Act Ten - Problems at Home

In Crystal Tokyo, night had covered the city and there was still no word from the Sailor Neo-Soldiers. The queen stared out the window, scanning the garden below for any sign of her daughter.

"Usako, maybe you should get some rest," her husband suggested, wrapping his strong arms around her waist. "It could be days before Small Lady returns. As you remember, that labyrinth can be fairly treacherous."

"I'll be okay," she replied. Neo-Queen Serenity turned around and gave King Endymion a small peck on the cheek. "So, how did your meeting with Rei-chan go?"

"I'm afraid not very well. Apparently, there has been some unrest between the people of Mars. A faction there is threatening to begin a civil war unless the crystal is recovered soon. Rei-chan and I managed to convince the leaders to stall their plans for the immediate future, but I'm not sure how long this cease-fire will last. Rumor has it that Pluto may not be too far behind, especially without the princess here to do damage control. Shingo-kun's doing the best he can, but the Plutonians are reluctant to trust an Earthling, even if he is your brother."

The queen sighed, then placed her head on his shoulder. Despite what she had told Endymion, she was feeling quite tired, but Serenity was determined to be there to welcome her daughter home, whenever that may be.

"I hate this, Mamo-chan. Our kingdom is falling apart before our very eyes and I'm completely powerless to stop it. I just know Queen Jade is behind all this fighting. I just know it…"

"Don't worry about it, meat-ball head," he said, using his special pet name for her. "The guardians and I will not allow anything to happen to the kingdom. And soon Small Lady, Masago, and the rest will come back home with the crystal. Peace will return to Crystal Tokyo. I promise."

She looked up into his deep blue eyes, the same color as the Earth, and saw the pain inside. Endymion had always been her pillar of strength, always so brave and courageous, that it scared her to see him like this. But Serenity knew that this had to be doubly difficult for him.

Almost as if he had read her mind, Endymion turned away from her face, trying to hide the tears welling in his eyes. "I always regretted not telling her the truth," he whispered to no one in particular. "Her mother thought it would be best if she never found out, but every time I see her face, I just want to run to her and take her in my arms…"

"I know, Mamo-chan, I know."

The queen's guardian cat Luna walked quietly in the room, her head hung low. She wished she didn't have to tell the queen the news, but Serenity needed to know. It seemed as if all the news was bad news these days. When would it end?

Luna jumped on the fluffy white bed and cleared her throat to get their attention. Serenity and Endymion turned around, surprised to see her there.

"Luna, what are you doing here?" the queen asked, taking a seat on the bed beside her. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid we just got some bad news," she replied.

"Is it Small Lady?"

"No," Luna assured her, much to Serenity's relief. "We just received a telegram from Elysion. One of the Maenads of the shrine was killed earlier this evening, and Priest Helios-sama has suddenly disappeared."

"What?" Endymion shouted out in disbelief. "Helios is gone? Are you sure, Luna? What happened?"

"Nobody knows for sure, Your Majesty. The body was discovered just over an hour ago in the priest's private prayer room. There were signs of a struggle. Candles knocked over, slashed pillows, blood on the wall… That sort of thing. The police also found a small black blade on the scene."

"Do they have a suspect?"

Luna looked down at the blanket, not wanting to answer the question, but she knew she had to. "Well, their first thought was that Priest Helios-sama had murdered Aurora-san and had fled the area."

"But Helios would never do anything like that, Luna," Endymion insisted. "He's a priest, for crying out loud!"

"He didn't," Luna continued. "The knife proves that there was a third person in the room. Both Aurora's and an unidentified person's fingerprints were found on the knife, and testing shows that blood on a candlestick did not belong to the priest or to Aurora."

Serenity's heart began to race as she began to suspect who the murderer was. "Who killed Aurora-san?" she asked, although she already knew the answer.

"She was killed be supernatural forces. Her body was filled with a negative energy, most likely from the Dark Kingdom. As to the name of the murderer…"Luna paused for a moment before continuing on. "As to his name, a large letter D was engraved on the knife…"

"It was Prince Damian, wasn't it, Luna?" the king asked, completing her thought.

