Until You 14

Lita woke up from her disturbed sleep. Her head was hurting like hell. Shutting her eyes tightly, as if she was trying to shut out the pain, Lita got out from the bed. Blindly, Lita reached out for the scattered pills on her the table beside her bed. She risked opening her eyes and the sunlight that rushed through her eyes burned her head, making her headache worse than ever. Hastily, Lita opened her pills but clumsily the pills fell to the floor.

“Damnation!” Lita swore loudly. When she finally managed to swallow a couple of pills, Lita threw herself on the bed, willing the pills to work.

Whenever the pain attacked, the need to have Nephrite’s strong arms around her to comfort and to support arose. But none of those needs was as strong and hurt as this time. It felt as if the pain had reached its limit and the next attack would take her life and soul with it away. Lita reached for a pillow and hugged it tightly, stubbornly fought the pain. It was so intense like the last one and Lita began to regret her decision when she firmly told Serena that she didn’t anyone to accompany her. If she were dead, there was no one to be there for her…Lita firmly shook away the frightful notion. She would stay alive until she could see Nephrite safe once again.

Lita felt so lightheaded, perhaps from her constant pain that suddenly she saw her surrounding changed. Lita stayed lying on her bed with her eyes wide opened. Her pain had completely gone. She couldn’t feel even a single pulse from the earlier attack. It was as if her earlier pain was just a dream. She was so shocked at the changes of her surrounding that she couldn’t move. She blinked rapidly, willing the hallucination to fade away.

“This must be the pills…I knew it,” Lita muttered alone, but the scenery around her still didn’t change back to her room. “Go away…go away…go away...” She silently chanted while closing her eyes, hoping that once she opened her eyes back, she would see the familiar setting of her room.

When Lita dared to open an eye, Lita realized that she wasn’t dreaming. Hallucination maybe…but definitely not dreaming because she hurt when she pinched herself on cheeks. Cautiously Lita rose and gingerly put her feet on the floor. It felt cold against her bare feet. Lifting her nightgown, Lita took time to observe her surrounding.

In fact it only took her one glance, to realize that she standing in the Royal Garden in Earth Kingdom. The familiar scent of flowers, sounds of trees rustling from the wind and the feeling of the soft grass against her feet brought a rush of memories. Happy and sad memories…Exciting and frightening memories…They were all passing through Lita like a wind as she stood still in the middle of the garden.

“How on Earth do I get here?” Lita asked in wonder. Last time she was in her past, it was her master gave her the dreams. Now the feeling of the surrounding was so real…it couldn’t be a mere dream.

“My lady,” A rough drawl, which only indicated that the person behind her was a man, called her softly.

Like a startled rabbit, Lita jumped slightly and abruptly turned around. The instant Lita turned around, her white satin nightgown dissolved into a sapphire-emerald dress and her disheveled hair transformed into an elegant ponytail curls that was crowned by a pair of emerald clips. Again Lita was so shocked by the sudden changes that it took her a while to recognized the man in front of her.

“I believe you have dropped your scarf,” The man lifted his golden hair and a pair of blue eyes was looking at her. Lita’s eyes widened as recognition struck her like lightening. Ian!

He looked so different in this…this…she couldn’t possibly call this whole a dream. Of course he had the same golden blond hair that used to make her heart beat fast, but his blue eyes were not the cold and full-of-hatred ones but soft and full of laughter. It was as if he hadn’t been touched by evil yet. So young…so full of life… For the first time in this life, Lita felt her heart accelerated by a mere look at Ian’s face. Not by attraction, she had reserved all that to Nephrite, but admiration on how evil could take all those good things away from a person.

“My lady?” Ian frowned in concerned and he took a step forward. Lita could feel his body heat when he was this close. This reminded Lita of the night when Ian intruded her room and stole a kiss from her. This wasn’t a dream…this wasn’t a hallucination. This was real.

“Thank you…I guess,” Lita hastily stepped into the role of Lady Jupiter. She didn’t know what Ian was planning to do by doing this. Somehow, Lita knew that Ian, who was in front of her right now, was not the Ian that she knew now. Ian smiled softly as Lita slowly reached out to retrieve her scarf from Ian. Lita could feel the attraction she felt long time ago, when she first met Ian in her past life. How could this be? Lita wildly wondered. This kind of feeling towards Ian was lost long time ago. I am feeling it once again.

