"Whoa, Dare! Slow down, you won't get there any faster if you have to make a two or three week detour through hospital!" Nathan Zodiac murmured to the man in the driver seat.
His friend looked at him apologetically and eased his foot off of the accelerator, the car slowed so that the speedometer showed them as only ten kilometres above the speed limit. "Sorry guys," Darien said softly, "It's just I've started to get this really bad feeling..."
"It's probably just that you're nervous. I mean this is the first time the two of you are going to meet where you both know each other and there are no secret identities. You don't have anything to hide behind anymore," Lita Kino soothed from the backseat.
"She's right bro," Nate commented sagely now that the car wasn't redlining its engine anymore, "You've probably just got stage fright."
Darien shook his head in denial, "It's not that-" he began.
"Come on Dare!" Lita drawled, "You're not the slightest bit nervous about talking to her?" Nate chuckled but Darien just glared at them in the rearview mirror.
"No I'm not," he stated quietly, aprehension audible in his voice, "Something's happened, something bad... one thing I am going to talk to her about though is those wretched blocks she's placed across our bond. They're driving me crazy, giving me just a hint of something and stopping me from learning more-"
"Do you have any idea of what's wrong?" Nate asked soberly, his humour draining away as he saw the seriousness of Darien's anxiety.
Darien shook his head, "No I know she's hurt and badly but that's more from Mark's report than from anything I'm sensing personally. All I know is that something else has happened..."
The two partners looked at each other as Darien trailed off. Each gripped their respective doors as their dark haired driver sped up once more and screeched around a corner but neither complained.
"Luna said that they'd all reached the house safely," Nate offered, trying to be optimistic even though his own instincts had started to urge him to hurry.
"I know," Darien replied shortly, accelerating even further.
For the next two minutes no one in the car spoke and when Darien slammed on the breaks in front of their house they were all choking with aprehension. Before either Lita or Nate could blink Darien was out of the car and sprinting into the house. He passed a white faced Zac in the corridor but Darien ignored him as he homed on his own bedroom. He slid to a stop in the door way to find Mina and Amy sponging down a battered and weary little girl while Marcus paced in agitation.
"What happened?" he demanded without pausing for breath.
Marcus looked up and the prince almost backed up when he saw an emotion very like panic on his general's face. "I don't know Darien. She came back with us without more than a token argument. She asked that I leave her alone to shower. Then we're forced to break in fifteen minutes later when she refuses to answer the door. She used the bathroom window. Dare, there's blood everywhere. She was badly hurt when we brought her here and I think she made her injuries worse when she squeezed through the window-"
"Do you have any idea where-"
The general shook his head, "Jase tried tracking her but there's no sign of which way she went after she reached the road. Our only hope is if you could-"
"Trace her?" Darien interrupted with a harsh laugh, "I haven't a hope in hell as long as she's blocking the link between us." A small whimper distracted both men and they turned to find Selene wincing as Amy carefully cleaned a nasty looking cut. "Is she going to be OK?" Darien asked trying to shrug aside his worries about the girl's guardian.
Amy looked up and nodded slightly, "At the rate she's healing, she'll be perfectly well in a few hours." The petite woman looked slightly awed, "She should be dead, even with her unusual physiology she shouldn't have survived the injuries I that know she received."
"She was dead," Marcus stated quietly but everyone in the room except Selene stared at him and he explained, "She wasn't breathing, Raye couldn't find a pulse, her legs were crushed, arm broken and I think she night have had some of her ribs snapped and puncturing her lungs because there was a lot of blood coming from her mouth. Serena healed her. I thought she was just going to kill herself as well at first but then Selene started to breath again. Serena said something about boosting her recuperative abilities beyond even the norm for a Lunarian."
"Serena?" Darien asked.
Marcus shook his head, "She was hurt but I thought it would be unneccessary to watch her until Amy and Zac returned, I was wrong."
Darien nodded slowly and then knelt in front of the little princess. "Hello Leni, do you remember me?"
The child looked at him and nodded slowly, "Uh huh, you're the man who liked falling on my m... auntie Reenie!"
Darien wondered briefly what she had been about to call Serena but pushed the thought aside for the moment. "That's right, I'm Darien," he said softly, "Listen Leni, do you know where we could find your auntie? It's really important."
"Uh uh."
Darien sighed in frustration, "Please Leni, we think your aunt might be hurt and we need to know were to go to help her."
"I dunno," Leni insisted, starting to look scared, "Only my Daddy knows!"
Darien's wide eyes met those of his friends'. All of them were extremely interested in finding out more about the little princess' father, though for slightly different reasons.
"Oh?" Darien murmured softly, hoping to draw her out.
"Uh huh! My Grandmama said that my Daddy could find her if I gave him a present!" with that Selene dashed back to the bed, amazingly limber for such a bruised child. She pulled something out from under a pillow and then returned to where Darien still knelt. She held out her hand and asked, "See?"
On her hand was a pink brooch with a golden moon and four small circles, each a different colour. Darien reached out to take it from her and she snatched her hand back, shaking her head wildly so that her dark mop of hair whipped from side to side. "NO!"
Darien jerked his hand back and looked at the child in shock. "Why not?" he asked after a moment.
"'Cus ma... 'ntie Reenie said no one could touch it 'cept me," she stopped for a second and then added, "But Grandmama said I was to give it to my Daddy so's he could find my ma... auntie Reenie!"
Darien sat back on his heals for a moment as the thought he'd put aside minutes before demanded attention. What was it that Selene kept starting to call Serena before she corrected herself? It was something starting with 'm'. Could she have been about to call Serena m-
"Who's your Daddy Selene?" Marcus asked
Selene frowned before struggling, "Prince Endi... Endimi... Endinimi... Endi... Endy! Prince Endy!"
Darien's wide eyes met those of Marcus'. Simultaneously both men turned and looked at the girl again. "Do you mean Prince Endymion?" Marcus managed to ask through his incredulity.
Selene grinned and nodded happily, "Uh huh! Do you know him? 'Cus I gotta give him the present real fast 'cus my Grandmama said so, 'cus it's important!"
Darien just stared at the girl. Beside him Mina whispered, shocked, "No wonder her eyes look so much like yours Dare!"
Marcus glanced at Darien for a moment before touching Selene lightly on the shoulder. The girl looked at him and he said, "Selene, do you know how sometimes people have more than one name? Like your auntie Reenie being Sailor Moon? Do you know about that?" The girl's eyes widened and she nodded. Marcus continued, "Well Darien's other name is prince Endymion of Earth."
