A/N Yes, it's me again. Go ahead and get the moaning and groaning out of the way now. Just kidding! You guys always make me feel so loved! Anyway, I'm glad the last chapter went over well. Everyone seemed to like all of the mothers' involvement. It was a blast to write about that. This time we're going to have a few overprotective fathers thrown into the mix, but we're also switching back to the teen scene as well. This isn't exactly a filler chapter since I'm going to start easing back into nasty old Discord and what he's got going on, but it's kind of a silly chapter as well. I was helping my younger cousin, who also happens to be one of my closest friends and fellow Sailor Moon fanatic, Mina-chan, get ready for her senior prom back a few weeks ago, and I thought about how fun it would be to give our teen heroes this normal teenage experience before everything goes crazy. So let me get those hugs out and I'll let you move on. BIG HUGS TO:

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Marvelous reviews as always you guys! I adore the way that some of them make me laugh and some make me sit up and say "aw". I've even felt the prickle of tears on more than one occasion at some of your kind words. Even when you are pointing out my mistakes, and heaven knows I make plenty of them, you guys are always so kind and supportive. And I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. Okay! Enough with the heavy! Time for the next chapter!

ENJOY!

The Galactic Trinity

Chapter 26

Fe, Fi, Fo, Prom!

Mina tapped her foot impatiently as her blue eyes narrowed on the teenage girls in front of her. "Let me get this straight. You are on a mission to find the perfect dresses for prom?"

The five heads nodded.

The blonde love goddess let out a frustrated sound and threw her hands up in the air, attracting quite a bit of attention from the customers that were shopping in her boutique on this busy Saturday morning.

"I can't believe this!" she began ranting. "The prom is only a week away. One little week away! I can't believe you girls put this off that long! Do you know how long it took for me to find the perfect prom dress? A month! I spent every free moment I had for an entire month combing through every store I could find, from one end of this city to another, until I found my dress."

Emma batted her lashes innocently. "But that's why we came to you. We knew that if anyone could help us out in this situation, it would be you. You are the expert after all."

Mina's lips twitched for a second, like she was fighting to hold back a smile, but her glare remained as she lowered her voice to a whispered hiss so she wouldn't be overheard by the other people in the store. "Don't try to butter me up, young lady! I know I had to have raised you to know that shopping for big events like this takes time and meticulous planning. I severely failed as a mother if I didn't at least teach you that much. Why in the world did you wait until this late?"

"Geez, Mina! Don't have a meltdown on us!" Rini said with a roll of her eyes. "We honestly didn't think we would be going to the prom. In fact, I figured we would have gone home a long time ago. But since we're still here we decided to take advantage of the situation. We're never going to get another chance like this. We're home-schooled back in Crystal Tokyo, so we don't exactly have prom to look forward to."

Katie snorted. "We still may not get a chance at it. A lot can happen in a week and who knows when our friend is going to decide to start his crap again. We could have to leave ten seconds from now for all we know."

Skye pushed her lightly in the shoulder. "Thank you, Miss Pessimism! It's so nice of you to join us today. For god's sake, don't jinx us! Like Rini said, this is our last shot at this."

Hannah sniffed daintily. "You act like you've never been to a prom before, Skye. You went to one last year with that guy…"

"That's riigghhttt…" Emma drawled. "You dated him for almost three whole weeks. Isn't that the record for your longest relationship ever?"

Katie almost choked on a laugh. "Are we talking about that dumb football jock that thought he was such a stud? He had the personality of a bowling ball and wasn't even that good looking."

"Don't remind me!" Skye groaned. "That wasn't a prom. It was a disaster! I went, thinking I would be able to dance and have fun, and instead I spent all night trying to keep that idiot off of me. Every time I turned around he was trying to drag me off to someplace secluded. I had to knee him in the balls for him to finally get the hint that I wasn't interested."

A snicker escaped Mina. "You are definitely your mother's daughter. There were boys in our high school that would literally run in the opposite direction when they saw her coming. Don't get me wrong, Lita liked to chase the boys as much as I did back in the day, but if one got overly friendly with her she'd drop him on his ass before he even realized that she was aiming for him. But this isn't solving your dress dilemmas. This may require some digging because every other teenage girl in the city that has a prom to go to has been out shopping as well. This place has been so busy that I actually had to hire some more help. So the pickings may be slim."

"We have complete faith and trust in you, Mina. We know you won't let us down," Rini reassured her with a broad smile.

Mina shook her head. Speaking of daughters that were just like their mothers. Rini's overall personality was usually a mixture of her mother's cheerful optimism tempered by a hefty dose of her father's sometimes sarcastic cynicism. But at times like these there was no doubt in anyone's mind that Serena had definitely put her mark on this girl. And Mina found it just as impossible to argue with her as she would if it were Serena standing in front of her.

She still couldn't help but mutter, "Don't speak too soon. I'm not a miracle worker after all," before motioning for them to follow her. "We may as well start in the backroom. I have a new shipment that just came in yesterday that needs to be checked in and tagged anyway. Maybe we'll find you girls something in there. It's part of the new summer line that I'm planning on putting out next week."

The girls squealed in response as they scurried after her. Not only did getting to do their shopping in the backroom mean that they wouldn't have to fight the crowds, they also got the added bonus of being able to see the newest designs that had just come out, which drastically reduced the chance of some other girl at the prom showing up in the exact same dress. And part of the magic of finding the perfect dress meant trying to be unique.

Alex puffed a breath. "I've been doing some thinking, and I've come to a very disturbing conclusion."

DJ wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his arm. "Oh yeah! You mean your brain is actually capable of processing thought? Who knew?"

Alex laughed and shoved him playfully. "Don't be a dick! I was just thinking that we must either be insane or severe gluttons for punishment. I mean seriously! Nebula gives us the day off from training and yet we let ourselves get talked into this. Yep! I'm convinced that we are insane."

"Aw! Quit your bellyaching and get your ass over here!" Andrew called from a short distance away. "The game is almost over anyway. You're not getting lazy on me, are you?"

Alex's dark blue eyes flared in indignation. "No!" He stomped toward his future father.

Andrew stifled a laugh. Usually Alex reminded him a lot of himself and how he had been as a teenager. But there were times when bits and pieces of his mother shown through in his personality, and the way the boy's eyes had just snapped and his nose scrunched up just a little bit had been a classic Jess move.

It was a rare Saturday that had found all of the guys in their group off work, so they had decided to all get together for an impromptu game of football and had invited the younger boys along. The problem was that with the four generals, Darien, Andrew, and the three teenagers, they had an odd number of players.

Then, whether by coincidence, or just a stroke of luck, as they were debating who was going to have to sit out to make the teams even, Talon had shown up grumbling about his wife and her out of control mood swings. So they had invited him to join the game to give him something to do while he killed some time until he felt like it was safe to go home again.

It had been a brutal game. Of course, none of them playing were exactly normal human beings. They had agreed in the beginning that no one could use their powers during the game to help them win. But as with any time you had a group of highly competitive men playing a sport together, they tried to find ways to cheat. Like when Darien had received a shock when he tried to tackle Nephrite. The chestnut haired general had denied any wrong doing and had declared that it must have just been static electricity. A minute later he had tripped over a thick clump of grass that seemed to appear from out of nowhere. Darien had looked as innocent as a saint while DJ smirked mischievously.

So that was the way the game had gone, with the guys doing little things to try to throw off the opposing team. They couldn't be blatant in the misuse of their powers after all. They were in the middle of the crowded park, and the last thing they needed was for anyone to see anything funny.

"So what's the score again?" Darien asked as everyone gathered at the line of scrimmage.

Kunzite chuckled. "I lost count. I think we're tied tough."

"I say whoever gets the next touchdown wins," Zoicite offered.

Jadeite smirked. "Sounds good to me. We've got possession of the ball, so it should be over quickly."

And it was, but not without a few mishaps. In less than a minute, Jayden had caught the ball that Nephrite had snapped to him and had raced it down to what they had deemed the end zone and had scored the win for the team that consisted of himself and the generals. Darien, Andrew, DJ, Alex, and Talon all groaned good-naturedly at the defeat.

"Nice trick with the water puddle," Talon growled at Zoicite, referring to the puddle of muddy water that he had stepped in that had suddenly appeared from thin air.

The dark blonde general looked like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Well I'm still seeing spots," Jadeite complained, rubbing his eyes. "Damn, Drew! When did you learn to reflect sunlight like that?"

Andrew snorted. "It's what you get! Did you think that nobody would notice that empty can rolling across the ground on its on?"

"Okay! Good game!" Darien said. "The cheating was kept to a minimum this time and it made it more challenging with the extra players. Three on three can get a little predictable after a while."

Kunzite pushed his sweaty hair out of his eyes. "I could use a cold beer after that one. Who's with me?"

All the men emphatically agreed.

"Are you boys coming with us or going back home?" Darien asked.

DJ shrugged. "We may as well come with you. Nobody's at the apartment anyway."

Jadeite smirked. "What did you guys do, run your girlfriends away?"

Jayden rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right! We're smoother operators than that. We're just taking a break from them because they are shopping."

"Smart idea!" Nephrite chuckled. "That's the way to preserve hours of your life that you can never get back."

"Tell me about it!" Alex groaned. "I'm glad they didn't ask us to go with them. They're dress shopping."

Talon snickered. "Oh! Have you boys got some hot dates lined up?"

