Part III

"The entire situation is an outrage," Venus fumed as she stalked back and forth across her chambers. After discovering the Captain, no Venus quickly corrected herself, Sailor Jupiter the Senshi had made sure that the Princess was returned to the capital as soon as possible. Once within the castle Jupiter was taken to the medical wing and stabilized. It was then decided that the Princess would be safest back on the moon. They had arranged their departure within moments of the decision.  Once they had arrived on the moon Jupiter had been taken to the medical chambers in order to receive further attention and Luna had told the Senshi all she knew of the Outer Senshi's reasons for being undercover. That had been two days ago, and Venus was still livid.

"I do not need some outsider coming in and spying on me in order to make certain that I do my job. My family has protected five Serenities. I know how to do my duty…it is in my very blood." Venus kicked a nearby chair to prove her point.

"Calm down Venus."

"Mars, I can not calm down. An outsider is trying to replace us. Why are you of all people so calm about this? I would have expected you to have turned that usurper's chambers to ash by now. The Queen clearly has no faith in us. Have you no pride?"

Mars tried to ignore the rising ire that Venus' comments stirred within her. "Of course I am upset. I know my duty and I do it very well. However, I feel that there are more pressing issues at hand."

"Such as?"

"Our new enemy for one. Anything that is powerful enough to do that much damage to a Senshi…" Mars shuddered at the thought. Jupiter's injuries had been severe. She regained consciousness only once while they were still on Venus and had not awakened since. If that had been the Princess or Venus… She had to take a deep breath to keep from shuddering. 

Venus noticed the change in Mars' demeanor. She stopped pacing and sat down beside her. Mars smiled and took Venus' hand, "Which leads me to my other concern. Regardless of how she found herself among us, there is an injured Senshi in the palace."

Venus sighed and squeezed Mars' hand. "I forgot about that didn't I?"

Mars nodded. "At this point I do not care why she is here. She's a Senshi. One of us, and I simply want her to be alright."

"She will be. The Capt… Jupiter has always struck me as being very strong. Besides remember the stories Luna used to tell us when we were little about all the royal houses." Venus straightened her shoulders and held her head up in her best Luna impression, "The House of Jupiter is one of great strength…"

"…the thunder Senshi have lightning for blood." Mars finished. "You actually were listening in class."

Laughing Venus answered, "I was interested in the other planets. Jupiter was always particularly interesting.  We do not have storms on Venus you know."

"I know," Mars replied resting her head on Venus' shoulder. "If that had been you…"

"Shh, now. It was not and will not ever be me. I will not leave you and I will not leave our Princess."

"Promise?"

"I swear it."

"Good, because I would hunt you through the depths of tarturus if you ever left me." She smiled softly, " Now have you calmed down enough to go and check on our fellow Senshi?"

"Yes. I would, however, like to go and speak with the Queen first. I want an explanation from her."  Venus rose and held out her hand to Mars. "Milady"

"Don't start."

"Yes mam."

***

Pluto concentrated on the pale face of the woman in the bed before her. She had sensed the danger coming. Had even broken the code and warned Jupiter of it, though in a round about way, and yet it still came to this. For not the first time since taking upon the mantle of time guardian, she cursed her lot in life. Always watching, never being able to directly act. Or at least not when it mattered.

Oh how it had mattered this time. When she had first seen this scene through the gate she had wanted to run to Jupiter and take her home to Uranus. But duty slapped her in the face. She was bound to the gate by her very blood and with that came the code that went with being its protector. She could not give up that code just as she knew Jupiter would never desert their princess.

But then again she had acted. She had given Jupiter a small notice of the danger to come. Only the guardian and the Queen were to know the secrets of the gate. It was a law that had been in place since the beginning. It like the other taboos was not to be broken.

But the rule that cannot be broken must surely be bent. A voice whispered had whispered in her mind. She had bent the law. Taken fate into her own hands and gone to the ball that evening.  The thought that plagued her was why.

Why now? She had been the time guardian for several years now. She had seen struggle after struggle. She had even watched the deaths of three senshi through the gate without acting. She had watched the end of the line of Earth Senshi without acting, and she had been much younger and weaker then. Why was this time different? One glance at the bed before her told her why.

