/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
/\ To Go, Please /\
/\ Chapter 13: "Gone" /\
/\ E-mail: Adrial_06@yahoo.com /\
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Not much to say this time, guys. I think only
1 more after this and then an epilogue. For those
who are still reeling from the over dosage of sap in
ch. 12, you are not to be disappointed with these
following installments. Definitely PG13.
So you won't be horribly confused, I'll warn you
that I am switching back and forth from past to
present. The first section is present and it goes
present, past, present, past and so on.
You'll see once you start reading.
Splatters of moisture lashed at my cheeks,
piercing them with needles of hollow chill. The snow
which had swirled leisurely around clusters of children
before had long since abandoned them, transfiguring
itself into a sheet of sleet which beat down on
their innocent games and laughter relentlessly.
My bones quaked with the cold, threatening
to collapse in my body and leave me crumpled on
the slippery cement more empty than I already felt.
It was Christmas Eve.
She had taken them. All of them. Their smiles,
their light, and their presence were gone in a matter
of hours.
I had watched her do it, my eyes blank,
my heart numb.
"Save me."
"I'm trying, Angel."
"Try harder, Zach," I smiled wider through my
gritted teeth, clinging more tightly to Zach's arm.
He smiled with me, returning nods and waves as an
avalanche of black-suited men and eccentrically
sequined women smothered us with verbose conversation
and an atmosphere thick with the scent of imported
colognes and crisp, one thousand dollar bills.
"Zac-hary Brauhell! Why, it's been yearsince
I'veseenyou...!" A stumpy man with silvering hair
and an extremely mustached face approached us, waving
a glass of red wine in his white-gloved fingers
jubilantly.
Zach gulped. I felt him tense underneath my
firm clasp on his bicep.
"Mr. Cromwell." He weakly smiled.
The man clapped him roughly on his shoulder
and laughed, shaking the wine in his grasp haphazardly.
"Ah, call me Edward! The last time I saw you,
you were only yay high and skinnyasarail!" He chuckled
once more, tilting his large head back. He was
definitely a few glasses past drunk.
Zach rolled his eyes in my direction and I
pinched his side. He shrugged, sobering when Edward's
jiggling head snapped back.
He threw an arm sloppily around Zach's neck and
shook. "Ah, my boy, I trust you'll be taking over
your father's job soon, eh? He's--hee, hee--he's
nearly too--hee, hee--old to carry on!" He erupted
into drunken laughs, leaning against Zach's
chest heavily.
Zach laughed shortly. "Um...Mr. Cromwell,
let me take that off your hands..."
He unclasped the glass of wine from Edward's
hand and set it on the table. I cleared my throat in
a futile attempt to smother the giggles threatening
erupt there.
Edward's plump hand fell limply against
his side. Zach rose an eyebrow and mock-glared
at me as I laughed openly at the snoozing CEO
hanging onto his torso.
"See what I mean?" He shrugged out of the
man's death-grip and let him collapse into a tall,
mahogany chair.
He hadn't been lying when he said he needed
back up at his father's Christmas banquet. I took
his hand, my giggles fading into short chuckles.
"Come on," I tugged his arm, searching through
the mass of people for the rest of our party.
Zach groaned, dodging a herd of penguin-men as
they started their way over to us.
I had been nervous, to say the least, when Zach
pulled up in front of his parent's house--scratch that--his
parent's *mansion* earlier that evening. The valet, dressed
in a red bell-hop type uniform, graciously retrieved
the keys to Zach's BMW (another one of those *perks*),
which he only drove when he knew he'd come within
a ten mile radius of his father or his co-workers.
"Just to humor the old man, you know."
He slid out of the leather seat as if he owned
the place (which he practically did), the only indication
of his discomfort being the lethal grip he had on
my wrist.
The sleek, black gown I'd borrowed from Minako's
own superfluous stash swished slightly at my knees as
I quickened my steps to keep up with his swift gait.
When we approached the front door, I urged my mouth
not to drop to the ground. The acres of land surrounding
the place were impeccably green and mowed to perfection.
The lights glowing brightly from behind wide glass
windows illuminated shadows of people as they milled around
inside. The golden door knob itself must have cost
an arm and a leg to purchase, I'd thought as I stood there
trying to catch both my breath and my voice.
I was frozen. The daunting pillars which stood on
either side of us seemed to close in on me.
"I can't go in there." I said, shaking my head
slowly. Zach squeezed my hand firmly.
"Of course you can." The door swung open before
I could protest further, courtesy of their butler,
and revealed the foyer.
A petite woman with auburn hair folded and twisted
delicately around her face greeted us.
"Hey." Zach said tightly, not leaving my side.
"Zachary Jeremiah Braudell," She placed her ringed
fingers on her hips, "Is that anyway to greet your mother?"
He instantly realized his mistake and let go of
my wrist. The blood rushed to my hand, prickling it slightly.
"Sorry, sorry," He enveloped her in his arms,
and she laughed, wrapping her own around his torso.
She was at least two feet shorter than he.
"How are you?" He kissed her cheek.
She rearranged the curls near her ear, "Fine,
dear, fine. Zachary, are you getting taller? Let me see you."
Zach groaned as she forced him to turn around for her.
"What are they feeding you at that college?
Miracle-Gro?" She tsked. He rolled his eyes.
"Mom," He turned to me, making the chandelier
which hung over our heads seem dim with the charming
smile he gave me, "I'd you like to meet Mizuno Ami."
My stomach lurched. The small woman who stood
before me, fretting over her son's eating habits,
suddenly seemed to grow ten feet and a set of fangs
as well--or so my imagination perceived.
"Ah," She clasped her hand over my own, "Ami!
Zachary's told me so *much* about you," She eyed him,
and a silent message passed between mother and son.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Braudell,"
I weakly returned her smile, wondering if I should have
taken those etiquette classes along with Usagi
a few years back.
"Oh, nonsense!" She waved her hand, "Call me Catherine."
I smiled wider, warming at her relaxed presence.
Zach seemed pleased and handed his coat along with my
own to another man dressed identically to the one
who'd opened the door.
"Come, come, you must tell me all about yourself."
She gestured towards another set of doors, glowing
with lights from behind them. They spread open as if
on cue, two twin door-men standing on either side.
That was three long hours ago. I now stood
in the middle of the cluster of businessmen and their
respective counterparts, clinging to my own as we
politely elbowed our way through.
"Zach! Have you tried these things?" Jason held
up a cream puff, his hand stuffing another into his mouth,
"I tell ya, that chef of yours has outdone herself
this year." Jason popped a few more into his
over-stuffed mouth.
"Jason Ronweld!"
Jason's mouth stopped mid-chew, and he blanched.
"Aunt Cat!" He plastered on a charming grin,
behind the puffs, and enveloped his aunt in a hug.
She hugged him back, but frowned when he released her.
"Don't tell me you've been eating all this time!
Mr. Cromwell's been after you all night!" She playfully
smacked his arm and took his handful of puffs away.
Zach and I shared a laugh.
"Mom, I don't think Mr. Cromwell's going to be
up to any form of conversation right now," Zach laughed
and sat next to Mamoru.
Catherine scoffed, "Has that man passed out already?"
She then scurried away, smiling once more at me.
I sat beside Zach at the table. It was made to seat
forty, at least, but we were the only ones sitting at the
moment, save for one unconscious, drunk CEO.
"God, it's a friggin' jungle out there!" Matt exclaimed,
Makoto in tow, as he peeled himself out of the crowd and joined us.
"Tell me about it," Zach kneaded his forehead.
I placed my hand on his knee comfortingly.
Minako been the only one to adapt well to the
environment, having had her share of enough stuffy
cocktail parties to teach her a thing or two
about mingling with the rich and the richer.
She was currently conversing with an array of
women who had been in contact with her agent over
the years and recognized her. Kyle stood opposite her,
smiling tightly and looking more like a statue than
a guest.
"I don't know how you do it, man," Matt slapped
Zach's shoulder with a sympathetic look on his face.
Zach smiled, relaxing more in the company of his friends.
"I'm fine as long as I don't run into my fath--"
"Zachary."
The hairs on my neck stood on end at the sound of
the voice that sliced through the air. It was intimidating,
deep, and practically said "If you even try to speak to me,
I will cut you into pieces with my bare hands and
let the buzzards nip at your remains."
Zach visibly flinched before he stood.
I was scared to look his father in the eye,
but I forced myself to anyway.
He was definitely Zach's. They shared the same green
eyes, although his father's were not nearly as bright.
His hair was dark brown, with streaks of silver here
and there, which meant that Zach's mother's true
blonde hair must have been colored its auburn hue.
"Dad."
They stared at each other for a minute. The
tension which permeated the air was so thick I could
feel it closing in on our huddle.
If it hadn't been for Jason, I wasn't sure if
they would have ever released the steely gaze they
had on each other.
"Uncle J!" Jason put down his overfilled plate
of pastries and joined the pair.
Zach's father tore his eyes away. The rigid edges
of his face melted slightly, and he smiled at his nephew.
"Jason," He placed a hand on his shoulder,
"You seem to be doing well."
I silently wondered if this smiling man was the
same one who had nanoseconds before been boring a hole
into his son's forehead with his eyes.
Jason swelled up in a macho way and winked at Rei.
"Verrry well, in fact. Hey, you still up for that
re-match?" His competitive side showed more clearly
than ever at that moment.
Mr. Braudell smiled cockily and folded his arms
across his chest, "Nephew, it's going to take a lot more
than ego to beat me at golf."
They embarked into an argument over the issue,
giving me a chance to slide up next to Zach.
"You alright?" I looked at him with a concerned
frown. His sheet white face regained a bit of color.
"Yeah, don't worry about me." He smiled reassuringly,
failing to cover the layer of annoyance which floated
behind his eyes.
I didn't have time to inquire about his father's
mood-swings, because his shadow fell over me before
I could open my mouth again.
"And who might this be?" His gaze fell over me,
searching, I knew, for something I hoped to God I possessed.
Zach cleared his throat, "Dad, this is Mizuno Ami."
I could see Rei and Makoto ushering me with their
hands to speak. They were clearly eating this up.
I gave him a wavering smile, but managed to steady
it eventually.
"Mizuno Ami," He repeated, glancing at his son
swiftly, and then back at me, "Do you attend college,
Mizuno-san?"
And to think that I considered the girls'
interrogations intimidating.
I nodded, "Yes, I'm a freshman at Juuban University."
He rubbed his chin.
"And your major?"
"Pre-med."
"You wish to be a doctor? That's a rather
trying field to enter."
"I don't mind the work. Medicine has been my
ambition for a while."
"And your parents? Are they doctors as well?"
My gaze didn't fall from his own, but I felt
Zach about to enter the conversation and break it up.
I placed my hand on his elbow.
"My mother is an anesthesiologist at J. Memorial
Hospital, and I haven't been in contact with my father
for nine years, sir."
"How unfortunate."
He seemed to be calculating my personality,
his eyes stead-fast in their gaze on mine.
"Jeremiah! Don't badger the poor girl!" Mrs. Braudell
pushed herself in between us.
