At All's Loss, Hope Will Always Remain
Lost in the Mirth
The battle was over...
Rei's heart gasped as tears poured freely down her soft red cheeks. No sound escaped from her lips as her throat gasped in synch with her heart, broken. She slumped to the ground, supporting herself with her arms locked straight in front of her. Beautiful raven hair cascaded in front of her, emphasizing the paleness of her snow white skin. She clenched her eyes tightly, trying to brace herself from the pain, and failing. Her upper body lurched forward and crashed into the ground, mud splashing her pale skin, face, and red and white Senshi fuku. Rei could do nothing more than tremble and sob, her body aching with pain, paralyzed with grief. All was lost.
The battle had been beyond fierce, with losses greater than had ever been suffered. Her Queen, her secret love, her friends, her world; all gone. She and Setsuna had been the last to die, by far the strongest of everyone. Setsuna had taken a bolt of dark energy straight through her heart. A direct hit. Blood fell every where, pooling, swirling, tainting. Her eyes where white and fading, and with her last breath she opened the portal that hurled Rei into another dimension. As Rei cried endlessly Setsuna's soft voice whispered to her through the cold wind.
"I could not bear for you to die; as our last light, live..."
No light could penetrate the blanket of darkness that entombed her mind and settled through her heart. Rain pelted down on her in this new world, merciless and cold. Nothing could touch Rei but a limitless despair. Slowly fatigue sifted over Rei, and a gentle warmth began scathing Rei's frozen skin. The warmth was protective and gentle, but surely nothing but a sleepy death was nearing her. Her crystalline violet eyes gently closed as the rain turned into white snow. She welcomed death to end her meaningless suffering. Voices... of... an angel? So sweet, like thousands of tiny diamonds chiming against each other. Angels? ............................................
"Quatre! Heero! Trowa! Get over here!" Duo called out in a suddenly much panicked voice. The three pilots rushed over to Duo and immediately took affirmative action.
"Duo, wrap your shirt around her; Trowa, you too! Heero, call my Maquanots!" Quatre called out as he quickly removed his jacket and vest, wrapping them around the poor girl Duo had found lying deathly still in the amounting snow. Duo lifted her limp body into his arms and held her close, sharing his warmth. So cold, she was probably already dead. Then, a frosty breath heaved in and out of her chest, signaling life. Duo immediately began vigorously rubbing her arms, trying desperately to warm her. Within minutes Rashid arrived in Quatre's limo. Within seconds the Gundam pilots had the dying woman rushed to their hide-away safe house.
When they arrived at the Winner winter Mansion the men wrapped an electric blanket around her and gently placed her on a couch by a fire in the common room. Trowa seemed to relax, Heero still looked unaffected and Duo shared Quatre's concerned, unrelieved expression.
Hours passed and the woman didn't stir, but her breathing became stable. A pale peach colour returned to the woman's skin as she lay by tha now blazing fire. Around three o' clock am the woman stirred, opening her bleary eyes. Quatre was asleep in a red armoire chair to the left of the couch while Duo sprawled out on the floor in front of the girl.
Rei bolted upright, panic immediately surging through her veins. In weakness though, Rei's sudden movement sent her body toppling over the couch and onto Duo. He yelped out loud, startling Quatre awake. Duo automatically put his arms around Rei as a reflex. He quickly sat up with her and pulled his arms away and held them up so Rei didn't think him to do anything perverted. Quatre bolted over and took up Rei's hands in his, a relieved and excited look in his eyes.
"Are you all right Ms? Are you hurt, what's your name? I'm so glad you're all right!" Quatre streamed on. He suddenly blushed, took in a deep breath and exhaled. "Please forgive my rudeness, my name is Quatre Rebarbra Winner, and this is Duo Maxwell. How do you feel?"
Rei looked around the room, from Quatre to Duo, and back around the room. Her eyes were wide and dubious, trying to understand everything at once. Everything was warm, so warm that she could feel her skin tingle. Low lights lit the golden walls and rustic red carpets, dancing shadows from the over head chandelier gracefully darted, reflected by the fire. Large windows lined on wall to her left, over seeing tree covered mountains, the morning dew lifting slowly to the sky as a hazy mist. The sky was still very dark, storm clouds break only to show the full white moon. The two men with her waited for her to speak, anxiously looking at her. She understood them, though their words sounded foreign.
