Greetings all! And welcome back for chapter 3. I see my attempt at
adding some mystery into the story worked quite well and I'm thrilled with
the response I'm getting. Everyone has been very supportive and I
appreciate it more than words can ever say. Thank you so much everyone. So
without further ado…chapter 3! Read, review and be kind! Enjoy! Standard
disclaimers.
Haruka paced the room, the Outers being frantic with worry since Usagi fainted. Chibi Usa had been found in the bushes with Luna and had laughed at Usagi's fainting. She had since been banished to another room away from Haruka who had the strongest urge to cause the little creature bodily damage. Mamoru was currently in his bedroom with Usagi, trying to get her to wake up. Once again she had latched onto his lapels and wasn't letting go of him, as if she was hoping for protection even when she was unconscious. Rei had mentioned that her chi was off, having changed in some way and Ami was worried for her vital signs since her heart rate simply would not slow down. Even unconscious, she writhed in agony on the bed moaning. "Something's wrong. What the HELL is causing this?" she yelled to no one in particular.
Minako glanced up from where she was rhythmically petting Artemis to keep busy. "I don't know Haruka, but I'm just as worried as you are." She replied.
"And taking my skin off at the same time." Artemis remarked wryly. "Minako ease up on me! I'm gonna hurt for days!"
"Sorry." Minako apologized, raising her hands from his back.
Michiru shook her head, sighing. "She's being tormented from within. The youma were too easy to kill and when Usagi appeared, that cloaked figure suddenly showed up and had that little 'chat' with her."
"What did he say to her?" Haruka shook her head, frustrated and furious. "We are sworn to protect her."
"You can't protect her from her own mind." Rei said, coming into the room and sitting down, exhausted. "And that is precisely where he's attacking her. The one place she can't fight back."
"And we cannot do anything to help her." Minako said sadly.
Haruka was almost giving off steam. "I want to hit something!"
"Understandable." Rei said.
"Scratch that," Haruka moved her hand in a slashing motion. "I want to break something!"
"I think I'll leave." Rei stood up hastily with Minako.
"Why don't you go for a drive?" Michiru suggested, knowing it was futile. She knew her love too well.
"I won't leave our princess when she needs us." Haruka replied. "Even if we can't help, I will stay. My allegiance doesn't shift, unlike her Royal Advisor's." she said pointedly.
"Hey!" Artemis stood up, his back arching. "Don't hold me to account for what Luna has done! I didn't know she'd turn to Chibi Usa once she was found to be the future Queen! I serve Usagi and it is her that I am loyal to."
"At least one of you is."
Mamoru closed his eyes and tried to move to a more comfortable position, difficult since Usagi wouldn't release him. Even unconscious she gripped him with more strength than he had though she had. She was white as a sheet, her lips almost blue. Her heart raced quickly and Ami told him she was worried about a spontaneous cardiac arrest. She writhed and tossed on the bed, much like she did when she slept. He stared at the dark circles under her eyes, knowing instinctively that she hadn't been sleeping. He could smell the coffee on her still. Something was inside the deepest recesses of her mind, something she was trying to avoid, something that she couldn't hide from. "Come on Usako, wake up." He pleaded for the umpteenth time in as many minutes.
Her eyelids twitched and she opened her huge blue eyes, pausing for a moment as she took a look around. "Mamo-chan?" she asked in a small voice.
He instantly gathered her close. "I'm here Usako." He assured her. "You're safe."
"No, I'm not." She said, a sob in her voice. "He's with me. He's taunting me. No matter where I go I'm not safe! He's twisting my mind and warping my brain!"
"Who?" he demanded. "Who is doing this to you?"
"I dare not speak his name. He is someone we thought we had defeated years ago. I didn't think he made it out of that fire, but apparently he did. I never gave him a second thought but he has thought of nothing but me since that day. He has come for vengeance." Usagi explained, burying her face in the crook of his neck. "Hold me Mamoru and help me forget that I am hunted in my mind."
