The hits just keep on coming! Here's the next installment of this story! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Sailor Moon characters
Chapter 15: Prayer
The tapping noise filtered through the room alongside the chirping from outside the widow. Seiya was leaning against the sill, his leg shaking in a rather disruptive rhythm as he waited in the same quarters that he had seen her the night before. Serenity. She had grown up considerably. Her curves had filled out a little more after having a child and her breasts had become fuller. He didn't even say a word to her when she greeted him and his fellow Sailor Stars. How could he?! Endymion was in the room. Seiya had been afraid that if any words had fallen from his mouth, he would have surely been decked.
"You called for me?"
He snapped out of his gaze that he had drifted into and gasped at the sight of Neo-Queen Serenity. She wasn't in her usual formal royal gown; instead she had slipped into a skintight black cat suit that ran from her ankles to her wrists and sleeveless white leather dress with a zipper all the way up to the neck, but it stopped directly at her cleavage, exposing the peeking curves coming out of the dipping v-neck from the sheer undergarment. She blushed, noticing that he was looking at her chest and immediately zipped her dress up a little bit higher. Seiya blinked, trying to get his head together.
"I was in such a hurry to get down to the control room that I didn't have time to zip myself all the way up it seems," she giggled. "I must say, I've never been beckoned like that before. Only the king asks for my presence. Otherwise I'm the one who calls the shots."
"I apologize your majesty," he replied as he stepped toward her and bowed.
"It's refreshing," she grinned. "What did you need to speak to me about, Seiya? We must be quick. The scouts are leaving soon for their attack and I need to see them off."
"Your majesty, are you happy?" he asked.
She was taken aback by this question and automatically answered, "Yes, of course I am…. A little nervous, maybe, but happiness is a constant flowing emotion that I find myself in all the time."
"You're pregnant, aren't you?"
"Yes, but we still haven't announced it to the press."
"Is it the king's child?"
"Of course."
"But he cheated on you."
"What are you getting at Seiya?"
"You aren't happy yet," he declared as he stepped toward her, closing the gap between slowly. "You are putting on a mask for the rest of the world so that no one will discover your true pain. You did this when Darien was lost. You forgot about it."
"I haven't forgotten that he betrayed my trust," she commented. "I haven't fully forgiven him."
"Yet you are carrying another child by him and you made love with him last night."
"Are you spying on me?!" she asked incredulously. "If so, I will have you and the other Sailor Stars removed from this palace immediately."
"No, I don't need to spy. Your lips are flushed a different color and your skin is glowing brighter than normal."
"I'm leaving," she declared as she spun around on her foot and started to breeze out of the room.
"Do you love him?"
Serena stopped in her tracks and looked at the Sailor Star over her shoulder. Tears were streaming down her face as she nodded, "Yes. That's why this hurts so much." He started to come for her and she stopped him with a raise of her hand, "Don't. I've cried too much over his unfaithfulness, over this child, over these hormones, and over the fear that I'll lose everything in the blink of an eye."
She scrubbed the tears off of her face and left Seiya to stand in the den by himself. Once she had traveled all the way down the stairs and out of sight, Darien swooped into the room, startling Seiya.
"How long have you been out there?!" he asked.
"Long enough to hear you give my wife the third degree," he answered coolly as he rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. "I saw the way you were looking at her last night."
"And I've seen the way you've been treating her for the last few months," he retorted.
"You don't know everything about our relationship."
"I know enough. I know that she went to the depths of space and evil in order to get you back into her life and then you repaid her by breaking her heart."
"So that's it? It's all or nothing in this situation? No compromise? No working at it?" Darien inquired. "Have you ever been married Seiya?"
"No."
"Then you wouldn't understand."
"I've been in love though."
"With who?"
"You know the answer to that question already."
The two men stood face to face, glaring at one another. Darien stood a few inches taller than Seiya and was bit buffer than he was as well. Although rage was simmering slowly for this scout in front of him, he had to pull back and return to the control room. The king sauntered out of the den with his hands shoved in his pockets. Seiya watched him as he left and did his best to not sucker punch him from behind. The queen deserved so much better.
