Flee to Destiny
By: Bethany
Originally released: 3/2002
Revised: 7/2015

Chapter 12 - Give and Take

The cold became unbearable as lay on my back in the doorway to Shingo's room. Mamo-chan had run to call an ambulance a few minutes ago. Since then I found myself staring at the ceiling, unnaturally fascinated by the ice that became thicker by the moment. My stomach contracted again, sending a wave of pain over my entire body. I tried to block it out, think around it. I could hear a nursery rhyme in my head - over and over again until I began singing along with it. I felt detached; not suffering from premature labor - or worse, a miscarriage.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word... Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird..."

"Usako."

Usako? My little bunny, how cute. Who was calling me that? I turned my head to the side in time to see Mamo-chan breathlessly slide into the room and fall to his knees beside me. He grabbed my hand and pushed my bangs away from my eyes. "It's okay, baby. The ambulance is on its way. You'll both be okay." The longer he spoke, and with the urgency I felt from his words, I knew he was trying to tell himself that as much as me.

His voice harshly shoved away the illusions that had threatened me minutes before. "Shingo," I whispered, the cold of the room freezing my vocal cords. "She has him..."

I wanted to say more, but another pain gripped my stomach, over loading my senses with sharp pain and fear. The pain came in another wave, so bad I nearly passed out. I began crying again, gasping air although the pain in my chest was nearly as bad as the pain in my abdomen. "Mamo-chan." I felt the darkness closing in around me, slowly and comforting as a warm blanket. "Mamo-chan. I'm scared..."

Everything pitch black now, I barely heard Mamo-chan: "I know, love. I am, too." The last was whispered so softly I didn't know if it was Mamo-chan who said it or me.

The comforting darkness that had taken me away from my world of pain was broken by the sound of voices. Like the volume on a radio being turned up, they became louder until I noted the shortness of the commands coming from whom I assumed to be a doctor. With what small strength I could muster, I forced my eyelids open.

White; the tile on the ceiling above me, the light in my eyes and the masks over the face of every person in my view. It seemed to be all around me, blinding me as I blinked back some of my shock. "She's coming to!" someone announced, though with everything so hazy and everyone wearing a white mask I couldn't tell who was speaking. The more my senses returned, the more pain that accompanied it.

The next person above me would have been just as indistinguishable from everyone else except for the deep blue of his eyes and the tears that stayed unreleased in their realms. "Mamo-chan," I squeaked, not recognizing my voice as my own. It sounded like it would belong to a frightened child, not a mother to be.

He bent over, pressing his lips to mine briefly. "It's okay Usako. The doctor is going to give you something to make you sleep. Don't be afraid." I heard his voice trying to reassure me, undoubtedly my fear written plainly on my face. "I'm right here." Darkness, deeper and more frightening than anything I've yet to experience, began to pull me from Mamo-chan. I whimpered. "I love you, Usako," Mamo-chan said in my ear, his voice slowly fading from me.

"I love you..."

I remembered nothing until I woke up again. Any memories were permanently erased from my mind just like one would delete a character on the computer screen. There was an overwhelming smell of antiseptic in my nostrils as I painfully sat up. The room around me was small, consisting only of a chair and a table beside my bed. In the chair was the Senshi of Love, her blond hair falling around her as she sat with her knees curled up to her chest. Sensing someone watching her, she blinked her blue eyes open and stared at me a moment. "Usagi-chan," she gasped, sitting up quickly and scrubbing the sleep from her eyes. "How long have you been awake?"

I didn't answer her; I couldn't. My body ached all over, a dull ache. Without consciously knowing what it was I was doing, I reached for my stomach. In one terrifying moment all my memories returned. I gasped, a sob stuck in my throat and tears filling and falling quickly from my eyes. "Minako-chan," I mumbled, scared; so very scared. "What happened?" I whispered. She made no movement to indicate that she was going to say anything. The longer she just stared at me, tears filling her blue eyes, the more upset I began.

Finally I shrieked: "What happened to Chibi-Usa?!"

Minako - usually so graceful, walked over to my bed slowly and seemingly with cramps in her legs. Without speaking, she sat beside me on the bed, her hand reaching for my own. "You fell on your stomach; hard. And Mamoru-san found you in a pool of blood..." Her eyes went glassy, remembering, and so, reliving things I couldn't even recall. "He called us from the ambulance and said you had gone into premature labor. When we got here and Mamoru told us... he said the baby had the cord wrapped around its neck." My eyes stared at her unbelieving. No! I wanted to scream. No! God wouldn't take my daughter a second time. I just knew...

