Rising Darkness

By Sillabub

Chapter Seven - Return

*****

“Just because it can’t be backed up scientifically doesn’t make it impossible by default. After everything you’ve
seen and experienced, don’t you believe that anything’s possible?” –Mizuno Ami

*****

Usagi leaned forward in her seat, drumming her fingers impatiently against her thigh as she sighed heavily and 
surveyed the four people sitting confusedly in front of her.

"Shall we go through this again?" she asked.

Seiya blinked, then turned to numbly stare at Chibi-Usa, who was sitting beside Usagi and smiling sweetly at the 
Lights and Kakyuu, clearly enjoying every second of their perplexity.

She wasn't the only one; Makoto, Hotaru, and Michiru were watching the confused aliens with amused expressions, as 
was Setsuna, but she was making a visible effort not to let her humor show. Haruka, on the other hand, was making 
no effort to hide her delight at their puzzlement and was grinning wolfishly at the Lights, leaning forward in her 
seat beside Michiru and watching the scene unfold with devilish amusement. Mamoru, Ami, Minako, and Rei were absent 
from the group, at work. Even though Minako was gone, Artemis was there, sitting silently beside Luna, who was licking 
Diana's forehead in a motherly way as the kitten let out a long-suffering sigh, embarrassed to be receiving a bath in 
front of the others.

Usagi was trying to have fun, she truly was, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to enjoy the time she was spending 
with her friends. She felt as if she was going out of her mind with worry, and understandably so; the civilian casualties 
of the day before had seemed like a distant thought to her that morning, almost to the point of being forgotten or 
dismissed as a dream, but before heading out to work Mamoru had left the newspaper on the kitchen table for Usagi 
to see later. When she had gotten up to get breakfast for her and Chibi-Usa she had let out an unintentional cry at 
the sight of the front page. The headline had screamed "SENSHI FAIL TO PROTECT TOKYO CITIZENS," and beneath that 
stinging accusation was a gruesome, disturbing image of the blood-splattered streets and the dead bodies scattered 
around it. Usagi had sobbed bitterly as Chibi-Usa read the article aloud, which was littered with rumors and speculation 
and hard-hitting slanders about the Sailor Senshi's "complete and utter failure to protect the deceased" and their 
"lack of concern for the deaths of the noble Tokyo citizens they were too late to save." There was also the looming 
threat that Hecate posed to her safety and to the safety of her loved ones, as well as the fact that no one knew 
anything about Hecate aside from her intense desire to see Usagi dead. As if that wasn’t enough, Usagi was discovering 
that hiding her pregnancy was harder than she anticipated, and knowing that both Chibi-Usa and Setsuna disagreed with 
her decision made sticking to her plan that much more difficult. 

Libel, pregnancy, death, deception, failure . . .  with such words assaulting Usagi’s thoughts, it was a wonder she had 
any sort of presence of mind left. Then there was the matter of the dream she had . . . 

Usagi shook her head sharply, pushing those thoughts from her head. "Anyone?" she asked, looking at Seiya, who, 
unsurprisingly, looked to be the most perplexed of the bunch.

"Alright . . ." he said, looking as if he was trying very hard to get his thoughts in order. "She . . ." and he pointed 
at Chibi-Usa, "is your . . . daughter."

"Yes," sighed Usagi. "And . . . ?"

"You got pregnant when you were eight?" offered Yaten, raising an eyebrow.

Usagi scowled. "Try again," she replied in a dull, unamused voice.

"She's from the future," said Taiki, albeit very skeptically.

"Yes.”

“Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity,” said Kakyuu carefully, her brow creasing as she tried to balance concentrating on 
saying the multiple names in the right order and wondering whether that was the given name on Chibi-Usa’s birth 
certificate.

“That’s right.”

"And she's the Princess and daughter of the future King and Queen of Earth," said Seiya, still looking very confused. 

"Er . . . you and Mamoru-san," he added, peering at Usagi.

