Disclaimer: You know I don't own Haruka and Michiru.  If I did,
do you think I will be slaving in my part-time work?

Since this fic is about Haruka and Michiru, you should have
guessed that it will have hints at lesbianism (yuri).  :-)
And ANGST alert!

C&C are most welcome.  Send them to chiaty@singnet.com.sg
My webpage: Http://web.singnet.com.sg/~chiaty/
Flames will be used to warm up my freezing toes.

I'd like to thank my mom and GSL, beta reader extraodinaire.
GSL's encouragement keeps my love for writing alive, so this is
for you, GSL.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~

WEEKEND WARRIOR   by Cass Chia
---------------


Crouched behind a tree, Tenoh Haruka waited for her pursuer to
approach.  The moments stretched on endlessly, yet her prey did
not appear.  Had he sensed her trap?  Were he and his buddies
surrounding her at this very moment?  Or maybe he hadn't seen her
run in this direction?  Her fingers tightened their hold on the
gun.  That weapon could very well be the deciding factor in her
survival today.  Relying on her teammates would be sheer
foolishness, for out here in the wilderness, it was everyone for
themselves, just the way Mother Nature designed it.

Soft footsteps crushing the dry leaves underfoot alerted her to
the approaching prey.  She adjusted her position slightly and
took aim, her lips curling to an almost smile.

The prey clutched his own gun in a death grip, his fear so strong
that it seemed like a physical presence wrapped around him like a
coat.  His noisy steps bellied his status as a rookie.

Haruka felt a surge of sympathy over this inexperienced one and
almost wanted to let him go unharmed.  <Almost,> she thought as
she squeezed the trigger.

Bang!  As though in a movie, he slowly crumpled to the ground,
his hands releasing the gun.  Panting harshly, he glanced at the
wispy clouds moving overhead.  <I thought it would rain today,>
he thought irrelevantly as his view was blocked by the
threatening figure of Haruka in fatigues.  She grinned and that
particular expression of triumph and fascination with his plight
sent shivers down his spine.

The scent of his fear and her adrenaline mingled into a potent
rush, a feeling she had never felt before without her Sailor
Uranus disguise.  She inhaled deeply this unique scent, wanting
to savour the moment but realised that the gunshot would have
alerted the others to her location.  <No matter> she thought as
she ran, <there are others just like him>.

When he could no longer see Haruka in the distance, he stood up
shakily, looked at his red stained shirt and grimaced.  <I must
really be watching too many horror movies.  For a moment, I
really thought she was going to kill me.>  For the second time of
the day, he shivered again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Still feeling triumphant over her easy kill, Haruka strolled
along.  If all her enemies were so easily defeated, she would be
back home in no time.

Unfortunately, so caught up was she in the self-congratulation,
that she almost missed the sudden sound overhead.  Realising what
was going to happen, she tried to scrambled away.

And failed.  With a whoosh, the enemy jumped down from his cover
and wrapped an arm around Haruka's waist.  His other hand
clutched at her throat.

Haruka panted as she wrestled free of the soldier's lethal grasp.
Moving several steps away until she caught her breath, she smiled
at him.

His eyes narrowed suspiciously.  "What are you laughing--"  The
rest of the sentence was cut off as Haruka launched herself
straight at him, causing him to step backwards in order to regain
his balance.  Next, several punches to his stomach served to
leave him winded and in pain.  Never easing up on her assault,
she tripped him.  Before he could get up, she had picked up his
weapon, dropped earlier in the scuffle, and fired once.  He
groaned - the sound reflecting his disappointment, rather than
pain.  Seeing the front of his jacket rapidly turning red, she
started to back away.  However, he started to sit up, ignoring
his chest wound.  Shocked, Haruka fired again.  That only caused
him to shout in outrage, "Hey!"

Realising that the soldier wouldn't stay down, she tossed away
the gun.  Improvising, she reached into her jeans pocket for a
penknife.  The slim blade reflected the sun's glare for a split
second before it slashed at the enemy's chest.

Shock turned into fear as the attacker dropped his gun and
whimpered.  Looking terribly pale, he pressed both hands onto the
cut and whimpered again.  "Please don't-"

Growling, Haruka shot him a third time and left without a
backward glance.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Minutes later, Haruka found herself under attack from a guy with
a ponytail who had ignored the threat of her gun and launched
himself at her.  Although he was shot twice by Haruka, he kept on
advancing.

