Hello, I'll make this a.n. (author's note) short. PLEASE email me and tell me what you think of my story. Critiques, compliments, suggestions, questions, anything would be fine. Just drop me a line! ^_~ Usual disclaimers: Sailor Moon and all its characters and likeliness belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha/Toei. English translation is made possible by DiC. My email address: ml_eclipse@hotmail.com << >> = thoughts [ ] = author's note Rated: PG I hope you'll like this fanfic! Enjoy! ============================================================================ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> A Shepherd's Kiss <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ========================= << By Cosmos >> ================================== Chapter 2: Where Loyalty Lay... <> his deep voice echoed in her mind. She could feel drops of perspiration drift down her face as her eyes squinted tight while the dream haunted her. His face, his handsome face contorted into a scowl of pure hatred, gazed back at her from within the dark recesses of her troubled mind. His words, deep, biting words constantly barraged her conscience preventing her a decent moment's rest throughout the long night. Tossing and turning incessantly, she tried to overcome this strange psychological nightmare and awaken back into reality. It would surprise him to see how simple words could ever affect someone so much as it has effected her. <> his voice repeated in a mocking tone imagined by the disturbance of her mind, <> "Serenity!" <> "SERENITY!" << You are just like the rest of them.>> "Serenity, wake up!" She jerked up in bed breathing heavily as she looked wildly around her. Did she just hear someone call her name? "Serenity, honey we must get out of here," whispered a voice. She looked around to find her father tugging on her arm, motioning her out of bed. Her confused gaze quickly caught sight of her mother's dark form standing attentively near the door as if she was expecting someone to suddenly barge in any moment. "Father, what's wrong?" she asked in a small and frightened voice. "There's no time for questions, Serenity," her father said sternly. "We must get out of here now." Her mother's face suddenly darkened with despair as she heard several footsteps heading their way. "It's too late, Azure," she whispered. "Hide her." He turned and nodded grimly. Setting his attention back to his frightened daughter he whispered in a grave and commanding voice that she has never before heard him use. "Listen, Serenity," he said sternly, "I want you to go and hide in the secret panel." "But…" He cuts her off. His eyes glowed a dark eerie green by the casting of the moonlight, "You will hide there and whatever happens you are not to come out, is that understood?" She nodded silently as frightened tears invade her eyes. "What is happening father? Please tell me what is going on?" He simply shook his head sadly and wrapped his arms around his daughter for, he knew, the last time. His smoky blue bangs fell over his saddened eyes as his arms tightened its hold on her. Unimaginable forces of emotions of grief flooded him, drowning him like a great typhoon. Wave after wave of biting tears rush against his eyes, but he refused to let them flow. Seeing him cry now would only cause further, unwanted, anxiety for his beloved daughter. Momentarily, he burned with the desire to just grab his family and escape their inevitable fate. He was willing to even build a wall of mortar as tall as the heavens with his bare hands if the choice was given to him in order to save his family from the danger that was vastly approaching them. While his heart bled with grief and his mind cried with pity, his hands still held onto her frail body like a steel clamp, refusing to let her go. He turned and looked into her eyes that were as blue as her mother's. She was the perfect image of her mother, as beautiful as the moon, but her personality was distinctly that of his; and he could see the fire and strength burning in them. In them, he could see his reflection. A pale face shrouded in shadows, a future forever gone. Before he let her go, one thought arose in his mind. One solitary thought that shook him to the very fiber of his being…one realization that brought tears cascading down his face…he would never know the faces of his grandchildren, or be able to give his daughter away to the lucky young man that awaited her in the future. He looked again into those deep blue eyes that held so much love and pain. He knew his daughter suffered a lot being born into this lonely and cold world. He tried to be there for her, but this time fate was against him. He would not walk with her down that long path toward the future. No…his path would end here, tonight. He knew that. He would not see her mature into the strong woman he knew she would one day become. Although she was twenty on this night, he still considered her the lovely child he had always known and loved. In his mind, he knew this was a goodbye. A sayonara that would mark the end for him, the end of being together with his daughter and his lovely wife. Reluctantly, he released her from his desperate grasp as he went over to the far wall and prodded carefully a hidden switch beneath the grand fireplace. A slab of thick bluish colored brick door flew open revealing a small dark chamber with only enough room for a single person. He turned and motioned her to enter. She quickly went over, but before she stepped in her mother grabbed her hand and placed something in it. Serenity looked at her questioningly, but her mother simply smiled sadly and whispered, "Guard this carefully my dearest. When the time comes, you'll know what to do." She looked down at the sparkling crystal key in her hand, but before she had a chance to ask her mother what the object was, the hatch slowly closed over the opening forcing Serenity to retract her arm into the small cubicle. "Remember, we love you," were the last words she heard her