Chapter Five: MacManus Industries

Usagi was curled up in a corner with some of my manga. Chibi-Usa and Hotaru were snuggled together in another corner, and Michiru and Haruka were watching them from near the devastated remains of the feast Makoto had prepared, with the look of parents who'd just realized their little girl was growing up. Ami, Minako, Makoto, and Rei were talking about the things they needed to do before the wedding: the gowns, the flowers, the catering, all of it. I sat with my back against a wall beneath a Nuku Nuku poster, watching this group who'd quickly become more of a family to me than my own blood.

"When you get a chance, you should look in your laboratory," Setsuna murmured softly. I blinked in surprise; she hadn't been there a minute ago. She smiled that mysterious smile of hers and slipped away as silently as she'd arrived.

I shrugged and pushed myself to my feet, making a mental note to try and find a way to register time disturbances. The others were still busy with their own activities as I slipped down the hall to my lab and stared in surprise at what was filling the center of the room.

Somehow, she'd managed to get her hands on a nylon extruder, and had left it in the center of the room, along with a note stuck to my monitor that read, "Remember, the Senshi don't need machines to access hyperspace. It's a matter of heart, not mechanics."

I sat and looked at the note for several minutes, then got up to dump a bag of Lexan pellets in the extruder's hopper. I followed that with a pound of industrial diamond dust and started the agitator. After a minute, I felt something - I'm not sure what - and knew it was time to start the extrusion process. I flipped the switch and placed my hands on the core of the machine, where the final transformation would take place. With my eyes closed, I could see the molecules dancing under the pressure of the system. All they needed was a little nudge to make them come together the way I wanted...a nudge that, I saw in a flash of inspiration, I could give them myself. All I had to do was reach out with my mind...

"Bill! Bill! Wake up!" Ami's voice came to me as if through a long tunnel, and I realized the machine wasn't running anymore.

I opened my eyes and saw we were surrounded by a pile of monofilament thread. I released my grip on the machine and looked at Ami, suddenly aware of how tired I was. The other Senshi were gathered just inside the lab, looking around uncertainly.

"I did it," I whispered, leaning against my angel.

"You did it? You did what?" Ami asked, holding me up so I didn't fall.

"MacManusite."

"MacManusite? You mean, all this thread is MacManusite?"

I slid to the floor, too tired to stand, and nodded. Ami knelt beside me, supporting me as I sank, then picked up some of the thread and looked at it curiously.

"It looks like nylon."

"You can test it...try to destroy it. If it breaks, it's not good enough."

"Would one of you like to tell us what's going on?" Haruka demanded. "Why is there a piece of factory machinery in your house?"

"It's a nylon extruder," I smiled tiredly up at her. She must have realized how drained I was, because she was suddenly beside me, helping Ami support me. "I think I just made my first batch of MacManusite."

"OK, so what's MacManusite?"

"The material we're going to use to build the Crystal Palace." Usagi plucked Setsuna's note off the computer and laughed. "She gets into everything, doesn't she? But what does she mean?"

"This," I mumbled and reached into the air above Ami, retrieving her computer. The effort took the last of my strength, and I collapsed against Haruka, dropping the computer on my lap.

"How'd he do that?" Usagi asked in surprise, the last thing I heard as I surrendered to exhaustion.

"Do you always push yourself like that?" Haruka asked. I was laying on my bed, with Ami sitting on one side of me, and Haruka sitting on the edge of the bed on the other side. The others were gathered around the bed, looking worriedly down at me. I smiled weakly and waved at them. Ami caught my hand and kissed it gently.

"I don't know, Haruka. Until last week, just walking across the park was as much effort for me as what I did tonight. My body was in such horrible condition that I dreamed of inventing working cybernetics to replace most of it. So...I haven't really had a working body for long enough to know the answer to your question."

"Aside from your weight, what was wrong with you?"

"Arthritis, sleep disorder, asthma, some kind of chronic pain problem, sleep apnea, did I get them all?" Ami answered for me. I smiled and nodded.

"Actually, the asthma was secondary to hypersensitivity to every synthetic chemical in existence plus a long list of natural ones. And the sleep disorder and pain disorder were the same problem: fibromyalgia." I shrugged with a half smile. "Those problems are all gone now, though. I still feel giddy from the lack of pain, though. I guess it's what the doctors kept warning me I'd feel from the pain medicines. They thought it was a narcotic effect, though. Shows how little most doctors know."

