Chained
by Sereko
sereko13@yahoo.com
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She woke up slowly, as if drugged. Her heavy eyelids fluttered a bit
and finally opened. She felt some pounding in her head and tried to
bring her hand to her forehead in support. Her arm was not responding.
She tried again and still her arm would not move. She shook her head
a little bit to wake herself out of her stupor and clear her fogged
mind. When sufficiently conscious, she glared down at her unresponsive
arm. What she saw caused her eyes to open wide in shock. Her wrist
was bound to the wall she was leaning against. Not only that but her
other wrist, her ankles, and her waist were bound with solid metal
clasps. Now she was sure she was dreaming. How could this be? She
turned her head to the side to view her surroundings. A scream louder
than any she had ever uttered escaped her mouth. There, next to her
and on the same wall...all the senshi and guardians were bound.
-----
"Hahaha! Lookie, everyone's awake!" A creature moved from within the
shadows of the endless room. It seemingly flowed forward, not taking
steps, but floating across the surface of the floor. Once a sliver of
light hit its face, the group could make out some feminine features.
The creature was actually quite beautiful. She looked almost human.
The only thing giving away her alien origins being the shape of her
pupils and the spots found in a line on each side of her body,
stretching from the tip of her head down the length of each leg. Other
than that, she had hair black as night falling far past her feet. Her
eyes were delicately shaped and deep green, though the pupils were
slits - like a cat. Her skin was pale and flawless like a cup of milk
had been poured over her, only to solidify and become her skin.
Unfortunately, her voice shattered the illusion of tranquility that
she brought with her presence. The shrill screeching of her voice
brought everyone back to an unfortunate reality. "It wasn't very nice
of you to go screaming like that." The creature had glided up in front
of Minako and was tracing a finger across the girl's cheek. Minako was
turning her head every which way to try and get away from the
creature's touch, but it was a useless endeavor.
Kunzite, who was shackled next to his love, gave a hiss toward the
creature. That did nothing but entice the creature further, however.
She gave a hearty laugh and turned her attention toward the silver-
haired man. "Oh! Lover boy is mad that I'm playing with his toy?"
Kunzite, surprisingly, was able to keep quite calm when face-to-face
with the *thing*. He growled out a low response, "Stay the hell away
from her."
The woman laughed and gave Kunzite a pat on the cheek. "Dear boy, you
have no need to worry over her safety." As she walked away from the
two, she continued, "I don't plan on hurting her at all...well, not
anytime soon that is." She centered herself between the group, in order
to speak to them all without having to raise her voice too much. "You
see, I have some other toys that I've been having a blast with as of
late! I'm just *sure* that you can tell who they are, eh?"
Everyone definitely knew of whom she spoke. The only two missing from
the little party that they were having were...Mamoru and Usagi. None of
them could even comprehend what this witch might have done with them.
None of them really *wanted* to comprehend what she had done. They just
wanted to be safe back on Earth.
"Anyway...I wasn't originally going to let you take comfort in each
others presence, but maybe..." She paused to think for a second, then
looked back at everyone with a cheesy smile on her face. "Yes..I'm
feeling generous, maybe I will let you comfort one another. I'm not
cruel enough to let you witness this next little thing without having
someone to hold your hand." The evil laugh that followed her statement
led them to believe the opposite.
Without warning, the metal bonds that were holding everyone to the wall
started to shift. Before they knew what was happening, each of the
general's right hands were able to completely grasp the left hands of
their counterparts. Their bodies had been moved closer to accomplish
this and, now, each person could feel their lover's body heat. Tears
and sighs of relief echoed throughout the boundless room.
"You like that, eh? See...I'm not so mean after all! I even got your
little pairs right, didn't I?" Nobody had thought about it before, but
now they were very curious as to how the creature knew who was matched
with whom. "Don't give me those looks! Don't you think I'd know a
little bit about you all? I *have* been studying you for months! Not to
mention all of that time during the Silver Millennium! Believe me, I
probably know more about yourselves then you even do!" She gave out
another hearty laugh. Then another wicked, yet childish, grin came to
her face.
"Oh, oh, oh! And do you want to know the best part?" The group was
dumbfounded. "You're all connected!" She paused, noticing the confused
looks that her prisoners were handing out. "I know, I know...I'm quite
aware of the fact that you already knew that! But, could you guess how
excited I was when I found out?" Nobody answered her and so she
continued. "I was ecstatic! See...If I start with you, it's easier..."
