The anime/manga characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi. The OC's and story background belong to me.
Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A/N: I'm not English native speaker, so you might find some typos or grammar mistakes, I do apologize for that.
Two years passed since Rei and Darien got married. Darien was still in med school and Rei lived under two identities: her civilian self and the J-pop star Rei-Ka – the latest one had an interesting rivalry with one of her best friends Minako who was a famous singer as well. However, the rivalry was only in media talk, in reality there was no rivalry between the too, but much respect. They believed there was space for everyone in the entertainment.
Rei decided to give a chance to her singing career and with the support of everyone around her, she decided to accept the deal with a famous record company and the hit "The Promise" and the cover of the hit featuring the famous violinist MichiruKaiou"Can You Celebrate?" launched her to the world of fame.
Darien and Rei lived in his apartment and were not in a hurry to start their family, as they preferred to wait Darien finish his studies and become a doctor so they could start thinking about having children.
Museum of Antiquities, Evening
Lady Seratna was in the private gallery studying the Book of Apollo when she read about the mysterious arrow that killed Ischys and Apollohad been accused of the assassination. Using a magnifying glass to observe every detail of the picture of the arrow, she used her power of observation to relate to the other books information so she could be more prepared for the day of the return of Algol.
While she studied the books, she sensed she was being observed.
"Zeus…" she exclaimed without the need to look around
The blond man replied leaving from behind a pillar, walked slowly closer to her, and raised an eyebrow, "Studying as always, Antares?"
"Seratna"
"Right! I keep forgetting we have to live in the shadows"
"I'm sure that must be still hard for you to live among the humans and with limited skills"
"Indeed. Now I live as the pathetic Zeru"
She giggled, "How pathetic? I heard on the news that people like your 'fables'."
"Fables that did exist"
"Of course…"
He looked attentively at the open books on the table, "Algol? Do you really believe he will bring the mess again?"
"I'm sure he will. Two years ago he threatened to do it, but something stopped him…"
"I thought the Promise meant that all the sailors would have a break from their duties and live as only normal we would only monitor them. No threats. No battles. No Savior…"
"I know…Something happened and that's what I am trying to decipher"
"You know Algol is related to Ophiucus and Lilith, right? And Apollo and Koronis haven't conceived a child"
"And they won't…or at least, they wouldn't… that was the initial deal…and now with Algol out there…It might bring the Savior again, somehow…"
"he shouldn't even exist anymore. He gave his seed to seal everything! It's impossible he still exist and reincarnate!"
"It would if not for exiled Epios"
They heard a strong male voice entering joining them mentally
"Helios…or should I say Mr. Hino? Welcome to the party but I should warn you that you should stop that habit of peeking and breaking your silence. The last time it happened, a war almost happened!" Zeru replied jokingly referring to the affair of Ares and Aphrodite
"I couldn't help giving my opinion on the matter"
"As the usual" Zeru replied with sarcasm
"I know you still keep some grudges against my family Zeus, but that's not what really matters to me right now"
"We had a deal!"
"And you broke it!"
"I had to! I raised your child as mine. I lied for you and your genes brought the chaos to this galaxy!"
"No Zeus, you brought the chaos when you felt you had lost your title as the greatest god!"
"Your son broke a divine law! He fertilized the Phoenix egg!"
"Everybody knew that would happen with anticipation. I had already warned you! But you didn't like to know their love would bring the Savior. You wanted to be the one to do that as you had so many lovers, including your obsession for Selene but you couldn't count with her rejection due to her feelings for Apollo!"
"The not so calm Helios is back huh!"
"You're pathetic saying all those lies! You had been warned by my premonitions. You just didn't want to believe I was right!"
"No lies! That child brought the chaos and my exile! And all gods'!"
"You got your exile because of your own mistakes, Zeus! Just like all the others!"
"I so regret for had agreed with your brilliant idea to hide your fatherhood!"
"Maybe that was my mistake too, but the truth is that you got the exile because of your own greed!"
"Your family brings the chaos!You fell in love with that insane Arietis when not even her father had patience to tolerate her anymore!"
"Stop you two!" Antares yelled, "You two are still fighting over this after all these millenniums? Geez! Get over it!"
"I'm sorry Lady Seratna but we never had the actual opportunity to come clean about our past!" Zeru replied annoyed
"So do it another time. You waited this long, you can wait more. Now we have more urgent subjects to discuss and that will define the future of all of us!"
Zeus huffed, "We still have a lot to discuss Helios. Be aware of that!"
"I'm looking forward to it"
"Are you done now?"
"Yes darling. I have nothing else to say anymore. Let the 'I know all' god say whatever he knows"
"Helios? Are you recomposed to say what you know? Antares asked
"Yes. I'm fine already."
