Chapter 13: Bunny and the Redeans?
When Bunny didn't return home, Darien got worried. First he went to the park, then the cafe and the arcade. When he couldn't find her, he called everyone on the communicators. "Guys, I can't find Bunny. She was hanging out with Molly and Melvin and she never came back."
"Alright, let's meet at headquarters, under the arcade," Lita suggested.
Within ten minutes everyone was there. They were all worried. Bunny had been kidnapped once before, by Prince Diomond, but this felt different. Bunny had started to turn against them, and that could be a big problem.
"I'm going to try and locate her on the computers," Amy stated. They all waited to see what she would find. "Oh my gosh!" Amy gasped.
"What is it?" Zoisite asked.
"Did you find her?" Darien was so worried.
Amy looked up, they could tell by her eyes that the news was bad, "I'm afraid I have. She's in Elysion, with Molly, Melvin… and the Redeans."
Everyone was dumb struck. Finally Juna was able to whisper, "I guess we now know how Molly and Melvin found out about us."
"But what do they want with her!" Rini cried. She clung to Helios, who rapped his arms around her.
"They may want nothing from her, Small Lady," Trista soothed, "Only to drive us apart."
"Or..." Alan started. The others looked at him. "Or they could want her help. Think about it, if she was to use her crystal the Redeans' empire could become huge." Nobody wanted to think about that.
Princess Serenity smiled at the rulers, "I would be honored to be your heir." As she said that her white dress turned crimson, and the crescent moon mark on her forehead disappeared. She stood, and walked towards her new parents. They too rose, and kissed her cheeks. A servant came and put a blood-red velvet cape on her shoulders, and her eyes turned red.
"And Molly and Melvin will be your companions, of course," Ralcea added, turning to them. Molly and Melvin smiled and their eyes also turned red.
"Now, what to do about those pesky Sailor Brats," Serenity said.
"Without you, they are very weak," Molly grinned, wickedly.
"Yes, they will be easy to destroy," Melvin chuckled.
"I don't want to just destroy them," Serenity announced. "I want to make them miserable first."
"As is your right, for how they treated you darling," Rodo affirmed.
Ralcea nodded, then rose, "But that can all wait until tomorrow. It is getting late, and we should retire."
Serenity rose, and hugged Ralcea, "I'm going to take a walk in the gardens first. It was my power that has helped keep them so lovely after all." She went out into the rose garden. It used to bring back memories of the Silver Millennium and secret meetings with Prince Endymion, but no longer. All she thought about was how she would make the scouts pay.
When she got tiered she retired to her room. It was a lovely room. A four post canopy bed, with two steps leading into it. The canopy was blood red brocade, with matching curtains hanging around the bed. There was a crimson velvet rug on the floor, that felt ever so soft under her bare feet. The walls were painted black with fully open red roses. The furniture was elegant, made of dark cherry wood. It consisted of a dresser, a writing desk with chair, night stand, vanity table and wardrobe. On the vanity was a little box of jewelry for her. There was also a balcony overlooking the rose gardens. Serenity changed into a red silk nightgown and went to bed.
Back at scout headquarters they felt a sudden shift of energy. "What was that!" Jet cried.
"It felt like a large amount of good energy was just replaced by evil energy," Hotaru interrupted.
"What could this mean?" Pallas wondered.
"It could mean only one thing," Luna sighed. "Princess Serenity… has turned evil."
Everyone gasped. That just wasn't possible. The Princess would never turn. "If that's true, then what will happen to us?" Lita demanded.
"If you don't turn her back soon, you could all lose your powers as Sailor Scouts," Artemis explained. "Your powers come from your duty to protect the Princess, but if the Princess is evil then your powers fail."
"So how do we turn her back?" Amara asked.
Luna hesitated, "I don't know. First we must find what made her change, and then try to reverse it."
During all this Darien had been sitting with his head in his hands. 'How could she have turned evil?' he asked himself. 'She is so full of energy and good light. I have to get her back.' He looked up at the others, "We should all get some rest. Let's meet at my place, tomorrow morning." Everyone agreed. Who could think of school when their Princess was in so much trouble.
That night, at Darien's apartment, everyone was very miserable. Pearl had just found her sister a year ago, but over that year they had become nearly inseparable. Now her sister was evil, and Pearl knew what it was like to be controlled by an evil force. Luna couldn't believe that Sailor Moon had been corrupted. She thought that Sailor Moon was invincible. Darien was the worst though. Not only was he worried that Bunny had been turned evil, but he wanted to be with her anyway. He was starting not to care that she was evil, he wanted to go join her.
"Well this is a cheery group," Artemis said sarcastically. The other three jumped, they hadn't noticed that Artemis and Diana had come.
"What are you doing here?" Pearl inquired, stoking Diana.
"We figured that you three would be the most down," Diana admitted. "So we came to keep you company."
"That's really sweet of you," Darien tried to grin. That all sat in silence for awhile longer.
"If I had just stayed with her!" Luna suddenly cried.
The others looked at her. "What do you think you could have done?" Artemis asked.
"I don't know, maybe nothing. But I could have possibly figured out how they got her to turn, or maybe they wouldn't have tried, had I been there," Luna babbled.
"Don't balm yourself," Pearl insisted. "All they had to do was find one small weak spot in her, and they would get her. That's how Metallia got to me. I was upset about not being with my sister and having my home destroyed and having to be reborn. Metallia saw that and used it to turn me against Sailor Moon."
"What could Bunny's weakness be," Darien wondered.
They all thought about it, but couldn't come up with an answer. They decided to get some sleep. They could discuss it with the others the next day. Though it was hard for them to fall asleep, especially Darien.
No one sleeped well that night. Everyone was up by 6 am, and at Darien's place by 6:30 am. Everyone arrived with their boyfriends, all apologizing for coming so early, but knowing that Darien didn't mind in the least.
When they had all gathered in the living room no one wanted to bring up why they were there. Rini finally mustered the courage to ask, "Does anyone have any idea as to why Bunny may have turned?"
Pearl looked up, "Well… :aheam: well, when Metallia got me to her side, she found my weakness, my anger at the Moon Kingdom being destroyed, and used it and her lies to turn me against Sailor Moon."
Ceres nodded, "Nehalania did the same thing to us."
"Yeah, she knew that we didn't want to loose our dreams when we grew up so told us that she would keep us young if we helped her," Juna agreed.
"It was the same way with us," Kunzite recalled.
"And me," Rini added.
"So it seems we have to figure out what Bunny's weakness is," Trista summed up.
They all thought for awhile. Then a slow smile spread across Raye's face. She tried not to laugh but couldn't help herself. "What is it Raye?" Amy asked.
"I can think of one weakness of Bunny's," Raye replied. "Food." The others smiled. It was true Bunny did like to eat, but they all knew that wasn't the weakness they were looking for.
"I don't think I've ever noticed a weakness in Bunny," Fiori admitted.
"Maybe it goes back really far," Amara speculated.
"What about it Luna? You meet her first," Helios posed.
"Well… let me think." Luna thought for a moment. "Well, our first fight was to help Molly… and she wasn't all that brave about it. Come to think about it she wasn't to happy when a new enemy showed up… Maybe her weakness is that… that she doesn't… want to be… Sailor Moon."
Some of the others gasped. All, but the inner scouts, had only ever known Bunny after she had excepted her destiny. They couldn't imagine that Bunny had ever not wanted to be Sailor Moon.
"Now that you mention it," Lita remembered, "She wasn't all that keen about finding out she was the Moon Princess either."
"She always did want to be a normal teenager," Amy admitted.
"So how do we get her back?" Darien wondered.