He threw back his cowled head and laughed. "So you dare not speak my name? Do you not yet realize that fear of a person increases the power more than anything else? Do you think that not speaking my name will stop me or bring you freedom? You will be mind yet moon child. You will pay in blood as I take your mind. Once I have your mind, your soul will follow leaving your body for me to toy with before I destroy you utterly. Once you are gone then I can come back, your life is all that stands in my way of possessing a healthy life once more. I will rise again and wreak such havoc that the world has never seen!"
The cowl fell back to reveal a man who once might have been handsome, but was now twisted and withered. Where there had once been hair, there was broken and burned flesh. His eyes glowed an unnatural red, his evil will being the only thing that truly held him together. He should have been ashes, but his hatred had kept him alive, had nurtured him as he drew his strength in that netherworld between time and planes of existence. He had returned and she would not survive. He cared nothing for the senshi, though he had been disgusted to discover more of them. No matter, it meant that there were all that many more for him to kill. His target was not them, his target wasn't the child. No, he wanted her and he would have her. She would pay. "My servants, make sure that when you next see her you increase the level of torment. I want her broken!" he ordered.
"Yes." The hissing reply surrounded him and he returned to contemplating her downfall in silence, drawing his hood over his head once more.
Usagi walked slowly to school the next day, well over an hour early, not only escaping Luna who had begun harping on her from the moment that cat had awoke. Usagi hadn't slept, discovering it was quite possible to live without sleep. Blinking her eyes due to the fact that she was seeing double, she crossed the street to the school and headed for her homeroom. She grinned mirthlessly thinking that the Goddess had a sense of irony, it seemed. Haruna-sensei had transferred to her high school and wound up teaching her once more. Both of them had nearly dropped in their tracks when she had first walked into her classroom. Their highly charged relationship picked up where it had left off, Haruna getting mad at Usagi for the slightest thing and Usagi not bothering to change. "Ohayo Haruna- sensei." She said quietly, sitting in her desk and lowering her face into her arms.
Ms. Haruna had dropped her book when Usagi had sat down and looked as though she had seen a ghost. "Usagi? Daijobu desu ka?"
"Hai." Usagi's muffled answer came.
Haruna decided she was not going to complain about the miracle of Usagi being early. Picking her book up once more, she tuned Usagi out.
"So you're actually here on time for once." A coldly sneering voice said.
Usagi shuddered, hoping they wouldn't notice. Trying to pretend she was asleep, she ignored the voice, hoping against hope that it would go away and leave her alone.
"You lazy little bitch. Decided to be on time for once. Trying to score brownie points with the teachers?" the voice became mocking. "It won't work. They all hate you and can't stand you. No one wants you here, why don't you just transfer and go somewhere where people will actually care about you? Certainly no one cares about you here in this school. Nothing but a slut, dating a man so much older. You're like a mouse inside a maze. You will never belong in this school, you're too stupid to do anything."
Usagi raised her head, absorbing the words. "Ingra, go away." She said in a dead voice, each word she spoke striking her heart.
"I only speak the truth. Several people who hate you have come to me and told me to tell you how horrid you really are and that we don't want you here. You don't belong here, you odango-haired freak." She spat.
"Indeed my love." Merltak put his arms around Ingra's waist and Usagi wailed silently in despair. Now things would get messy. "You are such a worthless lump of flesh, a waste of the air it takes to keep you alive. You would have been better dying at birth. I've read your work you know, your writing is terrible. I bet you thought you had talent and skill. Well you don't. A blind and mute mouse could write and do anything better than you. You are the ugliest and worst person I've ever seen."
"What have I ever done to you?" Usagi asked in a despairing voice. She fought not to cry, she would not give them the satisfaction of letting them see her cry.
"You're here aren't you?" Merltak replied, his eyes filled with hatred.
