Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Senshi: Gathering of the Five ❯ Chapter 18

Senshi: the Gathering of Five

Part Eighteen

"You ready to do this?" Minako Aino asked her passenger as the blonde idol pulled the sports car in front of the little house.

"No," Setsuna Meiou admitted, the black haired woman looking pensive as she added, "but she has a right to know whatever I can tell her."

"Fair enough," Minako agreed.

"Do I have to come along?" Artemis whimpered from the back, the white cat curled up as small as he could on the seat.

Minako reached back to snag him as she said, "Yes, you do." The two walked through the gate and up to the front door where Minako rang the bell.

"Minako," Usagi blinked, then her eyes narrowed as she saw the woman beside her. "Is this....?" she asked quietly and Minako nodded gravely.

The two women stood there in the doorway of the Tsukino home, waiting for some sign that they were welcome. Setsuna Meiou studied her, the expression on her face hard to read. Finally she smiled slightly as she said, "It's been a long time."

Usagi opened her mouth to reply, then closed it. She looked over at Minako, "I'm a bit surprised by you bringing her to my home."

Minako just shrugged, the blonde haired idol star gazing back at her calmly. "I know you've got questions you need answered," she said simply, "and some of those answers are probably going to be pretty personal."

"True," Usagi admitted.

"Does that one have to be here?" Luna growled, the little black cat's fur standing on end, her back arched defiantly.

Artemis ducked behind Minako's legs, the while cat peering out warily.

"You two play nice," Usagi scowled down at the cats, "or I'll lock you up in separate rooms."

"Sorry," Luna turned from Artemis and gazed up at Setsuna. There was the oddest look on her face, both respectful and wary as she said, "Setsuna-sama."

"Wish I could get her to do that," Usagi muttered. She waved Setsuna and Minako inside and over towards the couch, "I guess I'm being a bad host, can I get you something?"

"I'm fine," Minako sat down smoothly, looking every inch the actress as she stretched out nonchalantly in her corner. She noticed that much of the furniture in the living room looked new and for a moment wondered why.

"Some tea would be nice," Setsuna admitted.

"Milk?" Artemis asked tentatively.

It only took Usagi a few moments to ready the pot of tea, carrying it in with a plate full of homemade cookies and two saucers of milk.. She sat across from Setsuna, feeling relieved that Makoto had left the cookies for her. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, only the sound of spoons clinking and the occasional crunching of snacks.

Usagi puffed out a sigh as she looked up to meet Setsuna's eyes. She quietly admitted, "I just don't know where to start, honestly."

Minako gave her a sympathetic look then she looked over at Setsuna as she said, "Well, I have one. How did this all start, the Oni's attacks on humanity?"

Setsuna drank some of her tea, savoring the taste, then set it down quietly. "At one time the Oni and humanity lived in peace, the two races coexisting without conflict," she said, "but that all changed with the death of the High King of the Oni."

"My father...?" Usagi asked softly.

Setsuna sadly shook her head no. "The Oni were more powerful than humanity, but at the time it was not so great a difference," she continued her story, "until Queen Serenity discovered her race's ability to drain the life force of other creatures. That power quickly began to corrupt her people, the desires overwhelming the Oni and pulling them into darkness."

"But some noble Oni chose not to go down the Queen's road, rejecting the path to corruption," Setsuna said, eyes flickering with memory. "Instead they stood by humanity and after much conflict and pain humanity drove the Oni away, sealing them in another realm with blood and magic forever, or so we hoped."

"Forever didn't last, it seems," Minako noted, picking up a cookie. She seemed fascinated by what she was hearing, eyes bright.

"The Oni were sealed up," Setsuna answered, "but their lesser servants the Youma were left free in the belief they were harmless without their masters. Instead the Youma spent an age working to release their dark masters, only succeeding some months ago."

"Serenity is my mother," Usagi murmured the question into the silence that followed Setsuna's story, "but who was my father?"

"I don't know," Setsuna answered her frankly. Quite delicately she said, "I had heard that the Queen of the Oni had numerous consorts of various types, your father could have been one of any of those noble-born Oni."

Usagi visibly winced at that piece of news. "The more I hear about my mother," she said harshly, "the less I like her."

"The Oni aren't human," Setsuna reminded her, "their customs and ways aren't the same as ours, you shouldn't judge so harshly."

"I'm an Oni, remember?" Usagi scowled.

Minako quickly changed the subject, "You said you had met Usagi before, too?"

"Shortly after she was placed with her human family," Setsuna answered calmly, "I met her like I did you, when she was still a baby."

Usagi's eyes were dark as she looked down at her clenched hands, the knuckles white. "Did they know?" she asked Setsuna quietly.

"Know what?" Setsuna asked.

"Don't play games!" Usagi looked up, eyes flashing as she said, "Did my adopted parents know what I was, what risks they were taking?!"

Setsuna met her eyes steadily, "The Tsukino's were good people, willing to take in a strange child they didn't know." She took a breath, "Yes, I told them of the danger involved in raising you but I did not tell them you weren't human."

"Why not?" Usagi demanded hotly.

"Usagi...." Minako reached out to put her hand on her shoulder by Usagi shrugged it off angrily, glaring at Setsuna.

"I tried to tell them," Setsuna said gravely, "but your mother took you in her arms, holding you so gently, and I realized that it didn't matter. The both of them had already made the decision, you were going to be theirs."

There was a moment of silence as Usagi looked at Setsuna, eyes wide. Tears glittered at the corners then began to fall, her shoulders shaking as tears began to fall. "Usagi," Luna moved over the cat's body shifting as the black haired woman held her mistress gently.

Setsuna looked torn, part of her wanting to try to offer comfort but knowing that it probably wouldn't be accepted. Minako shook her head no, quietly saying, "Not now."

Usagi pulled back, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. "Thank you," she said softly.

"I can't stand to see you in pain," Luna whispered as she reached out to gently wipe the remaining tears away. "Will you be all right?" she asked.

"I'll manage," Usagi answered quietly. She pulled back from Luna's grip and looked over at Setsuna, "There's other things I want to know, but I think the rest of us need to hear those answers."

"Answers I'll try my best to give," Setsuna answered calmly.

"We were going to meet up at Rei's shrine today anyway," Usagi rose, "why don't we just all go up there together?"

Minako helped pull Setsuna up as she said casually, "Part of why I brought her over today."

"Next time," Usagi met Minako's eyes with a flash of anger, "you might talk to me about this sort of thing in advance."

"I'll try to remember that," Minako answered with a little smile.

To be continued....