Chapter Eighteen

Ten hours later, Sylvia was patrolling in the area with Serenade, as Skyhorse. Tatiana was also patrolling in the area. But she was doing so with Vladephrad, and not with Skyhorse, for that matter. Kiena and Mary were at their respective residences, and they were each with respective relatives of theirs in them. They hadn't yet been cleared to actively fight by Skyhorse, if such fights were avoidable by them both. So only Mir and Skyhorse were currently powered up and patrolling as Scouts in the area.

Isaiah was scoping out yet a third part of the area, all by himself. Skyhorse had asked him to try to find out where more future Scouts and their allies might be living in the area earlier that day. So Isaiah was beginning to search for such people and animals here, after Skyhorse had asked him to do so during a short meeting in the cavern. Kiena and Mary hadn't been able to attend that meeting, for the obvious reasons.

Around 2 in the afternoon, Isaiah spotted a dog scavenging elsewhere. And specifically near where Luna was currently napping. He was drawn to the location for some yet-unknown reason. Just before the dog was about to paw where Luna was, under some garbage in a trash can, he felt a somewhat strong sense of Moon-based energy. And it caused him to suddenly go into a dive, and head straight for the dog in question. Ten feet away and about six feet above and behind the dog, he felt his legs and talons outstretch fully. No more than twenty seconds later, they raked the dog's back and sides quite a bit.

The dog howled and barked in great pain, of course. He sought out his attacker, as Luna heard him, and fled for her life as quickly as she could. Isaiah fought the dog as best as he could while Luna fled the scene. By the time she was far enough away, Isaiah had marked up the dog considerably, while avoiding too-major injuries caused by the dog, mainly because he could fly, and the dog couldn't. He lost some feathers on his sides, mostly, and had a few claw marks on his chest and abdomen. But he'd seriously, if not mortally, injured the dog in question, just the same. Especially on the dog's back, sides, and throat. If the dog recovered, he most certainly would seek revenge on Isaiah now, for the obvious reasons. Isaiah soon began following Luna from afar, as best as he then could. He soon saw her heading somewhere quite close to Mir, and notified Mir of that fact as soon as he could do so well enough.

Mir went where Luna went, and found Luna semi-unconscious there. After she did, she soon took Luna somewhere she could get checked out and attended to as was then needed. In time, Luna was checked out and attended to as her situation then warranted. Mir paid for the needed veterinarian services. And she brought her to her residence for a while, when she got done patrolling here. She left Vladephrad there to watch over her for a while, as she was going to meet with Skyhorse and Isaiah again in the cavern.

Hours later, Tatiana returned to her residence with Sylvia and Isaiah. When she did, Vladephrad said, "Her name is Luna, you three. I learned it when she meowed in her sleep, as if she'd been talking to another sentient being of whatever sort. It seems she's searching for someone named 'Sailor Moon,' if I'm not mistaken."

"Did she say anything about what this Sailor Moon might look like?" asked Sylvia.

"No, I don't believe so. But it seems that there might be two Sailors by the names of 'Israel' and 'Judah' also joining our group soon enough. Neither of which she can identify well enough right now, by the way. She seems to think they might even go to DBJHS, as well, in fact. Though she's not really sure why, if she knows that well enough now in her life. She has Moon-based in her, for that matter." Sylvia began feeding Isaiah and Vladephrad, at Tatiana's request.

Tatiana asked, "Moon-based energy?"

"Yes, Tatiana," said Vladephrad, as he took a bit of bread Sylvia handed him now, and began to chew it a bit.

"Do you think you could track and sense such energy better from now on, then, Vladephrad and Isaiah?" asked Tatiana.

"Now that we know what to look for?" asked Isaiah. At her nod, Isaiah then looked at Vladephrad and studied his eyes. Vladephrad's eyes lit up, giving Isaiah all the information he'd need to answer Tatiana's question. He answered, seconds later, "I believe we can, Tatiana. Now that we know what to look for, we might be able to find Sailor Moon before our enemies do."

A little while later, then, Sylvia and Isaiah left Tatiana's place together. In time, they arrived back at Wakefield Castle, and Isaiah rested on a perch there for a while. Sylvia stayed near him, of course, as he did so.

