Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I'm trying my best to develop the relationships between the senshi and shitennou. It's slowly coming along, bear with me. ^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own any Sailor Moon characters

Chapter 9: Crazy Detached Head

Serenity woke up to her covers being ripped off of her body and a raging presence filling the room. Standing at the foot of her bed in a fury was none other than her mother, Queen Serenity. She had anticipated this encounter for days now since her scouts absolutely had to report back to the queen until the princess's marriage was completely consummated. She was still under the reign and control of her mother like any other child. The princess pulled her knees up to her chest and placed her chin in the little niche.

"What is the matter with you?!" the queen roared.

"I'm only expressing what is true," she replied quietly, knowing that she was asking about the statement made to Endymion about not having children immediately.

"What is true? What is true?!"

"Mother you can't possibly expect me to make love to a man like him without actually being in love. I'll be married to him for as long as I can tolerate, yes, but having a child of his blood is a totally different story," she explained.

"Child, I am holding back all of my might to not slap you across the face right now," she fumed.

"Your words are doing a fine job of just that."

Queen Serenity sighed loudly and sat down on the edge of her bed. The princess scooted over, seeing that her mother was calming down and bid her to lie down. She did and curled an arm around her daughter to pet her head like she used to when she was a toddler. The young one exhaled and closed her eyes while her mother kissed her crescent moon marked forehead.

"Why are you so infuriated at the notion that I won't conceive a child with him unless I'm in love?" she asked, her eyes still closed as she felt the calming sensation of nails being dragged across her scalp.

"Have you ever heard of the Queen Olympia?" she asked softly. Her daughter shook her head silently. "I suspected as much. She was the reigning queen before Queen Rhea."

"What happened to her?"

"She died …. She was beheaded."

Princess Serenity's eyes popped open and she hurled herself into a sitting position in order to stare at her mother presently, "What? Why!"

"She … ahem … she wasn't able to produce a son for King Cronus. They were passionately brought together under the veil of love and after two years of trying to conceive an heir and only having bloody stillborns to show any proof of conception, he beheaded her."

"On what grounds?!"

"Treason. It was rumored that she was having a romantic affair with one of his wards," the queen said, looking away from her daughter's frightened expression. "Queen Rhea has been able to stay on the throne with her head intact because of the male born heir Endymion. After much trying and dying they finally have the fit, fine, and presently handsome son they have always wanted."

"So if I don't produce an heir to the throne will I be beheaded?" Serenity asked with a slightly raised voice. "Why didn't anyone tell me of this preceding queen? Why didn't anyone tell me about her fate?"

"Because we knew you would leap into hysterics."

"Mother you have to remove me from this marriage immediately!"

"No, I do not and I will not."

"Why?! My life is in danger!"

"You both are practically trapped in this marriage," she explained calmly. "He has signed the contract that upon not removing your life or any life of your children with his own will and say so he will receive full military back up from us if there is a need. In return for any heirs you produce to them, we have the rich and vast resources that they can provide to the moon such as fruit, vegetables, wine, silver and the like. You are both contracted to proceed into this marriage. I cannot pull you out now."

"What if the prince decides to cut my head off anyways?!" she asked. "He's been known to kill people who defy him, much like his father!"

"Then we will go to war to defend your honor. These people cannot fight against any small army of ours. We out number them and have far better weaponry than they will ever imagine."

The princess sat on her feet and pulled a strand of hair into her hands, combing through it nervously, "I-is this why so many women broke off their engagement to the prince?"

"Yes, I believe so. The king's rage and temperament is a well known trait across this land," the queen stated as she stood up from the bed and turned around to face her daughter. "Child, do not be frightened. Endymion is not like his father. He is just and fair. He will never lay a dangerous hand on you."

She nodded to her mother and asked in a monotone, "Can you ask for my scouts to come in here on your way out?"

"Yes dear. Just to let you know, I am on my way to go and meet with the king and queen. After that I'll be headed back to the moon to do some more preparations for your wedding before traveling back here in a few weeks."

"Yes mother," she said while staring off into space.