“You must be the people from Moon that come to establish a bond of friendship between two kingdoms,” Ian warmly started a conversation as they both scrolled leisurely in the Royal Garden of Earth.

“Yes, we did…” Lita felt like a traitor, walking around with the very person who took Nephrite away. But what else should she do? She was so confused with the whole thing. She was having the worst headache attack ever and the next thing she knew, she was in this dress and Ian was talking nicely to her, as if this was their first…meeting… Lita stopped walking abruptly, which caused the man beside her to pause as well.

Lita turned around slowly to observe her surrounding carefully; she then looked at her dress and then to man beside her. Slowly the lost memory of her past life came slowly to her. This was the scene where she had first met Ian! The garden…this dress…this scarf…those words that Ian had said… Did this mean she was back in time? Lita shook her head dismissively. The notion was absurd! If she did, Ian and she must get through Sailor Pluto first. If not that…why was she experiencing this moment again?

“Are you alright, Lady Jupiter?” Ian tentatively touched her cheek. It was warm and alive.

Lita breathed deeply and let go slowly as if she was accepting at whatever Ian had planned for her. She was tired fighting everything and everyone. “Yes, Lord Ian…I’m fine,” Lita curved up a smile. She would play along and find out what Ian would get if he did this.

After a while walking with Ian, Lita was fully convinced that this man wasn’t the Ian that had taken Nephrite away. They were two different person- Ian the past and Ian the future. But why would Ian the future had gone through the trouble to reinstate Ian the past and made her went through this moment once again, Lita didn’t know. All she knew that there were times where Lita asked herself why was she used to be attracted to Ian and now she knew why. She was so used to see the evil side of Ian that she had totally forgotten the real Ian that she had known so long ago.

The feeling was so aliening…so unsuitable for her. Her attention, her attraction and her love were only for Nephrite in her past life, in this life and her next. But why she was feeling it towards Ian? It was like she was getting to know Ian once again and frighteningly she…liked it.

They stopped under a tree, where Ian halted them both and brought them standing facing each other. Lita started to open her mouth to ask why were they stopping here and quickly closed it back. Since she had regained her memory about her first meeting with Ian, everything that they did was like a movie playing back repetitively. They had kissed for the first time under this very tree on the very first meeting… Lita had already felt the attraction that she didn’t want toward Ian and she was suddenly scared at what Ian’s kisses might invoke inside of her that had long forgotten.

“I’ve never met a lady like you, Jupiter,” Ian said softly as he pushed away soft strands of her hair from her cheeks. His eyes never left hers. “So graceful and yet so full of life…” He lowered his head to claim a kiss from her tempting lips that was slightly trembling. His face was so closed that Lita could feel his hot breath against her cheeks.

Lita couldn’t breathe. When Ian started to wrap his arms around her, drawing her closed to him, guilt and anticipation clenched tightly around her heart until Lita thought she might burst. She closed her eyes tightly, not knowing what to do for half her screaming for her to slap Ian’s face away and the other half that was already consumed with this damned attraction to Ian, urged her to let Ian kissed her.

Suddenly, in the midst of her confusion and conscience, Lita saw all things that Nephrite had done and said to her…all his breathtaking kisses and touches…all the intense emotions and laughter that he had invoke in her…all the sacrifices and gifts that he had given to her. An attraction that she had felt for just a few moments towards Ian couldn’t compare to all the feelings that Nephrite had taught her to feel. Ian’s kisses weren’t worth Nephrite’s incredible love.

Lita opened her eyes when Ian’s lips finally touched hers. They were soft against hers but she couldn’t feel the fireworks and the excitement like she usually felt whenever Nephrite kissed her. Still, the kiss took away something from her…she didn’t know what. Gathering all her wits and self-respect, Lita pushed Ian away.

Taking a deep breath, Lita whispered, “I can’t…”

With those two words, like Cinderella was when the clock struck twelve times, the garden abruptly vanished and her dress dissolved back into her white satin nightgown. Once again Lita was dumbfounded by the sudden changes. It was a few minutes later when Lita realized that she was once again in her room. She was standing outside her bedroom whereas she was in her bed when the whole things happened.

