Something has gone wrong. Very wrong! Five of the Sailor Soldiers are in...Ancient Rome?!

And Lita has become a gladiator!

Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, DiC, and Cloverway, in that

order. I make no money by this. More's the pity.

All other characters _not_ taken from History are mine, and you must ask permission to

use them, if you can find a way of using them outside this.

_This_ is emphasis. *This* is thought.

Kudos to the movie Gladiator, which was the inspiration for this. And yes, I borrowed a few lines...verbatim...

And now, Scorpinac Fanfic Productions presents:

******************************************************************************

Sailor Moon

Roman Legends

by Scorpinac

Chapter 7: Gladiator

"Let's hear it for LITA THE MAGNIFICENT!!!" the announcer shouted out to the

crowd, and Rini felt her blood run cold as she recognized the young girl near the center of the

arena wearing a red leather, Roman armor dress, with a prominent bronze stag embroidered upon

it and a pair of sandals, with a light, medium sized shield on her left arm, and a broadsword in her

right hand. The crowd started to cheer enthusiastically.

*Lita?! A gladiator?! Oh, no!!* she thought. Lita quietly bowed to the crowd to the

south, then the west, then the east, then she turned to bow to the north...and the Caesar's booth!

Thinking quickly, Rini carefully slid a hand towards the drinks, and discretely knocked one to the

floor, spilling the contents.

"Oops," she said, "I got it!" She quickly grabbed a small towel and dived down on all

fours to mop it up. The others glanced at her for a moment, then turned back to the main floor,

where Lita was taking her final bow to the Caesar and his family.

"My Caesar, this battle is in your honor," she said formally, then stood up straight. The

other five gladiators briefly turned and bowed to the Caesar.

"We who are about to die salute you!" they chimed, then turned back to face Lita.

Commodus rose as Rini continued cleaning the mess, returning the empty glass to the tray. He

rose one hand, and the crowd quieted for a moment.

"BEGIN!" Commodus commanded, and Lita immediately went into a defensive posture

while the five large brutes drew their swords or axes and brought up their shields. As Lita's

opponents began to move around her, Rini finished cleaning up and sat back in her seat as

Commodus took his own. Rini felt butterflies fill her stomach as Lita got ready to fight for her

life. Salina leaned in to her.

"Hey, Rini," she whispered, "why'd you do that?"

"I know her," Rini whispered back. "I didn't want her to see me up here yet, it'd distract

her. And right now is _not_ a good time for her to be distracted!"

"You know her?" Lucius asked. "From where?"

"Family friend," Rini answered quickly. "My mom and her are very close, kinda like

sisters."

"Really?" Lucilla blinked.

In the arena, the first brute lunged forward, swinging his long sword in a wide arc toward

Lita's head, clearly intending to end the encounter quickly with a beheading. Lita quickly blocked

with her sword, and swung a fast upward kick to his own temple. He brought his shield up to

block, and Lita jumped up and did a fast spin kick, landing her foot squarely against the side of his

head. The helmet bent inward slightly, the metal resonating the force of the impact two-fold. Lita

landed gracefully back on the ground, and the first brute fell sharply, unconscious.

At this, two more came in at her, one on either side. One came forward, brandishing his

short sword like a spear, intending to thrust it into Lita's stomach and gut her. The other came

from behind, brandishing his recently polished double-sided battleaxe in a downward swing meant

to cleave Lita right down the middle! Lita did the only thing she could think of.

She ducked.

The sword missed by only a few inches, and the battle axe went straight down into the

sword wielder's head, splitting it like a melon! The crowd roared in delight, and in the Caesar's

booth, Rini felt sick. Where they sat in the stands, Ami and Hotaru also felt a small wave of

nausea pass through them, but at the same time they felt relief that Lita had survived the double

onslaught.

The axe wielder pulled his weapon from the dead gladiator and turned to Lita, who

unceremoniously rammed him right in the face with her shield! He stuttered back, dropping his

own shield, and Lita moved in to knock him out. Just then the other axe wielder took a swing at

her with his single-sided axe, which she managed to just barely dodge. The first axe wielder

began to swing his battleaxe two-handed, anger clearly filling his mind. As if to make matters

worse, the third sword wielder came in, brandishing his wavy Vorpal blade with intent to skewer

the girl before him.

"Think you're hot stuff, don't you, girl?" the battleaxe wielder sneered.

"You think I want to do this?" Lita snapped back as she used her sword to block his axe,

and her shield to block the other axe while dodging the Vorpal blade. She swerved and blocked

for several minutes, the men's weapons sometimes dinging against her armor, but none as yet

passing through to her skin.

The single-axe then swung at her again, and Lita dodged, watching as the axe embedded

itself into the man holding the Vorpal blade. At the same time the Vorpal blade made another

swing inward at her, and wound up sinking straight into the axe wielder's abdomen. Both fell

silently, leaving Lita only the problem of subduing the battleaxe holder.

They faced each other, sternly watching the other's movements for any sign of an opening.

Deciding to be fair, Lita tossed her shield aside and held her broadsword with both hands. The

axe wielder swung his axe, and Lita blocked with her sword. Swing, block, swing, block, they

traded blows and counter blows, each occasionally making brief and limited contact with the

other's armor, for several tense moments as the crowd cheered on either him or her to achieve the

battle's final victory! Then Lita thought she heard a more plaintive cry, directed specifically right

at her...

"LITA, BEHIND YOU!!!" Lita twinged a little at the cry, unsure who screamed it. For a

moment she thought it came from both the side and ahead, from the Caesar's box. She then

dismissed the thought entirely as she swerved to the side...a split second from being sliced in half

through the middle by the first brute's long sword. Apparently he had awakened from her foot

induced nap!

