Author's Note:
This story, while called 'Return of the Valkyries' is NOT related to 'Walk of Valkyries'. That's more of a short story that ended where it began: one part. My email address has changed to Guardian4@atlantic.net. Please put Fanfiction or something similar in the subject line so I know what the email is about.
Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Sailor Moon, etc.
Minako's husband – Kyle (Kunzite)
Makoto's husband – Matt (Nephrite)
Ami's husband – Zale (Zoisite)
Rei's husband – Jared (Jadeite)
Haruka's husband – Aren (Adamite)
Setsuna's husband – Cirocco (Cordylite)
Michiru's husband – Ian (Iolite)
Hotaru's husband – Raine (Rhonite)
For convenience, I named all the new Kings with the same first letter of their name. The Shitennou names I think are pretty able to figure out.
Return of the Valkyries
Chapter 6
Nephrite stalked into the barracks where the men were getting ready. They jumped at his presence. He usually waited for them in the training grounds. "Yes, sir?" questioned Asnee carefully.
"Out on the grounds, NOW!" he roared.
With him at their heels, the men and women of the guard ran to the training grounds. He circled them like a sheep dog, keeping all the 'strays' with the main group.
"Is something the matter, sir?"
He turned sharply to Asnee and his brown eyes slammed into her earthen ones. She knew at once that Mars and Mercury had not gotten to Jupiter before him. She cringed inside; according to Venus, this was going to be for one nasty training session.
"Come here, Captain." He said the title like it was filth and Asnee, despite being nervous as this intimidating man loomed over her, felt the anger she had felt the night before when she had talked to Jupiter. But it was because of that anger that she had gotten her men in the time of their lives, not necessarily a good thing right now.
"I know what you said to Jupiter," he whispered in her ear. "You had absolutely no right to say that to her. She only wants what's best for you, to train you, to keep you alive. There is no condescension in her eyes; that's your imagination, your will to be better than her. And normally that will is a good thing, but not when it manifests itself into anger and hatred to someone who's only doing what they are told and do want to help you."
"Are you speaking as a commander or a husband?" she shot back, just as quietly.
Perhaps she had read him wrong in the first place, perhaps she hadn't, but she would have never been prepared for it if she had had three millenniums at her disposal. He ripped his arm back and slammed his fist straight into her jaw.
It felt as if it had been broken; it should have broken. Any normal person's jaw would have been broken under the force of that hit. That fist would have made a permanent indentation in a wall with the force behind it. So why did it only hurt like hell and was not broken?
"Lord Nephrite, what was the meaning of that?" demanded an irate voice at the top of the stairs.
Asnee turned her head since it was the only thing she could do. Her breath was gone, her body limp, and her jaw exuding the pain into her brain so she could barely think. A man with silver hair, gorgeous, and tall stalked down to them.
She held her breath. This was as close as she'd ever gotten to the beautiful man before. She had seen glimpses of him in the halls, but never had she been this close to him. But on his heels, was the man of her dreams.
His blonde hair was unruly, most of it fighting to get out from the green band he had tied it with. He was a lithe man, with sparkling green eyes and a wonderful smile. She had never actually met him either, but she always found ways of passing him in the hall. Just a glimpse of him was enough to see her through the day, most times. He had a gray compact computer in his hand and Asnee recognized it as one of the many from the Network Computer room of the palace.
"Kunzite, Zoisite," her commander said and bowed slightly. Which one was which?
"What did you hit the Captain for?" the silver one demanded again.
Nephrite turned and motioned with his head away from the guards and Asnee. Both the silver one and the angel went with him. His mouth moved tightly and fast, his fist clenched tightly at his side as if he wanted to hit Asnee again.
She saw his mouth speak her name and the angel and his companion turned to her with frowns on their faces. Slowly they walked back so the guards could hear them.
"Lord Nephrite, though you had reason for anger, you should not have hit the Captain," the silver one said, making sure they heard him.
