Chapter 10

At Tokyo General, Raye was pacing up and down the corridor in front of Serena's room. Serena was still sleeping and while she was sleeping the doctors wouldn't allow anyone in her room. Mina was leaning up against the wall, staring at the floor. Amy was sitting in a chair by the door leading to Serena's room, looking at the wall. All three were worried about Serena. She had passed out soon after they had teleported off Rebeus's ship and hadn't woken up since. All three were worried that she wouldn't wake up at all, yet the doctor assured them that Serena was just exhausted and sleeping. SLAM! All three girls looked up to see Darien walking down the hallway, Reenie by his side.
"Darien," Raye said, walking up to him.

Darien looked at Raye, worry in his eyes. "Where's Serena?" he demanded. "How is she?"
"In there," Raye said, motioning to the door by Amy. "Sleeping."
"How's Claudia?" he asked, hoping the girl was better. "Is she any better?"

Raye shook her head. "Amy's mom hasn't given us any news about her yet," she told him.
"Is Dr. Anderson the doctor looking after Claudia?" Darien asked.

Raye nodded. "Yes, I am," a new voice said.

Surprised, Darien turned around. Standing a few feet behind him was a woman around the age of 40, with her shoulder length light blue hair tied back in a ponytail and green eyes.
"Mom," Amy said, getting up from her chair and walking over to them. "How's Claudia?"
"That's what I came down here to talk to you about, honey," Dr. Anderson said.
"Mom, Claudia is going to be okay, right?" Amy asked, worry in her voice.

Dr. Anderson sighed. "Honey," she began, looking right in her daughter's eyes. "Some tests were run on Claudia. The results weren't good."
"Please, don't drag it out, Dr. Anderson," Raye said, her hopes sinking. She had a feeling that what Dr. Anderson was going to say, wasn't going to be good news.

Dr. Anderson nodded. "I won't drag it out then," she said. "Claudia isn't going to make it."
"What?" Reenie asked, hearing what Dr. Anderson said.

Dr. Anderson bent down so that she was the same height as Reenie. "Honey," she said. "Why don't you go sit over in that chair?"

Reenie looked at Dr. Anderson like she must be kidding. "Dr. Anderson," Reenie began, looking Amy's mother right in the eye, "I may be only eight years old, but I have already lived through death before. Now, can you answer this truthfully, please? Is my friend going to die?"

Dr. Anderson looked at Darien, Amy, Mina, and Raye clearly surprised by the maturity level of Reenie's impassioned speech. "Well," Dr. Anderson began trying to get over Reenie's empassioned speech, "Technically, Claudia is already dead."
"What do you mean by 'technically'?" Mina asked, not quite understanding what Dr. Anderson was trying to say.
"She's brain dead, isn't she, mom?" Dr. Anderson nodded in response to Amy's question.
"Yes, I'm afraid she is."

Reenie sniffed back her tears and pulled on Darien's shirt sleeve.
"Yes, Reenie?" Darien asked, wondering why Reenie was pulling on his sleeve.
"I need to see the others," Reenie said, her tone suddenly needy.

Darien to looked Raye.

She nodded and said, "Come on, Reenie. I'll take you to see the others." Hand-in-hand, Raye and Reenie headed to the elevator.

Upstairs, Kirsten, Melanie, and Shantal were sitting in three chairs in the ICU waiting room. From where they sat, the trio had a good view of Claudia's room.
"Claudia should have waken up by now," Melanie said, a worried tone in her voice.
"We should have taken her to the future to help her," Kirsten mumbled.
"Why?" Shantal asked. "Saturn couldn't have healed her. She can only heal physical wounds. Other than the burns on her back, Claud's wounds aren't only physical."
"Hey, guys," a familiar voice said. The three girls turned to see Raye and Reenie standing just a few feet away.
"Hey," Shantal said, tired.
"How you guys holding up?" Raye asked, sitting down beside Kirsten. The girls shrugged.
"Kirsten, Shantal, Melanie," Reenie said, her tone serious. "I have something to tell you."

All three girls turned their attention to the future queen. Kirsten tried to read the little girl's expression but couldn't. It was unreadable.
"What is it, Reenie?" Shantal asked.
"You know about the tombstone beside Claudia's mother's, right?" Reenie asked.

Melanie nodded, suddenly feeling sick. She knew which tombstone Reenie was talking about. The one right beside Lita's tombstone. The tombstone read:

Claudia Kino
15 yrs old
See you when we get there

They had buried Lita by that tombstone on purpose. They had figured that it was a grandmother or mother of Lita's. Melanie remembered that the Elder Scouts had all looked at Claudia when they mentioned the tombstones. They must have been remembering, Melanie suddenly realized. She looked at Kirsten and Shantal to see if they had realized what Reenie was trying to tell them. By the looks on their faces, they had.
"She's dead," Kirsten stated, flatly.

