Sailor Moon: Secondary Characters: Heaven
{Jon Carp}
Address: [email protected]
70 degrees farenheit. Soft, tickly grass, suitable for lying
in or smelling. Pleasant wispy mists surrounding the central meadow.
Clear, bright, beautiful sky. Paradise.
"I fucking HATE IT HERE!!"
Nearly hysterical ravings scared away the peacefulness,
stamping feet disturbed the grass, long black hair diverted attention
from the sky.
Makoto glanced over at Ami. "I don't think this is healthy
for her," she said.
Ami winced as Rei yelled something especially piercing. "It's
not healthy for any of us. Have you tried to talk to her?"
"Yep. Didn't do anything. She doesn't care what I have to
say."
"Rei, SHUT UP!" Setsuna yelled, giving her best glare. It did
no good.
"YOU shut up! I'm going out of my goddamn mind here!"
"Look, just try to relax," Makoto said. "We're all bored,
we're all frustrated, and yet not one of us, you can see, is acting
like a maniac. It doesn't help anything."
"At least I'm the only one worried about this! You guys act
like you don't care if we ever get out of here or not!"
Makoto chuckled. "Rei, we're dead. There's no escape. Just
because you never believed in this place doesn't mean you can deny
what's happening."
Steam, actual steam, rose from Rei's head. "You...you think
I'm denying it? You think I'm pissed because of that? I'm pissed
because everyone's so goddamn happy! Look at them!" She pointed over
to Mamoru, Chibi-Usa, and Minako romping off in the mist.
"They're not happy," Ami said. "They're just trying to make
the most of it. But they miss her too much to be at all content."
There was no question who the pronoun "her" was referring to.
"We all do," Makoto added.
Setsuna laughed. "I don't," she said. They all looked at
her as if she were a mutant centipede, or some sort of giant duck. "I
didn't mean anything by that," she quickly added, cheeks slightly red.
"I just don't miss her. And I don't know about the rest of you, but
I'm happier than I've ever been."
"Well, whoopdee fucking doo," Rei muttered bitterly.
"Setsuna's happy here in the lovee-dovee heaven-land of lollipops and
rainbows. La la la la la."
Setsuna leaned over to Hotaru. "Was she being sarcastic?" she
whispered. Hotaru giggled.
"Anyway," Setsuna continued, "Rei, don't ruin death for the
rest of us. Some of us like this, and your yelling and feeling sorry
for yourself is just irritating."
Rei was too angry to get any words out. Off in the mist,
Chibi-Usa tripped over a strangely-shaped lump and yelped.
"Sorry!" she said, looking back at what she'd tripped over.
"Didn't mean to disturb your sulking."
The hump grunted something back at her. She grinned
sheepishly and ran on.
"They don't like it here, Rei," Hotaru said, pointing back to
the hump in the mist. "But you don't see them ranting and raving."
"Fuck you." Rei stomped off to be by herself.
"See, it just goes to show the effect unhappiness can have on
one's disposition," Setsuna said. "I used to be that bitchy and
irritating, didn't I?"
"Yup," Hotaru said. "We all did." She glanced over at the
big hump in the mist. "Some of us still are."
"Yeah," Setsuna agreed. "We've got to cheer them up. Right
guys?"
The response was quiet to nonexistant.
"Right!" Setsuna enthused. "Hey, Minako! Hey!" The blonde
turned to look. "Could you tell them to come over here, please?
Thanks."
Haruka and Michiru sat alone in the mist, leaning against each
other's backs.
"Remember when we were alive?" Michiru asked.
"Yes," Haruka answered bitterly. "Remember when you asked me
that question a half an hour ago?"
"Uh huh. Wanna...y'know...?"
Haruka sighed. "Again?"
"Can you think of anything better to do?"
Haruka couldn't answer, because Minako ran up to them at that
point. "Hi!"
Haruka glared at her angrily. "Go to hell," she said.
Minako grinned. "Too late," she said cheerfully. "Listen,
Setsuna and Hotaru want to try and cheer you up."
"Tell them no," Michiru said. "And we would appreciate you
not bothering us again."
Minako looked at them sadly. "You can't just avoid them
forever," she said.
"Who? What are you talking about? Why are you still here?"
"Setsuna and Hotaru. You can't--"
"Minako, shut up," Haruka said bitterly. "You don't
understand. Just get your bubble-brained ass out of our face, okay?"
