Life's Lessons
A Sailor Moon fanfic by Kristin Renee Taylor

Chapter 2 -

Yoko was understandably upset about their forced removal from the
University. She wailed, ranted, and threatened their captors, but the
Priestesses set to guard them ignored her and Terri copied their
example from her bed.

   True to Her word, Jupiter had taken Her two charges to the
Crystal Palace and had left them there, for what purpose Terri didn't
know. Neither had been awake for the journey, thanks to a drugged
drink given to them by the Priests.

   Terri had seen the Palace plenty of times since her awakening
from stasis, but she, like most of the population, had never set foot
inside the palace grounds, let alone the palace itself. She expected
the interior to match the exterior; walls made of near-translucent
crystal of all manner of colors, rooms of startling size and
unmatched beauty, all compounded by the complex, multi-hued lighting
created by hundreds of magicians that had been hired strictly for
that purpose.

   However, when she woke up, it was to bare concrete walls, a
small, spartan room consisting entirely of a small open pit, and two
narrow beds bolted to a wall, and two Priestesses guarding the
single, barred door. Terri figured that they were either in a room
that had been, judging the from dank smell, built beneath the castle
or that they weren't in the castle at all.

   Neither idea was very appealing.

   Bored, Terri spent the time watching the two Priestess. They
never spoke, not to the captives, nor amongst themselves. Every so
often, Terri judged it to be every hour, two more Priestesses showed
up and swapped places with the two on duty.

   They were going on their fourth hour when Terri said, "Well,
that's surprising."

   Yoko, who had been in the process of pleading with the two new
Priestesses, looked at her over her shoulder. "What?"

   Terri gestured to the Priestesses, "They're repeating."

   Yoko stared at her blankly.

   Terri sighed and sat up, "Four hours have past. That means we've
seen eight guards. There are eight Senshi, yet I've only seen six of
them represented: Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, and
Saturn. I haven't seen the dark blue and gold of Venus's followers,
or the crimson and black of Pluto's."

   "And this means what?"

   <Nothing is as it seems.>

   "It means... well I don't know what it means. But it has to mean
something, ne?"

   Yoko looked at the Priestesses. After a moment, she sighed and
walked over to the beds, sitting near Terri's feet. "What's going to
happen to us, Terri?"

   "I don't know, Yoko. But I do know it won't be good."

   "'Won't be good?' Do you think they're going to kill us?"

   Terri shrugged. "Mabye."

   Yoko looked at her. Fear was clear in her voice. "How can you be
so bloody *calm* about all this?"

   Terri looked down at Yoko, then back at the two Priestesses.
Violet and light blue. Mars and Mercury. Terri smiled slightly. "She
won't leave me down here," she said softly.

   "Who won't?"

   Terri's answer was forestalled when a man appeared at their door.
He was dressed in a white robe with blue edging, and that marked him
as both a follower of Mercury and a Judge for the High Court. He
conferred quickly with the two Priestesses, then turned towards the
captives, who had stood at his appearance.

   "You are summoned to stand trial in the High Court of Serenity,
under the charges of treason and being a heretic." His attention was
fixed on Yoko.

   Yoko bleated in fear and tried to back up. She tripped on the bed
instead and fell hard. Terri moved, putting herself between Yoko and
the door. "What are you talking about? Yoko isn't a heretic, and
she's certainly not a traitor."

   "Lady Jupiter has seen into the woman's soul and has proclaimed
her a heretic. Do you dare to contradict Her word?"

   Terri gritted her teeth. Jupiter was supposed to be Truth
personified. If Terri claimed She lied, she'd be proclaimed as
heretical as they said Yoko was.

   She knelt beside Yoko and grabbed Yoko's hands. "Tell me they're
lying, Yoko."

   Pale, Yoko stared at the man. Her hands were like ice.

   "Yoko!"

