Total Eclipse- Minako's Story
Part Two
By: Zellie
"Every now and then I fall apart...."
Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler.
During the year I was twelve, my life changed drastically. The rumors of war were beginning to spread from the outer planets, and the senshi were called out to keep peace. I had also begun my training a few years back and was in full swing now. I was lucky. I had a training partner. Kunzite ended up serving me very well. We were constantly going at some fight or another which caused the court to think that we had fallen for each other...well, at the time we hadn't...at least not yet. It was heard all over the planet. The princess was set for life. Yeah...right. As I look back now, I can't imagine what they must have thought. Kunzite and I spent the last summer I was home actually talking, instead of throwing insults back and forth at each other. He was fifteen, and was going to be leaving at the end of the summer. I knew it would never be the same around the palace without him there to taunt.
Over the years, this little game of ours came to be all in fun. We knew each other like no one else knew us. I think that Rei was the only one who knew me as well as Kunzite did. He would torment me at dinners and I would loose my composure and kick him under the table, then look smug. After he yelped, my father would look at me with a quite disdainful look and I would cower. My mother would look on and would glare at my Father and we lost the facade of "the happy royal family." I doubt it ever was like that, at least I never remembered it that way. But, Kunzite was always there to comfort me when my father lashed out and I cried. By the river, near the garden, it didn't matter. Just as long as I wasn't in the house any more.
Then the fighting broke out and my mother wasn't there to protect me any longer. She left me miserable as well as my father and I don't think she was happy, either. I think she knew something was going to happen to her before she left, which was why she started to be by herself more. She needed to cope with losing us, but we needed to cope with loosing her even more.
One day we heard news that the war had broken out, indeed. My mother was in the front line. It was terrible. She was stationed on Pluto and that was where the enemy started. A terrible massacre followed. The senshi banded together and the enemy retreated, but not without a few casualties, my mother being one. Setsuna and her mother came to bring us this terrible news. Setsuna was then only a child. Yet, she had the eyes of one who has seen too much. When they came to us, Setsuna pulled me aside, asking that I tried to remain calm. I looked upon her as a terrible, cold, sinking feeling began brewing in my stomach.
"Minako, please try not to take this so hard." She pleaded with me. I saw her eyes begin to water, and she hastened to regain control of her emotions. "Your mother waskilled in battle." She choked out, finally. Try not to take it hard? What did she want me to do? Smile and say, 'that's too bad.'? I began to cry. Her mother leaned down and held me. I kept screaming that it wasn't fair, and that she should have made it back to us, but nothing was going to bring her back-and I knew that. But, I shut down from then on. I swore to myself I would never die in battle. I looked up at my father with the tears streaming down my face and saw the tears in his eyes also. But the look of hatred he had for me, was clearer than his anguish. I knew I was sunk. He balled up one hand and with his other prepared to whack me upside the head. A sickening crack was heard and I felt very dizzy. I fell to my knees and covered my head for fear that I would be hit again, trying desperately to remain conscious.
"It should have been you Minako!" He screamed. "Why did it have to be the one I loved! Why? Why couldn't it have been you? I'm going to kill you, you little monster! That way you can join your precious mother!" Those words scarred me forever. My father, the one parent I had left wanted me dead. Setsuna panicked, then grabbed my wrist and ran. I got off my knees as fast as I could. Fear replaced the pain in my heart. Her mother held my father back, along with a few of the palace guards. "Let me at her!" I heard his rage as we got out of the palace.
As soon we were safely away I fell into the fields and cried. Setsuna kneeled down next to me and patted my head. "Minako-chan it'll be okay. Mom won't let anything happen to you, no one else will either." I nodded, but continued sobbing. I wouldn't be able to stay there. I had to leave my home. He might try and kill me. After a long while, I sniffled and sat up a little, leaning my elbows on my thighs.
"Thanks, Setsuna." I managed and savagely wiped my tears away. How childish, I was crying like a baby! But the pain in my heart was overwhelming, I couldn't contain it. "I don't know what to do! He'll find me wherever I go! I can't stay here..." I wished things were different. I wished that we could have been a family. That we could have pulled through together. But it wasn't to be.
"Well, we'll just have to find somewhere where he won't, now huh?" Setsuna said quietly. This was the beginning of my lifetime friendship with Setsuna. She cared so much. I can't imagine how she could have been so generous a child and then so cold later. But I believe she saw the entire event coming, so knew what to expect. After all, she was the daughter of the mistress of time. She had to learn the trade eventually, especially with the possibility of loosing her mother like we had lost mine. Setsuna would have to know how to use the time key and control the time warp.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere quiet foot steps were heard approaching us. "Hey! Who are you?" Setsuna stood up protectively in front of me. I looked up to see Kunzite standing there and instinctively covered my face where my father had smacked me. It was going to turn into a nasty bruise, and was already a deep red.