The angel bent down and offered her his hand. Asnee, in heaven when he touched her, took it and somehow managed to get to her feet without falling all over him in a pile of love-struck mush.
"However, Captain," Asnee turned to the man speaking, "you had absolutely no right to say that to him. Do you know what you just did?"
"I asked him a question."
"One that was designed to let out anger, obviously," he snapped dryly, "but it is also known as insubordination. You do not address your commander as boldly and without respect as you have done without their permission. No matter what you may think of him or Jupiter personally, they are still your commanding officers and you will treat them as such and with respect as that office deserves. Since both of you were in the wrong and did your acts solely out of anger, neither of you will be punished nor reprimanded, but keep in mind this warning. I will not be so lenient again."
"Sir, what is your name, so that I might know for future reference?"
"I am the leader of the Earthen Kings, under His Majesty King Endymion, Lord Kunzite. This is Lord Zoisite. Anything you call Lord Nephrite will apply to us."
"Are there not four of you, sir?"
"Yes. Do you not know any of our names? Surely Jupiter or Nephrite would have informed you of who to go to if you had concerns."
"Nay, they did not tell us naught but their own names."
"Good grasp of the old language," commended her angel, Zoisite. "It hasn't been used for hundreds of millions of years, when the days they didn't have technology. You must have paid attention in class."
"The last of remaining Kings still in the palace is Lord Jadeite," Kunzite told her, ignoring the other King. "The Senshi still in the palace, for alls concern since you probably already know them, are leader of the Senshi, Sailor Venus, her second in command of the Inner Guard, Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Jupiter."
"And those outside of the palace, sir?"
"That really won't be a concern since they won't be back unless it is with the Crown Princess. If their bodies return, we will know they have failed. If they do come back alive, it will be with Princess Zoie and it will mean we will be leaving soon. If that time does come, you will not see them or us again. So, in effect, for all of you it does not matter who they are."
"Are you not concerned for your comrades? You speak of their dead bodies as if they mean nothing to you."
"It is the way of any commander," said Zoisite. "A commander must be strong, grieve quietly so as not to lower the morale of his or her men. You will learn that in time, though it is a sad lesson."
Asnee watched them leave, those gorgeous men. She was completely in love with Zoisite, could think of nothing else. Tomorrow, tomorrow she would talk to him, ask him out. After all, he had said that she had had a good grasp of the old language. Surely that compliment was more than simply platonic?
But for now, it was training time. Nephrite was looking at her with something close to distaste and turned away from her after a moment.
Artemis slipped into the room before Venus closed the door. Kunzite came up behind her and started rubbing her shoulders. "For no guards to post, there are certainly a lot of problems elsewhere to deal with."
Kunzite nodded and led his wife to a chair.
Artemis ignored their grumbling and leapt onto his charge's lap. "Venus, Kunzite, we have a problem."
"Why am I not surprised?" replied the blonde in a dry tone of voice. "There's always a problem. What is it?"
"It's about Asnee."
"I thought you took care of it when you went to talk to Nephrite and calm him down this morning," she said to Kunzite, trying to think around the pleasure of his shoulder massage.
"I thought I did too."
"That's not the problem I'm talking about."
"Then there's another one?"
"Luna and I have taken turns watching her at night, to see how well she's settling into the routine, and such. Lately, she's been talking in her sleep. About a certain long, blonde-haired King who is good with technology. About how she's in love with him…"
"Oh my God," Venus muttered and dropped her head in her hands. Kunzite stopped the shoulder rub and shook his head.
"You have to do something before she embarrasses herself tomorrow. She's going to ask him out and knows exactly where he'll be. He'll be in front of at least twenty technicians and to be rejected like that will be more than embarrassing, it'll be humiliating."
"I'll have to get up at 4:00 in the morning. She'll have to get up at around 5:00, wake up, beat feet to get to him, ask him out, then beat feet to get to the training grounds. And I have to beat feet to get to her before she beats feet to Zoisite."