   Slowly, Yoko turned a haunted gaze on Terri. "I have this dream,"
she said, so softly that Terri could barely hear her. "Or maybe it's
a memory. I don't know. But, in it, there were two of the Senshi...
and Galaxia... Galaxia had their star seeds and told them to fight
the other Senshi... But they turned on Galaxia and she killed them!"

   Terri dropped Yoko's hands and backed away quickly. "The Senshi
don't die," she hissed. "The Senshi don't fight amongst themselves.
And They most certainly did *not* lose to someone as weak and
pathetic as Galaxia!"

   Yoko looked up at Terri, then she sighed and stood. "I know what
I know. The question is do you know what you know?"

   "Enough," the Judge said. He gestured and Yoko collapsed where
she stood, unconcious. He looked at Terri, blue eyes as cold as ice.
"Your devotion to the Senshi does you justice. I hope that whatever
Lady Mercury wants you for is not fatal." He smiled, a baring of
white teeth, and he and Yoko vanished.


Now it was Terri's turn to pace. One of the Priestesses, in the
yellow of Uranus, brought in a plate of bread and placed it in a
niche in the wall. Terri ignored it.

   Time passed. How much, she didn't know. She paced endlessly,
flopping on the bed when she grew tired, only to get back up and
continue pacing.

   Terri had known Yoko since they had both woken up from stasis.
They weren't exactly close friends, the University discouraged such
things, but at least they had been friends. And during that time,
Yoko had never once had a heretical thought in her head.

   Yoko had never acted like a heretic, either. There had been no
lunatic rants on street corners, no prophecies of doom or paranoid
conspiracies, no insane plots to bring down the goverment. In fact,
Yoko had acted, in every way, just like a normal student.

   That bothered Terri. Deeply.

   Why would Yoko be convicted of heresy? More important, why would
she actually, willingly *confess* to having heretical dreams? Not a
single one of the documented cases of convicted heretics involved an
actual, freely given confession (and Terri knew, since the University
made students read every single one of them). And of the heretics
Terri had seen, they had all denied being heretics, right up to the
point where Lady Jupiter was required to get the truth out of them.

   Terri stopped as a Priest approached her cell and spoke quietly
to the Priestesses. After a minute or so, he turned and walked off.
Terri nabbed the bread and chewed as she continued walking.

   Yoko had said that her dream could have been a memory. That was
impossible because, since the creation of Crystal Tokyo, there had
been no major threats that required all the Senshi to be together.
Most of the time, the Senshi took care of the little domestic matters
that popped up, and brought in heathen tribes from the Wasteland to
be converted back into normal, useful people.

   But Yoko had mentioned Galaxia, the Senshi's final, greatest
enemy. Terri snorted, 'If one could actually consider Galaxia a
threat.' Galaxia had been a pathetic, whining loser. Everyone knew
that. She was so weak that even Yoko, who had such small amounts of
magic as to be considered powerless, could've defeated her with both
hands tied behind her back.

   So, no, Yoko's dream was simply that: a dream. Once the High
Court realized that, they'd let Yoko go with a firm reminder to stop
watching so many horror movies before going to bed. Terri laughed,
relieved.

   "Rationalization is one of mankind's greatest enemies, ya know."

   Terri whirled and saw her leaning against the far wall. "You!"

   "Me." She arched an eyebrow at the half eaten loaf of bread. "Why
is it that whenever I show up, you're always holding something?"

   Terri's mind came to a complete halt at the pointless question.
Shaking her head, she threw the bread to the floor. "I don't know how
you got in here, but you've got to get out. The Priestesses-"

   The woman pointed to the door, a not quite smug smile on her
face. Terri looked.

   The Priestesses were gone.

   Terri looked slowly at the woman, "How?"

   The woman lifted a finger and pointed at Terri. "Bang." She
giggled. Just as swiftly, she became utterly serious. "We've got to
get you out of here. Put this on." From behind her back she produced
a bundle of cloth and flung it at Terri.

