"She's dead," Michiru reported.
Malus smiled and beckoned her to where he sat on a finely carved chair.
Nothing less from my queen", he suggested, reaching up to stroke her
cheek.
Michiru smiled lightly as she was complimented. "Anything for you, my love."
Michiru bowed before Malus, pecked him on the mouth, and excused herself from the room.
Something had come over Michiru shortly after leaving Haruka's
presence. Her eyes had been so sincere. Even though Michiru clearly
remembered her face as that of an enemy, there was something different
in her eyes that was not just kind, but warm and loving. She was after
all only a reincarnation. Perhaps it was one of her people's strange
customs, but the ring that she had been given was absolutely beautiful.
How had she known about her fondness of aquamarine?
Haruka had acted
like she had known her, come to think of it. Maybe there was more to her
than she thought, and that was worth inspecting.
Michiru turned to the attendant waiting outside of the door.
"Bring food and drink to the ruby chamber. A good meal," she ordered.
"Yes Your Eminence," he replied.
Michiru continued to the room where Haruka was held. She opened the
door, this time, making sure to breathe through her mouth. She was
sitting against the wall this time. Haruka greeted her with a rather
tired smile. Michiru was surprised that she could still do such a thing
after what she had done to her. She was either some sort of masochist or
she was more forgiving than anybody had the right to be.
"You can leave now, but I have some questions that I need to ask you."
Michiru offered her hand to Haruka. "I hope you are not badly hurt,"
Michiru apologized, pulling Haruka up when she took her hand.
Michiru was going to begin her interrogations when she noticed the pool
of blood on the floor where Haruka had been sitting. The back of her
pants were also stained a deep crimson. Haruka's face turned noticeably
red.
"I guess I started early," she said.
"This," Michiru said shakily, pointing her finger to the floor from where she had backed away. "This is normal?"
Haruka gave her an odd look.
Michiru sucked in a deep breath and inched back to Haruka and took her by the hand.
"Perhaps it would be better to bathe first," Michiru decided, pulling her outside of the room toward the baths.
"Clean that up," Michiru ordered another attendant, indicating both of
Haruka's messes. "If you say anything about this, I will personally take
the liberty of killing you."
The man nodded. Michiru gave the rest of the men such looks that they said nearly the same thing.
The
bathing room was the most splendid by far. The floor was of a clear
blue marble, which was refreshing after all of the white. It consisted
of at least twenty pools of water, each sprinkled with pink and red rose
petals, as was the floor.
On one side of the room (it could barely even
be called one) was a large waterfall which led into one of the larger
pools of water. As Haruka looked up in awe, she noticed that the water
seemed to be falling from thin air. Even better than the splendor was
the group of four women.
"Your Eminence, will you be requiring a bath now?" the first asked, bowing before Michiru, as did the other three.
"No, you are to attend her,"" Michiru answered, pushing the shocked Haruka gently toward the four.
"Yes, Your Eminence," a second replied,
The third removed her clothing, finding a bit of difficulty with the
unusual clothing. The fourth took Haruka's soiled clothing to be washed
as the other three led her toward the waterfall without questioning
Michiru.
The water was surprisingly warm and the water fell upon
her body no harder than a shower. In fact, it felt just like a shower,
except there were three women giving her a rubdown instead of just one.
Haruka would have taken more pleasure in it as the women lathered her
with soap if Michiru hadn't been watching.
After they had thoroughly
cleansed her body, Haruka was led to one of the pools. The fourth woman
who had left with the clothing returned to Michiru's side.
"Your Eminence, what are you wishes regarding this," she asked, referring to the clothes that she was holding.
"Leave them in the ruby room."
Michiru continued to watch Haruka
after the woman left. The women had finished rubbing her with scented
oil and wrapped her in a white robe. They took her back to Michiru,
bowed, and stepped aside. Michiru smiled; Haruka looked and smelled
rather pleasant now.
"You must be hungry," she suggested, breaking the awkward silence.
Haruka nodded and followed Michiru down a different hall and into a red room.
A
table piled with every food imaginable covered a fine dining table that
ran down the length of the room. Michiru pulled a ruby-encrusted chair
from the end of the table and pushed Haruka down in it. Michiru seated
herself on a chair two seats down. Haruka simply gaped in awe at the
stack of jelly buns in front of her.
"Can I eat this?"
Michiru nodded. "They did make this for you." Michiru nudged a platter
of a mysterious meat dish toward Haruka. "Try this one," she suggested.
Haruka
helped herself to several of the dishes as Michiru carefully inspected
her. Michiru sighed and rested her brow upon her palm.
"Haruka, why are you here? What business do you have with Malus and I?"
Haruka set her fork back on her plate. "I came here to take you back home."
"Home?" Michiru asked, disbelieving and raising an eyebrow.
Haruka got up and walked over to Michiru's seat. She draped her arms
over the velvet back of the chair and around Michiru's neck and
shoulders.
"You really don't remember, do you?"
Michiru didn't protest as Haruka leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.
"I love you Michiru. We've been together so long and I know we'll figure this out."
Michiru chuckled lightly and gently swept Haruka's arms from around her.
"Malus has always been my mate. And you're a woman, Haruka. Have you
forgotten?"
"You never let that get in the way, Michiru. Let me help you remember."