Shaken, Lita tentatively touched her lips and felt they flushed from Ian’s kisses. She was so sure that the whole thing was real. She felt the breeze in the garden, the felt of soft grass under her feet and the warmness of Ian’s kisses. Flush slowly crept to Lita’s cheeks. She felt dirty and absolutely unworthy to be Nephrite’s woman when she couldn’t even control her reality and fantasy.

What was that all about? Lita thought uneasily.

* * * * * *

Nephrite painfully shifted his weight from right to the left leg. It didn’t matter whether he frequently shifted his legs because he started to lose the feeling of his legs. When his friends came, he was going to be their burden. Nephrite swallowed the bitter truth. Several times he had carelessly fell asleep, dragging his body down. When he awoke, he saw that an angry red lines around his wrists and his fingers cold from lack of blood circulation. He was so damned thirsty and his damned captor wasn’t even cared to give him water. Too many blood flowed out but no water went in to replace it. He would give anything just to have a gulp of water right now… Through his dried throat, Nephrite snorted at his wistful thinking. Ian couldn’t even bear to have him releases from this shackles, how could he spare him a glass of water?

Nephrite raised his head slowly and examined his tiny cell. He realized for the first time that it didn’t have any window, which explained the gloominess and the darkness of this space. The time passed so slowly for Nephrite and soon he started to wonder how long had he been imprisoned. A day? A week? He had dozed off several times before but he was sure those uncomfortable sleep couldn’t be more than an hour each.

Then, his body tensed impulsively as Nephrite labored each breath when he heard footsteps neared him. Lately the sound of footsteps freaked him out. Unsurprisingly, Ian appeared in the doorway, looking somewhere between the fury and amused. In his hand he had an odd looking green sphere. Immediately, Nephrite lifted his head painfully in act of defiance. He had no idea what to expect from the maniac in front of him, so he always expect the worst.

“Good morning Nephrite,” Ian drawled, as he walked towards him. “You do know it is morning, don’t you? Of course you don’t, you’ve been in this cramped cell, wounded and standing all night without any food or water.” Ian smirked. How he had waited this moment; Nephrite was brought down to his knees. Ian intended to bring him lower than his knees. When he heard Nephrite labored each breath through his dried throat, his pleasure increased tenfold.

Ian held up the green sphere. Nephrite had no energy to ask him what was that but he needn’t to because he bet with his all his life that Ian was going to tell him anyway. “Do you know what is this?” Nephrite answered him with a glare and then silence.

Ian put down the sphere and transported a wooden chair. He then sat down in front of Nephrite with his hands folded across his muscular chest. “Aren’t you curious, Nephrite?” Silent again. Ian shook his head. “This is the sphere that show the life of Jupiter’s brain tumor, if you care at all.”

Nephrite’s eyes snapped up at Ian’s words. Slowly, fact after fact seeped into Nephrite mind. Lita wasn’t really having brain cancer! She was going to be alive, that was after he killed this bastard who planted a brain tumor inside her head. Life of Jupiter’s brain tumor? That cluster was actually alive? Fury shook Nephrite entire body. He had never felt this angry before. Treating his woman as if she was some mouse lab was unacceptable! What if the brain tumor died? What would happen to Lita? Nephrite was so lost in his thought that he didn’t aware that Ian had stood up and walked nearer to him.

“I can see that you have so many questions but I’ll let those questions entertain you while you’re alone in this place.” Ian started to turn around.

“Wait,” Nephrite spoke up. His dried throat made his voice turned husky. “Why did you come here anyway? Surely it isn’t to taunt me, because as you can see, you have failed.” Nephrite curved up painful smile.

Ian narrowed his eyes. Even in his most weakened condition, Nephrite always managed to provoke him. He would be damned if he let Nephrite had the last word. Ian’s hand sprang forward and grasped cruelly on Nephrite’s neck and his other hand held up the green sphere that had started to turn yellow. “This sphere is originally red in color, but when the sphere finally turned into white, the tumor explodes.”

Fear tightened around Nephrite’s heart. “I thought you want to bring Lita here to complete you vengeance. What good will it brings to you if Lita’s dead?” Nephrite gasped through the unfair assault. He couldn’t understand in crazy man in front of him. He needed air right now, if not he would fell unconscious and his wrists will bear his weight again. They were already so sore that Nephrite feared they would snapped off.