As she stayed near him, Sylvia worked on one of her recent paintings just as quietly as she possibly could now. This was so as to make it much easier for him to rest and recuperate from his rather unexpected battle of earlier that day, in fact. When she felt she'd worked on that painting enough here, she set it aside, and worked on another project of hers, until about 5:15 or so in the afternoon. She had a brief meal with several of her relatives, and then left Wakefield Castle with Isaiah and some things of hers. She dropped Isaiah off at Kiena's, and decided to patrol again for a while. By 7, she finished patrolling, with no problems at all as she did so. From a pay phone, she called her family and told them she was going to Bethlehem for at least the current night. If not longer. They wished her well, and safe travels, of course, before she hung up on them.

Some length of time later, then, she was in an inn near The Church of the Nativity. For a little while, she patrolled the area as Skyhorse, without anyone recognizing her as such, for she'd covered her Scout uniform completely with tourist-like clothes. This, of course, was for all the obvious reasons here. Seeing, hearing, and detecting no trouble at all from anywhere at all, she eventually powered down again. But she still remained quite alert, just the same, in case her presence as Skyhorse was needed later, for any reason at all.

By 11, she was back in her room in the inn she'd checked into earlier. All of a sudden, some terrorists drove by, and they started shooting, heading towards The Church of the Nativity. Almost instantly, she grabbed her locket, called out her transformation phrase as quietly as possible, and powered up. Out the nearest window, she went, just as soon as she could do that safely enough. And she began searching for the terrorists in question here, not bothering to hide her uniform here and now.

She soon found them trying to break into The Church of the Nativity, where several tourists had then hid as soon as they'd heard the shooting going on. Among them were several women who were with child, in fact, at the present time. Skyhorse soon found a young man in the church's security force, after slipping in through a window. And they gave her whatever information they could about those who were attacking the church here.

Minutes later, she picked two girls out of the crowd of tourists and asked them, "Girls, do you want to try to help me out here until we can get some reinforcements here?" Near both girls she'd picked out were two lockets, two slings, two pouches of stones, a scabbard, and a sword.

"How so, Skyhorse?" asked one of them, who Sylvia later learned was named Naomi. Naomi Abraham, a fellow student of DBJHS, in fact. Sylvia probably had met her before in school, but didn't recognize her well enough at present, due to the fact that Naomi and her sister were both in tourist-style clothes now. Naomi's sister was the other girl near Skyhorse here, and her name was Joelle.

"Take these lockets, slings, stones, sword, and scabbard, and use them as you both might see fit," said Skyhorse, all of a sudden, when she spotted them all near both of those girls. The girls soon complied, and then set off for the nearest ladies' restroom in the church. Two or so minutes later, they returned, transformed into Scouts, and Skyhorse sent them to begin picking off terrorists as best as they then could. Naomi, as the new Sailor Israel, moved to the back of the church to aid defenders there. While Joelle, as the new Sailor Judah, began roving around outside the church with minimal escort, felling Arabs at close enough range with her sling and pouch of stones.

Skyhorse and others in the church as well were too busy fighting to watch them work, of course. For hundreds of Arabs had begun to join the battle. And most of them were hostile. The IDF had not yet arrived on the scene, but they were coming, after having been alerted to the problem in progress now. Skyhorse often fired a machine gun when the need arose, especially as defenders near her were sometimes hit by enemy fire. She shot several dozen terrorists when they were in range, and she could get a clear enough shot at them. But still not enough, for several others near her were hit before the terrorists were killed by her or by others still able to fight in and around the church's grounds.

By 11:45 pm, then, IDF personnel began reinforcing the defenders, speaking in English and Hebrew as they did so. Including, of course, Sailors Skyhorse, Israel, and Judah. What was especially surprising when they did so was a large lion's presence with them. The lion soon tore into the attackers with great impunity, sending them fleeing the scene to the best of their diminishing abilities, if they were somehow able to do that at all well enough.

By 11:55 pm, not one attacker was still able to fight here. Whether or not they were still alive at that time, that was now the case for them all here. Two minutes later, all fighting stopped. About two or so minutes later, Skyhorse and others began witnessing the births of three babies to three different tourists whose labors had begun suddenly during the just-foiled Arab terrorist attack. Even Sailors Israel and Judah did so, in fact.

