Affair - Chapter 14 by Sereko sereko13@yahoo.com The myth behind Serenity and Endymion's connection is revealed (well, in part ^_-) and Serenity's mother finally crosses the line while 'disiplining' her child. Enjoy! See you next time! Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or any of the characters associated with the story (Well, maybe Prince Arian). I merely use Naoko Takeuchi's genius as a starting point for my own storytelling. ---------- Chapter 14 ---------- Serenity could not believe that. She was so attuned to Endymion that sometimes it seemed they were only one person. How could it not be the same with others? She turned to her senshi again. “So you cannot feel one another’s pain either? You do not know when he is upset?” Venus looked confused. “I know when he is upset. I can feel his emotions. And if by ‘feel his pain’ you mean can I discern when he is sad or brokenhearted, then yes.” “No, no,” the blonde replied while shaking her head. “If Kunzite is injured, do you not feel it?” Now Venus looked concerned. She and the rest of the men leaned towards the royal couple. “No, of course I cannot feel it. Do you mean to tell me that anytime Endymion is hurt, you sense his pain?” Venus scooted forward in her chair so that she could lay a hand on her leader’s knee. “Sense?” Serenity practically scoffed. Endymion refused to look at the group. He kept his head turned towards the bedroom windows, his arms still tightly holding the princess. It was as if he knew the shock his friends were about to face and was trying to hide from it. “A lot more than sense! I experience it like it were my own.” “Prince?” Kunzite questioned in astonishment. Endymion stubbornly refused to answer. “Can you really not feel Kunzite in the same way?” the princess continued, almost as though she were unaware of the disbelief around her. “Not even a little tingle or twinge? The last time that Endymion was injured in battle, I collapsed in a dead faint. It cannot be true that you feel absolutely nothing when the same happens to Kunzite.” Venus face drained of color. She moved to kneel on the ground in front of her friend. With cautious movements, she raised both hands to cup the younger woman’s face. Serenity raised a delicate, blonde eyebrow in question. Before the senshi could speak, Zoicite cut her off. “Fainted?” he asked in a thin voice that suggested that he might just do the same. Serenity was too busy staring at Venus to answer him, but Endymion gave an imperceptible nod from his position facing the window. “But how?” Jadeite asked in confusion. “Bonding is a powerful thing that can connect two people in amazing ways, but not like that. It is extremely hard for one to live past their bonded mate’s death, however, it is still possible. The way that you are describing your link, it would almost seem that if one of you died, the other would most certainly follow. If not from emotional loss, then simply from the fact that the other could feel the death as if it were their own.” Endymion’s countenance grew rigid. He moved his free arm around Serenity’s waist so that he could interlace his fingers firmly with her own. His thumb began a stroking gesture that’s purpose seemed to be to soothe him more than her. His head drooped slightly, allowing for tendrils of his hair to partially block his face from the generals. To Jadeite, the sequence of actions served as a louder proclamation than shouting “You guessed right!” would have been. He jumped up from his seat. “Endymion!” Without waiting or asking for permission, he strode around the settee to stand directly in front of the prince. He put his hands on his hips and looked down at the bowed head of black hair beneath him. The gesture would have been considered extremely disrespectful under normal circumstances. Jadeite was past caring. “Tell me right now that what I just suggested was an exaggeration. That under no circumstances would it ever be true that if Serenity were to die, you would follow her at almost the same exact second.” Endymion remained silent. Serenity clutched his hand, still looking at Venus. “Endymion!” the shout came out like a command. Everyone in the room stiffened. The prince’s head shot upward and locked in a heated gaze with his blonde general. “Jadeite,” he said evenly. The other man immediately dropped to his knees and lowered his head. “I am sorry, my liege.” Jadeite raised his hands above him in supplication. There were some lines that Endymion allowed you to cross. He practically let you prance on the other side of them. By all accounts, he was considered one of the most informal leaders the Earth had ever seen. But there were still a few lines that were never to be touched. No one was to even come close to thinking about them. Commanding the prince was one of those lines and Jadeite had just leapt over it. “I am truly sorry.” Endymion took a moment before sighing and laying a gentle hand on top of his friend’s head. It was pointless to try and stay mad at the man under the circumstances. “Jadeite,” he called softly. The blonde looked up obediently. Endymion let his hand slide from the top of sandy locks along Jadeite’s cheek until it stopped at his chin. He looked deeply into the man’s eyes. He used his hand as leverage to straighten Jadeite on his knees. With deliberate slowness, he leaned forward and kissed his general’s forehead. Jadeite knew that this meant he was forgiven. It also meant that he was allowed to speak. And he did, but