Chapter Eight – Of Fear or For Love
"Out of the night that covers me..."
Rei was instantly on her guard as the voice resonated through the blackness of the plain, disregarding any consideration of where she was or why she got there. It was a black place, which was all she knew. The terrain looked much like the moon; a desolate place with towers of ancient rocks that had seen the rise and fall of stars but had never been able to move out past their pewter tombs. It was a jagged and dangerous place, yet there was a hot breeze blowing on some absent atmosphere, a fact that was well beyond her realm of caring for the moment. That breeze, though hot and clammy, came harrowing over her bare skin and somehow, as if to defy its very nature, chilled her.
Only in a dream could nudity become an afterthought. Reality worked on a very different level during the dreamer's march than that of the waking world, so Rei was hardly convinced that this place was of any real threat to her. However, dreams were also the battlements of the soul. That very reason kept her on her guard and warding away any bad spirits by the strength of her presence.
"Black as the pit from pole to pole..."
The voice was melodic, reciting unknown words to her in a foreign tongue that somehow came out in understandable recognition and surprisingly metered tambour. It was the sort of thing that could only happen in a dream; the submersion into a thousand languages and the understanding of a lucid, lyrical mind. Rei was still very agitated and glared around, her eyes fighting fear while her body was tense with tension. "Who's there? What is this place?" she asked, her voice echoing into the distance nothingness with all of the fervor of an unspoken whisper in a gale.
As soon as she had requited herself to being very much in contention with this place, there presence of another figure appeared to throw her into a flurry. Her heart wrenched at the sight and her breathing ceased, for nothing was quite as stirring as seeing the essence of love sealed within a single form. Yamito was one person she had never thought she would meet again, for the gods and devils of existence found it fit to infuriate her life and happiness by denying her the only thing she loved as much as her princess. But he appeared before her, his body held aloft by an unseen force and his face cast into perpetual slumber.
It was the site of him that quelled her rage at the place and replaced this rage with utter elation. Her eyes moved over every piece of him, as if to gage his authenticity against the memories that still tormented her every waking thought and caused her to weep out of sheer frustration of it all. Every glorious part of him was perfect, save for his eyes, which would not open even at her beckon. "Yamito?" she asked, taking a soft step forward in hopes of his eternal gaze. There was no response. Like a great leeching haze, a black vapor seemed to grow out of his back and spread like great wings behind him. They resembled the same wings of flame that had surrounded him when he had embraced his full power, yet there was something entirely different, as if they were the same and yet different somehow. Even with her great intuition, she could not place the feeling she got from the haze. "Yami-chan? Is it you?" she asked again, her voice growing softer with each step forward.
"I thank whatever gods may be..."
The obscure poem continued, leaving one last section to linger in the air. Rei was almost ignoring it now, for all she yearned for was before her now in defiance of the prophecy of his death. His face was so beautiful, yet madness endured as his eyes would not receive her. Much to her further dismay, yet another figure appeared, continuing the trend of his interference in this matter.
Rei ignored Jikan, if only until he spoke and completely changed the tone. "The princess of Mars. I told you once that in another lifetime you would receive a visit from me about the one who shares your soul," he said. It broke her attention away from Yamito, though she looked upon Jikan as if he had performed the most heinous form of sacrilege possible. However, soon enough her face broke from its metal visage and a flicker of recognition appeared. It pleased Jikan and he said, "My prophecies have an unconditional way of being fulfilled. I knew this time in your life would come, for I am one of the very architects of this age. Do you know the last line of the poem?"
She hesitated, lost a moment in the maddening familiarity of his face. "Poem?"
"Yes," he replied, "a poem that I spoke to you over a thousand years ago when this place was very much likened unto the Silver Millennium." Just as he said the words, the landscape around them began to change. Towers, obelisks and palaces began to fade into view, though they lingered on the edge of sight like the pools of water in the desert heat. Rei was oblivious them all, though she knew they were there. Everything was touching the very edge of her memory, as if this was all a dream forgotten in another lifetime.
However, one thing did come back to her. Her eyes closed slowly and her heart calmed, the timing in her ears finding just the right place for her to finish the last line in a quiet, elegant tone. "For my indomitable soul." Jikan's face brightened into a smile and that one moment, the moment of her remembrance of a poem told so long ago and through a clouded veil, was something that he had been waiting for since the last moment of her consciousness.
"Words that were written just for you. Do you not feel them in every part of your being?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied, her voice weak and weary.
"They have appeared on Earth since as tribute to one princess who lived on the moon and was assigned one of the most tortuous fates ever conceived by my Morae. You were chosen to carry this burden because you embody those very words within you. It is you, Princess of Mars, which will be the deciding factor of the most wonderful occurrence ever to happen in your universe," Jikan continued. Such powerful ideas take only moments to set in and as soon as Rei realized that this was more than just a random dream, her eyes instantly enveloped Jikan, though her throat was scarce of a reply.
