Part VIII - Punishment (continued)

Sailor Saturn looked back at the three girls and held her glaive in the air. She began spinning it around very fastly and it began to glow bright purple. She stopped and forced the end of the glaive into the ground and held her hands out.

"Silent Prayer of Death." Saturn whispered. From the sky poured purple lightning, surrounding the girls and then stopped. Three beams of light shot out from the glaive and hit each of the three girls, paralyzing them.

The three girls fell to their knees and Kagi's glaive disappeared.

"What, what are you going to do to us?" Kagi asked as her horrified eyes stared into Saturns.

"I am going to protect this planet as is my duty." Saturn replied solemnly.

Arashi sat in a daze and began to drift off. She began thinking of how much her family missed her and cared for her while she was away, even though they didn't quite know what she was doing. She remembered Kagi's brother and her dog, how she loved them so much and was so hurt when she had to say goodbye to them. She remembered Riku's family, how they loved her so much even though she was adopted. Arashi remembered all of her friends on her team and how they celebrated their victory humbly, with all the teams. She then looked into the memory of their planets being blown to bits by a girl with a glaive and of all of her family, in the middle of their house, looking outside as the city burned down in a horrible fire. She remembered the look on her brother's faces.

Arashi looked up, with evil consuming her, into the eyes of Sailor Saturn. The aura around her fists changed color from gray to black as she stood up, overcoming the paralysis. "You will have the same look on you face as my brothers did."

Saturn backed up, holding her glaive in front of herself.

Arashi held up her fists and ran at Saturn. She grabbed her by her bow and began relentlessly punching her in the stomach and face. When Arashi could no longer lift her hand she threw Saturn against a wall and fell to her knees.

Saturn stood up slowly and approached Arashi. "Your one desire is to kill me..........is it not?"

"I want to make you and your world suffer." Arashi said angrily.

"Then I only have one choice." Saturn lowered her head and raised her glaive Arashi looked up at the glaive and took in a deep breath.

With all her force, Saturn thrust her glaive down, only to meet with Sailor Chibi Moon's staff.

Saturn quickly held her glaive up and stepped back. "Sailor Chibi Moon? What are you doing?"

"These are not the honest desires of these children." Sailor Chibi Moon said with a mature, understanding voice.

She turned to Arashi and smiled. "Why do you want so desperately to kill a sister?"

"Because she killed my family, and their families and the last Apocalyptic Senshi." Arashi said, pointing to Riku and Kagi.

Saturn stepped back again. "I have never done such a thing without reason. And the past Apocalyptic Senshi begged me to kill them so that they could be free of their curse and so they'd not have to live any longer with such guilt. And so they'd never have to follow Akurei to the Mai system and destroy their home-planets."

Arashi's eyes filled with tears. "But I saw you do it! I saw you kill them!"

"When did you see your homes in ruble?" Saturn asked.

"I...........I actually haven't been home since I left. And when I did it was so peaceful." Arashi stared at the ground.

"But then why do we have these vivid memories? Ri told us......." Kagi asked from behind.

"Who is this 'Ri' you speak of?" Saturn asked curiously.

"Rebirth, she's the one who tells us where to go, the helper of the Apocalyptic Senshi." Riku replied.

Saturn and Chibi Moon looked upsetedly at each other.

"Akurei is her name. Not 'Rebirth'. She only wants the energy of the planets you destroy, she doesn't want to resurrect them, and she can't! That is what the Cauldron is for." Saturn explained.

"So we've committed mass murder for some energy hungry evil spirit?" Kagi shook her head. "I can't believe I didn't see it."

"You can all be forgiven; for your acts were based upon something you were forced into thinking was the right thing to do." Chibi Moon said.

"But the guilt will always be with us, haunting us. It will be too much to bare." Riku walked over to Arashi and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"The guilt will only haunt you if you don't forgive yourself and move on. Besides, you can always talk to us, we are here for you." Saturn smiled.

"It'd be nice if I could offer you the same, but my heart is not ready to accept any words from anyone right now." Arashi said as she sniffed and wiped the tears off her cheeks.