Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon. It was made by a genius and I'm not that smart, though I might wish otherwise.
Author's Note: In my fic, I made "Senshi" more of a title, with no plural version (i.e. Senshis).
Chapter Two: Panic In The Palace
August 4, 6:54 am
Silver Millennium Palace, Moon
The entire palace and its surrounding compound were in disarray with servants running from one end to the other while the knights frantically searched the grounds.
It was early in the morning, too early for all the activity going on. Everyone in the palace had been woken with alarm and so it was that when the sun completely topped the horizon, the entire palace staff had been roused and was scrambling all over the place. All morning duties were on hold as urgent orders from the throne room superseded everything else.
The doors to the room in discussion burst outward and a tall man with a head full of thick white hair came running out. He was wearing his usual white jacket and pants, except that his pants were wrinkled and the jacket was buttoned wrong – testimony that it was haphazardly worn after urgent summons early in the morning. The servants who were in the hall looked at him in surprise then stared at each other in alarm before fervently doing what they were ordered to do.
Lord Artemis, the man who just came out of the throne room, sprinted as fast as he could towards the North Wing of the palace.
"My lady!" Now this was a more alarming sight: a willowy woman with impossibly long and thick blue-gray hair came running towards the throne room, gray skirt hitched to her knees to give her legs freedom to run. The always proper Lady Luna never lost her cool unless under extreme duress. The servants went about their duties with renewed urgency, so much that two servants collided into each other which resulted in the breakage of a very expensive, very rare antique glass artifact. It was also a true testament to the agitated atmosphere that nobody spared it a glance, except the two servants involved, who exchanged panicked looks before bending down to hurriedly clean up their mess.
"Your majesty!" Lady Luna shrieked once more, skidding as she rounded a corner to the throne room.
"Luna!" The normally musical and calm voice of the queen was thin with panic and worry. "What is it?"
"Oh, it's terrible, your Majesty! It's a catastrophe! It's horrible! I can't believe it!"
"Luna! What in the blazes are you talking about? Speak up!" The king bellowed in a voice loud enough to be heard on the other side of the planet. Or satellite, as the case may be.
Although already inside the throne room and near the royal couple, Lady Luna was so distraught that she was still not lowering her voice. "The Transformation Pen, your Majesties!" she shrieked. "The Transformation Pen! It's gone!"
"Oh my Goddess." The queen fell on her throne in shock.
"You!" The king bellowed at a passing male servant (no, not the ones who broke the aforementioned artifact) who just happened to be walking past the open doors of the throne room. The man visibly paled and froze as the king bore down on him like a raging thunderstorm, forgetting in his fear that he was supposed to bow before his king.
"Your – your Majesty!"
"Run as fast as your two little feet can carry you and follow Artemis. The Senshi must be told!"
The man turned to flee but hesitated.
"Well, man, what's the matter with you? Go! Go, go!"
"Er… your Majesty, what will I tell Lord Artemis and the Senshi?" he asked fearfully.
"What craziness are you talking about? We don't have time to talk! Run, boy, run!" The king shouted.
"Inform them of what Lady Luna just told us," the queen had enough presence of mind to answer the quailing footman just as her husband was about to do him bodily injury. "The Transformation Pen is gone and it is assumed that she took it."
"At once, your Majesties!" The man sprinted down the hall in the direction Lord Artemis just disappeared to.
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She was having a lovely dream.
In a field of flowers, she was lying beside the most gorgeous man ever, who was beside her and facing her. She coyly flirted with him, deliciously prolonging the moment when she knew they would kiss. She knew it would be worth it… and it was. Gentle hands cupped her head and soft lips met hers. He murmured something she did not catch, did not even really try hard to hear it for her attention was solely on the kiss and how it made her feel. He murmured something again and yet all she could hear was the knocking of her heart.
Knocking?
She continued to smile dreamily, kissing the man of her dreams.
"Venus," he called, his voice seemed to come through layers of cloth and wood.
Layers of cloth and wood?
The man whispered something again, this time his voice was tinged with more irritation than passion.
"Hm?" she murmured against him, trying to get him back to the mood he was in before. "Kiss me." She puckered her lips and tried to look seductive.
Cold, oh so very cold, water hit her full on the face.
She spluttered into wakefulness, glaring at whoever had the temerity to wake her up in such a rude way. "Artemis!" she shrieked, fingers forming claws so she could choke him to death. Unfortunately, she was restrained by the blanket tangled around her body. "Why you little – "
"It's about time!" he snapped at her, indifferently dropping a priceless vase on the carpeted floor, which was littered with the flowers that used to be in the vase which used to be on her bedside table which used to contain the cold water that was currently on her face. "I've been knocking for ages! I can not believe how soundly you sleep!"
