Dream World Epilogue
A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com]
September, 1996
Mina was dejectedly rocking in one of the swings on the playground. It was far too low for her, and she could never have actually swung in it, which was fine, because all she wanted to do was move it back and forth a little. The tiny squeak coming from it was one of the many things that went completely unnoticed by her.
"I know that look," Artemis said, sitting in front of her. He didn't have to explain what the look meant for her to believe him. Artemis had been with her so long he could tell just from facial expressions almost exactly what was on her mind. Almost. But he certainly knew when she was troubled.
Mina sighed. "Artemis... Why do you think I haven't been attacked by the daemons yet?"
Artemis' eyes bugged a little in surprise. Whatever he had thought she might have been pondering, that wasn't it. Mina didn't notice his expression; she was looking at the ground. "I mean, everyone else has had their heart crystals taken except me..."
Earlier that day, she had sat and listened as the four other girls went on about how much it had hurt when their heart crystals were taken, and in her own strange fashion, Mina could only see it as a privilege, a verification of having a heart worthy of being taken in the first place.
Artemis thought about it. He himself couldn't understand why Mina hadn't been chosen as a target. Her heart was just as pure as those of the other Sailor Scouts. `Could it have something to do with what Sylvite had done to her?' he wondered.
Mina watched the trails that her feet made as she slid them over the ground. `If it is pure, why haven't they noticed?' she asked herself.
"Something wrong?" Brian asked, from behind, somewhat breaking her depressing chain of thoughts.
`Speak of the devil...' Artemis said, but only to himself.
Mina turned to face Brian with a half-smile. One of the things she liked best about him was that she felt she could tell or ask him anything. "Have you ever wondered about your heart?"
He seemed confused. "My heart?"
"You know, how pure it is?"
"Well... I'm not really sure I understand what you're talking about, but I've never had to think much about my heart, because I know it's not pure at all."
Artemis gaped, and Mina gave Brian a look that combined shock with fear.
"Gotcha," Brian said, laughing to break the tension. After a moment, Mina joined in the laughter, while Artemis just twitched a little.
Brian sighed to himself. It was the closest he'd come to telling Mina the truth since he'd promised to do so, and yet, one look like that from her, and he just couldn't do it. He couldn't hurt her like that. But there had to be a way...
He took his mind off the subject. "Want to go get something to eat?"
Mina thought about it, but shook her head. "Another time, definitely. I've just got too much on my mind right now."
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.
Mina smiled. "Trust me, I'm fine."
The next week was much the same as any other, in that Mina was acting strange, but even so, she was acting strange in a different way than the others were used to--she had tried to fish dolls from the crane game and give them away; she had spent time reading books on purity and spirit; and she had given blood each of the past few days. It was beginning to seriously worry all of them.
"Sure you don't want to come along too?" she asked Brian.
"No way," Brian said. "Like I told you, I can't stand needles..." He had as yet been unable to figure out just why she was trying to draw the attention of those who were were taking heart crystals. She was putting on such a show, it was only a matter of time before someone took notice.
They heard something behind them, and the two turned to watch Serena run up with a bag, which she gave to Mina when she was close enough. Mina looked into the bag, smiled and pulled out one of the bottles. "Sailor V vitamin drinks."
Serena managed to catch her breath. "Amy says it's bad for you to be giving blood every day... But if you insist on doing it you need to make sure you don't get sick or something, you know?"
"Thanks, Serena." Mina opened up one of the bottles and proceeded to guzzle it down. It really didn't taste that bad. "Right," she said, overplaying the dramatic tone in her voice, "Now with the power of Sailor V, I'm off again!"
The three, including Brian, laughed at the irony of it. As he was laughing, however, he saw something across the street. It was an odd looking car, but what caught his eye was the woman driving. Brian had seen her before, and he definitely tended to remember people like her. Her name was Eudial, and she, among others, was after the three talismans.