"Hey! I'm going to be a doctor!" Ami protested, punching my arm. She smiled and kissed the spot she'd punched, then added, "But I know what you mean. My mother complains about it a lot. And the medical schools here in Japan don't believe fibromyalgia is a real illness. They treat people who suffer from it as if they're malingering."

"They do a lot of that in the States, too. It's bad enough that people suffering from it have had to form networks just to help each other, since the doctors won't."

"Hmm...so you weren't kidding when you said that you hadn't been pain-free in so long you'd forgotten what it felt like." Haruka chuckled softly. "Well, now that you have something to compare it to, what do you think?"

"Remember the night we fought the giant demon worm?"

"And you managed to find the only ice on the pond to crash into when you fell off it? Yes."

"Well, the pain of breaking through that ice was about the same as one of my least painful days before." At her look of disbelief, I nodded. "I'm serious. That was the least pain I could ever look forward to. Now do you understand why I said that being killed didn't hurt all that much?"

"I never realized...." Haruka's voice was barely audible. She has so much love in her; if she weren't afraid to show it, she'd be as dangerous as Usagi.

"No wonder you're not afraid to fight beside us," Ami murmured wonderingly. "The only way an enemy could defeat you would be to turn you back the way you were before you died."

I shuddered at the thought. Ami was right: that was the only thing that scared me. Then again, it had always scared me, even when I was a kid. Dying wasn't anything special, but being forced to endure permanent pain had always been my greatest fear. Ami felt my shudder and hugged me tightly, stroking my hair.

"So that's MacManusite?" Usagi asked suddenly. I blessed her silently for giving me something to think about besides my fear.

"I hope so. If not, I drained myself for nothing. Did all of you try to destroy it?"

"My Flame Sniper didn't even soften it," Rei said, a tone of wonder in her voice.

"And my Crescent Beam didn't cut it," Minako added.

"It just soaked up my thunder," Makoto said.

"None of us could damage it," Usagi said. "Except maybe Sailor Pluto or Sailor Saturn. Setsuna's not here, though, and I didn't want to ask Hotaru to work...not tonight." She smiled at the young couple, whose fingers were entwined as they watched me with expressions of worry on their faces.

"Hey...if I'm going to be stuck in bed until I get my energy back, the least you could do is bring me some pudding, sprout." I grinned as Chibi-Usa laughed and stuck her tongue out at me.

"Get it yourself, lazybones!"

I laughed, relieved at having been able to ease at least one person's worries.

"I think I will." I pushed myself upright, and swayed unsteadily while Ami and Haruka supported me. "Woo...guess I'm a bit more wiped than I thought. Is there any tea left?"

"No tea for you, love." Ami took over, pushing me back down on the bed. "The only thing you're going to do is sleep. And you're not getting out of that bed until you're rested enough to do it on your own."

Haruka nodded, squeezed my hand, and moved to join the others as Usagi started herding them out of the room.

"Haruka?" She turned around at my call. "Thank you, sis." The smile on her face was worth the extra effort. Ami kissed me and promised to return just as soon as the others were on their way home.

"Mmm...," I turned and reached for my love as she slid beneath the covers beside me. She snuggled against me, kissed the tip of my nose, and buried her face in my chest, shuddering in my arms as she cried silently for a minute before looking up into my worried gaze.

"I'm sorry," she murmured softly and kissed me. "When I saw you in your lab...I was so scared. I was afraid I'd lost you...already."

"You're not going to lose me that easily, Ami." I stroked her cheek and looked into her eyes with all the determination I could muster. "I will never leave you, no matter what happens. Even death will not keep us apart."

She sighed and snuggled against me, her head under my chin and her fingers drawing tracks in the fur on my chest. "What happened tonight, Bill? What made you drain yourself like that?"

"I'm not so sure I'm drained, sweetheart." I nuzzled her hair and thought a moment before continuing. "It's more like...Did you ever do something silly, like try to run a marathon without getting in shape first? That's what I feel like. I guess a hundred pounds of MacManusite is a little much to start with. I should have worked up to it, but when I read Setsuna's note, I suddenly understood what I've been doing wrong all this time, and knew how to do it right."

"And you didn't think of the demands on your system before doing it." Ami laughed softly and kissed me. "Silly love, magic is just as much work as martial arts. It's just a different kind of work."

"Magic? But all I did was-" Ami's finger pressed against my lips and she nodded.