Minako refused to get angry at them. "They're reaching out to
you. They don't want to--"
"Just what the fuck do you expect us to do, huh?" Haruka was
yelling now. "Just pretend nothing happened? Or maybe we should send
them a note, or a greeting card or something. On the front there's
this cute little golden retriever puppy, they open it up, it says,
'Dear best friend and daughter, Sorry about that killing you thing.'"
"Won't happen again," Michiru added.
"Yes, exactly. 'Won't happen again.'"
"I thought it wasn't your fault." Minako said. "I thought
you were hypnotized or something."
"Of course we weren't," Michiru grunted. "We were trying to
fool Galaxia. We knew exactly what we were doing the entire time."
Minako looked at them with infuriating pity on her face.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I'll leave you alone."
"Okay," Setsuna said. "I've got one. See, Porky and Petunia
Pig want to get a divorce, okay? But, as a last-ditch effort to save
their relationship, they go to a marriage counselor. So they go to
this guy's office, and he says, 'So, Porky, tell me why you want to
get a divorce.' And Porky starts talking, and he's saying all these
reasons, but the counselor stops him. 'Wait a minute,' he says.
'Porky, why do you say Petunia's crazy?' And Porky goes, 'I didn't
say she was crazy, I said she was fucking Daffy!'"
Hotaru thought it was funny, and Makoto laughed some, but Ami
looked confused. "Who is Petunia?" she asked.
"Porky's wife, apparently," Hotaru said. "I've got one. See,
there are these guys in this bar, okay? And this bar is on the
twentieth story of an office building. So they're drinking..." she
trailed off when she saw Minako approaching alone.
"They said not to bother them anymore," she said, fixing her
bow.
"Oh for god's sake." Setsuna was annoyed. "Okay. I'll take
care of it."
They stared at Setsuna with something that could have been
annoyance, but wasn't. "Piss off," Haruka said.
Setsuna laughed. "What the hell is the matter with you two?
Do you actually think we're not going to forgive you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course you do."
Haruka did her best to keep her cool, but failed miserably.
"You think it's so easy. You...you think we can let it all go.
Christ, we killed you! You just expect us to pretend it never
happened, how the hell are we supposed to do that?"
"It's a little late to hold a grudge," Setsuna said.
"Fuck you!" Haruka screamed. She stood up and stomped away to
be by herself.
"I'm sorry, Setsuna," Michiru said. "She didn't mean that.
But I don't think I can face you either. Please go."
"Why are you doing this to yourselves? We don't blame you.
Why can't you understand that? We never did. I know I may have
seemed like a bitter little ice queen while I was alive, but
that's not really me."
"It's not about you. Or Hotaru, either. It ended up good for
you, but we didn't know that. For all we knew, we were sending you
to hell. And we did it anyway, Setsuna. That's the point. We did it
anyway. Just go back and enjoy your afterlife. Don't worry about
us."
Setsuna smiled at her sadly. "I don't think you understand
what I meant when I said we never blamed you." She chuckled to
herself. "You think I could be the so-called Guardian of Time and no
forsee something as important as my own death? I knew with very
little doubt I was going to die, I knew you were going to do it, and I
knew how why where when it was going to happen. And I told Hotaru.
But, of course, it'd change fate for you to know we knew, so we put
on our suprised faces or our betrayed faces and let it happen the way
it was supposed to. But believe me, we forgave you a long time ago."
She reached down to Michiru, genuinely smiling kindly.
Michiru did not recognize the truth, Setsuna could tell.
"Please, don't make it have to be like this," she murmured. "We love
you. I love you. I never showed it, but I really do. Please."
Michiru recognized the truth. She took the hand, tears in
her eyes. "Thank you," she said, in a suprised/happy tone. "Thank
you."
After a while like that, they both realized they had neither
blinked nor moved for several minutes. They made up for it, looking
around, breathing hard, speaking quickly and quietly.
"Well," Setsuna said. "Let's go find Haruka."
"So then the second guy is like, 'Hey, you just jumped out the
window, how did you survive?' And the first guy goes, 'It's weird,
man, I was really drunk, and when you're really drunk you're loose and
relaxed, and you just flop down and it doesn't hurt you.' So everyone
thinks this is great, and they keep drinking, and after a while the
second guy goes, 'Hey, I'm even drunker than he was, I just GOTTA try
this.' So he gets a running start and jumps out the window. He
falls...and SPLAT! he dies. The bartender looks at the first guy and
says, 'Superman, you really are an asshole when you're drunk.'"
