AN: Oh god. I didn't realize I'd been gone for over a year!!!! Gomen nasai minna-chan. Well, I'm back now and fear not I haven't been doing nothing while away. I've rewritten a lot of this story and added some much needed detail, the plot isn't altered much from it's original form but it would help to re-read the whole thing over again, although it has been a year so you might need to anyway, -_-().
Disclaimer: You see this? If you're reading it you do. I don't own most of it. There you sue me and you'll lose. Nah nah nana na!
Immortal Habit XIV: Other Battles Fought
"Wakey, wakey, sleepy head."
Selenity groaned when she heard the sweet childlike voice. She hadn't really been asleep and was still trying to find away out of this place. She had found out that the cell was made of adamantine, a type of stone that neutralizes magic, so she couldn't even get into her sub-space pocket. Now she had to deal with the insane bitch. Wasn't life great?
"What do you want, Zylstra?" Selenity groaned and opened her eyes.
Zylstra had always been a dark beauty with her midnight black hair highlighted with red streaks and her pale translucent skin. Now she looked unearthly in the pale moonlight that had somehow entered her windowless room. She wore a black mourning gown from the Victorian era and her ruby eyes burned like embers.
"I just wanted to see an old friend. How are you, Selenity? Comfortable?" Zylstra sneered.
"Just peachy but I have to complain about the view or lack thereof," Selenity said and pointed at the blank walls, "You really should get some pictures hung."
Selenity never saw the hit coming. She was just suddenly laying on the ground clutching her jaw. It hurt like hell but it wasn't broken. Zylstra lifted her up like a rag doll by the throat. She felt the hand tighten around her neck, threatening to crush her larynx. Zylstra held her to the wall and she felt iron manacles closing around her ankles and rough hands lifting her arms into the shackles above her head. When she lifted her blue-green eyes off the ground she could look straight into Zylstra's red ones.
"You can't talk to me like that," Zylstra stated. "I am your jailer. I have the power and you have nothing."
"I'm still pretty," Selenity murmured.
"I can fix that," Zylstra grinned sadistically and pressed on the festering gash on Selenity's abdomen.
"You've already done enough," Selenity snarled in pain and attempted to bite Zylstra's nose.
"Pray tell. What have I done? Jealous that I got Endymion?" Zylstra smirked.
"If only. Remember this? 'Daughter of Light, Creature of Night, forever yearning for the day when the dawn is in sight, but when the sun rises she shall forever be wishing for the night.' That's one of you lovely spells that you cast on me, your best friend, over a stupid prince that didn't love either of us!"
"You're wrong. He married me, he is the father of my daughter, and he loves me very much," Zylstra whispered dangerously and pressed harder on Selenity's wound.
"Then why is he going after my sister?" Selenity hissed.
This question obviously hit a nerve. Zylstra let out a primal roar, dug her finger into Selenity's stomach, and giggled childishly when the solarian princess screamed.
"It is a phase. He will soon come to see that I am more than that pretty princess could ever wish to be!" Zylstra exclaimed and became lost in her dreams of being Endymion's one and only.
Selenity's harsh voice broke the spell, "So this phase has lasted through a reincarnation and a millennia? Zylsie, I hate to be the one to tell you this but your husband is using you. He's never going to give up on my sister because with her he can have more power than you could dream of. You're just sloppy seconds."
"And what about you, hmmm? I watched you chase after that damned Martian not so long ago and look where he is now? In the arms of your beloved sister, that's where. Do you think he even remembers you? He was almost jumping for joy when they announced your so-called death that your sister set up when you turned sixteen," Zylstra pointed out.
Selenity internally sighed. That one was partially true. She had stalked poor Heero when they were younger but it had been more fascination than anything else. When she turned sixteen her curse had been reactivated and a woman came to her with a proposition to get her out of the public's eye.
***Flashback***
Sanq Kingdom A.C. 196
"Miss Relena! Open the door! I need to cleanand you need to go to a meeting! Why won't you come out?" Relena's personal maid pounded on the door again.
Relena wanted to do anything but open that door. She couldn't figure out what was going on and right now she really wanted to cry. But she couldn't and not in a 'I'm-a-tough-girl' sort of way, she actually had lostthe ability to cry.
'Along with the ability to write, stand on my hind feet, or wear any sort of clothing,' Relena thought bitterly.
She had woken up this morning excited about turning sixteen but the moment she woke up she knew something was wrong. Of course, waking up in the body of a siberian tiger when you distinctly remember being a girl just sort of screamed 'WRONG!' don't you think?
That had been four hours ago when the sun rose, she was now pacing her room like the trapped animal she was. For two of those hours her maid had been pounding on her door and yelling/pleading for to open her door.
"Sarah, I'm not feeling well today, please just leave me alone," Relena called through the door for the thousandth time.
Relena was once again counting her blessings that she could speak. It had taken her a few tries since tiger's vocals were extremely different from that of a humans but it had still worked. Which made she suspicious that her pet cat when she was five was the one that spoke to her during the night, convincing her that there were monsters under bed.
"If you're feeling ill, Miss Relena, let me call you a doctor."
Oh, yes, that was exactly what she needed. A hysterical doctor claiming the the Vice-Foreign Minister had been eaten by an endangered species of tiger.
"I'm sure all I need is some rest. I'll be fine tomorrow."
