Chapter Three:
Twisted Life
The door to Ami's room clicked closed, and the sound echoed in the hallway where the very air seemed to be filled with an aura of anxiety. Silence hung from the plaster walls as the five senshi waited to hear Luna and Artemis's verdict on the situation. Rei had arrived late, and the five went back to Ami's home, with their sentient youma, because Ami's mother was still at the hospital.
"Well?" Makoto inquired of the two cats as they exchanged glances. Then, Luna stalked forward a couple steps and sat in front of the girls.
"The youma seems to be Yumemi," Luna told the girls in a solemn voice.
"How can that be?" Rei asked as she looked between the other senshi. "Tell me what happened because I don't remember that before."
"Ami, you were there first," Luna beckoned Ami to recite the order of events. Ami drew a breath and met Rei's intense stare.
"She was sucked into the alley," Ami began slowly and with a great effort to keep her voice steady. "Then, I transformed in another alley and found Yumemi gagged and bleeding from a gash on her arm behind Kunzite. I attacked, then, Jupiter attacked, and then, Sailor Moon attacked Kunzite, but he absorbed it in this crystal shard."
"A what? Like the rainbow crystals?" Rei asked in alarm. However, Ami simply shook her head at this remark to disconfirm it. Then, the hallway went quiet as Ami steadied herself to continue the series of events.
"It was black, and it shined silver when it absorbed the healing attack," Ami continued, but her voice cracked when she said, "He threw it into her stomach."
"It's okay, Ami, I'll tell it," Makoto offered, but Ami shook her head definitely.
"No, I will," Ami replied as she suppressed the quaver in her voice. "She changed, and Kunzite left. Sailor Moon attacked the youma, and it split in two, but Yumemi's form was able to attack and appeared obviously evil."
"It appears the entities switched places," Luna said. Usagi stared stupidly at her cat for a couple moments before Luna sighed and began to explain. "I mean I think that Yumemi's soul, mind, and heart were kept inside the form of the youma, but that the evil entity of the youma was able to leave in Yumemi's form."
"How? That never happened before," Rei remarked as she gazed between all the other senshi. The air hung so thick no one moved to answer Rei's plea, and she bit her lower lip in frustration.
"I don't know how they did it, and I don't know why the split didn't completely separate both entities because the ginzuishou was supposed to heal them!" Ami shouted in frustration. Minako came over and wrapped her arms around Ami's shoulder as a couple tears escaped her sparkling, ocean blue eyes. On her head Minako wore a bag of ice where she'd collided with the wall, but other than that, the senshi was fine now.
"Ami, it's not our fault," Minako said soothingly as she rubbed her hand gently across Ami's back like a mother would do to a child. "We won't let it happen again, I promise."
"How do we know that?" Makoto jutted into the pacifying effect of Minako's words. "We don't even know how they did that! It looked like they used the ginzuishou to fuel that crystal, if you ask me."
"You asked me to use it! You told me to use it again!" Usagi yelled as Makoto, and the two girls exchanged angry stares. Rei threw herself in between them before any more blows verbally or otherwise could be exchanged.
"It's done with!" Rei shouted as Makoto stood defiantly behind Rei while Usagi sulked off to the other side of the hallway. The silence hung over the hallway before being broken by the moaning coming from Ami's bedroom. Ami sniffled as the other senshi exchanged anxious glances.
"Why was Yumemi's . . . body okay, but the youma's . . . body isn't?" Minako asked hesitantly as she tried to phrase the question correctly.
"There could be a lot of reasons," Artemis began as he strode over to Minako and sat down by her feet. "I think maybe the ginzuishou's attack hurt the youma body but not the human one. Also, there's the possibility that . . . there's the possibility that Yumemi's soul is suffering from being inside the youma body."
"No!" Ami and Minako gasped at the same time. Usagi let out a straggled yelp, but Rei kept her eyes firmly focused on Artemis while Makoto glanced towards the door where another wail sounded from the other side.
"Why did the powers rub off?" Rei asked as she told herself to ignore the horrible sounds. "Shouldn't the youma have been stunned entering the human body?"
