Hiya! I know I said I would post yesterday...but it only ended an hour ago...so I'll still post up Chapter 14 in a few hrs! :)

Hope you guys like the chapter!!

Crash and Burn

Chapter 13: Casualties of War

We finally made it home after hours and hours of my hysterical crying. I could tell that I had shaken Harumi and Ayame horrifically, they were scared for my sanity and I could see it in their eyes.

"Get up to the roof" I whispered to them as I made my way to the front door.

I trudged into the house quietly and was met by my mom and dad. Of course.

"Where have you been?" Dad asked harshly

"Out" I muttered as I moved to the stairs

"You've been out the whole night" Mom said softly

I shrugged, "Whatever"

"You've been out the whole day and 'whatever' and 'out' is all you can say?" Dad snapped

I rolled my eyes, "Sorry, I just got back from watching the rest of my friends disappear, but that's what you wanted- isn't it?" I said, muttering under my breath so they couldn't hear me

"We got a call from the police"

I looked up at them, "What did they say?"

"…bodies were found at a warehouse, about an hour ago" Mom whispered

I clutched my head as pictures of their bodies came to the front of my vision.

"No" I whispered, "No"

"What do you have to do with all this?" Dad asked

I moaned, "I don't know…they just keep dying…"

Pain was shooting through me. I couldn't make the images leave.

"Kevin, Nick, Makoto, Minako, Rei and Jay…" my mom murmured, "the bodies that were found"

"Sorry we couldn't keep our promise…I deserve this"

"No" I moaned, "Don't say that"

The pain was just rising.

I could see my parents watching me warily. But they didn't try to comfort me.

"The police said they'll contact you tomorrow to find out what you know" she said softly

"What the HELL have you gotten yourself involved in?" Dad snapped

"We always come when it comes to you, and we always will"

"Stop"

"I'm so sorry that I couldn't do more"

They all…kept…apologizing…

"Sorry…couldn't help…you"

I moaned. I could see Makoto reaching for me.

"Sorry I couldn't help Usa"

"Jay" I whispered, reaching for his pain filled face, "Don't leave me"

"I …remember Usa, Mamoru…Minako…I love them"

"Have you been doing drugs?" Dad asked, snapping me back to the present.

"You can do this…we know you can"

"No"

I struggled up the stairs, ignoring their looks of disbelief.

I passed Shingo again, he was staring at me, worry written on his face.

"Are you okay?" he asked

I laughed hollowly, "Why do you ask? I just lost every single important person in my life, I'm sure that's not so big compared to possible jail time or drug use"

He looked at me like I was crazy.

I crashed into my room, unlocking it and closing it behind me silently.

Ayame and Harumi watched as I stumbled to them.

I fell into their hands and they held me through the night, trying to quell my sobs.

--

My mind was in a horrible state the next morning. I had gotten no sleep, just tears that kept falling.

My parents and Shingo left me alone, just looking at me worriedly as I left the house.

"Usagi?"

I looked up from the piece of grass that I had been staring at for the last hour, the park was a new sanctuary.

"Naru?"

"Usagi" she cried as she rushed to me and held me in a hug, "I heard what happened"

"Oh" I murmured

"Are you alright?"

I shrugged

She sighed, "Usagi, what's going on?"

"The girls and the guys are dead" I muttered, "And Mamoru's missing"

"You're all alone?" she asked, brows furrowed

I didn't respond.

"God, Usagi, I'm so sorry"

Tears escaped from my eyes, it was never-ending, "Not your fault" I murmured as I wiped them away quickly

"I should have been here for you when they went missing…and now they're dead" Naru said sadly

"I…had Kevin, Nick and Jay" I whispered, "They…were with me"

"What's happened…why is this happening?"

"I don't know," I whispered

"You're lying"

I balked. I hadn't expected…

"I just don't know what to make of this" she murmured. Her green eyes were staring right through me and I couldn't help feeling that…

"Make of what?"

