Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sailormoon Dark ❯ Episode 32: A Twist of Fate. Father's Strong-Willed Girl. ( Chapter 32 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Sailormoon Dark: Episode Thirty-Two
"A Twist of Fate. Father's Strong-Willed Girl."

Written by Laurel Wilson ( Sailorhathor@aol.com )
Inspired by the Japanese animated show Pretty Soldier Sailormoon.
The ideas for this fanfic were conceived in 1995, but this actual episode was written in May-July 2003.


"Why? Why my father?! We were so close..."
"We are all on a collision course with Fate, and little will take us to a fork in the road. Do you presume to question a system that has been in action for many more centuries than you have ever been alive?"
"We'll teach you what happens to those who cross the Witches. We are the axles in the Wheel of the Year."
"Then you will sleep in a coma, and witness truths I'm not sure you're ready to face, my dear Lammas. Your axle is not safe from slipping off the Wheel."
Pretty Soldier Sailormoon Dark Episode 32: A Twist of Fate. Father's Strong-Willed Girl. The moonlight carries the message of love.

        The young Zettaisha Idou bounced in her seat on the train, she was so excited. "We go to Oba-chan's on the train!" the four-year-old repeated for the fifth time.
        Her mother stroked her currently red hair, briefly wondering why it had changed color again. Ever since the girl had been born, her hair had changed color often, sometimes several times in a week. Red, blonde, pink, green, blue, it never could decide on its natural color. Oka-san smiled. "We'll be there soon, Taisha. Oba-chan can't wait to see you."
        The little girl bounced excitedly. "Can't wait to see Oba-chan!"
        Her father, in the seat across from Oka-san, smiled at her enthusiasm. "Oba-chan said she was making a cake for you."
        Taisha's eyes widened considerably. "Cake, cake, cake!" She continued bouncing in her seat, juggling the pink security blanket in her arms.
        Giggling, Oka-san put a hand on Taisha's shoulder. "Okay, settle down now. Look at your picture book. We'll be there-"
        Oka-san was cut off by a deafening squeal. People screamed as the train car lurched from one side to the other, then started to tip over. Her eyes big, Taisha felt her mother's hand on her chest, pushing her down into the seat. The next thing she knew, the train car was on its side. Taisha struggled not to fall out of the seat as she looked over at Oka-san and Oto-san.
        They were both sleeping. A metal bar passed through both of their bodies, but the child was much too young to understand what that meant. People screamed, and there was glass and smoke and twisted metal all around, and the little girl could not understand how all of this could have happened to the train so quickly.
        "Oka-san? Did I fall asleep? When did the train break? Oka-san, you're leaking." There came no answer. "Oka-san, wake up! I don't like being on my side! Are you supposed to leak red stuff like that? Should the port man bring you a Band-Aid?"
        Normally her mother would have corrected her, saying, "Porter," but Oka-san went on sleeping.
        Suddenly a blue jewel with silver accents appeared in front of each parent. The turquoise jewels gave off a soothing, pleasant light; Taisha found herself mesmerized by it. "Pretty light," she said.
        A gentle voice spoke from inside the jewels. "Go into the light. Go into the light," the female voice chanted hypnotically.
        Taisha wanted to do just that, feeling drawn to the light. But it pushed her away. Why? Did she need to be sleeping too?
        "Go into the light."
        Ghostly, transparent forms of Taisha's parents floated from their still bodies, toward the jewels. They were smiling, content, happy. Taisha called to them, and shook her mother's limp arm. "Don't go without me! Oka-san! Oto-san! Where are you going?!" The child began to cry.
        The jewels absorbed the two souls, and then flashed before fading from view. "Don't leave me here!" Taisha screamed hysterically.
        Two arms gently scooped her up, wrapping the little girl and her storybook in the blanket. Taisha looked into the face of Sailorthanatos. "Hold on, little one. We must leave this train."
        The next the child knew of reality, she and the stranger were flying quickly through the air, away from the train. A bubble of teleportation energy surrounded them, along with upwards of a hundred of the turquoise jewels.
        "Oka-san. Oto-san," Taisha said to the jewels.
