~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mi-chan wasn't given time to comprehend what happened. The shock of seeing her twin impaled and the pain in her chest were unbearable. She dropped her sword and clutched at the spot where Neko's searing pain was hitting her, just trying to stay standing for a second. Her first objective was to get to Neko, but as she staggered in that direction, a burst of blue smoke appeared before her, blocking her way.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
On her knees, Neko gazed at her love, who was so close to her, yet seemed so distant. The sword had kept Neko from sandwiching Tenshi into the barrier, but it held Neko at bay by only a few inches. Yet Tenshi seemed impossibly far away to Neko, who, even as her vision began to blur, was solely focused on her angel.
"Tenshi, sweetheart," Neko's weakened voice was still filled with sweet affection for her girlfriend, despite their situation. "Tenshi-kun, please come back to me."
Although Tenshi seemed to be in shock over the turn of events, her eyes were still blank. Neko would do anything to have those bright hopeful eyes back. She leaned her forehead on Tenshi's as tears of faith, love, and also sorrow glistened in her violet eyes and then were released. "I didn't mean it, Tenshi-kun," she whispered. "Please believe in me again. Aishiteru."
She took Tenshi's face in her hands and leaned in to kiss her, not caring about the pain as the sword slid even further through her. It hurt more than anything she had ever experienced, but she blocked out the pain with the pleasure of touching Tenshi again, with the elation she felt every time their lips met, and with the simple joy of possibly bringing her angel back to life. She knew that at this point it didn't matter for her anyway. All she wanted now was to die knowing that Tenshi was safe and that she understood that Neko loved her.
She felt a warm tear fall down Tenshi's cheek and hit her hand, and as Neko released her from the kiss, she looked in her eyes and knew Tenshi was okay.
"Koneko�." Tenshi whispered as her head cleared of the haze it was in.
"Gomen nasai," Neko said weakly. "To ask you to believe in me� and then to leave you�." She winced as the reality of the cold metal that passed between her ribs hit her, the pain growing severe enough to take her mind briefly away from her girlfriend's wellbeing.
"Koneko, no!"
"I- I know you'll be the best ruler Eryx ever sees�," Neko told her faithfully. She was rambling apologetically, ignoring Tenshi's exclamation. "Onegai, check in on Mi-chan? She won't have me here as her best friend�" Tenshi carefully pulled out the sword, after debating the action for a few moments, knowing that it might harm Neko more than leaving it in but unable to do anything about her wound while the sword remained lodged in her chest. Neko continued, hardly paying attention, "�or to protect anymore�," breaking only for a gasp as the sword was pulled from her chest. "�She'll hate that," she finished in a whisper.
But looking at the wound, even touching a healing hand to it, Tenshi wasn't sure she could do anything anyway. "No, stop talking like that!" she repeated, unable to accept defeat. *It's not fair. This is my fault. I deserve to die, not Koneko.*
"It's okay," Neko's attention back on her girlfriend, she managed a brave and encouraging smile, as she settled into Tenshi's warm embrace. "You didn't die and� and I didn't have to choose. Wouldn't have traded this� this dream's ending for the universe�."
Tenshi didn't want to hear. "Shh. Koneko, you're not going to die. You hear me? You're not allowed to!" she insisted.
"Don't worry� I'm not scared. Not� not with you here. It's always okay� when you're here." She paused to take in an excruciating breath before continuing. "Tenshi�, the world's not that bad� don't lose faith in it� in yourself just 'cuz I�. Don't�." She closed her eyes, praying for just a few more seconds of strength to finish. "I love you, Tenshi�. Please� forgive me�."
Tenshi held her helplessly as Neko's voice died out. "Koneko? Koneko, I forgive you. Just please come back to me. Please?"
She kissed her, gently at first, then deep and passionate. Whenever Neko had been hurt before, Tenshi had been able to cure her, and a kiss had always seemed to be an effective and pleasant instrument of healing. She longed to feel Neko press her lips back against hers. But Neko didn't respond.
"Koneko?" she whispered. She could feel a drain on her chi and Neko's faint heartbeat - she knew she had done a little good, maybe slowed down her journey towards death - but she didn't know how long it would last. This wasn't like Neko's last encounter with a sword, which mainly resulted in a great loss in blood, or Mi-chan's near-death experience either, which combined an energy attack with her suicide attempt. Tenshi thought she could probably heal the effects of any energy attack, or at least keep the person alive long enough to get them to a hospital or something. But Neko had hardly been helped at all by Tenshi's kiss this time, and if that didn't do something, Tenshi didn't know that anything could. And she didn't know anything about real medicine, whether a doctor could fix Neko now even if Tenshi's life force was strong enough to keep her alive that long, or how much energy it would require to heal someone with a wound of this magnitude.
Most troubling of all, she didn't know if her Koneko could be saved at all.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Overcome with grief and agony over Amethyst's death, Jasper wanted to lash out at anything, anyone. And he certainly wasn't going to let that Sailor brat help her dying twin out when that same twin was the person who had killed his Ame.