She laughed tonelessly, "Don't play stupid with me, Usagi, you've always been smarter than everyone's given you credit for and it's the same for me. I've known ever since you got together with the girls that there was something going on. I knew it the day that you tried to stop me from seeing Mr. Sanjoin, and I knew it when you became a zombie, but I didn't question it because I was just so angry that, after spending our whole lives together, you still didn't trust me enough to just tell me what was going on in your life!"

"Naru-"

"Let me finish, this has been festering for a long time now"

She ran a hand through her now long brown hair, gazing at me hard, "You're keeping everything from me still, but it's really obvious that there's something horrible going down and that you're stuck right in the middle. And I think it has something to do with Diamond Torii"

I looked away, freaking out. How had she known all that? Was I that transparent? How then, had my own parents not figured it out?

My silence affirmed the truth for her.

"God…" she breathed, "I just assumed…everything happened after his party, and it was just a guess…"

She shook her head, getting back on track, still watching me hard, "I'm just hurt that after all this time, you didn't come to me. You're still leaving me in the dark. It hurts, Usagi. It hurts to watch you shrivel away and not knowing why. Better yet, you refuse to tell me-"

The pain that her voice was choked in stunned me. I glanced back up and saw that she was crying.

"I know" she gasped, "Way to get emotional. I guess I just overestimated our friendship…from the beginning"

"Don't say that…" I whispered sadly

"And why not!?" she spat, "What do you think is so bad that you have to go through this alone?"

Tears were flowing down both our faces, landing messily on the brown dirt beneath us.

"Naru" I moaned, "I…can't say anything"

She met my eyes, "Then I guess I did overestimate our stupid friendship"

She turned away.

"Naru" I whispered, leaning out to her.

"What?"

"Naru. I love you. You know that. You were always the best friend that I had. I know I've been behaving horribly the last two years, and you're right…things are bad. It's just, it's safer for you if you don't know…just staying away from me…you'll just get hurt. And I…I couldn't bear that"

She looked back at me, "I know that you're trying to be noble and shit. But it's killing you, I can tell"

"I just…I can't" I sobbed, "I can't be the cause of another person's death"

"Usagi," she whispered, "I don't care what you did, I'll stand by you"

"That's what I'm afraid of"

She shook her head wordlessly.

"I can't bear to lose you, Naru," I cried, "You're one of the people that I can always hold onto, a sign that I used to be normal once…if you're gone…it's all over"

"Usagi, what is so big that you can't even tell me?"

I moaned, "Stop"

"What's happened to you? It's like my best friend died"

Hadn't she? She'd died the instant that she let her friends die.

"You're holding this all in rather than dealing with it…and that's going to-"

I looked up, wondering why she'd stopped talking. I followed her gaze to my neck.

"What happened to your neck?" she gasped, touching it softly

I yelped, pulling away rather painfully.

"…Is that a choke mark?"

"No" I whimpered

"It is, isn't it? Who did that to you? Was it Diamond?"

I twitched at the name, remembering him stabbing the knife through…

She had her answer.

"Has he been the one doing this?"

"STOP!" I cried, jumping up, "Don't start trying to figure it out!"

"But I want to help you, Usagi…I need to"

"I don't deserve your help" I snapped, "Or did you forget that I ditched you for a whole year, and then came crawling back to you, offering no explanation as to why I've been such a horrible friend"

"You-"

"Just stay out of it!" I yelled, running out of the park.

I could her shouting after me but I ignored her.

I went to the only place that I had left. The orphanage.

"Usagi!?" Haruko cried when she saw me, "We heard what happened!"

She rushed to me, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I murmured, "Just looking for something to keep me busy"

Mai and Tama joined Haruko around me.

"It's such a horrible thing" Mai said softly,

"We just met them" Tama whispered

I nodded sadly, "I know"

"How are you holding up?" Tama asked me worriedly

I shrugged, "As best as I can at the moment"

"Did you even get any sleep?" Haruko asked

Mai sighed, "You look like you haven't slept in the last few days"

I shrugged.

"What happened?" Haruko asked

"I don't know. They just disappeared" I whispered

I remembered something that felt from forever ago, "Uh, you recognized the name Parker…?"

The three of them shared a look and I knew then that it had been the truth.

