-=Chapter Four: Forgotten History! The Sun's Mysterious Past=-
"You are out of your place in Time."
The silence that surrounded Pluto's pronouncement was as heavy as a death knell's tolling. The air itself seemed to stop, every breath held in the chest against exhaling as if something would shatter, the wind gone as even Uranus seemed unable to speak. The world fell away from Pluto and SunHeart, the two simply staring at each other as if they were the sum of existence, the only things in the park, in Japan, or on earth. They stared at each other with eyes cloaked with shadows and secrets; Pluto tried to understand this mystery before her, SunHeart tried to judge how damaging Pluto's words were. Neither moved, neither spoke, time only existing as they waited for each other to decide - the silence dragging on it had to be broken; Uranus moved forward, a twig snapping under the flat of her boot. It rang out in the clearing and every senshi seemed to unfreeze then, SunHeart drawing her arms up into a defensive stance while Pluto's staff glowed menacingly once more. "Pluto," Uranus forced the senshi of Time's attention back to this plane with her words, "What can you possibly mean?""What she means," SunHeart interrupted, her voice equal parts mocking and hesitant, not liking the fact that she had to explain anything to senshi she wanted to get help from, "is the time of the Sun ended - long ago. Long ago, when the Moon and the Sun were both alive, when you were wrapped up in swaddling clothes and held to your first mother's breast to suckle, the Sun's time ended." Her blue eyes met Pluto's startled ones, lips twisting up into a cold smirk. "I wasn't reborn."
Three simple words.
Senshi were always reborn when they died, their souls sent to the cauldron. Uranus was reborn, Saturn was reborn, Neptune was reborn. Their beloved Princess, their sole reason for existing, was reborn. Senshi lived, fought, died, and were reborn to continue their eternal duties. Three words shook up everything Pluto knew - or thought she had known - about the demise of the solar kingdom, ripped it apart and jumped on the broken pieces.
Pluto stared at SunHeart in utter shock now, looking at - yes, it had to be her. The red hair, the blue eyes - it struck her, suddenly, how much like her royal-self SunHeart looked as the memories assaulted the senshi of Time's mind like a surging river. The similarities of a senshi to their past self always were present but it was something that was clouded from memory, usually to protect the senshi. And in the case of a Princess and Heir of a Kingdom, to protect their life; look at the problems the Dark Kingdom had gone through to get at the ginzuishou when Serenity was reborn and awakened a handful of years ago. And just like the Moon, the Sun had its own power-
"It's... impossible..." she choked out, hand gripping the staff tightly against the memories, the butt of it dug into the ground to transform it, momentarily, into an anchor. "Helios...you, you vanished. Died . You must have. Your Kingdom crumbled under their assault..." The other Outers were momentarily confused at the name - Small Lady had told Saturn of the Guardian of Elysion, Helios, and this surely wasn't him . A vague memory floated up in the maelstrom that the names had caused problems before, too, trickery and mix-ups between the kingdoms. Something teased at the edge of Uranus' mind but that flitted away before she could grasp it.
If the Princess, the Heir, died then the Kingdom fell. With no Heir to take up the Throne after the King's death the Sun Kingdom had broken apart like a, air-riddled rock thrown against the wall. The Princess had to have been dead for that to have happened, she must have been dead. It was impossible any other way but her words - she hadn't been reborn - meant that something else entirely had happened. Against all reason Pluto believed SunHeart when she said she hadn't been reborn. What had happened in the past? Even as some memories from that era surfaced Pluto knew that most of them were lost or hidden, tucked away as remnants of a bygone era. Pluto also knew that the secrets of the Sun were just as well hidden but they were held in the hands of its Heir. An Heir who somehow, against all reason and precedence, stood before them.
----
Three years old and already precocious Helios toddled up to the crib in which her baby sister had been placed, wide blue eyes looking somber as she peered down at her sister. There were a few curls of pale blonde hair on her head and, although she was asleep, Helios had overheard that the little princess had blue eyes like her. A sister - a little baby sister she could take care of! And maybe now everyone would stop whispering when they didn't know she was nearby. She was almost four - she was old enough to guess they were talking about her, hushing up as she came near and whispering once she was past earshot.