Minako twisted her hands in front of her like she was wringing a wet cloth. "When they finally got her out, she was blue. So blue... But the doctors worked on her. And when Mamoru-san told us she started crying, he started crying so hard..."

I couldn't believe my ears. I wanted to laugh, to smile, but all I could do was cry. My throat threatened to close, my chest sending waves of pain through my chest as I sobbed into the palms of my hands. I couldn't stop crying my relief, even when I heard Minako leave the room and Mamo-chan came in. I felt him wrap his arms around me, giving me the security of his love that I craved. I continued to cry until my eyes refused to produce any more tears. Mamo-chan hugged me tightly, crying with me, whispering words that didn't half make sense to my exhausted mind. The exhaustion pulled me back under without my permission.

May 19, 5:43 a.m. - Chiba Usagi Tomoko* was brought into this world four weeks and three days early. Even though, she didn't need the help breathing Mamo-chan and I feared she might and managed to avoid the neonatal stay. Weighing five pounds and seven ounces, she was perfect in everyway. From her ten tiny perfect toes to the small patch of strawberry blonde hair on top her head - I couldn't get over the joy of my first-born daughter. Even the sounds of her cries were music to my ears.

But this time of what should have been complete happiness for Mamo-chan and I was not to be. For the same night that had found my child born, also robbed me of another. The Senshi had gone to the apartment, but to my eternal horror found no trace of my younger brother. Rei walked in my hospital room, Luna hid in her large bag. The rest of the inner Senshi followed and shut the door so that my guardian cat could safely emerge. I looked up from feeding my daughter hopefully, but they needn't say a word - it was written on their faces.

"We found no trace of the ice you and Mamoru-san spoke of," Rei fumbled with the words, obviously being the only one who was willing to speak up. Luna jumped onto the bed and came over to examine my child. "There is no evidence of a forced entry, either. Almost looks like Shingo disappeared into thin air."

I bit my bottom lip to keep from crying out. Would my life always be like this? I wondered. One good thing followed by bad? Forever would I always hold back from any good thing to come along for fear of the bad that was sure to follow? And what I feared most had finally come to pass. My past had caught up with me a second time - this time to claim my baby brother.

The silence in the room was finally broken by Luna, her voice strained as she spoke. "Chibi-Usa is a beautiful baby. So well behaved, like you were as an infant." It had never occurred to me that Luna had been around so long that she could remember my birth on the Moon. "The birth of a royal heir to the Moon Kingdom," she continued. "Is a wonderful thing, a cause to celebrate."

"Royal heir?" I mumbled. Everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath. I looked at the sleeping babe in my arms, pressed close to my chest so she would be comforted by my beating heart. "No." Tears I had successfully held back most of the day tore free from their imprisonment and down my face. "I want more for her than the life I had. Forgive me, Mother, but I want more."

Mamo-chan slipped slowly in the room, closing the door behind him. "More than being a Princess?" Ami asked incredibly.

I looked into my love's deep blue eyes - eyes that sparkled with the same hope and love for our child that I felt - and I knew he wanted the same things. "Yes, more," I replied, my voice taking on a determined edge. "I want her to live a normal life, free from the constrictions and responsibilities of a Princess."

Luna shook her head at me in obvious pity. But I wasn't a fool; I knew how hard it would be. It was a price I was willing to pay.

Everyone had looked, searched and looked some more. There was no clue, nothing that helped us pin point where Shingo was or who had taken him. Mamo-chan told me the night Chibi-Usa was born I had told him "She" took Shingo. I looked at him in shock, for I had no idea who this "She" was, nor had I remembered telling him this. "Mamo-chan, are you sure I said that?" I asked him again as he pulled the car away from the curb of the hospital.

Home. I was going home with my love and our new baby. But with Shingo gone, so was all the smiles and laughter that should be ours on this day. Today marked the fifth day he had been missing. The police was combing Tokyo and the surrounding cities. The inner and outer Senshi searched every where they could possibly think. Still no clues. The only bright light in this dark time was how well Chibi-Usa was doing, considering she had been born premature. And that my body (probably being helped along with the silver crystal, according to Dr. Minzuno) had completely healed from childbirth. I appreciated Dr. Minzuno as my doctor more and more when I wouldn't have to explain to anyone why I was healing super fast.

