Through Their Eyes
Chapter 21: Holder of the Ginzuishou
By: trusuprise
Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.
Rei followed Minako into their guest quarters and slammed the door behind her. The fact that Minako did not respond to the violent gesture only annoyed her that much more. The Venusian flipped on the lights to illuminate the night-darkened room and then strode across the space, pulling her hair out of its bun before collapsing face first on the bed.
Rei stewed in her anger; had been stewing all day long as each tedious tourist activity had failed to distract her from the small bit of dangerous gossip they'd overheard. First it had been ice cream, then, a cinema show, and lastly, a dinner with several other Terran leaders that lasted entirely too long until they had finally been released for the night.
Rei had reached her breaking point. Fuming, she stomped towards the bed and paced at its side rigidly. "We have to do something." She growled.
Minako lie silent for a long moment before rolling onto her back. With her feet where they hung off the bed's edge, she trapped the pacing Martian, forcing Rei to stand still.
"We've been over this already, Mars."
Rei did not take the hint, nor register the name that Minako reserved for either her senshi persona or for times when she was angry with her.
"Those humans knew about our shared ancestry, but they also knew about the youma," Rei barked. "Beryl could be behind this. She stayed back at the palace long enough to have seen them."
Minako sat up. Her gaze was piercing, though her voice remained calm. "Don't you think that thought crossed my mind? I wouldn't doubt Beryl's involvement."
"How can you be so cool about this!"
"I'm your leader for a reason, Mars!" This time, Minako's voice carried a sharp edge, one that seemed to knock the Martian down several notches.
Minako allowed her words to sink in for a long moment and then she sighed, her shoulders slumped. "Sometimes, diplomacy and caution must be used before retaliation and reaction. We've taken all the precautions allowed of us, and even some that weren't. If this gossip we overheard is anything more than just that, then Ami-chan's equipment will let us know if anyone gets too close to the Princess. Then, and only then, we can react as I see fit. Do you understand?"
They might have once argued the point long into the night, but this was just one other aspect of Minako that Rei could fully admire, an aspect that went beyond the plastic masks that she'd seen Minako wear - the unwavering leader who stood behind her decision when she knew she was in the right, even if she did want to act otherwise, and Rei grudgingly nodded her approval.
"There we go." With an ease that only a Venusian could possess, the argument found its end when Minako smiled and when Rei sighed deeply, Minako was quick to catch Rei's hands and hold them loosely.
"Besides," Minako cracked a grin, "we can sleep lightly tonight, if you'd like. You know… so we can listen for trouble."
Despite her lingering sense of unease, Minako's tactic had worked and Rei couldn't help but return that smirk. "You are trouble." Rei grumbled.
Minako chuckled, a wicked mischief lacing her voice. "You weren't saying that last night," She abandoned Rei's hands in favor of the rise of the Martian's hips.
"Hn." Rei looked smug. One hand threaded through Minako's dark hair, her fingers digging into the back of Minako's neck near her hairline, drawing an appreciative growl from the Venusian. "As I recall, you weren't capable of coherent speech much at all last night."
Minako arched an eyebrow at the saucy retort, always able to appreciate Rei's ease of matching wits with her. She pulled Rei closer, her arms cinching together around Rei's waist, needing to crane her head sharply to be able to look up to see her face.
"Ne," she asked, "have you ever been skinny dipping?"
"Skinny what?"
Minako released a long-suffering sigh. "Swim naked, you social dropout."
"You know I hate it when you completely switch topics like that." Rei tensed in Minako's arms and her fingers ceased their restless teasing of Minako's hairline. Minako knew she needed to reel her in before she got too aggravated with her.
"No you don't. You love it." Minako tempered her teasing by slipping her fingers under the hem of Rei's shirt, allowing her nails to drift lightly over the small of Rei's back. "Besides, I thought we were done with our previous conversation. Now, answer the question."
"No." Rei grumbled, only slightly irritated. "I've never been skinny dipping. What you described sounds like a bath, to me."
Minako grinned unapologetically. "Oh no, it's much more enjoyable than that."
"Oh?" Rei arched an eyebrow. "How so?"
"How so?" Minako repeated coyly, and then expertly released the clasp at the back of Rei's bra with a swift efficiency. "Only in the same way Venusians make everything more interesting."
"Endymion!"
