Chapter 12 Shadowed Past "You what!?" Adonis exclaimed. "I--I killed them," Zukamori sobbed unconctrolibly. Though she spoke as if to answer him, she couldn't hear him. "I killed everyone....everyone..." ---------- "....the battle continued, as if it wouldn't stop," MCC voice spoke as it's screen displayed the battle on the Moon. "Amist the carnage, young Zukamori raced towards the balcony you yourself, your highness, had stood upon many a night." "Yes, I remember," Serneity remarked, slightly irratated by the fact that the computer seemed to be stalling by using more words than it should have. "Reaching the balcony, she saw yourself and Prince Edymion in the air, right after Beryal had attacked you both." Serenity growled to herself. "Might I remind you that MCC can read thoughts," Kyoko said, her eyes still on the screen. "I know no harm was indended," MCC replied. "Upon seeing your body, Zukamori screamed your name in terror. What followed is the reason she believes she should be killed." ---------- The Seal was broken. Years and years of work and thinking smashed to nothing in mere seconds. Now they would be ready for what he planned. he thought angerily as he left the world, entering into the other dimension. He easily passed into the Gates of Time. He simled wickedly as he saw different futures played out before him. He made sure only to search for ones where he would be victorious. Though each battle started out as if he would be the winner, he lost not only the battle but his life as well. Then, he noticed something. Every time he was defeated, the same person's actions lead to it. He replayed all the battles he had seen. Yes, he was right. Only one person was the cause of his death. he thought. ---------- "I killed them. All of them." Zukamori was any better. In fact she was getting worse. She kept repeating the same words over and over. Insanity was taking over her. "Zukamori," Adonis said, sitting on the floor beside her. She was hunched over, her arms hugged herself, still sobbing uncontroibly. "Zukamori," he said again, tyring to get her to look at him. "Zukamori. Zukamori. Answer me." "Zukamori isn't here." Her voice had no emotion. "Zukamori is dead. She's dead. As she should have been long ago." "That is not true!" Adonis countered, grabbing her shoulders, shaking her slightly. "You don't deserve to die!" "Do I?" She raised her head slowly. "Do I deserve to die or not? You don't even know *why* I killed them and you still say I shouldn't die." She removed his hands from her shoulders and stood up. She walked a ways away from him to the wall. She leaned on the wall for support as she said, "You've never killed anyone, have you, Adonis? Much less a whole planet and its kingdom." She turned her head towards him. "And you'd never kill anyone without a good enough reason to." She looked away from him, not being able to look in the eye without crying again. "You're nothing like me. You don't know how I killed them, or why I killed them, so how can you say that I don't deserve to die? I'm no different than the crazies we're trying to fight now. I'm pathetic as a Sailor Senshi and a human. I'm worthless....I'm nothing." "Stop saying that." Adonis stood and made his way to her soundlessly and slowly. "You're not worthless, Zukamori," he instited. "You're not." "I said it before, and I'll say it again, 'I'm nothing'. I failed in my duties as a Senshi back then and...it cause the downfall of the most powerful kingdom then. I failed. I'm a failure in any way you look at it." "And as *I* said before," Adonis said, placing his hands on her shoulders again, turning her around to face him. He wiped the remainder of her tears off her face with gentle fingers as he finished his sentence, "you're not worthless, Zukamori. And you're not nothing. You mean a lot to me, Zukamori." He drew her into his arms. Zukamori stiffened at his sudden embrace. She had never been held in a man's arms before. She was slightly scared and confused at why Adonis was doing this. "Let me go!" she said, pushing against his chest with her arms, trying to losen his hold on her. "Let me go, Adonis!" Instead of heeding her words, he held her tighter against him. "No," he whispered into her ear. "I'm not going to let you go." His words made her stop pushing against him. Once she was still, Zukamori relaized that she liked being in Adonis' arms. She felt safe there, like she had never been before. Now she found herself clinging to him, as if he was her lifeline. she told herself. She took an unsteady breath, taking to calm herself down, before saying, "Adonis?" "Yeah?" "I--I need to talk about....back then. I need to tell someone or I'll...." she couldn't finish. "I understand." ---------- ".....The rest, you already know," MCC finished. The group in front of the computer looked slightly shaken up a bit at what they had just seen. It was a few seconds before Kyoko spoke. "Remember, we will not speak of this again. Especially not to Zukamori." Nodds were the only response she received. ---------- "First I guess I have to explain what my duties were," Zukamori started. Both of them were sitting down, leaning against the wall beside the two double doors. "My name means 'Guardian of the Burial Mount'," she continued, her eyes fixed on her opened palms lying in her lap. "I don't know what the signifacance of it was, but my family guarded a place in the Moon Palace. I took over the job after my mother died, which was when I was born. No one knew what exactly happened to her, because they couldn't find her body after her death. No one talked about it much. As I grew, though, I noticed that people in the Palace would never get near me except for Sere-chan, the Senshi, and Queen Serenity. It was because my mom was labled as a barbarian, or so I thought." She paused as she leaned her head back and looked at the ceiling. "Turns out I was that one they were calling a barbarian. I was only five when I remembered the first incedent. The only thing that I can recall was that on the floor in front of me was managled corpse of one of the Palace Guards. At the time I thought it was someone from the enemy, because it was about that time that Earth began its attack on other planets. But I was the one who killed him. That was when Queen Serenity told me that I was a Sailor Senshi. Sailor Orion, Senshi