Lost Senshi

Chapter Two: And So the Journey Begins

By Phoenix Ashes

She had been sick for some time, nearly two weeks. The doctor took it off. The doctor told her that she needed to take it off and let her body adjust to the medicine he would be applying to her throat. It was the damn doctor that made her cry! She had gone stone cold when the necklace was removed. She would see no one; she would speak to no one, but Jadeite.

Again it was the doctor who had made sure she could not get the necklace. He had put it in a box on the other end of the room and threatened to tie her arms and legs to the bed if she tried to get up. He had told her she needed rest. He said that she was tired, weak. But she was just sore. Her throat hurt, her head ached, and her stomach was restless. She was not weak, she was just experiencing some minor body aches.

"I should have been there," he said, grabbing the necklace and holding up to his heart. "I should have been there to kick him out and get Ami or the Elder Mercury over here to help you…" he whispered.

Slowly he raised the necklace to his neck and clasped it on, hoping that it wouldn't leave his neck for the entire journey. He strode out of the room then, his cloak flying out behind him. He wanted to leave, now. He wanted to get out on the road and kill the woman who had taken his love.

She meant everything and more to him. He had never known that it was possible for those emotions to be revealed. He had always thought he would never love, never marry. He had believed his life was full of bedding women who meant nothing to him. He had enjoyed living his life like that, but when he went to the Moon to meet his prince's love and begin a series of trainings with the Senshi, his life changed.

She was only seventeen, far too young to bed, but that's not what he saw her for. She was a beauty, with long silken raven hair and beautiful fiery eyes to match. Her figure had men turning heads all over and he wondered why she was not engaged. He had never before set eyes on a more stunning woman.

He found that his body had begun to react to her in ways he never knew could happen. His heart was pounding painfully at his chest the first time she stood before him to introduce herself. His head was swimming in images of her beautiful smile. He wanted so desperately to set his lips to that smile of hers, he wanted to take her to Earth and show her the beautiful fall that he and Endymion had found on one of their adventures. He wanted to love her, he wanted to be a part of her, and he wanted her for himself.

It took him nigh a year to get her to notice him. He had proposed three and a half months ago, on the morrow. She was his. He had waited until she was ready before kissing her and he had been waiting a year to make love to her. He would wait as long as she needed; he couldn't stand loosing her. She was his and no one else's and that's why he had to find her, himself.

"Endymion!" he shouted, flying down the stairs and meeting up with his friend in the kitchen. Endymion was tying up the bags, both sets filled to the brim. "Shall we leave now?" he asked, grabbing his saddlebag and walking out of the kitchen.

Endymion ran after his friend, a smile dressing his handsome face. "So you have decided to leave?"

"I think we should leave now…"

"You certainly are ready, how are your injuries?"

"I tried a spell, they're resting quite nicely. I should be better on the morrow."

"Slow spell you used."

"Kudasai…I am not that great at magic, my lord."

Endymion nodded and began walking down the large hall. "Saddle up my horse and yours."

Jadeite looked after his prince, "Which horse?"

"Uh…Barley…"

"All right. Barley and Ob it is…"

"Let us go!"

----

The two were riding slowly along one of the roads that ran through the town. Their horses were saddled with the oldest saddles in the prince's stables. They weren't recognized, but they were stared at. Many women stared at them with sensual gazes, undressing the two with their eyes. "Looks as if we're drawing attention," Endymion said, glancing nervously at the dozens of women who gathered around the road to look into his hazel eyes.

Jadeite kept his horse beside Endymion's being careful not make too much eye contact with the other women. "For a night in an inn we may have to sacrifice things," he said, his voice drawn.

Endymion turned and looked at Jadeite, "You're crazy!" he spat, leaning closer. "I will not betray Serenity –"

"Hayai!"

"Gomen. I will not betray my wife. I am not like I once was. And you cannot mean to betray the Prin-your fiancée," there was fear washing into his words. He knew that in a world like this he would have to give up something for a nice bed and decent meal, but he couldn't afford to give this!