"My name... I... I don't know..." She whispered, aghast, to the realization. Her mind was utterly blank. The two men gave her curious looks. The one whom Rei was sitting on glanced at the other.
"Hey Quatre, what's she saying? What language is that? I've never heard of it before." The man with long, braided and silken chestnut hair said to the other man with short platinum blonde hair. The small blonde man seemed to think very hard, then return his friends puzzled eyes.
"You're correct Duo... she isn't speaking any language of Earth... or the colonies." The man Rei deducted to be Quatre turned to her. "Please... ma'am, do you understand us?"
Rei was suddenly filled with frustration. i"What language are they speaking? You know this Rei!" i/ She angrily thought at herself. i"English! That was it, they were speaking English!"i/ Rei's eyes were suddenly elated, then suddenly down cast. She understood them, but she couldn't reiterate their sounds. i"You know this Rei! You took English courses for five years!"i/ Soon vague words sifted back to her, finally forming a coherent sentence.
"What's... going on? What ... happened?" She asked slowly. Quatre's eyes suddenly softly smiled.
"We found you Ma'am, lying in the snow, at the edge of our forest. What's your name? Please?" Quatre said quietly.
"I don't know..." She said quietly, trying to hide the panic quickly rising within her. Quatre nodded. Duo suddenly perked up.
"Quatre, do you still have her purse? Maybe she has some ID?" Duo said quickly. Quatre suddenly jumped up and dashed out of the room for second, returning minutes later with a small black purse. He quickly dug through it until he found an ID.
"Rei Hino... 22... O- Blood." He glanced back up at her. "Yes, that's you all right." He said referring to the picture on the ID card. He handed it to Rei, then to Duo. Rei nodded, accepting the information.
"What else was in my purse?" She asked, trying to suppress her growing desire for more information. Quatre blushed for a second.
"I don't know. I didn't think it was proper of me to look through it. But, here—you can take a look." He said timidly, handing the purse to Rei. She hesitantly took it, but the hastened to tear through its contents, dumping them onto the red carpet. Moving off of Duo's lap to sort through her belongings, Duo quickly moved over toward Quatre.
Make up, pens, an address book, money, perfume, a photo album; keys, feminine products (Duo and Quatre both grimaced and looked away) and a cellular phone littered the ground. She towered over the objects, deciding what to look at first. Her eyes finally chose the photo album. Opening it up Rei found tons of pictures, each one including her image. One picture with her and a blonde girl with odangos on her head, a cute hair style. One with her and a short blue haired girl, the next was a picture with her and a tall brunette, another blonde (this time with a bow in her hair), the next picture was of her, A tall woman (man?) with short sandy hair, her arm around a slightly smaller turquoise wavy hair. The turquoise haired woman looked elegant and proper as she held a smaller child in her arms. The youth looked innocent with dark purple-red hair (much like her own) down to her shoulders and icy, crystalline purple eyes. Another picture with the blonde Odango haired girl, only this time there was a pink menace child hanging off of her arm, and a tall, midnight blue haired man standing behind them. Another picture of three more women, all with long hair pulled back into a pony tail, bound in tight leather outfits. One brunette, one with black hair, and one with white hair.
Then the last picture... was of a woman, of a timeless beauty. The picture was beyond old, but not black and white. Though the picture was old and withered, the woman inside... was the essence of beauty to Rei. She had garnet red eyes, but they didn't look like anything from a demon. The woman's eyes carried an ageless story, full of wisdom and pain. There as a light smile on her lips, but she still looked sad. Long and beautiful dark green hair swept low past her hips, almost to her knees. The woman had pulled the sides of her hair up into a perfect bun, though some hair had missed the bun and framed her face slightly, yet beautifully.
