Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from "CardCaptor Sakura". They are all owned by the ladies of CLAMP who are much more talented than I. (smile) I also do not own anyone from "Sailor Moon". They are all owned by Takeuchi Naoko whose vision will live eternally. (smile) (Much to Elflina's dismay...) All other characters are my own. Feel free to steal them.
I do not hold chapters ransom for reviews, but I sure appreciate compliments, constructive criticism, and grammatical corrections. So if you feel like it, please press that little review button, and let me know what you think.
Okay, here's the longer chapter I promised. Wow! I had three reviews today! Hurray! Hi to Taeniaea, aserene, and Miss Takin. Haha, I know all about trips... That's why you all are getting another update so soon. And just your luck, more Helios! Haha, I can't promise he'll be the same as anime or manga Helios, but hopefully you'll like my characterization of him as well. Enjoy, minna! - Raya
Moonlit Sakura
Chapter 23 - Approaching the Gates of Time
King Necro glared impatiently at the hologram in front of him. "Blasted little ostrich! No… Turtle. Come out of your shell, you stubborn little turtle!"
King Wisp looked up from his handheld electronic game system. "Turtle? Who's a turtle?" he asked curiously. When he saw that the holographic image was still as distorted and out of focus as it had been an hour ago, he turned back to his game.
"The Princess," King Necro replied trying to hold on to his temper. "She's hiding in the protected part of the Palace. Doesn't that thing have a mute button?" he grumbled spinning around to glare at his young partner.
"Nope," the boy responded unfazed. "What would be the fun in that?" As King Necro growled an incoherent response, the boy looked up at the hologram again. "Hey, what's that?" he asked. His fingers automatically hit the pause button.
King Necro spun around expectantly, and then sighed in disappointment. "That? That's just her silly little cat," he replied. "It goes almost everywhere with her these days." He paused as he realized what he had said.
"Really?" King Wisp asked. His grin was not very childish at all as he continued. "Well, well… Maybe we can use that. Such a pretty kitty… I think I'll keep it after we get rid of its owner…"
After several more minutes of watching the little grey cat wander aimlessly around the garden, King Necro sat down with a sigh. "She must've kicked it out for some fresh air or something," he said rubbing his face tiredly. "If she were coming out, she'd be there by now."
The cat stopped, looked over its shoulder for a moment, and then began to walk back toward the Palace. "So…" King Wisp said, still staring possessively at the cat. "Why don't you just teleport in and find her?"
"I told you, I can't see into the protected part of the Palace. And even if I felt like trying to make a blind jump, that section has some sort of ward around it which will just make me bounce off," King Necro replied irritably.
"But you can teleport there, can't you?" King Wisp asked, pointing at the hologram of the garden and turning to look at him with shining green eyes. "And if we get there fast enough, we can follow the kitty right back to her. You eliminate her, I grab the kitty, and we get out of there. Boom! Fast as a flash."
"And the guards?" King Necro asked tauntingly, but with reluctant excitement.
King Wisp snorted. "Oh come on. I know a few cloaking spells if you don't. Add in a shield to deflect any attacks, and even if they find us, they can't hurt us before we get away."
As he watched the older man rub his face tiredly again, his face took on a serious expression. "Can you do it?" he asked. "The Dyltha juice healed your wounds, but it doesn't look like it did much for your strength or energy." He held his gaze steady as King Necro glared down at him. "I'm serious. Moving too early would be a mistake. They could plan a guard against us for the future. And, if your power failed… I'm not sure I'm strong enough yet to get us both out of there. If you're not up to it, it's better to wait."
King Necro clenched his fists, and then took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, and let is trickle out slowly. King Wisp's eyes drifted back to look longingly at the pretty grey kitty he just had to have. It had stopped beside a fountain, and appeared to be watching the fish.
"You're right," King Necro finally said reluctantly. "If we move too fast, we might make a mistake. But..." A satisfied smile blossomed on his face as he opened his eyes again. "There is a cure to the low energy problem, too."
This interesting statement brought King Wisp's eyes away from the hologram once again. "Oh? Really? What is it?"