parents' say before total darkness enveloped her. Within the dark envelopment, she can hear her parents whisper in a low voice of words that chilled her to the very marrow of her bones. "Do you think they'll find her?" her mother's concerned voice drift through the cracks in the brick wall. "Let us hope not, Serenity, love," the strong voice of her father caressed her ears. "I can't believe he has betrayed us like this. Why?" "Greed," was the only word she heard her father reply. "But we have given him everything he could possibly want. We cared for him as a dear friend." "Human greed is a bottomless pit my dearest Queen." <> Serenity thought. Then her fair brows knitted together in anger, as her eyes grew dark with rage. <> her mind screamed, <> "Oh, why must this be?" she heard her mother whisper in a grieving voice. "I fear for us, Azure. I fear for our daughter, for her future." "She will be find. I know she will be fi-." But noises at the door stopped him in mid-sentence. "Are you in here, King Azure? Queen Serenity?" a smirking voice asked them. Without waiting for an answer, the owner of the voice barged in and switched on the light. The beams of light streamed in a crack near Serenity's face. She inched slowly toward the crack and peered through. The sight of the stranger made her gasp in shock, but fortunately he did not hear her. <> her mind said in stricken disbelief,<> "We know what you are up to Radon," her father growled fiercely with a protective hand around his wife. Clicking his tongue as if chiding a child, Radon spoke in mocking gestures, "Now, now King Azure," he sneered, "there is no need to get so excited about all this. Consider this as merely a business deal. I get everything and you both get nothing. Seems fair enough, don't you think?" "How could you do this, Radon," her mother spoke angrily. "After all that we've done for you. We considered you as our greatest friend." "I know," he responded with a cruel smile, "I should get an award for my acting skills, shouldn't I?" and he referred the last question to a pale-gray blue hair woman behind him. "Indeed," she whispered in a smooth voice, "you fooled them for over seven years. I greatly admire your patience." Laughing evilly, Radon said, "All good things come to those who wait." "What is it that you want?" her father yelled. "Everything," Radon responded in a chillingly low voice, a sinister smile spread across his narrow face. "Your wealth, your crown, your kingdom, your very life." Turning toward Silica he said, "Finish them." Stepping toward them threateningly with determine strides, Major Silica strolled over with sword raised, poised to strike a fatal blow. King Azure quickly pulled out his sword as well, ready to defend himself and his love. "Are you too much of a coward to confront me yourself, Radon?" "Are you sure you want to fight me, old man? You don't stand a chance." "Try me." "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Suddenly Radon launched at the king with a blazing midnight blue sword that radiated as brightly as his dark sea-green eyes. King Azure raised his bright silver sword to block the attack in the nick of time. Meanwhile, from the corner of his eyes, he could see his wife battling it out with Major Silica, as the two women shot attacks of tremendous power at each other. Throughout the battle, Serenity watched in silent horror. Her eyes filled with undesirable tears that raged hot with her anger and fear. Suddenly she saw Radon slashed her father across the chest when her father left a slight opening. Biting down on her tongue until it bled, she held her scream of anger and despair within her throat. She wanted to run to them, to protect them, to stop this madness, but her father's command rang clear and strong in her mind. She must obey them for she believed in her father's good judgement. Besides, what could she do? Her combat ability and her fledgling powers were greatly inferior to Radon and his comrade. And so she watched with infuriating hopelessness, angry with herself for being so weak and helpless to protect them. She could see that her parents were at a great disadvantage against the young Officers. They were fast, they were fierce, and they were strong. Radon was the best soldier known on the Moon; and it appeared that his companion was equally as skilled as he was. Before the final blow was inflicted, Serenity knew what the final outcome of this terrible battle would be; and alone, she witnessed it all with her own eyes in the dark, silent enclosure. For many months to come she would harbor this nightmare deep within her soul. The grief would be an arrow that lodged itself deep into her wounded heart from where it would always inflict pain against her. Her father made a fatal mistake of attacking Radon with his anger instead of with his mind. Radon made a fake maneuver and her father did not notice it. As King Azure launched at Radon with his sword aimed at the Lieutenant's chest, he found himself stabbing at the thin air as Radon disappeared only to reappear behind him. Holding his sword with a tight grip, he drew it through the King's back piercing his heart all the way to the other side. A piercing scream sliced through the cold night air as Queen Serenity screamed for her husband. "AAAZZZZUUURRRE!" In her state of grief, she forgot about Silica and turned her back on her opponent as she ran toward her husband's bloodied body on the wooden floor. It was a mistake that cost her, her life. Silica took advantage of the situation as she powered up and blasted the Queen with a strong beam of pale gray light that pierced through her body exiting on the other side. She stopped in mid-run and slumped heavily to the floor as blood gushed out through the gaping hole created in her abdomen. Before she died, however, she had managed to reach her husband and slowly rested her head across his chest. Her eyes glanced up to where Serenity was hiding behind the stone fireplace and without a blink, eyes still wide open, she