Elf Dawned Book 1: By Chance

by BloomAmber

It had all happened by chance, me discovering Elf City. It had all happened by chance, me falling for the Lord. It had all happened by chance, me being human and unable to be in a world I want to be in most... Or did it?

13. Done For

A/N: Da da ta da! I'm still alive! Who would've guessed? Anyhow, here's chapter 12. Took SOOO LONG to write up, but I feel like I did a pretty good job. All this drama in my life helped, too. Writing really gets rid of all this pent up emotion. LOL. ENJOY!

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved to Naoko. I do not own Sailor Moon, but the story is all my creation.

Summery: It had all happened by chance, me discovering Elf City. It had all happened by chance, me falling for the Lord. It had all happened by chance, me being human and unable to be in a world I want to be in most... Or did it?

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Elf Dawned Book 1: By Chance...

Chapter 12:

Beryl stood leisurely against the wall, her eyes still boring into me. "Well?" she spit. "Where is it, you worm!"

I backed away. I could sense that she wasn't going to stick around to question me, and was intending to get what she wanted one way or another.

"Give me the necklace!"

When I didn't answer, she pushed herself from the wall and ran forward to grab my shoulders. I ducked under her and began to run down the hall. She caught up to me with surprising speed, and hit me from the side, using my poor balance as her advantage to pin me to the wall. "Now, I'll ask you one more time. Where did you put your necklace?"

Beryl's voice was mockingly sweet, and her breath smelt of alcohol. It was no doubt to me now that the necklace I had was important, otherwise she wouldn't have let it bother her.

She growled at me, and pushed me against the wall even harder. I winced as my back protested against this, and the place where she was holding my arms began to hurt. "I'll never tell a witch like you."

Beryl's crazed eyes shone redder than before. In return, I summoned my powers, too, and soon saw two faint red marks on her skin, the reflection of my glowing eyes.

"Oh, look at that, princess summoned her magic powers. This isn't the poor man's show, kid. You can't possibly beat me. You never practice, and you spent most of your life ignoring this gift. Just give me the necklace, and no one gets hurt."

"Lies!" I growled. "As soon as you have the necklace, you'll just throw me in a fire and marry prince charming to own the land." She was hissing at my direction, but I continued ranting. Spending most of my time for the last couple of days acting helpless and playing damsel in distress taught me something: you can depend on others for only so much. You have to do some of the dirty work yourself. "It's not going to work, you know. The elves will figure out that you put him under a spell. They'll figure out what you are."

Beryl smashed me even harder against the wall. "I'm too smart for them. These idiot happy-go-lucky elves only care to party and dance. If they do find out, it'll be years after my reign."

So she did put him under a spell! I should have known...

"Well, then, I guess I'm going to have to speed things up a little bit." I planted my feet firmly on the ground and grabbed her shoulders, then pushed with all my might. She barely even moved. I kicked her, I elbowed, and I bit. Nothing effected her. Instead, she seemed amused.

Then I was suddenly flying, hurling towards the opposite wall. I felt a pain in my head, but before I could figure out what had happened, I was looking up into the black eyes of a twenty-foot long worm, ready to fall over on me. I rolled on my side as it came down, and it managed to land next to me, throwing up floor tiles and various furniture. Tiles that had once decorated the floor pelted me as they came down, but I ignored them as I summoned a worm of my own. When I looked up, my creature looked pathetic compared to Beryl's.

She thought so, too, because I could hear her laughing. "And you expect to win? Oh, please, don't set unrealistic goals for yourself. You should have been dead with your parents."

My worm moved towards her's, mouth open, ready to bite. Then it lurched forward and sunk it's teeth into her worm. There was a sickening cry from the larger beast, and suddenly my creature was two pieces of worm turned into rock as Beryl's worm fell on mine.

Then I spotted Beryl, smiling her cocky smile, coming towards me in sure steps. "Give up, you little brat. It's not like you'll win."

I refused to let her have the satisfaction, but I was running out of options. I looked around, but I couldn't find anything that could aid me. Broken furniture, smashed walls, glass, everything but a place to escape.

"Oh, I remember your parents thought they could win, too. Your father was named the strongest in the land."

Now, I won't lie here. I know what usually happens around this time: she'll try to use my emotions against me. But despite that fact, I had never known that my parents have once fought her. I mean, I suspected it, but I never knew for sure until now. I was intrigued.

