Rei winced. The black ring that was rapidly forming around her left eye was going to be impossible to hide. 'Tch. Guess I deserved that one.' She tossed the hand mirror onto the bed and let out a sigh of defeat. How the hell did her life get so complicated in the past two days? An even more depressing thought crossed her mind. How the hell was she going to fix it? She wandered over to her window and pushed aside the blood red curtains. The other soldiers had already assembled in the courtyard down below. Venus had her back towards the soldiers' quarters, and seemed to be talking rather animatedly with Mercury, arms waving wildly about. The blonde made a fist and slammed it into her other palm, with a force not unlike the one that left Rei's bruise. Mercury's eyes went wide, and Rei felt her heart twinge. 'Oh yeah. She is definitely pissed.' The bluenette patted Venus on the shoulder sympatheticallyand said something Rei couldn't make out. 'Knowing how to read lips would be tremendously helpful right now. Maybe I could work that into the curriculum.' she thought, absently tracing the bruise with her fingertips. The fire soldier chuckled in spite of herself. 'That girl does have a mean hook.' Jupiter looked up in her general direction, and Rei let the curtain slide back into place. She began pacing around her room, armored boots clinking. 'I can't hide up here forever, but I don't even have the first clue about what I should say. If I could only remember what happened, it just might make things a bit easier.' Her head throbbed. Yeah, as if she needed another reminder. She paused when she came to the opposite side of the room, and rested her forehead against the soothingly cool wall. 'When did I become such a coward?' She closed her eyes and let out the deep breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Remembering became her number one priority, and she certainly couldn't do it here in the palace. Besides, her head was still ached, and the idea of having the goddess of love beat her into the floor in front of everyone else was definitely not appealing, training match or not. All right. Issue settled. She headed towards the door, grabbing her blade from the weapons rack. 'Humph. Had enough sense to put that away last night. Ah well. Time to grab the tail of the dog that bit me.' At first, she contemplated sneaking out the back door, via the exit tunnel built in case of an attack. No, that wouldn't do. She probably looked like a damn coward in the eyes of the others already. Besides, sneaking out would probably just send her princess into overdrive. Everyone knew her well enough to guess where she was headed. She could picture sweet Serenity marching straight into the tavern and dragging her out by her ear. Her ear. She thought back to her dream, and suppressed a shudder. It had felt so real. Was it her hopped up imagination? Probably not. It seemed, as of late, that most of her dreams came to pass. Perhaps she would get the chance to talk it over with Pluto later. Then again, even that wouldn't do a whole lot of good. The aloof time guardian would probably give her some cryptic advice that never made sense until the crucial moment had passed. Damn time fluxes, or paradoxes, or whatever the hell Pluto called them. A great battle was approaching, that much she knew, and Mars was pretty damn sure it involved the Earthlings. Maybe she should question Endymion on his next visit. A sadistic smile graced her features as she pictured ramming her armored fist into his perfect pretty boy face. The smile vanished quickly however, as she continued to go over the few clues the dream left her. One of her fellow soldiers was supposed to die. Though, judging by the shape she and Jupiter had been in, she was almost confident that none of them would make it. What did that mean for her princess, or worse, the queen? Scratch that. She really did not want to think about that. She paused, her hand resting on the door that would lead her to the courtyard.and to Venus. She brought her hand up to her face and sighed. "Just what the hell am I doing? Something horrible is going to happen, and I'm worried about a stupid one night stand. I'm not even sure it was a one night stand! "Well, you are a female." a voice teased from behind. Mars mentally slapped herself and turned to face the speaker. "Artemis. I'm surprised. You're not clawing my eyes out." "Too much work." The white feline replied with a grin. "I'll leave that to Mina." "Yeah." Rei sighed. "I kinda