died. Serenity could see her mother's eyes looking straight at her as death slowly spread across the beautiful misty blue eyes. She could see incredible sorrow wash over them as well as death. <> Serenity whispered, <> she choked on the thought, <> Stinging tears streamed down her face as she cried in quiet sobs that wracked her entire body and soul. She held back her cries of grief, as she remained hidden in her tight enclosure. The small dark chamber now felt like a coffin of which she would be buried in because on that night her heart died with the death of her parents. "Where's the girl?" Silica suddenly asked. "She should be around here somewhere," Radon replied. "Probably hiding somewhere close by." A sinister smile formed at the corners of his thin lips. "Here Princess, Princess," he called, "I won't hurt you, not much anyway." "Hey, remember we had a deal," Silica said. "I help you destroy the King and Queen and you give me the girl." Giving an annoyed sigh, Radon said, "I remember. You'll get her, don't worry your little head about it." He walked toward the door and called back, "Come one, she's probably hiding in one of these rooms here." Once the two left, Serenity could no long retain herself as she opened the hatch and sneaked out toward the bloodied bodies of her parents. "Mother? Father?" she whispered with the hope that they may still be alive, but their unresponsive bodies told her it was not to be. "Oh Mother…Father," she breathed painfully as her gaze locked onto their limp bodies, "how could this happen? How could this happen to our family?" The dry trail of tears shown on her pale cheeks. "Why? Why did he do this?" she asked the darkness around her, an echo of her mother's words…and her own long ago. "I will make them pay for this," she whispered, her voice cold as steel. "I will avenge your deaths, if it is to be the last thing I will do!" Silently she bent down and closed her mother's lovely eyes, while her own burned with the dark flames of hatred mixed with unimaginable grief. "Well, well, well," a dark voice croaks behind her. She immediately spun around, her light blue nightgown soaked with her parents' blood clung to her legs in a warm wet grasp. The tips of her beautiful long ponytails caressed the surface of the pools of blood accumulating around the crumbled bodies of her parents. Upon seeing his face with its sinister smile and dark brooding eyes, her heart lurched in fear. She knew there was no escape now. She has been caught. "It appears the little rodent came out of her hiding place, Radon," Silica said in a silky voice. "Saves the cat a little chasing." With his eyes never leaving her pale face, he sneered, "Ah, you've cut the fun for us, Serenity. We were hoping to have a little entertainment hunting you down." Gritting her teeth until the muscles in her jaws ached, she replied, her voice like a sharp blade cutting through the cold night air, "You…," she hissed, "you will pay with your life for this, murderer! Mark my word, I will hunt you down wherever you may be. I will be waiting for you around every corner, every shadow. Do you hear me, Radon? My parents' death *shall* be avenged, even if I have to chase you to the very ends of time…to the very pits of hell and back." He observed her with silent amusement, but his smile quickly turned into a frown. Something in her eyes, a look he has never before seen, created fear in him, a fear he later realized would never leave him. A vow of revenge is something that should not be taken lightly, especially when it came from someone like Serenity. Attempting to hide his fear and regain control of himself, he gave her a mocking laughter and said, "Is that a threat, little Princess? Such big words for someone so weak." Suddenly his eyes narrowed as he continued, "You are in no position to threaten me, foolish girl! Look around you! Your kingdom is no more. Everything once was yours is now mine. I can crush you with a single blow right now, if I wanted to." "Then why don't you?" Serenity dared. "Because you're not worth wasting my powers on, pest!" Turning to Silica, he said, "The wench is all yours. Do what you wish with her, I don't care, but just get her out of *my* kingdom." Fuming with uncontrollable rage at the last phrase, Serenity launched at Radon with a sword she grabbed from the floor while his back was turned from her. "Look out!" Silica yelled. Radon swiftly turned around and skillfully maneuvered out of the sword's way, but not soon enough to escape the blade's bite across his left cheek. The smooth edge sliced deeply into the flesh of his face that would eventually leave a scar as evidence to remind him of her, and the vengeance she vowed to claim from him. "B-tch!" he cried, grabbing her wrist and painfully twisting it until she dropped the sword, which fell to the floor with a empty clang that reverberated from the walls and into the long dark hallway. She cried out in pain as he twisted her hand until she thought it would be pulled free from her arm. In anger and pain caused by the wound, Radon raised his fist and slammed it across her face, sending her flying to the far wall. Breathing heavily, he stood there with the crimson liquid oozing down the side of his face in rivulets as he gazed at her unconscious form crumbled against the wall on the hard wood floor. "Now, you didn't kill her did you, Radon?" Silica asked with slight irritation. "Remember our deal." "She's still alive," he said in a low voice filled with pure hatred for the young woman lying across the room. Taking the back of his hand, he wiped away a trickle of blood from his chin. "I think being a servant for Lady Snafu would break that little spirit of hers. If not, then it will surely kill her in the process. One way or another, I will be rid of this little spoiled brat once and for all." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> [Chapter three coming next week! "The Renegade Kingdom...Earth"] =========================================== Copyright (c) 2000, Cosmos.