Chapter 5
"I'm really starting to worry," Lillian said.
The group of seven had been in the park for about fifteen minutes and their leader still hadn't shown up. The others nodded in agreement.
"This isn't like her," Kara said. "Something must have happened to her, otherwise she wouldn't be this late."
Kenneth nodded, supporting his younger cousin. "Kara's right," he said. "As much as I hate to say it, I think that Nemesis was too much for her by herself."
Kirsten shook her
head. "No way. The princess would've known to contact us with
her communicator for help."
"Unless she didn't want
them to know that the rest of us were here in the past," Chantal
argued.
Kirsten sighed and leaned her back against the bench, knowing that what Prince Kenneth and Chantal were saying was probably true. "Should we g-" she began, but was interrupted by Princess Kara shouting, "There she is!"
Everyone turned
their heads to where Kara was looking. Their eyes widened in relief
to see Reenie walking towards them. Kenneth frowned as he noticed
that she wasn't alone. On either side of Reenie was one adult that he
didn't recognize and he could tell that there were another two adults
behind them.
"Kirsten," Kenneth asked, as he watched
Reenie approach them, "Do you have any clue who those people
with Reenie are?"
"No. But I don't sense any evil
energy coming from them."
Kenneth sighed, kind of relieved that the people coming with Reenie didn't have anything to do with Nemesis.
"But I do
sense some kind of energy coming from them," Kirsten said, as
Reenie and the four others neared them.
"Hey guys."
Reenie smiled once she and the four others were just ten feet away.
"Hey, Reenie," Kara greeted her sister.
"Hey,
Kar," Reenie said smiling at her little sister. Then, turning to
look at the others, "Sorry, I'm late. But you'll never believe
what I learned or who I've found."
"Who?" Chantal
asked, curious but also a bit suspicious.
"Chantal, learn
some respect," the one with the long brown hair ordered.
Hearing her speak, Chantal frowned. She recognized the voice and knew who it belonged to, but it couldn't be. Could it? "Mom?"
The person with the long brown hair smiled and nodded.
Kirsten looked at
Reenie. "You found them?" she asked, surprised that the
princess had been able to find them so quickly.
"Not
really. They kind of found me."
"We have something
that we must tell you all," the one with the shoulder-length
brown hair spoke.
"Lita's right," Reenie agreed. "They
have to tell you what's happened to Crystal Tokyo. Why our home is
like it is."
Everyone turned to look at Lita and the three other Elder Scouts. They all wanted to know what had happened to their home. Raye was the only one who couldn't look at the younger Scouts. Instead, she kept her head down and looked at the ground.
Quickly, Lita cleared her throat and began to explain what had happened to their beautiful home. "It all started around two and a half years ago, on the anniversary of Prince Diamond's death. That was when Nemesis attacked us. Of course, we had all thought that Nemesis had been destroyed when your mother had killed Prince Diamond.
Unfortunately, we
made a mistake thinking that, and our mistake cost people their
lives. Each one of us were sent to different areas around Crystal
Tokyo and around the city, to try and protect it. But we were spread
out too thin. Even Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion had to
transform to fight against Nemesis. However, as you can see, despite
our best efforts, we were unsuccessful and Nemesis won."
"But
why didn't you contact the others in the past, like you did the last
time?" Lillian asked, curious as to why none of their parents
had thought to do that.
"We tried," Mina said. "But
we couldn't even contact Sailor Pluto to open the time portal back to
the past. Nemesis had apparently figured out how to break through.
They captured Sailor Pluto before they even bothered attacking us.
Pluto never had time to warn us. With her captured, there was
absolutely no way that we could have opened the time portal to get
Sailor Moon and the others here."
"But where are Her
Magesty, Neo-Queen Serenity and, His Magesty, King Endymion?"
Megan asked. "Has something happened to them?"
Reenie turned her head to look at the Elder Sailor Scouts. The look in her eyes told them that she already knew what Lita was about to tell the others. "Kara," Reenie began, her voice gentle "Can you come with me for a second?"
Kara looked to her
older sister, her eyes asking why? Seeing the expression of sorrow
and sadness on Reenie's face, the question in the younger princess's
eyes vanished and she nodded.
"Are you sure that you want
to do this?" Amy asked, softly.
Reenie smiled a sad smile at her mother's trusted old friend and nodded. "I think it would be better," she said, her voice just as soft.
Amy nodded. "Very
well then."
"Come on, Kara," Reenie said. Then,
"Maybe you should come too, Kenneth."