<Another one of those that wouldn't stay down!> thought Haruka
furiously as she tried to catch her breath after he slammed into
her.

Not letting up, he sat on her and used his weight to keep her
down.  As his blows rained down on her, she cried out, not in
pain but in anger.  With a shout, she plunged her penknife into
the enemy's chest cavity.  Then she pushed him away and sat up.

Haruka watched impassively as he tried to breathe, each intake of
oxygen only causing him to bleed more, staining the grass dark
red.  The hot sun shone mercilessly down on the two, yet he
shivered as though he was cold.  Finally, a minute later, he
breathed his last breath and was still.

<He deserved it!> Haruka thought defensively.

<Did he?> a tiny voice asked?

<He attacked me first!>

<You shouldn't have killed him.> whispered the voice inside her.

<He kept punching me even after I was down, what kind of>

<You shouldn't have killed him.> interjected the voice.

Haruka rubbed her temple, she could feel the beginnings of a
headache.
And the tiny whispers did not help to alleviate the pain.  "Shut
up!  SHUT UP!" screamed Haruka.

Suddenly, as though those simple words were magical, her headache
disappeared, along with the whispers inside her head.  Haruka
breathed in deeply, trying to calm herself.  Two deep breaths
later, she thought she heard a single drum beat.  She closed her
eyes and focussed her hearing.

Without the distraction of her enemy's wheezing noises as he
tried to inhale and those irritating whispers, Haruka could hear
the beating of many drums, sometimes fast and frenzied, sometimes
steady and yet with an undertone of tension.  It was the siren
call of the jungle, calling her to battle, calling her to fight.

How could she have not heard it sooner?  Smiling, she blocked out
all other noises of the jungle and listened attentively to the
battle call.  Swaying to the hypnotic beat, she grabbed some mud
and drew two vertical brown strips, one on each cheek.

And now... Tenoh Haruka would fight.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michiru walked soundlessly out of her cover and aimed her gun at
the back of the fidgeting figure ahead.  The enemy hadn't noticed
his impending doom.  <An easy kill,> she thought.

"Surprise!"

Michiru jumped in fright as the voice came from behind her.  She
turned her head slightly to glance at the male aiming his gun at
the small of her back.

"I wouldn't move any further, Michiru," warned the man.

She glanced back at the 'easy kill' only to find his gun too
pointed at her.  Faced with enemies in front and behind her, what
was she to do?

Haruka looked on worriedly from her perch on a tree branch.  If
she didn't act soon, Michiru would die.  That alarming thought
fuelled her into action.  Removing the gun from her waist, she
pointed it at the man behind Michiru.  From this distance and
angle, it would be impossible to kill him with a single round.
But it would buy Michiru time to disarm them.

Haruka closed her left eye and aimed, her finger slowly squeezing
the trigger.  <But Michiru is the enemy - your enemy!>

Startled, she released the trigger.  <Michiru is not my enemy.
We're partners.>  Images of them battling monsters of every shape
and size flooded her mind.  Yet the armband Michiru was wearing
now clearly marked her as one of the other team.

<No!  She wouldn't betray me, betray us!  She believes in the
cause.>

<You fool!  She fights for them now.  She has become your enemy
and you still try to save her.  You're a fool to trust her even
now.  Be careful that she doesn't put a bullet in your back.>

<No!  I don't believe that.  I won't!>

Suddenly, Michiru's earlier speech that morning replayed in her
head, "Looks like we're on opposing sides this time, Haruka."

<Is Michiru a friend, a comrade in arms or isn't she?  Argh!
This is giving me a headache!  But if I don't help her now,
she'll die!>

An aborted scream and the thud of a body falling alerted her to
concentrate on the scene before her - the decision whether to aid
her aquamarine-haired friend or not, was taken away from her.

Haruka watched as Michiru pivoted on the spot and kicked the man
behind her.  She quickly shot him in the chest and then whirled
back to check if her other opponent was down for the count.
Waving goodbye to the bodies, Michiru left.  After waiting until
she was out of sight, Haruka shimmied down the tree and left as
well - in the opposite direction.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next soldier she met seemed as if he would be more
comfortable with a computer keyboard than with his gun.  Still,
she did not hesitate to pump his body full of lead.  He jerked
several times but remained standing.  Growling in anger and
frustration, the blond warrior threw away her ineffective gun and
attacked him with her knife.

