Secrets and Betrayals resolved
By Chibi_iruka

~~~~~~~~~~~Disclaimer

Sailormoon isn't mine. Some of the fan fiction character's are. If you are
intelligent, you'll know the difference. If you aren’t... I'm sorry.

~~~~~~~~~~~Story

Mina regarded the cat before her for a long moment before she let out
a deep breath. After counting to ten, she felt she had enough hold on 
her temper to speak without throwing the cat out the window.

Tempting. She thought, allowing the grin to fall across her face, building
up her typical facade of stupid blonde bimbo again. Tempting but stupid. I
depend on Artemis even more now then before ever since the girls and I separated.

The thought of that separation still sent shivers down her spin. The prophesy
hadn't come, and Serena had passed her 25th birthday without becoming 
Neo Queen Serenity. Reenie still hadn't been born yet, mostly because
Darien and Serena were still on the outs from a big blow out two years before,
when Darien had told her that he wished she'd grow up.

Bad idea.

She shook her head, focusing on the problem at hand. As always, the problem
stared at her with malicious green eyes and a flickering nose. Shifty eyes,
shifty nose. It's all the same in the animal kingdom, Mina thought, unable
to keep her cheek from twitching spastically. "So, Artemis," She began in
a lilting voice, her eyes dangerously blue, like the sky just before the 
skies turn black with storm.

"Yes Mina?" The cat asked in a quiet voice full of innocence, even though
she full well knew that the cat was not such.

"So, kitty, where have you been? Out with a girl-toy?"

Artemis sniffed. "What little faith you have in me Mina. I would never cheat
on Luna-"

Mina visibly bristled. "So you're still in love with that cat?"

Artemis groaned, a tear forming over his hot red face. "Mina, Mina, just
because you and Serena had a tiff-"

"A tiff?!" She yelled, loosing all control. Her face became violently red
and her eyes beamed down wide and full blue onto his own green orbs. "A tiff?!"
She repeated in shock, unable to control the blaze inside her chest. "Serena
decided to cheat on Darien after their argument! And she choose my boyfriend!
Next you'll say that its all MY FAULT that the scouts broke up, just 
because I couldn't let my future Queen seduce my boyfriend!"

"Actually, it's your fault that the scouts broke up, because such information
should remain public, not to be gossiped about-"

"Dear God Artemis, you sound as if we are talking about some kind of a fashion
Faux pas, not the leader of the scouts betraying me just to get back at her
boyfriend for some imagined wrong! I can't believe you'd take her side! After
all the hell we've been through together! After all that, you betray me like
this! You basturd!" Mina flung a pillow as hard as she could at the errant cat,
who jumped nimbly away.

"Mina! It's not like that at all-"

"Get out!" She screeched, anger etching hateful white lines in the red fury
of her face. When Artemis remained where he had landed, she took up a crystal
candlestick and positioned it to throw. "GET OUT!" She screamed in a hoarse
voice, unable to stop her fury. Artemis shook his head and popped out of the
apartment, just as the crystal shattered to the ground right were he had
been only a heart beat before.

Mina sunk to the floor, her tears gushing from her eyes to puddle down
on the Persian rug below her. She sobbed for hours, alternately clutching
her knees in a fetal position or sobbing into the soft silken pillow on 
her bed. Finally she could sob no more, for the tears had dried up and moved
on, leaving her like everything else had.

First Serena, then the Scouts, and now Artemis. She thought, gently pushing
herself off of her bed that she had no memory of finding her way onto. She
padded barefoot down the cold wooden floor into the bathroom and palmed the
light one. She almost started crying when she saw her ruined face staring
back at her in the mirror.

