Crystal of the Heart

Act 12. Nightmare

Dear Readers,

   If you are enjoying my new Sailor Moon story please vote and comment. When you guys comment it keeps me going. Thanks guys!

        -Ashe_Hime

Ritsuko lay in her new bed,tossing and turning in her sleep. She groaned lightly in her sleep,sweat coating her forhead. Causing multiple strands of her scattered raven black hair to stick to it. Ritsuko pushed the covers off her now sweat covered body,gripping onto her pillow tightly. Images of her past life returning,some happy images. Others not so pretty,and many she wasn't very fond of. Hearing her light groans from his room, her brother Mamoru peeked into her room. Hoping that he was not invading her privacy,her grunts were simply alarming to him. And Mamoru wanted to make sure she was alright.

Quietly Mamoru stepped into the room,spotting his younger sister tossing and turning in her sleep. With a very pained expression on her face and it troubled him greatly. Mamoru gently pulled the blankets over his sister before grabbing a face towel and began to dab away the droplets of sweat from her head. Ritsuko grunted at the touch of the cloth as she felt Mamoru's cooling hand on her cheek. "P-Please." Ritsuko breathed as she began to cough rather violently causing Mamoru's eyes to glaze over in fear.

"Ritsuko? Ritsuko?" Mamoru called out towards his sister,hoping to wake her. To silence her horrid coughing, and to put his worries to rest. But Ritsuko seemed as if she wasn't truly there,physically she was there. But in soul,Ritsuko was elsewhere. Reliving her final moments filled with fear in her past life. Mamoru continued to call out to his sister with no avail. He gently touched her forehead, noticing that she was alarmingly cold. She was so cold it chilled him to the bone. Immediately Mamoru ran to his room,grabbing his cell phone and dialed Usagi's number. He didn't know what to do,but he needed help.

Ritsuko continued to grunt in pain as she tossed and turned in bed,with Mamoru by her side. Desperate to make sure that she was alright. All the while Ritsuko felt as if she was falling,falling slowly into a bottomless pit. Ritsuko reached in front of her,her fingers grazing through nothing but the void before her. She released a shriek as she continued to plummet,her raven hair flowing around her as well. Ritsuko closed her eyes,all the while pulling her hands to her chest in the familiar prayer symbol.

And for the second time in a long time,she prayed. She prayed that she would survive this fall into oblivion, because deep down she truly did not want to die. Not again,not like this. "Please!" Ritsuko cried as from her chest a bright amber light began to spew from her chest,wrapping around her fragile form. The light slowly began to center itself on her back, sending a strange warming sensation through her back. Before she could even blink a gorgeous pair of white wings ripped from her back.

Ritsuko stared up towards her newly formed wings,in awe. The wings she now bore stretched out completely before beginning to slow her decent to the void below her. Only now did she noticed that it was no longer a void,it was her home. The "Golden Kingdom" on Earth. Ritsuko knew that her home was no longer here but she relished the sight of the familiar structure. Soon Ritsuko landed ever so gently in the center of a flourishing garden. Ritsuko knelt down onto the warm spring that prickled her barefeet.

She remembered how much she enjoyed the garden here,and how she always tended to them when she could. Especially the roses in her own private garden, she smiled faintly before hearing her true name being called. Immediately Ritsuko rose to her feet her large white wings dissipating in a matter of seconds leaving white feathers fluttering around her,before swirling around her creating her dark blue and gold trimmed floor length dress. Ritsuko stared down at her dress in confusion before spotting one of her dear friends rushing to her with an urgent look on her face.