Chapter 24: Time to go

Hey! I am ramming through the damn writer's block and getting on with the event I have been waiting to write for a while. I wanted to have a bit more time in the past, but I can't think of anything else to do there, so the Scouts are finally going back to the future. How will they say goodbye? You'll have to see...

Well, days turned into more days, and it was two weeks before everyone finally decided to go home. Pluto sat down at dinner one day and broke the news that had been on everyone's mind for a while.

"Scouts, it is time to go back."

The room was silent. Though everyone knew it had to come sometime, it seemed far too soon.

"So, uh, I guess we'd better...get ready..." Venus's voice cracked on the last words, as she quickly rushed up the stairs. Duo hesitated a moment and went up after her.

"The queen did say we were to stay at least a week..." Mars murmured.

"You have to go back?" Zechs asked Pluto quietly.

"Yes. Our kingdom is back there and we are sworn to it." Pluto said into her empty plate.

Heero abruptly dropped his napkin and left. Jupiter ran after him. "Heero..."

The remaining people sat in the stillness. "We couldn't possibly stay. Serenity is our queen, Crystal Tokyo is our kingdom and we must be there. We don't belong here. We can't belong here." Mercury whispered.

"But you do!" Quatre suddenly said passionately. "You do belong here, with us! We have only known you for maybe two weeks, but it feels like forever! Losing one of you would be like losing a piece of ourselves, now. Especially now, after everything..." he trailed off.

"We can't possibly stay, even if we wanted to!" Laytha almost yelled as she jumped up and ran off, closely trailed by Trowa.

"We should go make sure we have everything..." Mars said softly. She left quietly, almost dragging her feet.

Venus's P.O.V.

Venus rushed into her room, and stumbled as something caught her wrist. She spun to see Duo there, looking as despaired as she felt. "We can't stay Duo. We just can't. I hate it to be this way, but it just is."

Duo pulled her into a tight embrace. "But I can't lose you. Not now, not ever."

Venus tried to push him away. (Why did I have to go and get attached? I knew this would happen! Why am I fooling myself...) She let herself collapse in his arms. (I didn't know this would happen. I didn't think about the future and now I have to pay for it...) She pulled her arms around him and played his braid between her fingers. (Why does it have to be like this... Maybe they could-no. Don't even think it. This is as much their world as Crystal Tokyo is ours. They couldn't leave it.)

Duo felt Venus stiffen for a moment under his arms. (What is it? Did she think of something? Why is everything so complicated?! Why did I have to fall for someone from the future? Why couldn't she just stay here? I could make a home for her; I would make it just like her old one if she wanted it... And I would be with her...) Duo's head snapped up. "That's it!" He grinned widely and lifted Venus off the floor.

Venus dropped Duo's braid. "What is? What is it?"

Duo set Venus down on the floor and put his hands on either side of her head. Putting his forehead on hers, he dropped his voice. "I can go back with you. Oh, Venus I'd follow you to the ends of the universe if I could, but I don't have the power to move through time, but please, let me come with you! This world would be nothing unless you were here!" Duo fell to his knees and put his arms around Venus's waist. "Please...let me follow you..."

Venus let out a broken cry. "Of course, Duo! Yes, you can follow us! I was so worried; this time is your home and leaving it..."

"My home will be where ever you are." He stood up and they shared their second, most incredible kiss.

Heero's P.O.V.

Heero stood in the smaller library, breathing heavily. He heard Jupiter follow him in, but did not pay attention.

"Heero..." Jupiter put her hand on his shoulder. "We don't have a choice. We have to go back."

"I know you have to go! I know! But losing you, it feels so strange..." Heero looked away. For the first time, he let out his thoughts without thinking. "I love you, Jupiter. The words seem small, but everything felt right when I was around you. Even when we were fighting, I couldn't imagine anyone I would rather be going at it with." He felt his shoulders drop. "You don't understand how it feels to be around someone, a female someone, who I don't feel the need to protect. That's how I have always felt, that is what I learned, to protect. And to fight, and kill and everything..." Heero suppressed a sigh. "But when I am around you, I don't need to protect you, I don't have to."

Jupiter turned him around and put her hands on his shoulders. "Heero, I am no stranger to death. I have killed too, you know. These powers, they weren't just given to me for fun. I have had to kill to protect too."