The queen kissed her on either side of her cheeks and then walked out to bid her court of four women into her room. When they entered, they shut the door quietly behind them and bowed to their princess before stationing themselves around her bed. She stood up on her mattress and spun around to examine each of them. They had obviously been told of her shocked disposition and were now showing expressions of concern. She snarled at them.

"Why was I not informed of the king's previous marriage that disseminated in fire and brimstone? No! Let me correct myself; he chopped her head clean off of her pretty little neck!"

"Oh lord," Rei sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "It wouldn't have mattered anyways!"

"What?" Serenity asked incredulously as she snapped her head to look at the Princess of Mars.

"Rei—"

"No Ami," she interrupted, "let her answer. Go on Rei."

"Your father signed a treaty with King Cronus long before you ever put pen to paper," she informed her. "If you had found out about the previous queen and the reason why the one who is existing has been … um … given the privilege to live, then you clearly would have done something irrational. We all assumed you would have run off with that foul Demetrius fellow."

"And if I had married him?"

"All of your rights as princess would have been forfeited," Ami said. "This way, being married to Prince Endymion ensures your regency as future queen of the Moon Kingdom and possibly queen consort of the Golden Kingdom."

Serenity plopped back down to the bed and let some fearful droplets fall from her eyes as she asked while staring into a mirror on the opposing wall, "What if Endymion kills me? I've been so resistant as of late, demanding so much …"

"You're hysterical, Serenity," Rei stated as she took a step forward.

"You know he can't do that," Lita said. "His whole kingdom would be dust!"

"Rei?" she asked, scooting toward the fiery, raven haired woman on her knees. "Have you seen it? Have you seen his rage when reading him? You must have!"

"I've seen the passion he emits, your majesty. Nothing more," she breathed.

"His passion that he has for other women, for war … for killing me?!" she exclaimed.

"His passion matches nothing of this type of madness that your majesty is expressing," she replied with a roll of her eyes and a lazy hand on her hip.

She had seen Serenity get like this before when there was a possible threat on her life from a cook in the Crystal Palace. He was sent by some rebels to poison her food and luckily for them, the servant had dipped his own finger into it to have a taste and was killed right before her eyes. Ever since then, the idea of dying has frightened her to no end.

"Serenity, can you please breathe and think for a moment?" Mina asked from the other side of the bed. "You need to calm down. You're not going to die. There is too much riding on this for that to happen."

"Get me some wine," she ordered blankly, ignoring Lady Mina's comments. "I want wine. Get it for me now. I don't care how you get it, seduce servants, fuck wards, steal it, but I'd like to remove this feeling from my body immediately."

"And you think alcohol is the cure-all?!" Ami exclaimed, rushing toward the silver haired princess. She bent down on a knee and looked up at her, "Your majesty, you are not thinking clearly!"

"Then maybe a spot of the red drink will do the trick," she whispered, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

Rei snatched her fellow lady up off the floor and dragged her out of the room with the rest of them. Their princess had gone crazy, much like the last time this happened. She would drink away her thoughts and memories of this ever happening, then wake up sick the next day, and finally forget the threat that had been committed on her life. She was a creature of habit and it was hard to break her.

Endymion and his generals were going over the idea of possibly going to war within the next few months. He needed to solidify his marriage with Serenity first if he was ever going to go to combat again. His family was essentially broke after going to battle so many times before. This uprising was coming at a pinnacle point in their dynasty.

There was a sudden crashing noise from the grand hall which made all of the men in the eerily silent room jump at the same time. Some female shrieking and yelling was soon followed and he knew what it was; Serenity. He sighed and stood up, walking out to the great hall with his inner circle following him. The sight he had expected to see was not one of a drunken princess of moon … but there she was, being cautiously surrounded by her fellow ladies in waiting like she was lioness let out of her cage. She had a green bottle in her hand and was stumbling all over the place, smashing anything she could get her grabby little hands on besides the glass container of alcohol in hand. She spun around and spotted the prince. Her purple tinted lips curled into a grin with her eyes glazed over.

