Keep Her Safe Chapter Five
Lady Prin
Disclaimer Applies.
Last time we left our princess and her protector chained in the cargo hold of a slave ship heading for Japan.
We go back to them now...
Serena and Mina were sitting on the floor of the rocking ship, their hands held above their heads by the chains on their wrists.
Serena leaned her back against the wall. She was looking a bit green.
"I think I'm going to be sea sick." She muttered, her eyes closed.
"We don't have time for that right now." Mina whispered to her. "We need to go over the plan."
The plan was something that Ikoku, Kenji, Mina, & Rei had come up with just in case Serena was kidnapped by human beings.
"First, what is your name?" Mina asked Serena.
"Uh... Rena?" Serena asked, looking at Mina.
"Yes. My name shall be Mani. Now, where do you come from?"
Serena thought hard, but couldn't remember.
"China." Mina said. "Not England."
"China." Serena repeated, nodding.
"Now, what do you know of Japan?" Mina asked.
"Uh, heh heh!" Serena laughed nervously.
"You slept through that class too, I see." Mina said looking at her with an exasperated expression.
"I have a good reason for sleeping through classes!" Serena said with immense dignity.
"That being..." Mina asked.
Serena blinked at her, but kept silent.
Mina raised an eyebrow, but let it pass.
"Okay, history lesson that is essential to survival. Listen up. Japan is considered by some to be the center of the world. The kingdom that began all other kingdoms. The royal family of the Earth lives there."
"The Prince is named Prince Endymion!" Serena interrupted.
"Glad to see you retained something!" Mina praised. "Yes. They rank higher than all the other kings and queens. In fact they assigned the other king and queens, like your parents, to their positions. They have the power to over rule any command that the others make."
Mina took a big breath.
"Unlike England, slavery is legal. Your mother is trying to rally enough high ranking people behind her to appeal to the high royals to stop slavery in Japan and other countries. So far it's still a work in progress. We'll probably be taken to a market and made to stand there so people can look us over. We'll go to the highest bidder." Here Mina paused. "We may go to different owners..." She finished.
Serena looked at her with wide eyes.
"What? You mean we'll be separated?! That can't happen!!!" It took all her strength not to yell it, but she didn't even try to stop her tears.
Mina looked at her sympathetically.
"Listen, it'll be alright. Stick with the plan. We'll try to get away from our owners, and meet at a designated area. Like in front of the palace. Then we'll try to send a message to Rei. We'll send it to the mail house in the village. When she finds out we've been kidnapped, she'll start checking her mail there. Remember to use her other name."
"Fireia." (said Fire-e-a) Serena muttered, eyes downcast.
"Yes." Mina said softly. "You're going to have to let your hair down. Odango's are not a very popular hair style at the moment. You'll stand out."
Serena stood up and finished taking her hair all the way down. She stuck the last two hairpins in her mouth, and gave a hairpin to Mina who took it in her mouth.
Serena than put her hairpin in Mina's pocket, and Mina put hers in Serena's.
Then a few minutes of silence passed.
"Don't you pay attention to any of your classes?" Mina asked light heartedly. Trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah. Cooking." Serena said quietly.
Mina looked at her in shock.
"You pay attention in cooking?! And still you managed to blow up the kitchen!"
"That was only the first time!" Serena said. "I didn't blow it up the second time!"
"No...You made tuna noodle surprise, and the surprise was it glowed in the dark and melted the silverware, the mettle, the porcelain, and went right through the floor. All thirty-two floors." Mina said.
Serena chuckled slightly.
The sky was cloudless, and the breeze blew salty air against the walls of the palace in England.
Rei was sitting on the railing of Serena's balcony, the long skirt of her red dress with gold trim was tucked under her, as she stared out at the sea.
Her long black hair blew around her, as she looked down and opened her hand.
In it lay the ring that one of the slave girls had given to Ikoku after they had told the King, Queen, and Rei what had happened so far that they knew.
Ikuko and Kenji had immediately sent a unit of guards to make sure the Princess and Mina were safe.
They had come back to report that they couldn't find them anywhere in the village.
Rei had sent a message via the kitchen fire to her mother who was staying in the moon palace.
Then she had gone to the village mail house to see if Serena or Mina had tried to contact her. Nothing.
She had come back to the palace, but no message had returned from her mother.
She was now waiting for something, anything, to happen. For there was nothing more she could do, without drawing attention to herself.
Earlier, in the moon palace, in a room set apart from the others, Fireia, Queen of Mars, Sailor Mars, and mother of Rei, sat in front of the Martian fire doing her regular meditations.
She had made a regular routine of checking in on the princess. She tried to do that now. But she saw nothing.