very quietly and with his eyes looking to the floor. “I am scared.” He felt Endymion tenderly run a few fingers through his hair. “I do not wish to lose you.” The prince hesitated and then said, “You will not.” Nephrite decided that it was a good time to change the subject. “Back to the topic at hand…” He waited a moment for the tension to leave the air. Jadeite stood and walked over to rejoin Nephrite in a grouping of chairs. “How is it possible for the prince and princess to have such a strong connection?” “Could they not also be soul mates?” Zoicite inquired. “If one were to add a bonding ritual to a joining like that, then the result would be most extraordinary.” “Minara is assured that they are soul mates. But even that is not enough. Soul mates may have telepathy, empathy, a common thread of destiny and even a link that increases their magical power, but they do not die without the other,” Kunzite answered. “Do they not? If your soul mate were to die, you may live physically but emotionally you would be dead to the world,” Nephrite interjected. Venus was still prostrate in front of her princess. She smoothed the other woman’s cheeks with her thumbs. They had yet to lose eye contact for the past five minutes. She faintly heard Jadeite say, “But Endymion is saying that he would also die physically,” behind her. “Serenity?” she questioned, catching the attention of the men. “I must ask you one more thing. It is important that you tell me the truth.” The blonde, almost silver-haired goddess nodded. “Have you ever bled?” “Well, of course I have. I just ran through an overgrown forest last night and received several cuts as my reward.” Venus shook her head. “No, princess. Have you ever bled when Endymion was injured?” Serenity paused. “When you felt his pain a planet away, did it ever escalate from you merely feeling it to you actually experiencing it?” Serenity looked away guiltily. “Yes,” she breathed. Endymion turned from his window to look sharply at her, so she ducked her head. Venus released her face to clutch both of her hands. “You have bled?” she repeated. Again, Serenity looked away. “Yes.” Endymion loosened his hold on her in shock. “You have? Why did you not tell me?” She touched her chin to her chest. “I did not want you to worry. It has only happened twice, anyway.” Venus’s hold became crushing. “Last month? That day that you had your arm in a sling. Was that because of him?” she guessed. Her liege nodded slowly. “Serenity,” she intoned so fervently that the woman in question looked at her with worry. “Yesterday, when you appeared in your room at the Palace and then disappeared just as quickly,” she waited until Serenity knew what she was referring to before continuing. “You did not just come from somewhere on the Moon, did you? And when you transported out of there, it was not simply to some place outside of the Palace, was it?” “No.” “It was to Earth, was it not? You did not transport yourself to the transporter room in order to use a teleporter. You actually teleported from the Moon to Earth by yourself.” “Yes.” There were shocked gasps from the rest of the room. “Oh goddess Selene,” Venus whispered. She pulled away to reseat herself in her chair. Kunzite telepathically asked her what was wrong. “The intense telepathy. The blood. The teleportation. They are connected by more than their souls and more than the few drops of blood that the Terran bonding requires. They are Companions.” She let everyone absorb that information. “Loosely translated, that means that they are life mates. Their very essence is joined together.” The leader of the Sailor Senshi heaved a heavy sigh. “It is so much worse than I had feared.” Within her, Venus was waging a war. Part of her was in utter rapture at having found such a blindingly perfect connection of two souls as if she had just struck gold hidden deep in a mountain. The last recorded occurrence of Companions was three thousand years in the past. Their coming did not come idly, though. There was always a terrible reason that something as pure as Companions was created. Venus deeply feared what evil could be lurking in the shadows that could have set in motion such a momentous event. “Goddess, protect us,” she whispered too quietly for anyone to hear. “Fear?” the princess asked innocently. “What about us is there to fear?” Venus shrugged off the question and stood abruptly. “We must leave at once.” The drastic change in topic brought everyone to attention. Venus was no longer speaking as a friend, or even as a senshi, she was using the commanding tone of a child of the Goddess Venus. The blonde beneath her hid her face in her lover’s shoulder. Endymion looked down at her tenderly, with a gaze of such love and devotion that Venus nearly wept. This was the woman who owned his heart. She hadn’t even had to try to steal it from him. It had been lying in wait for her since his birth. Her slim hand clenched his. “No,” she spoke softly. Endymion could tell by the tone of her voice that her resolve wasn’t in it. For reasons beyond his understanding she felt bad, even guilty, for what she had done – for fleeing a marriage to a man she was not destined to be with. Venus would have her home for dinner without even having to lift a finger. That knowledge sobered him. He knew what was awaiting her there. The anger. The pain. More than anything, he wished he could provide her with all that she would ever need so that she could remain on Earth. Where he could protect