It was worrying enough when Jupiter came back to the table alone, but then she and Venus started to have an urgent looking conversation in whispers. This wasn't good... After checking to see that no on was paying them any attention, she moved closer to Venus to listen. 

"I'll check the observatory then," Mercury said quietly, before standing up to leave. It seemed that dinner was prematurely over, but she was no longer very hungry anyway, despite how good it tasted. They needed to find Serenity as fast as possible, and before the Queen figured out her daughter was gone. She could just be hiding somewhere to wait out the storm, but what if she was in danger? When questioned by a servant about whether she was finished or not, Mercury told them that she was going back to the library. If the Queen asked about where she had gone, it would not look suspicious.

Serenity's eyes were squeezed shut as she braced herself for the searing pain that never came. Her body remained untouched, left alone by her predator. The yelp of pain that came from said predator caused the young princess to open her eyes, and she gasped at what she saw. A tall, brave young man stood in front of her, his back to her as he defended her against the wolf. Surprised and full of fear, Serenity began to scoot backwards until her back hit a tree. Who was this man who now stood before her?

Before Serenity could try and run away again, he had turned and asked her if she was alright. His voice, so smooth and full of care, felt like music to her ears. His eyes, dark and full of adrenaline, penetrated her very soul, sending chills down her spine. She looked over him from top to bottom, taking in his regal attire and his dark, mussed ebony hair. He was rugged, he was regal, and...remarkably handsome. Serenity found herself rendered completely speechless by his very presence. Was this what men were truly like?

Of course Serenity had seen men before, but never in this way. She had only seen stingy lords and nobles who had come to try and woo her mother, or even herself on some occasions. They all pranced about with their noses high and their arms swinging proudly, and it had always been something very repulsing to Serenity. But this man, this godlike creature who seemed so intriguing and inspiring, he was a true man. Serenity was sure of it.

She suddenly realized she had been staring, and the sound of battle brought her out of her frozen stupor. Her hero had turned away from her, and mentally she slapped herself for not responding. But the thought quickly slipped her mind as she realized that not only were there more wolves coming towards them, but there were others who were advancing on a group of four men not too far away from where she sat. 

Whimpering, Serenity tried not to scream again as three wolves came towards her and her savior. She felt fearful for him, worried that he would not be able to fight all three of them at once. But the way he stood before her, so grand and full of confidence, gave her a feeling that he would be able to do it. 

Serenity felt the urge to help him, but she realized that she was still shocked stiff. Her body trembled as small whimpers of fear escaped her lips, making her feel ashamed and embarrassed. But she was just a teenager who had been trapped in a safe, protected environment her entire life. This dramatic change of environment was too much for her innocence to withstand. 

She was terrified, to say the least.

Jupiter was grateful to have Venus as their leader. Even in the most stressful of situations she was able to keep her calm. She knew the situation was troublesome but that it didn’t need to be hyped up unless it was proved that the princess was missing. The last thing they needed was to worry the Queen and give her a reason to doubt the senshi’s ability to protect her daughter.

Jupiter spoke with a hint of authority, “I will check the north tower, as well as any room’s I may encounter on the way. Do you think its possible she could be in the south wing as it is the most quiet, though no one is there so I wonder if that might frighten the princess further.” Jupiter said hoping that someone would find the princess and that the nerves that she was feeling would be alleviated soon.

Jupiter looked over at Mars who had been a little too loud with the situation, she had every right to be concerned but it was crucial that no one know about this other than the senshi. Jupiter wondered if the Martian princess had picked up on any bad vibes in relation to the princess and her whereabouts

Before dinner Artemis would usually indulge in a short nap, but sometimes he would accidentally sleep through the evening meal. Thankfully, in that sort of situation he could rely on one of the senshi to save him a bite to eat or help him raid the kitchens. If not, well, what lovely lady wouldn't help a poir, handsome cat stave off the ruinous effects of starvation? Tonight, yes, he slept through the early part of the meal. Only a little bit late, Artemis planned to apologize for losing track of time while completing some last minute work.

