Sailor Saturn and Sailor Chibi Moon dashed onto the palace grounds. The guards took in their uniforms with surprise, and let them through without questions, but didn't make any move to follow.
"Can't they see something's wrong?!" Chibi Moon gasped out.
"Maybe it's something only a senshi can see," Saturn answered as they pounded down the long, column lined corridor that led to the throne room. They burst through the large double doors, and stopped to gasp in horror. Uranus, Venus, Endymion and Serenity were standing back to back, defending each other and trying to hold off more of those odd, oily creatures. All the other senshi were lying on the ground, whether unconscious or dead, Saturn couldn't tell. "Chibi Moon! Go to your mother! I'll shield you again, and attack them from out here."
"No! You're not going to be able to stop them all, Saturn!" Chibi Moon grabbed the front of Saturn's uniform. "You can't always protect me! I can fight! I have to fight!" She immediately turned from Saturn and closed her eyes to concentrate. Suddenly a pink light suffused her hands, and a smaller version of the Kaleid Moon Scope appeared in her hands. She held it out and yelled, "Moon Gorgeous Meditation!" in an exact copy of Sailor Moon's attack years ago. Saturn opened her mouth to ask how Chibi Moon had done that, but Chibi Moon's attack on the oil creatures had distracted them from their attack on the four beleaguered fighters, and brought their attention to Saturn and Chibi Moon standing in an exposed position at the entrance to the throne room. They began to move toward the two senshi.
"Small Lady!" Saturn heard the desperation, fear, and relief all mixed up in Neo-Queen Serenity's cry, and Venus and Uranus stepped up their attacks as they realized help had arrived. Saturn pulled Chibi Moon after her in a frantic dash for the other Crystal Tokyo fighters, and pushed Chibi Moon into her parents' arms before pulling Uranus and Venus in closer to form a tight group. She could see that both were about spent, or she would probably not have been able to budge them in the first place. "If my attack doesn't work, you'll have to protect the Moon family," she gasped out, then held up her glaive in preparation for putting up the Silence Wall.
"Saturn!" Serenity called out in a voice of command, "Don't use your ultimate attack!" Saturn smiled.
"I was not planning to, your Majesty. Silence Wall!" She didn't even watch her shield envelop her friends, but spun around, holding her glaive out to slice at any creature within her reach. Then, before the ones that were out of reach could move in she brought down her Silence Glaive for the second time that day. "Silence Glaive Surprise!"
All but the few creatures farthest away from Saturn fell as the concussion ripped through them. Saturn put the butt of her glaive to the scorched and cracked marble floor, and leaned heavily on it as weariness crashed over her. She'd simply done too much. She fell to her knees and banished the Silence Wall to give the others a chance to clean up the last of the attackers. After a few more explosions and shouts, the creatures were all done away with, and Chibi Moon ran over to her. "Saturn!" Sailor Saturn rocked back as Chibi Moon crashed into her and wrapped her arms tightly around her. "I was so frightened! I-I didn't think we'd make it that time!"
Saturn put an arm around her smaller friend. "You were very brave though, Chibi Moon. You helped in the fight."
"But I hate fighting, and I hate being afraid!"
Saturn tried one more time to avoid something unpleasant. "You did what you had to do when you had to do it, Small Lady."
"I don't want to have to do it though! Why can't everyone just leave us alone! That's all I want!" Her voice began to take on the quality of a whine.
Saturn hated herself for what she was about to do. "That's enough of that, Princess." If only she could ignore her duty, and embrace Usagi as a friend. But she had to be Usagi's senshi and advisor right now, instead. "You don't have time to be weak. Your kingdom is under attack, and you are Sailor Moon, protector of Crystal Tokyo and the whole kingdom!"
Chibi Moon looked up at her, tears in eyes. "But I'm not Sailor Moon! I'm only Chibi Moon! I can't do this without my onee-san!"
