Chapter Two: Healing



"I wonder if he's even awake."

Usagi looked down at the little cat and blinked a bit as they arrived outside of Makoto's apartment, while Luna looked up at the door slowly, "Well, the others are awake, so he should be too. I can't believe you're not going to see Yamito, Usagi."

"Heh heh, why do you say that?" Usagi said as she laughed girlishly, rubbing the back of her head a bit.

Luna just shook her head and let out a slow sigh, "Do you think he'll tell us about the Shadow Uranus and Neptune?"

"Here we are so I guess we'll find out." Usagi knocked and they waited for someone to answer, but nobody did. She knocked again and they started to get worried, "You don't think that he......" Usagi trailed off a bit and they looked at each other uneasily. Usagi suddenly grabbed the door knob and flung the door open, though it slammed right into something. They heard a loud yell and some swearing, then Usagi opened the door the rest of the way to find Dark Shadow Jupiter sitting on the floor rubbing his head.

"What in the hell!"

Usagi raised a fist at him and stepped in, yelling loudly, "What have you done with Makoto?"

Looking up at her with anger building in his eyes, he stood up slowly and roared at her, "She's taking a bath, you odango atama!"

Usagi and Luna got embarrassed as they heard the water running in the bathroom and Usagi put a finger to her chin nervously, "Oh, uhm, then why did it take you so long to answer the door?"

"Because I'm hurt, remember? I can't exactly race to the door right now!"

He rubbed his head more and growled, which made Usagi smile sheepishly at him, "Oh, sorry, Kage."

"Damn, stupid odango. Crack my head......."

Usagi smiled sweetly at him and followed him over to the couch, "So, can we talk?" In return, he glared daggers at her and she chuckled nervously, but then he sat down and rubbed his head more.

"About what?"

Luna hopped up onto an opposing chair and looked at him curiously, "Shadow Uranus and Shadow Neptune."

"Hmph, what about 'em?"

Sensing a little defensive tone Usagi decided to let Luna handle it and watched the little cat speak, "What is the history between you? I've noticed that you especially don't like them."

"Where did you get that idea?" He cooed with a sarcastic grin on his face. The two just blinked at him and he laughed bitterly as he continued, "I have good reason. From all the things they did to us, I'm glad they got those collars around their necks."

"What do you mean?"

"Ready for story time? Back in our dimension during the war, there were eight of us Shadow senshi. As you already know while Shadow Pluto escaped with the wounded Shadow Moon, Shadow Uranus and Neptune were captured by the Organization. The Organization does one of two things to their prisoners. One, they kill them immediately. Two, the Omega Master plants something in them called a prayer star seed. It replaces their normal Star Seed and still gives a senshi their powers, though only if the Omega Master wants them to have them. That's what happened to Kumo and Fukai. Can't say I'm too sorry about that. Shadow Uranus and Shadow Neptune always did their own little thing. Sometimes they even put others in danger. The reason I don't like either of them is," He trailed off a bit and looked out the window, letting a moment of silence fill the air. The two waited intently for the rest and he looked to them slowly with it, "They used my kid sister to lure the Priests out into the open. That isn't the worst part. Because of Kumo and Fukai.....my sister died. It also left me with a little reminder so that I'd never forget what they did." His hand moved up along the front part of his shoulder and he slowly looked down to the floor at mention of his family.

Usagi almost couldn't believe it and stared at him, trying to take this all in, "I'm sorry, Kage. I didn't mean to dig up the past. I just wanted to see if we could help them. We kinda had the same problem with our Uranus and Neptune."

"Yeah, Haruka told me. But these two don't deserve to be brought back. Even if we wanted to, we've never been able to get any of the others back, so why waste effort on those two?"

They both blinked at him and Luna tilted her head a bit, "What others?"

He looked at them for a while and they could see the pain in his eyes, though he did little to disguise it, "Members of our family....friends...people we grew up with." His peat green eyes went dim and he looked away from them, "Suteki's mother was turned against him, Yamito's sister......Kurai was spared from it since his family was already gone. Luckily my sister was.....well, they never had the chance to turn her." Usagi watched him intently as every time he spoke of his sister a new feeling of pain would fill his eyes. She was broken from her trance when he punched his palm softly and looked at her with a bitter smile, "Still, I didn't get the luxury Kurai did. My master, who taught me my fighting technique, turned on me. I fought him as a human.....and beat him. Guess that means I learned all I could from him, huh?"