Eyes widening in fear, he backed away until his body touched the
trunk of a tree.  Arms in the classic posture of surrender, he
tried to protest, only to get impaled before he could utter a
single word.  Hands closing over the wound, he coughed, spitting
out blood and a small yellowish oval object.  Then he slowly slid
to the ground, panting harshly.

Haruka's eyes widened at the sight of the oval object.  So that's
what this new enemy is!  A variation of Professor Tomoe's daemon
seeds.  With a start, she turned back to the bleeding soldier.
She removed his bandanna and placed the cloth over his wound,
trying to stop the endless bleeding.  "Don't worry, you'll be
alright."

He looked at her with a mixture of disbelief and distrust.

"I'm sorry but a daemon had possessed you and I had to stop it.
I'm so sorry, Seiki."  Inwardly, she was surprised that she
actually knew his name but try as she might, she couldn't
remember how she had known.  Her headache returned with a
vengeance, as if there were little men stuck inside her brain and
were trying to beat their way out.  She shut her eyes tight and
moaned.

When she next opened her eyes, the empty gaze of Seiki's eyes
greeted her.  Scrambling away from his corpse, it was all she
could do to keep from screaming.  She had killed an innocent!
She, one of the protectors of Earth, had murdered a human.  Her
bloodied hands were proof of that.

Her sight zeroed in at the blood, the life-force of a human
being, on her hands, until it was all she could see.  The
pounding of her head increased in speed and in intensity, each
beat a reminder of what she had done, until all she could feel
was the pain.  When darkness came, she welcomed it with both
arms.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[Flashback]

Haruka screamed, her terror reverberating throughout the mansion.

"Haruka?  Are you alright?" asked Michiru.  Searching fingers
found the light switch for the desk lamp.  Its orange glow
embraced the two women like old lovers.  Despite her worried
expression, Michiru looked deliciously rumpled in her nightgown,
her tousled curls seemingly begging to be caressed.

But Haruka failed to notice, as she drew a shallow breath after
another.  Trembling fingers combed through her short blonde hair,
dampened by the humid night.  She hugged her knees to her chest
as the last vestiges of her nightmare disappeared to the
approaching dawn.

"Haruka?"

Wild, fearful eyes gazed back at her for a moment, not
registering her presence.  Before the worried Michiru could
comment, Haruka seemed to regain a semblance of her former self-
assured self and smiled back.  "It's just a dream.  Sorry I woke
you."

Her lover shook her head.  "What did you dream about?"

<I dreamt you were dead.>  "Nothing much.  Go back to sleep."

Gentle fingers stroked her face, as Michiru kissed her forehead,
then her nose.  "You sure?"

<I dreamt I killed you.>  "Yes.  Now sleep or else you'll get
eyebags," teased Haruka.

Michiru smiled as she slid back inside the covers, a hand
reaching for her love as she closed her eyes.  Haruka shifted so
that her right arm was loosely embracing the half-asleep woman
and waited for daylight.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michiru peered up at the glaring sun, shielding her eyes with her
hands.  The end was near, she could feel it singing in her veins.
With each step forward, she was closer to victory.  The combat
game would soon be over, then she would be able to escape this
heat.

"Come on you two, keep marching forward.  Don't try any tricks,"
warned Michiru.

"Oh come on, Michi, just pull the trigger and be done with it
already," whined the girl with long unruly bangs as she scratched
at her mosquito bites.  "At least then, I'll be able to find a
nice cool spot to rest."

"No.  You two are my shields," she replied matter-of-factly.

"I could have shot you earlier, if not for Miko.  Why did I end
up with such a useless partner?" grumbled the man who looked like
a character from one of those kung-fu movies, with his muscular
physique, buzz cut and a bandanna tied around his head.

"Humph!  You were the one who wanted me to be your partner in the
first place, T," retorted Miko as she blew at an offending lock
of hair covering her left eye partially.

"That was before I realised you were a klutz."

"Say that again, T?  I didn't hear it."  Miko smiled sweetly at
her partner but her eyes flashed with anger and a promise of
imminent harm.

Michiru sighed.  "Come on, guys.  Act like good little hostages
and we-"

"Michiru?"  A tentative, frightened whisper from the trees above
startled the bickering duo and their captor.  "Help," the voice
whispered urgently.

