Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

Secluded Flame

Chapter 5

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Minako held her henshin pen high above her head and shouted, “Venus Crystal Power!!”

A bright, warm, golden light surrounded the area only to vanish in seconds to reveal a transformed Aino Minako. The idol now stood wearing a short, cuffed sleeved white shirt attached to a short, orange, flowing skirt. Also attached to the shirt was an orange collar with a large blue ribbon set in the middle of the shirt with a bright yellow-orange jewel at the center. At the back of the skirt sat another large yellow ribbon, and running from her elbows to her finger tips are two white gloves with orange cuffs at the end. And, resting on her forehead was a golden tiara with a shining orange jewel embedded at the center.

“Alright,” Artemis said, crossing his arms and nodding his approval, “Now go save that pyro and finish off that youma.” Without warning, a soft white glow enveloped the tall, silver haired male, and Minako watched on as he slowly transformed back into the little white furball of a cat. “I won’t be able to help you since it still takes a lot of my power to even hold up my human form.”

Minako nodded in understanding before running around the corner and gasping at the dreadful sight before her. “Oh no.” she whispered. There before her was Rei, laying face down and unconscious on charred grass, lightly twitching even though it was clear to Minako that she was unconscious.

‘Oh, Rei.’ she thought while taking in the weakened miko’s form, feeling a bubble of rage rise up through her. She clenched her shaking gloved fists to her side and turned slowly to glare icily at the youma who stood a couple of feet from her Reiko, retrieving it’s slim, rapier. Taking a determined step forward, Venus stared the youma down and said with much venom in her soft voice, “Step away from her now and face me.” the young senshi held her hands out and held a glowing, chain of golden hearts that materialized out of thin air in them tightly. “I am your opponent now.”

Without much thought, Minako swung her chain forward, striking at the youma hard and fast, but to no use as the demon jumped to the side and out of the way. Minako cursed under her breath and instantly swung her chain in an arc to make it follow the demon’s movement, successfully landing a harsh blow to its midsection and sending it flying since it could not avoid the strike. Minako watched with a blank expression as the youma crashed to the ground with a sickening crunch, and brought her chain back to her. She swung the chain lazily by her side, walking towards the fallen demon, and without so much as batting an eye, began to swiftly swing her golden chain in multiple arcs, each of the strikes, successfully hitting the youma, causing it to cry out in pain with each blow. It was only a few minutes until Minako let up her attack, bringing her chain back to her before having it disappear from her hands while watching the dust clear away to show the aftermath of her fierce attacks. The youma was laying face first on the ground, without so much as twitching.

A sense of satisfaction filled Minako when the youma stopped moving and looked as though it was beginning to disappear. She then turned and hurried to Rei’s side, kneeling down on the charred grass and gently picking up the young miko’s form into her arms in a warm embrace, and holding her closely to her heart. The steady rise and fall of the girl’s chest brought a bright smile to the idol’s face, and she rose a hand to gently caress her cheek. It was a mere ghost of a touch on the soft, burned cheek though for she didn’t want to hurt Rei.

“Rei.” she whispered endearingly, cradling the miko in her arms closer to her, and was surprised when her deep amethyst eyes fluttered open, trying to blink her haze away.

“Minako?” was the soft, groggy whisper when she glanced at the senshi before her. She tried to get up, but didn’t have much energy to do so, so she fell limply into the secure, welcoming arms.

Minako’s smile grew wider and brighter when hearing Rei‘s voice, though it sounded a bit weak and hoarse. She ran her gloved hand through wet, raven bangs, brushing them back from the miko’s confused, amethyst eyes. “Don’t worry, Minako is alright. You’ll be fine, I took care of that demon, and I’m going to contact the ambulance to come pick you and the priest up. So, just hold on.” Minako squeezed her gently for emphasis that she’d be okay.

“Sailor Venus?” Rei asked in a weak, confused voice and looking at the blonde senshi while trying to blink away the haziness she felt.

“The one and only.” Minako whispered lightly, sending the miko a teasing wink.

Rei closed her eyes in pain when her head throbbed and rasped out in a whisper, “No, you’re Minako. You have to be. You smell just like her. You look like her too. And your voice is so similar.” she slowly brought a shaking hand up to press against her clammy forehead in an attempt to ease her headache.

