Author's Note:
Yes, another fanfiction. As before, the disclaimers go as follows:
My email address is Guardian4@atlantic.net. If you want to email me about my story, please put fanfiction in the subject line. Sailor Moon was made by Naoko Tacheuchi, I don't own it.
Also, Rei and Mamoru never went out, k? And Kunzite and Zoisite are not lovers. I also used the relationship between the Shitennou from the manga, not the anime, which means they don't hate each other. I also use only the manga attacks for the Senshi. (Since in the Manga, Mars doesn't have Fire Soul and only talismans in the first season, I'm going to borrow a second season one, even though she doesn't have her Star Power transformation.)
Hidden Truths
Chapter 14
Sailor Moon rubbed the back of her head and blinked to clear her vision. This was all too familiar. Only this time, instead of fighting against the Shitennou, they were fighting with them. However, Beryl seemed to have other generals at her disposal. These five were quite ugly of face, but powerful of body. All were made for bulk work, used physical attacks most of the time, unlike the Shitennou, which were a perfect blend of physical and magical weapons and armament.
Tuxedo Kamen grabbed her arm and ran with her away from the battle. She demanded to know why until he pointed behind her as they stood higher on a swing set. The Inner Senshi with one Shitennou apiece split up and one general followed each pair until there was only one general left. He spotted them and Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen lured him on farther from his fighting companions.
It was a close thing, but they managed to back him into a corner. Unfortunately, realizing his compromising position enraged him and he charged toward the two like a bull. Though Tuxedo Kamen did most of the fighting, Sailor Moon was gratified to know that she got in a few good hits now and again.
"Earth Tornado!"
Sailor Moon started to hear such a strange attack come from her beloved's mouth. A circle of rocks hailed a spiral curtain of projectiles around the evil general and surrounded him in a tornado of earthen fury.
He was caught and knew it; she saw it in his eyes, how they widened in horror. He was bruised and bloodied as he teleported away from the battlefield.
"Mamo-chan?" she called tentatively.
Tuxedo Kamen started and looked at her. "What?"
"Where did that come from?"
He looked down at his hands, as if they didn't belong to him. "I don't know. It was like I knew it all along, didn't have to think about it. Why? Why did I develop such a new attack, now of all things? Perhaps we will need it in the future." His expression turned grim at the thought of Metallia's attacks.
Sailor Moon wrapped her arms around his chest and he looked down at her in surprise. Instinctively, he held her close to him.
Finally she said, "Let's go find the others."
Easier said than done, apparently. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen waited for a bit in the center of the park, but when people began to filter back in, they were forced to leave.
"Maybe we're just passing them," she suggested as they passed the same spot twice.
"Maybe we should head back to the temple."
"Let's check on the communicator."
Immediately his hand clamped down on hers, gripping her but not hurting her. "Remember, we said radio silence, Usako."
She sighed, remembering a disappointing bit of information from the Shitennou. They had learned the frequency of the Senshi's communicators, making talking over them meant taking a greater amount of risk with their identities. There were a few code phrases and words that would only mean something to another Senshi, but those were few and hard to think of on the spot.
They slipped quietly up the stairs and stopped when they heard raised voices. Mars…and Jadeite, she thought as they stopped. She almost detransformed, but her beloved's restraining hand stopped her. She looked at him in surprise and he held a finger to his lips for quiet. Tugging her wrist in the way he wanted her to go, they managed to slip behind some trees and looked toward the courtyard.
Not only Mars and Jadeite were there, but all the others as well. And they were all arguing at the top of their lungs. Well, all except Mercury, who stood to the side of the yelling mob and watched, resigned.
It took a few minutes to discern what the fight was about, but when she did, she gasped. She immediately bit her lip in consternation, but the Senshi didn't hear something as low as that.
"How dare you say that? We've got to find her NOW!" screamed Mars, a few inches away from Jadeite's face.
He glowered back at her. "Look, I'm sure they're fine. They're probably coming back now. You were one that was advocating the radio silence thing."
"Just because we agreed upon the necessity of it," Venus growled, "doesn't mean that we have to like it. They could be bleeding somewhere or dying and we would never know it."
"What is this argument really about?" demanded Zoisite. "The lack of the Prince and Princess, or the fact that we have imposed a radio silence?"
"Shut up, Zoisite!" yelled Jupiter, smacking him in the arm.
"Don't tell him to shut up when it's a legitimate question!" responded Kunzite immediately.
"I thought you were supposed to be impartial, Kunzite," she retorted.
"I don't see anyone being impartial about all this," was Nephrite's rejoinder.
"We need to break this up," Sailor Moon whispered to Tuxedo Kamen.
"No," he replied just as quietly. "They need to learn to work together on their own without us to oversee them. If they always need us to come to a decision together, we'll lose the war against Beryl and Metallia."
Mercury whistled harshly and when she had all their attentions, she glared at them all impartially. "Thank you. If you all don't stop yelling, someone will come and find the Senshi and Shitennou standing in front of the Hikawa Shrine. Then it will be all over the papers, Beryl will pick it up, and she'll figure out who we are. We don't want that. So, please let's discuss this quietly and rationally."
Venus took a deep breath. "Mercury's right; we need to work together if we are to do anything with each other, much less find the Prince and Princess."
"But we've searched for hours for them!" hissed Mars, minding to keep her voice low.
"Yes we have, but—"
"Then what do we do?" demanded Jupiter.
"We have a few options," Kunzite said calmly. Too calmly, Sailor Moon thought, considering the fact that he had been yelling like everyone else a few minutes ago. "We can either break the radio silence, go look for them some more, or we can stay here and wait to see if they come here."
