This part is kinda a sudden downward spiral, and I'm sorry
if that throws anyone off. Don't worry, next part with have 
some down time and some explanation stuff. Until then, hope
the action isn't too heavy. And I spelled Metallia consistently
wrong in the last part. Sorry. -_-;
-Lianne (liannesentar@hotmail.com)
http://Lianne_Sentar.tripod.com

*Blue Planet, White Moon*
Part 8

Rated PG-13 for violence, gore, and darkness. Wartime,
kiddos. Unfortunately, this one's got a bit more of the
"disturbing" factor in it, seeing as how it's no longer just
knights being killed, so read with particular caution.

	It was one week later when true hell began. One week
of fighting for Earth, one week of observing for the moon.
Tensions were high everywhere, but that was to be 
expected during wartime and mass death. Yes, tensions. 
Stress and nights spent crying at the ceiling and days 
spent in a spinning reality. Tensions and stress and death. 
One week, one week more passed and then hell. Hell 
worse than the nightmare already experienced, hell 
worse than than all tensions in the worlds.
	Hell and inclusion and separation.
	
**************

	Luna, cat advisor to the royalty of the moon, was
very, very concerned.
	"Listen to me," Artemis told her swiftly, leaning his
head in closer to hers. His whiskers barely brushed against 
her cheek as he glanced around them. "I *told* the queen. 
She's ready."
	Luna's gaze flew around, even more edgy. She was too 
antsy; her eyes kept wandering, the hair on her back stood up 
straight. There were no times she both honored and cursed 
her animal senses more than at times like these.
	*Evil* was coming. It was slight, true, still very 
distant ... but if there was one thing all the royal cats knew,
it was that the evil was *there* and it was *coming*. The kittens
were terrified, shrieking and diving under their mothers. The
warrior and guardian cats, gathered from all across the moon
to reside in the palace, stood on the edges of their toes with teeth
bared. They could all sense it. All instincts were tuned 
to that rising, approaching evil.
	Luna angrily let out a breath and ran down the hallway.
Artemis chased after her, though he knew better than to ask 
what she was doing.
	"Go be with Venus," the black cat suddenly told him. 
"The queen must have alerted her by now. Stay by her side 
and ..." She glanced back at him, and he nodded. He was ready 
for anything.
	"Good luck," he called as he broke from her to fly
down another marble hall. Luna focused her red-orange eyes
ahead, her feet padding furiously against the floor, her
senses alert and quivering. She could even feel it as she
ran. Closer, closer.... she could taste it arriving. It wasn't
just approaching anymore--it was on its *way.*
	She finally turned into a new corridor. She
locked her gaze on the tall blond who leaned against
a golden door, peeled her lips against her teeth, and
screeched. He whipped to her in an instant, his hand
on his sword, his body already tight. Luna shrieked
and shrieked as she felt the evil surge up from
darkness and spill through her.
	It was sudden. It was overpowering. She ran
to the captain of the Moon Guard and screamed
the two words that suddenly blocked out all other
thoughts in her mind.
	"TRANSPORT ROOM!" Luna felt alert 
well in her eyes as evil filled every one of her senses.
"TRANSPORT ROOM!"

**************

	The transporter always glowed 30 seconds prior to 
its passengers' arrival. In those 30 seconds, the doors to the
room were thrown open, the half-dozen moon soldiers who 
had been nearby ran in, weapons were drawn, positions were 
taken, and cats, cats, dozens and dozens of shrieking, snarling 
cats swarmed in and faced the transporter like it was a hell-spawn 
demon. The cats were on claws' edges, their eyes burning, animal 
screeches from their lips replacing their normally graceful speech. 
They gave no orders to the humans, nor did the humans ask for any.
They all just stood, taut, ready, the only explanation or command
being the smell of evil in the air and the unexpected transport
four seconds from arrival.
	Three seconds.
	Two.
	Venus, Mercury, and Artemis ran in. Venus' wide eyes
flew to the departure reading as the last second prior to destination
ticked away.
	"Good God," she breathed. "Earth ...?"
	Warriors of the Legions of Metallia burst from the transport
the moment it materialized. Cats screamed and attacked with 
tooth and claw, their small bodies flying before the humans 
from the moon could react. The Legions had animal reactions; 
they slashed at the cats and roared and tossed feline bodies.
	Venus and Mercury didn't speak as they instantly split to
either flank. A few high-pitched human cries caught Mercury's
ears, and her eyes flew over the Legions. Several red-eyed warriors
dragged shrieking Earthian children with them.
	Mercury cupped her hands. A small, spinning ball of blue
light instantly formed within them, she locked her eyes, she let it 
fly. Blue power burst in the center of a clump of Legion fighters,
throwing them in all directions. Several of the children screamed
as the grips of the warriors were wrenched from them.
	Mercury's hand curved in the air, forming a harp of
churning blue power. She grabbed it and rushed forward, only 
to have a hand clutch her arm from behind.
	"Stay back." Lips were near her ear. "I'll get the children."
	Mercury stopped. She turned her head, then brushed her 
fingers over the captain of the Moon Guard's shoulder as he ran by.
	"Don't get yourself killed," she ordered.

