NEXT CHAPTER!! YAY! That wasn't so bad for timing, was it?
Oh, YEAH! Forgot to add disclaimer before.
Let me tell you a little about me. I am in eleventh grade and I live with my parents. I don't own a car, I don't own the house I live in and I didn't buy the laptop I'm typing on. So what the HELL makes all you people out there think that I own Sailor Moon or Gundum Wing? Huh?
OH! BTY: Since she is going back to her original dimension, her name switched from Makoto to Lita since that was what she was born with…
Author: Fate's Child (Terra Brooks)
Date: December 2, 2001
E-mail: Prncss_Earth@hotmail.com
Chapter One
Going home and finding Serenity
Lita landed with a thud on top of a very soft, very warm body. Flushing, she stood up and apologized profusely to the woman she had landed on. The woman only glared before stalking away. Sighing, she retrieved her bag from the sidewalk, and headed for the nearest hotel.
After checking in, she threw her bag into the corner chair and fell back against the bed. Tears filled her already sore-from-crying eyes and she snapped them shut. Clenching her teeth together, she slammed her fist down onto the bed.
"I won't cry." Her eyes opened and only anger at her comrades remained. "They shouldn't have slacked. They should have been there." Lita sighed before removing her clothes, anger and grief draining her of all remaining strength. She swiftly removed her clothes and dressed in a tank top and clean panties before crawling into bed and quickly succumbing to sleep.
After taking a shower, Lita braided her hair and was pleased to note that it reached almost three quarters of the way down her back. She buttoned up her black shirt and took a quick look at her reflection in the mirror in front of her. Pluto had been in a good enough mood when the Jovian senshi arrived at the gates. She had informed Lita that her brother was indeed still alive before tapping the brunette on the head to let the information of what had happed over the years she had been gone flow into her mind. Then she had cheerfully given the brown haired senshi a new set of clothes and pushed her out of the time realm.
Lita looked herself over and let the corners of her mouth tip upward for the first time since her Princess had died. She was dressed in a black button up shirt with a white tank top underneath. Wearing black slacks that hung loose at the bottom but tighter up around her thighs, her feet were encased in a pair of black, leather combat boots while her hair trailed down her back in the braid she had tied it in earlier. The only pieces of jewelry that the Princess of Jupiter was another gift from the time senshi. A sliver necklace held an oval emerald with the signia of Jupiter etched on the front in gold. The clasp holding the pendent in place, however, was a silver moon. The time senshi had cheerfully informed Lita that her new transformation wand was hidden inside. All she had to do was say the words and she would transform. The best part? It would disappear while she transformed but could never be taken off by mortal hands. On the middle finger of her left hand, she wore a silver ring with gold lighting bolts etched on each side. The top contained a rose, made out of the same unbreakable crystal as her earrings.
Zipping up her bag, Lita threw it in her sub space pocket and headed out the door to check out and begin her search.
Duo Maxwell, the self proclaimed God of Death was bored. He was very bored. And that was a very bad thing to all creatures within a ten mile radius. He glanced at the Chinese boy sitting across from him for a moment and tried to decide if being bored was a worth all the aggravation he was causing Wufei by just sitting there. The Nataku pilot couldn't decide what Maxwell was up to and it was driving him even crazier than if the pilot had just done something. Anything. Duo glanced at his watch and then at the ceiling. And then at the calendar on his watch again before sitting up quickly and swearing.
Wufei glanced up from his book as he saw that the braided boy had sat up, an incredibly broken look crossing his features. He opened his mouth to comment when the Duo got up and walked out of the library door. Shutting his mouth, Wufei sat still for a minute before putting down his book and following him out the door.
"God damn it!" Lita swore loudly as she heard a scream. She had her henshin necklace in her hand before she realized there wasn't any need for her to transform.
One, there was no Princess to protect.
Two, there shouldn't be any type of mythical evil minions for her to fight.
Cursing again, she put her necklace back where it belonged and took off towards the scream. There were other types of evil in the future she called her home-evils she would be glad to fight without the help of her senshi powers.
Duo stopped dead in his tracks as he reached the alley where he had heard the scream. A woman was being held by five men. His muscles froze as he was thrown back into his memories.
Flashback
"DUO!" Makoto's frantic voice called out. "DUO, RUN!"
"LITA!!" A panicked look crossed the face of a young boy. "I won't leave you."
"Duo, go. Get help. Run and GET HELP!" The girl struggled against the men holding her. Duo took one last look at her before dodging between the legs of the man trying to capture him and running off in the direction of the Maxwell church.
End Flashback
He was jarred out of his memory when a girl with brown hair rushed passed him and into the shadows.
"Yo! Ugly!" The girl's voice rang out and stopped the men.
