Again, mind the copyrights, people. I'm poor, and no putting this thing around for profits, thanks! fynarra@aol.com

"Circles: PART THIRTEEN"
by NaruMolly

Pain. That is all there was. Pain and blackness. It was even; everywhere. Then, the darkness lessened to a thick gray. And he gained a name. Malcolm. Groaning, his eyes flickered open.

He lay on the ground, body cushioned by the soft, velvety grass, a heavy cloak draped over his body. His head was turned slightly to one side, and his cheek rested on a soft, folded pile of cloth that he suddenly recognized as being from Bridgette.

Bridgette. The Negaverse. The dance.

He turned his head, about the greatest attempt at movement he could make at the moment. The grass raised up around him, blocking out most of his view. Strange, rose-like violet flowers glimmered faintly in the bright sunlight.

And Bridgette stood before him, her slender frame taught with effort, her long hair blowing freely back in a sea-smelling breeze about her wings. A crystal and silver sword held firmly in her hand, her eyes fixed on something Malcolm could not see. Silence. "Bri--" he grimaced as the croak of his voice.

She started, turning to look at him, her sword lowering. "Malcolm- -" her dark, luminous eyes filled with sudden worry. "Malcolm...stay down."

Malcolm tried to move...but could feel only a faint tingle from everywhere but his head, which hurt abominably. "What--"

"Keep still."

Fire erupted before her. Malcolm cried out, trying to get up again, but only thrashing a little. Bridgette turned back to where she had been staring, her sword raising once more.

****

Jared cried out, pitching forward as a line of fire cut across the back of one leg. He hit the ground hard, driving his breath out. **Roll to one side! Quickly!** Jared thrashed a bit, managing to comply to Jedite's frantic mental command...and a taloned claw smashed down where he had been a moment before. **Get up! Or we'll both die!**

Jared rolled to his knees, pain faring from a hundred minor wounds, but none greater than the burning in the back of his calf and the sting from the long cut that went from one ear, across the eye lid and to the corner of his far temple. He put weight on his injured leg...and pitched forward again, crying out in pain. He hit the ground once more, tired. The creature above him roared in triumph and raised a claw to strike.

A black crystal blade plunged into it's unguarded chest.

Zoe swung into Jared's graying vision, her face smeared with blood and other nameless fluids, one arm hanging uselessly at her side. "Come on, Jared," she slipped her good arm under his shoulders. "We've got to keep going. One more Gate..."

"M'leg..." Jared coughed. "Get going yourself."

"Not a chance, two-face, now get up, damnit...this hurts."

**Yes, get up. I'm not going to become the power behind one of Beryl's spells.**

Jared groaned, but when one of the unicorns came over and grabbed the shoulder of his tattered jacket, hauling him up. He leaned heavily on Zoe's good shoulder, wiping blood from his eyes, looking around. Most of the fighting had stopped, their people moving cautiously towards the last Gate, their numbers swollen by deserters. He looked around. "Where...where's Nathan? And Molly?"

Zoe grimaced. "Joerdan got away with them."

Jared cursed, and limped between her and the unicorn. "I'll kill that bastard. I swear."

Zoe snorted, leaning down and grabbing a long scarf from a dead body to make a make-shift sling to hold her broken arm. "Take a number and get in line," she growled.

****

Nathan stirred groggily, raising his head from where it rested on Molly's chest. "Who are you?"

He turned towards the voice, hand going to clutch at the blood- caked lump on the back of his head. Bars surrounded him, the area dark; a cavern. But the darkness was too thick. "Oh bloody hell." He looked to one side.

The Black Lake.

"Shit. Just what I bloody needed."

"Who ARE you?"

He turned again to the voice. "Oh bloody hell; you're Molly's mother."

The terrified-eyed woman blinked. "I...yes. Who..." she squinted. "wait--that musician."

"What's left of me," he grimaced, pulling his hand away from the back of his head to look at the blood. Then he gasped, gathering Molly to his chest. "Molly..." he felt at her jaw frantically.

"Molly?" Mrs. Baker looked closer--and gasped. "What happened to her?! Why is she dressed like that?"

Nathan sagged in relief when he found a pulse, cuddling the unconscious girl close to his chest. "She got her back raked by an adonni, Mrs. Baker, and she's dressed like this because she's Sailor Earth." He looked around the blackness, but they seemed to be alone near the Lake.