"I... I know her..." Rei stuttered, her eyes fixated, "I... I love her." As soon as those quiet words left Reis lips, images rushed past her eyes. Faces, all of them. Usagi, Ami, Makoto, Minako, Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru... and Setsuna. She knew all of them. As their cheery faces flashed, suddenly a lasting image burned in front of them. Dead. Killed, murdered, massacred. They were all wearing strange uniforms, all laying, dying around her. She crawled over to Setsuna, the only one left breathing. Her lips moved, but Rei couldn't hear anything, the whole image was void of sound. Rei could make out a few of the words Setsuna was saying. "Last... Light... Live..." Then everything was black and voices were calling to her.
"Ms Hino! Ms Hino, are you all right?!"
"Hey, Rei, come one, get up!"
Rei slowly opened her eyes. Blurred images slowly cleared. She was lying on the ground in front of the fire, the photo album in her hand. Sitting up she glanced around, tears welling up in her eyes, promising to spill.
"Dead... they're all dead!" She sobbed, bringing her hands up in front of her eyes, trying to block the images, but unable. Rei broke down into sobs, leaning forward towards the red carpet. Her friends... dead. That was how she left them. Duo winced, unable to see her cry. He gently wrapped his arms around her, holding the sobbing girl. Suddenly though she shoved him back, her eyes mistrustful and accusing, but tears still streaming. She collapsed against him again, crying herself to sleep.
Part Two
Can You Recall...?
Quatre glanced at Duo. Duo glanced at Quatre. "None of this is right..." Quatre whispered as Rei slept on the couch peacefully, having cried herself to sleep. Rei's address book, photo album, money, and ID lay between Duo and Quatre. Duo nodded.
"These addresses... they don't exist. These people, they don't exist; and where the hell is Tokyo, Japan? Where the hell is Japan? Her ID doesn't match up with anything, not even something from a colony. And this money? What is it, play money? I've never seen anything like it, anywhere. She has no government profile, no birth certificate, no social security, nothing!" Duo whispered in an exasperated hush. Quatre nodded.
"Rei Hino... I've never even heard of a name like that. I've checked the system; there are seldom others with that name. And these people in the photos, they don't exist either?"
"Nope Q-tip, not one. I even had Heero check. So what do we do with her? I mean, all this fake stuff, what if she's a spy? Maybe she failed a mission and her corporation and to wipe her mind? We can't let her leave then, can we?"
"Well Duo, I don't think any organization would go this far to create a person, especially not with fake identification and people. I mean, if she's a spy, she would eventually investigate why all her information is completely different. I mean, even her currency is unknown. Don't you think? And of course we can't let her leave! She has nothing, not even an identity. We didn't find any wounds one her, but she was soaked in blood when we brought her here. It's a good thing my sisters leave their cloths her, isn't it?" Quatre quietly ranted as thoughts and questions running through his mind. Duo nodded.
"You got a point there Quatre. And what about that language she spoke at first? I don't recall ever coming across that language...." Duo said. A Silence fell over the two as they sat there, watching Rei sleep. Her eyes seemed to clench tightly shut, and she whimpered slightly, trembling slightly. Quatre's expression softened and he reached up and gently took Rei's hand, softly rubbing her back. Rei seemed to calm down, her breathing becoming rhythmic again.
"Duo... these things... they sort of sound familiar to me. Like I've heard or seen these things before. I have a hunch, but I don't want to do anything just yet. Do you remember... when we were studying mythology in our college class?"
Duo thought for a moment then nodded. "I don't remember much though, you know me. Attention span of a mushroom n' all."
"Yes... I sort of thought... do you remember hearing the tale of the Silver Millennium? Of the Ten Goddess', one Warrior for each planet?"
"Oh Yeah Quatre, yeah, I remember that. It's the most famous mythology our world has. In fact, it's almost the only one. But your—your not suggesting that she some goddess from the Silver Millennium, are you?"..................
A.N. : Okay, short chapter, but it's laid down on the table now. Not everything, mind you, but your mind can grasp the gist of it right? Now, all my chapters are going to vary in length, but the rest won't be this short again, I promise that. So, R/D or R/Q? I NEED YOUR REVIEWS!!!! REVIEW DAMN YOU ALL REVIEW!!!!!!! Please... I'm begging you......... keep my dreams afloat... please........?