Mamo-chan looked throughtful as he pulled into the apartment parking garage. "Usako, when I found you, you were in a lot of pain. It could have been that pain and fear talking, but you did say it."

I tried to remember that night, but everything was hazy; unclear. So much like the memories that had eluded me so long. But was an eternity ago, more like it happened in another lifetime. Holes, gaps in my swiss-cheese memory that only allowed me to remember certain things. The cold, the blood, and the fear - all that was vivid. Words or actions that lead me up to waking up in the hospital were gone. As gone as Shingo seemed to be. Even the days in the hospital flew by with almost an urgency to them.

"We're home!" Mamo-chan announced with forced cheerfulness.

He looked over at my tear-filled eyes and sighed. I felt him take my hand and press his lips to my knuckles to kiss them softly. "We'll find him," he promised. Somehow I found it hard to believe him. But without that belief, what did I have to hold on to?

I forced a smile to my face as I picked up Chibi-Usa from her car seat. She seemed subdued though, and I imagined she could feel my sadness through my cheerful facade. I covered her small face with kisses and held her close as we went into the elevator and to our home. The entry way was dark when we entered the apartment; giving it a forbidden feeling. I swallowed hard, holding my baby closer to me. I couldn't release the air caught in my lungs until Mamo-chan flipped the light. Turning the video camera on, he zoomed in on the baby who was staring straight ahead with little interest.

"Chibi-Usa," he cooed, reaching out with his free hand to push the blanket away from her face, "smile for Papa. Come on, smile." When she didn't respond the way he wanted, he pulled the camera up to my face. "There's the world's most beautiful new mother."

"Oh Mamo-chan, I look horrible," I insisted, even as I felt a blush redden my cheeks. "I'm going to put Chibi-Usa in her crib so I can unpack." Mamo-chan followed me into the nursery and videoed the room and the baby while I began removing gifts of clothes, blankets, diapers and toys we received in the hospital.

As long as I could keep busy, I could keep my thoughts from wondering. But as I refolded a blanket the fourth time, I knew it was inevitable. With my arms wrapped tightly around my mid-section, I decided to face my fears head on. There was only one way to get any peace: I had to go to Shingo's room.

With already watering eyes, I found myself at Shingo's bedroom door and reaching for the handle.

"Don't."

Gasping, I spun around. My drumming heart beat even faster when I found myself alone in the hallway. "Mamo-chan?" I nearly whispered. It has to be my imagination, I told myself when no one responded. Resolutely I turned around and opened the door quickly. Shadowing the beige carpet a dark brown was a large area of dried blood near the door. Other than that there was no sign of anything amiss. I half expected Shingo to walk in the door, demanding to know why I was in his room. I held my breath in waiting, but the only sound was my own quicken heartbeat and finally the sound of my breathing.

Under the small crack of the closet door the floor was bathed in a soft light. Had the light in there been on before? I couldn't recall, nor imagine why it was on. Maybe one of the Senshi left it on, I reasoned with myself and stepped towards the door and opened it.

My eyes flitted from the small light bulb and the string that dangled from it and to the floor. My hand gripped the doorway so hard that the wood creaked underneath. Laying on the cold floor of the closet, curled up in a fetal position, was Shingo. A felt a small smile of insanity flicker across my lips. I'm seeing things. I want him to be here so bad that I'm imagining it. I closed my eyes, knowing when I reopened them that he would be gone. I reopened them - he was still there! "Shingo...?" I whispered, falling to my knees and pulling him into my arms. His head rolled to the side, his labored breathing seeming to take all the energy he had every time he inhaled. His entire body felt hot and his face looked gaunt and hollow from the contrast of paleness and the red flush of fever that stained his cheeks.

I tried to stand up, but couldn't with his dead weight in my arms. Going for Mamo-chan, leaving Shingo alone, wasn't an option in my numb mind. "M... Mamo-chan!" I screamed. Shingo didn't move as I screamed again for Mamo-chan. I heard him running down the hall, but it seemed to take forever. And Shingo's face was so pale, and his breathing... I swallowed, determined not to panic.

Forever (or a few seconds) passed until I saw Mamo-chan looking in Chibi-Usa's nursery. "Usako, where are you?" he called. Before I could find my voice to call him again, he came through the bedroom doorway. "Nani..?" His eyes fell on Shingo in my lap and he rushed forward with lightening speed. I watched him take my young brother and lay him on the bed.

