WAR OF CONSEQUENCE
Chapter 9: "Enemies At The Gate"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
Hotaru approached her quarters. Ami hadn't needed her and sent her home. Minako had called off classes because of the earlier attack. She was headed home now, hoping that Haruka wasn't there. She still couldn't deal with Haruka yet.
What she wanted to do was call Yutaka. But Yutaka was probably in the middle of his classes and she didn't want to disturb him. And she had this nagging fear that after what had happened, he didn't want to talk to her. The very thought made her want to expire right then and there. Life without Yutaka didn't hold out much appeal to her.
The door to the quarters she shared with Haruka and Michiru hissed shut behind her. Tensely Hotaru looked around. She could hear Michiru working in her studio. Thankfully Haruka wasn't around. The tiny lass exhaled with relief.
"Is that you, Haruka?" Michiru called out from the studio.
"It's me, Mama!" Hotaru identified herself. "Aino-Sensei dismissed class early."
She hurried to her room and closed the door behind her. What to do, what to do? Aino-Sensei hadn't assigned any homework. She'd just talked to Usa in class, so there was no reason to call her for at least an hour. Maybe she could do a little extra work on her medical studies and try to get ahead. Or maybe she could practice her telekinesis some more. That thought had appeal. Then the environmental control computer signaled Michiru was at the door.
"Yes, Mama," Hotaru said, signaling the environmental computer to open the door. There was an air of resignation in her voice.
Michiru walked in and took a seat on the side of Hotaru's bed. Michiru knew why Hotaru had closed herself up in her room right after coming from class. Hotaru didn't want to chance having to talk to Haruka. Hotaru suspected this, knowing how perceptive her Mama was. She didn't really want to talk to Michiru, either. She kind of knew what Michiru was going to talk about and whose side she'd be on. But Hotaru didn't see any way out of it, other than running away and never coming back. And she couldn't do that.
"First of all, Haruka wants me to stress to you how sorry she is for what happened," Michiru said with a calm earnestness. "It wasn't her intention to embarrass you or Yutaka. She was only concerned."
"Mama, why does she hate Yutaka?" Hotaru asked pre-emptively, almost on the verge of tears.
"Haruka doesn't hate Yutaka," Michiru assured her.
"Yes she does! She won't even use his name! And she's always putting him down!" Hotaru spat. "She hates him!"
"She doesn't. Hotaru, she's teasing you. Haruka loves to tease. It's sort of a cautious intimacy with her. It's one of her ways of gauging how strongly someone feels without revealing her own feelings." Michiru grinned. "And you do make a very easy target. If you didn't feel so strongly about Yutaka, you wouldn't react the way you do. It's Haruka's way of finding out that you actually do love him without having to ask you straight out."
"I don't think that's the only reason," Hotaru scowled.
"No," Michiru sighed, "and that's something else you have to understand about Haruka. Haruka doesn't - - trust very easily. She's had more than her share of misfortune and it's colored her view of others. And she's seen what people are capable of, particularly boys of Yutaka's age. And she doesn't want that to happen to you."
"Yutaka would never do anything bad to me!" Hotaru maintained.
"And she's coming around to that," Michiru assured her. "But Haruka will always be a very tenacious skeptic."
"She's trying to drive him away," Hotaru claimed.
"Well, life is a series of adversities," Michiru told her. "We don't get anything handed to us. If Yutaka loves you as much as you think he does, nothing Haruka can do is going to drive him away. And if she does manage to drive him away, maybe he didn't love you as much as you thought he did."
Hotaru looked down, wanting to argue but not knowing how.
"But why did she have to," Hotaru struggled to say, "embarrass him like that?"
"As I said, it wasn't her intention to embarrass him, or you," Michiru reiterated. "She was just - - concerned. You were in an unusual and unexpected place and she wanted to find out why."
"So that's why she came looking for me? Because she thought Yutaka had me trapped in that storage room and was raping me? That's horrible!"
"Haruka didn't know what to think," Michiru assured her. "She just wanted to make sure you were OK."
"She doesn't trust me," Hotaru scowled.
"Well if you hadn't been skulking around behind our backs," Michiru said, calmly but with the cutting precision of a surgeon, "maybe she would have." Hotaru stared at her like she'd been slapped. "Trust isn't a right, Hotaru. It's something that's earned. You deliberately misled us. You can't do that and expect people to trust you."
"What was I supposed to do?" howled Hotaru. "Tell you Yutaka and I were going to find a secluded spot and make love?"
"Well, I can't vouch for how Haruka would have reacted to that," Michiru replied, unable to keep the smile from her face. "I'm just saying that Haruka's not the only one at fault for this incident. She was too paranoid, granted. But you and Yutaka did bring some of it on yourselves." She reached out and captured the teen's hand. "I know what it's like to want someone so badly that you can't think straight, that all you want is to be with that person. But part of growing up is realizing that you can't always indulge yourself. There's nothing I'd like better than to spend the rest of my life in a warm little cocoon, pressed up against Haruka. But life and responsibility must be served."