With a little time to spare before the meal would conclude, Artemis hurried throygh the halls with lovely images of morsels and delights dancing through his head. But, when he arrived he saw a few people standing outside of the hall. Did he miss the meal? Oops! With a little hope still in his heart, he approached Venus and said, "Good evening. I apologize, but I was working on an assignment and lost track of time." Although, truth be told, if anyone could see through his lies it would be Venus. "Did I miss the meal?"

Luna saw Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Mercury exchange some whispered words and suddenly grew worried. Where was the princess? Were they whispering about her absence? Luna saw them glance at the queen and quietly leave the room. What in the world is going on? Luna wondered. She quickly followed the senshi outside to see what was going on. As she left the room she saw Artemis talking to the senshi.

"What is going on?" Luna asked the senshi and Artemis. "I can tell there's something wrong and you don't want the queen to know about it, so please tell me what's happening so I can help."

"And I'll check the kitchens and the food storage rooms", said Mars. 

She had a feeling that Serenity was not in the kitchens, nor in the three storage rooms adjacent to the kitchens; but she would indeed have to check every nook and cranny to make sure. However, she added:

"If we meet up and neither of us has found the Princess yet, I'll run out to the temple and perform a localization spell in the flames. It won't give us place names and such, but I might be able to access a few images of the Princess, and then we can start guessing her whereabouts from there".

“Alright, everyone go to your chosen spots and we’ll meet back up as agreed. Jupiter, I’ll do a thorough check of the south wing as well,” she assured the other senshi, and felt relieved when she saw Artemis approaching.

“Artemis, I need your help. I apologize; there may not be time for a meal right now, but I’ll see if we can grab something later.” With the other girls given their directives, Venus focused her attention on the advisor cat. Sure enough, Luna joined them not soon after, probably having noticed that something was wrong.

“Luna, the princess is missing. I’ve sent out the others to look for her, but in case we don’t find her on this palace… we may have a problem. Will you two walk with me to the south wing?” She glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention, and that Queen Serenity was still engaged in conversation.

She started making her way away from the dining room towards the south wing. “We need to find a way to keep the queen occupied while we try to find the princess. Any ideas?”

Not wanting to draw any suspicion, Sailor Mercury walked as quickly as she could to the bottom of the observatory tower. It was one of the taller structures of the palace, and was often used by her to look at the night sky. usually, she was making notes on the positions of the stars and other objects, but there were times where she simply visited the tower for the beautiful view. Serenity enjoyed it for the same reason, so there was a small chance that she might be hiding somewhere in here. 

After climbing the stairs up to the observatory itself, Mercury started searching. The room was cluttered with records and old telescopic equipment, creating little nooks and crannies she needed to check. After a long 20 minutes of combing the small chamber, she came up with nothing. Desperate now, Mercury tried calling for her. 

"Princess?" She would have worried that she was disturbing someone, but this area was devoid of people at the moment, so there was no one to be bothered. She got no answer. Giving up, Mercury went back downstairs to regroup in the South Hall, hoping that the others had better luck in their search.

He had to turn his head before she answered - the wolves were closing in, and any sign of weakness or inattention could provoke them into attacking prematurely. He flourished his sword, causing the original attacker to step back a few steps, the bright eyes wary of the steel. He could see Kunzite mustering an attack to reach them out of the corner of his eye, and stared down the closest wolf as he repositioned his blade. Carefully, minding the girl behind him and attempting to calm his heart, he held his sword straight up in his right hand and reached back for the three arrows in his quiver. He twirled them around as quickly as he dared, managed to notch one while holding the others and his blade, took a deep breath, aimed, and fired on one of the enemies farther back, eyes still on the nearest wolf. He sensed it fall, but the two others crept forward still.

Three left.