"Also, when you do get to her, mention to her that Kunzite is also unavailable."
Kunzite choked on the water he was drinking. "What?"
"She's head over heels for Zoisite, but you're in close second. Once she finds out that Zoisite isn't available, she'll move on to you."
"What about Nephrite and Jadeite?"
"She's a bit too resentful of Nephrite to like him like that and she's never even met Jadeite. He's never in the same wing of the palace as her."
"Okay, I'll try to get to her first, before she gets to him. Kunzite, when you wake up, the first thing I want you to do is head down to the training grounds. If Asnee isn't there, then I want you to explain to Nephrite why. Gods, it will be even worse if she finds out that the people she thought were her grandmother and grandfather's eccentric friends were the same people she was madly in love with."
Asnee was up and dressed before the sun had touched the horizon. Her feet ran soundlessly toward the Network Computer room and listened. Sounded like they were up even earlier than her and it was 4:30 in the morning.
She slid the door open and entered. A few technicians turned to her, but when she didn't say anything to them, they ignored her.
Her vision easily spotted her angel and she approached him slowly, willing herself not to act like she had run there just to see him. "Zoisite, sir?"
He turned to her and smiled. She felt herself wanting to melt. "Yes?"
"What are you doing now, sir?"
"Interested in technology? Not what I would have expected from someone of your grandmother's genes."
In truth, Asnee didn't give a care about computers and such. She just needed to find something to ask before she asked him to join her for dinner.
"I'm not usually, but since I am the Captain of the guard for the palace, I figure it's my duty to know what everything is doing."
"Quite the good answer," he responded, still smiling. "You have some wisdom in you, especially surprising in one so young, not arrogant as many are. You will be a great leader one day, when you've been allowed Time to mold you into who you will be."
She smiled euphorically. This was the opening she needed. "Perhaps we could discuss my wisdom and Time over dinner tomorrow night?"
Dead silence filled the room as Zoisite stopped smiling. Her heart constricted suddenly. "I'm…I'm flattered that you would ask me, but I…I…" He shifted his left hand and the light from the windows flashed on something golden on his ring finger.
"…I'm married."
Asnee didn't wait around to hear what else he would say. She could feel the eyes of the people in the room, Zoisite's included, as she fled. She passed someone in the hall speeding towards the Network Computer room, but she bypassed them. She didn't care about training that day, she just wanted to lie on her bed and die.
Married? How could he be married? He could only be a few years older than her and she was nineteen. It just wasn't possible…
The door opened slowly and Sailor Venus entered. A pause of silence. "I heard what happened."
"So you were the one I passed in the hall," she whispered dully, devoid of emotion.
She closed the door and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Who is he married to?"
She didn't even begin to pretend she didn't know who Asnee was talking about. "Sailor Mercury."
The Captain laughed harshly at herself. "I should have known. Someone that smart would only be with his intellectual equal, not a stupid girl who only has a good grasp of the old language."
"You're not a stupid girl. Let me tell you something. Once, when I was young and your age, I fell in love. At least, I thought it was love."
"How could you not know if it was love? Isn't that what you're the Senshi of?"
"How did you know that?" The leader's voice was soft.
"There've been rumors."
"I shouldn't be so naïve about it. I used to work here after all. Anyway, when I had him with me, I thought nothing could go wrong. All the senses about love that were bestowed upon me told me that it wasn't true, that I was going to get hurt, but I thought they were wrong. I made myself believe they were wrong.
"Then one day I found him in the park with another woman, a beautiful one. I stalked up to him in anger. I thought that what we had had meant something. He was dating someone other than me. I was determined to show him that you didn't cheat on the Senshi of Love!" She laughed self-deprecatingly. "When he turned and saw me, he didn't even flinch at the sight of my anger. I demanded to know what he was doing with another woman when he was with me. He looked at me as if I'd lost my mind and replied, 'With another woman? This is my wife.' I had mistook our relationship as love. He had only thought of me as a bit of a friend, nothing more."
