Disclaimer: Nooooooooooo! I had a nightmare where I didn't own Sailor Moon! I was forced to post all my Sailor Moon ideas on this website called Fanfiction .net and like, I didn't even know Naoko Takeuchi... it was terrible!

A/N: Whew, been a while! I apologize for the wait but with school now added to my workload, I haven't had much writing time! I've also been gone for a while at camp. Thank you to my reviewers: Double G, Baby Luna Kitty, Cloud9WithSugar, Sailor Josseme, Bronze Wolf, merangelgal, ButterflyRogue, Counterfeiting Shakespeare, Ummster, SleepingMoonAngel, CharmedSerenity3, heartofblades, Cecilia13, Ashley, mae-E, Usagi of Feudal Moon Era, jasmineflower001, babyee-bex43, kaika uruwashii, AfGhAnCuTiE, maltese-princess, Courtney, lailane, small876, melis, and evelynvm29.

Saving Bonds of Love

Rated T

Part 12: "Grasping for Roses"


Mamoru entered the wing where the Senshi's rooms were, looking thoroughly depressed. His walk was bent and it appeared as if a heavy burden were weighing down his every step. The normally cheery midnight blue eyes were dull and void, filled with sorrow and guilt. The college aged student sighed, beginning to make his way to his room.

"Mamo-chan?" a small voice said. Said man turned and noticed through the open door of the Inners' room that all the girls were grouped together. It was ChibiUsa who'd spoken, and in a very nervous tone... like he'd jump out and bite her if she talked too loud.

"Yes, ChibiUsa?" he answered in the same soft tone. She seemed to gather strength from that. Mamoru noticed the others exchanging relieved looks that he seemed back to normal, albeit quiet.

"Have you seen Usagi?"

"Usako...? No, no, I haven't," Mamoru answered unthinkingly, then it seemed to hit him when the girls all passed around looks of fear and worry. "Wait... she isn't back yet?"

"No, we haven't seen her since your... ah... since she stormed off the cliff," Haruka spoke up, biting her lip and adding for her sake as well as everyone else's, "You know Usagi. She's probably just taking her sweet time."

"Yah, that Usagi," ChibiUsa laughed half-heartedly, a dark countenance about her. Her forehead was prickled and her ruby eyes were doleful.

"She has her communicator, ChibiUsa-chan," Rei soothed softly, touching her little friend's shoulder. "If something happened, we'd have known."

"And I'd have felt it," Mamoru put in, smiling. At this, ChibiUsa became reassured.

"You're right. She's okay."

Mamoru nodded, praying along with everyone else that this was truth. He excused himself from the girls and headed into his and Usako's room.

Please, God, let Usako be fine...

A white hot pain stabbed Mamoru in his midsection and the man doubled over, stuffing his fist into his mouth to keep from crying out. A vision of Usagi being suffocated under water permeated his mind; her pain becoming his, her voice becoming his only thoughts...

Then, like cold billows being thrown onto him, Mamoru was released and returned to his own state of mind- which wasn't very consoling, considering the terrible fear washing over his heart.

Oh, God...

Usako.

Usako was in trouble- and she was dying.

No other thought ran through his mind than this, and the unbearable need to get to her; save her.

I'm coming, Usako.

oOo

Blue.

White.

Brown.

Black.

So many colors erupted in front of Usagi's eyes as she choked and struggled beneath the icy water. The hands keeping her captive seemed warm now, compared to the chill of the surf. Usagi blinked dizzily, feeling her body fall limp as her spirit became seperate from it. The pain and the cold almost seemed a distant memory now...

Until warm, summer evening air was being gasped into her lungs once more, and the frigidness of just being doused in the ocean all came back. Usagi, hanging in the air and only supported by the youma's hands, could do nothing as her weak being protested at being held so.

And then the blue abyss enclosed her as she was pulled down again.

Mamo-chan, help me...

oOo

Mamo-chan, help me...

I'm coming, Usako... Mamoru thought back. Hold on...

