Life's Lessons
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Kristin Renee Taylor


Chapter 4 -


Terri stood, relatively calm now that she had eaten and slept. She
watched as several mechanics swarmed over the helicopter, refueling
this, fixing that, patching up gaps in the helicopter caused by the
hovercraft's lasers.

   Watching people perform manual labor was new to her. In Crystal
Tokyo, if something wasn't done by magic, then it usually wasn't done
it all. Having lived most of her life in Crystal Tokyo, seeing all of
these people do things by hand was... strange.

   "You look puzzled."

   Terri didn't bother to turn around. She'd know who she'd see.
Instead she pointed to the mechanics. "Why don't they use magic?"

   Rei stepped forward, into Terri's field of vision. "They can't."

   "But, the Senshi say that everyone is able to use magic. They just
need to be taught how."

   "And you believe everything the Senshi say? Especially after that
mess with your friend, Yoko?"

   Terri bowed her head. "Why did I just leave her there?"

   "I don't know. Why did you?"

   "I... I guess I figured that... well... that when Minako came for
me, she'd save Yoko, too." She looked at Rei. "I mean, she could've,
couldn't she?"

   Rei looked at her, then at the mechanics. "No. Yoko's purpose in
our plan was to provide us with a distraction in order to sneak you
out of the palace."

   Terri spun, face pale, in complete astonishment. "You..."

   Rei didn't look at her. "Of course, everything would have gone
much more smoothly had you not alerted the Senshi."

   Terri's hands clenched into fists. Rei continued, oblivious. "But,
I suppose, using Yoko like that wasn't a total waste. I mean, it did
keep Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury occupied long enough for me to fly
the chopper in without dodging the CTDF left and right."

   Terri punched Rei.

   Or, rather, that's what she intended to do.

   Rei caught Terri's fist and looked at her, violet eyes twin pools
of darkness. "Lesson number three: The more pure your purpose is, the
larger the sacrifice you must make. Had it not been for Yoko, you
would have been killed a long time ago.

   "You owe it to her to stay alive for as long as possible."

   Terri let her arm drop, her eyes misted with tears. "Why? Why am I
so important?"

   "Because of who your parents were." Gently, she took Terri's arm.
"Walk with me."




An old service elevator took them up through the Tokyo Tower,
depositing them on the observation deck. Terri thought it would be
cold but, for some reason, it was incredibly warm. She glanced at
Rei, but Rei seemed not to notice the unusual heat.

   They walked over to the large windows, but if Rei saw something
other than swirling snow, she didn't tell Terri. Rei said, "Your
mother was a wonderful woman. I only met her a few times, but I
easily understood why Minako-chan looked up to her so much. Her loss
really hurt us, and not just because we no longer had inside access
to various law enforcement agencies."

   The swirl of snow parted, revealing stark metal beams extending
out into darkness. Minako stood on one of them, her gaze fixed on
some distant point, unaware of either the cold or her two watchers.

   Looking at her, Terri shivered slightly. "What happened to my
mother?"

   Rei closed her eyes. "She was murdered."




Minako closed her eyes.

   <<<The phone was ringing. I was so deep into my homework that it
had taken me a moment to remember that, except for Artemis, I was
alone in the house.

   I dropped my pencil on my desk and raced downstairs, snatching the
phone up before the caller decided to hang up. "Moshi moshi," I said
a little breathlessly.

   "Minako?" someone asked in English.

   I stiffened, and forced my voice to remain light as I responded in
the same language. "Big brother Alan! What a surprise! How's Katarina
and the baby? Are you guys coming down for my birthday?"

   "Minako... I..."

   I frowned. "Alan? What's wrong with your voice? Do you have a cold
or something?"

   "There's been an accident, Minako. Katarina's dead."

   Strange. My hands were shaking. "Stop kidding around, Alan. Tell
me what's really wrong."

   "Minako, I just told you-"

   "No," I said harshly, "You told me that onee-sama was dead and
that's a lie!"

   "Minako..."

   "No!" I said, louder.

   Alerted by the fear in my voice, Artemis padded down the stairs
and watched me from the bottom step.

   "Minako, listen to me!"

   "You lying son of a-"

   "MY *WIFE* IS DEAD!"