**************

	Princess Serenity ran down the marble hallways. Her
heart thundered in her chest as liquid glazed her eyes. She
could feel it. She could *feel* it. The magical blood coursing
through her veins was ablaze with warning.
	She flew around a corner and crashed into her mother.
The princess cried out and fell to the floor.
	Queen Serenity grabbed the wall to keep from stumbling.
She looked down, her eyes widening. "Serenity?" she 
breathed. "Good God, child, what are doing outside of your
room?"
	All manners and etiquette were thrown to the wind as
the princess' mind whirled with panic. She got to her knees and
grabbed fistfuls of her mother's skirts.
	"Mother!" she cried. "What's happening in the palace?!"
	The queen's eyes blazed. She bent, grabbed her daughter
by the arm, and pulled her to her feet. "Go back to your room,"
she ordered. "Lock the door and don't come out until I summon
you."
	"NO!" Serenity could no longer reason. She grabbed her
mother's hands. "Tell me what's happening! Are we being 
attacked?!" The princess could feel something disrupting the 
moon's peace, something cruel and hard and murderous. The 
feeling searing through her had come suddenly and without 
explanation; she needed to know the cause or she feared it would 
drive her mad. "Tell me what's happening!" she cried again, 
more desperately this time. "Please, mother!"
	The queen opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by 
screaming. She and her daughter turned simultaneously.
	Four Earthian children, dirt and blood smeared in the
tears in their clothes, sobbed hysterically as they stumbled down 
the hall. Three Legion warriors chased them with weapons
drawn; the captain of the Moon Guard and another, limping 
moon soldier chased behind. A Legion member managed to 
grab the arm of one of the little girls and lift her, screaming,
from the marble.
	A dagger flashed through the air and buried itself
hilt-deep in the Legion fighter's shoulder. The demon roared 
and dropped the child. The captain jumped on the Legion
warrior's back, pulled another dagger from his belt, and swiftly
slit the creature's throat.
	"God save us." Queen Serenity shoved her daughter
behind her. Raising a hand, she whispered something under
her breath as white light formed around her. She abruptly
threw her arms out, and a blinding whiteness flooded the hall.
The children screamed. The Legions shrieked.
	The captain and the soldier rammed their swords through 
the demons.
	Princess Serenity, shaking terribly, dropped to her
knees and held out her arms. The three running Earthian 
children threw themselves in her embrace, the final girl
who had been dropped, sobbing on the floor, burying her
face in the captain's pant leg. He pulled his sword free of
the carcass and picked the girl up. Helping his limping 
comrade back to his feet, the captain turned to his princess.
	Serenity felt herself shrink against his stare. Those
pale blue eyes, hard while being so faded in color, 
bore into her. It was times like this that Serenity was reminded
of his position in the palace. Why he'd gotten such a position.
A thick trail of blood dripped from his forehead, staining
his snowy skin and white-blond hair with glistening scarlet.
	"Go to your room," he ordered sharply. "Lock
your door and don't come out."
	Serenity released the children into the waiting arms
of her mother. The princess stumbled to her feet as the captain
strode to her and placed the little girl with the other children.
	"What's happening?!" Serenity asked, panicking. "What 
are Earthians and those ... creatures doing here?!"
	"We're being attacked." He told it both to the princess
and her mother. "The transport came in unexpectedly from Earth,
bearing the Legion warriors and these children," he indicated
the sobbing Earthians, "who were likely hostages to get the
Earthians to operate the transporting."
	Serenity's hands flew to her mouth. Dread filled her
heart and dropped her stomach. Hostages? Forcing the Earthians 
to transport? That meant ... the Legions were in the Earth palace.
	*in* *the* Earth* *palace*
	She bolted. She heard her mother cry out to her and
the captain's surprised shout, but she ignored everything as her 
slippered feet pounded against the marble floor. She knew
she was a fool. She knew she was running into a fight
with nothing in her hand, with no way to defend herself,
when the entire kingdom would have told her to lock herself
in her room and wait until things were safe. She knew what
she did.
	She ran faster.
