Chapter seven, wow.

Well, you know the drill. I don't own Sailor Moon, and I don't own the planets, either. I just realized I never put that in. I also don't own the moons. Wish I did.

I'm just warning you guys. This Jupiter part is going to be long, probably more than two chapters. I'd say three at least. This chapter is mostly focused on character development, (there isn't a battle in this one), but I think it's still exciting, either way.

:: :: Mind-speech

Song of the New Cosmos

By LGR

Chapter Seven: Jupiter-Ganymede part 1: Discord and Harmony

"Silence!" the Chief Councilor called to the council from next to Illium. Of the letters he had been given, one stated that he was no longer a cadet-trainee and now had the rank of 2nd lieutenant and a Commission as The Representative of the Sailor Scouts. The other, was the formal invitation to council. His head was still buzzing. Of course some of that might have been from the awful noise of the arguing council. "The Queen wishes to speak!"

"—But the Queen MUST stop the progress! She—!" babbled a council member; the representative of one of Jupiter's inhabited moons.

"I SAID SILENCE!" Seraph repeated. The council member slouched back in his chair, not a little taken aback. "Neo-Queen Serenity Mashiro wishes to speak."

"If your worry is for my safety, then I assure you I am in the best of hands on the progress. If it is for the safety of your planets, then I am sorry, but I must stop on all inhabited soil. Not only is it tradition, it is necessary. All the Sailor Scouts must be accounted for before this progress may return to the Moon Kingdom."

"While we are on the topic of the sailor scouts, I would like to ask why our own governments couldn't just look for them." The Mercury representative asked.

Mashiro looked to him. His breathing hitched, he was so nervous. "Would you please answer this question for us Scout Representative?"

He swallowed and began his explanation. "The Scouts are drawn to each other. It would be impractical for others to try to search for the Scouts; they would need to check every female on the planet. Furthermore, there is no way to identify the Sailor Scout until she has come in contact with another scout and the planetary energy is triggered within them. Once this has happened, an aura reader may recognize a Scout, but this is not a common talent."

"There you have it Representative, not only is it impractical, it's next to impossible." Mashiro said.

"So says him, but how do we know any of this?" someone said.

"This I have also witnessed." Seraph told them. "You may put me to a truth-test if you do not believe me. I give permission."

"That will not be necessary." Mashiro said as the others seemed to change their minds as well. Whatever Seraph was, she wasn't a liar and none of them seemed too willing to be humiliated when everything turned out to be true.

"So why don't we send the scouts off to separate planets to search faster for their fellow soldiers?" another council member asked. Thankfully someone else answered before Illium was asked too.

"Oh yeah, and let those shadows get them alone. Great Idea." Someone said sarcastically.

"Then send them off together."

"That's what we've been doing." Seraph told the council slightly sardonically.

"I don't understand why this is an issue." Mashiro informed them. "The progress must persist to gain confirmation of the systems allegiance to the Moon Queen. This is essential for the Imperium Silver Crystal. The progress must go on. The scout search must go on. It is practical and logical that they continue, together."

"But you were ready to stop the progress for My Lady—" the mercury representative started.

"I was ready to postpone the progress. Now that it has begun, it must continue, it may not be halted." Mashiro explained. "I believe that there is nothing more to be said here. The council is dismissed." Mashiro turned and walked out with Seraph and Illium trailing her.

---

"I don't get it." Minai groaned. Hiaka was trying to teach the others how to work whatever magic they possessed as the chosen of their planets. Illium had supposedly checked them all and deemed that they did have the aptitude for magic. He'd been unable to explain anything else for, after he'd said so, Seraph had marched in and confiscated him for a Council Meeting. Illium stammered that he'd be back and that Hiaka should try to help them as best she could.

It wasn't going very well, though.

