'.....' - Someone's thoughts

~*~*~*~

Mina sighed loudly as she heard the bell begin to ring. Time was up. Lying on the small mattress, which rested on the floor, she stared up at the ceiling, wondering how she was going to escape death this time. Before she could think of a plan, a key rattled in the lock of the cell, before the door swung inwards. Sitting up, she watched as five soldiers came in, all of them ready for a fight.

"Stand up." One of them grunted as he took a step towards her.

"You could say please." Mina frowned and crossed her arms, ignoring the order.

"Up! Now!" He growled while taking another step forward.

"Not until you say please!" Mina glared up at him, daring him to come any closer.

"Put her in her place." The guy smirked while watching the four others close in around the girl.

"Thief!" One spat while aiming at kick at her head. Mina who saw this coming, simply moved her head back, out of the way.

"Cur!" Another growled while aiming a kick at her stomach. Mina rolled her eyes before leaning out of the way.

"That's it! Get her!" The first yelled, causing the four guys to jump on her all at once. Mina struggled to get free, but they had her. When they had her pinned down, the first, whom acted as the obvious leader of the five, walked up to where she laid on the ground, and spat in her face. "Why don't we have some fun with her, boys? Her head won't be attached to that pretty body of hers for much longer."

Mina began to struggle even more, but they had her pinned. Her eyes widened in fear, before narrowing to slits as she glared up at them in anger. She was not going to go down without a fight!

~*~

"There must be some way we can save her!" Rei exclaimed as she watched the courtyard fill with people.

"Don't you think that if there was a way we could save her, we would have done it by now?" Ami snapped. "Unlike you, I have known Mina my whole life, and the last thing I want is to see her die!"

"Sorry." Rei mumbled as she looked down at her feet.

"Where'd Duo go?" Ami asked, suddenly looking around. Rei began to look around too, and found him talking to Trowa and Wufei. Well, more like yelling at them.

"Ugh, let's go get that idiot before he gets thrown in a cell." Rei growled as she and Ami made their way over to where he was.

"No woman has ever hung before, and now that you've caught a common thief, you're just going to hang her?!" Duo yelled while glaring at the two of them.

"Hmph, it's justice." Wufei snorted while glaring back at Duo.

"There is no justice in that!!" Duo took a threatening step towards the two, one hand reaching for the hilt of his sword.

"Duo calm down!" Rei grabbed his wrist and yanked it away from his sword.

"There were just doing their job." Ami said while helping Rei keep Duo from jumping Trowa and Wufei.

"There was no honor in what they did." Duo growled.

~*~

A girl walked through the crowd, her two guardians on either side of her. A black cloak covered her body, and the hood hid her face from view. Her two guardians wore similar cloaks, but in brown, and they also had their hoods up so as to keep their faces hidden.

"It begins." The one on the girl's right spoke, causing the other two to nod.

"We shall wait and see what happens before we move." The girl said quietly before her and the other two blended into the shadows.

~*~

"Sere-chan, I know that you're doing this for a good cause and all, but we'll get caught!" Makoto said while nervously looking around.

"Come on Mako! Where's your sense of adventure?" Serena asked while lowering the bow and turning to face her friend.

"I have a sense of adventure! Just not when I could be thrown in a cell because of it!" Before Makoto could protest any further, two doors opened up and five men, surrounding one girl, walked out into the courtyard.

The girl's long blonde hair was full of tangles, and her clothes were replaced by a tan cloak that opened up every now and then when the wind picked up, causing her long slim legs to be seen. It wasn't that which caught the attention of the two girls, it was how she walked.

Head down, arms hanging limply by her sides, she shuffled forward, not even paying attention to where she was going at all. Serena stood up on her toes and squinted her eyes so as to see the girl better. It only took a second for her to recognize who the person was.

"That's my friend Mina!" Serena said in shock as she watched the girl be led up onto the platform.

"A girl? Why are they hanging her? They've never hung a girl before!" Makoto said in obvious surprise.

