Bwahahahahah! You didn't think I'd leave it there, did you?

Gomen, this is long overdue:

EbonyFox – I know, swooning can be annoying!

Stallion of the Stars – Thanks . . . I . . . love you too. ^-^

Drive Me Mercury – Don't Greek myths rock?

little-moonlight – Thanks for your support!

Amy@angel – Your enthusiasm keeps me going . . . really! You're so sweet.

Bunnychu – Thanks for the review. You have great tastes, by the way. (e.g. musicals, bands, etc.)

Blue – Hey, it worked!

hotohori's empress – No, it can't be helped. There are already too many great Endymion/Serenity focused fics out there already. I had to do something new or else I would have been totally depressed for not being able to keep up.

Gackt Camui – By telling me to update daily, you really are jinxing me! Your reviews are so encouraging. I'm honored that such a strong writer as yourself is actually addicted to my story! I guess you would be my #1 fan. *pauses to think about what she's saying* Wah! I have fans? No, no, that's not right, never mind. ^-^;;; Please continue your fic, by the way.

Xelena – You're quite insightful . . . stay out of my head! Lol!

DemonRyu – I understand about the "only in my head" part. That is, until I found Meredith Bronwen Mallory. Go check out her stuff, it's phenomenal

Fallen Dragon – You have no idea how soon. *-*;;;

EA – It's good to know that you're not close-minded. Now I'm not going to give away whether or not this is a Demando/Serenity fic, but I have to say I have been converted to certain pairings by spectacular writers, and am honored that you would imply that I have done the same even in the smallest way . . . or maybe not! Well, thank you anyway.

JadesRose – Don't thank me yet. The story is not even beginning to be over. Thank you for the compliments; it's great inspiration to receive such thoughtful insights from people like yourself.

ases – "Poor Demando" . . . that's exactly what I'm trying to get across. Thank you for letting me know that I've done it right!

. . . and to everyone else who has read and not reviewed . . . a big *glomp*!

Forgive the constantly changing format. I've been messing around with html and getting the hang of things. Please bear with me.

Chapter 8

In the dark, palace-fortress of Nemesis, in a large, sparse, yet finely-furnished room with no windows, on a silken bed, Princess Serenity lay weeping

When they had gone through the portal, the princess had been bombarded by a negative energy and knocked out. Several hours later she woke up in the unfamiliar chamber, trembling like water, and scared beyond words.

At one point, Prince Demando had entered the room and stood glaring at her, deep in thought. She had run to him, collapsing at his feet and begging him to take her home. All she received was his pained, uncertain expression. Then he turned on his heel and left her alone in the room again, closing the two great doors with a large thud.

She dragged herself back to the bed, flinging herself onto it and fell asleep from exhaustion. The black crystal's energy was draining to one unused to its properties. Her sleep was deep, but not at all peaceful.

When she awoke again, it was because someone had come and set food in her room. She eyed the sustenance hatefully and lay back down on the bed, staring up at the ornately carved ceiling.

She did not know how long she laid there, eyes swollen and raw from crying. Eventually, her own hunger drove her to consume the now cold meal. It was left for her on a wooden, polished table.

After eating a little, she walked guardedly to the doors and tried the brass handle. They were unlocked. She stuck her head out through a small opening and took in her new setting. Long, dark, stark hallways pulsed with a strange energy; an appalling distortion of her own palace. There were no windows to be seen.

Wandering out of the room, she must have looked an odd sight in her thin, poorly concealing night shift and bare feet. People who haunted the corridors of the ghostly palace stopped what they were doing to observe their prince's captive. Some squinted at her malevolently, others seemed indifferent; still there were many who regarded her with wonder, speaking in hushed voices, nodding and bowing.

She ignored them all, not even noticing they were there.

She had no idea where she was going, but she knew she couldn't stand to lie around and just wait any longer. She knew her mother and Prince Endymion would come for her sooner or later. Until then, she had to do something.

What she didn't know was that Prince Demando had activated a force field around Nemesis as soon as he arrived that made the planet invisible and virtually undetectable by any natural means. And because the rogue moon was mobile, it was impossible to know where in the solar system the tenth planet was at any given time. The cunning prince had situated his kingdom in the last place they'd look: in an irregular orbit around the Moon Kingdom itself. He knew it was the safest place to be.

Serenity turned some corners, wandered down several corridors. When she came to a dead end, she entered the room. It appeared to be a laboratory, complete with smoking substances and clinking glass utensils. She stopped when she realized she could go no further, and stood like a zombie, her face gaunt from crying, not knowing what else she to do.

"Hn," the sound of a voice came from behind, scornful and unsympathetic.

Slowly, unfeelingly, she turned to see who addressed her.