She had developed feelings for Jupiter and that was a problem. A rather large problem. To be the time guardian was to be alone. But when she was with the thunder senshi Pluto felt something. The loneliness that she was prepared to endure as part of her duty went away. When she had discovered that Jupiter had misled her it had felt as if she had been struck. When they had danced she felt as if she could fly. For Pluto to even feel this way much less to have acted upon it was dangerous.

To be time guardian is to be alone, she had whispered that to herself like a mantra while she watched Jupiter struggle with the shadow beast through the gate. She had wanted to go to Venus and fight along side her fellow Outer Senshi, but her duty held her back.  She could not, would not interfere again.  And here she sat across from the results of her dedication to duty.

She took one of Jupiter's heavily bandaged hands into her own. "I did this," she whispered. "I could have stopped it if only…"

She closed her eyes and sighed. She felt so powerless. She laughed. Her powers were second to only the royal family and the sleeping senshi, and she felt powerless. It really was ironic.

"How could I have let this happen to me?" It wasn't as if she were a silly schoolgirl who could afford the luxury of romance. She had a duty; there was no room for such trivial things.  Her only comfort was that there was no possible way that Jupiter could ever return her feelings.

At a weak moment she had searched the gate for any sign that Jupiter felt anything more than friendship for her and had seen nothing. Rather every time she had begun to get an image through the gate concerning the matter something distorted it. "There was nothing to see," she told herself.

And there won't be anything to see, ever… she thought. The time guardian had no room in her life for silly attachments. There was only duty, only the gate, nothing more. 

To be time guardian is to be alone... That had been the way of things since the beginning. Each Pluto was called after the death of the one before. Unlike the other senshi, there was no family line of ascension.  When the old Pluto died the high priests of the planet would go in search of the next. When she was found she would be taken to the palace and given the garnet orb, which would endow her with the knowledge and powers of those who had come before her.

That was the way it had been with her and the way it would be for the girl who came after. Pluto pitied that girl.  She now knew the price of duty. The one who followed, surely would be an innocent, as she herself was when she was called, and would not realize the heavy burden that fate had crafted for her. She glanced at the figure on the bed once more. 

The girl wouldn't possibly understand that which she would sacrifice in the name of duty. There was no way that anyone ever truly could. She brought Jupiter's bandaged hand to her lips and then gently placed it upon the bed again. She stood and walked to the small chamber's only window. " I will not be this weak again."

To be time guardian is to be alone...

***

Mercury went over the readings she had collected during the skirmish on Venus yet again. "There must be something that I am missing," she sighed. 

Missing things…Mercury seemed to be doing a great deal of that lately.  Why hadn't she picked up on the fact that there was something different about the Captain? How could there have been another Senshi among them for so long without her suspecting a thing? Why didn't she see the ambush coming?

Mercury prided herself on the power of her mind. She held no false illusions about her combat prowess. She was not a warrior of Venus' or Mars' stature.  She was the strategist. They relied on her to pick up on the little details and use them to form a battle plan. They relied on her powers of deduction to keep mistakes like the attack on the Princess from happening. She had failed them.

True, the Princess was safe. But things should have never gone that far in the first place. A guardsman was dead, another injured, and a Senshi lay near death in the medical wing.  Mercury could not help but feel as if she were as much to blame for this turn of events as the mage and the shadow creatures he had conjured. If only she had picked up on the additional energy signal sooner. Or if she had agreed with the Captain when she had suggested that the group remain together, maybe things would have turned out differently.

One could live their entire life in maybes; it did not change matters. Nothing could. She had failed. For once her mind had not been enough to see them through safely.

"I am weak." Was that the reason the Queen had felt it necessary to place one of the Outer Senshi on the moon? Was it that the Inner core was too weak to properly perform their duty? Had the Queen lost faith in them?

Mercury sighed and began to rub her temples. The combination of this line of thought and the mere four hours of sleep she had had in the past forty-eight was wearing on her.  "I can't continue like this." She had to get some rest and then she needed to go and speak with the Queen. She would never be rid of her doubts until she did so.

