II. The Spirit and the Sword

Note to the Text: This story is a sequel to my Rei/Minako drabble The Waltz and like its predecessor it is set in the Silver Millennium, but is held separate from my Silver Millennium series as the continuity is and will be quite different. Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Sailor Moon, I simply own the storyline and characters which I have created.

The Overture

It had not been an hour since she had left the ball and still Rei could feel herself beginning to tire. The growing red stain on the bandage wrapped around her hand was indication enough that the wound was deep and would not be closing up within the night. She flexed her hand experimentally and noted the sharp pain which emerged from it at the center. The Marian winced, but regained her composure quickly, bearing through it as if often did. It would hurt, but she was sure she would be able to fight with it. She would have to be able to there was no other alternative in this instance. There would be no second chances if the palace seers were right. If they really were right then in the morning they would all wake up to a blood red sky with no hope of cleansing it free of its venom.

After leaving the dining hall, she had returned to her own chamber and tended to her injured hand though she had made no attempt to dull her pain. She could have mixed up a tonic, but being able to withstand intense pain was an amicable and strived for ability in her culture and she would not be the first in her family to toss the great virtue aside. A great deal was expected of her to fulfill. Her family and the country it ruled were both in a dire state of disarray. When she was a child, her mother had been dragged away and murdered by hostile Sabine renegades who did not agree with the treaties held in place in between the Tarquin king and their tribesmen. She had watched her grandparents succumb quietly and without incident to the grief of the loss of their daughter. Had been held at bay by a father who should had nurtured she and her younger brothers, not cast them aside to find themselves on their own. She did not blame her father for his short comings for she knew he was a good man who had been unprepared for the trials of being a single father, but they had turned out alright just the same.

Rei, in the style of her rank and title, adhered to the values and traditions of her people and did all which was expected of her with the Marian mantra in mind that the needs of a group out weighed the needs of the many. Strength. Virtue. Value. Nobility. Friends. Family. Duty. Loyalty. Honor…what else was there to life? Even before her hand throbbed to admonish her singular thinking, she knew the one most important value in life she had not accounted for: love.

She leaned with her good hand against the mantle above her fireplace, enigmatic violet eyes delving deeply into the flailing orange flames. Minako. Her thoughts were focused anywhere, but in that room. Rei closed her eyes and turned away from the flames, allowing the fire's brash warmth soothe her neck and the side of her head. What had gone wrong with them? They had been so devoted to one another, so in love that nothing, not even the deafening evil shaking the Silver Millennium down to its very foundations had not been able to bring them anything but closer together. What ruined them? What happened? Rei bowed her head and opened her eyes, tears shining in their corners which she refused to let fall. She knew it had been a number of things, a fateful combination of circumstances, misunderstandings, and misgivings which they had not talked about since the initial fight in the garden. They had seen one another many times afterwards, they had just avoided resolving the conflict finding it too trying a thing for their weary minds in the state of renewed ruin the Moon Kingdom was destined for.

Rei screwed her eyes shut against the headache growing along her brow and around her eyes, awakening with it all of the exhausted facial muscles left unrest from weeks of untreated sleepless nights. She missed Minako. It was the last straw falling to collapse the haystack. Above all other troubles, above exhaustion, missing meals for drills, long nights spent patrolling the grounds and hoping for one more night that their skills would not yet have to be tested within the city walls. All of the other guardians were exhausted as well. Serenity herself regretted the decision to put the princesses on double duty so to speak, but there was no other way to guard against the coming threat, but to take every possible precaution. And they had agreed to it, even volunteered the surrender of all of their free time willingly.

The price was high. Every one of them was ready to collapse, but they persisted. They had even decided to attend the ball tonight rather than take advantage of the opportunity of much needed rest and had enjoyed the evening…well, most of them had. Rei still remembered the warmth in Minako's cobalt eyes as they pinned her from across the table coolly. She regretted not taking action then and there when she had the chance. She should have reached out and pulled Minako to her, asked her to dance, anything to get her into her arms, and told her that she was sorry and that she loved her; but she hadn't done it and now all Rei could do was hang her head in shame over he lost opportunities. The memory of those beloved blue eyes came back to her, haunting her this time with tears shimmering in their depths.

"How can I trust you?" Mina had been crying long before she met up with Rei in the palace garden and it was apparent that she was in no mood for negotiation.

