A big shout out to those who reviewed, I hope you all enjoy this next installment. Look for Chapter Seven in the next four or five days.
Disclaimer: Do not own Sailormoon. I do own the term Draken, Therra and so on….
Jason twirled and dogged his opponent's blade. He had taken Zoicite up on the offer of sparing and was finding himself hard pressed to defend himself. His younger friend had gotten a lot better over the years; he had learned how to counter double swords very well. It was becoming harder and harder to find new tricks to win with.
Jason sat back and pulled up a defensive stance and parried his friend's efforts and let his mind turn to Rei, his Aurora, and the changes in her. After he had talked her into going back into the living room Serenity had shown her into her old room, the one she had used before she moved in with him in her past life. Rei had locked herself in and refused to be moved unless it was for meals. Even then Serenity was hard pressed to talk her into leaving the room.
Rei had been terrified of him, and he could not blame her, he should have kept his mouth shut, and refused to acknowledge his presence unless it was an absolute must. His swords picked up speed, as did his temper.
He wished with all his heart that she remembered a little bit of her past, just a spark, something so that she would trust them. He knew that Serenity had cried herself to sleep when she had realized that her friend had no memory of her life, in the past that was.
Setsuna was unfindable and when they had searched the village in which they had tracked Ianna and Makoto, that's what Nathan said Juno's name was, they had discovered the place and ruins and no sign of Rei's friends. Therra had gone on a rampage and showed up two day later, her clothes torn, her body battered, and needless to say Rox had been pissed.
Jason looked up and saw Zavier's sword go flying. Jason was breathing hard, his shirt covered in sweat, his arms ached, and he saw the annoyance in his friend's eyes. Jason smirked and then laughed at his friend.
" It really is not fair." Zavier grumped, plopping down and grabbing a large water bottle. " You can still beat me, even when you are not thinking about it. Kris would have my head if he had seen that match."
" Don't abuse yourself so hard my friend. Your mind was on other things as well, he would have both of our heads if he could have seen that fight, so lets be thankful he missed it." Jason said his voice coming in gasps, proof that he had been neglecting his training.
" Yes, well, we both need to get back into the grove of working out, or the next time we face a group of those mongrels we shall be caught lacking. Then we will never see our respective loves again." Zavier complained as he lay back, his breathing also coming in heaves.
" We will find your Ami." Jason told him, his eyes distant, giving proof he was not thinking of Ami, but of the raven-haired beauty who had turned his life upside down the last few days.
" You are not even thinking about Ami, just about Rei. Admit it." Zavier teased, and Jason had the grace to blush. " It's alright though, if Ami was in the next room and not halfway to who knows where, I would have very little thought to anything else." Zavier mumered his own eyes distant as he thought about the fact that there had been no trace of the blue haired nymph.
" We will find her." Jason repeated, trying to sound convincing, for Zavier or himself he did not know.
~*~
Rei stared out of her balcony and starred out at the stars that twinkled over head. They were so beautiful, her mother had told her that the sky was a large blanket that the angles had pricked with needles to peek through, and the stars were the pinpoints they looked through.
Her mother, the thought caused a swell of grief to rise into her breast. They had broken the news two days ago and she could hardly believe it, and the tears refused to come. She knew something in side of her was crying, but not for the reasons that one would have thought. She would miss her, she had loved the women who had given her birth, but something in her had frozen over, as the event had happened to a stranger.
No matter how hard she stared at the sky or thought about it, not a single tear threatened to rise out of her heart and drip down her check. Rei hated her self for it, she should morn, she should cry, but the ability was just not there. She had tried, tried to find some source of tears, but came up lacking.
So she allowed the fire's of hate to burn in her chest, to cause every bone of her body to ache with the need to kill. She wanted the person who had done this roasted on a spit and destroyed. It was not the hate, or even the fire of it that scarred her, it was the part that she knew this was not this first time she hated this person. She knew not who it was, the face that went with it, or any of the circumstance involved with it, but she knew she hated that nameless face.
Her dreams had also changed, changed in a way where they were not dreams, but almost memories; they were so real, and lifelike, that they shocked her to the core. The steady factor that she was the one in charge and that she knew who she was, Hino Rei, her mothers daughter in every sense, was stolen. She was thrown into a world were she was the person who knew nothing, that everyone knew something she lacked, and it was the most unnerving part yet, the fact that she held the key, to whatever they desperately needed. Whatever that was.