"All I've ever done…" Usagi began.
"Is nothing." He interjected smoothly. "So worthless. You should practice your future career of lying on your back and spreading your legs…scratch that. You are so ugly that no man would want you; so dumb that even you would screw up the act. Why don't you just go live on the streets where all the rest of your kind go?"
"My kind?" Usagi asked in a soft voice.
"The fools of the world who will never become anything." He said snidely.
Haruna looked up, noticing the two hovering over Usagi like vultures. She might be hard on the girl, but she didn't want her bullied. Not having heard the conversation that had been spoken in low voices, she cleared her throat. "Ingra and Merltak take your seats and leave Usagi alone."
They nodded and walked away from Usagi, who was left shaking in shame, tears burning her eyes as she realized they were right. She was nothing and would amount to nothing.
Makoto was being forcibly held back by Ami and Minako, having turned on her communicator and listening to every word Ingra and Merltak said to Usagi, heard Usagi's whispered answers and now heard her soft sobs she tried so hard to hide. "They're dead." She swore, pushing her sleeves up.
"You can't!" Ami hissed. "We promised Usagi we wouldn't interfere!"
"I don't give a damn!" Makoto swore. "Did you hear them? DID YOU? And she didn't even stand up for herself! She took it like always!"
"I don't like it either." Ami replied. "I'd like nothing more than to Aqua Rhapsody their asses from here to next year but we can't! Usagi is trying to prove something to herself and if we intervene, even behind the scenes then she'll never trust us again!"
"I can try and hex their relationship." Minako sighed. "But other than that, we can't do anything!" she smashed her fist into the wall. "And now we have to go in there and keep a straight face and pretend that we didn't just hear Usagi get her self esteem smashed into the ground."
"Shall we perhaps put Plan A into action?" Makoto pleaded. "Please?"
"We'll have to be subtle about it." Ami said quietly. "She can't suspect."
"You must be pissed Ami if you're agree to disobey Usagi's direct orders." Minako pointed out. "Good for you!"
"Let's do it." Ami said decisively.
Makoto, Ami and Minako entered the class, having been alerted by Luna that Usagi had left early. It didn't matter, they already knew, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna kept Usagi under constant surveillance and Haruka reported in when Usagi had left the house. Luna wanted them at school because she was certain that Usagi would klutz out or do something equally stupid. They had seen her sink down in her seat and mind her own business, had seen Ingra and Merltak focus on her and move in for the kill. Taking their seats, forming a protective circle around her, making certain there was no way they'd get to except through them, Usagi's senshi prepared to do a secret battle on her behalf.
He was thrilled. His servants were doing wonderfully. He was always inside her head these days and he had heard the spiteful and hateful words that they had spoken, felt Usagi's pain and relished it. Her pain made him stronger. He would rise again and the world would tremble at his feet. For a moment he let himself be visible in her mind, let her know that he was with her even now, and it didn't matter if she was asleep or not, she couldn't escape him. He saw her almost leap out of her chair, heard her moan of despair and delighted in it. 'There is no escape from me.' He planted the thought in her head, knowing it would repeat and slowly drive her mad. 'You are nothing.'
Usagi clutched her head tightly. He was with her now. She couldn't escape him, couldn't fight him. He knew her weakness and exploited them. She was losing this battle and knew that she was going hopelessly and irrevocably insane. How could she fight an unseen and thought to be dead enemy who lived in her head?
Standing up, she interrupted Haruna-sensei's class and ran from the room, uncertain where she was going, just knowing she had to get out of that classroom. The unseen eyes in her head watched her and went with her.
Ingra and Merltak exchange satisfied smiles. Their master's plan was proceeding nicely, their part in his return to power successful. Standing as well, they followed her, preparing to strike the moonchild when she was down. They would tear her apart and leave her open and ready for their master.