        Suddenly she had to shield her eyes as the train exploded behind them in a fireball that instantly spread from one car to the next. Sailorthanatos hugged the child closer. "It's all right, Zettaisha. You're safe."
        Taisha was much too young to understand what had just happened. She laid her head on Thanatos' shoulder with a troubled look on her face.


      &n bsp; The form of Central Control shifted in the shadows of his headquarters somewhere beneath the city of Tokyo. "Why did you save the girl?"
        Sailorthanatos called him by his real first name. "I make my own decisions, Indrid. I felt it was the right thing to do."
        "But why?" By the sound of things in the partially dark room, he was making himself some coffee. "It was Death's decision that the girl should die on the train with her parents. Why did you defy that decision?"
        Thanatos sighed. "I am the senshi of Fate. I may defy any decision of Death that I please."
        Indrid took his turn to sigh.
        Thanatos, with a pause, finally explained, "Our children died in the war over Silver Millennium. They have been reborn in this century to new parents. Our marriage ended long ago, and you are in love with someone else. I'm lonely, Indrid. The child was supposed to die anyway, so what difference does it make if I raise her?"
        "But why this child? You know who she is... what she can do. There were other children on the train."
        Nodding, Sailorthanatos replied, "I know who she is. All the better reason for me to raise her. I chose her, Indrid. You do not need to be involved any further." She turned and left the room.
        Indrid shook his head. "I doubt Death will give up so easily. It chose her too. There are reasons for that. There are always reasons..."


     &n bsp;  Samantha felt herself awakened by someone tapping on her nose. "Huh?" She opened one eye. "Glen? What are you doing in my room?"
        "Taking pictures of you sleeping in that very low-cut nightgown. Oh, and waking you up so you can help get the gardens ready for that thing today."
        "What thing?"
        "You know, those professional storytellers are coming to do a children's story hour out in the gardens." Glen yanked some of her covers off. "We need your help setting up chairs. Wow, you're going to get a cold sleeping in that."
        "Glen, get out."
        "If you don't get up right now, I'm going to jump in that bed with you and steal all the covers." Glen put his hands together and acted like he was going to dive into the bed.
        "I'm UP. I'm getting ready." Sam clumsily kicked the rest of her covers off, getting her feet quite tangled up in them.
        Glen chuckled as her feet worked inside the covers like she was pedaling an invisible bicycle. "Just don't lie back in bed and go to sleep, okay?" Smirking, he headed for the door.
        "For your sake, I hope you were kidding about taking those pictures," Sam called, throwing a pillow at the back of his head.
        About two hours later, the group assembled out in the gardens to supervise the arriving children. Parents dropped their kids off there for the hour while they either cavorted off to run errands or wandered the lovely park, some of them holding hands.
        "Can you believe that people actually make a living at being professional storytellers?" Endora gossiped to Sabrina.
        Sabrina grinned. "It's not exactly something you can major in in college, huh? One of those rare professions people just kind of fall into. It's sort of like acting, don't you think?"
        Glen nudged the two of them. "Did you see the flyers the storytellers sent over? The woman who came to our party the other day is one of them. Julian Ramiro-san."
        "Oh, Thanatos?"
        "Yeah. And shhh! It's supposed to be a secret, remember?"
        "Nobody heard me." Sabrina took the flyer. "Hm, puppeteer student Tara Mason from America will appear. Neat. A puppet show."
        "Look, there they are."
        Julian stepped out of a car leading a small child by the hand. Samantha, the most clairvoyant of the Witches, noticed how stoic the child seemed to be. She read like a dam holding back a tidal wave. What had happened to her?
        After them came Julian's sister in civilian form, Marlena Ramiro. She had an armload of puppets, as did the next person out of the car, Tara. Her brother Nathan was right behind her.
        "Thanks for coming today, Nathan. I really think the kids will like your magic tricks."
        "Yeah." Nathan twirled his black trick cane. "Kids love magic shows. And puppets."
        Julian sat Taisha down near the front, then went to set up the puppet stage. "Zettaisha, you sit right there, and you'll get to hear some really good stories, okay?"
