The Reflection of a Soul, chapter 9
black beyond
black_beyond@hotmail.com
~'~


Uhm, since I'm HAPPY right now, I have no rants, compliants, or such-what. Weird.

*sigh*...

Uhm, anyway... here you are, chapter 9. My sappiness has not affected this chapter. I do not make promises for further chapters, however. ^_^;;


note from final copy of ROS: I have taken extreme liberties with Usagi's past and Princess Serenity's as well. I've seen four seasons and two of the movies and the only bit where it actually says anything about Usagi's past is where she gives Chibi-Mamo-chan a rose in the R movie. So I spun off on that idea... heh heh, god, you're all going to hate me. I do some of my best darkhorror stuff in this...

Like I said, this is where is starts getting dark. And where I start explaining. So no upset mommies.

Warnings: Verbal/Physical abuse. Evil little girls. Foul language. Rape hints. Child endangerment/abuse/torture hints.

~'~






Usagi made the young girl sit down in a chair. She herself paced. As a
quick fix, she'd found a black bandana and tied it around her forehead, but it
wouldn't work forever, and Rei was already interrogating her to death. She'd
tried the makeup, but it wore off much too quickly... she'd found that out the
hard way after she'd returned to her room that night a few days ago and found
that her mark was all but visable, the makeup having worn away from her sweat.

The girl was going to help her. She was a maid, one of the many faces in
the palace. She was very quiet, young, and shy, the main reasons Usagi had
singled her out.

"You can't tell anyone that you've come here." Usagi said tersely. Rei
was with Relena right now, and would be for two more hours before Usagi took
over until midnight, working in their eight hour patterns. "No one, do you
hear me? Not your family, not your friends, not anyone. I'll protect you if
anyone harasses you."

The girl nodded, somewhat terrified, but mostly curious. "Yes, ma'am."

Usagi nodded, satisfied with that. "Alright, then. They said you were
good with hair... and well, I'm not. I've fixed it only one way my entire
life... it two odango." She smiled ruefully. "I should probably cut it...
but... I don't have the heart."

"Cut your hair!" The girl seemed horrified at the suggestion. Usagi's
hair was beautiful and thick, and almost completely silver-white. Not to
mention how very long it was. A few more inches and it would drag the floor,
and yet there wasn't a single tangle in the luxurious mass.

Usagi nodded. "That's about my attitude. It's never been cut, not once.
Except to get the dead ends cut off. But I've got a problem." She hesitated
for minute.

The girl frowned. "My name is Jitisuki. You can trust me."

Usagi reached up and untied the bandana. She pulled it away and the soft
glow of the crescent moon on her forehead pulsated ever so slightly. It was a
beautiful, shimmering silver and made the face that it was set in look serene
and dignified. Like a queen.

"I need you to fix my hair so that the insignia is hidden." Usagi said,
searching the girl's facinated face carefully. "I don't want anyone to see
it."

"I don't know why." The girl breathed. "It's so beautiful."

Usagi grinned. "Thank you. But I can't have anyone see it. It's... it
would raise questions I don't want to answer. It stands for a lot of painful
memories."

Jitisuki nodded. "I suppose I could braid part of it to be twisted
around your forehead. Your hair is certainly long enough."

Usagi's hand flew to her mouth, and she started laughing. "Yes, like
Berdi! I should have thought of her; that's what she did." She laughed a
little and nodded. "Yes, please do that, if you wouldn't care."

The girl stood up and moved behind Usagi, who sat on the corner of her
bed.

"What kind of memories?" She asked softly, seperating Usagi's thick
locks. She picked up a strategically picked handful and began to braid it
tightly.

"Bad memories." Usagi answered. "From my childhood." She shuddered a
little. Jitisuki nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked, her voice kind.

Usagi closed her eyes. "No." Talking would make her remember. Then... "A
little."

"What about it?"