"Okay, so why don't you let me in so Ican clean up quickand then I'll make sure you're not bothered for the rest of the day."
"Urgh," Relena muttered.
They were going around in circles. At this rate she would go insane and really act like a tiger and eat the girl! It was time to take drastic measures.
"Sarah, if you don't leave now I'm going to have you fired!"
There was silence on the other side of the door. Relena sighed in relief, finally she could get this figured out. She settled down to think, and think, and think some more then she realized that she hadn't gotten anywhere and the sun was setting. Great, she was still a tiger. The urge to cry overcame her again but she just despaired because she couldn't cry but...what was that? There was wetness on her fur and her eyes were watering. She was crying. The last of the sunset became a blur of reds and oranges and then was gone.
As the last beam of sunlight fell below the horizon a great struck her. It felt like all her bones were breaking,the pain was unbearable. Relena cried out again and again, and for the first time shewished she would die jsut to escape the pain. But then it stopped just as suddenly as it had started it had stopped. Relena looked down at herself and was relieved to find that she was human again but she was a naked human. Where was her nightgown? She looked around and saw it hung over the chair by her desk.
"Odd..."
Relena rose and slid it on. She was about to go onto the balcony but her reflection stopped her. The person she saw was not the Relena Peacecraft she knew. Instead of honey blonde hair it was a platinum color that reminded her of Quatre Winner,a gundam pilot. Her eyes were no longer green but a teal color that also reminded her of the polite pilot.
'Oh God, I'm turning into to Quatre!' Relena thought in a moment of blind panic but later decided that since she was still apparently female that she had nothing of that sort to worry about. She wandered out onto the balcony and stared at the moon. Had it ever seemed so large before? Or so pure? Usually when she looked at the moon all she could see in it was the death the lunar base had brought upon the people but tonight the moon glowed. That glow comforted Relena, but still there was something missing. She yearned for the heat and warmth of the sun, fire coursed through her veins but only frosty moonbeams touched her skin. Relena sighed and lowered herself to the stones of the balcony. The stones were colder even than the moon and made her shake and shiver with cold but she just sat stared at the moon. Just sitting there, thinking. She didn't know how long she had been out there, minutes, maybe hours.
Sometime during the night she had fallen asleep and when she awoke in the morning she was too exhausted to be suprised that she was once again in tiger form. Sunlight glared harshly in her eyes even though it was still early and Relena caught herself wishing for night again with all it's darkness and mystery. And moonlight. Soft, caressing moonlight.
Relena jolted to her paws and stalked into her room. Sara was already pounding on her door asking if she felt better today. Relena thought fast to come up with an excuse that would buy her a days more time.
"Sarah, I'm still not feeling well but I think it should pass soon. I'll be out tonight around seven o'clock even if I have to ingest a bottle of aspirin," Relena told the maid.
"Okay, Miss Relena, but please don't take too much aspirin, it's not good for you," Sarah replied and then all was quiet.
When Relena was sure that Sarah was gone she let out a viscious snarl of frustration. How was she going to pull this off? She couldn't be a politician like this! Relena approached her full length mirror and stared mournfully at her reflection.
'Oh Heero, what would you think if you saw me now?'
***A week later***
Relena let out a roar and swiped her claws at the bedpost. There were already deep scars in the wood from earlier that week so another set didn't mean much. She had been like this for over a week now and she still didn't know how or why it was happening. Sarah had resigned herself to not cleaning Relena's room instead she cooked for her since by the time Relena came out of her room in the evenings dinner had already been served. No one had said anything about her new look and Relena wasn't about to mention it so the household servants had stooped to gossiping about why the former Queen of the World was acting so oddly. Relena clawed the bedpost again, this time with less ferocity.
"I can't live like this!" she cried and hoped someone in the heavens would hear her.
"Of course you can't, Lena," someone said from behind.
Relena spun around with all the natural grace of a jungle cat and growled.
"Who are you?" the tiger asked suspicously.
The woman in front of her was ethereal. Her silvery-white locks flowed in waves all the way to her waist and her skin was like ivory and her complection was perfect. Silver-blue eyes gazed at her through ebony lashes like they had seen more than any human on earth or colonies could ever comprehend but that was impossible since this woman couldn't be over twenty-two. When she had spoken it was in a beautiful alto that was suprising on someone so light in apperance. The woman's only flaw was her height, she was only an inch or two over five feet. In spite of this woman's literal short coming she looked quite deadly dressed all in black with a gun in each hand.
"I'm your own personal assassin but you can call me Artemis," the woman smirked and cocked one her guns.
"Do you have anything to do with this?" Relena asked meaning her tiger form.
"Sorry, this ain't my work. I don't play with the dark arts, although if I'm correct the one who cast this upon you once said the same to me."
"Who was it?"
"Someone I killed," Artemis sighed.
"That doesn't exactly narrow the field," Relena snapped. "Why don't you just kill me and get it over with."
Artemis seemed suprised by the command and looked at the gun in her hand. She didn't really want to kill her but that was what she was paid to do. There was something deeper than money involved here, it was time to stop killing.
"No."
Relena looked at her in disbelief so to prove she wasn't going to do anything Artemis took the clips out of the guns and set both on Relena's desk.
"Why not?" Relena asked sounding almost dissapointed.
