Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Lead me not into Temptation ❯ Chapter 7
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Serenitas 
Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.15.2002 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 557 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.15.2002 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 557 | Status: Completed
Hello all! Sorry for the delay in getting this out but I've been preoccupied all day trying to program my laptop for when I go to Japan and can still keep writing! So here it is, a little later than I wanted but out nonetheless for your reading pleasure. Remember I write based on reviews so keep them coming in! Reviews and email keep the rubber room far from me. Standard disclaimers…..SM not mine. Naoko's. Don't bother to sue me, I'm a half broke brand new teacher. I have no money, the government does. Enjoy!
Mamoru was unable to speak in the wake of Usagi's revelations. She wouldn't look at him, wouldn't talk to him, just suffered in silence being near him. His heart wrenched, as he knew the truth at last. "Would someone let us out of here?" he roared at the door. "This isn't funny anymore!" There was silence as there had been since he'd been yelling up the stairs. "Usagi's been hurt!" he yelled, trying another tactic.
The door was jerked open and Haruka, Rei and Makoto stampeded down the stairs at the same time, resulting in a tangled mass of girls on the floor. Haruka was the first on her feet. "Where is she?"
Mamoru pointed to the corner where Usagi was practically catatonic. Rei shoved Haruka aside and pulled the person she loved to hate close to her. "What did you do?" she demanded.
He shook his head. "She told me everything." He said simply. "Including the things that you don't know."
Rei closed her eyes and sighed. "The things the others don't know. I used the sacred fire and invaded her senses to find out why she had gone crazy. Now we both know."
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked harshly.
Haruka glared at him, rage burning in her eyes. "Your feelings don't really matter here." She said in a furious voice. "You aren't allowed to have hurt feelings right now."
Makoto brushed some stray tendrils of hair from Usagi's face. "Usagi, come on girl, snap out of it."
Usagi blinked at Makoto. "Get me out of here." She said in a low voice.
Haruka didn't ask any other questions, just lifted Usagi in her arms and began climbing the stairs. Mamoru backed away from Rei and Makoto, not trusting the gleam in their eyes. Rei's hands seemed to be glowing with suppressed fire and Makoto was crackling with energy. "I shouldn't have forced my way in her head." He said lamely.
"You think?" Makoto sneered. Rei positioned herself between Mamoru and Makoto.
"Violence won't help Usagi now." She cautioned Makoto.
"It'll make me feel a lot better." Makoto roared.
Minako poked her head down the stairs. "Rei, Makoto, come up here." She ordered. Rei and Makoto nodded, passing Motoki who was on his way down.
Motoki shook his head, sighing. "So now you know the truth Mamoru. The question is, what are you going to do about it?"
Mamoru laughed shortly. "Her problems aren't real problems, they're frivolous things really."
Motoki's eyes widened in indignation. "The girl who's saved the world, and YOU countless times has frivolous problems? The girl who watched innocent people suffer and die? The girl who watched her family die? The girl who you wouldn't help?"
"Nothing of consequence." Mamoru shrugged.
Motoki's hands reached for Mamoru's throat which he just barely managed to pull back at the last moment. "How are you going to fix this? You betrayed her trust, you left her to be hurt."
"How can I fix this?" Mamoru asked his best friend. "What amends can I make? Even if I cared about her…"
"Stop right there." Motoki held up his hand. "I'm sick and tired of you acting and pretending like you hate her and don't care about her suffering. If you truly feel that way, which I don't believe for a second, then tell me now, but if you still love her then spit it out because I won't stand for you insulting her anymore."
Mamoru turned his head and closed his eyes. "I can't Motoki."
"What are you trying to prove?" Motoki roared. "You can't do it all by yourself. She's been running for so long that she doesn't know what else to do. You are the only one who can help, the only one who can share her darkness with her and bring her back to the light."
Mamoru looked at Usagi, despair in his eyes. "Help me Motoki. Help me get her to trust me again."
"You'll have to start at the beginning with her, use kid gloves." Motoki began.