Usagi kept her eyes closed. "When I was very young... very, very young.
I was about four. I had left my nurse and wandered into the middle of the
market. Someone saw the mark on my forehead and I remember him saying, 'I
don't belive it, look at the miserable creature'... I remember because I had
never been called anything but princess and I wanted to know if Miserable-
creature was my name. When I asked him, he picked me up and took me away."
Usagi paused. "I had no idea what he was. He took me to..." She almost said
Earth. "... to a place were I was kept in a little stone room." She sighed.
"That room was the only thing I knew until I was eleven."

Jitisuki finished the braid. "Do you have a rubber band and some
hairpins?" She asked. Usagi nodded, and motioned to a table beside them.
Jitisuki leaned over and retrieved them.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore. If I did..." She smiled wryly.
"I'd have to kill you."

Jitisuki wrapped the braid around Usagi's forehead, and the mark was
covered, and pinned it there. Working carefully but quickly, she pulled the
rest of the silver tresses into a french knot, secruing it all with pins.

"It's very elegant." Usagi reached back to feel it. "I always wondered
how it was done."

"It's easy." Jitisuki blushed. "But I'll do it whenever you want me to."

Usagi nodded, picking up a handmirror and inspecting the handiwork.
"Thank you. I have a mission later on tonight and I was afraid I would have
lost the bandana." But she stuffed the cloth into a pocket anyway.

Jitisuki smiled. "You're welcome."



~'~









Rei was drumming her fingers over a table top, listening to Relena give
her detailed plans of her evening, which would be spent at an extravigant
dance held for the school. Rei had to admit, it would quite an affair.

She was about to ask just how many guests were expected when a young
soldier burst into the hall, his face red. He gasped for a few seconds,
catching his breath before he spoke.

"Hino-san," He managed to say. "Tsukino just left the palace. She left a
message for you, 'Sorry I have to leave you with a double shift. I should be
back.', and told me that you were not allowed to follow her." He was breathing
easier, but looked worried. "She said she was given a mission."

Rei cursed in a dead language and stood up. "Bring me a vid." She
ordered. The soldier turned tail and ran.

"Where did she go?" Relena asked, wishing Dorothy was there.

Rei bit her lip. "I have no idea. But Usagi wouldn't lie about a misson.
She probably did get one, concerning something important. I trust her." She
added mentally, "On most things."

Relena nodded. "It probably had to do with Duo. He was captured two days
ago by OZ during a mission, and none of the pilots have received orders yet.
She probably got the mission."

Rei's jaw dropped and she stared at Relena, who blushed. "How do you
know?"

Relena grinned a little. "I have all sorts of sources. I know where they
are every second of the day, usually. I'm the first to kow when one's captured
because of all the taps I have on OZ and Romafeller. I knew when you were
captured because they thought you were gundam pilots."

"But we're girls!"

"They don't know that all the pilots are male. And with Duo, I'm not
even sure that they'll be sure he's a guy. You have to admit, with that braid
of his..."

Rei flushed a little. "I like his braid." She defended the pilot of
Deathscythe, causing Relena to look at her, grinning.

"You like him."

Rei gasped. "I do not!"

"Oh, you do too. You know you do." Relena teased.

Rei crossed her arms. "I resent that. Hino Rei does not *like* anyone."
She said stubbornly.

Relena rolled her eyes. "Back to the subject."

"Yes, thank you." Both girls turned around quickly. "Oh, now, don't mind
me! I'm just watching you two bicker over a subject that's already been
decided."

It was Ayame, but they couldn't have known that. What they saw was an
eight-year-old girl wearing a gray pleated shirt and a white blouse with big
blue eyes and sky-colored hair. She smiled at their dumbfoundedness.

"Hello, little girl..." Relena said cautiously. "How did you get in
here?"

Rei just glared. "What are you?"

Ayame laughed. "I'm so flattered, SailorMars! You didn't even have to
blink, you just knew. My kudos to you." She jumped down from her perch on the
window sill and made a sweeping bow before turning to Relena. "How did I get
in here? That's easy. I appeared."

"You appeared."

"Sure did. But I didn't come here to explain the sciences of
teleportation." Ayame shrugged. "I'd love to, but it's not the time. You can
always ask Mercury for a lecture." Her face, still round with leftover
babyfat, grew solemn. "Relena, you need to have a med unit ready. You're
right, she *is* going to save Duo-oji-chan. But something will go wrong and
well..." Ayame smiled. "You know how Usagi is, Rei. Trouble loves her almost
as much as Seiya did."

