Author's Notes:
Well, for those waiting for this, here is the sequel to Return of the Valkyries, Heroes of Eternity. There are a number of characters and for a recap of the last story, here are the added characters:
(Kyle) Kylane is Kunzite
(Matt) Matthias is Nephrite
(Zale) Zarek is Zoisite
(Jared) Janus is Jadeite
(Aren – Haruka's husband previously) Adriano is Adamite
(Cirocco – Setsuna's husband previously) Coen is Cordylite
(Ian – Michiru's husband previously) Ilar is Iolite
(Raine – Hotaru's husband previously) Ranae is Rhonite
If the name and planet thing is confusing you, please check the read-me/prologue.
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Heroes of Eternity
Chapter 2
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It was in the afternoon that the guests from the other planets arrived and Serena and Mina got to meet them. The one from Jupiter, as the symbol of a lightning bolt proclaimed on his shirt, obviously caught Mina's eye, as her cousin could see. And it did not seem to be one-sided…
"Queen Serenity, this is Coen, from Mercury, and next to him is Adriano, from Venus. Matthias is from Mars, and Kylane from Jupiter. They are here by the request of their parents, the rulers of their respective planets."
Surprised murmurs flitted about the room, as the boys couldn't be more than sixteen. Serena and Mina exchanged glances.
Coen, from Mercury, had dark brown hair that curled at the ends like ringlets. It was tied tightly at the nape of his neck so tightly that it looked as if it was in a straight jacket. The locks fell to just past his shoulders. His face held a soft quality, though with a strong and prominent jaw. The gray brown eyes that watched them glinted with wisdom and intelligence. He was lanky and tall with slim fingers that linked together lightly behind his back. On the shoulder of his jacket was an embroidered dark blue staff with the symbol of Mercury above it.
Next to him, a rather sharp contrast was Adriano, from Venus. His build was on the heavier side, muscles that were well formed under his thin shirt. He didn't seem like someone that would come from the planet of Love, but looks could be deceiving, she supposed. Hazel eyes looked them over with some misgiving. Embroidered in the center of his shirt was a heart crossed with a sword.
Matthias was next to him, and he greatly resembled someone from Mars and all that she'd heard of them. Reddish brown hair was braided loosely, and grew all the way down to his waist. Those brown eyes that resembled the soil glanced between Kylane and Mina with amusement. He obviously Kylane from before now. Stitched on his pant leg was a spear surrounded by fire.
And the last, Kylane from Jupiter, kept his green eyes trained on Mina, a fact that no one missed. On the breast of his shirt was a lightning bolt in front of a tree, signifying his ties to his planet. He was the second of the tallest, Adriano being the greatest in height. His short, ear-length hair matched Coen's, if only a little darker, almost black.
"I present my daughter, Crown Princess Serenity, Serena, and her cousin, Princess Mina."
The cousins stepped forward simultaneously, Mina somehow getting slightly ahead and coming closer to Kylane. His eyes glinted in humor.
"Tomorrow, the ambassadors from the other planets will be arriving," continued the Queen. "You will meet them then. Serena, Mina, please show our guests around the palace."
Nothing loathe, the cousins motioned for the boys to follow them. As soon as they were out of the throne room, Mina turned to the four of them and held out her hand. "My name's Mina and this is my cousin Serena."
Kylane looked them over and took her hand finally. "I'm pretty sure introductions are over."
A slight blush stained her cheeks, but otherwise she showed no reaction except to grin in an unrepentant way. "It would seem so," she commented.
"We'll be glad to show you around," piped in Serena and as one, the six of them began the tour.
~~~~
Mina stretched and glanced in the mirror at her teenage body. She couldn't wait until the negotiations were over and she and Kylane could get some "alone" time. Even as she thought about him, she involuntarily smiled.
She was about to crawl into bed when something stopped her. Something was tingling at the back of her neck and she glanced behind her apprehensively. Inside, she began to quake at some unknown fear. Nervous sweat broke out on her arms, feeding the now-appearing goosebumps.
"Mina!"
The princess hiked up her nightgown and pelted down to Serena's room. Without a doubt, she knew that was where the scream had come from. Her heart pounded in fear for her cousin. A door opened on her left and Kylane came barreling out, but Mina only dodged skillfully and kept running.
He paced himself right next to her, but she didn't even spare him a glance. The entire palace was roused by this time and people kept getting in her way, forcing her to slow somewhat and maneuver her way through them. Coen, Matthias, and Adriano joined her and Kylane in their frantic running.
But by the time she had reached her cousin's room, it was too late. Everything was turned over and upside down, Serena's favorite things shattered. An evident struggle accounted for the wreckage, but Mina felt her heart fall to her feet.
"Serena!"
"Mina, what's going on?"
Mina turned to see her aunt and mother in the doorway, her aunt with a pulsing crystal hovering above her palm. "Serena…she's…she's…"
"She's been kidnapped," Adriano finished, leaning out of the window to look down. "And from the look of it, it was planned well ahead of time."
Kylane studied the place grimly. "Why would anyone want to kidnap the princess?"
Mina bolted from the room, but her aunt's hand caught her arm as she passed her. "And where do you think you're going?"
She whirled, managing to free her arm. "I'm going to rescue Serena."
"You're not going anywhere," her mother snapped. "This is not a game, Mina! Let those that can rescue your cousin. What can you possibly do?"
Mina's entire body drew together and straightened in rage. "I'm not leaving my cousin out there by herself! I'm going to find her myself and not leave it to someone inept guard! Nobody knows her like I do! I'll know what to look for if she leaves any clues as to her whereabouts!"