"Or we can send a few to look and keep a few here," added Zoisite.
"Which has more merit?" asked Jadeite.
"I'm for the breaking up and sending a few to look and keep a few here," Nephrite chipped in. "It has the most probable area of success."
"Suppose they're out looking for us?" Mercury brought in. "What if the searching teams miss them?"
"Can't you find them with your powers, Rei-chan?" Venus questioned.
Mars looked surprised at the question, but regrettably shook her head. "No, I've already tried. They must have been so far away that I couldn't get a lock unless I meditated and sat in front of the fire. That would have taken hours so I didn't do it."
"How long ago did you try it?" Kunzite asked, his brow furrowed in thought.
"About a half-an-hour ago."
"Look," Venus began, and they all looked at her, "I think we should split up and look. Jupiter, Zoisite, Kunzite and I will look. Mars will try her psychic powers here and Nephrite can try to read the stars. Mercury can try scanning with her computer and Jadeite can help her. I'd prefer to keep pairings of two, no more, no less, which is why I thought to keep you here, Jadeite."
Kunzite nodded. "I concur."
Tuxedo Kamen nodded and they slipped back toward the stairs and approached their friends. Just as they had been about to leave.
"Usagi-chan!" her Senshi cried and surrounded her with hugs.
Sailor Moon smiled and looked into his eyes. He winked back and she giggled. But she wasn't giggling when she saw behind the Shitennou, where no one was looking, Yuuichirou and Rei's grandfather watching them. Yuuichirou's eyes were wide, but the older man was studying them with a shrewd look in his eyes.
No one noticed her preoccupied and horrified glance. The Senshi continued to joke around and the Shitennou were talking to her Prince. There was no way to delicately say that they were being watched. Even if they had come in a few seconds ago and had not been watching the argument like her and Tuxedo Kamen, they would know who they were because the Senshi and Shitennou were using their civilian names, thinking they were alone.
She squeaked as Rei's grandfather shifted a millimeter and immediately the mood switched from relaxed to tense. The Senshi whirled around, placing themselves between her and the imagined threat.
"Well, Rei-chan, this is what you do outside school."
Mars exchanged glances with all the fighters for justice and gulped. She looked back at her grandfather and attempted to salvage a secret identity. They both knew it wouldn't work, but she gave her friend points for trying.
"I…am not this Rei person you refer to, sir, but Sailor Mars, third-in-command of the Sailor Senshi."
He gave her a sideways look. "Nice try."
Her shoulders slumped and she buried her face in her gloved hands. "Is it true, Rei-chan?" asked Yuuichirou.
For a moment, Sailor Moon was afraid she would attack them, risking their deaths for the duty and secret of the identities of the Senshi, but she just shook her head after a tense moment.
"Yuuichirou," Venus said lowly, without the slightest smile on her face, a face that the two knew was always smiling, "shut up. Before you do or say something you're gonna regret later."
"I think we should go inside and talk," said the old man, with surprising compassion for the uncomfortable fighters.
The Shitennou and Tuxedo Kamen, who had gone unnoticed for the moment, attempted to slink away. His old but powerful voice crackled across the silence and stopped them in their tracks.
"You too, boys. Where did you think you were going?"
Resignedly, the ten fighters filed into the shrine, Mars' eyes not meeting her grandfather's. There was the slam of a door and then he and Yuuichirou were standing in front of them in the dim interior.
"Do…" Sailor Moon faltered under his gaze as it snapped to her. "Do you suppose you could leave us a bit of privacy to de-henshin?"
His mouth tightened but he nodded and dragged the gawking young man out with him as he left.
Slowly they were back to civilian forms. "What do we tell him?" Usagi whispered fearfully.
Her friends shook their heads in helpless silence.
And then he was back, by himself.
"Where's Yuuichirou?" asked Makoto in surprise.
"I sent him to do chores," was the gruff reply. "Now sit down. I want to know exactly what this is all about."
So they gathered around the small table in Rei's room and explained all the questions that her grandfather thought to ask. For a moment, it almost looked like that he would punish the Soldier of Fire for her role, but he just sat, looking at the tabletop as though it held all the secrets of the universe.
"So that's where you kept going at night. I was afraid it was to some boy's house or something," he said faintly.
"Why would you think that?" she demanded.
"Because…never mind. Rei-chan?" She looked at him. "I'm proud of you. You and your friends can always come here if you need to."
"What are you going to do about Yuuichirou?" wondered Minako aloud.
"I can think of a few ideas, but the one that would most likely work is much more fun." And oddly enough for the grave situation, he began to smile. "I think a visit from five powerful male fighters would take a warning of dire silence to heart."
"Why male fighters?" demanded Makoto. "Think we can't do something like that?"
"But Mako-chan," started Ami, a slow smile forming on her lips, "don't you think that Mamoru and the Shitennou look so much more intimidating in the fading light?"
She grudgingly admitted that they did.
"I think a warning from them would keep him quiet about it," said the older man seriously. "It's the only way I can think of that would make him keep his mouth shut, even when he's nervous or his tongue is loose."
"I'll let them do it, just so long as I can see what they say to him," grumbled Makoto.
In the end, it was decided that the five men would approach Yuuichirou alone and give him a word of warning. Makoto and Rei weren't happy about it, they thought the Senshi would be more intimidating, but they had been overruled by Rei's grandfather and Ami, of all people.
Yuuichirou never mentioned the Senshi again after that night. The girls wondered what was said exactly because he looked at them, even Rei, strangely since then. But no amount of questioning provided answers, only satisfied and amused smirks.
End Chapter 14.