"This curse is driving you insane isn't it?" Artemis asked softly.
"It just might," Relena replied sadly.
"I can help, you know."
"How?"
Artemis sighed, "I can't take away the curse, only the caster can undo a curse like yours. But I can save you from becoming a test subject at some lab. They're not so kind to peacemakers when they have unexplained magical powers, I should know."
The thought had never crossed Relena's mind. If they found out about her condition they wouldput her ina cage and experiment on her. All in the name of science. Relena cringed to think of some of the things they might try on her.
"What do you have in mind?" Relena asked.
Artemis smiled mischieviously and holstered her guns.
"What do you think about faking your death?"
***Another week later***
Relena stood on podium saying the last speech she'd ever make. Her hair had been dyed back to it's original color and colored contacts made her eyes green for her last public appearance as Relena Dorlin-Peacecraft. She was making her birthday speech, it was two weeks late but still people had shown up for the party. The party had started anhour after the sun went down so there was no chance of Relena having to show up in tiger form. Relena appeared to be speaking animately but really she didn't even know what she was saying because allof her attention was riveted on a silver-haired woman on the balcony. In two minutes that woman would pull the trigger and she would be dead to the world. Or at least this one. Artemis and Relena had set it all up and soon she would be someone else entirely.
'Sort of like reincarnation,' Relena mused.
Relena scanned the crowd and kept talking. Then in the back of the room she saw something that made her stop speaking and thinking. Heero Yuy stood in the very back of the room staring at her coldly. She had sent him an invitation hoping he would come but she had known he wouldn't. But he did. And at that moment her time ran out...
!!!BANG!!!
Relena's world went dark...for now.
***End Flashback***
After the 'assassination' the woman, Serenity, as she was told to callher afterwards, had a new life created for her as Selenity Hoshi Moon with a night job at a social services office and an apartment to live in. That life had lasted for four years with Serenity dropping by occasionally to hide from the police. One day she had been laying around her home in tiger form when she realized that she hadn't thought once about Heero and the other pilots since her sixteenth birthday, she was also surprised when the feeling that usually surfaced when she thought of Heero didn't so much as stir. She told Serenity about this the next time she visited. Serenity had nodded in understanding and told her that she had finally let go of her previous life and that she was ready for training. This had confused her at first but soon it became apparent when Serenity had handed her a sword and began to teach her. Slowly Relena Dorlian-Peacecraft disappeared and was replaced by Selenity Hoshi Moon, even though her physical appearance had not changed as much as an iota. She understood how fighting for peace could bring it about and no longer believed in complete pacifism but still she would rather talk her way out of a war than fight it. Her new life had totally changed her from the innocent girl she used to be she was now a predator of those who had wronged a bounty hunter. And still the changes kept coming for after that a new facet had been added by the return of her memories of the Sliver Millennium.
"I made a vow during the Silver Millennium to watch over and protect the princess with my life. To a certain extent I was carrying out that vow by watching over her lover," Selenity spoke after a long pause.
"You believe that, don't you?" Zylstra chuckled and backed away from her.
'You have no idea,' Selenity thought. 'You have absolutely no idea.'
* * *
Peacecraft Memorial Academy (8:00 AM)
"Finally! I'm here!"
Rini hopped out of the limousine Serenity had ordered to pick her up and looked at the mansion turned school. People her age and older littered the front lawn of the Peacecraft Memorial Academy waiting for school to start. Rini walked up the girl closest to her and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Um, excuse me? Do you know where the admissions office is?" Rini asked politely.
"Yeah, I do. What's it to you, candy cane?" the girl sneered.
The group of kids behind the girl began to snigger. This girl was obviously the queen bee, only the most popular girl in school could be this bitchy and have that many friends...or should I say 'sheep'. Rini stiffened at the girl's comment and immediately opened her mouth to tell the bitch that she shouldn't talk to royalty that way. Then Rini realized that here, in the past, her title would mean nothing. Rini quickly switched gears and decided a fight would start off the school year perfectly.
"Actually, it means a lot to me. Not only do I need to get my schedule but I need to report you for whoring in public," Rini replied.
"You must have damaged your brain when you hit that cotton candy stand, to think that I, Shina Shields, would give it up to any of these losers," the bitch laughed.
'This is the girl I have to befriend? Not a snowball's chance in hell!'
"Oh, I'm sorry! I just assumed with that outfit there was only one thing you could be doing," Rini said with her most innocent face.
If Shina had been angry before now she was furious. There was no other word for it when a person's face turns red and steam rolls out their ears. Rini realized that Shina did look an awful lot like Darien and Zylstra with her blue black hair and blood red eyes. It also seemed like insanity might have been passed on, or at least the gene to be unarguably evil. Shina was about to reply when suddenly the school bell rang, signaling the start of the school day. The red-eyed wonder gave Rini a glare that promised of more to come and flounced off with her entourage a step behind her. Rini stared after Shina and sighed.
'Just great, I'm not even here five minutes and I already know how this mission is going to turn out. How can that be the same Shina that I know? Maybe she's a schizophrenic, that would explain a lot.'
"Don't sweat it, babe. That bitch has a two-by-four stuffed so far up her ass it's giving her brain damage," a voice said from behind.
Rini whirled around to be face to face with a boy...