her. But such a life wasn’t available. “There is no life for you here,” Venus spoke as if hearing his personal thoughts. “I hate to say it, but you are in as much danger here as you are on the Moon.” She waited a beat, long enough to meet eyes with Kunzite. “However, the longer we wait, the angrier your mother will become.” Serenity nodded in understanding. “Then let us leave now before I have time to think about it.” She immediately fled Endymion’s arms and walked to the door. Venus knew better than to hesitate. She telepathically nudged Kunzite so that he would escort them safely to the transporter room. He slid in behind her seamlessly. Endymion tried to get up to follow, but was knocked down by something. As Nephrite and Zoicite helped him back to his feet, he heard in his mind, [‘I am sorry, but I do not have the strength to say good-bye.’] He understood. Of course he did. He, himself, didn’t have the strength to watch her walk back into the hands of her mother. “I love you,” he whispered both out loud and in his head a few minutes later when he felt her slipping away. Jadeite, who was standing near him but facing away, placed a warm hand on his liege’s shoulder. He wished with everything inside of him that he could understand the pain that echoed in Endymion’s voice. If only so that he would know what gut-wrenching loneliness was, what true helplessness felt like, and be able to avoid it at all costs. [‘And I you,’] came the silent response. A tear dripped onto Jadeite’s forefinger. ----- [‘Please take care of her.’] The rapidly fading request reached Venus even as she started to see the Moon form around her. [‘I will do my best, prince,’] she answered back before her connection to Earth was completely severed. She sincerely hoped that her best would be enough to protect the princess. Queen Serenity was not known for being forgiving or gentle and Venus feared what she had planned for her absent daughter. ‘Gods, give her strength.’ ----- The princess wasn’t aware when the palm flashed across her cheek. The force of the slap was harsh enough to have her rocking back on her heels, though. Her body jerked and her eyes shot open as stinging pain lanced through her. “I said kneel!!” the queen screamed. The second slap was much harder, almost as hard as a punch, and dragged across her skin painfully. A large ring on the queen’s forefinger scraped a line along her flesh. Blood rushed to the surface of her face and gushed where the scrape provided release. Serenity felt like her entire jaw had realigned itself, her eyes bursting from their sockets and her bones bruising with her skin. This time, she was unable to stay standing as she stumbled. Instead, Serenity found her body dropped like dead weight straight down into a kneeling position. The stunned audience looked on with morbid fascination as their princess slowly raised her head. With her lip bleeding and her head pounding, Serenity was unable to even let out a whisper as she looked at her mother. Queen Serenity roared in outrage, “How dare you lift your head to stare at me, peasant!” She imperially pointed a finger at her chest. “Bow!” With that command, a silver streak of power flew from the queen’s hand to her daughter’s body. The bolt collided with the princess’s skin at the valley in between her breasts. It continued like a whip as it cracked down the length of her front, not tearing her clothes but leaving a long and deep welt on her skin where it touched. Defensively, Serenity’s body coiled together and her head dropped to rest on her chest. With a happy smirk and a twinkle in her eye, the queen turned to return to her place on the throne. “That is better.” The leader of the Moon continued on, mumbling things of great satisfaction to herself. She stopped when she saw her daughter stand up. “What do you think you are doing, you brat?!” Her hand itched into a fist and she had to hold herself back from jumping down the dais steps and throttling her child. Steely, blue eyes glared up at her. “Ignoring you as usual, mother. I have had enough of this punishment.” “Enough? You have only just received a taste, my dear. There is plenty more where that came from,” the queen sneered. “And there is plenty more where this comes from!” Serenity screamed as she thrust a hand towards the top of the dais. A silver streak, much like the one the queen had used just moments before, ran at her mother. Guards were immediately up in arms at the offense against their liege. Despite their best efforts, however, the power slapped against Queen Serenity. She tumbled back into her throne and screamed in pain. Serenity soon found herself surrounded by a circle of armored guards. “Take her away this instant!” The guards proceeded forward. “What will the members of court say when they find out you have imprisoned your own daughter? I am sure they would frown upon it, no matter how disobedient you tell them I am. The bad reputation would certainly not mix well with your previous foul of divorcing my father,” said a confidently grinning princess. “Do not tangle with me, Serenity,” the queen hissed in a tone that suddenly left the blonde feeling slightly unsure. “I only wish to keep you in the dungeons at night. No one must be the wiser by tomorrow’s light. I think a week, at least, of sleeping on a cell floor during the dark hours will be enough to weaken your stubborn and rebellious resolve. It should be enough to teach you not to ruin any more sanctified marriages.” Serenity’s