Once Holly and Alexis received the telepathic message, their Planetary Symbols lit up, and they awoke! Alexis burst into tears as Holly sprang over to soothe her. Also, Holly noticed Alexis's face was getting red from crying out of stress so much over the past few days.
Alexis's crybaby attitude did get tiring, but most of the other Neo-Sailor Senshi are strong, so why not have a sensitive one? In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, Holly roused the others to help tidy up Alexis's face as she told them what happened to Emily and Trisha.
"Why are they taking away my teammates AND friends?!" Chibiusa sobbed on the floor as Comet, Asteroid, and Diana rushed to comfort her.
"They want Neo-Queen Serenity, King Endymion, and Queen Beryl. I remember that much about who they talked over while Gracie and I were under their control." Crystal revealed as she splashed cold water on Alexis's face.
"Why?" Jewel asked, grabbing Elizabeth and clutching her securely.
"Isn't it obvious? If they control the royals, who is possibly going to stand against Neo-Queen Serenity's power? She WAS Sailor Moon, now she's got to be even stronger, and Queen Beryl's got her own set of powers." Holly explained.
"That makes sense, but Queen Beryl is trapped in Elizabeth's body, where her magic is minimal, and her energy keeps draining every time she's in control. Do the Skinwalkers even know that?" Gracie countered in question as she dried and applied cream to Alexis's face.
"The more they don't know, the better off we are." Jewel stroked Elizabeth, whose purr always calmed the girl down.
Catching on, Asteroid jumped into Crystal's arms, and as Gracie pet him (once they put the face restoring items down), he started purring, calming them. Comet did the same for Holly and Alexis as Diana dealt with Chibiusa.
Soon, all the girls had fallen asleep and did not wake until the early afternoon! Then, half-asleep, the girls filed into the Dining Hall and, from the look on Rei, Makoto, Hotaru, and Setsuna's faces, were reminded of what happened as they knew they had forgotten something!
"Good afternoon, Chibiusa, Jewel, and Neo-Senshi. I thought you were never going to wake up." Neo-Queen Serenity smiled, but they could tell she had been comforting Hotaru and Setsuna this morning.
"You girls and you, Asteroid, should be going to bed at a reasonable hour." Luna scolded.
"We did, but Alexis and I got a telepathic message from Emily and Trisha just before they were taken by Skinwalkers!" Holly announced as Rei, Makoto, Hotaru, and Setsuna looked up, hoping to hear more about their daughters, but Holly did not know much more.
"My queen, every night this Skinwalker legend takes two of our own! So we need to deal with them!" By "deal with," Haruka meant to kill.
"No! I mean, Mrs. Tenou, Crystal, and I know the Skinwalkers are after Moon and Dark Kingdom royals for their immense power and benefits, such as; living in the Crystal Palace. So, I believe it would be wiser for you and the other Sailor Guardians to protect Neo-Queen Serenity, King Endymion, and Queen Beryl. We shall deal with this threat as it is our teammates and friends they have taken!" Gracie stated.
"Wise decision and well said, Gracie." Then, King Endymion stood up and started clapping for Gracie, stating exactly how they should act in this situation.
One by one, everyone else started clapping too, until the Dining Hall was filled with it, and Gracie's eyes welled with grateful tears. Unfortunately, the Skinwalkers did know the situation with Queen Beryl from Nokomis's grandmother's encounter with the kitten-woman. However, they did not know how much of her magic is accessible in that form, and if it were not much, there would be no point in possessing her. Testing her is out of the question because they were unsure if she could defend herself and, even though they planned to kill her eventually, they did not want her dead before they used her full-powered magic as a weapon. Amazingly, Takala came up with the solution.
"Let me observe her. Then, like a fox, I can fight her on the equal ground without killing her and maybe find out which of our rituals can break the magic locking her in that form." Takala had a dark yet familiar glint in his eyes.
"Are you sure you don't just have...other ideas...of what you want to do with her, Takala?" Tyee laughed.
"It wouldn't be wise to form connections with them as they will eventually have to be disposed of," Mato advised.
