Grrr I finaly got this bit done. I stuggle a lot with the battle scenes, and it probably shows that I have no real interest in writing them, but I hope there still okay.
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"When Dawn Comes"
By Kimra
Part XXII
"But I know you." Serena muttered in angry defiance, staring at the elevator lights as they slowly progressed. It had to be the most cryptic frightening thing he had ever said.
Serena stomped her feet, trying to rid herself of the building agitation. Nothing seemed to be working properly for her, and here she was waiting for the lift to deliver her to the fate her sense of guilt was leading her too.
It chimed it's arrival at the appropriate floor and she disembarked, Tuxedo Mask going through her head. He had been different, entirely, and the more she thought on it he hadn't been threatening just different and the change had come out of no where so it frightened her. Maybe without the mask it wouldn't have been half so bad because she would have been able to see what it was that he was thinking. She was very good at reading emotions in the way the eye shade changed or the changing shape's they had.
Pushing thoughts of Tuxedo Mask aside she steadied herself for the approaching scene. This was not going to be pretty but that stupid guilt gnawing at her insides demanded she do this. Besides she didn't want Darien to hold anything against her, because he was just stubborn enough to pull of a break in contact.
She went to knock on the door but it swung open before her hand touched the wood.
"Expecting someone?" Serena demanded as tartly as she could, a little disoriented by the interruption, already her plan was wrong. All her plans had started with her knocking on the door, most of them had ended with the hope that the door wouldn't open, but even in those plans she had knocked.
"Yes." His voice was warm, and before she could responded he had caught her raised hand and gently drawn her into the apartment, closing the door behind them. Her eyes moved about the apartment again, carefully.
"Is there anyone else here?" Was her cautious question.
Lips closed over the side of her neck, his front pressing firm against her back. She closed her eyes to appreciate the sensation before he drew away his lips trailing up to her ear, hot breath brushing against her. "No one ever is." He whispered.
She went to turn around to face him and he caught her, preventing the movement as his lips continued their trek about her neck. He brushed her hair out of his way and pressed a quick kiss to the back of her neck, his other hand still holding her back firmly to him.
"What are you doing?" Serena asked breathlessly. This felt so different to the three other times she had been in his arms. The small caresses, the tenderness, none of it felt the same but she liked the difference. It felt so much more intimate the way his hands moved about her exploring what they already knew and she let him go, appreciating the attention.
A swirl of white's and blacks, vivid oranges and blues, shimmering reds and greens. Every colour danced past her eyes but they where all dulled in the presence of whites and blacks that dominated everything around them with passive authority. The word around her was spinning, or perhaps she was spinning while the world remained still. And all she could do was laugh in joy, because which ever way it went she knew she was getting the better deal.
Hands held her firm about the waist, and what ever was happening it was happening to the man before her as well, except her wasn't laughing like her, but she could see love in his dark eyes. There was such familiarity in their contact though they tried to hide it. Only the others knew how familiar the two where and it would not do well to let anyone else know.
He smiled at her, and she marvelled that she alone could draw forth that smile, a true smile, one that would linger for days and be reborn when memory offered its first moment of existence. She owned his smile's of perfection and cradled them to her soul with all the care of a woman so in love her life had become void except in his presence.
Another laugh bubbled from her throat, and the world stopped spinning, only to start again when those lips familiar lips closed over her own drawing her breath into his warm mouth. And no one was looking, and she didn't care because the world had begun to spin, and this time she knew she wasn't moving because he was there to hold her still, to hold her safe.
The next moment she was spinning again, spinning away from him but his hand still clasped her own, and before the connection could be broken her drew her back arm's enfolding her once more.
She bit into her bottom lip, risking a glance about at the swirling hues of others company, but no one but her mother was watching her and her smile bloomed when she saw no disproval in those caring eyes. Her smile broke into a grin her eyes returning to the man before her, and she saw too he had a brighter smile on, as if he understood what had just occurred.
Something whispered to her, the colours about her fading to dull grey's his figure still black and sharp before her, but the contact of his fingers felt lose and yielding. She cried out in shock trying to clasp at his image and her fingers passed through it.
Sharp pain ripped through Serena tearing her from the dream, her body jolting upwards with a warriors instinct, grabbing the offending weapon and throwing it across the room. She heard a dull thud and a screech, before her eyes focused on the black bundle that glared at her from the floor. She almost smiled, but thought the better of it, cat's where always so funny when they where rumpled because they did everything in their power to pretend it hadn't happened.
