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Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from this fan fiction, Utena and its characters belongs to Be-PaPas, Chiho Saito and TV Tokyo.

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After bringing her home and carrying her up the stairs Anthy and Juri gently lay Utena on their bed making sure she is comfortable. Juri watches Anthy while she pulls the blanket up over Utena and adjusting her pillow, finally she asks, "Is she going to be alright?" For a few moments Anthy says nothing she just looks at Utena, tears begin to fall down her cheeks. Concerned Juri puts her hand on Anthy's shoulder gently "Anthy it will be alright wont it?" Numbly Anthy nods not taking her eyes off her Prince.

"Yes she is just exhausted, she used her power to save me and to fight that… that… thing that attacked us and she is not… was not prepared. Using her ability's like that, well, it is still new to her and it taxes her system." Anthy pauses for a moment. "It exhausted her mind and along with the injury that her body is now repairing. She was hurt badly but her power will heal her and she will be ok with some rest. Thank you for helping me bring her home Juri."

Juri nods and gives Anthy a little smile and squeezes her shoulder with her hand gently. "I am going to go down stairs and see if Miki is ok, you come down when your ready. I think we need to talk about what happened tonight."

Anthy nods and sits on the side of the bed as Juri walks out of the room and quietly shuts the bedroom door leaving Anthy alone with Utena. Anthy reaches out and takes Utena's hand in hers lifting it to her cheek and quietly cries unable to make the tears stop. "I am so sorry Utena you are hurt and its all because of me." She sobs quietly. A hand reaches up and gently wipes the tears from under her eyes and slowly she realizes it's Utena. "Anthy it's alright, its not your fault. And don't you ever forget that I promised to protect you forever even if it costs me my life." She smiles up at Anthy.

"But… that thing nearly killed you and I couldn't bear to… I couldn't…" "Shhhh… my little Princess" Utena hushes her, "It is a duty of the prince to protect the princess with their life and even if I wasn't your prince I would still protect you because I love you more than life itself and I could not bear to lose you." "Oh Utena…" Anthy says as she lies down next to Utena and lays her head on her chest. Utena gently strokes Anthy's hair and kisses her gently on the top of her head. Anthy whispers quietly to herself, "and I could not bear to lose you either…"

Juri sighs as she paces back and forth across the living room. "Juri is Utena going to be ok?" Miki asks the worry apparent on his face. "Anthy seems to think so, she told me it would be ok and that as soon as Utena recovers they will be down to tell us more about what happened. I just hope more trouble isn't coming tonight." Miki nods and let's himself drop down on the couch deep in thought. As if in response to Juri's prayer there is a sudden pounding at the front door.

Juri walks over to the door and peers out seeing Touga and Saionji there an expression of panic on their faces. As she opens the door Touga blurts out "where is Utena we have a serious problem." Blinking rapidly and slightly stunned by his outburst Juri stands aside and invites them in walking back to the living room she explains that Utena is upstairs now and she will hopefully be down shortly. Then she asks, "So what happened why did you too come over here so late?"

With a rather grim look on his face, Touga runs a hand through his hair and starts to explain. "When I got home tonight I found the front door to my house open and the inside was a mess like there had been some kind of fight, I searched around looking for Nanami because I knew she was home but I could find her nowhere. I did find this note laying on the floor of the kitchen and well... here look." With that, Touga hands the folded paper with a rose crest imprinted on it to Juri. Hands shaking she opens the note and reads the contents a sign of panic appears on her face.

Miki seeing her look immediately asks, "What is it Juri what does the note say?" Juri closes her eyes for a moment collecting her will and trying to return to her normally stoic calm. "It says I have her if you want her back alive bring me the so called prince." Miki's eyes pop open and his jaw hangs open for a few seconds before he manages to respond. "Oh no… we have to get Utena down here now!" Juri shakes her head at him, "No we have to wait for her to recover from earlier and there is nothing we can do until she does."

Touga looks at her worried and asks, "What happened earlier? Juri explains to him what Anthy managed to tell them on the way back to the house. She gives as much detail as she can about how a shadowed figure had ambushed them as they walked along the lake How Utena had defeated him with near inhuman speed and agility but not without being gravely wounded in the process and passing out just after she and Miki arrived on the scene. Touga and Saionji both looked flabbergasted and speechless when she was done.

"My god" Touga manages to stammer out, "he is making his move so soon. We have got to formulate a plan and save my sister." Juri nods grimly, "I hope Utena recovers and comes down soon we need her badly. We don't stand a chance without her. Just as she says that, the door upstairs opens and Anthy and Utena leave their bedroom and start descending the stairs. Juri looks up relief on her face, "thank god you're ok Utena we have a serious problem that we need to do something about right now."

Utena looks at her questioningly and Juri nods to Touga. Taking this as his cue, he begins to explain what happened to Nanami and as he continues to talk Utena's face goes from puzzled to angry, Anthy getting a worried look on her face tightens her grip on Utena's arm. She looks at Utena and Utena nods at her, "Yes he blocked my seeing this, her ring should have warned me. We might have more of a problem with him than we previously thought."