Time was the most powerful force in any creature's life, but time was also the most sublime. It had a way of abandoning the most astute of watchers and interlock the most dire of circumstances all by simply ticking away with a arduous finality. A weathered gasp slipped from the lips of Yamito and Rei was instantly aware of him; aware of the life that had somehow been breathed back into him at the mere whim of her heart. As instant as her realization, she was at his side, putting on him hands that had been forced through a famine and deprivation that could only be categorized as torture to any who's heart held a beat.
"Yamito. I'm here. Please, say something," she cooed into his ears, her hands running over his neck and face as he struggled against some formidable illness. Her heart had not been given such exaltation since the last moment of his smile, the moment before he faded away into her dreams. Perhaps this was just a dream, but she did not even care. His skin pressed against hers was real enough; the feel of his hair between her fingers faultless and the sensation of his breath on her cheek soothing.
Yamito would not respond, but she found some kind of temporary sanity in his open eyes. It was more than enough that he was there with her.
"In the whole of existence, there is only one being that knows where this path will lead you both, yet he remains vigilant in his observation. Fate is no one's chain. This moment is allowed to you, for mere instants away you will be plunged into turmoil and your lover's name will decide just how beautiful the whole of humanity is," Jikan said, his figure fading away from sight with his words of warning falling on Rei's deaf ears. Jikan could have told her the meaning of life and she would have passed it up for the chance to see the spark of recognition in Yamito's eyes. Her chest swelling with each labored breath, she just nuzzled him contently and continued whispering his name against the sweet surface of his skin.
There was no way to truly gage how trying the moments had been since Yamito overcame his overwhelming dark power and gave up his life for Rei. Moments passed like glass over her skin, days related to a thousand crystal shards being driven into her eyes in cruel attempts to rob them of all of her sweet tears and hopeful glances to that place just over her shoulder where she would often see him watching her. When the others returned, whether for good or for bad, her lover was absent, demoted and thrown away into the realm of the lost. Even Makoto had the chance to save the one she loved. Rei was denied any type of salvation. Even now, as the warm tears stained her cheeks and the soft whispers of her own voice seemed to have no effect on Yamito's daze, she didn't really know if he was alive or if this was just another cruel form of torture given to her for this blind love she held for him. Was he alive? Was this merely a dream after all? Such questions became nothing as the voice, the one that could stop a thousand tumult thoughts in her mind, made her breast swell against him in sheer ecstasy.
"Rei? Is that you?"
"Yes," she said, her words nearly choking in her throat as she smiled at him, "I'm here for you."
"I'm afraid. Why am I so afraid? Why can't I –"
His voice began to waver out of control but Rei quickly stopped him, placing her hand over his lips and trying not to scare him further by crying. "It's okay, really. I won't let anything happen to you, Yami-chan. I'll protect you from anything that could hurt you," she promised, wrapping her arms around him tightly and burying her face into the nape of his neck.
He could feel the tears wetting his skin, yet his arms would not obey his order to move around her. It was as if he was a doll, hanging lifelessly by the black haze across his back and unable to move on his own. Somehow, he understood it, yet it was the prime force behind his fear and attraction to it. However, Rei's embrace was the single factor bringing him clarity in a time that offered none, so all else was forgotten within the arms of a lost lover's longing.
"I'm sorry, Rei," he said suddenly.
This confession broke her eyes open quickly, but she feared that if she were to let him go or move at all the dream would take her away from him and she would be sent right back into the forlorn trance she had been in since his death. "Why?" she asked, her voice still catching harshly in her throat.
"For what I am," he replied solemnly.
It caused the tears to come rushing from her eyes once more and she whimpered, pressing her face back into his neck with only random denials potent on her lips. Was it not enough that he had to bear this unnatural power and destiny, but did he also have to hate himself because of it? He was the most beautiful creature she had ever known and there was not a single part of her that did not love him completely. To hear him forsake his very existence drove a dagger into her heart and she wanted, above all else, to prove to him that what he was could be nothing less of perfection.
At least, she thought so.
Long ago Kage had forgotten what was the real him. His life was first decimated when both of his parents were killed in an earthquake, the strongest earthquake to hit Tokyo in over a hundred years. Being only nine years old and then the only person who could take care of his five year old sister, Kage was instantly forced to forget a normal childhood and begin his life of taking care of not only himself but the helpless young sister he had always teased and taunted. However, necessity is the single most powerful driving force in maturity and soon Kage was looking at the world in a whole new light. Mika was the only family he had left, the only real thing he had in the world. After a year in and out of temporary homes, he had grown to love her with a ferocity that eclipsed the destruction of the very earthquake that destroyed his life. Thus, Kage grew and endured.