        The little girl gazed back at Julian, stone-faced. "Oka-san calls me Taisha."
        Julian barely flinched. She knew this was going to be a process. But the most astonishing thing is that those were the first words the girl had said all day. "Alright, Taisha," Julian replied with a smile.
        Marlena watched the exchange with a bit of anxiety and worry over her sister's state of mind. One could not just take a child who had lost her parents and force her into a strange family.
        The children were just beginning to get restless when the show began. They all clapped as Julian stood before the little puppet stage and drew back the curtain. "Little children, have you ever skated on the lake during winter, when it is frozen over and the light glistens off its surface like a giant looking glass? This time of year was absolutely magical to one young girl until her most unthinkable, terrible thing happened, and she never skated again. But never is an awfully long time, isn't it?"
        The children nodded and expressed agreement, then "ooh"ed out loud when a pretty puppet in a beautiful, sparkly skating outfit glided into view on the stage.
        One of the Witches standing in the back reacted with a troubled look. This story already reminded Laurie of her own past, of the lake back home, and it had hardly even started yet. But that was just a coincidence; it had to be. Laurie fidgeted uncomfortably.
        "Skating on the lake was practice, you see, because Rory wanted to be a professional skater. Her father came out with her every morning during the winter, and he became her greatest cheering section. Her mother and father were divorced, and Oka-san had moved away years ago, so To-san was her whole world."
        A father puppet popped into the scene; he clapped his little fabric hands for the puppet skater.
        Laurie sharply looked up. Even Phoebe took notice of how similar the story was to her best friend's own past. She looked on Laurie with sympathy. What was Julian doing?! It sounded like a cruel mind game at this point.
        "When she was younger, Rory loved to skate, but she would sometimes get tired and bored of the long practices. So, her father told her an enchanting story about a kingdom of merpeople who lived in the lake. Mermaids and mermen, all of them under the surface of the ice on which she skated for the entire winter. Rory worried about them, trapped under the ice like that, but To-san assured her they could breathe underwater."
        Happy merpeople puppets played in cardboard waves with blue sparkles glued to their edges. The children giggled and watched the pretty finned puppets gad about. Then another glittering piece of cardboard, representing the sheet of ice, blocked their way, but they still played in the water, although they could only go so far. Cardboard snowflakes drifted about as Marlena threw fake snow all over the puppet stage; unfortunately for the hidden puppeteers, most of it landed on Tara and Nathan's heads. The kids heard a muffled, "Oops, sorry," from behind the stage. They giggled again.
        Julian continued, "Rory's father told her that every winter, when the lake froze up, and she spent her mornings skating on its icy surface, the merpeople would look up each day and see faint, spinning, sparkling points of light gliding across their sky. They could see only the blades of Rory's skates, you see, moving across the ice. The shining blades actuated with such synchronicity that the merpeople thought they must be of some heavenly origin, so they named them the Twin Stars of the Winter, because the twinkling, shining celestial bodies only came out when fall ended, and went away again at the approaching of spring. The Twin Stars became very important to the kingdom, so Rory could not deny them their hope by quitting just because she was tired, could she? The story did the trick--for years, Rory practiced even when she didn't feel like it, just so the merkingdom would have their Twin Stars for the whole winter. Can you imagine how special it must've felt for Rory to be the shining, beautiful hope of an entire kingdom?"
        The group of children agreed, nodding their heads. Twinkling cardboard stars floated back and forth above the 'sheet of ice' in a synchronous dance of spinning, leaping, and gliding. In the back of the group, Laurie fought to keep her cool; she did not want to upset the children. But this woman, this virtual stranger, was telling her story! The story she had told no one but Phoebe! What gave her the right?!
        "Did you tell her?" she asked Phoebe now. Her friend shook her head. "Then how does she know about all this?" Laurie whispered. All Phoebe could do was shrug in return.
        "As happens to all children, Rory got older, and she believed less in merpeople as the years went by. It became a cute little joke between her and her father. She kept practicing, more out of determination now, until she was such a good skater that To-san thought she should try for the Olympics. Have you seen the Olympics on TV?"