* * *
Senshi/Tenshi Mansion( 6:00 PM)
It was the first time the G-boys had been into the huge dining room since they had been inthe mansion, or at least they couldn't remember it.
'We can't remember much these days,' Quatre thought with some uncharacteristic irritation.
He and his companions had been stuck in a remote wing of the mansion for awhile now and the last thing that Quatre could remember before waking up here was being on L4 Colony and trying to run his father's business and a hundred other things at the same time and now he was on Earth, in Japan to be specific, in the company of a large group of women who seemed to be trying to fight a war without anybody knowing about it. Quatre felt discomfited that these women were fighting when he and the other pilots could do it, they were innocents they shouldn't have to fight especially the blue-haired one that was always there when he woke up from his frequent fainting spells. Quatre stole a glance at the beautiful woman standing next to him and then blushed like a tomato when he saw that she was already looking at him, he peeked again and felt a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment that she too was a bright red.
To take his mind off the blue-haired beauty he looked around the elegant dining room again so far only Serenity and Jim hadn't shown up and even with them here would be at least five extra places at the table. A tense silence had fallen over the room after an equally tense conversation had dwindled and died. Now, almost ten minutes later Quatre was starting to worry that either Wufei of Duo would do something rash if someone didn't say something soon. Quatre decided to go out on a limb and talk to the lady beside him.
"I was wondering, miss, how did you come across this mansion? I own several all over the world and colonies, I actually own two here in Japan," Quatre started politely.
"Call me Ami, please, Ami Mizuno. I believe Serenity and Amara somehow scared a poor fellow into selling them the place, I think from what they told me he was Arabian," Ami replied shyly, she had to keep reminding herself that this was *not* Apollo.
"Ami Mizuno the scientist? I thought you looked familiar. You won the Nobel Prize because you discovered a real cure for Parkinson's disease, correct?" Quatre was thinking that the night was looking up when he realized soemthing. "Excuse me did you say Arabian?"
Ami started to reply but was cut off when Serenity burst into the room with Jim but they weren't the only ones to walk through the door. A man and three women looked around all with guarded expressions except for one of the women who not only seemed to be a bit hyperactive but also had cat ears that were twitching back and forth. The black and purple haired woman who if he remembered correctly was named Hotaru ran to the new lady with black medium length spiky hair and actually squealed in delight.
"Mel! Oh God, I missed you! How are things in the Leyline Dimension? Has Gene finally agreed to marry you? You have to tell me everything!" Hotaru babbled on not noticing that all the women in the room were sweatdropping and the red headed man seemed about ready to shoot her.
"Everything's fine, Hotaru," Meflina laughed, returning her friend's hug.
Serenity smiled a bit and turned to the rest of the room.
"Everyone these are Melfina, Gene, Suzuka, and Asia," Serenity pointed at each of them in turn when she said their name. "They are friends of Jim and Hotaru. While they are staying here they will be helping us re-train the pilots."
The pilots looked at each other in alarm and confusion. They were the gundam pilots, they were the best. What was there left to know?
"Excuse me, lady, but what do you mean 're-train'? We don't need any more training,"he asked, his American accent getting worse from his agitation.
"For once Maxwell is right, we are the gundam pilots who is more trained than us?" Wufei decided to add his two cents. His right hand swayed towards where his katana usually hung but stopped in mid-motion when he realized it wasn't there.
"I mean that since it has been five *years* since the last time you really fought that you need a refresher course on the the basics of being a soldier," Serenity explained with a slight smirk.
"So what do these civilians have to do with it? They don't look like any military I've ever seen," Trowa spoke briefly and was once again silent, he had used up his allotted words for the week.
"I'll have you know I was part of the K'Taru K'Taru military police for five years," Asia exclaimed indignantly.
"Was?"
"Dishonorable discharge for not get the treasure of the Galactic Leyline," Suzuka replied.
"That wasn't my fault!" Asia cried.
Serenity blithely ignored the argument, albeit a bit one-sided one since Suzuka refused to take the bait, that was forming behind her and grinned maliciously at Wufei.
"Gene will be helping with marksmanship, Asia with hand-to-hand combat,and Suzuka will be introducing you to the art of *real* swordfighting. I've seen some of you fool around with a katana and I have to say I'm..." Serenity stopped and smirked at Wufei, "greatly dissapointed in the way you handled yourselves."
Wufei was red hot from anger, this onna had just insulted him. Not only him but his clan! They had been the best swordfighters in China before they were exiled. He was positive that that onna didn't know the difference between the hilt and the blade of a sword. If Serenity thought this Suzuka was better than him in any way then she was obviosly a bigger baka than even Maxwell.
Michelle and Eve traded glances, something had to be said before Wufei's anger escalated beyond his control.
"Why don't we sit down for dinner? You must all be famished. I belive we're having roast duck with an orange sauce," Michelle smiled gracefully and Haruka pulled out a chair for her.
Everyone sat, thankful for the distraction. Serenity smiled to herself.
'Oh, yes. Most interesting.'
___________________________________________________________________________
Once again I'm so sorry for the delay in this chapter. I just couldn't figure out what to write! This is shorter than my usual chapters but I think I did a great job with characterization. I think this might be my favorite chapter, well next to the last one of course but you don't know how ends now do you? Chapters should be coming A LOT quicker now that I have this one done, I know exactly where I'm going now. I have a question, I've seen a billion different spellings for the Sanq/Sinq/Canq/Cinq Kingdom, does anyone know which one is right?
