Nobody Wins
Started here:
I Don't Wanna Wait
Continued from:
Secret
Jadeite
No matter how bad the battle around him raged, he never gave up home. Monsters, creatures of nightmares, surrounded them, but all fought bravely for their cause. Even as the man next to him fell from an attack so violent that Jadeite internally gagged in disgust, he kept hope. It had been so long since he had been allowed to cut free and not have to hold back or follow war etiquette. Instead he threw himself in wholly, slicing and stabbing at all those unfortunate enough to find themselves in front of his sword. Man and monster alike fell before him, and he would not let himself be stopped, not with so much depending on this battle.
When his brother fell, that was when his hope died with him. Zoicite crumpled under a devastating blow to the head, blood staining his once golden locks a deep maroon. Jadeite could not go to him, could not help him, he was trapped under his own assault, left powerless to do little more than watch as the talons of the creature above him slashed across the other man's back, uniform shredding to reveal layers of muscle and bone. The creature shrieked in triumph, it's disgusting head raised to expose rows of jagged teeth dripping with saliva tinted a shade of brown.
Jadeite took no more than a second to decide that he would avenge the death of his brother. He grabbed his short sword from where it hung at his waist and threw the blade across the short distance separating them, into the eye of the creature. It fell to the ground, this time shrieks of pain emitting from lips stained with black blood seeping from the eye wound. It writhed in agony on the ground, talons swinging wildly.
A smile graced his lips watching the creature run through by one of the Venusian soldiers, the creature silenced by death. Avenging Zoicite's death gave Jadeite the satisfaction to know that he could now allow himself the option of death as he succumbed to his own wounds incurred during the course of the battle.
Nephrite
If his life was to be cut short, then a soldier's death fighting in the name of Endymion and his kingdom was the only option he would allow. He hadn't expected to find himself fighting for his life, he hadn't expected such anger and animosity from the townspeople. Initially he didn't know what had changed in the small town, everyone appeared as normal. It was in those last final moments, when he took his last breath, that he saw the strange people, cloaked in dark capes that he knew what was different about them. Their skin was too pale, like they had never seen daylight. Eyes the color of red, fingers elongated unnaturally, ending in fingernails sharpened to points. Light glinted off of the chest of one of these people as their cloak slid to the side to reveal what was underneath - a stone the color of beryl. He had seen these before worn by people in the kingdom, but it wasn't until the witch stood before him that he understood what it was symbolic of.
His body laid in a heap on the dirty road, small bits of debris clotting against the blood that flowed from fatal wounds. The townspeople had continued on, leaving him for dead, all marching towards the city proper under the hate filled words of the cloaked people. His eyes closed, as he tried to find the strength to pull himself up, but he could not. When next he opened his eyes, a brunette woman stood before him, her hand outstretched as she kneeled besides him.
"Come, Nephrite," she said, "I will take you from here."
"Jupiter?" he croaked, a cough rattling through his parched throat. "How are you here?"
"I'm here to help you. Let me save you."
"Your princess cannot find out about us, you can't be here." Another cough racked his body, a new wave of pain surging through him.
The senshi's hand grabbed his, squeezing his fingers as he responded to her touch. She leaned forward, her elbows resting on the ground as her nose sat meer inches from his own, his eyes closing as small bits of dust shifted under her weight and blew towards him. "It's too late to worry about those things. You're already dead."
Nephrite's eyes opened wide and he tried to find the strength to pull his hand away but could not. No longer was the senshi of Jupiter in front of him, but the woman he had always known as Kunzite's sage. Her eyes were filled with malice, the pupils reflecting shades of red. Her wild hair curled around her face as she stared at him. His eyes cast down to the beryl stone amulet at her chest and it was then that he knew how this battle was lost. It was one of Earth's own that lead the rebellion, spurring the hated of the people of the moon. Dark spots began to flood his vision, his fingers going slack against her grip. He took one last gasp for air, feeling the fingers of death reaching for him.
Zoicite
Every night he awoke to the same nightmare, sweat beading his forehead and coating his skin as a voice foreign to him escaped his lips. He died - again and again and again. Over and over, it never stopped. Even awake the visions seared his eyes and the pain ripped through his body. Layers of skin, sliced apart by the talons of some hellhound creature not known to the once peaceful Earth. His insides burned as if poison still ran through him.
Death had tried to claim him. Darkness enveloped him. Peace surrounded him. He had died at the side of his fellow brother, fighting for his kingdom and his prince - a soldier's death.
The woman had brought him back. She pulled his soul back to his body, air to his lungs. But she had been too late.
He belonged in the ground.
