|
|
Gaea
StarMaker sighed as she watched the blond boy sleep. "Is that all this kid ever does?"
"You go get chibified and see if it doesn't wear you out, Red." StarFighter shrugged off the odd feeling she always got when looking at the young boy and went to find the others. It had been two days since they had found the kid and in the few brief moments he was awake, he was clinging to StarHealer. But there was something in his eyes when he looked at the dark-haired woman that made her almost want to scream. 'He's not Urani ... he's not Rei ... he's not Shi ... he's not Miyo ... he's not mine ... He's the enemy, so why do I feel the need to protect him? He took my daughters ... but I can't bring myself to hate him.'
Papillion watched the Lights as they all cautiously guarded the young boy. She wasn't sure if they were protecting him from Venus or Venus from him, or even really, what there was to protect anyone from. He was just a kid ... who couldn't even stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time. A black butterfly landed on the windowsill, drawing her attention from the adults. She recognized it immediately as the one she had sent to watch Aevor. He was the one she felt they needed to be protected from, not a sleepy child. Ever since the first battle, now almost three weeks ago, he had grown closer to StarFighter and had, on more than one occasion, asked Fighter to join he and his friends, in their permanent fight against the 'Goddesses'. Fighter had so far refused, but if they didn't find Shi or the others soon ...
The blue-haired girl quietly walked over to the window and held out her hand for the butterfly. She frowned at what she saw. "Aevor's coming."
"Here? How does he know where to find us?" Venus asked.
"I told him," Fighter replied. "But he said he'd never come here unless he had news of the children."
StarMaker glanced to the window as Papillion shifted back to her normal form. "How do you know he's coming, 'Tomi?"
The butterfly flew over her shoulder before dissolving. "A little flutterby told me."
"I don't get it. Why make her a child?"
"Maybe she screwed up? You know Cronos, she isn't the smartest of us."
Uranus sighed as she glanced over to where the, now much, younger blonde was staring out of a window in her quarters. Since they had found her like this, the girl refused to be left alone and usually preferred the company of the blonde, blue eyed Senshi. "It wouldn't be the first time she's screwed up, no. Like you said, who knows why that madwoman does half the things she does?"
Mars nodded distractedly. "Come on. We'd better get moving. Boss-lady doesn't like to be kept waiting."
"I thought she didn't want the kid there. You know she won't stay on her own."
"She said bring her. This concerns her, anyway." Mars walked slowly toward the window seat the young blonde was sitting in. "Sweetie, Uranus and I have to go to a meeting now. Do you want to come with us?"
Shi glanced up at the red-haired woman and nodded. There was something off about the woman in front of her, but she wasn't sure what. All she could remember at the moment was that the woman with that sigil was a friend of Dema's. Just like the blonde lady who was always by her side. She felt a little silly for not wanting to be alone, but this was the first time in her entire life that she could remember being away from her family. She'd even take her Kara at this point, if it meant being with someone she knew.
Uranus sighed at the sad look on the young girl's face. "After the meeting, why don't you and I go to the gardens? The Sakura trees are in bloom right now."
"Sakura?" Shi looked up at the blonde and smiled. "I love Sakura trees."
"I thought you might. Then after that, we'll go see what Jupiter's cooking in her laboratory."
"Probably another horrible concoction that she'll make us all eat, claiming it's good for us." Mars made a face at the memory of the brunette's last 'experiment'. "I really wish she'd just go back to cooking food and leave the science for Mercury."
"Not on your life, fire-breath. I live to make your days horrible." Jupiter grinned at the two adults, then smiled slightly at the little girl. "I see your little tag-along is feeling better."
Mars nodded, even as she saw Shi run to hide behind Uranus' legs. "Yeah, it's a good thing that whatever spell Cronos used, it healed the rest of her wounds. Although, I don't think that was her intention."
Jupiter frowned slightly at the hiding young girl, then turned to face Mars. "It normally isn't. Anyway, the boss-lady said you three were taking too long and she sent me to make sure you hadn't got lost."
