Ch. 1
Ami frowned as she tried again to work her newest toy: her blender. Rei, Minako and Usagi had all asked for smoothies. And as it was her blender, she was expected to make them. She looked carefully in the book then placed a few more chopped bananas in the blender, put the top on and hit "puree".
She looked in at it after about thirty seconds and added some ice cubes, praying that this time the entire thing wouldn't explode as it had the last time.
Someone heard her, and the banana and strawberry smoothies came out fine this time. She smiled sheepishly at the other four girls as she brought them out.
"Mako-chan would have a fit if she saw the kitchen."
Minako took her smoothie and sipped it, her face contorting into a frown.
"No word from her and Shin yet, hmmm?"
Ami shook her head. "Nothing. I mean, it's been a month. You'd think they'd have called us from the mountains."
"Weren't they only supposed to stay two weeks?" Rei asked. Usagi nodded.
"Yeah, they were, but they easily could have decided to stay a while longer. I mean come on, they're newly weds, and I seem to remember Ami and Touma doing something similar a few years back," she said, grinning at Ami, who flushed.
"Ugh. Don't remind me. The last few weeks were nice, but that first week was a nightmare. I hope nothing like that happened with them. They don't need that on their Honeymoon."
"Don't need what?" Touma asked as he came into the room. Ami smiled ruefully.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten Skye."
Touma paled. "No, they don't need that. Mako-chan would definitely kill the girl before Shin even got to the place where they were fighting. I'm just lucky I got there in time before you turned the poor girl into a paraplegic."
"You're lucky I didn't set on you instead," Ami said, brandishing a pencil at him. Touma smiled sheepishly and continued into the kitchen, where a muffled "Oh My Gods…" could be heard. Minako looked critically at Ami.
"It's that bad?"
Ami flushed. "Let's just say I have a big job ahead of me."
Bertie smiled as she changed the diaper on her nephew. His bright violet eyes looked up at her as she tugged a shirt onto him. She sighed, remembering the days when her own son was so small. She picked up Sayotasho and held him, singing a soft lullaby to him, and waiting for Katzie and Anubis to return from shopping.
She sighed as she sat back in a chair and watched him drift off to sleep. Everything was going so well for all of them. Rajura and Rubbeus had become friends again. Naaza had met Naru, and the two were beginning to go out. Prizma and Sh'ten were at that 'we're-so-into-each-other-no-one-else-exists' stage. Benjamin was having a blast playing with Chibiusa and Gohan, even if they both were roughly twice his age. Katzie and Anubis were beginning to plan out their own wedding, and Sayotasho was getting a chance to grow up away from the Dark Kingdom. Everything was going perfectly.
So something was bound to happen.
And she suspected that it already had. It was unusual for Mako-chan and Shin to go out and not call to see how everything was going. It was odd, to say the least. The other girls weren't worried, chalking their absence up to the fact that they were newlyweds.
Bertie wasn't so sure, and she knew that if she talked to her husband, he'd concur.
The only problem would be convincing the Senshi to set out to the mountains to investigate.
Makoto gasped as the soldier forced open her mouth and forced her to eat: she'd refused any food the Dark Kingdom had offered her and it was like this every day. She wouldn't have it any other way: she'd rather go down fighting than become submissive. After the soldier was done, he left her alone in her cell and not for the first time Makoto wondered how much time had passed: It was hard to tell. She hadn't seen her husband since the time they'd been taken and she knew she was being held as bait for her friends.
So where were they?
There was a possibility that they hadn't, for some reason, noticed their absence yet. There was also the possibility that they simply couldn't make it for another reason.
Whatever it was, Makoto had faith that she'd be rescued soon.
Then, then Talpa would pay.
Sh'ten looked up as Naaza entered the room, humming softly. Sh'ten raised a brow. Since when did Naaza hum? Naaza glanced at the smaller man and smirked.
"Something wrong?"
"There must be," Sh'ten said, his gaze dropping back to the newspaper he had spread before him. "You're in a good mood."
Naaza smirked again and, taking one of the smaller knives, hurled it at Sh'ten, the knife landing inches from his hand and cutting through the paper into the wooden table beneath it. Sh'ten calmly pulled out the knife and without glancing upwards hurled it back at Naaza, who caught it, grinning.
"You're getting better. A month ago I'd have killed you like that."
"A month ago we were a little preoccupied with our defection," Sh'ten answered. "I don't think testing my reflexes was on your mind just then."
"You're the only one who needs it," Naaza muttered. Sh'ten raised a brow again.
"Why don't you go bug Anubis? I'm busy."
Naaza glanced over Sh'ten's shoulder and frowned.
"The personals. Why are you looking through them?"
Sh'ten smiled and pointed and Naaza's eyes widened in shock. Sh'ten had sent out a personal to Prizma. Naaza chuckled.
"You're a flatterer."
Sh'ten shrugged. "Prizma seems to enjoy it."
Naaza grinned and began rummaging through the refrigerator in search of some food. He frowned when he found none.
"When is Makoto going to come back and cook for us?"
Sh'ten shrugged. "She and Shin aren't back yet is what I hear."
Naaza blinked. Not back yet? He frowned and left the kitchen, meeting up with Minako and Benjamin playing a game of wizard chess in the living room. He smiled to his godson and turned to Minako who had just lost a rook to Benjamin's excellent playing.
"Minako, is it true that Makoto and Shin aren't back yet?"
Minako blinked but nodded. "Yes, it is. Why?"
"Don't you think," Naaza said softly. "That it's odd for a senshi to be spending so much time away from her friends when something could happen and then she'd have no way to reach you? Isn't that why they scheduled a short honeymoon in the first place?"
Minako blinked again. Naaza was right!
"So…" she said slowly. "You think something's wrong?"
Naaza frowned. "There's truly only one way to find out."
Ami gasped as she took in the sight before her. Something had indeed happened.
At the urging of Bertie, Rajura and Naaza, the entire group had gone up to the mountains to the resort where Makoto and Shin had gone on their honeymoon.
The sight before them now was one of a struggle.
Clothes were strewn about, the bed in upheaval and traces of blood were on the bed and around it.
The first thing the Senshi noticed was Makoto's henshin pen lying on a table.
The Troopers noticed that Shin's armour orb was gone…but his clothes weren't.
The Shogun and Ayakashi Sisters made the most important discovery: in the wall, a deep gash. A gash, Rajura said grimly, that matched the type that the weapon of a Dark Kingdom soldier's might make.
As Usagi sifted through the bed, she came upon a piece of paper with a symbol on it: a black crescent moon.
She held up the paper for all to see and concerned looks were exchanged around the room.
The Dark Kingdom most definitely had Mako-chan and Shin.
