Artemis approached Minako carefully. "Um, Minako? Are you all right?"
Minako's head snapped up. She had been staring out at the city lights from the balcony of her room.
"Of course I am! Why do you ask?" asked Minako brightly, but underneath that brilliance, there was lurking darkness.
Artemis hesitated, looking closely at Minako. "Well, you've seemed a bit- a bit off-color, so I was wondering why."
Minako flashed her trademark mega-watt smile at Artemis, but again, the smile was like gold paint over lead. "Oh, no. I've just been a bit tired lately, but honestly, there's nothing wrong with me." Minako's face softened when she saw Artemis' sincerely worried expression.
"Truly, Artemis, I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me." Something of her old sincerity and compassion rang true in Minako's voice, so Artemis nodded and said, even though he was still faintly uneasy,
"Alright, if you say so. Well, then, I'm going to go and see Luna about new battle tactics." Rubbing his way around Minako's legs once in farewell, Artemis leaped down from the balcony and walked off.
Minako watched as Artemis faded into the distance. When he had vanished from sight she gave a great sigh. Something inside her seemed to deflate, and she ran her hand over her tired, wan face.
Minako looked off into the distance again, and her eyes unfocused and took on a dreamy quality, but this was no dream, no, this was a waking nightmare-
*Betrayal.
"Die, Senshi!"
A dagger winking from *his* hand-
The devastated Moon Palace
A sneer on Kunzite's face-*
"No!" Minako brutally tore herself out of her memories. Staggering a bit as she went back into her room, she sat on her bed, her head buried in her hands.
Truthfully, ever since Artemis had given Minako back her traumatic memories, everything had become centered around that ancient heartbreak. All Minako could ever think about was Kunzite; his love, his death, his betrayal. She dwelt on it constantly; everything she saw, everything she heard, brought all of it back, every memory, every sense, every detail. A cloudy day would bring back rain-grey eyes. A bouquet of flowers would bring back golden meadows. And everywhere, everywhere she kept on seeing that dazzling smile the day he had said he loved her; but always, always, underneath that smile was the sneer he had had the day he had killed her.
And invariably, there was always the same word over and over again.
Betrayl.
It started to become an obsession to Minako; her world had spiraled down to that one word, and the one person behind that word. They had become synonymous, those two. Kunzite-betrayal. Betrayal-Kunzite. After a while, it had become the only constant in Minako's emotion-ravaged world.
Minako's world had become a whirlwind of turbulent emotions; ever since she had regained her memories, Minako had lost her emotional center. Minako found herself constantly struggling for control of herself. She found herself becoming irrationally angry one moment, then nearly in tears for no reason. Minako couldn't even turn her friends anymore; they didn't know, they couldn't know, they shouldn't know, they wouldn't know.
And most importantly, they wouldn't understand. Wouldn't understand the million thoughts and emotions running through her head, wouldn't understand the loss that woke her up at nights, screaming and soaked in cold sweat, wouldn't understand the sorrow that kept tearing her to tatters with sharp gleaming knives.
And so she kept it secret from her friends; and if she seemed a little paler, a trifle thinner, a bit sadder, her friends wrote it off to stress or to overwork. For whenever they asked after her concernedly, she always smiled brightly and waved it off. But it wasn't often that someone noticed any of the personal turmoil and strife that Minako was battling; after all, Minako was an actress, and Minako had had a lot of practice with concealing emotions.
And all throughout, while her emotions tossed and tattered her, she clung to that one anchor, that one constant in her life. When everything else was shattering to pieces under her desparate fingers, she knew this one thing to be true: she had loved Kunzite, and he had betrayed her.
Everything became centered around that one truth. However, it was so ironic that in the wild whirlwind of her ravaging emotions, the truth that she clung to for stability and security was the same truth that was destroying her.
Minako sighed, and she got up from her bed and with a practiced snap of her wrist and flick, she pulled out her Venus Chain-wink sword from her space pocket. Each of the scouts had recently discovered that in their "space- pockets" they also had their Silver Millenium swords. Amazingly enough, all of the katas that had been drilled into the scouts in the Silver Millenium were still remembered.
Minako began to fall into a pattern of steps of one of the slower katas, trying to calm her mind. However, she unconsciously began to speed up, the turmoil of her thoughts leaking into her movements. The sword began to speed up, as did her body, until her sword was nothing but a flashing, dazzling blade, and her body was awhirl with movement. At the speed she was going, her movements were actually starting to become dangerous to herself, but she didn't care anymore, she just knew that she had to go faster, and faster- everything would be all right if she could just keep on going, forever keep the blade a whirling gleam of steel-
And then her wrist faltered, and she skidded to an abrupt halt in front of her mirror.