"And now, the only person I have ever actually wanted to be with, you are leaving. And I can't go with you." He looked away, as if to hide his thoughts from her. (I feel so empty... And I can't go with her. I couldn't. They have no place for me.)

Jupiter tilted her head and looked in his ice-covered blue eyes. "Do you...want to stay here?"

He shifted his gaze to the thundering green orbs in front of his eyes. "There is nothing to stay for."

"Do you want...to come with us?"

Icy spheres seemed to melt in the gaze of Jupiter's misty green ones. Heero issued a small noise. "Hn."

Jupiter smiled and pulled him to her. "It's rude to grunt..." She whispered.

Trowa's P.O.V.

"You can't come with us." Laytha said brokenly.

"Why not?" Trowa persisted.

"Because this is your home! This is your time! This is where you belong!"

"I belong where you are! I couldn't have anything else! If you left everything would be for nothing!" Trowa collapsed, breathing heavily. "This is what and who I am. You are a part of me. I finally realized my own feelings, and I can't be dropped like this."

"Dropped?" Laytha stopped and turned to him, dropping to her own knees. "I'm not dropping you. Don't you want to be with your family?"

"I have nothing to keep me here."

Laytha leaned forward and took his hands. "Do you promise?"

Trowa looked up at her and she could see his answer.

Mars P.O.V.

"Why are you being so stubborn?!" Mars cried.

"I'm not stubborn, I am realistic!" Wufei yelled back at her. "Doesn't...anything matter to you?!"

Mars circled to face him. "Everything matters to me. All of it. Every minute we spent, every second I felt you near me... It matters. Being a Gundam pilot, I would have thought you would understand trying to stay detached-"

"But I can't be detached! Not to you, of all people!" Wufei grasped for the hem of his jacket, something to hold onto, to keep him from shaking her. "Of course I know detachment, I know it too well. But I can't breath without you, as dense as that sounds."

"Stop it." Mars asked brokenly. "Please, I can't stay..."

"Then let me come with you."

Mars stopped. "Why would... Don't you have someone waiting for you?"

"I have nothing tying me here." He stepped forward and put his arms around her.

She turned in his arms. Two hearts beat frantically against each other. "Stubborn boy..." She whispered as the universe seemed to stop and watch the two as their hearts finally connected.

In the kitchen~~~~~

Nothing moved for at least ten minutes after Quatre's outburst. A squeak broke the silence and everyone looked up to see Jupiter and Heero sit down, both looking more than simply cheerful.

Mercury glared at Jupiter for having high spirits at such a time, but Jupiter burst out the big secret. "He's coming with us!"

Heero looked at her and flashed his faint smile. Pluto sighed, but couldn't help smiling herself. "So I guess we'll have an extra person to accompany us on the way back."

"Just one?" Zechs looked at her, smiling himself. "You didn't think you could leave me behind, did you?"

Pluto closed her eyes slowly and put her hand over his. "Two then."

"Better make that three..." Quatre said from the other side of the table.

Mercury whirled around to him. "But your house, everything..."

"The men have handled it for two months. They can handle it just fine. I won't let you go, Miss Mercury." Quatre sat up straight. "Absolutely not."

"Then that makes three-"

"Four!" Venus yelled, bursting through the side door. Duo dashed in after her.

"You're not leaving me behind!"

Pluto laughed. "Alright then-"

"Five people!" Laytha yelled almost as loudly as Venus and pulled Trowa into the room as well.

Pluto waited. "Well, I had better wait for Mars and Wufei before I say it again..."

"Good choice." A quiet voice came from behind the side door. Wufei opened the door and he and Mars stepped in, arms locked together. "Make that six extra people accompanying us to the future."

That night, the household slept as the never had, for that night, six would finally return home, and another six would get the ability to live, literally, in a whole new world.

Somewhere in the other realm~~~~~

"Sir, here is the scan you asked for..." A small, hunched shadow of a creature held a small orb towards a taller shadow.

"Give me that. You were supposed to have it hours ago!" The taller figure's eyes glowed a hard white and the small creature vanished with a small shriek. "Infidels... Now, to the matter at hand..." The figure opened its hand and the small sphere glowed and grew into a planet. "Yes, Earth... Now where are you my little newborn... Yes there you are, burning brighter than ever. Yes, feel the anger... Yes, now is the time to send you a friend... Paslin!"

