1 Chapter Twenty-Five – Her Mother's Embrace
***
"Aiyana."
Aiyana turned around, waterfalls of tears still cascading down her cheeks. But she stopped audibly crying and gasped in shock as she saw the woman standing behind her.
It was like staring at an age-progression of herself. The woman was older than her, much older, but she looked exactly like Aiyana. Her violet hair was cut short, but it had the same glossy sheen as Aiyana's own. Her skin, body structure, facial features – all were eerily reminiscent of Aiyana's own. The only difference was that while Aiyana's eyes were a luminous blue, this woman's eyes were a deep violet.
The violet eyes filled with tears as she gazed upon Aiyana, clutching her baby to her chest. "My daughter. I'm missed you so much."
Aiyana stood up and stepped back from the figure before her. "Your…daughter?"
"You, Aiyana."
Aiyana's eyes were the size of saucers. "Mother?"
"Mother."
She fell silent, staring at the violet-haired woman before her for a few moments. "You're not really here."
"No." She had a wavery, holographic appearance to her. Her body was nearly translucent, and she glowed with a soft purple light. But she was smiling serenely, and she looked almost as tangible as Aiyana herself.
"What…are you here for?" Suddenly, Aiyana grew angry. She'd fantasized for years about meeting her mother, about the emotions that would flow, but she never imagined that one of them would be anger. "Why do you decide to show up now after being gone for seventeen years?"
"Aiyana…Keiko…" The woman – Hotaru – her eyes filled with tears again. "I never left you, not for seventeen years or seventeen seconds. Why did you leave *me*, my darling?"
"I never left you!" Aiyana yelled. "I don't even *remember* you!"
"Of course you don't." The tears were spilling over her cheeks, and she had a sad smile on her face. "You don't remember…the day at school…"
"A day at school." Aiyana stood straighter, holding Mikomi tightly. Somehow, the baby had completely stopped crying, but Aiyana could feel her baby heart beating normally inside its chamber. She was alive and hopefully all right. She didn't know how, but Aiyana thought she would kind of be able to sense if her baby were having problems.
"You remember."
"No, I don't. But I get hazy visions." She shook her head. "I only started…when they mentioned the name. Of the baby. Keiko Tomoe."
"Keiko Tomoe is not a baby. Keiko Tomoe is a seventeen-year-old mother."
Aiyana stared down at Mikomi in her arms, who had fallen back to sleep. "Are you sure that I'm her?"
"I'm positive. You resemble me so much, and I memorized every last feature of my precious daughter. Besides, you have his eyes."
"His eyes." Aiyana stared the woman who said she was her mother in the eye. "King Endymion's eyes."
"Yes. King Endymion's eyes."
Aiyana stared back down at Mikomi.
"It's not what you think," Hotaru said desperately, reaching out for her daughter. She was losing her, and Hotaru felt the most powerful urge to communicate with her, right now, while she still had time to watch her…while there was even a shred of innocence within her…while Hotaru herself still lived. "The king and I…we didn't…he wasn't unfaithful to his wife."
"What, they weren't married yet?"
"Don't be like this. What do you care? You fell to quite the same plight as I did, my dear."
Aiyana snapped her head back up to Hotaru. "This was not by my will!" she said forcefully.
"I know that. And it was not by my will, either."
Aiyana stared at Hotaru. "You were raped, too?"
"Not in that sense."
"You're confusing me."
"You're going to have to get your father to explain it." Hotaru raised an eyebrow at Aiyana, silencing the fit of outrage she was about to throw. "I can't…I don't have time to discuss that right now. My time is short now, and I must tell you about much, much more important things."
Aiyana took a deep breath and sat down in the bed. She cradled Mikomi in her arms so she was laying horizontally instead of Aiyana having to support her vertically. She then looked up at Hotaru. She disliked sitting beneath her and having to look up, but her arms were getting tired. "What could be more important than that?"
"What do you remember about that day at school?"
