The Galactic Trinity

by PrincessSerenity1976

Sequel to Lunar Princess of the Earth. Three teens are on the run from an enemy in Crystal Tokyo. They find themselves in present day Tokyo with our favorite heroes. What will happen when their identities are revealed? Read to see. Full summary inside.

31. The Three Sides of the Triangle Part 1

A/N Hey guys! Sorry about the wait. I was actually preparing to post this a few days ago, but I had a family emergency and had to leave town for a few days. And since I have yet to scrape up the money to replace my poor laptop, I was without internet for a while. But I'm home now and I have a nice long update for you. I also want to take a moment to give a shout out to my new partner in crime, Raxius, whom I have recently begun helping with a story that is already in progress. If any of you get a chance, check out Sailor Scouts Captured By the Dead Moon Circus. It's a pretty unique storyline that I haven't come across before and I'm looking forward to working on it. So far, all I've done is edit the most recent chapter, but there will be more to come as we bounce ideas off each other.

Okay, moving on. Let me get my hugs out. BIG HUGS TO:

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(squeals) Over 700 reviews! Thank you so much. You guys really are the ones that help me build my stories. In fact, this chapter went through a minor overhaul because I got a few requests from some of you after last chapter, so I hope you like it.

ENJOY!

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The Galactic Trinity

Chapter 29

The Three Sides of the Triangle Part 1

---

"Home sweet home away from home," Katie grumbled as she materialized in the garden of Elysian along with a group of several other people.

"I know, right?" DJ snorted next to her. "I was hoping to spend a little bit more time away from here myself before we had to come back."

"Don't be so grumpy, you two!" Alex chided as he pushed between them and threw an arm around each of their shoulders. "It's not like were going to have to spend weeks on end here in exile like we did before. It's just one night."

"Looks like it's going to be a long night," Katie sighed as she looked up at the sun that was still high in the sky. "Thanks to the time flow difference I bet it's only about noon here."

Alex squinted and glanced up. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"I don't see why you have to be so glum about it," Emma chirped in her sometimes annoyingly cheerful way. "We always had a lot of fun here when we were kids. It won't be that bad."

Alex let go of his sister and his best friend to grab his girlfriend's hand. "Try spending two months here without being able to leave. It gets boring pretty quick."

"Yeah, there are no malls to go terrorize," Katie directed at Emma and then wrinkled her nose when her friend stuck her tongue out at her.

Jess giggled as she joined them. "At least this place has been modernized since the Silver Millennium. Try staying here for months with no TV, no video games, and no internet when you're five years old and have the attention span of a rabid puppy."

"Hey! That was no trip to the amusement park for me either!" Serena snapped. "Do you think I liked being stuck here day after day any more than you did, especially with a war going on?"

"Well excuse me, mommy dearest!" Jess teased with a mischievous grin.

"Are we going to stand around here blabbering all day or what?" Rini asked peevishly. "If so, you guys feel free to continue. I'm heading up to the palace to relax for a while."

Darien chuckled and tugged playfully on one of his future daughter's pink pigtails. "What's got your meatballs twisted so tight today?"

DJ smirked. "She's just pissed because our English teacher sprang a pop quiz on us today."

"Don't remind us!" Katie, Alex, and Emma all groaned together.

Rini flipped her brother a rude hand gesture that had Serena and Darien's mouths dropping open in shock while Jess dissolved into giggles.

Andrew slapped a hand over his fiancée's mouth when Serena whirled around to glare her laughing friend. "Maybe you shouldn't encourage Rini's bad behavior," he whispered to her.

"My darlings!" a voice cried, and everyone looked up to see Aurora hurrying down a path toward them. "I wasn't expecting to see you so soon!"

Jess shook off Andrew's hand. "Dawn!" she squealed as she rushed forward to hug the woman that had helped her parents raise her. "We decided to come on ahead early after everyone was done with school and work for the day and take advantage of the down time."

Darien nudged Jess aside and scooped the priestess up into a giant bear hug. "That's not a problem, is it, Rory?"

"Of course not!" Aurora scolded, sounding highly offended. "You know that you are welcome here at any time." She pulled herself out of his arms and ran around, bestowing hugs on Serena, Andrew, and the five teens.

Then she returned to Jess's side and wrapped an arm around her waist companionably as she led her down the path. "Let's go and get you settled in. Oh, I'm so glad you've come for a visit."

Andrew snickered softly. "I think it's easy to see who's the favorite around here."

Everybody else chuckled as they shouldered backpacks and overnight bags before following the two women down the path. They caught up with them at the palace doors as Aurora used her magic to open them wide.

A sweet smell hit them as they opened, making Jess, Katie, and Alex all moan together, "Mmm…peach cobbler!"

Aurora burst into giggles. "Of course! I had to make something since I knew you were coming." Then she snapped, "Hold it, you three!" as Jess and the twins began drifting toward the hallway that led to the kitchen, their noses in the air as they followed the heavenly scent.

She suddenly looked more like a drill sergeant than she did a priestess. "First thing's first! You take your bags up to your rooms and put them away. Then you can have a snack."

Jess looked shattered. "But…but…it's peach cobbler! You haven't made me that in years!"

Aurora put her hands on her hips. "Jessica Elaine Alexander! You heard me young lady! Go put your things away right now or you get nothing!"

Jess threw her hands in the air. "Fine! Be that way! In case you haven't noticed I'm not ten years old anymore, Dawn! I'm all grown up now!"

"Then act like it!" Aurora snapped back. "Now march, missy!"

"March she says!" Jess grumbled as she hitched her dark blue backpack up higher on her shoulder and heading up the stairs. "Pick your clothes up off the floor, make your bed, don't leave your dirty paintbrushes in the sink…ugh! How in the world I managed to survive living with Dawn-zilla all my life is beyond me! It's amazing that I didn't drown myself in the ocean by the time I was seven!"

"No, you waited until you were twelve to try that one," Aurora called up the stairs after her. "Really, Jessie! Surfing? You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Jess rolled her eyes. "Are we really going to start that old argument again? We lived in California! Almost everybody surfed. It wasn't my fault that my balance was crap back then."

"That surfboard hit you in the head and you almost drowned!" Aurora shrieked.

"Not listening!" Jess called back over the banister before walking into the hallway where the bedrooms were located.

Andrew arched a brow at her. "Surfing? I don't think I've ever heard that story before."

She shrugged. "There's nothing to tell. I was at the beach and some people I knew were surfing. They asked me if I wanted to try, so I did. When I tried to stand up the board flipped out from under me and landed on my head. It knocked me silly for a few minutes. After the headache wore off my mom, dad, and Dawn screamed at me for an hour and I was grounded from the beach for two weeks. End of story."

"Our mother, the adrenaline junkie!" Katie and Alex intoned together.

"Oh good lord!" Serena groaned. "I bet both of your parents had tons of gray hair by the time they were thirty." Darien chuckled next to her.

Jess grinned cheekily. "If they did, then they must have been using some kick ass hair dye, because I never saw any." Then she looked around and a breath hissed through her teeth. "What are you going in there for?"

Katie's head jerked up and she yanked her hand away from the doorknob she had been about turn. "This is the room that I always stay in when I'm here. You gave it to me when I was little. But if it's a problem I can go stay in another…"

"No, it's fine," Jess interrupted her. "It just surprised me, that's all." She warily eyed the door that led to the room that had been hers in her past life. In all honesty, she had only been in that room once since she had reclaimed her memories of the past, despite many visits to Elysian. She had long since come to terms with her past, but something about that room made it feel too real.

Katie looked uncertain. "Are you sure?"

Jess stiffened her spine. It was time to let things go completely. Evidently her future self understood that. "I'm sure. If it's your room, then you have every right to stay in it. It doesn't bother me."

"Okayyy…" Katie drawled as she pushed open the door and walked in.

Bitten by curiosity, Jess wandered over to look inside. Yep! Everything was just as she remembered it. There was the tall, four-poster bed with it's ruffled canopy and gauzy curtains. Shelves holding dolls, toys, and books lined the walls. A monstrous dollhouse took up a whole corner of the room. And a low table with four little chairs was set with a miniature tea set as though it were waiting for a little girl to sit down for a tea party.

Jess couldn't help but chuckle as she watched Katie walk over and set her black backpack on the bed. "I'm surprised that you'd want to stay in here at your age. Don't you find this room to be a little childish?"

Katie stuck her tongue out at her. "Hey! Don't knock our room. I've had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories in here."

She looked fondly at the tea table as she recalled one of those memories.

***FLASHBACK***

Seven-year-old Katie sat in one of the tiny chairs, holding the little teapot in her hands. "Would you like some more tea, momma?"

Jess laughed from her precarious perch across the table on a matching chair. "I don't mind if I do. I think Mr. Giggles and Mr. Bubbles would like a refill as well."

Katie giggled as she refilled the cups in front of the two stuffed teddy bears that had been propped up so that they could enjoy the tea party. Then she carefully poured tea into the cup her mother held out to her.

"Thank you, princess," Jess replied formally.

Katie wrinkled her nose up. "I'm not a princess, momma!"

Jess smiled gently. "Yes you are. You're my little princess."

"Nuh uh!" Katie insisted. Then she grinned, showing off her slightly snaggle-toothed smile where her permanent teeth had started coming in and a few gaps where she had recently lost some baby teeth. "When I grow up I'm going to be a sailor scout like you and help keep everybody safe."

"But I'm an artist," Jess laughed humorously. "And I thought you wanted to play the piano."

Katie jumped up from her seat to run around the table and throw herself in her mother's arms. "Silly momma! You paint your pretty pictures, but you're a sailor scout too. I do want to play the piano, but I still want to be a sailor scout. Do you think I'll ever get to be one, momma?"

