Exhale
another time
another place
another love
maybe it will happen then, but I won't live my life on faith
so I'll keep my tears inside and drift away
where I'm all alone
Footsteps ricocheted into the distance, feet frantically crunching over the damp pavement. An odd group; two cats and four humans running into the night, in the direction of a school shrouded with sorrow and deafness. Some may have thought they were vandals, others simply bored teenagers. But this was different.
Very different.
Makoto screeched to a stop in front of the school, her emerald eyes glinting and sparkling in the faint moonlight. Rei, Mamoru, and then Ami followed by Artemis and Luna, slowed next to her. Ami glared emptily at the double glass doors, the hallway inside receding to blackness. Mamoru shifted uncomfortably in his shoes and didn't look at the school. Rei trotted slowly to the front, her black-violet hair splayed against her back in windswept strands.
Her voice chanted in breathy whispers, her eyes fixated in a haunting stare on Juuban Middle School. She turned to the others and beckoned them on.
Makoto's fear was beginning to catch up with her. Pulling her jacket closer around her shoulders, she shivered and looked into the moon. She wanted to die, she didn't want to relive this nightmare she was living with. Mamoru was on the side of her and she moved away from him, walking next to Ami.
Ami blinked weakly, her face washed pale in the dim light.
"I just realized something," she said absently.
"What?" Rei turned and stopped, biting her lip. "We really need to get going…I know it's hard, but…"
"I know that," Ami replied. "Minako….but…when we get there, what will we do? Our henshin pens are gone."
Rei blinked and gulped, her face turning a light shade of green. Mamoru winced, the reality setting in.
"I…I don't know. If we don't save Minako, who will? We have to fight…fight…" Her words dissolved into the back of her throat. She turned abruptly and resumed her pace around the side of the school.
They reached a musty side window and Rei stopped. Mamoru walked up to it and pulled on it, yanking the screen off the glass and then pushing it open. He stood back and stared, waiting for the next move in this suicide trip to save their friend.
Rei squeezed herself through the window and stood inside, waiting for the others. She narrowed her eyes and pulled Ami's arm, shoving her in. Makoto followed, Mamoru in tow, and the cats last.
Rei led them through a dark corridor and to a staircase that winded downward.
"That's the basement." Rei pointed down the dark, foreboding stairs to a door at the bottom.
"There."
Makoto clung to Rei as they made their way down the staircase. Ami pushed forward and slid to the door. She opened it, standing in darkness underneath the doorframe, trembling in uncertainty.
It happened rather quickly. The light was so blinding it made their eyelids shudder, the force so strong it drove Makoto and Mamoru back against the winding, musty steps. Ami was thrust against the top steps with a muffled yell, her back scraping against the cement in sickening crunches and her face twisting in agony. Makoto screamed, and Rei shrieked in horror as Ami reached a sudden stop at a far wall, a pool of blood appearing from behind her head. Mamoru looked at Ami as if his soul had been yanked from his body.
The remaining ran to her side, Rei almost as lifeless as Ami was fast becoming. A heavy feeling dumped itself in the bottom of her stomach and weighed her down as she shakily grasped at the girl's tattered clothing, glimpsing Makoto clinging to the front of her jacket, stricken, and Mamoru too shocked to move.
"Ami! Oh please…Ami…" Rei whispered slowly, feeling as if she couldn't get enough breath to stay in her lungs.
The corridor became eerily quiet, with the exception of Ami's shallow and small breaths. Then the silence set in. Ami lay still and warm at the foot of the stairs, a bloody mess.
Rei stared in disbelief at her. She had no time to grieve, even think, because the strange light shot out of the darkness, seeking. She screeched and grabbed Makoto and Mamoru, bounding into the dark room. Makoto looked back at Ami, so still. She bit her tongue hard, tasting the blood in her mouth.
It was happening all over again.
Makoto's mind was unable to contemplate Ami's death, for as they slid slowly into the dark and musty space, an unbelievable image grabbed her undivided attention.
Minako, still wearing her nightclothes, was suspended three feet from the floor. The darkness around her was illuminated, ink-black rose petals airily drifting about her floating form. Rei's eyes locked on Minako, gasping and reaching out. Mamoru pulled her outstretched arms back quickly, pulling her and Makoto into a corner.
"I see you've come."
The voice sliced through the air around them, Mamoru jumping from the sound and grasping the two girls tighter to him. In the cover of the darkness his face was twisted into a look of anguish and grief. Two lives were lost now. He wondered who would be next.
"You little troublemakers…bitches…" The grating and slithering sound slid down Makoto's spine like an ice cube. She inhaled deeply, holding the breath in and pressing herself against the narrow space and Mamoru.
"Your friend…you came for your friend! Such loyalty…such wretched loyalty…" The low sound growled into the trio's ears, ever so close. Rei trembled harder now, sweat dripping off her forehead. Mamoru clenched his teeth in agony.
The faceless voice laughed now. "I've waited…so long…so very long…you're defenseless, can't….you…SEE?!" A hand unsheathed itself from the infinite blackness and pulled Rei by the neck. Mamoru let out an involuntary moan from deep in his throat. Makoto gasped in fear, incapacitated by the situation. A lump formed itself in her throat as she began to scream, louder and louder.