The cross-looking man with gently waving hair (a shade of blue darker even that Mercury's) glowered at her. He looked her up and down, measuring her with similarly blue eyes. He bore the Mark of the Dark Moon clan.

Immediately, Serenity knew him to be Demando's younger brother. Although the coloring was completely different, the faces were the same – harsh, severe features plainly revealing that he thought nothing special of her.

"So," he said condescendingly, "you must be the Moon Princess."

She answered him only with dull, tear-washed eyes.

"You're pretty enough," Saffir continued, undaunted by her lack of speech. "But other than that, I really can't tell why it is my Prince thinks of you."

"I want to go home," she said flatly.

"Well, that's not going to be happening any time soon; so I suggest you get a hold of yourself and find some dignity. Really, it's not befitting for a princess to be roaming around in such apparel." He gestured at her summer night clothes.

She looked dumbly down at her night dress and back up again. "I don't have anything else."

The voice was just pathetic enough to soften Saffir's countenance. "Is that so?" he asked, sounding now more exasperated than cruel. He sighed softly. "Follow me, then."

The girl came after him automatically and without protest. They went back the way she'd come, turned through a hallway she had not gone through yet. Nemesians, both servants and higher-ups, stared at them as they passed. He entered a room – via a strange sliding door – without knocking. It appeared to be a woman's powder room.

"Saffir!" a woman with deep olive-green hair bound at the nape of her neck screeched. She rose from a sitting table and came at him fervidly, lips pursed in anger. "KNOCK, before you come into a woman's room, for Kami's sake!"

He raised a single eyebrow at her in apathy, but there was no malignity behind his actions. "This woman needs some suitable clothing, Petz."

The disgruntled female looked at Serenity for the first time. Her eyes widened in curiosity. "Oh?" Then quietly aside to him, as if the grief-striken girl could not hear, "Is that the one Prince Demando brought back from the Moon Kingdom?"

Saffir nodded, but didn't bother to lower his voice. "Princess Selenity, or Serenity . . . something like that. I found her meandering in my lab like a timid, lost rabbit. Do something with her, Petz. You and your sisters must know how to deal with her."

Petz looked piteously at the forsaken princess. "Well . . . uh, fine! I've got some old gowns lying around. She might fit in them." She sized the princess up distastefully. "So small . . ."

Rubeus murmured, "Thank you." Even in her grief-stricken stupor, the perceptive, soul-reading Serenity didn't miss the way he tenderly brushed the length of her arms with his fingertips. Even Petz's temperamental countenance softened and she faintly smiled at him. Petz and Saffir were lovers.

When Saffir departed, Petz resumed her trademark scowl. "Men . . .don't you just hate them?"

She placed her right hand in the center of Serenity's back and guided her roughly to the end of the room. There was a traditional-style door there that Serenity hadn't noticed until now. Petz flung it open and pushed her, coming in after her.

"Sisters!" she screamed, making the princess start.

They had entered some sort of communal living room that had three other doors, one door in each of the four walls of the chamber. One of these doors opened, and cross woman peeked out, obviously roused from her nap.

"What the hell . . . Petz!" she growled.

Then another door flung open, and a third young woman stomped out. "Stop nagging. Kami, you're good at that."

"Calaveras is better. Look," Petz showed the silent princess to her sisters with her hands. "Saffir asked me to get some clothes for her. I don't think she'll fit in anything I've got. She looks more like your size, Beruche."

The third woman approached, studying Princess Serenity. Her hair was such a light blue, it could have been white and she wore it two braids: one wrapped around her forehead, and the other trailing down her back like a rope. Beruche's blue eyes scrutinized her. "Who's this . . .?"

"I know!" The sleepy sister offered, now interested. She came out of her room to join the inspection, dark locks curling after her. She had mounds of hair, even with some of it piled up into two yam-shaped buns on the top of her head. "She's the moon princess whom Prince Demando fell in love with."

"Baka." Petz looked superior. "Demando doesn't like women."

"Oh? And how do you know?"

"Well, obviously, he's never had any mistresses and Esmeraude drives herself futilely trying to get him to notice her."

"So you're saying he likes men?"

"No!" Petz scrunched up her face. "I'm saying he doesn't have a personal preference of any kind . . . where's Calaveras?"

"She's not talking to you, remember?" reminded Beruche.

"Yeah, you two got in a fight again."

"Uh!" Petz rolled her eyes. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. Here, Beruche, get her dressed."

If Serenity had been herself, she might have been insulted being passed like an object from person to person. At any rate, that was not the case.

Beruche was gentler than Petz. She took Serenity into her room, which was almost exactly like Petz's. She knelt at the base of her bed, and opened a heavy black trunk. Rummaging through its contents, she pulled out various articles of clothing.

"Here!" she held up some crimson material triumphantly. "This one's old, but you'd be in denial if you thought I'd lend you some of my better things."