They glanced up at the direction of the voice and saw the scared
brown eyes of Eriko peering down at them.  Abandoning her perch
on a thick branch, Eriko slithered quickly down the tree trunk.
"We have to get away now!  It's not safe!" she pleaded, ignoring
the minor cuts from her harsh descent as she glanced around
nervously.  "She might come back and kill us all!"

"What?" was the bewildered reply from all three.

"She's gone crazy!  I saw her kill Sam.  I was sitting on the
tree branch like just now, and she didn't see me.  But I saw her!
She killed him!"  The petrified young woman cried out as tears
slid down her cheeks.

"What are you talking about, Eriko?" asked Miko in a tone
reserved for calming down agitated children.

"She just pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the back."  Pale
hands mimicked the stabbing action repeatedly.  "All I could do
was watch from my position in the tree.  I couldn't stop her.
"There was so much blood...  Why did she do it?  It's just a
game.  It's supposed to be a game!  Sam just fell and stopped
breathing.  Sam's dead!" she screamed hysterically, hands tearing
at her hair.

The three exchanged bewildered glances.  "She's snapped.  Post-
exam stress," whispered Takashi as his index finger pointed to
his head and made tiny circles.

"I don't think so," replied Miko haltingly, her gaze drawn to a
vague shape resting behind a tree to their left.

"That's just a shadow," replied Takashi as he took long strides
towards it.  His cocky grin faded as he beheld the corpse of his
roommate, its legs akimbo and its left arm outstretched in a
final plea for help.  Bile rising up his throat, Takashi
staggered back a few steps and vomited out the remains of his
breakfast.

Alarmed, Michiru and Miko walked towards Takashi and gasped.
Sobbing, Miko buried her face onto her friend's chest, willing
herself to forget the burning image of Sam's face twisted
permanently into a grimace of pain.

Michiru looked away, sadly.  There would be time to mourn for the
loss of a friend later.  She gently pushed Miko away and
approached Eriko, who had refused to move from her spot.  "Who?"

"Haruka," came the soft, frightened whisper, as though the mere
mention of the name would bring the killer back here.

<NO!  Not Haruka!>  Steadfastly believing in her partner, friend
and lover, Michiru stared angrily at the witness.

Cringing back, Eriko whimpered but refused to take back her
accusation.
"I saw her face.  For a moment, I thought she saw me too."  She
trembled at the memory of those crazed eyes.

"Where was she headed?" asked Takashi, deliberately turning so
that he would not have to view the corpse.

"Towards the house."

Immediately, Michiru slid on the Sailor Neptune persona, as
easily as wearing a second skin and took charge of the situation.
Her detached cool expression and air of confidence demanded
everyone's attention.  "All of you, stay out of sight.  Prevent
anyone else from entering the house.  I'll find the murderer."
She smoothed her pants and tied her hair into a simple ponytail.

"Wait!  I'll go with you," demanded Takashi.  "Sam's my
roommate."

They stared at each other for several long seconds.  Takashi
visibly flinched as he felt her probing gaze penetrate right down
to his soul and revealed the truth.  "You don't know what you are
getting into," her eyes seemed to convey.

"No.  You should stay here with Miko and Eriko.  Warn everyone
who is heading this way about the situation.  Besides, I need
someone to watch the house in case the murderer got through me
and decided to backtrack."

Relieved and yet insulted, Takashi couldn't stop himself from
protesting.  "You can't handle it alone.  And can you really
bring yourself to stop Haruka?"

"I'll do whatever it takes to capture the murderer...  Whoever it
may be."  With that final sentence, Michiru sprinted towards the
house.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Taking a deep breath, Michiru kicked open the front door and
rushed inside.  Only silence greeted her.

After checking the possible hiding places, she glanced at the
flight of stairs leading all the way up to the fifth floor.
There was no where else to go but up.  Cautiously, she ascended,
knowing full well, that she was an open target.  As she walked
up, events happened earlier that morning replayed in her mind...

[Flashback]
"Remind me again, why are we here in this mosquito hell at this
ungodly hour?" complained Miko to the others.

"Because we had been so stressed over the exams and this combat
game would be a perfect stress reliever," explained Sam.

"Why can't we just go catch a movie instead?" retorted Miko.

"It'll be fun," chirped Seiki, the computer nerd in the group.

"Seiki?  You, of all people, want to play a war game?  I thought
you would prefer to fight behind the safety of a computer
screen," teased his roommate, a baseball player.

"Hey!" was his outraged response while the others laughed.