Hotaru looked down. Michiru could see she didn't like hearing this, but that the message was getting through.
"Besides, catering to responsibility makes the times you can indulge that much better," Michiru added. "We know you love Yutaka. NOW we know you two are sexually active. You don't have to skulk. We only ask that you watch your health and your conception rules; you don't let your other responsibilities slide; and that you show a little restraint and not indulge every time you get the whim." She patted Hotaru's hand. "That's fair, isn't it?"
Reluctantly Hotaru nodded.
"And try to find a little more romantic spot than a storage closet," Michiru smirked.
"It's not where you are," Hotaru said, still looking down out of embarrassment, "it's who you're with."
"True," Michiru smiled. "But nothing gets you in the mood faster than satin sheets." She gently forced Hotaru to look at her. "Now, do you think you can forgive your papa?"
Hotaru hesitated. "I guess," she said reluctantly.
Michiru caressed the girl's cheek lovingly. She got up to leave. Just then, both Hotaru and Michiru's senshi communicators signaled an alert. Immediately the two opened their communicators and took the emergency calls.
Endymion sat in his office, staring at his computer monitor without actually seeing it. His conversation with Colombian Chief Minister Gomez, and the revelations that conversation brought, weighed upon him. At length, he felt a soft hand on the top of his head. Looking up, the King found his Queen standing beside him.
"What is it, Endymion?" Serenity asked, her tone and manner geared to help and not to judge.
"I learned something terrible about Jun," he replied with a fatigue born of a thousand years of frustration. "About her past."
"What is it?"
Endymion brought her hand down to his face and kissed her palm. "You're not going to want to know."
"If you say so," Serenity replied kindly, but sadly, "I'll let it go at that. But the heavier the burden, the easier it is to bear with help."
"Yes," Endymion offered absently. "We've been at this a thousand years - - and still things like Almonte happen. Sometimes I despair."
"It'll happen," Serenity told him, pulling his head to her abdomen. "Perhaps we won't be here to see it, but it will happen. We've planted the seed. All we can do is protect it and nurture it until it's ready to bloom."
The mood was suddenly pierced by an alert signal. Moments later, a message cut into the items on Endymion's monitor. Both monarchs stiffened in anticipation of trouble.
Sailor Moon burst into her father's office and found him in communication with the security team at the front gate. Serenity was perched over his shoulder listening to the report as well. The young senshi approached the desk so she could better hear what was being said.
"They're ignoring our orders to disperse," the gate guard captain told them.
"How did they get through the defense perimeter?" Endymion demanded.
"Just walked through, your majesty," the captain reported. "Defense plasma fields have no effect on them. So far they haven't made any kind of attack, but I don't know how I'd defend against it if they did. Not if the plasma fields didn't stop them."
"Have they said what they want?" Serenity asked.
"The leader is demanding to speak to the sovereign of this land," the captain said.
Serenity straightened up. "Well, we'd better go see what he wants."
"Mom!" gasped Sailor Moon.
"He's willing to talk," argued Serenity. "If it will avoid a confrontation, I'm just as willing."
"And what if he wants you and Dad down there so he has a better shot at killing you?" Sailor Moon countered.
"Trust can't be earned unless it's given, dear," Serenity responded. And once more Sailor Moon was reminded that her mother had more faith than she had. The teen's jaw clenched in frustration.
"Try to stay behind me if possible," Endymion asked his wife as he rose from his desk. "You have a point, but so does Sailor Moon."
"Of course you do, Honey!" gasped Serenity. "I didn't mean to sound as if you didn't!"
"Yeah, right, let's go," Sailor Moon sighed.
"You stay here," Endymion told her.
"But Pop!" Sailor Moon began to protest.
"If something does happen," Endymion explained, "you have to be able to carry on for us." He saw she was about to protest again. "I mean it!"
She wanted to argue, but she knew that look. Frustration swamped her and she folded her arms over her chest to hold her anger in. Once her parents were out of the room, Sailor Moon ran to the window.
"What's going on?" Sailor Saturn asked, having traced Sailor Moon to her father's office through her communicator.
"The place is surrounded by an army. They kind of look like sprites, like Grindlewyn, you know? Mom and Pop are going to see what they want now." Sailor Moon turned anxiously to her friend. "Could you go down and look out for them? I've got to stay here 'where it's safe'."
Saturn grimaced. "Actually, Neptune told me to stay here and guard you," she told her friend. "The elders will all be with the king and queen. And I think the Asteroids may be down there, too."
"Well, if that's what she told you," Sailor Moon said, peering back out the window. Then she turned away from it and headed for the desk. "I can't see anything out of that window. Maybe I can link to the forward security opticals from Pop's computer."
Sitting down at her father's desk, Sailor Moon looked the screen over. She smiled triumphantly.
"Good! He didn't have time to lock it," the teen said, her fingers dancing over the crystal studs of the computer's input panel.
"Couldn't you just hack it?" Saturn asked wryly.
"He keeps changing the code on me," Sailor Moon chuckled. "I'm good, but Pop is way too tough to hack when his guard's up. Yeah, here we go."
