Me: We have stopped fighting, since marium told us she'd call the police.

Susanne: Yeah (sighs) We were almost finished with Taski too….

Me: Well on with the story…

Chapter 6: Regret and Hope

Antauri woke up to find himself in the med bay. He looked around and saw Chiro on the next bed. "You're awake!" He heard the relieved voice of Nova.

Antauri sat up an looked over at Chiro again. "Nova, what happened?" He asked.

Nova looked over at Chiro too. "Well, when we heard the crashing between yours and Susanne's rooms, we ran toward that area. We saw you get zapped by the laser and Susanne being carried off. Chiro tried to go after her, but then he was zapped too." Nova said.

Antauri walked over to Chiro just as he was waking up. He got up slowly. "Hey Antauri." He said. He looked at Nova. "Is she?" He asked. Nova shook her head.

"No Chiro, Mandarin got away. Sorry." Nova said.

"Which means we WILL go and save her." Antauri said. Nova and Chiro gave him a surprised look. "She's weak I can tell. I can hardly feel her life force any more." He explained.

Chiro nodded. "Let's go then. Monkeys Mobilize!" Soon the Hyperforce had taken off and were headed toward the Citadel of Bone.

On the Citadel, Susanne had finally woke up. She tried to move and found that she couldn't. She looked down, but didn't find any binds of any sort. She soon realized that she couldn't move because her energy had been drained. She soon heard footsteps and tried to gather enough power to attack, or at least enough to move. She failed greatly.

"Trying to get away again I see." She heard Skeleton King say as he appeared outside the cell.

Susanne struggled even more, and while doing so, her communicator fell off, turning on. (no, not the Hyperforce communicators, one of her own special kind.) She sighed angrily, not noticing the communicator, and looked at Skeleton King. "Just let me go." She said.

At that same moment, Antauri's communicator went off. He recognized it as the one he had received from Susanne. (yes, Susanne gave one to Antauri because they had so much in common.) He picked it up and looked at it. He could hear Susanne on the other side and could sort of see her. (yes, the communicators can show images too!!!) She was a mess, and sounded ticked off. Then he heard Skeleton King talking.

"My dear girl, I won't let you go, besides soon you'll be under my control." He said. "I finally know how to corrupt you." Antauri heard him say.

Now he could hear Susanne gasp. "Antauri helped me strengthen my mind, you can't do anything to my mind anymore."

"I don't have to do anything to your mind, not when I have these." Antauri looked and saw a necklace of black pearls. He flinched as Susanne gave an ear-piercing scream when the pearls touched her skin. He gasped as he saw the pearls lift up to reveal burned skin. "Now I can take control of your body." Skeleton King said.

"Antauri! You ok?" He jumped as he heard Chiro come in.

"Yes, but Susanne's not." He replied. "We must hurry."

Chiro gave him a questioning look but didn't say anything. "Target in sight." He said as the Citadel came into sight. "Ready?" He asked, the monkey team nodded. "Auto crew activated! Jump!" The team jumped onto the ship and got inside.

"Now we must find Susanne's cell." Antauri said.

Back with Susanne, she had several burn marks on her body now. She had a lot of trouble moving now. She pulled at the necklace of pearls, but failed to do so. She had limited time before she could no longer control her body. Then, finally, she passed out from the pain. Skeleton King picked up the body and brought it to his throne room to wait for the Hyperforce.

Finally, the monkey team blasted through the walls, weapons activated. "Let her go Skeleton King!" Chiro yelled.

Skeleton King laughed. "I think not. Attack!" He yelled. The Hyperforce prepared for what was coming, but gasped instead. What stood before them was Susanne, only different. Instead of icy blue eyes, they were redder than fire, and instead of golden hair, it was jet black. And her black leather had been changed with the bone on the sleeves. Around her neck, there was a necklace of pure black pearls. "I like your reaction to my newest apprentice." Skeleton King said laughing.

The new Susanne laughed with him and then prepared an attack. "Ice fire storm!" She yelled as she threw an icy fire at them.

"Susanne! Don't do this!" Chiro cried out.

Antauri dodged an icefire blast. "I can't feel her mind, it's been shut down. This isn't completely Susanne Chiro!" Antauri said. "She's not in control of her body!" Antauri yelled at Chiro as he dodged another attack.

Chiro nodded before attacking halfheartedly. He was blasted back by Susanne. Nova jumped in front of Chiro to protect him. "Boom Boom Wakeup!" Nova said attacking. Susanne grabbed Nova before she could get hit by her, and threw her across the room.

"Nova!" Sprx cried. "That's it!!! I'm not holding back anymore! Magna Tingler Blast!" Susanne, not expecting such a strong attack was blasted backward, but before she hit the wall she blasted Sprx back with darkness. When she hit the wall, though, her real self woke up.

Susanne gasped and fell to her knees, holding her head, trying to fight the real Susanne that was trapped inside. She won and got back up. The real Susanne, however, could still speak with her body. "Antauri! Aim for the necklace!! That's what's letting Skeleton King control me!!!" She cried out before passing out again, allowing the evil side of her to take over again.

Antauri smiled and looked at Gibson and Otto. "Ready?" He asked. They both nodded. All three of them powered up their attacks.

"Spin Shocker!"