She wasn't stupid, after all. There'd been a spot on their beloved Sun when she was born, she heard. The Sun was a superstitious Kingdom so when the omen of a spot on her birth was heard - well, people were scared. Her mum had always told her the truth too, especially when she'd first seen her mum getting rounder and asked. She'd said that she was having a sister for her, to stop the rumors. And when her little sister was born the sun-in-glory that had been on her brow (which she tried to rub off once, thinking she had been playing in the sand too long) had vanished, leaving a little tiny Sun. Long red hair spilled over her shoulder and tickled her cheek, nose almost twitching as she looked at her baby sister.
Her baby sister had the Sun's Heir mark. Helios might not know what 'Heir' really meant but she knew the different family marks. Hers, a little sun, meant she was a Princess. Which meant she had a team of nurses, a play room she would hopefully be able to share with her sister, and a bevy of tutors. She always had someone telling her to put on a frock, comb her hair, and to not run through the hallways but walk sedately (which she guessed meant slower - she never listened to that command). Her sister's, the sun-in-glory which sparkled and shone, meant she'd have even more. More tutors, the ones that had been her tutors until her baby sister's birth, would start teaching her stuff from the moment she could really pay attention.
Helios hoped little baby Helia would have time, between everything else, to play though. She already knew all the best hiding places across the Palace's nursery wing so when she could get her sister to play with her they could avoid tutors together and have fun. A little hand reached down, tipping up to the top of her toes as she awkwardly patted Princess Helia's cheek, the baby cooing in her sleep and Helios giving a wide, happy smile to the babe. She was really looking forward to being the elder sister, giving Helia tips and teaching her how to look at an adult and get out of any punishment.
Years went by in their slow pace, Helios growing up to be a rambunctious Princess who shunned dresses and finally came up with a formal enough pants ensemble that she attended functions wearing it. There'd been a very brief period during the terrible time she was five when, as a way of rebelling against dresses, she'd snuck into the Guardsmen's quartermaster's stocks and had been found in a Royal Palace uniform trying to wrestle a sword taller than she was. It beat Helia's attempt to copy her, a few years later, when the normally well-behaved Princess suddenly declared dresses were "stupid" and tried to go without dresses entirely. But Helia was missing some of Helios' spunk so had instead simply tried to steal her sister's clothes. The princesses nurses traded stories about their charges as often as the princesses themselves did, from the easiest ways to get Helia to betray their hidden location when the pair decided to skip lessons (Helios always took the blame for instigating it - Helios tended to take all the blame for any time the pair stepped out of line even when Helia was obviously the one who'd started it. The habit was considered endearing though so the nurses just gave a smile, a chuckle, and the two skipped out of punishments) to the ways which the often hellion Helios could be tamed to obey her instructors long enough to complete a lesson.
The pair, for all of the whispered snubs that followed the elder princess, were fast friends. Helia defended her elder sister to the other children at Court when the subject came up with Helia insisting that Helios, for all of her pants-wearing oddity, would make a better Heir. They were loyal to each other in ways that no one in the Kingdom expected but it was a loyalty which brightened the Court and the Palace to hear and see it demonstrated. The people had worried that the birth of the younger Heir would make the elder princess bitter but Helios laughed it off. The Kingdom favored the honey-haired Princess because every omen at her birth had been positive. Helios, when asked, just seemed confused that anyone would think she wanted to be the Heir.