Jadeite shook his head and ran a hand through his deep blonde hair; "I cannot change things, Endy-Hayai. You know the kind of world this is. We don't have much money with us!" He turned his horse around one of the nearing corners and dismounted. "There is too much at risk if we put down such things. A room is worth so much to both of us because of our stature. This may be the only thing we have left. The money is for clothing, or bribery! It is not for buying a room in an inn, we can't spare it!"

Endymion, who also dismounted his horse, now stared upon his friend. Small tinges of envy racing up his spine. "You learnt all of this when you went to town with Kunzite and the others, didn't you?"

Jadeite looked away, trying his best not to give away what had happened to all of them, "It was a way of living. We had hoped to come to the country for women, but once we had our fill there were other matters at hand. Kunzite took that opportunity to teach me the ways of survival. So, yes I did learn all this when I came here so long ago."

Finally he turned back to look at Endymion, "We didn't even bring blankets to sleep on, Hayai."

"Hayai, I have to get used to that. Well, Zoge, what do you propose we do when dusk falls?"

Jadeite stared down the way; a black shadow was creeping toward them. He ducked back behind the few trees they had stopped by. "We have plenty of time before that happens, Hayai. In the mean time, press yourself against the tree and don't move."

Endymion did as he was told and pressed his back against the tree. The shadow was coming closer, but now that Jadeite could get a good look at it, it wasn't as intimidating as he had thought. "Why, neko!" he yelled, picking up the cat. "Would you look at that? I never thought that she would actually follow us!"

Luna clawed at his shirt, ripping a piece off. "Well, she is brilliant! Look, if I just rub a little dirt in my hair and some on this damn shirt…" he grabbed a handful of the brown dust from the ground and rubbed it into his hair, "I look like a commoner!"

"By thunder, you do!" Endymion cried, picking up his own handful of rich soil and rubbing it into his brown locks. "So, Luna, you did follow," he said, stretching his shirt slightly so that the fabric would retain a worn look.

Luna clawed again at Jadeite's imprisoning arms, "Yes, of course I followed!" she meowed, continuing to fight Jadeite's grasp. "Let me go, you knave!"

Jadeite looked down at the cat with a frown, "Gomen…" he whispered and dropped her.

"Gentle, Jed…"

"Cats always land on their feet," Jadeite retorted, eyeing the prince. "We have to leave, we only have five hours until lunch and then several after that until we need to find a town and an inn."

Endymion nodded and grabbed his large chestnut horse. He mounted easily and patted the beast on the neck, "Come, Zoge."

Jadeite mounted his bay steed and turned him around until he faced west. "I seem to remember that Graystone lies past the old chapel…" he said, bringing his horse onto the road.

Endymion followed, albeit slowly, for he had Luna draped over his shoulder. "How long?"

"Only a few hours. I'm sure the priest at the old chapel will allow us to sit on his land for a while," Jadeite called over his shoulder. "We'll have lunch there, if you can manage with the neko on your shoulder the whole way."

"Of course!" Endymion called back, scratching Luna's head.

Several hours later the two men and the cat were well on their way. A town lay further that Jadeite had originally planned, but they were marking that territory for dinner. Endymion road in silence on the way to Graystone, his fear of having to use his body as payment for a room was beginning to scare him, he was certain the Gods would not permit it.

It was past dinner when the travelers arrived at an inn in Graystone. They were dirtied far beyond any village man, but clean compared to a traveler. The two men tied their steeds to the post in the front of the inn and sent Luna into the shadows to wait.

It was Jadeite who took several deep breaths before entering, not Endymion and it was Jadeite who did the talking. "Good evening," he said when they were at the desk. It was a fairly young woman, possibly ranging in her early thirties. Endymion noticed that she wasn't exactly beautiful, but she wasn't ugly all the same. In fact, he thought her to be rather plain; nothing compared to his wife. He looked over at Jadeite and noted that he wore the same seductive smile he had used to charm the girl at the dinner party. He must use that expression often, Endymion thought.

