Breaking Free from Destiny

By Senshi of Ruin and RabbitTsukino

A/N: This fic was originally penned back in July 2004 by myself and RabbitTsukino. Other commitments meant that it was never posted and subsequently I have lost contact with RabbitTsukino. I was re-reading a bunch of fics that I wrote and I thought that it would be a shame if I didn't pick up where we left of as this was, in my opinion, one of the better unfinished Dark Kingdom fanfics that I had on my hard-drive. The two of us wrote the first three chapters and this prologue but I have written all later chapters alone. I have changed the plot from the original one as there were some aspects that I wasn't that keen on but for a join fic you can't always agree on everything so had we continued together they probably would have stayed in.

Breaking Free from Destiny re-writes events after Episode 23, Wish upon a shooting star, Naru's pure love, of Sailor Moon Season One and focuses a lot on the NephriteXNaru pairing as well as ZoisiteXKunzite.

Feedback is always appreciated. Thanks in advance for reading.

– Shari aka Senshi of Ruin

Prologue:

Destiny isn't at all what people think it is. You do not choose which roads of life you take. Instead there is already an ending created for you and awaiting for your arrival.

However, there is always someone who is willing to take the chance to break that destiny. For one with a strong will, they will always have the power to let go of past mistakes and become reborn again. When past lives try to eat away at your soul, your chance for any peace is destroyed with a single heartbeat.

The events of the past can change anything. Everything you once thought was real and tangible could have been built on a foundation of lies and half-truths, and when the past catches up with you it can have devastating consequences.

He stood alone atop the snowy ridge, staring down upon the stark white landscape. Little flakes of snow fell softly from the sky to rest in his hair, on his face and clothes. An icy wind whipped across his little sanctuary, but Zoisite did not even notice or feel the cold, or the fact that his hands had long since turned numb in the artic weather.

Teardrops ran rivers down his cheeks, long since dried by the harsh and forbidding elements of his kingdom's opening to the world. He couldn't speak, he couldn't feel… he was nothing… he felt nothing. An icy numbness weighed heavily on his heart, leaving him with a permanent lump in the back of his throat.

He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to kill, and he wanted some form of emotion to spill forth. Anything would be better than this nothingness that now consumed his soul. For someone who constantly poured forth an array of different feelings and temperaments, this emptiness was as frightening as the knowledge that the keeper of the Ginzuishou was near.

He had been to this place before. He had felt the same sorrow in his heart. A pain so deep that nothing could ever heal the inner turmoil and loss that ravaged the forth Tennou of the Dark Kingdom so.

He could see her, her blonde pigtails trailing a blood soaked mess through the snow. Zoisite had watched as one by one her companions fell, lost to the same fate that awaited the Princess of the Moon in the depths of the Dark Kingdom.

For a fleeting second she turned and looked his way, though she could not have possibly seen him in this blizzard. Even so, Zoisite flinched slightly, willing her away and she did so, and with an elegant toss of her head Sailor Moon started moving again, purposefully towards her destination.

She could win, Zoisite realised. She truly was worthy of the Ginzuishou's power. Beryl could not contain it, Endymion was not strong enough for it… and Kunzite… Zoisite bit his lip hard enough to taste blood. He did not know what Kunzite wanted anymore.

So he stood alone, watching the Senshi fall and witnessing Sailor Moon's eternal struggle to reach the Dark Kingdom's stronghold.

What did it matter? He was lost anyway. He felt nothing. He had nothing. He may as well be nothing. The weight of this knowledge was too much for small king and he fell to his knees in the snow, his hair falling free from its ponytail obscuring his delicate face from view. There was a rumble of thunder in the distance, accentuating his despair. Jealously and hatred had ruined his soul, torn out all his emotions and given nothing back. It had all been burnt out like a star that had reached the end of its million-year cycle. Zoisite no longer cared what happened to him. He was beyond all such concerns.

Fresh snow was quickly carpeting the ground and, very soon, the forth king also. Weak and sick in the heart, he pitched forward in a faint as the blizzard and the battle for the Earth continued around him…