"Well, there was a moment there when I guess she, um, it was stunned," Minako replied hesitantly as she continued to sooth Ami, who's eyes were now filled with tears that dripped down her cheeks.
"The powers, well, I guess maybe because they split from the same body, but that's a guess," Ami mumbled as she wiped her eyes on Minako's sleeve. Minako didn't even seem to notice Ami's wet stain on her beautiful, purple sweater, which had cost Minako more yen than Ami's entire outfit.
"What do we do?" Usagi timidly asked the four other senshi and her guardians. "I mean, if that thing is really Yumemi or something, can we change her back?"
"I don't think we should try anything yet," Luna suggested as she walked over to Usagi. "I don't think we know what effect it will have considering the ginzuishou split severed her from her body."
As Luna spoke, another moan irrupted from Ami's bedroom, and Ami flinched at the sound. The hallways remained silent as the painful sounds hung in each of their memories, and they knew another screech would soon follow it. Luna, with great weight in her voice, spoke. "Staying like that might kill her."
"What?" Makoto asked, absolutely floored by Luna's statement. "We can't let her die! We're senshi, we just can't do that!"
"We'll see what happens to her condition by tomorrow," Artemis reassured the girls as he turned and padded over towards the door. "I think we should go in and see if she calms down. Makoto, maybe take Rei downstairs and prepare something to eat and drink."
With a deft nod, the two girls went down the steps to Ami's kitchen. The three other senshi exchanged nervous glances as Minako advanced towards the door first and opened it, where the full sound of the high pitched moan reached their ears without the barrier of the door. They'd laid the youma's body on its stomach, so the wings weren't crushed against the bed, and laid blankets over the back. However, the youma body had been tossing and turning in pain and the blankets had completely fallen off the top half of the body, and most of the blankets were on the floor except for the sheet, which was entangled around the lower half of the body. Ami stifled a sob as she watched the creature groan in agony.
"Yumemi?" Ami asked delicately as she stepped into the room. The youma's head turned, and the glistening, plum eyes focused on the three girls in the doorway. The mouth opened to speak, but then, another wail of pain escaped her lips.
Ami broke away from Minako and reached her bed, where she draped the blankets that had fallen on the floor back over the struggling creature. The creature's breathing was sporadic, but it looked up into Ami's eyes, and Ami bit her lip to quench her urge to cry. "Sorry, I should've warned you," Ami apologized sincerely as her eyes filled with tears.
"Here," Makoto offered a plate with a sandwich and soup when her and Rei appeared in the room. Rei handed a piece of the sandwich to Yumemi, who dropped it as she convulsed. She groaned as her breathing remained shallow and labored.
"What should we do?" Minako asked, feeling utterly helpless.
"I think you four should leave, and Artemis and I will stay with Ami," Luna suggested. "Leave the food, Makoto. We'll let you know tomorrow what's happening."
"Okay," Rei replied softly as she walked over and gave Ami's hand a reassuring squeeze before exiting the room, followed by Makoto, Usagi, and finally Minako. The four girls walked outside in silence, glad to be rid of the horrible sounds. When they had walked so far, Rei separated from the three and headed towards her shrine.
'How horrible,' Rei thought as she walked along the streets as the sun's last crimson rays streaked over the buildings. 'How can someone be so evil,' Rei wondered as she thought about what Kunzite had done. Her heart ached for vengeance as she remembered the very painful sight of knowing the writhing creature in Ami's room was really a young girl.
'I'll take my revenge,' Rei vowed to herself as she passed beneath several trees still dripping from the day's rain. As Rei passed under their branches, she froze and a shiver shot up her spine.
"Who's there?" Rei asked apprehensively as she spun around and scanned the area. On Rei's side of the street, there were several shops that were closed for the evening. They look harmless enough, Rei thought, but then, she glanced across the street. An ominous, gray warehouse loomed like an eclipse over the opposite side of the street, and Rei felt a chill just looking at it with the boarded up windows and padlocked doors.
