Author's Notes: Another chapter is now here for your reading pleasure. Someone made the comment that this was taking on a Star Wars feel which was not my intention. Then again I'm starting to see that too. This story shall remain 100 Sith-free.
You Can't Choose Your Family
Chapter 3
Lying awake and staring at the ceiling were things that Makoto was used to doing. However, this time it was a different ceiling, and a different set of things to work out. The story from this night was one of those things. Aunt Kasumi, as she already was thinking of her as, would not lie to her. She was street-smart and was an excellent judge of character so she could read the truth. Her mother and father were deeply in love. The origins of this love were of no matter at this point but they loved each other. Everything was fine when her mother was expecting. It was perfect.
Then came the night of her birth and it all went wrong. Makoto rarely let self-doubt bother her, not since meeting Usagi, but she had lost a lot of her old confidence. This was a blow to her ego that she could not just shrug off. Was her birth directly or indirectly related to her mother going berserk and killing her father? Aunt Kasumi had asked her to sleep and approach this with a clear head but she couldn't. She had to know. There would be little danger, she reasoned, since her father had put that weakness-thingy on her mother.
The former Senshi slipped from the bed she was given and put on her clothes. She now knew how she had all this knowledge. Somehow her mother must have passed it on to her in the womb with only a sufficiently great trauma awakening it. Makoto slid like a shadow through the open window and leaped down to the ground with barely a sound. She took her bearings, noting that somehow her memories of this place were sharpest at night, and took off at a dead sprint for the hills. A sensation flashed through her. It was a feeling of exhiliration and anticipation so great that it left her breathless. The feeling immediately following it was dread. She did not want to meet her mother under these circumstances but she had to know.
The trip to the hills was a short one. At full run she was easily the fastest person on the planet. Makoto called on her memories to arrive at the clearing just before the cabin. The next area looked a wreck. It was devastated by a tremendous force. The only thing clearly still standing was a section of floor the rest led into the basement. She saw the steps down and descended into the pit. The sky above her was no comfort as she thought about what she was going to find behind the door but she had to know the truth. Maybe she wasn't a danger to her friends or maybe she was a danger to the world? She wasn't certain of anything anymore.
Her hand rested on a the door handle to the only room not destroyed. The being on the other side had an ominous feeling about them leaving her to shake herself from her fear. She thought back to everything she had faced down before this. No longer would she run. Makoto Kino...er...Saotome doesn't run from anything! With that she pushed the door open. The dramatic moment spoiled by the door, having rotted through, fell off it's hinges and hit the floor with a bang. Someone in the gloom coughed a few times before the moonlight peeked through the destroyed window of the room to illuminate them.
She was beautiful. Despite the grime and filth she was still beautiful. It was a terrible beauty like the kind seen in nature. You know that you're supposed to run but find yourself drawn to it inexorably. Her eyes were a glorious myriad of shades. It was like looking at herself but further down the line and with a dark bent. She gave a slow smile that actually reached her eyes. It was a dark amusement but there was some lingering affection. This was not one of her old enemies that needed pasting. This was her mother. She was trapped by steel bars that were embedded in the wall as if by great force. The carcasses of dead rats and other creatures lay about her. Her father intended to keep her prisoner here but hadn't the heart to actually kill her. Makoto swallowed the fear and sadness that lumped in her throat.
"M-Mother..." She hadn't meant to start the conversation but there it was. The woman tilted her head to the side, her eyes taking in everything about her.
"Makoto-chan...you certainly seem to have grown into a lovely young woman haven't you?" Teri remarked with an undercurrent of amusement.
"What is it you want with an old woman such as myself?" She inquired of her offspring.
"The truth. The whole truth of the night of my birth. I need to know why you killed father." Makoto blurted out the questions that had been running the fastest in her mind. Teri made an effort to get as comfortable as she could and thought back to that night.
"Does a dog question their behavior? A cat? Any animal?" She asked Makoto. The girl blinked, a bit startled by the odd question, and thought about it.
"No?"
"Exactly. Nature takes over with animals. I started off as a chicken. Not even a food item yet." She told her daughter. Makoto blinked several times. Was she trying to justify what happened?
"I'm not human. Not even remotely. When I was made into a dish of teriyaki I ceased to think like a chicken. The crazy girl who made me had used a bit of youma blood instead of actual teriyaki sauce. I'm not certain if that explains it either. There was only one drive and that was to feed. It was not love for your father that kept me following him. He was stronger then me and was leading me to good food so I went with him. People then attacked him, since he was my master I protected him. Due to my unique origins I was taking the genetic material and memories of all that I had devoured. It formed an interesting sort of symbiosis which allowed me to reason at the level of a Super Youma or Dark General." She was speaking very matter-of-factly. Makoto unconsciously sat down across from her. Her mother was still wearing the maternity dress she had worn that night. It was blood-spattered which gave an almost nightmarish appearance to her.
