Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Sailor Moon!
Yosh! I'm so excited- everyone seems to be really liking my fic so far! (Although most of my stories go over relatively well, this one and two others that I'm doing/have-done-recently are doing better than my older stuff.) Anyhow, I'm still thinking about changing the rating, but I'm not sure yet.... ^.^;;
Wai! I found a very kakkoii story on FF.Net; it had two new Starlights in it, and I'm totally loving that story. Seiya, Yaten and Taiki are very well written, and the two fan-Starlights (Kira-san and Aoi-san) are wonderfully developed and very three-dimensional characters. (I'm a big fan of them already! ^_^;) Okay, if you're interested in reading it, the title is "Stars Align To Destiny" and it's by Cassandra Sisenta Or Krey-Zey.
I just thought I'd share that.
"Yaten!"
"Ah!" Bracing his arms against the blonde girl's shoulders, Yaten forcefully shoved her away from himself. Her teeth ripped out of his neck, leaving a tear in the skin which bled freely; he stumbled back, clamping a hand over the wound. "Shimatta...."
"Yaten!" Taiki steadied his brother. "Are you alright?"
"Hn." Yaten drew his hand away from his neck with a hiss of pain and looked down at his blood-soaked palm. "I think so." He glanced at Minako, his emerald eyes full of the same familiar fire that they all knew, and snarled; "what in Kami-sama's name are you doing-?!"
Minako giggled slightly, then pretended to look hurt; "Yaten-kun, I thought you were happy to see me." A shrug, "oh well." A trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth and she absently reached up and wiped it away with her thumb. Then, watching them contemplatively, licked the blood from her fingers.
Seiya shuddered involuntarily at the sight. Minako....
But no. The girl in front of them couldn't be Minako....could it?
"Well," she sighed, stretching, and leaned against the doorframe. "I must be getting better."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Yaten demanded angrily.
"You remember, Yaten?" Minako responded sweetly; "I told you I wanted to be an actress."
The silver-haired boy blinked, his eyes widening, and looked as if he wanted to step back. Instead he stood, rooted to the spot, hand clutching his neck, which continued to bleed sluggishly....Minako....Minako had bitten him....
"I would have made a good actress, I think, but that's all in the past now." She continued seriously, "now I'm just....well, I'm just what I am." A frown; "that was a somewhat confusing sentence, if I do say so-"
"Hey!" Seiya interrupted with a shout, "what the hell-"
Minako's eyes flashed. "I'm sorry, did I ask you a question?"
"What?"
She inspected a nail, "normally one does not speak unless spoken to. Not in the presence of a Tsumetai, anyway. Oh, but-" she looked up at them, "you wouldn't know that, would you? I guess that's what happens when you leave for so long...."
"You-"
"Shut up!" Minako snapped, glaring; "I don't take kindly to being interrupted!"
"So we see." Taiki murmured under his breath.
Clucking her tongue, she shook her head. "Now, do you see?"
"See what?"
"Why I have to kill you and take your Seno." She told them, and reached into her pocket, withdrawing her transformation pen. "If you had asked me a year and a half ago, I would never have said it would come to this, but-"
"Minako-" Yaten said hoarsely, "you-"
"Venus Crystal Power!" She shouted, ignoring him and holding her wand into the air; "Make U- hey!" She broke off when the transformation pen was knocked out of her hand. It skittered across the floor, vanishing out into the hallway. "You!"
"Yes, me." Another voice responded, this one belonging to the person who had knocked the wand away and was still holding onto the blonde's wrist. They were still standing in the hall, mostly obscured by shadows, but Seiya could swear that he knew the voice....
"Haruka!" Minako spat, wrenching her arm back.
The senshi of Uranus stepped forward then, even as Minako braced herself and dove for her wand. Seiya, Yaten and Taiki watched, horrified, as Sailor Uranus twisted around and grabbed a handful of thick blonde hair on the way past.
Minako shrieked incoherently, struggling to free herself from Uranus' hold....
....and Uranus, clutching the blonde hair tightly, raised the Space Sword....
"Haruka!" Yaten shouted, his voice breaking at the force behind the words, "you can't-!"
....ignoring him, Uranus swung the Sword downward....
"No!"
....and the hilt of the Talisman connected squarely with Minako's temple, knocking the blonde into unconsciousness. She slumped to the ground, half-leaning up against the wall. Uranus let her fall, and then turned to them as the Space Sword vanished into thin air. She eyed all of them, her gaze moving from Taiki to Yaten- who was still holding his bleeding neck- and finally landing on Seiya.