"You're right of course," Mamoru sighed. "I can't keep pretending I don't love her."
"Finally you start to see reason."
Usagi wasn't aware of being brought to her lonely house or of being tucked in her bed. She wasn't aware of Haruka refusing to leave her side, or of the other senshi moving into the rest of her home. She was in her own world where she was reliving that horrid night when she had been attacked. Tired and defeated from a battle with the youma, she had been careless and stupid, stopping to mourn the loss of life. A grimy hand had reached out and thrown her headfirst into a brick wall making sure she was disoriented. Writhing on her bed as she relived every touch, every punch that had been thrown she began screaming. In the agonizing place her mind had taken her to, all she saw was herself screaming Mamoru's name, frantically touching and tugging on the bond, crying for him, yearning for him, unable to say any other word. When the degenerate had finally left and she was bleeding on the ground, beaten nearly to death, bones broken, blood flowing copiously from multiple wounds, she lay there and whispered his name. "MAMORU!" she screamed as she sat bolt upright in her bed. "Make it stop!"
Haruka's arms were around her in a flash, holding her tightly, soothing her. "You're safe Usagi." She whispered. "I'll never let anyone ever hurt you again."
Usagi pulled Haruka close and let herself be soothed. She hadn't been held like this in years, not since her mother had died. "A small voice keeps repeating deep inside my soul…" she trailed off.
"What is it saying?" Haruka asked softly.
"I will always love him." She said, her eyes closed.
Murderous rage flashed through Haruka's eyes. Michiru entered the room with a damp cloth and some water. "Here Usagi, drink this. Let me help make you more comfortable."
Usagi drank the water while Michiru fluffed her pillows and wiped at her sweat soaked brow. "Thank you Michiru."
"Now sleep." Michiru soothed. "And let not the dreams bother you."
Usagi lay back down and sighed as she drifted into the peaceful oblivion of nothingness.
Minako paced the living room, wondering how they could have not known that her family was dead. The house was so empty, Usagi having pawned off much of it to get food for herself. "I need a Plan D." she said aloud. Nodding to herself she grinned. "Yes, that's precisely what I need. Can't let this stop me or set me back." She chuckled. "When the going gets tough, the tough know who to call!"
"Someone stop her." Rei moaned.
"I cannot be stopped!" Minako exclaimed. "I am on a mission and no one can stand in my way!"
"Minako, maybe we should lay off for a few days. Just being trapped with Mamoru caused Usagi to relapse." Ami pointed out, glancing up from a book on posttraumatic stress syndrome.
"You're not going to psychoanalyze her to death are you?" Rei asked Ami.
Ami closed the book and sighed. "I'm just trying to understand what is inside her. She's gone so far beyond our comprehension now Rei. I love her so much, she was my first friend you know." Rei nodded in understand and gestured to Ami to continue. "I can't bear to know that she's hidden these horrors for so long. So I study and I research because if I don't do something, I'd hunt down Mamoru, hang him up by his heels and start peeling his skin off in strips before I stopped being pleasant. How could he ignore her when she needed him most?"
Rei nodded in sympathy. "What do you say in a moment like this, when you can't find the words to tell it like it is?" she asked aloud.
"You close your eyes and let your heart lead the way." Minako answered. She smiled. "She never relapsed Ami because she never let herself feel from the beginning." She paused. "Which is strange because her heart is so big and she feels everything." She snapped her fingers. "I have a great idea. She's known all about Mamoru and his feelings for years, but he never knew hers. He blew them off as unimportant because their relationship was all about him. Now things have changed like Usagi. He's realizing that her problems are just as important as his." She paused. "I have an idea." Her eyes lit up.
"Oh no!" Rei began shaking her head. "Please Minako! Don't do whatever it is that you want to do!" she pleaded.
"I do not know the meaning of the word stop!" Minako exclaimed, her seriousness moment having passed. "When two hearts soully surrender and are sworn to understand, it completes a perfect union between a woman and a man. The question Usagi has for Mamoru is 'Can I trust you with my heart?'"
