Guest & Jeanne: Thank you for the review and support!
Clarification: Haruka and Michiru are pseudo-identities that Princess Uranus and Princess Neptune created when they first met and introduced to each other. They haven't met officially in their real identities yet. Uranus acted as Haruka, the son of the commandant-general of Uranus, and Neptune acted as Michiru, the bodyguard of Princess Neptune. The pseudo-names are mentioned based on the princesses' perspective.
Uranus tried to catch up with Michiru with her wind-like speed but somehow she still lost track of the aqua-haired girl near a pathway formed by high hedges that led to the entrance of Rosalind Garden.
The blonde princess slowed down and walked briskly instead, checking her surrounding and wondering where Michiru could have gone to. Could she be hiding behind the tall shrubs?
Suddenly, a guard was racing into the garden at a speed like someone's life was on the line and he was the only hope to rescue him/her. He wasn't able to see Uranus approaching the corner of the hedge and collided with the blonde princess. He fell down immediately after the crash but the princess stood firm.
"Your Highness, my apology for running into you!" The guard nervously apologized as he got up on his feet. "Are you okay?"
"I am, obviously. Are you?" Uranus replied, feeling a bit frustrated of the violent collision and the unexpected person in the garden. She then questioned, "What's the hurry? I thought I made it clear that no one is supposed to come in without my permission?"
"I'm sorry, Your Highness. A guest from Neptune informed me that an intruder was in the garden picking floral emblem and suggested that I should go after him-" the guard answered, still panting from running and the collision. "I was afraid that he is up to no good and concerned about your safety."
He looked down briefly, and Uranus immediately reacted by trying to hide the flower in her hand. However, it was too late and he had already caught a glimpse of what was in her hand. The blonde princess's face flushed instantly. She couldn't believe that the mischievous bodyguard managed to trick her again. How was she going to explain this?
The guard looked at her, with an expression that showed that he knew the princess might have some knowledge of this already.
"Don't worry about it, everything has been taken care of," Uranus quickly addressed his concern, making sure that the guard didn't think she was the perceived flower picker by the Neptunian guest.
"So the flower-" the guard said, trying to make sense out of what he saw. His eyes were still on the object in Uranus's hand.
"I got it back from the intruder," Uranus clarified.
Uninvited, trespassing guest? Maybe Michiru was the intruder instead.
"Understood," the guard said. "I'm glad to learn that everything is fine. I'll go check outside the garden now, just to make sure that there aren't any more intruders."
"Go ahead."
As Uranus stood alone in the garden, she found it inconceivable that Michiru found ways to fool her again. What was even more incredulous was that the little trick she tried to play with Michiru was actually part of a bigger trick that the wavy-haired girl played with her instead. For a while, she actually believed that Michiru was Princess Neptune. Then as she was trying to catch up with her, the aqua-haired girl must have sensed that her speed was no match to Haruka, so she created a detour in order to prevent herself from getting caught by the Oberon guard.
Uranus shook her head. She started to wonder how many more tricks could Michiru have up her sleeves. The blonde princess had never come across anyone who would blatantly disobey her commands nor even dare to fool her in such way. Michiru was definitely the first one.
Normally she would be agitated over a defeat in a duel or losing a competitive game. But somehow being fooled by Michiru didn't seem to upset her in any way.
Michiru was just cunning bodyguard, wasn't she?
As Uranus recollected her encounter with Michiru, something unexplainable happened. The corners of her lips curled upward and she began to find the witty girl interesting-
'Stop! Stop!' Uranus resisted in her head. She told herself that it was wrong for Michiru to fake Princess Neptune, her assigned senshi partner. Neptune was the one she supposed to meet and partner with, and they'd fight together to defend their planets, and whoever Michiru was shouldn't matter to her...