Their mother, Lady of the Sun and her most Royal Majesty Queen Lianda just smiled at her girls, giving each of them a hug and a pat on the head. "I'm told by your tutors that you ran off again," she informed the pair with a smile, kneeling down so that the girls could give her a hug. For all her regal bearing Lianda remembered the exasperation of her tutors and how her head nurse, a wonderfully dotting nana she'd called lady Ruler for three years running, had said she hoped her own children were just as unruly. "Now I'm supposed to give you a lecture about regal bearing and manners and how you're supposed to behave well enough to mind your lessons but," Lianda's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, forehead resting against her daughter's and a mass of hair draping the lot of them to hide them from the world, "I always did it too. I'll let your father give you the lecture instead." The girls groaned with cries of "Mama!" at that, knowing that the King would give a long lecture they'd have to fidget through. They loved their father but he could prattle on for ages and turn even a wonderfully exciting battle into a droll exercise in history.
"Maybe next time," she stood up, smoothing her dress with an impish grin on her face, "you'll mind your lessons?" The triumph of the two bowing their heads, a chorus of "yes Mother," from them (they had such beautiful voices), was a sweeter victory than any her nana got from her lips. At eight and five respectively the girls were a curious mix of her, their father, and their own selves with the red-headed Helios more straightforward in a manner that made the Court wince. Helia was escorted everywhere by her sister and they often acted alike but Helia's own personality - a soft, sweet demeanor that would fit in just as well at the Moon's Court as it did at the Sun's - was asserting itself.
Their teen years, the Queen mused, would be hell.
Maybe she should visit her Royal Cousin when they hit puberty.
----
"PRINCESS!"
The shout rang out across the courtyard and two fleeing girls winced and stopped, slippers scuffing along the floor. One girl fidgeted more, looking guilty and lips pursed in defiance. The other girl folded her arms at her waist and tilted her head back, rebellion in every part of her posture. "Which one," Helios asked, elbowing her sister to stop her from trying to flee now that they'd been caught. Besides, she looked around with an amused glance, the five Palace Guards had caught up with them and the head Guard of the Palace, her two swords clinking against her back, was walking up to them.
Must have been Lorana who'd actually shouted, then, as the Guardsman rolled her eyes at the pair's stances. Helios was her usual self - every time she got caught doing something wrong she just pulled a regal bearing and wore it like a cloak. Where this bearing was during Court appearance was anyone's guess since, when she wanted to, she acted with the righteous fury that her mother had and comported herself flawlessly. If she didn't know the Princess better she'd have thought it was out drinking but Helios was nothing if not (to a large extent) rule-abiding, lessons notwithstanding. Helia at her left was like any guilty thirteen year old looking for a way out, holding her place next to her sister out of habit. And these were what she had to work with? What she had to guard? It was enough to make her weep for the future of the Sun. "Both of you," she finally answered after watching Helia fidget and Helios' tempter start to rise.
"What do you want," Helios answered warily, rocking on her heels like she was starting to consider her sister's idea of running away. "We were just-"
"Skipping out on lessons with your senshi," the Guard interjected smoothly, hand falling to one of her sword hilts in a mild threat. She would never actually draw her swords on the pair but sometimes they needed to be reminded that she was, in fact, armed.
"They're not my senshi," Helios returned angrily, jaw jutting out in blatant aggravation now. Helia stood up straighter while laying a pacifying hand on her sister's arm with a sigh.
"Actually Princess they still are your senshi," the woman replied, pinching the bridge of her nose. Helios had managed to hit upon the notion that since she wasn't the Heir the senshi of the Sun, and training with them, were outside of her required duties. Lorana wasn't quite sure what she actually considered her "duties" now that she'd reached the age of sixteen but she had her suspicions they equated to "help my sister with whatever she wants" and "keep the floosie from bothering my sister" and perhaps a bit of mayhem. Tight security on the Palace somehow meant nothing when it came to keeping track of Helios who could vanish from notice - and subsequently the Palace grounds - at the drop of a hat for hours on end. It'd have been worrying to the head of the Palace's security if Helios' loyalty to her sister was questionable but since nothing ever happened, and Helios returned whenever her sister called for her, she kept her lips pressed tight on the former heir's vanishing acts.
She had a feeling that even if she tried to keep Helios' feet nailed to the Palace she'd slip out anyways. Lorana had enough pointless losing battles that she fought on a daily basis - she didn't need to add another to her retinue.