Mamoru and Chibi-Usa, who had come over to hear the jokes,
laughed, and Makoto giggled a little, but the others didn't get it.
"He's Superman!"Hotaru explained. "Of course he didn't die when he
jumped out the window!"
"Oh...right," Minako muttered.
"That reminds me of one," Makoto said. "Okay, what's the
difference between someone who falls out of a three story window and
someone who falls out a twenty story window?"
"I dunno," Minako said.
"The guy who falls out the twenty story window goes
'AAAAAAAAAA--SPLAT!' The guy who falls out the three story window
goes 'AAAAAA--SPLAT! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!'"
"That's...that's...that's not...in good taste at all," Ami
sputtered. They laughed at that more than the joke.
"The punchline is that the one who lived is worse off than the
one who died," somebody said. It was Rei, coming up behind them. "Ha
ha ha. Terrible. Just terrible."
"You know what you are, Rei?" Minako said. "You're a
pessimist. I mean, you were happy enough back when you were alive,
but you have this really negative outlook on death. What's the point?
What does it solve?"
"Some of us don't love EVERYTHING," Rei shot back. "Some of
us aren't smiling morons."
Hurt, Minako shut up. Ami put her book down and glared at
Rei. "Okay, I've had enough from you," she said angrily. "Just
because you feel like...like shit doesn't give you the excuse to lash
out at all of us."
Rei started to say something, but Ami cut her off. "And don't
say I don't understand, because I do. You're not the only one who
misses her, Rei. We all do. Just look at Mamoru. He knows he's not
going to see her for a long, long time, but he's still trying to enjoy
himself now. Why can't you?"
Rei sneered. "That's not it," she said. "That's not it at
all."
"Then tell us what it is," Mamoru said. "What do you gain by
keeping it in? We can help."
Rei didn't know what to do. But she saw her friends, the look
in their eyes (love, acceptance, possibly even kindness), and couldn't
deny that they would indeed help.
"I always knew I would die before her," she muttered.
"Because I was going to make damn sure of it. But I was scared, I
mean, I didn't want to die. The one thing, the ONE thing that made it
okay was that I was going to die FOR HER, and she'd know it. Like the
first time, I wanted that to happen again. But I didn't die for her,
id I? I just...died. It was like...I don't know..."
"Fate decided it didn't have a use for you anymore," Hotaru
suggested.
"Yes, exactly. It just got rid of everybody who wasn't
absolutely necessary. I was just thrown away."
"It happened to all of us," Minako said. "But she knew. She
knew we were all trying as hard as we could to die for her."
"I hope so," Rei muttered. "I hope so. But I'm not sure."
"Ah, don't worry about it," Hotaru said. "Just do what
Setsuna and I did. Tell Fate it can go fuck itself, and try to enjoy
yourself here."
"What happened to you two?" Makoto asked, staring at the
newly-vulgar girl. "You're both acting really weird."
"We're free," Hotaru answered. "She has no duty, I have
no... whatever. This is the first opportunity either of us have had
to just lie in the grass and tell dirty jokes. But I was serious,
about her. She's not going to die for a while. Just forget about
her, and one day she'll show up, and you'll all get the opportunity to
show her how much you care."
"She's right," Mamoru said. "I hate it, but she's right."
Rei sighed. "I know."
"Come on, have a seat," Hotaru said, patting the soft grassy
ground. "I bet you know more tasteless jokes than all of us."
"She does," Minako said, grinning. "Tell them the one about
the mushroom."
"Oh, that one." Rei laughed to herself. "Okay, what do you
call a mushroom with a twelve inch stem?"
"Hmmmmm. I don't know."
"A fun-guy."
The response to that one varied.
"I don't get it," Ami said. Everyone stared at her. "What, I
don't get...oh wait, yes I do." She blushed. "I do get it."
Again, friendly laughter resulted, but was cut off but
Chibichibi falling from the sky and landing in the middle of the
group. She stood up and dusted herself off.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Minako said. "I was hoping you'd make it."
"Yeah, I know," Chibichibi said. "It sucks, doesn't it?"
Setsuna and Michiru had just had a long talk with Haruka, and
the three of them were coming back to join the others. They were the
first to notice it.
"What is that?" Michiru asked. Haruka shrugged and stared up
at thething hovering in the sky. Setsuna's jaw dropped. She stood
unmoving, unbreathing. "No," she whispered. "No..."
