Chapter 9—The Silver Warrior Revealed, Cosmos' pain

"Wargs? What the heck are Wargs?" Serenity asked confused. She delved into her mind, but for some reason she couldn't gather any information about them to her command. She looked at Gandalf.

"Wargs are creatures that were born in darkness. They are like wolves, only bigger, meaner."

Serenity's mouth made an 'O' shape. She went over and grabbed her stuff and helped the hobbits quickly. Legolas had his bow ready, while the two men had their swords out. Gimli held onto his axe. Aragorn motioned for the group to move, the clearing that they were in was no longer safe. They went through the bushes as quietly as they could manage. Serenity fought a wave of nausea at the amount of evil in the area. She stumbled but Boromir caught her and gave her a concerned look. She smiled a little and kept going. Finally they found a rock cropping and stopped to rest. The Wargs' screams were piercing the air still, but now they had solid rock behind them, which would provide some protection. The Fellowship dropped their packs and got out their various weapons. The hobbits looked terrified, and personally, Serenity couldn't blame them.

The Wargs closed in around the party. Gandalf held his staff in front of him.

"Naur an edraith ammen, Naur dan ngaurhoth!"

Flame shot up between the Fellowship and the advancing Wargs. Aragorn, Legolas, and Serenity stood ready to fire at any Wargs that chanced the flames and managed to survive. From the cries, a few had tried, but soon they went away. Gandalf slowly let the flames die down; ready to summon them if needed again. Legolas scanned the area with his eyes before lowering his bow. Aragorn looked at the elven prince.

"Are they gone?"

"It seems like it. Most likely they only went away a bit to regroup."

Aragorn relaxed, "Good. They may be back tonight, so there will be two on watch at all times. First watch…"

Serenity sighed and put away her empty bow. She had been prepared to use Mars' powers, though now she was glad she hadn't. She looked at the hobbits, concern etched on her face. Faintly, she heard Aragorn say that he and Legolas would be the first watch. She looked around, narrowing her eyes to see if she could pick up any auras of the enemy. Her eyes widened, not at the enemies auras, but at the auras of her companions.

'It can't be. My….friends…'

She felt herself falling. As she fell, she heard a cry from one of the hobbits, then she let the darkness of her mind claim her.

Serenity found herself floating in a black void. The darkness wasn't threatening, but more like a comfort. But, if this had happened when she was still Sailor Moon, or even if she was still as Neo-Queen Serenity, she would have lost her mind. Now, though, she welcomed it. The darkness was better then what she had been going through. The pain of the loss of her friends, then seeing two of her friends alive and well but finding out that they were the only ones returning had torn her apart. Bitterly, she wished that she had died during the fight with Galaxia and Chaos. At least then she wouldn't feel torn as she did now. The members of the fellowship had the same auras as her friends, yet, she didn't want them to.

Screaming in frustration, Serenity cursed Fate and Destiny for causing her such pain. She didn't want new friends; she wanted her senshi, her sisters back. She curled up into a ball sobbing. A faint whispering entered her mind. She uncurled and looked around, then narrowed her eyes to pick up any auras. The whispering had vanished so she closed her eyes again. Once again, the whispering started, but this time, Serenity kept her eyes closed, ignoring it. It grew in volume and more insistent. Opening her eyes finally, after feeling something watching her, she was met with a giant eye breathed in fire. She stuttered at first in shock, and then screamed.

Her eyes flew open and she tried to get away from whatever was holding her. In her frightened state, she muttered a mix of Japanese, common tongue, and Lunarian. She struggled, but the barrier keeping her from fleeing was still holding her down. A calm white light entered her vision and her troubled mind locked onto the sanity it provided. She felt herself calming down and slowly the area surrounding her came into focus. Gandalf was moving his hand away form her forehead, his eyes looking at her worried. The hobbits were around her; though back a bit to let Gandalf work what ever he could to help her. Legolas was showing concern on his face, abnormal for an elf, and Gimli was not to far away from him, leaning on his axe with a similar expression. Boromir had moved over with some water. Her breathing had slowed to normal, and that's when she felt that the barrier keeping her down was someone's arms. She felt the warmth coming from them and leaned back, wanting to stay there. Boromir handed her the water and she drank a little. She looked to see the concern again and smiled.

"Sorry about that. I don't know what happened."

"You seemed tired when we were fleeing to here." Boromir said suddenly.

Serenity smiled a little. "I guess I am. I haven't gotten much rest lately, especially with the enemy so close."

She could feel Aragorn frown from behind her. She knew that he didn't by that, but he stayed quiet. For that she was glad. She sighed and closed her eyes.

"I should get…some…rest…" Her breathing evened out and Aragorn laid her on a bedroll and covered her. The fellowship exchanged worried glances but went to bed, minus Aragorn and Legolas.

A while later Serenity was woken up by someone shaking her. She opened a tired eye and saw that it was Frodo. She sat up yawning and caught that frightened expression.

"Frodo?"

"Aragorn got everyone up. The Wargs are back."

"What?!" she whispered harshly. She got up and saw that Gandalf was repeating the earlier spell. A nagging feeling in the back of her mind told her that the Wargs now had an advantage. She scrambled to her feet and ordered the hobbits to stay back. She grabbed her locket and ran up between Boromir and Gimli. She scanned the area with her eyes and senses. Darkness was closing in around them fast, bent on tearing their very souls from their bodies in one swipe. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked at the Gondorian.

"Serenity, you should get back. You don't have your weapons."

