Legal Disclaimer: We aren't the owners. Did we say that enough? Oh, this starts back in the Silver Millennium, pretty much where the last one left off at.
by: Cynthia and Emerald J
"Father?"
He looked up, dismissing his attendants at once. "Yes, Lita?"
"Can I have a favor from you?" she tried to smile, to look charming and eager to please him. He did love her, she felt that, but the kingdom came first in everything that he thought about, regardless of how it affected himself or even his family.
He lifted one eyebrow. "What?"
"No matter what it is, will you do it for me?" she wanted to get his commitment before anything got in the way. Like his unwavering devotion to the realm. "Please, just tell me whether or not you'll do it."
The King considered. "All right."
"I want to get married!" she declared triumphantly. Her father's face at once assumed the usual stern expression she was so familiar with.
"No."
She frowned herself. "But you just said you'd let me!" she cried out. He wasn't following his word! She was torn between stamping her feet and unleashing a Jupiter Thunderbolt on him.
The king was unmoved, however. "You can't, you're needed as a Sailor Warrior!" he reminded her. Lita glared at him.
"What if I don't want to be one?"
"It's your duty." His voice was flat and uncompromising. Duty came before everything, it was the way of royalty, but somehow his daughters had escaped learning about that. They did what they wanted to do, not what they had to do.
Lita tossed her head. "Why can't Molly do it? She's just as capable as I am!"
"Because you're the oldest and it's your job," the king said firmly. Lita sighed.
"Then, without Neflite, I have nothing really to look forward to in my life." She turned around, not letting him see the small vial she was carrying with her.
Her father stared at her. "So your duties mean nothing to you? All you care about is yourself and what you want, not what is best for the kingdom?"
"What is good for this kingdom is to get an heir since you didn't have any sons!" she flared. The King frowned, his eyes growing darker and sadder. How had he somehow managed to have two daughters, neither of him gave so much as a whisker about the world they would one day be taking care of?
He sighed. "You are the heir, Lita!" as eldest, she would take on the duties of Queen one day, and he hadn't wanted to tell her so soon. She didn't seem surprised, however.
"And I'm not allowed to get married?"
"Once you're the Queen, then you won't have the powers, and you could get married!" he tried to explain it to her. So she'd have to wait a while, certainly she had enough patience for that!
Lita shook her head. "By then, the man I love won't be mine to have anymore!" Her father was healthy and strong, and by the time she was queen, any number of things could happen to Neflite. Things she didn't want to think about at all.
The King frowned. "What is more important? Lust or the kingdom?"
"I love him!" Lita howled with all her soul, staring out of the window. That was what was important; maybe when she was old and dried up she'd think less of love and more of dry, dull things like government. But now she wanted Neflite, more than anything!
"Answer me."
Lita glared at him. "Neither anymore!" She quickly drank down the potion she was holding without him looking at her, hardly hearing his next words.
"You should never have been born a princess. You have no idea of what it means. All you want is your own selfish whims." the King looked somewhat surprised when Lita collapsed, the vial dropping from her hand, and went over to check on her. A quick examination proved that she was just asleep, having taken a powerful sleeping draught.
"Take the princess to her room," he turned to see his wife, the Queen, in the chamber. She had hardly spoken to him in the last year since Lita had become Sailor Jupiter, and he still had no idea of why.
Several minutes passed while he took care of some of the kingdom's business. During a lull, he looked at her. "Are you planning on talking to me at all?" She just shook her head, and he sighed. "Won't you at least tell me what's wrong?"
"Did you have to do that to Lita?" she asked coldly. He sighed.
"Do what?"
The Queen glanced at him. "How you told her she was going to be Sailor Jupiter?"
"That's what she is supposed to be!" he practically shouted. Maybe he should have married that Princess from Venus instead of her...at least she would understand about what royalty had to do!
His wife raised one delicate eyebrow. "Did you have to tell her at her party? Did you know that Neflite was going to ask for her hand in marriage that night?"
"No, I didn't," The King sighed, wondering if there was an opening yet in that Martian monastery he'd heard so many nice things about...
The Queen continued. "Instead you, in her eyes, ruined her life by announcing that she would be one of the chosen! She never wanted those powers and you knew it!"