Her talk was rhetorical, so it made no difference that Serenity failed to respond.

With skilled fingers, Beruche undressed the pale wraith of a princess and slid the dress over her frame, then stood back to survey the results. "A little loose in the chest area, but it'll have to do."

The two other sisters came in to view their ward. An uncharacteristic, uncanny silence passed between them all when they witnessed the young woman in the blood red gown. She looked out of place in their house, on their planet, in their lives, and the fierce, scarlet ensemble only added to her sickly countenance.

* * *

She had descended into the underworld, and she now dwelt with the dead.

Serenity's first stage was one of shock. She was a living specter moving only by instinct or by others' initiative. This shock lasted for a few days.

The Ayakashi sisters took care of her, in their rough affectionate way. Calaveras's curiosity had eventually driven her into her sisters' presence so that she too could see Demando's captive. The youngest, second only to Petz, her brown hair kept out of her face in a fierce, neat bun. She had a temper to rival Petz's. It was no wonder they didn't get along.

When Serenity came out of shock, the second stage she entered into was anger. She scorned anyone and everyone and refused to eat. Her silent, fuming anger could be sensed a mile away. Even the tough sisters steered clear of her, though Serenity never spoke to nor touched them.

During the day, Serenity moped, and at night, she sobbed; though it was hard to tell the passage of days from within her dark, windowless prison.

She kept wondering where her mother was and when she would finally come to get her.

* * *

Queen Serenity was frantic. Her daughter had been abducted, and there was not a trace left to follow her.

The Princess Mars had come raving to her that night, and her ramblings were indecipherable. A day later, when every corner of the kingdom had been scoured and upturned without a single sign of the Moon Princess, it finally registered with the Queen: Serenity had been kidnapped.

The Prince of Nemesis was gone as well. He had departed two days early. The tenth planet of Nemesis had disappeared along with him, and all supernatural portals to the black moon were blocked.

The Queen sent out an alert throughout the solar system, warning that if any knew the whereabouts of either the Princess or Prince Demando, that he should come forth with the information or suffer great consequences. But the two had all but vanished from existence.

And things only got worse.

Prince Endymion had been supportively at the side of the Queen in the beginning, working just as furtively to find his precious fiancé. But disaster struck on Earth – in the form of a blow felt throughout the solar system. The Prince's once honorable generals had turned on him and joined the forces of Sorceress Beryl. How the witch had so much power, one feared guess. Now with the Earth's capital in her capable talons, the dreadful woman was gaining ground, and fast. When before the threat had been little more than an uneasy pulsing of the ginzuishou, it now caused the sacred crystal to throb maniacally. The upheaval must be stopped where it was before it could gain any further hold.

Endymion had to return at once to gather the remaining loyal forces of his kingdom and attempt to drive the traitors into submission. The Queen sent him aid and manpower where she could, but her own mind was on her daughter.

She petitioned the Princesses of the other four prodigious planets: powerful allies and her daughter's sworn guardians.

The entire Silver Millennium was stretched thin – trying to keep one eye on the battle on Earth, and the other on the look out for any sign of Princess Serenity.

And so the divine era of the Moon Kingdom threatened to come to a screeching halt.

* * *

"What's there?" Serenity asked, her voice a flat note. Her head faced the direction of a particularly long, dark corridor that descended down into the depth of the palace. An overwhelming rush of power surged from within it.

The Ayakashi sisters were taking her to see Prince Demando. This one was a route she had never been on before.

The sisters hesitated.

"Should we tell her?" Beruche asked.
"Well, she is one of us now . . ." Cooan shrugged.

Calaveras disregarded their concerns. "That's the heart of Nemesis. It's where the Black Crystal lies."

Serenity grimaced. Although she had grown accustomed to the crystal's power so that it no longer drained her (it had been a week since her kidnapping), the dark energy was still contrary to what her body was nurtured on – the silver, warm light of the ginzuishou. It was no doubt to her now why the Dark Moon clan was so bitter.

"Look, she's trembling!" Petz noted plainly, interested.

"The poor dear . . ." the kinder Beruche shook her head, making tsking noises with her tongue.

They always talked about her as if she weren't there, these cackling, petty Nemesians.

"Come on!" badgered Petz impatiently.

So they continued on their way.

The sisters were course, it was true, but they were not necessarily unkind to her. Although they fought amongst themselves constantly with the shrill, raised voices of peeved hens, the four women saw to it that the princess was dressed, fed, and taken care of. No one asked this of them. It became their responsibility, because no one else wanted it.

She did not hate them. She didn't even loath Demando; no, not even him. She was angry with him, that was true. But Serenity had never learned how to hate, and besides, she was not a hypocrite. When she told him on that day that hatred solved nothing, she meant it.

