Diamond heard her screams; she sounded
in so much pain, he ached to stop and hold her, but obviously she had been held
enough for one day.
Turning into the room where Serenity
was, he was surprised to see her still there, but sitting on the floor with a
bottle of tequila in once hand and whiskey in the other.
"Queen, why are you drowning yourself
in Jack Daniel's?" he laughed slightly despite the pain he felt.
"Fuck off, idiot." She stated in a
drunken state.
"Queen, what's wrong?" he sighed and
sat down next to her.
"My damn daughter… she, ah, shit…" she
flinched. "Why don't you tell her she can have the damn crown—ah, fuck it—just
tell her she can have the whole damn palace—throw me own on the streets if I've
been such a pain in the ass and haven't given her any damn respect. I've given
her more than any other woman would want and all she does is just go fuck some
enemy we've had for-fuckin'-ever and—hey, that's you, isn't it?" she squinted,
then looked down to the liquor again.
Diamond nodded, then looked away, tears
welling up again.
"Then why aren't you out 'makin' love'
to her now, huh?" Serenity said 'making love' in a mocking voice, then laughed.
He was silent, trying to overcome his
tears.
"Well, it seems she's made a fool out
of both of us, now hasn't she." He muttered, then reached over to the Cuervo
and took it from the queen's hand. Her face softened a bit, and she let him
take the liquor.
"Then it really wasn't you that made
her act like that…" she softly spoke, and looked at him.
"No… she's responsible for her actions…
I just helped change her looks…" he shook his head and closed his eyes. "Maybe,
if I hadn't changed her… I wouldn't care for her so much… you wouldn't have
suffered… and…" he breathed sharply with tears, then spoke again. "But she
changed me… for the better… how could she be so…"
"Drink, Diamond. It doesn't help, but what have you got to
lose?" she took a swig of the whiskey. The prince looked at her, and downed a
shot of his.
The scouts were no longer standing, but
sitting, and Sapphire and Emerald sat with them, discussing.
"And that's what happened? Ebony
isn't bad?" Mars asked with surprise
and confusion.
"No! Oh, no! She's a sweetheart, and
has always been. She just wants to be
known for her pros instead of her cons." Sapphire stated, then held Emerald's
hand.
"That's understandable… we've never
really given her the credit she deserves… poor child." Makoto sighed.
"But that's just it, hun. She's not a
child, and that's what she wants you to know. She has some great ideas and a lot of brain, she just looks small, and
she wants you all to know how wonderful she is on the inside." Emerald
explained.
"Thank you for telling us- I don't
think we would have ever understood if she tried to tell us." Minako smiled
softly, and looked to Emerald, who gently smiled back.
Rei swayed once again, but this time
fell to the floor in clairvoyant foresight.
"Hm—if she won't help me, I'll have to
do it myself. Doesn't matter." A voice spoke silently in the dark, his cloak
waving about him.
* * *
The queen and Diamond lay on the floor,
heads and upper backs propped up on a wall. Their drunkenness was almost overwhelming, but Diamond seemed to see a
bit past it, as did the queen.
"So, Diamond… feel like
stitching—switching drinks, now?" Serenity slurred.
"Nope—Quervo's gone." He sighed, and
shook the remains of the empty bottle into his mouth.
"Ah, whiskey's gone, too." She tossed
the bottle aside, hearing its hollow sound echo through the crystal halls.
Diamond glanced over to the two queens
that he saw, soon realizing they all added up to Serenity. Shaking his head, he
tried to shoo off the drunkenness, but it stuck on him like flies on sticky
paper. Looking to her again, he saw her through a familiar light. It wasn't a light like a different shade,
but through the same eyes as he saw her before Ebony came. Her blue eyes sparkled with alcohol affects,
making them seems young and bright despite the pain that was causing her to
drink in the first place. Her sensual
mouth curved slightly, and Diamond suddenly twitched with old desire. He
unconsciously set aside the though of Ebony, the wonderful soul whom, though he
would never admit it, he loved; and with this came the old flame for Serenity.
He stared at her long and hard, his
face soft, and yet tense with reason, and unbearable passion that made
everything blur. Some part of him hated
the passion, hated this endless desire with all he had, but the other part of
him, the part that came back with the very taste of alcohol, wanted her
badly.
