Disclaimer: If you want the disclaimer, go to the first chapter. It's
there. I'm not going to put one on every chapter cause I hope you can all
figure out that I still do not own the characters, and I probably never
will. Besides, it's just a waste of time. Author's intro is on the first
chapter too!
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Chapter 3: Broken Hearts. The Promise of an Eternity.
*Beep…beep…beep…BLIP!* Ami's tiny blue computer chirped and hummed, breaking the deep silence of Rei's room as the results from her last search displayed themselves on the screen.
*NO DATA FOUND. TRY SEARCH AGAIN?*
Sailor Mercury swore loudly as she slammed her computer down on the table with a resounding *thud*. "God Damnit!! Damnit all to Hell!!"
Usagi had been gone for eight days now, and the search for her throughout Tokyo had intensified ten fold. The media was having a field day, the police were about to call the whole "search and rescue" operation off, and Usagi's family was simply at a loss.
"What happened to my baby?" Mrs. Tsukino would whisper repeatedly. "How could she have just disappeared like that? My little sunshine…where is my little Usagi?"
It had become her mantra, a mother's lament for her missing child. Poor Ikuko had become a total and complete mess, losing all concepts of time, health and everything else for that matter. What else could she have become, when she constantly had the authorities breathing down her neck, telling her that her only little girl had probably been beaten and raped, and was now lying dead in a gutter somewhere?
Ami and the others, however, knew differently. They all knew what had happened to Usagi, but they obviously couldn't say a damn thing. Not one person could know about the Sailor Senshi, their missions, or anything else about them at all. No, they had to lie to everyone, the police, the reporters, even poor Mrs. Tsukino, and say that they knew nothing.
"We had all gone into the Cherry Hill Temple, officer, when Usagi said that she had forgotten something at home. She said she was going to go back to get it, just before she promised us she would be right back. That was the last time any of us ever saw her again…" Ami growled to herself, letting the tension and guilt of the past few days seep into her mind. "Damn filthy lies…all of it…"
That was the story that all of the girls and Mamoru told, over and over to the hundreds of mindless police drones, all asking the same questions, all of them wanting to know the same thing; 'What happened to Usagi Tsukino?'
Both Minako and Makoto turned their heads and looked at the blue-haired disturber of silence. She had never burst out like that before, but they understood. They understood that it was only because of recent events that Ami had lost her temper, and they knew what such stress did to people. Within the last two days, Makoto had punched a hole in a wall and knocked out a few of the slimy, sniggering students that had been laughing at Usagi's unfortunate disappearance. Then Minako had just narrowly avoided suspension from school twice for bursting out into peals of maniacal laughter, which changed into hysterical sobbing and eventually lead to her cursing out the teachers during her classes. Then there was Rei. Rei, well, she had been so lost in "thought" that she had accidentally set quiet a few things on fire during her shrine duties, which her Grandfather had to dutifully relieve her of. She was still permitted to perform her fire readings though, but maybe that wasn't such a good idea.
"Ami-chan…" Makoto walked over and stood quietly behind her friend before resting a hand ever so gingerly upon her shoulder. Words did not always need to be spoken for someone to know that their friends stood behind them.
"It's not fair."
"…I know Ami-chan. I know." The Soldier of Jupiter, always tall and proud, now looked rather meek and defeated. 'Nothing is fair anymore, is it?' she thought silently, watching the past as it slowly played itself within her mind, like a black and white movie. More anger swelled inside of her. 'Diamond should be dead. Emerald should be dead…but they aren't. They got another chance at life when most of us have to suffer…suffer with the thought that once we go, that is it. The end of the road.' Mako-chan clenched her free fist in anger, tears forming in her eyes. 'Mom and Dad never got a second chance…'
Minako leaned against the wall of Rei's room, tired from the lack of sleep all of them had had as she watched her friends. 'Mako-chan tries too hard to make things right sometimes.' She smiled. "Now it's my turn.'
"But we can't give up now, you guys! We've got too much to lose! We're gonna get Usagi back, and kick Diamond's ever-lovin' ass, am I right?" The blonde captain of the Senshi suddenly shouted, causing both Ami and Mako- chan to jump. They both stared at Minako, who was now grinning like a crazed maniac.
"Am I right?!" She shouted again.
"Uhh…yeah…we'll kick his ass…"
"Right, Minako, we'll just march up to this place where we have no clue as to where it is, bust down the door, and open a can on Diamond and his army. Righty-o."
