Title: Return to Innocence
Chapter Three
Disclaimer: I don't wish. But I don't have either.
Usagi could remember when she was the only person standing between Galaxia-slash-Chaos and the rest of the world. She had been floating, stagnant sword in hand, watching the pain and suffering hiding behind the cruel eyes of Galaxia. She could see the real Galaxia, the one Chaos had buried.
She reached out, her hand to touch Galaxia's. And just before they joined, everything snapped. Everything fell apart. Chaos laughed from inside Galaxia's body and screamed. She screamed her triumph and shot into space, daring Usagi to follow.
Usagi remembered following her into the black abyss of space, watching as Chaos laughed and destroyed city after city. She laughed even when Usagi destroyed her physical consciousness, because she knew what was going to happen. Chaos knew what Usagi would be condemned to: a life of destruction and sorrow.
"You don't really know what's going to happen, do you?" Chaos' smirk was disconcerting and Usagi was scared. More scared than she had ever been. To destroy people was wrong; it was something she had lived the past millennium fighting against.
"Of course I do, I always do. You will become destruction. You will become me. The balance has shifted and the equilibrium must be centered once more. To destroy the darkness is only to destroy the light." The mouth of Galaxia laughed a painfully evil laugh she had laughed for centuries; mocking and taunting Usagi with the sound.
"I won't, you know. I won't become your pawn."
Chaos' glare was frightening and hateful; it burned. "You'll see. You will see."
"I forgive you."
Chaos sneered, "For what? Sparing your life?"
"Actually, yes, and more significantly, I forgive you for loving Galaxia. For loving her power and wanting more. For loving everything she represented and wishing that you could be her. For loving the dream of her dream."
"You don't make any sense, idiot."
"But, most importantly, I apologize. I'm sorry for not being able to save you." Usagi embraced Chaos, and everything went black, then white, then black again... [1]
She woke up in, predictably, a medical room. It was like a hospital; too superficially clean, too bright to balance the desperately dark shadows, and too happy to be anything but scary. Heero stood outside the door speaking to the woman from, Sally; she could see Heero's profile. His face was all sharp planes and harsh shadows. Dark brown hair fell over his eyes, and his long-fingered hands lay in a strained relaxation against his side.
"–and that's everything?"
"Yes, that's everything we could gather from the tests. We would need to run some more on her, but she has to be conscious for those. She didn't seem too happy about the coming here in the first place, and any involuntary tests are regularly unreliable."
"Fine." His jaw muscles were clenching, and his fingers
"Well what do you want me to do with her?"
"Hn..." He turned and walked away, leaving Sally's question unanswered.
"WAIT! Heero, where are you going? What do you want done with Usagi?" Her voice grew louder as he got farther away, and she finally gave up. "Damn, can't he just answer the damned questions and make my job a little easier once in awhile?" She looked in at Usagi and gasped to see that she was awake.
She rushed inside, "You're finally awake! How are you? How do you feel?" She checked the monitors bleeping around Usagi and brought out a needle and bottle labeled "Nano".
"I'm fine, I feel fine."
Sally checked her over once more and rubbed a bit of alcohol on her arm, "This will only hurt for a second. Now on the count of three; one, two..."
The needle jabbed into Usagi's arm. "You said on three!"
"I lied."
The liquid advanced through her bloodstream. "What was that?"
"Nanomachines, they live in the liquid. Now all you need to do is rest and they'll take care of the rest."
"Nan-oh-machines?"
"Yes, now rest."
So she rested.
When she woke again she was in a large bed, the sun streamed generously through the large window and the smell of a hospital was gone. In fact, the room was surprisingly well-built and huge, and smelled like roses. The carpet was the color of peaches; it seemed the rest of the room was in the same theme.
A pair of white pants with a white blouse was laid out on a near-by chair; she hopped out from the incredibly comfortable bed and onto the warm plush carpet. After retrieving and clothing herself, she walked out into the hallway. Long halls of sunlit gold stretched out before her, but a large burly man soon blocked her view.
"Where would you like to go, miss?" His face was kind, for all of his strong build.
"Uhm, do you know where Heero is?"
"Please follow me, miss." He walked with silence and grace, with the force and lethal power of a veteran soldier.
When they arrived, Heero stood with four other men – two of them the ones she had seen at the compound. Heero stepped in front of her, grabbing her arm and pulling her in front of the other men.
"This is Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei. Treat them with respect; they are now your bodyguards." Usagi's eyes opened almost comically wide, they were WHAT?! How had she come from lab rat to person in need of protection? For that matter, how long had she been out?
Excuse me?
"What?"
"You wanted to know how long you'd been out. You were unconscious for ten days, four hours, and forty-two minutes."
"I didn't ask that."
Duo spoke up, "You did! I heard it."
Oh, ok then...
"Well I didn't mean to."
An awkward silence gathered around the group, and the Manguanac had slipped away during the exchange between Heero and Usagi. Duo, being the charismatic...Duo, that he was the one to break the silence.
"So anyone hungry? 'Cause I'm hungry. Usagi, you hungry?" Usagi's eyes darted to him, and she gave an almost imperceptible nod. She didn't really trust him, and she still couldn't figure out why she trusted Heero.
"Ok...great! So what's it going to be? We've got beef, turkey, salami, bologna...we got any of that liver left, Quat-man..."
AN: I am SO happy with the response! It's really quite amazing. This will be short, because I don't really want to make this deceptively long, and I'll just answer a question asked in reviews. Well at least the one I can tell without giving away plot.
[1]I stole the line from another fic, but I can't remember what it was. I only remember it was an X-men Logan/Marie fic.
Q: Is she transformed as Eternal Sailor Moon or is she like the way she was at the end of Stars?
A: Yeah, pretty much.
And Suzaka, thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind. I have a problem with making things unrealistically angsty. See how hard it is?! She's still really dark...and that's with me trying not to be. Anyway, it was reinforced by a few other people I know. Thanks, though!
Ps. Don't forget to review!