After Leviathan opened up her mouth to confirm what Shadow had revealed, he turned to look towards Sailor Venus. Though quite visibly tired with his exertions, he wanted to give her a reassuring smile - to give her a signal that he was still committed to their mission.

The dragons' screeching interrupted that thought. In a strange twist of fate, Leviathan seemed to take on a different mentality altogether and launched an impressive watery blast at one of the two firebreathing menaces. Though the strike was successful, Shadow wanted to yell at her for revealing the senshi's position.

The angry blue's screech forced him to reprioritize his attentions, giving him plenty of warning to avoid the Dangerous One's strafing run. On top of that, as if there weren't enough problems to worry about, Shadow's ears caught notice of Mossen yelling about the Queen's magic. They were running out of time!

"Try hitting their wings to cripple them! We only need to get inside!"

Tapping into his sorely taxed reserves of energy, Shadow hurled a Shockwave towards what he believed to be the blue dragon's humerous or shoulder wing joint. These creatures seemed to rely quite heavily on their ability to fly, so stripping them of that advantage would give the senshi a safer opportunity to breach the castle.

Pluto caught up to the others after allowing her wings to unfurl and flying up to them and her eyes widened to see what they did. She bit her bottom lip and turned, looking at the dragon worried. She closed her eyes tightly for a moment then opened them, her expression hard and determined. “Everyone! Get in as close a group as you can around me! I'll cast a shield and we'll run in!” she cried out, trying to get everyone to hear her as she raised her staff up high.

Achelois hovered with Mossen when they came into view of the courtyard.  The area below was filled with evil and she hesitated to go any farther.  Below she could see minions and what looked like very sick fairies.  Their Queen is like that now…
 

Her focus turned to Mossen when he turned and she followed his gaze.  It looked like the red dragon was not happy with the current situation.  She spoke quickly, “Mossen if we leave it won’t be forever, just until we can get more help and come back to save the planet.”  They needed to dodge towards the moat, “When we come back we’ll need your help.”  She pleaded with the fairy to turn back.

DM wrote:

Shadow aims a Shockwave (3MP) at the Blue Dragon!
Does it hit? A 5 or 6 hits its target!
--He rolls a 6!
How much damage?
--He rolls a 4
--MP bonus of 2
--Control bonus of 5
----Total of 11 points of damage!


The Dragon has 69 HP remaining! Its shoulder wing joint it, it falls to the ground in a crash!


Does it land on anyone?
--It rolls a 5! It hit someone!
Who did it hit? 1. Enyalius 2. Andromeda 3. Bellatrix 4. Soul 5. Ganymede 6. Leviathan
--It hits Enyalius!
How much damage? Due to its immense size, damage will be on a d12
--It rolls a 5
--Armor bonus - 6
Enyalius is not hurt!

As the dragon came crashing down, Enyalius was looking towards the castle, easily spotting Achelois and Venus's winged forms above the paraphets, with Pluto's closing in quickly... and the red dragon not far behind. Too long was she distracted, for in a whoof and a thud, the dragon's wings were atop her!

Its wing bones hit her hard, knocking the breath out of her, but she was on the whole undamaged; she kicked at the beast to propel herself out of its tent-like wing membrane!

DM wrote:

Enyalius kicks the dragon!
Did it hit?
--Yeah, too close to miss
How much damage?
--She rolls a 5!
--Strength bonus of 7! (halved without weapon)
----Total of 12 points of damage to the dragon!


The Blue Dragon has 57 HP remaining!


The Blue Dragon snaps and snarls, whipping its tail threateningly about!

Ganymede Knight
 
Ganymede almost fell over as the massive dragon hit the ground so close to him. Despite being nearly crushed by it, Enyalius seemed to be fine. And now the beast was in his range. "Sailor Enyalius, back up!" he said. He took a few steps back instead before charging forward at the dragon's prone body, using his Thunder Eagle attack. It'd be far harder to miss at this range.

Mossen looked down at the castle. Their target was so close, but their goal was infinitely far now - if the forest wasn't being healed and protected, Queen Mana was already lost to them. He didn't know how to move forward - he wasn't like Grandmatre Rosen, or Lillyena, or Leafe - he had only one real talent and it hadn't been enough to get the senshi there in time. But what Achelois was saying... would they be able to come back? Would other warriors come to Zenar and help them? What would that even mean, now that the Queen was lost? And where would they go? Where would they live? 

Bellatrix had said that their Queen could help. At this point, Mossen took that to be the safest bet, and with a meaningful, frightened and conflicted glance at Venus and Achelois, dove out of the Dragon's path, towards the moat, and saw Pluto flying towards them, her words lost to him.

