Welcome to another chapter of probably the best fic I’ve been writing 
to date.  Hope you all like it so far.

Usual disclaimers apply

Enjoy!!
Legend of the Excaliber - Chapter 5: Trust in Stubbornness

	"KAMEHAAAAAAMEHA," screamed the attacker, as he threw the beam 
at his intended target.  But instead of hitting his target, a Coke can 
on top of the fence, Darien hit the section of the fence below the 
can, making a hole the size of a Basketball.  Darien wasn’t pleased, 
"Shoot, I missed again."

	Serena walked up to Darien to relax him a bit, "Take it easy, 
Darien.  When I learned this, it took me several months to master it.  
Just take it easy and concentrate."

	Darien grinned a little, "Who’s idea was this anyway to teach 
me the dragon techniques."

	Serena looked thoughtful, "Hmmmmmmmm, You?"  Darien just 
busted out laughing at the look Serena had on her face.  Serena, 
realized how she must look, and joined in before she said, "I think we 
can stop there for today.  We’ve been at this for an hour and you look 
tired."  Darien agreed and the two went to the Crown Cafe to get Hot 
Fugue Sundaes.

	Mark had been serving tables all day, he enjoyed the work, 
when he wasn’t up to just romeing about Tokyo for the Crystal, but he 
was a little tired after 6 hours of working and needed a lunch break.  
After he was allowed one, he sat at a table to get something quick.  
He heard the usual dinging that announced another customer walking into 
the cafe, but didn’t bother to look up.  Several minutes later, his 
meal arrived at his table and was about to dig in, when he looked up, 
and his eyes nearly popped out of his sockets when he saw Prince 
Darien at a table at the far end of the cafe.  But what made him 
wide-eyed was who he was sitting with (Rachel is going to be bouncing 
off the walls in happiness when I tell her this).  Mark finished his 
meal and got back to work.

	In the Negaverse, Generals Viper and Maverick had been waiting 
for King Onix to return, for several days, to hand out punishment, and 
they were growing more fearful by the minute.  Finally, he came in and 
took his seat.  After a few moments, he spoke up, "General Maverick, 
I’m pleased with you efforts at keeping the Scouts off Viper’s back, 
but I’m very displeased with your lack of progress in collecting 
energy, and destroying the Sailor Scouts.  Therefore, you have one 
more chance to defeat them.  If you fail, however, the punishment is 
death by my powers.  Do you have any thing to say?"

	Maverick was very uneasy by this point.  Everyone in the 
Negaverse knew that having you exacuted by Onix’s powers was long and 
painful, not to mention very unpleasant, "N.......N.......No your 
highness."

	"Your dismissed," after Maverick left, Onix turned to Viper, 
"As for you Viper, I’m pleased with all your work, despite your lack 
of success in your last battle.  If Viper fails, I’m replacing him 
with you, and give General Ironite your task."  Viper had a smile on 
his face before the King said, "But I want better result out of you, 
then Maverick has done, understand?"  Viper nodded his head before he 
was dismissed.

	Just then, General Riker came into the Throne room, "Sorry to 
interrupt your highness, but I have urgent news."

	"What do you have to report Riker?"

	"My senses are unable to find Sailor Sol’s power in London 
anymore.  Therefore I’d think it would be best to assume he is now 
either in Tokyo, or on his way."

	"Your right, Riker.  It is best to assume he is coming to 
Tokyo.  Alert the other generals of this, and return to your post," 
was Onix’s order before Riker bowed and left.

	That night, Serena was at her window sill, gazing up at the 
full Moon.  Rini had gone to bed early that night, tired from hanging 
out with her friend Melissa from her last visit.  Serena turned to 
look at the sleeping little girl on her bed, and wondered how she was 
lucky enough to have such a good future daughter.  She smiled and 
returned her attention to the Moon.

	She’d only been sitting there for a few minutes before Ellen 
walked in to see her daughter still up, "Serena, dear, why are you 
still up?  It’s 11 o’ clock."

