Frankly, she wasn't too sure what to think yet. If the Reapers were gone and this was all over... then what? What came next? As far as she knew, there was nothing written after this point.
It just didn't seem possible for it to be over. It had seemed like such long odds going into this fight that it didn't seem like it should be over already. Of course, she had no real way of telling just how long it had been, but it didn't feel like that. And it also felt like it had been forever. Battles tended to be like that, in her estimation, from her experience.
And yet, somehow, despite the impossible odds, they had pulled out ahead. They had managed to scrape out a win. And yes, now that she looked, she did see some of their people were down. No one she recognized, so probably not anyone she had given powers to as Usagi, but there was no guarantee on that. Even if she didn't recognize them, her heart still broke a bit. It was hard taking people into battle, knowing not all of them would come back alive.
But she had made a decision earlier with Heero-kun, and there was no time like now to go for it. After this, though, she was going to pack up her powers and not use them again for as long as she could. She needed a break. She needed a break and her boys.
The links everyone had to their original worlds were already starting to fade, so it really was now or never.
Later on, she would never be able to say what it was she had done to connect all those people to someone close to them again. She wouldn't even be able to describe what it felt like or what she had overheard. There were quick snippets: "Yue, I..." "Akane-san..." "Kazu-chan..." "Kaasan, it's me..."
She did remember that last bit, mostly because it was Trunks-kun's voice and, more than anything else, that meant she had done it: she had managed to successfully connect everyone with someone from his or her own world. It meant she had done it after all. It meant she had done it and she could relax now.
Well, no, actually she couldn't. Not yet.
"Usagi-chan?"
Of all the Sailor Senshi, she had had her own ideas about which ones she was close enough with to reach for this. She knew it was going to be either Minako-chan or Rei-chan. Given Rei-chan's abilities, she had been fairly certain that she would be who Usagi managed to reach. It was Minako-chan's voice she was hearing in her mind, though. That worked just as well for her purposes.
"Hey there, Minako-chan," she returned.
"Oh my God, Usagi-chan! I-- We thought-- Are you all right? Where are you? Are you coming home? You are all right, aren't you?!"
And that was all a bit more overwrought than she would have expected for Minako-chan, even with her sudden disappearance. It was actually pretty close to hysterical, and that didn't make a lot of sense. Minako-chan could be one of the coolest heads in a crisis that she knew, given her time both as Sailor V and Sailor Venus.
What was going on here?
"I'm okay." She deliberately worked her hardest to keep her exhaustion from leaking through into the conversation, such as it was. "I promise I'm okay, Minako-chan, but... I'm not coming home. I can't come home."
"You have to, Usagi-chan! I mean... it's been almost two years since you vanished, and we hadn't heard anything form you, and everyone's still looking for you. Mamoru-san has been frantic. We all have been!"
Two... years? But... "It's only been two weeks here..." she numbly returned. Two weeks on that strange other world was two years on her own world. That was just too bizarre for words. "It's only been two weeks, not two years."
"Trust me, Usagi-chan: it's been two years. You have to come home."
She found herself shaking her head, even though presumably Minako-chan would never be able to see it. "I can't, Minako-chan. I can't. You have to believe me."
She could almost hear the other blonde girl take a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Why not, Usagi-chan? What's going on?"
"These creatures grabbed me at the airport--that's the last thing on our world I remember, after all--and brought me to this strange world. I was there two weeks before we beat the Reapers. We're all on a different world now, but I can't move to another one again. It's too much for me to do again."
Slowly, reluctantly, she could feel Minako-chan beginning to come around. "So there's no way for you to come back at all then, Usagi-chan?"
"I don't know of any way, Minako-chan. It's beyond me and the Ginzuishou now, and I don't think Setsuna-san can get here. And... I'm... I don't I want to leave here. Not now." She didn't know how much longer she would have two of her boys, now that they were all in Heero-kun and Duo-kun's own world, but she definitely still had Trunks-kun, and there was no way she was giving him up so easily. Not now.
And that was funny: she could almost feel Minako-chan's interest perk. "Oh? Do tell, Usagi-chan."
Cautiously--she didn't know what she was doing, and she didn't want to accidentally hurt Minako-chan in doing this--she tried to send the other blonde a mental image of Trunks-kun. "I'm not leaving Trunks-kun."
"Damn, Usagi-chan." And that sounded appreciative enough that, if Trunks-kun had been able to hear it, he definitely would have gone blood red. "You did damn good. I want details. I want all the dirty details. It's been two years, and I need gossip. Gimme!"
And that was the Minako-chan she remembered so well: always a virtual garden of irreverent thoughts about exceptional members of the opposite sex. It was good--it was so good--to know that some things never really changed at all. No matter what the circumstances and no matter what world she was on, her friendship with Minako-chan was always going to stay the same.
She relayed everything she felt comfortable sharing, which was to say almost everything, even as she felt herself starting to grow even more tired than she had been before. Finally, she made herself peter out the girl talk.
"Minako-chan?" She paused until she heard an acknowledging sound from her friend. "I--I can't hold this much longer. I need to go. Tell everyone..." What could she have Minako-chan tell them that would be appropriate? "Tell them I love them and I'll miss them, but I'm in a good place. Tell them everything will be okay. Tell them goodbye for me."
It sounded so final, saying it like that, but it was the truth: she didn't think she could move even a single other person through the worlds again, let alone all of them. She would miss her old friends, but it was time for the next chapter of her life to start.
After knowing her future--Crystal Tokyo, Neo Queen Serenity, and all the rest of it--for so long, it was weird moving towards a brand new, unknown future.
She was looking forward to it.
08 November 2012
One chapter left to go. Today marks the last of the actual prompts, and tomorrow's is a writer's choice to make a total of 50 prompts/stories.
See you in the next chapter!
Apollymi