"Mina's only a common thief, and they never hang females..." Serena trailed off in thought, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Serena? Serena!" Makoto waved a hand in front of her friend's face who jumped slightly. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking about how strange this all is. Relena must have some sort of personal grudge against Mina or something." Serena said thoughtfully.

"Look! It's starting!"

~*~

"Heero have you seen Serena?" Quatre asked as he looked around. "Last thing I need is for her to get into even more trouble." Quatre looked to his left where Heero was, and was surprised to see him not there. Sighing, Quatre began to move through the crowd to find his sister.

~*~

"Heero I'm so glad you came back." Relena purred as she clung to Heero's arm. Heero was trying to get her off, but was finding it damn near impossible.

"Hn." Heero looked around for some sort of escape route when suddenly Quatre came up to him.

"Heero, have you seen Serena? I can't seem to find-" Before he could even finish his sentence, Heero shoved Relena off of his arm, and grabbed Quatre's arm and pulled him into the crowd to get away from the crazy princess.

Heero dragged Quatre through the crowd, looking back over his shoulder every now and then to make sure that Relena wasn't following him. When he finally did stop, he let go of Quatre's arm and turned to face him.

"Where was the last time you saw her?" Quatre looked at Heero a bit confused before remembering what he was talking about.

"When we first came out here." Heero nodded before looking around.

"You go the left, and I'll go to the right, she couldn't have gone far." The two headed off in search to find the blonde before she got into any trouble.

~*~

Mina's body ached all over, and all she wanted to do at the moment was curl up in a ball and cry herself to sleep. She stared at her feet while trying her best to keep an equal distance from the five guys surrounding her. Men were nothing but animals! Mina's blank stare turned to a glare, and she looked up to glare at the back of the men's heads.

The three in front parted, and she slowly made her way up the stairs. 'Well this is it.' She thought bitterly. As she reached the top of the stairs, she stopped for a minute to look out at the crowd surrounding the platform. Two men in black stood on either side of the post that held the noose.

The first one, which turned out to be a priest, stood in front of her and said a silent prayer. Then, with two fingers, he drew an imaginary cross in front of her face before stepping out of the way. Mina was shoved from behind, and she stumbled forward.

The second guy, who was much larger then the first, seemed to be pure muscle. Mina slowly walked towards him, knowing that her fate was sealed. He lowered the noose and slipped it over her head, before tightening it around her neck. He then grabbed a piece of rope and tied her wrists together in front of her body.

Her eyes scanned the crowd one last time, and right before she was about to close them, she spotted Ami, Rei and Duo who were standing next to Wufei and Trowa. A noise coming from her right caused her to turn her head to see a small table being brought up onto the platform.

'I can't believe I forgot. They cut off the head of a person after they die.' Shuddering at that thought, she squeezed her eyes closed and prayed that she would somehow escape from this.

There was a small creak before the bottom of the platform where Mina was standing swung downwards, causing the noose to tighten around her neck as she hung from it. A loud snap was heard, and the crowd gasped. Her neck had snapped. Azure eyes began to glaze quickly and then everything became black.

~*~

"Sere-chan, don't!" Makoto begged while watching her friend take aim.

"There's no turning back now." Serena replied while letting the arrow go.

The rope was cut, and before Mina's body could hit the ground, a blonde haired man had caught her. This of course shocked the crowd and pissed off the princess.

~*~

"What's going on?!" Relena shrieked at seeing the rope being cut. "GUARDS!!"

~*~

*Minutes earlier*

At hearing the snap of the blonde girl's neck being broken, the young girl and her two guards stepped out from the shadows.

"Now!" The girl commanded in a quiet voice. Closing her eyes, she began to make different gestures with her hands while chanting in a low voice.

"I'm on it!" The one on her right said while tossing back the hood of her cloak to reveal short, sandy colored hair.

"Hurry." The one on the left said, pushing back the hood of her cloak to reveal shoulder length teal colored hair.