She rose and began to make her way towards her bedchamber when a sound from her computer caught her attention. One glance at the screen made her blood run cold.  She quickly scooped the computer up and activated her communicator as she ran out the door.

"Venus, you and Mars better meet me in the south wing. It seems we have intruders."

***

She was going to kill. That bitch's blood was going to coat her hands. It did not matter that her target was one of the most powerful beings in the empire. She would find a way. She glanced at her companion and knew that they would find a way.

Getting into the palace was far easier than she had imagined. They had known the general layout of the palace but had not known the whereabouts of their target. A little time spent in a nearby pub by her partner had solved that problem. The proper amount of persuasion and the guards had told them everything they needed to know. "Fools…" she muttered under her breath. She had no clue why the royal family had lived so long if this were the way palace security was normally handled. Of course leadership of the palace guard was up in the air at the moment due to recent events. She unconsciously tightened her grip on her sword.

This was all that bitch's fault. Meddling in other's affairs. Who gave her the right to play with people's lives in this way?  How was it that she could decide who lived and who died? It wasn't right.  She would make her pay!

No one harmed her family and went unpunished. She couldn't help but smile as her companion signaled that they were close to their destination. She would have that bitch's broken body at her feet by the end of the day.

***

Venus and Mars were about to be announced to the Queen when they received Mercury's transmission. "They're at the completely opposite end of the palace," Venus cried as she and Mars broke into a run.

'We'll get there," Mars assured her. "Mercury," she called activating her communicator, "where are they headed?"

"Looks like the medical wing."

Venus paled slightly, "Is there any one guarding the medical wing?"

"Hold on a moment," Mercury replied. "Two guards are at the entrance to the wing, and by the looks of it the only other occupants are Jupiter and…that's strange…Ambassador Meioh."

Venus smiled, "I knew there was something there."

"Not the time love," Mars huffed. "Mercury can you tell if the intruders have made it to the wing yet?"

"It's hard to tell, other than the initial burst of energy that they used to slip inside the palace they haven't drawn much attention to themselves."   

Mars and Venus slowed their pace slightly to keep from colliding in to Mercury as they reached the main entryway of the palace at the same time.  "We have to hurry, " Mercury cried snapping the lid to her computer shut. "I can't tell how close they are and if the residual energy from when they entered the palace is any indication, these are some extremely powerful beings we're dealing with."

Mars nodded, "I can sense something now.  Two energy signatures faint… they're good… I should have been able to pick up on them when they came onto the grounds yet this is the first time I've felt them." Their pace increased as they rounded a corner.

"Maybe they're related to the group from Venus."

"This feels different. Familiar somehow."

"Well, I don't like it. We only have two guards standing between a noble, an injured Senshi and Serenity knows what."  Venus added, sidestepping a courtier who had wandered into the hallway before them. "Damn people don't you know there's an emergency situation here! How stupid could you possibly be wandering around the palace like a fool when there's intruders in the palace..."

"Again, not the time love…"

***

This was it; beyond that door was her target.  Maybe I'll kill her slow…make her suffer. Everything had gone according to plan. The security for the medical wing had been a joke. Her partner had taken the guards out without breaking a sweat. They hadn't had time to raise an alarm. The target wouldn't either.

The shift change for the guards wouldn't be for another two hours. And as far as she could tell they had cloaked themselves efficiently enough so that they could complete their mission, collect what was theirs and be gone before the Senshi even knew what had happened. Granted, magic was neither she, nor her partner's strong suit but for what they had paid a local mage for this cloaking spell it had damn sure better work.  She assumed it did since she and her companion were now standing within feet of their target with no Senshi and no guards to be seen.

"It's time," her partner whispered.

She only nodded in reply as the ground began to shake.

***

Pluto knew they had arrived even before the ground began to tremble. "So this is my penance," she sighed. She had imagined that this would happen. Knew that her sin would not go unpunished. Had seen it in the gate of course. She was only surprised at how swiftly they had arrived. "How did they discover it so quickly?" Yet again it seemed that the gate was withholding information from its master.