They'd set themselves up in one of the gardens in Jupiter's Capital building on Ganymede while Hiaka tried to teach them the way Illium had taught her. Minai had no idea what was going on; Selece kept protesting that she couldn't do magic; she'd been checked. Terasu was at least trying, but she wasn't getting anywhere: Hiaka wanted to scream. Did she mention that this was getting them nowhere?

"I can't do magic! I know I can't! I've been checked! Twice!" Selece objected.

"And you were just checked again, and been told you can! So there!" Hiaka explained if slightly louder and more forceful than necessary. She sighed to cool her temper. "Okay, let's just…ah…pretend, that you have magic and see what happens, okay?"

"But…but…I can't. Pretending its real doesn't make it real!"

"Ughh! I give up! Let's just wait until Illium comes back." Hiaka said in disgust, then, hearing footsteps she brightened. "That must be him, Thank Mars! This is work, and I'm not even doing anything!" but to her dismay, it wasn't Illium, but someone she didn't know.

"Hey, guys. Is Illium around?" the youth said.

"Sorry Geoffrey." Terasu said. "Seraph hauled him off to a Council meeting a couple of hours ago and we haven't seen him since. He said he'd come by afterwards, though."

"Alright then, the meeting got out a few minutes ago, I'll just wait here." And he took a seat in one of the wicker chairs, along with them, under the covered veranda of mosaic tiles.

"What did you need him for?" she blurted then hastily added. "If you don't mind telling us, that is?" He shrugged.

"I don't mind. I just wanted to ask him to translate this for me." He held up a photocopy of what looked like etchings in a pain of glass. "I finally got a copy of those ancient texts in Primal Aurelic."

"Why would he be able to do that? Isn't Primal Aurelic a lost language?" she answered. Geoffey blinked and everyone else mentally smacked themselves in the head while Hiaka tried to figure out what this could mean.

"We never told you, I forgot." Terasu said then began to explain how Illium had come over to their side and was once a shadow being such as the woman Umbra.

Hiaka sat blinking. "No way…Illium? Heck no! I'm not sure I believe that. But anyways, what does that have to do with Primal Aurelic? How does he know it?"

"It was his primary language. He couldn't write in our language for a while there, he had to take classes. He could speak ours perfectly fine, but he didn't have a clue how to write it, and he had trouble reading it." Geoffrey explained. "We asked him to write something and he wrote in Primal Aurelic. That's how we found out."

"Is there anything Illium can't do?" Hiaka said in a slightly complaining tone. It just wasn't natural for someone to be as good at everything as he seemed to be.

"He's an awful speller. And he has terrible trouble with slang terms." Geoffrey said.

"Oh, yeah. That's a great weakness."

"He's scared of Seraph; sort of." Minai said groping for something Illium was bad at.

"He's less scared of her than anyone I know, and any decent person would have a healthy fear of her yelling at them." Selece said, rendering that argument void. Thoughtfully, she added "I don't see why she and Mashiro are such good friends."

"Yeah, Mashiro seems to think Seraph is easy-going. I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing it." Hiaka agreed.

"I'm sure she's easy going when she doesn't have to yell at anyone." Minai provided. Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Seraph's known her since a year after Mashiro was born, if they weren't reconciled by now, I'd say that wasn't a very good show of either of their characters." Terasu explained.

"So she doesn't like us because she doesn't know us?" Selece asked, not really getting the point. Minai sighed in exasperation.

"It's not that she doesn't like us but …I think she doesn't know what to do with us, so she tries to do nothing and she kind of comes-off as a stiff." Minai said.

"I wonder why?" Hiaka said sarcastically, thinking of when they'd first met and Seraph just told her she was a representative and walked off.

Selece, guessing what she was thinking, turned to Hiaka and said, "She did it to me too, but at least the Guard were laughing at her, so it wasn't so nerve-racking."

"Nerve-racking? I don't believe I know that word." Came voice behind them and they whirled around to see Illium in his new uniform. Minai winked.

"Lookin' fresh there Illium!" she said with a giggle. Both Illium and Terasu looked confused.

