Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Cold Love Twisted Love ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Two

A sharp ring disrupted the normal silence of the night and with a groan, a figure arose from their bed to grope blindly for the ringing instrument. They ignored the sudden wet feeling as they managed to knock a glass full of water to the side and consequently soak themselves. With a muted curse they finally managed to grasp the elusive phone and brought it to their ear. "Hmmph?"

"Mamoru?" the anxious voice on the other end of the line had the young man sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Why was Motoki calling him, and why did he sound so strained and worried? "Mamoru, I know it's late over there but the girls wanted me to call you..."

This revelation was enough to wake the sleepy college student up and he forced his eyes open as he fought a yawn. "What is it, Motoki? Is something wrong?" He was forced to speak in a low whisper, but his worry was still plainly audible. If he didn't get answers soon he'd ignore his sleeping roommate and start shouting. "Is Usako alright?" As silence answered him he felt the pit of his stomach drop. "Motoki, what's happened?" he was unaware his tone had turned into a deep growl until he heard the slightly nervous gulp on the other side of the line. He had to be patient, if something was wrong he wasn't going to get answers by biting off Motoki's head.

"I'm not sure if it's serious... It's just that the girls wanted me to call you. They didn't think it likely but..." Motoki's voice trailed off as it seemed he was arguing with someone beside him. It was obvious from the sound of scuffling that someone was trying to steal the phone away. Obviously Motoki had regained control as his tired voice finally asked a question he had been dreading. "Is Usagi there with you?"

Mamoru fell limply against his bed with a hand trailing above it. He wasn't hearing this, this was all a nightmare. His Usako was safe and sound and at home dreaming about ice cream and visits to the Crown Parlor, where she'd get her favorite dishes and chat with all her friends as she imagined what video game she'd tackle next. No, his Usako couldn't be missing. "No," he whispered his heart breaking as he denied what he could feel in his mind to be true. He sounded older than his years and he closed his eyes as he felt moistness at the corners. "She's not here...." He took a deep breath to still his wandering thoughts and the emotions that threatened to consume him. "Please... Tell me what's going on. What's happened to her?"

"She's missing, Mamoru. She didn't make the girls' outing yesterday morning, and no one seems to know where she is. We've tried a lot of places but she hasn't contacted any of them. We thought maybe something happened to you and she decided to surprise you for a visit..." his voice trailed off as he offered the far-fetched idea. The last hope he had given the girls, and that he had given himself, was crashing down. The sweet bunny that had been almost like a little sister... no, she had been more than that, more than he ever wanted to admit. He could hear muffled sounds coming from the other end and could visualize his best friend close to tears. He knew the feeling because that's what he wanted to do, "Well... She's probably lost or something," he managed to choke out; he couldn't let Mamoru know, he refused, and if he kept talking like this it'd slip out somehow. "We'll call you when she comes back; just do the same for us, ne?" He softly requested before hanging up and closing his eyes as emotions welled within him.

The others that stood around him were tense and nervous as they glanced nervously at each other. "Where is she?" Rei snapped. Her worry knew no bounds as she went over a mental list of all the things her naive best friend could have gotten herself into. Why hadn't she ridden Usagi harder and forced her to listen to all those lectures she had ever given? If anything happened to the blonde, she'd blame herself.

"Calm down, Rei," Minako soothed as she blinked back her own tears. They had contacted the outers but the group was out of the country, and no, they hadn't an idea about their princess's whereabouts either. It was very disturbing; it felt like Usagi had vanished off the face of the planet. No one knew where she was or had heard anything from her about any plans. "She'll... she'll be fine," she managed to whisper before she bowed her head and let the tears fall.

Ami was better at holding back her own grief. She had been trained well; a doctor couldn't break down in front of their patients, could they? She would be no different. She flitted from one friend to another like an anxious bee as she checked on their mental and physical health. True, most would argue that Usagi hadn't even been missing for the required 48 hours yet, so they shouldn't be so worried. But most didn't realize that their Usagi had never been out of touch for even over twelve hours. Where had she gone, and why hadn't she told anyone anything? It worried her. The truth was, she believed, someone had to have nabbed their friend. She didn't want to believe it, but knew it was the most likely scenario. She was constantly worrying about her friend, and yet she had to staunch the worry so that she could care for the others who were crumbling without their main pillar of support. Usagi was their hope, their light, and their laughter, if anything had happened to her... She envied them for being able to worry and cry freely, but she knew the best thing she could do that would manage to help anyone, was to comfort them. Besides, she had a multitude of programs running on her computer that were searching everything from newspapers, health records, doctors offices, hospitals, and even the morgue, for any mention of the young blonde. If there was the slightest inkling of news, she'd know it, and the others would have to comfort themselves as she would be checking it out.

