Serenay Moon
Special XXXVI:
Gaia’s
secret
©2003 Kitty Ocean
“Oh man, I’m gonna be late!” The green haired Lady ran through the woods. “Kim is so going to kill me!”
12 years had passed since the Guardians started their lives together. Lady Aqua had started her reign as Queen of the Merpeople and things seemed calm at the moment.
“I just knew I shouldn’t have planted those flowers.” Lady Gaia sighed. “Ignis is right; when I start planting things I completely loose track of time. Kim told me to be home before dark!”
Actually, Lady Gaia felt a bit patronized. She was an all mighty Guardian, but had to be home before dark. She knew why. Even though they knew a lot about their powers and mission, there was still a chance of meeting someone from their past. And that, would cause big, big trouble!
Lady Gaia raised her skirt a little higher, so she wouldn’t trip. Suddenly she stopped. “Fire?” She wondered. No, it wasn’t fire, it was something else.
Curious Lady Gaia wandered off her path to check the smell out. A fire would devastate the forest, and as Guardian of Earth she couldn’t allow that! Lady Gaia reached a path. Obeying all traffic rules, Lady Gaia looked to both sides before crossing the road. The smell became stronger and stronger.
When Lady Gaia looked at the road, she saw tracks of a car. They went straight to the ravine… Lady Gaia looked over the edge… and saw a car down the ravine.
Lady Gaia used her earth magic to get down easily. From the car came a small fire, which Lady Gaia put out by covering it with sand.
Then Lady Gaia heard a sound. It was faint, but there. A small cry. Lady Gaia walked to the other side of the car. While walking, she noticed a man hanging over the wheel. Lady Gaia touched him briefly; he was stone cold.
“Poor thing; dying so young.” Lady Gaia mumbled and went on to the other side.
Lady Gaia gasped. On the other side of the car, sat a young woman. She looked very tired and weak. Lady Gaia broke all rules and went closer.
The woman noticed her. Lady Gaia could see her face. Even through all the bruises and injuries, Lady Gaia saw what a beautiful maiden it was. The woman smiled. “Please…” She said with a very soft and weak voice. “Please… take care of my Sarah…”
Lady Gaia’s heart stopped. Between the arms of the woman was a tiny baby. Just born. It cried faint, but appeared not injured.
“Turn her… into a Lady…dear angel…”
Lady Gaia felt she was too late to do anything. She kneeled at the woman that had called her an angel. With a relieved sigh… she joined her husband.
Lady Gaia looked at the small baby. She took it and looked at her. “Hey, little one…” She said. Then she wondered; what was she going to do with a baby?! She couldn’t show herself to the humans as a Lady! And in her human form people could recognize her!
But tired of her journey, the baby fell asleep in Lady Gaia’s arms. “You know what little one? A new day will bring solutions.” And with the little Sarah in her arms, she continued on her journey home.
“Gaia, will you finally get out of there?!” Lady Ignis yelled. “You’ve been in there for days now!”
“No I haven’t!” Lady Gaia yelled from the other side of the door. Quickly she placed a bundle in a basket and shove it into a closet. “Please be quiet Sarah!” She begged. “If they find this out…”
Lady Ignis banged on the door. “You’ve been in there for a week now!” She yelled. Lady Gaia wished she would stop banging on the door. This would surely wake Sarah up! “You’ve only gotten out to get something to eat!”
Lady Gaia quickly pulled the door open before Lady Ignis could bang on it once more. “What do you want?” She asked.
Lady Ignis looked around. “Well… eh… you should get out more.” She blew away a small strand of hair that had landed in her face. “Besides, you already missed 3 meetings. Kim is not very happy. She whines all about responsibility again.”
“I’ll be sure to come tonight.” Lady Gaia wanted to close the door. At that moment Sarah released a small sound.
“What was that?” Lady Ignis asked.
“NOTHING!” Lady Gaia tried to close the door.
“Hell, you can’t fool me!” Lady Ignis pushed the door open and walked into the room. She looked around until she heard something crying. Lady Gaia sighed deeply. There was no way she could hide it any longer now.
Lady Ignis pulled open the closet. “A baby!?” She exclaimed. “You’ve been hiding a baby?!”
Lady Gaia took Sarah into her arms. She finally stopped crying. “Please don’t tell Kim about her!”
“You’ve been hiding a baby?!” Lady Ignis repeated. “Where did you get him?!”
Lady Gaia hushed Sarah a bit. “I found her in the woods. Her parents had an accident with their car. The mother asked me to take care of her.”
“Where is the mother now?” Lady Ignis played with her finger above the little girl.
Lady Gaia looked sad. “Hopefully in Heaven, with her father.” With begging eyes she looked at Lady Ignis. “Please, don’t tell Kim about her! I don’t want to put Sarah in an orphanage!”
“Gaia, you’ve got to get serious.” Lady Ignis replied. “She isn’t a pet; a baby is a big thing! And how did you plan to hide it from Kim? She’ll find out in no time!”