"Mina it was a long time ago, why should it matter now?" Rei came up beside Mina and tried to soothe her by laying her shoulder and running her hand up and down her arm comfortingly, but Mina jerked violently out of her grasp.

"It doesn't matter, Rei." Mina moved away from her touch as though it had the capacity to burn. "You didn't even think to tell me. When you love someone you're supposed to trust them unconditionally, enough to tell them anything, even about an element in your past. She was a part of your past, Rei. I should have heard it from you, not from Ami, I don't care if it was by accident."

Rei was beginning to lose her temper, frustration quickly mounting on a plain she could not comprehend. "It is in the past so why should it matter now? In the here and now I love you and I would never do anything to hurt you, you've known me almost all of my life, you shouldn't have to question that!"

"There's more to a relationship than love, Rei." Minako continued, trying to keep the shaking she felt in her body out of her voice. "It's an important part of it, but I also have to be able trust you too. It hurts me when you don't talk to me. We've been together for two years now, you should know you can tell me anything and I would understand. Why did you turn your back on me when you came back from Mars the last time? Why did you push me away when I tried to question you about the Sabine girl?"

Rei's anger flared, "You understand nothing of my life on Mars!"

"I would if you would take time enough to tell me about it!" Mina shouted back, invading Rei's personal space as she often did when they argued.

Rei was quiet at this as she retreated back inside herself, her courage waning before the one person she could not wield it against. "It is unimportant. What does it matter here? This is the moon. Things are better here. There is no reason for me to tell you about my life on Mars because it has no relevance to our life here."

That was a childish, escapist excuse and Rei knew it, but the truth was she hated her life on Mars. The moon had become her real home, her refuge where she could learn and grow and partake in part of the normal childhood she had been denied in her father's kingdom. Likewise, she hated talking about it because every time she did, she had no alternative but to revisit those memories. The Sabine girl had been a priestess in one of the Sabine tribes whom her father had captured on a raid and brought back to Ephialtes Plaza as a prisoner and diplomatic leverage against their enemies. She was gone now, but her face still haunted Rei in her dreams.

Rei suddenly became angry. "Do not scold me like some bloody child! What about you?! While I was gone on that last excursion to Mars, I heard you had been spending a great deal of time in the company of the Sultan of Ambrosia during his diplomatic visit here. Are you going to tell me that all of that was just mere coincidence and nothing more?!"

Minako looked positively mortified. "He is one of my father's closest friends and advisors. He is practically an uncle to me!" She sighed in exasperation, but noticed that Rei was no where near backing down soon, anger and its always equal companion jealously still alive and thriving in those violet pools where she loved to linger. "I don't know why I'm wasting my time explaining myself to you when you know perfectly well that I would never double cross you behind your back-"

Rei knew better, but the question was thrown bitterly out of her mouth before she had time to think and retract it, "And how can I be so sure of that?"

Wounded silence hung in the air around them like smoke. Finally, working hard to keep her voice even and steady, for she did not want to give Rei the satisfaction of known what she was causing her to feel, Minako spoke.

"Well." She had to swallow to allow her even voice to pass her mouth unscathed. "I guess you don't, now do you?"

She stared straight passed Rei, not blinking for fear of letting unshed tears fall. Rei started to take a step towards her, regretful of everything she had said, but her footing was unsure and her pride even more unforgiving than her resolve.

"Serenity has summoned me, I have to be going." Rei said, reminding herself purposefully in the difficult situation of her previous duty.

Minako did not look at her, but nodded her head in acknowledgement, her blue gaze diverted to the direction of the lush flowerbeds thriving despite the glum mood beside them.

Rei regretted a lot of things she had done that day and there had not been a day since when she had not wished she could have changed what had transpired between them. Alas, the technology of the Silver millennium was no so advanced that it could transport regretful people back in time to correct the mistakes they most despised.

Rei was so deep into her own thoughts that she was startled with a knock sounded at her door. The Marian princess moved over and, with her heart in her throat, she slowly turned the knob until the door opened enough so she could peak her head around. She released the breath she had been subconsciously holding in a surprised puff of air as she recognized a different person than the one she had been expecting on her doorstep.

"Ami?"

Author's Note: So did we enjoy it? Don't worry. There shall be more to it, this is just the first installment. I visualize this as having at least a couple chapters. Hope you liked reading it as much as I like writing it! Read and enjoy!