To say that what Rei had just said shocked Minako is a complete understatement. In fact, it nearly made her incapable of speaking or even thinking for that matter. So she stared at the one in her arms in shock, shaking her head to clear her mind so she would be able to think straight. ‘Rei. She figured it out. But, even if she did, as long as I don’t admit to it, then, maybe she’ll forget, or at least go along with what I say for now.’

Sighing, Minako grabbed Rei’s trembling, warm hand; the one she held to her head, and held it in her own gloved hand, entwining their fingers as she did. The idol stared deeply into the miko’s weary amethyst eyes and stated clearly, “I can assure you that I am not Aino Minako, and that the idol is safe, alright?”

Even though suspicion was still evident in her eyes, Rei nodded quietly, a scowl claiming her features as she did so. Minako smiled at this and was about to say something when Rei’s uncertain features quickly twisted into that of horror. And in an instant, without being able to say or do anything, Minako watched on in shock as Rei pushed away and out of Minako’s arms before flinging herself in front of the stunned idol and knocking her down to the ground with a burst of adrenaline. A silent scream escaped the idol’s constricted throat as she watched a beam of pure, violet energy pierce through the raven haired girl’s stomach. Her eyes widening in terror, crystal tears beginning to form at the edges of her eyes the name of the falling raven bursting from her throat in a strangled cry. It was as if time had slowed. Minako pushed up and caught the miko before she fell to the ground in a heap and slowly laid the girl down, watching with so much fear as the blood seeped through her clothes and onto the ground to form a small puddle of crimson. Venus began shaking as Rei’s breathing became shallow, only to stop when she coughed up a bit of blood.

“Rei!!” Minako exclaimed, carefully bringing the fallen miko’s head to lay on her lap. The tears were released when Rei coughed up blood once again, forcing her eyes to flutter open to gaze warmly into Minako’s fearful, tearing, cerulean eyes.

With a trembling hand, Rei reached up to cup Minako’s warm cheek and smiled when the blonde leaned into the touch and even brought up a hand of her own to intertwine their fingers.

“Minako.” she whispered, and continued on without giving the said blonde to deny or even speak, “I know it’s you, so you don’t have to deny it. Please, don’t try to lie to me. Please.”

Minako nodded, her tears trailing down her cheeks and off her face to drip onto Rei’s. Rei rubbed her thumb gently on the blonde’s cheek to wipe away the ever forming tears, “Don’t…..worry….about….me.” she whispered while closing her eyes and resigning herself to the peaceful darkness.

“Rei!” Minako shook the miko gently in an attempt to wake her, “Rei, get up!” the raven haired girl lay still in the idol’s lap, “Please!!” With a desperate wail, Minako fell forward, burying her face into the raven haired girl’s neck, sobbing and shaking with much emotion.

A wicked, victorious laugh sounded through the stiff air, gaining Minako’s attention, and releasing a rage within her; the likes of which she has never felt. Forcing herself to quell her sobs, she slowly lifted her head from Rei’s neck, kissing the unconscious miko’s forehead tenderly as she sat up straight, glaring at the youma with so much hatred that the youma actually stopped and took an unconscious step backward. With the utmost carefulness, Minako moved Rei’s injured form from her lap and placed her gently on the lush, supple grass next to her. Before getting up though, Minako leant next to Rei’s ear, one gloved hand coming up to brush her golden locks out of her face and to keep them from falling on Rei, and whispered, “I’ll be back for you, I promise. I won’t let anymore harm come to you.”

Standing up, and steeling herself for the fight she was going to finish, Minako took a deep breath, glancing at Rei one last time before turning fully to the youma, a murderous, aura being shown in a musty, golden orange glow surrounded her. Her resolve was firm, and step by step, she neared the unconsciously shaking youma and said in a cold voice being laced heavily with malice, “I know that it’s my fault for not making sure that you were dead, but still….” she glared at the youma with flashing, cerulean eyes, “I won’t forgive you for what you’ve done to her. I’m going to tear you apart.”

