AN: Hey guys. Sorry this chapter took so long. It was really a pain in the butt to write and I'm not sure I like it at all. That's ok, though. Onwards and upwards, right? Ugh.
Thank you to all that reviewed the last chapter and this story in general. It's what has kept me going, honestly. Please review and tell me if you liked this chapter or what you think I need to work on.
More author's notes at the end, but they're necessary.
Minako held her breath as she knocked lightly upon the door of the Queen's makeshift bedchambers. The corridor was empty and quiet, so even the small sound her knuckles made reverberated loudly. Wincing at the noise, she fiddled nervously with the hem of her skirt and counted her breaths while she waited. It was Ami who opened the door.
"Is she still up?" Minako asked, trying to fight the urge to look away from her friend's quietly examining eyes. Ami nodded.
"Yes. Luna and I were helping her prepare notes for tomorrow." She back stepped a little to allow Minako room to move inside, an opportunity the nervous blonde took quickly. "Serenity..."
"Is safely in bed," Minako finished, and again Ami nodded, this time looking visibly relieved, and began to lead Minako into the room where Queen Serenity was.
The room was large and well decorated, obviously having been redone at the last minute with this new guest in mind. All of the sheets and chairs were a pale, silvery white, and a large, gossamer canopy the color of the Queen's dress flowed down from the top of the bed. Perched on a small couch of matching color, the Queen sat with papers in her hand, almost seeming to blend into the room itself until she looked up and caught eyes with Minako. She didn't stand, and Minako made no gesture of bowing. The air felt hot and thick.
Minako had always looked up to the Queen of the Moon (surely she still did) but there had once been a time, as for the Princess herself, where a much more palpable emotion had been between them. When the King had been alive, Serenity (the elder) had been wise and assured and yet ceaselessly patient. Minako had been young and confused and yet amazingly curious. Together they had created a relationship nearly as close as the Queen and Princess themselves, and yet...
And yet, the good days had long ended. The King had died unexpectedly (mysteriously), Minako had become the leader of the inner senshi, and the Queen... the Queen had become cold and distant, serious and over powering. Now Minako, who had long since passed the days of being clumsy and childish, longed for nothing more in that moment than to fall in front of the Queen and lift eyes to her filled with admiration and respect, to feel the touch of a soothing hand on her forehead and a cool laugh in her ear. Ached to see the woman that she had once thought of as a second mother.
But sitting on the couch was only Queen Serenity as she now was: regal and serious and coldly beautiful.
"Venus?" she asked, Luna stirring to look up at the soldier also. Minako fumbled momentarily before stepping forward.
"Yes, Queen Serenity. I...I wanted to speak to you about the princess if I may."
"Is she..."
"She's well. It's just..." Minako faltered, fighting for the right words and fearing they might never come. Finally she opened her mouth and allowed it all to flow out: "She has so many questions. She wants to know why she is being kept from meeting the prince and princess, and she is confused about the hostility from the people of Earth. I think..."
But the Queen was already standing and Luna was joining her, flicking her tail around her feet almost protectively and looking at Minako in sudden distrust. Minako's words dried up.
"You think I should talk to her, is that it? Tell her that all of her fears are silly, that no one dislikes her and that the people of Earth has no right to their worries? Do you want me to lie to her?"
Minako shook her head and felt the rage bubble up inside her, sudden and intoxicating. Do you want me to lie to her? Hadn't they been doing that all along? Surely she could not stand before her and pretend to be doing this for the good of Serenity. Surely she could not believe that.
"No, your Majesty," she looked at the Queen as the mocking title rolled from her tongue and felt a sharp pang of unpleasant happiness when the silver haired woman flinched. "I do not wish to lie. I only wish for you to understand that Serenity is no longer a child. Her blind trust in you, in all of this, is fading quickly. She needs you to be honest with her. Is this treaty with Earth worth the loss of your daughter?"