Kenneth looked at his cousin, then to Lita (who was the leader of the Elder Sailor Scouts), who nodded in response to the question in his eyes. Kenneth turned back to Reenie and began to walk towards her. Kara followed him.
When the two of them were beside Reenie, Reenie spoke. "We'll be over there," she said, motioning to a large tree a couple of feet away.
The Elder Sailor Scouts nodded and two princess and one prince walked away from the group, towards the tree.
"Not to sound
rude or disrespectful," Jordan spoke up, "But what has
happened to Their Majesties, King Endymion and Neo-Queen Serenity?
Why are they not here? As a matter of fact, why are King Terence and
my father not here with you?"
"We were just getting to
that, Jordan," Mina said, then looked to Lita and nodded for her
to explain to the Younger Sailor Scouts.
Lita looked to Amy
and Raye. Each one nodded slowly, showing that they, too, wanted her
to tell them. Lita took a deep breath and began, "As we said
before, because of our mistake in thinking we had destroyed Nemesis
the first time around, many lives were lost in the
war..."
"Including those of Neo-Queen Serenity, King
Endymion, King Terence, and Jordan," Lillian finished for her
mother.
Lita nodded.
"We tried our best to protect them and the city, but we couldn't," Mina told them. "We were spread too thin. The only one of us who was even close to them was Raye and she tried her best, as you can tell by the scars she has all over her back, legs, and arms. When she saw the trouble they were in, she ran to protect them using her body as a shield while shooting her attacks. But it didn't matter. They had already been hit by two many blasts of dark energy. King Terence and Jordan were already dead by the time she reached them. Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion died a short while later. It was a miracle that Raye survived."
Hearing that last part Kirstein looked to her mother, her expression a mix of fear and disbelief. "Mother?" she asked, hoping Raye would tell her something different.
For the first time
since they had met up with the Scouts, Raye lifted her head. Looking
directly at her daughter, she said, "We swore to protect them
any way we could. You know that, Kirstein. You took the same
oath."
"Does Princess Reenie know?" Chantal asked,
in shock.
Lita nodded. "She
knows. We don't know who told her, but she knows."
"That's
what she's telling Princess Kara and Prince Kenneth, isn't it?"
Megan asked, motioning towards the tree where the three royals were
standing by.
"Yes," Amy admitted.
"It looks
like she's finished telling them," Lillian said, looking as the
three members of the royal family who were just walking towards the
group. Quickly, they turned to face Reenie, Kara and Kenneth.
Immediately, the group felt sorry for the three of them realizing
that the only family they had was each other and the huge
responsibility that was now on their shoulders.
Once the royal
family members were beside the others, Reenie opened her mouth to
speak. "I think it is time to plan our attack on the palace,"
she said. "We must free Sailor Pluto during the attack."
"We also have to save Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune,
princess," Amy pointed out.
Reenie turned to
look at her, a look of confusion on her face. "Who?" she
asked.
"Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune," Amy
repeated.
"Otherwise known as Michelle Kaiou and Alex
Ten'ou," Mina said.
Again Reenie
repeated her question, the look of confusion still on her face.
"Who?"
"Uranus and Neptune are two Sailor Scouts
that rarely fight with us, princess," Lita explained. "In
the past, they used to help us out and now they only help us out when
we are in a lot of trouble."
"Then why didn't they try
to help us the first time around?" Lillian asked her mother.
"They were far
away from here," Amy replied. "They tried to make it here
in time to help us, but arrived only a few hours after you had been
sent to the past to start your training."
"Why have we
never been told about them?" Megan asked. "Why didn't we
know that they even existed?"
Lita sighed.
"Truthfully Megan," she began, "We thought it
unimportant for you to know before the others received training.
Mostly because they rarely fought with us. You would have learned
about them eventually."
"And they were captured, too?"
Kirstein asked.
"Yes," Mina replied, "Like the
other time, they tried to make it here in time. However, this time
they made it an hour after the battle ended. Unfortunately, they
arrived at the palace. Nemesis automatically captured them and locked
them up somewhere in the palace, along with Sailor Pluto."
"So, now we have to save three people," Reenie said,
not seeing what difference it made. Either way they were going to
get Crystal Tokyo back. "Fine. We have to figure out a plan of
attack. Hopefully one that will not only rescue the three Scouts, but
that will destroy Nemesis in the process or at least weaken them
drastically. Lita, do you have any idea how we'd be able to get into
the palace without Nemesis knowing?"