        Some of the children nodded and said they had while a new puppet bounded onto the stage, the Olympics puppet. It looked like a white blob with the Olympic symbol, five colored interlocking rings, across its stomach. The puppet also had googly eyes and springy limbs. As Mr. Olympics capered across the stage, his limbs bounced up and down.
        Julian explained what the Olympics were to the younger kids who had never seen them. "The medals are very pretty, and inspire great pride in the countries who are lucky enough to win them. But an athlete's success relies on so much more than luck... they have to be dedicated, and disciplined, and responsible, and they must practice often, even when they don't want to. Nothing can interfere with their routine, or it could cost them their Olympic dreams."
        The skater puppet hugged Mr. Olympics. This made the children giggle, but Laurie did not feel like laughing. She got angrier by the minute, holding back bitter tears.
        "Rory's father knew this, so he kept something from her for a very long time, because he knew it would destroy her carefully planned world. But there came a time when To-san could keep his secret no longer. One day in the winter, he took Rory out to the frozen lake and said honey, I have something to tell you. I'm very sick."
        The children made sincere sounds of sadness; several of them gasped in surprise.
        "Cancer," Laurie whispered to herself, and put a hand over her eyes. Glen and Sam took notice of that, looking at her with concern.
        Even Julian paused a second to look back at the girl with a serious glance. Then she continued. "To-san said he was too sick for Rory to live with him anymore, that he had to go into the hospital immediately. She would have to go live with her mother right here in Tokyo, and leave the frozen lake, and him. Rory told him she didn't want to leave him, that she would stay and take care of him. But To-san said no, that was too much to ask of a young girl. She would have to be strong, and do what he wanted her to do so he wouldn't worry about her. 'To-san,' Rory said, 'when you get better, can I come back and live with you again?' And To-san regretfully replied no, Rory, because I am dying."
        A few of the little girls in the audience wiped at their eyes, trying not to cry. Glen wished he could stop this right now, for Laurie's sake, but there were the children to think of, and the fact that their bosses had arranged this storytime thing. A big scene and a fight might upset the children. Though, that is what he felt like doing, seeing how much this story was upsetting his friend.
        "To-san made his daughter a promise. He promised that he would go to live with the merpeople after he died; people don't need to breathe once they are dead. And once he had made it there, he would leave her a sign to let her know. Then one day, after Rory had become a world class Olympic skater, she could come back to visit during the winter, and skate on the frozen lake, so her father could see her through the eyes of the people of the merkingdom. He could see her become a real star. In fact, a pair of stars!
        "Rory hugged To-san and wished that nothing had to change... that he never had to die." The skater puppet hugged the father puppet. "But To-san reminded her that everything changes, all throughout life. The best thing she could do is accept it and go forward, and become the best skater she could be."
        "Did Rory ever go back?" one child suddenly asked. Several other children chimed in, wanting to know the answer to that question.
        "Did she become a great skater?" queried Taisha meekly.
        Julian, happy to see the child getting involved, kneeled before her. "The answer to both questions... is no."
        The children moaned in sadness and disappointment. "Why not?"
        "Rory's world had changed too much. She lost the person she loved the most, and so she just gave up on her dream. Sadness can ruin everything if you give in to it too much. If you let it take over. Rory gradually stopped skating... it happened slowly. A missed practice here, a forgotten workout there... it builds until the dream has been left behind. Until it dies."
        The skater puppet stood on the stage while the lights slowly faded to black, and the little curtain closed.
        "Sometimes, when a dream dies, it opens new doors. Rory found a new life, and a new group to call family, and she's pretty happy with things as they are now. But..." Julian stood by the puppet stage as the curtains opened again on the scene of the skater gliding across the ice. "...Rory still wonders, after all these years, deep down inside where little Rory still lives, if what her father promised her was true. Do merpeople exist? And did her father really go to live with them after he died? I can tell you on the highest authority that it was all... true. Even after all these years, To-san still waits to see the Twin Stars of the Winter... for the first time.
        "What would you say to convince Rory that she should go back to the lake, at least once, and skate again, even if it is for the last time?"