He smiled down at his wife, "Dear, I only wished to
get to know the young woman my son seems to be so...,"
He threw another glance at us, "Infatuated with."
Crimson stained my cheeks, and Zach shifted slightly.
"Ah, yes, well..." She trailed off, steering her
husband away from us.
"Governor Kaiho would like to have a word or two...
or a few thousand with you," She laughed light-heartedly
at an inside joke.
They disappeared in the swarm eventually and Zach
exhaled heavily. I didn't blame him.
"I must commend you, Ami," Jason placed his arm around
my sagging shoulders, "Not many of the chicks Zach's
brought home have been able to stay standing during
a patented Braudell Grilling."
My mind clung to one word in his sentence.
chick*s*?
I rose my eyebrow at Zach. He glared at Jason
and smiled meekly at me.
"Hey, Jason, Usagi's eating your food," Zach pointed
at Usagi's blonde head, bent inconspicously over Jason's
plate of deserts.
"Hey!"
Usagi laughed loudly, holding the plate away from
Jason's hands.
Mamoru looked on with an amused expression, and,
to my astonishment, Rei did as well.
Zach sauntered over to me, wrapping his arm around
my waist gently.
"Sorry about that," He squeezed my torso,
"My father, I mean."
I shuddered and leaned my head on his shoulder.
His father hated me. I knew it. I wasn't good enough.
It was as simple as that. His eyes told me everything
I needed to know.
"Well, I think he likes you, honestly."
I looked at him incredulously, "Yeah right."
I sighed, leaving his arms and having every intention
of getting the hell out of there.
He grabbed my arm before I could reach the door.
"Hey, wait."
I didn't meet his gaze, but eyed the marble floor.
"Look, Zach, I understand. I'm just not cut out for this--"
"Hey," He pushed my chin up, "Don't think like that.
My father's always like that. It has *nothing* to do
with you. You're perfect."
I was ashamed to find tears clouding my vision.
"No...No I'm not. I'm sure there are a million other girls
that are better than me and know what to say when the
mayor speaks to them and don't choke when--when..."
I trailed off, unable to speak around my tears.
"I--I just wanted to make a g-good impression,"
I moved my hands around, wiping my eyes and blushing
at my sudden show of emotion. I felt utterly incompetent
for the first time in my life.
Zach caught my hands in his own, "Ami-chan, I love you."
I sniffed. Blurring his face into swirls, a
feeling gripped my mind and filled me with a foreboding
sense of some ominous presence. Wiping my hands quickly
over my face, I left Zach and hurried back to our table.
Rei's face was ashen; Makoto and Minako were standing quickly.
Usagi rose as well, Mamoru quickly behind her.
I rubbed the last traces of moisture off of my cheeks.
"Where?"
Rei's eyes were wide on her blanched face.
She slowly moved her head as if trying to sort out some
jumbled message she'd received and couldn't decipher.
"Here."
I struggled against the wind that beat forward on
me with no sign of retreat.
They had been so strong. Why did they have to go?
Why couldn't I have saved them?
The skies continued to shower over my head.
That's right...you cry for me when I cannot.
My heart, so weak from the pain, tried
desperately to feel again. I was tired of pain.
I was sick of anguish.
But they were the only remedy. And she stole them
from me.
I didn't bother calling out my transformation
and morphed into Sailor Mercury in a flash of blue.
My boots clicked deftly on the cement. They were near.
I felt them in my soul, beneath the cloud of remorse,
calling for me.
"I'm coming, minna-chan."
It felt as if a bucket of freezing water fell to
the pit of my stomach. I followed them out of the dining
room and into the massive foyer.
Mamoru pulled open the front doors without waiting
for the butler to do so. He merely cocked a tired eyebrow
in our direction and remained silent.
Minako and Rei rushed through, the rest of us
behind them, and continued walking. Rei pointed to the
left, and we veered off.
"Transform, minna," Minako said, her voice steely.
Even Usagi didn't protest and we transformed into our
senshi form immediately. Tuxedo mask appeared
in a flurry of roses at our side.
The foreboding feeling knawing at my mind
seemed to magnify within my skull and spread throughout
my entire body.
Venus began running towards the field of green
I'd been in awe of earlier. Random, abandoned golf balls
zoomed past us on the ground as we raced forward.
"I can sense her!" Rei exclaimed, the sign of her
planet glowing faintly on her sweaty forehead.
Venus sent a hasty glance backward at her, not
noticing the hump in the ground before it was too late.
The ground erupted at our feet, sending us flying
painfully backwards. Venus screeched, her body
receiving the brunt of the blow, and she flew,
airborne, across the field.
"OOF!"
I peeled my eyes open slowly, fearing the worst
for our Venusian senshi.
"Jason!" Rei exclaimed, rising quickly, "Get out of here!"
Jason grunted underneath Venus' body and helped
her stand. She looked at him groggily.
"Thanks."
He smiled, "No problem."
Mars was ready to spit fire at them both.
My visor flashed over my face, and I scanned
the area for any more bombs. There were at least fifty,
scattered in no particular order over the golf course.
"You guys, keep together! There are bombs everywhere!"
I shouted, my visor beeping as it continued scanning.
They gathered around me. I saw Zach approaching and
immediately choked on a lump of fear.
"What are you guys doing here?!" I yelled, enraged
that they would so blindly put themselves in the line of
danger--AGAIN.
"Well, when you run off without saying anything,
people tend to WORRY," Jason eyed Mars.
"You're going to get yourselves killed!" Mars
screamed, ready to pound all over Jason's smirk.
"I believe I was the one who just saved Minako from
being squished like a little orange sailor-bug,"
He countered, "Don't I get any credit?"
"I'll give you credit..." Mars held up her hands,
crackling with flames.
"Save it, Mars," Sailor Moon put her hand on Mars'
arm and turned to the guys, "You guys have to leave."
"Ssssenshi..."
Ten heads simultaneously whipped around. Sailor
Moon audibly gasped.
The youma slithered around our circle, lashing
out at us threateningly with its yellow fangs which were
dripping with a venom that sizzled as it leaked onto the ground.
Its triangular head swerved around, coiling
above its middle and stretched dangerously close to
Matt's shaking visage.
"H-Hate..s-sn-snakes..." He uttered, his body too
frozen in fear to move.
The youma's mouth parted, exposing two sets of smaller,
spiked teeth, and it sneered.
"Do you?" Its slimy voice spilled into the air slowly
and deliberately, intent on increasing its already
intimidating presence.
Matt dumbly nodded, snapping his brown eyes shut
against the murky yellow of the viper's.
We were so closely packed together that I could feel
Sailor Moon's quick breaths tickle the exposed part of my
neck. Mars' arm was pushed up against mine and she, too,
eyed the youma with a hint of fear smudged over her
amethyst gaze.
The viper stretched out fully, revealing itself
to be a good hundred feet in length and ten feet in diameter.
It wasn't huge--it was collosal.
I shakily reached for my ear, nudging the ear-ring
which would bring down my visor and report any possible
weaknesses in its defense.
Its slimy head snapped in my direction as if it
had been struck. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, sssenhi,"
Its forked tongue wriggled close to my nose. I removed
my hand from my ear, gulping hard. Its eyes were mesmorizing,
freezing me to my core to where I couldn't move
if I'd wanted to.
He continued to coil 'round and 'round us, striking
out with fangs exposed every time one of us tried to move.
He's going to squeeze us to death...
My mind raced, digging for some bit of information
that would save our torsos from being squished together
like they were made of play-doh.
No one spoke; Sailor Moon shakily reached for my
elbow, her slight movement hidden by Tuxedo Kamen's and
Kyle's bodies.
She, like all of them, I supposed, was waiting for
me to come up with something.
Think, Mercury, think...
I mentally coached myself. Snakes were extremely receptive,
sense of sound and touch much stronger than sight. They were
practically blind, but with all of us huddled so close,
it would sense practically any attempts to get away.
Its scaly body coiled closer to our legs, and I took
in a large breath. If any of us even thought about using
an attack, we'd harm everyone near us. A fog wouldn't do
any good; the stupid snake was already seeing through fog
and doing a pretty damn good job at keeping us under
its nose--or whatever.
Suddenly a light went off in my head, breaking
through a muddled part of my brain to reveal a ray of hope.
"Tuxedo Kamen..." I whispered close to his ear.
He flinched slightly, not wanting to move enough
to be detected.
"Your rose...between his eyes. It will give us enough--"
"I think it'ssss time for a little togethernessss..."
The snake slithered around once more, its body creating a
barrier that was waist high, even on Kyle. We bumped painfully
together, front to back, side to side. I felt my lungs
struggle to contract.
Tuxedo Mask obviously caught my drift and produced
a pair of roses in his hand that he managed to
wriggle out of our tight pack.
"You!"
The youma's head whipped around to Sailor Venus.
She hid a palm full of gold behind her back and smiled
innocently..
It exposed its fangs once again and was ready to strike
down on her, but Tuxedo Mask thrust his roses right before
its deadly fangs could sink into her neck, sending it
into a screeching fit.
I shoved anyone near me.
"Go, NOW!"
Mars created a wave of fire and settled it over
the snake's torso, forcing it to release its grip on us.
We scattered, hopping over the coiled barrier and
leaping (save for the guys, who just ran like mad) to
random sides of the snake.
"You'll pay for that, Ssssenshi!" The youma began
spitting spears of venom from its mouth, and they
burned holes into the turf upon impact.
"Venus Love-Me Chain!" Venus caught its head in a
tight hold and tried to rip it off.
With a clean SNAP, it broke free and advanced
on her. A trail of sickly green blood leaked from
twin holes between his eyes.
Jupiter leaped in front of her, shooting a disc of
lightening into its face. Before she could jump away again,
it spit a line of venomous fangs directly at her.
She yelped in pain as they sliced into her side,
sizzling with their poison.
"Burning Mandala!"
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"
"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!"
I breathed heavily after my attack left my arms.
The snake screeched in pain, coiling itself into a mound
of slimy scales. Streams of green leaked from its sides.
It sizzled away, leaving only a pool of murky green
and a mound of snakeskin in its wake.
"Jupiter!" Venus shook Jupiter's body harshly.
Makoto's skin grew a darker shade of sickly green with
each passing second. Everyone crowded around her.
I had a peculiar sense of déjà vu.
"M-minna-chan..." Jupiter groaned from her place
on the grass. Her left side was constricting from beneath
the skin, bubbling like boiling soup. Her veins
were purple-blue and bulged grotesquely.
My visor, for the first time in my senshi
experience, seemed to be written in pure gibberish.
I furrowed my brow and re-scanned Jupiter's side.
She gritted her teeth, turning her teary eyes
away from her injured body.
"Mercury..." Sailor Moon uttered from behind me.
I ignored her for a moment and gently reached for
Jupiter's swelling arm. As if to protest my movement,
the insides lurched out, nearly ripping her skin.
Jupiter screeched in angst, falling into Venus' lap
in a dead faint.