And that is the end of chapter 3! I hope you enjoyed it! Reviews are life to me so please review but be kind! No flames please. I write based on reviews to keep sending them in eh? In chapter 4 the hooded figure is revealed at last! Anyone figure out who he is yet?
See you soon! ^_^
Haruka paced the room, the Outers being frantic with worry since Usagi fainted. Chibi Usa had been found in the bushes with Luna and had laughed at Usagi's fainting. She had since been banished to another room away from Haruka who had the strongest urge to cause the little creature bodily damage. Mamoru was currently in his bedroom with Usagi, trying to get her to wake up. Once again she had latched onto his lapels and wasn't letting go of him, as if she was hoping for protection even when she was unconscious. Rei had mentioned that her chi was off, having changed in some way and Ami was worried for her vital signs since her heart rate simply would not slow down. Even unconscious, she writhed in agony on the bed moaning. "Something's wrong. What the HELL is causing this?" she yelled to no one in particular.
Minako glanced up from where she was rhythmically petting Artemis to keep busy. "I don't know Haruka, but I'm just as worried as you are." She replied.
"And taking my skin off at the same time." Artemis remarked wryly. "Minako ease up on me! I'm gonna hurt for days!"
"Sorry." Minako apologized, raising her hands from his back.
Michiru shook her head, sighing. "She's being tormented from within. The youma were too easy to kill and when Usagi appeared, that cloaked figure suddenly showed up and had that little 'chat' with her."
"What did he say to her?" Haruka shook her head, frustrated and furious. "We are sworn to protect her."
"You can't protect her from her own mind." Rei said, coming into the room and sitting down, exhausted. "And that is precisely where he's attacking her. The one place she can't fight back."
"And we cannot do anything to help her." Minako said sadly.
Haruka was almost giving off steam. "I want to hit something!"
"Understandable." Rei said.
"Scratch that," Haruka moved her hand in a slashing motion. "I want to break something!"
"I think I'll leave." Rei stood up hastily with Minako.
"Why don't you go for a drive?" Michiru suggested, knowing it was futile. She knew her love too well.
"I won't leave our princess when she needs us." Haruka replied. "Even if we can't help, I will stay. My allegiance doesn't shift, unlike her Royal Advisor's." she said pointedly.
"Hey!" Artemis stood up, his back arching. "Don't hold me to account for what Luna has done! I didn't know she'd turn to Chibi Usa once she was found to be the future Queen! I serve Usagi and it is her that I am loyal to."
"At least one of you is."
Mamoru closed his eyes and tried to move to a more comfortable position, difficult since Usagi wouldn't release him. Even unconscious she gripped him with more strength than he had though she had. She was white as a sheet, her lips almost blue. Her heart raced quickly and Ami told him she was worried about a spontaneous cardiac arrest. She writhed and tossed on the bed, much like she did when she slept. He stared at the dark circles under her eyes, knowing instinctively that she hadn't been sleeping. He could smell the coffee on her still. Something was inside the deepest recesses of her mind, something she was trying to avoid, something that she couldn't hide from. "Come on Usako, wake up." He pleaded for the umpteenth time in as many minutes.
Her eyelids twitched and she opened her huge blue eyes, pausing for a moment as she took a look around. "Mamo-chan?" she asked in a small voice.
He instantly gathered her close. "I'm here Usako." He assured her. "You're safe."
"No, I'm not." She said, a sob in her voice. "He's with me. He's taunting me. No matter where I go I'm not safe! He's twisting my mind and warping my brain!"
"Who?" he demanded. "Who is doing this to you?"
"I dare not speak his name. He is someone we thought we had defeated years ago. I didn't think he made it out of that fire, but apparently he did. I never gave him a second thought but he has thought of nothing but me since that day. He has come for vengeance." Usagi explained, burying her face in the crook of his neck. "Hold me Mamoru and help me forget that I am hunted in my mind."