They brought her to a wing of the fortress that Serenity had not known existed. Here, there were windows. She could see now, for the first time, the Nemesian terrain. Compared to the beauty of her home, the ugliness of the landscape was staggering. Black, jagged rocks protruded from dry soil, dotted here and there with struggling shriveled plants. The royal stronghold was on hill, like the Moon Palace, and the city made of similar dark, stark dwellings, spread out along the hill's foot. There was day here after all. But the light was dim. Yellowish swirling clouds crowded the planet's atmosphere threatening rain, but never making good on its empty promise. If the clouds had not been there, she would have seen how close she was to her home.

Serenity lingered by a huge window the size of an immense book shelf, taking it all in, until Cooan nudged her into moving forward again.

They came into a large, columned chamber carved of some grey mineral. To their left, where the giant windows rose, Demando stood dejectedly gazing through the glass. A man with wild, flaming hair – a Nemesian, for all Nemesians bore the Mark of the Black Moon clan – spoke to him, in deep, calculating voice. He looked manipulative. At the other end of the room a curvaceous, skimpily-dressed woman slouched in a chair, also of Nemesis. She instantaneously came to attention when the five women entered the room. Her green eyes flashed enviously, and her bright green hair hung around her body like dense foliage.

"We've brought Her Grace the Moon Princess, my Prince," Calaveras said perkily.

Only Demando's eyes shifted to acknowledge them.

The wild-haired man glowered. "What did you do," he demanded of them, "take a detour to the eastern provinces?"

"Not at all, my dear Rubeus," cooed Cooan.

The man Rubeus brushed away her obvious affection haughtily. "You girls really are useless." He was in charge of the quartet, and he was annoyed by their delay.

"That's enough," Demando spoke, his voice low, deadly; his eyes flashing authority. Serenity had never seen him in an authoritative position before, and it surprised her how adjusted he was to giving orders.

Rubeus backed away. "Forgive me, my prince. Please allow me to excuse myself from your presence."

Demando nodded.

Rubeus left, and the Ayakashi sisters took the hint and followed him.

The unknown woman remained.

Prince Demando turned slowly. He met Serenity's eyes. Then he broke off the gaze and narrowed his eyes at the patronizing woman still seated. Serenity thought to herself that she might have been exquisitely beautiful, had she not been perpetually scowling.

"Esmeraude . . ." he warned in the same calm tone.

"Hm!" She snapped a jewel-fur lined fan open and closed.

Demando jerked his head toward the door. Esmeraude got up reluctantly and walked leisurely to the exit. When she reached the point where she could look directly at Princess Serenity, she stopped and glared odiously at her for a good, long minute; then strode out of the room, her head held out in front of her like a poisonous snake.

They were alone.

They stood a few feet away from each other, pondering. Demando regarded her with his arms crossed, his face perfectly wiped of all emotion. But she could sense his indecision.

Then he dropped his arms, held them behind his back, pacing across the room in anticipation of what would come next.

"Demando . . ," her voice started, low and trembling, threatening tears. Her anger was melting and quickly being replaced by despair. "Let me go home right now."

He halted and faced her.

"No," evenly, sadly.

"But why?!" she burst into tears. The steel iron façade of the cruel Prince gave way. He flinched evidently.

Looking away again, he said, "You have to stay."

"But I don't want to!" she cried, as if this should make it all clear for him. Sobs rose in her throat.

"Don't . . ."

"Don't what?!"

"Don't."

"Why am I here?!"

"You wouldn't understand."

"I wouldn't understand because it's wrong, Demando!" shrieking. "You have to let me go!"

"No."

"Yes!"

He moved so swiftly, she hardly saw him coming. He grabbed her arm and forced it against her, pinning her up against the cold glass of the windows. She ceased her crying and her eyes grew large, fearful – an innocent, wild animal trapped in the snare of a hunter. His face was inches away from hers and she could see everything in his eyes: anger, fear, desire, and a violent, inexperienced, yet pure love.

"You'll ruin everything," she whispered, "everything you've created between us."

He flew away from her as if she'd burned him, drawing in his breath in a rush of air. His soul completely naked, it was evident as daylight - he was horrified at what she'd said.

Blindly, numbly, he went away.

Serenity wept for him and herself.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Suki: Duh duh duh! *a la oldies horror movie* I always wanted to have a band and name it "Duh Duh Duh!" so that whenever talk show hosts introduced us on their shows, they'd be like, saying a sound effect every time they spoke our name!

*Demando runs past trying to escape the jaws of Suki's fierce watchdog*

Demando: She's crazy, I tell you, crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suki: Anyway, could someone please tell me what the age order of the weird sisters is? Also, I don't think Wise Man is going to be in this story. It's already far too complicated without throwing another villain into the mix.

Demando: And what's wrong with villains, may I ask?

Suki: ^-^;;;