The banging on Princess Minako's door sounded so urgent that she stumbled over a stool in the dark as she rushed to open it.
"Serenity is gone to Earth again," said Artemis as he entered and shut the door behind himself.
Minako's eyes hardened and the grip on her yellow robe tightened as she stood straighter. "Hang on a sec," Minako grabbed a dress randomly from her closet and went behind a screen to throw it on. She came out without shoes or hair bow and followed Artemis to the transport room.
Artemis admired the simple beauty of his partner's appearance. Her golden hair flew as they raced, filmy gown rushing into the curves of her otherwise bare body; there was something primal and alluring in the way her feet slapped against the cold marble and in the clean line of her ankles.
Artemis was breathing harder than Minako as she activated the transport for Earth. As it booted up, she slipped a small wand from a pouch around her waist, under her dress, and shouted the transformation spell: "Venus POWER!"
What followed kept Artemis completely riveted. The dress melted away to bare a body without definition but for a simple, curvaceous form, filled with golden light, which quickly gained body suit and skirt, a long, gleaming blade brandished in the girl's right hand. Her hair was still bow-less, but he thought it suited her.
"You are so much like your mother," he told her, smiling, as they stepped onto the platform to be taken to Earth.
The Princess of Venus looked at him, startled. "Thank you." There was a sadness lurking in both their eyes as they looked at each other. The Queen of Venus had passed away when Minako was only five, and Artemis had been the woman's advisor for many years, as Luna was the Moon Queen's. After her death, he had taken over caring for the small, orphaned princess, and stayed by her side forever since.
They closed their eyes and opened them again to green, manicured lawns partially obscured by the small copse of trees they'd arrived in.
They heard murmuring on the other side of the trees. Minako recognized the voices and moved toward them.
"I don't care," Serenity was saying, her arms around Endymion's neck, "as long as I can be with you." Endymion was holding the princess back, but he frowned down at her.
Minako pushed into the open and brandished her sword at the blonde guard that stood up to protect his Prince. He was new, she noted, as she had never seen him before on her missions to retrieve the princess.
"Serenity," Minako bit out, eyeing the blonde man warily, "come here. We're going home, now."
The princess' spirits slumped visibly but she obeyed, getting behind her guard.
"Artemis, take Serenity home. I'll be right behind."
The blonde man had begun to circle to more advantageous ground.
"I'll see you later, Endymion!" Serenity called, and the Prince smiled at her.
Venus turned her head to glare fully at her Princess. "Like hell you will! I am so sick of –" she didn't get a chance to finish her sentence, as a warm body barreled into her from the side, knocking her down. The sword fell only a few feet away. "Crap," she got out as a blade pressed to the back of her neck, before she was able to touch her forehead and mutter a brief incantation. She was lucky only one arm was pinned under her. "Venus Crescent Beam –" the man's weight was no longer on her and she breathed sharply, drawing herself to stand in case anyone else should decide to play Squash Venus.
"Idiot," said a deep voice from nearby. She turned to look at three other men, two of which were staring at her. She wasn't surprised they were - her Sailor fuku caused lots of men to stare. She suspected it had more to do with the short skirt than because it denoted her rank and power.
Endymion pushed a hand through his hair with an apologetic wince. "New guards."
The blonde man who had tackled her was being chastised by another man with long silver hair.
Ignoring the men for the moment, she picked up her sword - a blade made entirely of Silver Imperium Crystal - and made sure it hadn't gotten too dirty in the scuffle. She didn't feel like cleaning it again - last time, she'd gone through an entire trunk of rags, because its hard surface kept shredding them.
"Lady Venus," the men came over, the blonde one speaking to her. "I'm very sorry, I did not understand that your role to protect your Princess was so much like ours to our Prince. Please accept my apologies."
"Accepted," she told him absently, taking out the transport communicator and checking it for damage. She probed it with her magic and frowned. "Artemis!" she called, striding thoughtfully toward her partner and the princess. "Something's wrong. Check it." She tossed the instrument to him, folding her arms and hoping she wouldn't have to call Mercury down. Ami was the best technician on the Moon, but she would lecture them horribly.
