The Mystical Warriors, Part 10

***A Life and Death Situation***

Serena, Ami, Raye, and Mina sat in Serena's family room, listening to their respective

guardians laugh and talk and gossip. Lita wasn't with them on account of the fact that it

was the anniversary of her parents' death and she wanted to spend some time alone. Serena's

mother had invited Ami's mother, Raye's grandfather, and Mina's parents over for dinner that

evening. And now, Serena, Ami, Raye, and Mina had to listen to them all laugh and gossip

like people their age. All of them wore looks of apprehension, annoyance, and fear on their

faces. Collectively, they all sighed.

"They're giving me a headache," Raye said, her voice unusually meek, the voice she used when

she started to get a headache.

"I think they've had too much alcohol tonight," Mina said, trying to give a reason for their

loudness, but she honestly didn't believe herself. Serena gave a small yell of frustration

and said, "Come on, let's go up to my room. Maybe it'll be quieter up there." All the

girls agreed and got up to walk upstairs to Serena's room and away from the laughter.

***

Queen Beryl knelt in front of the amorphous form of Queen Metallia. "Beryl, why have you

not destroyed those annoying armored warriors like you promised?"

"I tried, my Queen, but they diverted all my attempts," Queen Beryl said, scared of what

Queen Metallia could do to her. "Do you have a plan, my Queen?" Beryl asked.

"Yes, send out two youmas. One as a distraction and the other one to destroy what those

troublesome warriors love the most."

"And what's that my Queen?"

"Their family," Metallia said maliciously. Beryl swore she could see an evil smile although

Metallia at the moment had no face to smile with.

"Yes my Queen. A most excellent plan. I'll send out two youmas at once."

"Be sure that you do. That'll be all Beryl," Metallia said before she disappeared.

This'll get those warrior brats. You will pay for my failures with your family, Beryl

thought cruelly before she let out a chilling laugh and yelled, "Dispatch two youmas on the

double!"

"Yes Queen Beryl," her head advisor said.

***

Serena and the others were sitting on her bed in her room, glad for the fact that they

couldn't hear their parents as much upstairs. Serena sighed in relief. "Finally, some

silence," she said.

"Hm-hm," the other muttered in agreement. All of the sudden, Serena stood up, feeling the

prickling sensation of an attack coming on, and said, "Uh-oh guys. I'd hate to break up this

relaxing session, but I can feel a youma attacking. Let's go to work."

All of the others groaned, but stood up and followed Serena out of the room at a run. She

bounded down the stairs with the others in tow and said, "Mom, the girls and I are going out

on a walk. We'll be back later."

"Ok, honey!" she called absently as Serena opened the door and rushed out of it. They had

gotten a few blocks away when Serena called out, "Power of the Moonlight!" The others

quickly followed suit. "Power of the Arctic!"

"Power of the Phoenix!"

"Power of the Heavens!" All of the girls ran to where the youma was in their sub-armor,

getting weird looks from the few people that were out on the streets. When they arrived at

the battle scene, they saw a little girl about the age of 12 in sub-armor that was purple on

her arms, legs, and her belt around her waist. She had a purple headband across her

forehead and her symbol was a golden circle being eclipsed by a black one. "You will not

live to see the light of day," the little girl cried out. "I call upon the armor of the

Gods! Armor of the Gods, TO ARMS!"

Dark purple light surrounded her, creating dark purple armor. Her helmet appeared and she

put it on. Then, a bolt of purple light shot down, creating her weapon, a glaive. The

youma, which looked like a huge walking shark, just growled at her. Picking up her glaive

with her right hand, she cut the air diagonally from left to right, then from right to left

diagonally, creating a "X" made out of black lightning. She called out "LIFE AND DEATH

STRIKE!" and hit the ground with the base of her glaive, sending the "X" hurling toward the

youma, killing it instantly.

The little girl turned around and said, "Hello, I am Heather, bearer of the armor of the

Gods, protector of the planet Saturn, and I take it you are also Mystical Warriors as well?"

The others nodded and Raye stepped forward and said, "I'm Raye, and this is Serena, Mina,

and Ami. And we are pleased to meet you." The other 4 suddenly appeared in their sub-armor

and Raye said, "And arriving late are Celia, Lita, Michelle, and Alex. You guys, this is

Heather."

"This is all very well," Heather said, "but you should have not let your family unprotected.

I could have taken care of this myself. I could have used my Life and Death Strike on him

when necessary, like I did. But your families cannot protect themselves. We must hurry and

find them. Let's pray we're not too late."

"What to you mean Heather?" Ami asked, "What happened?" Ami always worried that her job as

a warrior would someday get her mother hurt or worse.

"I fear that the Negaverse created this youma as a distraction to get you away from you

families so they could destroy them. We must hurry." She broke off in a run, now in her

sub-armor, and the others followed.