"Evidently not." Rei said acidly.
"Not true! He's suffered ever since they broke up."
"Well he hasn't suffered enough."
Minako and Rei looked in shock at gentle Ami who had said those words, her eyes blazing. "Ami!" Minako giggled. "I'm so proud of you."
"What is your plan Minako?" Ami questioned. "I'm in this time and I'll stay in until Usagi's pain goes away."
"That's my girl!" Minako shrieked. "We have assimilated Ami to our collective mind set! Look out Juuban! Here come the Love Girls!"
Ami groaned. "Did I just make a horrible mistake?" she asked Rei who was biting back a grin.
"It doesn't matter. You know anything having to do with Minako will be over the top."
"Oh dear."
Setsuna sipped at her tea, suddenly wishing there was something stronger in it. "How is she?"
"I put some sedatives in her water," Michiru sighed. "She's going to sleep without dreaming now."
"I want him dead." Haruka raged. "I want a bounty put on his head and I want him found and hurt. Ii remember a short story I read in school years ago about a man who hunted other men for sport (A.N. - It's true, I did, but I can't for the life of me remember the title of that story! It's standard reading in junior high schools in Canada though).
Michiru nodded. "I remember that story."
Artemis padded into the kitchen, his mouth pulling Usagi's briefcase. "Look in here."
Setsuna arched an eyebrow. "Where's Luna?"
Artemis shook his head. "With Chibi Usa somewhere. I don't know."
"Snooping Artemis? For shame." Haruka said with a smile on her face. Opening the briefcase she pulled out a binder filled with papers. "This is Usagi's writing. I never knew she wrote."
Michiru leaned over Haruka's shoulder. "Look at her grades, they're so good."
"Never mind that Michi," Haruka said. "Read what she's written."
"It's so dark." Michiru said after a moment. "If we had've known about this…it's the path right into her soul. Read it 'Ruka."
Setsuna took a few sheets from the binder and read them. "Help me hold on to what we had, once our love was strong, it can be again. You said it takes two to make love last, you were right all along, so help me hold on." She read. "Most poetic."
"Never mind that," Haruka interrupted. "Listen to this one." She cleared her throat. "I dream I'm in a coffin, soothing black and warm. Hurt cannot invade my senses; pain has no place in my life. Silence greets me and I greet it back with silence.' Those were the thoughts that ran through the head of the young girl. She looked so innocent and pure, no one would ever suspect that her thoughts were blacker than the night itself. Her hurt was tangible, but she never let on to anyone, her friends convinced she was a klutz and a ditz. She saw no need to correct them of their error. Soon, very soon now, she would end this hell that was her life. She couldn't buy a gun but she had other thoughts in mind.'" She looked up at them. "I can't believe kitten would write this."
"Maybe we should put her in therapy?" Michiru suggested, and then shook her head. "Forget it, it's a stupid idea."
"What could she tell them in any case?" Haruka questioned.
Setsuna leaned back in her chair again, mind shaken from the depth of Usagi's words that leapt off the page. "I think I'm going to talk to Mamoru."
Usagi had spit out the water as soon as Michiru had left, knowing it was probably drugged. For a moment she wistfully wished that if she drank enough of it she'd just die. Knowing her secret writings had been discovered; she crept over to one of her drawers and pulled out a scribbler and a pen. Pen moving furiously, she began to write her feelings, closing her eyes and letting the words take her away. It was the only way she could maintain her grip on sanity.
Minako closed her eyes, trying to think for a moment. "Maybe locking them in a room together was a bad idea."
"You think?" Makoto snapped.
"But the good that came from it is that they are both on the same page. They re-established their bond for a moment and that's good. I am the…"
"Incarnation of the Goddess of Love." Ami, Rei and Makoto chimed together. "We know!"
"Then you know that I can't let this stop me!" she cried out.
"Please stop her." Rei begged.
"Get a tranquilizer gun." Makoto suggested.
"Where is Motoki?" Minako fumed. "My new boyfriend is ignoring me."
