THE EXTERMINATORS

Chapter 6: "A Home Life Interrupted"

By Bill K.

All through dinner, Usa's thoughts were preoccupied with the battle earlier that day with Viluy's android assassin. The triumph she felt at having successfully defended her mother's life was muted by other concerns she couldn't manage to dismiss. She was only momentarily distracted from her preoccupation by the antics of the two Tsukino children and the efforts of their parents to control them. Two year old Shingo was being fussy about what he ate and was engaged in a battle of wills with Ikuko over whether he would eat what she'd prepared him. By contrast, Usagi was in the process of inhaling her food, so much so that Kenji twice admonished her to slow down before she choked. It took a third, sharper and louder admonition from Ikuko to get the girl's attention. Grudgingly she slowed down, but by then most of her food was gone.

"I'll do the dishes," Ikuko announced after dinner was finished and she'd conceded to Shingo that he wouldn't have to eat his strained peas. "Kenji, . . ."

"Um, sorry dear," Kenji excused himself, "but I brought some layouts home with me and I just have to work on them. The magazine goes to press in two days."

Ikuko sighed wearily. "I see. Usagi, could you and your brother play in the living room?"

"But I wanted to go out again!" Usagi howled petulantly.

"No," Ikuko replied sternly. "You've had enough excitement for one day. Besides, it's going to be dark soon. Go play with Shingo."

"Ohhhh," the four year old huffed. Ikuko brought Shingo down from his high chair and Usagi grasped his hand. "Come on, Brat," she said and led him off, cautious not to walk too fast.

"And don't call your brother a brat," Ikuko warned. Then she turned to Usa. "I hate imposing on a guest, but could you help me with the dishes?"

"Hmm?" Usa shook herself. "Oh, sure Ikuko-mama. No problem."

Within minutes the two women were washing dishes. Usa went on auto-pilot, thinking again about her current dilemma.

"Usa, is something wrong?" Ikuko inquired.

"Hmm? Um, no."

"Forgive me if I'm intruding. It's just that you seemed distracted all through dinner. Usagi wasn't any trouble for you this afternoon, was she?"

"No. She was fine," Usa answered.

"If there's anything troubling you, feel free to talk it over with me," Ikuko offered. "I'll do what I can to help."

"You wouldn't understand," Usa sighed. Ikuko gave her a wry smile.

"Oh, I can remember how many times I told MY mother that when I was your age," the woman related. "It's amazing now how many of the problems I had at sixteen that seemed so crucial then seem so trivial now. I would have known that then if I'd just talked it out with someone. But Reika was only twelve and couldn't grasp the things I was going through. And I didn't think my parents would understand. Maybe they wouldn't have, but I never gave them the chance."

Usa thought about her own parents. She wondered momentarily if she'd ever not given them the chance.

"Did you ever find anyone you could confide in?" Usa asked.

Ikuko sighed happily. "Yes. A dorky little boy with glasses, no coordination and no fashion sense. I only talked to him in the first place because he was president of the photography club and he was taking pictures of everyone in the junior class for a photo montage for summer festival. But he had a wonderful sense of humor and he listened to everything I told him. I didn't want to open up to him at first, but he asked me so earnestly that I felt I could trust him. And the more he listened, the more comfortable I felt telling him things. I just felt I could unburden myself with him and he wouldn't judge me." Ikuko glanced over at her tenderly. "It's a wonderful thing to have - - someone you can confide in."

"I know. My friend Hotaru's like that. Boy I miss her." Usa glanced over at Ikuko. "Do you still talk to him?"

"All the time," Ikuko grinned. "He's in the den, working on his layouts for the magazine."

"Kenji-papa?" Usa gasped. "Is that how you two met?"

Ikuko nodded. "Before I posed for him, I wouldn't have given him the time of day. Now I don't know what I'd do without him. Fate is a mysterious thing, Usa."

"Wow," Usa sighed.

"The years we were dating were some of the happiest years of my life," Ikuko told her, "and some of the hardest."

"Why?"

"I was in love with Kenji just months after we started dating - - maybe only weeks. I wanted so badly to marry him. But we were only seventeen and Kenji was determined to wait until he could support a wife." The woman sighed. "He was right, of course - - but waiting to marry the man you love, when you know who he is, is one of the hardest, longest waits you can ever endure."

"You got that right," Usa whispered to herself, thinking of Helios. Out loud she asked, "Has being married been all you thought it would be?"

"Well," Ikuko smiled self-consciously, "being a couple means having to adjust and compromise sometimes. Kenji's not the perfect man, and I know I'm far from perfect. But the good things we do for each other far outweigh the annoyances of living with someone else. And those eight months we had together until I got pregnant with Usagi were the closest thing I've ever known to heaven."

They silently washed dishes for a little bit.

"Are you sorry you had kids?" Usa asked suddenly.

