[Reg] The Service Of The Queen (Hector + Black Lady) [FIN]

[candy lamb]

The weight of the rapier felt odd in his hand.

The rapier is the ideal thrusting blade, said a place in his head that was someone else's memory. A rote speech. The handle was balanced in his palm: a toss, a flick, and it spun in the air weightlessly until he caught it again. The mesh basket glimmered in the light. The rapier is the weapon of the cool-headed, the weapon of the counter-attack. It has reach. Heavier swords can beat it aside, but can't respond in time.

Another toss. It's lightning-fast. The angles it attacks at are unpredictable. Sixteen possible lines. What it lacks is offense --

"Did you want a katana?" Dylan had said, laughingly.

He'd been testing the blade. His wrist was stiff from holding it, its unfamiliar heft and balance. The tip -- end? -- point? -- was sharp enough to slice in deep the heel of his hand. Every urge in him was to slash, not lunge, to use the thing like a machete. Should've gone with a machete. Not exactly a knightly weapon.

They'd both watched Kill Bill. He said, "No, broadsword," and glared when Dylan laughed harder.

There were a lot of nights Alexandros left. Sometimes he went with him -- sometimes he didn't, lying in bed disquieted. Now Hector walked down the muffled city backstreets listening for a voice in his head that never quite spoke to him, scaling emergency fire ladders with arms that never tired and making jumps with legs that didn't hurt. His weatherbeaten heart had said he'd dreamed about this sometimes, as a kid, like a kid, but it was soberingly different --

He was in a park. There was a playground. On the swings there was a woman in a dark dress, her heels digging into the bark as she propelled herself minutely forward and backward. Her pink hair was dark in the nighttime, but it was wound up in two strange buns on either side of her head that ended in long tails. He'd never seen her. Hector didn't have to.

No point in trying to be quiet. He knew she could teleport. She'd been lost in her own reverie anyway -- he was crunching on the bark by the time she got up out of the swing and backed away from him, her eyes narrowed with panic and distress. Something flashed in her hand, with a short handle and a twinkle of glass, and he had to lunge to the side as a dark beam scorched the NO DOGS PLEASE! sign.

"Stay away," she said. Her voice was imperious and wobbly.

"I belong to the Black Earth," he said. Another beam. His sword was out in his hand, a pretty useless length of steel to 70% of his brain and his only recourse in 30%. Her attack roasted more bark. She was a really terrible shot. It never occurred to him that he was in danger or should have gone for backup or run, or that she could go for Wiseman, or anything other than the fact that he'd walked into an enormous ******** chance. "You got that?"  

[nessy]

Swings held a special place of both irony and comfort in the heart of Black Lady. Wiseman had found her that very first time sitting on the swings outside of the palace, the playground that her parents had never much had the time to take her to. Slowly she'd learned, growing up with Usagi and the senshi, that playgrounds weren't supposed to be lonely places and could indeed be shared. Coming to Destiny City, she'd started to think of them in her old way again and only ever came to small parks that were deserted by drunken bums and adventurous teenagers. Though a few times when impatient, she had simply killed them before claiming the park for her own. After all, nobody was perfect.

Seeing the caped young man with the sword, her first instinct had been to possibly scare him away. Her precious energy shots were being wasted, as the princess tried desperately to get him to back down and go away. When the words 'Black Earth' reached her ears, however, this attitude changed drastically. Red eyes lit with an almost hysterical light behind them, fingers wrapped tighter around the short haft of her glass. "Slave of Nehelenia, false queen!" Hissed into the darkness the words slithered like a snake and her body moved in a similar fashion into the shadows of the playground, ducking through the maze of wood, plastic, and metal to perhaps get a more advantageous shot. There were, after all, only so many she could do!

