A Sailormoon fan-fiction.
Disclaimer:
These characters are not my creation: Crystal Tokyo, Tsukino Usagi/ Sailor Moon/ Neo-Queen Serenity, Mamoru Chiba/ Tuxedo-Kamen/ King Endymion, Mizuno Ami/ Sailor Mercury, Hino Rei/ Sailor Mars, Kino Makoto/ Sailor Jupiter, Aino Minako/ Sailor Venus, Setsuna Meiou/ Sailor Pluto, Ten'ou Haruka/ Sailor Uranus, Kaiou Michiru/ Sailor Neptune, Tomoe Hotaru/ Sailor Saturn, Oosaka Naru, Nephrite, Umino Gurio, Tasukino Shingo, Chiba Usagi/ Chibi-Usa/ Small Lady and Ellios are the Property of Naoko Takeuchi, Toie Animation, DiC, and others I cannot remember at the moment.
NOTE: This fan-fiction is a responce to another fan-fic of a few years back, "Tsukino Usagi is Dead" by Sarah Lynne Thank you, Sarah, for inspiring me.
Chibi Usa was lost somewhere in her thoughts in the palace gardens of Crystal Tokyo. And she preferred to stay lost.
The day she had dreaded had finally come to pass.
After 1,000 years her greatest fear was coming true.
The Small Lady was being presented as the next ruler of the Crystal Millenium. It wasn't that she was actually taking the throne- at least not yet. And it wasn't that she wasn't ready for the responsibility. She was ready. No, the problems- the fears and nightmares- were not due to her inability to rule the realm. These troubles were personal, on a fundamental level.
Chiba Usagi felt uncomfortable ruling a place that was not .. home. And it was not home. True, the city was the one she was born in. It was the city of her mother and father. Or was it ?
She would be taking over the rule of Crystal Tokyo from her mother.. or so she'd always been told. Or would she?
Was Neo-Queen Serenity her mother ? Her true mother ?
Neo-Queen Serenity was, after all, a lunar being, an alien. Chiba Usagi had been born to a human mother. Chiba Usagi's mother was Tsukino Usagi.
Chibi-Usa had first noticed the changes in her mother after she first came back from 20th-Century Tokyo after fighting the Blackmoon Family and saving her mother, Neo-Queen Serenity. It was in Old Tokyo that Chibi-Usa had first met Tsukino Usagi, the girl who would grow to be her mother. To say that they had problems relating to each other at first would be the epitome of understatement. But, Chibi-Usa had come to see quite a bit in Usagi to admire. Although the klutz certainly had her faults. Crybaby Usagi had a remarkably quick temper (although it would die just as fast as it flared). And, Usagi was not the most-energetic girl in Tokyo. But, these bad traits were more than outweighed by the kindness and fierce loyalty that Usagi had. And, she seemed to have an indescribable perception of the good that was in a person. Most chalked it up to nievity, but Usagi turned out, most times, to be right. And, for some odd reason, Chibi-Usa felt safe around Usagi.
But, eventually, Chibi-Usa had to return home. By this time, she had realized that Tsukino was- indeed- her mother. Part of her (for some reason) hated the thought of re- turning to Crystal Tokyo. But she wanted desperately to see her family again. Besides, the strange feeling that something was still wrong somewhere had not rooted deep in her yet.
It was later, when Neo-Queen Serenity sent her back to Old Tokyo to learn to "make friends" and important discoveries, that Chibi-Usa found out just how much more she resembled Tsukino Usagi than she favoured Neo-Queen Serenity. Although both ladies denied it. Usagi denied it to skirt questions best left unasked. Chibi-Usa denied it because she felt that she had nothing in common with Usagi save bloodties. But time spent with Tsukino Usagi when she wasn't Sailor Moon or Princess Serena proved to Chibi-Usa just how much the two girls were alike.
And that made Chibi-Usa's return to Crystal-Tokyo so much more lonely than it was supposed to become. Usagi was there in body, but not in spirit. It was Neo-Queen Serenity who was there. Always. It was strange. Eerie. To those around her, for the most part, Tsukino Usagi had finally "grown up" into the role she was destined for. The child-like Usagi of the past had faded away, to be replaced by the wise Serenity of today. So it was thought, by most. There were exceptions. There was Chibi-Usa, the "Small Lady". And there was Meiou Setsuma, the Senshi of Time. Sailor Pluto.