"Diamond, why are you—hic—looking at me
like that?" she asked, laughing.
"I noticed how… beautiful you look…" he
purred.
"Oh, stop!" she said playfully and
laughed again.
"Stop what?" he asked, trying to seem
innocent, but the ardor was making itself visible, which is what he really
wanted… or what he thought he wanted…
"That! You're acting all- weird!" she
giggled and kicked the bottle with her foot, taking note that it was numb.
"Am I?" he asked softly, reaching to
her hand.
"Haha!—what are you supposed to be when
you do that?" she shook her head with a grin.
"I'm not trying to be anything… just…"
he trailed.
"Just what, hun?" Diamond faintly
quivered at the casual expression of endearment.
"Just thinking about how much I want to
hold you… Kiss those soft lips…"
"Diamond, you're drunk." She laughed
lightly, but not as humorously.
"I know what I want." He stated.
Serenity, slightly disturbed by his previous comment, tried to stand up, but
her numb foot wasn't cooperating.
"Diamond, I think that's enough for
today—I don't like the way you sound."
"Why, Serenity? Why don't you just give
me a try?" he asked lasciviously, with a deranged undertone. "I'm good, queen…
I'm really good…" he hissed, standing up and walking slowly to her.
Serenity backed up trying to move, but
her foot couldn't feel the signals from her brain, and she was left there, with
one foot that worked and a man with growing desire advancing towards her.
"Diamond, I-I'm a married woman—a happily married woman—I don't want to go
against my husband… and, and I… I'm sorry, but I'm not attracted to you like
that." She attempted to reason with him, but he wasn't stopping.
"Well, then, in what way are you attracted to me, Queen? Any way
will work." The desire oozed from his voice now, his mouth practically dripping
with fiery calenture.
"Diamond, stop!" She glanced
frantically around for her Ginzuishou, but it was on the other side of the
room, and she couldn't just shout and make it return to her.
"I know once you've had a taste of me,
you'll like it." He hissed.
"Diamond! Please!" she called out.
Diamond's body quivered, but he kept
walking closer and closer to her, every step he grew more and more attracted to
her.
"Leave me alone!" She bumped into a
wall unable to move, for Diamond could get her either way. "Help me! Somebody
help me, please!!!" she wailed, frightened tears falling down her face.
Serenity's hands were against the wall,
clutching it in fear. Diamond wrapped
his hands around her wrists, pressing then to the wall, groaning as he crushed
her body with his against the crystal of the chamber.
"Help me!!!" she screamed, her body
helpless and numb against his, strong with adrenaline and pulsing with flavor.
"Now, Queen… I'm not going to hurt
you…" His face reached down to hers as he licked one of the tears from her
cheeks.
Ebony's head perked up. A noise came
from a distant room.
What
was that?
She heard it again, moments later,
muffled and loud, although it seemed to be far away. Standing up, Ebony grew
silent to hear something else.
A noise clambered from another room,
and Ebony suddenly darted in its direction, anxious to see what it was.
"Diamond, leave me the hell alone!" Her
voice wavered in the whisper she uttered, but it was fierce and frightened all
the same. Her body jerked up to try and move him away from her, but she backed
away almost immediately as she heard the moan from him, who took the movement
as a fervent thrust. Gasping, she tried moving to the side, however, hearing
the noises he was unable to keep in as she did so, Serenity became absolutely
still. As scared as she was, she could not stand the fact that in some sick
way, she was pleasuring him.
"What? No more?" He smiled devilishly.
The queen's body shuddered in disgust, filled with thoughts and notions that he
was provoking.
Her lip quivered and she struggled not
to cry, to sob out loud and let her body become even more weak and vulnerable
to the man who would do almost anything to sate the passion…. The passion that
was driven by the alcohol…
Damn—Why
the hell did I have to give him that? She bit her lip and
looked away, tears burning down her cheek.
"What? Crying? I'll make it better for
you…" He dipped down to her lips, inches away from a tantalizing kiss. She
could smell the liquor on his breath.
Ebony heard a voice, and turned to look
into another room. She was horrified at what she saw.
