Author's Notes:

Well, for those waiting for this, here is the sequel to Return of the Valkyries, Heroes of Eternity. There are a number of characters and for a recap of the last story, here are the added characters:

(Kyle) Kylane is Kunzite

(Matt) Matthias is Nephrite

(Zale) Zarek is Zoisite

(Jared) Janus is Jadeite

(Aren – Haruka's husband previously) Adriano is Adamite

(Cirocco – Setsuna's husband previously) Coen is Cordylite

(Ian – Michiru's husband previously) Ilar is Iolite

(Raine – Hotaru's husband previously) Ranae is Rhonite

If the name and planet thing is confusing you, please check the read-me/prologue.

Heroes of Eternity

Chapter 9

She took a deep breath when she stepped out from the stifling building, her hand automatically seeking her beloved's. Her beautiful sapphire eyes sparkled with that good humor and innocence Venus hadn't seen any other person than her. She was Venus; she was Princess Mina, true, but further than that, she was Sailor Venus. It was a fact she had come to accept, just as fast as her cousin had accepted it. It had taken, however, a bit longer for that very same princess to accept the fact that she was the reincarnated Neo-Queen Serenity I, though the memories were there, if jumbled.

Her questioning of Uranus and Adriano regarding the imposter who claimed to be Endymion had been less than fruitful. During the light show from the two crystals, which had blinded just about everyone but Sere and Endy, the man had managed to escape. When she had heard that, her vision had turned red with rage, but she knew she had to contain her anger. She was the last person, next to Kunzite, that could lose their temper. She had to remain in control, since she was the leader.

"It really is time to go home, right?" Serenity asked for the fifth time.

And for the fifth time, Venus amusedly told her an affirmative. She may have been the reincarnation of the greatest queen in the Serenity line, but she hadn't changed from the teenage princess that she knew all that much. It was difficult, even for herself, sometimes to remember who she was. The memories were very jumbled, things from the past life that were hard to put thought to. One minute, she was remembering midnight gatherings with Serena in their bedrooms and the next she was remembering staring down a king and forbidding him entrance to Crystal Tokyo. It was all very confusing sometimes!

They set off at a brisk pace back toward their city, an eye always out for threats. It would take an impossible force to break through the impenetrable wall that constantly surrounded Serenity and Endymion. No one in their right mind would chance it, at least not at first. Venus, and Kunzite too, were counting on the fact that many of their enemies would be too stunned at the sight of the Senshi and Kings back to form much of a defense at the get-go. Enough surprise to get them back to Crystal Tokyo where they would be safe and there would be more guards to command and protect them.

Serenity was chattering away with those she hadn't met in this life, but knew for so long otherwise. And the others had no objections to prattling away to their closest friend about their lives and what they had done prior to coming to the Earth. Her cheerful laughter rang out every once in a while and almost everyone was caught up in the conversation.

Almost everyone. Venus, Kunzite, and Endymion were silent, preferring just to listen. There was nothing wrong with talking, it wouldn't harm anything, and even if they were talking, it wasn't as if the Senshi and Kings weren't paying attention to their surroundings. But Venus preferred to prepare for any eventuality and she was too busy trying to organize her mind to actually contribute the conversation. She was afraid she'd get started on a sentence about this life and end up with something about the last one.

"I know it's confusing."

She glanced at the whispered sentence back at Endymion. He watched her with a sympathetic look on his face, as if he knew very well the problems in her head that were beginning to make it ache. Kunzite, she noticed, was keeping tabs on them from the corner of his silver eye.

"I'm sure it's confusing for everyone," she returned, just as quietly, so as not to interrupt her friends' conversation. "It seems like everyone else but me seems to have had some success at separating the now from the then."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Kunzite commented. "They're just better at hiding it right now than you. When they let themselves actually pause and think, instead of letting whatever comes to their mouths out, they'll have the same problems. By that time, they won't know that we have the same problem because ours will be hidden so well."

"You're the same as always, Kunzite."

"That's what I love about him," Venus retorted to Endymion before her own beloved could say anything.

When the light died so they couldn't see anything past their noses, they made camp. Serenity and Endymion, who no doubt was having far more trouble traveling than the Senshi and Kings due to their ordeal, were left to their uninterrupted sleep, watched by compassionate eyes.

She set Neptune and Iolite to watch the south, their back trail, as Iolite had the keenest eyes of all the Kings, save Nephrite when he was watching his stars. Pluto and Cordylite watched the west; Saturn and Rhonite the east; and Uranus and Adriano the north. Venus rubbed gritty eyes and made it clear to all of them that the Outers and their partners would be relieved in three hours, and the sentries would rotate every three hours by a fresher pair. Jupiter and Nephrite would relieve Neptune and Iolite; Mars and Jadeite would relieve Pluto and Saturn; Mercury and Zoisite Saturn and Rhonite; and Venus and Kunzite would relieve Uranus and Adriano.

Venus was taking no chances.

---

"Should we send one of us ahead to Crystal Tokyo to alert them that we're coming?"

