Silent Judgment

By Cat Snoetygre aka Snoecat

AN: This version can be viewed on my website, while the rewritten version can only be viewed on my site. Questions or comments can be put in a review or written to me via email (there are links on my site if you wish to write me personally). I will post a site link on my profile once I finish the rewrites, which are taking longer than I had originally thought, due to research of various items, and character building. Please read and review.

Warning: Profane language, some sexual stuff, a brain fart, and bad writing. All the stuff we read these stories for. Anyway, enjoy and review. Thanks.


Prologue


Serena gazed out over the courtyard of the crystal palace with a sense of triumph and a shiver of fear. She knew that she had just passed some sort of galactic test by reawakening the earth and building crystal Tokyo. But she knew that there was more to come.

More to come…

Will it ever end? She asked herself silently, even though she already knew the answer. No, it won't. As long as there is good, there will be the balance of evil. She sighed softly as she walked onto her balcony and braced herself against the railing. "As long as I am around evil will find me," she muttered. "I just want a normal life," she turned her back to the view and leaned against the railing as she looked into her room. "I never wanted to be Sailor Moon. I never wanted to be Princess of New Tokyo. But I know that if the others and I hadn't been here, the world would have come to an end with Queen Beryl." She swept a hand through one of her pigtails, irritably. "But why me? Why am I Sailor Moon?"

"Still going on about that, are you?" A familiar voice asked haughtily, causing Serena to jump, startled. A quick look around told her who had interrupted her thoughts. A black cat, with a small golden mark in the shape of a crescent moon on her forehead, sat languidly inside the room, peering at her with large brown eyes.

"What do you want, Luna?" Serena asked, with a slight frown. The cat rolled its eyes in exasperation, after looking Serena over.

"Are you going to meet the delegates dressed like that?" The cat asked in disbelief.

Serena looked down at herself, more than slightly confused. Then she remembered what the cat was talking about. Since Serena had saved the world, again, and had fully revealed her and the others to the eyes of the public, Darien and herself were swept into power. They were named Prince and Princess of Tokyo, and their wedding was in the works, dated for three months in the future. Darien had stepped into his role perfectly, and made a wonderful prince, but she, on the other hand, had not.

Darien and the other Sailor Scouts had decided to use his and Serena's new power to affect peace throughout the world and so had made arrangements with the delegates of other countries to have meetings so they could discuss peace. The meetings were to take place over a period of several months, and were believed to last around five years before ending in true peace. During the times of the assemblies, Serena was to act the princess, hostess the ambassadors' stay, and show them around New Tokyo, while Darien hosted the peace talks himself. Serena hadn't seen much of Darien, or the others, since the plans and preparations were started.

Not that she had been left entirely with free time. Luna, her cat advisor, had taken it upon herself to make sure that Serena became the Novel Princess. So Serena's days were filled with classes ranging from history and math, to how she was to dress, eat, talk, and walk. Even though she had started learning those things when she found out she was Princess of the Moon, she wasn't doing as well as she and the others had expected, and often would make complete disasters out of everything. It seemed that the harder Luna tried to make her a princess, the worse Serena became.

Luna cleared her throat, dragging Serena from her thoughts. "Are you done daydreaming? The emissaries will be here any moment, and you are dressed like this is still Old Tokyo and you are still in school."

Serena glanced down at her jeans, knowing that people still dressed in the same manner as they had before she rescued them from their sleep, but decided not to argue the point. After all, Luna would never say she was wrong. She thought, rolling her eyes. Luna looked about ready to explode. "Ok, I'm changing." She said quickly, as she walked into her room and pulled the cord that would summon the girl, who had labeled herself 'Princess Serena's Maid.'

After the woman appeared, Serena changed quickly. The woman, under Luna's guidance, changed Serena's golden pigtails into a writhing mass of curls, knotted atop her head, and arranged so that the long masses would cascade down her pack in an alluring way.

An hour later, the woman declared herself finished and lead Serena to a mirror so that she could judge the woman's work. What Serena saw reflected back at her, should have made her confident about her abilities, but instead it made her more afraid to mess up. She looked like a princess. A light crystalline blue ball gown, from one of the historical romance novels, graced her body. It hung lightly off her shoulders, and dipped into a slight v-shape over her chest, then swept freely from below her breasts to the floor in shimmering folds. The way her hair had been arranged almost made it look like she was surrounded by a golden halo and the effect, combined with the gown she wore, was stunning.