Ian released Nephrite’s neck and let out an evil laugh. Nephrite thought he was laughing because he was so pleased to see him begged like that. Ian’s laughter stung Nephrite pride and fury finally took over his fear. He was so angry that his hands ached from clutching the iron chains that held the shackles to the wall.

Unexpectedly, Nephrite hauled himself up and kicked Ian’s laughing face using his free legs. Ian was momentarily astounded by the unexpected assault from Nephrite that it took a while to realize that blood was running from his nose. Nephrite took a great pleasure to be able to shut Ian’s mouth using his legs although he knew the price was too high.

“You forgot that you are shackled to the wall…” Ian shouted angrily as he sprang forward gave a powerful punch on Nephrite’s face. “And I was the master here…” Ian gave Nephrite a blow on his stomach using his knees. Nephrite bowed his head as he bit down the pain. He would not satisfy Ian by rewarding him his pain sounds.

Ian pulled Nephrite’s head so he will see each expression of pain. When he saw none, his anger mounted tenfold. “You are weak, Nephrite! This is not the past life, where you will beat me in every fight. I’m stronger now and you are nothing! You hear that!” Nephrite’s breath was heavy when he gathered his last strength to stay expressionless. It was impossible for someone to gain to so much power in such a short time. Nephrite wondered where Ian got this kind of power.

Ian released Nephrite so abruptly and walked towards the doorway. Looking back at Nephrite, a rush of satisfaction flowed through his body to see fresh blood tickled down at the corner of his mouth. “By the way, Nephrite.” Ian spoke up as he wiped away the blood on his nose. “I didn’t say that I want to kill Jupiter.” With that, Ian vanished into the darkness.

It left Nephrite to ponder on Ian last sentence…

* * * * * *

Kunzite and his other teammates stood in the middle of the garden, waiting patiently for Ian to appear. Lita stood beside Darien, suddenly felt awkward but totally safe with four men around her. She lifted her head in showing her courage, but in truth she was scared and slightly embarrassed to meet Ian once again after the hallucination incident. Darien stood protectively near Lita. Lita didn’t transform into Sailor Jupiter. She just couldn’t see the point since she wasn’t going into the portal, as her princess requested. Not that her refusal of transforming into Sailor Jupiter was a sign of protest but she didn’t want to be Sailor Jupiter unless she was involved in a fight.

The rest of the sailor scouts were hiding in different spots in the garden. The generals’ plan was to pushed Ian back to his dimension from different position and they were going to have sailor scouts behind them in case Ian brought along monsters. If Ian came alone, they all were going to go inside the portal for they were sure once they kept Ian busy, there would not be any attack in this dimension. Sailor Mercury would be left behind with Lita for once they were inside they couldn’t open the portal from inside. They needed Ami to open the portal. But if he wasn’t alone, they have the sailor scouts to protect this dimension.

Lita didn’t know whether she should feel insulted or grateful when the rest of the team decided that she wasn’t fit to battle. Yes, she couldn’t argue when Serena said what would she do if suddenly the headache attacked when they were in the midst of battle. She also couldn’t say anything back when Mina said that she would be a burden to the team if she suddenly passed out. But she couldn’t just sit back at home, without wondering about their safety and Nephrite’s condition after being with Ian that long. If she was to be a burden to the team then Lita gladly be anyone shield against any attack. She would anything that Serena asked or ordered her to do. Anything but stayed back and waited. But her friends were so determined to make her stayed back that her own will couldn’t say anything.

Suddenly, Lita felt Darien’s hands that were holding her arms tightened warningly. Lita looked up and saw the night sky was slowly splitting itself. The portal was opening and Darien slowly pushed Lita behind him protectively. Lita wanted to sprang out a retort about Darien’s gesture. He treated her like a child. But Lita couldn’t, not when she knew Ian was about to come out from the portal. So, Lita tentatively peered from behind of Darien’s wide shoulders. Damn the prince and his generals! Lita thought. Why do they all have broad shoulders and so damned tall? I couldn’t see a thing!

