Sailor Moon "Betrayal of the Fifth Planet" By Koy Kragh (koyn@utdallas.edu) Chapter 4 - "The Vault" --- Disclaimer Sailor Moon is a great anime series, but it's not my idea. That credit goes to Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. The North American dub (and all rights to the series thereabouts) belong to DiC. I'm overjoyed that DiC is bringing the series back to NA, and I'm not attempting to infringe on their or anybody else's rights. This is a fictional story, any similarities between the characters in this story and any person/people living or dead are not my fault. --- Author's notes This will be one BIG story by the time I'm done. If you don't want to be reading TONS of chapters, then don't start this fanfic. You probably would have figured it out pretty quickly on your own, but I'm basing this story 1,000 years ago, in the Moon Kingdom. I haven't found much background/research material for this time-period in SM, so I made up.. er.. embellished a few things to add atmosphere. If you want to see a quick breakdown of what I envision the Sailor Moon past was like, then look in the MOONHIST.KOY file that should be available with this fanfic. One last thing . . . OK, say you read this, you like it/hate it/want to kill me, etc. Praise, comments, flames, snaps and the like can be sent to koyn@utdallas.edu. Death threats, curses, virii, etc. should be mailed to harf@moron.org. Marriage proposals can be sent to me, please include picture of Grand Cherokee. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 4 - "The Vault" Stale air fills the room. It presses in on him as much as the walls of the laboratory he has called home for the last week. A week? Has it already been a week? He isn't sure. His room is the Royal laboratory of the Moon Kingdom. Truth be told, it is not a small room, however after sitting in it for the last seven days he has started to feel closed in. Of course, the fact that no door leads to the lab and no window graces the walls does nothing to help. Because the laboratory holds the Kingdom's most treasured and dangerous magical artifacts, its location has been kept secret for centuries. Only the most trusted High-Mages and the King and Queen of the Moon Kingdom have ever known how to enter. The secret must be kept safe; many of the items within these walls pose such a threat they would be destroyed if anyone could figure out how. He scans the room once more, checking the spells of protection that enchant everything about him . . . Finally, he checks the many wards against detection and entrance. Each of these has been cast upon the four walls of the large room. He wonders why it only seems large when he's checking its protections. The wards are each marked with a glyph. Many of those who are uneducated in the Art believe the magic is within the glyph itself. He smiles to himself; fortunately, that's not true. If it were, then just anyone could copy the character onto some other object and enchant it as well. No, the glyphs are simply there to make identification easier. Often, nefarious or overly paranoid magi place the wrong glyph on an object to confuse others who try to identify the spells enchanting it. Sometimes, they don't put any glyph at all; however, since an object which is enchanted will announce itself as such to anyone who could identify it anyway, this is rarely done. Time for sleep, he thinks. He's beginning to ramble even in his thoughts. He crosses the room to his makeshift sleeping area and lies down, praying he will be able to hold off any invaders alone if they should ever find this place. --- Heather stands on one of the many balconies of the Royal Palace on Earth. Below her stretch miles of forest land filled with the most beautiful trees she has ever seen. She had never been off of Rona before she joined the resistance, but she fell in love with this planet's gorgeous landscapes as soon as she arrived for training. Unfortunately, she was only on Earth for a few weeks before her group moved to the planet's only moon to complete their training. Kieran had learned the Ronans were going to invade long before he would be ready. He couldn't get enough fully trained troops to the Moon in time, so he compensated with new troops still in training. He had hoped to have enough time to finish their training before they saw combat. The sudden attack by the Ronan Special Forces might have been expected if he had had competent troops surrounding him. Instead, the trainees almost got in the way. They scrambled for cover, adding to the confusion and hindering their defense. She shakes her head clear. She won't think of that right now. They are back on Earth and everything will be quiet for a while. She turns her attention back to the view outside. The balcony faces west and affords her a spectacular view of the sun setting behind the clouds. Earth has more natural moisture than all of the other planets, so its sunrises and sunsets are famous throughout the Kingdom. Still marveling at the many hues of yellow, red, and purple, she doesn't notice Kieran walk onto the balcony and stop just behind her. As the sun has almost set completely, she turns to leave the balcony and nearly steps into Kieran. Blushing, she mutters embarrassed apologies and backs away giving him space. However, he advances towards her, stopping when she has just enough space to remain comfortable. Secretly, she wishes he wouldn't stop but would take her into his arms. She looks up slowly and meets his gaze. She is surprised to see indecision in his eyes. She almost asks him what's wrong, but he speaks before she has a chance. "Heather. . .", he begins. "Yes?" she replies, wondering about his apparent uncertainty. "Heather," he continues, "I . . . I . . .". Suddenly, everything moves into slow-motion. Kieran steps forward and pulls her into an embrace. She