"That's the spirit! Now say it with a little more gusto! What are we gonna do to Diamond?!"
"Kill him."
"Knock him dead." Came the monotone, emotionless replies. Minako however, chose to ignore this. Feigning deafness and sounding very much like a bad Richard Simmons tape, she cupped her hand to her ear, leaned forward and shouted again.
"I can't hear you! I said, WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO TO DIAMOND WHEN WE FIND HIM!?"
"KICK HIS ASS!"
'Now who says a little shouting group therapy never helped anyone?' Sailor Venus grinned as she heard the unified voices of Ami and Mako-chan shouting exactly what she wanted to hear.
"That's much better!" She shrilled. Turning her blue gaze to Ami, she began giving commands. "Ami, keep working on that computer data, we're going to need it. Mako-chan, you get busy too!" Minako was on a roll now, and just watching her crazed antics had caused both the Senshi of Jupiter and Mercury to drop their shocked looks, and burst out laughing. The blonde continued as she turned towards the temple's kitchen.
"Now that that is all cleared up…who wants some coffee!!? Nothin' like a good caffeine buzz to get ya going!"
"What in the hell was all that yelling for!? It's three o'clock in the morning! Are you nuts!?" Rei's voice, clearly annoyed, rang from down the darkened chestnut colored hall. "The neighbors are going to have a fit, not to mention Grandpa will tan my hide if he doesn't get his sleep!"
"Oh, we're just having some fun Rei! Minako is right, lighten up! You know, you need to laugh a little more too! We all do." Ami's giggle infested voice wafted down the hall back to the Shinto priestess. Makoto's voice soon followed.
"Hey Rei?"
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Where's Mamoru? I just realized he's gone."
Rei sighed. "You realized that just now Mako-chan? He's been gone for over an hour! I sent him home to get some rest. He's really been taking everything pretty harshly."
"Hmmm…yeah, that makes sense. Okay Rei…now how about some coffee?"
"No. I'm busy."
"Come on!"
"No. Now go away, I'm trying to read the flames."
"You know you want some… I have some yummy cookies to go with it too…it would be such a pity that all of these delicious, chocolaty morsels would have to go to waste…"
Silence. Makoto cocked her ear towards the hall, waiting for some sort of answer. The only thing that greeted her was more silence…then the shuffling of feet as someone came down the darkened passageway. She grinned, knowing that she had won the battle.
"I knew you couldn't resist, Rei!"
"Quiet, you. Just hand over the cookies, and nobody gets singed."
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"Do you like it Mamo-chan?" Usagi's face lit up the television screen and Mamoru's blackened apartment as he silently watched the home video of his birthday from the year before, the one he had taped with the brand new recorder the girls had given him.
"Of course I do, Usa-ko, it's the greatest! Although, I have gotten something much, much better…"
The camera bobbed as the lens zoomed in on Usagi, her bright blue eyes going slightly gray as she pursed her lips in the perfect pout. Obviously, Mamo-chan had been the one behind the camera, because nobody else would have zoomed in on just her, with everything else going on at the party. When the gang had watched it earlier, the girls simply could not stop laughing when they noticed that the majority of the video was of Usagi. In fact, there were only two shots in the entire thing that didn't have a full view of her in them, the first being when he had just turned on the camera, the lens pointed down at the ground and the second when Mrs. Tsukino had just brought out the birthday cake. Even then, though, there was always some part of Usagi on screen, either her shoe, a fleeting wave of her hand, or her bright, cheery odangos.
"What do you mean you've "gotten something much, much better"? Was it from another girl?"
"It was you, silly! You are the best gift I've ever, ever gotten, or that I ever will get either!" Mamoru was surprised at the joy in his own voice as he listened. He had almost forgotten what joy was…
"Oh you!" Usagi's giggle echoed through the silence. "We'll be together forever, right Mamo-chan?"
"Of course we will, Usa-ko. Together forever!"
Forever. The word itself seemed to repeat and reverberate around him. What a fickle expression it was. Mamoru's thoughts rested on the meaning of this term, "forever". 'Forever is only for those who can protect the one they love…' Sneered a voice filled with self-loathing from the darkest depths of his mind. 'You couldn't even do that, could you? You promised to be there for her for an eternity, and now look where she is…you're pathetic, Mamoru Chiba!' The voice continued to scream. 'Now Diamond has her! You let her go!'
