A/N: ACK! I'm really sorry, guys. Thanks you sooo much for your reviews, they've been a huge bright spot – like the moon – in these past, stress-filled weeks. I'll stop babbling and just let your ead the chapter – I get the feeling that some of you guys may be foaming at the mouths…
P.S. In an earlier chapter, I desribed Asanuma as having dark curls. I don't know why I did this; I've always pictured him as a blonde, but consider it changed, okay? Asanuma has blonde hair.
P.P.S. Some people have asked – Sere's last Tiara attack killed Psychotica, cured Ami, Rei, and Darien of Psychotica's affects, and undid Beryl's brainwashing of Malachite.
Ack! Almost forgoet my disclaimer! Like last time!
Disclaimer: Umm…if I owned Sailor Moon, there would be a Sailor Moon pizza. It would have meatballs and rose petals and bubbles and matches and lightning bolts (and/or oak leaves) and beams of light and - okay, maybe a Sailor Moon pizza wouldn't be such a good idea.
Subject to Change
Chapter Twenty-Four: Coming To a Head
"Do you have it?"
"Yes, my Queen." Zoicite knelt before Beryl's dais, a swirling orb of energy floating in her cupped hands. "It is here."
Malachite stood like a statue beside Zoicite, his gloved fists clenched. A war raged within him: allow Beryl to further her plans but have Minako back with him again, or stop her at the cost of never seeing his love again.
It was too late to stop Beryl now. The wheel had been set into motion; he had no way, short of killing himself, to keep Beryl from resurrecting Minako. The Mercury of Silver Millennium would have been able to concoct a plan to prevent this, but from what Beryl had shown him of her reincarnation in this, it did not seem as though the Mercury of this miserable time would be able to.
He wished that Minako's Mercury was here. Or better yet, that Minako was. She would know what to do. He could think of no way to dig himself and Minako out of this predicament, but she would have been able to. There was nothing that she was not capable of.
If Minako was resurrected, she would be here with him. She would know what to do – she could get them out of this.
Malachite's fists uncurled, and he sank subserviently to his knees beside Zoicite. His head bowed, he did not see the smile unfurling on Beryl's sallow face.
Beryl stood and took the ball of energy from Zoicite, then strode off her dais and towards the same passage she had led them to before, the one that led down to her inner sanctum where Jadeite, Zoicite, and Minako's remains were located.
Zoicite – or rather, whatever the force was that was inhabiting his – her? – body – seized Malachite's elbow roughly to drag him to his feet. Bile rose in Malachite's throat in an overwhelming flood of revulsion from the blasphemous creature's touch. He yanked his arm free and strode ahead of the being, cape flapping behind him.
How could he have sunk so low? From begin High General of the Terran forces to a petty pawn for the traitoress Beryl – how could he have been so weak? What would his prince say?
What would Minako say?
When their small procession reached the subterranean cavern, Malachite's eyes were drawn – as they had been last time – to the enormous orange membrane. Foreboding
skittered up and down his spine as he watched the indistinct black shape writhing within it.
Beryl crossed over to this membrane, kneeling down in front of it and holding the ball of energy up above her head like an offering.
"O Mistress," she chanted in a grating, scaly voice. "Take this puissance and transform it! mold it! magnify it, Mistress! so that we may aid you in your quest! Take this puissance and let your thirst be quenched! Mistress! Take this puissance! Reward its gatherers!
"Mistress! Take this puissance and reawaken the Senshi Venus!"
The membrane began to pulse a deeper orange. The black shape within it twisted faster and faster, expanding and fattening like a worm.
Beryl flicked her fingers wide apart, her veins sticking out of the skin like cords.
The camouflaged panel of cavern wall that concealed Jadeite, Zoicite's soul-stone, and Minako's body burst open. Minako's skeletal body shot out of its shallow coffin, her bones rattling against each another as Beryl's magic threw the body down on the floor before the membrane.
The black shape within the membrane grew so large that it pressed against the confines of its prison. A hole burst open, and blackness poured out, splashing onto Minako's body. Electricity flared, and then a block of shiny black obsidian sat on the ground where Minako had been.
The black shape slowed and stilled, but Malachite failed to notice. His eyes were glued fixedly, longingly, to the huge block of obsidian, which had began to crack.
More cracks appeared. Orange light began to glow out from them, and then the whole block exploded.
As Tuxedo Mask leapt from roof to roof, the cool evening breeze pressed against his clothes and skin, cooling the perspiration from his brow. In contrast, Serena's body felt unusually warm. Looking down, he saw that her fingers clutched her brooch so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
"Are you okay?"
Serena took a rattling breath and looked up at him with a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Lita's thunder sure does pack a punch, though."
"You mean you did feel that?" Suspicion reared up in the back of his mind like a cobra, hissing.
"Part of it. Kind of." Her smile grew brighter, an unmistakable sign that she wanted him to drop the subject.
"But Senshi attacks aren't supposed to harm civilians!" Even as he spoke the words, Tuxedo Mask knew Luna must have lied. That DAMNED cat…
"Where'd you get that crazy idea?" Serena lifted an eyebrow at him. "If our attacks didn't hurt civilians, how could we protect the princess from them?"
"Luna," Tuxedo Mask growled. "She told Lita that her attack wouldn't hurt you."
Serena winced.
"Do the other Senshi know?"
"I don't know if they ever stopped to think about it," answered Serena reluctantly. "We haven't had to attack any civilians yet, just youma. I only know that it does affect us because some of Rei's fire got me once." She unwound an arm from his neck and tugged back her sleeve to reveal a pinkish patch of skin that was shinier than the rest. "Right here. I didn't tell them about it, though, so I don't know if they realized it."
Tuxedo Mask sank into a brooding silence, mind seething. That cat…
A sudden prickling on the back of his neck interrupted his brooding. "'dango," he said suddenly. "Who's following us?"
Serena pulled herself up by his lapels and peered over his shoulder. "It's Lita," she said, surprise, pleasure, and dread mixing in her voice. "Stop, let's talk to her!"
Sailor Jupiter, with her long loping strides, plus her augmented athletic ability as a Sailor Senshi, quickly landed on the same rooftop as them. Tuxedo Mask turned around, rising out of his crouch to a standing position, and Serena scrambled out of his arms, yanking her school skirt down to a more proper length.
Sides quivering ever-so-slightly from the exertion of running across the rooftops, Lita crossed quickly to Serena. She shot Tuxedo Mask a glare not unlike the ones that she often gave Darien.
Then her glare turned into surprise. "Hey! You're that guy, aren't you! From a couple of nights ago!"
Tuxedo Mask, remembering her words about 'the fruity vigilante guy,' said sourly, "No, I'm the other guy who roams the city every night wearing a top hat and a tuxedo."
Serena apparently remembered the 'fruity' reference also. She grinned at him and said, "Stop being such a lemon, Tuxedo Mask." (Of course, that has a totally different connotation to us fanfiction readers…)
Sailor Jupiter gave them both a strange look, but Serena and Darien had grown used to receiving such looks, so they ignored it. "No need to get so defensive. I mean, it's a nice tuxedo and all – "
"Could we get to the point?" said Tuxedo Mask impatiently. He was tired and crabby, and That Cat (he growled) could be lurking somewhere around here, eavesdropping on their every word. The only reason he hadn't just up and leapt off with Serena was because he still felt guilty for Lita's expulsion. But he shoved that thought to the back of his mind.