And I never wanted to be King, but I did what I had to do! Why should she be any different? He screamed the words at her mentally, but was silent otherwise save for, "Are you done?"
"Yes," the queen rose. "And I'll go prepare the guestroom. I promise you that until you rectify the situation, I will not share your bed," she declared, preparing to leave.
"Oh, and thank you so much for allowing me to explain," he said acidly.
His wife snorted. "Explain what? That you never liked Neflite in the first place?"
"I have my reasons," the king had never been able to control the power of the Jupiter Warrior like the female members of his family could, but he had a few small abilities. One of those was an occasional flash of sight, or a sense about people. He had not trusted Neflite from the moment he had seen him, no matter what.
"And those would be?"
The King stood. "What do you care? The good of the realm has never mattered one bit to you."
"It matters," the queen said. "But it's not the only thing in this universe."
"I realize that."
The Queen continued, "Love and the happiness of a leader also helps a planet survive."
"So does keeping one's word. And doing what is right over what is convenient or lusted for." The King retorted.
His wife smiled faintly. "You haven't been happy since Lita and I stopped talking to you, have you?"
"Have you listened to anything I've said?" the King sighed, wondering. Had nothing of what he was, a leader and someone who did what was right for the realm, gotten into his family at all?
She sighed. "Yes, I have. Have you listened to anything I said?"
"Which is more important?" the King asked. "The peace and safety of the kingdom or one person's happiness?"
"To you, it's everyone but your own family," the queen retorted, hurt showing plainly on her face. The King just sighed and headed for the door, intending to return to his quarters for some rest. "Everything matters more than your family."
He looked back to see her crying. "And if I neglected my kingdom, you'd be whining about that too!"
"You don't want us and your kingdom, all you want is your kingdom!" the Queen flared. Her husband sighed.
"I am trying to do what is right for us all. Not that you care. The whole planet could go to hell, but as long as you are happy, you don't care."
He turned away again, but paused when he heard her whisper-soft voice. "I'm pregnant. It's the heir you always wanted."
For a moment he just looked at her, then his eyes hardened. "That isn't changing anything."
"It changes one thing." She looked out the window. "Your daughter will never be happy again."
The king snapped. "Of course not! We don't give in to her every whim so we're obviously evil and hate her! Ruling this kingdom has been my family's responsibility for eons, and we do what we have to do to keep it safe, even if that means we have to be unhappy!! Do you think I wanted to be king? No, I did not! But since I am, I do what I have to do for the kingdom, and if you don't like it, maybe you should just leave!"
"Do you want Lita to be happy?"
He sighed deeply. At times, he wondered if he was just talking to himself. "I want this kingdom safe. It's my job to look after it and keep it safe, and do what is best for it!"
He is so one-sided!! The Queen hissed mentally. Family is just as important as the kingdom, and he just won't see that! He's so wrapped up in being King he has no idea what it is to be a father! "That's not what I asked."
"Yes, I do," he finally said. "But some things you just can't have."
They both looked up as a guard entered just then. "What is it?" The king asked; normally guards didn't interrupt private conversations between members of the royal family.
"News from the Earth kingdom, sire. Prince Darien's four generals were taken last night, by an evil new enemy."
"What!?" the king paled, his mind at once going to Lita. She is not going to like this. Not at all. "Noo...."
The Queen went to action. " See if Lita's awake yet," she ordered. "She has to know about this." As the guard ran off, the Queen very nearly collapsed into the window seat, barely noticing as her husband took her hand. "This is going to destroy Lita.."
"She's strong." the King knew his daughter better than she thought he did, and knew of her inner strength.
His wife sighed. "He was her world."
"This is why royal marriages are arranged," the king sighed. If you barely knew your partner beforehand, then it was less of a pain if they perished before then.
The queen looked at him. "We weren't an arranged marriage and we agreed not to put our children through that either."
"It's why they should be." The King turned his mind to business. "We're going to have to increase the army."
His thoughts were interrupted immediately when Lita came in, her hair still rumpled from sleep and her eyes angry and confused both. "What's happened to Neflite?"