Eudial pulled up away from them. Without hesitation, or apparently even being aware that Brian saw her, she pulled out a silly looking gun, pointed at Mina, and fired. It was the moment that Brian and the Sailor Scouts had been expecting.
Serena had seen Eudial at the last instant, but the thoughts hadn't even registered by the time Brian shoved Mina aside and threw out his arms to make an invisible forcefield in front of himself. However, the beam from the gun inexplicably went through the forcefield as if it didn't exist, and penetrated right into Brian's chest. With a sickeningly cold stabbing pain, he felt his own heart crystal pop out and onto the ground. He collapsed in a wracking pain.
But the worst was yet to come. Along with his heart crystal went all the powers he had at his disposal--including the ability to disguise himself as the boy, Brian. The illusion was shattered, leaving in its place Sylvite, in his full Negaverse uniform.
While Mina tried to reason through what had just occurred, Serena ran toward Eudial, who was disappointed in having missed her target, and further disappointed that the person she had hit didn't even have a pure heart: one glimpse at the crystal told her that.
Sylvite had seen it too. The crystal he was reaching for looked much like the others they had seen as far as shape was concerned, but its bright red color was marred by sickening black flecks.
Eudial drove, wondering how she was going to explain this. Serena, almost halfway across the street, turned around and went back to Mina and Sylvite, both in shock, one mentally and the other physically. Grabbing the heart crystal and pressing it to Sylvite's chest, Serena was relieved to see that it went back in. She noticed him recover slightly just before he passed out.
Mina stood there and stared at him, suddenly awash in memories that had been pushed down somewhere deep inside. Her eyes were unfocused, and her mouth was making slight motions, but there was no sound. All she was aware of was that for the last three months she had been living a lie.
------------------
Even after all of their urging, Amy, Rei and Lita were hard-pressed to keep Serena from backing out of going to see Mina, but fortunately, they were prepared for her resistance. In her typical fashion, Serena felt responsible for what Mina was going through right now.
What they weren't ready for was Mina's reaction to their visit. She opened the door, and, as though resigned to something she couldn't avoid, let them in. She said nothing.
Ironically, Serena, now face to face with Mina, was the first to speak up. "Mina..." she began, and found herself helplessly at a loss for words. When Darian had been taken from Serena, and turned into someone unbelievably cruel and uncaring toward her, it wasn't Ami, Rei or Lita who came to comfort her. It was Mina, and that was something that Serena had never forgotten. But this was different. Serena had helped to cover all this up and hurt Mina, and she wondered once again if she even had a right to be there.
"How could you?" Mina asked, to none of them in particular. Her voice wasn't filled with anger, or even a sad disappointment, but merely a confusion at how her friends would ever do such a thing. "You didn't even tell me who he really was..." She turned away, failing completely in her attempt to hide that she was crying.
"I'm sorry, Mina," Serena said, now in tears herself. "It's my fault..."
"It's all out faults," Lita said, sadly. She had wanted what was best, but none of them had expected it to turn out like this. "We all kept it from you."
"If it wasn't for me, Rei and Lita would never have gone along with it. I convinced them. I'm sorry," Serena wailed, plaintively. Why she was arguing to take the blame, she couldn't understand, but it was all she felt she could say.
Mina let her head drop in bewilderment. `Serena, of all people. She wouldn't hurt a fly, why would she possibly have done this?' It didn't make any sense at all.
"I just want to be alone," Mina said, with her back still to them.
"Mina..." Lita started.
"Please," Mina added.
Slowly, the four of them left, or at least that's what she thought, until Lita, now alone spoke up. Her voice was unusually strained. "Mina... We all did what we thought was right, but we made a mistake, and we're sorry."
Mina didn't even acknowledge she had heard before Lita, too, left.
It was later in the day when Sylvite had finally summed up the courage to go and see Mina. He knocked on her door, and stood there nervously waiting for her to answer.
