Darien walked around his ship smiling at the orange-peach atmosphere of Venus. They were preparing to take off, and Darien made hid rounds around his ship congratulating his men. Venus had fell and its royal family was dead, all except the princess of course. They had never killed any of the planet's princesses, they were all held captive on Earth as collateral, in case any of the planets felt the need to rebel. Princess Mina had gone to Earth on an earlier ship and would make a nice addition to there collection of princesses, now only incomplete by one, that pesky Moon Princess. But even that was only a matter of time, his troops on the moon reported that the moon would fall to their attacks any day now, even the magic of the Silver Imperium crystal couldn't last forever. He sighed, a happy smile on his face. Fortune truly favored the brave, and as he was the bravest of them all, fortune was his best friend.
He found himself up at the brig watching the crew ready for its take off. There was no doubt he was going to be in in trouble when he got home. He was expected back on the transport that had brought Princess Mina, but had opted to stay on Venus had explore it's landscape and discover new places. He was smiling; thinking of the joy that exploration gave him when someone called his name over in the corner of the brig.
Cartier was the royal mapmaker and one of Darien's favorite people. It was him that taught Darien the wonder of maps, their secrets, their mysteries and their answers. Cartier's old face was excited making him look much less than his 70 years. He grew to love maps almost as much as Cartier did for they were the proof of all his discoveries. His title might be captain but he fancied himself an explorer, and a damn good one at that.
Darien made short work of the distance between him and the old man his black cloak billowing after him and his chest armor reflecting the lights of the ships many blinking lights and gauges. He smiled at the man and was about to speak but Cartier cut him off, sounding like a kid locked in a candy shop.
"Captain," he said hurriedly, "Look at what I found amongst the things we confiscated from the Venusian Castle." He gestured to the map lying in front of him on the table. Darien leaned over the table to inspect the map brushing a stray lock of black hair out of his midnight eyes. His eyes went wide and he suddenly saw why Cartier was so excited. This wasn't a map of the Venusian landscape, but of the moon. A very detailed, carefully drawn map showing every river, lake, mountain, stream and pass. Darien looked up at the smiling old man and smiled.
"This is unbelievable, Cartier. With this map, we could be rid of the moon and the pesky Queen in a day! A half of day even! The possibilities are endless!"
"I know," Cartier said with a smile.
Darien clapped him on the back and leaned back over to look at his new treasure when another member of his crew called his name.
"Captain!" Darien turned around to see the Kunzite, his second in command, march into the brig followed by a group ragged woman flanked by soldiers. Darien was about to ask what Kunzite thought he was doing bringing innocent Venusians on to the ship as they were about to take off when he was saw the glint of light of silver hair. Nobody had silver hair on Venus, it was only found on one planet--The Moon. Darien stood up tall and put on his coldest face, these were people from the one planet between Earth and total domination.
Kunzite reached behind and grabbed the Lunarian walking directly behind him and threw her roughly onto the ground at Darien's feet. "Kiss the Captain's feet," Kunzite said a wicked smile playing on his face.
Darien had to smile too, leave it to Kunzite to find new and improved ways to embarrass the always proud Lunarians. The woman looked up at Darien, with a hatred like none Darien had ever seen blazing in eyes as blue as ice. Darien couldn't help but notice that even dressed in a ragged gray dress, her beauty couldn't be dimmed, her hair was the silver of moonbeams that was falling out of a bun at the nape of her neck. He could tell that it was long, probably ending somewhere below her knees. She was simply the most beautiful woman Darien had ever seen in his life.
But that meant nothing to him. She was a Lunarian and therefore his worst enemy. Darien smiled his most arrogant smile and said to her, "I believe someone gave you an order--slave."
I hatred had been burning in her eyes before it was nothing compared to what was in them now, but he only caught a glimpse of it before she ducked her head in what seemed like defeat, but that only lasted for a moment before the woman looked back up at him again and spit directly on his shiny shod foot.