"Lets all have a seat and talk about our strategy, we need to handle this and we need to do it tonight." Utena sighs and heads for the couch and sits down Anthy heads to the kitchen. Utena closes her eyes for a few moments an extreme look of concentration appears on her face. "What are you…?" Juri looks at Touga and shakes her head at him silencing his question. Anthy returns with a pot of tea and some rose shaped cups on a tray she sets it down on the table and lets everyone serve themselves.

She then sits down next to Utena and watches her quietly. Touga looks at Anthy and asks, "what is she doing?" she looks up at him "she is searching for Nanami's life force, we will need to know where she is if we are going to rescue her." Touga nods and doesn't say anything else. A few moments later she opens her eyes and nods to Anthy. "I found her, he has her in his tower and she is not alone there are things in there. Things I couldn't identify but I could not sense him. I am sure he is in there somewhere though."

Utena picks up her tea and sips at it for a few moments lost in thought, the others just sit around all eyes on Utena looking for her leadership and direction. Finally she sits down her cup and sighs, "this is not going to be easy, I sensed that Nanami was surrounded by beings similar to what attacked us earlier but apparently not as strong. They seemed much weaker actually, I will need you four to handle them and rescue Nanami while I and Anthy go after Akio."

"But…" Juri hesitantly begins, "do you think we can really handle them Utena? After what you went through and we have nowhere near your ability's. I mean I will and I am sure everyone here will not back down from this fight but the question is are we going to even be any help at all?" Utena smiles softly at Juri and looks at each person sitting around her while she explains. "I gave you all a modicum of my power along with those rings, you are right you have no where near the power Anthy and I have but you will be amazed at how strong your ability's are now."

Everyone just stares at her for a moment, Saionji angrily pops up with "and you were going to tell us when?" Utena sighs, "I thought it best to just give you the rings and let you discover this for yourselves and learn to use your new ability's but it seems Akio is not going to give us that time." "If things worked out as I wanted you would have had months or maybe years to prepare yourselves I am sorry that he is coming after us so quickly but we really had no idea he was still that strong. We had thought his previous attacks would leave him nearly powerless, we were wrong"

Utena looks over at Anthy, "If he is coming after us so quickly it is a good bet he has stored away or built up a large amount of power, much more than we anticipated was possible." Anthy nods, "yes he has… He was probably storing most of the power he stole from me, his illusions and machinations were not all that power intensive. I just wonder how he was able to hide so much from me." Utena frowns, "he had a very long time to prepare Anthy a very long time."

"All right… Touga and Saionji you need to go get your weapons, Juri and Miki can come with us since they already have theirs. Make it fast we don't have a lot of time and meet us in front of the tower in 30 minutes we will be waiting there for you." They both nod and head for the door. Touga stops before he closes the door and turns to say, "Don't start without me this is personal and he is going to pay." Utena nods back, "we wont Touga now hurry, both of you" They nod and out the door they go closing it behind them.

"Let me see your weapons." Juri hands hers over first and Utena takes it in both hands concentrating hard, the sword seems to glow faintly for a few seconds then it fades away and she hands it back. "Now yours Miki." He nods and hands over his sword, Utena performs the same trick on his handing it back. "They should now weigh next to nothing when you fight and are… I guess the best word to say would be enchanted though it is not quite the same thing. What I fought was like a shadow with no substance at all those should work much better now, they will drain its power or life force what ever it is they have when you hit them. It should hurt them a lot."

Utena stands up and takes Anthy by the hand, "We will be right back I need to clean up a bit and then we will go." With that Utena and Anthy walk up the stairs and close the door behind them. Utena concentrates a bit and her Uniform shimmers slightly and is in brand new condition. She turns to Anthy and pulls her close. "Well Anthy it was sooner than we expected but it looks like its time for the big fight." Anthy nods and pulls herself tight against Utena hugging her fiercely. "You can do it Utena I believe in you, and I will be there too. We are not going to lose against him."

Utena smiles and leans down to give her a long and loving kiss before she pulls away. "Let's get back down there then and get moving." Anthy nods and turns to open the door still hanging onto one of Utena's hands. As they reach the bottom of the stairs Juri and Miki join them and the four of them head out the door. "Keep your eye's peeled we may have to fight on the way."

With a soft click of the door they are on their way.

Author's notes:

We are getting close to the end, sorry I hate stories to end when I read em but they have to some time no?

Sorry it has been so long since I updated but I wanted to flesh out the rest of the story before I continued, I know what's going to happen and when now. Before I knew what I wanted to accomplish just not quite how I wanted it to be written so I have gone by ear a lot of the way so far. I am sure that is apparent from my writing skills. Anyway there is only a couple chapters left the next one should start the battle with the devil and the one after it will be the finish and probably the end of the story but I might do one after that so it doesn't seem to end right at the end of the fight.

Again I thank everyone that has read this and encouraged me you are the reason this story has continued and I thank you for that.

lt cj Thanks it has been iffy at times but I did have a direction all the way to the end just had hesitant steps getting to this point.

apl85 you flatter me I enjoyed writing it but amazing? I dunno about that. Let's see how the big fight goes eh?

pokemongirl2523 I am glad you love it and thanks 

keiko-chan glad you have stuck with it so far you are a big reason I keep it going.

Now I think I will go read Blood Soaked and Honor Bound by shanejayell again I just love that story.