Lita’s thought abruptly dissolved when the figure of Ian appeared from the portal. Her eyes tried to move away from watching his face, but Ian’s eyes captured hers. When she looked at Ian’s blue eyes, she couldn’t help from recalling the way Ian-the-past’s eyes caressed her feature, so soft and so seductive. Now, the soft blue eyes had gone. All that remained were shards of ices- so cold and lifeless.

For a while, Ian didn’t move from the spot where he was hovering. His eyes never left Lita’s eyes, as if he was accessing her whole mind. Lita had an awful feeling that Ian knew what was she experiencing when she was alone in her bedroom. He was looking as if he was contemplating whether the whole hallucination was effective or not. But what terrified her most was Ian knew that the hallucination did evoke a long forgotten attraction. She knew he knew because he was smiling slightly. Fury and humiliation tainted her flushed cheeks and Lita tore her traitorous gaze from Ian’s and hid her face behind Darien.

“We’ve brought Lita here,” Darien’s authority tone was cleared through the silent night. “I want to see Nephrite first.”

Ian crooked a sinister smile as he lowered himself and gracefully his feet touched the ground. “Nephrite cannot even walk out here to see you…”

Jadeite’s brows furrowed in unstrained fury and started to launch forward. “You son of a bitch…” he hissed but Kunzite wisely held Jadeite back warningly. He knew Ian tried to provoke any of them to start a fight now. Not here…not now. Jadeite let out a frustrated sigh and tried to calm himself. All he wanted to do now was to beat the hell out of Ian.

“We’ve make a deal, Ian,” Darien started again once the whole thing was calm once again. “We bring Lita here and you bring Nephrite here.” Darien looked at Ian and saw that he wasn’t responding. “Or is it too complicated to understand?” Darien raised his tone in anger.

Darien remembered it too well about his past life connection to Ian. They were cousins, which made Ian a royal family too. But Ian was different from him, even though they were at same age. Darien couldn’t understand Ian. Before Metalia appeared, Ian didn’t have this kind of hatred neither to the royal family of Earth nor Moon. He didn’t even develop any feeling of jealousy to any of the Earth generals…except for Nephrite. But the jealousy that Ian felt towards Nephrite wasn’t strong enough to make Ian betrayed his own flesh-blood family and heritage.

Darien knew this too well because before all this happened, Ian was quite close to Darien. It was as if he didn’t care if Darien was the next ruler of Earth and he was merely one of the royal siblings. True, Ian had often fought physically and verbally with Nephrite and at that time Darien was absolutely sure that this negative feeling between Nephrite and Ian wasn’t deep enough to cause any of destruction. But now, after thousands of years had passed, Darien started to reconsider. Obviously the hatred that he thought was harmless had caused Ian to be a traitor and it was so powerful that caused Ian to reborn to continued his unfinished vengeance. The hatred that was subtle and under control, suddenly snapped into red-blood thirst for vengeance. Darien had uneasy feeling that Ian wasn’t betraying his kingdom with his own will. Whatever possessed Ian still had a firm clutch around Ian’s mind, will and heart. Darien definitely didn’t like that because if Ian was killed during their attacks, and if his instinct was right, Darien didn’t know if he could bear the guilt.

“I know what you mean, Endymion,” Ian answered back smoothly. “But as I said, Nephrite cannot even stand up straight, how do you expect him to walk on his own to meet you?” Lita’s heart tightened in fear for Nephrite’s injuries. How bad was his condition? What had Ian done to Nephrite during the hostage?

Jadeite couldn’t take this anymore. Ian had talked nothing except Nephrite’s inability to walk. He had expected Ian to release all his vengeance to Nephrite when he had such a rare opportunity to do so. Consumed by sudden eager to end all this, he nudged Kunzite impatiently to Kunzite’s ribs, telling him to start the attack now. Kunzite’s brows furrowed deeply because he feared for Nephrite after Ian said like that. Since he also was eager to get Nephrite out from the hellhole, he nodded his head ever so slightly, but enough for the entire team to see the signal that they have been waiting for.