Darien stepped back in outrage. "Chain her," he said harshly. "The others too." Darien furiously watched as the woman was grabbed harshly to her feet by Kunzite and was slapped in shackles, one rusty metal bracelet on each wrist connected by a foot of heavy chain. Darien took a deep breath to calm himself and then turned to his crew who were waiting his order to start the ship.
"Take off," he said.
"No!" Was the strangled scream behind him. Darien turned just in time to see the woman that had spit on him only a moment before steal a sword out of the guard next to her and with her shacked wrists fight off every man that came close to her. Then as if she felt that enough men at hit the floor moaning in pain to satisfy her she wrapped the chain of her shackles around the nearest soldier, who happened to be Kunzite, and positioned herself behind him so not only was her sword pointed directly to his throat with deadly purpose but she was also sufficiency choking him.
All the men in the brig stopped, even the woman who had came in with her had stopped their crying and watched with bated breath.
"Let them go." The first words that the woman had spoken and they were harsh but also had an undercurrent of desperation to them that made Darien wonder. "They have done nothing."
Darien took a step closer her but was only rewarded by the tightening the chains around one of his friends neck. "Let them go," she repeated and then spun quickly to block off an advance of a soldier coming from the side and then looked directly at Darien. "Let them go or I'll kill him."
Darien watched again as the chains tighten around Kunzites neck and her blade come closer to his neck. He no longer doubted that the woman would do what she threatened. He took his own sword, which had been lying naked in his hand since everything had broke loose, and pointed it at the closest Lunarian's heart. Other guards followed in suit until every one of the women had a sword only an inch away from death.
"No!" The woman cried again but her heart wasn't in it. She looked at Darien, their eyes meeting. "They have done nothing!" There was no mistaking the desperation in her voice now.
Darien just stared back not moving him a sword an inch.
Finally the woman released Kunzite from her hold a he fell to the ground gasping for breath. Darien and the others took their swords away from the women.
Darien knelt down to look at Kunzite eyeing the woman the whole time. The other guards had taken the sword out of her hand and she now stood looking over at the other Lunarians with a look of guilt, or was it regret? Whatever it was the emotion was gone in a blink of an eye and she just looked as hard and cold as she had with a sword in her hand.
"K-kill her," Kunzite gasped rubbing her neck and still trying to fill his lungs with the air he had lost.
"No," Darien said and looked into the woman's eyes. He stood up and walked purposely over to her until he stood directly in front of her and smiled his most terrible mocking smile. "Bring her down to my chambers, I have a better idea for her."
This was NOT a good thing.
Serena stood in the middle of a large room that consisted of a large bed, a desk and a dresser. Through a door the far corner she suspected there was a bathroom of some sort or as much as one there could be on a ship, even one of this size. She slowly walked toward the door that she was brought in through, silently cursing the sound of the shackles that have been so cruelly slapped on her.
She grabbed the doorknob and found that it wouldn't turn. So, they thought she was dangerous enough to lock in, did they?
Well, that made things a little more difficult.
She reached up to her hair as quietly as she could with her shackles and removed a single hair pin from the many that held her now falling hair in. Straightening out her clip she inserted it into the lock. After a few seconds of skillful manipulation with the pin and she heard the tumblers fall into place. She smiled and opened the crack and saw two well-armed and trained guards standing outside her door.
Damn, she thought and closed the door again. So much for an escape, she thought of that arrogant Captains face if he found out she had escaped from HIS own chambers, and smiled fleetingly. That would put that son of a bitch in his place and lift the moral of her people. God knows they needed a moral boosting, now more than ever thanks to her own stupidly.
She sighed and resisted the urge to sit down on the Captain's bed remembering the promise he had made on the deck above. Once word got back to the moon that she, Princess Serena Serenity, heir the moon throne and descended from the great Selene herself, got herself captured all hope would slowly dwindle. Not only that, but if she was ever found out to be the Moon Princess, it would surely mean her death. They wouldn't keep her alive like the other Princess', she was too dangerous, too much of a symbol, to be allowed to live. So instead they would keep her mother alive and in a cage, and destroy the Silver Imperium Crystal. When they did this her mother would be worst than dead; she'd be a shell with nothing to give her life but nothing to take it away either. She'd be a lost soul.