And his dark grey eyes spoke his rage.

*Shouldn't have dumped the shield,* Lita quietly regretted, and blocked the long sword as

well as she could, given she also had to block a battleaxe. She found herself doing nothing but

blocking for several more minutes. Then the long sword swished at her in a horizontal arc. At

the same moment, the battleaxe swung around for a downward plunge. Lita dodged the sword,

and then the battleaxe finished coming down...

Right through the sword wielder's arm.

He flopped to the side, squeezing at his new stump in agony, and the crowd simply

cheered. Where they sat, Ami turned away, and Hotaru felt herself transfixed, unbelieving at the

crowd's uncaring attitude at what was happening below.

In the Caesar's booth, Rini also found herself frozen. She'd now watched three grown

men die horribly, and in moments a fourth would soon follow. She could no longer decide if she

was relived that Lita was still alive, or sickened at the sight of the dead and dying.

Lita was now truly down to just one opponent, and they again circled each other, trading

blows. Finally, Lita dropped, and swung her feet out in a sweep kick, knocking the man's feet

out from under him. He fell sprawling to the ground, flat on his back, his battle axe flying from

his hand to the ground about three feet away.

Lita sprang to her feet, and slammed one foot upon the man's chest, pointing her sword at

his throat.

"Say Uncle!" she demanded. He blinked.

"What?" he asked.

"You heard!" Lita replied. The crowd began roaring loudly, crying for her to finish him

off, but she sternly ignored their bloodlust-crazed screams. She stared only at the man before her,

right into his deep brown eyes. And he stared back into her own emerald orbs, understanding

slowly dawning on him...in more ways than one.

Finally he sighed.

"I yield!" he said, as loudly as he could. For a moment the crowd continued to demand

blood, but then he yelled it again, and they began to get quiet; then someone called out:

"LITA THE MERCIFUL!" This was followed by more cries of the same, and a rousing

applause. In her seat, Hotaru quietly breathed a sigh of relief that it was over, and Ami finally

allowed herself to turn back to the arena itself.

In the Caesar's box, Rini also sighed in relief, and next to her Salina cheered Lita's

victory, Commodus and Lucilla simply staring in amazed wonder.

"She is a wonder," Lucius said. Lita quietly removed her foot and offered the man a hand

up, which he accepted. She then grabbed his battleaxe and returned it to him. He bowed quietly

to the crowd, and stepped back. After regaining her breath, Lita then bowed to the crowd as

well, again ending with a bow toward the Caesar's box.

"My Caesar," she said as she bowed, then froze, her head snapping back up, her eyes

bulging as she recognized the little girl sitting next to the young boy in the Caesar's box all too

well.

*Rini?!! What's she doing up there?!* her mind raced. Rini stared back, and quietly

waved, giggling nervously. Before anything else could happen though, several men came in and

removed the three dead bodies, and shuffling her and the one survivor off to the cells. As for the

one who'd lost his arm, some men went to check on him, and she couldn't tell if he'd died yet or

not.

Inside the confines of the lower areas of the Colosseum, Lita's sword and the man's

battleaxe were taken from them, and they were lead back to the cells of their "camps" - the other

gladiators owned by the one who currently owned them. As they parted, Lita wiped her brow

with her arm, and the man pulled off his helmet, revealing a short, ruffled light brown hair. He

turned briefly to look at her.

"I underestimated you, in many ways," he admitted. "I am Renatus."

"Lita, but you already knew that, didn't you?" Lita replied. "See you around." And with

that, they were taken away from each other. Lita was lead to a group of cells holding several

tough men she had come to think of as brothers-in-arms after a fashion and sent inside. One tall

man with unruly black hair, blue eyes, and a small mustache greeted her upon her arrival.

"Great fight, Lita! We didn't think you were coming back," he said.

"Thanks, Urian. I thought I was dead meat, too," she replied as she sat down.

"I never doubted for a moment," another guy said, this one with scraggly blond hair, grey

eyes, and light strawberry fuzz on his lip and chin.

"Yeah, right, Vassos, you were shitting a brick when that last one came charging up

behind her!" one of the others mocked him.

"Like you weren't?!" Vassos accused. "She has the luck of the gods, this one! That's

how she knew to move when she did."

"That," Lita said, "and I think I heard someone scream a warning to me." She then

winced, and clutched her side, where she felt an odd wetness. Glancing down, she saw one strike

had managed to nudge through her armor. She quickly unhitched it, and pulled the armor dress

off, finding the wound to be a gash across her side. Fortunately, it wasn't too deep. Under the

armor she wore a light short-sleeved shirt and shorts, as did all her cell mates. Urian saw her

wound, and took the armor from her while Vassos banged on the cell bars for immediate

attention.

"Hey, guards! We need some bandages in here! She's wounded!" he called. A guard

came up and glanced in, and Vassos pointed to Lita's injury as he repeated his request. The guard

walked off, and came back a moment later, tossed Vassos some bandages, and strolled off.

Vassos walked over to Lita, who had pulled up her shirt to give a clear view of the wound for

Urian to clean off for a clear look.

Vassos then began wrapping the bandages around Lita's body to cover the wound, and

tied them tight enough to close the wound without squishing Lita's chest into her heart. Lita

breathed carefully, relaxing her muscles as best she could.

"You okay?" Urian asked.

"I will be," Lita grunted. Roaring emanated from outside, and another gladiator glanced

through one of their only three windows into the main arena.

"Their Fall of Carthage re-enactment just finished," he reported. "Carthage won."

"I thought Carthage got flattened into the dust," Lita blinked.

