Chapter 9

In a large beautiful palace made of a mixture of dark and light crystal, a small girl sat on her mother's bed. She appeared angry, upset, a whole array of emotions that would let anyone know to stay away from her for a short time. Her white rabbit-ear buns gave a sweet compliment to her pale face and blizzard blue eyes.

"Father, why would they do this to Mother! I don't understand! How can they be so mean!" the little girl practically growled.

The tall man sat quietly by his small daughter, his own blizzard eyes shining with anger at the ones who would do this, as well as compassion for how his little one was feeling. "I do not know Zoe. But I do know that only you can make this right. Sailor Pluto has told me that you must go to the past and find the one called Sailor Eclipse. She will help you."

Zoe did not protest, "When do I go Father? I will go at once if I must!" she said with a fiery will. "I will make them pay for what they did! And dearly!"

Her father smirked, so much like him, she was. Very little of her personality came from her mother, except maybe a love for sweets. "Very well, let's go see Sailor Pluto then."

"No, no, no!" Malachite shouted for the third time that hour. "I said HIT me, not tap me! Put some power behind it!" he ordered as he worked hard to teach Serena martial arts.

Serena wailed, "I AM hitting you! I'm not as strong as you are!"

For the umpteenth time since training had begun, Malachite could only think of how far they had to go. "No! You're not as strong as I am. And I doubt you ever will be. But you have a lot strength that you are just letting go to waste. Want to know how I know this?" She nodded and he continued, "Because whenever you were in a battle with one of my soldiers, and you were losing and your friends were in danger, you ALWAYS found the strength to overcome us and win. That power is still there, just use it!"

"But I swear, I don't have any power. I'm not powerful, I'm weak. All I'm able to do is throw my stupid tiara or wave my dumb wand!" she continued to wail. "I'm just a failure…"

Malachite then knew why Serena was having so much trouble with her training and with a wave of his hand a punching bag with power gauge appeared. "I want you to throw a punch at the bag. Put all of your power behind it."

Serena made a fist and reeled back and punched the bag, as ordered. The impact barely registered and her hand hurt now. "I think I turned my hand into a maraca."

The general couldn't suppress a chuckle, this young girl could make a joke out of anything. He walked closer to her and put an arm around her waist and another on her hitting arm. "When you move to punch, move your entire body, not just your arm. When you move as one unit, you will be able to utilize much more power." As he instructed her, he also moved her to demonstrate, "Rotate back with this leg, pulling your arm back with it. Breathe in as your move back. Hold the breath. Now, rotate forward with speed and thrust your arm and fist out together, breathing out hard and fast, and yell!" Serena's punch connected with the bag and the machine this time registered an eighty-seven.

"Wow!" Serena shouted, "I did it! I did it!" She jumped up and down and clapped with joy at her achievement. Maybe she wasn't a failure after all. In her glee, she wrapped her arms around Malachite with a fervor.

Malachite gasped as her arms tightened about his middle. The only person to ever do that had been Zoycite. He missed her so much. He pushed Serena away. "Alright, let's try it again." Once again, he put his arm around her waist to properly demonstrate. "I'll help you one more time, and then you'll try it yourself." He began to rotate her back, as before.

Serena turned her head up slightly to look at him, "Okay…" She didn't know why, but she felt so comfortable in his arms. It felt right.

Malachite, although determined to focus on her training, made the mistake of looking into her ocean-blue pools. They were so different from Zoycite's emerald green ones, but…they were so lovely. And so was the face they were attached to. Despite his memories, he could not help himself. He lowered his lips to hers, almost mechanically.

Serena's breath hitched as his lips settled on top of her own. Her first real kiss. His lips were so soft and gentle.

In the middle of the kiss a flash of light caught their attention. They looked up just in time for a small something to come crashing down and into Serena's arms, effectively separating the two of them.

AN: Yes, the two of them kissed. Now you definitely know. Guess who Zoe is.