He notched another arrow and fired, but this time the projectile sunk harmlessly into a tree near his target. His mouth set in a hard line, his eyes looking only for a moment at where the arrow had hit, but that moment was long enough. The closest wolf snarled and leapt towards them, its powerful muscles launching it forward, paws outstretched. Endymion threw down the arrows and bow, gripped the hilt of his sword, and swung it in defensively, his left palm supporting the flat of the blade just as the beast crashed into him. As he fell backward he pushed off with his left foot, attempting to control the fall so he would not bring the girl into the fight while simultaneously pushing the blade outward to protect his person from the claws and teeth of his enemy.

OOC:

Jupiter started walking to the tower, but when she was free of all the Lunar court, she began to run as fast as she could to the tower, hoping that the Princess might have sought refuge in the tall building. She hoped if the Princess was not there someone else had already found her. It wasn’t unusual for Serenity to hide during a storm, but if she had truly gone missing, the senshi would have a bigger problem on their hands.  Jupiter hoped for the best as she stepped into the tower. She called out to the princess.

“Serenity?” but no one answered. Jupiter trecked through the tower, walking up its windy stairs. She checked each room she passed, but no one returned her call. After reaching the top and still not finding the princess, Jupiter began to panic a bit.

She flew down the stairs and ran at lightning speed back to the south hall to wait for the others. She was surprised to see Mercury there, that meant she hadn’t found the princess either. Jupiter began to worry deeply for Serenity and her safety.


Once Jupiter had regained her breath, she looked up at Mercury and asked, “you didn’t have much luck either right? Where do you think she could have gone?”

As she waited in the South Hall, Mercury heard someone running down the hallway towards her. For a moment, she thought it might have been the princess, but then Jupiter entered instead and her hope grew even smaller. She didn't find her either? They only had 2 other place left to check...

"No, the observatory was empty," she said, answering Jupiter's question. As to where the Princess could have gone, she had no solid theory yet. She still hadn't quite figured out why she would leave voluntarily. "Well, I haven't ran anything past Venus yet, but I have a few guesses..." Mercury said. "At first I thought it was a possible kidnapping, but someone in the palace would have surely heard a struggle. I'm starting to think that she left on her own for some reason, she can teleport after all. But where would she teleport to?"

Nephrite grit his teeth as he swung his blade in a downwards motion, slicing into the wolf who had leapt at him. The wolf whimpered in pain, before slinking away to rejoin its brothers. Dammit! There were so many of them. He tried to look around, keeping an eye on everyone. He couldn’t spot Jadeite but he knew the younger man wouldn’t have gone very far.
 
He hissed as a wolf managed to bite his arm as the scream from the woman in the forest momentarily distracted him. Wrenching the wolf off, he tossed it towards its companions. This wasn’t good. The bite had been on his non-dominant arm, but it was bleeding profusely. He covered it with his other hand in an attempt too stop the flow of blood.
 

When Kunzite called for them to move up, he kicked the wolves in his path, and swung his sword to keep them back. He knew it wouldn’t keep them back for long, but he needed to try and think of something soon; Nephrite was losing too much blood to fast.

Mars checked the rooms leading to the kitchens but there was no sign of life in any of them: they were dark and empty - definitely not the environment Serenity would run to for shelter. Then she arrived at the kitchen itself. There was no staff there - they were all probably busy cleaning after dinner and making sure the guests had everything they needed. But sure enough, there was no Serenity there either. Mars opened a few cupboards, looked under the sink and of course under the tables. She called the young woman's name out a few times but there was no answer. She then opened each of the three supply rooms and checked - no sign that anyone had been there. Mars was not at all surprised at this; somehow she had a hunch the Princess wasn't here, nor anywhere inside the castle. If she had been, she never would've missed dinner - or at least dessert - not even to scare or punish her senshi.

Mars turned around and walked to the agreed upon meeting place, trying her best not to attract attention to herself. Jupiter and Mercury had arrived before her and both looked disappointed and hopeless.

