14

Disclaimer : The moon chick ain't mine. This is for JupitaaDestiny. Hopefully his niceness will keep me writing until I finish this 4 year long fic. Peaches, and I hope you enjoy it.

I woke up with what I could only call a very painful headache. It was the type of headache that left my vision a little blurry and made me cringe at every sound that I heard and that included my own breathing.

I sat up and groaned at the pain that my movement caused me. As I clutched my head between my hands I remembered what had happened and I immediately began searching for my locket.

I growled in anger as I realized that the creep had probably taken the locket after he had knocked me out. I quickly crawled out of the bed as I thought about what might have happened to Rubus. I had to make sure that he was okay.

The moment my feet touched the cold marble of the floor I felt myself go weak. I landed in a crumpled heap on the floor. The more of my skin that touched the marble the weaker I seemed to grow. I felt my chest start to compress as the air in my lungs slowly seemed to be sucked out of me.

I gasped for air as my vision began to grow darker by the second. I was suffocating even though I had enough air to breath. It was almost as though my body was too weak to breathe correctly.

As I struggled to keep my eyes open and to keep from panicking I heard a laugh that was familiar but sounded twisted and dark. I tried to look in the direction that the laugh was coming from but I couldn't move my head. I couldn't move anything not even my eyes.

I tried to scream but there wasn't enough air in my lungs to let me scream. There wasn't enough air in my lungs to let me stay awake.

Instantly I could breathe as I heard the sound of high heels clicking on the marble. I dragged in one lung full of air after another as I tried to feed my oxygen starved body. The footsteps were coming closer to me. I looked up as they stopped a few feet from me.

She had pink hair and red eyes but she wasn't the little girl that I knew. She was fully grown and anger emanated from her waves so hot that it almost made me cringe in fear.

"Feeling better?"

"Rini?" I asked, disbelief clinging to my mind tightly and refusing to accept what I was seeing.

"In the flesh..." She laughed cruelly. "Well; sort of." She reached out and ran her fingers over my lips as her mouth twisted into a grin.

I shook off her touch and stepped back away from her as I noticed the black crystals that hung from the hem of burgundy dress that she was wearing. More black crystals clung to her hair and made up the jewelry that she wore.

"How?" I whispered as my mind tried to absorb the fact that Rini had been polluted by the very crystal that had polluted Diamond and his court.

"He was so nice to me. He told me he could help me. He just wanted to make me happy." Rini whispered as another grin streaked across her face.

Before I could react her hand had lashed out and slapped me. I could feel the sting of where her hand had left and imprint, but I could also feel the burn that meant that the ring she wore had cut my cheek.

I touched the blood that was slowly starting to drip down my cheek and looked at Rini as rage silently filled me. How could she be so cruel? How could she do this to me when I had tried to be nice to her. That was a lie. I deserved what she gave me. I had been so jealous of what her and Darien did. I had been jealous of a little girl who couldn't possibly have the relationship that I had with Darien. I had been a spoiled brat who deserved the slap that I had been given.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to Rini as I stepped forward and hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry I was so mean to you."

Rini screamed in outrage as she shoved me away and then disappeared in a black haze.

I turned around and looked in all of the corners of the room to make sure that I was alone before I started to cry for everything that had happened. I cried for the loss of my love and the loss of a little girls innocence. I missed my friends. I missed my mother, I missed everything. I just wanted to go home.

I wiped the tears from my face and dabbed at the cut before I squared my shoulders and left the room. I was going home. I didn't need my crystal to pound the heck out of some King. He wanted me, fine, I'd play his game and then when he wasn't expecting it I would make my break.

As I stalked down the hallway full of determination I skipped a step as I remembered Rubus and all that he had told me. I remembered the hatred on Sapphire's face and the darkness that existed in Diamonds eyes. I also remembered the jealousy that raged in Emerald and the pain that had been Catsy's.

"I'll fix it for them." I whispered. "I'll make it right for all of them. I just need to get out of here and get my crystal. Once I have my crystal I can make everything right for all of them, even Rini and Darien."

I shook myself as I accepted what I had to do. I would do it all by myself for once. I was the leader of the Senshi. I had the crystal, I had the power to do this. I just had to believe in myself. I just had to believe in myself.