The entire time he checked him over, I rocked back and forth, sobbing - my eyes locked on Shingo's pale face. Mamo-chan turned to me. "Go call Ami." His voice was calm, but his eyes revealed the urgency. I stood on legs that wanted to fold under me like melted butter, my feet remained nailed to the floor by fear. Unable to move, I stared at him like he had asked for the Moon and stars. "Go!"

I sobbed more as I ran down the hallway and picked up my purse. I fumbled, digging for several long minutes before I dumped the contents on the floor. My communicator spun across the counter and I grabbed it, pressing all the buttons at once. "Ami-chan!" I practically screamed into the tiny speaker. "Ami, please!"

Almost instantly all the colors on the compact lit up and Ami's face appeared on the screen. I knew I had never been happier to see her in my life. "We found Shingo-" I gasped for breath, but I didn't have to continue. Ami promised to be here in a minute and signed off. The rest of the Senshi lights went off as well. Blankly I stared at the screen.

My trance was broken by Mamo-chan carrying Shingo into the bathroom. When I followed, I found Mamo-chan running a cool bath and trying to take Shingo's clothes off. I wanted to move forward, to help. But the sight of him provoked more fear in me. I ran out of the room and towards the nursery where Chibi-Usa was crying. Her wailing stopped as I turned into the room. With the shade drawn, the evening sun hardly cast anything in the room except long shadows - coloring black the face of the person holding my child. "Who are you?" I demanded, stepping forward in the room. "Give me my baby." My voice carried more authority than even I knew I possessed. I didn't allow my surprise to show, however. The anger in my veins filled me with renewed strength that also lead way for a calmness that made my voice seem to boom throughout the room. I wanted to rush forward and grab Chibi-Usa, but I feared what the person holding her would do if I moved.

In the hall behind me, I heard Rei talking. Her voice became louder, and I expected her to come in the nursery. Instead she stopped in front of the bathroom door. I walked further in the room, taking pains to keep alert to any movements the woman in front of me made. The light from the hall cast a pale glow on her waist length green hair. Green hair? I thought. Why did it seem so familiar? I shook my head. The important thing here was that she was in my daughter's bedroom and was holding her. "Give me my baby," I demanded again. The woman turned, her profile lit up momentarily by the sun peeking around the edges of the shade. I gasped.

"Certainly, Princess." I stared at Setsuna as she gently handed Chibi-Usa to me. "Your child is quite the small lady, Princess. Beautiful, like her mother and her mother's mother."

I continued to gape. Before I could find my voice, Rei and Makoto came in the room. Rei walked straight to the small lamp beside the crib and flicked the light on, her violet eyes turning suspicious almost instantly. "Who are you? How did you get in here?" I backed out of the room, still holding Chibi-Usa tightly in my arms.

Tears streaked down my flushed face as fear replaced the anger that had fueled me so well earlier. "Something is going on here. Something no one is telling me." My thoughts that were so jumbled up in my mind but, surprisingly, they came out the way I intended. "First Shingo disappears, and just as unexplainably reappears with a dangerously high fever and now I find Setsuna holding my child when I didn't even know you were in my house?!" My voice, which had started out as a whisper, was shrill by the time my last words came out. "WHAT IS GOING ON THAT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT?" In my arms Chibi-Usa began crying in earnest now.

"Usagi-chan," Mako-chan put her hand on my shoulder reassuringly. "Let me take the baby and get her a bottle. You can sit and talk to Setsuna, and get this all figured out." The voice of reason she spoke with almost had me convinced, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen. Something big. And I didn't want Chibi-Usa to leave my sight for even a tenth of a second.

"No," I whispered dangerously low. My heart continued to beat faster than normal and I felt like I had stepped in a tub of ice water. Makoto continued to stare at me like I had grown two heads. But at the moment I didn't honestly care what anyone else thought. "Taste the bitterness of death..." The words were said aloud, just as clearly and as threatening as the voice that had warned me not to enter Shingo's room. I tried to ignore it, but persistency was high - I felt myself back into a wall. "Noooo, please don't..."

"Usagi?" Rei came towards me, behind her a black mist swirled - lacing around her body. My eyes became wide with terror that no one else seemed to understand. Why was Makoto just standing there, staring at me? Didn't she see Rei was in danger?

"See the blood..." I shut my eyes, hoping when I reopened them that this would all be some nightmare. When I blinked my eyes open, Rei's eyes flashed solid black. "...bitterness of death..." Every time that voice came, something happened. I wanted to help her, but I knew I had to get Chibi-Usa to a safe place. Rei reached out for me, but I ducked under her arms and sprinted out the door and across the hall.