figured she'd tell you." "Not bad for a petite blonde. I think we trained her well." "What?" "Let me guess. You're gonna tell everyone you fell." Feeling very self conscious, Rei covered her black eye. Artemis tilted his head, as if he were shrugging. "Hey. I'm not going to scold you. You're old enough to know what the right thing to do is." "Get really, really drunk?" "Now, that's what got you into this in the first place." he chided. "I will say this though. She really does care for you." Mars suddenly found the floor to be very, very fascinating. "Listen, Rei, you've come a long ways. I can still remember the day you joined us here. You, and Jupiter, were the only ones who could handle the toughest training. But on down time, when the other girls ran off to play, you'd just stand there, looking completely lost." "Venus." Rei murmured, recalling the memory with a faint smile. "Venus is the one who made me play, and have fun." Artemis nodded. "Coming from the great war planet like you did, I wasn't surprised to see you become such a fierce fighter, and I know your loyalty and devotion is just as fierce." Rei's eyes met his. "And that's my problem." she breathed. "Let me share something I've learned during my years of duty. Wishful thinking is nice, but that's all it is. Wishes. You keep looking away, you'll miss the real show." "The real show?" "Yeah. People tend to ignore what's right in front of them, and flitter the hours away pining for something they can't have. Tomorrow never comes until it's too late." he shook his head sadly. "You should understand that better than anyone, being a soldier." "But I can't lie, Artemis. I can't look her in the eye and promise her something I can't give her. That's not fair. How do you think that would make her feel?" Rei swallowed the knot in her throat, and continued. " I could hold her, and whisper all the things she wants to hear, but you know what? She'll doubt me. Always. She'll wonder if I'm saying those things to her, or to someone else. And besides, I don't even remember what happened yesterday, and I can't start fixing the problem when I'm not even sure what the problem is." she shook her head to clear her thoughts, and sighed. "The worst part is, something very unpleasant is going to happen. I honestly don't think we're going to pull through it." Artemis felt the fur on his spine stand on end. "Something that bad? You have another vision?" "Yeah." "Have you informed the queen?" "Not yet." Rei replied. "But I plan to. All I know is that if we want to make it out of this alive, we need to be a team. Right now, I'd say the team is a little fractured." "Understatement of the year." Artemis quipped. Even Mars had to smile at that. "No kidding. But I promise I'll fix this. Right now, I just need some time to think, and then I'll smooth things over with Venus." Artemis nodded. "I understand." Rei knelt on the floor, and scratched the feline behind the ears. "You know, you're not half bad, for a talking hair ball anyway." "Watch it, or I will start clawing at you." he growled. She laughed, and rose again, shifting her sheath and resting one hand on the pommel of her sword. After she braced herself mentally, she let out a deep breath and gave the cat a toothy grin. "Now. Off to the den of lions." "It scares me when you smile like that." Artemis muttered. "Please, just...try not to hurt her." Mars just spun on her heels and pushed the door open, looking as though she had all the confidence in the world. That confidence quickly faded when she felt three pairs of eyes bore holes into her skull. 'What, do I have a curse word carved into my face? Heh. I know. I bet my forehead says, 'Hey! Look at me! I kill puppies! Please! Shower me with disdain and stones!' Rei's steps faltered for the briefest of moments, and she was half tempted to turn back and run away. 'Yeah, look at the great Martian warrior. Watch the soldier of fire flee from three girls.' Her resolve renewed, Mars cleared her throat quietly and strode purposefully towards the group. 'Just remember, "great warrior", one of those girls took you down with one hit. Just imagine what the three of them could do together. I bet it would be one hell of a fight. To her complete and utter amazement, no one hit her. That's when she begin to feel very nervous indeed. She could handle the hitting. She could handle the name calling. One thing she could not handle was not knowing what was going on. 