"If Venus doesn't come back with her - and I suspect she won't - I'll want to ask my flames for help. I don't feel the Princess' energy anywhere..."

Just because she could, while she walked toward the South Wing, Venus checked all the rooms along the way, even the unlikely ones like some unused bathrooms and storage spaces. With each empty room she grew more panicked, but eventually when there were no more rooms to check she was forced to give up. Hoping her friends had more luck, she turned the corner to the South Wing, catching the last bit of conversation between the girls.

Mercury was saying something that latched onto her mind. Venus joined the others, trying not to look pale. “I couldn’t find her anywhere, and I checked all the way here as well as throughout this wing. Mercury, did you say teleport? Was she talking about teleporting today?” she asked. “You were the one who spent the most amount of time with her today. When she wasn’t paying attention to her lesson earlier, what was she daydreaming about?”

She then turned to Mars and nodded. “Let’s discuss this on the way to the temple. Perhaps with both Mercury’s information and your flames we can figure this out.”

They had to. The possibility of Serenity not even being on the moon terrified her. If she truly had teleported, then she could be anywhere. Not only deep in the city, far away from the palace, but other planets. She knew Serenity was meant to learn about Mars in today’s lesson, but she doubted the princess would have gone there—she wasn’t listening to the lesson, was she?

She recalled her own conversation with Serenity right before dinner and felt guilt churning in her stomach. Serenity was so sad, and so confused, and Venus had left her alone while she was emotionally vulnerable. “Damn it. This is all my fault. I should have stayed and escorted her to dinner myself. With this weather… what was I thinking…”

It was her job to protect the princess and see a couple steps ahead, consider all the possibilities. How could she not have predicted this?

Mercury tried not to panic when Venus returned alone too. If the Princess wasn't here, then where was she? "Serenity did mention it at the end of the lesson, and she was staring out the library window quite a bit. She really insisted on sitting there today." Mercury said, straining to recall every detail of their earlier conversation. Anything might be a clue at this point. "I asked what she had been thinking about, but she didn't mention a particular place she wanted to go. She was just talking about the applications of her new skill around the palace."  

Mercury felt her own guilt intensify as Venus berated herself for the entire problem. "Venus, we're all her guardians," she said. "We all have to take responsibility for this, so please don't blame yourself..." Just because she was the leader didn't mean that she had to bear all of their duty on her shoulders alone. There were four senshi for a reason.

After Endymion, killed the wolf they were surrounded by the rest of the pack. They were out numbered and it felt like they were coming out of no where. Jadeite decided to fight them off with his sword. It would probably be a good idea to save his arrows. Just in case. 

He quickly moved around the wolves that came after him. Knocking them each in the back with his sword. Jadeite almost got bitten, when he heard a woman scream. He quickly kicked the wolf in the stomach. He thank the gods for his agility. He glanced around and saw Endymion heading off toward the woman. Of course the prince had to be one to save the lady. He would be sure to tease him about this later. Jadeite then heard Kunzite's order to move toward Endymion. Jadeite made his way toward the others, but then he saw Nephrite was in trouble. A wolf bit him the arm and he was having hard time defending himself. Jadeite dashed over to him quickly as possible. 

"Keep going!!" Jadeite barked at Kunzite and Zoisite. He wasn't sure if they noticed Nephrite's injuries. When he approached Nephrite, he had to use his arrows to fight off more wolves. Each arrow struck the wolves in vital areas causing them to fall to the ground. He then ripped the bottom of his shirt off and wrapped around Nephrite's bleeding arm. 

"Well that help?" He asked his brother in the calmest voice possible.