He reached into his jacket and withdrew a rose, perfectly formed and almost shivering in his hands with power. Mamoru held it into the air, letting the aforesaid power flow up through his veins and into his body, morphing it and transforming it. A tuxedo appeared on his body and a cloak was draped onto his shoulders. With an outstretched beckoning of his arm, a tophat swirled into the air and onto the superhero's head.

Tuxedo Kamen had arrived, and no one was going to halt his mission.

With a billowing of his onyx cloak, Tuxedo Kamen rushed out the window and jumped from the balcony. As his feet hit the ground, he drew out his extendable cane like a sword and sprinted off to the ocean's edge where he knew his damsel in distress to be.

Hold on...

oOo

Hold on...

The soft words were like a warm embrace to the drowning teen. They filled her with power and hope, and strength to fight. She knew deep in her heart that Mamoru was coming... despite their fights, despite their differences, he would be there for her. He would protect her, at all costs. After all, that was what love was all about.

"No," she cried, voice distorted as bubbles escaped from her mouth. "NO!" A hot surge of moon power erupted from inside her and with strength she had been lacking, pulled herself up and inhaled sweet summer air again. Oh, it was so good!

The youma shrieked, trying to pull her down again but the superheroine fought tooth and nail. She would not give up, not again.

Mamoru was coming, he would save her... her Prince...

A sound like a streaming bullet pierced the air and the main youma holding her screamed terribly. More noises similar to the first followed and the oncoming night was full of the yells of youma. Usagi looked around and her heart was filled with love at the sight of dozens of roses stuck into the youmas. They clawed at them uselessly and Usagi saw, up on the shore, Tuxedo Kamen smiling grimly down at her.

"Mamo-chan," she breathed. He bounded down and variously kicked and punched youma in his fight to Usagi in the middle of thee throng. Still stunned by the roses, the youma were easily defeated and Mamoru was soon in front of his drenched Princess.

She looked up at him, their fight still painfully obvious in both of their blue orbs. Usagi tried to find the right words. She so wanted to apologize, but it was as if the words were stuck in her throat.

"Th-thank you," she gasped out, reaching foward to cling to the lapels of his tuxedo. He too reached foward, to pull her into his arms, but a harsh voice screeched in his mind,

NO, ENDYMION!

A freight train-like sound screamed behind them and Usagi cried, "MAMO-CHAN!" He craned his neck to look behind and fear gripped his heart. From the depths rose youma after youma, hundreds maybe. And all of them were starting at the lovers.

Mamoru grabbed Usagi and pulled him behind her, unsheathing his cane to make it longer. He steeled himself for their attack and prayed Usagi didn't do anything rash.

It never came.

Brilliant rays of different colors light up the dark sky and war cries filled the air. The youma closest to the couple exploded in bursts of water. Both Tuxedo Kamen and Usagi looked up on shore.

"How dare you attack our Prince and Princess! You'll pay!" little Sailor Chibi Moon shouted, going into her pose as the girls followed suit. "In the name of-"

"Mars!"

"Mercury!"

"Jupiter!"

"Venus!"

"Pluto!"

"Neptune!"

"Uranus!"

"Saturn!"

"And the future moon, we'll punish you!" the pink clad warrior exclaimed. Kamen took the youma's inattention to him and Usagi to grab her and pull them up to shore.

"Transform," he told her quickly, and Usagi bit her lip.

"They threw my brooch somewhere up the shore."

"We'll distract them. You must find it!" Mercury cried, then turned back to the water where the youma were making their way out from the depths.

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

"GO!" Mars shouted when Usagi lingered too long to see what was happening, and Usagi turned and began scouring the sand.

Where had they thrown it again? Her memory of it was faulty. She stopped to look around for a glint of gold, but saw with a sinking of the heart that the moonlight wasn't enough to provide a gleam. The moon's radiance seemed dimmer tonight.

The one named Sailor Moon continued her search while the fight raged on. Everyone was vigorously involved-

The youma were now on shore, ragged bodies everywhere the Princess looked. She doubled her looking with a more frantic air. They needed her help!