Usagi swallowed lightly as she looked back into his eyes and she could see the depth of his life reflected in those peat green pools. She imagined most, if not all, of the Shadow senshi had lived through such trials. This subject made her a bit uneasy and she looked to the ground slowly, "I'm sorry. We don't have to talk about this anymore."

Just then the bathroom door opened and Makoto came out in a towel, surprised to see the other two there, "Usagi-chan? Luna? What are you doing here?"

Usagi smiled at her happily and waved a bit, "Hi, Mako-chan. We were just talking."

"About what?"

"Nothing." Dark Shadow Jupiter said quickly and stood up, making his way towards the bathroom now, "The shower free?"

"Yep, gonna clean up?"

He nodded and just before he got to the door, he stopped and called over his shoulder, "Usagi?"

Makoto blinked and looked at Usagi, who blinked also, "Yes?"

"The past is the past, but it'll shape our futures as well. I've also made a promise for revenge.....but not against the Omega Master."

Without another word he shut the bathroom door and left Makoto looking at Usagi curiously, setting a hand on her hip, "What was that all about?"

"I think Kage and Yamito have more in common than they like to admit."


"Ami, we haven't seen you here for days. You might fall behind."

Ami walked up to the table in the library and sat down, bowing to a group of people at a table quickly and setting her book on the table, "I know, I'm sorry. Where are we at?"

One of the girls smiled lightly and looked back into her book, "We are reading chapter forty."

"Forty? I have really fallen behind!"

As Ami rushed to find her place in the book, one of the guys at the table shook his head a little and eyed her sandwiches, "It's okay, you can catch up."

Suddenly, another table a bit away from theirs got louder and a leery looking guy yelled out at them, "Ohhhh, poor egghead. Little ol' Ami is behind."

The first girl at Ami's table narrowed her eyes at them and huffed, getting a disgusted look on her face, "Don't mind them, they only come here to smoke."

"What's the matter, Ami? Falling behind is school? You should let me come over there and tutor you." One of the loud guys made kissing noises at her and they all laughed as a plume of smoke lifted up above their table.

Ami looked up from her book and had a pretty angry look plastered on her face, given what had happened in the last few days, "Why don't you just leave, Jiko?"

"Leave? But I like the library, so many people to talk to. Come on, Ami, you aren't this defensive at school. It's a good thing that guy Kurai is out of the picture now. Whaddya say you and I have a study session of our own?" The guy leaned back on his table and looked at her with lustful eyes, grabbing at the crotch of his pants. The other guys at his table erupted into laughter until someone kicked the back two legs out from under Jiko, sending him crashing to the ground. He rubbed his head and swore, looking up at the person who did such a thing, "All right, who's the dead......"

His words fell away as Dark Shadow Mercury looked down at him with an annoyed look on his face, "Out of the picture?"

"Kurai! Eh, I didn't know you were still around! I haven't seen you with Ami lately so I thought....."

Shadow Mercury tilted his head a bit and interrupted him, not at all looking pleased at the assumption, "You thought wrong. I suggest you take your loud friends and leave. This is a library. Ignorant baboons such as yourself should not come her."

A sudden wash of energy filled his eyes and Jiko swallowed heavily, scrambling to his feet, "Right, we were just leaving. Come on, guys!"

They all started to leave in a nervous group but Shadow Mercury called after them softly, "Jiko?" Jiko stopped in terror and looked at him slowly as he gave out a sincere warning, "Don't ever talk to Ami again unless she wants you to. Do you understand?"

"Oh, okay. You got it, Kurai."

Jiko and his group quickly left the library and everyone was ready to applaud him for his service. Ami smiled happily and walked up to him, clasping her hands in front of her and looked up at him, "You came."

With a light sigh, he ran his hand through his white hair and nodded, "Yes, I might as well pass the time by reading some books."

"I'm glad you came."

To his own surprise, he looked down into her smiling face and also smiled, nodding once more, "So am I."


A huge pillar of steam rose off of the hot spring as Minako walked over to the pool Dark Shadow Venus was in, or so she hoped. She pulled her hair up and adjusted her swimming suit around her waist, her blue eyes scanning for his figure, "Suteki?" With only silence to answer she saw his silhouette facing away from her and stepped into the water, "Oh! Hot!" She shrieked loudly and pulled her foot out, then tried it a little slower. As she submerged her body to her stomach she let out a relieved sigh and waded over to Shadow Venus, "Suteki?" He still didn't move or answer her and she felt a bit concerned now, "Suteki, are you okay?"

"Yep."