"They have some General out there leading the gladiators, a good one by the looks of..."

the other gladiator commented, then halted. "Commodus is walking into the arena..." The room

moved forward, Urian and Vassos making room for Lita to get a good view. As she stared

through the window she saw a group of Centurion guards standing around as Commodus spoke

heatedly with the gladiator known only as "the Spaniard", a boy standing just to his side...and Rini

suddenly screeching to a halt to the boy's right!

"Oh, man, what's she doing in there?!" Lita asked.

"Who?" Vassos asked.

"The girl with the pink hair. I know her, she's the daughter of a good friend of mine,"

Lita explained. "Her name's Rini."

"See the gold bracelet on the girl's wrist?" an older gladiator, about forty, said. "It has

royal markings on it, and the symbol of Lucius Verus specifically. I've seen that set up before,

it's a slave's identification bracelet. She's a slave belonging to Lucius Verus, the Prince of

Rome."

"Who?" Lita blinked, trying to keep herself calm at this input.

"The boy," the gladiator told her. "If he lives long enough, and Commodus doesn't have

any direct heirs in the meantime, he'll be the next Caesar."

"Why do you suppose he painted her hair that color?" Urian asked.

"He didn't," Lita said. "Her hair's always been that color."

"Seriously?!" all the gladiators around her asked, staring at her incrediously. Just then the

Spaniard broke their conversation, turning their attention back to the ring, as he spoke aloud for

everyone to hear:

"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the north, General

of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered

son, husband to a murdered wife, and I will have my vengeance...in this life or the next."

"Sounds like someone's pissed..." Lita whispered as the Centurions rose arms, and the

crowd started cheering, "LIVE! LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!" It was a tense few moments, during

which Lita noticed Rini scooted a little closer to Lucius, as though expecting her owner to protect

her if things turned _truly_ ugly! But Commodus rose his thumb, signaling that the gladiators

were to live...for now, and left the arena in a huff, Lucius and Rini close behind him, the

Centurions resting arms and following after all three.

"At least she got back out okay," Lita sighed, and turned and found a place to sit down.

The rest began to disperse as well.

* * *

In the Colosseum's main halls, Lucilla and Salina met up with Commodus, Lucius, and

Rini. Commodus just stormed past, half the Centurions following, but Lucilla halted Lucius,

checking him in a mothering way. Salina turned to Rini. The rest of the Centurions halted and

waited quietly.

"What were you thinking?" she asked.

"I don't know, I don't know," Rini admitted. "I just followed him in..."

"That Maximus guy looked serious," Salina mused.

"Yeah, he never blinked at all, and his eyes didn't leave the Caesar's for a second!" Rini

stated.

"Come, we're going," Lucilla commanded, and the four of them, flanked by the

Centurions, headed toward the exit. What they didn't see was Pherinias, watching them from

down the corridor, hate deep in his eyes for the two who had humiliated him.

* * *

Lita wasn't sure how long she'd been napping, but she was lightly shaken awake by Urian,

who indicated a guard waiting at the cell door, apparently for her.

"What is it, Urian?" she asked.

"Someone wishes to see you, privately," Urian told her. "Try to remember, in your

current condition you shouldn't struggle too much. You could worsen you wounds. Just give

your gentleman caller his sex and be done with it."

"It's not a man, it's three women," the guard stated, a slight hint of desire in his tone.

"Young women."

"Either way, I'm not a pleasure girl," Lita said lowly, but got up and went to follow the

guard anyway. She was lead to a private cell, and her hands shackled in cuffs attached to short

chains that were connected right to the wall. As soon as she was secure, the guard turned to the

three cloaked figures waiting in a darkened corner.

"You can leave us," one of them said in a _very_ familiar voice. "We know her, she will

not harm us."

"Your pyre," the guard shrugged, and stepped outside, closing the barred door. Lita

stared as the three pulled their cloaks away to reveal the last three people she'd ever thought

she'd find in this hell-hole:

Serena, Ami, and Hotaru!

"It cost us almost seven hundred gold coins total to get in here," Ami said, "But Hrisoula

was kind enough to loan us my and Hotaru's share."

"It's a dent," Serena said, "But I'll live. Still plenty of time, unless Trista decides to get

her rear in gear!"

"Serena! Ami! Hotaru!" Lita said in delight and joy as she quickly hugged her friends.

"What are you doing here?!"

"We came to see you," Hotaru answered. "Are you okay?"

"Well, I got a little love nick in that last bout, but I'm holding up," Lita said. "How are

you guys?!"

"Well, life's been better, but otherwise we're all fine," Serena said, smiling. But there was

a clear sadness in her eyes.

"Uh, Serena, you don't have to pretend everything's hunky dory. I saw Rini, I know

she's a slave," Lita said calmly. Serena's smile waned, but didn't disappear.

"Yeah, Ami mentioned she saw your fight," Serena said. "You mind telling us how you

wound up as a gladiator?" Lita smiled lightly, carefully sitting down on the ground.

"Yeah, I sorta figured you were gonna ask that..." she said.

* * *

The man seemed startled, and when the screwdriver in his hand flipped the switch on the

device thing, there was a flash, and the next thing Lita could sense was heat, a lot of it! When her

eyes readjusted, she saw it was suddenly daytime...and that she was standing in what looked to be

a desert!

Fortunately, she could see what looked like camels not too far away, and made for them.

After three minutes she began to worry it was only a mirage, but then they started to pull closer to

her. When she got in range, she gasped.

It was a caravan, with camels, horses, and people in cages and chains! For a moment she

couldn't make heads nor tails of it. Then one of the men on the horses turned and saw her, and

stared. As she contemplated what to do, one of the people in chains suddenly plowed their

weight into another armed man, and dashed away from the caravan, right in her direction. The

one who saw her earlier and two others dove after the escapee, charging their horses.