Aragorn's eyes darted to her at that statement. She smiled grimly. "There are more then mundane weapons in this world Boromir. Trust me."

They had no more time to talk though. Gandalf had raised his flames, but the Wargs sounded different to their ears. Serenity knew in her heart that they wouldn't be able to face them. Resigning herself to her fate, she raised her locket in the air. The men saw her movement and turned, wondering what she was doing. She closed her eyes then opened them, her face determined.

"Cosmos Guardian Power! (2)"

The locket glowed and an eight pointed star appeared glowing with an inner light. Ribbons wrapped around her and the light grew more intense. They shielded their eyes and when the light died down, they looked at Serenity, or Cosmos. She wore a sailor outfit, but the skirt was silver with multi colored hints in it. On the front of her chest was her locket with wings on the sides. A long cape adorned her back and her hair was now soft silver. She held a staff in her hands, and her eyes opened to reveal hardened silver orbs. She knelt down, setting her staff down for a moment then rose and made the motions of readying a bow to fire. The first Warg burst through Gandalf's flames.

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

A bow made of flames formed and a pure fire arrow fired from the bow. It rang straight and true as it struck the Warg. It screeched in pain and fell down. She readied herself again but sent out a tinge of her aura. The Wargs howled in anger but turned and ran from the new force that they had met. Cosmos sighed and let the bow and arrow vanish and looked at Gandalf.

"They won't return tonight."

Gandalf nodded and let the flames die down. Cosmos turned and saw the different expressions on the rest of the Fellowship's faces; from shock to anger. She smiled a little nervously.

"Miss Serenity, how did you do that? Are you like Gandalf?" Pippin's voice cut the tense silence. She smiled at the hobbit.

"I'm not like Gandalf at all, Pip. I would be old then."

Gandalf glared at her for a moment. Legolas shook his head.

"Serenity, are you…really." He stammered. Cosmos looked at the stuttering elf and nodded.

"I am Cosmos, if that is what you are asking Legolas."

"But Cosmos is a legend. How?"

Cosmos went to answer but felt a hand grip her hand. She looked up and saw a pair of angry eyes then the person pulled her away from the group. As soon as she was out of eye sight, the person turned her to face him roughly.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

Cosmos glared at the person. "Tell you, Tell you?! How could I? How could I tell you that everyone I come close to ends up leaving, leaving me behind to suffer without them! How could I tell you that I'm this all powerful person yet I can't even stand up to a simple wraith? I've fought Chaos from one corner of this damn universe to another, yet I still get sick at the horrors I've seen."

Aragorn took a step back at the pain radiating from her eyes. As he looked into their depths, he saw all the emotions that she kept locked up inside.

"How could I tell you about the curse I bear, when you had other worried concerning you? Don't yell at me about telling you! Dammit, I can't fight straight when I worry about you and the rest of the Fellowship! I wish I could be free of my burden, but I can't, and that hurts me! It tears me apart! I wish I could tell you how I feel, but I can't! I won't." Her eyes filled with tears, "I can't tell you…if I do, you'll leave like the rest of them."

Cosmos powered down into Serenity and went back and climbed up to the top of the rock cropping. Aragorn watched her silently wishing that he hadn't said a word. But, he wondered, did she mean about the feelings she wished she could tell him. He walked over and sat next to the fire that Gimli and Boromir had started and brooded. Legolas saw the look on the ranger's face and got up. He glanced up at Serenity and decided to find out what was wrong. He climbed up and sat next to her. She glanced at him briefly.

"What?"

Her voice was horse from crying. He gave her a piece of cloth. She wiped her eyes and then looked up at the starry sky.

"Why, if you didn't want to reveal yourself, did you?"

She looked at him then sighed, looking down at her lap. "Chaos has found me here. It knows what's in my heart and I didn't want to open myself up to attack, but….the Wargs was being powered by Chaos' thoughts. It wanted to bring me out in the open. Now that I am, the orcs will tell their masters, which means soon Sauron will know about me. I'm a walking target now."

"We won't abandon you heedlessly. You know that."

Serenity looked at the elven prince and smiled, "I wish I could believe that. But, I've been left behind before. What's to stop it from happening again? I can't go through the heartache again."

Well, apparently I've lost my reliable reviewers. sighs Maybe this will spark them to read and review again. I really tried to portray Serenity's pain from being Cosmos. She's fighting an internal struggle with her feelings, which makes her vulnerable to other influences…hehehe; I have plans for the confused lunar child. Anyway, for the people who watched the movie, the fight with the Wargs was in the book (Fellowship). But, I had to mix up the timeline. This actually was supposed to happen after Caradhras.

(1) Fire…Fire take the werewolves.

(2) I changed her transformation phrase from the one I put at the end of the last chapter. I thought this sounded better.

Also, for those who are wondering. The reason she fainted when she saw the auras is because each of the fellowship members has a similar aura to the Sailors. Here's who has what aura:

Sailor Mercury: Sam

Sailor Mars: Gimli

Sailor Jupiter: Merry

Sailor Venus: Pippin

Sailor Uranus: Boromir

Sailor Neptune: Legolas

Sailor Pluto: Gandalf

Sailor Saturn: Frodo

Earth: Aragorn

I know that Pluto and Saturn are alive, but Gandalf and Frodo have similar auras. They aren't the scouts reborn, but are similar in personality and auras. shrugs I hope that makes sense. This will eventually come into play more later on. Thanks and read/review!

--Princess Silver Serenity