Diamond, her love, has pressing up
against her mother, who stood absolutely still, and the prince was about to
linger in the queen's kiss. Tears erupted from her eyes, and she turned from
the door and began to run. Like
Diamond, she didn't see the little details, such as the glistening tears that
stained her mother's face, nor the way her mother trembled in such a frightened
way. And she couldn't hear the cries that her mother uttered. She couldn't even focus—she just saw what
any person would have seen off glance.
Blind with tears, Ebony ran straight
into a wall. Then picking herself up, she shot into another room, and into
another, and another, until she fell into a writhing heap, sobbing til her throat
grew sore and her head hurt. And she kept crying.
"Mamoru, please… help me, love…"
Serenity whispered through her tears, her eyes wide with fear, resembling a
deer caught in the headlights.
A sudden rage flowed through Diamond's
blood.
"Mamo-Mamoru?!? Your Mamoru is no more
faithful to you than Ebony is to me—" he stopped, suddenly feeling utterly
diminished, the drunkenness ending and the endless pain of the hangover
beginning to set in.
Letting go of her hands, he backed away
from the queen, her breast heaving in the gasping breaths she took.
"What am I doing?" he spoke so softly,
stricken with different emotions.
The queen stayed pressed to the wall in
fear, tears falling faster now, along with the pulsing heartbeat making her
body throb. A small sob escaped her mouth.
He looked to her again, his gaze so
pathetic, she almost felt sorry for him through it all.
"Queen, I—" He reached to touch her in
apology, but she gasped and pressed against the wall once more. Diamond's eyes widened, and his eyes shook
with pain. "I know—it doesn't m-mean much to you, b-but I-oh, hell, Serenity,
I'm so sorry." His voice shook with his body as he fought the gaining tears
that tried so hard to fall.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head
back in sorrow, suddenly overwhelmed with total grief. Her breathing got
shorter as the tears took place again.
"Oh…" she breathed unsteadily.
Taking another step backwards,
Diamond's eyes, wide with sudden acknowledgment of what he did, grew heavy with
tears—tears for the woman he loved, tears for the pain he felt as his eyes met
with Mamoru and Ebony kissing, still very realistic to him, and tears for the
woman who he almost…
"My Ebony… she-she…" His voice sounded
more and more helpless to the queen every moment he spoke. "She—oh, my sweetheart…"
He bit his lip for a second, then began again.
"Ebony… my sweet Ebony… She said she
was mine… She told me her body
belonged to me. And then, I see her, with… another man…" He
avoided saying his name, being the Queen's husband, trying to spare her more
pain. "I drank too much, Serenity… you've got
to believe me… it was the alcohol… I never… I never wanted to hurt you… I don't
have those feelings… It was the alcohol…" His body pulsed, twitching to avoid
tears.
"Diamond…" she said in a pained tone,
still crying.
He took one look at her, in her
pathetic state, and his hand flew to his mouth to keep in a sob.
"Serenity… Oh, Queen… I'm an idiot…"
His hand slid to his eyes again, pressing them to hold the tears.
"…wha…?" Her eyes closed partially in
emotion, tears oozing.
"The alcohol, Serenity… it changed me…
Ebony, she kept me from it, not by telling me, but just… I care for her so
much… I-I can't believe she did that to me…"
Serenity didn't say anything—she just
stared at him.
"…I-I thought she loved me…"
And finally, the tears showed. Big fat
droplets ran down his cheeks, making no more effort to stop them. He fell to his knees, and put his face in
his hands, throbbing with wrenching sobs—sobs that knew no end.
"Diamond…" She said again, this time in
a pleading tone as the mother in her begged to help him. Her strength suddenly came back to her as
she stood tall, walking briskly to her throne and fetching something.
"-I'm—so—sorry…" he choked out in
between sobs.
"Shhh, shhh." She spoke soothingly, now
beginning to understand what had just happened. His heart, a newly open heart, was crushed by her own daughter,
and he drank to get away from it—but drinking brought back to awful memories of
loneliness, and the passion he had gathered for her.
A soft light began to penetrate the
room, flowing its warm feel into Diamond's body, suddenly making him know that
she forgave him, and he felt renewed, in a sense, still hurt by everything, but
his soul's loneliness form so long ago seemed to be tearing away.
