The man chuckled and lowered his newspaper to see the same thing
he had seen several times already that evening. His daughter was
staring at him, entranced. She was a funny thing, his little
Butterfly, she had hardly moved since coming into the room and
noticing him. He began to wonder if he had sprouted a second head
and hadn't noticed. It was disconcerting, having her eyes on him
every second. Still, she looked so happy, he didn't have the heart
to get angry at her. Sigh. He was such a pushover for these women.
"What are you looking at, Mako-chan?"

"You."

He laughed again and shook his head, returning to where he left
off in his paper.

After a few moments, he peered around the side of it to see his
daughter still in the same position. Upon closer inspection,
however, he noticed that she was silently crying. He instantly
tossed his paper aside and moved to sit next to her, placing an arm
comfortingly around her shoulders.

"Oh, sweetheart, what's the matter?"

Mako responded by emitting a huge sob and burying her face in
his shirt. Shocked, the man didn't know what else to do but comfort
her, so he did, stroking her hair and rocking her gently.
All Mako could do was mutter over and over.

"You're alive! You're alive!"

Several reassuring words and a cup of her mother's special tea
later and Mako felt like she was on top of the world. Her parents
were both here, as wonderful and full of life as she remembered
them to be.

Her mother was sitting at one end of the table, a concerned
look on her face as she occasionally patted Mako's hand
reassuringly. Her father was across from his wife on Mako's other
side, his features less expressive but still wearing a worried
frown. Both were waiting patiently for her to explain what had
caused such a wave of emotion.

She didn't know where to start. How do you tell your parents
that they'd been dead for years and that they only now existed
because you wished it that way?

An ear-piercing siren cut off whatever Mako was about to say and
she bolted upright, eyes darting about in surprise. Her mother's
face suddenly drained of all colour and her father lept to his feet,
the chair he'd been sitting in falling backwards.

"Dammit, they're attacking again!" He moved towards his wife
and daughter, arm outstretched and waving his hand as if to make
them move faster. "Downstairs, to the shelter. Hurry!"

Mako had no idea what her father was saying and the siren was
wailing so loud that she couldn't concentrate to try and figure it
out. Her parents didn't seem to notice her confusion as her mother
urged her out of her seat. There was a flurry of activity, and the
next thing Mako knew, she was flying down a flight of stairs into a
cold and dark room. The door slammed shut behind her, drenching the
area in darkness until a single lightbulb flickered to life over her
head. Looking at her surroundings, Mako saw that it was filled with
the basic necessities for survival and little else. If she
listened hard, she could still hear the siren, although it now
sounded as though it were coming from miles away instead of in her
ear as it had before.

She felt her mother embrace her fiercely from behind as she
looked up the flight of stairs to see her father fastening the last
of at least a dozen locks on the door. He gave it a final,
reassuring pat before joining his family, checking to make sure that
both were okay.

"Yes, yes, we're fine, dear." Her mother gave Mako a final
squeeze before busying herself with their surroundings, ensuring
that everything was where it should be, although it seemed fairly
obvious that the room was well stocked on a regular basis.

Mako was still feeling completely confused as she watched her
mother methodically checking over the supplies with a speed that
only came from familiarity. Her mother reached for a tin of canned
food, and it was then that the memories came to her.

"They're attacking again!" her father had said. Now it seemed
so obvious - The Dark Kingdom! Queen Beryl was launching another
attack on the Earth, this one obviously in close enough proximity to
set off the town's early warning system. Beryl's forces had been
randomly attacking ever since... Ever since...

The answer refused to come to her. But there was something
nagging at her, something that just didn't make sense. If Beryl was
opening attacking the Earth, and had been for some time, whatever
happened to...

"Daddy," Mako began, savouring the name, "what happened to the
Sailor Senshi?"

Her father shifted his gaze from the door to his daughter,
furrowed brow showing that he clearly didn't understand the
question. "The who, sweetheart?"

Mako consciously fought down the panic rising in her throat.
"The Senshi, Daddy. The Sailor Senshi."

