A/N: I am so terribly sorry for the delay in releasing another chapter. Life has been nutty and upside down lately! I got married and my husband and I bought our first house and whew has it been a trip! I can't promise steady updates but I can promise that my stories have not been abandoned! Thank you for being so patiently and I pray you'll like the results of your long wait!

Chapter 11: Burn It to the Ground

Sailor Venus' lungs burned as she ran for all she was worth, punishing the pavement, and more than likely her feet, with the orange high heels on her feet. She wouldn't say she was out of shape, they trained regularly, but times had been peaceful. She hadn't had to run for her life or for the sake of anyone else's since Galaxia had fallen. She cursed Artemis for thinking that keeping their communicators active was foolish. She really could have used it right about now.

She heard one of Uranus' attacks and heard the backlash from the demon soldiers she was fighting all alone. She grit her teeth and ran faster, reaching the last step of the many leading down from the shrine and flat ground. She heard the sound of heavy footfalls behind her and she whipped her head around to see if one of the monsters had broken loose to follow her.

Anubis' hands were clenched in fists as he pumped his arms and legs to catch up with her. He yelled after her but she acted as though she could not hear him. He knew she could, he was most definitely within earshot.

Venus narrowed her eyes and continued to ignore him. How dare he insult her like that. If she wasn't worthy of being the leader of the Senshi she wouldn't have been there attempting to save his worthless hide. She heard him call to her again and she simply ignored him.

Anubis was too preoccupied to feel bad that he had insulted her pride and her abilities to lead. Right now he was pissed off that he was civilian, and no matter how hard he fought or how skilled he was Uranus and Venus were right. He was only in their way. He hated being forced to watch from the sidelines and even if it got him killed he would refuse to stand there like an idiot.

He kicked in a bit of extra speed as Venus neared the drive to the Ronin's headquarters. The burst of energy was enough to bring him up next to the scorned woman he was trying to keep up with.

"Dammit, I know you hear me calling your name. You aren't deaf." He spat. It was probably the wrong thing to say at the current time but when you're used to hurling insults at people then old habits die hard.

Venus glared at him. "Perhaps I was ignoring you." She said through breathless lungs.

As they sprinted down the drive, the rest of the senshi were already transformed and running to join the fight. The Ronins followed close behind. Venus stopped for a moment to catch her breath and Anubis stopped beside her, not feeling the fatigue that she was. Training every day for the last 100 years can do a lot for a person's stamina.

"Minako are you alright?" Neptune said as she and the rest of the party reached them.

Venus nodded her head fervently and calmed her rapid breathing. "I'm fine. Uranus is up there by herself. We have to hurry. God knows what will happen if Dais grows bored of simply watching the festivities. "

She turned and took Neptune's place at the front of her Senshi. Anubis turned to start back towards the temple with them when Venus shook her head and pointed towards the drive.

"No way. You have caused us enough trouble today. Wait at the house with Mia and Yuli. I don't want to risk one of my Senshi in order to protect you. "

Anubis gritted his teeth. "I have told you, I don't need protecting."

Venus laughed bitterly. "The hell you don't. Stay here. I may not be good enough of a leader in your eyes, but at least I have powers. Judo won't save you, and if you come near that fight I won't save you either."

With that parting gift, she turned and ran with the Senshi and Ronins at her heels.

Anubis stood there, dumbfounded and watched them go. He cursed the Ancient for all he was worth for that moment. If only he still had his powers. He glanced down at the stolen kusari-gama in his right hand and the chain he held in the other. This was his weapon, he had mastered it. He took a deep breath and bellowed his Quake with Fear attack as he hurled the weapon towards a tree. The weapon simply lodged itself in the large oak, nothing magical or noteworthy happening.

Anubis cried out in anger, beating his fists against the tree as if it had greatly offended him by not turning to mulch.

"What did the tree do to you Shuten?"