"Anyone who's surprised, raise your hand." Rei muttered.
"I HEARD THAT REI-CHAN!" Minako screamed. "Now you will face the wrath of Aino Minako." Leaping over the coffee table she lunged for Rei who had wisely begun heading for the door. "Come back here and listen to my fabulous plan! It's fabulous and wonderful, just like me!"
Rei ran upstairs, convinced Minako wouldn't risk waking Usagi. She was wrong as Minako thundered up the stairs behind Rei, screaming loud enough to wake the dead. She caught Rei when she stopped dead. Usagi's bedroom was empty, a scribbler of writing fluttering in the wake of the open window.
"So you know it all now. The question is what are you going to do about it?"
Mamoru opened his eyes to see Sailor Pluto standing over him. "Oh it's you." He closed his eyes again. "However you got in, feel free to use it to get the hell out."
Setsuna whacked him firmly with her Time Staff. "Wake up stupid, I'm here to talk to you."
"I don't trust you." Mamoru muttered.
"Usagi does, and that should be reason enough for you." Setsuna retorted. "Now wake up and get dressed. You do know you're naked right?"
Mamoru's eyes flew open as he blushed and tried to cover himself. Setsuna smirked. "Nothing I haven't seen before Mamoru. Now hurry up, Usagi's by herself having snuck out of the house. I think there's a chance you can talk to her before Minako comes up with another ridiculous plan."
Mamoru nodded, going to get up. "Get out Setsuna." He said through clenched teeth.
Setsuna let out a laugh and walked out to his living room. He joined her a moment later. "This has got to be the most boring apartment I've ever seen in my life." She commented.
"Well I never saw the need to decorate."
"Usagi had it decorated nicely, but after you broke up you took down everything she had done, and then Chibi Usa tore down the rest." She sighed. "How Small Lady has changed! But I'm not here to talk about her, I'm here to talk about your greatest temptation."
"You admit you knew nothing of her pain either?"
Setsuna shook her head. "I confess I was negligent in my duties and I saw what I wanted to see. I am trying to rectify it now."
"How can I fix this?"
Time's Guardian looked at him speculatively. "I have some ideas. Are you willing to listen, at last?"
Mamoru nodded.
Usagi stood on a lonely dock far from her house, having scrambled out the window the moment she had finished her idea. "My resistance isn't that strong." She said aloud. "Goddess, please help me. Take this pain from me. I can't go on anymore. I'm so weak."
"You are the strongest person I've ever seen in my life."
Usagi whirled and her eyes widened. Mamoru stood behind her. "What are you doing here?" she snapped. "I wanted to be alone."
"Live with it." He replied.
"Say what you need to see say and begone."
"Do you want to sit? This could take awhile."
"I'll stand." She snapped.
"I understand you now."
"How could you understand Mamoru?" she turned angry eyes to him. "You didn't want to see, remember?"
"I was wrong. I know that now."
"Too little too late. You can never understand what I've been through."
"Maybe not the horrors you've lived through no," he began. "But the pain, the loneliness, the bleakness that threatens to overrun your life. That I understand better than anyone else. I can take away your pain Usagi. Please let me in."
"Can I cast my cares upon you? Can you stand that heavy load? Can I count on you to walk me down that long and winding road?" she asked, then shook her head. "No I can't."
"Let me try."
Usagi backed away from him, confusion in her eyes, pain in her heart, yearning in her soul. Uncertain on what to do, she did the one thing she did best. She turned and ran, unable to face him and the truth in his words.
Serenity stamped her foot. "She always was more stubborn than anyone else. She's proving to be a most vexing girl."
Setsuna looked at her former Queen. "But he broke through." She pointed out. "He let her know that he's kindred."
"It's all up to him now." Queen Serenity nodded. "But will she listen? Not too long ago she swore she wasn't going to let her heart be broken anymore. Now she keeps it locked away and it grows colder in her heart every day."
"That's what she says, but sometimes, she forgets."