'If there's something in there, I need to see it,' Rei told herself as she raced across the street. She pressed against the side of the building, where the aura was so intense that the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Rei leaned up on her tiptoes to peak in between a crack in the boards. There were skylights in the roof, so the last beams of daylight illuminated the rickety old boxes that were stacked up to the ceiling. Tires littered one side of the warehouse along with bundles of gray and black piping, but Rei spotted no signs of anything else with her eyes.
'There's something in there,' Rei thought as she felt the edginess in her gut intensify. 'If I don't go in there, it could attack someone,' she reasoned as she reached for her transformation pen. "Mars Power, Make Up!"
As the magic cloaked Rei, she bloomed into the senshi of fire. Feeling more secure, Mars pried the board off the window and jumped through the glass free hole. Mars coughed as she landed, and the dust flew up around her in a mini cloud. However, Mars heard no other sounds while she stood poised to attack.
'There might be nothing here,' Mars realized as she stared around the deserted storehouse. From the inside, there was barely any light, and Mars realized instantly that much of the warehouse was obscured by the shadows cast by the mountains of rickety looking crates.
'No, there definitely is something in here,' Mars told herself as she took a couple steps forward so she stood in one of the beams of waning sunlight. Mars examined the warehouse, which seemed closed up in its own universe without sound or life. 'At least I'm in the light,' Mars thought and attempted to calm her nerves as she kept her eyes peeled for any slight movement.
"Mars," a base toned, raspy voice called from around the shadows by the crates. Mars jumped, turning towards the sound of the noise. Her heart pulsed up by her ears, and she thought whatever just called her name might be able to taste her fear.
"Come out!" Mars shouted as she readied herself to attack. 'It won't get a shot at me,' Mars thought as she revved herself up for what she thought was a certain oncoming battle. "Come out!"
"Promise," the voice said as Mars heard some noise from behind the jumble of crates. When the voice spoke again, it sounded slightly closer. "Not to attack."
"Why not?" Mars demanded. "I'm not in the mood to play nice."
"I won't hurt you," the voice called out again from the distant mass of crates. Mars bit her lip, trying to figure out where the voice was exactly coming from, but the acoustics made the sound echo, so she wasn't able to pinpoint a location.
"There's no promise you can make that I'll trust!" Mars declared to her mysterious opponent. 'What a coward,' she thought with loathing. "Come out!"
"I'm sick," the voice pleaded in its hoarse tones. Mars curled her lips back in a feral snarl as she gazed into the murky shadows.
"You're sick? I can feel your aura, and I think you're a filthy youma!" Mars shouted towards the area where she thought the creature might be hiding. There were two stacks of crates that jutted up, and beyond those, nothing could be seen in the corner of the warehouse. 'I bet that's where it is,' Mars decided and positioned herself to face the shrouded corner. "Come out!"
"Please!" the voice begged, and Mars sensed the dire need that radiated through that one word. She felt her resolve waver for a moment, but kept herself ready to pounce on that corner of the warehouse. "I'm cursed!"
"Cursed?" Mars asked, feeling an odd twisting in her gut. Her mind raced back to Yumemi lying in Ami's bed, twisting in agony from being trapped inside the body of a monster. Mars swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to will herself to feel the absolute anger to attack, but her resolve faltered as she succumbed to the idea of some other poor soul moaning in pain in the corner of the warehouse.
"Come out, I'll hold you to your word. One aggressive movement, and I will attack," Mars warned as she squinted to see if she could spot any movement in the corner of the shadow cloaked warehouse. Then, Mars heard thumping sounds, as the creature began to move, which were accompanied by scrapping sounds as it shifted the crates out of the way. Mars silently said the word 'oh' as she watched the ape like creature bumble out into one of the rays of fading light.
The color of the fur appeared a russet tone like no ape Mars had ever seen. Also, the creature loomed larger than any other primate Mars had ever heard existed, and the monster was at least four heads taller than she was, even as it walked hunched over. It didn't have the typical leather padding on its hands and chest, but was completely covered with the fur the color of desert rocks. 'It's huge,' Mars realized as the creature lumbered towards her, and Mars caught sight of the bony spikes that jutted out of its spine and knuckles that were mostly obscured by fur, and she spied the charcoal colored horn stubs on its head.