When they arrived at Serena's house, Serena burst into the house, and ran into the dining

room. As she looked at the scene in front of her, tears welled up in her eyes and she let

out a blood-curdling scream. She fell to her knees and started to cry. Ami, Mina, and Raye

burst in and did the same thing. Their families were dead, their skins burned as if someone

set flames to their bodies. Serena's parents and her brother, Ami's mother, Mina's parents,

and Raye's grandfather were all lying down on the ground, burnt beyond healing.

The others walked in and saw the sight that had brought the other four to tears. Steeling

herself against the instinct to faint at the scene in front of her, Lita, who understood

what Serena was going through, ran over to Serena and started consoling her, as Alex did for

Mina, Michelle did for Ami, and Celia did for Raye. Heather bowed her head and said, "I am

deeply sorry for the pain that this has cost you. I would heal them, but they are beyond

healing." Serena stood up and said, "I'll heal them with my crystal. That'll bring them

back."

"Serena, I'm sorry, but they are beyond the healing power of your crystal," Heather said.

Serena refused to listen to her and drew out her crystal and called out, "MOON HEALING

ACTIVATION!" The crystal struggled to work, but nothing happened.

Serena cut off the power, withdrew the crystal back inside her, and collapsed into Lita's

arms and started crying again. Suddenly, Darien burst through the door, knowing that Serena

was in pain, and said, "Where's Serena?" Lita handed Serena off into the security of

Darien's arms. Lita looked at Darien and Serena and was shocked to find tears in Darien's

eyes at the pain of his loved one. They really do love each other, don't they? She

thought. I hope I find someone like that, she continued. Sighing, she detransformed

and walked over to the phone regretfully and called the police.

***

When the police had come, all of the girls had detransformed out of their sub-armor and were

in their regular clothes. The police questioned the girls about what they thought might

have happened and they said that they didn't know and that they had gone out on a walk and

when they returned, they found their families like this.

After that had been cleared with the police, there was another matter that needed to be

resolved. Their guardians, not expecting to die so soon, never made a plan for their

children in the untimely event of their death before their oldest child was a legal adult.

None of Mystical Warriors had any family left; Metallia and Beryl had killed them all. And

since they were close enough to the age of 18, Serena, Ami, Mina, and Raye were free to go

with anyone they wanted to. They were all talking with a lawyer in her office with Celia

with them. Serena looked into the eyes of the lawyer and said, "I want to go with Celia."

From the sound of Celia's gasp, she hadn't expected that.

"I do too," Raye said.

"Same here," the other two said. The lawyer looked at Celia, who was still shocked, and

said, "Will you consent to be their legal guardian?"

"Yes, I would be glad to."

"Good, then sign here at the bottom of this sheet and it'll be official. These girls will

be under your care for the next four years, until they turn 18." Celia walked up to the

lawyer's desk and signed the contract after reading it over quickly. With it signed, the

lawyer smiled at the 4 other girls tenderly and said, "There, now it's official. I'm so

sorry for you loss. I hope you all feel better soon." The 4 stood up, giving their thanks

to the lawyer, and quietly walked out of the office with Celia in tow.

***

Serena, Ami, Mina, Raye, and Lita stood in front of Celia's mansion, their stuff in hand.

When Lita said that she was going to move into Celia's house as well, they others asked her

why, saying that she had her own place. Lita said it was because they were all living with

the other 4 and she would feel left out if she was the only one not living in that house, so

she asked Celia if she could move in and Celia's answer was, "Sure, it's not like there's

not enough room for you, or anything."

Serena walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. After a few moments, Celia answered the

door, breathless. When Serena looked at her funny, Celia said, "You run from the third

story to the front door and we'll see if you not tired." The others laughed and Celia

opened the door wider, spread her arms out wide and said, "Welcome to your new home." Raye,

Serena, Ami, Lita, and Mina smiled and walked through the door, dragging all their stuff

upstairs to their new rooms.

***

After everyone had moved in and figured out who got what room, they all settled down to

dinner. Serena smiled at the memory of fighting over the bedrooms. Every two rooms had a

bathroom connecting them. After a few rearrangements, Raye and Ami's room were connected by

a bathroom, as were Mina and Lita's, Alex and Michelle's, and Heather and Celia's and Serena

had a bathroom to her herself. Everyone slumped back into their chairs after a wonderful

dinner of spaghetti and meatballs cooked by Lita. Serena looked around the grand dining

room and said, "God Celia, you could fit another 15 people at this table. Why is it so

big?"

"I don't know why I got it so big. I just had this feeling that it would have to be really

big for future uses. Oh, well, it's pretty." All of them laughed as Celia cryptically

smiled, she had her reasons for everything, and began clearing the table. After all the

dinner dishes were finished, all of them went up to their rooms and went to bed, happy that

they weren't alone.