Soul growled, she'd had about enough of this. These dragons were nothing but another distraction and it was time to get ride of them. Summoning her staff, she holds it infront of her, extending it till the bottom reaches the ground. Allowing the energy to gather, she closed her eyes in concentration. No matter what world she was on, there was always an underworld to make contact with. " Soul Reaper," she said calmly, dark purple wisps coming out from the blackness that was suddenly under her feet. The wisps shot out, headed straight for the dragon, intent on dragging it with them to the underworld.

"No, we can't give up!  Not until we know for sure!  Queen Serenity...she..." Venus paused, pain causing her heart to wrench.  She couldn't fail her queen, not now, not ever.  She would not give up until Queen Mana was found, and they did everything in their power to save her.  If there was one thing Usagi had taught her, it was that there is always good inside someone.  

"Achelois, Serenity told Pluto and I that this planet's history ended in a nuclear war," she paused, letting her statement sink in, "The pain and regret felt by the spirits of this planet and all of the negativity has drawn Chaos to it.  The spirits Soul felt yesterday...those were the spirits of those who died during that war.  Chaos is here, and if we don't stop it, it will only get stronger.  Soon, it will become strong enough to take over the Universe, Earth included.  We have to keep going.  We can't give up, no matter what!"

The hardness in Venus's eyes was proof that she was not going to take no for an answer.  She just hoped Achelois would be able to handle this new information.  She looked back at Pluto, nodding confidently.

Soul grinned to herself as the attack hit, doing some damage. It was too big to drag to the underworld, but at least it did some damage. Unable to keep herself upright any longer, she allowed herself to fall slowly to her knees, keeping a firm grip on her staff in front of her so she didn't collapse completely. She could still feel the intense chill from the contact with the underworld. She looked at her fingers and saw that the tips of them were blue. Amina knew that her lips and other extremities would be as well. She could feel herself shiver as the cold settled further into her bones.

The senshi squeezed her eyes shut. She needed to pull herself together. She couldn't go curl up in bed with a million hot water bottles and heating pads like she normally did after using this attack. She had to keep fighting, regardless of how cold she was.

The Hell was...?


Enyalius turned to see the Red Dragon closing in on Achelois and the others, and immediately dashed off, took to her wings, and flew in to defend, hoping the other cry was in her imagination, but knowing full well that it was not.

Another dragon was coming.

She sighed with relief as Mossen dodged down towards the moat and followed him.  She turned to Venus wide-eyed, “I came here to save their Queen, that can’t be done now.”  She paused for a second, “If this chaos is that big of a problem then we aren’t enough to handle it.”  She continued on as quickly as she could, “If we try to continue this fight we will waste our lives, but we can get the fairies off this planet and go back for help.”  She glided back over the moat to where the others were fighting the blue dragon and found Enya.  She hovered near her and gave Enya the important bits of information, “The Queen has been turned; Venus says we need to defeat the ‘chaos’ here; either way we need to make a decision fast.”

Oops, Shadow thought to himself as the dragon's bulk crashed down on Sailor Enyalius. Fortunately, it didn't look as if any injuries had been sustained by the senshi of war, and she simply forced her way out of the creature's wingspan by giving it a swift kick. Subsequent attacks from the senshi were answered by the dragon's furious trail thrashing and lashing every which way.

This isn't what I necessarily had planned. Just focus on putting it down..

Shadow charged towards the dragon and attempted to plunge his sword into the creature's belly, perhaps where he could find thinner scales. One quick thrust at the heart might just be enough to put the creature down for good.

Ganymede Knight

Ganymede stumbled backwards from the high speed tackle he had just landed, electricity still sparking off his armor. He shook his head and noticed that both Soul and Leviathan had been hit. The dragon itself seemed to be on its last legs, at least. Following Shadow's example, he made his own charge and tried to plunge his axe into the Dragon's side.

Pluto became mildly frustrated when everyone became more focused on killing the dragon than getting inside. Thankfully Venus seemed to have kept her head, and she flew over to the fellow elder senshi. “Venus, what are we going to do? Chaos is probably inside that castle, and we have to do something about it, or risk it getting a foothold in this planet. We can't led it spread!” she bit her bottom lip, looking worried as she looked between the dragon and the castle. And she cringed when she heard another roar. That was all they needed, another dragon. “Should the two of us try going inside by ourselves?”

Sailor Leviathan couldn't believe what she had done. It felt so right just a few moments ago, but now it seemed ludricous. Why would she suddenly feel confident in attacking a dragon of all things? She could feel her spirit weakening. She had used way too much magic and she could feel it.