"Mina, I told you, you are not going! I am not going to risk you leaving and getting kidnapped as well! You're just a child! Come on, Aysel," her mother murmured to her distraught aunt. "Let's get some back-up on this."
Mina glowered in rage as they passed her by. Kylane, Matthias, Coen, and Adriano gathered around her, but she just stalked past them and into her room, slamming the door behind her. Immediately, she dragged a bag out from under her bed and began to pack in the sturdiest clothes she owned. A few other necessities were thrown in after them.
The door opened and she glanced behind her. She frowned. "What are you doing here?"
"You can't rescue her just by yourself, you know," Coen told her as the boys entered.
"And what do you propose I do?" she bit back, continuing to pack.
"We're going with you."
"Oh, really? And why would that be?"
"We can't just leave her out there and we can't let you go alone. To go alone would be a suicide mission," Matthias told her.
She finally turned around to look at them. "Look, I don't have the time to argue with you about it. I'm leaving tomorrow night. Be ready, or I'm leaving you behind."
They nodded and she slammed the door when they left.
~~~~
"I'm sorry, but this is a very bad time," the Queen told the four newly arrived ambassadors.
Zarek, from Neptune, asked worriedly, "What's happened?"
His blonde hair reached the nape of his neck and huge in loose ringlets around his face. Concerned green eyes watched the people in front of him, taking in the distraught Queen, the Queen's sister, and a teenage girl with long blonde hair radiating silent fury. On the lower arm of his shirt was an embroidered trident crossed with a mirror.
"Crown Princess XIII, Serena, was kidnapped. We must postpone any and all meetings in favor of finding her," said the Queen's sister quietly.
"She's been kidnapped?" Janus blurted out, his Uransian blood getting the better of his silence.
Close cropped sunny blonde hair waved just above his eyebrows. Blue eyes widened in shock. On the collar of his shirt, turned back so it could be seen, a golden globe with one ring around it was embroidered there. In the center of that orb was a small sword with jewels on the blade.
"When?"
The Queen looked at Ilar. Pale brown hair fell to his knees in a long plait. Sunset colored eyes touched hers with a deep and resounding knowledge. A simple glaive was set on the cuff of his shirt. His Saturian blood was very obvious is his quiet voice. She sighed and said, "Last night."
"Do you have any idea where they took her?"
Ranae's symbol, the last from Pluto, was the only one that they knew where it had come from. It was said that the symbol was what had adorned Sailor Senshi Pluto's time staff. Dark amethyst, almost black, hair was the closest cropped hair of any of the ambassadors. His hair matched quite well his light purple eyes.
"Not a single clue. But we're working on it," the Captain of the Guard told them while the Queen and her advisors left the room. "But for now, I'm sure Princess Mina, Princess Serena's cousin, will show you where your rooms are and where you can go."
As one, the four of the boys looked at her. She lifted her chin defiantly, but led them down the hall.
"Mina, are you—" Matthias stopped talking as she approached and he saw she had company.
She quickly introduced them and then proceeded to tune them out as she concentrated on the Martian. "I'll be ready in about an hour. I still have to pick something up."
"What are you doing?" questioned Ilar, but he received no answer. Mina sped away down the hall, making a detour to a small corridor on the left.
~~~~
When night had fallen, Mina waited in an empty room near the entrance of the palace. At their agreeable knock, she allowed the four boys to enter. "Are you ready?"
Nods came at her and she led the way to the front hall. The guards, she knew, where on rotation, so the front door was unguarded temporarily while the replacements were heading for their posts.
The five snuck down into the city, but they found at the end of the lane that led to the palace door, four shadows. It took a minute, but she recognized the newly arrived ambassadors from Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Saturn.
"Where do you think you're going?" she hissed at them.
"We're going with you. It was rather easy to figure out what you were going to do," Zarek answered her. "Now, I think we'd better move soon. Your guards will be here any minute."
Left with nothing else she could do, she headed deeper into the city.
"We're meeting some friends of mine at the gate of the city," she warned them.
It was a really good thing she had because they had melted out of the shadows so quickly, the eight boys would have attacked them had they not expected them.
But the number of her reinforcements was wrong. "Lita, Amy, Raye, who are these people?"
The girls she and Serena had played with glanced at her. She had managed to get a message to them during the day, thinking it would have only been her, the four boys, and the three girls, making only eight in total. It would not do to have a siege with only five people, so she had done the best she could.
Somehow along the way, she had collected four extra boys and now…four extra girls.
"This is Ruka, Michi, Suna, and Taru. They're our friends and they'll be invaluable in the fighting," Amy assured her.
Ruka was a tall girl with dark blonde hair that went down to her shoulder blades. She and Adriano traded stoic stares as some of the tallest there. Michi looked to be a gentle sort, with short and dark aquamarine hair. Next to her stood a relatively tall girl, Suna. Her hair was the shortest of the girls that reached to her ears, and dark jade colored. Taru was the last. She had to be the shortest, barely 5'4. Her long black hair reached down to her waist and she had it in a ponytail at the nape of her neck. Due to her clothing, Mina guessed she majored in martial arts.
"All right, all right. Let's just go," she snapped quietly and the sixteen of them left the city. With an almost uncertain movement, Mina touched her bag slung over her shoulder.
~~~
Somewhere in the palace, a sealed door was left open and inside of that, a single pedestal stood empty.
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End Chapter 2
Sorry it took so long to get this up, but I wanted to have time to work on TLJ, which is now done. ;)