Disclaimer: Not mine, yada yada yada…
A/N: Yeowch, nine days since my last chapter and it's a little one, but I like it anyway. A quick catch up with everyone's favorite relatives from hell. Special thanks to Lalaitha Yamainu (glad you liked the last line, it seemed most natural from Mako-chan) Bin82501 (I missed you, too! I love seeing your name on a review!) Isis Aurora Tomoe, aka, Goddess of Mojo (more of the Firsts for you, and I am totally using holy hair weave at some point in the future) PurpleWildcat2012 (the Firsts are taking over bodies, not necessarily the Senshi's, but here are almost all the escapees for you, and some more Mercury/Venus, sorry :p) and AndaisLu (yep, the whole Ancient crew is looking to make it's escape.) Enjoy!
The scraping sound barely penetrated Kengo's mind. Over and over, around and around, five beings whispered and moaned and hissed in his brain. He felt their rage and their hunger as they battered the sides of their cage, and each other. The snaps and snarls of rabid beasts punctuated the growing mantra in his head.
"Find something…anything…"
But somewhere, just beyond the evil burrowing below his skin and into his heart, came the sound of voices, weaving in and out of the whispers.
"…happened to you?" It was harsh, cold, the voice of Gaia.
Venus's caressing tone slithered through the air to hiss against Kengo's ear. "The children…fought…know we're here…"
Inside Kengo's head one voice rose above the others, a voice that sounded like water trickling over rocks, and it called out.
"…my love…my darling…"
The words sent even more ice into his soul, as they held something far more dangerous than all the screams and the rage combined.
Mars's burning disdain struck back at Venus from across the other side of Kengo, and his otherwise paralyzed body still managed to twitch in fear.
"...could you let that happen, you stupid…"
Footsteps drew closer to Kengo as his eyes stared at the ceiling, unable to even blink. He saw the brilliant gold eyes of Venus boring into his own. Even barely holding on to a sense of himself he noticed the cuts that did not bleed, the burns that did not scab. Whatever had been done to that body, there was no going back. And he was about to find out exactly how that felt.
"…just one piece…my love…"
A hand rose before his eyes, and between two fingers he saw a single hair the color of sapphires.
"Just one piece," Venus whispered. "One piece of your one descendant, for you, my precious husband."
"NO!" three voices screamed while the fourth beat at the walls of his mind with silent hands. "No, not you, me, let me be free, NO!"
The voice like water just whispered, "Yes."
Venus dropped the hair.
Kengo could not flee, could not scream, could do nothing but watch it fall towards his chest.
And then he saw nothing more.
.
.
.
Slowly, uncertainly, he stretched both hands at his sides, then raised them up before his eyes. Blood caked them, covering the skin and filling the space under the nails. The blood, he guessed, belonged to the shell. Small cuts decorated the flesh of the right arm and brought a frown to his face.
"You could have been a bit more careful with it, you know," he rasped through the mortal's scratched throat. "I'll be needing it for a while."
A hand smoothed over his cheek, then brushed the hair back from his forehead. "Yes, well, Mars's version of collecting shells is not a very delicate process. You have a body, though, and you are free, my sweet."
He brought his gaze past the battered hands and met two eyes of molten gold.
"Venus."
"Mercury," she whispered through the human boy's lips. The hands remained soft on his face but her gaze burned. "You're with me again."
"Yes."
He was with her, and she with him, and bodies did not matter. None of the others had ever understood them. They saw the flawless skin, or the perfect body, or heard that caressing voice, and thought they knew who the Queen of Venus was. They were all so very wrong.
They did not know of the nights spent over a chess board, her hair carelessly knotted behind her head, a robe hiding all her fine flesh as her glorious mind wrestled with his.
They did not know the way those gold eyes could roil with the challenge as she covered her alluring curves with armor and her magnificent face with a mask and snapped her sword blade up into a guard position, awaiting his first strike with delightful anticipation.
They did not know how calm and clear her voice could be as her planet erupted in another wave of powerful storms, and she stood in the center, shouting for her people, always the last through the doors of Magellan Castle.
No, none of them knew her, and that was why they desired her, and he loved her.
The darkness, the cold, the cruelty of the place that Serenity had left them in cut through to their very souls and stripped away all their weaknesses. They did not fear to meet out violent justice, and they had lost their strange affection for mortals. They would turn on one another if the need arose, but Mercury did not fear the others. He feared nothing with Venus beside him again.
The more the Abyss tore away from who they once were, the stronger their bond grew. Love or hate, passion or pain, it did not matter as it wrapped around them both and drew them together. Now free, they would stand together, as they always did, and burn creation down until they could twist it into the cosmos they had dreamed together in the nightmare sleep of the Abyss.
Mercury blinked and brought her gold eyes back into focus. He smiled, a fierce snarl of pleasure, as he wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and drew her down to him. She needed no more prompting but closed the distance until her lips crashed onto his. Even between these two different mouths, the ancient craving remained. Her fingers clutched at him and pulled him closer, trying to join their dark souls. Blood from his shell's wounds mingled on their tongue and fed his hunger for her and all they were together.
Finally, Venus broke their kiss, leaned close to him, put her lips against his borrowed ear, and whispered, "I saw them. Our children, my love. They are beautiful. You'll be so proud."
He smiled.
"I can't wait to meet them."