I used her unconsciousness to my advantage
and tugged her arm more firmly. There were five
large, cackling fangs lodged firmly in her arm
and down her side.
"What are they, Mercury?" Venus cradled
Jupiter's head gently. I stared at the fangs,
transfixed for moment. I tugged one of them
tightly, and it slid out with a sickening
'sllliisshhh.'
Jupiter quivered in her sleep; her side
bulged further.
I, with Tuxedo Mask's help, removed the
remaining fangs so they would cease the infinite
stream of poison they were gushing into her
blood stream.
"Makoto, wake up," Matt urged, taking
Venus' place by her side.
I forced myself to forget the fangs and
placed my hand on Jupiter's body with every intention
of healing her before she died from poisoning.
Any other human would have expired within seconds,
but I surmised that her survival so far had to
do with our supernatural abilities. She seemed
to be putting up one hell of a fight, too.
Her body sizzled and flickered as if it
were a television show with a bad reception.
Minako gasped audibly, and Usagi knelt beside her.
Matt's mouth opened wide.
Jupiter's body ceased its shaking and her bubbling
insides settled. Her face, sweaty and still olive-green
in color, became harder to see in the cold night.
A thin line on my visor pulsed violently, and
went still.
"Mercury!" Venus gripped Jupiter's now translucent hand.
My mind raced.
"What's happening?"
Makoto's body dissipated further.
"Make it stop, Ami-chan!"
One more second...
"Mako-chan!"
Where's the answer...?
"Please...Jupiter."
Time smirked as it flew past.
Matt spread his hands frantically over the ground's
surface, gripping for a body that was no longer there.
Makoto's gone.
An ocean of anger churned violently in my stomach.
I shut my eyes against the sleet that still pelted at my face.
A blue light flickered in my vision for a split second before
fading away into nothingness.
I broke into a run, pummeling through the invisible
barriers blocking my way, telling me to run back and hide.
Their voices were deafening in my ears, all begging
for freedom from whatever isolation they had entered
in her ominous world.
The entrance came into view, and I wasted no time
searching for guards. She wanted me alone, and she
wanted me alive.
Time, please, for this one moment...
shut your eyes and forget to tick.
My world seemed to freeze on its axis for one moment.
No one spoke; even the wind paused its whistling.
Matt's hands shook as he spread them again over
the empty section of grass. Kyle silently placed his
hand on his shoulder, his silver eyes as wide and
disbelieving as the rest of ours.
My visor returned to neutral, just a blank screen
with nothing to trace or scan. My mouth hung slightly
ajar as I replayed Makoto's disappearance over and
over in my mind.
Unfortunately, we had no time to mourn the
loss of our lightening senshi, nor ponder her whereabouts.
"This should be amusing..."
Venus' head whipped around and she stood with
a speed rivaled by the rest of us as we followed suit.
A handful of scowling youma had appeared
around us, cackling through their abhorrent mouths.
Mars' heated anger was grazing the back of my
neck, and I could hear her breaths coming
in short, labored gasps.
I was still stupefied. Makoto was gone.
And I couldn't save her. I didn't know the answer
to a crucial question, and it possibly caused
the others and I our best friend and senshi.
I heard Minako's voice, verbally intimidating
the group surrounding us, but it was blurred
in my mind.
And as quickly as it had ceased its movement,
my world churned back to life.
"Where is she?!" Sailor Moon was bellowing
above their snickers, her sapphire orbs glittering
in the night with unshed tears.
The smallest youma (albeit raising two feet taller
than Kyle) stepped forward, energy crackling in its tentacles.
"You will know soon enough, senshi."
Mars gritted her teeth. "Guys. Get out of here. NOW."
Venus brought her hands in the air, "And watch
out for those damn bombs!" They pulsed and a ball
of gold fire formed in her palms. Mars screeched her
burning mandala attack and launched it with a
look of pure malice plastered over her face.
"Get everyone out of there, too!" Sailor Moon
pointed hurriedly to the still lit mansion, its
occupants oblivious to the danger they'd been put in.
And the battle waged on. I shook off my stupor,
using my anger to launch icy streams of deadly water
at anything that wasn't remotely human.
Tuxedo Kamen began hurtling bouquets of roses
in attempt to hold them off. Sailor Moon jumped
over the other side of them, and lashed out at them
from behind, sending waves of tiaras in every
direction.
One successfully sliced off a youma's arm,
but it regrew itself in a matter of seconds,
bringing an identical limb along with it.
Venus tried to chain them together, but
she was thrown off roughly; her back slammed deftly
into the frozen grass and slid twenty feet away.
Mars growled in her rage, her fire laden
arrows soaring through the air and colliding with
the youma who howled their disapproval.
I tried to clear my head. We were blindly
fighting these youma, who were, themselves, quite formidable.
Using our rage and anger to guide our attacks would
merely set us up for failure. Half of Mars' arrows were
missing their targets by miles, nearly slicing
Tuxedo Kamen's head off at one point.
A couple of tiaras split the air dangerously
close to my ear, and I threw up my hands.
"Minna! Stop it!" I grabbed Mars' arms as they flung
more and more arrows every which way. She turned to me,
looking as if she'd flame sniper my own head off.
"STOP." I said stonily to her face, surprised even
myself at the drop in temperature in my voice. Her gaze,
glazed over with remorse and anger, cleared slowly and
returned to the amethyst ovals I recognized. She dropped
her palms reluctantly.
Venus approached us, looking bruised and worn,
but her face was dead set in "Listen to me, or I'll
kill you" mode. First in command a thousand years
ago, first in command now.
Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen leaped over to us.
I looked at Venus and she nodded.
"You guys, we can't keep blindly attacking them!
Look at this place!" Venus forced Mars to look at the
hunks of neighboring woods she had set aflame, and
she looked down.
She turned for a moment to launch an attack at
the youma who had grown restless and were beginning to
show off a few of its better talents--for instance,
boulder-sized blobs of goo erupted from its back and
smacked sickeningly at the ground near our feet,
dissolving away the grass and exposing the auburn
earth underneath.
I internally sighed, glad that we'd actually be
getting somewhere now, "The only way we're going to
get any where with these things is if we keep our
minds clear. We can't save Makoto if we're all
buried six feet under."
They simultaneously nodded in my direction,
and a fog thicker than any other I'd ever conjured
poured from my palms and into the surrounding area.
A yelp informed me that one of the youma had
successfully walked onto one of Myora's bombs. I ran my hands
over each of the senshi and Kamen's eyes, giving them
the ability to see through the blanket of dense blue.
Now that we had the definite upper hand and the
guys were out of sight, the youma blindly stumbling
through my fog were about to get a dose of their
own detrimental medicine.
Mars shifted from foot to foot.
"Do I get the flame them now?"
"YES, Mars, flame away."
Her lips curved into a sly grin and she hopped
deftly from place to place, sneaking up to a pair of
youma who had knocked dumbly into each other and were
squirming frantically on the ground.
"This is way too easy...BURNING MANDALA!"
Even Tuxedo Kamen chuckled as they squealed,
their tail ends erupting in flames.
"And this is for Makoto!" Sailor Moon valiantly
kicked a rather nasty looking beetle youma in its knee
(or whatever) cap.
"Gaah!"
In the back of my head, Makoto's face was
floating, cheering us on.
I picked out my own target and launched a
precise shine aqua illusion directly between
its ten eyes.
"Hey, Mercury, you made youma art!" Mars shouted
somewhere from behind me, laughing at the ice statue.
I chuckled and walked slowly up to it, a coy smile
spreading over my face.
What would Mako-chan do...?"
"Hi-ya!" I thrust out my leg in a side kick,
forcing my body weight into the side of the youma.
Youma-ice cubes littered the ground where it had
previously stood.
Venus had successfully reduced another into
fragments of body parts and ashes and was currently
assisting Sailor Moon in finishing off the fourth.
Tuxedo Kamen frowned from the sidelines, his face
scowling in a rather kiddish way.
"At least let me shove a rose up one of their
asses, or SOMETHING!"
Mars' leg stopped mid-kick over the fifth
youma's dazed and wobbling head, and she shook
her own, stepping aside.
"Alright, Tux, he's all yours."
He puffed up in a defiant way and the youma
was covered in a blanket of crimson roses within seconds.
Mars mockingly clapped her gloved hands together
as the youma fell over. Sailor Moon, giggling slightly,
finished it off.
I dissipated my super-fog and let my tired
hands fall limp against my sides. We stood in a loose
circle.
The rush of winning wore off all too quickly,
leaving behind the harsh revelation and Makoto wasn't
standing beside us and her physical state remained unknown.
I ran my dirtied fingers through my hair,
biting back the tears which stubbornly formed
behind my eyes.
"Do you hear that?" Mars whispered, her eyes
darting around. There was a sound, sliding-like and
coming from extremely near by.
Venus took in a gulp of air and blinked.
Slithering through the fog, its yellow eyes glittering
maliciously, the same snake responsible for Jupiter's
absence appeared--this time with company.
"Gahh!" I pounded the door with the toe of my boot.
It stubbornly remained shut.
I whipped my visor down and hurriedly typed into my
palm pilot, searching frantically for another way into
the fortress.
Sweat formed at my brow as my eyes trailed down
the information supplied by the computer.
Ah ha.
I snapped it shut. The door had been magicked into
accepting only a certain type of code to gain entry inside.
I finally figured out what the gibberish my visor had
been feeding me was.
Digging deeper into myself, I searched for the part
of me I'd hardly gotten to know, but knew had been waiting
to be awakened for quite some time.
If the door wanted a Mercurian code, I'd have to
become the princess I was a thousand years before if I
wanted to supply it.
"NO! MINAKO! REI!" Sailor Moon tore through the
dissipating fog, racing towards the two senshi to push
them out of the vipers' path.
"Behin-AAH!" Usagi's body was thrown into the air,
courtesy of a well-placed bomb, and collided with me seconds later.
I grunted underneath her weight and helped her stand.
"Unnngh...Get-off!" Mars tried futilely to pound
away the viper's body as it wrapped itself more tightly
around her and Sailor Venus, whose back was pressed up
against Mars'.
"I can't move my hands..." Venus gasped, her face
slowly turning purple.
The viper's companions, a red and yellow pair, were
slithering around it and slowly countering upon us.
"Get behind me, Usagi!" I yelled, pushing her to my
back. I still had a duty to fulfill as her protector.
"MERCURY AQUA RASPHODY!"
My attack ricocheted pathetically off of their backs
and zoomed off into the night and hit the ground, setting
a handful of bombs off.
"AAH!" Mars gasped for air, her skin color matching
the violet hue of her eyes.
"Get off of them!"
Jason, Matt, and Kyle appeared, zooming onto the
scene in matching golf carts. They wheeled around the snake
and rammed into it, the front of their puny cars smashing in.
God, bless them for trying.
The snake hissed--more in annoyance than pain--releasing
its hold on Venus and Mars enough for a bit of color to
return to their faces.
"Stupid mortalssss..."
It opened its mouth, exposing the deadly fangs we
now knew all too well, and launched four more at the trio,
which were attempting to beat away the snake's hold on
Rei and Minako with golf clubs.