"I'm so sorry, Usa-ko. I…I couldn't help you…I couldn't stop him from taking you…" Mamoru mourned aloud, unaccompanied in the deep, heart- wrenching silence of his home, as lonely tears of anguish and despair slowly took their paths down his pale face.
"I…I j-just…couldn't!" Finally, the dam within him shattered, and he could hold his emotions no longer. Sobbing hysterically now, his chest heaving with the pain of one thousand broken hearts, Mamoru dropped to his knees in the dark, finally curling up on the floor of his apartment as he grabbed the jean jacket that his sweet, dear Usa-ko had left as an emergency jacket. "A spare," she had said. "Just incase I'm here, and I need it, okay?"
"I wish you were here right now…" He wept bitterly, pulling the article of clothing close to his heart, wishing with every fiber of his being and soul, that it were Usagi he clung to, instead of merely her jacket. "Because…because I need you…"
With those last words, Mamoru began to cry even harder, all over again as the television continued to play in the background. He could barely hear as Usagi's chime-like giggle and voice drifted from the speakers, almost giving the illusion that she was there with him.
"I'm going to love you until the end of time, Mamo-chan! For Eternity!"
*Finis Chapter Trois*
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Well, everybody? What do you think? Is chapter three angst-y or what? Sorry I haven't updated in a while, things have been really busy. I'm also sorry that this chapter is not about Diamond or Usagi either, but I had to develop the other characters just a little more and give them a spot in the light for a while. It's basically to make up for not putting any of them in the last chapter. I hope you all have it in your hearts to forgive me, okay? ^^ Oh, and I dedicate this chapter (although a tad on the heart- breaking side) to my fans, but mainly Ms. Bunny Winner, Spirit of Cosmos and Princess Silver Serenity. Thanks you guys, (especially Bunny Winner for checking out and reviewing my other story as well as this one!) I really couldn't have done it with out your support and encouragement. And to all of my fans, you guys have NO IDEA as to how much your kind words mean to me and help me out when I write, so from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. Now, before I start crying and sobbing my head off, I had better end this! More to come soon, so keep on reading and reviewing! Btw, if I don't get a good amount of reviews, say, oh, at least 18, I won't put up the next chapter! That's right, I'll hold it hostage!! Why? Because I'm evil like that, and I just enjoy it way too much! MWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! Ja ne!
*~*Lady Eternal Cosmos Illusion*~*
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Chapter 3: Broken Hearts. The Promise of an Eternity.
*Beep…beep…beep…BLIP!* Ami's tiny blue computer chirped and hummed, breaking the deep silence of Rei's room as the results from her last search displayed themselves on the screen.
*NO DATA FOUND. TRY SEARCH AGAIN?*
Sailor Mercury swore loudly as she slammed her computer down on the table with a resounding *thud*. "God Damnit!! Damnit all to Hell!!"
Usagi had been gone for eight days now, and the search for her throughout Tokyo had intensified ten fold. The media was having a field day, the police were about to call the whole "search and rescue" operation off, and Usagi's family was simply at a loss.
"What happened to my baby?" Mrs. Tsukino would whisper repeatedly. "How could she have just disappeared like that? My little sunshine…where is my little Usagi?"
It had become her mantra, a mother's lament for her missing child. Poor Ikuko had become a total and complete mess, losing all concepts of time, health and everything else for that matter. What else could she have become, when she constantly had the authorities breathing down her neck, telling her that her only little girl had probably been beaten and raped, and was now lying dead in a gutter somewhere?
Ami and the others, however, knew differently. They all knew what had happened to Usagi, but they obviously couldn't say a damn thing. Not one person could know about the Sailor Senshi, their missions, or anything else about them at all. No, they had to lie to everyone, the police, the reporters, even poor Mrs. Tsukino, and say that they knew nothing.
"We had all gone into the Cherry Hill Temple, officer, when Usagi said that she had forgotten something at home. She said she was going to go back to get it, just before she promised us she would be right back. That was the last time any of us ever saw her again…" Ami growled to herself, letting the tension and guilt of the past few days seep into her mind. "Damn filthy lies…all of it…"
That was the story that all of the girls and Mamoru told, over and over to the hundreds of mindless police drones, all asking the same questions, all of them wanting to know the same thing; 'What happened to Usagi Tsukino?'