By 12:20 am, at the very latest, then, three newborn baby girls had been born to those mothers. When they were asked by those babies' mothers for name suggestions, the Scouts consulted briefly with each other, and they soon suggested the names of "Lucille Anna," "Sarah Hope," and "Rebekah Teresa" for the babies' names. All three names met with the mothers' approvals, in fact.

By 12:45 am, all the tourists had been accounted for, with not one fatality quite fortunately among any of them. However, some had been hurt, of course, during the battle, for the obvious reasons. All the necessary tourists were attended to, where needed, by then. As for the defenders, 24 had been killed and about two or three times that had been injured non-mortally. The church had taken some damage, by the way, but nothing that couldn't be repaired easily enough, most likely. And nothing that endangered the sustainability of its presence there, either.

Skyhorse powered down as soon as she could, when she could, and Sailors Israel and Judah were with her when she did so. She soon learned that they were Naomi and Joelle quite well enough, when they powered down too.

After a little more time had passed in her room, Sylvia said, "Now that you two are also Scouts, there is much we have to discuss later. For the time being, however, I'll have to wait to tell you both a great deal. But for now, at least, there are at least a few things I can discuss with you here." Sylvia discussed those things with Naomi and Joelle from about 1 to about 1:15 in the morning, as was now necessary here. Once the Abraham girls were sufficiently informed about the necessary things, and Sylvia knew she could trust them completely to keep certain things secret that needed to be, she let them leave her room in the applicable inn. That done, she soon prepared for bed, knowing that there was absolutely no chance her services as Skyhorse would be needed again for at least some yet-unknown length of time. By 1:45 am, after briefly writing in her journal, she was quite soundly asleep again in her life. And as usual, dreaming more about her time in the Silver Millennium, for that matter.

After several hours of sleep, Sylvia set off for the Jerusalem area again. She arrived back at Wakefield Castle by 11 in the morning, and her parents and siblings were glad to see her again safe and sound. They'd heard about the failed attack on The Church of the Nativity, and worried for her safety. When she walked in the front door, they were very happy, to put it rather mildly, at least, of course.

She spent several hours, at least, with them and assorted friends and relatives that came to Wakefield Castle. Including several cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, and nieces, in fact. As well as all four of her grandparents, for that matter. Many presents were exchanged by Sylvia and whatever friends and relatives were with her as long as she was still at Wakefield Castle.

By 5, however, she felt she'd been there for a long enough time at the present time. So she escaped to her room long enough to change into other clothes and gather up some other things of hers there. She secured her room completely from anyone who might seek to enter it. She used her locket to summon Serenade, and he was under her balcony just as soon as he could be. Which was by 5:30 pm, at the very latest. As soon as she knew he was there, she powered up just as quietly as she could, of course. By the time she was fully Skyhorse again, she was on the balcony, and it was secured with a pipe or something. She jumped off her balcony, and landed as needed on his back.

Ten seconds later, then, they were ready to leave the grounds together, after Skyhorse had settled herself and her things on his back well enough. As soon as she was ready enough to ride, he asked, "Where to, Skyhorse?"

"Patrolling the area, then to the cavern, if you please."

"As you wish. I heard that two more Sailors appeared in and near The Church of the Nativity in the last 24 hours. Are they the ones we're looking for, by any chance?"

"Neither of them is Sailor Moon, nor any of the other Scouts in her royal Court, it seems. However, they are Scouts, just the same, evidently. Their Scout names are Israel and Judah." She told him about the battle as best as she then could. And it took her a good portion of their patrol for her to do that enough to suit him well enough. For he asked her several questions about it, not having heard much about it before he'd come to her house earlier at her request.

Eventually, by 7, all the Scouts, whether transformed or not, were in the cavern. Even Naomi and Joelle were there, by the way. For Skyhorse had requested that Kiena pick them up from their residence and bring them to the cavern with her.

Also, all the Scouts' animal allies were there, for that matter. Even the lion that had been present at the earlier battle was there, in fact. The lion identified himself as "Yeshua Ben David." The others soon asked the lion what they should call him in the future, and the lion said, "Yeshua." The others all agreed to do that in rather short order.

After they settled that among themselves well enough, they began discussing the events of the battle in and around The Church of the Nativity. While they did that, Skyhorse had Naomi and Joelle transform into their new Scout states, so that others could see what they looked like as Scouts well enough. So Naomi and Joelle did as requested.