Saturn squared her shoulders. Usagi had to hear this. If only she didn't have to be the one to say it. "You are no longer Chibi Moon. Your training is over, you are Sailor Moon! You don't have anyone to fall back on now--you are the most important senshi, Sailor Moon. You have to be strong!" Oh, Chibi Usa-chan! I'm so sorry! If only you knew how much I want to hold and comfort you, instead of push you away! Tears gathered behind Hotaru's eyes, but she fought them back. Can't I have any friends? Am I going to be separated from everyone I love by my duty?!
Chibi Moon--no, Sailor Moon--looked deep into Saturn's eyes, searching for any softness in Hotaru's eyes. Hotaru forced them to be as cold and dark as deep space as she stared sternly back. Sailor Moon pulled back, confusion and hurt warring for dominance on her face as she backed away. She stood a few feet from Saturn, stared a few seconds more, then slowly raised her fists to scrub the tears from her eyes, and turned, and walked away. Saturn simply watched her go.
She may have done the best thing for her country and duty, but her heart was bleeding tears.
Uranus walked up to her and knelt by her side to place a sympathizing hand on her shoulder. "That was very hard, and very brave." Hotaru looked up into the face of the woman she still often thought of as a parent and smiled weakly.
"Then how come it hurts so much?"
Uranus shrugged. "The reason duty exists is because it's not always something we want to do, and we need something other than our desires to control our actions." Uranus stood up again, and offered Saturn her hand. As Uranus pulled her up, Saturn remembered something important. "How is Neptune? And everyone else? They're not--" she didn't finish her sentence, but Uranus understood.
"They're hurt." Uranus' face darkened. "Some of them are hurt badly. But everyone survived." Uranus closed her eyes and became Haruka. Saturn followed suit. "Maybe you could try to heal the worst hurt, if you're not too weak."
Hotaru followed Haruka to the prone senshi, and knelt between Mercury and Neptune to take stock of their condition while she spoke with her. "Can you tell me what led up to the attack?"
"It was the strangest thing," Haruka turned to Neptune and held her limp hand with a concerned look on her face, but her voice remained level. "Setsuna suddenly popped out of nowhere, saying something was wrong, and some dangerous enemy was coming, then she simply fell to the ground in a dead faint. Ami went up to examine her, and said she was sick, in something like a coma. Then those things were pouring into the throne room, and we barely had time to transform before they were upon us." Haruka shook her head. "If you and the Small Lady hadn't arrived when you did. . ."
"We were at one of the parks by the river. I was with Usagi while she played with some children her age when one of those creatures attacked one of the young girls. Sailor Moon and I got rid of it, then we both noticed that the spires atop the palace had turned pitch black, so we ran here. None of the guards realized anything was wrong. I wonder, did the enemy somehow find an unguarded entrance? Or did he gate them in somehow?"
Haruka shrugged. "I don't know how they got in. I was too busy fighting the bas-" Haruka bit off the rest of the word and took a deep breath to calm herself down. "They were coming at me too fast. I don't remember."
"I'm surprised Venus was one of the last ones left standing. I thought it'd be you and Neptune, if it ever came down to two senshi." Hotaru kept her voice neutral.
"I was surprised myself. They all fought well, considering the odds. Especially Venus."
That was high praise, coming from Haruka! Hotaru simply nodded, then moved on to examine Setsuna and Jupiter.
Haruka pulled her up short. "How's Michiru?"
"What? Oh, she'll be fine. She got a nasty bump on her head, but it didn't feel as if anything was permanently hurt. Sorry I didn't tell you." Hotaru blushed a bit, and looked down as she bent over Pluto, to hide her pink cheeks. "I guess I'm just distracted." She cocked her head. "This is odd. . ." she muttered under her breath, and began to probe deeper.
"What?" Serenity's concerned voice pierced her ears.
Hotaru looked up. "Your Majesty. Neptune and Mercury appear to be fine. They'll wake up with bruises and scratches, but nothing serious. I haven't had a chance to examine the others yet, but the problem is Setsuna."
"Why? What's wrong with her?"
"She's dying."
*****