A flash of orange, Venus' attack, illuminated the sand briefly. It was then that Usagi spotted her brooch.

"Yes!"

She scooped it up and called the power of the Silver Crystal into her. "Moon Eternal, Make-Up!" Ribbons and feathers swirled around, blocking her vision as silver and pink light enveloped her. With a final pose, Sailor Moon entered the fray with a bang, foregoing formalities.

"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!"

The Silver Crystal's magic swelled from her tier and destroyed a group of youma surrounding her overwhelmed daughter, trying to fight them all off with her Twinkle Yell. The small hearts were only causing the youma minor discomfort. Chibi Moon looked over and grinned.

"Thanks!"

Sailor Moon winked and powered up again, destroying youma after youma. Her heart beat with the thrill of battle. They were winning; the sea monsters couldn't fight the Senshi's power...

Nothing could hurt her!

Nothing could break their defenses!

Until a too-familar cry rent the air, and Sailor Moon looked around.

Tuxedo Kamen was clutching his side, where red distorted the white part of the tuxedo. The air left her and she began running for him. He looked up, their eyes connecting. She watched as the midnight in his orbs grew dim until they disappeared from view by his lids. He collapsed to the sand before Sailor Moon even reached him.

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama... Tuxedo Kamen-sama... Tuxedo-"

A youma scooped up the injured man and floated into the air, a manic grin splitting the sides of its face. It was then that the other Senshi noticed as well.

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama!"

"Mamoru-san!"

A humungous tsunami wave rose, looming up like a monster against the night. The girls could only watch in terror as it collapsed, engulfing their Prince and the youma. And then it was upon them, throwing the ten up the shore with the force of ten tidal waves.

Sailor Moon came up coughing and spluttering, frantically looking around for Tuxedo Kamen and the youma.

They were gone.

"Mamo-chan... Mamo-chan... Nooooooo!" she screamed, stumbling up and rushing back out to the quickly receding water. "MAMO-CHAN!"

"Sailor Moon, stop!"

"No, Usagi-chan!"

So many unintelligible voices called out to her to stop, come back, but she didn't listen. How could she? Mamoru was gone; kidnapped, somewhere out at sea. Nothing mattered... nothing mattered...

The golden halo head sloshed out to knee length, calling desperately for her lost knight. Was he underwater? Where had they gone? Other echoing splashes announced the Senshi's presence, chasing after her. They were still futilely trying to bring her back to shore. They thought it was too late.

It wasn't!

It wasn't!

I'll get him back, the Moon warrior thought brashly. He's not gone, he's not gone...

But even as she mentally promised this, something in the water caught her attention. A rose, floating on the surface as if it were glass. Suddenly, a terrible urge to retrieve it filled Usagi. It was like a beacon; a piece of Mamoru. She began kicking out; swimming for it like her life depended on getting that one shred of her Prince.

"USAGI, STOP!"

It was all useless chatter; careless noise- what did it matter how far she swam out to get the drifting flower? It was a rose; it was Mamoru's rose, left for her, it had to be... somehow if she got it, he'd come back and be with her again... She'd apologize; everything would be okay...

Sailor Moon gasped as the waves began overwhelming her with inexorable rage, breaking over her and pushing her farther away. She was relentless in her fight though, and it paid off- mere inches away from the rose, the sixteen year old lunged, and felt her fingers enclose around the stem.

A terrible voice filled her head like ice water.

Princess Serenity, if you ever want to see Endymion again, come to the ocean's edge at midnight, alone.

The hypnotic spell of a tongue released her, leaving Usagi feeling dry and empty inside.

So that was it then. They took him for her; he was the ransom.

It was her fault.

Sailor Moon began to shake. Her fault, her fault... How could this be happening!?

A scream ripped out of her throat; the kind that feels as if your vocal cords are about to be torn it two. She screamed and screamed, to the night, to the cruelty of the world, and to the still unknown enemy that had stolen her Mamo-chan before they'd even had a chance to make-up.


A/N: Review please, because the more who do, the faster I update!

Yours,

AngelMoon Girl