Disclaimers: Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, but this story belongs to me.
This story is dedicated to Emily, whose birthday was last Friday. Happy Birthday Emilemilee.
*Note on ages: Darien is four years older
than Serena, and six years older than Ashleigh, leaving them at 18, 14,
and 12, respectively. I know this doesn't fit with the anime (especially
that scene in the R movie; my version would have made Serena be 2, but
she looked 3 or 4 at least). Anyway, not everything can fit right?
Besides, I think in the manga they were 3 years apart, so it's not that
far off.
On to the story!
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Little Sister
Part 3
by Marie-chan
When they reach Serena’s house, they see Darien’s
motorcycle, with him leaning against
it. The girls run up, and Ashleigh tells him that she’ll be back
in a minute, then runs inside to
change out of her uniform. Darien asks Serena how their day went.
She says, “Oh, pretty well. I
think Ashleigh has a crush on the new guy in school. She was
kind of mad when she found out
what you asked me to do, though. Why do you protect her so much,
Darien?” He tells her, after a moment, “Well, I don’t think Ash remembers,
but when she was really little, stuff would always happen when she was
around. Weird things; more than coincidences. I think it was
some strange power of hers. The other kids at the orphanage knew about
it, and they were afraid of her. No one would play with her, except
me. Some of the older kids used to try to beat her up. One
day, she used her powers to defend herself, and one of the boys got hurt
pretty bad. After that, she swore never to use her powers again.
She never did, as far as I know. A few months later, on a day when
I was away from the orphanage, and Ashleigh was by herself there, those
same kids--led by the one she'd hurt--decided to go after her, since I
wasn’t there. They started beating her up, and pretty soon other
kids started joining in. By the time they pulled everybody off of
her, she was near death.
They sent her to the hospital for surgery. As soon as I got the
news, I went straight there.” The
scene fades to another of Darien’s memories.
Darien is sitting next to Ashleigh’s hospital bed.
She is sleeping, and looks to be about 5
years old and Darien looks about 11. There’s a bandage on her
head and on one of her arms.
Darien is crying. “I promise I’ll never let anything bad happen
to you again, Ashleigh, but just
don’t go!” Suddenly the line on her heart monitor goes flat,
and an alarm goes off. Nurses run in
and Darien cries, “No!” The nurses push him out of the way and
prepare to shock her. Darien
shouts, “Ashleigh, you can’t die, you can’t! Please don’t leave
me!” They shock her, but it
doesn’t have any effect. They get ready to try again, and a doctor
says, “Clear,” and they shock
her, but her pulse still doesn’t restart. Darien cries, “Ashleigh,
please forgive me!” They shock
her one more time, and finally her monitor starts to bleep again, indicating
a heartbeat. Darien
pushes through the crowd around her bed and hugs her, tears of joy
streaming down his cheeks. The memory fades as a nurse tells him
that he’ll have to leave.
Darien tells Serena that ever since then he’s kept
his promise (that is, until the orphanage blew up), and they’ve always
been really close. Darien says that that was when he decided he wanted
to be a doctor. “We both had opportunities to be adopted, but we
turned them down, since they couldn’t take us both. People always
asked us if she was my little sister.” Just then Ashleigh comes out
wearing a worn out pleated skirt and a tattered sweater that’s too big
for her. She asks him if he remembers it. A picture flashes
in his head. It’s Christmas and Ashleigh is wearing the sweater and
smiling. The bottom is past her ankles, and her hands are where the
elbows should be.
Ashleigh tells Serena that Darien gave her his sweater
one Christmas since she didn’t have
anything to wear when it was cold out. She says that it had been
one of his presents, but she hadn’t
gotten any, so he’d given it to her. Darien smiles and says it’s
still too big. Suddenly he says,
“We need to get you some new clothes, Ash.” She asks why, and
states that there’s nothing
wrong with the clothes she has now. He says that when a piece
of clothing is six years old, and is
falling apart, it’s time to get some new clothes. She says, “Well...O.K.,
but only if I get to keep
my sweater.” And Darien agrees, “I wouldn’t even dream of trying
to take it away from you.” he
jokes. Renie comes out and greets them. Then Darien suggests
that he give the girls his credit
card and they take Ashleigh on a shopping trip. Renie says that
she doesn’t think that’s such a good idea. Darien protests, “But I don’t know anything about girls’
clothes!” Then Serena suggests that
Darien come with them, and then he can approve the clothes, and watch
his money. He agrees
that this is a good idea. He tells her to call all the other
girls and ask if they can come shopping
tomorrow. Darien says he and Ashleigh had better leave, or they’ll
be late getting to the police
station.
Darien gets on his motorcycle and Ashleigh gets
on behind him and he hands her an extra
helmet. They put their helmets on and Darien backs down the driveway.
Serena and Renie wave
to them and Ashleigh waves back, and Darien calls, “See you later!”
Ashleigh reminds him to not
go too fast. Darien gets a mischievous look in his eyes and suddenly
they take off at hyperspeed.
Ashleigh yells at him.
The scene changes to the girls at the temple.
Serena and Renie are bringing the rest of
them up to date on what’s been happening since Ashleigh came.
“It was so strange,” Serena tells
them, “what she said that first night, about the orphanage getting
blown up being her fault.” Then
Renie corrects her, “She didn’t say it was her fault; she said
it was because of her.” Serena asks
if that’s not the same thing. Lita says she doesn’t know.
Amy suggests that maybe Ashleigh
meant that someone blew up the orphanage because she was there.
Then Mina says, “Yeah,
maybe it didn’t have anything to do with the orphanage at all.”
Then her eyes widen and she says,
“What if someone wanted to kill Ashleigh!” Raye rolls her eyes.
Renie says, “Who would want
to kill Ashleigh? She’s so nice, I bet she’s never hurt anyone!”
Serena hears Darien’s voice in her
head, telling her about how Ashleigh had hurt that boy at the orphanage.
She thinks that maybe
someone was trying to get revenge for a similar incident, maybe even
that same boy from the
orphanage. She decides, however, not to tell the other girls
of her idea...yet. She wouldn’t feel
right telling them what Darien had shared with her. Then she
decides to tell Darien and see what
he thinks.
On the UFO, Rubeus is looking at a picture of Ashleigh
in one of the crystals, frowning. He is
angry that his attack failed to destroy her. Just then, the Wise
Man appears. He asks if Rubeus
has had any progress in his attempt to locate the Silver Crystal.
He says no, then tells the Wise
Man about the mysterious girl who recently appeared, “I attempted to
destroy her, but she is
sneaky, and slipped from under my grasp. She seems familiar,
somehow. Could it be that she is
from the future?” The Wise Man looks at the picture and snarls,
“She’s not from the future, but
she still lives there. Don’t you recognize her, you fool?”
Rubeus says he does not, so the Wise
Man says, “Who, besides the Queen of Crystal Tokyo, is our most hated
enemy?” Understanding
shines in Rubeus’s eyes along with hatred.
To be continued.....
So, what did you think? I'm begging you, send me mail! See
you next time, I've got to get to typing up more of the story!
Marie-chan