Court Evil

Part Two: The Soldiers.

Chapter One: The Passing of Time.

	Brown-haired and brown-eyed, the specialist on the Mars ducked into 
an alleyway, about seven miles away from the ruins of the Mars power station he 
had destroyed with a particularly nasty C-4 explosive. Planting the explosive on the 
main power generator took out the whole station in one blast, but alerted nearby 
soldiers in the vicinity who were out of the blast radius. The specialist nursed his 
wounds. Those Mars soldiers were good shots when it came to using rifles. A rifle
 round in the ribs. He was lucky it wasn’t in his lung, or heart. The former would 
have slowed him down; the latter would have killed him. The specialist absently 
fingered his silver amulet in the shape of the royal crest of the planet Mars. The 
specialist rubbed the amulet, a habit of his that he believed brought him good luck. 
Looks like his luck is still holding. He was alive, after all. The engraving around the 
amulet was faded from the rubbing, but one line was still visible: “Men were trained
 in destruction.” 
	The specialist hated what he had done, destroying a Mars facility, and 
killing Mars soldiers. But, he had his orders. Eliminate all that resist the new Age. 
Those were his orders, and he always followed orders. 
	The specialist rubbed his amulet harder. “I am still a Sailor Soldier. No 
matter what happens, no matter what my orders are, that is what I am. That is ALL 
I am. I WILL NOT be degraded further.” His voice was low, soft, but determined. 
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. He could remember when the Sailor Soldiers, both 
male and female, were respected warriors. Now the male half were feared, spoken 
of in whispers full of horror and terror. “I am still a Sailor Soldier…” The specialist 
stepped out of the alley, wrapping his black coat around him to ward off the wind 
and any intent eyes who may be watching him. 
	The specialist continued walking down the abandoned, broken street. 
Slabs of concrete were strewn about the edges of the wide street, the devastation 
the result of the war against the Negaverse. The Mars Military were not as numerous 
as the army on the planet Jupiter, but Martians were well-known for their sheer 
determination, which allowed them to win so many victories early in the war. But 
then the Invincible Shadow and the Shadow Warriors came and wreaked terror and 
destruction that had not been known in ages upon the planet Mars. Then the Shadows 
went to the Moon, where they were defeated by the Imperium Silver Crystal and 
converted into Rainbow Crystals.
	“It has been a long time since I saw the other Sailor Soldiers. Male or 
female. I wonder if any of them are still alive…”
	“More than you think, Neo-Sailor Mars,” a cheerful voice spoke from a 
black convertible that the specialist had thought parked and abandoned. Apparently, 
it was parked but still occupied. The man who spoke, a short, slim man with red eyes 
and black hair and black skin, jumped out of his car to embrace the stunned specialist.
	“Neo-Sailor Venus! You’re alive!” the specialist said, embracing his friend 
like an old brother.
	“Yeah,” Venus said, nursing a sprained ankle. “Its good to see you too, 
Neo-Sailor Mars.”
	Mars eyed Venus’s ankle. “Missed a step on your last mission, Big V?” 
Venus nodded his affirmation and smiled at being called “Big V,” his nickname among 
the Male Soldiers.
	“Have you heard anything from the other Male Sailors?” Venus asked, voice 
now grave rather than cheerful.
	Mars shook his head. “Last I heard, Neo-Sailor Moon turned traitor on us 
and sided with the Negaverse. When I get my hands on that son of a bitch, I swear 
I’ll…”
	With a motion of his hand, Venus cut off Mars’s sharp tirade. “You know 
as well as I what Gae-dhal was going through. He was confused; he didn’t know what 
his purpose in life was. None of us did. We were the best fighters in the universe, and 
the universe hated us for being fighters. They feared and mocked us. Gae-dhal took that 
fear more deeply than the rest of us did. It drove him to go to the side that would appreciate 
his powers.” Venus’s head drooped to his chest. “Too bad that side had to be the 
Negaverse.”
	“It disgusts me to think that the Moon Kingdom, hated us so much as to make 
Gae-dhal give up his status as Neo-Sailor Moon to side with Beryl. In a way, the Moon 
Kingdom AND Queen Serenity made him do it!” Mars smacked his right fist into the flat 
of his left hand. “Damn her! I thought Serenity loved him!”
	Venus eyed his hot-tempered friend with a red eye. “You should not be so 
vulgar about our late Queen. You should show the newly dead some respect. After all, 
we were never able to go to her funeral.”
	Mars sighed. “I suppose.” He stared up into the sky, watching the stars flash 
by. The moon was high overhead. He could remember a time when one could see the 
Queen’s Palace on the moon, even from such a far distance. Now, no Palace remained 
to be seen on a clear night sky. It was in ruins, lying among other ruins, and would be 
forgotten with the passing of time.