And that is the end of this chapter! Once again I'm sorry for the delay in getting this out. I hope you all enjoyed it. No Flames remember! Minako approaches lunacy with her ideas as she draws her new boyfriend deeper into her web. Should she and Motoki be trapped themselves in a room until Usagi and Mamoru figure out what to do? Read on to find out!
See you around!
Mamoru was unable to speak in the wake of Usagi's revelations. She wouldn't look at him, wouldn't talk to him, just suffered in silence being near him. His heart wrenched, as he knew the truth at last. "Would someone let us out of here?" he roared at the door. "This isn't funny anymore!" There was silence as there had been since he'd been yelling up the stairs. "Usagi's been hurt!" he yelled, trying another tactic.
The door was jerked open and Haruka, Rei and Makoto stampeded down the stairs at the same time, resulting in a tangled mass of girls on the floor. Haruka was the first on her feet. "Where is she?"
Mamoru pointed to the corner where Usagi was practically catatonic. Rei shoved Haruka aside and pulled the person she loved to hate close to her. "What did you do?" she demanded.
He shook his head. "She told me everything." He said simply. "Including the things that you don't know."
Rei closed her eyes and sighed. "The things the others don't know. I used the sacred fire and invaded her senses to find out why she had gone crazy. Now we both know."
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked harshly.
Haruka glared at him, rage burning in her eyes. "Your feelings don't really matter here." She said in a furious voice. "You aren't allowed to have hurt feelings right now."
Makoto brushed some stray tendrils of hair from Usagi's face. "Usagi, come on girl, snap out of it."
Usagi blinked at Makoto. "Get me out of here." She said in a low voice.
Haruka didn't ask any other questions, just lifted Usagi in her arms and began climbing the stairs. Mamoru backed away from Rei and Makoto, not trusting the gleam in their eyes. Rei's hands seemed to be glowing with suppressed fire and Makoto was crackling with energy. "I shouldn't have forced my way in her head." He said lamely.
"You think?" Makoto sneered. Rei positioned herself between Mamoru and Makoto.
"Violence won't help Usagi now." She cautioned Makoto.
"It'll make me feel a lot better." Makoto roared.
Minako poked her head down the stairs. "Rei, Makoto, come up here." She ordered. Rei and Makoto nodded, passing Motoki who was on his way down.
Motoki shook his head, sighing. "So now you know the truth Mamoru. The question is, what are you going to do about it?"
Mamoru laughed shortly. "Her problems aren't real problems, they're frivolous things really."
Motoki's eyes widened in indignation. "The girl who's saved the world, and YOU countless times has frivolous problems? The girl who watched innocent people suffer and die? The girl who watched her family die? The girl who you wouldn't help?"
"Nothing of consequence." Mamoru shrugged.
Motoki's hands reached for Mamoru's throat which he just barely managed to pull back at the last moment. "How are you going to fix this? You betrayed her trust, you left her to be hurt."
"How can I fix this?" Mamoru asked his best friend. "What amends can I make? Even if I cared about her…"
"Stop right there." Motoki held up his hand. "I'm sick and tired of you acting and pretending like you hate her and don't care about her suffering. If you truly feel that way, which I don't believe for a second, then tell me now, but if you still love her then spit it out because I won't stand for you insulting her anymore."
Mamoru turned his head and closed his eyes. "I can't Motoki."
"What are you trying to prove?" Motoki roared. "You can't do it all by yourself. She's been running for so long that she doesn't know what else to do. You are the only one who can help, the only one who can share her darkness with her and bring her back to the light."
Mamoru looked at Usagi, despair in his eyes. "Help me Motoki. Help me get her to trust me again."
"You'll have to start at the beginning with her, use kid gloves." Motoki began.
"You're right of course," Mamoru sighed. "I can't keep pretending I don't love her."
"Finally you start to see reason."
