Tainted Love

by abyssal chaos

~*~

Prologue – Part II

Usagi, Rabbit of the Moon

I stare into her face, her eyes, so unlike me yet identical… Burning eyes, filled with hatred and a lust for revenge, sparkling darkly with triumph. Those dark eyes, mocking and taunting, bore into mine, searching through my mind, my secrets, my soul….

All around us are the bodies of those that she had killed, all still writhing and screaming in eternal torment. She had sent them here, condemned them to her own hell in the dark recesses of her twisted mind. They would never be free of their torture, not as long as this demoness still lived and breathed. She would live for many years to come; this death-angel will not rest until her revenge is complete. And by then, this whole earth will be laid to waste; this planet would be nothing but a wasteland for the wretched and the hopeless, tormented by visions of the future and haunted by ghosts of the past. For there is nothing that she hates more that those that have earned the happiness that she herself had been deprived.

I look at the gem in her hands and flinch. I had failed once again. The green crystal flashes wildly; its captive is trying to escape. Makoto's soul, taken from her dying body, had been imprisoned in this jewel instead of being let rest in peace. She would never be freed from her cold prison. Not one of the demoness's prisoners ever escaped. They would be locked in this hell for eternity.

My counterpart gently places the crystal on a pedestal inlaid with emeralds. She looks around at the other four pedestals; all hold crystals except one. Dull crystals – red, blue, black, and now green – lie lifelessly on the cold marble surfaces of the pedestals. Here they would remain until the end of time. Even after the demoness completed her mission and the other souls were set free, these four would remain. I have long since learned that fighting her is useless; she is much stronger than I. Yet I still can't help but try to stop her, nor can I help the feelings of guilt and despair that wash over me every time she claims another victim.

She approaches me slowly, but I do not fear her; I, out of all the people here, am untouchable to her. Her black dress, stained red by the blood of her victims, brushed lightly against the hard ground as she walked. So unlike my own, a gown of white silk and silver gauze. It was like looking into a warped mirror; her silvery blonde hair and my golden, her icy blue eyes and my crystalline cerulean. Of course, we were one and the same, but different. Two people sharing a mind; two souls waging war over one body. But who would win?

You must be wondering, who is the one I call demoness, death-angel? Who is this woman who I despise with all my being, yet can never escape? Who is the one who condemns her victims to an eternity of suffering without even the faintest feeling of guilt?

I used to think that we were one and the same. I used to admire her and think of her as my better half. I used to count on her for the power that I didn't have, for the knowledge that I never learned.

But that was the past. The beautiful, kind goddess had disappeared. In her place was a vengeful demon filled with hatred and scorn.

Who would have thought that Serenity could stray so far from her name?

~*~

Serenity, Princess of the Moon

I glare down at the crystals, the tiny prisons that contain the souls of my enemies. After all these years, I finally managed to trap the senshi of Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter. And of course, the prince of Earth. Even now, they seem to taunt me; they dance with life, with the spirit that I had worked so hard to crush. I can't help but feel the first stirrings of anger, an emotion I am well aquatinted with. But I can't let them die; no, death would be too kind to them. So I do the only thing I can do to vent my anger. I whisper to them, my low, menacing voice carrying easily through the walls of their prisons. I whisper threats; empty threats, yes, but they don't know that.

"Damn you all. It is you who cursed me to this destiny, you who has cursed me to eternal isolation. And for that, you shall pay dearly. You shall suffer as I have suffered.

You shall suffer in the deepest depths of Hell, where fire shall burn and eat at your skin and ice shall keep you forever frozen as you shiver and beg for warmth. You shall rot until your flesh hangs off of your bones in shreds and you scream for death to take you Knives shall sink into your flesh ever so slowly as you suffer the torments of the damned."

I smile as I feel fear creeping into their hearts, freezing them from the inside out. Not all my threats were false. They would suffer as I suffered. They would know the pain of loneliness of eternal isolation; they would know the feeling of betrayal.

I remember when they left me, millennia ago, to die at the hands of my greatest enemy. They had left me when I needed them most, laughing at my weakness and watching my helpless efforts in scorn. But it wasn't until after they had left that I gathered my remaining energy and destroyed everything around me in a massive energy blast. The energy wave decimated everything, both living and not, within a twenty mile radius. I felt innocent souls being destroyed. But I didn't care; I didn't allow myself to feel anything but fury, and that fury fueled the actions that followed.

I had watched them all, when they thought me long dead. I watched as they fell in love, married, had families; they were happy. And that was the worst punishment that ever could have been inflicted on me. I watched as they achieved the goals that I had dreamed of all my life, all the while knowing that I would never be able to be happy again. As I watched, the first seeds of jealously were planted. Jealousy had quickly grown into hatred, and from that grew a burning desire for revenge.

I tried taking away their loved ones. I killed them all, careful to disguise the murders as accidents. But though this caused them pain, they moved on and found new loves, new families. Every time I struck, they recovered. Happiness always found them time after time. And so my fury and hatred grew.

In a last desperate attempt, I called upon the Ginzuishou. I laid an irrevocable curse upon the four inner senshi and the prince. They would be immortal until I destroyed them. Without knowing it, I had also cursed myself to an immortal life.

But now, everything is perfect. I have captured all of the traitors except one. And no one, no matter how hard they try, will able to stop me.

I smirk down at the last pedestal, a silver one inlaid with orange and yellow crystals. Soon, the senshi of Venus would be within my grasp. I laugh to myself, thinking of the possible ways I could arrange her death. The Ai no Megami doesn't stand a chance….

~*~

Weird, isn't it? It makes no sense, even to me. Still, it explains some things that weren't covered in the first part.

Review, please!