Serena spit on the ground just thinking of the despicable earthlings and their plan. She had one choice if she wanted to survive long enough to escape and go back to rally her people.
Silence.
No one must know who she is or what she is. To start out that was easy enough. No one on Earth knew what she looked like and those that she came in with wouldn't say a word to anyone. She shuttered thinking what was happening to them right now, probably locked in some cargo hold no doubt, freezing and scared and all because of her and her stupid plan.
She heard someone talk outside the door and quickly shook her head as if to dispel the unwanted
thoughts. If this was the Captain she had to face him with as much dignity as she could muster in her ragged dress, ratty hair and shackles.
She watched as the Captain walked into his room, somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered that his name was Darien, but that was unimportant information. She stood up straight and proud. He said nothing to her but instead went to touch her. She pulled back sharply, not wanting him to be within 3 feet of her no less to feel his hands on her.
"Do you not want me to take off your shackles?" He asked.
Serena stared at him, a little confused and them offered him her wrist half expecting him to laugh and keep those horrible shackles on, but to her surprise he gently touched the latch that she didn't even know was there and took them off. She rubbed her wrists trying to get rid off some off the pain shackles caused. She almost opened her moth to say thank you when something else the Captain was doing caught her attention.
He started to take of his cape, his breastplate, and finally his shirt. He deposited his sword onto the desk. Silently he strode to the door that oh his bathroom in nothing but his pants and disappeared into there.
Serena quietly tried to catch her breath. He was simply sculpted like a god, the most handsome man she ever laid her eyes on. She looked at the bathroom door and mentally kick herself. Just by thinking such thoughts made her a traitor to her planet and her people. She stood tall, she was princess god damn it, even if he couldn't know. She was--
He had walked back out of the bathroom still shirtless but this time it was another thought that floored her. His grim promise he made above deck.
"Bring her down to my chambers, I have a better idea for her."
What was he going to do? Thousands of thoughts swam trough her head, each more horrible than the last. He stopped right in front of her and said quietly, almost whispered, "You know what happens now, right?"
Serena suddenly felt like a little girl who knew nothing of the world and wanted to hide under the bed at the first sign of danger. She forgot all the training she received in hand to hand combat and self defense. All she could do was stare and hope for the best and expect the worst.
But all her doubts were put to rest when the Captain smiled his arrogant smile and produced a bucket of water and a sponge from behind his back. "You are to scrub my back." Serena was so relived she just took the bucket as he sat down, but then he added one single word that changed that. "Slave."
Serena was enraged. So that was what he wanted her for-- a slave. Earthlings were the only people cruel enough to assume that they could own people. She contemplated dumping the bucket of water over his head but instead took the sponge out of the soapy bucket and started to rub it harshly down Darien's back.
She could see his back arch in pain and could just imagine his wince as she brought the rough sponge up and down in exaggerated strokes meant to hurt. Call her a slave would he? No one owned her and never will, it was time he knew that too.
She brought out of her reverie by him speaking. "You are much better with a sword than you are with a sponge," he said lightly, almost as if he wanted to start a nice, friendly conversation.
Serena didn't feel very friendly at the moment. "I wish I had a sword now," she reply as she continued to scrub.
"Mine's right there. Feel free to use it as you see fit," he replied with a flat voice that startled her.
Serena looked over at his sword that was lying naked and deadly only two feet away from her. She stopped scrubbing and looked at it. Did she want to use it? Just kill the head of the Earth's army and be done with it? Did he want her to?
