Trials
When they found her, she was with her mother.
"Ah, girls. Good to see you," Queen Serenity said, a polite smile on her face. "Guards, please leave us." The guards around the room bowed before retreating through the doors of the Throne Room. The thousand year-old monarch rose to her feet slowly, taking care to lift her dress delicately as she walked down the dais to meet the senshi.
The four girls kneeled.
"Your Majesty, please, we—" Venus began, but with a stern look from the Queen, she was silenced.
"I know you girls are fully aware," the Queen began, "of the seriousness of the situation in which we find ourselves." At the girls' silence, she continued. "And I know that I don't need to remind you about the danger of leaving your charge unguarded."
The girls could only stare at the cold marble under their feet as the Queen knelt on one knee before them.
"The fact that all four of you nonetheless left her alone and unguarded suggests, then, that you had a reason for doing so." The Queen's eyes flashed. "But I know that, whatever it was, it was certainly worth chancing the Princess' death. So, girls, where were you?"
Venus stood and met the Queen's eyes with a determined look in her own. "I discovered Beryl's secret," she said. "The girls came to rescue me; without their aid, I would have died, and we wouldn't have this information."
The Queen glanced at her daughter, who was sitting uncomfortably in her own throne, fidgeting throughout the entire exchange. "Did you know that they were gone for this reason?" she asked.
Serenity hesitated before nodding. "Yes, Mother," she said, "I knew they had gone to rescue Venus. And we all figured that Venus had gone to investigate the Be-Alsio region."
"And you refused to tell me this when I found you, why?"
"Because I didn't want them to get into trouble," Serenity admitted.
"And you decided that keeping quiet about this was the best option? I assumed the worst, Serenity. You should know—"
"With all due respect, your Majesty, you can save the lecturing and questioning for later. I think it's more prudent to hear what Venus discovered," Mars interjected. She knew it was a breach in protocol, and she could see the other Senshi recoiling at her faux pas, but she didn't care.
The Queen looked at her briefly before nodding, and turning to Venus. "Well? Explain. I'll save my reprimands for later."
"I was listening to Lafayette's final transmission again the other night. And then I was struck with an idea. We'd attempted to unscramble the transmission using technology. But what if it hadn't been scrambled through technological means? It finally hit me—there was magic involved. So I played around with it for a few days, and last night, I finally had a breakthrough." Venus reached into her subspace pocket and retrieved a recorder. With a small burst of concentrated magic, the device began playing an eerily familiar message.
"V-1, we're under heavy fire. We are in the central plain of the Be-Alsio region. This might be our last chance to attempt a transmission. We can't hold them off much longer. V-1, don't try to follow me—just listen to what we've found, and god willing you're getting some of this. We discovered a base hidden underground—miles underground. We found an inordinate amount of magical energy concentrated even deeper within the caves; but we ran into monsters. They're unlike anything I've ever seen, V-1. They have magic—they're like the youmas of olden lore. They're bloodthirsty fiends; once they capture you, they suck you dry of your energy. We've lost half our squad already; they ambushed us in the caves, and only half of us managed to escape."
The sounds of screaming and snarling sounded in the background, and heavy gunfire roared. "Gods, we won't make it out of here alive. G-3, take point, B-6, for god's sake, look out behind you!" More sounds of frenzied battle took place. Then Lafayette's heavy breathing returned. "That's it. I'm the last one left. The creatures will overtake me soon. V-1, tell the Queen that Beryl is behind this, and that she's hiding something even worse down in those caves of hers. And these monsters—they might be building an army." Lafayette let out a snarl and an inhuman, guttural roar sounded.
"Stay away!" The sound of gunfire rang through the speakers."I'll have you know, you won't capture me alive, you bastards. If you think I'll just let Beryl get away with this, then you can tell the goddamned bitch to figure out a new plan. The Moon will know all about this, and then the Queen will—" The sound of more gunfire shot out, and Lafayette's cries of pain mixed with the screams of monsters.
"Oh, gods above! What is wrong with those things?! They won't die! V-1, listen to me, some of the monsters are immune to bullets. I repeat, some of the monsters are immune to—" And then another round of shots rang out, and a sickening crunch brought the transmission to an end.
With a somber expression, Venus returned the recording device to her subspace pocket. "I needed to see them firsthand. And I did." She raised her hand and, with a burst of power, she let down the magical barriers surrounding her mind, and drew them all in to see what she had seen.
Terrifying creatures leapt at her. Lafayette had mentioned that they were like youma of ancient lore—demons, monsters thought to be only legends. But these were real, and they put the legends to shame. Fangs protruded from some of their mouths; others lifted deadly sharp claws; still others flew on leathery wings; a foul stench filled the air. And some of the youma directed the others through commands.
They were intelligent. That made them even more terrifying. They weren't just mindless creatures—they were able to organize themselves, they were able to inflict heavy damage. The dank air of the caves was permeated with the feel of sinister magic—Dark Magicks, Magicks Venus had learned of but never practiced, Magicks she kept from the others, Magicks that were forbidden.
The creatures were evil. And Venus slunk out of the caves, almost managing to escape without detection—until a small youma sighted her and screeched out a warning, a shrill cry that left her ears ringing and caused her to lose her balance. She pushed magic to shield her ears, and ran, ran for her life.
Then the vision was gone, and Venus had thrown her mental barriers back up, panting from the magical exertion of channeling the vision to them all. "They're real. They're organized. There are higher level Youma—they're the ones that are immune to bullets, I assume. Magic kills them on impact. They use Dark Magick. It'll be hard to fight them. If they invade, they'll be able to take down the magical barriers around the dome in seconds. They'll wipe us out. There are hundreds of them. Maybe more, deeper in the caves."
The room was silent, and then the Queen swore under her breath. The other occupants of the room drew back—they had never seen the Queen lose her composure.
"She should have told me about this," the Queen muttered under her breath.
"What?" Mars asked; they hadn't caught her words.
"Nothing," the Queen said. "Beryl is here, on the Moon. Beryl's commanding officers are here. All the commanding officers of Endymion's army are here. Our Army isn't ready, yet. Our weaponry isn't ready yet." The Queen sank into her throne, closing her eyes and drawing in a breath. "But we mustn't give up hope," she continued. "We must persevere. With the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou, surely we will prevail. We must believe in ourselves."
The Princess and the other Senshi nodded, their faces determined. Mars forced herself to school her features and nod as well.
But she knew. There was no hope. Even after all the trouble Venus had gone through to figure this out—they would lose. Nothing they did would work. They would all die, and there was no way to stop it.
A/N: The Queen's wondering why Sailor Pluto didn't tell her about these events. And when she confronts Pluto later that night, Pluto tells her that she can't—because she can't interfere with an event that could affect the space-time continuum. And that's when Queen Serenity begins to expect that there's no hope—that she won't be able to stop this invasion. You won't hear about it because it doesn't fit into this story, but the Queen asks Artemis and Luna to fly out later that night into small space pods, where they will be safe and will be able to survive any attack. It's where they remain for the next thousands of years until the Queen's magic reincarnates everyone on Earth—when they awaken and go to find them.
Only two more chapters left after this one. I might make an epilogue-but really, this occurs in the same universe as my other story, Haato wa Mangekyou, so if you want to see the continuation, you can just pick that up (though my writing style in that one is... wonky. I've been writing it for years, now, and you can tell).
