TWO WRONGS
Chapter 12: A Price Too High
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
"Saturn, you can't!" Ami shouted, lurching for the violet Senshi. She locked onto Saturn's shoulders and with herculean strength not usually associated with the calm, logical doctor tore Saturn away from the sleeping Sailor Moon. Once out of contact with Sailor Moon, Saturn went limp, held up only by Ami's strength. "I need an anti-grav table and a cardiac resuscitation unit!"
While the others looked on in horror, Serenity acted, levitating Saturn out of Ami's grip and into the air. When the medical attendants arrived with the anti-grav table, the Queen gently set Saturn onto it. Immediately Ami and the med techs pushed the table to an examination room. The Asteroid Senshi scurried to follow, but Ami whirled on them at the door.
"Stay here," she said with authority. "She doesn't need an audience." Serenity watched from the door to Sailor Moon's room.
"It'll be all right," she told the Asteroids. "Saturn is in the best of hands." Turning back into the room, she glided up to her husband. "Endymion, please tell me her noble gesture wasn't a futile one."
"No, it wasn't futile," Endymion replied, examining the virtual reality vital sign monitors displayed over his sleeping daughter. "All of her vitals are up. I'll feel more confident when she wakes up, but once that demon snake was removed, she was out of danger." He sighed and glanced at his wife. "That's the maddening thing. She was recovering. Saturn didn't even need to do that."
"She felt she did," Serenity responded. "I hope she'll be all right." As Serenity gazed anxiously at the departing medical table, the Asteroid Senshi felt compelled to disobey Ami and head out after Saturn. Only Pallas remembered to turn and bow to the Queen before leaving.
The Queen turned to Keika and glided over. Rei got up and stood behind the Queen, just in case. "When will she wake up?"
"When she chooses," Keika said defensively. "If she chooses. I had nothing to do with it. You and your priest ended the curse."
"Then she should be back soon," Serenity smiled to herself. "Although I'm sure she'll wait until the last moment just to aggravate me."
"And what becomes of me?" Keika asked, trying to suppress the hint of fear in her voice. "Do you kill me?"
"Of course not," Endymion told her. "I made a vow to your father to return you to him when my daughter was cured. I intend to honor that vow."
"But," Keika sputtered, "I tried to kill her."
"You were also willing to save her," Serenity smiled. "That counts for something, too."
"Y-you don't know that," Keika said, amazed.
"Don't I? Well, I've been wrong before," Serenity shrugged. Then she looked Keika right in the eye and smiled warmly. "But I don't think I am this time."
Keika just stared after the Queen in total amazement as she returned to her daughter's bedside. This woman had to be either the most powerful practitioner in the known universe or else the most trusting soul ever known.
"A little of both," Rei said, leaning in with a cynical grin.
In the Limbo of Non-consciousness, the snake familiar had faded from Usa's spirit form like, well, a bad dream. Helios glided up to Usa. His love was still unconscious, but he knew now she was safe. White hair falling into his face and dangling just above hers, Helios reached out and gently caressed the side of her face. He leaned in and pressed his mouth to hers. As they kissed, Usa's spirit form faded away, leaving Helios behind.
"Too close, My Maiden," Helios whispered. "You came far too close this time."
And then the Dream Guardian continued on his way, his hand skimming along the surface of the limbo, his destination the next corner of the Dreamscape.
After visiting Saturn and being assured that she was under the best care and that she stood a good chance of a full recovery, and after visiting the Princess again and being assured that she was under the best care and that she stood an excellent chance of a full recovery, the Asteroids stopped by the offices of the elder Senshi to debrief. Makoto and Minako heard and recorded the details of the entire mission from the incident in Elysian to their appearance in the infirmary. The two elders complimented the Asteroids on their teamwork, ingenuity and actions under stress. The four girls were released and headed back to their quarters at a leisurely pace.
"Still can't believe they just let that Keika woman go," grumbled Ves. "She tried to kill the Princess, for God's sake!"
"Why so hard to believe?" Jun asked. "That's sort of standard operating procedure for the King and Queen. Especially the Queen."
"I wouldn't have done it," Ves scowled.
"I suppose that automatically makes their choice the right one," Cere replied acidly. The four ducked into their quarters. Ves and Jun sat at their computer stations. Cere leaned against the wall while Palla-Palla sought the refuge of her doll corner.