Mina opened the door, looked at him with tear-reddened eyes, and then slammed it in his face as hard as she could.
No sooner had Mina fallen back on her bed again to resume her crying than Sylvite teleported into her bedroom, almost soundlessly. But not quite. She heard him, and got up off the bed.
"Go away!" she screamed. "Just go away!"
"Mina, please--" he started.
"No. Get out," Mina hissed, staring at him with something akin to hate. She reached down and yanked the pendant he had given her from her neck, snapping several links of the chain. Then she threw it at him; the pendant hit him in the chest and landed on the floor, where he reached down to pick it up. "I don't ever want to see you again," she said flatly. "EVER."
Sylvite paused for a few moments, and then nodded. "I'm sorry..."
There was a faint glowing in his hand. He laid the pendant, whole once again, back on her bed before he teleported out of her room.
Mina fell back to her bed in tears, and beat at the mattress with her fist. In a state that even Artemis could do nothing to help, she cried herself to sleep that night.
------------------
Mina awoke somewhere else entirely. She got up off the ground and took a look around. The only way she could describe the place where she now was would be beautiful: the grass beneath her feet, the sky above, everything inbetween--all of it was more dazzling than could be believed.
"Mina..."
Mina whirled at the sound of the voice and saw him. Sylvite. There he was, just 10 feet away and, in his true form, silvery blue hair blowing in a light, cool breeze and red eyes focusing on nothing but her.
If Sylvite was here, then...
"A dream. This is a dream and you're controlling it. Just like you did to us before." Mina's voice was low and flat as she surveyed the world that Sylvite had created for the two of them. The breathtaking scenery only managed, somehow, to heighten her anger. She grabbed onto her rage and focused it, using it both as an anchor and a weapon before turning to face him.
"I told you I never wanted to see you again. I meant it."
Sylvite refused to waver. He had reached a decision, and was going to see it through to the end. "I needed to talk to you. If you won't let me in person--"
"You'll MAKE me listen??" Mina finished for him, any walls that had kept her fury in check now collapsing under her the force of her emotions. She gritted her teeth and charged forward, stopping only when she was directly in front of him, glaring up at his face as though he were the thing she hated the most in the world.
At that moment, he was.
"You miserable coward!" she cried, the force of the words cutting her throat and making it raw. "You bullied us all around so you could get what you wanted! You didn't give a single thought to how much you hurt any of us!"
Sylvite instinctively took a step backwards, away from the harshness of her words. He felt powerless under her wrath, unable to conjure up anything in his realm that would make her listen to him. "But--"
Mina ignored his protest and swept on, her voice no longer yelling, but still every bit as furious. "I feel sorry for them. Lita's probably reminded of her parents' deaths every night now. How long did it take her to get over the nightmares the first time? How long will it take now?
"Throughout all of the attacks and the fighting we've experienced, Rei has had peace of mind and serenity in her worship. You've defiled her home, her sanctuary. She'll always be on edge, wondering if her friends will be obliterated at the temple tomorrow, or the next day. Where will she go to feel safe now?
"When Amy becomes a doctor and has her first patient lying before her, needing her skill to help him, do you think she'll be thinking 'I finally made it'? No, she won't be congratulating herself on all her hard work, she'll be scared stiff that she won't be good enough!
"And Serena. Just when she's finally starting to feel good about her and Darian being together, like they deserve to be, you come along and try to throw Rei between them!"
Sylvite had continued backing away, slowly and defensively under the attack. Now it was momentarily over, and he felt at a loss for words. He wanted her to listen, but what could he say? "I--I love you, Mina."
Mina laughed at him, a short humorless bark. "'Love'? You don't know the first thing ABOUT love. Love isn't about control. It's NOT about manipulation. IT'S NOT ABOUT LIES!"