"So what were you going to say?" she asked
"Probably exiled Epios has to do with all that's happening. He's the only one who could've broken the Promise for some reason…"
"I presume he appeared in the final battle against Sailor Chaos the last time as the Via Lactea had been consumed by the supermassive black holes… I don't have much memory from that battle, unfortunately" she said
"He probably did as Kaname didn't have powers or wisdom enough to manipulate the black matter and most probably Epios saw the disturbance somehow and went to his rescue, which we might be seeing the consequences now…"
"Kaname would never know how to manipulate the black matter as he had never been into it…you can't know what you never had met" Zeus commented
"It makes sense…" Antares agreed
"I believe that too" Helios replied
"Meaning the Savior failed and the sailors' vacation might be ending soon!" Zeus teased
Helios didn't fall in the provocation and added a commented, "Which opens the window for the return of one of them…Kaname or Epios himself…"
"Or even both…" Antares added
"Both?" Helios and Zeus said together
"Yes"
"Is that possible? They're both product of the same seed!"
"A seed that lived simultaneously in two separate dimensions…"
"Meaning?" Zeus asked
She shrugged, "Meaning that I still don't know…I had never seen such a thing…it's probably a unique particularity of that seed!"
They stayed in silence for a while, thoughtful.
"What about Rei? Is she still having those dreams she was having?" she asked
"No, it stopped…as far as I know"
"Maybe she's they key we're looking for…" Zeus said
"Why do you think that?" Antares asked
"Because nothing compares to a mother's love. A true mother will search and always find her children wherever they are…and as the Phoenix spirit lies in her soul she will have access to unique and all dimensions we can't know."
"That makes sense. She had that wound in her soul for the lost child, for the lost motherhood for a long time. She healed it in the previous life when she had children, especially Kaname as he was part of the lost dream" Antares explained
"I can believe that too, and that just made me think that broken bond still lies in Epios' soul and what may have made him cross barriers and join Kaname against Chaos was not the light of hope of his freedom or win the battle, but the hope to meet his family and the love he never met because of the exile. Briefly he united himself to Kaname's spirit he was still exiled and that explains why he's still there and the explanation of why we had been warned that Kaname wouldn't be part of the Promise"
"Rei might have accessed the other dimension when Arietis and Algol opened the portal. Her soul listened to her lost son's claim" Antares commented
"And the special abilities of the dormant Phoenix led her to there" Zeus added
"Which explains why Darien wasn't affected" Helios said
"Yet…as for long he carried the guilt in his soul" Antares pointed out
"We have to search her dreams and keep eye on Apollo. They're married now living part of the Promise, but one day they might want to have children" Zeus said
Helios sighed heavily, "Rei cannot have children" he spoke with a saddened tone
"What?" Zeus and Antares said together
"She doesn't know it yet…But I saw her womb…it has no conditions to carry a child in there"
"Are you sure?" Antares asked
"Yes…"
Zeus frowned and smirked, "That is no problem for their special child. He can heal anything, right?!"
"But for that he needs to be born…and he won't, did you forget that detail?" Helios replied
"No I didn't…but I'm saying this is another reason why we need her to find Epios and kick Algol's ass, so then he can fix her womb as has the healing ability his other counterpart did too, right?"
She made a face, "Well, seeing from that side, you're right…we don't know the special deal Kaname could have done with Sailor Universe for an eventual return…though I don't think he'd want to be out of the Promise"
"So there's only one way to find out..." Helios said
"We need to find Epios" Zeus ended the conversation
Chiba's Apartment, Night
It was already late night. Darien was sleeping soundly. Rei was restless, rolling in bed, bothered by the heat despite the cool temperature inside the apartment. Darien seemed to be more resistant to the higher temperatures and wasn't bothered about the apartment's cool temperature due to the air conditioners on nor the higher temperatures outside.
There were news about the weather's changes, the Earth was getting hotter, the ice Poles were melting, and the summer of that particular there were record registrations of high temperatures around the world. There were news of people and animals dying because of the high temperatures. There were news of places melting, cars, transit plates, rubbers, dry locations rising, etc.
Many shops ran out of air conditioners due to the high demand of costumers.
Authorities of the countries reunited to discuss solutions about their industries' pollution, or to discuss more advanced technologies to help the matter, and the use of biodegradable technologies.
Rei started to sweat a little and felt thirsty, so she and stood up from the bed to drink cold water with ice.
She sat on the couch in the living room, and put raised the coolness of the fixed air conditioner and then placed the portable air conditioner in front of her in the maximum as well. It did help a little. She rested her back and closed her eyes to enjoy the coolness on her skin.
Gradually she fell asleep.
Zeru's Apartment
Serena was restless in the balcony because of the heat, but she was more restless due to Zeru had not arrived yet.
There was only six months the two were actually dating, despite knowing for a longer time, Serena still felt like Zeru kept secrets. He did respect her, and treated her right, they had a unique chemistry but she still felt something didn't fit the puzzle of their relationship. Yes, she faced their relationship as a puzzle. There were good pieces that matched perfectly, but others not so much, and when she tried to figure it out Zeru seemed to anticipate the move and changed the board.