For a moment, Lita just stood there, frozen to the spot, then the escapee, a girl of maybe

her own age or so, spotted her right in her path about three feet from colliding with her. The girl,

who had short black hair and panic filled green eyes, stared at Lita for a moment, then turned and

darted in another direction, but the pause was too much, too soon, and the three riders brought

her down to the ground a second later, and the three hopped off and began to pummel her!

"Hey! Stop that!" Lita snapped, and charged right in. The three horsemen turned to see

her coming, and one drew a sword. Lita ducked under his swing and came up with an uppercut

to his jaw, knocking him out cold. The other two turned and took a swing, but Lita dodged, and

swung a side kick into one man's chest, her other foot sinking slightly into the sand as she did so,

sending him down, then turned her attention to the last man.

He stared at her through the shawl around his face and head, clearly measuring up his

opponent, then lunged. Lita moved aside, pulling her foot free, and the man swung toward her.

Lita barely ducked, her feet threatening to slide out from under her due to the sand, and the man

threw a kick toward her face. She caught his foot, twisted, and brought him down. Before he

could recuperate, she jumped up, then dove down with her elbow pointed outward, burying it in

the man's sternum and shoving him into the sand. He went limp, and Lita rose and went over to

help up the girl who was trying to get up despite her beating.

When Lita's hand took hers, the girl blinked, stared at the three downed men, then looked

back to Lita.

"Are you a god?" she asked. Lita blinked, then for the first time noted what the girl was

wearing - a grey slip, known as a chiton, with the barest of sandals and a pair of small ring

earrings made of steel. Her hands were chained together by a pair of black shackles which looked

as though they were just a little too tight.

"A god?" Lita blinked. "Not last time I checked. Where am I?"

"Where...?" the girl blinked as Lita let her lean on her. "This is the northern Sahara, in the

Gerchium Province. Now we must fly!"

"Yeah, that was my next question," Lita said, "What are you running from? Who are

those peop...Gerchium Province? In the Sahara? But the Sahara's in Africa! It doesn't have any

provinces!" At this point the two were starting to move away from the three men Lita had

knocked out, though Lita couldn't help but wonder where they would go, the Sahara was one of

the biggest deserts in the world!

"Of course it has Provinces, it was divided by the Emperor Caesars when the Romans

conquered the area," the girl said. "And as to your questions, those monsters are slavers, taking

me to sell as a...a...a PLEASURE GIRL! I will not do it! You understand?! I will not!"

"Slavers? Romans? Caesars?" Lita felt her head spinning. "There haven't been any

Caesars since...almost two thousand years ago!"

"What are you, mad?!" the girl looked at her as though she was insane. "The Caesar

Marcus Aurelius battles even now to subjugate the barbarians of Germania! Oh, if only he would

destroy the barbarians who deal in the trade behind us!" Lita let this sink in a moment.

"Oh my god," she breathed. "I'm in Ancient Rome!"

"Ancient?" the girl stared at her still. Before either could say anything more, a net was

thrown over them, and they felt their feet get pulled out from under them, and then they were

drug back across the sand to the slave caravan by two still very conscious camel riders. When

they stopped moving, Lita noticed that the three men she'd fought were being treated for the

wounds as though they were life threatening, even though she'd really gone pretty easy on them.

Another man with nasty black eyes stared down on her and her fellow captive. He wore the same

dark shawls as the other three, and the same deep brown pants and overcoat, a simple sword

sheathed at his waist.

"Should have run faster, girls," he sneered. "And who are you? I don't remember this

one!"

"She came out of the desert, Petros," one of the three Lita'd fought earlier said. "A wild

woman! From the sands!"

"A wild woman, eh?" Petros pulled his shawl down to show his grin. "She'll bring us

much from those who'll pay for the privilege to break her. Chain her up, and put the both of them

in a cage, even if you have to squeeze them in!" By this point Lita had reached her wand and was

poking the top of it through the net.

"All right, time for the heavy artillery!" she decided. "JUPITER...CRYSTAL..." She

never got to finish as Petros grabbed the wand away and stared at it.

"Hmm," he hummed as he examined the pink handled object with white wings around a

pair of gold rings just under the emerald green orb with the golden symbol of Jupiter and gold

wings and star atop it and a small gold plate at the very bottom of the whole thing.

"Ahh! Oh, no!" Lita shrieked. Her last, best chance for freaking these guys out and

escaping alive had just gone out the window!

"What is it?" one of the other slavers asked.

"Some kind of ceramic, with ivory and gold worked in, and one of the biggest damn

emeralds I've ever seen! It must be worth a fortune!" Petros said. "A rich wild woman. Got

anything else, darling?"

"Uh...do you guys take yen?" she asked nervously. Petros stared at her for a moment,

then snapped his fingers, and Lita and the girl were lifted bodily over to a cage, and the girl was

pulled from the net and tossed in. Lita was pulled out next, a pair of shackles slapped on her

wrists and locked, then tossed in as well. The cage was closed and locked behind them.

Lita pulled herself up and looked at who else was in the cage. Aside of the girl there was

a guy of about twenty with scraggly blond hair, grey eyes, and light strawberry fuzz on his lip and

chin, and another man lying face down on the floor. The second guy didn't look so good.

"Who might you be?" the first guy asked.

"My name is Lita, and yours?" Lita replied.

"I am Vassos," he told her. "Formerly of Wistium, a farmer."

"And your friend?" Lita asked, indicating the other guy.

"Dead since yesterday," Vasso said. "They either haven't noticed, or don't care." Lita

inwardly cringed at the thought of traveling with a corpse. Then she remembered the girl with

her.