But still, she was quite intriguing. A bodyguard with great artistic talent, photographic memory, and superb storytelling ability-
'No, but she was playing games and fooling you!' Uranus tried to negate any positive feelings she was developing for Michiru again. She tried to convince herself that everything was just a part of Michiru's game. How could she know for sure that Michiru was artistic if she didn't sketch in front of her? Plus it didn't seem unreasonable for Michiru to remember the sketches, since it was likely for her to stand next to Neptune when the princess was sketching.
Before Uranus could further continue her musing, her communicator rang.
It was Pluto.
"Uranus, this is Pluto. Come in."
"I'm here."
"Two of my moons are under attacked. I'm at Charon but can't get to Hydra soon enough-" Pluto said. There was a ton of noises behind Pluto, she was apparently busy defending her moon that was under siege.
"Not a problem. I'll be there soon," Uranus promised quickly.
"Thanks, how is it over there?"
"It's been quiet here. Actually Neptune is visiting."
"Why don't you ask Neptune to come along then? I have no idea the size of the force at Hydra but it won't hurt to get some extra help."
"Sure, I'll ask."
"That'd be great," Pluto said.
After Uranus and Pluto disconnected, the blonde princess quickly transformed and started heading out to Hydra, the outermost moon of Pluto. While traveling, she took out her communicator to reach Neptune. But she paused before initiating contact, realizing that this would be the first time she 'meet' her senshi partner even though it wasn't a face to face one. She knew that some formal greeting would be nice, but since she was on a mission, it was probably best to simply focus on the request and worry about formality later.
Neptune returned to the guest chamber of Miranda Castle. She couldn't help but chuckle over the little game she played with Haruka.
The wavy-haired princess was normally composed and reserved, but somehow those qualities seemed to be put behind when she interacted with Haruka. It was quite funny, because the Oberon guard had an uncanny ability to ignite the emotional, competitive, and playful side of her which she managed to hide so well in front of others.
"No!" Neptune tried to suppress in her head the fact that she enjoyed playing with Haruka. "Haruka is by far the most arrogant, frustrating person I have ever met in my life. He managed to make me angry, augmentative and competitive! It's his fault!"
But didn't you get back at him already? Neptune tried to counter her own argument.
She chuckled again, thinking that the arrogant guard who accused her for stealing floral emblem must be fuming when he was identified as the flower picker instead, since the Skyflower was in his possession.
The aqua-haired girl then began to flip through the sketchbook that she got back from Haruka. As she was going through the pages, she realized that there was a bookmark left on one of the pages of the book, the page where Nereid Music Conservatory was sketched.
Before Neptune could look at the details of the bookmark, a sound was heard on her communicator. She thought that this was probably her planet calling her, since rarely anyone would call her outside of her home planet.
"This is Neptune," Neptune answered in her casual tone.
"Neptune, this is Uranus." She heard from the other side. The message wasn't very clear to her, probably due to some kind of signal disturbance from Uranus's travel in high speed through the vast space.
"Who's this?" The wavy-haired princess asked.
"Can you hear me? I'm Uranus."
"There are lots of noises behind you. Did you ask where I am? If so, yes I'm at Uranus."
"No! This is Uranus!" Uranus said, sounding a little annoyed.
This time Neptune could hear the response. Oh no, she thought. Uranus? Her senshi partner? Why would she call her out of the blue? Anyway, she knew her response definitely did not make a good impression for meeting someone so important for the first time. She clearly came off as someone who had trouble with hearing.
"Sorry, I can hear you now," said Neptune, trying to be polite, but frankly it was still hard to hear what Uranus said on the other side with all the noises behind her.
"Can you go to Hydra? Pluto needs some help. Enemies are attacking both of her moons. She's at Charon and I'm heading over there now. It would be great if you could join me, probably a good chance for us to start fighting together as well."
Unfortunately with the disturbance, all Neptune could hear was, "Hydra… enemies… Charon… Hydra… join me…"
"Hold on." Feeling frustrated at the fragmented message, Neptune quickly transformed and headed towards Pluto's direction.
"Uranus, I'm on my way now, where exactly do you want me to go? Hydra or Charon?"