The fang projectiles were met half way in the air
with a carefully launched rose quartet, which only
managed slice them into smaller, jagged pieces.
Jason cried out as a few stuck into his back,
sizzling again with their poisonous contents.
Matt and Kyle tried to rip them from his skin, but
were also hit, this time with four new, completely intact
fangs.
"K-Kyle..." Minako gasped, her skin returning to
its previous shade of violet as the viper tightened
its grip on them once again.
I turned around to Usagi. "Usagi, stay *here.*"
She shook her head, "No! I need to help!" I pushed
her down with my arms, "Usagi, I can't risk you getting killed,"
I sighed, "I'm sorry."
With one shove, I pushed her away from me and created
an ice wall which spanned the rest of the field, cutting
her off from the battle.
Through the translucent barrier, I saw her bang
her fists furiously against it.
"Ami!" Zach appeared at my side.
Oh, God...help me.
He was the first and last person I wanted to
see at the moment.
"Zach, what are you--" I shoved him away as
a pair of fangs sliced past us, tearing through
my ice wall as if it were nonexistent.
"Hold on, you guys!" I yelled to Rei and Minako
who had fallen unconscious in the youma's grip.
"Take care of him, Tuxedo Kamen," I turned to him,
shoving Zach towards him, "And Usagi."
"Wait, Ami!" Zach yelled behind me, but I had
already fled, running towards Venus and Mars.
The fraternal twin snake youmas had other plans,
though. They cornered me, snickering maliciously as their
forked tongues wriggled in and out of their mouths.
"Come to watch their deathsss, Sssailor Mercury?"
They overlapped each other, shaping an X type figure
and slithering around me.
To my horror, the third viper's slimy head rose
up from behind Mars' and Venus' prone bodies, fangs
glittering in its open mouth.
"NO!"
It brutally snapped its head down on them,
sinking its fangs into their purple skin and squeezing
tighter around their bodies.
My scream was stuck in my throat, pounding
painfully from inside. Minako's and Rei's skin began to lurch
sickeningly from underneath the snake's mouth, Kyle's, Matt's,
and Jason's doing so as well where they had fallen on
the ground beside the senshi.
"Watch..." The snakes began to circle around me.
My legs were frozen to the ground.
"See what you've done, dear Mercury?" Another voice
permeated the air, chilling my body to its core.
"Myora!" I whipped my head up to see her floating
above me and cackling mockingly.
"Yes, my sister?" Her eyes thinned to slits of fury;
she scowled at me.
I inwardly cringed at her choice of words. Knowing
that we were even half related made my stomach knot into
twists of disgust.
She began to chuckle again, her ruby lips parting
to let the flow of mocking laughs out. I writhed in the
snakes' hold on me.
Her eyes suddenly darkened, and she seemed to look
straight through me.
"Don't fight...don't fight it..." She mumbled,
scarlet eyes flashing.
"No...!" I wriggled more. Mars and Venus
flickered on and off in the viper's grip.
For a moment they stopped, their bodies becoming
solid once more, and I felt a flutter of hope. It was
extinguished, however, as they began to dissipate
once more.
"What are you doing to them?!" I screamed at Myora,
wishing to harm her in any way possible-if only I
could move my damn arms.
"Rei, Minako!" My voice was desperate, pleading
for them to fight whatever inner battle Myora was
waging with them.
"Too late..." Myora uttered. I watched as their
bodies fizzled once more and dissolved into nothingness.
Matt, Kyle, and Jason had been gone long before.
"B-bri-bring them...ungh...back!" The snakes had
begun to coil around me tightly, cutting off the air
I was desperately trying to inhale.
Myora laughed, slowly and scornfully.
"That pesky Jupiter was the first to go. That
should teach her to insult those greater than she."
Her lips curved, "And they'll all make a fine
addition to your fury feline friends, don't you
think?" She cackled loudly.
I gasped, "Luna...Artemis..."
"Yes, well, they were far less difficult to
lure away...Oh, but that's not all, dear Mercury,"
She hovered over me, scowling from over my head.
The snakes began to turn me around, snickering
from either side of me. The blood which had rushed to
my head began to slowly fade, and I could breathe more.
In truth, I didn't need mutated reptiles to stop
the air that filled my lungs. The sight which met my
horrified eyes was enough for my entire body to
malfunction.
Tuxedo Kamen, his mask removed, lay next to
Zach who was gasping for air and reeling with the poison
two fangs were currently gushing into his blood stream.
They were slowly fading from my view, each of
their gazes planted firmly on me; their eyes were hollow,
though--Tuxedo's midnight orbs had lost their depth,
and Zach's were hardly the warm hue of green I'd
memorized so many times before.
The snake which had before been cutting of Rei
and Minako's air supply cackled devilishly from behind
them. I hadn't even seen it move...
"N-no..." Zach's face melted from my view,
taking with it everything I'd gained in the past month.
I gritted my teeth against the pain that gripped
my heart relentlessly. My eyes wouldn't shut, no matter
how much I willed them to, and I watched as their
bodies faded completely, leaving only the empty
ground beneath them.
"Ah...you two were always inseparable..."
Myora chuckled, "Until now, of course."
She clapped her hands sharply, "Vernin, Fang."
The snakes uncoiled from me, leaving me curled
on the ground and gasping for air.
Myora knelt beside me, her face dangerously
close to mine. "And now...for the Grande Finale."
She rose again and a flick of her wrist warped the
barrier of ice I'd created to isolate Usagi from battle
into a wall of glass.
Two identical slits penetrated the wall in the
middle--the ones I'd shoved myself and Zach out of
the way to avoid.
My heart lurched to my throat. Where the narrow
tunnel the fangs had created ended on the other side,
Sailor Moon lay, her olive face barely noticeable
as she rapidly faded, two fangs lodged firmly
in her writhing chest.
"Usagi..." I uttered, dumbfounded.
One of my gloved hands slowly fell across the wall,
and it filtered away. I fell next to her--my princess--and
held her hand shakily.
Her eyes opened unsteadily, and her green-hued
lips curved slightly.
Be strong, Ami-chan.
I choked on a sob, gripping her hand more tightly.
She was gone.
My fingers gripped the grass where she had been
fiercely, my knuckles protesting the pain induced on them.
I snapped my eyes shut against the night, felt
my heart numb with pain, and rose sharply.
Myora had been watching with a laughing, scarlet
gaze, her minions close by her. I lunged at her with every
hurt part of my body, trying to pound away her mocking
face with my bruised arms and make her feel every bit
of the pain I was at the moment.
She quickly thrust out her palm and a chain of red
electricity wrapped itself around my neck.
I shook from the volts of electricity charging
through my system, but refused to cry out and let
her see my pain any longer.
She lowered herself to the ground, briskly
walking to me and placing her face directly above my own.
"You have three hours, Sailor Mercury. Bring me the
Hikari Gem by then or everything you hold dear..." Myora
took a moment to grip my chin roughly, "Will-be-*mine*."
"Where is it...?" My eyes were shut tightly against
the world as I silently searched.
"Come on..." I pleaded with myself. After a few minutes
of fruitless concentration, I furiously banged my fists
against the door again.
"Why won't you open?! Why?!" I beat it with all of
my strength, not really talking to the slab of concrete
underneath my angry fists, while tears of frustration
flowed freely down my reddened cheeks.
"I have to-find-them!"
Everything seemed to fall apart inside of me at
that moment. My walls collapsed, my heart withered away,
my soul fell to pieces again.
"Mother...what am I...supposed to do?" I gasped
through my tears, struggling to stand. I'd gotten so close.
*Ami-chan.*
My blood shot eyes whipped open, and I shoved
my body off of the stone wall.
Mother...?
*You give up so freely, my daughter.*
I...I...can't find it.
*There is nothing to *find*, Ami-chan.
It has been there all along--just as I told you before.*
They're going to die...because of me.
*Do not lose hope, Ami-chan. I have not lost
faith in you--the senshi either.*
An image of Usagi's face filtered into my vision.
I'd failed to protect her once; I refused to repeat
that mistake.
I let out a tired sigh. I couldn't give up...
had I ever before? Not when they needed me. Not when my
princess was in danger.
Then why now?
I won't....
*Go, Ami-chan. Have faith in yourself and your
abilities as a not only a senshi...but yourself as well.*
I nodded, finding Aiya's wise, azure gaze through
the sleet that still poured over me. Something pressed
against my cheek--a patch of warmth.
I placed a shaky hand over my mother's.
She moved her pale hand from beneath my palm
and held it up to my forehead.
It's been here all along... I repeated my
mother's words in my mind.
A blinding light erupted from my tiara, blinding
me momentarily as I basked in the pulses of energy
cascading down my numb body and bringing it back
to life.
Around me, as I swirled in Mercury's power,
the sky's cascade of frozen tears ceased.
My apartment door shut deftly behind me.
The silence within the room was deafening, more so than
Myora's threat which was playing on repeat in my mind.
Three hours...
I threw my hands over my face, wiping away another
stream of tears that washed over my cheeks.
"What...am I supposed to do?"
I felt utterly and completely alone in the world.
The gap in my soul was worse than painful--it was completely
numb.
Sniffing slightly, I took off my jacket.
This is no time to feel sorry for yourself, Ami.
I had less than three hours to figure out and put
together a puzzle with only a few pieces to work with.
I flipped on my bedroom light and slipped quickly
out of my dress, changing into a pair of blue jeans and
sweat shirt.
My desk chair squeaked as I plopped onto it
and turned on my lamp. A few photos of the senshi and I
were scattered over my desk and I stared at them for a moment.
"Rei...what did your fire mean?" I picked up her
graduation picture and stared at her smiling amethyst eyes,
which seemed to see and know everything.
"If the evil is in Usagi...why would Myora go through
all that trouble to capture her?"
I set down her frame gently and looked at another
of Minako and Usagi at one of Minako's fashion shows.
"Usagi..."
As I stared at her grinning face, deep in my thoughts,
the phone rang in the distance. I shook out of my trance,
wondering if it was pointless to answer the telephone
under these circumstances.
But then again, my mother could have been calling.
I rose quickly and hurried out the room. The cordless
phone blared from the kitchen counter.
"Hello?" I answered, hoping I wasn't too late. There
was a pause, "Hello? Mom? Are you the--"
"Ami-chan?" A tiny voice, barely audible in sound,
reached my ear, "Ami-chan, it's me."
Malina's voice startled me, and I quirked my eyebrows.
"Malina? What is it?" Alarm was rising in my throat
at the sound of her voice.
"Ami-chan, I'm s-sorry," She hiccupped.
"Malina, what's wrong? Tell me."
"I tried not to let her...I couldn't st-stop
her!" She paused, choking on her sobs.
"Where are you, Malina?" I asked urgently.
She gasped. "I can't find her, Ami-chan!"
She whispered harshly, sounding desperate.
"Can't find who?" I gripped the counter's edge.
"My usagi."
I barely heard the phone as it fell from my hand
and clattered to the ground.