The shining ball of white light that had captured their
attention wasn't moving or breathing either, but instead increasing in
size. The others noticed it by now, and they all stood and looked up,
wondering what was going on.
A beam of light shot down from the ball to the ground. "Go to
it," somebody said. "Walk into the light."
"NO!!" Setsuna screamed. Hotaru walked to the sobbing woman
and took her by the hand. "Happy faces," she said, tears of pain in
her own eyes. "It's time to put on our happy faces."
The mood among the rest of the group was decidedly positive.
All were smiling, several had tears of joy in their eyes.
"Yaaaaaaaay!" Chibi-Usa squealed. "Now I can be conceived!"
Rei and Mamoru went first, running at full speed. The others
were slower, but every single one of them had happy expressions on
their faces.
Their first sight was her.
The four of them sat in the car, gazing up at the night sky,
waiting for the streaks and specks of light. They came.
Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have this wish I wish tonight.
Hope. Hope for contentment and happiness, finally. A normal
life.
Love, but I've got that already, so nothing.
Love, but I've got that already, so nothing.
Death. To be thrown away again, dutyless and happy.
"What did you wish for?"
"I can't tell you. It's a secret."
Rei stood, hidden behind some bushes, bathed in two kinds of
moonlight. Minako crouched nervously beside her.
"I don't believe it," Rei muttered. "The five minutes she's
in my presence, her attention is mainly directed towards those goddamn
Starlights. Now she goes off and spends all night with him."
"Ssssshh!" Minako whispered. "They're going to hear you!"
Rei ignored her. She looked over at the two figures
sillhouetted on the moon, and grunted.
"What are they doing now?" Minako asked.
"Kissing." Rei sighed. "It's very cute. They're really in
love, aren't they?"
"Uh huh." Minako tried to look too, but was distracted by the
salty water dripping from Rei's face. "Are you crying?"
"I don't think she knows," Rei whimpered. "She doesn't know
how much I care..."
Minako hugged the quietly sobbing girl, having absolutely no
idea ifshe was doing any good. "She does. And even if she doesn't,
we'll show her. We'll show her."
The moonlight covered all. And nothing at the same time.
{Jon Carp}
Address: [email protected]
70 degrees farenheit. Soft, tickly grass, suitable for lying
in or smelling. Pleasant wispy mists surrounding the central meadow.
Clear, bright, beautiful sky. Paradise.
"I fucking HATE IT HERE!!"
Nearly hysterical ravings scared away the peacefulness,
stamping feet disturbed the grass, long black hair diverted attention
from the sky.
Makoto glanced over at Ami. "I don't think this is healthy
for her," she said.
Ami winced as Rei yelled something especially piercing. "It's
not healthy for any of us. Have you tried to talk to her?"
"Yep. Didn't do anything. She doesn't care what I have to
say."
"Rei, SHUT UP!" Setsuna yelled, giving her best glare. It did
no good.
"YOU shut up! I'm going out of my goddamn mind here!"
"Look, just try to relax," Makoto said. "We're all bored,
we're all frustrated, and yet not one of us, you can see, is acting
like a maniac. It doesn't help anything."
"At least I'm the only one worried about this! You guys act
like you don't care if we ever get out of here or not!"
Makoto chuckled. "Rei, we're dead. There's no escape. Just
because you never believed in this place doesn't mean you can deny
what's happening."
Steam, actual steam, rose from Rei's head. "You...you think
I'm denying it? You think I'm pissed because of that? I'm pissed
because everyone's so goddamn happy! Look at them!" She pointed over
to Mamoru, Chibi-Usa, and Minako romping off in the mist.
"They're not happy," Ami said. "They're just trying to make
the most of it. But they miss her too much to be at all content."
There was no question who the pronoun "her" was referring to.
"We all do," Makoto added.
Setsuna laughed. "I don't," she said. They all looked at
her as if she were a mutant centipede, or some sort of giant duck. "I
didn't mean anything by that," she quickly added, cheeks slightly red.
"I just don't miss her. And I don't know about the rest of you, but
I'm happier than I've ever been."
"Well, whoopdee fucking doo," Rei muttered bitterly.
"Setsuna's happy here in the lovee-dovee heaven-land of lollipops and
rainbows. La la la la la."
Setsuna leaned over to Hotaru. "Was she being sarcastic?" she
whispered. Hotaru giggled.
