Chapter 28

"Et tu, Bruti?" Julius Caesar's last words.

Sailor Moon was already wearing her "Captain Hornblower" white jacket with ascot, epaulets of command, and her medals, (including her Navy Cross and other awards from the U.S. Government before the Great Cataclysm,) navy blue skirt with red trim and gold petticoat, and her scepter/staff. It was as tall as she was, with a large crescent moon on the top, and it looked like a small glaive. Centuries before, when she first started this, she was the most reluctant hero the world had ever known. Somewhere along the way, she had learned courage, valor, and compassion. It served her well when she became the queen of all, and now, it would cause her to lead the Sailor Scouts into battle one more time. Sailor Pluto had been contacted, and she was pleased to hear about what was planned. She opened a portal for the Inner Scouts and Marine Ceres. Once there, Mars and the Outer Scouts greeted them warmly. This was when Bleetra came forth, smiling broadly, which, of course, caused Sailor Moon to shudder a bit for all the teeth. However, she strengthened her resolve and extended her hand, saying, "In the name of the Silver Millennium Kingdom, I bring you greetings."

Bleetra then embraced her, causing her eyes to bug out a bit in surprise as she said, "Oh, I am so glad to meet the one that will bring us the peace I so desire for my people!"

After the initial shock had worn off, she returned the embrace, and because of her warm and loving demeanor, Bleetra helped overcome Sailor Moon's initial repulsion of the sight of the Gnarl. To her, they may have looked hideous, but Bleetra's personality helped people to forget what they were seeing, and to see them as beautiful in their own way. With that, the Inner Scouts were escorted through the cave system wherein the resistance held court.

In the caves, a whole culture emerged. The Gnarl that was a part of the resistance had now brought their families in for fear of being discovered and having them be persecuted. The more Sailor Moon walked through the side cave rooms wherein they set up housekeeping, seeing the families associate and the children playing their games in the halls, the less like beasts they looked, and the more like a people. She shed a tear a bit, and Bleetra detected this, and said, "Why do you cry, dear queen?"

"I have to ask your forgiveness," Sailor Moon said with some regret.

"Whatever for," Bleetra answered with surprised kindness.

"The truth is," Sailor Moon answered, with a bit of hesitance, "When I first saw your people, I saw you as hideous, and almost repulsive, for you were more different a creature than I had ever seen. It made me judge you wrongly. Yet, the more I see here, the more I see how wrong I was. I have to stop being this way, for, the more we explore the galaxy, the more I know we shall see cultures far different from anything we have ever seen before. It's not fair for me to let my old childish fears to get a hold of me. Please forgive me."

Bleetra chuckled a bit and then said, "Then, I suppose I need to ask your forgiveness as well. I would say that, to us, you did not look very attractive as well. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps, as things go forward, we all need to be able to no longer look at what's on the outside, and see what is in the heart."

As they spoke, she observed how the SEALs were associating with the Gnarl, they having been given lodging by the Gnarl for the duration of their mission, and they were acting as if every one was perfectly normal. It was then that a child's ball bounced up and lightly ricocheted off Sailor Moon's head, and landed in her hands. A young Gnarl girl came running after it, and then dug her heels into the floor, frightened that, not only she may have hit a queen, but she also looked frightening to the little girl. She started to back up, but Sailor Moon grinned warmly and knelt down, extending the ball to the girl. The girl then stopped, cocked her head, put her forefinger in her mouth, grinned herself, and ran up to take the ball. Sailor Moon handed her the ball and kissed her on the head. The girl giggled and gave Sailor Moon a big bear hug, and then skipped away to rejoin her friends in their game. Sailor Moon stood up as Bleetra said, "Indeed, there is hope for all of us!"

The party met Chibi Moon and the Amazoness Quartet, and Chibi Moon squealed and ran up to embrace her mother. She may have looked about 14 years old by that point, (though she had been around for centuries,) but she had no qualms about acting like a five-year girl and to leap into her beloved mothers arms. "Mother, what are you doing here?" she exclaimed.