   Unfurling it revealed a robe, just large enough for her, made out
of a dark blue cloth. Terri almost dropped it in her surprise. "This
is a robe for the Priestesses of Venus!"

   "You've got a good eye," her companion said. She, too, was
donning a robe, but of a color and style Terri had never seen before,
Too light to be the blood-red of Pluto's female followers, and far
too dark to be the pink of Jupiter's. The only color that came to
mind was auburn. All along the hem of the robe and its sleeves was
grey thread.

   She caught Terri looking at her. "Don't recognize it, ne?" She
smiled. "That's because there is no Senshi, nor a organization, for
this one."

   "Then why wear it? If we don't blend in with the rest of the
Priestesses, won't they catch us?"

   "Oh, I'll blend in all right. Don't you worry about that. Now,
get dressed."

   Terri slipped the robe on over the University's dull grey
uniform, and fussed with her long, silver hair before giving up in
disgust. Seeing this, the woman pulled out the red ribbon that was
holding up her own hair, and used it to bind Terri's in a rough
ponytail. She tugged Terri's hood up. "Try to keep your face hidden.
We don't need people recognizing you."

   Pulling her own hood up, she pulled on the cell door, and it
swung inwards without a squeak.

   "Wait," Terri said. The woman turned, impatient. "What's your
name?"

   "My name? You wanna sit here and ask for my name? Geez, and you
said I was crazy."

   "Please?"

   She sighed, "Fine. You can call me Minako."


Terri expected them to be caught at any moment, but all the Priests
and Priestesses they passed never spared her more than a moment's
glance. Minako, on the other hand, they did spare more than a
moment's glance. And, after that glance, they usually scurried off in
an extreme hurry. One Priestess, in the burgandy of Saturn, actually
went so far as to kneel on the ground, until they had walked out of
sight.

   Terri watched all this in shock, and whispered, "What's going on?
Why are they so scared of you?"

   Minako glanced back at her, and smiled slightly. "Lesson number
two: Those who respect Death know not to provoke It needlessly. It is
a double-edged sword, and It always hurts the user more than the
used." She turned back around, but not before Terri heard her mutter,
"Whether the user knows it or not."

   Puzzled by this remark, Terri slipped into silence.

   Minako chose paths they carried them upwards, either via ramps,
stairways, or strange elevators that consisted of clear glass tubes
that glowed with a greenish light. Eventually the austere concrete
gave way to the clear, complex crystal walls that Terri remembered
from her moments on top of the dorm's roof.

   Trying to gape while keeping her hood up and acting the meek
Priestess was a bit difficult, but by the time they started passing
massive doors, she considered herself an expert at it. Many of the
doors were closed, but a few opened onto high-ceilinged hallways, a
couple of impressive chapels (thankfully empty), and a large, domed
room that had a large crowd of people in it.

   Terri had only glanced into the depths and continued walking.
Suddenly, she stopped and backed up, studying the people more
carefully. And she gasped.

   Not all of the people within were native to the Palace. She
recognized the uniforms of a few Enforcers, several of her
upperclassmen from the University, and quite a number of the media.
Terri ignored them as she stumbled past the threshold, her eyes
locked on the distant figure of Yoko.

   She stood alone on a dias, head bowed, arms hanging slack at her
sides, facing the audience. Behind her, ranged in a loose
semi-circle, stood the eight Judges of the High Court, each of their
robes edged with the color of the Senshi they followed. And behind
*them*, sitting on high-backed chairs placed behind a table on a
platform even higher than the dais that Yoko stood on, sat three of
the Senshi.

   Mercury. Seated at the far right, She typed away a laptop,
apparently not paying attention the scene before Her, despite the
fact that the final ruling would be made by Her.

   Jupiter. Sitting in the middle, She alternated between twirling a
pen between Her fingers and tapping it on the table, all the while
gazing (dreamily?!) at one of the closer reporters.

