CHAPTER 12

     It was all happening to fast. Chibiusa, Helios, the future... now the danger was imminent.
     They were all at Rae's temple, tired out from the dreadful battle that had raged just a few minutes ago. They would have lost would it not have been for the two mysterious masked senshis. All the senshis and their new enemy had been shocked and surprised by their sudden appearance.
     Sailor Saturn had taken that opportunity to put down Rae's dead body and release a purplish fire bolt towards their auburned hair enemy. For a moment, Sailor Moon felt a triumphant bitter victory for avenging Rae's death. Then Sailor Saturn suddenly screamed and doubled in pain. Uranus tried to run towards her but was prevented by the two masked senshis.
     A few seconds passed and Sailor Saturn began to disintegrate, much to the horror of her friends. Her screams continued their unearthly wail even until her body crumbled to dust. Pluto had echoed the same wail of loss and fell onto her knees. The others were all shocked.
     Almost simultaneously, Tuxedo Mask had appeared behind the smirking enemy and pinned her arms back. One of the masked senshis, a red-hair, removed Uranus' sword from her grasp and step forward. Almost non- chalantly, she drove the sword into the enemy's heart. The battle ended as suddenly as it had started.
     The other senshi had knelt beside Pluto and helped her up. She glanced at Rae's body nearby and her lips pursed slightly.
     "A knight and a pawn." was all she uttered. Then she tooked off her mask and the others stared at her.
     "Adelaide?!"
     "And also Mika." the red haired senshi removed her mask and quickly stood beside her companion.
     "The one you fought with," Adelaide nodded distastefully to the dead enemy "was known as Callisto, the Huntress. I didn't sense her appearance until it was too late."
     "LATE!!! Is that ALL YOU can SAY!!! Hotaru is dead!! She..!" Neptune broke into sobs.
     Adelaide remained silent and a fleeting look of sadness also passed over her face.
     "Neptune is right. Who are you? What are you?! And..!" "SLAP!"
     The ringing slap jarred the others back to their sanity. Uranus gingerly covered her left cheek and all stared at Mika.
     "You lost two friends, but we lost our planet and our love ones. Did you think you were the only ones to experience THIS PAIN?" Mika stopped and took a deep breath to calm herself. Adelaide patted her arm and looked imploringly at the other senshis.
     "We need to talk, now." Then she turned and looked at Rae and continued softly."But first let's put her somewhere safe."

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"You are the White Guardians of the Solar System, at least, that was how it was written in the texts." Adelaide shifted uncomfortably, the Japanese way of sitting on your feet did not feel comfortable for her. She saw Mika's uneasy fidgeting with satisfaction. At least she wasn't the only one. "Queen Serenity was known as the Goddess of Night, for her kingdom was of the moon."
"That's all very nice. But can we please get down to business." Ami's usually gentle voicehad a sharp edge to it.
"Please be patient. As I was saying, the Moon Kingdom belonged to Queen Serenity. After Princess Serenity was born, two enemies appeared to consume the power of the Imperium Crystal and the Golden Crystal. The Earth King and Queen Serenity joined their powers in protectiong their people. These two enemies, the Shadows, began their reign of terror."
"Hold it! What do you mean a reign of terror? If both combined their powers, then that would make them invincible, won't it?"
"Yes, but the Shadows were...well shadows...as long as night was around, they were everywhere. All it took was a few days of unrest and the joining was severed. Don't look so confused, the joining was no ordinary one. In order for a mortal and a senshi to join powers, both must have the same thoughts of protection. The attacks were mainly targeted at Earth. The Earth King was severely wounded and the people begged for the help of Queen Serenity." Adelaide paused.
"Then a mysterious senshi appeared and made a bargain with Queen Serenity."
Setsuna gave a surprised gasp and the others looked at her.
"I know that story!"
"You should, you are the senshi of Time, the one whom Queen Serenity would relate to. The bargain was a child in exchange for peace. Of course many protested but Queen Serenity agreed with the pact. The child was handed over and the senshi disappeared. She appeared once again on Earth with another and weaved a large force field. A battle raged within it but none could see what happened. When the two senshis stepped out, all was left was a battered ground and the child in their arms. Then they vanished." Adelaide sipped her tea.
"What next?" asked HAruka impatiently.
"That's all."
"Huh? The where do you two come in?" Minako's face mirrored the bafflement of the others.
Mika glanced worriedly at her companion and silently made a thought. *Do you want to tell them?*
*Wouldn't hurt them to know.* thought back Adelaide in reply. She finally spoke.
"The senshi who approached Queen Serenity was known as Myrona. She was the Cosmo Queen of Dawn. My mother."
The others stared at Adelaide. She returned it with her level gaze.
"Then...you..." Usagi stuttered out.
"I am Sailor Cosmo Eos and Mika is Sailor Cosmo Gaia. I am the First Princess of the STar Tribe. Also the senshi of Dawn."
"You spoke of everything in the past tense, I mean..."
"The planet which my tribe was on exploded ten days after I ascended my rank as the Cosmo Queen. My Elites, equivalent to your Guardians, Usagi, constructed a force field with their dying breath and bounded both Mika and I into it. We saw all the destruction before falling into the deep sleep. When we woke up, the Vortex had opened and the legions of the Shadow King had appeared."
"But you said a battle had been fought and Myrona won!"
"She did, but her power was not to destruct but bind. Each ruler of the Royal Bloodline has different powers according to their temperaments."
"What's yours?" Makoto inquired.
"Her power still has unknown boundaries." Mika said. "She was different from the others."
"Then...Myrona only binded the two enemies, but now they have appeared again!"
"Not they, only the Shadow King." Adelaide waved off Mamoru's retort. "His Queen is still binded, where only the Cosmo Queen knows."
"Which means you..."
"Well...yes, me."
"What happened to the child? The one Myrona carried off." Setsuna finally spoke.
A flicker of uneasiness passed over Adelaide's face before she spoke:"The child is still alive. Myrona entrusted her to a dear friend who brought her up to be a senshi too. The child still does not know of her heritage."
"Her?! You mean it's a girl?"
"Yes."
"Hey, I didn't hear that part before!" protested Mika. "And all this time, I thought the child was a handsome boy!" The others kept a straight face as Adelaide chuckled.
"Anyway, no one knows where the child--I mean girl is."
"Adelaide, how was Callisto able to kill Hotaru?" Michiru's voice trembled slightly. The happy atmosphere was immediately broken. Adelaide sighed.
"Callisto the Huntress was the sister of Kudin, one of the Moon priests. At first, there were only 7 senshis protecting the Moon Kingdom. Then Kudin found an old scroll about the senshi of destruction. Queen Serenity acknowledged the existence of Saturn and the nobles insisted that precautions were to be taken to prevent her from ever waking. In the scroll, there was a way to destroy the senshi of destruction. Queen Serenity immediately had the scroll destroyed. But then maybe Callisto and Kudin had read it. A few years later, Kudin was killed in battle and Callisto disappeared. My mother found out later that she had sworned allegiance to the Shadows."
Adelaide's soothing voice continued her story as the darkness cloaked the skies. The wan moon seemed to glow with an unearthly pale light, silently acknowleging the gravity of the incomingbattle....


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