Chapter 15: Puppets
Darkness. A sharp chill against the skin. A never fading fatigue. It hurt; everything hurt as though her body was on fire, yet the chill never ended.
Sailor Mercury's eyes slowly slit open, her vision coming as a haze of shapes. Weakly shaking her head to clear her vision she heard the moans and groans of the other Senshi. Looking to her immediate left Amy saw Sailor Jupiter's body suspended in a large, blood red cross-shaped crystal. Looking quickly to her own body, Sailor Mercury's eyes widened in horror as she saw that she was also trapped in an identical crystal. Sweeping her eyes around she took in ther situation; five crystal crosses were set around what she took to be the roof of a tall office building. Jupiter was to her left, and to her right were Sailors Moon, Mars and Venus, all still fast asleep.
"Finally awake?"
Amy felt her heart skip a beat as she turned her head forward to se the young man who they had battled earlier. His black hair swayed slightly as he levitated in front of her, his arms crossed and an amused smile on his lips.
"I'm glad, I was starting to get bored."
"Who the Hell are you?" Amy spat, glaring at the man as she struggled to move within her crystal shackle.
"I could ask you the same," he replied, decending to the floor and turning his back on her, staring at the center of the roof's surface. "Who are you? Specifically you," he paused, turning to stare Amy in the eye, sending a chill through her spine. "Who are you to have been able to heal the wounds imbedded in Angel?"
"Angel?" Amy asked, confused.
The young man frowned with a sigh, closing his eyes in the process. "I see, so I'll have to do this the hard way..." he said, looking up, his eyes suddenly so bright that they looked sharp, "I love doing things the hard way."
Amy's body snapped rigid the moment she locked eyes with the you man; her muscles locking sd though she had gone into shock, her mouth hanging slightly open as her eyes remained wide, her heart pounding in her ears as her mind started racing through her memories. Fighting to stop the images, she couldn't help but shiver at the memories that appeared; her first encounter with a Yoma, meeting Serena and the other Scouts, the brutal battle against Queen Beryl, the time she had spent with Greg, their battle against King Soul, meeting the Dark Moon Sisters, learning who Rini was, meeting the Amazon Trio, Helios, the Amazoness Quartette, Queen Nehelenia, meeting Tenshi, everything that they had expreianced. As the images continued to flash past Amy shuddered as the Silver Millenium slowly slid into her thoughts, leading to flashes of her and the others back in their princess gowns, playing together, battling Beryl's army, and their deaths.
"Wait a minute..." the man's voice echoed through her mind as his body materialized within her thoughts, his expression annoyed. "You're hiding something from me, aren't you?" Amy felt a pain tear through her heart as the man turned to the mess of images surrounding him, looking through them until he paused momentarily, "There it is," he muttered with a smile, reaching his arm forward and moving several of the images aside to reveal a memory of Amy sitting beside Koaru, his arm around her shoulders as she was snuggled into him, a content smile on both of their faces. "Well well, who is this handsome man?" the young man asked, turning to look at her, a malisious expression on his face. "He's the one that nearly killed Angel for me, isn't he?" Amy fought to close her mind as he turned back to the image and, with a snap of his fingers, started streaming through her memories again, this time forcing her to focus completely on Koaru; when she first met him, the times he had saved her life, the first time they kissed, then the times he had hurt her with his stupidity and recklessness. Then came the images from the Silver Millenium again, Koaru's military uniform, his revenge against King Soul, the pranks he played on her and the others, the time he fell from the tower to save her life.
"No," Amy whispered, trying to fight against this man's mind games as he pulled up the last memory; Koaru runing towards her as she fought off the seven Great Yoma, Kameharu in one hand and a halbred in the other. She felt the tears well in her eyes as the memory continued, knowing that she was about to see how she had died back than, even with Koaru so close. She felt a wave of ice spread through her body as she watched the halbred pierce through her chest, watching the blood spill from her mouth as she dropped to the ground, the Yoma behind her dead as Koaru grabbed her, pulling the weapon out of her chest and setting his hand on the wound, shouting at her as he tried to heal the wound, tears flowing from his eyes as the image slowly darkened until all that remained of it was his scream of sorrow.
"Well," came the man's voice from far away. Amy blinked and saw that the man was staring up at her, smiling. "He killed you... how fun."
Amy remained silent, the shock of the truth still fresh in her mind. Sweat ran down her face as her breathing came in shaky, ragged in and exhalations.
"Oh, what's wrong?" the man asked as he levitated back up to her, smiling, "Did those images scare you?" he reached out and stroked his thumb under her eye and across her cheek, wiping away the tears that had been flowing since the memory had played.
Amy remained silent, the shock still not fading.
Smiling the man lowered himself to the ground and walked to the middle of the roof, extending his hands to the sides.
"Don't fret, girl," he said, his voice no longer filled with mocking kindness but now hard and cold like a devil. "Soon you won't remember anything."
As he spoke a giant red circle appeared under his feet, spreading out and surrounding the majority of the roof as thick glowing lines spread from the man's feet, crossing one another as they formed strange symbols that Amy didn't recognize.
"Soon everything will end!" the man shouted as the light from the cirlce intensified, blinding Amy. She squeezed her eyes shut to block the light, but it didn't help, it only filled her with dread as everything turned white in her mind.
"Dead Scream."
As the words echoed through her ears the light vanished as the man's shocked yell filled her ears. Opening her eyes Amy saw Tuxedo Mask standing a small ways from the center of the roof, backed by Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto.
"Stop with your actions now, evil one," Darien said as he held his cane forward in a defence gesture, "we will not alow you to have your way."
