Author's Notes: You know what really sucks? Not writer's block. That goes away easily enough. No, what really sucks is when you literally have a blank slate in your mind that nothing appears on. You sit and try to think up something only for nothing to happen. Hopefulyl this will the first of many new chapters.
You Can't Choose Your Family
Chapter 5
Mercury's cry of 'Youma' almost made Makoto grit her teeth in disgust. It figures. Rather than being allowed to take her friends to the side and explain about all this, rationally, Wonder Brain has to sabotage it by scanning. She couldn't blame Mercury for wanting to protect the Princess but this was her mother for crying out loud! They still had a crowd of witnesses to this latest battle which meant explanations would have to wait. Makoto looped her mother's arm around her shoulders and stood up.
"We have to talk about this some other time...without all the drama." She gestured easily before scooping her mother up in her arms and leaping a good hundred feet towards the stairs and sprinting off into the daylight world.
At the subway terminal Sailor Moon was staring after their friend as she ran off with a mixture of feelings. Sadness and regret being first and foremost. The part that was the super ditz was thinking 'That was SO cool' but knew it wasn't the time to think about that.
"Should we go after them?" Mercury asked her leader. Moon thought about it for a few moments before finally shaking her head.
"No. Outing her mom as a youma might have been a bad idea though. We'll just have to call her later." So saying Moon sprinted off with Mercury close behind her. When they were a safe distance into the tunnel they simply teleported away.
Makoto was still stewing over what had just happened but a single glance at her mother's smiling face calmed her down. The older woman hadn't said anything yet but had done her best to be a supportive presence. The younger girl did a few more prodigious leaps before finally landing a distance away from her apartment building. Juuban was getting as bad a reputation as Nerima anymore. People leaping through the air just didn't attract the kind of attention it once did. She waited until the two of them were safe in her apartment before setting her mother down on the couch.
"That was eventful." Her mother said with a smile. It made her realize that her mother probably was all there in the head but she was still her mother.
"Eventful doesn't even cover it mother. They're probably going to call me later to set up a meeting. Then if that doesn't go well...or if Sailor Pluto gets to them first...it's going to be a firefight." Makoto rubbed her forehead as she flopped down beside her mother who immediately put her arm around the girl's shoulders and held her there.
"The fact remains that they will still be willing to talk. As long as you can talk then you are not out of options. If it came down to a fight you would have a better than average chance of winning. No chance of escaping. If you tried to escape to escape the Outers would simply open fire on your flank as you left. The Inners wouldn't want to hurt you so you could win by removing them first." Teri said. The girl nestled at her side gave her a slackjawed look as she heard this.
"But Mom-!" She started only to have a finger pressed to her lips. Teri kissed her on the forehead.
"Sweetheart I am not telling you to fight them. Avoid it at all costs. They are still your friends and can be helped to see reason. If my being here is the problem then I will remove myself." The woman who was effectively a Super Youma said.
"Oh no no no no...I am NOT losing my mother after getting her back and no one can make me!" Makoto spat out venomously.
"Control yourself. It was loss of control that resulted in me killing your father. I do not want you to go berserk like I did." Teri choked up a little thinking about that night but hid it well. The girl sat back with her arms crossed. Further talk was interrupted by her communicator.
"Yes Usagi-chan?" Makoto answered the communicator. The blonde on the other end was fidgeting.
"I'm sorry about earlier Mako-chan...could you come to the temple for a meeting? You could bring your mom if you like. We'd like to meet her!" Their leader enthused. Makoto knew she could not plan an ambush to save her life and double-crossing a friend was even more impossible.
"Will there be food?" Teri looked into the communicator with a smile.
"Sure! There'll be lots of food! Uhhh...after we pick some up." Usagi remembering at the last minute that Makoto usually brought the food.
"Don't worry. I can whip something up here and bring it." Makoto said with a fond sigh of exasperation. The odango headed girl squealed happily before terminating the connection. Her mother smiled even wider.
"Told you. As long as communication is possible there are options." She folded her arms lazily across her chest. The Senshi of Jupiter merely smiled back.
An hour later they approached the shrine. Makoto was a little nervous and had told her mother that she might not be able to get in because of the talismans.
"But you can get in and you're half youma. Think of it this way dear. If I mean anyone here any harm then the seals will keep me out." She shrugged her shoulders. The two women were carrying a fair amount of food between them. Makoto knew from experience that Usagi could clean up like a vacuum cleaner and her mother, as she found out, could eat about as much. Apparently if a youma didn't want to absorb lifeforce from people they had to eat a tremendous amount of food a day. There were tricks for taking tiny amounts from everyone they passed but the food would supplement that.
"Half youma...until now I didn't think about that." Makoto stared up at the sky. Without even realizing it the two had passed the wards. Suddenly Rei's voice could be heard.
"Well that solves that problem." The Senshi of Mars said with a self-satisfied smirk. Makoto stopped dead as she realized what she was referring to. The miko quickly crossed the space between them and helped by taking some of the load from her. Minako was taking some of the food from Teri as well. The Senshi of Venus favored her friend with a gentle smile.
"We figured that if you could cross the wards no problem. None of us doubted you could for a minute." Minako said. A few tears leaked from Makoto's eyes before her mother gently brushed them away. Her smile was teasing.
"Told you so." She said while Minako wondered if her mother was going to do that alot.
The meeting as it turned out was an elaborate way to get the two of them to try to cross the shrine's wards. With that out of the way there was really nothing further that they wanted to know except a few particulars. Mostly how this affected Minako's Senshi powers.
"To tell you the truth I have no idea." Teri said.