Endymion had come to him despite the danger that threatened both of them. Zoicite had tried to warn him away. He didn't fully understand what power animated his body, but he felt the darkness that filled him, driving him. Adonis lurked around every corner, always listening to every word spoken. Zoicite knew that Adonis was waiting for him to surrender and it was only after speaking with Endymion that he knew his soul was clean and that he could finally stop fighting.
"You should not return here. Go back to Elysian and have the priest pray for us," Zoicite had said in bitter parting, fighting for the last remnants of what was left of himself, hoping that Endymion would understand his hidden warning of the danger he faced for being out here in these woods.
Endymion looked around cautiously and gestured for Zoicite to come closer. "I have just returned from Elysian, Zoicite. Helios told me of your death. Of what you have become. There is nothing that can be done for your body in this life; the dark witch has claimed it. But she does not have you. I release you and I will always forgive you. Do not suffer for me any further."
"You are alone without me. I am the last."
"I know. But you have already given your life for me, I cannot rightly ask you for anything more. Go in peace, Zoicite."
It was then that Zoicite gave himself to the darkness.
Kunzite
Kunzite stood in the darkened area, a circle of illumination surrounding him, casting the trees in his peripheral vision into shadows. He rested on one knee, his sword blade pressed into the soft dirt as he held tightly to the hilt. The images that assaulted him were always different, pulled from his nightmares and brought to life. His sage promised to break him, to make him fight for her, but he would not give into her. Each time she threw something at him, his body would be battered and left at the brink of death. She would always bring him back. He no longer knew the difference between what was reality and what was imagination.
This though, was different.
The air around him moved and did not reek of stagnant water and for the first time in days, he felt warmth around him rather than bitter cold that seeped into his bones. It scared him most of all that he might actually be back on the surface of his planet. That meant that his brothers emerging from the shadows of the trees were more likely real than another torturous trick. She would finally break his resistance. He could not fight his brothers - nor could he imagine taking their lives to protect his own.
"Excruciating, isn't it?" Jadeite asked, his lips pulled into a bitter smile.
Zoicite stepped forward, his eyes turned down to his right hand where he flicked at dirt underneath his fingernails using a small blade in his left hand. "Excruciating? I would say not yet."
Jadeite laughed - the sound callous and empty. "Coming from my poor brother who ripped his own soul from his body, I can see how you might think otherwise.
"Our fearless leader can surely take more than what he has been given," Nephrite interjected, his arms crossed at his chest. "After all, is he not the man who said we should be prepared for anything and everything? I can't imagine that he has seen everything yet. It has only been a couple of days."
"A couple of days, 48 hours, 2,880 minutes. Depends on whether one is feeling optimistic or pessimistic I suppose." Zoicite looked at his right hand before turning his attention to his left hand, the small blade making a dangerous jump between hands.
"I do recall," Jadeite drawled, "that on more than one occasion we played at war for 3 days straight with no break. I'm willing to bet that he will make it four days before he breaks."
Nephrite snorted. "Endymion's head severed from his body will be the only thing that breaks him."
"Perhaps it's the Venusian girl's death. I once heard that they had a secret rendezvous." Jadeite said, lifting his eyebrows suggestively.
"And they say that I have an ear for gossip," Zoicite muttered.
Kunzite kept his head down, refusing to look at the men. Their banter paralyzed him. He didn't want to believe that they were really here. It would make it too hard when he was forced to fight them. This is how she would break him. Madelyn - Beryl - the red witch.
"I realize that you were only trained to rise when a lady enters the room," Jadeite said - Nehprite snickering crudely at the innuendo, "but it is rude to ignore us when you know that we are all waiting for you."
"You are all dead," Kunzite responded, his hands tightening around the hilt of his sword. "She has killed all of you. I know because she has played it over and over and over again for me to watch. You can't be here if you're dead."
"Dead is a only state of being," Zoicite said.
Kunzite took a deep breath and rose to his feet, the sword held by both hands, the tip still dug into the soft ground. The men around him were now strangers to him. Jadeite stood posed casually, a look of malice gracing his features. Even Zoicite who normally wore a neutral expression had a darkness to him - Kunzite could not help but to watch as Zoicite continued to play with the small blade in his hand. Nephrite's battle axe was strapped to his back - either a relic of his reincarnation or intentional in its placement. While Nephrite would attack him outright if he chose to, Zoicite was just as likely to put a blade in his back while it was turned. All of the men were dangerous in their own right - Jadeite was always the one he watched for as they both trained and fought together. He could be cruel when faced with a simple opponent - Kunzite feared what the other man was thinking now that he believed he was faced with a traitor. Were they here to convince him to bend his will? Or were they here to fight the submission out of him?
"She will have you," Zoicite said.
"And you are here to make that happen?" Kunzite asked.