Anubis whirled around to see the Ancient standing there. He would have ran full force into the man if he hadn't already learned that it would be a pointless notion.

"This is your fault." He spat, his voice low and dangerous.

The Ancient's lips curled into slight smile.

"My fault that you cannot use the Armor of Spring? Perhaps, but until you learn your place in this world, it will be your fault that you cannot use it."

Anubis narrowed his eyes at the cloaked man and scoffed at him.

"I fail to see how this is my fault, Ancient. If you would only allow me my powers I would be able to help them, not stand around like an innocent."

Anubis banged his fist into the tree. "I am not meant to stand by and watch while others protect me!" He bellowed.

The Ancient crossed his arms over his chest, the rings of his staff making a small tinkling sound as he did so.

"No Shuten of Loyalty you are not meant to stand by while others suffer. You are a warrior with hands that are meant to protect that which cannot protect itself. Until you learn selflessness and the true meaning behind the virtue that your armor stands for, you will not bear your arms."

Anubis closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He would not stand here waiting like this. There was no honor is cowardice. Armor or no armor, he would fight until the death. That is the way of a samurai.

"Fine. Have it your way then Ancient, but do not expect me to stand by and follow you in learning the ways of gentilitity and wear a damned monks robes until I have earned back that which should rightfully be mine," He paused to yank his weapon out of the tree, gripping it tightly in his hands. "I would rather die than stand around here being protected like an ailing old man. If that is to be my destiny, then so be it." He growled, before taking off after the Senshi and Ronins.

The Ancient smiled as he watched Anubis' retreating figure.

"You may have learned your first lesson, Shuten."

Uranus was participating in hand to hand combat with her Space Sword as her weapon of choice when she heard Neptune's Submarine Reflection sound behind her. She whipped her head around and grinned when Neptune took her place beside her.

"Now this hasn't happened in quite a while, now has it?" Uranus said with a lilt to her voice.

Neptune grinned at her and shook her head as she prepared to use her mirror for another attack. Without questions of orders or direction, the rest of the Senshi along with their Ronin companions fell into battle with the soldiers that they first came in contact with.

Venus summoned her Love-Me Chain to her hand and began backing up Jupiter's Oak Evolution when Dais decided to come down from the roof of the temple where he was watching the festivities.

"So, girl I see you have brought another soldier to your fight. That is hardly fair considering you stole the Armor of Spring from us." He laughed.

Venus glared at him. "You can have Anubis for all I care." She spat.

Sekhmet threw his head back and cackled as he touched down beside Dais.

"You can keep the traitor, it is his armor we want and we will fight you until we regain it for our Master."

Ryo stepped in front of Venus with swords in each hand.

"You can tell Talpa that it will be a cold day in hell when he gets that armor back." He scoffed. Dais narrowed his eyes at Ryo and pulled his weapon from his back.

"I tire of you and your mouth, Wildfire. Let us end this now."

Ryo grinned, crossing his swords in front of his body. "Gladly, Dais."

As Ryo and Dais disappeared to do battle with one another, Venus wrapped her Love-Me Chain tightly around her left hand and held onto it with the her right.

"Do you have something you wish to say Sekhmet, or are you just going to stand around while your soldiers do your dirty work?"

Sekhmet narrowed his eyes at her through the slits in his face mask. "You will learn who your master is, girl and who you will serve. I will have you on your knees in front of Master Talpa begging for mercy." He snarled, taking on of his swords in two hands.

Venus shook her head at him, preparing to strike. "I have no master, and the only person I will ever bow to is Neo Queen Serenity!" She yelled before launching an attack at Sekhmet.

He took a blow to his shoulder but did not pause to nurse the wound. Instead, he proceeded to launch two of his Snake Fang swords at her. Venus could not dodge in time and the swords hit their mark, knocking Venus to the ground and pinning the sides of her fuku to the rock beneath her.