I somehow managed to find my way to the throne room only to find that it was empty. Where was Diamond when I actually wanted him?

I heard the screams then. I heard the screams of one girl. Screams that twisted my soul and made me fear what could cause a woman to scream like that.

My feet were leading me towards the sound of those screams before I ever willed myself to go in that direction. I got lost in the hallways and the moments that passed seemed like an eternity of time.

"Come to save them?" A voice whispered to me as a shadowed figure stepped in front of me.

I blinked as I realized that Sapphire was before me. " Move please. I don't want to play games. I have to help whoever that is."

Sapphire laughed before he grabbed my shoulders and threw me back against the wall. "Save them? You want to save them when you left us to rot? You want me to move so that you can save them?" He screamed at me as he moved to punch me.

I dodged his attack and lunged at him. I somehow managed to tackle him to the ground as I heard the screams stop. As I lay on top of Sapphire I did the only thing that I could do in order to distract him, I kissed him.

Sapphire went very still from shock the moment our lips touched. I didn't waste my opportunity I climbed off of him and ran down the hallway that I thought would led to the where the last scream had come from.

The hallway was dark and I could barely see the outline of the many doors that lined the hallway. I looked through the window of the door closest to me and saw only shadows.

"Are you okay?" A whispered female voice asked someone in the darkness of a cell nearby.

"Yeah, other than a sore throat I think I'm fine." A second voice replied.

I moved towards the door that held the two voices and peered into the darkness. I couldn't see anything. I could feel something. I could feel a pressure coming from the room. That pressure was familiar. I closed my eyes and concentrated upon it. I could feel them in the cell. Four of them in total and all of them were weak, but they were physically fine other than being drained.

"Girls?" I whispered into the window as my mind recognized the voices that had spoken a few moments earlier.

"Serena?" Mars asked as her face immediately came into view.

"Oh god, It is you. Are you guys okay?" I asked as I tried to open the door. I couldn't open it and I didn't see a lock on the door.

"Other than being pissed off, we're okay." Jupiter grumbled. "Get us out of here so we can go kick some butt."

I smiled at Jupiter's usual spunk no matter what kind of a position that everyone was in. "I'm working on it. This door doesn't have a lock though."

"I don't think you'll find a key Serena. The guy who locked us in here, unleashed a bunch of energy right before he left. It's probably locked from a charm that he used." Mercury said as I heard her typing away on her mini-computer.

"Hey! What happened to Rini?" I asked as I stood on tiptoe and tried to see everyone through the small window.

"We don't know. She was with us when we went through the time door. When we came out she wasn't with us. Pluto has said something about not letting go of each other until we were through. Rini let go of Pluto's hand somewhere along the walk and Pluto said that she would find her." Mars said as she looked down at Mercury's computer screen and tried to see what the water senshi was doing.

"No. She isn't lost in time or whatever you guys went through to get her. She's fully grown and bad to boot."

"What?" Everyone asked me as the same time.

"She just tried to kill more. Or she was toying with me in some way or another. She's angry about something and the same guy who put your in here made her all grown up with some powerful ju-ju."

"He made her grown up?" Venus asked as Mercury finished her diagnostic of whatever she had been scanning and put her computer away.

"Yeah, you know the thing we all do when we get older."

"Don't be sarcastic it doesn't suit you." Mars reprimanded me.

I stuck my tongue out at her and crossed my arms over my chest as I mock pouted.

"She's back to normal, praise the gods." Venus said with a laugh. "Now get us the hell out of here."

"She can't. It's sealed with energy." Mercury said what I had already assumed.

"But don't worry about it. I'm on my way to kick some bad guy but so you guys should be out of here shortly." I said with a smile before I turned and started trying to find my way back to the throne room, or the room with all the crystals in it.

I could hear the other senshi calling out to me and telling me to come back so that they could help me. I could do this, I had the power. I would do this, I would free them and help Rini. I would do what needed to be done all by myself for once. I would show them that I wasn't as helpless as they all thought that I was.

End...

More is on the way. I finally had a creative streak. Look for more in the next week or so. It's like after midnight and I'm sleepy, so I stopped writing. But there will be more. 2-20-05