AN: Wow. That is all I have to say. Wow! I am completely blown away by the amazing response for last chapter- 8 reviews?! I am absolutely thrilled with the response I got, you guys rock.
, CherrySerenity-sama, SageMcGavin, Bin82501, maryyorke, Taeniaea, lilymoon80, and slightlyxjaded- you guys have made my week. Much love to all.
"Could we get a little cover here, Mercury?" Sailor Moon snapped, dodging a blow.
"Working on it!" the blue-haired Senshi said, bringing her elbow up to block a hit from the youma. "Shabon Spray!" A cool mist settled over the area, blocking the Senshi from the youma's view.
Or at least, it was supposed to. Instead, the youma seemed to have no difficulty seeing through the mist, and it swung a clawed hand towards the Senshi. Growling, Sailor Moon pulled out her scepter to parry the blow. This particular youma seemed to favor brute force over magic, and it was making the Senshi rely more on their physical attacks.
Sailor Mars managed to break away from the fray, and conjured up her fire. "Burning Mandala!"
It hit the youma, but it seemed to have little effect. The youma, a lizard-like creature with tough, scaly skin and long claws on its hands, swung out at Sailor Mars, digging its claws into her shoulder. The fire Senshi cried out in pain, and fell to the ground, clutching her wounded shoulder.
Snarling, Sailor Moon twirled the Moon Scepter in her hands like a baton, and hit the youma with it. "Mercury, go tend to Mars!"
Mercury rushed off to aid the wounded Mars, and Jupiter, who had been hanging back and trying to get a shot at the youma with her lightning, fell in to fill the gap Mercury had left.
"Crescent Beam!" Venus tried, but it barely seemed to do any damage. The tough skin on the youma was making it difficult for any of their attacks to work successfully.
"Mercury, have you had a chance to scan it for weaknesses?" Sailor Moon asked.
The blunette looked up from where she was bandaging Mars' wound, and shook her head. "I scanned it earlier but there are none. Its thick, scaly skin is a very effective armor. If you can manage to pierce it, the youma is weak underneath, but it will be difficult to pierce its skin."
"Okay," Sailor Moon said to herself. "Focus." At least Chibiusa was out of danger. They'd been out for a walk in the park, as Chibiusa wanted to go feed the ducks in the pond, and enjoy the nice day. The moment the youma appeared, Usagi had told her to run as fast as she could to the Arcade. She'd be safe there.
"Jupiter and Venus, fall back and focus all your energy on the magic attacks," she said. "If you combine attacks, perhaps we'll be able to pierce its skin."
"What about you?" Jupiter asked.
"I'll keep attacking it from here," she said, dodging another blow. This one caught her in the side, though, and she winced. Luckily it hadn't seemed to do much more damage than a scrape. Glancing down at her side, there was only a slight trickle of blood.
Jupiter and Venus obeyed her command, and fell back, combining their attacks, again and again, trying to pierce the youma's skin, but to no avail. The youma remained unaffected by their attacks.
Tired of being on the defensive, Sailor Moon swung her scepter up, hitting the youma in the face. She thrust forward, swinging and jabbing, dodging blows and pushing the youma back. As she fought, she felt nothing but the wind in her hair and the sweat trickling down her neck. It was as if the world had slowed down, and she expertly parried the youma's blows with her own. All she knew was this fight, all she could see was the youma, all her senses her focused on one thing: this fight.
But then the trance shattered, as the youma successfully blocked one of her blows, and knocked her to the ground. It dove towards her, its claws aimed right towards her neck, but she threw up her scepter to block the blow. She could hear the Senshi shouting, trying to attack, and rushing forward, but the youma still pressed on.
Grunting from the force it took to hold the youma back, Sailor Moon felt her arms shaking with the effort, and her grip on the scepter loosening slightly as her arms started to give out. She slipped a little, and the youma's claws pressed against her throat. She knew that if she slipped even another centimeter, the claws would pierce her throat. She could hear the Senshi's attacks hitting the youma, but the youma was relentless in its attack, and for a moment, she felt truly scared. Was she going to die like this?
A red rose pierced the youma's hand, and the pressure against Sailor Moon's scepter suddenly released, as the youma fell back. Snarling, Sailor Moon yanked the scepter up and jammed it into the underside of the youma's body, finding it less armored than the rest.
"Moon Scepter Elimination!" she called out, and the youma finally turned to dust, and she fell to her knees.
"Are you alright?" Tuxedo Kamen asked, reaching a hand out to help her out.
"Fine," she said, ignoring his hand, and standing up by herself.
"How's your neck?" he asked, reaching a hand up to her throat. The youma's claws had just started to pierce her skin, and there was a red mark on her neck where the claws had been moments before.
"I'm fine," she snapped, swatting his hand away. She frowned, and paused. "Thanks," she added after a moment. "For saving my life."
