Author's Notes/Disclaimer: Don't ya just hate exam season? Well, that's the reason why this chapter's taken so long so I apologise again. I also need motivation from you guys 'cause I wanna get this done by the end of the year so I can enter it for a fanfic awards ceremony. Thanks for your patience guys.

Naoko Takeuchi-sama owns the Sailor Scouts and everything else Sailor Moon-related, while I own the Knights.

Chapter XXI: Mark's Day in the Spotlight.

Ext. West Auditorium, T*A Girls School, Juuban - November 8th 2002, 6:15 pm.

The night of destiny was now here. Outside in the darkness of the evening the air was crisp and cold. Slowly making his way up to the stage entrance of the large auditorium, the large red pack of music under his left arm and Chad, Jack and Sarah following closely behind, Mark felt extremely nervous. Nervous, but not about the fact that he was performing - he had always felt confident when playing the piano in front of large crowds. Tonight was going to be one of the best chances to win Raye back, and he could not afford to do anything wrong. Looking around at other musicians emerging from cars and busses, he knew all too well that should it all go wrong those people might die tonight. It wasn't a very promising situation, but he had faced worse in the past. It was because of this that he decided not to talk to his flatmates on the way - he was too scared that this might be the last night of their lives.

As he made his way up the door he paused on the final step, turned around and gazed up at the thin crescent moon in the clear night sky.
"Okay. Here goes." With one last breath Mark quickly turned back around and entered the auditorium, the warmth from the heaters a welcome change to the bitterly cold atmosphere outside. Taking one last glance at his flatmates, Mark closed his eyes as he tried to find his strength.
"Hey Mark, what's wrong? You've been acting weird all the way here." Mark didn't open his eyes, but paused for a few moments before replying to Jack's question.
"Just nerves, that's all." Jack seemed slightly suspicious with Mark.
"Surely it can't be just nerves. You've practiced the most out of the three of us, so why should you worry?" Mark sighed before looking around the room at the other musicians. Jack instantly recognised the downhearted look on his face and realised what was going on.

"It's that temple girl, isn't it?" Mark slowly nodded his head as he continued to look around.
"Why's he still interested in her after how she behaved?" Chad seemed rather confused at Mark's logic. Raye had dumped Mark and threw herself at his feet almost instantaneously, something which he did not take too kindly to.
"Chad, I know you mean well, but believe me Raye was certainly not herself on that day. If she's in the right frame of mind this might be a chance to impress her." Jack simply sighed at Mark's comments. At that moment though Mark found a way out of the conversation - Lita had just arrived. Mark immediately walked over to meet her at the door, leaving Chad, Jack and Sarah in the middle of the room.
"Two words. Lovestruck fool." Replied Chad to Jack and Sarah.

"Anything yet?" Lita removed her brown coat to reveal a stunning green, thick-strap dress. Mark simply raised his eyebrows in awe before answering her question.
"No sign of either of them yet. I must say you're looking sharp tonight." Lita smiled modestly at Mark's comment, but still kept in mind the situation.
"Thanks, but you're supposed to be going for Raye, not me." Mark simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Just an innocent comment. Anyway, Raye and the safety of this audience are my top priorities." Lita reached inside her pea-green handbag and took out two silver, crescent-shaped pins, attaching one to her own dress before handing the other to Mark.
"A gift from Artemis." Mark closely examined it before attaching it to his own black suit.
"I take it that's more than just an ordinary pin." Mark had seen it too many times before in movies - the main character receives a gift which turns out to be more than it first appears.
"Yeah. It's a protective shield. Artemis has narrowed down the frequency of any possible energy drainer to a small range. He says these pins will protect us from any drainage attack and allow us to locate the root of the problem." Mark raised his eyebrows in interest at Lita's description.