She sauntered towards the Moon Generals.
"You four were connected to the late Queen Serenity. You were also
connected to the outer senshi, your soul mates. You four," she directed
her attention to the Earth Generals, "had a similar connection with the
inner senshi, *your* soul mates. These connections, I must say, were
extraordinary back in the day! Nobody knew that a bond could be formed
so strongly. Well, of course, anyone in love has a bond with their
mate. But your bond was special. Since you were all soul mates, the
bond was especially strong. Your powers were even similar because of
it!" She took a moment's pause, her face expressing awe. "It was so
wonderful! Everyone was blown away! But then!" She held her hand in
triumph. "You were all, also, connected to your lieges: the senshi to
their princess and the Earth Generals to their prince. This wouldn't
have normally affected anything, except for the fact that even your
lieges had a special bond! A *VERY* special bond!"
"Their connection is something that no one ever understood and is
something that I am still trying to figure out today. They are closer
then warriors, closer than lovers, even closer than soul mates. They
are so in-tune with one another that they can speak telepathically,
they can sense each other's emotions, they can share each other's power,
and they can even experience each other's pain!" She looked at the
senshi with wonder, her expression showing her keen interest in the
bond. "It is in this great bond that all of you are a part of each
other. Mind you, the prince plays a weaker part in the web because he
only has four of you connected to him...but he stills brings you
together. And all of you are, indeed, brought together. Little Saturn,
if concentrating hard enough, can sense the presence of Nephrite. In
turn, Zoicite can sense Ashe. It's all one big spider web. And do you
know who made it possible?" The group dreaded the answer.
"Your sweet, innocent Princess Serenity and your strong, dashing Prince
Endymion. Without their incredible bond, none of your other bonds would
mean a thing." The creature stepped away from the bunch in one, large
sweeping motion. "So, that it is why I choose them to play with. Not
your precious Minako, Kunzite."
The general growled once more. "What have you done with Mamoru?!"
"My, my...so informal, Kunzite, that's not like you!" Kunzite seethed at
her playful tone. She gave him a toothy smile. "And here I thought you
would be grateful toward me for leaving your little bundle of joy
alone! How ungrateful you are, my dear!" She flashed another sarcastic
grin. "But, if you must know, dear Endymion is right before you!"
Using her arm, she seemingly swept the shadows away from an area
perpendicular to the wall that everyone was chained against. A dull
light shone upon the form of their prince.
"Mamoru!!"
"Endymion!!"
"Prince!!"
The shouts shot quickly toward the prone form. Mamoru had collapsed on
a stone bench a while ago. He didn't remember much of what had happened
to him. The only thoughts racing through his head were of pain and
darkness. He did manage to pick up the sounds of voices in the abyss
that he had fallen into, though. He desperately latched onto them,
praying that they would lead him back to consciousness. They did.
Mamoru's head slowly lifted, his eyes lazily opening. Everyone breathed
a sigh of relief when they saw him moving. The sigh turned into a gasp,
however, when they saw the blood. It had formed a trail and was flowing
down from his forehead. Other blood spots could be found on his back
and limbs. The wounds didn't seem too severe, but no one could tell for
sure.
"Ah, he's awake, too!! Yippee!" Mamoru cringed at the voice. He then
mustered up enough strength to sit upright and turn his head toward his
friends. When he noticed their chains, he screamed. He stood up quickly
and tried to rush toward them, but was stopped. After only a couple of
steps, his own chains had ceased his movements. He, unlike the others,
only had four cuffs - two on his wrists and two on his ankles. Either
way, he couldn't move much more than they could.
The shackles jingled as they were pulled taut. His outrage left him
almost instantly and he sank back onto the bench. Mamoru gave his
friends a searching stare. "Are you all right?"
Jedaite was the one to reply. "We're fine, just handcuffed. What about
you?"
It seemed that Mamoru looked down at himself for the first time, then.
He looked back up. "I've just got some scraps, I'll be fi-"
"Silence!" They all looked toward the creature. Apparently, she didn't
like being ignored. "This is not what I lit him up for!" Her insane
grin returned to her face. "No, I wanted to show you my experiment!"
In the blink of an eye, she appeared before Mamoru. The prince gave her
a glare. "Morgana." He bit her name out as if it were poison.
Immediately, his head was thrown to the side as the crack of her slap
disappeared into the shadows. "You are *never* to utter that name!" She
tossed a giggle over her shoulder to the generals and senshi. "I wanted
it to be a surprise...*pout*...and it's all your fault!" Morgana's rage
flared to life and she brought her arm up quickly to shoot off some
magic.
