LIVING A LIFE FORETOLD

Chapter 11: "A Bright Future"
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

The menacing seven foot armor suit advanced on the six senshi with murderous intent. Inside the armor, visible through the helmet viewplate, Usagi shrieked in horror, her screams muted by the thick face shield. Reflexively the senshi crouched, privately amazed at the speed of the hulking monstrosity.

"Fan out!" Venus yelled, taking charge as she often did when Sailor Moon was unavailable or incapacitated. "Don't give it any easy targets!"

Instantly the senshi spread out, surrounding the armor suit. The metal monster stopped its advance, unsure of who to attack first. That gave Neptune the opening she was looking for.

"Submarine Reflection!" Neptune snapped, the Deep Aqua Mirror extended from her body and aimed directly at the armor suit. A deep crimson beam of light energy shot out from the mirror's face and struck the armor suit dead on. The suit staggered back, clearly affected by the beam. But inside the viewplate, the others could see Usagi howling in agony.

"The beam is hurting Usagi!" Mercury cried. "That armor is doing more than engaging in a symbiotic energy transference! It's connected to her bionically!"

And Neptune continued to attack.

"Give me that!" snarled Jupiter, wrestling the mirror out of Neptune's hands. Instantly, Uranus was by Neptune's side, ready to defend her against anyone. "Didn't you hear? You're hurting her! Or don't you care?"

"I care about getting her out of that suit!" Neptune fired back with controlled annoyance. "Do you have a better way? My beam is the only thing that affects it so far!"

Jupiter didn't get a chance to answer. The armor suit barreled into the trio and scattered them like bowling pins. Uranus and Jupiter tumbled off to the sides and the Deep Aqua Mirror skittered along the floor to the far wall. Neptune struggled to regain her wits, then realized the armor suit was looming over her, poised to strike.

"WORLD SHAKING!"

The armor suit was struck by the attack from Sailor Uranus head on. The impact blew the armor suit out the gap in the shield and out into the open area behind the lab. Neptune looked back to Uranus, surprised by the vehemence of the attack, and saw her lover's desperate glare. She smiled gratefully at Uranus. Just then Venus sprinted past Neptune and out the gap in pursuit of the armor suit. Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter scrambled to their feet to join her.

Outside, a news helicopter hovered overhead, taking live video of the scene. Jupiter emerged just in time to see Venus nimbly dodge a swing from the armor suit and roll away. She saw that the suit was leaning to pursue her, though.

"Supreme Thunder!" Jupiter called out and cast another massive lightning bolt at the armor suit. She took care, though, to aim in front of the suit rather than at it, trying to herd it away from Venus instead of attacking it head on. Jupiter was still conscious of the fact that Usagi was in the suit and affected by their attacks.

"Venus Love Me Chain!" Venus shouted quickly.

Her Love Me Chain shot out across the distance between them and wrapped around the armor suit, pinning the suit's upper limbs to its torso. Neptune and Uranus joined Jupiter as the armor struggled to pull free of Venus.

"Anybody!" Venus shouted. "I don't know how long I can hold it!" Neptune looked to Jupiter, silently telling her that she would attack if Jupiter didn't.

"Maybe I can short out its electronics!" Jupiter answered Again energy began to crackle around the lightning rod extended from her tiara, and then around Jupiter. The air in the general vicinity began to super-heat. "Supreme Thunder!"

Electricity filled Jupiter's body, then leaped out hungrily at the armor suit. The electricity enveloped the suit, still struggling in the Venus chain. However, Jupiter's lightning didn't seem to affect the suit at all.

"It must have a non-conductive coating!" Mercury said as she watched from inside, echoing the disappointment on Jupiter's face. Then she whirled and looked at Dr. Nishimoto,standing off to the side and watching with proud glee. "Of course! I've been neglecting all the elements of this scenario! Mercury! Aqua Rhapsody!"

The attack sped toward Dr. Nishimoto, a huge wave of water that would freeze on impact with him. But it seemed to hit an energy barrier just in front of him. The wave froze against the barrier, then fell away while Dr. Nishimoto was unharmed.

"I thought of that!" Nishimoto crowed. "The Mobile Suit broadcasts some of its power to this belt I'm wearing! It produces a localized energy deflector screen! You can't touch me unless I choose to allow it!"

Mars looked at Mercury and saw her nodding, intent and concentrating, much the way she did during a chess match when one of her stratagems had been countered. Maybe her opponent needed a little distraction.