'Oh, dear gods above. They're not going to turn this into some sappy hug-fest are they?' Mars decided to act first. She walked past Jupiter, and paused to rest a hand on her bronze shoulder guard. "Hey. Keep an eye on Mercury, alright Blinky? "Blinky?" Jupiter repeated. "Yeah. Watch the sharp objects." Jupiter let out a genuine laugh. "Hey, I think you knocked her pretty hard Venus." The blonde had her back turned to Rei, and was staring off into a line of distant trees. "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response." Venus snapped. "Makoto!" Mercury called reproachfully. The brunette just shrugged, and gave Mars a smile. "These things just take time." she whispered helpfully. "Yeah. And I don't know how much of that we have." Jupiter gave the raven-haired girl another confused look, but she had already approached Mercury. "Does um, your face hurt a lot? I can take a look at it, if you want." the bluenette offered quietly. Rei shook her head no, and smiled at the small warrior. Without warning, she wrapped her arms around Ami and hugged her tight. A light blush rose to Mercury's cheeks as she hugged the fire soldier back, looking very perplexed. "Ah, you ok Mars?" "I'm ok. I just worry sometimes I guess." Mars let the genius go, and finally found the courage to approach Minako. Mercury took this as a sign to give them room, and led Jupiter back into the palace. "Hey, Ami, is she ok?" "I'm not sure. Signs of affection from her are odd, to say the least." "No kidding. Oh man, Wait." Jupiter called, tugging on Mercury's arm. "I have a bad feeling." "Bad feeling?" Makoto nodded. "Do you remember the last big battle? When we had that massive flow of black energy?" "There were youma everywhere." Mercury recalled. "I honestly think a horde that size would have taken down the palace, had Mars not warned us. She even managed to defend the lower kingdom." "Exactly." "Wait, what?" Ami asked, not liking the feeling in her gut. "I think she saw something." Jupiter replied. "She kinda got like this last time, all dark and brooding." "Mako, she's always dark and brooding. Anyways, she had a rough evening." Rei's words suddenly struck Makoto hard. 'She told me to watch over Mercury, and then she hugged Ami....' Jupiter suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, and pulled Ami into her arms. "Ok. Now I'm getting confused. And it's definitely weird for me to be confused." Ami confessed. Makoto tried to calm her hammering heart, and kissed the top of Mercury's head. 'I'll protect her, even if it kills me. I've already wasted so much time, just trying to find her.' Jupiter forced herself to laugh. "Sorry. You just look so cuddly today." The ice soldier sighed. --------------------- "Hey Venus, truce, ok?" Mars asked quietly, holding her hands up in the air. The blonde wouldn't even turn to face her. Rei dropped her hands. "Minako, please. I know you're angry...." "You're damn right I'm angry!" she snapped, turning to face Mars at last. " I can't believe you treated me that way!" "I'm sorry! I panicked!" "Well that's putting it lightly!" "Did you want everyone to walk in on us?" Rei growled. This was going nowhere fast. She hadn't wanted to start another fight. "What, were you that ashamed of us? Had to hide it?" "Yes!" The blonde's glare could have melted tempered steel. Mars cringed inwardly. "I mean, NO! I don't know. I'm still trying to remember what happened." All this yelling was killing her head. Minako was dumbfounded. "You don't remember?" Mars shook her head. "Not at all?" Mars found the toes of her boots to be very entertaining. "What's the last thing you remember?" Venus asked, softer this time. A normal tone. "Uh, the barmaid handing my money back to me, fifth round or so. She said I was..." "..overpaying her." Minako finished quietly. Rei swallowed hard. She hadn't even considered the fact that the blonde might have remembered everything. "I'm sorry Mina." she whispered, taking one of Venus' hands in her own. "Just, please, give me some time to sort this out. " Minako nodded, slipping her hand out of Rei's. Rei was shocked to find that very small action slugged her like a fist to the solar plexus. "I can at least give you that. Besides. I feel kinda bad for punching you." Mars nodded. "Can I come find you later? I...I don't want this to ruin what we had." "Have." Venus corrected quietly. "Yeah. Talk to me after you figure yourself out." and with that, she was gone. Mars sighed deeply. There was only one thing left to do now.
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