of the Past. I had killed the guard because I had heard him and another talk about joining Nemisess. They said that when they did they would kill the Senshi, slowly and painfully, and make the Queen watch as Nemisess then killed Sere-chan. That made be angery because they were my only friends. "I found out how I killed him by hacking into MCC--the Moon's Centeral Computer. Surprisingly, it let me hack into its files and pull up the servalince on the scene. I had over heard him and the other one from a hiding place behind a pillar. I had started to run away, afraid of their words and plus I wanted to warn the Queen. My arm hit a stand. The flower pot that was on it fell and crashed to the ground, drawing their attention to me. Being only five, I was scared, frozen in my place. One grabbed me, saying I was going to reget the day I was born.....and after that, all I remember was white--blotted out. MCC showed me that the white I saw was a light that surronded me. The guard that was holding onto me was vaporated instantly. The other wasn't so lucky. He was burned for serveral seconds, in the process his body took the appearence of being mauled as if he had been in a bad fight." Zukamori closed her eyes as the faint screams of the man echoed in her mind. The image of his corpse still fresh as the day she saw it. "I found out in my conversation with Queen Serenity," she continued slowly, "that my power had been dorment in me since I was born. She said that when I was two, I had accidently injured a servant. The servant wasn't all that thrilled about taking care of a two-year-old so she ignored me mostly. I wouldn't stop crying though. She was fed up with it, so she slapped me. Being only two, I got mad at her and ended up doing the same thing to her that I did to the guard later, except she still lived." She looked over at Adonis. "It was then that I slowly began to devolope my powers. Every time I felt threatened or scared or angery at someone, the same would happen. But when I kill the two guards, I thought I was going to die. And I remember thinking in the back of my mind, 'If I die, then who will tell Sere- chan about these two? Who will help her?' I wasn't scared for myself. I was scared for my only friends. That increased the power I released on the two. Serenity said my powers were based on my feelings. The stronger the emotion, the deadlier the outcome." "How did that effect you killing everyone?" Adonis, said carefully. Zukamori's gaze went back to her hands as she said, "When I saw Sere- chan's body, I was fill with one thought: I couldn't help her. I somehow felt gulity about her death, because I was never able to repay her for being my friend. My grief, though, was over come by hate and malice. Once again, my power expanded around me like it had before. This time it covered the entire battlefeild, killing off everyone that was left alive, which included the Senshi. And I realized that Sere-chan wasn't dead, just unconcious. I killed her too. Queen Serenity survived with mimor injuries. But in doing so, something else happened. "The place my family had guarded for so long was destroied and someone was released into the world." "Who?" Zukamori closed her eyes and shook her head. ---------- "Back already?" Nemisess appeared from the portal. "Yes, Master," he said to the person in the room with respect. "I was just checking on how to win this battle." "Oh really?" the person said wit a slight hint of ignorance. "Yes, Master," Nemisess said again. "To ensure victory, we must kill one of the Senshi." "Just one?" the person said. "The others could live?" "Ah, no, Master," Nemisess added quickly. "They can be killed, but if this one survies, then we will be finished." "All right. Which one's death is nessicary? Mercury? Jupiter? Pluto? Uranus? The Queen?" "No, my liege. It's one of the Lost Senshi." "Oh?" the person said with a smirk. "That will fun. Which one shall it be?" ---------- "In a nutshell: I'm the reason all this is happening and I'm to blame for destroying the Moon Kingdom," Zukamori finished. "As I said, I'm pathectic as a Senshi. I couldn't even...." she trailed off. Adonis looked at her mournful face. "Come here," he said, taking her hand and pulling her up with him. He walked over to the white door before them. He reached out and touched the angel he had been studying before. "Do you know who this angel reminds me of?" She shook her head. "You." He smiled at her surprised and confused expression. "Zukamori, you may be responsible for destroying the Moon Kingdom long ago, you may know more than you're telling me about our enemy, but you are an angel, no matter what you think." Zukamori's face grew red at his words. "Look around you Zukamori." Adonis motioned around them. "The Kingdom that you knew doesn't exist. But this one does. Possiblely, that Moon Kingdom was destioned to be destroied, so this one could be built. To others, it would seem as though you're one of these creatures," he looked towards the black door at the bat winged creatures on it, "but to me, and to Queen Serenity, you're an angel." Slowly, he reached up and touched her cheek, afraid she would draw back. Instead of moving away from his touch, Zukamori let him. His words made her rethink about what she had done in the past. she thought, Zukamori smiled at Adonis. Then, to his suprise, she threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you, Adonis!" she exclaimed, hugging him tighter. Adonis shook off his surprise, then returned the hug. ---------- Kyoko raised her head. "They're back." Serenity turned and looked towards the entrance. There stood Zukamori with Adonis behind her. "Oh! Zukamori!" Serenity said rushing towards her. "Are you all right?" Zukamori nodded, though her face was slightly emotionless. "I'm fine now. But we have to prepare for the battle in less than two months." ---------- NEXT: Battle plans and training begin as the Senshi prepare for the battle against Nemisess. But who is Nemisess' master? Is he stronger? Which of the Lost Senshi are they planning to kill? Next time: Planning ---------- Hello! Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I've been having trouble with my website and that pretty much took up most of my time. By the way, if any of you know how to set up a fic on the web, PLEASE e-mail and help! -Anaconda-