Part 4! Hope you like it! Oh, and if you haven't already, check 
out Part 1 of my new story, "Surfacings," that's 
based on the manga. It should be up now, so go read
it, especially if you're a hopeless romantic! And yet, it's got some
violence and intensity in there. I think lots of people could like
it. So go read it! After you read this, of course. Arigato, minna-chan!
-Lianne (eclipse@ntplx.net).
*Sailor Moon and all its characters are copyright Naoko 
Takeuchi/Kodansha Ltd./Toei Animation, Co., Ltd. and the English 
adaptation is copyright 1995 DIC productions, LP. This story is 
copyright Lianne Sentar, August 1997.	
**DOWN WITH DUB-BASHING!!!

*Usagi and Mamoru's Love: Blossomings*
Part 4

	Mamoru coughed as the dust settled around him. Sprawled 
out on the stone floor, he blinked in the darkness. He stood up
slowly, grasping his hurt arm. He looked at it to see the extent of
the injury. The chunk of ceiling that had fallen on him had left a 
large bruise and scrape on his left arm. He rolled up the sleeve of
his shirt to examine the wound. The bleeding was minimal, but his 
arm hurt, and he had trouble moving it. He rolled down his sleeve, 
thankful he was right-handed.
	Just then, a ball of fire sped at him from seemingly nowhere, and
he just barely managed to dodge out of the way. A ball of light hit the 
floor close to where he landed, narrowly missing him and creating
a crater in the ground, sending dust and bits of rock everywhere. He
blinked in the haze and flew out of the way of another ball
of flame. The familiar laughing again made him look up, eyes darkly 
hateful. Heiko hovered in the darkness, grinning wickedly. "So, 
still on your toes, ne?"
	"Where's Usagi?" Mamoru yelled out angrily.
	Heiko sighed and shook her head. "Don't you ever say anything else, 
Chiba? It's not like I'm going to tell you." 
	Mamoru growled. "You're not going to win this!"
	Heiko cocked an eyebrow. "No?" She formed a sphere of some kind 
of greenish light in her hand, smiling evilly. "I believe otherwise.
Let's see how long you can keep up your running." She threw the
ball into the ground right below her feet, and the whole floor 
started to suddenly heave and shake like an earthquake. Some parts 
of the floor gave out, and dropped away, revealing the lower floor
of the mine far below. "C'mon, Chiba! Get running!" she laughed as
she vanished.

**********************

	"She's not anywhere!" Minako exclaimed worriedly. She bit her lip
as she looked at her friends. Makoto shook her head. "We've
checked with Naru, Umino, Motoki and Reika, and all her other
friends, and she hasn't been seen by any of them."
	"And I haven't seen her around the town when I looked," Ami added.
Just then, Rei ran in, breathless. "Minna!" she exclaimed.
	"Rei-chan? What's wrong?"
	Rei panted. "I just went to check Mamoru's place, and she
wasn't there. And neither was he!"
	Minako gasped. "THAT'S weird," Makoto said quickly. "He's usually
home at this time of day."
	"I sense evil," Rei said. "I can't sense it in any certain place,
but there's evil going on." She was very serious. "And I have the
terrible feeling that Usagi and Mamoru are in trouble."
	"What do we do?" Ami asked.
	"The only thing we CAN do!" Makoto said determinedly. "We've
got to get moving!"

***********************

	Usagi screamed and covered her face with her arms, cowering 
in the corner. Arasei laughed and put down the lightning building
up between his hands. "Little rabbit," he said cruelly. "Afraid?"
	Usagi looked out from beneath her arms, trembling terribly.
"Please," she sobbed, voice wavering. "Please, please don't 
hurt...Mamo-chan...please...just let him go..."
	He laughed again, his blond hair glistening in the light of the room.
"Let him go?" he repeated.
	She nodded shakily. "Please...leave him out of this. You're not...
after him..."
	Like lightning Arasei darted over at her. She screamed as he
grabbed her by the front of her school uniform and lifted her to her 
feet. He moved his face close to hers as his green eyes flashed.
"Not after him? Rabbit, he's caused us quite a bit of problems. And
for that he will pay." His eyes burned angrily. "No one plays with 
me and lives to tell the tale."
	Usagi trembled. "Please...don't hurt him..."
	She screamed again as he whipped her around and slammed her
into a wall. Her chest started to heave, and she bit her lip as 
tears leaked out of her half-closed eyes. "Rabbit," he whispered
menacingly to her, so close she could feel his breath on her face.
"I suggest you kiss that boyfriend of yours good-bye. He's too
far into this to escape alive." He moved closer, eyes evil. "And if
you don't watch what you say, you'll be next."