"Ohhhh. Look. Another chick to join the party." One of the men sneered.
"Let her go or deal with me." When the men just laughed, she gave a cold smile and waited for them to rush her. She wasn't disappointed. Duo (and Wufei, who was hiding behind Duo) watched as she brought down all four that had attacked her in about ten minutes. Duo snuck up behind the final one who was holding the girl and knocked him unconscious with the butt of his gun. The woman immediately ran out the alleyway without a backward glance... or a thank you. Duo stared at the other girl who was still cloaked in shadows.
"I haven't had a fight like that in a long time." She said, sounding both relieved and pleased. "Thanks for the help, by the way."
"Not a problem." The braided boy flashed his trademark smile. "My name is Duo Maxwell. I may run and hide, but I never lie." He was startled when the girl stiffened for a minute before collapsing in laughter.
"Oh God! Do you always say that in introduction?" When he looked at her in confusion, she stood up and stepped into the light. "Name's Lita Trio. I try not to run or hide... occasionally I do lie though." Before she could blink, Duo had pulled a gun on her. In a voice that reminded Wufei of Heero on the edge, Duo spoke.
"Who are you and how do you know about Lita?"
"I'm Lita and I know about her because I am her." The girl seemed to think for a minute. "D-boy."
"Nice try." Duo's voice got hard and emotionless. "But my sister's dead."
"No, I'm not." When the gun didn't move, she sighed. "God damn it, Duo. I didn't die. I'm alive, I'm your sister."
"Then maybe you want to explain to me why they found your body bound, broken and raped a week after you disappeared. They had a positive id. It was a year before the Maxwell massacre."
"The Maxwell massacre that I was told you died in after I finished..." 'Shit. I can't exactly tell him that Pluto told me of the Maxwell massacre after I tried to get her to let my go home after Choas.'
"After what?"
"After I remembered who I was." 'Not a complete lie,' she thought. 'I did forget that I was Lita Trio for a while. I became too much of Kino Makoto.' When her brother still didn't look swayed, she swore softly. "Duo, iit was the first Wednesday of the month. In the spring. We had a pact to always make time and go for a picnic, even if it was freezing. We made it before we joined up with Solo and the gang. I promised it to you. So we went, even though it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner-and it was so damn cold. They came out of nowhere. There were three. Two grabbed me, but you were so much smaller. As I remember, they caught me by the braid. You didn't have one then. I told you to run. I told you to run and get help for me."
"And I ran. I should have stayed. I should have-"
"You were only ten years old, Duo!" She shook her head. "I was thirteen. I made a promise to Solo that I would take care of you. You were my little brother I would have gladly given my life for you, I still will. But Duo, you have to understand that you were so young."
"So were you." His voice was soft.
"D-boy." She rose. "I was saved from anything those men could have done to me by a woman. She gave me a new name when I woke up and a new past. I became that person. I forgot about being Lita Trio and when I thought you died, I gave my life day and night to protecting a woman who meant the world to everyone. But then she died because of-" Lita took a breath. "She died. And I found out that you weren't dead. And I came back." She thought of her life as Sailor Jupiter, the "friends" she had lied to, but especially how she had lied to her Princess. A Princess, a friend that would never know the truth about her. A Princess that was dead. And she felt fresh grief well up in her throat. "I'm back. There's nothing holding me to that life now. I-" her next words took all of her training as a senshi, a warrior honed to kill evil for her oath to protect her princess.
"I can understand if you don't want me in the life you've built for yourself. I'll understand. But I want you to know I'm still here. And I love you." Her eyes flickered with and indefinable emotion before she walked past him. The gun hung limply in his hand now, his eyes were glazed. As she was passing, she took off her ring and placed it in his pocket. Her days on the streets and the skills she had picked up never left her and not even her able brother felt the drop of the ring.
The light seemed too bright after the dimness of the alleyway. She passed by the area Wufei was in and turned to him. His eyes widened as she spoke, no one should have been able to see him.
"Take care of him, please. I can feel that you care about his welfare. Tell him to check his pocket at some point, I'll be around." She smiled. "If he's as good with a computer as he used to be, he can find me." She spared one look back down the alleyway and fought down the tears. "Take care of him if he doesn't."
Wufei silently listened to this woman, who's aura was a crackling green tinged with silver, an aura that was puree, strong, and, at the moment, very hurt and very, very alone. This onna wasn't weak, her eyes held wisdom… and pain. Wufei wanted to call out to her, to tell her it would work out. He frowned over that. She was, after all, just another woman. But the quiet strength of her touched him. Je hadn't known anyone like her since Merrian died. Before he could work up the words, she was gone. He looked down the alley to the normally cheerful boy. And saw the same desolation and hurt. He sighed at stepped out of hiding. This wasn't going to be easy.
TBC
