Mistakes of the Great Beings

54. The true face of Nightmare

A warm light, that seemed to have the colour of gold mixed with red, engulfed the two girls as they lay there together, holding each other. A link of understanding had formed between the two of them, and it manifested itself now in a physical form. The light flowed forward, washing over the city, erasing the memories of the Saurian of Fear's rampage from earlier, as well as warmly and painlessly healing all of the damage the two had inflicted upon each other's body during their struggle. As they bathed in the warmth, Venus and Nightmare felt themselves leave the road where the disaster had taken place behind, the light taking them away until they reappeared on the soft couch in Minako's house.

There was no doubt in Nightmare's mind that what had just happened between herself and the love twit was the awakening of their very own, personal symbiosis. It was the only way she could explain all the feelings she had felt coming from the older girl. She had seen Minako's memories, but more importantly, had felt her feelings, seen the compassion and warmth she carried towards the Saurian girl despite everything Nightmare had done to her. She had felt the forgiveness, she had felt it all, and it made Nightmare cry once more. But perhaps this time, it was more for the sake of crying than for the sadness and pain in her soul.

Nonetheless, she clung to the blonde as they lay down next to each other, letting the tears flow as they wished.

Minako was smiling. It seemed that everything ended well... She held Nightmare tenderly and protectively in her arms, letting her cry it all out. When they had symbiosis she had felt all Nightmare's pain, loneliness and frustration, and frankly, she admired her self-control, because she has snapped only now, after living for several hundred years. She stroked the girl's hair, to try and make her feel better.

"Don't leave me…" the Saurian girl begged with a whisper, clinging more desperately to the other woman.

"I won't leave you, I promise." Minako told her guest and embraced her even tighter. "I'm sorry I couldn't get through to you earlier..."

"I don't want to be alone…" Nightmare said quietly, still crying. "I don't want to feel alone even when I'm in company… Don't leave me alone… I'm scared to be alone, I'm scared to be in company! I'm scared to be hurt… I'm scared… Don't leave me, please, Minako, don't leave me!"

"I'm here for you, and I'll never leave you." Minako promised. "Don't be afraid. You're not alone anymore."

"Thank you," Nightmare sobbed, her cheeks burning red with shame, her eyes slightly swollen from the tears. "I've always been alone… I was born alone… Nobody wanted anything to do with me because of my powers… My sister has failed to develop any feelings… My youngest brother has too much problems to bother him with mine, my oldest sister only thinks about him… And my oldest brother is stupid…" She hiccupped and burrowed her face against Minako's chest. "I'm sorry… so, so sorry…"

"Shh… It's alright, I forgive you." Minako simply said. "But… I think your family needs to know of your problems as well. How can they help if you don't tell them anything?"

"How can you forgive me, after all I've done?" Nightmare wondered tearfully.

"I just can." Minako said in a low voice. "I understand why you did it now, I've felt all your feelings, all your sorrow, and… I understand why you're so harsh and prickly now…"

"Others hurt me… just for being born the way I was…" the youngest sister of the Saurian family whispered quietly, her voice broken and full of sadness.

"I know…" Minako said sadly. But then brightened up. "But now you're here, and nobody can tell you have Fear powers just by looking at you. You could start over!"

"People are prejudiced against me!" the Saurian replied despairingly. "It doesn't matter what I look like! People always shun me! And I can't take it… I'm not invincible… I can't keep taking everything people throw at me… I'm weak…" Once again, she broke down crying.

"Shhh…" Minako tried to comfort the girl once again. "You're not invincible, I know it… But nobody has prejudice against you in this world. Come on, try to realize it. In your world people could tell your Fear powers just by your scales color, but here? Why do they have to be prejudiced? There's nothing for them to be prejudiced about!"

"Because of who I am…" came the quiet answer as Nightmare burrowed her head in the embrace again. "People just find me unlikable… Because of my personality… But it's their fault I'm like this in the first place!" She sniffed, then went on: "If other people hurt you, you won't keep taking it… You defend yourself… And now that defense turns people off, the defense they made me create!"