"He was here, wasn't he? Nick?"

"A long long time ago" Mai murmured

"And his father…?"

"Has been donating profusely for the last seventeen years" said Tama

"Does the name Torii ring a bell?"

The three of them shared another look,

"How do you know that name?" I asked

Haruko led the rest of us inside and into the kitchen, "It was approximately 15 years ago, right here in our little town. The three of us were just starting out the orphanage and were very open hearted, any little orphan that came would be treated fairly, and then automatically put up for adoption, we didn't have that much room then and thought that the children deserved families. Then there was a fire in a home that was quite close to our sister orphanage, one that had helped us start out and they took in a small child, only a year or so old, his mother had perished in the fire. They were only supposed to wait for the father to come back; he had been in America at the moment and couldn't be contacted. I sent my friends Ayame Parker and Harumi Ford to that orphanage because they were searching for a place to stay for a few days. The child remained in the orphanage about a week…but then the orphanage also burned down. Twenty children, and four adults died in that fire, the child was among the few that had been rescued. Ayame Parker and Harumi Ford were among the adults that had died," she gave a light sob but managed to pull herself and continue, "The children that had survived were put under our care as we were the only orphanage in the area"

She stopped, looking at Mai and Tama, they nodded, and she continued, "We didn't know what to make of that particular child- who had now survived two fires. He was a small child for his age…slightly spoiled…but there was something sinister about him. All he ever talked about was his father, how he wanted him and…just, he was a…troubled child, fights broke out between him and many children and somehow he almost always won, reducing almost every child to tears. Nicholas Parker did not take nicely to the child, but neither did the child like him, he started hitting him actually, we had to separate the two of them. But soon afterwards, the fathers showed up, both for Nick and the child, and we allowed them to go. Both fathers offered large donations to the orphanage which was buckling under the pressure of so many children and we thanked them profusely…"

She stopped, nodding, "Thomas Parker and Rubeus Torii saved this orphanage"

"The child was called Diamond Torii, wasn't he?" I asked

The three of them nodded in unison.

I sighed. Why wasn't I surprised? The child was exactly how I would think Diamond would be like when he was a child.

Suddenly something else clicked. This was all orphanages, all had to do with orphanages…they were all connected.

No.

It couldn't be true.

I looked up at the three of them, they were gazing at me wonderingly, "You didn't happen to know the Chibas?"

"The Chibas?" Mai asked, "Of course we knew them, it was their orphanage that was burned to the ground"

Tama nodded soberly, "They were a young couple, they had had their first son a year or so before they perished in the fire,"

Mamoru had said that his parent's had died in a car crash, hadn't he?

Had I ever even asked him?

"What was their son's name?" I asked, still not wanting to believe it

"M something, I think" Haruku murmured, "Momo- no that's a girl, oh, I remember, Mamoru"

I moaned in horror.

"What's wrong?" Mai asked worriedly

"Mamoru…he's missing, he's my boyfriend" I whispered

"Wait," Haruko said, "You're saying that…you know Nicholas Parker, Diamond Torii and Mamoru Chiba?"

I nodded wordlessly.

"Oh my" Tama said softly, "That's quite a coincidence"

"His adoptive family moved to the United States soon after his adoption…we never did find out what happened to him after his adoption. His adoptive parents allowed him to keep his old name since he wouldn't respond to the name they gave him, Darien Shields" (Heh. Couldn't resist, plus, the name Mamoru is wayyy cooler)

"God" I whispered, "He did tell me his parents died in a car crash…but those weren't his parents, those were his adoptive parents…he lost his parents twice"

Mai, Tama and Haruko sighed in exhaustion, "Children are always hurt the most by the mistakes of the world" Tama murmured

"A question" I said, "Torii…and Mamoru, did they ever fight?"

They looked at each other, trying to remember, "Now that I think about it" murmured Haruko, "Mamoru was one of the children who always managed to stand up to Diamond, he was the protector of the other children. Him and Nicholas managed to bond pretty quickly as well"

What the hell was going on?

My head was reeling from everything that I had already found out.