"They don't want to work with me anyways, Lorana," Helios offered, shifting her weight and rocking one heel back.
"I didn't think they'd spent enough time in your company to know you that well," the woman retorted with a raised brow. Lorana ignored the way Helios' mouth dropped open in shock and the growing storm Helia's eyes were promising - she could get away with an attitude like this one. She held up a hand to forestall the pair's rebukes. "Princess Helia - you know you need to work with your guards in preparation for the Royal Ball and the ceremonies. Princess Helios - you shouldn't encourage or drag your sister away from her lessons. If you want to traipse around the city unescorted you seem skilled enough to do it on your own." She noticed the flash in Helios' eyes after her words and the way the elder girl looked away guiltily. Ah-ha, so that is what you were going to be doing! The tiny bit of guilt would keep the two in line as well as real threats possibly.
Maybe this time it'd be enough.
With Helios, at least, one could never be certain.
----
Shifting her weight uneasily Lorana let a hand drop to the hilts of her swords. An ill wind blew through the gardens bringing with it a sense of unease, a chill of foreboding which hung around her and bore down on her shoulders like a mantle. The day was bright and warm, the moon's light beaming down like a gentle smile and yet- something was stirring. She sniffed, almost thinking it was a palpable scent that she could catch on the wind - but that was preposterous. The only odor which came to her attention was the distinct reek of... a tavern?
Red hair, bright blue eyes - and garb which would make her mother shriek if she caught it. Luckily for the errant Helios her lady-mother was occupied with arranging a marriage for her dear sister so was unlikely to catch her eldest in a low-cut bodice, coarse shirt, and skirts hiked high enough to show the fit leggings she wore underneath. The scent of ale hung around her like a poor man's perfume but when she met the guardswoman's eyes they were hard, bright - but clear. The breath she'd been holding was released - at least the princess hadn't been gallivanting around the city drunk.
"What do you think you were doing," she challenged, once the teenager had entered the Palace's grounds and approached her. "Unescorted, dressed like a common tavern worker - what would your mother say if she saw you now?" Lorana's voice was hard, biting, but for once Helios' eyes didn't flinch and her expression, a defiant set of lips and brow that Lorana had seen before; Helios seemed... different, as Lorana examined her, her trained eyes spotting red knuckles and chipped nails.
"If Mother saw me," Helios replied, hands tugging the string holding her tunic closed near her neck, "she wouldn't recognize me. And even if she did she has Helia - I don't go to Court, I didn't get fostered out. Mother might even have a few tips on getting my look more real but now that I've been in the city I think I can manage it myself." Her lips turned up into a smile, head tilted back as she looked up at the royal guard. She didn't seem the least bit intimidated by Lorana's double swords, her dagger, her position - none of it seemed to phase the princess. "I've been going to the city for weeks, Lorana - and nothing's happened."
Quick as a viper Lorana grabbed Helios' wrist, and yanked her hand out, holding up the red, darkening knuckles. Her brow lifted at the red trapped under her nails and her expression held every unspoken question. Helios knew better than to try and break her grip and gave a one-armed shrug, her innocent expression trying - and failing - to lessen the triumph that shone in her eyes. "One of the men was a bit drunk and tried to take... liberties." Lorana's hand tightening in reflexive shock. "I showed him it wasn't a good idea to try that on me." She was cocky then, so sure of her self - and Lorana had no idea where she'd learned the low skill of fist fighting. She knew that Helios had learned a rather remarkable assortment of skills, beyond the normal dancing and tea making arts that princesses were taught, but she never had really though the teen had learned to fight anything. Aside from the magical training with the Sun's senshi, Helios never seemed remarkably adept with the more physical side of combat.