She shook her head. There were too many unknown factors in killing him now. Plus she hated to kill. She only did it when absolutely necessary, and stabbing an unarmed man in the back, no matter who he is, is just wrong. She looked back down at his back, which was now a bright red from her scrubbing and continued. Softer now, not meant to hurt, just meant to keep her occupied as conflicting thoughts swam around in her head.
"Who taught you how to use a sword?" He asked after a while.
"My father," Serena said tears stinging in her eyes. She held them back, now was no time to cry, not in front of this man.
She felt Darien chuckle more than heard him. "Are the men really so weak on the Moon that fathers must teach their daughters to fight?"
Serena stopped moving her body rigid with anger. She gave into her impulse before and picked up the bucket and dumped the soapy water over his head. Darien jumped up and looked at her mirroring her fury.
"Why you little wench--"
"You know nothing about me! And care even less! My father was a great man, a strong man. He died while protecting a defenseless village from being slaughtered by YOUR men. He was ten times the man than any earthling is. And 100 times more of a man than you!"
For what seemed like an eternity they just stared at each other with unconcealed hatred. Until Darien grabbed the shackles from the table and slapped them back on Serena.
"What is your name?" He asked cruelly.
If Serena had been in her right mind she probably would have thought to make up an alias for herself, but since she was in a state of irrational anger she said, "Serena."
"Well Serena," he spit out her name as if she disgusted him. Somewhere in the back of her mind Serena resented this but was too angry to care. "You're a slave now. Don't ever forget that."
"No one owns me," Serena stated. "No one."
"We'll see." And with that Darien left the room and Serena lost all of the rage that had filled her and was instead full of an overwhelming feeling of despair. She sat down on Darien's bed not caring any more who slept there. Alone now she had nothing for company but her memories of the past. Memories of another land, where her people ran free and happy, a past where her father was alive and ruled at her mother's side. A time when there was laughter and playing.
But times had changed. In the small amount of time Earth had taken away every certainty she had ever known and watched as her childhood treasures were burned. Time enough to lay to waste Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and even the powerful and mysterious Pluto. She had to stand by idly as her best friends and court, the princesses of those planets, were hauled away to imprisonment and their families were slaughtered. Serena sat down on the bed, too tired to think of who's bed she was lying on and almost gave into the tears she refused to let herself cry since Earth started its attack.
No, she told herself firmly, Crying never gets you anything but puffy eyes and a splotchy face, and it certainly isn't going to do you any good here. At that moment she felt the soft bump.
The ship had landed.
He found himself up at the brig watching the crew ready for its take off. There was no doubt he was going to be in in trouble when he got home. He was expected back on the transport that had brought Princess Mina, but had opted to stay on Venus had explore it's landscape and discover new places. He was smiling; thinking of the joy that exploration gave him when someone called his name over in the corner of the brig.
Cartier was the royal mapmaker and one of Darien's favorite people. It was him that taught Darien the wonder of maps, their secrets, their mysteries and their answers. Cartier's old face was excited making him look much less than his 70 years. He grew to love maps almost as much as Cartier did for they were the proof of all his discoveries. His title might be captain but he fancied himself an explorer, and a damn good one at that.
Darien made short work of the distance between him and the old man his black cloak billowing after him and his chest armor reflecting the lights of the ships many blinking lights and gauges. He smiled at the man and was about to speak but Cartier cut him off, sounding like a kid locked in a candy shop.
"Captain," he said hurriedly, "Look at what I found amongst the things we confiscated from the Venusian Castle." He gestured to the map lying in front of him on the table. Darien leaned over the table to inspect the map brushing a stray lock of black hair out of his midnight eyes. His eyes went wide and he suddenly saw why Cartier was so excited. This wasn't a map of the Venusian landscape, but of the moon. A very detailed, carefully drawn map showing every river, lake, mountain, stream and pass. Darien looked up at the smiling old man and smiled.
"This is unbelievable, Cartier. With this map, we could be rid of the moon and the pesky Queen in a day! A half of day even! The possibilities are endless!"
"I know," Cartier said with a smile.