"What I can tell you is that the Senshi forms merely augment what you already have. The fact that Mako-chan was still 'asleep' as a youma meant that the Senshi form augmented a human physique. There would have been no risk of her suddenly 'waking up' if she had not been a Senshi. The Senshi transformation with past life powers awakening meant that would only be a matter of time before it happened. After enough errosion had occured, coupled with numerous traumatic experiences, she finally broke loose." Makoto's mother took another sip of her tea. Getting her to talk with food in front of her was almost as hard as trying to get Usagi to talk with food. Impossible is closer.
"So Mako-chan is a youma?" Usagi asked in wonder. Just because they knew that youma were bad didn't mean they hadn't held out hope for good youma. Now sitting in front of them were a Super Youma and a half youma who were really nice. Luna and Artemis weren't hard to convince either since they both knew Makoto. Her mother was an unknown but considering that even Rei, who would be suspicious of the Pope, was not objecting stilled their fears.
"That's really cool you know? Found out from Setsuna that it was you who saved us the other day." Minako said causing Makoto to stare down at the floor.
"I hurt you guys with that tornado I made..." She started before Ami shook her head. The girl with the technicolor hair looked to her friend confused.
"Those were youma inflicted injuries. According to Setsuna she arrived as the tornado spun into existence. We were nowhere near the dangerzone of that attack." The genius said causing poor Makoto's head to spin.
"So whaddya gonna call that? That was really cool when we saw it later!" The hyperactive blonde they called their leader blurted out.
"That was the 'Hiryuu Shoten Ha'. A powerful technique that uses the enemy's own power against them. The fact that my daughter could do that makes me incredibly proud." Teri gave her daughter a quick hug which the younger girl melted into. It would have been a touching scene if an angry voice hadn't disturbed them.
"We know you're in there Youma!" Uranus' voice sounded off. The Senshi ran to the door to stare out at the fuku clad woman with the righteously angry aura.
"Don't make this any harder than it has to be." Neptune said from beside her lover. Saturn didn't look as confident as her parents did. The only one missing was Pluto. Makoto figured grimly that she just didn't want to deal with Makoto just now.
"What the heck is going on here?" Rei demanded as she stormed out with the other Senshi, minus Makoto, to see what the Outers wanted.
"A youma is here and we're here to destroy it. If you children can't handle it then step aside." Uranus demanded coldly.
"How do you know a youma is here?" Ami asked before Neptune held up the mirror. She seemed quite pleased with herself. Saturn was the only one looking at the stricken look on Makoto's face. The Bringer of the Silence knew who the youma was and didn't want to do this. The youma was Makoto's mother. Then would they kill Makoto next because she was tainted? Saturn was torn with indecision.
"I-I thought I was the Princess. So I command you to leave." Usagi pointed for them to go but then the unthinkable happened. The Outer Senshi laughed at her. She stared, dumbfounded, at their laughter. Uranus casually gave her a push causing her to windmill her arms before falling into Minako. Both blondes went down in a heap.
"Sorry 'Princess' but you know the Senshi's code." The dishwater blonde senshi said. It looked like a war was about to happen when Teri stepped past her daughter and entered the battlefield.
"If you want me then here I am. Of course a Senshi picking on the Princess is unthinkable. If this was the old days you would have been stripped of your powers and then destroyed." Teri remarked as she presented herself. The Moon Cats had tried to get through to the battling Senshi but their voices hadn't been heard. Makoto took a step forward.
"No..."
"Well this makes things easier. Neptune, Saturn, on my mark." Uranus brought out the Space Sword as Uranus readied her attack, but Saturn was paralyzed. There was Makoto with tears streaming down her face and everyone trying to stop this. She couldn't have closed her eyes even she had wanted to. The decision to act was taken from her hands as her parents, who had always been so kind to her, acted with such callous disregard.
"Space Sword Blaster!"
"Deep Submerge!"
The two blasts rocketed across the distance to find their mark who had merely closed her eyes. She was willing to go through with this so that maybe they would leave her daughter alone. The unthinkable happened as she heard another voice but it wasn't following the script.
"Silence Wall!" The plane of force slammed into existence, rebounding the two attacks effortlessly. When Teri opened her eyes there was little Saturn standing in front of her with her glaive ready. All activity ceased.
"The Senshi fight for what's right...they fight for Love and Justice...this is not Justice!" Saturn yelled at them, hoping to get them to listen. Her parents just stared at her with cold eyes as if declaring her a traitor. She found herself with the suddenly transformed Moon, Mars, Mercury, and Venus standing beside her in solidarity. Pluto appeared off to the side.
"I warned you of this outcome." She said to the two Senshi. They stared back at her before looking back to the wall of Senshi before them.
"If you continue this then I will have no choice but to let them have you. With how many times you have betrayed them I am amazed they stood for it this long." Pluto said in a voice filled with barely held regret and frustration. Any decision they might have made was preempted by Makoto finally entering the picture. She was transformed into her revised Sailor Jupiter form with crackling lightning arcing along her form.
"Think you can stand against all of us?" She said with a voice devoid of warmth. Her eyes were blazing with energy and fangs were growing. Teri set her hand on her daughter's shoulder causing her to subside a bit.
"I think that the two of you lack what is needed in my Senshi." sailor Moon said as she produced her rod.
"Hold them." She commanded Jupiter who exploded into motion before the rogue Senshi could even think to teleport away. Each one taking a powerful blow to the gut that felled them instantly. The last thing they saw as light faded from their eyes was Sailor Moon turning into Princess Serenity before they knew no more.
End Chapter
Author's Notes: I do not like Uranus and Neptune. I think Pluto gets the shaft a lot in fanfiction. Where am I going with this? Just explaining why I'm picking on them. Love is all well and good but when you ignore your sworn duty to dsave your own asses? That is inexcusable.