Michiru leaned up against the seat of the car, pleasantly surprised that Haruka was actually going the speed limit. She placed her hands behind her head as she watched the city buildings glide passed her window at a regular pace. Her blue eyes slid over to her lover who was concentrating on moving along with the rest of the Sunday slow drivers.
"I hate traffic," Haruka growled lowly.
"But look at what can happen when you stop."
She leaned over and grabbed the feisty blonde by the collar, planting a kiss on her sweet lips. Haruka swiftly placed a hand on her partner's cheek while her other hand was on the steering wheel. Her eyes shut for a split second when suddenly a loud beeping noise interrupted their intimate moment. The two laughed happily and she returned back to the road.
"Are you guys almost there?" Darien asked through the mini screen on the passenger's side.
"We'll be there in about ten minutes," Haruka answered with her eyes still glued to the red brake lights that kept her at a standstill. "You know how people are on Sundays. They all gather to church around this time in order to go and worship Serenity."
"I still can't get used that," she said behind Darien in the control center.
"Let us know when you arrive," he instructed them. "When you guys get to the location, transform into older women so that no one recognizes you."
"Do we have to be old?" Michiru asked.
"Quit being so vain, Mich! It'll be fun!" Haruka beamed.
"You realize, you'll have to be super slow, possibly hunched over and rickety, right?"
"Hell no! I'm going to be one of those cool older women who wear track suits!"
"Guys! Please!" Darien snapped through the small visual intercom. "So listen, you'll go in, do the whole prayer service, listen to the preacher, you know how it goes. Search for any signs of Stella while you're in there. Ami and Mina will be scaling to the rooftop searching for her as people enter. Lita and Rei are going to be investigating in the basement. So are we clear?"
"Yes sir!" they answered in unison.
They finally made it to the church in not ten, but twenty minutes. Traffic had backed up thickly because of a steaming accident caused by some idiot teenager who wasn't paying attention to how hard his foot was laying on the gas peddle. They contacted King Endymion and told him that they had arrived. The two outer scouts morphed in the car where the windows were tinted so darkly that no one could even tell who was in there. Haruka was an older long white-haired woman with thick sunglasses and a bright cerulean blue track suit. Michiru changed into a classy looking woman with a designer skirt suit, a silk Hermes scarf and large matching designer bag.
Her lover passed a look of confusion and slight disgust, "What is that getup?"
"I'm a classy older woman with a wealthy husband," she replied snobbishly. "This is how I imagined myself to be when I was younger."
"You wanted to have a husband when you were younger?" Haruka replied, arching an eyebrow.
"Or a wife. A significant other," she corrected. "Then I grew up and realized I just wanted you."
Even behind the new eyes she had acquired, Haruka could see that she was serious. It warmed her heart to know that. But she couldn't last in these beautiful little moments. The two of them climbed out of the car and walked up to the tall glass cathedral. It was shaped like the Crystal Palace on the moon except for the golden tower jetting out of it with silver bells ringing at the top. Haruka removed her sunglasses to squint up at the top of the tower; she couldn't see Mina or Ami which was a good sign.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" a silky voice side from behind.
The two older masked women turned around to find Stella dressed in a white and gold tweed designer jacket and a short black skirt with a pair of glistening black high heels. She was certainly dressed to kill.
"I've never seen something so gorgeous," Michiru smiled, keeping up appearances. "Minus the lovely castle on the moon, but I've only seen pictures of it."
"It's a beaut," Haruka said curtly. She gestured to the pathway leading to the inside, "Shall we?"
The three of them walked inside the glistening temple and took in the high ceilings, the large array of white candles glowing all around the perimeter and the giant statue of Neo-Queen Serenity with her hand on her heart holding a rose signifying her love for life, her husband, and the world itself. It was awe inspiring.
"People from all over come here just to see that sculpture of the queen," Stella said calmly as she sat down in a pew. "It was hand crafted by a famous artist."
"Who?" Michiru asked, leaning over a little bit.