"Fine with me," snapped Sailor Jupiter, eyes flashing a brighter green than the stone in her tiara. She seized Serena's elbow to steer her away from Tuxedo Mask. "I just wanted to make sure Serena was okay, but I don't need your help for that. You can leave now."
Tuxedo Mask rolled his eyes wearily and crossed his arms across his chest. "It's official," he muttered. "All Senshi get on my nerves."
Serena shot him a scathing look but moved towards him. "It's okay, Lita," she said. "Tuxedo Mask is my friend. He would never try anything to me."
"As if I'd want to," Tuxedo Mask muttered. Serena ground her heel into his foot. "Ow! I mean…uh, Serena's way too scary for me to try anything on her."
Another grinding pain in his toes. He hissed. "God, Odango, stop doing that! I mean, I respect her way too much to try anything like that!"
"Shields!" Sailor Jupiter's eyebrows hit her hairline. "That's YOU, isn't it! Take off that stupid mask!"
Tuxedo Mask glowered for a moment, then took it off. "This is all your fault," he said to Serena. 'If you hadn't started bickering with me – "
"When was I bickering? I just said that you were my friend – but you can forget about that now, jerkwad – "
"Does Motoki know about this, Shields?" interrupted Sailor Jupiter suddenly.
"No, he doesn't." Darien fixed his dark eyes on hers. "And you're not going to tell him, either. This is going to remain our little secret."
"Our dirty little secret!" quipped Serena, trying to inject some levity into the atmosphere. It did not do much. "Please, Lita? It's really important that you don't tell anyone – you see, if Toki knew, they might go after him – "
"And what about you?" demanded Lita. "You're not in danger? Why'd you drag her into this, Shields?"
Darien raised his eyebrows at Serena, clearly questioning her. Serena bit her lip, staring back at him helplessly. She just did not know what to do…let Lita in on the secret, or stay quiet and hope that Luna did not get to her…
Darien turned back to Lita and cleared his throat. "Serena gets attacked by youma a lot." Yes, that was the truth. An understatement, even. "I rescued her once, and my mask fell off. She saw my face. The end. Now, if you're through interrogating us, we've got to get going."
Darien pushed his mask back on and looked at Serena. "Piggyback or – uh – " He coughed and blushed suddenly, totally ruining his suave persona. "…uh…bridal style?"
"Your…choice…" said Serena just as uncomfortably, face just as red as his.
"The…uh…latter is better," coughed out Tuxedo Mask.
Sailor Jupiter watched with well-hidden amusement as the superhero scooped Serena up as quickly as possible – rather like ripping a Band-Aid off quickly to avoid prolonged torture – and left without a backward glance to her.
A smile curved her lips – those two became so abruptly and easily oblivious to anything but each other – but she felt a pang in her heart for the same reason. Serena was her best friend, but at moments like this, she knew that she wasn't Serena's. Darien always came first in the blonde's heart. She would always talk to him first and talk to him longer. At moments like this, she did not even notice Lita at all…
But even as this thought stabbed painfully into Lita's mind, she saw Serena's head pop up above Shields' black-draped shoulder and saw her small white hand waving goodbye to her.
Sailor Jupiter smiled.
Luna padded quietly across the street, eyes pealed both for oncoming cars or for a glimpse of green. In all the frantic hustle of EMT's loading prone bodies onto gurneys and into ambulances, no one took note of a small black at darting through the crowd.
She would find that new Senshi if it killed her. The girl must be found before Sailor Moon could infect her, if she hadn't already…
A movement on the top of a building caught Luna's eye. She smiled and pounced up towards her newest ward.
Artemis and the princess would be avenged.
Tuxedo Mask and Serena alighted in the tree outside Serena's window a few minutes later. Darien detransformed as Serena scampered across the tree branch to climb through her window. Darien glowered over the fact that it was unlocked (after that whole lecture he had given her!), but Serena ignored him, tumbling gracelessly off the window sill and into her room.
She quickly stood up and dusted herself off, opening her bedroom door and heading down the stairs. "Want a soda?"
"Have you got Mountain Dew?" asked Darien, glancing around as he himself stepped easily off the windowsill to the floor.
Serena's room was a humungous mess. This in itself did not greatly shock Darien given the state of her locker at school, but the magnitude of messiness was rather startling. Her purple, moon-spattered comforter hung half off of her mattress, and shirts hung from doorknobs and lampshades. Lying on the floor and on top of her cluttered dresser were more brushes, combs, and bobby pins than Darien had thought existed in all of Tokyo. Manga and CD's littered the carpet while a mountain of plush bunnies and UFO dolls sat in the corner – Darien was pleased to see that the Tuxedo Mask UFO doll she had once gotten at the arcade sat on the very top of the mountain. Beside the mountain of stuffed toys was a bookshelf, its contents coated with an inch-thick layer of dust.
The crowning touch of the room, however, was the small pile of shriveled red roses that lay on an unused and empty desk.
Darien hid a smile and followed Serena down the stairs. He found her in the kitchen.
"I KNEW there was something I was supposed to do today!" she groaned, closing the refrigerator door and flinging open the pantry. A frown marred her face as she stretched up on her tiptoes to check the high shelves. "There's no soda, milk, OR ice cream!"
"Oh, NO!" gasped Darien in mock dismay. "No ICE CREAM? Sounds like you need to go grocery shopping, Odango."
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to," grumbled Serena, crossing to the counter and fishing around in the cookie jar with a hopeful look on her face. The hopeful look soon gave way to a mournful pout – apparently, there were no cookies, either. "Shopping is for old ladies, not vibrant young people like myself."
"Excuse me," said Darien, affronted. "But I do my own grocery shopping, thank you very much."
"Case closed," said Serena, yawning. Then she blinked. "You do? Really?"
"Uh, yeah. I'd starve if I didn't." Darien picked up an empty vase from the kitchen window sill and absently placed a couple dozen lilacs in it, conjuring them as he went. "I'm running low on provisions, too, you could come grocery shopping with me if you'd like – "
He suddenly noticed Serena's slack jaw and looked around "What?"
"You're – you're pulling flowers out of thin air!" screeched Serena. "And they're not roses!"
Darien looked down at the full vase in his hands. "Oh. Didn't I tell you? I can conjure up more than just roses."
"You never told me that!"
Darien frowned. 'I thought I did."
"Well, you didn't."
"I thought I did."
"I KNOW you thought you did! But you didn't!"
"So your point is?"
"My point is, TELL ME NOW!" shouted Serena with extreme frustration.
Darien smirked, enjoying his baiting of her. "Don't be mean to me or I'll pull out some poison ivy to give to you. Or better yet, a Venus Fly Trap to bite off that little nose of yours."
"Does that mean you can conjure ANYTHING?" Serena stepped closer to him and pulled the vase out of his hands, examining the lilacs closely.
"Anything as long as it's flora." Darien shrugged, watching her sniff the lilacs and sneeze. He took the flowers back from her and set the vase back on the window sill. "Like roses."
"If you could conjure anything, then why do you just use roses in battles?"