The Prince spun, alarmed at the familiar voice. His hands found Serenity's shoulders and he spun her behind him. The hour was late, there were only a few other couples walking along the waterfront that meandered close to the walls of the Palace and he spotted Beryl easily. His aide came to a halt a dozen feet away from him. The moonlight didn't quite filter through the canopy of the mature trees and the dim lights that were strung along the river barely shed enough light to illuminate Beryl's unreadable expression.
"Neither of you are supposed to be out here." Beryl said flatly.
"You're right." Endymion allowed Serenity to peek from around his shoulder. "And you won't tell anyone you've found us out here, either." Her said sternly.
Beryl smiled at Endymion's unconvincing words and all but ignored his command. She took several steps forward. "Tell me, Endymion, have you heard the rumors about your friends on the Moon?"
"What rumors?" The Prince's voice was ice cold, and he clung to the Serenity that might tighter.
Beryl laughed quietly and the sound seemed out of place, despite the easy atmosphere. A small, wooden boat drifted past, its two passengers absorbed in one another and nothing else.
"Your people are talking about our Lunarian ancestry and the terrible monsters that our cousins on the Moon can summon."
"Cousins? Monsters?" Endymion's voice was accusatory, disbelieving. "I don't know what kind of joke you're aiming for, but I don't find its humor."
"I find it quite humorous, Endymion." Beryl's smile was replaced with a longing frown. "Why don't you ask your Lunarian Trophy about the monsters that have been plaguing her fine kingdom?"
Serenity stepped away from Endymion's protective hold and stood at his side. She was not frightened of Beryl, though confusion was evident on her fine features. "I don't know anything about either of those accusations, and I most certainly would have heard about monsters attacking my people!"
"You will not fool me with your false innocence, Princess, and I will not allow you to fool Endymion, either." Beryl took another step closer, her fingers curling into claws at her side.
"Enough!" Endymion's shout caused several couples walking hand in hand to turn and look. What he didn't realize that once they had realized it was their Prince and the Lunarian Princess, that they hurried away with their gazes averted.
"I will not have you making such accusations, Beryl. You are completely out of line."
"And you're blinded by your ill-fated love that's doomed to destroy your kingdom at her hands!" Beryl's eyes were wide with rage and she pointed her finger at Serenity.
Endymion stepped forward. "You aren't making any sense!"
Beryl stepped forward. "I have proof!"
Both humans turned away from each other at the sudden, out of place sound of a body hitting the ground. They turned, and found Serenity on her side at the base of the tree, face down as though she hadn't had the time or awareness to cushion the blow.
"Serenity!" Endymion rushed to her side, his hands reaching for her, and when he pulled her towards him and turned her in his hold, he gasped when he saw an eerie white light behind her closed eyelids.
It had taken more than a concerted effort to get Rei to strip and enter the water with her. Even though the pond was well protected by a ring of trees and barely viewable from the other rooms of the Palace, it had taken every bit of Minako's skills of persuasion to get Rei to follow her into the water.
The evening was warm, but the water was cool. Shoulder deep in the dark water, Rei stood stiffly with her arms around her middle. "I still fail to see the point of this."
"Oh?" Minako asked, the water parting easily around her shoulders as she drifted closer with a kick of her legs. "Do you not see the point in this?"
Rei inhaled a greedy breath when Minako's fingers pried her hands away from her sides. She automatically wrapped her arms around Minako as the Venusian wound her long legs around Rei's waist.
They were lost to each other for some time; the light of the moon above casting a bright reflection off the pond and tinting their faces silver. Rei might have thought herself totally lost to the woman in her arms, her legs tense as she balanced herself and Minako in the slightly shifting waters, but as her hand snaked between their bodies and Minako drew a needy gasp, Rei suddenly found cause for alarm.
In her lust-hazed mind, Minako cried out in surprise when she was wrenched apart from Rei and spun behind her. In the span of a second, Rei turned her back to Minako and rushed towards the shore. The waters seemed to part as the tell-tale crimson glow of Mars enveloped Rei.
Her transformation was urgent and Mars stood, her body tense, facing the tree line towards the shore. An arrow was notched in her flame bow, the place where the weapon pierced through the water sending up hot tendrils of steam and warming the water around it.
"Rei?"
Mars loosed her arrow and the projectile screamed over the surface of the pond. It hit the rocky shore and exploded; a bracket shot meant less to attack the perceived threat and more to shed light in the darkness.