"How dare you wake me up! How dare you!" Venus was busy pushing and pulling the bedcovers, trying to free her hands and self so she could strangle the white-haired jerk who will die within the next few seconds if she had anything to say about it.
"The Queen summons you and the others; let's go!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her, causing her to fall off her bed, on her butt, in an ungraceful heap of blond hair, bedcovers, and silk nightgown.
"Hold it!" Venus bellowed furiously. "I can't go out of the room like this!" But Artemis ignored her and continued to pull her, dragging her off the dais and across the carpet, where static electricity made her already messed-up hair frizz and cackle with electricity.
Her morning was not going well.
Trailing bed sheets and blankets as they went, until only a night-gowned Venus was left, her guardian and keeper snapped at her, "There's no time for that. Get the others up. We have an emergency!"
She tried to pull her hand back, but he was stronger than she was. "My hair! Do you know how hard it is to comb out the tangles and now you just added static electricity! My butt and legs! Do you know how much carpet burns hurt? I'll be in pain for a week!"
"Get up!" Artemis manhandled her to a standing position, his fingers painfully biting into her upper arms. "We have an emergency: the princess is missing."
She stared at him; remnants of sleep still clogging her brain. "What? The princess? What do you mean? She's just in her room, over-sleeping as usual."
"No, she's not. That's what I've been trying to tell you. Luna checked on her this morning, like she always does, and found her missing. She's not anywhere in the palace and everyone's searching for her. Now help me wake the others. We need the Senshi." He moved to the door across the hall, slamming his fist on the door to 'knock'. "Mars!" he bellowed.
"The princess? Gone? Impossible! The girl can't walk two feet outside the palace walls without getting lost; where would she go?" Absently, she noted her door would definitely need a new lock. And possibly new hinges too. Heck, she just might have to replace her entire door.
"Mars!" Artemis took a step back, aimed carefully then kicked the doors open.
Venus blinked; the last vestige of sleep fading away as she beheld Lord Artemis, who was never improper and panicked. What he says must be true, for only an emergency like natural disasters, wars, and missing princesses could make him lose his trademark cool.
Forgetting that she was wearing a short silk nightgown that didn't really hide much and ignoring the servants rushing about the halls, she ran to the door next to hers and began banging on the door. "Jupiter!" she yelled, ignoring Mars' screams of rage coming from her room.
The girls did like their sleep.
Artemis ran out Mars' door and dove to the floor just as a fireball blazed above him. "Stop that!" he yelled back angrily. "We have an emergency! Now get your butt out here this instant, young lady!" He scrambled up and ran next door to Mercury's door, athletically dodging another fireball as he went.
"What's all the ruckus?" Mercury opened her door sleepily just as Artemis was about to ram his fist on it; thus he ended up hitting her quite soundly on the face.
"Oh, geez! Mercury, are you all right?" he asked the fallen Mercury.
"Jupiter!" Venus screamed, still getting no reply. She took a step back and was about to use her power to burst open the doors when Mars stepped out of her room, all tousled long black hair, murder in her dark red eyes, and fire blazing in her hands. Knowing Mars as well as she did, she called out, "Mars!" then ducked just in time to avoid the fireball that blazed past her and hit Jupiter's bedroom doors, bursting it inwards in a loud shower of sparks and splinters.
Jupiter, wrapped in a short silk robe that Venus gave her on her last birthday, blinked in befuddlement as she stood amidst the rubble; she had obviously gotten up and was on her way to open the door for Venus. She looked at the pieces of wood spread around, some of them still burning embers, and then looked outside.
Venus, wearing one of her skimpy nightgowns, was on her hands and knees outside where her bedroom doors used to be, her face pressed to the floor with both arms covering the back of her head (sporting alarmingly frizzled hair) and bum pointing skyward. Mars in her knee-length dress-like nightgown was standing behind Venus with slightly dimmed fireballs burning on her hands and glaring at everything and anything she looked at. Every now and then, the fireballs blazed slightly then dimmed again, a reflection of the fact that she was trying to control her temper and not really succeeding. Lord Artemis was in the room across the hall, helping up the slightly dazed, robe-wearing Mercury, who was sporting an alarming bruise on her cheek.
"Well." She blinked. "Good morning."