Jadeite put one elbow on the desk and leaned toward the woman, "My name's Zoge. This here is my friend Hayai…"

The woman blushed slightly when she looked into Jadeite's piercing gaze. "Name's Yuri. I own this place, you staying?" she asked, staring back into Jadeite's gaze with her own dull brown eyes.

Jadeite smiled greater and leaned closer. "You still got dinner on the stove, Yuri?"

"A full pot of rabbit stew, if you gentlemen would like some. It'll cost ya…" she smiled devilishly at Jadeite.

He simply stood tall and grinned. "How much?"

She smiled back, leaning in her own seductive way over the desk so that the two men could get a clear look at her low cut dress and all that showed beneath. "How much ya got?"

"I don't have much money, but I can give you something I know you want," he grinned.

"And your friend?"

"Give him a room."

"And you?"

"Where do you rest, beautiful?"

"Upstairs. Come on, I'll get you the stew and the room. What's yer name again?"

Jadeite moved toward her and pierced her with a glare that could have caused her to take him on the desk. "Ongaku Zoge. And that there," he nodded his head toward Endymion, "is my mute friend, Tsuyoi Hayai."

Endymion threw him a questioning glare. "Mute, huh?" Yuri asked, walking up to him and looking into his hazel eyes. "Too bad."

Endymion swallowed the lump that seemed to form in his throat and stared after the woman.

She led them into a poorly built tavern and sat them at a table. "Mind if I join you, Zoge?"

Jadeite stared up at her and smiled, "Not at all, beautiful." He patted his hard thigh and grinned his seductive grin again.

Yuri smiled and pointed to the kitchen, "Let me go get you travelers that stew."

Once she was out of ear shot Endymion leaned over to Jadeite. "Are you crazy, man?" he whispered, his voice full of anger. "You're engaged!"

"And you're married! I had no other choice! We don't have enough money for every night! We don't even know how long we'll be out here! I did this for you!" he shot back, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "I couldn't have you doing it."

Endymion stared back at his friend and turned his gaze down. "Are you going to be all right?"

Jadeite swallowed hard and stared at the kitchen door. "Don't worry about me. Right now all I care about is getting this over with then looking for everyone else. It may be like this for a long time, Hayai. Don't worry yourself, though. I'll be the one handling all the dirty work. You just worry about getting the others to safety. Look lively now, she's back."

Yuri strolled into the room with two bowls of steaming hot stew and two cups of ale. "Here ya are," she said, setting the food before the men and taking her seat on Jadeite's lap. The two swallowed their stew within minutes and washed it all down with the strong ale in their cups.

"Hayai, perhaps you should let the lady show you your room and rest. I'll see you in the morning." Endymion stood with the woman and followed her up the staircase, leaving Jadeite behind.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the two left. How was he going to keep up this visage without the woman finding out? There was no way he could act a thing like this. Perhaps his guilt would leave him while he was in the room. Who was he to think that this could ruin his future? Rei would just have to understand that it was a part of survival and that he didn't want to do it, which he didn't.

No, his beautiful, strong tempered, fiery little priestess was going to kill him. He couldn't lie to her, but he could not tell her what he was going to do, nor could he tell her everything else that would be happening in the inns across the country. No, this would be between Endymion and him.

Yuri stepped down from the stairs at that moment, carrying a blanket in one hand and a robe in the other. She put on the most flirtatious smile she knew and walked anything but gracefully toward him. "Well, my Lord Zoge…"

"I am hardly a lord, madam," he whispered, taking a pouch of herbs from his pouch.

Yuri looked at his slightly soiled deep blonde locks and his beyond handsome face. "You look like a lord."

"I worked in the stables at the king's palace. I assure you I am no lord…"

"If you're a stable worker, why are you at my inn?"