"Yes, and you, Serenity, were going to be the strong, warrior princess of the Blood Hounds, ruling them into a new, stronger era. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You were both a disappointment, and I was there to put the pieces back in order. Expectations may rise, but a good-for-nothing weakling will always be nothing but."

I jumped out of the way as the worm tried to fall on me again. The worm missed, but I had managed to step on a loose tile and lose my balance. I fell, and felt fire burning in my back, and as I moved to get up, I found that I couldn't move my left leg, which still harvested the burns from the fire.

Then the worm was falling on me again, and I was rolling once more. This time, my dress caught under the worm. If Beryl commanded it to roll over, I was doomed.

Beryl took her own sweet time walking over here, and when she was close enough, she bent down to be eye level with me. "Give it to me."

"The necklace belongs to Endymion!"

"Well he doesn't want it. Now give it to me!"

"No."

"Serenity..." her tone was similar to a tone a mother would use to warn a little one that they were crossing the line. I didn't care.

I summoned another worm, a smaller one. It's not like I had much choice. My energy was draining as my body used it to heal, and fast. It's not like it made much difference to my overall body, though. My back still hurt, I was still covered in burns, and my broken leg? Yeah, it was still broken. Obviously, if healing powers took this long to heal my body, a normal human might have been in intensive care.

Or dead.

Lucky me.

"Fine, you want to play like that?" She grabbed my neck, and my hands shot up to fend her off. Her hands closed around my throat, and my breath was cut off. Soon, it felt like my chest would explode. I let the small worm fall on her.

But it obviously missed, since she continued to hold my neck in a deathly grip.

I was seeing black dots and my vision was getting blurry, and I realized that this might be the end. My grip, although I tried to strengthen it, loosened around her wrists, and I knew I was done for.

Then, the most amazing thing happened... not that I remember much of it, since I was spending some of that time recovering and in a confused stupor.

A voice I recognized was yelling. Then, some other voices joined in. Beryl's grip on my throat was loosened, then was gone in a flash, and she growled in outrage. "What is this! What's going on? ENDYMION!"

The oxygen my body had been lacking filled my body as I gasped, then, when I was able to see properly, I realized that the hem of my dress was no longer tied down by the worm.

I looked up, and was instantly drowning in the most amazing blue I ever laid eyes on. Those eyes sent shivers down my spine, and I flinched, and fell back.

"Serenity! Amy, something's wrong with her!"

Then, the eyes were gone, replaced by a kind face examining me.

"She's in shock, and a bit broken is all."

I heard a crash, and tried to look around my friend's face, but she moved in front of me, blocking my view.

"Let me see!" I rasped, sitting myself up. But when I looked to see what happened, I wished I hadn't.

Nephrite, who was obviously not in any condition to fight since the last time I saw him, he had a bloody gash in the arm and a worm on his injured leg. Now, the leg looked even worse, covered in blue and black spots, bloody, and impossibly swelled. And he was fighting Beryl.

I was so focused on him, I didn't realize there were other people there, too, until a while later. It took me a moment to recognize them, but when I did, I realized that Ray, Lita, and Mina were there, along with Zoisite, Jadeite, and Kunzite.

And leading them to victory was none other than Endymion.

I double took, my brain slightly fuzzy from being hit. Was I seeing things? Was that really Endymion? I blinked. Then blinked again. Then I squinted. But indeed, it looked like Endymion had come to the rescue.

"Serenity, let me check your wounds!" Amy's voice cut me off my train of thought.

"No!" I said, staggering up. Pain shot up my leg, and in a lot of other parts, too, but I knew what I had to do. "This is my battle. They'll all be murdered. They're no match for Beryl."

"Neither are you, in the condition you are in!"

"What about Nephrite, huh? What about him? Take him off the field. At least I'm of the same breed as Beryl, so I have a better chance in winning than him."

"But Endymion said-"

"And you're listening to Endymion, now? After all that he's done? Amy, I don't know about you, but I'm not trusting this game. For all you know, he's still siding with Beryl, and telling you that I can't fight might bring more advantage to Beryl... And by the way, why are you trusting Endymion?"

Amy bit her lip. "Well... it's kinda a long story."

"No time for that. Fill me in later." If there was a later...

I stood up straight and conjured up my beast, then I sat on it's back. The worm slugged towards Beryl, not quite fast enough, but faster than I would've.

