Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon even though I wish I did, but doesn't everyone. Sailor Moon and its characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi. I do own Sailor Cheetah A.K.A. Crystal/Blizzard, Lionclaw, Queen Thornrose, Wolfear, Dash, all the dream animals, and the ideas for this story.

I am sooooo sorry it has taken me soooo long to write this chapter. It turns out this chapter is the longest one I have writen so far. 10 pages amazing... lol maybe it isn't that amazing but it cool! Anyways, have fun reading this chapter.

Chapter 14

The Poison of the Snake

Hotaru's Room

The darkness of the night greeted Hotaru as she woke up that night. It was 3:00 am, as it said on her clock, but Hotaru could see a little bit of light in the kitchen down the hall. She struggled to get out of her bed. She had to tell them it came back. Her strange sickness had come back.

Hotaru continued to struggle to make her way to the kitchen. She clutched her chest as the pain became worst. Why had it come back again? Hotaru had no idea but she continued her way down the hall. As Hotaru got closer she could hear her Mamas and Papa talking.

"None of the old archives have any information," Michelle said sounding defeated.

"I tried the future moon. There's nothing there too," Trista said sounding defeated also.

"So we can't find any knowledge about them?" Amara ask and she took a bite out of a chocolate chip cookie.

"Yeah…." The water and time scout sighed at the same time.

"This is going to be more complicated than I thought," Amara mumbled to herself.

Hotaru called out in a weak voice, "Mama? Papa? Mama?"

The small group of scouts turn there heads to see Hotaru barely standing there. She was clutching her chest and started to slump over trying to breath. The pain was intensifying and Hotaru became pale. Trista, who was the closest to the door, jumped to her aid and caught her just as she collapsed.

"Hotaru!"

Hotaru only had enough strength to say two words, "It's back."

Hotaru's eyes closed. Michelle was now on the other side of her and Amara didn't know what to do. Michelle looked up at her cousin with a frightened and worried face.

"Call the ambulance!" She shouted frantically at her cousin. Amara knew it wasn't the time to answer or nod. She ran across the floor to the phone and called 911.

In a room in Queen Thornrose's Castle

Wolfear was furiously licking her leg where the wound was. The healing powers of her saliva were certainly going to help heal her leg, as she thought. Not far from her bed of leaves and feathers, was Lionclaw laying on his bed of savanna grass. He watched her, disgusted at what she was doing but, Lionclaw understood that Wolfear was falling back on her instincts and accepted that. In the shadows, two figures slept on their beds of either snow or in a tree.

After minute of silence Lionclaw spoke," Seriously, Wolfear, stop licking yourself. It's starting to get disgusting."

Wolfear looked up, "Do you think I enjoy this?"

"Yesssss" came a figure that wrapped itself around one of the trees branches.

"If I were you I would…" the second figure that was lying in snow started.

"YOUR NOT ME!" Wolfear interrupted, "I can't believe I'm the only girl in this family."

"Too bad you're not the only girl in the world…." mumbled Lionclaw.

Wolfear gave Lionclaw a glare, "what was that brother? Would you like to say that again?"

Lionclaw stopped for a moment to think. He saw the look in his sister's eyes and he knew he should back off. Lionclaw chose to play it safe and kept his mouth shut.

Before Wolfear could question her brother again, the door to the room burst open. Two of Thornrose's guards where standing in full uniform, which must have been a heavy burden on their bodies seeing how most of the uniform was 50 pound plate armor. One of the guards was a bat. His head was covered by a red plated armor with a golden horn in the front to charge enemies while in battle. Around his neck was a red cape with a black trim that covered the black back and red front breast plate. The bat's legs where covered with a red mail pants. In one of it wings the bat held a spear that you would normally find in the mid-evil times.

The other guard was a weasel. He wore the same thing the bat guard wore except for his arms were covered by black mail armor. On his belt were two, black sheaves on either side of him, which held two, black hilted daggers.

"Finally, the Queen has called upon me!" Wolfear exclaimed, happy that she could leave the room.

The weasel guard growled at Wolfear, "Not you fool!" He looked up to the figure in the tree, "she wants you."

"The Queen hasss called a pond me? What an honor," the figure said sounding surprised.

