Green Eyed Monster
Chapter 9: "The Price To Pay"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
When they got to the lake, they all saw it. Usagi stopped in shock, her hand flying to her mouth. The others caught up to her and gaped in astonishment.
Rei was unconscious. Hovering over her, its hands around her throat, was the physical manifestation of what had previously been fiction to be laughed at or squealed at in movies or books. Mercury's mind momentarily reeled, while Venus and Jupiter prepared to lunge forward into the fray.
What stopped them was the demon suddenly looking from Rei to them. It had unearthly green eyes, eyes that seemed to hunger, eyes that seemed to want to drain you.
And it was looking directly at Usagi.
Venus was the first to act. Her hand jammed down to her side.
"Venus!" she shouted. "Love and Beauty Shock!"
The shockwave sped toward the demon with the power of a freight train. At the last second the demon launched itself up into the air. Rei fell limply to the ground as the shockwave passed harmlessly over her, then cut a tree in half.
"DON'T LET IT GET AWAY!" Venus barked.
"I'm on it! Jupiter!" Jupiter replied. "Oak Evolution!"
Instantly the demon was buffeted by electrical bursts exploding all around it. Recoiling from the bursts, the demon struggled to stay aloft. Its flight pattern was erratic and losing altitude.
"Mercury!" Mercury called out. "Aqua Rhapsody!"
A gusher of icy water shot into the air and clipped the demon as it struggled to stay aloft. The demon pin-wheeled in the air, then plummeted to earth. Though it was drenched, the demon was able to pass through the rapidly hardening water as it struggled to rise. Mercury was about to hit it with a second shot, but held up when Jupiter rocketed past her, charging the demon.
The fallen demon spotted Jupiter's samurai charge. It also spotted the crackling electricity cupped in each of her hands. When Jupiter got close enough, the demon lashed out with its wings, raking at the senshi's eyes. Jupiter fell back, her forearms shielding her eyes, and the demon used that moment to thrust up into the air once more.
"Oh no you don't!" snapped Venus. "Venus Love Me Chain!"
The golden heart-shaped links shot out from Sailor Venus, seeking to encircle and hold the fleeing demon. But just as they reached their target, the demon faded from view and they passed through thin air. Venus gaped in amazement.
"Where'd it go?" Jupiter demanded, looking around.
"I didn't know it could do that," mumbled Venus.
"Let's get Usagi!" Mercury called out. "Perhaps she can sense where it went!"
They all searched for Usagi and found her kneeling next to Rei. She had the priest's head in her lap.
"Rei!" Usagi wailed. "Rei, please wake up! Please be all right!" Mercury was the first to reach them.
"Move please," she said, gently nudging Usagi aside. Mercury ripped her glove off and instantly felt around Rei's throat. "Pulse is rapid and shallow. Is there something to cover her with?"
"Um," Venus glanced around, "no. There isn't a lot of material in these fukus."
"One of you rub her legs!" Mercury ordered. Then she bent down and began massaging Rei's chest and shoulders.
"What's wrong with her?" pleaded Usagi.
"She's very weak, probably from fighting with that demon," Mercury pronounced. "I don't want her going into shock. If only I had a medical kit."
Venus noticed Usagi's hand go into the air, but said nothing.
"Moon Eternal Make Up," Mercury and Jupiter heard and paused from their massaging. They saw Sailor Moon produce the Moon Tier. "Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss."
Radiant waves of healing energy fanned out from the Moon Tier. They blanketed Rei in a soft, warm silver cocoon. Rei's rapid breathing slowed and her color firmed. Her mouth seemed to pull into a small smile, then her lips parted ever so slightly.
Then she sat bolt upright, her eyes wide.
"The demon!" Rei gasped. "Where is it?"
"It faded from view," Mercury told her.
"No," Rei whispered. "It's gone to feed."
"But it's too soon!" Mercury argued. "The pattern . . .!"
"That was before it fought me!" Rei countered. "It expended a lot of energy fighting me! It has to replenish that energy!" Rei grimaced almost like she was about to burst into tears. "It's going to kill again!"
"Akiko!" Jupiter gasped.
"Here," Venus said, jamming her cell phone at Jupiter. "Call him! Maybe you can warn him!"
Jupiter snatched the phone and frantically punched in her home number. After three rings that seemed like eternity, Sanjuro picked up.
"The demon's loose, San-San!" Jupiter told him. "Where's Akiko?"
"She's right here," Sanjuro replied. "She's playing in the crib."
"Be careful! I'm coming right . . ." Jupiter began. Then the air was split with a woman's piercing scream. Everyone went running toward the north gate of the park.
Venus reached the woman first, followed by Mercury and the others. She was a woman nearly thirty, with short black hair and glasses and a figure that hadn't quite recovered from her latest pregnancy. Standing beside her were three little girls all about seven. Rei recognized the one nearest the woman as the girl who had tugged on her robes earlier.