Jess hugged her close and whispered against her hair. "I think you will. In fact, I think that one day you will be one of the best sailor scouts around."

***END FLASHBACK***

'I miss you, mom,' Katie thought to herself as she felt the annoying prickle of tears sting her eyes.

She heard a knock and turned around to see that Jess had left and that DJ was now standing in the doorway with one arm propped up against the doorframe.

He gave her a bone-melting smile. "Hey, you okay? You looked like you were a thousand miles away there for a minute."

'More like a thousand years away,' she thought as she turned away from him and quickly swiped at her eyes to make sure no tears had leaked out. "I'm fine."

She heard his muffled footsteps crossing the carpet, and then his arms wrapped around her from behind as he rested his chin on her shoulder. "You can't lie to me, remember," he breathed against her ear. "I can read you as easily as I can read myself."

She sighed and settled her back against his chest. "I was just feeling nostalgic. I guess being here has made me a little bit homesick." She turned her head to look at him and saw a flash of longing in his eyes.

He kissed the tip of her nose. "Hey, I miss home too. But we'll be back there before you know it."

"I know," she mumbled. "You would think that I'd have gotten used to being gone after all this time, but I miss my mom and dad. I miss my room and all my stuff and my piano." She felt the tears return and began stammering. "I…I…mi…miss…"

DJ turned her in his arms and hugged her tightly. "I know, baby. I know. We've just got to hang in there for a little while longer. I think whatever Grandma Serenity has to tell us tonight is going to open a whole new door for us. Once we find out what went wrong in the past and what we have to do, we'll be able to go home and get rid of Discord for good. Then we'll get our lives back."

"Oh, I hope so!" Katie sniffled as she buried her face in his chest. "I just want it all to be over!"

"Ahem!" a soft voice spoke up from the doorway. "Are we interrupting something?"

"No!" Katie exclaimed as she turned her head and wiped away her tears before facing the door. Emma stood there watching them with Alex looking over her shoulder. She avoided looking at her brother, knowing that if she did she would see that knowing look in his eye. She couldn't hide anything from him any more than she could DJ.

Sure enough, she heard his voice accuse her inside her head, 'Liar!'

She glared up at him. 'I'm not lying! I was having a bit of a nostalgic moment, but you two weren't interrupting anything. So I wasn't lying!'

He audibly snorted. 'You know what I mean. Now you're just being technical.'

'I thought technicalities were what you liked, Mr. Techno-Geek."

'Don't start on me, Little Miss Mozart!'

'Actually, Bach is my favorite composer for the week, and he was from the Baroque Era while Mozart was from the Classical Era. So we're talking about completely different styles of music.'

'Ha! And you call me a geek? I guess next you're going to start lecturing me on how Beethoven was from the Medieval Period.'

"Of course not! Beethoven was from the latter part of the Classical Era and his later work was part of the Romantic…'

"Excuse me!" Emma interrupted their silent debate as she stepped between them. "I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining or anything, but not everybody around here is connected by your weird voodoo link and I find it just a little bit annoying to see people carrying on a full blown conversation when I can't hear a word of it."

Katie blinked her eyes for a momentand then grinned sheepishly. "Oops! Sorry, Em. I guess it's just become a habit." She felt DJ's arms shake slightly around her as he held back a laugh. Of course he'd heard the whole debate thanks to their three-way telepathy.

"Anyway," Alex drawled. "I was going to suggest that we go downstairs and hit Dawn up for some of that peach cobbler before Jess gets to it and inhales it all. Maybe after that we can take a dip in the lake. After all, it's always summer in Elysian."

"Sounds good to me," DJ agreed as he took Katie's hand in his and they walked from the room. "We need something to pass the time, and I don't really feel like studying at the moment."

Katie pulled up short and turned to place a hand against his forehead. "Are you feeling okay? Because I don't think I've ever heard those words come out of your mouth before."

He pulled his head back slightly and laughed. "I'm perfectly fine. You make it sound like I don't know how to have fun. Is there something wrong with me wanting to take a swim with a beautiful girl rather than sticking my head in a book?"

Katie blushed and stammered at the compliment. "N-no."

DJ smiled at her stuttering, blushing innocence, but decided not to tease her. He tugged on her hand gently. "Come on. Let's go get that snack and try to enjoy our afternoon."

---

Mount Olympus

"You're crazy! Did you know that?" Gaia exclaimed as she hurried after Selene, her long legged stride easily keeping up with the fast paced, yet much shorter steps of the moon goddess as they walked the long marble halls of the Thecropolis. "I mean the first part of your idea is great, those kids need to have an idea of what Discord might pull on them, so I totally agree with sending Serenity to them. But now you're about to rock the boat."

Selene just smiled sweetly. "Sometimes the boat needs to be rocked. Wouldn't you agree, Sunny?"

Apollo, who was just a few steps behind them, rolled his eyes at the nickname. "Oh no! I'm not getting in the middle of this one. I'm all for bending the rules and raising a little hell every now and then, but this is all your baby."

"That's typical of you!" Gaia snorted. Then she turned her attention back to the moon goddess. "Really, Selene! Playing around with Hades is one thing, but now you're jumping straight to the front of the line. And you know as well as everyone else that Zeus doesn't play games."

Selene tossed her fair hair over her shoulder, her silver eyes blazing. "I can assure you that I am not playing any games. I am dead serious. I would much rather deal with Hades again myself, but unfortunately he can't help me with this."

Apollo snickered. "Not to mention that your bargaining chip with him is being watched very carefully by her mother after your little adventure yesterday. I hear that Persephone and Demeter caused quite a stir in the Great Hall during breakfast this morning."

"Demeter will get over it," Selene declared, waving a hand. "It's not like she hasn't been dealing with Seph and Hades sneaking around to see each other for centuries upon centuries now. You would think that she would get a life after all this time. Her daughter is a grown married woman. But anyway, speaking of people missing out on the spectacle this morning, where were you at, Apollo?"

He grinned secretively. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. I'll just say that I was detained and leave it at that."

Gaia made a gagging sound. "Please! Like I don't know what that means! You've been skulking around your sister's temple and messing around with her handmaidens again, haven't you? You are such a horndog!"

Apollo pouted. "I can't help it that Artemis (a/n The goddess of the hunt, Artemis, not our favorite white kitty) has such beautiful women in her service. I may be a god, but I am still just a man, and I have needs. You may be content with laying around and watching human television all the time, but I need real life, physical action."

"Okayyy!" Selene interjected quickly. "That is definitely a lot more information into your private life than I want to hear, Mr. Sunshine." Then she looked up at the double doors she had come to a stop in front of and took a deep breath. "Well, here goes nothing."

Gaia shook her head. "This is complete insanity! I know that Zeus has been tolerant of our meddling lately, but we never know when his patience will run out. The only reason why things have gone the way they have so far is because he and Chronos are kindred spirits in a way and that he seems to have a soft spot for Setsuna for some reason. But you going in and asking this favor of him could be suicide, Selene! He may curse you into mortality!"

"I don't care!" Selene snapped. "I thought about this all night after my talk with Serenity and the others, and I believe that it could benefit not only our little Trinity bearers, but the others as well. I figure there's no harm in trying. If Zeus hits the roof about it, then I'll drop it. But I feel like I need to at least try."

"Damn!" Apollo muttered under his breath. "I know I said that I wasn't going to get involved with this, but it is a good idea. What the hell! I'll stand with you too."

"All right! All right!" Gaia capitulated. "If you two are serious about this then I'm with you too. Maybe with all three of us he won't get as angry."

The tall double doors before them swung open and they stepped through. As they did, they met the petite, golden haired, blue eyed Nike. She clenched a scroll in her hand and the wings on the backs of her shoes were already fluttering in anticipation of carrying her off on whatever mission the king of the gods had given her.

A timid smile appeared on her pixie-like face. "You three better tread carefully. Old Thunder-butt is not in the best of moods today."

"Nike!" Zeus's deep voice boomed across the room in a warning tone.

"Oops!" she giggled. Then she disappeared in a blur as she sped away. The doors closed behind her, leaving the god and two goddesses alone with Zeus in the surprisingly empty throne room.

Selene's heart sank just a little when she saw the empty throne next to the one Zeus was sitting on. She had been kind of hoping that Hera would be there since she was the one that could usually keep Zeus calm and his temper under control. But then again, perhaps it was best that the queen goddess wasn't there because Selene had come prepared to use emotional blackmail if she had to, and some of it wouldn't be pretty. Hera had been a good friend to her for eons now, and she would hate to hurt her.

The three of them began walking across the marble floor to where Zeus sat on his throne with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. His long, bronzed fingers were buried deep in the silvery-white strands of his hair. At seven feet tall, he was an imposing figure, even when he sat.

Selene gulped. "Zeus…"

"No!" he snapped suddenly. "I already know what you are here for, and my answer is no."

The moon goddess drew in a steadying breath. "Will you not even listen to my reasons?"

He raised his head to look at her, those pale, pale blue eyes cutting through her like a knife. "I have already allowed too much interference in the human world as it is. If I keep this up I may as well just let the three of you go take care of Discord yourselves."

"I could live with that," Apollo grumbled. "I haven't had a fight for centuries. And that would solve the whole problem of us wondering whether or not these kids can pull it off."

"Oh hush, Apollo!" Gaia hissed. "You're not helping the situation!"

Zeus stood up and began pacing the dais on which his throne sat. "I want that bastard gone as much as anyone. If I had known that he was going to turn rogue the moment I decreed that we would no longer interfere with the events on the mortal plane I would have destroyed him myself before setting the new laws in place. That was the only reason why I didn't throw a fit when you three came up with the Trinity in the first place. I caught a lot of flack from the others over that because they saw it as you meddling in human affairs. But I've been able to smooth it over as long as you don't get personally involved."

