Sailor Moon 1. Facedown

The End.  
Trinity Angel  
Rating M

This was the end. Venus could feel it like she could feel the blood leaking from her belly. A gut wound. That _asshole_ had to go for a gut wound. His sword had nicked her countless times, but when he went for the killing blow, it had to be a _damned GUT WOUND. _The more she thought about it, the more it pissed her off. He couldn't just be her love possessed, a love that at the end had gotten quite gregarious, a love possessed that she didn't catch until it was too late to stop the domino effect that would end the Silver Millennium.

She was better than that. Or at least she thought she had been. Aphrodite's heir, bested by her own element pulled tightly over her now fading gold eyes: love.

Anger mixed with sorrow like oil and water in her veins. She was _furious _and so damned _sad. _This wasn't how her story was supposed to end, with her lying in the dust as the last of the moon's army fell. On her knees she watched everything that she'd fought to protect die. And not a good death. Not the death that found you old and content with your grandchildren around and your lover's distant figure becoming clearer. This was a hard death, full of the shards of a warrior's regret and the salt of young lives snuffed out far too soon.

Failure was bitter on the tongue and Venus was swallowing it by the mouthful. Sisters fallen, yes. Princess she was supposed to be protecting, dead, and of her own damned sword, check. Her crazy goddamned lover possessed and talking her to death before attempting to murder her in a way that ensured she would have to watch the demise of all she was sworn to protect, abso-fucking-lutely.

A sob forced its way from her throat and into the near silent air, jarring the fucking hole in her stomach again before Venus let defeat settle over her. The last of her strength deserted her abruptly and her arms melted away from under her. She didn't even try to catch herself as she fell forward toward the moon dust beneath her half prone form. What was the point? This was the end.

An arm shot out of nowhere and attempted a poor catch somewhere around her collarbone. Were it an inch higher, she probably would have landed on her wind pipe and maybe, mercifully blacked out until the stupid gut shot would end her.

"Venus."

She thought about raising her head to see who it was that had attempted to soften her fall, but realized perhaps a moment belatedly that she knew that voice, intimately.

"Venus, I…" The voice trailed off into a sort of wet sound that let her know the tip of her sword had found a home somewhere in his lungs. Point Venus. If she was right, as she knew she was, he was drowning on his own blood. "I…I suppose an apology would be appropriate."

Venus' resulting laugh turned into another sob. What was a murder between lovers when you were both going to die?

"I am sorry."

Venus let out a sigh as his hand brushed against a cut in the fabric of her uniform. It caused a small bit of pain, but more than that, it allowed direct skin contact. What some knew as rumors and other knew to be true, was that the guardian of Venus could always read another true feelings from even the briefest of touches. She never actually told Kunzite, but she had a feeling he knew all the same. The confirmation made her smile sadly. The last time her skin had brushed his, the ensuing malice that followed burned like an acid, ripping the inner layers of her heart to ribbons. Now, only now with a badly bleeding gut wound and breath that seemed to be fading, did the sorrow and love she felt provide a cooling salve.

Kunzite's arm was firm underneath her chest. A dull ache registered somewhere in her breastbone at the pressure, but it was diluted by the still roaring ache in her belly. Venus wanted to ignore him, wanted to focus on the pain, but that too was fading, as though allowing her this moment without audience. Slowly, she turned her head, knowing that she had not been a coward in battle, and to do so in love would only shame her further after her defeat. Dirt stuck to the wetness on her cheeks as her skin drug through the surface of her home…her grave.

He didn't look any better than she felt, and Venus felt a small cheer from her nearly decimated pride. Blood marred his ashen olive skin and stood out brilliantly in his hair, and a small trail wound from his lips to his chin, dripping steadily onto his uniform. He was half lying, half propped against a fallen column. His eyes, oddly enough, were not the flat grey of his deadly doppelganger, but instead one was a rich, earthy green.

"I always said you would be the death of me."

