Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story but the idea and the title.
Red.
Her favorite color is red.
One thousand red roses, and he brought them all for her. She is laughing with delight, dancing through the flowers, her red skirt floating around her on the sweet breeze. He watches her, his heart clenching with pain.
He loves her so.
Bending, she lifts a perfect blossom into her hands and presses it to her face, inhaling deeply the sweet perfume. She looks over the velvety red petals, her eyes shining into his.
"Jadeite! They are so beautiful!"
He steps through the scattered red roses, careful not to mar a single petal. He brought them all for her, and they must be perfect. For she is perfect.
Then, she is in his arms. Her red lips are on his, and he lifts her off the ground with his arms around her waist. They kiss, and they laugh.
"Arigatou, my Jadeite!" she whispers in his ear.
He puts her down, and smiles. "Do you like them?"
"I love them!" She looks down, and gives a half-giggle, half-groan, stepping back. "Oh, Jadeite, look what you have done!"
The bloom she held has been crushed in their embrace, staining her white blouse red, just over her heart.
He touches her hair. "Do you love me?"
This makes her laugh more, and her eyes shine brighter. "Hai! I will always love you!"
He puts out his arm for her, and she flies again into his embrace.
But suddenly, she stops. Her smile slips a little, and she looks almost puzzled. A slight laugh comes from her red lips, but it is an astonished sound.
"Jadeite?"
He watches as she steps back, her eyes slowly leaving his to travel down. The red flower on her blouse is growing, spreading quickly across her chest. Both gaze at it in wonder, until she raises her face once more to his.
"What have you done?"
He begins to hold out both arms to her, but instead looks down in surprise. His sword is in his right hand. How did it get there?
She is still staring at him, her eyes shining ever brighter. Then the shine overflows, and tears are falling from her cheeks. He doesn't want her to cry, but he can't seem to move.
"Why?"
Her lips quiver on that one word, red and shining. Then the shine spills, and the red is spilling from her lips, onto her white skin. Her white legs tremble weakly under her red skirt. Her red symbol is dimming on her forehead.
His sword is in his hand, and the silver blade is stained with red roses.
"Jadeite, you swore you loved me."
He does love her.
But it is hard to explain, when his sword is in his hand, and the red stain has nothing to do with roses, and everything to do with life.
"How could you betray me?"
There are no roses on the white marble. There is only red, staining the palace stairs, and spilling from her heart.
"I loved you!"
Red on his blade, and red on her blouse.
The color of roses…
Bending, her knees give out. She slumps to the ground. There is no white marble, only that most terrible color everywhere.
"I trusted you!"
Red on his hands, wet and hot.
The color of blood…
"I hate you!" Her eyes are fiery, fierce, burning as they begin to close. "I will never forgive you!"
Please don't die! he silently begs. But the red is everywhere, and there is nothing he can do.
Red roses.
Red blood.
Red washing away her life.
The color of Mars…
Red on his hands, on his blade, and she is gone.
"MARS!"
Blue eyes snapped open, then closed while their owner groaned in pain. Jadeite moved a hand to hold the light at bay, and carefully raised his lids to half-mast. Where in all the Universe am I?!?
Recognition clicked in. He lay on the couch in the Prince's apartment. From the rosy color of the light, it was just after dawn. The room appeared deserted.
Sighing, Jadeite let his hand fall limply back to his chest, and closed his eyes again. Part of him desperately wanted to have awoken to find beautiful Mars kneeling beside him, her face fixed with tender concern. Another part of him was relieved she did not kneel at his side, his dagger in her hand, ready to settle the score.
The darkest, deepest part of his heart wished she would take her vengeance, and let him return to the peace of oblivion, far from his memories, and her.
Damn that woman! She always was trouble!
"Are you dead?"
Jadeite allowed a small grin. "Unfortunately, no." He deigned to squint up at the tall figure with the dark cascade of hair. "Where the hell have you been, Nephrite?"
The other man sank into the nearest chair. "A good question, old friend. Where have we all been?"
"I'm not asking for a philosophic discussion, I'm asking why we didn't find you in the same park as the rest of us!" He frowned. "And why did we come back in that park? I don't think I was ever there before."
"Me, neither. I mean, I did wake up in the same park. But I ran into someone before I could find you all."
"Someone?" Jadeite quizzed.
"A friend."
His eyes opened all the way. "A friend I don't know? Who was it?"
Suddenly, Nephrite wouldn't look him in the face. He seemed to find his boots incredibly fascinating. "I don't want to talk about that just now. What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Last night you looked like hell, even before that monster got Its claws on you," Nephrite reminded him.
Jadeite laughed bitterly. "The claws I can deal with. It's the tongue that will kill you."
