The Father of the Moon Princess
Episode 2:
A Threat to Crystal Tokyo
Year: 2215
The Forests North of Crystal Tokyo
It was difficult to see very far through the early morning mists which clung to the forest as if it were ever present. She relied upon sounds alone among her physical senses to warn herself of impending danger. The damp aroma of the forest made smelling anything but tree and soil difficult if not impossible, even for her enhanced senses. The mists took care of sight, and any warnings involving physical touch would probably mean it was too late. She did have a sense beyond what normal people had, yet it was more a spiritual feel rather than anything physical. Her senshi abilities could feel evil, even track it down if applied properly. It was a technique in which Sailor Mars had spent many weeks training her, deeming it valuable in the protection of Crystal Tokyo, which was her primary duty.
Sailor Umbriel guided her feet to soft, damp soil, as well as hard rocks as she made her way through the forest, effectively making her approach silent. She didn't feel very stealthy, in her senshi garb, dark blue skirt, white bodice, deep blue bows on front and back, along with the white gloves and the same dark blue tube trimming. Her hair was raven black, in stark contrast to the white mist enveloping her. The wetness in the air clung to her bare legs down to her boots, which rose to just below her knee. All in all, in made her feel very out of place.
But now was not the time to feel self-conscious. The dark presence was all around now, and she was investigating the whole area, unable to specify its point of origin. She absently touched the navy blue opal in the center of her golden tiara, hoping a desperate hope that it would help her focus her mind more. She and Sailor Mars had been tracking this presence for days through this forest, beginning when Her Majesty, Neo-Queen Serenity had told them of a dark presence she had felt in this area. The physical trail through the forest had been next to impossible to follow, but the trace signs along with their personal "spirit hound", as Mars liked to call it, had kept them close. Now finally, they had caught up to whoever or whatever was causing it.
Umbriel continued her progression until she reached the edge of a clearing, and stopped behind a tree. She looked back, but didn't see Mars anywhere. She hadn't seen or heard a trace from her since they'd split up hours ago. When she turned to face the clearing again, she gasped.
There was a figure in the center of the clearing, cloaking and hooded completely in black, rising out of the knee-high mists. There was no disturbance in the fog to show how he had gotten there so quickly. There was also a rather large broadsword strapped across the figure's back, with a sliver hilt laced with purple gemstones.
"Finally," it spoke with a male's voice, deep and rich. "I've been waiting for you to catch me for four days. I was beginning to think you were lost."
Umbriel looked around, not that there was anyone else for him to speak to, but she had a feeling of dread suddenly. When her eyes came back to the figure, his hood was down, revealing a very human face, with auburn hair and light beard. The cloak was thrown back behind his shoulders. He was about six foot tall, and was ruggedly handsome, but his cruel eyes betrayed his true essence.
"Come out," he said, raising a hand to her. "Let me have a look at my…pursuer." There was a mocking emphasis on the last word.
Umbriel came out from behind the tree and entered the clearing, heart pounding, her mind clenched, ready to call her power in a second's notice. Where is Mars??? She thought as she fought the fear welling up in her.
"Oh, you sure are a pretty one. Senshi obviously." He flashed a wicked grin. "I love the colors, though I would have enjoyed purple better."
"Who are you?" Umbriel asked as a chill rippled down her spine from his grin.
"I am Elethar," he said with a mockingly flamboyant bow, "though I doubt that means anything to you. I suppose it's only polite to let you know the name of your killer."
Umbriel's eyes widened and she took a step back.
He merely laughed, a deep, echoing laugh. "And pray tell, what is your name, girl?"
Her lips trembled as he stuttered the response, "I'm…Sailor Umbriel." Saying her name gave her a bit of courage and brought her out of her fearful paralysis. "I am here on behalf of Her Majesty, Neo-Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo. I demand you tell me why you are here, and what your intentions are."
He looked at her as if she had been speaking some unknown language. Then he smiled, making her shiver again. "Well, I am here to kill you and all senshi on this world, including, and most especially, your queen. Is that a sufficient explanation?"
With that he slowly began drawing the broadsword. The blade made a dreadful metallic ring as it slid out of the scabbard, as if proclaiming her impending death.
Well, girl, she thought to herself, this is what you've trained for. She extended her hands out to her sides, and shouted, "Umbriel Shadowveil!" The air around her seemed to split apart revealing a dark nothingness. Umbriel casually stepped though it, eyes locked on Elethar, a sly grin on her face. The tear then closed, and Elethar was alone in the clearing.