"Yeah, what do they need new dresses for?" Zoicite asked curiously.

All three teen boys shuddered, and then grumbled, "Prom!"

The men all laughed at their disgruntled expressions.

"It's all Rini's fault!" DJ exclaimed. "None of us had even thought about it. But last night she brought up the fact that it is next weekend. And since it looks like a possibility that we'll still be here, she mentioned that it might be fun to go. The next thing we knew, all the girls were buzzing about it."

Darien grinned and clapped his future son on the shoulder. "You'll survive. Prom is a big deal to girls. It's all part of the high school experience."

Andrew snorted. "Like you would know anything about that, Dare! You didn't even go to our prom. You stayed home and studied, even though I had begged you to go to keep me company."

Darien shrugged. "You had a date and I didn't."

"You could have if you wanted to," Andrew protested. "Every girl in that school was clamoring to be your prom date! But the elusive Darien Shields didn't date. Instead I got stuck standing around all night while Rita sat in a corner and talked to her friends. It sucked! And you missed out on Serena's because you were away at school."

"I sometimes wish I could have missed out on Raye's," Jadeite mumbled. "She was a basket case for weeks leading up to it."

The other generals all nodded in agreement as they thought back on the sailor scout's senior year of high school and how they'd had suffered through their prom experience.

The group made their way from the park to the general's penthouse just a block away. As they all filed in, Raye and Lita met them on their way out.

"You're just in time," Lita greeted them. "I made a bunch of sandwiches for you guys and stuck them in the fridge."

"Ah! You're a life saver!" Nephrite said reverently as he pulled her close for a quick kiss.

She giggled as she stepped back. "You guys enjoy! I'm off to the restaurant to check on things."

"And I have to get to the club and make sure everything's set for tonight. Saturday is our busiest night," Raye told them.

Jadeite pouted. "Don't I get my goodbye?" He pulled her tight against him.

"Jed!" she shrieked. "You're all hot and sweaty!"

He waggled his eyebrows. "You usually don't complain about that."

"Pervert!" she hissed, but she went up on her tiptoes to give him a quick peck on the lips.

After the ladies had left, the guys all filed into the kitchen, where sure enough they found two plates in the refrigerator stacked high with an assortment of thick ham, turkey, and roast beef sandwiches along with several different types of chips and dip. They all dug in ravenously.

Alex and DJ looked up in surprise when Andrew set two frosty bottles of beer in front of them. His hazel eyes twinkled. "Go ahead! I think you're both old enough to enjoy one beer after a game. You're going on seventeen, after all. My dad used to let me have one from time to time at that age. Besides, you guys have worked hard all week and deserve a little relaxation. Right, Talon?"

Talon appraised both boys carefully. "Yes. They have put a lot of effort into their training, so I think they've earned it."

"Hey!" Jayden snapped. "What about me? I've been working hard too! Don't I deserve something?"

"He has worked hard," Talon conceded.

"I'm not giving a beer to a fourteen year old! Raye would kill me!" Jadeite exclaimed.

Heat sizzled around Jayden as he glared at his future father. "I'm not a stinking baby! And I'm not fourteen anymore either! I'm fifteen now!"

DJ and Alex both groaned. While the future parents knew their ages, they had been told to not reveal the dates of their actual births. Pluto had insisted that some things needed to remain a mystery, and she didn't want everyone to know the exact dates that they were to give birth to their children. Rini was the only exception to that rule because of a slip up years earlier that had revealed that she and Serena shared the same birth date.

"Way to go, numb nuts!" DJ growled.

"What?" Jayden snapped. "I didn't tell him my birthday! I just said that I've turned fifteen since I've been here for the last two months." His birthday had been on April 1st. His mother had always teased him about being her April Fool's baby. His friends had given him a small party to celebrate the event, but they had kept it secret from the adults.

Jadeite studied him for a moment before chuckling. "Fifteen, huh? I remember that age. You're almost a man. I guess that entitles you to a beer. But not a word to Raye, agreed?"

Jayden grinned. "Agreed!"

Jess clutched the rather large white box to her chest as she hurried through the multiplex.

Next to her, Serena giggled. "Good grief, Jess! You don't have to hold onto it that tightly. I don't think anyone is going to try to take it from you."

Jess growled as her eyes flashed threateningly. "I'd kill anyone that tried! My mom's wedding dress is in this box, and I'll be damned if anybody is going to get their hands on it! I'm already nervous enough at the thought of having to have anything done to it."

Serena smiled reassuringly. "Mina will do you right. You know that. Now take a deep breath and calm down."

Jess tried to do as she said, but she didn't begin to feel her muscles relax until they had entered Mina's boutique. She knew that her paranoia was unfounded, but the dress she held in her arms was one of her most prized possessions. She hadn't taken much more than the necessities with her when she had left her home in California to live with her aunt and uncle in New York, but when she had packed to leave she had taken a few sentimental items. And this dress was one of the most precious to her.

Serena waved to one of the girls behind the sales counter. "Hey! Is Mina around?"

The girl shrugged. "I think she still is. I haven't seen her for about an hour though. The last time I saw her she was in the backroom, so you might try there."

"Thanks!" Serena called with a smile as she grabbed Jess by the arm to haul her with her to the back of the store where they slipped through a door that led down a hallway to Mina's office, workroom, and the storeroom for the boutique. They entered the storeroom and felt like they had walked into the middle of a youma battle.

Shrieks and squeals flew around the cavernous room almost as quickly as the teenage girls that were flying around. They were all in such an excitable state that they weren't even attempting to hide the extra boost that being sailor scouts gave them and appeared to be nothing more than blurs as they dashed from rack to rack.

Jess snickered under her breath at the spectacle while Serena looked on, bewildered. After a moment of wide-eyed staring, the future queen exclaimed, "What in the world is going on here?"

The reaction was instantaneous as all movement screeched to a halt, at least for a few seconds. Then Serena was almost bowled over as a pink blur slammed into her.

"Oh, mom!" Rini gushed. "You have got to see the new stuff that Mina got in! Some of the outfits are absolutely to die for!"

Serena laughed as she patted her future daughter's head in between her pink hair buns. It wasn't often that Rini slipped up and called her mom. She usually kept a pretty strict line of separation between Serena and Neo Queen Serenity. The lapse showed how worked up Rini was.

Then Serena glared at Mina, who was near a large table. "I thought you weren't doing anything with the new summer lines until next week."

The goddess of love shrugged. "The girls got hit with a minor emergency that they needed some help with, so we struck up a deal. I'm letting them get first picks and they're helping me check in and tag everything. It's one less thing I'll have to do later. I get free labor, and they get a fabulous dress."

Jess carefully set her box on one of the tables. "Why are they getting so hyped up over dresses?"

"Prom!" the five teenage girls all squealed at once.

"Ohhh!" Serena drawled in understanding.

Jess shuddered. "Ewww!"

All eyes swung to her at her outburst.

Katie looked at her future mother in disbelief. "Ew? How can you say that? This is the prom we're talking about! It's going to be great!"

Jess shrugged. "Well hopefully your prom experience will be better than mine. That is one night that I wish I could erase forever."

Mina's eyes widened curiously. "Ooo…I sense a dramatic story here."

Katie folded her arms across her chest. "I never heard about this."

"I never told you this story?" Jess asked her. Then she shrugged. "Well, I guess I wouldn't. There really isn't that much to tell. I went to a small private high school where there were only two types of people. Either you were part of the popular group, the jocks, cheerleaders, and stuck up rich kids; or you what they called the Invisibles. Now my family had just as much money as anyone else's. Our house and cars were just as nice as theirs and several of my classmate's parents worked under my dad at the software company he worked for, but I was considered an Invisible. Not surprising really since I had known a lot of those kids for most of my life and I had a reputation for being…different. That was fine with me because I didn't want any part of their backstabbing, false friendships anyway. I had my own small group of friends, and I was happy with that. We were the 'nerds' I guess you could say, the honor roll students, band geeks, drama club members, art students…you get the picture."

Skye snickered. "You were considered a nerd? I just can't picture that. So what happened, you didn't get asked to the prom so you sat at home and painted your toenails instead?"

Jess shook her head. "No, I got asked, and by the last person I ever expected. I had a huge crush on this guy my senior year. He was part of the 'in' crowd and was the star of the basketball team, but he had always been friendly to me. He was originally from here as well, so we had that in common. I tutored him in some subjects that year and I started liking him. We would have fun sometimes by talking in Japanese just to confuse people. But he was a popular guy and had his pick of the silicone enhanced, liposuctioned, botox injected, bleach blonde bimbos running around. So I was shocked when he asked me to go to the prom with him."

Emma frowned and leaned up against the side of a table. "I get a feeling that this story is about to turn ugly."

"Don't get ahead of me!" Jess mock scolded her. "After I got over the shock I said yes. I tore up the stores until I found 'the dress'. It was a flashy little gold number that I absolutely fell in love with when I saw it. I had matching shoes and everything. I was excited because I could wear heels and he would still be taller than me. So the day of the prom came, and I spent all day getting ready. I was really nervous because it was really my first date. I had been out with groups of friends before, but not with just a guy and me. I had never had a boyfriend. I had never even been kissed."