It all happened in a flash as if Kunzite’s nods triggered the whole things. Lita immediately retreated far from the portal as the generals and his prince lunged forwards towards Ian so that Ian couldn’t grab her suddenly. As eager as she was to see Nephrite, she wasn’t stupid enough to let herself being captured. Being a burden to her friends was something that she hadn’t and wouldn’t do. Totally flabbergasted by the sudden attack from the generals and his cousin, Ian moved away from the generals a little too late, causing him to be pushed backward towards the opening portal. Now, he realized the tactic that the generals used was totally the same as they did to Beryl in their past life. Ian’s resolution to take this whole thing under control hardened and he immediately generated a huge and bright yellow-colored sphere to each of his hands that were still free. He released the sphere to the ground instead of the generals that were thrusting him persistently towards the portal. Before Ian, the generals and Darien were completely swallowed by the portal, two hideous and big creatures slowly and disgustingly reformed from the yellowish spheres. One of the monsters had a very slim body with long hands attached to its body and a pair of long legs to support its many hands. It had a color of a disgustingly shade of yellow and orange like a rotten fruit. The other had a strange body. Its body was practically made of liquid gel, also in the same color of the former monster, from its shapeless head to…the end of its body. It had not any feel, just…body. Sailor Moon wasn’t sure whether she wanted to touch the slimy body.

Ian had hoped the monsters could take two or three of the generals from pressing him towards the portal. Then, Ian let out a loud curse of disbelief and frustration when he saw the Princess Serenity came out from the her hiding place. She had transformed into Sailor Moon together with her guardians, ready to stop the monsters from attacking the generals. As, Ian went back to the portal where he had came from with the generals and the prince, he let out a loud shout of outrage because he hadn’t accomplished what he had wanted to do- taking Jupiter with him. The shout slowly disappeared with the portal leaving the park nothing but two monsters for the sailor scouts to deal with.

Without wasting any time, Sailor Mars immediately let out her first attack to the monsters that was still a little disarray from their master’s disappearance. “Mars Flame Snipers!” She shouted and a fiery arrow flew in an astounding speed towards the monster. The monster realized the burning hot that was flying headed it and as fast as lightning the monster jumped out of the way but a piece of its body was being a hit by the arrows. Rei was surprised by the creature’s speed.

“Can you believe its speed?” Rei shouted to her friends. Mina readily let out her chain that were hanging around her slender waist and headed toward Rei to help her to deal with the speedy monster.

Sailor Mercury ran with agility to attract the other monster to move away from its friend. Sailor Moon immediately followed her lead and their attraction succeeded. The monster turned its wavering head in pursue of the two sailors. Then, the midst of their chasing, the monster suddenly found itself in the middle of two sailor scouts. Aware of this rare opportunity, Ami immediately shouted to Serena, “Sailor Moon! Now!”

Serena nodded her head and took out her fighting staff. She posed in front of the monster and pointed the staff as she shouted, “Moon Spiral Heart Attack!” Waves of silver white energy flowed and rushed towards the liquid monster. But then the monster did something out of expectation. It abruptly changed and melted its body into a pool of water, making Serena’s attack missed it target and it went towards Ami instead. Serena’s eyes widened in horror and her shout of warning came a little too late, when Ami was taken by surprise as the silver white energy hit her body.

Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus were too busy fighting the speedy monster that they were totally oblivious to their surrounding. But Lita wasn’t. Despite of her princess’ order to stay out of the battle, Lita knew she couldn’t just watch her friends struggled with those monsters. Furthermore, Serena was now totally distracted when her attack hit her own friends. Lita watched Serena ran towards unconscious Ami and reverted her gaze to the liquid monster that had swum its way behind the kneeling Serena beside Ami. She had a very bad feeling that the monster intended to attack Serena from behind.

Ignoring her conscience for breaking her princess’ order, Lita came out from her hiding place, quickly transformed into Sailor Jupiter. Her usual jeans and t-shirt dissolved magically into her sexy green sailor suit. Lita had never aware how she missed the feeling of the familiar energy flowed through her body. The liquid monster slowly built itself into its former shape and loomed behind Serena threateningly.

Serena, who was cradling Ami’s head onto her lap, raised her Silver Crystal to heal Ami’s wounds. She was fully washed with guilt and alarmed by the amount of blood that flowed out from Ami’s body, that she wasn’t aware of the liquid monster behind her until it was too late. Again. Serena let out a startled cried when the monster forcefully pulled her off the ground, lifting her high and kept Serena inside its watering body. Serena couldn’t breathe. It was as if she was drowning under the thin ice- she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t swim her way out even though the exit was within reach and slowly she was losing all hopes.

