Monotone Nothingness
Black Beyond
black_beyond@hotmail.com
PG13
~'~
It's short, not necessarily sweet, but to the point. It's
just fluff, set in the very far away future. Crystal
Tokyo's been around for a while, and everything kind of...
well, read it and find out. I can't really summarize this
at all without giving it away. It's a death fic, but even
if you don't like death fics, you should like this.
You know where to e-mail me. Anything's welcome.
I actually sent this to my beloved editor, and then I
actually copy-pasted it to Microsoft Works and ran spell-
check... I'm so proud... :sniffles:
~'~
Her expression didn't change in the slightest as
the wave of music, pumped up to a level where it surpassed
even the long-missed Usagi's wail, hit her like a brick.
Her skirt was short, sexy, and even mildly scandalous, and
she had a body guys drooled over.
And yet, she didn't even smirk. Smirking would have
at least been the reaction she would have used long ago.
Smirking was normal for her then, when she was the only
cynic of the group. Smirking was no longer required. She
was here simply because this was a place no one would
think to look for her.
No one expected her to come here. This was a place
to have fun, and fun was a word that had long lost all
meaning to them.
This was her sanctuary.
She ignored the catcalls. Romance no longer held
any interest for her. Romance was for those who would live
for it, those who were still innocent. Romance was not for
her. Even physical pleasure had lost it's lure for her,
although some of the others still resorted to it. She knew
Usagi and Mamoru did. Hell, it was probably the only thing
keeping the King and Queen of Earth sane.
She envied Haruka and Michiru to infinitely. They
were not here, in this joke of a kingdom. They were
signing treaties with the few life-bearing planets. Their
lives were not monotone nothingness. Something changed for
them, everyday.
They did not regret the day they had met the moon
cat Luna.
She sighed, strange for her, as she entered the
swinging doors, the music slowly slipping form her
hearing. She had become used to ignoring things.
She merely saw. Saw the expressions of glee and
lust, saw the dancing. She saw. She was not part of all of
this, she only saw.
She flinched as a man cupped one of her buttocks in
his hand. She turned to glare at him. He was tall,
actually quite handsome. In earlier days, she would have
been flattered. Angry, of course, but she wouldn't have
felt the annoyance she felt now.
She smiled teasingly, using her acting skills that
had been honed to perfectness. With one languid, delicate
finger, she traced a line from his abs to the collar of
his shirt.
With a swift movement, she grabbed his collar and
brought him down so she could stare into his eyes, the
mask gone, anger and irritation etched into her exotic
features.
"Do you know who I am?" She asked, in a low voice
of sheer velvet fury.
He shook his head dumbly, stunned by her swing of
expressions.
"I am Hino Rei, asshole. Touch me again and you'll
regret it."
He went pale and jerked himself from her grasp,
backing away.
Her name was known. Known more than she could have
ever hoped if she had been a world-famous singer. She was
the hot-tempered soldier of fire, the one who killed
without mercy. The one who never, ever, showed pity. She
was feared more than the Jovial senshi, for at least
Makoto still held a glimmer of hope and innocence.
Rei had lost that long ago. She had stopped seeing
people. She stopped feeling, entirely. Only anger,
annoyance, and sorrow still dwelled within her.
It was not self pity. It was indifference,
acceptance of that indifference and being indifferent to
that acceptance. If she died tomorrow, her only regret
would be that she had not told off the long-winded,
pompous ambassadors she had to deal with when she had the
chance.
She pushed her way through the crowd of dancing,
laughing people and to the bar. The bartender stared her
for a moment, trying to place her face.
It was obvious he had; his face noticeably paled and
he gulped. Still, he had a job to do, and he supposed that
if he ignored her, she would only become angry.
"Whadda ya 'ave?" He asked, his voice an octave
higher than what it should have been. This went thankfully
unnoticed to the fire senshi.
"Vodka, no water." She answered, her eyes fixed on
the dancing couples.
Had she been like that, once? Of course, she knew
she had. She could even remember what it had been like,
turning eighteen and finally getting in legally to a club,
giggling over the more handsome of the boys with Minako
and Makoto while they teased Ami and Usagi and Mamoru
swooned over each other. It had been bliss, a utopia. She
had felt on top of the world, carefree.
She knew she would never feel that emotion again.
She sipped absently at her drink, savoring the way
it burned at her throat. To be drunk again would be
marvelous, to be rid of the straight lines and lack of
emotions.