In the red haze of Mars' fire, three four legged animals hopped out of the brush that surrounded the pond, taking great leaps as they bounded away, the undersides of their stark, white tails a beacon in the fading light of the fire.
"Animals." Mars said breathlessly. "Earth animals." Her flame blow faded and then extinguished. The waters cooled quickly and from behind Mars, Minako laughed melodically.
Mars spun back to her partner with a sour expression. "Very funny." She barked. "I thought someone had snuck up on us!" Minako reached out to her and the crimson warrior batted away her hands. "You could have transformed too, you know. If it had been some kind of danger, you'd have been vulnerable."
Minako's hands snaked inside Mars' weak defenses and she slid her arms around the Martian's neck. "You meant to say naked. You're so possessive."
Mars growled, stubbornly ignoring Minako's advances, adrenaline still pumping madly through her veins.
Minako smirked, "Besides," she said leadingly, "Where's the fun in that? I much prefer us without clothes."
Despite Mars' protests, when Minako's legs wrapped back around her waist, Mars' transformation faltered and slipped completely, and in a matter of moments, Rei's hand had eagerly resumed its prior task.
"I feel like a prune."
Minako lifted her head from Rei's shoulder and sucked her teeth in mock frustration. "Well, we certainly can't have that, now can we?"
"Minako," Rei growled.
The Venusian chuckled, but she reluctantly floated away from her partner, one hand still linked with Rei's as she pulled the Martian back towards the shore. They were halfway there, in water up to their waists when both women paused, that same sense of unease that had captured Mars earlier now alerting the both of them.
Minako squinted, her gaze scanning the tree line. "Do you hear that?"
Rei canted her head to the side. "It sounds like… piano music."
Minako looked back to Rei, but her subordinate had already transformed. Minako turned back to the tree line, and as Venus, she ran towards the shore, the two of them shedding water as they scrambled up the rocks and dashed through the trees.
They'd barely started on the path back to the Palace when the music increased in volume; the rhythm of the song urgent and insistent as though they could feel it in their blood. Suddenly, the air before them shimmered as though they could see the sound waves that pressed against them. It was so painful that they had to stop to clasp their hands over their ears, and it was then that the youngest of the shitennou suddenly materialized before them.
Venus stepped closer to him. "Jadeite?"
The young blond stumbled forward, his expression twisted with worry. "Master-" he paused, remembering himself, "Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity are being attacked! Zoicite sent me to-"
"Where are they!"
Jadeite recoiled, shrinking away from the leader of the senshi where she held the lapel of his jacket in a vice-tight grip. "They're far from here! On the outskirts of the Palace- wait!"
Mars and Venus paused, already having sprinted several yards away. The crimson warrior scoffed at her leader, eager to track their Princess.
"I can get you there quicker." Jadeite said.
"How." Venus tightly reined in her anxiety.
Jadeite smiled smally. "We have magic, just like you do. Zoicite will fly us there. It's how I got to you so quickly. The music will teleport us."
Venus turned towards her second in command who shook her head furiously. Mars didn't trust him. Venus wasn't sure she could either, but for the sake of her Princess, she was willing to take the chance. The leader of the senshi stood tall, her hands fisted at her sides. She turned back to the youngest shitennou.
"Get us there now." She barked.
The disorientation of traveling by music wasn't easy for either of them, but somehow, when Mars and Venus found themselves in a darkly lit waterfront area littered with several human bodies, they couldn't entirely believe their eyes. They ran down the narrow stone path regardless, following the telltale trail of bodies as if they were breadcrumbs.
"How did the youma get here?" Mars met the first monster head on, a bolt of fire pinning the dark cloaked ghoul to the trunk of a mature tree, incinerating it on impact.
Jadeite ran his fastest to keep up, a short dagger gripped in his gloved hands. "You've seen these… monsters somewhere before?"
Venus looked back over her shoulder, her narrowed eyes causing the young shitennou to falter, before shifting her gaze to focus on the closest youma. She buried the Venus dagger in the middle of its chest while tossing a beam of light at another that was out of range.
"This way." Mars suddenly veered to the right, turning away from the riverfront and down a narrow street that led back towards the town.
Jadeite frowned and thought to question, but Venus would not doubt her second in command's tracking ability, and she shouted to him over her shoulder, "Follow us!"
"But there's more of them that way!" He argued, pointing back towards the waterfront.
One corner of Venus' mouth pulled upwards. "Those things will eat you alive if you go alone. We need to save your Master and our Princess first."