"Anyway," Setsuna continued, "Rei, don't ruin death for the
rest of us. Some of us like this, and your yelling and feeling sorry
for yourself is just irritating."
Rei was too angry to get any words out. Off in the mist,
Chibi-Usa tripped over a strangely-shaped lump and yelped.
"Sorry!" she said, looking back at what she'd tripped over.
"Didn't mean to disturb your sulking."
The hump grunted something back at her. She grinned
sheepishly and ran on.
"They don't like it here, Rei," Hotaru said, pointing back to
the hump in the mist. "But you don't see them ranting and raving."
"Fuck you." Rei stomped off to be by herself.
"See, it just goes to show the effect unhappiness can have on
one's disposition," Setsuna said. "I used to be that bitchy and
irritating, didn't I?"
"Yup," Hotaru said. "We all did." She glanced over at the
big hump in the mist. "Some of us still are."
"Yeah," Setsuna agreed. "We've got to cheer them up. Right
guys?"
The response was quiet to nonexistant.
"Right!" Setsuna enthused. "Hey, Minako! Hey!" The blonde
turned to look. "Could you tell them to come over here, please?
Thanks."
Haruka and Michiru sat alone in the mist, leaning against each
other's backs.
"Remember when we were alive?" Michiru asked.
"Yes," Haruka answered bitterly. "Remember when you asked me
that question a half an hour ago?"
"Uh huh. Wanna...y'know...?"
Haruka sighed. "Again?"
"Can you think of anything better to do?"
Haruka couldn't answer, because Minako ran up to them at that
point. "Hi!"
Haruka glared at her angrily. "Go to hell," she said.
Minako grinned. "Too late," she said cheerfully. "Listen,
Setsuna and Hotaru want to try and cheer you up."
"Tell them no," Michiru said. "And we would appreciate you
not bothering us again."
Minako looked at them sadly. "You can't just avoid them
forever," she said.
"Who? What are you talking about? Why are you still here?"
"Setsuna and Hotaru. You can't--"
"Minako, shut up," Haruka said bitterly. "You don't
understand. Just get your bubble-brained ass out of our face, okay?"
Minako refused to get angry at them. "They're reaching out to
you. They don't want to--"
"Just what the fuck do you expect us to do, huh?" Haruka was
yelling now. "Just pretend nothing happened? Or maybe we should send
them a note, or a greeting card or something. On the front there's
this cute little golden retriever puppy, they open it up, it says,
'Dear best friend and daughter, Sorry about that killing you thing.'"
"Won't happen again," Michiru added.
"Yes, exactly. 'Won't happen again.'"
"I thought it wasn't your fault." Minako said. "I thought
you were hypnotized or something."
"Of course we weren't," Michiru grunted. "We were trying to
fool Galaxia. We knew exactly what we were doing the entire time."
Minako looked at them with infuriating pity on her face.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I'll leave you alone."
"Okay," Setsuna said. "I've got one. See, Porky and Petunia
Pig want to get a divorce, okay? But, as a last-ditch effort to save
their relationship, they go to a marriage counselor. So they go to
this guy's office, and he says, 'So, Porky, tell me why you want to
get a divorce.' And Porky starts talking, and he's saying all these
reasons, but the counselor stops him. 'Wait a minute,' he says.
'Porky, why do you say Petunia's crazy?' And Porky goes, 'I didn't
say she was crazy, I said she was fucking Daffy!'"
Hotaru thought it was funny, and Makoto laughed some, but Ami
looked confused. "Who is Petunia?" she asked.
"Porky's wife, apparently," Hotaru said. "I've got one. See,
there are these guys in this bar, okay? And this bar is on the
twentieth story of an office building. So they're drinking..." she
trailed off when she saw Minako approaching alone.
"They said not to bother them anymore," she said, fixing her
bow.
"Oh for god's sake." Setsuna was annoyed. "Okay. I'll take
care of it."
They stared at Setsuna with something that could have been
annoyance, but wasn't. "Piss off," Haruka said.
Setsuna laughed. "What the hell is the matter with you two?
Do you actually think we're not going to forgive you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course you do."
Haruka did her best to keep her cool, but failed miserably.
"You think it's so easy. You...you think we can let it all go.
Christ, we killed you! You just expect us to pretend it never
happened, how the hell are we supposed to do that?"
"It's a little late to hold a grudge," Setsuna said.
