MW: I've been sparring with life and almost got KOed. Literally. You know how it feels when you get so tired and you start speculating everything you've done so far? It's kind of like regretting a chapter you wrote and feeling it's too late to edit it since you hate reposting a second time. You end up feeling defeated. I kept revising what I wanted to write about in chapter 2, so that was one reason why I delayed updating. Another reason is because my grandma had a stroke and I'm kinda taking care of her at night. Well, I'm sacrificing a bit of my writing time. I've come to the point where I just don't know what to do with chapter 2, so I'll just submit this the way it is. I can barely focus on my studies sometimes, so I was able to add a bit to the chap. Please review and let me know how it goes. And hopefully, the next chapter of my life will be better than this one and I can give something I do my all. Thanks for understanding.

Chapter 2: A Synchronized Escape

Her helpless, high-pitched scream pierced the hall. Serenity flinched, unable to bear it, tears pricking her eyes. Every whipping lash was like a slash to her own bare back.

"I hope this will teach you to take better care of prisoners," Beryl spoke, her cruel, deep, red lips smacking at every syllable.

The guard who was on duty at Endymion's barred door bear the wounds of her, Serenity's, mistake. Serenity had freed Endymion, eluding the guard in the meantime. However, the story which Beryl knew was that Endymion had gotten a hold of Serenity during her visit to the dungeons. He threatened to kill her if she didn't help him escape and the ominous gift he left her, a blood-red rose was proof of all the horrors that the princess went through that night. Everyone knew the high general of the rebel forces had amazing powers, but no matter how amazing or mystical his powers were, no man could break through a barrier that the Queen created. Only a mishap from a foolish guard could let anything like that happen. How could the guard let him escape like that unless she opened the prison door?

Serenity's lips trembled as she fought the onslaught of truth so willing to escape her and ripple through the open for all ears. The story heard around the kingdom was only half true. She withstood five long minutes, watching the punishment along with fifty other shadows until she could not bear it any longer. Her legs carried her forward, towards the Queen and the crumpled, humiliated, bare-chested girl.

"You dare endanger my niece!" Beryl's grip around the handle of her scourge tightened as she raised it above her head.

"Please!" Serenity screamed, suddenly leaping forward in a desperate moment. She kneeled in front of the half naked guard, facing the lash that was about to be thrown. The whip encircled Serenity's left arm as she raised both her arms to protect herself and the victimized. This time the princess winced out of pain as she felt the sting shoot through her arm.

Beryl gasped. "Serenity, what are you thinking?!" The aunt threw her whip down and bent to inspect the niece's wrist. "You foolish girl!"

"Please, don't hurt her anymore!" Serenity begged, dropping her hands and slamming them to the floor. The shadows watching had never seen the princess look so pitiful. Their silhouettes wavered and a hushed murmur like the fizzle of a crackling fire rose.

"But, she…"

"It wasn't her fault! It was mine! I wanted Endymion to myself, so I thought I could have taken him to my room. I never knew it would have gotten someone else in trouble. Forgive me!" Serenity shook with the force of her words… lies…

"Serena…" Beryl's husky voice reached her ears. Serenity felt, a long, sharp nail tip her chin back. Her eyes met dark amber, almost black eyes. Her eyes used to look brighter, Serenity thought in wonder. They were brighter before she took over the Dark Kingdom and built a second palace there… "If you had said something sooner, you would have saved the girl this trouble."

"Forgive me!"

Beryl's glistening teeth, gnashed together, resembled a smile as she stroked her niece's cheek affectionately. "You have nothing to fear. I just wish that the next time you want something you would come to me first…"

"I…"

"You don't need to apologize again. Do know that you must consult me first if there is anything you want."

"But can't have because you want, too?"

"You silly child, are you going to talk that way in front of all these people?"

Were they people? They all seemed like shadows from the damned that Beryl brought with her on her way back from the Dark Kingdom. Ever since she was little, when Serenity saw them, or sensed their presence, she received a dark, menacing vibe that was like a chokehold around her throat and a sharp icicle through her heart. They didn't seem like people to her. They seemed more like vessels molded by some dark, forbidden magic.

Beryl's lips covered her gnashing teeth again. "Every bit like your mother. So, you didn't enjoy my present to you?"

"Well, it was very thoughtful of you," Serenity said, her warm smile changing the mood in the slightest way. "Thank you."

"You're very welcomed."

Beryl turned on her heels, glancing back at the princess still on the floor. "You can help her pack her bags. Get that creature out of my sight. The weak have no place in my palace."

With a quick nod to no one in particular, Serenity hastily picked up the tattered cloth on the floor that used to be the girl's shirt and clumsily threw it over bloodied shoulders.

The girl spoke to Serenity through her cracked, bleeding lips. Her voice was faint and dying, but she took Serenity's hands and bled. "Thank you, Princess."