Stella merely pointed to the woman coming out to the podium. The pastor and amazing artist was none other than Molly Osaka, Serena's friend from middle school. She had grown up into a ravishing young woman and was well known around the world for her artistic creativity. She had met with Serena once before she had been deemed queen of Crystal Tokyo and then several times after that for paintings, sculptures, and firsthand accounts of the adventures that lead up to the creation of their world. The very painting in the den of the Golden Palace was done by her as were a few other trinkets that were placed in both the earth and moon residencies of the king and queen. People admired her for her precision and the way she could make Serenity look like she was glowing even when she was made out of stone.
Molly waited for people to quiet down before she started to preach the word of Serenity and all that was peaceful. The audience listened with smiles on their faces as she told the story of how Sailor Saturn was discovered and created many centuries ago. Haruka and Michiru let the memory of that time flood their minds, but they did their best to make sure it didn't leak out in tears down their face. No one else seemed to understand the pain that came with destroying a whole entire kingdom.
When service was over, Molly told people to walk over to the perimeters of the room and light a candle for peace, harmony, and for Neo-Queen Serenity. Michiru and Haruka did just that, but kept their eye on Stella as she went to go and speak to Molly. The pastor placed a hand on her back and led her into some back room of the cathedral.
"They've gone out of our sight," Haruka whispered into her little brooch that served as both a communicator to the control room as well as camera so that they could see all that was going on.
"Mercury, do you have a visual?" Darien asked.
Up on the top of the bell tower where Ami and Mina were perched, she was scanning the area with her digitized visor. She shook her head and reported back, "Negative, I can't get one. We're too high up."
There was a bit of silence and tension filled the few minutes of waiting. Everyone was patiently wondering if either Mercury was going to see what was going on or if one of the highly disguised scouts downstairs was going to see Stella exit the preacher's quarters.
"I—wait a minute!"
"What?! What is it?" Mina asked.
"Someone is coming up the bell tower!"
"Do you think it's just the person who rings the bells?"
"It's 11:17," she said, "the time is supposed to rung in at the top of the hour and the half hour. There's no need for someone to—"
She was suddenly cut off by the loud ringing noise of the large bells that she and Mina were sitting above. They covered their ears and shrieked a little bit as the whole tower shook. The two ran to the edge of the tower and jumped down, swinging their bodies into the opening where the bells were swerving back and forth. They maneuvered their way around the mammoth metal singing instruments and tried to find out who had started the earth shattering music.
"There!" Venus exclaimed, pointing to a black cloaked figure running down the stairs.
The scouts ran after the person down the long spiraling staircase, trying their best to catch up with them. Mina hugged onto the railing and let herself slide down ahead of the culprit and trapped them with Ami behind. She still couldn't see their face though because then the next thing they knew, the perpetrator leapt off of the stairs, over the railing and down straight through the opening that the spiral gave. Venus followed suit with Mercury right behind her telling Darien and Serena what was going on. They chased the person out into the street where one part was a dead end and the opened up space was blocked by a wide-nosed Lamborghini sports car that was being driven by Sailor Uranus and was growling loudly.
"You think you have me?" Stella asked, throwing her hood back.
She tried to run toward the alley way where there was an escape route to the sewers, but Sailor Jupiter and Mars came out with weapons of their element in their hands. Stella held her hands up a little, as if to surrender, but she had a broad and evil grin on her face.
"Touch me and I detonate this whole church," she announced. "The pastor is still in there, innocent people are still in there, and all the while the big red button is in my hand. Don't you dare take a step toward me."
Backing up to the center of the circle that the scouts had made around her, she exposed the joystick looking detonator in her hand, but this one had multiple buttons on it which meant she had multiple bombs.
"Ami, I thought you scanned the whole premises for explosives!" Darien exclaimed.
"I did!" she replied. "There wasn't a sign of bombs anywhere!"
"That's because I planted them while in motion," Stella stated. "There's a bomb in one of the bells in the bell tower, one against the wall of the tower, one in the pastor's chambers, and the largest of them all on Serenity's statue." She glared at each and every one of the scouts as she asked, "Now which one will I choose?"