"Come on." She said flatly, "that won't keep her out for long."
"What's going on?" Taiki asked as she turned to leave.
"We don't have time." The sharp reply came, "you can find out later!"
There was a general hesitation from all of them, but after a few long seconds Taiki reluctantly followed behind. Seiya cursed the Gods for sending- of all people- HARUKA to help them out, but decided that her help was better than none and followed in Taiki's footsteps. Yaten took a moment longer.
"We're leaving her here?" He called, angrily, after Uranus.
"There's nothing we can do for her." Uranus told him without turning around, "the only way we could help her would be to kill her, and I'm not prepared to do that yet."
Yet. Yet? She wasn't prepared to kill her friend YET? All three of the Starlights found themselves unable to come up with words potent enough to express what they thought of that sentence. Seiya simply glared at the tall senshi, his gaze boring into her from behind; he was sure she knew that he was staring, but he didn't care.
His opinion of Haruka hadn't changed much since he had left with his brothers and their Princess.
Ahead of him, Taiki turned as they reached the top of the stairs. Uranus headed down to the main floor, not even waiting for them to follow. "Stop that, Seiya." The brunette said softly, "she came to help us- don't do anything rash." And then, before Seiya could say anything in response; "Yaten! Let's go!"
A muffled reply came from the bedroom and Yaten stepped into the hallway. A frown painted across his face, he paused, hesitating, and glanced back toward the girl they were leaving. Finally he gritted his teeth together almost audibly and started forward....then his foot brushed something on the ground and he stopped.
"Yaten?"
Stooping, the silver-haired youth picked up the transformation pen that was aligned with Venus. After staring at the symbol on it for a moment, he quickly stuffed the wand into one of his pockets. "Alright." He whispered harshly, "I'm ready."
Nodding silently, Taiki continued down the steps.
"Yaten-" Seiya said somewhat hesitantly, "ne....are you alright?"
"Of course." Yaten replied shortly. "Come on."
And walking briskly past his brother, he vanished down the stairs after Taiki.
Seiya cast another glance back the way they had come. We shouldn't be leaving her....she's our friend....IF that's even the Aino Minako that we knew.... sighing sadly, he turned and followed Yaten's vanishing ponytail. I can't believe he's....come on Yaten, I KNOW you care....
In all truthfulness, it was already terribly obvious that Yaten cared for Minako; to Seiya at least, and he assumed that it was the same with Taiki. After all, the shorter Starlight had never WILLINGLY hugged and comforted someone before. It was an important occurrence....even if it had turned out that Minako's intentions had been only slightly-less than murderous.
It was almost surprising that he was willing to leave her behind.
But then, Seiya was basing Yaten's reaction on what HE would have done in the same situation, and Yaten's feelings for Minako could have been completely different. There were many kinds of love, after all; the silver-haired boy probably didn't have the same devotion to Minako as he had for Usagi.
And Kami-sama knows that I would do anything for Odango.
He stopped walking when he reached the street and sighed again. Sometimes even HE thought he was pathetic....
"Oi!" Sailor Uranus called from nearly a block away; "there's no time for a rest!"
Seiya scowled, even as Taiki turned to glance back at him. Yaten simply continued to walk, ignoring everything else, his hand still holding the side of his neck. They would have to see to his injury once they reached their destination, wherever it was. Uranus hadn't bothered to tell them thus far.
"Baka." Seiya muttered.
Taiki, who watched his lips move from several yards away, narrowed his eyes and shook his head in warning.
"Fine, whatever." Clenching his fists, Seiya stalked down the street, quickly catching up to Taiki. The brunette had been waiting for him to MANAGE to catch up, though now Yaten and Uranus were nearly another block ahead of both of them. "So," he said to Taiki without looking at him, "where do you think we're going?"
Taiki was silent.
Yeah, I don't know either.
"....I'm worried about Yaten."
Seiya blinked, then; "you too?"
"Hm." Taiki agreed.
"His injury or the other thing?"
"Both."
"Yeah, me too." Shaking his head, Seiya pursed his lips; "we shouldn't have left her."
"We had no other option." Uranus' voice told him, and the black-haired boy looked up just in time to avoid slamming into the other senshi. She stared at him, her eyes intense....there was something else in her gaze, too....a shadow of deep sadness. But what....?
Then it struck him.