Minako kept stroking her hair in silence for a while. "But it's your own defense… I know you don't want to be hurt, but if you keep hurting all the people who can come close to you, you'll always be alone…"

"I can't trust others…" Nightmare said, her voice barely audible, and she sobbed again. "The risk of hurt… it's not worth it…"

"It is." Minako said firmly. "Because if you risk being hurt and reach out to people… You can gain a friend. And then you're not alone anymore."

"I'm too afraid to be hurt… Can you blame me, after eons of nobody wanting to have anything to do with me?"

"I don't blame you for anything…" Minako sighed and fell silent. "Tell me… Do you think Ignika, Traveller or Gravitas… Would ever hurt you on purpose?"

"Of course not!" Nightmare immediately objected. "But... but you should have seen it, the moment I first met my sister…" As the memories came flooding back, so did the pain and the stream of tears intensified for yet another time that day. "You… you see a creature, that you know by instinct is your sister… But I swear… hugging an icicle was more warm and comfortable than hugging her back then… It's your sister… And she doesn't even know what pain is, how to react to it properly… I had to teach her everything! I had to take care of her every single minute! And I'm the youngest of us two, it should have been the other way around!" Another sob wrecked her body and for a moment Nightmare's voice was lost amidst the cries of sorrow. "And then that same glacier of a sister… just runs off all of the sudden to two random strangers and decides they'll be our new brother and sister from now on… and they all just expected me to go along with it! They didn't even give me the choice to decide for myself…"

Nightmare took a deep breath to try and calm herself a little bit, but it proved to be a futile attempt. "I love them now…" she admitted. "But back then… can you blame me for not loving them from the very first minute I placed my gaze on them?"

"Of course not…" Minako said softly. "But how could they know? Did you ever open up to them like you did to me now?"

The young-minded disguised reptile looked at Minako as if the idea alone was just beyond ridiculous. "Do you think I ever had the chance…?" She choked on a sob again. "Who would I confide into? Gravitas, who doesn't understand anything emotional? Traveller, whose only concern is Ignika? Ignika, who has enough problems on his own without mine piled on top of them? Chameleon, who can't keep a serious face for a minute?"

Minako felt stupid. "Yeah, that's a hard situation…" She paused. "But you still need to tell them one day, after all, they're your family, they have to at least listen to your problems…"

"I can't…" Nightmare said so quietly Minako could barely hear it. The young Saurian's cheeks coloured red with shame. "I'm scared… I'm afraid…" She held herself tightly to her human host, as if she was afraid Minako would vanish if she let go.

Minako held her gently. "It's okay… I don't expect you to change right here right now… But just think of what I said."

"I don't want to lose them," the Saurian of Fear admitted. "I don't want to hurt them…"

"You won't. You didn't lose me, no?" Minako smiled at the girl in her arms.

"But you are different!" Nightmare argued. "You're not family, so you won't take family complaints personal or anything like that…"

"True, and I know they will take it personal, but…" Minako paused. "They're your family, you'll have to live with them for your whole life, which could as well be eternity. And I think it's better to tell them everything in order to prevent such breakdowns from happening again."

"I'm too afraid to hurt them…" the younger girl whispered. "It's much safer to keep it all in, to keep everyone away…"

"And much more painful and lonelier for you." Minako started stroking the Saurian's hair again. "If you didn't take all your emotions out and tell your feelings like this, how could I have known you need comfort?"

"Can you blame me?" Nightmare snapped. "It grew that way because of how people treated me… Nobody ever offered me comfort, only spite and hate, so I had to rely on myself… And I can't just change… Though, I am… happy, that it turned out… like this…" A blush colored the tear-stained face of the Saurian, and she gave Minako a warning look. "Don't tell anyone I said that."

The Senshi of Venus smiled: "I won't. But… I think it's best not to bottle up your feelings to the point when you need to injure someone to expel them."