Adrenaline only lasted so long, and Kunzite could feel his energy slowly depleting. He continued to fight back against wolves, kicking some and slashing others. Kunzite struggled to maintain his battle attitude while worrying about his prince and the wellfare of his men. Jadeite's shout of distressed support did nothing to ease Kunzite's worries, and for a brief moment he glanced behind him to find Jadeite quickly tying a scrap of cloth around Nephrite's bleeding wound. It didn't take a genius to see that Nephrite was paler than usual, and he was getting weaker from the blood loss. 

They were running out of options. Quickly.

"Zoisite, stay with me!" Kunzite yelled, stepping back to be in line with Zoisite and in front of Jadeite and Nephrite. How many wolves were in this pack? Kunzite continued to fight back, but he knew Nephrite could only go so long without medical attention. The wolf that attacked him was most-likely rabid, which probably would not do much to help in Nephrite's case.

Perhaps  they were in over their heads after all.

Serenity yelped in surprise when her savior fell to the ground beside her, practically wrestling with the ravenous wolf that had attacked them. She began to panic, her eyes widening in terror as her breathing rapidly increased. Why did she have to be so silly and teleport out of the safety of her home? Now look - she had endangered the life of this man and his comrades, and endangered her own life in the process. Her senshi would blame themselves for her death, and her mother...

Her mother would be heartbroken.

Serenity looked around frantically, taking in the copious amount of blood that stained the grass in the area. She spotted one of her hero's men with a bleeding arm, and the other three of his men were struggling to hold back the animals that continued to attack relentlessly. There was so much blood, so much death...

She couldn't take it. She could not let any more lives be lost.

"No, no!" Serenity screamed, covering her eyes with trembling fingers.

"STOP IT! STOP STOP STOP! THIS IS ENOUGH! STOP IT NOW!"

Her voice was loud, clear, and full of sorrow and fear. She could feel her pain echoing through the forest, bouncing off of trees and reaching the ears of everyone nearby. She shook her head furiously as the golden crescent moon on her forehead began to glow with a bright white light, releasing waves of energy into the air. Her emotions resonated for miles, hitting everyone with powerful supersonic ripples. The moon princess continued to sob uncontrollably, the image of so much death permanently etched into her mind. She could hear the yelps of wolves all around her, and thousands of heaving footsteps as the crazed animals scurried to leave the area as fast as possible. 

The clearing was finally free of danger. The absence of yelping animals was instead replaced by a sobbing princess, who could not contain her emotions. 

"Please, no more fighting," she cried, still shaking her head. She did not notice that the wolves had run away, or that she was the only one making any noise in the clearing. 

Serenity was simply overwhelmed.

Mars sat down next to the holy hearth in the temple, where the flames were taller than her and ranging in colors from yellow to red, to blue, and purple. The young war princess closed her eyes and took deep breaths, imagining her body sprouting roots into the floor and the soil beneath the building. This was the grounding exercise she did before each fire reading. By doing this, she allowed herself to calm down and dissociate from the worldly worries she may have brought with her from outside the temple. A few minutes later she opened her eyes to the golden flames before her, and started chanting a mantra she had learned on Mars. Before long, the images started to form.

At first she saw trees. Lots and lots of trees on what looked like a hill or a mountain: the foliage dressed the ground, adopting its shape. It was dark outside, and in the upper left corner of the image, a white round orb shone between the clouds. The silhouette of a castle was visible in the distance, a hill or two away. 

She's on Earth! I can see the Moon hovering above - it's so close to the planet I'm seeing, it can't be anything else but the Earth.

Then Mars saw blood-stained blades and she instantly felt a knot in her throat. 

Please don't let it be Serenity's blood. Please don't let it be Serenity's. Please don't let it be hers.

A blade violently, mercilessly left the still-warm body of an animal. It was a dark grey animal, furry...a dog --- no, a wolf! Thank goodness! Then Mars saw the wielder of the sword in question: tall, lean, and dressed in dark colors, with armor on the stomach and legs; a billowing cape of red and black. Behind him, Mars saw white, skinny, female legs on the ground, surrounded by dirty, ripped white fabric. She needed to see no more.