Selene's eyes swivelled to Darien and she moved closer to him. Sapphire blue eyes met sapphire blue, both pairs filled with surprise and wonder.
"Daddy?" the girl whispered and then she squealed and threw herself into Darien's arms and hugged him tightly. Darien carefully hugged her back, mindful of her injuries, as he tried to assimilate the shock. Before he could the little girl pulled back and held out the brooch to him.
"Here," she insisted, "You gotta hurry 'cus Grandmama said so!"
Numbly Darien accepted it and as it touched his skin Darien's still reeling mind was swallowed by light. It seemed ages later that he opened his eyes again and he involuntarily stepped back as he took in the scene before him. There were two figures, one kneeling on the ground and the other lying on a stone slab covered by a white veil. He recognised the kneeling figure as Serena, or rather Sailor Moon and as he tried to go to her but when he was a metre away he was stopped by an invisible wall. He pounded on the wall but to no avail, all he could do was shudder at the state she was in. Her back was a bloody mass of welts and her wrists dripped blood. Her long ponytails were no longer gold but crimson, drenched in blood. He circled around her and almost choked when he saw that her eyes were all pupil, black pools of agony and horror. Her rapier was unsheathed and lay in her lap and she was mindlessly stroking the blade, cutting the skin on her hands to ribbons in the process.
Darien looked around, trying to see what was stopping him from going to her when he noticed the other figure. As he moved towards the stone slab he kept an eye on Serena even though she didn't move. He couldn't see the features of the woman under the veil and yet another invisible wall prevented him from touching her. Though he couldn't discern details he noticed that the girl was gaunt, through the veil he could see that each of her bones were in sharp relief against her skin. A small detail nagged at his subconscious and he paled as he realised what it was. He watched the hidden girl carefully to confirm it, she was breathing only about once every minute.
"It is a sad scene is it not, Endymion?" a clear voice came from behind him.
Darien whirled and found himself facing a tall lady with silver white hair arranged in the meatball style that Serena used to wear. "Who-" he started only to be interrupted as the woman stopped by Serena's side.
"It seems as if everything conspires to crush her and in some ways that is true. The universe seeks to forge her into something much greater than she already is and yet as things are she is growing brittle, not stronger. She is so very lonely."
"Then why didn't she some back to me?" Darien burst out, forgetting his other questions in the pain of his own lonliness.
The woman looked straight at him and replied, "Why didn't you seek her out?"
"She blocked our link! I couldn't find her!"
The woman's compassionate eyes didn't move from him. "She shielded herself from the Negaverse, yet if you had truly tried to find her then it is not possible for her to have stopped you, you are bound far too tightly together."
Unable to find an answer Darien just stared at her. "Who are you?" he finally burst out.
Pure blue eyes met his and Darien couldn't help but glance toward the only other being he had ever met with such eyes. Serena still knelt by the woman's side, completely unaware of him. He remembered Serena's eyes from the times a decade before when he had been able to stare into them either while rescuing her or teasing her. They had been a clear and perfect blue that he had never admitted to loving until after she had gone.
The woman moved and Darien's eyes flicked back to her. She stopped by the second girl and slowly began to remove the veil which concealed the girl's features. She had only removed half of the silken covering when Darien realised that the figure was that of the Moon Princess.
"Princess Serenity?" he gasped striking the unseen barrier around her.
The woman paused for a moment, only the princess' face remaining covered. The woman locked her gaze on Darien as she wrenched the veil completely off. Darien stepped back as if struck. The princess' unconscious features were identical to those of the catatonic Sailor Moon's. The woman bent down and kissed the sleeping princess' forehead before she moved back to the Serena's side. There she knelt and lay her palms across the girls restless and bloodied hands, stilling them.
Still touching Serena she looked back to Darien and spoke, "My daughter is dying, the demands made upon her have almost destroyed her spirit and her physical body will soon follow suit unless you intervene. She cannot stand alone any longer. Be her strength as you were meant to be. Heal her."
"How?" he asked, aware that time was running out and anxious to move.
The woman motioned to the gaunt form of the princess, "Her spirit is starving, nourish it," then she moved her hands back to Serena's before the girl had time to resume damaging herself, "Her body is ailing, care for it." He watched her as she watched Serena and recognition dawned.
"I will... thank you your Majesty."
She looked at him and smiled sadly, "I wish I could do more but the time for my aid has passed, her survival depends on you now."
Darien saluted in the manner of the Moon Kingdom a millennium ago, hand to heart, and blinked. When his eyes opened again he found that barely not even a minute had passed since his daughter had handed him the brooch. Thinking of the brooch he looked back at it and the knowledge of how to open it came from nowhere. An expert twist and the top flicked open to reveal the Imperium Silver Crystal inside.
"The exception which proved the rule," he muttered in disgust.
"What?" Mina asked from his side, slightly dazzled by the glittering crystal.
"Only the royal family of the moon can use this," Darien shook the hand that held the brooch, "Serena is the exception that proves the rule because she is the princess Serenity!"
"She's what?" Marcus yelped.
Darien stood in a single fluid motion, "Serena is Serenity and if I'd had any sense at all I'd have realised it ten years ago!" He turned to Selene, "Don't worry Leni, I'll find your mother, and I'll bring her back safely to you."
The little girl smiled and nodded. Without another word Darien spun around and stalked out of the room. Several steps down the corridor is pace increased to a trot and then a run.
"LUNA!" he bellowed as he ran, shoving the brooch into a pocket of his green sports jacket. The small black cat darted straight into his legs as she came out of an ajoining room. Without missing a beat Darien bent, scooped her up and charged on. Seconds later he jumped down the stairs from the front door and rushed to his car. With out ceremony he threw the bewildered guardian into the car and then slipped behind the wheel. He started the ignition but was stopped by several voices before he could get the car into gear.
Several seconds later the man and the cat were joined by three more companions. Barely had the last sat down before Darien had put his foot to the accelerator and the car shot down the driveway.
"Darien what's going on?" Luna demanded.
"Yeah Dare where are we going?" Lita demanded. Raye and Marcus watched him and Darien took a hand from the steering wheel, pulled the brooch out of his pocked and tossed it to Marcus in the seat behind him. "Recognise that Luna?" he asked, taking a hard right.
"Of course!" the guardian exclaimed, "It's Serena's transformation brooch, why do you have it?"