	Serena turned to face her mother, "Couldn’t sleep, so I 
decided to enjoy the view of the Moon for a while."

	Ellen looked concerned, but brushed it off, "Well, I want you 
in bed soon.  Sleep good Serena."  Ellen turned to close the door, but 
not before Luna brushed into the room and sat on Serena’s lap.

	"Isn’t the Moon beautiful tonight, Luna," Serena asked.

	Luna didn’t have time to answer, for a very large image of a 
certain Negaverse general appeared in the night sky, "Hear me Sailor 
Failures.  I challenge you to a showdown.  I’m tired of you 
interfering in ours plans.  Sailor Moon and Sailor Selene, I want you 
to meet me in Tokyo Park tomorrow night, or else this town will be 
burned down to the ground.  Come alone, and if I so much as smell any 
other Scout, Knight, or Cape boy there, I’ll burn the town anyway.  
Remember tomorrow at midnight."  With that, the image faded.

	Mark saw the message also.  He wanted to talk to Rachel about 
who he saw today, but she wasn’t at the hotel room.  She had left a 
note saying she was called to the ship, and will be back by tomorrow 
night.  So, he called the ship and left his wife a message about the 
fight tomorrow.

	Back in the Negaverse, General Maverick was making 
preparations for tomorrow.  He knew that his best chances of beating 
the Scouts was to fight Sailor Moon and Sailor Selene.  He had noticed 
to two Sailors don’t get along for some reason, and decided to try to 
use that to his advantage, by challenging both Sailors.  He felt that 
with them fighting, he’d be able to finish them off easily, "Fools.  
They will not defeat the power of the great Negaverse.  This planet 
will feel our wrath. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

	Several hours later that night, Serena bolted up right, sweaty 
to the bone.  Rini was undisturbed, but Luna woke up to Serena’s 
gasping for air, and also noticed that, once again, was very pale, 
"Serena, you’ve been having a nightmare since one week before school 
let out for the summer.  Will you please tell me what’s wrong?"

	Serena didn’t see a way to avoid the subject any longer, 
"Well, It’s a dream set in the Silver Millennium.  I’m about 9 yrs. 
old and I am crying because some girl dressed in a beautiful white 
gown has to go to another star system on a diplomatic assignment.  I’m 
very up set about this, so I cry, and plead, for her not to go, but 
she goes anyway.  The rest of my dream shows that her ship disappeared 
on the return trip and was never found.  What I don’t get, is who is 
she?"

	Luna had this look of shock written all over her face, "That 
sounds like Princess Rachel.  Her ship did disappear when you were 9."

	"Who’s Princess Rachel, Luna," Serena asked.

	"She was one of Queen Serenity’s diplomatic administrators.  
Queen Serenity was suppose to go on that mission, but due to problems 
on Earth, she sent Princess Rachel instead," was Luna’s answer.

	"Anything else you remember about her," Serena asked.

	"No, not that I can think of right now," Luna lied.  (I can’t 
tell her the rest.  She’d be too upset after words.  Serena and Rachel 
were so close to each other on the Moon.)  

	"Luna, didn’t you say that Sailor Selene went on that trip," 
Serena asked.

	Luna nodded, "Yes, but as far as my memory serves me, I never 
met Sailor Selene in scout form, and very few people knew who she was 
out side of scout form, and I was not one of these people to my 
knowledge, but my memory of those days isn’t what it use to be."  
After a few more minutes, Serena and Luna went back to sleep.

	In the morning, the doorbell rang, and when Serena’s Mom 
answered the door, she saw a boy at Serena’s age with short blond hair 
and blue eyes, "Hi, Mrs. Tsukino.  Is Serena up yet or does she still 
try to sleep in as late as possible?"

	Ellen went though her mind to try to remember who this person 
was when she remembered, "Travis Solaris, is that you?"

	Travis smiled at Mrs. Tsukino, "In the flesh.  I’m surprised 
you didn’t see us and the moving truck park next door."  He pointed to 
the house to his left.