"Oh, what's your name?" she asked her.

"Me?" she blinked. "I am Adara. And now, I am doomed."

"Not yet, we aren't," Lita said, forcing confidence into her voice. "We could escape yet!

If we find the right opportunity." Just then, the caravan started moving again, and Lita flopped

back against the bars due to the sudden momentum. "And this isn't it." Lita added as she lied

gracelessly against the bars.

* * *

"So where's your wand?" Hotaru asked.

"That bastard doesn't still have it, does he?" Serena asked right after.

"You want to give me a minute to finish my story?" Lita replied. "I'll get to what

happened to it in just a minute, okay?"

"Sorry, sorry," Serena and Hotaru apologized. "It's just so sucky!"

"Frankly," Ami said, "It's probably just as well you didn't transform."

"What?" Lita blinked. Ami quickly outlined her and Hotaru's original reasons for not

transforming, and Serena's even more intelligent reason for not doing so. "The present day

Scouts?" Lita stared a little. "Hadn't thought of them. And getting called a witch...to think that

Serena thought of that all on her own..."

"Hey, I _have_ read about the Salem Witch Trials, you know," Serena said with a touch

of indignation.

"Sorry," Lita snapped out of it. "Actually, I did think of the witch thing, belatedly. Now

where was I? Oh, yes, Petros had just taken me prisoner..."

* * *

Lita wasn't sure how long they transported her. They occasionally stopped to eat, and she

and Adara and the others were carefully watched. About four or five days later, she couldn't be

positive, but she was pretty sure that was how many sunsets she'd watched since she'd first

arrived, the caravan pulled into a bustling town surrounding a large oasis. She heard someone say

they were now in Derorium, but paid it little mind.

They came to a marketing place, and she and the others were pulled out and taken to a

series of posts to which they were chained. She and Adara shared a post, and Adara hid her face,

sobbing at her impending fate. Lita remained confident that a way out could be found. As she

watched, Petros's men placed some of the valuables they'd acquired while on the 'road',

including her transformation wand, on a medium sized table to one side.

Actually, she was all too glad to be out of the cage. Her clothes had gotten filthy, and the

dead guy was really starting to reek! It was only when they had unloaded them that they had

finally gotten rid of the carcass. She was also sunburned, and too much movement hurt.

After a while, other people began wandering through them, examining them, and some of

the prisoners were bought by this person or that person. Then she saw a man with yellow eyes

and brunette hair with streaks of grey and silver going through it sitting in a chair carried in by

two men. His face was lined with age, his expression passive. He wore a simple yellow toga with

a red sash, and sandals, as well as three rings on one hand. He snapped his fingers and was

lowered down near the table, where he glanced around the items after signaling Petros to come

forward.

"Ah, Marcellus Theophilus! How may I aid you this fine day?" Petros, who had removed

his head gear entirely to reveal thinning red hair crowning a thinning face, asked.

"The goats you sold me are both female, Petros," Theophilus said. "I don't like cheats."

He glanced at the human wares. "What do you have in stock?"

"Some that are good for fighting, some that are good for dying," Petros replied. "And

I'm betting you could use a little of both, no?" Theophilus snapped his fingers again, and a strong

looking man with rich black hair and brown eyes wearing a white toga and sandals moved forward

and began to look over the would be slaves carefully. Finally, he reached Vassos, who was sitting

down, waiting.

"Stand," he said. Vassos complied, and the man looked him over. "What were you?"

"A farmer," Vassos replied. "I tilled the land from dawn till dusk." The man continued to

look him over, then nodded and checked a few more before looking toward Theophilus.

"These five," he called, indicating the ones he thought was best suited for their needs,

including Vassos. "They're the best of the lot, unfortunately."

"Six hundred, and not a coin more," Theophilus said to Petros.

"You are robbing me," Petros grinned. Theophilus scowled at him, and Petros demurred.

"But for you, sure." Theophilus then reached out and picked up Lita's wand from the table.

"And I'll give you an additional fifty for this," he said, and Lita gasped in horror. Petros

grinned and indicated the white wings.

"These are Ivory, I had them checked," he said, then indicated the gold parts. "And these

are solid gold, twenty karats at least! And this," he now indicated the green sphere that was its

most dominant feature, "is the largest pure Emerald this side of Rome's treasury! It is worth far

more than a mere fifty gold."

"A hundred fifty, no more," Theophilus said, holding up a bag of money. Petros nodded,

and Theophilus paid him the promised amount of seven hundred and fifty for wand and slaves.

Lita snapped.

"No! That's mine, you thieves!" she cried, and they all turned to her.

"The woman is a wild desert blossom we found," Petros said. "Took down three of my

best men before she was subdued."

"Semon!" Theophilus said, and the man who'd been checking out slaves before came and

stood over her and Adara, who had also been sitting down.

"Stand," Semon ordered.

"Bite me!" Lita snapped. Semon cocked an eyebrow, then reached down and pulled Lita

to her feet, and checked her out. Lita felt detested, then Semon grabbed one of her breasts! She

slapped it away, hard.

"Don't you _ever_ touch me there without permission!" she yelled in his face.

"A real fire in this one, sir!" he called.

"Actually, it's lightning," Lita chuckled to herself. Semon then glanced at Adara, who

quietly rose to her feet. Semon checked her as well, and she merely sobbed through it, not doing

anything when he briefly grabbed her breast. He then went back to Theophilus.

"Both in good condition, healthy, a little sunburned but nothing too serious," he reported.

"What do you think?" Theophilus thought for a moment, then pulled out some coins from his

bag, and looked at Petros.

"I'll give you one hundred more for the both of them," he said.