His life changed two-fold in the next several years. Soon he was serving the monastery, poised to relinquish his life to servitude in order to give Mika the chance to attend school and have a warm place to sleep. Soon Kage was learning not only the life lessons and history contained within the monk's vast vessel of knowledge, but he was quickly becoming a very skilled martial artist. After his domination of traditional arts such as karate and aikido, he began his tutelage in the mystic and ancient form known only to the monks of that order. The style was known as Ryushuuken. This was the form he used now, a beautiful discipline of kicks for offense and powerful upper-body movements for defense. There were few forms that could match well against Ryushuuken and Kage was fast becoming the most gifted student the monastery had ever seen. Perhaps, in some small way, it was the fact that Kage had found his powers as a Scion early in his training and used the experience he had gained to accentuate his art form that defined him as an apt pupil.
The seventeen-year old Kage was just about ready to begin his final training with the grandmaster himself when the unthinkable happened. Tragedy was befalling the world in the form of Anubis. Not even his friend Ryu could seem to stave this horror that was crawling over the city like a ghastly phantom. The life of a disciplined, centered Kage came to an end when two of his own kind, the Scion of Uranus and Neptune, left the broken shell of Yamamori Mika on the ground for Kage to see, letting even his Acrolyth form weep over the body that had anchored his humanity. Not even the celestial sword of Jupiter being impaled through his shoulder compared to the agony that tore at his heart.
Kage was then a different person once more. This time he was distant and indifferent to the world. Much to the shock and sadness to his friends and fellow Scion, the seed of hatred was planted into Kage with all of the nurturing odium required to create an insidious creature. The smoking, the fighting and the arguing all became outward representations of this seedling shade that was festering and growing inside of him. He was not the same person he was. With the catalyst of a new world, a new Anubis and a new chance on getting his hands on the two that had caused him such agony, coupled with the unsettling affections of a young girl with the same power as he, Kage began to spiral once again, embracing this odious tree within his soul and forsaking everything but the purpose of taking revenge on all things for the life he had been handed. Truly, all he wanted now was the see the world broken and lying in his arms, bleeding tears and whispering his name softly to the Charites.
Staring down into the puddle of blood, Kage could see his reflection in some lewd, darkened form. The blood was his and it trickled from his lips, nose and a rather large wound above his right eye, the product of a scorned young woman with heartache and heartbreak in her eyes. Kage could barely understand how a girl he had so easily bested before was now seemingly unbeatable. Looking up, his bloodied face furrowed into a mosaic of dispute, he watched Sailor Star Jupiter staring right back at him, her chest heaving in frustration and exhaustion, her brow buried across her usually gentle eyes.
Kage spit, adding to the blood on the ground, then pushed himself to his feet weakly all while trying to ignore all of the pain racking his body. He could not remember anything now; not Ryushuuken, not Mika and not even himself. All that was there now was this revenge that fueled his every breath, suspended his every thought. "I won't lose to you. You won't stop me from getting my revenge," he snarled, his stance barely stable enough to keep him standing but his eyes and voice wavering with each passing moment.
Sailor Jupiter knew that this fight was over, as did both of the other senshi watching from a small distance away. Each of them had grown to care for Kage, even if he managed to not see it, and they were all appalled and remorseful at seeing him like this. Sailor Jupiter's gloves were stained with blood, something that she didn't often see due to the nature of her enemies. Her uniform was also stained, but with a mix of blood and tears brought on by the fact that the one she was hurting no was not only Kage, but herself with each kick or punch. It was completely against her nature, but she had to fight the person she cared for and force him out of this chasm he had fallen into.
"You have to stop, Kage. You're not even fighting for revenge anymore. You're just fighting!" she called, not willing to loosen her stance even for a moment.
"What the hell do you know? You have a perfect little life with perfect little friends and nothing to make you wake up screaming in the night. You aren't allowed to look down on me!" he roared, the last of his lightning cascading down his arms into a point before him and firing like a massive cannon at her. She didn't even move. The blast sailed to the right of her and broke several trees in half, but obviously showed just how exhausted he was.
Sailor Jupiter just pressed her lips together and clenched her teeth, hatful towards him for being so stubborn. It was Sailor Star Uranus that spoke to him over the raging of his breaths. "Look at yourself, Kage. Even if you could fight the ones you wanted to, you'd be no match for them. You can't use your energy attacks, your Ryushuuken style is completely gone and you can't even rationalize this hatred anymore," she said.
