Hello, any people who may read this, I'm The Universal Storyteller. This particular story will be the second of many primarily Silver Millennium-related "Sailor Moon" stories from me, I hope, here on fanfiction dot net. I'll accept constructive criticisms, of course. But I won't accept any flames, especially with strong language with them. So if you happen to use strong language with me, your reviews will be ignored. Always, and completely, as a matter of fact.

All standard disclaimers that I have already used so far with any of the various stories that I now have on fanfiction dot net will apply. For your information, all of the characters that you may not actually recognize well enough in this story are original characters of mine, unless otherwise stated, in fact. So please don't steal my original characters from this story or any others, for that matter.

Now without further ado, let's get on with the second story for this particular story series here, if that's all right with you here, readers. And I really hope that if you've read the first story of its related story series here, you've enjoyed what you've read of it so far. And this is going to be the first chapter of this second story here, before I'll then start to put up the remaining chapters of this story here, just as soon and as often as I can, in fact, readers. That's so that all of you people on who've followed the story and its related story series well enough, and often enough, will be able to eventually read the whole related series of stories here, of course. Please read, review, and enjoy, if at all possible, quite naturally enough, for all the obvious reasons, readers!

Meeting the Menace

A The Chrysanthemum Chronicles Series Story

Inside Darien's Chambers In The Imperial Palace

Kyoto, Japan, Earth

September 9, 986

Prince Darien was in his chambers reading a scroll when his mother Empress Elaine knocked on his door in the middle of the day. It was just about two in the afternoon in the local area of Kyoto, Japan. He asked, seconds later, "Who is it?"

"Darien, it's your mother. May I come in? I'd like to talk to you for a little while, if that's all right with you, Darien."

"Hold on, please, Mom. I'll be right there." He then set the scroll he'd just been reading on a table near a window in his chambers. Then he went to his door, and he opened it slightly. And then he asked, "Yes, Mom?"

"I have some news that you might be interested in, Darien. Something apparently came in a message canister from the Moon last night for you. I don't know what's in it. But I do know a message canister came there for you last night, Darien. For it has one of the usual tags on it that they most often use whenever they want to reach you somehow. And it has your full name on the necessary tag that is attached to the canister currently in question here."

"Very well. Where's this thing for me, then, Mom?"

"It's in the New Moon Garden. Look near the main fountain in it. It landed there as I and your father were walking in that garden here on this palace's grounds. We didn't touch it. But we did get close enough to tell that it was for you, though, Darien. It's about half-buried in the middle of a rosebush near the main fountain."

"Thank you for telling me that. I'll attend to it right now, Mom. I have a feeling who sent it, though, from there. Or at least I have an idea who might have possibly sent it here to me."

"Very well. How soon will you let us know what was in it, Darien?"

"As soon as possible, if I can, Mom. But if I can't, then please don't be mad at me, Mom." Then Elaine left the area of his chambers again. For there were at least a few other things that she also wanted or needed to do before it got too dark to do them later that very day.

Then Darien went almost immediately to the New Moon Garden elsewhere on the Imperial Palace's grounds in Kyoto, Japan. And he did it alone, of course. He soon found the canister that Elaine had told him about not long before. And he found it exactly where she'd then told him to look for it.

He then pulled the message canister out of the ground. And he brought it back to his own chambers. On the way there, he briefly stopped by his parents' chambers elsewhere in the Imperial Palace. He did that so he could tell them that he wished not to be disturbed in his chambers until further notice, unless he absolutely had to be. When asked why, he said, "I believe Queen Serenity has sent me something from the Moon that I asked for just before I left the Moon a few days ago. I asked her to send me a report on certain matters relating to the project we're jointly working on as quickly as we possibly can work on it on both our inhabited worlds, Dad. I hope this canister contains that report, at the very least. If I can disclose the contents of it to you two later, I certainly will, as you both already know. But if I can't, please don't be mad at me."

"All right. But I'm holding you to your word on that, of course, Darien." Emperor Peter said, moments later.

"Fair enough, Dad."

"You may go now, if you wish, then, Darien. We'll see that you're not needlessly disturbed while you're alone in your chambers. If you can, then, please ring us when you're available in them again, Darien."

"Of course, Dad." Then Darien wasted no more unnecessary time in his parents' chambers. And he went directly back to his chambers after leaving his parents alone in theirs.

