Chapter 7 – The Final Beast And The New Freak In Town
Hamstrung by her inability to use nearly all of her powers, at least while cuffed to Neil, Jupiter did the only thing she could. Distract and occupy the beast until the cavalry appeared.
"Flower Hurricane!"
A whirlwind of stinging rose petals engulfed the wraith. Blinded, the creature roared its outrage, rattling every window in a five-block radius.
"Get down!" Rei's voice came out of the darkness. Sailor Jupiter snatched Neil by the hand, dragging him to earth and covering his head with her body.
Mars screamed her Flame Sniper attack. The arrow of fire whizzed over Neil and Jupiter's bodies, so near he could practically smell brimstone. "Dammit!" hissed Sailor Jupiter, "Watch where you're aiming Pyro!"
"Excuse me, but who's using her power to kill the beastie and who's not?" growled Sailor Mars. "Talk to me when you've thrown something more than garden mulch at it, Jupiter."
The green clad senshi glared at her friend, but had no comeback.
"Look out!" she heard a male voice gasp. Her eyes widened a second later and she hurled Neil and herself out of the way as a massive clawed foot gouged a deep trench in the asphalt where they'd been mere seconds before. Neil swayed on his feet as he went dangerously pale. "That was too close!"
Scorching flames gouted from Sailor Mars' fingertips again as she hurled few quick Fire Soul Birds at the creature, but the flames seemed incapable of breaching the scaly hide, splashing off of it. The creature roared again, though, seemingly pained by the attack if not incapacitated by it.
"Hellfire," growled the red senshi, gnashing her teeth.
"I wish," Jed retorted, earning a wrathful 'so you think you can do better?' glare from Sailor Mars. "No comments from the peanut gallery, bright boy."
"Its scales are too thick," Jupiter gasped, flinging another Flower Hurricane at the wraith and leaping as it clawed out blindly again. "We need Mercury to tell us where its weak spot is."
"The underbelly," gasped Neil, leaping with her. "It's always the soft underbelly. Shit!" He grabbed Sailor Jupiter and rolled with her under a nearby pickup as the creature's bony wings just missed them but peeled away the vehicle's cab with the ease of a child skimming foam off an ice cream soda. The sickly sweet smell of spilled gasoline and other petroleum products hung heavy in the air. They lay there, dark brown and auburn hair twined together as they tried to catch their breaths. Blinking, Sailor Jupiter lifted her head, realizing with a pained blush that she was lying sprawled on his chest. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
He flashed her a smile that was a little too preternaturally calm for someone without powers caught in the thick of a magical battle. "If I said it was my pleasure would you kill me?"
"Probably," she whispered, gazing at him as if they were the only two people in the world, and at that moment it felt like they were. The moment, however, could not last. Not with an angry Martian princess and a rampaging hell beast around.
"JUPITER!" shrieked Mars. "Where the HELL are you?! Get your ass out here and help me!"
"Coming, mother," cracked the Jovian, rolling with Neil back into the thick of things. Opting for the direct approach, she snatched up a mailbox, literally wresting the thing off of its foundation and hurling it at the wraith's eyes, an action which made Neil gasp. The metal box crumpled against the stony snout, sending stray letters sailing through the air from buckling seams. They never had a chance to fall to earth, however, as one of Mars' Burning Mandala attacks seared the air with rings of red flame and incinerated the lot. Ash rained down around the monster and it appeared to sneeze once before coming out with another ear-splitting roar.
"What the devil is all this?" inquired a disinterested sounding voice in the middle of the chaos.
Both senshi and their compatriots blinked at the sound of the voice. A tall, vaguely humanoid creature with flaming pink hair done up in spikes and freakish robes was standing between them and the monster's path of destruction, looking quite thoroughly bored.
When the beast blasted a hot, fetid breath on him, wilting the pink spiked 'do, however, the bored look vanished to be replaced with vicious anger. "Back off bat breath," hissed the man, drawing a sword of light from beneath his robes.
The creature snapped at him and he leaped, swinging. The glowing blade carved through the scaly hide like butter, lopping off part of its jaw. Foul green blood and spittle sprayed across the street and the creature screamed in pain, tightening its grip on the salaryman, sucking more life-preserving energy from him.
Pleased with the momentary distraction, the pink weirdo turned back to the senshi who each shoved the men behind them, or tried to. There was a slight scuffle as the men tried to protect them, only to get put in their places.
"Dammit! We're the soldiers, not you! Stay back!"
"Get back or I'll pummel you, Blondie!"
When Jed was finally convinced to stay behind her, Mars spun back to face the pink-haired man. "Who the hell are you?"
"Gracious as ever, aren't you, lady of fire?"
"Go to hell, freak!" snapped Mars agitatedly.
"Answer her question!" Jupiter hollered, her eyes glittering wildly. "And what do you want?"
