TWO WRONGS
Chapter 9: Lives In The Balance
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
"Keika," he said, standing over her. "I've finally found you."
"Yeah, you can have her AFTER we're done with her," Vesta blustered. She knew taking anyone who had just flattened King Endymion was probably more than she could handle. Her street sense told her that a strong enough bluff might get him to back down.
King Horoque turned to Vesta and looked her over. Unimpressed, he silently dismissed her and reached for Keika. The sorceress shrank from him.
"Fauna Assimilation, Grizzly Bear!" Vesta snapped.
Startled, Horoque stepped back and stared to confirm that there was suddenly a six foot tall thick furry brown animal standing on hind legs between him and his daughter. The bear glared at him.
"Maybe you didn't hear me, Chief!" Vesta snarled.
Horoque's response was to pull a device from his belt. Vesta lunged for him, but the device expelled four round balls connected by two crossed black cables. The balls wrapped the wires around Vesta, meeting behind her, and discharged an electrical current into the Senshi that was black rather than blue and white. Vesta howled in agony. Unconcerned with her welfare, Horoque lunged around her toward Keika.
"Beautiful Incantation!" Pallas cried, pointing at Vesta. Using her telekinesis, Pallas ripped the electrical snare away from Vesta's body. Freed of the electrical field, Vesta sank to the ground. Juno knelt next to her to see if she was alive.
Meanwhile, Keika let out a squeal of alarm as Horoque's hands clamped onto her upper arms. Effortlessly the King pulled her to her feet and held her at arm's length. Keika clamped her eyes shut and hid her face.
But Horoque pulled her to him, wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his body. His head bent down to her shoulder.
"Oh, my little girl," Horoque said with a tenderness that shocked Keika. "How I've missed you."
"You," Keika whispered, for shock had stolen her voice, "do not hate me?" The passionate embrace continued. "But I betrayed you - - stole back the Cloak of Umbra. You vowed . . .!"
"I vowed a great many things in my anger and haste," Horoque said wistfully, pulling Keika back so they could be face to face. "But as the years passed and you were out of my life, I came to realize just how important you were to me. And how foolishly I discarded you from that life. I searched for you, but I didn't know where to look. Please come home, Keika. Yaban'na is a desolate place without you. I will even forgive Na so long as if means you come home."
"Na is dead," Keika hardened. "I killed him myself."
"Even better," Horoque smiled. "I never liked him."
Horoque held up his right hand. It began to glow red. He brought the glowing hand down over the golden links binding Keika. The links melted at his touch, though Keika herself wasn't injured. The pair turned around and found Endymion blocking their path.
"I'm happy you've been reunited with your daughter," Endymion said stonily. "I'd like to be reunited with mine. But for that to happen, your daughter will have to lift the death spell she placed on her. And there's the matter of why you were attacking this city."
"This city has wealth that I desire. What business is it of yours?" Horoque sneered. "As for your daughter. . ."
"She wronged me!" Keika snapped angrily at Endymion. "I told you that before! Accept her fate because I am NOT going to lift her spell!"
"You have your answer," Horoque said gruffly. "Step aside."
Horoque tried to push past him, but Endymion stood firm. His hand pressed to Horoque's chest and halted the man's advance. Then he shoved Horoque back with little effort. Both the Sorcerer King and his daughter seemed surprised by Endymion's show of force. Venus and Jupiter, having dispatched the King's escorts, stood behind and on either side of Endymion.
"Have it your way," Horoque muttered. His hand reached for one of the pouches on his belt. But he exclaimed in pain when the stem of a red rose was suddenly sticking out of the back of his hand. Horoque pulled the hand up to his chest, gripping around the wrist with his other hand. Attempting to remove the rose failed. Horoque glared angrily at Endymion.
"I have no wish to be disagreeable," Endymion said. "But the people of this realm do not deserve to be attacked simply because they have something you want. And my daughter did not deserve to be attacked simply because she was the target of another man's unwanted and unreciprocated advances. Now I believe you're intelligent enough to realize that trying to force your will in this situation will be a long and protracted confrontation that you could very well lose and will certainly suffer from. Undoing the spell and returning in peace to your home would be best - - for everyone."
