Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Guardian of Love: The Origins ❯ A Painful Mistake ( Chapter 8 )

Guardian of Love

The Origins

Chapter 8 - A Painful Mistake

By Angel Love

Author's notes: This chapter goes over the next few months on Olympus. It also focuses a little more on the relationships between the Guardians and the Gods.

Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Sailor Moon, the Greek Gods or any of the characters I have used to fashion them after.

Rose was right when she thought Hera asking Rosely to leave us alone was a complete joke. Rosely had taken great delight in stepping up our training, using the excuse that I had gained my final power and now I needed to control it more efficiently. It got to the point that we would spar against all of the other Guardians, except her, she only trained with Vega, her second in command, until one of the other Gods, usually Eros or Hades, would step in and call us away.

One particular night I was training with Brenna alone. A rare occurrence. The other girl and I rarely found ourselves alone with each other. Either Vega would make an appearance or she would have something else to do, making me wonder if there was a reason why she avoided me. But tonight under orders from Rosely we sparred late into the night.

Unfortunately I was too tired and drained to be fighting at the intensity that we were going and finally one of her arrows caught me in the side, bringing me to my knees, clutching a hand to my side as the blood poured through my fingers. She dropped her bow and grabbed a towel from the bench next to us and rushed to my side.

"Angel, are you okay?" she asked worriedly as she pressed the towel on my torn flesh trying to ebb the flow of the blood. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think I was going to hit you with the arrow. I figured you would dodge it and get hit with the magical field that was with it," she rambled.

She stopped her rambles as I placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze. "I'll be okay, Brenna. We heal faster than normal people, remember?" I gave her a bright smile, not quite completely masking the searing pain that I felt in my side.

She gave me a weak smile; her face still very pale and her brown eyes were large on her pretty face. "I don't think you should be practicing tomorrow."

I looked down at the blood-soaked towel and cringed slightly. "No, I don't think so either. You want to be the one that tells Vega and Rosely," I joked, but at the fearful look on her pale face my smile died replaced with what I hoped what a soothing look. "It's okay Brenna. You aren't going to be punished for hitting me with your physical attack. I was just too tired to dodge."

She shook her head, her brown hair flying around her face. "I don't know if Vega will be as forgiving as you. I know Rosely isn't," she whispered worriedly, tears filling her eyes.

"I'm sure Vega will be fine. He himself has hit me quite a few times with that whip of his. Believe me that thing hurts," I said with a sweet smile and some dry humor, trying to elevate the fear that I saw in her brown eyes. "And I will get Rose to deal with Rosely. She seems to love going up against her for some reason."

She gave me a grateful, shy smile, clearly relieved that she wouldn't have to go up against our leader. "Thank you," she whispered. Then she looked down at my wound. "It has stopped bleeding. I think you better go back to your quarters and have Rose take a closer look at it. She is a lot better with these sorts of things than I am."

I nodded at her and slowly rose to my feet, snapping my hand to place my staff in my space pocket because I needed both hands free to keep my makeshift bandage on my wound. "Get some rest, Brenna," I called as I headed out of the room. "I plan on winning next time."

She laughed softly if a bit uneasy as she watched me slowly make my way out of the room. When I was at the door she called out, "Angel?"

I turned and looked at her over my shoulder. "Yeah?"

She looked down at the floor, wrestling with whatever it was that she wanted to tell me, whatever had been bothering her since we met. It almost looked like she was going to tell me but her eyes fell on her bow and she sighed. "Sleep well, Angel."

I looked at her closely before finally nodding. I knew that if I gave her enough time she would eventually tell me whatever was bothering her, pushing her wouldn't help either of us. I turned and moved slowly towards my chambers. I knew the second that I walked into them that Rose was there with Hades; also Eros was in the nursery with Trista. It was almost amazing how I had become so in tuned with each of their energies. I knew when any of the other Guardians were around but I couldn't tell which ones they were unless they used one of their attacks, since each attack was a part of our ki and carried our specific energy mark.

I was sure that Eros felt me walk in so I made my way towards Rose's bedroom, he had a sixth sense about wherever I was and could find me at a moment's notice. I knew that I needed her to look at the wound in my side, since in the short walk from our training room to our chambers it had started bleeding again. 'Rose?' I called out to her mentally as I stood just outside the entrance, giving her a chance to tell me to go away.

'What's the matter?' she answered back mentally, clearly picking up on my distress through our link.

I made my way into the room, which was dimly lit with several candles and was decorated with soft velvets and satins, a far cry from how we grew up. She sat up on the bed, bringing her blue satin sheets with her and looked at me with concern when she saw how pale my face was and the way I was leaning on the doorframe.

But it was Hades who had seen the towel I held to my side and the pain-filled look in my eyes. I felt the magical surge of him putting on clothes and then he slid out of the bed, dropping to his knees by my side, lifting away the towel and inspecting the damage with his violet eyes.

Rose slipped a black robe on and pulled me away from Hades. "I think you better lie down before you collapse," she said sternly. She looked over to Hades, who gave her a concerned look before he walked out of the room to get some stuff to clean me up, and then she too inspected it. "Why didn't you call to me? I could have helped you back here and then you wouldn't have ripped this open more than it already was. This looks really bad, Angel."