Aiyana bent her head back down.
"You were twelve years old. It was a new school for you, a middle school. Two weeks you had been there. You went to school one day…" Hotaru was crying silently again. "And you disappeared."
"They took me away."
Hotaru looked up, quickly, focused her eyes on the bowed head that was Aiyana. She bent down, took Aiyana's chin on her finger, and lifted her head so her eyes were looking into her daughter's. "Who took you away, Aiyana?"
"I don't remember. It's all so hazy. I only started remembering after I threw up. And it's taking a long time to get out of my bloodstream, whatever they used to erase my memory. All I remember…is dark figures. Taking me somewhere. It could have been a teacher taking me to the bathroom or something as simple as that." Her face remained expressionless. "But I was afraid. I know that."
She bowed her head back down to Mikomi. "I'm still afraid," she whispered.
Hotaru took her place next to Aiyana on the bed and took the teenager into her arms, who had begun crying. "I don't know what's going to happen to me, Mother. My life is still in the balances. My future and Mikomi-chan's future are both unsure. I don't care what happens to me at this point. But I want Mikomi to live here, on Earth." Aiyana looked up at Hotaru's face, a little startled at their sudden proximity. Earlier, they had been cold to each other. Now she was comforting her as any mother would do to her distressed daughter.
"Maybe I should hide away, like you."
"No." Hotaru took Aiyana's shoulders. "Me hiding, us keeping this a secret – me and your father – it was bad. It caused too much trouble, trouble for all three of us. He felt so guilty, and his guilt was tearing at his soul for years. He wanted to meet you, see you. He always loved you, Aiyana; don't think that he walked away from you or didn't want you. He always wanted you, and he wanted to watch you grow up, as any parent would do to their child. It hurt him when you stopped writing him letters out of spite. He loved you very much.
"Me, I was a little resentful. I didn't want Endymion to tell anyone – no, I didn't want the timeline to be disrupted…but I felt so helpless. I loved you with all my heart, but you wanted to know your father. And when I wouldn't tell you more about him, you became angry with me. You didn't understand, you see.
"But for you, Aiyana – Keiko…it was hardest on you of all. You felt torn and incomplete. Everyone else had both their parents, and without the male role model that you needed and the constant secrecy…you kind of grew up wrong.
"But you turned into a rational, intelligent, beautiful young lady," Hotaru said, smiling again at her daughter. "One that I can be proud of."
"Mother," Aiyana said. She didn't feel comfortable calling Hotaru her mother quite yet, but she couldn't think of anything else to call her. After all, she *was* her mother. "If you and King Endymion didn't…do…what everyone would think you did to have children – me – then why did you keep it a secret?"
"Your father will have to answer that one for you," Hotaru repeated. She smiled a little but her answer was firm, and Aiyana could easily see that.
"There is something else." Hotaru brought Aiyana's face back to face her again. "I know that during your stay here, you have heard of the Sailor Senshi."
"Not just during my stay," Aiyana said. "They're all over the universe, fighting for different causes. Most of the ones we heard of were pretty weak, and Andromeda didn't have any. That's where they took me to – Andromeda, the galaxy."
"They have some," Hotaru said reassuringly. "Every planet has one, just some are undiscovered…Aiyana, the Sailor Senshi of this solar system are the most powerful Senshi there are. They have the starseeds of hope, and they fight for only good causes, love and justice. There are ten that presently reside on this earth, not counting Sailormoon, whose fight has ended for now.
"Four of them I am sure you have already met. I know you have already met them, and as a matter of fact, I know that they are playing a big part in your life. Sailormercury, Sailormars, Sailorjupiter, and Sailorvenus are protectors of the queen. They safeguard the palace and protect the welfare of the city. They also have families.
"Sailoruranus and Sailorneptune. My partners and surrogate parents. They raised me and protected me throughout my life – they were like a mother and father to me, and they loved me like their own child. I am forever indebted to them for that, and I will never forget their kindness and love for me."