Disclaimer: You see this? If you're reading it you do. I don't own most of it. There you sue me and you'll lose. Nah nah nana na!
Immortal Habit XIV: Other Battles Fought
"Wakey, wakey, sleepy head."
Selenity groaned when she heard the sweet childlike voice. She hadn't really been asleep and was still trying to find away out of this place. She had found out that the cell was made of adamantine, a type of stone that neutralizes magic, so she couldn't even get into her sub-space pocket. Now she had to deal with the insane bitch. Wasn't life great?
"What do you want, Zylstra?" Selenity groaned and opened her eyes.
Zylstra had always been a dark beauty with her midnight black hair highlighted with red streaks and her pale translucent skin. Now she looked unearthly in the pale moonlight that had somehow entered her windowless room. She wore a black mourning gown from the Victorian era and her ruby eyes burned like embers.
"I just wanted to see an old friend. How are you, Selenity? Comfortable?" Zylstra sneered.
"Just peachy but I have to complain about the view or lack thereof," Selenity said and pointed at the blank walls, "You really should get some pictures hung."
Selenity never saw the hit coming. She was just suddenly laying on the ground clutching her jaw. It hurt like hell but it wasn't broken. Zylstra lifted her up like a rag doll by the throat. She felt the hand tighten around her neck, threatening to crush her larynx. Zylstra held her to the wall and she felt iron manacles closing around her ankles and rough hands lifting her arms into the shackles above her head. When she lifted her blue-green eyes off the ground she could look straight into Zylstra's red ones.
"You can't talk to me like that," Zylstra stated. "I am your jailer. I have the power and you have nothing."
"I'm still pretty," Selenity murmured.
"I can fix that," Zylstra grinned sadistically and pressed on the festering gash on Selenity's abdomen.
"You've already done enough," Selenity snarled in pain and attempted to bite Zylstra's nose.
"Pray tell. What have I done? Jealous that I got Endymion?" Zylstra smirked.
"If only. Remember this? 'Daughter of Light, Creature of Night, forever yearning for the day when the dawn is in sight, but when the sun rises she shall forever be wishing for the night.' That's one of you lovely spells that you cast on me, your best friend, over a stupid prince that didn't love either of us!"
"You're wrong. He married me, he is the father of my daughter, and he loves me very much," Zylstra whispered dangerously and pressed harder on Selenity's wound.
"Then why is he going after my sister?" Selenity hissed.
This question obviously hit a nerve. Zylstra let out a primal roar, dug her finger into Selenity's stomach, and giggled childishly when the solarian princess screamed.
"It is a phase. He will soon come to see that I am more than that pretty princess could ever wish to be!" Zylstra exclaimed and became lost in her dreams of being Endymion's one and only.
Selenity's harsh voice broke the spell, "So this phase has lasted through a reincarnation and a millennia? Zylsie, I hate to be the one to tell you this but your husband is using you. He's never going to give up on my sister because with her he can have more power than you could dream of. You're just sloppy seconds."
"And what about you, hmmm? I watched you chase after that damned Martian not so long ago and look where he is now? In the arms of your beloved sister, that's where. Do you think he even remembers you? He was almost jumping for joy when they announced your so-called death that your sister set up when you turned sixteen," Zylstra pointed out.
Selenity internally sighed. That one was partially true. She had stalked poor Heero when they were younger but it had been more fascination than anything else. When she turned sixteen her curse had been reactivated and a woman came to her with a proposition to get her out of the public's eye.
***Flashback***
Sanq Kingdom A.C. 196
"Miss Relena! Open the door! I need to cleanand you need to go to a meeting! Why won't you come out?" Relena's personal maid pounded on the door again.
Relena wanted to do anything but open that door. She couldn't figure out what was going on and right now she really wanted to cry. But she couldn't and not in a 'I'm-a-tough-girl' sort of way, she actually had lostthe ability to cry.
'Along with the ability to write, stand on my hind feet, or wear any sort of clothing,' Relena thought bitterly.
She had woken up this morning excited about turning sixteen but the moment she woke up she knew something was wrong. Of course, waking up in the body of a siberian tiger when you distinctly remember being a girl just sort of screamed 'WRONG!' don't you think?
That had been four hours ago when the sun rose, she was now pacing her room like the trapped animal she was. For two of those hours her maid had been pounding on her door and yelling/pleading for to open her door.
"Sarah, I'm not feeling well today, please just leave me alone," Relena called through the door for the thousandth time.
Relena was once again counting her blessings that she could speak. It had taken her a few tries since tiger's vocals were extremely different from that of a humans but it had still worked. Which made she suspicious that her pet cat when she was five was the one that spoke to her during the night, convincing her that there were monsters under bed.
"If you're feeling ill, Miss Relena, let me call you a doctor."
Oh, yes, that was exactly what she needed. A hysterical doctor claiming the the Vice-Foreign Minister had been eaten by an endangered species of tiger.
"I'm sure all I need is some rest. I'll be fine tomorrow."
"Okay, so why don't you let me in so Ican clean up quickand then I'll make sure you're not bothered for the rest of the day."
"Urgh," Relena muttered.
