Total Eclipse -Minako's Story

Part Ten

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	"Oh my hero, so far away now. Will I ever see your
smile? Love goes away, like night into day. It's just a fading
dream. I'm the darkness, you're the stars. Our love is brighter
than the sun. For eternity, for me there can be, Only you, my
chosen one... Must I forget you? Our solemn promise? Will
autumn take the place of spring? What shall I do? I'm lost
without you. Speak to me once more!" -Maria's Song in the
Opera House in FF6.
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	The outer senshi had disappeared without a trace.
All that fuss and they simply up and left. I was let down the rest
of the day as I was still trying to sort out the mess that was now
left in my hands. Eventually, the other girls, save Makoto, left as
well. Now we were alone. It was the late afternoon, and still that
stinking planet was cold. I found myself wandering around the
massive library that was tucked away in a far corner of the castle.
I discovered a large book with a collection short fairy tales. I was
engrossed in the book when Mamoru wandered in and sat down
next to me on the floor. I barely noticed. He pointed to the story I
had been reading and sighed.
	"Good story. It's one of my favorites." He said, happily.
"I grew up with that book." I looked at him. He had pulled another
book off the self and was idly flipping through the pages. I was
curious. He was being civil with me…in fact, almost nice. Now,
I was suspicious.
	"Is there something in particular you want?" He looked
back at me. Both of us were still kneeling on the floor. He
searched my face.
	"You look just like her sometimes." I wrinkled my nose,
confused.
	"Who?" Mamoru smiled briefly.
	"A lot of people, sometimes your mother, other times
'Sagi…sometimes even Queen Serenity herself.
	"I don't know whether to be offended or honored." He
leaned over and pulled the book out of my hands.
	"What are you doing in here anyways? Why aren't you
wandering about learning things about here?" I looked at him as
if he had three heads.
	"Your planet is too cold. I'm so numb I can barely move."
He laughed.
	"Oh com'on. It can't be that bad." He stood up, then held
out his hand. "Get up. I'll get your little lover boy to show you around."
I stood up and was just about to drop Mamoru's hand when Kunzite
conveniently walked in. I stared, as did Mamoru, making us look
suspicious.
	"I was helping her up."
	"He was helping me up." We said at the same time. I
looked at him, almost furious for some reason and dropped his
hand as if it were a burning cinder.
	"Uh…yeah." Kunzite said oh-so-intelligently. Mamoru
smiled at him then shoved me towards Kunzite.
	"You need to take this girl out more…I mean, geesh, she's
reading fairy tales that I was at six…That's boredom." I glared at him
then looked at Kunzite sheepishly. He was glaring at Mamoru.
	"Don't mess with my girl, Mam. She's trouble you don't
want to cross." He looked over at me then back at his prince.
"Every man has his territory, and…"
	"Oh, back off." I cut him short. "You know damn well we
barely get along. Don't say something stupid." I was being
admonishing, I knew it. But Kunzite needed it. He suddenly
grabbed my arm, and pulled me out of the aisle. "Let's go see the
gardens. I stared at him, shocked.
	"What do you-"
	"Trust me." Mamoru smiled and waved.
	"See you later, kiddies!" I was pulled completely out of the
library before I could get another word in. The hallway was still brightly
lit, but it was edging on to the later part of the afternoon. We rushed
down the halls, gaining more speed as we neared the South Gate.
The afternoon was almost warm out in the sunlight. When we were
a sufficient distance from the palace, Kunzite pulled me close and
kissed me deeply. When he pulled away, he stared into my eyes
and grinned a playful grin.  There was a sparkle of mischief in his
eyes I hadn't seen in years, then again, I hadn't really seen him in
years. I finally had a chance to gather my bearings. We were close
to being outside the outer gate, so close to the outside world I could
see the sunlight streaming through the trees just beyond the wall.
Kunzite turned to me.
