THE TRIAL


        Rubeus was not happy.  He had lost the four sisters to those accursed
Scouts, and the WiseMan was not impressed with him at all.  That was not
only bad but very dangerous considering the WiseMan was the only one who
could bring Rubeus back to the future where he belonged, not here in this
small city called Tokyo. 'How to get the Empyerium Silver Crystal' Rubeus
thought, and he answered his own question, 'Get rid of that annoying Cape Boy!
He's always been a thorn in the sides of all who choose to fight for the
Crystal.  OK, that's my new plan, get him out of the way and then things will
easier'.  The stale ship air was starting to get at him so he decided to
take a walk in the streets of the city.
        As he walked, he threw out plan after plan.  This one had to be
perfect!  It MUST succeed.  He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice
that he had walked into one of the cities seedier district and it was almost at
night fall.  He elected to stay and was amazed at how much the humans had
changed since The Silver Millenium and how much they have yet to change
to fit his future.  Rubeus took a long look around himself and saw hundreds of
women lined up along the street in the scimpiest of outfits.  'What are they
doing? and why are they dressed like that?' he thought and started his
walking again.  He walked into the middle of a particulaly large crowd of
these odd women and more than a few heads turned his way.  Rubeus, although
he wasn't drop-dead gorgous, he was still a looker and he looked like he
had a lot of money on him.  Almost immediatly he was surrounded with "Hey,
baby, wanna have some fun?" and "Party?" comming from all directions and
Rubeus decided that this probably wasn't a good idea since he had no clue as
to what he was supposed to do and this wasn't covered in the history lessons
he had recived, so he just kept on walking, ignoring them all.
        Soon he decided to walk back the way he came, and his mind was reeling
with what he had seen: A place called a "Strip Bar", another weird store
called "XXXtream" and a lot of run down buildings with people outside them
sitting on old coats and other things to stay warm.  'Humans have changed alot
from The Silver Millenium and I think I can use this change to my advantage'.
Then he got back to the group of oddball women in the wierd clothes.  Again he
got the usual pick-up lines from the women and again he ignored them, but
unlike before, he saw a woman flag down a passing car, hold a short talk with
the driver, and then got in!  'I think I know what is going on now, but I
should follow them and find out for sure.  I don't need to be running on
half-truths right now!'  And so he followed.  The car was now on the main road
that lead back to Tokyo's upper-middle class area.
        Rubeus was now really curious as to what was going on.  He was almost
positive that the woman was probably from the human equivilent of a branch of
the Negaverse Military that served under Queen Beryl.  'What was it, Hosp-
no, that was medical.  So what was it?  I know it was disreputable, so that
counts out the Dragoons, the Psi-corps, the Front-line units, and the
Air-corps, so what does that leave?'  The question had kept him occupied long
enough so that they were now at a somewhat-large house.  The driver got out of
his side of the car, walked around opened the other door and helped the woman
out.  Then, hand in hand, the walked to the house.  The man unlocked the door
with a key and invited the woman in.  'My, is he ever being hospitible...That's
it, that's the division, Hospitality!'  That problem solved, he floated up to
the upper floor window where he knew they were there.  After watching for a
few minutes, he was bored and he left, he started to walk back to the ship.
        About half way home, he saw a gang of 8 members that were about twenty
years old, walk right infront of him and tried to slow him down. Rubeus was
now getting VERY angry. When they heard him snarl at them, they turned around
and glared at him.  The oldest member of the gang started to laugh.
        "Hey, lookie here boys.  We got us a fighter.  I say we mess up his
pretty-boy looks", he cracked his knuckles as he spoke.
        "Good idea" another contibuted, and soon the whole gang had all
agreed.
        "Come on you pathetic peices of slime!  You have no chance against
me!" Rubeus snarled as he went into a fighting stance.  'This good!  It gives
me a chance to work out some anger, and a chance to practice the old skills'
He ran straight into the gang throwing punches and kicks everywhere.  In a
very short amount of time, he had decimated the whole gang.  He struck to
kill.
        They all fell before his feet, dead lumps of protoplasm.  All but
one.  The
Leader he let live, he could be usefull.  Grabbing the leader by his hair,
Rubeus teleported back to the ship.
        Some five hours later, the Leader woke up.  Rubeus was standing next
to him and told him that they would be having a long and interesting talk.