gasps in surprise, but doesn't resist. "I love you," he says finally. "I love you," she says back. Time reverts to normal as they pull each other closer and the sun finally rests behind the distant horizon. "Heather. . .?" asks Kieran. "Kieran?" she asks back. "Heather?" he asks again. "Yes?" she asks, a little puzzled. "Heather?!" This voice is different. Groggy and more than a little disoriented, she sits up in her slightly reclined seat and turns to the voice. "Charlie?" she wonders out loud. "It's your turn to fly. We'll be getting close to Earth soon and you're going to have to be the one to land us, remember?" Fly? Land? Where was she? Slowly, she rubs the sleep from her eyes and looks around her. She's in the transport ship. Why did they get back in the transport? Suddenly, she remembers in painful clarity: they haven't landed on Earth yet, it was all a dream. "Ok," she replies to Charlie, "just give me a few minutes to wake up." "Ok." Smiling, he leaves the small area they have set up for sleeping. When he's gone, she hangs her head and considers crying. "It was so real," she says to herself. She dwells on the memory for a few moments before composing herself and rising to walk to the front of the ship. She pushes the dream to the back of her mind so she can function without bothering the others, but it bothers her a little. As she walks through the main cabin towards the pilot area she can't help but wonder about the dream's significance. True, she is in love with Kieran, but she has only told Nathan, and she knows he has kept it a secret. If she weren't Ronan she would probably disregard the dream as a product of her unrequited love. However, almost anyone who has had any magical training knows that dreams mean something. They aren't only windows into a person's soul, but often hold secret meanings of their own. Often, dreams will tell the future, but she had never had any premonitory dreams before and she doubted this was a simple augury. It deserved more thought, but she couldn't afford it right now. She had her work cut out for her just landing this thing. After their battle they had had enough time to check out the damage. Fortunately, the magical bubble that the craft travels in wasn't breached. Nothing made it through to the craft itself, and they were safe traveling through the Great Void. However, some of the magical energy from their attacker's shots had coursed through the magical channels that maintain the bubble and had wreaked havoc on the small talisman that made Void-travel possible. They could make it to Earth easy, they just wouldn't be able to land without a very skilled pilot. Fortunately, Heather was an excellent pilot, or at least that's what she'd been told. She wasn't entirely sure she would be able to bring them in safely, but she wouldn't say that in front of anyone. She sits down in the pilot's seat and begins making her preparations to land on Earth soon. --- "A rather odd bunch of captors, wouldn't you say, Artemis?" The two cats sit together in the Queen's sunroom. Light descends through the many windows and brightens the room. The bright furnishings in the room make the room seem cheerful, but the two occupants seem to resist its carefree promise. The white cat, Artemis, wonders on his companion's question. Turning to her, he asks, "Exactly what do you mean, Luna?" "For one thing, we aren't in the dungeon. They let us wander around the palace freely," she replies. "Daily life around here really hasn't changed much." "A prison is a prison, Luna," says Artemis. Looking towards the door, he jumps down from the window sill and begins to leave the room. "Artemis!" Luna calls after him. "Where are you going?" "To do a little of that wandering," he replies over his shoulder. "Maybe we can find out a little more about their plans." Turning to leave again he adds, "And we'll never help Queen Serenity sitting in the sun all day." --- "How long were you here before we captured the palace, Liam?" asks King Tor. He knows how long I was here, he thinks to himself. He just wants to rant about it again. Liam sighs to himself and then answers his King, "Almost a year, Your Majesty." "A year?" he asks in return. "You were here a year . . . as one of the Queen's most trusted advisors . . . and in that time, you could not discover the location of 'The Vault'?" Hmpf. "Sire, the location of the 'Royal Laboratory'," Liam stresses the true name of what has come to be known commonly as 'The Vault', "has been kept secret for centuries. The only way to enter the room is to teleport since there are no doors or windows leading in, and it's most likely far underground. However, to teleport, you must know the exact location of at least two points, your starting position and your destination. No mage has been able to divine the laboratory's location because the magical safeguards. . ." "Yes, yes," interrupts the King, "I know. The magical safeguards that enchant the room prevent its discovery. Even magi that have been taken there by their masters find they can not divine the information they would need to return. They can find landmarks of note, but they do not know how far away they are, or even which direction." Turning to face him, the King continues. "However, Liam, I knew all this before I sent you here. I was hoping that since you were in a position of trust so near the Queen you would be able to. . ." "Your Majesty," interrupts Liam. The King glowers at his audacity, and Liam almost finds himself hoping he hadn't spoken out of turn. No, he can't continue believing he did no wrong and placed me in a trusted position; that would just lead him to think I'm incompetent and he'd have me executed within the hour. "Sire, I apologize for interrupting you," at this, the King makes as if to speak again. He hurriedly adds before he is cut off, "However, I must inform