Heat

Wow! Chapter 9! The longest chaptered story I've written to date! Please
R+R!

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~*Heat*~

~Chapter Nine: The Beginning

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Taiki and Yaten strolled down the stairs on their way to meet Seiya and
Kakyuu in the gardens. The sun was bright, the sky was blue, the grass
had never looked greener, and the flowers were bright splotches of blue,
red, purple, yellow, and orange. The viusth trees, much like
Earth's willow trees but with red or gold leaves most of the year, were
full of foliage. Everything looked so...perfect.

Kakyuu and Seiya were waiting for them under one of the oldest
viusth trees, the one where the four of them had hid and talked
as kids. It was a place almost as sacred to them as the Palace itself,
where they had lived and been trained since they were ten years old.

Taiki brushed open the curtain of drooping branches to let himself and
Yaten in. She plopped down beside the redheaded ruler, forming the third
quarter of a circle that Taiki would complete.

The four started talking. Not with Court-speech, but the way they did
whenever they were out of the spotlight of everyone. They chatted about
clothes, and books, and where they wanted to go next, and most
importantly, about nothing at all. The simple action of chatting helped
bond the four again, the way they couldn't be under the harsh scrutiny
of the Court.

Taiki rattled on about the newest volume of poetry he'd discovered in
the deepest, darkest corners of the library. Seiya teased him by asking
what exactly he had been doing in deep dark corners, and if it
had anything to do with Yaten. Taiki felt the sudden urge to whack the
black-haired teen with the closet heavy object, which, unfortunately,
was a good-sized rock that would probably have given the youngest
Starlight a concussion, if not knocked him out completely.

Yaten giggled at the antics of the boys. She took her camera off her
neck and snapped a few photos of them, laughing as she did so. Seiya
glared at her, Taiki grinned. After putting her camera away, Yaten
proceeded to talk with Kakyuu about clothes and jewellery and other
girl things. The four enjoyed themselves completely in the shade.

~*~*~*~

"Now, my Lady? Now can we take her?" Moreas was practically glowing
with excitement. He wanted to hurry so he could continue with his
quest. The thought of the kill was enough to send his adrenaline
soaring. He would literally start bouncing off the walls if his
Lady didn't bring the mother-Senshi here soon.

"Not yet, Moreas. We must wait until the perfect moment." That
cold female voice was back, and she sounded impatient too. She
wanted this, but for a different reason. She wanted all the Senshi
dead so that she could take their powers for herself. She also
knew she couldn't do it all at once. This puppet of hers didn't
realize that, didn't want the power. He just wanted the peace. What
stupid beings, to think that peace was the answer!

"Soon, my Lady?" He was anxious, like a child wanting to ride a
favourite ride at the festival. She smirked. "Yes, Moreas. Very
soon."

~*~*~*~

"So...Kakyuu-chan...does anyone have any idea how that idiot managed
to get by the palace guards? Twice, no less?"

Kakyuu grimaced, "Not a clue." She muttered, rubbing her cheek.
Thanks to the accelerated healing process of a Senshi, she barely had
a mark there. Only a hair-thin pink line showed where she had been
sliced. "It's as if he teleported in and out of here."

"Why wouldn't he have done so, though, while he was being dragged
away by the guards?" Taiki inquired. "It would have caused quite a
stir, would have left most of the Palace gossiping for days. Don't
you think he'd want that?"

"No." Yaten responded instantly. "He didn't."

Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at her: blue, red and violet. She
reddened slightly. "I heard it, okay? He gave me this look like
I was something that smelled bad, and I heard him think something...it
just didn't sound like something a person who wanted attention would
think. It...it was something like, 'she told me this would
happen if I missed...' or something to the same effect. I think he
wanted to get the job done and leave without making a fuss."

"'She'?" Seiya echoed thoughtfully. "Who's 'she'?"

Yaten shook her head. "Not a clue. No pictures or anything along with
the thought. You know I can't do this mind-reading or whatever
it is on demand. It's not something I can control. And I don't
normally see anything. Just thoughts."

