Listening to Veggietales while writing Sailormoon fanfiction is . . . odd.

Chapter 13

He heard the song rise from her chest, his head resting over her heart. (To her, his weight on her was not crushing, but comforting.) The song came deep within her memory and manifested itself in her sweet voice, spilling fluidly from her lips. She held his head against her, combing through pale hair with gentle fingers.

In springtime of the Terran year

The goddess danced in fields of green.

Her mother slept without a fear

But danger lurked not far unseen.

The lord of death watched in desire

For the goddess youthful, thin.

He snatched her in his yearning fire

And took her to the dead with him.

The mother goddess raged and wept

For six long months she starved the land.

A promise made, a promise kept –

The daughter passed from hand to hand.

But pomegranates never lie

And life must live or pass and die.

So half the year the goddess dwells

With Death Prince in the bowls of hell.

A slight frown graced his lips. The song was far too morbid for such a pretty tune. Still, the words lingered in his mind, unsettling him. But her aura rose up and enveloped him. His eyelids fell. He slept.

* * *

Demando had only been up for a minute to dress himself warmly, but the woman had already done a complete one-eighty in the bed so that she was now sleeping on her stomach. Head turned to the side, hand brought up resting near her mouth, she was the image of peace and serenity. The covers only came up to her waist, so he reached over and pulled them up to keep her warm. He lay back down on his side next to her and stroked her bare upper back with warm fingertips affectionately.

He had already made his decision the night before on the balcony, before she'd come to him. Of course, he had never dreamt that she would come to him, that she'd choose him. It had been so fulfilling he thought he'd died.

Now he fought back tears and wrenched himself away from her. He knew what he had to do. She couldn't stay here. She didn't belong. She'd never be happy, and once he sent her back, he knew her people would forbid her from ever seeing him again. He was a fool. He should have never taken her. But how, oh how could he refuse her freely-offered love when it was all he had ever wanted? Nevertheless, he had to go through with his decision. He successfully managed to forget during the night, but now there was no avoiding it. If he held on any longer, it would only be harder. He only prayed she'd understand.

He exited the room.

A short time later, Calaveras came into the room with a gown slung over her arm and shook the slumbering Princess gently. Serenity stirred, looked up at the young woman in confusion.

"Calaveras?" she murmured.

"Here," Calaveras held out the gown to her, not meeting her gaze. "Put this on – quickly."

Serenity puzzled at her, then did as she said. Where had Demando gone?

No sooner had Serenity dressed herself fully than Calaveras gripped her by the arm and led her out of the prince's chamber.

"Calaveras, what's happening?" she demanded. "Where's Prince Demando?"

"You're going home," the sister answered curtly, keeping her gaze ahead of her.

"What?" At first she was surprised; then thrilled; then confused. "But – where's the Prince? He's letting me go?" her heart nearly burst with love for him and excitement. "But wait; where is he? I want to speak with him . . . is he taking me himself?"

"No," Calaveras said shortly. "You're not to come back. And you're not to see the Prince Demando."

She was stunned into a state of disbelief.

The walked the length of the balcony, then through the windowed sitting room. Into the hall where Serenity had first seen Nemesis, they started to turn down another hallway, but Serenity caught sight of him. The tall man had his back to her – he was standing at a window at the other end of the corridor.

In a burst of pure will, Serenity broke free of Calaveras's grasp and darted to him. "Demando!" she cried, clasping his arm with both hands and tugging him so that he faced her. His eyes refused to look into her own. "What is it? What's happening? Are – are you angry with me?"

He looked back through the window, stoically, so as to retain his self-composure. "You're people need you. You must go to them."

"Won't you come with me?"

"No."

The frown touched all of her features, not solely her mouth. " . . . Then . . . I will come back."

"No . . . you won't."

"I will!" She was determined.

He had been afraid it would come to this. Returning her grasp, he turned and looked at her sharply. "You can't."

She saw in him then all the pain and torture he was going through. She knew why he was doing this, and yet she didn't understand. She was too naïve, too positive. They were from two different worlds. How could they truly be together? To keep her here without her loved ones, away from her beloved home for the rest of her life would kill her. If he let her got to them he knew they would never let her come back. There was only one choice. Only when Demando finally realized this, did Serenity return his love. He was doomed to misery.

"You still have a perfect life waiting for you," he whispered. "Tell no one," he steadied his voice, which threatened to break. He wanted to grab her, to let her know that he would always love her, to tell her to be happy, to think of him kindly, but he knew that if he did he would never be able to let go. So for her sake, as well as for his own, he was cruel.

He nodded at Calaveras and turned away from Serenity. The Ayakashi resumed her hold on the princess, who gaped in agony at her cold lover. She put up very little resistance. How could she function when she could barely even remember to breathe?

The familiar tears took their place flowing down her cheeks. "No, no," she sobbed. Demando was a rigid statue once more. He was well-practiced in the art. How he longed to console the broken down princess, to do something – at least to look at her – so as to ease her grief.

