A Moon Never Clasped

By:Danni Lynn

Chapter 9: What is the Truth?

~+!Mina!+~

Tsukino-san's empty gaze met Mina's bewildered stare, as her mouth went slack for lack of words. Despite the fact that she had actually gotten some sleep to ease her stressed mind, it did not put to rest her frustrations, that were slowly mounting. The startled blonde wouldn't have believed Tsukino-san at all if she hadn't seen the truth on which was marred into the other female's skin. Where Mina could easily tell that the petite blonde had been wounded seriously from youmas more than once, for she bore similar marks on her own body. Yet, the senshi of love could also make out the intentional burn marks that appeared to be from cauterizing an injury, for again, she had her fair share of those too.

What truly horrified the sailor, was the way she had scars that interlaced once another that all seemed be from lacerations from what, Mina assumed, was a blade or a whip. The unemotional girl that sat, watching, Mina, was no more than the love senshi's own age if not, younger. The vexed blonde could tell so easily that this individual had been severely tortured beyond repair, but when she had met Tsukino-san at school, she had seemed so...normal.

Now...Mina didn't know what to think.

Bringing her gaze to the bloodied stubs on the blonde's back, Mina sucked in a breath and swore, finally tearing her eyes away from Tsukino-san. Unable to grasp the makings of what had brought this devastatingly tragic girl into Mina's life.

"You cannot...die...?" The words Mina whispered hung in the air, like a blade from a guillotine, simply waiting to be brought down on its next victim. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ami flinch behind Tsukino as the genius unconsciously wrapped her arms around the blonde.

Feeling a bubble of hysteria form in her chest that made its way up and out of Mina's throat in a twisted, high-pitched, squeal. The sailor of Venus began to consciously evade all sense of reasoning, her mind relapsing as it had before. "She cannot die!" She shrieked, madly, out into the room, hearing it reverberate off the white walls and echo around the almost empty apartment. She held her hands up into the air and spun in circles, giggling as if insane, her grin split from the cracks of confusion finally leaking in. Her mind losing the battle of reality and dream.

Then, suddenly...

She stopped moving, and her face fell becoming emotionless like the other blonde. She took one step and another, towards Ami and Tsukino-san, her body language never changing. Keeping a few feet distanced from the smaller female, Mina tilted her head, no amusement twinkling in her eye except the corrosive power of insanity, working its way into her head. "Why can you not die, Tsukino-san?" Mina repeated once more, her face slowly churning in anger; in rage.

The petite teenager, who was wrapped in Ami's arms, met the love senshi's crucifying glare with a hazed look, as a deep breath passed from between her pink lips and a silver of a tear escaped from her dulled eyes. "Because Mina...I am neither alive nor dead. I have my mind, I have my body, but I do not have my will. For someone else, has taken that."

The room echoed horrifying words that had not been spoken, as Mina's world seemed to spin with the revelation of how Tsukino-san was neither living or dead but caught in some in-between spectrum. Mina didn't know what to think or feel about all of what had occurred in the last three days but she was tired.

Tired of being ignored by her family.

Tired of being strong when she felt so weak.

Tired of being the leader.

Most of all, she was tired of not understanding.

Shifting her feet and placing most of her weight on her left foot, Mina let her shoulders go slack as she hunched slightly forward and dragged a hand across her weary face. Trying to focus her vision, the love senshi opened her mouth and closed it, unable to form a sentence in her head as exhaustion began to fatigue her once more. "I just want to know what the hell is going on." She sighed in agitation, anger slowly churning inside her confused mind.

~+!Rei's Pov!+~

The cold night air stole the warmth from her breath and the energy from her muscles, making her want to curl into a fetal position next to a hot fire. Yet, the sound of battle cries off in the distance kept her from loosing awareness and all focus as she trained her eyes into the tree in front of her. As she struggled to get to her knees and back into the fray.

Frozen dirt clung to her bare legs and covered the scrapes and lacerations she bore from the youma battle that raged just a little ways ahead. As she tried to climb to her feet, she stumbled, feeling her right ankle shoot with pain as she caught herself from falling.