"Nerve-racking is a synonym for stressful. And fresh is uhh…I'm not sure how to explain it." Selece tried to translate.

"Basically she means you look Hot, or Cool, or whatever. It's not meant to be taken literally." Hiaka said.

"…uh, thank you?" he stammered and then sneezed.

"Are you feeling alright? You look a little pale." Terasu asked, concerned.

"I will be alright." He answered rubbing his nose and eyes.

"Can you translate this for me?" Geoffrey said from across the patio at the same time as Hiaka asked "Will you help me teach them magic?"

Illium sighed.

---

Laureli Misao Sanrinno looked over the flower beds of Jupiter's capital building on Ganymede. She was the head landscape designer and it was she who oversaw all the plants and outdoor accessories that went into the outside of the building. She looked over the state of the plants, and noticed that some didn't seem like they were getting enough water and others had too much. She made note to tell some of her workers to change the irrigation systems as she planned designs for the next growing season.

Looking up to the artificially colored Emerald sky, the giant image of Jupiter covered half of the visible sky while the outlines of some of the other moons could also be seen here and there. Even with the view so wondrous, she wasn't paying it any mind, she was looking at the storm clouds coming over the horizon. It was going to rain, and lots, lightening as well. Even with the artificial weather and atmosphere controller the weather was uncontrollable and unpredictable due to the great affect of Jupiter's gravity, though with the advances in technology and magic, most of the weather was pretty mild.

"Is there going to be a storm, Miss Laureli?" said a voice from below her. Laureli looked down to see a small girl with mousy-brown hair and grey eyes looking back with a smile.

"Yep, Rena, there's going to be a storm. It'll probably start raining in a couple of minutes, you better get inside." She told the girl. Rena was the younger child of the prince of Jupiter and about six years old. She often came to see Laureli when she was planting or looking at the Garden. The girl had a green thumb and liked to play in the dirt, much to her father's frustration. She often ended up completely unrecognizable from all the mud. "Come on, we'll go together."

"Okay."

---

After Illium agreed to translate the photocopy of the Primal Aurelic script later, Geoffrey thanked him and left. Sighing again, Illium turned to the task of trying to teach the scouts how to use their magic.

"But I don't have magic. I already told Hiaka. I've been checked." Selece kept telling him. This was horribly frustrating. He turned to Hiaka.

"Don't look at me. I've already tried." she objected before he could say anything. Illium sneezed again. He wanted to crawl into his bed and snooze for a week. He hadn't been able to get much sleep lately because of all the stuff he'd been doing: going to council meetings, helping the scouts, fencing with Daemian, keeping a look out for Sailor Jupiter and every so often he would be summoned to be questioned about his theories on the Sailors or his knowledge of the Shadow beings and Necrosis. Needless to say, he was tired and probably getting sick.

He'd been hoping that Hiaka could help him teach the other scouts but it looked like it wasn't working out too well. He would have to do it by himself.

It also looked like Selece wasn't even going to give him a chance unless he could come up with a reason as to why her magic was missed.

"I suspect that the magic of you and the other scouts have is elemental to your planet's natures and therefore it would be hard to detect as most magic isn't so very concentrated. Also, such powers are extremely unusual so I wouldn't be surprised if whoever checked you hadn't been checking for it." He explained, barely keeping his exasperation from his voice.

"But—!"

"No 'but's." he said firmly. "If you will not believe me, Seraph said that she would come down to help me with this if I need it. You can ask her if you do not believe me." He hated using Seraph as leverage against the scout, but it was for their own good. He wasn't lying either; Seraph had volunteered her help if he needed it.

Selece looked doubtful but he heard no more protests about her not having magic.

"Selece." He said. "What I see of your magic, is Ice. The combination of Water and Temperature: both of these are at your command. Now, close you eyes."

"This isn't going work…" she said.