The unwelcome guest took up a defensive stance as she watched him, sword half-raised and turning slowly. It wasn't hard to see the tension in his body, ready to lunge out and meet her momentum should the Lady care to come at him physically. Should one of her deadly shots of dark energy come as well, he would have time to then turn or dive out of the way, whichever was required. Triumphant, she stepped forward to take a shot, forgetting the bark beneath her feet which crackled a second before the darkness flew from her grasp. Hopefully, luck was with the Lady tonight!  

[candy lamb]

The beam hit a plastic seesaw, melting and twisting one end of it beyond repair. He was quick, though she could also see he was awkward: he wasn't Endymion, he didn't have the speed or the strength, obviously. She could see him in the darkness, a shape moving between the slides and the go-arounds. The bark crackled. She stopped moving.

It was his sword that gave him away: it glittered a little, held up too high in his hand. Her next shot told. It hit him in the wrist and he swore in the darkness as it dropped, moving away, staggering somewhere else as it came to a clatter between them -- he was hiding behind a rope-ladder now, she knew. Where was he going to go? Wouldn't he go back for the weapon?  

[nessy]

He wasn't Endymion and unfortunately for him as well, she was no longer really Serenity. Any geas placed on her by the Wiseman was broken with his declaration of whose team he was fighting for, and her mercy had vanished as well. Black Lady was going for the kill, and damn near nothing was going to stop her. The loss of the sword was a triumph and she laughed into the darkness of the playground like some sort of demented sixth grader. Unfortunately, she hadn't yet learned to not be cocky.

Her mirth gave Hector the time he needed and was scrambling up the rope ladder. It was somewhat foolhardy and would remove some of his running room. But it would also put more objects between the captain and the crazy lady below while providing a vantage point, which was more important. This theory was proven valid when she shot a beam and it only lightly grazed the fabric of his cloak. The wooden beams he'd been ducking behind, however, were turned almost immediately to charcoal. "Come out, foolish slave. Dance with me." It was her turn to be wary now, and in a quick move Black Lady was now crouched atop the monkey bars, searching the darkness. The playground wasn't that big, he had to be hiding amongst the equipment somewhere!  

[candy lamb]

A shower of bark scattered from the left. She turned her attention there -- but there was the Black Earth cavalier coming in at a completely opposite direction, sprinting across the playground in a mad attempt to get his sword. All this afforded her was a good shot.

Hector went down when she blasted him in the thigh, stumbling to the ground on one knee first before he had to topple over entirely. Even then all he did was drag himself -- slowly, agonizingly -- to the place where they both knew that his rapier was, glowing like a promise too far out of reach.

He still tried to get to it. He was wriggling his way across the ground unable to get up; he tried, once, staggering to stand before he fell down again and realised that he was losing time. He was hers now. When she jumped down lightly off the monkey bars and stood between him and his rapier, she could see his face was twisted with anger and desperation and -- disappointment? With himself. She could have blasted him then and there.

He kept on moving forward. It was silly.  

[nessy]

She'd been careful, incredibly careful, not to touch that shining length of metal laying behind her. It was never safe, touching another's weapon, sometimes ugly things happened. The young man was trying so desperately to reach it, as if somehow he could crawl around her, underneath her, somewhere before she simply reached her hand into his chest and removed his life. Or worse, ignored that part of him entirely and simply melted his chest into a gaping cavity where a soul had been. Certainly Black Lady was elated at finally striking again at the queen that even in her twisted mind was still the usurper, on the wrong side of the mirror. One day, the princess would smash it with relish and cut them off from this world forever, and that day would be sweet.

Viciously, a heel came down on the man's caped back, pinning him to the ground with most of her weight as she beamed triumphantly. Taking this slave of her b*****d power would be so sweet, but looking down at him, she hesitated. That face, she'd seen that face before, hadn't she? But where? Anger became flavored with puzzlement, and soon the taste was pure confusion before this world swirled before her eyes and Prince Hector was Sailor Moon sprawled before her, reaching so vainly for her crystal. Reminding the Queen of Darkness that she was loved, that she had a place in this world, over and over. Usagi had loved the world, loved everyone in it; loved everyone she'd come into contact with. Wasn't she supposed to be the same? Sailor Moon was like this person - death was almost certain, but giving up was absolutely unbearable. After all, it was almost certain, and there were people counting on you!