--Adrial
Adrial_06@yahoo.com
/\ To Go, Please /\
/\ Chapter 13: "Gone" /\
/\ E-mail: Adrial_06@yahoo.com /\
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Not much to say this time, guys. I think only
1 more after this and then an epilogue. For those
who are still reeling from the over dosage of sap in
ch. 12, you are not to be disappointed with these
following installments. Definitely PG13.
So you won't be horribly confused, I'll warn you
that I am switching back and forth from past to
present. The first section is present and it goes
present, past, present, past and so on.
You'll see once you start reading.
Splatters of moisture lashed at my cheeks,
piercing them with needles of hollow chill. The snow
which had swirled leisurely around clusters of children
before had long since abandoned them, transfiguring
itself into a sheet of sleet which beat down on
their innocent games and laughter relentlessly.
My bones quaked with the cold, threatening
to collapse in my body and leave me crumpled on
the slippery cement more empty than I already felt.
It was Christmas Eve.
She had taken them. All of them. Their smiles,
their light, and their presence were gone in a matter
of hours.
I had watched her do it, my eyes blank,
my heart numb.
"Save me."
"I'm trying, Angel."
"Try harder, Zach," I smiled wider through my
gritted teeth, clinging more tightly to Zach's arm.
He smiled with me, returning nods and waves as an
avalanche of black-suited men and eccentrically
sequined women smothered us with verbose conversation
and an atmosphere thick with the scent of imported
colognes and crisp, one thousand dollar bills.
"Zac-hary Brauhell! Why, it's been yearsince
I'veseenyou...!" A stumpy man with silvering hair
and an extremely mustached face approached us, waving
a glass of red wine in his white-gloved fingers
jubilantly.
Zach gulped. I felt him tense underneath my
firm clasp on his bicep.
"Mr. Cromwell." He weakly smiled.
The man clapped him roughly on his shoulder
and laughed, shaking the wine in his grasp haphazardly.
"Ah, call me Edward! The last time I saw you,
you were only yay high and skinnyasarail!" He chuckled
once more, tilting his large head back. He was
definitely a few glasses past drunk.
Zach rolled his eyes in my direction and I
pinched his side. He shrugged, sobering when Edward's
jiggling head snapped back.
He threw an arm sloppily around Zach's neck and
shook. "Ah, my boy, I trust you'll be taking over
your father's job soon, eh? He's--hee, hee--he's
nearly too--hee, hee--old to carry on!" He erupted
into drunken laughs, leaning against Zach's
chest heavily.
Zach laughed shortly. "Um...Mr. Cromwell,
let me take that off your hands..."
He unclasped the glass of wine from Edward's
hand and set it on the table. I cleared my throat in
a futile attempt to smother the giggles threatening
erupt there.
Edward's plump hand fell limply against
his side. Zach rose an eyebrow and mock-glared
at me as I laughed openly at the snoozing CEO
hanging onto his torso.
"See what I mean?" He shrugged out of the
man's death-grip and let him collapse into a tall,
mahogany chair.
He hadn't been lying when he said he needed
back up at his father's Christmas banquet. I took
his hand, my giggles fading into short chuckles.
"Come on," I tugged his arm, searching through
the mass of people for the rest of our party.
Zach groaned, dodging a herd of penguin-men as
they started their way over to us.
I had been nervous, to say the least, when Zach
pulled up in front of his parent's house--scratch that--his
parent's *mansion* earlier that evening. The valet, dressed
in a red bell-hop type uniform, graciously retrieved
the keys to Zach's BMW (another one of those *perks*),
which he only drove when he knew he'd come within
a ten mile radius of his father or his co-workers.
"Just to humor the old man, you know."
He slid out of the leather seat as if he owned
the place (which he practically did), the only indication
of his discomfort being the lethal grip he had on
my wrist.
The sleek, black gown I'd borrowed from Minako's
own superfluous stash swished slightly at my knees as
I quickened my steps to keep up with his swift gait.
When we approached the front door, I urged my mouth
not to drop to the ground. The acres of land surrounding
the place were impeccably green and mowed to perfection.
The lights glowing brightly from behind wide glass
windows illuminated shadows of people as they milled around
inside. The golden door knob itself must have cost
an arm and a leg to purchase, I'd thought as I stood there
trying to catch both my breath and my voice.
I was frozen. The daunting pillars which stood on
either side of us seemed to close in on me.
"I can't go in there." I said, shaking my head
slowly. Zach squeezed my hand firmly.
"Of course you can." The door swung open before
I could protest further, courtesy of their butler,
and revealed the foyer.
A petite woman with auburn hair folded and twisted
delicately around her face greeted us.
"Hey." Zach said tightly, not leaving my side.
"Zachary Jeremiah Braudell," She placed her ringed
fingers on her hips, "Is that anyway to greet your mother?"
He instantly realized his mistake and let go of
my wrist. The blood rushed to my hand, prickling it slightly.
"Sorry, sorry," He enveloped her in his arms,
and she laughed, wrapping her own around his torso.
She was at least two feet shorter than he.
"How are you?" He kissed her cheek.
She rearranged the curls near her ear, "Fine,
dear, fine. Zachary, are you getting taller? Let me see you."
Zach groaned as she forced him to turn around for her.
"What are they feeding you at that college?
Miracle-Gro?" She tsked. He rolled his eyes.
"Mom," He turned to me, making the chandelier
which hung over our heads seem dim with the charming
smile he gave me, "I'd you like to meet Mizuno Ami."
My stomach lurched. The small woman who stood
before me, fretting over her son's eating habits,
suddenly seemed to grow ten feet and a set of fangs
as well--or so my imagination perceived.
"Ah," She clasped her hand over my own, "Ami!
Zachary's told me so *much* about you," She eyed him,
and a silent message passed between mother and son.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Braudell,"
I weakly returned her smile, wondering if I should have
taken those etiquette classes along with Usagi
a few years back.
"Oh, nonsense!" She waved her hand, "Call me Catherine."
I smiled wider, warming at her relaxed presence.
Zach seemed pleased and handed his coat along with my
own to another man dressed identically to the one
who'd opened the door.
"Come, come, you must tell me all about yourself."
She gestured towards another set of doors, glowing
with lights from behind them. They spread open as if
on cue, two twin door-men standing on either side.
That was three long hours ago. I now stood
in the middle of the cluster of businessmen and their
respective counterparts, clinging to my own as we
politely elbowed our way through.
"Zach! Have you tried these things?" Jason held
up a cream puff, his hand stuffing another into his mouth,
"I tell ya, that chef of yours has outdone herself
this year." Jason popped a few more into his
over-stuffed mouth.
"Jason Ronweld!"
Jason's mouth stopped mid-chew, and he blanched.
"Aunt Cat!" He plastered on a charming grin,
behind the puffs, and enveloped his aunt in a hug.
She hugged him back, but frowned when he released her.
"Don't tell me you've been eating all this time!
Mr. Cromwell's been after you all night!" She playfully
smacked his arm and took his handful of puffs away.
Zach and I shared a laugh.
"Mom, I don't think Mr. Cromwell's going to be
up to any form of conversation right now," Zach laughed
and sat next to Mamoru.
Catherine scoffed, "Has that man passed out already?"
She then scurried away, smiling once more at me.
I sat beside Zach at the table. It was made to seat
forty, at least, but we were the only ones sitting at the
moment, save for one unconscious, drunk CEO.
"God, it's a friggin' jungle out there!" Matt exclaimed,
Makoto in tow, as he peeled himself out of the crowd and joined us.
"Tell me about it," Zach kneaded his forehead.
I placed my hand on his knee comfortingly.
Minako been the only one to adapt well to the
environment, having had her share of enough stuffy
cocktail parties to teach her a thing or two
about mingling with the rich and the richer.
She was currently conversing with an array of
women who had been in contact with her agent over
the years and recognized her. Kyle stood opposite her,
smiling tightly and looking more like a statue than
a guest.
"I don't know how you do it, man," Matt slapped
Zach's shoulder with a sympathetic look on his face.
Zach smiled, relaxing more in the company of his friends.
"I'm fine as long as I don't run into my fath--"
"Zachary."
The hairs on my neck stood on end at the sound of
the voice that sliced through the air. It was intimidating,
deep, and practically said "If you even try to speak to me,
I will cut you into pieces with my bare hands and
let the buzzards nip at your remains."
Zach visibly flinched before he stood.
I was scared to look his father in the eye,
but I forced myself to anyway.
He was definitely Zach's. They shared the same green
eyes, although his father's were not nearly as bright.
His hair was dark brown, with streaks of silver here
and there, which meant that Zach's mother's true
blonde hair must have been colored its auburn hue.
"Dad."
They stared at each other for a minute. The
tension which permeated the air was so thick I could
feel it closing in on our huddle.
If it hadn't been for Jason, I wasn't sure if
they would have ever released the steely gaze they
had on each other.
"Uncle J!" Jason put down his overfilled plate
of pastries and joined the pair.
Zach's father tore his eyes away. The rigid edges
of his face melted slightly, and he smiled at his nephew.
"Jason," He placed a hand on his shoulder,
"You seem to be doing well."
I silently wondered if this smiling man was the
same one who had nanoseconds before been boring a hole
into his son's forehead with his eyes.
Jason swelled up in a macho way and winked at Rei.
"Verrry well, in fact. Hey, you still up for that
re-match?" His competitive side showed more clearly
than ever at that moment.
Mr. Braudell smiled cockily and folded his arms
across his chest, "Nephew, it's going to take a lot more
than ego to beat me at golf."
They embarked into an argument over the issue,
giving me a chance to slide up next to Zach.
"You alright?" I looked at him with a concerned
frown. His sheet white face regained a bit of color.
"Yeah, don't worry about me." He smiled reassuringly,
failing to cover the layer of annoyance which floated
behind his eyes.
I didn't have time to inquire about his father's
mood-swings, because his shadow fell over me before
I could open my mouth again.
"And who might this be?" His gaze fell over me,
searching, I knew, for something I hoped to God I possessed.
Zach cleared his throat, "Dad, this is Mizuno Ami."
I could see Rei and Makoto ushering me with their
hands to speak. They were clearly eating this up.
I gave him a wavering smile, but managed to steady
it eventually.
"Mizuno Ami," He repeated, glancing at his son
swiftly, and then back at me, "Do you attend college,
Mizuno-san?"
And to think that I considered the girls'
interrogations intimidating.
I nodded, "Yes, I'm a freshman at Juuban University."
He rubbed his chin.
"And your major?"
"Pre-med."
"You wish to be a doctor? That's a rather
trying field to enter."
"I don't mind the work. Medicine has been my
ambition for a while."
"And your parents? Are they doctors as well?"
My gaze didn't fall from his own, but I felt
Zach about to enter the conversation and break it up.
I placed my hand on his elbow.
"My mother is an anesthesiologist at J. Memorial
Hospital, and I haven't been in contact with my father
for nine years, sir."
"How unfortunate."
He seemed to be calculating my personality,
his eyes stead-fast in their gaze on mine.
"Jeremiah! Don't badger the poor girl!" Mrs. Braudell
pushed herself in between us.