She sighed, leaning against Taiki, her eyes closed. He gently ruffled
her hair. "You okay?"

"Mmm-hmm...just tired..." She murmured, slipping her arms around his
waist. She looked up to see her giving her the 'look'. "I'm fine, Taiki.
Really. I'm just tired. I am pregnant, after all."

"I know." He replied softly, "But I worry about you overdoing it one day
and somehow hurting yourself or the baby. I know..." he added hastily,
seeing the look on her face. "...I know you'd never do anything to hurt
her on purpose. But you know, she's pretty fragile."

She grimaced slightly. He was right. She hated it when he worried
with a reason. "Well, then, Taiki, maybe we should go back to the room."

"Okay..." He stood, helping her to her feet. Seiya waved slightly.
"We'll see you guys later, right?"

"Of course." Taiki smiled. "We'll be there for dinner." He held open the
curtain of red-gold leaves for his girlfriend. She grinned, pecking him
on the cheek, then walked through. Taiki waved back at Seiya and Kakyuu,
then stepped through to follow his girlfriend...

...to find nothing but the empty gardens. He looked around. "Yaten?"
Walking over to the nearest viusth tree, he peered around it.
"Yaten, now's not the time for games. Come on, let's get you inside."

Finding nothing, he looked around again. "Yaten?" He called, louder this
time. When she didn't appear, he felt the cold, slimy feeling of worry
blossom in the pit of his stomach. This wasn't like her.

When he called the third time, he heard his voice being strangled
slightly by something akin to fear. Something wasn't right. She never
let him get this worried before coming out.

Seiya's head poked out between the red-gold boughs of the tree. "Lost
someone, have you?" He asked playfully. But when Taiki turned to look at
him, he knew that this was no joke. Either Yaten was being mean on
purpose (not as common now, but it could still happen) and just wanted
to scare her boyfriend, or something happened. She'd been incapacitated
somehow, made so that she couldn't answer. Or she'd been spirited off
somewhere...

The last thought made the black-haired teen freeze. Could the psychopath
from the conference have gotten her? Better not mention that to Taiki...
he'd probably freak. Seiya stood, pushing through the branches. He
forced a carefree look, plastering a wide grin on his face. "She hiding
from you?"

"No, Seiya. I don't think she is." Taiki shook his head. "I...I don't
know...but I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that tells me
that something bad has happened to her."

*Damn...* Seiya cursed. *Seems he came the same conclusion all on his
own.* To his friend, he replied. "What makes you think that?"

"I...I know I'm not as good at the whole sensing thing as she is...no
one is...but I don't think she's here. Anywhere. I know her energy
signature like I know my own, and I'm telling you, she's not
here."

"Taiki, you're being foolish. Where else could she be?" Seiya put on
his best 'leader-condescending-tone', while wondering exactly the same
thing. 'Where could she have gone?'

~*~*~*~

Yaten spun around. The quick translation from bright sunlight to 'so
dark you can't see your hand in front of your face'. left her slightly
disoriented. What the hell had happened?

Once her eyes adjusted, she realized it wasn't quite as dark as she'd
thought. Dim, smoke-spewing torches lined the chamber where she stood.
They cast their green...yes, green light on everything around
her, as well as herself. Her skin pigment now matched her eyes, and her
hair was an aquamarine colour, the bluish tones mixing with the green to
make teal. Her pale green dress seemed to glow in the odd torchlight.

After slipping her henshin wand into her hand - just in case - she looked
around, trying to take in her surroundings. She was in a room about 10
by 20 metres*, seemingly made of stone. A high-backed throne stood on a
raised platform at one end, while a dark opening gaped at the other. A
soft carpet under her feet stretched all the way from the opening at one
end of the room to the foot of the throne at the other.