But he couldn't turn around. He refused to let her see him crying.

* * *

Her mother's benevolent stranglehold on her only child upon her arrival reminded Serenity of how much she had truly missed her. She wept new tears. The others enveloped her in equally fierce embraces. They were all there: Luna, Mars, Venus, Uranus, Mercury, Artemis, Neptune, Pluto, Endymion, Jupiter, and Saturn. But Serenity, despite her joy couldn't shake off the dull, numb sensation of loss.

Queen Serenity watched her daughter with sorrowful eyes. She thought that perhaps it was normal in this type of situation: her slow reactions, her bland responses to their questions. And something else bothered her. When she had last seen her daughter six months ago, Serenity had still been a child. But the slender, graceful creature before her was not the little girl she had known, but an elegant, mournful young woman.

* * *

Serenity guarded her secret with her life.

It wasn't that she was ashamed. She was afraid, true, and ashamed.

At first she hadn't even known about the secret.

There was war on the Moon that the Princess hadn't known about. Sailor Pluto, the princess from the farthest kingdom and Guardian of Time, explained to Serenity how they needed her to defeat the enemy.

"The ginzuishou? It is mine?"

"Yes," the ever-stoic senshi replied. "You are the source of its power."

"But how can that be? I thought it was the opposite – that the ginzuishou was the source of all the past queen's power."

"It works both ways," Pluto agreed. "It is a balance."

Serenity nodded. "I will fight alongside my friends. Only tell me what I must do."

Pluto, smiling kindly at her for the first time, "No, Princess. You are admirably courageous, but your presence is enough. We have all agreed that you should not enter the war, not yet at any rate. You've just returned from a very traumatizing experience. You need rest right now and support. Besides, it is wiser in war to keep one's secret weapon hidden until the very end."

So the Princess Serenity did not enter battle directly. The Time Guardian was right: it was enough just for her to be there. The ginzuishou was renewed. The Dark Kingdom was driven back, away from the capital. It retreated to the Earth and regained its bearings.

Smaller battles and skirmishes ensued. But the evil was unable to regain such a hold on the Moon Kingdom of which it had previously boasted.

Life, surprisingly, went on in much the same way as it had before her abduction. The senshi, when they were not fighting, stayed at the palace and visited and conversed pleasantly with her as before. Endymion was as affectionate as ever. It was obvious to them that Serenity acted differently, but they assumed it was only natural after what she had been through.

Serenity was no doubt pleased to finally be home. But the sensation was nonetheless disappointing. For although the intense longing for the Moon Kingdom was satisfied, it had been replaced by a nostalgia for Nemesis. In her six month stay, it had unconsciously become a second home to her.

One morning, Serenity was struggling to get into one of her favorite old fitted gowns in her chamber room. But no matter what she did, the gown would not relent. She stilled suddenly, a look of awareness spreading over her features. She threw the gown on the floor and stood naked in front of her full length mirror. Smoothing her hands over her abdomen, she closed her eyes and concentrated within herself.

When she opened her eyes, she dressed swiftly in a loose-fitting dress and told no one of what she had discovered.

Then in the mornings that followed, she grew ill. Locked in her room, she lay in her bed until the illness passed.

No one suspected a thing. And Serenity was glad. She and her secret were safe and comfortable for now. The secret was precious to her – a gift from someone she loved terribly, and whom she could no longer be with. But the princess knew that sooner or later, people would come to learn of her secret. She was afraid of what they would say, especially her mother and Prince Endymion. The thought of them alone racked her conscience with guilt – otherwise, the secret was completely welcome.

* * *

"Princess!" Endymion caught up to her in the spring gardens. Flowers budded all around them, promising a lovely Flower Festival that summer. The cold had long since passed, bringing on the thawing warmth. Serenity spent almost every waking moment in the beautiful Lunarian landscape now.

He embraced her, and she reciprocated, if somewhat awkwardly.

"Is there . . . something the matter?" he questioned cautiously in response to her strange behavior.

"Not at all," she answered in a falsely pleasant voice.

She removed her hand from his and wrapped her arms around her stomach. Endymion noted how the action had become a habit of hers since her return.

"Is it the war? Are you worried? Everything will be fine," he assured her.

"I know," she smiled kindly at him. Then, furrowing her eyebrows, she stopped walking and took his hand back. "Endymion? Why do you want to marry me?"

Endymion was too surprised to answer at first, but it didn't matter, because Serenity interrupted him before he could.

"Do you love me?" It was strange, the way she asked: carefully, cagily, but not necessarily hopefully.

Prince Endymion hesitated. "Yes . . ." he started.

"How much?"

"I get filled with energy when I'm with you," he answered awkwardly, but sincerely.

It was not the answer she had been looking for. She looked troubled at first, then relieved, but would not say any more.