"We have . . . an accord?" Mars asked hesitantly as the creature came close enough that she could've walked four steps forwards and been pressed against its body. The creature raised its head and the crimson eyes met Mar's almond eyes. Mars drew a breath as she stared into the well of red that were terrifying because of their color, yet there was that immense sad desperation that was in the cry of 'I'm cursed!'
"Yes," the creature said in its deep, throaty voice. Mars nodded, feeling her heart hammering against her ribs. For several moments, the air hung thick between the senshi and the creature. 'What is he? What's going on?' Mars wondered as she surveyed the creature in front of her, who appeared in better state than she remembered seeing Yumemi.
"Your name," Mars demanded in an even voice. 'I can't just keep calling him creature,' Mars thought as she waited patiently for the response.
"Abinar," the creature finally told her after several moments.
"I'm . . . Sailor Mars would be a fitting title, although it's not really a name," Mars mused, but the creature cocked its head, as if waiting for more.
"What is your name?" Abinar asked after Mars stopped speaking.
'Should I tell him?' Mars wondered as she eyed up the muscular creature, which she realized, was probably not a creature after all. She bit her lip, deciding this might be the time to become Rei again and let this Abinar see the real her.
"I . . . my identity is precious," Mars explained. The creature nodded as he continued to keep his sorrowful stare on Mars. "I . . . I don't like this place."
"Neither do I," Abinar replied and lumbered towards the door at the back of the warehouse. "We can leave."
"What? To where?" Mars asked, even though the idea of leaving appealed to her. 'Where would he go?' she wondered. 'Where could we stay that I could show my identity and yet hide a creature?'
"Where do you live?" the creature asked from the door, which was now obscured in the shadow of night which had left only a tinge of light on the floor below the skylights. "Would it be safe?"
"What? Are you kidding?" Mars exclaimed. "My grandfather and his student might be there! If we got in without disturbing them, it would indeed be a miracle!"
"Then where?" the creature asked again from the door. 'The shrine is large enough to hide him, at least my quarters are never disturbed,' Mars realized. 'What am I thinking? I can't hide that thing, human soul or not, inside the shrine!' Mars thought as she studied the lump of shadow that she knew to be Abinar.
"The shrine," Mars replied in a whisper. How her will broke so easily, she could not tell. "We'll get in, but we need to go through the back streets of Tokyo and stay in the shadows."
Without a word, she heard the creature bang open the door. Mars crossed the warehouse, feeling numb and disconnected from herself after her last declaration. 'What did I say?' Mars wondered as she followed the creature out into the night. However, she felt immediate relief after leaving that warehouse behind her. As the night deepened, the pair crept along through alleyways until they made it to the wall of a park, where the pair climbed over the fence.
Once inside the thick shadows that the leafy branches of the trees cast, Mars felt instantly safer. There was no one in this little park at this hour, and it bordered the shrine, and Mars recalled she could see it out her window. 'Perfect, we'll come in by my window,' she thought as the creature lumbered behind her through the refreshing night air of the park.
"Almost there," Mars whispered to the night. She heard no reply from her companion, but his aura still had the tints of a youma. 'I think it was mostly that warehouse,' Mars realized as they continued walking. 'Most of the uneasiness and evil was actually coming from that warehouse, not this creature,' Mars thought as they continued to the other end of the park, where they reached another wall. Even in the dark, Mars could see the lamps burning outside their shrine, and she knew exactly were the gates where, and she could see the lights from the opposite side of the shrine where her grandfather and Yuuichirou were probably in their rooms or in the bath.
"Stay here. I'll be back when my grandfather and Yuuichirou are asleep," Mars instructed the creature in a low voice.
"We are at your house?" the creature replied, but Mars had already leapt over the fence. She slid into her room, quickly letting her alias of Sailor Mars drop off her, and she became simpler Rei once again. Rei steadied herself and walked into the hallway to see how close her grandfather and Yuuichirou were to sleeping.
