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 13
She rubbed her head in a tired gesture. Venus had barely managed to dissuade Kynthia of killing her husband. Currently...detained down in extremely rarely used prison, nothing affected his vocal cords and he often yelled at the mistreatment he was getting while protesting his innocence. And while she understood Kynthia's feelings, it would be better to let him have his trial and sentence.
Mars had no doubt that he would be convicted. There was no way the Royal Family, or Crystal Tokyo, would settle for less. Unfortunately, none of the inhabitants could decide his fate. The trial would be held among the heads of states of the various countries, whether they had a treaty with Crystal Tokyo or not, with them as judges. The votes would tell his fate and if the majority agreed that he would be punished, he would be.
Kynthia herself was crying in her bedroom, hopefully successfully comforted by her mother and grandmother. Endymion and Helios, however, were busy trying to comfort the entire city of Crystal Tokyo, the people very distraught by the betrayal of their king.
The Senshi themselves weren't much better off. They had no other communication from the Outer Senshi since that one transmission. Mercury had locked herself in the security room with only Zoisite for comfort, allowing no one else to enter. Jupiter, found near constantly in the sparring area of the palace, hardly ever spoke. The only one with any success in that area was Nephrite, and only once or twice.
Venus continued like normal, but Mars suspected it was only because of Kunzite and his amazing ability to function after such a crisis. If it wasn't for him, she was sure that her leader would be weeping in her room, where there would be no one to see her and her lapse into tears.
Asnee, Roshaun, Nixie, and Keahi kept a worried watch over their grandparents. While their faith shaken by the treachery of Trion, they did not entirely understand how or why it hit the Senshi so hard and Mars couldn't explain it to them. How could she tell them that this reminded her of times in the Silver Millennium, this had happened only once and that had led to the near destruction of an entire planet, her planet.
It didn't remind her of better times and she was concerned about how it was affecting Kynthia. She was upset as it is, but could she ever trust anyone ever again? Would she pass this distrust upon her daughter? One of the reasons that Crystal Tokyo was so prosperous was because their rulers trusted their partners and had a soft heart. Would this harden her?
"Rei?"
Mars turned to her husband, who joined on the balcony overlooking the city. They sat in silence for some time, just listening to their own breathing and the sounds of life down below them.
The intercom sputtered to life, a voice interrupting their solitude.
"Senshi, Shitennou, please come to the security room. Senshi, Shitennou, please come to the security room."
With a sigh from both of them, the tired heaves becoming one entity, she followed Jadeite out of the room.
Mercury waited for them as they congregated in front of the security room. "What is it, Mercury?" Venus asked her unenthusiastically.
She motioned them to follow her. Leading away from the security room, she guided them down to an unused room they had forgotten had been built.
Dust covered all of the floor and walls like a thick blanket, cobwebs growing in all the corners. There was no furniture in the room, nothing to muffle their footsteps. Their shoes disrupted the sleepy tranquility and sending clouds of dark dust into their nostrils and mouths.
Mercury bent down and wiped her hand over the center of the floor. Her glove came away absolutely stained black. She continued to wipe the floor around her, trying to find the pattern that etched on the crystal flooring.
And suddenly she remembered what the room used to be.
"Why did you bring us to the teleportation room, Mercury?" questioned Kunzite quietly.
This teleportation room was only for Senshi teleportation. Over the years that they had used it when Crystal Tokyo rose, it had accumulated and absorbed some magic of its own. The room fairly buzzed with magical energy that had not all dissipated over the years.
"I had a thought. We can't teleport to the Outers, but can't we use the residual magic still here to see them?"
Apparently not even Zoisite knew about this plan, such as it was, considering his wary but interested expression. Venus approached Mercury delicately. "How would we do that, Mercury? The only one that has been able to do anything like that has been Mars and she has to have the Sacred Fire."
Mercury's hopeful smile dropped away quickly. "But…can't we try?"
"How, Mercury?" demanded Jupiter. "How are we supposed to do that? This room was only meant for Senshi teleportation, not a security camera." Nephrite put his and on her shoulder to calm her down.
