Mars took her usual seat at the bar, signaling Hilde with a wave of her hand, clamping the other firmly over her eyes. "An' what will it be today dear? Mornin' after special?" "Of course." Rei replied with a smirk. "Rough night?" The fire soldier snickered, and winced when the searing pain in her head kicked in. "You have no idea." "Oh, I'm thinkin' I do. You an' doll face were lookin' pretty cozy on the way out." Mars peeled her fingers away from her eyes, and gave Hilde a look that would have killed someone smaller. "Ooooh, look at that! What a shiner!" she jeered. "Of course the Pyro would like it rough!" "Consider yourself lucky. If my head didn't hurt, you'd be in some serious pain." Rei growled. "I pity the poor bastard that's stupid enough to test me today." Hilde chortled, and slid a glass filled with an unhealthy looking concoction over to Mars. "Ya know, fire starter, I'm killin' my business when I say this, but if you wouldn't hang around here so much, your head wouldn't be hurtin' so bad." Rei raised the glass in sarcastic appreciation of her sound advice, and was just about to take a swig when the door to the tavern flew open. A resident from the lower kingdom staggered in, blood oozing from his chest . Four long, deep jagged gashes revealed bone . Mars turned slowly on her stool, and winced when she saw the damage. 'He's not going to make it.' "Oooh, he's bleedin' bad." Hilde cried, rushing around the other side of the counter to help him. "A…a demon…." the man gasped, sliding to the floor. "In the alley…." Mars was beside him in no time. "Where?" "Behind…tavern…" the man gasped,. He reached up with a shaky hand and gripped Rei's arm tightly. "Get him...for me." he whispered with a shaky grin. A spasm tore through his body as he let out a pain soaked groan, eyes rolling to the back of his head. "Oh Gods. He's dead." Hilde murmured. "With a wound like that, must be a nasty creature." Rei growled, drawing her blade. "Hilde, board up the door, just in case. I'll come back with an all clear." The barmaid nodded. Mars gave her a sad smile. "Tell you what. I'll stop coming in when they stop killing innocent people." She rose, and an evil grin slid over her face. 'Looks like I met one stupid bastard.' She shut the tavern's door firmly behind her, and quickly scanned the building's ledge above her head. 'How bold, to attack during the day. It was either really hungry, or insanely desperate to keep itself hidden. Not stupid enough to jump on me apparently. Guess I have to track it.' Mars followed the trail of blood leading from the tavern's door and turned the corner leading into the back alley. She didn't even bother to hide her footsteps, or take cover. One thing she had learned during her years as a soldier was this; fear made you stupid. If the demon was hiding in a dark corner, just the sight of the angry Martian warrior heading towards it would make it panic. In it's fear, it would encompass the fight or flight reflex. Either way, she would be wiping demon blood off her boots tonight. Her plan worked perfectly. When she approached the back corner of the dark, narrow alley, the demon attacked. She actually had to halt and lean back a good six inches to avoid the long narrow claws that raked past her face. Her arm lashed up and out, catching the monster's wrist. She brought her sword arm down, ramming the pommel of her blade into the back of the demon's skull. It hissed angrily, stumbling from the blow. Without pausing, she released it's wrist, grabbed what she could only assume was it's hair, and brought it's face into her armored knee. It squirmed frantically, clawing at the fire soldier blindly. She dropped to one knee and thrust her sword up and forward, through it's shoulder, pushing the demon back until her sword had effectively pinned it to the wall. She brought her free hand to it's face and released a fireball from her palm. The demon screamed. "Shut up! Now!" She growled. It hissed back, revealing long, curved teeth. She eyed the beast callously. It was thin, and bony. Ashen grey skin was now permanently marred by scorch marks. It's face was too badly burned for her to determine what it may have been in human form. 'Damn. Over kill much? Even burnt the hair off.' It did, however, don a purple tunic uniform that she recognized immediately. "So. You work for Beryl?' She questioned, pushing her blade a little deeper. No answer, except for an angry growl. "Come on. Play nice, Lumpy." She snarled, wrenching the blade to and fro. "I want us to be friends." It screamed and clawed fruitlessly at Mars, kicking uselessly at the wall behind it. "I'll ask one more time." she smirked. "and then I'm gonna be the one who's not playing nice." It quit fighting, and glared at Rei through the only eye it had left. "That's better. Now come clean." The demon nodded slowly. "Yes. I work for Queen Beryl." "Good start!" Mars proclaimed cheerily. "I think we can be friends after all! Now tell me. Why are