Chapter twenty-nine
LadyPrin
Disclaimer Applies.
Two Years Later
"Serena!!! Serena!!! Happy sixteenth birthday!!!" Ami, Mina, Rei, and Lita cried as they raced into Serena's bedroom, waking her up as they bounced up and down on her bed.
They all laughed until the bed quit moving.
"You're to stay up here for most of the day!!! They're getting your party ready for you downstairs!" Mina cried.
"And you wouldn't want to ruin it now would you?" Rei asked with mocking firmness.
Serena laughed some more.
"No I wouldn't!" She answered.
"So, when's Endymion arriving?" Lita asked.
All four girls leaned forward intently waiting for Serena to reply.
"You mean when is Endymion's generals arriving." Serena corrected them with a smile.
"Are we that transparent?" Ami asked blushing.
"Oh yes you are!" Serena replied. "Our connection has deepened these last two years, so I know exactly how you feel when you're with your lovers, and I know exactly how you feel when you're just thinking about them. You all feel the same way I do when I'm with or thinking about Endymion so it is kind of hard to block out such strong emotions."
"So when are they coming?" Lita asked.
"Well, the generals should be arriving an hour or so before the party." Serena answered. "Endymion, may not be able to make it to the party."
"What? Why not?" The girls cried in union.
"He came to me last night, and talked to me while standing under my balcony." Serena explained. "He said that there's been information gathered that Queen Beryl's on the move again, gathering armies and the like. He said that he might not make it to the party because he has to meet with his informant and parents and try to make plans for a counterattack before Beryl gets too strong. But he promised that he'd make it here tomorrow for our wedding."
Serena paused a moment as she remember his exact words.
'Nothing, not even Beryl herself can stop me from making you my wife.'
"Well, he better be or he'll have us to make him sorry!" Rei vowed, but it was an empty vow.
They all knew that Endymion would come; he always kept his promises.
An Hour And A Half Before The Party
On Earth, In The Study Of The Palace Of The Prince Of The Earth
"So Endymion was able to make the meeting shorter than it was thought able to be huh?" Nephrite asked as he practiced a couple kicking movements in the air.
"Yup!" Jedite answered. "He's on his way up to the Princess's Birthday Party. We should be going too, or we'll be late!"
"What are you doing Jed?" Kunzite asked.
"I'm making roses out of fire!" Jedite explained. "It's the challenge Rei and I had for each other this week. To make flowers out of fire. Only I'm going one step further. I'm going to make her an everlasting fire rose! What are you giving Mina this time?"
Kunzite never went up to see Mina without bringing her a gift or three.
Kunzite smiled as he brought out an ornate wooden box that had the symbol of Mina's home planet carved into the lid.
He opened it and showed the contents to all the other three generals in the room.
"A delicately carved mirror, a delicately carved comb, a delicately carved brush made with the finest softest bristles in the world, and a delicate porcelain pink flower hair clip. Nothing's too good for the Goddess of Love herself!" Kunzite declared.
Jedite, Zoisite, and Nephrite all smiled.
"I'm bringing Ami this book that I told her about last week. It's so rare that she doesn't even have a copy of it on her computer!" Zoisite exclaimed.
"Something Ami doesn't know, now that's cool!" Jedite stated. "Hey, Neph, what are you giving to Lita?"
"Oh, that!" Nephrite stopped kicking the air and leaned down behind a table. When he came back up he held a baby tree in a pot of dirt. "Lita loves plants of all kinds, so I'm giving her a weeping willow plant to take care of! I know of the perfect place it can go in her garden! She'll love it!"
"I'm sure they'll love everything!" Zoisite assured them. "Hey, Jed, can you steady the flame on this candle? It keeps flickering and it's stopping me from getting this book wrapped."
"Sure, Zoi. There must be a leak of air in here somewhere." Jedite answered as he flicked his hand at the candle flame.
It steadied itself for a moment, and Zoisite was able finish wrapping the book.
He held it up triumphantly in the air to show the others that the wrapping paper looked like moving tides on a beach, but then the candle flame went out.
Jedite flicked his hand, and the flame ignited again, but went out just as abruptly.