Usagi wasn't aware of being brought to her lonely house or of being tucked in her bed. She wasn't aware of Haruka refusing to leave her side, or of the other senshi moving into the rest of her home. She was in her own world where she was reliving that horrid night when she had been attacked. Tired and defeated from a battle with the youma, she had been careless and stupid, stopping to mourn the loss of life. A grimy hand had reached out and thrown her headfirst into a brick wall making sure she was disoriented. Writhing on her bed as she relived every touch, every punch that had been thrown she began screaming. In the agonizing place her mind had taken her to, all she saw was herself screaming Mamoru's name, frantically touching and tugging on the bond, crying for him, yearning for him, unable to say any other word. When the degenerate had finally left and she was bleeding on the ground, beaten nearly to death, bones broken, blood flowing copiously from multiple wounds, she lay there and whispered his name. "MAMORU!" she screamed as she sat bolt upright in her bed. "Make it stop!"
Haruka's arms were around her in a flash, holding her tightly, soothing her. "You're safe Usagi." She whispered. "I'll never let anyone ever hurt you again."
Usagi pulled Haruka close and let herself be soothed. She hadn't been held like this in years, not since her mother had died. "A small voice keeps repeating deep inside my soul…" she trailed off.
"What is it saying?" Haruka asked softly.
"I will always love him." She said, her eyes closed.
Murderous rage flashed through Haruka's eyes. Michiru entered the room with a damp cloth and some water. "Here Usagi, drink this. Let me help make you more comfortable."
Usagi drank the water while Michiru fluffed her pillows and wiped at her sweat soaked brow. "Thank you Michiru."
"Now sleep." Michiru soothed. "And let not the dreams bother you."
Usagi lay back down and sighed as she drifted into the peaceful oblivion of nothingness.
Minako paced the living room, wondering how they could have not known that her family was dead. The house was so empty, Usagi having pawned off much of it to get food for herself. "I need a Plan D." she said aloud. Nodding to herself she grinned. "Yes, that's precisely what I need. Can't let this stop me or set me back." She chuckled. "When the going gets tough, the tough know who to call!"
"Someone stop her." Rei moaned.
"I cannot be stopped!" Minako exclaimed. "I am on a mission and no one can stand in my way!"
"Minako, maybe we should lay off for a few days. Just being trapped with Mamoru caused Usagi to relapse." Ami pointed out, glancing up from a book on posttraumatic stress syndrome.
"You're not going to psychoanalyze her to death are you?" Rei asked Ami.
Ami closed the book and sighed. "I'm just trying to understand what is inside her. She's gone so far beyond our comprehension now Rei. I love her so much, she was my first friend you know." Rei nodded in understand and gestured to Ami to continue. "I can't bear to know that she's hidden these horrors for so long. So I study and I research because if I don't do something, I'd hunt down Mamoru, hang him up by his heels and start peeling his skin off in strips before I stopped being pleasant. How could he ignore her when she needed him most?"
Rei nodded in sympathy. "What do you say in a moment like this, when you can't find the words to tell it like it is?" she asked aloud.
"You close your eyes and let your heart lead the way." Minako answered. She smiled. "She never relapsed Ami because she never let herself feel from the beginning." She paused. "Which is strange because her heart is so big and she feels everything." She snapped her fingers. "I have a great idea. She's known all about Mamoru and his feelings for years, but he never knew hers. He blew them off as unimportant because their relationship was all about him. Now things have changed like Usagi. He's realizing that her problems are just as important as his." She paused. "I have an idea." Her eyes lit up.
"Oh no!" Rei began shaking her head. "Please Minako! Don't do whatever it is that you want to do!" she pleaded.
"I do not know the meaning of the word stop!" Minako exclaimed, her seriousness moment having passed. "When two hearts soully surrender and are sworn to understand, it completes a perfect union between a woman and a man. The question Usagi has for Mamoru is 'Can I trust you with my heart?'"
"Evidently not." Rei said acidly.
"Not true! He's suffered ever since they broke up."
"Well he hasn't suffered enough."
Minako and Rei looked in shock at gentle Ami who had said those words, her eyes blazing. "Ami!" Minako giggled. "I'm so proud of you."