"I want the lady of the light," said the man with an insolent smile as he flicked a glance over the two disheveled senshi. "Only her. I have no interest in you two. However, I can see she is, for some reason, not with you." The look he shot them then seemed to indicate that he blamed them for that turn of events. "But no matter. I'll find her soon enough. And my brothers will soon find you both, ladies…assuming, of course, you live." His lip curled as if he thought that unlikely. "Until then, I'll let you and your friends get back to playing with your little pet here. Ja ne, ladies."
With that, he bobbed his head in a perverse mockery of a bow, then vanished in a pouf of hot pink smoke, leaving the two dumbfounded warriors to face an even more enraged and dangerous wraith.
Jed was the first to snap out of it. "Look out," he yelped, leaping and taking Mars with him as the gore-dripping beast rounded on them. "Use a sword, dang it!" he demanded. "That's the only thing that'll cut through it. Magic won't work."
"I don't happen to have one on me," snapped the fire senshi as they ran, furious at her inability to effectively battle. "So unless you're hiding one in your shirt someplace, SHUT UP!"
She fired off a quick barrage of flame rings, nimbly dodging claws until she realized to her horror that she had been somehow backed into a corner. She could have leapt away, maybe, but the building was too high for a non-magical human to leap and there was nowhere else to hide. They were as good as dead.
Purple-violet eyes rounded in horrified realization. "Oh kami," she gasped, looking at Jed. "I'm sorry!"
"Don't be," he said, crushing her mouth under his for the barest of seconds, "If I've gotta go, Sailor Mars, I'd rather it be with you."
"MARS!" screamed Sailor Jupiter, sounding anguished. The instinct to save her companion had her screaming her attack as tears blinded her. Thunder rumbled and lightning scoured the skies. "SUPREME THUNDER DRAGON!"
The wraith's massive paw slammed toward earth, its face wreathed in lethally crackling energy.
It howled in agony, stumbling back. When Jupiter opened her eyes again she stared dumbfounded. Jed, now resplendent in a uniform of brilliant white with a navy-lined cape and polished half armor was crouched protectively over Sailor Mars, a gleaming razor-sharp blade in his hand. Green gore had sprayed out in a circle round them and splattered on the brick walls above them.
Sailor Jupiter realized to her astonishment that the wraith was staggering because a good chunk of its leg had been severed in one stroke. "My god," she gasped.
"Lord Jadeite, actually," the blond man said with a shockingly cheerful smile. He reached down and helped a stunned, silent Sailor Mars to her feet. "Well, that was surprising, no?" Glancing down at her shoes, he shook his head. "Love the pumps, hon, but they're not the best for battle."
She glowered balefully, making a swipe for Jadeite's sword. "Oh cram it!"
"Uh uh," he smirked, holding the blade out of reach. "Mine. But I'll take care of this for you. Just keep up with me, doll," he said, leaping after the wounded beast, leaving Mars no choice but to leap with him.
"You are so dead when we're done, macho man," she hissed, hurling more flames toward the creature.
Sailor Jupiter hadn't had time to do much more than gawk when she and Neil were flung across the street and through a plate glass shop window by the force of the wraith's tail slamming into them. She lay there for a moment, surrounded by a full-body halo of twinkling shards, feeling sick to her stomach. She wasn't even sure if he was alive, since she'd forgotten herself and used an electrical attack.
"I hope he's alright," she moaned weakly, trying to force herself to sit upright. Her muscles, particularly those in her shoulders, screamed at the mere idea and her wrist ached painfully as if she'd been writing nonstop for days. "Ouch...ow, ow, ow…"
A hand under her chin lifted her face toward a brilliant sapphire gaze. "Hey. Are you okay?"
"I think so…" she muttered through lips whitened with pain. Then it hit her and her eyes blazed brilliant emerald green. "Omigosh! You're alive! I didn't fry an innocent! Thank Kami-sama!"
The face that was Neil's, streaked with blood from a few small cuts yet more alive than she'd seen before, grinned arrogantly at her as he busily shook glass shards off of his brown cape. The dapper garment sported a lining that nearly matched his eyes. "Nope. Now are we going to let Jadeite and Mars have all the fun?"
He snagged her hand and hauled her through the hole in the window they'd made on entry. Somewhere, he too had found a sword, she realized. "Let's work together. Use my blade as a conductor and let's see if we can't short circuit that…that thing's heart. If it has one."
"Are you sure?" Jupiter asked anxiously, still concerned about using an electrical attack while chained to him.
His answer was an action.
Reaching far back, he hurled the sword through the night. It spun end over end like a circular saw blade and Jupiter held her breath, praying that his throw would be true. It was. The sharp tip of the blade pierced between scales and plunged into the body cavity, the aforementioned soft underbelly of the creature, burying in almost to the hilt. It howled, dropping the salaryman to claw at its body.
"Now, Sailor Jupiter!"
She nodded, jerking his arm up out of the way again so that she could spin and launch her fiercest attack. Mars and Jadeite ducked in and dragged the poor salaryman to safety, then ran for cover.