"I… I don't know…" the Saurian of Fear replied while hiccupping. She wiped her tears away, and this time it took longer before new ones came in their place. "Like I said… I… I can't just change after hundreds of years… living like this… I… I need to think."

"That's all I'm asking for." Minako grinned. "I think you can change. You've let me in, no? You trusted me, and now you have a friend. You're not alone."

Nightmare said nothing and just buried herself in the embrace of her new friend. The idea of it was strange to her still. It had all happened so suddenly, and it was very confusing and overwhelming. "I've never had a friend…" she whispered tearfully. "How can you be my friend, Minako? You said you forgave me, but I… I almost killed you…"

Minako smiled: "How could I not forgive you after I found out all your pain? You need someone by your side, someone who can comfort and understand you… And now that you have one such person, we need to find more! So you'll never be alone!" She finished cheerfully. "And we need to start from your family."

A deep sigh escaped the youngest sister of Ignika's lips. "What have I gotten myself into now…" She looked up pleadingly at Minako. "It can wait until a bit later, right…?"

"Of course." Minako said. Then sat up, still holding Nightmare close, and meeting no resistance from the latter. "Say, are you hungry by any chance?"

The Saurian girl nodded. "Yes, kind of… I used a lot of my power when I…" She sobbed again. "Great Beings… I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Minako…" The disguised reptile bowed her head in deep shame.

"Hey… It's okay…" Minako said warmly. "All's well that ends well. Now let's go find something edible in the fridge, okay? And maybe have some tea with chocolate candy, hmm? How about it?"

Nightmare visibly brightened upon hearing this and she perked up. "Chocolate? Really?" She had tasted it before. That sweet kind of food the likes of which she had never eaten or tasted before. Her first impression of the sweet hadn't been the kindest… But after tasting it, her opinion had radically changed. Unfortunately, Minako was reluctant to let her eat a lot of it, saying something weird like 'sugar high'.

"Yep." Minako grinned. "So much tears and sadness can't be good for mental health. So we need to balance them out by positive emotions. And chocolate is the quickest way to get them!"

Nightmare frowned. Chocolate could influence emotions? Heck, food could do that? That just seemed strange to her. Wasn't food just for stilling your hunger? "Chocolate can do that?"

"Yep." Minako said cheerfully again. "It contains some substances that affect the mood by making the body produce special hormones. But an overdose can cause one to become hyper, and that's the other bad situation."

"So you eat too much chocolate every day then, huh?" Nightmare teased.

Minako giggled. "Nah, I don't need chocolate to be sunny, I have enough of that from nature."

"That can't be healthy," the younger girl muttered. "You should ask Ignika to check the way your body is build someday, I'm sure something's wrong with it."

"No thanks, I'm perfectly fine the way I am." Minako declined the offer. "So, you coming?" She asked, heading towards the kitchen.

Nightmare nodded and stood up. Minako started to head for the kitchen, but her guest stayed behind, seemingly a bit reluctant to follow. She stared at her feet and fiddled with her folded hands. "Ehm… Minako… You… I… I mean…" the Saurian of Fear stammered. Inwardly she cursed. She really didn't know how she had to do what she wanted to do. She'd never done it before. "I… well… you know… thank you."

Minako stopped in her tracks, touched by those words. "You're welcome." She said. Then turned around, flashing Nightmare the sunniest and warmest of her smiles: "Everything is gonna be alright, you'll see!"

Nightmare smiled as well, and wiped the last of her tears away. "Put that smile away, love twit, you're making me ill." Yes, she had said love twit again, but it wasn't meant as the insult it usually was. It was just… a tease. A harmless nickname now. She wouldn't insult Minako again, ever. Because she knew that the blonde with the red bow understood her, because she had offered her comfort, had taken those eons of hurt and washed them away. And she hadn't done that because they were symbiosis partners. She had done it because she was her friend.


Next chapter: A peaceful evening!


Review replies:

BookLoverAF: I hope this chapter was as interesting as you thought the title made it sound! Thanks for reviewing! =)