"No wonder they were so intent on finding you," Aiyana said.
"Yes. I always knew they were looking, and that they would look. But they didn't have the resources to find me. I never filed a relocation record because I never relocated – Crystal Tokyo and the Earth were restored and I immediately went to Ireland. And I never filed a residency report. There were no records of me being there, except for your birth record."
"There are two more soldiers. Sailorpluto is the eternal time guardian. She watches over the flow of time, making sure that the normal flow of time is never interrupted or manhandled.
And finally, there is I. Sailorsaturn. The Senshi of Death and Rebirth." Hotaru sighed. "That is a duty I shall now pass to you."
Aiyana widened her eyes. "I can't – I can't be a Sailor Senshi!" she said. "I have Mikomi-chan to care for. And the other Senshi hate me! Well, at least Mars and Venus do. They hate me and they'll never agree to fight with me. And I don't have any experience in using magic!" Aiyana shook her head furiously. "I could never be a Sailor Senshi. I don't fit in here!"
"But my dear, you already have the starseed of Saturn," she said. "Earlier when you thought your dear daughter was hurt, you called on the powers of the guardian god Saturn to protect her and make sure she was all right. You did it subconsciously, but the power is there. And you are my daughter, an excellent warrior and an intelligent woman. There is nothing that can stop you."
Aiyana was still shaking her head. Her face had gone stark white at the suggestion of her fighting – now, with the very people who hated her so much and wanted her dead. "This is unreal," she said. "This is all happening too fast!"
"Aiyana," Hotaru said soothingly, "you won't fight with the Sailor Senshi you know of."
"You just said I would have to fight alongside the Senshi. Because I am one. Or the daughter of one."
"You'll fight alongside Senshi, yes, the Senshi who carry the starseeds and represent the power of this system. However, the Senshi are old, and they will also have to pass their powers along, just as I do."
"How will they know?"
"You'll have to tell them."
"They will never believe me."
"They will have to believe you," Hotaru said. "Because you are the beginning of a revolution.
"You see, because I am the soldier of rebirth, I begin the rebirthing process of the Senshi. Once my power is transferred to you, the already- existing Senshi will find themselves unable to transform. You will explain to them why, and they will have to believe you. If the Senshi already- existing fight, they will lose – they are not strong enough to fight the new enemy. They need fresh, new bodies to house their starseeds and to fight this battle – to learn how to fight the upcoming battles."
"But that's not the way this is supposed to be," Aiyana said. "Ami said that the Sailor Senshi will remain forever, that they were made immortal with the power of the ginzuishou – that they will live on together."
"That's the way that we thought it was, Aiyana," Hotaru said, her face softening as she stared at her daughter. "We also thought that the timeline was immutable, that nothing we did could alter the future. However, the Senshi found that changed with Serenity's unwillingness to let them live lives of single women and with the creation of yourself. Originally, the Sailor Senshi were to remain forever the warriors of Crystal Tokyo, the protectors, and in that essence, they would live forever, body and spirit.
"However, with the birth of their daughters, there was now the ability to pass on the starseed and the spirit of their planets and powers. So they don't have to live forever – they have progeny. So while their starseed will live forever—"
"—their bodies will pass away." Aiyana nodded. "Immortality was a misinterpretation."
Hotaru nodded.
"So will they…die…as soon as they pass the power on?" Aiyana asked, looking back at her mother. Her voice was shaky. "Will you die?"
"They are stronger than I. They won't die as soon as they pass it on, but something powerful will be taken from them, and they won't feel the same." Hotaru smiled sadly at her daughter. "As for myself…I have always been physically weak. So when I do pass this power on…the rebound of it will be so strong that it will kill me."
"No!" Aiyana said, wrapping her arms around her mother's waist. "I was only beginning to get to know you…and you'll be gone."
"It's for the good of the universe," said Hotaru, looking down at her daughter in adoration. "I'm merely passing my spirit to you. In essence, I'll be alive inside you."
