Dream, Dream, Dream
This is for sugarcross who has been my hero this past week!
“Kunzite….”
The soft whisper broke through his sleeping haze, almost enough to pull him from his state of rest.
“Kunzite….”
The whisper came again. It was as if she laughed while beckoning to him.
“My Kunzite,” she purred.
His eyes fluttered as if trying to open.
“Now is not the time for sleep,” she continued in her laughing tone. “We should go.”
A light weight fell on his chest, fragrant perfume alerting his near waking senses. For a moment his breath caught and he felt as if he were suffocating from the nearly weightless pressure being placed upon him. Then the weight lifted and his eyes jerked open.
The room was pitch black, even the shadows absorbed by the encompassing darkness. As he rose from his bed his senses became dulled as if in a never ending void. He had no fear of walking into walls - instinctively he knew that they no longer mattered.
Kunzite followed after the sweet scented perfume, his nose being the only sense he felt he could factually rely on. Bare feet padded down unknown darkened corridors, the sound echoing faintly against unseen walls. From the corner of his eye he could see a glimpse of pink and he pursued after with blind eyes. The object always remained just out of range, always just out of his line of vision, sometimes appearing to his left and others to his right. He knew that he was going in circles despite his inability to properly orient himself.
In the distance he could hear the faint sound of laughter. Deep and rich. His mind told him that he knew the source, but in his sleepy haze the answer eluded him. Always following, always searching, perhaps only being driven by madness, he continued on.
“Where are we going?” Kunzite finally asked. The response came in the form of a blinding light - gold tainted with silver. The brilliance left him even more blinded despite his mind’s ability to grasp how that could be so. Within fractions of a second the light cleared and he felt as if his body was being pulled forward at an inhuman speed. Faster than sound and light for he had moved beyond the range of both. Nausea quickly overwhelmed him even as his thoughts reminded him that his physical body had not moved past his last step.
Then at once it stopped and the feeling subsided. He blinked away tears from his eyes formed by the sensation of wind blowing harshly in his face. When his vision cleared the sight in front of him brought him to his knees. Water brushed against the sandy shoreline attempting to reach where his body connected with the ground. It would be warm and comforting when it finally did he knew. As his eyes travelled forward he saw a lone figure standing in a boat several feet off of the beach.
“You’ve come some far, Kunzite. Only one more step separates us.” The voice was familiar and he felt overwhelmed by the flood of memories rushing at him. One step forward, his mind begged. Just one small step, the silent voice in his head echoed.
“Where are we?” Kunzite asked of the golden senshi.
Sailor Venus laughed, her voice cheerful despite the look of seriousness spread across her features. “We are at neither the beginning nor end. The alpha and the omega. It is the birthplace of all life where we live yet not exist.”
“Have I not given enough for you?” he demanded, his voice cracking as he struggled to speak to the goddess before him. “What more can I give?”
“One more step, my love,” she beckoned to him. “I will ask you for no more.” Her hand waved in a light sweeping motion towards the dark water. Gentle waves from an unseen source rocked the boat yet she stood still and upright as if on solid ground.
Kunzite leaned forward on his knees and looked down into the water noticing for the first time the absence of his reflection. Stars decorated the water’s surface despite the empty vastness above them. “What lies ahead of me?”
“Nothing.”
He pondered her answer, his mind working to shake off the haze clouding his thoughts. Could he cross the water to reach her? Would it be so simple to leave behind his mortal body to be able to return to her side? To make amends for her sacrifice? Shaking fingers reached forward and hovered over the water’s surface, the wave nearly brushing against his skin. “Because there will be nothing left,” he finally answered, returning his eyes to the ethereal beauty of her face. The river of oblivion seemed to answer as ripples ran across the surface making it appear as if it were alive.
Sailor Venus crossed her arms over her chest in a motion so fluid that the body of water surely would have been made jealous. “Does it matter anymore? Have you not given up already?” The frown on her face faded into a smooth line. “One more step, Kunzite.”
