“Princess, no!”
Venus watched in horror as Sailor Moon ran off after the second monster while she and Mercury struggled to hold their youma in place. Distracted, Venus didn’t notice the silver fist swing around and catch her on the rubs. She grunted and stumbled away, nearly landing on top of Jupiter.
The green soldier gave her a worried look, but her tone was flat. “You did tell her to run.”
Venus glared, unamused.
Mercury was quickly tossed away to the other side of the courtyard, turning end over end in a series of painful somersaults. Then the youma turned and began to walk in the princess’s direction, silver armor glittering and jerking with the monster’s awkward gait.
Jupiter and Mercury immediately sprang into action to hold the youma back, but Venus hesitated. She had a duty to protect the princess. She had sworn she would not let Usagi be injured, no matter what the price or the consequences. This youma was after the princess, and Jupiter and Mercury would need her help to kill it.
But was it worth the risk, leaving Sailor Moon alone when she was still in such a fragile state?
Mercury spun over to her, blue skirt billowing around her as she avoided one of the monster’s blows. She looked at Venus with eyes that seemed too soft for this kind of work. Venus had always thought there was something painfully innocent about Mercury. Even now, after her time in the Dark Kingdom, Venus still saw that youth. It made her feel very old.
“Are you all right?” Mercury asked, helping Venus to her feet. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” Venus admitted, not quite willing to meet those satin eyes. “Can you and Jupiter handle this?”
Venus watched Mercury’s knees lock. “You want to go after Usagi-chan.”
“Yes.”
They both knew the answer to Venus’s question. They both knew what it might cost if Venus left. And they both knew this was simply a ritual for Venus’s benefit, something to ease the guilt.
But the blonde almost hoped that Mercury would say no.
“It’s fine,” Mercury whispered in an odd voice. “Go.”
Venus looked up at Mercury, swallowing a lump in her throat. Then she spun on her heel and took off in Sailor Moon’s direction, an orange blur against a cloudy sky. Her feet pounded into the ground, pushing her along as fast as she could manage. She gasped for breath and felt a strange buzzing in her ears. She shoved it away as best she could, forcing herself to remain upright. There was no time for that now.
She rounded the corner, gasping and ready to throw herself into action. She was used to being the hero for Usagi and the other girls. Sometimes they treated her like some kind of savior, an avenging angel. She couldn’t decide whether or not she liked it completely, but she did find herself secretly grateful for Mars’s willful resistance.
But not to the point of open defiance.
However, in this case, she had wanted to be the hero, and when she arrived, she found Sailor Moon had found another savior.
“Zoisite!” Venus gasped.
His grey eyes darted over to her, and he looked just as surprised to her. He strained against the youma’s sword, gritting his teeth. He didn’t drop her gaze.
Venus quickly pulled out her chain and swung it wide. The gold and red links wrapped around the youma’s blade and with one hard yank, Venus pulled it away. The youma reeled back, growling and started to lumber towards her, but she kicked it away as hard as she could. Zoisite sprang forward to clash swords with it once more, leaving her with one last lingering gaze before turning his full attention to the battle at hand.
Tearing her eyes away, Venus jogged over to Sailor Moon, grabbing her by the elbows. “Princess, what were you thinking?” she scolded.
She was expecting the princess to pout, but the lip remained tucked in, her eyes cold. “I’m a Senshi too, and I don’t always need to be protected.”
“It didn’t look like that when I rounded the corner.”
Sailor Moon’s eyes drifted back to Zoisite and the youma. “He said he was going to take my life,” she whispered. “I don’t understand why he’s doing this.”
Venus turned and watched Zoisite swing his curved sword around, nearly cutting into the youma’s left arm.
“Neither do I,” she muttered, frowning. She released Sailor Moon and said, “Stay right there. Don’t move. I’ll handle this.”
“Minako-chan!”
Ignoring the furtive cry, Venus ran forward, leaping into the air and twisting above the youma’s head. She landed on the other side of it and propelled her hell in the general direction of its chin. She missed, but that didn’t stop her from elbowing it in the side as a consolation.
