Author's Note: Sorry for my delay in posting! I'm going to try to get the next one out ASAP, but I'm traveling for the holiday so it might be later than expected :( Hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Your comments give me life! You don't know how much I appreciate you.
Mamoru
When my feet were firmly planted back on the ground in Pitre's castle, the only emotion surging through me was rage.
Helheim could not help us. We were outmatched and outclassed in this fight. Mowing down the hellhounds had been hard enough, and if the glimpse into Pitre's power was any indication of the battle we were bound to face, I was not confident we could win.
To make matters worse, the simmering hatred I had managed to quell for Dimande was slowly bubbling. All of this madness was his fault. Without him—without his stupid and futile plan to selfishly redeem himself—there would be no Pitre, not like this. I looked on as Saturn and Pluto explained to the others what Helheim had told us and watched as Dimande and Saphir nodded their heads like they belonged with us.
"Mamoru?" Setsuna's voice snapped me back. "Are you alright?"
I swallowed hard and put on my best mood, but I knew I was not hiding any of my disdain.
"Yes," I lied unconvincingly. Annoyance flashed across Dimande's face.
I had to hold back. This wasn't the time or place to get into it with him. Fighting him would only take away from the bigger end goal: Getting Usagi back. I bit the inside of my cheek. Each second ticked by, though, with the Black Moon Clan standing among us. Were we all really this foolish? How could we be so cavalier?
"You don't look alright," Haruka said. "Are you sure you're okay?"
I nodded my head but it was a lie. It was apparent to everyone that I was fighting an internal battle, and possibly most disappointingly, they could see I was losing. Dimande saw it, too. He enjoyed it a little too much and saw the opportunity to sink in his vile teeth. He rolled his eyes and laughed to himself.
This was his way of throwing down a gauntlet and I was more than willing to answer.
"Do you have an issue with me, Dimande?"
Clearer heads did not prevail. The scouts stirred and Dimande cracked a smug smile.
"To have an issue with you would require me to think of you, Mamoru." I wanted to wipe his gloating expression right off his face. "And I don't think of you at all."
"You're the one that got us here," I snapped. "You're the one that did this to us!"
"Mamoru," Haruka interjected. "I thought we already settled this."
"I thought we had too, until we visited Helheim as a last resort and she said that she couldn't help us." My fists balled. "Everything we endured has come at his hands and yet we all stand here with him as if he isn't to blame."
"You're so quick to pass judgement on me, Mamoru, but was it not you who cast her out in the first place?" Dimande's expression turned sour. "You are just as much to blame. All of you are."
He turned and looked at the others. The inner scouts looked down sheepishly, knowing full and well Dimande was right. And, unfortunately, he was. We were all to blame and we would have to face those demons when time came to pass. But our transgressions did not result in this. We had been negligent in matters of the heart, matters that could be fixed with time and understanding. This had the potential to ruin us all, irrevocably change everything we had spent so many years protecting and fighting for.
"It is easy to cast me as the villain, and in many ways, I am." He turned his gaze directly to me. "But I am not the only one standing here who has caused this."
Silence fell among the scouts. Cowards. Yes, it was true I had pushed her away, but I was not the one who summoned an evil wizard, I was not the one who wanted to use her again for her power. I was not the one who slinked into her bed and poisoned her pure heart.
Before we had descended to Hell, I had somehow shored enough nobility to resist fighting him. Now, control was slipping away with each passing second. Maybe it was a symptom of something much larger: Control had suppressed me for far too long. I wanted to lose control and to win my love back. Plus, the satisfaction of hitting him square in the jaw was too enticing to pass up.
Without really thinking, I lunged at him. Fire burned in my muscles as I jumped, my hands outstretched to grab him and rip him piece by piece, but as my feet left the floor and saw the look of satisfaction on his face, I regretted it. Clearly, I had underestimated his power. He rose his hand just slightly and a brilliant light glowed from it. A forcefield blazed from him, knocking me on my back. I skidded across the floor while the scouts scrambled.