"Why not? It's possible," Zoisite jumped in defense of his wife. "It's entirely possible we might be able to do it."
"We would have to channel the magic through us and into Mars in order for her to create the picture," supplied the Senshi of Wisdom.
"Why me?"
"Because you are the most used to doing something like this, seeing an image from nothing. You are the one most likely not to let it drop, as you've done this before, in a certain way with your fire."
She sighed in contemplation of the idea. "I would be willing to try it, if everyone is in agreement."
"Just keep in mind, this will leave us drained when we're through," Zoisite warned.
Mars stood in the center of the room, the others forming a semicircle around her. Slowly she felt them pulling at the residual magic and feeding it to her. Her hands and tiara began to glow as it filled her with power. She moved her hands in her chant cycle, gradually trying to will the power into a form that they could see through to their friends.
After a few moments, when she had all of the power and the room no longer buzzed at all, she thrust the last of it into her chanting, hoping against hope that it would work.
Nothing happened, and Jupiter shifted restlessly. "It's not working," she muttered.
"Shh," Mars told her as the magic hung, invisibly, in front of her. It was almost as if it had a mind of its own and she could read it. It was deciding what it wanted to be. With her psychic power, she gave it a bit of a nudge of her intentions for it.
Unexpectedly, it flared with light, nearly blinding them all. It faded to near nothingness in a few seconds, leaving a hole in the air before her.
A hole that they could see through.
Her friends crowded around her to see better, watching as the Outers fought. A bright blue beam headed for Pluto and Jupiter reflexively yelled, "Look out!"
The magic hole wavered erratically, and Mars held her breath, hoping it would stabilize. It did, after a few moments. She shot a look at the tall Senshi, who gracelessly grimaced at her error.
Jadeite gripped her arm, his eyes never straying from the picture in front of them. Rhonite didn't look so good, having the appearance as if he was on death's doorstep. Saturn, who she knew must be an emotional wreck because of it, was doing her level best to heal everyone at once, constantly flitting from one person to another. The others were busy doing what they did best: fight.
As they watched, a break in the monotonous fighting occurred. Taking advantage of it, Adamite dashed forward, using his fists to knock out a number of opponents, obviously having lost his double-bladed staff some time ago. With a cheer, the Senshi surged forward, managing to win the battle.
Mars was no healer, but even she would have counseled to stop fighting to rest themselves as their condition left much to desire. However, they continued on toward a building of what looked like two to three stories high. Stained gold walls and intimidating doors aside, it looked like an empty place to be.
Cirocco, already powered up, slammed a beam of dark burgundy light at the oak wood that made up the heavily decorated and not all together pleasant looking front door. It held for a moment, under the weight of the on slot of power, meaning it obviously warded.
But not warded enough. It shattered to splinters into a darkened hallway, lit by nothing they could see. Since they could hear no sound, they only assumed that Iolite had made a victory cheer by his exultant expression. Almost as a tidal wave, the Senshi and Kings flowed into the building.
The picture zoomed in behind them as they entered, but abruptly cut off. Suddenly Mars felt as if someone had pulled a plug and she collapsed into the arms of her husband. She had not realized that it would take so much magic out of her. Mercury was down on her knees, looking as pale as the dust coating the floor. None of them were standing after that.
"Why'd it cut off if it was using our powers?" Nephrite demanded, much like his wife earlier.
"It was not only using our powers, drawing our magic," she replied heavily, "but also that of the magic in the this room. When one ran out, the magic in the room, it couldn't be sustained. Besides, I'm not entirely sure if we could have seen them when they entered that building. They had a ward on the door; I'd be willing to bet my temple on it."
"So?"
"Well if Cirocco's beam took a minute to break down the door, then it must be fairly strong. Such a simple spell like the one we were using would have no chance of getting around the magical security."
"Let's get some rest. When we can walk again, we'll tell Serenity and Endymion about what we saw," Kunzite suggested.
Nods around the room and they managed to stagger out and to their own private chambers.
End Chapter 13