Notes: Episode 152, "Burning Passion! Mars' Furious Deadly Attack" Or, "The one where Rei gets a fan and powers up."
Episode 152
Ami was really hoping the scanner would last. She didn't like the sound it was making at all, and they hadn't found another working one yet. She winced as it made a particularly harsh grinding noise, but it seemed fine otherwise. Once done, she lifted the lid, flipped the page, and carefully laid the book back down against the glass surface. She'd almost finished this one and – she glanced to her right – didn't have much more go after that.
It was beginning to worry her.
It had been days since any of the scavenging teams had brought her anything. Books, newspapers, magazines … Ami would've been happy to receive fliers and stacks of coupons at this point.
She knew the others didn't understand. They were kind and never told her so, but she knew it all the same. Ami was pretty sure they thought she was obsessed.
Ami was pretty sure they were right.
The thought of all the information lost forever had caused her far more sleepless nights than any of the battles. Before, things had become seamless and invisible, with information everywhere but nowhere. Ami had loved that, loved having all the world's knowledge at her fingertips, but hadn't stopped to consider what it would mean when someone turned the world off.
There was still hope that they'd find servers intact and recoverable. This new world was built on hope, after all.
But hope had let them down before, and so Ami scanned.
She finished that book and moved to the next item on the pile. As the scanner groaned, Ami made a noise to match it. This chair was awful. Maybe one of the scavenging teams could find her a new one of those, too. Her back ached like she'd sat in that chair since yesterday.
Ami glanced around the dark basement room she'd claimed as her workspace. Maybe it HAD been since yesterday. She briefly considered relocating to a room with windows, then decided there really wasn't anything out there she wanted to see right now anyway. She pressed the button to start the next scan, leaned back, and closed her eyes for just a moment.
Then opened them again to see an upside-down Makoto peering over her.
Ami made a surprised noise and sat up. Immediately she felt the pull of a muscle in her neck from where it had hung over the back of the chair. That wasn't her wisest move.
"Hello to you, too, Sleepy Head," Mako said, sounding thoroughly amused.
Ami rubbed the back of her neck, trying to shake off her disorientation. "Mako-chan! What time is it?"
"Time for you to have some lunch." A tray Ami hadn't noticed was pushed closer. Looking at the delicious sandwiches, Ami also hadn't noticed how hungry she was.
First though, she opened the scanner lid and got the next page going. She missed Mako's frown. "Is it lunchtime already?" Ami asked casually.
"The last time I saw you was lunchtime YESTERDAY."
Ami's hand froze for just a moment, hovering over her work. "You know I have to do this."
With a sigh, Mako pulled one of the chairs next to Ami. "I'm not telling you not to," she said, "I'm telling you EAT." To emphasize her point, she pushed the tray closer still.
Quite despite herself, Ami's mouth was watering. She put the last page of the magazine on to scan then grabbed a sandwich. She nearly devoured it in one bite, causing Mako to chuckle. "It's delicious," she said, though it was a muffled and barely articulate thing with all the sandwich in the way.
Mako's answer was to grin and nudge the next sandwich closer.
Ami swallowed (a little noisily she thought, but Mako didn't seem to mind), and took the hint. "How are things today?" she asked before taking another large, but much more controlled bite out of her second sandwich.
"Not bad, relatively speaking," replied Mako. She put her hands behind her head and leaned back in the chair. "Haruka-san and Michiru-san should be back later tonight."
They'd been investigating rumours of monsters resurfacing near what used to be Towada. It had been nearly a week since anyone had heard from them, so that was good news indeed and Ami said so.
Mako nodded, but shrugged. "I was hoping they'd find survivors, too, but …" She trailed off, not needing to finish the thought. She brightened somewhat. "Mamoru— Uh, Endymion, I guess. He thinks they'll be able to turn on a new power grid some time tomorrow."
"That's great!" Ami said sincerely. She couldn't ignore all the things Mako WASN'T updating her about, but they both seemed content to pretend. For now. Ami polished off the last sandwich. "Thank you for lunch, Mako-chan."
Mako shot Ami a nonchalant look. "There may be cookies, too."
"Did someone say cookies?!"
Mako and Ami glanced to the stairs to see Neo-Queen Serenity gingerly making her way down them. She hadn't quite mastered moving around in her dress just yet, and had fistfuls of the material bunched up at her sides.
Ami resisted, barely, the urge to leap to her feet. The same couldn't be said for Mako. Instantly she was standing, her eyes trained on the floor. "Uh! Uh, welcome! Your highness! Your queen?" Mako was flustered and her face was bright red. Mostly to herself she said, "Your Serenityness?"