By the time Neptune was on her way, Uranus was getting close to landing Hydra already. Neptune could hear sounds of enemies on the other side from her own communicator.
"Hydra!" Uranus barely could repeat herself as she began to prepare herself to fight monsters.
"Got it. I'll be there," Neptune acknowledged.
"Okay, please hurry!"
Neptune gave a quick peek on her Deep Aqua Mirror as usual, and something didn't look right. There was a signal of enemies moving towards the direction of the Uranian planet. It was clear that she had to stay there instead to defend her partner's planet. As much as she would appreciate the opportunity to fight alongside Uranus, she could not go to Hydra.
"Sorry Uranus, I can't come over. Enemies are coming towards your planet. I'd better stay there and prepare for the attack."
Unfortunately, as Neptune was traveling and Uranus was engaging in fighting monsters, there were too much noises in both of their backgrounds, so all Uranus could hear was "I can't come over…I'd better stay there."
"Fine," Uranus replied perfunctorily, obviously too busy to care for the reasons behind the refusal of assistance.
Their first formal communication did not turn out well.
Neptune turned around and made her way towards Miranda Castle again. The signal on her Mirror was getting much stronger. There were more enemies approaching. They had moved past the orbits of the outer moons of Uranus and appeared to be heading for the planet. Neptune decided to halt them before they could even get a chance to come close to the planet. She went over to meet them near Oberon (the moon).
The incoming army didn't seem particularly hard to defeat. Neptune gripped her Mirror tightly, preparing to send her crashing wave attacks toward the troop. But something didn't feel right. The enemies continued to march on as if they hadn't already known that Neptune could easily defeat them, and at the same time her Mirror started to flash more alarming signals.
She gazed into her Mirror immediately and learned that even more enemies were coming. She was absolutely shocked by the magnitude of the forces. There were multiple troops approaching the planet from different angles, and each of the troops looked much larger and more organized comparing to one in front of her. The wavy-haired princess had never encountered anything like this before. The enemies seemed to be aiming to encircle the planet and attack it from all directions. Neptune knew that there wouldn't be enough time for her to defeat them one by one before one of the troops made a landing on the castle. She needed to call for help quickly.
The aqua-haired princess knew that Uranus and Pluto were far away there but she had to try anyway. Perhaps she could hold the enemies off as long as she could in order to buy some time while she waited for their assistance.
However, there was no response on their communicators. She couldn't get a hold of either of them.
At this point, there was no way she could have called for anyone else for back up, the inner senshis were just too far to be reached. It was clear to Neptune that she had to take on this battle alone. Suddenly, she had a chilling feeling about this. The intention of this impending assault seemed more apparent now - it was the enemy's scheme to create distractions by attacking the inner and outer-most moons of Pluto, causing Pluto to call for help, then at the same time concentrating their assault on Uranus. The Dark Kingdom intelligently picked Uranus, because at this time her planet positioned close to Pluto but Uranus was much farther away. Had she gone out to fight with Uranus and Pluto, then no one would be there to defend the planet for this upcoming attack. The timing was almost perfect, and the only miscalculation was that the enemies did not account for the power of Deep Aqua Mirror to reveal and uncloak their plan.
Neptune did not have much time left to prepare for this. She knew that the lives of Miranda Castle and the planet were in her hands. Being far outnumbered definitely put her in a huge disadvantage, but Neptune wasn't short of tricks and schemes. It was time to put them into good use.
Once she landed on Miranda Castle again, she requested for a map of Miranda Castle and gathered everyone at the palace's courtyard. She had to inform Uranian the imminent situation and give out orders in lieu of Princess Uranus.
"Fellow Uranian, Princess Uranus is at Hydra fighting alongside Princess Pluto, and our enemies tried to seize this opportunity to attack us," Neptune announced. "They have sent troops towards Miranda Castle and are approaching from all directions. Time is running against us and we need to act quickly."