He smiled with astonishment, and then laughed with amusement. "A very cute trick, my dear. I've never seen anything quite like it." He narrowed his eyes, holding the sword down, in concentration. Then, with incredible speed, his fist lashed out to his left seemingly towards nothing. But it connected with flesh, and suddenly Umbriel was flying through the air. She landed at the base of a tree in a sitting position, dazed from the impact of the blow, a small trickle of blood tracing down from her lip.
"Not quite cute enough, though, I'm afraid," He said, no trace of a smile left on his face.
Umbriel managed to look up at him, in time to see a bolt of lightning released from his hand and strike her square in the chest. She cried out, pain searing through her body. She curled up into a ball, smothering the black blast mark just above her breast. She couldn't believe how much it had hurt.
Then she was aware of him standing above her, sword tip inches from her head. "I'm sorry, my dear. But we can't have little girls in skirts running around screwing up our plans, don't you agree? This planet must pay for its sins. You will all-"
Umbriel looked at his face, which had gone ashen, eyes distant. Now he was looking around, back and forth from tree to tree, confused and afraid. He backed up into the center of the clearing, whirling around, back and forth, looking desperately for…something. She struggled amidst the agonizing pain in her body to a sitting position, and had to steady herself as her head began to swim, and her vision blur. She shook her head to try and stay conscious.
In an instant, Elethar raised his sword above his head in a defensive posture, a split second before a large black mass descended upon him from above. There was a clash of metal, a bright spark, and the new figure rolled to the edge of the clearing, holding its own broadsword. Did things just get better of worse? She thought to herself amidst her dizziness.
The new figure was an enormous…man, she supposed. Towering even over Elethar. He wore the same black cloak, hooded and wrapped in it. Yet one arm and hand emerged holding a similar sword, except that the hilt stones were sapphires, or at least were blue like sapphires.
After they stared at each other for a moment, Elethar regained his composure and spoke, "You missed. I'm surprised the great Hunter would be so careless."
"That can be remedied right now, Elethar," spoke the new figure. His voice was deep and firm, and put Umbriel strangely at ease. "I've tracked you for months now, you won't escape me this time."
Elethar glanced at Umbriel. "We'll see."
With that, the new figure charged Elethar. Their blades clashed, and Elethar was driven back, barely able to deflect the vicious onslaught. He dodged and weaved, but was unable to escape the new terror assaulting him. Umbriel had never before in her life seen anyone move so fast as those two did in this…duel. Even when she had seen Sailors Jupiter and Mars sparring, they had not been quite as fast.
She finally arose to her feet, and saw the new man about to strike Elethar down. But at the last second, he let loose fireballs from his eyes, and the man with the blue-gem hilt was hurled back, smoking. Elethar laughed.
"You see? I still have some tricks up my sleeve." He looked at Umbriel. "Now, to finish what I started."
Umbriel gasped lightly, still weak and shocked from the first bolt he had delivered. He raised his hand, but was suddenly himself engulfed in fire…red fire. Umbriel looked for its source, and there stood Sailor Mars, hands extended, with more fire on her fingertips at the ready. A look of grim concentration on her face.
Elethar scowled as he casually brushed the fire away from his smoking body. The second figure rose, sword at the ready. "It's getting crowded here," he said.
"I can fix that for you," said Mars, the fire on her hands blazing brighter.
Elethar merely laughed again, and his robe burst into flames in a bright flash of light and heat, a fraction of a second before the other man's sword cut through it. But Elethar had vanished in the flash, and his cloak collapsed to the ground, empty. There was a awful silence that followed, in which nobody spoke or moved.
"Sailor Mars," Umbriel said weakly, breaking the silence, and her teacher was soon at her side, supporting her. They both looked at the other remaining figure in the clearing.
He looked longingly into the forest after Elethar, but then turned to face the two senshi, eyes glowing a deep blue, almost as deep as Umbriel's skirt. After a moment, he sheathed his sword, and drew back his hood. Umbriel and Mars gasped.
He looked like a gaijin version Neo Queen Serenity, but just barely. There was the same look to his face, but much more rugged and lacking any Japanese features. They both wrote it off as a unusual coincidence. After all, she was very tall also, though not nearing the six and a half foot tower of this man. His hair was very pale blond like the queen's, and his eyes, once the glow in them dimmed to nothing, were blue as pure sapphires. They held a cold unforgivingness, but lacked the cruelty of Elethar's eyes. The two senshi swallowed hard, though Mars held his hard gaze with a tough-as-nails look of her own. He shifted his gaze to Umbriel.