Worse yet, Sailor Venus was stressing the importance of their mission. If they failed here, it meant a whole planet of people would die. Leviathan couldn't imagine her own planet dying. This one was just as important as it and it was fading away right before her eyes.

Eventually, the blue dragon retailated against her. She stepped between it and the goblins, hoping that Sailor Soul or the others would do something to help the situation.

"N-n-nice dragon! I didn't your friend that much, did I? Augh!"

She was struck by its tail.

"That really hurt!"

Awestruck, she watched the other senshi use their attacks to combat the mighty beasts. She regretted using her attack earlier. It was only now that she realized she didn't know she ever had that attack. What was it anyway? A torrent of water? What other powers did she have? Maybe she wasn't so useless after all.

In the chaos of it all, she found a moment of peace in that realization, but her mind inevitably crawled back to the despair and hopelessness of the situation.

Growling with frustration, Enyalius took up her sword and shield and flew higher, attempting to catch whatever light there was to flash in the red dragon's eyes and draw its attention, Achelois's words ringing in her mind. The Queen was turned, there was nothing they could do for her now; they had no idea how to return a fairy back to its original persona. She yelled out, again to catch the red dragon's attention as it whirled around the moat, circling them with its fierce gaze traveling. One look into the courtyard only made her yell last longer, turning into a cry of frustration, cursing their luck, cursing this ill-fated venture. Chaos... again. Just looking down into that courtyard, she knew their group would be hard-pressed to make it in, and that was without the two dragons to contend with - and that two would become three at any moment.

She... she could get them into the castle, she considered, weighing her power against the number of enemies crowding in the courtyard. She could get them in, but she could only pull off her ability once without rest - if they needed it later on they would be up a creek, but otherwise they could get in - if it weren't for the dragons! She panted, having yelled until her lungs were empty, and prepared for the Red Dragon's charge.

DM wrote:

The Red Dragon attempts to attack Enyalius!
Does it hit?
--1

She evaded it easily, letting it fly past her and into the sky beyond, turning to watch it's path. 

If Chaos were in there and they left, it would only grow. Without the fairy magic to contain it, it would run rampant on the planet, but their forces, as they were now...they weren't ready. They were tired, they were depleted; with the strange miasma surrounding the planet they could not rejuvenate themselves with a connection to their homeworlds. 

She quickly did some calculations - their team against the dragons, the minions in the courtyard, and whatever evil lay inside the castle, let alone the Chaotic presence itself... there was no chance of success. 

If they pursued, they would die. 

If they escaped with the fairies, they could return, rested and with a plan, and attempt to destroy the Evil One and restore the Fairy Queen.

She had made her decision. 

DM wrote:

The Red Dragon flies in for another attempt!
Does it hit?
--It rolls a 6! Critical hit!
How much damage?
--It rolls a 12! Critical Damage!
--Armor bonus -6
----Total of 6 points of damage!




Enyalius is hit hard! She's knocked out of the air! 

Does she fall in the lake(1-3), on the castle wall (4), or in the courtyard(5-6)?
--She rolls a 4!

She lands on top of the stone wall!

Ow! 
How much damage from fall?
--She rolls a 6! Critical Damage!
--Armor bonus -6 
No damage, but she cannot move!

Enyalius twisted to move out of the way, but the Red Dragon had learned her earlier evasive maneuver and countered dramatically, hitting her hard with the scales on his back, whipping his coiled muscles to send her falling through the air. The shock of the hit knocked the air out of her, and she fell like a high-velocity rock to hit squarely on the top of the stone wall. 

She couldn't move, she could only listen as the creatures below whistled and cackled in glee, scratching, scribbling noises moving up the rock face beside her.

She watched her friend carefully as she maneuvered around the red dragon and held its attention.  She knew that whatever decision Enya made she would follow.  Enya knew these situations if she thought they could make then they had a chance, but if she didn’t… 
 

Her breath caught as she watched the red dragon smash against her and send her flying into the castle wall.  That looked painful, she straightened out her body and zipped as quickly as she could over to Enya’s side ready to render aid.  She flew low over the moat and vertically up against the wall until she was by her side.  She helped her friend sit and closely inspected her.  Even though she hadn’t taken too much damage she was still trying to regain her breath.   She flashed a grin at Enya, "You know, I almost thought you were hurt, should've known better."  Her playfulness obvious in her tone of voice. She stayed with her until she caught her breath again and watched the wall to defend her in case any minions made it up to where they were.

Venus wanted to scream in frustration.  She refused to believe that all hope was lost, but she knew that pursuing Queen Mana was useless.  Her only option was to save the remaining senshi and fairies, but her body was driven by pure anger and agitation.  Never had Sailor Venus failed.