Venus sucked in a large amount of air, desperately trying to regain the breath that was knocked out of her. 'Damn he's fast.' She thought frantically as she tried to pull the swords from her fuku to allow her to get up. As she did so, Cale swept by and wrenched her Love-Me Chain from her grasp, the weapon instantly losing its light as it left her.

Cale smirked as he coiled the dead weapon around his gloved hand.

"You'll pay for that." Venus yelled. Cale laughed.

"You won't need it if you are dead, now will you?"

Venus had taken her eyes from Sehkmet and turned back to him in horror as she watched him spinning his swords at a blinding speed above his head.

"Your Queen won't save you now, you brat!" He spat.

Venus' eyes grew wide and she struggled to move the swords from the rock, desperate to get up. All of the Ronins and Senshi were preocuppied with their current battles. The soldiers just kept coming, pouring from a portal near the koi pond.

'I can't die here, not like this. I have too much I still haven't done! I have senshi to lead! I have a royal family to protect! I need to fall in love!' Her mind raced.

"Snake Fang Strike!" Sekhmet bellowed.

Venus screamed as the swords were launched at her captive form.

As Sekhmet released his attack, Anubis reached the top of the stairs, in time to see that Venus was trapped and about to meet her death at the hands of one of his former Warlords.

Seeing her eyes, wide and blue and filled with fear as she watched her life about to slip from her grasp, self preservation left him. He could not explain the adrenaline rush he felt, nor the need to protect the current bane of his existance, all he could do was run to save her.

He had no armor, no defenses. All he knew in that moment was that he could not stand by and watch her die.

Before the swords reached her Anubis leaped on top of the trapped girl, preparing himself to take the full force of the attack in his back.

A small voice ran through his head as he buried his head in her neck and gathered her form underneath his, speaking words he had never spoken or imagined in his head.

"Death before dishonor. Finality before failure. Loyalty. Protect the Princess."

Venus screamed as the swords reached their destination. A brilliant flash of light momentarilty blinded the battlefield and then all went dark as Sekhmet's swords clattered to the ground.

Venus opened her eyes to look up into the very surprised gaze of Anubis. Anubis sat back on his knees, looking down at his now gloved fingers. The flash of light was his subarmor materializing on his form. He turned his head to stare at the speechless Sekhmet.

"How..." Sekhmet began.

"Hell if know, but this evens the odds a bit I believe." Anubis growled, standing and gripping the kusari gama in his hand.

The sky grew dark once more and lightning flashed as a loud voice boomed over the chaos.

"Enough Sekhmet. Come back, come back at once!"

Sekhmet stared at Talpa's face in the sky. He knew better that to argue. Anubis had earned many a punishment for doing so. He simply disappeared, the rest of his army and the Warlords following suit.

The Senshi, Ronins, and Anubis stood in disbelief at the suddenly empty and quiet courtyard.

"What just happened?" Uranus asked, afraid to put her Space Sword away just yet.

Ryo pulled his horned helmet off, staring up at the dark sky. "Not a clue." He stated.

Jupiter appeared next to Venus and helped her to pull the swords from her fuku. Neither spoke, and Venus stared at Anubis the whole time as Jupiter helped her to stand.

Anubis felt her eyes on his back and he turned to look at her, confused but thankful for the subarmor that had come back to him.

Venus blinked a few times and took a second to find her voice. "You...you saved me."

Anubis said nothing. He could not explain to her why he had saved her, he did not even know himself why he had wanted to. All he knew was that a part of him would rather die than see her perish...for reasons that he could not understand.

Venus looked down at the ground, "Thank you." She stuttered.

Anubis nodded his head, replying with a quiet, "You're welcome."

"Excuse me, but does anyone have a freaking clue what just happened?" Kento yelled, holstering his naginata and pulling his helmet off.

The tinkling of rings brought the group's attention to the stairs. The Ancient stood observing them.

"Circumstances have changed. Come."

TBC