Thanks to Saruka for being my pre-reader.
Luv: Meredith Legal Disclaimers: Sailor Moon by any other name would smell as sweet, though it still wouldn't belong to me. HOWEVER, Dia is MY character, and this plot is also MINE.
Personal Disclaimer: My mental state is slowly deteriorating, but *I'M* not crazy. (Insert insane laugh here)
Forgive Me 1/?
By Meredith Bronwen Mallory
At precisely midnight on Friday, December 13th, 2210, the first born daughter of Endymion and Serenity, King and Queen of Earth and Moon, came into the world. She didn't scream and she didn't cry, but lay there silently as the doctors pulled her from the warm womb of her mother. She opened her violet eyes to the world and looked at the strange men patiently.
"Strange baby," whispered one of the nurses.
"It's bad luck to have silent baby," remarked another.
"Is everything alright?" Neo-Queen Serenity asked worriedly as she struggled to sit up, holding her husband's hand.
"Hai, everything's fine, Serenity," Ami remarked, "Your daughter is just an unusually quite baby." The Mercurian senshi giggled a little, "She certainly isn't related to YOU," she teased.
"Must get it from Endy," the Neo-Queen pronounced with certainty. Her husband merely laughed as Ami handed him his daughter. The King of the Earth, once known as Chiba Mamoru, looked into his daughter's eyes and... shivered. The child looked up at him, serene as anything ever could be, violet eyes too old to belong to a child. And he knew something was wrong. Then the moment passed, and the little girl took a big, deep breath, and let out a scream that was probably heard all the way in China. Everyone covered their ears as Endymion hurriedly handed the child to his wife.
"I stand corrected," Ami laughed. Serenity rocked the girl in her embrace, and the child quieted almost immediately
"Hello there," Serenity cooed, smiling when her newborn gasped her finger with her tiny hand. In truth, the Queen was a bit shocked. The child was not the pink haired, ruby eyed demon she had been expecting, but rather, a calm angel with a head of white hair and jewel-like violet eyes. Those eyes... they seemed oddly familiar... but Serenity couldn't place them.
"What shall we name her, darling?" Endymion asked as he leaned in close.
"Hmm... I don't think Usagi will work," she commented.
"Neither do I... What about Angel?"
"Na.. How about, Dia?" Serenity paused. Where had that come from? Angel seemed like a perfectly sweet name, but, she looked down at her white-on-white daughter and realized it would have been all wrong for her.
"Dia, I like it! Dia it is then!" Endymion declared, watching as Mercury left the room to inform the other Senshi of the birthing. Endymion looked down to see Serenity had fallen asleep, and gently brushed his lips to her forehead She was so strong... hundreds of years had not dimmed his love for her. Turning, the King gazed out the window at the wide, bustling expanse of Crystal Tokyo, capital of Earth and Moon. All this, his responsibility, well, his and Serenity's. Suddenly, he felt an intense gaze boring into his back. Whirling around, thinking it perhaps to be one of the other senshi, or even a reporter, he found no one there. But then he looked down, and saw Dia staring right at him, eyes wide and focused, not at all like that of a child. That was the first inkling Endymion received that something was wrong with his daughter.
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Amendment: Something was terribly wrong with his daughter, Endymion thought worriedly as he gazed out at Crystal Tokyo. Behind him, Serenity, Dia and Chibi-Usa all lay curled up in the big king sized bed, all having been frightened by the storm. Actually, Dia had come running in screaming at the top of her lungs, thrown herself into her mother's arms and had not moved since. Endymion had the sneaking suspicion that she was watching him, but he didn't want to turn around and be proven right.
Make no mistake, Endymion loved Dia to the ends of the earth, just as much as he loved Chibi-Usa But there had always been a slight distance between himself and his eldest daughter. They were close, but Dia and Serenity were closer. There were times that Endymion believed should Serenity ever be even the slightest bit displeased with Dia, the child might wither up and die, such was her respect, admiration and love for her mother. It was true, Dia avoided Serenity's displeasure like the plague, always out to please, to impress, to make her mother proud.
She was your everyday, ordinary child of the two greatest monarchs of all time. She had a sweet disposition and a keen mind, even at seven. Dia's blinding white hair fell down her back, ending at her waist. She pulled it up in two small odangos, letting the rest flow loose and wild. It almost seemed to have a life of it's own. Serenity loved to have Dia sit in her lap so she could enjoy brushing it in motherly attention The people called Dia the White Princess, for indeed, her skin was like china, her hair snow-white (AN: harhar), and she usually wore white. The only color in her at all were her eyes, the deep, searching violet that had sent shivers down her father's spine seven years ago. Endymion was very proud of his little girl, she was an angel... except... except sometimes.