Feeling relieved once again she lowered down to her neck and kept looking at him, taking some water in her mouth and spitting it out elegantly, "How does it feel?"

To her delight he turned to her and smiled, revealing a part of himself she hadn't seen in a while, "A lot better. I'm in heaven, ya know?" She couldn't help but smile back at him and he slowly made his way through the hot water to a large rock in the middle of the pool. With a content sight he sat down so the water was up to his chest and sighed, "This is helping my shoulders a lot. H2O lovin', baby."

"Hold on." With a flutter in her stomach she moved through the water and got behind him, setting her hands on his shoulders. When she settled in behind him he pulled away a little and she gave him a stern look, "Relax! I'm not going to bite you, ya know? Gah, now you have me saying it too!" Looking at her annoyed expression he sighed lightly and slid back to her, which made her nod her head quickly, "Thank you." Despite her looks she felt happy to be this close to him and leaned into him a bit, letting a content smile cross her lips. Then she leaned back and started to softly rub his shoulders, letting the conversation go where it wanted.

An hour later they still were sitting in the same spot and Shadow Venus looked forward with his brow furrowed up, "So, the Three Lights were guy idols, until they transformed into senshi. Then they turned into girls because only girls can be Sailor senshi. But when they went back to being the Three Lights, they were guys?"

"Yep, that's about it. Kind of weird, huh?"

She leaned a bit to the side to saw his face when he titled his head and went cross-eyed a bit, "Kind of? That's craziness!" It was enough to make her laugh and he even chuckled a few times at her laugh, which made her heart soar, if only for a moment. They sat a while longer and he got a light smile on his face as his mind fell into distant memories, "You know, we were all idols before the war."

"Really?"

He nodded and drummed his hands on his knees lightly under the water, "Yep, Kurai and Sentaku sang, Yamito played the guitar, Kage played the bass and I play the drums."

"That's great! Were you any good?"

"We could keep a beat. Maybe in the future, you'll hear us play."

"I would love that." A smile grew on her face realizing he was talking about his friends with their human names. He started to loosen up and she moved her hand across a bandage on his neck, "Do you want me to take this off?"

"Yeah, it's buggin' me."

Nodding lightly, she pulled the bandage off and he closed one eye at the pain as she looked at the big gash on his neck, "Ouch, it looks like it hurts."

Losing herself in a concerned moment she scooped some water up and poured it over the cut, which made him wince a little, "Maybe a little." As she scooped more water and poured it on his back he shook his head a bit and padded at the water a bit, "Caught a stray spike from one of those wanker clones. Pretty deep one, huh?" She smiled and looked at it again, trying to gather some bravery. With a determined look she decided to take a chance, delicately leaning over and kissing the cut softly. Her heart went racing and she waited to see his reaction but he didn't move for a moment which seemed to last for an eternity. Finally he spoke in a quiet and solemn tone, "Minako, I have to tell you something."

"What?"

His silence lingered a bit more and his tired eyes reflected in the water as he spoke, "Right now, I have a lot going on in my head. I have too much stuff to think about, without having to think about us too. You know how I feel about you but right now, I have to deal with my past. You and me.........we have to wait."

Her face dimmed a bit and she leaned forward, resting her head against his back. He didn't move at all as she wrapped her arms around him from behind, just closing her eyes and speaking softly, "I told you once I'd wait for you forever. I just want to be with you. Can't we just stay this way? At least for a little while?" After thinking a moment he just nodded lightly and stayed motionless, just closing his eyes and felt her body against him. Thus the two stayed, in silent bliss as the steam around them shrouded their figures from the world.


"I had forgotten what it takes to stock a shrine." Dark Shadow Mars quipped as he carried a stack of boxes in his arms, obviously not daunted by his condition, "I did offer to carry the other things."

Rei looked back at him as she carried a few things herself and rolled her eyes at him, "Do I always have to remind you that I can handle myself?"

"It was only a suggestion."

"Well, you're in no condition to carry them. You shouldn't even be carrying what you have."

As she turned back around and started walking again he suddenly winced and let out a few shaky breaths, speaking quietly to himself, "I'm not helpless." After a while he stopped and nearly dropped the boxes, clutching the place in his shoulder that was wounded with his free hand.

Hearing him stop she turned and looked back at him, tilting her head a little, "What is it?" Setting the boxes down on a bench he lifted his shirt away and the bandage covering his shoulder was saturated with fresh blood. It was enough to make her fume at him, "There's the product of your stubbornness! Now you're bleeding again."

