Author's note: wow finally an update! Yay! Thanks so much for being patient, those of you still reading this.
You know by now, I don't own Pretear although it'd be nice.
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I close my eyes taking in a deep breath. What am I doing here? He won't believe that I'm here to help. I sigh and he takes notice of it but is no less off guard then before.
"…Himeno... isn't on our side anymore." I say quietly. He laughs bitterly.
"Isn't on our side? Our side? Neither are you, or have you forgotten?" His voice seethes as if I had said it to mock him, but I'm out of patients and running out of time. I whorl around to face him, if he can look into my eyes… I know he'll see that I'm not lying… that I could never lie to him…that I still love him.
"Himeno turned into the Princes of Sorrow, Hayate! She's helping Takako …and she's going after Shin." He looks deep into my eyes. He's trying to decide whether to trust me again and I don't get a chance to say anything else before we both hear Goh's relieved and cheery voice in the back ground.
"Himeno! Where ya' been?" I whip my head to the side just in time to see Himeno smile sweetly at the knights around her before a demon larva forms behind her and in a flash, strikes Goh, sending him flying backwards onto the ground. I barely make it three running steps before the larva attacks Kei. Hayate is right behind me and we cover the few feet left between us and the fight in a matter of seconds. But everything is happening so fast. Mannen gets the first hit on the beast, Hajime shortly after but Shin just stands there… silent. His eyes are fixed on Himeno's as if in some sort of trance. She smiles down at him from her perch on the demon larva and he takes a step toward it, his hand reaching out.
"Himeno…" his soft innocent voice calls. It sends a shiver through my body. He sounds fake… like a doll. A puppet on strings with no will to free or even knowledge that he's being manipulated.
"Shin, come with me. I want to show you a place… it's more beautiful then Leafeania." She says to him soothingly.
I shoot a sound wave at her, but one of the larva's tentacles took the blow. Her clothes have changed. They somewhat resemble the outfit Takako wore only it was black and a deep blue that now matched her hair which had turned the same shade. It was then, that I noticed my own clothes. They had changed back. They were no longer the color of darkness but white. The other knights were again back on their feet and mercilessly attacking the larva, but without the pretear to locate its' core we were doing little real damage to it. I try again to reach Shin, but another large tentacle again knocks me back.
"Hayate!" He looks at me quickly, seeing that I can't get to Shin. But before he or any of the older knights and I can do anything we see Mannen narrowly dodge a swift defensive attack from the larva and he reaches Shin. He pulls on the knight of plants and yells his name but gets no answer.
"Shin! Shin! Come on, something's wrong with Himeno! She's not her self! Listen to me, Shin!" Himeno glares at the ice knight's efforts and raises her hand as if to attack him but a blade of wind contacts her hand, quickly getting her attention. She glares at the bleeding wound and disappears, along with Shin and Mannen.
"Shit!" Goh yelled seeing them disappear.
"Mannen!" Hajime cried out and before we could attack the larva again, it too was gone.
Kei looked to me and tried to give me a smile, as if welcoming me back but we were all far from being able to be happy. Takako now had two of the leafe knights and without a pretear we had no way to stop Takako or her demon larva.
"What do we do now?" Goh asked, looking toward Hayate and holding Hajime. Hayate was silent, looking down, and stood with a tense posture.
He looks up, anger flaring in his eyes, and turns to me.
"Where did she take them, Sasame?"
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Ok, more next time. Thank you, as always, and reviews are loved!
DM