luciferdb@aol.com This is the first chapter. -Dragonwind Nexus Chapter 1 Naru came to school somewhat worried. Usagi noticed this and asked her what was wrong...to which she replied that nothing was the matter. Usagi just simply did not believe this. Naru continued to look worried for the next three days, and her grades declined. Finally on the 4th day, she approached Usagi while she was in her desk to talk to her. "Usagi-chan? Can I talk to you?" Usagi had never seen her friend so tense and upset. Naru looked just about to cry. Even Umino had not spoken to her for a while, having nearly given up on his tries to cheer her up. "Yes, Naru-chan, what's wrong? You look terrible." "Well, it's hard to say...no one outside of my family knows about it, and Umino promised not to tell anyone since I found out." Possibilities raced through Usagi's somewhat intelligent mind. 'What could it be? Death? Break-up? Illness? Preg...' Usagi's eyes perked up. Umino and Naru HAD been going out for a long time...is it possible they had gone that far? 'It would explain why she looks so tense...' "Naru-chan? Are you.....pregnant?" * * * * * * * * * * Outside the classroom, a 2D-like portal opened up about 4" in diameter about four feet below the window into Usagi and Naru's class. A few moments later a thick vine began protruding from the portal that slowly made it's way up the side of the wall to the window. * * * * * * * * * * Naru looked up quickly and put on a face of similar to disgust, "No, why would you think that?" Usagi replied, "You looked so worried and that would account for everything..even what you said about Umino." "That's not it...of course I'd rather have that be the problem instead of what is really happening." "Then what? You've known for a while that you can tell me nearly anything and I'll understand. What is the problem? Does it have anything to do with Umino-kun?" Naru shook her head. "No, Umino is not the problem. He's fine and...well..." * * * * * * * * * * The vine reached the far back left window and slithered up to it. The tip of it began to glow slightly as it touched the glass. It seemed to bend as the vine separated the particles and quietly slithered through the window, leaving a solid hole for the rest of it to follow through. It made it's way along the back of the room till it reached the fourth row from the window. It then turned left and continued it's journey. * * * * * * * * * * Usagi was still worried. This problem seemed to worry Naru a lot and she wasn't telling her. "Naru, just tell me and I'll try to help." Naru looked at her and silently decided to tell her. Her subconcious, though, suddenly started to scream at her about something, but she couldn't figure it out. "Okay Usagi, I'll tell you. You know that jewelry store that opened about 4 blocks from ours?" "Yeah..." "Well, the store is about 3 times the size of ours, and they're charging about half as much as we are. At this point if we stay the way we are, we'll be out of business in 2 weeks. The prices we had to set just to stay has us where we're losing more money than gaining. My mother's nearly set on selling the space and getting a job somewhere else." * * * * * * * * * * The vine slid down the row of desks until it reached Usagi's. It silently made a large loop on the ground around her right leg until it reached the rest of it's body where it melded together creating a lasso. * * * * * * * * * * "Oh, I see...you're really doing that bad?" "Yeah, all of our savings are nearly gone. Right now we're sitting on bankruptcy, and I can't think of anything to do. The only place I can get a job right now is that same jewelry store, and they're not going to hire me while my mom still owns ours." "So why aren't you telling anyone about it?" Naru answered, "I don't want anybody worrying about me. A lot of people would start trying to help us, and that's not what we want." "Oh," Usagi sighed, looking at Makoto, who was staring out the window. Naru suddenly jerked upright, not that Usagi noticed, and her eyes seemed to wander beyond her control. She saw the vine looped on the ground around Usagi's feet. She then whispered something that only Usagi could hear, who snapped her head around to look at Naru with pure bewilderment. Before she could say anything, Naru grabbed the desk and flipped it over, sending Usagi tumbling to the ground, just as the vine lifted up to pull whatever it could with it. Usagi's leg was