ANOTHER PART FOR "ANGEL OF MERCY" A SAILORMOON FANFICTION The Return to Kinmoku Sei By: Immicolia I hurried up the hill, knowing that I wasn't far from the palace now, silently praying for everything there to be at least reasonably all right. I never should have left. I should have stayed and let someone else go on that trip. But no, I _had_ to make the trip to Mau. I _had_ to leave to see what I could do there. I _had_ to leave without permission and disobey orders. I cursed myself again and tried to run even faster. I had to see them. They had to be okay, they just had to.... All my hopes were shattered as I reached the top of the hill. The palace was in no better shape than the rest of the planet. Bodies were sprawled everywhere and it seemed like there wasn't a soul alive. But someone had to have survived somewhere! I couldn't be the only one left, could I? I ran forward, not caring what dangers might lurk down there, just having to see. I had to see what was left. Absolutely nothing. It's amazing how two little words can mean so much. But those two words described perfectly what was left of my world. Absolutely nothing. Everything was gone, the places, the people... especially the people. Their lifeless bodies scattered everywhere, so still and in various forms of mutilation, it was hard to believe that they were ever once alive. But the fact that these people were real came crashing down on me when I spotted three bodies nearest to the palace gates. I could recognize them immediately. It was hard not to. Our leather fukus aren't very common attire. I felt my stomach lurch as I walked up along side them, looking down at their still forms. Kakyuu's body caught my eye first. I don't know why, maybe because she was the one who seemed relatively unhurt. She wasn't cut at all, that gave me hope. False hope, but hope nonetheless. It didn't take long for me to realize that she was dead however. The odd angle of her head was proof enough of that. At least I know she didn't suffer. Too bad I couldn't say the same for the others. I knelt by Healer's side and tried to close her eyes. The sightless, staring green depths were so unnerving. Even more unnerving than all the blood. It seemed to be everywhere, covering everything. I found it getting harder and harder to breathe. I couldn't take this. I couldn't take all the senseless destruction. But I had to check on Fighter. I knew that she was probably dead too, but I had to force myself to check. One could never be too sure. It was possible that she had somehow survived, and I had to be here for her if she did. As I reached her side it was painfully obvious that she hadn't survived this ordeal either. Her back was slashed open and the amount of blood was even worse than that surrounding Healer if possible. I tried to roll her over gently, not wanting to look at the horrific wounds on her back, and fell back a step in shock as I saw the ones covering her face. They were even worse. A row of deep gashes that barely missed her eyes. I fell back, unable to catch my breath. I had to get out of here. I couldn't take this anymore. I had to get away from all of this... all this death and destruction. If only I had been here for them. Maybe I would have met the same fate but then at least I wouldn't have to face this terror now.... ********* I don't know how I reached my home, but somehow I did. It was the simple house that I shared with the other two, now cold and empty. I stumbled inside, striping off my blood stained fuku as I went and feeling shear exhaustion through every inch of my body. Everything was gone. Everything and everyone. I wasn't sure of what to do anymore. I just didn't know. I glanced around the empty room, shivering slightly and feeling my eyes begin to fill with tears as I glanced over the comfortable disorder. There were clothes and such scattered everywhere, and it looked like a some sort of a small natural disaster had just swept through. Obviously the result of my not being there for a while. Their presence was written over every surface and that made it painful just looking at it. Looking at it and knowing that they'd never be back. I scrambled through the mess to the sanctuary of my room, collapsing in a heap on the bed and attempting to hold back tears. I didn't want to cry, it would do me no good, but it was hard not to. After everything I had seen it was so hard. A wracking sob finally escaped my throat and that was enough to start it. I had soon rolled myself into a tight ball and was sobbing uncontrollably, crying for everything that had happened, for all the lives lost, for my dead world. I cried until I was sick, and then I cried some more. After all, I had no reason to be strong. There was no one left to protect. I had failed them, I had failed them all. Everyone. My planet, my princess, my friends.... That final failure hurt most of all. I had failed my friends. I had left them to die. They had died because I hadn't been here. I might not have been able to save them if I had been here, but at least I would have fallen alongside them. Instead they had fallen alone, probably wondering where I was. I had failed them, and there was nothing I could do to make it up. I'm not sure when I fell asleep. In fact I could hardly tell that I had until the dream started. The dream that would continually haunt me. Having to watch my friends valiantly fight against some creature and slowly be maimed until they finally collapsed from shear exhaustion and blood loss. Their screams of pain reaching my ears. But those sounds didn't bother me half as much as Fighter's last whispered words. "Maker... where are you? Why aren't you here...?" I jerked awake at that statement, my body slick with sweat. Why hadn't I been there? I could have done _something_ Even if it had just meant dying with them, I still could have been there. But I hadn't been, and now I had to live with it. ********* I don't know how long I stayed there, locked away in my room, hiding from the world. I just couldn't face anything. I lay there, not wanting to eat, hardly sleeping. Because when I slept the dreams came. I was just waiting to die. I was afraid to kill myself, but I wasn't afraid to wait. I was getting weaker and weaker when a dream of a different sort visited me. My friends. Telling me what I had to do. I don't know if it was simply a product of my weakened body or if it were really the truth. But I knew that I had to find out. I shakily stood, and retrieved my fuku from where I had thrown it all that time ago. Sliding it on and quickly tightening the straps, noticing vaguely that I had lost weight. Not that it mattered. I had work to do now. I had to reach Earth. I had to find her. I had to find the Angel of Mercy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Immicolia... immicolia@hotmail.com The Nebula http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/8671 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------