Serenay Moon
Part 40:
Surprise!
©2001 Kitty Ocean
Edited by: Cat
"We are the one, we are the best! We can face every test. Spread the word, say it out load, Tempus, you better watch out!" All were singing the little song Mika had made to celebrate their victory over Courage.
"One more time!" Mika yelled.
"Please, have mercy!" Derak begged. "The first 200 times it was cool, but I don't want to sing it for the 500th time!"
"Stop overreacting." Kitt sighed. "We've only have sung it about 20 times." She looked around. "Hey, I smell something!" She began to lighten up.
"What's wrong with her?" Moka asked.
Zach gasped. "Oh my God! No! Not again!" Suddenly, Kitt just ran away. "Kitt! Come back! Not again!"
"Wait for us!" The others yelled and followed Zach.
Tempus threw an hourglass to the ground. He cursed. Angry Tempus sat down at his thrown. "I should have never left it to those incompetent fools!" He looked at 3 broken hourglasses. "Aletheia, my love, you were the only one who was just as smart as I was." He threw the broken glass against the wall, making it to break into a million pieces. "Ryu, you weak-hearted idiot. If you ever knew what you were really capable of. But, when defeated by a young girl..." He crashed the broken glass in his hands. Dust flew at the ground. He immediately threw away the third glass. "Courage, you spoiled brat! You certainly don't share the patience and capabilities of my sister! You were more like your weak father." He sat down on his throne. "And now it's up to me. No lover to guide me, no friend to help me and no more relatives to depend on. Now, the master of Time, Tempus, will fulfill the task and free the NightWing of those lucky twerps!"
"Moka!" Mika cried. "I have sand in my shoes! Help me! Carry me!"
"Don't whine!" Derak snapped. "Or else we loose Zach and Kitt."
"Moka!" Mika cried again.
Moka looked at Derak. "You go on, we'll follow you." Moka lifted Mika on his back.
Tempus looked in an hourglass. "No." He mumbled. "His heart is too pure. He can't be fooled." He looked at Zach, trying to keep Kitt away from the sea. "Her soul is protected by the Crystal. Though weakened, the Crystal protects her too much to get close to her." Tempus looked at Derak. "His mind is too clear and there is no reason, nothing I can use." Mika was the next one to be observed. "She's too stupid, her heart is the purest of the universe and her powers are too great. Would have been a nice trophy, but I mustn't let my feelings interfere with my task." Then he saw Moka. "This, this one is what I need. So delightful feelings and hatred. Shattered, they are nothing. So, let's begin with phase 1...."
"Kitt, I can't let you go into the sea!" Zach ordered. "Not with Tempus around."
"Do you see him?" Kitt mumbled. "The ocean is safe, I can feel that."
Mika and Moka finally joined Derak, Zach and Kitt. "Kitt, you mustn't go in the sea, salt will ruin your hair!"
"You'll ruin my mood by not letting me go."
Suddenly, Moka heard a voice in his head. "You will loose her...."
Moka turned to Derak. "What do you mean Derak?"
"Huh? What?" Derak asked. "I didn't say anything!"
"Then, who just said...?" Moka looked confusing around.
"Only Kitt and Zach were arguing." Mika said. "You probably just heart the wind."
"Probably." Moka stretched his back. "I'm just tired."
Suddenly, that voice came back. "Open your eyes, they are working together!"
Moka looked up. Kitt and Zach were still arguing. What was going on?
"If you don't do anything, he'll take her away from you."
Moka looked around. What did that voice mean, but more important, were did it come from?
"Zach pretends to like Kitt, but he wants Mika...."
"Mika?" Moka asked.
"You must do something, before it's too late!"
"I wanna swim!" Kitt yelled.
"And I don't want you to get hurt!" Zach followed.
"Like you care!"
"Maybe I shouldn't!"
"You are acting like a jerk!"
"You ARE a jerk!" Zach screamed.
Suddenly, Moka dove on top of Zach and started punching him. "Moka!" Mika screamed terrified.
"Whoa, Moka!" Derak pulled Moka back. "What is wrong?"
"You will not get her!" Moka yelled, with eyes red of anger.
Zach rubbed his cheek. "What do you mean?" He asked.
"You know what I mean! And I'm telling you, it won't work! I will not loose her!"
Kitt stepped between Moka and Zach. "Moka, what has gotten into you? What are you talking about?"
Moka pulled himself loose from Derak. "He's fooling you too! He plays with feelings. I know what you want Zach, and I won't let you have it!"
"What do I want?" Zach asked.
Moka looked very angry. "I know you want to take Mika away from me, but that won't work."
"I'm not trying to take Mika away from you." Zach sweated. "What is going on? You know I don't like Mika!"
"What?" Mika started to cry.
"Liar!" Moka replied. "That's what you want all people to think."
"No, it's true!" Zach answered, but then saw Mika crying. "Mika, I didn't mean it that way...."
Moka pushed Zach away. "Get away from her. So, she suddenly isn't good enough for you any more? You are a true bastard Zach! And I don't want to see you any more!"
Now Zach got angry. "Then why don't you leave?"
"I will! Come Mika!" He took her hand, but she pulled it back.
With tears in her eyes she stepped back. "What's wrong with you Moka?" She sniffed. "This isn't you."
"Oh, so you still want to stick with team twerp after everything they've done to you?" Moka walked away. "Fine, have it your way!"
"Moka! Wait!" Mika cried. "Don't go!"
Kitt turned to Zach. "Zach, we've got to...."
"No, we don't have to!" He angry snapped. "If he doesn't like it here, then he'd better leave. You don't like it either? Then leave!"
