16 days ---------------- "Don't you find this to be rather tiresome?" Rei spun on her heels, trying in vain to find the speaker. Darkness surrounded her. A bottomless emptiness. She felt like she was drowning. "What the hell are you talking about?" she growled, drawing her sword. "Show yourself!" "So quick to resort to violence." the voice goaded. "And you call yourself a champion of justice?" "Yeah. Pretty easy to taunt me when you won't face me." Mars snapped, her anger building rapidly. "But this is far more entertaining! I like seeing your true colors." a female's voice, and very familiar. Rei knew the speaker, but it was almost as if a fog was clouding her mind, preventing her from recalling the knowledge. The warrior gritted her teeth. She had no idea how she got here, but she wanted out now. "True colors? Tch. You don't know the first thing about me." Bravado. Always the best way to go in an unknown situation. "Oh, but I do Mars. I know all about you. I know how trapped you feel in your own skin. How does it feel, knowing you have no control over your life?" "I have control." Mars replied confidently. "I choose my own path, and no cowardly phantom is going to convince me otherwise." "Is that so? They're going to die, you know. All of them. You can't stop it, and you can't save them. How is that having any sort of control? Face it. Fate owns you." Mars felt her blood pulsing hotly in her veins. Her heart hammered violently in her chest, threatening to burst out. "Oh come on!" she cried angrily. "Don't sulk around the back door. Charge right through the front! Tell me what you want, so I can hurry up and kill you!" "I just want to talk. No need to get so bloodthirsty." a mocking tone. Mars felt like screaming in frustration. "So talk already! Who the hell are you?" "In good time Rei. You never answered my question. How do you have any sort of control? What do you plan to do?" "Defeat the enemy, and protect what I have to! My power is my control!" she replied. "Really? You honestly think that you, and the rest of the little soldiers, can defeat the enemy? Let me show you something. I think you'll like it." The darkness surrounding Rei vanished, and she found herself on a vast hilltop, over looking the kingdom. It was a dark night, and the palace was lit up in all it's glory. She could tell from the music carried to her on the wind that the ball was well underway. The ground under her begin to rumble and shake violently. She staggered helplessly, trying to remain on her feet. The sky exploded above her, and for a brief moment the entire land, as far as her eye could see, was bathed in an unearthly purple light. She spun around on shaky legs to see what had caused the eerie explosion, and fell to her knees. An army, larger than she could ever imagine, stretched across the horizon, rushing towards her. 'Millions. There are millions of them.' her mind whispered in horror. Demons, in all shapes in sizes. Claws, swords, fangs, horns, clubs. It was as though the gates of hell had opened, and spilled it's contents in her backyard. They were all charging straight towards her, and the palace. "Well?" the voice prodded. "Why are you just sitting there? Stand up! Draw your blade! Fight them!" "I can't." Mars whispered. "I can't fight them all." "You have to! They are coming! They'll run you down, and take everything you love! Why aren't you fighting? Come on!! GET UP!!" "It's impossible!!" Rei screamed, beating her fists into the ground. "We can't beat that!" "Exactly!!" She was thrown back into the darkness, confidence stripped bare. "I really enjoyed this little chat Mars. We'll do this again soon, I promise." "Wait!" Mars cried, her world exploding in a flash of white light. "Wait for what? Are you alright Rei? Maybe we should take you back to the infirmary." "Huh?!" Rei found herself seated at the long marble table of the war room, surrounded by her fellow soldiers. "I said, are you feeling ok?" Venus repeated carefully. "You've been spacing out all day." "Spacing?" Mars repeated dumbly. "Yeah. Daydreaming, you know? Your eyes were wide open." Rei pressed a shaking hand to her face and covered her eyes. "I'm sorry. I think it's the stress." she said at last, the words sounding hollow even to her own ears. The muscles in her bad shoulder crawled, and the unpleasant feeling ran all the way into her fingers. "Maybe you should just rest for today." Jupiter said gently. "No, no, I'm ok. We need to do this quickly." Mars replied with a shake of her head. "So what do we have?" Mercury sighed wearily and consulted the tablets spread across the table in front of her. "If you recall, most of our allies have been swallowed up by the Dark Kingdom already. The parliament spent so much time arguing amongst themselves, we were never able to send help in time. A few of the remaining countries on Earth that have yet to swear allegiance to Beryl have offered to send some reinforcements, but that presents two problems." "Spies?" Makoto asked. "Yes. It's honestly hard to say for sure who she's reached and who she hasn't." Ami replied. Mars felt an icy hand grip her heart. She shuddered internally and reached for the glass of Mercury's magical tea, downing it quickly. "Great." Venus muttered. "The last thing we need is a group of her troops on the inside of our walls. That would be disastrous if we were all run through from behind." Mercury nodded. "That brings us to issue number two. Even if they were outside of her influence, I honestly don't think the numbers they would send would make a difference, not to mention the fact that they would never make it here on time." Rei propped her elbows up on the table and laced her fingers together, brow creased in thought. "What about an evacuation?" she suggested quietly. "Where would we send our people?" Venus replied. "Earth is out of the question." 