She went a little starry eyed for a moment and whispered, "Andrew was my first kiss." Then she shook her head and blushed. "Anyway, that night I was all ready. My mom was running around snapping pictures and squealing like she was the one with a date while my dad sat there and grumbled a lot because I was going out with a boy. The hours passed, and he never showed up. I tried calling him, thinking something might have happened to him, but he didn't answer. That's when I realized that I had been stood up. I cried for a while with my head in my mom's lap while she tried to reassure me that I'd done nothing wrong. My dad was ready to run out and kill him. Then some of my friends showed up and told me that my 'date' had shown up at the prom with another girl. They did some eavesdropping and found out that it had all been part of a dare. He had been dared to ask me to the prom and then stand me up."

"What an asshole!" Rini exclaimed. "I hope you got him back for that."

Jess smiled mischievously. "I started to. Oh he came up to me a few days later and tried to apologize for hurting me. It was all I could do to not blast his ass off right then and there. Luckily I had learned enough control over my powers at that point to not do anything stupid, but it was hard. I froze him out every time he came near me. There were a few times that I transformed at night and followed him, thinking how nice it would be to catch him somewhere secluded and kick his ass. I could have totally gotten away with it too. He would have never known it was me. And who would have believed him if he said a sailor scout had beaten him up? But I held my temper and didn't do anything. In the end, justice was served."

"What happened?" Serena asked eagerly.

Jess giggled. "The day of our graduation, his 'girlfriend', the one he took to prom instead of me, dropped the bomb on him that she was pregnant. That sure changed his plans for the future. He had to pass on going to college and get a job instead because both of their families said that they had to take responsibility for their own actions. The last I heard he was managing a hotel and had knocked up another girl as well. So I was glad to not get pulled into that drama."

"I bet!" Mina said with a sigh. "That was a completely different experience than the one we had. Right, Serena?"

Serena rolled her eyes. "I'll say! I'm just glad that we didn't end up arrested. Thank god the guys were there to stop us from drinking any more of that spiked punch. I hate to think what would have happened if we had gotten slobbering drunk."

"Ooo…I sense a story here," Jess cackled.

Mina waved a hand. "There's really not that much to tell. It was a little stressful leading up to the prom, trying to get dresses and convince the guys to go. None of the generals wanted to go because they felt like they were too old. Then Serena said that she wasn't going because Darien was in America and she didn't want to go stag."

Skye snorted. "There's nothing wrong with going stag. That's what I'm doing. They'll be a lot of single, unattached guys there, and I'll be free to dance with them all."

Serena laughed. "That's fine for a player girl like you, but I was almost engaged!"

"So Darien didn't get to take you to your prom?" Rini mused.

Serena shook her head. "Nope! He was finishing up his last semester at Harvard. It was just a month or so before we met you, Jess."

Jess nodded. "Yeah. I had just gotten to town and met you a week before your graduation. Your graduation party was mine and Andrew's first date and the night of my first kiss. Anyway, you went to your prom, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did," Serena answered a little hesitantly. "Don't take this the wrong way, Jess, but Andrew was my date for prom. We went just as friends. He offered to go and keep me company so I wouldn't feel left out. He did that for me a lot while Darien was gone. We used to laugh about the rumors flying around. A lot of people were convinced that I was cheating on Darien with Andrew. Darien got a good laugh out of it too. People that he had gone to school with here would take pictures of Andrew and me dancing at the clubs and e-mail them to him, telling him that I was cheating on him. Not that he believed it for a minute."

"Of course he didn't!" Jess scoffed. "I don't get why people don't think that a man and a woman can be friends and not be romantically involved. It's stupid!"

"Yes, it is!" Mina declared. "But unfortunately lust and sex are pretty dominant forces in most people's minds. They see a man and woman together and they automatically assume that there's something more going on. But this isn't solving the prom dress problem. All of my little helpers stopped working."

The teen girls jumped back into action at her words to continue sorting and tagging the new stock.

Serena giggled. "Shame on you, Mina! Are you sure you're not breaking any child labor laws? Hannah's only fourteen."

Mina stared at her with wide-eyed innocence. "Hey, they came to me for help! If they want a favor, then they should be willing to return it. Besides, with this many fast moving hands helping we've almost got it all knocked out. That's going to save me a couple of day's work right there. But moving on! What have you brought for me, Jess?"

Jess turned her attention back to the box she brought in. "My mother's wedding dress. I know some alterations are going to have to be done to it. Mom was 5'7", which is a decent height for a woman, but I surpassed her by the time I was fourteen. Not to mention that I'm a little, um," she glanced down at her chest. "Let's just say that I'm little more well endowed than she was."

"Okay, so you're quite a few inches taller and have bigger boobs than your mom," Mina clarified.

Jess rolled her eyes. "If you want to put it bluntly, yes."

Mina waved a hand. "Don't be so touchy! I've been helping Lita with her wardrobe for years and I haven't let her down once; and she's built a lot like you. I've become a pro at dressing the tall, skinny, athletically built, big-chested types. Which is a good thing considering I've got both of your daughters hitting me up for dresses and they're almost perfect clones of you two. By the way, do you feed Katie at all? That girl is barely a size 4. I doubt she weighs 120 pounds and she's 5'10"."

"Believe me, she eats!" Jess said on a snort. "You wouldn't believe the amount of food we've been going through in that apartment since she and Alex arrived. And it's been even worse this week since they've been out on spring break. At least when they're in school Lita feeds them lunch. Andrew and I have been to the grocery store three times this week."

"She's probably working off more than she's taking in," Serena muttered. "All of the kids have been working hard lately. Rini and DJ rarely bicker anymore because they are too tired."

Mina nodded. "I know. Even our place has been fairly quiet the last few days. Emma and the others usually come dragging in, eat something, and then go pass out. It reminds me a lot of what we used to go through back in the early days when Artemis and Luna used to make us train for hours on end."

Jess shuddered. "At least you guys had other people to work with. I had to suffer through Nebula's nightmare training alone. She had a mini holograph chamber set up under a dry cleaner's not far from my house that is similar to the one that is under the arcade. She used to keep me there for hours running drills. And let me tell you, those things might have been holograms, but they felt real."

Serena and Mina both nodded in sympathy, remembering the hours of misery they had suffered through, fighting virtual monsters.

Mina shook her head briskly. "Okay, enough with the flashbacks. Why don't you show me what I have to work with."

Jess reached for a box cutter and used it to carefully slice the tape that sealed the box. "I hope it's still in good condition. Mom took the dress to be cleaned about ten years ago and had it sealed in this box. It hasn't been opened since."

She lifted the lid and then folded back the layers of tissue paper to reveal Kimberly Alexander's snowy white wedding dress, perfectly preserved and looking as if it were brand new. It was simple in its design, just a silk sheath that hung from inch wide shoulder straps and covered with an overlay of lace. More than likely it had been purchased from a chain department store, but to Jess it was a dress fit for a queen.

Even Mina, who usually stuck with what was the current fashion, recognized the importance of this dress. She reached out to stroke her fingers lightly over the lace. "Oh, yes! I think I can do something with this."

Jess regarded the dress reverently. "I don't want it changed too much. I just want it to fit me right."

"Trust me," Mina purred. "I won't let you down. And I won't do a thing to the dress without your approval first. Agreed?"

Jess nodded. "Agreed. I'm counting on you, Mina."

Katie had wandered over and peeked over their shoulders at the dress. It was slightly different than the one she had always seen in the photos that sat on the fireplace mantle of her home, but she knew without a doubt that it was the same dress that was safely tucked away in her mother's closet. For a moment she felt giddy. Would she ever get to wear that dress as she recited vows that would tie her to her prince forever?

The 30th Century

The group of guardians and sentinels milled around the dark cave restlessly as they stood guard over their master. The swirling black cloud that was Discord stayed far back in the rocky recesses as he pondered his next move.

'Those damn little bastards!' he thought furiously. 'They are hardly more than children! Why won't they just die so that I can be done with this?'

And that damn little mutt of a reincarnated princess! Just the thought of her made his rage rise to even more murderous proportions. Every time he managed to get Serenity and Endymion's little brat in his clutches she would find some way to slip away from him. It infuriated him. She was just a human girl, a very powerful one, but still just a human. He had thought that he'd finally had her at his mercy when they had fought at the time gate, even after she had done the unexpected and robbed him of his physical form. She had been injured, exhausted, and since she refused to use her full power, completely vulnerable. And without all of her little friends by her side, she had been his for the taking.

But then the gods' little lackeys had appeared out of nowhere. He still didn't understand how that could have happened. He had witnessed their deaths and had felt their auras be snuffed out like candles. The timeline had changed. There was no way that they should have been there. He knew that he had been tricked somehow, but his question was how.

He had briefly considered the possibility that one of the gods had been involved in the trickery, but then he quickly dismissed it. Zeus was a smug, self-righteous little prick, but he was a god of his word. Many centuries before, several civilizations had become extinct as an unintentional result of the gods tampering with mortal lives. After that had occurred the king of the gods had declared the human realm to be off limits to the deities.

That had been when Discord had started his grisly rampage through the universe. Up until then Zeus had been able to keep the evil entity in check. Discord had known that if he destroyed more than what was considered necessary to keep the balance between light and dark that the god would erase him from existence with a snap of his fingers. But once the threat of divine intervention was gone he had been free to do as he pleased. And since he had been created for the sole purpose of destruction; that was what he did. Planet after planet had fallen into darkness under his, and later his offspring's, power.