Soon after Rubeus had learned all he could from the human, he killed him in a
pain-filled death that would have made the sisters leave him if they already
hadn't.  He then walked to the contol center of the ship and requested an
audience with the WiseMan.  When the WiseMan appeared, Rubeus knew that he had
come up with the best plan that he ever had to kill the scouts and get the
Crystal.  Paying close attention to Rubeus, WiseMan was overjoyed with what he
heard from him.  He gave Rubeus permession to do it and told him that soon,
he'd be able to go home.
                *               *               *               *

        Love and hatred was all Darian could think of.  Love for Serena, who
was in so much pain.  Hatred for himself who was the one that caused Serena
all her pain.  'But I must if I'm to keep her safe!' his common sense told
him.  He told his common sense to get bent, 'How am I keeping her safe?  By
killing her with pain and suffering like I'm doing right now!?' he then
punched the wall, turning his knuckles into a nice shade of red.
        Now that he had made his daily punch on the wall, he turned his
attention to his apartment's front door, and the letter that was just slid
under it.  Not hoping that she was out there so he wouldn't have to hurt her
again, but hoping that she was out there so he could look at her again, and
maybe work up the courage to tell her all about the visions and that he still
loved her with all his heart.  But when he opened the door, to his dismay,
all he saw was a letter in a pink enevelope with a heart sticker on the fold,
holding it shut.
        He thought he saw a blur of movement when he opened the door, but he
thought nothing of it, as he was too engrossed in the letter from Serena.  He
couldn't help smiling at her attempt to understand.  When he turned around and
looked up from his letter so he wouldn't walk into things, he saw instead, a
hissing ball of black fur and claws.  Luna made contact with his face with
only one paw of claws but still gave him a deep slash on his cheak.
        "I guess I deserve that" was all he said after a moment of hesitation.
        "That was for treating Serena the way you have been," she said with
all the malice she could muster, which was a lot.  "I've seen you playing with
Reeny and I know you still have compassion in your heart.  So why do this to
her?"  A look of indicision crossed Darian's face.
        He couldn't answer her yet, he couldn't answer any of them no matter
how hard they could try, so he instead just looked away.
        "Don't you look away from me when I'm talking to you!!!!!" Luna
yelled.  She had lost momentum from her attack and was now sitting on top of
Darian's table.  A masculine voice came floating up to the table, shortly
followed by the voice's owner, a white cat.
        "Luna, we were supposed to talk to him about this, not attack him,
hiss at him..."  The white cat had yellow patch of fur on his forehead that
was shaped in a crescent moon. His counterpart had the same patch of yellow
fur.
        "But Artemis, he deserved it!" she said in an almost whiny voice.
"You know how his treatment of Serena has affected her Sailor Scout training,
her being Sailor Moon in a battle, and worse, has nearly killed all energy
from her.  She acts like she's just a moving corpse."
        "But Luna, he didn't" Artemis said mimicing her whiny voice.  She
looked at him with almost as much malice that she had for Darian at the
moment.  Darian felt he had to stop what he had started.
        "Before you two start in lover's quarrl, I'd better stop you.  No.
She's right.  I deserved that.  That and a whole lot more" he said, still not
tending to his wound.  "I'm sorry.  I wish I could tell you, but I can't.  I
must sort this out by myself."
        Realising that she was outnumbered, Luna got up off the table and
walked over to the balcony and feeling about ten times older than she really
was.  Looking out at the city, she wondered what terrible thing had happned
to the compassonate man she once knew as a forien prince.  Unable to hold her
head up any more, she let it drop and when she did, she saw the perfect chance
to hopefully stir some of the prince that was Darian, and if not, then it
would cause him enough grief to satisfy Luna.  For now.
        "Darian, come over here for a moment" she commanded.  The tone she
used left no room for ifs ands or buts.  He did as he was asked and walked
over to where Luna was.  "Look down the street.  At the end there is a phone
booth.  What do you see?"
        Darian looked down the street.  It took him a little while to find
what Luna had asked him to, and when he did, he wished for two things:
        1)That he never did as she asked.
        2)That he was dead.