He threw back his cowled head and laughed. "So you dare not speak my name? Do you not yet realize that fear of a person increases the power more than anything else? Do you think that not speaking my name will stop me or bring you freedom? You will be mind yet moon child. You will pay in blood as I take your mind. Once I have your mind, your soul will follow leaving your body for me to toy with before I destroy you utterly. Once you are gone then I can come back, your life is all that stands in my way of possessing a healthy life once more. I will rise again and wreak such havoc that the world has never seen!"
The cowl fell back to reveal a man who once might have been handsome, but was now twisted and withered. Where there had once been hair, there was broken and burned flesh. His eyes glowed an unnatural red, his evil will being the only thing that truly held him together. He should have been ashes, but his hatred had kept him alive, had nurtured him as he drew his strength in that netherworld between time and planes of existence. He had returned and she would not survive. He cared nothing for the senshi, though he had been disgusted to discover more of them. No matter, it meant that there were all that many more for him to kill. His target was not them, his target wasn't the child. No, he wanted her and he would have her. She would pay. "My servants, make sure that when you next see her you increase the level of torment. I want her broken!" he ordered.
"Yes." The hissing reply surrounded him and he returned to contemplating her downfall in silence, drawing his hood over his head once more.
Usagi walked slowly to school the next day, well over an hour early, not only escaping Luna who had begun harping on her from the moment that cat had awoke. Usagi hadn't slept, discovering it was quite possible to live without sleep. Blinking her eyes due to the fact that she was seeing double, she crossed the street to the school and headed for her homeroom. She grinned mirthlessly thinking that the Goddess had a sense of irony, it seemed. Haruna-sensei had transferred to her high school and wound up teaching her once more. Both of them had nearly dropped in their tracks when she had first walked into her classroom. Their highly charged relationship picked up where it had left off, Haruna getting mad at Usagi for the slightest thing and Usagi not bothering to change. "Ohayo Haruna- sensei." She said quietly, sitting in her desk and lowering her face into her arms.
Ms. Haruna had dropped her book when Usagi had sat down and looked as though she had seen a ghost. "Usagi? Daijobu desu ka?"
"Hai." Usagi's muffled answer came.
Haruna decided she was not going to complain about the miracle of Usagi being early. Picking her book up once more, she tuned Usagi out.
"So you're actually here on time for once." A coldly sneering voice said.
Usagi shuddered, hoping they wouldn't notice. Trying to pretend she was asleep, she ignored the voice, hoping against hope that it would go away and leave her alone.
"You lazy little bitch. Decided to be on time for once. Trying to score brownie points with the teachers?" the voice became mocking. "It won't work. They all hate you and can't stand you. No one wants you here, why don't you just transfer and go somewhere where people will actually care about you? Certainly no one cares about you here in this school. Nothing but a slut, dating a man so much older. You're like a mouse inside a maze. You will never belong in this school, you're too stupid to do anything."
Usagi raised her head, absorbing the words. "Ingra, go away." She said in a dead voice, each word she spoke striking her heart.
"I only speak the truth. Several people who hate you have come to me and told me to tell you how horrid you really are and that we don't want you here. You don't belong here, you odango-haired freak." She spat.
"Indeed my love." Merltak put his arms around Ingra's waist and Usagi wailed silently in despair. Now things would get messy. "You are such a worthless lump of flesh, a waste of the air it takes to keep you alive. You would have been better dying at birth. I've read your work you know, your writing is terrible. I bet you thought you had talent and skill. Well you don't. A blind and mute mouse could write and do anything better than you. You are the ugliest and worst person I've ever seen."
"What have I ever done to you?" Usagi asked in a despairing voice. She fought not to cry, she would not give them the satisfaction of letting them see her cry.
"You're here aren't you?" Merltak replied, his eyes filled with hatred.
"All I've ever done…" Usagi began.
"Is nothing." He interjected smoothly. "So worthless. You should practice your future career of lying on your back and spreading your legs…scratch that. You are so ugly that no man would want you; so dumb that even you would screw up the act. Why don't you just go live on the streets where all the rest of your kind go?"
