Alright, So I'm back…kind of. I apologize for having disappeared for so long (longer than normal, at least) but I'll do my best to continue with updates a little more methodically. Again, all the previous chapters have been edited, and names in the second arc have been changed. Heero=Hiiro; Trowa=Triton; Quatre=Cat. (Wufei and Duo have no changes given that the only names I could have created with them were appreciably stupid, like Wufae for Wufei and Deux or Dio for Duo)
Thank you Silver Caladan, JB, and for the info on the Serena/Mina thing. I guess we'll all just have to accept my rewriting of history (since I'm already doing it.) Next time I'll try to research harder = )!
From Then To Now Til Later
Arc 2: Chapter 7: Budding Evil
By: AutumnHime
Mina rushed up the stairs, in a hurry to get to her soon-to-be-ex-betrothed's apartment. She had been eager for the sight of the tall brunette all day, although why, she didn't know. She hit the last step and sprang around the corner when shock made her stop and concern propelled her forward again at the sight that had met her eyes. Triton sat propped against his door, his eyes closed. Mina knelt down next to the teen, feeling something give as she did so.
"Triton?" She reached for his wrist, intent on checking his pulse. She sighed in relief when she found it. "C'mon, Triton, wake up." She shook him gently. When that did nothing, she lightly slapped his wrist and nearly grinned when he groaned. "Up and at 'em, Stille, you have places to take me shopping so you can report to your parents that I'm flighty and wasteful, and I can report to mine that you are a Scrooge." When this elicited no further responses, Mina slapped his cheeks lightly, and then harder. Still nothing. "Hmmm…Well, let's see if you have the key on you anywhere. Maybe you'll wake up if you are more comfortable."
Mina began her search of the European teen's uniform. "No key in the breast pocket, no key in the jacket pocket, no key in the front pants pockets, I guess that leaves…" Mina trailed off as she realized that the last place the key, if it was on her betrothed, could be, was in his back pants pocket. "Ummm…don't mind me," She told the unconscious boy as she lifted him a little forward and began to reach into the pocket.
She nearly screamed as a hand grabbed her wrist.
"And what do you think you're doing?"
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Trowa was floating in a world of silence. Memories had come at him from every direction until he could take it no longer and willed them all to become silent until he could handle the information rush. He carefully studied one of them. It depicted a court ball. He tossed that one aside. He was about to reach for another one when he heard someone call his name. "Mina…ko?" He mused wordlessly to himself. He groaned as he felt two stinging raps on his wrists, and then devoted himself to the task of climbing back to the surface from the depth of his mind, ignoring the pain from slaps on his cheeks.
He felt someone reach around him trying to find the key to the door that his back rested upon and he climbed faster in response.
He managed to surface as the person lifted him away from the door to get at his back pockets. Thief? He mused. His hand snapped around to catch the stranger's wrist.
"And what do you think you're doing?" Trowa's voice was absent of any emotions, as he opened his eyes to study the person whom he had caught.
The light blinded him at first, causing him to squint and his head to swim with pain. Eventually, his eyes adjusted and he turned to face the person sitting next to him.
He gasped, just as she threw her arms around his waist and hugged him.
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Universal point of view
Mina, frozen in shock when the hand had grabbed her and Triton had spoken, turned and threw her arms around the lithe youth, who sat there stiffly, before returning her hug.
Trowa couldn't believe his eyes. His love, whom he had thought dead was alive and in his arms once again. After a few seconds of just staring down into the mass of blonde hair gathered against his chest, he returned her hug, unaware of the tears that streamed down his face.
Mina looked up as she felt something wet land on her head. "Triton? Are you OK?" Her cerulean eyes widened in concern as she took in the drops of water rolling down his cheeks.
"I'm fine, Minak…" Wait a minute. Triton? And the memories stampeded through his head again.
He remembered her death and his curse upon her murderer.
A bright sphere of light formed in front of the Princess of Venus's face. Inside the glowing ball, a stone sword waited to be clasped. She struggled to her feet, reaching out for the hilt. Zoisite, too caught up in her evil plans, noticed the sword too late.
"KILL HER!" She screamed to the grinning monsters.