Kunzite thought about the suggestion by Adriano. It had its merits and surely only one of them missing wasn't going to put Endymion and Serenity's lives in any more danger than they were already in on this journey. But he was reluctant all the same, as just sending one ahead might mean that they could be ambushed and ultimately lead to their deaths. While he had a duty to his monarchs, he also had a duty to his friends and warriors to make sure they went out and came back with the most minimal risks.

Pursing his lips, he grudgingly nodded. "Take Uranus with you though. You two work the best together and it's better to have two than one."

Adriano nodded, signaled to his beloved, proving that he had talked about it with her before approaching Kunzite, and jogged away ahead the group. The two of them would make more, no better, time than they would because of Serenity and Endymion. He was keeping an eye on the couple, but the unaccustomed trek was taking its toll on Serenity. She had no way of knowing that this was going to happen and he was sure that her teaching in the palace hadn't included physical training for this kind of thing. Her endurance for this long journey was going to wear out too soon if they pushed it too much without proper rest. Endymion was better, considering his work and what he had been doing and infiltrating, but as he had rose in the ranks of that imposter's forces, he had been out in the field less and less often, resulting in a kind of unused muscle tension.

He was doing the best he could for them, resting every night and sometimes even during the day for about an hour. It didn't help that Serenity was wearing a rather complicated gown that the Ginzuishou had obviously deemed necessary when it had showed its power and gifted Serena with her memories. Despite its somewhat flimsy appearance and complex design, it was actually quite sturdy. It had gotten caught on tree limbs and the ground a number of times, but in its favor, it hadn't ripped yet. But for all that, walking in overgrown areas and over rocky ground in a gown that trailed past your feet was obviously no picnic and he didn't envy her.

"I'm hoping that if Uranus and Adriano get to Crystal Tokyo, they'll send an entourage to meet us," Venus commented as she joined his side. "A few skimmers would go a long way to helping us."

It would have been uncanny how her words reflected his thoughts if he didn't know her so well. As it was, he wasn't surprised, as she was quite capable of seeing the same things he did. Leadership of this complex group never came into question. He ordered the men, she ordered the women. And if one of them chose, like he had, to pair and command one of the pairings among them, it would only be after they knew that either Kunzite or Venus would have agreed if the position had been reversed. He hadn't needed to ask Venus if she would agree that sending Uranus with Adriano would be a good idea, because he knew she would have sent her Senshi after his King anyway. Might as well anticipate, right?

"Without a doubt, but even a change of clothes would help."

She nodded and glanced back at Serenity and Endymion, straightening their garments and preparing for their journey back to Crystal Tokyo. Jupiter and Mars jogged up to their leaders, obviously still tired. Three hours before each shift change was a hard burden, but it was all either Kunzite or Venus would allow.

"How many more days will it before get back home?"

Kunzite glanced at Venus out of the corner of his eye before slowly answering the Jovian Senshi. "My best estimate would be a week more, maybe even a week and a half at this pace. No more than that, though, I would think."

"Let's hope it's no more than that," Mars muttered, rubbing at a crick in her neck. "I may be the reincarnated Senshi of Mars, fire extraordinaire, but that doesn't mean a whole lot when it really comes down to it. We're wearing out, that much is certain. Especially Mercury."

He nodded. Zoisite was hovering as much as he could over his soulmate while still protecting their charges. The dark circles under the Water Senshi was more pronounced than the others, most likely due to her paler skin. He had originally been worried about Saturn, considering her rather frail condition in their previous life, but apparently, in this incarnation, the physical infirmities she suffered before didn't factor into it, which Rhonite had confided to him and Endymion was a relief.

It was going to take some time to get everything straight in their heads, and even longer than that to really get to know each other in this life. Before, when Crystal Tokyo had been created and learning to thrive, they had known each other inside and out. But now, things were different. The basics of personalities were the same, but there were quirks, habits, that would be discovered about those they loved. Kunzite was looking forward to then. Hopefully, that would mean that if they had the leisure to discover such things, it would be a time of calm and of peace. Certainly the palace was going to be in an uproar when they got back.

"Mina!"

Serena came up running, or at least jogging, to her cousin with a humorous and happy look shining like brilliant stars in her eyes. "You never told me how you managed to find all of the Kings and Senshi and bring them down bearing to rescue me! How did you know?"

"Well," Mina answered, ever so slightly flustered by the question as it was obvious she herself hadn't quite worked out all the details yet, "it was completely by accident, Sere. I had only intended to bring Amy, Raye, and Lita, but Kylane, Matthias, Coen, and Adriano insisted on coming with me." A wry smile touched her lips at the thought as they began their daily trek, Darius listening intently, as Kunzite had yet to tell him anything about what had happened to bring them altogether or rescue them. "I had the unfortunate, or fortunate depending on how you want to look at it, luck to have chosen the same night to leave on the same day that Janus, Zarek, Ilar, and Ranae arrived from the Outer planets. They apparently somehow gotten wind of what it was that I had planned and…"ambushed" us outside the palace door and insisted on coming." She laughed a little. "And as if that wasn't enough to confuse and completely throw off my plans, when I went to meet Amy, Raye, and Lita at the gates to the city, they had brought some people with them: Ruka, Michi, Suna, and Taru. So I ended up with twice the amount of people I had intended."