"Strich Scratch Doom Thrower!"

"Monkey Mind Scream!"

All three of these attacks formed and headed straight toward the necklace that Susanne was wearing. She tried to stop the attacks from coming, but they hit the target, and the necklace fell off, leaving Susanne unconscious. Skeleton King was not happy. He blasted both Gibson and Otto, leaving Antauri the only one standing. Skeleton King picked up Susanne and threw her body across the room, her body making a sickening thud on the wall. He then grabbed Antauri and was about to throw him when.

"Lightning Kick!" Chiro had gotten back up and was aiming right at Skeleton King. Skeleton King flew across the room, and was knocked out. "You ok Antauri?" He asked.

"I'm fine, but I'm not so sure about Susanne." Antauri said as the others got up. They all walked over to Susanne. She had turned back to normal, but she was a mess, and breathing heavily.

"We have to get her to med bay, stat!" Gibson said picking her up with Antauri.

Soon they were flying back to Shuggazoom in the Super Robot. The whole team was in the med bay, surrounding Susanne. Nova was patching up her body, wherever she was bleeding. When she was finished doing that, Antauri began to meditate, and the team left the two of them alone.

When Susanne woke up, she saw Antauri meditating next to her. She tried to get up, but only winced at the pain in her neck. Then she remembered what had happened. Antauri noticed she was awake and stopped meditating. "Are you ok?" He asked.

Susanne got up, wincing. "I think I'm fine. But I just want to know why the heck my neck hurts..." Susanne started peeling off the bandages around her neck, gasping at the pain.

Antauri grabbed her hand. "You need to stop." He said. Susanne ignored him and kept on going. The rest of the bandages came off, and Susanne gasped. Antauri had to turn his head at the sight. Susanne's neck was covered with burns and bruises. Antauri forced himself to turn toward her again. "Gibson said that could have gone farther, and he also said if it HAD gone farther, you could've died. You were close to dieing too." Antauri said.

The rest of the team came in and Otto ran over to Susanne. "You're ok!" He yelled happily. He stopped jumping as he saw Susanne's uncovered neck.

Gibson walked over to Susanne as well. "You should be lying down. And, those bandages should have not come off." He said sternly. Susanne rolled her eyes while Nova walked over to wrap her neck again.

Susanne winced as Nova wrapped it a little too tight. "Sorry." Nova said, loosing the bandage a little bit. She finished, and Susanne thanked her.

"We have a couple questions that we want to ask you, but we should probably wait until later." Gibson said.

Susanne shook her head. "No, we can do this now. I'm just going to need some help getting to the main room." Susanne said. Chiro helped her get up and half carried her to the main room. He then set her on her own chair and she winced as his hand brushed by her neck. The monkeys sat in their own chairs. "So... what are these questions you want to know?" She asked nervously.

"Well, let's start off at this. What was with those black pearls around your neck?" Sprx asked.

Susanne winced slightly, for she could still feel that nasty necklace on her neck. "Well, those pearls came from my home planet of Taranta. I haven't been on that planet for a long time." She stopped as she saw confused faces. "You see, I didn't always live Coradon, I used to live on the planet Taranta. I lived there for about 10 years before I was summoned to Coradon by Serenity, Goddess of the Moon, and Dracon, God of Darkness. Those are the two who gave me my powers and transported me to Coradon. But before I was found by them, I never had any friends, and the other kids found that black pearls could burn me. They loved to throw the pearls at me, so, soon enough, I ended up staying at home at all times. That's when I got my powers." Susanne had to stop and control herself. She was close to tears, not just because of the pain, but she always hated thinking about her past. "I don't know how Skeleton King found out about my weakness, but he will pay for what he has done to me and my planet." She said. Suddenly a very bad pain hit her neck. She flinched and brought her hand up to her neck. "One detail I forgot, ever since I got my powers, the black pearls can corrupt me." She said.

The team looked shocked for a second. That was a lot for them to take in a one time. Then finally Antauri went over to Susanne. "You need to get some sleep." He said. She nodded slightly, only to wince again. "You'll need to stay in the med bay for a while, so we can keep an eye on you." He said. This time, Susanne didn't move. Chiro helped her up and walked her to the med bay. She laid down and feel asleep instantly.

The whole entire team looked at Gibson. "Is she going to be ok?" Otto finally asked.

"Well, she should be fine, she can heal herself after all. But there is the fact that those pearls burned her very badly. We're going to have to make sure to keep an eye on that neck, so the burns and bruises don't get any worse." Gibson said. The team nodded silently. "You guys get some sleep, I'll keep an eye on her for now."

The team, (except for Gibson) went to bed (after landing beck on Shuggazoom of course!). Gibson sat inside the med bay, monitring Susanne's vitals and such, making sure her condition didn't get any worse.

In her mind, Susanne hated herself for getting the Hyperforce into that mess. She regretted even meeting them. But then, she remembered how they had come to save her and the smallest flame began to flicker inside of her body. One that she had not had for a long time. The flame of hope, which light higher then the flame of regrets.

Me: Well that was fun…

Susanne: -rubs neck- That hurt…

Me: ' um, yeah, well….. Well, I got to get working on the next chapter. R&R peoples!!!

Susanne: Please do review!! Shimmer is having trouble with writing now!!! See you next time!!