He smiled down at his wife, "Dear, I only wished to
get to know the young woman my son seems to be so...,"
He threw another glance at us, "Infatuated with."
Crimson stained my cheeks, and Zach shifted slightly.
"Ah, yes, well..." She trailed off, steering her
husband away from us.
"Governor Kaiho would like to have a word or two...
or a few thousand with you," She laughed light-heartedly
at an inside joke.
They disappeared in the swarm eventually and Zach
exhaled heavily. I didn't blame him.
"I must commend you, Ami," Jason placed his arm around
my sagging shoulders, "Not many of the chicks Zach's
brought home have been able to stay standing during
a patented Braudell Grilling."
My mind clung to one word in his sentence.
chick*s*?
I rose my eyebrow at Zach. He glared at Jason
and smiled meekly at me.
"Hey, Jason, Usagi's eating your food," Zach pointed
at Usagi's blonde head, bent inconspicously over Jason's
plate of deserts.
"Hey!"
Usagi laughed loudly, holding the plate away from
Jason's hands.
Mamoru looked on with an amused expression, and,
to my astonishment, Rei did as well.
Zach sauntered over to me, wrapping his arm around
my waist gently.
"Sorry about that," He squeezed my torso,
"My father, I mean."
I shuddered and leaned my head on his shoulder.
His father hated me. I knew it. I wasn't good enough.
It was as simple as that. His eyes told me everything
I needed to know.
"Well, I think he likes you, honestly."
I looked at him incredulously, "Yeah right."
I sighed, leaving his arms and having every intention
of getting the hell out of there.
He grabbed my arm before I could reach the door.
"Hey, wait."
I didn't meet his gaze, but eyed the marble floor.
"Look, Zach, I understand. I'm just not cut out for this--"
"Hey," He pushed my chin up, "Don't think like that.
My father's always like that. It has *nothing* to do
with you. You're perfect."
I was ashamed to find tears clouding my vision.
"No...No I'm not. I'm sure there are a million other girls
that are better than me and know what to say when the
mayor speaks to them and don't choke when--when..."
I trailed off, unable to speak around my tears.
"I--I just wanted to make a g-good impression,"
I moved my hands around, wiping my eyes and blushing
at my sudden show of emotion. I felt utterly incompetent
for the first time in my life.
Zach caught my hands in his own, "Ami-chan, I love you."
I sniffed. Blurring his face into swirls, a
feeling gripped my mind and filled me with a foreboding
sense of some ominous presence. Wiping my hands quickly
over my face, I left Zach and hurried back to our table.
Rei's face was ashen; Makoto and Minako were standing quickly.
Usagi rose as well, Mamoru quickly behind her.
I rubbed the last traces of moisture off of my cheeks.
"Where?"
Rei's eyes were wide on her blanched face.
She slowly moved her head as if trying to sort out some
jumbled message she'd received and couldn't decipher.
"Here."
I struggled against the wind that beat forward on
me with no sign of retreat.
They had been so strong. Why did they have to go?
Why couldn't I have saved them?
The skies continued to shower over my head.
That's right...you cry for me when I cannot.
My heart, so weak from the pain, tried
desperately to feel again. I was tired of pain.
I was sick of anguish.
But they were the only remedy. And she stole them
from me.
I didn't bother calling out my transformation
and morphed into Sailor Mercury in a flash of blue.
My boots clicked deftly on the cement. They were near.
I felt them in my soul, beneath the cloud of remorse,
calling for me.
"I'm coming, minna-chan."
It felt as if a bucket of freezing water fell to
the pit of my stomach. I followed them out of the dining
room and into the massive foyer.
Mamoru pulled open the front doors without waiting
for the butler to do so. He merely cocked a tired eyebrow
in our direction and remained silent.
Minako and Rei rushed through, the rest of us
behind them, and continued walking. Rei pointed to the
left, and we veered off.
"Transform, minna," Minako said, her voice steely.
Even Usagi didn't protest and we transformed into our
senshi form immediately. Tuxedo mask appeared
in a flurry of roses at our side.
The foreboding feeling knawing at my mind
seemed to magnify within my skull and spread throughout
my entire body.
Venus began running towards the field of green
I'd been in awe of earlier. Random, abandoned golf balls
zoomed past us on the ground as we raced forward.
"I can sense her!" Rei exclaimed, the sign of her
planet glowing faintly on her sweaty forehead.
Venus sent a hasty glance backward at her, not
noticing the hump in the ground before it was too late.
The ground erupted at our feet, sending us flying
painfully backwards. Venus screeched, her body
receiving the brunt of the blow, and she flew,
airborne, across the field.
"OOF!"
I peeled my eyes open slowly, fearing the worst
for our Venusian senshi.
"Jason!" Rei exclaimed, rising quickly, "Get out of here!"
Jason grunted underneath Venus' body and helped
her stand. She looked at him groggily.
"Thanks."
He smiled, "No problem."
Mars was ready to spit fire at them both.
My visor flashed over my face, and I scanned
the area for any more bombs. There were at least fifty,
scattered in no particular order over the golf course.
"You guys, keep together! There are bombs everywhere!"
I shouted, my visor beeping as it continued scanning.
They gathered around me. I saw Zach approaching and
immediately choked on a lump of fear.
"What are you guys doing here?!" I yelled, enraged
that they would so blindly put themselves in the line of
danger--AGAIN.
"Well, when you run off without saying anything,
people tend to WORRY," Jason eyed Mars.
"You're going to get yourselves killed!" Mars
screamed, ready to pound all over Jason's smirk.
"I believe I was the one who just saved Minako from
being squished like a little orange sailor-bug,"
He countered, "Don't I get any credit?"
"I'll give you credit..." Mars held up her hands,
crackling with flames.
"Save it, Mars," Sailor Moon put her hand on Mars'
arm and turned to the guys, "You guys have to leave."
"Ssssenshi..."
Ten heads simultaneously whipped around. Sailor
Moon audibly gasped.
The youma slithered around our circle, lashing
out at us threateningly with its yellow fangs which were
dripping with a venom that sizzled as it leaked onto the ground.
Its triangular head swerved around, coiling
above its middle and stretched dangerously close to
Matt's shaking visage.
"H-Hate..s-sn-snakes..." He uttered, his body too
frozen in fear to move.
The youma's mouth parted, exposing two sets of smaller,
spiked teeth, and it sneered.
"Do you?" Its slimy voice spilled into the air slowly
and deliberately, intent on increasing its already
intimidating presence.
Matt dumbly nodded, snapping his brown eyes shut
against the murky yellow of the viper's.
We were so closely packed together that I could feel
Sailor Moon's quick breaths tickle the exposed part of my
neck. Mars' arm was pushed up against mine and she, too,
eyed the youma with a hint of fear smudged over her
amethyst gaze.
The viper stretched out fully, revealing itself
to be a good hundred feet in length and ten feet in diameter.
It wasn't huge--it was collosal.
I shakily reached for my ear, nudging the ear-ring
which would bring down my visor and report any possible
weaknesses in its defense.
Its slimy head snapped in my direction as if it
had been struck. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, sssenhi,"
Its forked tongue wriggled close to my nose. I removed
my hand from my ear, gulping hard. Its eyes were mesmorizing,
freezing me to my core to where I couldn't move
if I'd wanted to.
He continued to coil 'round and 'round us, striking
out with fangs exposed every time one of us tried to move.
He's going to squeeze us to death...
My mind raced, digging for some bit of information
that would save our torsos from being squished together
like they were made of play-doh.
No one spoke; Sailor Moon shakily reached for my
elbow, her slight movement hidden by Tuxedo Kamen's and
Kyle's bodies.
She, like all of them, I supposed, was waiting for
me to come up with something.
Think, Mercury, think...
I mentally coached myself. Snakes were extremely receptive,
sense of sound and touch much stronger than sight. They were
practically blind, but with all of us huddled so close,
it would sense practically any attempts to get away.
Its scaly body coiled closer to our legs, and I took
in a large breath. If any of us even thought about using
an attack, we'd harm everyone near us. A fog wouldn't do
any good; the stupid snake was already seeing through fog
and doing a pretty damn good job at keeping us under
its nose--or whatever.
Suddenly a light went off in my head, breaking
through a muddled part of my brain to reveal a ray of hope.
"Tuxedo Kamen..." I whispered close to his ear.
He flinched slightly, not wanting to move enough
to be detected.
"Your rose...between his eyes. It will give us enough--"
"I think it'ssss time for a little togethernessss..."
The snake slithered around once more, its body creating a
barrier that was waist high, even on Kyle. We bumped painfully
together, front to back, side to side. I felt my lungs
struggle to contract.
Tuxedo Mask obviously caught my drift and produced
a pair of roses in his hand that he managed to
wriggle out of our tight pack.
"You!"
The youma's head whipped around to Sailor Venus.
She hid a palm full of gold behind her back and smiled
innocently..
It exposed its fangs once again and was ready to strike
down on her, but Tuxedo Mask thrust his roses right before
its deadly fangs could sink into her neck, sending it
into a screeching fit.
I shoved anyone near me.
"Go, NOW!"
Mars created a wave of fire and settled it over
the snake's torso, forcing it to release its grip on us.
We scattered, hopping over the coiled barrier and
leaping (save for the guys, who just ran like mad) to
random sides of the snake.
"You'll pay for that, Ssssenshi!" The youma began
spitting spears of venom from its mouth, and they
burned holes into the turf upon impact.
"Venus Love-Me Chain!" Venus caught its head in a
tight hold and tried to rip it off.
With a clean SNAP, it broke free and advanced
on her. A trail of sickly green blood leaked from
twin holes between his eyes.
Jupiter leaped in front of her, shooting a disc of
lightening into its face. Before she could jump away again,
it spit a line of venomous fangs directly at her.
She yelped in pain as they sliced into her side,
sizzling with their poison.
"Burning Mandala!"
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"
"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!"
I breathed heavily after my attack left my arms.
The snake screeched in pain, coiling itself into a mound
of slimy scales. Streams of green leaked from its sides.
It sizzled away, leaving only a pool of murky green
and a mound of snakeskin in its wake.
"Jupiter!" Venus shook Jupiter's body harshly.
Makoto's skin grew a darker shade of sickly green with
each passing second. Everyone crowded around her.
I had a peculiar sense of déjà vu.
"M-minna-chan..." Jupiter groaned from her place
on the grass. Her left side was constricting from beneath
the skin, bubbling like boiling soup. Her veins
were purple-blue and bulged grotesquely.
My visor, for the first time in my senshi
experience, seemed to be written in pure gibberish.
I furrowed my brow and re-scanned Jupiter's side.
She gritted her teeth, turning her teary eyes
away from her injured body.
"Mercury..." Sailor Moon uttered from behind me.
I ignored her for a moment and gently reached for
Jupiter's swelling arm. As if to protest my movement,
the insides lurched out, nearly ripping her skin.
Jupiter screeched in angst, falling into Venus' lap
in a dead faint.