Tying to hold back her tears, Reenie nodded. "Dr. Anderson told us downstairs that she's brain dead," Reenie said, quitely.
"Who's going to tell Lita?" Shantal asked, looking to the room where Lita sat by Claudia's body.
"I will," Melanie and Shantal said at the same time.
"We both will," Shantal said looking at Melanie.
"Kirsten?" Kirsten shook her head in response, no. She knew that there was no way she would be able to tell Lita. "You sure?"

Kirsten nodded.

Melanie smiled sadly at their friend before she and Shantal walked to Claudia's room.
Once Melanie and Shantal had shut the door, Kirsten looked at Raye, her mother. "Excuse me," Kirsten said, getting up from her chair. She ran out of the ICU waiting room.
"Raye," Reenie said, quitely.
"Yeah?" Raye asked, looking at the doors Kirsten had run through.
"You can go after her."

Raye looked down at Reenie. "Will you be okay here by yourself?"

Reenie nodded.

Raye smiled at the young girl and thanked her. Then she got up and ran after her future daughter.

"Lita?"
"Yeah?" she asked, staring at Claudia lying so still on the hospital bed.

Shantal looked at Melanie. How should they start?
"Lita, can we talk to you?" Melanie asked.

Lita stood up and turned so that she was facing Melanie and Shantal. "Yeah?"
"Um, it's about Claudia," Shantal began. She was having a hard time doing this face-to-face with Lita. It was obvious that Lita had already spent a lot of time crying. Her eyes were puffy and red. Seeing Lita like that wanted to make Shantal just burst out crying. She wanted to cry for her friend but knew that she couldn't. Not in front of Lita. While she was in front of Lita, she had to keep her emotions in check. She knew that Melanie felt the same way.

Melanie sighed. For the little time she had gotten to know Lita in the future, she knew that Lita liked to be told things straight out and not dragged out. So Melanie told her as flat out as possible. "She's dead."

For a moment Lita just stared at the two teens, a blank look on her face. Then she burst out sobbing.

Melanie and Shantal hugged Lita and tried to comfort her. It was then that they could no longer hold back what they felt. Both girls burst out sobbing.

"Oh!" Raye cried out in surprise as she opened the door. Right across the doorway was Kirsten sitting on the floor, her head in her hands. "Kirsten?" Raye whispered, going over and sitting beside Kirsten on the cold tile floor. Every now and then, Raye could hear a tiny sob escape. "Kirsten?" Raye repeated.

This time, Kirsten lifted her head and looked at Raye. Kirsten's eyes were red from crying. "Why did Claud have to die, Raye?" Kirsten asked, not able to call Raye mom, even though that was what Raye was to her.

Raye shrugged. "Why does anyone have to die?" Raye asked. Then she replied, "Because that's life."
"Life sucks," Kirsten stated, tears sliding down her cheeks.

Raye smiled sadly. "That it does," she admitted. "That it does."

They sat there, side-bye-side. After a few minutes, Kirsten finally spoke. "Claud was my best friend. We didn't act like it most times, but she was. I would've done anything for her."
"But you didn't try to help her up there," Raye pointed out.

Kirsten nodded. "That's because I knew Claudia wanted to be like her mother," she said. "She wanted to do something that would count. She told me a couple of months after her mother died that she didn't want help doing it. That when the time came, if any of us were there, not to help her."

Raye looked at Kirsten, sorrowfully. She understood why her daughter hadn't tried to help her friend. She could only fathom the pain her future daughter must be feeling. "And why do you think she told you that?"

Kirsten shrugged. "I don't know. Because she wanted to be like her mot-" Kirsten stopped speaking mid-sentence, suddenly realizing what Raye was trying to get her to see. "Like her mother," Kirsten said, her eyes dry. "And being like her mother, would have meant dying to do the noble cause. She wanted to die doing what was right, and she knew that we wouldn't have many chances to be up in Rebeus' ship..."

Raye nodded. "Are you ready to go?" she asked the teen.

Kirsten sighed and nodded. She realized now that Claudia knew how important destroying Rebeus' ship was to Small Lady's safety. At the same time, she also realized that Claudia had wanted to die so that she would be with her mother. Realizing this, Kirsten was at peace with her friend's death. She knew how much Claudia had been in pain living without her mother and now she wouldn't have to be. Now she would be with her mom. . . . forever.