With an angry huff she stormed back over to him and looked at the bandage while he sighed and placed his hand over the wound, speaking in a dry tone, "I'll have to do something about my incessant bleeding for you."

She quickly pulled his hand away and reached in her bag to grab more bandages, "Don't touch it! Urgh, you're the most stubborn person I know, Yamito." As she started to put fresh bandages on his wound, she sighed lightly and looked up at him, "I didn't mean to snap at you like that. I'm sorry."

"Rei apologizing? I have seen everything."

A look of anger washed over her again and she glared at him, "Fine, I take it back."

This time it was he that sighed and looked at her with a tired look in his eyes, "Now I'm sorry. I don't mean to come off so defensive. Everything lately has just exhausted me. I don't want to take it out on you."

"Yamito, I know that being a leader is hard, and you don't have to go through this alone. Now that you're back, we can deal with this together, okay?"

After she finished she smiled at him and straightened his shirt a bit, hoping to get a positive answer. To her disappointment he just looked away slowly and put his hand over the bandages, speaking only his appreciation for the bandaging, "Thank you."

Shrugging it off as one of his evasions she nodded and started to gather his boxes as well, a happy tone in her voice, "You're welcome."

"Things aren't the same as they were before, Rei."

His flat tone made her stop and look at him slowly, taking in a slow breath, "What?"

"As soon as my strength has returned, I'm going to finish this once and for all. I can't pretend everything is okay. I still have my promise to kee......."

This subject made her growl and fling her arms into the air, threatening him with her fists, "You're impossible! You almost got killed last time because of that stupid promise! If you die trying to keep that to Sentaku then I'm.....I'm.....I'm going to kill you, Yamito!"

"As meaningless as it is to you, it's all I have left."

"Ugh! You can't be serious! Don't I mean anything to you at all? Does it matter that I love you!?"

The words made him blink a few times and he could just see the passion burning in her eyes. Then he did followed his usual style and looked away slowly from her, "You know it does."

"Then why can't you prove it? Why can't you stop being Shadow Mars and be plain Yamito for once?"

"Do you think it's that easy? Do you think that I can just dismiss this darkness inside of me whenever I like and be normal like you?" By now his voice was raising a bit and he looked back to her with much of the same passion in his eyes. He finally lost his cold demeanor and started to resemble a normal person feeling the things he was feeling, "I can't.....and until the Omega Master is gone for good I can't just be Yamito! I need to be Shadow Mars!"

"Here we go again with this conceited idea that you can save the Universe by yourself! You can't, Yamito, so stop thinking the fate of everything rests on your shoulders alone!"

Introducing an odd element into the argument, an odd-looking gypsy walked by and sees what was going on, a twinkle in her eye. Suddenly she rushed over to the two and laughed with a shrilly voice, "Having love trouble? I have a potion that will help!"

Rei looked at her with flames in her eyes and yelled loudly, "Go away!"

Shadow Mars let out a slow breath and shook his head sternly at Rei, "The Omega Master is our problem, not yours."

She looked back at him quickly and set her hand on her hip, almost eager to say the next words to him, "Who, the Dark Shadow senshi?"

That was almost below the belt and he winced a bit, then looked away slowly with an angry look in his eyes, "Don't start that again. I'm won't have this fight with you again, Rei."

"Maybe a magic spell?"

The gypsy intruded once more and started to think of something when Shadow Mars looked at her and clenched his fist at his side, "Get lost!"

Rei quickly stepped in closer to him and pointed her finger at him, almost hating how much she was yelling at him in the position he was in, "Why not? It seems to me we need to talk about it."

"I won't discuss it with you anymore."

The gypsy pulled out two cheap looking rings and held them up, a sparkle in her eyes at the idea of helping "Maybe a ring set that binds two souls together?"

This time both of them looked at the gypsy and yelled together, both fed up with the intrusions, "Would you get out of here!?"

The small gypsy yelped in surprise, but then started to dig into her bag again, not daunted by the dismissal, "Something more powerful then? Let me see what I have."

"I want to talk about this, Yamito! Why do you keep pushing me away? "

"Forget it! I won't get into another fight with you." To her infinite anger he turned away from her and started to walk away, waving his hand through the air, "This argument gets us nowhere."

To the surprise of some passing people his figure faded away in a burst of flames and made her steam, wanting to just pound him into the ground. Instead she took it out by yelling loudly into the air, "No fair! You can't go disappearing every time I want to talk to you!"

"Who are you yelling at, Rei?"