King Necro looked down to the ground to hide the sudden gleam in his eyes. For the first time in ages, he felt in control and relaxed enough to tease. "Why, we simply kill the cat, after it leads us to the Princess of course, and use its life energy. Surely you learned basic life energy drainage in your intermediate magic course?"
"Eh? No! I want the kitty cat!" King Wisp wailed as he leapt to his feet. "If you're gonna suck the life outta something, go suck it out of one of those animals outside! The kitty's gonna be mine!"
King Necro looked towards the door that King Wisp had pointed at. "But, that won't work nearly as well," he grumbled. "The cat lives in the Palace, so it might have some magical powers. Besides, not only would we get the life energy from it, we'd get the Princess' negative sorrow and hate energy, too. No, it'll have to be the kitty."
"No," King Wisp growled, clenching his game. "It's mine. You can't have it!"
Unable to resist any longer, King Necro glanced over towards the irritated child. As he took in the boy's expression, he choked, and then burst out into cold laughter. "Do... Do you think you can stop me?" he gasped out, egging the boy on more.
"Watch me," King Wisp responded tightly. "I'm more powerful than you think."
"Oh?" King Necro finally managed to get a hold of himself. "Then, what will you give me in order to not use the cat?" King Wisp fiddled with his game while he thought. After a moment or so of silence, King Necro spoke again. "How about that game?"
King Wisp gave him a wide-eyed look, and snatched the game protectively to his chest. "No way! I'll go get you a jungle cat or something."
The older man fought back another laugh. "No... How about some herbs and fungus instead?" He smiled coldly as the golden-haired boy looked at him suspiciously. "Ever hear of Licferex?"
Vital looked at the crystalline structure in front of him in disbelief. "The Palace? You are taking me to the Crystal Palace?" he asked Pallas uncertainly. The blue haired girl smiled and nodded cheerfully, holding tightly to his left arm with her right hand. She tried to drag him towards the Palace, but his feet seemed to be frozen in place. "You must be joking, right? How will we get in?"
Pallas paused, and then gave him an innocent look. "Why, I thought we'd go in the front door. Unless you have a better idea?"
He gave her a stern look. "Hey, even in Canada we know that only people reborn from the Silver Millennium can enter the Crystal Palace. So what are we going to do? March up to the door and ask them to let us in?"
Pallas smiled mischievously. "Well, I suppose we could. I was just going to go in, but knocking on the door first might be more polite." Her smile widened as he looked at her in disbelief. "Actually, anyone can enter the public section. How else would the countries of the world be able to freely select the delegates that they send here to talk with the King and Queen?"
Vital blinked as he assimilated this new piece of information. "I suppose that makes sense, but still... Why would they let us in? We aren't representatives. And why are we going there anyway?"
"Because that's where my friends are. The ones who need your help with translating the words on this disc," Pallas replied trying to drag him forward again. Again, she failed to budge him. She turned to look at him and sighed. "Look, just trust me, okay?"
He gave her another look, slowly took a step forward, and stopped again. "I just met you, and you're asking me to trust you? You listen to a disc full of ancient curses, and claim to have friends who are inside the Crystal Palace? You're nuts."
She gave him a hurt, irritated look and dropped his arm. "I am not nuts. My friends really are inside the Crystal Palace, and I really am listening to this disc to try and understand what he is saying, not to learn some ancient, esoteric curses."
"Yeah, whatever," Vital said as he turned away from the Palace. "Look, I may be a foreigner, but I'm not stupid. Go play your tricks on someone else." As he began to walk away, he remembered his earlier thought that the woman calling for his help may be in the Palace.
"No, wait!" Pallas cried desperately. She raced around to block his path. "Please..." she pleaded. "You have to help us! Look, my friends work in the Palace, okay? They're in security. You've heard about the man who kidnapped the King and Queen? This seems to be the language he speaks. I volunteered to figure out what it was because I'm good at languages. Please... Please believe me!"
Vital stopped and studied her desperate, sincere periwinkle-blue eyes. He chewed on his inner lower lip as his gut pushed him to believe her incredible story.
As the Canadian studied her with his wine colored eyes, Pallas felt her desperation build. Slowly, she reached into her pocket and grasped her transformation pen. She was just about to pull it out and transform in spite of the danger of triggering a false red alert when he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Okay. I don't know how, but you've convinced me. Let's go," he said in resignation.