"What is your plan Minako?" Ami questioned. "I'm in this time and I'll stay in until Usagi's pain goes away."
"That's my girl!" Minako shrieked. "We have assimilated Ami to our collective mind set! Look out Juuban! Here come the Love Girls!"
Ami groaned. "Did I just make a horrible mistake?" she asked Rei who was biting back a grin.
"It doesn't matter. You know anything having to do with Minako will be over the top."
"Oh dear."
Setsuna sipped at her tea, suddenly wishing there was something stronger in it. "How is she?"
"I put some sedatives in her water," Michiru sighed. "She's going to sleep without dreaming now."
"I want him dead." Haruka raged. "I want a bounty put on his head and I want him found and hurt. Ii remember a short story I read in school years ago about a man who hunted other men for sport (A.N. - It's true, I did, but I can't for the life of me remember the title of that story! It's standard reading in junior high schools in Canada though).
Michiru nodded. "I remember that story."
Artemis padded into the kitchen, his mouth pulling Usagi's briefcase. "Look in here."
Setsuna arched an eyebrow. "Where's Luna?"
Artemis shook his head. "With Chibi Usa somewhere. I don't know."
"Snooping Artemis? For shame." Haruka said with a smile on her face. Opening the briefcase she pulled out a binder filled with papers. "This is Usagi's writing. I never knew she wrote."
Michiru leaned over Haruka's shoulder. "Look at her grades, they're so good."
"Never mind that Michi," Haruka said. "Read what she's written."
"It's so dark." Michiru said after a moment. "If we had've known about this…it's the path right into her soul. Read it 'Ruka."
Setsuna took a few sheets from the binder and read them. "Help me hold on to what we had, once our love was strong, it can be again. You said it takes two to make love last, you were right all along, so help me hold on." She read. "Most poetic."
"Never mind that," Haruka interrupted. "Listen to this one." She cleared her throat. "I dream I'm in a coffin, soothing black and warm. Hurt cannot invade my senses; pain has no place in my life. Silence greets me and I greet it back with silence.' Those were the thoughts that ran through the head of the young girl. She looked so innocent and pure, no one would ever suspect that her thoughts were blacker than the night itself. Her hurt was tangible, but she never let on to anyone, her friends convinced she was a klutz and a ditz. She saw no need to correct them of their error. Soon, very soon now, she would end this hell that was her life. She couldn't buy a gun but she had other thoughts in mind.'" She looked up at them. "I can't believe kitten would write this."
"Maybe we should put her in therapy?" Michiru suggested, and then shook her head. "Forget it, it's a stupid idea."
"What could she tell them in any case?" Haruka questioned.
Setsuna leaned back in her chair again, mind shaken from the depth of Usagi's words that leapt off the page. "I think I'm going to talk to Mamoru."
Usagi had spit out the water as soon as Michiru had left, knowing it was probably drugged. For a moment she wistfully wished that if she drank enough of it she'd just die. Knowing her secret writings had been discovered; she crept over to one of her drawers and pulled out a scribbler and a pen. Pen moving furiously, she began to write her feelings, closing her eyes and letting the words take her away. It was the only way she could maintain her grip on sanity.
Minako closed her eyes, trying to think for a moment. "Maybe locking them in a room together was a bad idea."
"You think?" Makoto snapped.
"But the good that came from it is that they are both on the same page. They re-established their bond for a moment and that's good. I am the…"
"Incarnation of the Goddess of Love." Ami, Rei and Makoto chimed together. "We know!"
"Then you know that I can't let this stop me!" she cried out.
"Please stop her." Rei begged.
"Get a tranquilizer gun." Makoto suggested.
"Where is Motoki?" Minako fumed. "My new boyfriend is ignoring me."
"Anyone who's surprised, raise your hand." Rei muttered.
"I HEARD THAT REI-CHAN!" Minako screamed. "Now you will face the wrath of Aino Minako." Leaping over the coffee table she lunged for Rei who had wisely begun heading for the door. "Come back here and listen to my fabulous plan! It's fabulous and wonderful, just like me!"