"Magic. All magic is, is using your will to make things happen. When we use our powers as Senshi, we're using magic. When I use my computer, it's a different kind of magic, but it's still magic. When you write a book, you're doing magic of a sort. And now that you're with us, magic will make up a big part of your life."

"Mmm..." I sucked her finger into my mouth and gently nibbled, bringing a squeak and giggle as she blushed with anticipation. When I let go, I smiled and whispered, "If you want to make that kind of magic, you're going to have to do the physical work. Do you think you're up for it?"

"The question is, are you up for it?" she laughed and pushed me on my back, straddling my waist and arching her back to display herself for my admiring gaze. She purred happily as she felt the affirmative answer to her question.

"Hi, Usagi! Can you do me a favor?" Usagi looked up from her textbook as I set a bag down on the table beside her. "I've had one of my books translated into manga, and I'd like you to tell me what you think of the translation."

The look of gratitude on her face was so wonderful, I realized I'd go almost as far to see it as I would to see Ami's smile.

"You brought manga? Let me see!" No doubt about it - Usagi was more of an otaku than me. And that's going some.

I took the book out of the bag - a proof copy of the first Knights in Tarnished Armor manga, a collection of KITA short stories. It had taken some work to keep the manga company in line with what I had written, but I didn't want them to butcher it the way they'd butchered Lensmen.

Usagi laughed at the cover and pointed to where Eve and Diana flanked Ben protectively.

"That looks like the way Rei and Minako are sometimes. And those two look like Michiru and Haruka!" I chuckled as she pointed at Alex and Lauren.

"They are, kind of. The black girl - her name's Lauren - is a lot like Michiru would be if she were a priestess like Rei and as mysterious as Setsuna. The Gypsy - her name is Alex - is kind of what Haruka would be like if she had your impulsiveness and absolutely no inhibitions."

"No inhibitions?" Usagi blushed and glanced back down at the manga.

"Well...two inhibitions. She won't knowingly hurt Lauren, and she won't force herself on someone who doesn't want her. Otherwise...none." I grinned as Usagi's blush spread all the way to her scalp. She's so innocent, it's nice to blow her mind with something nice sometimes. "I should warn you...a few of the stories are a little ecchi."

I chuckled as her blush deepened while she reached for the book. Just as I'd expected; Usagi's sweet and innocent, but she's a normal, healthy woman. I grabbed a can of green tea from a vending machine and settled into the chair across from her while she started reading.

Ami was supposed to meet us so Usagi could help her pick out a wedding dress, so I wasn't in any hurry. Usagi gasped and squeaked a few times as she read, then looked up at me with tears in her eyes and a radiant smile.

"You understand," she murmured, reaching out to offer her hand. I gave it a gentle squeeze, more than a little confused. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one who sees it - that being human is what's in your heart, not how you were born."

"I don't know," I murmured with an embarrassed smile. "It's always seemed obvious to me. If you have love in your heart, you're human - no matter what species your DNA is from. Or whether you even have DNA."

"Artemis and Luna would be indignant to hear that," she giggled. "After all, cats are the superior species."

I had to join in her laughter. The image of their reaction to being called human was just too comical.

"Is this a private joke?" Ami's voice asked as her hands slid across my shoulders and up the back of my neck.

"Just imagining how Artemis and Luna would react to being called human." As I explained to Ami, Usagi let out a fresh peal of laughter. Ami chuckled in agreement and settled into the seat beside me.

"What brought that up?" She purred contentedly as I drew her close to my side and shared my tea.

"I just asked Usagi to tell me what she thinks of the manga translation of my short stories. The first story she read was 'Becoming Human'."

"The one about how Ben and Eve met? That's a sweet story." Ami looked up at me with a contented smile.

"It's more than that." It's still kind of strange to hear Usagi being serious. We all know she has the potential, but we're so used to her being the stereotypical blonde that it's a surprise when she shows her deeper side. "It shows that he understands what it means to be human."

"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" Ami's eyes as they gazed up at me were frankly adoring. I blushed and ducked my head to kiss her.

"He blushes as nice as Mamoru, doesn't he?" Usagi teased. Ami giggled and nodded. Between the two of them, I felt as if my face were going to spontaneously combust.

Usagi suddenly squealed and jumped to her feet, stuffing her books into her bag. I was glad to see her include the manga among them.

"We've got to run or we'll be late, late, late!"

Ami looked at her for a moment, then broke into laughter as she rose from her seat.

"Sometimes I think you'd be late for your own coronation," she teased as Usagi developed a horrified expression.