	"Do you want to see what it's like out there?" I stepped
back, surprised at this sudden change in his mood. "I can get us
out of here, even if it's just for a bit…please Minako…" He held
onto my shoulders. I looked up at him, his expression begging me
to agree. I smiled.
	"Alright…just don't get us caught in the process."
	"Sweet." He said as he sat me up on the wall. "Hop over,
you'll be fine, as long as you don't land on someone." I looked over the
edge. There was no one there. Soon I was over, and in one swift
movement Kunzite was over himself. "You can't imagine how many
times I've scaled that wall." He stretched. "Ah, freedom." I had a
sudden pang of sadness run through me. I looked at the ground
and asked what had then floated across my mind.
	"Do you ever miss home, Kunzite?" I asked, my voice
choked. He looked at me silently then started walking a bit. He sighed
and watched me as we walked down the dappled path.
	"Every minute I'm here." He said at last. "Why?" I reached
up and picked a leaf off the tree that was in front of me. It had soft
rounded leaves and a stark white bark. "Birch." He informed me. I
held the leaf gingerly in my hand.
	"I want to go home." I said quietly. "I want to feel the
warmth of the sun against my face, and know that the air I'm breathing
isn't entirely magic. I want to hear the wind in the branches high
atop the trees, to taste the sparkling clean water, and feel the
essence of the plant run through me and know it's part of me as
well. I don't want to live this hell anymore…" I stopped then,
realizing he was staring at me. He sighed.
	"I should have known it. I should have known you'd never be
completely mine, Minako. You radiate the vibrancy of Venus. You're
bothas one. And I know that there's always going to be a part of you
that I can't claim for my own, because it's already been claimed
by a life stream that depends on you." We walked on in silence
then, for a long while. "The only glitch in this whole system is
that everyday you become more a part of me as well." He
said out of no where. I stopped, abruptly.
	We were in the middle of a clearing a small distance
from the castle. my eyes were watering. I wrapped my
arms around myself and sniffled. Soon, I couldn't control my
tears any longer. Kunzite walked up and held me against him.
He rested his head against mine, and let me cry against him.
The moment of there, that bonded second, would remain etched
in my mind forever.  That planet had one heck of a strange
effect on me. It caused me to feel things more deeply and
purely than I normally would back on the moon, yet both planets
were synchronized as one.
	"I don't want to go back there, Kunzite. I don't want to
have to go back to the Moon. I'm not trying to be selfish…it's simply
such a trial…it's not the same as home is. It terrifies me in a way.
Each second longer I'm there, I feel it's death sentence calling my name…"
	"What are you talking about?" Kunzite pulled away,
forcing me to look at him. I ignored him and continued on.
	"And what kind of a stupid name is 'Faith' anyways,
that's not my name, everyone knows. So why do we continue
this charade? Why can't I just be who I was supposed to be now?" I
sighed. My emotions were on a rampage. They fled from one direction
to the next, without taking heed what it was doing to my mental health.
"It doesn't matter anymore." He looked at me with a sad twinge to his
expression.
	"Is this the anguish you've been living with for all these
years pent up inside?" He asked me as I sat down near a tree and
watched a robin feeding her chicks.  "Are you really the same girl I
used to know so well?" My eyes snapped towards him, curious to
where he was leading with that statement. He knelt down next to me.
"Are we really all that much the same already?"
	"Already? We've been the same since I was eight and you
were eleven." He stood up and started picking berries off a nearby bush.
	"Well, you've always mellowed me out…and I just…" He
swallowed some. "Stress you out." I smiled. "Well, those weren't exactly
ripe." He threw me a couple.
	"Are you sure they're safe to eat?" I asked examining them. They
were small and had multiple facets of fleshy segments. They were a dark
color, a deep shade of purple.
	"As sure as day. They're called black berries. They're like
raspberries…guess you don't know any of them, huh? We didn't have
them back home. Well, just try them." I took a nibble of one, and a dark
juice flowed out and stained my hands. They were sweet, yet bitter at
the same time. "You like?" I nodded.