"But I am saving the broken one for the brothels in Dorium," Petros said. Theophilus

pulled some more coins.

"Two hundred, that's a hundred each, easily more than what you'd make at any brothel,"

he said. Petros shrugged and took the additional money.

"Again, you rob me, sir," he said, and walked off to talk with another customer. Semon

came over and unhitched them from the post, taking them back over to the other slaves purchased

by him and Theophilus.

"Seems we cannot lose each other," Vassos commented. "At least you will have a long

life."

"What do you mean?" Lita asked.

"Doubtless you are to give us 'warriors' 'entertainment' between matches," another slave

said. "Us men are for the arena."

"You mean...gladiators?" Lita asked, feeling shocked.

"What else?" another slave said, looking totally defeated. At that point Theophilus

clapped his hands and was lifted again, Lita's wand sitting in his lap.

"Let us return to the villa," he declared, and they left the market area.

The town was a dusty one, mostly looking as though made of dirt and clay, but with

multiple structures clearly made of solid sandstone and brick here and there. Lita kept a careful

watch on the layout of the town/city, planning her eventual escape.

They finally arrived at a villa composed of what looked like hard baked clay, but on closer

examination was in fact light colored sandstone bricks, about fifteen hundred meters square in a

thirty long by fifty wide spread. From what she could see, the main house was only twenty meters

long by ten meters wide, and two stories high, and the slaves' quarters filled one whole side of the

grounds, about thirty meters long, and ten meters from the outside wall in. The rest of the

grounds were an open area, set up for combat practice, apparently. And there was one spot

where a couple of slaves were chained and being lightly flogged - a punishment area.

The house itself was two stories high, and all in all didn't look too interesting...from the

outside. The villa had only one entrance, the main gate, and soon the men were placed with

fifteen more picked up from other slavers, and Lita and Adara were placed to one side. Then they

were all stripped, and redressed in clean, white togas, and sandals, their old clothes all tossed onto

a bonfire. Lita stared in horror as her shoes, socks, and school uniform went up in smoke.

*Ah, man!* she thought. *How am I supposed to explain _that_ to the school?!* Food

was then passed around, and Lita ate to keep up her strength. Escape was now a little more

difficult, but still not impossible.

After a brief while they began to take each of the new men and pitted them against a tall,

muscular man with unruly black hair, blue eyes, and a small mustache named Urian, who dressed

the same as them, but with a red paint spot on his chest. Each man dueled Urian with wooden

swords, afterward each being painted in the same way, either red or yellow. Vassos got red. She

finally turned to say something to Adara, only then noticing she was huddling against the wall, a

complete wreck.

"Adara?" she asked. Adara just quietly sobbed.

"You the new 'entertainment'?" a male slave asked, grabbing Lita by the arm and twisting

her around. "Ooh, you look nice." Lita stared at him for a moment as he started to feel up her

thigh, then kneed him in the groin! As he fell in pain, Lita whipped him around and wrapped the

chain of the shackles she now wore on her wrists around his neck, tightly.

"_Anyone_ touches me _or_ Adara like that again, dies!" she snapped, "Got it, buddy?!"

Everyone in the villa turned to look at her, including Theophilus, who had been set down near the

main house, still sitting in his chair. Adara was shocked. Someone was actually standing up for

_her_ as well as themselves. No one had ever done that for her before, except when Lita had

fought off Petros's men back in the desert.

"Drop him," Theophilus commanded, and Lita looked at her new 'owner' quietly, then

unwrapped the chain from around her would-be victim's neck, kicking him away. "Semon, give

her a sword."

"Sir?" Semon blinked.

"I want to see how she fares," Theophilus said.

"Oy, vey," Semon muttered to himself, but nodded to the servant with the wooden

swords, who went and handed one to Lita. Lita blinked at being handed a weapon, then realized

what Theophilus wanted her to do. Swallowing, she stepped forward, and Urian took a swing at

her. Lita brought the sword up in a block, then tried to thrust it at Urian, who dodged and swung

again.

This time Lita ducked, and did a sweep kick, knocking Urian's feet from under him. He

was surprised by the sudden move, so much so he didn't react until Lita had jumped up and held

her sword to Urian's chest.

"Your move!" she said, and Urian snapped his blade up into hers, knocking it away, then

jumped up, sending Lita flying backward, and grabbed her foot, pointing his own sword at her.

She blinked at the sudden reversal.

"You should have disarmed me first," Urian said.

"ENOUGH!" Theophilus called, and Urian released Lita, stepping back. "Red,"

Theophilus stated as Lita got back to her feet.

"Red, sir?" Semon stared at him.

"Red," Theophilus repeated. "She'll go in, Semon. She'll make us a fortune, I can feel

it!" Another servant/guard walked up with the red paint and brushed a spot onto the center of

Lita's chest. This one she let pass.

"What makes you think I'll do any fighting for you?!" Lita asked Theophilus. "Just give

me one good reason why I oughta!"

"How about a life?" he asked. Lita's eyes widened, and Theophilus turned to Semon.

"Find the one named Adara, and put her with the house slaves."

"But who will pleasure the men?" Semon asked.

"We can get other pleasure slaves, they can wait," Theophilus said.

"Okay, for her safety...I'll do what you want..." Lita relented. *Guy's pretty nice when he

wants to be,* she mused. Just as Semon was about to move forward, Adara dove out of the

crowd and flung her arms around Lita.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Lita!" she cried. "Thank you so much!"

"Oh, it's nothing," Lita said lightly, "Just my ass in a sling."

* * *

"So your 'owner', Theophilus, has your wand?" Hotaru asked.

"Yes, may I continue?" Lita answered.

"Sorry," Hotaru apologized.

"There's more?" Ami asked.