"What do you want, mirror slave?" Shakily, one hand touched against her temple, tried so desperately to banish the memories that were tearing her apart. It didn't matter what Usagi did, she was dead and her love died with her. Any ideal her daughter might possibly live up to was only in her mind, and was useless. Waiting for the answer, she hoped that it might engender again that rage in her chest, rage that had drained at the beloved memory of her foolishly brave mother.  

[candy lamb]

It wasn't her mother's face. He couldn't have been older than her, though, not by a great deal -- his eyes were a Saturn violet and he was struggling. The pain must have been excruciating. His anger looked like it was bitter as hell. His eyes flicked to her. His eyes flicked all around, trying to see where the sword was, and it still didn't awaken that anger she usually kept.

"Slave?" His voice was low when he spoke. "Go to hell." That sparked the anger again, thankfully, but he kept on talking. "You're a slave of that magician. When you think about it, you're not that good a thief either. Ain't seeing the Marcasite crystal in your ha -- "

She pressed her heel down. More struggles. His breath came in quick pants. "What do I want? You don't even know me. What do I want from you?" Maybe he was, as Ray would put it, stalling for time. He would have killed this interloper by now. The band of gold on his forehead made her think of something she couldn't quite recall. When she moved her heel up to his windpipe he didn't stop talking, just sounded dry and strangled. "'Lady'? You're just a kid."  

[nessy]

Slave? She wasn't a slave of anyone, let alone Wiseman! He'd asked her to come with him, given her the choice to wallow alone in the darkness until her star faded entirely or join him in wreaking vengeance on those who had so cruelly taken her perfect life from her. Hadn't he? Almost angrily, her mind vised down on this questioning of Ray's motives and the woman clutched at her temples in pain, squeezing her eyes shut and taking a step back to steady herself. "You would not understand. I am a princess, I am not a slave! You are just a knight." Conviction was strong and the pain slowly faded, hands dropping and ruby eyes disdainfully looking down at Hector.

He had to understand, and besides, he wasn't going anywhere fast. Still wounded, and she could teleport at any moment should danger arise again. "I do not need her crystal, it has no power. Tiny! Bad power for a bad queen." Peachy lips twisted into a superior smirk as Black Lady remembered the ease with which they had taken that miniscule power from Nehelenia. "And you are wrong again. I was born a Lady! Serenity." A slim finger came up and pointed to her nose. "Get it?" He'd better, because the length of his life depended on it.  

[candy lamb]

His eyes were closed now. Closed, he still looked less at peace than anyone she'd ever met. His mouth was grim and twisted, his eyelids squeezed shut and his shoulders tensed in an all-body grimace. It was different when he spoke. "I was born a Prince," he said. "And you sound like my kid sister."

Prince?

As though he heard her disbelief, those violet eyes cracked open. "Prince," he said, aggressively. "I'm brother to the Prince. Follow that math. I'm Captain, I'm his knight, I'm -- " It was an angry, unhappy grocery list. The cavalier sounded as though he half didn't believe it himself. The eyes shut again. "And you still sound like my kid sister if I take her doll."

The effrontery. "Go ahead," he said. Now his voice was bitter with pride. "Kill me. Ever killed royalty before? I guess I die like everyone else, and so do you."  

[nessy]

Now there was something she could understand. Though her understanding of the language was not fantastic, she could grasp easily the frustration of always being just one off. That had always been her place as a princess in a peaceful land, an heir that would never inherit, the chibi senshi, the daughter instead of the wife in her father's heart. Just one off. Even with Wiseman it was just the same, only it was more like 'just four off' instead of one. Black Lady took one step back, then another, until she sat back on the swings, metal creaking.

