~Emerald Eyes~
	~(PG) Chapter 9 By Callisto~

		"A fading Image"

	Mako snuggled into the warmth of her
 blankets, and sighed. She closed her eyes and 
drifted off into a pleasant sleep.


		Flash Back


	The girl sat still on the edge of the bed,
 absent of movement, not making so much as a 
sound. The light in the room originated from the 
dim setting sun, shining through a window. She 
hadn?t moved for hours. She was too full of fear. 
She couldn?t move.

	The deadly silence was finally broken as the 
door slowly opened and a woman walked in, and sat 
down beside the girl.

	The girl slowly looked up, her eyes wide 
with fear. "Where?s my mommy and daddy? I was 
supposed to go home yesterday Auntie. Where?s my 
mommy? Why isn?t she here?" Her voice was small 
and frightened.

	"Mako-chan. Your mommy and daddy, well... 
I?m sorry Mako-chan." Her voice cracked and she 
wiped a tear from her eye. "On their way home, 
their plane... it crashed. I?m so sorry Mako-chan.
I?m so very, very sorry..." She wiped away 
another tear, and looked up at Makoto.

	"No..." Mako whispered in unbelief. She 
stood up and glared at her aunt. "No, No, NO, 
NO!!!!!!!!!!" She shrieked and began to cry in 
huge loud sobs. "No, you?re lying!  Mommy! 
Daddy!!"

	Mako?s aunt began to cry. "I?m sorry. I?m 
sorry." She kept repeating in a whisper.

	Mako was seized with an uncontrollable fear 
and sorrow, but also of anger. Why had her 
parents gone on vacation, leaving with her aunt. 
Now she would never see them again! Why had they 
left?! She began to scream through her sobs. She 
grabbed a chair and threw it on the ground and 
kicked it, then collapsed on the bed in a flood 
of tears.

	"Mako-chan..." Her aunt said soothingly. "Is 
there anything I can do?"

	"Just leave me alone!" She cried. "Leave me 
alone!" She shrieked. Her aunt stood up slowly 
and walked out of the room crying.

	Mako cried and cried until she had no tears 
left, and then fell into a uneasy sleep. When she 
awoke in the morning, she tried to convince 
herself that it was just an awful nightmare, but 
when she sat up she noticed that she was still in 
her clothes from the day before. Then her stomach 
growled, reminding her that she had eaten no 
dinner the night before. She slowly sat, tears 
filling her eyes once again, no more of anger but 
of loneliness and fear. Where would she go? How 
could she live without her mother? Where would
she go? She was twelve years old, alone in the 
world.


	The next three days past in a fog. Mako 
didn?t speak, ate very little, and spent most of 
the time shut up in the spare bedroom she had 
been using.

	On the fourth day after the news of her 
parents death, she awoke and walked out to the 
dining room, sitting silently at the table where 
her uncle and aunt were eating breakfast.

	"Mako-chan, would you like some French toast 
today?" Her aunt asked her cheerfully. Mako 
nodded simply, not looking up. Her aunt and uncle 
exchanged a worried look.

	"Mako-chan," Her aunt persisted. "Let?s go 
shopping today and we?ll pick some things up for 
your room. Soon it will look just like you old 
room!"

	"What do you mean?" Makoto talked for the 
first time in days. "I?m going home. I?m not 
living with you. I?m not a baby! I can take care 
of myself!" Her anger grew, and she glared at her 
aunt and uncle.

	"Now, Mako-chan, I don?t think you have much 
of a choice." Her uncle told her.

	"You can?t make me live with you! You can?t! 
You?re not my parents!" She screamed at them, and 
ran into "her" bedroom, slamming the door behind 
her. She knew how her words hurt her aunt, but 
she was hurt too. They couldn?t make her feel 
better. She wanted to go home, where she 
belonged.

	Something was calling her there. The storm 
brewing inside her was restless, telling her that 
she had to go home. Her destiny awaited her 
there.

	Mako sat still on the edge of her bed, 
watching the clock as the numbers flipped. 
"Midnight." She thought. She stood up and tiptoed 
out into the dark hallway. On the table she left 
a folded up note. The she turned and left, 
disappearing into the dark of the night. She had 
to go home.