Tense air was felt and worried faces were seen immediately at the courtyard. Hearing that enemies were coming in large numbers was worrisome already, and the fact that no one had worked with (and some hadn't even met) Princess Neptune before definitely did the opposite in easing that tension. Nervous side conversations started to carry on.
Neptune's plan required some cooperation from Uranians, but she needed to convince everyone that she would defend this planet as if it were her own. She had to remove doubts before she could carry on with her plan.
"It sounds like you have doubts in me, you seemed worried that I am not acting in your best interest," Neptune said with empathy. "As a Neptunian princess and a partner of Princess Uranus, I can assure you that I will give my life to defend this planet. No harm will come to you without defeating me!"
"All I can ask for is your support and trust. I don't need anyone to fight with me; I will stand on the front line myself."
With Neptune's assuring words, the crowd seemed a bit more convinced and had quieted down. The aqua-haired princess then continued, "And what I need you to do is to leave Miranda Castle right now."
Everyone started looking at each other, feeling perplexed by this order.
"You heard that right, this is an evacuation order. Take shelter at Cordelia Naval Station," the wavy-haired princess commanded authoritatively, she then turned her attention to the admiral and continued. "Make sure everyone retreat orderly and quietly. Promptly confirm your arrival and then stand by for my next command. No one returns here without my order!"
"Yes, Your Highness!" The admiral obeyed.
"Now proceed!"
Everyone in Miranda Castle obeyed the command from the Neptunian princess and departed orderly. The castle quickly became deserted and Neptune's first plan worked out. She knew that at the very least Uranians would be safe for now. No one would be hurt, not until they could defeat her. Now she had to move onto her second plan.
Hydra & Charon, Pluto
Using her masterful sword skills, Uranus wielded her Space Sword efficiently and sent blasting attacks to monsters. She was able to finish off the enemies in a fairly short amount of time. Either the monsters were too weak or her melee skill had improved so much that they didn't even come close as a threat to her at all. Uranus was content with the outcome and the assistance she was able to provide Pluto.
After the last enemy was removed from Hydra, Uranus briefly thought of her communication with Neptune earlier. It definitely did not turn out in the way she was hoping for. Maybe the noises in their backgrounds were the main factor for the poorly communicated messages, but she also wondered whether her brevity and curt messages were reasons Neptune decided to stay put instead. Had she introduced herself first or greeted Neptune formally before asking her senshi partner for help, would the outcome be different?
Little did the blonde princess know that everything was all part of a setup from the Dark Kingdom. She would have not expected the enemies to create two smaller attacks as baits to attract her to assist Pluto, and planned a much sizable attack on her own planet instead.
The blonde princess went over to Charon and assisted Pluto vanquishing the remaining enemies.
"Thank you, Uranus," Pluto said gratefully.
"Not a problem. Glad that I was able to help."
"I'll definitely return the favor when you need me," Pluto said. "Where's Neptune? I thought you were going to bring her along."
"Well, she decided to stay put at Uranus," Uranus answered. She didn't have a better answer or explanation for this.
"Did she say why?"
"Maybe. I couldn't hear her too well from the communicator."
"I'm sure she has her reason," Pluto said, trying not to jump into any conclusion. Deep down inside she was a little worried about Uranus and Neptune. It definitely didn't sound like they formed anything that was close to a partnership at all.
Uranus stayed quiet. Then she began.
"I guess. I'll try to meet up with her when I return, if she's still there."
"You two still haven't met?" Pluto inquired incredulously.
"No," Uranus answered without offering more details.
Pluto hesitated, then she offered, "Come on Uranus, as a token of my gratitude, can I offer you a cup of Plutonian tea and some treats at Charon Castle?"
"I'll take it," Uranus said, smiling politely.
Miranda Castle
The enemy troops have now reached the inner moons of the planet. Neptune did a quick tour around the castle to ensure that everyone had evacuated. The map that she got from the guard came in handy and she easily had every place in the castle memorized.
As she passed by the pond, she thought of Haruka. When she asked everyone to gather at the courtyard, she didn't recall seeing the blonde teen. The wavy-haired princess couldn't help but feel unease about this. She hoped that her little trick didn't end up leaving him stranded in the garden.
