IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE
Chapter 11: "No I in Team"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
"I can't believe a bug is gonna take down Crystal Tokyo," Ves grumbled. "Gimme something I can fight! This ain't fair!"
"Bug," Cere mumbled. Palla-Palla turned to her, suddenly hopeful. "I think I've got an idea."
"Yeah?" Ves leaned in. "Spill!"
"We neutralize the bug," Cere suggested.
"I already tried that," Usa grimaced. "It's too big for me - - too widespread. I don't have the power. It's something Mom's going to have to do when she's better."
"And in the meantime, how many more people die?" Cere countered. "Including Tomohiro."
"I tried once and ended up in the hospital!" Usa argued. "I'm stubborn, but I'm not obsessed! It's too much for me!"
"Usa, we managed to change the molecular structure of an entire race of being on that horse planet in that other dimension," Cere said. "Remember?"
"Yeah," Usa said, growing introspective. "But I needed the energy of all of you combined with my own crystal energy to pull it off."
"Exactly," Cere nodded. "You couldn't do it because you were trying to do it by yourself. But if we combine energies like we did that other time, we should be able to pull it off!"
"It's worth a shot," Ves nodded.
"Palla-Palla will try so she can help Jun-Jun and everyone else," Palla-Palla added.
"It's a risk," Usa warned them. "The last time we tried, it took a lot out of us. There's no telling how much of a challenge this could be."
"I'm willing to do it for Jun," Cere told her. Then she smiled. "And I've never known you to back down from a challenge."
"Well," smirked Usa. "OK, let's try it. Can't do anything worse than fail. You three collect Hotaru and Jun and meet me on the heli-pad. I'm going to pull up as much information about this virus as I can get, so I know what I'm trying to change."
The three friends nodded and were off. Usa pulled out a cyber-pad and went to work. But the Princess quickly became frustrated.
"What is it, Maiden?" Helios asked.
"Oh, I'm still locked out of the medical records!" fumed the teen. "Why is it so damn important to keep me out of this!" She pulled out her Senshi communicator and put in a call to Ami Mizuno.
"Usa, is there an emergency involving the Senshi?" Ami responded over the communicator.
"No. I just need access to the research and diagnosis records on the virus," Usa replied. "All the information you have."
"Why?"
"Why? Can't you just give them to me? This isn't a matter of national security or something!" protested Usa.
"That is personal, privileged information you're trying to access - - there are regulations about patient confidentiality. You have a habit of skirting regulations and procedures, Usa," Ami replied. "And a reputation for disregarding safety when you decide on a course of action. I . . ."
"We're going to try to eradicate the virus!" barked the teen. "My Senshi and I are going to combine energies so we can stomp out this virus before anyone else dies! OK?"
"And you want to know what to eradicate in order to minimize potential harmful effects to the patients?" Ami asked. "Very logical. If you'd told me this in the beginning, we could have both been spared the histrionics."
"Aunt Ami . . ."
"I'm sending you the files on the virus and it's methodology," Ami said. "I'm hopeful that you and your Senshi are successful in this. However, please be aware of your limitations. I don't want you hurting yourself or the other Senshi because you feel you are the city's only hope. We are making progress on a cure."
Usa pad signaled that the download was complete.
"Thanks, Aunt Ami," Usa nodded. "I think we can do this. But don't tell Mom until after we've tried, OK? She'll want to help and I don't think she's in any condition . . ."
"Agreed," nodded Ami.
Signing off, Helios watched his wife pull up the files and begin studying them. As she read, she got up and, using her free hand to feel along the wall, exited their quarters and move down the hall toward the heli-pad. Helios got up to follow.
Cere came up to the room where Jun and Tomohiro were quarantined. A com-link had been set up outside, run through the environmental control computer. Alone, as Palla-Palla and Ves had gone to retrieve Hotaru, Cere walked up and pressed the button on the com-link.
"Yes?" she heard Jun respond.
"It's Cere," she said. "Me and Usa and the other Senshi are going to try to cure this virus."
"How?" Jun asked hopefully.
"You remember when we pooled energies and altered the DNA of those cloud creatures? We're going to try that."
"I hope it works," Jun responded.
An awkward silence passed.
"Jun?" Cere inquired.
"Yeah?"
"We're going to need you!" Cere gasped.
Another awkward silence.
"I-I can't leave," Jun said.
"Jun!"
"Cere, Tomo is in bad shape! He's barely breathing! He's hallucinating! That's when he's awake at all! If I leave and come back and he's . . .dead . . ." Cere heard Jun sob. "I don't want him to die alone!"
