Ami's eyes roved over the words on the old pages, the very large and almost ancient book resting in her hand, the spine of the book lying flat in the palm of her hand. She was reading a very old printing of a very classic story, a tale about princes and princesses and dragons and magic.
Ami smiled contently; she rarely read anything that ventured out of the intellectual realm and for the first time in a long time, she was actually enjoying herself. Ami sighed as the hero of the story met the heroine for the first time. Ami usually wasn't drawn into stories of traditional romance, but her experiences with Rowen had changed what she was interested in. In some ways, Ami wanted to have a storybook romance; she wanted to fall in love, be swept off her feet and live happily ever after. But, she knew that it wasn't going to happen perfectly; she knew there would be bumps along the path to true love.
Ami gently set the book down in her lap and lifted her head, allowing herself to look around at the numerous shelves of books that littered the antique and rare bookstore. She loved this place. Not only was it a great store where she could get books that she couldn't find anywhere else, but it was a place that she could sit and read in this chair, that was rarely used, that was placed in the front corner of the store. Plus, it was one of the places that Rowen had shown her when he first showed her the ropes of Toyama and places that only the two of them would be interested in...well, out of their group of friends anyway.
The small ringing of the bell that was placed above door of the bookstore indicated the entrance of a customer. Ami, who was well hidden from the view of the new customer, smiled as she saw Rowen enter the establishment. Her smile quickly faded to a frown when she saw the look on his face. He looked really tired and depressed, like a close friend or family member had died.
Ami noticed that he didn't seem to be paying that much attention to his surroundings. Otherwise, he would have noticed that I was here. I wonder what's wrong with him? He looks so down. Maybe it has something to do with Friday afternoon. He looked really depressed then, too. I'll just have to catch up with him after he leaves the store, Ami thought, drawing up a plan inside her head.
Ami watched Rowen until he moved into one of the many rows of bookshelves and she lost sight of him. Her eyes lingered on the spot where she last saw him for a couple of moments before she resumed reading her book again.
It was quite some time, maybe an hour or so, before out of the corner of her eye, Ami spotted Rowen's head of blue hair. She lifted her head out of her book and watched him leave the store, the ringing of the bell signaling his departure. Ami closed the book she was reading and set it down on the small end table that rested near her chair before standing up and rushing out of the shop.
Ami walked at a fast pace in order to catch up with Rowen and once she was a few yards behind him, she called out his name.
"Hey, Rowen!" she said. Rowen's body went frigid as he turned around to face the girl who he thought loved him.
Ami's eyebrows knit together as she caught the lost look in his eyes. Her face taking on a look of confusion and sympathy, she walked over to him and placed her hand on his arm.
"Rowen, are you ok?" Rowen jerked his arm out from underneath her touch.
"Don't touch me," he commanded forcefully, taking a couple of steps away from her. Ami felt like the wind had been knocked out of her at Rowen's rejection of her help.
"Rowen, please tell me what's wrong. Is it something I did?" she pleaded. Rowen seemed to struggle inside himself for the next words to tell Ami before he exploded.
"Yes, you did something wrong," he spat out, advancing towards her and grabbing her by the arms.
"Rowen, let go of me. You're hurting me," Ami cried out as his grip tightened.
"Do you want to know what you did?" Rowen asked and Ami shook her head, a few tears escaping from her eyes; she had never been so scared of Rowen before and she was afraid he was going to hurt her.
"Well too bad, you're going to hear it anyway." Rowen paused before continuing. "You took my heart and trampled over it. You made me fall in love with you with your intelligence, your humor, your kindness, and your beauty. You made me want to be with you all the time, to keep you all for myself, to protect you so that no one would harm you. You made me trust you, tell you things that I've never told anyone. You made me give you my heart. And what do you do with it? You rip it out and walk all over it. You led me on. You pretended to care for me when in fact, you had someone in your life."
Ami couldn't believe Rowen's words; he was in love with her?
"Rowen, I..."
"Don't try to deny it, Ami. I saw you with your boyfriend on Friday night, you two-timing bitch!"
