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.
Heroes of Eternity
Chapter 5
They were off, wandering around the outside of Crystal Tokyo. Mina had never been there before, and the overgrown vegetation made a very impressive forest. She could remember hearing all those stories about Before, when there wasn't a Crystal Tokyo. All those stories sent from the Senshi and where they had lived.
So it was with great shock that they would find the ruins of a building here or there. At the first one, the sixteen of them gathered around it, almost in awe. Mina reached out to touch it, running her fingers down the broken concrete. She glanced around. "I wonder why there are ruins. I thought that Crystal Tokyo was built over the city Before."
Zarek knelt next to her, studying the concrete. "I remember hearing once that the city of Before was huge, maybe even so huge that Crystal Tokyo, as big as it is, can't even compare in size to it."
Kylane peered into the forest around them. "There are more ruins over there…This whole area seems to have become overgrown and left to rot. I wonder why…"
"Maybe it's not from Before," suggested Janus. Seeing their disbelieving looks, he snorted and explained. "I mean, don't you remember the stories when Crystal Tokyo was just starting out? Wasn't there a number of wars with other beings, like the Dark Moon, the Flamebringers, and the Ratchani. Maybe this area was left from a base or a temporary city of theirs."
Mina glanced at the others. Perhaps Janus was right, and if that was the case, wouldn't Crystal Tokyo's armies have razed the base or temporary city? Maybe they had, and Neo Queen Serenity I and King Endymion had simply let this place be overgrown so it could be forgotten.
"It's a possibility," Amy replied slowly. "There's no evidence that it isn't that, but no evidence that it is either."
"You know," commented Raye, "building a base in these ruins to hide Serena would not be a bad idea. Nobody comes here, nobody would even think that a base would be here."
Coen nodded. "They may be hoping that Crystal Tokyo will be too busy searching their own city and the other cities of the worlds and planets than looking out in this…forest."
Taru flipped her long black hair over her shoulder and looked around with violet eyes. Ranae gave her a sideways look, one that Mina couldn't even begin to unravel about what he was thinking.
Mina stood and brushed off her pants. "I think that's a very good idea, Coen, Raye. Let's look around at these ruins."
===
"Mina! Mina, get out here! We'll find your cousin soon enough!" Chandra stalked on her four legs through the halls. She hadn't seen that girl in an entire day and it was beginning to wear on her nerves. The girl was late for class, meetings, everything. She not only was late, she never showed up!
Chandra glowered and turned a corner, glancing up and around only to freeze in shock at the open door. Slowly her little cat feet took her into the room where she stood, staring at the empty pedestal that used to hold the most important artifacts in Crystal Tokyo: the powers of the Sailor Senshi.
Fearing the worst, Chandra whipped around and pelted toward Mina's bedroom. Thanking the gods and her ancestors, Luna and Artemis, the door was open the slightest of cracks, as if it hadn't closed all the way. She bumped it with her paw and it moved enough so that she could get in.
The room was a total mess. Clothing and objects were strewn around as if Mina had thrown them in a fit of anger while looking for something. She cautiously made her way further into the room, avoiding stepping on as much as possible. "Mina?" she called, though she hardly expected an answer. She pounced up on the bed, and noticed a picture frame set on the pillow.
Princess Serena stood in the garden, roses surrounding her, a heavy and strong wind rushing from her left side so that her hair and dress looked as if they would blow away. In her hands, she held a bouquet of roses. Flower petals were swirling around them in the gale force wind. Next to the princess stood her cousin, Mina. Wearing a yellow dress to match Serena's white, she was smiling just as beatifically as her cousin. Her arms were around her waist, hugging her relative tightly. Since Mina was taller, her eye level came to some point around Serena's ears. They had been so happy that day…
And with that picture, the mess of the room, Mina's absence, the open door, and the missing box all fell into place. With a meow of rage and fear, she ran from bedroom to the throne room. This was not going to be pleasant news to the already stressed Queen and her sister.
She pounced up on Queen Aysel's shoulder. "Your Majesty, I must speak with you. It is a matter of the utmost importance."
Ilandere, the Queen's sister, immediately rid the room of everyone, including the guards. Despite being somewhat frail of body, her mind and tongue were strong-willed and hardly anyone could stand up to her in that kind of a confrontation.
"What is it, Chandra?"