Nephrite stepped forward, further into the light. "You insist on making these distinctions between here and there, right and wrong. It's all the same in the end, Kunzite. We have all prepared our whole lives for this battle and it will happen, the stars foretold this long before our vows were ever spoken. It all goes back to our first incarnations and their oath to a throne. Perhaps you don't see it as you should. Our oath was to protect this throne - not the one of the moon or even our sister planet. Don't confuse our intentions."
"Our oath is to our prince."
Zoicite laughed. "Our oath is to the planet. Turns out that whoever sits on that throne is irrelevant to our cause."
"You can't fight for that witch," Kunzite said, his jaw clenched tight.
"Well," Nephrite urged him to continue in his taunting voice. "Convince them."
"I can't convince them."
"You can convince anyone of anything if you really want to. Try."
"It's too late for all of you."
"Then you plan to fight?" Jadeite asked with feigned innocence, not bothering to hide the malice in his voice. "You've been a brother to me, I'd hate for it to end like this now." It was obvious that despite Jadeite's words he had already decided on how to deliver the first blow.
Kunzite knew that he could take down Zoicite with a quick lunge to his left, but he didn't want to. Not when he'd be forced to take out Nephrite next. Nephrite fought with brute strength when he didn't have his two deadly axe blades handy to make quick work of an enemy. Kunzite swallowed against the thought, his throat raw from being so parched. This was not an enemy - these were his brothers.
"You've fallen prey to the white witch," a new voice said from deep within the shadows, echoes of footsteps closing the distance between them. "She has taken your prince from you and now she uses that whore to fool you into betraying everyone that depends on you for their lives." The figure emerged into the clearing, his golden features illuminated by the heavenly moonlight shining from above.
Kunzite could feel his teeth grinding together in anger. "She is your princess."
"My princess has long since forgotten who she serves. She has already forsaken her kingdom and made this decision. She whores herself for the enjoyment of a savage barbarian." Jadeite could be heard snickering unabashedly in the background. Adonis withdrew a card from his sleeve and threw it to the ground so that it landed face up at Kunzite's feet. It was the Ace of Hearts. "Your love fortune."
"Her fate is to continue fighting so that she will never have to choose between love and duty. I am just another man and I have no right to stand in the way of that."
"Attempting to be chivalrous now won't undo what has already been put in motion. You have the chance now to put everything back as it should be. Will you instead choose to forsake your planet? Will you allow those that love you to be taken over by those that watch over us from above and wish to use their magic to control us?"
Kunzite's eyes shifted from the newest arrival to glance around at the men he considered to be his brothers. Their eyes were bright with danger, arms shifted into positions of feigned nonchalance so that the tips of their fingers could reach weapons sheathed and hidden away in the folds of their uniforms. These men were each dangerous in their own right and the image would have frightened anyone.
Kunzite lifted his sword from where it had been pointed to the ground with a slow precision, the tip now pointed in Adonis's direction. "You have fallen prey to the dark witch, Adonis," he responded gruffly, repeating his earlier words. "She has taken the last shreds of your humanity - forced you into making a promise of allegiance to her that she will never allow you release from. You do your planet and your people a great dishonor."
Adonis took a step closer in Kunzite's direction. "You still wish to fight to defend the man that has left you behind while he fled to the moon? The one who sent you to your death? He knew, as did these three," he gestured to the surrounding shitennou, "that it was you who ran this kingdom, you who had earned the respect of the alliance. Now it will be you that helps to rule the alliance with Earth being at the center as it should have always been."
The tall soldier dropped his eyes to the ground, his head slightly bowed as if in silent prayer. Adonis took another step, reveling in the visible defeat of the strongest shitennou. "Well? What will it be?" His teeth shone ominously like a wolf's. "Kunzite." He spoke the other man's name in a mocking tone.
For the briefest of moments, Kunzite stopped his mind and drew upon his memories realizing that this was the first time the Venusian soldier had ever addressed him by his name. In all conversations, he had been addressed by many titles, but never by his name. It was then that he realized how much the man had changed from who he once was to whom he had now become. Adonis was no longer the soldier who desired to become more than who he was. Now he was something stronger and more powerful and the subtle change in how they addressed each other told Kunzite that the dark witch had given him everything that he thought he ever wanted. It was then that Kunzite knew he could not win this fight.
Kunzite brought the blade towards his body, the flat end resting against his chest, the feel of the heavy metal pushed against his skin as he took a last deep breath. "I think it's obvious what my choice must be," he finally said, his deep voice breaking the silence. He threw the sword to the ground, dim light reflecting off of the shining surface. All eyes turned towards the blade as it slid across the dirt, landing at Adonis's feet. In the same breath, Kunzite withdrew the short sword from his right hip and turned it on himself, plunging the sharp end through his own chest.
Continued in The Reliable Witness - Epilogue