She tried a few more times before a message from Rei came through.
The princess had been kidnapped. Mina was missing too. Awaiting instructions.
Fireia stood up abruptly, and swept from the room.
She found her Queen sitting in the courtyard, surrounded by red, purple, blue, white, and pink flowers from all the planets. Her white dress spread out from her made her look like a flower in bloom as well. Two cats were sitting with her. One was a black female with red eyes. The other was a white male with blue eyes. Both had a gold crescent moon on their foreheads.
Fireia knew them to be Luna and Artemis. Counselors of the Queen. Artemis was also the protector and guardian for the Sailor Scout of Venus.
As Fireia approached the Queen, the Queen seemed to sense her presence.
She half turned at the waist and Fireia stopped and half bowed.
"My lady, some thing's wrong." Fireia said quietly.
"I know." The Queen softly answered. She turned back, and bowed her head. "My daughter is missing. As is Elegance's."
Elegance, Sailor Venus, and Queen of Venus. Mina's mother. Also known as Elle.
Fireia didn't bother to ask how she knew.
"What are your instructions, my lady?" She asked.
The Queen was silent for a few minutes.
"I have been conferring with Luna and Artemis. They seem to think that Ami is still alive, and that they may have found her."
"Really? Wateria's child?" Fireia asked. "I haven't been able to find Ami through the fire."
"That's because something blocks your vision. Just like with Serena and Mina." The Queen explained. "Using technology developed on Mercury, Luna and Artemis think that they have tracked her to Earth. To the first kingdom, Japan. They can't find Lita, and they think it'll take too much precious time to track Serena and Mina. The search for them must be done physically."
The Queen sighed, and stood up, head stilled bowed, hands in the prayer position.
"I have decided to send Artemis to Rei with a message, and to help her. I have sent Pluto to retrieve Elle and bring her here. And I will send Luna to find Ami. Artemis and Luna are sure that they can communicate by means that cannot be interfered with or listened in upon by the Negeverse."
Then the Queen's head jerked up and her eyes widened in surprise. She gasped.
Then her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed.
The last thing she heard was Fireia, Luna and Artemis's voices calling her name in fear.
Pluto stepped out of the portal to stand on Venus. Only there wasn't much of Venus left to stand on.
The buildings were in ruins, fire raged everywhere, and there was no sign of life on Venus.
Pluto looked out onto the scene layed out before her, with dismay.
She called out to Elle, both in mind and mouth.
The weak answer came by mind.
Pluto teleported over to Elle, to find her pinned beneath a pile of rubble.
Her golden hair spread out like a fan on the sands of Venus, and her blood flowed from many wounds to reunite with the planet of which her life was made.
The spark of life that once lighted her blue eyes, was fading. And the breath of life was weak.
Pluto knelt beside her.
"Oh, Elegance." She whispered, looking into Elle's blue eyes with her own pained green ones.
"She destroyed my home." Elle gasped. "Now there is only Mars, Earth, and the Moon."
Her eyes closed.
"The Queen knows. She feels my pain. I'm sorry, my friend. It shouldn't have ended this way. May the good win over evil. Life to the Serenity's, death to Baryl..."
As she muttered her last words, the sun started to set.
The sky glowed with deep orange and reds. Their light landed on Elegance and the Queen and Sailor Scout of Beauty, looked more beautiful in death than she ever looked in life. Though Pluto knew that her looks could never match the beauty of the heart that once lived within.
Then in a brilliant flash of oranges and reds, the Queen of Venus vanished.
Queen Serenity came to just as Pluto stepped through the portal into the courtyard.
They looked at each other, neither needed to say anything.
But Serenity did, for the other's sake.
"Elle is dead."
After a shocked silence, Fireia spoke up.
"Our forces dwindle. We need to find the princess. In two days she will turn fourteen."
Queen Serenity stood up uncertainly.
"Pluto, go get Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn and bring them here. Artemis, Luna, go!" She commanded.
All three bowed, and were gone in three flashes of light.
Rei was still sitting on the balcony, tears silently flowing down her cheeks.
"My lady." A voice spoke from behind her.
She turned slightly, but saw no one.
"Down here."
She looked down and saw a white cat with blue eyes and a crescent moon on it's forehead.
"Please don't cry. I'm here to help you. The Queen of the Moon sent me. My name is Artemis."
Luna crouched on the tin roof of a building, somewhere in Japan, looking out onto the other roofs in the dim light of the coming of dawn.
"Ami, ready or not, here I come!" She muttered.
And she started jumping from roof to roof, as the top of the sun crested the top of the roofs and illuminated her in it's light.