'That's right. We can't very well send them to Earth. And all of our home worlds were deemed uninhabitable after the last Great War. Hn. But if it hadn't been for that, our merry little group would have never existed. Damn Fate. I suppose it always gets what it wants, even if it has to kill millions. Makes me wonder what happened in our past lives to push us all together.' "True. And even if we sent just the Princess and her mother, the Black Army would hunt them down anyway." Jupiter added, eyes narrowing in disgust. Mars squeezed her eyes shut. The image of the foul army ran rampant through her mind. They couldn't fight that many alone. No chance in hell. "I can't believe I'm even saying this, but what about surrendering?" "Surrendering??" Venus cried, leaping to her feet and slamming her fists on the table. "I can't believe I just heard those words come out of your mouth! You, Mars! Of all people!!" Rei's eyes snapped open, desperate violet meeting Minako's angry blue. "Then what?" she threw back angrily. "We all die? What about the Queen, and the Princess, not to mention all of the innocent people who live here! Do we condemn them to death for the sake of our pride??" "So we'll just roll over and surrender, and pray they don't kill us all anyway." Venus snapped sarcastically. "Great plan. I'd rather sell my soul to Satan." "Whoa whoa." Jupiter intervened, holding her hands up. "Lashing out at each other like this is certainly not going to make things any better." "Jupiter's right." Mercury added. "We're a team, and we need to act like one." Venus took her seat again, casting a guilty look back at Rei. "Sorry Mars." "It's ok, I'm sorry too. I just want to get everyone through this. No more death and destruction. We've all seen more than enough." Mars replied quietly. "That's something we can all agree on." came a silvery voice from the door. The soldiers quickly sprang to their feet and stood at attention, not having heard the Queen come in. She waved a graceful hand in dismissal and walked past them to take the chair at the head of the table. "Stop it." she said with a warm smile. "Come, sit down. I think we can discuss this together civilly." They complied, taking their seats again. "Much better. Now, I've gone over Mars' report, and I must admit, it does look rather bleak. My concern, of course, is for my daughter and my people. Even with such an advance warning, it looks as though we have no choice but to prepare for a battle on our own soil." "Now, I want you all to remember that I have faith and trust in you. I know in my heart that no matter what the outcome, you all will do your very best to ensure the safety of that which we all treasure." "You have all trained the troops to the best of your abilities, and no matter how many demons Beryl brings with her, each single soldier of yours amounts to at least ten of hers. I am confident in them, and in all of you, and I know we will do what we must." "To add to our strength, I have called on the Outer Soldiers to help us in this battle. They should be arriving very soon, but in the meantime, all I ask is that you continue to guard Serenity." The Queen cast her eyes down to the table. "Please, I want you girls to take some time to enjoy yourselves, and do what you love as well. It will remind you what it is you fight for." They all nodded in affirmation, and Venus spoke up quietly. "My Queen, should we warn the people, or at least call off the ball?" She shook her head, beautiful snow white hair trailing after her. "No. I don't want to cause a panic, and should worst come to worst, I want everyone to have one last golden memory of our kingdom." The air seemed to have been sucked out of the room, and Mars found it difficult to breathe. The Queen rose to her feet, and the soldiers rose as well. She paused by Rei on her way out, and laid a hand on her wounded shoulder. "Is it feeling better Mars?" she asked gently. "Yes, Your Majesty." she replied, bowing her head. Her bad shoulder, however, took this moment to act out. The horrible sensation was back again, causing her arm to twitch. "Good." the queen said with a gentle smile. A tiny flitter of confusion suddenly ran across her face, and she shook her head slightly. "My Queen?" Mars asked worriedly. "It's nothing." she replied, graceful smile returning. "Now, you girls get out of this horribly dark room. It's rather depressing." ------------------------- By now, night had fallen. As she wandered the courtyard grounds aimlessly, Mars wondered how it was possible for a day to take so long to pass, but be over before she knew it. "The wonders of borrowed time." she mused aloud, footsteps halting before the massive fountain in the courtyard's center. The statue that stood as the fountain's centerpiece seem to look right through her, stone arms outstretched. 'I've always hated that damn statue. Angel or not, it always looks like it's mocking me.' She glared up at the cold stone face and cracked a smile when she realized how ridiculous she must look. "You know, heavy stone wings won't fly." she pointed out. The angel, of course, had no reply. "Yeah. That'll teach you to be all high and mighty with me, won't it?" She dropped her gaze to the crystal clear pool of water, studying her dark reflection as it danced and wavered on the water's surface. "And what would you do if you were me?" she asked quietly. "Oh, I don't know, probably stop talking to inanimate objects." came the snarky reply. "Huh!?" Rei's eyes snapped back up to the statue, but it was still cold and unmoving. Musical laughter from her left caused Mars to groan and cover her face with her hand. "And how long have you been there?" she grumbled quietly. "Hmm, long enough for you to convince me that Mercury needs to take the magical tea away." Minako replied with a giggle. "Hn." "Oh, come on, don't be all embarrassed." she said with a smile, pulling Rei's hand away from her face. "This is your fault you know. Some warrior you are! I was able to walk all the way over here and stand next to you, and you didn't even notice!" "Can we blame it on the drugs?" Mars asked, shamefaced. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Pyro." Rei rolled her eyes and let out sigh of frustration. "Why me?" she asked the stars overhead. "Because, I just couldn't have this much fun with someone else. Face it. It's destiny." Venus said with a solemn nod. "You know, I really am starting to think that I did something horrid in a past life." Mars grumbled. "Worse than talking to inanimate objects?" Minako asked in a serious tone. Rei shot her a warning look. "If you don't watch it, I'll commit something much worse than that right here." "Really?" the blonde asked with a wink. "And here I was, trying so hard to get your attention. And to think! All I had to do this whole time was ask!" "Ugh. You're impossible." Mars growled, crossing her arms and trying to look angry. "You know, you are really failing at the whole tough warrior act." Venus said with giggle. "It's hard to take you seriously when your face is all red like that." "Whatever." "Oh stop it." Minako replied with a warm smile, slipping her arm through Rei's. "Come on, sit down with me for a bit." Mars found herself grinning like a fool, letting the goddess of love lead her by the arm to the white stone edging of the fountain's wall. Venus sat, and pulled the fire soldier down next to her, backs to the water. Minako shyly removed her arm from Rei's and took her hand, lacing their fingers together. Rei's heart thundered nervously inside her chest when the blonde scooted close and rested her head against the raven haired woman's shoulder. 'What's wrong with me? We've done a lot more than this together, so why am I nervous now? Maybe I should say something.? But what? This would be a good time to apologize, no one else in sight.' Try as she might, Mars just couldn't find the words. Luckily, Venus broke the ice for both of them. "I really am sorry for what I said in the war room Rei, I know you're just worried." "Don't be. We're all stressed, and it was a pretty stupid suggestion in the first place. I didn't mean to snap back like I did." Mars replied quietly. "Besides. I have a lot more to apologize for than you do." "What, like you running off and picking a fight, then nearly bleeding to death in some dark alley while everyone is worried sick? Then we find you, all battered and bloody, so weak that you sleep for three days, and that worries everyone more! Because if that's the case, don't apologize. I'll have you know I wasn't worried at all." Venus huffed. Rei chuckled lightly at her theatrics, and Minako relished the sound, as well as the gentle reverberations with her being so close to the Martian. "Oh, ok. As long as that's cleared up." Rei said with a grin, sliding an arm around the blonde's waist. She grew serious again, and kissed the top of Minako's head. "I am sorry about that, by the way." "You should be." the blonde replied, no theatrics this time. Mars swallowed the hard lump in her throat. "I also wanted to apologize for the way I treated you that morning. I guess there's a good reason that I always drink alone. You just...threw me off." "I think that's putting it mildly." "Very true." Rei replied. "After I had remembered what happened, I wanted nothing more than to talk to you about it." she laughed now, recalling that horrid day. "I guess I couldn't even do that right." "Well, that wasn't entirely your fault." Venus said lightly. "I'm willing to let that part slide." Mars laughed again. "Lucky me." "Damn right, lucky you!" Mars shook her head and rose to her feet, pulling the blonde up with her. Minako tilted her head to one side and looked at Rei curiously, obviously confused. Rei found herself smiling as she pulled Venus closer and kissed her gently. It was amazing how different a kiss could be. Mars found herself addicted to the goddess' sweet lips, captured by the feelings she discovered in them. For a moment, she could almost see what life could have been like if they had met in a different time, as different people, without a war looming over them, threatening to take away what she had just recently found. It was with great reluctance that she finally let the blonde go, and broke the kiss. Minako paused for a moment, breathless, her face slightly flushed. "You ok?" Rei asked gently. "Yeah." the blonde breathed out slowly. "I'm just thinking it's a shame that I have to take my post." "You are the leader. You need to set an example." Mars replied with a teasing smile. "Yeah." Minako murmured, still a little thrown off. "Just promise me something." Rei said, tone turning serious. "Hm?" "Don't go hitting your head on any walls today. Doesn't look good for us when our leader does such things." "Ahh! Rei! Like I'd take that from someone who talks to statues!" she cried, blushing a rather adorable shade of pink.. Mars burst into peals of laughter, and Minako took it as her opportunity to push the fire soldier into the fountain. Rei coughed and sputtered, floundering about as she tried to push herself back up into a sitting position. Then again, it was rather hard to look dignified when she was sitting in waist deep water, surrounded by little goldfish. "And that is why you don't mess with the Goddess of Love, baby!" Minako proclaimed victoriously with a wink, blowing a kiss at the flustered soldier of Mars. With that, she was gone, and Rei was left with the fish. "What are you looking at?" she demanded, as a particularly fat one swam past her elbow. Try as she might, she just couldn't get angry. She smiled and shook sopping wet hair out of her eyes. 'It's amazing really, how she can make me feel so alive, despite everything around us. I don't think I've smiled this much in forever.'
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