Confusion occurred before she even began speaking, her eyes skiting about the room and found that indeed she was where she thought she was, in Darien's bed once more. He however wasn't there.
"That's the first sleep I've had in ages and you interrupt it by trying to scratch me to death?" Serena demanded of the cat. It occurred to her though, that she had managed to sleep the night she had come to Darien's apartment.
"It's a school day tomorrow." Luna responded sharply, her eyes snapping about the room in agitation. Serena noted the cat's fur was on end, and doubted it was from being thrown across the room unceremoniously.
"So?" She honestly couldn't see the problem but by Luna's glare she was obviously meant to.
"Your mother was worried!" Was Luna's second attempt at reason. Serena looked out the window and found it was dark already. She gave a yawn her eyes searching out a clock. The numbers read a little before 11 pm, and her sleep riddled mind refused to contemplate how many hours she had been asleep.
"So what did you tell her?"
"What did I tell her?" Luna screeched. "I'm a cat Serena I didn't tell her anything!"
Serena looked at Luna sceptically, she was being far to placid. If her mother had been scared to death by her absence she was sure Luna would have at least torn her eyes out already.
"I had the scouts call your house and say that you four had been shopping all day, you had collapsed on Lita's lounge at about seven and weren't showing any signs of waking." Luna's eyes did not show forgiveness or even happiness. "They where frantic about you when I asked them to do that. They tried every trick they could think of to make me talk." Luna shook her head, eyes dark. "I wont lie to them, its not right. They are your friends and you shouldn't lie to them either. The scouts where more then friends in the silver millennium they where closer to sisters. And they are worried and helpless because they know the more they try and find out what's wrong the further you pull from them."
Serena bit into her lip, staring at the cat who watched her intently.
"I need you to tell them." Luna admitted, looking old even for a cat. "Not for the scouts, but for your friendship. All their doing is what you would have done in their situation. They all love you and maybe at first they wont react how you want them to, but in the end they'll still love you." Luna padded across the thick blankets and butted her head against Serena's arm reassuringly. "Tell them." She pleaded softly and Serena crumbled, her arm's closing in around the cat, fingers burying into soft black fur, her head resting against the cats.
"Okay." Serena replied, her grip comfortingly tight around the surprised cat. "I'll tell them, I promise. Tomorrow after school, I'll tell them." And she swore it to herself a hundred fold releasing the cat back onto the blankets, blinking back her tears. She had been far to emotional recently.
"Serena." The cat began more cautiously this time. Serena looked down at the cat, prepared for what ever lecture came. "I've been busy with central lately, we never had a chance to talk properly about all of this." Luna's expression scrunched, her body shifting from paw to paw.
"Luna?" Serena asked a little worried. The guardian of the sailor scouts rarely looked uncomfortable.
"Have you considered the possibility of pregnancy, and such?" The cat blurted out fiercely, her expression looking abashed at having to ask. Serena blinked at the cat a couple of times crediting the question for it's honesty and for it's intelligence. She bit down into her bottom lip staring at the cat. She had considered the possibility but she had brushed it aside. Again she closed her eyes letting her senses spread then drew them deep within herself, searching for the answer to her guardians question. She smiled slightly when she was certain and sent that smile down to the cat.
"I'm not pregnant." She told it certainly. Luna raised a sceptic eyebrow.
"You have to do tests to be certain, I know it hasn't been long, but it's better to know now." The cat persisted.
Serena gave a laugh and caught the cat's face between her palms. "I'm not pregnant Luna. I can feel it. I just know if there was life in me, if something was growing in me I'd know it." Luna went to protest and Serena caught her mouth closed. "Listen to me this once Luna. I'm not pregnant, and even if I am we would know in due time." Serena shook her head at the cat, her guardian was an endearing little thing. "Now go home and rest, you look fatigued.
"And leave you here on your own?" Luna demanded shocked.
"I can hardly explain my cat's presence in his apartment now can I?" Serena teased in response.
"Let's go to one of the girls house's then." The cat attempted futilely.
Serena shock her head in a no. "I'm comfortable, and I can honestly feel real sleep in my system. Just let me sleep the rest of the night out here, it wont hurt anyone." And without waiting for a response from the cat she had dug herself beneath the heavy blankets and snuggled deeper down. She never heard Luna leave, but she felt it.
