Tiger ran down the corridor like a demon possessed, leaving Sailor Mercury and Toraboushi behind her without a second thought. Abenti was close by, but she couldn't pinpoint an exact location. By far, Abenti was the logical, more clearly thinking half of the greater whole.

Due to her speed, Tiger had to rebound off a wall to make a sharp left turn before colliding into Bulls Eye. With her mind so focused on Abenti, a snort and bellow from Bulls Eye was Tiger's only conscious indication that she had encountered anyone else at all.

Quickly picking herself up, Tiger snarled and growled like a cornered animal. If it was any other person, they would have known to vacate the premises; Bulls Eye however did no such thing. Summoning a pair of daggers, Bulls Eye lunged towards Tiger. His attack came too late, however. Before Bulls Eye could even register what was happening, Tiger pounced and savagely broke his neck.

A gasp from behind her told Tiger that Toraboushi and Super Sailor Mercury had finally caught up with her. Without even a second thought about Bulls Eye's corpse, Tiger began to run again towards where she felt that Abenti was being held.

Toraboushi and Super Sailor Mercury had paused briefly as they gawked at the corpse. Toraboushi contemplated how Bulls Eye would have still been alive if it wasn't for his hard headed and stubborn nature, before he jerked his head up as his eyes widened. As much as he disliked Snake Eyes, he feared for what would happen if Tiger got to his former comrade first. Both Toraboushi and Sailor Mercury summoned all of their courage to run and possibly save a life that in the eyes of anyone else, would not have been deemed worth saving.

**********

Snake Eyes stared hypnotically into Abenti's blank eyes and ran scenario after scenario through the connection in which Abenti was in the struggle for her life. Scenes in which she lost patients stabbed at her heart. Battles against an unseen enemy in which she didn't have a chance of winning on her own raged through her mind. The final blow came in via Snake Eye's hypnotic scenario in which an imagined Toraboushi said that their relationship was a joke and that he never loved her to begin with.

At that, Abenti snapped. Defeated, she couldn't bear it anymore and began mentally shutting herself down.

"Pity." Snake Eyes slowly hissed as he dropped the hypnotic connection. "I had hoped that she would have been strong enough to last just that much more longer."

Walking away to start his next task, the room suddenly filled with a dense freezing fog.

"What in the..." Snake Eyes blinked in surprise.

Before he could do anything, Snake Eyes was bowled over moments before a running Tiger could make contact mid-pounce.

"Stay out of this!" Tiger snarled as she landed and turned to face the figure who had knocked Snake Eyes out of her reach.

"He's not what you're here for," came the voice that Snake Eyes immediately recognized as belonging to Tiger's Eye - no, Toraboushi as he insisted on being called now. "Go, now! Abenti needs you!"

As Tiger left the two former comrades, Toraboushi turned his attention to Snake Eyes.

"Why did you do that?" Snake Eyes asked in mild bewilderment.

"Manako would have killed me if I told him that the ferocious half of my girlfriend killed you as she did with Bull's Eye."

"Bull's Eye is dead?" Snake Eyes was caught off guard yet again, but this time he recovered more quickly. "I always warned him against messing with the wrong person."

"Y'know, we all have to learn from our mistakes. The major mistake I see here is sticking around and working for someone who'd probably sell you out for your own Shabti in the end." Toraboushi said as he stood then offered a hand to help Snake Eyes up.

On the other side of the room, Super Sailor Mercury held Abenti's recovered Shabti and looked at both Abenti and Tiger who had her front paws propped onto the side of the examination table that Abenti laid upon.

"It doesn't seem to want to go back in..." Mercury exclaimed with a worried look on her face.

Snake Eyes' eyes widened as what Toraboushi had previously said dawned on him and he looked towards the worried sailor soldier.

"Wait - there was something odd about her Shabti. It was if something was missing... as if it was half a Shabti." Snake Eyes walked within a few feet of Tiger and Abenti. "If I'm correct, I need to extract this feline's Shabti so that they can reunite.

"Come one step closer and I'll tan your hide." Tiger threatened.

"Fine..." Snake Eyes hissed. "Slip slowly into madness for all I care. It's not like she'll respond anyway with the hypnotic testing I preformed on her."

A punch to Snake Eyes' gut was Toraboushi's immediate response.

"You better hope that she recovers or else I'll kill you myself and damn the consequences."