"They're the only things that work even remotely well in a battle. Like I said, Odango, plants are pretty wimpy."
"I don't think so," muttered Serena rebelliously under her breath, but he ignored her.
"Roses have long, sturdy stems, so they don't flop all over like other plants do. After a couple of tries, I figured out that if I concentrated, I could make the stems really rigid and sharp."
"Cool," breathed Serena. "When'd you figure all that out? When you became Tuxedo Mask?"
"Nah. It was waaaay back, when I was a kid."
"Did your sparks work back then, too?"
"Yup."
"Lucky." Serena made a face. "I didn't have ANY powers until I became Sailor Moon."
"But when I became Tuxedo Mask, I didn't get any extra powers," pointed out Darien. "Other than the whole super strength and speed thing. So we're technically on level ground."
"Sure," said Serena skeptically. Then she brightened. "So, how's about those groceries?"
"Wait, I need to do something first. Can I use your phone?"
"Sure." Serena pointed him to the telephone in the living room and followed him. "Whatcha gonna do?"
"I want to check on Motoki," replied Darien, already dialing.
Serena's eyes widened in mortification. "Oh my God!" I didn't even THINK about him! Oh my gosh, I'm such a horrible friend! What if he's hurt? What if he's DEAD? Darien, he's not dead, is he? You saw him get attacked, did it look bad, did it look like – "
Darien motioned at her to be quiet as the opposite end of the line was picked up. She fell silent, big eyes watching him anxiously.
"Mrs. Furuhata? Yes, ma'am, this is Darien – he is? It's not critical, right?" Darien listened for a moment. "No, no, keeping him in observation is something they usually do if a patient's been knocked out, it doesn't mean they think he's going to die. Yes….yes. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Furuhata."
He hung up. Serena latched onto his arm. "What did she say?"
"Toki's in the hospital. He got a bad bump on his head, and he was unconscious when they found him, but he woke up. He's sleeping now, and they're going to keep him overnight just to keep an eye on him and make sure he hasn't got a concussion."
"Poor Toki…" murmured Serena. "His parents must be so worried – and plus, with the arcade, the inside was totally totaled…"
"Their insurance will cover it, I'm sure." Darien headed towards the front door. "No use worrying about it now. C'mon, let's go."
"Odango, you're incorrigible." Darien laughed as he looked from her cart (overflowing with cookies, milk, soda, pudding, sugary cereal, Pop Tarts, macaroni and cheese, frozen pizza, and ramen) to his (occupied by neat stacks of yogurt, wheat bread, peanut butter, frozen vegetables, bagels, and sandwich meats – plus a twelve pack of Mountain Dew that he had cleverly hidden from Serena's sight beneath a sack of potatoes). "One of these days you're going to come staggering into a battle unable to move because you ate so much junk food."
"Since when do I even need to move?" pointed out Serena gaily, plucking a bag of potato ships from a shelf and tossing it into her cart. "Tuxedo Mask is my transportation system."
"But if you eat all that food, even HIS stupendous muscular strength isn't going to be able to lift you," countered Darien, hurrying past the ice cream aisle before Serena could notice it.
"Oh, please. Stupendous muscular strength, my foot," snorted Serena, peeling away from Darien to turn into the ice cream aisle. Darien hung his head and sweatdropped. "Ooh, strawberry swirl with bubblegum…yum…"
Darien grimaced. "Yuck. If you're going to screw up your diet, you should at least screw it with something good, like Mocha Cappucino Blitz." He pulled out a carton of said ice cream and placed it in his cart on top of the guacamole.
"Why would I buy ice cream that tastes like coffee?" demanded Serena, pulling out a carton each of strawberry swirl with bubblegum, fudge ripple, and cookie dough and stuffing them in her cart. "That defeats the whole purpose!"
"Oh, my! What's this that I see? Serena-chan and Dare-Bear, perusing the ice cream?"
"ASANUMA!"
"Yes, it's meeeeeeeeee!" Asanuma sang, prancing into the ice cream aisle and falling to his knees in front of Serena. "Serena-chan, how could you LEAVE me all ALONE in detention like that!"
"Oh," said Serena, who, in all the hubbub of the afternoon, had quite forgotten that she had abandoned Asanuma in detention. "Well, you see…"
Asanuma rose to his feet. "Were you there?" he said seriously to Darien. "Coach turned on the news and we saw the coverage of the youma attacks. He let me go find Toki, but they'd already taken him to the hospital."
"We got ahold of his mother. He just got knocked out, but they're keeping him overnight for observation. He'll be home tomorrow, though."
"What about the arcade?" asked Asanuma. He clenched a hand in his hair distractedly. "I saw it, dude, it looked like a tornado ripped through that place. And all those people…when is this stuff gonna end?"
No one had an answer to that.
Asanuma spoke next, attempting a grin. "Soo..." he said riffling through their carts. "Shopping together like a married couple, huh? What's next, parenting classes?"
"Ha ha," deadpanned Darien.
"Whoah, whoah, WHOAH!" Asanuma held up the jar of peanut butter Darien had picked up. 'What's this? Not crunchy peanut butter!"
"That's what it is," said Darien suspiciously. "So what?"
"So what?" echoed Asanuma in horror. "Dare-bear, both you and I know that crunchy peanut butter is an – " Asanuma paused and looked around, lowering his voice to a dramatic whisper. " – an aphrodisiac!"
Asanuma exploded into laughter, rolling around on the floor. Darien sighed and kneaded his forehead, a vein throbbing in his temple. "One of these days, Asanuma…"
Serena's forehead scrunched up confusedly. "What's an aphrodisiac?"
Asanuma only howled more loudly.
The first sensation she felt was tugging. Something was yanking her.
In two directions.
Two different directions.
Even without opening her eyes, Sailor Venus knew what they were. These two conflicting strings had been present since before she could remember, it seemed. One led to her princess, the other to Malachite.
They had always tugged her in different directions. She had often tripped over one while trying to follow the other.
But only once before had they yanked her so insistently and violently in such violently opposing directions, so that she felt as though her psyche was about to be torn down the center like a piece of parchment.
That had been when she killed Artemis to save Malachite.
So long ago…
Sailor Venus, though for the most part sleeping, had been vaguely aware of the passage of time. It had been years, at least, since the day that Beryl and her mob of possessed Terrans invaded the Moon. It had been years since she had killed Artemis to save Malachite.
Beryl had awoken her scores upon scores of times to beat her, either for mere amusement or when she was unusually frustrated with her inability to find the princess and she interrogated Venus.
And Venus had discovered, on the second or third time she had been awakened (after the shock of her state had worn off) that she could not remember her princess at all. Mercury, she could remember, Mars and Jupiter and the Outers, and of course Malachite and his Shittenou. But she could remember nothing of their princess, not what she looked like or what her name had been. The girl she had spent her whole life protecting and eventually betrayed, and she could not even remember her NAME!
Rather than being panicked about it, though, Venus was glad. If she did not know the princess' identity, that meant that she could not betray her to Beryl. As long as Venus remained mum, Beryl would know nothing of the princess save the exaggerated tales the Terrans had told to their children during Silver Millennium. God knew Pluto had gotten on her nerves some times, but Venus could only be grateful to her now for the memory block she sensed within her mind.