Every shred of pride she had kept close to her in these last two years had
vanished, along with whatever beauty she had thought she possessed. Aphrodite's
warrior like hell. She thought with anger, striking the mirror with her
fist. She gasped at the intense pain in her hand as the shards pierced her
pale, white flesh and pulled her hand quickly from the ruined clutter of
glass and distorted reflection that could tell the stark, honest truth
no longer. She regarded the crisscross lines of blood that decorated her
white skin in a bleak, lost gaze, somehow finding moisture in her eyes to
swiftly join the others rolling down her never dry face in rivers of mascara
and tears.

Pain, yes, but a satisfaction that she had done something to end the suffering.
It was a start, but one in the right direction. She tilted her head to the 
side, her long golden hair falling gently to that side in a wispy water fall 
she no longer loathed because it was so golden and not silvery blonde as 
Serena's or chocolate brunette like Lita's, and forced her sluggish muscles
to open in her hand, until her fingers were splayed full out. She concentrated,
biting her lower lip until it drew welcome blood, and a soft but comforting
golden glow encompassed her hand, drawing the blood back into her body
and the wounds sealing with golden thread until only warm flesh remained.

Mina closed her eyes and breathed a thankful prayer to her patron Goddess
for this new power. What good was death if you could not bring life? What
good was fighting if you could not have peace? What good was injury if
you could not heal?

She took those words to heart and took a deep breath. It was time to find
Artemis and apologize- no beg for his forgiveness. If he wanted to dally
with Serena's cat, she really had no say. It wasn't as if she owned the
handsome cat, after all.

Shaking her hand, the golden glow disappeared and she marveled again at this
new power. It was amazing, but it always seemed as if her patron gave her
greatest gifts in the times of greatest despair. 

Well, she had just gotten out of that despair, and had been handsomely 
rewarded. But it would mean nothing without her Artemis to share it with.

She turned and, palming the light back off, walked resolutely back into her
bedroom's closet, talking forth her Nightwalker's attire. She had grown into
a more physical warrior since the split with the other scouts, and rarely
transformed these days, instead relying on her physical strength.  She grinned
as she undressed and put on the clean white sports bra which dubbed as a 
shirt (she couldn't go running around without one now, because her breasts
were just to large to do so comfortably), black trousers, black military boots,
and a light weight but warm trench coat when she noticed that it was faintly
drizzling outside the apartment window. She strapped on her two guns and
four knives, daggers really, feeling very much like that Laura Croft heroine
from the movies years before. She pursed her lips and laughed, surprising herself
at how good it felt to do so again.

She tried it again and again, pleased with the quality of the laugh and the
weight being released from her chest. Her heart began to pump as she strolled
towards the door, unaware of her dangerous looking swagger. It was good to 
be alive again, but it would be even better with Artemis back at her side.

Closing and locking her front door behind her, Mina took one look at the grimy
elevator door and decided a run down the stairs would do her better. She 
raced down the five flights of stairs, her breath only softly ragged in her
chest when she was finished, her trench coat flying behind her like one
of Tuxedo Mask, and his imitator’s, capes. She paused before bursting
through the doors, as if listening to how the rain fell to gauge her running
speed.

She frowned, turning to her left and to her right once she raced through the
doors, unable to determine which way the sad feline had ventured. "Artemis!"
She called out, her voice ringing eerily down the abandoned street and echoing
back to her ears.

Had she found her peace to late for Artemis? She wondered, her mind full
of worry for her beloved feline.

Maybe he went to seek solace in Luna's... er... paws. Mina thought, wondering
why the thought of him at Luna's no longer made her see red.

Had she forgiven Serena for her betrayal? After all, Serena had stolen Jakob
from her, even had a child and changed very well the course of history just
to spite Darien and her.

For the first time, Mina wondered about Darien. Where had he gone? No one 
had seen or heard from him since that last blow up, the last time Tuxedo
Mask and the rest of the gang had fought together. Serena had not been
able to dust the villain, and Mina had been forced to do it, something
she herself as Sailor Venus had not done, as Sailor Venus, since the Silver
Millennium. Serena had yelled at Venus for hogging the spotlight, and
Mina had hotly told Serena to shove it, she could have the spotlight--
Sailor Venus would go Renegade. Serena had said good riddance, and expected
the rest of the Scouts to back her up like always, but her superior
blue gaze had frozen into dry slate when the other Scouts all quietly
told her they were leaving too.

