Chapter Fourteen
LadyPrin
Disclaimer Applies.
They came at them in a wave.
All the monsters, or youma as Rei now called them, flattened the grass in their rush toward their pray.
As each one came within sword reach, the girls lashed out at them. Bringing them down by the handful.
Ami found a hidden knowledge of how to use a sword suddenly rush to the front of her mind. Then her body seemed to take over, instinctive reflexes Ami named it. She didn't fight it; she just let her body do what it thought needed done.
As she fought in a trancelike state, her mind went into itself to wait out the battle.
"Ami . . ."
Another voice joined her in her mind.
"What?" She asked it.
"It's time to learn of who you really are."
Memories flashed through her mind as her body still fought youma's.
By the time the memories stopped flowing, Ami had a headache.
"My memories!!! They're back!" Her mind cried.
"Yes, and I'm sorry for holding them back all these years, but it was necessary."
"Who are you?" Ami asked quickly, feeling the presence that belonged to that mysterious voice receding.
It left without responding.
"AAAAHHHHH!!!" Serena screamed as a youma lifted her up high into the air.
Her sword lay on the ground at the youma's feet.
The other girls heard her and tried to get to her, they couldn't get to her in time.
The youma flung her high into the air toward the trees.
She covered her head with her arms as she fell through the tree limbs. Most limbs just broke off as she hit them, but there were those that were too thick. Those hurt and nocked the breath out of her.
She expected to hit the ground hard. She knew that tree limbs wouldn't be the only things broken.
She never hit the ground.
She hit something else instead, or someone actually.
"Ugg!!!" Endymion grunted as he staggered back into Andrew, but he still held Serena in his arms.
"What the heck happened?" He cried as he regained his balance.
"I got thrown." Serena replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"By what???" Andrew cried.
Endymion sat Serena back on her feet.
Serena looked at all eight people there, closed her eyes and chanted in her mind.
"I call upon my forbidden birthright, help them see through these illusions."
"You know that you'll tire too quickly if you do this?" Another familiar voice in her mind asked her.
"You're back!" Serena thought happily. Then she became serious. "Yes, I know, but they need to see."
"Okay then." The voice replied.
"Oh, sweet moon above!" Andrew hoarsely cried.
Serena opened her eyes and saw that all of them were looking toward the battlefield. Then all eight of them turned to look at her.
The small boy with a horn on his forehead smiled and nodded at her.
Endymion, Andrew and four others looked at her in shock, and the last soldier looked at her knowingly.
What he thought he knew she didn't have time to find out.
With a smile, Serena turned around and headed back onto battlefield.
She dodged a million swinging objects before she finally came to her sword that was still lying on the ground.
Before she picked it up though, the whole air turned red, and the ground beneath her feet shook itself so sharply that she fell over backwards.
A loud BOOM filled the air. It was so loud that everyone clasped their hands to their ears, and Serena could've sworn she'd screamed, but she never heard the sound of her own voice.
When the air cleared, and her ears stopped ringing, and the pain in her head cleared a little, she noticed that there was a burnt smell in the air.
The smell of burnt grass, and something else.
She raised her head and looked around.
Half of the monster population had been wiped out, and the rest were still reeling from the BOOM. Where half of the monsters had been there was now only burnt grass.
"Fire." Rei stated as she helped Serena up on her feet.
Serena glanced at her.
The rest of the monsters that were still living roared in anger.
"Who did that?" Serena asked.
"Our reinforcements!" Endymion and Rei cried together.
Serena looked where they were looking.
Three familiar young women, one familiar young girl, and four unknown men were standing at the edge of the field.
"Amora, Michelle, Setsuna and Hotaru!" Serena muttered. "But who are the men?"
"My generals." Endymion replied as he came to her side.
Amora, Michelle, Setsuna and Hotaru all held swords in their hands. The generals held nothing in their hands, though the brown haired one had his hands up and pointed toward the scorched part of the field.