I just watched her yell at me with amusement; she always seemed to have a coronary for each of the scraps and scratches I got. "Do you think I don't know what it means when you put up a mental wall? I am well aware of what you and Hades were doing in here only a few minutes ago."

Rose turned slightly red and avoided my eyes, while Hades laughed as he walked in the room, catching the end of what I said. "I told you that you didn't have to worry about her not approving."

"I didn't say that I approved," I teased him, then winced as Rose carefully poured some disinfectant on me. "Ow!"

Hades winked at me, but was unable to make a comeback because Eros had chosen that moment to find out what we were doing. His eyes went wide when he saw the rather large wound on my side. "Tenshi," he said worriedly, his emerald eyes searching mine. "Are you okay?"

I smiled at him softly, trying not to wince as Rose picked a piece of wood from the bow out of my wound. "I'll be fine, silly. Worse happened to me when we liberated Kinmoku, Vega and Chesna's home planet."

Rose chuckled, looking up at me while she worked. "Yeah, you had a nice sword wound to the shoulder if I can recall correctly. And a certain God about had a heart attack when we got back," she teased Eros.

Eros just glared at her and moved her away from my side so he could bandage me up himself, amazing me at how gentle he could be. "If I can recall Hades about had a heart attack when you," he looked up at Rose, "came back from that same mission with a magical burn on your legs."

Rose made a face as he finished tapping a gauze pad to my side and I automatically powered down, shifting into a soft cotton dress, unable to hold on to my Guardian form since I was so tired.

Suddenly we all turned as a two year old toddled in making soft panting noises. "Trista," I smiled and held my arms out of her. She toddled as fast as she could and ended up tripping and would have fallen on her face if Eros had not grabbed her in mid-fall and placed her in my open arms as I continued to lie back on the bed

Rose and Hades moved to settle back on the bed as she fixed the giggling toddler with a look. "And why are you out of bed, young lady?"

Trista looked up at Rose with a pleading look, one that could melt the hardest of people. "I hewwd Anwel home an' see her," she answered in her childish voice.

"And `wanted to' see her," I corrected gently, smoothing her wild green hair. "I missed you, little one."

She threw herself down to lie on top of me, causing me to wince slightly as her legs clamped down over my sides. "Missed twoooo."

Eros gently slid her leg off my wound as he sat down next to us, his face soft as he watched the little girl snuggle against me and start to drift off to sleep.

Rose laughed quietly as she watched the little girl. "Looks like you have a sleeping partner tonight," she teased me.

I grinned up at her. "I do most nights when I am gone all day." Then my smile fell and I breathed a heavy sigh, before biting my lip. "Rosely is pushing us too hard. I'm not sure how much more of this training I can take. I barely see Trista anymore."

"So I've noticed," Rose mused, brushing a stray strand of black hair out of her face. "She seems to come down on you more than me. But then I am not afraid to tell her where to stick it."

I stuck my tongue out at her, causing everyone to laugh softly. "Speaking of you telling her where to stick it, I need you tell her that I am not going to go to training tomorrow. I don't want to damage my side any more than it has been." I shifted slightly as a burning pain made its way down my side. I could tell that it wasn't going to be a pleasant time for me for a while.

"I'm sure Vega has already told her," Rose said, leaning back into Hades, a soft purr coming from her when he nuzzled her neck.

"He wasn't there. It was just Brenna and I," I answered in a quiet voice, remembering just how nervous the other girl had been when she heard that and the look on Vega's face, it wasn't pleasant.

Rose arched an eyebrow, surprise showing on her face. "Vega actually wasn't around when you and Brenna sparred tonight. Now that is a change. Usually he is always watching the sparring matches, especially yours."

I shook my head. "Rosely's orders. She said that she wanted him for something else."

Hades and Eros shared a look but didn't say anything.

Rose smirked, linking her fingers through Hades. "I am sure she did. All right, I will talk to Rosely in the morning. As for you, I think you better get your sorry behind in bed right now. We are leaving for Improbusaum in a couple of days."

I made a face. "I don't think Rosely would be too happy if I was too tired to help liberate her home planet." I tried to rise but the added weight of Trista had me sinking back onto the bed.

Eros smiled and shook his head. Without a word, he lifted both Trista and me in his arms and walked out of the room. Rose and Hades called out a goodnight as we disappeared. A smile flitted across my face when I felt her mental wall go up again.

I was already half-asleep by the time that he laid me down in the middle of my own bed, which was covered in emerald green satin sheets. I can remember him sliding Trista off my chest and the tiny girl snuggling up next to me as I turned over on my side, making sure that it wasn't my bad side. I remember feeling his feather-light kiss over my cheek as he finished tucking me in. But I was too far gone in the world of dreams to hear whatever it was that he whispered just before he slipped quietly out of the room.

To be continued...

Notes:

1) Kinmoku is the Lights home planet. Vega and Chesna were also born there.

2) Improbusaum is Latin. Some of the various meanings are shameless, merciless, and disloyal.