"What?!"

Nathan kissed Molly's slack forehead, then moving to rest his head on top of hers, fingers twining in her hair as he held her close. "Mrs. Baker...how did...Molly and I get here? Who brought us?"

"The...same man who brought me here. Tall, dark curly hair..."

Nathan spat out a string of curses. "Joerdan. Damn."

She blinked. "How...do you know these...these people?"

Nathan looked at her, shifting his grip on Molly, to hold her closer still, wishing he had a cloak against the thick chill. He sighed, looking to the oily surface of the Lake nearby, watching it writhe. "Do you remember...Maxfield Stanton?"

"He's dead. He left Molly his estate," Mrs. Baker replied. "And what are you doing? After his fortune?"

Nathan snorted. "Even had I need of it, Mrs. Baker, it was mine in the first place."

"What?" Her voice was offended.

"_I_ was Maxfield Stanton, Mrs. Baker. But not anymore. He died, and he gave Molly what little he could to make up for the pain he caused her."

"But--how?"

"Reincarnation, I've been told."

"But...he was alive barely two months ago."

Nathan gave her a humorless smile. "Please don't remind me; it's already given me more headaches than you can imagine." Nathan leaned against the bars of the cage, hand holding Molly's head against his shoulder.

They were silent a moment. "What...do we do now?"

Nathan sighed. "My powers are exhausted, Mrs. Baker, even if my head didn't already hurt too much for me to make even a light. And these bars..." he shook his head. "We can only wait. The others are coming. We can only wait." He rested his chin on top of Molly's head, staring into the darkness. "Where in hell is Beryl?"

****

Malcolm put turned his face into the cloth his head rested on as a Bridgette's sword cleaved through the chest of a youma, splattering the grass and the strange purple flowers with sticky black blood. He could feel more of his body now, but it hurt to even twitch a finger. Around him, a battle raged, unicorns, sidhe, and the bird-man Healer fighting in a ring around where he rested. Even Melvin fought, the carved staff Bridgette had given him clutched in his hands, his glasses long since fallen from his face. And bursts of fire roared over head from Feolin.

But they were slowly being pressed closer and closer together, their ring closing tighter and tighter around Malcolm. Malcolm, closed his eyes, and slowly, painfully, struggled to his knees.

Bridgette looked back over her shoulder. "No! Malcolm! Keep down!" Then she choked, eyes turning back to stare at the minion who's blade was buried deep in her chest. Her blade dropped from her fingers as the fight seemed to stop. Her hand rose slowly to grip the blade, the edges slicing into her hand. The minion took a step backwards, unbelieving, his hands falling from the hilt of his sword. Bridgette pulled the blade slowly from her chest, a trickle of blood falling from one corner of her mouth. She turned the sword in her shaking hands, and lopped the minion's head off...

...and fell to her knees, choking.

"NO!"

Malcolm wasn't sure who screamed, but the fight renewed itself-- with Feolin leaping in and physically attacking. Bridgette raised her head to look at Quicksilver who started for her. "Keep...keep fighting...n..." she crumpled to her side.

Quicksilver started to speak, then turned, once more drawing his sword and going back to fighting with a renewed fury.

Malcolm managed to make it to Bridgette's side. Still breathing, blood frothing at her mouth, but still breathing. He rolled her over, grimacing at the pain it cost him, and gasped. No one could live with those wounds.

Burns covered her whole front, the wound in her chest only more recent than the other horrible wounds she bore. Her eyes flickered open, peering up at him, her mouth twisting into a pained smile. "Why..." he asked.

"I...cannot...die..." she slumped back, breaths rasping in her throat.

Malcolm looked up seeing a tall, serpentine youma break through the defenses...and shoved his own pain back, reaching beyond himself to SOMETHING else, shaping a gleaming arc of power. "Nice thing to know..." he clambered to his feet, swaying unsteadily and faced the youma, his pale eyes filled with fury.

****

"I don't like this," commented Riversong, looking about, his face grim, Fallingleaf's beaded headband tied around his forearm where the fallen man had put it before he had died.

Jared, leaning heavily on the shoulder of the unicorn stallion Tuli, Zoe nearby in case he should fall. He looked around the silent blackness that was just on the other side of the Gate and Jedite took over. "Aye. The Lake is never silent like this."