"I always said you knew more than you gave yourself credit for…Aikiko." His use of her true name brought more tears to her eyes, but she continued to ignore them. "This…I know I am not the most…romantic of any of your suitors…"

"Tariq, you were my only…" His lips pulled slightly even as his eyes faded.

"I know, I…Aikiko, I would not have had this in mind for our end. I would have…I would have…" His words trailed off, the silence deafening.

"Beloved?" Venus tried to move, but found her body had given up the fight, even though her heart stubbornly stuttered along. Again she tried calling to him, using his native tongue, something she'd been trying to learn. All for a future it appeared neither of them had. Kunzite smiled, then winced, then his gaze narrowed suspiciously as though he was hearing something that had him on his guard. Venus tried to listen, but all she heard was a faint music. A soft haunting music that was as comforting as it was eerie. Light like feathers, but deep, deep like the ocean. She wanted to touch him, share this feeling of flying and drowning and the peace that seemed to come with it.

"Kunzite, do you hear it?" Kunzite's eyes turned back to her, the green one darkening again, the color bleeding out.

"You must..remember," His voice became strained, his final word held the sharpness of iron. "My heart, she will never have my…heart. It has…" Venus had to strain to hear his fading words amidst the noise of his breathing. "It has been out of my possession for…for sometime…."

Venus sighed as he said no more. Breathed no more.

His eyes were grey.

"No, but she has mine."

The music stopped. True silence descended.

_(Soundtrack: Facedown- the 1975)_


	2. Gone Again

_I've been find puzzle pieces of us, left in the dust…_

The memories started when she made her first transformation into Sailor V. Suddenly, dreams of the newest pop idol and movies stars turned to memories of love…and of war. Life and death. Swords and blood…so much blood. It wasn't until she returned to Japan that she recognized the some of the other faces in her dreams. Serentiy, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter. Names became attached to faces…some names. Others remained elusive no matter how it seemed that they were right there on the tip of her tongue…

His name was always on the tip of her tongue, just out of reach…taunting her.

Sometimes they were on the moon where the moon beneath her feet glittered like diamond dust. Sometimes they were here on earth where the colors were so bright it almost hurt her eyes.

In the dreams they called her Venus.

Those were good dreams.

But the best, the best dreams were of _him._ A man with hair the color of what was once her second home and eyes as green as the leaves of Earth in the middle of summer. A dark green, an emerald green, a brilliant green. And they were beautiful, so beautiful…

In these dreams he called her Aikiko, and she called him…Tariq. He touched her like she was something precious and she just knew he could see straight through to all her secrets. Everything that even now, her newly report sisters may not know about her. Tariq knew it all

The next time she saw the man from her dreams was in a time far from their past, but his eyes were not the green of her dreams. Instead his beautiful green eyes were the gray of the nightmares yet to come.

She knew him.

Minako knew him as the man of the green eyes who loved her, and the man of the grey eyes who dealt her death blow.

_Kunzite, King of the East, Protector of Endymion. Tariq, son of Queen Nalini and King Tahir. _

She knew his name as she added her power to the Sailor Planet Attack that would rip him again from his world. Rip him once again from her reach.

She knew the others did not remember yet, but they would; that they too would feel the renewed outrage of betrayl, the sorrow of loss, the numb, empty, broken feeling that followed.

She did not cry then, as Kunzite faded again from her world, turned back into the stone that held his namesake. Perhaps this was not their lifetime as it would prove to be for Serenity and Endymion. Perhaps their lifetime had come and passed. Perhaps Adonis' prediction would prove correct. Perhaps Minako would never know love again.

It wasn't until that night, safe from the prying eyes of Artemis and the questioning looks of her sisters did Minako mourn the love that was not to be. Muffling her sobs as best she could, the senshi of love attempted to let go of the distant hope that she may be reunited with a man she hadn't even known she was looking for.

_We were never meant to be this damn broken…_


End file.

Sailor Moon, Romance