With the woman distracted Helios gave her hand a twist and a yank, smoothing her skirts and starting to pull out the lacing of her bodice, taking a tiny step back. "Helia's the proper princess, remember?" Her voice was teasing, as light-hearted as she ever was; she left the bodice half tied to keep the voluminous shirt under control but dropped the skirt and stepped out of it. "Once I stopped causing trouble around the grounds here I explored the city - and even you have to have noticed that things have been running smoothly around here." Helios' eyes dropped and her mouth tightened with a hint of anger, grabbing the discarded skirt rather violently and folding it up. "Everything runs better around here when I take leave - no whispers, no disgruntled couriers, no rumors, no ministers suggesting I'm going to cause havoc." Blue eyes looked up at Lorana and saw a guilty agreement with her words.
"I thought so," she muttered, walking past the stunned woman.
Lorana remembered the conversation every night for five years, always asking one rhetorical question: if she had disagreed with the princess then would that have stopped Helios from disappearing? It took the Palace and Royal Family an entire two days to realize that Helios hadn't just gone off on a little trip and by the time they started looking for her in the city they could find no trace of her passage left. The eldest princess, second in line for the throne, was gone. The Court was informed that due to an accident Helios had died.
----
Three years after the mysterious death of Helios life in the kingdom had moved on. Helia, two months from her nuptials with her beloved prince, had finally tossed aside the funk that she had sunken in to with her sister's death - for two years the Court had watched Helia shrink under her grief, convinced that she could have done something, said something - or found her before she'd truly vanished. For the Court, the entire kingdom mourned for a year. The royal family, it was remarked more than once, seemed to cling to their grief. Whispers around the kingdom said that the common folk and most of the nobles were happy with the troublesome princess' death - the omens obviously were wrong. She didn't bring terror and destruction to her kingdom but instead a grief that nearly crushed her younger sister.
Helia laughingly dismissed her guards, sending her senshi away with a promise that if anything in the woods even looked at her with an offensively cocked ear she would summon them. Two months before marriage, she declared, meant that she wanted to keep the private times when she snuck away riding alive. She told her guards where she would ride, how long she would be gone - and then begged so tearfully that even strict Lorana let the princess mount and ride off unescorted. It was so rare, they all decided, for Helia to be this happy - they would give her a few hours away.
Head and body bent against the back of her horse's neck, Helia rode like a woman born to the saddle, directing her mare deep into the woods for over an hour. Expertly she weaved her way deep into the woods until the trees broke to a wide, secluded clearing. There was a great tree towering in the center of the expansive circle of grass and in its shadow a stump that, if the person sitting on it was to be believed, was an excellent chair. Her horse slowed as she approached the sitting figure, Helia sliding off the saddle and tossing the reins over her mount's back.
Bright blue eyes were crinkled with a smile, a few strands of red hair slipping out from under her cap, managing to look incredibly non-descript in loose trousers, slippers, and a loose shirt. Jumping off the stump the person ran forward, wrapping strong arms around the still-younger woman. "You look good, sister," Helios teased, pulling back to stare eye-to-eye with her sibling. "None of that depressed air! Good, I had worried that maybe you weren't happy with the Prince Mother is marrying you off to but you seem to be well."
Helia felt an odd sort of presence clinging to her sister now as she listened to her babble on, answering every question about her beloved Prince with a smile and a laugh but otherwise just listening, taking in the rare sight she had before her. The last time Helios had sent word that she would be in the city had been six months ago and she'd only seen her older sister three times since she'd left, including this surprise visit. Wherever it was Helios had gone to she didn't seem inclined to leave all that often but as Helia drank in her fill of the sight of her sister, she knew that she was happy in whatever place she'd found. Just as Helia's life was finally heading towards a way to give her happiness, Helios seemed to have found a place minus the whispers and rumors - she had no shadows under her eyes and she carried herself as confidently as any queen. The sight warmed her little sister's heart, remembering the days leading up to her disappearance.
"And you, Helios - you look good as well." Her eyes narrowed, sticking her tongue out at her sib who had broken off her questions for a peal of laughter. "If a bit thinner! Are you eating enough?" Her arms folded and she tapped her foot in the grass, waiting for a reply.