"No! Mamoru!"
The creature laughed. Little did they know. Her shot didn't hit the
prince. In fact, it was very far off of the presumed target. The shot
ricocheted off of the wall behind Mamoru's head and vanished into the
shadows. Everyone was utterly confused. What she really *that* bad of a
shot?
It didn't take long for their prince's scream to hit them.
Mars head whipped from where the shot disappeared to the agonizing man.
"What?" She looked to her friends, but they were as confused as she.
"Mamoru?" The man had fallen to his knee. He seemed to be favoring his
shoulder, as well. The grimace on his face was what sent Mars off.
"Mamoru?! What happened? Are you all right?!"
Before the prince could speak, Morgana had fired another ricocheting
shot. Once again the beam faded into the shadows across from Mamoru.
And once again, he cried out in pain.
The others screamed out for him. For the life of them, they could not
figure out what was happening. That is, until a faint whisper caught
their attention. It was barely audible and broken from pain, but they
were just able to pick it up.
"Please..p-please...stop it..."
The witch, who everyone now knew as Morgana, just cackled. She let out
another blast into the darkness that sent Mamoru lurching forward. He
paused in his pleading to cough a few times.
"Please..stop.."
Another blast sent Mamoru from merely coughing to coughing up blood as
he knelt on the ground. Zoicite instinctively grasped Ami's hand a
little bit tighter. The other Earth generals followed suit with similar
actions.
"Stop hurti-ing..her..."
Well, if the senshi and generals were confused before, now, they were
completely baffled. What was Mamoru rambling on about? Was he starting
to lose his mind because of all the pain that he was experiencing?
Morgana was not as confused. In fact, an almost smug look seemed to
populate her face. "What did you say?" She fired once more.
Mamoru's scream caught in his throat as he coughed up more blood. He
glared up at Morgana. "I said, stop-" *blast* "HURTING HERRR!" The last
words came out with the scream that was no longer lodged in his throat.
The vile woman just gave a satisfactory smile and floated back to where
the rest of the group was chained. "There, now do you get it?" No one
moved or said anything in response. She sighed in frustration. "Oh, for
heaven's sake! Do I have to spell *everything* out for you!?!" Turning
in a huff, she unceremoniously stomped off toward the darkness where
she had been firing her energy blasts.
When she reached her destination, she angrily stopped and turned her
attention back toward the group. "Here I go and explain everything that
has been going through my head about you and your connections and then
I give you that demonstration and you STILL don't get it!?!?!?" Her
tirade (and incredibly long sentence structure) only continued when she
received no response from her captives. "Damn you! *HE* gets it! Why
can't you?!?!" She pointed her hand toward Mamoru while saying the last
two lines.
A few of the senshi paused to think when an inkling of an idea crawled
into their brains. An echo of 'stop hurting her' flittered through
their thoughts. Hotaru's head was the first to shoot up from its bowed,
pondering state in order to stare straight at Morgana in shock. "NO!",
was her simple declaration. "NO! How *DARE* you!?!", followed soon
afterward. The purple battle aura of Saturn nearly lit the entire arena
as it exploded with her outcry.
Morgana looked unimpressed. She gave a huff and said, "It *took* you
long enough! Sheesh! I thought you people had some intellect in those
heads of yours!" She blew the bangs out of her eyes. "And since I'm way
too tired to wait for the rest of you to figure it out..."
Without warning the shadows directly across from Mamoru lifted away.
And there she was. Battered, bruised, chained, and lying in a heap on
the floor was...
"USAGI-CHAN!!!"
"PRINCESS!! NO!!"
The loud screams echoed off of the walls of the cave. The golden angel
cringed at the harsh sounds and tried to move her hands to plug her
ears, but the appendages wouldn't respond. Morgana noticed all of this
and smirked. She walked over to Usagi and bent down next to her. "Why
aren't you smiling dear princess?" A hand shot out to grab the girl's
neck and raise it up from the ground. "AREN'T YOU HAPPY THAT YOUR
FRIENDS ARE HERE?!" Usagi just cringed again as Morgana shouted in her
ear.
Haruka shook as a tear dripped down her cheek. "STOP IT! LET HER GO
YOU WITCH!"
"WITCH?!" Morgana threw Usagi to the side as she stood up enraged. "So,
I'm a witch now, am I?"
(
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