Then, when we were close enough, it began to fall. "ZOISITE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Zoisite, who had been in an intense battle with one of the many worms Beryl had conjured up, looked up, startled, and retreated in time for my worm to squish the other worm.

"Serenity, what are you doing?" Zoisite demanded, watching as both worms turned to rock.

I slid off the worm and limped forward, towards Beryl, who was in an intense stand-off against Endymion. It was now or never.

I grabbed the closest thing I could find,which just so happened to be a shard of a window that had broken, and charged at Beryl.

She saw me coming, and so did Endymion. He grabbed for her just as she tried to escape, but she wiggled out and fell back. The next thing I knew, I was charging at a worm.

I stopped and jumped out of the way as it fell over. Then Beryl was flying into me, knocking me down and pinning me to the floor. "Give up, princess. You'll only lose!"

I tried to push her off, but it was doing no good. I was pinned under her. "You'll never win! There will always be someone who will know what you have done!"

"Not unless I get rid of everyone here, and claim that Endymion died trying to save me from your wild rampage."

I shook my head, my teeth clenched. "You disgust me."

Then, I knew what I had to do. I remembered how Endymion had showed me the book on Blood Hounds, and I'd asked what they were.

"A Blood Hound is the most feared creature in the galaxy!" he'd said. "It's a human being with red eyes and powers to kill by just touching a near-by person, drawing all the blood out of that organism and turning it into energy for itself!"

But I couldn't possibly do that... could I? No. These were my friends. I couldn't kill even one of them to save my petty butt.

But if I just took a little...

It would be for the best. I was the only one who could go up against Beryl, and my drained energy wasn't helping at all.

"ENDYMION!" I shouted.

Beryl laughed. "Oh, please. Now you're depending on lover boy to save you? He's the one who got you in this mess in the first place."

"ENDYMION!"

I could see him, searching my eyes, trying to figure out what I could possibly want him to do when Beryl could obviously throw him off. But it only took a second for him to jump from the spot he was in and run towards me, leaving the worm he had began to battle.

"TAKE MY HAND!"

Beryl's eyes got big. "NO! Don't you see? She's going to drain you! ENDYMION!"

But he had grabbed my hand, and then the world stopped. I could suddenly feel warm energy running through my veins, little by little. It was like drinking life. All the pain went away. The horror... the sounds...

But then, I could hear him. And, since I was still staring at him, I knew he wasn't talking.

He was panicked, scared... but he wasn't going to stop me. Then, he began to relax, to think that this wasn't so bad... that it was actually kind of relaxing... kind of pleasant.

He asked me if I was ok. I was confused. How can he possibly ask that, after all that he had done? I mean, sure, I still depended on him during a life-or-death situation, but still... why is he even here?

His side of the link suddenly became very depressed, and I realized that he had heard me. Then he was going through events that had happened while I was in here with Beryl.

The stage, burnt and black, wisps of smoke piling up into the air...

The elves, all confused... scared...

Then Mina and Frost, begging him to think rationally. Asking him if he really wanted Serenity dead...

Yes, of course... was his first thought.

Then... no?

He was looking questioningly into Mina's eyes when suddenly, there was a sharp pain on his head. Some of the elves had gotten too reckless... had began to throw up plates and bowls and cups out of anger. One plate, of the heavy variety, had hit him on the head...

And suddenly... he couldn't remember anything except today.

Serenity was in trouble... his fault.... had to do something...

At least he had the necklace.

And then he was off, trying to find her, but not being able to. He looked everywhere... everywhere... only a broken mess, blood... dead men. The horror... and then, Zoisite was attacking him.

"You're not going to get near her!" he had yelled. "You've caused her too much pain already!"

He was afraid. What had he done? How much had he done? How long has this been going on?

"Zoisite!" He had begged. "Please, I need to find Serenity! She's in trouble!"

"Hell right, she is! How can you keep showing your face to the public after all you have done?"

He was startled...What had he done, exactly? He didn't know. But he did know that he had to make things right...

He begged Zoisite to please, listen to him, but Zoisite thought he was lying...

And then, Kunzite and Ray were yelling that something was wrong with Nephrite...

And he was off, trying to find him... Maybe he could tell them! Maybe he'll believe him!

But when he finally found him, he was lying there, pale... looking almost dead...

He had to help him!