"Rei!" Yuuichirou shouted as he caught her when she came out of her room. The thick, shaggy locks were damp and untamed, which made Rei think he'd been using the onsen lately. He gave her his enormous, idiotic grin when he saw her. "Where've you been?"
"At Ami's, strolling around," Rei told Yuuichirou as much of the truth as she dared. She peered down the hallway, wondering where her grandfather was. "Where's grandfather?"
"He drank a little and went to sleep," Yuuichirou commented as Rei started towards the onsen.
"I'm taking a bath, so you better sleep, too, and no peeping," Rei commanded Yuuichirou as she grabbed a couple fluffy, white towels. Then, Rei shut the door to the onsen and stripped her clothes. She washed herself off before stepping into the steamy water, where she submerged herself. Rei lay in the tub for about forty-five minutes as she allowed the balmy waters to sooth her and open up her skin so it could be cleansed.
Rei got out of the soothing bath, finally, and she dressed, feeling the exhaustion of the day begin to weigh upon her. 'I need to lie down,' Rei mentally moaned as she slipped out of the onsen. Only her footsteps echoed in the shrine as Rei crept back to her room. She took a deep breath and in a more subdued voice declared, "Mars Power, Make Up."
After she'd changed back into her senshi ware, Mars slipped out of her room and back over the fence without a sound, like a shadow creeping through the trees. She landed by the fence, where she made out the lump of shadow that was the creature Abinar. Mars beckoned him with her hand to come over to her several times, but the creature didn't budge.
"Come on," Mars muttered. The creature gave a grunt as it lumbered away from the tree it had been by. "What took you so long?"
"I was sleeping," Abinar mumbled in his raspy, base voice. Mars cocked an eyebrow in disbelief, and shook her head as she jumped the fence. The creature followed her, making a heavy thumping noise as it landed in the shrine territory. Then, Mars ushered the creature up towards her room, where she slid open the door and walked silently into her room. Behind her, the enormous primate creature turned sideways and squeezed itself through her doorway.
"You were sleeping," Mars muttered in disgust. Mars shook her head as she shut the door, double-checked that the shrine was silent, and then lit a couple candles so that her and the creature could see.
"Okay," Mars said as she drew in a breath. She let the power go, and soon, she stood there in her kimono she'd put on after her bath. "I'm Hino Rei, and a miko here at my grandfather's shrine."
"Hmm, so I take it I'm staying here?" the creature's voice was barely audible because it spoke so softly.
"Yes," Rei replied reluctantly. "And, I supposed, since you were so tired, you'd like to sleep?"
"Decent sleep is difficult," Abinar mumbled as Rei slid out of her room to find more blankets and another pillow, which she brought back. Then, she cleared a large area on her floor where she put the blankets and pillow.
"I sleep with this," Rei reminded the creature as she waved her transformation stick. The creature gave a nod and arranged itself on the floor.
"Would you've slept in that warehouse?" Abinar asked Rei as she blew out the candles and submerged the pair in darkness.
"No," Rei said as she yawned and pulled her own blankets over her head. She didn't take her kimono off but kept it on as she lay in bed, trying to drift to sleep. 'Damn, that creature is keeping me awake,' Rei thought as the deep, steady breathing of the Abinar creature reminded her of its presence.
'I need to sleep,' Rei told herself.
'Its breathing steadily,' Rei thought.
'I need to sleep,' Rei reaffirmed her will to rest and shut her eyes. Still, the breathing didn't end, and she thought of nothing but her gentle blankets and pillows. As Rei found that place between waking and sleeping where one is briefly aware, the breathing lingered as her lullaby and rocked her to uneasy dreams.
A/N: This is the Abinar chapter, and I hope that I got my Rei personality across correctly. I didn't want her to be soft, but she needed to accept Abinar. Next chapter will probably be mainly about Abinar, Ami, Rei, and Yumemi. However, I do want to go into something with Minako. Once again, a better summary is appriciated. :D