"It almost killed you," Nephrite said quietly. "But what happened to your face?"
He received a silent, vicious glower in reply. Another, laughing, voice told him, "Your 'Emerald Thunder Goddess'! I can't believe you call her that."
Zoisite came around the couch, grinning cheerily down at Jadeite. "You're alive! We were starting to wonder."
"If that crazed giantess had her way, I would already be dead!"
"Too true! Weren't you going to tell Nephrite something?"
"Hai." Jadeite looked his friend squarely in the eye. "I deplore your taste in women."
Nephrite ducked his head, unsuccessfully trying to hide his laughter. "What did my Jupiter do to you?"
"She kicked me, hit me, kicked me again, and then hit me in the face with a book."
"A book?" Nephrite echoed blankly.
"That came later," Kunzite explained, entering with a brimming glass. "And you wouldn't have been hit if you had ducked."
"How could I have seen it coming over your head, you oversized brute?" He eyed the glass hopefully. "Any chance that's for me?"
"Nope. Get your own."
"I'm an invalid!" Jadeite reminded them.
"You're a loud invalid!"
The Prince came into view with another glass, which he kindly handed to Jadeite. He grumbled his thanks, levering himself into an upright position. After taking a long drink, he paused to sigh contentedly.
"The modern world has one thing over our kingdom. Soda pop!"
"Told you," Kunzite muttered to the Prince, grinning.
Jadeite tipped the drink again, and managed to finish the contents in several swallows without stopping for air, earning their incredulous gazes. He put the glass aside
and ran a hand over his face.
"Hey!"
Zoisite chuckled. "I was wondering when you'd notice that. The Princess healed you last night. Healed us all, actually."
"But then you passed back out, and made her very worried," Kunzite said sternly. "That was very ungrateful of you."
"Take it up with that monster," Jadeite advised dryly.
"We will do just that, and more."
All five men jumped, Kunzite quietly cursing as soda slopped into his lap. Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru closed the door behind them, kicked off their shoes, and advanced into the apartment.
"My lord, will you please learn to lock your door?" Kunzite begged, dabbing at his pants with a tissue. "Damnation!"
"Why are you so upset? Those are my jeans!" the Prince reminded him.
The trio of women stopped at the Prince's side, opposite Kunzite, and regarded the four resurrected men with varying levels of uncertainty and hostility. Nephrite and Zoisite averted their eyes meekly, Kunzite faced them with cool confidence, and Jadeite grumbled irritably.
"Keep it up, and even the Princess won't be able to save you," Haruka snapped.
Jadeite straightened to glare back. "Shall we give it a go, m'lady?"
"Enough!" the Prince cut in sharply. "We are all on the same side."
Blue eyes held for a moment longer, then dropped obediently. Michiru lay a hand on her lover's shoulder comfortingly.
"Not to destroy the amiable atmosphere," Nephrite cut in, "but the others filled me in while Jadeite was napping-"
"Hey!"
"- and this monster is a frightening enigma. How can anything break free of something so powerful as this… black hole thing?"
Zoisite winced, mouthing painfully, "'Black hole thing?'"
"Perhaps… It did not come out the way It went in," the Prince mused.
"What do you mean?" Kunzite asked.
"It is impossible for It to have escaped the gravity of the black hole, but what if the hole is only a gateway into this other dimension, this Abyss? So, instead of pushing Its way back through the mouth, It clawed Its way through the walls."
"But It didn't have enough mass to create a true black hole," Zoisite picked up in excited tones. "The Abyss is trying to pull us into itself without the help of a collapsed star. It can't do that without more energy."
Michiru raised a finger to break in. "Is that why that foul wind was able to escape when the Abyss devoured Mars' Flame Sniper?"
"It ate her attack?" Jadeite yelped. "Oh, I'm sure she was thrilled."
"She became slightly irate," Haruka remembered, smirking.
Zoisite tapped his fingers on his knees excitedly. "But that would make sense. The more energy the Abyss receives, or the more matter it can convert into energy, the stronger it gets, and the thinner the barrier between us becomes."
"So our first priority is to keep it from obtaining any more energy," the Prince said firmly, "in any form."
"How can we do that?" Setsuna asked. "The only way would be to post guards at the alley around the clock. That will not work, as we cannot risk having our guards go insane at night when the Abyss tells them to, and feeding it attacks."
"Not to mention the attention it would call to see someone standing outside an apartment building for days on end," Jadeite added.
Kunzite pursed his lips thoughtfully. "We need someplace protected, from which we can see the alley, but also at a safe distance."
"And enclosed," Haruka added bleakly.
Silence settled over the apartment for a moment. Then, slowly, Zoisite raised his hand, a pained expression on his face. "I have an idea."