Author's Note:
This is a sequel to Angelic Embrace. I thought about doing it, but I didn't until someone told me they thought a sequel was possible. You will really want to read the first one to find out what's going on.
As we all know the names of the Senshi, there's no need to go there, except to say that I use the Japanese names.
For a review, I'll list the names of the Shitennou:
Keagan Kris MacNeal (Kunzite)
Nick Michael Canter (Nephrite)
Jace Daniel Taencer (Jadeite)
Zale James Indiano (Zoisite)
You can contact me at Guardian4@cox.net.
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The Last Journey
Chapter 17: Bloodstained Battlefield
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It was a stalemate of exhaustion.
Neptune tried to stand up, but only succeeded in getting to one knee. She had depleted all her magic about an hour ago, as had the others and Esmeraude, as the woman had introduced herself.
About a half an hour ago, they had resorted to physical fighting. Though they had been tired beyond belief, and looked bleak, the numbers were in the Senshi's favor, due to the fact that there were more of them.
She looked over to the body of the green-haired woman. Unlike as if she had been defeated by magic, she was broken and bruised, attesting how she had died. The Soldier of the Depths shuddered a bit, preferring not to dwell on such topics of death and destruction. She found it all very morbid.
"Can anybody stand?"
Her head lifted slightly at Jupiter's question. The Protection Soldier was lying on her back and staring at the ceiling, as if she couldn't even call up the energy to move her eyes.
"…Not really," replied Mars.
"Come on, we have to get up and finish this. There's still that blue-haired man that Pluto says is Demando's brother lurking around," ordered Kunzite.
Neptune watched interestedly as the man attempted to follow his own orders…without any success whatsoever.
"Tell me how to do that exactly," Uranus retorted, holding her broken arm close to her chest.
Pluto, on Neptune's left, rolled over onto her stomach. Or rather, more like flopped over, as if she were a fish out of water. "Oooh, that hurts. Somehow I didn't think that over five thousand years of solitude would actually look appealing."
"And you would want to go back to solitude…why?" she asked.
Those garnet eyes raked over her tired and tattered form. "Because it's safer that way and I don't feel as if I was a punching bag."
"This is almost too easy."
Neptune looked up, with a suddenly heavy heart.
Demando and who could only be his brother walked from the shadows to survey them critically. "I thought that you said they were powerful," Demando commented to the man beside him.
"So did I."
They snickered together.
"It looks like within minutes, Serenity will be mine."
Neptune's blood burned at that prince's words and she staggered to her feet abruptly. "Speak that name again and I'll cut out your tongue," she told him viciously, having picked up a habit of brutal threats from her lover when she was extremely angry.
"I would love to see you try."
Suddenly the man next to the prince was in front of him. "Touch my brother and I will cut out your heart!"
"Sapphire…" Demando's hand touched his shoulder, but nothing appeared to have changed because of it.
The threat to her beloved got Uranus up on her feet faster than she could actually expect her to. Or her own body either, because she immediately fell back down onto the ground and groaned.
"I don't think we have a choice," muttered Kunzite and touched his earpiece.
"Kunzite, no! It's like admitting defeat to call them!" snapped Jupiter, fear almost in her voice.
"We don't have any choice," the man retorted. "We're done. Nobody except Neptune has had any success in standing."
Just as he finished, Neptune fell to her knees, unable to hold herself up any longer.
The silence was eloquent enough.
Sapphire's attack flew at the Ocean Senshi, but there was not much she could do except stare it down. She didn't have the energy to do anything.
"Silent Wall!"
The attack bounced forcefully off of Saturn's shield, the Soldier of Death not looking even strained by that amount of power. She was unutterably calm and held her Silence Glaive in front of her like the dangerous weapon it was.
"Diamond Dust!"
Taking advantage of the stunned men after their abrupt teleportation, Mercury's magical barrage of ice slammed into both of them. They went flying toward the opposite wall where they slumped on floor as they slid down.
"You called us?" Mercury asked, as she turned around. Just by looking at them, however, she could see why they had.
"Enough!"
Demando had regained his feet and glared at them with deep hatred. "Two more Senshi hardly make a difference, not when this is my home ground."
Sapphire staggered, but managed to stand. "There's no way you can defeat us together."
"Or apart," amended Demando, gripping his brother's hand tightly in his own.
"They're going to be a tough pair," Saturn observed. "The second we get one down, it's going to increase the other because of the emotional connection they have. Their bond of family is nearly as deep as Endymion and Serenity's love."
"That…is bad," commented Jupiter, managing to sit up.
"Dark Combined Power!"
Two streams of dark purple light merged together to make a blast of black heading straight for the Senshi. Saturn reinforced her shield, but even so the sheer shock of it connected as strongly as it did made her slide back a few feet. The men didn't let up and the barrier shattered. However, the attack had faded out, so Saturn wasn't hurt, just thrown back by the suddenness of it.
