"Mercury Switch" by Devin de Gruyl (the is-this-getting-weird-enough-for-you-yet? Kid) Part 4 --- I tried to speak, but whatever I said merely came out as an unintelligible gurgle. This is generally what happens to your voice whenever a big, powerful, and ENRAGED woman has a vise-grip on your throat. Nor was Lita about to let up. "I SAID TALK, DAMN YOU!!" she screamed, still not releasing me. I felt myself go light-headed due to the lack of oxygen. Struggling to maintain consciousness - anything was better than passing out again - I forced myself to speak. All I got out was, "...can't speak... if... I can't... breathe..." A glimmer of comprehension shone through Lita's fury. She slowly relaxed her grip on my neck... but I wasn't free and clear yet, as she immediately grabbed the "sailor" collar of my uniform and pulled me into a seated position. "OK... now start talking!" I played stupid, even though I had a pretty good idea what this was all about. "What about?" asked the very picture of innocence. Lita's eyes narrowed. "Tell me who you are." "I'm Ami, Lita!" "Oh, no you don't. I mean your REAL name!" I still pretended I didn't know what she was talking about, however; it was obvious now that she *wouldn't* be sympathetic to my plight after all, so the longer I could keep the charade going, the better. "You look like her, you sound like her... maybe you even TALK like her," Lita was saying, "but I can see it in your eyes, the way you carry yourself, and the things you do! YOU'RE NOT HER! Don't ask me how, or why, but I just *know*! And don't lie to me and say you don't know what I'm talking about, either!" I gulped audibly. "So you better start telling me WHO you are, and WHY you've done this... or I'll tear your head off and use it as a DOORSTOP!" Now finished with her tirade, she released her death-grip on my collar, stood up, and impatiently waited for a reply. I thought. "All right, all right. You wanna know the truth?" Lita folded her arms across her chest. "Duh!" "OK, then... the truth. But I gotta warn you, you'll NEVER believe THIS story..." "TRY me." Her tone lowered the room temperature several degrees. And with that, I spilled my guts. I spent the next ten minutes telling her absolutely EVERYTHING that had happened to me: waking up in a body that was not my own; the confusion of trying to learn just who I was supposed to be; the strange intuition that had been my helping hand throughout this day; the bizarre incident at the comic-book shop; ALL of it. I let her know my real name, who I was, where I was from, and everything about me that I could think of in such a short span of time. Finally, finished, I sat back and shut my eyes, quietly waiting for Lita to explode... ...and waited... ...and waited... ...and waited... Realizing that I was still alive, I opened one eye just a crack. Rather than seething with even more rage, or accusing me of being a liar, or anything like that (which is what I was expecting), Lita appeared almost... thoughtful. Several awkward moments passed, during which neither of us said a single word - Lita pondering, me growing increasingly more nervous with each passing microsecond. Then, finally, just when I thought I couldn't handle the suspense any longer, her lips parted: "I..." I braced myself for the worst... "...I... believe you." I blinked several times, not comprehending, too petrified to comprehend. "...believe... me... ?" She nodded. "It's the craziest, cock-and-bull story I think I've ever heard in my life... but somehow - don't ask me why - I think you're telling the truth." She chuckled softly, to herself. "I dunno... maybe it's just because nobody in their right mind could MAKE UP that kind of tall tale..." I laughed. "Tell me about it!" We both laughed at that. At last, the tension was broken... and finally, FINALLY, I had somebody I could talk to. "But, if you're not Ami," Lita said, turning serious again, "then where is she?" "I've got a theory about that..." "Oh? Let's hear it." I took a deep breath - this was it. My first chance to test my hypothesis out on somebody else... myself included. "I think she's... still HERE, somewhere." Lita looked puzzled. "She's... what?" "In HERE," I repeated, indicating my head and, by implication, my mind. "Remember, I told you that all day long, I've had a sort of 'inner voice' that guided me through Ami's day; telling me the right classes to go to, all of your names, and so on, right?" "Right... then, you think that voice was Ami? How's that possible?" "I'm not entirely sure... My guess is that she's buried so deep in my mind, that all she can do is sort of nudge me in the right direction. She can't come right out and tell me, so these instructions just sort of *come* to me, and I interpret it as intuition. ...At least, that's my theory." "I see... I think. But, HOW did this happen?" "Ah. Now THAT'S the $64,000 Question, isn't it? I have *no* idea how this hap --" I stopped, a nearly-forgotten memory rushing back into my mind. "WAAAAAAIT a minute... That dream I had... that woman I saw... maybe she's responsible for it?" From the way Lita stared at me, I thought I'd put my foot in it yet again. "Well, I know it sounds like a bad comic-book plot," I hastily amended, "but it's all I can think --" "N-no," Lita said, as if she was unsure of what she should say. "It's perfectly understandable. In fact, I think that's *exactly* what happened." Her tone was