"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"
Crackling leaves of pure energy gleamed emerald in the dim light, swirling as she spun like a top. Suddenly she stopped, sending the stream of lethal electrical leaves showering toward the creature and sword with the power and speed of a major leaguer. Conducted through the metal of the sword, lightning crackled through the creature's battered body as a hail of deadly red roses thudded into its face from somewhere out in the night. The wraith thrashed and convulsed for an eternal minute before its heart stopped. With one last mournful cry, it expired and turned into so much dust on the wind. The sword dropped to the street with a clang.
"We did it!" cried the sword's owner, scooping it up and grabbing Jupiter into a fierce, one-armed hug.
"Way to go, Neph," said Jadeite with a smirk. "Good thinking."
"Neph?" inquired a disgruntled Sailor Mars.
"Lord Nephrite," said the brown-haired man with a smirk of his own, letting go of Sailor Jupiter and bobbing a slight bow.
"Whatever," sneered Mars. "Now if you lords wouldn't mind, let's see about the victim in all of this."
"Oh gods," said Jupiter, turning pale and racing toward the poor man's side, leaving Nephrite with very little choice but to stumble after her. She ripped open the man's suit, pressing her ear to his chest. "He's bad off. Where's Mercury when you need her?"
"I'm here," gasped a familiar voice. The panting blue-haired senshi raced over, dropping to her knees beside Jupiter. "Oh gods, I'm too late!"
Sailor Mercury knelt, pressing her fingers to the salaryman's throat. She sought a pulse, a heartbeat, a breath or any sign of life. "I'm afraid he's too far gone. He's been drained too far. But I'll call Mamoru for help." She pelted off in search of aid…and the thrower of the roses and his companion, who was being kept safely out of sight due to the presence of strangers bearing weapons.
"He's a dead man," Sailor Mars said soberly, shaking her head, seeing the grey-blue shadow of death on him, "unless the Eternal Moon Tier…" She twisted her head around to look, a sad knowing smile flitting across her lips.
As if her thought had conjured it up, they heard a voice. "Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!"
The words came out of the dark night and with them a wash of healing silver light flowed, enveloping the salaryman and the four heroes clustered close around him, bathing them in magical luminescence which lit up the whole area and penetrated into the dark of the alleys nearby. In the case of the poor salaryman it flooded a nearly entirely drained body with life-giving energy, rejuvenating a stuttering heart, breathing new life into dying lungs, and restoring oxygen deprived brain cells. He coughed and lay still but for the steady rise and fall of his chest. But he lived.
"By Ares," gasped Sailor Mars as the power of the Tier flowed over, around and though her.
"Sweet Elysion," whispered the two Shitennou, feeling a power that was eerily familiar, yet not quite exactly like something they knew they ought to know. If they could just remember…
Sailor Jupiter merely sucked in a ragged breath as the incomprehensible power streamed through her, buffeting her as it partially unlocked the vaults of long buried memories.
When it was finally over and the night was dark again, they turned to stare at one another as the changes continued to ripple through them. It was, for all, like having a blindfold ripped off and looking at the world through fresh eyes.
"For Elysion's sake, REINA!"
Jadeite could not control the giddy thrill that ripped through him. Fate surely had a bizarre sense of humor because due to a last minute choice to attend a party and one giggling coed, he'd been handcuffed to the other half of his soul. And, sweet heaven, she was every bit as much of an exotic stunner as she'd been a millennium ago when he'd first staked his claim to her. He groaned softly as his eyes raked her form desperately. Her hair was like skeins of ebony silk. In those heels, her legs still went on forever. And her pansy-heart eyes still seemed to burn into his very soul.
Without warning Sailor Mars found herself crushed into a heated embrace, bent back in a hungry kiss that made her head spin. She moaned against Jadeite's caressing lips as his nimble fingertips began toying with the bow that was both guardian and gateway to her cleavage.
"By Gaia…Angelita," Nephrite whispered both an oath and a name that had gone unspoken for a millennia. "It's you, Lita sweetheart! It's really you!"
For an eternal moment he drank in the sight of his Silver Millennium love reborn: her shining curls tumbling riotously around her beautiful, expressive face, her sparkling emerald eyes with their dark fan-like lashes, her long, sexy legs bared by her fuku, her imminently kissable lips, and her lushly rounded curves which he longed to touch again.
In the next moment, Nephrite was doing just that, sweeping her ruthlessly into his embrace, tangling his hand in her silky hair and plundering her sweet mouth passionately with his. No matter her name, she was and always had been since their first meeting, as familiar and necessary to him as the very air which he breathed. He couldn't believe he hadn't remembered, hadn't recognized her sooner. It had been a thousand years and he was bound and determined to make up for lost time.
The girls hung, though, numbly in the men's arms as the curtain over their own Silver Millennium memories was stripped back. They remembered other things. They remembered…the end.
(Author's note. They remembered the end of the Silver Millennium, that is…NOT the end of the story. And this cannot be good. BTW, it's not easy writing a fight scene (especially when I'm not great at them to start with) when the important players are handcuffed together. Very tricky.)