"She ran off on us Luna," Marcus told her.
"She WHAT?!" Luna screeched.
Darien ignored his passengers searching a connection that lay in the back of his mind, a link that was an elementary part of his being.
"She disappeared," Marcus repeated shortly.
The link was heavier than it should be and Darien recognised the weight as the shielding Queen Serenity had told him of. Knowing that it could not stop him if he were determined made the difference and, with care, he pushed through it.
"Why?" Raye and Lita asked simultaneously.
His homing instinct guided him and he recklessly cut across three lanes, ignoring the rest of the traffic he turned onto a small street.
"The gods only know-" Marcus spat out.
Suddenly he was through her shields and the link resonated between them clearly.
"Luna," Darien suddenly said, "What does 'Silver Blood Final Strike' do?"
For a moment the car was silent and then the cat spoke softly, "It's a last resort spell for the moon queen when the crystal is not available. It drains the caster so not only her life force is used but also all the strength of her soul. It releases a phenomenal amount of energy but in the process drains the caster's spirit until there is nothing left."
He made a hard left and then drove straight onto the grass of the park, ignoring the shouts of the single picnicking couple.
"That's what she's planning to do, she wants to destroy the Negaverse in one strike."
"But that'd kill her..." Luna trailed off in horrified comprehension.
"She knows," Darien said shortly.
He slammed on the breaks as they arrived at a large grove of trees.
"I don't understand," Lita protested, "You said only a moon queen could do the spell so why are we worried?"
"Because Serena is Serenity," Darien growled as he jerked himself out of the car.
Marcus followed quickly, adding, "And she has been moon queen in all but name ever since she came of age at twenty-one.
The two scouts suddenly understood the urgency and pursued their fellows, Lita delaying only long enough to pick up Luna. Darien was ducking and weaving through the bushes with ease, Marcus close behind him and the two scouts closing quickly. Darien didn't stop to think, he just followed his instincts, knowing that they were leading him in the correct direction.
"How do you know where we're going?" Raye puffed as she caught up.
"The link," Darien snarled.
"I thought she'd blocked it," Lita threw in.
"She had but she can't block me I'm a part of her. Thing is I've been an idiot and going about it the wrong way completely. I tried bullying my way down the link and her shields reacted as if I were an invader. All I had to do was be myself, it's so simple I want to kick myself. I should have figured it out years ago, I mean even after she put the shields up I was still dreaming about her so I was obviously still getting through when I slept. I'm so stupid."
"Don't blame yourself Darien-" Marcus tried to soothe him.
"You don't understand," Darien spat out, "For the last ten years we've all persisted in thinking of her as two people; the princess and Sailor Moon when she's really just one; Serena. I should have known, I mean I've loved her as both for as long as I've known her. I should have known that they were one and the same. I should have known!"
"So should I!" a small voice interjected.
Darien stopped and looked to where Luna was in Lita's arms and the cat continued in an anguished tone, "I lived with her, I trained her and I still didn't know!"
"None of us figured it out," Marcus interrupted, "We generals knew that there hadn't been a Sailor Moon in the Silver Millenium and we never thought to ask how there could be on now. We all knew that Endymion loved Serenity yet we never considered to compare Serena with Serenity after Darien fell in love with her. We can not change the past, all we can do is ensure that she survives now."
Darien nodded, walked to Lita, and took Luna from her arms. "She's in there," he jerked his chin at a few trees.
"So's the Negaverse," Raye warned.
Darien nodded, "I know, you guys transform and handle them please. Luna and I'll take care of Serena. Just wait until we've got her out of the way" Raye, Lita and Marcus nodded and soon Sailors Mars and Jupiter along with Malachite were splitting up to circle the small clearing surrounded by trees.
"Darien, why did you want me here?" Luna whispered as Darien approached the clearing.
Darien carefully looked around a tree trunk and inspected the clearing while he murmured, "She's hurting badly Luna. It's so bad that she doesn't care whether she lives or dies anymore. Before she had to keep going for her... our daughter's sake but now she knows that we'll keep Leni safe and she doesn't have to worry about it. She thinks she doesn't have any reason to live. We need to convince her that she should go living for her own sake. We have to make her see that she is somebody worth living for, that she herself is precious. I think that, other than Selene, we're the only two she's ever been close to that still live. Two people Luna, just two of us to convince her that she's wanted."
The guardian was silent as Darien's gaze swept the clearing, wondering if he'd brought them to the right place. Luna was considering what she'd just been told, her own heart breaking at the thought that the cheerful child she'd known had changed so much. Darien's gaze locked onto a small figure leaning against a tree trunk and although his eyes told him it was a young girl, his heart told him that it was his lady.
"Luna, there she is."
Luna climbed onto Darien's shoulders and peered out with him. She saw the small blonde girl of about five or six leaning against the tree trunk. "Are you sure?" she questioned, though not really doubtful.
Darien nodded, "I don't know how she's changed her appearance but that's her."
"Appearance... oh!" Luna exclaimed, "She must be using the lunar disguise pen... oh my, there's blood running down that tree, I think her injuries are getting worse-"
"There they are," Darien hissed.
Luna followed his gaze and saw the tall man walking arrogantly towards the girl. Hidden in the shadows behind him were several larger forms that both Darien and Luna recognised as youma awaiting the order to attack.
*****
Serena waited patiently for the general to approach her. She had used the disguise pen to make herself appear as she had when she had been seven on the moon. The way she sat hardly concealed the crescent moon on her forehead, glittering reflections of light continued to show through strands of her hair. The man stopped two metres aways and Serena artfully lifted her head, allowing her fringe to fall away, fully revealing the crescent. Her outward expression showed nothing other than extreme fear and she felt the general take the bait.
"Well princess, it looks as if your guardian just can't keep a hold of you!" he sneered.
Making her voice sound like a feeble whine she wailed, "I wan' my Mama!" and then started crying.
He grabbed her arm and scowled at her. Shaking her once for emphasis he snarled, "Shut up moon brat or I'll give you to my youma rather than keeping you for bait."