"This treaty with Earth is everything!" Serenity shouted, and it was Minako's turn to flinch. They stood there for a moment in near silence, the sound of the Queen's harsh, uneven breathing mixing with the shuffle of Luna's tail. Neither Minako nor Ami, who was still standing next to the doorway with wide eyes, could believe what they had heard. Serenity herself seemed a bit surprised. She touched the arm of the couch and closed her eyes.
"We as a people, I as a Queen, as a mother, as a... wife, have sacrificed too much to let this treaty die right when it is on the verge of passing." Now she turned to Minako, her eyes filled with something close to pleading, as close as she had ever come to begging for understanding. "Do you not know of our sacrifice, Minako? Do you think I am cold? Heartless? Do you think I care nothing for my daughter?"
Minako raised a hand to her heart, choking on tears she had promised never to shed. Many promises had been broken, however, and many lies had been told.
"I feel her worry and fear, Serenity," she whispered, feeling like a child for the first time in years and not especially enjoying the emotion. "I feel her pain. She thinks you don't love her anymore."
Minako's eyes moved back to the Queen's almost fearfully but this time the clash was much softer. Breathing in quickly, she took in the sight of Serenity's large eyes full of tears and heartbreak, thinking in that moment how much she looked like the princess, and feeling her own heart break because of it.
"I love her. But love isn't just kissing someone and holding them tightly. Quietly watching over someone is a kind of love as well."
Minako put her head down once more, took a deep breath, considered her words. When her head came up once again, the tears that had been standing in her eyes before had flowed over onto her cheeks and glimmered there like a million lies, softly, ever so softly accusing. Yes, she knew their sacrifice. But why? She had forgotten what it was for. And now she stood in front of her Queen, a woman she had once called a friend, and she was fighting back the urge to scream in her frustration: but if you're watching so closely then how does it feel like it's all slipping away?
But she could not say that; it wouldn't matter if she did. So instead she only whispered, "Yes, your majesty," and turned to disappear with a swish of her skirt and the familiar clicks of her high-heeled shoes on the marble floor.
When the splashes finally settled down and the two strangers had calmed somewhat, they noticed for the first time how truly wet they had made themselves. Still, for some reason neither knew, they could not stop their giggles.
"I can't believe you fell for that," Serenity/Usagi said, wiping the fountain water (or were those tears of laughter?) from her eyes. "Surely you knew I was going to get you back for all that smirking you were doing."
Mamoru only laughed and shook his head as he tried to stand, taking what looked to be like half of the water with him. Serenity had to force herself to look away quickly from the way his clothes clung to him, smiling just a little at the thought of how Minako would react in her situation. Biting her lips to keep the laughter inside now, she waited for the slosh of water that would signify that he had moved away and it was safe to look again. The only noise was one of him clearing his throat.
Almost shyly she ventured a glance at him and was surprised to see his hand out, smiling at her patiently. Cocking her head to the side, she considered telling him that she didn't trust him, but that was one lie in a sea of lies that she just couldn't let past her lips. She was a trusting soul if ever there was one and something inside of her was screaming that for this man, with his unreadable blue eyes and complicated smile, it was somehow justified. They shared a smile as he took her hand and helped her up.
Her clothes and hair were heavy from the water and almost impossible to move. Her hair, still blonde and thick, clung to her arms and back, restricting her movement and generally being bothersome. Her skirt stuck to her legs when she went to move and with the added weight of the cape, she wasn't sure how she was going to be able to get out of the fountain. As if he set out with the goal in life of frustrating and confusing her, Mamoru jumped quickly and easily, clearing the base of the fountain as if he had floated over in completely dry clothes. Furrowing her brow and seeking to show him just how graceful she really was, Serenity took the hand he offered her and began to calmly step out.
She tripped.
Her foot, weighed down by the water and skirt, didn't quite clear the base of the fountain. Crying out- in warning? In fear? In complete and total frustration?- she reached for Mamoru's shoulders for balance. Taking a step back to counter the added weight, Mamoru's foot tangled in his cape and they both tumbled to the grass for a second time that evening.
"Some Prince Charming you are," Serenity mumbled, her words muffled by Mamoru's chest where she had somehow managed to land in his chest. Her new companion didn't answer.
