Treason
To clear something up: Zankou is a character taken from LiR's fic 'Rekindling Stars', but in this fic he is much older but has mainly the same personality.
2
(Jupiter and Mercury)
The confinements of my room darkened my thoughts and my hopes. I knew they were here, Kintra had informed me of such. Odango was here on Kinmoku, holding my fate in her hands and I wasn't permitted to speak with her. There was a battle raging between my mind and my heart, giving me a feeling of instability.
Looking out my window the usual sight of the palace grounds did not meet my eyes. The grounds were completely desolate, and not even the tracks of people had been made in the fresh snow that had only fallen this past night. I allowed a sigh to escape my lips as I knew everyone in the kingdom would be at the 'official' start of my trial today. It's not often that a Sailor Senshi is accused of doing anything unlawful, this was truly an event that someone would desire to witness.
Most of the inhabitants of Kinmoku had never set foot on any other planet besides this one that they called home. The people that hadn't come interested in the political standings of their nation had come simply to set their eyes on Odango and her senshi, the aliens. I laughed to myself lightly as I mused on how the tables had turned in that department. It was strange how I could still find amusement in such small and trivial things, but there was just something in the back of my mind that told me all of this was too ludicrous to be real.
"Seiya?" Kintra's voice echoed across the room and brought me from my inner thoughts. He stood with a solemn look adorning his features and never took his hand from the door handle to my room. "It's time."
I nodded my head to show I understood. Taking one last look out on the pure white, simple snow, I rose to join him at the door. "Time to face the music?" I asked with a bit of half smirk coming to my lips.
Kintra only shook his head and slung his arm around my shoulders. "You'll never change will you? Not even when it seems an entire planet is against you." I smiled at his comment and followed his lead down the hallway. "I was talking to Yaten about what you three did on Earth."
"Oh." Was all I could reply, I had purposely not told Kintra any details of our visit to Earth.
"Do you love her?" He asked, not knowing the full pain that this statement alone could inflict on me. I was sure the way Yaten had described the situation between Odango and it was not in a pleasant nature, he had no idea just how truly deep my affection towards the blond moon princess ran.
I looked to him, I was sure the hurt was apparent in my eyes, but that didn't matter. Even if I had tried to mask such an emotion, he surely would have seen through it anyway, it was just a gift. "Yes, I love her."
"Good." He stated bluntly and I didn't even have time to think of my confused reaction before he started speaking again. "As long as you still love our princess, they can never find you of treason."
'Our Princess'? He was referring to Kakyuu and not Odango?
"All rise!" Sailor Star Developer signaled from the head of the room. The auditorium-like room was one I was familiar with. Many trials had taken place here, many of which I had to help conduct due to my position as a Sailor Starlight. How we became to be part of the legal system on our planet is beyond me, I would have been perfectly content only being called upon for the physical necessities of the job. At the head of the room, the pinnacle of a raised platform, sat Kakyuu, on either side of her perched Zankou and Judge 13. The room before them gave way to an open floor that stood between them and rows upon rows in a horseshoe shape, filled with on-lookers and observers.
My place, however, was off to the side. To the left of Kakyuu was a solitary chair with a small end table accompanying it. As Kintra and I walked into the room it became deafeningly silent. Kintra walked with me as far as he could before Sailor Star Chaser came to escort me to my seat.
Hushed whispers and comments filled the air giving the already stifling atmosphere a voice to haunt me with. None of their conversations were clear, but it was obvious enough that they were not pleasant and were directed towards me. I refused to meet any of their curious faces with my eyes, I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing how they had broken me a little. I didn't even pick my head up to look in the direction that I knew the Sol Senshi to be sitting in, I just couldn't. I could feel all of their eyes on me and it was weight enough to drag me down further. Oh what they didn't understand.
"Friends and loyal subjects of Princess Kakyuu and Kinmoku-sei. We are gathered here under the most severe of circumstances." Zankou was standing before the spectators, more importantly my Odango, explaining to them the proceedings of the day. "Treason. Sailor Star Fighter, Seiya Kou, has been charged with these accusations. We are here to determine what really happened during Chaos' temporary reign. Let me be the first to assure you that if our Princess' protector is found guilty of this heinous crime, it shall not go unpunished."
