Chapter 2

"Ne, Okaasan, how's this?" The five year old girl, or as we know her, Lily, twirled around in her dress and wide , bright eyes shone up at Raye.

"It's beautiful Sweetheart." Raye kneeled down in front of her daughter and smiled. "Okaasan needs to talk to you for a minute though." The smile faded quickly from Lily's face and she looked at her mother a little confused.

"Must you tell her right now, Raye?" Jadeite asked his wife. "Can't it wait till after her party? It is her birthday after all."

"No, Jadeite. She has to hear this now." Raye looked up at her husband. "They're here."

"What!" Jadeite turned quickly and in no time was he out of the room.

Lily was confused now and very much worried. "Okaasan, what's going on? Who's here?"

"Lily, there's a group of soldiers waiting outside. They need a skilled fighter for their mission. They saw your training and chose you. You will be leaving with them and they will train you in the ways of their combat skills. A person named Lady Une is to be your guardian."

"And... you agreed to this? Okaasan, my skills are not for fighting. It's only for defense."

"I know Sweetheart, but the colonies are at war with OZ and they really need your help. I have faith in you."

"Okaasan... fine. Only because it's to protect the colonies of which I love very much."

Raye smiled, quite proud of her daughter for taking this mission without a complaint. But then again, this was Lily. She was very mature for her age. Very responsible.

Lily awoke from her dream and looked around her room. She tried to move her hand but found that there was something holding it down. Looking over to her side she found Duo sleeping in a chair, holding her hand. She smiled as she freed her hand and set a blanket over him.

"The poor Bakagami." She quietly got up and snuck out of her room, but stopped dead in the hallway when she saw four more sleeping boys in the living room. "What's going on?"

"As you well know, Queen Relena has been kidnapped." Nikki walked out of her room and leaned back against the wall. "They came here to see if you could come up with a mission plan, but you were asleep and they didn't want to wake you up."

"You told them, didn't you? About my trip to Mars?" Lily looked at Nikki, demanding for an answer.

"I did, but they a right to know. Lily, you know you can't keep anything from them, especially because of before when you were pretending to be Yuriko. You would have told them on spot because of that promise you made. Never again would you keep a secret from them."

"Lily sighed and leaned against the wall next to Nikki. "You're right, but now they won't want my help for a mission plan. They'll worry too much."

"That may be true but," Nikki smiled widely, "has that ever stopped you before?" Lily couldn't help but smile, shaking her head at her friend.

"Nikki-chan, you are unbelievable."

"Hai hai! I know!" Nikki winked at her friend and threw up the peace sign. "Anyway," Nikki's cheerful expression quickly changed into a serious one, "what do you want to do? Do you want to help with the mission or do you want to go see your family?"

Lily stood there for a moment, pondering over the question. It was her Otouto's birthday, but they needed to get Relena back. She shook her head and looked at Nikki. "I'll help with the mission. I can go see my family any time I want. Relena's more important."

Nikki frowned, but knew that she had to accept Lily's answer. They did after all need her help. She had no choice but to accept. She nodded her head in acceptance. "Alright."

"Are you sure?" Heero walked up to Lily and looked at her. "How long has it been since you've actually seen your family?"

"Since I was five."

"Five?" Wufei popped up from behind Heero and raised an eyebrow. "That long?" Lily nodded. "But why?"

"It's my job as a princess. I am to train away from the castle grounds until I'm sixteen. I didn't go back though because I was busy with a few missions. Since we haven't seen or heard from Koji I thought that it would be safe now to visit, but obviously now."

"Why did you have to train until you were sixteen," Quatre asked from out of nowhere. Lily blinked and watched as he got up from off of the couch.

"Uh... well my Oneesan will be taking over the planet because she's the oldest. The rest of me and my family were sent out to be trained. That is except Joey."

"Why not Joey?" Trowa asked, who stood next to Quatre.

"Because he's the youngest and he trains under my Otousan. We go out to train because we are to be in charge of castle protection. If the planet or castle is ever under attack then we take control of protection."

"Oh... sounds interesting enough," Quatre said.

"That does mean though that one eventually she will leave you guys."

"Nikki, must you tell them that?" complained Lily. "I myself would like not to hear it. It's not like I want to leave them."

Nikki looked at Lily and had the perfect idea. Why not, right? Why should Lily have to leave the very few friends she has just because of some family tradition and responsibility? Besides, she knew that these boys needed her. They had almost lost her once, so there was no way that she would let them lose her now.

"Lily, get Umi to take your place. Sure her element may be the opposite of what they need, but she is a very skilled fighter and even helped save a whole planet."

Lily looked at Nikki. "Because I promised her that I wouldn't put that stress on her. As the older twin I have to take all the responsibility."

"Why Lily? That makes no sense at all. She should have to take some of the responsibility. It shouldn't just be you." Nikki was frustrated now. She couldn't understand why all of the responsibility would be pinned on just one twin.

"Nikki-chan, Umi is very weak on that planet and can barely manage to fight there. She can last about fifteen minutes in a battle on Mars and will faint after twenty minutes. There is no way that I would give my sister that responsibility and put her in that kind of danger. She would most likely get killed."

"Hm, I guess you're right Lily-chan. Sorry. I didn't know." Nikki looked at the ground, a little ashamed of herself. If she would have known then she wouldn't had even suggested it.

"Iye. Daijoubu Nikki-chan. It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known. Any other person would have done the same thing. I know that I would have." Nikki was glad that Lily was so understanding. "Anyway, if we're to come up with a mission plan tomorrow than all of us should get a good night's sleep tonight." Each person nodded and the boys quietly left to head home to their own apartments.

Lily, remembering that Duo was still sleeping in her room, just smiled and went to sleep on the couch. Nikki went to her own room, but instead of going straight to bed, she pulled out a piece of paper and pen and sat down at her desk. Silently she wrote, finally going to bed half an hour later.