Venus responded with the last of her strength. "ARTEMIS SWORD," she screamed the battle cries of a warrior going to her doom and relishing it, "SWEEP!" Venus spun, destroying wave after wave of the demonic horde. The dead piled up until the glowing top that the Soldier of Venus and the sword formed begun to slow, began to wobble, just a bit. The monsters pressed in again, eager for the kill. Venus crashed to the ground, transforming back into Minako during the fall. Yet the hard landing that she had expected never came. A wordless scream of pain, the fourth of those sounded that night, hair-raising and mind shattering in its intensity filled the night to the point where the air itself seemed to shriek, and then shattered even that; and immediately before her bruised and battered body met the earth, arms grasped her. She had barely enough time to gaze into Nanashi's concerned green gaze before the earth spun once more, black dots waltzed in front of her eyes, and she tumbled free of her mortal coil.
Nanashi set Minako gently upon a bed of lilies. His eyes changed from their concerned look to one of emerald hardness. He glared at Zoisite.
"Oh dear, did I hurt your beloved? Sooo sorry," she mocked, unaware of the danger that Nanashi truly posed.
The normally quiet god grew savage. "Zoisite, for the crimes you have committed against the Reign of the Moon, you will die. For the death of my fiancee, if I were you, I'd pray that you are never reborn. Every time silence suddenly falls, you will fear that I am right behind you, and I will be. You will have to live in constant noise, never a peaceful, quiet moment, for I will stalk you from this day forward, through this millennium and the next and every one after that. You will grow slowly insane and ever more paranoid, until one day, when you least expect it, I'm in front of you and you die once again." The cold rage in his eyes suddenly ignited, as he gathered what energy he had left from getting here so quickly into a single attack. "Now DIE! SILENT ARROW STRIKE!"
Crimson burst through the air as Trowa sank down next to Minako, touching her golden hair once more and cocooning himself in the silence, before he drifted peacefully into a coma.
He remember meeting Wufei for the first time in this lifetime.
A tall patrician looking man stood in the door to his room. The boy with hair that already refused to obey its owner's command to stay out of one of his deep green eyes looked gravely at his father.
"Triton, the son of some friends of your mother and I is here. I expect you to entertain him while his parents visit." The man in the doorway then turned around and directed another little boy into the room. This one had black hair that, had it been down, would have reached to his shoulders. Instead it was pulled back so tightly, Triton wondered if the boy didn't cry every morning when it was done that way. The boy had almond-shaped onyx eyes that challenged everything he saw.
Triton stepped forward. "I'm Triton Stille," he had declared, shoving one little hand towards the newcomer. "Would you like to play with my toys."
The Chinese boy did not respond for a few seconds. "I am Ryu Wufei. It is a pleasure to meet you." The formal words would have made Triton laugh had his new acquaintance not looked like he was ready to fight at the slightest hint of ridicule on the slightly taller child's face.
Triton's father, sure that the children would get along, left.
They did. Even at the age of four, Wufei preferred solitude and meditation to the normal activities of young children…although that didn't mean he couldn't be coerced into the occasional game of tag or hide-and-seek. Triton too preferred to be quiet and play his musical instruments. They got along splendidly.
He remembered meeting Mina in this life for the first time.
He stood impatiently, waiting for his "betrothed" at the airport. His eyes brushed past the girl in bright orange, dismissing her as an option. His feet had another agenda in mind. Without conscious thought, Triton found himself standing in front of the blonde.
She looked at him curiously. "Are you Triton Stille?"
He responded in the affirmative.
"I'm Mina. I hope you know, I'm going to do anything I can to break up this betrothal." Her blue eyes crystallized with the sincerity of her statement. She blinked and the moment was gone. "Now that that's settled, let's get my bags."
With that, Triton did something unexpected. He laughed.
Oh goddess, Wufei must have remembered their past as well, no wonder he looked so different.
Mina broke into his thoughts once more. "Triton? Are you alright?"
Triton blinked, clearing his eyes of the memories that haunted them, and hugged her tightly to his chest once more. "Except for the splitting headache, I'm fine Mina. I'm wonderful."
"Excellent. Then let's get you up, in your apartment, and put you to bed. You aren't fit to go shopping or help me figure out ways to break the betrothal today."
Triton nodded as he let her help him stand. He didn't tell her that he no longer had any intention of letting the betrothal be broken. She was his, and he would just have to make her understand that.