"Well that's a risk you're going to have to take!" Cere argued. "Because if you stay in there, you're condemning him to death! This way he's got a chance!"
"Can't you do it without me?" Jun wailed.
"Maybe," Cere said. "But we've got a lot better chance with you. Come on, Jun, you know I'm right!"
Cere waited at the door for Jun to respond. The moments clicked by silently and became more agonizing with every click. After a time, Cere was about to give up and head for the roof. Then the door hissed open. Jun stood there in the doorway, clad in her protective gear. Cere could see the despair on her sister's face.
"Let's hurry up and do this," Jun murmured. Cere could see she wasn't happy.
Hotaru and the four asteroids converged on the rooftop heli-pad. The wind blew at their hair and clothes. It was always ten degrees cooler on the roof.
Upon seeing her friends, Usa transformed into Sailor Moon. Her anti-contamination suit was replaced by the uniform of Eternal Sailor Moon. It was then that the others saw Helios was with her. The five approached their leader as she planted her feet to resist the pull on her costume's wings by the stiff breeze. One by one the others began transforming into their Senshi forms.
"Is Helios going to help us?" Saturn asked, her glaive in her hand and ready.
"I am here merely to safeguard you five," Helios replied, his robes fluttering in the wind. "I do not know the effect the addition of my energies would have on your attempt. While I have merged with my wife . . ."
"I'll bet," chuckled Vesta.
"I cannot calculate the effect I would have on all of you together," Helios concluded, letting the remark ride.
"Does anyone know what we'll be looking for?" Saturn asked. "There are many beneficial organisms in the human body that could be mistaken for the virus. Destroying them would do more harm than good."
"I had Aunt Ami download the specifics to me," Sailor Moon replied. "I've been studying them while you five were getting here. When we do this, I'll do the eradicating. You five just give me the strength to do it on the scale we need to do it."
"Are you . . ." Saturn began.
"CAN WE JUST DO THIS?" Juno suddenly bellowed. Everybody looked at her and the emotional turmoil she was under was clearly evident. Then Pallas walked over to her and touched her arm.
"Mr. Tomohiro-Sir isn't going to die, Juno," Pallas said with child-like certainty. "We're going to make him all better."
Juno said nothing. She turned away to hide her tears.
"Yeah, let's do this," Sailor Moon said. "The longer we wait, the more we risk someone else dying of this. Enough people have died. More than enough."
The five senshi joined with Sailor Moon and formed a circle. Sailor Moon closed her eyes and concentrated. A black warp formed over her chest. Slowly Sailor Moon's pink crystal emerged from the warp and floated to a point in the center of the circle. The crystal caught the light of the day and dazzled brightly.
"Now everyone touch the crystal," Sailor Moon murmured. "Transfer your energy to the crystal."
As it happened before, there was a sensation of being sucked inside the crystal. To Helios, nothing had changed.
"I really don't like this," everyone felt Vesta grumble.
"It'll be all right, Vesta," Pallas thought.
"OK," thought Sailor Moon. "Concentrate on the virus."
"Is that it?" thought Ceres.
"Can you see it?" wondered Sailor Moon.
"Spiky ball!" Pallas thought.
"It is an ugly looking thing, isn't it," Vesta judged.
"Everyone concentrate," Saturn admonished them.
"Sorry. This is just all so weird," Vesta confessed.
"OK, everybody keep funneling energy into the crystal," Sailor Moon thought to them. "I'll . . . where's Juno?"
"Juno!" Pallas mentally called out.
There was mental silence.
"I'm here!" Juno finally responded. "Sorry."
"Juno has to concentrate!" Pallas admonished. "We can't cure everybody without Juno's help!"
"Yeah, Juno, get your head in the game!" Vesta mentally barked.
"He'll be there," Ceres added.
"I'll do everything I can to cure him, Juno," Sailor Moon chimed in. "But I need your help, too."
"OK! All right! I'm here!" They felt Juno clear her mind and her energy began to flow into the crystal.
On the outside, Helios could see the pink crystal begin to glow more brightly. The effect bathed the six senshi in a similarly colored light. Between the light of the sun and the light given off by the crystal, his crystal horn began to twinkle.
"I offer my prayers, Maiden," Helios thought. "May they be of aid to you."
"Brat!" Mamoko suddenly exclaimed.
She was in the Royal Chambers, playing with blocks while Makoto supervised her. The sudden outburst caught Makoto's attention and she looked over to the child. The expression of anxiety surprised her.