"And that's why we are here to ask this favor from you, so we don't have to get personally involved," Selene insisted. Then she added slyly, "Not unless you do want to lift the ban and allow us to be able to go into the human realm again. If so, then we'll just take care of the problem for you."

"No!" Zeus thundered. "I never want to go through that again! Have you forgotten what it was like? The gods ran around treating the humans like they were their own personal play toys, as if they were nothing but living dolls that existed only for their amusement."

"We weren't all like that!" Gaia snapped. "I never tampered with the path of a human life if I could keep from it. I was content with looking out for the Earth and her well-being."

Selene reached into her arsenal of emotional blackmail. "You were just as guilty of playing with human lives, Zeus."

He looked astounded. "I never…"

"Need I remind you of Perseus?" Selene asked softly.

Apollo and Gaia both held their breath in astonishment at Selene's bold words. Many, many centuries ago, before the new laws had been put in place, Zeus and Hera had fought and separated for a time. During that time Zeus had entered into an affair with a young human woman on Earth. Zeus had eventually made up with his wife and left his mistress to her mortal life, but shortly thereafter she gave birth to a son, Zeus's son. And she named him Perseus.

Zeus had watched over his son, but always at a distance. He had never revealed his true identity to his lover, so she'd had no idea that she had been sleeping with a god. This left Perseus to be raised thinking that he was completely human. Figuring that it was best to keep his identity a secret, Zeus had left him alone, telling himself that he would explain things to Perseus when he was older.

But when Perseus became a young man somebody, and to this day Zeus had never found out who, discovered who the young demigod was. Zeus had been coming down hard on some of the gods about their actions with the humans in recent years and they weren't too happy with him at the time, so they saw this as an opportunity to strike back. They had pulled Perseus into a series of dangerous, life threatening events.

Zeus had lost it, threatening the entire pantheon with mortality, until Aphrodite had come to him and told him that that Andromeda, the human woman that Perseus was fighting for, was his son's soul mate. Not wanting to take a chance at messing up Perseus's chance at true love, he had contented himself with staying on the sidelines and only giving his son help when he needed it.

In the end everything worked out. Zeus had come clean with Perseus and had invited him to come live a life of immortality on Mount Olympus, but Perseus chose to live a mortal life with Andromeda. That had been when Zeus had declared the human realm off limits to the gods and banned them from there. The humans would be much better off without the gods meddling in their lives.

Now he stared tiredly at the determined looking moon goddess before him. "Why would you bring up that subject now?"

She stared back at him steadily. "I'm just hoping that I can appeal to your paternal side. All of us here are parents many times over. One of your sons stands before you now," she gestured to Apollo. "The point is that we all have had children from unions with mortal beings. You went out of your way to help Perseus when he needed it, would you deny us the right to offer aid to these three children when they are descendants from our own bloodlines, even if they are many generations down the family tree?"

Zeus ran a hand over his face. "It's not as simple as you make it sound, Selene. You are talking about breaching the barrier between dimensions. That is something that even I have never done before."

"But it's all for a good cause!" Gaia cried, jumping on board with her support.

Zeus turned his gaze on his son, Apollo. "And what do you think of all of this?"

Apollo stood straight and proud. "I think it's a good idea."

Zeus sighed and sat back down. He slumped tiredly in his throne.

"Please," Selene begged in a quiet voice. "I know you hold compassion in your heart for the Earth. It's future is in great peril right now. I've seen it in Chronos's mirror. If we don't do what we can I fear that it will be destroyed. I'm not asking you to let us interfere. I'm merely asking for you to give the ones that have a shot at defeating this evil a chance at knowing fully what they what they will be facing. Give them a fighting chance, please."

Zeus was silent for a long moment before he looked up in resignation. "You make a convincing argument. Fine! I will use my powers to do as you ask."

---

Elysian

Serena sighed as she stepped out onto one of the many terraces of the Elysian palace. Night had fallen a couple of hours before and the sky was a sparkling sea of thousands of stars. The moon wasn't visible since it was the night of the new moon, but her eyes easily picked out the spot in the sky where she knew it hung anyway as she wondered what this night would reveal.

Soft piano music floated through the window of one of parlors as Katie played, giving the night a soft, peaceful feeling. But inside Serena was a tightly wound bundle of nerves. She heard the sound of footsteps behind her, but didn't turn.

A few seconds later arms wrapped around her from behind and a deep voice whispered in her ear, "You look nervous."

"I am," she admitted as she turned in Darien's arms and looked up at him. "I've never had to anticipate a meeting with my mother before. She's always just shown up out of the blue. So yeah, I'm feeling jittery about seeing her."

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You shouldn't get yourself so worked up. She's just coming to tell us about what happened with Discord the first go around. It will be good for the kids to hear it. Besides, I've always been a little curious about it myself. I remember asking my dad in the past about it when I heard rumors about him being in a huge battle with your parents, but he refused to really talk about it. I'd like to finally know what happened."

Serena shivered in his arms. "I've just got a feeling that it's not going to be a very nice story."

He chuckled wryly. "It probably won't be, but I wouldn't consider the stories of some of the battles we've been through to be good bedtime stories either."

She nodded slowly. "I know. I'm just feeling antsy. Mother seemed so secretive about calling this meeting. And it was strange how she requested that we not call everybody together for this. It's like she doesn't want everyone to know."

"Well if you had failed at something, would you want to share the details with everyone you knew?" Darien asked her.

"No. I guess I wouldn't," she murmured.

The doors to the patio opened and Jess and Andrew walked out to join them.

"So we're still playing the waiting game, huh?" Jess asked in a slightly nervous voice.

Serena nodded. "Yeah. I figured she would have been here by now."

"Tsk, tsk, Serenity," a soft, melodic voice spoke then. "Impatience is not a very becoming trait for a princess."

"Mother!" Serena gasped, whirling around to look over the terrace railing to where Queen Serenity stood on the lawn. But she wasn't alone. Three other people stood with her.

Serena's eyes locked onto the tall blonde man standing just behind the queen and felt her head begin to spin. "Papa?" she whispered softly. Then she practically screamed, "PAPA!" as she jumped the railing. She landed on the grass with the agility of a cat and ran so fast that she blurred to throw herself into her past father's arms.

"Whoa there!" Jonathan laughed as he caught her before they could both go tumbling over. "You've gotten strong, my little bunny."

Serena clung to him as she cried. When she had been growing up in the Silver Millennium she had been a bit of a daddy's girl. King Jonathan had always been her hero who had chased away the nonexistent monsters under her bed and broke her out of lessons with Luna so that they could go do something that he deemed to be more fun. She had loved him deeply and had mourned him heavily for months after his death in an ambush the day after her fifteenth birthday. If it hadn't been for Endymion sneaking around to see her as often as he did and making her laugh again, she didn't know how she would have coped with the loss.

Darien had followed only a split second behind her, and he scooped up the tall, dark blonde woman in his arms and spun her around, exclaiming, "Mother!"

"Endymion!" Queen Althea squealed as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Oh, my boy! I never thought in a million years I would get to hold you again!"

"I don't understand. How are all of you here?" Darien asked as he set Althea back on her feet and turned to embrace the raven-haired man at their side.

Edward laughed as he pounded Darien's back. "It's a gift from the almighty Zeus! He gave us a free pass for one night to come and help Serenity and make sure that she doesn't mess things up."

The former moon queen tore her misty gaze away from where Serena was still pressed tightly against Jonathan's chest to glare at him. "Excuse me! Me mess things up? Ha! That's a laugh!"

Althea swatted at Edward's shoulder. "Be nice! You're supposed to be here for support, not to pick on people."

Although her slaps were light, Edward flinched away and teased. "Ouch, woman! You don't have to get so physical!"

Serena sniffled a giggle as she finally stepped back from her former father. "I knew that this was going to be a crazy night, but I wasn't expecting this." Then she spotted the two people that were quietly watching the scene and waved to them. "Hey you two! Come on over and join the fun."

Jess and Andrew had come down the stairs from the patio and were standing several yards away. Identical looks of shock were on their faces.

Serenity motioned for them to come closer. "Melody, Motoki, there's no need to be shy."

Althea raised trembling fingers to her mouth as she stared at Jess. "Oh great saints above, Serenity! You weren't kidding when you said she grew up to look a lot like me. Oh my!"

She drifted over until she was standing right in front of Jess. She looked her over from head to toe with teary eyes. "My dear little grandbaby is all grown up now." Then she pulled her into a tight hug.

Jess froze for a moment as long distant memories played through her mind. She hadn't been able to spend as much time with her paternal grandparents as she had her maternal grandmother when she had been a child in the Silver Millennium, but she had loved and admired them as much as she had Queen Serenity. She returned the embrace and whispered softly, "Hi, grandma."

"Okay! Okay! Make way! Grandpa coming through!" Edward laughed as he shouldered his way between the two embracing women. Then he held Jess at arms length as he gave her a once over and let out a low whistle. "There is no way that this stunningly beautiful creature is my little pumpkin-head! What happened to the little girl that used to pull my hair while she rode on my shoulders?"

Finally getting over her shock, Jess threw back her head and laughed before launching herself into his arms. "I may not be a candidate for piggyback rides anymore, but it's really me, grandpa!"

Nearby, Serenity giggled. "I told you that she was still just as energetic as ever." Then she glanced toward Jonathan and her smile faded. "Darling, what's wrong?"

Jonathan set Serena aside and stepped around her and Serenity, his gaze trained on Jess and Andrew.

Jess gulped and slid out of Edward's arms as Jonathan walked toward her. She reached for Andrew's hand as she stared at the former sun prince turned moon king. He looked exactly as he had in the portraits that had hung around the moon castle in her past life: tall, golden haired, blue-eyed, and bronzed skin. But in real life he seemed large, powerful…and slightly intimidating.