Ami's blood started to boil. She wasn't going to sit by and let him insult her like that; she loved him, but she still had her pride. Fueling her strength with her power, Ami caught hold of Rowen's wrists, which were still holding her arms, and pried his hands off of her arms. She knew that she held the power to break both of his wrists, but she was too nice and too in love with him to do that. So, she settled for a powerful slap in the face.
Rowen was shocked at the amount of strength that Ami had for a woman her size. He raised a hand to his cheek to check for blood. He found none, but he knew he was going to have a hand-shaped welt later on; maybe he'd have Sage heal it.
After checking his face blood, he looked back at Ami and wondered how the tables switched so quickly. Only moments earlier, it had been Rowen who was looking down at Ami with fury in his eyes; now she was looking at him like she wanted to kill him.
"You bastard!" she cried out, "How dare you accuse me of things that you have no proof about? Don't you think if I had a boyfriend, I would tell you about it? Don't you think I care about you enough to let you know about my life? I never led you on. My affections for you are genuine. It's not some ploy to break your heart, you fool. I never pretended to care for you; I honestly do care for you. And if you're too blind to see how much I care for you, then you have no right accepting my love for you." Ami was breathless and near tears by the end of her tirade and Rowen couldn't move. He felt like he had been punched in the stomach.
"You...love me?" he asked, his voice no higher than a whisper.
"Yes, you idiot, I do. I love you. Are you happy with that? Does it make you happy that this is how you got it out of me?"
"Ami, I'm..."
"You're what, Rowen?" Ami asked none too gently.
Rowen was working his way towards an apology when someone, or rather something, interrupted them. Suddenly, and without a warning, Serpentine arrived in a sea green blur, grabbing Ami by the neck and forcing her up against the brick wall of a building.
"Ha, finally, I found you," Serpentine growled, her hair falling over one eye and masking half of her malicious grin, "You won't get away from me and I won't let you hurt me like the last time we fought." Serpentine laughed cruelly and tightened her hold on Ami's neck, cutting off her air supply.
"You won't get a chance to fight me. And I know I have the right girl. I can feel your power radiating off of you."
Ami clawed at Serpentine's hands, trying to loosen the female creature's hold on her neck, but to no avail. In fact, it seemed that her hold only grew tighter. Once it registered in Rowen's mind what was happening, he immediately became enraged.
"Hey, let her go!" Rowen yelled. Serpentine calmly turned her head and gave Rowen a satisfied smirk. Her ignoring him only served to made him more angry and he decided that he needed to do something about it. Taking his kanji ball out of his jacket pocket, he called upon his sub-armor.
"Alright, now you're going to get it," Rowen exclaimed before calling out his transformation line.
"ARMOR OF STRATA! DAO INOCHI!"
Within seconds, Rowen's Strata armor had covered his body and his bow was in his hand, ready to fire. With a yell, he charged Serpentine, who wasn't prepared for the attack, and knocked her to the ground, freeing Ami from her grasp. He caught Ami before she hit the ground and made sure her unconscious form was breathing before he faced Serpentine.
"Why don't you fight someone who can actually fight back?" Rowen sneered. Serpentine looked at Rowen critically with an intelligence that Rowen had never really seen in an evil such as Serpentine. Serpentine seemed to make up her mind.
"Alright. I will fight you. But I'm warning you, you won't last very long against me, you weakling," Serpentine boasted.
"Just try me," Rowen challenged. Serpentine gave a small laugh.
"It's your funeral," she murmured before attacking Rowen viciously.
As the battle ensued, Serpentine was delivering more hits than taking them; Rowen wondered why he even challenged her in the first place. It was because you wanted to protect Ami, that's why, he said to himself as he threw up an arm to block one of Serpentine's powerful blows. Using her leg, Serpentine brought it up to deliver a sharp kick to Rowen's mid-section. Rowen cried out with pain and went down, hitting the pavement hard.
Serpentine walked over to him and looked down at her challenger.
"Looks like you lose," she said sweetly. Rowen, who was out of breath and essentially out of fight, closed his eyes and gave up, knowing that he lacked the strength to kill Serpentine.