~*~

"Dear Kami." Ami breathed while looking away so she wouldn't have to see her friend hang. Mina's neck snapping caused Rei to pale tremendously. Tears sprung up in Rei's eyes, and she turned and buried her head in Duo's shoulder.

An arrow whizzed through the air and sliced the rope before embedding itself into the wooden plank. The crowd gasped in surprise and began to look around to find the person who had done that.

"Who's that?" Duo asked as a blonde haired man appeared below the platform and caught Mina.

"GUARDS!!" Relena screamed causing the soldiers, including Wufei and Trowa to jump into action. The two pushed through the crowd to get to Mina and the man, only to find that by the time they got there, the man was gone.

"Spread out!" Wufei ordered to the soldiers before he and Trowa went off to find the man.

"Ami! Someone's using magic!" Artemis whispered in her ear, causing her to begin to look around for the magic user.

"Over there!" Ami pointed to a corner of the courtyard that was hidden by shadows.

"Rei, Duo! Follow me!" Ami yelled as she began to shove her way through the crowd.

~*~

"Hurry." The small girl was breathing heavily with the strain of the spell. "I can't keep her alive for much longer."

The blonde placed the girl down and with her hands, moved her neck back in place. Stepping back out of the way, she looked at the small girl before turning to keep guard. The small girl kneeled down next to Mina and placed her hands over her neck. Minutes passed in silence, except for the soft chanting of the girl.

"Done." The small girl stood up and before she could even take a step back, the teal haired woman was by her side, steadying her.

"Help her up." The teal haired one said to the blonde over her shoulder. The blonde woman glanced at the crowd of people once more before turning and going over to where the blonde girl still rested on the ground. Her breathing was that of a person fast asleep. Bending down, she picked up the girl, one arm around her shoulders and supporting her head, and the other under her knees. Standing up, she turned to face the girl and teal haired woman.

"We should be going before someone finds us." The blonde said while glancing over her shoulder.

"Someone's coming." The teal haired woman tensed up as she spoke the words, and quickly drew herself and the small girl into the shadows. The blonde woman turned to face the approaching people.

~*~

"Heero!" Quatre called over the crowd towards the brown haired man. Heero, hearing his name being called, scanned the crowd until he spotted Quatre waving his arm.

"What?" Heero called back as he began to shove his way towards the boy.

"Serena! Over there!" Quatre pointed to his left, and Heero turned to see that he was pointing to a corner of the courtyard that was covered by shadows. Nodding towards Quatre, they both took off in that direction.

~*~

Wufei scanned the crowd for the blonde woman who had, a few minutes ago, been hanging. Raven hair caught his attention, and he turned to find Rei shoving her way through the crowd, following someone. The braided baka was not far behind as he followed her through the crowd.

"Trowa!" Wufei turned and called his friend who was off to his left.

"Hm?" Trowa walked up to Wufei, who pointed to where Rei was.

"Let's go." One hand on his hilt, Wufei and Trowa began to shove their way through the crowd after Rei.

~*~

"Mina!" Serena called as she and Makoto emerged from the crowd. The two ran towards the blonde man they had seen rescue Mina earlier. He was standing there, facing them, Mina in his arms.

"Who are you?" Makoto asked as she looked at the man.

"That's what we'd like to know." A girl with long raven hair said as she, another girl, and a boy jogged up to where they were standing.

"Serena! There you are!" Both Serena and Makoto turned to see Quatre and Heero walking towards them.

"Give me the onna." A voice growled, causing everyone to turn and see Wufei glaring up at the man who was just looking back down at him. Trowa was standing next to him, not saying a word, yet his hand drifted towards the hilt of his sword.

"Shut up Wufei!" Rei snapped.

"Onna stay out of this." Wufei said without even turning to look at her.

"Thank you for saving my friend." Ami said as she walked up to the blonde haired man.

"It wasn't me who saved her." He said loud enough for them all to hear.

"Then who did?" Serena asked.

~*~*~*~

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