Chapter 10: Discoveries
When Molly and Melvin arrived before the king and queen of the Redeans they were awed. They sat on blood red thrones in regal splendor. The King, Rodo, had bright red hair, that was cut neatly by his ears under his golden crown. He had redish/brown skin, and was well built, around six feet tall. He was robed in a blood red velvet cape with a white sleeveless silk tunic and black silk knee breeches. Queen Ralcea also had red hair, only hers was darker but not quiet auburn. She keeped it waist length, free flowing and slightly curly under her own gold crown. Her skin was the same redish/brown color as her husband's. Ralcea was wearing a crimson sleeveless silk overgown with a white silk undergown with puff sleeves. She also had a blood red velvet cape over her shoulders. What was most striking though, was their beauty. It was enchanting, one look at them, with their blood red eyes, and you were under their power.
The king and queen knew very well that normal people were easily trapped by their beauty. They often used this to their advantage. The only time it had ever failed was against those of the White Moon, during the Silver Millennium. Only when confronted by Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion had they meet their match in beauty. And because the Prince and Princess of the Silver Millennium used their power, not to control others, but to befriend them, the Redeans had lost.
"Ahhhh," the queen smiled, "You have come, my children." Molly and Melvin bowed, not quite sure what to do. "Come closer, my dears. For we are here to help you."
Molly and Melvin slowly walked toward the beautiful rulers. Molly got up the nerve to ask, "Help us how, you majesty?"
"Why, to help you discover why your one time friend is now ignoring you, of course," the king sweetly replied
"But why would you want to help us?" Melvin blurted out, then softer added, "I would think you would have larger problems to worry about."
"Ahh, but your friend's secret is bigger then you guess. The same people who took her away from you have caused us much trouble in the past," Ralcea accused.
"What must we do, in return for you help?" Molly wondered. She was right if front of Ralcea now, hypnotized by her eyes. She believed everything this queen told her, no questions asked.
"Why nothing!" Rodo cried. "We just want you to get your friend back." Melvin was standing in front of Rodo. Like Molly, he had been hypnotized by the king's eyes.
"Now listen, just do as we ask and you will get your friend, Bunny, back," Queen Ralcea assured them, with a wicked grin.
The scouts were, almost, back to themselves, thanks to the help of their guardian cats. They tried to spend alot of time together, along with the doom tree's children, to keep everyone from succumbing to the strange depression. Also, everyone started to notice how depressed the people of Tokyo were becoming.
The only thing that none of them did notice, was that Molly and Melvin weren't in school on Thursday and Friday. Well, with all the people being depressed, there were alot of absentees, so there really was no real reason to notice that Molly and Melvin were missing.
"School sure is strange with everyone down in the dumps," Bunny observed at lunch on Friday.
"Yeah, the teachers don't care what we do, or if we're even there," Hotaru commented.
"After the way you all talked about it in the future I thought school would be boring," Pallas piped up, "But I think it's a really cool way to see your friends."
Everyone ate in silence for awhile, then Jade started to think aloud, "I wonder what the enemy's next move will be?"
"I just wish we could figure out who this new enemy is," Amy sighed. She felt bad because she couldn't find anything on her computer.
"Why don't you and Trista, and Luna, Artemis, and Diana use the computers at headquarters? Maybe there is something in the old files from the Silver Millennium that will help," Hotaru suggested. That brightened Amy up. She went to ask Trista as soon as school got out.
After a few hours of research on the computers underneath the arcade, Amy was taking a break. Suddenly Trista gasped, "Oh, why didn't I realize this sooner?"
"What is it Trista? Did you find something?" Amy rushed over to look at Trista's screen.
"I found something alright, but I don't like what I found," Trista explained, "We have to get everyone over hear, now!"
Within ten minutes, everyone who was involved with this new enemy, or at lest everyone the scouts knew about, was in the control room.
"What is it Puu? What did you find out?" Rini asked when she saw how upset her friend was.
"I've discovered who our enemy is," Trista said, but before everyone finished cheering she continued, "And I know what they want. They want revenge … on us."
Everyone just stood there for a moment. Darien was the first to regain the power of speech, "Why do they want revenge on us Trista?"
