Mending Loneliness

By Bashfulglowfly

Chapter Five – Dreamtime

Kazuya retched but nothing came up. He breathed deeply for a moment until he was sure his stomach was settled then opened his eyes.

He was not in his bedroom.

He turned around looking. It was white all around him. "What the…"

"…fuck am I?"

Kazuya turned towards the voice. It was a man with long brown hair and brown eyes. Perhaps an inch or so shorter than he was. "Good question." Kazuya said.

The man turned and looked at him, surprise all over his face. "I saw you. I just saw you. We were fighting…"

A moan interrupted him. "Did someone get the license of the train that just hit me?" It was a man with short blond hair.

"He wasn't here a second ago." Said the brown-haired man. "What the hell is going on here?"

Then a man…no a teenager with long strawberry blond hair materialized in front of them. The boy was curled in a ball and was shivering. Kazuya knelt down and carefully touched his back. The boy curled tighter at his touch. The boy was real. "It's okay. You're safe. It's okay." He said softly.

"It's not okay. I betrayed her. We betrayed all of them."

The first blond man spoke. "What is he talking about?"

Then the memories hit them.

Kunzite barely kept himself from curling up like Zoicite. Nephrite wasn't much better and Jadeite had his face on his knees.

"I'm sorry." Came a soft voice from behind them.

Kunzite looked over his shoulder. It was Usagi…no, not Usagi. This was Serenity, Princess of the Moon. Beloved of Endymion, Prince of Earth. Their Master.

He staggered to his feet, pulling Zoicite up with him. Nephrite and Jadeite moved to his side. They stared at the princess for a moment then, as one, went to one knee in front of her, heads bowed.

Serenity giggled. "Oh, stand up! You don't need to bow in front of me. The girls certainly don't."

Kunzite frowned. "Well, they should. You are their princess."

"Not a very good one, sometimes." She replied.

"Doesn't matter, they should respect you."

"Respect should be earned." She tugged lightly on a strand of hair. "I haven't earned it all the way, not yet at least."

Jadeite pointed at her. "You! You were the girl at the field yesterday. Was it yesterday? Where are we?"

"It was yesterday." She confirmed. "I met with all of you yesterday. And this place?" She gestured to the vast white expanse all around them. "This is Dreamtime."

Zoicite looked at her. "Australian Aboriginal mythology."

Serenity shook her head. "No, they have a different Dreamtime. There are many types of Dreamtime. This one is ours."

Nephrite spoke "Why are we here? Why did you wake us up? We were happy before we knew that we betrayed our Prince and the rest of you…twice."

"Pfft!" She waved a hand dismissively. "You didn't betray anyone. Don't you remember? Beryl capturing you? Beryl torturing you? Beryl using the blackest of magic against you? As for 'twice' that was because Mother made a teeny tiny mistake when she used the Ginzuishou. Of course, she was dying at the time so I think she should be forgiven for that."

"So why did you wake us up?" asked Zoicite.

"Because Dimi is lonely. He needs you." Came her simple reply.

"He needs us?"

Serenity nodded vigorously. "Yes, I have the girls to talk with. And while he has me, he also needs others that he can confide in. One's who will understand everything that he's gone thro…"

She whirled around, staring at something they couldn't see.

Then before their eyes a young man with dark hair appeared. He wore midnight and silver armor.

He was weeping.

Serenity dropped to her knees next to him, wrapping her arms around him, pulling his head to her breast. "Dimi. Oh, Dimi! What's wrong?"

Endymion shuddered and wrapped his arms around Serenity, burying his face against her neck and holding her close. "I had a horrible dream. The worst ever."

"What was it, darling?"

"The Shitennou. MY Shitennou. My friends. I saw what Beryl did to them. I'm not even going to describe what she did. You shouldn't know. You should never know that people who can do things like that exist. I thought they betrayed me. That they betrayed all of us. I cursed them. I hated them. I wanted to kill them. But it wasn't their fault. It was never their fault. I blamed them. I blamed them!"

"Shhhh." Serenity rocked him back and forth. "Shhh. It's alright. It's alright. They forgive you." She looked over her shoulder at the four men giving them a look that clearly said 'You better forgive him.'

"How can I know that? How will I know that?" He straightened up and looked at her. His midnight eyes begging.

Serenity stroked his cheek. "Soon, my love. You will find out soon." She pulled him back into her arms. "Go back to sleep now. Sleep. Everything will be better and we'll talk in the morning."

"Promise?"

Serenity smiled at his tone. It was similar to that of a young child needing reassurance. "I promise." She said softly. "Sleep now." She held him until he disappeared completely from her arms.

Kunzite walked over and helped her up. She looked up at him. "See. I told you he needed you."

"Okay. You were right." He pulled her close in a hug. "So, how are we going to meet him in Real Life."

"Oh, that's easy." Serenity pulled away and bounced on her toes. "Meet us at Arisugawa-no-miya Park. Around noon."

"How will we find you?" asked Zoicite.

Serenity smiled. Whiteness began to wash over all of them. "Listen to your heart!" she called.

Author's note: I have seen Endymion's name shorted to Dimi in a few other fan fiction stories and I like it a lot better than Endy. But recently I learned that Dimi is a pet name for the Russian name Dmitriy that means "loves the earth" or "follower of Demeter." Which fits rather well. Dimi is also a short form of the Aramaic name Avdimi which means "destruction, loss" which, sadly, also fits.