This was enough for Jadeite, and he hurried to catch up, his complexion white and his expression strained. Mars sent a bolt of fire at a monster that charged at them from the side. The scent of charred flesh reached Jadeite and he barely managed to leap over a human couple; dead and on their faces in the middle of the path, their skin dried and puckered as if the very life had been sucked from their bodies.
"Venus!"
Their voices preceded their powers, and a charge of electricity streamed next to a column of ice, announcing Mercury and Jupiter and taking out two youma that were hot on the trail of Venus, Mars, and Jadeite.
The leader of the senshi nodded at her newly arrived warriors, and they filed in behind them as they charged into the small town.
The shops were darkened and the street lamps dim, but the Moon above provided ample ambient light to see the carnage. Dozens of youma raged along the main thoroughfare. A handful of human bodies lay dead in the street; broken and drained. And on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings that lined the street, Terrans stood, gathered in shock and watching as the monsters hunted down anything that moved.
"Nephrite!"
Her hands arched before her to ready a long-range attack and Venus paused and looked in the direction Jadeite had indicated. In a narrow alley between buildings, she saw Nephrite pressed against a brick wall, his sword piercing a youma through its middle, even as another loomed over him threateningly.
Venus' chain formed in her hands and she lashed out, the golden links of light barely long enough to snake around and capture the youma. It took all she had to cleave the youma in half, and when she did, its upper torso collapsed towards Nephrite, who lunged away and scrambled to regain his feet.
"They're stronger than they've ever been." Venus' words were quiet, but her senshi nodded; they already knew all too well and there were so many more to kill, and still no sign of their Princess.
"Mars?" Venus asked.
Mars stared grimly into the tangle of youma that blocked their passage. "We'll have to fight our way through them. Endymion must be retreating, taking Serenity to safety. She's on the move."
"Kunzite and Zoicite should be protecting them." Nephrite barked as he fell into their loosely knit circle.
Jadeite bravely lashed out as a youma escaped Jupiter and Mercury's defenses, and his small dagger impaled the ghoul through the neck. As the creature sagged to the ground, he stared at his blade in wonder.
"No blood…"
"Jadeite!"
The young man snapped back to reality and realized that the Lunarian warriors had already slaughtered the other creatures in the vicinity and had moved on to attack the rest.
Mars lead the charge; single minded and intense, a pillar of fire preceding her. Jadeite gained his feet underneath him and hurried to bring up the rear with Nephrite, the other man too focused as he attacked at any monster that got close enough with his sword, his face carrying a fixed and blank expression.
"There!" Mars barked as the last youma that blocked their path was dispatched. The women slowed as they stumbled into the town's main square, heels and boots catching in the rivulets of the cobblestones, their jaws slack at what they found before them.
"White… youma?"
Venus couldn't tell whose breathless voice had coined the term, but as she watched the strange creatures; so very similar to the youma they knew, only clothed in white, flowing robes and sporting blue faces that bore the mark of the crescent moon across their foreheads, she didn't know what to call them either. A dozen of the creatures moved slowly and fluidly, as if in a ritualistic dance, constantly moving in an endless circle around some hidden, central point, almost as if they were guarding something precious.
"Serenity's in there." Mars said flatly. "They protect her."
They were afforded a glimpse; their Princess wasn't the only one concealed within the circle. Kunzite and Zoicite had attacked one of the creatures from the outside, and as the other white youma fanned out, parting around their dying comrade, the others could see Endymion in the center of the circle, holding Serenity's motionless body close to his chest.
"Princess!" Mercury broke their silence and Jupiter restrained her, a strong hand cinching around Mercury's upper arm.
"She lives. She is uninjured." Mars' voice was distant. It chilled Venus, who gasped when she got a better view of their Princess.
"Her eyes," Venus whispered.
Only Mars heard her commander's shocked voice. "They glow." Mars responded cryptically. She went tense, her eyes narrowed, she snapped her gaze to her commander. "Ami's perimeter guard."
"What about it?" Venus asked.
Mars spun back to look at Mercury. "Why didn't it go off when the youma attacked?"
"I… I don't…" Mercury looked lost, sputtering for answers.
Venus gathered herself. Her voice deepened and she tried to find strength in her role as leader. "Mercury," she shouted, "what can you tell us about these things?"
Mercury was already on it, one of her diagnostic tools flashing in her palm. "I think they're still youma." She said hoarsely. "They have the same energy pattern… only, it's reversed."