Jadeite searched his memory for a story. "Hayai and I used to work in the stables, cleaning, tending to the colts. I ruined one of the colts. I was young, somewhere around twelve. My father had always taught me that if you wanted to train a horse one way, you could, but it would take a long time to train him to be the horse someone else wants. I trained the colt without a saddle, you see. My father had no idea and Hayai was a poor mute lad who knew nothing about training. I was set away by the king. He said that I was too young to be killed, but that I was too old to be given a second chance. I ruined one of his best war-horses."

It took more thinking than planned. When he was small his father had set away a young boy because of his lack of responsibility. His strong-minded father sent away a strong-minded boy. Truth be told, his father had found the boy an interesting part of his crew. He wanted to keep the boy, but knew that if he kept him around he would continue training as he wished.

Yuri was looking at him with concern. "How could he just throw you out?" she asked, putting a hand on his chest. "You must have been wandering the streets for some time, eight years?"

Jadeite looked at her with mock surprise. "You think I'm twenty?"

"Well you do seem young. I was going to let you off easy tonight, only one round because you looked so young," she said.

Jadeite considered the thought an easy escape, "Truth be told, madam, I am but seventeen."

Yuri took a closer look and nodded with approval. "Your hair is much too soft and your eyes are too bright. Your body is built incredibly well, and your skin looks to be as soft as silk. I would say that you are younger than twenty, but seventeen? You are a young one. I almost feel as if I should take you to my breast, you are so young."

"I am not so young, madam, that I don't know what a woman needs," he smiled.

She blushed heavily and brushed a stray lock of hair from his brow. "You are a charmer. I would love to be up in my room with you; lad, but I'd feel wrong. Go with the young Hayai. I assume he is young?"

"He is merely eighteen."

"As I thought. You two must have been friends since birth."

"That we were, madam."

"Yes, well, go on to bed."

"But madam, surely you want me to go with you so that I may give you payment?" Jadeite asked, trying to keep the relief in his voice hidden.

Yuri shook her head and put a hand out. "You don't need to, lad."

"Then, silver?"

"You cannot spare it."

"But I don't want to intrude on your generosity, madam," Jadeite called, trying to be as modest as any young worker.

The kind woman shook her head and gave him a warm smile, "Consider it a woman's gift to a young boy. Take the room without money, but leave in the morning."

Jadeite stifled a laugh, "As you wish it, madam."

"I'll get more blankets and another robe for the young sir. Hayai is bathing so I suggest you come into my room for that. I will see to it that your horses are tended to as well."

"You are more than kind, madam…" Jadeite said, trying to make his young age believable. He had learnt at a young age than men are always complimenting and sounding too modest when young themselves. "I am in your debt, madam."

"Just remember that the next time you are in Graystone, you owe me my payment. Of course, make sure that you are older."

"I am planning on taking a job at the farm near Greenwood…next time I'm in town I shall be quite old," he lied.

Yuri looked disappointed for a minute before shaking it away and smiling up at him. "By the time you reach Greenwood you shall be an old man."

Jadeite forced a laugh and bound to the stairs as if he really were nothing but seventeen. He took her hands in his and kissed her knuckles. "Arigato. Bless you for all that you have done. When I obtain my new job with Hayai, I will be sure to send a messenger out to you."

"No need, lad."

"But I will be sending you money, madam. Your kindness is helping my friend and me to make it to Greenwood without any problems. I will forever be in your debt unless I pay you in one form or another. Honestly, madam, I am no cheap soldier. I am willing to pay my debts."

She smiled and slapped his rear, "Go on, boy. The night grows late!"

Jadeite laughed and ran the stairs two at a time.

It was a night to remember. He bathed in the woman's chambers. She had even come in and helped him wash his hair and back. He tried to repay her by inviting her into the wooden tub with him, but she continued to say that he was too young for someone as old as herself.

He had run through her room, shouting how much he would love to take her to her bed for her kindness. He had overplayed his part so that she believed him to be as energetic as he said. And when all was over he nearly sprinted down to Endymion's room, in his quite revealing robe, to tell him the news. "Hayai! You will not believe what just happened!"