"Of course," he said. "Look, I know things are… awkward between us, but—"
She cut him off. "I need to go check on Mars." Talking with him was the last thing she wanted to do right now. As she stalked off to check on her wounded teammate, she could hear him following her.
"Are you just going to walk away?" he called after her.
She spun back to face him, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Was there something else I was supposed to do? Fall into your arms? Thank you profusely for saving me from the big, scary youma? Things are different between us now, Mamoru, you've made that pretty clear."
His lips flattened into a line. "I know that. But…" he trailed off. "You should at least be more careful."
"More careful?" she threw her hands up in the air and turned her back to him, walking over towards the other Senshi.
"Yes, more careful!" he said, hurrying to keep up with her. "You were nearly killed today, Usagi!"
"So?" she turned to face him again. "I am nearly killed most days. It kind of comes with the territory of being a superheroine who has to defend Tokyo from evil forces that want to take over the world."
"That doesn't mean you can be reckless!" he shouted. "If I hadn't intervened, you would have died! Which, by the way, brings me to my next point." He turned to face the Senshi "Where the hell were you? Your job is to protect her, to keep her from harm, so why was it she was pinned down by a youma, seconds away from being impaled?"
"Hey!" she yelled at him. "Don't you dare talk to them like that. They are my Senshi, my team. You made it pretty clear you don't want to be involved with me, so you don't get to boss around my teammates. They were all doing their best."
"Well, their best isn't good enough!" he shouted, shaking her by the shoulders. "You nearly died. How does that not bother you?"
"Of course it bothers me," she said, shaking off his hands. "But I also know that it's not anyone's fault. These youma are more powerful than what we faced with the Dark Kingdom. We're all trying our hardest, but things like this happen."
He shook his head but didn't say anything else as he stalked off. Sighing, Sailor Moon turned her attention towards her Senshi, trying to push their argument out of her head. She had more pressing matters to worry about.
Fifteen minutes later, the Senshi had de-transformed, and were heading back to the Arcade to retrieve Chibiusa, and also tend to Rei's wound more properly. Ami always had emergency first aid with her on the battlefield, so she had bandaged Rei's shoulder the best she could, but there were better medical supplies at their base.
"I should really take a look at your wounds, too, Usagi," Ami said.
Usagi rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, Ami. It barely scratched me. Rei is the only one we should be worrying about."
"Hmmph," Ami made a small noise of dissent. Clearly, she disagreed, but Usagi thought she worried too much. The Senshi were always getting injured, it came with the job. They had all learned to deal with their minor injuries, and Usagi didn't want to take up any more of Ami's energy. She worried that the blue-haired girl overworked herself sometimes. She was always researching, or healing or fighting, she never relaxed.
"Everything okay with you and Tux-boy?" Minako asked. "I mean, aside from the usual."
Usagi sighed. "I don't know. I just don't get it. I mean, he broke up with me, completely out of the blue, claiming he just didn't love me. But then with the way he acts…" she rubbed her temples. "It all gives me a headache. I don't really want to talk about it."
Minako was silent after that, and they arrived at the Arcade a short while later. The others headed for the base, while Usagi promised to join them soon, after she checked up on Chibiusa.
"Hey there," Usagi said, finding Chibiusa in a booth with a milkshake in one hand, and some crayons in the other.
"You're back!" the little girl smiled brightly. "Can we go feed the ducks now?"
Usagi chuckled. "Not right now. But soon, okay? I promise."
The girl's face fell. "Okay."
"We can go tomorrow," Usagi said. "But for right now I need to go take care of something. I just wanted to check up you first, to see if you needed anything."
Chibiusa shook her head. "I'm okay. Motoki onii-san gave me a free milkshake, and some crayons to draw with. I like him."
Usagi smiled at her affectionate nickname for the blonde arcade worker. "Onii-san, huh? You know, that's what I call him sometimes, too."
"I guess that makes us sort of like sisters," the girl said shyly. "If he's both of our big brothers."
"I guess it does," Usagi said. She definitely felt a strong connection to the little girl, although it didn't quite feel sisterly. She shook her head. She didn't have time to dwell on that right now. In what was now becoming a habit, Usagi leaned down, and gave the girl a kiss on her forehead.
"Will you be back soon?" Chibiusa asked.
"Very soon," Usagi promised.
"Why weren't those other Senshi there?" Rei was saying as Usagi walked down into their command center. "Much as I hate to say it, we could have really used their help."
"Clearly we can't rely on them," Usagi said. She had hoped that their conversation—argument, really—when she told them off for always condescending her and doubting her abilities might have changed things. Rei was right, they could really have used the help of the older Senshi. Not just earlier today, but in general. Clearly, the Black Moon Clan was a force to be reckoned with.
"We'll just have to be stronger," she continued. "So we don't need to rely on them to help out."
"I've been researching, but aside from knowing that they're a group of magic users from the 30th century, and have their sights set on Chibiusa, I'm afraid there isn't much I can discover," Ami said.