When the rest of the crew came, Amy including, they helped him get the worm off Nephrite. Then Amy began to heal him. Soon, he was able to open his eyes, even though he looked like death only moments before.

Then he realizes something else. There is shouting from around the corner... banging... and then, all was quiet...

Serenity!

He stumbles up, yelling her name, hoping she will hear him... but there is no reply. He passes by worms made of rock, scattered all over the place, and he follows them to find Beryl with her hands around Serenity's neck...

And he yells something he can no longer remember. Then he hears battle cries behind him, too, and sees Ray, Amy... Zoisite... all of them, including Nephrite, charging at Beryl.

"What is this? What's going on? Endymion!" Beryl cries. She lets go of Serenity's neck...

He rushes to help her. Looks into those eyes... so warm... so trusting... and then, cold as ice, unfeeling. She shut herself from him, and tore herself from out of his grasp. "Amy, something's wrong with her!"

When Amy comes close enough, he whispers to her,"Protect Serenity!" hoping, praying, she'll listen to him... and then he goes to fight Beryl...

The image left my head then, and I realized that Endymion was looking at me, his blue eyes boring into mine.

Sorry... You can't believe how sorry I am, he thinks. I don't know what I did... I don't... Serenity... I love...

I let go of his hand. I didn't want to hear any more.

I felt stronger now, stronger than I had felt in days. And Beryl knew it.

She got off me and began to back away.

Finally, I had the advantage.

Two worms, twenty feet long, sprung from the ground. They were mine. I was back.

Beryl's one worm tried to attack, my one of mine fell on it, crushing it.

Then I let the other one fall. Beryl dodged it, but I let the first one fall in her way. She stopped in her tracks, trapped between them both.

"Serenity, can't we work things out..."

I didn't think so. Suddenly, it all made sense to me, why she had me in that dungeon, away from everyone.

So I would be drained, emotionally, and physically. To make my healing powers work double.

So she would have the advantage.

Well, not this time.

"You killed my parents, didn't you?" I asked, remembering about the story of how the Blood Hounds had first come to Elf City and fought each other. "You were the hooded woman there, weren't you?"

Beryl smirked. "I'm surprised no one figured it out sooner."

"Why were you with them, anyway?" I asked.

"To see what this Prince Endymion thing was all about."

"To use him to your own advantage..."

"Yes. But the two idiot parents of yours decided not to bring you along that day. You should have been in the dirt with them."

"And the necklace?"

Her lips pinched. "Endymion knows why. Why don't you ask him?"

My gaze swayed to Endymion, then back to Beryl. "How would he know?"

"Oh, he knows. He knows more than he's letting on. If that necklace hadn't been around, he wouldn't be here at all, I'm betting you."

I growled. "Why are you doing this? The Blood Hound people look up to you. You're second for the throne!"

"Yes, and I want to be first. If you're dead, not only will I be the first Blood Hound to be able to tie the Elf Kingdom and the Blood Hound Kingdom together after years of war and ignorance, but I'll also be sitting in two thrones. I will rule two species. I will create a creature so strong and amazing, nothing could stand against me! The Elf and the Hounds combined... Don't you see what I can do! Don't you see that my name will go down in history?"

I shook my head. "You are pathetic..."

Then I let the worm fall on her.

I know it was a rotten thing to do. She was obviously unstable, greedy for power to the point of insanity. But it was her time to go.

We heard her scream. Then all was quiet.

Four worms fell, turning to rock around us, and everyone who had been in battle stopped short, out of breath, tired, and weary.

Then, the whole world tilted, and suddenly I was in the arms of Endymion, staring into his eyes.

"Serenity! Serenity!"

And then...

Nothing.

TBC

A/N:

IMPORTANT: Ok, guys, when you review, PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU WANT THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE SEQUEL UP HERE TO SEE WHAT I'M PLAYING AROUND WITH IN MY HEAD! And if you have any ideas for the second story, please don't be afraid to speak up.

I feel like this chapter turned out amazing! Better than what I planned in my head, anyway. :p This is officially the second-last chapter. I'm warning you now, the next chapter might not be as long. And there will definitely be some thought for the sequel.

Who am I kidding? I'LL MISS THIS FREAKING STORY TOO MUCH! After about two years of sweat, writer's blocks, and grammar homework, this is the story I got. I'm happy with the fact that it's done, but then what will I do?