Sweet Nocturne
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon
Chapter 5: Attempt
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"Rini…" Serenity inched closer to her daughter.
"Yes, Mother?" Rini began to feel a little nervous.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" Serenity asked, unknowingly repeating Lita's question earlier that day. Rini looked down at her lap, unsure of what to say or do. "I felt it too, you know."
Rini then looked up at her mother. "You… you felt what?"
"You were in distress. Something happened to you." Serenity replied calmly.
Rini stayed quiet. Finally, she decided. If her mother felt it, it must be something important. She had to tell her. She wanted to tell her. She looked at her mother's concerned eyes and sighed. "Well, I—"
KNOCK KNOCK. The Moon royals turned towards the door as Amy walked in.
"Sorry, Serenity, Rini. But something's come up from the labs. There's been a raid on the outer west regions of Crystal Tokyo and they're approaching the castle." Amy reported smoothly, with a cool look on her face.
Serenity nodded and turned to Rini. "We'll continue this later."
"But—"
"Change your clothes and rest in the meantime."
"No, but I want to come—"
"Not this time, Rini. You've been drained. Get some rest first, please." Serenity said in a final tone. She stood up and followed Amy out of the door.
Rini sat on her bed for a few more minutes. Her annoyance at her mother slowly went away as she pondered once again on the day's events. It was all too much of a coincidence that she went through that horrible experience at the same time now that Crystal Tokyo is being attacked. She had something to do with this, she felt it. She's a 'link' of some sort. Maybe someone was trying to contact her. Or worse, someone's trying to use her. She frowned at the thought. It reminded her of when the Dark Moon brainwashed her into fighting against the senshi. I will not be used again.
With that, she went to her bathroom to take a much needed hot bath.
~*~
The conference room was assembled with the royal couple, Lita, Mina, Amy, and Zoisite. Raye and Jadeite followed not too long later. As they settled in, Serenity began.
"How did they break through our shields?" she asked.
"A great amount of force was used, Serena." Zoisite answered. "They got through the earth's global shield very quickly, in three minutes to be exact. They managed to puncture a hole the size of Texas in it. As for the city shields, they got through just as quickly. This all happened in the span of half an hour."
"How big is their legion?" Lita asked.
"Small. Very small. Only about five hundred men, as our scout reported."
"I don't understand. Why weren't we given any indication that they were near? Didn't our radars pick them up?" Mina asked.
"That's the problem. They came by undetected. Nothing came up on the radar until the global shields were damaged. It took another fifteen minutes for us to track them."
"Right. Zoi and I inspected the machines and it turns out that they've been sabotaged. When we fixed them the troop was picked up on the radar. But it couldn't identify them." Amy added.
"So we have a traitor in our midst." Mina concluded.
"Yes. We suspect it might be one from the labs since only a select few other than us are allowed to enter."
"We will get to that later. What of the raid?" asked Serenity.
"Artemis has sent some of our legions over to see to it." Zoisite said.
"But if that foreign troop was able to break through our shields, they must be very strong. Surely our own troops won't be able to hold against them." Jadeite alleged. "You said they were approaching the castle?"
Zoisite nodded an affirmative. "Their strength has yet to be tested on the battlegrounds. After the shields broke down only the small legion proceeded to the raid."
"We need to get Kunzite and Nephrite back here as soon as possible." Endymion stated. "We need to be complete to discuss this matter any further. Right now, civilians are at stake." The rest of the group nodded. Then, Luna appeared at the door.
"Majesties, senshi, generals," she acknowledged. She paused for a while to catch her breath. The room waited in silence. "The enemy has retreated." They still kept silent.
"The enemy has retreated?" Mina repeated questioningly.
Luna nodded, eyeing them warily. "Is that not good news?"
"No, no. I mean, that's very odd."
"Odd indeed." Raye finally spoke. The group turned to her. "I sensed their presence, but I wasn't sure of what they came for. My visions were blurred. They obviously attacked Crystal Tokyo for you, Serena, but there are other things concerned with this." She stood up. "They want something else. They've got a very strong force in them. They probably have a mothership somewhere nearby. The five hundred men they sent are nothing compared to what I sensed is to arrive. They're going to come back. Stronger."
"So that raid. Was that just, to crudely put it, practice?" Lita asked.
Raye shrugged. "Most probably. To test our rudimentary troops."
"Right then. I'll fix the shields."
"I'll go with Amy. To fix the shields."
"I'll call Kunz and Neph."
"I'll dig up some more information."
"I'll round the battalions for a city watch."
The group was ready to disband.
"Stop!"
They turned to face the queen. "Don't forget then, dinner is in an hour." She smiled. They smiled back.
~*~
She frowned as a cold, moist breeze found its way through the window, lifted the curtains, and swirled around the room, touching down on her skin. She shivered greatly. The temperature must have dropped a considerable amount to have been that cold. Summer rain was usually very warm. The thought was quickly dismissed and Rini swept her long hair up into that single messy bun atop of her head and slinked into the tub full of scented, steaming water. She lit some candles at the lining, closed her eyes, and relaxed. I spoil myself way too much lately.
Another breeze, colder than the previous one, crept through the windows and made her shiver once more. The storm must be getting worse. The grumbling of thunder surprised her. She was then compelled to look outside her window. Yet another breeze, stronger this time, lifted her curtains way up and blew out her candles, bringing the bathroom to semi-darkness. Lightning flashed outside.
Shit! Just what I needed.
She readied to get out of the tub when someone came softly knocking on the door. "It's alright! I'm OK here!" she assured the person who she assumed would be Diana.