"Coronation? You mean I'm going to have to be regal and dignified and endure hours of boring ceremony like the Emperor did?"

The thought of Usagi being regal and dignified was just too absurd. Adding the thought of her managing it for hours was just too much to take. I sank back into my seat, laughing so hard I fell into a coughing fit.

When I recovered, Ami was looking at me with a worried expression, while Usagi still had that look of horror on her face. I started to break into laughter again when I noticed a gleam of satisfaction in her eyes.

"You...you...Imp!" I laughed, pointing at Usagi. "You set that up!"

"Me?" The look of affronted dignity Usagi affected was so overdone, Ami and I both started laughing again. Usagi held the look for just a few more moments, then joined us.

I was happily surprised: not only had I not been rushed out of the bridal shop, both Ami and Usagi were actively asking for my opinions as they searched for just the right gown.

The problem with most wedding gowns is that they look more appropriate for a soap opera or stage production than a wedding. I'm sure the three of us drove the shopkeeper insane - especially when our final choices required her to bring out her seamstress for directions.

When we saw who the seamstress was, Usagi and Ami both fell silent, stunned by the idea that Setsuna thought this wedding was important enough to involve herself even in this detail. Given how she'd been involving herself in everything else, I wasn't as surprised as they seemed to be.

With a little prodding, and Setsuna's usual almost-feline secretiveness, I managed to get Ami and Usagi out of the bridal shop. OK, not nearly so much prodding as I'd been afraid of: I just told Usagi I desperately needed some ice cream to keep my energy up and would she please take us to the best ice cream shop in the area. As soon as I was sure they were comfortably seated and had placed their orders, I kissed Ami and slipped away to take care of an errand I'd expected to run while they were in the bridal shop.

A month earlier, the day after I made my first batch of MacManusite, Setsuna had left a box of gemstones in my lab, with notes associating each stone with a different Senshi, Tuxedo Kamen, or myself. Oddly enough, she'd associated garnet with both herself and me. She'd also recommended the jeweler I'd bought Ami's ring from as being both capable and discreet, when I'd decided what to do with the stones. Now I was visiting that jeweler to collect the results of my decision.

As promised, all twelve packages were ready. Now all I had to do was take them home and make the final assembly before the wedding. I wondered idly how they'd react when I gave them their gifts. Then I laughed at myself. How often does the groom give wedding gifts to the most important people in his and his bride's lives?

When I returned to the ice cream shop, Usagi and Ami were talking about what to name our daughter. Mamoru had reached the door at the same time as I had, and had slipped in behind me with a gesture for silence and a playful twinkle in his eye. I was more then happy to play along, so Usagi didn't see him until I slid into the seat beside Ami. The happy squeal Usagi made as she leaped to embrace him made several of the other patrons jump in surprise.

"She's got to be part dolphin," I whispered to Ami with a grin, moments before she made any speech impossible with a happy kiss.

"Mmm...are you sure she's not part werejackal?" Ami asked upon breaking the kiss, with a teasing grin in Usagi's direction. Usagi turned a beautiful pink and buried her face in Mamoru's chest.

"I don't know...I guess we'd have to ask Rei about that," I mused, with a wink at Ami as Usagi made the connection and her blush deepened.

"Don't you dare!" she managed to squeak, before realizing what her protest implied and trying to hide under Mamoru's arm.

"Would somebody like to tell me what's going on?" Mamoru's tone and expression made it clear that he knew Usagi was at the heart of whatever it was. I pointed to the manga on the table.

"Usagi's been reading," Ami laughed and gently elbowed me as Usagi squeaked and snuggled closer to Mamoru.

Mamoru picked up the book and studied the cover for a minute.

"This isn't your usual style, Usako." He paused, then looked at me. "I didn't know you wrote manga."

"I don't. At least, I haven't before. That's a translation of my short stories. I'd asked our resident manga expert to read them and tell me what she thinks." I grinned at the Princess, who squeaked again from the safety of Mamoru's side. "It seems she thinks Ami and I are comparing her to one of my characters - a Gypsy werejackal rock star."

"And this is important because...?"

"Imagine someone with Haruka's stubbornness, Usagi's impulsiveness, Rei's temper, and the inhibitions of a dolphin," Ami answered, giggling as Usagi squeaked and burrowed some more.

Mamoru glanced down at his love and a grin spread across his face as he answered playfully, "She sounds like the perfect girlfriend."