"One time. One lousy time and she doesn't let me forget it." Uranus glared lightly at the brunette as she slipped an arm around Shi's shoulders. "We had just built the place. I'm sure I wasn't the only one that ever got lost in here."
"No, but you were the only one dumb enough to admit it," Mars replied. She made a face at the blonde and hooked her arm with the brunette's. "Come on, Jupi. Let's see how well blondie here can manage on her own."
Jupiter grinned and turned the two down an adjoining corridor. Uranus rolled her eyes at their retreating backs, then smiled down at Shi. "Want to show off your powers?"
Shi nodded, reaching up to grab the older woman's hand. "The room with the big table, right? The one with the other blonde lady?" As soon as Uranus nodded, the younger woman grinned and the pair vanished in a swirl of Sakura petals.
Aevor looked over the newcomers to his world and frowned. He had arrived at the house of the Gray Lady to find them all waiting for him. "You're right. She does look like Lady Venus," he replied, remembering a discussion with Fighter. He then turned to Saturn and smiled sadly. "And you look like Lady Kiviuq. It was such a shame what they did to her. Don't let them catch you. They might do the same to you."
Saturn frowned, tightening her hand on her Glaive. "What did they ... do to her?"
The blue-haired man motioned for them all to sit and sighed. "First, I think I need to tell you who you're dealing with. These women ... don't look much older than you, but they have been around for over a thousand years." He punched a few commands into the crystal display on the wall and brought up an image of ten women. "This was captured right after the fall of Metallia. The blonde in the orange outfit is, of course, Lady Venus. She's the leader of the 'Godessess'."
The women standing to her left were easy enough to identify and the Earth Senshis' assumptions were confirmed by Aevor. A woman with red hair, dressed in all red, was Mars. A similarly dressed woman in blue, with dark blue hair, was Mercury. The warrior in green, with short brown hair, Jupiter. And the fourth, a blonde in blue, Uranus.
The women to Venus' right, were harder to place in the Senshis' minds. A woman in blood red, that looked vaguely like Setsuna, complete with long green hair, was identified as Cronos. A woman with black hair and orange eyes, dressed in white, was called Gaea. She was the warrior for this planet. Next, a young girl, barely older than Hotaru when she had first fought, was identified as Kiviuq. Her long purple hair was a shade darker than her clothes. A fourth woman, dressed in yellow and gray, with long white hair, was named Dysnomia. The last woman that they assumed to be this dimension's version of Neptune, because of the mirror talisman in her hand, was wearing all black. Her hair was braided back away from her face, but what could be seen of it, was also black. She was identified as Triton.
"They lived peacefully for about a century after the fall of Metallia, then Venus decided she wasn't happy with the way humans were evolving. She began placing tighter restrictions on everything from who you could marry, to how many kids you could have. Of course, none of this applied to her or her 'friends', so long as they were with an 'immortal'. But then ... Gaea chose to marry a human."
The image changed to the warrior in white standing next to a tall man with white hair. Beside her were Triton, Cronos and Kiviuq. The other warriors were nowhere to be seen. "As you can see, her marriage caused a split among the 'Goddesses'. Venus and the others refused to even go to the wedding. Some say most of them refused because they were scared of her, but others think they all had it out for these four. See, the only time all of them are needed is when there is an enemy. In peace, it takes but one to rule."
StarFighter frowned as she looked at the image of the happy couple. "You mean Venus forced the others to ... betray their friends?"
"Friends? No. They betrayed their lovers." The image shifted once more to one of the same ten Senshi, with an eleventh, in aqua, standing behind Uranus. They all appeared to be the same age. "The one in sea green is Lysithea. She is the lover of Venus and Uranus. Dysnomia is the lover of Mercury, now that Gaea is gone. Triton was the lover of Mars. Cronos was the lover of Jupiter. Kiviuq ... never took a lover. Not among them, anyway."