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A few minutes later, Venus entered the throne room without knocking; indeed it would have been useless since the door was still open. The three followed behind with Lord Artemis holding up the rear. He had insisted that they present themselves to the King and Queen, regardless of attire, and due to the gravity of the situation, the four did so not even bothering to get robes so only Jupiter and Mercury were wearing their robes. However, upon presentation to the King and Queen of the Silver Millennium Moon Kingdom, one should kneel or curtsy, which none of them could do unless they wanted to present to their Majesties certain parts of their anatomy that no one had ever seen.
Venus, when she was near the thrones (the Queen was sitting while the King was pacing on the raised dais), automatically bent to kneel but Mercury grabbed her hand and pointedly nodded to Venus' outfit. Or lack of one.
"Forgive us, your Majesties," Jupiter apologized, head bowed, which was the only act of obeisance they could do in their present state of dress. "We're not dressed properly."
Although they gathered more often than not in casual circumstances, the Senshi knew that now was not one of those times and acted accordingly. Theirs was a peculiar relationship since the Lunarian Royal Couple was their liege lord and lady yet at the same time, they were the girls' surrogate parents since their own parents where back home in their respective planets. Not to mention, the Senshi were best friends with the King and Queen's daughter, Princess Serenity. As a result, they were formal only when the occasion demanded it, which were rare occasions indeed.
"That's fine," the Queen assured them absently. She was chewing on her lower lip with a lost expression on her face.
Lady Luna entered from a side door and reported, "The guards have finished searching the grounds and there has been no sign of the princess at all nor was there any sign that anyone entered or left the grounds last night."
The King turned to the Senshi and succinctly informed them, "Ladies, here's the situation: Princess Serenity has disappeared. A bag and a few of her clothes are missing from her room but other than that, her room's undisturbed and that pretty much rules out kidnapping. Especially in addition to the guards' report that nobody entered the grounds last night. Sadly, the Transformation Pen is also missing and that's the most vital thing we have learned for with it, Serenity can disguise herself completely as to render herself unrecognizable to anyone who knows her. She seems to have left some time between midnight and the fourth hour after. She has had hours to make her escape and we're only now trying to find and follow her trail. You're her closest friends, why didn't you know that she was going to run away?" The last sounded like an accusation.
Lord Artemis unobtrusively closed the doors and stood there, making sure no one else would enter and assuring the privacy of the Lunarian Royal Couple, Senshi, and Guardians (the official title of Lady Luna and Lord Artemis).
"We are truly sorry. We really did not know anything about this," Mercury apologized. The four girls were abashed for not only were they close friends with the princess, her safety was also their primary duty.
"How come we weren't told earlier?" Jupiter demanded.
"We had hoped to resolve this situation as quickly and as quietly as possible," the King replied. "Even though you are the Princess' friends, in this situation, had we called upon you immediately, it would have amounted to a legal matter because you are also Senshi. You know that."
Jupiter frowned. "Be that as it may, we would definitely have wanted to know about this at an earlier time."
"Jupiter," Venus said evenly. And with just that, Jupiter shut her mouth. She knew what Venus meant – that the Senshi knowing was neither here nor now and it was also well within the rights of the Lunarian Royal Couple to withhold information as they saw fit.
Regardless of their relationship with the Lunarian Royal Family, the Senshi were the elite and served the Silver Alliance. They were called upon only for the most delicate situations or to deal with the most powerful of enemies, even though they have never really been called to their duty since they lived in one of the most peaceful Societies in the universe. Mostly, though, in times of peace, their primary duty would be as important members of the Silver Alliance. It was a common misconception that the Senshi served, or could serve, the individual Royal Houses of the Alliance. The truth is that the Senshi existed for the Alliance and protected the Alliance itself and not necessarily the individual members. They would only act for an individual member if the events happening in that planet could concern the entire Alliance. Sometimes, although such an event has not yet happened in the current Senshi's lifetime, an individual Senshi would use her training to help her own homeland, but she did so using her authority as Heir and not as Senshi.
With regards to the present situation, had the princess been believed to still be in her home, the Senshi would not even be called upon to help with the search. Unfortunately, the Princess was missing and all evidence pointed to the fact that she was not even on the same planet anymore, an event which certainly constitutes as an Alliance Emergency.
"Permission to speak frankly?" Venus did not really need a reply; as leader of the Inner Senshi it was well within her rights and part of her responsibility to act decisively. "It never occurred to us that she'd run away. She can't walk outside the palace grounds without getting lost, she's not used to going anywhere without anyone with her, in fact, she's not really used to doing anything on her own; how were we to think that she'd get the gumption to leave, all alone and without telling anyone?"