It was the first time she had looked at her reflection in days. She wanted to smash the mirror with her sword, but resisted the urge. She did not like what she saw there; the ghost of a girl whose intense inner agony was starting to eat away at her-
For there was no doubt about it, Minako was slowly deteriorating. She had begun to snap at inconsequential matters, she became more irritable about trivial details. She even winced somewhat at loud sounds.
Which was why when the phone rang abruptly, Minako nearly jumped out of her skin and almost dropped her sword. She took a deep breath, and visibly calmed herself. Then, in a marked stride, she went over to the telephone.
"Hello?" Minako said sharply in a clipped voice.
"Minako?" The voice on the other end sounded hesitant, as if the other person wasn't sure that Minako would speak so harshly. "This is Rei. I was wondering, well, if you'd come over to the temple? There's something- erm- rather important which I'd like to show you." Rei's voice was diffident, almost shy, which was extremely unlike the senshi of fire, but there was something, some emotion underneath her voice which Minako couldn't even begin to decipher.
"Sure. Um, I'll be right over, then. Bye." Minako hung up the phone, extremely puzzled by the phone call. It wasn't often that Rei just called out of the blue requesting a visit, but Minako shrugged. She'd find out when she got there.
Minako walked briskly to the temple, but as she walked up the stone steps, she had an eerie feeling; the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she unconsciously rubbed a hand over the nape of her neck. She somehow had the feeling that she was poised at the threshold, that she was about to be plunged into yet another mess of chaotic emotions, yet another whirlwind of forces completely out of her control. Something was going to happen on this visit to Rei.
*Don't be ridiculous!* Minako chided herself. *You're being WAY too jumpy. Rei's the one who's supposed to get prescient visions, remember?*
And yet, Minako couldn't quite shake her feeling of uneasiness. And when she crossed into the Fire Room where Rei was, her uneasiness tripled. Perhaps it was all in her imagination, but to her it felt like the atmosphere was charged with tension.
Rei was sitting with her back to the entrance, but the moment that Minako stepped into the room, Rei gracefully unfolded herself from the floor, turned, and smiled at Minako.
"Hi! Thanks for coming, I just wanted you over for a few minutes because I wanted to show you something." Rei said.
Minako nodded, and Rei went over to a chest on the side of the room, and took out something. When Rei turned around, Minako's breath stopped in her chest.
It was *the* stone. More accurately, it was the stone that Minako had seen Kunzite wear the day that he had died- the day that she had killed him, so many years ago.
Minako's head snapped up. She had been staring out at the city lights from the balcony of her room.
"Of course I am! Why do you ask?" asked Minako brightly, but underneath that brilliance, there was lurking darkness.
Artemis hesitated, looking closely at Minako. "Well, you've seemed a bit- a bit off-color, so I was wondering why."
Minako flashed her trademark mega-watt smile at Artemis, but again, the smile was like gold paint over lead. "Oh, no. I've just been a bit tired lately, but honestly, there's nothing wrong with me." Minako's face softened when she saw Artemis' sincerely worried expression.
"Truly, Artemis, I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me." Something of her old sincerity and compassion rang true in Minako's voice, so Artemis nodded and said, even though he was still faintly uneasy,
"Alright, if you say so. Well, then, I'm going to go and see Luna about new battle tactics." Rubbing his way around Minako's legs once in farewell, Artemis leaped down from the balcony and walked off.
Minako watched as Artemis faded into the distance. When he had vanished from sight she gave a great sigh. Something inside her seemed to deflate, and she ran her hand over her tired, wan face.
Minako looked off into the distance again, and her eyes unfocused and took on a dreamy quality, but this was no dream, no, this was a waking nightmare-
*Betrayal.
"Die, Senshi!"
A dagger winking from *his* hand-
The devastated Moon Palace
A sneer on Kunzite's face-*
"No!" Minako brutally tore herself out of her memories. Staggering a bit as she went back into her room, she sat on her bed, her head buried in her hands.
Truthfully, ever since Artemis had given Minako back her traumatic memories, everything had become centered around that ancient heartbreak. All Minako could ever think about was Kunzite; his love, his death, his betrayal. She dwelt on it constantly; everything she saw, everything she heard, brought all of it back, every memory, every sense, every detail. A cloudy day would bring back rain-grey eyes. A bouquet of flowers would bring back golden meadows. And everywhere, everywhere she kept on seeing that dazzling smile the day he had said he loved her; but always, always, underneath that smile was the sneer he had had the day he had killed her.
And invariably, there was always the same word over and over again.
Betrayl.
It started to become an obsession to Minako; her world had spiraled down to that one word, and the one person behind that word. They had become synonymous, those two. Kunzite-betrayal. Betrayal-Kunzite. After a while, it had become the only constant in Minako's emotion-ravaged world.