Mamo-chan was holding Shingo up in the tub, Ami sitting beside him with her computer out. I looked around frantically, making sure all was clear before slamming the door behind me. "Ami-chan... Mamo-chan..." Chibi-Usa screamed in my arms, her shrill voice becoming louder. Before I could catch my breath to tell them what I saw, Ami's computer began beeping madly.

She looked at it, her eyes flashing towards the little boy in the tub and back to the computer screen. "Nani?!" she shrieked, standing up. I watched what unfolded as though I were watching something on television, and any second I could change the channel. This surely wasn't happening, surely! Mamo-chan stood up as well, pushing Ami behind him even though she continued to type madly on her computer. The small body of my younger brother sat up, his head turning oddly towards us. For a moment the room went quiet and then his pale arm lifted out of the water and pointed towards me. His eyes snapped open, and I screamed.

"Do you see the blood?" the throaty voice asked, hissing the word 'see' like a snake might. Small tears of red liquid dripped from his eyes, making zig zagging trails down his face. "All of you and yours will taste the bitterness of death..." His void black eyes rested on me, his finger still out stretched. The water he sat in began boiling, large bubbled coming to surface and then exploding into the air. The steam rose, the heat lingering visibly in the air.

I opened my mouth to scream, but the sound refused to form. I began shaking my head until finally I felt my voice box release. A howl of terror echoed through the room. Shingo's body turned a bright red, the steam now coming off his body as well as the water. Before my very eyes, my brother was being scalded to death and I couldn't move! All I could do was scream, over and over and over again. Scream, and then scream more. When the heat reached his head, causing the skin to shrink and burn before my eyes Mamo-chan snapped out of his shocked trance and turned around, pressing me to his chest.

I tried to struggle free, but he held me firmly. "Don't look, Usako," he begged, holding me close. "Don't."

Shingo didn't scream or even make any noise to indicate human pain. The only sound to reach my ears was the sizzling sounds of burnt skin hitting the water. I felt my knees fail me and I slid down the wall, still holding Chibi-Usa - into the darkness.

I woke up over a period that seemed to take hours. Every small step towards awareness that I made, I recoiled into the peaceful silence of my mind. Voices would come and go, and then light would seep into my eyes - only to be shut out again. Only when I heard the soft cries of my daughter, followed by Mamo-chan trying to rock her to sleep, did I find the strength to leave the quiet, dark prison in my mind. My head felt like a train had just rolled through, it pounded so hard. The light was as harsh as looking into the sun, and just as blinding. I squinted, sitting up slowly so that I wouldn't become dizzy. Mamo-chan was sitting across from me in a rocking chair, talking softly to Chibi-Usa. The sight touched my heart deeply. It wasn't until I tore my eyes from them that I noticed that I wasn't at home. From the stuffed animals that lined every shelf, and part of the bed I was laying on, I guessed I was in Minako's room. Mamo-chan looked up, smiled at me, and laid Chibi-Usa in the portable cradle I had found at a second hand store.

I started to stand up, but Mamo-chan rushed over and sat me back down. I looked up at him, my memories coming back the longer I was up. Suddenly I wished I hadn't gotten up at all. "Shingo...?" I whispered.

Mamo-chan sat down on the bed beside me, taking both my hands in his and squeezing them tightly. His blue eyes meet mine and I couldn't stop gazing back. "That wasn't him." The words that came so easy from his lips were more than a little difficult for me to understand. That wasn't him? But it was! I had held him, and then watched as he... Oh, God! I felt a sob choke my throat, preventing me from gasping the air I so desperately needed. "But..."

"No, Usako," my love reassured me. "It wasn't him. Ami examined what was left in the tub, but it wasn't even human. I don't know what it was, she is still testing samples." At my blank stare, he pulled me close. "Shingo is alive. Don't worry, we'll find him."

I could remember the smell of burnt flesh, the boiling water and the evil. Evil. Blackness, black eyes... "Rei-chan? Where is Rei-chan and Mako-chan?" I asked, leaning out of his embrace and looking quickly towards the door. It was closed tight. I shivered, a cold settling in my body that I'm sure no amount of heat would take away.