	"So, your our new neighbors!!  Anyway, Serena is up in her 
room still, but her......cousin is just woke up and is in the living 
room," Ellen said.  She knew that Travis was Sailor Sol, but she 
decided to let Serena tell him about Rini.

	At hearing that Serena was still in her room, most likely 
still asleep, he got this wicked grin on his face, "Where’s your 
pitcher?"

	Ellen recognized that old gleam in Travis’s eyes, and knew 
what he had in mind, "It’s in the usual cupboard."

	Serena was indeed still asleep.  She was once again dreaming 
about the mysterious Princess Rachel.  Just as her ship was about to 
leave in her dream, Serena felt wet all of a sudden, woke up and 
jumped out of bed, "CCCCCOOOOOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD!!!!!!"  Serena got her 
nerves together, before she saw her very wet bed, a very wet cat, very 
wet Pajamas, and a very laughing Travis on the floor, and Serena was 
thinking he was going to be very dead soon.  She ran into her walk in 
closet, closed the door, got dressed, opened the door, and shouted, 
"TRAVIS YOUR TOAST!!!"

	Travis took this as his cue to run.  He ran down the stairs, 
out the door, and right into Darien.

	Rini was in the Living Room watching cartoons.  She say her 
Grandma open the door and let someone in, but didn’t pay attention to 
what they said.  Not one minute after that she clearly heard Serena 
yell, "CCCCCOOOOOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD!!!!!!"  Rini didn’t know what happened 
to make her mother yell that loud until she heard, "TRAVIS YOUR 
TOAST!!!"  (Travis?!?!  Uncle Traq said he went by that name in the 
20th century.)  Five seconds later, Rini clearly saw someone that she 
instantly recognized as her Uncle Tranquillity, followed by her Mother 
not 2 seconds after, and heard a thud from outside.  Rini ran to see 
Serena, Travis, and Darien down on the ground, and nearly laughed out 
loud at the sight.

	Several minutes later, the trio managed to untangle each 
other, and get up.  Serena spoke up first, "So Darien, what’s up?"

	"Serena, the Scouts want to talk to you about last night,"  
Darien then noticed Travis, "So your Serena’s new neighbor?"

	Serena turned to the house next door to see a moving truck, 
and the Solaris family car, "Travis, you moved next door?  Cool!!" 

	"UNCLE TRAQ!!!"  At that, Travis looked left and right to see 
who said that, when a small Pink haired 6 year old ran into his left 
leg and knocked him down.  Travis was confused and looked to his twin 
sister and asked, "Sis, who is this?"

	Serena giggled, "Your niece."  At his Travis did the only this 
he could think of, he fainted.  When he came to, he was in the Tsukino 
Living room, on the sofa.  Serena went into detail about the Nega-moon 
war, and how she found out who Rini was, and how Rini is handling 
being a Sailor Scout.  By mid afternoon, it was time for Serena, 
Travis, Darien, and Rini to get to the temple, while Luna went to find 
Artemis.

	At the Temple, there was a heated discussion, mostly from Ray, 
"Serena, you meatball head, don’t you know it’s some sort of trap.  
You are such a pain."

	"First off, Ray, Maverick said that only me and Sailor 
selfrightchous Selene to be there, or he’d burn the city to the 
ground.  Second, your the pain around here."

	"No, you are."
	"No, you are."
	"You are."
	"You are."
	"You are"
	"phphphphphp"
	"phphphphphp."

	Molly walked up to Amy, "Are those two always like this?"

	Amy said, "Oh, yes.  Sometimes, they’re worse."

	"Serena, The girls are right.  You shouldn’t go there alone," 
Darien said.

	"Darien, I know you all mean well, but we either go with their 
demands or...."

	Darien interrupted her, "I know, I Know.  But you need some 
protection."

	"I agree with them Serena, you do need some protection," said 
a male voice from the front door.  Everyone turned to a man about 23, 
with short blond hair.  His most tricking feature was the sign of 
Venus on his forehead.