What he saw, was Serena, curuled up into a tiny ball, crying to herself.  For
some reason, he could hear her tears.  Of course there were others on the
street, but they acted as if they couldn't hear her plight and offer
assistance.  It was as if her tears were only for him to hear.  This whole
spectacle brought tears to his own eyes.  He couldn't bare to look away, so
he kept on staring, the sight and sound bringing continues tears, as if
someone had opened a dam and let the water pour out.
        When Luna saw the tears in Darian's eyes, she knew in that instint
that he still loved her, and that he wasn't doing his routine out of choice.
She also knew, then, that she still respected him as she did when they first
met and knew each other from the Moon Kingdom.  The memory came flooding back.
                *               *               *               *

        It was the Princess' first visit to the Earth and she was amazed at
all things there were to see in this strange place.  It wasn't at all like her
home on the moon.  Here, there were things called horses and she liked them
very much.  At home, there were the Royal Gardens with the most exotic flowers
from the Silver Millenium, and roses from Earth were just being planted there.
Here, the forests were just absolutly HUGE.  Forests didn't exist on the moon.
And last but not least, on Earth you had things known as seasons.  Right now
they were in Winter.
        While they were on Earth, Princess Serena and her court, the
princesses from the other planets that made up the Silver Millenium, were
under the care and watchfull eye of Prince Darian and his younger brother,
Prince Stefan.  Prince Darian was four years older than visting royalty,
while Prince Stefan was only a month and a half older than the Princess of
Jupiter, the oldest of the bunch. To make things even more intersesting,
Stefan was born on the same day as Darian, only about an hour and a half
after Darian was born.  Because of that, the two brothers were connected,
each knew approximatly were the other was, and what state of mind they were
in.  They also recived equal training in the fighting arts.  They were
considered equal in hand-to-hand, swordsmanship, and knowledge of the staff.
But because Darian was older, he had more time to recive more training, and
his specialty was with thrown objects, specifically the rose.  As family
went, they were totaly devoted to each other, and did not covet what the other
had.  The only thing that they were competitve in was their martial skills.
Because they were equal in skill, they have never found out who is better,
and it was annoying.  When ever they got the chance, they sparred, and it
always turned out the same, stalemate.
        Darian couldn't help but grumble when he was told that he and Stefan
would be escorting the Princess and her Court for the duration of their stay.
To him, 'escorting' sound too much like 'chaperoning' for his taste.  'At
least Stefan will be their to bail me out of any situations I might encounter
with them.  And if not, then that's one person I get to make fun of and not
get in too much trouble.'  After the official proclemation, Darian and Stefan
decided to meet and find out what they were going to do in order to entertain
them.
        "How about the rose gardens?"
        "No, they have those kind of things back on the moon, mars..."
        "Your right, for once."
        "Hey!  That was uncalled for."
        "No, it wasn't.  But getting back to the problem at hand, I say the
Lake.  It's frozen over right now and it would be perfect to go skating on."
        "Yup, that's good, but with one problem, where are we going to find
five pairs of skates on such short notice?"
        "Hmmm, good question.  Wait a minute, how about we loan them some old
pairs that you have, since your feet aren't much bigger than theirs, I'm
willing to bet."
        "Ok, that we can do.  And if that doesn't work out, then why don't we
take them to The Crystal Cave?"
        "Good idea."
        And so the plan was set.  They both walked into the main chambers of
their palace where their parents, the Queen and King, were entertaining
Queen Serenity, her daughter, and her daughter's court.  "Father, Mother
we have decided to take Princess Serena and her court to the lake.  If,
of course, you give us permession to do so" Darian said.
        This left the young girls almost agape with shock.  At their homes,
nobody spoke this brazen to the Queen and King.  This also gave the girls
their first chance to see their hosts.
        If not for the slight size difference and different hair style, the
two princes looked like twins.  Both had black hair; both had VERY blue eyes,
a fact that did not escape any of the girls; their faces were almost
identical; and they both had the same build.
        The only main difference between them was the fact that Stefan wore
his longer hair pulled back on his head in a pony-tail like Princess Leda's
except that his came out of the bottom of his skull, not at the top.
        The Queen and King looked at each other, then at Queen Serenity.
"Of course, we don't mind.  Just make sure that they stay safe and in one
piece.  We know you'll both probably make them have enough fun to hurt them."
        This time Stefan answered with a mock look of shock "Us?  You should
know we've stopped that."