Rei's mouth open and closed as she searched for something to say,
unbelieving.

Finally: "What do you mean?"

Ayame pouted. "Just do what I said! You don't want her to die, now after
all this, do you?" She winked and vanished.

Relena didn't even bother to look away from the place where Ayame once
occupied. "Did you see that too?" She asked cautiously, wondering if her lover
was right and actually was straining herself too much.

Rei didn't answer. She held up her wirst and hit a button on her
communicator. "Goddamnit, Usagi, you'd better answer." She muttered.

Relena leaned over just as Usagi's tense face appeared on the watch-
face. "Hey, what's with the braid?" She asked.

Rei overrode her. "Usagi, one of those freaky little kids just appeared
and told us to get a frigging med unit ready for your welcoming party. What
the FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" She shouted.

Usagi giggled a little. "Keep it down, Rei." She whispered. "I'm on the
perimeters of the base." She looked at the furious senshi. "I'm rescuing Duo.
And the security's really tight, so if the girl told you to get a med unit
ready, I guess that's what you're gonna have to do." She bit her lip. "You
know what, Rei?"

"WHAT!" Rei rubbed her temple with her free hand.

"I don't think even Sailor Moon can do this. This security is really
fucking something else. You think they've got Princess Diana's corpse in here
instead of a kid."

"No, Usagi, don't you dare let them know--"

"Sorry, Rei." Usagi shrugged. "Had to be sometime."

"NO, USAGI, DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE--"

Usagi smiled sadly. "Get that med team ready. I'm sorry, Relena." The
little screen went black, and Rei shouted something that really wasn't
suitable for anyone under the age of twenty-five to hear. Relena struggled
with the color in her face as she asked, "What was that about?"

Rei cursed again and looked up at Relena. "Go ahead with your party,
Relena. I'll get the med team ready for a guy with a braid and an odangoed
blonde in a white dress." She sighed. "And make sure they've got lots of
bandaids."

Relena looked confused. "White dress? What was she talking about, Rei?"

"It's a long story, Relena. A really long story."

Relena reached over the table and turned the vid phone on. Paegan
answered... "Miss Relena!"

"Paegan, postpone the party. Something very urgent has come up and I
won't be able to make it."

"But Miss--"

"Tell him to have it without you." Rei said.

Relena repeated it, and Paegan nodded, and the screen went blank. Relena
pulled up two chairs.

"I've got time. Spill."

Rei sighed. "It started a long time ago..."



~'~





Usagi crept closer, to the last line of trees before open feild. There
was a fifty-yard dash to the fence that was completely open ground. She closed
her eyes and counted to ten.

She'd done things like this before. But never with so much at stake. Duo
was her friend. He was the thousand greats grandson of a fellow senshi.

She would never get to the fence without being spotted. Spotted and
shot.

She took two of her pistols and her broach and placed them in her
subspace pocket, where no one but herself could get to them. OZ would be
satisfied with the other guns she carried, and the knives.

Taking a deep breath, she raised her hands in the air and walked out of
her cover.

Almost immediatly, a light was shown on her and she was surrounded by
guards, all of whom had a full loaded gun trained on her every movement. She
saw a couple of dogs and smiled benignly at them.

"Who the hell are you?" One of the soldiers demanded.

"02 is my boyfriend." She lied quickly. "I want him back." She lifted
her chin in a stubborn, vain show of courage. She didn't even flush at the
barrage of laughter that followed her remark. The soldier stepped forward.

He looked her up and down appreciatively, his hard eyes lingering on her
long, silver hair. "Now, what's a gorgeous little thing like you want with a
kid like him? He's gotta be, what, thirteen?"

She looked up at him, angry. "And you've got to be what, a neanderthah?"
She retorted, stepping back from him as he stepped closer. "I like him."

One of his eyebrows lifted. "And do you just call him oh-two when you
fuck him, sweetie?"