	"Makoto normally has them on her cereal." I said, after recognizing
the taste.  I looked towards the sky and it was edging on a light violet.
"Shouldn't we be getting back soon?" Kunzite grinned to himself. "Kunzite?"
	"We can wait. We don't have meals till late, anyways. You saw what
it was like last night."
	"Yes. Hellish." I mumbled. Kunzite grabbed my arm.
	"Follow me." I did, seeing as I had no other choice. He led
me to the top of a hill, over looking a crystalline lake that shone the vibrant
colors of the sunset. Above us, the first starts were starting to appear
in the dark reaches of the sky. "Welcome to my heaven." Kunzite
whispered in my ear.  There was too much to see, my eyes never
rested in one place for too long. Kunzite slid his arms around my
waist and pulled me up against him. "You do know…that…you drive
me crazy." Kunzite said between his kisses against the top of my
head. I glanced down at the water. Turning to him I asked what had
crossed my mind.
	"You think the water's cold?"
	"What?!" Kunzite asked as he took a step back in
surprise. I walked slowly down the hill, slipping my shoes off in
the process. The castle and the area directly around it was freezing,
but here it wasn't as cold for some reason. Kunzite ran down
the hill behind me as I slipped off the sweater. "Are you crazy?
You were freezing cold just a minute ago, now you want to…
to…" He couldn't even finish his sentence. I reached the water and
leaned down and set my hand in the water.
	"Not bad." I said grinning.
	"I'm not doing this. That's just surface water. You have no
clue how cold it is underneath that." I punched him lightly in the stomach.
	"I'm sure they train you in a lot colder water than this." I said.
	"No way. You've lost it, Minako." I quickly devised a way to
get him in that water. I pointed to a tree on the other side of the lake.
	"What kind of a tree is that?" He looked over in that direction
and I pushed him into the water. He tripped in the process and ended up
getting in deeper than I had wanted him to.
	 "That was dirty!" He cried shaking his head to get the water
away from his face. He pulled off his shirt, then and threw it
at me. I caught it and set it down next to my shoes. Next he
threw his pants at me. That caught me off guard, but I managed
to catch them as well.
	"How's the water?" I called from the shore, he had swam
a little ways out.
	"Like bath water!" I grinned and pulled off my dress.
Kunzite's eyes nearly popped out of his head, "Woah, Mia…"
He trailed off. I slowly eased myself into the water. Kunzite
swam up and promptly splashed me with the water. I
shrieked and splashed him back. We fought with waves
for a while before getting tired and just floating around.
"Maybe this idea wasn't so bad after all." Kunzite said
quietly as he drifted by me on the rock I had found to sit
on above the water.
	"How much longer do we have?" I asked him in
a state of bliss. The night air was inviting to my mostly bare
skin. The quiet lake was shinning with the reflection of the
moon and the stars. Kunzite had jumped onto the rock
and enveloped me with his dripping arms.
	"Let's forget going back for the moment." He said
into my neck. He kissed my bare shoulders gently, and let
his hands fall lower around me.
	"This is gorgeous." I said. "I never knew the moon
had this type of an effect on the earth." Kunzite looked at me
in the darkness.
	"There's so much to this place that you don't know.
If only I could show it all to you…you'd fall entirely for it. But
we'd never have time enough." His arms pulled me closer
to his still wet torso. Then grinning evilly, he shoved me
off the rock into the water. Shocked, I hadn't the time to
react before I was under the water. I swam to the surface
and glared at him.
	"What'd you do that for? Now I'm more wet
than you are!"
	"So?" He said simply. I sighed and swam a little
closer to the middle of the water. I was treading the water
and enjoying the silky smooth feel of it when I was suddenly
pulled under the surface. I struggled, but I couldn't move.
"Minako?" Kunzite asked from the rock. "What are you
doing?" I finally managed to free my self and frantically
swam towards the surface. I broke the surface gasping.