"Are you alright?" he asked, the coldness in his eyes replaced with a genuine concern.
"Yeah, fine," Umbriel lied, and her legs started wobbling again.
In a flash, he was at her side, but Mars got between them. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked in a threatening tone.
"My name is Michael. I'm a friend to the senshi. Please let me help her," he looked at her closely. "Most people would be dead by now from a wound like that."
Mars looked at Umbriel's wound, then suspiciously at Michael. Reluctantly, she nodded.
"Good, lay her down. Slowly, that's right. Okay, just relax Sailor Umbriel."
She looked into his eyes, fearful and glazed over. He smiled a faint smile. He put his hand on her wound, just above her right breast, and closed his eyes. Mars looked on, ready to incinerate this man at the first sign of trouble.
Umbriel felt warm suddenly, and felt a slight stinging in her chest. Then, for a moment, it intensified, and she gasped.
Mars grabbed the man, and hurled him back, looking with concern at Umbriel. "If you've hurt her-"
But she stopped as she saw the smooth skin below the burned hole in Umbriel's bodice. The previously blackened skin was now healed, if only slightly scarred.
Michael stood up, brushing himself off casually. "I'm sorry about the scar. My healing powers are not as perfect as Sailor Saturn's. But I suppose it will have to do."
As she stood, Umbriel absently put her hand over her burned fuku, looking with gratefulness at the black-cloaked man before her. "Who are you?" she asked in a trembling voice.
He smiled. "I told, you. I'm Michael. But you can think of me as…a Hunter."
"Hunter?" repeated Mars.
"Yes. I've been hunting Elethar and his kind for…a long time now," his eyes became distant. "But now he has come to Earth, and wants to eliminate all senshi from this world."
"Why?" said Mars, confusion written on her face.
He opened his mouth to speak, then stopped and smiled his faint smile again. "All in good time, old friend." Mars frowned at that. "But for now I must make sure Elethar has fled for good. I will see you all again at the palace. Tell them to expect me, I have much to tell you and my…your queen." He paused and looked at Mars once again and said with a slight bow, "My lady."
But then there was a blur, and he flashed into the forests behind it, the sounds of his super-fast footsteps trailing off quickly. Mars and Umbriel stood there for a moment, letting the events of the past few minutes soak in as reality.
Umbriel spoke first, "What…the hell-"
"I don't know," Mars interrupted, her eyes once again hard as stone again. "But I think we'd better get to the palace…fast."
Umbriel nodded, and they left the clearing at a run towards their air-car.
The following day, in the throne room of the Crystal Palace, Mars was gave her report to the queen and as much of the royal court as was present in Crystal Tokyo at the time, as the last order of business for the day. Sailors Mercury, Venus, Pluto, and Saturn were scattered to either side of the Crystal Thrones, on which sat King Endymion and the ruler of Earth, Neo-Queen Serenity. Jupiter and the cats were supervising the latest relief efforts in North America, and Uranus and Neptune were on vacation somewhere in Australia. Pluto's presence was ominous, and Mars did not know why she would need to be here. Although she did have to admit the events of the previous day were potentially…important. Though how Pluto could be involved was beyond her.
"So," she said as she concluded her report, "you can see that other than their names and descriptions, we have no idea who or what they are. They seem to have certain magical abilities, although they were different than any senshi magic I've seen. It was more like Dark Moon or Dark Kingdom magic than anything else."
Mars heard the young Sailor Umbriel shift uncomfortably behind her. This wasn't the young senshi's first time before the Thrones, but it was always intimidating to be in the presence of the queen. At least, it was so for everyone except the planetary senshi, who had known her for over two hundred years or so.
"Do you think they pose a threat, then?" asked the queen.
Mars nodded, but with uncertainty. "I would say yes, considering the fact that the one named Elethar seemed to shrug off our attacks like they were nothing."
"And the other?"
"He…," Mars hesitated. The man called Michael had called her "old friend" and "My lady", and it made her very uncomfortable for some reason. Sure, he'd saved she and Umbriel, but it could have been a ploy to put them at ease, for all she knew. "I really don't know. He saved us, but was reluctant to tell us anything. I think all sections should be put on alert, though, considering he said he would be coming to the palace soon, and we don't know his intentions."
"Very well," said Serenity. "Notify all station heads to be on the lookout for this man. But please, don't do anything rash. I would like to talk to him before you fry him, okay Mars?" She had a hint of a smile on her face.