When he spoke though, his voice was surprisingly gentle, belying his commanding presence. "So you are the granddaughter that I never got to meet. How extraordinary! I can see the traits from all three of the bloodlines that flow through your veins. The color of your hair and eyes tell of your Terran heritage while your delicate bone structure comes from your Lunarian blood. But your sun-kissed complexion shows that you have Solarian blood in you as well. You even inherited those annoying freckles of mine." He pointed to his face where sure enough, a light scattering of golden freckles dusted the bridge of his nose and cheekbones.

"Oh! Don't remind me!" Serena and Jess groaned at the same time as they both slapped their hands to their faces, trying to cover their freckles.

Jonathan chuckled, and then held a hand out to the granddaughter that he had never known. "You've been hugging everyone else around here. Would you honor me with one as well?"

Jess released Andrew's hand and laid hers gently in her grandfather's. "It would be my pleasure."

Jonathan drew her against him and held her much as he had held Serena only a minute before. Then he looked at Andrew over the top of her head. "So you are Travis and Clarissa's son, the last of the full blooded Solarians. The last time I saw you, you were just a baby in your mother's arms. Your parents were two of my closest friends, and also two very talented fighters. Your father was one of the most skilled swordsmen I have ever seen, and you mother, bless her heart, would jump into the middle of any fight, even after she was forced to resign her sailor scout status. I'm sure you do them proud."

Andrew inclined his head. "Thank you sir."

"Hey! What's going on out here?" Rini's voice called from the terrace. "We thought we heard Serena scream a few minutes ago, and now the Treacherous Trio are claiming that they are getting weird vibes." Her pink head appeared along with Helios's pale one at the railing.

"Your…your majesties!" Helios sputtered after a shocked second of staring in stunned disbelief. "I had no idea that all off you were coming tonight!" He hurried down the steps, pulling Rini behind him.

"Grandma Serenity!" Rini cried happily as they approached but she held back a little at the sight of the strangers. She'd had the opportunity to meet her sort of grandmother on a few occasions, but she wasn't sure what to make of the others. Helios's greeting and seeing the similarities between Darien and the other dark haired man made her suspect who they were though. Still, she sidled around the group until she reached the security of Serena's side.

Althea came over to hug Serena warmly. "Serenity, dear, it's so good to see you again! I hope Endymion isn't giving you too hard of a time."

Darien snorted behind her. "Are you kidding? She's the one that has almost given me a heart attack on numerous occasions."

Serena just giggled. "He hasn't been too bad lately. Besides, I know how to handle him after all these years."

"And who do we have here?" Althea asked, turning her attention to Rini.

Rini was almost struck speechless at the resemblance between this woman and Jess. Sure she was shorter, paler, and bright green eyes looked out of her much rounder face, but with that wild mop of tangled honey blonde curls she could have passed for Jess's sister. Finally she managed to stammer, "Um…I…I'm Rini."

Althea tilted her head to the side. "Rini? What a pretty name. It's very unique."

Rini bowed her head and whispered. "Thank you. It's the nickname that all my friends and family call me. It's short for Serenity."

"What!" Althea squealed. "You're my other granddaughter? I should have guessed with that hairstyle. Let me look at you. Oh my! You are absolutely precious! But I do have to ask; where in the world did you get your hair and eye color? You obviously don't take after your parents on that."

Darien chuckled as he joined his future wife and daughter and put an arm around each of them. "She takes after my mother from this life, at least as far as the pink hair and maroon eyes go. Other than that I call her my little Serena clone."

"Move over, Althea! We want to meet her too!" Edward complained as he and Jonathan walked up. He nudged her aside and took one of Rini's hands in both of his. "It is an honor to meet you, little princess."

Jonathan shoved him out of the way and took his place. "It is indeed an honor to meet such an enchantingly beautiful young lady." He lifted her hand to his lips.

Rini blushed and looked over to Queen Serenity, who had come to stand beside her. "Are they always like this?"

Serenity laughed. "Always. If it weren't for me and Althea I hate to see what kind of trouble they would get into." She rolled her eyes at the two men that were now wrestling, trying to get each other into a headlock.

"Honestly!" she sighed. She shared a look with Althea, and the two of them marched over and grabbed her respective husband by the ear, dragging them apart and making them howl.

"You two are as bad children!" Althea declared as she gave Edward's ear one last tug before letting go.

"She's right!" Serenity agreed. "Have you two forgotten that we are here for a reason?"

"No!" the two former kings grumbled as they rubbed their abused ears.

Serenity shook her head in exasperation. "Where are the others? They did come, didn't they?"

"Yes, your majesty!" Helios assured her quickly. "They were in the music room when last I saw them."

"Not anymore," Jess gasped as she straightened up from where she had been leaning against Andrew's shoulder as she'd laughed at the spectacle of her two former grandfathers acting like young boys. "They've been watching us for the last couple of minutes now."

All eyes swung up to the terrace where DJ, Katie, Alex, and Emma were standing, watching them with looks that were a mixture of confusion and amusement.

Edward walked over to stand next to Serenity and Jonathan. "So those are our replacements, huh?"

Serenity nodded. "Yes. Well, not the blonde girl on the end. That is Sailor Venus and Kunzite's daughter. I don't know what she's doing here."

Jess shrugged. "We had to bring her. Alex refused to come without her. Sometimes they act worse than an old married couple."

"Well she looks capable enough," Jonathan drawled. "But I don't know about the others. That other girl looks so frail and skinny that a strong wind would probably blow her over. Don't you agree, Ed?"

Edward nodded. "I do. And those boys seem to be a little on the scrawny side to me. It makes me wonder if they could take on a common youma, much less Discord."

DJ and Alex both seemed to swell with anger at their words, but they remained silent.

Katie, however, didn't feel the same. Her face was livid as she screeched, "Excuse me! You think I look frail? Let me tell you two blabbermouths right now, I can take out ten youmas with my eyes closed, thank you very much!"

She looked mad enough to jump over the railing and confront the men, so DJ and Alex each took her by the arm.

"Calm down, Kat," DJ told her. "I think they're trying to provoke us on purpose."

"That's right," Alex soothed her. "There's no sense in you getting yourself bent out of shape."

Jonathan began chuckling. "Well that was easy enough. In just a few short seconds we've figured out which one's the brains, the hot-head, and the calm one."

Edward joined his laughter. "Yes we did. I have to admit that I am surprised though. I never would have pegged the girl as being the one with the temper."

"Oh! You two stop picking on them!" Serenity fussed. "We're supposed to be here to help them, not to make them mad." Then she faced the teens. "So are you ready to hear our story."

DJ looked between the three of them. He knew that Serenity had been the moon carrier of the Trinity, but did that mean…"Wait a minute! Are you saying that the three of you…" his voice trailed off.

Serenity nodded. "Yes. This is Jonathan of the Sun and Edward of Earth. Together the three of us were the original Galactic Trinity."

---

It took over an hour to get everyone calmed down, what with introductions being made and the grandmothers making a fuss over the teens. Even Emma wasn't immune from all of the attention. Althea, in particular, was practically gaga over the fact that she was Kunzite's daughter since she had known the former head general from the time he was born.

But finally they all settled down in the largest parlor of the palace. The adults all sat on the various sofas and settees while the younger group sat around them on the floor. Then all eyes turned to Queen Serenity.

She heaved a sigh before she began.

"I suppose it is best to start at the beginning so that you will be able to understand everything later. Back in the day arranged marriages were very common. When I was born my mother, Queen Selenity, was the ruler of the moon. There was no official alliance between the planets of the solar system back then, but everyone got along together for the most part. There were a few skirmishes here and there, but nothing important.

In those days the moon, the sun, and the earth were by far the most powerful kingdoms, and my mother wanted a union to strengthen the moon kingdom. So she betrothed me when I was hardly more than a baby to a powerful prince." She paused there.

Edward chuckled. "Do you ever wish you'd married me instead?"

"Absolutely not!" she scoffed. "Besides, you were the one to break our engagement, not I."

"Wait a minute!" Serena cried in surprise as she shot to her feet. She looked back and forth between the moon queen and the earth king. "Are you saying that the two of you were engaged?"

Jonathan chuckled and sat back with his hands behind his head. "It's hard to believe, isn't it?"

Darien looked at his former parents in confusion. "But…but how…"

"I'm getting to that," Serenity explained. "As I was saying, arranged marriages were the norm then, and my mother promised my hand to Edward. We never thought anything of it as we were growing up. I always saw him as an annoying brother that I couldn't get rid of no matter how hard I tried. Anyhow, I spent quite a bit of my childhood on Earth and eventually I became best friends with the princess of one of Earth's largest, most powerful countries." She nodded to Althea.

The dark blonde woman laughed. "We sure had some fun back then, didn't we?"

Serenity smiled. "Yes, we did. Especially when two certain people would leave us alone." She looked at the two grinning mean and shook her head. Then she continued.

"I also met Edward's best friend. He was this annoying little prince from the solar kingdom, fifteenth in line for the throne or something like that. He was cocky and he was arrogant and…"

"And it was love at first sight," Jonathan interrupted with a cocky grin.

"It was not!" Serenity retorted. "I was only seven years and you were eight, but I will admit that there was something…intriguing about you. But fast forwarding a little bit. By the time I was twelve we had already begun to hear about Discord's destructive path through the universe, and we knew that it was only a matter of time before he turned he sights on our galaxy. My mother and Edward's discussed the possibility of us marrying then to unite the moon and the Earth in hopes of building a strong force in case he came here. In those days twelve was a perfectly legitimate age to wed and Edward was fifteen by that time. I overheard my mother talking about it and I panicked. I knew by then that Edward and Althea were in love with each other and I wanted them to be together. I snuck onto the sun to talk to Jonathan, and together we went to Earth to see Edward. The three of us were hiding out in this old cottage, trying to come up with a plan to get us out of the marriage, when we received a very unexpected visit."