A few minutes latter another body slid in beside her own, and feigning sleep she snuggled against it. Pleased with the arms that snaked around her and pulled her closer.
"Serena."
"Go away." Serena mumbled.
"Serena." The voice repeated softly. Serena felt hands on her and pushed gently against the body attached to them.
"I don't want to get up." A deep chuckle echoed after her words.
"I cooked you breakfast." The voice persisted, a little louder this time.
"I'm not hungry." She retaliated.
"That's got to be a first."
Even in sleep Serena could detect the mocking in the voice and her eyes snapped open a fierce retort pushing through the haze of her mind. The retort stopped the moment her eyes came into focus on a pair of laughing blue eyes.
"What?" She chocked out even as her mind caught up to her. Her body relaxed. "Oh. Darien." And she went to roll over and fall back asleep.
"You have to get up for school." He informed her still sounding amused. Serena mumbled something about not caring about school before she actually progressed past mulish sleep to consciousness.
"What?" She screeched, her body jerking upright, sheets tumbling off her body. Her eyes jumped about for the clock she had found the night before. Thin rays of sunlight filtered through the windows curtains, illuminating the numbers. And she groaned. "It's way to early!" She snapped, facing him angrily. "You wake up the first good sleep I've had since-" she stopped and bit into her check, she did not want to tell him that, but his raised eyebrow suggested he already knew. "Since… well forever, and I don't even have to be a school for two hours."
"You do realise your making me reconsider letting you our of this house within the next twenty-four hours, siting there like that." A smile played on his lips and she glanced down at herself to see what he meant. With a shriek she yanked the blankets up over her body glaring at him fiercely, and she was rewarded with his laugh. His expression stilled and he bent down, leaning his face close to hers. "You look gorgeous of a morning." He murmured smoothly, his finger tracing her bare shoulder blade then slipping down her spine. And before she could do more then shiver he had left the room, latching the door behind him.
She slummed the moment he was gone, the blankets tumbling back to her lap forgotten. It was one thing for him to see her naked in the middle of sex, but in the early light of day it felt like quite another thing and it was something she knew she wasn't ready for.
She lifted herself out of the bed taking the thick coverlet with her. She wrapped it firmly about herself like a toga her free arm hugging it to her body. Just in case she glanced about the bedroom floor but she trusted her memory enough to know that her clothes had been scattered about the living room the night before.
When she entered the living room she found Darien standing out on the balcony illuminated by the morning's twilight. She stopped by the lounge watching his pensive form with interest. He was slumped over against the railing his back to her, his hair slightly tousled by the gentle morning breeze. Her breathing slowed to conceal her presence, eyes fixed on him. He racked a hand through his hair, settling it into a slight neater configuration before letting that hand fall back to the railing. That same hand gripped onto the edge of the railing, released, then gripped again, his knuckles turning white with the tension.
Serena wet her lips, yanking her eyes away from him, silently moving about the room to retrieve her clothing knowing the dull shuffle of her feet would be heard but doubting it would draw him from his thoughts.
She dressed quickly after that, taking a quick shower in his bathroom, trying not to touch anything but unable to help herself when she got back into the bedroom. The house was so barren that the one picture frame on his bedside table beckoned her to look at it closely. With a shaking finger she traced the figures in the picture unable to fathom what they meant but knowing deep inside that it could mean nothing but pain. So she put the picture back down, threw his blanket back onto his bed and left the room, ignoring the impulse inside that told her to ask about the picture. We are not attached and I don't want to know. She told herself firmly.
With that uncertain resolve she walked back into the living room to find he had moved from the balcony and was sitting on one of the chairs, waiting for her. She could tell he was waiting because the moment she entered the room the book he had been holding was closed and his eyes where fixed on her.
"I have to go, get my uniform and stuff." She excused turning promptly to the exit.
"Wait." His voice was so full of pleading she couldn't help but stop. She heard him rise but she would not turn around just yet. She felt awkward in his presence. He seemed to be reaching for something, and after last night she wasn't sure what it was because everything had felt different when they made love. An involuntary shudder went through her, it terrified her, because it was the first time that it had felt like he was making love to her, not just sex. And although her experiences where few the difference was so astounding she couldn't question the deduction.