"It's okay," Usagi said, blowing her bangs out of her face. "We'll figure something out. Rei, how's your shoulder?"
"It's not too bad," she said, rolling her shoulder a bit to test it out. "I'll have a limited range of motion for a little while, and I can't lift anything heavy with it, but it's not too bad. Good thing I heal fast."
"Today was close," Makoto said. "Too close. I don't like it. I don't like not knowing anything about the Black Moon Clan, I don't like having to rely on other Senshi to help us out. And we can't even rely on them, because they don't always show up! Ami, are you sure there isn't anything else you can do?"
"I'll try," she said. "I have been trying, anything I can think of, and I'll keep trying. But I don't know if we can approach this in a clinical, carefully thought out manner. We might just have to go at it with brute strength."
"Maybe so," Usagi said with a sigh. "I don't like it, either, but we might have to deal with not knowing." She dropped into a chair, and winced slightly as her wounded side pressed against the side of the chair.
"Let me have a look at it," Ami said. Usagi opened her mouth to protest, but Ami fixed her with a flat glare, and she relented.
"Fine." Grumbling, she went over to the medical section of their secret base, and let Ami pull up her shirt to treat the wound.
"I told you, it's just a scratch," Usagi said.
"It's true, the wound isn't very deep," Ami said, almost to herself, as she examined the claw marks. "But it looks like it's in danger of becoming infected. You really should have let me look at it earlier," she chided gently. "I don't know why you insist on being so stubborn."
Usagi rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything as Ami cleaned the wound and bandaged it. She insisted on being stubborn because she didn't want her friends to worry about her. All of them already had so much on their plate; they shouldn't have to worry each time she got a minor injury. It was part of the job.
Mamoru paced around his apartment, trying to resist the urge to punch something. Usagi had come far too close to death today for his liking. Of course, if he had his way, she wouldn't ever be in danger, but he knew that was inevitable, it was part of being Sailor Moon. And he knew she was perfectly capable, but… sometimes she put herself in danger to protect her friends.
It was a quality he both loved and hated. And she had always been like that, it wasn't anything new, but it had been simpler before. Before he'd broken up with her and broken both their hearts in the process. When he saw her pinned down by that youma, the claws pressed right against her throat, her strength obviously fading from the effort of holding it off… if anything happened to her… no. He would never let that happen.
Of course, a small part of his brain whispered, it would be easier if you were together. If Usagi trusted you and loved you, you could better protect her.
"Dammit dammit dammit." He punched the wall in frustration. At least now his aching hand and the hole in his wall gave him something to focus on. He couldn't be with Usagi, because he was a danger to her. He had promised himself he would never let her be hurt, but how was he supposed to keep that promise if he was the one doing the hurting?
It had been all too easy for the Dark Kingdom to brainwash him and turn him against her. And despite all of her claims that she was okay, that she knew it wasn't him who had been attacking, he knew it deeply disturbed her. He could never let something like that happen again. He could barely live with himself as is.
His hands caressed her skin as he leaned down to kiss her. She sighed, melting into his body, her fingers curling in his long white hair.
"I've missed you," she said. "And I was starting to get worried. Where have you been?"
He didn't respond, but his hands tightened around her arms, to the point of pain.
"You're hurting me!" she said. She looked up, and gasped at what she saw. His eyes were blank and cold, completely devoid of any emotion. He threw her to the ground, and she cried out in pain, but it wasn't from the force of hitting the ground.
"Why are you doing this?" she cried. "Please, don't you recognize me?"
Again, he didn't say anything as he kicked her. "I know exactly who you are, you filthy Senshi," he said finally.
She lay on the ground, curled in a ball as she sobbed and he attacked her. But no. She was stronger than this. She wouldn't let him defeat her, not so easily. With his next swing, she reached up and blocked it, stumbling to her feet.
"There must be some part of you still left in there," she said. "Please."
"I am a warrior of the Dark Kingdom," he said. "That is who I am, all that I am."
Closing her eyes for a moment, she knew what had to be done. She opened her eyes and lunged forward, attacking, but he parried every blow. They grappled for several minutes, before she got close enough to embrace him.
"You have to remember," she whispered, burying her face in his neck. "I can't survive without you. Please!" She gasped, stumbling backward, as she felt the sword slide between her ribs. She looked up at him, the only person she had ever given her heart to, as he drove the blade into her.
"You've left me with no choice," she said. She pushed herself forward, crying out in pain as the sword dug in deeper. She wrapped her arms around him one last time, knowing she didn't have much time left. Her voice barely a whisper, she did what had to be done. "Crescent Beam." The world exploded in light and pain.
Minako woke with a gasp, clutching her beating heart. What was that? She'd been having dreams lately, about this mysterious white-haired man, but they had never been so… violent. Who was he? And why was she dreaming about him?
AN: I do hate to end on a cliffie, but well… oops. Any guesses as to who that mysterious man might be? Hmmm… ;-) Please keep being awesome and review!
