A pair of V-day fics and a repost. A day or so late perhaps, but better late
than never.
Pluto's comment:�� First season epilogue and a hint of things to come.
Fallen
����� His name wasn't Kunzite anymore - that was, after all,
merely the name of a stone that he had been named as a
diguise...and then made to become, in a black mockery of
his naming.� It was not even his first name from the old
kingdom.���
����� Though he supposed it was accurate enough to call him
after a stone, it would seem odd to do so, and he had picked
a useable name - Kanjiro - for calling himself to the common
people of this time.�� It didn't matter.��
����� He remembered Kunzite better than the other names.
����� The rain was frigid against his skin as he wandered
through the streets of London, a harsh winter rain that crashed
down as if the sky were sobbing.
����� It was cold enough to kill, if you wandered around in
nothing but a teashirt and Jeans.���
����� Kunzite didn't care.�� No matter how cold the rain, it
could never match the ice that filled the empty void where his
heart had been.
����� The water hid the tears, so he'd have at least some
dignity.
����� How did it happen?� How could he have let it happen?��
So long ago the start, and yet he had only to close his eyes
to see the beginning again.
����� He'd heard her approach from only a few yards, but knew
who it was that must be approaching the prince, turned around
and said -
����� "It must be hard having a bundle of curiosity for a princess."�
����� The sun had been bright upon her as she found them, he the
Winter King, his Prince and her Princess together in the arbor
of the earth palace.� It had turned her hair into a aura of gold light...
����� He fetched up against the stone of a bridge and stared at the sky
as lightning painted the semidark purple in light and threw half the
world into utter blackness of shadow.
����� Venus had stared at him blatantly for a moment, then struck
her head, berating herself for her rudeness.
����� He hadn't minded though.�� He was used to the stares in that
time, the looks that the world gave him for his strange coloration
and powers.��� Freak, they called him, and perhaps he was - a man
born on no world, but in the void itself.�� If it were such a vision
staring at him, then he wouldn't care, whatever the cost, simply to
be noticed was somehow...desirable.���
����� For a man who had made his life duty to his King, and then to
the prince, desires were precious things, to be indulged in
only very rarely.���
����� He might have been able to let it go, as he did so often, wrapping
himself in hearts armor, that nothing could prevent him from his duty to
the prince, but -
����� "I'm worried about her."
����� Then she spoke...with a voice of experience and worry to match
his own.��� The voice of a soul as burdened and worn, and as chained
to duty...a voice that could understand.�� No perfect Lilly, this, but
a warrior...Senshi Venus, an equal, and not just pretty to look at.
����� Was it then that he...?
����� "One day she will be Queen" - She said,
����� "King of earth" - He'd thought as an echo.
����� "Her duty to watch over the earth-"
����� "And protect the people."
����� Were they so much the same?��� His duty to give his life and soul for
his prince, hers...� It was the same at the first ball they were all
together at, Princesses and Princes all...
����� "She won't get hurt by falling in love will she?"�
����� Kunzite dammed that question.���
����� He knew the answer - and it was little different, for the
one asking it, or the one asked about.
����� The memory of that day was like a chain of razors in his heart.
The touch of light, never to be held again.���� Venus had so much
concern for the Moon Princess...just as he for his prince...But that was the
way they were - they were the ones who gave everything away, keeping
nothing to themselves.
����� "Is it to late for us, now that we have chosen to live this way?"�
That he remembered asking too, though the saying was separated by a
lifetime.��� It had been to late long before that, though, to late before
even they had ever met, when they had chosen to serve, and not to rule,
as they could have.
����� The darkness had come for him, and no single being could stop it...no
matter the will.�� Any power less than infinite could not stop Mettilla
from turning their bodies to stones - stones which would become
dark reflections for her pet sorceress - Beryl.�� Beryl the puppet queen.�
����� He did not even know the sorceress's real name.
����� "Every time you are reborn you will be one of my four warriors!" The
mad queen's words were burned into his nightmares.��� Living and dying
and living and dying and living again could not let him free of those
memories...nor all the ones that went with it, from that other life.
����� There had been blood - so much of it.� The other warriors had fallen
to the blades of the four Kings one by one...until they reached the Senshi.
��
����� And they had fallen, felled by love staying the one hand, and
treacherous magic forcing the other.��� Only Venus remained.�� He wept
without tears as he fought and watched - watching Beryl strike
down Endymion...watching as Venus tore the silver sword from her princess
in grief and rage to strike down Beryl...
����� "Princess!� Prince!"� It had been his love's scream for what was
lost when the child of the bright moon drove her own guardsword through
her chest, and it still echoed in his ears.�� The sound of it should have
shattered stone, but did not.
����� She had come for him then...he alone, they both knew, might match
her, of the kings.� The others fell like wheat before her...she was so
perfect.�� The memory was enough to kill.
����� Blood.�� Staining her - and him, as they fell on the steps, flung
apart by their own strength to lay strewn across floor like marionettes
with the strings cut.� Both struck to kill, his hand forced by
sorcery...hers by grief and duty no less strong.�� Neither bothered to block.
����� It was only at the end that he was allowed to weep.
����� She won't get hurt by falling in love will she?
����� Now he was alive again - he and the other three who had yet to
remember, the cursed kings who had given up their kingdoms for the earth
prince out of loyalty, given life again by their betrayal, however unwilling.
����� And their loves were dead.��� That much seemed certain - for there was
no word of the Senshi to be heard in this godforsaken time.�� Nothing less
than life for life and full sacrifice would have had any prayer against
the Demon, anyway.
����� Kunzite lifted his face to the sky and let the freezing rain fall
into his face as he watched the heavens roil with the wind.����
����� Rain fell.�� He had fallen, and was waiting to catch it.
Gamlain, transuniversal courier & Hero for rent
Sheldon Burnham gamlain@airmail.net��
Of course, my homepage is at
<http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/8762/index.html>Http://www.geocities.co
m/Tokyo/Bay/8762/index.html
"I Find that all this fighting for my life is quite exhilarating!" - Linn
Suzaki
Gamlain, transuniversal courier & Hero for rent
Sheldon Burnham gamlain@airmail.net
Of course, my homepage is at
Http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/8762/index.html
"I Find that all this fighting for my life is quite exhilarating!" - Linn
Suzaki