He stepped before her, his hand sliding beneath her chin and raising her eyes to meet his. She saw a softness there he had never shown before, and gently his lips met hers. The caress soft, promising, and achingly sweet. It delved into her soul, searching for answers and all she could do was let it respond to him, her body unmoving under his silent questioning her insides tingling with confusion. And he stepped back, his fingers slipping from beneath her chin in a final caress before he silently walked away from her.
She turned to see him walk through the balcony doors once more, the light a little brighter now, shinning against his ravens hair. She tried to breath, only managing silent shallow breaths then turned, walked to his door and walked out.
Serena remained silent through class's that day, contemplating her promise to Luna. She had no intentions of backing out on it, she would tell the others, the cat had applied to her sense of loyalty and that seemed to outweigh even her stubbornness.
She responded when the teacher asked her a question, still receiving that odd look that suggested she shouldn't be answering correctly but ignoring it. She even responded the few times Molly tried to talk to her. Amy and Lita kept their silence and their distance, surprised when she sat with them during lunch and concerned when she told them they had to talk after school. And she summoned Raye on the communicator to tell her about the meeting after school.
When she arrived at the school gates she found all three of them, standing together in silence. And in that same silence they walked to the park, the arcade far to crowded for any conversations of importance to happen within. And Serena did not want Darien within killing distance should that be any of their reactions to that particular part of her confession.
They settled around a wooden table in a sunny patch of the park only one or two people in sight and all of them out of hearing distance. Raye sat on top of the table, Amy at the bench, Lita lent against it and Serena sat in the middle of the bench opposite Amy's. She entrenched herself with her position on purpose, she would do this.
She took a slow shallow breath looking at her three friends to make sure their attention was on her, she didn't think she could bare to repeat this. "I want to start-" She whispered, her eyes falling to the table "-by apologising to you all. I've been a real bitch these past few weeks and none of you did anything to deserve the way I've treated you all." Her hands clasped in front of her, awaiting the silence to be broken by one of them while trying to decide how to begin her next statement.
"We knew something was wrong with you." Amy confessed. "You don't need to apologise."
"We've been trying to figure out exactly what it is though." Raye bluntly stated her eyes intense.
"We know it has something to do with Molly's party. You just haven't been the same since that day." Amy admitted, her eyes still worried. Serena shifted with the words, wondering exactly how much the girls could have figured out on their own.
Lita cracked her knuckles frowning. "We grilled Molly, well I grilled Molly about it. And we would have gone and grilled Justin…" She shrugged absently the frown tightening. Serena's attention was locked on Lita, waiting for the next sentence.
"Why didn't you?" Serena demanded a little too sharply, and her response came in the form of three very confused expressions.
"Serena-" Amy began looking a little uncomfortable "-don't you know?"
Serena's pulse quickened, it was the tone of voice Amy used when she was about to deliver horrible news, but she just couldn't imagine what the scout of Mercury was going to tell her. But Amy suddenly looked unable to talk.
"His in the hospital." Lita stated seeing Amy's inability to continue. Serena's eyes jumped to the brunette, staring in shock.
"Is that why I haven't seen him?" She demanded shocked. "What happened to him?" Raye was frowning in deep thought, so too where the other scouts.
"No one knows." Lita replied.
"Well what did he say happened?" Serena continued to demand feeling a little unstable with this revelation.
Raye shook her head as if realising something. "Meatball head!" Raye snapped and Serena stared at her. "His in a coma."
The blood rushed from her face and she felt the cold settling in. "What?" She gasped. "Since when?"
"Amy broke into the hospital computers, it says he was found about two nights after Molly's party in really bad shape." Raye was staring into her eyes. "We thought maybe you saw it happen." Raye bit into her bottom lip, looking for the first time fragile.
"Saw what happen?" Serena begged, she couldn't believe her friends knew more then her about this person she could barely remember.
"He was beaten up Serena." Serena could see Amy's concerned expression.
"Really bad. I mean who ever it was put him in a coma. And the doctors say he could have been in that alley since he'd gone missing the night of Molly's party." Lita shifted her weight against the table, her eyes locked in the distance.
"Why haven't I been spoken to?" Serena demanded of the three sharply. "I left the party with him… the police… surely they would be asking questions." She frowned, police usually asked questions when they found teenage boys who had been beaten into coma's.