        "It doesn't show.  Besides, your instructers have been watching you,
if anyone should know, it's them."
        The two brothers seemed to consider this for a moment and them both
started to laugh uncontrollably.  Princess Serena started smiling at them,
and immediatly decided that she liked them.  She looked at her friends with
the same question written all over her face.  They looked at one another, and
then nodded at her.  Things started looking up for the first time since they
had arrived on this blue orb.  Soon the brothers stopped and regained their
composure, but still had a small smile on their faces.
        After about ten minutes, all of them were gathered at the small lake
that was inside the palace walls.  The ice was a uniform thickness, and
perfect for skating.  At first the girls were wary of the ice, for they had
never seen it in person and never knew that you could skate on it.  Their
first few attempts at skating were amusing, but when Darian and Stefan started
laughing, Princess Leda turned and glared at them from her position on the
ice.  That stopped the laughing, but the smiles were still plastered on their
faces, even Princess Serena and Princess Ami couldn't hold back a small
smile of their own.  Then Leda picked herself off the ice and slowly made her
way over to her best friend, Serena.  When she was close enough she pushed
her just enough send her sprawling to the ice.  Next on her list was Ami, and
her fate was very similar to Serena's.
        All the while, Darian and Stefan watched.  After Ami took her vacation
to the ice, it was too much to see and not laugh.  When Leda, Ami, and Serena
heard them, they first looked at each other, then at the two boys, back at
Mina and Rei, and at the boys again.  All five of them nodded, a wicked smile
on their faces and started to advance on Darian as a group.  Stefan saw this
and skated away, hoping to avoid what was going to befall his older brother.
        Darian on the other hand could only get a startled "Aaaauuuuggghhh"
before five very unhappy girls, wobbling slightly on ice skates, plowed into
him knocking him to the ice, hard.  Soon the five girls were perched on his
back, proclaming their prize proudly.  For Darian, this was uncomfortable
because individually, the girls are fairly light, but when they get together,
it was a lot of weight that was placed on his back and legs.
       From out of nowhere came a screech that must have dipped into the
ultrasonic.  "Get off him, NOW" Luna said in her drill-seargent tone of voice.
One by one, they got off him.  Leda tried to get up, but she lost her balance
and fell back on Darian.  The smile on her face said that it was intentional.
"Why were you just trying to kill him?"
        At once the five girls broke out into different explanations as
towhat they were doing sitting on their host's back.  Leda had to yell to
get
everyone to be quiet as she gave her explanation.  "Y'see Luna, it's like this
they brought us down here to skate and they laughed at our first attempt.
Soon I fell down and the usual laughter started up again.  This time, Serena
and Ami joined in.  After I had a little talk with them about how much fun it
was on the ice, by golly if they didn't go and try it for themselves.  When
they got up, it was decided to teach the two _boys_ a lesson in what is funny
and what is not.  Then you came and ruined our lesson.  Thanks a lot, furry.
        At being called this, Luna seemed to get red in the face.  Not
from
embarrasment, but anger.  "Well, I expect you to get up, get ready to
have
a tour of the palace with Prince Darian showing you the way."
        Speaking as if every breath was the best of his life, Darian
interupted.  "Excuse me, Luna, but I don't recall ever being asked to take
them on a tour of the palace."  'It's a good thing Stefan isn't here to see
me talking to a cat.  He would have thought me insane.  Of course, I knew
about Luna long before they ever arrived here'.
        "Thats another reason why I'm here.  I was asked by your mother and
father to tell you that if you could take these five on a tour of the palace,
they would be grateful."
        Darian knew that his parents would be put off if he refused, so he
said yes.  With this Luna only stayed around long enough to glare at the
giggling Princess' before she turned on her heels and walked away.  The five
girls let a sigh of relief as she left.
        "Oh man, I thought we were done for."
        "I'll be lucky if she lets me have an even smaller study break than
usual."
        "You and your silly study breaks, why couldn't you be more like Ami?"
        "Because I'm not...  Hey!  Where's Stefan, he should be here to take
is licks too!"
        "Him? Oh, he ran as soon as you five _girls_ decided to play teacher,
in fact, he had the right idea.  He's having the time of his life right now,
and standing in one of those trees over there.  He saw the whole thing with
Luna."  Darian said when he was sure that nobody was going to try to hurt him.