Ami, who had woken up from unconsciousness only moments before, saw Serpentine standing over a fallen Rowen, who was in his armor. Ami gasped. Oh no, don't tell me he tried to fight her. Why would he do that? Ami asked herself as she struggled to rise to her feet. Once she was standing steadily on her feet, she called out to Serpentine.
"Hey, leave him alone. You don't want him. You want me," Ami said. Serpentine turned to face Ami with a smirk on her face.
"Ah, so Sleeping Beauty wakes up. Without a kiss from her prince too. Well, are you ready to fight me?" Ami nodded, feeling her strength returning quickly.
Rowen struggled to rise to a sitting position as he watched Ami challenge Serpentine. What is she doing? Rowen thought. He watched as Ami pulled out her transformation pen and his eyes widened. Hey, isn't that... Rowen never got a chance to finish his thought. Ami raised the pen into the air and shouted out her transformation line.
"MERCURY STAR POWER!" With a flash of bright blue light, Ami stood as Sailor Mercury and she was ready to fight Serpentine and win. I knew it! I knew there was a connection between Ami and her friends and the Sailor Scouts. I was right! But, I didn't know that they were the same people, Rowen thought, amazed at the whole situation.
"Hmm, now this is more like it. Your boy over there wasn't much of a challenge and I was hoping for someone stronger."
"Well, you're going to get it," Ami said. Focusing her power, Ami used her attack against Serpentine.
"SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!" A rush of ice water, backed up by Ami's pure power, flew for Serpentine, who countered with her own attack of power. The two attacks met, causing an explosion of power and energy, its shockwave resonating out and around the warriors.
Once the bright light from the explosion had faded, Rowen could see Serpentine and Ami facing each other, streams of pure power coming out of their hands and racing for the other. Rowen could tell that Ami was giving it her all, but Serpentine looked like she had barely uncovered the tip of the iceberg.
"I will get you for what you did to me!" Ami yelled as she upped the amount of power on her attack.
Eventually, the amount of power that Ami was using was too much for her Scout form to handle and, with a suddenly flash of blinding blue light, Ami's Scout uniform disappeared and she reappeared in a long blue dress, her princess dress from the Silver Millennium. Rowen couldn't get more amazed. They're all the same person? Ami, Sailor Mercury, and that girl from the Winter Ball? Why didn't I see it before? I'm so stupid, Rowen chided himself as he watched the battle.
Ami's voice drew him out of his thoughts.
"Rowen, please help me. I can't do this by myself," she pleaded. Rowen nodded and found the strength to rise to his feet. Cleverly dodging the stray energy bolts that unraveled themselves from the main energy streams, Rowen stood next to Ami, prepared to help her defeat Serpentine. Drawing out an arrow from his quiver, he concentrated its power on its tip.
"ARROW SHOCKWAVE!" Rowen cried out as he placed the arrow in the bow and released it, sending the energy along with it towards Serpentine. He continued to pour energy into the arrow, which met resistance from Serpentine's attack.
Ami could feel Rowen's power increasing as he struggled to help Ami fight against Serpentine and she was glad he was there with her. With him, we might actually beat her, Ami thought. Serpentine screamed in rage.
"No! I won't let you beat me. You are nothing compared to me!" Serpentine gave more power up for the attack, hoping to gain an edge over the two. Ami couldn't increase her power anymore than she had, but Rowen could, so he did in order to keep up with Serpentine. Like Ami, however, the amount of power that he was using was too much for his Ronin armor to handle.
Slowly, Rowen's body started pulsing with a deep blue light, which grew in intensity until it covered his body completely, temporarily blinding both Ami and Serpentine. When the light faded and it was safe to look again, Rowen was standing there, still using his energy to attack Serpentine, but in a different outfit.
Instead of his dark blue Ronin armor, he was standing there wearing armor that was much like Prince Darien's, but slightly different. The lining of his cape was a dark midnight blue, so dark and so deep that it was almost black. But, placed next to the black outer layer of the cape, one could tell that the lining wasn't really black. His chest armor was also deep midnight blue that seemed to hypnotize, like one could look at it and think they were seeing the night sky on a moonless night.