Mars violently walked out of the hearth hall and into the court room, where the other three senshi were waiting for her ideas.

"Mercury, we're going to need your supercomputer!" she said, walking straight towards the water senshi.

"The Princess is on Earth! Somewhere in a forest, on a hill. I'm betting she's right in the heart of Elysion, since there's a castle in the distance... But then again I'm not good with Earth geography so I may be mistaken. I need to see a map, maybe I can guess the whereabouts of what I saw judging by the position of the castle... Or Mercury, better yet, maybe you can scan the surrounding forests and see where exactly Serenity is?"

A thousand different thoughts raced through Mars' head, and a thousand different questions she didn't know the answers to.

"How are we even going to get there? Should we inform the Queen?"

Mars didn't know if she should share the part about the wolves and the man with the sword and cape. But then, this wasn't a time for sugarcoating - they all needed all the info they could get.

"Oh and another thing... I think our princess may be in danger. I saw wolves... and a man wielding a sword. He seemed to be protecting Serenity, but of course, I can't be sure about that after just a few images. In any case, we need to find her - find them! And fast..."

As the other senshi waited for Mars to return from her fire reading, Mercury tried not to fidget too much, hoping that her information had helped somewhat. She jumped when Mars suddenly came back into the room and called for her, and she instantly summoned her handheld device and visor. The princess was on Earth? It was so obvious now, that she felt a little dumb to have not considered it before. The library window had a perfect view of the planet the moon orbited, no wonder Serenity wanted to sit there. Now even more determined to find her before she was hurt on a strange planet, Mercury started searching databases as Mars continued to talk. 

"I found an old map of Elysion, I hope this is still accurate..." Mercury said, typing rapidly. The only forest near the castle that this map showed was near a small town. "I can't find her exact location unless we're on the surface, but there's a settlement at the edge of the forest you mentioned. We could potentially use it as a starting point and search from there."

Mars was impressed by Sailor Mercury. The moment Mars had mentioned the computer, the water senshi had jumped right to work and found the map of Elysion in almost no time at all. Mars took a quick look at the map and knew they were on the right track. That looked like it could be the place in her vision: the castle seemed to be at a right angle compared to the higher terrain forest.

"Perfect! I managed to get a glimpse of the man with the sword... Maybe the townspeople will know who he is and will help us locate him - or at least tell us where to start looking! That forest is huge; we'll need all the help we can get..."

Then she turned towards their leader:

"What do you think, Venus?"

The moment Mars announced that Serenity was on Earth, Venus felt she almost lost her grip on her sanity. The Earth?! Serenity’s desperate plea to see the world echoed in her mind once more.

...what is a future without freedom? That is what I lack, Venus. I have never left this planet, and hardly have I exited the palace gates. I need to see the world...

Venus closed her eyes in disbelief. She understood Serenity’s need, better than anyone perhaps, but she never thought in a million years… And the Earth was a dangerous place; a proper diplomatic relationship was yet to be formed between the two planets, with Earth being the youngest in the solar system. Who knew what they even thought of moon people, and if they should figure out Serenity was its royal heir…

And that was if she even survived long enough to meet another human being. Venus was usually good at compartmentalizing, but all the ways things could go very, very wrong—the way her mind kept leaping forward to all the possible outcomes that ninety percent of which ended up in terrible disasters—almost overwhelmed her. She was thankful her brainpower wasn’t needed for the moment; she was struggling to keep up with all the information.

And she was terrified of not knowing the answers to all of Mars’ questions.

“Wolves?!” she exclaimed, her face pale as a sheet. If someone was protecting her, she might have a chance, but either way, they needed to get there right this second. They were her guardians, they were the ones who were supposed to protect her. Oh, how the queen would have all their heads for this!

Before Mars even finished her last question, Venus gripped Jupiter and Mercury’s hands. “We need to get there. We’ll find her, but first let’s just get over there. Everybody hold hands and focus on the place on the map.”