"Yeah, well, hurry up!" the bat guard started as he gripped his spear tighter, "or I'll drag you down from that tree by myself!"

"I'm coming. I'm coming" the figure said casually.

In Queen Thornrose's Throne Room

"I hope you heard me! I'm not going to repeat myself again!" Queen Thornrose bellowed to the figure still in the shadows.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time."

"Don't give me that attitude! You're lucky I even picked you for the job! I could have picked your two other brothers!"

"Yes, I know my Queen." The figure bowed as well as he could, "I'm sorry for my rudenesssss."

"Apology expected. Now go get that Dream Animal!"

Hospital Room

The lights of the hospital room glared into Hotaru's eyes as she became aware of her surroundings again. She could hear the voice of Amara arguing with herself about something…. Hotaru wasn't sure. Michelle was sitting not far from her from what Hotaru could tell from the voices. Michelle was desperately trying to calm Amara down but Amara wouldn't hear it. She continued to talk to herself. Trista put in her input on some of Michelle pleads but mostly Hotaru could hear her shift quietly in the corner.

"Mama? Papa? Mama?" Hotaru asked as she opened her eyes. All of the attention shifted to her.

"Hotaru! How are you feeling?" Michelle asked with a joyful smile. Hotaru only answered with a smile.

"We're glade your feeling better," Trista said. Hotaru decided to change the subject from her.

"What was going on?"

"Uhhhh……" all three of the crystal heart bears turn and looked at each other.

Outside

Snakefang slugged down the busy street. People were coming and going to work and school. Twice Snakefang barely missed getting stepped on by busy and frantic humans running off to catch their buses.

"Queen Thornrose doesn't pay me assss much assss she should to be out here," Snakefang grumbled again. Not far off he could hear paws scraping at the cement. He looked back not a moment too soon to see Blizzard running toward him. He dove out of the way just as she ran by, not noticing a purple with green spotted snake in the middle of the city.

He cocked his head to the side as he noticed a strong powerful pull from the dog. He shrugged it off though, thinking it was nothing. "K-9ssss, they don't want to bother looking out for their fellow animal." Annoyed, Snakefang kept up his slow pace to the Hospital.

With Blizzard

Blizzard was in too much of a hurry to watch where she was stepping, or to notice that she could have stepped on a poisonous snake, even though there were no snakes in the city. Blizzard's thoughts weren't on the snake though, she was worried about Hotaru. After last night's talk with Dash, she was heading home to Lita's apartment when she saw an ambulance head towards the outer scout's house. As a red tailed hawk, she went to investigate the problem.

Blizzard was rounding the corner when she saw a big, white building. She hesitated before walking into the close abandoned alleyway and transformed into a human. "I hope I get to see her soon… I don't want to turn into a dog in the lobby," she mumbled neverously to herself. Crystal went to step into the building as someone was stepping out for some fresh air, but instead she ran into her. Crystal fell backwards on to the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you're…. Oh… Hi Crystal."

Crystal looked up to see who she had run into. She jumped up quickly and apologized. "Sorry Amara, I didn't see you coming."

"Its alright Crystal. I didn't see you coming either. So why are you here?"

"Well ummmmm….." Crystal started, sounding a little nervous, " I wanted to see how Hotaru was…. I heard she was here."

"Oh…" Amara looked down at the ground for a minute obviously in thought.

"Is she ok?" Crystal asked concurred.

"Yeah she is fine." Amara said and looked up at Crystal.

"How about you, are you ok?" Amara nodded.

"I'm just thinking…" she started to say more but decided not to.

Crystal respected that and smiled. "Do you mind giving Hotaru something for me?"

"No" was Amara's short answered and Crystal gave Amara a small, brown paper wrapped package. Amara smiled a little.

"Thanks Amara! I'll talk to you later" Crystal turned to leave, thankful that she didn't have to step a foot in the hospital.

"WAIT!" Amara called out sounding a little desperate. Crystal stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Before we called the ambulance a thought crossed my mind. Do Dream Animals cause past problems to come back again?"

Crystal was now full facing Amara. "What?"

"A long time ago, Hotaru had poor health and had a lot of health problems. Once she was reborn, she hadn't had any of those problems until now. Do Dream Animals cause past problems to come back or is something else triggering it?"

