Sailor Moon: Age of Innocence

Chapter 8
Chapter 7: Showdown in Electronics

Chapter 7: Showdown in Electronics

At 11:41 PM, Sailor Moon and Luna arrived at the Cherry Hill

Temple. Instead of a rogue General, all she found was a note informing

her that Tencite awaited her at a toy store not far away.

It didn’t take long for an annoyed Sailor Moon to reach the

location, finding the doors to the large store unlocked and the lights

off.

Walking cautiously into the store, her hearing picked up the sounds

of crying and she quickly zeroed in on it. Entering the baby furniture

department, Serena spotted a large wooden crib and in it, four babies.

It was easy to recognize them; they were all wearing little white sailor

dresses that were outlined with the respective colors of their Scout

uniforms.

The little blonde with the red ribbon in her hair and yellow in her

dress had to be Mina. She was also the one who was crying. Serena could

smell the reason why.

The next one she recognized was Raye whose dress was lined in red.

She was on her hands and knees in the center of the crib, looking up at

Serena as dark hair spilled over her little shoulders. Despite the

situation, Serena couldn’t help smirking at the sight of Sailor Mars as a

diapered baby.

"Hey Raye," she spoke. "Is that outfit new?"

"Serena!"

"Just a sec, Luna. I won’t get this chance again. So Raye, am I

still a baby? Looks like you could give me a few lessons now. In fact,

I think you’re the cutest wittle thing I’ve ever seen," Serena poured

on. Raye’s glare finally broke as her face scrunched up and she started

crying.

"I hope you’re happy," Luna remarked.

"Very," Serena replied. She quickly spotted the blue clad Amy

seated in the corner and a thumb sucking Lita right next to her in green.

Each was staring up at her dumbfoundedly.

"Okay, I vote we take them, wait thirteen years, and come back,"

Serena joked with a nervous laugh.

"Serena," Luna said in an exasperated voice.

"I know, I know. Okay, where’s the bad guy?" Serena asked.

A voice answered her, "The General will see you in electronics."

Spinning around, Serena saw a six-armed Youma standing ten feet

from her. As she took a defensive stance, she heard the Youma say, "If

I’d wanted to attack you, Princess, you’d be dead. Now run along, the

General hates to be kept waiting." The creature was pointing to her

right.

Serena glared angrily at the Youma but instead of attacking her,

she slowly walked in the indicated direction.

When they were out of earshot, Serena whispered to Luna, "I REALLY

don’t like this."

For once, Luna completely agreed with the girl.

As she entered the video game section, Sailor Moon spotted a figure

outlined against the light of a computer monitor.

"Welcome Serena. Did you see your little friends?" the figure

asked.

"I saw what you did to the Sailor Scouts, you traitor," she spat.

"Ah, so the little fur ball has filled you in as to who I am. I can

assure you the rumors of my disloyalty are greatly exaggerated," Tencite

said.

"Whatever," Serena remarked. "You have betrayed the trust of the

Moon Kingdom and kidnapped my friends. I am Sailor Moon and in the name

of the Moon, I will punish you." Sailor Moon had been prepared to jump,

remembering the last time she’d tried to finish a speech against this

opponent. This time, however, Tencite simply stood there with a scowl

on his face.

"Oh, spare me. I know who you are, Princess Serena," Tencite

stated, his tone mocking with a hint of anger. "Holder of the Imperium

Crystal. Leader of the Sailor Scouts. Heiress to the Silver

Millennium. Sailor Moon." The General paused, savoring the moment

before he continued, "You have no idea how much of a pleasure it will be

to tear you apart."

Tencite reached both arms forward and streaks of electricity flew

from them. Sailor Moon barely managed to jump out of the way as a

display she’d been standing next to burst into flames from the heat.

She noticed that the sprinklers didn’t turn on and figured the alarm had

been disabled as well.

She leapt back again as another burst of lighting came at her,

managing to launch an attack of her own this time. "Moon Tiara Magic!"

she shouted and her tiara flew boomerang-like at Tencite.

The General simply rolled under the flying crown and pressed the

attack from a kneeling position. Serena knew she had to find cover and

ran to another aisle.

"So you’re a coward, eh Serena? Just like your mother at the end,"

Tencite shouted.

Serena bristled at that. Yelling back, she said, "My mother wasn’t

a coward. She sacrificed herself to imprison Beryl."

Tencite turned the corner Serena had only to find nothing. "The

last, desperate move of a beaten Queen. If she’d listened to me, we

could have defeated Beryl long before then," he remarked.

"So she disagreed with you. Was that why you betrayed her?" Luna’s

voice shouted from another direction.