"My kind?" Usagi asked in a soft voice.
"The fools of the world who will never become anything." He said snidely.
Haruna looked up, noticing the two hovering over Usagi like vultures. She might be hard on the girl, but she didn't want her bullied. Not having heard the conversation that had been spoken in low voices, she cleared her throat. "Ingra and Merltak take your seats and leave Usagi alone."
They nodded and walked away from Usagi, who was left shaking in shame, tears burning her eyes as she realized they were right. She was nothing and would amount to nothing.
Makoto was being forcibly held back by Ami and Minako, having turned on her communicator and listening to every word Ingra and Merltak said to Usagi, heard Usagi's whispered answers and now heard her soft sobs she tried so hard to hide. "They're dead." She swore, pushing her sleeves up.
"You can't!" Ami hissed. "We promised Usagi we wouldn't interfere!"
"I don't give a damn!" Makoto swore. "Did you hear them? DID YOU? And she didn't even stand up for herself! She took it like always!"
"I don't like it either." Ami replied. "I'd like nothing more than to Aqua Rhapsody their asses from here to next year but we can't! Usagi is trying to prove something to herself and if we intervene, even behind the scenes then she'll never trust us again!"
"I can try and hex their relationship." Minako sighed. "But other than that, we can't do anything!" she smashed her fist into the wall. "And now we have to go in there and keep a straight face and pretend that we didn't just hear Usagi get her self esteem smashed into the ground."
"Shall we perhaps put Plan A into action?" Makoto pleaded. "Please?"
"We'll have to be subtle about it." Ami said quietly. "She can't suspect."
"You must be pissed Ami if you're agree to disobey Usagi's direct orders." Minako pointed out. "Good for you!"
"Let's do it." Ami said decisively.
Makoto, Ami and Minako entered the class, having been alerted by Luna that Usagi had left early. It didn't matter, they already knew, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna kept Usagi under constant surveillance and Haruka reported in when Usagi had left the house. Luna wanted them at school because she was certain that Usagi would klutz out or do something equally stupid. They had seen her sink down in her seat and mind her own business, had seen Ingra and Merltak focus on her and move in for the kill. Taking their seats, forming a protective circle around her, making certain there was no way they'd get to except through them, Usagi's senshi prepared to do a secret battle on her behalf.
He was thrilled. His servants were doing wonderfully. He was always inside her head these days and he had heard the spiteful and hateful words that they had spoken, felt Usagi's pain and relished it. Her pain made him stronger. He would rise again and the world would tremble at his feet. For a moment he let himself be visible in her mind, let her know that he was with her even now, and it didn't matter if she was asleep or not, she couldn't escape him. He saw her almost leap out of her chair, heard her moan of despair and delighted in it. 'There is no escape from me.' He planted the thought in her head, knowing it would repeat and slowly drive her mad. 'You are nothing.'
Usagi clutched her head tightly. He was with her now. She couldn't escape him, couldn't fight him. He knew her weakness and exploited them. She was losing this battle and knew that she was going hopelessly and irrevocably insane. How could she fight an unseen and thought to be dead enemy who lived in her head?
Standing up, she interrupted Haruna-sensei's class and ran from the room, uncertain where she was going, just knowing she had to get out of that classroom. The unseen eyes in her head watched her and went with her.
Ingra and Merltak exchange satisfied smiles. Their master's plan was proceeding nicely, their part in his return to power successful. Standing as well, they followed her, preparing to strike the moonchild when she was down. They would tear her apart and leave her open and ready for their master.
And that is the end of chapter 3! I hope you enjoyed it! Reviews are life to me so please review but be kind! No flames please. I write based on reviews to keep sending them in eh? In chapter 4 the hooded figure is revealed at last! Anyone figure out who he is yet?
See you soon! ^_^