Chapter 4: Reincarnation
"Darien! Jonathan! Get down here now!" an angered woman called from her sweaty little kitchen in Tokyo, Japan. Moments later, a tall dark haired man came running down the stairs with his dark haired four year old son trailing behind.
The hot July afternoon had sent the two men to the only air-conditioned room in their small house. But now, after hearing the frantic shrieks of the small red headed woman still in the kitchen, they came running. "Cindy! What's wrong darling?" the tall man asked.
"Jonathan, I think its time," she said holding her stomach, enlarged with a nine-month pregnancy.
Darien pulled at his mother's skirt. "Mommy, Mommy? Daddy," he said turning to his father, "What's wrong with Mommy?" Jonathan scooped up the little boy in his arms and spun him around the kitchen. Darien shrieked with delight.
Jonathan picked up the phone and quickly dialed Cindy's parents' number. "Mommy's going to have the new baby now!" he whispered to Darien as he waited for his in-laws to pick up.
"Hello?" a voice on the other line said.
"Marie! Its Jon," he excitedly said clutching the phone. "Your daughter's going to have the baby! So meet us at the hospital."
"Are you serious? Oh my stars!" she giggled. "Very well, we'll see you three there!"
Jonathan hung up the phone then ran up the stairs to collect Cindy's bag. "Get in the car! Get in the car!" he yelled to Cindy who was now clutching a smiling Darien's hand. The three of them scooted out of the front door and out to the small Honda parked in their driveway.
Cindy pulled her immense body into the passenger's seat while Jonathan buckled Darien into his car seat. "Let's go, Jon!" she screamed in pain as he jumped into his own seat and started the engine of the car.
"Mommy," Darien asked from his seat. "Why are you yelling? Does the new baby hurt you?" He looked sad as his mother winced in pain again.
"Its not the baby's fault that I'm hurting, sweetheart. It just hurts to have a baby, that's all," she said soothingly as she stroked his leg. He smiled, feeling better, as they pulled up to the downtown Tokyo General Hospital.
As they pulled up to the front circle, Cindy was whisked away into a wheelchair as Darien helplessly reached for her. The doctors shut the car door and left the men to park the car. "Come on Champ," Jonathan said to Darien. "We've got to park this car and get in there to find Mommy."
When they found a space, Jonathan quickly grabbed Darien from his seat and practically ran up to the hospital entrance to find his wife. They reached the front desk to ask the receptionist where Cindy was located. "Where's my Mommy?" Darien asked sweetly. "She's having a baby today, you know."
The receptionist smiled at the little boy. "Is your Mommy's name Cindy Chiba?" she asked him. Darien nodded wildly and clapped his hands. "All right. She's in the maternity ward, room 305 in prep for delivery room. If you go now you might catch her before she goes into delivery."
"Thank you," Jonathan said running off towards the elevator. As they ran away Darien waved to the receptionist and smiled. "Aren't you excited?" Jon said to his son. "You're going to have a new baby brother or sister!"
Darien's face scrunched up. "Girls are yucky!"
Jonathan laughed. They waited a few seconds for the elevator, and when it opened up, Cindy's and his parents came out all in a big commotion. "What's going on up there? Where's Cindy?"
Jonathan's mother, Yuki, took his hand and dragged him onto the elevator with the others. "Jon," she said beaming with pride. "You just missed Cindy. She's in delivery now, and she said as soon as you get here, you have to go in and be by her side."
The elevator hit the third floor and Jonathan passed Darien off to his mother. "I'll see you all when I have another child!" he called as he ran to a scrubbed up doctor that was waiting for him.
Cindy's father scooped Darien up from Yuki's arms and airplaned him into the maternity lobby. "George, honestly!" Marie said walking with Jon's parents to the lobby. "The boy's obviously tired, let him sleep. Its air-conditioned here."
The four adults sat down and began to read magazines. Darien pretended to read an upside-down Time magazine in English for a while, but soon grew tired of it. He finally gave in to his exhaustion and took a nap.
***
"Darien. Darien, wake up!" a familiar sounding voice called to him. He slowly opened his eyes to see a tall, red headed girl kneeling in front of him. She lightly brushed his hair away from his face.
"Who are you?" he asked sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
She looked at him quizzically. "You don't know?" He shook his head. "I am your little sister, Jacey Christina. Do you remember me now?"
"How come you are so big, and I'm so little?" he asked looking up at Jacey.
A full-length mirror appeared in Jacey's hands. "You are big, brother."
Darien stood up, gawking at himself. "I'm grown! How is this? Are you a Shinto Priestess?"
She laughed and took his hand. "That doesn't matter, Darien. I'm here to bring you a message." She walked forward leading him by the hand. The empty black and foggy room they stood in opened up to a city of ruins.
Darien surveyed the desolate place and looked at Jacey. To his surprise, she was now dressed in an aquamarine ball-gown. "How did you. . ." he gasped. She replied by motioning to what he was wearing. He was dressed in battle armor with his sword by his side.
She looked at him with sad eyes. "Darien, this is the Moon a thousand years ago. It was a place that we once called our second home. It was destroyed by a great and powerful evil force. And this," she waved her arm across his face and the place was transformed into another city of ruins, but more modern and familiar to him, "is what the future of the Earth will be."
Darien walked forward, he saw bits of cars and cement lying on the broken pavement. All around him he saw piles of rubble that he assumed were once buildings. "Is it the same force?" he asked Jacey.
"Yes," she answered. "Unless you can stop it. The Negaverse will stop at nothing until our home looks like this. And you will have help as well. Female warriors, one from each planet. The group of you alone can save the Earth."
