Chapter 5
"Mama!" The new queen of Tokyo sat up abruptly in a frightened sweat. Realizing the last scenes she saw were only memories in the form of a dream, she buried her face in her hands and began to weep bitterly, waking her husband at her side.
"Chibiusa?" he asked. Only Helios still called her by her childhood name. "Chibiusa, why are you crying?" He reached out and touched her cheek, but Chibiusa only turned away. Helios sighed. "It's that dream again, isn't it?" he asked. His wife nodded.
"I can't help it. It's been years since the Cauldron's restoration, yet still all I can remember is Mama and Hotaru-chan, and the others..." She started to get worked up again. "I should've been there helping them, Helios. I could have saved them." Helios shook his head.
"You know there is nothing you could have done. You were the future queen, you had to be protected. If you had been there, the Cauldron would have taken your life too. And then who would have been here to guide the new senshi?" Chibiusa wiped her eyes and allowed Helios to hold her in his arms. His touch was so warm and gentle, it always brought her peace during these times. But then, it also couldn't help but remind her of...
"I wish I knew what happened to Papa..." she said quietly. Helios nodded in agreement.
"I'm sure the other children would like to know that as well."
"No, they don't know anything about it. I made sure to instruct Ceres not to give them any information." She sat up and crossed her arms, turning her up her nose a bit. "Come to think of it, I told her not to mention the last battle period, so why she took them to the shrine to find that out is beyond me."
"Come on," said Helios with a smile, glad to see his love finally calming down. "They want to know more about their parents, they deserve to know."
"You're right..." Chibiusa sighed. "Maybe it is time they know, at least as much as we can tell them." She laid back down on the bed.
* * * * *
The next morning, which normally would have been Pallas and Vesta's day to teach the young senshi, Chibiusa ordered that everyone come together for a larger class today, to be taught by her. The Asteroid senshi all found this rather unusual, but didn't question, whereas Helios watched contently, knowing his queen would do the right thing.
Lady Serenity walked to the front of the room, and a sudden silence quickly over took the children. The queen was about to speak.
"For a long time, I've hidden from you exactly what happened to your parents that day at the Galaxy Cauldron," she began. "But now I think it's time you knew. During the battle between Sailor Cosmos and Chaos, Cosmos re-visted the past as a child, Chibi Chibi, and received great powers from Sailor Moon. With this, she was at last able to defeat Chaos and give our land back its peace once and for all. But after that..." Chibiusa tried hard to hold back the tears. She had to be strong in front of the children, like her mother.
"After that, there was a crisis. It was not long after Sailor Saturn had given birth. The Galaxy Cauldron began to collapse without Chaos' to support it anymore. Your parents... and mine... went to pour their energy into the Cauldron to try and save it." She took a moment to calm herself with a deep breath before speaking again. "And they were successful. Unfortunately, the Cauldron took all of their energy, down to their Star Seeds, taking away their life and their ability to be reborn. Your mothers... as you see them now in the shrine, are weakened spirits that can only appear to you through the power left in Cosmos' staff and the Silver Crystal." The queen brought her hand up to her chest, where beneath her royal attire, she still held the Silver Crystal close to her heart. For a moment, the room was silent, until finally Hoshi, Pluto's son, spoke up.
"But our mothers are the only ones in the shrine," he pointed out. "What happened to our fathers?" The queen only turned her head away sadly in response to his question.
"I don't know," she said. "None of us do. Just before the Cauldron took them, the king and all the knights of the inner and outer planets vanished. We've heard nothing about them." There was a moment of painful silence, no one knew what to do or say, until at last Shiro, Mercury's son stepped forward.
"Queen," he said politely. "Why not let us go and try to find out?" Serenity looked up in shock.
"What did you say?" Anzino asked. Shiro tried to think of a way to explain himself without sounding too ridiculous.