Inwardly scorning the man for his gullibility she slowly stopped crying, sniffing loudly as if she would burst back into tears at the slightest provocation. The man swung her over his shoulder and she couldn't restrain her moan as he aggravated her injuries. Luckily for her he turned away from the tree which had been supporting her before he'd noticed the blood stains against the bark and grass. She wished he'd hurry up bcause she didn't not know how much longer she could keep the deception up and she needed him to get her into the first fortress of the Negaverse. Once there she could initiate the final strike and the resultant destruction would disable the Negaverse for years if not destroy it outright. That she probably wouldn't survive didn't worry her. Selene was safe, the scouts would take care of her and so would Tuxedo Mask. She didn't know the generals but if Tuxedo Mask trusted them then so would she.
The Negaverse general stopped in the middle of the clearing and threw her down on the ground. She bit her tongue as she tried to hold back whimpers of pain caused not only when she'd been dropped so harshly but also when he'd placed a boot on her crushed rib to stop her from running. As Serena tried not to writhe in agony the general built a portal to the Negaverse. Several seconds later he stepped back, absently putting weight on the foot on top of her and smiling at the shriek she made. He bent to pick her up but a small black shape lept into his path and attached itself to his face with four sets of sharp claws. As he cried out in pain and anger, ordering his youma to attack, another figure appeared and smoothly lifted Serena out of harms way.
Instants later Serena was safely in the arms of the stranger, and he knelt in under the shelter of a nearby tree as the youma answered their master's call. The black shape fell away from the general's head and the red faced man looked up in rage just in time to see two scouts and a royal general attack.
"DIVINE MARTIAN FURY!"
"LIGHTNING GALE FORCE STRIKE!"
Fire, lightning, wind and pure energy combined against the enemy general and the youma but neither Darien or Serena noticed, both too involved in their battle against each other. She tried to struggle out of his arms but in her weakened state all she could do was twist around in his arms to face him.
"What do you think you're doing? Let me go!" she demanded, her voice still strong despite her body's weakness.
"What do I think I'm doing?" he repeated angrily, "I'm stopping you from doing the most stupid thing of your life!"
"You idiot, he would have taken me to the first fortress of the Negaverse, I could have destroyed all of them! You wouldn't have had to worry about the Negaverse for years!"
"At what cost? Gods Meatball Head, it wouldn't be worth it if it meant losing you-"
"Serena!" Luna exclaimed, interrupting the argument as she bounded to the pair.
"Luna tell this idiot to let me go!" Serena pointed gestured to Darien, "If I hurry I can fix it so he still thinks he's kidnapping me."
"You're hurt, you have to come home with us so that you can have you're injuries seen to," Luna contradicted.
"You don't understand, Luna we could beat them, maybe for good!" Serena tried to lunge out of Darien's arms but his grip was too strong.
"No you don't understand," he insisted implacably.
Luna finished, "We won't just stand by and watch you kill yourself."
"My death wasn't certain, I could survive!"
"You're going to," Darien interrupted darkly, "Because we're not going to let you go."
"You were going to use a Final Strike Serena," Luna cried, "You can't survive that, not even your spirit can survive that!"
"You don't get it, there's a way if I use the crystal that-"
"Could kill you just as easily!" Luna interrupted.
Darien freed a hand and used it to force her to face him, "We won't let you die, it took too long for me to find to just let you go again now."
The image of the young blonde girl blurred and reformed into that of the same dark haired woman he'd seen that morning. Her black hair cut in a style similar to his own, a thin face, drawn with worry and with blue-black bruises all over her. Other than the bruises the main difference were the golden crescent on her forehead and her eyes, they were the same clear blue that he remembered from ten years before only now they were clouded with the pain of ten years of hell.
She shook her head at him, "I could have ended it, even if I hadn't survived you could've taken care of Leni, you're her father after all. It could all have been over-"
"At the price of one of the most precious souls in existance," Darien whispered.
"Mine?" she laughed, a short bitter bark, "Oh that's a joke, I'm the cause of more deaths than Hitler!" Both Luna and Darien looked at her in denial and she retorted, "Let's start with my parents and work our way forwards. After them was my brother, my best friend, all the people in St Joe's Hospital, the business block in New Jersey, the people in Arlingtone General Hospital. Oh and let's not forget the entire Silver Millennium! I'm a Typhoid Mary! No one, least of all me, is worth that many lives. You should have let me finish it off, it would have freed us all."
"You can't blame yourself for things done by the Negaverse," Luna insisted.
"Then who?"
"Blame the Negaverse, blame Beryl or Metallia or whoever you want but it wasn't your fault Serena, it never was," Darien added.
"It's me they keep coming after," Serena denied, "Because I'm bloody Serenity and I have the bloody crystal. They keep coming after me and people keep dying. If I'm dead they have no target and if I take them with me when I go, well all the better!"
"OK then!" Darien shouted at her, "Blame yourself then! It's your fault all of it! You deserve to die. For god's sake you're being a Meatball Head Serena. Listen to yourself, you're mired down by self pity. What happened to the girl who used to laugh and make everyone happy? The girl I used to love?"
"I don't know," she snarled, "I think she kicked the bucket back when she saw her brother's arm torn off and used like a paint brush!" Both Darien and Luna looked shocked at this and Serena sneered, "You don't know me, you never did. You've fooled yourselves into thinking that you cared for me when it's just an obligation to a person you think I am. Well don't worry, princess Serenity is dead, that part of me died a long time ago! You don't have to worry about me any more."
Darien didn't reply, instead he turned to Luna and said, "This is where I need you're help to show this little fool the truth." He met the cat's eyes and after a moment she nodded. Before Serena could open her mouth again a beam of light shot out from the crescent on Luna's forehead and connected with Serena's. The woman's own crescent marking appeared and began to glow softly. An instant later a second beam shot from Luna to Darien.
*****
Malachite found Luna watching the two unconscious humans as they lay under a tree. Sailors Mars and Jupiter followed him moments later, both satisfied with the workout they'd just had. The dark general and his five youma had all been defeated fairly quickly. The royal general bent down and investigated the pair. Darien seemed to be perfectly healthy but Serena was plainly injured seriously and needed medical attention. Her side was no longer bleeding but obviously had a large and dangerous gash still gaping, the white shirt she was wearing almost completely soaked with blood.
"Don't touch them!" Luna warned.
Endymion's silver haired general froze where he stood, "Why? We need to get Serena to medical attention. I don't think even Amy could handle this, she's going to need a hospital."
Luna merely looked at Darien's sleeping features. "If Darien succeeds then I suspect she'll just need to be bandaged and she'll heal on her own. If he fails then she won't wake up. We can't afford to distract him."
Malachite nodded slowly and then powered down back to Marcus. Mars and Jupiter followed suit and soon the three civilians were waiting with the cat to discover the outcome of the battle.