A smaller, but proud figure emerged from the darker shadows, a shadow in itself. "Yes, Lord. I am here to serve."

"You recall the Earthling I told you of?" He did not wait for an answer. "I want to you pay a visit to our poor, tortured friend. Offer her what you want. You know what she wants and what I can deliver. Go!"

The creature called Paslin knelt and withdrew to the darker shadows and disappeared.

Relena's P.O.V.

Relena was in her apartment, or rather, her kitchen. The refrigerator was emptier than usual as Relena finished off another pint of strawberry ice cream. Her stomach quivered. "Yes, that is what I will do. I'll go to Heero tomorrow and talk to him. Yes, and if that bitch gets in my way, I'll have my handgun to take care of her. Heero lives around death; he shouldn't mind too much." A small voice played in the back of her head.

(Aren't you supposed to be a pacifist?)

Relena laughed at the thought. "I'm not at war... I need to get Heero back. That's all there is to it."

Something moved in the corner of her eye. "Who's there?!" She called.

"You hate it, don't you?" A sly voice hissed. "You hated it how Heero looked at her, didn't you?"

"How do you know-" Relena looked around for the now-vanished shadow.

"We have felt your pain, Relena. We sympathize. That Jupiter girl does not need Heero. You need him. He should be with you. Jupiter should pay." The voice hissed and a form veiled in darkness grew in front of Relena. She stumbled out of her chair.

"What, what are you?!" She stuttered.

"I am called Paslin, and I serve Lord Diamond. He feels your pain as well. He wants to help you. But he knows your plan will fail."

Relena drew herself up. "How does he know it will fail?! My aim isn't that bad!"

"It is not that, Relena. This girl, this Jupiter, she will not be killed be a mere bullet. Observe." Paslin pulled a small, purple orb from his dark figure and its weak glow barely revealed the dark, wrinkled skin of his hand. "Look into it."

Relena leaned towards the creature as far as she dared and gazed into the sphere. Images of Jupiter flashed through it. In one, she was dressed scantily in a tiny, green mini-skirt with a skin tight with top, green boots and gloves. She spun around and a sparking, green disk appeared in her hand. She hurled it at two men with white hair and they were pitched backwards onto the pavement. Another scene passed through the orb. This time, Jupiter was still wearing her scant outfit, but this time was standing in the middle of a lightning bolt. She suddenly thrust her hands out and the lightning followed her movement and cast itself over a young woman with wavy dark blond hair. The woman went down instantly.

"What is she doing? That poor woman!" Relena gasped.

"This is what Jupiter has done in the past. This is what she can still do. That is why your plan cannot work. She would cast a lightning bolt down on you before you could squeeze the trigger." Paslin re-pocketed the orb.

"Tell me how to destroy her. Tell me how to get rid of her and save Heero!" Relena exclaimed, pulling her shirt down unconsciously over her wide stomach.

"We can give you the power..." Paslin hissed.

"Wait... What is the price? And why me?" Relena stepped back. She was a former diplomat after all. Everything had a catch.

"The price? Simply that you destroy Jupiter and help us destroy her friends, some of whom have committed crime far worse than this. And as for why you? Because we sympathize. We have all had our hearts broken at one time or another. We don't want that for everyone. And just think, one Jupiter is out of the way, Heero will love you again..." Paslin's voice drifted off with suggestion.

"Love me..." Relena looked away with shame. "Why would he want me now? Look at me..." She waved her hands at the mass around her figure.

"Yes, Lord Diamond thought you would be worried about that. He is prepared to offer you a great gift in exchange for your promise to help us." He leaned over, as if to tell a secret. His voice lowered. "Lord Diamond will give you the body of a goddess, simply in exchange for your help."

Relena blushed, thinking of herself with all the curves she never had, even when she was thin. "Deal. I get the power to destroy Jupiter and her friends, and... a new body, if I come with you and help you fight." Relena's mind drifted, thinking of all the possibilities.

She did not see the malicious grin that spread across Paslins's face. "Take my hand, Miss Relena. I will take you to my planet."

Relena drew himself up and took Paslin's dark hand. The next thing she knew, she was in a shadowed room looking at a man with white hair on a throne.

So, what do you think??? I hope you like the romance I added. So how will the guys fare in the future? And how will Relena come into play? Does she know they are going to the future? Tune in next time for 'One summer day...'