His hair was still dripping droplets of water and his chest was heaving as if he had run down to Greenwood and back. "Zoge! What's wrong with you?" Endymion asked when the door closed. "You're soaking wet, your robe isn't tied perfectly, and you're…you're giddy!"

Jadeite laughed at the comment and walked toward the large bed. "Giddy?"

"Yes…"

More laughter flew from Jadeite's mouth. "I have been rescued by the Gods!" he cried, trying to run a hand through his wet hair.

"Rescued? How so?" Endymion asked, tossing him a comb.

Jadeite stared at the comb before continuing. "It was a simple lie, Endymion. I told her that you and I were workers in the stables and that we were kicked out because of me. She thought that I was twenty!"

"Jed, you are near twenty."

"I am twenty three!"

"What is your point?"

"With this hair and this disguise I look…twenty!"

"You look like a fool who just stepped from the tub to annoy me."

"She believed me to be twenty and told me she was going to only go one round tonight."

"There was going to be more than one round?" Endymion asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jadeite smiled greatly and ran the comb through his hair once. "I told her I was seventeen."

"SEVENTEEN?" Endymion yelled, throwing his hands to his head. "And what am I? FIFTEEN?"

"You are eighteen," Jadeite corrected, tossing the comb aside and spreading his fingers. He roughly combed his hair with his hands and shook it wildly so that the water was relieved of his head. "She let me off because I am so young."

Endymion smiled slightly and looked at the cat that was eyeing him with a concerned look. "You will not have to betray your love."

"No I will not! I am free from her wrath and from the one I was going to give myself," he replied sitting in one of the chairs by the fire. He smiled sadly and looked up at Endymion. "She told me that she loved me before Kitada took her away…"

Where did that come from? Endymion thought, staring down at his friend. Jadeite was staring at him, yet his eyes were not there. They were looking beyond his form, past the flesh, and into another world. "It was the last thing she said. She didn't come out and say it, but she said the words that made it possible. I left her when Makoto began fighting. I thought getting Minako and Ami would help. I thought bringing the Elder Senshi to the fight would ward her off. I thought that if I could get Queen Serenity to come down…and then your parents…I wanted to get your parents…I wanted to get my parents. I wanted to help. Kunzite warned me that my magic was not strong enough. I lost her. I lost her when I left her side for that brief moment. I should have stayed."

Tears were brimming his eyes, but none of them fell. Endymion felt his legs begin to shake. He felt his chest tighten. He had lost a love as well. He had made a stupid mistake. He allowed his friendship with the witch to interfere with his job. He used the only spell he could think of at that moment. That damn friendship stone was his ticket to a lost love. "Jed…" he whispered, falling into the chair beside his friend. "Both of us made mistakes."

Jadeite nodded his head and stood. "Mistakes are not meant for people of our station, Endymion," he said, tightening the knot at his robe. "I'm sorry I didn't help you save the princess."

Endymion shook his head; "There's no need for this sentimental offal. You are a general and I am a prince. We both knew better, yet we didn't think."

The deep blonde tresses of the man before him began to glow a faint blue. His eyes were sparking with wisps of white lightening. "Sleep…" he sighed, tossing several pillows onto the cold wood floor. "Exhaustion escapes me," he whispered, shaking away the white lightening that began to flow over his head.

Endymion smiled and walked over to his bed. "You had better rest," he whispered to his friend, pushing him gently to the pile of pillows. "Your magic is wearing…"

"Because of my weakness."

"It happened because you thought of Rei."

"That it did."

"You are thinking you are weak because Rei is gone. Tomorrow your powers will stay with you forever."

Jadeite nodded his head and leaned back into the pillows. Breathing deeply he began his nightly ritual. His voice sounding strangely like a child. "Rest…sleep…ravens…count one…two…three…four rav—"

Endymion smiled and chuckled to himself. His friend was going to be fine, albeit a bit worried. He just hoped that dear friend's weak power over mind would not show through like that again. "Sleep well, Jed. Your loved one and my friend will be fine," and with those words said, he went to sleep.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Review!

Sincerely, Phoenix