	"What the heck?" I yelped and swam closer to
the rock. The calm water behind me was shattered in
an instant and a slimy, icky monster wrapped one of
it's tentacles around me. I shrieked and wriggled from
it's grip. I lunged for the rock and quickly pulled myself
onto it. Kunzite was standing up and grabbed a hold
of my arm when I maintained a decent measure of
balance. "What is that thing?" I cried as it gracefully
moved towards us.
	"My pet." A voice said from off shore.
"Thank you both for invading my personal lake.
I'll be confiscating your clothes now. By the way,
Kunzite, nice boxers." Kunzite glared and flicked him
off. "And nice in general, Minako." I was truly angered by
this point. I charged my energy and used my chain to harness
his little "pet" by the throat.
	"Drop our clothes now, Adonis!" I screamed at
him. He sneered at me.
	"Callya there is expendable." He said tossing
my dress over his shoulder.
	"It's a good thing you're over there." Kunzite yelled
across the distance between us.
	"Oh, suck it, Kunzite. You didn't even end up giving
me a concussion." He sighed and gathered Kunzite's pants
up. "I can't believe you'd try to finish off the last of your own
flesh and blood. That never worked for a venusian before."
He finished off with Kunzite's shirt and my shoes. "While
you're at it, Minako, why don't you get Kunzite to drop his
other pants for you." I dropped the chain from around the
creature.
	"Let me kill him." I mumbled. Kunzite held me closer.
	"That was uncalled for!" Kunzite said. I snapped
the chain closer to me, and held it in my hand. I looked up at Kunzite.
	"Kiss it!" He replied.
	"I have a feeling he's not through with us." I said
quietly. I slid part of the chain around Kunzite's wrist. "Hold on to it."
I then intertwined my hand within his.
	"Okay." He whispered.
	"Secrets don't make friends, Minako!" He said
menacingly.
	"Who said I wanted more friends?" I retorted.
Ace signaled and the creature snagged my ankle and
pulled me down on to the rock. I let go of Kunzite's hand
and the chain slid through my hand until there was just
a small bit between us to keep Kunzite balanced. I winced.
	"Ow…" I said as I breathed in.
	"Damn it!" Ace said.
	"Hold on, Mi.' Kunzite whispered. I began to
feel light headed so I focused my energy into the palm
of my other hand and then released it onto the creature.
It screamed in pain, and it wrenched me downward again.
	"Don't let go." I swallowed and tried to edge away
from the creature. I couldn't move against the strength of its
slimy tentacle. Ace signaled again, and the creature released
me and I scrambled up onto the rock. Kunzite slid his arms
around my waist and I fell into his embrace.
	"That's so cute it's disgusting." Ace mumbled,
then walked away with our clothes. "Good luck getting off
the rock!" He called. I glanced behind us. Our rock was also
close to a sand bar.
	"We could jump it." I said quietly. Kunzite
looked at me strangely.
	"How do you figure that? The expanse between
the shore and us is quite large. We'd never make that." He
sighed. I turned him around on the rock.
	"Sandbar." I pointed and moved in front of him.
He looked at me strangely. "He probably did something
queer to the water." Ami could get us off this, no problem.
I thought to myself. Too bad I wasn't Ami. I knelt down on
the edge of the rock. Nothing looked out of place. Trying to
make light of the situation, I grinned up at Kunzite. "I have a
feeling we missed dinner." Kunzite cringed and pushed his
bangs back, a nervous habit he had.
	"Mam has to be pissed." I looked back at him
one last time, then stood up. I tested my legs, the jumped
to the sandbar. I closed my eyes and turned around, then
looked at him.
	"I don't want to think about that. It can't be that bad."
Kunzite followed me. He was standing right next to me.
	"You know his temper almost as well as I do." I didn't
want to become disheartened just yet. I wanted to think positively.
I walked across the sandbar and jumped onto the shore.  With
one last hop, Kunzite soon followed.  "We had best get back
there fast." He smacked his head. "I don't know what
we're going to do about clothes. Minako, you're in your
underclothes! That is not going to go over well." I looked down,
at my tangled hair, and my sopping wet self. "You are
supposed to be a proper lady."