They were going around in circles. At this rate she would go insane and really act like a tiger and eat the girl! It was time to take drastic measures.
"Sarah, if you don't leave now I'm going to have you fired!"
There was silence on the other side of the door. Relena sighed in relief, finally she could get this figured out. She settled down to think, and think, and think some more then she realized that she hadn't gotten anywhere and the sun was setting. Great, she was still a tiger. The urge to cry overcame her again but she just despaired because she couldn't cry but...what was that? There was wetness on her fur and her eyes were watering. She was crying. The last of the sunset became a blur of reds and oranges and then was gone.
As the last beam of sunlight fell below the horizon a great struck her. It felt like all her bones were breaking,the pain was unbearable. Relena cried out again and again, and for the first time shewished she would die jsut to escape the pain. But then it stopped just as suddenly as it had started it had stopped. Relena looked down at herself and was relieved to find that she was human again but she was a naked human. Where was her nightgown? She looked around and saw it hung over the chair by her desk.
"Odd..."
Relena rose and slid it on. She was about to go onto the balcony but her reflection stopped her. The person she saw was not the Relena Peacecraft she knew. Instead of honey blonde hair it was a platinum color that reminded her of Quatre Winner,a gundam pilot. Her eyes were no longer green but a teal color that also reminded her of the polite pilot.
'Oh God, I'm turning into to Quatre!' Relena thought in a moment of blind panic but later decided that since she was still apparently female that she had nothing of that sort to worry about. She wandered out onto the balcony and stared at the moon. Had it ever seemed so large before? Or so pure? Usually when she looked at the moon all she could see in it was the death the lunar base had brought upon the people but tonight the moon glowed. That glow comforted Relena, but still there was something missing. She yearned for the heat and warmth of the sun, fire coursed through her veins but only frosty moonbeams touched her skin. Relena sighed and lowered herself to the stones of the balcony. The stones were colder even than the moon and made her shake and shiver with cold but she just sat stared at the moon. Just sitting there, thinking. She didn't know how long she had been out there, minutes, maybe hours.
Sometime during the night she had fallen asleep and when she awoke in the morning she was too exhausted to be suprised that she was once again in tiger form. Sunlight glared harshly in her eyes even though it was still early and Relena caught herself wishing for night again with all it's darkness and mystery. And moonlight. Soft, caressing moonlight.
Relena jolted to her paws and stalked into her room. Sara was already pounding on her door asking if she felt better today. Relena thought fast to come up with an excuse that would buy her a days more time.
"Sarah, I'm still not feeling well but I think it should pass soon. I'll be out tonight around seven o'clock even if I have to ingest a bottle of aspirin," Relena told the maid.
"Okay, Miss Relena, but please don't take too much aspirin, it's not good for you," Sarah replied and then all was quiet.
When Relena was sure that Sarah was gone she let out a viscious snarl of frustration. How was she going to pull this off? She couldn't be a politician like this! Relena approached her full length mirror and stared mournfully at her reflection.
'Oh Heero, what would you think if you saw me now?'
***A week later***
Relena let out a roar and swiped her claws at the bedpost. There were already deep scars in the wood from earlier that week so another set didn't mean much. She had been like this for over a week now and she still didn't know how or why it was happening. Sarah had resigned herself to not cleaning Relena's room instead she cooked for her since by the time Relena came out of her room in the evenings dinner had already been served. No one had said anything about her new look and Relena wasn't about to mention it so the household servants had stooped to gossiping about why the former Queen of the World was acting so oddly. Relena clawed the bedpost again, this time with less ferocity.
"I can't live like this!" she cried and hoped someone in the heavens would hear her.
"Of course you can't, Lena," someone said from behind.
Relena spun around with all the natural grace of a jungle cat and growled.
"Who are you?" the tiger asked suspicously.
The woman in front of her was ethereal. Her silvery-white locks flowed in waves all the way to her waist and her skin was like ivory and her complection was perfect. Silver-blue eyes gazed at her through ebony lashes like they had seen more than any human on earth or colonies could ever comprehend but that was impossible since this woman couldn't be over twenty-two. When she had spoken it was in a beautiful alto that was suprising on someone so light in apperance. The woman's only flaw was her height, she was only an inch or two over five feet. In spite of this woman's literal short coming she looked quite deadly dressed all in black with a gun in each hand.
"I'm your own personal assassin but you can call me Artemis," the woman smirked and cocked one her guns.
"Do you have anything to do with this?" Relena asked meaning her tiger form.
"Sorry, this ain't my work. I don't play with the dark arts, although if I'm correct the one who cast this upon you once said the same to me."
"Who was it?"
"Someone I killed," Artemis sighed.
"That doesn't exactly narrow the field," Relena snapped. "Why don't you just kill me and get it over with."
Artemis seemed suprised by the command and looked at the gun in her hand. She didn't really want to kill her but that was what she was paid to do. There was something deeper than money involved here, it was time to stop killing.
"No."
Relena looked at her in disbelief so to prove she wasn't going to do anything Artemis took the clips out of the guns and set both on Relena's desk.
"Why not?" Relena asked sounding almost dissapointed.
"This curse is driving you insane isn't it?" Artemis asked softly.
"It just might," Relena replied sadly.
"I can help, you know."
"How?"
