Chapter 6

Within seconds, the five of us had assumed our roles as Sailor Scouts, ready to defend out class from the attack of the new enemy. "Hey, you!" I shouted as I pointed my finger to the enemy, "How dare you drain the life blood of aspiring graduates! We've worked far too hard for you to take everything away from us!" In traditional fashion, I stood in my classic punishment pose, with one arm crossed over the other. "I am Sailor Moon! Guardian of love and justice and in the name of the moon, I will punish you!"

The rest of the scouts stood in their own respective poses, ready for action. The vampire tossed his head back in laughter, his red eyes closed for a brief moment. I felt my face cringe into a snarl as he began to speak, "My name is Valentino, world-renowned vampire following in the footsteps in the great vampires before me. I've heard a great deal about you scouts on the television and radio. You certainly aren't nearly as threatening in real life."

Sailor Mars immediately jumped in front of all of us, "How dare you! We have beat every enemy we have faced and you think you're that much better than us? Ha!" Mars pulled her arm back and shouted, "Mars Firebird Sniper!" and blast the enemy with burst of flames. Valentino quickly jumped out of the way, his lips pulled back into a mocking smile. In a flash, Valentino was next to Sailor Mars, his long, pale fingers caressing her neck.

"Sailor Mars!" we all shouted as Sailor Mars reached her hands up to pull Valentino's hands off her neck. Within seconds, Valentino barred his fangs and dug them into Sailor Mars's neck. Sailor Mars's body quickly went limp, the color draining from her face. I ran forward, "No! You monster!" I reached my hand up in the air, expecting my wand to come into my hand. Clenching my fist, I realized that nothing was coming into my hand. I felt my eyes tear up, feeling defeated as I looked back up at Valentino who was vanishing in a swirl of white rose petals.

"I think I'll take her back to my lair for a bit. She could prove to be a valuable ally," Valentino taunted at us as they vanished.

I dropped to my knees while the rest of the scouts stood, unclenching their fists and feeling equally defeated. Tuxedo Mask knelt beside me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "We'll get her back, Sailor Moon. We've defeated every enemy before us. We just have to find his weakness. Don't give up yet!"

I looked up at my love, his blue eyes encouraging me. I nodded. "I just didn't want this to happen all over again, especially not on a day like this."

"I know, but we have to take this setback and make something out of it. We'll retreat for now and plan our battle strategy."

Sailor Mercury was the next to speak, "Sailor Moon, everyone, I know we can overcome, get Mars back, and defeat Valentino. I scanned him with my VR vision before he took Mars captive and got a better idea of what he's after. How about we head back to your place, Tuxedo Mask, and work on that strategy."

Tuxedo Mask nodded. "Sounds like a plan, Mercury."

When we arrived back at Darien's place, I sat on the couch in between Lita and Amy while Mina sat upright in the armchair, the four of us with cups of hot tea that had chilled way too much for any of us to drink them any more. We had been hashing out a new strategy to defeat Valentino and had come up with very few answers, even based on Amy's information that she had gathered during the previous fight. She had ruled out any of the "typical" vampire weaknesses, with the exception of sunlight, which Valentino had shown to avoid to this point and Amy had deduced was the single known weakness we had. "I'm not even sure if he has a greater purpose. He did mention that Sailor Mars could be useful, but I'm not sure what he meant by that," Amy stated, trying to spark up our discussion.

"Could he be trying to create an army of vampires?" Mina asked.

"I don't think so," Lita replied. "After all, the victims we have seen before have been left behind and have returned to a normal state, not one of a vampire."

Amy nodded, "That is true. He also left them alive, though, so what's not to say that it takes a period of time for the venom of the vampire to make its way through the victim's system before they turn into one as well?"

"Hmm," Lita, Mina, and I wondered in unison.

Darien came in through the door, the four of us all startled by the sudden noise before collectively sighing that it was only him. In Darien's arms, he cradled several paper bags of groceries. We had decided that staying all together was our best line of defense for the time being and Darien had volunteered to pick up some groceries to get us through for at least two weeks. I stood up to help him unpack the bags, glad to stretch my legs. I looked at the clock, which read 7 pm and saw that we had been sitting in the living room deliberating for over three hours. My stomach rumbled and confirmed that it was dinnertime. Darien looked at me upon my stomach's announcement. "Hungry, Muffin?"

I blushed, gazing at the kitchen tiles. "It's been a long day."

Darien shrugged, "I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's good to know you still have an appetite." He pulled out a package of my favorite ramen, "Here. Get the water boiling and you'll have dinner by the time we put everything away. I have enough for the girls, too."

I smiled and lunged towards Darien, who barely managed to keep his balance as I flung my arms around him. He wrapped his arms around me and I buried my face in his shirt, no longer able to hold my tears back. "Why is this happening? It's all my fault that there's a new enemy and even worse now, Raye is gone. What am I supposed to do without her?" I sobbed.

Darien stroked my head before pulling me off him ever so gently so he could look into my eyes. "Serena, I know you better than anyone. You are the strongest person I know, without a doubt. I know you can save Raye. You have done it so many times in the past. And you can't blame yourself for this. The future is always able to change, just look at when Rini came to us from the future. We may have countless more enemies before we reach the 30th century. Who knows? But that doesn't mean it's anyone's fault. It's part of life. We're here to defend the Earth and the Moon, no matter the cost. We can do this. Just believe in yourself, Serena."

I sniffled, wiping my eyes on my sleeve. Suddenly, I felt Darien's lips pressed against mine. I closed my eyes and allowed him to kiss me, feeling a new warmth inside of me. When he pulled away, I said, "You're right. Let's do this."