The gods had tried to find a way around Zeus's restrictions. Indeed, that was how crystal carriers and sailor scouts had come to be. Each of the gods had chosen a person from their favorite planet, usually a princess from the royal family, and had bestowed a small amount of their powers on them. The deities hoped that this would give the mortals a fighting chance at survival.

And the mortals took those powers and began to fight back. Wars between the sailor scouts and Discord and his children broke out. But even with their heightened supernatural powers, the sailor scouts were unable to defeat the entities. The only blow they had suffered was when a certain scout, Sailor Galaxia, managed to seal Chaos away for a time. But she had been unable to contain him and he had ended up possessing her and using her to help him in his quest to rid the universe of all of those that possessed planetary powers.

All had been well until Discord had discovered this quiet, peaceful spiral galaxy. The nine planets, along with the sun and the moon there, had rarely ever involved themselves in the happenings outside their solar system, preferring to remain a closely guarded community. And that had made it extremely appealing to him.

But he hadn't known of the threat that had been waiting for him there. He hadn't known that Apollo, Selene, and Gaia had banded together and found three mortals to whom they had granted the ability to channel their full god power. It was a risky and gutsy move, one that he would have never imagined any god doing.

Most of the gods were kind, but they were all vain creatures that coveted their powers greatly. He had heard rumors that several of the deities had thrown temper tantrums over the small amount of power that they had given up in order to create the sailor crystals for the sailor scouts. Some of them had been more generous, such as Selene and Gaia, and had created very powerful crystals to help protect the mortals, and all of the crystals reproduced to create new crystals whenever a new generation was born. But never in his wildest thoughts had he imagined any of the gods allowing a mortal to have access to their full god strength. They didn't like to share.

So imagine his surprise when he had decided to pay a visit to Earth first and found himself confronted by a woman and two young men with glowing eyes, bright symbols burning on their foreheads, and god powers swirling around them.

What had confused him even more had been when he had discovered that they were members of the royal families of the Earth, moon, and sun. He had been under the impression from the information that he had gathered as he traveled through the solar system that the three kingdoms were not allied in any way. The Earth and the Solar kingdoms supposedly stood alone while the moon oversaw an alliance with the remaining eight planets. That was why he had chosen Earth as his first target. He figured he would take out Earth first, then the sun, and then he would strike the moon. The other planets would crumble easily after that.

But instead he had found himself face to face with three frail mortals that claimed that they were going to be able to destroy him. He had called forth some of his youma followers and had set them on the little upstarts, and they fought back fiercely. But in the end they gave into the same vanity that plagued the gods. The power went to their heads and they spent their time showing off and overusing their energy on the youma instead of going after him. And with just a few mental suggestions on his part he even had them arguing amongst themselves at one point. By the time they finally got around to focusing on him they had exhausted themselves to the point where they could no longer channel the god powers.

Then he had struck back with a vengeance. They had tried to fight back, but without their god powers the swords they wielded passed right through him without causing damage. With just a few well-placed bursts of energy he managed to wound them all. He had been about to move in for the kill when they had done the unexpected and used their crystal powers to seal him away. He hadn't thought they had enough energy left in their bodies to do it, but they managed it somehow, almost killing themselves in the process.

And now here he was facing the same situation again. Only this time it seemed much more deadly. Those little brats had actually managed to wound him while in his true form. Serenity, Jonathan, and Edward had never even scratched him. They had tried in the end, slashing at him ineffectually with their swords, but they couldn't touch him.

This made him pause to think back on the battle at the time gate a few days before. The swords! Did the new Trinity bearers have the swords? He concentrated hard. Everything had happened so quickly when they had arrived unexpectedly. He focused on the moment that he had glared at them before making his escape through the time gate with the remainder of his army. He pictured them clearly as they had been and felt a shock of thrill.

No! They did not have the swords yet! He still had a chance to destroy this planet before they became a true threat. They may have already been blessed with the powers of the gods, but they did not have the Galactic Trinity yet!

It made him wonder if they even knew about the swords. From the way they had rushed to face him the other day and acted as if all they had to do was blast him with energy, it made him think that they didn't. They acted as if they were the Trinity, but they were merely the ones chosen to wield it.

The Galactic Trinity was in fact a set of three swords. Hephaestus, the god of fire, was fond of making all manner of magical and mystical weaponry. Over the endless centuries he had created many items for his fellow deities enjoyment, especially back when the gods had the pleasure of playing in the mortal world. Among the most famous of his creations were Eros', or Cupid if you wanted to call him that, bow and arrow and Ares' unbreakable sword of flames.

Most of the gods had no need of weapons. They preferred to depend on their powers. But Hephaestus had made something for everyone and had presented it to them as gifts. Among them had been a slender silver sword for Selene and two slightly broader ones in gold and bronze for Gaia and Apollo. They were the keys to Discord's demise.

Since the swords were forged by a god and owned by gods, they were considered divine objects. When a person who was in possession of a god's powers wielded one of those weapons, it would cut through anything…even him. And if all three of those blades were buried in him at the same time and the power of Selene, Gaia, and Apollo were channeled through the swords to be released inside him…he would cease to exist.

But the gods hadn't given their "chosen ones" that power yet. They were probably trying to ease them in slowly, giving them time to adjust to the power and hoping to avoid the chance of them letting the power go to their heads the way their ancestors had. That meant he still had time.

The guardians and sentinels came to attention as he roused himself. He wasn't exactly sure how many days had passed since he had holed himself and what was left of his army up in this cave several hundred miles from Crystal Tokyo, but he knew that it had to be at least five, maybe more. His energy reserves had been low after healing the damage he had sustained and he'd had to rest and replenish himself.

He looked over his remaining forces carefully. He only had about twenty of his best warriors left and maybe ten more of his earlier models that he had picked up from his compound when he had hastily cleared it out upon his arrival back in this time. That was nowhere near enough if he wanted to launch a full-scale attack on Crystal Tokyo. He needed more fighters.

According to the reports he had received from his sources here, the king and queen definitely suspected that he might be planning to attack the city. Crystal Tokyo was practically on lockdown and there were sailor scouts, generals, and guards crawling all over the place. Yes, he definitely needed to enlarge his army so that he could cause mass panic when he attacked. That would keep the heroes distracted and hopefully overwhelmed.

But he lacked the energy needed to expand his forces. Even if he depleted himself once again, he wouldn't be able to manage more than creating a handful of guardians and sentinels. He needed more than that. He needed energy.

His gaze settled on two youma that sat huddled against the wall and he would have grinned if he still had a physical form. He had found them when he had gone into the depths of the Dark Kingdom after Beryl and Metallia's defeats. Beryl had been in the process of expanding her army of youma, and these two had been assigned to watching over the pod-like eggs that the youma hatched from. He had started to kill them on sight, for he had no use for such creatures when his own warriors were so much more superior, but for some unknown reason he had allowed them to live. Now he was glad that he had.

He chuckled darkly. "I have an assignment for you two."

Tokyo – Present Day

The final bell of the afternoon rang and students began pouring out of Azabu High School. It was Friday, and the weekend of prom, so excited voices buzzed around everywhere as girls gathered together to giggle while the population of teen boys did their best to tune them out.

The group of teenagers from Crystal Tokyo was no different from the rest of their classmates. DJ, Alex, and Jayden walked slightly in front of the group of enthusiastically chattering girls, each of them wishing that the next night would hurry up and get over already. It wasn't that they minded spending time with the girls; they just hated the idea of having to get dressed up just to go out for a night of dancing. Why couldn't prom be a casual affair?

"So we'll all meet up tomorrow after lunch," Emma was rambling. "Mina and the girls at her salon are going to do our hair and make up for us and after that we'll go home and dress. We'll hook up at La Foret afterward."

Rini rolled her eyes. "Who made you the leader of the pack? You sound like you have our whole day planned out almost to the minute."

Emma tossed her long sheet of golden hair over her shoulder. "I'm just trying to make sure that everything goes smoothly. We only have this one chance to experience this, and I want us all to enjoy it."

Skye snorted. "That's all fine and dandy! I'll join you girls for the beauty session because I want to look my best for all the single guys, but I won't be joining you for dinner. I'm okay with being the odd one out when we're just hanging around, but I'm not going to do it on prom night. That would be like hanging a sign saying 'Dateless Loser' around my neck. I'll catch up with you guys later on."

"But, Skye!" Hannah exclaimed softly, her bright green eyes shining compassionately. "You're part of our group. We don't want you to feel left out."

Skye grinned and ruffled the younger girl's blue hair fondly. "I don't feel left out. In fact, I'm in a better position than any of you. You've all tied yourself down to one person while I get to play the field. But we'll still hang out. After all, we need to show the people in this century how to really party."

"All of you ladies are saving a dance for me, right?" Jayden asked impishly. He had turned around and was walking backward so he could face the girls.

Alex growled. "Are you trying to move into my territory, Smoky?"

The blonde boy laughed nervously. "Of course not! I just meant it in a strictly friendly way! I'm already taken." He hurried over to Hannah's side and slung an arm around her shoulders. "Isn't that right, Snowflake?"

She glared at him and shrugged his arm off. "You're treading on thin ice, mister!" She stomped off toward the Crown that was only a short distance away now.

Jayden chased after her. "Hannah, I'm sorry! I was just joking around."

Emma giggled. "They are just too precious together, aren't they?"

Rini rolled her eyes. "Oh yes! Simply adorable! When is that idiot ever going to learn to keep his mouth shut? He's worse than Jed sometimes."