"Just close your eyes." He said a little frustration coming into his tone. From his place next to Selece he saw Minai wince at his tone. He realized that none of them had ever seen him mad. Selece closed her eyes with a sigh.

"Now imagine the form your magic will take…"

"How should I know what form it'll take?" she said opening her eyes again.

"What do you see your magic as being?"

"Well that's easy, I don't see it as existing at all." She stated. Illium gave her a dark look.

"Will you at the least try, Selece." He said sounding overly forceful, as if he was holding back from shouting.

"I am trying." Selece protested, sounding a little angry herself.

"No, you're not." he barked at her.

Everyone went quiet and looked at him. Seeing how unnerved they were, he sighed and got up. "I'm going to take a nap, I'll be back later." He said and trotted off to his room.

"Way-to-go, Selece." Hiaka said sourly.

"It's wasn't my fault."

"Selece, did you see how close he was to yelling at you? I've never seen him yell, at anyone, for anything. Even before…" Terasu whispered.

"You could at least have been a little more cooperative." Hiaka suggested.

"But—."

"And don't give us that shit about not having magic." Hiaka said acidly. "You do magic as a scout, and don't say that that's any different, because it's not."

"Guys…Don't fight…" Minai begged quietly from the sidelines.

"Easy for you to say." Selece shot back at Hiaka. You already know how to do it. You haven't lived your whole life not knowing any magic, and knowing for a fact that you would never know any magic." They were on their feet know and looked ready to leap at each other and grapple at their thoughts.

"What is going on?!" They all jumped and turned to the edge of the patio to see Seraph standing there with a look that could melt steel. "What is the meaning of this?! Fighting? We don't even need the Necrosis to come and kill us, we'll do it ourselves." She said scathingly.

"We—."

"I don't want to hear about it; just stop. Where is Illium? He said he'd be here."

"He went to bed." Minai answered in a hushed voice.

"Good, I came to haul his ass off to bed. He can't have gotten more than five hours of sleep in the past few days, and I saw him sneezing earlier. Well then, I hope next time we meet, it will be on a happier note." And she left, just as a rolling of thunder was heard, and it began to rain.

---

By the time Illium had trudged to his room, (which was on the other side of the building and outdoors the whole way, almost a fifteen minute scuffle with all the people rushing to get to the City to eat out for lunch), he was thoroughly soaked, shivering, and most definitely ill.

Shaking, he changed into dry clothes and fell onto his bed face-forward and didn't bother to move for almost five minutes, when he realized he was still cold. He got up, went to the room's closet, pulled out a blanket, and returned to the bed.

After a few minutes he could feel the temperature under the blanket become warm, he could even feel that his skin was warm, but he still felt frigid and week. He didn't know what he had. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been sick; not since before he was taken by necrosis, surly. Maybe he should go to the infirmary?

There came a knocking at the door.

He got up, still shivering, and opened it to find Seraph there looking back. She didn't say anything, just put the back of her hand to his forehead and said, "As I suspected." Then ordered him to bed and left, saying she'd be back in a few minutes. He got back into bed and stared at the ceiling until she got back.

"Here." She said and gave him a spoonful of something. He almost spit it out. "Yeah, it's definitely not the best tasting stuff in the Universe. That'll probably knock you out for a few hours. Drink this as well." And she held up a cup of orange liquid with ice. "Don't worry, it's only fruit juice, you don't want to get dehydrated. Drink as much as you can until the medicine kicks in, you'll probably be asleep for a couple of hours. The Vitamins will help with your immune-system." She said as she took picked up the vile syrup, leaving the fruit juice.

"Don't worry about the scouts, I'll tell them you're sick."

"Where's Emmett?" he said randomly; the medicine was already making him loopy. Emmett's absence was very surprising, not only was Seraph and he friends, and one of the few people she could stand to be around for more than five minutes, but he was her body-guard and, Illium suspected, her chaperon, to keep her out of trouble.