She murmured her approval to the maid, then quickly swept from her room, now aware of how late she was. At the top of the Grand Staircase, she paused, clutching her hands together in front of her, before she made her slow progress down the stairs, carefully stepping down each step and making eye contact with everyone in the Entrance Hall. For once, let the classes have paid off. she hoped vehemently.

Just as she started to think that she had finally accomplished what Luna had been feverishly trying to teach her, her foot caught on the hem of her gown, causing her to trip and stumble down the last few steps to the floor. She managed to catch the barrister before falling on her face, but the damage had been done. She could almost feel the waves of disapproval from everyone in the room, even before she saw it in their faces when she looked up. Her face grew hot with embarrassment.


By the end of the first meeting, Serena had made a complete fool of herself and felt worse than she had ever felt before. After about an hour of her antics, Darien and the other Sailor Scouts had taken to ignoring her completely because of embarrassment, and after another hour, Serena was able to slip away without anyone noticing.

Serena sat on her bed and stared out the French windows that lead to the balcony. The curtains billowed gently in the slight evening breeze, but she took no notice. Her thoughts were solely on the horrific embarrassment of her behavior, earlier that evening. She wanted to cry, but couldn't seem to find the tears to do so.

She knew that she had let the others down badly. Luna hadn't even shown up after the dinner guests had gone to bed to reprimand her thoughtlessness, and that meant that Serena had done some serious damage to the peace talks without meaning to.

Before Serena could think herself out of it, she grabbed a bag and started throwing items into it. She paused over her moon wand, then threw it in anyway, just in case she might need it. It would serve as a reminder of the life she was now abandoning.

She had never wanted to be Sailor Moon. She defiantly didn't want to be a Princess. But she knew that no matter if she was a super hero, or the princess of a blooming world, she would always let people down, and she just couldn't deal with that anymore. It hurt too badly. She couldn't be what everyone else wanted her to be. She couldn't be the worlds most famous Super Hero, or the Perfect Princess that lurked in storybooks.

She made her way out of the Palace and vanished into the streets of New Tokyo as the sun broke the horizon.


Luna and Darien sat in the breakfast chamber, early the next morning, discussing possible strategies to repair the damage that Serena had unknowingly caused the night before, when Mina and Artemis burst into the room.

Mina panted, trying to catch her breath, and looked pale. Darien stood, a sense of dread washing over him. What has she done now? he asked himself, thinking of Serena's klutziness the night before. Artemis seemed to regain his senses before Mina did.

"Serena is gone!" He stated, his voice carrying fear and worry, which echoed ominously in the room. Darien felt his heart stop. He knew that if Luna had been human, she would have fainted at worst, or paled very deeply at the least. Instead, she stared at Artemis as if he had spoken a completely different language.

"Have you searched the grounds?" He asked Artemis. Raye, Amy, and Lita all charged into the room, also looking frantic and pale. Darien felt cold. He knew that they had just searched the entire palace proper and had seen nothing of Serena.

"Some of her clothes are missing, as well as her wand." Lita told him quickly.

"I think she ran away." Raye stated angrily, looking at the others.

"Serena wouldn't leave us, Raye." Lita snapped back, instantly.

"She would if she thought she was nothing but a disgrace to us. If she felt that no matter what she did, or how hard she tried, we did nothing but condemn her." Amy stated bluntly. Her eyes shined as if she were holding back tears.

"She IS a disappointment, Amy." Raye ground out from between clenched teeth. "Last night, she messed up, and instead of trying to correct the problem, she decided to act all childish by running away because she couldn't handle it."

"We were too hard on her," Luna said quietly from behind Darien.

"She thinks we hate her." Said Mina, looking stricken at the thought.

"She wouldn't just leave us, you guys, and she's too loyal." Lita growled defiantly.

"Loyalty can only be stretched so far. We haven't ever really hidden our disappointment in her, and we never congratulated her when she did something right." Amy told her.

"Was there any note?" Darien asked, trying to think.

"No." All four girls said simultaneously. The thought calmed Darien. He knew Serena.

"She probably went to her mother's, to take a break." He stated, sitting back down. "I hate to admit it, but it was a good idea, during that time, we can correct the problems she caused, and maybe she will be better when she gets back."

The others looked relieved.