Serenity's glistening eyes fluttered close. And when she opened them, the girl was in her arms; cold, bare, and gone.

Serenity frantically looked up at her aunt, who was already leaving through the back hall. "Your Majesty!" Serenity shouted urgency evident in her breaking voice.

"It's tragic, Serenity."

"You cannot do anything for her?" Serenity asked, in her soft, childish, and incredibly small voice.

"I am leaving to go back to the Dark Kingdom, so I haven't a minute to spare."

Serenity hugged the girl to her and wept silently. A part of her was wishing Beryl would just turn around and look at this pitiful girl, but then again, another part of her was telling her that this girl was in a better place, done suffering.

Serenity sniffed, her eyes still half covered in the curls of the guard's limp, lifeless head. "When will you be coming home?"

"When my work there is done. Please, Serena. Stay in your room and wander less."

"You're plotting to destroy her… Sailor Moon, I mean."

"Now, that's nothing you should worry about, Child. You take care of your own things first." Beryl left, leaving her wishes with Serenity.

After Beryl left the Moon Kingdom, Serenity ordered a courier to send a message to the mother of the dead guard. Then, she organized a grand burial before she sought out Molly.

"I can't bear it. I'm leaving," Serenity said to her with that look of dead seriousness.

"Shouldn't you let Lita know about this?"

"And have her hold me back?"

"Princess… As much as I am opposed to you leaving, I know you're still going to leave, but what of The Queen? Have you notified her of your departure before she left?"

"I will return when she has."

"Princess…"

"It's not like it's my first time being gone for a couple of days."

"Yes, but by the sound of your voice, it seems that this time it's going to be longer."

"When I'm back, no one will even notice I was gone."

Molly gathered the other woman in the circle of her arms. "Please Serenity, be safe."

Serenity threw her cloak over head and fled from the palace.

Miles and miles away, Raye, who had been drinking green tea out of a cup stopped in mid sip when a crack suddenly spread from the lip.

Amy holding a daffodil watched stunned, as the flower wilted crisply in her sight.

Mina halted her horse from a gallop to a trot and wheeled around to face the direction of the palace.

Premonition… The ladies felt it like the fire, ice, or light that blazed, glistened, and sparkled in their bloodlines. It was just second nature when the signs pointed out to them that something wasn't right.

"Damn! That girl!" Lita screamed, slamming the door out of the kitchen as she stepped out, fuming. Molly teetered behind her, soap foam around her arms and on her apron. She had been scrubbing pots when Head Chef stormed in with a shout. "Where is she?!"

The look Molly gave her confirmed her suspicion.

"I can't believe her!"

"What are you going to do? What if Serenity returns?" Molly wailed frightfully, watching Lita leave the kitchen for the last time. The other girls left the same way, throwing their high lives over their shoulders for the slums. Just screaming and shouting that they all couldn't stand it anymore. Until only Mina and Lita were left. But Mina rarely hung around the palace too long, so Lita was really the last one. It would be no surprise that Lita would finally take her leave today. It was an impending fact.

"I'm going to find that girl and put her back in her place. From this day forward, I am Lita, the hunter," she said with venom in her voice. Her words echoed through the hall as she threw open the back doors and ran toward freedom. Dawn approached with her golden torch and red veil fluttering in the sky. Lita charged onward only stopping at the gates which were being drawn to bring in a train of new men acquired from the spoils of war. None of them properly fed or dressed for the past eight hours.

Eyes told a story; story of sorrow, story of contempt, story of honor, or story of glory. His eyes told the story of anguish and betrayal. That was all Lita saw in his soulful eyes as they dragged him by his chains. He was the tail of the new slaves that were dragged in for the Queen.

Head Chef's heart writhed with anguish, realizing that she could not feed these people. Her people. What kind of chef was she when she couldn't help satisfy the appetites of these hopeless men? The life she possessed in the palace was a stigma to who she was. She was not useless or worthless, she told herself, because she had a choice before her. With her own hands she could do so much more.

Lita glared at her clenched fists. These hands were not as strong as they had been in the past. In combat she used to be the best of the four inner senshi, but often she wondered where her place was now.

She was walking by the line when an electric shock gripped her. She realized she was at the end of the line, almost shoulder to shoulder, with the last slave that had caught her eye in the beginning. Slowly, she turned to look at him. Invisible strings pulled her glistening, forest green eyes toward his and there she saw the soul, raw, beaten, and famished in his dark chestnut eyes. Lita had to squeeze her eyes to calm the invading power of his emotions overwhelming her senses.

"How dare you make eye contact with the lady?!" Cried the guard on the other side of the slave. "Cast your eyes downward, you scum!" The guard turned to Lita with a toothless grin. She was only a girl, rough by the years of experience as a guard. "A thousand apologies, Milady. Let me whip him good for you."