A tapestry hung behind the throne, although it was no kind of tapestry
Yaten has ever seen before. It could have been silver threads on a red
or black background, but the odd torchlight was making the colours
difficult to register. The silver thread was interweaved all over with
the background colour. It had no real pattern, it looked like someone
had tried to depict a hopelessly knotted piece of string. The result
was...chaotic.

As that word ran through her head, Yaten felt herself start to shiver
uncontrollably. Chaotic...Chaos...was it here? Was this its domain?
Could she be in what appeared to be Chaos's throne room?

"Hello there, mother-Senshi."

Yaten spun around, coming face-to-face with one person she really
didn't want to see right now. His deep purple hair looked black in the
light, or lack thereof. His eyes glittered, an insane smile looking even
more gruesome on his face because the light made his teeth look green.
"What?" He inquired gleefully. "Unhappy to see me?"

"Why would I be happy to see your face again?" Yaten muttered, placing
a protective hand on her abdomen. With the other, she clutched at her
henshin wand. She didn't want to transform just yet, not knowing what
exactly would happen to the child inside her, but she would defend
herself if the need arose. *Damn it.* She thought, furious. *Where
are Taiki and Seiya when you need them...?*

~*~*~*~

"I am NOT being paranoid, okay?! I know something's happened to her!"

"Taiki, we're not accusing you of being paranoid." Kakyuu gave Seiya a
'look'. "We're trying to help. Do you have any idea where she is? Any
at all?"

"No..." He murmured, sitting down on the grass. He held his head in his
hands, feeling rather useless. "I can't feel her, I can't talk to her.
And I have this lurking feeling that she's in real danger, and if we
don't find her..."

"Don't even say it!" Seiya cried. "I swear, if you do, I'll hit you!
Even if she is in danger, we're going to find her before anything
happens to her! Stop worrying and help us find her!"

"What the hell am I supposed to do, Seiya?! If you have any ideas,
please let me know! I don't know anymore!"

"Seiya! Taiki! STOP IT!"

They both stopped and turned to their Queen, who looked rather
annoyed, her face pink with the effort of yelling. She never
yelled anymore.

"You both stop it, now! We're not getting anything done if we're
arguing! Yaten may need our help, and we need to figure something
out if we're going to help her!"

Seiya and Taiki simply stared at her. She must have been really
worried...she was never this upset unless she was really nervous, or
jittery, or she had something really big coming that she was afraid to
mess up.

The black-haired Senshi looked around absently, trying not to meet his
Queen's eyes. His lapis gaze fell on a group of children, probably
siblings or children of the courtiers. They all crowded around one boy,
who withdrew a slingshot from his pocket. With a grin, the child picked
up a stone and shot it, hitting a tree branch with ease. All the others
whooped and yelled as the boy gloated.

Wait a second...

"Guys..." He voiced, still looking at the group of children. "I think
I've got a plan..."

~*~*~*~

Yaten shrieked, dodging a sickly green fireball for probably the
millionth time in a row. This guy just would not quit! If he
wanted her dead, he'd aim better!

Suddenly a rather horrifying thought came to her. What if he was just
playing with her, tiring her out until his boss came to finish her off?
That would not be good. She didn't have the stamina to run
for much longer at the moment...and it looked like she wouldn't be
getting help any time soon. Damn...maybe she'd have to transform...

Thank goodness she carried her henshin wand everywhere she went. She
gripped it tightly, murmured a quick prayer to the Goddess, and shouted:
"HEALER STAR POWER, MAKE UP!"

She felt her tired muscles tingle as energy flooded them. Nice. Now she
could keep dodging for another few hours. But what the hell was taking
them so long?! Looking down at herself, she saw her belly was flat again.
Her stomach did a nervous flip until she realized she could still feel
her...still hear her child's heart in her ears. Okay. Nothing had
happened to the baby. That was very good.

She looked up to see another fireball come flying at her chest. She
jumped, flipping once for good measure, and landed on the other side.
Glancing at her assailant, Healer saw he looked positively furious.

