Chapter 2

Young Princess Pluto stared hard into the black screen before her. Tears formed slowly in the corners of her eyes out of the raw fear that ate at her from the inside. The young princess was locked securely in the safe room of the castle. Her only link to the outside had been her screen, but as she had spoken with her father in the control room the screen died. Soft rumbles of a battle rattled with Pluto's metal coins that littered the floor. The princess reached back and pulled at the uncomfortable bun in her hair. She managed to pull it free and proceeded to braid it to the side of her head as she always did. It didn't keep her mind from her fear, but it kept her from chewing on her nails. As she was halfway down her long green hair, she heard heavy sounds of metal on stone.

Pluto jumped up and rushed to the barred window of the door. She was tall for her age, but she still stood on her toes to get a better view. She saw that the guards were gone. Without thinking about it, she unlatched the door and practically lunged out of the room. She was no sooner to the stairs when she heard the sounds of fighting. Frightened, she backed away. Then suddenly, one of the guards tumbled down the stairs. His armor made an awful racket that forced Pluto to cover her ears. She flattened herself to the wall just as the second guard came down. His armor, too, made an awful racket, but it was the sight of gushing blood that made Pluto run away. She ran for the safe room, but she couldn't get in. Standing in the doorway was a fierce-looking woman in clothing that showed far more skin than was appropriate, at least in the Kingdom of Meiousei.

The woman turned, revealing a pair of bright amber eyes that contrasted violently with her long black hair. Pluto backed away, but found herself unable to go far. She looked up and saw a tall man in silver and black armor standing behind her. He had short, sharp silver hair that was pointed straight up. What surprised Pluto the most, however, was that he didn't have one color for his eyes. Instead, one was brown and the other green.

"Grab her," he said. Pluto looked forward again in time to see the woman reaching for her. Pluto tried to run, but the woman's grip was strong.

"Let me go!" Pluto shouted. Then she screamed as the woman squeezed her arm painfully. Pluto silenced instantly.

"Let's pay her father a visit," the man said. "I'm not interested in paying a senshi a visit anytime soon." The man made reference to Pluto's mother, and this the little princess noted.

She wondered, "If they haven't gone through mother, how did they get inside in the first place?"

- - - - - -

The control room was buzzing with traffic from the monitors. Generals and captains were sending in their actions and requesting help and other such things. King Hadesu had been quite busy with the monitors until a steward informed him that the castle had been breached. He was all the more worried because he had lost communication with his daughter in the safe room only moments before the steward had come.

He was now frantically trying to reestablish the link. He swore quite profusely in the process. "Damn it all," he muttered through his gritted teeth. "What is going on in here?" Then suddenly, the monitors all went out. He slammed his fists on a bare part of the console. The tremor of hitting it traveled through his bones and into his left leg, which was hardly in any condition to be stood on. He rolled his palm into it as he took in deep breaths. He let them out in shudders. "What the hell is going on?" he asked.

"Father!" The king spun around to the door where Pluto stood. He didn't care to wonder how she had opened it or how she had gotten out of her room without the guards. All he cared about was that she was okay.

Pluto was alright, too, for the moment. She ran to her father and literally jumped onto his chest. "Father!" she cried. "There are people in the castle! They killed the guards and got me!'

"How in the world did you get away?" he asked. When Pluto pulled away and looked up at him, Hadesu saw the mighty symbol of Meiousei burning bright on her forehead.

"My head got real hot and the woman let go of me screaming," Pluto said as she buried her face back into her father's armor the best she could. "I ran right here."

"You led us right here, too," said a smooth, sultry voice. Hadesu looked up to the doorway to see a scantily clad woman and a tall, armored man standing in the main doorway to the control room. Hadesu put down his daughter in a hurry and drew his sword. Pluto ran around behind him. "I was quite surprised when your daughter tapped into her power," the woman said. "I was even more surprised with how fast she ran away. We hadn't counted on her escaping, but it saved us the trouble of hunting you down. Personally, I wouldn't have minded killing a few more people to find you."

"What is going on?" Hadesu asked. "What is the meaning of this?"

"We're on orders to weaken the kingdoms," the man said. "We are to kill the royals slowly and painfully. Our way is one at a time."

"Yes, Tyran never gave us specific orders," the woman said with a smiling side-glance to the armored man.

The man stepped forward as he drew his sword. It was long and black, yet it shined like silver. "Now, your majesty, prepare to meet my blade." The king couldn't react in time. The man was quicker than the eye could tell. He was instantly behind the king with his sword's tip pressed to the back of the king's neck. Pluto never realized that she had been kicked away. She didn't feel the pain of the kick to her side until just before the tip of the man's sword speared King Hadesu's neck. The king twitched as he fell to his knees. The man pulled his sword swiftly from the neck, the king's blood running smoothly down the edges. The king fell to his side, his armor clanking noisily on the stone. Pluto was in too much mental shock and physical pain to move or to make a noise. She just stared at her father, the need to retch playing around in her stomach.

"Kurzai, what do we do with the kid?" the woman asked. Pluto heard, but found herself unable to look away from her beloved father.

"Leave her," the man named Kurzai said. "I don't kill kids."

"Does it make a difference?" the woman asked. She approached the princess, the clack of her heels echoing in the now silent room.

"No, Lishana," Kurzai said sternly. "Leave her be. She's damaged enough for my tastes." Lishana took her hand back, and then smiled.

"Quite right," she agreed. "Perhaps the same should be done of the other royal brats." Kurzai nodded as he sheathed his sword. He stepped over the king's body and took Lishana's hand. The pair instantly disappeared.

Pluto sat in a deathly silence for only a few moments before she pushed herself up. She walked around her father to his front. Her watery maroon eyes met her father's lifeless maroon eyes. She stared into them for several moments as the monitors buzzed slowly to life. Then suddenly, something in Pluto snapped. She took in a wavering breath as she dropped to her knees and started to shake her father's shoulder. "Father?" she whispered. "Father? Father!" She began sobbing uncontrollably as she nuzzled her nose into the side of his neck. She wrapped her arms around his neck, his blood soaking into the maroon fabric of her puffy sleeve and running down the rest of her arm. "Father come back!" she cried.

Quite quickly her sobs were over-powered. The voices of captains, generals, and soldiers flooded the monitors. Pluto raised her head and wiped her eyes unconsciously with her bloody left hand. No blood got into her eyes, but her cheek and nose were covered.

She looked up at the monitors and stood. Numbly she walked over and muted the monitors. Then she took the microphone, pressed the switch, and spoke into it. "Sailor Charon, this is control," she said in a shaking, cracking voice. "Sailor Charon..." Then, her voice broke completely. "Mama, please come it!"

"Pluto? Is that you?" The face of Queen Charon, in the black and maroon senshi uniform of Meiousei, popped onto the screen. She looked like she was in a bunker, with several soldiers in the background. "Pluto? What are you doing in the control room? Oh no..." The queen looked upon the bloody image of her daughter on her screen. "Pluto? What happened? Why are you all bloody? Where is your father?"

Pluto sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her equally bloody right hand. "Mama, I need you..."