Lost in the Mirth
The battle was over...
Rei's heart gasped as tears poured freely down her soft red cheeks. No sound escaped from her lips as her throat gasped in synch with her heart, broken. She slumped to the ground, supporting herself with her arms locked straight in front of her. Beautiful raven hair cascaded in front of her, emphasizing the paleness of her snow white skin. She clenched her eyes tightly, trying to brace herself from the pain, and failing. Her upper body lurched forward and crashed into the ground, mud splashing her pale skin, face, and red and white Senshi fuku. Rei could do nothing more than tremble and sob, her body aching with pain, paralyzed with grief. All was lost.
The battle had been beyond fierce, with losses greater than had ever been suffered. Her Queen, her secret love, her friends, her world; all gone. She and Setsuna had been the last to die, by far the strongest of everyone. Setsuna had taken a bolt of dark energy straight through her heart. A direct hit. Blood fell every where, pooling, swirling, tainting. Her eyes where white and fading, and with her last breath she opened the portal that hurled Rei into another dimension. As Rei cried endlessly Setsuna's soft voice whispered to her through the cold wind.
"I could not bear for you to die; as our last light, live..."
No light could penetrate the blanket of darkness that entombed her mind and settled through her heart. Rain pelted down on her in this new world, merciless and cold. Nothing could touch Rei but a limitless despair. Slowly fatigue sifted over Rei, and a gentle warmth began scathing Rei's frozen skin. The warmth was protective and gentle, but surely nothing but a sleepy death was nearing her. Her crystalline violet eyes gently closed as the rain turned into white snow. She welcomed death to end her meaningless suffering. Voices... of... an angel? So sweet, like thousands of tiny diamonds chiming against each other. Angels? ............................................
"Quatre! Heero! Trowa! Get over here!" Duo called out in a suddenly much panicked voice. The three pilots rushed over to Duo and immediately took affirmative action.
"Duo, wrap your shirt around her; Trowa, you too! Heero, call my Maquanots!" Quatre called out as he quickly removed his jacket and vest, wrapping them around the poor girl Duo had found lying deathly still in the amounting snow. Duo lifted her limp body into his arms and held her close, sharing his warmth. So cold, she was probably already dead. Then, a frosty breath heaved in and out of her chest, signaling life. Duo immediately began vigorously rubbing her arms, trying desperately to warm her. Within minutes Rashid arrived in Quatre's limo. Within seconds the Gundam pilots had the dying woman rushed to their hide-away safe house.
When they arrived at the Winner winter Mansion the men wrapped an electric blanket around her and gently placed her on a couch by a fire in the common room. Trowa seemed to relax, Heero still looked unaffected and Duo shared Quatre's concerned, unrelieved expression.
Hours passed and the woman didn't stir, but her breathing became stable. A pale peach colour returned to the woman's skin as she lay by tha now blazing fire. Around three o' clock am the woman stirred, opening her bleary eyes. Quatre was asleep in a red armoire chair to the left of the couch while Duo sprawled out on the floor in front of the girl.
Rei bolted upright, panic immediately surging through her veins. In weakness though, Rei's sudden movement sent her body toppling over the couch and onto Duo. He yelped out loud, startling Quatre awake. Duo automatically put his arms around Rei as a reflex. He quickly sat up with her and pulled his arms away and held them up so Rei didn't think him to do anything perverted. Quatre bolted over and took up Rei's hands in his, a relieved and excited look in his eyes.
"Are you all right Ms? Are you hurt, what's your name? I'm so glad you're all right!" Quatre streamed on. He suddenly blushed, took in a deep breath and exhaled. "Please forgive my rudeness, my name is Quatre Rebarbra Winner, and this is Duo Maxwell. How do you feel?"
Rei looked around the room, from Quatre to Duo, and back around the room. Her eyes were wide and dubious, trying to understand everything at once. Everything was warm, so warm that she could feel her skin tingle. Low lights lit the golden walls and rustic red carpets, dancing shadows from the over head chandelier gracefully darted, reflected by the fire. Large windows lined on wall to her left, over seeing tree covered mountains, the morning dew lifting slowly to the sky as a hazy mist. The sky was still very dark, storm clouds break only to show the full white moon. The two men with her waited for her to speak, anxiously looking at her. She understood them, though their words sounded foreign.