Sailor Moon and Saturn could see the forward gate. As she brought the audio up, they saw King Endymion and Queen Serenity emerge from the palace. The royal couple stopped about five meters from the gate.
Two men emerged from the gathered army surrounding the palace. They were each older males, dressed in thick leather vests that doubled as armor in ancient times, and metal helmets. Boots and wrist guards were of the same thick leather. On the right, the one man had a squashed, lined face denoting years of experience. His head was thick with bushy blond hair streaked with gray, with thick droopy eyebrows and a thick, droopy mustache. His squat frame was muscular and blocky. In one hand was a gnarled staff made of a stained redwood. The other man was slightly taller, slightly leaner and slightly less muscular than his companion. His hair was snow white and knotted at his shoulder, though the trail came down to his waist. He had a longer face, and his eyes were dour, his brow knit and his mouth cast in a scowl. He carried a wooden totem with a straight handle and an oval body, almost like a tennis racket with no strings.
"You are the sovereigns of this land?" the blond man asked gruffly.
"I am King Endymion of Crystal Tokyo," Endymion told him. "This is my wife, Queen Serenity."
"I am King Halleffle of the Thessleland," the man proclaimed. He gestured to the man on his left. "This is . . ."
"I can speak for myself, you old buzzard," sneered the other man. "I am King Gorphyn of the Faarswich.
"I'm pleased to know you both," Serenity smiled and bowed to them. "Why have you come?"
"My worthless son is here, shirking his duties, bringing shame upon me and insult upon this sorry excuse for a king," Halleffle said, nodding at Gorphyn. Gorphyn answered with a contemptuous glare at Halleffle. "I've come to drag his contemptible self home so he can do what is required of him. You will hand him over immediately and we will go."
Serenity was clearly taken aback by this, as well as by the squat king's belligerence. Among the elder senshi, who were gathered outside the palace, flanking the king and queen, Jupiter and Uranus tensed for an anticipated attack, while Mercury studied her computer and Mars studied the two sprite kings.
"King Halleffle," Endymion began with measured tones, "we aren't holding your son. He isn't even in the palace, to our knowledge. He tends to come and go as he pleases."
"You've got that right," muttered Halleffle.
"And how do we know you're not covering for him?" King Gorphyn asked coldly.
"My word of honor isn't enough?" Endymion replied with hinted challenge.
"And even if we were giving him sanctuary, he doesn't want to go back," Serenity piped up.
"The boy has responsibilities," Halleffle growled. "He's to be wed to Gorphyn's daughter. It's been arranged."
"But he doesn't want to marry Myrah," Serenity countered.
"Why? What's wrong with my daughter?" roared Gorphyn.
"He doesn't love her," Serenity responded.
"Love? What's that got to do with it?" Halleffle exclaimed. "I didn't marry for love and neither did my father! I married her because it was my duty!"
"You poor man," Serenity offered.
"Oh and it's pity now?" Gorphyn said with a raised eyebrow. "We want none of your sympathy, Your Highness. Our traditions are ours and you'll respect them or you'll be silent." He raised the talisman in his hand up and pointed it at Serenity. "We want the youth. You'll produce him or you'll suffer for harboring him."
"We don't want a confrontation," Endymion said, stepping in front of Serenity. "But we will not be threatened. Grindlewyn is not here. And if he were here, I would need a better reason to hand him over against his will than your threats."
"He's my son," Halleffle said menacingly. "His will does not come into account here. I'll take him by force if I must, but I will have my boy back."
Watching this from the south balcony on the fourth floor living quarters were the Asteroid Senshi. Though they could see the elder senshi standing by, ready to protect the king and queen, they were still anxious and ready to act.
"I knew this Grindlewyn character was trouble," Vesta muttered sourly.
"You can't help who your parents are," Juno told her. "Isn't that what you always say?"
"I don't take advice from Colombians," Vesta needled her with a sideways smirk.
"Pallas doesn't understand," Pallas protested. "Why is Mister Grindlewyn-Sir's Daddy being so mean? Mister Grindlewyn-Sir doesn't want to go back. And he says that his brothers can do what he's supposed to do. Why is he going to all this trouble just to get Mister Grindlewyn-Sir back?"
"If I understood adults, maybe I could tell you," Ceres told her. "Maybe he's got his armor in a bunch because Grindlewyn defied him."
"Or maybe Grindlewyn's refusal to marry Myrah is messing up a lot of political things between the two peoples," suggested Juno. Her mouth hardened. "Still, that's no reason to come across like a petty dictator and try to bully your plan into happening. A lot of innocent people could get hurt."
"So what are we waiting for?" fumed Vesta. "They don't look like the type who'll talk a problem out. Let's just wade in and kick them back to where they come from."
"Beats me why you never tried out for the diplomatic corps," scowled Ceres. "Take it from someone who ACTUALLY KNOWS a little bit about diplomacy . . .!"
"Hey!" Vesta exclaimed suddenly. "Where'd Pallas go?"
Everyone whirled around, but Sailor Pallas was nowhere to be found.
Continued in Chapter 10