Her cheeks went red with indignity, and she didn't answer. He nodded,
satisfied with the reaction. He stepped closer still.

With a look around, he gave his order. "Search her."

She gave no reaction as she was frisked in a less than routine way. She
watched as all of her weapons were found, removed, and thrown on the ground
too far away for her to reach. She looked over at them longingly, wishing she
could go for them.

The solder from before had watched maliciously while she was being
manhandled, and now spoke up again. "What's your name?"

"I haven't got one."

"Bullshit."

She raised her chin at him even more. "Why should I tell you, you
coward?" He raised his hand to strike her, and she raised her face to meet his
hand. "Go ahead. I'm not afraid of you."

"You should be, bitchie."

She shrugged. "I figure you won't kill me. And if you do, you'd be doing
us all a favor. And as long as you don't kill me, I'm alive."

He sneered. "I could make you wish you were dead."

This made her smile. "Grab a number and stand in line. You're not the
first."

"WHat's your name?" He demanded again.

"Tell me your's and I might recover from my amnesia."

"Second Liutenant Anderson."

She grinned at him. "I'll remember that. Now remember mine. It's
Serenity. You're going to hear that one again, Mr. Anderson."

"Yeah. At the wake."

"If you say so."

He spat at her in disgust. "Beat some answers out of her and heighten
security. She's probably just a foil."

Usagi didn't resist as she was dragged away, but kept her eyes on
Anderson, who turned away.

"I'll remember you!" She called back, smiling. "Oh, I'll remember you."
She muttered to herself.



~'~







Duo jumped up, ready to fight, when the door of his cell was kicked
open. He expected the hourly interogation soldiers were back to kick him
around again, but instead Usagi was led inside. The two soldiers pushed her to
the floor and laughed.

"Here's your girlfriend, 02. Hope you don't mind if we roughed her up a
little." One of them mocked him and then left, slamming the floor shut.

Duo helped the blonde to her feet. "What did they do to you?" He asked
angrily. "Why are you here?"

Usagi shrugged. "I've had much, much worse treatment that what those
baffoons gave me. And I'm here to get you out." She frowned a little and
looked around. "Damn. This is some five-star prison cell."

Duo looked at her, his mind processing the hints she was dropping like a
cat sheds fur. "I suppose you've been in others for the comparison?"

She nodded, still looking around. "I lived in one for the first fourteen
years of my last life. In this one, I had worse than prison cells." She
nodded, tapping the walls. "Lots worse. At least this one shouldn't drop below
freezing."

His eyes narrowed. "Where have you been, Usagi?"

She looked back at him, her eyes sad. "Places that no child should ever
see, Duo. I'm sure you've got an idea of what I mean." She smiled wryly.
"What's so bad about this dump?"

He motioned around in a sweeping gesture. "No windows."

She sat down on one of the cots. "I see your point. But no one in their
right mind places a gundam pilot in a room with windows. But I'll tell you
something: it would have made my life easier if they had."

He frowned at her curiously. "How'd you get in here?"

She looked away, flushing. "Well, I thought about it a little, and then
I just put my hands in the air and walked out into their security ring. It was
the fastest, most stress-free way in."

"Did they touch you?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, Duo." She sighed. "Like I said. It wasn't
half as bad as they could have made it." She shrugged. "But I'm telling you...
they went easy on me. It makes me wonder what kind of stuff you get when
you're taken in."

Duo shuddered. "Don't ask, don't tell."

She stretched her arms and looked over at him. "Hey, do you mind if I
take a nap before I get us out of here? Just a quick one." She held out her
arms, full of bruises and cuts. As he watched, they healed. "I'm tired."

He shrugged. "Yeah. It's probably best if you sleep for a while
anyway... they're real jumpy right now. Give 'em a few hours and they'll slack
off. At least with you here, they might switch to bi-hourly instead of
hourly."

She smiled at him and stretched out over the hard cot. "Thanks, Duo."
Using one of her pale arms for a pillow, she was asleep in a few seconds.

Sighing, Duo sat back down on his own cot and leant against the wall,
listening to the silence. He couldn't explain it, but he was less tense with
her in here. After all, she'd managed to bust out of a cell once. Maybe she
could do it again.