Aiyana looked up at her mother. There was something wonderful about the twinkle of reassurance in a mother's eye, the feeling that she can right the whole world just by whispering sweet words to one and rocking one to sleep. Aiyana laid her head against her mother's bosom, defeated.
"Listen to me, sweetheart. There is a room in the palace I stayed in for a little while before I moved on to Ireland – not long enough to get any citizenship papers, but long enough to stabilize before being moved across the globe. In that room I have hidden a small box with a pen-like object in it. That object is your henshin wand. You will use it to turn into Neo- Sailorsaturn when the time comes around. When you hold it in your hands, you will know what to do.
"As soon as you use the henshin wand, the other Senshi will lose the ability to transform, so make sure that you use it at a wise time. And—" Hotaru smiled. "While you are in the palace, you might seek a few answers from your father."
Aiyana nodded.
"I would like for you to give these to Haruka and Michiru for me." There was a waver in Hotaru's voice this time, and she choked back tears as she handed Aiyana two plain, nondescript envelopes, each marked with the name of one of her surrogate parents. "Sailorpluto needs no letter – she knows, she sees, everything. But Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama…" Hotaru smiled. "I cannot see them again. The only reason I can see you is to impart this message to you – the soldier of Saturn is always summoned by a desperate show of power, and only to discuss the future of the soldier-ship."
Aiyana nodded. She understood. Tenoh-san and Kaioh-san would be devastated when they found out that Hotaru had passed without them seeing her one last. But the one last time would make the parting all the more devastating and sad, for all three of them.
Hotaru's face sort of melted into another expression, one approaching both that of anguish and determination, all aimed at Aiyana. "I love you, Keiko- chan," she said, the tears spilling over her cheeks as she drew Aiyana closer to her. "Remember that."
Aiyana reveled in the warmth of her mother's embrace. *Her mother's.* The words felt wonderful on her tongue, the thoughts wonderful in her mind.
"I love you too, Mama."
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AN:
***
"Aiyana."
Aiyana turned around, waterfalls of tears still cascading down her cheeks. But she stopped audibly crying and gasped in shock as she saw the woman standing behind her.
It was like staring at an age-progression of herself. The woman was older than her, much older, but she looked exactly like Aiyana. Her violet hair was cut short, but it had the same glossy sheen as Aiyana's own. Her skin, body structure, facial features – all were eerily reminiscent of Aiyana's own. The only difference was that while Aiyana's eyes were a luminous blue, this woman's eyes were a deep violet.
The violet eyes filled with tears as she gazed upon Aiyana, clutching her baby to her chest. "My daughter. I'm missed you so much."
Aiyana stood up and stepped back from the figure before her. "Your…daughter?"
"You, Aiyana."
Aiyana's eyes were the size of saucers. "Mother?"
"Mother."
She fell silent, staring at the violet-haired woman before her for a few moments. "You're not really here."
"No." She had a wavery, holographic appearance to her. Her body was nearly translucent, and she glowed with a soft purple light. But she was smiling serenely, and she looked almost as tangible as Aiyana herself.
"What…are you here for?" Suddenly, Aiyana grew angry. She'd fantasized for years about meeting her mother, about the emotions that would flow, but she never imagined that one of them would be anger. "Why do you decide to show up now after being gone for seventeen years?"
"Aiyana…Keiko…" The woman – Hotaru – her eyes filled with tears again. "I never left you, not for seventeen years or seventeen seconds. Why did you leave *me*, my darling?"
"I never left you!" Aiyana yelled. "I don't even *remember* you!"
"Of course you don't." The tears were spilling over her cheeks, and she had a sad smile on her face. "You don't remember…the day at school…"
"A day at school." Aiyana stood straighter, holding Mikomi tightly. Somehow, the baby had completely stopped crying, but Aiyana could feel her baby heart beating normally inside its chamber. She was alive and hopefully all right. She didn't know how, but Aiyana thought she would kind of be able to sense if her baby were having problems.