"I'm fine, sister-mine," Helios reached out and ruffled Helia's hair, laughing, "I've just been learning a lot - you know how I get, a bit focused. I'll do better next time, sister-mine, I promise - once my study is done I have a long break scheduled." Helia pursed her lips, looking like she wanted to ask for more information but the questions never came - even though Helios knew that her sister wanted to know where she had gone to. If she was unlucky the rumor-mill they called a Court would soon start to talk about it... Ah well, she'd deal with that when the time came.
The warm light kept the clearing lit while they chatted, time passing while they managed to catch up the events of the past six months in their hidden little grove. Nothing seemed to disturb them while they talked and then, hiking her skirts up, Helia reluctantly looked back towards the woods. She could feel in her bones that their time today was up again - her mare had meandered back to her side, nose butting her in the back like a living alarm, tail swishing to bat away gnats while she silently instructed her human to mount up again. With a heave, and a helping hand from Helios, Helia climbed back into the saddle, gently rounding her mare back to look at her sister. "Will you ride back at least part of the way with me," she begged, that odd feeling returning - a heaviness in her heart, perhaps?
Helios seemed to have felt something - instead of arguing about it, going on how she might be seen, she put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. A black stallion, dappled with dark brown and a white blaze star down his nose lumbered out of the woods and came up, standing still for her to mount like a well-trained warsteed. Using reins she walked her stallion to her sister's side, giving her a sunny smile as the two began to set off again. They continued to talk though the tension seemed to rise, conversation slowly straining until the two sisters just rode in companionable silence, neither of them going over a walk to draw the day out just a little bit longer. There was a shout - from Helios - when Helia's mare startled, rearing back suddenly; the stallion tried to calm the mare down with a sharp whicker but the mare danced, skittish, away from a shadow only she could see. Helia tried desperately to calm her down and then, when she started to buck, Helios unable to get closer as the mare lashed out with hooves, Helia tried to hang on for dear life. Her seat slid, she lost her grip on the reins, and she flew off the mare's back - Helios threw herself from her saddle but fell short, far too short. Helia's neck hit a rock and then her sweet mare's hooves kicked her skull and she didn't move.
A sad procession made its way into the city though, with a wrapped cloak hiding her bundle, few gave the rider a second glance. The Palace guard recognized the princess' mare as the stranger rode up and tried to draw close but the rider - a woman, they could finally see, demanded that they bring her the head of the Palace's guard. Fearing the strange rider, fearful of why this rider had their princess' mare, a runner did what she asked. Lorana hand a hand resting on the hilt of her top sword as she approached, eyes taking in every detail, every nuance. They widened when she saw the rider's eyes but every possible word fled from her tongue when the rider gently unwrapped her cloak once Lorana was near enough. At first she thought that Helia, when she ran forward to the the princess from the rider's arms, was sleeping - her body was still warm and her eyes were closed. But then she smelled it, the air becoming thick with copper and a shout - for a healer, for the Queen and King - tore from her throat. The sudden rush of confusion, guards confused where to go first until she turned and showed them their urgency and she felt the rider draw back.
"Her mare spooked," the rider whispered brokenly, Lorana turning back once a healer had come and taken the princess from her arms.
"Don't leave again," she tried to say more but her throat choked as the healer cried - that never meant anything good. She turned her back to ask what had happened and heard the hooves, heard the rider, who she guessed was Helios, leave.
The King and Queen mourned again, that night. The people mourned too, for they loved Helia, and her sudden death was a blow to a place that had already lost one princess. Lorana guarded the funeral and public viewing, hoping to see the rider again, to ask what had happened, to ask why she was there, why Helia was meeting her. The one time she thought she spied her it was across the hall and even though every Palace guard was given her description and orders to detain her if they found her she slipped out of the Palace again like their security was nothing.
A month after the Heir died Lorana was surrounded by their senshi who had been given both official stories. The woman swallowed as one of the senshi, Vortex, grabbed her by the collar and shook her sharply.