	She heard the screams from the transport room 
long before she reached it. There were a few wounded
soldiers, surrounded by several Legion carcasses, slumped 
against the wall in the hallway outside the room; they 
watched her dumbly, too shocked to believe what they 
were seeing, as she grabbed a dropped sword and dragged
it with her. She stumbled into the room.
	It was a bloodbath. Serenity's hand flew to her
nose as the stench of thick blood and body fluids filled 
her senses. Her stomach lurched in an attempt to
throw their contents, but she swallowed hard and dizzily
took in her surroundings. The fight was nearly over--she
could see only a few Legion warriors remaining, 
overpowered by the dozen moon soldiers who attacked
them. Within their ranks she saw Venus and Mars;
Mercury she saw elsewhere, helping a wounded 
man; Jupiter was leaning against a wall, gripping a
bleeding arm. It was she who saw Serenity
first.
	"Serenity?!" Jupiter ran over to the trembling
princess and gripped her shoulder. "What are you 
doing here?!"
	Serenity could hardly breathe. She couldn't
stop staring, not at the fight, but at the remnants of it.
	There were so many *dead*.
	There had been close to thirty Legion warriors, it
appeared. Not surprising that that many had come--the transport 
vehicle had been built to carry a royal procession from 
Earth, and had plenty of room to carry dozens more of
the armed demons. Many of the carcasses had been beheaded,
some had limbs cut off, others had simply been run
through or stabbed so fiercely that their blood still pooled
thick around their twisted, lifeless bodies. Endymion had been
right--they *did* appear human, even with their wide red
eyes glazed and filmed, and it made everything all the more
sickening. She took in how many casualties the moon had
taken: of the seventy or so moon soldiers who had fought
(and more still ran in the door every minute), she saw around 
a dozen dead, along with the bodies of about twenty cats. 
The soldiers' and felines' bodies were even more mutilated 
than those of the demons. Serenity clutched her mouth
and squeezed shut her eyes, barely managing to swallow
the vomit rising in her throat.
	She felt Jupiter prying the sweaty sword from her
hand. "You're going back to your room," the older princess
ordered. "This is no place for--"
	Serenity suddenly caught her breath. Her hand tightened
over the hilt, surprising Jupiter enough that the older girl's
grip slipped. Serenity dragged the sword as close to her as
possible, curled all her fingers over the hilt, and raised her
liquidy blue eyes. "Stop sending me away," Serenity breathed
shakily. "What happened here? What's happening to the 
Earth?"
	Jupiter blinked. "We were attacked," she stuttered. 
"We don't know what's happening on Earth. Give me that 
sword and--"
	"NO!"	Serenity's sudden outburst stopped everyone in the
room. The last Legion warrior fell lifelessly to the floor 
as all moon eyes turned to the panting, teary-eyed princess
in the back. Her grip tightened further on her claimed 
sword.
	"I'm sick of this," Serenity sobbed. "I'm not
going anywhere. I want to know about Earth as soon as
everyone else and I'm not waiting for the news to be
filtered."
	"Serenity, don't--"
	"STOP IT!" Serenity's knees buckled, and she
barely managed to stay on her feet. She couldn't believe
what she was doing. She was crying, quite hysterically now,
but her shaking hands wouldn't leave her weapon and her
shaking legs wouldn't budge from their place on the floor.
Her mind spun crazily, dizzily. She kept seeing Endymion
on the floor with all those other corpses.
	Mercury had run up to her. The blue princess
exchanged glances with Jupiter, set her jaw worriedly,
and looked to Serenity. She reached out for the girl, but
the sobbing princess pulled her arm out of reach.
	"Please!" Serenity cried. "Please, we have to help
them! We have to help Earth!"
	 She was suddenly lifted. Serenity sobbed as the
sword fell from her trembling grip and her legs swung up
under strong arms. She pushed against the captain of the
Moon Guard's shoulders as he turned and bore her away.
	"STOP IT!" she screamed. "I'M NOT LEAVING!
DON'T LEAVE THE EARTH!"
	"What we do for the Earth is not yet your concern,"
he told her, his voice unreadable. She sobbed and pounded
against his arms, pushed his bruised face and pulled at his 
torn uniform. He carried her from the room even as she
screamed and reached toward the damaged, blood-stained
transport with trembling white fingers.
	"ENDYMION!" she shrieked. "DON'T DIE!"