*****
His friend looked at him apologetically and eased his foot off of the accelerator, the car slowed so that the speedometer showed them as only ten kilometres above the speed limit. "Sorry guys," Darien said softly, "It's just I've started to get this really bad feeling..."
"It's probably just that you're nervous. I mean this is the first time the two of you are going to meet where you both know each other and there are no secret identities. You don't have anything to hide behind anymore," Lita Kino soothed from the backseat.
"She's right bro," Nate commented sagely now that the car wasn't redlining its engine anymore, "You've probably just got stage fright."
Darien shook his head in denial, "It's not that-" he began.
"Come on Dare!" Lita drawled, "You're not the slightest bit nervous about talking to her?" Nate chuckled but Darien just glared at them in the rearview mirror.
"No I'm not," he stated quietly, aprehension audible in his voice, "Something's happened, something bad... one thing I am going to talk to her about though is those wretched blocks she's placed across our bond. They're driving me crazy, giving me just a hint of something and stopping me from learning more-"
"Do you have any idea of what's wrong?" Nate asked soberly, his humour draining away as he saw the seriousness of Darien's anxiety.
Darien shook his head, "No I know she's hurt and badly but that's more from Mark's report than from anything I'm sensing personally. All I know is that something else has happened..."
The two partners looked at each other as Darien trailed off. Each gripped their respective doors as their dark haired driver sped up once more and screeched around a corner but neither complained.
"Luna said that they'd all reached the house safely," Nate offered, trying to be optimistic even though his own instincts had started to urge him to hurry.
"I know," Darien replied shortly, accelerating even further.
For the next two minutes no one in the car spoke and when Darien slammed on the breaks in front of their house they were all choking with aprehension. Before either Lita or Nate could blink Darien was out of the car and sprinting into the house. He passed a white faced Zac in the corridor but Darien ignored him as he homed on his own bedroom. He slid to a stop in the door way to find Mina and Amy sponging down a battered and weary little girl while Marcus paced in agitation.
"What happened?" he demanded without pausing for breath.
Marcus looked up and the prince almost backed up when he saw an emotion very like panic on his general's face. "I don't know Darien. She came back with us without more than a token argument. She asked that I leave her alone to shower. Then we're forced to break in fifteen minutes later when she refuses to answer the door. She used the bathroom window. Dare, there's blood everywhere. She was badly hurt when we brought her here and I think she made her injuries worse when she squeezed through the window-"
"Do you have any idea where-"
The general shook his head, "Jase tried tracking her but there's no sign of which way she went after she reached the road. Our only hope is if you could-"
"Trace her?" Darien interrupted with a harsh laugh, "I haven't a hope in hell as long as she's blocking the link between us." A small whimper distracted both men and they turned to find Selene wincing as Amy carefully cleaned a nasty looking cut. "Is she going to be OK?" Darien asked trying to shrug aside his worries about the girl's guardian.
Amy looked up and nodded slightly, "At the rate she's healing, she'll be perfectly well in a few hours." The petite woman looked slightly awed, "She should be dead, even with her unusual physiology she shouldn't have survived the injuries I that know she received."
"She was dead," Marcus stated quietly but everyone in the room except Selene stared at him and he explained, "She wasn't breathing, Raye couldn't find a pulse, her legs were crushed, arm broken and I think she night have had some of her ribs snapped and puncturing her lungs because there was a lot of blood coming from her mouth. Serena healed her. I thought she was just going to kill herself as well at first but then Selene started to breath again. Serena said something about boosting her recuperative abilities beyond even the norm for a Lunarian."
"Serena?" Darien asked.
Marcus shook his head, "She was hurt but I thought it would be unneccessary to watch her until Amy and Zac returned, I was wrong."
Darien nodded slowly and then knelt in front of the little princess. "Hello Leni, do you remember me?"
The child looked at him and nodded slowly, "Uh huh, you're the man who liked falling on my m... auntie Reenie!"
Darien wondered briefly what she had been about to call Serena but pushed the thought aside for the moment. "That's right, I'm Darien," he said softly, "Listen Leni, do you know where we could find your auntie? It's really important."
"Uh uh."
Darien sighed in frustration, "Please Leni, we think your aunt might be hurt and we need to know were to go to help her."
"I dunno," Leni insisted, starting to look scared, "Only my Daddy knows!"
Darien's wide eyes met those of his friends'. All of them were extremely interested in finding out more about the little princess' father, though for slightly different reasons.
"Oh?" Darien murmured softly, hoping to draw her out.
"Uh huh! My Grandmama said that my Daddy could find her if I gave him a present!" with that Selene dashed back to the bed, amazingly limber for such a bruised child. She pulled something out from under a pillow and then returned to where Darien still knelt. She held out her hand and asked, "See?"
On her hand was a pink brooch with a golden moon and four small circles, each a different colour. Darien reached out to take it from her and she snatched her hand back, shaking her head wildly so that her dark mop of hair whipped from side to side. "NO!"
Darien jerked his hand back and looked at the child in shock. "Why not?" he asked after a moment.
"'Cus ma... 'ntie Reenie said no one could touch it 'cept me," she stopped for a second and then added, "But Grandmama said I was to give it to my Daddy so's he could find my ma... auntie Reenie!"
Darien sat back on his heals for a moment as the thought he'd put aside minutes before demanded attention. What was it that Selene kept starting to call Serena before she corrected herself? It was something starting with 'm'. Could she have been about to call Serena m-
"Who's your Daddy Selene?" Marcus asked
Selene frowned before struggling, "Prince Endi... Endimi... Endinimi... Endi... Endy! Prince Endy!"
Darien's wide eyes met those of Marcus'. Simultaneously both men turned and looked at the girl again. "Do you mean Prince Endymion?" Marcus managed to ask through his incredulity.
Selene grinned and nodded happily, "Uh huh! Do you know him? 'Cus I gotta give him the present real fast 'cus my Grandmama said so, 'cus it's important!"
Darien just stared at the girl. Beside him Mina whispered, shocked, "No wonder her eyes look so much like yours Dare!"
Marcus glanced at Darien for a moment before touching Selene lightly on the shoulder. The girl looked at him and he said, "Selene, do you know how sometimes people have more than one name? Like your auntie Reenie being Sailor Moon? Do you know about that?" The girl's eyes widened and she nodded. Marcus continued, "Well Darien's other name is prince Endymion of Earth."