"Eh! The fool went scrying when he was still plastered from just a few moments before and he got back-lash sickness. He's three-times as out of it as you are and he hasn't taken any medicine. Visions tend to make him ill."

Scrying? What? Was Emmett a seer? He hadn't know that.

Of course none of this was all too surprising to him; given his current state of consciousness. He had only a surface idea what was going on and what she said barely registered at all. He had just enough energy to store the information for later examination before he was dead to the world.

---

Selece felt awful. Seraph had come by earlier saying that Illium was sick and probably wouldn't be able to come to the meeting that afternoon. Now, they were sitting with their usual friends, plus Hiaka, for Lunch and she couldn't eat a bite. She wasn't ill, but she felt horrible for treating him that way. He'd been trying to help and she'd practically told him he was an idiot and didn't know what he was talking about.

She sighed and continued to stare at her food.

And Hiaka kept shooting scolding glances at her from across the table when conversation ran thin. Selece suspected that Hiaka felt loyalty to Illium for helping her during the fight with her powers; this, she guessed made her feel angry at Selece for being that way towards him.

She'd have thought it would be Terasu who'd feel that way. They were pretty close; or closer than he was to Hiaka, anyways. But Terasu didn't seem angry at her at all, just sad. When Daemian had asked her what was wrong, she'd just said she was worried that Illium might be really sick and wondered if it would be inappropriate to go visit him.

It just showed Selece how little she knew about other people's feelings. She just didn't understand what she couldn't measure or what she didn't know as fact.

That's what got her into this mess in the first place.

You can't measure magic, its whole existence was an anomaly to her. This made it hard for her to understand and her brain shut-down and refused to believe she could do it. Her mind went into summer-salts when she just thought of why and how it existed. To cope, she'd just put it into a little box. Other people could do magic, but not her.

She didn't know why her mind said she couldn't do magic; why others who where just as good or bad as her could or couldn't, it was just a rule her head had made to handle everything. Just like she'd taken the fact that she had no magic and clung to it. It was a fact, and therefore it was safe to believe in.

It seemed she'd have to give up this fact and take up a new one. And who knew, maybe Illium would be able to explain it to her so she understood it. It might fill the gaps in her knowledge and free magic from its little box.

Either way, she had to say sorry. That was a fact.

---

It was still raining out. As she stood under one of the many Gazeboes that were scattered across the estate, Laureli was trying to figure out how she was going to finish the plans for the next growing season if the rain kept up. What if it rained for the next three months? All her plants would get drowned! But what if she planned for lots of water plants and it didn't rain until the next growing season? They'd likely die; or at least cost them a fortune in irrigation. Replacing them might be cheaper and that was still highly expensive. And those pencil-pushers in the office were always badgering her about money…

She sighed. She'd have to plan as well as she could.

Laureli hastily gathered her sweater and rushed to get to another shelter from the rain without splashing mud onto her.

This was hopeless however.

She looked down when she got to a covered area and saw that most of the bottom of her blue jeans was splattered with mud. She sat down in a wicker chair.

The Jupiter/Ganymede estate had tones of outdoor rooms with coverings to protect from rain. Laureli just loved them. They were functional, quant, comfortable, and they made great focal points for outdoor designs. When she'd taken her job, she'd made sure she would be in charge of decorating them, they were so much fun!

The one she was in right now was one of the largest and had a red covering and six wicker chairs and two iron tables with mosaic-tiled tops. There were carpets to cover the bricked ground and pillows every where to match the table-tops. There was a shout of thunder and Laureli could see people running toward the area through the mist just before the rain started to really come down. Fortunately, the sides of the covering were long, and there was very little wind; no water was blown into the covered area.

The people shook water off of themselves and their clothes as they huffed from their jaunt to the patio.

"Huh?" Laureli asked when she missed what one of them had said to her.

"I said 'Do you mind if we stay here?'. She's not in any Danger, is she Illium?" the girl asked politely. She had white-ish hair, light skin, blue eyes and was fairly short.