Later, everyone drew lots to determine which of the two teams
would they belong to.  Michiru smiled as she held up her slip of
paper with a blue circle drawn on it.  "Looks like we're on
opposing sides this time, Haruka."

Haruka looked at her own slip of paper with a red circle drawn on
it and smiled.  "Indeed, we are.  Want to have a small wager on
the side?"  Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

Her partner replied without the slightest hesitation.  "Sure.
Whoever's side loses, she will have to be the slave for a day."

Although the speaker's expression was bland, Haruka knew what
sort of thoughts were running through that stunning beauty's
brains.  Haruka wanted to leer at her partner but settled for a
knowing look instead.  "Agreed."

"Well, then.  Haruka, be prepared to call me 'mistress'."

[End of flashback]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stop at the next floor.  Quickly scan the surroundings.  Kick
open the first door and duck, in case bullets come flying towards
her.  Enter and search the room.  Repeat procedure for the next
three rooms on that level.  Wish that she could transform into
Sailor Neptune and gain the extra speed, strength and agility as
well as her weapon, instead of relying on her ineffective gun
supplied by the combat game's crew and  her fighting skills.

Yet realising at the same time, that it would be difficult to
explain Sailor Neptune's presence in the house when only Kaitoh
Michiru, famous violinist and artist and the murderer were
supposed to be inside.  Abandon that futile wish, walk up the
next flight of stairs and continue.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Half an hour later, Michiru was left with the last floor to
search.  Would she find Sam's killer there?  Or had the killer
left already?
She stubbornly refused to even admit the possibility of the
killer being the blonde cocky racer, refusing to give the killer
a name.  Even so, a memory surfaced unbidden...

[Flashback]

"There is no peace.  Never.  Every time we think the enemy has
been defeated, that we can finally be normal people living out a
normal existence - some new enemy surfaces out of the woodwork.
And we fight."

"Haruka," whispered Michiru, as she moved to comfort her.

Although the blond accepted her embrace, the former's body
remained tense.  "Don't 'Haruka' me!  You know it's true.  We
fight.  We die.  We are resurrected, only to fight another
battle.  The cycle never ends.  The battle is never truly over.
So don't tell me to relax and enjoy the 'peace' when there is
none."

[End of flashback]

A doubt began to grow in her mind.  Could Haruka really have
killed Sam?  Maybe she was reminded of the battles with
Nephrenia, Sailor Galaxia, and reacted to the threatening
presence of Sam clutching a gun, albeit a gun filled with blanks
that burst upon contact, creating red, washable spots.

<No!> she screamed mentally.  Haruka was her partner, her best
friend.  She should not be accusing the blonde senshi of murder.
<I know Haruka, just like I know myself.  There is no way...>
However, just like a resilient weed that proved impossible to
remove completely, the nagging doubt remained embedded deep in
Michiru's mind.

<One final step before reaching the fifth floor.>

The violinist lingered for a few seconds, remembering the warm
smile the blonde reserved just for her, the teasing feathery
light touches that set her ablaze, the way Haruka had reached out
for her in their final battle against Galaxia.  She clutched
these precious memories tightly and bound them close to her
heart.  Steeling herself, she took the final step towards
uncovering the truth.

Michiru scanned the area quickly, her body and senses on full
alert.  There!  Huddled in the far left corner, a figure who had
hidden his face in his folded arms.  She took a step towards him
and froze as she caught sight of a penknife, its blade dirtied
with blood.  She must have made a sound because the figure
stirred and peered up at her.

For several long tense moments, the two stared at each other.

"Haruka," whispered Michiru, in horror and disbelief.  She
glanced at her lover only to find the same emotions reflected
back at her.

Choking back the nausea and the tears, she tried to speak, to say
that she knew Haruka wasn't the killer, that Haruka had merely
found the knife, witnessed the senseless act, that reality was
never as bad as it seemed.

But Haruka never gave her the chance.

She had picked up the blade and ran like the wind towards the
nearest room.  The door slammed shut with a loud bang, locking
Michiru out.  Reacting instinctively, the most ladylike of all
Sailor Senshis took off at a run and banged the door with her
shoulder.  It took her two tries before the door finally gave
way.

But alas, she could only watch dumbly as her lover leapt out of
the window.

"Haruka!  Haruka!  Haruka!  Haruka!"

Only when the agonised screams had ended, did she realise that
they were from her own throat, so animalistic and heart-breaking
that she could not even recognise them.