"He's evil." her father said flatly. Lita's eyes flared.
"No he isn't!" He got me up to listen to more anti-Neflite hate spewing!?!?
The King sighed. "He is now." he explained the report they had gotten to her, and Lita shook her head harshly.
"I know he's still good, deep inside!" she insisted. Her father sighed. There was only one thing to get through to her. Maybe.
"Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. The point is, he's dangerous now. We have to keep an eye out for him."
Lita looked around. "I have to leave." I can't be here anymore. I have to go to the moon...to be with my friends.
"Yes, you should be with Serena. This new evil force might try for Prince Darien next, or for her."
Lita nodded briefly, then headed to make plans and arrangements for her departure. As hard as she tried, however, she could find no trace of Neflite until the very end...
She laid about her Jupiter Thunders, ripping the soldiers of Queen Beryl to shreds. Suddenly, she saw something out of the corner of one eye: someone standing in the shadows. Her heart leaped. "Neflite?"
"Sailor Jupiter," He wore a strange uniform of gray, and looked even handsomer than ever, with a frost in his eyes that echoed in the coldness of his voice.
Lita shivered. "Neflite, it's me! Lita, your love!" she didn't want to have to fight him, but if it were necessary, she would. She took a fighting stance as he stepped forward, his sword visible. "Think about all the good times we've had!"
"Be silent, wench," his voice could have put frozen Sailor Mercury's coldest ice-blasts.
"We were going to be married!" she shouted, her hands falling into the position for a Thunder blast. He didn't appear to be impressed.
"Now I am going to kill you."
Lita took a quick breath and raised her fingers and hands into the appropriate stance. "Jupiter Thunder----urrk!!" she never finished it, as his sword slammed into her stomach, slicing through her vital organs and ripping up to pierce her heart.
As she fell off it, he looked at her calmly for a few moments, then a strange shiver passed through her, and he stared. "L..Lita?" He dropped down by her, his eyes full of tears.
"I...I hate...you..." she breathed, her eyes glazing over in death.
A tear fell from one of his eyes. "I...I'm sorry...."
"No..." she whispered. "No...you aren't...." those were her last words. Princess Lita of Jupiter, Sailor Jupiter, died...slain by the one she loved the most.
"Molly? Molly, what's wrong?"
The redhead shivered. "N..nightmare...It was horrible!" the vividness of it was still with her and she tried to think.
"About?" Serena was worried; she didn't like it when her friends were troubled, any of her friends!
"It was horrible!"
The blonde sat beside her. "Tell me about it?" she suggested. Molly whispered something that Serena wasn't sure she had heard correctly. "Who killed who?"
Molly took several long breaths, her mind obviously searching for the right words to describe her dreams in, then gasped suddenly, her jaw literally dropping open. "What is it?" Serena asked; she didn't like her friend looking at her like this!
"Your Highness...." Molly breathed, and Serena felt a strange sense of joy filling her. One phrase echoed all around her. She's one of us! Molly spoke again. "It's you....Princess Serena...of the Moon Kingdom." Glowing softly on her forehead was the sign of Jupiter. As Serena stared at it, Molly frowned. "What is it?"
"This." Serena pointed towards the mirror in her wall, and her friend stared to the symbol glowing there. Molly shivered.
"I...I remember...." she breathed the pair of words out, memory of an entire life she had forgotten soaring through her mind. Everything good and bad that she had went through was now all there.
"Tell me what you remember?" her friend asked. Molly nodded, then slowly began to talk, remembering everything from her earliest memory all the way up to the day she'd been stabbed in the back by Jedite as she'd tried to help the warriors of the moon fight. Serena twisted towards the communicator as soon as she was done. "Raye! Raye!"
Her black-haired friend yawned deeply. "What??"
"It's Molly!" Serena told her. " She's Lita's sister!" It only took a few moments for them to get things straight, and finally Raye told her.
"I'm coming over!"
Serena nodded. "Get Lita! She needs to do number three!" as Serena hung up, Raye contacted Lita.
"What!?" the Jupiter Scout hissed into the phone. Saying that she was pleasant to be awakened was somewhat...wrong.
Raye wasn't bothered, however. "Serena found your sister. It's Molly."