Rei ran upstairs, convinced Minako wouldn't risk waking Usagi. She was wrong as Minako thundered up the stairs behind Rei, screaming loud enough to wake the dead. She caught Rei when she stopped dead. Usagi's bedroom was empty, a scribbler of writing fluttering in the wake of the open window.
"So you know it all now. The question is what are you going to do about it?"
Mamoru opened his eyes to see Sailor Pluto standing over him. "Oh it's you." He closed his eyes again. "However you got in, feel free to use it to get the hell out."
Setsuna whacked him firmly with her Time Staff. "Wake up stupid, I'm here to talk to you."
"I don't trust you." Mamoru muttered.
"Usagi does, and that should be reason enough for you." Setsuna retorted. "Now wake up and get dressed. You do know you're naked right?"
Mamoru's eyes flew open as he blushed and tried to cover himself. Setsuna smirked. "Nothing I haven't seen before Mamoru. Now hurry up, Usagi's by herself having snuck out of the house. I think there's a chance you can talk to her before Minako comes up with another ridiculous plan."
Mamoru nodded, going to get up. "Get out Setsuna." He said through clenched teeth.
Setsuna let out a laugh and walked out to his living room. He joined her a moment later. "This has got to be the most boring apartment I've ever seen in my life." She commented.
"Well I never saw the need to decorate."
"Usagi had it decorated nicely, but after you broke up you took down everything she had done, and then Chibi Usa tore down the rest." She sighed. "How Small Lady has changed! But I'm not here to talk about her, I'm here to talk about your greatest temptation."
"You admit you knew nothing of her pain either?"
Setsuna shook her head. "I confess I was negligent in my duties and I saw what I wanted to see. I am trying to rectify it now."
"How can I fix this?"
Time's Guardian looked at him speculatively. "I have some ideas. Are you willing to listen, at last?"
Mamoru nodded.
Usagi stood on a lonely dock far from her house, having scrambled out the window the moment she had finished her idea. "My resistance isn't that strong." She said aloud. "Goddess, please help me. Take this pain from me. I can't go on anymore. I'm so weak."
"You are the strongest person I've ever seen in my life."
Usagi whirled and her eyes widened. Mamoru stood behind her. "What are you doing here?" she snapped. "I wanted to be alone."
"Live with it." He replied.
"Say what you need to see say and begone."
"Do you want to sit? This could take awhile."
"I'll stand." She snapped.
"I understand you now."
"How could you understand Mamoru?" she turned angry eyes to him. "You didn't want to see, remember?"
"I was wrong. I know that now."
"Too little too late. You can never understand what I've been through."
"Maybe not the horrors you've lived through no," he began. "But the pain, the loneliness, the bleakness that threatens to overrun your life. That I understand better than anyone else. I can take away your pain Usagi. Please let me in."
"Can I cast my cares upon you? Can you stand that heavy load? Can I count on you to walk me down that long and winding road?" she asked, then shook her head. "No I can't."
"Let me try."
Usagi backed away from him, confusion in her eyes, pain in her heart, yearning in her soul. Uncertain on what to do, she did the one thing she did best. She turned and ran, unable to face him and the truth in his words.
Serenity stamped her foot. "She always was more stubborn than anyone else. She's proving to be a most vexing girl."
Setsuna looked at her former Queen. "But he broke through." She pointed out. "He let her know that he's kindred."
"It's all up to him now." Queen Serenity nodded. "But will she listen? Not too long ago she swore she wasn't going to let her heart be broken anymore. Now she keeps it locked away and it grows colder in her heart every day."
"That's what she says, but sometimes, she forgets."
And that is the end of this chapter! Once again I'm sorry for the delay in getting this out. I hope you all enjoyed it. No Flames remember! Minako approaches lunacy with her ideas as she draws her new boyfriend deeper into her web. Should she and Motoki be trapped themselves in a room until Usagi and Mamoru figure out what to do? Read on to find out!
See you around!