Sometimes it didn't seem like it was Dia lurking behind those violet eyes, but rather someone else. Someone older, someone Endymion knew, and yet could not place. Until today. An idea was forming in the King's mind, a inkling, a suspicion that shook him to the core. He prayed to God it wasn't who he thought it was. Turning away from the window, Endymion found his gaze resting on Dia, spooned up against her mother, looking at him with wide eyes. *Different* eyes. He couldn't think with her looking at him like that. It wasn't her 'yes, I'm an angel,' look she normally carried, but rather she seemed as though she was studying him. 'Is it just my imagination, or did I see hate this time?' Endymion wondered as he walked down the deserted corridors Each time that look passed through Dia's eyes, he swore he saw more hatred grow. Of course, he could only count the occasions on the fingers of one hand, but they were there.
The first had been when Dia was born, the second, three years ago, just before Chibi-Usa was born. The world had been rocked by a rash of murders committed by a man calling himself the Black Moon killer. Of course, he and Serenity both knew that he was probably the first of the Black Moon family that would soon begin to surface. Though, thanks to Setsuna, the King and Queen remembered little of that time, they did know that the clock was counting down, and with the conception of Chibi-Usa, things were all but laid down on the chosen path. Anyway, unlike almost everyone else, who cringed at the mention of the Black Moon Killer, Dia had showed a peculiar interest in the subject, though four years old at the time.
The incident in question arrived the night of the murder's capture. Dia had sat in front of the screen, eyes fixed and keen with interest. After the story was over, a shaken Serenity had turned the viewscreen off, retreating to the comfort of Enymion's embrace. Then the strangest thing happened. Dia stood up, and slowly turned around, her posture stiff. She had gazed on Endymion with those unfamiliar eyes, then fixed her focus on her mother.
"Mother" there was something strange in the four-year old's address. "If I did something really bad, would you forgive me?" Her voice had grown older just speaking those words, it had turned almost...masculine. Serenity had looked up, shocked.
"Of...of course, sweetie pie. I'll always love you, no matter what you do," she responded warmly. Dia shook her white locks, almost disgusted with the comment.
"No, Serenity," her mothers jaw dropped, "Not *now*, I did something *bad* before! You have to" Dia shuddered, grabbing at her temples as though in pain. Frightened, her mother and father rushed to her side, a dozen worried questions running through their minds.
"Dia-chan, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Serenity asked, pulling her daughter into her lap.
"You have to forgive him, Mommy!" it was their little girl speaking again, "He needs you to forgive him... make him GO AWAY!!!" Dia sobbed, hugging her mother tightly.
"Forgive who, sweetheart?" Serenity asked, concerned to say the least. Over the white plain of their daughter's head, the King and Queen locked gazes. "HIM!" Dia screeched.
"The Black Moon Killer?" Endymion asked, grasping for some sanity in the situation.
"No!" Dia continued to wail, "HIM! You gotta forgive him, Mom! He didn't mean it honest! He didn't know better! You gotta FORGIVE HIM!!" Then, in the blink of an eye, Dia was still, her body so overloaded with anguish that she fainted.
A very worried King and Queen knelt beside Rei that evening as the priestess preformed a healing ritual over their still sleeping daughter.
"Well, she's not possessed," Rei said hopefully. The monarchs exchanged looks.
"That's a relief," Serenity mumbled.
"Far as I can tell, nothing's wrong with her," Rei continued.
"But she was so upset," Serenity said, "She was crying so hard and oh, tell me she'll be all right!" Endymion supported his wife as she fell back against him, worry for their daughter in both their hearts.
"It could have been a memory from a past life," the Martian girl mused, "It's very common for child to have them, even up to the age of ten. I'm sure she'll be all right, don't worry about it, Sere." The queen smiled warmly at her friend, but neither she nor her husband ever truly got over the unsettling experience.
However, nothing truly came of it, much to everyone's relief. Dia had awoken the next morning her usual chipper self, pleading for pancakes and anxious to go outside and play. Still, Endymion filed the incident in the back of his mind, somehow suspecting that it wouldn't be the last of it's kind.
"Papa?" a little voice interrupted Endymion's musings. He turned from his place on the garden bench, to see Dia standing at the lattice entrance, drenched in moonlight, her violet eyes filled wit innocent love. Her father smiled in relief, his little girl was back to normal.
"Yes, pumpkin?" he asked, patting the seat beside him. In truth, nothing would give him more joy at the moment than to hold his daughter, but sometimes after the incidents, she didn't want to get close to him for a little while. To his relief, the child climbed up into his lap, gazing up at him with admiration and concern.
"Is something wrong Papa?" she asked sweetly, hair billowing about her as the wind whipped at their forms.
"I was just thinking..." he lied badly. Dia shook her white locks, looking as thought she was ready to cry.
"Are you afraid of me, Papa?" she sounded small and alone, and she looked even more so, dwarfed by his large form and her oversized nightie.
"No," he said. That was the truth. He was not afraid of Dia, he was afraid of the stranger her saw in her eyes, but never ever, would he be afraid of his little girl. However, what next came out of Dia's mouth shocked him to no end.
"Sometimes I scare me."
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What exactly is wrong with Dia?
Who does Serenity need to forgive?
Will everyone pass their midterms?
Speaking of the devil-sent tests, when will they be outlawed?
What happens when you play every Fleetwood Mac song ever created all at the same type?
Why is it that only men can open pickle jars?
Will you send me feedback?
STAY TUNED...