Hello all,

I know it's been awhile, quite a long while actually, but here is the next chapter of the story. I can only equate my absence to working extensively on my other original works which had consumed all of my attention for the last year and a bit. If anyone is still reading this story then thank you for sticking with me. Enough of my ramblings now. On with the story! :)

Chapter 21

"One day there will be nothing left to follow." Her words, despite their meaning, are elegant. It's something I recognize. It's something I've always recognized. Everything Setsuna says ends up sounding like a myth destined to be passed down for generations. The only thing is, most of the time, her myths are of events which have yet to pass.

"That's inevitable." I stand at a balcony overlooking the courtyard. "All things must come to an end eventually."

She sighs. "Oh do they?"

I nod. "One person's story can only go so far."

"Is that what you believe?"

"Am I wrong?" The question I've asked lingers in the air for several moments. It's as if she is waiting for the words to come to her. This place, this kingdom, smells of rivers and jasmine. "No, Makoto, you aren't wrong."

"Was that so hard to-"

She closes her eyes. "But you aren't right either."

I push off the railing. "One day your puzzles are going to get you in trouble."

"More than you know." The end of her staff scrapes the ground. It is gentle, yet the mark it leaves is undoubtedly there. "Change is never easy, but then again what can you or I perceive as easy?"

"Why are you here, Setsuna?"

She pauses; there's something about her. Perhaps it's the way she keeps glancing over her shoulder. If it were at all possible, I'd say that her maturity has grown. It's hard to imagine that she were ever a child. Her eyes tell stories. Perhaps far too many. "To wish you luck, Makoto. The future is heavy on the shoulders of all who dare to step towards it's uncertainty."

I nod. "If there is something to warn us about-"

She shakes her head. "I just enjoy marveling on what has been and what has yet to be. The roads are endless."

"Especially for the princess-"

"No." Her rod scrapes the ground again. "A princess will always be a princess, but there are things beyond that. Look at the stars, Makoto. They are the true entities; they are the guardians of secrets."

"Stars? You mean the planets."

She smiles. "I mean the gods."

These walls are hollow ones. Echoes carry even the faintest whispers. That's what it feels like anyway. It's as if I'm a child sneaking out of their room at such a late hour, just waiting for someone to catch me. But then what would they do? I am the alien. Should they fear me? I don't even know the current affairs of state. Jupiter could be at war with Earth. No, that's not possible. Sapphire wouldn't allow it. Would he?

"Lita?" A hand so frail shakes over mine. Blue eyes stare at me and I don't know how to answer them.

"He's dead, isn't he?" The first tear rolls down my cheek. Gravity tugs it gently until I wipe it away.

Those are the first words I say to her after a thousand years. Have I become selfish? It doesn't feel like that much time has passed, but the evidence is staring right at me. My friend, one of my oldest friends, looks old beyond her years. Gone is the youth we had been known to project to the world. We were ageless, we were invincible, and now she looks like she was never any of that. Is that how I look? I turn and see my reflection in the golden columns. No, it's as if I had never left. Why? Why don't I look old? I should look old. I should be-

"No. No he isn't."

There's a gentle wisp in the air. I sense it only once my mind has reached its calm. "He's alive?"

"Of course." She sighs. "That man made a promise not to die until he found you."

I turn away with my hand covering my mouth. You'd have thought she had just told me he had died. "He's alive." Tears; they don't stop. I can't will them to. I don't have the strength.

"Lita."

I feel her hand again.

"It's okay."

I turn back, drop to my knees and throw my arms around her. "Mina, I'm... I'm so sorry. I really am."

"Sorry? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." She shakes her head. "I haven't seen you in far too long and one of the first things you do is apologize?" She sighs. "There is absolutely nothing to apologize for."

There's something about the words she said or maybe it's just how she said them. This woman, Mina Aino, Sailor Venus, has matured. There's still a soft, beautiful tone to her voice, but the innocence and naivete behind the words are gone.

I let go of her and stare into the same blue eyes that have lead, challenged, and befriended me across time. "When did you get so blunt?"

She shrugs. "Does it suit me?"

I can't help but smile a little. "I haven't decided yet."

Time is skewed to me. I suppose it always has been. Ever since I began to remember the past I held it far closer to me than the present. Even now I wonder if I had forgotten to celebrate the future.

Footsteps tap faintly behind me. I let go of Mina, shake off the tears, and turn around as if the previous moments had never taken place.

"Mother, the embassy you requested from Jupiter has arrived." Standing in the doorway is a young woman with long golden hair. To the left of her looking out the window still stands Rini. I had forgotten she were still in the room.

Mina nods and moves past me. "Thank you, Venus."

Rini moves away from the window as Asuka enters the room. They look to Mina. A moment passes. My friend clears her throat.

"There are things you need to know about Jupiter, Lita."

I nod. "Then tell me because there is nothing that I want more than to go home."

Rini pulls a book off the shelf. "It's hardly a home anymore."

Sparks start dancing around my finger tips. "What did you just say?"

Asuka bows her head. "The surface has been plagued with war for almost half a century."

I pause for a moment and take in what they had just told me. It's strange; there's no urgency slapping me across the face. If anything I let out a smirk. Jupiter at war? Some things never change. "I should probably go then."

Rini shakes her head. "Didn't you hear what I said? Jupiter is at war. No one from the outside has been able to set foot on the surface in almost five centuries."

I nod. "I heard you. I just don't think your words matter. Jovians settle things their own way. It's been like this since the very beginning. I don't mind walking another battlefield."