Ami gasped and managed to keep her attack going as she looked at Rowen. It's him! He's not dead after all! And it's Rowen. He's my soulmate from the Silver Millennium! Ami thought happily. She looked at Rowen's eyes and caught the faraway look in them; she knew he was remembering. Within seconds, the faraway look vanished was replaced by a more knowledgeable and mature look.
Rowen turned his head to lock eyes with Ami, emotions and thoughts passed at a million miles a second. With a nod from each of them, they sent off one more powerful blast of power at Serpentine. The momentary sharp increase in the attack was enough to overwhelm Serpentine and she had no choice but to drop her attack. Once she did, she was unwillingly assaulted by the power of Ami and Rowen's attack and with a scream, Serpentine left the mortal world.
Assured that Serpentine was gone, Ami and Rowen cut off the power. Ami, who was still exhausted from her first assault from Serpentine, felt her knees grow weak before they buckled. She collapsed and was immediately caught by Rowen before she could hit the ground.
"Whoa there," Rowen said as his arms encircled her, "You know this is the second time I've caught you today." He helped her upright, keeping one arm around her waist so that she wouldn't fall over again.
Ami noticed his closeness and immediately became a little nervous; she had never been so physically close to him before, not even when they were dancing at the Winter Ball.
"Rowen, I..." Ami started, but was cut off by Rowen's lips on hers, catching them in a passionate kiss that showed no signs of stopping. They kissed for what seemed like forever until Rowen pulled away.
"I'm sorry," he muttered, "I'm so sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Ami asked, a little light-headed from the kiss. Rowen smiled and cupped her cheek with one hand.
"For yelling at you earlier about Friday, about you leading me on. I should have known better. Hey, speaking about Friday, who was that guy?" Ami smiled.
"You should know, Rowen, you've heard of him. That was Greg. I mean, yes, he is my ex-boyfriend, but Greg and I make much better friends than boyfriend and girlfriend. Besides, he and his girlfriend are perfect for each other. Just like you and me." Rowen smiled as he hugged Ami closer to him. Tipping up her chin with one finger, he whispered,
"I love you, Ami." Ami smiled.
"I love you too, Rowen," she whispered as well before their lips met for a second time.
Ami smiled contently; she rarely read anything that ventured out of the intellectual realm and for the first time in a long time, she was actually enjoying herself. Ami sighed as the hero of the story met the heroine for the first time. Ami usually wasn't drawn into stories of traditional romance, but her experiences with Rowen had changed what she was interested in. In some ways, Ami wanted to have a storybook romance; she wanted to fall in love, be swept off her feet and live happily ever after. But, she knew that it wasn't going to happen perfectly; she knew there would be bumps along the path to true love.
Ami gently set the book down in her lap and lifted her head, allowing herself to look around at the numerous shelves of books that littered the antique and rare bookstore. She loved this place. Not only was it a great store where she could get books that she couldn't find anywhere else, but it was a place that she could sit and read in this chair, that was rarely used, that was placed in the front corner of the store. Plus, it was one of the places that Rowen had shown her when he first showed her the ropes of Toyama and places that only the two of them would be interested in...well, out of their group of friends anyway.
The small ringing of the bell that was placed above door of the bookstore indicated the entrance of a customer. Ami, who was well hidden from the view of the new customer, smiled as she saw Rowen enter the establishment. Her smile quickly faded to a frown when she saw the look on his face. He looked really tired and depressed, like a close friend or family member had died.
Ami noticed that he didn't seem to be paying that much attention to his surroundings. Otherwise, he would have noticed that I was here. I wonder what's wrong with him? He looks so down. Maybe it has something to do with Friday afternoon. He looked really depressed then, too. I'll just have to catch up with him after he leaves the store, Ami thought, drawing up a plan inside her head.
Ami watched Rowen until he moved into one of the many rows of bookshelves and she lost sight of him. Her eyes lingered on the spot where she last saw him for a couple of moments before she resumed reading her book again.
It was quite some time, maybe an hour or so, before out of the corner of her eye, Ami spotted Rowen's head of blue hair. She lifted her head out of her book and watched him leave the store, the ringing of the bell signaling his departure. Ami closed the book she was reading and set it down on the small end table that rested near her chair before standing up and rushing out of the shop.