"Akiko-chan!" the woman cried. She was bent over an infant wrapped in blankets, frantically trying to stroke or nudge a three month old baby girl awake. "Akiko-chan, please wake up! AKIKO-CHAN!"
Venus held the woman back while Mercury bent in. It quickly became apparent to her and then everyone what had happened.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am," Mercury whispered hoarsely. "Your baby is . . . dead."
The woman howled with agony, then folded up onto herself on the bench. As she cried hysterically, other people in the park began to gather. Unmindful of them, Rei bent down to the dead infant. Tears were streaming down her face.
"Honored spirit," Rei whispered, emotion robbing her of her voice, "please go to your rest - - knowing that yours will be the last life taken this way."
Rei felt a tug on her sleeve. She turned and found the little girl looking up at her in numb shock.
"What happened, Sensei?" begged the teary-eyed little girl. "Why did my baby sister die?"
Tears flooded down Rei's face. All she could do was clutch the child to her and sob until Sailor Moon collected her.
It was a somber meeting back at Hikawa Shrine. Rei allowed Usagi to guide her into their "senshi meeting room", then sank to a sitting position at the table. Her eyes were far off and glassy. Usagi stared at her, on the verge of tears. She tried several times to say something,
but words just wouldn't come. Makoto and Minako looked on sympathetically, but they were just as much at a loss. Then Ami knelt down next to her.
"We can't fight this thing without all the facts, Rei," Ami told her. She was trying to be compassionate, yet stern enough to force the truth from her friend. "Obviously the scroll you read related something that made you fear for our safety. Why else would you go off alone?"
"I thought I could handle it," Rei whispered. She was clearly crushed by guilt. "I guess I'm not as good a priest as people think."
"Yes you are!" Usagi sobbed. "It wasn't your fault, Rei!"
"Tell that to that poor child's mother," Rei replied, voice cracking with emotion.
A hand reached across the table and grasped Rei's. The priest looked up and found it attached to Minako.
"You did what you thought was best," Minako told her with all the authority years of being a senshi gave her. "That's all anybody has a right to ask of you. If you want to blame someone for that poor kid's death, blame the demon who killed her." Rei stared at Minako, their recent ill-will swirling around her. Then gratitude won out over vindictiveness and Rei flashed her a timid smile.
"Yeah," Makoto added. "If it had been my Akiko, I'd be devastated - - but I wouldn't be blaming you. I'd be thanking you for trying to stop that thing."
Usagi added a violent nod of her head.
"I just," Rei began, hiccuping from her tears, "I thought I could do it - - not put anyone at risk but me."
"What did the scroll say?" Ami persisted.
Rei exhaled. "The priest - - Kaji-sensei's ancestor - - and a local woman from the city tracked Meshiwokuu Eiji down. She had lost a baby in childbirth and somehow could sense the demon where he couldn't. They tracked it down to the woods near the city. Those woods are where Lotus Blossom Shrine is now. He started to exorcize the demon, trying to trap it - - bind it so it couldn't kill any longer."
As tears of guilt continued to poor from the priest's eyes, Rei stopped her narration, momentarily succumbing to the emotion of the memory. Usagi braced her with comforting arms around her. Rei touched her friend's arm out of gratitude.
"It was too fast, though," Rei continued. "Too cagey. It avoided his binding wards and attacked - - the maiden with him." A breath shuddered into Rei's lungs. "While it attacked her, the priest tried to bind it - - to pull it off of her. He finally managed to bind it to a large rock" Rei looked down. "The woman was dead."
Silence covered the room.
"And you were afraid this would happen to Usagi," Ami concluded. "So you went out on your own."
"And nearly got yourself killed," Usagi whispered. Rei looked at her. The tears on the young blonde woman were dried. "How is that better?"
"Better me than you," Rei replied softly.
"Better me than that child," Usagi countered. Rei winced.
"Besides, what are we - - The Three Stooges?" Minako asked, gesturing to Makoto and Ami. "Your boy five hundred years ago only had himself and one poor scared village woman. Usagi has three highly experienced, highly skilled senshi guarding her back, in addition to one know-it-all priest. We would have kicked that demon's butt."
"Or at least kept it occupied long enough for you to do what you needed to do," Ami added.
"But - - if we failed," Rei began. She felt Usagi's hand close on her arm.
"It's a risk we have to take," she said and Rei felt a sudden regal nature to her friend's aura. "I don't want to die. I'd miss Mamo-chan and all of you terribly - - and - - and there's so much I want to do yet. But better me or any of us than one more baby."