"Well done," grinned Haruka, before Usagi could say anything more. "It only took Usagi-chan seven times explaining it 
to you, but you got it. And I used to think you were stupid."

Seiya glared at her but was distracted by a knock on the door of the apartment. They all looked up to behold the sight 
of Ami slipping inside, then freezing, wide blue eyes focusing on Chibi-Usa. "Chibi-Usa-chan!"

"Ami-chan!" Chibi-Usa said happily, bouncing eagerly out of her chair and making a beeline for the blue-haired genius. 

Ami smiled widely, but there was a distinct glint of dread in her eyes as the tiny, pink-haired girl tackled Ami in a 
gut-crushing hug.

"You're back," choked Ami, struggling valiantly to breathe as her ribs were crushed.

"I came to help!" cried Chibi-Usa, letting go of Ami to beam up at her.

"Help?" asked Ami as she sucked in a breath, relieved to once again have a full supply of air in her lungs.

Chibi-Usa nodded and plopped back down beside Usagi. "Yep. I came back from the future to help fight Hecate."

At that, Taiki let out an audible snort, and Kakyuu thumped him on the arm as Ami smiled and sat down by Makoto. 

"What's wrong, Taiki-san?" asked Chibi-Usa, blinking innocently at him.

Taiki merely crossed his arms and stared analytically at Chibi-Usa, who stared sweetly back at him. He was silent for a 
long moment, brow furrowed, and then he said quietly, "Time travel."

"Yes," said Chibi-Usa brightly. "Time travel."

Taiki looked as if he were having some sort of inner struggle as he shifted in his seat, frowned deeply, and shifted his 
gaze to stare at Ami.

"Time travel," he repeated, rather helplessly.

"You can keep saying it, but it won't stop being true," said Haruka, smirking.

He glared at her. "I know that, but I don’t understand how Earth could achieve it."

"What don't you understand?" asked Makoto. "You're the smart one of the group!"

She received scathing looks from Yaten and Seiya, but she merely surveyed them with flat glances and said, "What? You 
know it's true."

"I find it hard to believe, that’s all," said Taiki in response. “That kind of technology doesn’t exist in the 
scientific world.”

"Well, for the technology that exists on Earth, neither does intergalactic travel," offered Ami helpfully, "but that 
technology exists on Kinmoku."

"Does it bother you that Earth may be ahead of Kinmoku in something?" asked Haruka slyly.

"No," said Taiki, scowling even more. "What bothers me is that you’re claiming for something to be possible when the 
most brilliant minds in the universe have come to the conclusion that it is scientifically impossible."

"Yes, and Chibi-Usa-chan is simply a figment of your imagination," said Hotaru sweetly. "Does that make you feel better?"

Makoto and Haruka sniggered as Taiki grumbled, "No."

“Just because it can’t be backed up scientifically doesn’t make it impossible by default,” said Ami. “After everything 
you’ve seen and experienced, don’t you believe that anything’s possible?”

“I believe in anything that can be backed up with scientific fact,” said Taiki. “Even quantum teleportation has more 
basis than something as outrageously chimerical as time travel.”

Ami opened her mouth to reply, but Setsuna decided to speak up at last.

"Taiki-san,” she said. "As Sailor Pluto, I'm the Guardian of Time, and as such I hold the Key that controls Time and 
allows others to travel through it. If Chibi-Usa is here, it is because in the future I granted her access to the Key."

Taiki stared at her, then, slowly, like a man in a trance, turned to stare at Chibi-Usa who grinned at him and held up 
the thin chain that had been dangling from her neck, the tiny Key on the end catching the light and glinting, as if 
mocking him.

"It's not a matter of who's more advanced, you see?" said Ami, leaning forward to stare calmly at Taiki. "It's a matter 
of power, not technology."

Taiki met her gaze, his violet eyes cool and calculating, as if he were making a decision about something. Ami grew 
slightly nervous under his analytical stare, but then something in his expression changed, softened, and he sat back 
in his seat, relaxing visibly and, for some strange reason, looking incredibly satisfied. In fact, if she wasn’t 
mistaken, Ami was certain she saw something of a smile on the tall Light’s face.