"Mamoko-Chan?" Makoto inquired, picking the girl up and seating the child in her lap. "What's wrong?"
The child only looked anxious. She reached out to nothing with pudgy hands. Makoto reflected back on centuries of child-rearing wisdom she'd acquired.
"Guess it's something you can't really put into words, huh?" Makoto said. The child continued to reach for something only she saw.
"Brat . . ." Mamoko said, softly and with clear disappointment.
"I'm sorry, Mamoko-Chan. I don't understand. Do you miss your mommy?"
"Mommy . . ." Mamoko replied.
Makoto hugged the child to her, gently stroking the girl's back.
"It's going to be all right," Makoto whispered to her. "Your mommy is going to be just fine. Everything's going to be just fine."
On Makoto's shoulder, Mamoko brought her thumb up to her mouth and just stared off into nothing anxiously.
"How are things?" Serenity asked.
Endymion had just taken a seat by her bedside in the infirmary. He, as everybody but the most foolhardy did these days, wore an anti-contamination suit. It hardly seemed regal, but it was better than catching the virus.
"Infections have leveled off," he told her. "The anti-contamination suits have helped. We had to distribute them to Yokohama, too. Their case load jumped to one hundred and twelve since yesterday." He exhaled with fatigue. "Some of the other cities have issued a travel ban for anyone from Crystal Tokyo or Yokohama. Can't say I blame them."
"How many have died?" Serenity asked, direct and as serious as he'd ever seen her.
"Seventy-one thousand and change," Endymion told her. Serenity instantly grimaced and began tearing up. "And we've had three deaths in Yokohama now, too."
Before Serenity could act, Endymion put his hand through the anti-contamination field around her and on her shoulder, holding her in place.
"You're not well enough yet," he said sternly.
"So how many more?" she sobbed. "How many more innocent people have to die until I'm 'well enough'?"
"Don't blame yourself," Endymion told her. "It isn't your fault. It's just - - bad timing."
Serenity was about to respond. Then she got a far off look. Endymion felt something undefined as well and wondered what it could be.
"Oh, I hope they're able to do it!" Serenity exclaimed out of nowhere.
When the glow of the pink crystal became nearly blinding, a pulse of energy shot out in all directions from the crystal. As the energy passed through Helios, he sensed that it was stronger than the pulse Usa produced on her own.
The energy passed through buildings, plants, animals and people as it sped away from the six Senshi. Helios watched the ring travel out from the palace to the edge of the horizon and out of his sight. His gaze returned to his love and her friends. The six stood there, frozen in place, as the pink crystal returned into its warp over Sailor Moon's chest. Once it was in place, the Senshi sagged with fatigue. Pallas, Saturn and Ceres dropped to the surface of the roof, Ceres on one knee and the others sitting. Vesta shivered momentarily. Sailor Moon and Juno reeled, but kept their feet.
"Maiden? I have you!" Helios said, running up and bracing his wife. She was panting and perspiration trickled down the side of her face.
"Did we get it?" wheezed Vesta. Just then, Sailor Moon's Senshi communicator went off.
"Sailor Moon, was that you?" demanded Ami from the communicator.
"It was all of us, Aunt Ami," Sailor Moon exhaled. "Did it work?"
"So far," Ami replied. "We haven't had time to check all of the patients here at the Infirmary, but the ones we have checked show no signs of the virus."
"Then they're OK?" Sailor Moon asked as the others waited in anticipation.
"They're still suffering the effects of the body's reaction to the virus," Ami cautioned, "but the infection itself is gone. I anticipate all but the most extreme cases will be fully recovered in twenty-four to forty-eight hours."
"You hear that, Juno?" exclaimed Vesta. There was no answer. Everybody looked around in confusion.
Juno was gone.
A maturing teen with green hair was tearing down a corridor in the guest section of the Crystal Palace. That section had been commandeered for use as patient quarantine rooms when the number of patients became too much for the Infirmary to handle. People jumped to one side, unwilling to challenge the look of desperate determination on the young woman's face.
For Jun had to find out if the man she loved still lived.
Turning a corner in haste, Jun stumbled and almost fell flat on her face. Recovering with the aid of balance developed in the jungle and honed in the circus, she raced down the corridor and skidded to a stop in front of Tomohiro's room. Frantically she opened the door. Impatiently she endured the decontamination mist in the airlock between doors to the room. Violently she ripped the door open, almost knocking it from its track.
"Tomo?" Jun spoke fearfully.
Concluded in Chapter 12