"You remember."
"No, I don't. But I get hazy visions." She shook her head. "I only started…when they mentioned the name. Of the baby. Keiko Tomoe."
"Keiko Tomoe is not a baby. Keiko Tomoe is a seventeen-year-old mother."
Aiyana stared down at Mikomi in her arms, who had fallen back to sleep. "Are you sure that I'm her?"
"I'm positive. You resemble me so much, and I memorized every last feature of my precious daughter. Besides, you have his eyes."
"His eyes." Aiyana stared the woman who said she was her mother in the eye. "King Endymion's eyes."
"Yes. King Endymion's eyes."
Aiyana stared back down at Mikomi.
"It's not what you think," Hotaru said desperately, reaching out for her daughter. She was losing her, and Hotaru felt the most powerful urge to communicate with her, right now, while she still had time to watch her…while there was even a shred of innocence within her…while Hotaru herself still lived. "The king and I…we didn't…he wasn't unfaithful to his wife."
"What, they weren't married yet?"
"Don't be like this. What do you care? You fell to quite the same plight as I did, my dear."
Aiyana snapped her head back up to Hotaru. "This was not by my will!" she said forcefully.
"I know that. And it was not by my will, either."
Aiyana stared at Hotaru. "You were raped, too?"
"Not in that sense."
"You're confusing me."
"You're going to have to get your father to explain it." Hotaru raised an eyebrow at Aiyana, silencing the fit of outrage she was about to throw. "I can't…I don't have time to discuss that right now. My time is short now, and I must tell you about much, much more important things."
Aiyana took a deep breath and sat down in the bed. She cradled Mikomi in her arms so she was laying horizontally instead of Aiyana having to support her vertically. She then looked up at Hotaru. She disliked sitting beneath her and having to look up, but her arms were getting tired. "What could be more important than that?"
"What do you remember about that day at school?"
Aiyana bent her head back down.
"You were twelve years old. It was a new school for you, a middle school. Two weeks you had been there. You went to school one day…" Hotaru was crying silently again. "And you disappeared."
"They took me away."
Hotaru looked up, quickly, focused her eyes on the bowed head that was Aiyana. She bent down, took Aiyana's chin on her finger, and lifted her head so her eyes were looking into her daughter's. "Who took you away, Aiyana?"
"I don't remember. It's all so hazy. I only started remembering after I threw up. And it's taking a long time to get out of my bloodstream, whatever they used to erase my memory. All I remember…is dark figures. Taking me somewhere. It could have been a teacher taking me to the bathroom or something as simple as that." Her face remained expressionless. "But I was afraid. I know that."
She bowed her head back down to Mikomi. "I'm still afraid," she whispered.
Hotaru took her place next to Aiyana on the bed and took the teenager into her arms, who had begun crying. "I don't know what's going to happen to me, Mother. My life is still in the balances. My future and Mikomi-chan's future are both unsure. I don't care what happens to me at this point. But I want Mikomi to live here, on Earth." Aiyana looked up at Hotaru's face, a little startled at their sudden proximity. Earlier, they had been cold to each other. Now she was comforting her as any mother would do to her distressed daughter.
"Maybe I should hide away, like you."
"No." Hotaru took Aiyana's shoulders. "Me hiding, us keeping this a secret – me and your father – it was bad. It caused too much trouble, trouble for all three of us. He felt so guilty, and his guilt was tearing at his soul for years. He wanted to meet you, see you. He always loved you, Aiyana; don't think that he walked away from you or didn't want you. He always wanted you, and he wanted to watch you grow up, as any parent would do to their child. It hurt him when you stopped writing him letters out of spite. He loved you very much.
"Me, I was a little resentful. I didn't want Endymion to tell anyone – no, I didn't want the timeline to be disrupted…but I felt so helpless. I loved you with all my heart, but you wanted to know your father. And when I wouldn't tell you more about him, you became angry with me. You didn't understand, you see.