"So you're Endymion, eh?" Horoque replied. "How little you know of Yaban'na."
As the Asteroids watched the seemingly inevitable confrontation between Endymion and Horoque escalate, Ceres felt a tickle in her brain. She flinched once.
"Pallas? Is that you?" Ceres thought.
"Pallas is sorry. She had to get your attention," Ceres felt Pallas communicate to her mentally. "Miss Saturn-Ma'am wants to tell us something. Go ahead, Miss Saturn-Ma'am."
"This whole staring contest is going to take too long," Saturn thought to all of the Asteroids, her message relayed by Pallas. "Sailor Moon may not have that much time. We need to do something now."
"I'm all for it, but what?" Vesta thought into the group connection.
"We find a way to separate Keika from her father," Saturn thought to them, "then teleport her back to Earth. And it has to be quick, before King Horoque can act."
"Last time we tried to teleport, you almost stroked out on us," Ceres thought to her.
"I can do it this time," Saturn thought back.
"Uh huh."
"I can," Saturn maintained. "Please, we have to try! We have to save Sailor Moon!"
"At the expense of you?" Ceres argued.
"I'm all right! I can do it!"
"And you wouldn't be just saying that to get us to try, would you?" Ceres asked.
When Saturn didn't respond, the Asteroids all glanced at her. She was sitting on the ground, Endymion's cloak clutched to her chin. She wouldn't look at anyone. Her cheeks were flushed.
"Look, Saturn, we want to save her, too," Juno thought to them.
"I'll do it myself if I have to!" Saturn thought exclaimed.
"Yeah, that'll REALLY help," Ceres responded.
"We got to do something, Ceres," Vesta thought. Ceres sighed.
"Yeah, I know," Ceres thought. "Oh, I can't wait for Sailor Moon to be leader again! Fine, we'll try. Here's what I need everybody to do."
Meanwhile, Endymion and Horoque continued to stare each other down. Finally Horoque emitted a disgusted sound.
"Fine," he scowled. "I'll withdraw from Ploutos. It's not like they're going anywhere." His jaw hardened. "But I'll not force my daughter to do anything she doesn't want to do. Her happiness is more important to me right now than yours. And let me warn you that any attempt to force the issue will be just as costly and protracted an effort as you predicted for me. You may win, Endymion, but you'll pay dearly for that victory."
"Fiery Incantation!" Pallas shouted suddenly.
A wall of fire shot up between King Horoque and Keika. Startled, both parties fell back from the heat and flame of the inferno as the fire licked eight feet into the air. Keika stumbled back directly into Vesta's grip. The Senshi caught her with an arm around her throat, then wrestled the woman to the ground with relish even as the other Senshi were converging on them. Immediately the five Senshi joined hands. The four Asteroids glanced nervously at Sailor Saturn. She silently, doggedly nodded, even though she seemed pale and drawn.
"Sailor Teleport!" the five shouted. Instantly wind and dust began to swirl around them. Seeing what they were doing, Horoque tried to reach them before they disappeared. But the whirlwind reached a crescendo and when it died away, Horoque found himself grasping for air.
"May the gods be with you girls," Jupiter whispered.
"So that's your game!" Horoque bellowed, whirling on Endymion. "Keep me occupied while your minions strike from behind! And what will the ransom be for my daughter's safe return?"
"No ransom," Endymion replied. "She'll be gladly returned when she's lifted the spell from my daughter."
"Hmph!" sneered Horoque. "You'll have better luck drawing tears from a stone statue than trying to bend the will of my daughter to yours. Save yourself the grief and return her to me now."
"Get on your ships and return to your world, King Horoque," Endymion calmly advised him.
The two men stared at each other.
"Very well. I'll find her myself. I found her once," Horoque frowned. "But know that you've made an enemy this day, King Endymion of Earth."