reminiscent of someone trying to fabricate a story to a mental patient... an attempt to kill time and stall, while the guys in the white padded van made their way to the house to cart the head-case off. I started to take offense at that. the more rational part of my mind reminded me. Still, I detested being talked down to like that, and said as much. "I'm NOT talking down to you," Lita replied, "but... uh... nnnnnno... if you're telling the truth about not being Ami, I don't think you're QUITE ready to hear about it yet..." "Hear about what?" "Oh, nothing - don't worry about it. ...Hey, I think I know a way to test your theory!" "Really?" "Yeah! Just hang on while I get Rei, I need to ask her if she can do this... By the way, you're not scared of fire, are you?" Suddenly, I felt an intense desire to return to the state of unconsciousness. Unfortunately, this time, my body was considerably less cooperative towards that end than it had been earlier. --- It turned out that Lita's "idea" involved all of us converging in this large room of the shrine, where a large (and obviously ceremonial) fire burned brightly. Here, the one called Rei instructed me to lay on my back in front of the fire, and to close my eyes and concentrate only on her voice. That done, she assumed a position of prayer, so that I was directly between her and the fire. She then started a series of chants that I strained to make out, but couldn't. , I couldn't help but wonder. Then, the strangest feeling I'd ever had in my entire life (and now, that was REALLY saying something) took place. Some indescribable... SOMETHING... touched my... my soul, for lack of a better word. I later found out that the whole thing lasted only a split-second of real time, but to me, living it, it seemed to be an eternity. Never before had I experienced anything quite like this. It was... almost indecent, the way this was. "Mental rape" is the closest thing I can think of to describe it, only it wasn't sexual in nature at all. This went beyond any sex that I'd ever heard of, beyond physicality, beyond anything at all anybody I knew would have any experience with... Then, as abruptly as the contact had been made, it broke off again - and I was left with a momentary feeling of intense loneliness. That was, thankfully, replaced by a more immediate conern; Sensing that the ritual, whatever it was, was now over, I judged that it was now OK for me to get up, so I did. The first thing I saw when my eyes opened was Rei, her head thrown back, and her spine arched as if somebody had just thrown her body out of alignment. Gradually, she regained her composure, and looked at me with a sense of... wonder? Fear? I could never be sure. At length, she spoke. "It's true... it must be... I sensed TWO souls in this body." "Then she - I mean HE - was right about Ami?" Mina asked. "You saw her?" "Damndest 'he' I'VE ever seen," Lita commented. Rei nodded. "Well, I didn't actually SEE anything in that trance, Mina. What I experienced is... really indescribable to a lay person. But yes - Ami's still 'in there', but it's almost like she's... ah... asleep." Serena looked puzzled. "Asleep? She looks wide awake to me..." Rei gave her a look. "'Asleep,' in the sense that her consciousness is too deeply buried to contact directly. This Darren person seems to be in full control over Ami's body, somehow..." "Well, now we've established that I'm not a liar," I broke in, "maybe we can move on to more pressing matters? Like, for example, how to get me back to my REAL body? Because, no offense, but I'm REALLY starting to think that I'm not cut out for this life..." Silence. Apparently, nobody had even thought of a possible solution to my problem. Nobody, that is, except Serena. "Well," she said, thoughtfully, "maybe if she tried transformin --" "NO!" Rei yelled at her, then moved to whisper something in her ear. At least, she DID, until what I said next stopped her cold. "I'd already thought of that..." The silence was deafening. The only person who appeared unfazed by that announcement was Serena, it seemed. "Well, why haven't you tried doing it yet? Hasn't Ami told you how?" "Actually, no, she hasn't 'told' me *anything*," I replied. "She can't communicate with me directly, I don't think. It's just that --" I never finished that sentence. Because just then, the fire behind me suddenly flared brilliantly, which caught us all by surprise. I quickly glanced over to Rei, hoping that perhaps this was just some part of the ritual she'd forgotten about, but no luck - she was just as shocked as we were at the behavior of the flames. Then, as if that weren't enough, I heard a sinister-sounding laughter. And then... a face appeared in the flames. I couldn't believe it - but then again, I'd suspected as much. It was the woman from my "dream." (As opposed to the woman OF my dreams, I guess. More like '...of my nightmares.') --- End of Part 4. Legal Eagles Take Note: Sailor Moon is TM and Copyright (C) 1992 Naoko Takeuchi / Kodansha / Toei Animation / Bandai. English Language Adaptation is Copyright (C) 1997 DIC Productions, L.P. Any product names mentioned herein are TM and Copyright (C) their respective owners. All rights reserved. No claim of ownership, expressed or implied, is made in the use of these trademarked names, characters, and likenesses. The character of Darren McCormick and this story, however, are my creations. - Devin de Gruyl June 1998