He had hit his head on a rock and been knocked out.
Everything was misty. The fog covered everything, lying like a thick blanket over every edge of this world. Ahead, through the fog, were two doors, both closed but unlocked. Endymion knew this without being told and without trying. Knowledge seemed to swirl all around but stay somehow out of reach, as tangible and yet untouchable as the fog itself.
A dark figure stepped out of the midst, her long hair swishing around the bottom of her skirt. She was dressed in the familiar outfit of a sailor senshi, a long staff like a key in her right hand. Opening her left hand, she held it out to him, beckoning that he come closer.
"It is beginning. Come prince. You must choose."
He took a step forward, almost against his will, watching in wander as she brought her staff down to slice through the fog. Both doors began to glow around the edges, the door on the left a soft shade of yellow gold, the door on the right a silvery-white barely a different shade than the mist that surrounded them. Both seemed to radiate light and love somehow and, for some reason that was beyond him at that moment, the decision between the two doors felt serious and heart breaking.
He stepped towards the door with the white light and faltered, unsure. What if he chose wrongly? Why did it feel so urgent that he didn't?
A small hand touched his elbow and he tried to turn only to find that he couldn't. Still a voice, familiar and sweet, drifted up to his ears.
"You know what you must do. Walk on," the voice whispered. He felt pain now, physical, as if he was being ripped in two from the inside out.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am the one who walks behind you, now and forever. I cannot guide you, I can only urge you to keep moving, that you may remember even though I am no longer by your side, I remain with you forever."
"Who are you?" he tried to ask again, not satisfied with the answer, but the gentle hand was pushing, urging him to move.
"Walk on, Mamoru," it whispered, so he did.
He paused only once more, spared only one last glance at the door glowing with gold, but by then it had changed and was now a mirror, streaked with red.
Only after he had moved through the white door did he realize that the red tainting the mirror was blood.
And still he walked on.
"Mamoru?"
His head was throbbing like a pulse, pain oozing in and out of every available space in his mind. He could taste copper in the back of his throat, hot and slick when he tried to swallow. He was terrified to open his eyes.
"Mamoru? Mamoru, please. Mamoru!"
The voice was insistent, familiar. He remembered the person from his dream, the angel that had walked behind him. Was it her?
Cracking open his eyes, he had to wince against the light she gave off. He had been right earlier when he said she glowed, and it was even easier to see it now. With her hovering over him, her eyes wide with unshed concern and her hair disheveled, she truly was a sight. A beautiful sight, his mind added, almost as an afterthought.
She was all he could see; she took up all his vision. It was as if she had replaced the sky itself.
"Usagi?"
"Mamoru? Are you all right? We fell and you hit your head and..."
Endymion couldn't help it; he began to laugh. Even though his head pounded, even though his mouth was full of blood and his tongue ached where he must have bitten it on contact with the ground, even when Usagi's beautiful face switched from concern to confusion to anger, even then he couldn't stop the laughter.
"We didn't just fall," he wheezed, wondering why on earth this was so funny. "You tripped and landed on me. What a klutz."
Usagi was on her feet in an instant, hands balled by her side, eyes an angry gleam of fire.
"That all you can say to me? I stay here by your side for five minutes, worried out of my mind that you've fallen on your fat head and killed yourself and all you can say to me is..."
"Please, Usagi," he interrupted, wincing as he touched the back of his head. "I have a headache."
"You have a headache? A headache?" She was shrieking now, and he wasn't sure she was aware of it.
"Yes, well, I did nearly crack my head open on a rock because of you," he said quietly, examining his fingers that were coated in blood from his wound at the back of his head. Laying them flat against the place once more, he closed his eyes and concentrated his energy, hoping Usagi wouldn't notice the gold sparks that flew but desperately needing to heal himself.