Mamo-chan brushed my hair away from my forehead so that he could gently place a kiss there. I felt tense, frightened and I couldn't stop trembling. Wrapping my arms around him, I pressed my body as close to his warm one as I could. "Hey now," he whispered in my ear. "It's okay, Usako." His arms encircled my body, but his embrace didn't bring me the complete calmness that I yearned for. I bit my bottom lip so hard I could taste blood, but still I gripped Mamo-chan like my only life raft in a sea of evil. "Look, when you are ready the Outer Senshi are here and they want to talk to you. It seems they know more about this enemy that we do, and have finally decided that we should know everything." Mamo-chan's lips grazed my ear. "But no one is rushing you, okay?"

"Enemy?" I mumbled, confused. "But Beryl is dead..."

"It seems that she was only a battle won, we still have a war ahead of us. But that is all they have said so far, everyone is waiting for you to feel up to talking."

I nodded my head and allowed Mamo-chan to help me to my feet. I gazed over at the portable crib and at the face of my sleeping baby. "Is it safe to leave her here?"

"We can take her into the living room with us, if that would make you feel better," Mamo-chan suggested lightly. I nodded and watched as he picked the small cradle up and together we went into the living room. Minako's parents were very well off, and now that they were retired, they traveled more often than not. From what I had gotten Minako to tell me, they were out of town so much that Artemis had practically raised her for the last five years. At the moment they were in the Hawaii islands.

Mamo-chan and I descended the carpeted stairs slowly, taking in the paintings and murals that hung on the walls. The staircase came to a small landing before turning, and just above a table holding a potted plant was a stain glass window depicting a wonderful sea scene. The hand carved banisters was made of cherry, adding to the richness of the appearance. The house seemed more like a museum than a home, however. Everything looked like it had come off the show room floor, gleaming with an untouched look. I could never imagine feeling at home in the immense space, it lacked any warmth whatsoever.

Mamo-chan directed me to the sitting room and we found the inner and outer Senshi waiting for my arrival. He put the crib down next to the sofa and I sat down, nodding at the Outer Senshi as I did so. "Konnichi' wa, minna," I said evenly. There was a look of seriousness on the Outer Senshi's faces, even sterner than they normally wore when we meet. At the moment there was only Sailor Neptune, Uranus and Saturn. "Where is Pluto?"

"Here." I heard the voice, but couldn't pin point where it was coming from. It took a minute for me to realize that Setsuna was the one speaking. Mamo-chan duplicated my stunned expression as the taller woman walked into the room, Pluto's Time Key in hand. She walked over to the fireplace, next to the Outer Senshi and met my eyes. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. We will try to answer what we can, and then all of us decide on the proper action to be taken."

Like a play that had been rehearsed time and time again, the Outer Senshi each let go of their henshin one at a time. My grip on the sofa's arm was so tight I couldn't feel my fingers anymore. In my mind I had known - I really had. Of course I had known Haruka and Michiru were Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. But seeing them sitting on the couch in front of me, like goddesses stepping out of a movie screen, took a moment to get used to. I glanced at Mamo-chan, but it was obvious he already knew all of the Outer Senshi's identities. The only one who took me by complete surprise, at this point, was Hotaru. Little, sweet Hotaru. I had spoken to, fought beside, and secretly admired the petite girl. But to see her sitting between her parents was triggering something in me. Perhaps a mothering instinct. I couldn't imagine her fighting.

Setsuna, still the only one of the Outer Senshi to speak as of yet, sat down on a settee across from me and began to tell us a story of evil, decades of power struggle - and how it all centered on me. I suppose this was just one in a million things I would learn many things in my life that I didn't want to.

-End Chapter 12.

Chiba Usagi Tomoko* - Since Usagi doesn't want her having the Princess tag line, she and Mamoru named her Tomoko after his mother (I love AU, gives me much more space to work with!) Speaking of, I don't like Chibi-Usa's red eyes. I mean, let's think about this, her mother and father both have blue eyes, her grandparent (that we have seen) has blue eyes, and she has... red? So, again with my AU licence here, she has blue. They are going to stay blue and that's that ^^

I want to thank everyone who has emailed me, as well as read and review *hugs* You guys are the best ^_^

I posted this last night before I left work without giving it a last look over, so if you happen to be reading this for the second time and notice a few things that are different (like the longer author's notes!) it is because I was rushing and shouldn't have been. After I got home I realized my mistake, but by then we were heading out to a cook out at my cousin's and I didn't have time to change it. (Cook out + 6 hours in a pool = a horrible sunburn, btw!)

I'm working on the next chapter, The Past Comes a Haunting, in just a minute and hopefully will have it out tonight or tomorrow morning.

Thank you so much for your support of this story!

God bless,
Beth