"Not likely. It should be fine." Answered the only boy, fairly tall and also with white hair but with copper skin.

"I don't mind at all, if you don't mind me staying." Laureli answered with a smile for them.

"Are you sure you're okay, Illium? You were pretty sick earlier."

"It was just a fever. I have only the sneezing now. Also, this is important." The boy said.

"Hi, I'm Minai." said one of the other girls with blond hair and held out her hand to shake.

"I'm Laureli." She said, taking it. They went around and introduced themselves as Illium, Selece, Terasu, and Hiaka. Minai, Illium and Hiaka chose seats on the ground with cushions while the two others took up whicker chairs.

"Let's get started then." Illium said.

---

"Let's get started then." Illium said. He'd almost decided not to come, but he wasn't feeling nearly as bad now, and though he could use the rest, this was more important. What if something like what happened to Hiaka happened to the others?

He was fairly sure the person sharing the covering with them would be fine, but he was ready to throw a shield up; just in case.

Speaking of the new person, Laureli was her name; he had one fear laid to rest at least.

They'd found Sailor Jupiter. The flash of Green aura proved it.

It was a load off of his mind. It seemed these past days weren't a total failure after all. Selece had apologized and promised that she was going to try, even though she couldn't say anything about how she'd do, and they'd found Sailor Jupiter on the first of the planets moons. Now he could relax a little when they visited the others.

Getting the new Sailor Jupiter acquainted with the idea of magic was definitely not a bad idea, either. He didn't want another fight like the one with Selece.

"Selece, I will be with you last, as the time before, we started with you first. And we should give Minai and Terasu a chance to try." Selece nodded. He turned back to Minai.

He'd thought about how he was going to teach them. As he'd examined how he'd done with Selece, he'd decided he couldn't teach the others the same way he did with Hiaka. For one thing, Hiaka knew how her power would manifest, because it already had. The others had no idea what their power would be and so they would have an extremely difficult time. After considering, he decided the best thing he could do, would be to show them their powers.

The thing that had stumped him was how he would do it.

Fortunately, he had an idea.

"Minai, I am going to show you your power how I see it. I have come to the conclusion that this is the best possible way to teach you all. Unfortunately, because your powers haven't manifested yet, it will be virtually impossible for you to consciously link with me so I can show you through my eyes. I'll have to do it myself. It will not be painful, but it may be surprising."

---

Minai was trying her best to understand, but the implications just weren't sticking.

"Okay, so," she started, "you're going to show me what my power looks like…through you're eyes? What do you mean?"

He sighed and his face went blank as he said, "I am going to forcefully take over your mind so that you see the image in your head." Those listening nearly choked. Laureli looked confused.

"Oh…that doesn't sound too good." Minai commented.

"Yes, that is what is so unfortunate about this." He said slightly sarcastically.

"Sorry." She said and he sighed again.

"I am also sorry. I am being pert with you, imposing my own moods upon you who do not deserve it."

"Maybe you should go back to bed, Illium…" Terasu inquired, concerned.

"We will see how I am feeling after we have finished this demonstration." He turned back to Minai. "You should lay flat on the floor for this, I do not want to chance you falling down; I am not sure how you will react."

She nodded a little nervously and did as he asked. Even though she was expecting it, she was still shocked when she felt her mind go numb as control of it was wrenched from her almost violently. She felt as if she'd lost consciousness for a moment until opened her eyes and saw—

—Herself.

She realized, as her train of thought seamed to return, that she was looking at herself through Illium's eyes. It looked just as she always looked when she saw herself in the mirror except that emanating from her person were wafts of orange-gold light that flowed in curls, zigzags and swirling designs that constantly moved and shifted as she watched. As she concentrated, sometimes she could make out a shape before it twisted into another. She was almost unnerved as she recognized her Tambourine and the Planet Venus. Others she couldn't comprehend the meaning of: many other women wearing variations of her scout uniform but all in Venus's colors, a white cat with green eyes, a mass of rotating rings that for some reason made her think of thoughts or emotions, …She didn't know what these symbols meant but she tried to remember those that she could see.