Pallas closed her eyes briefly in relief and released her transformation pen. "This way," she said, quickly grabbing his arm again before he could change his mind and leading him back towards the front entrance of the Palace.
King Wisp made a face at the pile of lichen, moss, herbs, and fungus that King Necro had made him assemble. He watched with increasing interest, however, as the older man mashed the pile together with his hands and used a little bit of magic to shrink and concentrate it.
"There," King Necro said as he studied his handiwork. "Not the best tasting of mixtures, but one guaranteed to boost the psychic and magical energy levels." He took up a banana leaf, tore it in half, and wrapped the mixture into a giant capsule. With one last magical burst, he reduced the size of the capsule from the size of his palm to the size of his thumb. "Now the hard part," he said grimacing. "Dyltha juice…"
Fascinated, King Wisp put the bottle of sickly sweet juice into King Necro's outstretched hand. The older man took several quick, deep breaths, then popped the pill into his mouth and drank a slug of the healing juice.
"Gah…." he choked, clutching his throat. His face contorted horrifically at the awful taste of the mixture and the juice. He collapsed to his knees swallowing and gasping for breath. King Wisp quickly repositioned himself so he could continue to watch his partner's strange expressions.
After several minutes, King Necro finally sat back up with a shudder. "I hate that stuff," he muttered as he wiped his mouth. "But, it is effective." He looked over at his younger partner. "Well, are you ready to go collect your cat?" he asked with an evil smile. As the boy nodded eagerly, he cast the spell for the shield and cloak, and teleported them to the Royal Garden.
Diana stared sadly down into the koi pond. "Father…" she whispered, closing her eyes. 'Mother… Oh, what can I do? Father is gone. Mother wishes she were gone. Lady is hurting. And I can't do anything to help any of them.'
She bowed her head lower as she remembered all her mistakes in dealing with the South African delegation the day before. 'How could I have forgotten the Johannesburg Edict?' she wailed inside her mind. 'And then, to let her trip me up on the Agreement of 2804… if it hadn't been for Pallas and her mentioning of the Amendment of 2806, I would have advised Lady-chan to give up so much that we had gained back then!'
She crouched by the pond lost in her misery. A few minutes later, however, one of the larger koi leaped out of the water and splashed her. "Eh!" she cried out as she jerked back. She shook the water off of her face, and stared at the pond a moment. "Stupid little fish," she murmured as she began to dry her face with a front paw. "Stupid, tasty, little fish. Just you wait. One day, Lady will let me eat you, and then you'll be sorry."
Unnoticed behind her, the enemy teleported into the garden. King Necro reached out and grabbed King Wisp's shoulder tightly to keep him from racing up to the cat he desired.
Diana sighed as she dropped her paw back in front of her again. 'I know. I'll go see Pluto. She'll probably be happy for a visit, and maybe she can help me figure out what I should be doing about this mess. If nothing else, she can tell me how to deal with those tricky South Africans…' With a little nod, she stood up and walked back into the Palace.
Vital stared as the huge, crystal doors opened smoothly and quietly at their approach. "We don't have to announce ourselves?" he asked wonderingly noting the lack of guards.
Pallas turned and gave him another smile. "The grounds and the doors are monitored, of course. Whoever is on duty apparently recognized me and opened them up. As long as you stay with me everything will be fine."
"And if I wander away or get lost?" he asked curiously.
"Um... I wouldn't recommend that," she said in a serious tone. "Everyone's a bit jumpy right now. They might attack first and ask questions later. Besides, we don't have too far to go."
Vital nodded to show that he had heard, and stared at the decorations in the hall. The rich fabrics, beautiful paintings, and sprays of fresh flowers seemed more welcoming than overwhelming. He admired the balance that the decorator had achieved. He blinked as he recognized a painting of a field of bright poppies. "Isn't that a..." he started to ask.
"Pallas-chan?" a sweet soprano voice interrupted him. He looked around and spotted a pink-haired girl, slightly taller than Pallas, wearing a gold tank top, white miniskirt, and strappy white sandals. She was standing in a side hall holding a small notebook.
