Despite some initial disagreements regarding the existence of magic, she was happy to say that Heero-kun seemed fairly agreeable. Magic was apparently perhaps a bit of a sore spot for him, so she had decided to leave the subject be until she had her own back.
The minute she did, though, she was turning into Sailor Moon and staying that way until they were off this crazy world. (And she was going to keep using 'world' for it, because she didn't know if it was a planet or a dimension or even just an island or something. There was no way of knowing, not without taking some really stupid chances, like going exploring outside the remains of the city.)
The words still seemed so close. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that 'eternal' was still part of the transformation phrase, but beyond that, she didn't know. She couldn't even fathom a guess. Most of the stuff once she transformed just came to her, as if from the ether. Some of them might have even been made up by the ether, such as 'Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss'. She still wasn't too sure on that one. 'Moon Princess Halation' made a tiny bit more sense than that, after all.
But that wasn't the issue right now. Right now, the issue was that it was past midday and Trunks-kun hadn't come up for lunch, which should have been cause for concern if she hadn't been able to hear him out the back windows. So she was taking one of the bentos downstairs to him.
Unlike Trunks-kun, she wasn't about to just drop out of a third story window; and yes, she had nearly had a heart attack when he had done that; that he wasn't broken and bleeding on the concrete below was something of a miracle as far as she was concerned. So she had to circle around the long way to get to the back of the building, watching all around to her to make sure none of the Carrions were in sight, because wouldn't that just be a brilliant thing: make plans to take out the Reapers and get taken out herself by a Carrion instead?
Thankfully, though, everything was quiet. There were no signs of the creatures around, at least not right now. That was a good thing as far as she was concerned, a very good thing. It meant, if nothing else, that she could visit their small hidden back courtyard without any unwanted visitors tagging along, even if the entire way out there was more than a little nerve-wracking, watching over her shoulder at every moment.
She ducked under a broken section of fencing and stepped into the courtyard. Once again, she found herself blinking hard. While she had seen the... aura, for lack of a better word... that had occurred when Trunks-kun got his powers back, she hadn't been expecting anything like this. It almost seemed unbelievable. Why anything should be unbelievable now, she didn't know, but this? This seemed to strain credulity.
"Trunks-kun!" she finally called out, grabbing his attention. She held out the bento in one hand. "Lunch!"
He set down on the ground cautiously, only a few steps away from her, and offered her a sheepish and adorable grin. "You didn't have to bring it out here yourself, Usagi-san."
"It's not a problem. I like the view; I had to come see it more up close." And there was that faint flush again. She probably should not enjoy teasing it out of him so often, but it was wonderful to her to see it. "You didn't tell me you could fly, Trunks-kun."
He shrugged, sitting down on a broken slab of concrete with the bento, gesturing her to have a seat next to him. "Until this much of my powers came back, I couldn't." 'This much'? So she had only managed to get him part of his powers back. Maybe it would be enough. "It's only been, what, five days? Since we've been here?" She nodded. "It feels like a lot longer that I haven't had them, haven't been able to sense anything or do more than the basics of fighting. I felt like I should... get reacquainted with what I can do."
She nodded slowly. "I know what you mean. It feels like it's been forever since I've been able to transform. It's like part of me is missing." Trunks-kun nodded in commiseration without slowing down eating in the least. "Trunks-kun? Heero-kun pointed something out to me, and... What language are you speaking?"
Well, that certainly slowed him down a bit. "Japanese. Why?"
She let out a sigh of relief. "I am too. Heero-kun and Duo-kun are speaking English, though. They're hearing us speak in English. It has to be something the Reapers are doing, right?"
"Letting us understand each other, form groups and all. To keep us compliant," he surmised darkly.
"And all they have to do is cut the connection. Those of us who speak different languages..." She trailed off, not sure she really wanted to go too far into that possibility.
"They'll be bringing in people to counter us getting our powers back. We'll have to be prepared for that," he dourly predicted.
Could they even really say she had her powers back? She could make wishes on the Ginzuishou and have some of them come true, but that was about it. Until she could transform again...
Until she could transform again, she was going to have to depend on Trunks-kun--and maybe Duo-kun and Heero-kun, she added to herself--to help her stay safe. She just wasn't used to trying to fight as a regular person with no access at all to her magic. She just wasn't any good at it, as Trunks-kun trying to train her in fighting had more than proven. And she was not going to ask Heero-kun if he had a gun she could borrow to defend herself; that, she already knew, would not go over well in the least.