"Fuck you!" Haruka screamed. She stood up and stomped away to
be by herself.
"I'm sorry, Setsuna," Michiru said. "She didn't mean that.
But I don't think I can face you either. Please go."
"Why are you doing this to yourselves? We don't blame you.
Why can't you understand that? We never did. I know I may have
seemed like a bitter little ice queen while I was alive, but
that's not really me."
"It's not about you. Or Hotaru, either. It ended up good for
you, but we didn't know that. For all we knew, we were sending you
to hell. And we did it anyway, Setsuna. That's the point. We did it
anyway. Just go back and enjoy your afterlife. Don't worry about
us."
Setsuna smiled at her sadly. "I don't think you understand
what I meant when I said we never blamed you." She chuckled to
herself. "You think I could be the so-called Guardian of Time and no
forsee something as important as my own death? I knew with very
little doubt I was going to die, I knew you were going to do it, and I
knew how why where when it was going to happen. And I told Hotaru.
But, of course, it'd change fate for you to know we knew, so we put
on our suprised faces or our betrayed faces and let it happen the way
it was supposed to. But believe me, we forgave you a long time ago."
She reached down to Michiru, genuinely smiling kindly.
Michiru did not recognize the truth, Setsuna could tell.
"Please, don't make it have to be like this," she murmured. "We love
you. I love you. I never showed it, but I really do. Please."
Michiru recognized the truth. She took the hand, tears in
her eyes. "Thank you," she said, in a suprised/happy tone. "Thank
you."
After a while like that, they both realized they had neither
blinked nor moved for several minutes. They made up for it, looking
around, breathing hard, speaking quickly and quietly.
"Well," Setsuna said. "Let's go find Haruka."
"So then the second guy is like, 'Hey, you just jumped out the
window, how did you survive?' And the first guy goes, 'It's weird,
man, I was really drunk, and when you're really drunk you're loose and
relaxed, and you just flop down and it doesn't hurt you.' So everyone
thinks this is great, and they keep drinking, and after a while the
second guy goes, 'Hey, I'm even drunker than he was, I just GOTTA try
this.' So he gets a running start and jumps out the window. He
falls...and SPLAT! he dies. The bartender looks at the first guy and
says, 'Superman, you really are an asshole when you're drunk.'"
Mamoru and Chibi-Usa, who had come over to hear the jokes,
laughed, and Makoto giggled a little, but the others didn't get it.
"He's Superman!"Hotaru explained. "Of course he didn't die when he
jumped out the window!"
"Oh...right," Minako muttered.
"That reminds me of one," Makoto said. "Okay, what's the
difference between someone who falls out of a three story window and
someone who falls out a twenty story window?"
"I dunno," Minako said.
"The guy who falls out the twenty story window goes
'AAAAAAAAAA--SPLAT!' The guy who falls out the three story window
goes 'AAAAAA--SPLAT! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!'"
"That's...that's...that's not...in good taste at all," Ami
sputtered. They laughed at that more than the joke.
"The punchline is that the one who lived is worse off than the
one who died," somebody said. It was Rei, coming up behind them. "Ha
ha ha. Terrible. Just terrible."
"You know what you are, Rei?" Minako said. "You're a
pessimist. I mean, you were happy enough back when you were alive,
but you have this really negative outlook on death. What's the point?
What does it solve?"
"Some of us don't love EVERYTHING," Rei shot back. "Some of
us aren't smiling morons."
Hurt, Minako shut up. Ami put her book down and glared at
Rei. "Okay, I've had enough from you," she said angrily. "Just
because you feel like...like shit doesn't give you the excuse to lash
out at all of us."
Rei started to say something, but Ami cut her off. "And don't
say I don't understand, because I do. You're not the only one who
misses her, Rei. We all do. Just look at Mamoru. He knows he's not
going to see her for a long, long time, but he's still trying to enjoy
himself now. Why can't you?"
Rei sneered. "That's not it," she said. "That's not it at
all."
"Then tell us what it is," Mamoru said. "What do you gain by
keeping it in? We can help."
Rei didn't know what to do. But she saw her friends, the look
in their eyes (love, acceptance, possibly even kindness), and couldn't
deny that they would indeed help.
"I always knew I would die before her," she muttered.
"Because I was going to make damn sure of it. But I was scared, I
mean, I didn't want to die. The one thing, the ONE thing that made it
okay was that I was going to die FOR HER, and she'd know it. Like the
first time, I wanted that to happen again. But I didn't die for her,
id I? I just...died. It was like...I don't know..."