"But it didn't happen in front of twenty people."
"No, mine was worse. It happened in front of this beautiful woman, who looked at me as if she was serenity incarnate, who pitied me for my 'mistake'. She was so elegant, refined, above such emotions as anger. I felt as if I was primordial ooze."
"Why did Zoisite have to married though? Why couldn't he have been dating someone, involved with someone else? Why married?"
"It happened a long time ago, before you were even thought to be conceived."
Her statement drew Asnee's attention and she propped herself up on her elbow, looking at Minako for the first time. "How could that be? He can only be one or two years older than me."
It seemed as if Venus had come to the same conclusion and she looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Uh, well, um, it was a few years ago that they got married…"
"Then they would have had to have been married when they were around fifteen and must have been dating each other for years before that. Zoisite doesn't strike me as the type to rush into a marriage relationship without a few dating years under his belt."
Venus was looking everywhere except at Asnee. The Captain sat up completely. "Sailor Venus, something is going on around here. The Senshi and the Kings can't possibly know my grandmother as well as you all seem to since my grandmother is very old. If you're the same age or a few years older than me, the way you look, then it isn't possible."
"We never said we were the same age or a few years older than you."
"But the way you look! You have to be very old to have guarded the Royal Family I, but you all look around my age. What is going on? As the Captain of the Guard, I deserve to know!"
Venus got to her feet and headed for the door, muttering, "I have to be going."
Asnee somehow beat her to it. She placed her back against the hard surface and locked the door. "Tell me what's going on. Who are you? WHAT are you?"
Venus studied her.
"Look, everything about you from the way you talk, the way you act, your knowledge and the way you think…it all says that you could be as old as time. But the way you look, the way you move, the swiftness you display for someone that old…it's as if you were teenagers. What's going on?"
A blinking light on her earpiece drew her attention. "Mars here. Venus, we're in the Throne Room on duty. Where the hell are you?"
She touched the earpiece and said, "Venus here. I'm in the Captain's room and she has brought up our…differences. Cannot make a decision without full consent of all."
The Senshi watched her with her blue eyes as she obviously waited for a response. A tinny voice came a moment later.
"Mars here. Say nothing."
Asnee opened her mouth and Venus held up a warning hand. "Venus here. Situation tense, exit blocked non-threateningly. Consider re-evaluating answer."
She had no idea why they were talking in short, coded sentences, but perhaps it had something to do with the secret of what they were.
"Jadeite here. Irrelevant information. Unnecessary risk."
"Venus here. Not irrelevant. Possible undesirable consequences if left unanswered."
"Zoisite here. Not irrelevant. Decision approved."
"Mars here. No information."
"Mercury here. Undesirable consequences already formed. Stressed relationship with J3 and N2."
'J3? N2?' Asnee mouthed at Venus. Other than a flicker of a glance at her, the Soldier ignored her.
"Kunzite here. Skeptical. Not entirely relevant for security purposes."
"Mercury here. Must reroute undesirables. Decision approved."
"Nephrite here. Second Kunzite."
"Jupiter here. Create more undesirable consequences. Say nothing."
"Venus here. Possibility only."
"Jadeite here. Agreed. Decision approved."
"Venus here. Security breaching with no information. More undesirable consequences if remain silent."
"Nephrite here. Explain."
"Venus here. Determined decision. Gathering intelligence on S.S. and E.K. Possible complete and permanent breach with relations."
There was silence for so long that Asnee wondered what it was exactly that Venus had said that had upset them so, causing them to think so hard.
"Kunzite here. Agreed. Decision approved."
"Mars here. Decision approved."
"Nephrite here. Decision approved."
"Jupiter here. Decision approved."