Ami walked at a fast pace in order to catch up with Rowen and once she was a few yards behind him, she called out his name.
"Hey, Rowen!" she said. Rowen's body went frigid as he turned around to face the girl who he thought loved him.
Ami's eyebrows knit together as she caught the lost look in his eyes. Her face taking on a look of confusion and sympathy, she walked over to him and placed her hand on his arm.
"Rowen, are you ok?" Rowen jerked his arm out from underneath her touch.
"Don't touch me," he commanded forcefully, taking a couple of steps away from her. Ami felt like the wind had been knocked out of her at Rowen's rejection of her help.
"Rowen, please tell me what's wrong. Is it something I did?" she pleaded. Rowen seemed to struggle inside himself for the next words to tell Ami before he exploded.
"Yes, you did something wrong," he spat out, advancing towards her and grabbing her by the arms.
"Rowen, let go of me. You're hurting me," Ami cried out as his grip tightened.
"Do you want to know what you did?" Rowen asked and Ami shook her head, a few tears escaping from her eyes; she had never been so scared of Rowen before and she was afraid he was going to hurt her.
"Well too bad, you're going to hear it anyway." Rowen paused before continuing. "You took my heart and trampled over it. You made me fall in love with you with your intelligence, your humor, your kindness, and your beauty. You made me want to be with you all the time, to keep you all for myself, to protect you so that no one would harm you. You made me trust you, tell you things that I've never told anyone. You made me give you my heart. And what do you do with it? You rip it out and walk all over it. You led me on. You pretended to care for me when in fact, you had someone in your life."
Ami couldn't believe Rowen's words; he was in love with her?
"Rowen, I..."
"Don't try to deny it, Ami. I saw you with your boyfriend on Friday night, you two-timing bitch!"
Ami's blood started to boil. She wasn't going to sit by and let him insult her like that; she loved him, but she still had her pride. Fueling her strength with her power, Ami caught hold of Rowen's wrists, which were still holding her arms, and pried his hands off of her arms. She knew that she held the power to break both of his wrists, but she was too nice and too in love with him to do that. So, she settled for a powerful slap in the face.
Rowen was shocked at the amount of strength that Ami had for a woman her size. He raised a hand to his cheek to check for blood. He found none, but he knew he was going to have a hand-shaped welt later on; maybe he'd have Sage heal it.
After checking his face blood, he looked back at Ami and wondered how the tables switched so quickly. Only moments earlier, it had been Rowen who was looking down at Ami with fury in his eyes; now she was looking at him like she wanted to kill him.
"You bastard!" she cried out, "How dare you accuse me of things that you have no proof about? Don't you think if I had a boyfriend, I would tell you about it? Don't you think I care about you enough to let you know about my life? I never led you on. My affections for you are genuine. It's not some ploy to break your heart, you fool. I never pretended to care for you; I honestly do care for you. And if you're too blind to see how much I care for you, then you have no right accepting my love for you." Ami was breathless and near tears by the end of her tirade and Rowen couldn't move. He felt like he had been punched in the stomach.
"You...love me?" he asked, his voice no higher than a whisper.
"Yes, you idiot, I do. I love you. Are you happy with that? Does it make you happy that this is how you got it out of me?"
"Ami, I'm..."
"You're what, Rowen?" Ami asked none too gently.
Rowen was working his way towards an apology when someone, or rather something, interrupted them. Suddenly, and without a warning, Serpentine arrived in a sea green blur, grabbing Ami by the neck and forcing her up against the brick wall of a building.
"Ha, finally, I found you," Serpentine growled, her hair falling over one eye and masking half of her malicious grin, "You won't get away from me and I won't let you hurt me like the last time we fought." Serpentine laughed cruelly and tightened her hold on Ami's neck, cutting off her air supply.
"You won't get a chance to fight me. And I know I have the right girl. I can feel your power radiating off of you."
Ami clawed at Serpentine's hands, trying to loosen the female creature's hold on her neck, but to no avail. In fact, it seemed that her hold only grew tighter. Once it registered in Rowen's mind what was happening, he immediately became enraged.
