Venus‘s hands clasped the metal of the blade, her palms flat against the smooth edges. She gasped as she forced the sword out of her abdomen and slowly fell to her knees, her hands holding steady on the cool metal even as her eyes never lost contact with his. No words were spoken, but he could well imagine how she would speak to him if she had the chance. To his surprise, he realized that he didn’t care.
He pulled the blade free of her hold and dropped it to the ground with a light metallic clang. Her body crumpled forward and she caught herself on her palms, her golden hair draping over her face so that her eyes could no longer silently accuse him. Her blood was spattered on the ground. ‘Whore,’ he cursed her in his mind.
Adonis began to walk away from the collapsed form of his princess towards the marble altar when he noticed a tall silhouette falling into step besides him.
“You attacked a delegate of the moon,” commented the deep voice. “How careless.”
“You will not judge me,” Adonis muttered, keeping his eyes trained forward.
“If you had ignored her presence she would have returned to the moon none-the-wiser.”
“We both know it wouldn’t have been so simple.” His boot heel clicked against the step at the base of the altar, also formed from the slate of white and gray tinted marble. "She has forsaken her kingdom. She whores herself for the enjoyment of a savage barbarian. Whispering sweet words in her ear wouldn’t have been nearly as effective."
“I’m sure you know that honey is more effective than vinegar,” came the chuckled response. “And what will you do as your next act? Perhaps you will take down the other senshi?”
“I defeated the shitennou – I can handle the senshi,” he snapped, stopping at the altar itself. “Each one of them died by my hand and yet you still talk as if I'm a rookie soldier who does not know how to properly wield his blade.” He closed his eyes tightly and spoke through clenched teeth. “Even you became love’s bitch at her command, Kunzite,” he said firmly as he turned to face the source of his antagonist to find that he was standing in the center of the sculpted marble edifice entwined by dying ivy utterly on his own.
The sound of men’s laughter caught Adonis’s attention and he spun around to the entrance to see the two blonde shitennou standing at the entrance, backs pressed to the twin columns of the opening archway.
“Where is he?” Adonis demanded, his anger seething under the surface of his lips at their mockery.
“He’ll be here,” Jadeite answered.
Adonis looked over Jadeite’s arrogant pose, the way his arms crossed at his chest and how his right knee was bent with his foot pressed against the wall. He frowned and looked over to the slightly shorter man across the way. “You look well.”
“Death becomes some more than others,” Zoicite responded coolly.
“One doesn’t have to die to be born again,” Adonis countered.
“If you call this 'life' then.”
Adonis spun on his heel to face the altar. His eyes settled on the figure standing behind the plinth with long arms resting on the side rails. “We depart tomorrow night during the new moon.”
The man with chestnut hair backed away from the railing and gave a grand mock bow before transporting away. Adonis closed his eyes and listened for a sound from the two younger soldiers, satisfied that they were gone when there was only silence.
His eyes opened again to look down upon the figure lying on the plinth before him. The sides of the man’s cape had been drawn up to cover his body, although one flap had slipped and hung freely down the side to rest just above the marble slab. An arm clad in white was visible on the exposed side, revealing a pale lifeless hand resting upon a flat stomach, clasping a game card with its weaved back visible. Adonis reached forward and pulled the card from still, pallid fingers. “Your love fortune is no more, Kunzite,” he muttered, ripping the card in half at a slight angle. As he turned to walk away he threw the halves of the card over his shoulder so that they fluttered to the ground, revealing the remains of the Ace of Hearts.
Stepping down from the altar, Adonis bent over to pick up his sword from where he had dropped it, barely noticing that the body that had been laying there only moments ago was now gone.