"Can I help?" One of the two aloof men, a green-eyed fellow with long dark blonde hair, approached Artemis and they tinkered with the transport communicator for a few minutes as Serenity made her way back over to the Prince.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if I was stuck down here?" Serenity smiled, but Endymion frowned.
"You'd be in danger. You know there are people on Earth who would love to hurt you. Things are bad enough with the wars going on in some of our lower countries, we don't need one with the Moon because their Princess was hurt on an excursion down here." He was right, but Serenity pouted anyway.
"Just for pretend."
"Princess, shut up!" With every passing moment, Minako was getting more nervous. "If we're stuck down here, you won't have to wait for your mother to kill you, I'll take the liberty."
"Minako!" Serenity exclaimed, shocked. "I didn't break the deally-ma-bobber thing!"
"No," Minako whirled on the other girl, furious, "but you came down here, without supervision, without telling anyone, and expected everything to be fine! You have to think about other people, too, Serenity! Like that huge Senshi meeting that I'm the head speaker at tonight! Two-hundred and forty five Sailor Senshi, Serenity!"
The Princess turned her face away, ashamed, and Venus' anger deflated.
She walked over to the sniffling Princess and wrapped her arms around her, sighing and murmuring, "I'm sorry."
The Princess was trembling. "But I-I messed up your plans! It's all my fault!"
"It is not your fault," Minako murmured, resting her chin on the other girl's shoulder. "It's just a stuffy, boring old meeting where I tell everyone a bunch of stuff they already know. Mars can take over, anyway. I always have a backup plan!" She turned the Princess and smiled. "So no more tears, eh?"
Serenity sniffled again and looked uncertain. "But you might have met a cute guy Senshi and fallen in love and gotten married but now you won't meet him because I stopped you from going!" the Princess wailed.
Venus laughed, hugging her friend again. "There aren't any male Senshi, but I wouldn't have time for romance anyway."
"See?! See?!" Serenity persisted, "I'm still ruining your life! Because of me, you don't have time to fall in love!"
Venus chuckled and sighed. "Oh, dear little Princess. I love what I'm doing now. Protecting you and the Moon. How about tonight, after we get back, you, me, and the other Inners have a pillow fight and then an all-out soul-bearing ice cream fest?"
"Really?" the Princess looked up at her hopefully, and Venus nodded.
"Absolutely."
Serenity was happy again and threw herself into Endymion's embrace. He and his men had discreetly removed themselves to a bench on the other side of the roses, but as Venus stood there, looking over at them, she found herself uncomfortable with the idea of joining them as easily as Serenity had. Luckily, she was distracted as Artemis came over with the transport communicator.
"It should work now, if you put some of your power into it before we go."
Venus smiled. "Great."
Moments later, they were in a small triangle, holding hands and concentrating on the transport communicator. Venus and Artemis held it together and, as the power reached its peak Venus cried out "Venus Power!"
With a hard yank, the transport communicator tugged at her power, but something went wrong, some bit didn't meet, and it lashed back at her, flinging her from the triangle and into a tree. She fell, scratched and bruised, and felt warm hands turning her over. Someone was calling her name, but her vision was too fuzzy to tell who.
"Minako! Minako! Speak to me, Mina-chan!" Artemis cradled her limp form in his arms.
Her lips moved, but it took a moment for her to make any noise.
"P-princess . . . prin . . . princess . . ." she murmured.
"She's all right, Mina-chan, dear little Mina-chan," Artemis rocked her a little, his silvery hair falling into her thick gold, seeing her again as a little girl whose mom had just died - lost and in desperate need of protecting. "I'm so, so sorry," he whispered, head bending low over her.
Serenity leaned over her then, tears marking her face, and clasped Minako's hand. She was saying something, possibly hysterical, but sound seemed to fade.
The Princess of Venus stared mutely into the sky, unseeing, and fainted.