“You did this,” she muttered at Zoisite, gritting her teeth. “You sent them after her.”
Zoisite swung his sword, throwing a bolt of hot blue light towards the youma. It barely managed to duck, jerking away from the blast just in time. “Master—"
“I know you want to help him,” Venus snapped, shooting a crescent beam at the youma that went equally awry, scorching the wall behind the monster’s head. “But he loves her. How will it help him if she dies?”
Zoisite’s eyes flashed at her, the fierceness of his loyalty lighting up his twisted face as they continued to push the monster back and forth between them. “I wanted to save his life.”
“No matter what the cost?”
He scoffed. “You’d burn the world down for your princess.”
“Exactly,” she hissed, pulling out the tambourine. “That’s why I’m here now.” She furrowed her brow. “But why are you?”
Zoisite ignored her and continued the battle. They each fought against the monster as if it were their own separate struggle. She was so used to fighting with the Senshi, whose styles were similar and who knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. She knew how Zoisite fought as well, but she couldn’t figure out how to synch up her blows with his. Everything she did seemed to counteract more than aid, and he wasn’t much better with her.
And to think, she had thought they were the same.
Finally spotting an opening, Venus shook the tambourine, twitching her wrist to fill the air with the sound of bells like a rattlesnake. She spun and straightened her arm, willing the golden stars to come flying out and end this battle once and for all.
The ground felt unsteady beneath her feet. Her vision grew hazy. She didn’t feel like she could hear. It felt like something was beating against the walls of her skull.
She sensed someone calling her name like an echo in her flesh, but she couldn’t even distinguish between male and female. She felt her knees beginning to give way. She was going to lose it right here, and she knew if she fell, she would not get back up again.
When she heard the scream, she almost thought it came from her own throat, her frustration bubbling up beyond her capacity to hold it back. But then she realized it was Usagi’s voice and that a shadow had passed in front of her face.
She forced her eyes open and for a moment, she thought her symptoms had gotten worse, that she was hallucinating. It took her an awkward length of time to realize that Zoisite’s rigid form in front of her with what seemed like a hundred blades piercing his chest was horrifyingly real.
He had stepped in front of an attack she hadn’t been able to defend herself against. He had saved her.
The enemy had become the hero.
“Zoisite!” she shouted, dropping her tambourine like a forgotten purse. She reached for him, wrapping her arms around his chest as he fell against her. They both sank to the ground in a mess of gossamer cloak and blonde waves. Her forearms felt wet and her nose was filled with the scent of copper, the tang of blood. She knew enough about the body to know that there was no coming back from that kind of injury. He was fading.
The youma turned its attention back to Sailor Moon, who was running up beside Zoisite and Venus. Seeing the impending attack, Zoisite let out a strangled cry and shot out another blast of blue-white light. The youma disappeared before it hit, and it did not return. Perhaps it felt it had done enough damage for one day.
“He’s bleeding,” Sailor Moon whispered in a terrified voice. “Venus, he’s bleeding. Do something!”
Venus knew there was nothing to be done. None of them had the power to heal, and any ambulance would be too late. Besides, how could they expect a hospital to treat this dark king, a man she couldn’t be sure was a man.
“It’s all right,” Venus croaked, forcing herself to focus on Sailor Moon’s face and not on the unbelievable amounts of blood pouring from Zoisite’s convulsing body. “I’ll take care of it. You need to go help Mercury and Jupiter.”
Sailor Moon’s pale face grew paler, only just remembering that there were others in danger. She began to get to her feet, her hands shaking. “But what about—"
“Just go, Princess!” Venus ordered, barely managing to control the anguish in her voice.
Either stung or surprised by Venus’s outburst, Sailor Moon quickly ran away from the scene, heading back to the place Venus had told her to flee from. For a moment, Venus almost regretted sending Mars away.
Almost.
“You should have told her,” Zoisite wheezed.
“Why?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice steady. Of all the people in this universe, Zoisite would not be the one to see her weakness in the face of death. Death was her constant companion, and she did not fear it.
But she’d never considered she would have to watch it take someone else before it took her.
“What would be the point?” she continued. “I’d rather let her hope for awhile.”