        The children raised their hands to be called on, so they could give their suggestions. Laurie simply could not listen to this; these kids did not know how she felt and how hard it all had been. She ducked back behind the group and ran into the house where she could let the tears flow freely.
        Laurie was not sure how long she'd been in the house when Julian came in. Phoebe followed her. "I'm on a break. Nathan is doing his magic tricks for the kids."
        Laurie looked at her bitterly. "How did you find out about that? You know you were telling my story, don't you?"
        Julian nodded. "Yes, I am aware. I told you I was the senshi of Fate. Do you know what that means?"
        Laurie shook her head.
        "It means that I have all of life's events at my disposal to view. Every person, every event. It also means that I plot those events for each person born on this Earth. I knew most of your story years before you did."
        Rubbing her eyes, Laurie looked up at the older woman with a quizzical look. "What are you saying? That our lives are not our own? That it doesn't matter what we do because our lives are already decided for us? Everything is predetermined?"
        Julian, smiling, shook her head. "Not exactly. The outline I plot for each person is just a guideline, based on what I know of the things you retain from all your past lives, the natural talents you have been given, and so on. Many people are perfectly happy to live their lives by my charts. They can be like walking zombies, simply following everything Fate has plotted out for them.
        "But then there are others. They challenge me. Like you. You challenged me. I often had trouble plotting what you would do next because you always had a surprise in store. Your determination has always been impressive. You went much further than I ever thought you would before you gave up on that dream.
        "So you see, people do have free will. Many people just choose not to exercise it."
        The expression on Laurie's face was quite shocked. "It doesn't bother you at all, deciding people's lives like that? You don't feel at all pompous?"
        Julian shrugged. "It is my duty. I am the senshi of Fate."
        Coming to a realization, Laurie stood up, disbelief on her face. "If you plot out people's lives, that means... you decide when they die. Don't you?"
        "Overall, yes."
        Laurie let out a harsh breath. Julian hardly heard her, because she continued, "As usual, a person's determination to live can influence my decision, but I do make those decisions. Those are often the hard ones." She finally noticed how upset Laurie looked. "Oh... you're thinking of your father."
        "Oh, you're thinking of your father," Laurie sarcastically mimicked. "Of course I am! I loved him. He was everything to me. How could you make a decision like that?!"
        Julian simply shrugged. "The world needs death. Without it, this planet would become overpopulated. Supplies would run out, people would starve, become dehydrated... dwellings would be so overcrowded that millions would clog the streets, homeless. There'd be no end to this suffering. Death does not cause things like cancer, it only ends the pain induced by such illnesses. There must be death. It helps balance things out."
        "I understand that people have to die," Laurie responded. "But why my father? There are so many bad people out there--why not have them die?"
        Sighing, Julian remarked, "How many times have people asked that question? There really aren't enough of these evil people to go around; I mean, people think that the world is so full of evil, but there's just not enough of it happening to use death to punish it. Most people don't commit enough truly evil deeds to write them off as 'bad.' In order to maintain a balance, sometimes good people have to die. That is the system."
        Seeing only her own grief, Laurie glared at Julian with years of hurt in her eyes. "Then the system sucks." She gave Julian a shove. "There had to be another way. You should have chosen someone else."
        Julian stood her ground. "Your father was suffering from the cancer. He was ready to die. This is how things have been done since the beginning of mortal life. I was only doing what I was destined to do as the senshi of Fate. Picking a fight with me will not change that."
        "Oh, picking a fight will change everything, because once you're the one who's dead, then the system can be remade." Laurie took out her transformation wand.
        "You're speaking out of pain. Think about what you're threatening, and what you'd be taking on if you tried to take my place."
        "My mind is quite clear. Solstice Wheel of the Year Power, Make-up!"
        Phoebe ran outside to get help; a big fight was about to ensue.
        Glen, Sabrina, Tara, Nathan, and Marlena followed her back into the house. By the time they got there, both Laurie and Julian had transformed into Sailorsolstice and Sailorthanatos. Thanatos swung the Destiny Blade at Solstice, who dodged it and held up her hand.
        "Snow Globe Seizure!"
        A huge transparent globe of glass materialized around Thanatos. She looked around her, surprised, and started to bang on the glass.
