Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon.
An: I won't lie, I have a love/hate relationship with this fic. Thank you for all the continued support!
Warning: English is not my first language, so please forgive me if they're any mistakes grammar or spelling wise. I'll try to catch as many as I can. The tone of this fic is much darker, too.
Summary: This is a short sequel to my other fic "Cat for a Week," Please check it out if you haven't yet.
A Tendril of Magic
Part XI
Sitting in the middle of the room, Silver stared at them.
Conscious of the weight of Chibi-Usa's feverish body on his back and of his own exhaustion, Duo gazed tiredly back as Silver's eyes skirted from his bedraggled figure to Chibi-Usa's slumbering form. There was fear and uncertainty in her gaze. She looked rather melancholy as her eyes were drawn to Chibi-Usa's sleeping face. She had a curious and longing expression as she continued to stare. After a long moment, she turned away with a resigned look and her hands unconsciously tightened on the body of her lover.
Taking her silence as permission, Duo squared his shoulders before he crossed the threshold.
When he stepped through the door, a dark chill made him freeze in his place. Before he could move, or even think to move, the door behind him and the world outside it vanished completely leaving him, Diana, and Chibi-Usa trapped.
No matter where Duo turned he couldn't find any exits.
On his shoulder, he felt Diana dig her claws into his shirt."Mr. Maxwell?" Diana's voice shook a little. He could feel her shiver with uneasiness. With how mature she was, Duo had forgotten that she was just a kitten. If she had been human, she might have been Chibi-Usa's age.
"We'll be fine." Duo puts as much reassurance as he could manage into his voice. His words seemed to reassure Diana. Her claws retracted and her grip relaxed. There was absolute trust in her eyes as she took him at his word. For her sake, as well as Chibi-Usa's, Duo pushed his own foreboding feelings down in a show of fake confidence. He was Duo Maxwell. He practically invented the motto 'Fake it until you make it.' Giving Diana a pat on the head, Duo moved forward.
Somehow, that long walk to reach Silver felt more harrowing than anything else in the Negaverse.
Nothing really prepared him for when he finally reached her. Duo stopped abruptly in his track when he saw her clearly for the first time.
"The transformation is not complete yet," Silver mummer. She lifted the one hand that wasn't transformed to gently run her fingers through her lover's hair. "I still have a little time left."
"Oh, your highness," Diana's voice was dismayed.
Silver doesn't reply.
She avoided looking into their eyes, but it was hard to miss the way her pupils were slit the way some cats eyes were.
"She's spent too much time here," Diana whispered to Duo. "She's becoming a youma. Like Queen Beryl."
But even as a youma, Silver was beautiful. In a tragic, sort of way. Duo couldn't tear his eyes away from the parts of her body that was already transformed. The scales that covered her inhuman arm and parts of her face seemed to shine as dangerously as the long sharp talons that replaced what use to be elegant fingers. Even the small sharp spikes that protruded up and down her arms shimmered as her now pitch black hair, still in that meatballish- style, fell like black ribbons down her shoulders.
Despite being half-youma, she still gave off a gentle presence. Duo tries to coincide her with what he's heard from the other senshi. Now that they were face to face Duo realized that he doesn't really know her at all. He knows Silver the cat. Not Silver the human.
'She's slow witted'...that's how Hino Rei described her...'She's a bit of an idiot, but she means well. There's not a mean bone in her body. She's forgiven everyone and everything that has ever hurt her.' The last part was said with a grimace and for someone like Sailor Mars, who was the embodiment of all things confident and non-apologetic, Duo remembered how regretful she looked. Duo doesn't pretend to understand the complex nature of their relationship. He got the distinct feeling that their relationship was more complicated then it looked on the outside. 'She feels everything deeply. Happiness. Sadness. She even feels other people's pain on a very deep personal level. Honestly, she feels too much and sometimes she ends up getting hurt. '
The priestess got a far off look on her face.
'She's too good for this world.'
It was a sediment echoed by all the other senshi.
Silver was a pure-hearted person. A pure-hearted person who was slowly turning into a monster. Duo doesn't know what the best course of action to take was. Going by instinct, he carefully kneel to put Chibi-Usa down. The mini-sailor moon in training didn't stir at all at the shift and he looked worrying down at her too pink face. Her forehead still felt too warm underneath his palm. The only consolation was that Chibi-Usa seemed to unconsciously relax as she soaked the coolness of the floor. The coldness of the room seemed to be good for her fever.
"I'll watch over her, Mr. Maxwell," Diana jumped from his shoulders.
Duo reluctantly left them to sit by Silver.
"How is she doing?" Silver asked quietly.
Hearing her voice for the first time outside of the dreams took Duo back for a moment. "She's a fighter," he said. "She'll be fine."
For what was probably the first time in a long while, Silver smiled.
"Why are you here?" Duo asked finally. His question caused the smile on her lips to vanish.
"You wouldn't understand," Silver said mournfully.
"Then tell me," Duo said.
And she did. Brokenly and painfully she told him everything; a thousand years worth of love, hope, and heartbreak. Duo listened to every word. By the end, he felt numb.
"He sounded like a great man," he said. Chiba Mamoru sounded like a good, decent man who loved his wife and his unborn child enough to make the ultimate sacrifice. "I don't think he would have wanted you or the baby to be here. But you already know that, don't you?"
He knows that the truth rubbed at her open wounds and gnashed at her heart. Coming to the Negaverse was a way to punish herself. To atone. She blamed herself for his death.
Duo knows that pain all too well. To this day, Solo, Father Maxwell, and Sister Helen were shadows that still haunt him. Deep down, the truth was that he probably blamed himself more then they would. Neither Solo or Father Maxwell or Sister Helen were the type to hold grudges. They would have forgiven him.
He just couldn't forgive himself.
Silver was the same.
They were a lot alike. Duo wondered if Silver sensed it. Maybe that's why she was speaking with him right now instead of the senshi. Deep down somewhere they connected with each other over similar loss and pain.
"He wouldn't have wanted me here," Silver admitted. Her eyes went to Chibi-Usa. Duo saw the moment the love registered in her eyes when she looked at her daughter. Her hand went to her pregnant belly. Chibi-Usa had probably been an abstract, distant idea during her grief over losing Mamoru. Seeing Chibi-Usa now, seeing what her future daughter was like, seemed to have forced Silver to face reality.
She had another 'love of her life' to live for.
Silver brought her forehead to the forehead of Chiba Mamoru.
"I'm so sorry, Mamo-chan," she mourned.
Duo reached out and placed the crystal in her hand. He closed her fingers around the jewel.
"Let's go home," he said.
Duo watched as she clutched at Mamoru's shirt before she allowed herself to let go.
Silver grabbed the crystal with a tight grip.
A flash of light, they were gone.