As the black cat slowly nodded her head, the queen could feel herself getting faint. Her usually rosy complexion had become as pale as a ghost, and her heart was pounding wildly.

"Are you okay, Your Majesty?" Luna asked.

"I'm fine, Luna," she assured her. "I guess all this Dark Kingdom business has just gotten to me, that's all."

Attempting to convince them she was okay, Serenity quickly stood up, only to fall back onto the bed when a spell of dizziness came over her. What was wrong with her? She felt so weak…

"Usako?"

Endymion, realizing something was definitely wrong, ordered Luna to find Hotaru and Ami, despite his wife's claims she was perfectly okay. Then he put her to bed.

"Mamo-chan, I'm not a child," she told him as he pulled the sheets over her. "I don't want to go to bed until I know my daughter is safe. This completely unnecessary."

"You've been acting strangely ever since the Silver Crystal was stolen, Usako," he said. Endymion sat on the edge of the bed and held her sweaty hand. "At first, I just thought it was stress and anxiety, but these symptoms have steadily gotten worse as time passed by. I'm really worried about you. I may be overreacting, but it doesn't hurt to be safe."

"But I hate doctors!" she whined, sounding more like the crybaby she used to be than the regal queen she had become. "I'm not sick. I can't be sick, because I have a kingdom to run! It's not possible. I haven't been ill in over a thousand years."

Luna returned with Ami and Hotaru in the middle of the queen's tantrum. The two doctors looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They were definitely dealing with Usagi, not Neo-Queen Serenity.

Once Usagi calmed down, Ami pulled out her stethoscope and began listening to her heartbeat, as Hotaru took a sample of her blood.

"How long have you had these racing heart palpitations, Your Majesty?" Ami asked.

"I guess for about five or ten minutes," she answered. "It's nothing, Ami-chan. I'm just in shock from learning about the murder and Helios' disappearance. I'll be fine in a few minutes."

"Don't listen to her," Endymion interrupted. "Something's wrong, Ami-chan. She's been really absent-minded today, and just now, she turned so white, it looked like she was about to faint."

"I have to admit, Your Majesty, your heart rate is extremely high," Ami said, placing a thermometer in her mouth. "And I'm not exactly thrilled with the information I just heard. This isn't a normal reaction to receiving shocking news, no matter how disturbing."

After reading her temperature, Ami was more than convinced that the queen was seriously ill. The numbers were through the roof. Endymion placed a cool compress on his wife's forehead at her instruction, then Ami left the room to confer with Hotaru, who had went down to her laboratory to run the blood test.

The lab was an eerie quiet tonight. Usually it was bursting with activity as scientists did research on new medicines and perfected recent technological advances in the medical field, but the only one there was Hotaru, who was busy at one of the workstations, using a powerful microscope to examine the blood sample.

"This is unbelievable," Hotaru said to herself, not noticing as Ami walked up behind her.

"Did you find anything, Hotaru-chan?"

Startled by Ami's sudden appearance, Hotaru jumped but calmed down when she saw who it was. She wore a confused look on her face.

"Ami-san, you are not going to believe this, but every test I ran came out negative," she informed the other doctor. "According to this sample, the queen is perfectly healthy."

"But that's impossible," Ami replied, handing her the queen's chart. "Look at these numbers. Fever, racing heartbeat, dizziness, shortness of breath, sweating… These are serious symptoms. A healthy person does not have a 105° temperature."

"I know it doesn't make sense, but we cannot ignore the facts. How can we treat a disease that her body says doesn't exist? It's almost as if some kind of sorcery in behind this."

"What are you suggesting?"

Hotaru pulled out a long test tube filled with a clear liquid, and using a medicine dropper, slipped a droplet of the queen's blood into the solution. It changed to black.

"Just as I thought," Hotaru said grimly. "Negative energy."