DJ slowed his steps to fall back and walk beside the blonde girl who'd been behind him. "You sure have been quiet."

Katie's head jerked up and she blinked in surprise. "Oh! I guess I was just lost in thought. You don't have much room to talk. I haven't heard you say anything either."

"Touché," he conceded with a grin. "I guess I was busy thinking too. I was just kind of surprised that you weren't babbling away with the other girls about the plans for tomorrow. You've been pretty hyped up about it all week."

A big smile appeared on her face. "I'm still excited about it! I know you're not crazy about these dress up kind of things, especially after having to put up with going to court functions most of your life, but I really think we'll have fun. It's one of those normal teenage things that I always thought I'd never get to experience."

He nudged her shoulder with his. "Then why so pensive? Shouldn't you be sharing beauty secrets or whatever it is you girls do at times like this?"

She shrugged. "I really don't have anything to share. I think I'll defer to Emma at a time like this. She's the expert here, not me. I've never been the Barbie doll type. My biggest beauty secret is probably my strawberry scented body lotion."

That made him smirk. Oh yeah, he knew how the light berry scent clung to her and followed her wherever she went. It was one of the things that made her uniquely…her. "Well I like it," he said smoothly.

She cut him a sideways glance as a faint blush colored her cheeks. "Get your mind out of the gutter!"

He chuckled as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to his side He pressed his lips briefly to her temple. "Sorry. So what else is on your mind?"

She sighed. "The same stuff as always. I'm worried. It's been ten days since we blasted that asshole. I thought for sure that he would have made a move by now. The longer he waits, the more nervous I get. It makes me think that he's planning something in that warped mind of his."

"Or he's just holed up somewhere licking his wounds," DJ quipped, trying to sound upbeat. But deep inside he had the same suspicions. It seemed like in every war that had ever been fought throughout history, whenever an enemy lay low for a while it was usually because they were plotting a way to come back bigger and badder than ever.

The look Katie shot him said that she was thinking along the same lines, but after a minute she laughed softly and shook her head. "You're just trying to make me feel better."

He grinned wryly. "And obviously sucking at it very badly."

"No, you're not!" she protested quickly. "I probably shouldn't be dwelling on it so much anyway. Pluto's back in charge of the time gate, so I know she's keeping an eye on things and that she'll let us know when it's time for us to do something. But I feel so…I don't know how to explain it…frustrated, I guess."

He nodded. "That's understandable. I feel that way a lot of the time too. We've been here for three months now, and I know that we've gotten stronger, but sometimes it feels like we're no closer to ending this than we were the night we left home. But this can't go on forever. Eventually he will make his move, and when he does we'll be there to take him out. Until then we'll just have to wait. But we can have fun while we do it."

Suddenly Alex shoved his head between them. "Like going to prom." He shuddered slightly. "Okay, maybe it won't be that bad. I have it on good authority that the punch will be spiked and I heard that Chad is going to be the deejay. So there should be some decent tunes to get our groove on to."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Why do you guys have to cringe like someone is raking their fingernails down a chalkboard every time the word prom is mentioned?"

Right on cue, both of the boys twitched.

"See! Just like that!" she said in exasperation and slid out from under DJ's arm. "Oh! World of horrors! You guys actually have to get dressed up a little bit and even wear a…gasp, a tie! It's not like you don't wear one to school everyday."

She gestured to the regulation school ties that were hanging very loosely around their necks. Just about every boy in the school loosened their ties and undid the top buttons of their shirts the moment they thought that they could get away with it without a teacher coming down on them.

Rini snickered. "They're just lucky that suits are all the rage for prom this season instead of tuxes. That way they're not stuck with bow ties."

Both DJ and Alex cringed horribly at that thought, especially DJ. He didn't want any part of a tuxedo unless it was the one he wore as Phantom. That one was actually comfortable. But since he had accepted Gaia's powers he'd been unable to transform into his alter ego. He had even found himself missing the way his cape would snap behind him whenever he was fighting or practicing and he envied the fact that Darien could still transform into Tuxedo Mask.

Emma's voice pulled him from his reverie as she wrapped her arms around Alex from behind and cooed, "Oh, poor baby! It won't be bad at all. You can wear your tie as loose as you want." Then she said in what she thought was a whisper, "Besides, I'm sure you won't be wearing it or several other articles of clothing before the night is over anyway."

Rini and Skye snorted with laughter, but Katie's face bypassed embarrassed pink and went straight to mortified red. "Oh my god! I did NOT just hear that!" she screeched.

Emma blinked. "What? All I said was…"

Katie slapped her hands over ears. "Not listening! La La La! Do you know how disturbing that is? Just the thought…UGH!" She spun and ran for the nearby arcade.

Rini clucked her tongue. "Geez, bro! Have you even kissed that girl properly? Talk about an innocent!"

Now DJ's face flushed red. "Butt out, Bubblegum Brains! I don't stick my nose into your relationship with Horseboy, and I don't need you getting into my business!" He hurried after Katie.

Skye was bent over at the waist as she laughed. "Are you sure those two are shagging each other?" she gasped to Emma.

Emma nodded emphatically. "Oh yeah! There's no doubt about it."

"Okay! That's enough of that conversation!" Rini snapped. Her face was starting to look a little green. "Don't forget that happens to be my little brother you're talking about, and there are certain things about his life that I don't want to know."

"Amen," Alex agreed faintly. He looked slightly nauseous as well. "Let's drop the subject quickly and go get a milkshake. I need sugar to help me fight off the mental images that are trying to invade my head."

Emma and Skye choked on their laughter as they followed the disgruntled pair.

Crystal Tokyo – The 30th Century

The door to Neo Queen Serenity's office flew open with a bang as the queen ran in gasping, "What is it? What's going on?"

The four women sitting there looked up in surprise at both the queen's undignified entrance and her state of dress. Her long hair streamed damply down her back, almost dragging on the floor. She wore her formal court gown, but they could tell that she had been running because she held the skirt up to her knees, which also revealed that her majesty was wearing no stockings or shoes.

"Great Spirit, Meatball Head!" Raye exclaimed. "What in the world has gotten into you? You look like hell!"

"Very funny, Pyro!" Serenity snapped. "I had just gotten out of the shower when Diana came and told me that you guys were waiting down here and had some really important news."

"Well you could have at least brushed your hair first. It's going to tangle something horrible if you let it dry like that," Mina tsked as she pulled Serenity farther into the room and began fussing with the snarled golden strands.

Serenity waved her away. "Don't worry about it." She walked behind her desk and rummaged around in a drawer for a moment before pulling out a pink pen. "Luna Pen, make me look like…me."

There was a flash of pink light, and when it faded she looked like her regular queenly self. Her hair appeared dry and done up in it's traditional buns and pigtails and her face appeared to have received a light application of cosmetics.

She raised her skirt up a few inches to see that she was still barefooted. "Well, it almost got everything," she muttered. "Anyway, what's so important that we're having an impromptu meeting this early on a Saturday morning?"

"Amy thinks she found something," Lita drawled from where she was lounging sideways in a chair with her legs hanging over the arm.

Amy sighed and looked up from where she had been typing on her computer. "I'm not sure what it is, but it's highly suspicious."

Serenity groaned and walked over to a small table where someone had thankfully ordered some cocoa. As she poured herself a cup she replied, "Well if it's suspicious enough to catch your attention, then that probably means that I'm not going to like it. But go ahead and lay it on me."

"Okay," Amy began matter of factly and pushed her reading glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I came across a few strange reports last night from a couple of cities a few hundred miles away from here. I thought they were odd, so I got to digging deeper and was astounded at what I discovered. In the past five days doctors and hospitals from all over Japan have been reporting a slight increase in the number of people that have been coming in to be treated for mild exhaustion. At first they suspected a strain of the flu or some other virus causing it, but so far blood tests are coming back negative. Most of the patients seem to be in perfect health. But the real puzzler is that whatever this is has hit every major city and several of the larger towns…except Crystal Tokyo."

"Exhaustion…" Serenity mumbled as she leaned up against the edge of her desk and took a sip of the hot chocolate. "Do you think it's Discord?"

Amy shrugged. "I'm not for sure, but I don't think we can rule it out. It would be the perfect plot if he wanted to gather energy and not tip us off right away to what he's doing. By spreading it out over so many different places and only taking a little bit of energy from each person instead of draining them he would be able to amass a lot of energy without us knowing. I probably wouldn't have caught onto it when I did if I hadn't seen a report where one hospital had ten people come in to be treated for mild exhaustion in one night."

"Damn! It's got to be him," Serenity growled. "Have there been any youma sightings to go along with this?"

Mina shook her head. "None that we've heard of. Lita and I called around to several different police departments and asked them, but nobody has reported seeing anything out of the ordinary. It's like these people just suddenly get tired for no reason."

Serenity made an irritated sound in her throat. "Well he's doing it somehow! How many victims have there been?"

Amy tapped a few keys on her computer. "I can't get an accurate number, but it's already been several hundred."

Raye snorted. "And it is probably really twice that many. I bet there're a lot of people that just went home to bed instead of going to the doctor, thinking that were just tired or coming down with something. We could be looking at well over a thousand, if not more. And even if he's only taking a small amount from each person, that still adds up to a massive amount he has collected."

"Yes it is," the queen sighed. "Have you talked this over with Zoicite yet, Amy? You two are usually pretty good about bouncing ideas off of each other and coming up with a solution."

