Sailor Mars hurried as fast as she could, not even caring if she was running through Shadow territory. They wouldn't dare mess with her. She would merely fry them alive and go...the same way she would fry the one who harmed Sakura. The raven-haired beauty felt heat come to her fingertips as she made her silent vow. She sped up, willing her long legs to get her to Sakura as fast as they could get her. She couldn't sense her friend's energy signature and that worried her greatly.
Please, be alive. Mars prayed.
She hurried to the apartment complex and made a mighty leap to the third floor. She had no time to climb stairs. Time was of the essence. Soon enough, she busted through the door and immediately searched for her fellow scout. Switching on the light in the bedroom, the Guardian of Fire found her on the floor.
"Sakura!"
Hurrying to her side, Mars checked for a pulse. It was slow but it was there. She didn't see any visible damage that could have been caused by a youma until she inspected Sakura's wrist. Upon the girl's wrist, were puncture wounds that appeared to be made by a human. Frowning, she checked her friend's neck and found a similar mark.
"Mars?"
"Thank goodness." She sighed with relief.
"I feel so weak." Sakura said. "He drained a lot of my energy."
"Who did this?" Mars asked.
Before Sakura could answer, the rest of the inner scouts came rushing into the apartment. Confused, everyone asked what had happened. Mars had to shush them and explained that it wasn't a youma. She didn't find its presence nor evidence that there had been one. In fact, it had been a human that had attacked her. Rei had her suspicions as she remembered her vision from the Great Fire but didn't voice it. Sakura's health was her main concern.
"We can deal with this later." Mercury suddenly said. "She needs to rest and recover her energy."
"I'll stay." Mars replied. "I think I have an idea what's going on. We'll talk later. Go back to the palace."
Jupiter was hesitant to leave but the rest of her crew eventually pulled her away once Sakura was settled in her bed. The young woman was aware of their presence but didn't feel like talking. She didn't feel well at all and wanted to rest. Mars powered down and removed some charms that she had in the pocket of her jeans. She placed some around and under the bed and in various corners of Sakura's room. It was a defense mechanism to prevent further psychic attacks.
"It was Takuya."
"What?"
Sakura didn't reply. Her eyes were closed in a deep sleep. Rei sighed. A psychic vampire always would take a lot out of people. While there were some unintentional attacks, most of them were not and this clearly wasn't unintentional. The Fire Guardian sat in a soft chair nearby and began to focus on healing her friend. Ikeda Takuya would have to wait.
He had to give the raven-haired woman credit. She had a very strong will and a very strong mental defense. Takuya wasn't able to probe her mind without alerting her. However, he had a very strong urge to kill someone and he wasn't getting anywhere at the moment with his current targets. Fortunately for him, though, that would soon be remedied. One of his men found a thief and a traitor among them and thieves and traitors were often executed.
He enjoyed the feel of cold metal in his hands as he took his handgun with him to the warehouse where prisoners were held. As he entered, he relished the look of fear on his victim's face. Takuya had a reputation of being brutal in his executions but he had other plans for tonight...plans that no one else was aware of. He had an appointment with someone else so he had to make this quick.
BLAM!
That helped ease the itch Takuya felt somewhat but now he wanted more and tonight's hunt would help. His men were used to him disappearing for hours and days at a time so they didn't really question it. Of course, if they did question it, he would make it so that they wouldn't do so in the future. That would also cover him if and when he killed another woman and speaking of...
My next target should be arriving soon.
Takuya took disappeared into the night. He had an appointment to keep and it just wouldn't do if he arrived late.
"My lady!" A guard cried. "It happened again!"
Neo-Queen Serenity was met with the terrifying news of another woman being reported as missing. Her thoughts immediately turned to Sakura but her guardians had found her in time and that Sailor Mars had stayed with her. She shook her head and frowned. She knew that the police force was doing all that they could to catch him but she had a feeling that the killer that ran around the city was no ordinary killer.
"I may have to deploy my outer scouts for this." She finally said.
Normally, she would recruit Sailor Night for such a job as she was so in tune with the shadows but she was out until she could heal up. Serenity was about to call for her stronger guardians when she was hit a terrifying vision. She couldn't see the woman's face but the red bow on her head was very familiar to the queen. The woman in her vision was meeting a man before she disappeared into a house.
'No...'
"My lady?"
"Never mind."
Serenity teleported herself to the Time Gates and met with her solitary guardian, Sailor Pluto. Her ancient eyes, filled with utter sadness and despair, confirmed her worst fears. Tears began to fill the queen's eyes as the horrible truth sank in.
"I'm sorry."
"VENUS!"
Rei jumped in shock as she felt the queen's pain and despair. Something terrible had happened! She was going to call Venus when Jupiter contacted her on her communicator instead. The Guardian of Fire quietly slipped out of Sakura's bedroom and relocated to the living room.
"Venus is missing!" Jupiter cried.
"NO!"
The young woman sank into the couch. First the attack on Sailor Night and now Venus had disappeared. She hoped against hope that their bubbly friend hadn't fallen victim to the monster that was preying on women. Her instincts, though, were telling her otherwise. She clenched her fist in anger and misery.
"Venus is missing?"
Sailor Mars turned to see Sakura up and standing. She was still pale but not as bad as she had been the day before. The fear and concern in her amethyst eyes came to life. Sakura shuddered as she remembered those dark words...
"Careful. You just might end up dead like the other girls."
Could it be...?
Sakura looked at Rei with tired, yet determined, eyes.
"Get me to the palace. NOW."