That settled it. She had to learn her new transformation phrase, so she could be Sailor Moon again--and maybe be of some help to her boys.
"You're thinking about something awfully hard, Usagi-san."
She started guiltily then grinned. "Well... Just trying to come up with something." She sighed, abruptly feeling a whole lot more serious. Turning to face him, she commented quietly, "Right now, I'm not a lot of help to you guys. I can't fight without my powers; you and I have already proven that; and I don't know which wishes the Ginzuishou is willing to grant. It gave you back your powers, but it wouldn't send us all home."
And really, she had some theories on that, though she wasn't too sure she was ready to voice them aloud. Either all she could do was grant wishes for other people, or else the Ginzuishou had picked up on the fact that she wasn't ready to be separated from her boys just yet.
...'her boys'? Where had that come from? When exactly had she laid claim to all three of them? Okay, she knew that she had laid claims to Trunks-kun, but when had she claimed Duo-kun and Heero-kun?
Maybe it was around the time I started adding the honorifics to their names, she decided. It seems as close to correct as anything.
"Usagi-san, I'm not sure if I can speak for Duo-san and Heero-san in this, but you've done a lot to take care of us since we've been here." Trunks-kun's arm slipped around her shoulders, and he pulled her close to his side. When he spoke again, his voice was much softer, much more intimate. "Let us take care of you where we can."
She nodded slightly; however she couldn't say for certain that she believed that. She hadn't been doing that much over the last few days. Trunks-kun was pretty self-sufficient, though he did have an unfortunate tendency to push himself hard. She made sure there was food enough for everyone and that he rested sometimes, but those were small things as far as she was concerned.
Or maybe what Trunks-kun meant was that she had stayed by all of them when they first arrived and were unconscious. It seemed like it should be insignificant to her, but apparently it meant something to Trunks-kun. Maybe people didn't do stuff like that where he came from. She just couldn't imagine leaving anyone out there in circumstances like this.
"All right," she agreed quietly. It certainly was not like she believed him, that she had done so much for the three of them that it was time for them to do for her, but it seemed like maybe it would be nice to be the one being taken care of for a change. "The minute I can transform again, though..."
"Of course." It sounded like that was an easy thing for Trunks-kun to agree to.
She let the silence stretch out for a few long minutes, before asking the other question that had been bothering her. "You said something before about having 'this much' of your powers back, Trunks-kun." He nodded. "Not all of them, though?"
"No," and he sounded reluctant to say this, like he knew she was going to take it as a personal failing, "not all of them. I have a large portion of them back, but not all of them." She opened her mouth, and it felt like it was to apologize. Instead he cut her off with a quick kiss. "Don't apologize. Having this much back is good. I wouldn't even be at this level without your help, so don't you dare apologize."
"You would have gotten them back." She wasn't sure why she could feel so certain of that, but she was. He definitely would have gotten them back.
"Maybe so, but it wouldn't have been in time for whatever it is that Duo-san and Heero-san are cooking up. I think we're on a deadline here, Usagi-san."
Given what Duo-kun had said about seeing the Reapers in their world, apparently creating a new holding pen for their prisoners or perhaps a place of their own (and leave their prisoners to the Carrions)... Yeah, they were probably on a deadline. How long it took to convert a new world, she didn't know. Months? Years maybe? But who knew how long they had been working. It could be ready to go next week or in another decade or two. There were just too many variables. They had to be prepared for sooner rather than later.
"I think we might be," she agreed.
"I'm going to go talk Tenchi-san tomorrow. It's worth a shot seeing if anyone else has ever tried to get out of here."
She nodded. "I still want to try the Thunder Emperor. If he's powerful enough that the Reapers fear him, he might be someone we can use."
"You're not going alone."
"Absolutely not! I had to break it you, but one of you guys is going to have to come with me." She bumped her shoulder against his lightly. "One of my boys is just going to have to escort me."
04 October 2012
So here I am: on time and everything.
I've been working on editing for Seven Seas most of this week, so that's eaten up a lot of my time. Also, my mum decided Tuesday evening that she's dragging me along on the vacay she's taking this weekend with my nephew. So, surprise vacation! (Isn't that always how it goes? Nothing for years then two in one year?)
This does mean that there probably won't be an update on Saturday. It all depends on if there is wifi at the place we're going or not. It looks like not, but we'll see. I've been wrong before. If there isn't wifi, then there will be an update Sunday when I get home and another on Monday.
See you guys in the next chapter!
Apollymi