"You don't have to worry, Minako. I saw the whole thing." He said sadly. "They had to sedate your father and he's locked up in the infirmary. I was worried about you, though. It looked like you took a really nasty hit there." Kunzite tried to kneel down in front of me, but Setsuna kept blocking him. "Who are you, anyways?" He asked her. She stood up a little taller, which I found surprising as she was already towering over us both, even Kunzite, who was already tall for a boy his age.
"I'm the mistress of time and space, Sailor Pluto!" He shrugged and knelt down again. "Do you know this kid, Minako?" She turned to me. I looked up and nodded, still covering my face. She moved over slightly, he crawled up right in front of me and finally she sighed and kneeled back down next to me again. "I'm watching you." She said menacingly. He looked at her with his normal nonchalant way. She didn't scare him at all. He would become a good warrior.
"Now, com'on let's get a look at that, Minako." He tugged at my arm and I held it in place while shaking my head. I didn't want to him to see the mark. I didn't want to see him angry. He might do something drastic to my father, though I couldn't think of what. I knew that he didn't like the way my father treated me already, but this would push him over the edge. I didn't trust him to be passive. "Minako, stop being so stubborn." He tugged again, and I still clamped my hand to the side of my face, it prevented it from hurting a little. "Please?" He asked finally. I swallowed and opened my mouth to reply, but he sized the opportunity and pinned me while pulling my hand away from my face. This caught me off guard.
"Kunzite!" I rolled my head over to the side. "I'll be fine, you don't have to worry." Setsuna thought this scene was incredibly funny, and Rei probably would have too. Kunzite looked down at me and sighed. Then he patted my face gently and I finally gave in and let him see it. "Are you happy now?" I grumbled. I shifted under his grip. Over the years he had matured greatly and had learned to hide his emotions very well, aside from me. I could always tell what he was thinking. He seemed very hard on the outside, but I knew the insecure, under confidant self that was the Kunzite I loved.
"That is a nasty one. I guessed as much. We heard the sound of it all the way at the gate house. Besides, by the time I had gotten there I saw you on the ground and was so afraid something serious had really happened to you this time." If he only knew. He cared about me so much and I hadn't realized it until then. How could I just leave him there like that? This was going to be harder than I thought. I looked over at Setsuna who seemed deep in thought.
"Could you let me up now?" I inquired. He looked down at me, said 'oh' as If he had forgotten I was still pinned under his grasp and went back to his kneeling position. "Thanks, " I said, sarcastically while sitting up. I looked him in the eyes and saw a strange color that weren't normally. They had a cold, hard, distant look to them. Little did I know, that this would be his normal look years after this time. Everyone had such distant looks on their faces that it led me to wonder just what everyone was thinking about. "Kunzite?" I asked looking at him and watching him come slowly back to reality. He had been very angry looking but then he turned back to me and smiled. The change in facial expression was so rapid that I wondered if he was okay. "A-Are you okay?" I reached over to take his hand.
"Minako? What's going to happen? I mean you can't stay here, obviously. And I have to leave soon. But I'm not leaving until I know that you're going to be okay. Safe and sound. I will not let him do anything to you ever again."
"You sound very brave, but could you really stand up to her father like that? He is a man not to be trifled with." Setsuna spoke for the first time in a long while. She smiled. Kunzite was going to make a good soldier. She looked him over, carefully. His build was tall and slender, yet muscular. And coming from Venus, was most likely very strongly magic based. "Where would you have to go, young lord Kunzite?" Setsuna wasn't that much older than him in actuality, but she didn't know that. He turned on her with a grim expression. He had let me take his hand and squeezed mine slightly.
"I have to go to be in Endymion's guard-the head general." He looked down. For so long I had seen him flaunt this, and watched him be so excited as the time came nearer for him to go. Now it looked as if he was regretting ever being born. He sucked in a deep breath, looked over at me and then continued. "I'm not leaving until I know Minako is going to be safe." He repeated defiantly. I looked at him with wonder reflecting in my face. I never knew he cared about me so much, I had thought he only treated me like a younger sister. But then, I wondered if he actually cared for me beyond that. Could he actually? I had to know more.
"What are you saying?" I asked. Kunzite looked at me with a saddened expression. He had never looked at me that way before. "Well, what are you implying at least?" His eyes seemed to search mine. It was then that I knew. He really did love me, but with his being three years older than me, he was also three years ahead of me in growing up. I was still a child compared to him. Twelve. He deserved to be with someone older, someone closer to his age. Someone more experienced. Someone better. But then, how much more experienced can you get than a Venusian? I smiled shyly at him, to let him know that I knew how he felt. I just let it roll off me though. It would change after he got to Earth. There would always be someone else. There had to be. This made me sad again. I would lose him. On the exterior I looked like I was coping, but inside I was being torn to pieces by everything that was happening. It was too much to deal with and too quickly at that. My smile faded. "I'm really tired. What are we going to do?" I asked, raggedly. I wanted to sleep. Just sleep for years. But a part of me also wanted to crawl into a hole and die, right there, just get it over with. Maybe it would take pain away. But the pain wasn't going to go away.
