Treason
10
(Bombshell)
We couldn't do it, it just wouldn't have been our safest move. Sailor Star Seeker was injured and we were all leaving Kinmoku? No, they only wanted me. Developer and Chaser stayed behind in the chaos of the rioting city to ensure our Princess' safety. My mind toiled over the situation as Healer, Maker and I sped towards Earth not too far behind the Sol Senshi. I had to repeat to myself that I wasn't running away, that the situation had gotten out of control and there was nothing I could do if I had stayed. That's right, just keep telling yourself that.
Earth was straight ahead; the gorgeous blue planet was just the way I remembered it the last time I set my eyes upon it. This time it appeared as less of a mystery and more like a sanction. We followed the path of the Sol Senshi exactly, and looking back on it now, that might not have been our best bet.
As soon as I felt the solid ground beneath my feet it was removed again. I felt myself flying backwards as a powerful yellow orb crashed into my frame. Uranus. A scorching pain ran through my skin as a result of her energy. She wasn't even going to get let me get to my feet to try to defend myself, she was already screaming out her next power call with her space sword brandished in her hand. Much to my relief, Healer and Maker prevented her from attacking again. My lack of sleep and wounded leg were not helping the situation at all.
"Uranus!" Odango's voice called out and I watched as she ran quickly to the tall wind senshi's side. It was this pause in the action that I had finally gained a chance to study our surroundings. My eyes widened as I struggled to take in the devastation that spread in all directions. What had happened? The tallest buildings, that once tickled the skies' underbelly, were reduced to nothing but rubble. The city of Tokyo was nearly leveled.
"They're responsible for this!" Uranus accused us as she pointed her space sword at me ominously.
"Uranus, you don't know that." Neptune shot in trying to calm her partner, it wasn't going to do them any good right now to tear us to shreds while there may have been some other force still here devouring what was left of their home world.
I strained to try and lift myself to my feet the best that I could. Healer was soon by my side throwing an arm around my waist to hoist me up. This was pathetic. I swallowed my pain and stood as solid as I could on my own two feet. This act must have been enough to suffice Healer as she moved away, taking from me her human crutch.
"I can assure you that we have no idea what is going on here." Maker said in a cool tone trying to calm the enraged and confused Sol Senshi, well maybe just Uranus.
"That's right, they are our friends, they would never do this to us." Venus threw in her own two cents, but you could see that she immediately regretted doing so when she received the glare Uranus shot at her.
Sheathing her space sword, since that would get her nowhere while trying to convince her teammates of her intentions, she turned to Venus and spoke in a tone that could be mistaken for a growl. "Don't you see? This was all just some set up, and we were naïve enough to fall for it." Her eyes flashed dangerously as she turned towards me before continuing. "This one, she was never on trial, it was just a diversion to get us to come to their planet, leaving Earth unguarded while they could keep a constant vigil on us. While we were there, playing along with her silly little plot, their other forces came to Earth and took over in our absence."
"You're insane!" Healer spat back at her, clearly not amused by Uranus' assessment of the situation.
"Wasn't it convenient that this whole situation worked out for her greater benefit in the end?" Uranus' voice grew louder now, as her temper brimmed yet again. "She wanted our princess and sought to gain her by any means. She destroyed our planet, she destroyed our future and for that-" Uranus' sword was drawn once again as she loomed ever closer to me. "I will destroy her!"
The tall blond senshi charged at me, evidently without fear. I stood my ground, I wasn't going to go down with these accusations. Without even thinking of it too much, my hand was suddenly clutched upon my yell and I had drawn it out before my body.
"SPACE SWORD-"
"STAR SERIOUS-"
By now she was almost upon me and if our attacks had no effect on one another, she would end up pummeling me over.
"BLASTER!!"
"LASER!!"
Our attacks collided in mid air, both equally as strong, and neither of us compromising in the least. When at last we couldn't control them any more, both of us giving out at the same time, they exploded with a brilliance of light, and the force threw us both back away from the conflict. My body was battered but I wasn't giving up yet, I wasn't even supposed to be alive today, right now, but I was and I was going to push my life as far as I could. I spotted Uranus trying to get to her feet with the help of Neptune. Healer rushed over to me once again to help me up, but I just brushed her away. I was heated and not in the mindset to calm any time soon.
With great effort I raised my star yell before me again to continue this battle and the flash of Uranus' blade told me she had similar thoughts. "STOP!" Sailor Moon's voice rang through the dry and dusty air. "Stop this!"