"Bullshit! Your new powers are the reason I can't beat you. When I come back, I'll be twice as strong and kill you all," he snarled.
"Pathetic," she replied. "Do you really believe that? You don't even sound like the Kage I knew. There's nothing about our new powers that could defeat you. You just know you're wrong."
If there was one thing that enraged Kage, it was being told that he was wrong. With the last of his energy, he surged forward towards Sailor Uranus in a futile attempt to make her the one that was wrong about him, though his chance would never come. Sailor Jupiter's foot raked him across the face and he was sent onto the ground again, all of his energy depleted and all of his presence blown away. Sailor Jupiter stood in front of her fellow senshi, her eyes still burning with tears but her throat unable to produce anything besides the pulsing whimpers at the atrocities she was committing. How love could bloom out of blood-soaked ground, she could not imagine. However, this was something that had to be done.
Kage stirred again, his arms moving under him but his face hidden from them all by his shoulder. It was obvious he was in bad shape, for his form wavered under the strain of his weight, as if both of his arms were fractured or lost. Yet, he still moved with all of the purpose of getting back up, a move that sent a wave of pity over each of the senshi.
"Stay down, Kage! This fight is over!" Sailor Star Neptune called, her eyes alive with the reflection of a pathetic Scion.
Sailor Uranus was also on her toes to suppress him, but Kage continued to attempt his revival against the bitter odds of his weakened body and shattered soul. His eyes stared at the ground, barely open and hardly alive. The blood was still dripping from him but he could not longer feel it. His mind was infused with a red haze but he could no longer sense any difference. There was only one thought in his mind. Get up. His arms shook under him, bowing under his weight, and he quickly collapsed back onto his chest with a wrenching groan of pain. Whether it was his or not, he couldn't even tell. Again, he tried to push himself up but even his body knew that this was futile now. He was beaten.
Sailor Jupiter stepped forward and stood over him, her eyes hidden from the world by a lowered head and merciful curls of hair. Sailor Uranus had called out to her in an effort to confirm the end of this fight, the end of Kage's rebellion against them, but she did not answer. She stood, looking down at him as he tried to stand, her tears falling from the bottom of her chin to dot his back. There was no doubt that he was merely a pathetic creature now, unable to function within the realm of the greater good. Although the idea of beating him senseless until he relinquished this idea of unconditional revenge was still potent on her mind, she stared down at him and listened to the ranting coming from his mouth, the relentless rancor that saturated each word and the indomitable power behind his convictions to kill the two who had hurt him. She knew, at once, that he would never give up this revenge.
It broke her heart.
Quickly kneeling next to him, she took him into her arms and held his limp form against her, disregarding the blood and struggle merely to have a moment with him in her arms. Both Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus gasped, finding the entire scene a reason to pity them both, either for love lost or for hate immortal. Sailor Jupiter just held him, crying into his chest all while he laid there, his eyes cast into heaven and his mouth gaping in sheer disbelief. It was a surreal feeling, this young girl holding to him without regard for his deeds or motives. For a mere moment, even if he had wanted to push her away and threaten her against repeat, he was unable to stop her from holding him and giving him a glimpse of the things she was fighting so hard to gain. His body in shambles and his mind following in suit, this small moment of solace ceased his malicious intent and gave him, even if but that glorious moment, a sliver of peace in a tormented whole.
The thing she whispered to him was heard by no one else. It was something meant for him in this moment, where his mind was quelled and his defenses torn to pieces. The single sentence she spoke to him was short, but it had the effect of hollowing his eyes, making them malleable to the stars that shined down onto them and dotted his pupils with white over green. After she said it, she merely leaned back up and smiled at him, his blood smeared on her cheek and her tears washing it clean. In that moment, when all of his struggle had been brought to this woeful end and he was on the verge of touching the dark pool, he was suddenly aware of just piercing her beauty was, as if until then he had just been too arrogant to see it. There was nothing in sutra or song that could have aptly described just how divine she appeared to him, with a chorus of stars framing her face while a thousand notes played through the night in wind and water.
He had never been so frightened before. She was too beautiful. There was nothing within him that could rationalize the thing she told him, so there was only one recourse. To flee from fear, it took everything Kage had left to disappear from her arms by the last pining of his mind. There was no surprise in her eyes, just a light sigh through a lingering smile for Sailor Jupiter. Under the shocked vigilance of the other two senshi, she rose to her feet and turned, walking past them with no explanation of reason. Merely, she left the smile on her face as she headed home, satisfied with what she had accomplished and feeling that there was nothing more she could do in this matter, aside from her duty to Usagi. She had already served her heart's interest and, should she never know love again, could live with the heartache she felt.
There was nothing more that could be expected of the girl.