But they had discovered, long ago, when the first
pressures of running a planet began to hit, that achohol
couldn't combat their healing abilities, and to be drunk
required hours of straight drinking for as little as ten
minutes of carefreeness again. In the end, she had decided
the cost wasn't worth it.
"Mind if I join you?"
She looked up, feeling an unfamiliar twinge of
surprise at the face she looked into.
"Of course not. Fancy seeing you here, Minako." She
said, not bothering with the suffixes of a city long dead.
Minako smiled sourly.
"I suspect you're here for the same reason, then."
She ordered a drink and sat on the stool next to Rei. "Can
you remember what it was like to be so happy, Rei-chan?"
She asked. Rei flinched involuntarily at the endearment,
but nodded.
"I can, Minako. I think that hurts worse than not
being able to." Her shoulders slumped. "We've become
drones, Minako. Nothing more. Nothing less. We... we..."
She took another drink. "I don't feel anymore, Minako. And
I don't care than I don't feel."
"I know." Minako downed her glass in two large
gulps. "I know. It hurts, doesn't it? I mean, the part
about remembering."
"Maybe we could do what Hotaru did. She's happy."
Rei suggested. Minako gave her a dirty look.
"Rei-chan, Hotaru has to move to a new part oft he
world every thirty, forty years. I don't want to live
under an assumed name. My name is all I have left."
"At least people don't fear your name." Rei
retorted. "I've heard what they call me. Killer. Murderer.
Hell, the parents use me to frighten their children, like
ours did with the bogeyman." She scowled and ordered the
nervous bartender to refill her glass.
"Rei-chan, you did questionable things. We all
did."
"You didn't like doing those things." Rei said. "I
did. I liked every minute of it, because it kept my mind
of this kingdom of brain-washed humans. I wanted to go out
there. I liked it, and they know it. You know it." Rei
looked up into Minako's comforting blue eyes.
"I suppose you're right."
"Huh? About what?"
"What you said, about being drones."
"Of course. We've been around too long." A feeling
of panic, one that had she had felt precious little times,
struck as a condemning thought entered her mind. "Oh,
gods, Minako! What if.. what if we can't die? At all?"
Minako nodded.
"I've thought about that. I don't know. Ami says we
can, but, Rei-chan, it's been two thousand years. We still
look like twenty year-olds."
"Two thousand, fifty-seven years." Rei corrected.
"And 'look like' is the correct term. I feel like I'm four
thousand years old. Damnit, if I don't die soon, I'm going
to--"
Minako shushed her.
"Rei, we are senshi. If we're going to die, let's
go out with a bang." She said, grinning maniacally. "After
all, we can't break tradition."
Rei pondered this for a few minutes.
"Elaborate."
"I think, perhaps, if we power up, we could take
out the block, maybe two." Minako said, so casually she
might have been talking about the weather.
"No." Rei shook her head. "Just because we have
lost taste for life doesn't mean we have to destroy
innocents. I believe I've still got a place in Elysion.
I'm not going to screw that up anymore." She smiled.
"How about the country-side?" Minako asked. "A few
acres of farmland won't be missed."
Rei nodded.
"A pact." She suggested. "In five years, if one of
us, meaning any of the senshi, hasn't died from a natural
cause, we'll meet out were Osaka used to be."
"Deal."
They drank on it.
~'~
Five years later, two figures, one in fiery red,
the other in brilliant gold, stood in the middle of the
ruins of a once-great city.
"Ready?" The golden once asked.
"I've been ready for the last four hundred years."
The one in red replied. She held up her hands, palms
facing the other. The one in gold pressed her palms to the
one in red.
"Mars Crystal Power..." The one in red whispered.
"Venus Crystal Power..." The other murmured.
They looked into each other's eyes once more, and
then...
They were free.
~'~
"Early this morning, reports confirm that Sailor
Senshi Mars and Sailor Senshi Venus used their powers to
destroy the ruins of Osaka, taking their lives in the
process. How this came about is still a mystery; we are
awaiting Sailor Senshi Mercury's diagnosis..."
Neo-Queen Serenity reached up and turned the
television off.
"They meant to do it," Makoto said. None of them
looked any different. They knew someone would do it sooner
or later. "Minako had tied up everything nice and neat."
She smiled wryly. "And half of the representatives are
complaining because Rei gave them a piece of her mind. They
were planning this."
Ami nodded sadly.
"We've all been here too long, Serenity. They were
just the first to have the courage to do something about
it..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fluff. Meaningless fluff. Well, kind of. Oh, stop listening to me
and tell me whatcha thought! See the box right below this mindless
chatter? Write in it!