Lita fastened her pace. Her amounting fear kept her feet ran when she saw Serena was trapped inside the liquid monster and it intended to take Ami inside it too. Lita knew she had to get Serena out from the monster body before Serena completely lost her breath and her consciousness. Letting out a fierce cry, Lita lunged forwards the monster from behind. The monster looked back to see who was shouting so fiercely behind and saw a figure in green skirt was jumping into him. Lita jumped into the monster’s body and pushed Serena out of the liquid monster’s body. Serena fell several feet from where the monster was standing, coughing and trying to calm her bursting lungs and finally took gratefully several deep breaths whereas Lita was stuck in the monsters body instead.

This was totally out of Lita’s plan. She thought when she pushed Serena out of the monster’s body, she could penetrate through the monster’s body too. She didn’t know that the monster could pull her back into its body. It felt as if she was suck into a whirlpool. It was Lita’s turn to choke and drown.

Serena finally registered what was happening and who was pushing her out. Her legs were wobbly when she tried to stand up and she saw Lita inside the living water. She was totally oblivious with her wet hair and clothes, drenched with the monster’s liquid. “Jupiter!” Serena cried. Lita saw her princess’s fear and anguish from inside and suddenly she had this overwhelming desire to prove her princess that she would not be a burden to her friends. Lita forced herself to calm down and think of a way to get out of this predicament.

“Jupiter!” She heard Serena called her again and saw Serena attempted to save her. Again. No! Her towering pride stubbornly told her mind to think of a way before her princess did like she did before. Then an idea struck her head and Lita let out a smile of her brilliant idea. As Serena stepped forwards, she saw Lita was signaling her to take the still unconscious Ami and moved away. From the expression of Lita face, Serena knew instantly that Lita had a plan to escape. Serena nodded her head back, telling Lita that she understood her signs and started to move Ami and herself away from the monster.

Lita tipped her head upward, facing the night sky. She then summoned her power and a thin antenna came out from her tiara. Since she couldn’t shout the ‘Jupiter Thunder Attack’, Lita slowly lifted her hand upward and instantly a single lightening struck from the sky and hit the liquid monster. Lita could feel the current of electricity surrounded her. Her body could conduct electricity, causing the electricity not so easily flowed to the earth. Lita tried to hold on to the electricity, forcing the energy to stay inside the water, shocking the liquid monster to every molecule. Since Lita was inside the water, the task to make the current flowed inside the monster’s body only was easier than controlling from out side. As if one attack wasn’t enough, Lita called another lightening. This time the amount of electricity that ran through its body was too much for it to take and the monsters exploded, causing Lita to be pushed outward hard.

Serena ran to the place where Lita was gasping and choking for air like she did before. Lita was kneeling with her hands wrapped around her stomach, trying to vomit back all those disgusting liquids that she had accidentally swallowed. Her antenna on the middle of her circlet was still sizzling with electricity and her head was aching like hell. Before Serena could touch her, Lita shrank backwards, away from her touch. “What…Why?” Serena couldn’t hide the hurt she felt when Lita rejected her helps.

Lita lifted her face and Serena saw a large amount of electricity still flowing inside her body. Serena knew exactly why Lita avoided her touch. “I’m alright. I will hurt you if you touch me, Serena.” Lita said and curved up a small smile. Serena nodded her head as she watched in fascination when she saw the bluish electricity came out from Lita’s eyes. Serena went back to Ami and used her Silver Crystal that was responsible for hurting Ami in the first place to heal her.

Rei and Mina were still trying to vanquish the speedy monster that was running around in astounding speed. All that they can hear was the sound of its footsteps but to attack the monster using only the sound of the footsteps was quite impossible because the monster was too fast and the footsteps seemed to be at different places. When Mina lashed out her chain to the sound of footsteps, she hit only air. Rei was getting very frustrated.

“This is impossible!” Mina raged when her fifth lash hit nothing again. “How can we win if the monster keep running around like some coward!?” Rei nodded her head in agreement. Mina thought furiously on how to attack this running monster. What made her totally angry was as the monster circling them, he refused to miss any opportunity to lash out its long hands to hit them whenever they were vulnerable… Suddenly Mina’s devious mind conjured up a plan. She pulled Rei aside to tell her about her plan. A few moments later, Rei looked back at Mina thoughtfully, as if she was considering the plan and whispered back to improve a little. Then both of them smiled in agreement.

