Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Window Seat ❯ Despair before Triumph ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Window Seat: Chapter Four: Despair before Triumph
A BSSM fanfiction work
Aniah
AniaHope@aol.com
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Minna:
As I bring to a close the first fanfic I ever wrote, I would like to thank the following people for their support and help in crimes of insanity: Angela-Phoebe-Silencia-Hotaruchan, Darkling, Hector, Mr. Jonathan, HMPchan, Celeste, Lucca for helping reshape my view of Rubeus, and my mom (for pretending to understand).
Disclaimers: BSSM belongs to Naoko, those weirdoes at Pioneer who thought they knew how to dub, and DiC.
Are you interested in Sailor Moon villains? Do you ever wonder what Rubeus would do with a hairdryer? Then join my yahoogroup: http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/bssmvillians

And now, with no ado whatsoever, the Window Seat in the land of Ronan
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Just before his guests were to arrive and witness Hope/Amethyst's transformation into his Goddess, Darain sensed the Namibians' arrival outside of his warded apartments. Hope herself treaded water listlessly in a holding pool that was 9x9 feet in width and depth. With all her heart she wished she could drown herself in it; but it is impossible for an Elementalist to be harmed by its patron. The sides of the pool inclined down toward the bottom, preventing physical escape. Hope was too weak to attempt it, anyway. She floated there, with no fear. She could not feel fear anymore, only apprehension and shame that she had been captured at all.
A black-blue aura, not unlike the shade of blue as Saffir's, formed and split into three; King Allen of the Daroma Empire, his consort the Dowager Princess Aniah of Ronan, and Jon, Darain's ootoochan. "It's possible to be overwhelmed, and underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" Hope murmured to herself, staring at the stone ceiling.
"Welcome," the Spirit bid, ignoring Hope's vagueness. Aniah looked around carefully, noting everything.
"Hope!" she whispered, seeing her daughter's upturned face projecting from the water.
"…And the whole happy Nemesian family!" Darain sneered, as they came through the door, Rubeus in the lead. "With the arrival of my tutor and mentor, we shall begin." A platter with wine and water appeared in his hands. "Drinks, anyone?" Dimando, contrary to his normal nature, just glanced at the tray.
"Still trying this crazy stint?" Allen's tone matched the Kipturonian's perfectly. "The water is too much of a conductor to focus the power into her," Aniah tried to move toward her daughter, but Allen held her back.
"Since when did you become an expert in the Elements?" she asked softly. He didn't answer. A molten aura threw itself onto the stone beside Darain.
"Scholar," the Prince acknowledged, making the tray disappear. Rubeus hurriedly gathered the clan around him, inspired with an idea. Looking to Dimando for approval, he nodded and subtly the clan formed a semicircle around the pool and the two Spirits. "Are you ready to begin?" he asked. The cloaked form nodded.
Hope's eyes fluttered, and she brought herself out of the trance. "Fire within," she whispered, yet somehow everyone was aware of her voice, "earth blanketing, water bathing, life taking." The two Spirit Elementalists stood closer together.
"My love," Darain held a finger up as Rubeus suppressed the urge to strangle him, "I believe the next stanza shall be 'Spirit ruling." The two began chanting, in an unheard-of language. Hope was lifted into the air, magnificent as the water droplets flew away from her, infused with gold energy. She wore nothing, excepting the tattered dirty white shift she had been kidnapped in so long ago. Her feet pointed toward Terra, her shapely arms hung in the pose typical of a victim of crucifixion, only minus the cross. "Behold, the making of a goddess!" Darain roared, as the molten Spirit aura flowed more and more into her. Hope's aqua-shaded aura fell like a reluctant waterfall back into the Elementalists, enhancing the process and giving the two the strength they craved.
"Black Moon! To me!" Rubeus' war cry brought the Nemesians out of their reverie. He gathered his blood-like power. Not even thinking, beyond the phrase "a command is a command" Saffir, the Ayakashi, and Esmeraude drew on their own strength and, each holding out a splayed hand, formed one beam of energy that severed the aural link. Serenity tried to add her pure sun-gold energy, but Dimando, arm encircling her shoulder, put up a shield to protect the Clan from the backlash that resulted.