Of course, gratitude was not always the prevailing emotion when Venus felt Beryl's toenails slicing into the flesh of her face, but she had tried not to let this affect her.
Throughout every single on of Beryl's beatings, Venus had stretched out with her Venusian soul-bond with Malachite to find him. It had served an ulterior purpose to finding him – she had also been able to escape the agony of Beryl's beatings, and this caused her to think fondly that even now, he was protecting her, lifting her above harm.
This wasn't true, of course, but it added a romance to the situation that greatly improved Minako's moods when she could feel her own bones turning into powder within her muscles.
A couple of times, she had been able to vaguely sense him. There was something wrong with him, though, something muddled that she attributed to Beryl's dominion over him and the other Shittenou.
But now…stretching out, Venus could feel him. HIM. Like he had been before he appeared on the moon that fateful day. Unchanged, like a flower pressed between heavy tomes.
It thrilled her to no end. If Malachite was back to himself again, something good must have happened. Had the other Senshi come to find her? Her princess?
Venus opened her eyes. She was greeted by a murky darkness, shiny like stone. She looked down at herself and saw her limbs had at least quadrupled in width, her skin smoother and thicker. She had thighs again, and a butt, and she had never been so happy to see them! She felt something brushing her arms, and reached over her shoulder, pulling in front of her face a hank of wheat-colored hair. She grinned happily and rubbed her cheek against it, relishing in the tough, lustrous texture. She pinched her cheeks, her stomach, her legs, her arms, flexed her fingers, unable to believe it. She was back!
But now that she had finished feeling herself up – Sailor Venus grinned, realizing that Mars' Jadeite had rubbed off on her – it was time to break out of this joint.
"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!" she called out exuberantly, energy positively flowing through her as she felt the golden hearts bounced to life in her palm. She flung them, one after the other, into the stone prison and watched it crack and shatter around her.
She closed her eyes as her prison crumbled. She gripped one last golden heart in her palm, not wanting to see any of them until she could see them all. When the last of the prison fell around her, she opened her eyes.
But it was not Malachite's enigmatic silvery eyes that locked onto hers.
It was a pair of beryl-green ones.
Venus' eyes widened to impossible proportions. Faster than thought, she flung her last heart at the witch-woman.
Her mind raced. Her heart faltered within her chest. How could Beryl be here when Malachite was back to himself again? Had Malachite perhaps surrendered to her of his own free will, so that he was still working for Beryl but was not brainswashed any longer? No, he would NEVER do that – would he?
As Venus' trust in her love wavered, so did her attack. The golden heart wobbled uncertainly and faded before reaching the Dark Kingdom's queen.
"Excellent," said Beryl, eyes half-lidded. "Excellent. Malachite, don't be shy, come and greet your Aprodite."
Venus' fists clenched tightly as she spotted the platinum-haired general. He wore uncertainty on his face – he, Malachite, who Zoicite had always called the Iron Mask, the unflappable, who never showed any emotion on his face, least of all fear!
It was this fear only that kept her from lunging at him right then and there and beating his face bloody until he told her what in the hell he thought he was doing, helping Beryl when he didn't even have the excuse of being brainwashed!
Venus, not trusting herself to look at Malachite anymore, snapped her eyes back to Beryl. The last thing she felt like doing right now was anything that spared this bitch's life, but there were laws and protocols to be adhered to. "Beryl, you are under system arrest. For attempted assassination of the Her Highness Se – Se – "
Here, Venus faltered again, as she ran head-first into the brick wall blocking her memories of the princess. "Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of Silver Mille – "
"Attempted assassination?" Beryl interrupted, eyes glowing. "My dear Sailor Venus, you have no idea hat has happened while you have been down here with me. Your laws no longer exist. Your kingdom no longer exists. Your precious princess no longer exists."
The world dropped out from beneath Venus. Her eyes slid to Malachite as all moisture fled her mouth. His eyes, the uncharacteristic fear in them, the tightness in his jaw, it all confirmed it, as did the tight nod he gave her.
"You're lying," said Venus despite these signs. "You could never have killed the princess." Whether Venus remembered her princess or not was of no consequence; the Silver Crystal would never have allowed one of its lineage to be killed by a mere assassination attempt.
"I didn't kill the princess," said Beryl. "She killed herself."
"No…no!"
"Yes, yes – YES!" said Beryl, clearly enjoying herself.
Memories flooded Venus' mind. A man, a dark man, dressed in black and donning primitive armor. His arms around her princess, his mouth dripping poison into her ear – him. He was the one who had corrupted her – he was the one who had caused all of this…
WHY COULDN'T SHE REMEMBER WHO HE WAS!
"Then why am I even here?" spat out Venus, her rage spilling out of her heart and out of her mouth.
"I am going to explain that to you, my dear. Listen, and you will find that perhaps all is not as hopeless as you fear." Beryl leaned forward and placed a comforting hand on Sailor Venus' shoulder.
Venus jerked away and backhanded Beryl, the action making an echoing sccchhhlaaap!
Beryl's eyes flared, and she yanked Venus up by her hair. Venus' leg bent and lifted, crunching her knee into Beryl's ribs. The woman doubled over and released Venus.
"You…" she rasped as Venus stood above her.
"Are the others alive?" demanded Venus.
Beryl straightened, wiping blood from her mouth. "If you do that again, you can watch him die." She jerked her head at Malachite. "I won't have this."
"My blood quickens with fear," sneered Venus sardonically. "You can do nothing to him. I can sense it, he is free from your possession."
"Don't get cocky, Sailor Venus," said Beryl lowly, spitting out more blood. "You think that you can beat me." She let out a bark of laughter suddenly. "You think that you can beat me! Your precious queen couldn't even scratch me, and she had the Silver Crystal! You think that you can beat me? With what? The power of love?"
Something nagged at Venus' mind. Something was being forgotten, something very important. Something that was dangerous and yet essential.
Damn it, Pluto!
"Are you remembering?" said Beryl softly. "Remembering how I slit your queen's throat and yanked her vocal cords from within? You cannot beat me, Sailor Venus, and I will give you and your precious Malachite the same treatment if you defy me. METALLIA!"
Her shout was sudden and loud. Rock groaned and cracked, and a boulder shot out of the cavern wall. It sped towards Venus so fast that it blurred, and smashed into her with the force of a mac truck.
For the second time in as many hours, Venus was thrown into the air like a lifeless doll.
Venus gritted her teeth and curled into a ball as her side grazed the ceiling before plummeting gut-wrenchingly downwards again. She felt Malachite's presence intensifying below her and wanted to jerk angrily away from him.
Or rather, that was what the thread connecting her to her princess wanted her to do?
Earth's gravity, however, was stronger, and she landed heavily in Malachite's waiting arms. The wind was knocked out of her, and suddenly, so was her strength. Her transformation faded, and was left in the butter-yellow gown she had worn the night of that fateful ball, its color still as vibrant as it had been that night. She could even see the little smudge on the hem where she had used it to smear some of Mercury's lipstick – that girl had no concept of maquillage. (A/N: the term for make-up in Silver Millennium)
"Now," said Beryl, starting up the stairs towards her throne room. "Come. We will talk."