"I think I know where to hide you..." Setsuna looked at me in a strangely hopeful way. "You're going to have to move to the moon eventually...so why not sooner? The power of the Imperial Crystal will make it seem like you're one of the family. You will become Lunarian...and still be close to Kunzite. If we put you somewhere else, there's more of a chance. You see? Also this will put you in a better position to get to know the princess a little better." She glanced behind her as we heard footsteps behind us. They were soft, yet resolute. I still found it hard to not be afraid. Setsuna stood up and hugged her mother. "Mom, I know where to put Minako!" Her mother looked down at me and had a quizzical expression on her face. "She can go to the Moon early!" Setsuna looked oddly proud. Her mother smiled and replied.
"Yes, that does work, but we'll have to notify Selene." Setsuna nodded and I was sent back to the castle to pack. In all the confusion, I hadn't been able to process what was going on fully. I felt as if I wasn't really there, like there were to of me, each doing different things. It was going to be so hard to do. To pack, take all my possessions and gather into one small area to take it to leave. I had to leave my home, the place I loved with all of my being. My land. My people. My home. And I could never come back again. I would have to leave that night.
The tears rolled down my face again as I stuffed dresses and other clothes into a traveling bag. A servant came up to my room with a few boxes and helped me back as much as we could. She seemed upset as well that I was leaving. And form what I could gather, no one was happy about it, but we had no choice. There was so much I wanted to bring with me, but couldn't because I didn't have enough room. My jewelry box, my music boxes, and a lily sculpture that Kunzite had given me were things I would not leave behind for anything. I stuffed as much jewelry into the box as possible. The rest was forsaken. The last thing I packed was my teddy bear. He was always with me, and always would be.
Then, feeling worn out, and waiting for Setsuna to come, I went over to my window and opened it for the last time as I leaned out to look at the garden. I could hear the birds in the distance singing. I wished I could have had the freedom to be like them. They always have the liberty to go wherever they want and are so free. The playmates of the wind. I envied them. I still do, I think. Then the reality began to sink in. I could feel the oncoming darkness approaching and decided to turn away. I can't believe I left it all behind now, but I turned my back to my pain. I forgot I had feeling, or attachment so I could leave with out my pain showing too much. I walked out of my room, and left my life with it, closing the door behind me.
Just a few minutes later, I met Kunzite outside by the front garden. I had five minutes until I had to leave. Last minute preparations being made all around us caused me to flinch at the commotion. I wanted to cry, I wanted to tell him I didn't want to go, I wanted to tell him couldn't leave him, but I was too afraid. I didn't want to get hurt anymore than I already was. I didn't want to lose him. I bit my lip and watched him pace. The fountain I was sitting on flowed gently. The stars were shining so I watched them a while. Then, Kunzite turned around suddenly and pinned my arms to my sides. "What?" I asked, surprised.
"You're going to be fine, right?" His eyes stared into mine, and I had to look away. He waited until I looked back at him, the pressure from his hands burning my skin. "Right?" He asked again. I think he needed reassurance more than anything at that moment. I nodded, while my heart was screaming at me to tell him the truth. Tell him it wasn't going to be fine, I wasn't going to be happy, I need to be here with him. "Alright then." He turned away and dropped my arms then started to walk away.
*He's just going to leave like that? Stop him! You can't just let him go like that!* My mind was racing, when he turned around and kissed me, deeply. I was shocked. I had never been kissed in my life and I least expected my first kiss to be from him. Then he pulled back and studied me. "Minako, you're going to make it. I promise. I won't ever be too far from you. Do you understand me? Here." Kunzite ran a hand through his hair. He seemed unsure of something. He handed me a small necklace, it was a locket, I looked up at him with a questioning look. I opened it up and found it...empty. This confused me even more. "Let me explain," he said, holding up a hand, "I don't think you really need a picture to remember me by. Besides, I'll be seeing you in a little while. I'll stop by on the Moon before I go to Earth. But I want you to remember this: you'll always be mine, 'cuz I'm not letting you go. You won't either, will you?" I swallowed hard. His eyes dug into me. I faltered.
"No...I won't let you go either. Ever. I swear it." And I never have.
~Notes From Zellie~
Hidey-Ho! Well people? Well, I want to thank all of you who have supported me so far, even if it was in the smallest way. I love you all. ~Zellie