The blue haired woman shook her head. "No. He left early this morning to attend that charity breakfast for the hospital with Darien. I hadn't put all the pieces together yet, so I didn't say anything to him."

Serenity's blue eyes locked with hers. "But you don't think we're mistaken in our assumptions, do you?"

Amy heaved a deep sigh. "I wish I could say I was, but I just don't see any other explanation for what's going on."

"Then we have plans to make," Serenity stated. "We need to call everyone together as soon as possible."

Tokyo – Present Day

Alex shrugged his jacket on before turning around and asking, "Well, how do I look?"

Katie glanced up in the mirror where she had been putting her earrings in and smiled. "Very dashing. Emma better hold on to you tightly tonight or the girls will be all over you."

Her brother flushed a little at the compliment. "Nah! You're just saying that."

She walked over to him and then reached up to straighten his dark gray tie and smooth nonexistent wrinkles out of his shirt that was the same color. "No I'm not. You may be my brother, but you are a very handsome man. Who would have thought that you would turn out so good looking? It seems like yesterday that we were both only snaggle-toothed kids. Now look at us! We're practically adults."

He grinned down at her. "I'm not the only one. You're looking pretty stunning yourself, sis. I have to say I'm a little surprised by your choice of dress though."

She giggled and looked down at the dress she had chosen. It was a simple slim fitting piece that ended a couple of inches above the knee. It had a low cut, but still modest neckline that showed just a hint of the woman she had become and hung from inch wide shoulder straps. She did feel a little exposed as she felt her hair brush across bare skin. The way the back was cut left over half of her back uncovered.

But she knew it wasn't the style of the dress Alex was referring to. It was the color. It was a cool, delicate shade of mint green; the exact same color of the ruined dress that she had worn that fateful night so many months ago when all of their troubles started.

She quirked a grin at her brother. "This whole experience of coming to the past has taught me to conquer my fears. I decided that it was stupid of me to avoid wearing this color just because of what happened to me. This is my last step in leaving behind the angry, bitter person that Discord turned me into. From this night on I am going to be me, the way I want to be. I'm not going to let him hold that power over me anymore."

Alex's dark blue eyes looked a little misty. "I'd hug you, but I'm scared of wrinkling you."

She laughed and flung her arms around his neck. "You go ahead and hug me any time you want to!"

She felt his arms wrap around her waist and sighed in contentment. DJ may have become her pillar of strength, but Alex was her rock, her twin. Sure, they weren't identical twins, but they shared a bond that tied them tightly together. They were a part of each other. And when she thought about what could have happened if she'd lost him…she shuddered.

"I love you, Lex," she whispered.

He squeezed her tighter for a moment. "I love you too, Kat."

She felt tears stinging her eyes and pulled away from him with a shaky giggle. She brushed nonexistent lint off of the shoulder of his black suit. "That was deep! Now get out of here before you make me cry and ruin my make up that Mina worked so hard on. Emma's waiting for you."

"Okay, okay," he chuckled. "I'll see you in a little bit."

He was at the door when he stopped and turned back to her, his expression serious. "Hey, Kat? I would never pry into your life, but there's something I want to know. Does DJ make you happy?"

She arched a brow at him. "Of course he does. Do you think I would be dating him if he didn't?"

He shook his head. "I know you two like each other a lot. Maybe you really love each other. I know I have him to thank for helping you bounce back to being yourself, but…I don't want to see you get hurt if this relationship ends badly."

Katie shook her head. "Alex, I love him, and he loves me. He's my soul mate. I'm not saying that he and I will never argue, because you know we will. We may even get mad enough at each other that we don't talk for a few days. But I can't picture my life without him, and I'm fairly certain that he feels the same about me. Isn't that the same way you feel about Emma?"

He grinned at the thought of his golden haired, secret fiancée. "Yeah, it is. I just wanted to make sure you weren't just indulging in some wild fling."

She picked up a shoe and brandished it threateningly at him. "Fling! I'll show you a fling! How about I fling you right out the window? Get out of here before I decide to skewer you with this high heel. I still have to finish getting ready."

His laugh echoed down the hall to her as he left. Then she rolled her eyes as she heard Jess squeal excitedly at her first sight of her future son all decked out. Once that noise had died down she heard the quiet rumble of Andrew's voice as he warned the younger boy that he better bring his Mustang back without a scratch on it or there would be hell to pay.

Katie giggled as she sat on the side of her bed and began smoothing sheer, thigh high stockings up her legs. Her dad had always been so maniacal about that car. Even in the future where Andrew had a posh, fully loaded Lexus, that Mustang had a place of honor in the Furuhata garage. It was kept in cherry condition and was only driven on what Andrew termed "special occasions". Her mother always shook her head and muttered about boys and their toys.

She stood and smoothed her skirt back into place as she stepped into a pair of silver high heels. She knew that more than likely she would have to kick them off before the night was over to save her feet the agony, but they looked killer with this dress.

There was a soft knock on the door before it opened and Jess stuck her head in. "Honey, DJ's here. Ooo! You look so pretty!"

Katie felt her cheeks heat a little. "Thanks, Jess. Tell him I'll be there in a minute."

After her future mother left, she turned to take one last look at herself in the mirror. She almost didn't recognize the woman looking back at her. She looked so poised and sophisticated, nothing like her usual, slightly tomboyish self. Her eyes almost seemed to glow thanks to the eyeliner, mascara, and smoky shadow that Mina had applied to her eyelids and her lips were a dark, dusky pink. The love goddess had promised that the lip stain wouldn't come off no matter how much kissing she did.

Her hair was usually as straight as a board and skinned back into a ponytail, but one of Mina's stylists had attacked her pale blonde locks with rollers and a curling iron until it fell in a curtain of waves and ringlets to her waist. Small pieces of hair had been pulled back from her face and pinned up with tiny clips that had white roses on them. Mina had smiled conspiratorially at her when she had seen them.

"Well, this is as good as it gets," she whispered to her reflection and swept from the room.

When she reached the doorway to the living room, she paused. She heard Jess and Andrew's voices coming from the kitchen, but her gaze was riveted on the young man standing in front of the balcony doors, looking out. The black jacket of his suit stretched across his broad shoulders and made her knees feel wobbly. Then he turned toward her and she thought she would fall.

He looked…WOW! There were no words to accurately describe him. He was dressed all in black, from his suit, to his shirt, to his tie. And coupled with his midnight dark hair and hypnotic blue eyes, he looked more like an international spy than a high school student on his way to the prom.

DJ's brain was a similar jumble of thoughts as he looked at her. This wasn't his usual brash, rough and tumble Katie that had blasted monsters and stood up to an evil entity. She was his Tinkerbell come to life, his very own fairy princess.

He wanted to rush to her and pull her into his arms so he could ravish those tempting lips, but he was acutely aware that Jess and Andrew had come to stand in the kitchen doorway to watch them. Then his years of training in formal court behavior and watching how his father operated kicked in.

He strode confidently toward her and took her hand in his. "Lady Kathleen," he greeted her formally as he brushed his lips lightly over the back of her hand.

He heard her breath catch before she replied, "Your Highness," in just as formal a tone.

"For you," he said, handing her a small box that he had been holding in his other hand.

She opened it to find a wrist corsage that had been made out of one of his white roses. Her composure slipped. "Oh, DJ! Where in the world did you get this?"

He grinned. "Lita has quite a knack with flowers you know. She made it for you. I thought you might like something to camouflage this." He ran his fingers over Selene's leather bracelet that adorned her left wrist.

She giggled. She had briefly considered taking the black strap off for tonight because it didn't go with the look she was going for at all, but Pluto had warned them to keep the bracelets on at all times because they may need to invoke their powers at a moment's notice and stopping to put the bracelets on would slow them down. Discord may not be a threat to this time anymore, but they had remained vigilant for any sign of trouble. So she had decided to leave hers on.

She held her wrist out to him. "Would you put it on me, please?"

He took the corsage from the box and slid the elastic band over her hand. When it was in place the white rose effectively covered up most signs of the black leather. "There! Now you can't even tell you're wearing it."

His fingers lingered on the inside of her wrist, absently drawing tiny circles on her skin. This wrung a huff from Andrew, who was shoved back into the kitchen by Jess before he could say anything.

"You two should get going," she told the teens. "Aren't they holding a table for you at the restaurant?"

DJ chuckled. "Yeah, I guess we should." He offered his arm to Katie. "Shall we, milady?"

"I would be honored, my prince," she answered as she slipped her arm through his.

As they reached the door, Andrew's head popped up over Jess's shoulder where she was barring the kitchen doorway. "You have her home by midnight, DJ!"

"But the dance isn't even over until one!" Katie protested.

"Don't mind him," Jess spoke up to be heard over her soon to be husband's ranting. "It's a special night. I think 2:00 sounds like a reasonable curfew."

"Thanks!" Katie squealed as she hurried DJ toward the door, eager to get away from her overprotective future father.

"Katie, wait!" Andrew's plea stopped her.

"What?" she snapped a little irritably as she looked back at him.

He looked a little contrite as he said, "I just wanted to tell you that you look beautiful tonight, pumpkin."

A tiny smile turned up her lips. "Thank you."

He looked like he wanted to say more, but he waved a hand. "Now go on and get out of here!"

"Have fun!" Jess called after them as they finally made their escape.