Selene's eyes swivelled to Darien and she moved closer to him. Sapphire blue eyes met sapphire blue, both pairs filled with surprise and wonder.
"Daddy?" the girl whispered and then she squealed and threw herself into Darien's arms and hugged him tightly. Darien carefully hugged her back, mindful of her injuries, as he tried to assimilate the shock. Before he could the little girl pulled back and held out the brooch to him.
"Here," she insisted, "You gotta hurry 'cus Grandmama said so!"
Numbly Darien accepted it and as it touched his skin Darien's still reeling mind was swallowed by light. It seemed ages later that he opened his eyes again and he involuntarily stepped back as he took in the scene before him. There were two figures, one kneeling on the ground and the other lying on a stone slab covered by a white veil. He recognised the kneeling figure as Serena, or rather Sailor Moon and as he tried to go to her but when he was a metre away he was stopped by an invisible wall. He pounded on the wall but to no avail, all he could do was shudder at the state she was in. Her back was a bloody mass of welts and her wrists dripped blood. Her long ponytails were no longer gold but crimson, drenched in blood. He circled around her and almost choked when he saw that her eyes were all pupil, black pools of agony and horror. Her rapier was unsheathed and lay in her lap and she was mindlessly stroking the blade, cutting the skin on her hands to ribbons in the process.
Darien looked around, trying to see what was stopping him from going to her when he noticed the other figure. As he moved towards the stone slab he kept an eye on Serena even though she didn't move. He couldn't see the features of the woman under the veil and yet another invisible wall prevented him from touching her. Though he couldn't discern details he noticed that the girl was gaunt, through the veil he could see that each of her bones were in sharp relief against her skin. A small detail nagged at his subconscious and he paled as he realised what it was. He watched the hidden girl carefully to confirm it, she was breathing only about once every minute.
"It is a sad scene is it not, Endymion?" a clear voice came from behind him.
Darien whirled and found himself facing a tall lady with silver white hair arranged in the meatball style that Serena used to wear. "Who-" he started only to be interrupted as the woman stopped by Serena's side.
"It seems as if everything conspires to crush her and in some ways that is true. The universe seeks to forge her into something much greater than she already is and yet as things are she is growing brittle, not stronger. She is so very lonely."
"Then why didn't she some back to me?" Darien burst out, forgetting his other questions in the pain of his own lonliness.
The woman looked straight at him and replied, "Why didn't you seek her out?"
"She blocked our link! I couldn't find her!"
The woman's compassionate eyes didn't move from him. "She shielded herself from the Negaverse, yet if you had truly tried to find her then it is not possible for her to have stopped you, you are bound far too tightly together."
Unable to find an answer Darien just stared at her. "Who are you?" he finally burst out.
Pure blue eyes met his and Darien couldn't help but glance toward the only other being he had ever met with such eyes. Serena still knelt by the woman's side, completely unaware of him. He remembered Serena's eyes from the times a decade before when he had been able to stare into them either while rescuing her or teasing her. They had been a clear and perfect blue that he had never admitted to loving until after she had gone.
The woman moved and Darien's eyes flicked back to her. She stopped by the second girl and slowly began to remove the veil which concealed the girl's features. She had only removed half of the silken covering when Darien realised that the figure was that of the Moon Princess.
"Princess Serenity?" he gasped striking the unseen barrier around her.
The woman paused for a moment, only the princess' face remaining covered. The woman locked her gaze on Darien as she wrenched the veil completely off. Darien stepped back as if struck. The princess' unconscious features were identical to those of the catatonic Sailor Moon's. The woman bent down and kissed the sleeping princess' forehead before she moved back to the Serena's side. There she knelt and lay her palms across the girls restless and bloodied hands, stilling them.
Still touching Serena she looked back to Darien and spoke, "My daughter is dying, the demands made upon her have almost destroyed her spirit and her physical body will soon follow suit unless you intervene. She cannot stand alone any longer. Be her strength as you were meant to be. Heal her."
"How?" he asked, aware that time was running out and anxious to move.
The woman motioned to the gaunt form of the princess, "Her spirit is starving, nourish it," then she moved her hands back to Serena's before the girl had time to resume damaging herself, "Her body is ailing, care for it." He watched her as she watched Serena and recognition dawned.
"I will... thank you your Majesty."
She looked at him and smiled sadly, "I wish I could do more but the time for my aid has passed, her survival depends on you now."
Darien saluted in the manner of the Moon Kingdom a millennium ago, hand to heart, and blinked. When his eyes opened again he found that barely not even a minute had passed since his daughter had handed him the brooch. Thinking of the brooch he looked back at it and the knowledge of how to open it came from nowhere. An expert twist and the top flicked open to reveal the Imperium Silver Crystal inside.
"The exception which proved the rule," he muttered in disgust.
"What?" Mina asked from his side, slightly dazzled by the glittering crystal.
"Only the royal family of the moon can use this," Darien shook the hand that held the brooch, "Serena is the exception that proves the rule because she is the princess Serenity!"
"She's what?" Marcus yelped.
Darien stood in a single fluid motion, "Serena is Serenity and if I'd had any sense at all I'd have realised it ten years ago!" He turned to Selene, "Don't worry Leni, I'll find your mother, and I'll bring her back safely to you."
The little girl smiled and nodded. Without another word Darien spun around and stalked out of the room. Several steps down the corridor is pace increased to a trot and then a run.
"LUNA!" he bellowed as he ran, shoving the brooch into a pocket of his green sports jacket. The small black cat darted straight into his legs as she came out of an ajoining room. Without missing a beat Darien bent, scooped her up and charged on. Seconds later he jumped down the stairs from the front door and rushed to his car. With out ceremony he threw the bewildered guardian into the car and then slipped behind the wheel. He started the ignition but was stopped by several voices before he could get the car into gear.
Several seconds later the man and the cat were joined by three more companions. Barely had the last sat down before Darien had put his foot to the accelerator and the car shot down the driveway.
"Darien what's going on?" Luna demanded.
"Yeah Dare where are we going?" Lita demanded. Raye and Marcus watched him and Darien took a hand from the steering wheel, pulled the brooch out of his pocked and tossed it to Marcus in the seat behind him. "Recognise that Luna?" he asked, taking a hard right.
"Of course!" the guardian exclaimed, "It's Serena's transformation brooch, why do you have it?"
"She ran off on us Luna," Marcus told her.