According to this, Mamoru actually believed that his parents had died in that car crash, but really, they had perished in a fire that had obviously been somehow set by a young Diamond. Mamoru had actually known Diamond as a child and had known how evil he truly was, and had protected others from him. This went back so very far. The only thing that was somehow not there, was me. Not that I minded. I would think I would remember if I had ever met Diamond as a child. Probably would have hated him.

"Are you alright, Usagi?" Haruko asked worriedly

I nodded, "I'm fine, I should get going" I hurried out of there without another word to the women. This brought my mind off of…

Right. Staying away from that subject.

I couldn't bear to go home, so I went to the place where I always felt safe, where I had only good memories: the guys' house.

I let myself in quietly, Kevin had given me the key a while back, just so I'd be able to come here if I ever needed to.

It sounded so…quiet. There was silence all throughout the house and it hurt. This place had always been rowdy, we had never bothered to be quiet here. It was our sanctuary.

I sat on the staircase, crying silently, wishing we could go back to the first time that I had come to the house.

Just then the bell rang, jolting me from my silent reverie of better times. I wiped my tears away and made my way to the door, peeking out. It was the Japanese cop that had 'told' us about Ami and Zach's deaths.

"Yes?" I asked after I opened the door.

"Tsukino Usagi, right?" he asked, walking inside

I nodded, holding my body tight.

"Maybe we could go somewhere where you could relax…?" he said softly. I led him to the kitchen and sat down.

"I presume that you know of the deaths?"

I nodded again.

"How are you?"

I shrugged, still not meeting his eyes.

"I had a few questions..." he paused, looking at me sadly, "Since you are the only remaining member of your…group"

I blinked, "But Mamoru…he's still alive…"

"At this point, we're not entirely sure"

I moaned in pain, tears brimming in my eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said softly

"The questions?" I gasped out

"Right. Do you have any idea whatsoever who could be doing these things?"

How about the evil son of a bitch called Diamond Torii. The fucking devil on earth.

I shook my head, "We've never done anything to hurt anyone, I can't understand why someone's doing this…"

"From what we've…seen" he said softly, "It seems as if this is supposed to hurt you"

"Yeah? Well whoever it is obviously got to their goal"

"You don't have any idea of who is doing this? We would be able to lock this psycho up for a long time if you did, at this point, the death sentence looks good"

"Don't you think that if I knew, that I would tell you so that the bitch could get what he deserved?" I snapped

"Actually, there have been many cases…similar to this, not as…extreme, but in these cases, the victim is afraid for others that are close to her and thinks that if she tells, that things will get worse. I need to make sure that this isn't one of these times"

I finally met his eyes, cold with anger, "I don't have anyone left to be afraid for"

"You still have yourself, and Chiba"

I looked away, "I think we're done"

He sighed, "Look, Usagi, I hate to see these things happen, and to tell you the truth…this is the worst I've seen it, 8 teenagers dying within three weeks, all in a violent manner, not to mention that child from the orphanage…it's just horrific and if there's anything that seems relevant, anything that would help us catch this sick son of a bitch, you have to tell us"

"I think that I would know that" I snarled

He lowered his head, "Regardless, it is my duty to urge you to come to us if there's anything that you know that can help us in this investigation"

My anger disappeared, only to replaced by mind numbing sadness and I nodded, "I will" I said thickly, my throat was clogged with sobs.

"You stay safe, Tsukino-san" he said softly, "Oh, um, their families have been contacted, and I think they would like to talk to you as well, they'll be in contact with you"

I sighed wearily, that would be loads of fun.

He let himself out quietly, leaving a card lying on the table in front of me.

I left it in the spot it was and crawled to the entertainment room, holding myself together.

I collapsed against the sofa, darkness taking me over.

I slept horribly, watching my friends die again and again.

The Silver Millennium, last month and just now, watching as they gave their lives for me repeatedly. I stood to the side, unable to do anything…again.

Nightmares tortured me with possibilities of who Diamond was calling, what he was going to do now. And as clocks ticked around me I saw Mamoru fade into the darkness.