"Where is she," they demanded and Lorana knew that, through some magic, they knew. "Where is Helios? Where is the Princess, the Heir, where is she?"
Hearing the words Lorana looked away, pushing the senshi off quickly. "I don't know, no one does."
"The Princess did not die three years ago," Vortex asked, her aura flaring like a wave of heat, "did she?"
Lorana hesitated but nodded finally. "She left the kingdom. We don't know where - didn't even know..." she choked on a sob then forced herself to continue, "Until she brought Helia back, that she had even been back."
The three nodded to themselves at the news, turned on their heels, and left. Within an hour word had arrived to the guard that the senshi, their defense against attacks, had left the Kingdom, stating that their mission was now to wander. They told the King and Queen the truth - their mission now was to find Helios and bring her back home. The Heir's crystal had vanished with her death and so they presumed that, since the Queen was not with child, Helios had become their Heir again. With a darkness looming on the edge of space the Heir needed to be found, brought home, and trained.
A month after they had left the Dark Kingdom invaded and the Sun Kingdom was destroyed. A month later Beryl became Queen of the Dark Kingdom and began to take over Earth. In another month's time the Moon lay destroyed.
----
"How," Pluto demanded, watching as Sailor SunHeart seemed to shake her head as if clearing it from an unwanted memory. Her grip on her staff tightened while she waited for a reply but, as the seconds dragged on, it seemed that SunHeart wasn't willing to give her secrets up. She had seen snippets of the past, the same glimpses of Time that she had watched from her guardianship of the Time Gate, but even those gave up none of the senshi's secrets.
"It's rather easy," SunHeart said mockingly, tugging on her bracelets to pull her gloves more firmly back onto her hands. "I didn't die. I wasn't on the Sun when the Kingdom was invaded and destroyed. The Heir - the younger Princess, died." The senshi watching her saw her eyes and lips tighten in pain. "And I didn't make it home before the Kingdom was invaded. The Sun died that day but I lived." Her hands fisted, throwing Pluto a defiant look. "And now the Dark Kingdom has returned, even if your lunar advisers think it's impossible - and I'm not going to let my Kingdom's destruction go unpunished!" Her aura, a dark and vibrant red edged with white, flared and pulsed at her anger then subsided, SunHeart's jaw tightening again.
Uranus was the first to lower her weapon, staring at the senshi in a guarded mixture of confusion and uncertainty. Her eyes skirted to Pluto who, after a moment, gave a single, terse nod - and her sword lowered, vanishing when she let her grip on it loosen. "All right, SunHeart you said?" Uranus waited for SunHeart to give her a wary nod before her stance unwound, pulling herself up and looking slightly disgruntled that she didn't tower over this new senshi. "Pluto believes you are telling us the truth - and I believe it to. To that end..." Uranus stuck out a hand, ignoring Neptune's almost shocked expression. Waiting until SunHeart had tentatively grasped it, she squeezed hard, yanking the senshi close. "We'll help you. But if I find out you've been lying to us on anything your past alliances with the Moon Kingdom will mean nothing. I will kill you if you betray us, SunHeart."
In that mixed grip SunHeart shifted their hands, changing the grab so that she had just as much power in it as Uranus, returning the grasp until Uranus' eye twitched before she released it. "Don't betray me, senshi of the Moon - I want help to destroy this Dark Kingdom, nothing more. Once I have that I'll be gone." Her mouth was firm and her voice solid even as she pronounced what sounded like her own death sentence.
Uranus nodded. This felt like a warrior's pride - this, this she understood. "When our Princess calls us in for the fight we will help, Sailor SunHeart."
The only senshi who remained silent and watching was Saturn. Something felt hidden, something felt wrong about this all - some part of the past, which she could not remember or had never known, was missing. She had heard nothing of the Princess who Pluto named her as in the past, from what dim memories she could recall. She would have to ask Michiru-mama later what her mirror could tell them, until she could put her heart at ease.
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Previously: Chapter Three- Darkening Skies
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