"If you say so, Serenity," replied Mars with reservation in her voice. The casual address was something Serenity had demanded from the day she became queen, though only Endymion and the planet senshi could exercise it.
After that, they were all dismissed, and the senshi all departed to their duty stations, or their homes, depending on whether or not their shifts were over. For Mars, she went to her office adjacent to the entry way before the throne room. There, she plopped down in her chair, and leaned it back, staring at the ceiling. As head of palace security, she had many things to think about, but for some reason, she couldn't get this Michael character out of her mind. She'd seen his eyes when he'd looked at her for the first time, and it was…shock mixed with awe. Like he had just seen a ghost. Had she met him before? No. She would have remembered an imposing figure like that. He was…striking at first glance.
She shook her head. A wolf in sheep's clothing, she thought to herself. Those eyes of his had betrayed a certain darkness about him that scared her a little, and it took a whole lot to scare Sailor Mars. And why in the world did he call her "My lady"? No one had ever called her that before. Still, it had seemed quite complementary.
She returned her gaze to her desk and the myriad of papers there. She had more important things to do than moon over some mysterious man in black. Either he would arrive, or he wouldn't. If he did, she'd deal with him. And that was that.
It was a few hours later, and The King and Queen were gazing across the dining table into each others' eyes. The dinner recently finished, they had caught each other in a glance which neither dared turn away from. It was one of those where all time and events outside were calmly ignored, and there was only the presence of the other. Considering who they were, it was not often that they could push all outside events aside, and focus only on the one each had married.
Endymion was the first to break the frozen moment, as he calmly rose, and walked around the table, never removing his eyes from her glorious blue counterparts. He held her hand to her, which she promptly took, a gleam in her eyes. Once she was standing, he swiftly swept her off her feet, and carried her in the direction of the royal apartment. Once through the long hallway connecting the dining hall with their private room, he laid her down onto the bed, and kissed her.
This was something of a rare thing with the two of them. While their marriage had been relatively new-the first fifty years or so-the physical aspects of their marriage were no problem at all. But as time rolled on, and ruling became more and more time and energy consuming for Serenity, that part of their relationship had decreased in frequency. Of course, that made nights like tonight much more enjoyable, and very rewarding.
Endymion was still kissing her, when the security light on her nightstand flashed, and there was a buzzing to announce an incoming call. The king pulled away with a scowl, as Serenity reached over and slapped the reply button rather hard. "Not now, Mars."
"But Serenity, you wanted to be informed immediately when he arrived."
He grabbed her hand and began to kiss up her arm slowly, making her giggle.
"Well what does he want?" she asked followed by another giggle.
Mars paused. "He wants to meet with you."
Endymion was now looking at her with an impish grin, and one eyebrow raised suggestively.
"Tell him he can wait till tomorrow," was the queen's reply, and she hit the OFF button. She then proceeded to concentrate on her one true love, and for quite some time at that.
Mars replaced the headset on the reception desk, and turned to tell Michael the news. But she realized that he had somehow already heard it, even across the room. He looked relieved of a burden, like the executioner had just given him one more day to live.
"Well," she told him, "I can arrange for you to have a room at a hotel if you don't have a place to stay."
After a glance at the two guarding senshi flanking him, he looked at Mars with those cold, blue eyes which somehow managed to fit a kindness into them somewhere. "It's no problem, I'll wait here until she's…ready."
Mars blushed a little, and heard Serenity's giggling in her mind. "It's many hours till morning, I can't have you hanging around here until the sun comes up."
"Why not?"
She balked at that. "Well, for one thing, that sword of yours will frighten the people who work here."
He smiled slightly, and his cold eyes had softened considerably. "Then what would you suggest?"
Mars looked at him for a moment, as if deciding something. "Well, since my shift is over, my office is right around the corner, so you can crash on the couch in there. Don't worry, I don't keep anything valuable or top secret in there, so it's okay."
Michael nodded his head in acceptance. "That's very kind of you, thank you. I'll cause no trouble, My Lady."
She smiled warmly back at him, masking the scowl she really wanted to show, and motioned him to follow her down a short side hallway. There they reached her office and she motioned him inside. "I'll see you in the morning," she said with a sly grin, and shut the door quickly. The reason she had picked her office was that it was one of the places of last resort in the palace. That is, it could be sealed off with he queen inside in case of the most dire of emergencies. Mars flipped a few switches so that he couldn't open the door from the inside. She grinned again.
As she turned to walk away, she thought she heard amused laughter coming from inside the office, as the big man finally realized how gullible he had just been.
[Next: A titanic battle ensues]
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