"We're making a bid to end this thing, just like the old days!" Sailor Moon answered brightly, "We just have to make a plan."

"You, plan something," teased Chibi Moon, "That has to be a first!"

"Oh, not you too!" she teased back, giving a good noogie for good measure, "Mars is bad enough!"

"And just where do you think she learned it?" Mars added, and they all laughed. With that, they got down to business.

Kurge entered in, and though Sailor Moon had gotten used to the sight, his imposing form still intimidated her, for truly, he was a warrior of the first order. "So, what is the plan, your majesty," Kurge said to Sailor Moon. She responded, "Ceres is the strategy person for this," and she yielded to him. Kurge laid out the map of the tunnels that led up to the throne room and Ceres said, "Okay, what do you foresee as resistance?"

"Well, the empress is going to have her best guarding her," Kurge said as he pointed out where they may be at, "I would estimate about a company, maybe two, would be guarding her. It will not be easy."

Ceres rubbed his chin, and then he looked over all the approaches. He then asked, "How willing to face danger are your resistance soldiers?"

"They are brave men, and are willing to die for their princess," answered Kurge, "However, no matter how you slice it, they are not trained soldiers."

"And…the empress' guard has the advantage as defenders," added Ceres, "It would be an ugly slaughter, nothing would be gained, and the empress would flee."

"What do we do?"

"Leave that to me," said Mars, "I will put Sailor Olympia in charge of the SEALs for now, and mix them in with your resistance crew. With the way we are trained to attack, it would turn the tables for sure."

"Are you suggesting a distracting attack?" asked Ceres.

"Yes," said Sailor Mars, frankly, "Then we go in with the scouts and capture her."

Sailor Moon then asked, "Princess Bleetra, she is your mother: what is her fate?"

Bleetra hung her head and said, "She needs to stand for her crimes—her, and all her inner command corps. I don't want to see her die, of course, but, if she resists…"

Sailor Neptune came up and rubbed the back of her neck, saying, "Please, do not ponder that."

Sailor Pluto added, "If you want, we can put you on one of our vessels, so you don't have to be involved."

"No," said Bleetra, "I have to face her down, and father as well. He always taught me and my siblings to love, and I would hope that he would come over to us. However, it all depends. He often caves into her will, sadly. I do not know if you have a term for that in your tongue."

Sailor Uranus laughed and said, "We call that being henpecked!"

"Hen…" mumbled Bleetra, but Venus described the hen and rooster, and spoke of how it seemed that the rooster was not in charge of the coop, and that the hens were pecking him into submission. The light came on for Bleetra, and then she laughed, saying, "Yes, that would be father!"

Ceres, bringing things back, said, "Then, your resistance, peppered with the SEALs, keep the guard busy while the rest of us come in at this point, (pointing to the map,) and then we capture her, put Bleetra on the throne, and end this thing."

Everyone nodded, and went off to fulfill their tasks.

The guard was heavy in all points as Squila sat in the most secure part of the palace. It was true that the enemy was far away, and that she was being fed false reports lest she became further enraged and commanded a suicidal and futile defense or counterattack, yet, she her own subconscious guilt for her tyranny made her paranoid. She feared all and trusted no one. They were being vigilant, considering all the sneak attacks that had weakened them. Had they all not taken place, they would have most certainly been able to repulse the attack. However, the enemy now had a toehold, and there was no telling how this strange invader had aided the resistance. As if it was an answer, the outer most guard suddenly found themselves surrounded by flames. They screamed, trying to beat out the flames, and they were subsequently pummeled. The same pattern was being repeated on the other perimeters, and word was coming into other locations that there was trouble. Instantly, the guard lead officer ordered reinforcements to the hall, walking right into the trap. Olympia and the others with the resistance were now making short work of what would have been a slaughter had the resistance tried on their own. What was odd was that, for some reason, the SEALs were not making fatal attacks, but subduing attacks that did enough to make certain they would not come back to haunt them. It almost seemed as if the SEALs felt the queen's agony over the war that she cared not to see slaughter anymore. The resistance, however, was not holding back. Chaos was now in the tunnels, and word was now coming to the throne about the attack. Squila came to her feet and thundered, "I THOUGHT WE WERE WINNING THIS!"