"We're still some ways from it, Lord," said Cerulean, wiping sweat and blood from his face as he came back from the front lines. "There is a square mile between us and the Lake...and all of it a make of passages. Perfect for an ambush."

Nuada strode over, his clothing tattered and torn, but still somehow free of blood. "Aye. But an ambush that is known need not be completely problematic."

"And just what do we do if Beryl starts using Nate, Mol, and Mrs. Baker as shields?" Zoe demanded.

Nuada fixed his ice green eyes on her. "You must ask yourself should the good of the few out weigh the good of the many?" Zoe's emerald eyes widened. "I know he cares for you, but would he prefer that perhaps just he die, rather than all of you? All of these people?"

Zoe glared at him a moment, then turned away angrily. Cerulean frowned. "With all due respect, Lord, every person counts towards the health of the whole."

The sidhe man nodded. "You must decide which way the Balance swings. I have left that behind me." He spun and strode back to his position, tattered cloak flaring behind him.

Jared snarled, his hamstrung leg resting lightly on the ground as he glared after him. "For all that his kind has left mucking about in the Balance thing, I think I'd trust Beryl more than him." Lita raised an eyebrow at him, resting her chin on Cerulean's shoulder, her hair falling about her face and caked with blood. "Well...maybe not, HER. But Bridgette's a hell of a lot more..."

"Human?" Cerulean smiled faintly. Serena and Darien, both battered and filthy came over, arms around each other. "Well...nothing to be gained by waiting but lost opportunities."

****

Nathan sighed, blowing a strand of hair from his eyes as he rested his back against the bars of the cage, Molly cradled in his lap, and Molly's mother huddled against his other side. His head still pounded, completely driving away any thought of magic. He shifted his grip on Molly one more time, something she was wearing was digging a hole in his already cut side. It clanged to the black stone floor of the cage. Her transformation wand.

Sighing, Nathan picked it up and started to tuck it back into the little magical pocket that she kept it in, then paused, peering intently at the top of it at the symbol.

A circle quartered by a cross. Bridgette's sign.

"What in--"

Molly stirred, then winced, her eyes opening. "N...Nathan? M'back hurts."

He kissed her head gently. "That's because your back got shredded pretty badly, Love." She grimaced, and moved a bit. "And my head got a nice lump, too, but don't worry. We seem to have found your mother."

She blinked, turning her head with a grimace to see her mother huddled beside her. "But--how...and why is it so quiet?"

Nathan grimaced. "Well...like I said, I went and let Joerdan bash me over the head right proper and we got rather captured."

Molly blanched. "So we're..."

"Saved us some walking, at least."

"But...where is...the army? Beryl's army?"

Nathan frowned. "In the catacombs, likely. As for Beryl...damned if I know."

****

"Why not let me go in first?"

Jared jumped as the huge form of Yen formed in the air before him, leaving where he had been wrapped around Mina's arm, almost like a tattoo. "I--uh--"

"My scales are more protection than your frail flesh; any of you. And the Lady told me to protect the girl, and I did not; I let her be taken."

"You prevented them from having a chance to kill both Sailor Earth AND Lord Nephlite, Dragon," Cerulean corrected, joining the group staring at the entrance to the maze of catacombs that led to the Lake. "And I do not think you would fit."

There was flutter, and a wave of heat, and the small form of the firebird perched on Rei's shoulder. It chirped a few times, and Yen nodded. "Naraew is correct; do not think that my full form will hinder me. I can adjust; I AM a dragon."

"Umm..."

Yen nodded to Jared. "Besides...there is always...THIS option..." He turned his head to the entrance of the catacombs...and breathed. Fire poured forth, white hot, only a little of it flaring back out of the entrance.

"Oh...yeah." Jared accidentally put weight on his bad leg and nearly fell--finally getting nosed onto the back of the unicorn he leaned on.

Rei grinned at the dragon, hand idly scratching at the fire bird's elaborate crest feathers. Yen's fiery breath cut off. "There." The dragon turned to the leaders. "I will be here should you need me." His huge form flared again, and returned to could about Mina's forearm.

Cerulean blinked, then ordered a few of his followers who had either thick shoes or hooves to scout out the fire-scoured passageways.

****

Malcolm fell to the ground, completely spent. "Malcolm!" Quicksilver tossed away his sword as Feolin disposed of the last of the attacking force.