I used her unconsciousness to my advantage
and tugged her arm more firmly. There were five
large, cackling fangs lodged firmly in her arm
and down her side.
"What are they, Mercury?" Venus cradled
Jupiter's head gently. I stared at the fangs,
transfixed for moment. I tugged one of them
tightly, and it slid out with a sickening
'sllliisshhh.'
Jupiter quivered in her sleep; her side
bulged further.
I, with Tuxedo Mask's help, removed the
remaining fangs so they would cease the infinite
stream of poison they were gushing into her
blood stream.
"Makoto, wake up," Matt urged, taking
Venus' place by her side.
I forced myself to forget the fangs and
placed my hand on Jupiter's body with every intention
of healing her before she died from poisoning.
Any other human would have expired within seconds,
but I surmised that her survival so far had to
do with our supernatural abilities. She seemed
to be putting up one hell of a fight, too.
Her body sizzled and flickered as if it
were a television show with a bad reception.
Minako gasped audibly, and Usagi knelt beside her.
Matt's mouth opened wide.
Jupiter's body ceased its shaking and her bubbling
insides settled. Her face, sweaty and still olive-green
in color, became harder to see in the cold night.
A thin line on my visor pulsed violently, and
went still.
"Mercury!" Venus gripped Jupiter's now translucent hand.
My mind raced.
"What's happening?"
Makoto's body dissipated further.
"Make it stop, Ami-chan!"
One more second...
"Mako-chan!"
Where's the answer...?
"Please...Jupiter."
Time smirked as it flew past.
Matt spread his hands frantically over the ground's
surface, gripping for a body that was no longer there.
Makoto's gone.
An ocean of anger churned violently in my stomach.
I shut my eyes against the sleet that still pelted at my face.
A blue light flickered in my vision for a split second before
fading away into nothingness.
I broke into a run, pummeling through the invisible
barriers blocking my way, telling me to run back and hide.
Their voices were deafening in my ears, all begging
for freedom from whatever isolation they had entered
in her ominous world.
The entrance came into view, and I wasted no time
searching for guards. She wanted me alone, and she
wanted me alive.
Time, please, for this one moment...
shut your eyes and forget to tick.
My world seemed to freeze on its axis for one moment.
No one spoke; even the wind paused its whistling.
Matt's hands shook as he spread them again over
the empty section of grass. Kyle silently placed his
hand on his shoulder, his silver eyes as wide and
disbelieving as the rest of ours.
My visor returned to neutral, just a blank screen
with nothing to trace or scan. My mouth hung slightly
ajar as I replayed Makoto's disappearance over and
over in my mind.
Unfortunately, we had no time to mourn the
loss of our lightening senshi, nor ponder her whereabouts.
"This should be amusing..."
Venus' head whipped around and she stood with
a speed rivaled by the rest of us as we followed suit.
A handful of scowling youma had appeared
around us, cackling through their abhorrent mouths.
Mars' heated anger was grazing the back of my
neck, and I could hear her breaths coming
in short, labored gasps.
I was still stupefied. Makoto was gone.
And I couldn't save her. I didn't know the answer
to a crucial question, and it possibly caused
the others and I our best friend and senshi.
I heard Minako's voice, verbally intimidating
the group surrounding us, but it was blurred
in my mind.
And as quickly as it had ceased its movement,
my world churned back to life.
"Where is she?!" Sailor Moon was bellowing
above their snickers, her sapphire orbs glittering
in the night with unshed tears.
The smallest youma (albeit raising two feet taller
than Kyle) stepped forward, energy crackling in its tentacles.
"You will know soon enough, senshi."
Mars gritted her teeth. "Guys. Get out of here. NOW."
Venus brought her hands in the air, "And watch
out for those damn bombs!" They pulsed and a ball
of gold fire formed in her palms. Mars screeched her
burning mandala attack and launched it with a
look of pure malice plastered over her face.
"Get everyone out of there, too!" Sailor Moon
pointed hurriedly to the still lit mansion, its
occupants oblivious to the danger they'd been put in.
And the battle waged on. I shook off my stupor,
using my anger to launch icy streams of deadly water
at anything that wasn't remotely human.
Tuxedo Kamen began hurtling bouquets of roses
in attempt to hold them off. Sailor Moon jumped
over the other side of them, and lashed out at them
from behind, sending waves of tiaras in every
direction.
One successfully sliced off a youma's arm,
but it regrew itself in a matter of seconds,
bringing an identical limb along with it.
Venus tried to chain them together, but
she was thrown off roughly; her back slammed deftly
into the frozen grass and slid twenty feet away.
Mars growled in her rage, her fire laden
arrows soaring through the air and colliding with
the youma who howled their disapproval.
I tried to clear my head. We were blindly
fighting these youma, who were, themselves, quite formidable.
Using our rage and anger to guide our attacks would
merely set us up for failure. Half of Mars' arrows were
missing their targets by miles, nearly slicing
Tuxedo Kamen's head off at one point.
A couple of tiaras split the air dangerously
close to my ear, and I threw up my hands.
"Minna! Stop it!" I grabbed Mars' arms as they flung
more and more arrows every which way. She turned to me,
looking as if she'd flame sniper my own head off.
"STOP." I said stonily to her face, surprised even
myself at the drop in temperature in my voice. Her gaze,
glazed over with remorse and anger, cleared slowly and
returned to the amethyst ovals I recognized. She dropped
her palms reluctantly.
Venus approached us, looking bruised and worn,
but her face was dead set in "Listen to me, or I'll
kill you" mode. First in command a thousand years
ago, first in command now.
Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen leaped over to us.
I looked at Venus and she nodded.
"You guys, we can't keep blindly attacking them!
Look at this place!" Venus forced Mars to look at the
hunks of neighboring woods she had set aflame, and
she looked down.
She turned for a moment to launch an attack at
the youma who had grown restless and were beginning to
show off a few of its better talents--for instance,
boulder-sized blobs of goo erupted from its back and
smacked sickeningly at the ground near our feet,
dissolving away the grass and exposing the auburn
earth underneath.
I internally sighed, glad that we'd actually be
getting somewhere now, "The only way we're going to
get any where with these things is if we keep our
minds clear. We can't save Makoto if we're all
buried six feet under."
They simultaneously nodded in my direction,
and a fog thicker than any other I'd ever conjured
poured from my palms and into the surrounding area.
A yelp informed me that one of the youma had
successfully walked onto one of Myora's bombs. I ran my hands
over each of the senshi and Kamen's eyes, giving them
the ability to see through the blanket of dense blue.
Now that we had the definite upper hand and the
guys were out of sight, the youma blindly stumbling
through my fog were about to get a dose of their
own detrimental medicine.
Mars shifted from foot to foot.
"Do I get the flame them now?"
"YES, Mars, flame away."
Her lips curved into a sly grin and she hopped
deftly from place to place, sneaking up to a pair of
youma who had knocked dumbly into each other and were
squirming frantically on the ground.
"This is way too easy...BURNING MANDALA!"
Even Tuxedo Kamen chuckled as they squealed,
their tail ends erupting in flames.
"And this is for Makoto!" Sailor Moon valiantly
kicked a rather nasty looking beetle youma in its knee
(or whatever) cap.
"Gaah!"
In the back of my head, Makoto's face was
floating, cheering us on.
I picked out my own target and launched a
precise shine aqua illusion directly between
its ten eyes.
"Hey, Mercury, you made youma art!" Mars shouted
somewhere from behind me, laughing at the ice statue.
I chuckled and walked slowly up to it, a coy smile
spreading over my face.
What would Mako-chan do...?"
"Hi-ya!" I thrust out my leg in a side kick,
forcing my body weight into the side of the youma.
Youma-ice cubes littered the ground where it had
previously stood.
Venus had successfully reduced another into
fragments of body parts and ashes and was currently
assisting Sailor Moon in finishing off the fourth.
Tuxedo Kamen frowned from the sidelines, his face
scowling in a rather kiddish way.
"At least let me shove a rose up one of their
asses, or SOMETHING!"
Mars' leg stopped mid-kick over the fifth
youma's dazed and wobbling head, and she shook
her own, stepping aside.
"Alright, Tux, he's all yours."
He puffed up in a defiant way and the youma
was covered in a blanket of crimson roses within seconds.
Mars mockingly clapped her gloved hands together
as the youma fell over. Sailor Moon, giggling slightly,
finished it off.
I dissipated my super-fog and let my tired
hands fall limp against my sides. We stood in a loose
circle.
The rush of winning wore off all too quickly,
leaving behind the harsh revelation and Makoto wasn't
standing beside us and her physical state remained unknown.
I ran my dirtied fingers through my hair,
biting back the tears which stubbornly formed
behind my eyes.
"Do you hear that?" Mars whispered, her eyes
darting around. There was a sound, sliding-like and
coming from extremely near by.
Venus took in a gulp of air and blinked.
Slithering through the fog, its yellow eyes glittering
maliciously, the same snake responsible for Jupiter's
absence appeared--this time with company.
"Gahh!" I pounded the door with the toe of my boot.
It stubbornly remained shut.
I whipped my visor down and hurriedly typed into my
palm pilot, searching frantically for another way into
the fortress.
Sweat formed at my brow as my eyes trailed down
the information supplied by the computer.
Ah ha.
I snapped it shut. The door had been magicked into
accepting only a certain type of code to gain entry inside.
I finally figured out what the gibberish my visor had
been feeding me was.
Digging deeper into myself, I searched for the part
of me I'd hardly gotten to know, but knew had been waiting
to be awakened for quite some time.
If the door wanted a Mercurian code, I'd have to
become the princess I was a thousand years before if I
wanted to supply it.
"NO! MINAKO! REI!" Sailor Moon tore through the
dissipating fog, racing towards the two senshi to push
them out of the vipers' path.
"Behin-AAH!" Usagi's body was thrown into the air,
courtesy of a well-placed bomb, and collided with me seconds later.
I grunted underneath her weight and helped her stand.
"Unnngh...Get-off!" Mars tried futilely to pound
away the viper's body as it wrapped itself more tightly
around her and Sailor Venus, whose back was pressed up
against Mars'.
"I can't move my hands..." Venus gasped, her face
slowly turning purple.
The viper's companions, a red and yellow pair, were
slithering around it and slowly countering upon us.
"Get behind me, Usagi!" I yelled, pushing her to my
back. I still had a duty to fulfill as her protector.
"MERCURY AQUA RASPHODY!"
My attack ricocheted pathetically off of their backs
and zoomed off into the night and hit the ground, setting
a handful of bombs off.
"AAH!" Mars gasped for air, her skin color matching
the violet hue of her eyes.
"Get off of them!"
Jason, Matt, and Kyle appeared, zooming onto the
scene in matching golf carts. They wheeled around the snake
and rammed into it, the front of their puny cars smashing in.
God, bless them for trying.
The snake hissed--more in annoyance than pain--releasing
its hold on Venus and Mars enough for a bit of color to
return to their faces.
"Stupid mortalssss..."
It opened its mouth, exposing the deadly fangs we
now knew all too well, and launched four more at the trio,
which were attempting to beat away the snake's hold on
Rei and Minako with golf clubs.