"Your majesty," said one of her generals, but she slapped him hard, and shouted, "FOOL!"

"Do we evacuate," asked another aid, but before she could answer, above her on a ledge overlooking the throne came a determined voice, "Murder and mayhem against kingdom after kingdom who could have been your friends is unforgivable!"

Everyone looked up to see 14 brightly clad humans wearing their various fukus, skirts, and the green clad soldier standing defiantly over the rulers, with Sailor Moon front and center. She then said, "Adolph Hitler may forgive you, but I…shall…NOT!"

Quickly, soldiers were maneuvering to protect the empress as Sailor Moon said, "I, the pretty soldier and queen in the sailor suit, guardian of love and justice—Sailor Moon—and the Scouts, in the name of the moon and all that is just…"

They all then did the same hand motions as Sailor Moon and they all thundered, "WE SHALL PUNISH YOU!"

"Think again, fools!" snapped the empress, and her soldiers opened up. CreCre was faster to the draw, summoning a thick moss wall that provided enough protection for the 14 to scatter and go after the soldiers, and then the empress.

Ice cones, water, lighting and fire were flying left and right, as well as the creatures in the caves emerging at Sailor Vesta's command to aid in the attacks. Energy balls went flying, as Sailor Uranus was bowling down targets, and Sailor Juno was showing her skills hand-to-hand. They were highly trained elites that guarded the empress, but they had no chance against the scouts. Through the fray, Sailor Moon stepped forward to confront the empress herself and said, "Surrender now, because how you shall be subdued shall not be pleasant!"

The king started to speak as if he was about to surrender, but Squila shoved him out of the way, saying, "Silence! You have not yet begun to feel my wrath! We shall defeat you."

Emperor Grenj, however, looked at her, and said, "What do you mean 'we' darling?" as he went to Sailor Moon's side, "I may have been involved, but you were the one that wanted all of this…you and your crotchety old battleaxe mother and grandmother! I always told you there had to be better ways."

"FINE!" she shouted, "Die with them! You shall never catch me!"

She then sat on her throne and pushed a button. The throne slid backwards as a panel opened in the rock behind her. It went in and closed into a tunnel that no one save a select few knew was there. Sailor Jupiter was swiftest to leap up onto the platform, only to get there one second too late. Grenj then said, "There is no way through that door."

"Oh yeah?" stated Sailor Mars, as she focused and said, "LAVA BOMB!"

A red, flashing orb appeared on the rock and everyone stood back. It exploded and broke off only a layer as the remainder of the rock in they layer melted away. Sailor Mars said, "That never happened before."

However, Sailor Moon suddenly got a blank look on her face and uttered, "Sailor Mercury: focus your cold attack on the door."

"ARTIC BLAST!" was heard all over the room as the door went white. Then, Sailor Moon aimed her staff at the door and then two voices were heard instead of one, and both were familiar. Silently but audibly, the voices said, "Silent Wall!" and the attack went forward, shattering the door completely. Everyone looked stunned at what they had just seen. How did she just use Sailor Saturn's old attack? They had no time to contemplate as they all charged in.

The tunnel was long and winding, with barely any lighting to guide them. It was such that the Gnarl did not need as much light, and thus Squila had the advantage. Soon, they came to several passages, and Squila was heard echoing off the walls in such a fashion as if it came from every direction at once. "Welcome to my funhouse!" she said, "Welcome to the maze of your death from which you shall never emerge!"

Her evil cackle echoed off the walls, sending a chill up their spines. "PallaPalla doesn't like this!" said Sailor Pallus, hugging tightly to Sailor Juno's arm. "Ow!" she snapped, "Let go of me, you cow!"

"There's no time for that!" said Sailor Moon, though it did not seem like her. They all straightened out and assessed what was going on. Counting the tunnels, the quartet and Chibi Moon took one, Ceres, Jupiter would take the next, Uranus, Neptune took the next, Pluto, Mercury, and Mars went straight, while Venus and Moon went in the last tunnel. Meanwhile, Squila watched on some screens from where she was controlling things, and she said, "Perfect! Walk right into the trap!"