"She also has Haruka's preference in lovers," Ami slipped in, just before Usagi sat up with an outraged cry and began swatting Mamoru's arm.

"And that's why our Princess reacted so delightfully when you suggested asking Rei." Mamoru chuckled, caught Usagi's hands, and pulled her in for a kiss. "My sweet, silly, wonderful dumpling. Don't you know by now that we all love you? If you want to express that love with any of the others, you have my whole-hearted blessing."

"You really mean that?" Usagi looked up into Mamoru's eyes in shock and happiness. "You wouldn't mind if I let Haruka seduce me?"

"No, I wouldn't," Mamoru assured her. "Nor would I mind if you finally eased Rei's longing, or played with Minako, or made music with Michiru, or-"

He was cut off by an ecstatically squirming Usagi, who kissed him as thoroughly as if he'd just asked her again to marry him. Ami leaned against me and echoed my thought that now was a good time to slip away.

"Did you talk with Setsuna?" Ami asked as we rode back to our house. The cabby discreetly looked the other way as she snuggled under my arm, reaching up to stroke my now clean-shaven cheeks.

"No, I didn't. I did manage to take care of other business, but I didn't run into her." I smiled down at my love as I waited for her curiosity to kick in.

"You're not going to tell me what it was, are you?" she asked, pouting cutely.

"Nope. All I can say is that it has to do with your wedding present. The rest is a surprise." Her eyes lit up and she threw her arms around me, just as we came to a stop in front of the house. I laughed and set my package on her stomach, then carried her into the house. She giggled and kissed me as we crossed the threshold. "Practicing for our wedding night?"

"Could be," I said, before lowering her to the floor with a playful growl. "You are such a tasty morsel...."

"Bad boy!" she laughed, swatting my hands gently. "You promised to let me study tonight, remember? I'm only nine chapters ahead in all of my classes." She sighed wistfully and caught my hands, pressing them to her chest hard enough for me to feel her heart beating. "With the demons last week, and all the wedding preparations, I just haven't been keeping up my studying like I should."

I hugged her gently and murmured softly in her ear.

"I understand, Angel. I'll be in the lab if you need me before bedtime. Do you want me to bring you anything before I start working?"

"I'm fine, love. Just don't let me stay up too late, ok?" She smiled and nuzzled me, then slipped away to spread her books out on the living room table and set to work.

In the lab, I emptied my package on one of the workbenches and examined the contents with a satisfied nod. The jeweler had turned the gems Setsuna had given me into a dozen watches, ready to slip into mountings I had made for them while waiting for the finished products. The face of each watch was made of a single slice of the stone Setsuna had noted was associated with the intended recipient, and the hour markings were made of chips from Usagi and Chibi-Usa's stones. Since their stones were diamonds, I'd had the jeweler mark theirs with chips from each of the other stones. The three, six, nine, and twelve marks on Usagi's watch were made of chips from Mamoru's stone, a black diamond. The same marks on Chibi-Usa's watch were of chips from Hotaru's stone, fluorite. Setsuna's watch and mine had come from the same garnet, so the garnet chips on the two Princesses' watches were connected to both of us.

I began mounting the watches to their cases: molded MacManusite on woven MacManusite bands, in the colors of the intended recipient's fuku. I started with mine, so I could test the other features of the cases while working on the others. I booted up my computer and called up a neural network training routine with a list of target words. As I worked on the other watches, I read each target word until the computer recognized it perfectly, then moved on to the next. As I went down the list, the recognition time grew shorter and shorter, until the computer was recognizing words on the first reading. I saved the resulting configuration and screwed down the last transparent MacManusite crystal on the last watch, then loaded them all into a cradle connected to the computer's network card. I set the saved configuration to run on the watches, then checked the time.

In the living room, Ami was showing signs of flagging as I crept in quietly. I couldn't blame her: it was after midnight. Thank goodness the next day was Saturday.

"Bedtime, Angel," I called softly from near the stairs. She didn't even look up. I crept forward and saw she was deep in her math book. She'd never hear me through the concentration she applied to math. I picked up a bookmark and slid it across the page she was reading, and when she looked up in surprise, took the book from her hands, closed it, and put it on the table.

"It'll still be there tomorrow, my love. Now it's time for you to come to bed." She smiled up at me as I spoke and held out her hands for my help in rising to her feet.

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Disclaimer: Sailor Moon, Sailor Senshi, and all terms, names, etc. associated with the series are copyrighted by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. I make no claim to them and this work of fanfiction should not be seen as making a claim.