Chapter 2
"Where are they?" Tiaret complained.
Dalit pulled out her computer. A few moments of beeping occurred before she pointed. "They're in the gardens."
Stella groaned. "How are we supposed to find them in there? The gardens occupy most of the Moon Kingdom's grounds!"
Taila concentrated. Her psychic powers suffered when she wasn't near the fire, but that didn't mean she couldn't use them at all. Slowly, she focused on Serene and Ares. Both good subjects, as she knew them well.
"Follow me," she muttered and ran into the entrance.
Serene stared into Ares' eyes, not willing to pull away. How she loved him. How, was the question. She didn't even know him at all. Arranged marriages never seemed to work out and she had been sure this would be a dud. Guess I was wrong.
"Princess Serenity?" he murmured.
"Yes," she replied, dazed.
"Are you listening to me?" he asked.
She shook herself out of her daydream and realized that he had been talking to her. Serene blushed and Ares gave her a wry look.
"What was it you asked me?"
"I asked if you have ever been on Mars."
"No, unfortunately. What is it like?"
He smiled and began to launch into an exhaustive description of his planet, geography and such that she had absolutely no interest in at all.
"Princess, you have no idea—" he began before she interrupted.
"It's Serene."
"Huh?"
"My name is Serene. We're betrothed and all now so I think you had better know it. The Serenity thing is just a title; not my name," she explained patiently. For some reason she couldn't imagine, everyone seemed to think that the Royal Moon Family always named their children Serenity. It would have been odd if they had named a boy Serenity.
"Oh. Thank you for telling me."
"Serene!!!"
Serene looked over her shoulder and saw the Inner Senshi heading towards her. "Do you know my Inner Soldiers?" she asked Ares.
He grinned and shook his head, but said, "Only one. I do know Mars."
She smiled in return as they reached her. "Well let me introduce you to the others. This is Tiaret, Sailor Jupiter," she said, pointing to a red-haired youth in a bright green fuku with pink ribbons. Her shoes were a little over ankle high and her red hair was held back in a ponytail. A very small ponytail as her hair barely reached past her ears. Her eyes were a brown color that reminded her of the soil she had seen from afar on Earth. Her tiara had a green jewel in the center.
"You know Taila, Sailor Mars," she said, pointing to his cousin who looked nothing like him. She had black, waist-length hair that was always tied up on her head. Her eyes were a bright red color, going nicely with her red and purple fuku. Her shoes had no heels, but straps that reached up to mid-calf. Her tiara had a red jewel in the center.
"This is Stella, Sailor Venus," gesturing to a blond haired, bright hazel eyed, young girl. Her fuku was yellow and blue with a yellow stone in the center of her tiara. She had low-heeled shoes that tied up to her knees and wrist length gloves.
"And last, but definitely not least, is Dalit, Sailor Mercury," she finished, pointing to her friend with bluish white hair and light, bright aquamarine eyes. Her colors were blue and a lighter blue with a sapphire in the center of her tiara. Her gloves reached just above her wrists and her boots were ankle-high with ties up the sides.
"Pleased to meet you all," Ares said as the Outers rushed up.
"There you are. Do you know how long it took to find you?" Kitenis cried, irritated.
"Oh, and this is Kitenis, Sailor Uranus, Caden, Sailor Neptune, Jalae, Sailor Pluto, and Tacy, Sailor Saturn."
Ares nodded his head in greeting and they did likewise. A tense silence followed before Serene broke out laughing. "Come on. We have all day to do the silent treatment." She coughed delicately. "Um…Senshi, do you mind leaving Ares and I alone for a while?" she asked politely.
The Senshi exchanged glances. Even Taila was reluctant to do so. "I don't know, Serene," she began. "We've already had enough close encounters with Queen Serenity finding us doing what we weren't supposed to be doing today."
Serene walked up to Taila. "Come on, Taila. Nothing will happen between me and Ares."
Kitenis gave a crooked grin. "Which is why you're so disappointed, right?"
Serene blushed and made a swat for her. Kitenis dived out of the way and rushed out, the other Senshi close behind her; the sound of Ares' laughter accompanied them all the way to the training grounds nearby.
She felt the muscles in her back tense and the soreness returned. She groaned. Yesterday's activities had taken a lot out of her. More than she'd thought, considering the fact that she and the others were always training. She crawled into her comfortable bed with another groan.
"Tiaret!!" cried Dalit's voice.
It never failed. Dalit could wake the entire Moon Kingdom from a wonderful sleep by simply talking. One thing about the Senshi of Mercury was that she never stopped moving and her voice was very loud when she wished it to be. But to be sure, none could find a better singer. She had the tones of an angel. When she was singing.
Kitenis opened her door in irritation just as Tiaret came barreling by with Dalit in close pursuit. She didn't even need to wonder what it was this time; she didn't care. They were always ending up in some kind of fight because Tiaret couldn't lay off teasing Dalit about her loud voice or constant moving.
She looked at the sky; it wasn't even light yet. Glancing at the clock, it read, 12:00 a.m.
"Oh, not even!" she muttered. In the middle of the night, no less!
Caden and Stella approached her, both in their night robes. Kitenis did not even have that on. She wore her nightdress, which was very revealing, and at that moment, she didn't even care.