"Do you think her upcoming engagement had anything to do with this?" Queen Serenity wondered aloud.
"It couldn't," the King answered, though his voice was doubtful. "It wasn't final. She was still to meet her suitors and make a choice."
The Senshi remained silent and impassive, even though they were curious. As the Princess' friends, they were certainly curious about this engagement that they were only hearing about now, but they also knew their duties and it was to find and return the princess, not gossip.
Mars hesitatingly interrupted, "If I may, your Majesties, I have been getting some Hint of discontent from the Princess these past few days."
"You Read her mind?" The Queen looked scandalized.
"No, my Queen, I'd never do that, not without the royal family or Alliance's Orders and not without the expressed consent of the person involved." Those were the rules of common courtesy that were observed regarding Psychic Readings within the Silver Alliance. "What I meant to say was she has been feeling unsettled and unhappy lately. I didn't understand it much because I could also Sense some confusion. But I didn't Read her, I swear I didn't."
The Queen stared at Mars with a half-pained, half-guilty expression on her face. "But escaped emotions, especially in one who was Trained as Serenity has been, signifies that her emotions have become too much for her to bear and keep within her PsiShield…"
A psychically gifted and trained person could keep their emotions in check behind a PsiShield, especially when in the presence of another with like gifts. Those who were trained as thoroughly as the Senshi and the Princess could do it unconsciously and in such a way as to render their PsiShield Undetected, for protecting their thoughts and all that went with it would be second nature to them. But when the emotions were too much to handle, or too confusing to be made sense out of, it slipped and someone of Mars' psychic caliber would be able to easily pick it up even without Mars meaning to.
She turned to her husband, hurt. "How could we not have noticed?"
The King looked back helplessly.
Lady Luna neared them. "And it might be partly my fault too, your Majesties. She's been restless lately, always taking to staring out her window. I should've asked her what was wrong for she was never one to stay in one place for very long but I was busy at that time. I have failed in my duties as your daughter's Guardian. I apologize." Lady Luna curtsied low and stayed that way.
The King and Queen glanced once at each other then both visibly collected themselves. The Queen assured Lady Luna, "Don't be silly, don't blame yourself. None of us could've seen that she'd done this. We could hazard guesses until we're blue in the face but I'd rather ask my daughter herself why she decided to take off." Her eyes glittered dangerously. Daughter of her blood Serenity may be, but nobody crossed the Lunarian Queen and got away with it.
She continued, "To that end, finding her is our top priority and I charge you with that task. The King and I, meanwhile, will have to discuss what is to be done about the Princess' suitors for they were to arrive and meet with her soon." She sighed. "As always, duty has its place. Ladies, please exert maximum discretion with this. No one outside the palace can know about this, otherwise, kidnappers and our political enemies will also comb the entire solar system, looking for the wayward Serenity," she warned.
"Yes, your Majesty."
"What about the guards?" Jupiter asked suspiciously. "Should we issue some sort of privacy statement?"
A ghost of a smile crossed the Queen's face. "My dear, this is the Lunarian Kingdom and this is my palace. Every single guard here is loyal to the throne. They can be trusted."
Jupiter flushed. "Oh, right, forgot about that…"
The Lunarian Queen had a jewel known throughout the galaxy as the Guinzuishou, or the Silver Crystal. Anyone who would be working closely with the Queen and the Silver Alliance had to swear fealty to the Queen, who, on those occasions, wore the jewel, which had the ability to weed out those who were not true of heart. As a result, the most trustworthy and honorable court in the galaxy, indeed, possibly the universe, was the Lunarian Palace.
Venus turned to her friends and, easily taking the role of leader, began issuing commands, "Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, we have to alert our parents, the ruling monarchs, of what transpired. Ask them if they can assign their most trusted people to search out their realms and find out if the Princess is present. Because of the Transformation Pen, which can also mask Serenity's Lunarian aura, it'll be hard, but anyone who suddenly showed up in a certain place or seemingly came out of nowhere and doesn't know anybody will be suspect; basically, a stranger, someone with no past and connections to that place. Anybody mysterious is to be watched over and ascertained if he or she is the Princess." She turned back to the King and Queen and inclined her head respectfully. "Your Majesties, may I borrow Lady Luna and Lord Artemis?"
"Of course."
She turned to their Guardians. "Lord Artemis, Lady Luna, please alert the Outer Senshi. Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune's ruling monarchs must know."