Rei dragged herself home from the youma battle at the park, disgruntled, disgusted, and sore. She was disgruntled because the youma had disappeared before she had a chance to even fry a bit of its butt off, disgusted because she hadn't even been able to stop the youma from disappearing with all those people's energy, and sore because she'd just run straight from her school to Asanuma's school to the park and home, dammit!
She grumbled under her breath and stalked up the temple steps. She had told Ami that she would be back to help her, but the chances were that if her youma had vanished, Ami's had vanished, too – right? She'd check up on her via communicator. Later.
Rei slid open the door, and as she did so, the sound of coughing reached her ears. She grimaced, half in annoyance and half in sympathy. Grandfather.
She shut the door quietly behind her and leaned against it. Responsibility and pure common courtesy – not to mention the fact that she was related to the man – dictated that she go and check on him, ask if he needed anything. But…she didn't want to.
She really didn't want to.
But there was his voice. Croaking out weakly.
"…Hiotsu…Hiotsukeru…"
Rei clenched a fist and slipped into his room, crouching beside his cot. "Yes?"
"Hiotsukeru…" His eyes cleared slightly beneath the film that always hazed them these days. "You're back…please don't go, Hiotsu-chan, if your marry him…your child…the Fire has shown it…bad things…"
"Here's some water, Grandfather," said Rei loudly, shoving the water glass from his nightstand into his hands. Some of it sloshed out of the glass and onto his face.
Grandfather blinked slowly, his eyes clearing slightly. "Oh…Rei." He blinked again. "I almost didn't recognize you there for a minute, granddaughter. You look so much like your mother…"
"I know. I – I've…got homework." Rei stood up. "Good night, Grandfather."
"Good night…" With a cough, Grandfather fell back into a fevered sleep.
Rei went to the kitchen and slammed a glass down on the table, throwing some juice into it. She kicked back the juice, wishing that there was some alcohol in it. She could use a break from real life for a while.
Her communicator suddenly crackled. She thumbed it on. "Mars here."
"Mars, call Ami to the temple," came Luna's voice. "I'm bringing someone to see you."
Rei frowned as Luna signed off without explaining. She pressed the Mercury button.
"Yes?" came Ami's voice, tired and sad. Rei felt a stab of annoyance: what did Ami ever have to worry about? She had a mother with a steady, well-paying job, she made straight A's, and never even had to worry about taking down youma or being suddenly seized by visions in the middle of Latin class. All she did was stand around and clack away at her computer.
"Ami, temple, now," said Rei shortly, then thumbed off the communicator. Luna hadn't taken the time to explain anything to her, so why should she?
She sat still for a moment, staring at the communicator – more significantly, the moon-shaped button.
He had been sitting with her. Talking with her, laughing with her. While Rei looked on from the outside, alone.
He had chosen Serena over her. They always chose Serena over her.
No one ever wanted her.
Rei's mother death did not come at a convenient time for Rei's father. Nothing was ever convenient for him. But he worked around it.
"You're going to live with your grandfather, Rei."
Rei kept her eyes on her hands, fingernails digging into the buttery leather seats of her father's limousine. His brusque voice hovered on the edge of her consciousness; she pretended not to hear it.
He knew what she was doing. He continued to speak. "He's old, so behave. If he expires because you overexert him, you're straight off to that girls' boarding school we discussed. Nod if you understand me, Rei."
Rei kept her head defiantly still.
"I said nod if you hear me, Rei." Steel ran under hr father's voice. Irn fingers gripped her chin and lifted it up and down. She stared out from under her dark bangs with blazing eyes. She hated him.
"Your mother's not here to baby you anymore." Her father let go of her chin; Rei continued to glare at him. "I don't plan to put up with any of your juvenile tantrums. You're what, eleven now?"
"Nine."
"Nine. Still old enough to be held accountable for your own actions."
When they arrived at the temple that was to be Rei's new home, Rei's father and a short little bald man (he introduced himself as her grandfather) went into a room to talk. Rei sat on the temple steps next to her suitcase, watching the cherry blossoms fall and a couple f crows wheel around in the sky above her.
Her mother had told her stories about those crows. Their names were Phobos and Deimos. They had something to do with one of the planets, Rei couldn't remember which one. When her mother had told her stories like that, she had not focused as much on th actual stories but on the warm, mellifluous sound of her mother's voice. It was so rarely that she had time to spend time with Rei between all of Father's diplomatic functions.
At first, all that Rei could hear was the cawing of the crows and the quiet sound of the wind whispering through the sakura trees. But then another sound reached her ears.
Her father's voice, shouting. A quieter, deeper voice that must belong to her grandpfather.
They were arguing.
Rei shrank in on herself, wrapping her arm around her knees.
One of the crows landed beside her. She watched it carefully, trying to lose herself in the glossy blackness of its feathers. The other crow landed beside the first, and she smiled. She wished that she had a sister or brother like them. Someone to endure the fear and knotted stomachs with her.
Father and Grandfather emerged. Father was adjusting his tie nonchalantly, as though he had not just been shouting a moment ago.
"Rei, we have decided that you will be attending the Catholic Girls' School down the road. Your grandfather will take you to buy the uniform tomorrow."
With that, Rei's father slid back into the idling limousine, and shut the door behind him.
Rei watched the long black car pull away from the curb and roll down the street. She glanced warily up at the short old man standing beside her.
His eyes were fastened on the limousine, also, brows furrowed and lines etched deeply in his face. Then he looked down at her and smiled. Rei, who was accustomed
to recognizing fake expressions from spending time among her father's colleagues – noticed the artificiality of his smile immediately.
"Let's go get you settled in, okay, honey?"
Rei was settled into a sparse room, the only furniture a bed and a low table. She stuffed her things into the closet and then lay down on the bed, facing the wall. When the man who was her grandfather came in to call her for dinner, she pretended to be sleeping.
When he sighed and shut the door, she opened her eyes again, feeling the darkness press in against her eyeballs. How long she lay there, she did not know, but after what had to be hours, she rose from her bed.
Rei moved as though in a trance, and she remembered thinking detachedly that she must have fallen asleep and was dreaming.
She slid open the thin paper door of her room and followed the warm orange light that danced on the floorboards of the hallway.
That was the first time she saw the Great Fire.
She saw things in It. Swirling skirts, flashing eyes, dazzling light, glinting jewels. Blue eyes, white skin, black fur, red blood.
She fell asleep in front of that fire.
The man who was her grandfather found her there the next morning. His eyes held a troubled worry in them, but she ignored it.
Two days later was her first day at the Catholic school her father had enrolled her in at the last moment. Rei was already stamped as an outsider for being the "New Kid," and her cool demeanor and priest grandfather only distanced her further from the rest of the children.
So it was that Rei Hino grew up quietly, subtly, and all alone.
As time passed, she acquired a curious, detached affection for her grandfather. It was curious because she could not figure out when it was that the started to smile instead of pull away when he patted her head, and detached because – because of something he had said when her father had last come to visit.
It had been a balmy June night. Her father had dropped in unexpectedly, a tall, thin blonde woman on his arm. Her father and her grandfather had vanished into the temple, and the blonde woman had wrapped an arm around Rei's shoulders and squeezed her tightly, cooing to her in a sugary voice.
Rei had given the woman her most severe frown and moved away. Phobos and Deimos fluttered down to land on hr shoulders, and the woman retreated back into the limousine.