"And here have the man in question!" she hollered. "Off with her head! Right?!"

Serenity didn't wait for a response from him and instead breezed past the women who were clearly not in control of their mistress. She pushed through some glass double doors out to the gardens where she spun around a few times and then stopped to take another swig of her drink. She was about to do the same motion again when Endymion quietly walked up behind her and stopped her in her tracks by placing a hand on the small of her back. He removed the bottle from her grasp, keeping a tight grip around her waist. Luckily, she would stay by his side since she was trying to snatch the wine out of his hand.

"Who gave her this?" he asked the scattered out women in front of him. He looked at the label and then asked with widened eyes, "And who gave her the expensive stuff? If she's going to drink it like a sailor, then give her the wine we use for cooking!"

"How do you like your palace decorated, your majesty? With vomit on the walls?" Rei snidely remarked.

"We've been through this once before and projectile vomiting due to cheap alcohol was the result," Lady Ami tried to cover up.

"With her tiny body, it's amazing she can keep anything down," Jadeite commented.

"Why is she so crazed?" Nephrite asked.

Serenity wriggled her way out of Endymion's clutches and stared him down viciously, "You didn't want to speak of your father's rage once. I know why now." He simply narrowed his gaze at her while she continued on with her low growling rant, "His previous queen … the one that should be painted beside him in the grand foyer … she's among the angels now, isn't she? She's with all of her dead babies."

"Hold your tongue, Princess."

"Floating! Floating! Floating with her head off! It has its own set of wings!" she laughed. "Will you give me the same fate?"

He didn't answer her but handed off the wine to Rei, "Go inside. I'll tend to her."

"Your majest—"

"I said go now!" he shouted.

They bowed and left him to tend to his hysterical princess. Endymion took a few strides toward the woman in front of him and quickly grabbed her before she could run away. He threw her over his shoulder and carried her off through the gardens. It was hard enough to have a drunk person over one's shoulder, but when that "one" was a prince in a shirt, a velvet coat, matching black velvet pants, a heavy gold and ruby necklace and knee-high leather boots … well, the task brought on more beads of sweat than a romp in the bed sheets did. When they made it to their destination, which was a shallow creek that ran along side the edge of palace walls, he dumped her onto her rear harshly. She splashed about in the shallow water as he undressed the top of himself and took note of the damaged leather boots.

"Trying to drown me?!" she shrieked.

"Yes, in one foot of water," he grinned at her.

She shut her mouth and lay down on the bed of small pebbles, letting the cold water drench her hair and the nightgown she was still wearing from that morning.

"You mentioned the previous queen back there," he said as he cupped some water in his hand dumped it over his head. He noticed that the cooling water was sobering her up a little bit. Endymion assumed that her hysterics were more emotional than anything. The alcohol was just a way to make up for her crazy antics.

"Queen Olympia?" she asked.

"Yes. You should know that your fate will not be like hers," he replied as he strolled toward her. He crouched down and gestured for her to sit up. She did as he asked and crawled closer to him as he continued, "I have only heard a few things spoken of the Queen Olympia, but from what I heard, my father rushed into a marriage with her. He broke a lot of ties with countries and even waged wars over their marriage. When she could not produce an heir, she became the bane of his existence. He couldn't look at her without being reminded of everything he had given up for her. Their love had fallen at the waist side and the proverbial flame had been blown out. I am not condoning what he did. He should have suffered with her at his side for the rest of his life to remind him of his rash decisions, but without these events that happened, I would not be alive today."

Serenity closed her eyes and bowed her head as her tears fell into the creek along with the water dripping from her hair. He lifted her chin up and rubbed his thumb along her stained lips.

"You are a blessing to me, not a curse," he whispered. "I could never imagine doing you any harm…. Even if you did deserve it."

She let a smile cut across her face before he pulled it closer to him and kissed her gently. He moved away just in time – she was about to either push him off or tug him closer – and then he helped her up. The two walked back to the palace, soaking wet, arm in arm and sobered up of any frantic emotions.