**************

	Endymion couldn't breathe. He stared blankly
into red eyes as silver flashed across his vision; the
prince barely threw his sword in the way, and the
simple weight of the object managed to weaken the
attack. Endymion's sword skidded to the side as
the demon's blade bit into his shielding arm. 
Endymion threw his arm to the side, throwing
the attack with it.
	Endymion slid to the floor without thinking,
jamming his boot soles hard into the Legion warrior's
shins. The creature hissed and stumbled, and Endymion
took the chance to kick him hard in the thigh. The demon
dropped to one knee but still managed to swing his
sword at the prince. Endymion barely dropped flat
before the sword sliced past where his head had been.
	*God save me.* Endymion blindly reached for
his weapon. His fingers closed over the hilt, and he 
swung it back to block the demon's next slice. He 
was only sitting up, so his strength was off, and the
kneeling demon took advantage. Their swords slid
past each other; the Legion warrior dropped his
weapon, straddled the prince, and punched Endymion
in the jaw. Stars exploded in Endymion's mind as 
his head slammed against the floor. The demon
jammed his knee into Endymion's sword hand to make
him drop his blade.
	Endymion barely felt blood splash on his face
from above. Dizzily, he watched the hazed outline of
the demon jerk unnaturally, and a blade pull itself 
free from his back. The spasming Legion warrior
fell forward, his forehead hitting the floor with a 
bang and his bloody cheek slapping against Endymion's.
	An uncontrollable shudder seized the
prince's body as he frantically pushed the fresh
corpse off him. He could still hardly breathe after
a punch to the gut had knocked the wind out of him, 
and his mind was flipping terribly. He tried to push 
himself to his feet and immediately fell.
	A small hand gripped him under the shoulder.
"Come on," Jedite said softly, his own shaking hands
not lending much aid. "You're all right, aren't you?"
	Endymion's stiff jaw throbbed as he blinked his
eyes. His surroundings were still blurred, his mind was
still whirring. He gripped the deep burn he felt from his
arm and was rewarded with wet blood on his fingers.
	There were male screams and female shrieks
burrowing into his ears. He needed to throw up, but his
stomach was too twisted and he hadn't eaten in more than
a day. He fell on Jedite's weight a little, just a little, and 
forced his shaking legs to keep. He watched a Legion 
warrior grab a screaming young woman by the arm and 
throw her to crash into the wall.
	In the palace. The *palace*. The palace filled with
aging diplomats, with young children, with mothers sleeping
and fathers in the bath. The slaughter the Legions had caused
by breaking through the gates was something Endymion 
would never have dreamed possible. He still remembered 
looking up from the battlefield, wiping blood from his 
forehead, and seeing smoke coming from his castle.
	His eyes were caught, fixated, on the Legion warrior
who had thrown that woman. She backed herself into
a corner, crouching, screaming and screaming and holding
her hands out for mercy. The warrior pulled his sword back
to run it through her.
	Endymion didn't think. He practically threw his 
body across the room, at the demon's back, and reached 
out. He grabbed fabric and the edge of armor plates
and pulled the creature down with him to the floor. The 
legion warrior roared in anger as his back fell atop the 
prince, as Endymion instinctively pulled a knife from 
the demon's belt and jammed it into the creature's side. The 
Legion warrior thrashed out, reaching behind him whilst he
rolled and buried his fingers into Endymion's arm. Endymion
tore himself free, feeling skin come off on the creature's nails,
and buried the dagger in the warrior's heart. The Legion 
soldier shrieked as Endymion shoved him aside. He didn't 
want to watch the demon die, though he heard the gurgles 
and the vain clawings for the embedded dagger behind him.
	Endymion pulled himself to his hands and knees and
vomited. Or, at least, tried to; his twisted, empty stomach 
knotted in screaming pain as he dry-heaved, as tears beaded
hot in the corners of his eyes. Pain and dizziness and
spinning reality blurred his vision, so he felt rather than 
saw the hot blood leak from his wounds and slide to the
floor. He tried to vomit again, and a thin trail of warm blood 
coursed up his throat and splattered against the floor.
	"Oh God ..." Thin arms circled his head. They were
bare arms, thin, not Jedite's, and the chest his head was 
pressed against was soft and feminine. Endymion opened
his eyes, but saw only blurred images; he fell into a damp,
skirt-covered lap and squeezed shut his lids. He didn't want 
to look anymore. He didn't want to move. If someone came to
kill him, he wouldn't fight back.
	"My prince," the woman's voice breathed. "A-are you 
all right? Please don't die, God, please don't let him die ..."
	He had a mental image of Princess Serenity, crying, 
before he passed out.
	