"We are Sailor Soldiers too," he pointed out. "And up until now, we've only been training our powers. I don't know if I speak for everyone, but..." he glanced back at the group. "But I would like the chance to have a real mission. And also... I want to know what happened to my dad." The others nodded in agreement. Serenity wasn't quite sure how to react. To be honest, she didn't know what was going to happen when she told the children everything she knew. And although it lifted a considerable burden from her shoulders, it had now also charged her with an important decision. Should she let the children go and try to find out what she could never explain? Or should she keep them within the safety of the palace until they were older? The more Serenity entertained the thought, the more her decision seemed made for her.
"If that is what you want to do," she said quietly. "However, I'm not about to let you go alone." She motioned for the Asteroid Senshi to step forward.
"You will split into groups," she ordered. "Akio, Kasami, Michiko, you go with Ceres. Hoshi, Kaiya, Sakura, you're with Vesta. Marie, Shiro, and Anzino, you're with Juno. And Ryou, Reika, and Ai...
"Aiko," Venus' daughter corrected, but Serenity didn't listen to her. Ai sighed; she only got her name because Michi got her brother Akio's name mixed up with Ai's full name. So the nickname stuck.
"... you're with Pallas." The children were all very excited, but Sailor Pallas looked hesitant about the whole thing.
"Your highness... are you sure it's alright if we leave you and the king alone like this?" she asked. Serentity smiled and took her husband's hand.
"Don't worry about us," she said. "It is a time of peace, after all, and it's not like I don't have powers of my own. Besides, Diana will still be here."
"I guess..." Pallas muttered.
"So we're leaving now?" Sakura asked excitedly.
"Not quite yet," said Serenity. "There's still one more thing I need to show you."
The queen led the children out of the school building and down the marble pathway, into a room near the palace they had never been to before. As soon as she opened the door, the children's eyes glittered with amazement. Arragened before them were all sorts of strange and beautiful items: a firely bow and arrow, a blue harp and visor-computer, a golden chain, a wreath, a sword, a mirror, a strange heart-shaped orb and a large sickle-like weapon.
"There are the weapons your mothers used in battle," Serenity explained. "Up until now, I haven't moved them from here. But now I think it's time they were passed onto to their respective owners." She picked up each item and began passing them out. All the girls gazed in awe at these powerful objects, young Sakura was actually struggling to hold hers up. Meanwhile the boys looked a bit in disgust.
"Don't we get anything?" Ryou asked. Serenity smiled.
"Of course, you didn't think I'd leave you out." The queen concentrated her power and in the hands of the four sons of the different planets appeared a sheild, each one bearing the planetary symbol of its holder.
"Those shields will help you against any enemies, but they can be used as weapons as well," Serenity explained. The young men noded gratefully, though Ryou was still eyeing Kasami's sword. He thought about asking if they could get two weapons, but then thought the better of it. Again, Serenity closed her eyes and called on the power of her crystal. This time Silence Glaive that Sakura held grew down to a more reasonable size and Marie's computer visor shrunk to only cover one eye.
"I hope these adjustments help," she said. "I don't know how much power your mothers' weapons still have in them, but I'm sure they will grow to your match your strength." The children all nodded. Their mission was before them. They could not turn back or hesitate now. They each concentrated the power of their planets and in one brillaint flash of light, transformed to their senshi and knight forms.
"Your highness..." said Akio, bowing in front of the queen. "We, the new Sailor Soldiers and new Sailor Knights of the Crystal Mileniumm, promise you that we will return with information about the former king and his knights." Serenity nodded.
"I trust you," she whispered. "Good luck."
The children all bowed, and with the Asterioid Senshi leading them, started down the path towards the outskirts of Crystal Tokyo and into a new adventure unlike anything they expected. While meanwhile, unbenounced to anyone else, a group a invisible figures watched them from a distance.
"This looks like it could mean trouble," a man's voice whispered. "Should we follow them?"
"No," another replied. "Let them go. Let's see what they're capable of."