Makoto slowly hung up her own phone and closed her eyes in frustration. This wasn't like a normal enemy where they could zap it and be done with it. No, it was the waiting that was killing her. If she had the chance she'd take all of this fury out on the first villain in her path, but they hadn't seen anything like that for a year now. Things were peaceful. Ever since they had realized Usagi had gone missing they had called every place they could possibly think of. No one had any knowledge of where she had vanished to, or even knew where she might have gone. Her parents had been shielded of her disappearance for the moment, but if they didn't find her soon... They'd have to be notified, they still hadn't decided who would get that job. Besides, everyone was hanging onto that slim thread of hope that this was all just a bad dream and that any second now Usagi would step through the door and ask if her 'Mamo-chan' had called yet. They were all hoping, they were all praying, they were all waiting for a miracle, they didn't care what God it came from as long as it was answered. That their best friend would be brought back to them safe and sound. "Please," she whispered, she didn't care who heard her prayer as long as it was answered. "Please."

**

Aya-chan wasn't happy, in fact she was as far from happy as you could possibly get. Despite her brother's precautions, she had been able to convince Ken-kun that she had forgotten something upstairs and had managed to hear the whisper of her brother, and the scream from the person on tape. She didn't need to see the video to know who the voice belonged to. How could she forget her sweet and gentle best friend?

Of course this brought up the issue of just why her best friend was on a CD that had been delivered to her. Why had she been screaming? And just why wouldn't her stupid protective brother tell her anything? Didn't Usagi mean anything to him? The three had been best friends only a few years ago, was he just going to keep her out of the loop? Aya-chan snorted at this, there was no way she was abandoning her friend. She just had to find one of the guys who she could 'convince' to help her. At the moment her eyes were already set on one, now if she could just get his attention away from his soccer ball long enough for him to listen to her…

"Aya-chan, is something wrong?" Omi had been given the wonderful task of keeping an eye on Aya-chan. Apparently her brother wasn't easily fooled and had realized from her actions and reactions that the girl realized something about the video he received. It was Omi's job to keep her safe and completely out of it. Though Omi had to wonder if Aya was really planning to abandon the girl he had managed to get a glimpse of on tape. Why was Schwarz involved in this, and why had they kidnapped someone out of the blue? Were they out for revenge?

"Ken-kun?" Aya-chan popped up in front of the distracted soccer coach and smiled brightly at him, he barely even blinked as he went over a mental lecture he was due to give to his class. "Ken-kun, will you take me to the store?"

Omi snapped out of his contemplative mood and realized that Aya-chan had vanished from her and Aya-kun's room. He fought a wince as he realized that if anything happened to her that Aya-kun would make him pay for it. Thankfully, he heard her questioning Ken about something and a startled gulp and quick muttering from the other boy.

Omi was curious about it all, who wouldn't be? But he wasn't one to snoop, so he coughed to announce his arrival as he entered the room. Seeing a red-faced Ken was amusing, but he had to wonder if the innocent looking Aya-chan was the cause. "Is everything okay, Aya-chan? Can I get you anything?"

She smiled sweetly at him and shook her head as she tugged on Ken's elbow. "No thank you, Omi-kun, actually Ken-kun here was about to take me to the store. I've seemed to run out of a few things… I kind of need."

Ken took this slight reprieve to whisper just what Aya-chan needed to an overly suspicious Omi. He almost chuckled as the younger boy paled and muttered a string of incomprehensible words as he turned a deep dark ripened cherry red. "So do you want to take her instead?" He offered with an all too innocent grin. He couldn't escape his laughter as the boy turned an even darker shade and literally squeaked as he backed up and escaped to his own room. The joys of teasing those who were all too sensitive, though the drawback was that he still had to take her. He glanced at the grinning girl and groaned, he really prayed that Aya wouldn't snap and try to kill him for this.