you here, in MY kingdom?" It let out a haggard breath, and ran a dry purple tongue over burnt lips. "I'm a scout." "Scout for what? For the big attack?" It's eyes widened. "Thought so. Now Lumpy. Tell me how much time we have left." The demon curled what was left of it's face into a snarl. "Piss off." "Wrong answer!" Mars snapped, ramming her fist into it's face. The monster's head flew back, connecting with the hard stone wall. When it's howls of pain had diminished to mere whimpers, Mars asked again. "Remember, this is your last chance Lumpy." Tears ran down scarred cheeks. "The night of the Princess' ball." "Honest?" Mars asked sweetly, giving her blade a hard push to the left. It let out another ear piercing scream, and shook it's head frantically. "Yes! Yes!" "Good. Let's end this. I hate it when I have to be this way." "Agreed." The monster snarled. "Let's end this." Before she could even react, the demon wrenched it's body hard, pulling against the sword. Bone snapped and tissue sliced itself to ribbons on the sharp edge, and the demon staggered a few steps forward with a gasp,. Mars realized in horror that it had torn it's own arm off. The discarded limb hung from the wall and her blade like some dark macabre joke. The demon caught her in the jaw with a hard uppercut, knocking her down. She quickly rolled and pulled herself up into a sitting position, ready to fire off one of her arrows. But the beast was quicker. Even worse, it had produced a dagger form the folds of it's tunic, and drove the blade straight down. 'Now THAT frigging hurts. Stupid useless armor!' Rei hissed in pain and fell back. The demon had planted the dagger just above her collarbone on her left side, missing her neck by mere inches. "Go to hell!!" The monster snarled, leaping through the air, claws extended. Mars fired her arrow just in time, sending it through his eye and out the back of it's head. The body crumpled on top of her, and she shoved it off quickly with her good arm, gasping in a mixture of pain and relief. "You first bastard." She spat, struggling hard to get to her feet. She rose on shaky legs, and wrenched her sword out of the wall. 'My damn drink better still be there.' She stumbled weakly, leaning all of her weight on her blade. 'Damn. There is no way I can pull this damn thing out myself. I'll bleed to death before I get around the corner.' The world spun hazily, but she pushed herself forward. 'Ugh. Serenity told me drinking would kill me.' Rei became dimly aware of the fact that she was rapidly losing consciousness, and she found herself giggling in spite of the tremendous pain. 'Light headed is so not good. It feels like my brain is leaking out..' She found herself in front of the tavern, and pounded weakly on the door. "Come on, it's me. You gotta open the door quick." She stumbled again on unsteady feet, and the world went dark for a few seconds. After what felt like an eternity, the door cracked open, and Hilde was dragging her inside. "Oh God, you're hurt bad. Tell me what to do!" It was becoming difficult to breathe now. She had to work quickly. "Get me...your strongest bottle of rum." she panted, slumping down against the wall. "Aye! You can't go an' have a drink now!" "Please." Rei whispered. "Trust me." Hilde obediently fetched a bottle, and yanked the cork out. "You!" She demanded, pointing to one of her patrons. "Get some help! Get to the nearest Med Center now!' The man nodded quickly and ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Mars slammed back half the bottle and coughed when the fiery liquid burned past her lungs. "Ugh. Best pain reliever known to man" She drawled. "Okay lady. I need you to yank this dagger out, and immediately pour the rest of the rum on the wound." "But...you'll bleed to death before we can..." "Trust me." Mars rasped. Hilde nodded weakly and wrapped her hand around the grip. Rei held her hand out in front of her, and focused all the fire energy she could gather into her palm. A tiny blue flame danced across her hand. 'Not much, but it'll do. It has to.' Her head felt like it was leaving without her. Her world spun again, and Mars laughed weakly. "Great. I think I'm gonna die an airhead. Venus will be so proud." 'Minako. If this doesn't work, I'm really sorry.' Hilde yanked on the blade with all her strength, and after several tense seconds, it slid free. The pure unbridled pain of all that alcohol on her wound brought Mars back to the harshness of reality. She slammed her flaming hand over the wound, effectively searing it shut, and screamed until she thought her lungs would explode. Her head knocked back against the wall as she finally began to black out. She let the darkness take her this time, and let her thoughts drift to her Princess. 'Don't be mad Serenity. I just wanted to protect you. I know when they're coming, maybe I can stop them. Please don't cry...' Finally, everything went blissfully dark.
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