The blue-gold-bronze power pulsed twice, then reverberated through the room, knocking everyone to the floor despite the shield. Hope cried out, and fell into the water. Barely regaining his feet, Rubeus dove in one fluid movement to rescue her. With the last pulse of power, Darain and his instructor were utterly drained. They both were knocked out with the recoil.
Dimando, still grasping Serenity firmly, pulled Hope/Amethyst and Rubeus out of the water with his rose-colored aura. Slowing their decent, Rubeus laid the drenched, unconscious princess on the veined marble of the floor. Deftly checking for wounds, he stood and sheepishly looked away at the stern glare King Allen was giving him. Aniah knelt next to her only surviving child, and used her Healer's power to bring Hope around.
"What shall be done with the Spirit trash?" Saffir asked suddenly, relishing the idea of using them as lab experiments.
"They shall be killed mortally, as is the only way," Allen replied disgustedly. Then, realizing his breach of decorum, looked toward Jon, who had stood silently to the side all this time. "You shall become the new Prince of Kipturon and Dire," Jon bowed deeply, speechless. "And, as required, everyone here will join me in Ronan. I assume you are adept at negotiating the distance?" Dimando made an affirmative reply, and each Nemesian holding a Ronanite (Rubeus to Hope, Saffir to Aniah, and Esmeraude to the King). They all pretended not to notice Rubeus and Hope's murmurings.
Upon arriving Verdonia, they all bathed, and rested. Hope awoke the next morning, and demanded a breakfast with the Clan and Serenity, who had spent her night staring at the locked doors to the balcony that she and Dimando shared. How interesting, Hope amusedly noted, I am the one briefing them now. She seated Dimando at her right, and Saffir at her left. "I want to thank all of you," she said breathlessly, "I would be dead to everyone except one if it weren't for your actions." The Ayakashi cheered, Rubeus smiled, Esmeraude preened her pet fan, Saffir glanced at Petz, and Dimando swirled his glass of Ronanite ale. How could I live without them? Hope asked herself.
"I do have a couple of issues concerning me, Amethyst," Saffir spoke up. "First, did not you say your father was of Kipturonian origin?" Hope raised her eyebrows, impressed that the Blue Prince had remembered that detail.
"I was conceived when my mother was wed to the Kipturonian son of the ambassador to the Mercenary guild. Mother was claimed by Prince Allen as a spoil of war in the Siege of Verdonia. She was put on trial for treason, and was sentenced to either execution as a martyr or diplomatic immunity by marrying the Prince." Everyone digested this for a moment, and then were silent.
"Will you be coming back with us, Amethyst?" Dimando asked, glancing at Rubeus. "I know the Milady would be gratified by your companionship, and I would appreciate your diplomacy on my cabinet." Hope shuddered internally.
"I do not know, Prince. I must first see to some personal matters." She dipped the appropriate curtsey of royalty-to-royalty, something she had never done on Earth. "Thank you all," she said again, and exited.
Later in the evening, Hope was sitting with one of her sisters, a daughter of one of Allen's concubines, when a knock came to the door. The girl left, as Hope opened the door to Rubeus. "Please, come in," she invited. "I was just about to take up a novel."
"Don't let me disturb you," he protested. She pointed out that he wasn't, and they smiled nervously. "I was wondering if you would give me a tour?" happily, she agreed.
An hour later, after wrestling with herself, Hope took him to the Hall of Arches, the room only used for coronations, weddings, and the resting of funeral biers. A scarlet-covered window seat was nestled behind the row of columns that marked the processional way, where Darain had kidnapped her a year before. When she saw the barely-concealed scorch marks he had made in anger, she pushed back tears that threatened to come to her eyes. They sat on the cushion, staring out at the fields surrounding the place, and the great moon above.
Rubeus took Hope into his conditioned, well-muscled arms, and she breathed deeply his apple-scented vest. Over her coal-black haired head, he looked out of the window towards where the invincible Crystal Palais should have stood. "I love you, Hope Amethyst of Ronan," he whispered. She looked up at him, indigo eyes to chocolate. They kissed as the silver moonlight streamed onto both them and the window seat next to them.
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Thus ends the saga of Hope of Ronan, AKA Amethyst re'Aniah Black Moon. Of all my dedications and thank yous, I must make one more: to you, for reading it. This is the real Aniah, mailto:AniaHope@aol.com for anything, and ja ne!