**************

	Water hit his face, cold and unforgiving, and he 
thrashed awake. He rolled over to his stomach and spat,
coughed, fighting to breathe. He suddenly realized he had
rolled out of that feminine lap, that her hands were 
holding his temples so his head wouldn't hit the floor.
Thicker arms wrapped around his torso and carefully
pulled him to his knees. He stumbled, then found
some sort of a crawling balance, then felt a familiar
body hugging him from his side.
	"Thank you, God." Zoycite's lips were against
the prince's head, dry against the wetness of Endymion's hair.
"Keep him alive, and I'll never ask for anything again."
	Endymion, heaving, blinked his fuzzy eyes. His
sight slowly came into focus: a tired, trembling Jedite beside 
Zoycite, the young woman he had saved, on her knees 
before him, tears making the odd orange color of her eyes 
glitter strikingly. A bucket that dripped water on the floor. 
The room around them free of fighting, but not of corpses, 
and not of the sounds of killing and dying from down the 
hall.
	"My prince," the young woman breathed. The tears
in her eyes beaded and fell, dripping down her bruised and
beaten face. "Th-thank God you're all right. How can I ...
help you?"
	Endymion's brain was slowly coming to right itself.
Her orange eyes were.... unnerving, not in a negative way,
but it gave him the strange sense he was still in a dream when
he was coming to realize he wasn't. Using Zoycite for
support, carefully, falteringly, he managed to stand. 
	"... who's dead?" It was all Endymion could think
to say. He coughed. "P-please," he breathed shakily. "What's
going on?"
	Zoycite tore one of his sleeves off and started tying
it around the deep cut in Endymion's arm. "You weren't unconscious
long," he said. "Not much has changed. The fighting's out of this 
room, at least."
	The young woman, dressed as a maid with her long
sleeves rolled up, shakily stood. "You save my life," she
told him.
	Endymion slowly came to realize the sounds in the
hall were different from what he last remembered. Fewer
human screams. The demons were screeching more, while
the Earthians' cries weren't of pain, but, rather, of exertion.
Tide of the battle? It sounded like the enemy was.... losing.
	Endymion rubbed his eyes. "We have to get to my father,
or someone," he mumbled. "There has to be a safer section 
within the castle. We have to find it so we can start leading
people there."
	Zoycite tied the makeshift bandage tight, his eyes 
unreadable. "We're winning the battle," he said. "Based on
what I saw when I came looking for you, the fighting will
be over soon. We need to gather the wounded and bring them
to safety."
	"That's what we'll be doing."
	"I know, Endymion. I know." Zoycite took a breath.
He released his prince's arm and looked up. "It's just ... I'm
not sure we should look for your father. God knows where 
he could be right now. The center of the palace may prove
safer, though, so we'll look for it ... just don't expect your
father to be there."
	For some odd reason, Endymion knew what Zoycite
was nervous about. The attack on the palace had been
completely unexpected; no one had known the force on the
field would be strong enough to break through. His
father could be anywhere, even still outside. There wasn't 
necessarily any sort of leadership for the defensive fighting 
in the castle.... which explained why there had been so
many casualties in the palace already, and why, Endymion
knew with a sinking stomach, the final count after the
battle would be sickeningly high. The enemy had caught 
them unawares, sending the Earthians scattering like 
panicked puppies that desperately fought to survive.
	Jedite took the maid's hand. "Come with us," he said.
"We'll protect you."
	Endymion glanced at Zoycite. The prince swallowed,
took a breath, and weakly went looking for his sword. He 
found it nearby. There was no satisfaction in seeing it again.