Tiger jumped onto the table and aligned herself to lay parallel with Abenti. She then formed a mental connection with her inert half.

"Abenti, can you hear me?" Tiger's voice mentally reverberated within the scene that Abenti had conjured within her mind's eye. The place was cold, dark and featureless for the most part.

"I've nothing left, just an empty heart..." Tiger managed to hear Abenti utter before her voice trailed off.

Fortunately, it was enough for Tiger to be able to locate her. Tiger gasped, however as she saw the mental visualization of Abenti's state of mind. There was hardly a scratch on her, but the battered state left something to be concerned about.

"Come on, Abenti. We need to reunite as one again." Tiger carefully assisted Abenti to get her to stand.

"There's nothing more for me... leave me..." Abenti protested weakly while letting her body slump as if she wanted to curl up and die.

"I can't do that. I need you. Toraboushi needs you..." Tiger urged her other half to stay standing and to start walking.

"But..." Abenti sobbed as she stumbled in the darkness, not really watching where she was walking.

"That wasn't really him. Think. After all you've been through, after what he's done for you..." Tiger stated after catching a brief flash of Abenti's affected memory. "Remember who you are. You're a soldier - fighting in a battle to protect peace and those who you care about. If you lose yourself - your courage soon will follow. So be strong for me, and if you need it, take my strength as well. For without you, I cannot go on."

A light flooded over the two of them. Warmth filled them both with hope. They weren't completely aware of it but they could almost feel the concern, love and friendship emanating from Toraboushi and Ami. Out in the 'real' world, Tiger's Shabti had been extracted and successfully merged with Abenti's Shabti, to form what appeared to be a complete Ethereal Shabti. The Ethereal Shabti descended towards the two forms and merging the two figures as one whole being once more.

"We're back together!" Abenti mentally cried with joy as they realized simultaneously what was going on.

"Eternally." Tiger promised with a gravelly purr rumbling from her very being.

Within a blink of an eye, Sailor Mercury, Toraboushi and Snake Eyes caught a brief glimpse of a new sailor uniform appearing on Abenti's still form before reverting to the regular clothes she had been previously wearing. With a weak moan, Abenti regained consciousness.

"What... where am..." she said groggily, not fully able to form complete sentences.

Toraboushi walked up to her as she cautiously sat up. She flinched as he raised his hand to move a few stray strands of hair from her face.

"It's all right. You just had a nightmare, is all." Toraboushi embraced her gently. "God, I thought I'd have lost you forever. You had me worried."

"Gag me." Snake Eyes muttered as he rolled his pail eyes. "Save some of that for later... you know, in private."

"As for you..." Super Sailor Mercury said as she looked at Snake Eyes warily.

"Go on... take me prisoner. Beat me to a pulp. Do what you have to do. I know when I've been bested. Bull's Eye is gone and quite frankly, I don't want to stay here." Snake Eyes sighed dejectedly, knowing that it was the end of the line for him.

"What?" Toraboushi said as he starred incredulously at Snake Eyes.

"I'd rather be dead than work for Sesmar anymore... and the way I see it, that's the only way out. The other alternative is to have my own Shabti removed."

"But what about Manako? He loves you. He'd want you to come to him alive and in one piece. Isn't he worth living for?" Super Sailor Mercury asked.

"Yes, but not like this. As soon as Sesmar finds out about Bull's Eye's death and my turncoat ways, I might as well be dead. It was his magic that gave us these forms."

An earth shaking rumble nearly caused all of them to fall off their feet.

"I think he just found Bull's Eye." Toraboushi exclaimed.

"Take this." Snake Eyes replied as he handed a portal device over to Super Sailor Mercury. "This will get you three out of here. I'll attempt to hold him off long enough for you to escape."

"We're taking you with us. We know someone who could change you to be fully human if you want to." Super Sailor Mercury said with a determined look on her face.

"These portals weren't made for more than three people." Snake Eyes retorted as he took the device back from Sailor Mercury and opened the portal. "Go!"

Toraboushi helped Abenti stand and lead her to SuperSailor Mercury's awaiting arms before he pulled his whip out from it's position around his waist. With a flick he caught Snake Eyes around his right arm and pulled him towards the portal. When they were within a few steps of it, they saw a brief glimpse of a raging Sesmar before jumping into the portal.

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