Crystal looked into Amara's eyes. She looked like that question was the beginning of what was bothering her. To tell the truth, Crystal didn't really know the answer. Dream Animals had been a legend to her until Queen Thornrose started to attack the Animal World. Even then, Crystal wasn't there at first until she was called by one of the animals, a tribal leader or something like that. Until then she live on the past moon until the future Sailor Moon welcomed her to Crystal Tokyo. Then she was called to the Animal World, and was told that the Animal World was her home world and she was the guardian scout of it. Still Crystal wasn't sure what she was told was true but she took it into consideration.

"Do they?" Amara asked again.

"I'm… I'm not sure. They are different kind of creatures from you and me. Besides I don't know if Hotaru has a Dream Animal. It might be something else causing this." Crystal looked down. She knew that Amara would realize she answered her question as best she could. She then turned, gave the hospital one final weary look, and left saying a quiet sorry as she walked away.

Hotaru's Hospital Room

Amara opened the hospital room door. She could hear Hotaru talking with Michelle and Trista, Amara didn't no what they were talking about but she didn't care. Hotaru stopped talking abruptly and looked in Amara's direction. "Hi Papa! How was your walk?"

Hotaru may not have been a kid but she sure seemed to act like one sometimes, which was probably because she missed her childhood during the Crystal Heart incident when the outer scouts met the inner sailor scouts.

Amara decided this was a good time to give Hotaru the small package that Crystal wanted to give her. She handed it to her and Hotaru smiled. "Its from Crystal," she started to explain, "She sort of ran into me."

"Don't you mean you ran into her?" Hotaru ask as she held the package.

"Nope she literally ran into me." Amara smiled a little.

Hotaru chuckled then set to work ripping into the brown wrapping till she found another brown wrapped package but in front was a hand made card. There was a beautiful hand drawn picture of a wolf looking up at the night sky. A white crescent moon hung in the night sky among the stars that were rearranged into the sign for the planet Saturn. Hotaru opened the card to see in big bubble letters the words 'Get Well Soon' under it were smaller messages from the inner scouts and Crystal wishing her to get better. In the middle on the card and messages was Rini's message which was the biggest of all of them. After reading all the messages, Hotaru opened the brown wrapping package to find a red, leather bound book. Four jewels where centered around a picture of a court of animals. The animals where sitting on rocks and so on as they looked at some sort of map. Each animal was dressed in leather and had swords and other mid-evil weapons attached to their backs and waists. In golden letters the words 'Myths and Legends of the Animal World' stretched along the bottom of the book. Hotaru smiled again.

Later on

Amara convinced Michelle and Trista to go home for the night and get some rest. "I'm not going to sleep knowing Hotaru is in the hospital so I might as well stay," she had said to her cousin. Michelle understood clearly that Amara needed to stay and reluctantly agreed.

Hours after Michelle and Trista said their goodbyes and left, Amara got up from her seat beside Hotaru who was reading her new book. "I'm going to get a drink do you want anything to drink?" she asked Hotaru.

"Water please."

"Ok" Amara left after going over the lecture of if you need me I'll be down the hall. She left the door open a jar so she could hear Hotaru if she called for help.

Alone now, Hotaru settled into the quietness of the room. She started at the cover of the book again in wonder. It was such a pretty cover and good book that she couldn't believe that she held that book in her hand. She opened the book again to pick up where she had left off when she heard the window open a jar. When she looked over to the window it shut by itself, nothing was around it.

"It was just the wind," she said to herself. She was about to turn back to her book when something caught her eye. A purple with green spotted snake was on top of the table next to her bed. She jumped from her bed and back up to the wall.

"Hold still little girl. Thisss will only hurt a few secondssss," the snake spoke and it slithered closer to Hotaru.

"Who are you? What do you want?" she asked the snake as she moved slowly to the door.