"I know..." Takala sighed disappointingly.
"Formerly being the queen of the Dark Kingdom, maybe Takala can convince her to work for us? A little black magic and false promises can go a long way." Mitena offered an alternative other than killing the former Dark Kingdom queen.
"Yes. Takala, if you desire her, capture and bring her to our way of thinking." Tyee ordered.
Eagerly, Takala nodded and transformed into a fox before taking off!
"Do you think he'll succeed?" Nahele asked.
"No," Mitena whispered, so Tyee would not hear.
Luckily for Takala, Queen Beryl is alone, practicing building her magic back up. If she could regain enough, maybe she and Elizabeth could separate! So far, it seemed progress was being made; Queen Beryl had been able to take over Elizabeth longer and longer. Of course, Elizabeth had allowed it to help the girls. Takala had coated the claws of his fox skin in different magic mixes to see which one might work best on Queen Beryl. It would take some time for each to get into her bloodstream and observe the effects, but worth it if they could turn her back to her Dark Kingdom form!
After a minute of harnessing her energy, Queen Beryl strained to collect more, but it was too much for Elizabeth's small body, and it dispersed!
"Wretched kitten! If you don't cooperate, we're never going to be free of each other!" Queen Beryl raged, but Elizabeth just licked her paws and rubbed her face.
Of course, in Elizabeth's opinion, her only concern is protecting Jewel. Everything else came second. Queen Beryl never cared much for her daughter. Though she did find Elizabeth's will to look out for the young girl cute to a point, she still saw her own wants and needs as more of a priority.
"Let me help with that." Takala walked into view.
As the feline-women turned around, Takala attacked! No doubt Tyee would not be pleased as Takala scratched up Elizabeth/Queen Beryl, but it is not like Takala knew which one of the mixes on his claws would work, so he would have to try each one. In total, Takala gave her 16 scratches! Takala took off his fox skin pelt and watched each scratch react differently, and he was getting worried when the 4th to the last scratch started to seem to do the trick! Yes, it did take a while, but Queen Beryl eventually groaned and came to.
Takala was a little disappointed; Queen Beryl is in her Silver Millennium form again, not her Dark Kingdom one! However, this did not mean she could not still use a little magic.
"W-What happened?" Beryl put a hand to her head to calm her swimming thoughts as she tried to pull herself up.
"You're back to your old self, thanks to me. Really old, considering the Silver Millennium was 1,000 years ago." Takala snickered.
"Silver Millennium?" Beryl looked down at her clothes. "I'm human again?!"
After giving Beryl some time to adjust to what was going on, she did not thank Takala as she realized the danger and turned to run as she knew she still did not have strong enough magic to fight. Swiftly, Takala grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her back, grabbing the sides of her face, so she could not look anywhere but at him!
"Look at my eyes…." Takala coed.
"No! Let me go!" Beryl squeezed her eyes shut and tried to move her head as Takala's grip was hurting her.
"The man you love crushed your heart without a second thought, and you're STILL going to be difficult? Fine, I didn't want to have to do this...well, actually, I do." Takala locked his mouth over Beryl's in a kiss, forcing her to shoot open her eyes in shock.
Takala broke away and looked deep into Beryl's eyes. When he brushed a strand of hair out of her face, without her trying to move away, he knew he had her. Suddenly remembering Elizabeth, Takala looked around and saw the kitten lying a few feet away! She is not dead, but should Takala kill her? She could not talk, so it was not like she was going to be able to alert anyone that Beryl needed saving and, with a Skinwalker's power, Beryl would be turned to their way of thinking quite easily.
"What are you looking at?" Beryl turned around to see what Takala was looking at.
"Nothing." Takala turned her head back to him. "It doesn't matter because what I'd rather be looking at is the most beautiful woman in the universe."
"Anyone, I know?" Beryl joked.
"You should. It's you." Takala kissed her and whisked her far away, where no one would ever find her again.
Once there, Takala would ruin her before she knew what was happening, and he and the other Skinwalkers-are were going to enjoy it.