Hey all! I'm really sorry this took so long, but I'm still working on the next fic. It's not going too well at the moment, but the prequel in the Moon Kingdom is. Anyway, this one takes place two and a half years after Second Chances for those of you who've read that. So far as reviews go, that would be Wingnut. And for anyone interested, I found the first version of Sailor Night. I won't be posting it because it's hopelessly bad, but anyone who wants to read it, let me know and I'll e-mail it to you. Enjoy!!
"You're one of the best gymnasts I've ever seen... You don't obey the rules... After this month, I'm afraid you won't be able to continue taking lessons here... I'm sorry, Jessie."
Jessica woke up with tears running her cheeks. It had been nearly three years since the last time she'd been rejected from a gymnastic school. Why would that nightmare return after all this time?
"Queen Jessica, are you alright?" Zoisite asked as she turned on the light and entered the simple bedroom.
Jessie pushed her long, midnight black hair out of her eyes and glared at her lifelong friend. "I thought we agreed you weren't going to call me that anymore." she grumbled. "But yeah, I'm just fine. I just woke up from a nightmare. "How'd you know I was awake anyway? I only now opened my eyes."
"I always check on you, Jess. Every night."
Jessie continued to glare at Zoisite. "I also thought you weren't going to do that anymore either. I can wake myself up from a bad dream, Zoisite. I'm not a kid anymore."
"Old habits don't die easily, my friend. Which one was it, the spiders or the snakes?"
"The gymnastics." The young Queen turned over and looked at the alarm clock beside her bed. "You've got a busy day before you, Z. Go back to bed and don't get up until at least nine o'clock. That's an order."
"Yes Your Majesty." Zoisite grinned impishly. "I'll see you when I drag you out of bed in five or six hours. Good night."
"Good night." Jessie murmured, already half asleep.
*@*@*@*@*@
"Hey, guys!" Serena laughed as she joined her four friends. "Sorry I'm late. It took a while to wake up this morning."
"You're slipping again, Serena." Rei commented. "But at least you're not an hour late again."
"I wonder if Jessie's managed to get the Negaverse under control yet. She said she'd try to visit sometime. It's high time she kept that promise."
"Well, Luna's talked to her, you know." Ami said. "And she and Artimis have been acting very secretively lately. Maybe they're planning something special for us."
"Yeah, I wonder what's going on now." Mina mussed aloud.
*@*@*@*@*@
"And do you, Malachite, take this woman…"
Jessie smiled as her mind wandered slightly. After three long years, there was finally peace in the Negaverse, and two of her best friends were getting married.
"You may now kiss the bride." The minister of the peace finished the space-old ceremony.
Jessica was the first to stand and applaud as Malachite took Zoisite into his arms and kissed her.
As always happened, cameras and reporters had followed her to this small clearing. And what had been intended to be a small wedding of perhaps twenty had turned into a gala affair of several hundred. She felt guilty for causing all the publicity, but they had insisted that she be there in person for all the planning.
"I warned you not to include me in the wedding." she reminded them in a teasing voice. "I think the cameras were more on me crying my eyes out than on the two of you. Zoisite, Malachite, I'm so happy for you. And I'll tell you your present right now, before our public leaves. I'm sending you to Earth for a week-long vacation. You've earned it. Besides, there'll be some work I'll need you to take care of later on, so this will be a good time to learn your way around the planet. Also, it'll give me a night's sleep without anyone checking on me."
"I knew there'd be a catch." Zoisite mumbled, but her eyes were laughing, showing she was pleased.
"I'll be going down myself soon. It's high time I took Sailor Moon on that shopping spree I promised her. And I could certainly use a break."
"Define 'soon.'" Jedite ordered as he walked up behind the lucky couple.
"Don't worry, Jedite." the Queen laughed. "You're invited to come too. You never got to see more than Tokyo before you decided to play chicken on that runway. If you do go, I don't want you causing any problems with the Sailor Scouts, alright? Things are just now getting settled from the last war. Let's not start another one."
"You didn't answer Lord Jedite's question." A reporter accused as she waved the cameraman to her side.
"And I'm not going to either." Jessie replied. "I want a vacation away from the Negaverse, which means away from the press. Now, I want you and all the other reporters gone in five minutes. This is the wedding of my friends, not the one I'm planning for myself."
Then, refusing to say anything more on the subject, she turned and walked out of the clearing, laughing softly the whole time.
*@*@*@*@*@
"Queen Jessica Elizabeth Klinto!" Jedite half shouted. "Why didn't you tell us you were getting married?"
"I am?" Jessie asked innocently. "That's news to me. When do I meet my future husband?"
"But you just said that you were planning your own wedding. What else could you mean?"
"Jedite," she sighed in a bored tone. "I've been planning my wedding since I was being baby-sat by Zoisite. Every girl has a dream wedding. I just wanted to get rid of those idiots with the cameras. Plus, it'll give the spies we haven't found yet a headache trying to figure out who the lucky guy is."
