Suddenly she felt weak in the knees. It was too late. The wedding had started, and she was missing it. Mi-chan could save it for Tenshi, but there was no chance that Neko could return without destroying the illusion for her. And that was if Neko could get to the palace on time anyway. She didn�t know where she was. She didn�t know how far away the palace was from here. Even if she could fight her way past her kidnapper, there was no way for her to salvage her wedding.
�Why�?� she moaned. When he told her that Tenshi had killed his girlfriend, she couldn�t accept that. Not her wonderful Tenshi! He had to be mistaken! *Okay, so technically, Tenshi could have done something bad when Amethyst brainwashed her, but� Jasper-kun would have mentioned it then� wouldn�t he?* She didn�t think he would keep it from her, not when he had promised her he�d always tell her the truth. So this man had to have gotten Tenshi confused with someone else.
Those contemplations flew from her mind when she realized that her kidnapper intended to kill her after all. *But he promised he wouldn�t hurt me�.* Her eyes flew open before she could help herself as she protested, but luckily he was facing the other direction and didn�t notice that her speech wasn�t quite as slurred as she had been trying to make it.
And just as she was coaxing Mi-chan to look Tenshi in the eyes so that her bride wouldn�t be suspicious, the man dropped another clue that things weren�t right. If he had been planning this for over a thousand years, Ying�s murder must have happened before the environmental disaster that had frozen the entire Earth, but Tenshi wasn�t born until after that time.
*She knows* Mi-chan thought desperately, just as Neko�s kidnapper turned to Neko and said, �I�ve been waiting a long time to get my revenge on Jian-wa.� Something inside Neko snapped. The two pieces of information were too much for her to take in. This guy had ruined the wedding, not only for her, but for Tenshi too. And furthermore, he didn�t even mean to take Neko. The whole time he had wanted Mi-chan, and while Neko would later admit that she wouldn�t have really wanted him to kidnap Mi-chan and that Mi-chan�s presence was important in the wedding as well, right now she could only focus on the one thing she had wished for since this whole fiasco started. Her wedding day was supposed to be perfect, and he had ruined it for both her and Tenshi. A flame ignited within her, and Neko thought only of Tenshi � connecting to her so that she could explain why she wasn�t there, while making him pay for messing everything up.
From her position on the floor, she propelled herself towards him, catching him in the stomach with her shoulder. He fell backwards into the ground along with her, but she tucked herself into a roll and soon righted herself again.
He got up quickly, though not as much as her and faced her in shock. �Y- You�re supposed to be drugged!�
�I was supposed to be someone else!� she cried angrily. �You wrecked my wedding all for nothing. But even if you had gotten the right person, you would have ruined it!� Neko tried to get herself under control so that she wouldn�t infect Tenshi with her anger, but she was too upset. Fortunately, Neo-Queen Serenity was still going through the welcoming �sermon.� Neko refused to be this upset when she fed Mi-chan her vows. �Did you ever think beyond your own vendetta? How many people you�d be affecting other than the one you wanted to hurt. Tenshi! Mi-chan! Me! Our family and friends! None of us did anything to you! And Jian-kun was only following what he had been taught. The person you should really blame has already been destroyed because of the evil she brought upon the world, and the one who destroyed her was the very person you intended to kill today!�
She saw his finger twitch near the dart gun, which was connected to his belt, and she reacted instantly, rushing him and kicking the gun out of his hand. Suddenly, she was on autopilot, simultaneously focusing on her wedding and disabling her kidnapper. A spinning rear kick threw him back into the table where he had set up some items for his private ritual. He grabbed at the knife there but again she kicked it out of his hand, this time with a roundhouse.
�Please. I�m defenseless,� he begged her with open palms to show he had no weapons.
Her eyes narrowed at him. He expected mercy for that when he had been planning to kill her after drugging her?! How dare he?! She should beat him senseless for what he had done to her!
*Koneko, I don�t know if it counts, but let�s say our vows to each other as if you were here anyway. I love you.*
Neko froze. Tenshi�s words stirred her heart, filling Neko�s entire soul with love and warmth. She hadn�t realized how empty she had felt at the thought of not sharing her wedding with Tenshi until now when she could finally believe that they might be able to share it after all. She was with Tenshi in spirit, and maybe that was all that mattered. *Okay. Just let me remind Mi-chan so she can recite my part* she thought to her bride.
She closed her eyes and switched to Mi-chan, relaying her part so that she could stay connected to Tenshi for the actual recitation. Mi-chan had heard Neko practice her vows so many times, Neko had no doubt that her twin didn�t actually need the reminder, but she knew it couldn�t hurt to remind her. She had fully planned to just go past her kidnapper now that she had shown him that she wasn�t going to let him kill her, but he apparently had other plans. Her instincts picked up on the man�s movement. With one motion, she plucked the dart from the rose at her breast and threw it at him, her eyes closed the entire time. A moment later, he fell to the ground, no longer a threat.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