Abruptly, she was looking back through her own eyes.

"Whoa…that was weird." She said from her place on the floor.

"Did you recognize your essence?" he asked.

"Uhh…my essence? You mean those swirling colors and stuff? They were hard to miss." She answered.

Laureli looked very confused. Terasu was gazing avidly, probably at her trying to see swirling colors, along with Selece.

"Swirling colors? She has swirling colors around her? Do we?" Hiaka stipulated.

"Yes." He answered. "All of you have some form of what Minai has witnessed upon herself." He shifted his glance Laureli for a moment, including her in his 'all of you'.

They all turned to look at her, contemplating what this could mean.

"Uhh…" she said mindlessly, not exactly knowing what to do. She didn't know any of these people or even really what they were doing. Something about magic, but there were plenty of people who practiced magic in groups and this guy seemed to know what he was doing so she didn't think this was some sort of unauthorized experimentation. She did want to know what this was supposed to be saying.

"Minai, could you try to tap this energy that I have showed you?" Illium asked, jarring everyone to what they were supposed to be doing.

"Okay."

---

Illium walked back to his room after a dinner spent with his usual meal-mates.

The lessons were going even better than he could have hoped, now that he'd figured out a way to show the scouts their powers. After a couple of minutes of Minai squishing her eyes closed and concentrating, she'd managed to tap her power and he'd identified it as Empathy: the ability to sense and manipulate emotions. Now he was encouraging her to walk around and use her power to identify what people were feeling, but not to try messing with them.

As soon as Minai had heard what her power was, her eyes had widened and she'd explained that she'd always felt a certain way when another person was angry or sad or shy, even bored. This also explained how she'd been feeling awful earlier when Selece and he had had their disagreement.

She'd also said that if she really focused she could see a little bit of color on the edges of the scouts, colors like the one Illium had showed her on herself.

He hadn't thought she'd be so sensitive to others auras but now that he thought about it, that seemed perfectly logical considering that Empathy was the closest thing to aura sensing one could get.

And if he hadn't believed her in the first place, and known that she wasn't lying because that would have shown on her aura, he'd have been pretty convinced when she named off the same colors he'd seen himself, even on Laureli, where she couldn't have guessed from seeing a scout uniform.

On the whole, he was pretty proud, really. Of course that didn't stop him from asking Terasu and Selece if they didn't mind him leaving their lessons till the next day, as he was still sick.

They hadn't minded, of course.

So now he was going back to his room again, in the rain again, sick again. Luckily this time he didn't have a fever…yet.

He walked under the overhang of the roof over the entrance to the building his room was in. Water was pouring off of the roof in an uninterrupted sheet not unlike a waterfall; this ensured that if he wasn't already soaking wet, he was now.

He needed to invest in umbrella. He was getting paid now, he had money. As Illium thought about whether it would be worth buying an umbrella when they were going to leave this planet in a week or so anyways, he caught the sound of familiar voices coming from the door he'd just passed.

It was Seraph and, the up-till now absent, Emmett.For once his morals failed him; He couldn't help it, he had to listen.

"I know something is coming Seraph and the fallout will be one of two things: we live, or we die. I don't know how, why, or when. I just wish we could do more to help them but it isn't within our power to do more than we already are." Emmett's voice said sadly. He sounded tired.

"I know. Mashiro also feels guilty that she stays in an office while Terasu is out risking her life with the other Sailors. And while I was the best at magic and fighting among the advisors, I still wasn't anything special. All those better than me take that skill as a carrier. I don't have any talent that can help them; I'm just a worthless politician. And those idiots on the council don't understand anything, most think this is just something that will go away with time, the rest are losing all their wits for worrying and do nothing productive." Seraph's voice answered, nearly the same as usual but dipped in a gallon of worry.