“Please…” Lady Gaia begged.
Lady Ignis looked at her sister’s eyes. She saw how much she feared she would lose the child. After a short while, Lady Ignis sighed. “Okay, I’ll help you. But we can’t hide her alone from Kim.”
“We can’t?” Lady Gaia wondered.
Lady Ignis smiled. “I bet Luna and Aqua would love to help!”
“A baby?!” Lady Aqua looked at the little Sarah that happily made baby sounds. “Are you nuts?!”
“Awe, what a cute little baby!” Lady Luna played with the baby. “Yes, you are a cute little baby!”
“Well, Luna is at our side.” Ignis smiled. “How about you Aqua?”
“Gaia, have you gone crazy?!” Lady Aqua gasped. “A baby needs more than food! It grows, needs clothes, and needs school! Not only that, a child needs other children to play with!”
Lady Gaia took Sarah again. “We can be all that! We all have a Chibi form she can play with. We can use our magic to create clothes.”
“Education?’ Lady Aqua tried.
“We can teach her that!” Lady Luna smiled. “We’ll just buy some math books and teach her everything she needs to know; and more!”
“Plus,” Lady Ignis added. “We inherited some of the Heart’s knowledge. She’ll learn more with us than at school.”
“And how long did you expect her to stay hidden?”
“That’s where you come in.” Lady Ignis smiled.
The weeks after that were pretty hectic. There was no Universal problem or whatsoever, but hiding Sarah from Lady Kim proved to be a bigger challenge than being a Guardian! But all 4 Guardians turned out really liking it to play for mother. Lady Aqua took her into the hot water springs to relax. Sarah screamed with joy and even Lady Aqua’s reluctant attitude vanished when she saw the little baby smiling.
All other 3 Guardians looked from above. “I guess she likes the plan as well now.” Lady Gaia smiled.
“Well, she’d better hurry up.” Lady Ignis growled. “It’s my turn to baby sit.”
“No it’s not.” Lady Luna replied. “It’s my turn!”`
“You’ve already baby sat 2 days ago!”
“No I didn’t!”
“Yes you did!”
“It’s my turn now!”
“What is your turn?”
All jumped around, seeing Lady Kim. “Well… eh… eh…” Lady Ignis tried to think of something.
“It’s my turn to play with the Pocket Game Console!” Lady Luna quickly said.
“No it’s not, it’s mine!” Lady Ignis quickly replied.
“No, it’s mine!” Lady Luna added.
And, as predicted, Sarah chose this moment to let her biggest squeal of joy fill the air. “8 days… a record.” Lady Ignis sighed.
Lady Kim peeked in the hot springs. “A BABY?!”
“It’s not what you think!” Lady Luna tried.
“I think it looks like a baby!” Lady Kim pointed. “Who brought that baby here?!”
Lady Gaia took Sarah from Lady Aqua, who quickly dressed. “I did…”
“When?!” Lady Kim demanded to know.
“…15 days ago…”
“What were you thinking?” Lady Kim yelled. “We can’t have a baby here!”
“But her parents died!” Lady Gaia tried.
Lady Kim was determent. “That baby has to go! We are Guardians; we can’t have a baby!”
“Why?” Lady Gaia asked. “Why can’t we keep her?”
“People are out there looking for that baby!”
“Her mother asked ME to turn her into a lady!” Lady Gaia clinched to Sarah.
Lady Kim sighed. “She would have said that to anyone. Look, we don’t have time for this!”
“Yeah, staring at a mirror the whole day is really hard work…” Lady Ignis mumbled.
Lady Kim glared at her. “We are beings that guard the balance between good and evil…”
“And right now it’s so tipping over to the bad side…” Lady Ignis sarcastically whispered.
“Be quiet!” Lady Kim yelled. “We should be grateful our only problem is the NightWing right now.”
“Which we aren’t allowed to interfere….”
“Ignis, one more word and I’ll…”Lady Kim snapped.
“Stop it!” Lady Luna came in between. Little Sarah started crying. “Listen Kim, we all thought this through and we all believe we can raise her. And just like you said, our only problem is the NightWing; and we aren’t allowed to do any more than watching at this moment.”
“Do you really think the NightWing will gain enough power within the next 20 years?” Lady Aqua added. “They aren’t a threat any time soon, and you know that. Sure, we’ll keep monitoring them, as well as Him, but we are with 5!”
“If 2 humans should be able to raise a kid, we 5 should be able to do the same, right?” Lady Gaia tried.
Lady Kim sighed. “And what about education? Or social contacts? Kids need other kids to grow up with.”
“We all thought that through really well.” Lady Gaia replied. “Please, we can share each other’s minds, hearts and souls. You know mine well enough to know that… I always wanted to be a mother.”
“But we are immortal…” Lady Kim tried to knock some senses in. “How can we offer her everything she needs?”
“Every parent wonders about that.”
Lady Kim looked at the tiny baby. “I can’t persuade you, can I?” Lady Gaia shook her head. “So… what’s her name?”
To be continued…