Mars tightened her grip on her fiery bow and arrow which Stella could hear and she looked over her shoulder at the raven haired scout, "Don't do it." She pressed one of the buttons and suddenly a loud rumbling noise came from the top of the tower. The bells exploded and flew off in all directions. One of them came down onto the speedy car that Uranus and Neptune were in; they had bolted out before the ringing, metal instrument crushed the vehicle. Another bell landed on the steps leading up to the cathedral, trapping the innocent bystanders inside while the last two crashed into a building across the street.
Stella noticed Sailor Venus pulling out her chain, wanting to try and use it to grab her, but she coyly said, "I studied your tactics; that won't work." She pressed another button and another grumble went pulsating through the street as the rest of the tower crumbled down into fire and rubble. "I told you not to come near me, not to test me and then you do just that." Stella put a slender, long nailed hand on her hip and she cocked her head as she sighed, "I'm getting kind of tired of this standstill. You all bore me. Let me know when that white-haired ghoul wants to fight me. I'll be ready for her."
She pushed another button, the one that was set to blow up the pastor's chambers, and then pressed one more which resulted in an explosion right in front of her body, encasing her in smoke. When it cleared, the scouts found that she had disappeared completely. Ami was trying to track down whether or not she had run away down into the sewer system while Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Uranus ran to the church to inspect the damage. Haruka used her powers of the wind to move the bell that was five times her height to the end of the road while Jupiter kicked down the door and got everyone outside. Mina made sure no one was left inside the church while Mars went to go search for Molly. Rei climbed over the wreckage of the office, pushing back flaming books, broken glass, and shattered wooden pieces. She heard a moan coming from under a pile of debris and quickly used her powers to blast through it. The hole she had created showed the upper body of Molly who looked weak and beat up.
"Don't worry Molly, we'll get you out of here!" Rei declared. She shouted over her shoulder for some assistance, "Hey! I could use some help over here!"
"Coming!" Mina replied as she rushed over to help Mars remove the pastor from the wreckage.
Lita had guided people away from the church and told them to head home immediately while Michiru was looking into her mirror, trying to track down where Stella could have possibly gone.
"There's no sign of her," she announced as Ami nodded in agreement. "Only smoke remains in my mirror."
Haruka examined the statue inside, trying to figure out how to remove it without setting it off. A red digital timer was ticking away quickly, leaving only two minutes for her to remove it. She could feel the sweat drip down her forehead as she started to become anxious and confused. Ami sprinted up behind her and examined the bomb with her.
"I don't believe it!" she gasped.
"What?" Uranus asked.
"She built an explosive without wires to kill it!" she replied as she typed into her mini computer, trying to figure out if something was amiss in the x-ray. Sure enough everything was in tact. Stella had built a villain's perfect weapon. "We've got to get Molly out of here as soon as possible and contain the area! Now!"
Mina and Rei were helping the broken down artist stumble out of ruins when Haruka ran up and scooped her into her arms. They all started to run outside into the street and Ami looked over at Lita, "Can you create a force field to hold back the explosion so it doesn't do any more damage?"
"Hells ya I can!" Lita grinned.
The scout braced herself as she waited for the clock to count down. She started to create a spherical cage of bolts of lightning and once the bomb beeped loudly and went off, she was able to hold it in under the electric dome. She struggled slightly to keep it down and even let out a few grunts and then a scream as she pushed down the large blast. After a full two minutes of this, Lita successfully held back the gargantuan, fiery discharge and removed her shield. There was nothing but pieces of melted glass and a large, smoking hole where the foundation used to be.
"No…" Molly whimpered as tears streamed down her face. She clung with grief onto Sailor Uranus who tightened her grip around the sobbing preacher.
"We should take her to the hospital," Michiru declared.
"With what? Another great car of ours is totaled," Haruka replied. "I will not use another nice car for a mission."
Sirens started to fill the air and the scouts walked toward the flashing cop cars and ambulance. Molly was transported to the emergency room while the scouts stayed behind and explained everything to the police.
Up next: Trying to devise another plan to get Stella. This woman is slippery than a wet eel…