"Goodness, no," Ikuko smiled. "When I first became pregnant with Usagi, I admit I wondered if this was the end of my utopian life. But though children may take your old life from you, they open up an entire new life that you hadn't guessed even existed, if only you're open to seeing it. Shingo is such a beautiful little boy. And Usagi - - there's something about her. Something I can't describe. Maybe I'm just being a proud parent, but I think I see greatness in her - - if I can just get her father to stop spoiling her. No, Usa, being a parent has been a unique and wonderful experience for me."

"MOM!" they heard Usagi bellow from the other room. "Shingo spit up all over my favorite picture book!"

Ikuko's expression fell into fatigued disappointment. "But I am going to stop at two," she told Usa with depressed finality.

That evening in Usagi's room, Usa lay on her mat with her hands tucked behind her head. She was staring up at the ceiling when Diana found her.

"I thought you'd be planning to head back to Crystal Tokyo, My Lady," Diana ventured. "The battle's won. The crisis averted. Don't you want to go back and sing for Hotaru's birthday?"

"Did we win?" Usa asked.

"You defeated the assassin, and quite bravely, too," Diana told her. "Your mother is safe."

"Then why hasn't Puu come back to get us? She wouldn't want me meddling in the past any more than I should. What if she's still gone?"

"My Lady, that can't be. You prevented your mother's assassination. Everything should be put right now."

"Who's to say that Viluy woman didn't just come back again and kill Mom when she was five or six or ten? Or what if she sends another android back here the moment I leave? It's her past. She'll know when I leave. Or," and Usa grimaced with anxiety.

"Or what?" Diana prodded.

"Or what if I changed things when I revealed myself in front of Mom? What if I messed things up just as badly as Viluy did?"

Diana was about to speak when the door to the room opened. When they saw Usagi walk in, Diana held her tongue. Usa rolled over onto her stomach. Usagi seemed normal, but there was a look in her eye that bothered Usa.

"Why are you lying here in the dark?" Usagi asked.

"Just thinking," Usa replied. "Done tormenting your brother?"

"He was tor . . . whatever that is . . . he was doing it to me. He's a brat."

"Just wait," Usa smirked to herself.

"How did you change your clothes like that?"

Usa gulped. She knew what the child meant, but tried to play it cool.

"These are the same clothes I had on at dinner," Usa said.

"No, in the park," Usagi maintained. "You changed into a pretty pink and white sailor suit with pretty red ribbons. How did you do that? And how did you make that man disappear with that ball of light?"

Diana and Usa exchanged nervous glances. The teen's mind raced. She didn't want to keep lying to the little girl, but she couldn't tell her the truth. It might further damage a time-line already in chaotic disrepair. But Usagi kept staring, expecting an explanation.

"Um," Usa stammered. Then her shoulders slumped. "I didn't want to tell you this. Usagi. I'm - - I'm not really your cousin."

"You lied to Mommy and Daddy!" the girl gasped.

"I had to! They weren't supposed to know who I really am! Nobody's supposed to know. It's a secret I'm not supposed to tell anybody. You weren't even supposed to find out, but you did."

"What secret?" Usagi asked, her blue eyes wide and wondrous.

Diana watched Usa expectantly, praying she wasn't going to confess the truth, but unable to think how else she could get around it.

"Usagi, I'm," Usa began, then swallowed, "a fairy."

The pink-haired teen ignored the sound of Diana's face vault.

"REALLY!" Usagi gasped, her blue eyes twinkling with delight.

"Yeah. And those clothes you saw me change into was my fairy costume."

"WOW! A REAL LIVE FAIRY! WAIT UNTIL I TELL . . .!" Usagi began to exclaim. Usa firmly grasped the child by her shoulders, pulling the girl from her euphoria.

"Usagi!" Usa hissed. "You can't tell anyone about this! Please!"

"Not even Mommy and Daddy?" Usagi asked. The poor child seemed stricken and Usa felt a pain in her heart equal to a knife thrust.

"Nobody, Usagi. If word gets out that I'm a fairy, I - - um, the Fairy Queen will call me back! And if that happens, I won't be able to find the bad men who are here and protect everyone!" She could see Usagi was having trouble comprehending. "That man in the park - -
he was one of the bad men. And that light was - - was my fairy magic. It sent him back to the Fairy Queen so she could - - um, change him into a good guy."

"Really?"

"But if you tell people about me, the bad men will know where I am and I'll have to go back to my world."

"You'd have to leave?" Usagi asked, aghast. Usa nodded. "I won't tell then. I don't want you to leave."

"I thought you didn't trust me," Usa smirked.

"Well," and Usagi bowed her head, twisting her fingers in remorse, "that was before." Suddenly she brightened up. "Can you do some magic for me?"

Usa thought a moment. "OK. But get into your bedclothes first."

Eagerly Usagi complied. The four year old raced back in footed pajamas that were pink and had a cotton tail just like a bunny. She stood expectantly before Usa as the teen got to her feet.

"OK, now you're here, right?" Usa asked. Usagi nodded. "Alakazam!" she shouted and whisked the girl up into the air, then gently brought her down on her bed. "And now you're in bed."

"That wasn't magic!" Usagi howled as Usa pulled up the covers.