Not even pride could hold out forever and when the killing blow didn't come, vividly purple eyes cracked again and searched out the young woman. She was just regarding him, an almost owlish look on her face, enforcing the idea that she was really just a child. Rocking back and forth on her heels, the swing moved, hair and gown swinging with momentum when she finally spoke. "Just one off, yes? I understand, so I'm not a kid." Ray would have said the lady doth protest too much, but never to her face. More silence that stretched and then, very softly, the Lady spoke again. "Royalty does not die. Reborn. Always." Always always. Sailor Moon had been reborn several times already, and would come again. This was a certainty, but when was always nebulous at best. But she was here for a reason, so it must not be too far off.

"Why do you serve, Prince?" It was the obvious question as he lay on the playground awaiting death at her hands that didn't seem likely to come before her curiosity waned. "Why not lead?" Her answer to this question had always been obvious, bound by filial obedience more than anything else. On this side of the mirror there were no parents, nothing but those that had come through. So why?  

[candy lamb]

Silence stretched out between them. She thought perhaps he now wouldn't answer, lying there on the ground. There was a slippery, uneasy awkwardness between them, and suddenly he rocked to his feet in one fluid motion --

Black Lady did not move from the swings. He'd disappeared into the darkness. She saw the glitter of that sword as he picked it up, standing next to an old plastic slide as the knight-Prince kept his distance. He didn't come for her. She was ready and tensed to teleport if he did. Ray would have wanted her to go now, go go go, go back home, maybe get him, come back and destroy the Parallel before he could mirror-walk away. She didn't fire. He didn't come.

In quite a normal voice, he said: "Heir marries the queen, spare guards his body." She had never had a sibling. It seemed that in the kingdom of the Moon the queen regularly had one child and one only, a daughter. The knight demanded, "Are you sitting there pitying me? Are you seriously sitting there, pitying me?" She knew that disgust. The sword was being restlessly shifted in his hand. "Jesus."  

[nessy]

Black heeled feet were kicking off the ground lightly now, not quite swinging but still moving like a luridly pink and black pendulum, red eyes not leaving the glint of metal where the prince had his sword drawn and moving. After all, he could possibly throw the thing and she had no desire to be impaled like some kind of comical dartboard. The thought wasn't far from the forefront of her mind that perhaps she should call Wiseman to her side, and eliminate this threat. Yes, she did feel pity, but it wasn't that emotion which had stayed her hand.

Eyes rolled and she made an impatient sound while trying to sort out her thoughts into two languages. "Not much. You know how it is. To be second. Prince but not." There were quite a few different personalities that could show themselves in any one encounter. The vicious desire to end all life that characterized Black Lady, the diplomatic and elegant princess that was Serenity, and the child who so desperately needed affection and understanding - Chibiusa. Three parts of a whole that were so dreadfully fragmented from trauma and this alien land she'd been thrust into with only one sarcastic and detached man to keep her afloat. It wasn't particularly conductive to mental health!

"But you didn't answer. Why do you still? Why not change on this side of the mirror? Be free." Ruffled shoulders slumped as this concept, which was so fully explained in her mind, sounded only stunted and idiotic in the clumsy tongue of Americans. Japanese flew from her lips in a river as she gave up and explained it anyway before shrugging almost apologetically. "It makes sense that way." And this girl was the threat that Nehelenia was so determined to face? The thief that had stolen the crystal, and aided in sealing them behind the mirror the first time? It was hard to believe, seeing her now.  

[candy lamb]

It was hard to believe. There were, unknown to her, a number of fundamental things Captain Hector believed in. The most fundamental was Alexandros. On that foundation his house had been built, and so he said: "You haven't changed either."