"Enough!" Lita grated, grabbing the arm of the slave, feeling the crusted scars on his arms. She had been tantalized by his eyes for so long, she hadn't noticed the length of his tangled curls or the scars that marred his golden skin. The scars ran long and deep and Lita traced each one of them with her guilty eyes. Lita lowered her eyelids, in which the slave and the guard took as a sultry action. They already read her intentions by the lick she gave to her soft lips. "I want him," she said hoarsely.

"In your bed? Lady, he is but a mere worker."

"So?"

"He's strangely quiet. He almost bit off the finger of a guard!"

"Was he protecting someone?"

"A child—but he's so scarred."

"For protecting a child I suppose. Is this the kind of punishment you give to a likely man for my pleasures? Shall I report you to Queen Beryl?"

"Please don't…" The guard flinched.

Lita grabbed the man by the shackles around his wrists. "Unleash him."

The heavy metal clunked to the ground and left a dent in the grass.

"And if I ever hear you question my authority again be sure you will eat empty plates for a fortnight!" She swung around, flinging the string that held her burlap sack over her shoulder. Her hand was on the slave's elbow as she wheeled him around.

They took a turn behind a pillar and she pushed the man against the wall, throwing her sack to the floor momentarily. She was still riled and he couldn't understand why. Her emotions rolling out told him that she had been acting in front of the guards.

Her eyes roamed over his ravaged body as if measuring him. "Is the child yours?"

He shook his head.

"Female or male?"

He made a gesture with his hands, which Lita recognized as a sign for 'female.'

"You're a mute?"

He lifted his foot and showed her the tattoo of the letter 'F,' which stood for the word 'faulty.' Lita trembled at the sight of the red mark, holding back a hand that wanted to rub the damned thing off.

He moved his hands, telling her that he had been mute since birth. He only wanted to protect his niece, but they took her from him.

"I know where she is. Alborn Convent. Girls are usually taken there when they have been living with men."

His hands frantic, spoke to her, 'I don't know how to help her. I promised to protect her. I promised I would save her.'

"You can keep that promise. Just say that you'll help me get out as well."

'You are free and in no need of anyone's services. How can I help you?'

She snorted. "Free? I've been like a caged cougar almost all my life." She calmed herself, so not to give away their position. "Look we both need to get out and since I'm a woman I can give us the cover we need during our travels."

His fingers twitched in anticipation. 'What is your plan?'

Lita smiled ruefully as she snatched her sack in her hands again. Rummaging around, she found her hunting knife. The man watched as she tied her sack around her slim waist all the while gripping the blade between her teeth. Her hands jerked wildly as she worked quickly, covering the little time they had left to put her plan into action.

'What are you doing with that?' He was worried.

Lita took the deadly weapon out of her teeth and handed it to him. "You're going to hold it to my throat and we're going to step out of here."

He gave her a look of horror, his hands shaking too much to express himself.

"Oh, don't worry. They know me and they can't lose me. Without me, they'll be having mush for the rest of their lives, so they won't attack you. Don't worry, okay?"

'I don't hurt women.'

"You're not going to hurt me," she whispered angrily.

'I don't.'

"You…"

Footsteps sounded and Lita panicked. Thrusting the knife down her belt, she pushed the man against the wall hard. Her body eased against him as she twined her arms around his neck and stopped the fluttering of his hands below her chest. She pulled his head down and took possession of his shocked and opened mouth just around the time the guard whipped around their pillar.

"Milady, I'm sorry. I just wanted to let you know that this one is a mute! I heard from another guard… Oh my!"

Lita pulled away slowly and turned to the guard. "A little late in telling me. I am aware of that."

"I—I beg your pardon!"

"Off with you."

"Y—Yes…" She scuttled away.

Forest green met golden brown. The man's mouth was still hanging open from the hard exposure of the young woman's blooming innocence. He felt it; her bare innocence in front of him was there the moment her mouth touched his. It disappeared as rapidly as it came because she was a fighter and fighters don't get distracted.

Lita took the opportunity to proceed with her work. She seized his hand and slipped the dagger into his grasp. Without warning or word, she spun around until her back hit his hard chest. She was light, so he did not get the wind knocked out of him after getting hit by her three times already. Lita pulled his arm over her neck and dragged them out into the daylight. The guards and the slaves saw them at once.

Lita made gestures in front of her eyes and the man followed her lead. They edged to the gate, Lita being more wary than the slave.

"Halt! Do not harm her!" Cried one of the guards.

"Let him go!" Lita screamed, her own convincing terror reaching their ears.

"He will take you, Milady."

Lita wrenched her eyes close. "It matters not. Let him."

The gate opened. Lita's reassuring and demanding grip against his firm arm urged him onward. The slave dragged Lita all the way into the covers of the trees on the east side of the country. The two of them disappeared.