She was busy averting her eyes, so Mako missed the look that crossed Neo-Queen Serenity's face. Ami didn't. That flash of pain was what kept her in her chair right now, but Ami understood Mako's reaction. It pulled at them, Ami knew. It was a feeling older than time itself, and they were all of them still so very new at this.
Serenity stopped in front of Mako. She still had to look up at her – some things never changed, Ami noted – but still Serenity seemed to tower over them all.
Except there were her eyes. Still wide, and the most beautiful blue Ami had ever seen. Right now, they were drowning.
"Don't," Serenity urged, her heart breaking in her voice. "Mako-chan, we've talked about this. Please don't."
Mako shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Her chin tilted up, but her eyes wouldn't leave the floor. "But …You're Queen now," she said, her own voice naked with conflict. "And I should … Luna said …"
Serenity snorted at that, and it was the most undignified sound that it startled Mako into looking up.
"Luna also said that if I didn't study I'd never amount to anything, and …" Serenity gestured as if presenting herself.
For a moment there was nothing. Then Mako laughed. Her real laugh, not the forced, strained thing that had accompanied her since waking. As soon as she made the sound, however, she seemed ashamed to hear it, and her head dropped again. The lighting in the room was minimal at best, but it was enough for Ami to see Mako's body trembling, enough to see her tears.
Serenity didn't try to hide hers. Her tears flowed openly as she stepped closer to Mako, reached up, and cupped her cheek. "So please don't, Mako-chan. We need each other now more than ever. I need you more than ever. Please don't let this take you away from me."
Something in Mako broke. With a loud sob, she seized Serenity and wrapped her in a crushing hug. They clung to each other, both crying, and Ami wasn't surprised to discover that she was crying too. When Serenity reached out for her, Ami didn't hesitate to take her hand. Serenity drew her into the hug, and as Mako's arm slipped around her shoulders, Ami felt for the first time the peace that had reclaimed the Earth.
They stayed that way until the sobs became sniffles, and the hands that clutched each other in desperation became comforting rubs.
"Also," Serenity said, stepping back and dragging the heel of her palm across her wet cheeks, "please give me those cookies now."
The others laughed, then laughed harder as Serenity stuck her hand out and waggled her fingers in a "gimme" gesture.
Mako reached behind one of the piles of books and magazines on the table and produced a small plate. "I think I have to sacrifice your cookies, Ami-chan," she said apologetically.
"It's for a good cause," Ami replied, pulling out the now-scanned magazine and placing it in the "done" pile.
A cookie was halfway to Serenity's mouth when she stopped. Without a word, she dropped it and pushed the plate back into Mako's hands.
"Serenity?" asked Mako, and the note of concern in her voice caused Ami to stop fiddling with how to fit the newspaper on the scanner.
Serenity's hand was hovering over the magazine Ami had just finished scanning. Her expression was unreadable. Ami leaned forward to get a better look, then gasped in surprised as she recognized the person on the cover. "That's—"
"It's Rei!" Mako had twisted her head to see it from the correct angle. "Huh! I remember this thing! This was when she got all that extra traffic at the shrine, right? Didn't you recognize her?"
Ami shook her head. "I've stopped really paying attention to what I'm scanning." Serenity still hadn't moved, her hand hovering just over the magazine like she was afraid to touch it. Ami leaned closer. "Are you okay?"
She asked in a quiet voice, however, and Mako hadn't yet picked up that anything was wrong. "That's when she got that little girl totally crushing on her too! Oh man, this went to Rei's head so fast. What was that thing she kept saying? A successful something life..?"
"International Success Life," Serenity said softly, still staring at the smiling girl on the cover.
"That was it!" Mako examined the magazine again and shook her head. "Geez, we were ever really that young?"
She looked at her friends, expecting to share in a nostalgic laugh. It was quickly apparent that wasn't going to happen.
Ami squeezed Serenity's shoulder. "Has Rei..?"
The hand hovering over the magazine withdrew. Serenity rubbed her upper arms and shook her head.
"She will." Mako was certainty personified. "You can't give up."
"Yeah," agreed Serenity with a shaky chuckle completely lacking humour. She glanced at Ami, and looked so shy and vulnerable that Ami's heart broke all over again. "Can I have it?"
There was no doubting what "it" meant. Ami offered the magazine to Serenity with an encouraging smile. "It'll all be okay."
Still Serenity seemed hesitant to touch it, but touch it she did, accepting the magazine with both hands. She stared at it for a long time, so long that Mako raised her eyebrows at Ami, who could only shrug in response. Then the spell seemed to break, and Serenity hugged the magazine to her chest.
"Thank you." She met Ami's eye, then Mako's. "Thank you both so much." She moved back toward the stairs, clutching her prize and no longer caring much about her dress. "I'll ask Endymion to find you a new chair," her voice called when she was halfway up. "Those look terribly uncomfortable."