Father and Grandfather came outside a few minutes later. Grandfather's eyebrows were beetled together like they always did when something had upset him, and Father wore an especial smug expression. He ignored Rei, as always, and slid straight to the limousine. It cruised away.
Rei stood still as a statue in the miko robes Grandfather had spent weeks making for her. She watched the limousine pull away and wished, more than anything in the world at that moment, for another car to smash into it as it turned the corner.
She strained her ears, hoping to hear the satisfying squeal of brakes, crunch of metal, and shattering glass. But it never came. Instead, she heard only her grandfather's papery voice, muttering to himself that he wished that Hiotsukeru had never married that man and had to bear his child.
Rei's grandfather never realized that his daughter's daughter had heard his rashly-uttered venting. Thus, he was unable to make amends.
Rei did not know how she could feel affection for a man who had wished that she had not been born. As time passed, the wound Grandfather's word had inflicted became infected. It festered, and as Rei grew older, she began to push him away. If he did not want her to exist, then she wished the same of him.
Because she avoided him, Rei never noticed the growing pain in her grandfather's eyes. It was a cycle of silence and hurt.
A month into Rei's first year of high school, Grandfather fell ill. Fevers plagued him; chills shook his frame; weariness dogged his steps. He stumbled in from sweeping the steps one morning, and did not get up for three days. The doctors came and said that it may be his time. They gave him bottles and bottles of pills, but the illness did not abate. Rei was forced to take on all of the temple duties along with her school responsibilities, an had to nurse Grandfather on top of that.
She did it.
She did it unhappily.
Unhappily and silently.
The cycle rolled onwards, like a monstrous wheel crushing all in its path.
Two weeks after the day Grandfather collapsed into his bed, the phone rang. Rei looked up from the rice she was cooking and stared at it sourly.
She picked it up. "Hikawa Shrine."
"Rei."
"..." Rei's fists clenched; she resisted the urge to hurl the pot of rice into the wall. "Father."
"One of your mother's friends has finally gotten married, Rei. She's invited us to her wedding reception; she says that she wants to see you."
"Who is she marrying?" Rei said tonelessly, spooning rice out of the pot into a bowl for Grandfather.
A chuckle came across the line. Rei wanted to twist his guts out. "Ah, Rei, you know me too well, darling."
"Don't call me that."
A silence. "Watch yourself, Rei," said her father's voice dangerously. "You are treading thin ice."
"Who is she marrying?"
Another silence. "The head of a large corporation that has great promise as a potential campaign sponsor. Takeshi will pick you up at six o'clock tomorrow."
"I won't be your fundraiser."
"You'll be whatever I want you to be," said her father, an edge to his voice. "Be ready to go, Rei, or I will be forced to do something you don't want me to do."
"Grandfather's sick," said Rei.
"He lived fifty years without your help, Rei, I doubt one night without you will kill him."
He hung up then.
The next day, Rei picked up her pace walking home from school. She needed the extra time to take a shower, make Grandfather supper, do her homework…
She was in the middle of spooning soup into a bowl when the familiar sleek limousine pull to a stop in front of the temple. A man opened the driver's door, walked up the steps with a package in his hands.
"Your father wishes you to wear this, Miss Hino."
Rei wordlessly took the package and went to her room. A moment later she re-emerged in a silken red sheath, low and long. Her hair hung straight and unadorned down her back; no jewelry hung from her limbs; her face wore no makeup. She would not help her father by making herself more attractive to his colleagues' sons.
She took the soup in to Grandfather's dim room on a tray. He stirred as she fluffed his pillow for him, his rheumy eyes fluttering open.
"Hio…" he rasped, his gnarled hand lifting weakly. "Hiotsu…you came…back…"
Her mother's name. He had called her by her mother's na,e/
Rei took a step backward. Her hands opened and closed, clutching at empty air: nothing to catch her.
"Hiotsukeru…wished for so long…you to come…back…" Grandfather sighed, long and low, and fell back into slumber.
Rei turned and fled, throwing herself into the limo. She would never be good enough for anyone. They would always look at her and wish for someone else.
Upon reaching Tokyo, the chauffeur stopped at Rei's father's house. He nodded Rei inside. Rei entered to find her father still adjusting his starched white collar in front of the hall mirror.
"Rei," he said, examining his profile in the mirror. "Take care of my tie, will you?"
Hatred starkly evident in every line of her face, Rei stepped close to her father and yanked his tie into place. She stomped back to the front door.
Her father looked at himself in the mirror again, then speared her with a cold glance. "This is not a tie. Perhaps I should call you back to Tokyo into real society so that you can learn how to tie a tie properly?"
It was a subtle warning. Rei took note of it and schooled her face back into a blank mask.
Her father led her back to the limo, which then carried them to a palatial mansion. Rei stepped stiffly out of the car after her father, gritting her teeth for only a moment before taking the arm he offered her.
Her father smiled suavely to all the finely-dressed people around them, and his fingers tightened around her elbow in a wordless command to smile. Rei did so, and it felt strange.
Inside, they were greeted by a sweep of people, glittering, smiling, tittering. Several men converged on her father at once, along with a couple of women, and Rei slipped away before she could be pulled into a conversation of, "Oh, my! You look just like your mother, my dear! She was such a beauty!"
She pushed her way across the dance floor to a corner by the fireplace, which contains a fake burning log.
Like a moth drawn to flame, she thought to herself. Except that this is a fake fireplace – which means that it can't burn me, right?
She wrapped her arms tightly around her bare shoulders, the gesture more belligerent than defensive. She stared at the fake flames, determined not to make eyes contact with a single soul.
A quarter of an hour stubbornly ticked past. Then Rei's senses flared as someone pushed through the crowd behind her and stood, panting slightly, behind her. She hunched her shoulders more stiffly.
"Do you dribble when you drink punch?"
Rei remained motionless. The mal voice had to be speaking to someone else. She would sooner slit her wrists than embarrass herself by turning around only to find out that he had not been speaking to her at all.
But then the voice's owner moved in front of her, his shiny black shoes invading her line of sight. "Do you dribble when you drink punch?"
Rei lifted her eyes and regarded the voice's owner frostily. She kept her expression the same as she took in his features: blonde hair, medium build on a tall frame, and a cheeky grin.
He raised his eyebrows cheerily at her. "Because, you know, your dress is red, so if you do, the punch won't stain it." He held out a glass of the red punch to her, then took a gulp of his own. "Go on, have some. I didn't spike it, Girl Scouts' honor."
Rei glared at his grin.
His lowered his own cup from his mouth, looking pleading.He leaned toward her, talking out of the corner of his mouth. "Please take it. My mother's watching; she'll have my hide if she thinks I'm not charming enough to persuade one measly girl to accept a drink from me."
Why should I care if you get in trouble? It's not my problem. Eyebrows furrowed, Rei reluctantly took the punch and took a small sip.
"Thanks," said the youth, nearly deflating in relief. "I'm Asanuma, by the way. I'd hold out my hand for a shake, but I get the feeling you'd just glare at me."
Re's eyebrows knit together again, and she glowered. What was her, clairvoyant?
"You know," said Asanuma, gulping down some more of his punch nonchalantly, "If you keep scowling like that, your eyebrows are going to knit together, and you'll have a unibrow."