“Okay, guys,” said Luna, once again drawing the attention back to the issue of Chibi-Usa. “Do you understand who 
Chibi-Usa-chan is?”

When Seiya, Yaten, Taiki, and Kakyuu nodded slowly, Usagi burst out, "Thank God!"

Everyone turned to look at her, and the blonde reddened. "Sorry," she said, a little sheepishly, "I’m just . . . 
erm . . . really hungry.”

Chibi-Usa caught Setsuna's eye, and as they exchanged significant glances Makoto looked around at everyone. "Alright," 
she said. "Lunch?"

Everyone seemed to agree with this decision, and the group of senshi rose from their places and headed toward the door. 
Chibi-Usa and Setsuna were walking together, whispering to each other, and as the group moved to leave Ami stopped, 
looking as if she had just remembered something.

“Usagi-chan,” Ami said, “there’s a medical journal that Mamoru-san is allowing me to borrow, and I’ve just now 
remembered it. Do you mind if . . . ?”

“Help yourself,” said Usagi, who was mainly concerned with getting something to eat. “You know where we keep everything.”

Ami smiled in thanks as the others left, and she only allowed herself to sigh heavily after they closed the door behind 
them. Medical school was proving to be a challenge, even for a genius like Ami, and Mamoru had only recently become a 
practicing doctor at the local hospital and was a storehouse of information, as well as something of a mentor, for Ami. 
Rare diseases and unusual conditions interested Ami greatly, and Mamoru had a medical journal containing a very lengthy 
article about lupus that she was dying to read.

After a few moments of leafing through Mamoru’s collection of medical journals, she found the one she had been searching 
for and clutched it to her chest, suppressing the urge to sit in the comfort of their living room and read it right there. Sighing a bit regretfully, Ami stood to her feet, looked down at the cover, convinced herself that it would be better to wait until later to read it, and began to walk toward the door.

So immersed was Ami in reading the headlines on the cover of the medical journal that she didn’t realize that someone 
else was in the room with her, that is, not until her arm was seized by a large, warm hand. Ami looked up in alarm, but 
she smiled when she saw who it was. Taiki was looking down at her with a strange expression, but she had no time to 
wonder about it because at that moment, he held up a small vial of what appeared to be some sort of mineral mixture. 
Blinking, Ami took it from him and studied it. 

A small label on the vial bore the words “SOIL SAMPLE # 1," and the substance inside appeared at first glance to be 
ordinary soil, but there were subtle differences. It was incredibly lightweight, almost weightless, and there were tiny 
grains of a shiny, light-emanating emerald material in it that she did not recognize. After a few moments of careful 
studying, she looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

“That’s not from Earth, is it?” she said.

Taiki shook his head. “Kinmoku soil,” he replied, a hint of a smile on his face.

Ami blinked at him for a moment, then looked down at the vial in her hand, bewildered and hoping this wasn’t his idea of 
a gift. “Taiki-san,” she started in confusion, “this is fascinating and all, but I don’t know what you’re . . .”

“I have a proposition for you,” he said, interrupting. Ami looked back up at him. There was no outward sign of what he 
was thinking except for his eyes, which were gleaming with something akin to excitement. “Just hear me out.”

“Okay,” nodded Ami.

“This may sound far-fetched to you,” he began slowly, “and I was going to wait until things calmed down a bit to tell 
you about it, but after learning about your bizarre and unscientific concepts of time travel . . .” He trailed off as 
Ami raised her eyebrows skeptically, then he cleared his throat and continued,  “. . . er, well, I have a feeling that 
you’ll be open to this, no matter how crazy it seems. The main difference here is that what I’m proposing has a 
scientific basis and is entirely possible with a combination of the right power and the right technology.”

Involuntarily, a sense of excitement seized Ami, and she smiled. “Then I’ll be patient and listen to everything you have 
to say.”

Taiki cleared his throat before saying carefully, “What do you know about the physics of human teleportation?”

