Part Two
Keisa was very much like her mother in one way: she had arrogance and pride due to her station and ability. However, Sun Queen Gouya had done for kingdom what Serenity had done so many times for Earth. She was a skilled warrior and a respected leader, and her arrogance was tempered by her sharp head more often than not. Keisa had lived in the Royal Wing her whole life. She had been ignored by her own mother and been left uneducated and wild, yet she had also been repeatedly told of the greatness of her kingdom and station. The princess outwardly considered herself a beautiful and talented woman, even though she'd had very little education beyond a basic grasp of the Sun's history and fluency in Galaxian.
Her brother, on the other hand, was focused entirely on rebellion. He resented his entrapment in the Royal Wing and constantly was reading books on war and fighting, as well as trying to learn to fight. The culture of the Sun was one of a giant army; everyone contributed to the military. If you were a cook, your dishes could be made on the march and your cutting knives doubled as throwing knives. If you were a tailor, you would make durable and comfortable uniforms, and the thread you sewed with doubled as a lasso. To be the heir to the throne and have no prowess was humiliating for Mousa, but no amount of pleading would keep Gouya from keeping her children where they were.
Mousa and Keisa fought constantly; they only worked together when they were trying to torment Mamoru. Unfortunately for them, he was nothing like the stern crones and gentle maids who'd been watching them before-Mamoru had already had the misfortune of raising a willful little girl for nine hundred years, during which she steadfastly refused to listen to him. Neither Keisa nor Mousa could outdo the pink-haired girl who had nearly destroyed the world single-handedly.
While Mousa was suspicious of Mamoru and his real motives, Keisa had immediately began giving him orders in her best 'princess' manner. At first she had merely made him clean and do other menial work, but after she'd discovered he was from Earth, she'd become hungry for information. She knew very little of other planets, since her knowledge was from the biased tongue of her mother, and she was fascinated by the planet said to be ruled by an all-powerful goddess of the moon.
"Is she really as beautiful as they say?" Keisa asked as she flounced up and down the hall. She was practicing her walk, but the effect was ruined by the ill-fitting set of robes she was wearing. "Neo Queen Serenity, I mean. She's supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the Solar System."
"She is." Mamoru assured her. "She's lovely." Serenity's face came unbidden to his mind, her eyes sparkling with delight and her crescent mark shining. He missed her, and the ache of their separation had not faded, even though he'd been here two months.
"How could you know? You're only a commoner." A commoner for a Solarian was someone who did not directly contribute to the military success of the Empire. For example, artists, and musicians, as well as the rare few who were pacifists. Commoners also included those too weak to fight or those who failed to master the art of battle. According to that definition, most of Crystal Tokyo's population was commoners. It was a gross insult to be one in Solarian society; the only worse was to be a coward.
"The Neo Queen rarely emerges from her castle, it's true. But she makes addresses to the city, and she comes out onto her balcony in person on special occasions. Everyone has the chance to see her then."
"I heard from Lord Sarad about the Crystal Kingdom. He comes to visit me in secret sometimes. I think he's in love with me. He told me that there's a Neo-Princess in Crystal Tokyo as well, but she's not as refined as I am. He found it all out from one of the spies on reconnaissance. He also thinks I sound beautiful when I speak Galaxian."
"Lord Sarad just wants you to convince Mother to promote him." Mousa interrupted in Solarian. He was sitting up against the wall, reading a book written in Solarian. Mamoru had still not been able to access the library in the castle, as Mousa snuck off on his own to retrieve books and always timed his escape to coincide with Keisa's demands. "If Mother wanted you married, she wouldn't be keeping us a secret in the Royal Wing with only two guards and a nursemaid."
"We're secret because we're protected." Keisa switched into Solarian abruptly. "Mother must love us! We're the only ones with her royal blood!"
Mousa answered in the same language. "Oh, please! She's ashamed of us! We were born to some foreigner who was passing baby, rather than a real Solarian warrior!"
Keisa froze in place, her hand gripping the loose fabric of her too-big robes. Beneath she was wearing the same tattered blue tunic as always, since her mother rarely paid enough attention to ensure her children were properly clothed and only left the children with one servant to tend to all their needs. She was suddenly all too aware of the fact that she looked like a farmer's daughter, playing dress up in a queen's clothes.