"So are we just waiting for Michelle now?" Mark glanced down at his watch - it was nearly half six, one hour until the performance kicked off.
"Yeah. It'll be easy to find her. Just look for Amara's souped-up sports car."
"So what about Serena and the others? Will we have a way of contacting them if something happens?" Lita looked back towards the exit before answering Mark's question.
"They've got front row seats. They'll be able to see the orchestra pit, so we'll only need to give simple hand signals."
"And what about Malachite? He's probably gonna be here as well. He was the one that kidnapped her after all." Lita seemed pretty anxious at Mark's question, she too was very concerned about Malachite's involvement with Raye.
"I don't know, but just be suspicious of any guy with long silver hair." The rather cheery mood backstage was completely juxtaposed to Mark and Lita's feelings at that moment. This was going to be very hazardous, and they had potentially had three hundred lives on the line. However, they were interupted as the rough purr of a top-end sports car could be heard from outside the entrance.

"I guess that must be Michelle and Amara. I'll go look around and see if I can find Raye." Lita quickly turned around to see Mark briskly walking away.
"Mark! Wait!" Lita started to follow Mark, but was stopped abruptly when Amara and Michelle called her over.
"Hey Lita. Lookin' forward to tonight?" Michelle seemed to be very happy, an almost Mina brand of happiness. However, Lita was not interested.
"Not really. Things just started to go wrong. I gotta catch Mark before he does something stupid." Without saying another word Lita started to persue Mark, taking care not to trip over her high heels, leaving the couple bewildered as to what was going on.

"Come in." Seemingly a world away from the chaos of the musicians tuning and warming up, Raye was in her rather small dressing room brushing her glistening raven hair which cascaded down her bare back. Her long, thin strapped ruby red dress gave her an extremely elegant look, while her ruby rose earrings glistened from the table lamps. The door slowly opened to reveal a very smart-looking Malachite in a simple tuxedo, his silver head tied back into a ponytail.

"Good evening Raye." The general raised his eyebrows in awe as he admired her beauty. "I must say you look absolutely stunning tonight." Raye's eyes lit up at Malachite's flattering comments.
"Thank you very much." replied Raye, her face starting to turn red in flattery. "You look pretty good yourself."
"Thank you. I've had to blend in with the crowd, so I decided to dress formally. I thought I'd never see the day I dressed in a tuxedo." Raye giggled at his comments as she checked her face for any blemishes. However, as she was doing so she saw a white flower appear before her - a Casablanca Lilly.
"Oh wow! Where did you get that from?" The Casablanca lilly was her favourite flower, so it nearly brought her to tears. She could have been mistaken, but was Malachite actually showing kindness? She had never seen him like this before.
"I have my sources. Just keep you mind focussed on your singing and your purpose." He spoke in a deadly serious tone, but as Raye turned around to look at him she noticed a faint smile on his face.
"I will do." Raye slowly stood up and turned around, smiling at Malachite before walking towards the door. Malachite instantly opened the door as she gracefully strided out into the corridoor.

"Mark! What the hell were you thinking about?" Lita had managed to catch up with the English Mars Senshi and was fuming. One hand his shoulder, Lita leant on him while trying to keep her cool.
"I'm sorry Lita. I'm just fixated on the idea of getting Raye back. I just love her so much I just want to get her back as soon as possible." Mark was calm, but underneath the surface Lita knew that he was starting to get desparate. It had been over two weeks since Raye's kidnap and Mark was starting to show the signs of intense worry.
"Just calm yourself down Mark. If you get too trigger-happy here you'll just end up making things worse and stop any chance of getting Raye back" Mark took a deep breath before nodding his head. Lita was right. He couldn't just barge in and have a one-on-one fight against Malachite. He had to be more subtle, maybe try and get Raye back without confrontation. Being without her had hurt him considerably and had affected the way he thought about things. He seemed to barge into situations desperately instead of thinking the problem through like he used to.