*************************

	Mamoru's feet pounded on the ground as the ground shook and dropped
away behind him. The shaking of the floor almost made him fall,
but he kept his balance as he ran as fast as he could to outrun the
collapsing floor. There were higher levels around the room, much like
the central cavern he had been in when he entered. He ran to one
and jumped as hard as he could as the floor dropped away beneath 
his feet. His hands clamped down on the level and he held on as the
whole room shook with the quakes. Even being the shortest level, 
it was a good 7 or 8 feet high. He scraped his sneakers against the
side of the elevated platform and managed to pull himself over the
rim. He squatted down to keep a better balance as Heiko appeared 
above him, the room quaking around them. She gathered energy in her 
hands and threw it at him, barely missing as he ducked. Her eyes
flashed angrily. "You will die," she said coldly, her powers building 
up once more. He dove beneath her as she threw her energy at him, and
his hand grabbed a small rock. His blue eyes camly focused on 
her as they always did when he was taking aim, and she screamed as
he hit her in the eye with it. She covered it with her hand as she
glared at him. "Damn you!" she screamed as she blasted the floor 
around him with blue flame. He jumped out of its encircling and 
threw a rose at her. She screamed again as it buried itself in her
cheekbone and she thrashed at it to try to get it out, temporarily
floating nearer to the ground. Mamoru saw his chance. He threw
himself at Heiko, tackling her, and they rolled across the floor.
Heiko blasted him off of her, but her magic was weaker as she 
struggled with her injuries. She formed an axe into her hand with
her magic, and began swinging at him with vehemence. Mamoru
jumped out of the way and rolled across the floor to get away
from her, the axe managing to slice his left arm again. He 
clutched the wound, the bright red blood staining through his
white shirt, as he kept his narrowed eyes on her. She plucked the 
rose from her face and managed a hoarse laugh as she backed up 
Mamoru into the wall, her axe glittering evilly in the dim light.
"Game's up, Chiba," she mocked. "Looks like you lose the hunt. Rabbit
stew for me tonight." She swung the axe at him in a death blow,
all her strength behind it. Mamoru dropped to the floor in a last-minute 
move, and rolled away from her swing. He shot up and kicked
wide, hitting her hand with his foot. She lost her grip on the 
axe, and it fell to the floor. She had no time to think as Mamoru 
tackled her once more, slamming her down onto the ground and
pinning her arms down. She roared and kicked, but Mamoru held
her firmly, despite his injured arm. His eyes narrowed. "Stop
moving or I kill you," he growled dangerously.
	Heiko looked up at him and sneered. "Kill me and your bunny's 
dead. You're no farther than you were before, loser."
	Mamoru looked into her red eyes, and all he could see was
evil. Not an ounce of mercy or kindness. Just endless, red depths 
of blood and hate. And of the innocence she helped to take
away, innocent Usagi, a young girl with a heart filled only with
love and caring, taken away from him by the evil he saw in the
red depths. His innocent Usagi, his sweet Usagi, his beautiful
Usagi...His eyes hardened and flared with determination as he 
suddenly grabbed her chin with his hand and slammed her head
back into the ground. She gasped as he squeezed her jaw hatefully.
He brought his face closer to hers. "Listen to me," he growled.
"I ought to kill you right now. You took away everything that was
important to me, everything I had. There's nothing I want more than
to strangle the life out of you right now with my bare hands."
	"Then why don't you?" she calmly levelled back at him.
	"Because I need you to get her back." He grabbed her by the
hair and slammed her head into the ground again, 
much harder, and her head lolled to the side as her
eyes closed. Mamoru looked up into the air, eyes level. "I know
you're watching," he called out. "There's no way you and this one could 
possibly have kept an eye on us so well without watching us all the 
time. I know you have Usagi. But I'll tell you this now - I've 
got the ginzuishou, and I've got this girl. You touch Usagi, and
this one's dead. No playing around. I want Usagi back unharmed."
His eyes flashed with inner fire. "And there's nothing you can do 
to keep me from getting her back. Nothing."
 
***************************

	Arasei's eyes narrowed as he looked into his mirror. "Smart, 
Earth Prince," he said coldly. He turned away from Mamoru's image 
beside the unconscious Heiko and looked at Usagi's unconscious
form on the floor in the corner. He walked over to her and squatted
down,  holding her chin so he could see her helpless face. "You're
not a bargainer, Endymion. Like me. So I guess things will have 
to really start." He looked back at the mirror. His eyes flashed.
"No more games. It starts now."

To be continued...

-Ooooh....climax! Excited? Well, tune in next week for Part 5, which 
I'm going to try to make really long and really good because 
I've had a lot of short parts lately. You all have been SO understanding
in my shortness each week (homework: ACK!) that next week I'll
try to have a GREAT part, and the whole story should finish up the
week after. I love the end. Hope you do, too. Ja ne!
-Lianne (eclipse@ntplx.net)