"I thought so!" Lita's bad mood vanished almost at once. She'd been trying to get an early night, still recovering from her illness, but this was far more important!
"Come on!" Raye told her. "Let's get over to Serena's, and do what we have to do!"
The Jupiter Scout grinned. "Meet you there!" She slammed the phone down and practically leaped into her clothes. "Nef! Wake up! We found her!"
Five minutes later, both of them were standing outside of Serena's house, and Raye was waiting for them. Lita grinned. "Let's get upstairs!"
Thankfully Serena's parents were used to her and her friends running in and out at all hours, so they barely noticed when they dashed up. Neflite had to wait a bit before he could get there safely, but soon all of them were panting just inside Serena's door.
"Molly?" Lita hadn't had much contact with Serena's friend, but when the other girl turned around and hugged her, it was as if all of her own memories came back to her...filling her soul with a love that could never die for a sister she had wondered if she'd ever see again.
Together the two of them sat down, and Lita glanced to Raye. "Number three?"
"You have to remember how you died in the Silver Millennium, on your own," Raye said, checking the list. "And you have to forgive the person who did it to you."
Neflite seemed a trifle nervous, as Lita asked, "How do I do this? I've never really had any memories come back on my own..."
"Perhaps meditation?" her boyfriend suggested. Lita frowned.
"I've never meditated."
Raye grinned a little; she'd been trying to get her friends into the art since they'd gotten to know each other. "Good time to start!" she began to instruct her in how to meditate.
Several long minutes passed as Lita made her first foray into this unknown realm. Finally she sighed. "Nothing..."
Neflite sighed. "Maybe next time?" Lita nodded as she reached out to take Molly's hand. Her other hand touched Neflite's, and a harsh gasp escaped her. She fell back, her eyes wide as memories flashed across her mind.
Slowly she curled up, trembling in fear and remembered anger and grief, tears purring down her cheeks. Neflite trembled. "Lita?" she looked at him. "I...I'm sorry."
"I forgive you..." Lita whispered, and Neflite smiled, the guilt vanishing. Lita sniffled a little, then leaped up, running out quickly. Molly glanced after her for a moment, then followed, instincts she'd never fully had before calling her out.
Lita settled in a bench in the park, sniffling a little. "Hi again." she looked up at the sound, and saw Molly near her. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
She nodded, and Molly sat next to her, taking her hand. Lita sighed. "I am so scared.
"Why?"
"Neflite...me and him." She sighed. "Bringing him back to life."
Molly tilted her head. "What's wrong about it?"
"I'm scared!"
"Why?"
Lita shook her head. "I don't know! I love him, but I'm scared about what's going to happen."
The redheaded younger princess looked at her. "Do you know what will happen?" Lita shook her head. "Then why be afraid of it?"
Her sister grinned briefly, then changed the subject. "Tell me about your dreams." It took a short while to get everything covered, but finally Lita sat back, satisfied. "Was our race...so..ummm...ummm..." she thought of some of what Molly had told her of her last meeting with Neflite, prior to his conversion to evil, and shivered.
"What?"
"Involved?" Molly nodded, and Lita blushed just a little. "I wish I could go back to Jupiter."
Molly frowned. "Why?"
"To see what's left under the protective barrier." Lita thought that should be obvious! Why wouldn't they want to see what was left of their old home? "Don't you want to see?"
Her sister shrugged. "I guess." Molly wasn't used to knowing about Jupiter as more than just another one of the planets so fast. She watched as Lita stood up slowly.
"After all this is done, we will." The elder one promised, and Molly nodded. "I'm going home. Serena will explain to you what you have to do. Your part is number four on the list, and you have to do it with Neflite." She looked at her newfound sister. "Please do it quickly."
The two of them shared a hug, then Lita headed back to her apartment, her body wanting rest, but her mind searching for answers that she wasn't certain if she could handle.
Molly raised an eyebrow. "All right." she was willing to do anything she had to do in order to help the young man she had such strong feelings of friendship for, and her sister.
"Just sit down," Neflite showed her to a place. "And repeat after me."