"God you sound stupid," the man spat as he walked forward, glaring the five warriors. "It's people waying such cliche bull shit like you that make me want to continue my 'evil ways'."
"Let's go!" Uranus shouted as she charged forward, the Space Sword in hand as Neptune closely followed, her hands glowing as her powered up her attack.
"Futile," the man said, smiling as he extended his hand forward.
"Space Sword Blaster!"
"Deep Submerge!"
"Useless!" the man shouted as his eyes flashed, causing both attacks to fly back and strike their respective owners, knowing them across the roof, dazed.
"What in the-" Tuxedo Mask was cut off as the man's powers slammed into him, throwing him backwards.
"My Prince!" Sailor Pluto shouted in shock as he slid across the roof, stoping a few feet from the edge. Pluto turned her eyes to the man, her anger invoked.
"Dead Scream!"
"Didn't I tell you fools that it's useless?" the man shouted as he pushed his hand forward again, throwing the attack back at Pluto, who braced herself for the blast. "Fool..." he muttered with a smile as his eyes widened.
Sailor Pluto screamed as her attack slammed into her with triple the force she had launched it.
"I told you fools," the young man said, stepping back to the center of the circle, "that everything you do is USELESS!" he roared as the light burst back to life, raising in a pillar towards the sky, turning the clouds blood red as the early pre-dawn blue faded into pitch black, the clouds casting a red glow on everything.
Amy felt the fatigue in her body return, growing stronger as the light grew brighter, feeling her power slip away as her body slowly started to turn numb.
"He's... stealing my power..." she muttered before slipping into darkness.
"Damn it, I can't believe he's actually doing this," Tenshi muttered as he formed another iceblock under his foot and leapt from it, soaring higher into the air as he sprinted towards the source of the light. Behind him he could sense Koaru's powers flare to life, meaning that the Guardian would be following him soon. Taking another step across the air, Tenshi locked his eyes on the building, his jacket whipping in the air behind him as he neared his target.
"Useless."
The word echoed through Tenshi's mind, causing him to blink in shock as a large stone hand materialized in the air, its massive open palm swinging towards him.
"Shit!" Tenshi shouted as he drew his rapier in a slash, striking the hand with minimal reward. The force of the hand knocked him out of the air, slamming him into the pavement of the street below him. Slowly getting to his feet, Tenshi spat out a small bit of blood as he watched a stone arm grow from the hand, slowly spreading until Shiro's massive Gaia Erradicator had fully formed, blocking the path that the Knight needed to take.
"Damn it all," Tenshi growled, channeling his powers into his sword. "Water Blade!"
The arc of razor liquid sliced clean through the gargantiun, but the wound closed as soon as it opened, serving to only annoy Tenshi.
"Let me try!" yelled Koaru as he leapt over Tenshi's head, a crazy grin on his face and silver flames covering his left arm. "Tritus Pyro Stream!"
The silver lancet of flames blasted a hole clean through the creature's body, though no sooner did the light pass through the hole did it seal itself again.
"Damn, I thought that actually worked," Tenshi muttered as he bit his thumb, thinking as Koaru stepped back beside him, gazing up at the massive beast before them.
"Hey Tenshi, how fast can you go?" he asked, causing the Knight to look at him.
"If we could get around it I would have already," he said, slightly annoyed.
"I figured that, bone head," Koaru retorted, holding his sword up, covering the side of his face with its blade. "But since we can't get around it, we can always plow through it, right?"
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Tenshi snapped, grabbing Koaru's jacket and pulling him to face him.
"Simple," Koaru said, smiling as the Scar spread acros his body, causing his left eye to turn red. "Just freeze yourself and trust me!" he shouted as he turned and yanked his left hand away from the blade of Kameharu; a black flame following, connected to his palm as the flames spread around him.
"You're fucking crazy, you know that?" Tenshi shouted as he covred himself with the Glacia Armor, channeling all of his energy into it to keep it slolid amoungst the roaring flames.
"And proud of it!" Koaru shouted as he slashed the air between him and the Erradicator. "Blaze of Shadows!"
The attack blasted a hole six feet in diameter through the chest of the beast, knocking it off balance and forcing it to take a step back.
"Now Tenshi!" Koaru shouted as he spun, shoulding his sword, both hands on the handle.
"This is crazy!" Tenshi shouted as he leapt onto the blade of Kameharu, though he felt himself smiling as Koaru's plan fully formed in his mind.
"Go! Lost Souls Inferno!" Koaru shouted launched Tenshi forward towards the hole in the beast's chest, his second attack encasing the Knight in its swirling black flames as the hole slowly closed.
"Coming through!" Tenshi shouted as the attack slammed through the hole, allowing him to pass through as his Glacia Armor rapidly melted from the heat of the flames. Dissipating the flames with a sweep of his sword, Tenshi turned and created an ice platform to stand on, looking back at Koaru. "You gonna be alright by yourself?" he shouted.
"Unlike you I can handle things bigger than my brain!" Koaru shouted back, causing Tenshi to grin.
"Got it, I'll come and save you after I save Amy and the others!"
Koaru watched the Knight take off, his smile slowly fading as he turned his eyes back to the giant creature as it lunged towards him, forcing the Guardian to leap back, narrowly avoiding being crushed into his fist.
"I say that, but..." he muttered as his right arm twitched, numbness rapidly spreading through it, "I've already used both of my Unholy Fire attacks, so I'm gonna need some time to recover my energy, time," he paused as he dove to the side as the creature lunged again, crushing the street as its fist connected, "that this fucker isn't going to give me," Koaru finished as rolled to his feet, fighting off a wave of dizzyness as he watched the creature turn to face him, its arm cocked in another attack.
"Damn it."