She was also painfully aware of the fact that her father, the one who by tradition choose the husband for his daughters, was unknown to her. The tradition had begun from the practice of lower-ranking soldiers being rewarded with better wives in correlation to their performances while training and fighting.
Furious, she turned on her heel and strode out down the hallway and back into her room. No doubt she would stay there until she was finished sulking. Mousa glared at Mamoru and spoke up again, this time in Galaxian.
"Keisa doesn't understand how to behave. She assumes people of lower birth just don't have ears. But if you breathe a word to anyone…"
"I'll keep your secrets." Mamoru replied evenly. He heard a bell sound in the distance. It was time for him to report to the interrogation area for his nightly memory viewing.
Memory viewing was a specialized technology of the Sun Empire that Mercury would have loved to lay hands on. It was unknown to Mamoru, although he made every attempt to figure it out whenever he had time to spare a thought for it. Every evening, he came down to the round room, surrounded y strange machinery, and lay don on something not unlike the psychologist couches of old. There was a band that fit over his head, and then, with concentration, he could summon up a memory. The memory would be processed by a combination of magic and supercomputers, then be displayed on the large screen set against one wall.
Gouya was waiting for him as usual. She had hoped that with the help of the memory viewer, she would be able to recover the knowledge Ichi wanted easily. However, she had not counted on the Neo King possessing a photographic memory and a sense of humor. Within the last two months, she'd viewed an entire textbook on the subject of physics, from Mamoru's high school days. He could remember every page and took pleasure in lingering on the details, on every note he'd taken.
He lay down and fastened the band over his hand, concentrating on the biology textbook he'd used to study for his high school entrance exams. He began with the title page, focusing on every detail. Gouya glared at the page; while the memory viewer translated everything into Galaxian, the subject was still boring and out of date.
"I would have thought the husband of the great Neo Queen Serenity would be more…" Gouya paused, looking for the words. Mamoru looked amused.
"People often find I don't live up to my reputation."
"It doesn't bother you?"
"Should it?" Mamoru asked. "I prefer to live to up to my standards, not someone else's."
Gouya glanced up at the screen, which was showing a diagram of a cell. She imagined Neo Queen Serenity for a moment, and realized she'd expected the Neo Queen's husband to resemble his spouse. King Endymion was polite, and diplomatic, and self-sacrificing, just as Serenity supposedly was, but he was also surprisingly calm about his situation. It made her want to suspect him of something.
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Serenity walked through the walled, royal gardens, her crystal in hand. She was scanning the Earth for danger, a weekly task that she normally performed with her husband's help, and also brooding on the strange portents Mars kept seeing. They seemed to be memories, of their awakening after their rebirth, but they also showed a dark castle that none of them recognized.
Evil was circling just out of their reach, and it was infuriating. The Inner Senshi were on edge, and they took out their restlessness in different ways. Mercury began running scenario after scenario through her computer, spending ridiculous amounts of time locked into the control room. Mars meditated until she was stiff, then yelled at her apprentices. Venus bit her nails and experimented with hair styles and hummed constantly. She also took on extra work. Jupiter baked a cake and gave it to Serenity, then destroyed a training dummy with her bare hands.
Serenity dug her fingers into her palms and presented a tranquil demeanor to everyone around her. She knew that if something was coming, she'd be the first to panic, so it was important that everyone else stay as calm as possible. Finishing her scan, and detecting nothing, she let the crystal be absorbed into her body again and headed back towards the castle.
"Protected by the Planet of the Sea, the Senshi of the Depths, Sailor Neptune!"
"Protected by the Planet of the Heavens, the Senshi of the Skies, Sailor Uranus!"
"Protected by the Planet of Time and Space, the Senshi of the Underworld and the Guardian of Time, Sailor Pluto!"
"Protected by the Planet of Destruction, the Senshi of Silence, Sailor Saturn!"
The four Outer Senshi stood perched on the wall surrounding the garden, talismans in hand. Serenity smiled and ran back towards them, arms held out. She could feel the auras of their Sailor Crystals, gone for so long.