My hand dropped to my side immediately obeying her command, but I saw a snarl cross Uranus' features and I could tell that she was more than questioning Moon's judgment. "We didn't do this." I stated bluntly, one on one to my odango-haired princess.
"I know you didn't." She smiled back at me over her shoulder and I couldn't fail to notice the tears that had begun to spill over her cheeks. A sound that could only be described as a sonic boom echoed over the landscape and the source of it became apparent. In the center of what used to be Tokyo, Tokyo tower still stood and had become encased with lights.
Our conflict was dropped for the moment as we joined the Sol Senshi in their pursuit of the blast. Driven by pure fury, I forced my feet to carry me faster and I swallowed the pain in my leg. I knew my companions weren't completely oblivious to my condition, on more than one occasion I had caught sight of Maker's eyes examining me. It didn't take a genius to understand that she was worried.
The inner Sol Senshi lagged behind, they couldn't keep up with Uranus, Neptune and us. My inhibitions of facing Mamoru had fallen to the recesses of my mind and all my thoughts were focused now on the new threat. The city was tougher to maneuver through this way, as it lay in ruins, new unforeseen obstacles emerged from the shadows of the night.
Another energy blast sounded from the same vicinity as the previous one. I much as I doubted that I could, I tried to pick up my pace even more. "So what do you think of this old man now?" A voice called from on high and sounded as though it was being amplified by a speaker.
I stopped in my tracks suddenly, an eerie resemblance had rang all too clear in that voice and I saw I wasn't the only one that had noticed. Neptune's arm was out before Uranus' form to bring her to a halt so that they could listen. Maker and Healer shot quizzical glances towards one another and then turned to me in response. Zankou.
By now the inner senshi and Tuxedo Kamen had caught up to us and were too looking around curiously in response to the voice. Zankou could obviously see us, though his whereabouts remained a complete mystery to us.
This was what my trial had truly been about…
My anger seethed as it coursed through my veins, and my knuckles tightened inside my gloves. My life had been played with and my honor tarnished so that he could backstab our alliance with the Sol Senshi and in turn try to over take their planet in their absence. Uranus was right, it was our fault, we were just as naïve as they were. I had known that Zankou had been plotting something, but a design on this grand of scale, well, the plan to extinguish my life just seemed to pale in comparison.
There were no more comments from Zankou, I didn't doubt that he was sure we knew exactly who he was. In the moments to follow all of the Sol Senshi's eyes turned to us. "Fighter?" Sailor Moon's voice cut in.
A pain began to weave itself into my heart as she looked at me with those eyes. "Sailor Moon, you have to understand that we-"
Maker's voice had started on what seemed like an explanation of sorts, but was cut short by a new presence. A small girl with pink hair done up in two odangos, similar to Sailor Moon's, was limping up behind the group of Sol Senshi. The Sol Senshi became alert immediately when they saw Maker's surprised expression.
"Chibi-Moon!" Sailor Moon called out as the others looked on in astonishment.
"Mama sent me back from the future because this time needed to be protected while you were away." Once again there were tears in Sailor Moon's eyes as she latched onto the small senshi. Tuxedo Kamen also made his way over to the two, and I noticed a certain sparkle in the little one's eye when she caught him in her sight.
"Small Lady, what has happened?" Pluto asked seeming to be just as concerned for this little senshi as Moon and Kamen. Who was she and why hadn't we met her before?
The little girl eyed Maker, Healer and myself curiously before continuing. Her form wasn't built or strong, and her mini-moon scepter hung down like a heavy weight by her side. "We started, well rather Mama started to noticed subtle differences in the future. Things that were once commonplace began to disappear. The only other time that this happened was when you were involved in a battle." Chibi-Moon's head hung lower. "Papa wouldn't let Mama go back to the past, he wasn't sure if it was a ploy to lure them away from the palace with the Silver Crystal or not. I came in her place and found this."
"At first I didn't see anyone, bright lights that soon revealed themselves as bombs dropped from the sky and began to create the wreckage that you see now. Each one of their bombs looked as though it could destroy a single city with one blast. It only took them one day to do what you see here." Her head turned wistfully to the side and you could feel the pain in her words.
"Chibi-Moon, did you get a look at who was doing this?" Uranus asked gently but sternly. It was strange seeing the brash woman take on such a tender tone.
The little girl's head shook from side to side signaling her answer. "There were ships that had dropped in the center of the bombs. They seem almost like control centers and that's where the men came from."
"Did these men look similar to knights or samurai warriors?" Maker asked inquisitively to confirm our suspicions. Her pink head of hair nodded and we knew we were correct in our thinking.