"NO!" I screamed, "MAMORU! COME BACK!"

The clocks around me flickered and turned into a colorless room…my room?

My bed was a distant grey object, flickering in and out of view.

"Mamoru?" I breathed, looking around, "You're supposed to be here…tell me you're here"

Oh my god. It had happened. He-he had faded. He was gone.

"Mamoru!?" I sobbed, "You can't leave me!"

"Usa...ko…?"

I jolted, spinning wildly around, I found myself locked in place by those breathtaking eyes, "Mamoru" I sighed, leaping into his arms, "Thank god"

His embrace tightened around me, "I…I felt you slipping…I couldn't feel you anymore and…I tried- I tried to hold onto you, to reach you…but I couldn't and then I couldn't hear you at all since then, like I…lost you"

He whispered this in a quick hysterical tone that it took me a few seconds to understand it.

"So it was you" I said softly, looking up at him, "Last night you blasted Diamond off of me when he was strangling me"

His eyes went into shock at these words and it took a few seconds of hard breathing before he was calmed down, "So that's why I felt you fade…he just moved past delusions that he's in love with you and moved onto trying to kill you"

I looked up at him worriedly, he seemed different from last time. He was tense and I could feel the frustration rolling off of him in waves, threatening to pull me down too.

His anger had been bottled up all this time and he couldn't do anything to stop it from festering.

"Hey" I said softly, stroking his face, "Are you okay?"

He pulled away from my hand, "Who cares, you were the one that almost died, and I was sitting in here unable to do ANYTHING to save you from that…bitch"

"But you did, Mamoru" I cried, pulling him back to me, "I was a goner, but then you blasted him off of me…you saved me"

"That was an accident" he snapped, "I just got so frustrated and I just- exploded…it might not happen soon enough next time"

"Stop it!" I cried, tears forming in my eyes, "Somehow, even though Diamond separated us, we still have a connection, doesn't that give you any hope at all!?"

He shuddered, pulling away from me, he began to pace, mumbling to himself, "She's not real…never real. I have to get back…have to help her…save her, kill Torii"

"Mamoru!"

He froze, turning to me, eyes wild, "Usako?" he turned around again, shaking his head vigorously, "Remember! She's not real!"

My shoulders tensed fearfully. This place was driving him insane.

"Mamoru" I said softly, approaching him slowly, "I'm real"

"No" he muttered, meeting my gaze, "Not real. He's trying to trick me again. Sending tricks…lies"

Carefully, I placed my hands on his shoulders, pulling him to face me, "Mamoru, please, believe me"

I felt him shaking underneath my hands and it scared me. Nothing had ever made him act like this…

"What has this place done to you?" I asked softly, looking deep into his eyes, "I swear, it's me…" and I did the one thing that he wouldn't be able to deny it was me. I leaned up to kiss him. After a moment of stillness beneath my lips, he suddenly awoke. One of his hands traveled to my waist, pulling me closer and the other moved its way through my hair, softly stroking it. He breathed in deeply, finally believing me.

"…it is you" he sighed happily, he looked at me, eyes returned to normal, "I'm so sorry, Usako, it's just that- I never know when it's truth, when you're actually here…what did you do to your hair?"

I settled against him, "No, it's okay and I cut it"

"You look amazing. It's not okay, tell me, what happened yesterday?"

My breath hitched, as I remembered it myself. Tears started streaming down my face again, I didn't want to tell Mamoru. He would hate me…okay he wouldn't…but I couldn't bear to bring him this horrible news.

"Usako, what happened?" he asked softly, knowing something worse was amiss

"They're dead," I said softly, not looking at him, "Gone"

"What?"

"He…he killed them…Kevin, Jay, Nick, Makoto, Minako, Rei…"

"Oh god"

"I lost them Mamoru, I let them die…again" I cried, pulling away from him

Hands encircled me without delay, pulling me against warmth, "Shh" he whispered, "You couldn't do anything"

Sobbing, I recounted last night to him. The orb, how he used my powers, my unexplained power bursts, to his sudden desire to watch me die, to the deaths of our remaining friends.