Immediately, Rei's forehead smoothed. She scowled again as she realized what she had done. "Go away."
"No can do," said the boy cheerfully. "As long as I appear to be holding a cordial conversation with you, my mother can't nag at me to dance with the girls. I'm using you, you see."
"You're pathetic," said Rei shortly, and moved away.
He followed her, much to her well-concealed consternation.
"What's your name?" he wanted to know. "You never told me. Are you a Camellia? You seem like a Camellia to me. Or maybe a Bourgainvillea. You're pretty thorny."
Rei ignored him, elbowing her way to the punch bowl. Inside her chest, her stomach – or maybe her heart, she really could not discern – was writhing. He was paying attention to her. He did not know who she was – or so he said, anyway – which meant that he was speaking to her because of who she was, not who her parents were. Could he – could he LIKE her?
As soon as she thought it, she knew the question was ridiculous. There was no reason for him to like her. It was just her stupid imagination trying to make her look like an idiot.
"Lisa, then," Asanuma was saying. "Or Gardenia. Reika? I hope not, there's a Reika at my school and I don't like her much – Jamila? Helen? Come one, throw me a bone here! Melissa. Belinda. Sandy, Candy, Jackie, Tanya, Sally, Bertha – "
"Ah, Rei." Her father chose this moment to slip out of the crowd. "I see that you've met Mr. Itto's son. Asanuma, is it not?"
Asanuma nodded politely, demeanor cooling by a couple of degrees.. "Yes, sir."
"Splendid." Rei's father eyed him speculatively, hand on Rei's shoulder. She loathed the heat that emanated from his hand: it was a slimy, sweaty warmth. She missed the dry heat of the Great Fire. "You're attending St. Anthony's like your father did, I presume?"
"No, sir. I go to a public high school in the Azabu district."
Re watched her father's expression curdle like spoiled milk and wondered if this kid knew who her father was.
An idea blossomed in her mind suddenly as she watched Asanuma squarely meet her father's quickly chilling gaze. She stepped forward to stand next to the teenager, shrugging off her father's arm.
"Asanuma and I were just going to dance, Father," she said, blinking owlishly at him. "Come on, Asanuma." She glided off toward the dance floor, gritting her teeth.
"Whoah." She heard Asanuma quickly fall into step behind her, his shoes clicking on the marble floor. "Are you bipolar or something?"
Rei did not spare him a glance, merely wound an arm around his neck and glanced over her shoulder to make sure that she would not tread anyone when she began dancing.
"You used me, I decided it was convenient to return the favor. Now we're even."
"My friends would disagree. They say I'm odd."
Rei paused. One eyebrow lifted, and she glanced up at him. Then his meaning finally sank in, and her face smoothed as she rolled her eyes. "Far be it from me to correct them."
"Are we really going to dance?"
"What are we doing now?"
A pause followed as Asanuma glanced down at their shuffling feet. Rei took the opportunity to examine him again. This kid could not be Japanese; he was blonde as the sun.
"Where are you from?" she asked suddenly.
He looked back to her, eyes dancing. "Meow, meow."
She stared at him again uncomprehending. His grin faltered a bit.
"Curiosity killed the cat," he said, in a sheepish way that made her think that he was explaining the strange noise he had made.
"So...you're trying to tell me that you're an undercover government agent and asking you questions will cost me my life?"
"It worked for James Bond," he said with a shrug.
They swayed back and forth for a moment, Rei avoiding his eyes and staring at anything – ANYTHING – other than him. Then she spoke suddenly again, forcing her gaze onhim again. "Where are you from? You don't look Japanese."
"That's because of my mum. She's from America."
"How'd she end up here?"
"It's a long story."
Rei shrugged. "I've got time to kill."
"No, I mean it's a long and BORING story."
"It can't be any more boring than just standing here and moving back and forth from one foot to anther."
He grinned. 'You're right. Well, my dad lived here in Japan till high school, then he went over to America for college. He met my mom in one of his legal courses, they dated. He came back to Japan to work as a diplomat, she worked in America as a diplomat, they met up again at a social function just like this yawnfest, started dating again, got married. Mom moved over here; they had me. And we all lived happily ever after!" He smiled a Yamazaki smile. "The end!"
"You're right, that was boring," commented Rei.
"You wanted more of the mushy details, didn't you?" Asanuma waggled his eyebrows. "Dad did tell me that he dropped the engagement rign down the toilet at the restaurant the night he was planning to propose – "
"How is that a mushy detail?" interrupted Rei
Asanuma grinned wickedly. 'Well, you see, it's mushy because in the toilet there was – "
"Disgusting!" cried Rei. "Don't tell me THAT – "
" – a wad of toilet paper," finished Asanuma loudly over her protest. She pulled her fingers out of her ears and glared at him. 'What did you think I was going to say, that there was a brown sub – "
"Not listening, not listening, not listening," sang Rei, eyes flashing at him as she stuck her fingers in her ears again.
"I was just KIDDING," said Asanuma. "Man, you're just like my friend Darien, can't take a joke – "
"Jokes are funny," said Rei. "That was just GROSS."
Asanuma smiled suddenly, eyes unfocusing as he smiled gently at her. "Anything can be funny if you let it," he said.
Rei lifted ad eyebrow and looked at him, waiting for his weird mood to pass.
He snapped back quickly. "Anyways," he said, "you wouldn't be interested in that, I guess, Miss Pre-Menstrual."
Rei did not even have time for her jaw to drop in outrage at his appellation before he continued obliviously, "So, your turn. Give me your life story in two hundred words or less."
"I was born. I had birthdays. I'm still waiting to die," sad Rei. "The end."
"That's ALL? Don't you have anything interesting? Like a boyfriend? A secret lover? An alterego as the superheroine of Tokyo?"
Rei snorted. "I think you're mistaking me for Sailor Moon. Do I LOOK like a blonde?"
"Wouldn't you feel bad for asking m that question if I told you that I was colorblind?"
"No," retorted Rei fiercely, then hesitated. "You – you aren't, are you?" Open mouth insert foot…
"Nah!" said Asanuma. "Didn't I notice before that your dress was red? You blonde, you!"
"Watch it," said Rei threateningly, grinding her shoe into his foot.
Asanuma winced. "I guess we know who's going to be wearing the high heels in the relationship."
"RELATIONSHIP?"
"Yes, didn't you know?" said Asanuma brightly. "Our parents arranged for us to be married; I'm your betrothed. Pucker up and kiss me, darling!"
Rei stared in horror at his mouth, which was making slobbery smoochy noises, then glanced desperately up into his eyes. "Thy did not!"
Asanuma wilted, the kissy noises stopping. 'No, they didn't. But it was worth a try, wasn't it?"
Rei's breathing untangled, and she breathed a sigh of relief. God, for a minute there she'd actually believed him – her father would not be below such a thing as engaging her without her consent or knowledge… "I think you're high."
"Certainly, compared to other Japanese men, I am pretty high up," admitted Asanuma, straightening to his full height. "I'm quite flattered, Rei."
"That's Miss Hino to you!" snapped Rei. "And I didn't mean that you were tall, I meant that I think someone DID spike that punch you guzzled down."