"I guess you caught me. I just can't get anything past you," Usa smirked. Usagi gave her a petulant pout that reminded her of a thousand other times in her past yet to come. "I'm just teasing you, Usagi."

She bent in and kissed the girl on the forehead, then turned for the door. Usa was just about to reach for the knob.

"Usa?" she heard Usagi squeak. The teen turned to the young girl. "I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks, Usagi," Usa smiled, feeling herself mist up. She and Diana exited the room and wandered out into the safe isolation of the back yard.

"Ah, the unwavering love between a mother and a daughter," Diana smirked. Usa flushed slightly as they sat on the back step. "But My Lady - - a fairy?"

"Well what was I supposed to tell her - - the truth?" Usa retorted. "She probably believes this more easily than if I had told her I'm a time traveler from the future. Anyway, we've got more important things to think about. What do we do about Viluy?"

"Perhaps you have put things to right and Viluy is no longer a threat," Diana proposed, "in this instance."

"You think?" Usa asked, wanting to believe it.

"There's only one sure way to find out."

"Yeah, but remember her androids were studying the temporal nexus when we left. If we go back, we might just walk into a trap she's set for us, too."

"Yes, that is a possibility," Diana murmured.

"We've got to find Puu," Usa declared. "She's the only one who can put this back together for sure. I'm just stumbling around blind." The teen emitted a frustrated sigh. "But where do we look? Where could she be? And what happened to her?"

"Valid questions I've asked myself," the gray cat replied.

"And how did Viluy even catch her? Wouldn't she know Viluy was coming before even Viluy knew it?"

"Quite right. There are two possibilities. Perhaps Sailor Pluto foresaw her capture as necessary to a desirable outcome and allowed herself to be captured."

"And she's depending on me to make the right choice?" Usa whispered. Diana could see the anxiety welling up in the princess once again, an anxiety born from the fateful day she'd made the wrong choice and brought violence and misery down upon the heads of the kingdom and her family.

"My Lady," Diana ventured quickly. "There is another possibility. In the limbo that houses the Door of Time, one is - - removed from the effects of the passage of time in our world. That fact is what kept us from being revised out of existence when Viluy changed history. Perhaps Sailor Pluto's vision into the past and futures is effected by this phenomenon as well. I can only guess that perhaps Viluy somehow gained access to that limbo and surprised Sailor Pluto in the one place where her ability to view time past and future would be useless."

"Then Puu could still be alive?" Usa asked.

"Perhaps," Diana responded. "If the self that was captured was kept out of Earth's time-line, it theoretically could still exist. Perhaps she might even still exist as an anomaly in Viluy's horrific future. If only we had some way to trace her."

The pair sat on the back step and pondered while a crescent moon watched over them.

"Maybe we should just go back into time and keep Viluy from happening," Usa muttered. "That would solve everything."

"No, My Lady," Diana said, "that would only be exchanging one set of problems for another. We've no way of knowing how Viluy's absence might affect events such as the battle against The Silence, or what other things might be changed."

"Then what do we do?" Usa asked.

Diana couldn't answer.

Eventually the brooding teen felt a soft hand on her shoulder. She looked up and found Kenji kneeling behind her.

"My, you're in a bleak mood," he said. His tone was caring and non-judgmental. It was nothing like her father's. "Missing your friends?"

A breath shuddered out of Usa's chest. "Boy, am I," she said.

"Well, this won't last forever. Pretty soon you'll be back with them and you can tell them all about your adventure."

Usa felt her heart twinge.

"It's getting late," Kenji gently suggested. "Maybe a good night's sleep will help pick up your spirits."

"Maybe, Kenji-papa," Usa forced a smile. She rose and followed her grandfather into the house.

On her way to the mat she slept on in Usagi's room, Usa passed another bedroom. Ikuko was inside putting Shingo down in his crib.

"All ready for bed?" Ikuko asked tenderly. Shingo squirmed, then nodded drowsily. She pointed to the window at the crescent moon visible through it. "Then say 'goodnight, moon'."

"G'night, moom," Shingo repeated, for he was still learning to talk. Ikuko bent down and kissed his forehead as he snuggled in the crib. Diana looked up at Usa and saw the princess drinking in this tender family scene. Was she recalling distant memories of her own past and a similar bedtime act of the queen?


A noise crossed Diana's ears and suddenly she was awake and alert. The cat perked her head up and looked around. Her internal clock told her it was sometime in the vicinity of three in the morning. Though nothing immediately presented itself to account for the noise, Diana's feline instincts were screaming that danger was imminent.

Then she spotted a shadowy shape in the tree outside Usagi's window.

"My Lady!" hissed Diana. She nudged the sleeping princess.

"Mmm, just another five minutes, Pop," Usa mumbled, half-awake.

"My Lady, get up! There's an intruder!"

Silently the shadow hopped to the windowsill. Applying pressure to the bottom of the window snapped the latch. As the window eased silently up, Usa finally realized what was happening.

And if things weren't menacing enough, Usa's Luna-P pendant's eyes began to flash.

Continued in Chapter 7