The knocking didn't cease. Rini wrapped her silk robe around herself and called out exasperatedly, "Who is it?"
No answer.
She grunted and walked towards the door. She opened it and saw no one on the other side. She looked around her room. She used her senses to reach out for any nearby presence. None. She walked to the middle of her room. There, a tingle was starting through her senses. Someone's here. Her scarlet eyes roamed around her room cautiously, scanning through her bed, couches, desk, tables, vases, until nothing showed up. But the tingle was still there. She gritted her teeth in frustration. Argh! Come on, find it! She began to walk around slowly, perking her senses. She felt the water dripping off her body onto the marble floor. She felt the curtains still being lifted by the winds in her bathroom. She felt the rain still falling outside.
The tingle, which started somewhere at the back of her mind, somewhere on the left side, was slowly becoming more known, centering itself in her senses. She stopped at the place where the tingle was most prominent. She was soaking her rug wet, and was becoming annoyed. It's here. Right here. Where the hell is…
She then noticed something. The winds stopped howling. The rain stopped falling. A complete silence dawned in the room; the only sound being aware was Rini's steadied breathing.
DRIP.
A drop of water on the table near the rug.
Alarm bells went off inside Rini's head and she looked up. Before she could discern anything more than a man's figure seemingly perched on the high ceiling, the lights went out. A nanosecond later, lightning shone outside, illuminating the room for a second. The man was gone.
Dammit!
~*~
The lights flickered and died out as surprised cries echoed throughout the palace.
The senshis and generals all looked up as they sensed a different presence in the palace. Amy touched her earring and her high-tech visor materialized. She ran out of the labs to instinctively head to the throne room, her visor providing her night vision so that she won't trip or bump into anyone in the darkness. She could hear Zoisite's footsteps behind her, soon followed by whom she sensed to be Mina and Lita's.
"Serena!" she cried as she burst into the throne room.
Serenity's body looked tensed. The crystal in her crown gave off a most illuminating, ethereal light throughout the darkness. She looked upwards to the ceiling. "It's in Rini's room!"
~*~
The tingle became an outright slap in the head.
Behind!
Rini turned around in time to block an incoming jab to her shoulder. She held his fist, used her other hand to punch the guy's face, which was blocked by his other hand (which she expected), and then proceeded to give a swift, sweeping kick to knock the guy off his feet. The man retaliated quickly and kicked Rini off her feet. Rini heard the unmistakable sound of a blade being unsheathed, and she rolled herself up and managed a quick elbow to the man's neck. He got up just as quickly, landed a hard sided kick to her head, and knocked her down again, pinning her legs. He held the blade menacingly above her, and she struggled to get free until she realized she was being flipped over his shoulder.
He's trying to kidnap me!
She didn't have her transformation brooch so she couldn't defend herself as Chibimoon. So she screamed a high-pitched wail, enough to make her kidnapper stop and gag her. He also bound her ankles and wrists to prevent any further attempts to escape. Her silk robe was slowly inching off her naked body underneath. If she moved any more it'd fall off. Rini was absolutely furious. The crescent moon on her forehead glowed and called out to her mother. Angry tears formed in her eyes and she realized they were already about to jump the ledge of her balcony.
Thunder rumbled once again overhead but Rini felt this was different. Then, a silver-green lightning bolt struck out of the darkness and hit the kidnapper's ankles, making him tumble and drop his package. Rini balanced dangerously on the ledge and was about to fall.
"RINI!" Serenity cried out, her blood pumping as she ran towards her daughter.
Rini's eyes widened and her symbol flared, then the kidnapper regained his stance and jumped off the balcony, bringing the pink-haired princess along with him. Rini's tears fell as she heard her mother's heart-wrenching scream. Then she saw a flash of gold.
A heart-linked chain fell and coiled itself around Rini, holding her in place. The kidnapper held a death grip around her waist, cursing as he dangled on to dear life as the rain was making the silk robe more and more slippery. The sky lit up again and the same green-tinged lightning bolt struck the man fiercely, making him let go of the princess and fall to the hard ground below.
Rini heard a sickening 'thump' a few moments later and breathed a sigh of relief. She felt herself being hoisted up by the chain. She looked up to see Sailor Venus pulling her carefully. Sailor Jupiter was glaring at the ground with a very pissed-off look on her face.
"The fucker's still alive!" she cried. Simultaneously, thunder echoed through the storm and Jupiter threw flashing green orbs towards the man who was swiftly running away. "Dammit!"
"He disappeared!" Sailor Mercury exclaimed from behind her. She looked out at the man's route through her visor, which clearly showed no trace of the man but an unknown residue at where he vanished.
"Shit!" Jupiter cursed and a large bolt of lightning split the sky and burned some trees near where the man disappeared to.
"It's alright, Jupiter." Venus said. With a final pull she carefully brought Rini over the ledge and uncoiled her chain from her. She un-gagged her and Mercury released the bonds on her limbs. The queen rushed towards Rini and brought her into her arms.
"Are you OK, Rini?" she whispered.
Rini's crescent flashed and she hugged her mother back. She was still shocked and scared beyond belief, but she didn't want to show it. She was brave, she will not cry. She let go and nodded. "I'm—I'm alright now. Thank you, everyone."
Zoisite unclasped his cape and wrapped it around Rini's shivering form. She gave him a tiny smile of gratitude. "Ladies, let's get inside first. The rain's not getting any kinder."
-*-*-
-so sorry for the long delay, I came down with the flu -.- it's very rainy here right now. Well, till the next chap! Enjoy!-