Everyone sat down and Trista began to remind them of that time long ago. "Now, I know that you don't all remember everything that happened during the Silver Millennium," she started. "Some of you weren't even there, or involved. But our 'new enemy' isn't new after all. They attacked once before, starting with the planet Pluto." Everyone gasped. "They called themselves the Redeans and were lead by a King Rodo and Queen Ralcea. They wanted to take over the Moon Kingdom, and had decided to do it step by step. They started with Pluto, who knows why, but I saw them invade. After I told Queen Serenity about it she called all you scouts, except for Saturn, together. Your combined power pushed the Redeans back to there planet, Redicea."
"So now they have come back, to finish what they started long ago," Jet mumbled.
"How could we not have recognized the strategy?" Amara wondered.
"Hey, that was a whole other life time, you can't expect to remember all of it, without some help," Bunny said, smiling because only a year ago Luna had told her the same thing.
"Well, if you defeated them last time, with only seven of you, I think we should be able to easily defeat them now," Kunzite reasoned.
"But I doubt that they would attack again, without some idea of how to defeat us," Hotaru speculated. The others agreed.
"So it seems that we need to figure out what the Redeans new plan is," Ceres said.
"Just one question. Why did these Redeans come after us, and our tree?" Fiona asked.
"Well, originally all the Redeans wanted was to expand their empire," Amy reminded her.
"And it's possible that they discovered that the Sailor Scouts helped the doom tree before, and just used it as bait this time," Luna divulged.
Thursday morning Molly and Melvin were called before the King and Queen, again. They were completely under the rulers' spell. Only one thing was on their mind, get Bunny back, at all cost.
"I trust you slept well?" Queen Ralcea asked sweetly.
"Very, thank you my queen," Molly smiled with a curtsy.
"Your majesties, we were wondering if you would tell us about Bunny's 'friends' today?" Melvin asked.
"And what kind of trouble they caused you in the past," added Molly.
The King and Queen smiled at each other; their plan was going perfectly. "First we must tell you that, though we many still look young, Ralcea and I are truly very, very old," King Rodo proclaimed.
"On our planet, Redicea, everyone lives much longer then you do here on Earth, now," explained Ralcea. "And our story started over a thousand years ago."
"We should start by telling you that, back then, this solar system had all nine planets populated, as well as Earth's Moon. It was a happy, prosperous kingdom that we had herd much about," Rodo told the wide-eyed Molly and Melvin.
"We decided to pay a visit to this marvelous kingdom," Ralcea continued. "We thought that perhaps we could be friends. However, as we drew near to the out most planet, Pluto, we noticed that it seemed to be in chaos. You see, the rulers of the planets were called Sailor Scouts..." Molly gasped, "Yes, I thought perhaps you had herd of them. Anyway, Sailor Pluto was off, somewhere, with no thought of her planet. We decided to see if we could help the poor people of Pluto.
"However, the moment we did the other Sailor Scouts attacked us! We fled back to our plant, but we had learned that these scouts were evil."
"But - but - the Sailor Scouts help us..." Molly stammered. She then hung her head, ashamed to have contradicted the beautiful queen.
Ralcea lifted Molly's chin with her hand, and smiled, "Yes, we had herd that the Sailor Scouts had been reborn on Earth. That is why we are here. We thought that, perhaps, they had changed. We were wrong, for the most part."
"Only one of the scouts had changed for the good. Their leader Sailor Moon. However, the other scouts have her confused and in their control," Rodo defended.
"But what does this have to do with Bunny and her 'friends'?" Melvin demanded.
"Your friend, Bunny, is Sailor Moon," declared Rodo. Molly and Melvin were speechless.
"What more, her new friends, most of them are Sailor Scouts and the ones who aren't are also from the old Moon Kingdom, even the cats Artemis and Luna," Ralcea said.
"Is it possible that these cats could... talk?" whispered Molly.
"Oh yes, in fact it was Luna who first started to take Bunny from you," assured Ralcea.
"So how can we get Bunny out of their control?" questioned Melvin.
"Well, it sounds simple enough, simply make Bunny realize what the others are doing. But turning her against those she considers friends could be difficult," Rodo informed them.
"We'll do it! We'll save Bunny!" Molly and Melvin shouted. The King and the Queen smiled.
That day, and the next, Rodo and Ralcea told Molly and Melvin everything they had discovered about the Sailor Scouts and their friends. They twisted everything, just enough to make it seem like the scouts had evil intentions and were stringing Sailor Moon along.
By Friday night Molly and Melvin could hardly believe that they had ever excepted help from the Sailor Scouts. They would save Bunny from them, if it was the last thing they ever did.