"If we're enemies, King Horoque," Endymion replied, "it's your doing, not mine. I'm always willing to talk."
Contemptuously, Horoque turned and boarded his vessel, his two guards scurrying after him. Endymion, Venus and Jupiter watched the ship rise into the air, join its fleet, and jet away.
"Think he'll be back?" Jupiter asked.
"Maybe one day, when his avarice gets the better of his judgment," Endymion sighed. "I can't concern myself with that right now. We have to get back to the palace."
"In case Keika needs more 'persuasion'?" Venus asked.
At the outer columns of the Temple of Elysian, Candide leaned against a column and watched her son, Helios. He still knelt before the altar, his eyes closed and his white hair falling back from his head to his shoulders. For the ceremony, Helios had discarded his tunic. The shafts of light that filtered into the temple between the columns cast his lean, hard, masculine body in an unusual collage of light and shadow. His arms were extended forward and down, his hands resting on his knees. The cloak had fallen away from his shoulders and rested behind him.
On his right side knelt Ravonna. Her head was bent upward, thick blonde locks cascading down her back, her chest thrust out as it rose and fell rapidly. Her diaphanous white gown gathered at the waist, strained at the chest and ended mid-thigh. On his left was Fish Eye, his green hair tumbling down between his shoulder blades, his arms out slightly from his hips, his head tilted back in concentration. His diaphanous white gown was gathered similarly to Ravonna, though it was far looser through the chest.
The two temple maidens projected energy to Helios, to keep him alive through ten days without food or water. Physically, they were a single pool of life spirit that sustained their corporeal forms at bare minimum of life. Through this, they could allow Helios's consciousness to expand, to touch all of the Dreamscape and reconnect with each aspect of the vast collective.
As Candide watched, her heart was heavy. Though this ritual was necessary for Helios to perform periodically so he could remain guardian of pleasant dreams, it was still an ordeal. She remembered all the times she underwent it. While it was a necessary suffering that she and her line endured, it was still suffering and she was still a mother.
And heavy, too, was her heart for what Princess Usagi endured. Through her power, Candide knew some of what the Princess suffered. And she knew of the confrontations Endymion had encountered in Ploutos, the realm of the Dreamscape that represented ambition and invention, against King Horoque of Yaban'na, the realm of the Dreamscape that represented boldness and desire. She knew how perilously Princess Usagi hung and how desperately her father and her friends tried to save her. Would that she could aid them.
Candide glanced at Helios again. Though she adored Princess Usagi, Candide longed to aid in the efforts for the sake of her son most of all. If she dared, she would wake him this very minute and tell him what had happened. And together they would invade the dreams of Keika and give her no peace until she relented and did what was right and proper. But she didn't dare. The Dreamscape was far too important. Much more important than the feelings of any one being, no matter how close that being was to her heart.
A tear trickled down Candide's cheek. "Oh my son," Candide whispered, "I pray that the light of your life will still be there when you awake. I fear for you should she be taken." Her chest heaved. "But I fear even more should she be taken from you before you awake and can at least say farewell."
As Helios glided through the vast ethereal landscapes of the Dreamscape, touching and communing with each facet of an area, he sensed a sudden loneliness coloring his mood. Though he could feel the energy pouring from Ravonna and Fish Eye, facts that told him he wasn't alone and cut off from reality, the sense of isolation was still there and he couldn't shake it.
"Perhaps it is because I am in the limbo that is non-conscious thought," he mused.
His hand reached out and skimmed along the pool of nothing beneath him. To him, it seemed black and purple, like a giant bruise, and almost glass-like, as a pond on a moonless night. This was a small corner of the Dreamscape, just off of the Nightmare Realm, where beings went when they were drugged or brain-dead or otherwise afflicted. It was a place where few dreams occurred, and was thus a dank and depressing place. But it was a necessary place, for it was a place where the minds of the living sought refuge to recover and hopefully renew their dream light.