"You grab Tiaret, I'll grab Dalit," Caden told her. Kitenis nodded.
When Tiaret passed by, the Senshi wrapped her arms around the running form. Her movement was completely arrested and she fell back violently into her friend's arms.
Dalit, who thought she had her prey this time, did not notice as arms wrapped around her waist. When she attempted to knock her friend out, she found she couldn't move. She looked into Caden's annoyed face.
"Look," Stella began, "this has got to stop. Do you know what time it is? It is—"
"Midnight!"
All five cringed at once and slowly turned around. King Dari stood there in his night robe with the Queen by his side. Both looked beside themselves with annoyance and anger.
"We make allowances for your youth, but this is far enough," he continued. "It is midnight when you all should be asleep. I have no idea why you are not, but I don't very much care to know."
Queen Serenity put her hand on her husband's arm. He was always cranky on lack of sleep. Turning to the Senshi, she said, "I agree, but on a less irritated scale, I think. You should be asleep. You all have been working very hard in the training grounds the other day and you should rest."
The five Senshi looked ashamed at themselves. The King and Queen left for their quarters and with an angry look, Kitenis dragged Tiaret into her room, the others following. Stella closed the door and turned on the lights.
Kitenis dropped Tiaret unceremoniously on the floor and Caden did the same. "Look," she started, "this has got to stop. I agree with the King on a larger scale! I'm tired of being woken up in the middle of the night by your fights! I don't know why you two were up and I don't care. Just go back to sleep! You will both get all of us into serious trouble if you don't stop!"
Tiaret and Dalit looked at each other, embarrassed. They muttered agreements and left, Caden and Stella escorting them. Kitenis groaned and climbed back into her soft bed. She just wanted some undisturbed sleep.
An hour later, she still hadn't had it. When the alarm sounded, she jumped from her bed with a curse that would have turned Taila's hair white. Transforming, she ran to find the cause of the distress.
On the outer perimeter of the castle, a lone guard sat, immersed in embarrassment as the seven Senshi surrounded him. The last, one in yellow and blue and looking extremely beyond angry, appeared less than a moment later.
"The King and Queen are on their way. Ares is protecting Princess Serenity," she stated.
The guard dropped his head. It was bad enough that he hadn't listened to his superior and pulled the alarm, but now the Senshi and the Royal Family would be involved.
"Do you even know what that alarm does?" asked Jalae menacingly.
He cleared his throat. "I…it calls the Senshi to battle."
"Right," Taila said in a tone of one speaking to a particularly dense child. "And did you believe it called the Senshi to battle?"
He gulped. "No."
There was silence and he steeled himself to look up. All the expressions that greeted him were hard and angry. The King and Queen arrived then, out of breath. The Queen had the Ginzuishou with her and ready to use it. She had her arm linked through that of her husband's. The King had his sword drawn and ready.
He hung his head again as the King asked what happened. He felt the Senshi's stares boring into him and he whispered, "It was my fault. I've just been assigned to guard the castle, you see. I was a guard at one of the small villages and we don't see the Senshi there and all we hear are rumors. When my commander told me that the alarm here called the Senshi to battle, I didn't believe him. I pulled the lever, wondering what I thought it really did. I'm so sorry."
The Royal Family looked at each other and at the Senshi. Finally the King spoke. "Senshi, you control a lot of the armed forces. This is not something that requires our judgment. Decide on your own what to do." They left for their beds with irritated sighs and expressions.
The guard decided he was no better off. It was said that the Queen was the most levelheaded and the kindest. On the other hand, the Senshi were a force to be reckoned with and hard commanders to obey. They drove the guards to near exhaustion and ran a 'tight ship'.
Stella looked down at him. It was her decision since she was the leader of the Senshi. "So, you didn't believe what the alarm did. And you pulled it at 1:00 a.m. What to do with you?" She took pity on him. "You may stay at your guard post, but if we hear of any activities such as this happening again, you will be gone. And you will report to me for extra duties." He turned white, but nodded.
They left him there and Kitenis headed back to her room. Hopefully she could get some sleep.
She was sadly mistaken when at 3:00 she was awoken by another alarm. By this time, she was ready to kill something. Good thing too, because when she arrived at the outer courtyard, all the Senshi were in battle.
"Earth-Space Shaker!" she cried and thrust her arm in the air. She brought it down in an arc and yellow light followed her hand. The earth shook and golden stars flew at the attacker. They surrounded him and swirled for a second more. Then five stars flew at him and two pierced his chest, one his back and two others at his legs.
He was killed with her attack and she breathed a sigh of relief and disappointment. The other Senshi jogged up to her. "Good going," Jalae commented.
They dismissed the guards to go back to their positions. Things settled down quickly, but the Senshi stayed in the outer courtyard for the next three hours, discussing the attack. They finally decided that it was probably a random attack or assassination attempt, but they would be on guard just in case.
Kitenis did not even detransform as she dropped down onto her bed. She was going to sleep and she would not get up even if the world fell down. The green light of the alarm clock blared in her eyes. She had turned it to see the time before the attack. It read 6:00 a.m. She groaned and her fist slammed it off the desk. If something else interrupted her sleep, she would scream and kill. She wasn't the Soldier of Uranus and second-in-command for nothing.