"Ves-Ves, you know the Queen says that vengeance is wrong," Palla-Palla admonished. "She says we're supposed to forgive people who do wrong so they can learn to do right."
"Which is a nice theory," Ves countered. "But in the real world, if someone is capable of attacking once, they're capable of attacking again. Unless you make sure they can't attack again. That ain't vengeance. That's preventative medicine."
"Says 'Doctor Ves'," Cere frowned disdainfully.
"Yeah, figures you'd take that attitude," Ves scowled. "I noticed how chummy you were getting with her."
"Don't show everyone how ignorant you are," Cere sighed.
"Ves isn't that far off," Jun proposed. "You really kind of identified with Keika, didn't you? I noticed it, too."
"Please. She killed her husband," Cere huffed. Then she expelled some air. "I don't 'identify' with her. But I do understand some of what she's going through. You've been in love, Jun. You know what being in love feels like. When you give yourself to a guy, put your trust in him, and then think you've been betrayed - - it can make you crazy. When I thought Hiroki was cheating on me - - I look back at the way I reacted and I wonder how I could unravel like that. But - - love is a need. And if you think the thing you need to go on isn't going to be there anymore, you get desperate or you get crazy. I kind of think she regrets killing her husband, and trying to kill Usa."
"I kind of think she doesn't," sneered Ves. But Cere didn't respond. She just stared at nothing in particular for a few moments.
"I have to make a call," Cere said suddenly. She pushed off the wall and shut herself up in her room. Ves and Jun exchanged puzzled glances.
"Hey, Palla-Palla," Ves asked. "What's that all about?"
"Cere-Cere is calling her boyfriend," Palla-Palla reported as she used a tiny comb on the hair of an antique geisha doll.
"Guess what that's going to sound like," Ves scowled. "'Oh, Hiroki, I love you so! Mmm-wah mmm-wah mmm-wah!'" Jun snorted out a laugh.
Inside the room, Cere sat in front of her vid-phone. Hiroki's image came on the screen.
He seemed distracted.
"Yes?" the artist replied tersely, looking off-screen.
"I'm back from our mission," Cere told him. "I see you're painting. I'll try to be brief. I just wanted to - - Hiroki?"
The artist's attention was off-screen.
"Hiroki!"
"What?" he demanded impatiently. Cere willed herself calm.
"I just wanted to say," Cere smiled sweetly, "that I love you. That I've never felt the way I feel when I'm with you. That I want us to be together from now until the end of time."
Hiroki stared at her, dumb-founded.
"I'll stop by later tonight," Cere said gently. "I promise I won't distract you." Then she severed the connection. Knowing Hiroki, if he was in the throws of painting, there was only a fifty percent chance what she said even registered in his brain. But she felt it needed to be said. Almost immediately her board signaled an incoming communication. When she pressed the stud, Hiroki's face reappeared.
"Um," he stammered, surprised. "Thank you - - for what you said. Uh, see you tonight then."
"I'll bring dinner," Cere smiled.
She was just there. One moment she was in the Crystal Palace, watching Queen Serenity walk away and wondering how she could know what she knew. The next moment Keika was in the Grand Palace of Yaban'na. Her father, King Horoque, had been pacing back and forth in front of his advisors, fretting over whether King Endymion would keep his word and planning the first stages of an assault on the real world should things be as he feared and Endymion reneged.
"Keika," Horoque said softly, stopping in place and staring at her. In the blink of an eye he was across the room and squeezing her to him and for a moment Keika was five again and secure in her father's arms. Then the moment faded and she was returned to a reality of solitude and scorn and her husband's blood on her hands. "Did you escape?"
"They released me," Keika told him. "When the curse on the Princess was lifted, they sent me back, just as they said they would."
"Good thing, too," rumbled Horoque. "Maybe we should invade anyway. Teach those Earthers a lesson. No one holds MY daughter hostage...!"
"They're too strong," Keika said, her hand on her father's shoulder for emphasis. "There would be no profit in it."
Horoque rolled that over in his mind. "Yes, you're probably right. Always said you were the smart one - - when some handsome young buck hasn't turned your head, of course." He put his hands on his daughter's shoulders. "You wait here. I'll get your mother." The hardened king misted up a little. "She's missed you, girl."