	Mina saw this and asked, "Who are you?"

	Mark said, "That you don’t need to know, what I have to say 
you do.  Sailor Selene may be pain sometimes, and believe I know, but 
she can be trusted.  She’s been unfriendly to you, because she often 
finds it hard to trust a new scout, to be specific in this case, 
Sailor Moon.  Normally she’s a very kind person, otherwise.  You must 
do all you can to earn her trust.  That is all I can tell you for the 
moment.  I must go now, but you will see me again."  With that, Prince 
Mark left, before anyone could ask anything.  Once he was out of ear 
shot he muttered to himself, "Not only have I found Princess Serena, 
but she’s also Sailor Moon?!?!  Rachel will definitely be bouncing off 
the walls when I tell her. Hmmmmmm, I think I got myself an idea."

	Back at the Temple, Luna and Artemis just walked in, "So what 
happened so far, besides Ray, and Serena arguing like always?"  The 
scouts filled them in on what happened and their mysterious visitor.  
"And you say he had the Venus symbol on his head," at everyone’s nod, 
Luna was in shock, but kept it well hidden, (It can’t be him.  He 
disappeared with Rachel.).  Luna kept this to herself for the time 
being, and continued with the meeting.  It was decided that Serena 
would go alone, with Sailor Selene, after some convincing from Luna, 
and the meeting was adjured.

	Once alone, Luna and Artemis had a conversation, Luna spoke 
first, "Artemis, the figure the Scouts described sounded like Prince 
Mark of Venus."

	Artemis was shocked, "Mina’s older brother?"  Luna nodded, 
before Artemis continued, "But that’s impossible, he was on the 
Crystal Phoenix, with Princess Rachel when it disappeared 5 years 
before the destruction of the Moon Kingdom."

	"I’m aware of that, Artemis, that’s why I don’t want this 
conversation to be known by the Scouts. Mina would be devastated, by 
the loss of a brother she never knew," Luna said.

	"Until we can confirm or denie this Luna, I have to agree with 
you.  Mina shouldn’t have to go through this needlessly," Artemis 
agreed.

	"Mind sharing your conversation with me," said a voice from 
the air as Apollo landed next to Luna.

	The two Lunar cats were startled at first before Luna said, 
"Only if you promise not to tell the Scouts, until told to otherwise." 
Apollo nodded his head before Luna and Artemis went into detail as to 
what they heard from the Scout about a mysterious vistor, before the 
three some went back to their own homes.

	It was now midnight, Serena has already transformed and was at 
the park.  So, far, there was no sign of General Maverick.  She was 
beginning to think he wouldn’t show up when she saw something out of 
the corner of her eye.  She spun around to see Sailor Selene, ready to 
attack.  Serena was on guard, "So, your working for the Negaverse 
Sailor Selene?"

	"No, I’m against them," was her reply.

	"Then why are you ready to attack......me?"

	"Cause I don’t trust you.  So if you make any moves to me, 
I’ll be able to counter them fast."

	"Will you two shut up and die," said a voice.  Sailor Moon and 
Selene turned just in time to see an energy ball come right at them, 
and dodge it.  They looked up to see General Maverick ready to strike 
again.

	Sailor Moon turned to Selene, "Look, I know you don’t trust 
me, but I think we should settle our disputes later and fight him."  
Selene, reluctantly agreed, and Serena made her move first, "MOON 
SCEPTER ELIMINATION."

	"CRYSTAL SELENE SHIVER."

	Both attacks hit Maverick, and an explosion took place.  When 
the spoke cleared Maverick was still there, without even a scratch, 
"Pathetic!!"  and he sent his own attack.  Both Sailors dodged, and 
took him from both sides.

	"MOON TIARA MAGIC."
	"CRYSTAL SELENE SHIVER."