"You know, I thought you were stupid before our unfortunate meeting here, but now I know you're certifiably moronic." Dimande crossed his arms and turned to Setsuna, who was now in an attack stance all her own. "Don't worry, Pluto, I have no intention of hurting him."
She relaxed, but only slightly. Minako and Rei pulled me to my feet and I shrugged them off, much to their surprise. Rubeus and Saphir closed in around Dimande, their eyes darting with what looked like worry between me and him.
"This isn't wise, Dimande," Rubeus said sternly. "We're losing focus of what we're trying to do here."
"Why don't you tell that to him?" Dimande cocked an eyebrow. "He's the one who needs to hear it."
"I'm twice the man that you are, Dimande," I hissed.
"Oh?" Amusement flickered in his eyes. "Does she curl under you the way she does with me? Does she scream your name as she writhes in pleasure in your bed?"
Something in me snapped. A feral part unhinged and my vision went white. I lunged again. Haruka charged first, pulling me back. Our bodies crashed, her shoulders meeting my chest as she slammed into me, her attempt at a tackle. It was quick, but fortunately for me, her angle was just slightly off. I slipped past, thrusting myself forward. Before I got much farther, my body shuddered to a stop. Just to the right of Dimande was Setsuna, her rod outstretched pointed to my chest. From underneath, my legs buckled.
"Enough!" She shouted. "This needs to end! Do you truly believe fighting like insolent children is going to bring Usagi back? How selfish can you both be?"
She was right, but I couldn't help myself. Dimande encapsulated everything I hated and now he had what was mine. Yes, I needed to focus and bring Usagi back safely, but could I bring myself to do it with a monster like him at my side? Setsuna's red orb glowed ominously, burning like the rage pulsating through my heart.
Dimande stood there and said nothing.
"Pluto is right," Saphir stepped forward. "Obviously we're on different sides—and obviously my brother, unfortunately, is at the center of this debacle—but we will not be able to defeat Pitre if we're pitted against one another."
"So what do we do?" Minako asked.
"We have to find Pitre," Saphir said with a startling intensity.
I took a few deep breaths. I had to focus. I had to regain control. Finally, I felt Setsuna's power unlock my body. I stretched and took another steading breath. Dimande and I stood square with one another. I still wanted to wring my hands around his neck and feel his pulse slow, I still wanted to make him suffer just like I had suffered when he took her from Tokyo, but I resolved that that duel would occur after she was safely in my arms.
"Through those doors is a circus ring," Saphir continued. "It's set up for a show. He wants us in there."
"It could be a trap," Ami said. Saphir nodded his head.
"Yes, it might be." He turned to look at the doors which were still ajar. Inside, though, the room had gone completely dark. When Saphir and Dimande came out initially, I hadn't even thought to look inside. A strange energy was seeping out of it, ominous and looming. "Luring Pitre to us might be the thing we need to do."
Hinges creaked and the door opened just slightly more. It was enough for us all to turn toward it, our eyes wide. The darkness beckoned us quietly.
"We have no other choice but to go deeper," Saphir said. "If we go back outside, the hellhounds will beat us into submission. We need to go into the tent prepared to fight."
It was a difficult choice, but ultimately the one I knew we had to take. I took a deep breath and stepped forward. The others followed suit, inching closer to the looming doors before standing in awe of them. Behind these gigantic crystal doors was our fate.
Saphir walked through it first, followed by the rest of the Black Moon Clan. The scouts and I filtered behind, our eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness. Our footsteps echoed against the invisible walls. This place was cavernous.
The lights clicked on, illuminating the large ring, and sitting at the back was Pitre on a gilded throne. He looked so satisfied and amused. Saphir was right: This was his plan all along. But to fight him we had to come to him, there was no other way. Behind us the doors swung shut, slamming together with a boom.
"I thought you'd never get here," Pitre smiled.