He still wondered how a stunning body like that held some of the
deadilest power in the universe. Rei had to have been trippin.

Except-- he had never seen Rei eat anything. Usagi had, of course, but
then Rei had said Usagi loved to eat. And Rei had transformed in front of them
that one time she flipped...

"I dunno." Duo said softly. "You're a mysterious babe, babe, but you've
got some weird questions to answer. I couldn't sleep in one of these places if
I tried."

"She used to live in one worse than this."

Duo fell out of the cot, hitting his head against the wall. Rubbing the
bump, he peeked over the edge and saw Tomodachi.

"Now, listen, you little--" He stopped when he saw the tearstains on her
cheeks and the miserable expression on her face. His tone softened to pure
tenderness. "Hey, what happened to you, kid?"

Tomodachi shrugged. "Death, destruction, chaos, you know the gig better
than I, Duo Maxwell." She looked over at the sleeping Usagi. "Mama Usagi is
very brave."

Duo climbed back on the cot. "Whatever. Now, what did you say? Before I
fell off the rock?"

Tomodachi smiled a little. "That she lived in one worse than this. She
is quite comfortable in small, cinderblock rooms." She looked down, sadly.
"And even moer comfortable with beatings. She had a childhood I would not wish
on the worst of my enemies." She looked back at Duo. "Kind of like your's."

"I doubt she had anything near mine."

Tomodachi's eyebrows lifted. "She was stolen from her mother's palace
when she was two years old and thrown into a six-by-twelve room. She was
beaten continuously when she cried and wasn't allowed to show any form of
emotion." Her face went sour. "The Master considered it weakness. He trained
her how to use weaponry and tortured her whenever she disobeyed or showed
weakness. She began to assassinate people when she was seven, and got into the
more... nasty... work... when she was ten."

Duo closed his eyes. "They like 'em young." He muttered.

Tomodachi nodded. "She murdered Master when she was fourteen and went
looking for her past. The moment she stepped foot in her mothers kingdom she
was recognized and taken before the queen, who made her go through a different
kind of training. She was trained to be a puppet."

"Why are you telling me this?" Duo asked, interrupting the little girl.
"Are you trying to make me pity her?"

Tomodachi's eyes narrowed. "No. Don't pity her at all. She doesn't need
pitied." She stressed it. "You just need to understand she knows what pain is,
Duo. She's not the pampered, happy-go-lucky princess Rei thinks she is. You
have to *trust* her."

He looked at her. "Rei doesn't know?"

Tomodachi shook her head.

"Why not? I mean, Rei's her best friend, right?"

"She's never told anyone. She didn't even tell her mother."

"But-- how-- why--"

"She's afraid of what they will think of her." Tomodachi was solemn.
"She did very questionable things."

"We all do."

Tomodachi frowned, shaking her head slowly. "No, Duo. You don't
understand. She's a princess, and soon she will be queen. All her life she's
had to act so people won't guess what she was. She'll have to explain it to
the senshi, of course, but..." Tomodachi bit her lip. "Some people won';t
understand that she had to do as she was told."

Duo looked away. "You can always disobey orders."

"No, Duo. She would have been beaten silly. You can't ask her to have
done otherwise."

He didn't look at her. "I trust her, kid."

Tomodachi smiled. "Yeah, I know."

"Then why'd you come?"

"To tell you you're not alone in this. Tell her she's not alone."

"She's asleep."

"So you tell her."

"ME!"

"Why not?"

"Because... well..."

"Aw, Shinigami's blushing..."

"I am not!" Duo protested, his face red.

Tomodachi smirked at him. "Of course not, Tomato-Head."


~'~

I warned you.

Next chapter: Usagi and Duo kick ass on Oz and escape. Death makes his cameo at the request of the author's friend and Usagi flees. Lots of snow. Bits and pieces of Usagi's past is revealed in nightmares and Millardo (?!) comforts her.

That's it in a nutshell, because I don't feel like details today. All I can say is that the next chappie is quite interesting... muwahahahahahaha....