"I'm scared of being tied down," she admitted to him. "I thought that once I was away fro the moon, I would be free of all the rules that trapped me, but instead I feel like I'm suffocating. Your mother has been deemed 'the true queen of the earth' and it's all because you. You are her key to this regency … is that how I'm supposed to attain it?"

They stopped at the garden doors and he clutched onto either shoulder of hers, "No. I won't allow that. I don't want to frighten you into this marriage or manipulate you into this. Yes, I see marriage as a contract between people … but they have to be consenting on both sides."

She was seeing a sweeter, gentler side of him. It was strange to her and almost foreign, but she liked it. Serenity brushed his cheek with her hand and then walked into palace with him trailing her by a few feet.

Rei sat at the fire while the rest of the scouts pulled the large curtains over the floor to ceiling windows in the meditation room shut. She had asked for a room with a lot of windows on the south and west wall seeing as how she needed to grasp onto people's energy when watching them. Even with the curtains shut, she could form an image of Serenity being carried off by Endymion toward the creek in the flames; however, only she could see it. It was like she was watching and listening to her own private piece of theater in the room.

The men stood in the back with the rest of the women as they finished their tasks and they all quietly stared at the Martian princess sitting on the floor cross legged.

"He dropped her in the creek," she announced. "She seems to be sobering up …. He's giving her more information on Queen Olympia …. 'I am not condoning what he did. He should have suffered with her at his side for the rest of his life to remind him of his rash decisions, but without these events that happened, I would not be alive today.' …. He won't harm her …. They kissed." She paused for a while longer, all of them waiting in anticipation for the final say, "And it seems as though he's letting her do what she wants."

Lady Rei shook her head briskly and flicked her hands on either of side of her. She stood up to her feet, spun around and gestured for the girls to open up the curtains slowly as she rubbed her temples.

"What does that mean? What does she want?" Nephrite asked.

"She doesn't want children right away," Ami answered, crossing her arms over her chest. "She won't go to bed with him until she's in love."

"That could take years!" Zoisite exclaimed. "And what if she never falls in love with him?! What if she were to fall in love with another?"

"He is willing to take that chance. He's falling for her. I can see it," Rei said calmly.

She suddenly exhaled loudly and was going to flutter to the ground when Jadeite swiftly stepped forward to catch her. The women who had tried to rush to get her stopped dead in their tracks as they watched the careful interplay between the couple. Her eyes opened up after a few seconds from her fainting spell.

"That's one problem with this magic; it drains me of my energy," she whispered.

"Do you want to be carried to you room?" Jadeite asked gently, studying her face.

"No. Thank you. Just help me up please."

He did as she requested and helped her to her feet. She took a few deep breaths before stepping away from his grasp and nodding to him with more gratitude. She smoothed out her dress and when Mina could see that she had regained all of her composure, she gestured for the women to follow them out of the room. The men stayed behind, as usual, and chatted amongst one another.

"If we let him continue on like this, there will be no heir to the throne," Kunzite murmured lowly.

"Does the prince know about his father's declining health?" Jadeite asked.

"No," Kunzite answered. "And he won't until the king wants him to. Our allegiance, much like the scouts, rests with the highest power in the land."

"Does that make us loyal? We were hired for the prince's devices, not the king's," Nephrite grimaced as they strolled out of the meditation room with the rest of them.

"It makes us 'his majesty's' servants," Jadeite stated. "It means the king. When Endymion is crowned and titled as such, then we will forever be loyal to him just as we are to Cronus."

"Such a stickler for doing things by the book," Zoisite smirked.

They chuckled a bit and continued to journey to Kunzite's office in order to busy themselves with work while they waited for their prince to change into fresh clothing. As they sat around the large room, Jadeite found himself highly distracted by replaying the moment of catching Lady Rei in his grasp. Her beautiful heart shaped face, midnight colored hair … piercing violet eyes …. He could feel that this was a courtly romance taking over his emotions and he had better keep himself away from her. If he was going to keep a straight mind on the daunting tasks at hand – an heir to the throne, the rebellion – then he couldn't let his feelings, as subtle as they may be, get in the way.

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