	"That never seemed to bother you before." I said.
I'd had too much 'proper lady' crap for a few days. I was sick
of it. "Let's just get back." Kunzite looked grim then led the way.
Eventually we were back where we started. The forest was
teeming with people looking for us. I sighed and looked
back at Kunzite. He still looked grim. We were almost to
the gate when Makoto charged me and hugged me
from behind. Startled, I squeaked. Makoto started sobbing.
I turned around and hugged her, while patting her back gently.
	"I'm so glad you're alive!" She managed to choke
out between her sobs. "I thought that…after he…" She trailed
off, abruptly.
	"What happened?" I asked quietly, then looked
at Kunzite, worriedly.
	"You're soaking wet." She said finally, ignoring me.
Kunzite motioned towards the palace.
	"We better get inside." Kunzite said, as he shivered.
	"I'll go tell them…tell them I found you both." She walked
off then, looking very tired and withdrawn. I was purely worried
about what had happened to cause her to act like that. It was
definitely abnormal for her. Not long after we had gone in the
palace, Endymion came in and slammed the door behind us.
I looked down and Kunzite stood erect suddenly. Mamoru looked
at us, furious.
	"Explain!" He yelled. We flinched. "Tell me what
THIS," he held up our clothes, which were torn and bloody,
"is." I looked at the skirt or my dress horrified. Kunzite
swallowed and tried to speak, but couldn't form the words.
"Just what is going on? What kind of a sick joke is this?
The three of you…you all make me sick!"  We were silent
for a few minutes, glaring at each other. "Well?" He asked
finally. People were pounding outside on the door, begging
to be let in. Endymion ignored it.
	"It's all my fault." I said finally. "This whole big
controversy is about me, alright?" He looked at me as if to
say yeah right. "Look, I had no clue that little rat was going to
pull something as extreme as that…I didn't even consider
the fact that he'd be walking today!" I pushed my hair
behind me. "I was the one who thought it would be fine
to go swimming, I was the one who screwed up their
relationship as brothers…unintentionally," I added, "and
I was the one who wasn't thinking, wasn't cautious. Do
what you will, Mamoru, I'm at you mercy." I finished up,
and stood up against him. He looked from me back to
the flustered Kunzite.
	"What is she babbling about?" Kunzite shook
his head and looked at Endymion.
	"She's drained." He said. "She probably doesn't
realize she's not making any sense." Kunzite said and
pulled a strand of my hair, so I shut up. "I took her out of
the walls…I wanted to show her around a little. We came
across the lake. She's a fish, Mam. She's drawn to water.
She decided she wanted to go swimming, shoved me in
then, followed after me. Everything was fine until he
showed up with his 'pet'. It nearly killed her, once." Kunzite
looked angrily at the clothes. "We were trapped on a rock,
and he took our clothes. Since then we managed to get
back here, and that's about it." Endymion shook his head
and opened the door.
	"You brother has a sick mind!" He bellowed.
He tortured poor Makoto with these, I've half a mind to
burn them, after all, they're of no use now." He glared
at Kunzite.
	"Just what did he do?" I asked quitely.
	"He said-" Makoto said, trying to get it out, "He
said that he had killed you both, and wanted you to have
your remains…"
	"He's mad." I stated. "And I can't believe you fell for
it. That's not his style." Makoto looked at me hurt then went to
her room, excusing herself as she went. Endymion looked after
her, then back at us.
	"This was a warning, Kunzite. Be careful, we have
yet to figure out what exactly it is what we're up against." I
winced. Endymion turned to leave then stopped half turn.
	"Are you okay, Minako?" He asked. The visions
of that dark place were running through my head again. I
shook my head and looked at him.
	"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little bruised, or I will be
later." He took a step forward.
	"You don't look so well. Are you sure?"
	"Yeah…just a couple of bumps, really." He
looked back at me one last time.
