Chapter 10/? - Playing With Fire
"'Blah blah blah… due to the His Majesty's failing health, King Aethlius will be abdicating the throne, and Lady Beryl will be assuming temporary stewardship of the throne until Crown Prince Endymion is of age to assume his fathers throne.'" Commander Venus quoted the message they had received as her and Queen Serenity sat in the Queen's private chambers. "It's like they aren't even trying to hide that this is a coup."
"Tell me this isn't happening Commander." Sighed Queen Serenity.
"It's too early to begin looking for any kind of troop movements," Said Venus. "But I talked to Mercury and the rest of the Senshi while they've been escorting Serenity down there. Beryl's a hardliner, thinks that the Moon Kingdom and the Silver Millennium could be helping the people there but aren't. She's got the support of a good amount of the military there, if there was a coup, they definitely backed her."
"And now I have to walk into a court full of nobles who can't see their hands in front of their own faces, and think that so much as acknowledging that Earth exists is 'a step too far.'" Queen Serenity groaned.
"So don't tell them." Venus suggested. "Look, Beryl may be way down there on the line of succession but she is in line for the throne. Just say that she's leading some kind of regency council until the prince comes of age."
"Venus, you know they aren't going to believe that." Serenity said.
"Well, make them believe it then." Venus replied. "Look, I'll make sure our generals are reigned in. Goddesses know they've been looking for an excuse to refight the last war."
"Venus, when has that not been true?" Queen Serenity spoke.
"I'll bring them in line." Venus reassured the Queen. "As long as we don't do anything to escalate the situation, any anger they've got over this treaty will peter out and we can deal with that as it come Your Majesty."
—
"PRINCESS, WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING HERE?" Commander Venus yelled at the now-frightened Princess Serenity.
"I'm sorry Venus!" Squeaked Serenity as she dove behind the couch along with Prince Endymion.
"Crown Prince Endymion of the Golden Kingdom of Terra, I presume?" Venus asked, as Prince Endymion peeked his head up above the couch.
"Yes, why?" He asked, getting up from his hiding place.
"Look, I hate to be the one who tells you this, but there's been a coup on Terra, or at least we THINK it's a coup." Venus explained.
"What?!" Endymion exclaimed.
"Look for yourself, maybe you'll have a better understanding of the situation." Venus said, handing the message the Moon Kingdom had received from the Terran government.
As Endymion skimmed over the message, Serenity watched his reaction while wringing her hands in nervousness.
"Serenity, can I talk to you in private for a second." Venus asked.
"Um… That would be fine." Serenity replied, as the two of them walked over to a different part of the room, and began speaking in low voices so that Endymion wouldn't hear them.
"Look, I'm not mad at you." Venus explained. "It's just, it's a very precarious situation right now, and I'm trying as hard as I can not to let things escalate."
"Venus, I'm a hundred and two, I'm not a child." Serenity pouted.
"I know, your highness." Venus assured her, while Serenity glared at her for the formal address. "But here I am trying to make sure that nothing we do escalates the situation, and here you are, escalating the situation by hiding the Terran prince here."
"What do you want me to do, send him back to Earth?" Asked Serenity.
"No, just…" Venus replied. "He can stay here for now. I'll just have to make sure that nobody knows we're hiding him here."
Seeing Endymion finish reading the message from the Earth, the two women walked over to where the prince was standing.
"Well?" Asked Venus.
"It's a power play." Replied Endymion. "Beryl is a cousin of mine and fairly low down in the order of succession. She's spoken a lot about keeping the Moon from turning Earth into another puppet state of Queen Serenity."
Serenity winced at Endymion's statement. "And those 'Kings of Heaven' they mentioned?" Venus asked.
"They're isolationist hardliners like Beryl." Endymion replied, rubbing the back of his head. "They think that the Earth should be able to maintain it's independence and not be subsumed into the Silver Millennium like the rest of the Planets."
"Thank you your Highness." Venus said, turning towards the door. "I'll make sure there's a room for you here in the palace. In the mean time, if anybody asks, you're a lesser noble from… somewhere, who is here to pay respects to Her Majesty."
—
Walking out her princess' chambers, Venus pulled the recording device out of her subspace pocket and handed it to a waiting Sailor Mercury.
"Anything?" asked Mercury.