The factor that caused Rei to tremble was Jason. The blond man had looked at her once and walked right into her heart like he belonged there. She thought about him at the oddest times and wanted to share things with him. The very thought of sharing something with someone, a man at that, sent her running into the darkest closet she could find and hide like a little child. She was so far out of her league right now, and so lonely, scarred, and tormented by what she did not know, that she hid. And so she starred at the stars and finally wept. Not for her mother for that was gone and done, not for her friends, but she wept from her very soul, wept for reasons she could never name.
As Rei sat there she could feel something in her grow, something that felt like a fire being kindled on dry wood. Rei reached and pulled at it, and it responded. Rei stood on the balcony, tears staining her checks, and watched with fire lit eyes the fire that danced and played across her palms. And with that fire came faces and names, and hidden in the very core, a pair of ocean blue eyes steadied her. And Rei was no longer afraid.
~*~
Minako flew down the path, her breath already coming in ragged gasps, her side felt like someone had plunged a dagger into it, and with careful thought she realized that someone almost had.
She and Makoto had been on the run since they had left the village. Luckily her twisted ankle had been light, and she could now run full steam ahead. Luckily because the sounds of the vampires were closing in, and by the sounds of the howls, they had brought were-wolves with them. That was just what they needed, either to be sucked dry, or turned into large chunks of hamburger meat.
Makoto skidded to a stop and Minako slammed into her. They both tumbled and Minako had the slight sensation of flying, and she realized why, and screamed. She had accidentally sent them over the cliff. Minako screamed in pure terror she felt something wrap around her and then what looked like a golden chain whipped out of no where, and it wrapped around a branch. Minako by some six sense grabbed Makoto's ankle. As they hung there they heard the laughter and shouts of laughter and mock sounds of hate coming from above. The vampires thought they were dead.
Minako knew that if they did not find something to hang onto they were going to die, she knew by some sixth sense that the chain that was wrapped around her was not going to last long.
Minako settled down into the alcove and moved over to make enough room for her tall friend. Huffing she looked at the storm clouds that were beginning to build, blacking out the stars.
" How do we manage to get our selves into these messes Mako? I mean, what in the world do we have attached to us, a please eat me sign in bright flashing numbers?"
" I don't know, but I have a question, where did you get that rope?" Makoto questioned softly.
" I don't know. I just panicked and then, poof, there it was. I grabbed you and just knew that we had to get over here before it disappeared, which it did the minute I let go of it. I don't know where it came from or how it got there." Minako whispered her voice soft and mystified.
" Well you not the only one who has had weird things happen to her." Makoto whispered, her voice just as soft as her friends. There was a slightly apprehensive tone to her voice that caused Minako to star at her friend. She looked much the same, but something about her eyes, they had changed somehow.
Minako heard something pop and gaped down at Makoto's hand. They were glowing green and the faint snap of electricity was ringing across her hands. When Mako pulled them apart the area in between them was filled with, lighting.
" When did you learn this?" Minako wondered out loud to her friend, who answered with a shrug.
" We were fighting and this thing jumped out of no where, and boom. Instant char coal. I don't know why, how or what for. All I know is that we are changing Minako. Tell me what have your dreams been like?" Makoto demanded.
" Different." Minako mummered in a soft tone, her eyes distant. " They are about battles, and I know I have never fought, and people who I don't know, and yet do. You guys are in some of them, all of you fighting with me. There is this sense that we must protect someone. I don't know whom, and then there is this man, with white hair and hard silver eyes. I feel almost drawn to him." Minako mummered. Minako raised her hands to her friend, hands that had once been smooth and soft, no matter how much work they had seen. They now had calluses across the palms as if she had wielded an object.
Makoto looked at he own hands as the storm began to break. They to had developed calluses, and they were different than Miko's. Makoto looked at the storm and wondered what she was missing. As Makoto sat there, in that forlorn alcove, with Minako, she had the feeling that this was not the first time she had been in this situation.
~*~
" Nathan." Therra called out, her tone not of one who was calling for a friend just to talk, but of a friend needing to talk.
" What do you need Therra?" Nathan questioned a edge of weariness in his voice, that told a story all of its own. He was looking at the stars, looking for clues, yet again. Therra had to admire his faithfulness to women he had not seen in hundreds of lifetimes.
" There something I need to tell you, about Minako and Makoto." Therra breathed out in a soft tone.
" What?" he demanded softly, watching the approaching clouds block out the stars. She raised her eyes to balcony of Rei's room and pointed.
Nathan raised his eyes and the wind was sucked out of his sails. You could barley see the outline of a figure, but the light that was burning in front of her gave away to her silhouette. Her hands glowed and it looked like flames were licking across her palms.