"Hey, let her go!" Rowen yelled. Serpentine calmly turned her head and gave Rowen a satisfied smirk. Her ignoring him only served to made him more angry and he decided that he needed to do something about it. Taking his kanji ball out of his jacket pocket, he called upon his sub-armor.
"Alright, now you're going to get it," Rowen exclaimed before calling out his transformation line.
"ARMOR OF STRATA! DAO INOCHI!"
Within seconds, Rowen's Strata armor had covered his body and his bow was in his hand, ready to fire. With a yell, he charged Serpentine, who wasn't prepared for the attack, and knocked her to the ground, freeing Ami from her grasp. He caught Ami before she hit the ground and made sure her unconscious form was breathing before he faced Serpentine.
"Why don't you fight someone who can actually fight back?" Rowen sneered. Serpentine looked at Rowen critically with an intelligence that Rowen had never really seen in an evil such as Serpentine. Serpentine seemed to make up her mind.
"Alright. I will fight you. But I'm warning you, you won't last very long against me, you weakling," Serpentine boasted.
"Just try me," Rowen challenged. Serpentine gave a small laugh.
"It's your funeral," she murmured before attacking Rowen viciously.
As the battle ensued, Serpentine was delivering more hits than taking them; Rowen wondered why he even challenged her in the first place. It was because you wanted to protect Ami, that's why, he said to himself as he threw up an arm to block one of Serpentine's powerful blows. Using her leg, Serpentine brought it up to deliver a sharp kick to Rowen's mid-section. Rowen cried out with pain and went down, hitting the pavement hard.
Serpentine walked over to him and looked down at her challenger.
"Looks like you lose," she said sweetly. Rowen, who was out of breath and essentially out of fight, closed his eyes and gave up, knowing that he lacked the strength to kill Serpentine.
Ami, who had woken up from unconsciousness only moments before, saw Serpentine standing over a fallen Rowen, who was in his armor. Ami gasped. Oh no, don't tell me he tried to fight her. Why would he do that? Ami asked herself as she struggled to rise to her feet. Once she was standing steadily on her feet, she called out to Serpentine.
"Hey, leave him alone. You don't want him. You want me," Ami said. Serpentine turned to face Ami with a smirk on her face.
"Ah, so Sleeping Beauty wakes up. Without a kiss from her prince too. Well, are you ready to fight me?" Ami nodded, feeling her strength returning quickly.
Rowen struggled to rise to a sitting position as he watched Ami challenge Serpentine. What is she doing? Rowen thought. He watched as Ami pulled out her transformation pen and his eyes widened. Hey, isn't that... Rowen never got a chance to finish his thought. Ami raised the pen into the air and shouted out her transformation line.
"MERCURY STAR POWER!" With a flash of bright blue light, Ami stood as Sailor Mercury and she was ready to fight Serpentine and win. I knew it! I knew there was a connection between Ami and her friends and the Sailor Scouts. I was right! But, I didn't know that they were the same people, Rowen thought, amazed at the whole situation.
"Hmm, now this is more like it. Your boy over there wasn't much of a challenge and I was hoping for someone stronger."
"Well, you're going to get it," Ami said. Focusing her power, Ami used her attack against Serpentine.
"SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!" A rush of ice water, backed up by Ami's pure power, flew for Serpentine, who countered with her own attack of power. The two attacks met, causing an explosion of power and energy, its shockwave resonating out and around the warriors.
Once the bright light from the explosion had faded, Rowen could see Serpentine and Ami facing each other, streams of pure power coming out of their hands and racing for the other. Rowen could tell that Ami was giving it her all, but Serpentine looked like she had barely uncovered the tip of the iceberg.
"I will get you for what you did to me!" Ami yelled as she upped the amount of power on her attack.
Eventually, the amount of power that Ami was using was too much for her Scout form to handle and, with a suddenly flash of blinding blue light, Ami's Scout uniform disappeared and she reappeared in a long blue dress, her princess dress from the Silver Millennium. Rowen couldn't get more amazed. They're all the same person? Ami, Sailor Mercury, and that girl from the Winter Ball? Why didn't I see it before? I'm so stupid, Rowen chided himself as he watched the battle.