"Selene, Gaia, and Apollo," Katie answered softly. She was sitting up on her knees, very tense and alert as she listened to the story. DJ and Alex were on either side of her, looking just as intent as she was.

Serenity nodded. "That's right. They popped in from out of nowhere, nearly scaring us to death. Then they began telling us this wild tale about how they had chosen us to be the ones that could wield their power and that we would be able to defeat Discord with it. We were sure that it had to be some kind of a joke, but after they demonstrated their powers to us we believed them. Then they gave us the bracelets."

She reached her hand out to Katie, who quickly held her own hand out to her. She took her wrist in her hands and ran her fingers lightly over the crescent moon on the black leather bracelet. "The moment I put it on I experienced a feeling unlike anything I had ever felt. It was exhilarating, exciting, and a little terrifying all at the same time."

"It was definitely a rush," Jonathan agreed. "I suddenly felt like I had the power of a thousand suns sitting in the palm of my hand. I felt as though nothing and no one could stand in my way."

"It was intoxicating," Edward declared. "I was so punch drunk from it that I went straight home and informed my parents that I wouldn't be marrying Serenity and that I wanted Althea as my wife. They gave in with little fuss. I guess the golden eyes convinced them that I meant business."

Jonathan sighed happily. "And I went down on my knees that same night and asked Serenity to marry me. And to my surprise she said yes. My family wasn't happy about that, but I didn't care."

Serenity sniffed. "That was only because of that long feud between my mother and your father. But we're veering off the subject. After we explained to our parents what was happening, we threw ourselves into training. And we weren't alone. The outer planets tended to stick to themselves, but we had plenty of friends to help us out. My older brother had married the crown princess of Venus, who at that time was Sailor Venus, and they came to help. Sailor Solara and her husband were not about to be left out either, since they were so close to Jonathan. Sailor Jupiter and her brother also came, along with Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars and their betrothed. So all of us trained together for four long years."

Althea giggled. "Well, you did take a little time off every now and then. I had to find some time to get married after all. I wasn't content to wait until afterward like you were."

Serenity rolled her eyes. "Well you were slightly older than us. You were sixteen and Edward was seventeen. Jon and I were only fourteen and fifteen and we had a lot going on at the time. But getting back to the story. About two years into our training we started hearing the rumors that Discord was drawing close to our galaxy and began to feel overwhelmed. Even though we had trained with our new powers, we had no idea exactly how we were going to fight him. That was when we received our second visit from the gods, and they told us that there was a next level to their powers."

DJ, Katie, and Alex all went ramrod stiff at that statement. That was the same thing that Gaia, Selene, and Apollo had told them that night on the roof when they had given them the bracelets, but they had no idea what it meant. Maybe now they would get some answers.

Jonathan chuckled. "I think you got their attention with that one, Ren."

Serenity nodded. "Yes. It seems I did. Now I know that the three of you have been training with your powers, and I was told that you have already faced Discord once and did some damage to him. But it's not enough. It's nowhere near enough. You can blast holes in him all day long and it won't destroy him. He will eventually regenerate and come back like a reoccurring nightmare."

"Then what's the use of having this power if it can't destroy him?" Alex demanded. Katie nodded eagerly next to him.

Serenity clucked her tongue. "I never said that it couldn't destroy him. It's just that you can't defeat him for good by blasting him from the outside."

DJ looked thoughtful for a moment. "We have to get him from the inside."

Serenity nodded.

"Whoa! Hold up!" Jess exclaimed as she jumped up from her seat. "How in the hell is anyone supposed to attack him from the inside? He's a giant cloud of vapor. He's like smoke, not solid at all."

"And that is why they need the keys," Serenity replied. She cupped her hands and a glowing orb appeared, hovering over her palms. Everyone moved closer for a better look. Three swords appeared in the orb.

"The silver sword of Selene, the bronze one of Apollo, and the golden one of Gaia; these are the keys to Discord's demise," Serenity said softly. "They were forged by Hephaestus and have the ability to cut through anything, whether it's solid or not. If these three swords were to be plunged inside of Discord and the powers of the gods were channeled through them and inside his being…"

"It would destroy him," Darien spoke up softly.

"But it's not as easy as it sounds," Edward stated. "In a battle he surrounds himself with his minions to act as a barricade. In our case, we expended too much energy trying to get to him, and by the time we got to him we no longer had enough power to finish him off."

"That's the pretty way of putting it," Jonathan snorted. "The truth is that we screwed up. We didn't listen to what we were told and we left ourselves vulnerable. If we hadn't been so impulsive and cocky, we may have been successful."

"Will you tell us exactly what happened?" Serena asked quietly.

Serenity sighed. "It would be easier to show you if you like. I warn you that some of it will be disturbing since you will also be able to hear and see what was going through our minds. But I will show you, if you like."

Everyone nodded, and white light flashed through the room.

---

The Original Galactic Trinity

Serenity stood at the edge of the patio of the Elysian palace, gripping the stone railing with white knuckled fingers. Her long silver hair was out of its usual style, tied back in a single ponytail and then looped up a few times to keep it out of her way. Instead of a long, flowing dress, she wore fitted black trousers and boots with a simple white blouse. The black leather bracelet with the crescent moon on it was strapped around her wrist and Selene's sword was in a scabbard at her side. Her wide lavender eyes looked out over the Elysian landscape as the sun crested the horizon and began to rise.

The glass doors behind her opened and Jonathan stepped out, looking very handsome in black slacks and a black shirt with the sleeves rolled back over his forearms. The bracelet with the sun on it was around his wrist and the bronze sword of the sun god was strapped to his side.

He crossed the patio and wrapped the sixteen-year-old moon princess in his arms. "Did you sleep at all?"

She shrugged. "A little bit. Did you?"

"Some," he replied with a grin. Then he leaned down to brush his lips over hers.

"Ugh! A man could go blind around here with you two always acting so mushy," a grumpy voice complained as Edward came out to join them in the early dawn hours. He was dressed almost identically to Jonathan, but with his dark hair and piercing blue eyes he looked much more mysterious. The bracelet with the Earth symbol was strapped to his wrist and Gaia's golden sword hung from his belt.

Jonathan merely grinned at his friend. "So did you make a clean getaway from the missus?"

"Yes," Edward growled. "I had to wait for her to finally go into a deep sleep. The baby kept her awake most of the night with its kicking."

Serenity giggled. "So it's an 'it' today, huh? I thought you were convinced it's a boy."

The eighteen-year-old future father rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'm almost positive it is a boy, and so is Althea, but she keeps telling me to keep an open mind because there's still a fifty percent chance of it being a girl. I just hope I'm still around to find out."

Jonathan laughed and slapped him on the back. "Don't worry, daddy dearest! We'll whip Discord's ass and have you back in plenty of time to welcome your little bundle of joy."

"Hmph! It'll be funny to see you when you are expecting your first child," Edward huffed.

Serenity slapped her hands over her blushing cheeks. "What!"

Edward snickered. "Don't be so shy, Ren. We all know that your mother has plans for you the moment this mess is over with. She's been ruling for close to a thousand years and she's ready to step down and move on. As soon as Discord's history she's going to drag you two in front of a priest so fast it will make your head spin. Then she'll pass the throne on to you and you'll be queen of the moon. And I seriously doubt that you're going to wait over 900 years to produce an heir the way she did."

Serenity tossed her head. "Look who's talking! I've heard that your parents have been talking about giving you the throne and retiring to the country once your baby is born."

He shrugged. "Who knows with them? If they do, they do. But right now we have to make sure that we'll have kingdoms to rule in the future."

"Right!" Jonathan agreed with a firm nod of his head.

Serenity looked a little apprehensive. "Are you guys sure we're doing the right thing by sneaking off to face him like this and leaving the others behind? They have been training with us for so long for this moment, and now we're just cutting them out."

"Of course we're doing the right thing," Edward insisted. "They are our friends and they are excellent fighters, but I fear they could become a liability to us on the battlefield. It will be a distraction to us if we have to worry about them. And honestly, I don't want to see any of them hurt."

"He's right, Ren," Jonathan backed him up. "There's no reason for us to risk them. We are the ones that have to defeat Discord, so we are the only ones that have to go and face him. There's no sense in dragging everyone else into it. We can beat him on our own and keep them all safe."

"You're right," Serenity sighed. "There's no sense in putting them into a situation where they might be injured or even killed. We can handle this ourselves. Our friends won't be happy about this though."

Edward snorted. "They'll get over it. If we're lucky we'll have the whole thing taken care of and be back before anybody even wakes up and finds out that we're gone. So are we ready to go?"

"More than ready?" Jonathan stated.

Serenity looked between the two men. "No matter what, we stick together until the end, all right." She held her hand out.

"Until the end," Jonathan and Edward both agreed, placing their hands over hers.

"Okay then! Let's do this," Serenity said as she stepped back. Her eyes and the golden crescent moon on her forehead changed to silver.

"Right behind you," Jonathan said as a golden sun appeared on his brow and his eyes changed from calming blue to fiery red-orange.

The symbol of Earth flared to life on Edward's forehead as his dark sapphire eyes flashed to gold. "Let's go!"

Then they teleported away in three flashes of light…and found themselves in a dry, barren wasteland.

"Are you guys sure we're in the right spot?" Edward coughed as the dry, dusty air choked him.

"I'm positive," Serenity insisted. "I hacked into Mercury's computer last night and intercepted the warning that her tracking system sent giving the place and time predicted for Discord's arrival. She never got the message, so no one besides us has a clue that he is coming today."