"Death Dimension!"
Like the one time she had used it before against Daray, the area around them wavered like water and what replaced it strongly resembled many people's idea of what hell would look like, from their deepest and darkest nightmares. Her dark purple aura appeared and the glaive's blade glowed brightly. Saturn's eyes slit open and she looked calmly at the men, sending shivers of apprehension down their spines. The glaive, gripped tightly in her hands, thrust high in the air. Magical lightning arced toward it, but it was repelled away by a magical barrier.
Her purple light surrounded Sapphire and Demando, hovering just around the edges of their bodies, and she pointed the glaive at them. Saturn floated above the floor and black and purple vines burst from the ground, holding them both in a tight but painful embrace like a second skin. Screams echoed in the Senshi's ears as their life began to leech out of them.
Saturn extended her arm and snapped calmly, the attack ending and leaving their enemy drained extensively of life, magic, and will. The area wavered and became the room inside the Black Moon's base once again.
Sapphire fell to his knees, but Demando grabbed his shoulders and dragged him back to his feet, placing himself in front of the younger man. His body was shaking, they could see it from there, but he still glared defiantly at them.
"Sword for the King!"
"Meteor Strike!"
"Grand Stream!"
The three attacks went flying at them, brightening up the room like a supernova. What seemed to be an explosion shook the ground and they were sure they had gotten at least Demando.
But when the dust settled, arms covered in a dark blue coat were around Demando's waist, supporting a sudden shield.
"Sapphire…"
Demando's voice was full of shock and he half turned to look at the man behind him.
"NOW!"
Pluto's voice galvanized them into action and with their strongest attacks, they yelled out, alerting Demando and Sapphire from their own world.
"Shimatta!"
The shield held against the onslot, but it was only a matter of time before it broke and the men both knew it. Neptune had a hope that perhaps the Ginzuishou and Golden Crystal wouldn't be needed.
But when Mars faltered, and then Uranus, she knew that their power wouldn't be enough to continue to be used. They would run out of power before the shield shattered.
And she was right, Mars, Uranus, and Jupiter both dropped out of the magical barrage, barely able to remain conscious with the sudden lack of energy to support them. Pluto and Kunzite's slowly petered out until they were no longer contributing either, and Neptune, despite her very best efforts, couldn't hold out any longer either.
That left only Mercury and Saturn to continue. The two Soldiers were admirable and held up longer than she had any right to expect, but having to pour more power into the attack to make up for the lack of their comrades was taking its toll.
Demando and Sapphire were faltering, but so were Mercury and Saturn. "Hold in there, Mercury!"
Saturn's screaming voice drew everyone's attention, as she had never spoken anything above what could be considered a whisper. The strain in her intonation was obvious, but she gave no inclination to break off. She would continue until she died…
"Silver Dragon!"
"Wind of the Tiger!"
"Flame of the Phoenix!"
"Dragon of the Seas!"
Neptune couldn't help gasping in shock as she heard not only Venus' voice, but Nephrite's, Zoisite's, and Jadeite's.
Demando screamed as the power against them increased. "Sapphire…I love you, my brother!"
"I'm sorry I couldn't hold…"
She felt a small pang in her heart as she heard their last words to each other. They had really loved each other…would have done anything the other asked of them. That kind of bond, the strength of it, was hard to come by.
Venus wavered on her feet and fell full out on the floor, gasping painfully. Mercury managed to catch her husband as his legs gave out, but both Nephrite and Jadeite painfully touched the ground, their wounds giving them no relief.
Kunzite crawled over to his wife and pulled her into his arms, admonishing the four of them angrily.
"What the hell are the four of you doing here? You're all injured and this little excursion could be…" He swallowed with difficulty, "…enough to kill you."
"Come on, admit it," Jadeite said, somewhat rudely from his position on the floor as his wife bent over him, "you needed my Dragon of the Seas. You couldn't have defeated him without it."
"You just want to take all the credit," Nephrite retorted good-naturedly. "It was my Wind of the Tiger that was the deciding factor."
"You're both full of it," jumped in Zoisite. "My Flame of the Phoenix that did it."
"Oh shut up, you three," Uranus snapped, tired and hurting and in no mood to put up their teasing. "Just be glad we defeated him, period."
"Self-destruction process begun. There is one minute left before total destruction. Please evacuate immediately."
The dispassionate voice practically shattered their hearts. Mercury unceremoniously dropped her husband onto his behind and pulled out her computer. She gasped a few seconds later. "The sheer power in this base is enough to destroy half the Earth!"
"Can you stop it?" barked Venus from her compromising position in Kunzite's lap.
"No. The only choice is to…destroy it ourselves."
"And the only power enough to do that is…the crystals," Zoisite translated in the heavy quietness.
The voice in the silence proclaimed only 70 seconds left.
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End Chapter 17