Ami's voice drew him out of his thoughts.
"Rowen, please help me. I can't do this by myself," she pleaded. Rowen nodded and found the strength to rise to his feet. Cleverly dodging the stray energy bolts that unraveled themselves from the main energy streams, Rowen stood next to Ami, prepared to help her defeat Serpentine. Drawing out an arrow from his quiver, he concentrated its power on its tip.
"ARROW SHOCKWAVE!" Rowen cried out as he placed the arrow in the bow and released it, sending the energy along with it towards Serpentine. He continued to pour energy into the arrow, which met resistance from Serpentine's attack.
Ami could feel Rowen's power increasing as he struggled to help Ami fight against Serpentine and she was glad he was there with her. With him, we might actually beat her, Ami thought. Serpentine screamed in rage.
"No! I won't let you beat me. You are nothing compared to me!" Serpentine gave more power up for the attack, hoping to gain an edge over the two. Ami couldn't increase her power anymore than she had, but Rowen could, so he did in order to keep up with Serpentine. Like Ami, however, the amount of power that he was using was too much for his Ronin armor to handle.
Slowly, Rowen's body started pulsing with a deep blue light, which grew in intensity until it covered his body completely, temporarily blinding both Ami and Serpentine. When the light faded and it was safe to look again, Rowen was standing there, still using his energy to attack Serpentine, but in a different outfit.
Instead of his dark blue Ronin armor, he was standing there wearing armor that was much like Prince Darien's, but slightly different. The lining of his cape was a dark midnight blue, so dark and so deep that it was almost black. But, placed next to the black outer layer of the cape, one could tell that the lining wasn't really black. His chest armor was also deep midnight blue that seemed to hypnotize, like one could look at it and think they were seeing the night sky on a moonless night.
Ami gasped and managed to keep her attack going as she looked at Rowen. It's him! He's not dead after all! And it's Rowen. He's my soulmate from the Silver Millennium! Ami thought happily. She looked at Rowen's eyes and caught the faraway look in them; she knew he was remembering. Within seconds, the faraway look vanished was replaced by a more knowledgeable and mature look.
Rowen turned his head to lock eyes with Ami, emotions and thoughts passed at a million miles a second. With a nod from each of them, they sent off one more powerful blast of power at Serpentine. The momentary sharp increase in the attack was enough to overwhelm Serpentine and she had no choice but to drop her attack. Once she did, she was unwillingly assaulted by the power of Ami and Rowen's attack and with a scream, Serpentine left the mortal world.
Assured that Serpentine was gone, Ami and Rowen cut off the power. Ami, who was still exhausted from her first assault from Serpentine, felt her knees grow weak before they buckled. She collapsed and was immediately caught by Rowen before she could hit the ground.
"Whoa there," Rowen said as his arms encircled her, "You know this is the second time I've caught you today." He helped her upright, keeping one arm around her waist so that she wouldn't fall over again.
Ami noticed his closeness and immediately became a little nervous; she had never been so physically close to him before, not even when they were dancing at the Winter Ball.
"Rowen, I..." Ami started, but was cut off by Rowen's lips on hers, catching them in a passionate kiss that showed no signs of stopping. They kissed for what seemed like forever until Rowen pulled away.
"I'm sorry," he muttered, "I'm so sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Ami asked, a little light-headed from the kiss. Rowen smiled and cupped her cheek with one hand.
"For yelling at you earlier about Friday, about you leading me on. I should have known better. Hey, speaking about Friday, who was that guy?" Ami smiled.
"You should know, Rowen, you've heard of him. That was Greg. I mean, yes, he is my ex-boyfriend, but Greg and I make much better friends than boyfriend and girlfriend. Besides, he and his girlfriend are perfect for each other. Just like you and me." Rowen smiled as he hugged Ami closer to him. Tipping up her chin with one finger, he whispered,
"I love you, Ami." Ami smiled.
"I love you too, Rowen," she whispered as well before their lips met for a second time.