Tencite looked down another aisle and saw nothing. He knew what

they were doing. Trying to distract him so he wouldn’t see where the

attack was coming from. From experience, he knew it worked both ways

though. "Serenity and I never saw eye to eye. I felt our only chance

was to consolidate our forces and use the Crystal to destroy Beryl. She

wanted to try and protect as many citizens as she could. Ironically,

Serena, you proved me correct when you destroyed Beryl a few months

back." Another pair of aisles had turned up empty.

"So she wanted to protect her people, what was wrong with that?"

Luna continued, hoping Serena would ignore Tencite’s taunts.

"It was a pointless endeavor. On the defensive, we were lost. By

attacking, we had a chance. I even offered to use the Crystal myself,

in case Serenity was afraid." He’d stopped moving, figuring it was

better to wait.

"She wasn’t afraid of anything! Besides, if you’d have used the

Crystal, you would’ve died," Serena said angrily.

Tencite picked up the direction of her voice, hoping to pinpoint it

further. "I would have gladly given my life to save my world."

"Strange thing to hear from someone who betrayed my mother!" Serena

shouted. He had her position.

"Get over it, Serena. I don’t give a damn what I did to Serenity.

For that matter, I don’t care about you either, Princess, or your little

Court. Do you realize how many people died because of Beryl? Millions!"

Tencite growled.

"I know that. They were my people too. I felt for them all!"

Serena shot back.

"And I watched them die. Comrades. Some of them good friends.

So, excuse me if I wanted vengeance right then and there. Had Serenity

agreed to my plan, I could have destroyed Beryl before my nation was

completely eradicated."

At that, Luna cut in, "And if you’d failed, the Imperium Crystal

would have been lost to Beryl and there would have no one left to stop

her."

"I would not have failed!" he shouted.

"Now Serena!" Luna shouted.

Dropping from the top of an aisle, Sailor Moon landed about twenty

feet behind an enraged Tencite. Having just pulled her Moon Scepter

from her subspace pocket, she fired shouting, "Moon Scepter

Elimination!" Pure white energy flew at Tencite. Unnoticed by Serena,

the General was grinning. His form flickered and disappeared an instant

before the energy would have engulfed him.

Appearing behind Sailor Moon, the General unsheathed his sword and

swung it in a smooth stroke aimed at the middle of her back.

Fortunately for her, Serena had figured he would appear there and she

rolled away from the attack, ending up in a kneeling position. As she

swung her scepter around to attack again, however, Tencite landed a blow

with his sword directly against it, causing the scepter to fly from

Serena’s hands with a bright flash of light.

A shocked Sailor Moon attempted to grab her tiara but stopped as

the point of Tencite’s sword pushed against her neck, forcing her to

arch her back painfully. Still on her knees, she was pinned, unable to

get away from the deadly blade.

"Do you yield, Princess?" he asked calmly.

A frightened Sailor Moon mustered her courage and replied, "You

know I can’t."

Tencite formed a time ball in his right hand. "I understand."

Before anything else could happen, a high whizzing sound echoed

from above. Despite himself, Tencite almost laughed at the

predictability of it all. An instant later, a rose sliced through the

fabric of his uniform arm and implanted itself in the floor. Tencite

tried to look surprised as he gazed behind him.

High up near the ceiling, on one of the catwalks, stood Tuxedo

Mask.

"You seem to enjoy attacking little girls and babies. Maybe it’s

time you set your sights a bit higher," the caped hero commented.

"I’d love to," Tencite quipped. "Do you have anyone in mind,

Prince Darien?" Tencite enjoyed the surprise that flickered across the

Prince’s face. He’d recognized him the first time he’d seen Darien

intervene in one of Serena’s battles. It was hard to forget a boy you

once had to take orders from.

Composing himself quickly, Tuxedo Mask said, "Very funny. How do

you know me?"

"I was one of Queen Serenity’s Generals and you were an ally. It

was part of my job," Tencite stated sarcastically. "And unlike you, my

daddy didn’t get me that job."

He could tell Darien had gotten angry over that remark and decided

to push a little more. "So boy, are you going to stand up there and

watch as I skewer your little princess or are you actually going to do

something?"

Darien’s face got angrier and he leapt from the catwalk. As he

dropped however, he seemed to get caught in a very fine thread about

halfway down from the ceiling. A split-second after noticing them, the

threads electrified and Darien screamed.

"Darien!" Serena cried in shock.

Her prince did not respond, however, as he dropped lifelessly to

the floor.

Turning back to Serena, Tencite remarked, "Now Princess, where were

we?"