"I am Snakefang. I am the second youngest of my three brothersssss and sissster. I said HOLD STILL!" the snake yelled and tree branches burst through the wall and wrapped around Hotaru's body, leaving her unable to move. "Now for that Dream Animal." A dark smile crossed Snakefang's face as its two front fangs began to glow a light green color. He moved closer to Hotaru and Hotaru struggled against the restraints,

"Don't bother trying to break free. These things can't be broken or burned or damaged in anyway. Also don't try to…" Hotaru let out a yell, calling for Amara. "As I was saying… don't bother trying to yell for help there is an invisible force shield that won't let anyone hear you at all."

The snake held Hotaru's neck with his tail as he prepared to bite it. With one swift movement Snakefang drove his fang deep into Hotaru's neck. Slowly Hotaru's struggling became weaker and weaker until it stopped altogether. Hotaru's eyes drooped and she slowly became weaker and weaker. "Papa…" she whispered as she fell limp and her eyes closed. A small purple light started to form in front of Hotaru's chest where her heart is. The light slowly formed into the shape of a Lion Cub the slowly disappeared leaving the little Lion Cub falling onto the floor.

Snakefang stared annoyed at the little Lion Cub. "Queen Thornrose had picked thissss dreamer herself," he thought to himself. He released his grip on Hotaru's neck and made his way to the hospital floor to dispose of the not needed Dream Animal.

"Well, little Lion Cub, like your dreamer you are young… and like your dreamer you shall die!" He lashed out to attack but instead was hit in the head with a big wind cyclone.

"Get away from that Dream Animal you over grown worm!" Sailor Uranus yelled at Snakefang.

"I heard of you… you are those annoy twitssss the Sailor Scoutssss that have been bother our planssss for the last time!" Snakefang yelled at Sailor Uranus who seem pleased with getting the snake mad, "AND I AM NOT A WORM! I'M A SNAKE! THAT'SSSSSSSSSSS WHY MY NAME IS SNAKEFANG!

"I think you have bothered us for the last time, worm brain," the wind scout continued with the insults. Snakefang lunched himself to attack Sailor Uranus, and totally forgot about the little Lion Cub Dream Animal. It looked up at the unconscious Hotaru. The Lion Cub turned into a ball of light and flew back into Hotaru's heart automatically turning her into Sailor Saturn.

A lion head helmet formed upon the young scouts head. A tan colored tail formed too. Sailor Saturn's scythe slowly appeared next Saturn and a lion's head sat on top of the blade, mouth wide open like it was going to bite some poor victim. Slowly the vines that had wrapped around Sailor Saturn released their grip and Sailor Saturn slowly opened her eyes and gripped her scythe.

Fortunately for Sailor Saturn, Sailor Uranus had kept Snakefang so busy that Snakefang didn't even notice that his poor victim had turn into a Sailor Scout. Snakefang wouldn't have cared anyway, if he wasn't already losing in his battle against the wind scout. Sailor Saturn decided to take this chance to swing an unsuspecting strike. She looked down at the feet and saw a ghostly version of the Lion Cub Dream Animal. It looked up at her with undying eyes of loyalty. Sailor Saturn smiled; the lion cub's eyes said it all.

She held out her scythe length ways. She took a deep breath then shouted, "Saturn Lion Death and Rebirth Strike!" The ghostly lion cub launched itself at Snakefang. Snakefang barely dodged the attack but was hit across the head by the hilt of Sailor Uranus's sword. He shook the blow off though and growled angrily at the both of them.

"I'll see you again… but next time," he started angrily, "I won't run away so easily!" Snakefang jumped out the window and disappeared.

Sailor Uranus turned to Sailor Saturn, who was smiling happily at her. Sailor Uranus smiled back.

A Couple Weeks Later

Hotaru bounced out the front doors of the hospital, a big smile on her face. She spun around and faced her adoptive parents and fellow scouts. Amara was smiling too.

"Wait up, speedy," she said as she opened the hospital's front doors. Hotaru giggled and turned to see Blizzard looking up at her. Hotaru patted Blizzard on the top of the head and motioned to the parking garage where Amara's car was parked. The two head off to the car.

"She looks happier," Michelle whispered. Amara just nodded.

Well, one more chapter done till the story ends. I kind of fing that a sad thought. Oh well, this story has a good deal more chapters till its done. Again I'm sorry for not up dating sooner. Real life called me andI didn't want to awesure the phone.

Logging out but not for long,

Wolfscout