Minako's world had become a whirlwind of turbulent emotions; ever since she had regained her memories, Minako had lost her emotional center. Minako found herself constantly struggling for control of herself. She found herself becoming irrationally angry one moment, then nearly in tears for no reason. Minako couldn't even turn her friends anymore; they didn't know, they couldn't know, they shouldn't know, they wouldn't know.
And most importantly, they wouldn't understand. Wouldn't understand the million thoughts and emotions running through her head, wouldn't understand the loss that woke her up at nights, screaming and soaked in cold sweat, wouldn't understand the sorrow that kept tearing her to tatters with sharp gleaming knives.
And so she kept it secret from her friends; and if she seemed a little paler, a trifle thinner, a bit sadder, her friends wrote it off to stress or to overwork. For whenever they asked after her concernedly, she always smiled brightly and waved it off. But it wasn't often that someone noticed any of the personal turmoil and strife that Minako was battling; after all, Minako was an actress, and Minako had had a lot of practice with concealing emotions.
And all throughout, while her emotions tossed and tattered her, she clung to that one anchor, that one constant in her life. When everything else was shattering to pieces under her desparate fingers, she knew this one thing to be true: she had loved Kunzite, and he had betrayed her.
Everything became centered around that one truth. However, it was so ironic that in the wild whirlwind of her ravaging emotions, the truth that she clung to for stability and security was the same truth that was destroying her.
Minako sighed, and she got up from her bed and with a practiced snap of her wrist and flick, she pulled out her Venus Chain-wink sword from her space pocket. Each of the scouts had recently discovered that in their "space- pockets" they also had their Silver Millenium swords. Amazingly enough, all of the katas that had been drilled into the scouts in the Silver Millenium were still remembered.
Minako began to fall into a pattern of steps of one of the slower katas, trying to calm her mind. However, she unconsciously began to speed up, the turmoil of her thoughts leaking into her movements. The sword began to speed up, as did her body, until her sword was nothing but a flashing, dazzling blade, and her body was awhirl with movement. At the speed she was going, her movements were actually starting to become dangerous to herself, but she didn't care anymore, she just knew that she had to go faster, and faster- everything would be all right if she could just keep on going, forever keep the blade a whirling gleam of steel-
And then her wrist faltered, and she skidded to an abrupt halt in front of her mirror.
It was the first time she had looked at her reflection in days. She wanted to smash the mirror with her sword, but resisted the urge. She did not like what she saw there; the ghost of a girl whose intense inner agony was starting to eat away at her-
For there was no doubt about it, Minako was slowly deteriorating. She had begun to snap at inconsequential matters, she became more irritable about trivial details. She even winced somewhat at loud sounds.
Which was why when the phone rang abruptly, Minako nearly jumped out of her skin and almost dropped her sword. She took a deep breath, and visibly calmed herself. Then, in a marked stride, she went over to the telephone.
"Hello?" Minako said sharply in a clipped voice.
"Minako?" The voice on the other end sounded hesitant, as if the other person wasn't sure that Minako would speak so harshly. "This is Rei. I was wondering, well, if you'd come over to the temple? There's something- erm- rather important which I'd like to show you." Rei's voice was diffident, almost shy, which was extremely unlike the senshi of fire, but there was something, some emotion underneath her voice which Minako couldn't even begin to decipher.
"Sure. Um, I'll be right over, then. Bye." Minako hung up the phone, extremely puzzled by the phone call. It wasn't often that Rei just called out of the blue requesting a visit, but Minako shrugged. She'd find out when she got there.
Minako walked briskly to the temple, but as she walked up the stone steps, she had an eerie feeling; the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she unconsciously rubbed a hand over the nape of her neck. She somehow had the feeling that she was poised at the threshold, that she was about to be plunged into yet another mess of chaotic emotions, yet another whirlwind of forces completely out of her control. Something was going to happen on this visit to Rei.
*Don't be ridiculous!* Minako chided herself. *You're being WAY too jumpy. Rei's the one who's supposed to get prescient visions, remember?*
And yet, Minako couldn't quite shake her feeling of uneasiness. And when she crossed into the Fire Room where Rei was, her uneasiness tripled. Perhaps it was all in her imagination, but to her it felt like the atmosphere was charged with tension.
Rei was sitting with her back to the entrance, but the moment that Minako stepped into the room, Rei gracefully unfolded herself from the floor, turned, and smiled at Minako.
"Hi! Thanks for coming, I just wanted you over for a few minutes because I wanted to show you something." Rei said.
Minako nodded, and Rei went over to a chest on the side of the room, and took out something. When Rei turned around, Minako's breath stopped in her chest.
It was *the* stone. More accurately, it was the stone that Minako had seen Kunzite wear the day that he had died- the day that she had killed him, so many years ago.