Welcome Back Mercury

        “You injured yourself in self defense didn’t you?”
        “Are these the two options that you were mentioning to me just then, the option to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’?”
        “Tell me, Ami.”
        “Yes.”
        “You know how Kimiko was injured, is that right?
        “I know what she was injured by.”
        It was then he knew, he stared at Ami’s hard eyes, an almost angry expression hid behind the layers of tiredness and the gentleness that was always there.  The anger and the gentleness made a strange combination of expression, but the gentleness only meant that Ami would suffer the anger in cold silence and self-punishment instead of some verbal assault.  The anger would transform into hurt and self-inflicting pain, by building a wall around her feelings to escape from the scrutinizing eyes of the world.  Despite his sureness of his guess having been correct, he could not but confirm it.
        “Kimiko was injured by your self defense, wasn’t she?”
        “Do you plan to reprimand me for that?”
        “No.  I come to offer you two choices, one to leave freely, I will give you the transportation back, and I will follow you if you permit me.”
        “You cannot survive the temperament of the Earth’s atmosphere, at least not for prolonged periods of time, you know that.”
        “I know.  The other is to remain here, and I will do the best of my ability to protect you from what may harm you.  It is your choice Ami, I don’t want to give you any pressure, but I will always follow you if you let me, no matter where you are, here, or back home.”
        “Why are you offering me these choices?  One of us will die by either of my choices, if I was to stay here, something, I do not know what, will bound to happen to me, and you cannot follow me to Earth, your father will send people to kill you.  You are not really offering me any choices, we will be separated either way, the best for you and I would be to let us live our own separate lives once again.”
        “I’m willing to take the risk against them…”
        “Why?”
        “Because I love you.”
        “No, you will stay here, you can’t come with me should I decide leave, because you are too intent on gaining power.  Once you marry the woman that you parents have chosen for you, your ruling power will increase by a tenfold, that is what you have always wanted, and what you will always want.”
        “That is not true!…”
        “I don’t want to hear your lies any longer.  I’m tired now, would you mind dimming the lights for me?”
        “Of course, I have tired you, I will come to discuss this matter with you later my dear.”  He dipped his head in sadness at her words, and looked at her lying on her bed then began to move from the room quietly.
        “Don’t call me that, I don’t deserve that name coming from you any longer, that name must go to its rightful owner.”  Ami said bitterly and tears began to let loose.
        “Dear, you must…”
        “Please, I need to rest now.”
        “Then you are asking me to leave you, forever, I cannot allow you that.”
        “Then kill me if you must, because I will not stay, nor will I let you ruin my life any more than you already have.  You took me away from my home, you broke your promise of safety here, I hope you are glad that you managed to break my heart along the way, the heart that I’ve been hiding from the very pain you are inflicting on me at this moment, the abandonment by the person you love.”  She gasped due to her injuries and the tears that were choking her as she continued in a raspy voice, “you’ve already destroyed half of what makes me human, what difference is it if you destroy me in the flesh as well?”

        The quartet gathered in the bedroom of Usagi after having managed to convince her mother that this was a sleepover study session they had organized for her benefit despite the fact that the ‘resident’ genius was not present.  After checking that the family had gone to sleep, they locked the door quietly and transformed into their secret identities.
        Rei had spent the rest of the day in deep meditation to get a form of where Ami could be, in her mind, there was a hazy image of the room where Ami lay, but she did not know the exact location.  They all knew that the risks for this operation was great, but they had no other choice for it seemed to be so possible that Ami had placed herself in danger without knowing.  Standing in a circle, they began to channel their energy towards one spot, without the energy contribution of SailorMercury, they could not be precise in their place of arrival, nor exactly who, of the four in the circle, would cross the atmosphere of Kuriverse Go.  In spite of all of the uncertainties of this teleportation and the stringent disapprovals that Luna and Artemis had placed forward, they were determined to rescue their friend from the abyss that was threatening to take their friend away forever.
       Moon cosmic power!
       Mars crystal power!
       Jupiter crystal power!
       Venus crystal power!
       MAKE UP!

        She stared out the window, although her mind was seemingly in a deep trance.  She  took no notice of the silver specks of twinkling dust that shimmered in the night, nor the whirl of clouds that swept across the night sky.  The dull ache in her chest had not subsided through time, she was not sure if the pain was from the fleshly wounds or the sadness of heartbreak, and she could only hope that in time, all wounds would heal.  At this point, she could admit it now that she had made a mistake in thinking that goodness could be restored in this man without the usage of SailorMoon’s powers, not only did it hurt for her to have to admit this mistake, but also to lose the faith that she had on mankind.  He was part of mankind, of that she was sure, and she knew that she should have known better than to think that mankind did not operate by greed but by the heart.  He had chosen to forsake his life on Earth, in exchange for the powers of the Kuriverse, his heart had warmed to her at first, but by her own timid responses towards him and the more attractiveness of power, she had banished him irrevocably into the murky waters of darkness and iniquity.
        She felt so ashamed that even her strength of mind had abandoned her, leaving her swimming in the depths of despair, threatening to leave her in this lost world there forever.  Her eye was caught by a faint flickering in the dark midnight sky, there was a star there which sparkled and glowed brighter and brighter, as though it was ready to envelop this whole world in its light.  The light’s brightness began to diminish one her attention had been caught, the whole increase and decrease had only occurred for a few seconds, however, to her, staring at the night sky, it seemed almost an eternity.
        It had taken a few moment to register in her mind the cause of such blinding light, it could only mean one thing, that the other senshi were coming to take her out.  For once, she no longer prided her work on the security system, for she knew that the sudden brightness was caused by her eager system to defend this world, since a normal teleportation would have only looked like a falling star.  It was evident, by such ferocity of the light, meant that the system had done as it was supposed to do, although in her mind, it was never to hurt her friends.  If one of them had been struck by the high powered beam, it could signify extreme damage, she hoped that one person had been able to shield the others from the danger, if not, Ami knew from the nauseating feeling in her stomach that none of them, including herself, would be able to leave alive.

        Someone other than Ami had seen the process of the senshi entering Kuriverse Go.  It was already late at night, but she had been sitting at the verandah looking outwards while thinking of the thousands of ways to torture her ardent enemy once the enemy was defeated.  Lady Akiko Kumiko did not see the senshi specifically, but her shrewd mind knew that it had to include Ami somehow, and she could also imagine where Ami would be heading towards - the security panel.  Sweeping up her long skirts, she waved her maids in waiting away, and entered her closet to find another ruby red leotard-like suit, identical to the one that she had worn when she had confronted Ami with her precious sickle knife.  She slipped into the lycra suit quickly, then placed a long cape around her shoulders.  The neck part of her cape stood stiffly and curved to surround her head in a true Beryl - Kuriverse fashion, and picking up her signatory Shurikins she slipped them into a waist pocket.  She did not fear leaving her signature this time, for there was no ‘if’ in her world, she was going to catch SailorMercury in action, and present the badly injured senshi to her beloved.

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