"Oh, no, I always act like this," said Asanuma unconcernedly, spinning them deftly away from a man who had just lifted his hand to ask to cut in. "Actually, I'm acting rather tamely tonight. You should see me at school – hey, you SHOULD come see me at school! Then I can tell everyone that you're my girlfriend, and all the boys will be so jealous that they'll turn green – and since I'm not colorblind, I'll be able to see them! And - "
"Get a grip," said Rei disgustedly. "I wouldn't go out with you in a thousand years."
Asanuma paused, frowning at her. "Oh, you thought that I was asking you out? I'm sorry, you must have misunderstood me – I already have a boyfriend who I'm very much in love with, thank you."
Rei stared at him.
Asanuma's straight face (hahaha! More like NOT straight face!) lasted about three seconds before it cracked and he burst into peals of laughter.
"Oh, your face!" he howled, swiping the corners of his eyes with his Spongebob tie. "You BELIEVED me! Good Lord, Rei, you are gullible with a capital G!" He sobered abruptly. "Hey, you know what else starts with G? G –"
"Gay," supplied Rei dryly, rolling her eyes.
" – irlfriend!" Asanuma finished. "Which is something that I, sadly, do not have."
Rei cocked an eyebrow. "Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?"
"Yes!" Asanuma burst out passionately. "You're supposed to feel so sorry for me, in fact, that you volunteer to be my girlfriend so that I'm not lonely anymore!"
"I don't feel sorry for you, I feel sorry for whoever DOES end up being your girlfriend."
"Your tongue is as sharp as your high heels, Rei."
"Miss Hino."
"Pshaw! I'm not calling you that!"
"Asanuuuuuuuuuma!"
Asanuma's head whipped around suddenly. Rei caught sight of a blonde woman in a Grecian-style dress standing near the punch bowl and calling his name. His mother? She found herself hoping so.
"Oh," said Asanuma, in an inscrutable voice. "I've gotta go."
But – "Oh. Okay. Whatever." Rei flipped her hair as if it did not bother her.
"Hey…" Asanuma paused and rubbed the base of his neck with the heel of his hand. "You wanna do this again some time? At these functions, I mean."
Rei shrugged. "Sure. If I come again."
"Yeah, I getcha." Asanuam grinned. "I stay away from these things when I can, too. They pass a lot faster with someone so sour, though."
"Gee, thanks." Rei deadpanned. "Shouldn't you be going now?"
"Yeah, I guess…" Asanuma scuffed the floor with his highly-polished leather shoe. "So…bye."
"Bye."
Asanuma turned and headed for the woman in the Grecian dress.
After an uncomfortable "chat" with her mother's friend (it basically consisted of "Dear, your mother would be so proud of how you've turned out! Your father's brought you up so well!"), Rei's father escorted her out to the limo.
"We'll go to the house first," Senator Hino said to the chauffeur. "I don't feel like sitting through the drive to that temple."
The chauffeur nodded deferentially, and Senator Hino sat back in the leather seat. He poured some champagne from the mini-bar beside him and swirled around.
"You know," he began conversationally, "If your mother had been at that party, she would have been drumming up support among all the women and other wives, not gadding about with some diplomat's deadbeat son."
"There's the little matter of Mother being married," said Rei blankly. "I'm not."
"When your mother was your age, she knew how to tie a tie. She spoke three different languages and could keep a group of fifty people under her spell for hours. What can you do? Make chicken noodle soup and play with crows, that's what my daughter does." Her father gulped down a mouthful of the champagne. "Really impresses everyone, that does."
"Well, sorry that I'm not a clone of your dead wife." Rei's skin crawled as she said this, but she succeeded in keeping her voice cold.
"God, I wish she was here." He took another gulp of champagne, then another. His dark eyes hazed over slightly. "Better her than you. She should've been the one who lived that day, not you."
When the silent chauffeur dropped Rei off at the temple an hour later, Rei stood for a moment in the temple courtyard. The cool September wind swirled about her, and Phobos and Deimos wheeled in the star-spangled sky above her. She inhaled deeply, trying to absorb some of their peace, but the chill air only stung her nostrils. It was different for them. They were free; they could fly wherever they wanted together. She was stuck here, where no one wanted her. Alone.
She stalked up to the temple and let herself in. She forced herself to check on Grandfather, hearing faint coughing from the direction of his room.
As she came to stand by his bed, his heavy lids fluttered one slightly. "Hiotsukeru?" he rasped again, like he had earlier. "Is that you?"
Rei did not smile. She said, "Yes, Father," and left.
She fell asleep on her bed that night in the formal dress, feeling that there was not a single person in the world who was glad that she had been the one to live that day fifteen years ago.
When she woke up the next morning, dress wrinkled and hair tangled, she went straight to the kitchen and gulped down some pomegranate juice. She gulped it down as violently as a shot; some of it sloshed out and splashed onto her dress. It sank into the deep red fabric and soon could not even be seen.
It was a few days later. Rei was sweeping the temple steps like she had been forced to do every afternoon since Grandfather fell ill.
Two teenage girls appeared around the corner and headed towards the temple. One had hair so dark that it looked blue; she was being dragged along by the other girl, a blonde who was chattering a mile a minute. Rei gritted her teeth at her gratingly cheerful voice.
The blonde sped up hen she spotted the temple. She raced up the steps only to trip and fall flat on her face, skinning her knees. She sat up and sniffled as the blue-haired girl hissed I sympathy and sank down beside her, handing her a handkerchief.
Rei watched the scene unfold from beneath her bangs and thought sourly to herself that the little prep deserved to fall down after running around like a chicken with it head cut off.
Perhaps to justify her contempt of the blonde girl, she eavesdropped on their wishes. The blonde's prayer was some crazed plea to pass a science test. The dark-haired one spoke much more quietly than her friend: Rei had to strain to hear her whisper.
"I wish for my mother to love me."
Rei snorted and stared bitterly at the back of the girl's head. That idiot didn't have any right to be whining. At least she HAD a mother.
Some people just didn't appreciate anything.
Rei growled and yanked the broom off of its hook, then began t viciously sweep the temple stairs, despite the fact that it was nighttime.
By the time the tears on Rei's face were dry, Ami had arrived. Rei grunted a greeting to her, and Ami shifted from foot to foot.
"I can't stay long," she blurted out.
"For God's sake, Ami," snarled Rei, grateful for someone to lash out at after her moment of weakness. "Can't you lay off the studying for one freaking night?"
Ami shrank in on herself. "I – it's not that – I mean – my mother doesn't know what I'm here…"
"Would you shut up with the excuses already? You're not the only one who has other things to do, Ami – "
"Enough!"
At the sound of Luna's distinctive, authoritative voice, both girls turned.
Luna stepped forward out of the shadows. But she was not alone.
"Girls," she said as a brunette wearing a green Senshi fuku emerged from the trees, "meet Sailor Jupiter."
I'm sorry there wasn't more Serena and Darien. This was a chapter written in fragments on the bus and late at night… I hadn't remembered how little time school leaves for writing.
BTW, could someone tell me how you put things in your Bio? Nothing I've tried works – I'm so blonde!
Another BTW – all credit for the idea of making Rei and Ami's disorders part of a youma attack goes to my friend, Revolutionnaire Rouge! Love you, Giri-chan!