My eyes opened just as it happened. Brain and mind weren't even connected at this point. Incomprehensible, everything around me. I was floating, and then…plummeting.
Ryo bounded through my door, which had somehow been unlocked. He looked pallid, somber. Grabbing my arms, he yanked me out of bed and through the doorway. One of the sheets from my bed was draped across my shoulders, trailing behind us as he half-carried, half-dragged my semi-conscious into the creamy dawn light. I could feel his heart fluttering like a hummingbird's wing as he ran faster and faster, passing up the other apartments with their silent elegance. Ryo jumped down the stairway, and the three flights of stairs to the ground floor, bounding as if he were leaving Hell behind, all the while cradling me in his arms.
He stopped running once he reached the woods that closed in a side of the building, and pulled me up against the ground. I blinked and sat up quickly, my mouth opening in a question of sanity and judgment. He clamped his hand against my face and pressed me against the grass. Suddenly, an explosion sounded from a building.
My apartment building.
Glass shattered, and a great plume of fire exploded from the doorway. Smoke billowed from what once used to be my sanctuary away from the coldness of the world. It was now engulfed in flames.
I stared in disbelief. The sheet that was hung around my shoulders couldn't stop my shivering. That was the apartment that Haruka and Michiru had helped me pick out. Haruka and Michiru had even help me buy furniture and a new computer for it, so I could "keep in touch," as Michiru had tearfully whispered in my ear as I walked out of the home I had lived in for the better part of my life. It was all gone.
And I was beside the man that had saved my life.
A neon sign glittered in the distance as I heard great sirens echo. Ryo's eyes were as crystal blue as the always were, but ringed with fury and fatigue. How long had he stayed last night? I couldn't remember if he had left or not…
I began a weak effort to gain my composure as I stared right back into his face.
"I am your angel, Darkness." He grinned, showing perfect white picket fences of teeth. I could now see my violet eyes reflect in his clearer ones.
I simply could not speak. Darkness.
So he knew.
I set my eyes downward, refusing to look back at this figure. This figure who could not possibly be a person, but was, and this person who had kept my soul intact for another day. Made it so that I wasn't in the ground, lying flat on my back, like Michiru and Haruka and Rei. And for which motives? I wasn't sure.
I pointed. "My…my..apartment. You were there last night. You helped me, made me feel…so…" My last words came out as a hoarse whisper. "And it's…gone now…" Look at me. Saying things that are so blatantly obvious.
He laid a hand on my cheek, his gaze unbreakable. "I am here because the Queen wants to kill you, and so does her daughter. And I simply cannot let that happen, without letting myself know that I did something to at least try and stop it. She's mad. She's hell-bent on crashing Crystal Tokyo into the ground. And now that she's taken your guardians, she'll take you too. She'll break you like so much fine china…" He looked away, the tremble in his voice evident.
I went numb. "…Rei…?"
Ryo tilted his head to the side. "She just happened to be in the car when the Queen's assassins did their dirty work. Rei wasn't supposed to die…yet."
I fell back, contemplating. "They want me…dead?"
"All of you. Dead."
I narrowed my eyes. "All of us?"
"You see, it isn't the Queen. And it isn't her daughter. They are either dead themselves or are being held captive. What you have are imposters, and they want the Senshi finished. And you are indeed a Senshi of the Queen, are you not?" He smiled wryly.
"No one's supposed to know that."
"Well, I do." He slid in closer to me.
"What are you?" Ryo had his hand on mine, his fingers sewn between my own. "Why do you know so much, care so much…"
"I care because I know that you have the power to murder, and the power to kill, but not the will to take life willingly. You are such a lonely girl. You've felt loneliness all your life…and then some." I shuddered, realizing that he was talking about my life…before this one.
"I am chained to this earth. I can only find freedom in true love. I've been alone nine hundred years."
I looked now, understanding the pain that was so unknown in his eyes. Knowing the loneliness that comes with traversing the earth without aim, and then finding it.
Had he found it?
He got up slowly, pulling me up with him. In a sudden, swift and liquid movement, he kissed me. I realized now that instead of being shackled to the earth, he was also shackled to my soul, and these chains were now wrapped around me indefinitely.
Looking to the side, he smiled. "Now comes the hard part. Staying alive long enough to enjoy you." And leading me out of our hiding place, we began.
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A/N: New chapter. Hope everyone likes it. Exams are this week, ouchies..