you that my position was not so trusted as you think." "What do you mean?" asks the King skeptically. "I mean, I believe the Queen suspected me." King Tor laughs at this. Angered, but maintaining his composure for the moment, Liam continues, "Sire, you have brought up the fact that she never entrusted me with the location of the Royal Laboratory, even though I was her 'Prime Magical Advisor'. She would often exclude me from important meetings and she forbid me to accompany any of the Royal family to Earth. My communications to Rona were limited, and no doubt watched. I'm sure she didn't know the exact reason I was here, but she knew it was not for as benign a reason as you told her." At that moment, a servant enters the room and walks to King Tor. The servant looks a little like he isn't sure where he is, most likely because he still expects to see his Queen in charge. Liam smiles to himself. Well, these fools will have their precious Queen back soon enough. How long they will be able to keep her is another matter altogether. "Your M. . .Highness," starts the messenger. "Er . . . your son, the prince, he . . . there's a message for you from him." King Tor frowns at the man but dismisses him, "Thank you, I'll contact him from here." The man leaves, looking rather relieved Liam notices. "Liam, you may go as well," states the King. "We *will* talk about this again." "Yes, Your Majesty," he replies and walks out of the room. As he enters the hallway, he notices two small objects dart around a far corner. Those cats, what are they up to, and what did they hear? Smiling to himself he continues in the opposite direction, it doesn't matter. Even if they could know the Ronans' *true* plans there is nothing they could do about it. --- Minako looks out the window at the Void outside. She wonders how something that contains so much beauty could be called by such an unimpressive name. She wonders how the small hole covered with dirty glass to her right could be called a window. Smiling, she turns away; at least they're almost to Earth. Not that she minds so much being in such tight quarters with some of their new friends. The ex-prince, Kieran, is pretty cute. So is Charles, but she heard that he's spoken for. She turns back to the window, more to hide her face than to look outside. She wonders why she does that when she's thinking, almost as if the others could read her thoughts if they could see her eyes. If the Ronans could, she hoped they wouldn't without telling them first. She especially hoped no one had heard that thought about Kieran being cute. As true as it is, she really has no serious feelings about him. People are always confusing her thinking a guy is attractive with her being attracted *to* him. She sighs, then hits her head on the wall. Ouch! That hurt, maybe I should pay more at. . . Suddenly, her seat shifts sideways without her. That's odd. Looking around, she sees everyone else is looking around too, some of them rubbing their head or elbow. Kieran emerges from the rear of the ship and looks inquiringly at the pilot area. He walks towards the front of the ship, but the floor drops out from under him just before he gets there. He catches himself on the seat next to her and starts to regain his footing. Then, everything goes crazy. Noiselessly, the ship bounces in every direction. Well, not noiselessly. Everyone inside is making a lot of noise, but she would expect a loud "bump" sound or something when the ship bucks around. After a minute, at least it seemed like a minute, the ship stops hopping about. Kieran stands and smiles at her. Turning to face everyone else he asks, "Is everyone all right?" He gets several mumbled answers in response, but he nods his head as if he's satisfied. After knocking on the door he enters the pilot area where Heather has been flying them towards their destination. She can just hear them through the slightly open door in front of her. "What happened?" asks Kieran. "It looks like we took a bit more damage than we'd hoped," answers Heather. "The ship can't stay on the landing line." Landing line? Is that important? "Hmm. . ." Was that Kieran? "Well, what now?" he asks. There is silence for a moment, then Heather responds, sounding a little unsure, "Well, I'll just have to steer her in all the way." "You mean fly this thing all the way to the ground, without a landing line to guide you?" asks Kieran. Did he sound surprised, or scared? "Do you think you can get us down safely?" "I'm pretty sure," she answers. "I just can't guarantee we'll land where we were planning." After a second, Kieran says, "OK. I'll tell everyone to strap in as best they can and to expect a rough ride." The door to the pilot area opens and Kieran steps out. Before he closes the door, he leans back in and says good luck to Heather. Minako is too busy buckling herself into the seat to pay much attention to what he's saying to everyone else. "Man I wish Artemis was here," she says softly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ :] Thanks for reading! I'd like to thank all my pre-readers (especially those who actually gave me feedback: *THANKS*!). I'd also like to send a special thanks to Letha Pennington. She's helped me a lot while writing this, and she serves as a kind of editor on the side. I'm just sitting down to start writing on Chapter 5 now, so don't worry, it won't be *too* long before the next installment is ready. I'm going to be giving the scouts a larger part from here on, so don't give up on the story on that account. One last thing. I'm changing access soon, so the koyn@utdallas.edu email account will only work for another month or so. I have a Juno account: crayo@juno.com. As long as Juno is still around, I'll have that account. But when I move back home there isn't a local number, yet. I'll check the account, but not very regularly. Ja!