Diamond looked up to see Serenity with
her Silver Crystal, the light now dimming.
She had healed him.
He had no words to say, and nothing he
could put into words about how he felt.
"Serenity… you healed me." The words
splurted out stupidly.
She smiled faintly, the crystal's power
seeming to have healed her as well, not to mention neither of them were drunk,
thanks to the crystal.
"Thank you… for forgiving me…" he
whispered, and she nodded, then bent down to him again.
"Do you love her, Diamond?" she asked
gently, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"…What?" He asked back, totally
confused.
"Do you love Chi-Ebony? Do you love
Ebony?" She kneeled in front of him, looking him in the face.
He looked at her, then looked back at
the ground.
"With all my heart." Tears returned to
his eyes, but they didn't threaten to fall as did the other ones.
"Then it's okay. I forgive you. The
Silver Crystal has rid you of some of those lonely side effects." She
explained.
"Thank you…" he said again, then sighed
shakily.
She leaned closer to him, her breath
hot and dangerous against his ear.
"But if you ever do that to me again, I
will kill you." She whispered into his ear, causing warned goosebumps to trail
down his arms. Then she smiled.
"Provided I'm not drunk." She added,
grinning.
Ebony laid on the floor, her sobs
subsiding. Her eyes stared with no
focus into the darkness of the room.
"Hm—you said you wanted Diamond. But
does he want you?" Something penetrated the darkness, a firm, crackling voice
from the black inside the room.
"Go away,
Wiseman. I don't want to talk to you." She sputtered to him, her voice ugly
with pain.
"And who are you going to talk to?
Diamond? Or your mother?" Ebony's eyes grew large, and she looked away.
"Both you have betrayed."
She tried to protest, but he spoke
again.
"Both have betrayed you."
Bringing herself to a sitting position,
she sighed and looked to the cloaked figure who emerged slowly from the
darkness.
"And what's left, Princess? All who
knew you as light knows you as dark. And all who knew you as dark, knows you as
insurgent. So what are you going to do? You can't be a rogue, you will live the
rest of your life with everyone knowing you for your betrayal. You can't stay,
you will destroy yourself. And you can't leave. For you will know what you've
done, and know what you've left, and why."
"Why must you sit and talk of my
predicament?!?" she shouted at him, hurting so badly. "I know what I have done,
and I have done what I've been taught to do! You cannot say that anything I
have done neither of those two would have had they been in my place!"
He smiled sardonically.
"Neither Diamond nor your mother would go at it with their father's."
"Why
do you dwell on that, Wiseman?!? I have never been, and never will be with
him—you know that!!!" Ebony screamed at him, standing to prove her
point.
"Point across, Princess, but let me ask
you a question. What does Diamond think?"
She had nothing she could say except
for the obvious.
"He saw your hologram… It wasn't me!!!"
She wailed, then buried her head in her hands. Wiseman smiled wickedly.
"Diamond saw you and your father. What more is there to him?" He smirked as
Ebony's howling voice rose above his for a moment, then dropped.
"And what do you expect me to do about
what he saw? Nothing could get him back… not after he's been with her… All is
lost…" Her head bowed and silent tears slid down her face.
"No, Ebony. All is not lost." Wiseman's
voice came nearer to her, and she felt a hand on her cheek, smoothing her
tears. "If you join me, you will be truly powerful, gain every respect you
could earn, and without the pain of love."
"That's what Diamond said… and look at
me now." Her voice turned hideous once again.
"Ebony… I'm not interested in you for
that… although your body is rather
appealing." His gaze strayed to her breast, but quickly looked back at her. "I
need an accomplice, and one that has the Black Crystal's power mastered and in
such great strength."
"Why should I help you?" she spat.
"Think about it, Ebony. Who else are
you going to go to?" She was silent.
Her gaze turned solemn, though woven
with tears.
"Tell me what I have to do." Her voice
turned cold as she pressed his hand to her face.
"Good girl. Just look me in the eye."
As her head tilted to view him, her senses were lost in two blinding lights
from the dark figure, swallowing her like liquid.