Mars' eyebrows knitted as she hesitatingly volunteered, "I'm not entirely sure about this, but I have a Hunch that Princess Serenity might not go to any of those planets." Mars usually had Hunches that proved true.
"Why not?" asked the King.
"They're members of the Alliance," Mars explained timidly, clearly not liking her news yet knowing she had to say it. "People there know her. Or know of her. Besides, with her rushed flight, she would most likely run to the nearest planet to hide."
"Venus, then? Or Mars?" Venus wondered.
Mars hesitated for a telling moment. "No."
Although near, Venus was still some distance away and Mars was separated from the Moon by an asteroid belt. All eight of them glanced outside the window to the beautiful green-blue of the planet Earth.
"She wouldn't!" The King exclaimed.
"She could, though." The Queen looked trouble.
"Just wanted to warn everyone," Mars mumbled.
"Damn," sight the rest of the Senshi.
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The four hurriedly changed into their uniforms before going to the Teleportation Room. They had initially planed to spread the news via Communicators but, as Lord Artemis pointed out, conversations can be bugged (although Mercurian technology was practically impossible to hack into, nobody wanted to irritate Lord Artermis any more than he already was by reminding him of this fact; besides, he could have a point although Mercury refused to discuss such a possibility), so they decided instead to Teleport directly to their homeland to personally give the news.
Unfortunately, more bad news met them at the door of the Teleportation Room.
"Ryo, what is it? What happened?" Mercury asked the Mercurian in charge of Teleportation. Because Mercurians developed the relatively new technology of Teleporting, the head of Teleport was, naturally, a Mercurian, so if anything went wrong, it could be fixed immediately.
"Your Highness." Ryo bowed to the crown Princess of Mercury. Senshi she may be to the rest of the galaxy, but to her own people she would always be the Crown Princess of her planet and that title would take precedence over anything else even though the duties of Senshi superseded any of her duties as Heir (the rest of the girls likewise shared the same status and responsibilities). "I'm afraid the Teleport Machine is temporarily out of service."
"I beg your pardon?" Mercury asked, taken aback, just as Mars demanded of Ryo, "What the hell do you mean 'out of service'? We need to leave! And just how temporary are we talking about? Are we talking about the next five minutes or less?"
"I'm sorry, Sailor Mars, I'm afraid it will take longer than that. Someone spilled vanilla milkshake on the Destination Table." Ryo looked both apologetic and perplexed. "It's definitely not any of my people since none of them were here last night and they all know that food and drinks aren't allowed near the machines yet I have no idea who it could be since everyone knows that the Teleport Machine is sensitive to food, especially drinks, and could go haywire when just mildly damp."
The Senshi, Artemis, and Luna all glanced at each other and sighed.
"All but one knew and understood just how important that rule was and why it had to be followed," said Venus tiredly.
"And only one person in this planet loves vanilla milkshake so much that she has a supply of it in her own room," Lady Luna sighed.
Mercury stepped inside and glanced around the Teleportation Room, which was a plain dark circular room with a raised circular dais in the center with black flooring. On that dais were eight white circles that coincided with eight circular white lights directly above them. Off to one side was a round mechanism set atop a small circular table, the Destination Table, and two men were meticulously trying to clean the sticky white liquid clinging to the buttons and gears on it. In the middle of the circular dais was a small backpack the four Senshi easily identified as the Princess' – it was the only one in the entire palace that was bright pink and had small white rabbits in the print.
"How long will it take to fix this?"
Ryo shrugged apologetically at Mercury. "Perhaps a day or two, your Highness, it's hard to tell. If it was water and you have urgent need to use the Device, we might be able to work through the night, full staff, and finish the repairs in twenty-four hours. But since it was milkshake… we have to first wipe off the sticky substance, then clean it, then wait for it to dry before we can ascertain what went wrong and finally start repairs. We've never had a chance to encounter this kind of mistake before. This is an unprecedented event that would surely test the stability of the mechanism. I apologize that I cannot be of more help."
"It's all right." Mercury gave him a reassuring smile. "Just do your best to finish it as soon as you can."
"Well?" Jupiter turned to the others once Ryo was out of hearing range. "What now?"
Venus was frowning in thought. "Mars, how do you feel?"
Mars looked puzzled. "Fine, thanks."
"I meant, are you up to a long-distance PsiCall," Venus impatiently clarified.
Mercury correctly guessed Venus' plan. "We can Contact Mercury and they'll be the ones to spread the word via Teleportation."