        Running up to the globe, Solstice began to roll it around. Fake snow fell down on Sailorthanatos. Solstice shook the globe as hard as she could, then gave it a big push so it rolled across the room. Thanatos did involuntary cartwheels, and was thrown against the sides of the globe. A grimace of pain could be seen on her face through the glass.
        "What are you doing to my sister?!" Marlena held her henshin wand aloft. "Hypnos Planet Power, Make-up!" Sparkling dust glittered in the air as it floated from the wand in graceful arcs. Flurries of it crowded around Marlena's body before bursting outward like a ruptured piñata, revealing her complete transformation into Sailorhypnos.
        Thanatos began to strike at the glass with the Destiny Blade, but the globe would not break.
        Glen, Sabrina, Tara, and Nathan took the time to henshin into their respective senshi identities of Lammas, Beltane, Ganymede, and Prince Ganymede. "Solstice, what's going on? Is she evil?"
        "Thanatos is the one who decided the fate of my father! She decided he should die!" Sailorsolstice professed, her voice heavy with emotion. "Surely she needs to be removed from her position as the senshi of Fate."
        "You have no idea what you're doing. You let my sister out of there!" Hypnos performed some fancy flourishes with her hand, producing a Hypnos Capsule out of thin air. The magical capsule appeared in a burst of glittering confetti.
        "Sensual Leap!" Sailorbeltane's Maypole struck out at Hypnos, tying her wrists together with a twisted network of ribbons. Sailorhypnos struggled with them.
        The two Ganymede senshi looked at each other. "She killed Solstice's father? Maybe we should help put her down." Sailorganymede raised her cup.
        Lucky for Sailorhypnos, she did not need her hands free to use this attack. "Morpheus Coma!" The Capsule in her hand popped open and released its contents into the air. The glittering dust sailed on a magically created breeze toward all of her attackers, save for Solstice, whose attention was still on Thanatos.
        "We've got to combine our attacks to finish Sailorthanatos off. Maybe if... Lammas? Beltane? What's wrong?"
        She had noticed that Soldierlammas and Sailorbeltane were both yawning and stretching quite heavily. So were the Ganymedes. Sailorhypnos' sparkling dust invaded their mouths and noses with every breath. "So sleepy," Lammas mumbled.
        "I don't know what's come over me," said Beltane as she drowsily rubbed her eyes. The ribbons of her Maypole slowly let go of Sailorhypnos.
        "Oh, no, guys! It's her attack! Don't go to sleep!"
        "We can't help it, we're so tired," Sailorganymede lamented. She leaned on her brother, and he leaned on her, and they slid down to the ground.
        Prince Ganymede fluffed at his cape, using it as a pillow. "Sorry, but you'll have to finish this fight by yourself. -Yawn!- Too sleepy."
        Sailorhypnos turned to Solstice. "Now, are you going to let my sister go, or do I put you to sleep too?"
        "Why don't you take a nap?" From behind Hypnos came Sailoraltrusia, swinging her staff. The Heart of Altrusia connected with the back of Hypnos' head and knocked her to the floor, only semiconscious.
        "Ohhh... " she moaned.
        Altrusia motioned for Sailorskull of Question, the one dressed all in blue, to come forward. "I'll watch her. You handle the one inside the Snowglobe."
        Skull of Question nodded curtly, figuring that this 'Snowglobe' must be the large glass ball with the person in it. "I agreed to help as long as it was in the best interest of the Sleestaks." She stepped up to the globe. "Blue Crystal." A blue crystal materialized in her palm. "Osmosis." The crystal passed through the glass and into the globe with Sailorthanatos. "Blue Crystal Ailment."
        Plastering herself against the opposite side of the Snowglobe, Thanatos tried to avoid the blue crystal, but it floated around her head like a moth drawn to light. Within a minute, she sunk to the bottom of the globe, looking quite ill.
        "The blue crystals make people sick," Sailorskull of Question explained. "I'll put a few more in there and that will take care of you shortly."
        "No." Sailorsolstice held the Crocus Wreath in her hand. "Just weaken her. I want to finish her off."