"Haruka!" Neptune shouted, "Are you there?"
"Haruka!" She shouted again.
The only responses she could hear were the rustling wind and her own echo created by the high hedges.
Neptune had no choice but to move on with her plans.
Two troops landed Miranda Castle, one at the north tower and the other one at the south tower. Neptune watched them closely on her Mirror. The enemies seem to be a bit surprised that there were no guards at all on either tower, and comfortably marched down towards the palace. Soon, two more troops landed on the east and west terrace respectively.
After the Uranian admiral confirmed that everyone made it safely to Cordelia Naval Station, Neptune shut off her communicator and went for the summit.
Charon Castle
Charon Castle was a quite mysterious place. It was a minimally decorated castle. Besides Pluto's residence and a garden, every other facility and complex in the castle was designed and constructed to support Pluto's research studies. There were testing laboratories to serve different experimental purposes, and most of her staffs in the castle were scientists and lab technicians.
Even the garden next to her residence only consisted of plants that were grown as part of Pluto's empirical research.
The two princesses sat by a small table in an unassuming dining room.
Observing the surrounding, Uranus could tell that Pluto rarely entertained the idea of having guests over, let alone hosting a tea party. The blonde princess was certain that this invitation was something more than an appreciation of her help. She stayed quiet and courteous, waiting to hear what Pluto had to say.
Pluto poured out bright green tea from her teapot into a delicate cup, and handed it over to Uranus. The blonde princess took a sip of the tea.
"How is it?" Pluto asked as she poured herself a cup as well.
"It's a bit sweet," Uranus replied, "sweeter than the teas I have on my planet."
A sad smile appeared on Pluto's face. It made Uranus wonder if she should have answered it differently.
"I guess that's a silver lining for being so far away," said Pluto.
As Uranus looked at her with a confused facial expression, Pluto went on to explain. She took a breath that was borderline deep, and said calmly, "Inadequate exposure to sunlight actually prevents the formation of bitter substance in tea leaves, so the tea ends up tasting a bit sweet instead."
Uranus looked at the phthalo-green haired princess with nothing but sympathy in her marine blue eyes. The relaxed expression on Pluto's face couldn't hide the slight hint of melancholy, and only way to mask it was probably her warm cardinal red eyes. Being so far away in the solar system and assigned to such critical task, she couldn't imagine how much loneliness and forlorn Pluto had to endure in order to make her so stoical and carry on with her destined responsibilities.
"No need to feel sorry for me, Uranus," Pluto said. "It might be hard to grasp, but I do enjoy my solitude. I have devoted most of my time to research and I'm perfectly content with it."
"I can relate," Uranus said, nodding knowingly. She was not as introverted as Pluto but she certainly enjoyed some of the benefits from being so much farther away from other planets.
"No, Uranus. You're different," Pluto said.
"As in what way?"
The Phthalo green-haired princess sighed slightly.
"You're not supposed to be alone, Uranus. You are destined to have a partner," Pluto said. She then continued in a concerning tone, "I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I'm sure the Queen had her reasons when she made you and Neptune senshi partners. You know what I mean."
"I know," Uranus answered.
"Maybe it's time I also tell you about the mystical power of our talismans."
Uranus was surprised to learn about the ultimate power of their combined talismans. Pluto also indicated that the talismans were capable of much more, especially for the Space Sword and the Deep Aqua Mirror, as the combined could unleash more hidden power which even Pluto did not know the potential capability to its full extent. She suggested that only through partnership, they would be able to find out on their own.
"Thank you Pluto," Uranus said, "With that said, I should probably get going soon. Neptune is still there and I don't want to keep her waiting for too long."
To be continued.
Note: I realized that Pluto's favorite food/drink is actually green tea, so I guess it worked out well since quality green tea had to be "shade-grown" for about 20 days before harvesting. I know I'm a nerd for looking up stuff like this for the story.