"You're right. I just need to think things through." He felt dejected as he leant back against the wall. His solenmn mood soon vanished and was replaced by one of anger as Raye came into view and walked down the corridoor, Malachite at her side. Lita instantly took her hand off Mark's shoulder and also leant against the wall, a bitter expression emerging on her face. They remained silent as they glared at the dark general, trying to hide their anger.

Malachite refused to speed up, instead he simply gazed scornfully at the Mars and Jupiter senshi. Raye also looked over towards the pair, but snorted disgustedly and walked away in a snobbish fashion. Mark felt like his heart had just been torn out and kicked around on the floor. Lita was completely enraged. As soon as the pair were out of sight Lita looked at Mark with a look of sheer fury on her face.
"Mark, new plan. Get her back by any means neccessary. I do not want to see her with HIM any longer!" Lita spoke in a quiet, menacing tone, sending a chill up Mark's spine. Mark stayed silent, only nodding his head. The last thing anyone needed was Lita exploding before any possible battle, and the last thing anyone wanted, especially Mark, was a wasted opportunity for getting Raye back.

Int. Recovery Ward, Moon Kingdom Central Tokyo Branch - November 8th 2002, 7:30 pm.

All was silent in the corridoors of Central that night. Luna and Artemis were stuck in the main control room keeping an eye on events at the concert. However, in the recovery ward everything was quiet, but for a different reason. Inside her room Mina, dressed in a white jumper and a comfortable pair of sky blue jeans, was placing her transformation pen in her small black handbag without making a single noise. She had unwound the bandages from around her crown and her long golden hair was tied into a platted ponytail. She had already placed some of her pillows underneath her bedsheets and had put on the only pair of running shoes she had with her. Taking one last glance to check if everything was in place, she turned off the light and slowly slipped out through the door.

Her light attire and pale skin blended in with the gleaming whiteness of the corridoor, seemingly making her a ghost wandering through the realms of the underground base. Keeping her back firmly against the wall, Mina slowly crept her way around the labryinth of Central, taking care to avoid or reposition every camera she came across.

"I gotta get out of here. The girls need me." She continued to creep her way around the sterile corridoors of central until she eventually came to the giant steel blast door, her gateway to the outside world. She casually pressed the small green button at the side, causing the huge door to creek and rumble and reveal the concrete staricase to the arcade. As she reached the top she sliently opened the door leading out to the adjacent alleyway, poking her head out to check if there were any thugs or drug dealers lurking around.

She and Lita had once stumbled across a gang of thugs in the alley who were ready to mug them. However, they managed to hide behind a set of dumpsters and transform before they were discovered. When the thugs discovered that Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter were standing right in front of them they knew they didn't stand a chance and ran. Luckily tonight there was no-one to get in Mina's way.

It was a typical friday night in Juuban, the road running past the arcade seemed like a motorway as vast numbers of cars headed for the city centre to party. As Mina knew, where there are clubs and parties, there are taxis. Immediately she ran to the roadside and flagged down the first cab she saw, promptly getting inside.
"Where to, lady?" asked the tall, slim cab driver, looking at the blonde senshi in his rear view mirror.
"T.A. School please, I need to get there quickly." The driver greeted Mina's request with an anxious breath.
"I can get you there, but it'll take a while. There's been a big accident on the main road and it's been completely blocked off. All the smaller streets around are pretty congested." A look of worry come across Mina's face, but she knew that this was probably the only way of getting to the concert safely without transforming into Sailor Venus.
"Okay. Just try and get me there as soon as possible please." The cab driver simply smiled and hit the accellerator.
"Yes ma'am."

Int. West Auditorium, T*A Girls School, Juuban - November 8th 2002, 8:35 pm.