I then moved on to what I had learned this morning.

"What!?" he cried, looking at me wildly, "That…that can't be true, my parents died in a car crash"

"Your adoptive parents did" I whispered softly, "Your blood parents died in that fire"

"A fire that Torii set" he snarled

"It seems like" I murmured, "His powers are unstoppable, I couldn't even stop them…I couldn't- I can't…" I trailed off, looking helplessly at Mamoru

"Usako" he said softly, "Look at your body"

I did. It was growing brightly, just like last time, "Yea, so?"

"You're glowing, Usako, like an angel"

I rolled my eyes, "I think that's because you're trapped in here, everything looks bright to you"

"You don't get it," he murmured, "Diamond visited me…before…checking in, I think, to see how fast I was dying, though he did say it didn't matter since you didn't have any way of knowing. He said he had no intention of bringing me back-"

"That son of a-!"

"My point is, that when he came, he didn't radiate light like you do, he was covered in a dark, small glow, not nearly enough to light the room like you do. This is only a presumption, but I think the light indicates power. Your light is so above his and though you don't know it, you're stronger than him"

"Not really" I sighed, "He's controlled me with that power tons of times"

"And how many times have you broken out of it?"

I stilled. He had a point. Every time Diamond used his power on me, I always managed to get out of it.

"I can only imagine your true power...I have ultimate faith in you"

I pulled away from him, gazing down at my glowing hands, "I don't know" I whispered, then changing the subject, "I miss them so much…I miss you so much, it's like I can't breathe…I hate being away from you"

"I know," he agreed. I didn't have to ask what he felt, being away from me, his little seizure before had been a more than thorough explanation.

He held me close to him, stilling both of our shivers, "I love you, Usako, never forget that"

I sighed against him, "I…I don't know if I can do this anymore"

He led me to the bed, sitting against it lightly, "I know you can. You look beautiful, even more so than before, like there's a halo around your head-"

"Mamoru?"

"Mm?" he asked, moving hair away from my face

"…could you kiss me?"

He leaned down without delay, kissing me deeply, awakening desire within me again. He straddled me, only leaving my mouth to gasp for more air, continuing to kiss me he breathed life and hope back into me, hope that we could get out of this, together.

His lips were hot to the touch against my neck, making me gasp sharply. My hands ran through his hair, reveling in the feelings.

"Mamoru" I moaned

He stopped to look at me, "I love you, Usako"

The few seconds away from him lasted too long and I pushed up to him, kissing him desperately. He pushed down, kissing like…like this could be our last time together. Neither of us wanted to admit it, but the possibility suffocated us. His hands slid over my skin, reveling in their silkiness, "You're so beautiful" he sighed against me.

Our desire was palpable, touchable, we wanted to be together but we both knew we couldn't. Our chests heaved in synchrony, hands sliding over our taut skin, lips fighting to find each other, not willing to breathe in without the other.

And suddenly everything disappeared. He vanished and the room flickered back to the cold entertainment room that I had fallen asleep in, "Mamoru?"

"I'm here"

My eyes snapped to the side, eager to be swallowed by his light, beautiful eyes.

-Only it wasn't his eyes that mine found. These eyes floated coldly above mine.

Diamond smirked, "Having a nice dream?"

My scream was stifled by the handkerchief that he shoved against my mouth and nose, which made everything…so…heavy…

--C&B--

Hey again! I know that barely made sense, but the low down is that Diamond had something to do with the fires- the one that killed his mother- and the one in the orphanage where Ayame and Harumi had been- you'll get some info on that next chapter.
The official beginning of the second half of the story starts with next chapter- this was just the calm before it all.
So, I'll post up next chapter in a few hrs- hopefully, I absolutely LOVE LOVE Chapter 14, I think it's one of my favorite chapters ever written. You'll see why.

Also, thanks to tototo, spoiledkln and the awesome Unknown reader for their amazing reviews!

Anyway, just because you'll get to see the next chapter soon, that doesn't mean you're all excused from reviewing! So go press that little button on the left hand corner over there, just to show me a little love on my birthday!
REVIEW!!