There was no time to figure out a plan to distract the queen or how to keep her from finding out her daughter and all the senshi were gone. Venus would just have to deal with the aftermath when they got back—if they got back with the princess intact—because otherwise, everything else would be pointless.

Dammit all! Where had all these wolves come from? Even for a large pack, there were too many of them. Perhaps it was several packs working as one? But it still didn’t make any sense. They went ballistic when their leader was taken down. When Kunzite called for him to move up, he spared a glance behind him and saw Jadeite tying a strip of fabric around Nephrite’s bleeding arm.

“This isn’t good, Nephrite’s losing too much blood to fast and we’re severely outnumbered by this demon pack of wolves, what are we going to do?” Before anyone could even offer a response, the girl screamed something about stopping all the fighting and miraculously the wolves ran away. What in the world… he thought to himself.


“This day keeps getting weirder and weirder,” he muttered, brows furrowed.

He managed to miss her. 

His back slammed into the ground as the wolf's body crashed into him and held back a cry for her sake - she looked terrified enough as it was. Claws dug into his chest, pushing him into the ground as the creature's head lurched forward again and again, snapping at his face. Regaining himself, he pushed back, thrusting the flat of his blade away from his body, forcing the chest of the animal to give him some space, but as it snarled in frustration it started scratching, its claws easily ripping through the thinner material of his shirt, catching on the embroidery. He hissed in pain, and then the screaming began. 

Her voice rippled through him, around him, her command loud and strong and desperate. It hurt his ears, it made his entire body vibrate painfully - luckily for him, the wolf felt similarly and dashed off, leaving his arms free to drop the blade and cover his ears and close his eyes against the sudden sensory bombardment. His mind flew in a million directions around the cries: What was going on? How could she do this? This was no normal scream! Who was this girl?! Was this some power, some innate gift, similar to his healing abilities, but for war rather than peace?! Was she friend or foe?! But as the vibrations stopped, her vocal attack ended, Endymion opened his eyes and his darker doubts about her vanished.

She looked devastated. Her intense sadness, her regret, her fear - he could feel all of it just by looking at her, and was wholly unable to leave her alone like that. He carefully put his sword aside and rolled over, wincing only slightly at the few gashes in his chest, and took a short breath before he pulled himself to his feet, only then feeling the damage the beast's back claws had done raking into his thighs. He grimaced, rebalancing himself, and pulled her into a hug he hoped was supportive. He worked to calm his breathing, but while he was able to get his breaths calm and even, he found being so near to her was having the opposite effect on his pulse. Just touching her skin, his hands brushing against her bare shoulders, released what felt like a small electric shock into his system. He pushed the curious realization aside, and held her as best he could, offering what support he had for as long as she needed it.

Jupiter’s heart rate increased when Venus returned without the princess. She wondered where the princess could be, but soon enough her questions were answered thanks to Mars’ flame which revealed the princess was on earth. Jupiter was shocked the princess was there. She had been aware that the princess had been working on her teleportation skills but did not know that the young maiden’s skills were so well crafted already.

Jupiter let out another gasp when she saw the wolves, but felt an odd sense of relief when she saw the figure who appeared to be protecting the princess, but if her identity was revealed, it could mean a war. She hoped whoever the person was that was before the princess would not ask her questions, Jupiter was worried the Princess wasn’t briefed yet on Earth and its inhabitants and she hoped the princess would be safe until they could figure out how to save her.

Jupiter felt Venus grip her hand, she returned the blonds grip. She looked over and tried to give her a reassuring glance, but Jupiter had never been so nervous in all her life, the fate of the heir to the moon kingdom was at fate and if the Queen found out that Serenity had slipped away under all their noses, well it would be bad news to say the least.


Jupiter spoke out, to no one in particular, “do you think this will work?” she asked as she placed all her focus on the map where Serenity was located. Jupiter closed her eyes and hoped it would be enough to get them to the princess, recue her and get her back on the moon.