Mina looked up into the emerald eyes of the teen she had known for less than two days and already cared for, wondering about the change that she could feel.
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Serena was on her way home from school. Once again, she was forced to sit through detention for being the tiniest bit late, and now she had to walk home in the dark.
Creepy, she thought, studying the pathways in front of her. She shuddered. The streetlamps provided the only oases of light in the dark, and yet served to make the trees and benches around them even more sinister. She turned into the park that provided the quickest way home.
Footsteps echoed behind her. Serena whirled, expecting to see someone behind her, but nobody was there. She began walking again, not noticing the gleaming green eyes crouched down by a bush or the small hint of exposed flesh visible in the branches of a tree she had passed scarce seconds ago.
Footsteps again. This time, Serena didn't turn, but shivered and began to walk faster. From experience, she knew that the center of the park was just ahead, and had much better illumination than the rest of the park. She could stop and catch her breath there, not to mention calm her nerves.
Fate had other plans. Serena reached her haven with her eyes towards the ground, not wanting to be blinded by the bright lights. Thus she didn't see the scaly arm that reached out and grabbed her.
"AAAAAAAAAA!" Her scream echoed off the branches of trees, cut off abruptly by the feeling of energy suddenly draining from her body.
"Hellooo. Have you come to join my efforts in providing my masters with power?" The voice that belonged to the arm currently attached to Serena was high-pitched and evil.
Serena blinked as her eyes became adjusted to the light. And soon wished she hadn't. Bodies littered the concrete walk. She could still make out their chests moving, so they were alive, but they looked dead. Men and women alike had a pallor to the normally lively tones of their skin, waxen and drawn across their cheekbones. Dark bags added to the effect.
"Wha…What's going on?" She tried to jerk her arm away from the steel grip of whoever held her, but only managed a weak tug.
Soon, she felt herself falling…
In the darkness, a small shape bunched itself up, preparing to pounce on the arm of the purple and tan monster holding the end to her search. Before her action could be completed, a hand jerked her up by the nape of the neck and the black cat Luna, former advisor to the Queen of the Moon found herself staring into cobalt eyes hidden behind a half mask.
She was about to swipe a paw at the man's face when he spoke.
"Don't wake her up yet. Let her stay this way for a few more days, please?" The man asked, his voice soft and wistful, yet at the same time sad. "She'll have more than enough to face all too soon, so let her sleep in peace for a little while longer."
Luna could barely nod; the look of longing and sorrow in the man's eyes enough to drown a giant, much less a cat.
"Thank you." The man breathed before putting her down and silently moving across the shadows.
What happened next happened to quickly for Luna to catch. One minute, Serena was in the grip of the monster, the next, in the arms of the masked man. The monster looked stunned for a second before it slowly began to break into particles of dust.
"NOOOOOO…This can't happen to the Tactilatooooorrr." And then, the monster was gone, blown in a thousand thousand directions by a gust of wind.
When Luna looked back toward where the stranger had stood, he was gone and so was his burden.
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*Apollo.*
Cat jerked up from where he had been lazily perusing a book. He didn't recognize the voice in his head, but given the feel of peace hard won, he only had one guess.
*Ares?*
*Come to the park gates. I have something you might want.* With that command, the presence that was Ares disappeared from Cat's senses.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to see what he wants," Cat mused to himself.
He walked out of the house and headed down the street. When he arrived at the gates, the slim figure that was the God of War stepped out of the shadows, carrying…Serena?! in his arms.
Cat rushed forward. "What happened?"
Hiiro looked at him, his chocolate-colored hair waving in an invisible wind. "The Negaverse is on the rise again."
With that, he deposited Serena into Cat's outstretched arms, and disappeared.
Cat slowly walked back to the Tsukino household with his burden cradled in his arms. So as not to worry his aunt or uncle, he bent the light around them, shielding them from sight and carried Serena up to her room.
She stirred as he placed her on the bed, eyes slowly opening to show their brilliant blue depths. "Cat?" She asked sleepily.
Cat smiled, and brushed her golden hair out of her eyes. "Go to sleep, coz. You're safe."
Serena turned to her side and curled up, breathing becoming slower and more even as sleep overtook her.
Apollo rose and slowly left the room.
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And there ends chapter 7. Like I said, I'll do my best to update a little more regularly…but I'm not exactly responsible.
Don't forget to review!
AH