I scanned the section of the room where I knew Kintra, Taiki and Yaten were. I noticed that Yaten was staring at me, his eyes signaling mine towards the Sol Senshi. He was very adamant about my attention going there. I dropped my guard and stole a quick glance over to them. That one second, a small sliver in history proved to be quite painful. I saw my Odango surrounded by her senshi, and being comforted by her Mamo-chan.
My head dropped, bringing my gaze to my hands in my lap. The adrenaline swelled in my body and my mind circled. What was he doing here? I had nothing to do with him on Earth… No… What if he…
"Sailor Jupiter, Makoto Kino please take the platform." Zankou's voice emanated from the speakers lining the walls of the giant circular room. A feeling of anger swept through my body at the mere fact he was allowed to address them. I felt that he wasn't even good enough to say their names.
Once Makoto had left the sanctity of her fellow senshi my eyes were immediately upon her. She walked with a slight fear, but was haughtily trying to cover it up with a postured appearance. She may have been a tomboy but she was just as soft as the rest. Her green eyes lifted and locked with mine temporarily. A wave of peaceful serenity swept through my body as she passed me a weak smile that I couldn't help but return.
With his long sweeping robes following him, Zankou descended from his perched seat beside Kakyuu to walk up the floor before Makoto. With his back to the poor senshi of Jupiter, he addressed the crowd before him. "We have special witness' to this trial. The senshi of the Sol System have come here to our humble planet to retell their accounts of the matter in question. I would like to thank them heartily for their cooperation."
Cooperation my ass, I was more than sure that the invitation Zankou had extended to Odango was anything less than friendly and polite. A demanding of their presence on our planet would have probably been closer to the truth. No matter, they were here now… and they brought him.
"Kino-san, can you please explain your relationship with the defendant." Zankou asked, commencing the trial at hand.
I could see Makoto shift uncomfortably in her seat and it made me shake my head. Every nervous movement she made came across as her trying to cover my guilt. "We were friends… and classmates."
"Classmates?" Zankou asked, every detail had to be explained, since the majority of the population knew nothing of our excursions on Earth.
"Yes, Seiya, Taiki and Yaten went to school with us on Earth. I believe it was to keep up their disguise as idols so they could intensify their search for Princess Kakyuu." Makoto's eyes followed Zankou's pacing form as he brought is hand to his chin in contemplation. I simply nodded my head with a smile, thanking Makoto in my mind for reverting the discussion back to our undying devotion to our princess.
"So you're telling me that while the Starlights were on Earth in the middle of one of the biggest crisis' in the universe, they were going around as normal teenagers, playing sports and flirting with girls?" A sly smirk came to Zankou's decrepit face and he was sure to turn to me so that I could see it.
"No!" Makoto argued shaking her head, the brunette just about rose from her seat. "That's not what I said. You don't understand."
"Then why don't you explain to us what I don't understand. How the defendant decided that it was more fun to play make-believe than to complete his mission? Or how they-"
"NO!" Makoto's stern voice cut him off as she stood to face him off.
"Kino-san, may I remind you that you are on the stand and representing your home world with your words and actions?" Judge 13 spoke gently to her from his seat above her. He was a kind and elderly man, though his age nearly matched Zankou's, it was the only similarity between the two. Makoto's outburst in turn spawned another stupid grin to appear on Zankou's face and Makoto retracted calmly.
"Seiya and the others never strayed from their mission. Everything they did, every breath they took while they were on Earth was an effort to find Kakyuu-hime. Their dedication should be unquestioned and if you had dealt with or even seen HALF of the hardships they had to go through to secure the future that you're living in now, you wouldn't even think of having this ridiculous trial!" By now Makoto's green eyes were blazing and her words were coming out without premeditation.
My heart sighed heavily as the clouds seemed to break for a moment and let in a true ray of sunshine. The whispers and gasped picked up once again in the audience and I saw the smiles planted on Yaten and Taiki's faces. My happiness was short lived however when Zankou began his questioning once more. "Kino-san? Did you die in the battle with Chaos?"