"But for you, Aiyana – Keiko…it was hardest on you of all. You felt torn and incomplete. Everyone else had both their parents, and without the male role model that you needed and the constant secrecy…you kind of grew up wrong.
"But you turned into a rational, intelligent, beautiful young lady," Hotaru said, smiling again at her daughter. "One that I can be proud of."
"Mother," Aiyana said. She didn't feel comfortable calling Hotaru her mother quite yet, but she couldn't think of anything else to call her. After all, she *was* her mother. "If you and King Endymion didn't…do…what everyone would think you did to have children – me – then why did you keep it a secret?"
"Your father will have to answer that one for you," Hotaru repeated. She smiled a little but her answer was firm, and Aiyana could easily see that.
"There is something else." Hotaru brought Aiyana's face back to face her again. "I know that during your stay here, you have heard of the Sailor Senshi."
"Not just during my stay," Aiyana said. "They're all over the universe, fighting for different causes. Most of the ones we heard of were pretty weak, and Andromeda didn't have any. That's where they took me to – Andromeda, the galaxy."
"They have some," Hotaru said reassuringly. "Every planet has one, just some are undiscovered…Aiyana, the Sailor Senshi of this solar system are the most powerful Senshi there are. They have the starseeds of hope, and they fight for only good causes, love and justice. There are ten that presently reside on this earth, not counting Sailormoon, whose fight has ended for now.
"Four of them I am sure you have already met. I know you have already met them, and as a matter of fact, I know that they are playing a big part in your life. Sailormercury, Sailormars, Sailorjupiter, and Sailorvenus are protectors of the queen. They safeguard the palace and protect the welfare of the city. They also have families.
"Sailoruranus and Sailorneptune. My partners and surrogate parents. They raised me and protected me throughout my life – they were like a mother and father to me, and they loved me like their own child. I am forever indebted to them for that, and I will never forget their kindness and love for me."
"No wonder they were so intent on finding you," Aiyana said.
"Yes. I always knew they were looking, and that they would look. But they didn't have the resources to find me. I never filed a relocation record because I never relocated – Crystal Tokyo and the Earth were restored and I immediately went to Ireland. And I never filed a residency report. There were no records of me being there, except for your birth record."
"There are two more soldiers. Sailorpluto is the eternal time guardian. She watches over the flow of time, making sure that the normal flow of time is never interrupted or manhandled.
And finally, there is I. Sailorsaturn. The Senshi of Death and Rebirth." Hotaru sighed. "That is a duty I shall now pass to you."
Aiyana widened her eyes. "I can't – I can't be a Sailor Senshi!" she said. "I have Mikomi-chan to care for. And the other Senshi hate me! Well, at least Mars and Venus do. They hate me and they'll never agree to fight with me. And I don't have any experience in using magic!" Aiyana shook her head furiously. "I could never be a Sailor Senshi. I don't fit in here!"
"But my dear, you already have the starseed of Saturn," she said. "Earlier when you thought your dear daughter was hurt, you called on the powers of the guardian god Saturn to protect her and make sure she was all right. You did it subconsciously, but the power is there. And you are my daughter, an excellent warrior and an intelligent woman. There is nothing that can stop you."
Aiyana was still shaking her head. Her face had gone stark white at the suggestion of her fighting – now, with the very people who hated her so much and wanted her dead. "This is unreal," she said. "This is all happening too fast!"
"Aiyana," Hotaru said soothingly, "you won't fight with the Sailor Senshi you know of."
"You just said I would have to fight alongside the Senshi. Because I am one. Or the daughter of one."
"You'll fight alongside Senshi, yes, the Senshi who carry the starseeds and represent the power of this system. However, the Senshi are old, and they will also have to pass their powers along, just as I do."
"How will they know?"
"You'll have to tell them."
"They will never believe me."
"They will have to believe you," Hotaru said. "Because you are the beginning of a revolution.