'Of course, I can spar with Stefan for quite a while without feeling the pain
of his blows.  I imagine that he does much the same thing.'
                *               *               *               *

        And as suddenly as the memory came to her, it ended.  Luna felt all
of her anger and malice quickly leave her and be replaced with shame.  She
looked at Darian, and tried to say "I'm sorry" but the words just didn't want
to come to her.  Darian looked down at Luna, saw the expression her face, and
realised that her thoughts had drifted back to the Moon Kingdom, as his often
did.  The main difference is that he always feels that he is missing
something, something important.  He remembered his manners, the ones drilled
into him since his birth to the Royal Family of the planet Earth.
        "Forgive my lack of manners, Luna.  Would you and Artimes like a
drink or something?"  Luna, for all of her manners, just stared at him like
he had just grown a third eye right in the middle of his forehead.  She had
just cut his face open with a claw, yelled at him, and forced him to see
Seren... No, the woman he loved, crying at the end of the street, and he was
offering her something to drink.  It was now easy to understand why Serena
loved him so  She quickly regained her composure and looked over to Artemis,
who nodded.
        "If you don't mind."
        "How could I mind?  You, the queens royal adviser, one of Serena's
best friends," he winced slightly at the sound of her name, the sweetest
thing to ever have been given sound,"and Artemis' date for the night."
        Luna looked at him with cold fury.  "Date?" she sweetly enquired.
        Darian nodded, intent on seeing Luna actually show emotion again.
        She looked over at Artemis, who was to busy staring at Darian to see
her looking at him.  She saw him first seem pleased that Darian had noteced
his pick-up attemps for Luna, and then he seemed to remember that she was in
the same room as he, at the same time.  Then he noteced her, and stared.  She
returned his stare.  At the commencing of this match, Darian silently excused
himself from the living room, and went into the kitchen to make something for
them to drink.  He heard sounds of _almost_ civilized conversation eminating
from the room he just vacated.  'Now what to get them to drink?'  And again
his thoughts wandered to the past, and again he couldn't remember that
important thing, nor could he actually remember his first meeting with Luna.
All he got was a vauge impression of humor, pain, and shock.  That was all.
        He exited to kitchen with two shot-glasses filled with a liquid of
some kind.  He ofered them to Luna and Artemis, but the former just sniffed
at the white cat.  The white cat accepted the glass like it would be his last.
        Soon they left out of his balcony with the grace that only cats have.

They were running back to Serena's house where Luna would stop, but Artemis
would keep going until he reached Mina's house.  On the way, they were having
a conversation about what happned that night, when Artemis stopped with
screech as his paws got burned.  Luna kept going on for a few more paces
before she noticed that her counterpart had stopped.
        "What are you doing, you pathetic excuse for a cat?"
        "Just shut up for a minute, and listin cloesly please?"  Luna was taken
aback, Artemis never spoke like this.  She did as he asked and she heard what
sounded like a mew.  Now that she listned more closely, she could make out
actual words.  While they were in catenese, that was Luna and Artemis' first
language, English was their second.
       They decided to track down the source of the words, and what they
found was what neither of them expected.  A crowd of twenty or so cats were
seated in front of a large fence.  On top of the fence was a large orange
tabby cat with stripes.  The cat was in the middle of a stand-up comedy
routine.
        Luna looked at Artemis and he nodded.  They sat down and decided to
stay.  The cat was funny, and he even did some singing.  The note was so
badly off key that all of the cats roared with laughter.
        From one of the windows, came a human voice.  "Awww, shuddap you
stupid cats!" and he threw a flower pot with a flower at the cat.  The
comic caught the flower and threw it back at him.  This got applaus from
all of the cats.  One of the cats in the front row turned to leave, and
stopped cold.  She nudged the cat beside her, he turned and looked, and
turned white with fear.  All heads swiveled towards the source of fear.
        Artemis turned with the group and felt his fur turning even more
white than it already was.  Luna did something similar.
        A big dog was standing at the threashold of the alley way, growling.

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So, whaddya think?  Please give C&C!

Endymion
gholmes@awinc.com

"Please, sirs and madams, give C&C for the poor!"  Sally Struthers on the ML :)