        Altrusia kept one eye on Hypnos and the other eye on the action. "What are you going to do?"
        "We're going to use the Three Fold Law on her. Skull of Question will provide us with the initial energy through her blue crystals, and once we've harnessed it, we'll send the energy at Thanatos at three times the rate. She'll never survive that. Right Sailorequinox?"
        Solstic e turned to her senshi partner, and was shocked by what she saw. Phoebe had not transformed. "Phoebe? What's wrong? It's time to henshin."
        Phoebe shook her head. "Sailorsolstice, I know you love your father. You still miss him. But you have to let go of this anger. It will only eat you up inside. You're not doing the right thing, and I won't help you murder her."
        "Thanatos killed my father!" Solstice yelled. Her voice broke with threatening tears.
        Phoebe shook her head again. "You're not listening. Cancer killed your father. Thanatos only came up with the outcome, not the cause. Would you rather he still be alive and suffering?"
        At first Solstice tried to retort, but words failed her. Her mouth opened and closed a few times as she attempted to think of what to say. "I... no, of course I wouldn't want my father to be in pain. But there had to be another way! Why couldn't he just get better?"
        "Because he waited too long to get the cancer taken care of. You told me that yourself. These things just happen that way sometimes, and there's nothing you can do to take it back. You can't turn back time and do things over. Let it go, Laurie. Finding someone to blame isn't going to help you accept that he's gone." Phoebe put a hand on her shoulder. "Thanatos was only doing her duty as a senshi. Isn't that all any of us do?"
        Her bottom lip quaking, Sailorsolstice murmured, "It's not fair, Phoebe. I loved him so much. I needed him, and he was taken from me."
        "I'm so sorry Laurie." Phoebe hugged her, which finally set off Solstice's tears and allowed her to cry.
        As she sobbed, her Snowglobe faded, releasing Sailorthanatos. Skull of Question sighed and palmed the blue crystal. "It looks like your life is saved, for today."
        Thanatos scowled at her before going over to check on her sister.
        Sailoraltrusia' s own eyes filled with tears, which she quickly wiped away. Solstice missing her father... that was something Altrusia could completely sympathize with.
        Although Sailorthanatos was not sure how well Solstice would receive her message at this point, she still tried to talk to her. "I hope you understand now why I made the decision I did. Besides the fact that I wanted to end your father's suffering, there's also adversity to consider. The challenges presented by adversity often make a person stronger. The senshi need strength to do the work they do. Many could not handle it otherwise. Please understand that my decisions are never made for malicious reasons."
        Sailorsolstic e nodded, but did not say anything. She was only beginning to understand the things Thanatos told her.
        Altrusia and Sailorskull of Question looked down at the four sleeping senshi, who now each wore a stocking cap with a puffy little pompom on the end, as if they had retired for the night. Lammas, Beltane, and the Ganymedes happily snored away, oblivious to the world. "Are they going to be okay?"
        Rubbing her head, Sailorhypnos replied, "I put the Morpheus Coma on them. It will make them sleep for 24 hours."
        "Twenty-four hours?!" Phoebe glanced at the two Ganymede senshi. "What are we supposed to do with them?!"

"What are you doing in my dream?"
"What are you doing in my dream?"
"Two people don't dream the same thing concurrently. There's something strange going on here."
"The strange thing is that you know the correct usage of the word concurrently."
"Heeeeey..."
(Tara and Nathan together) "Finally, you know what it felt like to be me the night Metallia attacked! Hey, stop talking at the same time as me! Stop mimicking me!"
"I'm not mimicking you. I really need you to understand how I felt."
"...... Me too."
Sailormoon Dark Episode 33: Dreaming in Sync. The Morpheus Coma. The moonlight carries the message of love.

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Oba-chan = Grandmommy
Oka-san = Mother
Oto-san = Father
To-san = Dad
(All in Japanese, of course)
The name "Indrid" comes from the bizarre story of the Mothman, a supernatural being that is supposed to be part man and part moth. The story reminded me of how I imagined Central Control to look, so I decided to use the rather cool name. I hope the Mothman will not be offended. ~_^ I'm sure if he is, he'll give me a call. >:)


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