"My name... I... I don't know..." She whispered, aghast, to the realization. Her mind was utterly blank. The two men gave her curious looks. The one whom Rei was sitting on glanced at the other.
"Hey Quatre, what's she saying? What language is that? I've never heard of it before." The man with long, braided and silken chestnut hair said to the other man with short platinum blonde hair. The small blonde man seemed to think very hard, then return his friends puzzled eyes.
"You're correct Duo... she isn't speaking any language of Earth... or the colonies." The man Rei deducted to be Quatre turned to her. "Please... ma'am, do you understand us?"
Rei was suddenly filled with frustration. i"What language are they speaking? You know this Rei!" i/ She angrily thought at herself. i"English! That was it, they were speaking English!"i/ Rei's eyes were suddenly elated, then suddenly down cast. She understood them, but she couldn't reiterate their sounds. i"You know this Rei! You took English courses for five years!"i/ Soon vague words sifted back to her, finally forming a coherent sentence.
"What's... going on? What ... happened?" She asked slowly. Quatre's eyes suddenly softly smiled.
"We found you Ma'am, lying in the snow, at the edge of our forest. What's your name? Please?" Quatre said quietly.
"I don't know..." She said quietly, trying to hide the panic quickly rising within her. Quatre nodded. Duo suddenly perked up.
"Quatre, do you still have her purse? Maybe she has some ID?" Duo said quickly. Quatre suddenly jumped up and dashed out of the room for second, returning minutes later with a small black purse. He quickly dug through it until he found an ID.
"Rei Hino... 22... O- Blood." He glanced back up at her. "Yes, that's you all right." He said referring to the picture on the ID card. He handed it to Rei, then to Duo. Rei nodded, accepting the information.
"What else was in my purse?" She asked, trying to suppress her growing desire for more information. Quatre blushed for a second.
"I don't know. I didn't think it was proper of me to look through it. But, here—you can take a look." He said timidly, handing the purse to Rei. She hesitantly took it, but the hastened to tear through its contents, dumping them onto the red carpet. Moving off of Duo's lap to sort through her belongings, Duo quickly moved over toward Quatre.
Make up, pens, an address book, money, perfume, a photo album; keys, feminine products (Duo and Quatre both grimaced and looked away) and a cellular phone littered the ground. She towered over the objects, deciding what to look at first. Her eyes finally chose the photo album. Opening it up Rei found tons of pictures, each one including her image. One picture with her and a blonde girl with odangos on her head, a cute hair style. One with her and a short blue haired girl, the next was a picture with her and a tall brunette, another blonde (this time with a bow in her hair), the next picture was of her, A tall woman (man?) with short sandy hair, her arm around a slightly smaller turquoise wavy hair. The turquoise haired woman looked elegant and proper as she held a smaller child in her arms. The youth looked innocent with dark purple-red hair (much like her own) down to her shoulders and icy, crystalline purple eyes. Another picture with the blonde Odango haired girl, only this time there was a pink menace child hanging off of her arm, and a tall, midnight blue haired man standing behind them. Another picture of three more women, all with long hair pulled back into a pony tail, bound in tight leather outfits. One brunette, one with black hair, and one with white hair.
Then the last picture... was of a woman, of a timeless beauty. The picture was beyond old, but not black and white. Though the picture was old and withered, the woman inside... was the essence of beauty to Rei. She had garnet red eyes, but they didn't look like anything from a demon. The woman's eyes carried an ageless story, full of wisdom and pain. There as a light smile on her lips, but she still looked sad. Long and beautiful dark green hair swept low past her hips, almost to her knees. The woman had pulled the sides of her hair up into a perfect bun, though some hair had missed the bun and framed her face slightly, yet beautifully.