She kept dodging. It seemed to work well enough, and maybe, just maybe,
she could stall long enough for the guys and Kakyuu to get there and
help.

~*~*~*~

"A...A slingshot teleport?" Kakyuu cocked one eyebrow in confusion.
"How would that work?"

"It's theoretically possible. One person to anchor on this end, just in
case it doesn't work, and the other end searches while keeping a link
with the anchor." Taiki mused aloud, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
"We'd need a pretty strong anchor, though. We have no idea where she is,
we might be searching for more than a few seconds."

"And we might have to stretch our bonds pretty thin, but I think we
could do it." Seiya added. "I could anchor, I suppose. Then you could
keep an extra-firm hold on Taiki, Kakyuu-chan."

"Wait, why am I on the other end?" Taiki pulled himself away from
theoretical-situation-land just in time to hear this. Seiya rolled his
eyes. "You're the one who knows her, and her energy signature, best.
You're the best person for the job."

"But what if something happens and I end up on some desolate planet
alone?" He inquired, slightly miffed.

"Hello? Kinmoku to Taiki! That's why it's called a 'slingshot' teleport.
If you end up in the wrong place, Kakyuu-chan can hang onto you long
enough to get you back...erm...theoretically, anyway..."

"I guess that's why I've been deemed 'monkey in the middle'." Kakyuu
giggled at the unfamiliar phrase. "And once you're there, Seiya and I
could get there easily, because I'll know where you are."

Taiki sighed. It was the only plan they had, and it did have
quite a bit of potential. "Okay...shall we give it a try?"

~*~*~*~

Healer cursed, nearly being singed by a fireball the size of her head.
This wasn't working. She needed someone to help. And she'd prefer it to
be soon, she prayed fervently to the Goddess, almost begging her
for anyone's help. Anyone.

Because she was paying attention to what was in front of her, she didn't
sense the ball of fire behind her. Somehow, instead of fizzing out as it
hit the wall, it had bounced, and now hit her square in the back,
sapping most of her borrowed strength with it. She screamed, and she
could have sworn her baby did too.

Flying forwards, she hit the floor and realized with dismay that not
only was she lying at the madman's feet, but she didn't have enough
strength to hold her transformation. Instead of fighting with it, she
let it go. She'd need to save what little strength she had left.

For a brief period she felt silky ribbons of magic wrapped around her,
and then it faded, leaving her as plain old Yaten again. She winced when
she found herself lying on her front and rolled away as far as she
could. She struggled into a sitting position and leaned against the
wall. She felt like she was beaten, but if she was, she sure as hell was
not going to just lay down and accept it.

As she struggled to lift herself to her feet, Moreas sneered gleefully.
This was so simple! He never dreamed it would be this easy to take down
a Sailor Senshi! Granted, he didn't know he'd be facing a pregnant
Senshi, that was probably why it was so easy. Once he killed her, the
other two would probably come and give him a much longer battle. How he
looked forward to it!

Suddenly, a brilliant flash of lavender light flooded the room,
temporarily blocking out the dirty green torchlight. When it disappeared
Yaten was stunned for a moment to see a rather disoriented-looking Taiki
standing behind her assailant. He clutched at his head for a moment or
two before looking around and taking in his surroundings.

Moreas whirled around. It took him a moment before he recognized the
second Senshi...wasn't he...a she before?

Taiki jumped back a ways when he realized who stood in front of him. He
really didn't want to end up having his face burning again. Not
fun at all. His eyes slid past the rather grotesque-looking man in
front of him to see Yaten, sprawled on the ground, her eyes wide and
her shoulders heaving as if she were breathing heavily. She held one
hand against her belly as if protecting herself and their child.

He dashed past Moreas, who growled, but didn't attack. Not yet. He
didn't want to tangle with this one...not now. Not until he and his
mistress killed the mother-Senshi right before his eyes. He recognized
the 'look'. It was that look that a person got when they laid eyes on
the person they were most devoted to. He'd seen that look enough times
on his mistress's other servants.