Darien then went to his chambers again. And he soon bolted the door of them quite securely behind him, after doing so. Then he went to his closet. And he took a small pocketknife off a shelf in it, after sticking the message canister under his left arm. Then he closed his closet again by sliding its door back in its normal position to close it. That done, he went over to the table where he'd earlier been reading a scroll. And he set the scroll on it on his bed, after tying it shut with his free hand that didn't have the pocketknife in it. He'd temporarily stuck his message canister under his left arm, so that he could close his closet door again. And he did that as well so that he could also attend to the scroll that he'd earlier been reading when he'd been interrupted by Empress Elaine's knocking on the door of his chambers. Then he closed his closet, just before he tied the aforementioned scroll shut with his free hand. That done, he then set that scroll on his bed. Then he switched his pocketknife to his left hand, so that he could take the message canister out from under his left arm with his right hand. Then he set the message canister on top of the table almost exactly where the aforementioned scroll had been on it. If not exactly in the same spot on it. That done, he finally switched his knife back to his right hand, so that he could open the canister.

He held the message canister in place, as he opened his pocketknife. He flicked open his knife. And then he began opening the canister in the required manner with it, of course. It took him about two minutes to open the canister to a sufficient enough degree. After which he began taking out the contents of the canister. He took out a scroll and a rose. The rose was from one of the gardens on the Crystal Palace's grounds of Moon City on the Moon. Specifically the Double Eagle Garden in it. As he'd later learn when he read the scroll that'd been sent with the rose in the aforementioned message canister from the Moon.

He set the message canister and the rose from the Moon next to the scroll already on his bed. And then he opened the scroll, once he'd spread it out on the table where he'd just put the message canister from the Moon. He soon read:

"Darien, it seems that I now require your assistance again on the Moon for at least a while. For Serena and several other Moon Kingdom Princesses have recently disappeared from Moon City in the past few days. Right now, I don't know exactly where they went. And I'd like you to try to find them, if you can. It now seems to me that they were all just trying to enjoy themselves for at least a little while in between training sessions as Junior Sailor Scouts on the Crystal Palace's grounds. And they left almost no trace of where they all disappeared to, if any at all, when they disappeared from here. We had no prior warning that they'd each disappear to somewhere else. Wherever that place might be, Darien, if it even exists in our known Universe, we don't know where they went. At least at the current time, we don't, Darien.

"I'm writing this about six days after you last left the Moon. They disappeared within about three or so days after you left us in late August. You should receive this within a few days of my writing this, at the very latest, I think. And they all disappeared about the same time that my cats Luna and Artemis did. I don't know if they're all actually in the same place now. But I still hope that they are, of course.

"Destiny was the first of the Princesses to disappear. Followed within hours by Bethany, Raye, Amy, my cat Luna, Mina, Serena, my cat Artemis, and Lita, in that exact order, Darien. The usual interval between their disappearances was about two to four Terran hours, Darien, on the average. Destiny and Bethany disappeared about two hours or so apart. And then Raye disappeared about an hour or so after Bethany did. Amy then disappeared about three hours after Raye did. And my cat Luna disappeared about thirty minutes or so after Amy did. Then Mina disappeared about an hour or so after my cat Luna did. Serena disappeared about four hours or so after Mina. Then my cat Artemis vanished about three hours or so after Serena's disappearance. Lita then disappeared about eighty or so minutes after my cat Artemis did. When I eventually realized that all the named Princesses and both of my cats were nowhere to be found, I soon consulted my most trusted advisors. And they eventually suggested that I contact you as soon as I could do so. So that's why I'm writing this scroll to you now. Please come back to the Moon as quickly as you can. Please tell your parents only that I need your help on a matter of great importance to both our peoples, if you possibly can keep from doing otherwise, Darien. Be prepared for anything at all when you get here, if you possibly can. And don't be surprised to learn that you'll have to expect the unexpected while you're trying to find them for all of us here in the Moon Kingdom, Darien. I also suggest that you bring your sword and scabbard, at least, as well as anything else you think you might need to bring back to the Moon with you, Darien. I'll discuss this matter at greater length, when you get here, Darien. But I don't dare say much more than that at the moment."

Then he quickly scanned the rest of the scroll she'd sent him as quickly as he could before he rolled it up again. That done, he then tied it shut again, of course. Then he began getting a number of his things together. It took him several minutes, at least, to get all the things ready from his chambers together easily enough. And to do so before he then began bringing them to one of the stable areas elsewhere in the Imperial Palace. He brought them all there in a large enough cart. And he then secretly prepared a pair of horses to pull another cart also in that stable area. That done, he quickly loaded the necessary cart with all the things that he'd brought in a cart from his chambers. He then hid all the things he'd brought from his chambers under a great deal of hay, so that nobody else would know that he'd hidden any of his things in that cart. This, of course, was for all the obvious reasons.