Her voice broke as the emotions became too strong for her, and Mina buried her face in her hands, sobs wracking her body. Sylvite started to go to her side, his hand extended and preparing to comfort her. He was about to touch her shoulder when Mina's head jerked up, her eyes reflecting all the rage and pain she was feeling.
"Don't touch me. Don't you DARE touch me."
Sylvite's pulled his hand back almost as though Mina had bit it. His face had only relayed confusion throughout her assault, but now his expression crumbled slightly, and he looked lost and a more than a little scared. The beautiful world around them, maintained only through his wishes, began to dissolve, leaving behind only an empty and dark void.
But Mina wasn't done yet.
Her voice was low and tired, but no less angry or forceful. "You're a weak, selfish, spoiled little boy. You've never had to work for anything in your life. You didn't even let me TRY to love you on my own, you just reached out and grabbed. If you loved me so much, why didn't you have enough faith in me to tell me the truth??"
He didn't have an answer for her. She didn't really expect one.
"I don't want anything to do with you," she said, turning away. "Get out of my dreams."
"Mina..."
"Get. Out."
Not knowing what else he could say, Sylvite straightened. He bowed to her slightly, trying to hide the tears in his eyes before vanishing.
The last thing he did for her was to ensure a restful night.
------------------
Mina was walking down the street, headed for nowhere in particular. It had been a week since Brian--no, Sylvite--had come to her in her dream and she had thrown him out of her head and her life. But not her heart. Not just yet.
She sighed to herself and shook her head. Why did it have to be this hard? On the one hand, she knew she still loved him and wanted nothing more than to find him and try to put all this behind them. On the other, she knew that wasn't about to happen, and she wasn't even completely sure she wanted it to. What she had said before was the truth: Sylvite was selfish and had no idea what love really was. She couldn't be with someone like that...
Mina had spent most of the week thinking over everything that had happened. She was content with her decision and didn't regret it.
Not always, at least. When she was alone, she would often find herself thinking back to the time before the truth had come out, and how happy she had been with Brian. A part of her wished for that still. She was sure that part of her always would.
And it was funny how she was beginning to see him in the most obscure of places. When washing dishes, she would think she saw him in her reflection. When cleaning up the dishes that she'd broken while washing them, he would be over by the broom. Even now she thought she saw him just ahead, leaning against the wall and staring across the street...
Mina stopped. She blinked.
As the blue eyes turned towards her, she knew that she wasn't imagining things for a change. This really was him.
Brian stood away from the wall as he saw Mina approach, a smile appearing on his face, although it quickly disappeared when he noticed that it wasn't being returned. His shoulders drooped slightly as the two began to walk towards one another.
"Sylvite--"
"Mina--"
They both began at the same time and then stopped. An uncomfortable silence widened the gap between them further. Brian motioned for Mina to go first.
"I told you I didn't want to see you any more." Her voice was guarded, but at least it wasn't angry like it had been the week before.
Brian laughed a little and smiled softly. "Honest, I didn't know you'd be here. I was just out. Thinking." When Mina said nothing, but didn't leave, he continued. "About us.
"You're right, I've never had to really work for anything before in my life. In the Negaverse, when you wanted something, you took it. I thought you were a prize, and your friends were nothing more than obstacles in my way. They weren't people... YOU weren't even as much a person to me as you should have been. I don't deserve you, Mina."
Mina simply stared for a few moments, not sure she had heard him correctly. Brian gave a determined smile. "I don't deserve you now, but I will. Your love is something that's worth working for. No matter how long it takes, I'll become worthy of you."
Taking advantage of her shock, Brian leaned forward and planted a soft, gentle kiss on the top of her head before turning away and walking down the street. "Until then, you'll always be in my heart," he called back to her. "My Goddess of dreams."
With that, he rounded the corner and disappeared from sight. Mina stared after him for several heartbeats. Worthy of her? She hoped that, someday, they would both be worthy of a love they could share. Until then, she knew he would be in her heart as well.
"Goodbye... Brian."