Taiki kneeled beside his girlfriend, who clutched at him. "Do you have
any idea how glad I am to see you?" She whispered fiercely, her eyes
still wide. He smiled shakily. "Glad to see you're okay, Yaten-chan."

"But not for long..."

All three people in the room whirled to face the throne at one end.
There sat a figure wrapped in black, as if they were in heavy mourning.
The voice was musical, in a chilling way, like a ringing bell made of
ice. Moreas stumbled forwards as far as he could go, kneeling at the
feet of the robed figure and kissing her feet. "My Lady."

The woman under the robed barely moved, but Yaten sensed she was
looking at her and Taiki. She huddled up against him...just a little.
She wasn't about to look like a child...she just needed a little comfort
before facing whoever this was.

"Don't you know who I am?" The chilling voice floated through the air,
as if it were a fine ribbon of silk. Yaten shivered when it touched her
ears. So whoever it was could read minds...

"What's the matter, Senshi? Cat got your tongues?" The woman's voice
now held a sneering quality. Yaten finally let her temper go, though
she knew she would most likely regret it later. "Who the hell are you!?
What gives you the right to take me from my home?!"

"So I have to spell it out for you, do I? Oh, you idiot Senshi, don't
you know me?" The hooded figure stood, kicking the groveller at her feet
away with one booted foot. A gust of wind blew the cloak away from her
face and body, to reveal a young woman, maybe a few years older than
they were. Her long, smoke grey hair fell down her back in tumbling
curls, ending at her waist. Her eyes flashed about the room, a deep
crimson, the colour of blood. She wore a tight, midriff-baring top
in a deep ebony fabric that looked like silk. Her gloves were the same
material. Silver braid lined the hems. The sailor-style skirt was deep
grey, almost the same colour as her hair, and her boots came up to her
knees, grey and black leather. A deep grey sailor collar covered the
young woman's shoulders, and a black ribbon choker with a hard,
glittering stone adorned her neck, with earrings to match. The final
touch was a swirl of black on the young woman's forehead, almost like
a black hole. It took a few moments, but the Senshi realized she
seemed to be immune to the sickly green light filtering out from the
torches. There wasn't a tint of green on the newcomer.

Yaten took about three steps back, her eyes tight with suspicion.
"You...You're not..." She breathed. "You...you can't be..."

"Oh?" The young woman turned around and disappeared, leaving the cape
behind. Moreas whirled around, trying to find his Lady.

"I'm not? Oh, you foolish, foolish child." A rather familiar voice made
both Senshi whirl. Taiki stepped away from a clone of himself, only
with blood-red eyes. The clone disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

"Who says I am who I say I am?" This time, it was Yaten who'd been
cloned. The real Yaten looked sick at the notion, although maybe it was
only the green light. The Yaten-clone laughed. "I could be anyone. But
more importantly, I am not just one person."

The young woman, now back in her regular form, appeared back up near
the throne. She sat down in it, swinging her legs over one side as if
she were lounging on a couch. She cackled gleefully at the looks on the
Senshi's faces. "Don't you get it yet?"

The two Senshi stayed quiet, both praying fervently. It couldn't be.
They couldn't do this on their own! Not if it was who she was claiming
to be! Unfortunately, their worst fears were brought to life at the
young woman's next words.

"I am Chaos."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

GASP! Well...that was...**coughforeshadowedcough** **hackcough** I'm
sorry, I seem to have a terrible cold ^.~

Wow...what's our young couple to do? And where in the world are Seiya
and Kakyuu? Shouldn't they be helping their fellow Senshi?

*10 x 20 metres is about 30 x 60 feet for my American readers...if I
have any, of course! I don't know if I do or not... ^_^

I thank everyone who's reviewed so far. Thank you so much. You've
been so wonderful. And I also thank Seventh Sanctum, for helping me
work out Chaos' outfit. Hehehe...Magical girl generator...wonderful
thing...^_^