"According to the police records the last people he spoke with before disappearing where three of his close friends where he said he had 'found something better to do then hang around at a kids party'." Amy shifted in her own seat. "It was a very poorly constructed report, they didn't speak with half the kids in the form who had been there, but they hypothesised that on his way home he was mugged although the mugger didn't take anything. They've asked around that neighbourhood but no-one heard or saw anything. It's mostly shop district so few people actually live there."
"Surely I would have heard about it at school!" Serena demanded, her mind in a whirlwind.
"With the way you've been avoiding everyone I'd be surprised if you heard the notices in your own class and Justin's never been in any of our class's. That's why it was surprising that you left with him." Lita rubbed the back of her neck, her intense eyes still focused on Serena. "It seems the only person who knew you had left with him had been Molly and she said you weren't feeling very well and he was taking you home. And since he was found in the complete opposite direction she just assumed he had dropped you off and was on his own way home."
"According to the police report Molly didn't have any contact with Justin during the party except when she greeted him and his friends at the door." Then Amy continued to muse. "She probably didn't want to put you through undue stress considering how ill you've been looking lately. And since we assured her that we picked you up outside of her house she knew you didn't have any more knowledge of the attack then she did."
Serena looked to Raye who had remained generally silent as her two school colleges rattled out the information gained. "What happened that night?" Was the Scout of Fire's demanding question. "We'll cover for you, we already have. But we need to know."
Serena nodded her head at her three friends, new tears threatening despite her surprise at the information gained. She wondered if she had been there when Justin was attacked, or if it had been something more sinister then that. Maybe Zoicite had found her human form and attacked him because he was with her, but that didn't make sense because Zoicite would have attacked her personally again since. And she couldn't put Tuxedo Mask in the picture either, the crystals disappearance didn't fit. It was possible they had parted ways and Justin had been by himself defenceless against an attacker while she had strolled about the park.
She pushed those thoughts away, there where far too many possibility's and she still knew so little. Instead she focused on the friends that waited for her response.
"I don't remember." She stated bluntly. Not waiting for their response she continued "I know-" Her voice cut off her head turning sharply just as the other three's heads turned. Something in the air-
"An attack." Raye stated bluntly, her sense of the unnatural spirits in the world keeping her far more in tune to such things then the rest of them. Serena wanted to cry at the ill timing of it all, she wanted to tell them and the Youma's never gave her peace.
Before she could even begin her triad of distaste against the Youma's an explosion sounded near by. All four girls where on their feet and running towards the noise without hesitation. She cast a look about to find the place, sunny and quite, and empty, then gripped her broach. She felt the others do the same, shouting out their transformation phrases then continuing their run.
The battle scene was hardly begun. People where still running away from the sluggish Youma that towered before them, slime dripping off it's leathery skin. It was a solid brown green colour, and looked nothing like anything human. It didn't even have that faint female aspect most of the Youma's had.
"That was faster then I was expecting." A blunt voice stated behind them. Serena spun on her heal, hand reaching for her tiara as she glared at the familiar smirking face of Zoicite. "I had thought we could kill at least three or four people before you Sailor Brats showed up for the finally. But oh well I suppose I'll just have to settle for killing you four." And with that Zoicite threw his power at them in a fierce attack.
All four girls scattered, three far more aerobically then one. Lita landed first, her attack instant, lighting lashing across the emptying park towards the general. Zoicite countered it easily her own powers colliding with and cancelling out the bolt of lighting.
"Bystanders!" Serena shouted automatically, directing her eyes to the few humans who remained trapped by the giant Youma. Raye and Amy nodded and jumped to that aspect of the fight, Lita sending harsher blasts of lightning at Zoicite, the thunder roaring through the air around them. Serena repressed her shudder, drawing off her tiara, she could hear her friends cry out their attack's a little off, see the flash of flames against the green tree's and feel the cool edges of Amy's fog.
Serena twirled around, her tiara spinning from her grip, and Zoicite, shaking his head avoided it with ease. Jupiter's attack sliding of the laughing general. Serena ground her teeth in agitation, the man sounded like a hyena and it was completely distracting. She caught her tiara back again, staring the enemy in the eye, not intimidated, not caring.
A cry came from across the clearing, Serena's eyes jumping to her two friends to find them both straining against the Youma, two citizen's still lingered in the line of fire.