Her immediate reaction was to blame the senshi.  Enyalius, Achelois, Soul, Ganymede, all of them.  If they had been stronger, if they had listened to her judgment, if they had stopped focusing so much on the little things and looked at the picture, perhaps they wouldn't be in this situation.  

Then she blamed Serenity.  Why did she pick senshi like the ones she did?  Clearly, this group was incapable of accomplishing the mission.  

Then she blamed herself.  She should have tried harder, fought harder.  

Her mind was so foggy and disoriented.  Failure was too much.

"What was that yesterday about bedside manner?" Enyalius teased once she was able to breathe again, kneeling near useless on the wall. Once she felt the burning sensation subside, she stood and turned to her friend, "Get them moving, I'll use Burden to subdue the dragon. If we move quickly, we might be able to get away from here before the other arrives."

She nodded in response to Enya’s orders and once she was certain that she was fine she flew back to the area where the others had killed the blue dragon.  She looked around for everyone and as loudly as she could she shouted to everyone, “FLY BACK TO THE FAIRY GLADE!”  She caught her breath and yelled out the next phrase, “QUEEN IS TURNED; WE NEED TO GET FAIRIES OFF THE PLANET!”  She turned back to check on Enya before delivering the last part, “ENYA WILL HOLD OFF DRAGONS JUST GO! NOW”
 

She hovered above everyone, she would make sure they all made it out before continuing behind them and to also keep an eye on Enya for as long as she could.  They need to get back and convince the fairies to leave the planet immediately.

Ganymede Knight

Ganymede planted a foot on the dragon's corpse and yanked his axe back out, turning it off. He wanted to stay behind and help Enyalius, but he would probably only slow her down. He went over to Sailor Soul and helped her stand up.

"C'mon, we have to go. You can rest later, alright?" he said. If he had to carry someone out of here, he would. They didn't have time to struggle walking.

Pluto came close to the ground and scowled to see the goblins trying to capture the fairies, yelling about the “Sailah Sahtan” and turned, glaring at Leviathan. “Fix this!” she yelled at her, then called to the fairies near her. “Everyone, we were too late! The Queen has turned! Please, please try to get away from here, come with us back to Crystal Tokyo!” she looked around as some of the fairies around her gasped. A few of the more desperate and fearful ones came, clinging to the belt of keys around her waist, her skirt and the length of her back bow. She blinked a little bit surprised and sincerely hoped none of them could see up her skirt...

And it only got worse as more fairies followed their lead and began clinging to everything on her. The top of her staff, the entire length of her back bow, one hooked onto each link of her keybelt, not to mention the keys, and even a few bold ones had found a comfy spot inside her hair. She sighed a little. at least they would be safe.

As the team took to the sky and flew away, Enyalius gathered her strength and locked her eyes on the circling Red Dragon. Another echoing cry warned of another dragon to come, but hopefully their group could be long gone by then. Focusing her mind and her heart, she recalled her homeworld, the place she had left, the people she had abandoned, and why she had left them behind. She let the emotions swell, the guilt consume her. Her hands clenched on her sword hilt, she pried her right hand away and pointed at the Red Dragon.

"Enyalius Crushing Burden!"

DM wrote:

Enyalius uses Crushing Burden on the Red Dragon for 10 MP!
It hits!


The dragon crashes to the moat below!

Feeling terrible for what she had done and continued to do, Enyalius forced herself to move forward, past the rippling water below, away from the echoing roars of the dragon whose appearance was now on the horizon, rushing quickly behind her. 

She flew as quickly as she could back to the Fairy City.

Achelois easily made her way back to the fairy glade with the rest of the group leaving Enya behind with dragons.  She didn’t like to leave her but she knew that it was the only option for the moment.  Upon sight of the fairies she was shocked.  They were under attack by the goblins!  She quickly flew in amongst the fairies and began yelling for Grandmatre Rosen.  “Grandmatre!”  She needed to get them out, “We need to leave the planet, now!”  She listened as Pluto told them about their Queen.  Their faces were a mixture of terror and grief.  She wanted to reach out and comfort them but she knew that now was not the time.  Pluto mentioned Crystal Tokyo but she had another idea of where they could go if they could just get into space.

Ganymede dove down from the sky and landed heavily in the middle of the fight, his axe already out. He started knocking the small gnomes away with ease, using his weapon as a bludgeoning device.


"Follow the other senshi to safety!" he yelled. "You can't stay here!" He beat away the nearest threats, then retreated to Sailor Pluto. "Anyone who can't fly on their own can hold on to me." Shadow and Sol were probably too exhausted to get very far on their own, so they would need some help.