Author's note: yay, finally done w/ the battles...that took a LOT longer than I expected...gomen^_^0 well, here's ch. 8 and for all you Serena fans, she's back^_^ ~venusgirl

~*~Chapter 8: Part I~*~

Serena sat with her back against the tree trunk, looking dumbfounded as all her friends lay on the ground, either unconscious or in pain and tears sprang to her eyes. *There was nothing I could do. I'm supposed to be their princess... a leader to them and what happens? They get hurt!* She picked herself up to her hands and knees, yelling out her friends' names. "You guys! Are you ok?" She looked around to see the shape everyone was in. She looked over them to find an unconscious Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars with various cuts, Sailor Mercury with a broken arm and Mina, who though looked physically ok, her face wore an expression of absolute shock and fear.

She ran over to Lita and shook her, trying desperately to wake the scout up.

"No, don't...touch her," Amy managed to say between pained gasps. "You shouldn't...move or...mess with...someone in her...condition." Serena looked up, a fresh batch of tears in her bright eyes, and nodded. She moved on over to Amy.

"Are you ok?" she asked, panicked.

Amy tried to smile, but it seemed even that movement hurt. "I'll be ok. Go to the others and check on them." Serena nodded and got up and walked over to Raye.

"How are you? Is it real bad, Raye?"

"I've had worse," she said through gritted teeth, holding on tight to her mangled arm. "I think the bleeding's almost stopped, so I should be alright." Serena got to her feet and went over to Mina.

"How about you, Mina? You don't look like you have any injuries of any kind."

No response.

"Mina?"

Nothing.

"Mina!" she yelled. "Mina, please answer me!" Mina looked over at Serena as if she didn't recognize her. "Mina?" Serena looked at Mina's pale face and there was panic in her voice. "Mina, what'd he do to you?" she asked, her voice barely audible. "What did Malachite do?" Tears slid down her face. A black figure snuck up behind her, putting its hand on her shoulder. Serena gasped and turned around to come face to face with...

"Oh, Tuxedo Mask, you're here! It's all my fault, Darien!" she cried into his shirt. The two cats stood behind him, they being the ones who had fetched him.

"Calm down, Sailor Moon, it'll be alright. Everyone's going to be fine, you'll see." He pushed her back as her tears subsided. She sniffled slightly and allowed herself to step backwards from him. He went over to Sailor Jupiter as he heard her moan, signaling that she was waking up.

"Lita!" Serena ran over and toppled her in a bear hug.

"Yeah...good to see you...too... Serena. Can you...let...go now?" she asked, gasping partly from pain and partly from having her lungs crushed by the blonde girl. Serena scrambled off of her friend.

"Oops, sorry, Lita," she said apologetically. "Are you ok? Are you gonna be alright? How's your head? Are you sure you're gonna be ok?!" Darien walked over and saved Lita from Serena's bombardment of questions.

"Let's let her wake up and regain her composure first."

"Yeah, no 20 questions right now," Lita replied holding her head in her hands.

"Oops, sorry again, Lita," Serena said, sweat-dropping (^_^0). Amy stood up, cradling her broken arm still.

"We should all get out of here," she said. The others nodded in agreement and detransformed. All of them were back in there school uniforms with the exception of Mina. Everyone looked over at her and started to walk towards her in worry.

"What's wrong, Mina?" Lita asked. "Why haven't you changed?" Lita snapped her fingers in front of Mina's face in a futile attempt to snap the girl out of her 'trance'.

Amy circled around her and put her hand on her shoulder. "Mina?" she whispered. Mina just looked at her, eyes still clouded. "She's in shock," Amy said.

Serena blinked. "Yeah, so how do we get her OUT of it?"

"WE don't," Amy said sadly. "Only Mina can do it. The only thing we can do is wait and hope."

"We should probably take her home," Darien said. Everyone nodded and Raye stepped towards Mina.

"Mina, we need you to detransform." Suddenly Mina was surrounded in an orange aura then was back in her uniform. She didn't seem to be in any condition to walk so Lita hoisted her friend over her shoulder and they started off towards Mina's home. Everyone was silent as they walked, the only commotion being Lita and Darien trading off when the load got to heavy to carry.

"Won't her parents notice?" Darien asked as Raye worked on opening Mina's bedroom window.

"Yeah right!" Lita laughed half-heartedly. "She could be gone a week and no one in this house would notice!"

Darien just shrugged and hoisted Mina into the now-open window. Lita crawled through to receive her friend on the other end. She scooped Mina up and laid her gently on the bed. "Do you think she'll be alright, Amy?" Lita asked as she crawled out of the window.

Amy shook her head. "I really don't know. It's up to her to work this out, so only time can tell."

"Shouldn't someone watch over her?" Serena asked.

Artemis jumped up on the windowsill. "I'll be here, of course," he replied.

Luna nodded. "That'll be good. Come and get one of us if anything changes, alright?" Artemis nodded and hopped into the bright, cheery room.

He heard footsteps as the others walked away. He jumped up on the bed and looked down at the girl who was usually so bubbly and full of life. Now all that lay there was a shell of what used to be. Artemis sighed settled and down for his watch. *What'd he do to you Mina? What happened back there?* Mina just continued to stare up at the ceiling. Without realizing it Artemis slowly dozed off into sleep.

2nd A/N: hey y'all! Well... 'dya like it? huh, huh didja? hehe leave comments oh yeah, I'm not sure how plausible it is that Lita carry Mina after being unconscious but...bear with me here fans, k? hehe ^_^0 sorry, it wasn't a very good ch. but I guess it'll do to wrap up the night, ne?

Mina: how come I have to be in shock???

venusgirl: that's the price ya pay when you're my fav. character^_^

Mina*sigh*: well when am I gonna b UN-shocked?

venusgirl: dunno. Amy says it's up to u^_^

Mina*fume*