Weakly, Malcolm reached out a hand across the bloody grass to touch Bridgette's pain clenched hand. She turned her head, tears on her blood-smeared face. "Malcolm...no...no not again..."

Malcolm managed a smile as the healer crouched at his side, blue- glowing hands hovering over his sweat-soaked silvery hair. "Un...until next time..."

Strange. He had thought it would end in darkness, not light.

****

"You dropped your wand," Nathan said, handing Molly her wand as he got up, leaning heavily on the bars of the cage when he swayed at the pounding of his head.

"Oh. Thanks."

"Have you looked at it? I mean, really?"

Molly shook her head. "No. I haven't had a chance to."

"Do it." Nathan peered around in the darkness, trying to find anything to do other than just sit and wait for Beryl to come kill them.

Frowning, Molly looked at the wand, and her eyes widened. "It's the same thing that's on the locket..." she picked the locket up off her chest...then blinked, noticing the missing dragon.

"It's the old symbol for Earth, Molly."

"Then what's it doing on Bridgette's locket?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I...remember most everything about the Silver Millennium now; she was never without it. And she claimed it had been the symbol of her people."

Molly's mother stirred, then looked up. "What--"

"Shh." Nathan's eyes scanned each of the bars. "I heard a loud noise a moment ago; sounded like fire or something. We--"

"That's precisely what it was, Nephlite."

He spun.

Beryl stood there, flanked by fully a full score of adonni, a huge army clustered at her back...all on the far side of the cage from the Lake. "You..."

"And while they waste their energy going through the catacombs, I will wait here for them and pick them off as they come through the door. Already one of you traitors is dead; along with HER."

"That...that's...you're lying!" Nathan's hands clenched into fists.

Joerdan stepped forward from just behind Beryl. "Oh no...Malachite is dead on that cursed Island. Our troops are decimated there, but they accomplished that much." He nodded, and Nathan spun in time to see Molly and Mrs. Baker gripped by adonni tightly as the bars melted away.

"You will watch the rest of them die, and then you will," Beryl said with a sneer, "and then your life force will help me destroy this pitiful world once and for all."

Nathan could only submit as two adonni came to grip his arms as well, hauling him and his two former cell mates after Beryl and Joerdan. "Malcolm..."

****

"Where is the rest of the troops?" growled Cerulean, kicking a youma from the point of his blade. "There aren't NEARLY enough in here."

"Too much to hope for Yen having toasted more of them, I guess," Jared said. "Course I'm not complaining for all the troubles it means; we've lost some..."

Zoe flung the headset away. "Damn! No word from Bridgette for hours!"

"And Nathan's set was smashed when he got captured," affirmed Darien grimly.

"We can assume a trap around the entrance into the main cavern, then," Nuada said. "And I doubt that Lady Bridgette is any danger, despite her weakness."

"What about the others? Melvin may be annoying, but I wouldn't want anything to happen to him," said Mina, scratching a bit at her arm where Yen rested.

"They are stronger than you think, I believe. And don't forget, Yen's other-worldly brother was there; no one laughs at a dragon."

"So...what do we do? Just walk into the trap?" asked Lita, smiling as Cerulean placed a hand on her shoulder.

Nuada paused, rubbing his chin. "Why are you asking HIM?" asked Rei. "I thought you didn't trust him."

Nuada turned to look at her sharply, then to Jared and Zoe. Jared grimaced, but Jedite came forward. "I may not trust him personally, but Jared claims that Nuada has long held the reputation of a great warrior; sometimes even held as a god of battles. Who better to turn to for strategy?"

****

Joerdan shoved Nathan roughly to his knees, Molly and Mrs. Baker both shoved down at his side, Molly swaying dangerously as the rough treatment having reopened the furrows torn in her back. Nathan raised hate-filled eyes to the Commander. "Still making yourself feel better by tossing the weaker and the wounded about?"

Joerdan kicked Nathan hard in the ribs, filling Nathan's ears with a sickening crack, but Beryl backhanded the Commander. "I loose patience with you doing things without my orders, Joerdan. NO ONE will have the pleasure of killing the traitor but ME."

Nathan grimaced, swallowing blood, but looking up fearlessly at Beryl. "Good bloody luck. I have a nice record for showing up again, Beryl, and I don't plan on breaking it."

Beryl sneered. "Oh, I fully intend on you coming back. It will hurt HER more." Beryl sent a small burst of power, knocking Nathan flat again. Molly grimaced and picked his head up into her lap, stroking his face gently, a cold hatred slowly forming in her warm eyes.