"You see, because I am the soldier of rebirth, I begin the rebirthing process of the Senshi. Once my power is transferred to you, the already- existing Senshi will find themselves unable to transform. You will explain to them why, and they will have to believe you. If the Senshi already- existing fight, they will lose – they are not strong enough to fight the new enemy. They need fresh, new bodies to house their starseeds and to fight this battle – to learn how to fight the upcoming battles."
"But that's not the way this is supposed to be," Aiyana said. "Ami said that the Sailor Senshi will remain forever, that they were made immortal with the power of the ginzuishou – that they will live on together."
"That's the way that we thought it was, Aiyana," Hotaru said, her face softening as she stared at her daughter. "We also thought that the timeline was immutable, that nothing we did could alter the future. However, the Senshi found that changed with Serenity's unwillingness to let them live lives of single women and with the creation of yourself. Originally, the Sailor Senshi were to remain forever the warriors of Crystal Tokyo, the protectors, and in that essence, they would live forever, body and spirit.
"However, with the birth of their daughters, there was now the ability to pass on the starseed and the spirit of their planets and powers. So they don't have to live forever – they have progeny. So while their starseed will live forever—"
"—their bodies will pass away." Aiyana nodded. "Immortality was a misinterpretation."
Hotaru nodded.
"So will they…die…as soon as they pass the power on?" Aiyana asked, looking back at her mother. Her voice was shaky. "Will you die?"
"They are stronger than I. They won't die as soon as they pass it on, but something powerful will be taken from them, and they won't feel the same." Hotaru smiled sadly at her daughter. "As for myself…I have always been physically weak. So when I do pass this power on…the rebound of it will be so strong that it will kill me."
"No!" Aiyana said, wrapping her arms around her mother's waist. "I was only beginning to get to know you…and you'll be gone."
"It's for the good of the universe," said Hotaru, looking down at her daughter in adoration. "I'm merely passing my spirit to you. In essence, I'll be alive inside you."
Aiyana looked up at her mother. There was something wonderful about the twinkle of reassurance in a mother's eye, the feeling that she can right the whole world just by whispering sweet words to one and rocking one to sleep. Aiyana laid her head against her mother's bosom, defeated.
"Listen to me, sweetheart. There is a room in the palace I stayed in for a little while before I moved on to Ireland – not long enough to get any citizenship papers, but long enough to stabilize before being moved across the globe. In that room I have hidden a small box with a pen-like object in it. That object is your henshin wand. You will use it to turn into Neo- Sailorsaturn when the time comes around. When you hold it in your hands, you will know what to do.
"As soon as you use the henshin wand, the other Senshi will lose the ability to transform, so make sure that you use it at a wise time. And—" Hotaru smiled. "While you are in the palace, you might seek a few answers from your father."
Aiyana nodded.
"I would like for you to give these to Haruka and Michiru for me." There was a waver in Hotaru's voice this time, and she choked back tears as she handed Aiyana two plain, nondescript envelopes, each marked with the name of one of her surrogate parents. "Sailorpluto needs no letter – she knows, she sees, everything. But Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama…" Hotaru smiled. "I cannot see them again. The only reason I can see you is to impart this message to you – the soldier of Saturn is always summoned by a desperate show of power, and only to discuss the future of the soldier-ship."
Aiyana nodded. She understood. Tenoh-san and Kaioh-san would be devastated when they found out that Hotaru had passed without them seeing her one last. But the one last time would make the parting all the more devastating and sad, for all three of them.
Hotaru's face sort of melted into another expression, one approaching both that of anguish and determination, all aimed at Aiyana. "I love you, Keiko- chan," she said, the tears spilling over her cheeks as she drew Aiyana closer to her. "Remember that."
Aiyana reveled in the warmth of her mother's embrace. *Her mother's.* The words felt wonderful on her tongue, the thoughts wonderful in her mind.
"I love you too, Mama."
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AN: