms!"
He planted one last kiss on her nose before he paid attention to her, sitting in the comfy rocking chair by the bed. "I didn't hurt her, I swear I didn't, Aiyana. I was just so happy to see you – awake and alive and well—"
"All right." Aiyana giggled a little, then looked up at Masaya, eyes dancing. "May I hold her?"
"May you?" Masaya said incredulously. "She's yours!" He handed the little pink bundle over to Aiyana, which she gratefully took. The baby, which had been gurgling loudly and was dangerously on the verge of breaking into a fit of tears from all the fuss Masaya had been making, sighed and shifted position, quieting.
"Oh." The little exhalation of breath was the only sound Aiyana could formulate. Could this perfect tiny form actually have come from her body? Everything was perfectly formed – ten fingers, ten toes, tiny baby hands and feet, and she was small enough to fit in the crook of one arm. She had dark curly hair on her small head. Her eyes were open and Aiyana could see that they were the warm, luminous amber that Masaya had described.
"They are her father's," she whispered.
"What?" Masaya asked sharply.
Aiyana looked up, into curious grey-blue eyes. "Her eyes," she said. "You said they must have been her daddy's. They are. The Second Delta had eyes just like that."
Masaya stared at the floor.
"Masaya-sensei," Aiyana said, leaning forward. "As far as I'm concerned…you're more Little Aiyana's father than him. He hasn't been here to help me…even the liaison that created this perfect life was horrible and undesirable. There's no way that I have feelings for him over you. No way. Don't even believe it for a minute."
Masaya smiled, looking back up at her. "I guess I just have a jealousy problem," he said, ducking his head. "Maybe I had some crazy notion my head that somehow…she'd look like…well, like me."
Aiyana smiled. "She already has your sweet, quiet disposition."
"Quiet? That baby has been screaming since she came out."
"And so have you."
Masaya laughed. "Yeah, I'm not too quiet myself." He stared back at Aiyana, then down at her baby, and finally back up at Aiyana.
"I love you, too," she said softly.
He hugged her and kissed her, gently.
"Help me feed her," Aiyana said, smiling, "before she starts screaming and whacks me with one of her perfect little hands. Now, how do I do that? I have a feeling it's another embarrassing place."
Masaya burst into laughter.
***
Ami frantically but meticulously poured the chemicals together. Aiyana's life rested in this paternity test. If she could prove that Endymion was truly Aiyana's father, then she could try to persuade the king to rule in favor of Aiyana. For some reason, Endymion had hid Aiyana for years – if he truly was her father – and if she truly were his child, and she could prove it, Aiyana might be able to live freely on Earth with asylum. Endymion could pretty much get Selenity to agree to anything.
There was a knock on the laboratory door, and Ami scowled. She'd told those workers to have no one bother her. "Who is it?" she demanded.
"Us." The voices of Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru floated through the door.
Ami hurried to unlock the door, and the two came in. "So how's progress with the paternity test coming out."
"Great. I am able to cross-check all the blood types and they come out exactly right. I just have to work out a few bugs that may affect the results and I'll be all done…and then I can check."
"Do you really think you should bother? Tomoe Keiko, the baby in the records, was born about the time of the Cold Sleep – perhaps a little before or after. Those records are unbelievably old."
"Hai," Haruka said. "If that really were Aiyana, that would make her…just over nine hundred years old."
Silence ensued in the room as Michiru, Haruka, and Ami exchanged glances, eyes widening as they realized what Haruka had just said.
"Chibi-usa…is over nine hundred years old, yet she appears thirteen!" Ami said. "There has to be an explanation! Tomoe Keiko *could* really be Aiyana!"
"I have another theory," said Michiru, smirking. "Since my first one worked so well, let's try the new one."
"Go on."
"I speculate…that the ginzuishou had something to do with this."
Haruka rolled her eyes. "Thank you, scientist Michiru."
"No, listen. When Sailormoon wished for her life to continue forever with her friends at the end of the battles before the Cold Sleep, she wished for all of us to live young immortally. None of your children were conceived at the time, so they would continue to grow normally. But Chibi-usa was conceived at the time, and obviously, so was Aiyana."
"So you're saying that the ginzuishou caused them both to stop growing?"
"Didn't Chibi-usa stay five years old for nine hundred years?"
Haruka and Ami nodded. "So…the ginzuishou could have selected an age for each girl to stop growing," Ami said, nodding. "Chibi-usa's body stopped growing at five, and Aiyana's stopped growing at…another age. Until Selenity reversed the effects of the crystal and made them age faster, but still much slower. So Aiyana might not have even realized that she was aging very slowly…"
"…especially if she had someone to convince her that she was perfectly normal." Haruka nodded. "Her mother could have reassured her of that constantly, telling her it was all normal. She could have easily explained her daughter's aging problem because the Irish authorities and school system knew she was from Crystal Tokyo, and they would have cooperated." She shook her head. "It's all falling into place now. Tomoe Keiko *could* be Khalidah Aiyana."
Ami remained silent and slid off the cabinet, slinking over to the modified paternity machine. She tinkered with the chemicals a little bit more, then slid the vial into the refined opening where the liquid would have been poured before – she'd changed it to make it more accurate. Tentatively pressing the button, she and the other two Senshi watched the printout side for the results.
A = 3567012, AB = 849306
Subject Mmrx20%Ayn
Formula match-up T175469YJH774
Blood match-up 20%paternity
...test results positive
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------
AN: …
Comments and questions: julymoonbunny@hotmail.com