The auditorium fell silent as they waited almost impatiently for Makoto's answer. I unfortunately knew what was coming and exactly where Zankou was going. "Y-yes I did. I died protecting-"
Zankou cut her statement off, "So you have no knowledge of what happened in the end of the battle, do you?" Makoto shook her head lowly. I growled in frustration, if he had only let her continue and claim that she had been protecting me, her faith in me would have been solidified. But perhaps it was better off that she wasn't allowed to continue… the audience may had believed her to be in on the charges of treason set against me, and that was not something that we needed.
"Thank you Kino-san, that's all." Zankou bowed to her and moved behind her to go to his place beside Kakyuu.
"You may return to your seat Kino-san." Judge 13 smiled to her. My head went down into my hands as I laced my fingers through my hair.
"You don't have someone questioning us in Seiya's defense?" Makoto asked confused as she stood hesitantly, obviously assuming that a mistake had been made.
My head came up and I watched as Makoto looked around confused, looking to Taiki and Yaten for an answer, while Taiki merely shook his head. Zankou chuckled at her comment. I perceived his gesture as being extremely rude and indignantly insulting her intelligence. "My dear, I was not prosecuting Sailor Star Fighter, we are not here to prove that she is guilty. We are simply here to gather facts and nothing more, so that the citizens of Kinmoku may make a decision based upon what they deem to be the truth." His hand rose out to his side, in essence telling Makoto not to say anymore and to excuse herself.
"Princess, would you like to take a short break before our next witness?" Judge 13 asked Kakyuu with a fatherly tone. It was apparent to anyone, not just me who had known her all my life, that she was not taking this whole ordeal lightly.
Her long ruby tresses shifted around her as she shook her head while looking down. "No, let's get this over with."
"Zankou, please call the next witness." Judge 13 ushered him back to the floor. My heart pounded loudly in my chest, he could possibly be calling Odango, or worse Haruka to the stand right now. I wasn't sure whether or not my heart was going to let me live through the trial.
"Sailor Mercury, Ami Mizuno please take the platform." I breathed a sigh of relief, Ami was not a person I was worried about, not for a second would I ever question her tactics. I'm not implying that I thought the others were incompetent, it just seemed to me that Ami would have ways of communicating her point across so that it would not be misunderstood in the same manner as Makoto's.
"Mizuno-san, were you too a friend and classmate of the defendant?" Zankou asked, he had to repeat the same questions to create her standing. Ami's head simply nodded signaling that she was.
"Being a Sailor Senshi yourself, do you trust Sailor Star Fighter enough to fight beside her?"
"Yes completely." Ami's answer was spoken without hesitation solidifying her statement.
"Was there a time that you didn't feel this way?" Zankou asked. Questions began to run through my head as to why he was asking this. I had already thanked my stars that he truly didn't know EVERYTHING that went on during our stay on Earth, for I know his questioning would have been more calculated and devious.
"No I didn't. When we first met the Starlights we didn't trust them, but I believe that would have been common measure for any senshi who was protecting their Princess and their planet." Ami's face was placid, giving no signs to status of her mood.
"Your Princess. If you would, please tell us a bit about her."
My blood boiled at his statement. Why was he bringing Odango into this? What could he possibly be thinking? Ami's face didn't look puzzled but she questioned him either way. "I thought this trial was about Sailor Star Fighter, not Princess Serenity?"
"Please answer the question." Judge 13 turned to her and pushed her forth in her questioning. I had silently hoped that he would have put a stop to the road that Zankou was leading everyone down, but it was just that, silent.
"Princess Serenity is heir to the Moon Kingdom and the keeper of the Silver Imperium Crystal. She was reincarnated by her deceased mother during a fierce and exhausting battle that took place on the moon nearly a thousand years ago, in her reincarnate form she is Usagi Tsukino." Straight forwards and simple facts.
"Yes, we are all well aware of the royal standings of your Princess, please give us insight into her personality." This was torture, he had no right to know anything about my Odango. Without thinking of what I was doing, my blood already pumping through my veins faster than it needed to be, I looked over at my Odango and caught sight of her staring directly at me. Quickly I turned my head away, still not believing that she was here, seeing me as a common criminal.
"Usagi is the most caring being I've ever had the privilege of meeting. She would sacrifice anything to make sure that others were happy and her spirit is just as inviting as the silver moonlight that fuels it." Ami's description of Odango was truthful and beautiful, I myself could have thought of a million other words to say about her… none of which would help my current standings though.
