Authors notes: Hey everyone, well here's another chapter for you. Sorry it's taken a while to get this finished, but exams are on me and I don't have much time to write. There should be another few chapters coming up quickly after this one because I'm almost at the end of exams, so please wait just a little while longer. Thanks for all the reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own sailor moon.

Chapter Ten

Serena curled onto her sides, closing her eyes against the pain tearing through her. She was in a room that looked like it belonged to a beautiful young girl, who felt it necessary to have beautiful things around her. Flowers were arranged artfully around the room and the decorations were delicate and tasteful. But apart from a slight glance around, Serena hadn't taken any notice of her surroundings, too consumed with her sorrow. She had found the tightest corner of the room and hidden herself away from everything, mourning the loss of her best friend. She heard her screams echoing in her head, could almost feel the thud as she hit the ground, see the blood that would have pooled under Mina's broken form. She barely remembered being brought to this place, having deliberately distanced herself from reality when they had picked her up and carried her to the waiting cart, an hour after Mina had fallen. The heartless bastards hadn't even bothered to take care of Mina's body. They had all stayed in the room with her, with the exception of Lita who had gone to get the cart. They had all seemed to be relieved that Mina was gone.

"She still hasn't moved." Rei said, coming into the room, having just taken some food up to Serena.

" And she still hasn't eaten! And she still hasn't said a word! And she still hasn't cried! I know." Lord Darien said.

" We are going to have to do something soon, it's been three days." Kunzite said.

" I know. But grief can do funny things to people, I'm hoping this will remind her of what we want to know." Lord Darien said.

" We won't get anything out of her if she dies of starvation and coldness!" Lita said.

" She is covered you know." Rei said calmly.

" She just throws any blanket placed over her off when we leave the room." Amy said.

Rei was about to say something when Lord Darien suddenly got up from his chair and walked over to the bookcase, scanning titles distractedly.

" Force feed her." Lord Darien said suddenly.

" What?" Kunzite asked, sitting forward in his seat.

" Force feed her." Lord Darien repeated. " If she's not going to eat by herself, we're going to have to force feed her."

" It'll send her even further into her grief if you do something like that. She'll withdraw even further and possibly do herself some harm." Lita exclaimed.

" Can you think of any other way to get her to eat?" Lord Darien asked bitingly.

" She'll get hungry sometime." Lita said quietly, chastised.

" She hasn't eaten in three days, she should have been hungry last night, but she didn't eat did she?"

" No."

" Force feed her." Lord Darien said sharply, looking around the room. " Force her to eat until she feeds herself."

They all nodded their heads. Lord Darien left the room, leaving them to decide who was going to be the one who did it.

" I think we should take it in turns." Amy said.

" I don't want to go first." Lita said, a little desperately.

" You were trained to cope with situations like this. it should mean nothing to you." Jadeite said roughly.

" I was trained to cope with people that have clearly acted against us, not a young girl who probably has no idea why this is happening to her!" Lita cried, jumping up.

" Have you so easily forgotten her parents?" Jadeite asked.

" Of course I haven't. But she hasn't grown up with her parents influence has she? She's grown up knowing only hatred and pain. She's just lost the only friend she's ever had, and now we're about to inflict more physical AND psychological pain on her, or haven't you yet figured out how we are going to have to force feed her?" Lita said.

" I know how we're going to have to do it." Jadeite said quietly.

" Then have some respect for the way I'm feeling about all this!" Lita cried, slumping back into her chair.

" I'll do it tonight." Kunzite said into the quiet room.

" If we do it in twos we'll have some support." Zoicite said.

" I'll help Kunz tonight." Amy said.

Jadeite looked over at Rei and when she nodded spoke up.

" Rei and I'll take next meal."

" Lita and I'll take the one after that." Zoicite said.

" Nephrite and I'll take the one after that." Andrew said.

With that decided, they all lapsed into silence. After about half an hour of taught silence, waiting for Kunzite and Amy to leave and get the equipment they would need, Lita finally gave into her distress and fled the room. Amy and Kunzite took that as their clue and left quietly.

" Found the pipe, Kunz." Amy said from the back corners of the shed out the back of the mansion.

" Cut a long piece from the middle, less chance of dust having gotten too thickly clogged up in there." Kunzite said, finding the funnel he had been looking for.

" I wish we didn't have to do this." Amy said.

" None of us want to do it." Kunzite replied.

Amy walked over to him and taking the funnel from him, picked up a bottle of disinfectant and walked outside to rinse the equipment with it. Kunzite watched her work, noticing her hands were begging to tremble. He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed reassuringly.

Amy paused outside the room that Serena was in. She could feel how badly her hands were shaking, and took a deep breath to try and calm herself.

" Hopefully we will only have to do this once." Kunzite said behind her, balancing a bowl of water and watery gruel on a tray.

" Hopefully." Amy said, and pushed the door open.

Lita tried to shut her ears to the cries she could hear coming from Serena's room down the hall, but she couldn't. She buried her head under her pillow and let her tears flow freely, only vaguely aware when someone entered her room and sat down beside her, drawing her close to their body. She felt a pair of hands brush the hair off her back and start rubbing it, and another pair lifting the pillow away so they could see her face. She kept her eyes closed, but knew from instinct that it was Rini.

" It'll be alright Lita." Rini said, softly, tears thickening her voice and making it sound childlike.

" It can't be alright." Lita said heartbreakingly.

Rini burst into tears and crawled into the arms Lita opened wide for her, briefly looking up into Nephrite's cloudy eyes. The three lay holding each other until Serena's cries ceased, and even then, they held onto one another long into the night, vaguely hearing Serena's muted sobbing.

Authors note: Ok I know, it's a really sad and not very pleasant chapter. I can't promise anything much better for the next chapter, but it won't always be like this one. Please R&R, it's been great hearing from everyone. Tandem.