"Jupiter, help the other two." And for once it was an order, a real order issued by the leader of the scouts and Lita responded to it, her body taking her across the field quickly to assist her comrades. "Just us Zoicite." She jeered at the enemy. Somewhere reality had stopped being real, and fear had no domain in this dream.
"Then I'll get what I want from you, moon brat." Zoicite's attack lashed across the field like a whip, trying to reach Serena and Serena dodged it as easily as Zoicite had dodged her tiara.
"Can't you think of a more original insult Zoicite? It's getting so old." Her dry voice seemed to enrage the general and it actually amused Serena that Zoicite was so easily effected. Zoicite threw out two more blast's his eyes of green burning with an indefinable rage.
"You've been nothing but a pest from the beginning, nothing. The only time you've ever been useful to me was hooking that stupid masked moron into surrender." Another harsh laugh, and Serena did something unexpected while the barstard revelled in his own mirth. She kicked him, square in the gut. The tiara would take too long to charge, any time she did it she was vulnerable to attack and everyone knew it, but the other three where still busy.
Serena's eyes jumped to the scouts as Zoicite tried to recover from the attack clasping at his stomach in shock. The other three where well and truly busy with the giant youma, attacks flying together, twined and charged with as much power as they would yet surrender. If it pushed they could fight with more, but no one wanted to do that. It was an unspoken fact they had realised long ago, they could draw every piece of strength from their body's if need be, including their own life force. But it had never come to that, and Serena refused to believe it ever would.
A flash of black and white and Serena's eyes turned from the winded general to the source, almost expecting Tuxedo mask, shocked to find a stranger there. Immediately she registered that all to familiar attire he wore as a general's outfit. She stifled her internal groan of frustration, wondering exactly how many generals there where when all was said and done. Every time one died another would pop out of the wood works, only this time the previous one was still alive, and was it just her or did the Negaverse have a habit of throwing their weakest warriors at them first?
That sparkle of black radiated from the white haired man and she realised it was an attack of some sort, his attention focussed on her three distracted friends.
Serena jumped into action, voicing a warning shout as she moved, the three where intently focused on the hideous beast before them not on the smooth looking enemy behind them. She saw Raye and Lita move at the warning on instinct, and Amy, her attention deep within her computer jerk her head up in confusion. Lita went to jump at Amy and came in contact with a solid black wall of energy the blue clad scout trapped in the middle.
Amy mouthed something her fingers moving faster over the keys, the black around her closing in swiftly. Serena pulled the tiara from her head, charging it as she moved her two friends had already turned to confront this new general anger and panic in their eyes. Lita threw her attack straight and fast at the new enemy, her battle honed mind accepting and processing the danger immediately. Raye was about to release an attack when from behind she was struck, her body crashing into Lita's and stealing the scout of lightning's attention. All the while the bubble shrinking closer to Amy's skin.
Serena reached the range she deemed necessary to hit without flaw just as Lita turned her attacks onto the Youma pushing it back, away from Raye, away from the human's who had already been drained by the Negaverse. Serena spun on her heel, words pouring from her lips, the tiara sliding off her fingers like butter. It travelled true and fast, diving at the newcomer, and she was shocked when it struck knocking him aside, his power flaring and vanishing.
Serena managed to see Amy fall to the floor gasping for air before she was flung across the clearing, her body colliding with this new generals.
"Zoicite, that was a low blow even for you!" Was Raye's horse shout before her chant of power came.
Serena assumed, with the trust of a warrior that the Scout of Mars had just taken the heat of her back and begun to fight Zoicite. So her attention went to the man bellow her. And found with distress his attention was already riveted on her with interest.
"I don't believe we've met before Sailor Moon. I'm General Malachite" Was what his smooth voice said just before the jarring pain ripped through her side. She gave a scream of pain and shock and tried to pull away form him. He went to grab at her, prevent her escape, his smirk superior and all together frightening. If the Negaverse kept sending stronger generals and they hadn't yet defeated Zoicite then she did not want to be anywhere near this man. She wrenched away from his grip, her hands grabbing at her sides where the blood was pouring from, feeling it even through her gloves as she tried to remain steady.
The white haired man, Malachite, lunged at her again, something black in his hand, her blood on his clothes. She was pulled out of his reach by a force from behind and she felt the soft familiar fabric of her saviours tuxedo. Forgetting his oddity's from the day before, in the heat of battle there was no time for questioning character's and cryptic words.