Her eyes widened a little. “Well, I understand the theory . . .”

“And . . . ?” he prompted.

She swallowed, trying to convince herself that the conversation was not headed in the direction she suspected. “In order 
for a person to be teleported successfully, a machine or device would have to be built that could pinpoint and analyze 
every individual atom that makes up the human body . . . before breaking it up and reconstructing it in another location 
with exact precision.”

“Right,” said Taiki. “It’s a subject I have been researching in my free time for the past few years.”

A slight frown touched Ami’s brow. “You do realize it’s nearly impossible, right?” she asked patiently. “That it’s never 
been done with anything besides photons?” Taiki merely stared at her. Although she didn’t know why, Ami felt nervous 
as she asked softly, “Why devote so much time to it?”

“Because,” Taiki replied, “it’s not impossible.”

Ami started. “It’s not?”

“No.” The tall, solid frame of the Light was tense as he shifted to stared down at Ami. “Despite the destruction that 
underwent our planet six years ago, many scientific records were still preserved in the Royal Archives. Kinmoku is 
sufficiently ahead of Earth in terms of technological advancements, and the notion of actual human teleportation is 
closer to reality than you may think.”

“But there’s still never been a successful attempt, has there?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

Taiki’s shoulders slumped slightly. “Well, not in . . . erm . . . carbon-based humanoid life forms,” he admitted 
quietly. “But listen . . .”

A half-chuckle escaped Ami’s lips as she shook her head. “Taiki-san . . .”

“No, listen,” he said impatiently. “I’ve done research and drawn diagrams and have come across new possibilities. That,” 
he said, indicating to the vial of soil in Ami’s hand, “may be a deciding factor, but there’s still no way to know 
until we test it.”

Ami stared at him. “I don’t think I understand . . .”

“Then I’ll explain it to you later,” Taiki said, and there was an eagerness in his voice as he spoke. “You and I, 
Mizuno-kun, I think we could do this.”

Blue eyes widened as she blinked up at him for a long moment, thoroughly flabbergasted. “Are you serious?” asked Ami 
faintly. “To do what you’re suggesting would take years . . .”

He was watching her earnestly. “One year, two tops. I’ve got it all planned out.”

Ami stared at him, open-mouthed and stuttering. “That’s . . . that’s . . . that’s . . . crazy!”

“I know,” replied Taiki readily. “But if we’re successful, think of how much it would help. No more exhausting ourselves 
on intergalactic journeys; easy, effortless transportation from planet to planet . . .”

“But it could do harm, too!” Ami exclaimed, clutching the soil sample. Taiki’s brow furrowed. “Physical injuries or 
neurological defects would occur in whoever used it if even one molecule was reconstructed out of place . . . Even the 
tiniest miscalculation would result in instant . . .”

“Don’t you think I’ve thought this through?” Taiki asked sharply. For a moment, he looked offended, and Ami felt a sharp 
twinge of guilt for doubting him.

“Of course I do,” she replied in a rush, face reddening. “You’re one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met, but 
that doesn’t make you impervious to mistakes!”

“That’s why I need you with me,” said Taiki fiercely. “If anyone can accomplish this, you and I can, Mizuno-kun.”

Her face reddened even more at that, and Ami grew silent, her mind churning in thought. No matter how she looked at it, 
it was an exciting prospect, and if they were successful, many problems would be solved. But if they failed, it could 
prove to be disastrous, deadly even.

Finally, she said, “No one can know about it. At least, not yet.”

“Agreed,” said Taiki.

They stared at each other for a long moment, and Ami began to catch on to the excitement in Taiki’s eyes. Heart pounding 
as he stretched a hand toward her, she hesitantly took his hand and shook it.

“Partners?” asked Taiki.

“Partners.”
 

*****

“Dr. Chiba?”

No reply.

“Chiba-san?”

Mamoru let out a faint snore and promptly received a sharp punch to the shoulder.

“Oi! Mamoru-san!”