"She WHAT?!" Luna screeched.
Darien ignored his passengers searching a connection that lay in the back of his mind, a link that was an elementary part of his being.
"She disappeared," Marcus repeated shortly.
The link was heavier than it should be and Darien recognised the weight as the shielding Queen Serenity had told him of. Knowing that it could not stop him if he were determined made the difference and, with care, he pushed through it.
"Why?" Raye and Lita asked simultaneously.
His homing instinct guided him and he recklessly cut across three lanes, ignoring the rest of the traffic he turned onto a small street.
"The gods only know-" Marcus spat out.
Suddenly he was through her shields and the link resonated between them clearly.
"Luna," Darien suddenly said, "What does 'Silver Blood Final Strike' do?"
For a moment the car was silent and then the cat spoke softly, "It's a last resort spell for the moon queen when the crystal is not available. It drains the caster so not only her life force is used but also all the strength of her soul. It releases a phenomenal amount of energy but in the process drains the caster's spirit until there is nothing left."
He made a hard left and then drove straight onto the grass of the park, ignoring the shouts of the single picnicking couple.
"That's what she's planning to do, she wants to destroy the Negaverse in one strike."
"But that'd kill her..." Luna trailed off in horrified comprehension.
"She knows," Darien said shortly.
He slammed on the breaks as they arrived at a large grove of trees.
"I don't understand," Lita protested, "You said only a moon queen could do the spell so why are we worried?"
"Because Serena is Serenity," Darien growled as he jerked himself out of the car.
Marcus followed quickly, adding, "And she has been moon queen in all but name ever since she came of age at twenty-one.
The two scouts suddenly understood the urgency and pursued their fellows, Lita delaying only long enough to pick up Luna. Darien was ducking and weaving through the bushes with ease, Marcus close behind him and the two scouts closing quickly. Darien didn't stop to think, he just followed his instincts, knowing that they were leading him in the correct direction.
"How do you know where we're going?" Raye puffed as she caught up.
"The link," Darien snarled.
"I thought she'd blocked it," Lita threw in.
"She had but she can't block me I'm a part of her. Thing is I've been an idiot and going about it the wrong way completely. I tried bullying my way down the link and her shields reacted as if I were an invader. All I had to do was be myself, it's so simple I want to kick myself. I should have figured it out years ago, I mean even after she put the shields up I was still dreaming about her so I was obviously still getting through when I slept. I'm so stupid."
"Don't blame yourself Darien-" Marcus tried to soothe him.
"You don't understand," Darien spat out, "For the last ten years we've all persisted in thinking of her as two people; the princess and Sailor Moon when she's really just one; Serena. I should have known, I mean I've loved her as both for as long as I've known her. I should have known that they were one and the same. I should have known!"
"So should I!" a small voice interjected.
Darien stopped and looked to where Luna was in Lita's arms and the cat continued in an anguished tone, "I lived with her, I trained her and I still didn't know!"
"None of us figured it out," Marcus interrupted, "We generals knew that there hadn't been a Sailor Moon in the Silver Millenium and we never thought to ask how there could be on now. We all knew that Endymion loved Serenity yet we never considered to compare Serena with Serenity after Darien fell in love with her. We can not change the past, all we can do is ensure that she survives now."
Darien nodded, walked to Lita, and took Luna from her arms. "She's in there," he jerked his chin at a few trees.
"So's the Negaverse," Raye warned.
Darien nodded, "I know, you guys transform and handle them please. Luna and I'll take care of Serena. Just wait until we've got her out of the way" Raye, Lita and Marcus nodded and soon Sailors Mars and Jupiter along with Malachite were splitting up to circle the small clearing surrounded by trees.
"Darien, why did you want me here?" Luna whispered as Darien approached the clearing.
Darien carefully looked around a tree trunk and inspected the clearing while he murmured, "She's hurting badly Luna. It's so bad that she doesn't care whether she lives or dies anymore. Before she had to keep going for her... our daughter's sake but now she knows that we'll keep Leni safe and she doesn't have to worry about it. She thinks she doesn't have any reason to live. We need to convince her that she should go living for her own sake. We have to make her see that she is somebody worth living for, that she herself is precious. I think that, other than Selene, we're the only two she's ever been close to that still live. Two people Luna, just two of us to convince her that she's wanted."
The guardian was silent as Darien's gaze swept the clearing, wondering if he'd brought them to the right place. Luna was considering what she'd just been told, her own heart breaking at the thought that the cheerful child she'd known had changed so much. Darien's gaze locked onto a small figure leaning against a tree trunk and although his eyes told him it was a young girl, his heart told him that it was his lady.
"Luna, there she is."
Luna climbed onto Darien's shoulders and peered out with him. She saw the small blonde girl of about five or six leaning against the tree trunk. "Are you sure?" she questioned, though not really doubtful.
Darien nodded, "I don't know how she's changed her appearance but that's her."
"Appearance... oh!" Luna exclaimed, "She must be using the lunar disguise pen... oh my, there's blood running down that tree, I think her injuries are getting worse-"
"There they are," Darien hissed.
Luna followed his gaze and saw the tall man walking arrogantly towards the girl. Hidden in the shadows behind him were several larger forms that both Darien and Luna recognised as youma awaiting the order to attack.
*****
Serena waited patiently for the general to approach her. She had used the disguise pen to make herself appear as she had when she had been seven on the moon. The way she sat hardly concealed the crescent moon on her forehead, glittering reflections of light continued to show through strands of her hair. The man stopped two metres aways and Serena artfully lifted her head, allowing her fringe to fall away, fully revealing the crescent. Her outward expression showed nothing other than extreme fear and she felt the general take the bait.
"Well princess, it looks as if your guardian just can't keep a hold of you!" he sneered.
Making her voice sound like a feeble whine she wailed, "I wan' my Mama!" and then started crying.
He grabbed her arm and scowled at her. Shaking her once for emphasis he snarled, "Shut up moon brat or I'll give you to my youma rather than keeping you for bait."
Inwardly scorning the man for his gullibility she slowly stopped crying, sniffing loudly as if she would burst back into tears at the slightest provocation. The man swung her over his shoulder and she couldn't restrain her moan as he aggravated her injuries. Luckily for her he turned away from the tree which had been supporting her before he'd noticed the blood stains against the bark and grass. She wished he'd hurry up bcause she didn't not know how much longer she could keep the deception up and she needed him to get her into the first fortress of the Negaverse. Once there she could initiate the final strike and the resultant destruction would disable the Negaverse for years if not destroy it outright. That she probably wouldn't survive didn't worry her. Selene was safe, the scouts would take care of her and so would Tuxedo Mask. She didn't know the generals but if Tuxedo Mask trusted them then so would she.
