Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply... *blinks* Wow, I actually wrote a chapter that I had to break up into sections..go me...

Chapter Fourteen A

Mina stared, unflinching, into Emperor Sol's eyes. Rei and Ami flanked her, two solid presences of fierce red and soothing cerulean. Beryl stood with the Emperor, her hand clutching a babe that would not wait much longer to be born. The Generals stood behind their liege but Sol knew that his men were behind the princesses to their last breath. Knew it with a certainty that was not born of suspicion but fact, and knew that he was not the only one to see them as the traitors they were. Even the lowliest fool in the Earthen Empire could see the betrayal in their guilt-ridden eyes.

Death waited for them, and for their comrade who had so blatantly turned his back on all that Sol had offered. But first, first Death would claim the only ones who could take all that he had won.

"Goodbye Princess Mina, Ami, Rei. If the fires don't take you my executioner's ax will. You'll be remembered, my line will scorn your memory a hundred years from now, but you will be remembered." The Princess of Venus laughed and her eyes, frank sapphire, fearlessly mocked him.

"Perhaps King Sol," she replied, full lips twitching at the deliberate slight to his title, "perhaps. But in a thousand years, when your Empire of Blood falls, our monarchs will erase your memory from the Time Stream and eradicate you from the past. After all, mad dogs deserve to be put down, not mourned. Even Earth will cheer your creation's downfall." His eyes narrowed dangerously before he relaxed, a deceptively lazy smirk on his face. He leaned forward and tugged on one golden lock of her hair. Behind him he felt Kunzite tense.

"A clean death is too good for you. Burn in hell and take your self-righteousness with you. Guards!" He turned to the men who formed a half circle behind the princesses, their weapons ready at their hands as they prepared to take the women to the wooden towers that would be their final resting-place.

"Burn them. Light the towers as soon as they are secured. Lets see how well Princess Lita fights with her friends burning before her very eyes. Perhaps she'll even join them." His men nodded grimly and moved to take the women who went docilely enough, jaws set against the fate they could not escape.

The doors scraped closed and Sol, with Beryl, turned to face the men who had pledged themselves to him until death, theirs.

"Emperor," Kunzite murmured as he bowed, low, pity etched on features too cold to be called handsome. One callused hand reached for the sword at the General's side.

"Kunzite, really, you do know me better than that. Since when do I fight my own battles?" The General looked up; surprise and anger on his features as Beryl, his lovely sorceress assassin Beryl stepped forward. Jadeite and Zoicite, their weapons now drawn, stepped up to stand even with their leader.

Beryl smiled, a feral viscous smile, a smile that transformed itself into pain as the floor beneath her became wet. "My water..." she gasped in surprise and the Generals unconsciously backed up. Beryl, flailing, sank to the floor, her face twisted with pain and loss.

"Sol," she murmured, "help me..." She gripped her contracting stomach as the Emperor glared down at the woman with distaste.

"What do I know of child birth woman?" he snapped, irritated at the snag in his plans. With a snarl Sol drew his sword and faced the three Generals. Kunzite, noble perfect Kunzite who never took his eyes from his former liege, snapped to his men.

"The princesses... Go, now!" The two paused for a fraction of an instant before complying. As they raced away, boots pounding on the stone, Sol sneered.

"Fool. They'll never make it in time. And you just signed your own death warrant Kunzite. I trained at your side all my life and I've always been just a little better than you." The General's proud jaw clenched as they circled each other warily.

"Everyone deserves a last battle Sol, even you." Emperor Sol, ruler of the universe, laughed and launched himself at the General.

Rei gasped and spat, no longer tame, as the soldiers tied her to a post in the center of the three walled room, no larger than three feet by three feet, on top of a large tower made entirely of wood. Dry, wood, tinder, ready to be lit and fed by her body. The inevitable came though and she was left, breathless, tears in her eyes, tied securely facing the wall less side of the 'room', the side overlooking the battle. The Princess of Fire swallowed as smoke drifted up lazily through the cracks in the uneven floor.

Ami, fury seated deep in an azure gaze that could cow gods, stood proud, chin jutted out in stark defiance that she could not exhibit with a sword, for her hands were bound, as were her feet. She resisted the urge to shut her eyes as she felt fear gripping a part of her heart that she didn't often acknowledge, the selfish part worried only about her.

"My self preservation seems to have kicked in a little late," she whispered in a hoarse humorless voice that wasn't nearly as comforting as she wished it would be. The Princess of Water was about to face her most tormenting terror, fire.

Mina, face calm, serene, stared out over the field where the men of Earth battled with those from nine different celestial bodies.

"Strength Lita," she said softly to the wind as smoke gathered at her feet. "Strength my friend."

Lita marshaled her strength as wave after wave of Earth soldier battered her fighters. Nephrite stood behind her, an unconscious pillar of strength in the chaos of battle. They stood on the crest of a small hill, overlooking the fiercest of the fighting, directly in front of the gates of the Earthen Castle.

She stood tall, face a mask of determination, as men died at her feet. No one touched her. Nephrite would have protected her if it was needed but no man had dared to strike at the silent woman who stood at the heart of the wound of war, her ivory hands raised as she spilled her soul into her power, power she unleashed for the cause of freedom. Even the Earth aided her... Thunderclouds boiled overhead as lightning struck those down whom fought for the wrong side as the ground melted only for them, freezing hundreds in their tracks.She could not win the war, or even this battle, by herself, but she could even the odds. The symbol of Jupiter shone hotly on her brow and her eyes, her emerald eyes swam in eddies of gold as she summoned the strength of Venus to augment weakening Jupiter. A breeze touched her, gentle, as it brushed her cheek, and concentration broken she blinked. 'Strength Lita...' Lita, face furrowed faltered and took a step back, directly into Nephrite's arms.