**

She dimly remembered waking up with a throbbing headache. Apparently whatever she had been whacked with was enough to not only leave an aching cheek, but left her with a blinding migraine. She was too young to have migraines. She had been kept blindfolded for the longest time, which was actually fine with her. The last thing she needed was to see bright light when her head felt like it would explode any moment. She had noticed early on that both her arms and feet had been tied with strong sturdy rope, she had tried to break it with no success, and that it appeared she was alone. Or rather that she hoped she was alone, she still remembered the strange scary face of the person that had attacked her for apparently no reason at all. But since when did strange scary people need reasons to attack?

And where was she now, hours later? That was a good question; one she really didn't know how to answer, nor was she sure she wanted to know it. Her legs had been untied a short while back by someone that actually looked younger than her, though he hadn't really spoken to her, just led her to yet another room. It was in this darker room that her blindfold was taken away and she had a chance to recuperate from the still strong force in her head. Unfortunately she hadn't been able to get a glimpse of her other captors, and she really doubted the boy had done this to her, just quite yet. Or maybe this was fortunate in her case?

Either way, her attention had been diverted by that point and she was watching a slowly blinking red light. It had taken her a few seconds to realize that she was being recorded, and then a strange guy had stood in the shadows and had calmly asked her question after question, which she had refused to give a single answer to. She wasn't sure if these people knew her alter identity or not, but she wasn't about to give it away. And she had planned not to answer anything they asked, Rei would have been proud, until she realized she wasn't the only person tied to a chair.

Not far from her seat, and just out of the view of the ever watchful camera, there was a wide-eyed and obviously terrified teenaged girl that looked to be roughly around Hotaru's age. The weird freaky guy that had kidnapped her was sitting next to this stranger with a knife that looked like it had come from some b-rated horror flick. If possible the thing looked even sharper and crueler than the one she remembered, but perhaps that was because it had a dark red substance on it, that made something inside of her freeze when she saw it; blood.

As the man asked her another question, his voice droning on like a machine in the background, Usagi felt herself began to shake as her eyes were latched to the blade that slowly descended on the helpless victim. A scream tore from her threat as the same time a scream erupted from the lips of the other girl as the knife was plunged into soft fleshy skin of the arm. Her attention was instantly focused on the well-dressed man as she fought tears and hysteria. She thought for a moment to remember his question; who was she? "Tsukino Usagi!"

Tears trickled down her pale white cheeks as she struggled long and hard to loosen the bonds upon her, to loosen them enough where she'd at least be able to reach her compact. If she could transform she would save that girl. She couldn't let these monsters hurt her! She knew she didn't have the best fighting skills, and she realized she was outnumbered at least two to one, maybe even three, but there was no way she was just going to sit there and let someone be hurt like that! NEVER! She struggled even harder and felt her fingertips brush against the cold hard metal. If she could just manage another inch, she'd have it...

Soft sobs and whimpered cries for mercy were whispered by the other girl as she thrashed and struggled to escape from the mind-numbing pain. The crazy knife wielder had left her side and was now beside a startled Usagi.

Usagi was so shocked at the intrusion that she dropped her compact that she had finally managed to get a loose grip on, and it rolled across the floor to rest at the shoes of the well-dressed, and now slightly smiling, man. "What do you want?" she demanded, fear and shock made her voice sound shaky and scared, and yet she managed to keep a resilient tone through it all.

"Want?" The man in the shadows seemed to do his version of a laugh, the sound merely cold and unfeeling. "I don't want anything at all from you, Tsukino-san. Though I must admit my curiosity was a bit piqued due to some peculiar things we've noticed about you." His voice was impersonal as well as cold, and had made Usagi forget her fear of the knife wielder for the moment.

"Then let us go," she whispered as her body began to shake in a state of shock without her fully realizing it. "Or at least... at least let her go, she hasn't done anything to you." She licked suddenly dry lips and tried to hold back another round of tears. It was her fault the girl had been injured, she knew it. "Please, just let her go."

The man barely paid attention to her as he spoke at length to the camera she had noticed earlier. Her head was throbbing too much for her to make out more than the odd name Abyssinian. She closed her eyes with a whimper and took a deep breath before starting to reach for her compact. It didn't matter to her any longer if the guy beside her noticed what she was doing; besides it seemed he was much more interested in the crying girl.

The man, finished with his talk it seemed, glanced at the psychotic person beside her and nodded slightly. Before Usagi could really figure out just what had transpired she was once again being whacked upside her head with yet another object. She retained consciousness long enough to whisper sorry to the obviously frightened girl, before she passed out cold.