"Venus here. Acknowledged. Inform Outers? Gain approval?"
"Kunzite here. Negative, unnecessary."
"Acknowledged. Venus out."
And the conversation ended.
Asnee immediately spoke. "What was that?"
"The approval for me to tell you what you want to know."
"Really?"
"Yes."
The first thing that Asnee did when she fully heard the wild tale that Venus spun, she laughed. She laughed so hard she almost fell to her knees. "You're kidding! YOU people are my grandmother's friends? And my grandmother is a Sailor Senshi? Which one is she?"
"Jupiter."
"And that would make Nephrite…?"
"Your grandfather."
Asnee laughed afresh.
"I see I shall have to show you."
When Venus held up a pen in her hand, golden light filled her bedroom. It faded and left Minako standing there. Albeit she looked younger than the last time she had seen her, but it was still her.
Asnee fainted.
End Chapter 6.
Okay, I realize that the conversation over the earpiece between the Senshi and Earthen Kings is a little strange, so I'll explain some things and put a translation down here in case you don't want to take the time to figure it out. Hey, it took me a few minutes some time to figure out how to write it, so...
Also, the reason they spoke like that, which will be explained in the next chapter, is to completely confuse Asnee for one, and anyone else that might have their frequency, like the kidnappers. Hey, they know nothing about them. For all they know, they might have been listening in the whole time.
J3 refers to Jupiter. The 'J' refers to Jupiter, obviously, and the 3 refers to her place in rank. N2 refers to Nephrite. The N is for his name and the 2 is for his rank, since he is second-in-command. Venus and Kunzite would be V1 and K1, the letter of their name and 1 for leader.
S.S. stood for Sailor Senshi and E.K. stood for Earthen Kings.
Since what Mars said at the beginning is self-explanatory, I'll start when Venus tells them where she is:
(I'm starting with the last sentence) "…I can't tell her who we are without you all agreeing first since it's not just my secret."
"Mars here. Don't tell her."
"Venus here. Asnee's really upset and I can't leave. She's blocking the door. Besides, shouldn't we tell her?"
"Jadeite here. She doesn't need to know. It risks not only us, but Usagi and Mamoru."
"Venus here. It isn't irrelevant. It'll only get worse from now."
"Zoisite here. I agree. Tell her."
"Mars here. Don't tell her."
"Mercury here. We already have problems, major ones, with her. She's already on the verge of hating Mako-chan and Matt and she doesn't even realize that they're the people she looks up to the most."
…..
"Kunzite here. I'm not sure. I mean, I agree with Mercury, but we have to think of the bigger picture here. It's not exactly pertinent information, security wise."
"Mercury here. We have to stop it before more problems arise. Tell her."
"Nephrite here. I agree with Kunzite."
"Jupiter here. It'll only create more problems if we tell her. Don't say anything."
"Venus here. Maybe not."
"Jadeite here. I agree with Venus; it might not. All right, tell her."
"Venus here. If we don't tell her, she might inadvertently trigger a security breach. Besides, if we don't, it'll only create even more problems that will happen than the problems that might happen if we do tell her."
"Nephrite here. What do you mean?"
"Venus here. She'll be determined to find out what's different about us. She'll go around, asking a lot of questions and possibly bring suspicion about our backgrounds upon us. Besides, when she does find out on her own, she'll really hate Matt and Mako-chan forever for not telling her."
….
"Kunzite here. I see your point. Okay, tell her."
"Mars here. Tell her."
"Nephrite here. Fine."
"Jupiter here. All right."
"Venus here. Right. By the way, do we tell the Outers? You know, ask them if they want us to?"
"Kunzite here. No, it really doesn't matter to them because the only time they'll be coming back is either with Zoie or dead."
"All right. Venus out."
It may be more talking down here, but, hey…I translated it. Those '…' mean that I skipped something that doesn't need to be translated. Unless it's in a line of dialogue, it's more likely a description or something.