Kunzite rose to his feet, hypnotized by her. A sad smile crept over his lips as his body teetered between taking the step and remaining in place. One more step.
“It is a large step to take,” a new voice broke into his dream, shattering the illusion before him. The golden goddess dispersed into an infinite amount of golden specks and he could feel his body being yanked backwards in that same sickening motion that shattered his senses. When his eyes were jerked open against his will he dropped down to one knee, his fingers splayed as he sought to find balance on the even ground. His breath came out ragged as his mind reoriented itself, trying to piece together reality from fantasy. When he finally looked up he found himself peering into a pair of serene blue eyes that sought to comfort him with their deep orbs.
“Was it real?” he asked her in a quiet plea.
Neo-Queen Serenity reached forward and took Kunzite’s hands into her own. “The mind believes what it will.”
“Am I crazy?” he asked her, ignoring the obvious answer implied by his own question.
“No,” she answered, her voice serene as she squeezed his fingers in her small palms.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be here - myself and the other Shitennou - we were never meant to reawaken. How can you forgive us when we have caused you such a loss? Send us back, reclaim your senshi, put things right again.” Serenity opened her mouth to protest but Kunzite did not allow her to continue. “We are the living dead. We have no souls - that’s how we survived the attack of the Soul Seekers. We had no soul for them to steal. If we had than surely we would have fallen just like all those others of Crystal Tokyo during the war.”
“You’re wrong,” she responded, her voice tainted with anger. “Your souls were too strong to be reaped, that’s why you were immune to their attack. Why must you equate that lost part of you with death? Do you think that I do not mourn their loss? That I don’t notice the Silver Crystal glows with less brilliance because of their absence?”
“Then you should be fighting as I am to restore them,” he said, his voice firm as he shook his hands free of hers to wrap his long fingers around her shoulders. “Why do you accept what you have the power to change? Your crystal was born to give life!”
“I have tried!” she screamed in response. “Every night I have prayed for them. I have begged Pluto for resolution - for answers - but she gives me nothing. What would you have me do?!”
“Serenity,” Zoicite said, quickly approaching the couple in the open courtyard.
She glanced over her shoulder to see the blonde haired Shitennou standing at the entryway to the courtyard, his hands balled into fists at his side. “Zoicite, please give me a minute more -.”
“No,” Kunzite said firmly, releasing his hold on the silver haired goddess as he rose to his feet. “I’ve said more than I should. Good night, my Queen.” He bowed his head and spun on his heel, heading back towards the palace. He spared no parting glance to Zoicite, nor would he allow himself to stop even though he had clearly seen the injured look in the queen’s eyes. It was too late now.
Brisk steps carried him through empty corridors, back towards his bedroom where he would find solace from prying eyes filled with anger and pity and other emotions that he didn’t wish to face. How far he had fallen from who he once was and knowing this only inflicted further self hatred.
“Kunzite,” a young girl’s voice called out to him, halting him from his progress. As he turned his eyes up from where they had been intently looking towards the floor, he brought his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes with the balls of his palms. “Not tonight, Cere. I owe you an apology but I can’t do this with you tonight.”
“That’s a shame,” CereCere murmured in response. “Because tonight it would have been worthwhile for you.” Kunzite dropped his hands from his face to look at the girl who would be undoubtedly leaning against his bedroom door having been waiting for his return. Instead of a young girl, he saw a young woman clad in pink senshi uniform. Tendrils of pink hair secured by tight bands hung around her tall body, a smile placed on the now more mature face. She winked at his surprised look and blew him a kiss before turning away from him to continue down the hallway, her hands clasped behind her back as she took slow and deliberate steps until her body was swallowed by the shadows at the end of the hall.
Kunzite continued to watch her, not sure if perhaps he had maybe dreamed this encounter as he had the previous one, but his mind was entirely too clear for it to have not been real. How was it that she now stood in the body of a woman instead of that of a child as she had before? His hand moved to reach for the doorknob of his room and then he paused, thousands of thoughts suddenly pouring through his mind but only one being of any true consequence.
The Princess.