The trembling increased. Pluto turned towards the door to the chamber. It was locked, she hadn't wanted any one to walk in on her time with Jupiter, but it would not remain that way for long.

The doors to the chamber flew open with a burst of golden light. Pluto positioned herself between the door and the bed. She's not in her right mind and I don't want Jupiter to be hurt further if she looses control.

"You heartless bitch!"  Shouted a rather tall blonde woman who strode through the broken doors, a shorter aqua haired woman following just a few steps behind.

"Uranus, Neptune how was your trip?"

***

"By the gods!" Venus cried as the ground began to shake. "What's happening?"

"Energy's picked up."

"Yes, Mars I can tell. But thank you for stating th..."

"I don't like this. Its too much, perhaps we should evacuate the royal family," Mercury interrupted.

"There's no time. We'll just have to end it here."

The three Senshi slid to a stop at the doors to the medical wing. Two guardsmen lay on the ground by the door. Mercury knelt beside them and reactivated her computer. "They're just stunned. You two go on ahead. I'll try and revive them and then get word to the Queen."

"Right," Venus answered "Mercury, if any one tries to come through this door…"

"I will die before they reach the Queen."

Venus nodded in reply and then she and Mars entered the medical wing.

Mars pointed down the corridor, "Her room is on the end."

"Right then," Venus replied "Lets go show these intruders why it's not nice to come to our palace uninvited."

They swiftly made their way to the room. Through the gaping hole that was once its door they could see a man holding the Ambassador by the throat against the far wall. A woman was leaning over Jupiter's bed. Venus couldn't tell what she was doing.

She motioned to Mars to get into position. They were going in. She pointed towards the woman and back at Mars, who nodded in understanding. She took a deep breath and the stepped into the room.

"Put the Ambassador down now!" Venus ordered.

The man glanced over his shoulder, and then looked back at the Ambassador. "Ambassador? I see…you just lie to everyone don't you?"

"Put her down."

"Or what little girl? What will you do to stop me from snapping her neck right now?"

"Me?" Venus shrugged, "Nothing." The man turned to look at her confusion passing over his features. She inclined her head towards Mars, whose fingers were already being licked by red and violet flames. "But Mars here will roast your girlfriend."

For the first time the woman by the bed acknowledged their presence. She rose from where she was leaning over Jupiter and stretched her arms out before her. Venus could almost swear that in that instant the room became colder and began to smell salty, like the sea at night.

The woman's hands took on an aqua colored glow. "She can try…"

Rage welled up within Venus. First they break into her home, then they attack the guards, assault one of the Queen's advisors, and now they had the gall to threaten Mars. "Fine," she growled. She pointed her finger at the man. He can't strangle the Ambassador if he's missing his arms.

"Venus crescent bea…"

A brilliant flash of white light interrupted Venus' attack. The Queen herself was now standing to the man's left. "All of you stand down!"

"But Majesty…"

"Now Venus!"

Venus complied with the order, as did Mars and surprisingly the woman by the bed dropped her hands as well.

The man however seemed to tighten his hold on the Ambassador. The Queen placed her hand on his shoulder. "Uranus, I know you're angry. But you have to let Pluto go. I'm as much to blame for all this as she. When you are done with her will you seek to kill me as well?"

Uranus? Pluto? What? Venus glanced at Mars who seemed to be just as confused.

"No Majesty," the man replied, "never." He released the Ambassador who slid down the wall gasping for air. "I am weak," he sighed, dropping his arms.

Just then Mercury ran into the room. "Venus, I can't reach the Queen..." She stopped and looked around the room. "Oh Majesty, there you are."

"Good now that we're all here…" The Queen glanced behind Mercury and into the hallway. "You can come in now Serenity." The Princess slowly walked into the room. Mars and Venus unconsciously slipped into flanking positions around her.

"As I was saying, now that we're all here I believe some introductions and explanations are in order."

Author's note: Yes, I know that it has been far too long since I updated. Blame work and grad school…I certainly do! Well, as you can probably tell…if anyone is still reading this…this story is taking longer to write than I originally thought and is going to be much longer than I originally thought. I promise I will finish it though. I have to know what happens!