He gasped for breath. “How like you… to choose her innocence above everything else.” He coughed and blood began to bubble at the corners of his lips. “I thought you were so hard when we first met.”
She had to stop herself from insisting that she was still strong. It would have sounded cloying, and she would not indulge in childishness now.
“Why did you do that?” she whispered.
He laughed. “Do what? Change my mind about her or save you?”
Venus didn’t answer. Or maybe she couldn’t.
Unable to hold his head up any longer, he laid it back against her chest. She was surprised at the weight of it, at the gravity of his presence here, for however long it would be. “Master said something to me… He said that if you’re willing to sacrifice something, it probably wasn’t that important to begin with.”
“So your life’s not important?”
“Is yours?” he murmured, his hand reaching up and brushing against her throbbing temple.
She swallowed and pulled her face away. “You know better than that.”
“If you say so,” he took a deep, shuddering breath. “Do you think she’ll forgive me?”
Venus smiled ruefully. “The princess has a heart big enough to shield the universe.”
“I’m glad… It was a betrayal to the master, what I did.”
Venus thought back to several weeks before, when she’d nearly stolen all of Usagi’s emotions away for the sake of the world’s safety.
“I wish I could see them,” Zoisite said, his voice growing fainter and more hoarse. “That I could play for them. One last time. Kunzite… Nephrite… Jadeite… and the Master.”
Venus watched as his fingers began to twitch against the ground. She tried to follow the notes he pretended to play, tried to make sense of the song only he could hear. But she couldn’t see what he meant for them to hear. She wished she could.
“It’s up to you now,” he whispered. “To save the world and free the Master.”
Venus frowned at the last instruction, but she didn’t let him see it. Better to let him die thinking she would do everything in her power to do as he asked. Better to let him rest easy.
“I will. For as long as I can.”
He tipped his head back as far as it would go until their eyes finally met. The shined with water hanging just behind his lashes. He didn’t blink, unwilling to let them fall. Even now, they let their pride dictate so much.
She felt very tired.
“But that’s not what you meant is it? At least not completely.”
She still didn’t answer. Or maybe she still couldn’t.
“I don’t sacrifice the things that are important… to me….”
Venus felt her heart constrict as if his gloved hands had enclosed around it. And she continued to watch, mouth open and eyes wide, as his limbs briefly twitched and then relaxed. His hand stopped playing the ghost music she could not hear. His face was still turned to hers, but he wasn’t looking anymore.
Suddenly, Zoisite’s prone body was overcome by the same light he had thrown at the youma just minutes before. She felt his head grow lighter against her chest. Without hesitation she held on to him more tightly, pressing him against her flesh as if her embrace would somehow keep him with her, although he had already gone. She didn’t want to lose this part of him.
She wondered how loudly Mars would deride her sentimentality.
“Zoisite, please,” she whispered. “Just stay. Just like this. Just stay like this.”
But he couldn’t hear her, so he did not obey. Before she knew it, his body had vanished from her arms, and all she clutched was a cold slab of rock that had never tried to be brave in the face of death, had never hoped for forgiveness, had never saved a life. And soon, even that cracked and faded to dust. She wondered if she held on too tightly. She wondered if she could have saved it if only she had let go.
Her eyes began to sting.
She heard the tell-tale clack of boots against the ground. She looked up to see Mercury, Jupiter, and the princess rounding that same old corner. They were more battered than any of them had wished for, but they were all alive. The youma, it seemed, had gone.
“Minako-chan!” Jupiter and Mercury shouted in horror, assuming the blood was hers.
“Where’s Zoisite?” Sailor Moon demanded, her cheeks already streaked with wet. “Minako-chan, where did he go?”
Venus stared at her arms, at how she hugged herself in a way that no other person ever did. She stared at the crimson staining her gloves and her skin. She stared at the place where he had once been, the man who was not a man who reminded her so much of herself.
“He said I was important.”
And then the pain overtook her and the world swirled away from her. She fell in the place where he had lain; the chorus of three high screams an unwanted lullaby. She slipped into the black, and for just a moment, thought she caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye.
He’d looked peaceful.