"What are we waiting for then? The Epochs can't hurt us." Healer stated proudly as she readied herself to march off into the destruction.
"No wait!" Chibi-Moon waved her off. "They DO have weapons." She stated as though it was an obvious fact.
"Impossible, there is no weapon on Kinmoku that could challenge the powers of a senshi." Healer retorted. She did not like to be made a fool of by missing a seemingly obvious point. She was right though, Kinmoku didn't have such weapons, and this was part of the reason we were so easily invaded by Galaxia.
"No, but there are weapons on Earth that could rival our powers." Maker informed our silver-haired companion with a look of dread on her face.
"You always were the smart one Maker." Zankou's voice came through the air once again and was followed by a blast.
"GET DOWN!" I yelled and pulled Mars down with me since it seemed as though she was frozen. Saturn's yell of 'Silent Wall' penetrated the deafening roar of the blast and she stood before Moon, Kamen and Chibi-Moon in a protective manner. The rubble and debris passed off the side of her shield and skimmed past us, nicking the exposed skin of my back a couple of times.
Zankou was obviously not satisfied with the job his blast had done and began to fire again, not allowing us to gain our ground once more. This wasn't a soldier's fight, this was ludicrous. When the second impact came, it had hit lower than the first, separating the ground that we all stood on. Once again, even more quickly than the interval between the first and second, the third impact came and we were undoubtedly going to be separated.
I could feel Mars' body beneath my own as her chest heaved in her struggle to breath and get a grasp on what was going on around us. We were going to be dead if we stayed like this. I had to take that cannon out. I pushed myself off of Mars in a struggle. The howling wind that the explosion had caused pushed against my beaten body and created even more of an obstacle for me to overcome. There was nothing in my way, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter, who had previously been ahead of me, had been blown backwards and out of my site. I had a clear path, as long as it didn't fire again.
"STAR SERIOUS LASER!!"
My attack soared towards the cannon but not in time. It had managed to let loose one more particle blast. I watched as the blue light of my laser sliced threw the beam of light from the cannon and ultimately destroyed the cannon. By slicing the beam however, I had caused it to emit an array of less powerful rays. It hit all around us in a golden shower of light.
I no idea of Pluto, Uranus, Neptune, Healer, Maker or the Inner's whereabouts. I looked back to see that Mars had made it through it safely and could see that Saturn had been successful in protecting Moon, Mini-Moon and Kamen. Zankou's laughter came over the raspy speakers and played on my ears. "I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance Fighter. This should be interesting any way."
"We have to get out of here." I spoke to Mars and she nodded her head.
"Sailor Moon!" Mars called over to the blond senshi holding the littler one. "We need to move!"
"No!" Moon called back with disbelief in her eyes.
"Sailor Moon, he can see us here, he knows our every move. We have to escape his eyes!" I tried to explain to her. Why wouldn't she listen.
"Where is everyone else? We can't just leave them behind." She stood and held her hand on her broach, her eyes searching desperately around her for any signs for our allies.
I too allowed my eyes to scan the area and saw nothing. "They may have already moved on. We can't do anything for them. We have to protect ourselves." I pleaded with her to follow. The little pink haired senshi took hold of Sailor Moon's hand and looked up at her nodding her head, letting her know that she agreed with me.
"I don't know what kind of rational that is, but here on Earth, we do not leave our friends behind." Kamen spoke up, standing by Sailor Moon's side. Did he really mean that? He was going to wait here and possible put Sailor Moon in danger just to see if his comrades were dead or alive?
I watched as Saturn's eyes passed from Sailor Moon's to Kamen's to mine. "If they are still alive, we would have a greater chance of keeping them that way if we tried to take down Zankou." She stated and I let out a breath I had unconsciously been holding.
I looked around to gain some sort of bearing on our surroundings. We were standing where Juuban High School had once been. There were no signs of people or carnage, just destroyed concrete. Had he evacuated the entire planet? I had no time to dwell on the thought. I noticed that Tokyo Tower was still standing for an obvious reason, no blasts had been detonated near it. That must be where he is. "There! Tokyo Tower!" I pointed out before turning back with a nod. Mars and Saturn looked at me with stern faces ready to follow my lead, but Moon and Kamen just looked skeptical.
Normally I would have just left those that didn't believe in my lead behind, but I couldn't, this was Sailor Moon, my Odango. I swore to protect her at all costs, and if that meant from her own bad judgment, then so be it.