Without waiting for argument, Horoque swept out of the room, followed by two advisors and two bodyguards, leaving Keika alone. Silently the dark woman moved to the window and gazed out. Yaban'na seemed little changed from the day she left it at Na's side. As much as it irritated her, her father's assessment had been right. She had left on a whim, lured by a pretty face and the thundering of her own heart. And it had been a whim that had stilled the heart behind that pretty face and forever cast her out of paradise. Yaban'na wasn't such a bad place; but it wasn't Elysian.
Keika shook herself. Regret; guilt; contrition; this wasn't like her. But the connection she felt to the one - - Ceres, was it - - the shared pain and commiseration had touched something in her. And Queen Serenity - - just being in the woman's presence seemed to change her whole outlook. Maybe if they had been there, she might not have even sent her snake familiar on its murderous mission.
"What did you do to me?" Keika wondered aloud. A sound came from behind her. Keika turned to find her mother approaching with tears of joy and open arms. And like that, the past was the past and to be thought of only so the same mistakes weren't made.
Saturn hadn't expected to open her eyes. When she did, finally, she hadn't expected her first sight to be that of her best friend, the Princess Usagi. But there Usa was, sitting next to the bed. Saturn was overjoyed at first. Then she noticed the red rims around her friend's red eyes.
"Sorry if I worried you," Saturn whispered with regret.
"Worried me? You scared me half to death!" Usa shot back. Saturn noticed her friend's red eyes were beginning to tear up again.
"I'm sorry," Saturn reiterated. "I just - - I knew how close you were - - to dying. And I didn't want that. The last thing I want in the world is going back to a life - - that you're not in. It was worth the risk."
"Oh, but it's OK for me to live in a world that you're not in?" Usa demanded. Her tears overflowed their banks and came streaming down her cheeks. "Been there, done that. It's no fun." She sniffed - - loudly and very un-Princess-like. "I thought you were a better friend than that."
"Usa," Saturn pleaded, her own eyes growing moist. "I have to protect you! I'm the expendable one!"
"No! Wrong!" Usa fumed. "That's the same goofy idea the Asteroids have and the Outers had and the Elders had! You are NOT expendable! No one is expendable!" She sniffed again. "Least of all you."
"Get a tissue," Saturn gently urged. "You're leaking down your lip."
Usa wrinkled her nose at her friend, but complied.
"Are you all right now?" Saturn asked.
"Aunt Ami says I'm good as new," Usa informed her.
"Did Princess Keika lift the curse?"
"Didn't get a chance, between Aunt Rei and Mom and Pop and Aunt Ami," Usa shrugged. Then she glanced at Saturn and noticed how forlorn her friend was. "And you," she sighed. "Although you shouldn't have. Not in the state you were in."
"How much damage did I do?" Saturn asked. She tried to twist her head up and see the virtual vital sign readouts, but couldn't.
"Um, Aunt Ami said it was due to stress-induced cardiac arrhythmia," Usa recalled, "aggravated by intercostal muscle strain and pericardial inflamation." The Princess, as smart as she was, only vaguely understood what she was repeating. However, Saturn just nodded solemnly. "You act like you half-expected it. Did it hurt?"
"Felt like a horse had kicked me in the chest," Saturn replied, embarrassed by how she knew her friend would react. True to form, Usa looked like she wanted to curse whoever had subjected Saturn to this on one hand and curse herself for not being able to do anything to change it. "Is Mizuno-Sensei planning to treat the arrhythmia by drugs, surgery or electric stimulation?"
"You're going to have to ask her," Usa shrugged. "And until then, you are OFF this team. You don't even think about coming back until Aunt Ami says you can. Understood?"
"Yes, Usa," Saturn replied contritely. "I hope you won't need me."
"I hope I never need any of you," Usa mused. "Not for that, anyway."
A teleport circle began to form near the Temple of Elysian, scattering dust in a whirlwind pattern. Lady Candide stopped her conversation with one of the residents of Elysian and looked to the whirlwind. When it died down, Sailor Moon and four of her senshi were back in Elysian. Immediately Candide came over.