"OK," Rei nodded, her voice hoarse with emotion. "I think it's a big mistake. And if you do die on me, I'm going to hate you for the rest of my life. But I guess we don't have much choice."
Usagi wrapped her arms around Rei's neck and hugged her. The priest allowed herself a small smile.
"Since we've got a new eight day window," Ami told everyone, "I suggest we all go home and get some rest. We can meet back here tomorrow morning and search this thing out at full strength."
"Sounds like a plan," Minako said, getting up. "If anyone needs to contact me, I'll be at Toshi's place. I don't know about the rest of you, but I suddenly have the urge to cuddle and no offense but none of you really fit the bill." She headed for the door, then stopped and turned. "And use the phone. He doesn't know about any of this."
Makoto and Ami bowed their heads to hide smiles.
"Usagi," Rei said with straining patience, "could I have my neck back, please?"
"Oh!" Usagi gasped, breaking her hug of Rei. "Um, sorry"
Sanjuro heard the door open and for a moment adrenaline surged through his burly frame. Then he realized that demons probably didn't use the door.
"San-San?" he heard Makoto call out and smiled. Rising from the chair he'd been sitting in, Akiko cradled to his chest, he headed for the bedroom door. Akiko, torn from her intense interest in the angle of her father's jawline, turned toward the movement and surveyed ahead curiously.
"In here, Babe," Sanjuro called out softly, so as not to startle his daughter.
Makoto entered. Though she tried to conceal it, the sight of their daughter safe and secure brought a tremendous sense of relief to the woman. Her features melted into goo as she stepped towards them, hands extended.
Akiko gurgled happily upon recognizing the sight of her mother. She reached out with pudgy hands and arms. Makoto scooped the child up and brought the girl to her. Her hands cradled the girl against her chest and cheek.
"That's right, Akiko," Makoto whispered, tears dribbling down to the smile on her face. "Mommy's home."
Akiko nestled against her mother and gave a contented coo. Makoto soaked it all in, then glanced at her husband. Sanjuro was standing by her. His massive hand came up and stroked against her free cheek.
"What happened?" he asked.
Makoto continued to hold Akiko, at a loss for words.
Ten forty-two pm that night. Mamoru turned the key in the lock and opened the door to the cramped - - 'intimate', he heard Usagi's voice in his head - - apartment he shared with his beautiful wife. Disappointment lingered over his day at the hospital. A patient of his had died. She was seventy-one and had suffered through a succession of ailments. Kidney, bladder, stomach, lungs, each in turn had been affected. No sooner had he brought her through one trial than another reared up. He'd just brought her back from a staph infection two days ago. He'd been with another patient when his pager sounded. When he arrived at the woman's room, she was dead. It was her heart's turn.
"Usako," he sighed, yearning for her soft body against his, her arms around his neck and her lips to his, telling him that everything was all right now. "I'm home."
All of that dissolved away when he saw her sitting at her drawing table. The page on the table had a few cursory lines in the first panel. Usagi was staring off into space. Luna padded up to him.
"She's been like that all evening," Luna reported. "From what I understand, things didn't go well with the demon hunt tonight." The cat glanced back at Usagi. "She's not really in the mood for drawing, I'm afraid."
Usagi was shaken from her meditations by hands on her shoulders. She looked up and saw her husband looking down at her.
"Mamo-chan," she smiled, happy to see him - - no, not happy. Grateful. Her hand came up and covered his. He bent down and their lips met.
"Luna says you had a bad day," Mamoru queried. Usagi flushed and averted her eyes.
"I'll get dinner ready," she said, rising from the chair and heading for the kitchen.
"I'll help," Mamoru replied. "You can tell me while we work."
"There's," Usagi hesitated, "not much to tell." Mamoru caught her hand and held her in place.
"Remember what you made me promise when we got married?" Mamoru asked her. "No secrets?"
Usagi's face scrunched up into a pout. "That'll teach me," she said with a bittersweet smile. "OK."
That night the couple lay in bed together. Usagi had initiated things and was now glad she had. Like Minako, she felt the sudden need to be with the man she yearned for above all else, the man who made her feel like nothing in the universe could harm her so long as he didn't let go of her. It had been a good time, a satisfying time, but the memory of it was now tinted with the yellow of melancholy. Mamoru had understood everything, had been supportive, even vowed to call off work and help them hunt down this demon and protect his wife. He was so wonderful.
Usagi stared up at the ceiling as Mamoru lay cuddled next to her. She didn't want to leave him. But if she happened to die in battle tomorrow, as that maiden five hundred years before had died, she was reconciled to it - - so long as all the infants were safe. It was a steep price to pay, but better her than an innocent baby or one of her friends.
She would miss her Mamo-chan, though. Still, if this was the last night they were to share together, it would be a good memory - - for as long as the gods would permit her to remember.
Continued in Chapter 10