Past Meetings
Chapter Three
by, Cony
In the midst of her sobs, Ami could barely hear two shouts: "Venus
Power... Jupiter Power... Make-up!" Only a few seconds later, a kick
threw the door open, and in the opening stood Sailor Jupiter and
Sailor Venus. When the dust was dissipated, they saw her dearest
friend lying on the floor, her hands covering her face, crying. None of
them noticed the flowers, or the dark shadow that was hiding behind
the curtains.
They run to her, and Jupiter took her in her arms, trying to soothe
her sadness. She rocked her back and forth, just like her mother
used to. The young princess started sobbing in her shoulder,
grabbing her like a life savior. Jupiter looked at Venus, and said:
"Call the Queen and the other Senshi. This is serious."
The blond nodded, and flew to the Queen's quarters. She ran through
hallways and corridors, nearly crashing one or two servants. Her
Majesty was still awake, and talking to her daughter. As the Senshi
of Venus entered the room, they both looked at her face, and knew
this was important.
"What is it, Lady Venus? And why are you transformed?" asked the
governor of the Silver Millenium.
"Yeah," echoed a voice really similar to the first, but and octave
higher, "what's up, Ven?"
Minako gasped for breath, and said: "Queen Serenity, you should
follow me immediately. There's been an incident in Lady Mercury's
quarters." The gravity in her voice was enough to make even the
Moon Princess serious, and Sailor Venus headed back to her
friend's room, followed by a woman and a girl with the same
hairstyle.
When they arrived at Mercury's, they saw that Lady Mars had also
checked in, and was trying to avoid the curious mass of people
gathered in the door trying to enter the room. Everything went silent
as the Queen approached, and spoke: "I appreciate your caring for
the Mercury princess, but your presence is no longer required. You
may leave now."
Concern could be easily distinguished in Queen Serenity's voice,
and the crowd disappeared within seconds. Then, they entered the
room, and closed the door behind them. Inside, there was a still
sobbing Mercury, and Lady Jupiter was still trying to calm her down.
However, her despair was so big, that nothing seemed to work.
Looking around, the Queen noticed the large amount of white roses
in the room, and how, one by one, they began to turn black. They
shone a couple of seconds, then slowly started to drift to darkness,
until they were totally black. However, she failed to notice the
shadow, too.
Kneeling near to the pair of friends, the Queen said: "Lady Mercury,
what happened?" The young girl tried to answer, but her body didn't
respond her. Princess Serenity also sat down, and said:
"Mercury-chan, don't worry. We are here now. Nothing can hurt you
anymore." Her voice was caring and worried, and made her stop
crying. She slowly let go of Jupiter, nervousness dominating her. Her
eyes were still watery, and looked around as if looking for someone.
Queen Serenity, seeing that the princess had calmed down a bit,
asked again, now using a motherly tone, and a name only the
occupants of the room knew: "Ami, it's Ok now. Can you tell us what
happened?"
Lady Mercury stroked her eyes, and washed the tears away. She
was about to answer, when a low whisper came to her ears:
"Remember, if you tell anyone, I will kill you, and the one you told."
Her heart stopped beating, and a cold breeze made her shiver.
Looking to the window, she saw the shadow looking at her, and a
couple of purple eyes shining with evil.
Opening her eyes very wide, she repressed the urge to scream, and
answered to her Queen: "It's nothing, your highness." Everyone was
shocked with this answer, and Lady Mars stood up, not being able
to control her temper.
"Are you telling me that all this mess was for nothing? Excuse ME,
Mercury, but that's not true!"
Jupiter threw a killing glance at her Senshi friend, but said nothing.
She also knew Mercury was lying, but also could tell that yelling
wasn't the proper way of questioning her. Venus shook her head,
and said: "Come on, Mercury-chan, you know you can trust us. We
are your friends."
The blue haired girl hated lying, and never thought of doing it to her
friends, but it was too risky. Looking at the window again, she saw
the shadow grinning sarcastically, and breathing deep, said: "It really
was nothing, guys. Just home-sick I guess."
She tried to reassure her answer by smiling, but only managed a
faint grin. Princess Serenity tried to ask her again, but one of her
mother's hands on her shoulder stopped her. She looked at her
mother, and saw her saying no with her head. Speaking again with
that soft tone, she said: "It's Ok, Lady Mercury, if you don't want to
tell us what happened. But if you feel you need someone to lean on,
I want you to know that all of us will be expecting you. Now, come
on girls, let's give Lady Mercury some peace."
She stood up, and made a gesture to the rest of the Senshi. They
stood up too, and Minako said, "You know Merc (this was her pet
name), that you can trust any of us." Makoto nodded, and echoed:
"That's right. What are friends for?" Princess Serenity hugged her,
and said, "We will always be there for you". Her mother just smiled
reassuringly, while Rei grinned, and said: "Relax Ames, it's all over
now. Besides, no one can hurt you inside the palace."
Ami sighed, and thought: That's what you think. Looking at the
window, she saw the shadow getting up, sending an airborne kiss to
her, and leaping off, disappearing in the night. However, she didn't
feel safe and looking at her friends, said:
"Mako-chan, wait. Could you stay with me tonight, please?" I'm so
scared. What if Ren comes back?. I may not be this lucky next
time… she thought. Her eyes showed such a plea, that Lady Jupiter
couldn't say no. "Of course I'll stay here if you want, Ames."
"Thank you really much, Mako-chan." That night, Mercury had awful
nightmares, where her body transformed into a white rose, and a big
black rose with some resemblance to Ren stood over her…
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