He looked deep into her eyes. "Will you be a warrior who fights with me?"
She looked away sadly. "I will be a warrior, yes. But something will happen to us Darien. I can't tell you what, but we cannot be together for a long time." He looked at her and then at the deserted place around them.
"I don't want to be here, take me home," he said closing his eyes. Jacey looked away and waved her hand in front of his face again. They were once again in the black foggy room.
"You have to know that I will always be with you," she said touching his cheek. "One day, you won't remember any of this, but your purpose will be carried out regardless." She held out her hand to him and a beautiful star locket appeared in it. "This is from Princess Serena. She gave it to you the night of the attack, and I was sent to give it to you again. Keep it always."
The locket opened and began to play a beautiful song. Darien reached out his hand to take it. The moment he touched his finger to it he turned back into a child and was gone.
***
The once again small Darien woke up like a bolt from his seemingly serene nap. He gasped for air as he searched the room, which was hazy and spinning around his brain. “Hey, Champ!” George said, tousling his hair. “Did you have a nice nap?”
Darien shrugged. “Is the baby here yet?” He wanted to tell them about the dream, but he knew deep down in his heart and mind that this was a secret only he and Jacey shared.
“Not yet, Sweetheart, but very very soon,” Yuki said cradling him in her arms. “The doctor said that the new baby would be here within the hour.”
Darien squirmed in his seat and his grandmother soon let him go. She turned back to her Tokyo Times newspaper and let the boy wander around the lobby.
Walking to the window, Darien sighed and thought about the dream and what it meant. He pulled out the locket and looked at it, wondering who Princess Serena was. Giving up on that question, he replaced it in his pocket and stared out the window. “Why would anyone want to destroy something so pretty?” he thought to himself.
Although the hospital was in the middle of the city, a beautiful and expansive yard had been put in the back to cheer people and accommodate certain types of rehabilitation. There was another small child outside on the grass and she waved up at Darien. Darien waved back, but his mind was still racing. “Who could do such a horrible thing? And how am I supposed to protect the people from whatever it is? I’m just a kid!”
A doctor came out of the delivery room and cleared his throat. “Excuse me. The Chiba family has a new addition today. A beautiful, healthy baby girl!” Darien smiled while his grandparents rejoiced and cried. “But, Darien,” the doctor said facing the overjoyed toddler. “Your Mommy and Daddy want to see you first.” Darien walked over to the doctor and took his outstretched hand. They walked into the delivery room and Darien didn’t even look back.
Darien timidly crept through the huge room looking for his parents. Then, like a light in the dark, he saw his family; new baby and all huddled together on a big white bed. “Hey, man!” Jon shouted and lifted Darien high above his head. “You’re the coolest big brother in Tokyo!” Darien laughed and Jon placed him at the foot of Cindy’s bed.
Darien crept up the bed and laid down next to his mother and the new baby. Cindy kissed him on the head and nuzzled the baby. “’Ello Jacey Christina! I’m Darien, your big brother. I think you’ll like it here, Mommy and Daddy are really nice.”
Jon and Cindy looked at each other. “Darien, why did you call the baby Jacey Christina?” Cindy asked.
“Cause its her name,” Darien said looking up at his mother as if she were crazy.
Jon put a hand on Darien’s knee. “We were thinking of naming the baby Yuki Maria, after your grandmothers. Would that be okay with you?”
Darien looked at his father like he had just betrayed the family. “Why would you do that? You already gave her the name, why would you change it now? Its such a pretty name.”
“Well,” Cindy said, defeated. “It is a nice name, Jon.”
Darien smiled and hugged his mother. He kissed Jacey on her little fuzzy red head and looked into her green eyes, “Jacey, I’ll never forget you.”
***
“Can you read what it says, Darien?” Cindy asked the boy. She was toting the three day old Jacey around in a pouch attached to her stomach while trying to make herself a decent meal.
He looked hard at the birth certificate, which he held upside down, trying to make heads or tales out of what it said. “I can’t read! When was Jacey born, Mommy?”
“July 27!” Jon said coming down the stairs into the kitchen with a video camera glued to his eye. He had been filming for three days straight. He had even asked his mother to get it for him while they were at the hospital, less than an hour after Jacey was born.
“Thank you Daddy,” Darien said placing the precious birth certificate on the counter. He stood under Jacey and tickled her toes, causing her to kick Cindy.
Cindy, fed up, put her spoon in her bowl of half made tuna. “Jon, tun that stupid camera off and help me get the baby in her playpen.” For the first time since Jacey’s birth, Jon put down the camera.
He picked Jacey up out of her comfortable stomach pouch and placed her in her playpen. Darien, as he always did, climbed in the playpen after her. Then Jon proceeded to help Cindy unhook the complicated pouch. As soon as Cindy was situated, he put the camera back on and began to film his family again.
“You know,” Cindy said. “It wouldn’t kill you to put that thing down every now and then and give me a hand with the kids!”
He focused the camera on Cindy. “But, sweetie, then who’ll film the kids?”
Darien babbled on to Jacey in Japanese and some English. “If he keeps this up, she’ll be talking before she can eat baby food!” Cindy laughed.
Jon turned to Cindy. “I’m sorry I haven’t helped enough. I just want to remember it all.” He looked at his kids, sitting there, getting along so well. “I wish they would stay this way forever. We wouldn’t have to worry about them fighting at all!”
Cindy laughed. “My mother said that me and my sister were fighting by the time I was eight and she was four,” She pressed the zoom button on the camera until it wouldn’t go any farther. “Keep filming, trust me, this is the only semblance of peace that will last forever.”