The quartet charged down the tunnel, but slowed as things got darker and dank. "This is creepy," said Sailor Vesta, not certain of where they were going.

"How do we know that we are doing the right thing," added Sailor Juno, "I mean, I heard stories about caves and darkness. We need to stop."

"The cave is narrow enough," said Chibi Moon, "I'll stand in front, two go to one wall, the other two to the other, hold hands across the way, and I'll reach back and hold your hands. That way, we can always go back if we have to, and if the cave forks, we can decide what to do then."

As they went, they could smell the moisture in the air, and heard the dripping of water as they went. "The walls are slimy!" uttered Sailor Pallus, "PallaPalla feels icky!"

"Just stay strong," said CreCre, "I have your hand—I'm right here."

Soon, the walls started to widen, but things began to brighten a bit, so it seemed that all was well. The looked over the cavern, and there was stalagmites and stalactites all around, but the middle seemed like a large dirt floor. Sailor Pallus braved things and walked out. As she did, the feel of the ground seemed odd as the others followed. The ground seemed to ripple, and then Sailor Pallus began to jump up and down on the dirt, giggling. "Wow!" she said, "A dirt trampoline!"

However, as Chibi Moon's boots began to sink above the toes, she realized what was going on. "We have to get off this now!" she shouted, and Sailor Pallus stopped. "Why?" she asked. Her answer came quickly. Because she had stirred up things the most under her feet, when she stopped, she sank to her knees. When she tried to extract her legs, she suddenly found herself up to her thighs. "PallaPalla stuck!" she said, and began to struggle more, disturbing the mud under the others, who were now down to their ankles. She sank to the middle of her thighs and began to cry. "Help me!" she said, to which Chibi Moon said, "Stop struggling, you'll only pull us deeper!"

The others tried carefully to approach her and grabbed her hands. They pulled, but they were making matters worse. Chibi Moon said, "Just stay calm, and we won't sink anymore."

"PallaPalla wants out of this," Sailor Pallus bawled, to which Chibi Moon said, "All we have to do is shift our weight and change our angles. We get our legs up and out and crawl across…"

Yet, before she could say more, it seemed that some of the sharper spikes coming from the ceiling were descending closer. They then heard Squila's voice as she said, "One way or another, you are doomed! How does it feel to know you are about to die?"

Panic set in as Pallus began to struggle anew, and the others were trying to get out as Chibi Moon had said, but their panicked state made things worse. Before long, they were all up to their waists, and there was no telling what they would do next.

Pluto, Mercury, and Mars charged down the tunnel, and they soon found themselves on a natural earth bridge that stood high over a high, seemingly bottomless cavern. The bridge itself did not seem very stable, but there was a cave stack in the middle, so they figured they would be safe. Yet, once they got to the center, they heard the sound of some crumbling and falling rocks. Paying it no mind, they pussyfooted further, and heard the sound again. Yet, they got to the end, and there was now a gap bigger than any of them could leap. When they went back, there was more of that sound, and there was gap the other way. They soon found themselves in the middle of the bridge, with their bridge slowly crumbling underneath them. "That's right," Squila was heard to say, "Consult whatever higher power in which you believe, because you will be heading to the depths of Hell soon enough!"

Ceres and Jupiter were heading down their hall when they entered a square room with an entrance at the other side and behind them. Yet, as they did, bars shot up on both sides, and the roof above them started to move, the sound of grinding rock and machinery echoing throughout the chamber. Squila then uttered, "I would love to see you tunnel your way out of that! Feeling flat?"