Clenching her teeth, the ragged and bruised scout, dragged herself back into the scene, where she found an unconscious Mercury behind Jupiter that was busy attacking the winter-looking youma with lightening attacks as Venus held the youma down with her love-me chain.

Clearing her mind, Rei felt for the flickering flame inside her, where she kindled it into a passionate fire and channeled it to her finger tips. Pulling her arms into the form of an arrow, the scout of Mars, snapped open her eyes and let go of the imaginary arrow as it suddenly formed into a blaze of fire headed for the struggling youma.

Muttering quiet encouragements to the flying arrow, Raye felt the triumph of success blossom inside her chest, her aches and pain fading to the knowledge she helped keep the people of Earth safe for another day. This youma was as good as-

Suddenly, Venus cried out as crimson splayed out into the air, spewing from a wound in her chest. Icicles of despair pierced into Mars heart, as fear began to creep in. Venus' Love-Me-Chain laid broken on the ground in pieces, and the youma was gone. Falling into a panic, Mars desperately scanned the battle ground, only to see nothing changed.

'This is not good, shitshitshitshit.' Mars mentally cursed, berating herself on her lack of awareness. This youma was unnaturally strong compared to all of the other foes they had faced previously and it was seriously quick. 'But yet...where could it have gone?'

Before she could even process the thought, Mars stopped...something wasn't right...no...something was wrong. VERY wrong. A strange sensation of warmth began to spread down from her belly to her legs, an odd smell hung in the air...it smelled like...like...blood! Glancing down, Mars saw a hollowed pipe no bigger than three inches in diameter sticking out of her chest at an odd angle. Her eyes widen in disbelief, as blood began to pool at her feet.

Hearing an inhuman crackle behind her, Mars tried to see to look over her shoulder, but the pain was setting in and she was practically paralyzed in agony. As she began to collapse to her knees, the youma's insane laughter got louder as it ripped the pipe out of Mars chest. The senshi of fire would have screamed if it hadn't been for the fact that her lungs were filling with liquid, drowning her even as her body began to drain out all of its crimson life.

She was going to die-

With a horror induced shriek, Raye quickly sat up, clutching the white sheets that lay upon her in a death grip. She stared at her balled fists, as she tried to erase the dream from her mind, droplets of sweat beading from her furrowed brows and onto the sheets. The agony of pain from her dream still fresh in her mind, Raye tried to calm herself down, but by the trembling of her body, she knew that it wouldn't be anytime soon.

Throwing the covers off her, she hurriedly sprang off the bed and scurried to the bathroom, throwing the door open on her way in. Flicking the lights on, Raye stopped and stared at her reflection in the mirror: her pale and ghastly face stricken with a pallor sheen of sweat; her eyes wide with panic; her chest heaving for the need of air. She was terrified. Prying her shocked eyes from the mirror, Raye turned the faucet on and sprayed cold water into her face, hoping to erase the intensity of the dream that clung to her with a fierce lucidity.

After several long, emotion-filled minutes had passed, Raye was finally able to put some ease into her tension body. Glancing back up into the mirror, she could see that she had regained some color back into her face and that her trembling had stopped. Not wanting to look at herself any longer, the raven stripped herself bare and got into the shower, letting steam fill up the tiny bathroom.

Raye placed her forehead against the cool, tile wall as hot water streamed down in cascades upon her body, warming her frozen body. Unconsciously, Raye traced a circular, keloid scar that lay in the center of her chest, the simple motion causing the dream to resurface inside her mind. That dream...no, nightmare, Raye knew was a memory, a memory that she had wanted to forget. That battle had almost had cost her, her life, something she didn't want to lose. Underneath all of her bravado as a senshi, Raye was still a teenage girl full of dreams and young.

She wasn't Mina, who could so easily and willingly give up her life for the sake of others. She wasn't Lita, who would do anything to protect her friends. She wasn't Amy, who would do anything to take away the pain of people. Raye knew she was a coward, and selfish, but she grew up that way. Having to fight all her life, she just wasn't willing to lose it so easily for the sake of others, when nobody had ever been there for her when she really needed it the most. Yet, when she seemed to think that last thought, a fleeting image of blonde hair and a carefree smile flitted through her head and just for a brief second, Raye felt an odd sense of warmth battle away all the darkness inside her mind.