She did like him in a general sense, he was a very smart man, persuasive, handsome and a bit narcissistic but he also made her feel like a goddess with his passionate adoration for her, and at times she thought he exaggerated in his dosage of love demonstrations. The contrast of his attitudes towards her and her feeling that he hid something made her have frequent mix of feelings. It made her question if she should stay in that relationship. A part of her loved the moments they had as a couple such as when they talked and she listened to his plans for them, or when they had intimacy. But another part of her was taken aback and saw him a just a story teller and she would prefer to stay alone.
"You're awake"
She got a light scare when she heard Zeru's voice at the balcony's door and stepped closer to her to greet her with a kiss.
"Yeah. I was worried about you. It's late" she replied
"I was in a meeting"
"Work?"
"Yeah"
"Until this time of the night?"
"Yeah, there were some old friends there and we got talking about the past"
"Oh, I see"
"What about you? How was your day?"
"It was good despite the hot weather"
"It's cooler now"
"Yes it is..."
Zeru leaned closer to try to caress her, but Serena dodged him attempt and entered back the apartment asking him if he wanted her to heat the dinner.
Zeru let out a frustrated sigh. He knew his goddess was back to her cold shell again as she knew she had suspicious about him, but that was a situation he tried to manage the best way he could as he knew the Sailors weren't allowed to know about their old identities, nor the existence of the former legendary gods living among the humans.
Unknown Location
A blue-eyed young looking man was sitting on a couch in a living room holding a frame in his hands: "Mama. Papa" he caressed the portrait, "Why can't I go find you again? We took so long to meet and when i finally found you, I lost you again... This doesn't seem right, and now for some reason I can't cross the portal...this doesn't seem fair..." he whispered with a saddened tone.
Soon after he said it, he made a quick dodge as a narrow passed by him. He frowned and looked at the window, and saw a black figure. Immediately he ran outside.
"You become an easy target and that makes easy to find you when you have 99% of your guard down when you're tortured by your past"
"If you wanted to kill me, so you could've had just killed me. Would be a favor!"
The black figure laughed loud, "Oh my sweet child"
"I'm not your child!"
"But I raised you"
"For a brief time, and I don't call it 'raising' when I was your slave!"
"A mistake I committed due to my bad judgment at the time.."
"You wanted me dead"
"I don't want you dead!"
"That's not what I remember about the haunt a while ago..." the young man smirked
"Hahaha, that was a long time ago. I was in a bad day"
The young man rolled his eyes with incredulity, "What do you want now?"
"Freedom, just like you"
"You don't deserve freedom"
"Everyone deserves a second chance"
"You don't seem regretted your mistakes, why would you deserve a new chance?"
"I've paid enough for my mistakes. It has become unfair being kept here...just like you who is kept here...locked...paying for something you didn't do. A good soul who is kept away from his loving parents, without a home, without a family, without love...all alone in the darkness of this prison...isn't it what you were murmuring about?"
The young man only stared the dark figure
"Your silence confirms my guessing"
"Whatever you came to do, don't take for granted you'll have it. I'm not the stupid child you could lead on..."
"Oh, no...I know you're not a child anymore. You have grown up...but I just wanted to know if you want to join our board to the freedom"
"I opened the portal once a little while ago, don't you remember?"
"I do and it has been strongly sealed since then"
"Thanks to you" the black figure stated with a tone of accusation
"There was an innocent girl you ordered to capture. It wasn't fair nor right"
"She's nothing close to innocent! That 'girl' is the key we need!"
The man smirked, "Bullshit! She was just a human!"
"Weren't we humans once upon a time, Epios?" the dark figure said coming closer to the man
The man stared the figure back not taken aback or threatened, as a matter of fact he stared it back with a defiant gaze, "I don't believe you"
The figure smirked, "You'll see I don't always lie..." it said disintegrating itself and disappearing among the location's darkness
Epios remained thoughtful. Deep inside he always had doubts about that girl's true identity. No humans could survive the atmosphere of that place, of course he knew the girl's human body was in another location, although, there was something about that mysterious girl that at times made him remember his own mother, however he knew that was impossible as the last time he had seen his mother she looked older, just like everyone he had met before entering back the portal due to the "intruder of light".
Thank you all for reading my story. I want to apologize for taking forever to update. I know I said I'd try to update faster or twice a week, but I've had some hard times, I've barely had time for myself as I'm studying a lot and I'm still trying to conciliate my author life with my real life, so once again I apologize for keeping you waiting.
I will not drop the story, but I'm taking baby steps to continue and conclude this saga.
I want to thank everyone who reads, who adds to favorites, and the follows :D
If you have any suggestion I'm open to listen to you. You can review or PM me :D