Mercury had never seen Venus so visibly shaken up before, but she had a good reason to be. Earth was the least well known planet in the system, so who knew what could happen down there? If Serenity got hurt on Earth before they could bring her back, or worse... She didn't even want to think of the aftermath. They needed to get her out of there fast before the situation got completely out of control. 

Mercury dismissed her computer and gripped Venus's hand tighter, shutting her eyes to concentrate on the spot they wanted to go. If Serenity could teleport there alone, then four senshi should be able to accomplish the same feat easily, in theory. 

"We have to try something..." Mercury said, leaving the circle open for Mars to join.

"Let's hope this works", Mars said, gripping Mercury and Jupiter's hands and thus closing the circle.

She concentrated on the spot on the map, but also on the image she'd seen, of the hills and the forest and the castle. She thought about the name of the town, written in golden letters above the dot on the map.

Mars' eyes were closed but she could easily feel the energy produced by the four of them. It was rising quickly - strong and luminescent. She could perceive the growing light through her closed eyelids. Mars' hair and skirt began to defy gravity, carried away by the growing energy of their Star Seeds working in unison.

A loud thundering sound, and Mars didn't know if it was time to open her eyes yet. Had they done it?

Venus closed her eyes, willed her entire being into moving to Earth, to where Serenity was. She felt warmth building up within the circle as she and her friends joined their powers together. She had never been to Earth herself and had no idea what kind of threat they would find there, but it didn’t matter. Whatever stood in their way would just have to be brought down. Wolves or men, Serenity was the utmost importance, and woe betide whoever tried to get between them and the princess.

Her body felt momentarily light, then a brief sense of dizziness, and the weightlessness feeling dissipated. When her feet felt firmly perched on the ground again, Venus opened her eyes and found herself in a world completely unlike the moon.

There was green as far as the eye can see, and for the moment it took her breath away. The sun had not set completely yet, and the sky was bathed in orange and gold. They seemed to be standing on the edge of the forest pictured on the map, with the small village behind them.

“Mars, does any of this look familiar?” Venus asked. “Mercury, see if you can detect Serenity’s energy or just body heat in general in that forest. Jupiter, watch our backs, let us know if someone approaches. I don’t want to get Earthens involved if we can help it… we don’t know how they’d react if we tell them who we are and we don’t have a cover story or disguises prepared to pass off as one of them… it could get complicated.”

Mercury felt for her inner energy and pushed as much of it as she could into the circle, helping to fuel the teleportation. She was so intent of making sure they got to the right location that she missed the initial shifting feeling, and it took her a moment to realize they had done it already. The ground was soft under her boots, and the wind felt different here. Mercury opened her eyes and was stunned at the sight of the forest and hills around them. So this was Earth? The book descriptions failed to do it any amount of justice.

"Right!" Mercury refocused on the task at hand, her visor sliding over her eyes at the touch of her earring. Her computer appeared in her hand, and her visor switched over to infrared. If there was a battle going on in the woods, it would generate a large amount of heat, which she could track. "I'm getting a large reading, it might be Serenity and whoever else is with her," she said, turning her head in the direction she was talking about.

Nephrite smiled gratefully as Jadeite ripped off some fabric of his shirt and used it to bandage the wound from the wolf. He could feel the blood dripping down his arm begin to slow, but he knew it wasn’t enough; he would need stiches. He attempted to take a step forward to rejoin Kunzite and Zoisite, but stopped as an intense feeling of dizziness washed over him. He stumbled a bit as he lost his balance. This wasn’t good. He couldn’t afford to be weak right now, nor could he afford to be this injured. He was one of the Prince’s personal guards. The others couldn’t be babying him, it would put Prince Endymion in danger.
 
“Don’t let Kunzite realize how bad the wound is,” he hissed to Jadeite.