   Venus. She sat at the far left, and Her ice-blue eyes roamed
about the room, studying everything and everyone with a bored
detatchment.

   One of the Judges was speaking. Terri moved closer, to try and
hear him better. A hand grabbed her arm, jerking her to a halt.

   "Are you insane? Or just plain stupid?" Minako's voice hissed in
her ear.

   Terri glared at her. "We've got to save Yoko!"

   Minako's eyes darted towards the Senshi, then back to Terri.
"No."

   "What?" Several people turned at her cry and looked away
immediatly upon seeing Minako's robe. Thankfully, none of the Senshi
seemed to notice the disturbance.

   Minako, however, clamped a hand over Terri's mouth. "Do you want
to be caught?" She glanced around quickly, and swore when she saw
that those nearest them had begun to edge away. "There are three
Senshi up there. I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not going
to get into a fight with them just to save your friend." Her eyes
narrowed. "Besides, why should you care? She's a heretic."

   Terri jerked away. "It was only a dream. They can't convict her
just because of a stupid dream!"

   "Funny. You didn't say that when she confessed."

   Terri flinched. She finally manged to say, "But, if they do
convict her, they'll kill her. That's what they do to heretics."

   "You're forgetting your first lesson, Terri-chan."

   "What are you talking about?"

   "The person that has been shown mercy is the person whose loyalty
is bound to be unshakable." Minako's face was grim.

   Terri's eyes widened with understanding. "They're going to-?" She
broke off as Minako paled suddenly, and a familar numbness swept over
Terri. She turned, the simple motion seeming to take forever, and
found herself staring directly into the enraged eyes of Jupiter.

   The Senshi of Truth stood, and Her voice thundered across the
room. "YOU!"

   Terri suddenly found herself the attention of every person in the
room, save Yoko. Startled by Her cry, Venus and Mercury broke off
Their own musings to look at Terri. Terri staggered and fell to her
knees underneath the sheer weight of the three combined stares.

   "Time for us to go!" Minako said, her voice echoing in the
utterly silent room. She grabbed Terri's arm, and, with surprising
strength, hauled Terri to her feet.

   "STOP THEM!" The force of Jupiter's voice caused long, jagged
cracks in the ceiling and walls.

   Minako dragged Terri out of the room and down the corridor. Terri
stumbled, but, free from the Senshi's eyes, she quickly managed to
regain her footing. Behind them surged the spectators, an angry mob
intent on doing the Senshi's bidding.

   Minako ducked into the first elevator they came to, and
immediatly started to strip off her robe. Terri followed her example
and tossed it to the side. Then she sat down heavily, panting.

   "Dammit," Minako growled. "Of all the Senshi I had to get chased
by, I had to be chased by Her." She looked up the shaft, then down at
Terri. "We'll have to split up."

   Terri looked up at her, shocked.

   Minako crouched. "Listen, Jupiter's got that mob out there
looking for you. And I bet that those three aren't gonna sit back and
let those people do all the searching. I'm gonna slow down the Senshi
and give you time to escape. When this elevator reaches the top,
taking every left hand turn you come to, and count the doors as you
go. Open the seventeenth door and wait in the room."

   "Is that where you'll meet me? What if I get lost"

   Minako grinned. "You won't be waiting for me. But you'll know
what you're waiting for, trust me. As for getting lost: Don't." She
stood, took a step back, and vanished in a flash of golden light.

   Terri swallowed and stood shakily. After a moment's hesitation,
she picked up the two robes and bundled them up, tucking the cloth
under one arm.

   'I'm sorry, Yoko.'


Minako strode down the empty hallway. Distantly, she heard shouts,
but she ignored them. Humming airily, she paused in front of a stone
effigy of Sailor Venus and studied it. "Lousy artist."

   She leaped away suddenly, somesaulting easily in the air, and
landing several feet away facing the way she came. The effigy
dissolved in a shower of light. Minako grinned, "I take it you agree
with me, V-chan?"