As she tried to grasp to keep the image inside her mind, it slipped away like a feather in the wind, disappearing from all senses. Even though, she couldn't remember what it was she was just thinking, Raye felt her heart settle with an unknown sense of peace, that coaxed away her pain and worries.

Finally snapped out of her daze, Raye finished her shower and stepped out into the empty hallway, a thin towel wrapped around her voluminous figure. Her injured shoulder that Mina had bandaged was already mostly mended, all the senshi had faster recovery rates then humans but depending on the person, it varied at the rate they healed. Raye just happened to heal the fastest out of all the senshi, Mina said it was because Raye had a strong personality, but the raven vixen had never believed the bubbly blonde, Raye was a selfish coward for all her worth, nothing strong in that.

Suddenly, Raye's train of thought ceased as she focused her thoughts on Mina, realizing that the blond female was no longer in the apartment. Cursing, Raye had an inkling feelings of where her comrade had gotten off to, but hoping to deny the thought, Raye ran to the bedroom to grab her communicator. Dialing in the outer senshi's numbers, Raye muttered obscenities underneath her breath hoping like hell that Mina hadn't gone and done something stupid.

The communicator beeped and an angry looking Amara appeared on the screen. "This better be something important!" The gruff lesbian growled, her lip curling in agitation, Raye had to keep back a wave of nasty retorts and took a deep breath. "Amara, your still at the hospital, right?" Raye huffed out, trying to count in her head like Ami had taught her to do so that she could keep her temper. Amara dramatically rolled her eyes and gave an 'obviously, fucktard' look that made Raye want to scream. Amara could be nice but that was only after she lesbian banged Michelle or was super drunk, other than that, she was usually a sanctimonious prick that Raye absolutely loathed to no ends.

"Fuck, is Mina there?" Raye sighed in frustration, luckily Amara kept a witty comment to herself and shook her head. "No, and why?" The question coming out more like a command. Raye simply gave her a sugar sweet smile and batted her eyes. "Oh, no reason." And promptly hung up.

"That bitch!" Raye hollered out into the empty apartment, her annoyance levels maxed to their peek, but she didn't know which one she was more enraged at: Amara, for being her usual self, or Mina, for disappearing to chase Ami. Raye knew that Mina was in no mental condition to go anywhere, she was running on empty fuel and hadn't even bothered to clean herself up from the last two battles. Mina couldn't help Ami in her condition.

Taking a deep breath and sighing in resignation, Raye sat on the edge of the bed, slumped over in exhaustion. Raye wasn't even in a better condition to chase after Mina, she was useless as usual.

All, she could do was sit and wait.

~+!Darien!+~

Darien awakened in a fit of rage, his mind clouded with thoughts of something he could not remember, but he knew that it enraged him, made his blood boil and his teeth clench. He ripped away the I.V. drip and the various wires that were embedded in his chest to keep his heart rate and breath rate monitored. Roaring, he pushed himself out of the hospital bed he had found himself in and tried to leave the room, but upon standing, his knees gave out on him and he ungracefully crashed to the floor.

A screech filled the room as the monitor that checked his heart rate flat lined for it was no longer hooked up to the bumbling man and soon enough, grim nurses rushed into the room, but were relieved to see the young man only fallen on the floor. As the young nurses tried to assistant Darien back into bed, he only shoved them off and tried dashing for the door, but was suddenly knocked down by a burly Doctor in a lab coat that struck a needle into his neck.

Soon enough, Darien's strange rage was forgotten as the blanket of unconsciousness swept him away.

As the Doctor and nurses placed Darien back into his bed and left the room, they failed to see the visitor that sat in a chair against the wall watching. Their golden eyes shining eerily as a crooked smile played amongst their lips.

"Let's play Serena..."

Abit short and its been six months since my last update but I promise, that during the summer there will be more updates (hopefully) and that you guys stick around to stay in tuned for my next chapter!

-Danni