"Jed, a shadow passed over that flame as it went out." Zoisite announced. "We're not alone in here."
All four generals sat their things down, and stared around intently.
Nothing moved.
Jedite brought the candle flame back into existence, and they waited.
But this time the shadow did not go for the candle flame.
Four shadows descended upon the four generals all at once, and the candle was knocked from the table.
Its warm flame went out in a wisp of smoke as it hit the cold stones of the floor.
Somewhere In Time And Space At The Time Gate
"Pluto, we're going to be late, hurry up!!!" Saturn cried as she jumped up and down with barely contained excitement.
"I'm trying to, if you'd just hold still for one minute! There!" Pluto exclaimed triumphantly as she managed to place the last clip in Saturn's shiny black hair.
"Can we go now? Can we?" Saturn asked anxiously.
"Yes!" Pluto said with a smile.
She was about to pick up her staff, when she felt a strange troubling sensation race down her spine.
"Saturn." Pluto muttered.
"I feel it." Saturn replied.
She no longer looked like a child ready for a party. She looked like a grown woman about to fight.
They looked around the Gate room, for anything suspicious. Though they found nothing, that feeling would just no go away.
"Saturn, I'll open the Gate to the moon for you. Go and warn Queen Serenity!" Pluto commanded.
"Right." Saturn agreed.
Pluto tapped her staff and the constantly moving symbols on the door finally stood still on the Moon Kingdom's coordinates.
That's when they struck.
"Plu—" Saturn cried as she swung her glaive at a dark shadow that attacked her.
She cut the monster in half, but the shadow being rejoined its pieces to itself and attacked again.
It flicked her long skirt over Saturn's head and in those precious moments when she couldn't see, it struck her down.
"SATURN!!!" Pluto cried as she attacked the monster with her staff.
She beat it back enough to be able to get to Saturn's side, but she knew that Saturn was already dead.
Pluto took Saturn's glaive from her still warm hand, and attacked the dozens of shadow beings that advanced upon her with it and her staff.
After a moment of futile fighting, she realized that the Gate was still open on the Moon. An invasion force could be sent to the unsuspecting Moon Kingdom.
Before Pluto could close the Gate, her staff was cut in two.
The Ornate Granite ball that controlled the Gate shattered into millions of tiny shards that disappeared in tiny flashes of light.
This sight that she had never thought she'd ever see distracted Pluto, and the enemy took advantage of it.
Queen Beryl struck her down herself.
As she fell to the floor beside Saturn's body, Beryl commanded her troops.
"Get ready. When I give the signal we move in." Beryl said. "Leave no survivors, but leave the Princess for me."
Time Of The Party
Moon Palace's Ballroom
Princess Serena greeted all of her guest with a warm smile and a gentle hug.
Everyone she knew was here.
Queen Ikoku and King Kenji going slightly gray, but still as strong as ever.
Their son Prince Sam, though everyone who knew him called him Sammy. At fourteen he looked very handsome and even more grown up than he had looked at twelve.
Andrew seemed to have gotten a promotion during the last two years, as he was now Commander Andrew. He arrived with his wife Rita, who was pregnant with their third child.
Even King Alan and his Queen Ann made it, though slightly late.
The party was going great, but the generals had still not arrived, and the girls were getting worried.
Princess Serena had danced a couple times already, when a man walked up to her and asked her for a dance.
He wore a black tuxedo with a white undershirt, a pair of white gloves, a sleek black top hat, and a long black cape. A thin white mask hid his eyes from her, but she felt that she knew him.
She accepted his hand and he whisked her onto the dance floor.
After a couple of twirls around the floor, she knew who he was.
"So, you could make it after all?" Serena asked quietly with a smile.
"I managed to slip away." Endymion replied with a smile of his own as he dipped her, and then twirled her around.
"So that's the reason for the mask." Serena stated.
"You could say that." Endymion chuckled.
As they danced Serena caught glimpses of the generals sliding up to their girls and then them all disappearing into the crowd in different directions.
To give them a little privacy, Serena blocked herself from them.
That turned out to be a deadly mistake.