The Negaverse general stopped in the middle of the clearing and threw her down on the ground. She bit her tongue as she tried to hold back whimpers of pain caused not only when she'd been dropped so harshly but also when he'd placed a boot on her crushed rib to stop her from running. As Serena tried not to writhe in agony the general built a portal to the Negaverse. Several seconds later he stepped back, absently putting weight on the foot on top of her and smiling at the shriek she made. He bent to pick her up but a small black shape lept into his path and attached itself to his face with four sets of sharp claws. As he cried out in pain and anger, ordering his youma to attack, another figure appeared and smoothly lifted Serena out of harms way.
Instants later Serena was safely in the arms of the stranger, and he knelt in under the shelter of a nearby tree as the youma answered their master's call. The black shape fell away from the general's head and the red faced man looked up in rage just in time to see two scouts and a royal general attack.
"DIVINE MARTIAN FURY!"
"LIGHTNING GALE FORCE STRIKE!"
Fire, lightning, wind and pure energy combined against the enemy general and the youma but neither Darien or Serena noticed, both too involved in their battle against each other. She tried to struggle out of his arms but in her weakened state all she could do was twist around in his arms to face him.
"What do you think you're doing? Let me go!" she demanded, her voice still strong despite her body's weakness.
"What do I think I'm doing?" he repeated angrily, "I'm stopping you from doing the most stupid thing of your life!"
"You idiot, he would have taken me to the first fortress of the Negaverse, I could have destroyed all of them! You wouldn't have had to worry about the Negaverse for years!"
"At what cost? Gods Meatball Head, it wouldn't be worth it if it meant losing you-"
"Serena!" Luna exclaimed, interrupting the argument as she bounded to the pair.
"Luna tell this idiot to let me go!" Serena pointed gestured to Darien, "If I hurry I can fix it so he still thinks he's kidnapping me."
"You're hurt, you have to come home with us so that you can have you're injuries seen to," Luna contradicted.
"You don't understand, Luna we could beat them, maybe for good!" Serena tried to lunge out of Darien's arms but his grip was too strong.
"No you don't understand," he insisted implacably.
Luna finished, "We won't just stand by and watch you kill yourself."
"My death wasn't certain, I could survive!"
"You're going to," Darien interrupted darkly, "Because we're not going to let you go."
"You were going to use a Final Strike Serena," Luna cried, "You can't survive that, not even your spirit can survive that!"
"You don't get it, there's a way if I use the crystal that-"
"Could kill you just as easily!" Luna interrupted.
Darien freed a hand and used it to force her to face him, "We won't let you die, it took too long for me to find to just let you go again now."
The image of the young blonde girl blurred and reformed into that of the same dark haired woman he'd seen that morning. Her black hair cut in a style similar to his own, a thin face, drawn with worry and with blue-black bruises all over her. Other than the bruises the main difference were the golden crescent on her forehead and her eyes, they were the same clear blue that he remembered from ten years before only now they were clouded with the pain of ten years of hell.
She shook her head at him, "I could have ended it, even if I hadn't survived you could've taken care of Leni, you're her father after all. It could all have been over-"
"At the price of one of the most precious souls in existance," Darien whispered.
"Mine?" she laughed, a short bitter bark, "Oh that's a joke, I'm the cause of more deaths than Hitler!" Both Luna and Darien looked at her in denial and she retorted, "Let's start with my parents and work our way forwards. After them was my brother, my best friend, all the people in St Joe's Hospital, the business block in New Jersey, the people in Arlingtone General Hospital. Oh and let's not forget the entire Silver Millennium! I'm a Typhoid Mary! No one, least of all me, is worth that many lives. You should have let me finish it off, it would have freed us all."
"You can't blame yourself for things done by the Negaverse," Luna insisted.
"Then who?"
"Blame the Negaverse, blame Beryl or Metallia or whoever you want but it wasn't your fault Serena, it never was," Darien added.
"It's me they keep coming after," Serena denied, "Because I'm bloody Serenity and I have the bloody crystal. They keep coming after me and people keep dying. If I'm dead they have no target and if I take them with me when I go, well all the better!"
"OK then!" Darien shouted at her, "Blame yourself then! It's your fault all of it! You deserve to die. For god's sake you're being a Meatball Head Serena. Listen to yourself, you're mired down by self pity. What happened to the girl who used to laugh and make everyone happy? The girl I used to love?"
"I don't know," she snarled, "I think she kicked the bucket back when she saw her brother's arm torn off and used like a paint brush!" Both Darien and Luna looked shocked at this and Serena sneered, "You don't know me, you never did. You've fooled yourselves into thinking that you cared for me when it's just an obligation to a person you think I am. Well don't worry, princess Serenity is dead, that part of me died a long time ago! You don't have to worry about me any more."
Darien didn't reply, instead he turned to Luna and said, "This is where I need you're help to show this little fool the truth." He met the cat's eyes and after a moment she nodded. Before Serena could open her mouth again a beam of light shot out from the crescent on Luna's forehead and connected with Serena's. The woman's own crescent marking appeared and began to glow softly. An instant later a second beam shot from Luna to Darien.
*****
Malachite found Luna watching the two unconscious humans as they lay under a tree. Sailors Mars and Jupiter followed him moments later, both satisfied with the workout they'd just had. The dark general and his five youma had all been defeated fairly quickly. The royal general bent down and investigated the pair. Darien seemed to be perfectly healthy but Serena was plainly injured seriously and needed medical attention. Her side was no longer bleeding but obviously had a large and dangerous gash still gaping, the white shirt she was wearing almost completely soaked with blood.
"Don't touch them!" Luna warned.
Endymion's silver haired general froze where he stood, "Why? We need to get Serena to medical attention. I don't think even Amy could handle this, she's going to need a hospital."
Luna merely looked at Darien's sleeping features. "If Darien succeeds then I suspect she'll just need to be bandaged and she'll heal on her own. If he fails then she won't wake up. We can't afford to distract him."
Malachite nodded slowly and then powered down back to Marcus. Mars and Jupiter followed suit and soon the three civilians were waiting with the cat to discover the outcome of the battle.
*****