"So you didn't know they were Senshi?" prompted Serenity.

Mina shook her head. "Not a clue."

"Then how did you all wake up to your memories and powers?"

"That I'm not sure I can explain," she answered after a pause. "I'm not sure what possessed me to do this, but I, uh, kinda broke into Aunt Aysel's room and nicked the key to the Senshi's room. I don't know why, but I took the chest that had held our power wands and stuffed it into my bag. It couldn't have possibly come in handy, I thought at the time, so I couldn't figure out why I took it with me. I carried it around until we finally found out exactly where you were. I was about to charge us in there, when I guess I "awoke". I broke the box open, grabbed the Venus pen, and transformed right there."

For a moment, Darius was silent, as if thinking over a few theories. At length, his low voice spoke out, but everyone had been listening, so it wasn't hard for them to hear him. "Did you consider that when the Senshi are reincarnated, the power in the pens know about it and automatically search out for their…civilian counterparts? That when it finds them, it makes a subtle and unnoticeable psychic connection? And when strong feelings about things happen, when the power notices that it might be needed, it sends a strong, unexplainable feeling to take it with you or something?"

"You would be assuming, then," Cordylite pondered, "that the power in the pens is sentient. That our alter-egos as Kings or Senshi are embedded in the pens and when we awaken, it is like two separate entities in one body?"

"No, I'm not saying that," the reincarnated king contradicted. "I'm saying that the power itself might be sentient, but that you are Cordylite and Coen. All that is stored in the pen is the power, not Cordylite. There is not Cordylite and Coen in one body with two souls; it's one soul in one body, just with power added. You see?"

"How sentient, then, would you say the power is?" Mercury interrupted.

"Not very." This was a theory Darius had evidently been working on for some time and was pleased to elaborate on. The others, including Kunzite, listened quietly while he talked. "I would think that it would be more of a sleepy consciousness, never actually "waking". And not sentient in the way of speech, of complex human thought. It would be more like sentient in the way of emotions: like how an animal, a dog per se, can connect and act with a human being while being sensitive to human emotions. The dog can be taught to recognize words, but cannot speak them back, and only with intense training. And usually that word is associated only with that specific instance or object, even though the word might pertain to many things. It is the express will of you, as Senshi and Kings, that influence the power; the emotion behind the will as well. In short, it has sentient intelligence only for emotions and is intended to be dominated by a will to tell it what to do. It would only "push" its own "will" onto its respective user if that user didn't realize or didn't "awaken" to it and the knowledge that the power was needed."

"That's a plausible theory, Endymion—" Cordylite began but was almost immediately interrupted by the person he was addressing.

"Darius, Coen. My name is Darius. I may be Endymion, but let's stick to these lifetimes names, shall we? Otherwise it gets much too confusing until we can all sort out what's going on in our heads."

"Do you think it will get any easier with time?" Neptune asked wistfully and ran a hand through her hair. "Because I can't even think about anything related to being a Senshi without getting a headache."

"I'm sure it will," Ilar murmured, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "It has to, otherwise I think I'll kill someone." An easy smile touched his lips, his humor not impaired by his lack of sleep or the long journey or even with the difficulties he must be feeling in his own head.

"I agree with Ilar," Mercury said, nodding. "I have no doubt once we sort it out, everything will be fine. It's just a lot to take in at all at once. How're you holding up, Serenity? Oops, I mean, Serena."

The princess kicked her dress free from a broken branch on the ground and grunted in irritation. "I'll be fine, provided I can get home and sleep for the next month."

"You always were good at that," Mars teased.

"How mean of you to say!" And with that, a good natured argument broke out among the two. It didn't mean anything, really, and they weren't even really arguing. It was more of something of a soothing aspect; it was a memory of such days and such arguments in their last life, something that had not only been a source of amusement and happiness, but a relaxed pose and attention to the universe around them. It always seemed to give a semblance of sanity when all else was chaos.

A few of them, like Jupiter, Ilar, Saturn, Zarek and Janus laughed outright at their verbal antics. Others, like Coen, Neptune, Mercury, Darius, Kunzite, Rhonite, and Venus let smiles stretch their faces at the memories that were evoked by something so simple as a roll of Mars' eyes or the mock-frustrated sound Serenity made.

Kunzite wished that such simple and pleasing things would always happen, continue to happen, when they reached Crystal Tokyo, but he didn't think it would. That man who believed himself to be reincarnated Endymion was not going to give up. He would hang onto his beliefs with nails that were stronger than steel and it was going to take big measures, big plans, and big powers to protect the truth: for a fanatic was the patron of subjective truth and lies, something that could not be stopped by merely escape or talk.

Though he knew no amount of prayer or wishes would ever have this stop without bloodshed.

End Chapter 9

Long time, I know, but here it is.