Saturn frowned. "Why? Why would they betray each other like that?"
Aevor shrugged. "No one really knows. All that is recorded in the histories is that Gaea's decision to have children with a mortal, caused a rift that couldn't be repaired. A few years later, Kiviuq also married a human. That was the end of the 'Goddesses' peaceful reign."
"Surely they didn't just go their separate ways because a couple of them wanted kids?" StarHealer asked, frowning. She glanced at the small blonde that was still clinging to her side and wondered what kind of women the Senshi of this dimension were.
"That's what it looks like. Unless you want to march into the palace and ask them yourself." Aevor flipped the screen to another image. This one showed Triton, in full costume, fighting against a hoard of Youma and demons. "Centuries after the defeat of Metallia, there was a rift in the dimension holding her monsters at bay. Triton, along with the monsters and several hundred humans were sealed back inside by Mars."
The image switched again, showing a wall of ice. The outline of a woman in white, a white-haired man and two small figures could barely be seen. "Gaea ... Mercury claimed she had been aiming for the monsters."
The image switched again. Kiviuq, bound to a statue by chains made of hearts while the demons surrounded her. "Venus made no excuses."
StarFighter forced herself to calm down as she looked up at the picture. "And what of the last one ... Cronos?"
Aevor frowned. "After what happened to her friends, Cronos ... Cronos began to openly attack the Goddesses whenever she could. She showed people the truth behind their 'Goddesses', awakened in others the desire to fight back." Another image appeared on the screen. Uranus, bloody and wounded, standing over the bodies of countless soldiers. A jeweled sword at her side, stained red. "Venus would stand for no opposition."
Saturn turned away from the holographic image. She felt a hand on her shoulder, but flinched away when she saw Venus' face. "I ... think I need some air."
"I'll go with you," Tanetomi replied. She quickly followed the older woman, not even glancing back at the slightly unhinged look in those cold blue eyes.
StarMaker sighed. "I think I'm beginning to see why everyone fears her. But ... what I don't understand is ... why you think we need to know this."
The images vanished as Aevor sighed. "Because we think ... they have the blonde girl."
"Shi?!"
StarMaker grabbed Fighter's hand. "Why do you think that they have Shi?"
"One of them was seen taking her from the house where the two men had taken her after the fight," a young woman with short red hair replied from the side of the room. She ignored the way the Senshi jumped as she looked at Aevor. "Most people on this planet won't stand up to them. It's safer if they don't. But there are a few that still desire freedom."
"We don't know who those people are, or why they're attacking our citizens, but if they're connected to the 'Goddesses' ..." Aevor sighed, glancing at StarFighter. "How many kids did they take?"
StarHealer glanced at her companion and saw the dark-haired singer close to tears. "They took three of our children. Seiya's daughters, Miyo and Shi. And my ... my daughter, Minako."
Venus glanced at Yaten. This was the first time she had heard the younger woman's full name. "Yaten-chan ..."
Aevor frowned, slightly. "All girls? Then ... who is the boy?"
"Zoisite, servant to Queen Beryl. Or at least, he was," Venus replied. She turned her gaze to the young boy sitting beside Healer, still fast asleep. "In our world, she took him and the other Shitennou and forced them to do her bidding. I imagine it's much the same here."
"He is not a child of this world." Fluri turned her yellow-eyed gaze on the blond boy. "He will only be corrupted if he is left here. You must take him with you."
StarMaker glanced from her friends to the red-haired woman. "How can you say he's not of this world? He is from here."
Fluri shook her head and walked over to Yaten's chair. She knelt beside it and looked closely at Zoisite. "He is a child of the Dark Kingdom. Descended from the humans that were sealed into it centuries ago. Venus can not be allowed to find him."
StarHealer tensed, clutching the young boy closer to her. "Why? Is there something else you're not telling us?" she asked, glancing at Aevor.
Aevor sighed. "Venus has vowed to kill any thing or any one that comes from the Dark Kingdom."