"It's what we thought." Replied Venus. "Internal power struggle, probably waiting till he snuck away to visit the Princess. For now just make him into some kind of lesser noble." Commanded the blonde.
—
Leaning against her first class window seat. Minako tried to get some amount of shuteye on her flight back to Japan. Looking over at her snoring commanding officer, Setsuna adjusted her own pillow and blanket and tried, unsuccessfully, to catch some sleep on the 12 hour plane ride.
—
Rei looked at the disguised room service porter. "Usagi?" she asked.
"Hi Rei-chan" The disguised Usagi said sheepishly.
"What are you doing here?" Rei asked. This was the last place she wanted any of her friends to see her, let alone her princess, the thought of her new friends seeing this part of her world, where she was just another politicians daughter to be trotted out at public events, turned Rei's stomach.
"I came here to rescue you." Said Usagi, sitting down with Rei on the hotel bed.
"Rescue me?" Asked Rei. "I don't need you to rescue me Usagi."
"Well sorry for worrying about you then!" Usagi whined.
"I don't need anybody worrying about me, especially you, your highness." Rei spat.
"Ugh, you are always so infuriating!" Usagi replied. "Do you want to get out of here or not?"
"Fine!" Said Rei.
—
The two security guards by the door paid no attention to the room service waiter taking the cart out of the hotel room.
"There's no way this is going to work." Said a voice from underneath the room service cart.
The disguised Usagi simply kept pushing the room service cart. "It's working right now, isn't it?" She said, smiling.
As the two of them rounded the corner and walked into a waiting elevator, Usagi took one last look around at the corridor as the elevator door closed.
"You know, you're not exactly what I thought a princess would be like." Said Rei, as the elevator rumbled down to the ground floor.
"And what did you think a princess should be like?" Asked Usagi.
"Pretentious, Stuck-up, always trying to gain any kind of power." Said Rei, recalling the many girls she had met at her private school and at events her father requested her to be at, simply to show that he was 'a family man.'
Usagi giggled slightly. "I forgot that you never really knew me before I remembered." She said. "You should ask Luna what I was like before." Usagi paused. "As for acting like a 'princess,' you should have seen how many tutors I had pulling their hair out for not acting 'dignified and respectful like somebody of my station.'"
"Really?" Rei asked.
"I used to sneak out all the time. Just ask Venus." Usagi replied. "I'd sneak out of my lessons and watch you guys practice as senshi."
"You wanted to be a Sailor Senshi back then?" Asked Rei.
"More than anything in the world." Said Usagi. "Of course, all my tutors would just laugh and say that I was 'only forty years old' and of course being a senshi seemed glamorous to somebody that young."
"Only forty?" Asked Rei.
Usagi looked sheepish at the question. "I know, I know, I was a kid and foolish and all that. But Venus managed to make it seem so cool and so fun, and… well… I thought that learning how to be the next queen of the Moon Kingdom and having all those responsibilities was the most boring thing in the solar system."
"Huh." Said Rei, seeing Usagi in a different light after what she had told her.
As the elevator dinged as it arrived on the ground floor, Usagi and Rei saw that the coast was clear on the loading dock.
"Psst. Rei-chan, grab on to something." Said Usagi, her eyes narrowing at the long ramp ahead of them.
Rei looked across the loading dock, and then back at Usagi, and smiled.
Racing across the hotel's loading bay, the two girls were cackling with laughter as Usagi pushed the serving cart as fast as possible down the ramp.
—
Naru wished Usagi had been here. Even though Usagi had been acting differently, she would have wanted to come to Rui's tennis match. Still, it wasn't all that bad. Rui wasn't doing too badly, and her honorary 'big sister' had a decent shot at winning the championship.
"Go Rui!" Cheered Naru. "Come on! You can do it!"
Looking across the stands, Naru caught sign of a fairly tall man with shoulder-length chestnut hair. Haven't seem him before, is he a talent scout? Naru asked herself as she saw how closely he was watching Rui play.
Just then, the man held out his hand and everybody in the stands suddenly gasped.
Looking back over at the tennis court, Rui had apparently passed out in the middle of the game, and a couple of medics were running out onto the court to check on her.
When Naru looked back at the crown for that talent scout, he had obviously seen what he had come out here for, and unlike everybody else who had rushed over to the fences around the court, had simply started walking away.
Naru narrowed her eyes in suspicion at him.