She lost someone. And there was only two people, to his knowledge, that she would mourn with the same depth that he was seeing behind her guise of coldness. Michiru-san or....or her Princess....Usagi....Odango....
Uranus narrowed her eyes, noticing his intent gaze. Turning away, she motioned toward a nearby subway passage; "in there."
Yaten was already vanishing into the shadows of the passage, his silver ponytail waving behind him. Taiki nodded to Uranus' instruction and quickly descended the stairs after his brother. Uranus watched them leave and then turned her icy gaze back to Seiya; apparently, her impression of HIM had yet to change as well.
"We have to get out of the streets."
Seiya eyed her for a second, then nodded shortly. "Let's go."
I don't want to say it because I have so much respect for her, but....I hope it was Michiru and not....
He let his thoughts trail off, not wanting to consider Usagi's death an option.
....the subway was just as bad as the streets above; debris littered the ground almost as if there had been a tremendous earthquake. The subway train had been de-railed, but was still upright; somehow it had managed to fall against the wall, which was propping it up. And as with the streets above and unlike the inside of the Tsukino residence, there were no bodies, though all three of the Starlights were fairly sure there should have been.
What happened to the dead?
Yaten and Taiki were waiting at the bottom of the stairs, both of them still looking worried. Taiki, however, was looking more thoughtful than Yaten, and the silver-haired ex-celebrity had obviously turned any thoughts HE had inward.
"This way," Sailor Uranus directed, striding toward the railway tracks with them following obediently behind. She reached the edge and, instead of stepping down into the deep line that held the derailed train, she turned and paced along the edge of the tracks.
"Where-?" Seiya began.
But Taiki shrugged, "I have no more of a clue than you at this point."
They soon found out as the senshi of Uranus paused after several yards and, turning, vanished into the wall. Yaten, who was ahead of them, stopped dead in his tracks and blinked several times. Seiya and Taiki rushed forward to stand with their brother, and all three of them peered toward where she had disappeared.
"Um...."
"Well?" Her head poked back out into the tunnel and she rolled her eyes, "are you coming or not?"
"Uh...." Seiya said blankly.
"Just go." Yaten snapped.
Looking too curious for his own good, Taiki walked to where she was, half-out of the stone wall....and discovered a door. From what he could see, she had brought them to what had once been a maintenance-station. Uranus turned and made her way back inside, and he began to follow, beaconing for Seiya and Yaten to hurry and follow.
"I guess it's okay." Seiya stated obviously, making Yaten snort. "So-"
The two of them dashed down the thin walk of stone and skidded to a stop at the door. After taking a moment to understand that there really WAS a DOOR, they quickly followed after the senshi ad Taiki, Seiya closing the door firmly behind them. Somehow, despite the fact that the door was shut, it didn't make him feel any safer....
The room they were in wasn't all that large, hardly bigger than a kitchen, really. A desk lined one side, seemingly built into the wall. Several chairs were scattered around the area, and there were random items set about the room; flashlights, batteries, bottles of water and so on. Another door, closed, stood opposite the one they had entered through.
"Where are we?" Seiya wondered out loud.
Yaten glanced back at him but said nothing.
"Stay here." Uranus ordered, vanishing through the other door and closing it behind her.
"Hm." Taiki murmured, "a safehouse?"
"Seems so." Yaten said shortly.
"Hey," Seiya looked at him; he was still holding his neck tightly. "Yaten, are you alright?"
"Yes."
"But-"
"Seiya!" The silver-haired youth snapped, "I'm FINE!"
Seiya was taken aback, "okay, okay. I was just-"
He broke off when the door that Uranus had disappeared into opened again.
"Seiya-?!"
He wasn't facing it anymore....wasn't facing the door....the right direction to see....
....but he knew the voice.
Spinning, his heart pounding and his eyes wide, he looked toward the person who had spoken. Haruka- who had reversed her transformation- was just behind her, with Mizuno Ami next to her. A shorter girl with black hair and purple eyes was with them as well....Seiya thought he recognized her as Sailor Saturn, but he didn't know her public name.
....and he didn't care.
Blonde pigtails and bright blue eyes that were shining with tears accosted him from only a few feet away.
"Seiya...." she repeated, taking a step forward.
He swallowed, trying to get his voice to work. Finally, he managed a single word;
"Odango...."
______________
Me: Yosh! Chapter 3 is done. Yeah, okay, so not much happened in this chapter. Gomen! There's a big explanation in Chapter 4, though, so be sure to catch it. And review! Wai, how I loooove reviews! ^_^ Ja!