* * *

Saffir regarded his brother. His movements were automatic. He was a hollow shell only kept going by his will and his responsibility to his people.

He agreed with Demando's decision. He was right to send Serenity back. How could there have ever been such a union between the two polar moon kingdoms? It had been the easiest way, avoiding conflict, contempt, and possibly war. And that was besides the pain it would cause the Prince's beloved personally. Demando was no fool. He had foreseen it also.

However, with the departure of the moon princess, the very light and love she had first brought with her departed too. Somehow, the palace was less beautiful, less bright than it had been. Only now it seemed worse. The angel was gone, and the aura with her.

Although the people of Nemesis tried to retain the knowledge and optimism she had granted them, it was hard. They took their queen's departure almost as badly as did Demando.

Rubeus and Esmeraude, who had ceased their mischief during the Princess's stay, resumed hovering over their prince speaking in hushed conniving voices. The Ayakashi sisters fought more often. Saffir himself felt more irritable and spoke rudely to Petz. Demando was empty.

* * *

It was getting harder and harder for Serenity to conceal her ripening belly. She wore large, loose clothing, and put up with Luna's off-hand comments about princesses dressing respectfully.

After three months, Serenity's ladies-in-waiting urged her supportively to reveal to them what had happened to her on Nemesis. (It had been some time and their princess apparently had not yet come out of shock.) But she was reluctant to speak of it. She would only say that the Nemesians were in need of kindness. The princesses naturally thought that Serenity meant that she had been treated unkindly, but Serenity knew that all the Black Moon clan needed was someone to care. At any rate, she knew that they would not be able to understand her newly found loyalty and attachment to the Nemesians, and avoided the difficulty entirely.

Of course the news of the Princess's ambiguity got back to Queen Serenity and Endymion.

In the library one day, Princess Mars and Serenity were left alone to their studies. The gifted priestess naturally sensed there was more to the whole abduction that Serenity was carefully avoiding revealing.

She slammed a large book closed and sat next to her friend and sovereign on antique couch. "Seren-chan," she said irritably. It was Mars's way to show affection through negative emotions. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean, Mars?" she asked in the characteristically hollow way, as if she wasn't really interested in what was going on around her.

"I think you know what I mean. You've acted differently ever since you returned. One would think you'd be overjoyed to be home, but you mope around her like lost soul! At first, everyone assumed that you were still healing. But you should be making progress by now; you won't even talk to us! Seren-chan, I know there's more than what you'll have us believe."

Serenity only gazed at her friend sadly.

"You can tell me," Mars said gently. In a rare display of affection she reached out and took the woman's hand.

Serenity averted her eyes.

"What could have happened?" Mars waited for a reply, but none came. Instead, she sifted through her own thoughts in the silence. Then, "Oh Kami . . . he didn't – did he take advantage of you, when you were on Nemesis?" The deep eyes widened, a horrifying calmness descended upon the raven.

Serenity abruptly looked up. "What?" she asked sharply.

Mars tightened her grip on Serenity's hand, squeezing it like a vice. "That bastard. I should have known – the way you act so strangely with Endymion. He hurt you, didn't he Seren-chan?"

"Who?!"

"That damned prince!"

Serenity recoiled in shock. "Demando?!"

The look on the moon child's face surged relief throughout the Martian princess's lovely frame. "Then . . . he didn't rape you?"

"No," Serenity whispered, but her answer was too quiet.

Mars narrowed her eyes at her, studying her, feeling her out with her extra senses. Serenity bowed her head humbly. Something about her . . . what was it? But her signals were getting confused. It wasn't even like Serenity's any more. There was something different, like another soul was interfering whenever Mars tried to link Serenity's.

She sighed and let that go. She focused on the moon princess solely with the normal senses now. Serenity was the same person, that was for sure. But she'd been through something on Nemesis, and somehow she'd brought it back with her. The young woman was healthy enough, eating right, maybe even getting a little plump. She was very much alive. One could see it in her eyes.

In the end it was not with her spiritual abilities, but her feminine instincts that Mars came into realization. "Oh my Kami, Serenity . . . you're with child."

* * *

Mars was sworn to secrecy.

"You can't hide it forever, you know. Eventually, you'll have to tell your mother. And . . ." Endymion.

But the priestess was telling her things she already knew.

"Why, Seren-chan?"

"Because," she folded her hands serenely in her lap, and spoke not passionately, but as if the answer was obvious. "I love him."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm certain. I wed him, you know."

"You did what?!"

"It was a mistake . . . at least, I thought so. But now, I'm not so sure."

"What will you do?"

She paused. "I don't know." Then she looked at her dear friend, eyes pleading. "But please don't give away my Secret. We're not ready to face the world. Not yet."

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The little dialogue at the end of Serenity and Endymion's conversation is from the end of the anime. That always bothered me that Mamoru didn't want to tell Usagi he loved her . . . but, eh. It's just a typical guy, ne?