Pallas stopped, and then spun around to face the girl with a smile. "Celeste-chan! I did it! Come on!" she called happily, waving.
Celeste cocked her head to the side, and walked over to the couple. "You did? Did what?" she asked absently, eyes glued to Vital. As she stopped in front of him, she blushed, and bowed. "How do you do? My name is Celeste d'Nuit. It's very nice to meet you," she said softly with a French accent.
"Vital Ensoleillé," Vital replied politely with a bow. "It's nice to meet you also."
"Vital-san can understand the language that creep is using," Pallas interrupted excitedly. "He says it's some tribal dialect in Brazil!"
Celeste blinked, abruptly awakened from her daze. "He can? You do?" she asked looking from one to the other. "That's... That's great!" she exclaimed catching some of Pallas' excitement. A bit of caution made her study the man again. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you learn it?" she asked trying to sound nonchalant.
Vital gave her a look, but replied politely. "My grandmother used to speak it. I haven't heard it in years, but I recognized it right off when Pallas-san's headphones started spouting it at me." He met her medium pink eyes squarely, and then blinked, as something about them seemed familiar.
"I'm taking him to the blue music room," Pallas said looking from one to the other and chewing on her lower lip. "I figured Ami-san could join us there, and it has a lot of the equipment that we would need."
Celeste nodded, and smiled reassuringly at the younger girl. "That's a real good idea. Let me call the others, and we'll all go together." She lifted her wrist communicator and pressed two buttons. "June-chan? Bessa-chan? Meeting in the blue music room in five minutes."
"What? A meeting now? But I'm in the middle of currying Nagareboshi..." Bessa asked with a little bit of irritation.
Celeste rolled her eyes. "It's important. Pallas-chan has a breakthrough," she replied patiently.
"Oh, all right," Bessa's voice sighed. "I'll be right there..."
"Get cleaned up first!" Pallas called, leaning towards Celeste's arm. Celeste quickly cut the connection before Bessa's grumbling could start again.
Vital looked doubtfully at Celeste. "Would you be one of the friends in security that Pallas-san mentioned?" he asked trying to keep the disbelief out of his voice.
As Celeste blinked uncertainly up at him, Pallas put on her most ingenuous expression. "No, that would be Ami-san. Celeste-chan is just a friend of mine." As he slowly nodded not quite believing her, she turned back to Celeste. "Um... Lady-chan?"
"Okay," Celeste replied glancing quickly at the outsider. "Studying up on the agreements and amendments. Cramming, more likely." She sighed as her face took on a teasing expression. "Of course she couldn't learn them in class..."
Pallas giggled in response as Vital turned back to studying the decorations. "Right… You're one to talk…" she teased.
"Hey, Pallas-chan!" another voice called out. Dressed in a dark green tube top, white coolats, and a pair of white tennis shoes, June came to a stop by Pallas, and then leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Where did you find him?" She eyed the tall blonde handsome man appreciatively.
Pallas gave her a puzzled look for a second, and then smiled teasingly. "Bookstore," she whispered back.
June gave her a disbelieving look, and eyed Vital once again. "Hmph. I might just have to take up reading," she whispered. "Introduce me, would you?" she asked in a more normal voice.
Vital pretended not to hear the whispered exchange. 'Teenage girls,' he sighed to himself. Deep inside, he noted that their fascination didn't bother him as much as it usually did. And thus, he was still relaxed and somewhat cheerful as he turned to exchange introductions.
"And this is Bessa Ejjel," Pallas said as Bessa came running up after June had been introduced. Bessa skidded to a halt and stared at Vital in surprise. Dressed in a red tee shirt, white jeans and boots, she had obviously taken Pallas' advice to clean up. "Bessa-chan, this is Vital Ensoleillé. He understands the words that creep has been using to make people disappear."
June and Bessa turned to look at their friends in surprised hope, and then turned back to their visitor. "You can?" June asked in amazement. "Oh that is so-o-o great," she added as he nodded. "I'm doubly glad to meet you. Let's get to the music room, quick, so we can introduce you to Ami-san!" The others nodded in agreement, and smiling to hide their nervous suspicion, quickly led Vital towards the music room.