**************

	Less than an hour later, the battle was grimly won. 
It had taken nearly that long for Endymion and the others
to battle themselves into a relatively safe haven--a nobles'
guest quarters had already been set up by a group of soldiers
as a place for the wounded and innocent--and four more deaths
had occurred at the blades of Endymion, Zoycite, and Jedite
by that time. Endymion sat in a corner, shaking with weariness,
the orange-eyed maid carefully bandaging his arm as 
children cried and the wounded moaned around him. Zoycite, 
a bandage around his right eye, appeared with two small 
bread rolls.
	"Here." He offered them to Endymion and the maid.
Both declined. "*Here*," he offered again, more forcefully,
shoving the roll in his prince's hand and dropping the other
in the hands of the girl. Endymion only stared at the bread,
his eyes dark and tired, and let his fingers bury into it. The
maid put her own aside and continued to bandage him.
	Zoycite, exhaustedly, angrily, sighed. "You're gonna
starve to death before you'll die on any battlefield," he 
spat. "You've been fighting nonstop all day, Endymion. You
need to eat."
	"I'll just bring it up." The prince put the roll by
his side, let out a breath, and leaned his head against the
wall. He closed his eyes, then winced and opened them again.
The maid lowered her head in apology.
	"Sorry," she murmured, loosening the bandage. She
wrapped it again, even more delicately this time. Her fingers
ran over the mending to test for sensitivities. "How does it
feel?" she asked.
	Endymion didn't hear her as Malachite suddenly stood
in the doorway. People around the room looked up, moaning
quieted, breaths caught, gazes fixated on what he carried. His
ice blue eyes fell on his prince; without a word he walked in,
past the others, the woman in his arms cradled with her face
against his chest. Quite a few people had no idea who she was,
but Zoycite did, and Endymion, young Endymion,
his heart rather than his eyes did. Malachite didn't wait for
Endymion to stand, but, rather, kneeled when he reached
him and stared softly, protectively, into his prince's eyes.
Endymion couldn't look away. Couldn't look away even though
he knew that woman's body and was half a meter from reaching
over and turning her chin toward him and seeing her face.
He couldn't look away from Malachite's living, ice, soft, protective 
eyes.
	Jedite ran up then. The maid looked at the woman's 
face, and gasped, and started to sob. Jedite took the maid's 
arm, tried to look at the woman's face, but was unsuccessful.
Endymion didn't notice any of it. He saw nothing but those 
living, ice eyes.
	"I'm sorry." Malachite's voice was quiet. "God have
mercy on her, Endymion."
	Endymion didn't move, or breathe, even as he 
heard Jedite talk to the red-haired, orange-eyed maid by
his side.
	"Beryl," Jedite breathed. "What's wrong? Who is that?"
	Beryl sobbed. "The queen," the maid whispered. "God save
us all, the queen of the Earth is dead."
	
To be continued ...

-Again, I'll remind everyone this story has a very strong manga
base behind it. I apologize if this part was bad, but after spending so
many hours with it, I was too sick of it to dedicate any more time.
This chapter was supposed to get some of the plot movements
rolling, so forgive the fact that it was mostly action with little 
explanation. The occurrences in this chapter will be organized 
in the next part, which will be out in about a month, so things
should be cleared up then. Oh, and it feels like this story needs 
at least another three parts, so we won't be ending anytime 
soon for anyone curious. ^_^ Thanks for reading!
-Lianne (liannesentar@hotmail.com)
http://Lianne_Sentar.tripod.com		
*Sailor Moon and all its characters copyright © Naoko 
Takeuchi/Kodansha Ltd./Toei Animation, Co., Ltd. This 
story part copyright © Lianne Sentar, April 2002.ØØ