Kitt also had tears in her eyes. "You'll lose everything this way Zach...." And joined Mika who looked for comfort from Derak.
Moka stepped over the hills and into the forest. Tempus smiled. "That was easy." He smiled. "Now the rest is even easier."
Zach, Kitt, Mika and Derak also walked through the forest. Mika still sniffed on Derak's shoulder because of the loss of Moka and Kitt didn't want to look at Zach. Zach felt awful.
'What was I thinking?' He thought. 'Kitt is right, I'll loose everything this way. But I don't understand what Moka was talking about. He knows I like Mika, but only as a friend. He knows were my heart belongs.' Zach saw a cave. "I think we should better take a rest and think things over." He suggested.
Kitt didn't answer, Mika just sniffed and Derak nodded.
After a while, Mika was finally asleep. Zach lay on his side, thinking things through. Derak sat against the wall sleeping. Kitt stood up and walked out of the cave. "I've got to find Moka!" She softly whispered.
Suddenly, a man jumped before her. Kitt screamed. "Electric Time Ring!"
Zach jumped up. "Kitt!" He yelled and ran outside, followed by Derak and Mika. Outside the cave, he saw Kitt trapped in some sort of electric field. When he touched the barrier, he got zapped immediately.
Though Kitt was really getting hurt inside the field, she jumped up. "Zach!" She screamed, but when hitting the wall, she got another electric shock.
"Uh-uh!" Someone suddenly said. "Better not do that again."
Zach, helped up by Derak, looked up. "Tempus, I presume?" He growled.
"Darn, now you ruined my dramatic entrance." He smiled. "I don't see why the others had so much trouble, this was so easy!"
"Let Kitt go!" Derak demanded.
"Tsk, tsk. She can't be freed." Tempus shook his head. "Poor little Kitty Ocean, doomed to die of eternal agony."
"No!" Zach yelled. "This can't be!" He ran at the field, but Derak stopped him.
"No!" He said. "You'll only get shocked again."
Tempus laughed. "It's hopeless! No-one can save her! And with one dead, no-one can stop the awesome power of the NightWing!"
Suddenly, Mika stopped forward. "Let her go!" She calmly said.
Tempus almost suffocated from laughing. "Yeah, right, what do you have to offer me to convince me?"
"Me...." Mika softly said.
It became silent. Tempus stopped laughing. "You? You are willing to give yourself as a trade?"
"Mika!" Kitt tried to say. "No! I'm not worth it."
"Without Moka, I don't want to live any more." She whispered. "It's a deal."
Derak and Zach tried to stop her, but Tempus had put a light-screen between them. "So much sacrifice. The most powerful Soldier is willing to give up her life for that of her friends...."
"Stop the small-talk." Mika looked determent.
"So be it...." Tempus pulled Kitt out of the electric field and replaced her with Mika.
Zach and Derak yelled, but Mika couldn't hear them. She saw Kitt tried to get up. "My friends..." Mika softly smiled. "Please don't forget me."
"Mika!" Kitt cried and jumped up. Even though she knew how much the field had hurt her, she pushed her arm right through and tried to reach for Mika. "Mika..." Kitt softly whispered. Mika smiled back, and touched her hand.
Then the pain became too much for Mika and Kitt and both collapsed.
"Well, isn't this nice." Tempus laughed. "How touching, 2 friends are dying together."
Zach growled at Tempus. "They will not die! And I will stop you!"
Tempus just pointed at them and blasted them away with an electrical beam.
"Let's fight thunder with thunder!" A voice suddenly appeared behind him.
"You!" Tempus was surprised. "I thought you were gone!"
"Surprise!" Moka smiled. "You never fooled me! You thought I was gone, but I kept on following them. I knew it was you all along!"
"So you want to match your powers with me?" Tempus laughed. "Then let me surprise you! Lightning Blast!"
"Thunder Wings!" Moka replied and released his new attack. It cut right through Tempus's attack and hit him hard. The electric field around Mika disappeared.
Tempus crawled up and saw Moka, Zach and Derak, ready to launch their attacks. "You've won the battle..." He growled. "But the war ain't over yet!" Then he vanished.
Mika slowly opened her eyes. She saw the face she loved to see. "Moka." She started to cry. "You are back!"
"Yes." Moka hugged her. "You know I could never leave you."
Kitt, also recovered, kneeled at Mika. "I... I...." She started, but couldn't find the right words. Mika took her hand. "Thank you..." Kitt whispered.
That night, all were sitting around a small fire. "So you were faking it all along?" Zach asked astounded. He rubbed his cheek, remembering how much pain that 'faking' turned out to do.
Moka chuckled. "Well, actually I didn't knew it was Tempus at the beginning. He was really warming me up, until he made one small mistake...."
"And that was?" Derak asked.
Moka smiled. "He discovered himself when he said it."
"What?" Kitt asked.
"You must kill them, kill them all!" Moka repeated.
Mika lay herself against him. "I knew Moka wasn't evil!" She sighed. "I knew he couldn't hurt his friends."
Kitt whispered softly against Derak and Zach. "And we all know who he will never hurt." And both boys nodded in agreement.
In his hide-out, Tempus threw a dozen hourglasses against the wall. He cursed, yelled and was really angry. Angry, he sat at his throne. "How could I have lost?" He asked himself. "I was about to kill the strongest one of all! How could I have failed?"
"That's what I would like to know."
Tempus jumped up and kneeled humbly.
"I've heard disturbing news Tempus." The woman softly said. "I've not hired you to fail. You cost me a fortune and so far you've accomplished nothing."
"I know, my Queen, but I won't fail you again."
"You better won't." She turned around. "I don't want to interfere with them myself."
"Yes, my Queen."
End of episode 40