"But you married him..." Makoto began only to have Teri shake her head.
"What is marriage to a youma? Love? I thought it was an elaborate plan to set up for world conquest but he actually thought it was real love. Too bad for him really. I had nothing against him. When he got me pregnant with you I started to resent him. First he stops any plans of global takeover to start a family with me and now I had an honest to God life inside me. It struck me then that perhaps he was trying to create a stronger being than myself by combining our materials. At the moment of your birth I passed on all the power that I could which, unfortunately, destabilized my psyche. It was regrettable that I killed your father since I truly held nothing against him. I didn't love him but I respected him. Unfortunately, my fragile psyche shattered and I assaulted him with everything I had." She peers to the ceiling with a look of genuine regret. It was clear that this self-confessed Super Youma had probably felt more for her father than she cared to admit.
"He was still my superior. In terms of skill I had the knowledge of all his greatest rivals and the abilities of several creatures of myth but still he persevered. He defeated me. I...find myself feeling strange when I think about it. Even now I can barely understand why he did not just kill me but instead try to reason with me. I rewarded my master with death." She bowed her head. Makoto knew this wasn't a lie. She bit her lip as she contemplated what was perhaps her hardest choice but she had a question that needed answering.
"Will I...lose control?" Makoto asked her mother. Teri looked to her as if finally seeing her for the first time. She shook her head.
"No dear, you have the part that I lacked. A conscience. I had no such thing. The closest thing I had to one was your father who kept me from committing atrocities. A soul and loving heart is also what you possess. The heart coming from your father." She slumped in her restraints.
"Mother...I want to release you..." The Senshi of Jupiter said. Teri stared at her daughter with disbelief.
"I killed your father and you still want to release me?" She asked incredulously.
"You're not evil. I can feel your regret for what happened. I-I've been without a mother for too long...and you're not so bad." Makoto said with a shrug. The youma woman felt moisture prick her eyes and closed them, tears falling from behind her eyelids. This heartwarming scene would have continued if not for a cry that Makoto had not expected to hear. Not here, not now, and it was far from welcome.
"Dead Scream." The attack roared in like a cannonaball to plow into Teri Saotome. Makoto acted fast and jumped between the attack and her mother, taking the ball of condensed energy full in the chest and slamming her against the wall with titanic force. What was left of the ceiling collapsed, burying the imprisoned woman and trapping Makoto.
"Makoto!" Teri felt herself go back to the night that she destroyed her own world. She felt like a prisoner in her own body as she tried to free herself but the Weakness Moxibustion was too perfect. Pluto strode down the stairs with implacable resolve.
"Unfortunately I cannot have this. You're being here complicates things." She says to Teri. The woman glowers at the Senshi of Pluto with all the hate she can muster but cannot do anything. The Garnet Rod is brought up as she prepares to strike downward and kill the helpless woman when suddenly the collapses section of ceiling explodes in a shower of debris.
Kneeling in the center, fist planted on the ground, is an emerald glowing being arching with electricity. The area around her is cracked and vibrating with an intense electromagnetic pulse that is literally causing debris to hang suspended in the air around her. The Senshi of Jupiter stands up and glares daggers at Pluto. The woman actually takes a step back at the sheer level of power being directed at her.
"Sailor Jupiter...I did not see you there." Pluto says to the irate girl only to be rebuffed.
"You saw an innocent throw herself in front of your attack and did nothing to stop it? She's my mother and I won't let you kill her!" Jupiter felt her emotions begin to cycle violently in a raging torrent of anger, depression, and guilt only to hear Teri call out to her.
"You're not me! Fight it! Just leave me please!" The heartfelt words drive away her confusion. She reaffirms her stance and unleashes a blast of thunder in the shape of a ball at Pluto who dodges to the side in the nick of time. Jupiter goes through another slow windup before releasing the attack again. Setsuna Meioh, Senshi of Pluto, knew what was going on. The Senshi of Jupiter was giving her plenty of warning before she attacked but it was clear her patience was worn out as another blast of thunder almost parted her upper half from her lower half.
"I don't understand why you would side with a youma over one of your own friends..." Pluto begins only to be silenced by Jupiter's enraged shout.
"You are NOT one of my friends and never will be! Get out of here you time manipulating bitch or I will eliminate your need to meddle!" Another blast forms in her palms as she holds her hands cupped before her. The ball of lightning was the size of a medicine ball and growing. Discretion being the better part of valor, Pluto fled. With the crisis averted, she dispells the attack. Without even giving her mother and option she tears the steel from the wall and scoops her into her arms.
"No more time for talk. Let's get out of here." Jupiter took off running into the darkness with none to witness her departure except for a pair of sad eyes.
End Chapter
Author's Notes: I hope all of you are enjoying it so far. Keep the reviews coming and I'll try to keep the chapters coming.