   Venus, standing thirty feet away, slowly lowered Her arm. "You're
becoming a nuisance, Minako."

   "Aw... I'm hurt. Really. Don't you wanna know how I survived all
these years?"

   "Frankly, I'd rather hear your death screams."

   Minako smirked, "Sounds kinda kinky, but I'm not up for it
today." Bringing one hand up to her mouth, she kissed her fingers,
and a small ball of light appeared. "Love and Beauty Shock!" She
flung the ball of light at Venus, and laughed as it exploded,
demolishing that end of the hallway. "Hah! That'll show you who's the
real Senshi!"

   An arm wrapped itself around her throat, cutting off her
breathing. "You want to know what your problem is, Minako?" Venus
said softly. "You waste far too much time on those stupid attack
phrases."

   Minako grunted, struggling, but she couldn't break Venus's hold.

   "Now then," continued the Senshi, "how should I kill you? Perhaps
I'll use my laser to give you a frontal lobe lobotomy? I could always
use more complacent slaves." Minako felt Venus press a finger agaisnt
her left temple. "Yes, maybe I should do that. And I'll have Mercury
put it so that you remember what you once were, so that the thought
of your very existance is a source of unending pain to you." She
chuckled.

   Minako gritted her teeth, and, hooking one leg behind Venus's,
threw all of her weight backwards. They stumbled and fell, Venus's
arm came loose, and Minako rolled away. Barely pausing, she whirled
and pointed her own hand at Venus. "Terri's going to make sure that
creeps like you no longer exist."

   Venus's eyes widened. "She isn't?"

   Minako smiled bitterly, "She is. CRESCENT BEAM!"


Terri slammed the door behind her and bolted it. Outside, she could
hear people pounding on door, struggling to break it down.

   Panting, hunched over the spasming muscles in her side, she
quickly crossed the small bedroom and opened the only other doors.
She lurched passed the threshold.

   And halted as she founded herself on a balcony thirty stories
above the ground. "Aw crap..."

   The door burst open behind her. Terri turned, backing up until
she felt her waist hit the railing. She was trapped.

   A sudden gust of wind swirled around her, and she shoved back the
strands of hair that escaped Minako's ribbon. The few members of the
mob that had entered the bedroom stopped, crying out in fear. Someone
shouted, "Need a lift?"

   Terri looked, hardly believing it to be true.

   A large military helicopter hovered just a few feet beyond the
railing. The large side door had been slid back, and a woman leaned
out, one hand holding onto the side to keep her from falling out. The
other was extended towards Terri.

   Terri knew better than to stand there. Clutching her bundle of
robes more tightly, she grabbed the woman's hand. The woman heaved,
and actually managed to haul Terri almost into the cargo bay with one
pull. Terri scrambled the rest of the way inside and sprawled on her
stomach on the cold floor, panting.

   The woman grinned down at her and shouted, "She's in! Get us out
of her, Rei-chan!"

   The pilot gave them a thumbs-up through the cockpit door, and the
helicopter shuddered and started to move. The woman slammed the door
closed.

   Then she noticed that Terri hadn't moved. She knelt, removing the
hat that had kept her brown hair out of her face, and frowned. "Hey,
you okay?"

   Terri managed to roll over and look up into startleing green
eyes. "Mi... na... ko..?"

   "Huh? Oh, you mean Minako-chan?"

   Terri nodded.

   The woman shrugged. "She's probably still in the Castle, raising
all sorts of Hell." That grin again. "That's what she does best."

   From the cockpit, "And she always leaves us to clean up after her
messes."

   The woman laughed. "That's definitly the truth. But I wouldn't
worry about Minako-chan, Terri-chan. She's gotten into, and out of,
worse things this. We all have."

   Terri finally managed to sit up. "Who's 'we?'"

   "We are those who believe in the Truth. The ones who fight to
return reality to the way it is supposed to be.

   "We're the Descendants of the Silver Millenium."