The concert had now been underway for over an hour and was quickly approaching the climax. The crowd sat admirantly in their seats as Raye sang her way through "A More Beautiful Morning Will Come" with plenty of grace and serenity. However, not everyone was interested in the music. On the front row Serena, Darien, Hotaru and Amara anxiously waited for any bad signs from the audience. In the orchestra pit Mark, Lita and Michelle couldn't afford to keep tabs on what was going on around them - they had the music to concentrate on. However, a few rows behind the Senshi Malachite sat emotionless waiting for his moment, the opportunity to put the plan into action.

"Thank you! Thank you! I'd like to dedicate this final number tonight to someone very special to me. This particular person is here in the building tonight, in fact he's sitting at the piano right now." Mark felt a chill go down his spine. Something was not right. Surely Raye couldn't be dedicating the final song to him? Surely not after being dumped by her in such a degrading fashion, and surely not now that she was a Dark Kingdom fighter. He looked around to see Lita with a very confused look on her face, she must have been thinking the exact same thing.

However, what made it all the more chilling was that he was certain he had heard that speech somewhere before. However, his memory couldn't have picked a worse opportunity to fail. He had absolutely no idea where he had heard it.
"Mark, if you'd please stand up." He slowly looked up at the elegantly-dressed singer, noticing the somewhat innocent, happy-go-lucky expression on her face before hesetantly standing up to a round of applause from the audience. This seemed like deja-vous to Mark, but where from? He looked out towards the rows of people to find the Senshi with very worried expressions on their faces on the front row. Looking further back he noticed Malachite siting comfortably in his seat. However, as soon as he did so a small, evil smirk appeared on the face of the Silver General. It was then that it hit Mark - this was like the dream he had a couple of weeks ago. It was time for action.

Mark swiftly sat down again as he grabbed the attention of Lita and Michelle. He seemed fairly rushed.
"The storm's gathering." Lita and Michelle both nodded their heads in unison and looked out towards the audience. Lita focussed on Malachite, raising her eyebrows with a broad smile on her face as if to taunt him. Michelle focussed on Serena and scratched her shoulder, to which Serena nodded her head. It was time to face the music. Mark stepped up to the synthesizers and began the intro to the final piece.

Living life under the golden sun
In my heart you are forever with me
I need no words, only your love
Your touch, your soul, everything that you may be

Oh, your bravery sweeps me off my feet,
In my heart, I believe we were destined to meet,
The light of our love, shining bright,

Oh, my love, those nights under the velvet sky and stars
My love, we shall never be apart
Not 'till the very end
The Eternal Melody of us
Our song we send.

There was nothing peculiar happening so far, but the look of anxiety on the faces of the Senshi was all too apparant. Looking around, Serena noticed a few members of the audience yawning, but nothing too alarming. However, she had her hand on her locket, ready to run away to a quiet location and transform at any moment.

Brought to me by destiny
You and I, always together 
Whatever happens to us
I'll be with you forever
Oh, remembering the day when we first met,
Oh, something I don't want to forget
The days of sorrow, gone away

Oh, my love, those nights under the velvet sky and stars
My love, we shall never be apart
Not 'till the very end
Our Eternal Melody

It was time for kick off. Malachite looked at his watch and pressed a button as the five energy drainers started up. However, the senshi on the front row were completely unaware of this for the moment. There was an increased sense of tiredness throughout the audience as Raye powered into the bridge.

Where there is no sound in the corners of space
Everybody is alone
When at least our feelings of love meet
I can go on to tomorrow

At that moment the Senshi realised that something was very wrong. Some members of the audience had now fainted and the rest were now feeling increadibly tired. Serena, Darien and the other senshi immediately headed for the exit. Mark, Lita and Michelle couldn't transform though, they were still playing and the orchestra were seemingly unaffected. They played on, powerless to help the other senshi.