The general gave a half laugh staring down at them, black around his fingers. Serena went to move but the injury on her hip stalled her movements making her falter. Tuxedo Mask swung her into his grip ready to get them away when the inevitable became obvious and the black wall between them and safety was visible.
Serena swung her attention to her three friends, occupied with a giant Youma and a pissed looking Zoicite. Her attention jumped to the masked man who was assessing their situation and then back to the Malachite.
Fiercely she tore the tiara off her head, charging it, glaring the enemy in the eye, unable to shake away the fear that came when he didn't even blink at her obvious power up. His smirk seemed to increase.
"I wouldn't do that." He told her quickly, almost amused. She ignored the statement throwing her tiara directly for him, barrier be damned she was willing to try. She discovered much to hers and her hero's discomfort that her tiara ricocheted when it hit invulnerable things, and it took quite an effort to recapture it before either of them where sliced to pieces by it's power.
The general roared with laughter from his safety outside the bubble. Then his eyes focused on the two of them with malicious intent. "If I have to take you all to find the crystal for my Queen I will!" Where the harsh words he uttered before motioning the barrier smaller.
"What are you talking about?" Serena demanded of him, her eyes jumping to her friends still fighting Youma and Zoicite, still protecting the human's from the monsters. "You have your crystal's!"
Out of nowhere light shone, yellow blazing light that struck at the general before her and sent him flying across the park. His body thumping against the ground and staying there. Automatically the barrier around them disappeared a back lash of power pushing through them and sending both to the ground.
"Hey, he was cute." Came a perky voice from near them. Serena turned to face the voice's owner only to be confronted with what seemed like another Sailor Scout only she was sure they hadn't had any new recruits. She checked her sluggish mind to make sure this wasn't one of the girls she always spoke to then frowned at the newcomer. "You need a hand up or should I go help the others?" Was the girls quick question, blue eyes flashing with energy.
"The others." Serena waved quickly, and the girl bounded away. Even from a distance however Serena heard the new girl give a speech to equal her own corny speech's, and somewhere in the midst the name 'Sailor Venus' was cried out. But that was all set aside when Serena realised she was sprawled across the grass beside Tuxedo Mask.
Tuxedo Mask propped him above her looking down at her with a frown of what she guessed was worry. She certainly hoped so, she couldn't deal with a reprimand at the moment and she couldn't think what one would be about.
She stared past him at the light sky, trying to recapture her energy and trying to force her powers to mend her injuries.
"Are you okay?" His smooth voice asked, fingers tracing over her side with expert tenderness. It tickled far more then it hurt, the healing powers of the scout form helping her along. She didn't fight the probing fingers, only flinched when he managed to touch the wound which was indeed still painful. "Sorry." He murmured, his brows furrowed in concentration.
She gave a sigh of defeat looking to his face then back at the sky. "I'm fine." She grumbled feeling his eyes fixed on her. She just wanted to sleep for a decade, it was too much trouble being a Sailor Scout at times. With a groan she pushed him aside and forced herself to sit up, her muscles stretching in protest. She looked over to find the generals gone, the Youma already crumbled waiting to be destroyed. "Man, that Venus girl works fast." She mumbled reflectively.
The other Scouts where in a stand off position with the scout clad girl in yellow's and orange's, uncertainty in the air. Serena was however willing to accept the new girls intentions as honourable since she had just been saved by her.
"Guys?" She called across the clearing and they waved her off vaguely, fixated with the girl before them and unconcerned by the half dead Youma.
Tuxedo Mask's fingers slipped below her chin drawing her attention back to him. She met his masked eyes a little confused by the intimate gesture. And his lips came down on her own, soft and careful. She stiffened against the contact her mind moving to Darien in retaliation, only to realise how similar the masked mans caressing lips where to his. The same possessiveness pushed through her veins ensnaring her sense's and bewildering her mind, the same perfect softness embodied in those lips and the gloved fingers beneath her chin.
He pulled back slowly, the mask suddenly between them, but his expression helpless and a little lost. Serena tried to breath, tried to push away rampant thoughts of Darien that some how melded into thoughts of Tuxedo Mask. It just wasn't possible, it wasn't even likely but her body and sense's claimed it was him.
And then so softly she thought she was dreaming he breathed her name.
Her real name.
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-looks pathetic... "please review" ...continues to look pathetic-