out of the way, but flipping the desk over caused Naru's foot to be in the same spot where Usagi's was. The vine constricted and clenched around Naru's ankle, pulled her off her feet, and pulled her screaming towards the window. "NARU!!" Usagi was still collecting her thoughts when she saw Umino dashing to the back to his girlfriend. Umino made a grab for her but only clasped onto her fingers. Naru was screaming his name, but he couldn't do anything to stop it as her feet crashed through the window, severely slashing them, as the rest of her body was yanked out of the room. Just before she got out of his reach, Umino made one last desperate grab for her and snatched her wrist with his right hand. The vine pulled harder and Umino was slammed down onto the windowsil, where the remaining shards of glass from the window cut deeply into his side. "UMINO!! UMINO!!! HELP!!! PLEASE DON'T LET GO!!!" "Nothing could make me let go of you!" Makoto slid beside him and reached down to grab her other wrist. She could see where the cause of her trouble was and started pulling harder to pull her back up. The vine countered that by pulling harder. * * * * * * * * * * Haruka and Michiru appeared at the doorway and quickly assessed the situation. The crowd...Naru's voice screaming for help...the shattered window... "Roof...now," Haruka stated, and they took off running towards the stairs, avoiding the students and teachers racing to see what was going on. * * * * * * * * * * Naru could figure that she was REALLY in trouble. Some vine was pulling her down, two people, one of them her boyfriend trying to pull her back up, several people in the nearby windows shouting exclamations, and a large crowd gathering below, besides the large black thing beneath her where the vine came out. This was really a bad day. Her leg felt like it was about to be torn off, and no help in sight. * * * * * * * * * * Haruka opened the door to the roof and looked around for something to use to rescue Naru. "Lets hope our transformations still work," Michiru stated. "URANUS PLANET POWER! MAKE UP!!" "NEPTUNE PLANET POWER! MAKE UP!!" Sailor Neptune opened the fire hose cage and began unrolling it. Energy collected in Sailor Uranus's hand as she produced her Space Sword from it's alternate demension. She ran towards the edge as Neptune tossed her the end of the hose. she measured a length and tied a large bowline for her foot. Uranus put her sword in her teeth as she slid over the edge with Neptune slowly feeding her slack. She slowly hung down to where Naru was in trouble. * * * * * * * * * * "Look! It's Sailor Uranus!!" Naru noticed her coming down from above. Uranus was lowered past Naru, who heard the words, "Stay as still as you can." Many people who could see her from the windows and from below had started cheering when Uranus appeared. Before Uranus could do anything, the vine jerked and Naru heard a snap and a sharp pain shot through her body as her knee snapped in two. Uranus nearly fell when Naru screamed because of her leg. 'Damn...it's broken,' Uranus thought. Makoto's grip slipped and now the only thing keeping Naru from falling into the hole was Umino. Uranus gripped her sword, reached down, and slashed at the vine, but she missed. Naru began to slip from from Umino's grip, and screamed his name. Uranus saw her last chance and swung with all her might, which was enough because her sword went right through the vine, slicing it all the way through and releasing Naru from it's grip, but Naru was about to fall anyway, with Umino's grip nearly gone. Uranus reached around and grabbed Naru around the waist in time before her hand slid out of Umino's. "Yes!!" Usagi exclaimed. Uranus asked Naru, "Are you okay?" Naru was about to nod yes when another vine reached up and snagged Uranus's left ankle (The one on the hose), jerking her down before she barely was able to grab the bottom of the loop she made earlier. her Space Sword was sent plummeting to the ground. The jerk she created on the hose was enough to nearly send Neptune flying over the side, but she grabbed the edge of the roof in time. "Let go of me, you idiot!!!" Uranus said, referring to the vine. Uranus saw something out of the corner of her eye, which she was glad to see, a rose stuck into the wall. And the only person she knew that threw roses was.. "Tuxedo Kamen-sama!!!" Usagi exclaimed as she noticed the roses. She looked around and spotted him on the