Oh, my love, those nights under the velvet sky and stars
My love, we shall never be apart
Not 'till the very end
For our Melody

Oh, my love, those nights under the velvet sky and stars
My love, we shall never be apart
Not 'till the very end
Our love we send

Mark couldn't take it any longer. He set the synthesizers to play the final phrase before running out of the pit and out of the nearest exit. As the clarinet finished the piece Lita threw her drumsticks aside and grabbed the attention of the orchestra.
"Everyone! You've all gotta get out of here now! Something's happened to the audience!" As the entire orchestra gazed out of the pit to find the entire audience unconscious and the Sailor Scouts bursting in through the side entrance a mood of mass panic befell them. Immediately they scattered and left through the various exits.

By that time Mark had transformed into the Mars Knight and was desperately searching for Raye and Malachite.
"Where did they go?" called out the Mars Knight to Sailor Moon. The hall was now completely deserted bar the bodies of the audience, allowing Sailors Jupiter and Neptune to transform.
"Mars! That's not important at the moment! You've gotta find those drainers before someone dies!" Shuddering with frustration, the Mars Knight whipped out his DataPad and opened up the scanner. Firstly taking a scan of the crescent pin still attaced to his chest, the Mars Knight frantically scanned the room for the root of the problem.
"Hurry up dammit!" Every second the scan took was a second less that he had chance to take back Raye with. It was increadibly nerve-racking for him, but it had to be done. A few moments later he found what he needed.

"Got 'em! They're under seats! There's one in each corner and one somewhere in the centre! They're one way, so you've got no chance of getting the energy back! Just destroy any device you find!"Before the Sailor Senshi got a chance to reply, the Mars Knight lept up onto the stage and ran in hot persuit of Raye and Malachite.
"Where the hell's he going?!" Sailor Moon seemed unnaturally angry, probably because of the seriousness of the situation.
"Leave him Sailor Moon. He's just a lovestruck idiot. You of all people should sympathise what he's going through." Sailor Moon glared at Sailor Jupiter, who was searching for one of the drainers, before holding her head in her hands.
"You're gonna get yourself killed Mars!" she thought to herself before sprinting backstage as fast as her legs could take her.

"Raye! Where are you?" The Mars Knight searched frantically through the long, dank corridoors of the backstage area for any sign of Raye, but to no avail. Wherever he looked he found no sign of life whatsoever. Alone in his fears he felt vulnerable, and as he opened door after door his fears intensified.
"Dammit! Give me a sign somebody!" At that moment he found a sign - a very bad one. He froze as he felt cold steel press against the back of his head, followed by a click.
"This is your sign. A warning sign." The Mars Knight instantly recognised the voice. It was Malachite.

"You sneaky little..."
"Don't say a word unless told to, my firey friend. If you haven't noticed already, I got a loaded pistol held to your head." Breathing deeply, the Mars Knight tried to maintain his composure.
"This must be a sign of the times. The Dark Kingdom is resorting to using barbaric Earth weapons."
"Anything that gets the job done. It doesn't matter where it came from." The Mars Knight stayed perfectly still. With Raye under the control of the Dark Kingdom, his death could mean that she might never return to the Moon Kingdom again.
"Where's Raye?"
"The girl? She's on her way back to our command centre right now. But isn't this just so ironic? I have the potential right here right now to end this war once and for all." Mark remained adement that he could talk his way out of the situation, but he knew he was treading an extremely thin line.

"Why didn't you just pull the trigger immediately then?"
"Because I have one last thing to tell you before you meet your bitter end. I have a confession to make. You know your stunningly beautiful princess Raye? Well, I like her. I like her a lot." This was both humilliating and enraging for the Mars Knight, believing that he was just seconds from his death. Malachite was admiting his love for Raye and enfuriating Mark because of Raye's current siding. This was the time to make his last stance.
"I've got one thing to say to you as well. You're so full of bullshit. I don't really care for this any more. All I know is that the Moon will prevail, with or without Raye, so you can take that gun and shove it up your arse!" Malachite was fuming. Never before had he been insulted so vividly. He was now certain in his mind that he had to shut the Mars Knight up for good.

"Time to say goodbye, Mars!"

End of Chapter 21