"Lita." Mina clears her throat. "You don't mean that."

"I do."

"Of course you do." Jove whispers in my ear. "You should see her, Makoto. You're daughter will make you proud."

Anna. There isn't a moment that passes where I don't think of her. She's had to grow up without a mother. I've done it. I never wanted her to experience that.

"Venus said there was an embassy." All eyes are on me. They judge, I know they do, but it seems that I've stopped caring about such things. "Mina."

She nods. "They're at the bridge."

Rini steps forward. "No we promised Sapphire-"

"Sapphire?" I smile. "So he finished it?"

The transportation bridge; it was to be his greatest invention. A portal of pure energy passing through dimensions which connects even the most distant of worlds. We were going to use it to colonize and open trade routes to worlds which had resources Jupiter lost long ago.

"It's dangerous." Rini sighs. "The farther the destination the more likely the connection will drop. Close world jumps are fine, but Jupiter and Earth aren't exactly side by side."

"What does that matter? You said there's an embassy." I let out a sigh. "Wouldn't they have just used it?"

Asuka steps behind Rini and puts a hand on her shoulder. It's reminiscent of what Setsuna used to do to Serenity. "My Queen. She will be fine."

This is a side of Pluto that I had never witnessed before. Perhaps I didn't see it or maybe she never showed it to me before, but there's emotion coating her words. I feel as if this isn't the same girl who tried to warn me in the past.

Mina clears her throat. "Come on, we shouldn't keep them waiting."

I would lead on, but I'm not sure I know the way. Mina goes first and I follow in silence. Asuka's rod scrapes the ground lightly behind us.

The stars glitter across the night sky. It's as if they were the bits of dust caught beneath the paint of a drying canvas. They seem both perfect and out of place at the same time. The city around us is no different.

"Is this still Crystal Tokyo?" If at all possible the city looks more like the Tokyo of old than the shining city I remember. The scene screams nostalgia.

Mina looks over and nods. "It's name has never changed. At it's heart it's just a city. Rini never used the Silver Crystal in the infrastructure like Serena did."

Rini shrugs. "It's better this way. Eternal youth and long life only goes so far. Eventually I realized that people didn't want that kind of perfection. What they wanted was so much simpler."

I look back to the palace. "And what was that?"

"The freedom to choose. My mother's mistake was believing everyone needed a better life. That's why she met so much opposition when Crystal Tokyo was formed and that is why the world never really embraced a monarchy when she returned from the moon the day you disappeared. Earth moved on and we are just along for the ride."

I smile. "What is it that you rule exactly, Rini? You just said the planet doesn't need you or the crystal."

She nods. "Helios and I don't rule. We serve. The planet is under our protection, but the people are free to govern as they please. You could say that we rule an idea."

Mina tugs on my sleeve. "There hasn't been a war on Earth in five hundred years."

"Impressive."

We round the corner to a small courtyard with several guards posted on the perimeter. Two women stand before a large arch in the center. I recognize one as Venus. The other stands tall in traditional Jovian armor.

She turns and bows. "Your majesty, the Jovian embassy-"

"Juno?" Just a hint of recognition flashes before me. I'm not sure what it was, but somehow I knew.

"Empress Makoto? No way, what is this?" She doesn't look at all like Juno, but her eyes give her away. She's changed. "Is this some trick?"

I shake my head. "If it is then it's a cruel one."

Rini steps past me and bows to Juno. "Thank you for responding to the summons. As you can see it was rather urgent."

Juno nods. "Urgent is an understatement."

"Regardless, she is here and she wants to return to Jupiter."

Juno let's out a sigh. "I understand, but I didn't come from Jupiter."

Mina's expression is the first to change. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly that. Jupiter is in lock down while Princess Anastasia negotiates a peace treaty with the northern countries. I came from Io."

"Io?"

She nods. "I was tasked with protecting the Emperor."

"Sapphire." There's a pain in my chest. Perhaps it was there all along but I ignored it. I don't know. My hands start shaking and the clouds forming in the sky are my doing even though I don't remember summoning them. "Will you take me to him?"

She nods. "Of course."

There are many things happening around me which I don't understand, and though I have so many questions I know this isn't the place to ask them. I feel like a child waiting for permission to go somewhere. To leave.

Rini shouts over her shoulder. "Extend the bridge to Io."

The arch fills with green light as the clouds crack with thunder. The smell of roses fill the air. I don't even realize I'm walking until Juno matches my steps with her own. Perhaps it's rude of me, but I don't look back to Mina or the others. I can't. I need to see him. Just him.

A shock surges through my body as we step through and emerge in a grassy field.

My senses go wild. Something doesn't feel right. "This isn't Io."

Juno turns and points behind me. "It is."

I turn and see the castle in the distance. It's flags are those of Jupiter. I drop to one knee and pull a handful of grass from the ground.

"Sometimes beauty just needs to be found again." Jove whispers.

It smells like the fields I grew up on in the distant past. I let the grass roll off my fingertips and close my eyes. Is this a dream? When I open them I realize it isn't. Juno is watching. I can feel her stare. She hasn't said anything yet and I suppose that is because she doesn't know what to say. I stand and feel the moisture gathering in the corners of my eyes.

Jove is beside me. I can feel his presence. "Courage, Makoto."

It's funny, I used to always tell people that that is what they needed to have. I never thought I would ever need it myself. "Courage? Of course."

I take a deep breath and listen to the wind. One step follows another, slowly at first, as my heart beats heavy in my chest.