	Both attacks screamed into the night, and hit Maverick again, 
but he still suffered no injuries.  He sent an attack at Sailor Moon.  
The shot sent her flying in Sailor Selene’s direction.  Sailor Selene 
dodged the flying scout, but was hit by one of Maverick’s attacks when 
she landed.  Selene was thrown to the ground, and she shoock her head 
to clear it, before she looked up and saw another energy blast heading 
her way.  Selene closed her eyes, waiting for the blow, and got one, 
but from a different direction.  She opened her eyes to see Sailor 
Moon on top of her, and saw a big hole in the ground where she was 
before Sailor Moon tackled Selene clear of it, "You saved my life 
Sailor Moon!  Why?  You could have gotten one less problem off your 
sleeves."

	Sailor Moon just smiled, "First, your a Sailor Scout, and 
scouts help one another, despite what one thinks of the other.  
Second, your not with the Negaverse, or you would have attacked me 
before he showed up," indicating Maverick, "And third, your an 
innocent bystandered.  No innocent deserves death."

	The two got up and Sailor Selene said, "I was wrong about you 
Sailor Moon.  I hope you accept my apology."  She held out her hand, 
and Sailor Moon took it and the two shook hands.  Selene then said, 
"Now, if we are going to beat this General from the Negaverse, then 
you need you powers boosted."  With that Selene raised her hand and 
power serged from it toward Sailor Moon.  

	Sailor Moon was enveloped in blinding bright light, and when 
the light faded, Serena looked down to see her uniform.  The only 
change to it was her brooch was no long the crystal star brooch, but a 
heart shaped brooch, with a crescent moon in the center.  Also if 
Sailor Moon took the time to look at her tiara, she’d see her jewel 
was also crescent shaped.  She took out her scepter to attack General 
Maverick, only too see that it was no longer the Moon scepter, but the 
heart scepter.  Sailor Moon was amazed, but put her amazement aside, 
and attacked, "MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK."

	"CRYSTAL SELENE SHIVER."

	Both attacks hit Maverick, this time he did feel it, and fell 
to the ground in a lot of pain.  He got up, and he realized he 
couldn’t survive another attack like that.  He sent another attack at 
the two scouts, but they dodged it easily.  Sailor Moon and Sailor 
Selene went in and delt the final blow.

	"MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK."
	"CRYSTAL SELENE SHIVER."

	The general was close to death by this point but didn’t die 
before he was hit by, "KAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEHAAAAAAMEEEEEHAAAAA," and the 
beam of raw power hit as Maverick turned to dust.

	At the Tsukino house, everyone was waiting in silence for word 
from Sailor Moon.  Ray was about to walk out and check on her when the 
communicator went off, "Sailor Moon here.  General Maverick is moon 
dusted!!!"  Everyone jumped up into the air at this news not 3 seconds 
before Serena walked in, "And I’m in the house."  Everyone decided to 
celebrate this victory, because this was a big step to beating the 
Negaverse, for the third time.

	In the Negaverse, King Onix got word of General Maverick’s 
defeat, "General Viper and Ironite.  Maverick lost.  Therefore, I’m 
changing your assignments.  Viper, it is now your task to fight the 
scouts, and gather energy.  Ironite, you are to resume the search for 
the Excaliber.  Both of you, DO NOT FAIL ME!!!!  I will not tolerate 
anymore failures."  The two bowed and were dismissed.

	At Mark and Rachel’s hotel room, Rachel just came in and Mark 
took her in a passionate embrace, before Mark said, "Since your safe, 
I have something to tell you."

	Rachel raised an eyebrow, and smiled, "Oh, and what might that 
be?"

	"Yesterday, I was at work.  During my lunch break, I saw 
Prince Darien at the Cafe, but you will never believe who was with 
him," Mark just knew what was going to happen when he told her.

	Princess Rachel was in suspense, "Well spit it out."

	"Two words, Rachel.  Princess Serena," Mark said, just before 
Rachel fainted.

Well That’s this chapter.  How close do you think Rachel and Serena 
were during the Silver Millennium?  find out in the next chapter - 
Serena’s Birthday Surprise.  Send all comments to gbess@iname.com.  
visit my web site at www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Courtyard/2058.