Meiou Setstuma was an advisor and defender of Crystal Tokyo. She was an advisor to the queen and the official gaurdian of the Princess. As the last, she was the closest Princess Serenity had come to having a friend. Aside from Hotaru and the children of the Inner Senshi. And, when the Small Lady looked into the eyes of that friend, she saw love and admiration- and sadness. Especially after Chibi-Usa returned from the past that last time.
It was after that time that Princess Usagi started to really notice who exactly was in charge. It took a couple of weeks to really notice it. During this time, Usagi kept quiet to everyone- save Pluto. To Sailor Pluto, Chibi-Usa opened up her darkest worries and her deepest fears. Although this took time. Up until this time, Neo-Queen Serenity had been her daughter's biggest defender and comforter. But now ? Chibi-Usa wasn't sure. And that scared her. Unfortunately, Sailor Pluto never quite answered Chibi-Usa's questions, or soothed her fears. All she would ever say was, "Things are as they should be, Small Lady".
"Small Lady". How Chibi-Usa grew to hate that name !
Days without answers turned to weeks. Weeks turned into months, and months to years. The Crystal Palace became a prison for the Princess, the only escapes being the gardens, her imagination, and her future-court.
As was the custom in the Silver Millenium, Chibi-Usa has been raised around her future advisors and body-guard as they became of age. There was Kino Naoko (Chibi-Jupiter), Aino Kyoto (Chibi-Venus), Hino Yuko (Chib-Mars), and Mizuno Keiko (Chibi-Mercury). There was also the youngest member of court, Tomoe Ikiko (Chibi-Saturn). As time went on, Chibi-Usa came to rely on the future-court as lifelines for her sanity. And the gardens were their "domain".
It was within that domain that Chibi-Usa was able to pour out her heart. After 1,000 years, there was alot of hurt to pour out. Not that it was poured out every day. Many days were spent in happy momemts. Moments in which girls could just be girls, and ladies be ladies. And Chibi-Usa could be Chiba Usagi. Chiba Usagi could, at times, let herself, at least, believe she could be a normal child- a gawky, gangling girl with tantrums, dreams, daydreams, and a caring heart. Just like her mom. Just like Tsukino Usagi.
She would try not to remember Usagi that much in front of her freinds. For her court tended to worry about her too much, anyway. They needed a cheerful monarch, a playful princess. But, that was the problem. That was Usagi. That wasn't Serenity, and Princess Usagi knew it.
So did the other Princesses. They could see the strain on Usagi. And, this meant that they tried to stay on their best behavior. Because, when any of the other Princesses had a problem, Chibi-Usa would just add their's to her's. This was not good for Usagi, and everyone knew it, although Chibi-Usa did tend to temporarily discard her own troubles to care for her friends. So, all the Princesses were used to guarding Chibi-Usa's world, to verying degrees.
The best- and everybody agreed on this- were Kino Naoko and Mizuno Keiko, the most-protective "Akita" of the Princess. The others guessed that this was because of their mothers coming from broken homes. Even after 1,000 years, Kino Makoto and Mizuno Ami still treasured the friendship and family that they had found because of Tsukino Usagi. And the Princesses of Jupiter and Mercury had passed on those lessons on loyalty well.
The other girls were also loyal. Hino Yuko was as close to Chibi-Usagi as her mother, Hino Rei, was to Usagi and Serenity. Yes, at times even the Princess of Mars spoke of Usagi and Serenity as two distinct individuals. And, this scared the mystic. And Aino Kyoto understood the Princess' troubles. Aino Minako knew about seperate lives. The Princess of Venus had also been Sailor Venus- and before that Sailor V. But she had been around Neo-Queen Serenity since she was Tsukino Usagi. Certainly, she would have same the signs of the conflict that Chibi-Usa feared. And then, there was Tomoe Ikiko. Her mother had grown up with Chibi-Usa. And had listened to her crying some nights, right after she returned from the past. And Tomoe Hotaru was not only Sailor Saturn, the "Dark Messiah", but had also been Mistress 9, Herald of Phaoroh 90. So, she understood the dark pathways and Chibi-Usa's fears. But Princess Saturn's duties were to her Sovereign. So all she could do was watch, and advise her daughter to do the same.
And as the Day of Presentation approached, all the Princesses watched, and waited.. and prayed.
To be continued in.
Part 2