Both Minako and Makoto turned their heads and looked at the blue-haired disturber of silence. She had never burst out like that before, but they understood. They understood that it was only because of recent events that Ami had lost her temper, and they knew what such stress did to people. Within the last two days, Makoto had punched a hole in a wall and knocked out a few of the slimy, sniggering students that had been laughing at Usagi's unfortunate disappearance. Then Minako had just narrowly avoided suspension from school twice for bursting out into peals of maniacal laughter, which changed into hysterical sobbing and eventually lead to her cursing out the teachers during her classes. Then there was Rei. Rei, well, she had been so lost in "thought" that she had accidentally set quiet a few things on fire during her shrine duties, which her Grandfather had to dutifully relieve her of. She was still permitted to perform her fire readings though, but maybe that wasn't such a good idea.
"Ami-chan…" Makoto walked over and stood quietly behind her friend before resting a hand ever so gingerly upon her shoulder. Words did not always need to be spoken for someone to know that their friends stood behind them.
"It's not fair."
"…I know Ami-chan. I know." The Soldier of Jupiter, always tall and proud, now looked rather meek and defeated. 'Nothing is fair anymore, is it?' she thought silently, watching the past as it slowly played itself within her mind, like a black and white movie. More anger swelled inside of her. 'Diamond should be dead. Emerald should be dead…but they aren't. They got another chance at life when most of us have to suffer…suffer with the thought that once we go, that is it. The end of the road.' Mako-chan clenched her free fist in anger, tears forming in her eyes. 'Mom and Dad never got a second chance…'
Minako leaned against the wall of Rei's room, tired from the lack of sleep all of them had had as she watched her friends. 'Mako-chan tries too hard to make things right sometimes.' She smiled. "Now it's my turn.'
"But we can't give up now, you guys! We've got too much to lose! We're gonna get Usagi back, and kick Diamond's ever-lovin' ass, am I right?" The blonde captain of the Senshi suddenly shouted, causing both Ami and Mako- chan to jump. They both stared at Minako, who was now grinning like a crazed maniac.
"Am I right?!" She shouted again.
"Uhh…yeah…we'll kick his ass…"
"Right, Minako, we'll just march up to this place where we have no clue as to where it is, bust down the door, and open a can on Diamond and his army. Righty-o."
"That's the spirit! Now say it with a little more gusto! What are we gonna do to Diamond?!"
"Kill him."
"Knock him dead." Came the monotone, emotionless replies. Minako however, chose to ignore this. Feigning deafness and sounding very much like a bad Richard Simmons tape, she cupped her hand to her ear, leaned forward and shouted again.
"I can't hear you! I said, WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO TO DIAMOND WHEN WE FIND HIM!?"
"KICK HIS ASS!"
'Now who says a little shouting group therapy never helped anyone?' Sailor Venus grinned as she heard the unified voices of Ami and Mako-chan shouting exactly what she wanted to hear.
"That's much better!" She shrilled. Turning her blue gaze to Ami, she began giving commands. "Ami, keep working on that computer data, we're going to need it. Mako-chan, you get busy too!" Minako was on a roll now, and just watching her crazed antics had caused both the Senshi of Jupiter and Mercury to drop their shocked looks, and burst out laughing. The blonde continued as she turned towards the temple's kitchen.
"Now that that is all cleared up…who wants some coffee!!? Nothin' like a good caffeine buzz to get ya going!"
"What in the hell was all that yelling for!? It's three o'clock in the morning! Are you nuts!?" Rei's voice, clearly annoyed, rang from down the darkened chestnut colored hall. "The neighbors are going to have a fit, not to mention Grandpa will tan my hide if he doesn't get his sleep!"
"Oh, we're just having some fun Rei! Minako is right, lighten up! You know, you need to laugh a little more too! We all do." Ami's giggle infested voice wafted down the hall back to the Shinto priestess. Makoto's voice soon followed.
"Hey Rei?"
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Where's Mamoru? I just realized he's gone."
Rei sighed. "You realized that just now Mako-chan? He's been gone for over an hour! I sent him home to get some rest. He's really been taking everything pretty harshly."
"Hmmm…yeah, that makes sense. Okay Rei…now how about some coffee?"
"No. I'm busy."
"Come on!"
"No. Now go away, I'm trying to read the flames."
"You know you want some… I have some yummy cookies to go with it too…it would be such a pity that all of these delicious, chocolaty morsels would have to go to waste…"
Silence. Makoto cocked her ear towards the hall, waiting for some sort of answer. The only thing that greeted her was more silence…then the shuffling of feet as someone came down the darkened passageway. She grinned, knowing that she had won the battle.