"Reversed?" Jupiter whispered, her body tense and ready to attack.
Mercury looked up from her tool, her eyes haunted. "It's like… it's like they're anti youma."
"Anti…" Venus could not complete the phrase. Her white-gloved hands fisted and her chain rematerialized between her fingers. "They aren't attacking, but they're still a threat to the Princess."
She looked back to her warriors. They needed no other instruction, and as one, the four of them charged, Jadeite and Nephrite lagging behind them only slightly to aide their own comrades.
Mars tore through three of the white youma before she encountered any resistance and with her next strike, they white youma she had attacked was engulfed in flames, but would not burn.
"They must perceive us as a threat!" Mercury shouted, withdrawing a blade of ice from the white youma she had impaled, but had not seemed to injure. She skittered backwards, her ice blade wavering in her grip as she matched strength with another of the creatures.
Jadeite and Nephrite attacked one simultaneously, their blades piercing it in the neck and the stomach. It faltered, but did not go limp as the other youma had. Of the other two that had not been slaughtered, one faced off against Mars and Venus, and the other against Kunzite and Zoicite.
Endymion collapsed to his knees, holding Serenity tightly to his chest. "Please, Serenity, please wake up!" His voice was desperate and he touched his forehead to hers.
A bright light suddenly erupted across the darkness, accompanied by a sound as deafening as a sonic boom. The humans, the off-worlders, even the white youma closed their eyes against the blinding light and shrinked away from the painful sound.
"They've gone." The first to open her eyes, Venus' voice was a haunted whisper. The town square was emptied of the white youma. And in Endymion's arms, Serenity was wide awake.
"What… what happened?" The Princess' voice was small and scared, as though it were that of a frightened child. Endymion quieted her, holding her close and murmering into her ear.
It was Mercury's diagnostic tool that shattered the tentative silence, an urgent beeping that would not be quieted. She held the device in shaky hands, pointed at their princess.
"Mercury?" Jupiter's voice was tentative, concerned when her comrade wouldn't look at her, the Mercurian's wide gaze looking only at Mars.
"Mars…" Mercury's voice failed her.
Mars didn't turn to acknowledge Mercury. Her gaze was centered on the Princess. Her dark eyes were haunted.
Venus watched Mars, her own eyes wide and dry, fearing the untold sights that she knew Mars was seeing. A chill ran down her spine when Mars spoke, her voice hollow and coarse.
"The holder of the ginzuishou."
The insistent beeping of Mercury's tool did not stop, a constant roar in the heads of all the senshi as too many coincidences so neatly lined up.
But then, the strained silence was finally too much to bear, and Kunzite spun on Venus, the rage held behind the man's normally calm and snide exterior staggering.
"This is all your fault!" He barked. "These creatures! The civilians have said that they've been seen on the Moon. Have you brought them here to attack us?"
"Kunzite!"
The eldest shitennou recoiled at the recrimination in his Prince's voice, but he did not back down, still towering over the silent and stony Venus.
Endymion rose to his feet shakily, the woman in his arms trembling and mumbling incoherently as though waking from a nightmare. He inserted himself forcibly between the two commanders, his piercing gaze demanding submission from Kunzite.
"This is a discussion for the morning. After Serenity has recovered from her fright and we can collect more information on just what happened here." He turned his gaze; cold and hard and unapologetic, to Venus. "I'm sure there will be much explaining to do."
Venus cowed her head to the Earthling Prince. "Yes, Endymion." Her voice was flat, her mind elsewhere. "In the morning."
Preview, Chapter 22: Inconsolable Princess
Ami glanced sideways at her piles of books and files. "I thought I might find some other clues; something else in the myths and legends that might point to a way to prevent… the inevitable."
"Let me guess," Makoto's voice fell flat. "You haven't found anything."
"…No."
Makoto closed the difference between them and placed a hand on Ami's shoulder. "Then take a break." She smiled handsomely. "Why don't you go on a walk with me? There's something I've been meaning to show you, anyway."
Ami's brow furrowed. She seemed torn until she abruptly rolled away from Makoto's touch, her expression nearly twisted into a snarl. "How can you suggest going for a walk when our very end might be near?"
Makoto frowned and stepped back into Ami's personal space once again. This time, when her hand closed on Ami's shoulder, she wasn't so gentle. "This is my coping mechanism, Ami. Why don't you try it for a change?"