   My knees gave out and I collapsed where I stood. Closing my eyes,
feeling tears slide down my cheeks, I leaned my head against the
wall. 'Onee-sama...' Faintly, "Elizabeth?"

   His silence was almost more than I could bear.

   Artemis, truly worried now, brushed up against my arm. I stroked
him absently. "I'm coming up there," I said, my voice toneless.

   "Minako, you don't-"

   "Like Hell I don't!" I shouted. I was holding the receiver so
tightly that it cracked. Now I knew why Rei was always mad. If you're
angry enough, you can't feel pain.

   And I was furious.

   I shot to my feet, screaming, "If you think I'm gonna let some
bastard get away with killing my onee-sama and my God-daughter,
you're crazy! I'm gonna take his damn head off!" I slammed the
receiver down and sprinted outside, ignoring Artemis's shouts,
transforming into Sailor Venus mid-stride.

   I wasn't going to let anyone get away with this. I didn't care if
I had to kill half the population of England, *nobody* was going to
be spared from my wrath.

   "Sailor... TELEPORT!">>>

Minako opened her eyes and looked up at the moon. A cloud, one of
many, blew across the sky, briefly obscuring the moon and sinking the
ground below into darkness. When it had passed, she was gone.




Rei opened her eyes. "The Senshi tried to find out who did it, but it
was years before they discovered who the murderer was and, by then,
it was already too late."

   "What do you mean?"

   Rei looked at Terri silently. She shook her head. "You're not
ready for that. Not yet."

   "I'm not ready for what?"

   Rei sighed. "You're not ready to find out about your father."

   "Why?"

   Rei looked at her, irritated. "Because he's the one that killed
your mother!"

   Terri decided that, just this once, she wasn't going to press the
issue.




They returned to the base proper via the elevator. "Now that you're
here," Rei said as they walked, "You'll be expected to pitch in with
the work. I know you're not used to manual labor but, trust me, in
about a month you'll barely remember what it was like in Crystal
Tokyo.

   "In addition to whatever job you take, you'll be working with me
and Mako-chan during your spare time."

   "Working on what?"

   "This." Rei lifted a hand and made a fist. Flames erupted into
existence, running along her forearm without burning the skin
beneath. She grinned as Terri yelped and leaped back, slamming her
back against the wall.

   Rei relaxed her hand and the flames vanished. "Although, I
suppose, that is a bad example. After all, you can't call fire. You
can, however, take my own power, intensify it, and reflect it back at
me. That's your father's particular little gift to you."

   Terri slowly peeled herself off the wall. "And the Senshi want me
because I can do that?"

   "Hm... no. The Senshi want you because you can kill them. But
that's getting ahead of ourselves. Right now, you're not a threat to
them. Or anyone. Ami-chan could probably beat the snot out of you.
That's why Mako-chan's gonna train you in the martial arts." She
smiled at Terri. "Feeling overwhelmed yet, Terri-chan?"

   Terri sighed heavily, "From the moment I got here."

   Rei looked at her sympathetically. "Go have a bath. Think about
what I've told you. Or try not to think about it. You'll have plenty
of time to absorb all of this."

   Terri made a noise and trudged off. Rei watched her go, then
turned down a side corridor when she was out of sight. Rei took a
deep breath, calming herself down.

   "Well?"

   Rei glanced to her right, to find Minako walking beside her. Rei
shook her head. "We did our jobs too well. She didn't even respond to
my fire. I'll have to start from the very beginning."

   "Dammit. We don't have much time, Rei-chan."

   "I know that, Minako-chan. I'd rush it, but I don't want to risk
killing everyone."

   "Huh... Did she remember about-"

   "No."

   Minako shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "Maybe
that's for the best, then."

   Rei looked at Minako, but her friend was too deeply sunk in
thought. After a while, Minako gave herself a little shake and
sighed. "I'm worried about Ami-chan."

   "Why?"

   "She's been acting weird. Staying in her lab all hours of the day,
forgetting to eat, forgetting to sleep, being really... *intense*
about her current project."

   "And how is this different from how she normally acts?"

   Minako met Rei's eyes. "That's just it, Rei-chan. Ami-chan *never*
acted like that. Or, she never used to."

   "We've all changed, Minako-chan."

   "This is Ami-chan we're talking about, Rei-chan. *Ami-chan.* Out
of the four of us, she's supposed to be the sane, non-obsessed
person. I mean, I know she was introverted before, but this is
extreme. Exactly when did she start acting like some sorta paranoid
madly-scientific geek?"

