Authors note: Thanks for all of the great reviews! Hope you all like this chapter. There are a few twists coming up in the next few chapters. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I only own the story, not Sailor Moon.
Chapter 24
Katri walked down the hall, listening to for any indication that anyone else was awake. She opened one of the many secret panels that led to the hidden room in the mansion and closed it silently behind her. She walked down the passageway in the darkness, until she entered the well lit room full of security monitors and a long table. She immediately knew she wasn't alone.
"How long have you been waiting?" Katri called out as she looked into the shadows of one corner.
"Not long." Setsuna walked into the light and greeted her warmly. "It looks like everything went according to plan without any problems."
"It would seem so." Katri looked at her, her own eyes showing just how worried she was. "Did you find anything out?"
"I did. And it is a lot worse than we thought it was." Setsuna replied calmly.
"Who is it this time? We know Akusai is in on it, but what is her role exactly?"
"That's where things get complicated. She is involved in this, but the problem comes to the fact that not even the fates of time can tell us which enemy we are about to face. And to make the matter worse, it could potentially be one of two people and neither one will be easy to defeat."
"It's that bad then. Which two enemies are the possibilities?"
Setsuna looked at Katri, no emotion showing on the Senshi of Time's face. "Metalla and Chaos."
Serena sat in the dinning room the following morning alone. She hadn't seen anyone since waking up just moments ago. Today was her first official day as Neo-Queen Serenity. She was hoping that at least Darien would be joining her for breakfast, but apparently no one would be.
"Morning Serena." Lita greeted as she came from the kitchen with a plate of food for Serena. She sat the plate in front of Serena and handed her a black folder with her name written on the front. "Here is your schedule for today. Ami will be your advisor today and Rei will be your security. Darien is currently with Mina and they are meeting with local officials to get things off the ground on that front. Amy will be in about ten minutes to start going over what you will be doing today. Now, is there anything you would like for dinner tonight?"
Serena looked at her in surprise. "Wow, it seems like everything has been taken care of."
"Well, while you were having your lessons on being royalty we were having lessons on how to make your life easier by being on top of things before you get up in the morning. That way when you sit down for breakfast you can be briefed on the days schedule and any other news that may have occurred." Lita smiled at her friend. "You just enjoy your breakfast and Amy will be in shortly."
"Thanks Lita and I have no preference for dinner. What ever you make will be just fine." Serena looked at her as she headed back into the kitchen.
She looked down at the folder and opened it up to see a full schedule for the day. She could see that she was going to be dealing with things that she would rather not deal with, politics and politicians. She remembered dealing with the politics of the Silver Alliance Court and how much they drove her nuts. She remembered how her mother warned her of how the politicians would say things in such a manner that you would think they were agreeing with one another, only to find out they wanted things to go their way and that wasn't always what was in the best interest of the kingdom as a whole.
"Good Morning, Serena. Are you ready to get going?" Amy walked into the dinning room smiling.
Darien and Mina walked out of the city hall and smiled when they saw Serena and Amy waiting for them.
"I escaped from my duties to see if you two were done with your meetings." Serena smiled up at the two as they came down the stairs. "Well that and I wanted to have lunch at the arcade for old time's sake."
"What about security for you?" Darien asked in concern.
"That's why she dragged me along." Rei spoke up as she stepped up to the group. "The things we do to keep her happy."
"How did things go with the city officials?" Amy asked as the group started walking down the street.
"We won't know if they are going to accept the changes for a few days." Mina stated calmly.
"We spent all morning giving them a history lecture on the Moon Kingdom and everything that has happened since then. They asked us to come back in a few days to hear their decision." Darien continued to explain.
"I'm not surprised that things are going so slowly." Serena spoke up as they entered the arcade.
Rei and Darien looked at her in shock. Before they could say anything Andrew came out from the back room.
"Hey, Darien! I haven't seen you lately. Where've you been?" Andrew greeted as he recognized the customers. "Hi Mina, Amy. Who are these two lovely ladies?"
Serena laughed as she realized that he didn't recognize her. "It's me Andrew."
Andrew looked at the other women in shock. "Serena, or should I say Neo-Queen Serenity it's an honor."
Serena looked saddened as she realized that Katri had fully intended for no one outside of the Senshi to recognize her other than being Neo-Queen Serenity. "I think I need to head back to get some work done. Amy if you could get me some take out that would be great."
She turned and headed out of the Arcade towards the park. All she knew was that she wanted to be alone for the last time. She now fully realized what it meant to be Neo-Queen Serenity. It meant that she was no longer Serena.
"Hey Sere, mind if I join you?" Darien spoke up from behind her. "You know you really shouldn't be alone any more."
"But that's just it, Darien. I am alone. Those who knew me just as Serena don't remember me. I am not just Serena any more." Serena turned around to face him.
Darien was surprised to see tears streaming down her face. "Sere, you are never alone." He wiped the tears from her face. "Even if no one outside of the Senshi remembers you as Serena, we do. And it was Serena that I fell in love with and hurt more times than I can count, not Neo-Queen Serenity."
Serena looked at him in surprise. "But now all I am is Neo-Queen Serenity."
"Not to us. To the girls and I you are still Serena. We have seen you go from being the clumsy leader of the Sailor Senshi to a strong woman and now the new queen of the universe." Darien led her to a bench and the two sat down. "I have an idea for you. How about when it's just us I still call you Serena or Sere."
"I would like that."
"Then that's what I'll do." Darien stood up and held out a hand to her. "Come on, I'm sure Amy has lunch back at the mansion for us."
Serena took his hand and smiled. "Thank you Darien."
"For what?"
"For being my friend."
Katri opened up another book from the stack in front of her and began to read:
"In the days before the Moon Kingdom was established she ruled the universe with callousness and destruction. It was through the courage of one young queen and the Silver Imperial Crystal that she was brought down. The young queen encased the woman in crystal and hid her away so that no one would find her. Peace was established and thus began the Silver Millennium. But if not for those few who still wanted power then peace would have continued….."
Katri looked up as Setsuna entered the room and glared at the woman. "How long have you known?"
Setsuna looked at her sorrowfully. "Since things started going wrong, I've had my suspicions. But even this time I don't know everything. If I did, I wouldn't be able to tell you."
"But you could have warned us, or at least informed me of getting prepared. Just like you did back during the Moon Kingdom days, you made sure that the records were taken out of the palace and hidden away so that they would be preserved."
"Times have changed Katri. I only work for our new queen now." Setsuna walked out of the room leaving Katri to her self.
Katri sat back down and started to read once more. Some how she just knew that what was happening was linked to things that started happening just prior to the Moon Kingdoms destruction.
'The queen entrusted the known location of the crystal prison to no one. She felt that if it was discovered by those who were still loyal to the evil and vile woman that only destruction and pain would follow. Centuries went by and it seemed that all had forgotten about the crystal prison, or so the new queen had thought. Queen Serenity was just a young woman when she ascended to the throne.
'Little did Serenity know, those who were still loyal to the evil one in the crystal had spent those peaceful centuries searching for the crystal prison and devising a plan to get her out and back in power. The queen of the Silver Millennium was warned of the things that were going on, but was powerless to discover the truth of those rumors. So she sent her trusted Senshi to discover the truth about those rumors. Sadly the moon was destroyed by those who felt the queen didn't deserve such power and wanted the evil one in power. As they celebrated their victory they rejoiced in her name. The name of the evil one…..'
Katri looked up in shock as she read the last passage. "Oh no, they found her. That's what has been happening. They found her, the evil one. They found her crystal prison."
Setsuna walked away from the door where she had been listening to Katri and opened up the time gates. "It's begun."