Nothing more was said as she sprinted forward, quickly closing the distance between herself and the stunned youma like a cheetah closing in on its prey. She was only four feet away when she called on her ethereal, golden chain and swung it at the youma. The demon tried to dodge it at the last minute, but was too late as the chain snaked around it’s form and trapped it, with its arms pressed tightly to its sides with no way out. It struggled for a bit, but it couldn’t break free, and Minako tugged harshly at the chain, making it tighten around the bound youma, forcing it to drop its rapier again, before pulling the chain with a greater force, spinning around and using the momentum and her weight to fling the demon high into the air and over her shoulder, sending it crashing into the ground a few feet from her. The concrete of the paved walkway cracked under the pressure, and the youma grunted in pain, not being given the chance to recover when the senshi of Venus flung it back and forth repeatedly, and driving the weakened youma into the paved walkway. It only stopped when Minako flung the demon in the air again, but this time, right above her that the constricting, glowing chain disappeared and left the youma suspended in the air. But it wasn’t over for Minako leaped up right after the youma and delivered a round house kick to the back of the youma’s neck and sending it crashing into the ground once more before concentrating and gathering as much energy she could into the tips of her two fingers.

With a cry filled with rage, Minako shouted, “Crescent Beam!!” and let a beam of golden energy shoot towards the fallen youma, completely blasting it to dust and leaving a small crater in its wake.

Minako landed gracefully on the ground, a golden light enveloping her as she did so, leaving her in her civilian clothes when it faded away. She was breathing heavily, but just shook it off with the determination to run towards Rei and gather her gently within her arms, only after she took her cell phone and dialed with a frantic call for a couple of ambulances to come and pick up Rei and the injured priest.

Looking down at Rei’s battered and paling form, she rocked her gently, ignoring the fact that her blood was now seeping onto her clothes and whispered consoling words into her ear, hoping that the young miko could hear her. Would hear her. She had taken to caressing the girl’s long, raven locks, when the sounds of the ambulances’ wailing could be heard, piercing the air, and the flashing of their red lights could be seen. Minako looked up as a few people came out with long, white stretchers came barreling towards them, splitting up so a small team could tend to the priest while the other came to tend to Rei. A tall man, with gentle, chocolate eyes and short, scruffy, rust red-orange hair came to neal next to Minako and sighed gently saying, “It’s alright now, we’ll take good care of her.”

He gently reached out and carefully took Rei’s limp form into his strong arms, easily lifting her up and placing her on the stretcher where the others began applying pressure to her wound with thick, gauze to sustain the bleeding while running towards one of the large, white and red ambulances and loading her in before taking off and leaving Minako alone, staring longingly after them with the tall male standing next to her.

Sighing, the man mumbled quietly, “What have you gotten yourself into now, kid?”

This caught Minako’s attention, and the blonde haired idol quickly snapped her head up to see the man shaking his head and scratching the back of his neck.

“What do you mean?” she asked in slight confusion before standing up and asking in slight panic, “Wait, aren’t you supposed to be with them now?!”

The man looked at Minako with quizzical, chocolate brown eyes and replied, “No, I’m a police. I was over at the hospital when I heard about what had happened, so I decided to go with them to see what’s happened and ask you a few questions, Ms…..”

Realization dawned on his face when he really looked at the blonde, and slapped himself on the forehead, while cussing lightly under his breath. Shaking his head he looked at Minako, who raised an eyebrow in his direction and gave a shrug and a sheepish, apologetic grin, “Sorry, Ms. Aino. I didn’t recognize you at first.”

Minako smiled lightly and waved it off, “It’s alright.” she said, but thought, ‘His reaction isn’t near as cute or funny as Rei’s.’ At the thought of Rei, Minako immediately sobered with a frown claiming her features.

The man noticed this and went to stand in front of her, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze. “Don’t worry.” he said softly, “That kid’s one heck of a fighter, so she’ll pull through this, so just be strong and wait this out.”

Minako nodded, looking up into his warm eyes and asked with an excited gleam in her cerulean eyes, “So how do you know Rei? Can you tell me more about her?”