   Rei sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I guess I can drop by
her place and see if she's okay."

   Minako clapped Rei on the back. "That's my girl. I'm heading out
to one of the outposts. Think you can keep from killing everyone for
a week?"

   Rei smiled dryly. "I'll try."




Ami swore quietly, winding a strip of cloth around her bleeding right
hand. Of all the times to be clumsy...

   A knock at the door, "Ami-chan? You there?"

   Panic. Ami grabbed the box, looked about frantically, and shoved
it under her bed. "Yeah, Rei-chan. I'm here." She looked at her hand,
then at the blood on the table. No way to clean that up in time.
She'd just have to lie about it. "Come on in."

   The door whooshed. "Just thought I'd drop by and see how you're
do-" She stopped. "What the hell is that!?"

   Her heart thudding erratically in her chest, Ami looked through
her bedroom door to the living room. Rei stood next to the coffee
table, and was staring at something. Ami hesitated, then grabbed her
lab coat from its chair and threw it on, shoving her injured hand
into the deep pockets. Her fingers found the hilt of the knife, and
curled protectively around it.

   Rei, her back to Ami, crouched down to study whatever had caught
her attention.

   Ami stepped out of her bedroom, bare feet making no noise on the
carpet, her breath misting in the suddenly chill air. All she had to
do was get close enough...

   She was less than a meter from Rei's back when Rei shivered and
looked behind her, directly at Ami. "Kami-sama, Ami-chan, it's cold
in here! What'd you do, cut off the heat to your rooms?"

   Ami's mind stumbled briefly and she stammered, "The... um... the
heating unit's out. I haven't gotten around to repairing it."

   Rei looked at her, probably noting Ami's shorts and tank top.
"Yeah, well, I guess it doesn't matter so long as it's not bothering
you." She pointed to the object on the table. "What's this thing?"

   Ami looked past her to the table, where a large aquarium sat.
"That's a tarantula I found wandering about the surface near Crystal
Tokyo."

   Rei regarded it with disgust. "Ugly bastard."

   "It isn't very pretty," Ami conceded, "but it's good for keeping
the rat population in the Ark under control."

   "We have rats in the Ark?!"

   Ami sighed, more to relax herself than in irritation. She forced
herself to release the knife. "Of course we have rats in the Ark.
Just because they're a bit gross doesn't mean I'd refuse to save
them." She studied Rei critically. "Did you want something?"

   Rei gave the ugly spider a final look and a shudder, and stood.
"Not really. I just wanted to see if you were okay."

   "I'm fine, Rei-chan. Thanks for checking."

   Rei nodded, "So what have you been doing lately?"

   Ami tensed, but her voice remained calm. "Oh, nothing really. This
and that. Helping Mako-chan find some fertilizers that won't wreck
the natural taste of her vegetable garden, mostly."

   "Nothing new, then?"

   "Nothing you don't know about, Rei-chan," Ami lied smoothly.

   Rei made a sound. "Hm... well, I guess I'll leave you to it." She
started towards the door.

   "Don't leave me alone, Rei-chan!" Ami nearly shouted, but, though
her entire body protested, she kept silent. In a moment, Rei was
gone.

   Ami fell to her knees and punched the carpet. "Why didn't I tell
her?" she growled. "Dammit, what's happening to me? Who's messing
with head?!"

   A hand touched her shoulder. She flinched and tried to pull away,
but it was if her entire body had turned to ice. "There now,
Ami-chan. Don't you worry. Everything's going to be fine."

   With a snarl of rage, Ami yanked the knife out of her pocket,
spinning around and slashing at the hand.

   She was the only one in the room.

   She stood slowly, looking around her warily. "Gotta get out of
here," she muttered. She walked towards the door, stopped, and
drifted instead to the tarantula's case, dropping the knife as she
went.

   Slowly, she lowered one arm into the tank, and calmly watched as
the tarantula crawled onto the back of her hand and begin to make its
way up her arm. Her other hand, her injured one, lifted of its own
accord and gently brushed the spider's abdomen.

   A sharp, brittle crack. The tarantula fell to the floor, its body
encased in ice.

   Ami smiled and walked back to her room. She had work to do.