No more than about a minute or two later, then, Sailors Israel and Judah were completely visible in the cavern to everyone else in it. Both had lockets just above the knots in their neckerchiefs. Israel's locket had twelve six-pointed stars bearing one Hebrew letter each surrounding a menorah inside a wreath of olive branches on its front. While Judah's had a lion's head facing forward in the middle of a six-pointed star flanked by a sling and a pouch of stones, with the pouch of stones being to Judah's left as she might wear it in the future, and the sling being to her right. There were no letters on any point for the star on Judah's locket, by the way.

Israel was mainly in blue and white, while Judah was mostly in gold and purple, wherever possible for either or both of them. Their uniform blouses were both white where they could be. As were their gloves, for that matter. Their uniform skirts both now went roughly to their knees. As was normally, if not always, the case for any of the currently-known other Sailor Scouts to date, in fact. Along the hem of Sailor Israel's skirt which was mostly the exact shade of blue as was on Israel's national flag, there were alternating white six-pointed stars and menorahs between two lines embroidered with green and silver olive branches. While along the hem to Sailor Judah's mostly purple skirt between two gold stripes, there were alternating gold lion's heads, slings, and pouches of stones. Their respective footwear items were lace-up boots, which were all of the roughly knee-length variety. However, Israel's boots had a straight and level top edge to them, and Judah's had a V-cut to them. Symbols similar to the ones on their skirts and/or lockets were on their boots wherever they were most appropriate for them to be. They had armbands at their elbows that were the same color as the majority of their respective skirts. Their shoulders for their uniforms were identical to Skyhorse, Renaissance, Trinity, and Mir's uniform shoulders as Scouts, as well. Israel's neckerchief, bows, and sailor collar were all blue with white piping or trim wherever necessary. While Judah's were all purple with gold piping or trim, as then required for her. Both Israel and Judah also had gold tiaras with their respective birthstones at the base of them. They both had no other jewelry with them at present in either or both of their Scout states, except for what might now be on their lockets, tiara, and/or weapons.

Pouches and slings hung from their respective waists as appropriate for them both. Israel also had a sword and scabbard hanging from her waist, while Judah didn't. Instead, Judah had a shepherd's crook and a knife with its sheath on her person. Her crook was on her back in a holder of sorts for it. While her knife was in the same general area of her waist roughly corresponding to where Israel was now wearing her sword in its scabbard.

After they'd been looked over enough by everyone else in the cavern, Israel eventually asked, "What else do we both need to know about being Scouts that we haven't been told yet, Skyhorse?" She and Judah learned those things from Skyhorse and others then with them until about 8:15 pm or so, at the very earliest, and until about 8:45 pm, at the very latest.

Eventually, Skyhorse felt they'd been informed enough about the necessary Scout-related matters, and let them leave the cavern, if they wanted to do that by then. The cavern was soon quite empty again, after that happened. Everyone soon powered down wherever appropriate before leaving it behind again, by the way. And they scattered to assorted other places in the area, if they wanted to do that at all.

Sylvia and Serenade soon returned to Wakefield Castle briefly, so that she could drop some things off in her room she'd gotten while patrolling as Skyhorse. As soon as she waved at him through a window in her room, he left Wakefield Castle's grounds for the rest of the night, and headed back to Sweet Musicalisti again. He was back there, and in his stall by 9:30 pm, at the very latest, in fact. Sylvia arrived at his stall at 9:35, and spent a few minutes finishing up the necessary preparations for his bedtime that Reuben and Timothy had already been working on when Serenade arrived in his stall. By 9:45, he was resting comfortably enough there, and beginning to go to sleep there, for that matter.

Sylvia saw this, and left not too much later. She went to an all-night party elsewhere when she left Sweet Musicalisti's grounds again for the rest of the night. She stayed at that party until about 1:15 in the morning, after which she went nearly straight home. By 1:30 or so, she was back at Wakefield Castle. By 1:45, she was in her room, in her bed, making a short entry in her journal, as she was often known to do. By 2, she had hidden her journal again where needed, and gone to sleep after turning off her lights. And she was then quite soundly asleep, lost in still more dreams of her past from the days of the Silver Millennium, of course.