"Princess Usagi!" Candide exclaimed, grasping the Senshi's hands in hers. "I am thrilled to see you up and healthy once again!"
"I'm glad to be up and healthy again," Sailor Moon smiled back. Then she felt a tug on her skirt. Turning, she found Pallas behind her, embarrassed by having interrupted and yet eager to ask something. "Yes, Pallas, you can go play with the horses."
Beaming, the blue Senshi scampered down the path from the temple to the meadow below.
"It was indeed welcome news to hear from your father telling me of your recovery," Candide said. "I apologize again for what happened to you. Keika succumbed to a moment of weakness and created a tragedy. As sorry as I am that it happened, I'm grateful that it wasn't worse."
"Yeah," Sailor Moon nodded. Her mood was subdued.
"Please forgive her, Princess," Candide advised. "She is not evil. She is just a victim of her whims."
"I'm working on it," Sailor Moon confessed. "I know 'victims of whims' can be saved." Candide glanced at Sailor Vesta for a moment. "It's not easy, though. I suppose that's my failing."
"Making the effort is all one can ask," Candide smiled. "I see one of your Senshi is missing. Is she still injured?"
"Yeah, Saturn's on a strict schedule of rest and recovery," Sailor Moon informed her. "I think she'll be OK. That's what Aunt Ami says."
"It is good to hear," Candide nodded. "I found her a devoted guardian and friend to you."
"Is Helios finished with the ceremony? It didn't get delayed because of," and Sailor Moon paused, "what happened?"
"It should be finishing about now," Candide said.
"Does Helios know what happened?"
"He knows you were stricken," Candide revealed. "He will learn the rest in short order, either from you or from his own abilities. Nothing occurs in Elysian which the guardian is not aware of."
At that moment, Helios emerged from the temple, flanked by Ravonna and Fish Eye. Sailor Moon felt her heart flutter. Leaving Candide, she ascended the temple steps. As she got closer, Sailor Moon could see how drained all three were. It made her wonder whether it was right to burden him with what happened just at this moment. But Candide was right: he'd find out eventually. Better it came from her.
"Maiden," Helios exclaimed, his face lighting up with joy. Turning to the temple maidens, he said, "Go and rest. And thank you for your service."
They nodded and descended the temple steps.
"Words fail to describe my joy at seeing you up and healthy again, Maiden," Helios beamed. "If you feel as robust as you look, then all is well."
"I'm OK," she assured him. "But what about you? You look like you just swam across the Pacific Ocean!"
"It is nothing that an evening in your company will not cure," he told her, draping his arm over her shoulder.
"Um, Helios," Sailor Moon hesitated. "I've got something I need to tell you."
"I am aware of all that transpired, Maiden," Helios told her. "It is not the Lord Na and Princess Keika I had known. Perhaps if I had paid closer attention to them, this could have been prevented. I lament for Na and for Keika, and I am relieved that you have made a full recovery. And I trust one with as pristine and chaste a soul as you can find it in her heart to forgive as well."
"You're sneaky, you know that," Sailor Moon said, shooting him a cynical look. The corners of the Dream Guardian's mouth began to turn up.
As they walked from the temple to the Guardian's Abode, where Helios and Candide stayed, the couple grew silent, content to lean upon each other.
"Helios," Sailor Moon began finally, "I don't remember much from when I was - - sick. But I have this nagging feeling that you were there. At least part of the time. You didn't stop the ceremony, did you? Because I wouldn't want you to do that. Being Dream Guardian is an important thing, and it affects a lot of people, and I wouldn't want you to mess that up - - because of me."
"I did not stop the ceremony, Maiden," Helios said. "But many and varied are the places we go when we are not awake and they all exist within the Dreamscape. And we are rarely the sole traveler along the paths of the Dreamscape. As such, paths may cross."
"So you were there?" Sailor Moon asked with a cocked eyebrow. "But it was an accident?"
"Our encounter was happenstance, Maiden," Helios replied. "But your sense of me was not. I provided what little assistance I could to aid you in your time of need. If that assistance was immeasurable or of no assistance at all is not important. The important thing is that you are well again. That is a conclusion shared by a great many people, but by myself most of all."
She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Thank you seems so inadequate."
"From your lips," Helios sighed, "it is the song of birds."
END