FOUR

"It's going to have to be a team effort or not at all," Venus says, before I can voice my fear that I will be counter productive she adds, "I don't know if any of you will remember this or not, but we can channel our power through Moon. We feed her with our energy and she channels it out towards the enemy."

The fighting is rough, for a while it seems as though no sooner we destroy one then it forms into several others which take it's place and make things all the more difficult. It takes a lot of tag-teaming, especially on my part given I'm more than a little paranoid of making them stronger by shooting more ice at them. Then it clicks. Several are gearing up to attack Jupiter, and instead of shooting my energy at them I put it between her and them, they slam into it, and are held at bay long enough for her to sneak to one side and annilate them with a well placed electric charge.

So that becomes our plan of attack, we can use the ice barriers to herd them into one spot, and then team attack those that are left and weren't destroyed previous to this.

Kaguya is, of course, displeased, but it's not as if we were doing this to make her happy. She shoots several energy bolts at us, exploding the barriers and the remaining fragments of ice that are around. Even I'm starting to feel the cold at this point, and I can see the redness on everyone else's arms and legs from the exposure. Not a one of us doesn't have a pink nose.

"I'm never going to be warm again," Moon says, but manages to only sound slightly whiny.

"Somehow I don't think she's going to let herself be herded," I say.

"But we need to do something. We can't just sit here!" Jupiter bangs one fisted hand into her palm, and then winces and rubs her fingers, "if our limbs don't start dropping off."

"They're the wrong color for frostbite," I point out, "The discoloration would-"

"I don't want to know!" she cuts in, and looks around.

Venus has been looking around just as much as I have. We have to get Mars out and quickly. My body seems to take it upon itself to cleanse out the taint before recycling which makes things a bit harder. It's easier to make something dirty than it is to clean it out.

"If we pool together. It might be enough..." she suggests, "At least to make the cage brittle, and then perhaps a well placed blow?" she looks at Kamen. He nods.

We quickly assemble around Moon, behind the barrier each with one hand on Moon's shoulders, and start to focus, as Kamen picks his way around the area towards Mars.

We channel everything into our collective weapons. I focus on piercing, and changing from solid to liquid, afraid otherwise I might inadvertantly strenghten the barrier. Our efforts are working though I can see cracks starting to form. Kamen leaps up and hits the casing with the butt of his cane, and that does it. I can hear Kaguya shrieking and see Mars falling surrounded by a cloud of water converting to steam. She drops and rolls. I want to reach out. Kaguya is angered.

Every step is great effort for a few moments. I feel leaden and completely drained and we still have Kaguya to fight. Hopefully her own energy is getting depleted, but you wouldn't known it to look at her, we run as quickly as we can for some other sort of cover, with Kaguya following, and the occasional sprite showing up.

"Can we do that again?" Moon asks, "Would it work against her?"

Venus shrugs. I don't konw either. None of us does. She's completely alien, "She's nothing we've ever fought before in any life," Venus confesses, "I'm sort of making things up as we go..."

"Perhaps if we pool our energies together but..." I hesitate. I'm still nervous, as alien as she is that doesn't change the fact I don't want to strengthen her, but this seems to have triggered something in Venus, some sort of realization.

"If we channel our energy into Moon!" she says, "It will all convert to her type. That we have done before...just not...well, you get the point. Quickly!"

Each of us grabs hold of Moon wherever possible, and we focus again. Moon lets out one short exclamation about how tingly it feels, and then focusses all her might on her wand and channeling the energy. We can hear Kaguya's power pounding away the barrier I erected, as the wand tip faintly begins to glow and then the energy builds up until it's just this huge white ball all around us. I feel energized despite the drain. Kaguya's attacks are pounding on the globe around us. I feel as though I'm holding my breath, and embraced in a cone of complete nothingness, I'm only aware of the five of us and Moon, until I can't hold the breath any longer and we fall forwards with the release of the charge. I can see the others falling to the ground around me, and we seem to hit with a collective thud. Only Moon is still standing gripping so tightly to the wand I would imagine her knuckles are going white. Vaguely through the strain of trying to hold my eyes open I can make out Kaguya completely bathed in this light and held erect hovering above the ground her back arched. My scientific brain is sluggishly reminding me that light should melt ice, but Kaguya seems to be fracturing. Then everything else goes dark to me and I don't know what's going on.

"Ami-chan!" the hand is warm on my chilled body as I tilt my head and cautiously open my eyes, "Quick we have to move!" Usagi is standing over me with Makoto and Mamoru moving passed her. I can hear them waking Minako and Rei, "Quickly! Quickly!" she says, pulling me to my feet, "We must appear like everyone else..."

"It's over?"

Usagi nods, "She turned into this strange white light person and shot off into the sky!"

We huddle together, trying to look confused and headache-ridden and sore like the others who were taken over by Kaguya. It's not too much of a stretch. I'm so drained, and the others aren't much better. Usagi while slightly more energetic than the rest of us, also looks as though she could do with a nap. She keeps snuggled against Mamoru, as we walk into the main area of the park. There's some sort of announcement coming over the speaker system that we have been asked to leave the park for our own safety. I don't catch the rest of it, but it's welcome to go home.

I just want to sleep.