After he did that, he then went as hastily as he could to his parents' Imperial Palace chambers again. He knocked a few times on their door, until his father appeared at it. He said, "I have to talk to you two for at least a few minutes, Dad. I now have to tell you both at least one or two things that Serenity has just told me to tell you in a recent message to me on a scroll."

So his father let him into his parents' chambers. And then Darien told them both as much as he could about what Serenity had just told him in a scroll that'd been in the message canister that they'd seen the night before. Of course, when his parents learned that he'd have to go back to the Moon again, they weren't happy. They asked him if he was sure that he had to return to the Moon as soon as possible. And he said, even though he also wished that he'd have been able to spend several weeks, if not months, on Earth before returning again to the Moon, "I'm sure of it, Dad and Mom. True, I often like being on the Moon. But I also like being on Earth as well. If at all possible, I'll return here to Earth at least one more time in the very near future. But for at least the time being, it seems that I have no other choice but to return to the Moon until I can return here once again."

"Very well. How soon do you expect to leave Earth again?"

"As soon as possible. If I possibly can, I'll keep you posted on what happens to me while I'm away from Earth, as often as it's possible for me to do so. I don't know if and when I'll ever be back here on Earth. But if I don't return here again, then I'm sure you know what to do, Dad and Mom. I'll do what I can to get back here as soon as I can. But if things are as Serenity seems to think that they are, I may not be back here for a very long time, if at all."

Then Darien soon said his good-byes to his parents. And they then said their good-byes to him. After they all did so with each other, as the current situation required them to do so, Darien then left his parents' chambers. Then he went back to where he'd left the cart he'd be taking to the Kyoto Area Spaceport. And he soon left the Imperial Palace's grounds in Kyoto, Japan, so that he could go to that spaceport in the Kyoto area of Japan.

He arrived there about two hours before the next passenger shuttle to the Moon. Then he soon passed through the spaceport's Customs area with everything in his cart. That done, he soon had all the things on that cart loaded into the shuttle's cargo area. Except for the inevitable carry-on items, of course. The cart would be taken back to the Imperial Palace at the next possible opportunity for it to be taken back there. In the meantime, the cart and the horses that'd earlier brought him to the spaceport now in question here would all be taken care of as needed by all the necessary people here, in fact. And Prince Darien soon left Earth again on that particular shuttle to the Moon.

And he soon sat back in his seat on it. He did that so he could try to enjoy this trip to the Moon of his as much as he possibly could while his shuttle went there. He often did this over the next ten to twenty hours, at least, until just before his shuttle was about to land at the Moon City Spaceport, of course.

After his shuttle landed there, he soon disembarked from it. And he then regained possession of all his things that'd been temporarily stored in its cargo area. That done, he soon passed through the spaceport's Customs area. And he was soon medically cleared to leave the spaceport for Moon City's Crystal Palace. He then left it with Prince Daniel and Queen Serenity, who'd been there ever since about an hour before his shuttle landed at it some time before. Once all his things had first been loaded into a suitable enough cart, of course.

He soon left the spaceport with them both. And Queen Serenity handled the horses in front of the cart quite expertly as she brought her two companions back to the Crystal Palace with her. As she did so, she and Daniel also told Darien as much as they could currently tell them about the situation. At least as it related to all the aforementioned Princesses and to both of the aforementioned cats. Of course, they did so for all the obvious reasons.

By the time that they were all back in the Crystal Palace's main courtyard, then, Darien most likely knew everything about the current situation that they did about it. And he really didn't like the fact that all of the aforementioned Princesses and both of Serenity's cats were all missing from the Moon, of course.

For over much of the last seven to ten or so years, he'd begun to develop very close friendships with both cats and all the aforementioned Princesses from anywhere in the Moon Kingdom. Especially with at least five of the aforementioned Moon Kingdom Princesses. This would be for reasons that'd eventually become obvious enough, if they weren't already so, to various people from anywhere in the Moon Kingdom or on Earth.

I suppose that I'd better stop here now. For this will be where the next part of the story will take up from, in fact, readers. I hope that you have so far enjoyed the story, if you've gotten this far, and that you'll continue to read it, once I put more of it up here on fanfiction dot net. I don't know how long it will take me to get each story in this series up fully on fanfiction dot net. But it might take a while for each story in this series, just the same, readers. Until later, then, this is "The Universal Storyteller" signing off here. Happy reading, and God bless, and all that, of course, readers! Over and out!