Rei suddenly looked behind her to find Mamoru walking up while blinking at her flushed face and she quickly tried to calm down, "Yamito! We were arguing and he disappeared. I get so mad but he leaves anytime we ever try to talk."

"Maybe I should talk to him."

That was the worst idea she had ever heard and shook her head quickly, fearing what would happen in that development, "You? I don't know, Mamoru. You're not his favorite person."

Mamoru smiled a bit and nodded, then walked away quickly to find the source of her anger, "I've noticed. Stay here, I'll go talk to him."

"Thanks, Mamoru."


"She excels at making me angry!"

Shadow Mars growled and gripped the railing tightly, making his knuckles go white under his frustration. As he looked out over the city from a building high above, his thoughts dwelled on Rei and his future that could have been with her. Those thoughts were soon disturbed as he winced a bit and clutched his shoulder again, then heard a voice behind him, "Yamito."

He perked up at the voice but never looked at the person, because he already knew who it was, "Go away, Tuxedo Kamen. I'm not in the mood for idle chitchat, especially from you."

Mamoru pulled his hands from his pockets and walked towards him slowly, eyeing his rival carefully as he approached, "Look, I know you and I are not the best of friends but Rei and I are. I won't let you hurt her again."

Shadow Mars's fists tightened around the railing once more and he narrowed his eyes, "I'm not trying to hurt her. I'm trying to save her."

"Really? From who?"

"The Omega Master. Anybody who wants to hurt her."

Mamoru stopped where he was and stared back with a smirk on his face, "What about you then?" Shadow Mars finally turned to face him and wanted him to explain that, and which he did, "Right now, she's hurting far worse than anything the Omega Master can do to her. She loves you and you're only interested in revenge. In my book, that makes you worse than the Omega Master."

Not taking that well at all the dark senshi stepped away from the rail and stood face to face with him, though having to look up slightly. From behind those white strands, those dark eyes narrowed a bit and flamed up slightly, his voice dropping low and angry, "With remarks like that, not even Usagi could keep me from killing you. If it wouldn't break her beautiful heart, I would burn you where you stand, Tuxedo Kamen."

The threats weren't taken lightly, but Mamoru just looked back to him with no fear in his eyes and spoke in a surprisingly tender voice, "I know how much you care about Usako, and how much you love Rei. You can't protect them by pushing them away from you. We're all targets now, so you might as well face the fact that we all need to fight." What made him just as angry was that Mamoru was right, and Shadow Mars looked away slowly with a restrained comment. Mamoru watched him intently and let out a slow sigh, "Yamito, the love Rei has for you is something that makes your powers as a senshi fade in comparison. Is getting your revenge on the Omega Master worth losing that one, priceless thing?"

A long moment passed and Shadow Mars closed his eyes slowly, speaking in a soft tone to his most bitter rival, "I want to be with her always, but that isn't going to happen as long as he lives. None of them, including yourself, are safe and I could never give up my duty as leader of the Shadow senshi to be happy with her. I have to do this to save them all, including Rei and Usagi." Mamoru sighed lightly and wished he could make a difference, but he was surprised as Shadow Mars looked at him slowly and got a light smile on his face, "Tuxedo Kamen......Mamoru. Like you said, we are not the best of friends, but I want you to do me a favor." Mamoru nodded and listened as the exhausted senshi spoke in a bittersweet tone, "In two days, the others and I are going back to the Omega Master to end this once and for all. I want you to make sure the Sailor senshi don't follow us."

"I can't do that. You know they'll go."

"No matter what happens, it's our responsibility to kill the Omega Master. All four us....the last of the true Shadow senshi.....have agreed that we will sacrifice our chances to live here and be happy, to save your world."

Feeling the bitterness of his tone Mamoru stared at him for a second and then nodded, though asking a question that he needed to before this conversation was over, "Just answer me one question. How much do you love Rei?" Shadow Mars turned away and stared out over the city, not answering him. Both of them were silent for a long time and Mamoru nodded, understanding completely, "I will do what I can to keep them from going." He looked at him for a moment longer, then started to leave as he called over his shoulder, "Just return the favor to me. Before you go.....tell her."

Leaving the last comment up in the air, he turned and walked to the door leading to the stairs, opening it with a loud squeak that almost drowned out a single word from the quiet figure, "Mamoru," He stopped in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at the figure, listening to something he thought he would never hear, "Thank you for your help." Mamoru nodded once and left down the stairs, leaving Shadow Mars looking out over the city with his final thoughts, "But I can't tell her something that will make her follow."


Next Chapter: They're Gone!