"I... I know her..." Rei stuttered, her eyes fixated, "I... I love her." As soon as those quiet words left Reis lips, images rushed past her eyes. Faces, all of them. Usagi, Ami, Makoto, Minako, Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru... and Setsuna. She knew all of them. As their cheery faces flashed, suddenly a lasting image burned in front of them. Dead. Killed, murdered, massacred. They were all wearing strange uniforms, all laying, dying around her. She crawled over to Setsuna, the only one left breathing. Her lips moved, but Rei couldn't hear anything, the whole image was void of sound. Rei could make out a few of the words Setsuna was saying. "Last... Light... Live..." Then everything was black and voices were calling to her.
"Ms Hino! Ms Hino, are you all right?!"
"Hey, Rei, come one, get up!"
Rei slowly opened her eyes. Blurred images slowly cleared. She was lying on the ground in front of the fire, the photo album in her hand. Sitting up she glanced around, tears welling up in her eyes, promising to spill.
"Dead... they're all dead!" She sobbed, bringing her hands up in front of her eyes, trying to block the images, but unable. Rei broke down into sobs, leaning forward towards the red carpet. Her friends... dead. That was how she left them. Duo winced, unable to see her cry. He gently wrapped his arms around her, holding the sobbing girl. Suddenly though she shoved him back, her eyes mistrustful and accusing, but tears still streaming. She collapsed against him again, crying herself to sleep.
Part Two
Can You Recall...?
Quatre glanced at Duo. Duo glanced at Quatre. "None of this is right..." Quatre whispered as Rei slept on the couch peacefully, having cried herself to sleep. Rei's address book, photo album, money, and ID lay between Duo and Quatre. Duo nodded.
"These addresses... they don't exist. These people, they don't exist; and where the hell is Tokyo, Japan? Where the hell is Japan? Her ID doesn't match up with anything, not even something from a colony. And this money? What is it, play money? I've never seen anything like it, anywhere. She has no government profile, no birth certificate, no social security, nothing!" Duo whispered in an exasperated hush. Quatre nodded.
"Rei Hino... I've never even heard of a name like that. I've checked the system; there are seldom others with that name. And these people in the photos, they don't exist either?"
"Nope Q-tip, not one. I even had Heero check. So what do we do with her? I mean, all this fake stuff, what if she's a spy? Maybe she failed a mission and her corporation and to wipe her mind? We can't let her leave then, can we?"
"Well Duo, I don't think any organization would go this far to create a person, especially not with fake identification and people. I mean, if she's a spy, she would eventually investigate why all her information is completely different. I mean, even her currency is unknown. Don't you think? And of course we can't let her leave! She has nothing, not even an identity. We didn't find any wounds one her, but she was soaked in blood when we brought her here. It's a good thing my sisters leave their cloths her, isn't it?" Quatre quietly ranted as thoughts and questions running through his mind. Duo nodded.
"You got a point there Quatre. And what about that language she spoke at first? I don't recall ever coming across that language...." Duo said. A Silence fell over the two as they sat there, watching Rei sleep. Her eyes seemed to clench tightly shut, and she whimpered slightly, trembling slightly. Quatre's expression softened and he reached up and gently took Rei's hand, softly rubbing her back. Rei seemed to calm down, her breathing becoming rhythmic again.
"Duo... these things... they sort of sound familiar to me. Like I've heard or seen these things before. I have a hunch, but I don't want to do anything just yet. Do you remember... when we were studying mythology in our college class?"
Duo thought for a moment then nodded. "I don't remember much though, you know me. Attention span of a mushroom n' all."
"Yes... I sort of thought... do you remember hearing the tale of the Silver Millennium? Of the Ten Goddess', one Warrior for each planet?"
"Oh Yeah Quatre, yeah, I remember that. It's the most famous mythology our world has. In fact, it's almost the only one. But your—your not suggesting that she some goddess from the Silver Millennium, are you?"..................
A.N. : Okay, short chapter, but it's laid down on the table now. Not everything, mind you, but your mind can grasp the gist of it right? Now, all my chapters are going to vary in length, but the rest won't be this short again, I promise that. So, R/D or R/Q? I NEED YOUR REVIEWS!!!! REVIEW DAMN YOU ALL REVIEW!!!!!!! Please... I'm begging you......... keep my dreams afloat... please........?