Even as he sat, the sheer magnitude of him was overwhelming. Underneath his power, the throne glittered. It clung to the air, so thick it and heavy, it felt like the oppressive humidity of summer. On my tongue was the taste of metal, sharp and acute. How could someone so small, so unassuming conjure so much power?
"Stop toying with us, Pitre," Saphir growled. "We came here to fight, so man up and face us."
Pitre laughed and propped his head on his hand. He considered us for a moment, cocking his head to the left and to the right. Finally, he slinked out of the chair and walked toward the center of the ring.
"If this is what you really want, so be it."
His raised his hands up, extending them at his sides before flexing his fingers toward the ceiling. Black smoke trickled from his body, snaking up into the air and swirling around his head like a crown. Then an ominous red glow came off his body, the same color as the hellhound's eyes. The room suddenly became stiflingly hot and the smoke continued to build higher and higher.
His eyes rolled back into his head, leaving them completely white. As they did, his body shifted and contorted, his muscles ebbing against his body in way so horrific, it was everything I could do to not turn away.
The scouts shifted into battle ready position and I did too. Saphir remained stoic.
A flash of light burst from him, draping the room in a red glow, and from it came four giant hellhounds. They were part of his soul. They gnashed their teeth and screeched while Pitre continued to pulsate against the smoke. I fought against covering my ears from the demonic howling.
"I have given my soul to the darkness!" Pitre screamed. "You cannot defeat me!"
The inner scouts trounced against two of the hellhounds. Minako whipped her chain, connecting it right onto one of the monster's cheek. It screamed in pain. Right on top of that, Makoto launched a torrent of lightning straight at its chest. It fell back onto the floor. Above it, a shot of fire came from Rei, the lick of flames singeing the downed hellhound before slamming into the one still standing. Immediately following was a blast of water from Ami that wiped the hellhound out, sending it tumbling on top of the other.
The Black Moon Clan was making quick work on the other. Flashes of green and red shot out, creating a wire that caged the monster in. It screamed as its bones broke underneath the powerful attack, releasing a deafening crack. Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna lunged at the last and I joined them.
I mustered my power into my hands and aimed it right toward the creature's snout. Inky blood spewed over the ring and into the air, covering Haruka and Michiru. They were undeterred: Turning on their heels they launched tandem attacks that danced around the hellhound in a brilliant light.
It was all happening so fast and yet so slowly. All the while Pitre watched, the roar of his power whipping around him and sending flashes of red. Hotaru was the only person who did not move, instead opting to focus entirely on Pitre. In her hand was the Silence Glaive, its long, silver staff flexing up and down in her moving fingers.
Inside the clouds of smoke, more red eyes appeared. It was the same problem as before: Pitre could continually keep conjuring these beasts, tiring us out before we ever got a chance to attack him. As the bodies morphed from the nothingness, Hotaru flicked the glaive in Pitre's direction, a black, electrifying orb blooming from its tip.
It went right toward Pitre. From behind, the red energy absorbed it and Pitre cackled.
"Is this all you have?" He screamed, a grin painted across his face. "Is this the best you can do?"
Hotaru's gripped tighter.
"No." Her eyes were burning. "It's not."
In less than a second, another orb appeared, this one more violent than the first. I had never seen a power like this, not from any of the scouts. Energy poured out of it, bumping up against the sheer force Pitre was conjuring. I could feel the attack rattling my bones. Clearly, she had been training. I stammered back, the orb whizzing by, sending volts of electricity buzzing through the air. Pitre's smile softened as it connected to his chest, throwing him back onto the floor right in front of his throne.
The roaring dulled slightly, but the smoke and the red became more intense. His defenses were down, but even something as powerful as that was not enough to take him out.
He pushed up, wiped a line of blood that formed on his lip and growled.
"Alright," he seethed. "I'll play."
The room shifted and moved, the floor becoming like a pulse of a quickening heart.