Edward looked slightly awed. "You're a scary woman sometimes, Ren. Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Only you, Ed," she quipped back. "And there's nothing scary about it. I just paid attention when Mercury taught me the basic fundamentals about computers."

Jonathan slung an arm around her shoulders. "Aw, quit trying to be modest! You're good and you know you are."

"So how long until big, bad, and creepy gets here?" Edward asked.

Serenity looked up at the sky. "I should be any time now. We should probably scope out the best place to attack. I think it would be wise to steer him away from that canyon." She pointed to the deep canyon about a hundred yards away. "I sure wouldn't want to get trapped down in there when the magic starts flying. The walls could cave in."

"Hmm…" Jonathan mused. "That might not be a bad thing. If we could catch him in a cave in then it would be that much easier to get rid of him."

"What part of 'he doesn't have a corporeal body and nothing can penetrate him but these swords' did you not get from the gods the last time they visited us?" Serenity asked in exasperation. "The rocks and rubble would pass right through him."

"Oh, right," Jonathan muttered. Then he grinned. "That's why you're the brains of this particular operation while Ed and I are the muscle."

"Ha!" Edward barked. "I feel more like a referee most of the time since I'm constantly having to calm you down because of that hellish temper of yours."

Jonathan shrugged. "I can't help it if I get a little hot under the collar sometimes."

"Um…guys," Serenity said suddenly, pointing up at the sky. "Do you see what I see?"

They followed her finger and saw a black, unnatural looking cloud beginning to darken the sky. It grew larger and larger as it descended toward the Earth.

"Looks like it's showtime," Edward growled. "It's time to see if all the time we spent getting ready for this has been worth it."

"Works for me!" Jonathan laughed. "I'm in the mood for a fight!"

Serenity giggled. "You're always ready for a fight. I guess we should get ready to welcome our little visitor. So how should we do this, loud and dramatic, or quiet and sneaky?"

"I vote loud and dramatic," Edward replied. "If we sneak up on him it would make it too easy."

"Absolutely!" Jonathan agreed. "We spent years preparing for this bastard, and I would feel really disappointed if he up and died on us in less than five minutes. It would seem sort of anticlimactic."

Serenity rolled her eyes. "So you're saying that we should toy with him a little bit."

"Of course!" the two men said together. "That's half the fun!"

"It's not like he can do anything to us anyway," Jonathan drawled. "We have the powers of gods in our hands. And nothing beats the gods. I doubt he could even give us a papercut."

Serenity's silver eyes began to swirl in excitement. "That's true. You guys are right. We should play around with him for a while before we move in for the kill. We've lost a lot of time in our lives over the last four years, time that we'll never get back. I say we make him suffer for it for a while."

They watched until Discord finally landed about a mile down the canyon from them, then they teleported closer to his location where they observed him from behind a large boulder.

'That's it? That's him?' Jonathan projected to the others. 'There's nothing to him! He's just an empty blob! What a letdown!'

Edward nodded rapidly. 'No doubt! I don't see what the big deal about the whole Trinity thing was. I bet just one of us could take him out at our regular power level with just our crystals.'

'Four years!' Serenity shrieked. 'I wasted four years for this! I had things that I could have been doing! I am a princess! I never wanted to be a fighter! I'm so angry I could spit!'

Then a loud booming voice shattered the silence. "Come on out, my little eavesdroppers. Yes, yes, I know you're there. There's no sense in hiding out behind a rock."

The three would be heroes looked at each other in astonishment for a moment.

"So much for our grand entrance," Jonathan muttered as they stepped out from behind the boulder.

"That's right. Come on out," Discord told them. "Now who do we have here?"

"I am Prince Edward of Earth, heir to the throne," Edward replied in a strong tone. "And I demand to know what you are doing on my planet."

"Ah, a prince," Discord chuckled. And then ignoring his question he asked. "And who are your companions?"

Serenity tossed her head imperiously. "I am Crown Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom."

Jonathan ground his teeth together in anger. "I am Prince Jonathan of the Solar Kingdom, betrothed to the future queen of the moon."

"Sooo," Discord said, the sound coming out like a hiss. "I have two princes and a princess before me. I was under the impression that your kingdoms stood alone. Tell me this, my young ones. Why are the three of you here as if you were lying in wait for me? And why do I feel such power emanating from you? It is not natural for mere mortals to exude such energy."

Edward smirked. "It was a gift. A few of the gods thought that we might have some need to borrow their powers."

"I should have known!" Discord spat. "I knew that I had felt those powers before! Gaia, Apollo, and Selene always despised more than any of the other gods, except for Zeus himself, but he would never let them touch me. Then he passed the law forbidding the gods from interfering with mortals. But I should have known that those three wretches would try to find some way around his decree. But it doesn't matter. You may hold the gods' powers in your hands, but you are only mortals with a limited amount of energy. And those powers feed off of your life forces. How long do you think you can stand against me?"

"Long enough to take you out!" Jonathan snarled. He pulled the sword from his side, preparing to charge forward, but Edward held him back.

Discord seemed to recoil just a bit. "A sword forged by Hephaestus. How did you get that?"

"He's not the only one!" Edward and Serenity said together as they drew their swords.

All was silent for a moment, and then Discord began to laugh. "So you want to play, little ones? Okay. I'll humor you." He swirled around for a moment and a hundred youma appeared between him and the trio.

"Nice trick," Edward muttered. "I guess it's time to get to work."

"It looks that way," Serenity agreed,

Jonathan tossed his sword from hand to hand, grinning in anticipation. "Well let's get to it. Don't hold back on them. Give them all we've got. We'll show him exactly who he's messing with."

They charged the youma, energy bursts flying from their hands and even more energy being expelled as they slashed at any youma that came within arms reach of them. They jumped, twisted, and turned, even teleporting at times to surprise the enemy.

"Now this is finally getting fun!" Jonathan crowed as he slashed his sword and a wave of solar flames shot from it to incinerate three youma at once.

Serenity laughed in glee as she jumped high up into the air, spinning around as silver sparks flew from her fingertips to rain down on the youma around her. They exploded into dust.

"Eh, it's a decent workout I suppose," Edward commented calmly as he flicked his wrist almost lazily to blast one youma and then spun to jam his sword into the chest of another one that had been attempting to sneak up behind him. The blade glowed gold for a moment before the youma howled and burst apart.

Discord growled as he watched his forces fall in groups of as many as five at a time. But when the last of his defenders were destroyed, leaving no defense between him and the ones out to kill him, he began to laugh. "Well, well, it seems that you three actually possess a small amount of talent after all. Congratulations. What will you do now? Will you kill me?"

The three royals looked at him, panting slightly from the exertion. But they were drunk from the exhilaration of the fight and the power pounding through their veins. They had never let loose this much energy before in all of their years of training, and it was intoxicating. They truly felt at this moment that they were invincible. Almost maniacal smiles lit up their faces while their eyes swirled with excitement.

"Awww," Jonathan drawled. "You don't to leave the party so soon, do you?"

Edward nodded. "Yeah. The real fun hasn't even started yet."

Serenity giggled. "We must insist that you remain our guest for a little while longer."

'Should we have a little fun with him now that we have him where we want him?' Jonathan silently asked the others.

'Absolutely!' they responded together.

And they began an intricate dance, whirling and teleporting around Discord, laughing and taunting him as they shot random blasts at him and jabbed him with their swords. They were thrilled to see that the gods had been right about the enchanted blades. They cut into the transparent vapor like it was skin, and in minutes Discord was sporting several gashes and holes and was leaking a black, tar-like substance onto the ground.

"What's the matter?" Serenity sang as she twirled as gracefully as a dancer. "Aren't you going to fight back?" Then she gasped as a pair of glowing red eyes suddenly appeared in the darkness and bore into her own.

Discord tsked. "Poor, misguided little princess. You think that you are fighting for the greater good and that your betrothed is impressed with your skill. You truly believe in your deepest heart that he loves you. But allow me to show you how your dearest prince really feels about you."

Serenity shrieked as pain pierced her skull. And then it was like a black veil fell over her mind.

She found herself standing in a large bedchamber, but it wasn't a place that she could ever recall being before. It was very elegantly decorated, not as nice as her chambers at home in the moon castle, but it obviously belonged to someone of high standing.

A rustling sound caught her ear, and she turned around to see a large, four-poster bed and her jaw dropped open in shock. There, in the middle of the rumpled covers, was a dark haired woman. She sat up straight, moaning and writhing as she made love to the male body underneath her.

Serenity spun away, her cheeks blazing with embarrassment at witnessing such a sight. She ran quietly to a nearby door and pulled on it frantically, but it wouldn't budge. Horrified, she slapped her hands over her ears as masculine groans of satisfaction joined the woman's.

She retreated to a corner and pressed her face into it, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole. She had no idea how she had gotten there or why she was seeing this, but she wanted it to stop.

Then the woman screamed as her pleasure mounted, "Oh, Jonathan!"

Serenity's head snapped up. Surely the woman didn't mean her Jonathan. After all, it was a fairly common name. It could be anyone. But morbid curiosity had her turning around to face the bed again. The woman was now draped over the man's chest. She couldn't see his face, but she saw a flash of gold.

Her feet felt wooden and seemed to have a mind of their own as they carried her to the side of the bed to look down upon the sweaty, panting couple…and then rage ripped through her.

There was her sun prince, the man she loved more than her own life, lying contentedly in the arms of another woman, a woman that he had just made love to.

Raking the woman with a furious glare, Serenity realized that she knew her. Her name was Amelia, and she was a princess of one of the Earth kingdom's many countries and had a reputation as being a woman of loose morals. She had attempted to sink her hooks into both Jonathan and Edward at one time or another, but they had brushed her off. At least she'd thought that Jonathan had.