Mamoru jumped up with a start, blue eyes wide as he peered up at the frazzled-looking nurse who had hit him.

“What? What’d I . . . was I sleeping?” he asked groggily, and she sighed.

“Only for a minute.”

“Sorry,” said Mamoru sleepily, rubbing at his eyes. Maybe the life of a doctor wasn’t for him after all. “I’ve been 
here for twelve hours, and I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night. . .”

“Chiba-san, there’s no time for that,” she cut in.

Mamoru stopped, wide-eyed as he stared up at her. “What is it?”

The nurse looked obviously troubled, but then said briskly, as if she were trying not to worry him, “We have a rush.”

“A . . . rush?” asked Mamoru faintly.

“Yes,” she said, looking away. She had been working at the hospital for twenty years and usually didn’t have much 
patience for those young doctors who were fresh out of medical school, but she had immediately taken a liking to Mamoru 
in the short time he’d been there. There was something gentle about him that people were drawn to, and he had a wonderful 
calmness about him that no one liked to disturb . . . which was why she was reluctant to tell him what was going on.

“Talk to me, Maya-san,” said Mamoru alertly.

Maya sighed. “There was some sort of accident on the bridge,” she said. “I don’t know the details, but people are 
claiming that some sort of woman or monster blasted a hole in the middle of it and . . .” She stopped and looked away, 
but if she had been watching Mamoru she would have noticed his eyes growing wider and wider with each word she spoke. 
“It caused quite a few serious wrecks and loads of serious injuries, and three people have already been reported dead 
on arrival . . .”

She looked up, but Mamoru was already gone. Maya looked out the door to see him sprinting down the hallway toward the 
emergency room, and she sighed, shook her head, and followed after him.

“Good luck, Mamoru-san,” she said softly.

A few minutes later, when almost every on-call doctor was treating a patient of the crash and Maya had been harried and 
yelled at and was on the brink of shrieking out loud from stress, she realized she hadn’t seen Mamoru at all. She found 
it very odd and, concerned, asked the doctor who was nearest to her.

“What happened to Dr. Chiba?” she said.

The doctor, a bespectacled man in his thirties, looked up from his charts in annoyance. “I don’t know,” he replied 
grumpily. “Last I heard, someone saw him leaving.”

“Leaving?” asked Maya, flabbergasted.

“Leaving,” replied the doctor with a scowl, “which is what I suggest you do. There are people here that need help, and 
God knows they won’t get it if you’re standing around chatting.”

She nodded sourly and walked briskly away, but she couldn’t help wonder why on earth Mamoru would leave when there were 
people to save.

What she didn’t know was that saving people was exactly why Mamoru left.

*****

After a quick lunch at a noodle shop, it was decided that they would go see Rei and Yuuichirou at the Hikawa Jinja. As 
the group walked the streets of Tokyo, Taiki and Ami talked quietly to each other, as did Setsuna and Chibi-Usa, but no 
one else seemed to notice their preoccupation. 

Everyone did notice, however, and with some amount of surprise, that Minako was standing next to Rei when they arrived 
at the temple. They also noticed that both girls were very somber-looking, and Rei was holding a newspaper in her hands. 
When Rei and Minako saw the group, the former dashed toward them, looking incredibly frazzled although she rarely lost 
her cool, while the latter lagged behind, looking very tired.

“Have you seen this?” Rei asked shrilly as she brandished the newspaper at Usagi. “This - this . . .” She seemed unable 
to finish the sentence and instead made a noise like an angry cat.

Usagi’s stomach dropped as the others crowded around the paper, and Chibi-Usa caught her eye. They exchanged worried 
glances as Minako shook her head and sighed.

“It’s not good,” she said quietly, moving to Usagi’s side. “The public’s blaming . . .”

“Blaming US!’ cried Rei heatedly. “Blaming us for something we didn’t . . . we couldn’t have . . . Have you SEEN this?”

Usagi looked guiltily at Rei, who looked as if she was about to explode, and Usagi personally didn’t want to be the one 
to set the bomb off. However, she needn’t have worried because by that time, everyone else had gotten the basic gist of 
what the article was about and were in the process of getting angry over it as well.

