LAST TIME:

Chapter 7: Master of Poisons

-A warrior jumps Mina with a surprise attack in the thick of the woods. The warrior turns out to be a young adolescent. Mina fights this boy in hand-to-hand combat and ends up losing. She is poisoned and we know no more… Until now…

Chapter 11: Forced Rebirth

Sometimes in the darkness, she saw more than she could in the light. Someone normal would usually be afraid of the darkness and embrace the light. Yet, the ex-senshi of love could not explain her abnormality. What's love without light? What's light without dark? The battlefield had taught her more than gore, death, and valor. The battlefield had taught her that the harmony of the world was in the balance of love and hate, light and darkness. Every time she geared up for what she would assume was her final chance at the front, she kept in mind there was no balance and no harmony left in this world anymore. The darkness ate at the Moon, Earth, Venus, and the rest. The darkness swallowed all the worlds as well as Mina.

Maybe that's why the darkness was welcoming. Not seeing was better than seeing. Not knowing was better than knowing. Not seeing and not knowing would justify why the pain was disappearing. The horror and the anguish of everyone she knew would end in the moment that she couldn't see or know. These thoughts may seem rather rash and unfeeling, but under the circumstances, her scrambled mind took this nose-dive turn.

Squeeze her heart and beat her stomach alive again because she saw no point in facing the inevitable, which was the ultimate destruction of all she knew. Grip her lungs and massage the air into her again, so she could breathe because she saw no point in taking the breath, which could be much more potent to the person who wanted to live. Put her mind piece by piece together, so that it could be whole again since she wronged her self by thinking that she was not needed.

"Lieutenant!" The private screamed as she drove two fists into Mina's rather bruised chest. And with that drive, Mina jolted awake and gasped in outrage.

"Private, you hit me one more time and I'll have you court marshaled for attempting to harass the living daylights out of me!" Mina rubbed at her bruised breast and whined like a beaten puppy. "Damn, I wish you had just as much oomph in battle as you do at reviving the dead."

"You were dying, Lieutenant!"

With the help of the private, Mina sat upright as she continued to massage herself. The other ladies were standing in a circle around her. Mina reached into her hair and pulled out some of the weeds and twigs left in there. "I wish I had! That hurt!" She cried in accusation at the girl beside her.

"Lieutenant, you were barely breathing," she answered.

"We need to take you to the healer just to make sure," another added.

Mina squared her shoulders. "I'm fine… Where's the boy; he who poisoned me?"

"Let us take you to the healer. The rest are on foot scouting the area as we speak."

Mina scraped the ladies with her scrupulous, dagger-like eyes, "How long have I been out?"

"You were MIA for three hours before the waiting girl told us you had left camp. We feared the worst."

"Humph, you can call off the search party. The boy is gone."

"But-"

Mina waved her hand impatiently. "Don't waste anymore time. We have to move if we want to get a hold of this rogue and others like him."

"More bad news, Lieutenant…"

"What is it?" Mina grumbled as she got off her bottom with the help of two privates.

"A cavalry was ambushed when they were bringing in the slaves through Benin."

"If they were able to report back to us, then I believe some of their lives were spared," Mina uncharacteristically sneered. She wished she could just retreat into the unknowing darkness again. Sighing, her tone shifted to that of remorse when she received the appalled looks from the others. "I'm sorry, soldiers." I'm sorry, boys. "Take twenty fighters to Benin to check on the town. I need to stay at this fort and gather what's left of what's left."

Mina hobbled back to her tent, shunning the hands that were reaching out to her. Before she retreated behind the fold of her tent, she turned to the closest woman who attended to her. "Get me some information on the officer leading the Rebel forces on their advance at the Celestial Gates."

"That would be Lieutenant Kunzite."

"That soldier has not an ounce of man in his blood. He sends a child to do his job instead of facing me himself. I want thorough details on him!"

The woman took a step back before saying rather timidly, "Our intelligence has failed to gather that information you seek. Ever since you joined the fight, the rebels have doubled in forces."

Mina frowned and fitfully tossed the tent flap aside. "Then they got wind of my presence here."

She nodded. "You're the undefined power that has asserted herself back into the battlefield, Lieutenant. I think the only reason why Kunzite was summoned was because of you."

"We can't stay in the background for long," Mina grumbled. "I was almost killed because I am considered a force to be reckoned with. Kunzite must have a strong circle of men protecting him."

The woman nodded again. "Five mercenaries protect him. They are the reason why our intelligence failed to return with information…"

Mina's chin lifted and the diamonds glittered in her blue eyes. She let out a soft gasp she couldn't hold back. "What happened to them?"

The woman's lips trembled for a minute, but then she regained her composure and proceeded in her serious tones, "the scouts were tortured and their bodies found in a mass grave. We found the grave at a fallen fort, Lieutenant, around the time you disappeared."

Mina's soul shook with anguish and despair. Externally, she raised her head high and looked the soldier in the eye. "You must have lost a sister to the rebels."

The woman quivered. "I have."

"We fight to preserve, not to avenge. Make a note of that." The soldiers lose themselves to rage if they were not told to fight for the sake of fighting. As a result, the fighting would never cease. How far was this Kunzite going to go before anyone could stop him? He probably wouldn't stop until every one of them reached annihilation.

"I fear if I don't fight, then we may never have a chance at peace, Lieutenant."

"Peace," Mina spoke softly in astonishment, "I don't remember what that means."

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! - For those who celebrate the holiday.

Good night to everyone else!

I will be back with another chapter in 2013. Cheers!