Serena had said the hell with them, and then gone out and married Jakob 
the next day.

Mina had started her single ticket to hell that next day too, leaving
Tokyo far behind her and moving to New York.

The other's, Mina hadn't seen or heard from in two years.

Jakob and Serena had moved with their son to New York, or at least that
was what Artemis told her. Serena had forsaken the Scouts and refused 
to transform, but Luna stayed by her side, even though it had meant loosing
Artemis. Now Mina felt sorrow again, for in her anger she had separated
the two kitty lovers, and for what? To end the only true evil magic 
crime fighting unit in the world?

She had had her reasons, but were they justified for the potential danger
she had caused the rest of the world?

Her actions were haunting her again, and she knew that they would continue
to do so until she found Artemis.

"Artemis?" She called again, fearing the catch in her tone as it echoed
down the street again, but to no avail.

He was gone.

She sunk down heavily on the frozen concrete, and held her suddenly heavy
head in her hands. "Oh, Artemis, I'm sorry." She said softly as a tear
found its way down her cheek, falling down to the dirty concrete. For a 
second that concrete shines golden, but the grime prevailed and that small
magic of sorrow was lost, overtaken by the greater darkness of the cities
streets.

"Mina, it's ok now." Artemis said impossibly above her, his voice husky 
with emotion.

"Artemis?" She asked hopefully, and was astonished to see a tall, white 
haired man before her, with a crescent moon on his face. The eyes, the
green of a fresh harvest, told her immediately who was truly before her.
"How did you-"

"It was a power that only just now returned. In this life, I was meant to 
be more then a guardian, but was unable to obtain the true form due 
to the lack of power, of magic. But you set me free." Artemis lowered his hand
to cup her face and smiled. "You, by finding yourself from the depths of
despair and still finding your humanity, showed me mine."

"I supposed that Luna is human now too." Mina said with a sad smile, for
Artemis made quite a dashing male.

He smiled and nodded. "I have to leave you now Mina. My guarding you is 
complete, for you have grown into a woman that needs no guarding."

"Has Serena-"

Artemis shook his head. "I don't think she'll ever not need her guardian.
But her true soul mate has returned and reclaimed her, and Reenie is due 
to be born in a couple of months. The rest of the girl's all have husbands
and Ami even has a young daughter, but all are spread out across the world.
Lita's been training the next generation of Scouts, although they lack 
the star seeds they certainly have enough magic to go around. Rei married
and is a leader in the fitness industry in Japan. The Outers... no one knows."
The human Artemis shook his head, then bowed down low to kiss his Mina
goodbye. "I have to fulfill my destiny Mina." He said simply, then disappeared
on the fading wind.

She touched her forehead, her eyes wide and ready for tears, but none could
be found. Her sorrow and bleak period was well and truly over, and now
she could find her friends. Even though Serena had betrayed her, even though
her friends had moved on in life without her, they were still Sailor Scouts,
and would always been together. 

~~~~~~~~~~~Note
Well, I tried to write in the Dubbed way, with Scouts and all. I kept 
writing Senshi, though, or Makoto! To hard for me...I hope it didn't make
anyone mad at me, for having Serena cheat on Darien in such a dastardly manner,
I mean with Mina's boyfriend Jakob (fictional) after all. I was mad at one
of my friends for doing the same to me, and it just found its way into the
story. It kind of was dark, but it needed to be. Probably was because I
was listening to heavy metal while writing it!

Well, I'm sorry for being gone for so long, but I didn't have any thing to 
write about! I'm currently having mega writer's block with Oracle, so I
put this up. I hope no one get's upset with me! Look for a new layout soon...
This one just isn't working for me! Well, later!

~~~~~~~~~~Iruka
June 25, 2001