Okay this might be the last chapter for about a week, possibly a week and a half. Next week is finals week for me, and I have four finals, a news story to write, two feature news stories to write for my summer internship. And plus I made a promise that I would update my Tsubasa/Cardcaptor fic before the end of next week. But don't worry, I won't forget this fic either.
Amy found solace in the water.
She always had. The repetition of the strokes and the cool waves flowing of her body helped her find her peace. Lord knows she needed peace after the revelations the other day.
One of her favorite places to be was the pool. Especially when she was alone. She heard and felt a splash from the other end of the pool and came to stop when she reached the wall. She really wasn't in the mood for company.
Amy started to get out of the pool and felt a hand brush her ankle.
"Wait, mermaid, swim awhile with us mortals," a lilting voice full of laughter said. She didn't turn around, she knew she'd find that Zane guy; somehow they'd all managed to find one-on-one time with the senshi.
She turned around, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes. He was leaning against the pool wall, his dark-blonde hair loose and his green eyes full of mirth. And another look in those eyes that made her want to grab her towel and cover-up – and at the same time made her want to jump into the pool to find out just what he could offer.
So Amy did the sane thing to ease her confliction. She grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her. She took a moment to compose herself before turning to face him again.
"What do you want?" she asked, fighting to instill politeness in her voice.
"You," he said, locking his green eyes to hers. Amy held his gaze for a moment, blushing furiously, but then dropped it to look at the floor tiles.
"I'm afraid then, I won't be able to help you," she said, and gathered her shoes and things and headed to the locker room to change. When the door shut behind her, she closed her eyes and leaned up against the door, her heart pounding. If only she could just disappear right now. She knew he was standing outside the door, she could feel him, as if there wasn't an inch of steel separating them. If she kept her eyes closed she could see him, hand splayed on the door and head bowed. Those leaf-green eyes she knew so well were staring sightlessly at the ground.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, turning and walking away from the door.
/
Mina was sitting cross-legged across her bed letting Lita change the bandage on her shoulder. Her leg had healed pretty well, but because of the dark energy her senshi healing abilities couldn't kick in and heal her shoulder up.
"It's looking okay," Lita said, tossing a strand of brown hair out of her eyes. She finished taping the bandage down and then stood back. "You should probably take it easy on that, it's starting to heal up and you don't want to rip anything. So Dr. Lita prescribes ice cream and bed rest." She stood up and walked over to the table where they kept their mail and tossed a magazine on the bed. "And of course your weekly gossip fix."
Mina caught the magazine but turned it face down when she saw Kale on the cover. She glanced up to see Lita grabbing her phone and her purse and frowned. "Where are you going?"
"I have a date," came the smug reply as the brunette tossed her head and then grinned over her shoulder. She gave Mina another concerned glance before heading to the door and opening it.
"It better not be with Nikolas!" Mina called after her, receiving a grin and a wink in reply.
Mina grumbled as she settled back in bed, grabbing the remote and mashing the power button. The television came on to a cooking show so she started flipping until she landed on Fuse, which was showing music videos. Momentarily pacified, she grabbed the magazine and started flipping through it, absently listening to the music playing on the TV.
She became engrossed in reading and jumped, jarring her shoulder when a knock sounded on her door. She knew it wasn't any of the senshi because they would just walk in the door, so she went to the door cautiously, and opened it, surprised to see Zane standing there.
"Can I help you?" she asked sounding confused.
"I need to talk to someone, and you're the only one that I can find right now," he said as Mina stepped back and gestured him in. She sat down on her bed and he sat in the desk chair and sighed.
"I remember everything," he said after a lengthy pause, where they both avoided looking at one another. Mina's head shot up and she gasped. "Everything. I mean I remember Endymion and Queen Serenity, and the Silver Alliance, and most of all Mercury." Mina's eyes softened at the way he said her friend's name and she met his eyes, which were pained.
"And I remember you and Kunzite always fighting, and the way Mars used to pick fights with Jadeite just so they could make up. And Princess Serenity sneaking down to see Endy. How unreal it seemed at times."
Zane sighed and looked down. "And I went to see her today. To see Amy. And she took off. She doesn't remember me, and all I want is to be near her, to hold her again. Instead of that, I have to make her trust me again. I have to win her again.
"And most of all," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out greenish crystal and holding it out for Mina to take. "I remember this."
When Mina took the crystal the first thing she felt was the power running through the crystal. But she ignored that to concentrate on the hurt in the young man's voice. "Amy hasn't forgotten you, it's just that she remembers what happened. Maybe you guys don't know this but someone looking exactly like you attacked us and tried to kill us. Several times.
"We're still trying to figure out how Metaria and Beryl have servants that look exactly like you," she said, putting emphasis on the last three words.
"You don't remember?" Zane asked, raising an eyebrow. "They were clones. Endymion's parents were trying to increase the amount of magic people on Terra. And we were the only ones that would consent. Most of the magic people stayed hidden, afraid. And because of our position we were protected.
"The first batch wasn't able to gain consciousness, and they were destroyed. The second ones, the ones you know, had something off about them. They were supposed to be destroyed, but one of the palace guards felt sorry for them and let them go. Metaria found them, much like she found Beryl and the rest you know."
As Zane spoke, Mina felt the memories coming back to her. She knew he was speaking the truth. She remembered hearing Mercury's stories of the Terran experiments.
"So that explains why we never felt anything for them," she said. "We thought it was because you – they were evil, but it's because we recognized they were different."
She stood up and started pacing. "I-I, I have to talk to the others. I need you to leave, because we need to think. If it's true then we have plans to make." For the first time she smiled at him and said, "So go on, so we can plan."
Zane gave her a small smile back and turned to go. "Can you talk to her?"
Mina didn't need to ask who.
"Of course."