“Are they serious?” said Makoto, wide-eyed. “‘Failure to protect’ . . . We TOLD the authorities we were too late to save 
anyone!”

“And listen to this,” Haruka said, brow furrowed in scorn. “‘The Sailor Senshi, who used to make us feel safe walking 
the streets at night, now are the very cause of the tragic deaths of these six innocent people’ . . . This is bullshit! 
It’s not like we killed them!”

“‘Perhaps the Sailor Senshi who once were so brave and self-sacrificing are no more, replaced by shadows of their former 
selves who are no more fit to protect our city than to’ . . .” Hotaru trailed off, then looked up at Setsuna, eyes wide. 
“Are they allowed to print that?” she asked quietly.

“We have to do something about this!” cried Rei. “This is completely . . .”

“What can we do?” asked Ami. “It’s not like we can go in there and sue them for libel.”

“Yeah,” Rei snarled, turning to her, “but what they’re reporting is completely . . .”

“Rei?” a deep, gentle voice said, and Rei looked up, eyes wide as Yuuichirou stood on the porch, watching the scene 
unfold with wide eyes that were just barely visible beneath sloppy brown bangs. She swallowed hard as he said, “Is 
everything okay?”

The night they got engaged, Rei decided to tell Yuuichirou about her secret identity, and when she explained everything 
to him, he hadn’t gotten scared or angry or accused her of keeping secrets from him. Instead, he had simply looked at 
her in that sweet way of his, cupped the side of her face, and told her to be careful. On some level, she had a feeling 
Yuuichirou had always suspected that she had a secret life she wasn’t telling him about, and she also had a feeling that 
he was more grateful to be let in and to be able to share her secrets than he was upset about the fact that she had 
waited so long to tell him.

Rei sighed, smiled slightly, and moved to his side. “Yeah, everything’s okay,” she said, relaxing a bit. “The newspaper’s 
just . . . bashing the Sailor Senshi.”

Yuuichirou’s eyebrows rose in understanding, but he said nothing, instead observing with interest the others, who were 
still grouped around the newspaper.

Quieting down, the other senshi stopped discussing the article and stood around, awkwardly and guiltily silent. It was 
as if while they were all together, having fun, they had forgotten battle of the day before and the deaths that had 
occurred . . . that is, until the blaring headline on the newspaper had forcefully interjected the experience back into 
their minds. The same thought seemed to be crossing each of the Earth Senshi’s minds: had they really become so used to 
peace that they had lost sight of their duty to preserve it?

As they stood silently, Yuuichirou seemed to realize that he was intruding on a serious moment and, kissing Rei gently 
on the cheek, retreated back into the shrine. The rest continued to stand there, looking grim and pale in the stillness.

But the silence was short-lived, for at that moment, Chibi-Usa blinked and said, pointing, “Isn’t that Luna?”

Luna, who had left Diana with Chibi-Usa so that she and Artemis could take a walk, was indeed dashing up to them, running 
as fast as her tiny kitty feet would carry her with a very worried look on her face.

“Luna, what’s wrong?” asked Usagi hurriedly, kneeling gently on the ground as the exhausted-looking cat trotted up to her.

“Usagi-chan . . .” panted Luna, her eyes wide, “. . .  Hecate . . . on the bridge . . .”

Usagi’s heart sank and, hardly daring to breathe, she asked, “What’s happened?”

Luna swallowed hard, but managed to gasp out, “Mamoru-san’s been attacked!”

It took a fraction of a second for the information to sink in, but then the senshi were immediately on their feet and 
had taken off running in the direction of the bridge. Usagi, out of her mind with worry, had tears streaming down her 
face as she ran, but she wasn’t even aware of them. All she was aware of was that the pounding of her feet was steadily 
bringing her closer to where Mamoru was and that the pounding of her heart was crying out to her husband,

Mamo-chan . . . please don’t die.

*****

End Chapter 7