Michiru sank down to her knees in shock.  There was no way her
love could have survived the fall.  As Sailor Senshis, they could
leap out of a building three times taller and walk away with
narely a bruise.  But without the added protection of their
uniforms and the magical objects, they were as fragile as every
other human.

A full minute passed before she had composed herself enough to
walk towards the window.  She gaped as Haruka dusted herself off
and took off towards the cover of the trees.  Her heart soaring,
Michiru dashed down the stairs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tenoh Haruka leaned against a tree, her left hand covering her
injured thigh.  She could see fluffy white clouds overhead,
slowly moving, constantly shifting their shapes.  Somehow, seeing
this constant presence in the sky soothed her heart.  Entranced,
she watched as one rabbit-shaped cloud transformed slowly,
becoming more ovalish and finally forming the vague shape of a
sword.  Aghast, she looked away.

<Was this how it was supposed to end?> she pondered.  A guardian
angel becoming one of the monsters she detested?  How could she
ever be one of the protectors of the Moon Princess, of Earth,
after taking innocent lives?  There were no new daemons
possessing the bodies of her classmates, only her mind creating
monsters out of thin air, breathing life into her innermost fears
and hatred, just like an author breathed life into his
characters.

Sam.  Seiki.  Kyosuke.  Victims of her paranoia.  People who had
thought her to be their friend, had trusted her until the last
moments of their lives.  She had betrayed their trust, just like
she would betray the Moon Princess and Michiru sooner or later.

There was no choice, no decision to make.  Just as their blood
mingled on the blade, so would hers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Haruka!" shouted Michiru in a near panic.  Every moment of non-
response from her lover only added to the Neptune Senshi's alarm.

She ran forward desperately, hoping that her voice would reach
Haruka, that somehow Haruka would come to her.  "Haruka!"

"Haruka!"

No.  She would not panic, would not let the tears fall.  Not
while her love, her soulmate remained missing.  She would find
Haruka and then tell her that the latter was loved no matter
what, that together they would overcome anything.  They had came
back to life, hadn't they?  If cheating death came so easily to
them, then there was no obstacle they could not overcome.

"Haruka!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

As though Michiru's fervent wish had came true, the grim, tall
blond staggered forward and into the former's line of sight.
Relieved, the long haired woman could only stand there, waiting
for Haruka to make her way into her outstretched arms.

Time seemed to drag on as Haruka took a step and another.  But
finally, finally she was in Michiru's arms.  Clutching Haruka
tightly, Michiru whispered prayers of thanks to all the gods she
had ever heard of, for giving them a chance.  <Thank you.>  She
wound her arms even more tightly around the waist of her love, as
though fearing that the person she was hugging was merely an
illusion that would fade away if she let go.  And apparently,
Haruka felt the same way too, for she did not utter a single word
of protest, even though the embrace was too tight.

Feeling an odd dampness on her shirt, causing it to plaster
itself onto her abdomen, Michiru took a small step away from
Haruka.  The aquamarine-haired woman glanced down only to find
her shirt bloody.  And on Haruka's shirt was an even bigger
stain, spreading by the minute.  Aghast with horror, Michiru
stared at the open wound on Haruka.

Long fingers caught Michiru's chin and lifted it.  The two stared
into each other's eyes, both reading each other's emotions and
thoughts from the unguarded gaze.

"My heart," whispered Haruka as she stroked Michiru's face.
Michiru nuzzled the palm as tears fell uncontrollably.  "Don't
cry, my heart," pleaded Haruka.

With a cry, Michiru once again pulled Haruka into her arms,
uncaring of the blood flowing out of Haruka's body and seeping
into the fabric of the former's shirt.

As tears, sweat and blood of the two mingled, a helicopter's
engine could be heard in the distance, growing louder.



THE END



~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ok, here's where you get to read my ramblings.
Firstly, believe it or not, this fic is based on a dream I had
and I've kept it pretty close to my dream, right down to the
ambiguous ending.
Why such an ending?  Well, that's cos GSL called me at that
moment and woke me up.  So you can blame that on her.  Besides, I
want to leave it up to you as to whether Haruka gets saved or
not.

And the reason why I'm thanking my mom, is not just because she
gave birth to me (although that is reason enough) and not because
of Mother's Day.  You see, she always told me to write down my
dreams cos they're weird and someone might enjoy reading them
someday.  So now, you know.

Cass

15/5/2000