"Well, yeah, you do want to know how I wound up here in Rome, don't you?" Lita

replied.

"Yeah, sure," Serena said. "Shoot!"

"Okay," Lita said, "I'd just been named a gladiator instead of a pleasure slave, and frankly

I didn't really look forward to it anymore than I had to being a 'pleasure girl'..."

* * *

Lita trained with the men in the use of the sword and shield over the next few days,

learning what she would need to survive in the arena. She prayed Trista would suddenly arrive

with Amara, and that Amara would chop through her chains with the Uranus Dagger, and they'd

all escape to the twentieth century, but as the days passed, no sign was evident of an impending

rescue. On the plus side, Adara was safe, and doing quite well from what she heard. On the

other hand, Theophilus had taken her wand into the main house, and she had no idea where it

was, or what Theophilus was doing with it. She prayed he wasn't planning to melt it down, but

unless she found a way to get into the house, she had no way of knowing for sure.

On occasion, she would be chained to another slave, and had to fight another man while

so restrained, to learn teamwork. Occasionally she would be chained to Vassos, with whom she

learned to move with and anticipate each others moves very quickly. He had no more interest in

dying than she had. Other times she would be chained to a prick named Nero, who seemed to be

out just for number one: him! She predicted an early 'retirement' in his future.

Finally, fifteen days after her purchase, she was lined up with the other gladiators owned

by Theophilus, and Theophilus was carried out of the house in his chair, and was carried up to the

line, Semon walking in pace nearby.

"Gladiators!" he announced as he was carried down the line of nearly twenty arena slaves,

"Soon you will enter battle. Know now, that all of you are living on borrowed time! And when

the sweet Hecate comes for you, as you know she must, to take you to your final judge, the great

ruler of the Underworld himself, Pluto, god of the dead and less than living, it will be to the sound

of..." At this, he rose his hands, and clapped. "Only much louder, of course," he grinned. Lita

watched him, curious.

*Is he the laziest man in the history of laziness?* she wondered. Then she glanced at his

legs as he passed her by, and noticed something. They were toneless, as though any muscle build

up he'd made in them had gone out long ago. Thinking on it some more, they hadn't moved even

a bit while she'd watched. They'd just sat there. They hadn't even so much as twitched

subconsciously, as most people's legs would have if they'd been sitting for a while. They almost

came off as useless...useless? Then it hit her.

"You're a cripple!" she said aloud without thinking. Theophilus's grin vanished, and he

snapped his fingers.

"Hold!" he cried, then pointed downward, "Down." Semon and the servants carrying him

did as commanded, and once he was set down, he turned his head to look at Lita. "What did you

say?" The other slaves stayed still as rocks, and Lita quietly swallowed.

"You're a cripple," she said again, nervously. "You're paralyzed from the waist down,

that's why you're always sitting. You can't use your legs anymore. Well, can you?" She waited

to get reprimanded, or possibly punished even worse, but instead Theophilus just smiled warmly.

"I like you, girl," he said. "You're very bright. And you're absolutely right. I lost the

use of my legs almost seventeen years ago, in my last, glorious battle in the Colosseum."

"What happened to the other guy?" Lita asked. "Get too close to the lions?"

"I ran him through the heart a second after he landed the blow that stole my legs from

me," Theophilus replied. "After that, I was freed, for all the difference it really made. Now it is

your turn to battle, and to die." He made a hand signal, and was lifted aloft again.

"GLADIATORS, I SALUTE YOU!"

With that, they were lead from the compound to the local arena, a circular affair about

forty meters in diameter, with seats all round. They were handed real weapons - steel swords and

metal shields and bronze axes and blood stained maces and spears. They were lined up at the

gate, a group of gladiators awaiting them on the other end, the spectator crowd roaring for blood

to be spilt for their entertainment.

"Don't worry, Lita," Urian told her. "You're a red, the gods' color. They are with you."

Then finally, the gate was opened, and they charged out into battle.

Lita noted that five of Theophilus's gladiators were killed very quickly. To her horror, the

other gladiators they were to fight, about thirty in all, had helmets covering their heads and

gauntlets covering their hands and wrists, and metal armor plate skirts around their waists. This

made things a little more difficult. Lita held the sword she'd gotten carefully, and blocked each

blow the guy in front of her threw with his axe. As she parried another blow, a sword thrust in

beside her, nailing the man in the gut. Swallowing, Lita made a thrust into his chest, and watched

him fall, bile in her throat. She turned to see who had thrust first - it was Vassos.

"I have your back, Lita," he said, beginning to battle another enemy gladiator.

"And I have yours," Lita replied as yet another came at her with a large, solid, spiked

mace. Out of the corner of her eye she noted that Nero was getting to know another gladiator's

axe blade, personally. *Yep, early 'retirement' for him!* she thought.

As the battle progressed, she saw the other gladiators on her side doing well, and Urian

had grabbed another weapon from a fallen enemy, taking opponents down in a fluid motion.

Before she knew it, the battle was over - her side had won, with only seven losses. Staring at the

field before her, Lita quietly dropped her sword, feeling even more queasy. She was no longer

sure how many she had personally wounded or killed, and it made her sick just to think about

what she had done.

And the crowd was cheering in complete delight!

"Hey," a small boy's voice rang out, "That one's a girl! I like her, she's good! She took

down five or six just by herself!"

"Yeah, she's amazing!" a little girl's voice agreed. Lita felt her horror rise higher at the

'compliments', and turned and walked for the gate to get out. Fortunately, her fellow gladiators

were being taken back out, anyway, and she gladly followed. When she got back to the

compound, she slumped against the wall, breathing deeply.

"What's wrong, Lita?" Vassos asked coming up to her.