Haruka pulled Michiru up from her seat and pressed her against the wall so that she could look her in the eye.
"You were Sailor Neptune. We protected the White Moon Kingdom."
Michiru shook her head and tried to free herself from Haruka's grasp, but she was held with a rather firm grip.
"We went to high school together. We live together and if I have any say in it, we're going to stay that way."
"You're crazy!" Michiru insisted, struggling harder.
Haruka continued to hold her, but as Michiru tried to push her away, she took her hand and held it in front of her.
"Your favorite stone is aquamarine. You're going to become a famous
violinist and painter one day. You favorite place is the aquarium, and
you hate kikurage."
Haruka released Michiru and stood back, waiting for her memories to flow back.
Michiru turned around slowly with a sad, confused look on her face.
"I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but if Malus finds
you, he will kill you. He wants you dead, Haruka. I don't know why, but I
see no reason for you to be here any longer. Good-bye."
Haruka
awoke in her bed. Michiru was still sleeping beside her. Haruka was
about to touch her to see if she was even real when a little girl
cheerfully skipped into the bedroom. The pale girl with wavy red hair
clutched a teddy bear to her heart with one hand, and a small, worn-out
blanket in the other. She was wearing a small white dress over a blue
collared blouse.
"Mama, I'm hungry," she wined, poking her secondary mother until she got out of bed.
Haruka was speechless, but took the little girl in her arms after she stole one more glance at Michiru.
"Mama, I'm not a baby anymore. I can walk on my own." The little girl
pouted and tugged on her short blond hair to signal her release.
"I want
pancakes. With strawberries and lots of syrup."
Haruka put the child down only to envelope her in a hug.
"What's your name sweetie," she asked in a soft tone.
"You know my name, Mama," she giggled, "Now let me go."
The girl wriggled out of Haruka's arms when she didn't let her go.
"I want pancakes!"
Haruka was still gaping in awe at the child when she began to cry. Haruka panicked. This was supposed to be Michiru's
department. She had no idea of what to do. Michiru began to stir as the
girl's wailing grew louder. Haruka scooped her up in one arm, ran down
the stairs and into the kitchen.
Haruka put the girl down in the toddler's seat that she assumed to be the child's.
"I'll make you pancakes, okay? Just quite down or you'll wake your-your mother."
The girl continued to cry until Haruka dumped a sloppily made pancake
onto her plate. Haruka made two more and gave the girl a cup of milk.
"I'm going to be late," the girl said as she finished the last pancake.
"Late for what?"
Haruka finished scrubbing the pan clean and tiredly turned back toward the table.
"School. Duh, Mama."
If it wasn't for the uniform she was wearing,
Haruka would not have known where her "daughter" went to school. It was
apparently the same school that Makoto's kids went to.
"Just wait here, I need to get dressed."
Haruka ran up the stairs,
pulled off her pajamas and threw on a clean shirt and a pair of blue
jeans. The girl was waiting impatiently by the door. Haruka opened the
door and started for the car, but was tugged back by her shirt.
"My lunch, Mama."
Haruka stepped back inside and opened the refrigerator door. She pulled
out a brown bag and peeked inside. There was a carton of juice and some
sort of sandwich. Haruka gave it to the girl.
"Are we ready?"
"Mama, is there something wrong. You're acting weirder than usual."
"No, sweetie, let's go."
The girl ran to the car and pulled on the door's handle until Haruka unlocked it.
The school was only ten minutes away, and Haruka was more than grateful to drop the girl off.
"Here," Haruka said, handing the girl the bag, "Don't forget your lunch."
The girl snorted and grabbed the bag from her mother.
"So I'll pick you up when?"
"Twelve!"
"Oh, okay. I'll- I'll see you later hun."
As the girl slammed the car door shut and stomped away toward the building, Haruka noticed the name on the brown bag.
Michiru must have been the one who decided to call her Beryl. The name
seemed strangely familiar, but that was certainly not something she
would name her child. Haruka waved good-bye as the girl walked up to the
door. She turned around and waved, and then disappeared into the
school. For a moment, her eyes seemed to glow red in the sunlight.
"Michiru, I'm back," Haruka called.
Haruka assumed that her lover was still sleeping, but then she heard the
alarm clock sounding. Haruka shuffled up the stairs and peeked into the
bedroom. Michiru was sleeping soundly. She was a hard sleeper, but not
that hard of a sleeper. Haruka hit the snooze button on the alarm clock.
"Michiru?"
Haruka swept Michiru's hair from her face and bent down over her.
"Michiru, it's pretty late. Maybe you…Michiru? Michiru!"
Haruka tossed back the bed covers and grabbed Michiru's wrist and felt
for a pulse. None came. Haruka took Michiru in her arms and shook her
frantically.
"Michiru, wake up. Wake up!" she cried desperately.
Her body was
still warm and still rosy. She couldn't be dead. Michiru was healthy,
perfectly healthy. Haruka continued to shake the limp body until she was
certain that Michiru wasn't going to wake up.
Haruka finally picked up
the phone to call the paramedics when a flash of red light filled the
room. The little girl that had called her "Mama" now stood in the corner
of the room. A smile spread across her face. Haruka dropped the phone.
Beryl
approached the bed, placed a hand over Michiru's chest, and drained the
last of the energy from her body. Then she turned toward Haruka.
"You're next."