"Because of me? Mr. 'I don't trust you, therefore I am following you'? This is my fault now? You're the one who..." Usagi paused from her rant to watch him, confused and mystified. Her voice came out much smaller when she continued. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing, just a little trick someone showed me." He pulled the hand away from his head and it came away clean, not one trace of blood. Serenity, quite capable of a few magic tricks herself, still could not keep herself from gaping and Endymion smiled. "All better. Now, do you think you can help me up without killing one of us?"
Usagi scowled deeply but still offered her hand, which he took gratefully. Stumbling up to his feet, he nearly lost his balance and sent them tumbling again, but she steadied him and he gripped her until the gray wave passed. The moon was bright above them, but he knew it was late and he should have been inside to talk to his parents long ago. Looking up at her, he caught her gaze as it softened, melting into something warm and confused and utterly unexplainable. They were inches from each other, only inches and miles, and he felt her frustration as clearly as if it a real thing he could hold in his hand.
He went to speak, and his voice came out husky and surprising, not at all cocky or infuriating like he had hoped. The breath from his words moved the hair that was drying away from her face.
"Do I frustrate you, Usagi?"
She had no words for him for the first time; she could only nod as she took in his closeness and remembered that first surprising touch. What was this?
"You frustrate me too." He told her simply, his gaze honest and unmoving. She started at that.
"Why?"
Leaning up quickly, before he could stop himself or second-guess, he brushed his lips against hers. It was so quick that Serenity, later that night in her room, unable to sleep for the different emotions that coursed through her veins, would wonder if she had imagined it.
Because I can't have you.
Smiling just a bit, the same smile from before that caused Serenity's heart and temper to race simultaneously, Endymion pulled from her embrace and began to walk away. Serenity stood still, her mouth agape as she watched him walk into the darkness. Finally she screamed, "Are you just going to leave me here? Don't you care that a stranger is running around in the royal gardens?"
A sound rang out from the darkness... was it laughter? Yes, it was. He was laughing at her!
"I trust you," he said, and left a very frustrated princess alone in the dark.
A woman, dressed simply in a dark cape and hood pulled over the fire of her hair, made her way quickly down a set of dirty steps. Rats scurried around her, fleeing from the sudden intrusion of a human in their habitat, but she ignored them completely. Pressing a stone on the wall as she had the first day she found this place, she moved inside when the wall moved and waited for a moment in the darkness. In her heart burned a secret anger, an emotion she had tried and failed to shut herself off from, an image that ached like a wound: two people beneath her, intertwined in each other's arms like lovers, lips meeting in the dark. They were both fools, lying to each other and lying to themselves, and yet it burned her. She had only wanted him.
Stepping forward, she hardened her heart against the pain. Light flicked up from the floor out of nowhere and a shapeless piece of darkness suddenly moved up in front of her. Beryl fell immediately to her knees, feeling the bite of the dirt and grit of the stone and fighting back the last tears that she would ever shed.
Why do you come to me? a voice whispered out of the darkness.
Beryl looked up at the form, the mark on its forehead, and the evil promise in its eyes. She paused, knowing there was no turning back, and proceeded to sell her soul.
"I have considered your offer Queen Metallia, and I agree."
The thing cackled with glee.
"Then he shall be yours, and their kingdom shall be mine." The voice, if it could be called that, dropped even lower and Beryl could feel the warm, unpleasant tingle of something foreign touching her cheek. "But first you shall get the princess. She is the key to all of this."
AN: well, what do you think? A little bit dark in places, huh? I know things are still confusing but we'll find out a lot in the next chapter, for example: the prophecy. Dun dun dun. lol.
Also, I need to say that I am drawing a lot on the Manga for this one. I am trying to use lines from the manga to draw the past and present together, but I am NOT trying to pass these lines off as my own. So I'll try to tell you every time I do it. In this chapter, the line that Queen Serenity says to Minako about love ("Quietly watching over someone...") is a badly butchered line from the manga, only in the actual manga, it is Pluto that says that referring to Chibi-Usa. Just wanted to say that.
Oh, and please tell me if you do or don't like the way I'm doing this. It's actually like I'm trying to write a first season sort of romance, only in the silver millennium. I just hope it makes sense.