	"Alright…but tell someone if you feel anything
weird at all. Promise?" I nodded. "Fine. All of you," he
said addressing the gathered crowd, "we've had quite
a scare tonight. Let this be a lesson to us all. The enemy
is not to be taken for granted! Now, let's get some rest.
Tomorrow could come another trial." The crowd dispersed
then, as Endymion left with our clothes in hand.
	"I wonder what kind of an animal he used to
bloody our clothes." Kunzite mumbled.
	"Cow." I said. He shook his head and smirked.
	"Nah, he likes cows too much. Milk is his favorite.
I'd say dog, a large dog." I shrugged.
	"I'm so tired. I said. Jedite and Zoisite were
now standing around us. Jedite looked at me, then at
Kunzite, while Zoisite stayed behind, but still listened.
Jedite looked very angry.
	"What did he do to you?" He said to
Kunzite. Kunzite sighed.
       	"Jed, he did nothing. Not to me anyways." Jedite
turned to me. I began to feel a little dizzy and held on to
Kunzite's arm.
	"Damn it Kunzite, why don't you let us help you
rotect her?" Kunzite grinned.
"A few years back you hated her, absolutely hated her."
Zoisite smiled.
	"Back then she was a few years younger, Kunz."
I flushed and bent my head down. Kunzite smirked, which
caused the boys to laughs at us. "Well you to should at least
get changed into something warm."
Kunzite spoke up for me.
	"She doesn't have anything warm. She didn't
know this place was an igloo." Jed and Zoi exchanged glances.
	"We'll keep her warm…" That caught his attention.
He grinned, then held me against him.
	"I'll do that myself, thanks...besides I think you
two have  prey your own to go after.
	"Prey?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow. "I'll have to
inform my counterparts of this little tidbit." I said. "Let them know
How you really think." I began to feel even more dizzy. "I
really don't feel well." Kunzite looked down, as I leaned
against him more.
	"Hey," he said as he tilted my chin up, "what's
wrong?" I shifted uncomfortably, loosing strength.
	"Kunz?" Jedite said. Kunzite looked at him. "Is
she always that pale?" Zoisite grabbed one of my hands.
	"Yeah, her hands are like ice. It kinda reminds
me of that virus that was going around. She was like this last
night, too, wasn't she?"
	"You're joking, right?" Kunzite said. I was barely
aware of what was going on around me. I could feel the
vibrations of his voice against my head. "We nearly lost
how many people to that?" He tightened his grip on me.
"She can't possibly be that susceptible to a disease like that!"
	"Now, that I think about it--" Jedite stopped short.
"We have to get her warm, now." I felt like air, everything was
completely surreal. My hand had slipped from Kunzite's own. I
hadn't even noticed.  He sighed, frustratedly.
	"You know, Minako, I'm getting really sick of
having to carry you around all the time." Jedite punched him
on the arm.
	"You wouldn't have to if you paid more
attention to her! How long was she saying that she wasn't
feeling well." He chided him.
	"She didn't exactly make the effort to leave herself!"
unzite countered.
	"Like she could have! You had that death grip
on her, she couldn't have left if she had wanted to!"
	"Just stop fighting…" I mumbled, wearily.
They quieted down after that. Soon, we were at the room
where I was supposed to be staying. Zoisite had run to get
Makoto, at Jedite's request. I was in my slip still and it was
wet none the less. I was completely out of it.
	"We can't just put her in the bed wet like that.
It won't do any good." Kunzite said.
	"And you're wet too. Go get changed. It'll be easier
that way." I sat on the bed, feeling awful, just after Kunzite left.
	"Jedite, I can get changed myself…it's no big
deal." I said after an awkward pause.
	"I know. I just don't trust it. I've been through this
…It's not fun. Feel hammered yet?" I looked at him strangely.
	"You know, oddly enough I do." He grinned.
"Could you hand me that bag?" I asked pointing to my stuff.