"Jon-Jon," Amelia purred as she rolled off of him to stretch out beside him. One of her perfectly manicured nails began drawing random patterns on his bare bronze chest. "You don't really want to marry that silly moon princess, do you? She's so pale and…boring. You should marry me instead. Father's health isn't doing so well, and since I am the eldest and have no brothers it will be up to me to run the country when he is gone. I'll need a strong king at my side to help me. I know you don't love Serenity."

Jonathan chuckled. "Lia, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference if I love her or not. All that matters is power. I have too many people ahead of me to ever hope to sit on the throne as king of my home kingdom, so I have no choice but to marry a woman of power."

Amelia propped herself up on an elbow. "But I could give you power. My country is the second largest on Earth and one day I will be queen. And when Edward takes the high throne it will make for a strong union since he is your best friend."

Jonathan sighed and closed his eyes. "That's not enough for me. I want more. Serenity has plans for the entire galaxy that she wants to put in place once she becomes queen of the moon, and I think she will be successful. If she is, then all of the planets will be united and she will hold the position of High Queen, and I will be at her side as High King. That's what I want."

"But you don't love her!" Amelia fumed. "Do you honestly think that she would ever be able to satisfy your hunger the way I do?"

He laughed. "It's true that my cock may suffer from frostbite the first time I take her to bed, and I shudder to think of what kind of child she would bear me. But it's a small price to pay to achieve the power I want."

The scene faded and Serenity felt like she was being sucked into a vortex. Her consciousness slammed back into her body, making her jump as reality crashed back into her awareness. She stood there, unblinking and unmoving for several seconds, as she relived everything that she had just seen and heard.

Then she felt a hand on her arm and a frantic voice in her ear. "Ren, sweetheart, what's wrong? Snap out of it already."

She turned her head slowly and looked up into Jonathan's smoldering red-orange eyes. Then she thought about how she'd seen his normal, sky blue eyes glazed with sated lust in that vision. Lust that had been satisfied by another woman with whom he had calmly talked about his impending marriage like it was nothing more than a business contract.

"Get your damn hands off me!" she hissed as she jerked away from him. "Don't touch me! Don't you ever touch me again, you lying, rotten, faithless bastard!"

Jonathan looked genuinely confused. "Honey, what's the matter?" He stepped forward to place his hands on her shoulders.

Serenity's hand moved so fast that she didn't realize what she was doing until she felt the sharp sting of her palm slapping his cheek. Anger and bitterness poured through her. "Don't you 'honey' me, you pig! Now I know why you were so supportive when I came to you and said that I didn't want to marry Edward and that he should be with Althea, and why you were so quick to propose to me the moment our betrothal was dissolved. You don't love me! You just think that you can gain power by marrying me!"

Jonathan's quick temper flashed to the surface. "Don't be stupid, Serenity! I would think that you would know me better than that after all of these years. I would never marry you if I didn't love you. Power means nothing to me! You're being absolutely ridiculous!"

"No she isn't, little prince," Discord crooned. "I merely showed her the deepest desires that dwell inside you."

Jonathan whirled to glare at the cloud. "Damn you!" Then he found himself held, as if hypnotized, by those glowing red eyes.

"Allow me to show you what your lovely princess has been up to behind your back." Discord chuckled.

Pain burst inside Jonathan's head as he felt like he was being sucked into a void.

He landed in a clearing that he recognized as being one that was in the woods a short distance away from the earth palace. It was a place that he, Edward, and Serenity had escaped to on numerous occasions when they needed to get away for a little while. But on this day there were only two people laid back on the blanket next to the stream that ran through there.

Edward sighed as he stared up into the leaves that formed a green canopy over them. "Do you think Jon will make it back soon? My wedding is only a week away, and I can't get married without my best man."

"I don't know," Serenity answered glumly. "I'm sure he'll be back in time for the wedding, but there's no telling how long he'll be stuck on the sun. His parents like to use any opportunity they can to try to get him to agree not to marry me."

"They're idiots!" he snorted. "You would think that they would want their son to marry well, but instead they let a decades old feud between your mother and their king stand in the way. It's crazy! Hell! Even I'm crazy! I had the opportunity to marry you myself and I threw it away. What kind of jackass does that?"

"Don't be silly!" Serenity quipped. "Everything worked out for the best. Now you are about to marry the woman you love."

"Am I?" Edward muttered glumly.

Serenity rolled over onto her side to face him, propping her head up on her hand. "Of course you are! Don't tell me that you're getting cold feet."

He rolled over to face her as well. "I'm not getting cold feet, and I'm not backing out of this marriage, but I can't help but wonder if I made a mistake when I let you go without a fight."

She giggled. "Why would you have fought for me? It wasn't like you were in love with me or anything."

He shook his head. "You're wrong, Ren. I have been in love with you since we were kids. But I never said anything because I knew that you didn't return my feelings. So I moved on to Althea. Don't get me wrong, I love her, but I don't love her nearly as much as I love you."

Serenity's lips trembled and tears burned brightly in her eyes. "Why are you telling me this now? It doesn't matter anymore. You are practically a married man."

He heaved a sigh. "I guess I just felt the need to get it off my chest before the wedding."

"Oh!" Serenity cried as she rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in her folded arms and began sobbing.

"Hey!" Edward said in a forced, bright tone as he began lightly rubbing her back. "I didn't mean to upset you this much. I just felt the need to confess all of a sudden."

Her head popped up and she glared at him. "You…you idiot! You stupid, moronic…man! I can't believe I threw everything away because of you! I was happy with our engagement. I wanted to become your wife. But you never treated me as anything but a little sister, so when I saw that you were in love with Althea I decided to let you go so that you could be happy with her!"

His hand stilled on her back. "What are you saying, Ren?"

"I love you!" she screamed at him. "I've loved you my whole life! But I thought you never saw me as suitable wife material so I let you go."

Edward gulped. "What about Jon?"

She swiped at her tears. "I love him, not in the same way that I love you, but I do love him. He makes me happy, and I know that we'll have a wonderful marriage together."

Edward chuckled sadly. "We're a pair, aren't we? We're each marrying people we love, but not the person that we are in love with."

"Ed…" Serenity whispered softly.

"It's okay," he told her gently as he cupped her cheek in his palm and used his thumb to wipe away the tear tracks. "We'll probably laugh about this someday."

Jonathan stood in shock, watching the emotional scene. He couldn't believe that after all of the time that he had spent with his fiancée and his best friend that he had never noticed any underlying feelings between the two of them. Most of the time they squabbled like a couple of bickering siblings, always picking and arguing with each other. They had hid their emotions well, and had pulled a fast one over on him and poor Althea.

As he stood watching them together, rage began to bubble through him. How could he have been so blind? Of course they had feelings for each other. They had been engaged to one another for over a decade and forced to spend time together since they were just little kids. Something was bound to develop between them as time went by.

Thinking back, he started to see things in a different light. All the times that Edward and Serenity had laughingly teased each other, the times that he had helped her up off the ground when she'd fallen during training, and when Serenity would reach out to smooth back that sweaty black hair in what was supposed to be a friendly gesture, they suddenly meant something more.

He ran over and tried to kick Edward, but since this was just a vision his foot passed right through him. He landed in a heap on the ground and looked up just in time to see Serenity and Edward begin to kiss each other hungrily.

The dark haired prince moved so that he was lying on top of the silver haired princess, pinning her between the ground and his body. Serenity moaned as she threaded her fingers into the ebony hair, holding him closer. Edward's hands were groping her breasts, her hips, anywhere he could reach.

"Serenity!" he gasped as he pulled back a few inches to look down at her. "I want to be with you, just once, before we are both tied down for the rest of our lives. Would you allow me that honor?"

She nodded her head and whispered, "Yes, Edward."

"Get me out of here! I've had enough!" Jonathan yelled as he pressed his hands to his ears to cut out their sounds of passion and clenched his eyes shut so that he wouldn't be able to see them removing each other's clothes.

And then abruptly he felt like he was sucked into a vacuum and then thrust back into his own body. He jerked his head up to find Serenity still glaring at him hatefully.

"You're one to talk about lying and being faithless!" he snarled at her. "I can't believe I was such a fool that I couldn't see the signs, even when they were right in front of me. I've often wondered why you were willing to marry me when you had a shot at landing the crown prince of Earth, and now I know the answer. Sorry sweetheart, but I don't play second place to any man, even my best friend."

"What in the world are you talking about?" Serenity snapped. "You know why I wanted my engagement to Edward broken. It was because we didn't love each other. I knew that he was in love with Althea and that I had stupidly fallen in love with you, and I wanted us to be with the people that we truly loved so that we could be happy."

"I'm not swallowing your lies anymore, Serenity!" he spat. "You thought that you were being noble, that you were sacrificing yourself for his happiness. But I know that you have been in love with him all along and that I am just a replacement for him."

She stared at him in disbelief. "Have you gone mental? Where did you come up with an ignorant idea like that?"

He gave her a twisted smirk. "No I'm not mental. I've just been enlightened. All this time you have been pretending to be my blushing fiancée, but in reality you've been longing for the prince you let slip away."

"That's not true!" she hissed. "I do not love…"

"Stop lying to me!" he roared, trembling in fury. "I saw how it is between you two. You gave yourself to him!"

She straightened herself up and fixed her haughtiest expression on her face. "I most certainly did not! But while we're on that subject, don't think that I don't know about your unfaithfulness. You seek pleasure in another woman's bed while all the time making plans to marry me just so you can become a powerful king."

Even though it wasn't true, he couldn't help but taunt, "Aw, what's the matter, jealous?"

Her cool façade broke and she shrieked in anger as she lunged at him.