Darien clapped him on the back and leaned back over to look at his new treasure when another member of his crew called his name.
"Captain!" Darien turned around to see the Kunzite, his second in command, march into the brig followed by a group ragged woman flanked by soldiers. Darien was about to ask what Kunzite thought he was doing bringing innocent Venusians on to the ship as they were about to take off when he was saw the glint of light of silver hair. Nobody had silver hair on Venus, it was only found on one planet--The Moon. Darien stood up tall and put on his coldest face, these were people from the one planet between Earth and total domination.
Kunzite reached behind and grabbed the Lunarian walking directly behind him and threw her roughly onto the ground at Darien's feet. "Kiss the Captain's feet," Kunzite said a wicked smile playing on his face.
Darien had to smile too, leave it to Kunzite to find new and improved ways to embarrass the always proud Lunarians. The woman looked up at Darien, with a hatred like none Darien had ever seen blazing in eyes as blue as ice. Darien couldn't help but notice that even dressed in a ragged gray dress, her beauty couldn't be dimmed, her hair was the silver of moonbeams that was falling out of a bun at the nape of her neck. He could tell that it was long, probably ending somewhere below her knees. She was simply the most beautiful woman Darien had ever seen in his life.
But that meant nothing to him. She was a Lunarian and therefore his worst enemy. Darien smiled his most arrogant smile and said to her, "I believe someone gave you an order--slave."
I hatred had been burning in her eyes before it was nothing compared to what was in them now, but he only caught a glimpse of it before she ducked her head in what seemed like defeat, but that only lasted for a moment before the woman looked back up at him again and spit directly on his shiny shod foot.
Darien stepped back in outrage. "Chain her," he said harshly. "The others too." Darien furiously watched as the woman was grabbed harshly to her feet by Kunzite and was slapped in shackles, one rusty metal bracelet on each wrist connected by a foot of heavy chain. Darien took a deep breath to calm himself and then turned to his crew who were waiting his order to start the ship.
"Take off," he said.
"No!" Was the strangled scream behind him. Darien turned just in time to see the woman that had spit on him only a moment before steal a sword out of the guard next to her and with her shacked wrists fight off every man that came close to her. Then as if she felt that enough men at hit the floor moaning in pain to satisfy her she wrapped the chain of her shackles around the nearest soldier, who happened to be Kunzite, and positioned herself behind him so not only was her sword pointed directly to his throat with deadly purpose but she was also sufficiency choking him.
All the men in the brig stopped, even the woman who had came in with her had stopped their crying and watched with bated breath.
"Let them go." The first words that the woman had spoken and they were harsh but also had an undercurrent of desperation to them that made Darien wonder. "They have done nothing."
Darien took a step closer her but was only rewarded by the tightening the chains around one of his friends neck. "Let them go," she repeated and then spun quickly to block off an advance of a soldier coming from the side and then looked directly at Darien. "Let them go or I'll kill him."
Darien watched again as the chains tighten around Kunzites neck and her blade come closer to his neck. He no longer doubted that the woman would do what she threatened. He took his own sword, which had been lying naked in his hand since everything had broke loose, and pointed it at the closest Lunarian's heart. Other guards followed in suit until every one of the women had a sword only an inch away from death.
"No!" The woman cried again but her heart wasn't in it. She looked at Darien, their eyes meeting. "They have done nothing!" There was no mistaking the desperation in her voice now.
Darien just stared back not moving him a sword an inch.
Finally the woman released Kunzite from her hold a he fell to the ground gasping for breath. Darien and the others took their swords away from the women.
Darien knelt down to look at Kunzite eyeing the woman the whole time. The other guards had taken the sword out of her hand and she now stood looking over at the other Lunarians with a look of guilt, or was it regret? Whatever it was the emotion was gone in a blink of an eye and she just looked as hard and cold as she had with a sword in her hand.
"K-kill her," Kunzite gasped rubbing her neck and still trying to fill his lungs with the air he had lost.