Jedite glared at her impish face and began to laugh. "You really had us going there, Jess. Have you seen channel five? They've got you engaged to everyone from the cook to Malachite. They seem to have forgotten that he's about to start his honeymoon right now."
"Hmmm… Me and Malachite, that might be interesting." She managed to complete the thought with a straight face. "Are there any pictures of me with the gardener's grandson? I've really become quite attached to him."
"He's two months old." Zoisite smiled as she and Malachite waited for the ship to give the boarding call. "But it would cause quite a stir in the public."
"When are you going to get married, Jedite?" Jessie asked suddenly. "I've been planning different wedding for you too. All I need is the girl so I can picture the dress."
"When we find a girl good enough for him." Malachite answered offhandly.
"Never, you mean." Jedite laughed. "When I find someone I can love, you'll be the first one to know, Queen Jess."
Before anyone could comment, the captain came up to inform them it was time for the newlyweds to board.
"We'll see you soon." Zoisite said as she walked away.
"Sooner than you think, my friend." Jessie answered, only barely loud enough to be heard.
"What do you mean?" Malachite asked.
"You'll see." Jedite replied as he handed them their bags. "Now go and have a good time."
Malachite and Zoisite walked onto the ship which would take them to the old Negaverse castle that existed on the Earth's North Pole. From there, they'd be able to teleport to whatever part of the planet they wished.
*@*@*@*@*@
"Luna, when are you planning to let us in on your little secret?" Serena demanded. "You and Artimis are up to something, and we want to know what it is."
"You'll find out tomorrow." Darien promised as Luna ignored her. "They've been working really hard on this, so just let it be a surprise, Meatball Head."
"You're in on this too, Darien?" she moaned. "Just great. Betrayed by my own boyfriend."
"Oh, come on, Serena." Rei said. "We've waited this long, another day won't hurt us."
"Yeah, if you say so." Serena sighed. "I'll be back in a while. I'm going to the Arcade."
"See you later, Serena." the girls called after her.
"That was close." Ami said. "I thought she might try to get it out of you some more. It's really been bugging her."
"Well, we have been kind of obvious that we have a secret." Artimis pointed out. "That's why we didn't tell you until last night. If you knew beforehand, it might have slipped out."
"I wonder where Jessie got the money to pay for all of this. I mean, it didn't cost much, but where would she get Earth money after all these years?" Mina mussed.
Darien shrugged. "After she yelled at me for dumping Serena, she left a bunch of notes, remember? Well, mine had close to five hundred dollars in it, asking me to put it in the bank in my name. I'd say that she'd been planning this week since the moment Beryl died. She knew all along what would happen if we won that fight. I wonder if she ever regrets her decision to go with us?"
"Why should I, Darien?" the subject of their discussion asked, turning the corner and coming into sight. "You would have won without me, and I would have still had the same destiny."
"Huh?" they all turned in surprise when they heard her voice.
"It's Queen Jessica!" Luna gasped. "We weren't expecting you until tomorrow."
"Surprise." Jessie said with a slight smile. "But there's no Queen here, I'm afraid. Just Jessie. Oh, get over here, Jedite. You promised you wouldn't attack them."
"Jedite's here too?" Lita asked.
"Yup. So are Malachite and Zoisite, but don't expect to see them. They're on their honeymoon."
"They got married?" they said in unison. "When?"
"Just this morning." Jessie grinned as she patted her handbag. "I've got it all on tape if you want to see it later. There's a surprise ending right before the newscasters left. I don't know why they were all so frightened, though. All I did was tell them to go away."
"I don't think it was that which scared them." Jedite laughed. "I think it was that announcement you made right afterward."
"What announcement?" Mina asked. "And you still haven't told us why you're a day early."
"The ship was ready sooner than we expected, so I decided to add an extra day to my break. The people will be quite upset with me when I get back, I'm afraid. I never really told them when I'd be leaving- or when I'd be back."
"Did you even tell them you were leaving?"
"I'm surprised they even let me leave the throne room without telling them where I'm going. Of course I told them I was leaving, Rei. For some reason, they seem to think I'm so important that I need an armed bodyguard wherever I go."
"So where's your escort now?" Ami asked.
"Right there." Jessie grinned as she pointed at Jedite. "I figured that if I had to have a babysitter, it might as well be someone I can trust. So I picked my three friends who seem to spend so much time with me anyway. Plus, they know what's really going on in my head."
"It's not very pretty." Darien guessed.
"We'd better get back to Serena." Lita said. "We'll see you at the party tomorrow, right?"
"Of course." Jessie grinned. "I'm staying at the Lyon Hotel if you need to get a hold of me. Room 128."
"Why aren't you staying with your mom?" Mina asked. "I'm sure there's plenty of room."
To my knowledge, you and Serena are the only people on Earth who know I even exist. Anyone else who knew me has forgotten all about me. That includes Mom. There's no way I could put her through the pain of not knowing where I've been all this time. I'll see you tomorrow at ten, right?"