"Lita?" he murmured as a question. The woman wordlessly mouthed three names and Nephrite looked up, the whole field of men paused and looked, as the three wooden towers stationed at the ramparts of the castle began to smoke. Gray fingers, weightless, clawed their way up the bases of the towers and Lita could see with startling clarity the forms that were trapped inside of each tower.

"No," she whimpered.

'Strength Lita...' the breeze sighed.

"Nephrite," she cried as she turned to him, wild in her panic,

"I can't do this... I have to save them. They are my friends, all that I have left! I can't leave them to..." Her arm, trembling, pointed to what she would not say. He stared at her carefully, cobalt growing distant.

"Then save them," he replied softly. Lower lip trembling Lita looked at him, truly looked at him, before crushing herself to his chest in an embrace that asked for and offered little comfort. The princess, tears running down dirt streaked cheeks, wrenched herself away. Her face was still, hard, and there was a bleakness that had not been there only a minute ago.

"I don't have much power left." Nephrite swallowed and reached up to bush the tears away, not realizing their significance.

"Then you can have mine Lita." She nodded once, her shuttered expression unreadable, as she turned, his hand on her shoulders, back to the resumed battle. Tortured eyes stayed unwavering on the battle instead of the horizon where all she cared for was being consumed by Sol's vengeance. Rose earrings glinted harshly in the hazy morning light.

Pluto watched the Princess of Jupiter and whispered Lita's future title softly to herself as she stood in a sea of red, sadly tasting the complexity of the word on her tongue. Empress? In what reality would Princess Lita be an Empress? Oh Serenity! The older woman sighed. She had been an integral part of this time period too long; she mourned the past with a ferocity that frightened her.Bitterness, a beast to be kept at bay, wrapped itself around her heavy heart. "You forged the future princess," the Guardian of Time said slowly, to herself. "Who am I to judge you?" The future, a many course river, expanded and turned to rapids in her mind and Pluto smiled, lips twisted tightly. "Though you aren't the only one doing the shaping little leader..."

Jadeite flew through the corridors of the palace, his breath coming in uneven gasps as he raced to Rei's side. On the other side of the castle Zoicite followed suite but he wasn't flying to the woman he wanted to. His feet, reluctant in this abandonment, flew toward Mina. Not because he cared for her, for that Princess of Venus, but because he cared for Ami, Ami his mystery, too much. The fires had been lit and his heart, his twice be damned analytical heart told him what he didn't want to know, that dry wood burned fast. That he was already too late and that he couldn't survive being the one to retrieve the Princess of Mercury from her grave. Zoicite sobbed unashamedly as he ran.

Lita gasped and faltered once again only this time not even Nephrite could give her the strength she needed to continue. He held her as they sagged to the ground, as one, In the field. Lita's face was pale with exhaustion and her hands trembled yet still Earth had the upper hand. Sheer numbers would overwhelm the Rebels. Despite all that she had done it still wasn't enough! Even the raw energy of Venus was quieted, drained.

"No," she moaned... "I won't let their sacrifice be for nothing!!" Tears obscured her vision and she wiped them hastily away as she staggered up. Nephrite unsteadily followed her, his own face white. The towers burned now, and flames of vibrant orange and red climbed the towers with a deadly grace.

'Strength Lita...'

Rei winced as a new wave of heat buffeted her. She bit one full lip nearly bloody as soot blackened her legs. She could see the flames beneath her, held at bay by her power. The symbol of Mars burned her forehead and her eyes were drawn to the battle below just in time to see Lita sink to the ground, taking Nephrite with her. The two stood but even from over a hundred yards away Rei could see the slump of defeat in the Princess of Jupiter's shoulders.

Amethyst eyes narrowed dangerously. Lita could not, would not fail! Earthen forces, as if sensing the swinging mood of the Rebels, pushed harder and forced the attackers back. Lita was out of power and options...

Rei's hands formed fists as outrage filled her. They would not lose! She remembered Mina's story, how the golden princess had given Lita her power to save her from the fight with Beryl. How Mina had given away her birthright...

Rei had been using her power to try to halt the flames but they were elemental, fueled by preset magics, and were tenuously controlled by the rapidly tiring Princess of Mars. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she gathered Mars's spirit to her one last time. The planet, sensing her decision, churned with conflict but had little choice when, with a scream, Rei flung all her power, all her strength, to the small form that held the fate of the universe in her hands. Magic, violet and vermilion, coursed from Rei's stiff body and shot, like a flaming arrow, towards the heart of Lita. The flames roared with victory as they lapped the floor and reached greedily for their prize.

Lita stumbled as amethyst power coursed into her.

Ami choked on smothering smoke but managed to see, through pain filled tears, Rei's last act. Mercury, her loving planet, welled strong within her, one last blessing. Ami sighed once as fire pooled hotly at her feet before gently releasing her planet's spirit. Mercury brushed her soot-smudged cheek and soared to embrace a kneeling Lita. The golden necklace of Mercury burned with heat above her screaming heart.

Lita gasped as her eyes flared violet, then brilliant shiningsapphire.

Author's Notes: On to 14B!