"No," Darien said and looked into the woman's eyes. He stood up and walked purposely over to her until he stood directly in front of her and smiled his most terrible mocking smile. "Bring her down to my chambers, I have a better idea for her."
This was NOT a good thing.
Serena stood in the middle of a large room that consisted of a large bed, a desk and a dresser. Through a door the far corner she suspected there was a bathroom of some sort or as much as one there could be on a ship, even one of this size. She slowly walked toward the door that she was brought in through, silently cursing the sound of the shackles that have been so cruelly slapped on her.
She grabbed the doorknob and found that it wouldn't turn. So, they thought she was dangerous enough to lock in, did they?
Well, that made things a little more difficult.
She reached up to her hair as quietly as she could with her shackles and removed a single hair pin from the many that held her now falling hair in. Straightening out her clip she inserted it into the lock. After a few seconds of skillful manipulation with the pin and she heard the tumblers fall into place. She smiled and opened the crack and saw two well-armed and trained guards standing outside her door.
Damn, she thought and closed the door again. So much for an escape, she thought of that arrogant Captains face if he found out she had escaped from HIS own chambers, and smiled fleetingly. That would put that son of a bitch in his place and lift the moral of her people. God knows they needed a moral boosting, now more than ever thanks to her own stupidly.
She sighed and resisted the urge to sit down on the Captain's bed remembering the promise he had made on the deck above. Once word got back to the moon that she, Princess Serena Serenity, heir the moon throne and descended from the great Selene herself, got herself captured all hope would slowly dwindle. Not only that, but if she was ever found out to be the Moon Princess, it would surely mean her death. They wouldn't keep her alive like the other Princess', she was too dangerous, too much of a symbol, to be allowed to live. So instead they would keep her mother alive and in a cage, and destroy the Silver Imperium Crystal. When they did this her mother would be worst than dead; she'd be a shell with nothing to give her life but nothing to take it away either. She'd be a lost soul.
Serena spit on the ground just thinking of the despicable earthlings and their plan. She had one choice if she wanted to survive long enough to escape and go back to rally her people.
Silence.
No one must know who she is or what she is. To start out that was easy enough. No one on Earth knew what she looked like and those that she came in with wouldn't say a word to anyone. She shuttered thinking what was happening to them right now, probably locked in some cargo hold no doubt, freezing and scared and all because of her and her stupid plan.
She heard someone talk outside the door and quickly shook her head as if to dispel the unwanted
thoughts. If this was the Captain she had to face him with as much dignity as she could muster in her ragged dress, ratty hair and shackles.
She watched as the Captain walked into his room, somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered that his name was Darien, but that was unimportant information. She stood up straight and proud. He said nothing to her but instead went to touch her. She pulled back sharply, not wanting him to be within 3 feet of her no less to feel his hands on her.
"Do you not want me to take off your shackles?" He asked.
Serena stared at him, a little confused and them offered him her wrist half expecting him to laugh and keep those horrible shackles on, but to her surprise he gently touched the latch that she didn't even know was there and took them off. She rubbed her wrists trying to get rid off some off the pain shackles caused. She almost opened her moth to say thank you when something else the Captain was doing caught her attention.
He started to take of his cape, his breastplate, and finally his shirt. He deposited his sword onto the desk. Silently he strode to the door that oh his bathroom in nothing but his pants and disappeared into there.
Serena quietly tried to catch her breath. He was simply sculpted like a god, the most handsome man she ever laid her eyes on. She looked at the bathroom door and mentally kick herself. Just by thinking such thoughts made her a traitor to her planet and her people. She stood tall, she was princess god damn it, even if he couldn't know. She was--
He had walked back out of the bathroom still shirtless but this time it was another thought that floored her. His grim promise he made above deck.
"Bring her down to my chambers, I have a better idea for her."
What was he going to do? Thousands of thoughts swam trough her head, each more horrible than the last. He stopped right in front of her and said quietly, almost whispered, "You know what happens now, right?"