He lowered his hands and they all ran to their friends' sides.
"Sorry we're late your Highness." One of them apologized to Endymion as all four generals bowed.
"That's okay Kunzite! I'm just happy you made it in time." Endymion replied.
Hasty introductions were made before the rest of the monsters came back to their senses.
Then the battle raged on.
Kunzite fought the battle with pure energy. Zoisite fought with ice. Nephrite fought with lightening. And Jedite fought with fire. Helios turned back into a horse and fought with his horn and hooves. The rest fought with swords.
Serena lost track of where everyone was on the field.
Abruptly she backed up into someone or something.
Before she could swing her sword around, Rei's voice cried out.
"It's me!"
"Oh, good!" Serena panted. "Listen Rei, I have no idea how long I can go on like this!"
"Don't worry. It won't go on much longer." Rei assured her.
Serena paused and looked into Rei's eyes.
They were strange to her.
"Rei?" She asked worriedly.
Rei just smiled.
She held her hands up as her fingers turned into claws.
Serena stepped back horrified.
Rei lunged at her; her claws gripped her shoulders so tightly they drew blood.
Then both Rei and Serena disappeared from that battlefield, and nobody noticed.
Queen Beryl was getting impatient.
The Princess brat had still not been found, and it aggravated her that she couldn't kill the Moon Queen off now, while she was so close to her.
But then again, she wanted the Moon Queen alive to see her kill her precious daughter, and to see her, Beryl, take the thrown to not just the Moon Kingdom, but Earth as well.
For that to happen, she had to be patient. She had to keep pretending to be Fireia. Thanks to the memory transfer that she had done between Fireia and herself, Beryl knew just how to act like Fireia. She knew just what to say and when to say it.
Hopefully it would all soon come to an end. All these memories were making her nauseous.
"My Lady!" A voice from one of her minions came to her mind.
"Yes?" Beryl asked slowly. Her tone conveyed the message that if it weren't important, the barer of the message would soon pay with their life.
"I hold the Moon Princess in my hands." Came the reply.
"Oh, how marvelous!!!" Queen Beryl silently laughed. "Keep her there. I'm coming."
"Yes, my Lady."
Beryl looked over to the Moon Queen who was at that moment staring out the window of her room.
"My Lady." Beryl said meekly with the voice of Fireia.
"Yes, Fireia?" Queen Serenity asked in a soft, sad voice, not turning around.
"I believe there is something you should know." Beryl said, stopping right behind Serenity.
Serenity half turned around to look at her with questioning eyes.
At that moment, Beryl let fall the illusion of Fireia, and within the seconds that Serenity was in shock, blasted her with enough dark energy to knock her unconscious.
"I'm not your beloved Fireia, fool." Beryl muttered as she turned Queen Serenity over onto her back with a pointy dark purple shoe.
"That was easy. She never saw it coming." Beryl gloated as she faded away.
The battle between the monsters and forces of the Sailor Scouts and Endymion's army was interrupted abruptly as the earth shook itself and a large patch of it started rising up.
The mound of earth only stopped when it had reached the size of a medium big hill.
Serena and her captor materialized on the very top of the hill. Her captor no longer wore the guise of Rei. She now was herself, sharp pointy ears, and gray skin with stripes of green on her cheeks. She had red eyes and wore a tight fitting two-piece black tank top and pants outfit.
Her claws were still dug deep into Serena's skin.
Serena was biting her lip to keep from crying with the pain.
"NO!" All the Sailor Scouts and Endymion and his people cried out.
Horrible laughter filled the air. It made all who heard it, minus the monsters, sick with the sound of it.
Then Beryl materialized right beside Serena and her captor.
She looked down upon our heroes with contempt.
She looked over at Serena who stared at her in fear and repulsion.
Beryl took Serena's chin into her hand, and looked Serena in the eyes.
"So, I've finally gotten you after all this time. My attempt at the harbor failed, but no matter now. Soon you shall die like you should've when you were born." She whispered to Serena.