"I'm sure you and Mashiro will think of something to get them going." Emmett said slightly more cheerful at the change in subject.

"What are you doing Illium?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin. He whipped around to see all four of the scouts right behind him. He held a finger up to signal them to be quiet them and pointed to the door.

They all put their ears to the door to continue listening along with him.

"Maybe" Seraph said in answer to Emmett's last sentence.

Minai gasped. "That's Seraph!" she said in a whispered exclamation. Everyone shushed her.

"Emmett, do you think I'm a stiff?"

"Yeah," Hiaka inserted before Selece slapped a hand over her mouth.

"…is this a trick question?" he after a moment asked.

"I'm serious, Emmett"

"Why? You haven't all of a sudden decided you care what those Morons on the council think, have you?"

"No. It's just that I think scouts don't see me as… 'On-Their-Side' if you understand me. I don't expect us to be life-long friends, but I would like to go up to one of them without them flinching. And if what you say is right, their going to need as many friends as they can get…I don't know, maybe I'm just being stupid."

"Your never stupid. I'm sure things will work out." He said then there was a pause, "Seraph can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Maybe you just need to get out of this politician atmosphere, maybe tomorrow we should do something, like go out to lunch, or see a movie."

"Venus! That is so adorable!" Minai squealed. The others tackled her.

"…you mean like on a date?"

"…yes."

There was a pause. "If you don't want to—" Emmett's voice said hastily sounding disappointed and anxious.

"No one's ever asked me on a date before." She said sounding almost confused. "Why would you want to go on a date with me?"

"Who wouldn't want to go on a date with you? Besides, it doesn't matter, because I do."

There was another pause then Seraph answered, "Yes, I would very much like to go on a date with you tomorrow."

"I knew it!" Terasu said excitedly.

Unfortunately, she also said it very loudly. The door opened and Illium fell in with all the scouts piling in on top of him. Selece, who'd, ended up being on top, laughed nervously as Emmett and Seraph looked at them all dumb-founded.

---

"For some reason this seems so typical." Emmett said blandly. "Lieutenant, are you in there somewhere?"

"Yes, Sir." Illium said sounding strangled from underneath the four girls. Emmett suspected the guy in him was saying something like: "Score! A whole bunch of hot chicks are on top of me!" However, it was also true that the inner gentleman part in him was probably screaming something like: "Shit! Shit! Shit! I am so dead!".

Illium had usually an overwhelming inner gentleman, Emmett had noticed. Illium was probably dying from shame under there.

"Get off of him, girls." They all stood up one by one knowing they were most likely in big trouble. Illium finally got up and his face as red as a tomato as he saluted his superior officer. "At ease." Illium put his hand down but he was still the same shade of scarlet.

"Why were you listening at my door?" Emmett asked them. Seraph, for one reason or another, (he suspected she was embarrassed), wasn't speaking. He knew they'd heard what had been said. What else would Terasu have been commenting on?

No one said anything. Illium's left eye twitched, Minai smiled nervously, Selece was white as a sheet, Hiaka was suddenly very interested in the tile work on the floor, while Terasu just looked ashamed.

Emmett sighed. "I suppose it doesn't matter. Don't you people have somewhere to be?"

Amusingly, they all shook their heads. Ha.

"No mindless video games? Flower arranging? Internet surfing? Boy-watching?…or girl-watching, as the case may be."

They shook their heads. Okay, before it was funny but now it was just annoying.

"Well, I suggest you find something to do. If one of you breathes a wrong word about what you've heard…well, let's just say it will be very unpleasant." He said.

He suspected the dark circles under his from that reaction headache he'd had probably mad him look pretty menacing. They all practically ran away.

Not that he blamed them.

He turned back to Seraph. "See you tomorrow, my dear?"

She gave him a shy smile, "Yeah." And surprisingly, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before heading off to her own room.