He decided to take a moment to regroup before joining Amethyst over by the locker rooms, where she was tormenting Sailor Eryx. She seemed to be doing fine with that all by herself, anyway, and he actually had been pretty severely wounded from Electra's last energy attack. Well, at least, things seemed to be going their way.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mi-chan was thrown off balance as she flew through the spot where Jasper had just been. She avoided landing on her sword as she fell to the ground, and quickly swiveled around to block Tenshi's sword with her own before Tenshi could get a hit in.
"Tenshi-san," she said through gritted teeth. "Snap out of it, already!"
She pushed Tenshi away, but Tenshi immediately came at her again. As Tenshi lunged at her over and over again, Mi-chan was thankful that she had brought out an ep�e with her today. Anything else would not have been as easy to protect herself with. Not that this was easy!
She backed up as Tenshi continued assailing her. Running into the forcefield, she panicked for a second. There was nowhere left to go.
*Mi-chan!* She heard Neko in her mind, crying out for her welfare.
*Can't talk! A little busy at the moment!* Mi-chan sent back quickly. She didn't know whether Neko could see her or not, but she didn't have the time or the focus to concentrate on an ESP conversation with her twin and on Tenshi. As Tenshi lunged at her again, she sidestepped the attack and Tenshi's sword hit the barrier.
Still the forcefield remained steady.
Had they been using energy attacks, Mi-chan would have used this opportunity to body check Tenshi. But she knew better than to run at someone with a sword. And she didn't really want to have to use her broken ep�e on Tenshi, although she would if she really had to.
Unfortunately, she realized as Tenshi resumed her assault on her, she might have to resort to that.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The thorny vine held Eryx a few inches above the ground and restrained her from attacking Amethyst or running over to help Mi-chan and Tenshi. She struggled to get out, but failed.
"Don't bother," Amethyst said smugly. "The more you struggle the faster the vine will consume your energy. And I want you alive to see your sister and girlfriend die."
"Iie!" Eryx cried, kicking and flailing at the vine. Amethyst's taunts simply made her try harder. She could feel the drain, but she wasn't going to just hang there and watch the people she loved get hurt.
"It's kinda poetic, don't you think," Amethyst gloated as she circled around Eryx. "My self-fulfilling prophecy?"
"Your�?" She stopped struggling.
"Yes. I caused your dreams. But I never would've guessed back then that I would get the chance to see this one come to fruition. Ironic, huh? That your love for Tenshi would be what ultimately killed her."
Eryx hung limply from the vine as she contemplated Amethyst's words. In her heart she believed in love. All the clich�s about love conquering all and healing all wounds had always seemed true to her. And though she had forsaken her trust in them, she wouldn't accept that love could kill. *Yet you thought Tenshi's love for you would get her killed. That's why you broke up with her in the first place. Really you're no better than Amethyst, thinking that love can kill, and thanks to your doubts, she's going to be right.*
"No," she whispered, "it's not true." She glared at Amethyst and said more willfully, "It's not true!"
"If you hadn't broken up with her, she wouldn't have come to me looking for a way to ease her pain. She wouldn't have ended up in my arms and under my control," Amethyst took great pleasure in tormenting Eryx. "She wouldn't have run to me looking for relief or kissed me with such force�. Mah, Neko, you were a fool to give her up."
"LIAR!" Eryx pushed her feet off the side of the vine with such strength she was able to rip through the vines restraining her arms and waist.
"What?!" Amethyst's eyes widened in surprise. Nobody had ever broken through her vine trap before. She sent off an "Earthly Might" attack at Eryx.
Eryx dodged it. She glared at her. Amethyst had caused her and Tenshi all the pain they had gone through this week. She hadn't used her new attack much, but if she was ever going to do it, it was definitely going to be now.
She placed her hands over her heart. "HEART'S�," she started as energy began to flow around her body, and then gathered at her hands. As she finished, she pushed out the amassed energy towards Amethyst. "�ATTRACTION!" she yelled.
A heart-shaped blue light hit Amethyst, but did only as much damage as Eryx's "Celestial Force." Amethyst lifted her chin up haughtily.
"That's your other attack?!" she laughed. "That's pitiful! Now let me show you an attack!"
Eryx stood ready on the balls of her feet, patiently awaiting Amethyst's assault. She stared at her, defiant, showing no fear as Amethyst gathered the forces of the earth to her.
"VIOLENT TREMOR!" Amethyst yelled as she sent off her most powerful attack. Yet much to her surprise, moments after she released the attack, it doubled back on her. This was the true power of "Heart's Attraction" - the next energy attack, no matter how big or small, would automatically gravitate towards the receiver of the "Heart's Attraction" attack.
Amethyst staggered back, extremely weakened by her own attack. Eryx took the opportunity to run at her and body tackle her. Amethyst, however, was unfazed by this tactic and immediately flipped Eryx off of her with her legs. They both jumped to their feet and watched the other warily.
"You're stronger than I gave you credit for," Amethyst informed her.
"That seems to be a common misconception among you villains," Eryx shot back at her.