Rei was yanked from the safety of Mamoru's arms and into the darkness where her choking and struggle was audible. She freed herself and stumbled a short way towards Minako. The unearthly light came from the darkness and ripped into Rei, Mamoru yelling out as he mournfully watched her fall to the floor. Her hand was caught in the light underneath Minako, the fingers still and outreaching. Makoto breathed in and out, her chest rising and falling heavily. She dug her fingers into Mamoru's shoulder and shivered violently.
The ethereal light was pushed on Mamoru and Makoto, blinding them. A figure stepped into the light and sneered, holding Minako by the waist. Mamoru clenched his teeth and held Makoto tighter, who was gasping in terror. The evil apparition held Minako out in front of them and stabbed her with a deadly beam of light, her body crumpling to the ground.
Makoto placed her hand over her mouth, her lower lip trembling. She blinked back the tears, her vision blurring at Minako and Rei outstretched on the basement floor. The terror was so thick, the pain so startlingly close. She could feel Mamoru's shaking body, feel his fear. In a split second, his face was emblazoned by the light from another attack. He slid out from their once safe hiding spot and ran, clutching Makoto for dear life.
Mamoru's efforts were in vain. The two ran, only to have the evil form slither behind them, cackling manically. It grabbed Makoto and attempted to yank her away from Mamoru. He held strong, pulling her away from it. They pushed on until they fell, scattered from each other.
In the dim light Makoto could see Mamoru across from her, doubled over on his side. Her ankle radiated pain weakly. She rolled herself absently onto her stomach and pulled onto her good leg, wincing. The evil entity narrowed its eyes. It held out its hands before it and concentrated, a black-white sphere forming. The light in the basement dimmed. Makoto felt light-headed.
"Oh…o-oh no…" Makoto stammered. Their captor turned to Mamoru, ready to unleash the attack, a smirk across its face. This form wasn't human. What it was doing wasn't human. Oh, how much she wished for power again…
Makoto breathed deeply and screamed, sliding quickly in front of Mamoru as the sphere was unleashed. She felt it hit her, the silence envelop her. Her body slid into the wall in back of them, Mamoru behind her. It cut so deep, the blood so much, so red…she knew this was it, nothing could save her, how she wished for it to end, her screams to silence themselves, their melody to cease as it all fell down…it was gone, all of it…they were gone and over…
As she lay there, Makoto could feel Mamoru weakly sliding his arms to her waist and sobbing. She opened her eyes slightly and could see that the attack had gone straight through her to Mamoru. She pulled her head down, the stillness settling in.
This was the end.
Mamoru lay by her side, his breath slowing considerably. She could feel the rise and fall of his lungs, feel his struggle. They were like so many feathers in the wind, freely floating aimlessly without a destination. Destination…such a wasted word. There was no destination really. They were fighting without a cause.
The pain stabbed her now. It ran across her stomach and all the way to her chest, little pinpricks of death like thousands of knives. Makoto turned her head to the side, holding in the sobs lodged in her throat, and gave up.
Makoto's fading hearing picked up the last sounds of the evil specter laughing loudly above their bodies. It bled away from her, mingling with the hopelessness she was so fast leaving behind…
The grating, laughing sound suddenly stopped. Mamoru, fading fast, closed his eyes and admitted defeat. Soon, he smiled to himself, he would see her. His princess. His love. His life.
The background faded out, all was silent. The two lay dying on the floor, helpless, defenseless. Warmness began to take hold of them, hold them, comfort them. The floor beneath the dead glowed unearthly, carrying them into the air and the light.
Rei opened her eyes. Her violet orbs looked about in mute wonderment, feeling herself being floated about. The colors…there were so many colors. She could hear the sorrowful sound of many violins, thousands of smooth sounds together, so pretty it made her heart weep and her soul soar.
Makoto slowly opened her emerald eyes, seeing Rei, Ami, Mamoru and Minako floating next to her. In the middle was a blindingly brilliant white light, so pure, so perfect she was stunned.
"I've missed you. Oh…how I've missed you…"
Usagi's voice spoke out of the pristine air, clear and echoing. She was everywhere, everything, and nothing at the same time. Mamoru gaped at the light, so sad, so happy.
Usagi's voice was now a low and breathy whisper. "I've loved every one of you…I never wanted you to suffer so…so much…suffer so much in the name of myself…" She appeared in the middle of them, light radiating from her body. Mamoru gasped and reached out, but pulled back, afraid and scared.
Usagi turned, her hair taking on a yellow-silver ambiance. "I will give you your lives back. I have overcome the darkness…I have overcome it. I want all of you to live normally, the way it would be if I had never become a princess…your wish to be normal…"
Turning to Mamoru, tears streaming down her face, she placed a kiss on his lips softly and backed away, the rays of light cutting and flying through each of them, pulling them off to their separate destinies.
* * *
Mamoru awoke, wiping sleep from his eyes and yawning. Dawn peeked through his window. He rolled over contentedly, pulling his arms over Makoto, sleeping peacefully next to him in her old, light green PJ's. She stirred, but didn't wake. Smiling to himself, feeling as if he were the king of the universe, he drifted back to sleep before the day caught up with him.
--------------------------------
A/N: Whew! What a long chapter to write. I'm sorry I delayed it so much, but it's been the end of the year for school and concentrating has been a bit hard. I wanted to make it as perfect as I could, and I am very happy with this ending. Thank you for all the reviews, they are appreciated greatly! ^_^