The pool felt cold and alien to his touch. His first reaction was to withdraw his hand, but Helios persisted. His spirit self had purposefully traveled to the darker realms first, to deal with them and get them out of the way. He decided when he entered the ritual that when he emerged and was once more reunited with his precious Maiden that his mood wouldn't be burdened by the depressing horrors of places like the Nightmare Realm. And besides, he rationalized that the sensations he was feeling was his mind assigning expected sensations to what he touched. They were no more real than anything in the Dreamscape.
To his right, Helios noticed a peculiar glow. It wasn't something one usually expected in the Limbo of Non-consciousness. Perhaps it was some unfortunate with an unusually strong dream light who had been struck down in reality. Since he had no assigned path through the Limbo, Helios turned to it and glided forward as his hand skimmed the dark glass below. As he neared, though, a sense of foreboding began to birth within him, for the light seemed more and more familiar. He wanted to dismiss it as another trick inspired by the effect the realm was having on his emotions. The closer he got, though, the more he realized that he couldn't dismiss it.
"Maiden!" Helios gasped.
Inside the glow of her dream light, a mental manifestation of Usa floated limp and vacant. She was naked save for the huge serpent wrapped around her body. The serpent's head leaned forward, its fangs bared and ready to strike. All that held it back were Usa's two hands, on fire and unconsciously wrapped around the snake's throat. She gave no reaction to Helios's exclamation, not even that she'd heard it. Her expression was completely vacant, her eyes closed. Only her burning hands, valiantly holding back the snake coiled around her, gave any clue that she was even alive.
Desperately Helios lunged for the snake. But his hand passed through it. He reached over and grasped Usa's shoulder. Her flesh was solid to him, but cool and unearthly. Helios shook her, trying to rouse her. The snake responded by coiling more tightly around her body.
"You have no power here, Dream Guardian," the snake hissed, glancing back at him. "I am not bound by your rules in this place, nor is my prey."
"Perhaps you are not. As to having no power here," Helios replied grimly, "We shall see, demon." With that, the horn on his forehead began to glow.
Endymion, his cloak spread to allow Venus and Jupiter to levitate along with him, approached the aeropad atop the Crystal Palace. Resisting the urge he felt to hurry, the monarch gently set himself and his two traveling companions down on the solid surface. Once firmly on the pad, he raced for the door and the infirmary, Jupiter and Venus at his heels.
"Endymion," Serenity said as she embraced the King upon his entry into the room. The Queen had naturally sensed his approach. Endymion took a moment to hug the love of his life, then looked past her to the sensory bed where his daughter lay.
"So, how is she?" Jupiter asked, peering around the couple from one side. Venus peered around the other side.
"Unchanged," Ami replied. "From a medical standpoint, her condition is critical but stable. From a metaphysical standpoint, Rei continues to keep the snake entity at bay. It can't finish killing Sailor Moon, but Rei still can't expel it."
"Where are the Asteroids?" Endymion asked.
"Endymion, weren't they with you?" Serenity asked.
"We found Keika, the sorceress who used the snake familiar spell against Usa," Endymion informed her. "The Asteroids had captured her and managed to teleport her away from where she was hiding. Didn't they arrive here?"
"Computer!" Ami said quickly. "Location of Asteroid Senshi!"
"Sailor Ceres, Sailor Juno, Sailor Pallas and Sailor Vesta are not in the palace," came the electronic reply.
"Location of Sailor Saturn!"
"Sailor Saturn is not in the palace."
"Scan for alternate identities!"
"Cere, Hotaru, Jun, Palla-Palla, and Ves are not in the palace."
Everyone exchanged worried glances.
"Saturn was having problems," Venus reasoned. "Suppose they tried to teleport and came up short?"
"What sort of problems?" Serenity fretted.
"Saturn had a cardiac incident during the mission," Endymion informed them. "It wasn't a full blown attack, but it was enough to interfere with her powers."
"Knowing that, I think Venus's scenario is quite likely," Ami surmised. "The question now becomes where are they and how much difficulty is Sailor Saturn in?"
Continued in Chapter 10