"Princess, I
don't think we should be talking about this here," the older
Sailor Scout replied. "We should find a secure place where we
know that no one can overhear us. In the park there are just too many
people."
Reenie nodded,
understanding what Lita was saying. Discussing their plan out in the
open would make it easier for Nemesis to find out about it. Who knew
who were spies for Nemesis and who weren't?
"But where
could we go?" Chantal asked. "It's not like there are that
many options open."
"Maybe back to Molly's shop?"
Mina suggested.
Right away, Lita
shook her head. "Too open. People can walk in and out any time
of the day and hear what we're saying. Besides, we can't ask Molly to
shut down her shop because of us. We need some place else."
"I
think I might know of some place," Reenie spoke up. "And it
should be able to fit all of us."
"Where?"
everyone except Kara and Kenneth asked. They were still in too much
shock after hearing what Reenie had told them.
"I have this
friend from the past," the older princess explained. "Well,
two of them actually, but I've only talked to one so far. They share
an apartment. I'm sure that they wouldn't mind if we used it. I know
they want Nemesis gone as much as we do. They might even be able to
help us out."
"Are you sure that these friends of
yours will not mind us using their apartment to plan out our plan of
attack, princess?" Lita asked.
"I'm sure," Reenie
assured the older Sailor Scout, "They will not mind."
"And you're sure that they can be trusted?" Kirstein
asked, not certain that they should trust anyone who was not a Scout.
"Yes, Kirstein," Reenie said, no doubt whatsoever showing in her voice. "We can trust these friends. Now I suggest we start heading to the apartment separately. All of us standing here might seem kind of suspicious considering how many of us there are. Besides, I think that if we headed to the apartment together it might seem kind of out of place. The building is 1092, apartment 369. We should go in groups of three. I was thinking Megan, Chantal and Kirstein would go together. Amy, Mina, and Raye. Then Lita, Kenneth and Jordan. And lastly, Kara, Lillian and me. Any objections?"
Quickly, they shook their heads. There were no objections.
The older princess
smiled. "Good. I think it would be best if Kara, Lillian and I
headed to the apartment first so I could kind of warn them ahead of
time and to explain why we need to use their apartment. Then maybe
Megan, Chantal, and Kirstein could head over. After them, I think
that Lita, Kenneth and Jordan should follow them. Last to head over
to the apartment would be Amy, Mina, and Raye. I was also thinking
that maybe we should allow five minute intervals before showing up at
their door."
"Okay," Lita said. "So you
three should get going to your friend's apartment now. How long do
you think it should take to reach it?"
Reenie shrugged. "I
don't know," she replied honestly. The first time she had been
going to the apartment from a different direction. She had just been
walking around searching for her friend's home. And the last time she
had been running away from the apartment as fast as she could because
of Nemesis. Reenie had never been allowed to walk around by herself
when she had lived at the palace. She had always been driven to
wherever she had to go and even then, never to the residential areas.
"Not too long," Lillian said, knowingly. "I've
been around that area before. It should probably take us about ten to
fifteen minutes to get there. Another five to find the building and
apartment. Altogether about twenty minutes from here."
Her mother nodded. "Okay then," Lita said, "You three" looking at Lillian, Kara, and Reenie" will head off first. Twenty-five minutes after you three leave, Megan, Chantal, and Kirstein will head to the apartment. The next three will wait thirty minutes. And finally the last group will wait thirty-five minutes."
Reenie nodded. "We'll see you there," she said then quickly, along with Kara and Lillian, walked away from the group towards Melissa's and Kristy's apartment.
Once Kara, Lillian, and Reenie were out of hearing range quietly, Amy said, "We should separate. I don't think it's too safe for us to gather in public for too long. Who knows who're spies and who aren't? We all know the times when we're supposed to head to the apartment, so we can just start counting the minutes now."
Mina nodded. "Amy's
right. We should all get going. People may start suspecting something
if we stay here for too long."
"Okay," Lita said.
Looking to the younger generation, "Do you all know what time
you're supposed to head over to the apartment?"
Kirstein nodded.
"Yes," she replied for everyone.
"We'll see you
at the apartment then," Lita said. Then she began walking away
from the group. When she noticed that the two young men weren't
following her, she turned around and eyebrows raised, asked, "Are
you not coming, Kenneth? Jordan?"
Quietly, both of them started after the Elder Sailor Scout.
After Lita, Kenneth and Jordan had left from the group, the others quickly separated into their groups of three and left the park.