The man laughed, saying, “I was just about to ask you that. Well, except for the second part.” He gave a quick wink and smiled, “I’ll tell you what you’d like to know back at the station, but you have to tell me what’s happened here first. Deal?”

Minako’s face lightened, and she nodded, “Deal.”

The ride to the police station was smooth and filled with silence. Minako’s gaze was out the window, watching as things flew by with glazed eyes. She was slumped back in the tan, leather seat, leaning her arm on the window with her chin in her hands palm, with nothing but worry over Rei’s health and safety going through her mind. She was so oblivious and lost in thought that when the slick, blue Mercedes stopped in front of the average sized building, the man who brought her hear had to clear his throat to get snap her out of her reverie.

“Ms. Aino,” he began, “We’re here.” He then opened his door and proceeded to get out and walk towards the front of the station, with Minako right behind him, her purse in hand with Artemis, safe and hiding inside it.

They walked into a large room with bustling people walking around, chatting, on computers, and just doing work. Staying behind the man and holding her purse close to her with her disguise on, they weaved through the busy people and down a wide, pretty long hall. They passed a few doors and people on the way and came up to a mahogany door, with the words ‘Investigation Room 1’ pressed in bold, black letters on the murky window. The tall man reached out to grab the golden knob and opened the door, ushering the idol in first like a gentleman room and gestured her to sit in the large, burgundy cushioned chair that sat at one side of a large, stained, oak table. She nodded and greatfully sat in the chair, watching as the man shut the door and plopped down in a black, leathered seat next to her with one arm slung behind the chair, and his legs crossed while he leant back with his eyes closed with a sigh.

“So,” he began, opening his eyes and looking at the silent idol, “What happened?”

Minako’s face became grave at the memory but responded with as much truth as she could, “This morning, I decided to visit the nearby church to think about some things that was on my mind. When I left, I ran into the priest. He asked me if I could help him look after a dog he and a nun found. I agreed, and that’s when I met Rei.” Minako smiled warmly at this, and the man watched intently as she continued in a small voice, “She came and said that she’d help as well. So, we were watching the dog and chatting when we heard a scream. Rei immediately jumped up and told me to stay here while she checked out what happened. I agreed and waited for awhile when I heard an inhuman scream. I didn’t like it, and I was worried about Rei, so I ran to help her.” she stopped and turned to look at the police besides her who just nodded for her to continue. Minako took a deep breath to steady herself before she continued on, “When I got there, I saw one of those monsters that have been terrorizing the city lately. I was a little scared at first, but that didn’t compare to the fear I felt when I saw Rei laying on the ground, face down. I ran to her side to immediately and tried to wake her up. It worked, but that’s when the demon attacked again and Rei pushed me out of the way, taking the hit for me and protecting me.” Minako’s voice was shaky then, tears that started to form in her eyes falling freely. “That monster was going to attack again, but was stopped when Sailor Venus appeared and crushed it. I called for ambulances immediately after she left, and you know the rest.”

The man nodded and placed a hand on one of her tightly shaking fists, “Don’t worry, Rei will be alright.” sighing, he retracted his hand and stated while looking off at the ceiling that hung above them, “For what you want to know about Rei, all I really know is that she very distant, and can be very cold and quite the little smart ass.” They both grinned at that before he continued, this time looking straight into Minako’s cerulean eyes, “She seems to get in quite a bit of trouble a lot, and is more of a lone wolf person. She never really speaks, even when spoken to, and has a quick temper. She packs quite a punch to.” he joked, raising a hand to rub his cheek. “I don’t know much more about her, she’s pretty much a mystery, but don’t let that keep you down. I’m sure that you can break through to her if you keep at it.” he winked and Minako felt heat rise to her cheeks.

“Now,” he said, standing up and walking over to the door, “I’m going to let you change out of your outfit and into something else, since that has blood on it. I’m sure that you don’t want to worry your manager and whatnot, so there’s a pair of extra clothes in that cabinet behind you. I’ll be out here when you’re done.”

Minako nodded, and with that, he walked out the door only to stop and poke his head in to say, “Oh, and by the way, the name’s Markus.”

A/N: Here’s the 5th chapter, I hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know what you think. Laters. Oh, yeah, you will be seeing more of Markus in other chapters as well.