Her laughing just made Ceres more enraged as he started to try to get out of that mess. Meanwhile, Venus and Moon were heading their way when they seemed to enter a cylindrical space that ended flat. Venus was about to suggest that they go back, but before they did, a steel door slid down behind them, and another opened on the other side, revealing a large fan. It turned on, and they had all they could do to maintain their footing. In addition to this, it got colder and colder. "I can't wait to put your frozen corpses into my ice museum!" boasted Squila, and she began her evil laugh again. This was as Neptune and Uranus were entering a similar room, and before they knew it, a similar steel door closed behind them, and a fan behind a stone wall began to suck out the air. They began to fight for breath and find some way out before they suffocated.

Squila was now content that she had put an end to the threat. She began to pace and think on matters for about five minutes, wondering how she was going to punish her enemy's home system, and began to concoct the worst punishment she could think of for her traitorous husband. Suddenly, a pink, cloudy swirl formed at one end of the room, and out stepped Mercury, Mars, and Pluto. "WHAT!" she exclaimed, but Pluto said, "We now end this madness."

She started to turn to run, but this was when large energy balls busted down the door, behind it were the four and Chibi Moon, muddy and soaked, but nonetheless alright. "How did you get out of that!" she snapped, but Chibi Moon said, "Thank goodness for good friends. That mud was a great place to grow moss, wasn't it, CreCre?"

CreCre gave the "thumb's-up" as Squila started to head another direction and another door. Behind it was shouted, "SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"

The door fell flat as Ceres and Jupiter stood on the other side. "This is insane!" screamed Squila, but Ceres said, "Every trap has an escape. It's amazing what electricity can do to mechanics. One good Tsunami attack took care of the bars."

She tried to move again, but a hole melted into the wall. Behind it was Venus, Moon, Uranus, and Neptune, as Venus melted a hole into the wall with a good crescent beam. Before Squila could speak, Uranus said, "You made a mistake in putting your suffocation chamber next to your freezing chamber. One good World Shaking attack and that ended your threat. Give up: it's over!"

"Not until I say it does," said Squila, now standing across from the group as a steel door came up between them. Apparently, Squila had much in the way of tricks, but she was indeed running out of them. She laughed at herself, and prepared to exit a door, but it opened, and there was standing Bleetra and Kurge. "You must have forgotten that I also knew about all this, mother," she said, "Stop, please, and it will go better for you."

Squila looked around for help, but before she did, she saw the large, bright mark on the steel door behind her, and all three hit the ground as a large bright beam shot through the room and about 20 feet into the cave behind them. There was now a huge hole, with the Inner Scouts and Chibi Moon standing there with their cutlasses and Sailor Moon's scepter all joined at the tips for their Bismarck attack. Squila was now beyond rationality, and she lunged, claws and teeth ready, but what seemed like that familiar voice emanated from Sailor Moon, which said, "Ah, now…sweet revenge! You shall pay for your treachery!"

She began to spin the staff confidently and parried the attack. Squila did not miss a beat and came back again. At that, Sailor Moon's voice was heard to say, "SILVER MOON CRYSTAL POWER KISS!"

The Silver Moon Crystal in her staff glowed and went forth. Hit Squila hard and she went tail over head, and landed hard and unconscious. Bleetra was scared that she was dead, but Mercury used her laptop scanner and visor to check her vitals, and she said, "No, she is alive, but she has spinal damage. I do not know if there can be anything done for that, because it is damage beyond even our science to mend. She is going to be paralyzed from the waist down."

"Then she will stand for war crimes!" said Sailor Moon, "This ends."

"I am surprised it didn't kill her," said Pluto, "Yet, it must be because you had no will to kill anyone. Perhaps the Silver Moon Crystal knew what to do."

"Yes, I suppose," she answered, "Besides, it almost seemed that there was something else guiding me."

"We heard the voice," said Mars, who then began to use her psychic abilities and said, "There seems to be two sprits with you: you…and someone familiar, though it is sketchy."

"No time to ponder that now," said Ceres, "We have to get Bleetra back to the throne so she can claim the crown and end this war."

"Will they listen," asked Venus.

"It is instinctive for us to obey the female royalty," said Kurge, "They will obey."

"Then, let's end this mess, and bring peace," said Sailor Moon.

Kurge carefully picked up Squila after Mercury stabilized her and they went to try to bring peace to the galaxy.

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