The fang projectiles were met half way in the air
with a carefully launched rose quartet, which only
managed slice them into smaller, jagged pieces.
Jason cried out as a few stuck into his back,
sizzling again with their poisonous contents.
Matt and Kyle tried to rip them from his skin, but
were also hit, this time with four new, completely intact
fangs.
"K-Kyle..." Minako gasped, her skin returning to
its previous shade of violet as the viper tightened
its grip on them once again.
I turned around to Usagi. "Usagi, stay *here.*"
She shook her head, "No! I need to help!" I pushed
her down with my arms, "Usagi, I can't risk you getting killed,"
I sighed, "I'm sorry."
With one shove, I pushed her away from me and created
an ice wall which spanned the rest of the field, cutting
her off from the battle.
Through the translucent barrier, I saw her bang
her fists furiously against it.
"Ami!" Zach appeared at my side.
Oh, God...help me.
He was the first and last person I wanted to
see at the moment.
"Zach, what are you--" I shoved him away as
a pair of fangs sliced past us, tearing through
my ice wall as if it were nonexistent.
"Hold on, you guys!" I yelled to Rei and Minako
who had fallen unconscious in the youma's grip.
"Take care of him, Tuxedo Kamen," I turned to him,
shoving Zach towards him, "And Usagi."
"Wait, Ami!" Zach yelled behind me, but I had
already fled, running towards Venus and Mars.
The fraternal twin snake youmas had other plans,
though. They cornered me, snickering maliciously as their
forked tongues wriggled in and out of their mouths.
"Come to watch their deathsss, Sssailor Mercury?"
They overlapped each other, shaping an X type figure
and slithering around me.
To my horror, the third viper's slimy head rose
up from behind Mars' and Venus' prone bodies, fangs
glittering in its open mouth.
"NO!"
It brutally snapped its head down on them,
sinking its fangs into their purple skin and squeezing
tighter around their bodies.
My scream was stuck in my throat, pounding
painfully from inside. Minako's and Rei's skin began to lurch
sickeningly from underneath the snake's mouth, Kyle's, Matt's,
and Jason's doing so as well where they had fallen on
the ground beside the senshi.
"Watch..." The snakes began to circle around me.
My legs were frozen to the ground.
"See what you've done, dear Mercury?" Another voice
permeated the air, chilling my body to its core.
"Myora!" I whipped my head up to see her floating
above me and cackling mockingly.
"Yes, my sister?" Her eyes thinned to slits of fury;
she scowled at me.
I inwardly cringed at her choice of words. Knowing
that we were even half related made my stomach knot into
twists of disgust.
She began to chuckle again, her ruby lips parting
to let the flow of mocking laughs out. I writhed in the
snakes' hold on me.
Her eyes suddenly darkened, and she seemed to look
straight through me.
"Don't fight...don't fight it..." She mumbled,
scarlet eyes flashing.
"No...!" I wriggled more. Mars and Venus
flickered on and off in the viper's grip.
For a moment they stopped, their bodies becoming
solid once more, and I felt a flutter of hope. It was
extinguished, however, as they began to dissipate
once more.
"What are you doing to them?!" I screamed at Myora,
wishing to harm her in any way possible-if only I
could move my damn arms.
"Rei, Minako!" My voice was desperate, pleading
for them to fight whatever inner battle Myora was
waging with them.
"Too late..." Myora uttered. I watched as their
bodies fizzled once more and dissolved into nothingness.
Matt, Kyle, and Jason had been gone long before.
"B-bri-bring them...ungh...back!" The snakes had
begun to coil around me tightly, cutting off the air
I was desperately trying to inhale.
Myora laughed, slowly and scornfully.
"That pesky Jupiter was the first to go. That
should teach her to insult those greater than she."
Her lips curved, "And they'll all make a fine
addition to your fury feline friends, don't you
think?" She cackled loudly.
I gasped, "Luna...Artemis..."
"Yes, well, they were far less difficult to
lure away...Oh, but that's not all, dear Mercury,"
She hovered over me, scowling from over my head.
The snakes began to turn me around, snickering
from either side of me. The blood which had rushed to
my head began to slowly fade, and I could breathe more.
In truth, I didn't need mutated reptiles to stop
the air that filled my lungs. The sight which met my
horrified eyes was enough for my entire body to
malfunction.
Tuxedo Kamen, his mask removed, lay next to
Zach who was gasping for air and reeling with the poison
two fangs were currently gushing into his blood stream.
They were slowly fading from my view, each of
their gazes planted firmly on me; their eyes were hollow,
though--Tuxedo's midnight orbs had lost their depth,
and Zach's were hardly the warm hue of green I'd
memorized so many times before.
The snake which had before been cutting of Rei
and Minako's air supply cackled devilishly from behind
them. I hadn't even seen it move...
"N-no..." Zach's face melted from my view,
taking with it everything I'd gained in the past month.
I gritted my teeth against the pain that gripped
my heart relentlessly. My eyes wouldn't shut, no matter
how much I willed them to, and I watched as their
bodies faded completely, leaving only the empty
ground beneath them.
"Ah...you two were always inseparable..."
Myora chuckled, "Until now, of course."
She clapped her hands sharply, "Vernin, Fang."
The snakes uncoiled from me, leaving me curled
on the ground and gasping for air.
Myora knelt beside me, her face dangerously
close to mine. "And now...for the Grande Finale."
She rose again and a flick of her wrist warped the
barrier of ice I'd created to isolate Usagi from battle
into a wall of glass.
Two identical slits penetrated the wall in the
middle--the ones I'd shoved myself and Zach out of
the way to avoid.
My heart lurched to my throat. Where the narrow
tunnel the fangs had created ended on the other side,
Sailor Moon lay, her olive face barely noticeable
as she rapidly faded, two fangs lodged firmly
in her writhing chest.
"Usagi..." I uttered, dumbfounded.
One of my gloved hands slowly fell across the wall,
and it filtered away. I fell next to her--my princess--and
held her hand shakily.
Her eyes opened unsteadily, and her green-hued
lips curved slightly.
Be strong, Ami-chan.
I choked on a sob, gripping her hand more tightly.
She was gone.
My fingers gripped the grass where she had been
fiercely, my knuckles protesting the pain induced on them.
I snapped my eyes shut against the night, felt
my heart numb with pain, and rose sharply.
Myora had been watching with a laughing, scarlet
gaze, her minions close by her. I lunged at her with every
hurt part of my body, trying to pound away her mocking
face with my bruised arms and make her feel every bit
of the pain I was at the moment.
She quickly thrust out her palm and a chain of red
electricity wrapped itself around my neck.
I shook from the volts of electricity charging
through my system, but refused to cry out and let
her see my pain any longer.
She lowered herself to the ground, briskly
walking to me and placing her face directly above my own.
"You have three hours, Sailor Mercury. Bring me the
Hikari Gem by then or everything you hold dear..." Myora
took a moment to grip my chin roughly, "Will-be-*mine*."
"Where is it...?" My eyes were shut tightly against
the world as I silently searched.
"Come on..." I pleaded with myself. After a few minutes
of fruitless concentration, I furiously banged my fists
against the door again.
"Why won't you open?! Why?!" I beat it with all of
my strength, not really talking to the slab of concrete
underneath my angry fists, while tears of frustration
flowed freely down my reddened cheeks.
"I have to-find-them!"
Everything seemed to fall apart inside of me at
that moment. My walls collapsed, my heart withered away,
my soul fell to pieces again.
"Mother...what am I...supposed to do?" I gasped
through my tears, struggling to stand. I'd gotten so close.
*Ami-chan.*
My blood shot eyes whipped open, and I shoved
my body off of the stone wall.
Mother...?
*You give up so freely, my daughter.*
I...I...can't find it.
*There is nothing to *find*, Ami-chan.
It has been there all along--just as I told you before.*
They're going to die...because of me.
*Do not lose hope, Ami-chan. I have not lost
faith in you--the senshi either.*
An image of Usagi's face filtered into my vision.
I'd failed to protect her once; I refused to repeat
that mistake.
I let out a tired sigh. I couldn't give up...
had I ever before? Not when they needed me. Not when my
princess was in danger.
Then why now?
I won't....
*Go, Ami-chan. Have faith in yourself and your
abilities as a not only a senshi...but yourself as well.*
I nodded, finding Aiya's wise, azure gaze through
the sleet that still poured over me. Something pressed
against my cheek--a patch of warmth.
I placed a shaky hand over my mother's.
She moved her pale hand from beneath my palm
and held it up to my forehead.
It's been here all along... I repeated my
mother's words in my mind.
A blinding light erupted from my tiara, blinding
me momentarily as I basked in the pulses of energy
cascading down my numb body and bringing it back
to life.
Around me, as I swirled in Mercury's power,
the sky's cascade of frozen tears ceased.
My apartment door shut deftly behind me.
The silence within the room was deafening, more so than
Myora's threat which was playing on repeat in my mind.
Three hours...
I threw my hands over my face, wiping away another
stream of tears that washed over my cheeks.
"What...am I supposed to do?"
I felt utterly and completely alone in the world.
The gap in my soul was worse than painful--it was completely
numb.
Sniffing slightly, I took off my jacket.
This is no time to feel sorry for yourself, Ami.
I had less than three hours to figure out and put
together a puzzle with only a few pieces to work with.
I flipped on my bedroom light and slipped quickly
out of my dress, changing into a pair of blue jeans and
sweat shirt.
My desk chair squeaked as I plopped onto it
and turned on my lamp. A few photos of the senshi and I
were scattered over my desk and I stared at them for a moment.
"Rei...what did your fire mean?" I picked up her
graduation picture and stared at her smiling amethyst eyes,
which seemed to see and know everything.
"If the evil is in Usagi...why would Myora go through
all that trouble to capture her?"
I set down her frame gently and looked at another
of Minako and Usagi at one of Minako's fashion shows.
"Usagi..."
As I stared at her grinning face, deep in my thoughts,
the phone rang in the distance. I shook out of my trance,
wondering if it was pointless to answer the telephone
under these circumstances.
But then again, my mother could have been calling.
I rose quickly and hurried out the room. The cordless
phone blared from the kitchen counter.
"Hello?" I answered, hoping I wasn't too late. There
was a pause, "Hello? Mom? Are you the--"
"Ami-chan?" A tiny voice, barely audible in sound,
reached my ear, "Ami-chan, it's me."
Malina's voice startled me, and I quirked my eyebrows.
"Malina? What is it?" Alarm was rising in my throat
at the sound of her voice.
"Ami-chan, I'm s-sorry," She hiccupped.
"Malina, what's wrong? Tell me."
"I tried not to let her...I couldn't st-stop
her!" She paused, choking on her sobs.
"Where are you, Malina?" I asked urgently.
She gasped. "I can't find her, Ami-chan!"
She whispered harshly, sounding desperate.
"Can't find who?" I gripped the counter's edge.
"My usagi."
I barely heard the phone as it fell from my hand
and clattered to the ground.
--Adrial
Adrial_06@yahoo.com