"I've never killed before," Lita admitted. "Not like that. It was horrid! Disgusting! How

could anyone enjoy watching that?!" Vassos moved forward and hugged her.

"It was the first time for me, too," he told her. "They say it gets easier with time."

"I don't want it to get easier," Lita felt herself begin to cry, "I don't want to do it at all!"

"We have little choice," Vassos said, and his hand dropped...low. Lita blinked when she

felt the light caress upon her posterior, and snapped around, knocking Vassos back.

"Keep your hands off!" she roared.

"Sorry!" Vassos held up his hands in the international sign for surrender.

"Poor Vassos," Urian came up wearing a grin, "Our Lita is no easy catch! You must get

her to like you first, then she will let you grope as you will." Lita scowled at him for a moment,

then turned toward the guards.

"Can we sell him to the opposition so I can kill him?" she called, and Urian also rose his

hands in surrender.

"Forgive," he still grinned. "The fiery one dost command!" Lita sighed quietly, her mind

still brooding, and her ears still ringing with the last words shouted by the two children. She

hadn't even looked at them, not that she'd even known where to look.

* * *

Over the next week, Lita fought in three more arena battles, two with the others, losing

only one other man in the first, and one on her own against two large men. She hated herself for

having killed the ones she'd killed, but she had no interest in dying herself; not yet, anyway. After

the fourth battle, Theophilus called her to his personal quarters on the second floor of the main

house.

The room was a lavish affair with an open, glass-less window on one side giving a view of

the town, setup with a rather extravagant bed with plush pillows and satin sheets and velvet

blankets. Various decorations were around - paintings, a couple of small sculptures, a gold

emblem on one wall - and there was a desk for writing with a pair of goblets, a pitcher, and a plate

of fruit upon it, as well as a number of rolled up scrolls, near the center of the room. And on a

small round table to the side, sitting in a small glass case, was her transformation wand!

Forgetting herself, Lita moved forward, and began looking for a way to get the case open

and retrieve her power to become Sailor Jupiter, Soldier of Lightning! The case was metal

framed, with a small lock upon the front, but no key was in evidence. On the other hand, the

glass looked pretty fragile, it'd probably break under one good karate chop...

"That's not yours," Theophilus said from where he sat near the desk, "Not anymore."

Lita snapped around to stare at her owner, who stared back, calmly.

"Please," she said, "may I have this back?"

"And what will you do with it?" Theophilus asked. "Sell it for food after you escape?"

Lita blinked. "Oh, don't play me for a fool, my dear," he said. "What slave doesn't dream of

escape and freedom? I, myself, dreamed of it many a time while I was a gladiator. But I learned

to love what I did. And you will, too. As to the bauble, I do admit that the craftsmanship is...

exquisite. That's why I bought it, you know. I've always had an eye for artwork." He leaned

over and poured himself a drink, then leaned back with the filled goblet in hand and continued.

"That fool, Petros, would have sold it to someone who would have torn it apart for the ivory and

the gold, and the emerald, of course. The ceramic would have been utterly destroyed, and more

would be the pity for the world because of it. It is an excellent piece of work. It should be, and

shall be, preserved." He quietly took a drink from his cup.

"And it is useless to you," Lita moved over to him. "Yet it is everything to me. Please, I

beg you, Theophilus, return it."

"And of what use is it to you, my dear?" Theophilus inquired. Lita leaned in close.

"To me, it is power!" she told him. "With it, I can call upon the forces of lightning, and

bend them to my will alone, as a plaything or as a weapon. It would make me an even greater

gladiator than I already am."

"And I would have to burn you as a witch," Theophilus grinned. Lita's face fell. She

hadn't thought of that!

"Forget I said that," Lita pulled back. "What did you want to talk about, anyway?"

Theophilus smiled warmly.

"Would you like a drink?" he indicated the other goblet, and leaned over to fill it from the

pitcher. "It's quite good." Lita nodded, and timidly picked up the other goblet, carefully sipping

the liquid within. It tasted like grapes. "I must admit," Theophilus commented, "I've never really

had a taste for wine. But the flavor of grapes, in liquid form, has always been a guilty pleasure.

Oranges, too, actually."

"So there's no alcohol in this?" Lita asked.

"Not a drop," Theophilus smiled, and Lita took a large swig. *Yep, grape juice!*

"Thanks," Lita said. Theophilus continued to smile warmly. "Where's Semon?"

"In here, I prefer to do things for myself, within reason," Theophilus told her. "He's in his

own chambers, doing...whatever he does with his free time."

"Oh, okay, just wondering," Lita said.

"You have done well, so far, my dear," he said, changing the subject. "The crowd here

loves you. They see you as an absolute wonder, and I have to admit, that I must agree. You have

much potential, and I want to see it harnessed."

"You could set me free," Lita suggested.

"Surely you jest," he replied. "My dear, there is a fire in you, yet you seem to refuse to

try and harness that flame."

"I don't care," Lita said. "I don't care what you think, what the crowd thinks, not one bit.

All I care about is being free again, and getting my wand...my bauble back. That and nothing

else."

"Are you afraid?" Theophilus asked. "Afraid to unleash the fire that would make you

truly famous in the annals of the arena for all time?"

"Yes, I am afraid," she answered. "Afraid of becoming like you. Of becoming someone

who doesn't know how to do anything but steal life away from people, instead of giving it back to

them. Of losing that flame you so admire. That flame is my soul, my spirit, and if you make me

do as you ask, it will die, just as surely as if you'd thrust a blade through my heart."

"You are honest," Theophilus said. "And that...is a start."

******************************************************************************

Next time, Lita's story concludes in Chapter 8: Theophilus! Be there!

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