"Fate decided it didn't have a use for you anymore," Hotaru
suggested.
"Yes, exactly. It just got rid of everybody who wasn't
absolutely necessary. I was just thrown away."
"It happened to all of us," Minako said. "But she knew. She
knew we were all trying as hard as we could to die for her."
"I hope so," Rei muttered. "I hope so. But I'm not sure."
"Ah, don't worry about it," Hotaru said. "Just do what
Setsuna and I did. Tell Fate it can go fuck itself, and try to enjoy
yourself here."
"What happened to you two?" Makoto asked, staring at the
newly-vulgar girl. "You're both acting really weird."
"We're free," Hotaru answered. "She has no duty, I have
no... whatever. This is the first opportunity either of us have had
to just lie in the grass and tell dirty jokes. But I was serious,
about her. She's not going to die for a while. Just forget about
her, and one day she'll show up, and you'll all get the opportunity to
show her how much you care."
"She's right," Mamoru said. "I hate it, but she's right."
Rei sighed. "I know."
"Come on, have a seat," Hotaru said, patting the soft grassy
ground. "I bet you know more tasteless jokes than all of us."
"She does," Minako said, grinning. "Tell them the one about
the mushroom."
"Oh, that one." Rei laughed to herself. "Okay, what do you
call a mushroom with a twelve inch stem?"
"Hmmmmm. I don't know."
"A fun-guy."
The response to that one varied.
"I don't get it," Ami said. Everyone stared at her. "What, I
don't get...oh wait, yes I do." She blushed. "I do get it."
Again, friendly laughter resulted, but was cut off but
Chibichibi falling from the sky and landing in the middle of the
group. She stood up and dusted herself off.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Minako said. "I was hoping you'd make it."
"Yeah, I know," Chibichibi said. "It sucks, doesn't it?"
Setsuna and Michiru had just had a long talk with Haruka, and
the three of them were coming back to join the others. They were the
first to notice it.
"What is that?" Michiru asked. Haruka shrugged and stared up
at thething hovering in the sky. Setsuna's jaw dropped. She stood
unmoving, unbreathing. "No," she whispered. "No..."
The shining ball of white light that had captured their
attention wasn't moving or breathing either, but instead increasing in
size. The others noticed it by now, and they all stood and looked up,
wondering what was going on.
A beam of light shot down from the ball to the ground. "Go to
it," somebody said. "Walk into the light."
"NO!!" Setsuna screamed. Hotaru walked to the sobbing woman
and took her by the hand. "Happy faces," she said, tears of pain in
her own eyes. "It's time to put on our happy faces."
The mood among the rest of the group was decidedly positive.
All were smiling, several had tears of joy in their eyes.
"Yaaaaaaaay!" Chibi-Usa squealed. "Now I can be conceived!"
Rei and Mamoru went first, running at full speed. The others
were slower, but every single one of them had happy expressions on
their faces.
Their first sight was her.
The four of them sat in the car, gazing up at the night sky,
waiting for the streaks and specks of light. They came.
Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have this wish I wish tonight.
Hope. Hope for contentment and happiness, finally. A normal
life.
Love, but I've got that already, so nothing.
Love, but I've got that already, so nothing.
Death. To be thrown away again, dutyless and happy.
"What did you wish for?"
"I can't tell you. It's a secret."
Rei stood, hidden behind some bushes, bathed in two kinds of
moonlight. Minako crouched nervously beside her.
"I don't believe it," Rei muttered. "The five minutes she's
in my presence, her attention is mainly directed towards those goddamn
Starlights. Now she goes off and spends all night with him."
"Ssssshh!" Minako whispered. "They're going to hear you!"
Rei ignored her. She looked over at the two figures
sillhouetted on the moon, and grunted.
"What are they doing now?" Minako asked.
"Kissing." Rei sighed. "It's very cute. They're really in
love, aren't they?"
"Uh huh." Minako tried to look too, but was distracted by the
salty water dripping from Rei's face. "Are you crying?"
"I don't think she knows," Rei whimpered. "She doesn't know
how much I care..."
Minako hugged the quietly sobbing girl, having absolutely no
idea ifshe was doing any good. "She does. And even if she doesn't,
we'll show her. We'll show her."
The moonlight covered all. And nothing at the same time.