"What did you do to him?" she yelled at Tencite.

"A little trap. Nancy lined the entire building with her thread

and we hooked tasers up to it. Your boyfriend won’t be waking for a

while. He really should reconsider his strategies in the future.

Always taking the high ground can get... predictable," Tencite

commented.

"He’d better be all right," Serena said angrily through gritted

teeth.

"Or what, Princess? You were trying to kill me anyway."

Tencite’s comment was immediately followed by the shriek of a cat

as Luna dove at his face. He easily caught the Lunar feline in his left

hand and an instant later, Luna began to glow blue. Tencite then threw

the cat to the floor and Serena watched as her mentor quickly shrank

into the body of a small kitten. The now tiny Luna wobbled on her paws

and fell to the floor, her eyes closed tight as she began to piteously

mewl.

"Too young to speak. I think I like her better this way," Tencite

remarked.

"You monster! She’ll die if you leave her like that!" Serena

shouted.

"She’ll be fine. You should be worried about yourself, Princess,"

Tencite shot back, looking coldly into Sailor Moon’s eyes. He had once

wanted to kill her. She represented everything he now hated about the

old Moon Kingdom. But now, in this moment, when what he’d dreamed about

a thousand years ago could finally come true, he would not do it. He

couldn’t kill her in cold blood. Serenity he would have, but not this

child.

"Tiara. On the floor. Now," he said. A moment later, Serena

removed her crown and dropped it to the tile with a metallic clatter.

"Get up." Sailor Moon rose to her feet. Tencite jerked his head

in the direction of the other Scouts and she began to walk, his

sword point pressing into her back. She thought of running or at least

fighting back in some way but knew it was pointless. She hadn’t been

able to defeat the General with her weapons and besides, even if she

somehow won, she had no idea how to return the Scouts and Luna to

normal.

As they arrived at the crib, a beeping cut through the air.

Tencite reached into an upper pocket and pulled out a pager. His eyes

then flicked downward for an instant. He was smiling by the time he

looked again at Serena.

"Excellent. Nancy has Rini. I can finish with you now."

Serena’s eyes went wide with shock. "Rini? How could you know

about her unless... unless you’re working with the Sisters," she

realized. "So, revenge for Beryl isn’t the only thing you’re after."

"Actually, Princess, you shouldn’t believe everything people tell

you. I’m happy that you killed Beryl. I’m only upset that you

succeeded where I failed."

"I don’t understand."

"I’m not surprised. Let me put it simply. The only reason I

defected so long ago was so I could get close to Beryl, get to the

Imperium Crystal first and destroy her with it," he explained.

Serena turned around slowly and glared at him. "Oh sure. Like I

believe that one."

"Believe what you like. It was my own last ditch attempt at

revenge on that royal bitch. Unfortunately, I ran out of time. You

mother used the Crystal herself before I could get to it. I wonder how

her subjects would have felt had they known she was saving her own

daughter in the process?" he remarked bitterly.

"The Scouts and I were needed to stop Beryl in case she returned

and we did. If you hated her so much, why didn’t you try to help us?"

Serena yelled back.

"My powers are based in the Negaverse. Without the Crystal, Beryl

would have controlled me the instant I approached her. I would have

despised being used by her as much as you would have hated fighting me."

"Huh?" Serena asked. She seemed to be taken back by Tencite’s last

comment. "Are you trying to tell me you weren’t with Beryl in the

Negaverse? How could you not have been banished by my mother’s spell?"

Tencite smirked. "My Negaverse powers are based in time and power

distortion. When Serenity banished Beryl, my powers temporally shifted

me out of phase and allowed me to escape, along with a handful of Youma

who were near me," he said.

Serena’s response was barely above a whisper. "That means you’ve

been on earth..."

"For a thousand years, Princess," Tencite growled.

Serena took a moment to pull things together, then yelled, "Then

why are you attacking us if you hated Beryl?! Are you jealous because

we did something you couldn’t?!"

"Hatred drives me to an extent," he admitted. "That you lived

while so many I cared about died. In fact, had I met you and the Scouts

as recently as five centuries ago, I’d have slaughtered you all."

Serena swallowed hard at that statement and Tencite continued, "Now

I am simply repaying a debt. You can owe a lot of favors in ten

centuries. If it’s any consolation, Princess, I promise I won’t kill

you or your friends. No guarantees on how long it will take you all to

grow up, however."

At that statement, there was a flicker of light and Nancy

reappeared a few feet away.

"General, the girl has been secured at our base," she stated.

"Thank you, Nancy. Now, let’s have some fun," Tencite finished,

forming a time ball in his hand.

 

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