	She ran through the dark streets, cold and 
lonely. The wind was fierce and cold. It was dawn 
before she had reached her home. She looked at it 
with silent gratitude. She was home. Up to floor 
five, down the hall and through the door. It was 
all the same. It comforted her. 

	She walked to her mother?s rocker and curled 
up on the soft cushion, breathing in deep. It 
smelled warm and sweet, like her mother. She 
closed her eyes and slept, dreaming of her mother 
and father.

	"Crash!!" Lightning crashed and the thunder 
growled in reply. Mako sat up, startled out of 
her sleep. "Mother." She whispered sadly, as she 
snuggled back under the covers, attempting to 
fall back asleep. But she lay there, comforted by 
the sound of rain splashing against her window.

	She could remember the events following her 
parent?s death like they had happened the day 
before, but for the first time, she realized what 
had been calling her back home to central Tokyo.

	After two years of living alone, independent 
and unbelievably lonely. She would go to bed, no 
one telling her good night, or how much they 
loved her. She would leave for school in the 
morning, no one telling her to have a good day, 
and returning home with no one to greet her or 
ask how her day had gone.

	School had been even worse. She had no 
friends. Everyone was scared of her. After her 
parents died, she hid all of her sorrow under a 
blanket of anger. She was constantly getting into 
fights, and the more fights she got into the more 
people were scared of her, and the lonelier she 
felt.

	She was transferred to four different Junior 
Highs in two years for sending students to the 
hospital. She couldn?t control her anger towards 
the world for leaving her alone. She had no 
friends, no one to talk to. She was strong, and 
never let anyone see the pain she was going 
through, but she was dying on the inside. 
Tormented and hurt by the excruciating pain of 
loneliness.

	After sending a boy to the hospital for 
making fun of her and calling her a, "Macho 
killer woman." She was transferred once more. It 
made no difference. She was leaving nothing 
behind except a bunch of kids who feared and 
ridiculed her.

	On her way to school that day Mako turned 
the corner and saw something that enraged her. 
There three large men were picking on an innocent 
girl. Mako quickly disposed of them, and sent 
them on their way. She then turned to leave, and 
made her way to school.

	The morning was sunny and warm later on as 
Mako sat down to eat her lunch alone at her new 
school. She was used to eating alone, but as she 
ate, she heard a noise behind her. She spun 
around and saw the girl she had met on the way to 
school.  She was smiling happily.

	"Hi." the girl said.

	"Hi. You?re the girl I met on the way to 
school today, right?"

	"Yea. You remember me?"

	"Sure. Would you like to eat lunch with me?" 
Mako didn?t know why, but she had the distinct 
feeling that this girl was special. She could 
feel that the kindness she was showing her was 
genuine and friendly, not the kindness given when 
you?re trying to stay on the good side of someone 
you?re afraid will beat you up.

	"Of course I will!" The girl cried happily.

	"You?re the first person who?s talked to me 
all day." Mako said sadly, she should have been 
used to it by now, but it still disappointed her.

	"Oh, their just scared of your reputation.? 
The girl explained. "But not me! Wow! You?re 
mother cooks very good!" She exclaimed as she ate 
a rice ball.

	"Oh, my mother didn?t make it. I did." Mako 
explained.

	
	"It was Usagi, and the others. They were the 
reason I knew I had to come back here." Mako 
thought as she lie in bed listening to the rain. 
"Usagi was the first real friend I ever had. She 
looked at me and saw a real person, not just a 
strong girl. It was my destiny to meet Usagi and 
become a senshi. Somehow, I always knew it. Deep 
inside, I always knew."

	The rain stopped and sun peaked through the 
clouds. Mako climbed out of bed and walked out 
onto the balcony and looked at the sky. The clouds 
were soft and light, no longer angry and strong.
They rolled away in the wind, leaving sunlight. Mako 
looked out and saw a fading image of the emerald 
eyes, disappearing with the storm.

	"Something else is waiting for me." Makoto 
thought. "My destiny is not yet complete."