"Yeah, sure. Ten tomorrow morning. See you then." Rei said.
*@*@*@*@*@
"What was that all about?" Jedite asked once they had entered Jessie's room next door to his own. "What's this plan you have with the Sailor Scouts?"
"The Princess Serenity's birthday is tomorrow, and we've planned a party for her. She knows that much, but she doesn't know that I'll be there. Darien's gotten a rather large box I can hide in. I've sent presents to all of them since Beryl was killed, so I guess you could say I'm part of her gift this year."
"What time is this party you've got planned? You'll need to have this box wrapped. Or has that been done while you were planning the Queen's Escape?"
"All finished. I just get in, they put the lid on, and Serena's got a ready-made present."
"And just when do we leave in the morning?"
"There is no we, Jedite." she answered firmly. "I'm going by myself. If anything goes wrong, the Sailor Scouts will be more than able to protect me. Of course, I'm quite capable of taking care of myself. You can go and explore anywhere on the world- so long as you're at least ten miles away from me." Jessie smirked at his crestfallen face at this final comment. "I don't want you following me around, Jedite. Even babysitters get days off, you know. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap. This jetlag's a killer."
*@*@*@*@*@
Zoisite and Malachite roamed through the streets of Tokyo, remembering how different things were since the last time they had been to Earth.
"Why didn't we see the beauty before?" Malachite murmured sadly. "Nephrite did, that's why he turned his back on Beryl."
"And I killed him for it." she sighed. "I wish I could change that. But there's nothing I can do now. Do you think Jessie ever blames me for his death?"
"Why should she? You lay more than enough blame on yourself for several people. And she understands something you don't: that it wasn't your fault. Beryl had control over all of us. She killed Nephrite, not you."
"Maybe." she shook her head.
*@*@*@*@*@
Serena just barely beat the others to the Arcade. Eavesdropping was one of the few habits she had not yet completely broken. Having overheard the plans for her party, she now felt guilty. Jessie had worked very hard on her surprise visit, and she'd just blown it!
And Darien and the other girls already knew about it! Maybe she could pretend she hadn't heard anything.
"Earth to Serena!" Lita said, waving her hand in front of the blond girl's face. "Where'd you go, the Moon?"
"No," Serena answered. "Just China."
"So, are you looking forward to the party tomorrow?" Mina asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. Mom, Dad and Sammy are taking me out to dinner tonight. Uh-oh," she added, glancing at her watch. "I've got to go or I'll be late. See ya!"
*@*@*@*@*@
Far above the Earth, a dark and evil being watched as the time to strike came nearer.
"The Wiseman failed because he was weak." the being whispered coldly. "He was the favorite of the Death Phantom, yet he was unable to control the mind of one human. And the human was a mere child at that! I, the true servant of the Death Phantom, will destroy this simple world and help bring order from the chaos that life creates!"
*@*@*@*@*@
Jessie slipped back into her room and sighed. She'd made it. She had managed to avoid Jedite while exploring her old town. Granted, it had been over two years since she'd last been on Earth, but she was still surprised at how much Tokyo had changed.
Still, it had been a good afternoon and she was tired. That jetlag she'd told Jedite about was starting to kick in.
"So," Jedite commented as she plopped onto the bed. "You're going to take a nap, are you?"
"Yes, I am." she muttered, not caring that she'd been caught. "Right now." Her breathing slowed as she fell asleep.
He only smiled as he left the sleeping Queen's room and returned to his own.
The young woman was definitely becoming more independent every day. She was slowly returning to the child he'd know before the War had caused so many problems for her. She no longer needed to worry about choosing between her friends, and now she had the chance to be truly happy.
Here on Earth, he no longer had to follow every step she took, but he still had to see to her safety. However, the Sailor Scouts would be with her, and she was a Scout in her own right as well. Even if she had only transformed once in this lifetime.
Jedite shook his head sadly as he remembered where she had gone that day. The first place had been her old home. She had hidden in the bushes until her mother had driven up from work and gone into the house. As far away as he had been, he could still see the pain she'd felt at seeing her only family again.
After that, she had wandered aimlessly around the town, at last coming to the park in the woods, where she'd remained for several hours. She had practiced that strange Earth-dance she called gymnastics, then simply laid in the sun, enjoying the warmth and trying to gain some color on her chalk-white skin.
When she'd started back to the hotel, he'd teleported back to her room to wait for her there.
Now, he wondered if she really belonged in the Negaverse or if she would be happier here on Earth. He knew that she'd return, her sense of duty was too strong. Even if it meant she'd never be able to visit Earth again, she would still go back to the Negaverse as their Queen.
I know it's a lot longer than I planned for it to be, but it makes the most sense to end it here. Each Chapter will be the length of one day, so they'll be really long. Also, I'm working now, so it'll take a much longer time to type each part. Comments and insults a all welcome. ladykay136@aol.com That's all for now. Later!