"Where have you been?" The Queen sniffled into Uranus's shoulder. "I haven't seen you two since the Calamity! And no one told me Pluto had been reborn! And Hotaru was in France-we only ever found dust there!"
"We were needed." Neptune explained. "Pluto was in the Time Gate, as you know. We three were elsewhere."
"But why?" Usagi asked. "You could have written!"
"You yourself said that the Outer Senshi weren't in Crystal Tokyo. We never met Small Lady, which meant we had to go away until she met us in the past." Uranus said pointedly. "So Setsuna sent us to another galaxy with a Space Key to get us back."
"Another galaxy?" Serenity asked. "So far away?"
"We've seen many strange and wondrous things. We've brought you some gifts, too." Neptune smiled. "Did you think we would never come back?"
"I missed you all." Usagi muttered, hugging them all in turn. "Ah, I have to throw a ball now! To celebrate."
"Hey, don't get your hopes up." Uranus warned. "I don't think we're staying. Pluto says she needs to get back into the Time Gate, and Neptune and I…well…"
"You don't think you can stand living in a peaceful city, in a peaceful world." Serenity smiled sadly. "Well, you've come at the right time. Rei keeps seeing things in the fire, and the Sun Queen's taken Endymion away. We could use a hand."
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After everyone had been reunited, the Senshi and their Queen gathered in the control room. Ami showed the Outers the scans she had run.
"There's nothing my machines can detect." Ami said. "Usagi's not picking anything up either. But we can all feel evil closing in."
"The seas are restless." Michiru agreed. She drew her mirror and stared into it, calling up an image of what awaited them. A pair of eyes, guileless and beige, appeared for an instant. "But the enemy conceals himself well."
"We'll find out soon enough." Rei said. "They're coming." She frowned, resting her hand on Usagi's shoulder.
"Maybe the festival?" Minako suggested. "The anniversary of the founding of the city is in four months time. Most of the aliens from other planets will arrive within a week's time. All the foreign acts start screening next week, after we finish checking the native ones. It would be an easy way to get in."
"Like the Dead Moon Circus." Ami agreed. "Yes, I can look at the list of accepted names, although whoever it is must be using an alias or be an unknown. Otherwise the computers would have flagged them."
"Hm." Usagi cocked her head ti the side, thinking. "I'd hoped that by now…"
"The light draws the darkness." Setsuna came through the door, her staff in hand. She was dressed in slacks and a blouse, and seeing their surprise, she sat delicately beside Michiru. "The Time Gate is gone. Our portal into the fourth dimension no longer exists, which means any enemy attempting to cross through time would have to create their own rift. Certainly I would detect them."
"Oh, but then you can stay with us." Usagi said, relieved. She had always felt guilty about knowing that Setsuna would be shut up in the Gate while Usagi went free. "Setsuna, when were you reborn?"
"My Pluto Crystal found its way to another time rift elsewhere. The powers there revived me, and I was able to return." She explained. "But it is of no consequence. Danger is at hand."
"Indeed." Rei murmured. "Unfortunately, we are at a loss. As usual."
"My sight into the future is limited for now." Setsuna said apologetically. "It might be of more use to try and discover what our enemy actually wants."
"I'd put down money on it being the Silver Imperial Crystal." Haruka said. "It's always the crystal."
"Either that or they've fallen madly in love with Usagi." Minako added. "Like Diamond. And maybe they convinced the Sun Queen to steal Endymion away?"
"The King isn't here?" Setsuna asked. Usagi explained the Queen's threat and the contract.
"The Sun Queen was cold, but she wasn't evil. She can't be behind this." The Neo Queen protested. "She was honorable…"
"Only you could try and like the woman who made off with your husband." Makoto sighed. She leaned back against the console behind her. "She may or may not be involved. Let's not make any judgments until we've investigated."
"First, we should divide up guard duty on Usagi. One of us should try and watch her at all times, especially at night." Ami said. "Now that the Outers are here, we can take shorter shifts."
"I'll take tonight's watch." Hotaru spoke for the first time. "If Usagi doesn't mind?"
"We'll take shifts." Rei interrupted. "Hotaru can take a few hours. I'll take a few, too. That way we'll be rested if we have to fight suddenly."