"Once you found out that the Starlights were in fact your allies, is that once your feelings changed towards them, dropping your guard on your princess?" Zankou questioned looking the water senshi in the eye.
"No." The audience gasped and I was a bit confused myself. This was something that was never discussed between us and the inners. I was becoming more curious to find her answer.
"And why was that?" Zankou asked, clearly becoming amused.
"Fighter was trusted completely in the eyes of in the inner senshi of the Sol System, but Healer and Maker were the immediate threat. Their animosity towards us did not halt when our true identities were revealed."
"No… Ami…" I said in a whisper as I dropped my head. I noticed that I drawn Kakyuu's attention to me also.
"Why do you believe they were still a threat and not Fighter?"
I could see plainly that Ami had realized her mistake too late and faltered in her next answer, taking much longer to give it. "They did not like our princess."
"And why not?" Zankou knew that he was on to something and wasn't about to let this go, it could possibly been my fault, he had seen my reaction to the questioning, and also Yaten's disappointed face.
"They believed that Sailor Moon, Usagi was a distraction to their mission, or more importantly to Fighter." Her voice went down in pitch as she tried to advert her eyes from Zankou's and looking anywhere but at me.
"They were questioning Fighter's loyalty even then?" Zankou mused as he dramatically looked over the audience to see and make sure that his statement was having the desired effect on them. It was. They gasped, they were appalled.
"Yes…" Ami spoke barely above a whisper, it was plain she was trying to hold back her tears. "… but you have to understand what Fighter was doing. Sailor Moon possessed a power that the Starlights didn't have, her motives in seeking out Sailor Moon were to gain her power to help end the war, to find Princess Kakyuu."
Ami's explanation, well maybe more excuse is the correct term, came a bit too late. The idea of treason had already begun to formulate in the minds of the audience, and I was sure that Zankou would be done with her. "Thank you." Zankou said to the senshi of Mercury, signaling her leave.
"I need a break." Kakyuu spoke to Judge 13 and he nodded and stood. While he was announcing their short break my princess passed me a loving gaze and I could tell that she had been on the verge of tears too. The crowd broke up to stretch and I chanced another glance at my Odango. All of the Sol Senshi had gotten up, talking heatedly amongst themselves about the trial nonetheless while Odango remained in her seat… staring at me. From such a distance I couldn't read the expression on her face, I only knew that she had her eyes set on mine. "May I speak with you Fighter?" Kakyuu broke my contact and lead me away from my 'cubical from hell'.
Once we were in the seclusion of a room off to the side, she said no words only wrapped me in a warm embrace. "Princess?" I asked, not sure whether or not she was alright.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry that you have to go through this my Starlight." There were crystalline tears in her eyes and my heart felt as though it had just cracked.
"It's not your fault Princess, don't cry for me!" I tried to reassure her as I took her back in my arms. "I'll get through this, just believe in me, please?" I stroked her back as I felt her sob against me. Did she doubt the outcome of this trial?
"I will always believe in you."
"Seiya!" Yaten's voice spoke sternly as the wooden door to the room we were in opened. "Gomen ne Princess." Yaten bowed to Kakyuu, strengthening his apology.
Kakyuu straightened up and smiled at Yaten. "It's quite alright Healer."
"If Mercury gave that kind of statement, I hate to imagine what convictions will pour from Haruka's lips." Taiki added, voicing the thought that was on all of our minds. "Princess, who else is on the platform today?"
I looked anxiously towards Kakyuu, just as Yaten and Taiki did the same. Was my life going to end today, or did I have a chance to dream of tomorrow? "Minako and Rei." I felt a sighed in relief, how many times had I done this today? This was definitely wearing on my constitution. "Setsuna, Hotaru and Mamoru will not be testifying, they had next to no contact with you on Earth as I've explained to Zankou and Judge 13. They are only here as Usagi's protectors."
"So tomorrow will be Haruka, Michiru and Odango?" I asked almost afraid of her answer, in a way I was almost now pleading for tomorrow NOT to come.
"No." Kakyuu answered stiffly and looked towards Yaten and Taiki. "Tomorrow will be Haruka, Michiru, Healer and Maker."
"WHAT?!" Yaten yelled astonished.