Artemis sighed, "I can't take away the curse, only the caster can undo a curse like yours. But I can save you from becoming a test subject at some lab. They're not so kind to peacemakers when they have unexplained magical powers, I should know."
The thought had never crossed Relena's mind. If they found out about her condition they wouldput her ina cage and experiment on her. All in the name of science. Relena cringed to think of some of the things they might try on her.
"What do you have in mind?" Relena asked.
Artemis smiled mischieviously and holstered her guns.
"What do you think about faking your death?"
***Another week later***
Relena stood on podium saying the last speech she'd ever make. Her hair had been dyed back to it's original color and colored contacts made her eyes green for her last public appearance as Relena Dorlin-Peacecraft. She was making her birthday speech, it was two weeks late but still people had shown up for the party. The party had started anhour after the sun went down so there was no chance of Relena having to show up in tiger form. Relena appeared to be speaking animately but really she didn't even know what she was saying because allof her attention was riveted on a silver-haired woman on the balcony. In two minutes that woman would pull the trigger and she would be dead to the world. Or at least this one. Artemis and Relena had set it all up and soon she would be someone else entirely.
'Sort of like reincarnation,' Relena mused.
Relena scanned the crowd and kept talking. Then in the back of the room she saw something that made her stop speaking and thinking. Heero Yuy stood in the very back of the room staring at her coldly. She had sent him an invitation hoping he would come but she had known he wouldn't. But he did. And at that moment her time ran out...
!!!BANG!!!
Relena's world went dark...for now.
***End Flashback***
After the 'assassination' the woman, Serenity, as she was told to callher afterwards, had a new life created for her as Selenity Hoshi Moon with a night job at a social services office and an apartment to live in. That life had lasted for four years with Serenity dropping by occasionally to hide from the police. One day she had been laying around her home in tiger form when she realized that she hadn't thought once about Heero and the other pilots since her sixteenth birthday, she was also surprised when the feeling that usually surfaced when she thought of Heero didn't so much as stir. She told Serenity about this the next time she visited. Serenity had nodded in understanding and told her that she had finally let go of her previous life and that she was ready for training. This had confused her at first but soon it became apparent when Serenity had handed her a sword and began to teach her. Slowly Relena Dorlian-Peacecraft disappeared and was replaced by Selenity Hoshi Moon, even though her physical appearance had not changed as much as an iota. She understood how fighting for peace could bring it about and no longer believed in complete pacifism but still she would rather talk her way out of a war than fight it. Her new life had totally changed her from the innocent girl she used to be she was now a predator of those who had wronged a bounty hunter. And still the changes kept coming for after that a new facet had been added by the return of her memories of the Sliver Millennium.
"I made a vow during the Silver Millennium to watch over and protect the princess with my life. To a certain extent I was carrying out that vow by watching over her lover," Selenity spoke after a long pause.
"You believe that, don't you?" Zylstra chuckled and backed away from her.
'You have no idea,' Selenity thought. 'You have absolutely no idea.'
* * *
Peacecraft Memorial Academy (8:00 AM)
"Finally! I'm here!"
Rini hopped out of the limousine Serenity had ordered to pick her up and looked at the mansion turned school. People her age and older littered the front lawn of the Peacecraft Memorial Academy waiting for school to start. Rini walked up the girl closest to her and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Um, excuse me? Do you know where the admissions office is?" Rini asked politely.
"Yeah, I do. What's it to you, candy cane?" the girl sneered.
The group of kids behind the girl began to snigger. This girl was obviously the queen bee, only the most popular girl in school could be this bitchy and have that many friends...or should I say 'sheep'. Rini stiffened at the girl's comment and immediately opened her mouth to tell the bitch that she shouldn't talk to royalty that way. Then Rini realized that here, in the past, her title would mean nothing. Rini quickly switched gears and decided a fight would start off the school year perfectly.
"Actually, it means a lot to me. Not only do I need to get my schedule but I need to report you for whoring in public," Rini replied.
"You must have damaged your brain when you hit that cotton candy stand, to think that I, Shina Shields, would give it up to any of these losers," the bitch laughed.
'This is the girl I have to befriend? Not a snowball's chance in hell!'
"Oh, I'm sorry! I just assumed with that outfit there was only one thing you could be doing," Rini said with her most innocent face.
If Shina had been angry before now she was furious. There was no other word for it when a person's face turns red and steam rolls out their ears. Rini realized that Shina did look an awful lot like Darien and Zylstra with her blue black hair and blood red eyes. It also seemed like insanity might have been passed on, or at least the gene to be unarguably evil. Shina was about to reply when suddenly the school bell rang, signaling the start of the school day. The red-eyed wonder gave Rini a glare that promised of more to come and flounced off with her entourage a step behind her. Rini stared after Shina and sighed.
'Just great, I'm not even here five minutes and I already know how this mission is going to turn out. How can that be the same Shina that I know? Maybe she's a schizophrenic, that would explain a lot.'
"Don't sweat it, babe. That bitch has a two-by-four stuffed so far up her ass it's giving her brain damage," a voice said from behind.
Rini whirled around to be face to face with a boy...
* * *
Senshi/Tenshi Mansion( 6:00 PM)
It was the first time the G-boys had been into the huge dining room since they had been inthe mansion, or at least they couldn't remember it.