The man started to shake his head when a soft voice off to the
side attracted their attention. "Yes... I seem to remember hearing
about them." Mako's mother had stopped checking their provisions
and was moving towards the conversation, trying to catch an elusive
thought. She looked towards her husband who still showed no signs
of recognition. "You must remember, dear, you were telling me about
some articles you read on them. A group of girls in Tokyo, about
Mako's age, with strange names. Oh, what were they..?"

"Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus."

Her mother was so caught up in trying to remember all that she
could, the fear in Mako's voice went completely undetected. "That's
right! They were named after planets! Odd."

"I remember now!" her father added, clapping his hands and
nodding his head. "They fought the Dark Kingdom, said they stood
for-"

"For love and justice," Mako whispered.

Her small voice spoke more volumes than anything else she could
have said, and her parents were again ready to comfort. Her mother
knelt down and grasped Mako's hands.

"I'm sorry, Mako-chan, but they're dead."

She had all of her memories of this life now. With the
knowledge of how things SHOULD have been, it was a wonder that she
didn't go mad. She assumed that it was only the knowledge that this
was nothing more than a possibility was what helped her maintain a
grip on sanity.

With her parents remaining alive, Mako had never moved to
Tokyo. After being kicked out of her last school, her parents
decided that she could best get along with private tutors. They
certainly had the money for it, and with being taught at home, there
was nobody around to try and instigate fights with her to prove how
tough they were. There was no one who was being bullied and needed
protecting. There was just Makoto and her parents, and both parties
liked it fine that way.

On the other hand, without her parents' deaths, Mako didn't
bounce from school to school and city to city, eventually winding up
at Juuban Public School. She never rescued the blond girl with the
peculiar hairstyle from getting roughed up, never later met the
girl's friends in the arcade where she developed one of her many
crushes on the telekinetic boy. She never followed him, fought
against him, or discovered that cats could talk.

There never was a Sailor Jupiter. And her friends were all
dead. Again.

The people of Earth lived in almost constant fear. Without the
Sailor Senshi to stand in the way, Beryl seemed to have contented
herself with taking over the world instead of destroying it. The
various nations' militaries were of little use against the magical
hordes of the Dark Kingdom, even when they could all put aside their
differences and work together.

It seemed fairly obvious to everyone that Beryl was toying with
them and that when she grew tired of these games, the Earth would
fall completely under her control. The rate of the attacks had
increased dramatically over the last few weeks. It seemed as though
the Queen's desire to play was wearing thin.

Mako sighed heavily and looked at her parents. Her kind, gentle
mother that she resembeled so much in appearance and who had never
uttered a harsh word in her entire life. Her strong, handsome
father from whom she had inherited her stubborn streak and the will
to do what was right, no matter what the cost.

Like now.

She drew both of her beloved parents to her in a tight hug,
keeping a desperate hold on the feelings of love and security that
they fed to her.

"I love you both so much." Mako's voice was low and hoarse, but
her determination never wavered. "I love you, and I'm sorry."

"Sorry? For what, dear?"

"What's going on, Butterfly?"

Mako's only answer was to squeeze her parents tighter as she
called out with her mind to end this wish.

She found that this time it was much easier to return to her
reality. If she had been unconscious, it had only been for a few
moments and there was no trace of the headache that had plagued her
after her first attempt. In fact, the only evidence that she had
seen her parents were her damp eyes and the dull ache in her heart.
Negai floated into view, sitting cross-legged in the air. "No
go, eh kid?"

"No go. I wanted to, I really did. But not only were all my
friends...dead, but it seemed as though the rest of the world would
be following them soon. No. It was hard, but I think that I'll
have to make do with the little bit of time we all just had
together."

The woman nodded understandingly. "So, Kino-san, what's next on
the agenda?"

Mako leaned back and looked up at the sky. "Dunno. Right now
I'm not sure that I'm really fit to handle this wish thing. I
haven't felt this alone since-"