" Therra, you know what this means don't you? The only way they could have the power to control the elements out side of their Senshi forms, is if before they died they found the weapons." He hissed, his eyes never leaving the figure on the balcony.
" Yes I know. Which means were are they? And why did they not use them in the last battle they fought against Beryl? Ianna was always one step ahead of Kris, Beryl, and us so she more than likely knew the outcome of the fight, even before she fought it. So why not take them? They could have won."
Nathan shook his head, silently watching as Rei retreated to her room. If Rei was pulling fire out of thin air, then she had to have come in contact with the Twin Dragon Swords. Which meant that as Aurora she had found them. It was only reasonable to assume that Athena had found the Harp of Ice, Minako the Sword of Light, or destruction, and Makoto had the Bo of Thunder. Those weapons gave them the power to fight outside of transforming to a degree, and they could move into Eternal form.
" Maybe Ianna was looking ahead to the future, whatever she thought that was, maybe she knew she would be re-born and that she should leave it undisturbed. Who knows, but that puts a whole knew spin on the fight. So if they found them then, how long will it take them to find them now?" Therra wondered out loud, her eyes dark with emotion.
" I don't know, but we should tell the others. I really wish that Kris was here, he knew Ianna better than most, he might understand. I just wish they would have told us something, besides the one letter that Aurora left Jason." Nathan mumered. He had no idea what was in the letter, except that Jason told them it was the only love letter he had ever gotten from her, and he would change it for her any day.
" I know it makes you wondered what else Ianna has stored up her sleeve, unknowingly of course. We have to find them, and I think I know where to start." Therra mumered. " Care to come with me?"
" Like you need to ask. But why are you asking? You never have before, you just take off."
" I don't care to repeat the lecture that Rox gave me. He will tune it down if I take you with me at least." Therra grumped, and Nathan burst into laughter. The storm was building, and he wondered how much more he would have to laugh about.
~*~
Kris moved like a shadow around the campsite, scouting searching, knowing every crack there was to know. Every inch, any possibility that would get the girl out unharmed, and would get them killed. His eyes scanned one last time and his eyes widened as he got the first look at the person he had been tracking.
Athena sat in front of a fire, her eyes distant, and he knew that those eyes saw everything, and by the expression on her face was developing a plan. He thought about sending a mental message to Zavier but decided against it. He would wait till he got them out and safe.
He swiftly moved among the shadows and timed it to the vampire attacks and if he was right, then he would get her out. They hit right on time. He watched for a few minutes and calculated the numbers, and was slightly surprised by the numbers to which they were attacking with. He shrugged to himself, he had planned for it, so no need to worry.
He moved through the battle, cutting down vampires or men, which ever came closer to his sword, or dared to jump into his path. He made it rather easy to Athena. He grabbed her wrist and hauled her through the fight. He had to make an odd slap here or there, beheading or mortally wounding whatever came to close, but he managed to pull her out. Once he reached the woods he scooped her up and ran as fast as he could. When he jumped the ravine he had found, only then did he stop and let the small bundle he had tracked for days down.
The girl looked up and he was staring into the eyes of a woman he had seen in four thousand years. Her eyes were large and filled with questions and suspicions, they were searching his face, and something wavered and changed and it was another person in his arms.
" Kris?" Ami breathed her voice hollow and distant, before her lids fluttered and she slumped forward. Kris caught and held her, his mask falling for a split second. Hope raced across his features, hope that maybe his Ianna would indeed come back to him. He picked her up and used the last of his energy to teleport them back to the palace.
Zavier walked quickly through the gardens and froze when he saw a light appear in the roses, and he breathed easy when Kris appeared in front of him. He opened his mouth to talk when he noticed that Kris was holding something. He caught a peek of blue and bare feet when Kris looked at him and walked past.
" Come with me." Kris ordered as he practically ran into the castle. Kris never ran anywhere. Zavier found his feet flying after him even before his brain had registered the fact that it was time to move.
Zavier located the rest of the group circling outside of the medic hall. They all had confused expressions on their features. Rei stood off to one side, her face as guarded as the day he met her. His quick eyes picked up something in her features that caused him to gape. Her eyes danced and played with an inner fire, which meant that they were the Senshi re-born. Not just look a likes. All of sudden Rei straightened and screamed.
" AMI!" Rei yelled before bolting to her friend. Ami hugged her friend but her eyes were glued to the green ones that were wide with shock…and longing.