“Wait until I give you signal, Venus!” Sailor Mars reminded Sailor Venus and she nodded her head as she took position.

It didn’t take long before the speedy monster took another open opportunity to attack Rei. The only different was this opportunity was intentionally and the monster’s long hand painfully grabbed Rei’s waist to throw Rei to the nearest tree. “Venus!” Rei cried as she braced herself for the blasting pain from the impact of being thrown to the tree. “It’s your chance. Now!!”

Knowing that this was one time chance, Mina skillfully threw her chain to the monster’s hand, which was still firmly tied around Rei’s waist, and made the chain tied tightly and painfully around the slimy hand, so that the monster will release Rei. The monster did release Rei but not after it threw Rei to the tree as it had planned earlier. Rei hit the tree with sickening thud and stayed on the ground for a while as she tried to bear the pain at her back. Meanwhile, Mina used all her energy tried to pull the monster to stop it from using its speed again and vanished. “Mars! Come on! It’s our chance now!” Mina shouted as she pulled the monster. Mina could see that her chain’s grip to the monster’s slimy hand was loosening. “Mars! It’s now!”

Rei groaned as she forced herself to stand up. Never in her wildest imagination that being thrown away to the tree could be so painful. Oh…how she was going to have so much satisfaction in destroying that slimy monster! Rei quickly gained her composure and posed readily in front of the struggling monster. “Mars Flame Sniper!” Once again the fiery arrow blasted from Rei’s hands and flew recklessly towards the monster. “Venus! Released your chain now!” Rei shouted her warning. Mina let go her chain from the monsters hand only a second before Rei’s fiery arrow hit the monster. The monster was burned and they heard its agony’s cried and turned into dust.

By the time the five of them assembled back, Ami had regained her consciousness but still suffered pains from Serena’s blows, the pain from Rei’s back hadn’t improved but she had learned to bear it, the electricity that was running through Lita’s body hadn’t completely gone and she had a headache to bear from her attack and Mina’s sore hands from straining the monsters had started to bleed. After all had been said and done, the result after the battle wasn’t so bad. They managed to vanquish the monsters in amazingly half of hour.

“Lita! What did I tell about joining the fight?” Serena demanded as soon as they had transformed back to normal clothes. “When I said I don’t want you to get involved into the fight, I mean every word I said!”

Lita didn’t answer her princess and continued watched Ami wrapped Mina’s injured hands. Not that she was being rude to her but Lita had no idea what to say to defend herself. “Come on, Serena,” Ami answered for Lita as she carefully finished her task. “She did destroy that monster though.”

“Yes, but I…” Serena answered hesitantly. “I just don’t want her to collapse in front of us like she did on the day we discovered about her illness.” The image of Lita’s pale face was still vivid in her mind.

Lita stood up and walked toward Serena. When they were both facing each other, Lita softly spoke up. “I know that you’re concerned about me, but I couldn’t just sat back behind the tree and watch you being slowly kill by that monster.” Lita looked at the remaining of the dead liquid monster. “I was reborn to protect not the other way around. If I am forbidden to do that, what was the purpose of the whole reincarnation thing?” Lita couldn’t bring up the fact that her head was pounding hard as a result of her extreme attack. She willed herself from the pain. Serena would use that to forbid her to fight again. That she couldn’t let Serena do.

“I know that… It’s just that…” Serena never get the chance to finish her sentence when something happened that make her completely shocked. The rest of her guardian watched Serena’s face froze in complete fear as she was watching the dark night behind them. “Serena…what?” Rei asked but she also felt the coming of something evil from the other side of their dimension. In unison, they turned back and wore the same expression that Serena was wearing. As if the sky being rip opened, a prideful figure walked out of the portal. Slowly, an evil and satisfy smirk curved up.

“Ian…” A word escaped softly and unbelievably from Lita’s white lips. “What…what happen to the generals?” Lita whispered, not wanting to know the answer.

“The generals?” Ian questioned. “Ah…yes…the generals. I believe they are dead by now.”

* * * * * *