eyes began to widen in fear. “And if you attempt to inform any authorities of what has befallen you, they will think you crazy.” Before Serenity could stop it or her friends could save her, seven guards swarmed in on her. They efficiently shackled her ankles and wrists. Her frenzied eyes met the hopeless blues of Mercury. Venus, who was standing next to the ice senshi, placed a warm arm around her waist as they watched Serenity being carted off. It took everything in them not to retaliate against the queen, but in the backs of their minds they knew they would have better luck helping their liege if they waited and planned. By acting out now, they would only find themselves thrown in the dungeons along with their friend. And that would help no one. “No one goes against this queen and wins, daughter. You had best learn that sooner rather than later.” The whispered jeer cut icily through the quieting room and straight to Serenity’s ears. Seconds later, the throne room doors had shut and she found herself being tugged unceremoniously down palace hallways. ----- It was darker underground, much darker. After a mile-long trip through the hours of sunset, she had reached the Moon’s capital prison site. Unlike the traditional castles of the nine planets, the Moon separated their dungeons from their royal dwellings as a matter of cleanliness and propriety. There were several offices and minor-offense cells placed above ground in the large building. However, the guards carrying her had not stopped on the first floor. They unlocked a door to the side that led to a very elaborate staircase. A very elaborate, very *dark* staircase. Only torches that were hung on the walls shed light into the gloom of the dungeons. A multitude of less than honorable men cat-called and leered from behind their steel bars in the catacombs of jail cells. Some interesting suggestions would have had Serenity’s entire body flush a deep crimson had the situation not been so dire. At the end of the hall, the noise started to dim. The princess noted that it was because she was reaching an expanse of empty cells. Her guards finally stopped and waited while one of them unlocked a chamber. Serenity skidded on the mangy floor of her new room when the guards threw her inside. Her gate was shut with a resounding clang. A whimper escaped her lips. The stench was foul and she could still hear perverted noises and propositions as they lingered through the dark hall. Her face and front ached like a burning fire from the assault by her mother. Now, her wrists and ankles were also aching from the cold tightness of her bindings. She shakily stood and pulled against her shackles. No matter how hard she pushed and pried, her arms and legs were securely latched. Her straining efforts only left dark bruises and raw scratches upon her skin, but no freedom. Was this really happening to her? She pondered the question and quickly decided that pinching herself would not be a good way to determine the truth. Her heart shuddered against her chest. She attempted to contact Endymion but failed. It seemed that her being underground was enough of a barrier to hinder their link. She was left with only being able to send out a slight bit of fearful and tearful emotion. His response snapped through her. Though Serenity made an effort to convey that she was all right, she was unable to lie to him. Her emotions betrayed her and sent Endymion a message of dirty horror. In response, the prince tried to hold back his worry for her and, instead, embraced her with soothing waves of comfort. He knew he was unable to do any more at that moment but ease her terror. Under his administrations, Serenity could almost forget her surroundings and find softness in the straw below her. --- The princess stirred awake one night a few days later. She was in a pair of familiar arms and being moved past familiar walls. Her body ached and she shifted slightly in the arms. A moan followed her movements. “Shh, Sere. We are almost home.” A feathery touch was placed on her forehead. “Just a few more feet. Ah,” the voice sighed and she felt herself being lowered. “Here you are.” The caress of a tender hand trailed over her bruised cheek. “Would that I could kill her for what she has done to you,” the soft voice murmured. Another presence appeared at her other side. It brought with it oils and ointments that were placed on her still ailing cheek, wrists, ankles and along the center of her front. Two or three other voices, Serenity was unable to tell precisely how many, fluttered about by the foot of her bed. She whined weakly as bandages were placed on her injured areas. In a burst of unknown strength, Serenity shoved the prodding hands away from her form. She rolled away from them and curled herself up into a protective ball. “Princess, it is okay. I am only trying to heal your wounds.” Serenity curled into a tighter ball when one of the hands reached for her again. “Serenity,” placated a third voice. More hands tried to touch her and she thrust them away from her like the others. The prodding stopped its insistence once she let out a long, painful whine. Serenity could hear the murmuring voices act up again. Then, out of the mists of her vulnerable mind came a distant articulation. [‘Bring her to me.’] End Chapter 14 -------------- Cliffhanger! Who is calling for Serenity? I'll give you one guess! :) Please send ANY comments to me, Sereko. My e-mail is: sereko13@yahoo.com Copyright © 2004 by Sereko