Character Sketches #1, Sailor Mercury - Part III, "Mercury"
Chapter 5: ... and the price of knowledge

Creon:	Stop this striving to be master of all.
	The mastery you had in life has been your fall.

At the central branch of the Neo-Tokyo public library, Minerva (actually, she was liking 'Ami' more and more), having just downed a can of Pepsi, was busily going through piles of old records. Every time she thought she had a lead, she hit a brick wall. Despite all this, she was still having slightly better results than her father had.

The birth records said that Amy was born about forty years ago. No date, since more specific records had supposedly been lost in the youma attack. The earliest records she could find was an application for a passport and visa from the interim government, and all the attendant legal documents required for a Japanese student studying overseas. After that, there was absolutely nothing.

Sighing heavily, she slumped in her chair. There was nothing here for her to find, unless...personal artifacts. It would be damned near spying, but in all the letters that her mother had sent to and received from Japan, there must be some clues as to what she had done before, and exactly how she became Sailor M.

She packed up her books and walked out the door, noting the gathering clouds. it looked like a pretty bad storm was on the way. Fumbling around in her bag, she thanked the heavens for the foresight to bring an umbrella. Ami was never caught unawares.

She arrived home to see the note on the refrigerator.

"Athena Minerva: out with the senshi. Will be back soon. Love, Mom+Dad." She took the note down and began to look through the cabinets for a snack. Finding some Doritos, she went to her room. She returned some moments later for some Snapple.

The SI hummed quietly, still trying to crack databases around the world, looking for any correlation with her mother. Ami flipped on a classical station and wondered where her mother would keep her letters. In the closet? Or had they even been unpacked? So much to look for, so much to read. She then reached over to turn on the fans. Her SI was actually 7 mini-towers networked together, and they generated an insane amount of heat.

The SI beeped. She started. It had *never* done that. It was only to beep when it had found a match, and in weeks of trying, it had failed. But now it had found something. She punched a button, and the printer spat out a couple pages of text and four pictures.

One was of Sailor Mercury. The caption said that it was during the press conference that had followed the defeat of Hastings. While the others looked exhausted, Mercury still looked cool and collected. Amazing. But there was still a haunted look in her eyes.

The second was of a baby Ami Mizuno, with what the caption said were her parents. David and Ayumi Henderson? That would mean that her father had also been Sailor Mercury's father. Didn't that make them half-sisters? Sugoi! She resolved to look up this Sailor Mercury character. Who knew, maybe being a senshi was a dominant trait.

The third was of her mother. It appeared to be a class photo; the JHU seal was in the background. Now that she thought of it, seeing the photos side by side, there was a definite resemblance between the three photos. The same haunted eyes...but the hair--that was the definite divider. Well, at least she'd figured out one of the things David saw in her mother. She put it down and looked at the fourth picture. Then she picked up the third again, and compared the two side by side.

The fourth picture was of Sailor M, who was undeniably her mother, Amy Henderson. But there was far too much similarity between M and Mercury. Coupled with everything else...she quickly looked at the pages of text, reading them twice, then again, then again. At the end there were tears in her eyes.

Ami Mizuno wasn't just her half-sister. She was also her mother. And Sailor Mercury. And Sailor M.

Did David know? He had to know soon, before...before anything else could happen. Grabbing a jacket and umbrella, she went for the outside door and opened it just as David was racing in.

"Dad!"

"Get away from me!" He backed away, knocking several items from the wall. "I don't want to see you!"

"But I've-"

"Don't you see!"

"Dad, calm down, I know about Mom, but you just have to-"

"NO!"

Ami sized up the situation. David was obviously acting irrationally, and had to be calmed. As far as she knew, there were no sedatives or tranquilizers in the house, which left talking him out of it. And what did she know about that?

"Dad, it was an honest mistake! You couldn't possibly have known about the relationship!" She slowly began going for the phone. Perhaps the police could handle him.

"The hell I couldn't have! How can I go on?" He backed into the kitchen, and a nasty idea came to Ami's mind. "Tell me that!"

"I don't know, but we aren't going to get anywhere if you don't just sit down and take control of yourself!"

"Oh, I am, don't worry about that!" He pulled a long, thin knife from a drawer and brandished it in front of her. She backed away, fearing for an instant that he would turn it on her. "I'm ending this cycle of sin once and for all!"

"Dad!"

He plunged the knife into his right eye socket at full force and fell, screaming, to the floor. The cries died to a rattle and stopped.

Ami turned away, retching. You didn't need a medical degree to figure out that he was probably dead.

And from the civil defense sirens that were now going off all over the city, it appeared that Neo-Tokyo was dead as well.