He tossed it over to me, and I rummaged through it for
a while, feeling like I had no coordination.
"Damn, this bites." I mumbled to myself. Finally I found
my 'nighties' and yanked them out of the bag, with some
trouble. I felt rather strange with Jedite still standing there.
"Um…I think I can manage…" Jedite refused to leave.
	"What do you mean you don't know for
sure?!" Makoto said as she burst into the room.
"Get sure!" I looked up at her, and the room started
spinning beneath my gaze. "Aw, hun…" She came
up to me and hugged me. "Minako what's wrong?" I swallowed.
	"I'm just not feeling right, that's all." I looked
over at Jedite from behind Makoto. He left. "Good. He left
I can get changed now." I stood up, but I was shaky. "Woah."
I said to myself. "You know…" I said as I started
pulling off the slip. "I feel so stupid right now. Just
plain…" I started struggling through the night gown.
"Dumb." I finally finished. "And dizzy." I sat back down
on the bed and tried to focus on Makoto.
	"Minako-chan! Is that all you have?" I looked at
her oddly, not knowing what she meant. "Why didn't you
bring anything warm?"
	"I didn't have anything 'warm' to bring." I replied.
Makoto sighed and turned towards the door.
	"Stay there, I'll be right back with something you
can really wear…and we'll have to improve your wardrobe
when we get home." She returned a few minutes later with a
pair of sleep pants that were made of a warm material and a
matching shirt. "Change into this." She said. I did so, then felt
completely drained. I crawled under the covers and looked
up at her. It didn't feel warm enough even then.
	"Mako-chan?" I asked, feebly. She was sitting
on the edge of the bed, snuggling my bear. "Do you have
any clue what is going on?" She shook her head.
	"Nope. I really wish I did." She put her hand
on my forehead. I felt so weak then, more than I ever had
before…Like I had been run completely ragged. "You've
got a temperature. I've gotta find someone who can help.
I'll be back." She left then, and Kunzite came back in. I
rolled over, not really wanting a berating from him at the
moment. To my surprise he didn't say a word. He just
put a hand to my forehead, and then to my shoulder.
	"Minako…I'm so sorry this had to happen
to you. Please promise me you'll fight it." He whispered.
hen he bent down and kissed my cheek lightly. I think
he had thought that I was asleep. I wanted to be at that
time, really I did. "Damn…it's just not fair." He brushed
some of my hair back, I was thankful of that. I rolled over
again and looked at him.
	"You know what this is?" I asked quietly. He
shook his head. I winced. It was become hard to breathe.
"I wish Ami-chan were here…she'd know what to do." I
pulled the blankets around me some more. Kunzite looked sad.
	"I hate seeing you sick…" He said. I just nodded,
trying to fall asleep. "All I know is what it could be. We had an
epidemic go around a while ago, it was this strange virus…
it just whipped out tons of people for a while, then it disappeared.
And anyone who had had it was perfectly fine, once they recovered,
but what they went through when they had it was awful. Jedite
had it. In don't even think there's a name for it." He sighed and
rubbed my back, as I was now laying on my stomach. "Get
some sleep." He said. He walked out and shut off the light.
I was glad to be alone for a while. Eventually I drifted off to
sleep. Too bad it was riddled with nightmares, and in general,
a fitful rest. Exactly what I didn't need, but then, the morning
could always be worse.

	~*~Notes from Zellie~*~

		Well, hi everyone! It's been a while, ne?
Sorry this has taken so long, but as always, I have a really lame
excuse. I've been busy. Let's face it, it happens, and besides
…I think this chapter is worth the wait. In case you didn't notice
I revised the entire series so far. That should be somewhat of a
help for people. And now, senseless plug time! Go read VO1's
story "As We Were" right now. It's an awesome story, and it
deserves praise. Go read it, now! Okay, everyone until next time!
Be on your toes for my next stories, Watercolors, Crystal Rose, and
more chapters in Total Eclipse and Violet Flame. Love you all!
                             		 ~Zellie