****

"No..."

The pain in Rei's voice brought tears to Jared's already stinging eyes. She knelt on the floor, Mina beside her with Zoe on the other side, her face pale. Serena sobbed brokenly into Darien's chest, and tears etched their way down his cheeks, his mask having long since been lost.

Rei picked the little unicorn foal's head up off the ground, placing it in her lap while Lita let out a furious blast of lightning and Cerulean a flare of blinding light at the creature who had killed it. "No...no, not Kali."

Cerulean's eyes were suspiciously wet when he turned back from the youma's corpse, though Lita blasted it a couple more times, openly sobbing. "One more thing Beryl shall pay for."

"We...we can't just...leave him..." Mina sobbed.

"We have to..." Serena whispered. "We've left so many..." Jared turned to look at her, then nodded.

"She's right, Miss Rei. WHEN we win this...we'll...we'll take care of him."

Nuada strode back, face impatient, then softening the slightest fraction. "Oh." Reaching up he tugged open the clasp of his cloak, and gently bent, wrapping the little foal up in the silken folds. "There...should we get in too much danger, his body will be sent Underhill where he will be...taken care of. But we must go on. I can get no word from Bridgette which means she has not the power or the time to spare. And your other friends; we must assure the living live."

Rei looked up at him, then nodded, the tears mixing with angry fire. Lita came back over to Cerulean and rested her face in his shoulder while he held her close. The army resumed its slow march forward, warily, with many frequent glances back at the silk-wrapped bundle on the black stone. Cerulean was only glad HIS foal was back on the Island...it was probably safer there.

****

Quicksilver watched helplessly while Bridgette, recovered from her wounds thanks to a bit of quick healing from him cradled Malcolm's limp form to her chest , tears streaming openly down her face. "Lord Healer..."

He turned, seeing one of the sidhe there, the elf's armor scorched from blows by iron blades. "Quicksilver. There are no lords amongst my people." He sat on the splattered grass, his bird at his side. "What?"

"There are no more in the area, and the sea is clear. We would like to join our Lord Nuada if we may."

Quicksilver grimaced. "Go, then. I...have seen enough warfare for this lifetime." Cerulean's foal, Nhim nosing Bridgette's hair curiously.

The sidhe who had spoken nodded, and turned, leading a few of his fellows off, though some still stayed in their guard positions. Melvin sat to one side, leaning on Feolin's side, new glasses, courtesy of one of the sidhe perched on his nose. "Is...she gonna be all right?"

Quicksilver sighed. "I don't know; perhaps. It is up to her, of course."

****

**....REMEMBER....**

Malcolm felt a wetness on his face. (Blood,) he thought. After a moment, he changed the thought. (Tears. Who's crying?) Someone held him. Someone lurked in the back of his mind. (But the light had said...) Feeling was slowly returning to him. The Someone in his mind slowly became less a presence, and then more words. Mumbled at first, but growing clearer as his awareness of his body. **...SLOWLY...**

Malcolm waited, the strange booming/soothing voice guiding him through.

****

"Your majesty; they are nearing the entrance," said the youma, bowing.

Beryl nodded. "Very good. Come; bring the traitor and the humans."

The three were jerked roughly to their feet, but left pretty much alone once they were stumbling along, assumed to be harmless due to their weakened states. But a cold fire burned in Nathan's heart; an ache for Malcolm. Somehow he knew Joerdan had been telling the truth with that jibe. They were taking his family away from him again. Molly's eyes were cold where she leaned half on her mother, half on Nathan.

"Here is good enough." Beryl sneered. "The first through will have a surprise, I think," she sneered, raising her hands.

Nathan looked down at Molly a moment, nodding to a few boulders. She blinked, then turned only her eyes to look before nodding back, gripping her mother's arm tighter. Nathan raised his head and spoke softly, his voice deceptively sweet. "Oh...Queen Beryl..."

She scowled, dropping her hand and turning towards the musician angrily. "WHAT?"

Nathan's fist connected with her jaw. Stunned, she fell back, and Nathan grabbed Molly and her mother and ran for the semi-shelter of the boulders at top, stumbling speed. He ducked a wave of energy, summoning strength from SOMEWHERE to raise shields around them all. "I've been bloody wanting to do that for centuries."

END PART 13

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