He uttered several words in what she vaguely recognized as Old Jupiter, and she repeated them. Little tendrils of energy rose out of them both, intertwining and bonding them together. "We seal this bond with love of one." He repeated the old phrase of blood-sibling hood slowly, and she uttered it as well.
"Forever."
Neflite smiled. "It's done." Almost nothing remained to show that he was a ghost, or had been. He looked at Molly. "How was Lita when you last saw her?"
"Sad."
The young man frowned. "I must go to her!"
"I don't think that would be a good idea," Molly shook her head. "I think she just kind of wanted to be alone."
Deep within her there pulsed the power to always return to her home. With a flicker of concentration, she teleported, arriving in the center of destruction that had once been the royal palace.
"It's..." she sighed.
"A wreck." Artemis, who had come along, as cats would do regardless, stated. Lita sighed, nodding. A pathway caught her eye, and she wended her way down it. Somehow she wasn't surprised to see that it led to the garden house that she had spent so much time with Neflite. She sat down, glancing around, reliving memories.
"It's been a long time since I've been here..." Artemis sighed. Lita nodded, glancing around. Something attracted her: a door hiding behind a wall of oak leaves and ivy.
It took her a little bit to get it open, but once she did, she caught her breath. Seated on a pedestal was a hawk encased in crystal, wings flared and beak open as if in battle. Her eyes went wide. "You are beautiful..." she breathed, touching it.
Artemis' jaw dropped. "I don't believe it...it's Zeus!"
"Zeus?"
"Don't you remember him?" She shook her head, and Artemis sighed. He would like to claw the old king's eyes out if he could! "Lita, he's your guardian hawk! Like Luna and I are guardian cats! He's been a protector of the family line of Jupiter for thousands of years!"
Lita smiled softly. This was part of her that she felt was missing! This was one of the things she had been looking for! "How do I revive him?"
"Maybe a low-level Jupiter Thunder?" Artemis suggested. He dodged out of the way a moment later as Lita transformed and zapped the crystal confining the hawk to shards. They heard something shuffling, then a cough.
Lita took a breath. "Zeus?"
As the dust faded, they could see him there, moving around. He flapped his wings a little. "Whoa....."
"What happened?" Lita asked. Zeus blinked, trying to balance, and looked around.
"I...I think I could ask you the same question..." his voice was thick and somewhat harsh, but it almost seemed familiar to her, as if she'd heard it elsewhere.
Lita shrugged. "I don't know what happened to you."
"I...I was trapped..." Zeus looked around, getting his bearings once again.
"By?"
He blinked. "By...by the king...."
"Why?"
A shudder ran through him. "I don't know...."
Lita growled in her mind then turned around. "Come on." she headed for the throne room of the palace, while Zeus spread his wings and soared after her, with Artemis following on the ground. As she stood in the throne room, she gasped. "Artemis...Zeus...they're still alive!"
The two animals both shuddered. The throne room was full of statues everywhere: or more precisely, the royal court of Jupiter, frozen in time and completely immovable, forgotten to the entire universe. Lita sighed. "Mother...." slowly she laid a hand on the tall, stately woman's stomach, and her eyes widened, something beyond herself telling her what was there. "She's pregnant..."
Zeus shook his head. "It's been so long..."
"A thousand years...or longer..." Lita told him. He looked as shocked as if someone had hit him in the head with a board. "Let's go home."
The hawk nodded. "Yes. This place is not for us."
"Not yet." Lita sighed. "One day."
Her guardian agreed. "Let's hope."
"I know."
Zeus looked at her. "What's your name, anyway, Sailor Jupiter?"
"Lita."
He bowed low, spreading his wings out. "I'm Zeus. Guardian to the House of Jupiter."
Lita bowed herself. "Hi, Zeus!" she smiled. It was good to have a guardian...a friend...
"Nice to meet you."
The Jovian Princess looked around the place that had been her old home. "Let's go home." she said softly. In a green wrinkle of time, she and the two guardians with her were gone, leaving the fifth planet once again a life-less realm under the multi-colored clouds.
One of the statues, that of the Queen, stood silent as she ever had since the end of their world a thousand years ago. One thing had changed, however: a silver tear worked it's way down her cheek, and then was gone as if it had never been.