"Mars!" Mars called out, her flaming bow forming again. "Flame Sniper!"

The arrow shot across the room and impacted with the deflector screen. It dissipated without penetrating. She was about to shoot another flaming arrow when a thud caught everybody's attention - - except Mercury, who had her computer out and working.

The armor suit was still snared in the Venus chain. Tuxedo Mask had come out of nowhere and landed on the suit's back, digging his gloved fingers into the seam between the suit's helmet and torso armor. Uranus saw he was trying to rip the helmet off of the armor suit with brute strength. Once it was off, Usagi could possibly be pulled from the armor. Venus saw this, too, and hung on to her chain with all her strength. Jupiter quickly joined her and together they held it in place while the armor tried to shake Tuxedo Mask from its back. And inside the suit they could see Usagi desperately crying out "Mamo-chan! Mamo-chan!"

Uranus lunged forward, the Space Sword appearing in her hand. The cutlass pivoted in her hand as she charged the armor suit. When she was in striking distance, Uranus swung the back of the blade across the back of the armor suit's legs, hoping to force the suit to its knees. But the blow only staggered the armor suit. Undaunted, Uranus hooded her foot across the ankle of the armor suit as it staggered forward. That sent the suit to its knees, though the suit's flailing threw its shoulder into Uranus and knocked the senshi away. Neptune was by her side instantly to help her up.

"No!" howled Nishimoto. "Get up! You can't be defeated! You can't! Get up!"

Any attempt to go to the armor suit was thwarted, though. Mars continued firing on him with her flame arrows. Though the deflector screen caught and harmlessly dissipated each arrow, Mars doggedly continued. Once between shots she allowed herself a furtive glance at Mercury.

"Come on, Ami!" Mars thought while she let fly with another arrow. "I know that look. Do whatever it is you're trying to do! I'm not sure how long I can keep this up!"

Just outside the lab, the armor suit swung its shoulders with a mighty effort and finally flung Tuxedo Mask away. Then, from its knees, the suit flexed and the Love Me Chain finally broke. Venus and Jupiter toppled backwards and landed in a heap. In moments, the armor suit was on its feet and headed back into the lab to help its master. Uranus and Neptune suddenly appeared in its path.

"Combine our attacks," Neptune suggested.

But Uranus hesitated. Neptune glanced at her and could see her mate was staring into the pleading blue eyes of Usagi, still trapped inside the armor. In a moment, Neptune came to a decision and stepped forward. She would attack alone. To spare Uranus, she would be the bad guy.

"All right," Uranus said through clenched teeth. "World Shaking!"

"Deep Submerge!"

The combined attacks struck the armor suit and halted it in its tracks. The metal monster strained to maintain its progress against the combined power of Uranus and Neptune. For tense moments all it could do was hold its ground. Then the attacks waned and the armor suit lunged forward. Before they could move, Uranus and Neptune were swept aside. The armor suit poked its head in through the gap in the wall. Inside, Usagi hoarsely pleaded with Mars and Mercury to run. The suit entered the lab and took three paces toward Nishimoto.

Then it stopped in place. Everyone looked at the suddenly inert armor suit with suspicion and confusion, wondering just what had happened.

"What?" gasped Nishimoto frantically. "What's happened? I don't have control anymore!"

"No, you don't," Mercury replied flatly, looking up from her computer. "I do. Tuxedo Mask, I'm opening the helmet latch. Please be ready to get Usagi out of there."

The helmet to the armor suit popped open. In seconds Tuxedo Mask was there lifting a sobbing Usagi out of the armor while Mars, Jupiter and Venus raced to her side.

"NO!" raged Nishimoto. "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! IT WAS PERFECT!"

"No device is perfect," Mercury told him. "Logically perfection is a statistical unlikelihood. It's simply a question of deducing the flaw. Obviously you were narrow-casting commands to the armor suit along a remote cybernetic link, just as it was narrow-casting energy to you. It simply became a question of finding the frequency of the cybernetic link, then hacking into the cybernetics and locking you out."

Nishimoto stared at her, stunned and furious.

"I'll grant you it was a complex puzzle to solve," Mercury offered. "It actually took me nine minutes."

Suddenly seized with the realization that flight would probably be a very good option at the moment, Dr. Nishimoto pivoted and lunged for the far exit. He got five steps before a hand locked around his collar and halted his flight.