The little cat had no wish to place this burden on the two women, but there really was no way around it. "Your Majesty, Lady Ilandere, you may have noticed that the halls have been conspicuously empty of Princess Mina."
Ilandere sighed. "She's probably moping because we wouldn't let her after her cousin."
Chandra winced. "Lady Ilandere, I myself thought such a thing, but when I went to find her, I found…the Senshi's door unlocked and the box gone."
Both Aysel and Ilandere gasped at that. It was not common knowledge. In fact, only Aysel, Ilandere, and Chandra knew that the door couldn't be opened. Physically, it had never ever been opened since the Senshi's box had been placed in the room and the doors closed.
"I sped to Princess Mina's room, only to find it in shambles. I had originally worried that she had been kidnapped herself, until I saw her prized photograph of her and Serena sitting on her bed, as if she had looked at it for a long time and just set it down." And here was the hard part. "I believe that Princess Mina took the Senshi's box and has left to rescue Serena on her own."
"But…but…how?" demanded Aysel. "That door can't be opened. No one has been able to open it since it was first closed! How could Mina have opened it? Only a Senshi…can…" The Queen trailed off and looked at Ilandere in shock. "Could…Mina be…a Senshi?"
Ilandere only looked back at her before she fainted.
===
Mina crawled under the low hanging part of the ruin, dirtying her clothes and the case at her back swinging violently from one side to the other. Kylane and Adriano reached down to pull her the rest of the way through and help her up.
Lita and Suna came jogging back. "We searched the area you told us to, and we didn't find a thing. It doesn't look like anyone's been there before us," Lita said, disgruntled.
Mina dropped the pack from her shoulders wearily, setting it down gently on the ground, as she had no wish to damage the Senshi's box that was inside it. "We'll have to wait to see what Ruka and Matthias and Ranae and Michi find. There has to be something here."
Kylane shook his tired and tense shoulders. "Either way, we've been checking every ruin all day today and it's time to think about stopping for the night. We have to be ready to do this again tomorrow."
"There are just so many ruins. How can we possibly check them all?" Amy murmured, a discouraged look coming to her eyes.
Zarek touched her shoulder. "Don't worry, Amy. I'm sure that we'll find something soon."
She looked at him in thanks, the discouraged look fading from her face.
Mina watched them quietly, her eyes wandering over to Kylane and her other companions. Sure enough, the pairs were becoming more and more noticeable. There was Amy and Zarek, Raye and Janus, Lita and Matthias, Adriano and Ruka (which seemed odd, as it hadn't seemed they liked each other very much), Michi and Ilar (Mina had yet to actually see them speak. They just seemed to be around each other a lot), Suna and Coen (Suna was somewhat quiet, but when she got around Coen, the two never stopped talking), and Taru and Ranae (another odd one, considering Ranae didn't seem to like Taru and yet he was always around her, helping her).
And where did that leave her? With Kylane. She could remember the butterflies in her stomach when she first met him and if Serena hadn't been kidnapped, she was sure that those butterflies might have come to something. But as it was, she had no time for butterflies so she tried to ignore them when he looked at her.
Michi and Ranae came back, shaking their heads. "Nothing," Michi murmured. She sighed. "We didn't even find any more ruins. Just forest."
Even before she finished speaking, Ruka and Matthias came bursting back at them in a full run. It caught Mina and Kylane's attention faster than anything else could at this point. The bit of discouragement that Mina herself had felt faded away to be replaced by sharp-eyed interest.
"We didn't find a camp, but we found foot trails, as if people traveled this way recently!" Matthias gasped out, clutching a stitch in his side.
Ruka nodded. "The grass and dirt hasn't had time to settle yet, so I'm guessing it must only have been a few days since whoever it was traveled through here."
Mina wanted to march them right after them, but Kylane cut in with his cool logic. "The trail will still be there tomorrow morning. We need to rest now." He was looking straight at her when he said it.
She wanted to rebel against such a thing. They had to go now! But the part of her that was cool logic, the part of her that was ready for this to happen, the part of her that would kill for Serena, knew that Kylane was right. She finally nodded. "Agreed. Everyone, rest up good tonight. We have a lead and we're leaving at first light!"
There were nods all around, faces looking grimly determined and excited.
===
End Chapter 5
Notes on the new enemies. We don't know if there were any other wars that Crystal Tokyo fought against with the Dark Moon, but I'm going to assume there were. So…I made up those names and all. They really have no other purpose than that. .