It was halfway between an accusation and a shrug, warring with itself as the big patches of silence between them fed on their awkwardness. The silence must have sounded like an accusation on her side, because he was rougher when he persisted: "It's who I am. It's all I've got. He needs me, okay, so I stick by him. There's only one thing that ever makes sense, one thing I promised -- "

(He cut himself off there. Hector had been thinking. She'd given him time to think.)

The anger left his voice. Suddenly he sounded reasonable, friendly. Coaxing. In contrast to the aggression it was like being snuggled in a warm blanket. "Let's say I did and I left. What would I do? You've got all the answers, so pony up. Redo my life for me, Princess."

It was dramatic, but appealing to a teenage girl to actually get asked like some expert.  

[nessy]

Really, the parallels in their lives were almost eerie, though this was not the thought currently occupying Black Lady's mind. No, her thought was on the idea of 'being needed'. Did Wiseman need her? He certainly acted as if he did, though the wily magician never was exactly candid and forthcoming with his own emotions and thoughts. Had her family needed her? In the end, certainly. She'd been the Maiden, the only one with the power to call Helios forth and give Sailor Moon the power to defeat this prince's b***h pretender. But in her time and place, had anyone needed her? Not really. They had loved her, regardless.

Hearing her title on the lips of this adversary in that tone of camaraderie made the rabbit-ears atop her head quiver when her head jerked up from inspecting her shoes to stare almost incredulously. None of the mirror people had ever been keen to acknowledge her, it had always been Serenity to whom that title had been given. Surprise gave way to thoughtfulness and another shrug. "Do you want power? Or just a princess? Do you think about that? Probably not." People rarely ever thought about what they wanted when someone else was happily telling them what they thought they wanted. "Princess is easy, there are many. Even me. Power, not so much." Tonight, the role of Captain Obvious will be played by none other than Black Lady!

Shaking her head again, the girl waived almost dismissively in front of her face. "Just know it is not all fate? Destiny changes. Mine did. Yours can." That was the important part, almost incredibly so. Usagi and Mamoru had been destined to be her parents. But they were dead, so who were her parents? Her destiny had been to eventually rule Crystal Tokyo, but was there even a Crystal Tokyo to go home to? It was all muddy in her brain, and hurt to think about. "Do you get it?" Pink lips turned from a smile to a grin at this use of slang. She'd heard 'get it' quite a lot, and was happy to finally use it on someone not Ray. Though in all honesty, she did not expect the swordsman to be as impressed as she was.  

[candy lamb]

He stepped out of the shadows, and watched her tense like the bunnyrabbit she was named after. The cavalier watched her for a long while. At his neck there were decorations of gold drops, one glimmering a fuschia-jewelled heart. They looked at each other in the dim lights that halfheartedly cast their glow over the park and playground, two sets of eyes, two tensed sets of shoulders. He didn't move. She didn't move.

But neither did the cavalier tell her what he wanted.

"What's your real name?"

To Hector, the whole thing was pitiful, verging on tragic. Nehelenia would have been relieved if he'd taken his sword and run her through the heart, done it quick and easy so that she died as a sodden red scrap in his arms. Not pleased. Just relieved. He wasn't the type to second-guess or not do what he was meant to do, to shy away from blood or what had to be done or forget, it was just -- pitiful.

She was young and stupid and taking a chance, thinking it was good because it was different to anything she'd done before. The life choice equivalent of trying your first cigarette and wearing your first pair of heels. For Alex he needed to put that sword through her ribcage. For Alex he needed to do a lot that probably still wouldn't get his brother -- roomie -- to do anything other than grace him with a violet-eyed, clear smile, that still wouldn't -- erase.

He was sorry, that was all. His path stretched in front of him. He was the captain of the Cavaliers. He had one duty to fulfill that he always did time and time and time again because he'd been born for one thing, one thing only, one single solitary knee to bend. It was what he wanted.

Black Lady looked like Nina when she wanted to explain something to you really badly, some really ******** important fact of life like why only uncaring brothers assumed you still liked Miley Cyrus. Same face.

"I'm Hector," he said.