"Going somewhere?" Sailor Uranus rumbled. He glanced first at the menacing glare of Uranus and then the unsympathetic face of Neptune, then sagged in frustration and defeat.

"Usagi? Are you hurt?" Mercury said, kneeling down and wedging herself between Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Mars.

"Just a little tired and shook up," Usagi squeaked. "Thank you, Ami."

"You'd have done the same for me," Mercury smiled.

"Yeah, but not in the same way," Usagi replied through her tears.

"Well if you're all right, then I've got to get back to Ryo," Mercury told her. She rose to leave, but someone caught her hand. She looked down and found Tuxedo Mask.

"Thank you," he said gratefully. She smiled, nodded, then hurried off.

"Hack into the thing's computer brain," nodded Jupiter, Venus standing beside her. "Only Mercury would have thought of that."

"Um hmm," Venus nodded.

"And in only nine minutes. Man, I feel so dumb next to her sometimes."

Venus started to reply, but Jupiter held up a finger.

"Say it and I'll break your arm, Blondie," Jupiter said. Venus kept quiet, but couldn't wipe the smirk from her face.

Ami burst into the Intensive Care Unit - - as quietly as possible - - and made a direct line for Ryo's cubicle. A small, paranoid voice in the back of her mind wondered if Ryo had lied about being there when she returned just to get her to do her duty as a senshi. Unbidden tears began to well up in her eyes at the thought of Ryo being gone. While the feelings for him weren't as strong as when they were both fourteen, feelings had been reborn in her by their reunion. Given time, she could see being married to this bright soul, of holding their daughter in her arms,of finding a cure for his condition and spending the rest of their days together in bliss. Had it already slipped through her fingers?

To her relief, Ryo was still laying there in the hospital bed. He still was pale and drawn, still incredibly frail. But his vital sign monitors continued to register his small spark of life. When he slowly opened his eyes and looked at her and smiled gamely, it was as if the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders. In a massive effort, he lifted his hand up. Ami moved in and clasped it.

"I was afraid you wouldn't be here," Ami admitted, almost chuckling with relief.

"I said I would," Ryo whispered. Ami noticed the new intravenous bag hooked up to him. It was an anti-biotic solution.

"We," Ami began, struggling to be encouraging, "we stopped the Hard Suit. We freed Usagi. Everything's all right now - - thanks to you."

"I guess this power isn't always a curse," Ryo sighed. The realization seemed to give the man some comfort.

"We'll get you over this infection," Ami told him. "We'll get you strong and healthy again, and then . . ."

It was the most subtle of clues - - the shift of eyes, the small tightening of the grip on her hand. But Ami spotted them, and a horrible deduction sprang from those clues and swept over her body.

"You foresaw it," her voice whispered, trembling with fright. "You foresaw your own death."

"Years ago," Ryo admitted, reconciled to the event. "It's unfolding just as I saw it."

"Ryo, why?" Ami sobbed. "Why didn't you come to me? I could have done something! I could have found a way to change things! And even if I couldn't - - you didn't have to live like this! I would have taken care of you!"

"Ami," he said and his eyes were as clear and as at peace as anyone Ami could recall, "you have a bright and shining future. No one deserves it more. But I was never part of that future. So I stayed away." He seemed to gather his strength. "It was hard to take at first - -
knowing when you're going to die. It took me a while," and he paused for a moment, "but I finally reconciled myself with it. We all have to go." He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb lightly. "Some of us have more time and some of us don't."

Helpless tears streamed down Ami's face.

"Please don't cry for me, Ami. This just means - - the pain is finally over."

Ryo sagged a little. His eyes went glassy. What little strength was in his hand vanished.

"CODE BLUE!" Ami wailed as loudly as she could, even as the alarm went off at the nurse's station. Personnel barreled into the little cubicle with a cardiac crash cart while Ami pumped furiously on Ryo's fragile chest in external cardio-pulmonary massage. Other nurses began drawing drapes on the other cubicles and escorting visitors out. Hands joined Ami's, injecting drugs, strapping on an oxygen mask, preparing defibrillator panels. They worked on and on, desperately trying to pull their patient back from the brink, both for the sake of the patient and for the sake of one of their own, who was furiously working among them even as her sorrow poured down her face.

But in the end, it proved to be a life foretold.

Concluded in Chapter 12