"I knew you couldn't resist, Rei!"
"Quiet, you. Just hand over the cookies, and nobody gets singed."
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"Do you like it Mamo-chan?" Usagi's face lit up the television screen and Mamoru's blackened apartment as he silently watched the home video of his birthday from the year before, the one he had taped with the brand new recorder the girls had given him.
"Of course I do, Usa-ko, it's the greatest! Although, I have gotten something much, much better…"
The camera bobbed as the lens zoomed in on Usagi, her bright blue eyes going slightly gray as she pursed her lips in the perfect pout. Obviously, Mamo-chan had been the one behind the camera, because nobody else would have zoomed in on just her, with everything else going on at the party. When the gang had watched it earlier, the girls simply could not stop laughing when they noticed that the majority of the video was of Usagi. In fact, there were only two shots in the entire thing that didn't have a full view of her in them, the first being when he had just turned on the camera, the lens pointed down at the ground and the second when Mrs. Tsukino had just brought out the birthday cake. Even then, though, there was always some part of Usagi on screen, either her shoe, a fleeting wave of her hand, or her bright, cheery odangos.
"What do you mean you've "gotten something much, much better"? Was it from another girl?"
"It was you, silly! You are the best gift I've ever, ever gotten, or that I ever will get either!" Mamoru was surprised at the joy in his own voice as he listened. He had almost forgotten what joy was…
"Oh you!" Usagi's giggle echoed through the silence. "We'll be together forever, right Mamo-chan?"
"Of course we will, Usa-ko. Together forever!"
Forever. The word itself seemed to repeat and reverberate around him. What a fickle expression it was. Mamoru's thoughts rested on the meaning of this term, "forever". 'Forever is only for those who can protect the one they love…' Sneered a voice filled with self-loathing from the darkest depths of his mind. 'You couldn't even do that, could you? You promised to be there for her for an eternity, and now look where she is…you're pathetic, Mamoru Chiba!' The voice continued to scream. 'Now Diamond has her! You let her go!'
"I'm so sorry, Usa-ko. I…I couldn't help you…I couldn't stop him from taking you…" Mamoru mourned aloud, unaccompanied in the deep, heart- wrenching silence of his home, as lonely tears of anguish and despair slowly took their paths down his pale face.
"I…I j-just…couldn't!" Finally, the dam within him shattered, and he could hold his emotions no longer. Sobbing hysterically now, his chest heaving with the pain of one thousand broken hearts, Mamoru dropped to his knees in the dark, finally curling up on the floor of his apartment as he grabbed the jean jacket that his sweet, dear Usa-ko had left as an emergency jacket. "A spare," she had said. "Just incase I'm here, and I need it, okay?"
"I wish you were here right now…" He wept bitterly, pulling the article of clothing close to his heart, wishing with every fiber of his being and soul, that it were Usagi he clung to, instead of merely her jacket. "Because…because I need you…"
With those last words, Mamoru began to cry even harder, all over again as the television continued to play in the background. He could barely hear as Usagi's chime-like giggle and voice drifted from the speakers, almost giving the illusion that she was there with him.
"I'm going to love you until the end of time, Mamo-chan! For Eternity!"
*Finis Chapter Trois*
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Well, everybody? What do you think? Is chapter three angst-y or what? Sorry I haven't updated in a while, things have been really busy. I'm also sorry that this chapter is not about Diamond or Usagi either, but I had to develop the other characters just a little more and give them a spot in the light for a while. It's basically to make up for not putting any of them in the last chapter. I hope you all have it in your hearts to forgive me, okay? ^^ Oh, and I dedicate this chapter (although a tad on the heart- breaking side) to my fans, but mainly Ms. Bunny Winner, Spirit of Cosmos and Princess Silver Serenity. Thanks you guys, (especially Bunny Winner for checking out and reviewing my other story as well as this one!) I really couldn't have done it with out your support and encouragement. And to all of my fans, you guys have NO IDEA as to how much your kind words mean to me and help me out when I write, so from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. Now, before I start crying and sobbing my head off, I had better end this! More to come soon, so keep on reading and reviewing! Btw, if I don't get a good amount of reviews, say, oh, at least 18, I won't put up the next chapter! That's right, I'll hold it hostage!! Why? Because I'm evil like that, and I just enjoy it way too much! MWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! Ja ne!
*~*Lady Eternal Cosmos Illusion*~*