Edward appeared out of thin air and grabbed her around the waist to stop her. "Hey! What's wrong with you two? In case you've forgotten, we're in the middle of a battle. This isn't the time for a lover's spat."

Jonathan growled at the sight of Edward's arms around Serenity. "Well, well, don't you two look cozy together."

Another screech tore from Serenity's throat. "Let go of me, Edward! I want to gouge his eyes out! How dare he accuse me of being unfaithful when he's the one that's been slumming in a whore's bed!"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Edward exclaimed in surprise. "What are you guys talking about? I know that neither of you has been unfaithful to the other. You're so crazily in love with each other that it's almost sickening."

"Of course that's what you would say!" Jonathan snarled. "Tell me, friend, we're you laughing at me the whole time that you were screwing my princess?"

Edward's face went blank with shock for a moment before it burned red in anger. "What the hell are you insinuating, Jon? I've never touched Ren in an inappropriate way. She's like my sister!"

Jonathan snorted. "Yeah, sure! So you're saying that if you had a sister that you would be shaking her sheets too? That's just sick!"

"You better watch it, Sunboy!" Edward growled in warning. Then his head whipped around to glare at Discord as the evil entity began chuckling. "What did you do to them?"

Discord's voice was tinged with amusement. "I didn't do anything to them. I merely reached into their minds and found the doubts and fears that they have buried deep inside and brought them to light. You have some too. Let me show you."

"No!" Edward cried, but before he could say any more he was sucked into blackness. He clenched his eyes shut.

When he opened them again he found himself at home. He was standing in the middle of the royal bedchamber that belonged to his parents, the one that would become his and Althea's when they were crowned king and queen. There was nobody in the room, and he was confused about what he was doing there.

Then a door behind him flew open and he turned to see Serenity run through it, her face alight with laughter as Jonathan chased her. The golden haired prince caught her up in his arms and spun her around.

"I've got you now, my pretty!" he said in a low, husky voice.

Serenity gave him a blinding smile. "And what are you going to do to me now that you have me?"

Instead of answering her with words, Jonathan took her lips with his in a deep, scorching kiss. He took a few steps until he had her pinned between his body and the wall. He bent down slightly, never breaking the contact of their mouths, to gather up the long folds of her skirt until it bunched around her waist. The he lifted her slightly off the floor and wrapped her long, slender legs around his waist.

Serenity broke the kiss and threw her head back with a moan as he ground his hips against hers. "Jon, we shouldn't be doing this here. Anybody could come in."

"Nobody will see us," he replied smoothly as he turned his attention to her neck. "Ed's gone on a picnic with Althea, the king and queen are gone on their trip, and almost all of the servants have gone to market day in the village. We practically have the place to ourselves."

Her answering giggle turned into a gasp as he began nibbling on her ear. "I know, but to do this here in the royal bedchamber…it feels naughty."

He pressed himself against her again, making her moan once more. "That's just the way I like it. Besides, this will all be yours one day. Once you become queen of the moon and implement your new alliance policy, you will become high queen of all of the planets, the Earth included. Sure, technically Edward will be king, but you will be the highest power. And as such, these rooms will belong to you."

She sighed. "It will be nice to have all of the planets united together in harmony. It will make us one of the strongest solar systems in the universe. As long as we all stand together we will have nothing to fear from outside sources. I just hope that I will be able to pull it off."

"You'll be brilliant," he reassured her. "With your influence and power you'll be able to whip all the other planets into shape in no time. You will be known as the most powerful queen ever, and everyone will bow to you. And I will be right there by your side." Then he smirked at her. "So what do you say, my queen? Should we go ahead and christen our future rooms?"

She purred and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Well since you put it like that…show me how a high king makes love to his queen."

He moved away from the wall and carried her across the room where he laid her down on a pile of cushions before the empty fireplace. Then he stretched himself out on top of her and whispered, "My Queen Serenity…we will rule the galaxy together."

Edward crashed back into reality with his head spinning. He had known that Serenity had a dream of an alliance between the planets of the solar system, but never had he imagined that it was all a ploy so that she and Jonathan could seize control of all of the planets. Neither one of them had ever seemed particularly power hungry. Evidently that had been what they wanted people to think.

He realized that he still held onto Serenity to keep her from attacking Jonathan, and he pushed her away from him in disgust. "I can't believe you!" he growled.

Serenity stumbled a few steps and almost fell before she regained her footing. She turned to look at the Earth prince in bewilderment. "What? I haven't done anything."

He snorted. "Not yet you haven't! And if I have my way you never will. I always thought your plans for planetary alliance were ambitious, but now I see that it is all part of a master plan for you to take over all of the planets. You're not content just to rule the moon, you want to dominate the entire galaxy." His gaze swung to Jonathan. "And you're wrapped up in it with her."

"What the hell is this idiot rambling about?" Jonathan grumbled.

Edward took a few menacing steps toward him. "It will be a cold day in hell before I allow the two of you to get your grubby little hands on my planet!"

Serenity stepped between them, raking them both with a contemptuous look. "I would rather have a trained baboon as my king, rather than a piece of lying, cheating, solarian filth! And my plans for an alliance have never been about domination. I only want to bring the planets together so that they can benefit from each other. The medicinal knowledge from Mercury, along with the metal working practices of Venus and the battle strategies of Mars and Jupiter alone would do wonders for all of the planets if they would just open up a little."

"And the whole time you'll be sitting your prissy little ass on the throne and ruling it all!" Edward sneered. "You are a treacherous bitch, Serenity. You have the face of an angel, but the personality of a viper."

Jonathan's expression became less angry as confusion began to swirl inside him. "Hey! Don't talk to her like that!"

Serenity tossed her head regally. "I don't need you to take up for me! I can take care of myself!"

"I'm so sure you could!" Edward snorted. "You're just a helpless doll, Serenity. How long would you last without others to carry the weight for you?"

"That's it!" Jonathan exploded as he lunged at Edward, knocking Serenity out of the way in the process.

She fell to the ground hard. As she lay there for a moment, she heard muffled thumps, followed by grunts, groans, and curses. She rolled over and sat up, horrified by the scene before her.

Jonathan and Edward were rolling on the ground, each trying to gain the upper hand as they threw punches at each other at every opportunity. Jonathan's lip was already split and bloody while blood streamed from Edward's nose.

Tears began pouring from Serenity's eyes as she watched them, her emotions welling up inside of her as a bit of common sense returned to her. What had happened to them? They were supposed to be fighting together, not against each other. They had known each other most of their lives. They were friends, more than friends really. They knew each other inside and out. So how could they be fighting amongst each other like this?

She heard a low chuckle and looked toward Discord, who seemed to be content to sit back and watch as the team that they had worked so hard to build slowly crumbled and fell apart. "You! You did this to us!" she cried softly.

"Of course," the entity replied smoothly. "I live up to my name well, as you can see. You humans are so easy to manipulate. You think that the bonds between you are so strong, but one well placed doubt can bring everything crashing down."

"You're a monster!" Serenity growled. Then a scuffling noise brought her eyes swinging back around to the fighting men. They had broken apart and were now scrambling to reach their discarded swords.

"They're going to kill each other!" she shrieked as she saw them reclaim their weapons and roll to their feet. Then they lunged at each other.

"No! No! Stop!" she screamed and flung her hands in front of her. Silver light erupted from her fingertips and formed a barrier between Jonathan and Edward.

They both pulled up short and whirled around to stare at her where she knelt on the ground, sobbing.

"Please, stop this," she begged raggedly as she fell forward onto her hands. "Don't you see what is happening? Discord is trying to break us apart by placing doubts and suspicions in our heads. He's turning us against one another so that we can't fight against him."

She raised her head to look at Jonathan, her silver eyes swimming with tears. "I'm sorry. I never should have believed his lies so easily. I know that you would never betray me. I was a fool to think that you only wanted to marry me so that you could become king. Please say that you forgive me. I love you."

The two men looked at each other, shock and confusion on each of their faces. Then a look of understanding passed between them and they lowered their swords. They hurried to Serenity, dropping to their knees beside her.

Jonathan wasted no time pulling her into his arms. He pressed a bruised cheek against her hair as he whispered, "I'm sorry too, Ren. I never should have doubted you." He extended a hand to Edward. "Or you either, my friend."

Edward grinned as he took the offered hand. Gold flashed around them as the cuts and bruises from their recent scuffle were healed. "He pulled one over on all of us. But now that we know better we can go back to concentrating on getting rid of him."

"Right," Jonathan agreed as he stood up and then helped Serenity up beside him. "Playtime's over. It's time to eliminate him once and for all."

"Absolutely," Serenity sighed. "I'm ready for this all to be over."

They all held their swords ready at their sides as they faced their enemy.

"What a pity that you overcame my illusions as quickly as you did," Discord mumbled. "Oh well, it was entertaining while it lasted. But now I guess it's back to business."

He began to swirl around quickly, and when he stopped another hundred youma had appeared.

Edward changed his sword to a two handed grip. "Well, here we go again."

"How many of those things does he have?" Serenity complained.

Jonathan grinned. "Who knows. But the bottom line is that we have to get through them to get to him. So let's get to work."

And they threw themselves into the fight…

(To be continued)

---

A/N I know! I know! I hate to leave you hanging like that, but I have to be evil and throw in a cliffhanger from time to time. Besides, this chapter was getting ridiculously long and it seemed like a good place to stop it for now since I haven't finished editing the rest of the battle scene yet. But part 2 is partially done, and I'm going to get on that soon. But first I'm going to try to post the next chapter of Rekindled since a lot of people want to know what Dark Endy has up his sleeve. Don't forget to drop me those reviews though. I might be busy, but I take the time to read and absorb every single one of them. Later gators! Lots of love and hugs!

~Sere~