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They were the best, well-trained men who made their living by doing illegal, cruel, and destructive things for the sake of money. They had no names, and no families, only their weapons and their skills.
There were three of them, sneaking in utter silence along the edges of the Crystal Palace. Their goal was the balcony extending from the royal bedroom. It was not common knowledge that the balcony was actually a decoy for formal occasions, while the real balcony was located on another tower, hidden behind the best protective concealments the Inner Senshi were capable of.
However, the men creeping through the night were well-equipped, and they made it into the palace without any problems. They walked softly through the halls, using a negative aura displacer to hide their presences, staying near the walls. Soon they were outside the real royal bedroom.
The taller of the men pushed open the door, passing the sleeping girl who sat by the doorway. He walked, followed by his partner, towards the bed. The queen lay there, serene as ever, fast asleep. The shorter man drew a vial of sedative and a long needle, intending to drug her. He leaned forward.
Serenity's hand twitched. Light flared up in the room, and suddenly the taller man was encased in crystal, while the shorter was standing very still due to the Silence Glaive pressed against his throat. Saturn's eyes were narrowed with anger as she held her weapon to his neck.
"My queen." The Senshi of Destruction said formally. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." Serenity trapped the other man in crystal as well, and motioned for Saturn to step away. "But how did they get in here?" There were numerous protections on the palace; for anyone to enter, undetected, was quite a feat.
"Ami decided it would be better if we let them wander-we hoped they'd reveal something while wandering." Saturn explained coolly. "So we let them get in here."
"Why?" Serenity wasn't addressing her Senshi; she was looking at the two men she had trapped. "You wanted me?"
The two men merely stared. They were well trained, too well trained to say a word. But they couldn't mask their true hearts form Serenity's gaze, and seeing her benevolent eyes and her calm, they wondered about the mission they were undertaking. The Neo Queen often had that effect on people.
"Saturn. Please have Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune escort these men off the planet, if you don't mind." She paused. "You can always change your mind, if you decide something else is right. You can always make a choice. And you can always turn back, no matter how far into the dark you go."
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Mamoru was standing outside the door, waiting for Keisa's sobbing to subside. She had returned form a secret rendezvous with the notorious Lord Sarad and immediately shut herself in hr room, a sure sign that she had been insulted or offended in some way. He could recall Chibiusa's brief, if tumultuous, bout of adolescence; she'd gone form nine to nineteen in one year and it had been the most difficult year of his life. Now she was traveling the galaxy, along with her new Senshi.
Chibiusa had repeatedly had fits when Helios referred to her as his 'little maiden'. She had steadfastly refused to be called Small Lady by anyone, as she claimed that she was no longer small, and 'Lady' was stuffy. Instead, she'd reverted to using her adopted name since 'Usagi' was confusing.
Jerking himself out of his wanderings in the past, he found that the sounds of crying had quieted. He unbolted and pushed open the heavy door, and saw Keisa lying messily across her bed.
"Are you alright?"
"Go away." Keisa snapped in her best royal tone. Her voice cracked, ruining the effect.
"Did he say something to you?" Mamoru asked shrewdly.
"…he called me a child." Keisa whispered. "A child! I'm a woman!"
"You're only fourteen, your highness."
"How will I ever get him to propose now? I'll never get out of here if I don't marry. Never." Keisa had obviously been holding in her feelings for a long time, and Mamoru suspected he just happened to be around to listen at the right moment. "I'm a princess of the Sun Empire. I'm one of the highest women in the land. And yet I have to stay here with two servants, guards, and my brother for company when I should have a whole army trying to win my hand. I should have lots of dresses and armor and be able to go to festivals." Keisa sniffed. "And instead…I don't even have a father to marry me off. And no skill in arms, either. My only chance is to get married to a strong warrior."
"Have you talked to your mother about all this?"
"Mother! Mother never listens. I don't think she understands me at all!"
Mamoru fought the urge to smile. The mental image of Usagi and Chibiusa, a thousand or so years ago, denying any relation in the same voice with the same hairstyle and same face, reminded him of Keisa. She seemed to have the Sun Queen's pride.
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