Serena suddenly felt like a little girl who knew nothing of the world and wanted to hide under the bed at the first sign of danger. She forgot all the training she received in hand to hand combat and self defense. All she could do was stare and hope for the best and expect the worst.
But all her doubts were put to rest when the Captain smiled his arrogant smile and produced a bucket of water and a sponge from behind his back. "You are to scrub my back." Serena was so relived she just took the bucket as he sat down, but then he added one single word that changed that. "Slave."
Serena was enraged. So that was what he wanted her for-- a slave. Earthlings were the only people cruel enough to assume that they could own people. She contemplated dumping the bucket of water over his head but instead took the sponge out of the soapy bucket and started to rub it harshly down Darien's back.
She could see his back arch in pain and could just imagine his wince as she brought the rough sponge up and down in exaggerated strokes meant to hurt. Call her a slave would he? No one owned her and never will, it was time he knew that too.
She brought out of her reverie by him speaking. "You are much better with a sword than you are with a sponge," he said lightly, almost as if he wanted to start a nice, friendly conversation.
Serena didn't feel very friendly at the moment. "I wish I had a sword now," she reply as she continued to scrub.
"Mine's right there. Feel free to use it as you see fit," he replied with a flat voice that startled her.
Serena looked over at his sword that was lying naked and deadly only two feet away from her. She stopped scrubbing and looked at it. Did she want to use it? Just kill the head of the Earth's army and be done with it? Did he want her to?
She shook her head. There were too many unknown factors in killing him now. Plus she hated to kill. She only did it when absolutely necessary, and stabbing an unarmed man in the back, no matter who he is, is just wrong. She looked back down at his back, which was now a bright red from her scrubbing and continued. Softer now, not meant to hurt, just meant to keep her occupied as conflicting thoughts swam around in her head.
"Who taught you how to use a sword?" He asked after a while.
"My father," Serena said tears stinging in her eyes. She held them back, now was no time to cry, not in front of this man.
She felt Darien chuckle more than heard him. "Are the men really so weak on the Moon that fathers must teach their daughters to fight?"
Serena stopped moving her body rigid with anger. She gave into her impulse before and picked up the bucket and dumped the soapy water over his head. Darien jumped up and looked at her mirroring her fury.
"Why you little wench--"
"You know nothing about me! And care even less! My father was a great man, a strong man. He died while protecting a defenseless village from being slaughtered by YOUR men. He was ten times the man than any earthling is. And 100 times more of a man than you!"
For what seemed like an eternity they just stared at each other with unconcealed hatred. Until Darien grabbed the shackles from the table and slapped them back on Serena.
"What is your name?" He asked cruelly.
If Serena had been in her right mind she probably would have thought to make up an alias for herself, but since she was in a state of irrational anger she said, "Serena."
"Well Serena," he spit out her name as if she disgusted him. Somewhere in the back of her mind Serena resented this but was too angry to care. "You're a slave now. Don't ever forget that."
"No one owns me," Serena stated. "No one."
"We'll see." And with that Darien left the room and Serena lost all of the rage that had filled her and was instead full of an overwhelming feeling of despair. She sat down on Darien's bed not caring any more who slept there. Alone now she had nothing for company but her memories of the past. Memories of another land, where her people ran free and happy, a past where her father was alive and ruled at her mother's side. A time when there was laughter and playing.
But times had changed. In the small amount of time Earth had taken away every certainty she had ever known and watched as her childhood treasures were burned. Time enough to lay to waste Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and even the powerful and mysterious Pluto. She had to stand by idly as her best friends and court, the princesses of those planets, were hauled away to imprisonment and their families were slaughtered. Serena sat down on the bed, too tired to think of who's bed she was lying on and almost gave into the tears she refused to let herself cry since Earth started its attack.
No, she told herself firmly, Crying never gets you anything but puffy eyes and a splotchy face, and it certainly isn't going to do you any good here. At that moment she felt the soft bump.
The ship had landed.