Once in the hallway, they began laughing. Then DJ pulled her up hard against him and lowered his head to kiss her thoroughly like he had been dying to do from the moment she had appeared in front of him like a vision.

She responded eagerly, molding her lips to his and letting her tongue dance sensuously around his as their lips parted. She moaned a tiny protest when he pulled back and then sighed. "I know, I know, we need to go."

One side of his mouth kicked up in that lopsided grin that she loved so much. "Yeah. I'm afraid so. But we have the whole night ahead of us."

They jumped as the door a short way down the hall banged open and Rini stomped out, pulling Helios behind her. The princess looked stunning in a short, strapless dress of bright electric blue and a pair of lethal looking black heels. Her soft pink hair had been partially twisted up and clipped into place with a rhinestone studded, gold clip, leaving several curls to dangle down and brush her bare shoulders. She was the complete antithesis to her date, who was in a light gray suit with a white shirt and tie.

"Good night, Darien!" she growled as she slammed the door. Then she turned and saw her brother watching her and snarled, "What curfew did he try to give you?"

DJ gulped. "Umm…he didn't. He just said that his car better be back in its rightful spot and in the same condition that he left it by the time he gets up in the morning."

"Arghh!" She stomped a foot angrily. "That is such a double standard! How sexist!"

The door swung open again to reveal a huffing and puffing Darien. "I mean it, Serenity! I want you back here by midnight and not a minute later! I may not be your father yet, but I'm the closest thing to it at the moment and I feel responsible for you!"

"That's not fair!" she wailed. "Just because DJ's a boy he gets to do what he wants while I'm the one that gets stuck with the stupid curfews! I'm older than he is!"

Slim arms wrapped around Darien's neck from behind and dragged him backward. A second later Serena darted through the door and closed it behind her.

"Just ignore him. He goes crazy sometimes," she said as she wrapped both hands around the doorknob and dug her heels in as the door began shaking with the force of Darien trying to pull it open from the other side.

"Anyway," she ground out through gritted teeth. "Midnight is an unreasonable curfew for prom night. How about 2:00, is that acceptable?"

Rini nodded. "That's much better. But what about him?" She waved a hand in DJ's direction.

Serena jerked hard on the door as it opened about two inches. "The same goes for you, DJ. Is that cool with everyone?"

DJ shrugged. "Works for me."

"Good!" Serena said with a nod. "Now why don't you guys get before I release the beast."

Darien had quit pulling on the door and was now pounding on it. "Serena! Open this door right now! Serena!" Then he bellowed, "SERENITY!"

"Pipe down, Endymion! I'll open this door when I'm damn good and ready, and not a moment before!" she snapped back.

Rini, Helios, DJ, and Katie all scrambled to the elevator and breathed sighs of relief when the doors opened just a few seconds later.

Serena waited until she saw the doors slide closed before she let up on the pressure she had been exerting to keep the door closed. But before she could let go of the knob, the door was wrenched open. She was yanked back into the apartment where she crashed into a firmly muscled chest, sending them both tumbling to they ground.

She pushed herself up to look down into the stormy, angry blue eyes that were glaring up at her. She giggled slightly. "Well this feels just like old times, doesn't it?"

"Not funny!" he growled. "What did you do?"

She slapped lightly at his shoulder. "Oh, quit being such a grumpy bear! I just did the responsible parent thing and set a reasonable curfew for both of our children. You can't get mad at me for that."

Darien snorted and looked away. "I can't believe you slammed the door on me like that and refused to open it!"

Irritation began to sizzle inside Serena. "You were acting like a jerk!" She went to push herself off of his chest.

He wrapped his arms tightly around her and kept her pinned to him. "But you like it when I act like a jerk. Admit it."

She struggled against him. "I do not! Now let me up! I'm mad at you!"

His eyes turned soft and he unwrapped one arm so he could reach up to lightly stroke her cheek. "I'm sorry. You're right. I was being an insensitive ass. Do you forgive me?"

Serena collapsed on his chest and groaned, "Oh no! Not the puppy dog eyes! They get me every time."

Darien smirked and kicked out with his foot to close the open front door.

A few minutes later Jess approached the door to see if Serena and Darien wanted to join Andrew and her for dinner. She had just raised her hand to knock when she heard the moans and gasps coming from the other side. She blushed bright red and ran back to her apartment as fast as she could.

"That was fast," Andrew commented when he heard her come back in. "Are they coming over?"

"Umm…no. They're busy," she muttered.

"Busy doing what?" he asked, not looking up from the stove where he was cooking.

"They're just busy, okay. Really, really, busy right now," she replied hesitantly, hoping that he would drop the subject.

He looked up at the strange tone in her voice. "What do you…" then he caught sight of her red face. "Oh! I get it. They're busy."

Jayden jerked away from Raye, blue eyes flaring in indignation. "For crying out loud! I'm not five years old! Knock it off, mom!"

"For real!" Hannah seconded as she skittered out of Amy's reach. "I don't need you making a fuss."

"Sorry," Amy apologized. "But your sash is crooked."

"I've got it!" Hannah insisted as she adjusted the black sash that tied around the waist of her modest, short sleeved red dress and then smoothed down the swishy, knee length skirt.

"How cute! They match," Zoicite drawled as he walked into the foyer from the kitchen.

"Daaaddd!" Hannah squealed. "It just happened that way. We didn't plan it."

It was true. She didn't normally wear red, but when she had seen this particular dress she had fallen in love with it instantly. She'd had no idea what Jayden would be wearing, so she had been shocked when she had come down the stairs a short time before to find him in a black suit paired with a red button down shirt and a black tie.

"I'm just kidding," Zoicite said soothingly as he patted the top of her head, careful to not dislodge the combs that held her wavy, dark blue hair back on each side of her lightly made up, pixie-ish face. "You look very pretty, sweetie."

"Yeah, fire and ice, what a combination," Jadeite snickered from where he was lounging against the doorframe into the entertainment room. "Who'd have thought it?" He ignored the glare that Zoicite sent him. The dark blonde general was still trying to come to terms with the fact that not only was his young future daughter "going steady" with a boy, but he was also having to deal with the fact that said boyfriend was a miniature Jadeite. It was quite unnerving.

"Anyway," Jadeite continued. "Raye, you're going to be late getting to the club if you don't get moving."

Raye huffed. "The others can handle things for a few minutes until I get there. That's what I'm paying them for."

"Good god! Is she still taking pictures?" Kunzite groaned as he walked in right as a flash went off. "Mina! Enough is enough! I'm sure they don't want to stand around posing for you all night. If they're going to go, then let them go."

Mina looked up from studying the picture she had just taken to stick her tongue out at him.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Well someone sure has changed his tune from earlier," she muttered.

"At least he hasn't tried to kill me yet," Alex whispered in her ear.

When Emma had come down the stairs earlier and Kunzite got his first look at her, his eyes had almost bugged out of head and he declared that there was no way that his daughter was leaving the house dressed like that.

When Mina tried to talk to him calmly and reminded him that the short, tight, spaghetti strapped black dress that Emma was wearing wasn't much different than the one that she had worn on their first date, he snapped, "Yeah! And look how that night almost ended!"

No one was quite sure what happened after that. All they knew was that the love goddess had stalked over and grabbed her fiancé by the collar and dragged him down the hall to an empty room, despite the fact that he was over half a foot taller than her and easily weighed twice as much as she did. They were gone for several minutes, but when they came back Mina was smiling and Kunzite kept his mouth shut for the most part. A few grumbles still managed to make their way from the general every now and then.

"Okay, I think I'm done," Mina announced, much to Emma and Alex's relief. "I'm hoping that at least one of these comes out good enough to blow up into a poster. If it does then Emma is going to be the face of the new summer line."

Emma tossed her head. Her hair was usually just slightly wavy, but tonight a riot of long, loose golden curls sailed over her shoulder. Her darkly lined, smoky shadowed gray eyes glittered as she sniffed. "Oh! Is that what this was, a modeling gig?"

Mina waved a hand. "Don't get bent out of shape. I just wish Rini and Katie were here too. If I had pictures of all of you girls to put up around the boutique I bet that would draw in some people." She turned to Hannah. "Come on! Just one little picture?"

Hannah dove behind Jayden. "No! I hate having my picture taken!"

"Aw! Look at the happy couples," Skye drawled as she came down the stairs.

"Wait! Stop right there!" Mina screeched and raised her camera to snap a picture of the girl as she stood halfway up the staircase. She looked at the screen and squealed, "Perfect!"

Skye blinked as black dots swam before her eyes. "What the hell, Mina! Are you trying to blind me?"

"No! She's trying to turn us into free models," Emma retorted. "If I'm modeling, I'm getting paid. You can't get something for nothing. That's business."

Kunzite bit back a smile. Every time he thought he must have contributed very little to Emma's genetic make up, she said or did something that would remind him of himself.

"Are you guys still here?" Lita exclaimed as she flew by Skye, who was still standing on the stairs. "You better get a move on! I've got you on the book for a 7:00 reservation. If you don't show and the restaurant gets busy they'll give your table to someone else."

Nephrite followed at a much more sedate pace. "Don't blow a fuse, Sparky. They still have plenty of time to make it." He paused to take in his future daughter's appearance. "You look nice."

For the first time that anyone could remember, Skye looked unsure of herself. "Do you really think so?" she asked in an uncharacteristically soft voice.