'We can't remember much these days,' Quatre thought with some uncharacteristic irritation.
He and his companions had been stuck in a remote wing of the mansion for awhile now and the last thing that Quatre could remember before waking up here was being on L4 Colony and trying to run his father's business and a hundred other things at the same time and now he was on Earth, in Japan to be specific, in the company of a large group of women who seemed to be trying to fight a war without anybody knowing about it. Quatre felt discomfited that these women were fighting when he and the other pilots could do it, they were innocents they shouldn't have to fight especially the blue-haired one that was always there when he woke up from his frequent fainting spells. Quatre stole a glance at the beautiful woman standing next to him and then blushed like a tomato when he saw that she was already looking at him, he peeked again and felt a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment that she too was a bright red.
To take his mind off the blue-haired beauty he looked around the elegant dining room again so far only Serenity and Jim hadn't shown up and even with them here would be at least five extra places at the table. A tense silence had fallen over the room after an equally tense conversation had dwindled and died. Now, almost ten minutes later Quatre was starting to worry that either Wufei of Duo would do something rash if someone didn't say something soon. Quatre decided to go out on a limb and talk to the lady beside him.
"I was wondering, miss, how did you come across this mansion? I own several all over the world and colonies, I actually own two here in Japan," Quatre started politely.
"Call me Ami, please, Ami Mizuno. I believe Serenity and Amara somehow scared a poor fellow into selling them the place, I think from what they told me he was Arabian," Ami replied shyly, she had to keep reminding herself that this was *not* Apollo.
"Ami Mizuno the scientist? I thought you looked familiar. You won the Nobel Prize because you discovered a real cure for Parkinson's disease, correct?" Quatre was thinking that the night was looking up when he realized soemthing. "Excuse me did you say Arabian?"
Ami started to reply but was cut off when Serenity burst into the room with Jim but they weren't the only ones to walk through the door. A man and three women looked around all with guarded expressions except for one of the women who not only seemed to be a bit hyperactive but also had cat ears that were twitching back and forth. The black and purple haired woman who if he remembered correctly was named Hotaru ran to the new lady with black medium length spiky hair and actually squealed in delight.
"Mel! Oh God, I missed you! How are things in the Leyline Dimension? Has Gene finally agreed to marry you? You have to tell me everything!" Hotaru babbled on not noticing that all the women in the room were sweatdropping and the red headed man seemed about ready to shoot her.
"Everything's fine, Hotaru," Meflina laughed, returning her friend's hug.
Serenity smiled a bit and turned to the rest of the room.
"Everyone these are Melfina, Gene, Suzuka, and Asia," Serenity pointed at each of them in turn when she said their name. "They are friends of Jim and Hotaru. While they are staying here they will be helping us re-train the pilots."
The pilots looked at each other in alarm and confusion. They were the gundam pilots, they were the best. What was there left to know?
"Excuse me, lady, but what do you mean 're-train'? We don't need any more training,"he asked, his American accent getting worse from his agitation.
"For once Maxwell is right, we are the gundam pilots who is more trained than us?" Wufei decided to add his two cents. His right hand swayed towards where his katana usually hung but stopped in mid-motion when he realized it wasn't there.
"I mean that since it has been five *years* since the last time you really fought that you need a refresher course on the the basics of being a soldier," Serenity explained with a slight smirk.
"So what do these civilians have to do with it? They don't look like any military I've ever seen," Trowa spoke briefly and was once again silent, he had used up his allotted words for the week.
"I'll have you know I was part of the K'Taru K'Taru military police for five years," Asia exclaimed indignantly.
"Was?"
"Dishonorable discharge for not get the treasure of the Galactic Leyline," Suzuka replied.
"That wasn't my fault!" Asia cried.
Serenity blithely ignored the argument, albeit a bit one-sided one since Suzuka refused to take the bait, that was forming behind her and grinned maliciously at Wufei.
"Gene will be helping with marksmanship, Asia with hand-to-hand combat,and Suzuka will be introducing you to the art of *real* swordfighting. I've seen some of you fool around with a katana and I have to say I'm..." Serenity stopped and smirked at Wufei, "greatly dissapointed in the way you handled yourselves."
Wufei was red hot from anger, this onna had just insulted him. Not only him but his clan! They had been the best swordfighters in China before they were exiled. He was positive that that onna didn't know the difference between the hilt and the blade of a sword. If Serenity thought this Suzuka was better than him in any way then she was obviosly a bigger baka than even Maxwell.
Michelle and Eve traded glances, something had to be said before Wufei's anger escalated beyond his control.
"Why don't we sit down for dinner? You must all be famished. I belive we're having roast duck with an orange sauce," Michelle smiled gracefully and Haruka pulled out a chair for her.
Everyone sat, thankful for the distraction. Serenity smiled to herself.
'Oh, yes. Most interesting.'
___________________________________________________________________________
Once again I'm so sorry for the delay in this chapter. I just couldn't figure out what to write! This is shorter than my usual chapters but I think I did a great job with characterization. I think this might be my favorite chapter, well next to the last one of course but you don't know how ends now do you? Chapters should be coming A LOT quicker now that I have this one done, I know exactly where I'm going now. I have a question, I've seen a billion different spellings for the Sanq/Sinq/Canq/Cinq Kingdom, does anyone know which one is right?