adjacent building. Uranus saw her chance and braced her foot against the side and pushed, revealing more of the vine, which Tuxedo Kamen noticed and flung his second rose... ...which missed. "That idiot needs to learn how to aim...," Uranus whispered to herself. Tuxedo Kamen produced another rose and took careful precaution to aim. He sent the rose flying to it's target and it embedded into the vine, which released Uranus's leg. Neptune noticed the change in weight and started pulling her teammate up. The crowd watched as Tuxedo Kamen made a near impossible jump from the roof of the adjacent building to the one Neptune was on. Paramedics arrived and ran into the building. Makoto made it to the roof as Neptune and Tuxedo Kamen were getting Naru over the edge. As Neptune was pulling Uranus over, the paramedics got up to the roof and started First Aid on Naru. "How are you?" Neptune asked Uranus. "I've been better," Uranus answered with a smirk. "Naru! Are you okay? How are you feeling?" questioned Makoto. "I'm not okay, if that's what you're wondering. Where's Usagi?" "She stayed with Umino while the paramedics helped him." "Helped him? What was wrong with him?" "You probably didn't know this, but while he was holding onto you, his arm was slashed on the glass. He was bleeding the whole while you were hanging there. He must have been in terrible pain, yet he still held on. You're very lucky." "Yes.....lucky." The medics lifted her up on the stretcher, after bracing her leg and bandaging her cuts, and slowly lifted her down the stairway. A small girl ran up the stairway and onto the roof carrying Uranus's Space Sword. She looked around and spotted Uranus, to which she half ran/half walked over to, "Sailor Uranus-san? I think you dropped this..." Uranus smiled a bit and accepted the sword from the young girl, "You shouldn't be playing with this. It's very dangerous for inexperienced people to use.." She replied, "Why not? You use it..." She then walked away. Uranus had a semi-shocked expression on her face, then turned to Neptune and said, "Why do I feel I've just been insulted?" "Because you were," Neptune answered with a smile. * * * * * * * * * * "Okay now, we'll get him to the hospital and start him on a unit of whole blood," the paramedic stated. "Let's go." The medics raced past Usagi and wheeled Umino out of there, but Usagi didn't notice, she seemed to be in a daze. For it had finally hit her what she had heard Naru say just before it all started. The words that were whispered so softly that only Usagi had heard it. Those words Usagi was surprised to hear Naru saying were, in fact, "Princess Serenity..." ==================== Given the fact that the whole matter was taken care of by Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Tuxedo Kamen, Naru was able to go home that night, albeit with a cast on her right leg and bandage on the other. Umino had to stay over because of the blood loss. Naru's mother nearly fainted when she heard that her daughter was nearly pulled out of a window at school, but was glad she was okay. * * * * * * * * * * Later that night, Naru got a call from the Tsukino residence... "Hello?" "Um..Naru-san? This is Shingo, Usagi's brother." "Yes, what do you want?" "Usagi wants you to come over here, now." 'That's strange' "Why, doesn't she know I've got a broken leg?" "She knows...but she says you need to come over here. Something's happened and she told me to call you before the paramedics." "Paramedics?!? Has something happened to Usagi-chan? What's wrong? Is she okay?" "Yes, Yes, Usagi's fine, it's someone else here. Someone came here all beaten up, he was covered with green blood and Usagi's trying to help him" Green blood and vines...."Shingo-san! Tell me, what was his name?!" "His name? Um...I..ah." "Tell me!" "Oh, yeah....Nephrite." Naru tensed up. The phone slipped from her hand and fell to the floor in a crash. Naru's mother came in to see what was wrong, but was greeted by a silent Naru whispering something softly. "Naru? Are you okay? What's wrong?" Her whisperings became slowly louder, "He's alive.....I can't believe it, he's alive." "What? Who is?" As if she seemed to notice her mom for the first time, "Mom, he's alive. I have to get to Usagi's, NOW!" "Why? Who is?" "Please!" Naru screamed... To Be Continued... Dragonwind LuciferDB@aol.com dragonwind@geocities.com "Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate..." -Murphy's Law