Nephrite scanned her from head to toe. Much like her mother used to do, she had tried to downplay her height by wearing a longer dress. The skirt of the rich burgundy sheath dress fell to her mid-calf and she wore flats instead of heels. Her auburn hair had been swept up into an intricate twist with a few tendrils left out to curl around her face. Her make up was dark, but tastefully done.

Her future father grinned. "If it wasn't for certain things such as the fact that I'm your father and I'm already taken, I'd be clamoring for a date with you. The boys in that school must be idiots for none of them to ask you out."

Emma giggled. "Oh, she got asked by many, but she scared them all away."

Skye snorted. "You would have too if it had been you they were asking. I can't stand stupid men! You know that. I've come to the conclusion that 99.9% of the male population on this planet are brainless morons!"

"Amen!" Raye and Lita echoed together, earning sighs and head shakes from their significant others.

"Anyway," Lita announced, slinging her purse over her shoulder and grabbing her keys. "I'm heading to the restaurant. Anyone need a lift?"

"No thanks. We're going to walk," Jayden said, grabbing Hannah's hand. "We don't want to feel like a couple of kids whose parents are dropping them off at the movies or something."

"You could ride with us," Alex offered. "I've got the Mustang, so there's plenty of room."

Jayden crossed his arms petulantly. "Dude! I'm trying to treat this like a real date. I don't want to be anyone's tagalong!"

Alex held his hands up. "My mistake! I don't want to crush your manly ego or anything."

"Hell, I'll bum a ride, Lita," Skye muttered. "I'll just hang out in your office or in the kitchen until it's time for the dance to start."

"You're not eating with the others?" Lita asked in surprise.

"And be the odd duck out? Hell no!" Skye scoffed. "Going to the prom stag is one thing. Sitting through dinner surrounded by a bunch of couples is another story."

"Well let's go then," Lita told her, opening the door.

On the other side stood Trista with her hand raised like she was about to knock.

"Whoa! Hey, Trista!" Lita exclaimed. "What are you doing here? There's not a problem, is there?"

"No, no," Trista hurriedly reassured her. "I just needed to stop by for a moment. There's someone here that I think one of your guests might be interested in seeing."

That's when Lita realized that Trista wasn't alone. She was accompanied by a young man who appeared to be around 19 or 20. He had dark, chocolate brown hair that was long enough to fall over the collar of his shirt and over his eyes that were covered by dark sunglasses. He was dressed sharply, but all in black, and the way that he leaned nonchalantly against the wall gave him the ultimate bad boy appearance.

"Uh, sure. Come on in," Lita invited them. Her eyes widened when the young man straightened up to his full height. Nephrite and Kunzite were both 6'4". This dark stranger matched that every bit, inch for inch.

Silence fell when she stepped aside to let in the guests. And then the bottom fell out.

"Kyrian!" Emma and Hannah shrieked at the same time as they ran to throw themselves at the stranger.

"Whoa!" he laughed as he caught them both up in a hug at the same time. "Easy girls! I know I'm drop dead gorgeous, but don't knock me off my feet. Geez! You haven't missed me or anything, have you?"

Emma disentangled herself and huffed, "Of course we have you big lummox! What in the world are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Pluto came and asked me to do her favor. So here I am!" He took Emma by the hand and twirled her around. "Looking good there, Aphrodite!" He chucked Hannah playfully under the chin. "How you doing, Frosty? Man! You've grown up while you've been gone. I almost didn't recognize you with your new adult look."

Hannah blushed bright red and mumbled her thanks quietly.

Kyrian shared a knuckle pound with Jayden. "What's up, Smoky? Have you been keeping all the ladies company?"

Jayden grinned. "You know I have. It's a stressful job, but somebody's gotta do it." He flinched as Hannah jabbed a sharp elbow in his ribs.

"Ah! I see how it is," Kyrian chuckled.

"Long time, no see," Alex said with a smile as he came forward to share a "bro hug" with Kyrian. "I never pictured you showing up here."

"Me neither, but here I am," Kyrian laughed. Then he turned to the girl that was standing two steps from the bottom on the staircase. He pulled his sunglasses down his nose to reveal humorously glinting black eyes.

"Well, well, well," he drawled out. "What have we here?"

Skye took one step back up and pointed a finger at him. "No! Not just no, but HELL NO! Don't you even think about taking one more step closer to me or I swear I will shove a lightning bolt so far up your ass that your eyeballs will pop out like they are on springs!"

He quirked an eyebrow. "It's nice to see that you still love me as much as ever. I was afraid that after spending so much time away from me that you might start to hate me or something."

"I do hate you!" she screamed at him. "I don't know how many more times I have to kick your ass before you get it through that thick skull of yours that I don't want to have anything to do with you!"

He started laughing. "You kick my ass? The last time I checked that hadn't happened yet. Our, um…confrontations, usually end up in a draw in my opinion. And if you're still pissed about what happened at Christmas, I apologized for that. I really didn't mean to pinch your ass. I was aiming for that Sasha chick to see if I could get a rise out of DJ since all he was doing was sitting around and moping over Katie. I sure was glad to hear that those two idiots finally hooked up."

"Me and you both," Alex muttered.

Skye slammed her hand down on the stair rail. "Don't change the subject! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Weeelll…" Kyrian said, drawing out the word. "My dad has been trying to keep up with what's going on in Crystal Tokyo since we know Discord is hiding around somewhere just waiting for the time to stick his ugly head from under whatever rock he crawled under, so he sent me to the palace to meet with Serena and Darien to get an update. When I got there Trista was there giving a report on you guys and she mentioned that all of you were going to prom tonight, but that you didn't have a date. So Mina casually suggested that I might be a good choice to escort you since we already know each other. Naturally, I volunteered my services."

Skye's hard, slate blue eyes swung angrily toward Mina, who was standing next to Kunzite and watching the show. She let out a startled squeak and clutched her fiancés arm. "I didn't do anything! It was the future me!"

Emma slapped a hand over her mouth as hysterical laughter bubbled up inside her. Her mother, the love goddess, had struck again. Leave it to her to not let an opportunity to put two soul mates together slide by.

Skye snorted and stuck her nose up in the air. "Well you can just go straight back to Crystal Tokyo! If I wanted a date for tonight bad enough I would have gotten one. I am perfectly happy to be going by myself. I'm planning to have a good time and the last thing I need is to have the 'Abracadabra Gigolo' hanging around and screwing everything up!"

Kyrian folded his arms across his chest as he stepped up onto the first step. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're too chicken to go out on a date with me."

Her eyes flared. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me!" he snapped back. "You act like you're so big and bad, but I bet that in reality you are afraid of your own shadow."

He had flat out challenged her. And if there was one thing that everyone knew about Skye, it was that she never backed down from a challenge.

"Fine!" she said tightly. "If you want to go out with me so badly, then we'll go out. Alex, Em, can we catch a ride with you? It looks like I'll be joining you for dinner after all."

"Sure you can! The more the merrier, right Cupcake?" Emma chirped. She looped her arm through Alex's and began leading him toward the door.

Alex was already using his mental bond with Katie and DJ to relay the events of the past few minutes to them, and he could feel their humor as their laughter echoed in his head.

"Shall we?" Kyrian asked, holding a hand out to Skye.

She took it reluctantly and tried to zap him as their skin touched. But he took a firm hold of her hand as her shock of electrical energy seemed to merely bounce off of him and fizzle out.

He chuckled. "Did you forget that shielding is one of my abilities?"

"Bastard!" she hissed.

He grinned mockingly. "Hey! Let's try to play nice for once. Just for tonight. What do you say?"

"I hate you!" she snarled as he pulled her toward the door.

All Kyrian did was laugh.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Trista stated, "My work here is done," and disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.

A second later Jayden and Hannah jumped as if they had come out of a daze.

"We changed our minds. Can we get that ride from you after all, Lita?" Jayden begged.

Hannah nodded eagerly. "Yes, please! I don't want to miss a moment of this show."

Lita looked perplexed. "Am I missing something here? Who was that guy?"

"We'll explain on the way. Let's go!" Jayden insisted as he and Hannah physically pulled her from the penthouse.

All was silent for several long seconds after that. And then chaos broke out as the remaining scouts and generals began scrambling around for keys and shoes. They kept telling themselves that they weren't gossips, but if there was something going on then they felt like they had a right to find out the story.

Within minutes vehicles were squealing out of the parking garage and heading toward the Crown Multiplex to get the lowdown on yet another mystery visitor from the future. On the inside they were all wondering exactly who this tall, dark young man was and, more importantly, who his parents were.

Raye and Mina's fingers were busy as they dialed Serena and Mina. They knew that neither one of them would want to be left out of the loop on this.

But they were definitely not gossips.

A/N Like I said, mostly a silly chapter with a few serious moments thrown in. I know the last couple of chapters have been kind of lighthearted and fun, and the beginning of the next one will be too, but things are about to turn dark for our heroes. Discord is trying to amass an army to level Crystal Tokyo and kill everyone in his path. Will the teens make it home in time? Will DJ, Katie, and Alex be able to get their hands on the gods' swords so that Discord can be destroyed? Will there be any unexpected visitors showing up in Crystal Tokyo for the final battle? Will Mina ever stop meddling in other peoples' lives? So many questions! I guess we'll find out as we continue. Remember guys, reviews are very much loved, so don't be shy about leaving them. Each one is a treasure. Gotta run! Lots of love and hugs!

~Sere~